Mill City 9/3/17 Mill City 9/3/17

Psalm 66 - Remembrance

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Spencer Carey. I'm a pastor in training here with Mill City. We are closing up our final week in the Psalms. We spent nine weeks this summer walking through the Psalms. We started off in Psalm 1 where we got a picture of how Psalm 1 and 2 give us a picture of the rest of the Psalms.

And then we looked at how the Bible and its beauty and its glory is shown through the Psalms. Then we learned how to use the Psalms for prayer. We got to see a picture of rest and repentance. We spent one week learning the command to sing from the Psalms, which actually has kind of been my favorite week since we started it. Matt Freeman walked us through that text that week. We got to do a worship night together.

And since then, I've kind of noticed the singing has been elevated, which has been good to hear. We spent a week learning what it looked like to be an emotionally healthy Christian from the Psalms. Last week, we got to see a Psalm of Lament and what it looks like to mourn. And this week, we're going to be looking at a Psalm of Remembrance. There are specific Psalms that just are devoted to remembering God's work. And many of the other Psalms kind of touch on remembering different aspects of how God has worked for His people.

So we're going to be in Psalm 66. If you have a Bible, you can turn to page 275 in your white Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, take that white Bible home with you. That is our gift to you. All right.

So there are four pictures that I brought with me today that kind of show my story, kind of show where I come from, who I am today. And I'm going to put them on the screen. The first picture is a picture of my baptism nine years ago, which is why it's really fuzzy, because back then cameras didn't, on phones, didn't have that great a picture quality. But that's my baptism, and that's significant for a few reasons. Firstly, that for 17 years, I walked as an enemy of the Lord and was brought into the family of God. The fact that I placed my faith in Jesus.

We're going to have baptisms here in about a month. If you wanted to talk more about what baptism is, we'd love to talk to you about it. But we're excited for that. And I look back at that, and I thank God that God saved me, and that baptism is a picture of the death-to-life conversion that happens in Christ. This picture is actually cool for another reason. That baptism happened at Midtown Fellowship Church, which is cool for me now, seeing as how we were planting Antioch Church, now we're joining forces, and we're all Mill City Church.

Mill City was planted by Midtown, so it's kind of come full circle for me in the past nine years since then. So that picture is significant for me. The second picture is a picture of our wedding day and my wife. That is cool for a few reasons. Firstly, our wedding day was awesome. We had a lot of fun.

We had people that came up to us in the years that followed, and they were like, man, your wedding was a lot of fun. Yeah, it was. We had a good time. And it's also significant, because we've been married for six years. I love my wife. I love getting to journey through life with her.

There's ups, there's downs, there's all kinds of chaos. But there's nobody I'd rather be with, journeying through this life together. She makes me a better man. She makes me a better husband. She helps me in so many ways. The next picture is a picture of our kiddos.

That's a recent picture. It's Eloise, who's our daughter. She's two. Bridgers, who was just born about six weeks ago. And they, man, kids change the game. They do.

They change everything. Sometimes it's chaotic, and most of the time, when I come home after a long day of working, I get to see my kids. It's just exciting. And I thank God for them. I'm growing in my ability to shepherd and care for others and learning to be patient with a crazy two-year-old and a baby who's crying and all of that. So I love my kids.

There's so much a part of my story and my future. This last picture, I'll rip that out of my sister's yearbook, is a picture of my family, not all of my family, but much of my family. I come from a crazy family. I know that everyone says my family's crazy. My family's nuts. They're nuts.

But we love each other a ton, and so much of the experiences I have, the good experiences, the bad experiences that I've had of my family have shaped me in profound ways that will help me shepherd and care for others because I can empathize with so many different situations that we've been through as a family. So those four pictures kind of tell my story, and it's cool to kind of go through Facebook and look back at pictures of our story to see where we come from. And in the same way, the Psalms do that. Like the Psalms give us pictures. They paint pictures of God's continued redemption and care of his people.

Like there are multiple Psalms that are solely dedicated to remembering how God saves his people. There are eight different Psalms that mention the event of the Exodus and the Egyptians, which we'll get into in a second in Psalm 66. There are three specific references that mention the Red Sea and that aspect of the story of Exodus. It was important for them to hear their story. Like they needed that because much of Israel's history is a lot of trials, a lot of really tough times. So they needed pictures of God's redemption to remind them of that.

Now you may be wondering, like that's great. Like you seem, preacher man, to be really excited about the Psalms and really excited about Psalms of remembrance. But what does that actually have to do with me? Like how does remembering Israel's history, how does that actually help us as Christians? Yeah, I get that. Like I get that.

I feel like that's one of the reasons why the Psalms are difficult to relate to. Like with the rest of like the Old Testament, there's usually stories that have a beginning, a middle, and an end. And then it picks up with another story. And when you jump into Psalms, man, there's all kinds, there's emotions. It's messy. They're referencing all kinds of history.

There's all kinds of language that we're not familiar with. And it's hard to relate to them. But here's where I'd press in and here's where I'd say. That looking at Psalms like Psalm 66 and remembering God's work in the Psalms is good for us. The reason why is because we are just like the people of the Old Testament. We're just like them.

We are tempted to believe that because of our circumstances, that God doesn't care about us. Because of what we're facing, that God doesn't care about what we're going through. And we are just like them. And we need to be reminded of how God works for his people. So we're going to look at Psalm 66.

And we're going to see four helpful pictures as we walk through it. The first is a picture of God as creator. The second is a picture of God as Savior. The third is a picture of God as worthy. Worthy of worship. And the fourth is a picture of a God who loves.

So as we walk through this, we'll see those pictures. So let me pray and then we'll dive in. God, thank you so much for the Psalms and this season that we've gotten to spend in them. I pray that you would help us see their beauty as we close this out. That we'd see them as a good way to relate our experiences to how you work for your people. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. All right, so pick up in verse 1. Shout for joy to God, all the earth. Sing the glory of his name. Give to him glorious praise. Say to God, how awesome are your deeds.

So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you. They sing praises to your name. Selah. So the word selah, I don't think we've really covered this in the Psalms yet.

You'll see that in other Psalms. We don't really know what that means in the Hebrew. We think it means a pause. So we'll pause with the psalmist here. The first thing we see here is God as creator. There's a call here for all the earth to worship God.

In verse 1 it says, shout for joy to God, all the earth. Verse 4 says, all the earth worships you. And the picture here is that God is the creator of all peoples, everywhere, of all things. Everything he has created and everything is his. And all of creation reflects his glory. We see this in Isaiah 44, 23.

Isaiah 44, 23 says, sing, O heavens. He's talking about the sky, the moon, the stars. Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it. Shout, O depths of the earth, breaking forth into singing, O mountains, O forests, and every tree in it. The heavens, everything above, and everything below, the forests, the mountains, all of it reflects his glory. Isaiah 49, 13 says, sing for joy, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth.

Break forth, O mountains, into singing. Another picture of all the earth sings God's praises. Jesus, at one point in the New Testament, Jesus, he's getting ready to walk into the city of Jerusalem. And the people are praising him like he's a God. Spoiler alert, he is. So they're praising him.

And then all of a sudden, some of his enemies come in and say, no, no, no, you've got to stop that. They're praising you like you're a God. And Jesus, he answers them. He says, I tell you, even if they were silent, even if they were silent, the very stones would cry out. He's like, even if they stop praising me, the stones will cry out. And he just drops the mic and walks into Jerusalem.

Jesus, the creator of the universe, all of it reflects his glory. And we need pictures of that. And we need to see that from the big things that he's created to the smaller things. Like we need to know, we need to think and remember that the earth revolves around the sun at like 93 million miles. All right?

I want you to think about this. If it goes out too far, all of life on earth dies. And if it comes too far in, all of life on earth dies. So God is holding the earth around the sun, going 93 million miles around. He's holding it at an axis of 23.5 degrees tilted. If it's tilted too far in, there's no life on earth.

If it's too straight, there's no life on earth. And I know some of you have been watching YouTube and you're thinking, the world is flat. I know that we thought that was settled science. It came back. And it still works for your worldview. Because if you take a map and you tilt it 23.5 degrees, we all come toppling out.

So God actually has to hold us together as we're revolving around the sun. So from the big picture, God, he sustains all of life. All the way down to like the smaller details. Like our eyes are the most complex organs in our bodies. And like two weeks ago, we got to sit under a solar eclipse. And I downplayed it.

I was like, there's no way. People are freaking out about this. This cannot be that cool. And it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I was so jacked for three minutes. We're cheering.

We're screaming. It was awesome. And then some people took pictures and video with really, really nice cameras. And you got to look at them online later. And tell me, were those pictures, those videos, they match what you saw in person? Not a chance.

What you got to see in person was amazing. Because our eyes are so complex. You can see the depth and the glory and the beauty of God's creation. All the way down to like our taste buds reflect God's glory. Like the fact that our tiny little taste buds help us taste food. I mean, this is like the best time to be alive to eat.

Like I know there's some Netflix documentaries that say otherwise. And I will contend there's some problems with our food system. But think about this. You can go to a restaurant where you can sit down and a chef will prepare a meal with food like spices and meats and vegetables from all over the globe on one plate. And you get to enjoy that on a regular basis. Because down to our taste buds reflect God's creativity and his glory.

So like why do we walk through all that? It's important for us to see how big our God is. How much he's in control. All the way down to the details. So that we can compare the glory of how big our creator God is to what we currently face.

And that's what Jesus does in Matthew 6. In Matthew 6 he's teaching on anxiety. And he says, don't be anxious. Do you see the birds? He's like the birds wake up every morning. They sing God's praises.

And God feeds the birds. And he says, look at the fields. The fields are clothed with beautiful flowers. Like I feed the birds. I clothe the fields. Like how much more do I care for you?

You who are made in the image of God. Like I care for everything else. And you are made in my image. Like I, that is the creator God who cares for us. And we need that picture. We need to remember that picture as we walk through pictures of like this in the Psalms.

So we get a picture of God as creator. And as we walk through we get a picture of God as savior. It picks up. In verse 5. Come and see what God has done. He is awesome in his deeds towards the children of man.

He turned the sea into dry land. They passed through the river on foot. There did we rejoice in him. Who rules by his might forever. Whose eyes keep watch on the nations. Let not the rebellious exalt themselves.

Selah. Alright, so when he says he turned the sea into dry land. And when he says they passed through the river on foot. What he is giving a picture of is the picture of Exodus. Like every Jewish person who hears this. Who sings this.

They are thinking of the event of the Exodus. I want to walk really quickly through what the story of Exodus is. If you have not read the story of Exodus. Please go home. It is the second book in the Bible. And read the story of Exodus.

And bonus. You can rent Prince of Egypt. Or go find that movie. It is a cartoon retelling of the story of Exodus. And it is actually fairly bitterly accurate. And it has an all star cast.

Like Liam Neeson. Sandra Bullock. Val Kilmer. You are never going to get a cast like that for a Bible movie again. So go.

Watch that movie. Read Exodus. I will tell you the highlights. The people of God have been enslaved by Egypt for around 400 years. And God is ready to bring them back into the promised land. So he raises up Moses.

We don't have time to get into his story of how he was born. And how he was called. But eventually Moses goes toe to toe with Pharaoh. Pharaoh is the ruler of Egypt. And he says let my people go. And Pharaoh says no.

I will not. And then one by one. He starts. God starts bringing plagues upon Egypt. To break Pharaoh. And he turns the river Nile into blood.

And each plague after that is actually a picture of God's dominance over the false gods of Egypt. Because those plagues are tied to false gods in Egypt. And one by one. Plague by plague. All the way to the tenth plague. Pharaoh says no.

And then on the tenth plague. Moses says if you do not let my people go. Every firstborn son in this land will die. And then Pharaoh says no. So Moses goes to the people.

And he says I want you to protect your family. I want you to take a lamb. I want you to slaughter it. I want you to take the blood of that lamb. And put it on the doorpost. And when God comes through.

To take the firstborn son out of every family. He will pass over your house. So they do. Egypt does not. And every firstborn son in Egypt dies. And Pharaoh finally says.

Get out. Leave. And not only do they leave. God says we're taking gold, silver, jewels with us. So they take Egypt.

They unload their riches. They walk right out of Egypt. They get close to the Red Sea. And Pharaoh changes his mind. He takes an army. And he comes to chase them down.

Take them back. And there's this scene at the Red Sea. Where they're coming down. They're barreling down on the Israelites. God creates this firestorm out of the heavens. It's kind of a lead blocker for them.

Then Moses takes his staff. He puts it in the Red Sea. And the Red Sea splits it too. And they travel through on foot. The other side safely. And then the Egyptians finally come through.

And the water collapses on them. And the enemy is defeated. And God's people are saved. That story shows up throughout the Bible. You can look at Deuteronomy, Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings. And in multiple Psalms you see the story referenced over and over and over again.

Which begs the question, why? Like why do the Israelites need to be continually reminded of this story? For some of whom happened centuries and centuries and centuries ago. The reason why is because it shows the heart of God. And His specific salvation of this people. Like I was reminding the Israelites.

I saved you. Like the reason you exist as a people is because I redeemed you from Egypt. From slavery to Egypt. I saved you. And they need this. They need this because their present circumstances.

For many who would sing this and read this, it doesn't feel like that at all. Like you pick up in verse 8. It says, Bless our God, O peoples. Let the sound of His praise be heard. Who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip. For you, O God, have tested us.

You have tried us as silver has tried. You brought us into the net. You laid a crushing burden on our backs. You let men ride over our heads. We went through the fire and through the water. Yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.

So there's two pictures that are happening in this section. Like the first picture is more references to what happened in Egypt. Like when he's talking about the burden that was placed upon their backs. Like that's a picture of what happened in Egypt. But because of the context of what this is written in, this is also, there are two pictures going on here.

Because for many people who would sing this, who would hear this read, for many of them, this is their current circumstances. Like when he says, For you've tested us. You've tried us like silver. When he says, You brought us into the net. You laid a crushing burden on our backs. Like they feel that because many of them are in exile.

Many of them are slaves again. Many of them are scattered across the Middle East. Far from the homeland. When he says, You let men ride in over our heads. They feel that. That's a picture of the enemy who came in with chariots and literally rode over people's heads.

So that's their present circumstances. And yet the psalmist here, he ends this section. He says, Yet you have brought us to a place of abundance. And in that context he means, We still exist. We are still abundant as a people. You still have sustained us.

And what's really cool about us, As we're applying our story on top of a Psalm of remembrance, Is that we get to remember our salvation story as we read their salvation story. Like we get to read in the cross into what happened with the Israelites. Like when they remember the Passover lamb that was slain so that they might be saved. We get to remember that on the night Jesus was betrayed, He celebrated a Passover meal. And that the following day he went to the cross and he became our Passover lamb that was slain for us. We get to remember our Passover lamb.

We get to remember, When we look at this picture, As they're remembering the Red Seas and the waters being parted, What we see as a connection in the New Testament, That baptism has some connections there. We get to remember baptism. Baptism is a sign of the death to life conversion that happens in Christ. And just as they pass through the waters and escape death into life, We get to remember our story as we read their story. And then you get to the place of abundance. And you get to think about the abundance of riches that we have in Christ.

Like the fact that we have victory over sin. The fact that we have a righteous standing before God. The fact that we have eternal fellowship with a God who's never going to forsake us. Like we get to remember the abundance of riches that we have there. And that is huge for us to remember in the midst of our trials. Like last week we touched on this.

Like if you're in the midst of health problems, It is so easy to believe the lie that is spilled into our heads from the enemy. That God doesn't care. That He doesn't care about my troubles. And we get to go back to our story and remember our salvation story. Remember, no, God does care. This is temporary.

But we are eternally His. Like we get to remember our story in the midst of marital problems. Like some of us are facing all kinds of marital issues. Like there's a scoreboard in your house. Like an unwritten scoreboard. And every time your spouse does something, You're marking it up.

And you're pointing to it. And you're remembering, Do you remember when you did this? Do you remember how you treated me there? And you've forgotten your story. You've forgotten that marriage is a reflection of the gospel. Like the God who lavished grace upon us.

That's what our marriage is supposed to reflect. Not remembering all the wrongs. That husbands are supposed to love our wives like Christ loved the church. And laying down our lives. That wives are supposed to follow our husbands' lead. Like we forget that.

We forget our story. So fill in the blank. Whatever problem you're facing, Remember your story that Jesus died for us. Because we have an enemy who's going to come in. He's going to tell us that God doesn't care. He doesn't care because of what you're facing.

And we're just like the Israelites. We need to be reminded of our salvation story. And that should turn us to praise. And that's what the psalmist picks up when we see a picture of how God is worthy of worship. Verse 13, it says, Now that form of worship should seem a little bit foreign to us. Like if Matt came in here on a Sunday and was like, Guys, I got some new stuff for you.

And he just started playing. He got his guitar. And he started strumming. And he said, Oh, we're going to slaughter animals. There's going to be blood everywhere. It doesn't sound like that.

It's kind of a Nickelback voice. But if he started singing songs like that, We'd all be sitting back and saying, Are you, like, get them off. Stay out. If you're not a Christian and you're new to some of this, You'd be like, I knew it. I knew it. They are crazy.

But as Christians, we'd be like, What's Matt doing? Like, that's not how we worship. And so the reality is our worship has changed. The picture of worship changes. So when we read passages like that that seem foreign, We get to take what is great about the way we worship now And apply it to how we're reading it.

Like we get to look at Romans 12.1 That says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, By the mercies of God, To present your bodies, hear this, As a living sacrifice, Holy and acceptable to God, Which is your spiritual worship. Like we, That is touching back to this picture Of the Old Testament. That the picture of worship changes. Like you don't have to go to the temple And make sacrifices anymore. Like we get to read this and go, Praise God that we are living sacrifice now. Because of what He has done, We're living sacrifice.

That we don't have to go and make sacrifices. We can point back to Jesus, Who perfectly fulfilled this sacrificial system. That He is our sacrifice. We can look back, At this, And remember, That we don't have to actually go to the temple To be in the presence of God. That we can worship God from anywhere, In every aspect of life. We can honor Him, As a living sacrifice, In our place of work, In our neighborhoods, In our homes.

We don't have to go to the temple, We can have, We have access to God from anywhere. And the fact that we actually have access, To God, Like they would have to come, A couple times a year to the temple, To make sacrifices. And in the temple, There's an inner part called, The holiness of holies. And there's a thick curtain, That separates it from the next room. And the next room, The inner courts, And the outer courts. And there's this huge separation.

You have a high priest, Who can go in a little bit for you, Who makes sacrifices for you. It's like, No, no, We have access to God, Now. Forever. In Christ. That when Jesus died on the cross, That curtain, That was in the inner part, Was torn in the two. And that symbolized, That we have access to God, Now.

And that we have Jesus, As our high priest, As the book of Hebrews teaches. That He is our high priest, And this miraculous, Mysterious way, Is at the right hand of God, Offering prayers, To the Father, On our behalf. I mean, It's just, The picture of worship, It gets so much better. And when we read, Sections like this, We get to remember, We sing songs, That are really, Really good, That remember our Savior, And what He has done, Because He is worthy, Of worship. And in the psalmist, He closes out this section, With a picture of how God, Loves His people. In verse 16, He says, Come and hear, All you who fear God, And I will tell you, What He has done for my soul.

I cried to Him with my mouth, And high praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished, Iniquity in my heart, The Lord would not have listened. But truly, God has listened. He has attended, To the voice of my prayer. Blessed be the God, Because He has not rejected my prayer, Or removed His steadfast love, From me. So again, In this section, We get two pictures here, Of what's happening.

In verse 16, He says, Come and hear, All you who fear God, And I will tell you, What He has done for my soul. So we are seeing a picture, Of God's love. And then, In verse 18, He says, If I had cherished, Iniquity in my heart, The Lord would not have listened. Which is also, A picture of love. But, It seems, On our first reading, You're like, Is He talking out of both sides, Of His mouth? In one part, He's saying, Come, And I will tell you, What God has done for my soul.

And in the next breath, He's like, But if I had cherished, Iniquity in my heart, God would not have listened. And you're like, How are those both, A picture of God's love? Growing up, I have two, Vivid, Pictured, Like memories, Of my stepdad. Like the first, The first is this two week trip, That we got to take, He, When I was a freshman in high school. Just me and him, We went to California, And, And we, We went to Sacramento, Then we drove to San Francisco, Spent some days there, Went down the highway one, And all of it's, I mean, That's such a beautiful drive. Went to LA, Then we went to Las Vegas, We went to the Grand Canyon, We went to Bryce National Park, To Zion National Park, Sequoia National Park, The Yosemite, It was two weeks, Of just so much fun, With my stepdad, And that was a picture, Of how much he cared, About me, And still cares about me.

So, I have that picture in my head, I also have a picture, Of, We towed the line. Now you, You didn't break curfew, In our house. That, That did not go well. Like you didn't talk back. You, This is off script. Alright, As a kid, I don't have this memory, But when he first came into my life, We, We tried to stone him.

Like my mom was dating him, We tried to stone him. He was watching us, And, And we took rocks and sticks, And we attempted to stone him. I don't have this memory, My brother remembers it, Because he's older than me, He was the ringleader, And we tried to stone him, And we'd never been spanked, In our life. And he spanked us, And we were mortified. They were dating, Like I'm so glad, That story didn't come up, Because if that story, Would have come up, Man, She broke up with him. But the years that followed, Like we got discipline, And we needed that.

Like we needed discipline, In our lives. And the reason why we needed that, Is because we needed to learn, To respect authority. And the reason that, I'm able to submit, To the authority of God's word, Is because I received discipline, I received instruction, I received warning. So I learned, Both of those, And both of those, Are a picture, Of God's love. And the psalmist here, The psalmist is so picturesque, Of remembering God's work. And specifically in prayer, The psalmist is reminding them, He's like, You know, A heart of obedience, It matters.

That doesn't mean, That we have to earn God's favor, We have to earn his ear. That doesn't mean that. We have a great high priest, Like all, That's settled. But there is a reality, That if our hearts, Are captivated by sin, Or as the psalmist says, He says, If I had cherished iniquity, In my heart. If our hearts, Are captivated by sin, And our prayers, They seem shallow, And base, And low, And not in alignment, With the will of God. But when we are sensitive, To his goodness, And to his glory, Man, When we're in that season, Our prayers tend to be rich, They tend to be, Spirit filled, They tend to be, In alignment with what God wants, For us.

Mill City 8/27/17 Mill City 8/27/17

Psalm 22 - Lament

Transcript

Good morning. So we timed it well because some of you stayed up late and watched the fight. And we cut the air conditioning off. So, yeah, you guys will be awake the whole time. We're going to be in Psalm 22, which is page 260 in the White Bible. If you do not have a Bible, please take that home.

That is our gift to you. And, yeah, so my name is Spencer Carey. I am a not a church planning resident. I am a pastor in training here with Mill City, which is fun to say. You can celebrate that. We are excited.

I did not see this coming, but God has made it clear like we are better together. So to celebrate that, we're going to preach. We're going to go through a Psalm on sadness. We're going to be in Psalm of Lament. And so as a culture and even really as a church, like we're really bad at lamenting. Lamenting is mourning.

It's grieving. It's being sad over something. And we're bad at it. In college, my freshman year, I had a family member unexpectedly die. And I was in my dorm room, and it caught me off guard, and I was crying. And my suite mate, who's in the room next to us, heard me.

And he came over, and he said, what's wrong? And I explained what happened. And he went, ah. And I'm a hugger. Like I'm not on a scale of like Chet to Matt, like where Chet doesn't like physical touch, and Matt hugs everyone. Like I'm somewhere in the healthy middle.

But we weren't like that. We weren't that close to suite mates yet. And he kind of came in. He goes, oh, with the most awkward hug. Slowly kind of came around, and then just kind of did this thing. And then said, I'm so sorry.

And then he backed away, and he walked out. And I just was like, what in the world just happened? I was completely caught off guard. It's just because sometimes we don't know how to respond to someone who's grieving. I've also been someone who's been bad at helping someone grieve. A couple years ago in Louisville, we worked for an apartment complex ministry.

We spent time with the residents. We got to know this one family. It's this mother and father and their son. Their son was a high school football star. He went on to be a quarterback and now a wide receiver at University of Louisville. And his freshman year, the father, who actually I've gotten to know fairly well, suddenly passed away.

And so a couple months later, I just wanted to check in on the mother, and I walked over to her apartment. I did not call or text or give her a heads up. And I knocked on the door. And she opened, and she was a little confused while I was there. And I just said, how are you doing? She said, good.

Can I help you? And I was like, the church is supposed to help the widows. It just came out. And it was not comforting at all. And she very sweetly just gave me a hug and said, thank you, and shut the door. Because, I mean, we just want to fill that gap of silence sometimes, and we don't have the best things to say.

Sometimes you hear, like, empty platitudes, these sayings that don't really have a whole lot of helpful meaning. Some people will say, we know when someone dies, they'll say, you know, God, he needed another angel. And it's like, no, that's not how that works. Like, we're humans, and his other creation is angels. Like, we don't convert to being an angel. That's not how that works.

And I really miss them. Like, that's not helpful. Some people will say, not necessarily with death, but also just with the loss of a job or just tough times. People will say, you know, God will never give you any more than you can handle. And I'm like, no, it certainly feels like it's more than I can handle. And you got that from 1 Corinthians 10, 13, which is about temptation.

It's not about actually trials. Like, those are two separate things. That doesn't help me. Some people will say, everything happens for a reason. And it's like, yeah, okay. It still does not comfort me in this moment.

The other thing I see more and more, and it comes from a really good place, is that when someone dies, let's not do a funeral. Let's have a party. And I get that. I get the understanding behind that. The understanding is, is that, especially if they're a Christian, like we're celebrating, they're in the presence of Jesus. They're in a much better place.

We should celebrate that. And I understand that. And I hear that heart. But that's not how human emotions are supposed to work. That's not how we're designed to work. And that's not how Jesus responds to loss.

When you look at Lazarus, his friend. When Lazarus dies, Jesus hears about it. He is coming. Lazarus has been dead for days. He knows what he's getting ready to do. Like, he knows he's going to show his power.

He's going to raise Lazarus from the grave. So he knows how this is ending. And he shows up to the gravesite. And Mary and Martha are there, and they're crying. And what does it say? The shortest verse in the Bible.

That Jesus wept. Like, he weeps with those who weep. There's the process of grieving and being sad is important for our souls. So we're bad at lamenting alone, too. Like, some of us, our go-to is, like, we'll run to alcohol. We'll run to Valium.

Anything we can do to numb the pain. Others of us will bury grief. It's like, I just ignore it and bury it. And we know that that never works. Some of us binge on food or Netflix or video games. Whatever we can do to escape our present reality.

And our culture, largely, it avoids sadness at all costs. Like, avoid sadness and hoard happiness. That's kind of how our culture is. We don't want that kind of sadness if someone's grieving. If someone has lost a job, we get really uncomfortable. We want to hear about all the details.

If we have friends who are in a long depression, like, we want to stay away from that. If we have friends on Facebook who kind of go on Facebook and are repeatedly posting sad things, what do we do? Hide the post. Unfriend them. It's kind of our go-to. I think the makers of the movie Inside Out realized that adults are terrible at this.

That we don't have a category for sadness. So they had to make a movie to show that there's a place for that. If you haven't seen the movie, one of the whole points of the movie is that there's this little girl. And she's got the different emotions in her head. Different feelings in her head. And they tell sadness, you stay over here.

You stay in the circle. You don't move. And by the end of the movie, they realize there's actually a real place for sadness. And as a culture, we censor death. We censor loss. And when we do that, we hurt ourselves.

Because the reality is that death and loss, we live in a fallen world. That is going to come. And if we don't know how to process it well, the sting of that loss, the sting of that death will linger. And our souls. And it will do real damage to our relationship with God. It will do damage to our relationship with others.

So we, as a church, have to grow in being better mourners and being better lamenters. So we are in Psalm 22 this morning. And in this Psalm, I want us to grow in two areas. On how to individually, healthily lament before God. And how to lament with one another as the church. That's how we want to grow as we walk through Psalm 22.

So I'm going to pray. And then we're going to dive in. God, thank you for Psalms like this. That remind us that in our pain. That in our suffering. That in our loss.

You have words for us. I pray that you would let these words be helpful for our souls. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so Psalms 22, verses 1 and 2.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? From the words of my groaning. Oh, my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. And by night, but I find no rest. All right, so we'll stop there.

So we've covered David's life a good bit throughout the Psalms. Because his life kind of sets up as the backdrop. And the context for many of which the Psalms are written. And as we've talked about him. We've noticed that his life was a lot of life of suffering. Like, yeah, he was a king.

And there was times of prospering. But he also was on the run for his life a lot. He was suffering pain and loss and death. And Psalm 22 is written in that context. And he starts out saying, my God, my God. Now we have to stop there.

In the Hebrew language, which is what this was originally written in. Repetition is really important. It serves as a major marker. So as the Israelites would have heard this, they would have stopped and thought about what he was saying. The reason why he stops and he says, my God, my God. Is because what we need to see is that he is lamenting from a position of faith.

He's lamenting from a position of faith. In the midst of loss, David still has faith. You are still my God. So I want us to see that all healthy lamenting is done from a position of faith. And we see that in David's life. And we also see that in the story of Job.

Job is one of the books that's the most helpful books that we have in the Bible on suffering. If you haven't read that book, it's a longer book in the Old Testament. It's one of the oldest stories in the Old Testament. And it's about a man named Job. And Job has a lot. His life is prosperous.

He has a large family. He has lots of money. He has lots of land. He has great health. Everything's going well for Job. And he also loves God.

And then Satan comes along and he talks to God. And he says, you know, the only reason that job loves you, the only reason he has faith in you, is because you've given him all this stuff. If you took all that stuff away, he'd curse you. And God, knowing Job's heart, says, no, that's not what would happen. And in a very uncomfortable reading as we read through it, God says, okay, you can take everything away except for his life. So Job's life immediately starts to fall apart.

His children die. He loses all of his money. He starts suffering. His health starts deteriorating. And he's falling apart. And that's like the first part of the book.

And then the rest of the book, most of the book, is about Job's three friends. They come and they give three speeches. And they're long. And basically, to summarize them, they're kind of this, you must have done something wrong and God's punishing you for it. Some kind of weird God-controlled karma. You earn this.

And Job, as he's listening to these speeches, like he missteps. He missteps. He gets a little arrogant. He questions God's character. But what's beautiful about this story is that his faith doesn't change.

And one of the most beautiful passages in all of the scriptures, Job 13, 15, Job says this. He says, though he slay me. He's talking to God. Though he slay me, I will hope in him. Like that's the position of his heart. And it doesn't change.

And at the end of the book, like God corrects him on his arrogance. But his faith never changes. And God restores his family, his wealth. And he lives a long life that comes out of that. And what we see from Job's story and what's helpful for us for understanding Psalm 22 and lamenting is that God does ordain suffering. Like he allows suffering for a purpose.

I mean, he's the sovereign king of the universe. Like if he wanted to stop a hurricane of pain from happening in your life, if you want to stop Hurricane Harvey from happening, he would. But he doesn't. And we don't always get to know those purposes. Most of the time we don't get to know the purposes behind it. And David is in that context as he's lamenting.

He says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Where are you? Like, why are you far from me? I mean, I'm crying out to you day and night. And all I hear is silence. And I understand David's situation.

We've got to jump down a little bit to verses 12 through 15. I understand what David is going through. In verse 12, he says, As many bulls encompass me, they open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. And the picture here is poetic. He has enemies that are like bulls that are ready to destroy him. And some of us, like we feel like we can relate to that.

Like some of you may have work situations where you feel like every day you go into work, you've got enemies that are ready to take you down, ready to ruin your reputation, ready to move in front of you, ready to take your livelihood. I had a friend in Louisville. He was in the dermatology program at the University of Louisville. It's one of the most competitive programs in the country. And he'd come to a community group every week. And I'd say, man, how was your week?

And he said, it was awful. It's awful. Every single day is awful. Because everyone's positioning. Everyone's trying to sabotage one another. Everyone's trying to move ahead so they can get the next fellowship so they can move on and advance past you.

And some of you, like you feel that. Every day you go into work, you feel like there's enemies that are surrounding you. Some of you feel like that with your families. Like there's people trying to rip your family apart, trying to tear your lives apart. So we can relate to David when he says this.

He keeps going in verse 14. He says, I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. And the picture here is that David is physically suffering. Which makes sense. I mean, he spent most of his life in battle. Like his body is probably starting to fall apart.

And I can relate to this in a small way. I have regular back and neck problems. Like you saw Chet bring this up. I had to come over and say, dude, my back is starting to tense up. When we brought this over here earlier, I was like, oh. I felt it tightened up a little bit.

Because I regularly have back and neck problems. I had a violent wreck in high school where I flipped a truck on top of me. And ever since then, by God's grace, I survived. That was like a really, I think the survival rate on that wreck is like 1%. But since then, ever since then, I've had back and neck problems.

I mean, every couple months, I'm having to do some rehab. I'm having to get some shots. And it's painful. And as I've been here with you guys the last year, my suffering does not hold a camel to what some of you have walked through. Some of the physical suffering that I've seen in our church. And we're often left wondering, like, why am I suffering like this?

Why is it that I'm continually, I can't, like, God, you could make me better. Why am I suffering like this? And David keeps going in verse 15. He says, my strength is dried up like a pot shared. That's a broken, dried up piece of pottery. So my strength is dried up like a pot shared.

And my tongue sticks to my jaws. And the picture here is that he's starving and he's thirsting to death. And we have stories of David that show that. That on the run for his life, he's starving and he's thirsting. And we can't relate to that as much because we're Americans. And, like, we have an abundance of food.

McDonald's is, like, five miles away at any given time. And you've got a dollar menu. You can go buy food like that. We can't relate to that one-to-one. But we can kind of relate to the financial provisions part of it.

The God providing for us daily bread. I mean, some of us, I mean, I feel like when we build up a little bit of savings, it's like we take two steps forward. And then, like, three steps back, we have a medical bill that comes. Or we have a car that breaks down. And some of you feel like that. You can't ever get over the hump.

I was talking to somebody a couple years ago, and he had made a mistake 15 years ago and was still paying for it. And still financially paying for it. And he looked at me and he said, when is God going to relent? Like, when am I going to get over this? And I just looked at him and I said, I don't know. I don't know.

So we can relate to David's suffering. We can relate to what he's saying here. All healthy lamentsing is done from a position of faith. Like, that idea, we have to hold that central. But lamenting is also airing out, making known, revealing your sufferings before God.

That's airing out your sufferings before God. And we, as we do this, we need to be careful here. Like, we need to be careful because we can air like Job. We can mess up like Job and we can come at it to God from a position of arrogance and pride. And that's not what this is supposed to be. The tone of lamenting is not arrogantly questioning God for our suffering.

It's airing out our sufferings from a position of faith. But here's the deal. We're still called to, like the psalmist, to air out our sufferings before God. And that takes some honesty. I mean, and here's a little bit of the freedom we have here. Like, God knows your heart.

Like, if you're questioning God arrogantly in your heart, like, He knows the thoughts you're going to have before you have them. He knows what's going on there. So we need to ask God to change our heart to help us repent of that. But we need to be honest with God. And if you're like me and you feel a little bit uncomfortable with doing this, just take a Psalm of lament like Psalm 22. Read and pray through it.

And air out your sufferings alongside the psalmist. So, from a position of faith, airing out our sufferings. And then we get to see David's, what he's facing here. As he's facing it, how he remembers God's past presence in Israel. In verses 3 through 5, he says, In the midst of his lamenting, David is remembering who he is and who he comes in the line of. He's remembering the fathers of Israel.

So, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David is an anointed king. He's following in that path. He's remembering his identity. That he's a chosen son of God. That he's a chosen king. So, likewise, in the midst of our lamenting, we have to remember our identity.

That we are sons and daughters of God. Now, we're going to touch more on this next week as we close out the Psalm series. Remembering God's work in our lives. But it's important for us in lamenting here to remember this. To remember that if you believe the gospel. Like if you've trusted in Christ as your only hope.

That God finds favor upon you. That, hear this, God loves you. That he loves you. In the midst of our lamenting, we can remember that. Even when it doesn't feel like it. When our situations may seem like that isn't true.

God still loves us. And David, he kind of messily works through this. In verse 6, he says, he goes back. But I'm a worm and not a man. Scorned by mankind and despised by the people. I mean, that's how he feels.

He doesn't even feel like a man. He feels like a worm. Despised by others. And then he keeps going and showing how others are questioning his identity. In verse 7 through 8, he says, Here's what they say. He trusts in the Lord.

David trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let God rescue him. For God delights in David. So they mock him.

Yes, some things, some things never change. Like David, he hears that. That false understanding that if you're loved by God, suffering won't come. He hears that from others. And some of us, man, we'll hear that from others. We'll hear that from our own flesh.

Just kind of saying, does God really love me? In the midst of all this, really? Does he love me? Some of us are going to hear that from our enemy, from Satan and his band of demons. Are going to whisper in our ear, causing us to question, does God really love you? In the midst of your suffering?

It sure doesn't look like it. And we're going to hear those type of lies and hear those type of doubts. And like David, we should respond with truth. He picks it up in verse 9 through 11. He says, Yet you are he who took me from the womb. You made me trust you at my mother's breast.

On you was I cast from my birth. And from my mother's womb you have been my God. Be not far from me. For trouble is near and there is none to help. So David, he hears the lies and he responds in truth.

He's remembering truth in his lamenting. That God has found favor on David in a unique situation. He's found favor on David since his birth. And out of this truth, he calls upon the Lord. And he says, Be not far from me. For trouble is near.

And in our grieving and our lamenting, we are going to face doubts like David. And we have to respond with truth. Respond with the truth of the gospel. If we can learn to individually lament before God from a position of faith. Airing out our sufferings before God. Remembering our identity as sons and daughters of God.

And responding to doubts and lies with truth. We can grow in being healthy lamenters. Like God can equip us when suffering comes. And suffering is going to come. In college, when I had a family member die, My response was not good. Like I immediately was frustrated and angry.

And my immediate thought was, Why, God? I mean, don't... I thought you loved... Like what's... I was mad. And I started questioning God's goodness and His character.

And I didn't have a good category for how to air out sufferings from a position of faith. And I was having trouble remembering my identity as a son of God. And I did not do well in responding to the lies with truth. And in the years that followed after that, I realized like that cannot be the pattern for how I lament loss. That can't... Like I'm...

That's going to do damage. So over the years, Like I was trying to grow and mourning the smaller losses. And lamenting the smaller losses. And trying to be more faithful throughout that. So I could grow and be prepared.

Because the reality is we live in a fallen world. We live in a broken world. And suffering is going to come. And it came for us in a big way last summer. Last summer, we're getting ready to move down here. And we're excited.

We're getting ready to church plant. But even more than that, We're excited because Anna, my wife, was pregnant. And we were really excited. And we didn't want to see a doctor while we were in Louisville. Because we're getting ready to move. So we waited some time.

We moved down here. We tell our friends. We tell our family. And then eventually we find a doctor down here. So we go to see the doctor.

And we're excited. It's the first sonogram appointment. And the sonogram tech starts to do her work. And she finds the heartbeat. And it was really, really dim. And immediately, my wife picks up on something's very, very wrong.

I'm a little bit slower. And the nurse finally says, Have you had trouble in previous pregnancies? And that hit me like a ton of bricks. Because we didn't have a history of that in our family on either side. And it hit us. And there was a painful silence for the rest of that ultrasound.

And then she gets up. And she says, The doctor will see you when you're ready. And we are scared. And I just take Anna's hand. And I just start praying. I'm like, God.

You're sovereign. You're the king of the universe. You can save our child. I put a ton of hope in that heartbeat. I was like, you can save our child. But whatever happens, God, just be with us.

Help us get through this. And then the doctor comes. And she's just honest with us. She said, listen, based on what we're seeing, you're going to miscarry in the next couple of weeks.

Mill City 8/20/17 Mill City 8/20/17

Psalm 62 - Emotionally Healthy Worship

Transcript

Well, good morning. My name's Chet. We are in a series on the Psalms. We've been spending some time just walking through and allowing the Psalms to train us in what it looks like to relate to God in the normal, everyday parts of life. To walk with Him when things are good, when things are bad, to be able to praise Him, and just kind of train us in what it looks like to live a life of worship. Today we're going to be in Psalm 62.

We'll start off there. We'll look at the first eight verses. We're going to talk a little bit today. Because we've been studying the Psalms, one of the things we're seeing is that this is the Bible's songbook, and there's poems, prayers, and songs. And one of the things you'll run into any time you begin to interact with poems, prayers, and songs is that you're going to face and get to see an inside look into real human emotion. That one of the things that happens for humanity in our songs, in our prayers, in our poems, is we pour something of ourselves into them.

And that's one of the things that we get to see in the book of Psalms, is that there's a lot of emotion. Now, many of us are unhealthy emotionally. We just are kind of emotionally unhealthy as Christians, and so today we're going to spend a little bit of time just talking about how the Psalms train us in our emotions, how they help us out to begin to have some healthy emotions. We're not, in the next 40 minutes, going to fix you, so don't get your hopes up. We are, though, going to try to learn a little bit from the Psalms in how to begin to take a step towards having healthy emotions. Next week we'll specifically spend our whole time talking about lament, which is being sorrowful, which I think is an area that we need to grow in America, and in American Christianity is learning how to lament.

But today we're going to talk about kind of a wide range of emotion, and we'll start in Psalm 62. I'm going to pray, and then we'll read the first eight verses to get us started this morning. God, we just ask for your help this morning. We are complex in so many ways that so much plays into our health, our mental state, our temperament, and we just ask that you'd give us wisdom and insight into our own hearts this morning, that you might begin to go to work on us, that we might look more like you. We love you, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Psalm 62, it's on page 274. If you have one of these white Bibles, if you don't own a Bible, take this one with you. That's our gift to you. We'd love for you to have a Bible. We'd love for you to read it often. Verse 1.

For God alone my soul waits in silence. From him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will all of you attack a man to batter him like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.

They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. So the psalmist hears this David, and he's saying, I'm going to wait on God. I'm going to trust in him. He alone is my salvation. And he kind of turns and says, Everyone around me is just trying to tear me down, trying to destroy me.

Verse 5, he basically repeats what he said at the beginning. For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence. For my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory.

My mighty rock, my refuge is God. And verse 8 is where we'll end and where we'll spend most of our time focusing this morning. Trust in him at all times. O people, pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. So David's kind of talking about his own situation.

He's talking to his soul. He's talking to those who are attacking him. And then he turns and talks to the people. And he says, he kind of gives this call to trust in the Lord. Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before him.

God is a refuge for us. So he says to trust in him. He says, pour out your heart to him. And then he says he's a refuge. Which means that in the middle of pain and trial and difficulty and fearfulness, we can run to him. It's like a storm shelter.

That if you had some sort of underground buried thing in the middle of a tornado coming, you leave your house. You run and you get in that thing. You close the door and you're okay. A storm shelter or a bomb shelter. Like that's the, what he's saying is like, he's the thing we ought to run to in the middle of everything being chaotic and difficult and painful. And right there in the middle, he says, pour out your heart before him.

So I just want to, I want you to think for just a second this morning. If you could accurately do that, actually take your heart, all your hopes, all your dreams, all your fears, all your desires, all your sadness, all your anger. If you could accurately go to God and just pour that out, what would come out? What would happen if you were actually able to do that? If you were actually able to take everything that's in the deepest, most real part of you and pour it out before God, what would be poured out? Now, some of you, maybe you have a pretty good answer for that.

Maybe you already know kind of what's going on in there. I think for many of us, it's like, I don't know. I think it'd be a hot mess. If you're like me, it's like, honestly, I've learned how to stay up in this zone. I don't get down in that. Like, I don't mess with that heart level stuff.

Like, I'm up here. You know, it doesn't say take your logical thought process to God. No, it says pour out your heart before him. Take what's in you and real. And honestly, we need to learn how to do this. And that's what we're going to start talking about this morning is how to begin to do this.

Because for many of us, specifically maybe for those who've ever tried to stop smoking or for those who've ever tried to go on a diet, we learn something very quickly. Our brain can know things. But if our heart isn't in it, it ain't going to happen. They can put as many little pictures of gum cancer on a cigarette box as they want to. Your brain can know all you need to know about cancer. But if you don't have your emotions behind it, if you don't have the willpower behind it, it's not happening.

Like, that's just the way we work. And so some of us, we need to begin to learn what's going on in us and learn how to run to God in the middle of everything and learn how to pour our hearts out to him. So, before we get into this this morning, we're all over the place. Some of you, a lot of how we deal with emotion and think about emotion comes from where we grew up. I'm not going to, I don't have any kind of analysis for this. I'm just trying to help you see it.

So I don't feel like I'm about to, like, psychology this up. I just want you to know. It comes from, a lot of it comes from where you grew up. So, like, some of you came from households where emotion, feelings weren't talked about. They didn't exist. Maybe you had a dad when something happened and you started crying.

Maybe your dad or your mom looked at you and said, we can continue this conversation when you'd like to be reasonable. And you learned tears, tears ain't cutting it here. This isn't happening. Maybe you had, like, like a 30-second timer. It's like, okay, you can be sad until it's cutting on my nerves. You're going to have to cut it down.

Like, you just got to shut it. Like, maybe some of you came from households where emotions steered the ship. It wasn't odd for people to blow up, throw things, whole plans be changed based off of fear, lifestyle be changed based off of anger, sadness to shut everything down. Like, maybe you came from households where someone who was in charge was, like, just their emotions ruled the day. Some of us come from households where certain emotions are okay and other ones aren't. So maybe you grew up in a house where anger's fine.

We can handle anger. We know what to do with anger. Anger makes sense. Of course you'd be mad about that. Like, if this was inside out, that little red dude's just driving the thing. Everybody else is tied up in the corners.

Like, he's already putting them down. Like, he just is getting to do his thing. Some of you, maybe it was sadness. If somebody was sad, everything stopped. They're sad. They're feeling things.

But if you got mad, it was like, we don't do that here. You cannot act like that. It's completely unacceptable. Just to put my cards on the table a little bit, I want to tell you a family story. I grew up in a house. I have two brothers.

And my dad's a rather intense guy. And this actually happened with my younger brother when I was off at college. So he was in high school, middle of high school, sophomore year, junior year, somewhere around in there. And my dad was cutting his hair because my dad always cut our hair because it saves money. And that's why we still cut our hair sometimes. I got to cut my own hair.

So everyone's like, if you think, man, it's a terrible haircut, it's because I did it myself, you guys. And I remember actually the first time I ever got to go to a barber, I was surprised at how gentle they were. Because I'd only ever had him cut my hair. And he would just grab your head and move it. And your natural reaction is to push back. But if you did that, he would just hit you.

And so you learned real quick when his hand came up to just like go limp, let him do whatever he wanted to. And so he was cutting my younger brother's hair. And I don't know what they were talking about. And I don't know if it was about the haircut or about something else. But my dad called him a name that I am not allowed to repeat up here.

But he called him a name. And my brother said, he's like, Daddy, you shouldn't talk to your son like that. Like you should not call. He said, do you know how that makes me feel when you call me that name? And so my dad stopped, cut his clippers off, came around and he said, Vince, I never knew you had feelings. If I'd have known about your feelings, everything would be different.

I'm so sorry I hurt your feelings. I was at college. He called to tell me. He called to tell me that my younger brother had feelings. But it's a real story.

It's how my family worked. And because I'm a part of this family, every year my mom at Christmas would get an ornament for the tree that kind of represented things that happened that year. Like if we had moved or we started school or somebody was playing a sport. And I was walking with my wife, Anna. She wasn't my wife then. But we were walking through a mall.

And they had a little cart where they would make ornaments, like special ornaments. And so I found a little pink cart with a little bow and some little ballerina shoes. And I had them write, Vince has feelings and the year. And every year we put that on our Christmas tree. And he's still known as the person in our family who has feelings. And every time you bring it up, he gets his feelings hurt.

And we're like, hmm. For real, if he ever comes to visit us, y'all should be like, oh, you're the one with feelings. And just watch his face. I don't know where you come from. I had to learn. You guys, I had to grow up and learn.

Some of that's not healthy. I didn't know that. It took me four years. Four years of being married to realize if my wife cried, I should hug her. Four years. It was way better after that, you guys.

She would cry. And I was just like, what? I don't even know what to do with this. And like one day I was like, it was something. Maybe it was the Holy Spirit helping me out. I was like, maybe you should hug her.

So I just hugged her. And it was like, whoa. This completely helped. So now I still don't like empathize, but it's like I see tears and I know what to do. She yawned the other day and a tear ran out. And I was like.

So I don't know where we're coming from. Some of us right now are like, yes, we're going to talk about feelings. Other ones of us are like, we've said the word feeling and emotion way too much already. Pour your heart out. No, thank you. So I don't know where we are, but I want us to see that for us to be emotionally healthy, the Bible actually equips us maybe in some ways that we hadn't seen and helps us out in some ways we hadn't seen.

And the Psalms interact with emotions maybe in some ways we hadn't noticed. And so what we're going to do for just a second is I'm just going to read some Psalms that move around in different emotions to help us hear it. And so I will put the Psalm, like the actual Psalm on the screen, not the words of the Psalm. I would rather you just, if you want to jot them down so you can refer to them later, but I'd rather you just listen. Just kind of like if you were listening to an album or, you know, this was an open mic night at like a poetry dram or something. Like, I don't know, the things they played a little.

I can get on that thing and just be like. So just listen to try to hear the emotions behind the Psalmist as they write this and the fact that this has been included in Scripture for us to see, for us to study, for us to learn from. And so I'm going to move around a little bit. I'm going to read these and try to help you see kind of the different emotions in some of these Psalms. So we'll start with Psalm 100.

And in a lot of ways, we're just going to hear joy and gladness and celebration. So make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his.

We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness is to all generations. So it says enter his courts with singing, enter his courts with thanksgiving and praise.

Be joyful, rejoice. And there are so many Psalms that say this. For us to sing, for us to dance, for us to be glad, for us to celebrate. And I think for some of us, we believe that that is the appropriate way to approach God. Gladness, thanksgiving, joy, rejoicing. That's the way to approach God.

And that's the only way to approach God. So that when we're somewhere else, when we're in sadness and pain and frustration and anger, we've got to get it together because we've got to enter his courts with thanksgiving and with singing and with praise. I think some of us, even if we don't realize that's what we believe, we start doing that when we show up in the parking lot out here. You don't realize that's what you're doing, but that's what you believe. I know. Everything else, I just got to rise above.

Everything's got to be fine. We believe this is the only way to approach God. It's a good way. It is a way. We should celebrate. We should rejoice.

But it's not the only way. I'm going to read Psalm 13. In this Psalm, we're going to hear the psalmist basically pleading with God, trying to understand his situation and why things are working out the way they're working out. Psalm 13. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord, my God. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemies say I have prevailed over him, lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in your steadfast love.

My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. So the psalmist there is saying, how long am I going to be stuck here? How long is this how this is going to work? Some of you, maybe you feel like you're in that situation or you've been there before where it's like, God, I thought things were supposed to be better by now. I thought I was supposed to be better by now.

I thought I was supposed to be like, how long am I going to be stuck here? Are you not going to help me? Or can you not hear me? Will you consider what I say? And then he gets to the end and he ends with, but I trust you and I'll sing. And so there is some appropriate amount of being in a painful place and saying, no, no, no, but I'm going to remind myself of what I believe and what's good.

And a lot of Psalms do that. They talk about bad stuff and the pain and the brokenness and then they'll end with, no, but I have faith and I have hope and I'm going to run to you. But not all of them. I'm going to read Psalm 88. And this is a little bit longer, but I think it's helpful. Listen for the desperation, the depression, the despair, and the bitterness that are included in this Psalm for our benefit.

Oh, Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you. Incline your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles and my life draws near to Sheol. That's the place of the dead. I'm counted among those who go down to the pit.

I'm a man who has no strength, like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand. You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions of dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me and you overwhelm me with all your waves. You have caused my companions to shun me. You have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape.

My eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O Lord. I spread out my hands to you. Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

Are your wonders known in the darkness or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But I, O Lord, cry to you in the morning. My prayer comes before you. O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors.

I am helpless. Your wrath has swept over me. Your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long. They close in on me together. You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me.

My companions have become darkness. And that's it. No hope. No, I'll trust you. He says, I pray every day. Why do you cast my soul away?

I come to you. I cry out to you. You have placed me in the deep and the dark. And you've made all my companions shun me. My friends are darkness. Psalm 137.

This is a Psalm for those who had been taken into captivity into Babylon. So they had been, the Babylonians had ridden in, had destroyed, burned down, killed, and then dragged off slaves to Babylon. By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there, we hung up our lyres. Those are instruments. They said, we're done.

We're done singing. We're done with joy. We're hanging them up. For there our captors required of us songs and our tormentors mirth, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. So they're saying our captors, our tormentors, those who have enslaved us said, hey, sing us one of your happy songs that you used to sing in your childhood when you lived in Zion before we rode in and killed everybody and brought you here.

Sing us one of those. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites. That's a group of people.

The day of Jerusalem. How they said, lay it bare, lay it bare down to its foundations. O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed. Blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us. Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock. So that's a Psalm included in the Bible that ends with, may God bless everyone who rides into Babylon, grabs a child, and smacks it on the ground.

May God bless whoever comes in and burns this place down. May God bless them forever. May they be lifted up. May they be glorified of those who would come in here and harm you and your children. May they be glorified of those who are Christians and learn things from Jesus like love your enemies and pray for those who hurt you. Maybe a question rises up with like, is that okay to say?

Can we actually pray for this? And that's a really good question. Psalm 42. I'm going to read just the first half of this. And I think it's helpful because we see that the psalmist is just kind of confused. It says, Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him. My salvation and my God. And then he goes through and says it all again, basically, what's going on. And then he says, Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God. And so you almost see the psalmist wrestling with himself and saying, I believe that God is good and I trust in him. But why can't, why can't I actually make that stick? Why can't I undepress myself? Why is my soul cast down? Like trust God that he's good.

He knows what he's doing. But it's like it's not taking. It's not working its way in. It's not become real yet. He can't make it roll over into joy and to peace. See, in the Psalms we see grief and anger, guilt and fear, pain, confusion, frustration.

And even as we read those, I want to ask, do you feel like you are allowed to say some of the things that were said in these Psalms to God? Because there's something that we read and you're like, no, can't say that. No, he doesn't want to hear that. No, you can't end the prayer like that. You can't, you can't pray and end with, you made all my friends hate me. And then like slam the door like some sort of teenager.

Like you can't, you got, you got to, you got to end with like, but you're good still. Like, I mean, I'm asking. Are there some, like the prayer, like I, blessed be anyone who takes your children and dashes them on rocks. Like, are we allowed to? Are you saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You can't, you can't go to God and talk like that.

You can't ask for that. There's Psalms where, where the psalmist says, thank you, God, that you break the teeth of the wicked. He doesn't mean cavities. He means you hit them in the face. And it's like, are we, are you, can you say that? And so I want us to read, if you're still in Psalm 62, if you're not, I want us to look back at verse eight.

Trust in him at all times. Oh, people pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Trust in him at all times. Oh, people pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us.

So, do we trust God enough to honestly and accurately tell him what's going on inside of us? Do we believe he's a refuge enough that we can be real with him about our sorrow and our depression and our pain and our anger? Or is he not trustworthy enough? Is there a chance that we'll tip our hand and he'll get rid of us? Is there a chance that he's only a refuge for those whose hearts have good things to talk about? Is there a chance that when we come to him, he's not, he's not going to accept what we have to say?

He says, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart before him that he is a refuge for us. That we can run to him with everything we have. And so I want to make a few real basic kind of quick observations from what we just read and from what Psalm 62 is telling us. Emotions are real and they matter. Emotions are real and they matter.

We were intentionally designed to be emotional beings and they're real. Sadness is real. Anger is real. And it matters. See, if it didn't matter, we wouldn't have all of this real raw emotion shown for us so clearly in the scriptures. We wouldn't have them.

This would be teaching us. No, no, no, no, no, no. Put your emotions on lock. But it doesn't. It talks about taking them to God. It talks about talking about him like it shows us how they lay it all out before him.

David says, pour your heart out. Christianity does not call you to be perfectly stoic. And perfectly unfazed by anything. That's not Christianity. That's ancient Greek stoicism. That's the enlightenment.

That says that you should never be in some sort of Zen. I'm a Christian. So nothing ever bothers me. That's that's not the God we meet in the Bible. We don't see that in Jesus. That you've not been called to be perfectly unflappable.

That you have real feelings and you should investigate them. In some ways, our emotions are like if you were sitting in your house or maybe in your office and you heard a beep. It doesn't really even matter how loud. Maybe you're just sitting in your office and you hear boop, boop. You look at your computer like, what? You go back to work 30 seconds later.

Boop, boop. Eventually, if this keeps happening, you're going to get up and figure out what's beeping. Or you're going to lose your mind. They actually make a thing that beeps at random intervals with different noises that you can hide in someone's magnetic. You can hide somewhere to make someone go insane. Like if you did that to your roommate, my only hope is that they take it out on you.

That's a real thing. When you hear a noise, if it's a loud beep, if it's a my son was it was early in the morning. Something beeped in our kitchen. He was in his room. It was like nine o'clock in the morning. It beeped.

He looked at me when my pizza is ready. I was like, no, but maybe we should change up your diet choices. If you hear a beep and you think pizza, we maybe need to step up our parenting game. But that's a real thing. And for some of us, we're sitting and our anger is going boop, boop, boop. And we're just ignoring it.

And here's the thing. That keeps beeping and you don't deal with it. You're going to go crazy. That's not going anywhere. Some of us, our fear is doing that. Some of us, our sadness is doing that.

And we're just saying, nope, can't hear it. La, la, la, la, la. And the people around us in our house are like, hey, what's that beeping? What's that noise? And you're like, I don't know what you're talking about. And they're like, you need some help.

Well, so I'm going on with you if you can't hear that beeping. Like if you can't tell how you just responded in that situation, no, no, I'm fine. Like some of us need to realize that you have real emotions that need to be investigated. They need to be checked out. You've got to figure out what's going on. That if you're angry, you're angry for a reason about something.

If you're fearful, it's about something. These are worthy things to begin to investigate your heart so that you can pour them out to God. But acting like it's no, no, it's fine is not biblical. It is not faithful. And you are not trusting in God at all times and believing that he's a refuge. That we ought to, our emotions matter and they're real and they ought to be investigated.

Secondly, your emotions are not in charge. They're real. They're not necessarily valid. So when you're angry, you're actually angry. It's a real emotion. But maybe you shouldn't be angry.

They're not in charge. That's why they have to be investigated. And secondly, they have to be submitted to God. That's why he says, pour out your heart before God. He didn't say pour out your heart on everybody that lives near you. He says, pour out your heart before God.

Bring it to him. He's a refuge. He's like, take him and let him. It's submitting it to him. That you're bringing it to him and saying, you're trustworthy. And I can run to you in the midst of everything.

And I can trust you to make this good, to make it safe, to work here. That's actually what happens in every single one of these Psalms. Even in Psalm 88, where he just ends with, all my companions are darkness. Do you know who he was talking to the whole time? God. Even in the midst of that, he's still bringing it and submitting it to God.

He's still acknowledging that God's the authority over this. That God's reigning over this. That he can come talk to him about whatever. And he can bring it to him and say, like, this is a real thing. It's all in submission to God the whole time. That your emotions are real, but they're not in charge.

And they're real, but they're not necessarily valid. Some of you have some things that are beeping. And really, the batteries just need to be changed. You just got to fix the, you shouldn't actually be angry about that. You should have communicated better on the front end. You shouldn't actually be fearful about that like we're supposed to.

But the only way that happens is as we begin to investigate that and submit it to God. And he begins to work on our souls. He begins to train us. So there are some of us in this room who our goal has been to be perfectly stoic. I feel nothing. I'm fine.

And we need to begin to learn to sit long enough and to listen well to figure out what's going on with us so that we can talk to God about it. To investigate our hearts so that we can present it to him so that we can pour it out to him. And some of us in this room, you're like a ship without a rudder. And it just depends on how the wind's blowing, what the waves are doing that day as to where you're going to be. And those emotions have got to be brought to God and submitted to him before they're acted on and before they begin to run everything. That we would be slow to anger.

That we would be slow to respond in so many ways. That we would learn that our first step is to investigate and take it to God. Say, this is what I'm feeling. This is what I'm... Help me know where your truth lines up with this. Help me know if I'm right.

Should I be mad about this? Should I be happy about this? Like, work in me. That that's the response. That's it. When I said we're just going to learn kind of a first step in this, that's it.

That we would begin to investigate our emotions and bring them to God. Now, I think some of us maybe just heard, okay, go somewhere towards the middle. If you're not really emotion-y, start having some emotions. Maybe cry at something really magical like the end of Sandlot. And if you're too emotion-y, maybe tone it down. Got it.

That's not what I'm saying. That's not what I think the Bible says. I honestly think that Christians should have very powerful, potent, real, and raw emotions. That there are times in your life where wrath needs to be the best description. That there are times in your life as a Christian where sorrow needs to be the best description. Where fullness of joy needs to be the best description.

Not moderate, temperate. No. Such a good humor. Such a rich laugh. Such a joy that you make everybody else around you more joyous. Such sorrow that it infiltrates a room.

You see, that's the example we have in Jesus. We have God becoming a human who sits down and weeps. Who at other times, because he's slow to anger, makes a whip before using it. And then walks into a temple with a whip and flips everything over and drives everybody out and stands there and preaches. With zeal and anger that was terrifying. And I know it was terrifying.

Because if you went and did that at the flea market, you would have to be insanely terrifying for them to let you stand and keep preaching. Nobody came walking back towards him. He got to say what he wanted to say. Because wrath was the best word to describe it. Who's weeps and is sorrowful. Who's joyous.

The Bible doesn't recount this, so I'm making this up. But it seems so fitting because of how we're designed. I think Jesus had the best sense of humor. I think he laughed at exactly the right time and made jokes at exactly the right time. There's something very human about when your brain trips over itself that you just laugh. Have you ever thought about how weird that is?

It's like your brain, like it just like, it's like that shouldn't have happened that way. And you're like, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, like it's a weird thing to just shoot noise out of your mouth, you guys. But God designed that in us. And there's something about it that's good and joyful. That wells up in us. And you say, oh, I laugh a lot.

Well, maybe there are times where you're laughing when you shouldn't be and it's inappropriate. See, I don't think Jesus was flippant. I think he had a good sense of humor. And I think as Christians, we're designed to follow Jesus with a real, raw, deep emotion that's acknowledged, that's walked in, but always under the authority of God, submitted to him and his truth and his wisdom and the fittingness of the occasion. Some of you are saying, okay, what if I'm naturally, like I just naturally calmer? That's okay.

What if I'm naturally more emotional? That's okay. Like some of that, like, you're good. But all of us need to begin this process of engaging our heart, investigating our hearts and submitting it to God. If you're naturally more fiery, naturally more excitable, yeah, start there. But maybe some of that needs to go away.

Maybe you need to grow out of some of that. And some of that's okay. Like we've got some people here that are a blessing to our church because if you're sad, they will immediately get sad and it's not fake. There's some people in our church family who when you aren't doing well, they'll walk up to you. You have told no one that you're not doing well. They'll walk up to you.

They'll look at you. You will start crying and be like, I need to tell you everything that's ever happened. That's beautiful. And we need that. We have some other people that in the middle of situations will sit like a rock in the middle of it and go, no, no, no, no, no, guys. Come on.

Come on back. No, no, no. You can't drift over there. Come on back. We've got to remember what's true. And that's beautiful and good.

But all of us have to begin. We can't keep ignoring the beeping. We can't keep ignoring the emotions and we can't keep letting it just toss us about. We've got to begin to investigate our hearts and take it to God. And here's what happens when we do that. Here's what happens for us as a church and as people who follow Jesus when we do that.

When we are emotionally healthy as Christians, we then accurately and beautifully reflect the tone of the gospel. And when we're emotionally healthy Christians, we can accurately and beautifully reflect the heart of our God. You see, we're people of the cross. The Christians are people of the cross, which means that we ought to have great sorrow, great bitterness and anger towards sin and its effects. There should be times that we weep. There should be times that we fall before God unconsolable over the brokenness that's going on in the world.

There should be times when we are angry, when we are wrathful because we're people of the cross. There should be times that we do sit down with those who are hurting and mourn with them over death and loss and pain, all of which have been led by the enemy into a good world and have infiltrated and caused destruction and difficulty that would not have happened outside of sin. And we ought to be people of the cross who can engage in that. But we're also people of an empty tomb who have an untouchable hope, an overwhelming joy that rides underneath everything because our our certainty of a future and inheritance with Christ has been made sure by an empty tomb.

Like so we we ought to be the people who are the most fun at parties. And the most consoling at funerals who are leading in the midst of injustice and brokenness and hurt along those who are hurting and who are celebrating everything that's worth celebrating. You see, some of us are so afraid of emotions when things are good. We don't even celebrate well. We're just like, well, I don't want to get too cocky. Just kind of quietly enjoy it.

I had a football coach who used to say when we'd win, he'd right before we win, he'd say, act like you won before. Which means like don't pour everything out and set everything on fire and act like crazy people. Pretend like you've done this. And some of us in the middle of really good seasons in life are like, I'm just going to keep it cool. Not really going to be excited. And it's like, no.

Celebrate. Play some music. Start dancing. I don't know how good you dance. Stop when other people get around. But, you know, celebrate.

That we're a people of the cross and we're a people of the empty tomb. And so we get to walk in real deep, genuine emotion without having it rule us. And we get to see that in the Psalms. And we get to begin to engage in that and grow in that as we walk with each other in life. I'm going to pray. And then the band's going to come back up.

But I'm going to pray first. God, we ask. We ask that through the power of your Holy Spirit, you would begin to help us see what's in our hearts. That we might learn to begin to pour that out to you. For those of us who have grown in a pattern of shielding ourselves from emotion and feeling, I pray that you'd help us to learn the joy and the depth and the reality of them that you've given us. That we would look more like Christ.

And for those of us in this room who have been tossed about and ruled over by our emotions. I pray that we would begin to rest in the hope and the surety and the truth of your gospel and of your rule, submitting those to you, and that we would begin to look more like Christ. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Mill City 8/13/17 Mill City 8/13/17

Psalm 96 - Music and Song

Transcript

Good morning. I think that was the remix version. Get halfway through. God's working magic up there. It's good to see you guys today. My name's Matt.

I'm one of the pastors here with Mill City. If it is your first time hanging out with us, welcome. We're glad you're here. We do pray that this morning there'll be a blessing to you. And as Spencer said earlier, we are walking through the book of Psalms, basically talking about what does it mean to have a life of worship. And today specifically, we're going to talk about singing and music.

And for most of us, if you grew up in and around the church, that's actually the thing you think of first when you hear the word worship. You think music and song is the first thing that kind of pops in your mind. And I kind of want to address this right up front. So singing and music are worship, but worship is not just music and singing. Okay. So what we do on Sundays is worship, but worship is not just Sundays.

We believe that worship is a lifestyle. That's the way the Bible talks about it. That basically anything we think, say, or do when done for the glory of God is worship. So that's everything, which also means that music and singing do fit into that category. So as we continue the Psalms today and talk about worship, we're going to talk about music and singing.

Make sense? Got it? All right. I'm going to interchange those words today. So I just want to make sure we're all on the same page.

Go ahead. Grab a Bible. Turn to Psalm 96. It's going to be on page 286 in the white Bibles. As you're turning there, if you don't have one of these, if you don't have a Bible that's your own, I want you to take this one with you. We want everyone to have a Bible.

And as Spencer said earlier, we do have our Psalms books kind of over there by the door. But here's how Psalm 96 begins. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. You guys pray with me as we get started this morning. God, your word very clearly commands us to sing, commands us to make music. And so our prayer this morning as a church family is that as we continue to grow in what it looks like to have a lifestyle of worship, God, that you would work as your Holy Spirit speaks, as you speak through your word to teach us how music and singing can be used as worship of you and how we ought to do that. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right. So right from the get, Psalm 96, Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord. Sing to the Lord. Tell of his salvation. Declare.

Bless. So like right up front, you're kind of hit with a whole bunch of commands. A whole bunch of commands right at the beginning. Sing, sing, sing. And then the other three commands, bless, tell, and declare, are all just tagging back to this idea of singing. So right out the gate, this, this Psalm is talking about singing and music.

And really, all told, the Bible has over 400 references to singing and music and over, there's 50 direct commands to sing. I mean, that, that's crazy when you think about all of scripture. Uh, the book of Psalms is really one of the largest books in, in the Bible. And it's basically a book of songs. In the New Testament, we're commanded in two different places to sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs when we're together. Uh, Psalm 22, which is, uh, in reference to Jesus says that in the midst of the congregation, I will sing.

The night before, uh, Jesus was crucified, he gathered with his disciples and they sang a hymn. In Zephaniah 3, 17, we get this picture of God singing over his people, exalting in the midst of his people. And it's just kind of crazy how much the Bible actually talks about, uh, music and singing. But if you think about it, that's, that's kind of weird. Or, or it at least makes you ask the question, why? Why does God command us to sing and make music?

Because I think for most of us, there are other commands that it's way easier for us to get on board with, right? It just, it just kind of makes more sense. Uh, so when the Bible commands us to love one another. Okay, makes sense. I can see how that works out well for us. Uh, the Bible says don't commit murder.

Okay, well, if we're going to love one another, that makes sense. Probably, probably shouldn't kill each other. Bible commands, open your mouth and sing loudly with a group of other people. That, it just, it just doesn't quite fit in the same category. Like, if I'm sitting down with someone and I'm kind of in a, oh, lost my papers here. Uh, if I'm in a pastoral counseling situation with someone, and they basically look at me and say, Matt, I am really struggling right now with two sins.

Two major sin areas in my life that I am just struggling with. I'm stealing. Every time I see something that I want, I just, I just take it and I'm stealing. And when our church gets together on Sunday, I don't sing. There's one of those that I'm just going to kind of just move to the side. I'm saying, all right, grab a Bible.

Let's go to the 10 commandments where it says you shall not steal. It also says you shouldn't covet. Uh, let's talk about the punishment for stealing. And like, that's, that's the one I'm most comfortable going after. Uh, but here's the deal. The Bible actually only talks about theft and stealing in general 52 times.

The Bible talks about music and singing 400 times and has 50 direct commands to sing, but that's not the one I'm going after. I'm just kind of shooing that one to the side because for some reason in my brain, it fits in a different category. Like it's, it's not a command. It's a, it's kind of like a suggestion or maybe it's optional. It just doesn't fit in the same category. I've even been in conversations with people, uh, like about what we do on Sundays and they'll say things like, wow, man, you know, I really don't like to sing or I'm not a huge fan of the music that we do on Sundays.

And I have in those conversations said, ah, it's not that big a deal. You know, just stand, you know, just, just listen. Don't worry about singing. Bad pastor, bad, bad pastor. Like if I have said that to you wrong, like I am wrong there. The Bible commands us to sing.

It carries the weight of obedience, which means that God's serious about it. And when we don't do it, it's actually sin. So, and I think, truthfully, I think there are all kinds of reasons why, why people don't want to sing on Sundays. So, uh, for some of us, it's a self-conscious thing. Okay. Like we just, we do not sing well.

And so we do not want other people to hear us sing and therefore be a distraction. I get that. Uh, for some of us, maybe just music isn't your thing. You don't connect with music or maybe you just don't, uh, see the point. Uh, maybe you're a guy and you think, ah, music's kind of effeminate. And look, I know our church family.

Uh, some of you are going, I don't know about that fancy musical term effeminate, but it's kind of girly. Uh, fair point. Uh, maybe you just kind of think it's weird and awkward. Okay. So maybe you didn't grow up in and around the church.

And so standing with a bunch of other people and singing just isn't comfortable. Or maybe you like music. Maybe you're kind of a music person and you like coming in and singing songs, but you just kind of come in and you just kind of go through the motions. Like you're singing good, good melody. It's like you're, but you're not actually thinking about the words. And the truth is whatever spectrum you kind of fall in, uh, wherever you fall on that line across the room, we got to wrestle with the fact that God commands us to sing.

And this really is one of the most unique aspects for us, uh, as followers of Jesus. There are very few organized groups and even organized religions that gather on a regular basis for the purpose of singing together. And I'm not talking about like at a concert where you sing along because you know the words or like in a high school course. I'm talking about singing with a group of other people because you believe the same thing. And the purpose is to glorify and magnify and lift up the name of Jesus. Like that, that's us.

And it's part of what makes us, us. It's very unique. But if you think about it, it, it is kind of weird. It is odd. It is different. So the question we got to wrestle with is why would God command us to sing?

Why would he command us to do that? Um, most of you know this, but I studied music in college. And so I just tried to, to take a second that when the Bible says, sing to the Lord, a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth. Like, I wanted to just think like, what is it? What could it be about music in general? What, what is it made up of, uh, that might clue us in on why God might call us to sing?

Why might command us to make music to him? So these are just, these are some general observations. These are not coming directly out of the text, but I think we would all agree to most of this. And I think it'll help us see why God commands us to sing. We're, we're actually going to put these up on the screen. Uh, if you're a note taker, uh, maybe these are helpful for you.

If not, just, just kind of listen along. Uh, the first one is this music helps us learn, remember, and internalize. It does. Music just helps us learn, remember, and internalize. Think about, think about this situation. What if I asked you, what are the three letters that come after I in the alphabet?

Yeah, someone's, I heard it. I heard someone singing it. That's how you got there, right? You didn't just go J KL. Nobody's doing that. You went A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L.

Also, did anyone think elementa was a letter for a while? Elementa, man. Sorry, that's a tangent. Helps us learn good things and bad things. J KL, it's how you learned, was by song. Here's another one.

Play along. One little, two little, three little chickens. I'm going to try again. And I'm going to expect better results. One little, two little, three little chickens. All right.

Yep. We're talking about making a joyful noise in a second. But yeah, that's part of how we learn to count. And music has that ability. It helps us remember things. It makes things sticky.

It just does. Play along again. Ready? Ba-da-ba-ba-ba. Yeah. You all know the jingle.

When you got $3 in your pocket and it's midnight and you kind of want some semblance of a hamburger. You know that jingle. Okay. Don't stop. Oh, that was better. We were having more gusto on that one.

Yeah. Everyone's favorite wedding song. Music just sticks with us. It helps us remember things in a way that without music we're not able to. If you were to sit me down and ask me the question, Matt, what has more value? The book of Ephesians or Limp Bizkit's album from 1998?

I would without batting an eye tell you the book of Ephesians. If your follow-up question was, which one of those two do you have mostly memorized? Don't judge me. Stop it. Stop it. You all have songs and albums memorized that you couldn't forget them if you wanted to.

Music has that ability. It just makes things stick with us. It helps us learn, remember, and internalize in a way that without it you can't. You can remember an entire song but not the parts of the body on an exam. I mean, like, that's how it works. Music helps us do that.

The second thing is this. Music can bring us together. It is. It's just one of the properties of music. Music has the ability to bring us together. For those of you who are Carolina fans, just imagine.

In a couple of weeks, you're in Williams-Brice Stadium with upwards of 20,000 other people. And sandstorm. Yeah, it'll sink in. And sandstorm comes on. And you're just like... You didn't say two words to the person sitting next to you until that song came in.

And now you're just in it together. I mean, it's your favorite two parts of the ballgame. Music just has the ability to bring us together. That one will sink in later. Okay. Or imagine you're at a baseball game.

Imagine you're at a baseball game and this is what you hear. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. What are you doing? You are standing up. And you're going to sing. You're going to sing with other people who are Americans.

The national anthem. Or you've probably been to a concert where you've just gotten like lost in the moment. Some of our church fam went to a Beyonce concert last year. And they just talked about it forever and ever. And ever. My wife and I are going to see...

In Charlotte next week, we're going to see Counting Crows. And Matchbox 20. I'm very excited. It'll be a bunch of other 30-year-olds who now have kids that were product of the 90s. And we'll throw on our Birkenstocks and sing Mr. Jones at the top of our lungs.

But there's something about that moment that just makes you connected to the people who are around you. But not even on the big scale like that. Think about small scale. Let's imagine you're working with someone. And then all of a sudden you realize they like the same band that you do. Like a whole new level of friendship is unlocked.

Or maybe you find out it's like they like country music. Like old country music. Not new country music. They actually hate new country music. They love old country music. Your best friends from forever except for like Chris Stapleton.

We'll take him. But it does. It just helps us connect. We bond over music. What happens very often after tragedies like the Manchester bombings or even after 9-11? Benefit concerts.

Why? Because music has the ability to heal and to bring us together. Okay. The last one I just want to point out as I thought about it is that music also has the ability to connect with our emotions. It just does. Even if you're not an emotional person, music has the ability to connect with our emotions.

Music can get behind our walls and boundaries that we have set up and get to our hearts. And in some ways music can get deep inside of you to stuff that you didn't even know was in there. Think about it like this. If you're in a good mood, if you're happy and you listen to a happy song, it makes you happier. If you're sad and you listen to a sad song, it makes you sadder. It helps us connect with our emotions.

Music does in a way that really nothing else can. And I want to just illustrate this. Okay. So, I'm going to play some stuff on the piano. And I'm not going to tell you what to feel. I just want you to think about what it makes you feel in the moment.

Okay. You ready? Just turn it on. We're good? For real, imagine Jaws without the soundtrack, right? It would really be a camera person following someone doing a beautiful breaststroke and then shark.

Like there's no suspense, no buildup at all. Like really any movie. Think about any movie without the soundtrack. Or just imagine you've got the camera angle where you're looking up through the water at the person swimming. Doesn't match, right? It doesn't create the same type of emotion.

Okay, but it's not just fear. Like some of you are ready to go run right now. Okay, here's another one. Some of you makes you think about a wedding. Some of you guys got that sick feeling in your stomach again. I will remember you.

I will remember you. I will remember you. Will you remember me? It's not like you say sorry. Who's waiting on a different story? This time I'll...

Music does that. It has the ability to make you feel all kinds of different things. And here's what I want to point out. If all of that is actually true about music. That it has the ability to help us learn and remember and internalize. And it can bring us together.

And it can make us feel things in a way that without it we can't. Doesn't it make sense that the God who so desires a relationship with us to connect with us would give us the gift of music. And its fullest expression would be when we actually give it back to Him. God didn't discover music. He created it. He made it potent and powerful.

And He's weaponized it. That melody and harmony and beat and rhyme and meter and melody and harmony. All of it can be used by Him to teach us who He is and to help us connect with Him. So when the Bible actually commands us to sing to the Lord. God's got a purpose in it. And it's to help draw us closer to Him.

So with those kind of things in mind. Since music actually can do that. Now I want us to walk through and look at these verses. And basically say if that's what music can do. What should be the substance of our music and song? What should the worship actually look like?

So we're just going to walk through. I'm going to kind of move at a quick clip. Because I think the scripture helps us see this very clearly. We're just going to make six observations about what music and song and worship should look like. So pick back up.

Psalm 96. Verse 1. Oh sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord bless His name. Tell of His salvation from day to day.

Declare His glory among the nations. His marvelous works among all the peoples. Okay so we already said this. But it starts off with six commands. All of which are pointing towards singing. Sing to the Lord.

Sing to the Lord. Sing to the Lord. I want to read that again. And I'm just going to add some emphasis. Because I think it will help us see the first aspect of worship. Oh sing to the Lord a new song.

Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord. Bless His name. Tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations. His marvelous works among all the peoples.

Sing to the Lord. The worship of the church should be God centered. That's the purpose. So when it says sing to the Lord. Our worship is about Him. It's to Him.

It's for Him. It's through Him. The songs that we sing collectively are in worship to God. So they're going to be for Him and about Him. And I want to point this out. So perk up this morning.

If any of those hesitations or reasons for not singing kind of resonated with you earlier. I want you to hear this. Because this is important. Maybe the most important thing you hear this morning. Whatever reason it was. So like take the example of I don't like to sing.

Because I don't sing well. Okay. The Bible actually kind of addresses that one clearly. Raz read it earlier. Psalm 95, 98, and 100. All say make a joyful noise to the Lord.

But all of those reasons that we give. Whether it's we don't like music. Or we don't feel it. Or it really doesn't do anything to us. Think about this for a second. What better way for you to make your worship God centered.

Than by moving past all of your personal thoughts about music. And singing to God. You see that? So every one of the reasons or excuses that we leverage to say. Well I just don't sing. It's not my thing.

What better way for you to worship God. To make your worship God centered. Than by putting those to the side. Because what happens is. What's happening in those moments when we choose not to sing. Or when we choose not to make music.

Is that worship is actually about us. We're the most important thing in the room. But when we move past that. And put it to the side. And give ourselves fully into worship. God's honored through that.

And if you tag back to some of what we said at the beginning. God's got a purpose in it. If the songs that we're singing are to him. And for him. And about him. God can use those.

To help us learn. And remember. And actually begin to internalize truths about him. That music can take that truth. And plant it in your hearts. In a way that affects normal everyday life for you.

So when we gather for corporate worship. It's going to be about him. He's the point. It's to him. And for him. Verse number two.

Kind of repeating a little bit of what we've already read. But it says. Sing to the Lord. Bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations.

His marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord. And greatly to be praised. Okay. I want to point something out. That if you just read the text.

It's hard to pick up on. If you go back to the original language of Hebrew. That this was written in. You'd notice one thing. That every one of those verbs. And commands.

Are not in the singular. They're plural. It's not you sing. You tell. You declare. It's y'all.

Y'all sing. Y'all declare. Y'all tell. Which means that. The worship of the church. Should be congregational.

Should be congregational. It's an us thing. Or here's. Here's kind of another way to say it. The worship of the church. Should be corporate.

It should be unifying. It should be among other people. It should bring us together. It's not solely a personal thing. It can be. It absolutely can be.

Music and singing can be a personal thing. But we are commanded together. To sing. To the Lord. Among other people. And let me give you a little clue into why.

At least why I think this is so good. Have you ever walked into this room. Just not feeling it. You're down. You're depressed. Maybe you're angry.

About something. Maybe you're struggling with sin. It's just. You're done. You're just done. But you showed up this morning anyways.

And you walk in. And people stand up. And they start singing. You stand up with them. But you're not singing.

But you're listening. You're listening to people singing on your left. And on your right. And they're singing truths about God. That you're wrestling with. Believing.

Whether they're even true. And God starts doing something in that moment. That as you hear your brothers and sisters. Stand and sing about how good God is. And how he's to be worshipped. And how loving he is.

The Holy Spirit starts doing something in that moment. To encourage us. He's helping us see that like. We're not alone. We're not by ourselves in the midst of that fight. That you've got people on your left and right.

Who believe the same thing you do. Who are going to bear burdens with you. Who are going to call you to holiness. He does something in the midst of us singing. That encourages us. And brings us together.

So in those moments where we think. Well I don't need to sing. Or I don't need to participate. What's actually happening. Is that we're short changing the people around us. From one of the means that God actually uses.

To heal them. That part of the reason the church is called to sing together. Is to remember that we're in us. That we are a family. That we are in this together. So we can actually.

The worship of the church should be congregational. So that we can remember that we're in us. That we're actually together. And let me just say this. There are going to be times. There are going to be times where you need to sit and listen.

There are going to be times where you're not there. You're wrestling with whether our singing is actually true. You need to sit and listen. And to ponder that. But on the whole.

We're commanded to sing. And it should be done. Together. Grab your Bibles. Go back to verse 7. Ascribe to the Lord.

O families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Oh I'm sorry. I jumped. I jumped. Go back.

Strike that. Go. Go back to verse 4. Says this. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. For he is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the people are worthless idols. But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Says great. Great is the Lord and worthy to be praised.

He's worthy of it. Because of what we've already talked about earlier. His wonderful deeds. And his marvelous works. And then it says. He is to be feared above all gods.

Little g. Gods. We said this earlier. But music has the ability to get to our emotions. In a way that nothing else really does. Has the ability to get past our walls.

And our boundaries. To get to our hearts in a way that exposes stuff. So that when it says that God is to be feared above all gods. It is tapping into the idea of our emotions. Fear has the ability to influence in such a way. That it becomes the dominant feeling or emotion.

But fear and emotion. It goes beyond that. It goes to a place where it's a recognition. That begins to expose what we love. What we value. What we hold up and honor.

Fear. So when it says he is to be feared above all gods. What it's saying is. When we come together and we sing these truths. What happens is that it begins to expose. All of the areas in our hearts and in our lives.

That we're fearing all of the other little g. Gods. That something else holds sway in our life. Other than God. There's all these little g. Gods.

And that can be our spouses. That could be our work. That could be our bank account. And what happens is. When we come together and we start singing. There's something the Holy Spirit does.

That is you're singing truths about how big God is. And how glorious. And how he provides. And how he redeems. It actually begins to expose. All the other little things that we're trusting in.

That aren't God. So in that moment. Music is getting to our hearts. In a way that we weren't ready for. And so the worship of the church should affect our hearts. And lead us to repentance.

And faith. So that in that. In those moments where we're singing. Truths about God. And the Holy Spirit's moving and working. There should be times.

When you are absolutely cut to your core. Because you're singing something about how God provides. And the Holy Spirit's going. Not your bank account. You don't believe that. We're talking about how big.

And how good. And how loving God is. Because it's not your wife's Job. And we're broken. Over it. And the Bible says.

In that moment. We get to repent. We get to turn from. Wrong belief. About who God is. And turn to.

Correct. Belief. That's part of what music does. It has the ability to get to our hearts. And help us see that. Help us see what we're loving.

Trusting. And believing in. More than. Jesus. And so we turn from it. In.

Repentance. And faith. Verse 7. Now. Now we'll do this one.

Ascribe to the Lord. O families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord. Glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord. The glory.

Do his name. Bring an offering. And come into his courts. Worship the Lord. In the splendor of holiness. Tremble before him.

All the earth. Okay. So it starts off with. Ascribe. Ascribe to the Lord. Ascribe.

Ascribe is a fancy word for acknowledge. To acknowledge that God is the source of. Fill in the blank. And maybe another way to think about it. Is to. To give credit to.

Or to attribute. Something to. But it's not really a word we use very often. But basically it's saying. Acknowledge that God is worthy of worship. Or he is the source of.

All of these different things. That. That. Glory and strength. Or do his name. That we should bring an offering.

That we should. Tremble. Before him. And here's. I want to take a step here. And help us see something.

If our worship is supposed to be. God centered. And we're supposed to. Ascribe. Or acknowledge him. As we ought to.

Then it's on God. To reveal himself. To us. So that we know who he is. And what he's done. And the way that he does that.

Is through the Bible. Okay. So it's not specifically. Saying that here. But the only way.

We're going to be able to acknowledge God. As we ought to. Is through the Bible. So the worship. Of the church. Should be.

Formed. By the Bible. It should be huge for us. That's why we spend so much. Time in our worship gatherings. Together.

Preaching. It takes the majority of our time. But even as we. Talk about praying. We're talking about it. In reference to the Bible.

Giving. Because God calls us to. To it through his word. The songs that we're singing. Are coming directly. From the Bible.

Without the Bible. We're sunk. When it comes to worship. But through the Bible. We begin to learn. Who God is.

And what he's done. And why we ought to be. Worshiping him. Most of you know this. But part of.

Part of my job. As one of our pastors. Is that I get to plan. Our time of worship together. And I have a great team of people. Who help me do this.

But that's. Really what we're shooting for. When we're choosing songs. For us to sing. Are songs that. Accurately reflect.

What the Bible says. About God. And what he does. And in turn. What that means for us. And what we do.

Because music is so catchy. It helps us learn. And remember. And internalize. If we're singing things. That aren't true about God.

Or aren't true for us. It's actually helping us. Rehearse bad theology. It's actually part of the reason. We. You probably noticed.

That maybe you don't know. All the songs. When you show up. We steer away. From some of the stuff. That's on Christian radio.

Because it has the ability. To just talk about us. But the point of worship. Is God. So we try to find songs.

That actually help us. Remember. And learn. And internalize. Things that are true. About God.

And here's another thing. The Bible not only tells us. About God. And why we should worship him. But it tells us.

How to do it. So. We're already talking about. Sing to the Lord. But here.

Just check out this list. Okay. I'm going to kind of tag it quickly. And we'll keep moving. Psalm 9. 2 says singing.

Isaiah 29. Says standing. Dancing. Psalm 71. Says shouting. Psalm 5.

Says praying. Psalm 30. Says dancing. I'm going to say that one again. Psalm 30. Says dancing.

Some of you with Baptist roots. Just died a little bit inside. I need y'all. Church. I need y'all to hear that this morning. I know the predominant stance.

In worship. Is coffee cup. In this hand. In this hand. In this pocket. But watch.

You can. You can. Guys. You can move. You can dance. As a part of worship.

Says clapping. Psalm 47. Guys. You can clap. Before a song. During a song.

After a song. Permission granted. Go for it. Lifting hands. That's Psalm 134. Bowing down.

That's Exodus 34. The Bible actually tells us. How to worship. It tells us how to do it. I want our church. To be a place.

Where you can freely. Express yourself. In worship. If you want to raise your hands. Do it. If you want to clap.

Do it. If you need to bow down. And pray. Do it. As part of the reason. We're doing a worship night.

This coming Thursday. Is that we've got room. To grow. As a church family. And actually being able. To express ourselves.

In worship. One of the coolest aspects. Of this Psalm. In particular. Is that it's actually used. In worship.

In the Bible. In 1st Chronicles 15. And 16. David's leading the Ark of the Covenant. Back into Jerusalem. And the people actually use.

Part of this Psalm. To worship God. They're singing. And it says. They're clashing cymbals together. And people are playing trumpets.

And they're playing lyres. Which is like a string instrument. It says the people. Were singing. And making music. Loudly.

David. Danced. Before the Ark of the Covenant. And that was a man. After God's own heart. So we've got room.

To grow. As a church family. What it looks like. For us to worship. I'm not afraid. To put a saxophone.

On stage. Not afraid. To have a drum set. Be up here on stage. That's why. It looks a little bit different.

Every Sunday. Because there's so much. Variety for us. In worship. And we've got a lot. Of room to grow.

But for us. The Bible is central. It helps us see. Who God is. And how. He wants to be.

Worship. Verse 10. Say among the nations. The Lord reigns. Yes. The world.

Is established. It shall never. Be moved. He will judge. The peoples. With equity.

It says. Say among. The nations. The Lord reigns. The whole. The whole world.

Tell it. To everyone. The worship. Of the church. Should propel us. To mission.

It should. The worship. Of the church. Should drive us out. To tell more. And more people.

About. Jesus. The part of the reason. We come together. As a church family. On Sundays.

Is to sing. And to celebrate. And to remember. The good news. Of the gospel. And that it's good.

So that when we leave this place. We're more apt. Because we've been reminded. That God is good. And the gospel is good news. For everyone.

So the worship of the church. Should drive us out. Should remind us. That as believers. We've been called. To share that message.

To tell. To bless. To declare. To sing. To go tell as many people. About Jesus as possible.

And I'm going to lay all my cards. On the table. If you. If you're in this room. This morning. And you are not.

A Christian. That's what we believe. We believe. That Jesus. Came and rescued us. At our point of need.

That we were dead. In our sin. Without hope. And that Jesus. Came to rescue us. And to redeem us.

That he died on the cross. To pay for our sin. And he rose from the grave. So that we could have. New life in him. And that's why we come together.

To celebrate. And that's the good news. We want you to know. You can place your faith. In Jesus today. And for us.

As a church family. When we sing. Songs about the gospel. It drives us out. Drives us out. To tell as many.

People. About it. As possible. Verse 11. As we wrap up. Let the heavens be glad.

And let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar. And all that fills it. Let the field exult. And everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest.

Sing for joy. Before the Lord. For he comes. For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world. In righteousness.

And the peoples. In his faithfulness. You see that? The sea is going to roar. And all the animals that fill it. Fields and creation.

Come to life. Trees singing before the Lord. As he comes. What we get here. At the end of this Psalm. Is a look forward.

To what's going to happen. In the future. Which means the worship of the church. Should fill us. With hope. And joy.

In Christ. Should fill us with hope. That one day. Jesus is going to crack the sky. And come back. And get his church.

And everything that is wrong. With the world. Will be made right. The world itself. Will be returned. To a state.

Of the garden of Eden. That justice. Will be had. That vengeance. Will be served. And God's going to set up.

His eternal reign forever. And that's actually good news. For Christians. That's the best news. Because it says. He will judge the world.

In righteousness. His. Right. His righteous standard. And for those that have placed faith. In Jesus.

Your hope is secure. There's joy. That we can go through. What. Everything we're going through. Right now.

Is just a blip. On the radar screen. Of eternity. We can walk through life. Right now. With hope and joy.

That we have in Christ. In fact. When the church gathers. On Sunday. When we gather to sing. It's actually just a little bit of practice.

For what eternity is going to be like. We're actually getting in work now. That when you sing with brothers and sisters. All across this room. That's just a small picture. Of what heaven.

Is going to look like. Should fill us with hope and joy. Raz and Bianca are going to come back up. And we're actually. We're going to take a little bit of time. To just put this into practice.

That when God commands us to sing. He's serious about it. But it's for our joy. That he created music with a purpose. That it can help us learn. And remember.

And internalize. And bring it. It can bring us together. And can help get to our emotions. So that as we sing as a church family.

We're going to make it about God. We're going to sing songs together. And remember that we're unified. We're going to allow the Holy Spirit to work. And get to our hearts. And lead us to repentance.

And faith. We're going to sing songs. That come out of the Bible. Like we're about to. That come from the book of Romans. And 1 Corinthians.

And John. And Psalms. And Hebrews. And then as we leave this place. We're going to be filled. We're going to be reminded.

That our worship should. Propel us out to mission. And give us joy. And hope. I want to ask you guys to stand. Go ahead and stand.

We're going to sing in just a second. God my prayer. Is that we would be a church. That rightly sees the joy. Of your command to sing. To sing to you.

And bring honor and glory to your name. That God you use it. You use it powerfully. God to work in our lives. In such a way that we. Come to know who you are.

Or that you can get to our emotions. You can bring us together. Father. So God my prayer. Is that you would actually. Help us push back.

All of the hesitations. All of the reservations. All of the wrong thoughts. About your commands to sing. And your Holy Spirit. Would allow us to do so freely.

This morning. Because you're worthy of our praise. In Jesus name. Amen. You guys sing with us.

Mill City 8/6/17 Mill City 8/6/17

Psalm 51 - Repentance

Transcript

All right, grab a Bible, go to Psalm 51. You'll be on page 271 if your Bible looks like this. If you don't own a Bible, take one of these home with you. It's our gift to you. We want you to have a Bible. We want you to read it.

My name is Chet. It's good to see you all this morning. Today we are in the fifth week of our Psalm series where we're trying to walk through the Psalms and spend some time allowing the Psalms to kind of train us in what it looks like to live a life of worship. The psalmists were writing as they related to God and that they begin to equip us and train us for what that looks like. How to love God, worship God, pray to God in the good times of life and the bad times, both emotionally when we're doing well and emotionally when our tank is empty. That's kind of what they're training us in.

And so we're going to be in Psalm 51 today and we're going to be talking about repentance. I want you to read. Your Bible should have some sort of heading before verse 1. It should say 51 and then there should be some sort of a heading that kind of tells us, and we find these often in the Psalms, that tell us what the circumstance is, who wrote it, what's going on, what it was used for, and then you'll see, you know, the little one and there'll be verse 1 and we'll go on down in the Psalm. So it says, To the choir master, so this Psalm was written as a song to be sung with a choir, to the choir master, a Psalm of David.

That's David the king, and we're going to talk more about him in just a second. When Nathan the prophet went to him after he, that's David, had gone into Bathsheba. To the choir master, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. And so we are told at the very beginning of this Psalm what the circumstance is that we're under, what is being addressed, when this was written. It's referring to some events that we have recorded for us in 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12, and I'm just going to walk us through that story. I'd encourage you to write it down to go read it later, but I'm just going to kind of tell it to us.

So David is king, and David wasn't always a king. He used to be a shepherd, and he was like a little kind of shrimpy shepherd, although the Bible says he was good-looking, which has to make you feel really nice. If the Bible, the God of the universe, was like, no, you're handsome, put it in there, it's true. So it says that he was, but when Saul was king, God sends Samuel to go anoint the new king. He goes, and he goes to this family, the house of Jesse, and Jesse begins to put his sons in front of him, and Samuel sees him, and he's like, man, that's like a big, good-looking king, and God's like, no, not him, and he goes on down the line.

They eventually go all the way down, and you can tell, like, there's this moment in the text where it was just, like, awkward. They're just waiting, and none of the sons were king, and they forgot that David existed. Like, he has to ask, like, don't you have any other sons? And Jesse's like, no. Oh, yeah, there's the other one with the sheep, but, like, he's really far away, and obviously not. And Samuel's like, go get him.

So they go get him, and it turns out he's supposed to be king, and that's David. And David becomes king. He faces Goliath. Eventually, he becomes king. He's a great warrior. He's a great leader.

He's a man after God's own heart. He's a poet and a prophet. Like, this is, if you had, if you were a Jewish boy, in Old Testament times, you had the King David action figure. Like, he is, he's it. And then in 2 Samuel chapter 11, we're told this story. And it begins like this in 2 Samuel 11.

It says, in the spring, when the kings go to war, which just means it's not cold anymore. They got to go do something. In the spring, when the kings go to war, David sent Joab, but King David stayed home. And so they're giving us a hint in the text right away that David is not, he's veered from what he's supposed to be doing, and he's doing something different. And it says that one evening, David is walking around on the rooftop of the palace, and he sees Bathsheba. He doesn't know who she is.

He sees a beautiful woman bathing. And he calls his servants and says, I want y'all to go get that woman for me. So he's king. He has power. He should be out fighting war. He should be out leading his army.

But no, he sends someone else. And then he walks around the palace, and he sees this lady, and he says, I want y'all to, I want y'all to, I want y'all to go get her for me. And we're told that his servant responds in a way that I really, I'm so proud of the servant. We don't know his name, but I'm so proud. He responds like this. He says, you mean Bathsheba, Uriah's wife?

Like, he's trying to help him out. Like, I can't say that you should not do this, but I'm going to say all the words that I can possibly find right now to help you know that you should not do this. David misses it. Yes. If that's Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, then yes, that is what I'm saying. So they go get Bathsheba.

David and Bathsheba sleep together. We do not know, the text does not tell us, whether or not Bathsheba was excited about this, a willing participant, or if she just was caught up in something where David was in power, and this basically is rape. That when she was brought over there, she just had to go along with it for fear, for the position that he was in. They sleep together. Uriah, at this point, is in David's army. He is one of David's top 30 men.

David would have known who he was. I don't know if they hung out on weekends, but he would have known him. He is off fighting in a battle that David should be leading. David sleeps with his wife, sends her home. She contacts David later to say, you need to tell the king I'm pregnant. So David hatches a plan to cover up his own sin.

2 Samuel chapter 11, he sends messengers to the army and says, send Uriah back so that I can talk to him about how the battles are going. So Uriah is sent back. David is going to talk to Uriah, and then they talk. He says, how's the battle going? That's great. Good report.

Hey, man, you go home. Hang out a little bit. Uriah leaves the palace, walks out the doors, and sleeps on the steps. And it's reported to David, hey, Uriah didn't go home. He slept on the steps of the palace. David talks to him the next day and says, hey, you've been at battle for so long.

Why don't you go home? David's goal, his plan, what he's come up with, to cover and hide his sin, is for Uriah to go home, to sleep with his wife, and then Uriah will come back. His wife will be pregnant. He won't do the math that well. Maybe we can say it's a really big, healthy, premature child. And problem solved.

Uriah looks at David and says, how could I go home and spend time at home when my men are in the battle? I would not do such a thing. And he's being honorable, but this has to bring great shame on David. I don't think that was his goal, but it just shows, highlights in this moment, how honorable Uriah is being and how shameful David is. And David says, oh yeah, good point. We'll stay another night.

And David has him stay and has him drink until he gets drunk. His goal now is, okay, if Uriah won't do this in his right mind, I'll get him drunk and then maybe this will seem like a better idea. Some of you understand David's thought process here. He gets Uriah drunk. Uriah goes out of the palace, sleeps on the floor. So David has to come up with a new plan because his first plan is not working.

So David's new plan is, he has a message, he writes it, folds it up, seals it, hands it to Uriah and says, I need you to take this to Joab. Uriah delivers a message to Joab that says, I need you to put Uriah in the hottest fighting and leave him so that he will die. So Uriah delivers his own death sentence to Joab. So Joab does. From the order of David, Joab leads an entire unit further in than they should have been up against the castle wall where people can throw and shoot down upon them and they lose a lot of people. So it wasn't just Uriah that dies, but that was the intention.

Others die as well. He draws back once Uriah is dead and Joab says to a messenger, you need to go tell David what happened. And when he says, how foolish was it for you to get that close to the wall? Don't you know that they would have killed you, that they would have shot down on you, that that's a bad tactic? When he says that, you need to respond, yes, we do know and Uriah is also dead. So the messenger goes to David, tells him this.

David says, go back and tell Joab that a lot of people die in war. To not be stressed out by this, it's okay. After Bathsheba mourns, David takes her as his wife, brings her to the palace and we're told at the end of chapter 11 that the thing David did displeased the Lord. That David, who God had taken from shepherding sheep and made a king and placed him in the palace and given him honor and wealth and power and David uses it and abuses it for adultery, rape, murder and then thinks he's gotten away, Scott free. We don't even understand at this point if David even feels bad or if he's just like, good, my plans worked.

That's that. So then we're told in chapter 12 that God sends Nathan the prophet and Nathan the prophet goes to the king and the prophets spoke on behalf of God and they had a lot of authority and so Nathan shows up and says, king, I need your wisdom on something. I need you to sort a case out for me. I need you to judge between two men and your kingdom. This is a normal thing so David says, what is it? So Nathan tells him this story.

Nathan says, king, in your kingdom there's a man who's very wealthy. He has lots of herds, lots of flocks, lots of sheep. He's just a wealthy guy. He's got a nice house and he lives next to a man who is not wealthy. This man who lives near him kind of in the shadow of his great mansion, his great fields and kind of lives in the shadow there. There's a man who lives and he has one sheep and he loves the sheep like it stays in his house, it plays with his kids, it's like a child to him, like he feeds it from his own hand.

This is like his best friend sheep and the rich man had a friend come in from out of town and he wanted to honor that friend and fix him a meal but he chose not to slay any of his own sheep but rather went because he was wealthy and powerful to the man who was his neighbor, took his one sheep and killed it to feed his friend. And I need you to help me understand what we need to do. And the text tells us in 2 Samuel chapter 12 that David is furious. That as a shepherd he understands what it's like and he just, he loses it. He stands up and says, this thing shall not be done. He will pay back fourfold and he just starts going off and in the middle of this Nathan looks at him and says, you're the man and you did exactly this when you took Bathsheba. it says David stops cold and he says, I've sinned against the Lord.

That he sees it clearly. It had to be moved over here in order for him to see it but he says, I've sinned against the Lord and we're told that Nathan looks at him and says, God will not kill you. He has hidden away your sin. There's going to be consequences and those are laid out in 2 Samuel chapter 12 but he says, you're not going to be destroyed in your sin. That God's hidden it away. And for us, as we follow Jesus and as we look at Psalm 51 today, what we're trying to see is that as you walk in your life following Christ, if you are a Christian and you are trying to live a life honoring and following him, you will sin. you will fall short.

You will make decisions that at other times you would have sworn that you would never have done. I know this is true in my life. There have been some things that I have done that if you had asked me, I don't know, a month before, will you ever do this and describe the situation, I would have looked at you with absolute certainty and said, no, I would not do that. That's not who I am. I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't act like that.

I wouldn't, no. Two months later, you could ask me about that event and say, did you, did you, did that bring joy? Was that a good idea? Did you, do you love that you chose this? And it's like, no, but I've sinned. I've tricked myself.

I've lied to myself. I've made terrible decisions. This is going to happen as we follow Jesus. If you are not a Christian and you are in the room, if you're here checking this out, trying to understand what the Bible says, or you, you may be life's rough right now and you're thinking, I need to, I need to grow. I need to see what the Bible talks about. I need to maybe get back in church.

You have to understand that much of your life and much of your pain is caused by sin. That, that you have sin, that you've made bad decisions. You've harmed others. You've lied. You've made bad choices and then you're, when it came to, when people were finding out your best next option, you thought was just to lie. Just to, just to hide it.

Just to cover it. We've all lived as David has, making a bad decision and then tacking on top of that bad decision after bad decision after bad decision. We need a way to respond in our sin. We need a way to move forward in our sin. And so we're going to look at Psalm 51 as we get the song that David wrote in his sin. we're going to look and see what it looks like. How, how can we move forward?

I'm going to pray and then we're going to begin walking through this text. God, we ask that by your grace your hand would be heavy on us this morning. That your presence would be felt. that by your grace and through the power of your Holy Spirit we would see your character more clearly and that our sin would be drawn into sharp focus. That the hiding and the lying would stop. And that by your grace you would pierce our hearts and wound us that you might lead us to the joy and the freedom that is found in repentance. I pray, Lord, that you would equip us for future days that what we talk about today that what we read in Psalm 51 would stick in our minds crawl into our hearts that we might have a way to respond in the future when we've been led astray when we've wandered when we've sinned.

And we ask for your grace and we ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. The concept we're going to be talking about today is repentance. The word is not used in this text. We are actually viewing from the side repentance. We're getting to look down at David repenting.

He doesn't use the term but that's what he's doing. And repentance is not only a confession of our sin but it is us turning away from it. That repentance that is confession only is not repentance. And when you say, oh yeah, I did wrong but then you go right back into like that's not repentance. That maybe you were caught maybe you had gotten to the point where you had to be honest about what was going on but repentance involves life change. And that's what we're looking at today that we turn from sin and we don't just acknowledge it.

Like that's not repentance. That maybe you were caught maybe you had gotten to the point where you had to be honest about what was going on but repentance involves life change. And that's what we're looking at today that we turn from sin and we don't just acknowledge it. So verse now chapter 51 Psalm 51 verse 1 David begins this way. Have mercy on me oh God according to your steadfast love according to your abundant mercy

Blot out my transgressions wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. So David says have mercy on me oh God I think whenever we use that word when we use the word mercy mercy it's a borrowed word for us but it's not a borrowed word for David. What I mean by that is we don't use that term a lot. So maybe you use it when you're praying maybe you use it because you read the Bible

Maybe but maybe you know you say Lord have mercy when something bad happens or like maybe it's in some songs you sing but there's not a whole lot of times where we've actually used the word mercy you haven't looked at someone and said please I pray be merciful like that's never been a thing you've said to someone you've never you've never looked at someone

You've never been in an argument and looked at your wife and been like am I not merciful like this never happened unless you were quoting the gladiator it's never happened like but David it's not a borrowed word he knows what it is because he's a king who led battles and here's here's how David would be understanding this when he talks about it you see mercy is what people would beg for when they had

Lost the battle that they would look at the king who now had ridden in who the person in charge so the captain or the king or whoever was in charge or the people that were surrounding them with weapons and they would say I ask for mercy it's the moment in the battle when you've laid down your arms there is no outrunning this there is no continuing to fight

The only thing you have is please please please have mercy I'm completely in your power and only will this go well based off of what you choose to do so if we had fought a battle and our side lost and there's 10 of us 20 of us 200 of us but we're

Surrounded and we raise our hands and we ask for mercy it is now based on what the king decides to do and he could say kill him that'd be the end of that there were kings in the old testament that would cut people's thumbs off and have them stand around the table and when

They were done eating they had to pick up crumbs with their fingers there were people that would have their eyes gouged out like it just it's this moment where David is saying God I can't run I can't win I have nothing to offer I have no way

To fight he's raising his hands and saying I'm asking for mercy but that's the beginning of repentance you see in our sin when we see our sin because there are times where you do not see your sin by God's grace you will but there are times

Where we do not see our sin but when we see our sin we have some ways to respond there are normal ways that people respond when they see their sin one of the ways that you'll see you respond and others respond is you just you kind of deny it

Or you justify it so yeah yeah I said that but you should have heard what she said yeah I did that but you should have seen what they did oh sure I've acted like that at work but you hadn't met my boss it's this my sin

Yeah okay kind of it's there but not really but that's a way that we respond to our sin there's the justifying or trying to pay it off it's like you sin and you see your sin you feel the weight

Of your sin and the only thing you can think is well I've got to get to work I've got to pay it back I've got to restore it I've got to make it right some

Of us see our sin and the best plan we can come up with is just to run just to try to hide so we quit talking to people in our community groups we quit talking to the people that we've

Sinned against we know we shouldn't have done what we did but we have no way to fix that so we just don't answer their phone calls yeah I shouldn't have talked to you like that but heck if I know how to go any like I guess we just aren't friends anymore like I don't know how to we do that some of us have sin

And we feel it and we know it and the best plan we've come up with is just let it crush us just let it bear down on our souls just let it be a boulder that smashes us underneath it and all of life feels like that like I will never

Get out from under the weight of the sin that this guilt this shame will be carried by me forever but David gives us another option that in our sin when we see our sin we would turn and look at God and say have mercy

Don't do to me what you could don't crush me have mercy and David says this have mercy according to your steadfast love according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin David

Throws himself against the character of God against the nature of God he says have mercy on me according to your steadfast love according to your abundant mercy he says be the way you say you are I'm trusting that you're good I'm trusting

That what I've heard about you what you've told us about yourself see David's pointing to places in the Old Testament where that's what God says he's abounding in steadfast love and he has mercy and forgiveness for sinners and David's saying this is what you're like for us

We have a leg up on David because we get to look to the cross where God proves doesn't just promise promise but proves that he has steadfast love and abounding mercy we get to look at him and say deal with me according to the cross where I know that you love

Me and I know that you paid for sin wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin you see we can go to God in our sin that when we see our sin we can repent we can ask

For mercy because of who he is let's keep reading verse 3 for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight

So that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me behold you delight in truth in the inward being

And you teach me wisdom in the secret heart so David starts off in this section he says for I know my transgression my sin is ever before me David is not

Downplaying this this whole section 3 verses 3 through 6 David is just kind of saying no no no it it's all around me

I know my sin I see it clearly one of the first things we have to do in order to repent is to own

Our sin to see it to know it to name it David is not downplaying this he's not saying well I'm kind of a

Good person I just did some I made a mistake David is not going to God and have mercy on me for this accident

David is saying no no no I know my sin it's ever present with me it's real to me and against you and you

Only have I sin if you haven't noticed your sin God has he is well aware of it it is not hidden from him

And ultimately all sin is against him that's kind of an outrageous statement for David to make no no no he hasn't just sinned

Against God he sinned against his servants he sinned against Israel he sinned against his captain Joab he sinned against Uriah he sinned against

Bathsheba the list goes on and David looks at God and says my sin is against you that I had to stray from you

And run from you and hate you and rebel against you before I would ever do any of those things I have dishonored you

And then he says what I've done is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in

Your judgment what David is saying is that in my sin I see clearly how good you are and how right you are and

How true you are David is not downplaying this he is not hiding it he said I know my sin it's against you and

Then in verse five he says something that I think is helpful for us behold I was brought forth in in in in in

Sin did my mother conceive me David says this isn't just something I'm done this is part of who I am this is in

My this is in my DNA this is in the marrow of my bones I am sinful I was born sinful Paul is going to

Refer to this as us being in Adam that when Adam the first man sinned that all of us are born into sin sold

Into slavery that we're dead in our sin that this is how we begin that no one had to train us in sin it

Was born into us that there are certain things that are born into people like personality and some of those kind of things that

They have to come out and have to work on their whole life but for all of us sin is born into us you

Can't look at the globe and go yeah well you can tell Anglo Europeans they're sinful but it hadn't reached South America yet like

We can't do that it's like no there's corruption and brokenness everywhere and nobody had to teach it to you sure you had some people

Work on your technique but they didn't have to teach you how to sin you had someone tell you cuss words or whatever but

You didn't it was already in you I have a two year old we have to teach him things like how to share we

Did not have to teach him how to say mine he just picked that up on his own I actually learned now that he

Only uses the word share when I have a thing he understands the concepts of turns if you have something but when he has

It it it doesn't really apply to this sharing is kind of a foreign concept I have seen him places and watched him we

Go to hang out with other children and other families that have kids and he'll see a toy that he likes and he'll pick it

Up and he won't put it back down and do you know why he understands in his little brain this actually doesn't belong to

Me and if I put it down there's a good chance it won't get to belong to me but if I hold it forever

It'll make it to my house and then it will belong to me I didn't have to teach him that do you know how

Often we're at doors and we're like okay put that down put that down say thank you for like no like you hoping we

Didn't see it we didn't have to teach this to him I read I heard about an article recently where they did a study

Where they found out that your cat that you have at your house if it was big enough would eat you that was the

Study they did you can look it up that's what they discovered they discovered that your cat is a predator week it dawned on

Me that that is true for toddlers he would not eat me but I would have to fist fight him over everything currently the only

Thing that works in our house he's not reasonable the only thing that works in our house is I'm way bigger than he is but it's already

In him to want to defy and want to fight and want to argue he did something he was supposed to do I picked

Him up I popped him on his leg and he hit me in the side of the head and some of you were like

Well you taught him to strike first okay maybe a little bit but no not really because we have kid city last last week just

So y'all know we had 30 children here which is amazing and we're thankful to Jesus for it that we just got new volunteers

And new rooms and stuff because otherwise all of our kid city volunteers would just be quitting because we had 30 children here last week

You know what we have in our kid city handbook bite protocol what we have to do when your sweet little angel bites another

Child and you know what we've never done when your child has bitten another child we've never come to you and said we think

You should stop doing bite punishment at your house you did not train them they had teeth and were angry they put it together

Themselves I've never thrown a wooden train at my son when I was angry he picked that up on his own David is saying

I know my sin you know my sin and let's be real this is in me he's saying it's not that I'm a sinner

Because I've sinned I'm sinning because I'm a sinner this is who I am I was conceived this way I was born this way

This has been a part of me and David is going to God and as honestly and openly as he can be he's not

Hiding he's not holding back he's not saying a little bit or kind of like this or he is as clear as he can

Saying God without you without your mercy I'm in trouble he says behold in verse six behold you delight in truth in the inward

Being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart what he's saying is that God you at the deepest most real level you

Want to change me and for some of you for some of us who've been good you're really good at using the right phrases

And you're really good at saying the right words and you're really good at and I just want to be real clear with you

You can you can fool everyone in your community group but by God's grace and goodness towards you you cannot fool him he knows

Your inner being and your secret heart and David is owning up to that before God and he's saying you delight in truth and

You teach me wisdom you go to work on the deepest most real part of me we have to as Christians become students of

Our own sin he says I know my transgression my sin is ever before me we have to become students of our own sin

What I mean by that is you need to know yourself you need to know your proclivities you need to know what you are

Led into you need to be able to look at your community group and say hey guys I'm an accountant and we're coming into tax

Season and let me tell you what's going to happen when I get stressed usually I like to look at spreadsheets and crunch Numbers all day long and then

I go home in the evening and enjoy a nice glass of red wine and I'm going to quit answering phone calls and I'm

Going to quit hanging out with our group and then I'm going to show back up a couple months from now and try to

Recruit and I need you around me some of you need to be able to say hey guys October is coming up and it's

A hard month for me every year in October I get depressed because of some things that happened in my life and some situations

And family members and here's the good version of me loving Jesus and being depressed being sad and mournful but loving Jesus and here's

The sad depressed running from Jesus version like we need to be a student of our own sin that we can look at people

And say here's where I need you here's when I need you to because we believe verses 3 through 6 that we are sinners

That you do have sin I have never once met a couple that came through our doors and it's like oh look Michael and

Sarah and I've never thought well I hope they're the first people to join our church who haven't sinned yet they'll bring our average

Up never thought that I can tell you things about them I've never met them you want me tell you something about Michael and

Sarah they're messed up there's something wrong with them they do some petty stuff they got problems it's because we're sinners in need of grace and as

Christians we are going to sin and we need a way to respond and it's to run to God like David has and ask

For mercy and wash me and I shall be whiter than snow so he he's referring to when he says purge me with hyssop

He's referring to some of the ceremonial things that happened in the Old Testament law specifically we're going to refer to a section in

Leviticus 14 I'm just going to tell you how that works hyssop was a branch and so when you had leprosy this is laid out

In Leviticus 14 when someone had leprosy which was a skin disease that made you not be able to be around anyone else it

Was catching so that if you had it you could give it to others until you eventually had to go away and you would

Slowly rot away fall apart and die that leprosy worked the extremities would work its in your skin would die and your sensation would

Die and eventually because this was dead it would just fall off and you would have to announce that you were lepers and there

Were whole leper colonies but if your leprosy began to go away you could go present yourself to the priest and they would take

Two birds and a bowl of clean water and they would kill one of the birds and drain its blood into the bowl and

They would dip the second bird in some hyssop which is a branch in that and they would sprinkle you with the hyssop seven times

And then they would let that bird go free what David just said in verse seven prophetically as he pointed back to the Old Testament law

And as he pointed forward for us he said I need the gospel you see we have that in Christ we have the ability

To go to God and say I need to be sprinkled with the blood so that I can be clean and I can be

Welcomed back I need see Jesus died was laid in the grave and his blood covers our sin but he also rose and ascended

The bird can't do that that's why they need two of them Jesus can he can die and fly away he can die and

Rise and what happened was David is saying I need you to sprinkle me with the blood and wash me with the water and

For those of us who are in Christ we get to go to God in our repentance when we see our sin and we

Don't go to him saying I failed and I don't know what to do I I failed and once again I need your mercy

I need the blood from the cross and I need the covering from my baptism when I was buried in death with you and

Rose again to life I need the water and the blood to cover me and then I'll be clean and I'll be whiter than

Snow verse 8 let me hear joy and gladness let the bones you have broken rejoice let me hear joy and gladness let the

Bones you have broken rejoice there's a proverb in the book of Proverbs that said it's better better are the blows of a friend than

The kisses of an enemy and David is going to God and saying thank you for breaking some of my bones so that I

Could see my sin you broke me and let that be a joy to me let me limp with joy for my life as

I know that you did that because you love me and you were going to let me run away and be happy in my

Sin and there's a joy in repentance I want to show y'all this is from Psalm 32 David says blessed is the one whose transgression is

Forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity that's sin and in all day long for day and

Night your hand was heavy upon me my strength was dried up as by heat of the summer keep that up for just a

Second we often convince ourselves that hiding our sin is the best route and it is exhausting and it dries our bones up and

We groan under the weight of our sin and what David is talking about is the joy that comes from repentance that comes from

Owning our sin and being honest about it and real about it and celebrating the truth of the gospel of God's grace towards us

That there is joy in repentance I've had conversations with people not in our church before that they'll say well if y'all believe in

Grace why y'all talk about repentance so much it's like yeah yeah because we believe in grace repentance is us celebrating grace it's us

Enjoying the grace that we're offered you see that we are sinful so we get to repent and that's where grace comes in that

God pays for our sin that we don't pay our own debt it's not about our morality or our goodness that the more we

See our sin the more we enjoy the grace of Jesus and his greatness and that's what iniquities hide your face from my sins

And blot out all my iniquities I remember being in elementary school I don't remember what grade it was I did have a pen

So they don't give those like you what third grade you graduate to pens like when you're in like kindergarten they give you that

Pencil that's like the size of a stick they don't give you pens for a while though so I had a pen I remember

That and I had zoned out and I remember this moment of absolute clarity where I was sitting and I looked down at my

Paper and I had written the name of a girl like three times and when I realized that had happened I was terrified because

If anyone saw that like that that will ruin you in third grade I don't like and so what I did was I took my

Pen and I rewrote other words over top bared down real hard rewrote other words over top because this is a great way to

Cover some of it you can find out what it said so I rewrote some other words over top of them real quick and then

I scribbled this way and this way now I probably look psychotic and if you came by my paper later you would be like

There is something wrong with this kid and this was before they gave children ADD medicine all the time but I'm sure my teacher was

Like I'm going to make notes of this because she saw he is not learning math I don't know what's going on with him talk to

His parents but then my paper was blotted out you see when David says this they didn't have erasers he's saying I need you

To go to the ledger I need you to go where you have David son of Jesse written and where next to it you

Have adulterer and where next to that you have murderer and thief and liar and the person who like when you write all this

Out prideful wicked I need you to blot it out I need it to be covered so that when someone pulls up David son

Of Jesse and looks at the sheet of paper they don't know what was written there and you see for us we get to

Ask the same thing in Christ I need you to take what was written where my sin is and I need the blood of

Jesus to you are free to go the file has been corrupted we have nothing to hold against you you are free to go

That is what we need next to our name where it would say liar thief addict abuser all of these things that they would

Be covered and blotted out create in me a clean heart oh God verse 10 and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from your

Presence and me restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit you see when we go to God we need

To ask for the gospel to cover us that our repentance would be based off of his sacrifice that he would restore to us the joy of repentance and that he would go to work on the

Inside of us that he would blot out our sin and go to work on the inside of us that's where he says create in me a clean heart

And renew a right spirit within me David's not just saying I need my past taken care of he said I need you to

Take care of my future too I need you to go to work on my heart so that I'll be different make me new on

The inside and then keep me there that's where verse 12 restore to me the joy of your salvation make me new bring me back and then

Uphold me with a willing spirit keep me there verse 13 through 17 he kind of lays out what will happen when that happens

He says then when you've done that when you've wiped away my sin when you've restored me when you've made my heart new then

I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you I love that because that is true you want to tell other

People that this is how God responds this is how he Acts this is how he treats us in our sin often I find

When they say that you know this many people in the Christian church hadn't shared their faith with anybody over the past however many

You know nobody hadn't told anybody about Jesus this past year that kind of stuff it's like yeah because they I'll start telling everybody

Because that's how it works delivered me from blood guiltiness oh God oh God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of

Your righteousness that's us every Sunday morning that we've been delivered from our guilt by Jesus and we sing to Jesus about his righteousness

Oh Lord open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it

You will not be pleased with a burnt offering the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart oh God

You will not despise maybe says you don't want to sacrifice for me you don't want work for me I can't pay you back

I have nothing to offer you says the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart build up the walls

Of Jerusalem then you will delight in right sacrifices in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings then bulls will be offered on your altar

So what David says is you don't want an offering you want humility but once you've changed me then you'll want sacrifice then you'll

Want work and for us that's we don't come to God and work beforehand to be saved to pay back our debt that we're

Saved based off of coming to God in repentance and humility and then God delights in your work God delights in your service because

He's the one empowering it because it's not you're not serving so that you'll be okay you're serving you're sacrificing because of how good he

Is not to pay him off but to delight in him and so he delights in your work as we close out this morning

We're going to have a chance to respond it's maybe a little bit different than some mornings but I think helpful for us look back at verse

16 And 17 for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it you will not be pleased with a burnt offering

I hope that verse crushes some of us this morning for those of you in the room who think that the role of Christianity in

Your life and in the life of others is to sacrifice and to do good and to be moral to guard your soul and

To act right and then God will delight in you David just said no for those of you this morning who have seen your

Sin and said okay I gotta pay it back I gotta work really hard I gotta be a good person and then God will

Like me David says no that's not how it works that will not work he will not delight in it if you are here

To do some sort of penance and to deliver to God some form of good work some form of morality some form of church

Attendance let this be very clear he does not delight in that you have presented him nothing but verse 17 should bring great hope

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart oh God you will not despise those of you in

This room who have seen your sin and are broken over it hear the words of David God does not despise that God does

Respond to that he does delight in that for us to have a broken spirit and a broken heart some of you you see

Your sin and you know I can't pay this back I'm crushed by it I'll never get out from under this I'm destroyed by

It I have nothing to offer to God David says take your broken heart to him lay out before him just as I have

And say God I need mercy and my sin clings to me and it's ever before me and I was born like this and

I can't fix myself and I need you to blot it out and I need you to change me and David says when we

Do that God stoops and he welcomes and he wraps us up and he does not despise that that that's the sacrifice that you

Would humbly submit yourself before him in the midst of your sin in a minute we're going to take communion together but before that we're

Going to have a time where we get to sit and repent where we get to collectively as a church ask God for mercy in

Our sin some of you right now are untouched by this this has been maybe interesting to see what David went through and you're going to

Need to ask that God help you see your sin help you see where you've run from him where you've gotten so cold to

Him that you've grown so used to your sin that you don't even notice it anymore so we're going to pray three things here in a

Second we're going to ask that God would help us see his character that he'd help us see the cross we'd see his holiness and

His mercy and his love and then we're going to pray that he'd help us see our sin and hate it and then we're going to

Pray like David blot it out and make me new renew me keep me and if you are in this room and you have never placed

Your faith in Jesus you want to you want to you want to have him pay for your sin and make you new that

You can be forgiven and you can be welcomed and you can be loved and you can be renewed that you can come to

Him right now and fall on your knees like at the end of a battle when you have no other options you can say

Have mercy on me and he does that he has died for our sins and he does have love and he is merciful all

The and it doesn't matter what you've done in your past or what's happened to you or what marks you or what you think

On the paper underneath your name that his blood can blot it out and you can be forever free so if you've never fully

Mentally intentionally committed yourself to Jesus and said I need you to pay for my sin because I have no other options and I

Need you to forgive me and have mercy on me you can do that right now and then in a moment you can stand

Up and you can take communion as a Christian for the first time and truly celebrate that his body was broken for you and

That his blood was shed for you and that forever when God looks at you all of your sin will be blotted out by

The blood of Jesus and you will be covered and if you have done that I would encourage you to repent today from the

Sin that you have allowed to grow up that you have been hiding and go as a Christian take communion one more time and

Celebrate the fact that we have a great God and father who loved us so much that his son died for us that our

Sin could be forever and that he would cover us and renew us so right now for a moment we're just going to sit

And have a chance to pray and then we'll get to respond through communion and singing and celebrating but let's pray together God I

We come to you and we ask that our sin would not be hidden from us because it's not hidden from you we ask

That in your grace you would show us our sin where we've rebelled where we've run that you would hem us in and your

Hand would be heavy on us that we might bend and repent and ask for mercy and God we pray that people would run

As fast as they possibly could to you today and that people in this room who never placed their faith in you would and

Would be forever welcomed and covered by Jesus

Mill City 7/30/17 Mill City 7/30/17

Psalm 23 - Sabbath Rest

Transcript

You remember when you were in school and you had a summer vacation, like a summer break, so that you could kind of feel the school year drawing to an end and it was getting warmer, and then you had like some of those half days, and then you had summer, and there was just nothing that had to happen. Do you remember that? Can you just think back for a second and remember that? And some of you are still in that. You're in school. You are in summer right now.

Isn't it nice? Doesn't it just feel good? You at some point kind of grow out of that. But do you remember any of those times where you would just say, I'm bored. Oh, I'm so bored. There's nothing to do here.

And some of you, you know, you grew up in this area, and some of you grew up in like podunk nowhere. And so whenever you would hear someone from around here say, there's nothing to do. It's like, you don't even know what nothing to do looks like. You hadn't even come close to smelling nothing to do. Like, I can tell you what nothing to do. Like, but you know, like there was those moments where you just were like, oh, everything is stupid.

I have nothing to do. I'm bored. Do you remember that? Some of you have maybe maybe you have kids that are in that age, and maybe they've been saying this to you consistently throughout this whole summer. And you're sick of that phrase. But I can tell you that at some point in some point in life, most of us traded in bored for busy.

At some point, we began to make the shift from I'm bored to I'm busy. I'm just busy. I just have I have too much going on. Like, I don't even think we use the phrase bored anymore. Like you might say a movie was boring, but that's like that's it. You don't you might say sermon was really boring.

You might say phrases like that. If you ever visited another church, you might say something like that. But but you you don't we don't use that phrase anymore. Like I don't I don't use the phrase bored anymore. Like if I have a moment to be bored, it's delightful. Like I just sit there times where it's like it's it's like there's there's like a it's kind of like a lunar eclipse.

There's like three minutes after the kid goes to sleep before I'm too tired to stay awake that I just sit and it's like, oh, this is nice. I have nothing to do for most of us, though. We've traded in bored for busy and we don't really know how to get out of that. We're we're we're beyond busy. We've become restless. We actually don't know how to rest.

We don't know how to stop even in our downtime and the few amounts of time during the day that we could have had downtime. We pull our phones out. Some of us, that's our alarm clock. So we wake up with a screen in our face and we go straight from alarm clock mode to checking news feeds and Facebook and Twitter and random videos online. And like that's the beginning of our day and it does not stop. We move straight from that into a hectic, frantic.

Rest of our day until in the evening, sometime we crash. Usually after staring at a screen again for some amount of time and go back to sleep. And then we we live this life on this cycle of exhaustion and restlessness. And we feel as if we're always behind and there's something we got to catch up to and something we got to fix and something we got to work on. And so as we kind of look together at the Psalms this summer, what we've said is this is Psalms, a life of worship. And what we're trying to to do is figure out how to allow the Psalms to train us and how to follow God in a in a joy filled way.

How to how to know what it looks like to follow him in the normal parts of life. And so today we're going to spend some time talking about rest. And before we go to the place where we'll we'll spend the majority of our day, I want to show you a few other quotes from the Psalms that I think help us see some of the issue that we face. This is Psalm 127 verses one and two. It says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor, those who build it, labor in vain, unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain.

Vain means useless. It's a waste of time. It is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil for he that's God gives to his beloved sleep. Keep that up for just a minute. Anxious toil. I think for far too many of us is an action is a good description of what life feels like.

Too much of the time. That it's anxious toil that we have stress and anxiety and all of life feels like toil. It's not work. It's not creation. It's not making things better. It's not ever getting to a place where you go high and you get to sit back and be satisfied with your work.

No, it's anxious toil. It's every day is a grind. And then we go to sleep and then we get to do it again. The next day is going to be a grind and we're going to be tired. But but we'll tell ourselves it's just for a season.

It's just for this amount of time. Like eventually it's going to go away. Eventually this weekend I'll rest. Well, next weekend I'll rest. Well, you know, the summer's coming. Well, after summer's over, because there's so many things to do in the summer in the fall, I'm going to wrestle.

It's football season and there's just too much. And then eventually God graciously lets us die. But that's what life feels like sometimes. It's like I keep postponing rest. I keep saying it's a season, but it actually hasn't stopped being this season. And life feels like anxious toil.

And what the psalmist is saying here is unless God is at work with you, unless he's helping you watch the city, unless he's helping you build the house, all of your work is going to feel like that. And the assumption in the text that he's making here, the point he's making here is that if God is with you, then building the house, all of your labor won't be a waste of time. And if God is helping you watch the city, then watching the city will not be a waste of time. And that God will remove anxious toil and let you actually rest. I want to show you Psalm 46 verse 10 says, be still and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in the earth. So the God at this in this Psalm, it says, just sit still. Just sit for a second and know who I am. Just sit for a minute and know that I'm God. Rest in the fact that I am big and capable. And so what we're going to look at today, go ahead and grab your Bibles and go to Psalm 23.

It's going to be on page 261. If your Bible looks like this. That page number is wrong. That is not helpful. It's going to be 261 if your page looks like this. If your Bible looks like this.

And if you don't own a Bible, this is our gift to you. You can take this with you. What I did was I put the number of the Bible I was using, which is not this Bible. So just so you know, I'm pretty smart. Here's what we're looking at. We're going to read this Psalm.

It's a Psalm of David who was a king in Israel. And he's writing to tell us what God is like. What relating to God is like. What life with God is like. And here's here's our goal for the day. We're going to listen to David.

We're going to study what he says. And we're going to try to see what it looks like for us to have a life of rest, a life of peace as we follow God. Now, what I don't mean is laziness. What I don't mean is if you follow God, you don't have to have a job. If you've been around our church for a while, you probably know that we wouldn't say that we push for work and work is good. And we want you to be to be in a healthy way.

Busy, not busy, frantic, busy, but but creating and a part of God's good system. But so and honestly, not having a job does not remove the anxiety and the toil. So we've met, you know, people who are lazy and still restless. Still seem to be that the ability to rest is is gone from them. You know, people who work really hard and have enough money to go on two week vacations. But when they come back, it's not like they actually rested.

Their soul doesn't know how to. Maybe some of you have been on a week long vacation and you come back more exhausted. And it's because we don't know how to rest. But we also know people who have who are busy, who are at work, who are diligent and are at peace. And that's that's the picture we're going to get from David here is that there is a way to walk with God so that we actually are restful and at peace because of how big and how good he is. That we know how to be still and know that he is God.

That's what we're going to. That's our goal today. And our goal in some ways is fairly simple. We're trying to grow our faith this morning. We're trying to look at what the Bible says about God and actually have greater faith when we leave. Believe it a little more.

See, we're faith people. So we we take what's true about God and we believe it. And we're told that that goes to work on us. That goes to work in us. That that's the gospel is that we believe what Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross. And that that belief changes us that through faith God gives us grace.

And that's our goal this morning is to study what Psalm 23 says about God. And grow our faith. Actually, just for a little while this morning, begin to believe this a little more. And in some ways, it's like you ever you ever had a friend who started dating someone and you hadn't met who they were dating yet. Or maybe you had a sibling and they had had someone they were dating and you you got they described to you the person before you met them. And so they kind of told you what to look for.

They said, oh, they're so funny. They have a laugh that's infectious. And like, I don't know if you're like me, I'm like, I will see if I get infected. Like, it's just like they're telling you kind of here's what you need to expect. Or they'll say maybe if they're bringing you to meet their parents or something, they'll say, hey, before we go in, just so you know, this is something I had to always do with my friends. Just so you know, my dad's going to say intense, awkward things to you that he finds very funny.

OK, let's go in. Like I just that was about all I'd give you is like, just so you know, he probably doesn't mean it, but he might. Who knows? Let's go. He may make a joke that makes you uncomfortable. Just deal with it.

That's kind of what we're going to get to do today. We're going to get to see what David says. This is what the relationship's like. This is what he does, and we're going to start looking for it in our own lives. We're going to begin to, as we leave here today, going, OK, David said this is what you're like. Infect me.

Let me see it. Let me enjoy it. Let me partake in it. Psalm 23. We're going to read the whole Psalm, and then we're going to walk back through it. Our goal is to grow in our faith.

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Look back at verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Okay, so the immediate picture that David gives us is that of a shepherd with sheep. And David is a king at this point, but he used to be a shepherd who had sheep. And so David's relating this to something he's very familiar with.

And what he's saying is, I'm a sheep. He's the shepherd. He's going to take care of everything. That's his first sentence. That's his proposition. That's kind of his thesis statement that everything else is going to flow out of.

He says he's the shepherd. I'm the sheep. And he'll take care of everything. That's what he means when he says, I shall not want. We use the word want to mean I desire, I would like. So I want a cookie.

He's using it here to mean lack. So if I looked at you and said, I am want for a cookie, it does not mean I lack a cookie. That's not what I would be communicating. I would be saying I want a cookie. But he's saying lack.

What he's saying is, because the Lord is my shepherd, I'm not going to lack anything. He doesn't mean because the Lord is my shepherd, all of my desires will be met. It's not the way he's using the term want there. And here's why this is actually very freeing. David's point for the rest of this Psalm is that if the Lord is your shepherd, and we're told as Christians that Jesus is the chief shepherd, he's the good shepherd, who's laid his life down for the sheep, that we belong to him like sheep belong to a shepherd. So we get to come with David and say the same thing if we're Christians, is that the Lord is my shepherd.

And what David is saying is if he's your shepherd, you'll have everything you need. He will be in charge of what you get and he will give you what you need. You won't actually lack any of the good things that you need. Now, that may be hurtful to hear because at times it seems so evident that we are lacking. But it's actually encouraging to know that the shepherd is good and will provide.

He will give you what you need. He will not have you lack any good thing. That's what David is saying here. He's saying that I will get exactly what the shepherd wants me to have. That's the point he's making throughout the rest of the Psalm is that since he's my shepherd, I'll have what I need. Now, that means at times that we'll feel a desire for something.

David can't mean we'll always have our desires met, but he does mean that that God, our shepherd or for us, Christ, our shepherd will give us everything that we need. We will not be lacking because he's good. And that's that's our hope. That's our faith that we would believe that that we would trust him enough to know that whatever I have, whatever he's given me, whatever he's blessed me with, whatever he's withheld from me is because he's good and I can trust him. So let's keep reading.

He says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want or I won't have any lack. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake.

So he starts off. He says he makes me lie down in green pastures and he leads me beside still waters. And I just want to say this encouragement to some of you who feel like I have to work. I have to be busy. I have to be diligent. That's what God wants from me.

I have to be active or he'll be disappointed in me. The first thing David says is he's my shepherd. He makes me lie down. Some of you need to picture Jesus pushing you down and saying, just stay, just stay for a second. You're like, but I've got so much to do for you. And he's like, lay down and stay like me with my two-year-old.

If you get out of that bed again, like that, because I want him to sleep, it's good for him. So maybe Jesus has a better attitude than I do. But he makes us lie down. He gives us rest. That if you come to this morning, if you think God wants cheap labor out of you, and he's some sort of a cattle driver, that's not what David starts off with. David says, no, he makes me lie down.

He gives me rest. My grandmother is one of these people that she can't sit still. She's busy all the time. And she's a godly lady. She was a missionary in Nigeria. And there's a, in the New Testament, Jesus arguing with some Pharisees about the Sabbath, which was their day off when they weren't supposed to do any work.

And he says, if your ox falls in a ditch, don't you get it out? And so my grandmother, whenever she was doing work on the Sabbath, on her Sunday, when she was supposed to not be doing work, would say, the ox is in the ditch. Which meant the ox is in the ditch. I got to get to work. And at some point, as I got to know her, I started thinking, I think you're pushing the ox in the ditch. So you have something to do.

Like, I think you, your ox is always in the ditch. Like, drive your ox better. Build a fence. And some of us, that's the case. It's like, we always feel like we have to be active. We have to be working.

And I just want you to see this. Jesus, the good shepherd, makes us lie down. Makes us lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. I want you to see something else here. That David is saying that, like, he will provide.

I won't lack anything. He's going to give me green pastures. He's going to give me still waters. He's going to provide for my soul. He's going to provide for me. And I just want you to know that some of you who are feeling like, no, I'm lacking.

I am lacking right now. Trust. Trust that he is providing in ways maybe unseen, in ways maybe unlooked for. But that he will provide and that he does. And that you can continue to follow him. Verse 3, he restores my soul.

That is so encouraging to me. For two reasons. One, David's soul needed to be restored. I think we can fall in the trap of believing that if I follow Jesus, I'll never need soul restoration. I'll always be fine. That's not what David says.

David says, no, no, no. He's good. So he goes to work on me when I'm not fine at all. When my soul needs work, he restores it. That there are times in life when our soul needs restoration. It needs love.

It needs health. He needs to be mending us. And secondly, that we get to run to him. That he's the only one who can restore it. And we get to trust him that he will do this. It's like when my wife and I, at times our marriage has not been the funnest marriage to be in.

We weren't just laughing the whole time and skipping along rainbows. And it's like that where I knew in those moments when our marriage is really hard and we don't really like each other. And our house is not a joyous place filled with potpourri and giggling. Like it just wasn't nice. I knew the only way to fix it was not to draw away from her, but to draw close to her. The only way to mend our marriage was for us to continue to be in each other's face and each other's space and grinding against each other.

So that, so that, so that, hopefully we can edit that before it makes it to the internet. It's not bad advice, you guys. I'm just saying it's not what I meant. All right. So that we were knocking off all the rough places in each other's souls so that we would grow.

I'm going to repeat that last sentence as we regain our focus collectively. So that we were knocking off all the rough places in our souls so that we would grow together. That when, when we were hurting to draw near to each other was the best way for this to, to be mended. And that's the same thing he's saying here, that, that when his soul needs restoration, he doesn't run from God. He runs to him. He rests with him, that he draws near him.

He knows the only way for this to get fixed is to be next to God. Lord help us. All right. So I think the question for us as we come out of this section is what do you think you're missing out on? What is it that you consistently feel you are lacking? And do you believe that he's actually good enough that he knows that?

And he doesn't believe you're lacking and that he will provide what you need. He keeps going. He says he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. And I just want to say that he ultimately fulfills that for us who are Christians in the cross. That he leads us through paths of righteousness for his namesake, which means that he, he gets the glory from us being good, from us walking in righteousness.

And what we're told in the new Testament is that he was righteous for us, that he took our sin on himself, that he died for our sin and gave us his righteousness. And so that we are made right with God for his name. That it's actually Jesus that gets all the glory from the church being made righteous. Every once in a while, people will say things like, I don't like the church. Everybody in the church is messed up. I'm like, yes.

Isn't Jesus good? That he invites messed up people like that's, that's our church. We're the first people to raise our hands and say, I am a hot mess and I need Jesus. That's it. He makes us righteous for his glory. That is actually how messed up we are and how broken we are and how sinful we are and how far away from if all of us got together because of how good we were.

Who gets the glory? Whose name is lifted up? Ours. Because of how good we are. But when we gather together as people who can barely get along with each other.

Who have sin at work in our lives that we're fighting against, but we're trusting that Jesus is good and that he saves sinners. You know who gets the glory in whose name? Jesus is. That's what he's saying. He ultimately fulfills that for us that he brings us into righteousness for his name, for his glory, that Jesus gets all the glory as he works righteousness out in our lives. Verse four.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Then he goes on in verse five. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.

It's interesting. In verses one through three, he says he. He does this. He does this. He does this. He hits verse four and he says you.

He says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you. And I think here's why. When life is good. When we're in the pasture by the still water, having our souls restored, we can talk about God. We can praise him. We can lift him up.

We can say, here's what he's like. And we actually get to enjoy all the good gifts he's given us in a way that that points us to him. We get to look at the green pastures. We get to look at the the the goodness of life. And we get to point to and say, this is how good he is. This is how glorious he is.

But when we're in the valley of the shadow of death, we start talking to God. We start praying. It's less of a place of praise and more of a place of prayer. That we begin to call out to him. And I want to show you something that I think is that I'm very encouraged by, because what we're looking at is David is showing us this is what life with God is like. That it's better off with him in charge that we're more free.

That's one of the things I think David's really trying to show us here is that true freedom and true rest and true hope comes not from our own autonomy, our own sovereignty, our being our own boss. But it actually comes from being utterly dependent on a good shepherd. Because that's what sheep are. They're dependent on a shepherd. And if the shepherd's good, then life is good. And if the shepherd's bad, life is bad.

And what David's saying is that real freedom and real joy comes from being dependent, not not autonomous, not sovereign over ourselves. To be under the king and not our own king. That's where real freedom comes. So David says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me and your rod and your staff, they comfort me. So David just got done in verse three says he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, it seems as if he's really tying those together in a way that is saying there are times where God leads us through the valley of the shadow of death. The good shepherd is actually walking with us through that. And I heard John Piper talking about this. And he said he spent some time thinking, why would God do that? What is the point of a shepherd taking sheep through the valley of the shadow of death? And he said the only answer he could come up with is there was something better on the other side of that valley.

That he had a place he had to get to that the only way to really get there was through the valley. And I'm inclined to agree with him. So he's saying that God does lead us and there are times where it seems dark and scary and painful. But here's what David says. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, even though fear would be all around me, even though hope would be lost, even though I would have no way to get myself through this, he says, I will fear no evil for you are with me. See, in verses one through three, David is talking about the comfort is the pasture.

The comfort is the water. And Jesus led him there. But the good stuff was the pasture. The good stuff was the water. Like he's enjoying this and he's just saying, you're great because you brought me here. It's like when somebody cooks a meal and you compliment the meal and you're kind of rolling that up and compliment to them, like in praise to them.

So my wife cooks something. I go, girl, this chicken. Like she knows I'm saying good Job with the chicken. And she takes it as a compliment to her. She's not like, why are you complimenting the chicken? Say something about me.

It's like, no, she gets it. That's what David is doing in verses one through three. He's saying the green grass, the pastures are good. He doesn't have anything to say is good. In verses four and five. What he has to say is in the middle of everything else being terrible, you're still good.

You comfort me. I won't fear anything because you're here. What he says is I can't see anything good. I don't see anything that I can look at and say thank you for right now. I can't. I'm sure there's stuff, but I can't see it.

Sometimes it bothers me. And I may be wrong about this when people are really hurting and it's like, well, you should find something to be thankful for. It's like just maybe not. What? That's really hard right now. I can't see anything to be thankful for.

But David says, you don't have to. He's good. Let him comfort you. Let the fact that he's still there be good. And I love what he says. He says, you.

I will fear no evil for you are with me. So he says, what's good is here is you. That's it. I got nothing else. You're good. And he says, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

So a rod and a staff were shepherd's tools. A rod could be this long or as long as a staff. At the end of it, it had a knot. Some of them have little spikes. Some of them are just a knot. The rod was for hitting things.

Not the sheep. Bears, wolves. The rod was for outsiders. The staff was for the sheep. And that's the one you're used to that has a little crook. It looks like a candy cane.

Your nativity scene has it. That was for the sheep. And this is beautiful because you know what's terrifying about being in the valley of the shadow of death? There's two things absolutely terrifying about those moments in our lives. Specifically for Christians. For the sheep that belong to Jesus.

One is that what's in the valley is going to get you. That you're going to be attacked. You're going to be harmed. That you're not going to make it out because this assailed you. And secondly, that because you're in the valley of shadow, you're going to bolt and leave the shepherd. That's actually the thing I'm most afraid of.

Is that when I get in the valley, I'm going to cease to see that he's good and I'm just going to run. I'm just going to run away. And what he says is both your rod and your staff comfort me. One is to hook around my neck and keep me close to you. And one of them is for everything that comes in this valley and tries to get me. And here's what's so encouraging about this.

So this is David writing this. David was a shepherd. He used to write songs. Tend sheep. So he was kind of arty.

He wrote poems and songs. And he was a shepherd. And he comes to one of the main stories about him that you maybe have heard about is David and Goliath. This is the same David we're talking about. Goliath was a giant. He was defying the armies of Israel.

And David comes and he goes and talks to the king Saul. And he basically says, hey, I'll go kill Goliath for you. And the king's like, because he's just kind of a young guy and he's not in the army. Like he tends sheep. The king's like, this is probably not the best plan. But this is the first guy who said, I'll kill Goliath for you.

So Saul's going to hear him out. Because all the other guys were like, I think Goliath was going to kill all of us. And this was the first kid who was like, I'll kill him for you. And so Saul was like, well, let's talk. Tell me your plan. So Saul's talking to him and he says, you're just a boy.

Like he's been trained in military things his whole life. This is 1 Samuel 17, by the way, that I'm paraphrasing. David says, I've tended sheep. And when a bear came or a lion came and took one of the lambs, I would follow it. I would strike it and get the lamb out of its mouth. And then he says, and if it came at me, I would grab it by its beard and kill it.

I've killed bears and lions and I'm going to do the same thing to Goliath. He'll be like one of them. Isn't that, I could just imagine Saul being like, all right, let's go. And he's following him out and people are like, you're actually going to let him fight. He said, he said he's going to grab Goliath by his beard and hit him in the head with a stick. I'm going to watch this.

He said, that's what he's going to do. I want to see it. That's what David's saying is he had a rod. He would go to a bear. He would hit it and he would give that bear a chance to back up. David was being nice to the bear.

He's like, you give me the lamb. You can go. But he's like, if that bear bowed up to me, I killed it. Did the same thing with bears and lions. Next time I go to the zoo, I'm looking at him and I'm picturing David jumping on him, grabbing him by their beard and hitting them with a stick. What David says in this Psalm is when I'm in the valley and it's dark and death looms over us, I'm going to remember that you're the scariest thing in the valley and that if a lion comes or a bear comes, they need to be afraid.

David's like, I'm going to do my best to get their attention and go, you're going to want to go home. That's what David's saying is that in the valley, when it is dark, when it is dismal, I'm going to trust that you're going to keep me close to you. Your staff is a comfort to me and I'm going to trust that in your other hand is a rod and this whatever is in the valley will not win. That you are the biggest, most fearful thing in the valley. That's our hope as we trust Jesus. Not that we'll never enter the valley of the shadow of death.

Not that it will never loom over us. Not that there will never be a time in our life when we cannot name a good thing. We don't know where grass is. We can't remember the last time we sat by still water. We're not promised that. We're promised that when we go in there, there will be the most fearful being in all of creation that rules over creation.

He will be with us and be a comfort to us to both keep us and to guard us. That's the hope that David says he has as he walks with God. Verse 5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. That is a crazy sentence.

Because when you actually get to sit at a table and enjoy a nice meal, that's when life's going pretty well. Like you don't even get to do that in the morning. And you're grabbing like a drink and a Nutri-Grain bar and hitting the door. Like you don't even have enemies there. You just, the alarm clock, like you lost to it that morning. Like what David is saying is, in the presence of my enemies, I'll be surrounded, but I'm going to still get to sit down and enjoy a meal that you've prepared for me.

That in the middle of all the things that should rob us of all joy and all comfort and all peace, God sets a table and says, have a seat. That his supply lines aren't cut off and that he can continue to fill us up. That's what David's saying. The way I see this so clearly in my own life is with my sin. So that at times I feel like I'm surrounded by my enemies and that's what my sin is.

That it's actively at work to destroy my soul, to rob me of joy, to keep me from having a good relationship with God and good relationship with others around me. That my sin and at times I feel so accused by it. Look at who you are. Look at what you do. Look at what you're thinking. Look at what you're, like it's overwhelming and it feels like it's hemming me in.

And all I can see is my sin. And then in the cross Jesus sets a table, says have a seat. I'm actually going to show my power and my glory and my magnificence and my rule over sin as you sit and enjoy life, surrounded by what should destroy you but that I've set you free from. The thing that should rob you of all joy, I'm going to stand next to you as a guard and you're going to actually get to enjoy. Because he forgives us in the middle of our sin and it does not destroy us. He says you anoint my head with oil.

My cup overflows. I think there's potential for two pictures here when he says you anoint my head with oil. That was something they would do as kind of a custom when they would share meals together and when they would come in, it was a way that you could smell nicer and it was a way to honor guests. And so he may just be simply saying you honor me as a guest. Like you prepare a table for me, you honor me as a guest and my cup overflows, meaning I'm more than provided for. But specifically because this is David writing this Psalm, we're told of the time that David was anointed with oil to be the king of Israel.

And so David may be trying to draw everybody's mind to, you set me aside for a purpose. I think so often one of the things that robs us of the ability to rest, that makes life anxious toil is this feeling like I have to find my purpose and I have to achieve my purpose in order to have value. David says, no, that's in the shepherd's hands too. That he has a purpose for you, that the shepherd decides what the sheep get to do, that he anoints your head with oil and he sets you aside for his purposes and his glory and his name. And you can trust him in that too. So that the amount of anxiety we wrap around, is my life going to be worth it?

He says, no, I've pushed that onto Jesus. Trust the shepherd to give you value and purpose. He says, my cup overflows. That God provides more than enough. So I think our question here that we ought to ask as we try to walk in this.

See, at first in verses 1 through 3, we need to ask, what is it that we think we're lacking? In verse 3, maybe we need to ask what it is we believe would restore our soul. What is it that we run to in those moments when we should tie ourselves to the shepherd? In verse 3, where he says, he leads me in paths of righteousness, maybe we ought to ask, what is it we believe actually makes us good? And is it Jesus? Are we resting in him?

Verse 4, he says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and he goes through there, what is it that we're afraid of? And what are we trusting to save us? All these things rob us of peace and of joy. Where he says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.

Maybe we ought to ask, what is it that we think gives us purpose and value? And do we have to consistently keep that up in order to be okay? Are we robbed of rest and robbed of joy because we can't let any relationship begin to seem even like it started to fall apart because we need people to love us to be okay? Is that where our value and our purpose comes from? Do we have to work unending hours in order to make enough money to have value and purpose? And we rob ourselves of joy because we won't trust that ultimately he holds all of that.

Verse 6, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. David begins in verse 1, with the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He says, this is kind of how it's going to work. He's the shepherd, I'll be okay. And then he ends with this like proclamation of faith over the rest of his life. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

If you met a person and they looked at you and with genuine sincerity said, I will be happy my entire life. You'd be like, that's bold. I'm like, I'm proud of you. I hope that works out. But you don't know.

Maybe you wouldn't tell them. I'd probably tell them. I'd be like, well, we'll see. I don't know why I'd be rooting against their happiness, but I'd just be my natural reaction. They looked at you and said, all good things will come to me forever. He'd be like, boy, you sound like a fortune cookie.

David says this. And he got to write it down and it got to stay in the Bible. How does he get to say that? He gets to say that because of what he said in verse 1, which is the Lord is my shepherd, I won't lack anything. David gets to end with this bold statement of faith over the rest of his life that goodness and mercy will follow me and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And the reason he gets to say that is not because of what he's going to do, but because of who he belongs to.

That as Christians in Christ, we get to say the same thing. I want to read from John. This is Jesus speaking, so I just want you to sit and listen. This is what Jesus says about himself. I think this is helpful. John 10.

I'm the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. And I come that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. But I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father and I lay my life down for the sheep.

You see, we get to stand next to David and without blinking, without hesitating, say, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. If we belong to Jesus, he's laid his life down for us. He knows his sheep. He loves his sheep. He doesn't flee from our sin. He doesn't flee from our wickedness.

But he dies in order to redeem us. And we belong to him. That's who we have as a shepherd. And that we get to read Psalm 23 and believe it. That we won't lack anything. That he will provide.

That he will restore our souls, even though there will be times where it needs to be restored. There will be times when we can't see anything good but him, but he's still good. And that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life. You can rest. You can stop. You can trust.

He is good. He does love you. He does care for you. That you belong to him and he knows you and you know his voice. For all of us who've placed faith in Christ, that is true for us. And maybe, maybe we all need to read Psalm 23 every day for the next month until it seeps into us that this is real and this is who he is and this is what he's like.

That he begins to restore our souls even from these pages. When we read Psalms and pray them. That he begins to work in us that we would remember that this is who he is and this is what he's done and this is the hope that we have. But you can rest and you can trust because he is good and he does love you. He's not going to lose you. He holds a rod and a staff.

Goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life and you will if you belong to Jesus, dwell in his house forever. The band is going to come back up as we finish out this morning. We're going to spend in our community groups this week, we're actually going to talk about how. Practically, how do we make time? How do we rest? But today I just wanted us to try as we could to grow our faith that we could believe that we actually can.

That we believe why we can make time. Why we can rest because of how good he is. You see, freedom and rest come from dependence, not autonomy. That we get to trust that he handles this, that he will provide, that he is good, that we don't have to labor and toil in order to make things okay for ourselves. So as a church, we're about to take communion.

Communion. And communion is simply, we have bread, we use grape juice.

Mill City 7/23/17 Mill City 7/23/17

Psalm 86 -Prayer

Transcript

All right, how are we doing this morning? Okay. We're going to be teaching on lament at some point in the Psalms, so y'all just go ahead and get ready for that. It'll help you be really mournful and sad. Well, as we get started this morning, I want to take a second and I want you to kind of picture something with me. So it's Monday morning, first day of the work week, first day of the school week.

Some of you work retail. It's Monday. It's just a day. And you decide, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it, and this time it's going to work. I'm going to do it, and this time it's going to be good.

I'm going to set my alarm a little bit earlier. I'm going to get up before I have to. I'm going to wake up before I've got to start getting ready. I'm going to wake up before the kids do. I'm going to wake up before my roommates do. I'm going to wake up before I have to get to class or to work.

I'm going to do it this time, and it's going to be good. I'm going to pray. And I don't know for you, so you set your alarm. You get up. Maybe it's 30 minutes earlier. Maybe it's 45 minutes earlier.

I don't know how quickly you move in the morning or how much time you thought. Maybe you were like, I'm going to pray, and you set your alarm 10 minutes early. I don't know what you went for. And you went to your favorite chair. You went to maybe your desk. You went to just the living room, went and sat on the couch.

Maybe you went and sat at your kitchen table. Some of you, maybe you have a front porch, and you can kind of look out at some trees or something. Maybe you went out on your porch. I don't know your morning. I don't know what you went for. Maybe you got a cup of coffee.

Maybe you got one of those fancy, like, one-cup things. Maybe you're the person who brews, like, a whole pot for yourself. I don't know if you do redneck coffee. Some of y'all are holding Mountain Dews in the morning or some jolt or something. Some of y'all, you know, maybe you got a cigarette in your hand. I don't know what your morning looks like.

But you got up. You're going to read. You're going to pray. You're going to do this. You're finally going to pray, and it's going to be good. You're going to actually pray good stuff, and God's going to listen.

He's going to respond, and there's going to be this conversing, and there's going to be relationship. And there may be even some moments where it's like hands in the air. You don't ever do that, but maybe you will this morning. It's going to be good actual prayer the way that other people pray. The way you have never prayed, but the way that other people pray, you're certain of it, and you're going to do this. So you go.

You got up. That was hard. You did it. Man, you feel like almost the battle is won at this point. I am awake, and I have time. You go to your chair.

You go to your table, and you sit, and you start praying in your head, and you realize pretty quickly that you did not start very good sentences, or maybe you don't realize really quickly, and about four minutes later, you realize you're just thinking about nothing, or you're replaying an old TV show in your head, or you've started just thinking about your day, so you decide, okay, I'm going to pray out loud. And you say, God, and then you realize that volume sounds weird for how early it is, and the fact that you're by yourself, so you go, God, like, sorry, like it was too loud, and then you're like, and you start praying some more, but then you get mumbly, and you go back to your head, and you get distracted again, and then you're like, no, I need something to wake me up, so you get your computer out, you're going to play some music, or you get your phone out to play some music, something, you've got to have some background noise. And so ten minutes later, you're checking email, or you're on Facebook, and you realize, I should never have gotten this out. Some of you didn't even intend to get it out, it just magically appeared in your hand.

There was three seconds where your brain was still, so your hand was like, I know what to do, and just stuck it, went down and got your phone for you. Some of you used it as your alarm, so that was the first thing. You didn't even get to your chair, you were already flipping through stuff. Eventually, time's up, and you feel like, I really should have slept that extra 30 minutes. And in some ways, you may be a little more frustrated, a little more disappointed. I don't know, some of you, maybe you actually prayed.

Maybe you fought through and you prayed, but it ended up being kind of just like a list of things. You just kind of listed out maybe the things that were going on in your day. It was, maybe you prayed about just some stuff you're worried about. Like, maybe you prayed and you're like, cool, I prayed, but you leave still feeling like, I didn't quite, there wasn't, like I didn't feel the fellowship. Like that Bible word that people use that means some sort of like good, potent, juicy friendship. Like, I didn't feel that with God.

I didn't, I didn't, I didn't commune with the Holy Spirit. These words that the Bible uses, like I didn't feel that. Some of you were like, I didn't even really pray. So I'm not surprised that I didn't feel that. And so what we're going to do today is going to be a good bit different than, than normal Sundays for us. It's not, not, not crazy different, but it's, it's going to be different.

And I got to explain why. One of the, one of the reasons we're going to do, what we're going to do today is, is that I have just described to you many a morning of my own. And I leave feeling like I'm the only person who does not know how to pray. And then I'll read about these other people like Luther and Calvin and Mueller and missionaries and all this kind of stuff. I read this one about this guy and it was like, he, he, he went in, he told somebody who was helping him. He said, look, I'm going to go pray for an hour.

Come get me after an hour. And the guy went in after an hour and saw him and he was just, just too into it. And so he just left him alone. And finally, after four hours, he was like, okay, it's been too long. And he went and got him and said, hey. And the guy said, man, as soon as he tapped him, this is a missionary.

And he got up and said, man, an hour really flies when you're, when you're praying and relating to God. And the guy was like, yeah, it was four hours. I read that story. And do you know how depressed I was? Like, I've, I've, this is, I've set an alarm on my phone for three minutes. So that when it went off, I could remember that I was supposed to be praying and had gotten distracted.

So that I could pray for about a minute before my brain's like, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, just off on something else. And I, I have, at times feel like I'm the only person who doesn't know how to pray. Like, I feel like everybody else has got this and everybody else is praying well. And, and other, other pastors, they wake up at four in the morning and they go pray and they, they sweat and tears roll out of their face. And then they just go and seize the day. And, and it's just not like that.

And, um, and I'm willing to bet that a lot of us feel like this. Anybody who has tried to pray has found it exceedingly difficult. Anyone who's spent any time actually trying to pray has found it difficult to get started, to get going, to continue. Um, and so what we're going to do today is what we've been doing in our Psalm series. You can go and grab your Bible and flip to Psalm 86. Um, if you have one of the white Bibles, it'll be on page, uh, 283.

And if you don't own a Bible, we just encourage you to take this one with you. It's our gift to you. We want you to own a Bible. What we're going to do is we're going to have the Psalms help teach us how to pray. They're going to help teach us how to pray. And, and we're going to approach this a little bit differently, uh, than normal.

So when you went to learn how to drive a car, and some of you haven't gotten there yet, but I'm going to explain a process that you'll get to do at some point. Most of us though have, when you went to learn how to drive a car, you, you got the, the book, the little, you know, you had to pass the like written test first. And so they were like questions like, what do you do at a stop sign? Uh, every single one of us skipped the, what to do at a four-way stop because no one in South Carolina knows how to do that. I'm assuming that paragraph says, pull up, get uncomfortable, point to someone and say, anyway, um, and I know we don't know how to do it because my wife and I argue about what's actually correct.

I'm going to get a book. I've just realized I need to read this and figure it out. So you read the book. You remember most of it. You took the written test. At some point, someone sat you in a car, pointed to things, said that one gives it gas.

And that means it's going to go forward. That one's the break. That's a clutch. Uh, you know, they explained how to do things. And then at some point you just got in the car and they sat next to you and you drove. And in order to learn how to drive, you, you had to stall out.

You had to grind gears. You had to hit the brakes way too hard. Or you had to be going up towards a stop sign that you apparently couldn't see while the driving instructor was over there tapping the floor or your parent was. Or they had their own brake. You remember that one? And they could put the brakes on it for you.

And so you were driving along. And that was one of the things that happened with the driving instructor. With me, I'd be driving and all of a sudden the car would stop. And I'd be like, what's wrong? And he'd be like, you don't stop appropriately. That's how I learned the word impetuous.

My driving instructor said, you are impetuous. I said, what does that mean? He says, you try to make a decision quickly and decide just to punch the gas. And that was at that moment I learned why I was a bad quarterback in high school. Because I think he might be covered. Throw it.

Interception. He was. He was covered. I shouldn't have done it. At some point though, you had to get in the car. And you had to drive.

And what we're going to do today is we're going to show you how the Psalms, how you can use the Psalms to sit next to you and help train you in how to pray. You will mess stuff up. You will pray bad theology. You will pray things that are not even remotely close to being true about God. But the Psalms are going to train you.

What I'm saying is there are going to be times where you stall out or you grind gears or you run a red light. But the Psalms get to sit next to you and hold your hand and train you in how to pray. And that's what we're going to do today. We're actually going to practice that. We're going to walk through it. And I'm going to show you how you can use the Psalms to train you how to pray.

The reason I say it's different is that usually we read a passage and we explain what it's talking about. And we talk about it. Maybe we give some principles or some points of application. We're going to do less explaining today and more saying you might pray like this after you read that. You might pray like this just to try to help you see how you can actually sit and do this. And so really what we're trying to accomplish is I'm trying to sneak into your house on that Monday morning and stick this in your hands.

So that your phone cannot magically get in your hands because something is already in your hands. And so that you have a guide and a help for learning how to pray. I want to read a quote because this helps my brain so much. It's from Tim Keller's book on prayer. And this is a quote from Tim Keller's book where he's quoting someone else. He's quoting Eugene Peterson and then he's like interacting with what Eugene Peterson says.

So he says, Eugene Peterson reminds us that and now he's quoting Eugene Peterson. Because we learned language so early in our lives, we have no memory of the process and would therefore imagine that it was we who took the initiative to learn how to speak. However, that is not the case. Language is spoken into us. We learn language only as we are spoken to. We are plunged at birth into a sea of language.

Then slowly, syllable by syllable, we acquire the capacity to answer. Mama, Papa, bottle, blanket, yes, no. Not one of these words were a first word. All speech is answering speech. We are all spoken to before we spoke. And then Tim Keller goes on.

He says, in the years since Peterson wrote, studies have shown that children's ability to understand and communicate is profoundly affected by the number of words and the breadth of vocabulary to which they are exposed as infants and toddlers. We only speak to the degree we are spoken to. They go on to argue. Or Keller goes on to argue that that is what the scriptures get to be for us in prayer. We get to plunge ourself into the word and allow it to train us in how to speak and how to pray. And how to talk to God, to give us the words first so that we can answer, so that we can respond.

God has first spoken to us. I have a two-year-old. And when he started trying to learn how to speak, my wife and I talked about it. We had to sit down and I told her, we are not going to talk to our son. I want him to figure it out on his own. We're not going to let other people talk to him.

We go see family and they'd be like, hey, buddy, shh. I couldn't even tell him why I shushed him. Because I'm not allowed to talk around him. That's crazy. Nobody does that. You talk to a kid like it understands you.

It does not. You just say things. Is that offensive? He, her. They do not. You talk to the child like they understand what you're talking about.

I remember the first time my son responded with a full sentence. It scared me because I was not prepared for that. You get so used to them just kind of being there. But not. I was. I walked in the room.

I said, boy, where's your mama? He said, I don't know where mama is. And I was like, oh, God. There's a tiny human in my house. And even after that, he still will at times look at me and go, Jim and I'm the shoes. And I'm like, Jim and I'm the shoes.

And I'm like, Jim and I'm the shoes. Isn't where I got. I got shoes. He's like, uh-huh. Like, what about shoes? Jim and I'm the shoes.

And I have to sit and try to figure this out. And what I'm saying is there are going to be times where you're trying to pray. And you're looking at God and you're saying, Jim and I'm the shoes. And I'm not talking about a prayer language. I'm talking about you're praying bad theology. It doesn't make any sense.

What you said was not even remotely close to being coherent. But God loves you and is going to listen to you. And the Psalms are going to train you. So, yes, for a while in prayer, you will pronounce hippopotamus, hop-a-piss. But that's okay.

It's okay that while you pray for a while, you don't quite get it. But you're going to use God repeatedly looking at you and saying the correct words. Repeating it, looking at you and calling more out of you and speaking into you in order for you to learn how to pray. Some of us have completely removed the Bible from our praying and then wonder why we have such a hard time praying. It's because we're not allowing God to speak into us first so that we might respond. And so what we're going to do today is I'm going to show you how you can, on a Monday, get up earlier.

And some of you, that's crazy talk. Stay up later. Your brain doesn't work in the morning. That's fine. It's not God's more listening in the morning. Find a time to sit, open the Bible, and use the Scriptures to train you how to pray.

So we're going to practice that this morning. We're going to actually read, and I'm going to say, here's kind of what David's saying. And then I'm going to say, but maybe this is what you would pray. And that's how we're going to talk through it. And we'll kind of try to keep moving. But it's just going to be, here's what David's saying, but here's maybe how you would sit if you open this Psalm.

And we're using Psalm 86 to train you how to pray. Here's how you would pray. And you can use all of Scripture to do this. The Psalms are easier because they are directed towards God, most of them. There are places in Paul's letters where he's talking about prayers. There are places in Paul's letters where he's talking about theology.

It's easier. You can use all of Scripture, though. Another really good one to use is the model prayer that Jesus gives just to go through his words. Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Sorry.

I memorized the King James Version. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. To go through that and lead it, let it lead you in prayer. But we're going to use Psalm 86 this morning. I'm going to pray as we get started because that seems wise. And then we'll start.

God, we ask for your help that we might become a praying people. We ask for the humility to realize that you will first speak to us before we will ever appropriately, correctly, and joyfully speak to you. That relationship begins on your side. But we ask, Lord, that in that, as you have first spoken and as you have first worked to relate to us, we pray that we would respond well and that you would train us well through your word. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Psalm 86. At the top, it says it's a prayer of David. So this is David. He's praying. We're going to read his prayer. And we're going to try to watch and listen and try to see how we might would respond to God.

So if you sat down, you opened it up, you've got your Bible. You're going to read a little bit and then you're going to pray, whatever it makes you think, whatever it leads you to say. That's what we're trying to do this morning is for you to see how this process would work. So incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me. For I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly.

Save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God. Okay, let's stop there. Like I said, I'm going to do a little bit of saying. Here's what he's talking about and then I'm going to show you how you might pray it. So this is David.

He's praying. He starts off by just saying, God, listen, I'm poor and needy. Listen to me. I have nothing to offer you. And then he says, preserve my life. He actually had people at this time trying to kill him.

So he means that very literally. Help me not be murdered. Preserve my life, for I am godly. Save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God. So David starts off by saying, God, I actually have nothing to offer you.

We see a really beautiful principle for prayer here. Because he starts off with humility. I'm poor and needy. Like if you're going to do anything, it's going to be you doing it. It's not because I earned it. It's not because I'm valuable.

I just, I'm poor and needy. But then, then he says, preserve my life, for I am godly. Save your servant. You are my God. So then he says, I'm poor and needy, but I belong to you.

I'm your servant. I'm trying to follow you. Save me. And he has this like humble confidence. And so maybe you start your prayer like that. Maybe you start off by saying, God, there's nothing in me that would make you have to respond to me.

Maybe my sin has separated me from you that I don't actually deserve for you to listen. But I've placed my faith in Jesus and now I know I belong to you. That you are my God and I ask you to answer and to be good to me. Maybe that's how you pray, how you begin your prayer. But it's you read these words and then you just think about what they make you think.

Maybe as you're getting started in the morning, you're just going to read the words back. Read them out loud. Pray them out loud. Let's keep going. Verse 3. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day.

Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. So he says, be gracious to me, which means give me what I don't deserve. Be good to me beyond my, what I've earned. So he's not saying pay me my wages. He is saying just give me some money. Like he's not saying here's what I've earned.

I punched the clock. You owe me. He's just saying be good to me. Like just because you're good and you're wealthy and you're rich and you have like be gracious. That's what grace means, that you get something you don't deserve. Something good that you don't deserve.

And then he says, gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. I love that he says gladden the soul of your servant. Do you know why he says that? Because he wasn't glad. There was no joy in him right now. He's mournful.

He's sad. And so he's asking God. He said, I'm bringing you my soul. And I'm asking you to bring back some happiness, to bring back some life, to bring back some joy. And so maybe you focus in on that. Maybe that's true for you that moment when you go to read this, you realize I'm not happy.

There's no joy in me right now. And you just begin to ask God to gladden your soul, to take away the tears. Maybe you're fine, but you pray it anyway. You're like, God, make it better. Bring joy to my soul, even though I'm doing okay right now. He says, for to you, O Lord, are good.

For you, not for to you. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer. Listen to my plea for grace. In the day of trouble, I call upon you, for you answer me. So you just read through that?

You're sitting there? And you see what David is doing is he's looking at God and saying, here's what you're like. Here's who you are. You're good. And you have steadfast love for all who come to you. Like he's just saying, this is the person that you are.

And this is one of the things that happens in Scripture all the time. And it happens in the Psalms a lot. They remind God who he is. They just say, this is what you've said about yourself. This is what you've said you're like. And I don't believe it's that God has forgotten.

But this is a normal, healthy, good way to pray. To say, I'm banking on you being who you said you are. It's a little bit like if you tell a five-year-old, if he eats his meal, he can have cake afterwards. He's never eaten the meal and forgotten about the cake. And he'll say, but you said, if you say, if you behave here, we'll do this. Or any kind of promises.

Like they remember that. They can't remember anything you told them. But your children will remember the good promise you made. And you get to go to that. You get to go to God and say, you're like this. You said you were going to do this.

You said this is who you are. And so in that moment, David's reminding himself. But he's also reminding God. So maybe for you, that is a reminder. And you just realize as you're praying, God, I'm not believing that right now. I'm not believing that you're good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love.

I don't see that right now. Maybe that's what you pray about. Maybe that's the first time you've ever really heard that. That in your mind, God's always been really big and harsh. And so maybe rather than being a, you're just like, Lord, help me believe this. Help me.

Like that's beautiful. Maybe for a moment, you just see God. And you see that he's good and he's forgiving. Forgiving means that he doesn't hold your sin against him. That you can show up with a lot of problems in between you and he. And he'll forgive you.

He'll wipe it away. He'll make it okay. You don't have to fix everything before you come to him. And that he abounds in steadfast love. Meaning it's not going anywhere. He abounds in love for all those who will come to him.

So maybe for a second, you're able, just the only way your brain can wrap around this is you picture your grandmother's house. Maybe, maybe when you had run away from home, you, you had rebelled as much as you possibly could and have nowhere to go. You showed up there to someone you knew was good and forgiving and abounded in love to all those who came to their door. And maybe for a picture, you can just kind of, you feel yourself almost just drop in your bags and having someone wrap you up and look at you and say, I forgive you. Like, I love you. This isn't going to ruin us.

And so maybe that's what you think about. And maybe that's what you pray. You say, God, help me always to remember you're like that. I mean, to know that and to feel it. Maybe you just praise him because he is like that. He keeps going.

Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer. Listen to my plea for grace. In the day of trouble, I call upon you for you answer me. So David's saying, when I'm in trouble, I call to you because you'll answer. And he says, listen to my plea for grace, meaning I need you to step in and do things because you're good, because you are forgiving and abounding in steadfast love. The word grace is used a lot in the Bible.

It's used a lot in the church because we are Christians. So we're grace people. We believe that we are saved by the grace of Jesus, meaning that he earned salvation for us, that we're OK because of what he did. But someone I've recently this past week, somebody told me something they had memorized about grace to help them define it. And I thought it was really helpful. They said grace is G.R.A.C.E. is God's riches at Christ's expense.

We get all the riches of God. We get all the joy and all the love and all the greatness. And Christ paid for it that we get. That's what grace means, that everything good that comes from God was paid for by Christ. It's like we got an all expense paid vacation. And the only person you can celebrate when that happens is the person who paid for it.

And so maybe you just spend some time after you read that, you just praise God for grace. That you'll get to spend an eternity with him in joy and love that your sins not held against you because he's good, because Jesus paid your debt. So in verse seven, he says, in the day of my trouble, I call upon you for you answer me. There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name for you are great and do wondrous things. You alone are God.

So what David said is that there's none like you, like when it's a day of trouble, I run to you because nobody else is like you. You're big and you're glorious and everything you do is more wonderful than anyone else. And I run to you because you alone are God. And so maybe when you read that, because the point is you're going to allow these words to help you have words or to help reveal things to you so that you might have. In some ways, you're using the Psalms to be conversation cards, topics that help you. You ever had those or like some people have those books where it's like it just is a bunch of questions to try to give you something to talk about.

Some of you have used those to get to know people. Some of you have used those to to make like you maybe it's the person, you know, really well, but you'll end up talking about the same thing all the time. How's work? Good. How's your day? Good.

How's the kids alive? All right. Like, that's it. So you're like, I got these conversation things so that I can ask you, would you rather fight one duck sized horse or whatever? One horse sized duck or a thousand duck sized horses like those kind of are like, what's your biggest dream or what's your favorite movie? Like just things you wouldn't ask each other because I know you.

It's like, I don't need to know your favorite movie is. We're married. Well, what's my favorite movie? I don't know. Like I like those kind of things is a conversation starter. And that's what that's what the Psalms get to be.

It leads you to pray about things you might would not otherwise pray about. It helps you push your brain somewhere you might not otherwise go. And so it trains you not only in new words to say in ways to talk about God and what he's like, but it also helps you for someone who's prayed a lot, not pray the same thing every day, but actually be pushed in a different area to pray about something. But maybe when you read this and you see that it says the day of trouble, I call upon you. Maybe some of you. When he says in the day of trouble, I call upon you for you answer.

There's none like you among the gods. And you see that little G gods. Meaning that there are people that claim there's things that set themselves up as gods as worthy of worship and worthy of devotion and worthy of praise. But only you are big and only you are the big capital G God. Maybe when you read that, you realize that you are unlike David. Maybe the Holy Spirit reveals to you that in the day of trouble, you do not run to God alone, but that you run to a lot of little G gods.

Maybe you realize in this moment as you're reading this and you have to confess to God that actually whenever there's a day of trouble, I run to MasterCard. Whenever there's a day of trouble, I run to the bank, to my bank account, just to see a certain number of zeros so I can feel okay again. Maybe when there's a day of trouble, I run to the approval of others. And I'm not just talking about the love and the health of a good relationship with a friend, but I actually will intentionally go get around my Christian friends and be really mopey and fish for compliments because I need them to fill me up again.

And I know they'll take the time. I know they'll take the time to pump me back up. And it's not healthy. It's just a way for me to feel okay again. And you begin to realize that in the day of trouble, I do not run to you. So maybe you confess.

Maybe you repent. Maybe you spend some time talking to God about him changing that in your soul. Maybe you didn't see that at all. Didn't even think about it. All you focused in on was verse nine. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.

And so maybe you spend time praying for missionaries that all the nations are to come. You say, Lord, help me not to be a racist and to think that people who speak English are somehow better than people who do not. And God, I pray for all the people that are in other countries right now where it is very difficult for the gospel to be proclaimed. I want to spend some time right now praying for every single pastor, church leader, missionary that is currently in a prison that will receive beatings at the hands of those that have incarcerated them today. And I want you to give them hope and I want you to give them joy.

I'm praying for the underground church in China who has to hide. And when they gather, they don't all get to just roll out at the same time. Y'all, this section gets to leave. It's like when you go to a wedding and they let tables go eat. You get to leave two or three at a time, two or three at a time, two or three at a time. It takes for everybody to get here because you have to show up two or three at a time because you can't all just show up to a place without the cops finding you.

And she spent some time praying for that. Maybe you noticed neither one of those. You just saw all nations and thought, I'd like to see the nations. And you prayed that God would help you take a European trip someday. I don't know. I don't know where you are.

I don't know where God's working with you. That's okay. Like the point of this is for you to be able to take the Bible and pray and not have to have the best theology and not have to know where this connects to other places. Because as you continue to do this, you'll begin to know. You'll begin to see. You'll learn new words.

You'll have a bigger vocabulary. You'll have a greater health and understanding of theology. Every once in a while, just to help my soul, I'll go read through old journals I have right when I felt called to church planting. And I can go read through where I wrote stuff. And there's some stuff that if I preached it here, I would get un-eldered. There would be a meeting.

They would say, you cannot do that anymore. You should go read your Bible but not say words out loud to people. Because it was something I read and I would read it and go, oh, that's exactly what this means. And it would be so clear and I'd write it out like this. And then I would read somewhere else and go, that is not what that meant. And that's okay.

And that's what we're going to use in the Psalms to help train us and to teach us how to pray. Let's keep going. 11. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart.

And I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love towards me. You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. All right, I want us to do something. I want to take just a second, starting in verse 11, of 11, 12, and 13. I want you to read that again.

I'm going to read it out loud again. I want you to read it again with me. And I want you to think about what you might would pray. What that leads you to think. Where the Holy Spirit's guiding you. Something you might pray about.

Now, teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart. And I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me. You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

I want you to look at that. And I want you to take just a second to pray something. I'm going to give you about 30 seconds. I just want you to pray something. That this leads you to think about and to pray as we practice this together today. Okay.

For some of you, that was not helpful. For some of you, maybe it was. Some of you, when you pray, you are going to have to pray and read out loud for the sake of your mind. Some of you can do things inside your head very well, and that's fine. But I don't know.

I don't know what you prayed. Maybe you read, teach me your way, O Lord, and you have a decision that you're having to make. So you see, teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. And you just say, God, help me to make a wise decision here. Help me to make one that lines up with your truth. Help me to take the right path.

Maybe you read that I'm, that unite my heart to fear your name. And you thought, why would, why would I want to be afraid of God? And so you prayed, God, I don't understand why I would want to fear you. That doesn't sound great. But he's asking for it, so maybe it's a good thing to ask for.

So help me to have the appropriate good kind of fear that he's talking about. Maybe you read that and you realized you're too afraid of God. And so you said, God, I'm scared of you. I can't do it in a way that my heart's involved. I'm just terrified. I don't know.

Maybe you saw that he says that I will glorify your name forever and that you've delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. And Sheol is the place of the dead. And so maybe you thought, God, you've set me free from hell. And because I will be set free from hell and I will spend eternity in heaven with you, I will glorify your name forever. Because I will be there because Christ paid my debt. And so forever me being in heaven will be a testimony to the goodness and the grace of God and the name of Christ.

Maybe you got distracted, thought about something else. That's cool. It doesn't end at verse 13. You get to keep reading. We'll go to 14. So David is saying there's a band of men who are trying to kill me.

They don't trust you. They don't follow you. And turn and be gracious and save me and give me strength. Show up and do something. That's what David's praying. So maybe as you're reading that, you think about there are people who don't set God before them.

And so you pray about injustice. You pray about all those who are actively harming others. Maybe you don't see that. You don't think about that. Maybe you just read Insolent Men. Then you think, man, this is David's just praying to God about the things that stress him out.

So you pray about hospital bills. You pray about the things that are making you fearful, making you lose sleep. Maybe you see Insolent Men and the only person you can think of is your husband. And so you pray about him for a while. And that's good. You might not would have otherwise prayed for your husband that day.

Maybe you see a band of ruthless men and you think about your three sons that tear your house up ruthlessly. You pray for them and you ask that they would set God before them. That they would grow up to be a group of men who do set God before them. I don't know. But the point is you're allowing God to speak to you and you're learning how to pray.

And eventually you do line up more with what is being said. Seventeen. Show me a sign of your favor that those who hate me may see and be put to shame. Because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me. I do want to say something here. David, when he's praying, says, show me a sign of your favor.

He's saying, show up. Let me see so clearly that you are good. That you are all these things you've said you are. You're forgiving. You're gracious. You're good.

You're abounding in steadfast love to all those. Show me a sign. Do something. And we gather because we already have the sign of God's favor. That he is good. That he does abound in steadfast love and that he is forgiving.

You see, we gather this morning because of the cross, which is the sign of God's favor. That he put an exclamation Mark in the middle of history. That he is good and that he is for us and that he does forgive sin and that we can have hope. That we can go to him and be welcomed and loved. Not because we're good or because we've done anything, but because Jesus has accomplished it all for us. And so when we get to this point and we're praying together, maybe we just get to say thank you for the cross and help it be forever in front of me.

That I would always feel as if you were showing me the cross. That you were showing me the sign of your favor. The grace and the goodness and the forgiving love that you have poured out on us and all who believe. So like I said, today's a little different. We approach this differently than we usually would and hopefully it helps. Hopefully it shows you how you could walk through this.

I don't know if you got up early tomorrow. I don't know how long it would take you to walk through this and to use it to pray. But I do know it will help you pray. It will help you have words. It will help you have things to talk about. It will train you in how to speak to God.

It will clear up for you your mind. It will help you focus. And so I would encourage you to begin using the Psalms to teach you how to pray. There's a lot of them. By the time you go all the way through, they're good. You can start back over.

You won't remember them. You can do it again. It's like The Office, the TV show. You can just watch all the way to then and then just start back over. It's just good. Keep being good.

Psalms are better than The Office, by the way. God's called us to pray. But He doesn't leave us alone. He holds our hand and He equips us. He gives us the words to speak because He speaks to us first. So don't feel, I need to pray, I should pray, and then just try on your own.

But ask the Holy Spirit to guide you through His Word and use this to help. And we can't afford to not do this. Life's too hard. There's too much struggle. Too many decisions we have to make. There's too many people dying and going to hell for us to not be a group of people who pray.

And so let's collectively as a church begin praying and begin allowing God to teach us how to pray through His Psalms. The band's going to come back up and we're going to finish out by doing this. I'm going to read through Psalm 86. I'm going to pause at different points and just give a little bit of time for you to pray along with Psalm 86. Then I'm going to pray collectively for us as we walk through this entire Psalm again.

Then I'll say amen and we'll stand and sing. So I'm going to read, stop. You're going to pray where you are. If you need to mumble, that's cool. There'll be some music playing. If you need to keep your eyes open, that's good.

If you're like me at this time in the morning, you bend over, close your eyes. We'll have to wake you up when we get done. Then I'm going to pray and then we'll sing. Psalm 86, a prayer of David. Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me. For I am poor and needy.

Preserve my life for I am godly. Save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God. Amen. God, we ask this morning that you would listen to us and that you would help us to always pray in faith that you do listen. God, we're poor and needy.

We have nothing that we can offer you. You owe us nothing. We have accomplished and earned nothing. So we ask you to listen, to love us because you're good. Because that's who you are. And God, we, those of us in this room who place faith in Christ, you have made us the righteousness of God.

That you have swapped places with us so that Jesus became our sin and we became righteous. So we are godly. And we are your servants. And you are our God. God, we ask that you would bless this church. That this would be a place where people would lift up our souls to you.

That we would feel free and welcome to cry to you here. That among this people you would gladden our souls. That there would be a joy in your church. That in the midst of pain and in the midst of darkness, that we would bring ourselves to you and to each other. And that you would bring hope. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer. Listen to my plea for grace. In the day of my trouble, I call upon you. For you answer me. God, we believe that all of our days of trouble are caused by sin. And that the ultimate day of trouble is when we stand before you in our own sin.

The ultimate day of trouble is when we stand before you having to pay our own debt. And so we pray for our friends and our families and our neighbors and our city. That there would be pleas for grace. That you would listen because you are a good and forgiving God. Abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. We ask, Lord, that everyone who does not know you would call upon you.

That even those in this room right now that don't know you have not yet placed their faith in Christ would call upon you. Because you are good and forgiving and you abound in steadfast love. That you would offer grace. And listen. There is none like you among the gods, O Lord. Nor are there any works like yours.

All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord. And shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things. You alone are God. God, you are alone. You alone are God.

God. You alone are holy. You alone are worthy. You alone are valuable. All of your works are wondrous and good. And you do promise that there will be a day when every tribe and tongue and nation and people will gather around your throne.

That you will claim someone from every people group. That you will claim someone from every ethnicity. That we will gather and praise your name. That all nations that you have made will glorify your name. And we ask, Lord, that we get to be a part of that here. That this will be a church that sent people.

This will be a church where missionaries are called and raised up and sent out. Where we send money and we send people and we send effort to see the tribes and the nations and the languages proclaim your glory. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord, my God, with my whole heart. And I glorify your name forever.

And I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me. You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. God, we are people in need of wisdom. We pray that you would teach us your way. That we would walk in your truth.

That you would unite our hearts to fear your name. We thank you that you do save from death. That you died that we might live. O God, insolent men have risen up against me. A band of ruthless men seeks my life. And they do not set you before them.

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious. Slow to anger. Abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. God, you forgive sinners. Insolent men do not have to be crushed in their rebellion. But can be welcomed by a merciful and loving God.

You redeem us from all of the poor choices we've ever made. You wipe away everything that would mar us. And dirty us. And separate us. You are good and gracious and abounding in love. And faithfulness.

Turn to me and be gracious to me. Give your strength to your servant. And save the son of your maidservant. Show me a sign of your favor. That those who hate me may see and be put to shame. Because you, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

God, through the gospel, you are our comfort and our help. And we pray that we would be a people that forever remembers the sign of your faithfulness. The sign of your favor. That you love us and gave yourself up for us. And that we have hope and joy forever in you. Give us strength to continue to obey.

To serve. To love. And give us grace to do it all with joy. May we praise you, our helper, and our comforter. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Mill City 7/16/17 Mill City 7/16/17

Psalm 19 - Bible Reading and Meditation

Transcript

Well, good morning. Like I said earlier, my name's Chet. I'm excited to be with y'all this morning. We are in the second week of our Psalms series, and what we're trying to do in this series is begin to grow using the Psalms and allowing the Psalms to teach us, begin to grow in what it looks like, to live a life of worship, that for Christians, our goal is to walk with God, walk with Christ all of our days. And there's going to be a lot of sorrow and a lot of joy and a lot of pain and confusion and darkness and celebration in our life, and we're trying to begin to make it a rhythm and a pattern and a discipline for us to learn how to, in the middle of everything, walk with God, and the Psalms teach us that.

They teach us prayer, and they teach us the goodness of the Word, and they kind of teach us in a sideways manner, that we get to come alongside, and we get to look into the Psalms, and we get to make observations, and we get to grow along with them, that the Psalms kind of walk with us as they train us to walk with God. So grab your Bibles, go to Psalm 19. If you have one of the Bibles that's on the row, one of those white Bibles, it'll be on page. We should have this up in just a second. 2.59. There we go.

All right, so Psalm 19 will be on page 2.59. We're going to walk through this entire Psalm today, and what we're looking at today, what the Psalmist is going to teach us, is the goodness of the Word, the goodness of the Scriptures, the goodness of the Bible. And so as we get started this morning, I have just a few questions for you to kind of think about as we turn there. You don't have to raise your hand, although I'm not sure you would have anyway, but anybody in the room just feel weary. You're just tired. Every day is a burden.

It's hard to see how things are good. Emotionally or spiritually exhausted. Is anybody in the room just trying to work through some decisions in life, trying to make good plans, trying to... You've got something going on, and you've got to set the pace for, all right, we've got to decide this, and this is going to set up for us how we're going to walk through life. Anybody just in some confusion and need some help making good decisions? Is there anybody in the room, you just need a win?

You just need something to celebrate, something to laugh about. You just need a little bit of peace in your heart. You just need a moment where you can sit down and feel okay without having your mind racing to everything that's painful and difficult. Anybody just confused? Just need some clarity? Just need to be able to see something correctly and don't think you're looking at it right yet?

Or is there anybody in the room who just needs something solid? Just need something you can bank on, something you can rest on, something you can run to, because everything else feels flimsy and fragile, and all the stuff that maybe you had built everything off of is falling apart right now. If you answered yes to any of those, or yes to multiple of those, and I'll even, even if you just said kind of to maybe one or two, what the psalmist is going to say is that you need the Bible. You need the scriptures that they step in and begin to serve and to train and to help us here. And so as we read Psalm 19, and this is written by David, and he wrote it as a song, but David is going to tell us that we need the scriptures.

We need the Bible, that you need it in your life. My wife, a couple years ago, she was diagnosed with Hashimoto, which is a type of motorcycle. No, it's an autoimmune disease that has to do with your thyroid. And so they kept checking her thyroid, and they kept checking her Numbers, and finally they said, okay, here. And so we were looking while we were waiting for some of those tests to come back, and we're looking at kind of the thyroid symptoms, and she was like, yes, yes, yes, like this is me. And then we went to the doctor, and the doctor said, you need this.

And you need to wake up every morning, and you need to take this. It's a little pill, and it straightens you out. It's something that you're going to need every day forever. At some point, we may have to dial it down, or at some point, we may have to crank it up, but you're going to need this. And that's what David is saying about the scriptures. He says, this is what you need.

If you're checking off some of those boxes of, yes, that would be great. I would love to have more wisdom here. I'd love to have more clarity here. I'm trying to make a decision that would be, or yes, I'm just exhausted right now. David's going to say, here's what you need to do. You need to wake up.

You need to, before you go to bed, you need to, at some point in your day, some point in your week, you're going to need the Bible. That's David's answer to us. So we're going to begin in Psalm 19. We're going to read this whole thing, but we'll pray as we kind of jump in this morning. God, I pray that even in this short amount of time that we have together this morning, that you would help us see the goodness and the value of your written word, but that we wouldn't stop there, that we would ultimately see the goodness and the value of your son as proclaimed to us and displayed to us in your word.

We ask that we would be a Bible people. In Jesus' name, amen. Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. So David starts by saying that when you look out into the heavens, when you look at the sky, when every day rolls by, when every night rolls by, it's proclaiming how big and good and glorious God is, that it's showing his handiwork, that every day pours out speech, and that every night pours out knowledge.

He's saying that all of life is telling you, is proclaiming to you, there is a big, glorious creator. There's a big and glorious God. That's what he's saying. Verse 3. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Okay, so if you read it in the ESV, if you're holding that version of the Bible, which is translated from Hebrew, the way that reads makes it sound like he's saying that we recognize this.

But for other versions, it's going to say there is no speech, there are no words, no voice is heard. And that's going to come across more like he's saying God is speaking, but not in an audible way. Either way, whether it reads a little bit more in the English as we're recognizing this, or it reads a little more in the English as there aren't actual words, but God's still getting his point across. What David is saying is that we can look into creation and we can get it. We can begin to see that there is a creator God. Paul says this in Romans 1, that all of humanity is without excuse because all of us have seen God's creation, that he has written himself into what he created.

And that's what David's saying here. Verse 4. Their voice, so this is the voice of God's creation. This is the voice of night and day. This is the voice that's pouring out knowledge. Their voice goes out throughout all the earth and their words to the end of the world.

In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. And so David gets a little poetic here. He's talking about the sun and he says it rises like a strong man and it runs its course with joy and nothing is hidden from its heat. And he's just talking about like the glory of God imprinted into creation. And some of you, as you're reading this, there's just like, yeah, because you're one of those people that's like, oh, when I relate to God, I just need to go be near a tree.

I can just get near a tree and I can just stand next to a white oak and I can just look into the top of it and I just know he's big and glorious and good. If I can just see a sunrise over the Atlantic. Some of y'all are fancy. You've seen a sunset over the Pacific. Proud of y'all. Most of us have been rocking up at Myrtle Beach.

Some of y'all are like, I ain't up at a sunrise if I go to the beach. Right, but you saw the moon come out. You turned away from the ocean, listened to it and saw the sun drop down over that hotel. I don't know. But you're saying there's this being outside, something in this, in this moment we're reading this and we're like walking through a field and there's meadows and birds are chirping and there's flowers.

And then verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. And it's like David paints this beautiful picture and then he takes his Bible. You're in a meadow. There's a breeze. The sun's on your face.

And then he goes. And suddenly like the whole scene changes. You're in a dark room. Your eyes are trying to get adjusted because you were just out in the sun. There's dust everywhere because of that giant book he just slammed on the table. There's an old grumpy person who's going to teach you the law of the Lord.

That suddenly we went from this glorious, beautiful God who painted the colors of the wind. And now it's the law of the Lord. It's perfect. And it doesn't seem that way but David did this on purpose. What David is doing here as he makes this transition is he's saying God proclaims through creation his bigness but we need more. God proclaims through creation his handiwork.

He puts his thumbprint everywhere but we need more. And the law of the Lord is perfect. It is exactly what we needed so that we might know God. And when he talks about the law he is as he's writing this as he's a king of Israel he's writing about the law the Old Testament law which would be our he'd be referring to the first five books of our Old Testament. But he also as he goes through this is going to talk about God's precepts.

He's going to talk about God's testimony. He's going to talk about and so what we end up seeing in this Psalm is that what he means by law what he means of precepts what he means of God's rules is he means the entirety of God's written word to us. And as we stand here today or sit here today we're looking at all of scripture. That's what David would have in mind if he got to come look at us now he'd say yeah and all the stuff that we got from all the prophets and all that was kept and when the gospels were proclaimed and written down and put in a codex and passed around like all of it. And what he's saying is we needed that to really know God.

That if you you get to you get a glimpse of him from a tree you get a glimpse of him from the sunrise you get a picture of what he's like staring into the night sky but you needed you needed more than that. So if you took your favorite Spielberg you took your favorite director and you said I'm going to watch all of his movies and I'm going to I'm going to read some of the biographies about him I'm going to read about you know how he came about and maybe how they filmed E.T. or what happened with Jaws I'm going to learn about Spielberg. That's still different. It's still outside. You're looking at his work but you don't really know him and it's different than the person who's been a close friend with him for 20 years and can tell when he's messing with someone.

Can tell when he's telling a joke. Can tell when when he's about to tell a joke. My wife and I have been together long enough now that I don't know I don't know what my face does but she'll go don't. It's not the time. It's like it was going to be a good one though. I guess I get really excited right before I make a joke and she can tell but that's what I'm saying like you don't and that's what we needed.

We needed God to introduce himself to us. We needed God to explain what he was like. C.S. Lewis says that if Shakespeare was ever going to meet Hamlet Hamlet's a character in one of Shakespeare's plays if he was ever going to meet Hamlet it would have to be Shakespeare that did it. Hamlet can't come out the page but Shakespeare can write himself into the story and that's what we have in Scripture is that God has written himself into the world so that we might know him. And as we begin it says the law of the Lord is perfect and we believe that.

Into the story and that's what we have in Scripture is that God has written himself into the world so that we might know him. And as we begin it says the law of the Lord is perfect and we believe that. We, Mill City Church we, most of the Christian faith believe that this was or much of the Christian faith believe that this has been handed down to us handed down to us accurately that we have thousands upon thousands of manuscripts when they go back to translate a version of the Bible they don't go back to the most recent

They didn't translate the ESV from the King James Version they translated it from the original Greek and the original Hebrew and we have those thousands upon thousands of texts that have traveled around and been handwritten we can compare them to each other and we know that they're within 95% certainty that this is the word they wrote in the order they wrote it the other 5% there's some things that have been moved around a little bit and when it comes down to it

We really have about a percentage of 1% that we're not quite sure and most of your Bibles will have a little asterisk you'll be reading it'll say something like and then they took the goat and there'll be a little asterisk or a little number and you look down at the bottom and it's like we don't actually know if that word means goat but for the most part what we have has been perfectly handed down to us and we believe that it was written by the God of the universe authored through human authors and that it is perfect

So we bank on it we stand up and teach it for 45 minutes to an hour on Sunday some of you you're new here and that just scares you we lock those doors from the outside I'm just kidding fire codes but what we also believe is that we get to in the written word of God that the Bible the Bible actually says there's three different types of the word of God that there's the written word of God and then as we get to the New Testament we see that there's the proclaimed word of God that that's the gospel

That the written word of God eventually leads us to the proclaimed word of God this is where first Peter is going to say he's going to quote the Old Testament and say the word of the Lord stands forever and when that was written it was talking about the written word of God it was God's word that he's put into the world it stands forever and then Peter's going to say and this word that that's referring to is the gospel that we've proclaimed to you so there's the spoken proclaimed word that Jesus Christ came the message of Christ the message of the gospel

The good news that Jesus came that he lived perfectly on our behalf that he died in our place for our sin and that those who place faith in him can be rescued can be redeemed can be made right and then the Bible is going to tell us that it's not just the written word and the proclaimed word but also the incarnate word that Jesus is the incarnate the flesh human version of God's word that's what John 1 says that the word became flesh and dwelled among us and so the purpose for us

As Christians as we study the word is that the written word would lead us into the proclaimed word the gospel which would lead us to know the incarnate word Jesus so as we read this morning that we're going to have that in mind but what we're going to start with is what David is going to tell us are the qualities and the benefits and the value of the scriptures so the qualities the benefits and the value of the scriptures and we're going to see what David says about it

So let's pick back up at verse 7 and we're just going to kind of talk as we go through here what David said scripture is like the law of the Lord is perfect reviving the soul so all the word is perfect reviving the soul reviving means to bring back to life or to give strength or to give energy to that it's perfect that it is exactly what is needed so for those I'm willing to bet that everybody in this room at some point

Has been physically exhausted you pushed yourself at work you pushed yourself in how long you stayed awake for something either you were studying or you were on a trip or you pushed yourself because you were I don't know in two days in high school football camp you pushed yourself you were physically exhausted but there was something about it in that moment that you weren't spiritually exhausted you weren't emotionally exhausted the exhaustion was only skin deep you just needed some rest

Even for some people it was like I was on a trip or I was on a mission trip or something and I was exhausted but there was still joy there was still life there was still hope when he says it revives the soul what he's talking about is a soul level internal spiritual exhaustion so that even if your joy your enjoyment of life can only go skin deep but that internally your bones feel like they're cold and wet your soul

Feels like it has dry rot in it that there is no life and that even though things around you may be good like you just can't you can't seem to shake that it doesn't go past the skin that it doesn't ever sink into your soul and what he says is the law of the Lord is perfect and it revives the soul that it is exactly what you need for those dealing with emotional spiritual soul level exhaustion

That you need strength and energy just to keep moving that you need to be brought back to life he says the law of the Lord is perfect it's exactly what you need you're running a marathon you're exhausted and there's people standing alongside this is why they hand out little cups of water because that's what that person needs nobody's got a Merlot holding it out for somebody that's not perfect that's not what they need in that moment now later

If you're at a fancy restaurant and you've got a T-bone somebody the waiter brings you over on those little cups of water you can be like Kat what are you doing I need a red I gotta get something going here it's perfect it's exactly what you need at that moment to revive your soul and so I would say to all of you who are weary listen to David and begin to read the word because it's exactly what you need the testimony of the Lord

Is sure making wise the simple so not only does the Bible not only does the scripture revive your soul bring back life but it's certain it's sure and it makes wise the simple I love that promise about the Bible love it because what it's saying is that the Bible will take people who are simple meaning don't think through things well traditionally make

Bad decisions have a hard time thinking through things if they're thinking through one thing they're not thinking about any other thing you ever done that like you had a season in your life where I'm trying to figure this out and so 15 other things just turn stupid because you can't you can only focus on one thing at a time if that's not you I'm proud of you but this promise is for the simple it says it makes wise the simple I will

And it says it's sure it's certain you can bank on it so like let's say we all join the mafia and we learned or we orchestrated the McGregor Mayweather fight we set it up so that one person was going to take a fall it's a sure thing we know it's going to happen so we can go with absolute certainty to Vegas and put all of our chips and not sweat it even if you're watching the fight and it looks like it's going poorly you're like round five

That's what he's saying that the law of the Lord is like that his testimony is like that we can push all of our chips on it and just wait and say no he says this is how it's going to work and it makes us wise because we get to line up with the wisdom of God without having to figure it out ourselves many of us are robbed of the joy

Of this because we feel like we have to be convinced by God that what he says is true rather than being able to rest in the fact that he's wiser than we are he has a greater wisdom so this has been a great source of joy for my life and I'll give you two quick examples do you know how many people have opinions about parenting the answer is all the people you don't have to have

Kids to have opinions about parenting if you do have kids you have opinions about parenting also the internet has opinions about parenting and there's a whole lot of here's how to do this here's what not to do here's how you're going to mess your kids up here's how you're going to make your kids great here's how to like in ad nauseum endlessly I could read as much as I wanted to and so when it comes to let's just take the issue of spanking your children

There are opinions there a lot of them guess what you guys I don't have to read blogs I don't have to think about it because the bible speaks and gives wisdom and it keeps me and my wife from having to figure this one out there are things we're going to have to figure out this one isn't one of them I'm going to read you a couple of Proverbs so the bible just gives us wisdom that we get to line up with him on Proverbs 22 15

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of discipline drives it from him Proverbs 23 13 do not withhold discipline from a child if you strike him with a rod he will not die isn't that great I say that to my wife it's not going to kill him go read Proverbs read your bible girl that's what I say whoever spares the rod hates his son but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him I as a parent spank our son

And then I go sleep like this I don't have to worry about it I don't have to think about it if you come argue with me I'm going to say look I'm tapping into some wisdom that I might not would have come to that conclusion my wife and I might not would have come to that conclusion the blogs that we read might not would have come to that conclusion but God says this is how this ought to work and we just get

To line up with him and it's wisdom and wisdom means knowing what to do with the information you have and being able to see beyond things that we can't see that God knows what he's talking about he created this that he set a tent for the sun and makes it like he does all of this and then he says this is how this ought to work and we get to line up

With him another one that is at work in our life I grew up in a Christian home and was taught at a young age that money when it came in should go out to God so I started doing this it's the concept of first fruits that God provides everything for you and that when your money comes in you give some back to him as like a reminder

To yourself that he is the one who provides for everything that he's trustworthy that he's good he also makes all these promises in scriptures about generosity and about how our money will take over our hearts and so one of the ways that we fight that is by giving away generously and by giving back to him and by trusting him to provide for us and so

My wife and I when we got married we never had to think about this we had both just kind of committed to do this a couple years ago we did get convicted that we should give out of gross pay and not net pay because I came to the conclusion one day that Uncle Sam was getting first fruits and not God that's a personal thing the Bible doesn't say any of that stuff but we just

Came to that conclusion and I will tell you that if you were our financial advisor and you were not a Christian you probably wouldn't come up with this plan because you could look at our budget and you could say hey y'all you could use that money for I don't know paying your bills like this money would be useful like I think most financial advisors would say generosity is great but wait until that makes sense

Fiscally and you know what we said nope because we believe that he's given us some wisdom helping us see things that we can't see like how valuable heaven is he says it's like a treasure hidden in a field like we we trust him in this and we believe that he's he's good and we'll honor and so there's there's countless versions of that

I have more if you want to talk more about areas in my life where it's like I just get to rest I get to push all my chips onto a sure thing which is that God says this is how this works and then there's a lot of freedom in that eight verse eight the precepts of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart the commandment of the Lord

Is pure enlightening the eyes so what he's saying is that what God says he's right he's correct and that brings joy to us it rejoices our heart to be a part of something that's the right that's inside of that he wrote the world and he created it all and he's right when he tells us what this looks like

How we ought to live and to work there have been times in my marriage when my wife has gone somewhere and gotten lost and been very frustrated and called me and I've been able to be like alright I've been able to get on Google I've been able to pull up Google Maps I've been able to say tell me the road you're passing I figure out where she is and then I say what's the next one

So I can figure out what direction she's going and then I'll go okay because I'm looking at the map I can see things she can't see and I'll say when you see this take a right and you know what she gets to do she gets to she doesn't always do that but she gets to calm down listen to what I'm saying because I can see stuff she can't see she gets to then begin to trust

She gets to begin and it brings joy in that moment and what he's saying is that when we're reading the Bible and we're talking to God and we're going I'm like if I was saying look I can see the road you need to turn right the building's over there it's going to be on your left and she was going I know you're saying that I'm feeling a left and be like baby I don't this is right you go on two roads and then right

I'm going left like this would be it would be silly and what he's saying is that when we read God's word we don't have to go with this feels right to me we get to just trust that he's right and that brings joy to us it brings rest to us and ultimately it brings us into joy whether we see it or not it will ultimately lead us to joy so there are things that God steps in

And says you can't have this we were at my parents house yesterday my son I think all they feed him is jelly beans when he's there because he'll say because his grandmother man he'll say go man's house eat jelly beans that's what he says when we were there yesterday we let him eat a lot of jelly beans because it's like it's just it's just one day you guys and just

Whatever jelly beans he didn't sleep well last night he shared that with me but if he did that every day it would rob him of joy and and sometimes all we can see is the thing that's right in front of us and God steps in and says I know you really want that but you can't have it because I want to rejoice your heart over here and you won't

Get there through this there's things that we say I just don't understand why God would say that I just don't I don't see what he's talking about and the answer to that often is right but we get to trust that he's right and that it's going to rejoice the heart eventually one of the examples of this

I believe it's worked out in my life with my wife and I we got married I was a Christian I believe that husbands should lead in the home and I kind of stopped there I was like I'm supposed to be a leader and I imported with that like a whole lot of machismo and leadership looks like being the boss you know what I'm talking about

So I brought that in that worked well you guys so we would get in arguments one of the things I would do is I'd get really angry because I'm good at that and then I would leave the room and I would go post up somewhere usually at a table put my arms on I'd sit like this maybe flex a little bit try to get my traps going

Something like that just I would make her come to me because I wanted her to have to like I wanted there was like this position of power like I was a king or something she had to like enter into my domain and then we would dispense with like I would do this my wife's really stubborn sometimes she didn't come but it's like alright we'll see

Who's going to sit longer but what I realized was I had left the bedroom she could go to sleep like what am I going to do but I began to read in Ephesians 5 and the Lord kind of trained me in this Ephesians 5 says that the husband is to love his wife like Christ loves the church and gave himself up for her and as I began to read that and study that

And kind of sink in that soak in that I began to believe that what that meant was I tried to think about how does Christ love the church we got ourselves into a mess by our sin and he took the pain on himself to get us out and so I felt like God was leading me to regardless of how the conversation started regardless of how the argument started regardless of whether she was wrong

Or I was wrong I had to take on the pain to get us out and so one of the ways I began to do that was to try to lead in repenting first I should be the first person to begin to own sin because that's what Christ did for the church he stepped in and owned our sin and that was not fun and very difficult to be so extremely right and have to go in and admit where you were wrong

It's hard and really sometimes you'd have to go in and say I agree with the position I took earlier but I'm going to need to repent for the way I talked about it the way I treated you my attitude because I were sincerely and severely wrong we're going to still have to talk about this but we got to talk about this issue first and it's actually brought joy in our marriage that

We would not have found otherwise and I would not have agreed that that was how leadership worked until I saw Christ doing it and his scripture revealing it to me and for the record I'm still not great at that but Jesus paid for my sin you guys so there's hope still in verse 8 it says the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes

That it's crystal clear it's pure other versions might say radiant that it lights things up it helps you see it's what it enlightens the eyes it makes things clear some of you maybe you grew up and you shared a room with siblings or you went to school you had a roommate or maybe

You have a roommate now or you got married and you've tried to get ready in the dark tried to get dressed in the dark or move around a room in the dark and you slammed into something or put your clothes on inside out anybody just me I'm the only person who did

This like you've run into something in the dark okay what he's saying is scripture lights stuff up for us it shines a light in areas we would not otherwise have light we would not otherwise be able to see we would not have clarity some of you right now in your life

Are jumping up and down swearing and holding a stubbed toe and the word of God would have shown a light in that area some of you you can stub your toe in the daylight you can be reading your bible and still stub your toe

I'm just saying some of you could be avoiding some things that's what he does he lights things up for us nine the fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever the rules of the Lord are

True and righteous all together so they had clean and unclean laws and they would have to whatever was unclean they would have to clean it and what was clean got to stay and what was unclean had to be rid of and so

What he says is fearing God trusting him revering him is clean it it lasts the fear of the Lord is this submission to his bigness and

His goodness and that it lasts it endures forever and that his rules are true and righteous all together ten more more his rules

This is his word more to be desired are they than gold even much fine gold sweeter also than honey and the drippings of

The honey come so we understand that gold is valuable but we don't deal in gold much don't have a lot of gold I

Don't think you have a lot of gold I don't think you keep up with your money in pounds so what they had they

Didn't know anything about high fructose corn syrup and that's why we invented scientists to take something almost as useless as corn and turn

It into something as delicious as mountain dew I don't know for you what he's saying is it's so valuable it's like money that

God's word is so valuable it's like money it's so sweet it's like honey I don't know for you that treat that delicacy that

If you find out like you're on a diet or something but it's like oh well that's here that's excusable it's on my list of

Things I can always eat no matter what I don't know what fits in that so I don't know for you if that's like

Your mama's double layer chocolate cake or pecan pie I don't know if you're like it's like the hot now sign at Krispy Kreme

Like jerks your car off the road like it was a magnet what he's saying is for our family it's a cookie cake like

We make up excuses we're like it's summer let's celebrate with a cookie cake like we we want to have just get them to put

A sign on that thing and we think about it and look forward to it and what he's saying the word of God is

Like that it's it's not only valuable it's sweet it's enjoyable so I think right here he blasts a hole in something kind of

Jerks the rug out from under us whenever we say and we say this often I would read the Bible I'm just too busy

I've got too much going on I would read the Bible I and a little bit it's like David that's such beautiful poetry but

I kind of wish you hadn't put it in here because what he says is that no God's word is more to be desired

Than money so if you called me and said hey what are you doing on Saturday and I was like nothing and I I

Need you to come work with me for 10 hours I said what I had said when I said nothing what I had meant

Was if you said hey man I want you to come work with me for 10 hours because I got this deal I worked

Out with a food truck when we get done I'm going to hand you $2,500 cash I got 10 hours on Saturday I was free

I will call my wife and I say hey baby you are going to watch our son all day long by yourself and then

When I come home I hand you $2,500 cash and she goes to say $2,500 cash and then we go dance because I suddenly

Had time because we'll all make time for what's valuable we'll make time for what's valuable you're making time for that those extra episodes

Or that new season that you're waiting to have drop on Netflix you'll make time for the training that you want to do you'll make

Time for the thing that you find enjoyable restful you'll make time for the articles you want to read about the sports figures you

Want to read about and the stats you need to memorize so you can keep up with who the recruiting class is you'll make

Time for the things that matter and what he says is the word of God is better than gold even a lot of shiny gold

It's better than money it's sweeter than honey and he just when we say we don't have time he walks over and snatches that

Out from under us because he says no you'll make time for what matters so verse 11 moreover by them is your servant warned

In keeping them there is great reward so he says they're better than gold they're more to be desired than gold they're sweeter than honey

And more over I'm warned and I'm rewarded through your word that it should be valuable to us desired by us longed for and

So I would just say this we got to start making time for the Bible gotta start making time to read gotta start making

Time to study and I don't know where you are on this if you've never read the Bible you've never messed with it or

Maybe you want to but you just don't want to start we'd love to talk with you afterwards and try to give you some

Pointers if you're in a community group talk with your leader but just reading a verse a day in your Bible or setting a

Timer or making a rule that I'm not going to brush my teeth until I've read the Bible that's a good one too by

The way for those of you brush your teeth because if you tie it to something that's already a habit it'll help you do

It maybe for you you're like I read some but I'm kind of inconsistent so maybe I'm going to get a partner someone else who's

Going to read along with me someone I'm going to talk through this with but I'm going to figure out a way because this

Is more valuable than gold I'm going to figure out a way to make time for it because I do need wisdom and I

Do need warning and I do want reward and I do need my soul to be revived because I'm exhausted married couples with kids

Little kids one of the things we talk with people about is just kind of block for each other so husband you get home

From work take the kids so you got an hour you got 30 minutes just sit catch your breath you got 30 minutes I

Want to get your Bible out I want you to read or maybe we get up early in the morning earlier than the kids

Do maybe we go to bed at night we trade off who's putting kids to bed so the other person can read with them

I heard recently of a mother who said she has too many children and too little time so she can't read the Bible so

She memorizes it so it can read it you memorize it maybe if you are at home with little kids like I am some

It you are going to turn this verse into a song because right now I could sing so many dag moana songs and maybe

If I could start singing some scripture it would stick with me better teach it to my son I don't know we got to

Figure out a way to not neglect this they originally would have listened to the word most of them were illiterate so it's perfectly

Fine for you to get an app that reads the Bible to you that reads it to you on your way to work that reads

It to you while you while you run if you're one of the people that really has a hard time reading maybe you do

Both maybe listen to it while you read we we made those Psalms books on that table over there they have three maybe for

Some of you it's just you need to get more consistent in it so we've got devotional set up for three times a week

To read the Psalms and then it gives you some ways to think about it and follow up but we need the Bible verse

12 As we finish up this morning who can discern his errors so he kind of he asked this rhetorical question so he just

Said moreover by them your servant is warned and keeping them as a great reward and he says who can discern his errors and

Then he says declare me innocent from hidden faults and so David has just made a turn here because what he was doing a

Second ago was telling us how great the what he what he done let's read this I find it very interesting and helpful verse

12 Who can discern his errors that's a rhetorical question that means nobody nobody can see where they're wrong like they need help you ever been in an argument with somebody and it was so obviously

Clear how wrong they were they just couldn't see it and you had already told them very clearly multiple times you even at one point

Yelled it loudly because maybe they were hard of hearing they had not noticed how wrong they were and in that moment they're thinking

The same thing you just can't see how wrong you are and David just steps in and says yeah who can tell where they're wrong

And the answer is nobody but he says who can discern his errors declare me innocent from hidden faults so he's telling God I

Need you to make me innocent from all the sins I can't see I don't even notice I become blind to keep back your

Servant also from presumptuous sins a lot of versions of the Bible will translate that willful meaning that I'm intentionally stepping out of balance so

He says I need you to forgive me I need you to declare me innocent you catch that when he says declare he just

Saying I need you to make a call on it I have sin it's a hidden sin I just need you to say you're

Innocent I need you to declare me innocent and then I need you to keep me back from all the times I want to

Intentionally sin let them not have dominion over me and that interesting about willful sin so often we intentionally choose that sin and then

Eventually it owns us it has dominion over us it has begun to rule so we willfully chose it of our own free will

Because it was inside of our power and suddenly we realize it's not in our power anymore we're in its power he says let

Them not have dominion over me and then he says then if you do that if you declare me innocent if you keep me

Away from willful intentional sin and if you don't let them destroy me and own me then I'll be blameless and innocent of great

Transgression let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight oh Lord my rock and my

Redeemer this gives me so much hope did y'all catch what David just said as he ended this he said the word of God

Is perfect it's righteous it's true it's good it'll give you wisdom and you almost think that the conclusion to this is so get

The word and you'll be fine read the word and you'll be fixed if you can just memorize the law if you can just

Be moral enough but what he say he says all this about the word and then he says God I need you I need

You to declare me innocent I need you to keep me from sin I need you to keep sin from owning me I need

You to change me inside and out and then I'll be okay and ultimately because the written word leads us to the proclaimed word

And the proclaimed word points us to the incarnate word ultimately this is all fulfilled in Christ that he's souls and through faith gives

Them life he revives the soul that he's pure that he's certain and he he's the ultimate wisdom of God that what was hidden

In frailty and darkness and laid in a tomb was God actually working to bring life that he's he's right and he brings joy

To the heart that he's pure and we only truly see correctly how God designs us to see when we understand fully the gospel and

What Jesus has accomplished for us that he makes us clean so that we might endure forever that he's true and righteous all together

And that he is better than gold and sweeter than honey and more to be pursued and more to be desired than anything and

That ultimately he does exactly what David asks shows us our sin but then he declares us innocent because he gets to be for

All those who run to him a rock and a redeemer get to bank everything on him you get to put all your chips

On him you get to build your life on the rock and then he rescues and redeems that's that's the Christ the Jesus that

We meet in the scriptures where he fulfills for us what the psalmist is telling us today so church family we need this you

Need this life's too hard there's too many decisions to make there's too much going on too much that's difficult and painful too many

Areas where we need wisdom and we need wisdom beyond our ability to argue and hash it out and figure it out and we

Need God to step in and clarify for us and we need ultimately to read the written word so that we can be reminded

Of the proclaimed word of what Jesus has done for us and so that we can spend time with and enjoy and worship the

Incarnate word of Christ to know him to love him and to see what he's accomplished for us to be able to rejoice and

Be revived and rest we got to figure out a way to make time for something that is as valuable as this let's pray God we

Thank you for your grace we thank you for your word we thank you that you did join us in humanity to accomplish for

Us what David asked of you that through faith in Christ we can be declared innocent and we can be set free from sin's

Dominion we pray that we would learn to love you as you are revealed to us through your scriptures that we might grow wise

Through your word that we might have joy and life in Jesus name amen

Mill City 7/9/17 Mill City 7/9/17

Psalms Intro

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Spencer Carey. I am a church planning resident here at Mill City. I'm excited for the series we're in this morning. We're starting the Psalms. The goal of this series is that we would learn to delight in God daily in everyday life and that we would grow in our love for the Psalms.

So we're going to spend nine weeks walking through them. Today we're going to be in Psalms 1 and 2. So if you have a Bible, you can turn to page 254. Maybe we'll get to that in a second. All right, so back in the 70s, NASA sent a spacecraft into space with a record player and a record.

And that record had a list of songs. It had anything from Bach and Mozart and Beethoven all the way to Chuck Berry. And the goal was that they sent this into space that tens of hundreds of years down the road, an alien would discover it. And they would think, Earth has got a nice playlist. This is what humans listen to. And I guess not wipe us out.

I don't know if they left the address for Earth or what. But that was a real mission. That actually happened. So with that waste of taxpayer dollars, I thought we should double down. We should send another spacecraft. And this could include an iPod that covers the full range of human emotions.

So we have songs. We have playlists for different emotions if you're happy, if you're sad, if you're angry. So let's put this up there and send it up. So I thought this morning I put a pretty widespread of music together that we can go through that I think would be good to send up there. You can feel free to push back or you can celebrate it. You can give a grunt of assurance.

But here's a few different emotions and a few different songs that will match it. So if you're happy, here are a few songs we would listen to. ABC by the Jackson 5. Like that. You can't listen to that and not be happy. Hey Ya by OutKast.

OutKast, the greatest hip-hop group of all time. Hey Ya is just a fun, happy song. Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum, going back to the 70s. That song, it's a happy song. Here's a quirky one. I Believe in a Thing Called Love by the Darkness.

Who's heard of that song? A few of you. It's back in the 2000s. It sounds like it was made in 1983. But you listen to that, the guitar solos and the car, air guitar, that is a happy song.

All right, switching gears. If you're angry, you might listen to Down With This Sickness by Disturbed. Now you may think, I never expected to hear that in a sermon. But you would. If you like kind of harder rock music, Down With This Sickness is a pretty angry song. How about Bulls on Parade by Rage Against the Machine?

Or for that matter, any song by Rage Against the Machine will work out some of your anger. If metal, if rock is too much for you, just wait until Taylor Swift has a breakup and she will have a song for you that you can work your anger out. How about when you're sad or emotional? Here are some songs that might be good for you. Johnny Cash has a cover of Hurt. It's a Nine Inch Nails cover.

That song Hurt is just, it's so good. It's emotional. It's somber. How many of you have heard of The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics? Show of hands. No one.

One. Two. Two of you have heard of it. Okay, just when you go home, Spotify, Google, YouTube, whatever, The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics will make you want to go hug your dad or your stepdad. It's just a, it's an emotional song. Fleetwood Mac's Landslide, another good one to listen to.

They have a whole genre of music called emo music. How many of you, like me, were in emo music back in the day, right? A few of you, all right? I'm thinking Hawthorne Heights, Ohio's for Lovers. Was anybody Hawthorne Heights 2006 down in Columbia concert? Anybody there?

I was. None of you? Okay. There's a whole genre. Some of you never left it. I'm thinking of maybe Josh Baboom.

But there's a whole genre of music for that. We'll end with this last one. Music that inspires you. Hey Jude by the Beatles. Man. In the early 2000s, Paul McCartney, Super Bowl halftime show.

The whole stadium joins in at the end. It just inspires greatness. The Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve. That's a 90s band, a 90s song, another great one. In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins. Maybe you're like me and you bought into the whole back story where Phil Collins was out at a lake one night and he saw this guy and that guy watched somebody drown and didn't help and he invited that guy to his concert and he sat in the front and the lights shone down at him and he sang in the air tonight and he was singing to him.

That's not true at all. It's a fake story. But I bought it. Do-do-do-do-do-do. The drum solo. It's money.

How about Wake, if you know who Arcade Fire is, Wake Up by Arcade Fire, another song that's just amped, inspires greatness. If you like hip-hop, Lose Yourself by Eminem. That is a, it's hype. We'll close with this. Peter Gabriel has a cover of Heroes, David Bowie's Heroes. Just, if you get a chance today, write it down.

Just watch it. Just listen to it. It's so good. It inspires greatness. We all have playlists and music for different emotions. If you're happy, if you're angry, if you're sad.

Maybe you have a workout set list. Maybe you have some study or workflow music and on down the line. In a way, God has given us a playlist for worship and we have that in the Psalms. God is teaching us how to relate to him, how to worship, how to be, how to pray, how to be angry, how to be sad. Some of you feel like you have to be happy before you come and worship God. Some of you may be angry.

You feel like you've got to just put that away before you come and pray to him. And I think the reason why we have these kind of issues is we lack the categories for how to respond to God. But the Psalms, they give us that. The Psalms are some of the most beautiful pieces of literature I'd say ever written. They're beautiful because they cover the full range of human emotions. They're beautiful because they relate to God in raw and seemingly dangerous ways at times.

They're beautiful because they're songs. They're songs that have been sung by God's people for centuries and for thousands of years. They're beautiful because they continually recount and remember the promises of God. A lot of the songs that we sing every week that remember God's promises are inspired by the Psalms. They're beautiful because they're prayers. They're prayers that have been prayed over the last 2,000 years by other Christians.

When you pray a Psalm, that is something that Christians across the globe for the past 1,000 years have prayed. They're beautiful because they're intentionally crafted poetry that covers subject matters like repentance and laments, remembering God's promises, joy, rest, and all these things that we're going to cover in the weeks to come. We're going to spend nine weeks covering these. And during this nine weeks, we want you to immerse yourself in the Psalms, which is why we have a devotional guy on the back. We want you to grab when you leave. Use it.

I've been guilty in the past of grabbing something like that, throwing it in the back seat, and then three months later remembering it was there. So actually take it, use it, wherever you might have a few minutes of the day to do devotion. Maybe that's at your house or your place of work. But here's why we want you to immerse yourself in the Psalms. We want you to grow in personally relating to God in everyday life. And we want you to grow in your love for the Psalms.

And if you do this, if you spend the next nine weeks doing this with us, it will dramatically change your faith. You can take that to the bank. So in order to do that, we've got to introduce the Psalms today. We're going to introduce Psalms 1 and 2. Psalms 1 and 2 are kind of the gateway by which we read the rest of the Psalms. So as we go through Psalms 1 and 2, you're going to see a lot of the other Psalms, the other 148 Psalms that follow that look similar to this.

And as we walk through Psalms 1 and 2, there is a framework that we will see. And that's this, that it is blessed to be, you are blessed to be God's people because you are like a tree rooted by streams of water. Unlike, which is contrasted, unlike the enemies of God who are called the wicked. So we're going to see that and we're going to walk through that. And the second thing we're going to walk through and we're going to see at the end is blessed are all those who take refuge in the King. So we're going to walk through that.

Before we unpack that, let's pray. Father, thank you that you've given us this word, that you've given us the Psalms. God, I pray that we would see them as beautiful today, that you would help us understand your word, that you would speak to us, and that we leave here seeing more of your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so before we jump into Psalms 1 and 2, we've got to do some background.

Now, the Psalms were written by many different people over the span of a thousand years. So Moses, he wrote one of the first Psalms we have back in 1500 BC. The last Psalms were written about 5th, 6th century BC. So they're written over a span of a thousand years. They're written by a few different people. We have David who wrote the most of them.

All right, so he wrote about 73 of them. Then we have Moses. Then we have a group of people called the Sons of Korah or the Sons of Korah. We have someone named Asaph who wrote a few of them. And then there are some people, some Psalms that we don't know who wrote them. They're unknown authors.

The word Psalm goes back to the Hebrew word for song. So these are songs that were sung by the Jews for years. This was their hymnal. Around the last time, around the last Psalm, the time the Psalm was written, the last Psalm that was written, they were arranged into a collection of 150 of what we now call the Psalter. And in the Psalter, there are five books. There are five sections.

They carry a few different themes. And we're in the first book today. We're in Psalms 1 and 2. Psalms 1 and 2 don't have an author in their heading. If you look at the Psalms, sometimes you'll see an author in the heading. But we know that David wrote this because in the New Testament it's quoted that David wrote these.

So let's start Psalm 1, verses 1 through 4. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. So scoffers are mockers, those who mock. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. And all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. All right, so we'll stop there. One of the ways that we know that Psalms 1 and 2 are meant to be read together is through a literary term called an inclusio. That is a fancy way of saying that the first line and the last line have similar language and style, so what comes between them is meant to be read together. So Psalm 1 starts out as blessed is the man, and Psalm 2 ends with blessed are all those who take refuge in him.

So we know that these are meant to be read together. So the psalmist David, he starts out with a contrast between two groups of people, the wicked and those who delight in God's law, who he calls the righteous. Much of the Proverbs is set up like this. Much of wisdom literature like the Proverbs is set up like this. The wicked and the righteous. In David's context, the wicked are his enemies.

They're enemies of God. They're enemies of the nation of Israel. They curse God, and they curse David as king. They rob, they murder, they bring all kinds of violence. Much of David's life, he was under the threat of violence from this group of people called the wicked. The righteous are simply those who follow and delight in the law.

That's the first five books of the Old Testament. It's called the Torah or the Torah. So it's those who delight and follow the law. The rest of the Psalms flow out of that logic. Many Psalms we see are deep cries of justice against the wicked. Many are, a few of them are laments, deep cries of sadness because God's people have experienced all kinds of injustice and pain from this group of people called the wicked.

Many of David's Psalms were written while he, who was an anointed king at one point and then became the king, was on the run for his life. He's starving, and he's wondering where God was. I mean, David's doing everything he's supposed to do. He is delighting in the law daily while his enemies curse God and curse the king. And David, he's wondering why is it that his enemies, why is it the wicked prosper while he is doing everything he can as God's chosen king, why he suffers. And that's the position in many of the Psalms.

It's why the wicked prosper while God's people suffer. And I think if we're honest, I think we sometimes wonder the same thing. Why is it that the wicked financially prosper? Those who don't love God financially prosper, and those of us who love God, man, we suffer financially. I'm a real estate agent by trade, and I see often these days someone who bought a house in 2007, and 10 years later, they're going to sell their house, and they're taking a huge loss. After 10 years of paying their mortgage, they're having to bring cash to closing.

And the reason why is because back in 07, the houses were artificially at a high price because of the shady backroom Wall Street mortgages that were happening. And they were profiting, and it was building up, and the whole worldwide economy stalled into a worldwide recession, and people lost their houses. Some people lost everything and went bankrupt. There were suicides that happened because of this. And there are many people who love God, who lost everything, and are wondering, why is it that I'm suffering financially when the wicked prosper? Only one person from that entire mortgage corruption went to prison.

The rest, man out like bandits, man out with enough wealth to carry them through, to carry them through the rest of the recession. So you may be wondering, why is it that the wicked prosper? You may be wondering that when it comes to health. Why is it that God's people suffer in health, while those who don't love God prosper in health? I, so the people in our culture that we look up to as the glamorous are rock stars, and movie stars, and many of them explicitly say they're not Christians. They don't love God.

In fact, they mock Christians on a regular basis. And many of them live long, healthy lives. They might do all kinds of drugs and partying are crazy, and they live long lives. And many of God's people suffer sickness, and disease, and trials. Some of them are kids. They get cancer.

And many people, if we're honest, are left wondering, why is it that I'm suffering while the wicked prosper? It doesn't seem like I'm all that blessed. David and the rest of the Bible lays it out. Blessing is not circumstantial. The wicked often look blessed because they don't lack any material blessing. But blessing isn't based on your circumstances.

So David lays it out. You are blessed because you have eternal blessing and delighting in the eternal God. You are blessed when you delight in God's word daily because when you do that, you stare upon God's perfection. You gaze upon His beauty and His glory and His goodness. Now, I don't want to spend too much time there today. Chet's going to cover that next week in Psalms that meditate on God's word.

But the reason that we see here, the reason why that life is better than the counsel of the wicked, is that that's the only way that you can truly flourish as someone who's made in the image of God. Because the picture here is when you do this, you're like a tree planted by eternal streams of water, yielding fruit and its season. Now, some of you, you're in that season. Like, you're feeling it and it's joyous. You can look to Psalms like Psalm 100, which is a Psalm of praise. For the Lord is good.

His steadfast love endures forever and His faithfulness to all generations. Like, that is your heart and it's a joyous season. I have learned over the years as I've matured as a Christian to celebrate with people that are in seasons like that. I used to be really cynical and I'd show up to a community group where we're going to confess sin and I'd be, Psalm 51 would be kind of the season that I would be, Psalm 51 is a Psalm of repentance. It's David, he says, cleanse me with hyssop, which is a cleansing branch that I may be clean. Wash me, that I may be whiter than snow.

Create me a clean heart and I'm just wading through my sin and I come to confess sin and I pour out there my soul and then next guy gets up and he's like, well, I have something to confess to. He's like, my goal last week was to have seven quietness. Five times and I had six. It was a Wednesday and it was busy and I just didn't spend time in God's word and I just want to be held accountable to spending more time with God and I'm like over here and I'm looking at that, I'm like, what just happened? Like, this guy can't be real. He's got to be lying or hiding something like, like there's no way and I used to get really frustrated.

There are some people in this state that need to be honest and open about their brokenness and maybe they need to be more open but there are some people that just are in a season where they are joyous and they're delighting in who God is and I've learned to celebrate with them over the years. Some of you, that's not the season you're in. Some of you, this fruitful tree, this picture here of being planted by streams of water, man, that just didn't seem real and if that's you, man, know this, our faith, which we know is secured and given to us in Christ, that is the tree. You may be in suffering and sin or in sickness wherever you're at but you need to know that Christ is the one who secures that tree for us and as we go through the next couple weeks, we're going to cover Psalms of lament and Psalms of repentance and Psalms of remembering God's promises and this season, those Psalms can be a comfort to your soul but know that you're still near the living well.

You're still near the water. You are still a deeply rooted tree next to living water. The storms of this world may be raging against you like storms raging against a tree but you are firmly planted in the soil. You're not going anywhere. You may feel the heat of sin or of suffering like the heat of the sun on a tree but you're always near the water. You're always near the water.

You're rooted and you're secure unlike the picture that we're given here of the wicked which is the picture of chaff. Now the picture of chaff is when they harvest wheat they throw wheat in the air and the chaff would float away. I'm not a wheat farmer. You're not a wheat farmer so it's not as helpful for me. I'll give you a picture of what I think is helpful for me. I have a somewhat nerdy hobby.

I roast coffee. I roast it. I love doing it. Coffee comes from a coffee tree. It comes from these coffee cherries. They take the cherries they take the beans out they're green they wash them they dry them they send them all over the world and then people like me or Starbucks buy them and we roast them.

And so I roast them and as you roast them they start to turn brown and then eventually the whole the husk kind of breaks off and it's chaff and it's thin flaky almost like dandruffy. It floats up and I have a little chaff basket that it catches in the chaff basket and then when it's done I grab the chaff basket and I take it off and when I take it off the chaff almost some of it just blows away immediately and I take it and I throw it in the trash. That is the picture of chaff. And another thing it's just it's momentary it's there and then it's gone and that's what God says of our moment in time it's like dew in the morning he says it's here in the morning and then it's gone by lunchtime.

It's so momentary it's thin it's not rooted and when the fires come the picture we have here is the wicked are driven away. It's not rooted it's not secured when judgment comes the wicked won't stand. Verses 5 and 6 say this therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish. Now you may be thinking you may be thinking at this point that's kind of intense language like you said the Psalms were beautiful and you mean to tell me it's filled with language like this. Yep.

All over the Psalms and as we see it all over the Bible and as Raz preached last week Christ one of his key features and characteristics is that he will be the judge that comes to judge everyone. So yeah the Psalms are filled with pictures like this and I think the reason why it's hard for me and hard for some of you to see pictures like this and to actually relate to them is because we in our culture in western culture we don't experience injustice like the rest of the world. Like global Christianity when they come upon when they come upon Psalms like this they find comfort in these and the reason why is because they experience all kinds of injustice financial suffering religious persecution I mean they experience all kinds of injustice and they find comfort in this and if I'm honest I feel like the reason why I struggle with this is not just because I'm western it's because I'm also white. We have black and brown brothers and sisters in our country who experience injustices all the time.

Man the only the main injustice that I experience on a regular basis is on I-20 and where they're doing the construction and somebody cuts me off and I'm like I want fire to come down on them I mean I get angry quick some of you are in the same boat no lie but that's the kind of injustice that I experience and that's not the injustice that many people experience that's why I think it's hard for us to relate to the Psalms

So at the end of Psalm 1 it's meant to be a comfort and it's also meant to be a warning it's a warning that God's justice is coming don't be tempted by the counsel of the wicked God's way is better so that's how Psalm 1 ends Psalm 1 starts with the counsel of the wicked Psalm 2 gives that metaphor a face so I'm going to read all of Psalm 2 it's 12 verses all at once

This may be hard to stay with me if you are having trouble staying with me grab the fidget spinner start spinning we'll work through all 12 at once alright verse 1 why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together so like David's writing this and the picture is the nations are surrounding him and they're plotting

Together and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us alright this is how God responds verse 4 he who sits in the heavens laughs the Lord holds them in derision another version says the Lord ridicules them then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury saying

Ask for me I have set my king on Zion my holy hill I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me you are my son and today I have begotten you ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel now therefore O kings be wise be warned O rulers of the earth serve the Lord

With fear and rejoice with trembling kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled blessed are all who take refuge in him so David spent most of his life being hunted down like the walls of his world were consistently caving as he was being hunted down and that was his life enemy after enemy rising up nation after nation

Rising up bringing threat against him and the picture here in this Psalm this is viewed by the generations of David that followed after him that this was the pronouncement of his kingdom that the line of David that king after king would come nations would come and rage against God's people against his kingdom and it would stand as verse 9 he would break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel but shortly after this

Shortly after David not you know a couple generations later the kingdom splits in two and after the kingdom splits in two because of civil war the Assyrians come in and wipe out thousands in the most brutal awful way that we see depicted in the scriptures the Babylonians come another pagan nation comes and slaves some and deports some and the Persians come

And nation after nation comes and the people who look at this Psalm are just they're baffled they're confused like what what was this supposed to mean I mean I thought David's kingdom was going to reign and nation after nation takes over and it's important to remember at this point that the Psalms are inspired scripture meaning

God is the chief author here God is using David's experiences and his language to communicate God's eternal word so the intent of the author which is called authorial intent that matters it matters in scripture it matters in music how many of you have heard the song by the police every breath you take most of us some of you that was your song back in the day with your woman

That's what you dance to you claim that that was your love song it sings like every breath you take every move you make every bond you break every step you take God be watching you and it kind of sounds sweet Sting the lead singer of the police comes out years later and he says it's not a love song this song is about stalking it's meant to be creepy so if it was read like it's supposed to it's every breath you take

Every move you make every bond you break every step you take I'll be watching you you ain't dancing to that song you ain't choosing that song to be the love song that you hold dear so I might have crushed that song for you that's okay I'll choose one more this will actually enhance this song there's a song by a semi-sonnet called Closing Time it's from the 90's and up until this week I thought this song was about closing time

At a bar it's closing time one last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or a beer that's what I've always thought it was when he says I know how I want to take me home I'm like oh like responsibility doesn't end driving maybe he's got a girl or a friend who wants to take him home that's really cool just real simple the lead singer came out years later and he said I wrote this song when I was getting ready

To have a son his only kid because I was getting ready to have a son and I wanted to write a song dedicated to him but I thought if I do this my bandmates will eventually hate it and they won't sing it so I hit this song in a song that looks like it's called Closing Time at a Bar so when you go back and you listen to the song and you hear lines like Closing Time turn out all the lights on every boy and every girl

Closing Time open all the doors and let you out into the world Closing Time every new beginning comes from some other beginnings and what he's saying is is that his world is getting ready to change we have a daughter but we're getting ready to have a son here in the next couple weeks it could be tomorrow it could be in a couple weeks and it just hits home for me like everything is going to change again every new beginning comes from some

Of their beginnings and the intent of the writer of the author it matters and the Jews sang from their psalter from their hymnal for centuries and then in the first century a baby is born in Bethlehem and 30 years later he starts performing miracles and he starts teaching and he starts quoting the Psalms and he starts quoting them and saying they're about me he starts quoting them about himself this Psalm and many others are forward looking to the one

Who was to come in Psalm 2-2 the Hebrew word for anointed is where we get the word Messiah it's where we get the word Christ the king here in Psalm 2 is ultimately Jesus the holy hill is the hill where he was crucified this Psalm is fulfilled in Jesus and this passage is quoted in Acts 4 the book of Acts is the first Acts of the church

Jesus ascends into heaven the church is commissioned out they start the church starts blowing up and then they start getting persecution and in Acts 4 this Psalm the first two verses is quoted Acts 4 verses 25-27 who through the mouth of our father David your servant so that's how we know David wrote this said by the Holy Spirit why did the Gentiles

Rage and the people's plot in vain the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed alright so there's the quote here's the interpretation verse 27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles

And the peoples of Israel so kings like Herod leaders like Pilate the crowds screaming crucify him which is both Jews and Gentiles that's the ultimate category of the wicked that we see here those who hate God's law and then this group of people and then Peter brings it home and makes it even more personal in Acts 2

He's preaching to thousands of people who have come into the city thousands of whom were not there when Jesus was crucified and he says you're all guilty we are all guilty we are all the ones that put them there and the point is is that it's all of us and our sin that puts them there so when the category of wickedness is expand it's all of us it's all of us Romans 3 says

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God there is none who does righteous not even one we're all lumped into this category and that pride the same pride that we share with leaders like Herod and Pilate God responds in Psalm 2 4 he says he who sits in the heavens laughs the sovereign God the God who rules and reigns he stood in the heavens

And he laughed because their plot was in vain they thought the world Satan thought that they had stopped God's plan but it was God's plan all along that Christ would be crucified the father sent his son the king to die on a holy hill and because of his death and resurrection and because he ascended to the heavens and he sits at the right hand of the father

And the nations have become his inheritance because of that we get to see why the Psalms are so great for centuries they sang these Psalms not knowing who it was about and because of the gospel and because of where we are and what we know we get to look back at them and see what the author meant we get to see the full meaning of what's happening there and we get to sing them out of that perspective out of the perspective

Of the gospel so when we come to Psalms of lament which are important you need a category for how you can be you can be sad and mourn you're not if you have the picture that Christians are just supposed to be happy all the time chuck it that's not the case there are times there are seasons for mourning and sadness but 1 Thessalonians 4.13 says that you may not grieve as others who do not have hope we

Yes lament grow in lamenting but we don't do it as those who don't have hope we have the hope of Christ and we we can come to Psalms of repentance and pray them and sing them but we come from the perspective of Ephesians 2.8 it says for it's by grace you've been saved through faith we have a perspective of the gospel and we get to claim the promise at the end of this Psalm

When the psalmist says blessed are all who take refuge in him we get to take refuge in our savior and that's the point of the next nine weeks learning how to take refuge in our king growing in Psalms and learning Psalms of repentance and laments and remembering God's promises learning how to take refuge in our king so take the next nine weeks seriously

Like journey together as a church and let's grow in seeing the Psalms and their beauty and when we do this I'm telling you your faith will transform dramatically but I'll close with this some of you need to hear this call from the first time that we have a king who died on a holy hill so that you could be a tree eternally rooted by streams of water that's how much God loves us

You need to hear that call for the first time and for the first time you actually need to take refuge in him not in the things of the world not in the counsel of the world but in Christ take refuge in him place your faith fully in him and then take the next nine weeks and journey with us as we gaze upon the beauty of these Psalms the band's gonna come up they're gonna close this in a song

It's a song that some of you may know it's called ten thousand reasons it was written by Matt Redmond and in this song in this song he based it off of Psalm 103 the first two verses of Psalm 103 he read the first two verses of Psalm 103 and I'll read them here it says bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord oh my soul

And forget not all his benefits so he took those two verses and he started listing out his benefits he started listing out reasons why God is worthy of praise so we're gonna sing that this morning we're gonna sing why our God is glorious and why he's worthy of our praise let's pray Father thank you that you've given us these songs I pray that that we would journey together

As a church we would take the next nine weeks seriously that we would gaze upon the beauty of the Psalms and we would grow in how to relate and worship you God I pray if there's anyone here that has not taken refuge in him that they'd start today God bless you bless this time and bless our praise in Jesus name Amen

Mill City 7/2/17 Mill City 7/2/17

Righteous Judge

Transcript

G'day guys, my name is Raz, I'm one of the pastors here, and today we're rounding out, we're finishing up our glory series, and today we're going to be taking a look at justice. And in particular, we're going to be talking about Jesus as the mind-blowing judge who's coming back at the end of days, a judgment day, to restore order to everything that's happened ever, which is a pretty big task for one day, but that's what we're doing. We're going to head to Revelation 20, so if you've got a Bible, or grab one of the Bibles in the row there, we're heading to Revelation 20, I think it's like the second last page or something like that. Just turn to the end and then go backwards.

Oh, there you go, it's page 602, that's helpful. 603, I assume, is the last page then. In Revelation 20, this is a picture that the apostle John has seen in a vision, and he's trying to put down in words what God has shown him about the very end of days. And so the language is pretty weird, there's some images that he's never seen before, and he's just kind of, out of a lack of words, just writing things like, it kind of looked like this. And so it's a little hard to understand, but we're going to read from verse 11. So this is Revelation 20, 11 through 15.

It says, Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it. That's Jesus, big white throne. From his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened.

Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he also was thrown into the lake of fire. Imagine this. It's judgment day. All of humanity is there. That is a gigantic crowd.

He calls it a great sea of people. And they're waiting on their turn to come up and be judged. And Jesus is out there with, like, volumes and stacks upon stacks of books that have written in them everything that you have ever done. And you're going to be judged according to that. And then he's going to lean over to the second book and check your name off on the roll call. I imagine this scene, I mean, that's a scary scene to me.

That many books, intimidating. But I kind of, I see things, I imagine things through a more technological, I mean, I grew up with TV. So I just imagine things with a more technological kind of swing to them. So if I was to re, I mean, this isn't good practice necessarily, but if I was to reimagine this scene and explain what was going to happen, I think I would take a different approach than maybe what he was saying. And the same thing would be accomplished. But this is how I picture it.

So imagine, I'm doing my best to try and appeal to an American audience here. Imagine a gigantic college football scene. You don't have to know anything about college football because I don't. But I've seen the stadiums and they're huge. Imagine a huge, huge, huge college football stadium and all of humanity is in it. This is not the Gamecock Stadium.

This is not the Michigan Stadium that's, like, crazy big. This is not the NASCAR stadium that they transformed for one night. This is, like, the biggest stadium that has ever been seen because all of humanity has to fit in that stadium. And it's not okay for just one jumbotron to be in the middle with the four-sided thing. They're, like, scattered around the place. They need to be everywhere because everyone needs to see what's going on.

And one by one, each individual is called up. And on the big screen, everyone can see them walking out into the middle. And then the highlights reel from their life plays. Now, in John's vision, it gets read out of a book. But in my vision, it's not a biblically inspired vision.

But in the way that I think about it, your life plays out on the jumbotron. And everyone gets to see what you did. And it's not a highlights reel, like, check out all of my greatest achievements. This is, like, the lowlights reel. This is the slow-motion impact highlights reel. And I imagine it like when you are watching football and somebody gets, like, crushed.

And they play it, like, in slow motion from seven different angles. It's like, and then they amp up the volume of the pads clashing. So it's like, crack, every single time. And everyone in the crowd is like, ooh. You know when, like, there's the slow-motion replay of the guy's helmet comes off. And everyone's like, ah.

And, like, if you weren't watching, you hear the ah. And you're like, oh, what did I miss? That kind of thing happens over and over again. But as people are watching your life. Because all the little things that you did that you thought nobody knew about, that you thought got swept under the rug, that happened in secret, they're now being played on a jumbotron in front of everybody. They make fun of stealing candy from a baby.

But you remember that time you stole candy from a baby? That's going to play in the jumbotron. And everyone's going to be like, ooh, dude, what did you do that for? Every time you've done simple things, like roll for a stop sign, and then lied about it, that's going to play on the jumbotron. All the times you did something good, but you only did it because you wanted to receive praise. You only did it because you wanted people to know how great you are.

Somehow they're going to display that on a jumbotron, and people are going to see the selfish notion of your heart in that moment. The time when you lost your mind at your spouse for no reason, or lashed out at your kids, or the time in school when you were bullying that kid, all of it plays out on the jumbotron. Gigantic stadium of people watching. Every moment of your life that you're ashamed of gets played on that jumbotron, and the entire crowd is going, ooh, yeah. And at the end of your highlights reel, you ought to be judged for that. But Jesus looks over into his little black book and checks to see if your name's in there.

And if it is, good. And if it's not, then you get judged for it. That's pretty scary, right? You want to know at that point in time that your name is written in Jesus' little black book, right? Because that's like the only pass out of being judged for all the things that play out on that jumbotron. And here's the thing, though.

This is imaginary. This is hypothetical, but not really. Because this is actually going to happen. And here's the thing, though. But there's hope for that in Christians because while we know our highlights reel is not going to be the greatest, no one really wants to watch that happen, no one really wants to see all of those things that they've done play out on the jumbotron, we know as Christians that our name is going to end up in that second book.

And in that second book, that's where we have hope. And now that probably sounds weird for us to have hope in our name being in a book and not being judged by the highlights reel or the lowlights reel of our life. And I think that's because, I mean, it sounds weird for us to want that or to think that's good because we have a a continuously developing cultural understanding of what justice is. What's fair? Everybody on some level wants their way of seeing life means that they want things to come back to being fair. And everybody, well, not everybody, but there's a lot of different opinions on what is fair.

And that's why we lead to different political affiliations that everyone wants to achieve what's fair, but they disagree on what fair is, whether it's free health care or you've got to pay for your health care or it's competition in health care. Everybody wants what's fair, but we disagree on what fair is. And it's because culturally, we don't really understand justice. I don't think. We certainly don't understand God's justice. Or if we do, we have a culturally, we view it through a cultural lens.

So we're going to take a zoomed out look at justice. We're going to look at the way we think about justice. And then we're going to look at the way that God thinks about justice. And I'm going to be answering, I'm going to be asking a ton of questions, most of which, if you're a Christian, you'll probably be asked at some point, especially with culture getting more and more aggressive against Christianity. Everyone has some way that they're going to try and outsmart you or challenge you or challenge God. These questions are going to pop up quite a lot.

And I think when it comes to justice, it's typically going to be, how can a loving God pass judgment? Or some reiteration of that same notion, some reiteration of that same question. If your God is loving and kind and always talks about forgiveness, how can he send people to hell? That's a question that is going to come up repeatedly. And it snowballs. It gets more and more intense.

If your God is loving, why won't he just forgive people? Why can't he just forgive everybody? The whole topic kind of snowballs. And I think rather than answering each individual question like one by one, I think we'd be better served to zoom out, look at justice as the whole, on a whole, and maybe identify that because we misunderstand justice, we don't really understand the questions that we're asking in the first place. And I think it begins with a common misunderstanding. And that's the relationship between justice and revenge.

What is the relationship between justice and revenge? How are they the same? How are they different? I mean, typically we think justice, good, revenge, bad. But somehow we interchange them or we accidentally misidentify them as each other.

Let me ask you this. You're watching a movie, any action movie, any movie where the good guys and the bad guys literally fight. Any movie where that actually happens. What is it that you want at the end of that movie for it to be like, yes, order is restored, justice is accomplished. You're watching Harry Potter, right? You are seven movies deep into Harry Potter.

You're at the very end and they have the big wizard battle. Do you want the good guys to point their wands at Voldemort and abracadabra ropes that come out and bind him up? And he's just bound up. He's stuck there like that. And then they take him to wizard court and they say, guilty, you're a bad person. Go to Azkaban.

And he goes to Azkaban and spends the rest of his life in Azkaban. Is that how you want Harry Potter to end? No. There's no brave people here. You want the good guys to vanquish the bad guys. You want them completely destroyed, no longer in existence.

That's what you want to happen at the end of that movie. Let's be culturally relevant. Independence Day. At the end of Independence Day, do you want the U.S. Air Force to come up with a gigantic net that brings the mothership down and then one by one those aliens get marched off of that ship, taken into a court of law and then there's like a 10 year trial for each individual person because they know our legal system and they appeal everything and then they end up one by one in jail for the rest of their life. No!

You're cheering for a redneck McRedneck-y man to fly that plane into that spaceship and blow every single one of those dudes out of the sky. That's what you want and we cheer for it. That's how Hollywood programs us to want justice in the stories that we see. That's how we're programmed to cheer and that's just kind of how it is in our culture, right? How we want justice to happen is the bad guy gets completely wiped out, destroyed. When I was growing up my dad and I we used to watch a lot of James Bond movies and the game GoldenEye on Nintendo 64 was kind of like the game of the generation.

Programmed to cheer and that's just kind of how it is in our culture, right? How we want justice to happen is the bad guy gets completely wiped out, destroyed. When I was growing up my dad and I we used to watch a lot of James Bond movies and the game GoldenEye on Nintendo 64 was kind of like the game of the generation. GoldenEye is much more famous for the game than it is for the movie

But in the movie really good movie I watched it when I was like 9 or 10 I think that raises some questions about parenting in my house it's a very violent movie but my dad and I we used to bond over these things and so we're watching GoldenEye and at the very end of GoldenEye actually building up to the end there's two guys there's James Bond and there's Alec Trevelyan they are both together they're partners

They're on Team England that's a thing they were the good guys at one point at least in James Bond thanks man Team England they're on the same team together and at some point everybody thinks Alec is dead but actually Alec has rejected Team England and he's now on Team Russia and he comes back in the movie as the bad guy but they were once friends and now he's the enemy and so at the very end of the movie

In the climax of the movie or whatever there's this huge radar dish thing like a gigantic one absolutely crazy big and it's sending signals up to some Russian satellite thing out in the sky and there's a giant dish like this and a big arm that comes out the middle and the thing where all the rays kind of focus on and shoot out into space and that's so big that people can be inside of it there's computers and almost like

A space station looking thing up inside there and so James Bond has to shut the thing down so that Russia stops getting their signals and whatever and the other guy is trying to stop him and they're inside that little capsule thing like 300 feet dropped down to the radar dish and so they're fighting in there they've got their guns out because that's the kind of movie and they're shooting at each other and then of course

They can't use the guns because that's a lame way for someone to die so they hit the guns out of each other's hands and then they're punching each other and James Bond's losing because it's really intense and everybody thinks James is going to die and then he goes down the little hatch and he's down on a ladder and he's got one hand up and his other hand is flailing like this and there's like a 300 foot drop to his dead and the bad guy the bad guy comes down he puts his foot on and he's like and he falls down

And then he drops down and there's one last little platform right? Everything happens on that last little platform and you see James Bond he's in like that fetal position as he fell down there he's down there he's getting crushed and then the bad guy drops down boof on his feet and you're like this is it this is the end one nudge and James Bond is dead but no Hollywood uppercut

Bad guy slow motion off the platform surely gonna die 300 foot to fall to his death and then James Bond boof grabs him by the ankle what's gonna happen? I'm kinda out of breath and you think for a moment is James gonna let this guy live? and the bad guy looks up at him and he goes for England and James goes no for me and then he drops him and in that moment

The bad guy knows he's lost and the camera goes right up in his face he's like and then there's a top down view and then this bottom down view and then it goes to the wide angle view I'm no doctor but in my understanding of human physiology when you fall 300 feet and land on your spine you die not so camera comes right up close to Alec Trevelyan's face he's got a little bit of blood coming out of his nose

It was a big fall a little bit of blood and then his eyes go bing and he's alive and you're like no this happened earlier in the movie it's gonna happen again and then the camera cuts back up James Bond is up on the little platform the thing starts exploding and he jumps off grabs onto the bottom of a helicopter helicopter takes him off to safety and then and then the giant thing in the middle explodes off the arm

That's holding it up and a giant metal needle camera wide angle top down view bottom down view close up on the guy's face skewered through his body into the ground and at that moment nine year old Raz is like yeah high-fiving dad I wish I was at the cinema I wasn't allowed to be in the cinema but I would have been like high-fiving other people because justice had been served the good the guy who's a bad guy because he used to be a good guy but then he became a bad guy is dead

At least that's what we're kind of expected to cheer for right that's justice in movies that's what we want that's what we want to see happen and I think that we so often talk about justice but what we're actually cheering for is revenge because in that moment if James Bond wanted to bring Alec Trevelyan to justice he would have done the Hollywood thing where you can actually hold a person by their ankle and just bring him back up handcuff him take him back to England take him to the MI6 base

And he lives underground for the rest of his life but we cheer for what actually became personal and vengeful he was full of hate and spite for the guy and so he saw revenge so revenge is emotional where justice is is rational revenge is personal where justice is impersonal revenge is about vindictiveness where justice is about vindication revenge

Is about retaliation where justice is about restoring order so could it be possible then that when we challenge God's justice when we have questions about his justice when we say is that really fair what we're actually doing is questioning whether or not he's seeking revenge are your questions really asking is God just vindictive

Is God just retaliating so what then what then even is justice and how do we achieve it even in our world what does justice actually look like for us in normal everyday life let me ask you some hypothetical questions so you can self-diagnose self-realize some of the tension here in your own brain in your own way

Of thinking when is justice served is justice served when the thing that was done is undone is that when justice is served or is it when the thing that was done is paid back to the same degree that it was done in the first place is that when justice is done think about it like this if we're on the

Playground and I poke you in the eye you get to poke me back in the eye that's fair that's justice that's how playground rules work grow up a little bit you lend me your car and I wreck it how is justice served I owe you a car of equal or greater value right you don't

Get to just go wreck my car I don't have a car I borrowed yours but what happens for example if your child is kidnapped how is justice served is justice served when the child is returned it's just undoing the thing

Is justice served when you go kidnap his child that's repaying it one for one should there be some kind of a punishment and if there is a punishment how great a punishment should it be is it jail time

Is it a big fat fine is it death penalty is it public execution of you and all of your acquaintances so that nobody else makes the same mistake if the doctor is negligent and your child dies how is

Justice served in that situation do you get to go kill the doctor's child is that revenge or is that justice do you just get a big fat check from their insurance the

Practice insurance is that how justice is served or should that doctor go to jail I think we all know intuitively that somehow we can't always

Put our finger on it but somehow the punishment has to fit the crime somehow we have to come up with systems to make that happen but somehow

The punishment has to fit the crime and oftentimes the punishment is over and above just undoing what the crime was we don't expect that a car thief will achieve

Justice when they return all of the cars they return all of the cars and then they go to jail there is a punishment over and above undoing the thing that was done I was watching a presentation recently by a guy called

Michael ramsden he's a british apologist basically means he's a dude who goes around to college campuses and conferences and stuff like that gives speeches presentations on they call it a defense of the faith

It's really just a rational explanation of why christians believe what they believe and he's at this conference and they're about to go on a break and he says during this break we're going to

Have a whiteboard out front and we want everyone to come out and write the hardest questions they can possibly come up with so write your really hard questions on the whiteboard during the break and then at some point

During the break come and vote on the question that you think is the hardest question to answer and in the following session we're going to answer the really really hard questions which is brave to volunteer to do a 40 minute speech on

A topic that the audience gets to choose but he does that they go away on the break they come back from the break and there's a tie for first place two questions that have the same number of votes everyone says these are the two

Hardest questions to answer these are the two questions number one this is the first question how do you expect me to be happy in heaven if God has sent people to hell how do you expect me to be happy in heaven if God has sent people to

Hell the second question how do you expect me to be happy in heaven if the man who sexually abused me as a child is in heaven with me don't miss this the first question is saying how can I be happy if God Judges people and sends them to

Hell the second question is saying how can I be happy if God doesn't judge people and send them to hell you see the tension between the two questions one is saying if God upholds justice and punishes

People I cannot be happy and the other is saying if God doesn't uphold justice and punish people I can't be happy the same issue is addressed in both questions but they're pulling in opposite directions on our human

Morality meter in our own sense of justice we kind of we're unhappy with either option we simultaneously want God to punish evil but we also want him to

Be loving and kind and forgiving and give people a chance I have to admit that I feel this tension as well I think our society lives in this tension all of us have some way of

Comprehending it at least in our brain we feel like it's okay for some people to make it and it's not okay for other people to make it and we draw this line it can

Be anywhere and we say these people they're good enough these people they're not and my line could be here and your line could be there and somebody else's line

Could be all the way over there and we say at this point in time people are good enough and at this point in time I'm just uncomfortable with those guys making it into

Heaven and we all draw our own little lines in the sand and we see the world through that lens these people are good enough those so that we make it and anyone worse than

Us is probably not good enough I'm uncomfortable with them being in heaven with me so we have this criteria that makes us that gives us comfort of are the people good enough and we all have our own

Little lines and every time we do that every time we put a line down and say this is the fair spot for it what we're actually doing is saying God your line isn't as good as mine my line is better I'm

Fairer than you are my idea of what's right and wrong is better than your idea of what's right and wrong we should use my line because I'm more fair than you now God has a line as well he doesn't

Use our criteria luckily if he did use our criteria if he used the criteria of who's good enough and who's bad enough then his line is all the way over here there's one dude sitting by himself over there

God's only son Jesus Christ he's good enough everybody else fails the test if God uses our criteria of who's good enough and who's bad enough luckily

He does not use that he has a line but that's not what his line looks like so what does God's line look like how does he decide who makes the cut how does justice work in God's kingdom on who

Makes it and who doesn't I think there's a good chance you've heard this a thousand times but according to the Bible according to Christianity all of humanity stands guilty before God Romans

3 23 Says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Romans 6 23 says the wages of that sin what you earn

By that sin is death all of humanity is guilty the punishment that everyone has earned is death think back to the stadium where each

And every person's low lights reel is played on a jumbotron in front of all of humanity you get to see how evil the inside internal inclination of each person's heart is

Every evil thought every evil desire every lustful glance every flash of anger every ounce of pride every action made out of self ambition

Every cruel intention every under your breath cuss word everything happens on the big screen and each and every time you're sinning against a holy

And pure and righteous God each and every human each and every human is in their core fundamentally internally wicked everyone's the same all of humanity

Stands there right with you and it would be unfair it would be unjust of God who is the holy and perfect judge it

Would be unfair of him to look at that sin to look at that guilt and just say it doesn't matter because that's not

How justice works it would be unfair of him some kind of reparation some kind of payment is absolutely necessary to pay for that guilt to pay

For that punishment that ought to come for your sin if a jury if in our world if a jury comes back and says this man is guilty we have we have decided upon the evidence that this man is guilty and the judge comes back and says yes

I've seen the evidence he's been judged by a panel of his peers this guy's guilty but you know what I'm loving I'm compassionate I'm merciful so I'm just going to let you go please don't kidnap any more

Children or kill them there would be public outcry that is not justice that is not fair that is wrong a reasonable judge cannot just let people off for the things that they're guilty of

So what does God do Romans 5 8 and 9 it says but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us since therefore

We have now been justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God so while we were sinners Christ died for us and he paid the penalty for our sin we were

Justified by his blood we're saved by his life we're guilty we deserve punishment he pays the penalty that's how God's mercy and his justice work together for our good at the cross because justice says

You did this now you deserve this that's how justice works we're not always the best at saying what you deserve but we know that if you did this you deserve this mercy says you did this

You deserve this but I'm going to give you this now typically mercy happens at the expense of justice typically if you poke me in the eye and I choose not to poke you back

In the eye I'm extending mercy to you and justice is not served I was ripped off that's how mercy typically works when you extend mercy to someone you do so at the

Expense of justice so does that mean that God gives up justice in order to give mercy in Christianity no he can't he must uphold justice

To be a perfect judge God looks into every single human heart and at the core of it he sees sin he sees us for who we really

Are and he says this is wrong this is not how it was supposed to be this is not how it was designed you

Are guilty you stand guilty before the king and moved out of compassion he does something about it and he does that at the

Cross that's where the penalty for sin is met that at the cross when Jesus dies on behalf of all of sinners he incurs

The wrath that sin deserves so that punishment is made on behalf of sinners but Jesus pays for it so that sinners don't have

To God doesn't exercise mercy at the expense of justice he exercises his mercy through justice at the cross we should hear that God's justice is

Coming and we should hear that he's going to judge the entire world and it should be terrifying because we should know that by

Our sin we stand guilty and deserve death and destruction but here's the game changer this is Romans 10 9 it says if you

Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved

If you put your faith in Jesus you will be rescued from the judgment that you deserve if you put your faith in Jesus

His death on the cross will pay your ransom for you when you put your faith in Jesus your name goes into his little

Black book that he checks off at the end of days to see who's in and who's out when God's justice comes there is

Hope even for the guilty if they have faith in Jesus you might not think about it this way but I think we actually

Want God's version of justice because if we were tried in our justice system where good enough makes it and bad enough doesn't then

You would have to pay the penalty for your own sin you want Jesus as your judge because in his system you don't pay

The price for your own guilt if you put your faith in him you aren't held responsible for your own penalty for the woman

Who's afraid of seeing her abuser in heaven if he's there it's because he put his faith in Jesus and God himself paid the debt

That that man deserved Jesus took the punishment if that man is unrepentant if he refuses to admit his guilt if he refuses to

Say sorry if he refuses to put his faith in Jesus then he will stand on judgment day the highlights real from his life

Will play out for everyone to see and then he will stand condemned and be judged for what he's done and in that moment

Justice will have been served but he pays his own penalty Matt's going to come back up and as we land the plane here I want

You to consider what this means for your life so this isn't just knowledge that you store in your head but this is a

Hope that you get to live the rest of your life by because it means that for Christians justice doesn't have to be served now

Justice doesn't have to be served now you we live in a world where injustice happens the guilty go free the innocent get convicted we

Live in a world where injustice happens but that's okay because as Christians we know ultimate justice comes at the end of days if

You wouldn't call yourself a Christian then my urge to you is to consider this it simply isn't enough to say I lived a

Good life I'm a good person I'm on the right side of the line all have sinned all fall short of the glory of

God and justice must be served and you get to choose do I want that justice to be served on me or am I

Willing to let Jesus take it on my behalf for Christians since we know that ultimate justice will be satisfied in Christ's return that

It's better than any human justice that his line is more fair than any line we could come up with where mercy and justice

Can both happen then we get to live in a system where we're satisfied and we're fulfilled by our faith in Christ a system where all of sin is

Paid for either by Jesus on our behalf or by those who don't call him Lord and justice will be satisfied in that the

Hope for Christians is that when you go out there and you stand before Jesus and your life is played out on a jumbotron it doesn't matter how shameful it is it doesn't matter how bad you were

It doesn't matter that the whole world sees it Jesus is going to look over into his little black book and see your name and you're going to be invited in and

Jesus has paid the penalty for you that's the hope that we have in God's justice system let's pray God we thank you that you sent Jesus to take our punishment

For us we thank you that by him our punishment can be paid and that we can be welcomed in pray that we'll put our faith in you and in your justice and that we can be satisfied that

It will come at the end of days and that we don't need it immediately that we don't need to see justice in this world immediately because you are a right judge you are a holy judge and you will judge

All of humanity equally based off of whether they have faith in Jesus not according to what they've done we praise you and we thank you for that in his name amen

Mill City 6/25/17 Mill City 6/25/17

Christ and Resurrection

Transcript

Good morning. We're in the third week of our glory series where we're just taking some time to look at how big and good and holy Jesus is. And today we're going to be talking about the resurrection, that Jesus Christ rose from the grave. And the way the Bible treats this is that it is central. It is the thing that everything else hangs on. It's the truth that makes all the other truths true.

And so as we begin this morning, I kind of want to tell a few stories to kind of help you picture this and how this kind of concept has played out in my life a little bit. I grew up playing football, so I want to start with fifth grade, Chet. It's a Saturday in the fall. And the Colts have made it to the Rotary Bowl. This is a big deal. This is the Super Bowl for fifth graders.

We had played three games that day, and we had made it to the Rotary Bowl. And I was a running back at this point. I would not be for the rest of my career, but I was at this point. And we were down. We're losing the Rotary Bowl. My stomach's running empty on the pancakes my dad had fed me that morning, which was always his go-to.

You're going to have to play football all day. Let's eat pancakes. I have not yet addressed this with him, but I'm not going to do that to my kids. But anyway, we have about three yards to go to score a touchdown, to win the game, and this is it. It's our last chance, last play. I don't know what the time was on the clock, but this was our last.

It was fourth down, so we're going to score here or it's going to be over with. And we ran a wishbone, and I was on this side, and Kyle McClain was right here. I'm 11, he's 10, something like that. And the play is the ball's going to be handed to Kyle. I'm going to lead block, and we've got to get three yards. Ball snapped, good snap, which in Little League, that's a feat in and of itself.

The center handed it to the quarterback. We're already off to a great start. So I take off. He hands the ball to Kyle McClain. We've got to get three yards. Let's fast forward.

Junior year of high school, second round of the playoffs. We had a pretty good team this year. It was the best team we'd had in years at our high school. We were doing pretty well, and we played Carolina Forest, second round of the playoffs. And we were used to really just beating people, and Carolina Forest is beating us. And they were a good team.

They had a tight end on that team. It was a big white boy. He's the reason why I decided, why I went into the next season 20 pounds heavier. Because I tried to tackle him, and it was like tackling a tree. And I was like, I'm going to have more momentum next year. Made that decision after a couple of plays.

It was in the first quarter. I was like, no, I'm gaining weight. This isn't happening anymore. I did that quite successfully for many years. And then I got slower in the momentum thing. It's a math problem.

It starts not working out as well. Anyway, we're down. We had a good offense this year. The defense had fought and fought and fought, and it was 24 to 21, and we had to score. We had one drive. We had about a minute and a half.

And we've got to get down the field. We had not great field position. We're starting on like the 20. And we've got to get all the way down the field, score a touchdown, stay in the playoffs, keep going. So our quarterback, Coco Hillary, drops back and streaming down the sideline is Justin Broadwater.

And this cat was fast. All he did was run fast, catch footballs, score touchdowns, and not talk. That was all he did. Like he did not say a word. Everybody on our team called him mute. Now that may be offensive.

That's just what we called him. He, because he didn't talk. He could. He just chose not to. I hadn't known him since first grade. He did not talk.

And this is what he would do when he would score a touchdown. And he scored a lot of them. He would run into the end zone. I mean, streaming. As soon as he passed the goal line, he'd do like this. He'd turn around.

He'd find the ref, toss him the ball, and walk off the field. Like nothing had happened. Everybody else loses their mind. He was just like, all right, I did. I scored a touchdown. Let me go back over here.

Streaming down the sideline. He's got a cornerback right here on his hip pocket. Coco drops back, throws the ball. I mean, beautiful spiral. Justin's got about a step on this guy. And if he catches it, he's gone.

Quentin Curry's on the other side running down this side. I'm glad Coco threw it to Justin because Quentin Curry could catch the ball in traffic all the time. But as soon as he caught it, he would just fall down. It's like it took all the energy he had to make his hands do what he wanted it to. And his legs just stopped. So he would catch the ball and fall.

So even if he caught it, there's nothing we could do. Justin Broadwater, we got a shot. Ball streaming. I can remember watching it. It's just beautiful. Lights Friday night shining on it.

It's coming down. A few years later, first year of college is our first home game. We're playing Charleston Southern. It is 13 to 14. End of the game. We're driving in.

We've got to get a field goal, which I went to Presbyterian College. We didn't have the best field goal kickers. So really, we needed a touchdown. We needed a touchdown. 13-14. We need a point.

We've got to score a touchdown. We'll win the game. Quarterback drops back. S.J. Worrell is coming across the middle. Matt and I argued about this earlier.

He said it was Chetuan Reeder. I say it was S.J. Worrell. I get to tell the story, so it's S.J. Could have been Chetuan. But anyway, coming across the middle.

Drops back. Throws the ball. Football in the air. S.J. One defender. We've got to shout at this.

It's a good pass, too. It's going to hit him right in the Numbers. Everything in all three of those plays, in those moments, everything in that game hung on that moment. Everything. Win, lose. It's hanging on that moment.

And Paul is going to tell us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Go ahead and grab your Bibles and go there. Paul is going to tell us 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that the gospel, the truth of what Jesus has accomplished in the cross, that everything we hope in and believe in in Jesus hangs on the resurrection. That if Jesus Christ is laid in a tomb and stays there, game over. That's what Paul is going to tell us. So we're going to read a good bit to kind of get to where Paul is making this claim.

So if you're in 1 Corinthians, we're going to spend a good bit of time in 1 Corinthians today. We're actually going to walk all the way to the end of the chapter. It's a long chapter. We are going to jump ahead a little bit. If that stresses you out, I'm apologizing in advance. Take one of these Bibles with you.

It's our gift to you. Read the whole chapter when you get home. I'd love for you to. But today we're going to have to jump a little bit. But we are going to go from the very beginning of the chapter to the end of the chapter as we walk through looking at the resurrection and its implications for us as Christians.

I'm going to pray and then we're going to start reading in verse 1. God, I pray that you would help us to see the seriousness of the resurrection and the beauty that's hidden in it. How it is the truth that makes all the other truths true for us. I pray that today would be worshipful and joyous as we see that you conquered the grave. In Jesus' name. Amen.

1 Corinthians 15. 1 Paul's writing to a church in Corinth. He says, Now I would remind you, brothers, which that word is brothers or brothers and sisters. It's how that word works. I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. So he's saying, I want to remind you of the good news.

That's what gospel means. I want to remind you of the good news, the news I proclaimed to you, and that you believed, and that you focused your life on, and you stand in it. Verse 3. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. And that he appeared to Cephas, that's Peter's name before Jesus gave him the name Peter.

Then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. That's a nice way of saying have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I'm the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. But it was not I, but the grace of God that is in me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. So Paul starts off by saying, I want to remind you of the gospel, that Jesus Christ died for our sins.

The Bible said he was going to do this. Then he rose from the grave. The Bible said he was going to do this. And then he started showing up and talking to people. It wasn't just that his body disappeared and people said, oh, he rose. His body disappeared, and then it walked over and talked to people.

And a bunch of people saw him. Some of those people are dead. Most of them are alive. That's what Paul says. And then he says, pick up in verse 12. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

So some people apparently were teaching. People don't come back from the dead. There is no resurrection. He says, but if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching, this message we're telling you, our preaching is in vain. And your faith is in vain.

What you've believed is a waste of time. 15. We're even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise. If it is true that the dead are not raised, for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. As Paul says, if Jesus Christ did not rise from the grave, what you believe is a waste of time. It's futile. You're still in your sins. What he's saying is that our faith, that our sin has been paid for, that we can stand before God and be made okay is based solely on the resurrection. Jesus Christ had to die for us and he had to pay the penalty.

But if he didn't rise, then he was just the guy who died. Everything hangs on the resurrection being true. Otherwise, we're still in our sin. And what we preach is in vain. It's a waste of time and people should feel sorry for us. It's a Saturday.

I'm in fifth grade wearing my green Colts jersey. I believe I was number 28 at the time. And I was in fifth grade, but I look pretty good. I'll just be real with y'all. I'm lead blocking. Kyle McClain's behind me.

They hand the ball to him. I run into the hole. Somebody comes through here, hits Kyle. He's tackled. And as much guilt and shame and pain as a fifth grader can feel, we felt. It descended on us.

We had lost the Rotary Bowl. Game over. Tears cried. Go home. It's my junior. Ball's in the air.

Cornerback reaches up. Reaches in front of Justin Broadwater's face. Flips the ball down. Game over. Go home. 24-21.

Season over. Seniors, you're done. Most of them never played football again. Tears cried. Head to the locker room. Over.

Freshman year of college. First home game. S.J. Warrell's coming across the middle. There's one defender. Ball's in the air.

It's beautiful. He's right here. He touches it. And he gets hit so hard there was a crack that rattled through the stadium. His feet flew up in the air. The ball flew up in the air.

Another defender caught the ball and took it to the house. 21-13. Game over. Go home. And that's Christianity. Without the resurrection.

Game over. Go home. Tears cried. Feel shame. Feel guilt. You're still in your sin.

Game over. Go home. And this is true. Because of what we preach. Because of what the New Testament says. Some of you who maybe would be willing to be like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Hold on a second. Hold on a second. But Jesus, if he didn't rise, we still got all this good stuff. First of all, no. We don't. You say, well, we got, you know, Jesus was a good moral teacher.

No, he wasn't. Because he walked around telling people he was God. And that he was going to die. And that he was going to rise. If he doesn't rise from the grave, he's not a good moral teacher. He's a nut.

Or a charlatan. And then you say, well, we'll never, they added that stuff later. Okay. Do you know the message of the New Testament? The gospel message. The gospels.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The point of them is they're going to tell you that Jesus healed people. They're going to tell you things he taught. But the point is he died and he rose from the grave. And because of that, God's seal is on him. What Jesus said was true.

We should believe in him and sin can be paid for. Do you know what the New Testament letters say? What we believe as Christians? This is the premise of the New Testament letters. You cannot, will not, ever fix yourself. Pay for your sin.

Be good enough. You deserve wrath. You're dead in your trespasses. You deserve for God to destroy you. But Jesus can, does save you.

Pays for your sin, which you could not do. Rises again, conquering sin, death, and hell to give you life. That's why Paul says, if this isn't true, people should feel sorry for us. Do you know how sad this gathering would be if Jesus didn't rise from the grave? Jesus doesn't rise from the grave. Christianity ends.

We're done. If he didn't rise, if you're not a Christian in here, I just want to tell you, this is the thing to investigate. If you're trying to figure out whether you want to believe in Jesus, the resurrection is the thing to investigate. So many people come at Christianity and they're like, I want to know what its stance on this political issue. No. You need to know whether or not Jesus rose from the grave.

If he rose, then talk to him about politics. Because he's alive and he can talk to you. If he didn't rise, have all whatever kind of politics you want. Have whatever kind of moral stances you want. Think of whatever. He didn't rise.

We should be done. If Jesus didn't rise from the grave, get up. Go outside. On the lobby, there's a little coffee thing. It's better now than it used to be. And hit the door.

And don't ever wake up early on a Sunday again. Unless you're going fishing or playing golf or something. Oh, if you have a kid in Kid City, get them first. That's what he says. It's futile. It's a waste.

If Jesus Christ didn't rise from the grave, it's a waste and people should feel sorry for us. Do you know how, just think back to all of our sermons, if you've been here a while. If Jesus didn't rise, do you know what our sermons are? One of our favorite passages is Ephesians chapter 2. And it says that you were dead in your trespasses and sins. That you were captive to the prince of the power of the air.

That you were following him, a son of disobedience and a child of wrath. And then it says, but God, who's rich in mercy. And then it declares the gospel that we've been made alive with Christ. But there wouldn't be a but God there. It would just be, we would open the Bible and say, all right, everyone. You're dead in your trespasses and sin.

You're a child of wrath. You're a slave to Satan. Potluck next week. Bye. We'd sing songs. One of my favorite Christian songs that we sing, worship songs to sing to my son is nothing but the blood.

Without the resurrection, that song is just nothing. It's the title of it. What can wash away my sin? Nothing. Nothing. What can make me whole again?

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing can save my soul. Nothing can make me whole. Onward to hell we go. Nothing.

Nothing. Nothing. What can make me whole again? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing can save my soul. Nothing can make me whole. Onward to hell we go. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. That's Christianity without the resurrection It's nothing You can still be Jewish You can still be Buddhist You can still be a Muslim Christianity hinges on this one fact Jesus Christ rose from the grave And if he didn't If he didn't We're done Look at verse

20 But in fact Christ has Been raised from the dead The first fruits Of those who have fallen asleep You see the resurrection of Jesus is not reanimation He did not come back to life To later die He rose It's resurrection That he is forever alive now That's what we believe We believe that Jesus Christ Literally Physically Physically Lived on earth That he was God Who'd become a human And that he literally Physically Died And he was buried

And then he literally Physically Rose from the grave And this is what the gospels Attest to That there's Place after place In Acts And in Matthew And Mark And Luke Where Jesus goes around People recognize him They eat with him They touch him This happens over and over In Luke 24 It happens in John 20 In Matthew 28 People grab his feet And John 24 He shows him his scars And his hands And his side

He eats fish Which I don't know If it was just to prove That he had a body Or if he wanted some fish But he ate fish He sits and eats They said that they Ate with him They talked with him They touched him Jesus Christ Risen from the grave Literally and physically He wasn't just a spirit It wasn't just that they saw a vision It wasn't that he came to him From the afterlife It's that he had life again And then he literally Physically rose Ascended into heaven That's what we believe I want to share

As we get started That that's what we believe That we believe That Jesus Christ Literally physically died And that he literally And physically rose From the grave And most of our time today Will be spent on The results of that What that actually does How that truth Makes everything else true But I just want to help us See something That there are things That we have historically And that historians agree to That help make this Seem more compelling So we have the gospel story That's what we believe That Jesus Christ died

And that he rose from the grave But there are actual Historical things That also help this Seem very plausible And I just want to share Some of those with you Because I think it's It's encouraging And helpful To see some of this Every once in a while There's a theologian His name is Gary Habermas And he One of the ways That he talks about this Is he says that there are Historical Like undeniable Historical facts That everybody agrees to That they have A lot of historical data

That points to this And then they have Christians Non-Christians Atheists Agnostics Historians of every Brand and stripe And color Agree These things happened That you can just look at history And we agree this happens And he lists them out The first one is this Jesus died by crucifixion There was a man named Jesus And we know that he died By crucifixion That's historical People believe that Nobody's really arguing that Two Very soon afterwards

His followers Had real experiences That they thought Were actual appearances Of the risen Christ Of risen Jesus So The reason why It's worded that way Historians will look back They don't agree That Jesus rose from the grave Historians aren't making that claim Because that's a They would say That's a faith claim But they'll point and go Okay The people that followed him Really did believe it That's what historians agree on They don't necessarily believe That he rose But they believe

That the people around him Actually believed it They weren't just making this up They actually believed it Third one is this Their lives The people who saw Had these experiences Were transformed as a result Even to the point Of being willing to die Specifically for their faith In the resurrection message So what we can see Historically Is that there are A group of people Who followed Jesus around We know that Jesus died And then Soon after All the people who Followed him around Started saying

He's alive And there was a large Group of people Who said No he's not Shut up And this small group Of people kept saying Yes he is You shut up It's a historical fact The church grew In the face of persecution All of these disciples Of Jesus Were actually martyred They were killed On a regular basis For proclaiming this I want to read a quote We'll leave that up there I want to read a quote From a guy named Chuck Colson

Chuck Colson Was the first guy To go to jail For the Watergate scandal He was called Nixon's hatchet man I don't know why But he sounds intense He was Nixon's hatchet man If you're not familiar With Watergate It's like Deflategate But not as big a deal Watergate was the Scandal that Nixon had Where they broke in And Into the Watergate hotel And If you've seen the movie Forrest Gump It's featured in there But they break into The Watergate hotel

Forrest Gump Tails on them And They break into The Watergate hotel And they bug it And it's the Democratic National Convention And they were just Trying to listen in And the bigger issue Is that they then Tried to cover it up They tried to hide this lie It's what eventually Led to Nixon's Resignation From the presidency Chuck Colson Was one of the guys In on that And he goes to jail And in the process Of being indicted

And going through court And all that stuff He becomes a Christian Eventually starts A prison ministry Which I think is cool That Jesus worked in that But here's what he says He says I know the resurrection Is a fact And Watergate Proved it to me How? Because twelve men Testified that they Had seen Jesus Raised from the dead Then they proclaimed That truth For forty Years Never once Denying it

Everyone was beaten Tortured Stoned And put in prison They would have not Endured that If it weren't true Watergate Embroiled twelve Of the most powerful Men in the world And they couldn't Keep alive for three weeks You're telling me That the twelve apostles Could keep alive For forty years Absolutely impossible So this was a man Who's caught up In Watergate And he says We couldn't keep it together For three weeks

And we were powerful He says This is a bunch of fishermen He said I believe the resurrection Happened I believe that they Believed it Because every single one Of them faced death For it And never Said anything else And the boldness That comes from that Is that What we find When we read The scriptures Is that we have Eyewitness testimony Telling us That Jesus Christ Rose from the grave

And every single person Who penned it Who wrote that down Who proclaimed it Believed it When Paul says I saw Jesus And he changed my life He believed it When the disciples Said it They believed it The fourth one That this He gives Is that These things Were taught Very early Soon after The crucifixion That's actually First Corinthians Three through seven

What we just read Where it says I delivered to you As of first importance And then he says That Christ died For our sins In accordance with The scriptures That he was buried That he was raised On the third day In accordance with The scriptures All the way through seven Where it says He appeared to James And then to all the apostles That actually When people who Are really smart Study this And study language They say

That's actually a creed Paul's just quoting that And that's one of the Earliest things That Christians Memorized and said To each other Jesus Christ Died for our sins Rose from the grave He appeared to these people So they began Passing that message around And memorizing that Because that's what They believed Very early on Five James Jesus' unbelieving brother Became a Christian Due to his own experience That he thought Was the resurrected Christ

So again Historians aren't going to Agree that it was They're just going to say We know historically That there was a guy Named James Who was Jesus' brother And he came out And said Jesus is God Now if you have siblings You explain to me How hard it would be For you to convince them You were God Six The Christian persecutor Paul Formerly Saul of Tarsus Also became a believer After a similar experience What we're faced with In the scriptures

Is a bunch of eyewitness accounts Saying I believe that Jesus Christ Rose from the grave And then everything In Christianity Hangs on that If he didn't rise We've got nothing But if he did We get everything That's how Christianity works Jesus Christ Rose from the grave Everything That has been Proclaimed in the gospel Is true So we're going to Take a little bit of time As we walk through First Corinthians To see four results

Of the resurrection Four ways That this Four Truths That this makes true That because of the resurrection This is now true And we can Bank on it And we can rest in it And we can hope in it Because it is now true for us Through the gospel Pick back up in verse 20 But in fact Christ has been Raised from the dead The first fruits Of those Who have fallen asleep For as by a man Came death By a man

Has come all Also the resurrection Of the dead For as in Adam All die So also In Christ Shall all Be made alive So what he's saying Is That our first father Adam sinned And death Entered the world So that in Adam Everybody dies Because of Adam We all die But in Christ All are made alive And because Jesus Rose from the grave He forever lives

And is forever able To offer his life To those who would Believe in him This is why Paul In Galatians 2 20 says I've been crucified With Christ It's no longer I who live But Christ Who lives In me And the life I now live In the flesh I live by the faith In the son of God Who loved me And gave himself For me You see Because Jesus Christ

Rose from the grave He's able to give you His life He's able to live In you Because he's not dead He's risen He's alive And so he's able To give you his life And what that means For us as Christians Because we declare Clearly You're not good enough You're not smart enough You're not going to do this You mess this up You're going to fail You are sinful And that would be Really depressing But we follow that up with But Jesus

Accomplished this For you And as you place Your faith in him Will accomplish it In you One of the reasons Our church expects So much Of each other When it comes to repentance When it comes to confession When it comes to living When it comes to generosity Is because we believe That Jesus is at work In you Our goal is not to ask you To accomplish that On your own Our goal Is to ask each other To yield to Jesus As he works

In you And we expect A whole lot Out of Jesus And we believe That he's alive In you Leading you away From sin And towards holiness But the promise Of Jesus being alive Means that you can Actually say no To sin It means that you can Actually go beyond Your own natural ability To love And to serve And to sacrifice Because it's Jesus Animating you It's Jesus

At work in you And we believe That because Jesus Is at work in you He's the one Who carries You to completion That he's going To make you Holy And blameless And above reproach Let's keep reading Pick up in verse 23 Verse 23 But each In his own order Christ The firstfruits Then at his coming Those who belong To Christ Then comes the end When he

That's Jesus Delivers the kingdom To God the Father After destroying Every rule And every authority And power For he must reign Until he puts All his enemies Under his feet The last enemy To be destroyed Is death I've said this before If you can kill death You win That's the last enemy To be destroyed Is that Jesus Destroys death That through the power Of his resurrection He forever reigns

Over death So that death No longer has Any claim Any power Anything But one of the other Truths that becomes True because of the Resurrection Is that justice Will eventually reign That Jesus will Eventually subject All authorities And all powers Under himself And this gives us Great hope And this hope Is grounded In the resurrection This gives us Great hope

As Christians That one day Jesus will judge He will be fair He will hand out Justice I read a quote From a guy Who had seen A lot of pain And death And destruction In Croatia During some of their wars And he said That when people argue That God isn't just He's not He's not going to Punish anyone He's just going to love He said The only people Who make that argument

Are the people Who have never seen Someone ride through A village Murder Rape And burn things down He said Because The only thing That keeps me From having to Pick up the sword Is knowing that Jesus Christ Picks up the sword The only way I'm actually able To forgive And offer grace Is to know that Jesus forgave And offered me grace And he promises

That one day Justice will be served That either He'll pay for it On the cross Or they'll pay For their sin But that justice Will be served Otherwise we get trapped In having to Seek revenge And retribution He says It's actually the justice Of God That gives us freedom And that justice Of God Is hanging on The resurrection I have a Two year old So I've been catching up

On all my Disney movies One of the ones I like Is Robin Hood It's got a fox And he's Robin Hood And John Prince John And this is based Off of historical stuff I don't know how True Robin Hood stuff is I know he wasn't a fox Prince John is a lion But he doesn't have a mane He sucks his thumb And he has to Poke his ears out Because he's wearing His brother's crown He has to like Poke his ears out So the crown Won't fall down

Over his head And he's Committing massive amounts Of injustice He's He's just Ruling with an iron fist And he's ruling poorly And this crown That doesn't quite fit Is a really good picture Of how poorly he rules And then at the end Of the movie King Richard The Lionheart Shows back up And he's a lion With a legit mane And the crown Fits perfectly And there's something About Jesus One day returning

Because he's resurrected One day returning To set up justice That helps us Clearly see How every authority And every government And every system Of power Has a crown That doesn't quite fit And they have to do Everything they can To try to keep it On top of their head And as injustice Is poured out On us on earth We can hold on With hope That one day Justice will roll down From the mountains And that the king

Will again ascend To the throne And he will rule Everything Because his crown Fits perfectly And that's banking On the resurrection That Jesus rose And one day Will return Let's move to Verse 45 We're jumping ahead A little bit Paul begins to talk About how the resurrection Of the dead works I'm sorry Let's move to Verse 42 I said too far He begins to talk About how the resurrection

Of the dead works And how our bodies Are raised And what that looks like And one of the Examples he gives Is that If we took a bunch Of seeds That went to Different plants And made you guess If you didn't know Much about Botany Plant science If that's what Botany means And you had to guess What the seed Would look like After you buried it His point His argument

Is most of the seeds Look the same But once they start Growing They look very different And they do Very different things And he says That's kind of the way Our resurrection Bodies are work That we all look The same right now But eventually We have to be buried We have to be sown That's the word He's going to use That we have to be buried That that seed Has to die In order for the The real thing to come And so I just want to

Explain kind of how He's saying this Because we got to We got to move We're in verse 42 So it is With the resurrection Of the dead What is sown Is perishable So he's talking About our bodies They fade They perish What is raised Is imperishable It is sown In dishonor It's raised in glory It's sown In weakness It's raised in power It's sown A natural body

It's raised A spiritual body If there is A natural body There is also A spiritual body To what Paul says Is that because Of the resurrection Of Jesus Our resurrection Is secured And this Is A beautiful hope That we have In Christ Because he says Our bodies They're going to be Laid down in weakness They're going to be Laid down in dishonor They're going to perish

They're going to give out They're going to fail They're going to fall short That when Jesus Was walking around on earth And he was healing The blind And he was healing The sick And he was He was letting Paralytics walk again He was accomplishing In them Something that was Going to ultimately Make him have to Go to the cross That he was Pre-working Some of the Resurrection Some of the Paying for sin

That he was Eventually going to do On the cross That Jesus Christ Re-gives us a life And that this hope For us Is in the resurrection That all weakness And sickness And disease And fear And depression And mental illness And persistent sin All those things That make it hard To wake up in the morning Or that follow us Around like a cloud For those of you Who struggle with Depression And someone will ask you

How are you doing And you answer Okay I think And the reason is You feel okay But you've learned Not to trust yourself Because you You don't know If you feel okay Because you're actually okay Or because you've just So untethered yourself From everything You just don't care And you just don't love anymore Those of you Who struggle with Mental illness Can't trust your brain Can't trust yourself Can't be alone With yourself

Have to have people That you're ready to call At a moment's notice When things turn Really dark for you For every single person Who you know Or if it's you That sat in a room And didn't want to Have the sunlight come in And didn't want to Talk to a human And wanted to sleep For 12 hours a day 15 hours a day Didn't want to do Any of the things That would lead to joy And health and life The promise of the resurrection Is that what's sown In weakness Will be raised in power

What's perishable And failing Will become imperishable For every single one of us Who've watched A loved one Slowly fade They get smaller Every time we see Their mind Their mind doesn't Quite work Like it used to Maybe they've begun To have erratic emotions Or they're lashing out Or they're saying things That they never would have said Every single one of us That has to watch A loved one Battle And battle And battle

Cancer Just to lose The hope The hope found In the resurrection Is that what's weak Rises in power And what's perishable Rises imperishable And what's sown In dishonor Rises in glory For every single one of us Who've received a phone call And from that moment on Life changed You have your life Pre phone call And you have your life Post phone call The promise for Christians Is that when we gather At a funeral To mourn

A saint Someone who's Placed their faith In Jesus That we gather As a group of people Who are heartbroken And who hurt Because of the loved one We've lost But we don't gather Without hope Because we have a king Who once had a group Of friends Gather around the tomb Heartbroken And hurting And then he came Walking out And the hope for us Because of that risen king Is that we will rise Our resurrection

Is secure And that all fear And guilt And shame And sin That we can't seem To beat That you've fought For your entire life That you've begged God To release you from That you've asked And pleaded And it's come to the point Where you've begun to think This is going to be With me Forever Every single person Who has a sin battle That is good for a little while And then comes Rearing its ugly head

The promise is That you're weak And you're dishonorable And you're perishable But Jesus Christ Rose from the grave And there will one day Be power An imperishable body And glory Because our God Didn't stay dead The resurrection of Jesus Gives us hope In a glorious Future resurrection That we can hold tightly to In the midst of everything We face now Verse 53 For this perishable body Must put on the imperishable And this mortal body Must put on the

On immortality When the perishable Puts on the imperishable And the mortal Puts on immortality Then shall come to pass The saying that is written He's quoting Isaiah Death is swallowed up In victory Oh death Where is your victory Oh death Where is your sting The sting Of death Is sin And the power Of sin Is the law But thanks be to God Who gives us the victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ

All right I want to explain Verse 56 for us quickly The sting of death Is sin And the power Of sin Is the law So he says The sting of death Is sin And the power Of sin Is the law Okay so the law Is the right rules That God gives That he speaks Into the world And says this is how You ought to live Once those rules Came in You became

Excessively Sinful I'll give you an example Of this My son Gets spanked On a regular basis At my house Because my house Has rules Don't touch that Put that down No You can't have Four popsicles When he goes to His grandmother's house And I say How did he do She says He was great What she means is I never said no There is no power

Of the law At her house Not at least The way it is At my house The power Of the law The power Of sin Is the law What makes Your sin Evident And present And clear Is the law Is the Your sin Is the law So I look at my son And say Don't do that Suddenly there is A law

That he can now Show Clearly and evidently How sinful he is As he looks at me Judges the distance Between us And decides I can do it About three times Before he gets here That was him At about nine months On an outlet Don't touch that Looked at me But the law Showed his sinfulness So what Paul's saying Is that the power of sin Is in the law That all of the things That God said This is how you ought to live

They just show us How much sin Is at work In us For people who think People aren't that sinful It's because they've never Really tried Try to be really gracious And generous And caring And kind And considerate And loving Try that for a really long time Try to be moral For a long time What you'll get Is guilt and shame Or you'll convince yourself There is no God Because you'll never Live up to that And then he says

The sting of death Is sin Death came into the world Because of sin And it's painful Because of sin Death has a sting to it Because we die In our sin That we stand before God In our sin But he says The sting of death Is sin And the power of sin Is the law But thanks be to God Who gives us The victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ If you are in Jesus The law has no claim on you Sin has been paid

And there will be no sting In death Where is your victory? Death Where is your sting? It does not exist For the Christian Because the moment You take your last breath You take your next first one Into eternity When you stand before a king Made holy And blameless And righteous Because Jesus Christ Died for your sin And rose To give you his life And we follow after him He's the firstborn Among the dead And we rise To be resurrected

To glory As all of those Who follow after him As brothers and sisters Made righteous Through Jesus There is no sting In death For a Christian There is no victory Of death Death Will claim us Once And when we go Through death We can look back At it and say Jesus is coming I've read about Your end You see You killed him once And he rose forever

And one day He's calling your number Death And you'll never Claim anyone again Because sin No longer has power Because Jesus Upheld the law For me But if Jesus Didn't rise We've got nothing If Jesus Christ Just died He does not Conquer death He does not Fulfill the law He does not Pay for our sin Death has a sting Sin claims us And the law

Accuses us But we're told That we have one Who stands before The throne of God And who has Disarmed the enemy That sin no longer Has a claim That the law Can no longer Accus us And that when we die We're ushered Into glory Where we're met By a God Who loves us Because he loves us In Jesus Jesus' resurrection life Is alive in you Now Justice will be served

You have the hope Of a future resurrection And victory Is already yours In Christ Those are true If you have placed Your faith In Jesus They're true What do we do With that How does Paul Tell us to respond Matt and Bianca Are going to come up here As we kind of Finish this out This morning Here's what Paul says Is the response For us In Christ Who have

Believed on him For salvation Not just Know that this Happened But actually Believe That he Paid the penalty Of our sin We've trusted in him We've placed our faith In him He says all of this About the resurrection He says all of this About the victory That we have in Christ And then in verse 58 He says Therefore Which just means Because all of this Is true

Therefore my beloved Brothers Be Steadfast Immovable Always Abounding In the work Of the Lord Knowing that In the Lord Your labor Is not In vain Paul's conclusion To this Is don't Go anywhere Don't Go anywhere Be Steadfast Those of you Who are

Tired Those of you Who are Doubting Your hope Is in The resurrection Of Jesus Don't shift To something else Those of you Who have begun To ask the question Am I good enough You've already Moved That was never Your hope To be good enough To be holy enough To be To do enough Your hope Is in

The resurrection Of Jesus Stay There Be steadfast Immovable And then he says Keep working Every bit Of every ounce Of sweat And blood And tears And sacrifice Every penny Spent Because there's A resurrection Because there's A future home Because this life Isn't all we get It's worth it Don't stop

Don't take Your boots Off Don't clock Out Keep working Don't go Anywhere Keep working Let's pray Father I pray That the Reality And the power Of the resurrection Would sink So deeply Into our soul To be the Foundation for Everything for Us And I pray The Lord

That through Your spirit Alive in Us That we Would keep Working That we Would be Steadfast Immovable And always Abounding In your work In your name Amen It's It's It's It's It's It's It I'm It's

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That through Your spirit Alive in Us That we Would keep Working That we Would be Steadfast Immovable And always Abounding In your work In your name Amen It's It's It's It's It's It's It I'm It's

It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's Ill It's It's It's

Mill City 6/18/17 Mill City 6/18/17

Atonement

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. This morning we're going to be talking about sin. Happy Father's Day. We are, though.

We're in our second week of our Glory Series, and we're talking about how big and glorious and magnificent and beautiful and holy Jesus is. And last week we specifically spent some time looking at that He is the image of the invisible God, that He's the radiance of God's glory, and that He exists over and above all of creation, from the smallest thing to the greatest thing, and that He is most glorious and most worthy of worship. And today we're going to spend some time talking about the atonement. We're going to spend a little time talking about this concept of atonement whereby God takes sinful humans and develops a system, makes a plan to make them okay with Himself, to bridge the gap between His holiness and our sins.

So in a minute we're going to turn to Leviticus. I want us to start here, though, and we'll have this on the screen. It's Hebrews 1, verse 3, and in a second that's going to get brighter. We're having some issues with the projector today. So it says, He is the radiance of the glory of God.

It's talking about Jesus. That Jesus is the glory of the glory. He's the beauty of God's glory. He's the light and the heat from it. He's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. That if we want to know what God is like, we look to Jesus.

And He upholds the universe by the word of His power. So if you only think of Jesus as a Galilean peasant who holds sheep and cries and is just having conversations with the weak and the poor, He does these things. I don't know if He holds sheep. I'm just assuming maybe at some point He did. He does in all the pictures you see in Sunday school. But He does weep.

He does bend to those who are weak and poor and hungry and needy. And He does spend time. But if that's your only picture of Him, your picture of Jesus is underwhelming. It is petite. It's cute compared to the true magnificent Christ that we meet in Scripture who upholds the universe by the word of His power. Now I know that the Bible says that and I understand what the words mean, but I actually have no clue how that works.

But it means that Jesus rules and reigns over everything. And then it says this, After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So what it's saying is that after Jesus Christ died for sin, that's what He did on the cross, that's what people know about Jesus. If you don't know much about Jesus, people will say, well, He died for our sins. People who don't even believe that will say that. What did Jesus do?

He died for our sins. So what we're going to talk about today is what does that mean? That Jesus Christ had to make purification for sin. First, we see from that three words, purification for sins, we see that sin exists and it needs to be cleaned up. It needs to be taken care of and that Jesus does that. That's what atonement is, is that there is sin.

Objectively, it exists. It has marred. It has destroyed. It has sullied. It has dirtied. And Jesus purifies.

So first, very simply, what is sin? In a simple definition, sin is the rejection of God's good reign in the world. It is our action, attitude, and nature that intentionally and unintentionally rebels against God and His moral law in the world. That God is the creator, that He oversees the universe, and that we rebel against His law, His rule, His reign, His system. That we break His laws. Paul says this in Romans.

He says that the Jewish people who were given the law of God will be judged based off of the law they were given. And then he says in the non-Jewish people, that their conscience actually bears witness and that they show through their actions that what the law requires is written on their hearts. That they actually have a conscience imprinted in them. And this is why many of the cultures that have grown up in society, they have very similar systems for what right is and what wrong is. That stealing is wrong. That murder is wrong.

There's this kind of internal policing of... This is why when you do some sort of an action, you feel it. You feel bad. You feel wrong. That's what he's saying, is that those who were given the law will be judged by the law. And those who weren't given the law, the non-Jewish peoples, show that it's written into them.

But it's not just a failure. Sin is not just a failure to live up to God's moral code. It's also primarily, it begins with a failure to relate to God properly, to appreciate who he is, to worship him, to love him, to bend to his reign, to submit to his rule. It's this... Paul says in the beginning of Romans that all of our sins starts with us loving something, worshiping something more than God. That once God leaves his rightful place, as the most...

That's what we spent time talking about last week, that Jesus is the most worthy of our devotion and our love. But once God gets moved and you put something else there, romance, finances, power, prestige, anything you get stuck up there suddenly begins to bend us. We begin to love it too much and it leads us into sin so that at first, sin is not just a breaking of rules, but it's at first worshiping and loving something other than God that leads to us rejecting his rules and running from him. Augustine says that sin is disordered love. Augustine's an African church leader in the early church. He says it's a disordered love that we love something too much.

We love ourselves too much. We love our families too much. We love something other than God. It's moved from its rightful place. And you can see this in simple things. So if you imagine a home where it's Father's Day, so we'll use this for an example.

You imagine a home where there's a father, a mother, some children and there's supposed to be an amount of love that goes towards this. The husband's supposed to love his wife and his children in a way that makes the rest of everything else fall into place. But if he begins to love work more, suddenly his love is greater for his job or greater for his title or if his love is greater for money or even just his own personal satisfaction and rest, suddenly everything gets out of order. And that's the system that we have in the world where we've begun to love things more than God and the whole system has begun to break down.

Paul says in Romans 3, he says, 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. The biblical stance on sin is that it is bad and you are a sinner. That's where we're starting this morning. I'm going to pray and we're going to jump into in just a second, and we're going to be going to talk about what sin actually does and how it's bad. But before we do that, we have to realize that naturally we don't want to think of ourselves as sinful.

You give yourself the benefit of the doubt. You judge other people by their actions, but you judge yourself by your intentions. It's one of the things like my wife will say, you know, you really hurt my feelings. And my response is, well, I didn't mean to. And I feel like that's a perfectly good response. That was not my intention.

And maybe that's helpful. I wasn't malicious, but I still caused harm. I still broke our relationship down. It's like, well, that wasn't what I was going for. And that's why people, you know, when someone, you tell somebody they did something wrong and they, well, I'm sorry that it offended you. And you immediately want to be like, time out.

That's not an apology. What you just like, like it's really looking at someone and going, well, I'm sorry that you're too sensitive to handle being around me. We don't want to think of ourselves as sinful, but we are. And we need God's help for us to see ourselves as he sees us and for us to see him as we ought. And so let's take just a second and pray for ourselves. Wherever you are, just ask God to help you see that this morning as we look into this.

God, I pray that you would give us a glimpse into our sin, into what it does to us and to others, as you'd help us to see your holiness and that we would leave here today with a true appreciation for what you've accomplished through the cross on our behalf. In Jesus' name, amen. I have three pictures, three reasons, three truths I want to talk about sin to help us see what it does and how the Bible talks about it. One of the ways the Bible talks about sin is that it pollutes or it defiles, that a whole land can be polluted, can be defiled by sin. So first thing is that our sin destroys God's good world.

Before we can get into talking about the system that God has for taking care of sin, we've got to understand a little bit more about sin. So our sin destroys God's good world. I had a friend of mine that was a, she was a student youth group leader and she was a good cook and one of her students is actually here today and I just ran into her and now I'm going to have to really make sure this story is told true and accurately because it's based off of how I remember her telling it to me. But she made brownies for her entire like student group and so she was a good cook. She made brownies. Everybody was just chowing down on these brownies while they were hanging out before they were going to kind of do their study time and then she kind of called everybody up and she starts teaching from the Bible and she says, okay, sin pollutes, it defiles, it creeps in and it works its way into everything and she says, and that's what sin does in us and some of us like to minimize and act like just a little bit of sin is okay and she goes, in order to help us see this, I have a confession.

As I was making those brownies, using my same recipe as normal, I just added one ingredient. I went out of my backyard where my dog lives and I got a small helping sample really, just a little bit of dog poop and I mixed it in with the brownies. Now immediately, they did not take it well. close to anarchy very quickly with people like hyperventilating and very frustrated and some of you are thinking, there's no way that anybody would ever do this. I will tell you that this certain lady has lived a life in such a way that this is plausible and she said, it was just a little bit, it was just a little bit, it was hardly any at all, really, it was just a tiny little bit and people are like, you made us eat poop brownies and she's like, no, they're not poop brownies, they're brownies with a little bit of poop.

It's completely different and so the question, when it comes to sin, when it comes to brownies, the vouchers will ask about brownies, what's the minimum acceptable amount of poop? What's the maximum acceptable amount maybe? What's the range here when it comes to your brownies and poop? And the answer is zero poop. None. None whatsoever.

I don't care if it was really a sprinkle. It's like, why would you add that to brownies? Absolutely not. And this is what God says that sin does, that it immediately defiles, that it works its way into everything because if you told me I have brownies that are 98% brownies and 2% poop, I would say those are poop brownies. Those are not, they are no longer edible. This is not a good brownie batter system recipe.

Throw it away. This is terrible. That's what God says sin does. That it works its way into the world that a little bit of it begins to destroy everything. I have another picture of this. One of our pastors became a pastor.

We ordained him in January of this year. He has a gluten allergy, celiac disease. It's kind of aggressive in the way he has. I know some of y'all have gluten issues. He's got significant gluten issues. And I don't know much about gluten.

I don't know the science behind it. From what I understand, it's the thing that makes all food taste good. And so like when I eat a biscuit, all the biscuits I've eaten over my lifetime are slowly working together to try to kill me. If he eats a biscuit, it goes immediately and tries to kill him. That one biscuit just right then tries to kill him. And so we were eating a meal.

He had some soup. I was there. Our other pastor, Matt Freeman, was there. And Matt Freeman, because no one ever really taught him basic social norms, does what he will do from time to time, which is while you're eating with him, he will just eat some of your food. And so Matt's sitting there talking to Raz. Raz is eating his soup and Matt takes a saltine cracker and just dips it in Raz's soup, scrapes some up, and just starts eating.

And Raz looks appalled as any normal human should. But then over and above was just staring at Matt like, what on earth? And I was like, what? I'm just like, I didn't even pick up on the gluten thing. I was just like, you ate his food, dude, stop. Like, but Raz goes, I can't eat my soup now because you defiled it with gluten.

It was like, it wasn't just breaking social norms. It was attempted murder. And sin does that. It enters in. This is what God tells us about sin and creation. It enters in and it begins to erode.

It begins to corrode. It begins to destroy everything. Let me give you an example. In real life, you'll have someone talking to you and they'll tell you something. They'll tell you a story about their life or something they did or they'll tell you some sort of an event and there's this moment in you where you go, mmm, nah. You just have this, I don't think that's true.

Or someone maybe comes and they start complimenting you and they start saying nice things and there's this moment in your soul where you go, mmm, this is starting to feel a little bit like you're trying to trick me. You have nothing really to base this off of in this conversation other than the fact that you know lies exist. You've been told lies before and you've told lies before. You've been manipulated before and you've manipulated before and so what happens is this relationship is already being torn apart by things that have happened in other situations. It's quite possible that that is the exact truth.

When people tell me things, my natural reaction is, no, okay, probably not. And maybe I'm way too pessimistic. People complain to me that I am. But it's because sin has worked its way into relationships before I even meet somebody. my child has never been abducted. But when we go to a playground, we are less free because other children that we do not know and have no relationship to whatsoever have been.

And that instance that had nothing to do with us where nothing was taken from me has worked its way into my life so that it is now breaking down how life should look for us. that's why we have to take our shoes off when we go to an airport. It's because sin in other areas has begun to work its way in and this is what sin does. You've been manipulated so you treat everyone like they may do that. It begins to work its way into the world. Our sin destroys God's good world. And the issue in the Bible is that how is God going to get rid of sin without getting rid of us?

Because it's in us. For lack of a better example we're all poop brownies. It's infected us and God has to get sin out without destroying us if he's going to keep us. Secondly in our sin we have joined God's enemy. The story of the Bible is that God has an enemy in Satan who is an angelic being who led a rebellion and that in the Garden of Eden he continued that rebellion as he recruited humanity to join his side and to actively reject God's good rule and reign. And when we sin it is not a benign action but it is the willful rebellion of God's creation against him.

And in our sin we have joined the enemy in the same way that someone who grows up in our nation can join ISIS carry out and carry out an attack claim allegiance to ISIS and ISIS will step in and say yes they were on our team. That is us in our sin when we reject God we join the cause of the enemy to sow dissension and pain in the world. And this happens through our selfishness this happens through our racism this happens through our lies that we tell this happens in every way possible that we choose to sin we actively join God's enemy. Thirdly God is eternal in size glory worth and majesty he is eternal in size glory worth and majesty so that read earlier that he rules the world holds it together by his word of his power and that he sat down at the right hand of majesty that God is infinitely glorious and that all of our sin is first and foremost against him.

This is what David says after he commits adultery and murder he begins praying to God by saying I've sinned only against you because that's who our sin is first and foremost against. So we know that our actions carry consequences of greater weight depending on the object that we carry out our actions against. It sounds complicated it's not. If I take a sheet of white paper ball it up and throw it away I should not have done that. I just wasted paper. But if you had just drawn a picture on it or my son had just brought it to me from Kid City with a little picture on it and I'd balled it up in front of him and threw it away that's worse because something went into it.

That's worse because something went into it. If I waited until you got done taking your SAT and then snuck over and grabbed your Scantron and tore that up and threw it away you should choke me you just wasted three hours of a Saturday working your hardest to guess what words meant if I tore up the Mona Lisa and threw it away now it's the object that our sin

Is against that makes the greater weight and so when we look at an eternal and glorious and holy and majestic God and actively sin against him and then say it's not that big a deal what we're really saying is you aren't that big you are not that glorious you are not that beautiful you need to calm down

See one of the major issues we have as humans is that we do not think our sin is that big of a deal and is because we do not think our God is that big of a deal we exist at his will we're here because he allows us to be and the truth is often as humans we dislike that God

Expects anything from us we find God to be an imposition that he would hold us accountable that he would care about our sin that he would eventually judge us seems unfair frustrating and as if he should really just leave us alone there's a quote from Jonathan Edwards who's a pastor in the 1700s in America I'm going to read this it says in this world

God puts forth his authority to command them them being humans the rest of the time he's talking about humanity and to require subjection to him meaning that God says he's in charge and humans should subject themselves to him in his commands he's very positive strictly requiring of them the performance of such and such duties and positively forbidding

Such and such things that are contrary to their duty all he's saying is that God says do this don't do this this is how you ought to relate to me but they have no regard for these commands God continues commanding and they continue rebelling they make nothing of God's authority God threatens but they despise his threatening

They make nothing of dishonoring God they care not how much their behavior is to the dishonor of God he offers them mercy if they will repent and return they despise his mercy as well as his wrath he calls but they refuse thus they are continually plunging themselves deeper and deeper in debt

And at the same time imagine they shall escape the payment of the debt and design entirely to rob God of his due but God has undertaken to right himself he will reckon with them he has undertaken to see that the debts due to him are paid all their sins are written

In his book not one of them is forgotten and everyone must be paid see God is the glorious eternal king and him requiring anything of me is an imposition it's an annoyance it's an annoyance maybe at best and at times it's ludicrous and it seems as if he's out of line so we as humans sin

And make a little of our sin and in so doing trample on the honor of God and make a little of him and act as if he should not care or hold us accountable one of the beautiful things about the state of South Carolina is that we live in an at will state meaning you work at the will of your employer I say this is

Beautiful because my dad runs companies he is an employer and this means this if he has an employee who shows up late talking on his cell phone listening to his headphones doing one in one a year and my dad tries to tell him hey you need to get to work you're late and he looks at my dad and goes

And goes right back to talking on his phone and then when he gets off my dad's like hey you can't show up late you start explaining to him the duties of his job and that person who's a 15 year old boy looks at him and says I don't understand why you're getting all up in my face you need to calm down my dad can look at him and say

There's the door and it brings joy to my soul when it happens and here's why if if a my dad as a boss keeps him there and does not try to corral that does not try to change that he makes the rest of our work environment terrible you ever worked in a place where the boss did not oversee his employees so that anyone

Who showed up late and did whatever they wanted to like who does that it tears everything apart and I would be watching and going who on earth are you to be a 15 year old and talking to someone who's older than you and your boss and of course he started this company he can do whatever he wants to with it but we will stand and look in the face of God and say it's a little bit ridiculous for you to care

About my sin and I think you've stepped out of line and if there is a God this is the type of God I will accept well there is a God and you have to accept the one you got who is glorious and holy and is just and will not let sin be unaccounted for because it destroys his good world

That he created out of his own goodness and his own love and his own joy that he invited us into and we exist at his will the reason you are still inhaling and exhaling oxygen is because he is allowing it C.S. Lewis in his essay God in the dock dock being where a guilty person would stand or the accused would stand

So we might would say God on the witness stand the ancient man approached God or even the gods as the accused person approaches his judge for the modern man the roles are quite reversed he is the judge God is in the dock God is on the witness stand he is quite a kindly judge if God should have a reasonable defense for being the God who permits war poverty

Disease he is ready to listen to it the trial may even end in God's acquittal but the important thing is that man is on that the man is on the bench and God is in the dock that we approach this glorious holy God as if he has some explaining to do he owes us nothing why are you allowed to swat a mosquito

That bites you why am I allowed to rid my backyard of fire ants who destroy my son's ability to play back there freely and how on earth do I think that the God that created me owes me something we have a problem God is just and sin must be punished and God doesn't owe us anything but I have really good news

The Bible also clearly and repeatedly says that God is loving and merciful and faithful and gracious in Exodus chapter 34 God shows up and he begins to declare who he is and what he's like and this is what he says he says the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him

There him as Moses and he proclaimed the name of the Lord the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord a God merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but who will

By no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation God says he will by no means clear the guilty let me explain to you something about a good judge a good judge does not let the guilty walk someone in your family had been harmed and you went to trial and the person

Stood up and said yes I'm guilty yes you have proof that I'm guilty but I just want to let you know I'm really sorry and it'll never happen again and the judge went good enough for me said they're sorry if someone stole your car they found it and they said you know what now that you found me with it I'm willing

To return it the judge said sounds good we have a system where it's like no you have to make restitution you stole something but it didn't just it wasn't just the car that went missing it's the action that you took and there has to be restitution a good judge does not let the guilty walk free and God declares himself a good judge God is just

When he defends his good creation against what is polluting and destroying it he is just when he executes vengeance on his sworn enemies and he is just when he defends his holiness and his majesty against those who trample on it with utter contempt for the God that created them but keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression

And sin God doesn't have to do that but he chooses to and he comes go to Leviticus chapter 1 Leviticus is in the law it's going to be on page 40 something 46 47 47 if you have a white bible it's going to be early on if your bible some other brand different Numbers God comes

God comes to Israel and he says I'm going to make a way for this to happen I'm going to make a way for me to forgive sin because when you've sinned you've incurred debt that in God's economy there's actually debt that is incurred through sin he says I'm going to

Make a way for this to be paid for it says the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting saying speak to the people of Israel and say to them when any one of you brings an offering to the Lord you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock if his offering is a burnt offering

From the herd he shall offer a male without blemish a burnt offering was the one that atoned for sin a male without blemish he shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting that he may be accepted before the Lord he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement

For him this means that this animal is going to pay for his sin it's going to make him right with God and if you're unfamiliar with this I hope you have not gotten attached to this animal verse 5 then he shall kill the bull before the Lord and Aaron's sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent

Of meeting they would take the blood of the animals that they had sacrificed and they would splash it against objects and this was making purification that they would take the life out of another animal and they would use that life to atone for sin and to make purification and this was the sacrificial system that God set up now we don't really have a category for this

But God says you have a debt that has been incurred by your sin and in his justice and his mercy he makes a system where your debt can be paid now we don't understand that someone else could pay the penalty for something you did so that if I commit a crime my wife can't go to jail for me but we do have a system where if I owe a debt anyone can pay it that that makes restitution and God somewhere in the blending of this says that I'm going to

Set up a system because I am merciful he does not have to do this but because I am merciful and good I'm going to set up a system that allows you to pay for your sin to atone for your sin a few observations your sin deserves death the penalty for your sin was death and they had to redo this over and over and over again you'd have to walk out to your herd you'd have to find a male that was without blemish means it was worth something it was good it should keep breeding

It does not deserve to die you would have to then bring it with you walking with what was going to have to pay for your sin you'd bring it to the priest you would lay your hands on its head transferring your sin your action your decision your willful rebellion against God to this animal and then in front of you it would be killed and it would be a bloody mess and they would take some of the blood and they would sprinkle it to purify

For the sin that had caused the stains something had to die for you to go free but this is God in Exodus chapter 34 this is him accomplishing this because this this little phrase in Exodus doesn't make a whole lot of sense forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but who will by no means clear the guilty so you're saying a whole second iniquity transgression and sin make you guilty

So how does he forgive that and not clear the guilty and this is where he does both he forgives it by giving you a way to not be guilty anymore by allowing you to transfer your guilt to something else allowing you to take your guilt place it on something that's why they would lay their hands on this animal place it on something and have it die for you every year this can be found in Leviticus 16 we're not going to spend any time there this morning but you can read through it

Every year they would have the day of atonement where they would do this for the entire nation they would get two goats they would bring them the high priest would lay his hands on one to lay all the sin of the nation on it and it would die for the sins of the nation and the high priest would lay his hands on another one to lay all the sins of the nation on it and it would be carried off to take the sin away

Because God's wrath had to be paid for and sin had to be taken away and then the high priest with the blood would purify everything in the temple that this was a ritual that they had to do day after day year after year because they kept piling up sin before God and they kept needing their debt to be paid now this is an actual debt I find that that when we're talking with people

About this sometimes they'll say well yeah well why couldn't God just forgive us why couldn't he just wipe it away this is his process that he made for it because let me explain to you if I come to your house this is how sin works with God if I come to your house and I break your television it's more likely that my two year old would do it but if I break your television we have a couple of options now

You can make me buy you a new television that I pay for the decision I made or you can say don't worry about it but if you tell me not to worry about it who's handling the television you are who's incurring the cost you are you're paying for the television you're either going to buy yourself a new one or you're going to pay for it day after day

After day after day of having to talk to the people who live in your house so you're going to buy yourself a new television but you're going to have to incur the cost and what God says is there's an actual debt that has been mounting against us that he's holding back the debt and it continues day after day to rise and to rise and to rise that there's a flood of sin

That we are piling up that he's counting that he's watching and he's either we have to pay for it but ultimately to forgive something someone has to pay for it and what we find in scripture is that God says I'll incur the cost of your debt God looks at us and says you don't have to worry about it

I'm going to pay for it and Jesus Christ comes as the atonement see he gave us this picture of animals having to die for our sin but they had to keep doing it year after year and day after day and every time you sinned you'd have to walk another animal and I would have to be very rich to handle all the sin

That I would have to kill goats for and they continually had to do this but eventually God says I'm going to fix this problem turn to Hebrews chapter 9 the book of Hebrews walks through and clearly connects a lot of the Old Testament to the fulfillment that's found in Christ will be on page 583 starting in verse 11

Hebrews chapter 9 verse 11 but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come so this is when he says the high priest he's talking about the person who would have overseen the day of atonement who would have overseen the sacrificial system it says that Jesus steps in as the new high priest the one that's going to make atonement for the people

He appeared as a great high priest as a high priest of the good things that have come then through the greater and more perfect tent this is where the high priest would have gone to make atonement not made with hands that is not of this creation he's talking about his body he says he entered once and for all into the holy places this is the day of atonement this is the picture he's painting

That they would have gone into the holy places and made atonement for the people he's saying this is what Jesus did he entered once for all into the holy places not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by the means of his own blood thus securing an eternal redemption redemption for if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling

Of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God what he's saying is that Jesus Christ was our perfect sacrifice he was the one without blemish

Without sin who willfully chose unlike a goat who has no choice Jesus Christ willfully was led to the slaughter to make atonement for the sins of others therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant meaning there's a new system now between God and humans so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal

Inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant Jesus Christ came humbled himself the creator of the world who holds the world together by the word of his power and who owes us nothing but yet we owe him everything not only our existence but also for our rebellion in that existence he comes to

Swap places with us to walk with us and to as a great high priest pay the penalty for our sin to be both the high priest and the sacrifice so that we may forever be at one with God forever be made right with him and forever have our sin taken away I have a few points of application that I think

Come out of this concept for us to consider this morning as we finish first I want us to see that in this God saves humanity he remains just because sin is dealt with the guilty do not go free either the sacrifice is accepted and your guilt has been taken away because

It was placed on Jesus or we are still in our sin that God remains just and he vindicates the glory of his name in this picture of atonement that we're given in scriptures we learn that we are guilty of sin and unable to make restitution we have a debt that we are unable to pay that every

Human will stand before God with a debt of a life lived in rebellion and be unable to pay secondly we learn that God in his love and mercy and grace through Christ provided an acceptable sacrifice this is why Jesus is called the Lamb of God that God in his mercy provided someone

To pay our debt thirdly you should hate your sin and you should hate the fact that you don't really hate your sin that if we look into this and see the weight of the burden of the guilt that we had before a holy and just God knowing that one day we would have to pay for it

And we should hate all the sin that had to be laid on Christ that he had to die for and we should hate the fact that we so often minimalize and do not hate our sin feel okay with it think God winks at it act as if his holiness does not matter if you have not trusted in Jesus

Christ as your atoning sacrifice you should do so now you should repent of your sin and look only to him as the acceptable satisfactory payment of your debt to God Jesus Christ has been put forward as your way to not

Pay for your sin and what I would encourage you to do is to walk to the cross just as you would have to walk and pick out a goat and walk to the high priest and lay your hands

On it knowing that this animal that is currently breathing and looking at you and has walked with you this whole time because it is a tame animal is about to breathe its last breath because of the actions

That you have taken and the choices you have made and lay your hands on it and know that your guilt has transferred from you to this animal and it will die for you I would encourage you to walk to Christ

And lay your hands on him and transfer your guilt to him and know that he'll breathe his last breath to pay for the guilt that you owe God so that you can be eternally redeemed if you have not placed your faith in

Christ you should do so now because God forgives transgression and iniquity and sin but he will not clear the guilty for those of you who have placed faith in Christ we should rest confident in the eternal redemption provided by

Him questions of have I done enough am I good enough betray the fact that we have begun to believe that somehow the guilt has shifted back to us or somehow believe that we have to atone for our sin something that we were

Never going to be able to do and we should rest fully confident and free in the fact that a death has set you free that you did deserve punishment but in Christ you will not receive it this is why Christians no longer practice

Animal sacrifices we have a sacrifice once for all that has eternally redeemed us the blood of the lamb has been shed we have been purified we will stand before God guiltless because he

Stood before God guilty we should tell everyone about our terrible state before God and the good news of hope offered through Christ if we believe this and see this and know this to be true the most loving thing you can do is for those who feel guilty help them know that there is a

God who pays for guilt and for those who do not feel guilty help them see how guilty they are and then let them know that there is a God who pays their guilt for those of us who stand here or sit here this morning and say we believe this

There is no other loving option for those around us other than to tell everyone we possibly can that there is a debt of sin and a savior that offers redemption lastly for those of us in Christ we should spend the

Rest of our days marveling and rejoicing at the sacrifice of Jesus that God would humble himself to redeem creatures like us that he owed nothing to but that he loved enough to rescue and to make his own to reclaim his willful enemies

Who have actively destroyed his good order and with an utter contempt for his rule he came for the purpose to bleed and to die and to sacrifice himself so that we could have life the band

Is going to come back up and as we begin today to leave here as Christians marveling at the grace of God that we do not have to pay for our sin that we incurred debt that he paid for that we

Can walk with Christ and walk away free and blameless the way we are going to immediately respond as Christians in the room is to take communion where we remember the sacrifice of Christ where we take take the cup

We take the bread and we remember that Jesus Christ was broken and bled for us so that we can go free that we get to walk pick up a goat we get to walk with guilt hanging over us to a high priest

And walk away free that we get to walk to the cross with guilt bearing down on us but because blood is shed and death reigns we get to walk away free but you see Jesus Christ

Is both goats from the day of atonement sin is laid on one and it is killed and sin is laid on one and it carries it away and Jesus Christ died on a cross and rose from the

Grave and we have an eternal redemption and an eternal inheritance and we get to celebrate today as we wonder and marvel at the graciousness of a loving God who would die in our

Place we get to take communion remembering that we owe a debt to God that we could never pay but that Jesus Christ has and if you are not a Christian you should place your faith in Christ you should

Become a Christian and you should go take communion for the first time as a Christian who knows the weight of what you're doing that Jesus has redeemed you from your sin and that you can be forever free let's

Pray God we thank you that you made atonement for us that you purified us that we no longer stand under our guilt because we are in Christ thank you that you figured out a way to rid us of sin

To atone for our guilt without destroying us but that you were willing to be destroyed for us as an eternal sacrifice who reigns supreme seated in the right hand of majesty forever giving your life to those

Who place their faith you thank you in Jesus name amen

Mill City 6/11/17 Mill City 6/11/17

Worthy of Worship

Transcript

All right, how are we doing this morning? Cool. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors. We'll be in Matthew chapter 10 to get started this morning. Matthew chapter 10, if your Bible looks like this, it'll be page 476 where we'll start picking up.

We are starting a new series today, and we spent the last six weeks or so talking about the need for, the call for Christians to use their normal everyday lives to see other people come to know Christ. That we would leverage what we have, our time, our energy, our money, our homes to see people come to know Jesus. And so today we're starting a new series. We've just called it Glory. Basically, we're just looking at how big and beautiful and wonderful and glorious Christ is. And in some ways, I feel like it makes sense because we just spent so much time talking about how we should use the normal daily lives that we've been given to see people come to know Jesus.

And now we're just looking at why, why we'd want to do that. And we're just looking at how big he is and massive and how much joy there is to be found in him. And so we're going to do this for four weeks, and then we'll spend the rest of the summer studying through the Psalms and learning how to personally worship God from them. Today, as we get started, we're going to talk about the fact that Jesus is worthy of worship. That Jesus Christ is worthy of worship. The word used for worship in the Old Testament really just means to bow down.

And that's what we're looking at, why you should bow your life down to Jesus. Why you should consider him in all things. You should submit yourself to him. Why you should go to Jesus and allow him to be in charge of you, of your time and your money and your effort and your energy. We're looking at how glorious he is. I've got a definition for the word glorious.

It's striking beauty or splendor that evokes feelings of delighted admiration. It's so beautiful that it makes you feel something. That's what Jesus is. He's so glorious, so good that we should be in awe of him. We should be enraptured by him. He's so beautiful that it does something to us.

You see, Jesus says that he is worthy of worship. And that's what we're looking at in Matthew chapter 10 as we begin our time today. I want us to see this. I want us to kind of take seriously Jesus' words here and think about them for a minute. We're going to pick up in verse 37. Verse 37.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Just look at those words for a second. I want that to stare you in the face. That's why we don't usually put verses up on the screen. We usually just look at them in the Bible.

But I want this to seep in a little bit. Jesus actually said these words. And they're hard to get around. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38.

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. So at this time, Jesus had not gone to the cross. He was headed to it. But he's using this as a cross as a Roman instrument of torture. It was a... He said if you're not willing to be executed.

If you're not willing to lay down all your hopes and your dreams. If you're not willing to lay down your plans. If you're not willing to pick up a cross. If you're not willing to bear the burden of nothing goes well for you. And you head into destruction and persecution and death. You don't deserve me.

You're not worthy of me. 39. Whoever finds his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. That's a little cryptic. What he's saying is if you spend your life focusing on your life.

Trying to make it good. Trying to live the good life. If you go out of your way to try to find your life and to find yourself. And to have the good experiences and the joy. He says you lose it. It's a waste.

But if you are willing to give up everything for Jesus. Then you'll actually find it. Then you'll actually get the good life. Okay. Maybe. Maybe you've been around the church long enough.

That it's easy for you to hear that. Maybe you've heard it enough that you're like right. Hmm. Jesus. He says things like that. So I just want to take these sentences.

And we're just going to put them on other people. So that we can think about them a little better. Alright. Whoever loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. Who's allowed to say that to you? I'll argue your father and mother can't even say that.

Like if your dad came to you and said let me explain something to you. If you love your mom more than me. You do not deserve me. I am the greatest father. Let me just. I need you to tell me right now.

You love me more. Like if I. If my wife started doing that with my son. She's like if you love your dad more than me. Then I don't even need to.

Like you do not deserve me for a mother. I'd have to have a talk with her. Be like this is. This is a bit intense. Plus he's two. Let's tone it down.

Who gets to say that? If you're dating someone. You're in high school. And you say yeah. I gotta go do this with my parents or whatever. I'm going on vacation with my parents.

And they say let me explain something to you. If you love your mother and father more than me. You don't deserve me. Okay. I'm still going on vacation. But we're probably not going to keep dating when I get back.

You gotta tone the crazy down like a hundred notches. Okay. Maybe. Maybe a spouse. Maybe you can have this conversation with a spouse. Maybe by the time you get married.

You're like look. Your parents can't get in the middle of all of our arguments. You've got to at some point. Like leave and cleave. There's some. There's some room for that.

In the Bible. Like at some point your mom can't just be here all the time. Maybe a spouse can say that. Go to the next one. It's if you love. Anyone who loves son or daughter more than me.

Is not worthy of me. Americans. We having a hard time with that. Parents. Have a hard time with that. Son or daughter more than me.

There's a widow. She's got a couple of kids. She starts dating somebody. You're her friend. She sits down with you and says. Yeah.

The other day he. He said if I loved my children more than him. I didn't deserve him. You know what you say. Sounds like a catch. That guy must be so valuable.

Oh my goodness. He must be so radiant and glorious. Do you know what you say. This cat's a psycho. Back up. Get away.

This is crazy. This is headed in the bad place. No one should say that to you. He says if you're not willing to lay down your life. If you're not willing to pick up your cross. If you're not willing to die.

If you're not willing to say no. To all of your hopes and dreams. All of your goals. If you're not willing to pick up. An instrument for execution. And follow me.

You do not deserve me. People come by your house. You got a friend. And they start saying. Yeah. There's this guy.

Carl. And he's a prophet. And he performs miracles. And he says we have to hate our families. And follow him. You're like bro.

That's a cult. This is. No bueno. Get away from Carl. This is not going to work out well for you. You're going to be like locked in a cellar somewhere.

Where Jesus without batting an eye. Without tripping over his words. Without hesitating for a second. Will look you in the face. And say exactly what he just said. If you love your family more than me.

You've missed it. If you're not willing to lay down everything for me. You don't deserve me. If you aren't willing to die. And if you are going to spend your life. Trying to have a good life.

You won't have a life at all. But if you'll get rid of everything. For me. You'll find the good life. Who can sit across the table from you. And say hey.

I'm the good life. And your joy. And your fullness. And your completion. And your happiness. Will only ever be filled.

And found. In me. It's like okay. Check please. Jesus means it. So.

He has to be. A narcissist. He. He. He. Supremely.

Values. Himself. And on. On anybody else. We put this on. We've gotten used to this on Jesus.

But on anybody else. We put this on. It's not a good look. But see. Jesus goes. Beyond this.

And begins to make the claim. That he is. God. God. I'm going to. I'm going to cite a few.

They're not going to be on the screen. In John chapter 5. It says this. This is why the Jews were seeking. All the more to kill him. Because not only was he breaking the Sabbath.

Which is one of their regulations. But he was even calling God. His own father. Making himself equal. With God. John chapter 8.

It says. The Jews said to him. He's having this kind of discussion with him. About Abraham. And he. He's.

Talking about Abraham. They said. You're not even 50 years old. And you've seen Abraham. And Jesus says to them. Truly.

Truly. I say to you. Before Abraham was. I am. Now. That may be a little cryptic to us.

It was not to the Jewish people. That were listening to him. He's quoting. God. At the burning bush. That tells Moses.

That he. I am. That I am. He's. I am. Is a.

A reference to. Eternal being. And being God. And so Jesus says. Let me tell you. Before Abraham existed.

I am. And you're like. Well. That's kind of cryptic. Wasn't to them. The next verse says.

So they picked up. Stones. To throw at him. They knew what he had just said. He had just claimed to be God. So they were going to.

Kill him. Because that's blasphemy. And then. In 1033. Of John. It says.

It's not for good work. That we're going to stone you. They were going to try to kill him again. Jesus almost dies a lot. In the book of John. But because you.

Being a man. Make yourself God. The climax. Of the book of John. Is after Jesus dies on the cross. Rises from the grave.

He gets back around Thomas. Who said. Unless I get to see the nails. And the nail scars. Unless I see him with my eyes. Get to touch him.

I'm not going to believe. That he rose from the grave. And Thomas gets to. And then he falls down. And says. My Lord.

And my God. And worships Jesus. Now. If you've been reading the Bible. Up to the point. And John.

You immediately know. Don't do that. You don't worship anybody. But God. Every time in the Old Testament. Someone falls down.

At the feet of an angel. These big. Powerful. Angelic beings. Go. Get up.

Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. You saw. Right.

Like. I did not appreciate that. You are not allowed to worship me. This is a terrible thing. There's one angel. Who thinks that's a good idea.

It did not go well for him. I. You know what Jesus says. Thomas says. You're my Lord. And my God.

And Jesus says. Well done Thomas. You're blessed. And more blessed is everybody. Who's able to say the same thing. Without having to see the scars.

Who's able to have the same faith. In me. As God. So Jesus claims to be God. Throughout his life. He claims that.

Singular allegiance. Is owed him. And he's. Murdered for it. But because we do believe.

He is God. He did not stay dead. He rose from the grave. Proving his claims. And ascended into heaven. So.

Jesus says. I'm God. The God. And the God of the Bible. The God of the Old Testament. Has said the same thing.

Throughout the Old Testament. They would worship. No one but him. That's the first thing he says. When he takes him out of Egypt. He says.

You'll have no gods. Other than me. I'm the only God. In Deuteronomy. Throughout. He just keeps saying.

You're not going to bow down. And worship anything else. You're not going to serve them. I'm the only God. Deuteronomy 6. 13.

It's the Lord your God. You shall fear. And him you shall serve. And by his name you shall swear. Deuteronomy 13. 4.

You shall walk after the Lord your God. And fear him. And keep his commandments. And obey his voice. And you shall serve him. And hold fast to him.

Throughout the Old Testament. The prophets. The Psalms are going to say. Repeatedly. God is the only God. And he is worthy.

Deserving of. Your singular. Allegiance. And worship. That if every breath you have. Is spent in obedience to him.

It's worth it. Jesus shows up. Says I'm the same God. And I deserve the same allegiance. Okay. So this.

This gets. This argument gets thrown at God. It gets thrown at Jesus some. God more. I've got a quote from a. Humanistic and atheistic blog.

That I just thought the guy said it well. I don't know if this guy's famous. Or really smart. I didn't read a whole lot of his other stuff. He just said this well. He says if your God.

Demands. To be worshipped. Your God. Is narcissistic. Meaning he's. He cares only about himself.

He's focused in on himself. Narcissism is a character flaw. Which means. A narcissistic being. Isn't perfect. Ergo.

Oh you know it's good. If they use ergo. Ergo. It's a fancy word for therefore. Or. Or.

So then. Your perfect God. Does not. Exist. If your God. Is in fact.

Perfect. It would have no need. Or desire. For worship. Praise. Or any form of adulation.

Making your piety. Pointless. I think the logic holds. What he says is. If you have a God. That's needy.

If you have a God. That's narcissistic. If you have a God. That comes to you. And says. I need you to sing about me.

I need y'all to get together. Every Sunday. I need you to wake up early. I need you to put on slacks. I need people to practice songs. And I need you to sing.

That I'm pretty. If you have a God. That does that. It's not perfect. It's not complete. It's not whole.

Therefore. Isn't. Worthy. Or. If you have a perfect. Complete.

Whole. Worthy. God. Has no need. For your praise. No need.

For your adoration. Wouldn't ask for it. Wouldn't talk about it. Wouldn't care. Would be fine. Without you.

Either way. Worshiping. Is stupid. I'm taking some liberties there. But I think that's how he's.

He's ending it there. It's pointless. I. I kind of agree. I agree. If I think about the way.

He's thinking about this. I understand what he is saying. And I think he said it well. I think he's missed something. I think he's missed something. That the storyline of the Bible.

Makes clear. I want to kind of break this out. Into four. Basic. Truths. That he's.

That he's missed here. But this is. This is a thing that people say. I remember my. My. Grandmother's a missionary to Nigeria.

I remember being at the beach. One. One year. And my cousin was talking with her. And he was just saying the same thing. He was saying.

What kind of a God. Makes people. And then says. Sing to me. Or I'm going to hurt you. Worship me.

Or it's going to be bad. What kind of God does that? And he was just saying. It seems so small. And it seems so. Petty.

But here's what I think they're missing. One is. We were created by God. That's what the Bible tells us. And that we were designed to worship. You are going to worship.

Something. It's the first kind of thing I think that's missed here. You're going to worship something. You're going to bow down to something. You're going to spend your time. Your energy.

Your money. Your effort on something. Worship for you is not an option. What you worship is. The object of your worship is an option. But whether or not you will have some object to worship.

Is not an option for you. You will have something that you hold as chief and supreme. And most valuable. True worship is joyful. That's the second idea that I think is missed here. True worship is joyful.

It's self-forgetfulness. That when we really, truly sing about something. And truly, truly get engulfed in something. And enraptured in something. And point something else to it. It's joyful.

It gets us outside of ourselves. Thirdly. The best and highest worship. Will be of the best and highest object. Or the greatest worship. Will have the greatest object.

So if I told you that I was going to worship myself. I saw myself as supreme. I'm kind of limited there. I'm trapped. I'm trapped in myself. I can only get so big.

It can only be so great. I kind of have just really imprisoned myself. I could travel the world. My world would never get any bigger. Because I'm supreme. But if you said trees were supreme.

You could go in your backyard. And get more outside of yourself than I can. You could be more free. And more set free. See. The greater the object.

The greater the worship. The greater the joy found. I used to work at Sears. If I told you I was going to devote my life to Sears. You'd be like. Bro.

It's not even that great of a retail store. Like aren't they going out of business? I'd be like. Kinda. But that's why they need me.

But maybe if I said I'm going to devote myself to hard work. The scope is bigger. And then I'm a little more free. I can move around a little more. I have a little. I'm called out of myself a little more.

Maybe if I said I'm going to devote myself to helping others. I'm going to devote myself to family. You see we all pick something. And say this is most worth. Most worth my time and energy and effort. This is where I'll find the most life.

Gain the most joy. Be the biggest version of myself. Fourth point. You become like what you worship. Jesus says that you know. A student's not above his teacher.

You're going to whatever you hold up as supreme. You're going to become more like. So if you worship money. You'll become cold. Calculating. You worship love.

You're going to slowly become more like. You can see this when. Like someone gets super into. Like listening to Dr. Dre. Or Eminem.

Or. Any musician. They get really into skateboarding. Or fidget spinners. Become more like. The Bible says this in Jeremiah.

That they went after worthlessness. And became worthless. So I agree with the point this guy's making. And it's true. Unless. God is actually.

The greatest. Most supreme. Most glorious. Thing. That exists. Being.

That exists. Jesus is a narcissist. Unless. Unless. He is bigger. And more beautiful.

And more glorious. And more holy. And more worthy. Than any other. Thing in existence. That you could devote your time to.

Then. If that's true. If Jesus is supreme. When he tells you. You should love me above everything else. And you should worship me.

With all of your allegiance. And all of your time. And all of your life. Then. He's actually pursuing. Your joy.

And your greatest. Good. But only. If he's bigger. And more beautiful. And more glorious.

Than anything else. So. This is about to feel like a science class. And a poorly done one. Because I'm not great at science. But I want us to see some things.

Because. You only have. Limited options. On what you're going to worship. You got some limited options. You can only go out.

Into. Creation. You can only go out. And find something. That already exists. For you to worship.

Genesis. The first book in the Bible. Begins with. In the beginning. God. And then tells us.

That he created. Everything. So we're just going to take a minute. With the understanding. That God created all of this. And just look at.

The things that exist. We're going to look at. What. What's out there. For you to be. Mesmerized with.

For you to devote yourself to. We're going to do this in two ways. We're going to go small. Then we're going to go big. And then that. Hopefully that'll cover everything in between.

All right. Your body. Is made up of. Cells. One hundred. Trillion of them.

I don't even know. What that number really means. It's just very big. One hundred. Trillion cells. This is a.

This is a cell. It looks like something. From the magic school bus. That's a cell. Inside your cell. I'm going to move this out of the way.

I'm going to back up a little bit. So people can see a little better. Forgive me if I get in your way. I pace. That's a cell. Inside the middle there.

Is a nucleus. There's a bunch of little different parts in there. There's. Inside the nucleus is DNA. DNA. DNA.

Is the best information storage system. That exists. They are currently. Scientists are currently trying to figure out. How to save our own data into DNA. And retrieve it.

Okay. So the new Macs that came out. Like the expensive ones. They have like a terabyte of data. Remember when you had like a floppy disk. And it had like.

A megabyte. Terabytes way bigger. Did that help? Have a terabyte of data. DNA. DNA.

If you could put a drop of pure DNA. On the tip of your finger. It would have 700 terabytes. Of data storage capability. Because there's DNA. In every single one of your microscopic.

Invisible cells. That it holds. Dawkins says. About the equivalent of 8,000 books. But if you could.

So they said. They're trying to figure out. How to use DNA. Because they could save. All the things. We would ever need to save.

In a couple of teaspoons. Tablespoons. Worth of DNA. If we can figure out. How to do it. But.

But that was put inside. That little yellow thing. In the middle there. And then. Inside of there. Inside the cell.

Which you have a hundred trillion of them. That are constantly doing things. They all read. This. There's the entire DNA. For your whole body.

But the cell reads. This tiny little spot. They just go break. This one little part apart. And then that's what tells your cell. To be a liver cell.

Or an eye cell. Or a fingernail. Cell. Just that little bit of DNA. But all the DNA is in there.

And inside of your. Of your cell. There are organelles. Ribosomes. Mitochondria. Storage vacuoles.

Lysosomes. Lystra. Derby. Those last two are just places. Mentioned in the Bible. But the other stuff's in there.

Endoplasmic reticula. And a bunch of other things. That are constantly working. Doing jobs. Making more cells. This is a picture of actual cells.

We can see these with microscopes. They're creating things. All the time. Making more cells. They're made up of smaller things. The little particles inside of them.

Are made up of smaller things. There are. Each one of those. Has to be designed in such a way. As to be the correct thing. The correct lysosome.

Storage vacuole. To make the correct component. That's going to go inside the cell. Inside. The smaller. Things that make those up.

Are made up of. Molecules. That are made up of atoms. Atoms are the things that are on periodic table. On the periodic table of the elements. This is a picture of an atom.

It's been. It's been. Kind of enhanced. Digitally. Trying to make it look 3D. That's the nucleus of an atom.

There are protons and neutrons in there. And then electrons. Swirl around it. And scientists will say. We can't see those. You just kind of have to pretend.

We proved. We humans. Proved. That those existed. In like the end of the 1800s. We actually saw the first one in 1983.

We were able to look at it. They just used math. To figure out that these were real. And when I hear stuff like that. I think. There's a lot about math.

I don't know. Because I'm doing good. To make sure I got the right amount of change back. And they're using it. To figure out things. That we can't see.

Exist. They've now found out. That atoms are made up of. So that. We knew they were made up of. Protons.

Neutrons. Electrons. They can't be directly observed. But we're able to use math. To figure out what they do. They now have come out.

And said. We thought for a long time. That those were the smallest things. There were. So. Each cell.

Has about. You have 100 trillion cells. Each cell. Has about 100 trillion atoms. If you use a calculator. To multiply those Numbers together.

Your calculator. Doesn't even really give you an answer. It gives you a number. And then an E. And then it says plus. And it gives you this other stuff.

And it's like. Dude. I'm not putting all those zeros. You do it. It's an insane amount. So.

Inside those atoms. They now have decided. That they thought. That was the smallest thing. They now decided. No.

They've used more math. And figured out. There are smaller things. Than protons. Neutrons. Electrons.

And they've called these. Quarks. And leptons. And all of those. Are in a category. Called fermions.

And it sounds like. L. Ron Hubbard. Came up with this. Eventually. A logical.

A logical assumption. Is that they're going to figure out. That quarks. Have smaller parts. And maybe they'll call those. Bloggatrons.

Or nuptics. Here's the thing. Your body. Is exceedingly. Complex. It's made up of atoms.

And atoms. Have insane amounts. Of power in them. Energy in them. That we don't fully understand. We were able to figure out.

Early on. That they existed. By using math. And then they figured out. That if you took. Two hydrogen atoms.

This is a picture. Of a hydrogen atom. The internet. Nope. The internet was geeked out. The internet.

The internet was. Was really excited. That we were able to get. A picture of a hydrogen atom. Hydrogen is really small. They worked really hard.

And science. A whole lot. And they came up with that. See that. That's hydrogen. You guys.

Are you just blown away. It's. It's microscopic. We were excited. Because we could see it. Because they used to only figure out.

That it existed by math. But then they figured out. That if they took. Two hydrogen atoms. Smushed them together. They would turn into helium.

But helium. Weighs less. Than those two hydrogen atoms. Combined. So it would be like.

If you and I. If I weighed 100 pounds. You weigh 100 pounds. And we get on a scale. And the scale says. One fifty.

There's fifty pounds. That aren't. Accounted for. What they figured out. Was if they smush. Hydrogen together.

It'll push this other stuff out. And you know what that does. It just blows up. That's it. It creates energy. From smushing together.

Things we can't even see. Does the. The hydrogen bomb. That's just taking atoms. That they mathed. And then.

Coming up with a system. To smush them. And it does that. That. That's two miles wide. You can feel the heat.

Thirty miles away. Okay. Can you go to like. A black one. Just a regular. Let's talk for just a second.

Everything's made up of atoms. And. And what we're told is. That the God of the universe. Designed this. And he made atoms.

That fit together into molecules. That make up like lipids. And proteins. And stuff. And then. Make biscuits.

And taste amazing. Like. It's science. That makes bacon delicious. And I just got myself really hungry. Because if you put bacon on that biscuit.

I haven't even thought about this. Let's get some cheese. All right. You used to. Be a lot smaller than you are. You used to be like this big.

At one point. You were about this big. You ate atoms. Your body broke that stuff down. Stuck it in different places. And then your body.

Made more of your body. Created more cells. Replicated your DNA. Genesis 1. 27. Says that God made man.

In his own image. In the image of God. He created him male and female. Job 10. 11. Says you clothed me with skin.

And flesh. And you knit me together. With bones. And sinews. Psalm 139. 13.

Says you formed. My inward parts. You knitted me together. In my mother's womb. That God. Pieced all of that together.

To the smallest. Thing that we've been able to work. Really hard to find out existed. God made it. Designed it. With a purpose.

Okay. Let's go big for a second. This is the earth. It is a globe. YouTube might tell you that it's not. That's a picture.

It's either a picture of our earth. It is a globe. Or it is a vast conspiracy. That NASA is trying to trick us. By putting this on their website. But that's a picture of the earth.

This is the sun. It's a giant ball of fire. It actually is a bunch of nuclear reactions going on. On the earth. We are currently rotating. 6,000.

No. 100. Sorry. 1,000 miles per hour. We're spinning 1,000 miles per hour right now. Can you feel it?

1,000 Miles per hour. We are then traveling in orbit. 18.5 miles per second. Or 66,600 miles per hour. While spinning. And the reason we're doing that.

Is because the sun is bigger than us. And it tells us to. It's a gravity. It tells mass how to move. And we just. We're slingshotting.

Out around this thing. That's bigger than us. This is a picture of the earth. And the other planets. That's Venus. Mars.

Mercury. Pluto. We're bigger than those. I don't know if Pluto is still a planet. But look.

He's there. Alright. Next one. This is all the planets in our solar system. Uranus. Neptune.

Saturn. Jupiter. They're a lot bigger than us. Earth's down here. He's cute. Alright.

This is if you add in the sun. That's why the sun gets to tell us what to do. It works much like a playground. Okay. This is our galaxy. There it is.

That's the Milky Way. That's a guess. Because we can't get outside of it to see what it looks like. But it probably looks like that. This one shows us where our solar system is. So there's a lot of other solar systems going on.

Do you have the one that shows the other stars in our. Okay. So the sun's over here. That's Sirius. That's Pollux. That's Arcturus.

You can go bigger. And the sun will disappear. Those are in our galaxy. Other suns. Floating out there. Doing their thing.

This is a galaxy that we can see. From our galaxy. It's bigger than ours. Alright. This is one of the coolest stories I found when I was looking into some of this stuff. A guy named Bob Williams.

Did the Hubble Deep Field Experiment in 1990. He was listening to Hootie and the Blowfish at the time. He had some control over where the telescope pointed. He pointed it at a black spot on the sky. It looked like this. He said I want to point the telescope here.

And they were like. That's dumb. We're losing money. Hubble telescope's not been doing great. And you want to point it at nothing. For a hundred hours.

Yes. He just said I want to point it there. I want to just receive light. And we'll see what happens. That's about one thirtieth the size of a full moon. It's the size.

They just picked a spot that was completely black. And said let's point it there. They did it for a hundred hours. And just took in as much light as they could. Took pictures. It took 45 seconds to get in all the light.

And then. This is what came out of it. Once they developed the film. They colored it in a little bit. So they decided.

Oh okay. They thought they might have. About 2 billion. Other galaxies. Until they did that. And then they said.

Oh no. 50 billion. And most recently. They started saying. That there might be about 2 trillion. Other galaxies.

So you remember the big galaxy. And it said. We are here. That was our solar system. We're not even the biggest planet. In our solar system.

We don't even have the biggest sun. In our galaxy. 2 trillion galaxies. Filled with innumerable suns. Innumerable solar systems. Innumerable planets.

Habakkuk 3.6 says. He stood. And measured. The earth. He looked. And shook the nations.

Then the eternal mountains were scattered. The everlasting hills sank low. His word. The everlasting ways. Isaiah 40. Verse 12 says.

Who has measured. The waters. In the hollow of his hand. Or marked off the heavens. With a span. Enclosed the dust of the earth.

In a measure. And weighed the mountains. And scales. And hills. In a balance. In Job 38.

God shows up. To talk to Job. He says. Where were you? When I laid the foundation of the earth. Tell me.

If you have understanding. Who determined its measurements. Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it. On what were its bases sunk. Or who laid its cornerstone.

When the morning stars sang together. And all the sons of God shouted for joy. Psalm 147. 4 says. He determines the number of the stars. And he gives to them.

All their names. Anything you're going to devote your life to. Is going to fit somewhere in between. Those two trillion galaxies. And those hundred trillion atoms. In the hundred trillion cells.

Every bit of beauty. Every bit of. Things that are worthy. And valuable. It's going to fit somewhere inside of that. It says that God marked that off.

With the span of his hand. And so here's the question I have. How hateful. Would God be. How wicked. And despicable.

Would he be. To create all of that. And let us piddle around. With things that are so small. In comparison to him. It says he measured out.

The sea in his hands. If he said. Spend your life. Digging to the depths of the ocean. Which we hadn't even gotten to yet. How small is that.

And how. How horrible would it be. For him to not tell us about the hand. That measured it. For him to look at us. And say.

Spend your life. Chasing after love. Or beauty. When all love and beauty. Emits from him. Comes from him.

That is. It was thought up by him. If he said. Spend your life. Chasing after relationships. When the ultimate.

Truest. Most fulfilling. Joy filled. Glorious relationship. We could ever have. Is with him.

You see. He is a complete narcissist. Unless he is the greatest. Then what else. Would you have him point us to. What else would you have this God.

Say. Worship. Adore. Enjoy. Appreciate. You see.

What he does. Is he takes us to things. And he says. Look at the ocean. Look at the stars. Look at the sky.

And enjoy them. And be enraptured by them. And then realize. They point to me. They're just a hint. Of my glory.

And my bigness. And my goodness. And my grace. Spending all of our time. Chasing after reason. Or intelligent.

And never. Getting to enjoy. The depth of the mind. That created it. In the first place. You see.

Then. Colossians. Tells us. In 115. Talking of Jesus. He.

Is the image. Of the invisible God. The firstborn. Of all creations. Colossians 2. 9.

Says. For in him. The whole fullness. Of deity. Dwells. Bodily.

And Hebrews 1. 3. Says this. And this is what was on the. The little bumper videos. We came in.

He. That's Jesus. Is the radiance. Of the glory. Of God. So glory.

Is. Is beauty. That makes you feel something. It's. It's. It's what emanates from God.

And it says that. Radiance. Is the light and heat. That shines off of something. So what.

What Hebrews. The author of Hebrews. Tells us. Is that Jesus. Is the beauty. Of the beauty of God.

He's the radiance. Of the glory. He's the light and heat. That shines off of all of God's. Massive. Infathomable.

Unapproachable. Eternal. Goodness. He's the exact. Imprint. Of his nature.

That's God's nature. Is. Perfectly. Shown to us. In Christ. Who is God.

He upholds the universe. By the word. Of his power. That Jesus Christ. Rules over. All that exists.

And after making. Purifications for sins. That's. The cross. He sat down. At the right hand.

Of the majesty. On high. In Psalm 8. The psalmist says. When I look at your heavens. The work of your fingers.

The moon. And the stars. Which you have set in place. What is man. That you're mindful of him. Or the son of man.

That you care for him. Psalm says. I see all of this. And why do you care about us. We're in a small galaxy. Stuck off to the corner.

In a small solar system. On a small planet. Given a very limited amount of time. In history. And in God's created order. But God loved us enough.

Was mindful of us enough. That he joined us. In humanity. And went to the cross. That he exactly imprinted. His nature on Jesus.

Who became a human. The most baffling event. Most beautiful miracle. In history. Is that God. The eternal holy God.

Became a human. And humbled himself. To die on a cross. To redeem some people. So that.

He could pursue. Their greatest. And highest. Joy. Which is himself. Jesus Christ died.

So that we could have. Him. Because you will not find. A greater. Or higher. Or more worthy.

Or more valuable. Joy. In the world. In creation. In existence. That Jesus Christ.

The God of the universe. Humbled himself. A friend of mine. Got to go to a. Some sort of a tailgate thing. And it was catered by Chick-fil-A.

And he got to eat at this meal. With a bunch of fancy people. He's not fancy. But he got to go. I don't remember. Somebody knows.

Is fancy. And invited him. He said afterwards. Somebody came along. This was an older guy. Came along.

And started cleaning up everything. And throwing everything away. And he looked over. And realized. That the person who was. Picking up his trash.

And throwing it away. Was S. True at Kathy. Which is. The CEO of Chick-fil-A. He said.

He immediately thought. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like. Why would the CEO. Clean up after me. Like.

This isn't okay. I'm just here as a guest. I can't have this guy. Clean up. Like. He was like.

He was. It just felt so bad. It bothered him so much. And. And what we met with. That's the exact imprint.

Of God's nature. The humility. And mercy. And love of God. Is that the God of the universe. Who created all things.

From the most. Minuscule. To the most. Miraculously. Immeasurable. Will become a.

Person. In order to suffer. And die. On a cross. That we could be forgiven. Of sins.

And brought back. Into a relationship. With him. And have. A chance. To pursue.

What will most. Give us joy. And satisfaction. Pastor John Piper. Says this. God's love for us.

Is not mainly. His making. Much of us. But his giving us. The ability. To enjoy.

Making much of him. Forever. God's love for us. Keeps God. At the center. God's love for us.

Exalts his value. And our satisfaction. In it. If God's love. Made us central. And focus on our value.

It would distract us. From what is most. Precious. Namely himself. Love. Labors.

And suffers. To enthrall us. With what is infinitely. And eternally. Satisfying. God.

That God. Went to the cross. So that. He could labor. To enthrall us. With what is most.

Satisfying. Most. Joy-filled. God. And that's why Jesus. With complete certainty.

Honesty. Love. And helpfulness. Can look at us. And say. Whoever loves father or mother.

More than me. Is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son. Or daughter. More than me. Is not worthy of me.

And whoever. Ever does not take his cross. And follow me. Is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life. Will lose it.

Whoever loses his life. For my sake. Will find it. The band's going to come back up. If we love. Anything.

More than Jesus. We're missing out. If our lives are devoted. To anything. More than Christ. We've sold ourselves short.

If you live your entire life. Giving every penny. Every drop of sweat. Every waking moment. To Christ. And his kingdom.

And his glory. It'll all be worth it. Because everything else. Pales in comparison. To his beauty. His magnificence.

His holiness. His worthiness. Band's going to sing. We're going to take communion. Communion is for. Those who have placed their faith in Christ.

So we would ask you. That if you are not. A Christian. Just to remain seated. During this time. Or stand and sing.

With the band as they lead. But for those of us. Who have placed our faith in Christ. I want us to take a minute. To as best we can. Hold in our minds.

What makes. God. So supremely glorious. That he would suffer. And die on a cross. To redeem us.

That he would breathe his last breath. Be wrapped. And shrouded. Laid in a tomb. That he would conquer death. On our behalf.

That when we take communion. We're reminding ourselves. Of the body. And the blood. Of Christ. That was broken.

And that was. Blood that was shed. So that we could have life. So that we could be redeemed. So that we could be forgiven.

That this. Radiant. Glorious God. Would suffer. So that he could.

Enthrall us. With what is most supremely. Joy filled. Life giving. And valuable. Himself.

Let's pray. And then you'll be free. To take communion. And we'll stand and sing. God we thank you for your grace. Your love.

God. I pray Lord. That we would be. Overwhelmed. By how matchless. You are.

That you are. Supremely. Glorious. And worthy. Of all of our devotion. We praise you.

In Jesus name. Amen.

Mill City 6/5/17 Mill City 6/5/17

We're Sinners. And We Need Jesus.

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors. We're in our sixth week of our Extraordinary Series. We've just been kind of walking through talking about the concept that God has ordained. He's kind of set up in the way he created the world for our normal lives, our everyday going to work, cutting our grass, buying groceries, eating, going to sleep, tying our shoes, teaching our kids how to tie their shoes, like the normal everyday stuff of life.

He's set it up so that he intends to use that for his glory and for the good of others, that he intends to use the normal everyday stuff of life to change the eternity of those around us as we get to interact with them in a way that points them towards Jesus. So that's what we've been talking about for the past five weeks. This is our sixth week and it's the last week in this series. And let me just kind of tell you a little bit about how we do stuff as a church. We're pretty simple, straightforward. On Sundays we gather, we're going to sing some songs because the Bible commands us to, calls us to.

There's something about singing that helps things become real to us, become true to us. You know how you can get a song stuck in your head and it will not leave? Okay, God designed that and he designed us to use that as a way to remind ourselves of his truth. Nobody ever just had a really good sentence stuck in their head and they couldn't get it out. That's not how it works, but you do get songs stuck in your head. And so God, we're going to gather together.

We're going to sing to God. We're going to remind ourselves of his truth, his word. And then throughout the weeks we gather in community groups. And our community groups have group leaders, male and female group leaders in our community groups, are considered deacons in our church and they're kind of the front line of pastoral care and training and discipleship. We ask a lot of our group leaders. And they actually will go through training, leaders in training, so that we can launch more community groups because we believe that healthy groups multiply and that healthy disciples raise up more disciples and train more people.

And that's pretty much it. That's what we do. We're going to preach on Sundays. We'll pick, we do series, which instead of just doing one random thing every week, we kind of pick a topic and focus on it for a little while. A lot of times we just study straight through a book. So this is our last week in this series.

Next week we'll kind of go into studying some Christology, which is just the theology of Christ. We'll study that for a while. I'm pretty excited about that. Then we're going to go spend the rest of the summer in the Psalms, just learning how to worship personally from the Psalms. And as we do that, we usually, we have a groups team that writes content that pairs well. So for our community groups, group leaders are given some, hey, here's some questions, here's a way to lead a Bible study.

Group leaders have a lot of leeway in how groups are led. But we try to write group content that means if you're in a community group and you're not here on Sundays, you still understand what's going on. That's why we say it pairs well. Like a good red wine and a nice steak. Or for our more Baptiste people here, pizza and Mountain Dew. Like it just goes well together.

And so that's what we're doing. We're finishing up this series today. And so I just want to kind of start us off by asking this, kind of thinking through this. Let's say you've been here. You've caught most of this, the weeks you miss, maybe you listen to them online. And you've started to actually apply this.

You're in community groups and you started to say, okay, I'm going to do, actually have this filter into my life, this extraordinary series as we begin walking through this. And so maybe you started looking at your schedule a little bit differently. Maybe you started kind of praying over your schedule. Maybe you started questioning what was taking up your time. Maybe when you went to work, you were more prayerful in the fact that you're now going to get to be around people who don't know Jesus. And so how can I serve them?

How can I love them? How can I relate to them? Maybe you started looking at your schedule a little bit differently. Maybe you started making some invitations. One of the things we've said throughout the series is that if we'll be intentional about inviting people into our lives, not just inviting them to hang out on a Sunday or hang out with a group, but actually just into our lives that we'll begin to see people come to know Jesus, because that's the way God designed this to work, that we would be joining him in mission and normal everyday life. And so maybe you started making invitations into your life.

Maybe you started listening a little bit differently to the people around you, trying to hear ways that their story interacts with the gospel as we had spent the time talking through creation, fall, redemption, restoration. So maybe you started doing that. Maybe you invited someone into your home, your sanctuary, your refuge that you intentionally built with brick walls so that no one could get in unless you let them. Maybe you actually invited someone to come eat around your table or to just hang out and have some coffee or to eat some watermelon in your backyard. Like maybe you actually began to make some invitations and invite people into your house.

Maybe your group's been intentional about throwing parties or hanging out with people. And so the question we're looking at today as we finish up this series is, why on earth would we do that? Why? Why? I'm talking to some of you. It's like, why would you invite someone into your home?

And some of you are like Raz, who actually talked about that that Sunday, and you love having people in your house. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to my wife. Who he describes, who gets to press a button and ride into a shelter where a wall lifts up and press another button and the wall closes and no one can get to her and she's safe. Why would we have people come sit around our table? Why would you do that?

Why would you go out of your way to make yourself uncomfortable? Why would you? Why? That's all we're looking at today. Why on earth would we intentionally look at our schedules differently, begin to pray before we go to work, begin to invite people to be around us that maybe we don't even like? Why would you go sit with them at the break room?

Why would you invite them to get dinner after work? I'm going to pray, and we're going to try to answer this question this morning. God, we ask that your word would change us, that you would help us more clearly than we can on our own see the truth of what we're looking at this morning, that your Holy Spirit would be at work in us. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Grab your Bibles. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 1. If you have one of the white Bibles on the road, it's going to be on page 576. We're going to be in 1 Timothy chapter 1. This was written by the Apostle Paul. Paul was a Jewish leader, and we meet him in the book of Acts.

He's not one of the original apostles, one of the 12 apostles that followed Jesus around. We actually, when we first meet him, he's overseeing an execution of a Christian. He holds the coats of everyone who stoned Stephen, one of the first deacons. They stoned him to death, and Paul oversees this. And then it says Paul was very zealous for the persecution of the church. So he was a Jewish leader who thought that Christianity was subverting the good Jewish rule that was causing problems.

And so he was going around and rounding up Christians and arresting them and having some put to death and some put in prison. And while he's in the process of doing this, he's actually riding to a new city to do this. And Jesus shows up, who did live in Jerusalem, Judea, Galilee. He died. He was buried. He rose again.

And Jesus shows up and basically knocks Paul down, makes him blind, and says, why are you trying to start something with me? That's the South Carolina version. That's not exactly what he says in the Bible. But he says, why are you persecuting me? And then he basically says, okay, I'm actually going to take you and use you for my kingdom and my glory. And so Paul becomes a Christian and a missionary and begins to travel around planting churches, starting new churches.

All the churches were new at this point because the church was new at this point. Christians were new at this point. The gospel was new at this point. And so he begins to travel around and plant churches. And this letter we have is a letter written to a new church and a young pastor. And he's writing to him, talking to him about how to pastor, how to lead.

And we're going to just look at this one small section at the very beginning of this to help us answer this question today as to why we would spend money and energy and time going out of our way to be around people who don't know Jesus. Pick up in verse 15. The saying is trustworthy trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. So he's talking about, there's a saying, there's a common saying, and it's trustworthy and it deserves full acceptance. So you should believe this.

You should memorize it. You should write it down. You should cross stitch it on a pillow. Put it on your coffee mug. This is a good one. That's what Paul's saying.

Saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. So let's read that again. This is the saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. So let's, we're going to spend the majority of our time just breaking that sentence down. It's pretty dense, so let's just kind of walk through. He starts off with Christ Jesus.

Okay. Christ is a title. It's like king or president. It's not Jesus' last name. So you hear Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ.

It means the same thing. Christ, the word Christ means Messiah, promised one. And so what he's saying here is that Jesus, the Jewish guy that lived and trained the apostles that died on a cross that rose from the grave, that Jesus was the promised Christ from the Old Testament. That all the promises God had been making through his prophets and through his law and everything that we have in the Old Testament, all of those promises that someone was going to come fix this problem of sin, all of those promises are met, fulfilled in Christ, in Jesus. He is the promised Christ. So here's how the Old Testament kind of plays out.

God makes the world and it's good and beautiful. And then he makes humans and they're good and beautiful. And it's amazing. For about two chapters. And then humans botch it up. Adam and Eve, our first parents, rebel against God and sin enters the world.

And at that moment, God begins to step in and throughout the rest of time begins to promise that he's going to fix this. He's going to fix the problem of sin. That this sin that's wreaking havoc and causing problems and breaking down relationships and tearing everything apart, that he's going to fix it. That there's going to be someone who comes and sets up our kingdom. There's going to be someone who comes and atones for sin. There's going to be someone who comes.

Like he keeps promising that. And when he says Christ, that's what he's talking about. The fulfillment of these promises. That Christ Jesus is the deliverer, the promised redeemer. So Christ Jesus came into the world.

Okay, so what he means by that is if you refer to your birth as the moment that you came into the world. Like it sounds a little bit braggy. Like if I was like, yes, I came into the world in the late 80s. You'd be like, okay, that's weird. Like that's a weird way to describe that. There were, some of you would be like, there were the 40s, the 50s, and in the 60s, I came into the world.

Like it just, when he says that, he's pointing to something beyond just a normal birth. What he's saying is that Jesus existed eternally and then he came into the world. That it was actually God entering the world. That when Jesus came, he came into the world. He was born of a virgin. God was his father and he came into the world as a fully human, fully divine, fully God, fully human, and he actually entered the world for a purpose.

Now, the next word in this sentence is two. So it says, Christ Jesus came into the world too. So now we're about to find out what he's here for, what his purpose is. And we should all kind of hold our breath. If this is the first time ever reading this, ever understanding that God became a human, there should be a little bit of tension here because we're not doing great. so if God joins us, there's an assumption that that may be bad. Like I was, some pastor friends that I know where they were at a church plant and they were meeting in another church's building and that church put on their marquee, their little sign, the little church sign out by the road.

They put, don't make me come down there in quotations and then they put dash God. Don't make me come down there, God. And one of the pastors went to the pastors of that church that they were renting from and they were like, you need to take that sign down because he did come down here and that wasn't his attitude. But there's something so easily connected with in that statement that we would believe. Like if you say, don't make me come down there and God said it, we do immediately think, yeah, if he comes down, this isn't to give out high fives. Like we're not doing great.

Y'all realize that, right? Like humans are the biggest problem. Like we're the ones causing the issues here. I've told this story before. When we would go to my grandparents' house, we lived in West Virginia. They had a three-story house.

Their basement is where all the grandkids had to stay and they would put us in there and they would tell us to go to sleep and there was like a thousand sleeping bags on the ground. And then, we would not go to sleep. And so, there would be these moments where we're laughing and having fun and staying up way later than we should and I was little so I don't know if it was two in the morning or like 10.30. I just used to go to bed at eight. I have no clue. It just was really late, you guys.

And the door would open and as soon as the door opened, it was like that door sucked all the air out of the room and everybody was like, I'm feeling like you sleep. Lights are on. We all just fall down like. And you would look to try to see whose feet were coming down the stairs because there was this little wall and all you could see was feet first. And your hope was that it wasn't your parents' feet because your parents can only hit you. They don't just get to beat your cousins.

If it was my granddad's feet, that's equal opportunity beatings. Like he can hit anybody he wants. Complete immunity. But you would just kind of look real quick. There was never a moment when that door opened and feet began to descend that I thought, maybe they're bringing treats. Never happened.

There's never a moment where I was like, maybe they wanted to play with us. No. There was this immediate knowledge of this is not going to be good and there's that tension here when it says that Christ Jesus came into the world. We should all hold our breath a little bit. We're the problem here. Why is he coming?

But it says he came to save sinners. Okay. I think most of us still have a good handle on what the term sinner means. But the Bible's teaching on it is that everyone is a sinner. All humans are sinners, have fallen short, have missed the Mark, have not lived the way we ought to. You may want to debate with whether or not that's actually real, whether or not there is actually a God and whether or not sin actually matters.

But at least most of us I think still understand the concept. The Bible will say that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That there is none righteous, no not one. We're described as dead in our sin, enemies of God, that all of us have joined in the rebellion of Adam and Eve. Here's what I know and it's enough about Adam and Eve to know that you could swap them out with any one of us. Any couple in our church could swap out for Adam and Eve and this story would look very, very similar.

You can put any couple you want there. It could be Matt and Katie Freeman. It'd work out the same. Chet and Anna Phillips. It'd play out the same. Beyonce and Jay-Z.

Oprah and Stedman. Barack and Michelle. It doesn't matter. Put whoever you want there. It's going to play out the same. We're all bent and twisted towards our own pride, our own esteem, our own sin.

And all of us have fallen short. All of us have joined the rebellion. One of the ways I can most clearly see this in my own life. Most days, I think pretty highly about myself. I think I mostly have it together. The Bible tells me that's sin.

So that's a problem. But one of the ways I see this really clearly is if I look at the relationships with the people around me that I love most and that mean the most to me. So you take my parents, you take my brothers, you take my wife, you take my son. And I can point to active times and places and instances where I have personally gone to work to harm them, to tear that relationship down. And these are the people I'm most committed to, should most care about, be most selfless towards, love the most. I'm not talking about me in traffic.

I'm talking about me at my house. I'm not talking about people who don't like me. I'm talking about people who care about me and I care about that I can point to instances where I've actively chosen to tear that apart so that when the Bible looks at me and says, you are a sinner, I'm forced to nod along. Now, there's this idea that if Jesus came, because we're all sinners, how's he going to solve this problem? I got to thinking about this as I was working on this. I think if God came to me and said, I need you to figure out what are my options.

Now that I made a good creation and it rebelled, I need you to tell me what my options are. I need you to lay out for me what I can do to fix this problem. Now, I'm not, that smart. So I came up with three. There may be more. You might come up with more.

I came up with three that I think I would come back to God and present him with. Like if I got in on this plan, I think I'd come back and say, okay, I've come up with really kind of three basic options. Option number one, you cannot care. So you can just kind of stop being the way you are. You can let them do this and not care that they're harming each other, that they're tearing your world apart, that they're hurting each other. Like, because mostly the issue is humans.

I mean, yes, we have some natural disasters and yes, you may have a dog bite you, but I go to bed at night, I lock my doors to my house. That's not because I'm afraid of bears. I don't think a bear, like, I think human might try to get in my house because we're the ones causing problems. So I basically come back and say, you cannot care. You can just kind of turn a blind eye to them hurting each other. And I think, pretty quickly, that one would be ruled out.

It'd be like, okay, I kind of knew that was you weren't going to change and you were going to still be good. So let's move to option number two. Option number two is you can just control all their brains and perfectly control all of them and make them not do this. You can, like, Stepford-wise them, you can robot them, make them not do this. This is one of the things people will say periodically is like, if God's so good, why couldn't he have made us better? Like, why did, if we're all going to naturally sin, why couldn't God have made us better?

Y'all know that would be worse, right? The more good stuff God puts in you, the more capability you have. As long as you have a choice, the more capability you have for good or evil. Let me explain this. Y'all ever met a hamster? Hamsters don't have a whole lot going on.

Not a whole lot poured into the hamster. A hamster, a really good hamster, does what? Like, I don't know, lets you hold it? A really bad hamster bites you? Runs away? Like, there's never a hamster that saved a family from a fire.

There's never a hamster that massacred an entire town. Like, hamsters don't do that because they don't have that much in them. But you take a dog, they have more capacity for good things or bad things because more has been poured into them. You take an eight-year-old, more capacity for good things or bad things because more has been given to them. You take an adult, healthy adult human, because God has put more into them, there's more capacity either for good or for evil. The only way to fix that is to take away choice, not to make us better.

The most dangerous creature in creation was one of the creatures that God poured His most beauty and power into. That's why we believe that there are spiritual beings that cause havoc on earth and that are at work. That's what the Bible, Satan, is a being that God poured a lot into. But because He didn't take away choice, it has the ability to go better or worse. This is like every plot of every science fiction movie. Scientists make a thing and it's amazing and then they look at each other and go, could you imagine if this ever fell into the wrong hands?

Because it's so good, it's so big, it's so powerful, obviously it can cause more problems and that's how it works. So I would say option two, take away choice. Just robot them. Because just saying make them better with a choice would still mean they had a lot of capacity for really heinous things. You know that, like even just humans that are more intelligent can cause more problems, more charismatic can cause more problems than like less intelligent, less charismatic humans. They can still do stuff but it's just not on the same scale.

Option three, you can get rid of all the humans. I think sometimes we like to think that God could just get rid of the bad humans but where do you draw that line? Bottom 50%? You do realize as soon as you do that the top 50% are still going to cause problems, they're still having issues, they're still harming each other, they're still selfish, they're still mean. You could just get rid of the humans. I think those are the three options I would come up with.

Maybe you're more intelligent, maybe you could come up with four or five. I don't think any of us would have come up with the option that God came up with. You see, when he promises to save sinners, what he's got to do is take care of sin without getting rid of us. But sin is in us. So Jesus became one of us.

God said, how about I become a human, live perfectly, righteously on their behalf. I do what all the humans were supposed to do but were never capable of. None of them ever accomplished. What if I live perfectly, righteously on their behalf and then die a gruesome, painful death that they deserve. What if I, God, swap places with them? That's the option he came up with.

To get rid of sin, to pay for sin without having to get rid of all of us. Without taking away choice, without changing his nature, it perfectly blends these together where God says, I'm going to stay holy where I hate sin. I'm going to stay loving where I love humans. I'm not taking away choice. I'm actually going to join them and accomplish for them what they could never accomplish. That was his plan, to save sinners without destroying them.

You see, our sin deserves punishment. We've rebelled against God. Our sin has torn apart his good, harmonious world. And he can't just let us off and act as if we haven't. We aren't guilty. People at times will say, well, why couldn't God just forgive us?

Why does there have to be a system for this? And the answer to that is I don't know. I don't fully know why it has to work this way. I do know he did more than what you're asking of him. When people say that at times, they're saying, why couldn't he just wipe it all away? It's like he did.

It just cost him more. And in some ways, that just makes me love him more than if he just magicked it. He actually, no, sin had to be paid for, but he chose to take it on his own back. So Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, to give forgiveness of sin. That only through faith in Christ can you be saved. Can you be a sinner, which all of us are, and be forgiven?

So why does this matter? Why would we do all the things we've been talking about this whole series? Why would you go out of your way to meet your neighbors, to invite them into your house, to get to know your coworkers? The reason why we would do this is that everyone is a sinner deserving of punishment, but Jesus came to save sinners. That our world is so insanely hopeless, and the gospel is hopeful. That we have all been marked and broken by sin, but there's hope in Christ.

That's why this matters. Because we, as Christians, believe this. That this was us. Just to tell you a little bit about our church family, we've held really closely to this the whole time we've been around. This is one of the main things that we fight for. We believe, and we'll tell you, you are a sinner.

So when you hang out with our community groups, and we do confession in our community groups, which means we just talk about how messed up we are. When you confess something, first of all, it's kind of, confession, and this is even just to help the Christians in the room, it's kind of like when you're sick, and you know you're going to throw up, and you try to fight it, and it's the worst thing ever. This is kind of a gross analogy, but this is how this works. And then after you throw up, you feel amazing. That's the way confession works. It is the worst thing ever.

And then you confess. You talk about what you did. You talk about how you've been treating each other. You talk about stuff that no one would ever know unless you told them, and then immediately you're like, especially in a group of people that believe this, that you're a sinner that needs Jesus. Here's what happens. We confess sin, and the people in our community groups go, yeah.

Because we gather together because we all believe we're sinners who need Jesus. And then we say to each other, isn't Jesus good? Isn't it beautiful that he saves sinners? Let me tell you something. When you confess sin in our church, we're just finding out which brand. We knew you were a sinner.

The only people we give a hard time around here are the people who act like they got it together. It's hard on y'all around here. I'm sorry. We're going to give you a hard time. Every time you hang out with your community group and you go, well, I almost thought a bad word, and then I stopped myself. We're like, oh my goodness.

You are the worst sinner here. And because we're sinners, we want to choke you. Like there's just this level of we're going to fight for you're a sinner. But it's not just that. It's that Jesus saves sinners. That's what qualified us for a savior.

That's why he came. That's why he's good. That's why we gather. That's why we worship. One of the things that happens periodically, and this answer for me has not changed, that in pastoral care, pastoral counseling, there are times where I've sat across a table from somebody. I've sat in a little circle of chairs in a community group, or I've been on the phone with somebody, and you can see tears in their eyes, or you can hear it in their voice, or they're just talking about something, sin that has wrecked their life.

They're telling somebody something they've never said before. They're talking about things that have been going on that they've been hiding. And after that moment of just laying it out there, I usually end up just saying the same thing because it hasn't stopped being true. If Jesus didn't save sinners, we wouldn't be doing this. This church would never have gotten started. If this wasn't a safe place to be messed up, this wasn't a safe place to have baggage and pain, I'd go do something else.

Because Jesus saves sinners, sinners, we all have hope. That's what this is about. There's a story in the book of Numbers, chapter 21, where Moses is leading the Israelites out of Egypt. They're in the wilderness, and they come to a place where they've been grumbling against God, and then all these snakes start biting everybody. The Bible calls them fiery snakes. I don't know if that meant like venomous, or if they actually were on fire, which would be terrifying.

But these snakes start biting people, and people start dying. And so Moses comes to God and says, can we do something about the snakes? And God says, I want you to make a fiery snake. They make one out of bronze. They put it on a stick, and they post it up. And if you get bit by a snake, and you're going to die, a venomous snake, you look at the fiery bronze snake on a stick, and you don't die.

That's a crazy story. Jesus is talking in John chapter 3 to a religious leader who would have memorized most of the Old Testament, and he says, the Son of Man, like Moses raised the snake for the Israelites, the Son of Man is going to be raised up as well. You see, they had to look at a fiery snake to have their venom taken away, and Jesus says, I'm going to become sin so that sin can be taken away. He says, I'm going to be that snake. I'm going to be raised up on a cross when people look at me, their sin will be taken away. And here's what's beautiful about that.

I would have loved to have been a doctor in Israel at that time. I'd just take all the snake cases. When they came to Israel's ER, I'd be like, broken leg? I don't do that. Snake bite, come here. Have you looked at the bronze snake yet?

They'd be like, no. I'd be like, I got this. I'd hand them a prescription. They would just say, look at the bronze snake, stupid. That's it. I could solve all of them because there was one thing that saved them.

It wasn't anything special or magical that they did. It was that they, there was something that was there to save them. Jesus says, that's him. There's a pastor called Dr. Martin Laurie Jones. He was a pastor all through kind of the 1900s in England.

He used to be a doctor and I heard him talking one time and he said, one of the biggest differences between being a doctor and being a preacher is this. He said, when he was a doctor and you came to him with an ailment, he had to ask you all kinds of questions. Tell me your family history. Tell me your symptoms. Tell me everything that you think is inconsequential but I need to know it all. He said he would have to sit and ask people tons and tons of questions just to try to be able to then say, here's what you ought to do.

He said he loved being a preacher. He said, because when he walked up and opened the Bible, he already knew what everybody's problem was. He already knew the disease everybody had and he already knew the cure. He said, it didn't matter whether they were wealthy. He said, I didn't care if you were wealthy or poor, whether you're getting drunk on beer or wine, it doesn't matter. Sin's still your problem.

It didn't matter if you were intelligent or non-intelligent, cultured or not cultured. He said, everybody had the same disease. And this is why we, why this matters, why what we've been talking about for the past five weeks matters. Everybody we know has been bitten by a snake. Everybody we know has sin pumping through their veins. And everybody we know is hopeless without Christ, but Jesus Christ came to save sinners.

I cannot see through the walls of my neighbor's house. I cannot read the thoughts of the people I have the chance to work with, but I can tell you that sin is tearing their lives apart every way it possibly can. And I know that Jesus Christ saves sinners, so it's absolutely worth it that we would go out of our way to see whomever we can come to know Jesus. Verse 16. But I received mercy.

So remember, this is Paul talking. Oh, sorry. Back into verse 15. I skipped something. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom, of all the sinners, I am the foremost. That means some Bible verses will say chief.

Paul says, I'm the worst. The worst of all the sinners. But I received mercy, meaning that I did not get what I deserved, but that Christ offered mercy to me, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. See, we believe that sin kills us. That there's an eternal death that we will face because of our sin, but that Jesus Christ died in our place for our sin, atoned for our sin, and that there's an eternal life offered in him. And what Paul says is, I'm the worst one.

Some of you in here today maybe came in thinking, I'm a terrible person. How could God ever love me? Maybe you came in because you're trying to fix your life right now. Maybe that's why you've started hanging out with our church families because you're trying to get it together. You think stuff's going poorly in your life and you think, well, I need some Jesus. I gotta start behaving.

I gotta start acting right. I gotta quit talking like this. I gotta quit acting like this. And here's what Paul says. You're not worse than me. I tried to fight Jesus.

You may have done some messed up stuff. Paul says, I tried to fight Jesus. I was killing Christians. I was rounding them up. I was actively fighting against the church. And Jesus Christ gave mercy to me, saved me, redeemed me, so that I could be an example to everyone.

Jesus Christ saves sinners and not based off of anything they do. Paul was not headed to Damascus to get his life together. He was headed to Damascus to snatch the lives of Christians. And Jesus saved him. And what Paul says is, I'm an example to everyone that Jesus Christ saves sinners. You don't have to have it together.

You don't have to be moral. That's not the point. It's that Jesus was good in our place. Some of you are thinking, well, I don't deserve this and I'm not worthy. Right. That's the point.

You don't deserve this. You're not worthy. Jesus Christ saves sinners. It doesn't say Jesus Christ saves the moral. It doesn't say Jesus Christ saves the smart. It doesn't say Jesus Christ saves the well-behaved.

It says he saves sinners. And then it says this, verse 17. To the king of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, the honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. When Jesus saves sinners, he gets all the glory. You see, if you come to Jesus and you present to him your good life, your good behavior, your nice attitude, your good digestion that makes you easy to get along with, if you come to Jesus and you present to him all of the good things that you have, do you know who gets glory?

You do. Look at all your gold stars. You're so precious. Jesus Christ doesn't save good, moral, well-behaved people. He saves the busted, the broken, the sick, the sinner. He saves the person who's been bitten by a snake and knows it.

And then you know who gets all the glory? Jesus. There was not a person walking around the Israelite camp that was like, yeah, I defeated snake bite venom. And they were like, how? I looked at the stick. It's like, okay, well, the stick did it, weirdo.

That's the gospel. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. And there's something about being a Christian that helps us all line up with Paul and say, yeah, I'm the worst. I'm the foremost. And we all believe as Christians that he's going to keep doing it. That's what he does.

And that there's hope for our neighbors and our friends and our coworkers and our family members. Because there's hope for us. You know who's sitting in these chairs right now that's a part of our church family? A whole bunch of people who never thought they would be sitting in these chairs and be a part of a church family. It's one of my favorite things about our church. There's a whole bunch of people that were like, yeah, I thought this was stupid.

Just being real. A whole bunch of people that were like, yeah, I was mad at the church. I didn't like Jesus. I thought this was weird. Some of y'all grew up in the church. I'm not saying anything bad about y'all, but I'm just saying a whole lot of our church family is a bunch of people that thought they'd never be here.

But you know what? Jesus Christ saved sinners. And they don't show up. We don't show up as a church family to keep doing our good deeds. We show up as a church family to continue to remember that I'm a sinner who needs Jesus and he's good and glorious and holy. And that's why it matters.

That's why you'd invite somebody in your home. That's why you'd start praying over your schedule. That's why you'd try to get to know your neighbors. you'd rather be coming to know their story. Okay, come on.

Mill City 6/5/17 Mill City 6/5/17

Few to Many

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Spencer Carey. I am a church planting resident here at Mill City. It has almost been a year. This June will be a year since we've been down here starting the work of planting Antioch Church on the other side of Lexington. It's been a good year.

It's been a year that has been a joy to be serving alongside you guys, to be learning from you guys. We've felt a lot of love, and it's been great. We're excited for where God has ahead for us. And this morning, we are continuing our Extraordinary Series, and we're going to be talking about community groups and how they can be used for mission. Conventional wisdom says that if you want to accomplish a goal or win a game or whatever, you choose the best and the brightest to field your team. And that's practically true in sports.

In sports, in professional sports, the most important position that you hire for as an owner is a general manager, the GM. The GM chooses the head coach, which is hugely important. He also chooses the players. He's the head of scouting. So I'm a huge Indianapolis Colts fan, which means the last five years has been somewhat painful because we have one of the best quarterback prospects since Peyton Manning, and it's been terrible to watch because we had a bad GM who chose really bad players and a not-so-great coach.

I think of other sports. I think of Major League Baseball. Probably the best GM in sports is Theo Epstein. He helped build the Red Sox and ended that curse, and then he went to the Chicago Cubs where he just ended that curse. So he's really good at what he does.

If you want to win ballgames, you feel the best team. The same is also true in advertising. If you want your product to sell, you choose the best and the brightest. In our culture, that seems to be celebrities. Celebrity endorsements is where it's at. One of my favorite celebrities who endorses products is Shaq.

Shaquille O'Neal, he's just hilarious. He was one of the most dominant power forwards in the history of the NBA, and then he comes out, and he's just been selling products ever since. One of my favorite products he sells are Buicks. He is seven. You don't know who Shaq is. He's seven foot one.

He's massive, and they show him inside of a Buick, and you're like, there's no way Shaq fits in a Buick. He has business selling tanks, but not Buicks. That's not how that works. One of the worst celebrity endorsements that I've seen is the Sarah McLachlan abused animal commercials. You know what I'm talking about. If you've watched TV past 11 o'clock, you have seen these.

The first time you watch it, her song, In the Arms of an Angel, comes on, which is an extremely sad song. And then they show a picture of an abused puppy, and you're immediately like, this is really sad. And then they show a hurt cat. And you may not be a cat person. That doesn't do anything for you. But then they show you more pictures of dogs.

And you're like, oh my goodness, this is terrible. The first time you watch it, I mean, it moves you a little bit. The hundredth time you've seen it, it infuriates you. You want it off the TV. You change the channel as fast as you can. But that's what companies, that's what nonprofits, that's what teams.

If you want the best way to sell your product, the best way to win ballgames, you choose the best and the brightest. That's conventional wisdom. Jesus defies that. He defies conventional wisdom by choosing a bunch of scrubs and equipping them to do ministry. If you don't know what a scrub is, a scrub is one definition. It's a guy who thinks he's fine who's also known as a buster.

That is one definition of a scrub. An alternate definition of a scrub is just someone who generally lacks talent. Not very special, not an all-star at all. And this is who Jesus chose. So we're going to look today, we're going to walk through this.

We're going to walk through who Jesus chose and why he chose them to change the world, the 12 apostles. Then we're going to look at how he equipped them to do ministry. And we're going to see how God still wants to use us today. So before we dive into that, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. God, I pray that you would use it this morning to show us what mission looks like and how our community groups can be used to reach this city.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so we'll start at who he chose. Matthew 10, 2 and following. The names of the 12 apostles are these. First, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother.

James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother. Philip and Bartholomew. Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector. James, the son of Alphaeus. And Thaddeus. Simon, the zealot.

And Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. All right, so Jesus chooses 12 ordinary men that represent kind of a common cross-section of that culture at that time. You look at Peter, James, John, Andrew. We know they were fishermen. All right, so blue-collar, probably uneducated, fishermen.

Then you get Bartholomew, James, Philip, and Jude Thaddeus. Thaddeus being a name that exhibits both testosterone and biblical value, which is why our son who is coming this summer will have the middle name Thaddeus. These four, we don't really know who they were. They could have been farmers. They could have been shepherds. They could have been fishermen.

They don't have name recognition. We don't really know who they were. They were just common people. Then you get to Thomas. Thomas is probably a common trade, too, but we do know something about Thomas. He's a bit of a skeptic.

So he kind of represents the skeptic part of their society. Then we get to Matthew and Simon. Matthew, we'll start with him. Matthew is a tax collector. He's a Jewish tax collector. Which means he's one of the most hated people in his culture.

He was a Jew who worked for the Roman government who was oppressing the Jews, collecting taxes on behalf of them, and taking more than his fair share. Like, we hate the IRS. This is the IRS and steroids. This is like China oppressing our country and having to pay taxes to an American who takes more than his fair share. So he's hated.

And then on the other extreme, we have Simon the Zealot. He is a part of a group of revolutionaries called the Zealots. They actively sought to overthrow the Roman government, rebellion after rebellion, until finally about 70 AD, the Romans were done with it, and they went and destroyed all of Jerusalem. They destroyed the temple, which is why there's only one part of the temple called the Western Wall that is still in existence. The Zealots hated the Romans. They hated tax collectors who were sellout Jews who worked for the Romans.

So Jesus chooses two people on opposite ends of the spectrum. And then we get to Judas. We know Judas was the one who betrayed Jesus. He could have been an accountant. We don't really know. He handled the money.

But he's just a common person that ends up betraying Jesus. And that's the team. That's the all-star team that he chose to change the world. Defying conventional wisdom, Jesus chose ordinary people to do something extraordinary. And even worse, he chose people who were more likely to tear each other apart than actually unify under a common cause. So why did Jesus choose this group of people to change the world?

For a few reasons. Because God looks glorious when he chooses the broken, when he chooses common, uneducated people to accomplish his purposes. Like the sovereignty of God, which is his rule and his reign, looks more glorious when he uses jacked-up people to advance his kingdom. We see that from Old Testament to New Testament. God gets to flex when he takes a zealot and a tax collector and unifies them under a common cause to see the world changed. It is clear who's in control of the mission when he chooses a common group of people to advance his kingdom.

And they're all so different. And I see that on a practical level now. Even being at this church the last year, thinking of two pastors that came to plant this church, Chet and Matt. They are so different. Like we knew each other in college. But I've gotten to know them more since I've been down here.

And they're so different. You take Chet, for instance. Chet kind of has a stoic, kind of hard face that doesn't look as friendly. He's not very touchy-feely. He's more likely to punch you if you hug him unannounced. That's just Chet.

He's not very touchy-friendly. But you get to know him. He's actually very friendly. He cares a lot. And then as you get to know him more, you see he has a soft spot for musicals and broadways and a little bit of folk music. Then you get to Matt Freeman, who looks happy all the time.

He has got a very kind of light-hearted, very happy spirit about him. He's more likely to hug you unannounced. Hug you and pick you up unannounced. And behind all that, when he gets into competition, he gets gritty. He gets nasty. It's fun.

Especially when you beat him in ping-pong and you get to see it. But God uses both. They're so different. You can go on down the line and show their differences. God uses their differences to bless this church and to make the mission here better. And the same is true if you're honest in your community group.

I mean, be real. Think of the people in your community group right now. Would you have ever connected if it wasn't for Christ? If it wasn't for the reason why you're here is because of Jesus. Would you have ever connected as a community group? Would you still connect?

For some of you, maybe. But for many of you, probably not. Every one of your community group is very different. I think of the community group that we started when we launched community groups off the ground for Antioch in the fall. I've got a little bit of intense personality. I love the Gamecocks.

I love going out to restaurants and eating good foods. I love good coffee. I like weirder music and weirder movies. And then you get to Jeremy Powell, who moved down here last summer. And Jeremy is way different. He's a personal trainer and he loves working out.

I hate working out. I hate it. He likes five different types of food. Unseasoned chicken. Rice. Oatmeal.

Broccoli. And if it's crazy, sweet potatoes. And that's it. Like, that's all he eats. And we're so different. I think of the Pruitts who moved down here.

We're different. They're Clemson fans. We're way different on that. I think of the Garcias who moved down here. They're New Yorkers. We're all so...

When I think about the people who helped launch our community group, we're just... We're all so very different. But what comes out of those differences is a diverse group of people united by the gospel. What comes out of that is a beautiful display of empathy with others. It is a patience with personalities that might clash with you. And it grows you.

And it shapes you in ways that would never happen if you got to choose the people that you want to journey through life with in a community group. And in being different, we all bring something different to the table. We bring different spiritual giftings to the table. Romans 12 is a passage that is one of a few passages in the New Testament that talks about spiritual giftings. Spiritual giftings are just giftings and talents that the Holy Spirit has given us to serve one another in the church and serve those outside the church. Romans 12 gives a few of them.

In verses 5 and 4, we'll read them. It says, So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. All right, hear this. We are one body with individual members with individual different spiritual giftings. I mean, some of you are unreal gifted at serving in hospitality. I serve on host team week in, week out, and I get to see it firsthand.

You make this church better by being such great hosts that bring people in here to hear the gospel. Some of you are just very good at exhorting and encouraging other people. Like, it's just good to be in your presence, to hear your words of encouragement. You're good at that. Some of you are able to teach. That doesn't always look like what happens up here.

Sometimes that's in community group leading a discussion. Sometimes that's walking somebody at a coffee shop through a Bible study. Some of you can teach. Some of you are good at making money, and you have generous hearts. And we can meet here on a Sunday. We can gather together because of that.

It costs money to use this place, and we get to see more ministry happen because of it. We all bring something different to the table in how God uses us to impact one another and others. And what we see from how Jesus chose his apostles is that our diversity is a means of grace that God uses to impact many. Our diversity is a means of grace that God uses to change the world, which is why Jesus chooses the people he did. And it makes God look good. So that's who he chose.

That's why he chose. I want to take a look at how he prepared them for ministry. The primary focus of the four Gospels is Jesus spending time with his apostles, preparing them for ministry. That's it. He had a large-scale ministry, absolutely, but the primary focus is him pouring into the twelve over and over again. You read how Jesus was doing ministry with his disciples, and he was modeling how to do this.

Because the plan wasn't that he was going to stay here forever. So he spent three years modeling this. He spent three years praying with them, teaching them how to pray. He spent three years showing them the importance of the word. There are over 66 different references to the Old Testament in Jesus' dialogues with the disciples. He showed the word is central to what you are going to do.

He modeled solitude and the importance of that. He did large-scale ministry. He did get away with the twelve. Sometimes he did get away with the three. And then he would also get away by himself to spend time with his heavenly father, showing that all of us need time alone with God. Even if you're an extrovert like me, even if you're even more of an extrovert, you need time alone with your father.

He modeled mercy ministry by having compassion on the crowds. He modeled how to have a good time. One of his first miracles is changing water to wine at a wedding party. And I mean, it's so much so that the Pharisees accused Jesus of being a drunkard and a glutton. Now we know that's not true because getting drunk is sin and Jesus is sinless.

We know that never happened. We know that he wasn't a glutton. But he must have been having such a good time with his disciples on a regular basis that they can make those accusations. So he did all this and more. He spent three years showing them how to do this so that they would know how to do it when he left. And just being around him, they soaked up a ton of stuff.

And that makes sense on a practical level. I think on a practical level with my relationship with my daughter, she is almost two years old. And she absorbs a lot. She absorbs some of the good stuff that we do. So we teach her how to pray, what that looks like.

Every night we try to read the storybook Bible so that she can get a rhythm of hearing the gospel, hearing the stories of the Bible come to life. We try some good patterns and then some bad patterns she eventually picks up from us. One of the bad patterns that she picked up a couple months ago, she looked at our dog. We have two dogs. We have one dog who is a sweet puppy who we know she's going to be awesome. Like we can see the long run.

This is going to be a great dog. And we have another dog who's objectively terrible. And she looks at that dog and she goes, shut up, Rolo. And my wife looks at me and I look at her and I look at Ellie. I'm like, no, you shut up. That's not how that went down.

Immediately, I'm like, I'm a little mortified because I know it's me. I know it's my fault because this dog, he's just bad. He's bitten us. He's disobedient. And one of the things that he does that drives us crazy is when she's napping and you have a toddler that's trying to nap and you don't want that interrupted. He barks at everything.

He barks at noises outside and he wakes her up. And I want to take him and put him in front of the TV and watch Sarah McLachlan commercials and say, this could be your life. And my go-to response is, shut up. And she heard it. And so we had to correct that. We had to slowly teach her that, no, say shush, don't say shut up.

But she picks up a lot. You pick up a lot from people around, especially people that you might be influenced by. And for three years, the apostles got to spend three years with the God of the universe. And they picked up a ton. They got to see the heart of God on display for three years. And it impacted 11 of them in profound ways that changed and shaped the future of their ministries until each of them died.

So after spending three years modeling this, Jesus goes to the cross. He goes to the cross where he pays. His blood is spilt. It pays for their sins so that they can have a right standing before God. He goes to the tomb where he conquers death at the resurrection, loosening the grip of death and its power over his followers, giving them a chance to have a new life in Christ through belief in him. And then he sends them out.

He commissions them in the Great Commission. He says, go make disciples. You have one Job. Go make disciples. Do what I have done with you the past three years and change the world. And then the event of Pentecost happens.

They go to Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit descends upon the church at Pentecost. Peter stands up, gives a sermon. Three thousand plus people are changed in a moment. Changed by his grace. They are baptized.

And as you're reading Acts, you might be thinking, this must be the pattern of ministry that's going forward. They're going to travel around and they're going to preach. And there's going to be thousands of people that come to Christ. That is why the church exists today, right? No. This is a special, specific, just beautiful event.

That is not what happens going forward. What happens going forward is directly what follows that in Acts 2, verses 42 through 47. It says, And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And all came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And hear this. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. That's the pattern that follows for the rest of the book of Acts and the early church. After spending three years with Jesus, the disciples simply modeled his ministry.

They prayed together. They studied the word together. They ministered to those who had need together. They broke bread and ate in their homes together. They kept it simple, making everyday disciples an everyday life. And that's the vision of why Chet and Matt moved down here to plant Mill City.

That is why we moved down here to plant Antioch Church. That simple vision of ministry that we would gather together on Sundays where we'd worship, we'd hear the word preach, and we'd be sent out and we'd scatter into our homes and community groups throughout the week. That's why we preach community groups so much. That's why you hear about it every Sunday. Because we see that God wants to use community groups to change the world, to change this city. And part of us talking about it a lot is a little bit of a reaction to the fact that for most people in this culture, down south, church is a building.

Church is an event that happens on Sunday. It's a social function of sorts. And that's not the biblical definition. The church is the people of God. We gather together for worship and we scatter into community groups. That's the model.

So that's why we have preached this so much. We believe God wants to use you and me to make disciples who will make disciples. God wants to use us to plant groups across this city. We believe that he wants to use us, the few, to impact the many. That's why he chooses everyday scrubs like us to change the world. So in order for us to do that, there's got to be a little bit of a mindset change.

We've got to change our mind on how we look at this a little bit. So we have to see community groups as a missional vehicle, as a place for mission, as a people for mission. We have to see it as that. For many of us, community groups has become a place of refuge, a place of safety. And some of that's for good reasons. Some of that is because community group is a place and it's a people we can gather together and we can be honest with one another.

We can love one another. We can be around our community group members and just be real. And inviting new people into that kind of breaks that up sometimes. It kind of makes it difficult at times. So we have to have a mindset change that says, yeah, community group is a place where we can be fully loved and fully known and fully loved.

But it's also a place where we can see lives changed by the gospel. And in doing that, we're going to grow. And that's going to have to cause us to plant new groups. We have nine community groups represented in this room. And we'd love to see in a year's time that double. We'd love to see 18 community groups happen.

Which means we've got to plant and launch more groups. And when we do that, the cycle of starting new groups is painful and beautiful and good all at the same time. It's a little bit painful because the people that you've journeyed with over the last year or so, you're going to launch some of them out into a new group. Now you're going to see them on Sundays and you're going to hang out from time to time. That's going to happen. But the weekly rhythm of gathering together as a community group, that's going to shift a little bit.

That's going to change completely. They're going to be in a new group. But what happens, what comes out of that is it allows more space for new people to come and experience the gospel. So we're going to have to plant more groups. And the other mindset change that has to happen is we have to see that everything counts. Every aspect of our life counts for the mission of the gospel going forward.

The church that sent us out down here, the language they used was location, vocation, recreation. You'd be missional in your location where you live, your vocation where you work, your recreation where you play, where you live life. So for many of us, we have to do some mindset changes and seeing that we have to be missional in all of those areas. So where we live, your neighborhood, your location. Get to know your neighbors. The neighbor across the street whose yard is a wreck, maybe the yard is a wreck because they have poor health and they can't take care of their yard.

And we get to go and serve them and cut their grass and get to know them and invite them into our community groups. For some of you, many of you work, you work eight to ten hours a day at a job where you're around people, some of whom don't believe the gospel. You get the opportunity to get to engage them, to get to know them, to go out and get lunch with them, to spend time with them, building a relationship so that you can talk about the gospel. You can invite them into groups. Many of you have hobbies. Some of you have like ten hobbies.

You probably should reduce that a little bit. Some of you have just a few hobbies, which is good for your soul. You should use those hobbies as a means for mission. If you love going to workout groups, there are people in that workout group who do not know Jesus. Get to know them, engage them. Whether it's hunting or fishing or bowling leagues or whatever, see where you enjoy life as a place for mission.

So if we make those adjustments in our mind, if we see a community group as a primary vehicle for mission in the church, if we see the call to plant more groups and how that is advancing the kingdom here in Columbia, if we can make the adjustments to see that everything counts in every aspect of our life, we can start to get practical about how to make our community groups more missional. So I'm going to run through a list real quick of ways we can make our community groups more missional, and then we'll close out. The first one is to really love one another. Now I know when I say that, you're like, yeah, we get that.

I mean really love one another in a way that looks way different than the outside world. I mean our culture, our culture is so fake. It's so fake. People put their best faces on Facebook. There's not real relationships. They're not honest about their brokenness.

The world is fake, and everyone is so tired spending plates in that world trying to get by. And in our community groups, when we gather together for our meeting times, when we gather together outside of it, we get to be honest. We get to be real. We understand we're not all stars. We're scrubbed saved by grace. Like we get it, that Jesus is good.

So we can confess our sin. We can be honest about our brokenness. And when people from the outside world come and see that kind of love, they see something way different and way better. And we have to love one another. Even the people in our groups, and they clash with our personalities, we have to love one another in spite of our differences and model the gospel. If we don't have love, our community groups will not be missional.

Secondly, you are a community group. Therefore, you can do things outside of your normal community group meeting time. The difference there is sometimes we see community group as an event that happens on a Tuesday night or Wednesday night. The community groups are not the event. It's the people. You are a community group.

So you can do things outside of your normal meeting time. So go bowling. Go to the zoo. Go do things. Hang out. Live life together.

Some of you, you can go to lunch with your coworkers and invite somebody from your community group who can join you. And you go get lunch together. And they get to see your dynamics of how you love one another and how you care for one another. And they get to see the gospel lived out in a piece of your community group. So you are a group.

Do stuff outside of your normal group meeting time. Thirdly, use your strengths. Use the strengths that are in your group. Some of your groups are kid-friendly. And by kid-friendly, I mean there's like eight kids in it. We're about to have seven kids in our community group.

And it's messy. And in community group meeting time, you might be thinking, who wants to be a part of this? We've got one kid that is now naked. We don't know how he got naked, but he's naked now. Then we've got another kid that has blown out their diaper.

And then two kids collide. And there's crying. And there's screaming. And you're thinking, who wants to be a part of this chaos? People with kids. People with kids want to be a part of that.

People who have not had an adult conversation in three months with anyone other than their spouse want to be a part of that. They want to bring their kids to be a part of that. You have kids. Use your kids as a missional opportunity to invite people in to experience the gospel. Go to the splash park and invite other families from your neighborhood. Your kids can be a great missional tool.

That's a biblical good thing. They're awesome. And they can be used for mission. All right? So use, if you're kid, if y'all are kid friendly, use it.

If you have someone in your group that is like a relational Jedi, and they maintain 30 friendships with unbelievers on a regular basis, And you might be an introvert, and you might be thinking, how is that possible? I have two close friends, and that's all I have time for. That's okay. Be stretched a little bit. That's okay. But what you could do is you could see your relational friend.

You could see someone like Jordan Surratt as a person to come alongside, to spend time with some of their friends, get to know them, and invite them in to life together with us. Some of you are admin gifted. You are gifted in administration. And we need you badly. If we don't, this is what taco night looks like. Seven people bring lettuce.

One person brings cheese. And one person brings tortillas. That's not a taco. There's no such thing as a vegetarian taco. It does not exist. So we need you to be the admin person that makes group run smoother, that makes our time together run smoother, so that everyone's bringing stuff that's good, and that we can be hospitable to those who might visit.

Some of you are coffee snobs. Who else loves coffee? I'm a coffee snob. I embrace it. People will throw that label at you, and you can shut it down. Okay?

Because it's good to love coffee. I love roasting an Ethiopian Yerga Chop bean in my garage and bringing it to community group. You may think that's weird. I say that's good service. All right?

Some of you love serving good food. Right? Some of you might love throwing steaks on the grill and have the money to bring steaks to the grill. Do it. Invite your neighbors. Some of you, like Rask said, only got money for hot dogs.

You make a hot dog, you make a friend. Use your Memorial Day to grill out to get to know people and to invite them in. Some of you are awkward and small talk. You should grow in that. All right?

But while community group is kind of, our meeting time is kind of winding down and dishes need getting done and people are still talking, go wash the dishes. Some of you are great at small talk. And when somebody new comes, you actually go and talk to them and invite them and make them feel welcomed. I could go on and on about the different giftings that we have, the different strengths we have. We all have different strengths, but the reality is we're all a group of scrubs. When we gather together, we see our strengths come together and we see that we are better together.

Fourthly, be persistent and play the long game. Be persistent and play the long game. What I mean by that is, is that this takes time. In our culture, it just takes time. What we do in community groups, I don't know if you know this, is not normal. It's not normal for us to gather on a regular basis, to be honest about our brokenness, to talk about the gospel, to read the Bible.

That's not normal in our culture. Even in a southern churchy culture, that's not normal. So when you invite somebody and they say no, don't be shocked. Like this takes time. It takes time to get to know people. You may invite them and they may say no.

And you may invite them three months later and they may say no again. But eventually, if you're persistent, not annoying, don't be the person that invites every single moment you can. Be persistent, not annoying. But the more time you spend with them, the more time, more lunches you get with them, they might actually come. And then if they come, they might not come back for another six months. But if you're persistent, hopefully by God's grace, one day they're going to see their brokenness and their need.

And they're going to see the world that they're in is fake. And they're going to remember the time when I came around a group of people who actually loved one another. And they'll say, I need that. And they'll come back and they'll experience the gospel and they'll be changed by his grace. So be persistent and play the long game.

All right, here's the final two. Know that this is hard. This is difficult. You will get hurt in doing this. Jesus spent three years pouring in a 12 and one of them betrayed him and had him handed over to die one of the most gruesome deaths imaginable. If you do this, you will get hurt.

My wife went out in a community group in Louisville. We spent a year and a half pouring into a woman who we helped pay for rent. We helped keep the lights on. We babysat her kids. We got her jobs that she eventually got fired from. We helped with legal fees and a custody dispute.

We spent a year and a half pouring into her. And we received lie after lie. And we got used. And then she moved on. And that's painful. Like you invest a year and a half into something like that.

That hurts. And you might be tempted to think, is this really worth it? Is it worth it to open myself up to that kind of pain? And I'll close with this. It's absolutely worth it. Because this is where joy is found.

This is joyful. When I get to see stories like what's happened in our community group with the Garcias moving down here. I think of Jen Garcia got baptized here about a month ago. And I get to see her story of her searching for God. Doesn't really have handles for what that looks like. Has never really heard the gospel.

Comes down as a part of our community group. She gets to hear the gospel. She understands that she believes. And she's growing in the grace of our Lord. When I get to see that, when we get to baptize her and see that change, it's worth it. I've gotten to know the Pabones, and especially Josh, the past year.

When we first, one of the first meetings Josh Pabone and I ever had, we're talking with Chet and Matt. And all of a sudden Josh goes, listen, we're not friends yet. And then he's kind of moved on. I was like, oh, okay. We're not friends yet. We've grown to be friends.

And as I've gotten to hear his story, and he gave me permission to share this. When I got to hear his story of how him and Aideen are on the brink of divorce. And their life is in shambles. And someone invites them to a community group. And they come, and they experience the gospel, and they see a place where they can belong. A place where they can be loved.

And their marriage is changed. And now they're community group leaders. And they're opening their home up, being hospitable, seeing other lives be changed. When I hear stories like that, when I think of this church that sent us, and the stories that happened there of lives being changed, of marriages being restored. When I think of the stories that are happening here, and I see them, I'm like, this is absolutely worth it. I'm sold.

I want to be a ragtag group of scrubs being used by Jesus to see this city be changed. Our hope is that each of us would see our community groups as a place to see lives be changed by the gospel. That we would plant more groups across this city where we see lives be changed, marriages be restored. That is the hope for community groups. That's the hope for us going forward as a church.

Mill City 5/21/17 Mill City 5/21/17

Weaponized Homes

Transcript

Good morning, what's up guys? My name is Raz. I'm one of the pastors here. We're in this series at the moment called Extraordinary. And in this series what we're doing is looking at all of the little, little, independent, ordinary aspects of life and seeing how they can be given significance in order to make those ordinary situations in life extraordinary. And we've seen a couple of different ways so far in which that happens.

And today, that's our goal for this series. But what we're talking about today specifically is going to be hospitality. We're going to talk about how Christians in their everyday, ordinary lives can give significance to hospitality and invite people into their homes and into their lives. and that those people will be able to see a little, itty-bitty glimpse of the gospel in each of those moments. And that's kind of our goal for today. We're going to see what the Bible says about hospitality. But I think we'll find very quickly that it's quite clear.

There's not a whole lot of wiggle room. It's not one of those situations where we have our guard up and we want to kind of fight with it. So because it's pretty clear, we're going to kind of power through that. We're going to get through it pretty quickly. And we're going to spend most of our time today talking, looking at examples, seeing some kind of applicable ways that we might put this into practice in our lives or see how the concept of hospitality can transform the church in such a way that Jesus is made known through us in our homes, that kind of thing. We looked earlier in this series about how we have one Job.

And this is one of the first sermons is we have one Job. And that one Job that we've been given is to make disciples. And I think that chances are we could be neglecting the best tool that we have to accomplish that. And that's our homes. And so I'm going to pray. And then we're going to talk a little bit about why hospitality, what God says about why we should be hospitable.

And then we're going to spend most of our time talking about how to actually accomplish that. So let's pray. God, I thank you for the opportunity to look to Jesus as the ultimate example of how we can be welcoming to others. And I pray that as we look today at what it would look like to open our homes, to see people know you through interactions with us in our everyday life, that you'll be empowering us to go out and actually do this. That we can see the value and the worth of opening up our homes so that people can see Jesus in our lives. It's in his name we pray.

Amen. Before we launch headfirst into this, I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page definitionally about what we're talking about. So there's a chance that you might think, oh, I am hospitable. I'm a very hospitable person. I'm super welcoming at work. I'm super welcoming at other people's house.

I'm super welcoming on Sunday mornings. I'm a really hospitable person. And that's good. Those are all noble. We want that for you. We want that for your friends.

We want that for your life. That's great stuff. But definitionally, we're going to be honing in a little bit on what that hospitality actually looks like. I was going to go to a Bible dictionary for this, but I thought I'd ask Siri first. And I actually like Siri's definition a lot. So I asked Siri.

I'm sorry if I trigger anyone's phone in your pocket right now. I just realized that might happen. Siri's definition of what hospitality means is the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Now, that covers a lot. But we're going to roll with it because I like it because it highlights two important factors about hospitality that we might overlook.

And the first one of those is that it's about reception. It's about receiving people in. It's not about going to people where they're at. It's about having people to you where you're at. And specifically for us, we're going to be talking about what that looks like in your homes, bringing people from outside of your sphere inside of your sphere. It also talks about the second thing is that it focuses on.

Now, it doesn't only allow. Like, it's not an exception clause, but it focuses on. It pushes us towards. It leans towards strangers and outsiders. Now, it's perfectly reasonable for you to be hospitable to your community group, to your friends, to the people that you're already surrounded by, like normal people that you interact with on a daily basis. But this definition pushes us a little bit in the direction of what would it look like to be hospitable to people outside of that normal sphere?

What happens when you have to push a cultural or a racial or a socioeconomic barrier in order to have someone else that you wouldn't normally hang out with in your life? What would it look like for a 27-year-old person to have a 60-something-year-old person they didn't know over in their house? How could they see the gospel in that situation? So we're going to kind of be leaning into that a little bit and leaning into that aspect of this definition. Okay, so why hospitality? Let's take a look at what the Bible says about hospitality.

And I think we're going to see pretty clearly and pretty early on that we are commanded repeatedly throughout the Bible to be hospitable. Some people seem, I think this is normal for us, I think this is cultural for us, to think that hospitality is optional. That if you have the right house or the right age kids or the right amount of money or add any kind of qualifier onto that thing, as long as you check all those boxes then and only then, maybe, you could consider being hospitable. But I think we'll see that there's not that much wiggle room because according to the Bible, hospitality is a command, not a suggestion.

And we're first going to look at Romans 15, 1 through 3. Typically what we'll do around here is open up the Bibles in the chairs, sit in one passage for most of the day. But we're actually going to be bouncing around quite a lot. So if you're not super quick with searching around the Bible for passages, everything is going to be appearing on the screen today. That's not normal for us, but because we're bouncing a lot, you can just check it out on the screen if that suits you better. We're going to be in Romans 15, 1 through 3.

It says, We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. We see in this that in Christian maturity, those who are strong have the obligation to lift up and benefit those who are weak. And looking to Christ, we see that he willingly took that burden onto himself. That was his goal as well.

He wasn't pleasing himself. He was sacrificing himself on behalf of others. He was sacrificing his comfort for the sake of other people. And when I look at that, and when I look to his example, I see this kind of glaring place in our lives where we kind of just don't really follow that. We don't sacrifice our comfort a whole lot, at least not in the way that Jesus does. And I think that way that we don't do it is in our homes, right?

In our homes, you get to... Homes are an interesting thing to think about. In your home, you get to control everything. Like, unlike anywhere else in the world. In your home, you are the boss and you control everything. Ish.

I mean, roommates, wives, like children, like you've got to compromise some, maybe on some of the things. But at least in the grand scheme of things, like you get to control the temperature. You don't get to do that everywhere. You get to control the sounds that the rooms make, like the music or the TV. You get to control the color of the walls. You get to control every little piece of what happens in our house.

And typically, I think, what we see that the purpose of home as is our refuge away from the world. Where we get to kind of ignore everything that happens outside and have our little space that's exactly how we want it. And if you think about it, like over time, as technology has increased, we've actually built homes specifically more and more to accomplish that goal. This may not be you, but this person exists. And you can definitely visualize this. You're driving home.

This may not be you, but somebody does this. You're driving home. And as you pull into your little driveway, you look up to your... I don't know what the thing's called here. We call it a visor. It's like the little flap thing that blocks the sun from your eyes.

Also a visor? Thank you. Good save. The visor thing. And you click the little thing on it and you push the button. And the button communicates with the robot inside your house.

And the robot inside your house opens the wall. And you drive your car through the wall inside your house. And you push the button and the shield comes down behind you. So that you get to block out everything on the other side of it. Like that is a real thing. And if someone's out on the street screaming your name, you can just like pretend that that never happened.

You can sit in the car until that shield goes right at the bottom. Then you get out and go into your house and pretend nothing ever happened. We recently bought a house and I was thinking of all the cool technology and stuff we could put on it. Put into the new house. And one of the new things that they've got is a doorbell that it senses movement. And so before someone even rings your doorbell, like if someone approaches your house, it'll text you a photo of that person.

So that you could be upstairs or at work or anywhere and you'll have a photo of the person who is approaching your house. And before they even ring the bell, you can decide to ignore them. And it's really easy if they're wearing like a Time Warner hat or something. But if it's just a stranger, you get to make that call. I'm too tired. I can't be bothered.

And the rest of us have to walk up to the little pokey hole thing where you look through. And then you decide. But they've heard you at floorboards creak by that point. They at least know your home. And we don't have the garage shield thing. So they can see my car as well.

So we always have to answer the door, at least sort of mostly. We've structured it. I mean, just as society, technology-wise, we've developed systems that mean we don't have to pay attention to the world. You can get your groceries delivered to your house. You'll get a notification on your phone with a photo of the guy delivering them telling you that it's there. And you can ignore it until you watch him walk away.

And then you can open the door and pull your groceries inside. And they're in a perfectly little refrigerated box thing. You don't even have to speak to cashiers anymore. Even if you go to Walmart, you prefer the line that you don't have to talk to anybody in. We've developed a cultural world, a technology world, where in our homes and in our lives, we don't have to relate to people. And I think at home, amongst all places, that's kind of where we focus on the most in keeping people out.

Because in your home, you're the boss, and you do what you want to do when you want to do it, right? That's the point. That's the point of being at home. Shut the door. Lock it. Deadbolt it.

Put the little chain thing on that doesn't look like it had stopped very much. Keep the world out. That's what home is. And yet in verse 2, it said, Let each of us please his neighbor for his own good to build him up. In following Christ's example, we ought to be taking that posture of sacrificing our refuge, sacrificing that safe zone that we have in order to be able to engage people and invite them in to build them up. And so it's not surprising when, if you kept reading in that section, you get down to verse 7.

And Paul says in verse 7, Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. In light of the gospel, since Christ has welcomed you, your role now in the world is to be welcoming to other people. And that includes into your safe zone, into your refuge, into your home. And if we are a people who are welcomed by God, we will be a people who are welcoming to others. Because hospitality is rooted in the gospel. Here's the gospel.

All of humanity was sinful. All of humanity falls short of the glory of God. We deserve nothing but death. In fact, we're told that we have earned the wages of death. All that we've accomplished, all that we've done, we deserve death as a result of that. But since God loves us, he sent his son Jesus, who lives a perfect life, so that when we killed him, his death was able to pay the penalty for the sin that we deserved.

His death was able to take that on for us. God welcomes us in, even though we are estranged from him. And for that reason, we're able to welcome others in. Our hospitality, our kindness to others gets to be a tiny little picture of the gospel. A tiny little image of what God has done for us. When we welcome others in, we get to show them what it was like when we were welcomed in.

Our homes are not refuges for ourselves. Our homes are weapons for the gospel. Our homes are a platform for building others up, not keeping them out. Let's look through some more examples. The next one is Leviticus 19. It's an Old Testament example.

This is God talking to the people of Israel. It says, this is verse 33 through 34. It says, 1 Peter 4, verse 8 and 9. It says, Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. If you ask me, that doesn't sound very much like optional language.

And I think that's because the Bible treats hospitality like it's expected. It's demanded. It's a command, not a suggestion. Actually, in Titus 2, it's one of two places in the New Testament that gives like a really good, clear definition with a list of what's required of elders in the church. What a pastor has to be in order to be qualified to be a pastor. And one of those things in the list is hospitable.

If someone is not hospitable, if a pastor is not hospitable, they are unable to model the Christian life for the church. If a pastor is unable to be hospitable, they are unable to pastor. They should not be leading the church. So, why hospitality? I think because it's demanded by and rooted in the gospel. Because in Romans 15, 7, that we just read earlier, it says, Therefore, welcome one another in as God welcomed you, as Christ has welcomed you.

We're told, be hospitable because God was first hospitable to you. Be hospitable because in so doing, you give these tiny little images throughout your life of what the gospel looks like. You were welcomed, and so you welcome. Here's a fun fact that I learned this past week. It tends to happen with people who've studied languages. You develop an interest for words.

I never really had that before college. And you start to see similar words and wonder, how are they actually related? Like, why would they be so similar in that way? And so this week, while I was, I mean, I've said already this morning the word hospitable like 500 times, and it made me think of like, what is the connection between hospitable and hospital, right? Those are very similar words, and there's got to be something going on there. Now, as I say this, this doesn't, the connection doesn't date back all the way to Jesus' time.

I'm not trying to say he meant this when I talk about this, but this is just an observation that the English words hospital and hospitable share a Latin root word. And that Latin root word is hospice or hospitalia, depending on the age in Latin. And that word in Latin means room for strangers or guest chamber. And I think that's really interesting, that hospitals were named after a place where strangers are welcomed and helped. And it got me thinking, and this isn't straight out of the Bible, this is like a step removed, but this is just observation. What would it look like?

I mean, we know that people who need medical attention end up at the emergency room at the hospital to receive that medical attention. What would it look like if people who need or require emotional or spiritual attention felt that same welcomedness in our homes? If our ability to be hospitable for those who need spiritual attention equaled that of hospitals to cure medical things, what would that look like in our lives? And I think that the more we're able to see that inviting people into our lives gives them that little picture of the gospel, the more we're able to see that our lives declare the gospel the more willing we'll be to open up our homes so that people can see that in our lives.

So what then does it look like to be hospitable? How do we do this? What does that look like in everyday life? How would that affect me? If you've been terrified all this time so far, because hospitality is just like a word that invokes fear in your soul. I think this is where we start making it easier for the rest of the time, right?

Because chances are that if the word hospitality or the idea of having people in your safe zone scares you, chances are that you're viewing it through a very, very cultural lens that tells you there's a bunch of expectations that you have to perform. It can be all kinds of different things, but most people who feel that pressure are thinking party planning, cleaning, like being presentable, cooking really, really well, making sure that the children are well behaved. Like if all of those things are piling on your soul that make you think, oh, this hospitality thing sounds horrific, then that's okay. Well, that's not okay, but we're going to kind of start dismissing those things because actually we don't need to be worried about what the cultural expectations of hospitality are so much as what real authentic biblical hospitality looks like.

Because hospitality is not about image management. And I think the cultural way of thinking about it is all about how to present a good image. So if your goal in anything is to impress people, then chances are you won't point them to Jesus. You'll point them to how impressive you are. So when you try to impress people, you'll point them to how glorious your house is, how great your cooking is, how clean you can be, how well decorated your house is, how good your children are, how great your music playlist is.

Look at your garden with all the pretty flowers. And what you won't end up doing is pointing them a whole lot to Jesus. That is, if this is your sole purpose in doing that, like if you're doing this so that people will recognize your talent, your ability, then you're pointing them to yourselves. Now you could be a naturally clean person. That's a perfectly fine category of human. And if you're naturally clean and you're naturally tidying, you naturally have flowers and you naturally, you know, just enjoy that kind of thing, that's fine.

You can invite people into that. I'm just saying a lot of people aren't like that and feel that burden to perform when it comes to hospitality stuff. But I think we'll find that there's more power in sharing your actual real life with people than there is in faking it so that you can present a good image. So for some people out there, life is chaos. That's fine. Invite people into that.

I enjoy chaos. Like our community group can be chaotic at times. We have multiple small children. We have a dog. There can be like up to 25 people sitting in a very small room. Like it can get out of control and I kind of thrive on those things.

But other people hate it and I get that. That means you're a different personality type. You're good. You're allowed to exist. For some people, life is structure. Calendars.

Life spreadsheets. The smell of carpet cleaner and bleach in the morning. We've got some of those people over here. If that is you, if that is your life, if you enjoy that kind of thing and you're not actually doing it as some kind of performance to fake it so that people think you're a great host, then that's fine. Be that. Invite people into who you are.

Invite people into your life, into your safe zone and accommodate them as you normally would do in life. Because if you're faking it, you're going to point to them to someone that's not actually you and Jesus isn't going to be able to be seen in that. Let me give you a picture. Let me tell you how that happens in our house. We host a lot, but I don't think we put a whole lot of thought into it. I don't think we really match a whole lot of the things that you're supposed to do when you host.

My wife, Christina, she hates the feeling of dirt and sand on the bottom of her feet. So we have hardwood floors in our living room. Almost every single day, she will sweep the hardwood floors because she hates that feeling of sand on the bottom of her feet. I wear shoes. Easy solution for me. Or socks.

Whatever. And I feel like the guests that come to our house will probably arrive in shoes as well. If they arrive in bare feet, then they'll pick up the sand on the way in anyway, and they won't even know that there was sand in the living room floor. So I'm not super concerned about the whole sweeping the floor thing so that people don't get sand on their feet. I am kind of concerned because we have a dog, and the dog has about five billion toys. I'm not sure where they all came from, but they are spread all around our house, including little chunks of bone that have been destroyed and distributed so that they can always be found easily.

I don't like that because it's kind of like a tripping hazard. I'm not so fussy about people's feet getting dirty, but I don't want them to break an ankle because this is American. You get sued for that kind of stuff. So I'll at least kind of kick all of those things into corners, maybe shut a door. But even that doesn't work so well in our house because whoever designed it, look, I only have bad thoughts for that person.

But our ground floor has one bathroom in it, and it's the master bathroom, which means we can't shut our door because then no one has access to the bathroom on level one. So they literally have to walk through our bedroom to get to the toilet if that's something that they need while they're there, which means our bedroom is like fair game. Like people are going to see it. So we don't even have that option in our house. Here's what happens if you come and eat at our house. Our dining room table has four chairs, four chairs that match the table.

We've got more chairs, but they don't match the table. If you're the fifth person or the sixth or the seventh or whatever, like added people, only four people get matching chairs. And I'm not really concerned with matching styles so much as matching heights. If you're the fifth or the sixth person, you'll be in a camping chair. And even if you're tall, your chin will be at table height, which depending on how you eat can be, I mean, it can be a great thing. You can just kind of scoop.

But what happens is most people end up having to eat out of their lap because the height difference thing. The point I'm trying to make is that it doesn't like you won't leave our house thinking, wow, everything was magical and perfect. Like there's some thing like we'll put a little bit of effort in here and there. Like, but for the most part, pretty. You're just coming in and seeing our life as it's lived. We've recently upsized from an apartment to a pretty decent sized house.

We don't have enough furniture to fill it. There is like deck chairs and stuff in our living room. You'll be sitting on plastic. You're welcome. But that's just kind of like how normal life is.

It's not the prettiest, but that's what our house looks like. And it doesn't stop us having from having people over. And we just because I think it's easy, we do food most often. Like that's that's a thing. We were not amazing at cooking. And actually, I think it's become easier for us since we moved into the house because with a house, we got a grill and with a grill is really good, cheap and nasty food.

Right. Since getting a grill, we feel we feed people like brats, burgers and hot dogs all the time. Like all the time. Like if you're coming to our house, expect one of those options. Hot dogs are like 20 cents, 30 cents a piece. If you go all the way like to the premium ones, you might pay 45 cents.

I don't know what's in a premium hot dog. That kind of scares me even more. But tell you what, average food. People, people still love that junk. Like I've learned very quickly, feed, feed Americans hot dogs. They will be your friend.

It's just not the same in Australia. It's like, what is this? Like, what are you? Seriously? Okay. But in America, you feed a man a hot dog.

You have made yourself a friend. The food can be average. And the point in that is the food's actually not the important thing. The connection that you make with a person over the food is more important than the quality of the food that you present. As long as it's edible, I think you're okay. It doesn't have to be meals, though.

I think meals are really easy. But hospitality can take many forms. It can be coffee. It can be inviting people over to just sit and talk. It can be movies. It can be TV.

It can be games. It can be sports. It can be a whole bunch of things. I just think that, for us at least, meals are really, really easy. But it doesn't have to be anything special.

It's not difficult. Hot dogs by the pool, not very difficult. It doesn't take a whole lot of planning. You can pick all of that stuff up on the way. Well, you can't pick a pool up on the way home. But you can pick up the ingredients on the way home.

You don't have to forward plan for that kind of stuff. It's not a big ordeal. It's just inviting people into the life that you already have and interrelating as you do it. It's seeing opportunities in the normal to show people what life actually looks like for Christians. I'm about to give another example from our church family. And there's a number of reasons that I'm hesitant to do that.

One of them is that they're not currently in the room this morning, and I only found that out this morning. And so your immediate reaction to the words that I'm going to say, I'm just going to give you a heads up. I'm going to be talking about the Pabone family. And your immediate reaction to a lot of the things that I say, you're going to think that I'm kind of throwing them under the bus, that I'm making fun of them, that I'm being mean. Like your reaction is like, wow, that was a really mean thing to say. But I think the immediate reaction is something along those lines is that the baseline that we compare things to in order to decide whether or not that's right, if they're doing it good or if that is a mean thing to say is this cultural image based like this is what a hospitable person is supposed to look like.

And so when I talk about the Pabones and they break a lot of those rules, you're going to think I'm throwing shade on them and being like really, really mean to them. But what I'm actually trying to do is hold them up as a really good example of how you can be hospitable in everyday life. So as I talk about them, you get to think initially, wow, that was a really mean thing to say. But it's not. I promise you, I'm trying to say this is actually a really good example. And you know what?

I went to the extra step. Right here on my sermon sheet. That's Josh Pabone's signature. I want you to know that he's up in Kid City right now and his wife's out of town. But Josh has read this and he completely approves of this message.

And I feel like that validates everything regardless of whether or not you actually think it's me. I don't know if you know the Pabone family. The Pabones are community group leaders in our church. Most Sundays you'll see Josh up here playing bass and Nadine is very involved with Kid City. If you ever go to their house, let me just give you some advice. If you ever go to their house, you will experience what most people call chaos.

That's not mean. That's what their life looks like. They have four kids. You kind of can't avoid that. This is just who they are and what's involved. Let me give you some advice.

Wear shoes. That's not like a medical tetanus advice piece of advice. That's like they have kids. There's Legos around. Wear shoes. Like just avoid that trap.

They have four kids. At least one of them throughout the night is likely to sneeze on you. This wasn't supposed to be audience participation. Take hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer is your friend. Not because their house is disgusting, but because they have kids and kids get sick.

And just do that. At dinner time, you're going to share the bench. You don't get your own seat. And this is probably genius. We could implement this in our house. But you share the bench at the Pabones house.

And you share the bench. The bench. You share the bench with at least two other children. Not other children. Two of their children. And you will have probably a child on either side or two children on that side.

And they know better. They're pretty well trained. But they just might anyway touch your food. And it'll be for something trivial. Like there's no reason for them to. They'll just be like, that's spaghetti.

Yes, it is. And you get to take your hand sanitizer and rub it on the spaghetti and go for it. That stuff's okay. You can eat that. I don't know if that's true. Don't do that.

The Pabones have the only cat in the world that I've ever seen do this. They might exist. But they have like Ninja Cat. His name is Lincoln. But it more takes after the vampire slayer version of Lincoln that you might know.

The one that knows karate. Their Lincoln will literally steal food out of your hand. Like, bam, gone. And you would think, when I say that, you would think maybe it's the food that you're like reaching down to feed him. No, it's the food that you're reaching up to eat. Bam, disappears real quick.

They have a dog, Miley. He's like little. He's like a little dog. Miley will bark at you for seven minutes when you arrive. And not like the cute little puppy dog bark. Like the, you're an intruder.

Get out of my house. Like that's their dog. And you'll sit down. And maybe ten minutes later, he'll jump up on your lap and start licking you. And then like, he's your best friend ever. And then a noise will happen.

And bam, straight off over to the noise. That's kind of, this is just what going to dinner at the Bones house is like. And it's not that they're doing anything wrong. They're not. That's just what life looks like in their house. They actually have some really cool mottos and sayings that they have to try and model this.

Just not only for their kids, but for their community group and the people around them. They do things like they address the mess. They'll say things like deliberately, like, sorry for the living room. It's kind of always like that. We didn't have an opportunity to clean up. They won't make too many excuses for it so much as just point to it and say, nah, that's how life is.

Just push it to the side. Take a seat. You'll be fine. That's kind of their attitude towards that. They actually have a scripted thing that they'll tell guests. They say, first time you come, you're a guest.

Second time you come, you're family. Oh, it's just like, it feels like a Hallmark card, right? It's just so warm and fuzzy. Second time, you're family. But what that actually comes with is privileges and responsibilities.

So your privileges are you don't have to ask to open the fridge or you don't have to, you know, like you get to, you treat the house as if it's your own house. But the responsibilities are you're now expected to help with cooking. If you don't cook, you'll probably be on dishes. Somebody has to maintain order in the house while the cooking happens so that nobody dies. You can have any of these responsibilities on top of like just being a guest in their house. Let me tell you, you probably won't go there and leave thinking, wow, that was peaceful and perfect and calm.

Their children were just amazing little butterfly angel faces. And the food was like three star Michelin hat, whatever the ratings are. And like it was just, oh, it was so picture perfect. It could have been a movie. It was magical. And if you do experience that, that was like the fake.

Like you experienced, like they upped their game to accommodate the social norms rather than actually introducing. You experienced the fake for bones. But in amongst all of this, let me tell you the really, really good part of how they do hospitality. I'm a pastor. I'm married. I'm going to have kids soon.

And I learned things about the gospel and about life from the Pabones when I'm at their house. When you leave the Pabones house, you leave having learned something about maintaining order in a house with four kids. You leave having learned how to make time for your friends in and amongst that kind of chaos. You learn for me or for other people. You learn for your future or current parenting what it looks like to talk to a child with patience and grace that is currently in complete meltdown mode. That's what hospitality actually looks like.

Because in each of those little moments, you get to see a picture of the gospel as a Christian interacts with someone, their children, their friends, their family, as a Christian interacts with someone in a way that shows Jesus. And when non-believers are invited into that kind of a mess, they get to see life, real life, not fake life. They get to see real life handled by a Christian. And they see an image bearer of God doing what they're supposed to do. They get to see that little picture of the gospel. And for non-believing friends that we have, they need to see Christians facing the same kind of challenges and obstacles that they do in everyday life, but doing it with Jesus involved.

That's how you give people those little snapshots of the gospel throughout life. Now, if you're normally clean, if you're normally not chaotic, if you're normally structured, be that way. Do those things. Apply all of what I just said about the Pabones to your normal everyday life context. But don't fake it.

If you're cluttered, be cluttered. If you're dirty, make sure people don't get diseases. But be you and have people over in your house to see what it's like to see you relate to others as a Christian. Our homes have to be places where real life happens and others are welcomed in. Because where else in the world will a non-believer get to see that if they're not invited to your house? How else will people see Jesus in your life if you set up your home in such a way that you're deliberately trying to keep them out?

How else will people see Jesus, that little snapshot, how else will they see Jesus in action in your life if you've set up your home in such a way that if they're invited in, you show them a fake version of you? At this point, I tend to realize that we make a lot of excuses. We come up with all kinds of different excuses as to why all of this doesn't have to apply to us. It can apply to other people and we can kind of help or whatever. All kinds of different excuses as to why we shouldn't be hospitable. And if we're honest, I think most of them are pretty lame.

I think there's a couple of categories. We'll talk about these kind of categorically. For our excuses, the first one is it might be something along the lines of my house is a disaster or my kids are crazy or I'm not a very good entertainer or I can't cook. Like it's bad if I cook. I think when you boil it down, most of these, like this category of excuse, the diagnosis behind it is that you've probably bought into this whole cultural image maintenance thing. That you can't be hospitable because you can't do it like culture tells you you have to.

Picture perfect, immaculate house, perfect children, everything's clean. You're afraid that if people see your actual life, they're going to think you're not good at that stuff. You're afraid that if people see your actual life, that's something to be ashamed of. But I think that this is the truth. You don't have to be anything you're not. And if you fake it, you'll be pointing them to something other than who you are and who Jesus is in your life.

And honestly, I think if you're faking it, you kind of just need to stop that. And instead, invite people into the life that you actually have without putting all of this emphasis on maintaining the image that culture tells you you're supposed to have. There's also a category for introverts. Statistically, 50% of the people in this room are introverts. And I'm sure there's a good chance that five minutes into this, you probably just the terrified meter in your brain switched off and you just potentially just haven't heard anything until I said the word introvert. If that's the case, welcome back.

There is hope for you. I'm sure it probably sounds, I don't know, something along the lines of impossible, condescending, something like that for an extrovert to stand up here on stage and say, this is simple, this is easy, everybody should do this. I get that. If you've got like a spectrum of like extroverts here, zeros like right in line with this guy, and introverts all the way over here, then I rank. I'm like king of the extroverts, 100%. People give me energy.

I love this kind of stuff. I always want people in my house. I always want people in my life. That's where I thrive. That's where I'm my best. I'm actually really sad and depressed if I have to spend too long by myself.

This is me over here. A lot of people find themselves somewhere in this category and the whole hosting and having people in my safe zone. That's kind of, it's just, it's scary and terrifying. If this is you, like you're at the extreme end of introvert, that whole example that I gave with the Pabones, I don't know if you guys know Josh Pabone, but if you look at this scale, like with me all the way at that end, then Josh is like, Josh is like over here. Josh reads Harry Potter and thinks, wow, I need to buy a house with a staircase and a little room underneath it. No one would think to find me there.

That's who Josh is. And those guys are kind of crushing this whole hospitality game where you invite people into the mess of where you are and how you do it. And so for introverts out there, it doesn't have to look like 20 people over at your house. That would crush you. But it does get to look like one person, two people, a couple, something like that.

Basic food, board games, TV, simple stuff. It doesn't have to be, like you don't have to get this kind of cultural thing where you become a party planner and a huge event thrower, holdery person. You get to do simple, small stuff that you would be doing anyway and you just invite someone in anyway. If you're going to be playing video games on the internet, make that friend come to your house, sit on your couch and play the video game on the same screen. Those kinds of things. That's not as terrifying as it sounds when I'm talking about like pool parties and hot dogs and throwing huge things.

It doesn't have to be a big step. But we come up with all these different excuses. And let me tell you who this affects. When you make excuses and decide, I'm not going to do these things. Let me tell you who that affects. The person who lives in the house across the street.

They've been there, I don't know, maybe a couple months, three months. They seem introverted. They do the thing where the robot lets them in and then they shut the world out. Like that's, they kind of seem grumpy. They never seem to have anyone over. You figure if I invited them over, they would just say no.

Like they sit by themselves. Like they don't want to do that kind of stuff. That's what you figure. But you don't know that they've only lived in Colombia that long. They've moved in from out of state. They literally have no friends.

They know nobody here except the five people that they work with. They sit at home and eat dinner in front of the TV. Pretty much every day. Incredibly lonely. Wishing they had more. If you could invite that person to eat dinner and sit in front of the TV at your house once a week, they just might do it.

And in that action, they would see a tiny glimpse of the gospel as they're welcomed in as a stranger. It might be like a co-worker, someone at work that you've never hung out with outside of work and so you've never bridged that kind of, there's a gap between co-worker and friend and there's like this imaginary thing where you've got to hang out outside of work to be considered friends. You've got this co-worker who you see at work, you talk in the lunchroom, you maybe talk when there's no one else around, that kind of thing. And you can tell that there's something weird going on at home, like you don't know what it is, but it's weird to talk about it right here where there's like customers around or whatever.

You can't just approach them on some heartfelt topics. But you know there's something going on at home, something to do with their family, something's a bit amiss. Maybe what that person needs, what that person needs most, is to see you in action with your family, to see how you react to your kids, to see how you react to your husband. What if the very thing that they're struggling with at home is something they get to witness in your own home? When we make excuses for not wanting to host people, for not wanting to have people in our house, for never reaching out to strangers, for never reaching out to guests, for only ever entertaining our own friends and the people who are already in our sphere and never bridging that gap, people who could be hearing the gospel, who could be seeing those little glimpses of the gospel, start missing out.

There are people all throughout our lives who are longing to connect, but we're so afraid. We're so afraid to be the first person to offer a hand. Culture's taught us that in order to do that, you have to present this image. You have to be clean. You have to be extroverted. You have to be a performer.

You have to be able to cook. You do not. You need to be genuine. You need to be real. And you need to be willing to have people see Jesus in your actual real life, not the fake one that you think you have to project. Let me take just a moment as we kind of land the plane to give a few suggestions of what I think will make beginning this process a whole lot easier.

The first thing is to budget for hospitality. With budgeting comes intentionality. And with intentionality, if you're intentional about something, you're much more likely to actually go and do it. And so if you set aside money each month, you're more likely to spend that money for that purpose. It doesn't have to be much. I know there's a lot of tight budgets in the room.

It can be five bucks. Five bucks buys a lot of hot dogs. We've covered hot dogs. You can make a budget that allows you to have people over. Budgets show intentionality. You won't regret it.

Second one, simplify. Simplify. You don't have to impress anyone with anything. You're not entertaining. You're connecting. Your food can be ordinary.

The food isn't the point. The conversation you have while you're eating the ordinary food is the point. Nobody has to leave impressed by the food. Keep it simple. It can be movies. It can be pool.

It can be coffee. It can be sports. It can be games. It can be anything. It doesn't have to be even food. Keep it simple.

Don't try specifically to be impressive in what you're doing. Number three is calendar. If you're not a calendaring type, I know that there's the chaotic type out there, come up with some kind of system. It can be Taco Tuesdays. It can be Neighbor Wednesdays. It can be every second Sunday of the month.

It can be anything. As long as you're showing specific intentionality, these are the days where we're going to deliberately have people over. So that kind of thing will make it more likely that you'll actually go and do it. And number four is my favorite one. I think that's because it's the most important. Number four is make it a team sport.

Like all good sports, like all good sports, hospitality is best played as a team. Ooh, shots fired. Golf isn't a team sport. Golf is boring. I'm sorry. I have a chip on my shoulder.

People beat me at golf. I'm hopeless at it. And any shot I can take, I'm gonna go for it. Hospitality. Play it as a team sport. You get to involve other Christians.

You get to involve people in your community group. And you get to do this together. There's a couple of reasons that I think that's really helpful, really beneficial. One is that you get to do the mission together. Another is that non-believing friends get to see how Christians interact with each other. When someone has a problem in their life, how a Christian will encourage that Christian with Jesus, not with advice.

How we'll give them the gospel instead of giving them some kind of good advice for their situation. They get to see that, and they get to see that little glimpse of the gospel. Another good thing about team sports is, with hospitality as a team sport, is that your non-believing friends might actually connect better with someone else. You would be a great starting point. That's planting the seed. But they might actually connect better with someone else in your community group or something like that.

You might be really socially awkward and just need to have somebody who's extroverted around at your house and be able to kind of bridge that gap. Guys, we are, we're serious about this as a church. We truly, truly believe that hospitable Christians, hospitable community groups can and will change this city. In fact, as a church, we're going to be putting those words into action, into practice a lot throughout the summer, like in the upcoming period of time. In our typical community group time, something that we coach and we train community group leaders, in our typical community group time, what we try to achieve is we try to catch up on life, we try to apply the sermon, we try to engage the heart, and we try to pursue slash review the mission.

Those are the things we try to achieve in a normal routine, week to week community group. Catch up on life, apply the sermon, engage the heart, and review slash pursue the mission. During the summer, we are going to be taking a deliberate step to remove the agenda, like the feeling that this is the list of things we have to accomplish throughout a community group. We're going to be deliberately removing the agenda from our groups so that they can be freed up to practice this hospitality stuff. We're going to be giving all of the community group leaders and the community groups a free pass on doing the apply the sermon stuff, a free pass on feeling this burden to be circling up in little groups and applying this thing and praying for that thing.

You can still do that, but the point we're going to be making is that for a good five-week stretch, your community group can be pursuing the mission the entire time. Grilling, chilling, going bowling, having a party at someone's house, doing the pool thing, whatever it is, for a good five-week stretch, we're serious about this, we want our community groups to be inviting in and enjoying time together, rather over and above doing the whole applying the sermon, engaging the heart kind of stuff. That's going to be different for us. We're used to the getting a big group and have a conversation about the sermon stuff.

This is going to be different for us. For a whole month, we're just going to be hanging out and inviting people in. But we're really excited that as a church, we're going to have the opportunity to grow in hospitality and to grow in our relationship that we have with non-believing friends. As the band makes their way back up, I really just want to... I want to encourage you to see past your fears. Because all of the fears have to do with a cultural expectation that doesn't actually have to exist.

And if we can see past our excuses, and if we can see past our fears, then we can look towards Jesus. He's the reason we do this. The gospel is the... The opportunity to give people that little glimpse of the gospel is the reason that we're doing this. And ultimately, we want to see people who are coming into relationship with him. We don't want to see hospitality be used as a tool where we get to glorify ourselves and how great we are at doing this whole hosting thing.

We want to take every opportunity to show that little glimpse of the gospel so that we can push people towards Jesus. We want to invest in real relationships, in our real lives, so that we can point other people to the love of our Savior. Let's pray. God, we thank you that you loved us first and that you modeled hospitality for us. I pray and thanks that you sent Jesus to die for us, to welcome us home. I pray that as we go about everyday life in the ordinary things that we're doing, that we can be striving to invite people in that they may see a glimpse of you in our life.

I pray that you empower us and our groups in the coming months to be a welcoming church that sees growth on account of people seeing gospel glimpses in our homes. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Mill City 5/14/17 Mill City 5/14/17

The Explicit Gospel

Transcript

It's kind of mean, isn't it? That bumper video gets you all hungry, and now it's going to feel like two and a half hours before I get done preaching. Happy Mother's Day. We're excited this morning. We are just glad to be continuing our extraordinary series. Maybe some year we'll get it together and preach official Mother's Day sermons, but we haven't done that yet, and we're not starting this year.

So if you are all amped up to talk about moms, moms are great. All right, grab your Bibles, go to Psalm 103. We're in the third week of our extraordinary series, and we're going to keep walking through. What we've been talking about is that we are called and designed by God, that God has designed the world to work in such a way that the normal, ordinary parts of our lives are to be used for His eternal, glorious purposes, so that our normal going to work, our normal tending to our families, our normal parenting, our normal being a co-worker or tending to our yards, like just all the normal weight of life that is on us, God has intended to use for His extraordinary, eternal purposes to see people come to know Him.

And one of the things that we're talking about, what we'll be talking about today is the fact that as Christians, we said in our first week that we have one Job as the church, that we're to be disciples who make disciples, and that encompasses a lot, but what we're talking about today is the fact that as Christians, we're supposed to tell other people about Christ. That as Christians, we're supposed to, called to, commissioned to, sent to, tell other people about Jesus. There's a comedian named Jim Gaffigan, who in one of his stand-up specials, goes, you know, everybody having a good time tonight? You know, I really, it's really important to me that everybody's comfortable and having a good time, and that's why I'd like to talk with you about Jesus Christ.

And like, everyone starts laughing, because that's a good joke. Because as soon as he says that, no one in the room is comfortable anymore. Like, it immediately makes everyone uncomfortable, and that's one of the things he goes on to say, is that in some ways it makes religious people even more uncomfortable. Christians become even more uncomfortable. I'm that way. If I'm listening to a stand-up special, or I'm watching a TV show, and they start talking about Jesus, I immediately knot up inside.

And he said, there's nothing worse than having a stranger come up to you and say, I want to talk to you about Jesus. He's just like, no, how about we don't? It's kind of the point of his jokes here, and it's true. And for us who are Christians who are called to talk to other people about Jesus, there's this tension of like, I don't want to be weird. This is awkward. I don't know how to, how do I start this conversation?

This is difficult. There's, look, I'm a pastor. It's weird for me. It's weird for me to tell people I'm a pastor. I just try to dodge that in conversations. I met some of my neighbors.

We were having a great conversation. We were talking. And then he told me what he did for a living. He said, what do you do? And I was like, well, I'm a pastor. I really want to just say I run a firework store because I do do that twice a year.

But I said, I'm a pastor. And they went, oh. And they just froze. It was, I really felt like a lobster had just fallen out of my mouth. It would have been the same reaction. They just sat there, and it was almost like you can see every once in a while, I feel like people are thinking, did I say a cuss word?

Did I talk about beer too much? Like, I don't know. Like, it just feels like it makes, and to bring up Jesus, it's the same kind of thing. It's like, I don't know how to do that. It feels really difficult. And what we're talking about is that God has designed our ordinary lives to be used to see people come to know him, come to love him, worship him, follow him, to see others around us submit their life to Christ.

And to have their eternities impact through the normal things we do. So what we're looking at today is how do we share the gospel in a normal, helpful way? How do we share the gospel? How do we point people to Jesus? How do we tell people about the cross? How do we tell people about the resurrection?

How do we tell people about their sin and need for a savior in a way that fits into a normal, ordinary life where you're friends with people, you're intentionally being around your neighbors and your coworkers? How do we do that? Because we're supposed to. Recall just what we looked at last week that in Deuteronomy it says that God, I'm going to be your God. And it says to put this on your wrists and your forehead. And that's what we said as Christians.

We're supposed to not just wear Christianity on our sleeves, but on our face. Like it's supposed to be a normal part of who we are. And so what we're going to do is we're going to look at the starting place for us as Christians to point people to Christ. We're going to look at the starting place. Then we're going to go to Colossians after we look in Psalm.

And we'll spend a little bit of time looking at actually how. Like practically, how do we do this? So let me pray for us this morning before we begin to read the text. And then we'll dive in. God, we thank you this morning that the gospel is news worth sharing. That we are called to tell people about Christ.

But that it's good news that we get to tell them. I pray, Lord, that in this time we have this morning that you would help us to remember how good that news is. And then you would equip us to begin to share it with others. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Psalm 103. It's on page 288 if you have one of the white Bibles that's in the row with you. This is by David. And David is praising God in this Psalm. And I think it's a helpful just kind of a look at where's the starting place for us to want to tell people about Jesus. Where do we begin?

And so he starts this way. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. So he says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Now we use the word bless differently than he's using it here most of the time.

Most of the time when we say bless, we mean to do something nice for. Or to endow. To give. To give a gift. Someone's blessed with. Like, that was such a blessing that you gave me ten dollars.

Oh, this pizza when I was hungry is such a blessing. We use it like God's really blessed that person. And we mean they have a boat. Or we'll say God's really blessed that person like with physical attributes. Like Shaquille O'Neal, basketball player. He was not blessed with acting ability, but he was blessed with athletic ability.

And Shaquille O'Neal can stand flat-footed and dunk a basketball. He does not have to jump. He can stand and dunk. So every time you watched him dunk a basketball and then dance around and flex on people, it wasn't that impressive. It was like me lowering the goal to six feet and then dunking on some neighborhood kids and being like, what? How do you like them apples?

That's what he was doing. And really it was just that he's blessed with the height that he had. He's blessed with the wingspan that he had. He's blessed by God. But that's how we usually use that word.

But that's not how David's using the word here. When he uses it here, what he means is praise. Worship. So when he says bless the Lord, O my soul, what he means is praise, honor, glorify, place value on, lift up. And what's beautiful about that word and all the times we're told to praise God is that you cannot truly praise something without enjoying it. Praise without enjoyment is not praise.

It's flattery. To praise something but actually not mean it is flattery. When you eat a meal and it does not taste good and you can see the person who made it staring at you and you're like, mmm, this, this is fine meal. You cook this. Of all the things I've eaten, this is most recent. Like what?

You're trying to dodge the, but if you just went out of the way, this is so wonderful. This tastes so good. Oh my goodness. Like it's like you're, it's, you don't mean it. It's not genuine praise. It's not real to you.

But, but actual enjoyment leads to genuine praise. Actual enjoyment leads to genuine praise. This is why people will talk about the things that they love. This is why people will talk about the people that they've fallen in love in a certain way. Like they, it just, it gets all gushy and it just floats. Like that's what he's saying.

He's saying soul, so enjoy God that it rolls over in praise, in song, in worship, lifting him up. So enjoy, so be satisfied, so be filled up by God that it's overwhelming and we have to say something. You ever just looked at a sunset and you just, you, it's natural for you to just hit the person next to you and go, look at that. And you just say things that you didn't need to say. It's so orange. But that's natural.

That's the overflow of enjoying something, being captivated by it. And that's what he's saying. Oh, my soul. And, and the Bible here, the soul is the most real part of you. The deepest, most true who you are soul. The part of you that was designed to exist for an eternity.

That's your soul. So he's saying at the deepest, darkest, most real part of me, bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. And then he says, bless the Lord.

Oh, my soul. And forget not all his benefits. This is the starting place for a Christian to share the gospel with others. Is that you would so enjoy God that it would overwhelm you and roll up in normal life for you to worship him and glorify him and that you would not forget all of his benefits. That's where it begins for us to share the gospel with someone else. That's where it begins for us to point someone else to Jesus.

That we remember the benefits of Christ. That we remember the benefits of God. He keeps going to list some of the benefits. Forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all your iniquity. It means that you're sinful.

You're busted. You're broken. You're dark. You're twisted. You've been actively participating in the rebellion of the world against God. And he forgives that through Christ.

Who heals all your diseases. Everything in you that's twisted and wrong. He fixes. He mends. Who redeems your life from the pit. That you were going to spend an eternity in hell separated from God.

And he redeems it. He buys you back. Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. Meaning that he wraps love around you. He makes love the first thing people see about you. Because he's crowned you with it.

And mercy meaning that we don't get from God what we deserve. Who satisfies you with good. So that your youth is renewed like the eagles. That he makes us new. And that in him we're satisfied. He says don't forget his benefits.

That's the gospel. For us as Christians. We believe that the soul was designed to exist for an eternity. That we were made to exist for an eternity with God. And that humanity rebelled against God. And that now every person will physically die.

But our souls will exist for eternity. Either with the joys of heaven. And a relationship with Christ. Or in the despair pain and punishment of hell. There are no other options. Our souls will exist for eternity.

That was the way God originally designed them. But we believe that Jesus Christ came. That he loved us so much. That he died for us. To pay the penalty for our sin. To offer us forgiveness.

And that what he says here. Our benefits are genuine actual benefits of the gospel. That our sins are no longer held against us. That as a Christian because of Christ. You stand before God freely forgiven. That he heals what's broken in you.

That he satisfies you. That everything else that we would chase after in this life. And in this world will not fill us up. But he will. That he satisfies us with good. And that we are now wrapped in and covered by his love.

And his mercy for an eternity. That's the gospel. And that's the news we're called to share with people. That's why the gospel just is a word that we've brought over from another language. That just means good news. It's about an event that happened.

That Jesus Christ came. That he died on a cross. That he was placed in a grave. That he rose again. And that through his death. We can be free.

Forgiven. And offered grace. It's news. It's an event that happened. That we get to share with other people. That Christ forgives.

That he redeems. That he makes us new. And that he satisfies us. Some of you in the room. Some of us as Christians at times. Go through seasons where we don't tell anyone about Jesus.

And I think quite often it's because we've forgotten the benefits. We've forgotten how good the news is. We've ceased to enjoy him on such a soul level that it rolls up in praise naturally and fully in our lives. For those of you in the room who are not Christians. Let me say very clearly to you. We want Jesus for you.

And make no qualms about that. Because I believe fully that Christ is the best thing you will ever get. That he does fully satisfy your soul. That he does forgive of sin. That he does fix what's broken in us. That he does mend us and redeem us.

And that we are headed for an eternal hell without him. But he loved us so much that he didn't leave us there. And he didn't give us what we deserved. But he took what we deserved on himself on a cross to set us free. We want Christ for you. You're welcome to be around.

To keep checking that out. You're welcome to be around and say, I don't know if I buy that yet. I don't know if I see that yet. I don't know if I believe that yet. You're welcome here. To be a part of a community group.

To ask questions. To argue with people. You're not going to offend us. We'll forgive you if you do. We're Christians. We're supposed to.

You're welcome to be here. But I want to be clear. We want the gospel for you. Christians in the room. You kind of have two options. Either you don't actually believe this.

You don't actually enjoy, partake in, understand, have the benefits of the gospel overwhelming your soul. So that you have no real desire to share it with other people. You either don't believe it or you've forgotten it. Or you do believe it. But when we do not have any desire to intentionally see other people come to know Christ, we cannot claim to love them.

We cannot believe that the soul exists for an eternity in either heaven or hell. That we deserve wrath from God. But that Jesus took wrath on our behalf. That's what we read a second ago. That he was the propitiation. It just means that he took wrath on our behalf.

And if we believe this but have no desire to reach people with the gospel, we actually cannot claim to love them. Or to care about them. Penn and Teller, they do magic. One of them is kind of a staunch atheist. And one of the things he says from time to time is that he appreciates it when Christians tell him about Jesus. He doesn't believe it.

But he appreciates it. Because he knows that's hard for them. And he knows that if they don't, how much would they have to hate him to actually believe that and have no desire to tell him. But the starting place for us is that we would so enjoy Jesus and so remember his benefits that we couldn't keep it in. There's no way we could so see that he forgave us of our sins. That none of us are worthy.

Some of you are in here and you have no desire to share the gospel with people. It's because you believe the gospel was, hey, come be good. That's not good news. I've got good news for you. Behave for the rest of your life or God will crush you. Let's pray.

That's not the gospel. That's not good news. The good news is that you could not behave. You were not good enough. You are not smart enough. You have made a shipwreck and a train wreck of your life.

And Jesus comes and takes the full force of the shipwreck that you deserve, the train wreck that you deserve. He was crushed for our iniquities. He was broken for our sins so that we could not receive what we deserve. That's mercy. And we're crowned with it. This is a...

I love our community groups because they're just small collections of a bunch of train wrecks that get together and talk about how good Jesus is. Flip over to Colossians chapter 4. See, it begins with us being so overwhelmed by Christ, so overwhelmed with the goodness of the gospel that we can't help but share with others. That we want this for everyone. That it's so true to us, so real to us. We said last week that if that's not the case, you just need to spend more time with Jesus.

You need to go to work on your soul. You need to remember how good he is. It's a starting place. Now we're going to look at a process. So if I'm there, if I love Jesus, if I'm overwhelmed by the gospel, I'm just seeing this.

I'm remembering and knowing that he's so good. Now the question is how do I do this because it feels really difficult. We're going to look at Colossians. I love this section. Paul's just gotten done in Colossians chapter 3. He's writing a letter to the church.

He's just gotten done talking to parents and wives and husbands and basically what would be bosses and workers in our time. And he's just kind of saying live your life in a normal way that Christ is at work. And then he says, okay, as you're doing that, okay, here's how to kind of walk that out in a way to see more people come to know him. And so pick up in verse 2. Colossians chapter 4, verse 2. It's on page 573 if you have one of the white Bibles.

Paul's in prison at the time because he's been sharing the gospel with people. People may look at you weird. You're not going to get arrested right now. And he says that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak. Okay. First step, pray.

He says continue steadfastly in prayer and pray for us that God would open a door for the word. So the first step to trying to see people come to know Jesus is to pray, which is just cheating. And it's wonderful. God loves your neighbors so much that he sent his son to die for them. Ask for his help. God loves your coworkers so much, your classmates so much, your best friend from high school so much that he sent his son to die for them.

That he might redeem them and bring them back to himself. That he might re-welcome them into the family. Begin to ask God. Make them yours. Open up a door. But that's what he says.

He says pray that a door might be opened for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I'm in prison. So what he says is pray, but don't just pray that they meet Jesus. One of the things people sometimes, it's like they're praying for their neighbors. God, you do something to save them. And it's like, I want, it feels like God at some point would just look at you and go, yeah, I made you their neighbor. Go talk to them.

Go be their friend. Like, I want to see this person who's my cousin come to know Jesus. Yeah, they're your cousin. Go start talking to them. So what you start praying for is not just that they would come to know Christ or they would, you know, you begin to pray.

Sure, pray that they have a vision and just show up to you. Pray that they watch a YouTube video and come and know Christ. That's great. But you also are going to be praying that God will open a door for you to share the gospel with them. So what he says is pray for a door for the word.

That's the Bible. That I might declare. That's with your mouth. Out loud. To their face. Specifically their ears.

That I might declare the mystery of Christ. So that you would use the Bible to point them to Jesus. That through scripture you would help them see the gospel. The mystery of Christ. Which is that God would use Christ to redeem us. That's what he's talking about.

So, second thing. You pray. And the second thing is you need to know some Bible. You don't have to have it memorized. Although having some sections memorized is very helpful. But at least know where to go.

Know where to take somebody. Know where to show them some stuff. And just depending on the situation, some of that makes more or less sense. And is easier or more difficult. One of the nice things is you can carry a Bible around in your phone or in your purse. In your phone.

You have a Bible in your phone that you can easily pull up. Look stuff up. Try to show somebody something. Rather than always having to carry a physical Bible with you. Although you'd look awesome. And I support that.

Romans Road. This is something people use periodically. And have taught periodically. As a way to help people see the gospel clearly. From the book of Romans. I'm just going to put these up on screen.

For someone who's saying, okay. I just want. I need to know a little more Bible. Before I can talk to people about Jesus. There you go. Write those down.

That's actually the order that they tell you to do Romans Road in. But it just basically says you're a sinner. Jesus is good. Here's how to be saved. Isn't that awesome? It's really awesome.

That's kind of how that works. That's kind of how that walks through in Romans. And it's very good. It's a helpful way. It's short verses to kind of show them. This is the gospel.

So this would be. You had a little more time. Someone says, all right. I want to hear this thing. You know, you talk about Jesus all the time. You said you want to.

Like, show me what you're talking about. And then you can go to Romans. It's one book. You can flip around. So for people who write down stuff.

You got about ten more seconds. To write those down. Okay. There's more like five. All right.

Ephesians 2. These are other ones. Ephesians 2. Eight through ten. It's a shorter section. These would be easier to memorize.

You can memorize. All of these are helpful. Colossians 1. 19 through 23. John 3. 16 through 19.

These are just ways to show somebody. Here's what the Bible says about this. So it's not just you. But you're actually trusting God to work through his word. So that you can declare the mystery.

You're going to show him the word. And you're going to say. Let me explain what that's saying about Jesus. So he says. Pray. That God would open a door for the word.

That there would be an opportunity for you to do this. That God would open a door. That you'd be looking for that door to be open. That means that you're building a relationship. You're around somebody. And then there's an opportunity.

There's a door open for it. That you'd be ready. That you'd have some of this prepared. You'd know. And this is kind of what I would show him in the word. This is what I would tell him about Christ.

I used to have a family friend. My mom told me one time. She said. Show me the young lady's name. And she said. That they had asked that.

I would be praying. That our family would be praying. That she would meet a good man. And I remember telling my mom. Not going to pray that. Because if she meets a good man right now.

That's not going to work out. She's a hot mess. And a good man's not going to mess with that. So I'll pray. She'll get some of her acting. She'll get together.

And that's rude. And that was mean to say. I know. I've repented some. Of things. But.

There's a little bit of that. That we would want to know a little scripture. We'd want to know. We'd want to be prepared. As we're praying that God would open a door. That we'd be prepared.

Now. That does not mean. Some of you say. Well I'm not ready. I'm not ready to share the gospel. You know who some of the best people.

At sharing the gospel. And bringing their friends around. And telling people about Jesus are. And our church family. It's the people who just became Christians. You know why?

They hadn't forgotten the benefits. And they hadn't taught themselves out of it. And you know what? People who just became Christians do. All the dadgum time. Oh I don't know.

They say that all the time. Someone says. What about this? Oh I don't know. We have people who are Christians show up. And go.

Hey. I was talking to my friend. And they brought up this whole point. About this thing. That I've never heard of. And it's just train wrecked me.

For about a week. And I'm like. What's up? And we talk. We study the scriptures together. They get to go back.

They get to bring stuff. They learn and grow through it. Some of the people who are the most. And least likely to share the gospel. Somebody's been a Christian for 45 years. And they keep saying.

Well I'm not really prepared. I'm not really ready. And it's like. That's nonsense. Go share the gospel. Go point people to Jesus.

Just don't forget the benefits. Of how good he is. It's good news. And it really is. Okay. Know the Bible.

Declare the mystery of Christ. That you would be able from scripture. To say. Here's how the gospel works. It's not just know the Bible. So that you can say.

Here's a rule from the Bible. But it's know the Bible. In a way that you can say. Here's how Jesus saves us. Here's how he redeems. Here's how he forgives.

So that's what he says. To declare the mystery of Christ. This is verse 3. On account of which. I am in prison. That I may make it clear.

Which is how I ought to speak. And he says. Walk in wisdom towards outsiders. Those are people who are not. In the church. Making the best use of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious. Seasoned with salt. So that you may know. How you ought to answer each person. Walking in wisdom towards outsiders. Is pretty much what we're talking about in this series.

Making the best use of the time. That we would. You're only here for a limited amount of time. You're only around people who don't know Jesus. For a limited amount of time. We're just saying.

Make the best use of it. Be intentional with it. If you have a 9 to 5 Job. If you work retail. If you go to class. Realize you're going to be in that class for so long.

You're only going to be at work so long. If it's retail. You're only going to have those co-workers for so long. Because they're only going to work for 3 months. Make the best use of the time. Get to know them.

Become friends with them. Ask them questions. Invite them to do stuff. It's only been summer so long. Invite people for cookouts. And to come swim.

And make a friend who has a pool. And then invite other people to their house. To go swim. Make the best use of it. Be intentional with your time. Make invitations.

Try to ask people to come hang out. To eat a watermelon. To do whatever. Be intentional with the time you're given. That's what he's saying. Walk in wisdom.

Means make wise decisions. One of the things we've been doing in our group. We've been hanging out. Inviting people to go do stuff. We were going to have a board game night. One of the guys in our group is a forester.

And he's trying to invite some of his people. To come hang out with our group some. And they're foresters. They walk around in the woods with trees all the time. And we just basically told him. Look.

Probably don't invite them to board game night. Because that might be weird for them. They might not like board games. Invite them when we do chili cook off night. Or you know. Like be wise.

Make good decisions with the people you're around. You're building with. You know. Like some people. The best thing to invite them to. Is a Sunday morning.

They grew up in the south. They're churchy. They think this is great. Some parts of it. Some people. Let's invite them to a community group.

Some people. Let's invite them to a cookout. Just hang out at your house. Play video games. Be wise. Make the best use of the time though.

I will tell you this. That a lot of people. Will say. Well. Everybody in the south. Is already a Christian.

Everybody's already a Christian. No. Because of statistics. And math. And the fact that that isn't true. It's just not.

Now there are a lot of people. Who tell you they're Christians. And that's just because. Christmas Vacation. Is their favorite movie. And they grew up in the south.

And they think. I'm a Christian. Because. Yeah. The south. And.

Sure. I had a friend in high school one time. I was talking with him. He played football with me. And I asked. One time.

I was like. Are you a Christian? He said. Yeah. I'm black. I was like.

I didn't know. That's how that worked. You have a different version of the Bible. Than I do. But people do that.

We just have this kind of. I'm a Christian because. My uncle was a deacon. I'm a Christian because. I used to be a part of a Lutheran church. Like I.

Just. There's a lot of people. Who just would say that. But actually aren't. Just keep. Being friends with them.

Keep inviting them. The other thing that people will say. Because we're in the south. Is look. If they wanted to meet Jesus. They'd be here.

They'd show up. There's a thousand churches. If they actually wanted to become Christians. They would show up. And here's what I want you to know. A lot of them.

Don't want to become Christians. Because you're right. They want to become Christians. They know where to go. They don't want to become Christians. They just need to.

And it's good news. So why do you care what they want? If it's ultimately good. I could. We could take a Sunday. And line up all the people.

Who've become Christians in our church. We've only been around for a little while. We have a lot of people. Who were far from Jesus. Not in a church. Had no desire to become Christians.

I got to talk to one a couple weeks ago. We mentioned him the other day. Where I asked him. What his thoughts were on. God or spirituality. Before he became a Christian.

And he said. Oh I just thought it was stupid. Didn't think God exists. Thought all that sounded dumb. But he'll walk up here.

And say I'm so glad. That people came and harassed me. And got and became friends with me. And told me about Jesus. And wouldn't let me get off with lame excuses. And kept inviting me to stuff.

And I had. I'm so glad I had to sit and think. I'm not sure I want to be this person's friend anymore. Or. Because they're annoying. And then eventually I met Jesus.

And it's actually good news. We can line up Christian after Christian. Who's new believer in our family. And we can line up people who've been Christians for years. Who could say the same thing. But.

Says. Walk in wisdom towards outsiders. Making the best use of the time. And let your speech. Always be gracious. Grace.

You know what grace means? Grace means that you don't get what you deserve. That God blesses us. Above and beyond. What we earned. But also to be gracious.

Just to be kind. Be friendly. Be forgiving. Be gospel in your speech. We could. We say we're a gospel centered community on mission.

We could just as easily say we're a grace. Centered community on mission. It's the same thing. That Jesus forgives. So it just says let your speech be gracious.

Be a forgiving person. Be kind. Seasoned with salt. So that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Okay. Seasoned with salt means that the gospel is a part of how you normally talk.

You're gracious in your speech. And your speech is seasoned with salt. Now. Your speech isn't just salt. You ever seen a street corner preacher? Maybe just in a movie.

Street corner preaching. If you don't know Jesus you're going to hell. If you know Jesus you don't have to. Repent and know Jesus. Basic good street corner preaching. All of that is true.

It's just all salt. So it's not very tasty. It's just all. It's just aggressive. It's just. Now sometimes that works because it's true.

Sometimes it's what people needed to hear. But primarily you just season yourself with salt. You just include the gospel and things. It's salt in everything. That's why he says season it with it. Salt in all of your food.

All the food that tastes good. Salt in it. It's in your butter. It's in your cake. Somebody when we were talking about this said it's not in LaCroix. Well LaCroix tastes terrible.

If you don't know what LaCroix is you have done well in life to dodge it. But how do we do that? How do we season our speech with salt? How do we include Jesus in normal conversations? Because that still feels really hard. Because that's what we're going to talk about now.

How do we do that? Because the truth is you're going okay. Have Jesus be a part of normal way. I talk to people as I'm walking in wisdom with outsiders. As I'm building relationships. I'm going to talk about Jesus some.

But how? Because it's not like you can be like. Yeah that's a really interesting point you made about the NBA final. You know who else is a slam dunk? Jesus. Yeah that's a really interesting piece of news about Comey.

But have you ever thought about getting fired up for Jesus? Like it just. It's like how do I do this in a normal conversation? Because it just feels like I'd be a weirdo. How do I do that? I'm glad you asked.

First thing. Be a real friend. Be real friends with people who don't know Jesus. Like an actual friend. Like these are the people you want to hang out with. You will call them.

You will do stuff with them. They will call you. If they have problems they'll pick up the phone and call you. You're an actual friend. Because then this becomes way easier to take. And you talk a lot more.

But step one is get to know people who don't know Jesus. And be a real friend. So we're talking about all the ordinary stuff of life. Hobby with people who don't know Jesus. Get to know your neighbors. Invite them for things.

Become real friends. The second one is have Christ actually impact your life. So that it's normal for you to talk about it. So that when you're talking with your friends about normal friend stuff. Like you might be mentioning your budget. Well if Christ doesn't affect your money.

Then it's going to be really hard for you to talk about it. But if he does. If you're actually submitting your money to Christ. Then it makes sense for you to bring it up. If Christ doesn't affect your marriage. Or your work.

Or how you pick a major. Then it's going to be harder to try to infiltrate. And put him in normal things. But if he does. If he's already at work in you. In all the normal ways of life.

It's easier to talk about him. I had a friend named Amir. I worked with at. This is just kind of a way to do this. But I had a friend named Amir.

Who I worked with at Sears in Lynchburg Virginia. And Amir was a Muslim. And we would talk a good bit. And one of the things I realized Amir did a lot in our conversations. We'd just be talking about normal stuff. And then he'd say.

Well I'm a Muslim. So. And then he would explain how Muslims think about that. Well I'm a Muslim. So. Here's how I would do that.

Well I'm a Muslim. So. Here's why I wouldn't be a part of that. I'm a Muslim. So. And just over and over.

And I got to learn so much about Islam. Just from him talking to me about. How he thinks about the world. And then I realized. I can do that. I can just say.

Well I'm a Christian. So. And you know what that does. It's just a small phrase. But it helps you.

In your normal talking with people. Bring up Christ in a way that's not. Aggressive or weird. Because here's what it is. What you're saying is. Can I share something about myself?

And I'm just talking about me. Someone's talking about marriage. Or they're talking about something with their kids. Or they're talking about. Something with school. Or how they're going to approach something.

And you just go. Well. I'm a Christian. Sometimes I would even just go. Well I'm a Christian. So I don't.

I think about that differently. And then just wait. Sometimes they go. Okay. They have no desire to talk about it. That's cool.

Sometimes they go. What do you mean? It's like. Well I'm glad you asked. But you have to have actual ways.

That Christ is at work in your life. For that stuff to make sense. But what it does. So here. Let me just. Let's.

We talk about how our culture works a lot. Let's just use culture against itself here. As we as Christians. Trying to point people back to Jesus. Our culture. U.S. culture.

Has pounded into your brain. That whatever you want to do. Whatever you want to be. Is right for you. That whoever you are. No one can step in and tell you.

You can't be you. That's been pounded into everyone. So as soon as you say. Well I'm a Christian. So. You've walked into a magical judgment free zone.

Sometimes. Doesn't always work with Christianity. But go for it. You've walked into a place. So now they're willing to listen to you.

Because you're just talking about yourself. Now. I say our culture has pounded that into our brains. The Bible doesn't. The Bible says. Some of the things you think are stupid.

And there are a lot of things you're wrong about. And you need Jesus. But. I'm a Christian. So I believe that.

But you may not. That's. You get to just talk about things that have. That are true to you. Real to you. In a way that isn't.

So if. If my friend Amir had constantly said. Well the Quran says this. So you need to change your behavior. Well the Quran says this. So you.

You're wrong about that. It'd have been harder to talk to him. But he would just say. I'm a Muslim so. The Quran says this. And then he would just apply it to himself.

In a way that I was willing to listen. And that's. Be real friends. Have Christ actually affect your life. So that it makes sense to bring him up.

And then the third one is just. Listen. And I'm going to give us a practical method for this. To try to help us out. But the third one is.

Listen. That we would actually just listen. I'm going to put this over here. It may mess me up. But. Everyone.

Has a story. A primary story. That. They use to define their life. And the world. Everybody does.

Everybody lives by a story. And here's what we're told about the. As Christians about the Bible. Is that there is a story. For the world. And that story falls along four plot lines.

Creation. Fall. Redemption. Restoration. That's the story of the world. That God created the world good.

In a relationship with himself. And that humanity rebelled from him. That we fell. In theology it's called the fall. That we rebelled and wallowed in sin. That's where racism.

And hatred. And murder. And murder. And greed. And lust. And infidelity.

And like everything comes out of. Us sinning. And rebelling against God. And in this place. God created the world good. And we broke it.

And that all of us as humans. Have joined in breaking the world. That it was harmonious. And beautiful. And every single one of us has partaken. In the fall.

That we've all joined the rebellion. Through lying. Through bitterness. Through talking about people behind their backs. Through stealing. Through pride.

You name it. Pick your poison. You're on this team. We deserve hell. We deserve to be punished for our rebellion. But it doesn't end with the fall.

The story of the Bible is the story of redemption. That God loved the world so much. That he came. And joined humanity. In the brokenness of the world. And took the brokenness of the world.

On himself. The most heinous thing. That has ever happened. In the history of humanity. Is not. When we rebelled against God.

It's when we killed him. But God was using that. To redeem. That he took the worst thing that's ever happened. And he turned it on its head. Because he's a God who's like that.

And he offers mercy and grace. To those who will place faith in Christ. And then there's restoration. That heaven is a return. To the garden. Heaven isn't a place where we float around.

In magical spirit bodies. That there's going to be a new earth. That he's recreating. What was broken. Creation. Fall.

Redemption. Restoration. And this story has been imprinted. On your soul. That there's something about this story. That you know is undeniably true.

That's why the best stories we tell. Follow this. The best stories we share with each other. Follow this. That's why when you watch a movie. And it's nice and happy.

And then it falls apart. And it stays fallen apart. Titted. Stays broken. And then it ends. And it goes black.

And it says fin. Because that's like a Parisian way to say. How you like that. Critics can tell you. Oh that's more like real life. But it hurts.

And there's something inside of you. That says no that's terrible. No no no no no. It doesn't just end terrible. Good. Good.

Good wins. There's something inside of us. That screams that. So let me give you some examples. There's a little boy. Who's born into a beautiful loving family.

But a mean wizard kills his parents. He has to learn magic. To defeat this wizard. Ultimately he has to die. In order to break the wizard's power. That sound like anything?

Then he rises from the grave. Death defeats the wizard in that act. And the sun shines again. And everything's magical. And then we go to the train station. And hug our children.

Like that's. Let's do another one. There's a guy. He loves his daughter. She gets taken. He has a particular set of skills.

He kills everyone. They hug and everything's great. Until she gets taken again. There's a ten year old boy. And he's a prince. And everything's wonderful.

And some old lady comes to his house. And says. Can I live with you? He answers the door. Even though he's a prince. And he's ten.

Can I stay with you for. In exchange for a rose. He's a capitalist. He says no. She turns into a wizard. Enchantress lady.

And then turns him into a monster. And says. You've got to learn how to fall in love. With someone. Otherwise you'll stay this forever. He does.

Boom. Sparkles. Tears. Magic. Hugs. Kisses.

And a remake. Creation. Fall. Redemption. Restoration. In West Philadelphia.

Born and raised. On a playground. Where I spent most of my days. Chilling out. Maxing. Relaxing.

Or cooling. Or shooting some people. Outside of the school. When a couple of guys. Who were up to no good. Started making trouble.

In my neighborhood. Got in one little fight. My mom got scared. She said. You're moving with your auntie. And your uncle.

To Bel Air. All the good stories. All the good stories. Follow this. And we begin to listen. Because the thing is.

For those around you. Their story follows this as well. Because it's imprinted. On our souls. That we all. Have this playing out.

In our lives. Because sin. Is the problem. That has wrecked. Everything. You were designed.

Good. And right. And sin. Wrecked it. That's everybody's story. And everyone is looking.

For a redeemer. Who will fix. The problem. Let me give you an example. I had a friend. I used to work with him.

Hadn't seen him in a while. His story played out like this. And I got to know this. As I listened to him. And talked to him. Over time.

He was married. When he was about 19. Divorced when he was 22. He was in his 40's. At this point. And what was broken.

With him. As he could define it. And as he would experience it. As he could explain it. Is that he was meant. For love.

And marriage. And relationship. And family. And that had been. Lost. He was on online dating sites.

This isn't a critique of those. But I'm just telling you a story. Every. Wink. Nudge. Click.

Smile. Swipe. Was a chance at a redeemer. That someone was going to come fix. What was broken. And when he had a lady in his life.

He was up here. And when she was gone. He was down here. Because what he needed. Was someone to ride in. And fix this problem.

So that he could be full. And loved. And complete. And that was his story. Now as I began to listen to this.

And as we begin to listen to those around us. We now have a way. To naturally begin to see. Where the gospel intersects. With this story. Was he designed for love.

Can we agree or disagree with that. One of the things we're going to do. As you listen to your friends. And your neighbors. Is where can I agree. And where do I have to disagree.

Absolutely agree. You were designed to be loved. In a way that you cannot even imagine. And that has been robbed from you. We believe that God existed in Trinity. He was God the Father.

God the Son. God the Holy Spirit. That when he created the world. He didn't create it. Because he needed beings to love. But he created it.

Because he is loving. And he's invited us into that love. We believe that. That lines up with the creation story. That we know and believe. And hold true and dear.

The story that's the story of our lives. Of those who have become Christians. That this is now the true gospel story for us. So we could agree with that. It's torn up by sin. That that love has been shattered because of sin.

Absolutely can agree. I have to disagree here. And this is the place where you will disagree with most everyone that you are walking with. A woman's not going to fix that. The biggest issue he had was that he needed to be heaven. An overwhelming love.

He needed to be crowned with it. He needed to be wrapped in it. He needed to have an eternity of comfort and joy and love. That comes only through Christ. That's the restoration he needed. And without that.

He was going to place so much pressure on any female that came in his life. She was going to buckle and crumble. And it was going to be another train wreck. Because she was never going to be Jesus. Take one of your friends. Maybe you don't know the whole story.

You just know they move from Job to Job and city to city. They're looking for that dream Job. And maybe you start to learn, okay, it's actually because they believed that they were meant to do something that fulfilled them. And gave them a purpose. Made them whole. And so they keep moving from Job to Job.

They keep looking for career to career. They keep trying to find the thing that will finally make them want to wake up in the morning. And once they find it. The magical Job. Where the boss is amazing. Then they'll be in heaven.

They'll be full. They'll be complete. They'll be whole. This will fix it. See, what you're listening for is who do I think I'm supposed to be? Who was I designed to be?

Who was I made to be? What broke it? What destroyed it? What's hell to me? Who's the savior? What's heaven?

And as we begin to listen to our friends. As we begin to see this play out. We begin to know how to share the gospel with them. I believe you were created for a purpose. And I know why you never found it. Because the job was never going to do it.

You needed Christ to come in to show you. You need the creator to tell you what you were created for. And only in Christ will you ever fully be. This plays out in anything. You can take a staunch militaristic atheist. We're rational, intelligent beings.

Who've created science and art and all these wonderful things. But if they're militant, maybe religion's the problem. It hymns people in. It promotes ignorance. It harms society. But through science and reason, we can reach utopia.

And everything will be wonderful. And we can intersect with that. We can say, yeah, we were. I agree with you. We have reason and logic. And people who are ignorant, we should teach them and train them and help them.

But I actually think that it's only through God's created purpose for us. Who invented reason and math and science and logic and all the things that are beautiful in the world. And the order that you so appreciate. It's only through Him that we'll actually reach fulfillment. And it just depends. It depends on what.

So a lot of times, just for example, you're listening with your friends. You may not get all four of them. You may just begin to pick up along the way. Here's what they think heaven is. It involves a boat. Expensive things.

Okay. So I've learned what heaven is. You begin to learn what messed it up. Or what's causing the problem. What's keeping them from that. But you can start realizing, okay, I can probably agree here some.

I can agree here some usually with what's messed up the world. Sometimes you might meet a Christian who they've put Jesus here. Husband. Well-behaved children. Peace and prosperity. And we have to say, yes, actually, maybe fringe benefits.

That's not the ultimate benefit of Christ. This may be some of your neighbors who you say are Christians. Jesus is a means to end that doesn't ultimately get them to the restoration they need for their soul. To save them from their sin. This is what we begin to listen. As you become real, genuine friends with people, you start listening to them.

What do they, creation, what do they assume the world should be like? What kind of person would they like to be? Who are their heroes? Fall. How do they describe their struggles and battles? What do they feel like is the biggest issue?

Where do they lack? What's hell to them? Redemption. Who's their savior? Who will deliver them from what's broken? Restoration.

What are their hopes? Long-term project they're working on? When will they finally be satisfied? And here's what drives me crazy and breaks my heart. Is when I hear Christians say things like, yeah, but they're happy. They already have something that they believe.

Christians say this to each other and to other people. Just do whatever makes you happy. You've got to do whatever you find in your heart, whatever fulfills you. That's not true. Because every one of us is plotting this out and picking a savior that only can short-term safe. At best.

Short-term safe. And then eventually, it's a train wreck. But we have a savior who redeems this story. You can play mine out on this. I'll do some confession here. Creation.

Born into a middle-class family. I did not hit a double. I was born on second base. Relatively intelligent. Relatively athletic. Highly attractive.

Just kidding. That was just for fun. All right. Stay focused. My whole life, I've just felt like I had potential. Like, if anything went wrong, I had no excuses.

So every ounce of any type of failure is on me. Anything that goes wrong in any situation I'm in, I have no excuse. I wasn't smart enough. I didn't try hard enough. I didn't think well enough. I didn't plan well enough.

So what saves me is hard work. Get up early. Go to bed late. White-knuckle it. Don't complain. Keep your head down.

Hard work. And ultimately, success. In any avenue I'm in. You can play that out over grades. You can play that out over sports. You can play that out over relationships.

You can play that out over my relationship with my wife. Or my children. Or my friends. Or this church. It's that story. Without Jesus.

And that's a terrible story. See, I believe. That when Jesus said it's finished, it was. That I don't have to be good enough. That I don't have something I have to prove. That I don't have to make right with all the stuff that I've been given.

That I can fail and that I have. And gee, this goes two ways really wrong for me. I fail and I end up feeling miserable and broken and depressed and worn out. But I don't let anybody know that. I just grind on. Because to quit is the ultimate failure.

Or I succeed. And I am arrogant and prideful. And a miserable human to be around. Without Jesus. But see, I believe.

That he interrupted my story. And it's a better story for it. And so I can with complete integrity. Try to force him into everybody's story I talk to. Because I think it will be a better story for it. With complete integrity.

I can argue with you. I can reason with you. I can say, hey, I'm a Christian. So can I tell you actually what I see going on here? And one of the beautiful things for us as Christians. Is that this is the story.

And this is everybody's story. And you begin to speak to something in someone's heart. That they didn't even realize was there. Can I tell you actually why you need a boyfriend so badly? What the Bible says about that? Can I tell you why you're so addicted to following your heart?

And what the Bible says about that? Can I just tell you as a Christian how I see this. And how I view this. And how we talk about this in my community group. And actually what I believe. If you actually got that job.

It might be the worst thing that ever happened to you. Because you'd watch your Savior die before your eyes. And then you'd have nothing to keep leaning into. And because I love you. I'm going to pray that that happens. And I get to be around.

So that I can point you to a better Savior. There's a quote from Tim Keller. He's a pastor in New York. He says, Jesus is the only Lord. Who if you receive him. Will fulfill you completely.

And if you fail him. Will forgive you eternally. And that's not true about anything else you put in that spot. And I don't know why on earth. We wouldn't begin praying. And walking with wisdom towards outsiders.

Making the best use of the time. And trying to as best we can. With all that we have. And every ounce of time and effort we have. To try to tell them. Your Savior is going to fail you.

But there's one that won't. Or you're going to fail your Savior. But there's one that will forgive you. Let's pray. God I want to thank you. I want to thank you that you fulfill us completely.

And that when we fail. You forgive eternally. And I thank you Lord. That for so many of us in this room. You interrupted our story. You dethroned our Savior.

Savior for a better one. A Savior that doesn't just sit on a throne. And command obedience. But a Savior that left the throne. And went to a cross. In obedience to his Father.

For the glory of God. And the salvation of souls. And God I pray. For all the false saviors in this room. That they would die. Never to rise again.

So that a Savior who comes from the grave. Can take their place. In Jesus name. Amen.

Mill City 5/8/17 Mill City 5/8/17

Everyday Life

Transcript

All right, we are in the second week of our Extraordinary Series talking about a pretty simple concept. We're basically looking at the fact that God has designed and has purposed that our ordinary lives, all of the normal stuff we have to do, all the meals we have to eat, the work we have to do, the chores, the relationships, everything we have in our normal life, that he's designed to use that, to use our ordinary daily work, our ordinary daily tasks, the ordinary weight of existence for his extraordinary eternal purposes. That's what we're looking at. And I grew up in the church. I remember growing up in the church, and one of the things I began to kind of see was the church I grew up in, we had a Sunday morning.

We had an early service, which was for people who wanted to wake up early. So it was a handful of people, you know, 60 and above, I think, was pretty much who was there. I don't really know because I never was. Then we had Sunday school, and Sunday school happened after that. And then after that, we had the late service. The early service and the late service were the exact same thing.

And so we had early service, Sunday school, late service. Then we would go home. We would eat, maybe eat out, maybe go home and eat. We used to ride, my family would ride to Hardee's and get chicken a lot. That doesn't have much to do with this, just Hardee's used to have good chicken back in the day. And chocolate chip cookies is about that big.

And we used to get that, and then we would go home. We would eat. You would take a nap. Or, you know, sometimes we'd get like a pickup football game going. And then you had to be back at 6 if you were in choir, 7 if you were just going to be at the normal kind of gathering in the evening. And then we would do that.

And then we had Wednesday night stuff. There was some Tuesday night stuff. But overall, the gist I got growing up in church was that the goal was to be there. The overall goal of being a Christian was to be in that building. And that if you came on Sunday, the general thing was, cool, come back next Sunday. And if you came back the next Sunday and the next Sunday, eventually they might say, hey, you should get into the Sunday school class.

And you'd get into a Sunday school class, and that would kind of double the time you were there. And then it was, you should be at the Sunday night service. And then there should be, you should be at Wednesday night, prayer meeting or Bible study. And there's the ladies' meetings and the men's meetings. And overall, the goal was be here. And maybe they wouldn't have said that.

That was just the picture I picked up on was the people who were the most faithful, the most good, the most Christian-y were there the most times. And that was the goal. I know my dad growing up, his parents, his dad was a pastor. And he had to be there every time the doors were open for anything. And if he was sick, they would let him stay home. But he wasn't allowed to do anything.

And they would actually come home and check. The first thing they would do in walking the door after he had been home sick from a church meeting was they'd walk in and they would stick their hand behind the television to see if it was hot. And if it was hot, he got a whooping. That was how that worked. So he said when they would leave, as soon as he saw the car pull out, he would turn the television on and watch about 15 minutes and then turn it off and hope it had enough time to cool down.

He got it down to a silence. He could watch just the beginning of a show and then just kind of figure out later what happened in Lost in Space and ask his friends at school the next day or whatever. But the goal was to be there. You had to be there. We don't do a whole lot that involves you being here. We do this.

We gather on Sundays. That's it. That when we begin to read the Bible and begin to study it and we realize that the primary call for us is to not always be together, but to be Christians everywhere we are. To be sent out into the world, to be Christians everywhere we are. Now, we value gathering very highly. And we should gather.

It's normal and good and helpful and it builds into us holiness and it reminds us of God's goodness for us to gather every Sunday. We have people who show up here at 7 in the morning and begin to set all this up. We've got people that are going to stay to help us pack all of this up. We intentionally go out of our way to do things to be welcoming because we know we live in the South and people will show up to a church on Sundays and that we should. Some of us, our friendships, we should intentionally invite them to this first. That's the thing that makes the most sense for someone to come be around.

And hear the gospel proclaimed and study the Bible. But we also realize this is primarily for Christians. It's one of the reasons why we do it early in the morning. Wake up and then go spend the rest of your day getting to know your neighbors and getting to be around people. This matters, but it's not our primary main thing. It's not the overall goal for us.

We love this building. It's kind of a steal financially for us. It's not the prettiest building you've ever been in. But this isn't our main thing. If it were, I might be a little depressed sometimes. Like we talk about like we need to work on the lighting in this room to make it brighter.

And then usually in that conversation someone says, yes, but if we make it brighter, you'll be able to see the carpet better. And we're like, usually that just kind of ends it. We're like, good point. We'll just keep it the way it is. But we just, we want to gather.

But we want to gather to study the Bible, to be equipped and to be sent back out. We gather to go. We don't gather to gather. We gather to go. We don't gather just to gather. The point of this is not just let's get in a room and pat ourselves on the back and we're done.

No, we gather to remind ourselves about what matters and what's important and what's real and then to be sent out. It's that song we just sang. Who are we that Christ would save us? So we gather to celebrate that. And then it's who are we that Christ would send us? See, we gather to go.

This does matter. However, it is important that we're here and that we're here on a regular basis and that we remind ourselves consistently that we're not alone and that we are a family and that we are sent together. But it's important that we then go and live a life of ordinary things, intentionally seeing God work in extraordinary ways. And that's our goal. We started this last week. Grab your Bibles.

Go to Deuteronomy 6. You have one of these white Bibles. It'll be page 87. It's going to be pretty early on in everybody's Bible. It'll be Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus to Deuteronomy. And we're going to spend time studying this morning.

We're going to look at this. And here's what we said last week, that God intends to use our ordinary, normal lives for his eternal, extraordinary purposes. And one of the stories we told last week was about Dawn, who happens to be in my community group. She has short hair. She gets her hair cut every five weeks. So she had to go to her hairstylist every five weeks.

And Kelly Weed is her hairstylist as part of our church. And she just consistently kept saying, you've just moved here. You need to come be around. Our church family is great. They're so loving. They're so gracious.

You should be here. You should come. You should come. And Dawn kept saying, no, no, no, thank you. Dawn's polite. So, no, thank you.

Sounds good. Maybe she lied some. I'll see if I can fit that in. And then didn't show up. Eventually, though, she came because she ran out of excuses and she didn't want to get a new hairstylist, I guess, is my assumption. And so she showed up.

And God used that very ordinary hair cutting to bring her around. Eventually, she met Christ. We have story after story like that in our church family. Some of you, that's your story. It's just normal. Some of you have felt like I don't have a good testimony because your story was my neighbor became my friend.

He was a Christian. She was a Christian. This person I went to school with was a Christian. My parents were Christians. The lamest version ever. I grew up in a Christian house.

My parents told me about Jesus. And eventually, I believe this extraordinary gospel that the God of the universe saves sinners and wants to have a relationship with him. I know that's so boring. No. All of that is normal, ordinary things that God uses for extraordinary, eternal purposes. And that's what we're looking at today.

And today, we're actually, over the rest of the series, we're just talking about how do we do this? How do we join in using our normal, using our ordinary, using our mundane for God's spectacular purposes? So, Deuteronomy 6. Where we're about to pick up is Moses. They've led the Israelites out of Egypt. And he's saying, here's where we're about to go.

We're going to go into the promised land that God has provided. So, they've come out of Egypt, headed into the promised land. He's saying, here's what we're going to do. Here's what God's going to accomplish for us. And the overall picture here was, they were enslaved. They were rescued by miraculous means from slavery to be a people that belong to God.

To be a family and a nation that belong to God. And that God's going to give them a place to be a beacon for him. That they're going to go drive some people out, take over some land. And then God is going to use that land to say, here's what it's like to follow me. Here's my people. And begin to show the rest of the nations what it's like to belong to him.

And the truth is, that's the church. This is a picture of what Christ does with the church. That we were enslaved to sin. That by miraculous means, Christ dying on a cross vicariously for us. Being our Passover lamb. That they would practice sacrifices.

Where they would place their sin on an animal. And the animal would be sacrificed to pay the debt of their sin. That Christ becomes that for us. That he sacrificed to pay the debt of our sin. And that he rises from the grave. To offer free forgiveness and hope and grace to everyone.

And then he makes us into a people. And a family. And a nation. To show the rest of the world, here's what God is like. And to begin to welcome others in. So we're picking up in Deuteronomy.

Where we're seeing a picture of what ultimately God's going to do with the church. So he's talking to the nation of Israel. The people of Israel. But it also helps us as Christians to know how do we live this out? How do we walk in this? How do we understand this?

Because we're in a very similar place. Verse 4. Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.

With all your soul. With all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. And shall talk of them when you sit in your house. And when you walk by the way.

And when you lie down. And when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand. And they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house. And on your gates.

That first verse there. Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. With all your soul.

With all your might. That's the Shema. The Jewish people would repeat this over and over again. At one point a rabbi asked. A Pharisee asked Jesus. What's the most important law in the Bible.

In the Old Testament. And Jesus says this one. To love the Lord your God with all your heart. With all your soul. With all your mind. With all your strength.

With everything you have. To love God. So as we talk about how do we do this. How do we join him in the ordinary mission of life. The first thing that has to happen. Is we have to love him.

As Christians. You have to love Christ. In order to join him in his mission. I've. I have met people before. That were a part of the church.

But they loved the church. Maybe they loved the music. Maybe they loved the preaching. Maybe they loved the friendships they had there. Maybe they loved that. That it made them an upstanding citizen.

In the area. But I don't think they loved Christ. I don't think they enjoyed him. Rested in him. Saw the greatness of him. That's the first command.

And I want to give you some freedom here. It's a command to action. Here. The Lord your God. The Lord is one. Now you will love him with everything you have.

With all your strength. With all of your soul. With all of your might. With everything you have. With all of your heart. This is a command.

It's the same as when the Bible says. That husbands should love their wives. It does not mean. Husbands should have a passive. Receptive feeling. Towards their wife.

Sometimes we think about love. As just an emotion. So you either love. Or you don't. You either feel it. Or you don't.

Like watching a movie. You either enjoy it. Or you don't. So that it's based on the movie. Whether it's good or not. And like how you respond to it.

Now this is a command to action. The first thing we ought to do. Is work. To love him. To know him. To see him.

And the place that that begins. Is the gospel. We cannot effectively join him in mission. Unless we actually love. The outcome. Of the mission.

You see. The reason I want people to meet Jesus. Is because I've already met him. And he's worth meeting. That's how that works. The reason you should want your friends and neighbors.

To come to Christ. Is because you've already come to Christ. And you know what that's like. You know what that accomplishes. Some of you don't want to share the gospel. Don't want to tell people about Jesus.

And the reason is. You don't really like it. You're not captivated by it. You're not overwhelmed by it. It's been a long time. Since you laid on your face.

Thinking about the gravity. Of your sin. And the holiness of our God. And the fact that he loved you so much. That he would redeem you. It's been a long time since that happened.

So you. You're not stirred up by it. You're not overcome by it. So why would you tell other people about it. Some of you believe that the gospel. That what we're supposed to do as Christians.

Is work really hard. And be really moral. Some of you maybe grew up in a church like that. The goal was don't drink. Don't smoke. Don't watch R-rated movies.

And God will love you. Why would you tell your friends about that? You're looking at them thinking. Smoking. Drinking. And R-rated movies seem so great.

Maybe you weren't. You were. There's something about like. If the. I have good news for you. Get to work.

That doesn't sound like good news. But that's not the gospel. The gospel is I have good news for you. Jesus did all the work. You're free. You're loved.

You're redeemed. He offers you grace. Your sin. Had built up. A debt. Before God.

That you deserve to be destroyed for. But Christ. Died for you. Because he cares about you. And he cares for you. And he wants you.

That's good news. That's freedom. That's purpose. That's enjoyment. That's rest. And some of us don't.

Don't share this with our friends. Because we haven't really gotten there yet. We haven't really believed it yet. If you have no desire to tell other people about Jesus. I don't think you've met the Jesus I have. I don't think you've really met and interacted with the Christ that we find in scripture.

Because he is lovely and lovable and good and gracious and welcoming and merciful and compassionate. And he fixes us. Mends us. We believe. If you read the Bible. We believe that sin has wrecked the world.

That there's isolation and loneliness. That the people around us are held down by guilt and shame and depression. That they're doing everything they can to just build some comforts around their life. Thinking that the best thing they could possibly do is just have a nice couch and a good show on Netflix. The most troubling thing to them is when that season ends. And they can't find something else good.

So they watch The Office again. Like that's the biggest issue in their life right now. They have no purpose. They have no meaning. They feel adrift. They feel lost.

There's some people that you know put on a really brave face. But they are wracked by anxiety and fear as if a shadow was following them. They don't know what. They don't know how. But they know one day it's going to catch them.

And we believe that Christ is the cure for all of that. That he gives us a family. That he redeems us. That he died for our guilt and our shame. That he sets us free from fear and anxiety. That he is our hope.

We want everyone to know that. There's a song by the teddy bears. That came out in 1958. And one of the set of lyrics is to know, know, know him is to love, love, love him. And I do and I do. Do you know what song I'm talking about?

It's kind of catchy. That's true about Christ. To know Christ is to love Christ. And the place that this begins is a command to love him with everything you have. Now, before we can move on, you have to be there. It has to be real.

It has to be genuine love. It has to be heartfelt. He says this will be on your heart. But before we can move on, some of you may be saying, okay, I don't feel that. What do I do? How do I respond?

I don't know if I'm there. It's like when there are times in marriage when you just don't feel gushy about your spouse. You just don't. They're there. You like them. They're okay.

But you're not like overwhelmed by it. It's just not happening. And the response is not to wait until that just shows back up magically. The response is, what do I do? How do I begin to foster this? How do I get back around them?

I know that when I get kind of like that with my wife, Anna, I just got to hang out with her. She's a delight to be around. I just got to make time for it. Sometimes it's really hard to like her when there's a two-year-old in between us that we both have to work with. So it's like the best thing we can do is be business partners to keep this thing alive and help it not hit us with sticks, which he does.

But, you know, I made the sticks for him in the shape of a sword, so that's kind of on me. But you have to figure out a way to make it work. And so here he gives us some clues in the text that I want to show us here. There are ways to stir up our affections for Christ. So I want us to just look at the words here.

First, he starts with here. Oh, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. So he starts off by saying, listen to what he is like. One of the ways to stir up your affections is to be here and listen to sermons. Some of you, look, there are a lot of really good Bible teachers that exist in the world and put their words and their Bible studies on the Internet. Some of you are most have your affections stirred for Christ through listening to someone explain and teach his word.

And you need to be listening to podcasts of sermons to and from work. Some of you work in a job where you can have that in your head. I one of the most enjoyable, soul stirring, Jesus loving thing for me is when I cut the grass at my house and listen to sermons while I do it. One of the cool things about that is periodically I will be in a spot in my yard. And because that's where I was when I heard that point, I will be reminded of something about Christ just because that's where I happened to be when I heard it while I was cutting my grass. But here, what he's like is one of the things we get to do to stir our affections.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. That means to get to work to do this, to pour everything you have into it, to put energy towards it. It's all your might. He says these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. So that means memorize them, roll them around in there, think about them, have them affect you.

You shall teach them diligently to your children. One of the ways that some of you are most stirred in your affections for Christ is getting to explain something to someone else. You need to be around Christians who don't know as much as you. You need to be around people that you can say, hey, let's walk, let's study the Bible together. Let me show you some stuff. There's times where you're explaining something to someone and it's like it clicks in your own heart and you suddenly are like, hold on.

I got to repent, too. Like I love doing premarital counseling for that exact reason. I'm telling people how to communicate to their wives. There's not hasn't been a time I've gotten to do premarital counseling where I did not go home during one or two or five of the sessions and say, hey, and I need to repent for some stuff because I had forgotten how to do this. But I remind remember that Christ is good and this is how I'm supposed to act.

But you're to teach. You shall teach them diligently to children. You should talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. Somebody's just to talk about God and his goodness and what he's done. You need to say it out loud. It says you shall bind them.

There's a sign on your hand. They should be frontlets between your eyes. We'll talk more about that in a minute. But you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Whatever it is. Some of you, it's journaling.

Here's what I have found as a rule for me. Whatever I find that is the most soul-stirring way for me to love Jesus then becomes really difficult for me to do. And it has to take might. It takes energy and effort for me to do it. Some of you, it's journaling and you know that. You know that sitting when you read and pray and writing out all of your prayers and writing about how God is good and how he's answered you.

That's the most you get out of. Some of you, it's memorizing scripture. Some of you, it's singing. There are certain things the Bible tells us we have to do. We've got to read the Bible. We have to be intaking his word because that's how he works on us.

For some of you, that's like going to the gym. It's not enjoyable. It's work. But you don't see the benefits of that until you've, it's been a month or two months. And you usually don't see the benefits of the gym in the gym. You see the benefits of the gym outside of the gym.

Like when you walk upstairs and can still breathe. Like, do you know what I'm talking about? You do something for a day and you're not sore the next day. The gym isn't great. Nobody wakes. I mean, some people do wake up in the morning like the gym.

Let's do this. Most of us don't. Most of us are like, all right, let me do this so that I'll not die doing normal tasks. Some of you, that's the Bible reading. It just takes effort. But ultimately, it builds into you something good.

But we're told some things we're supposed to do. Read the Bible. Be around church family. Be in community. Pray. Fast.

But then we've got to find things together. You've got to find things for yourself. What stirs up your affections? What helps you love Him? For me, that's woodworking. Walking in the woods.

Now, if I told you, I don't need to read the Bible. I walk in the woods. You should hit me. But if I say one of the best ways that I can meditate on the goodness of God is to walk in the woods and that's infused with my knowledge of Him from Scripture, that's great. Some of you, it's singing. Some of you, it's listening to music.

Find whatever it is. Some of you, it's making music or writing poems or drawing pictures. All of that's been gifted by God. And whatever it is that stirs your affections for Christ, you should be doing, even if it takes work and effort and planning. Because we've got to love Him to truly be able to share Him and to point people to Him. It's got to be real to us.

And then it's genuine and it's much easier to take from other people. I love Egg Roll Station, which is a Chinese restaurant in town. I usually have cash in my pocket just for Egg Roll Station. And I have to have $7.07 and then I can eat at Egg Roll Station. I eat there once a week. If I don't, my whole system is messed up.

Like a finely tuned machine. I have to eat an Egg Roll and like two and a half pounds of fried rice in order to just keep going. I tell everybody about Egg Roll. If somebody asks about Chinese food, I will tell you about Egg Roll. If you say that you've been there and it's not good, I will argue with you. And it's genuine.

It's real. I believe it. And it makes it easier to take. It makes it more real to other people. It comes out naturally. It's something I'm going to talk about.

I've gotten tons of people to go eat there. I take people with me on a regular basis to eat at Egg Roll Station because I believe in it. And it has to come from that place. Some of you, you're that way with music or you're that way with art. You're like, I've learned if someone wants to talk to me about music. Like if you're the type of person who wants to talk about music, you are going to be disappointed if you talk to me.

If you're like, hey, have you ever heard of them? I'm just like, stop. Just don't. You're going to be mad. I haven't heard of them. I don't know their songs.

I don't know who that guy is. Just please quit. Like, but when we naturally love something, we talk about it. It's real to us. It means something. And that's the place we have to start with Christ.

You have to know him. You have to love him. You have to rest in him. And then the rest begins to come out in a normal way. I will also say this. We've got to move on, but I'll say this.

Some of you feel like I don't, I don't know. I'm a Christian or I believe this stuff, but I just feel no desire to put forth this energy. I feel no desire for this. I think some of that works like this. Have you ever been really hungry so that everything you heard, thought about, sounded like it would be delicious? There was this moment when you could have eaten a taco or a pizza or sushi or a ham sandwich.

Everything sounded amazing. If you smelled any kind of food, it was the most amazing food ever. You just had to eat something. And then you miss that window, and all of a sudden, you're not hungry at all anymore. And people are like, well, you want to go eat at a Mexican restaurant? And you're like, well, you just want to go get some pizza?

And you know cognitively I really should be hungry because two hours ago I was. I just had to keep working. And now nothing sounds good. You just have to know I still need to eat something. And once I start, I'll be reminded why I was hungry in the first place, and it'll be fine. Maybe I'm the only person to experience this.

I think most of us had. I took a short poll with a handful of people to try to see if anybody understood what I was talking about. Walking with Christ is like that sometimes. Sometimes you get to the place where you're like, I just don't feel the hunger anymore. It's like, right, because you've gone so long without it, you've kind of forgotten how to do it. Just pick up your Bible.

Start listening to music. Start praying. Start asking for the hunger again. And then just start eating. Start intaking. And it'll build it back up in you.

But this is why we have to come from here to see people come to know Christ. It's got to be genuine. It's got to be real to us. We've got to actually know him. We've got to understand his benefits, the goodness of him for our soul and the joy that's found in him. This is why we've talked about this past week.

We said if we would intentionally invite one person into our lives, we would get to potentially see our church family double. That we'd get to see more people here. And that's useless. That's absolutely useless if the point is our church is good. That's useless. That's useless.

That's useless. If the point is Jesus is good, that's valuable. If that's the point, if we talk about our church growing and the best you have. This is why I think a lot of times churches, especially in the south, grow by people coming from other churches to this church. Because the sales pitch is come listen to the music. The music is really good.

Come hear the preaching. The preaching is really good. Come hang out with our groups. Our groups are really good. But we've lost the ability to say, come meet Jesus.

Jesus is really good. And so the only person we know how to pitch to are people who already kind of believe that. But we don't know how to actually tell somebody, here's how Christ has wrecked my soul. And you need to know him. It's got to start there. It's got to start knowing the goodness of Christ and seeing his gospel and seeing our sin and seeing his holiness and his love for us.

It's got to start there. So let's keep going. First step, love Jesus. Then it says, verse 7, you shall teach. Oh, no. I jumped ahead of myself here.

I've got to read 6. And these words that I command you today should be on your heart. For us, the primary command is to know Jesus, to love Jesus, to know his gospel, to be changed by that as we obey. That we are changed by the gospel and then we obey. So that's where we come from here, that we would put that in our heart.

That it would be real to us. Then he says, you shall teach them diligently to your children. I shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. Don't miss this, parents. Primary first mission for you is your kids. First and primary mission for you is your kids.

I, I, I, it hurts my brain every time I hear a mom say, and this doesn't happen a lot in our church, but I've heard this before. Mom says, I want to be on mission, but I just got to stay home and watch my kids. And it's like, your kids need Jesus. We have to keep them in kid city. We can have people co-sign that. Your kids need Jesus.

They bite people. Do y'all know kids do that? Naturally. You don't have to teach them. They will bite another child. They need Jesus.

And we have to like, so parents don't miss that. The first mission you have, the first mission field you have is your children. And then he says this, teach them diligently the gospel. This should infuse. You should explain it to them. You should talk about Jesus.

You should sing and pray. And then he says, how? Talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise. That a love for Christ should saturate your day. Fill your day. That when you wake up, when you go to sleep, when you're walking, when you're eating, it's normal and natural for you to talk about Jesus.

What he does, who he is, what he's accomplished, how good he is, how he blesses, how he fixes, how he forgives. But you can't do that if you don't love him and know him. It'll feel forced. It'll feel weird. But if you love Christ and know Christ and it's already overwhelmed you how he forgives and how he loves and how he redeems, then it naturally will flow out.

It's natural for you to talk about it. It's natural for you to explain it. So this isn't just have a Bible study with your kids. It is that. Do that. But you know, your children are picking up everything, not just the stuff you want them to pick up.

I have a two-year-old. He's learning how to talk. And I feel like he is making fun of me with about half the things he says. He'll take some of his food, want me to eat it. I'll eat some. And he'll go, good, isn't it?

That's good, isn't it? Or he'll see something and go, that's pretty, isn't it? Because I say, isn't it? I didn't know I said, isn't it? Until I heard him start saying it. And I was like, what kind of word is that?

And then I realized I would give him a piece of food and go, it's good, isn't it? And he's mocking me. That's what it feels like. He got hurt this past week and he looked down at his own leg and went, oh, honey, hurt yourself. Because that's what his mom says to him every time he hurts himself. Oh, honey, you hurt yourself.

And so I was carrying him around in Lowe's. He was looking at his knee the entire time going, oh, honey, hurt yourself. He said it like 35 times. We had to keep my brother's dog. My brother and his wife bought a dog and then decided to travel so often that we get to share it. So we really appreciate it.

And so it was at our house. It was the first day it was dropped off. It was in our garage and it started barking. And my two-year-old was watching TV. The dog's name is Possum, by the way. That will make this story make more sense.

My two-year-old was watching TV and he goes, shut up, Possum. And we were like, we may have said that too much. And we don't say that to each other. We don't say that to him. We are willing to tell dogs to shut up. And now our son, my wife, one of the primary ways I fight with, fight, I play with my son is to fight him.

This makes more sense a little bit. Like we wrestle. Like it's one of the things we've been doing since he was little. We fight. I teach him how to throw punches. He hits me with sticks.

This is one of the primary ways that we play with each other. And that was fine at our house. But now he has to go up into Kid City. And I don't know if y'all know this. They can't come get me on Sundays. But we're pretty sure there are times where he's going to push someone and be like, shut up, Emmy.

And then like hit somebody. And it's going to be because we trained him poorly. Because he didn't just pick up the stuff we said to him. He picked up all the stuff we do. He picked up who we are. Some of you grew up in families where your parents made you go to church.

But you watched them the rest of the week. And it had no influence over their life. They told you you needed to love Jesus. But you never actually saw them love Jesus. And that messed with you. That's why he says this should so be real to you.

That the way you wake up when you go to sleep. The way you eat. The way you walk. That means walking the way. Means all the stuff you do. Looks like you know and belong to him.

And you love him. And he's changed you. Because I've heard this quote attributed to a bunch of people. Most recently to John Maxwell. But it says you can teach what you know.

But you'll reproduce who you are. You can teach what you know. But you'll reproduce who you are. And that's why he says love him. And then make sure that that plays out in every bit of your life. Parents don't miss the opportunity to disciple your children.

But I want you to see that he says. You shall teach them diligently to your children. And. So he says teach your children. Explain this to your children. Make this part of life.

And he explains kind of how you get to do that. But when he says and. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house. When you walk by the way. When you lie down. When you rise.

That not only affects your children. That means that it affects everyone you're around. He follows that up with this. Verse 8. You shall bind them. As a sign on your hand.

And they shall be as frontlets. Between your eyes. A frontlet. Is a decorative. Head. Dress.

Piece. Thing. And I know that. Because I've studied extensively. And have a computer. And I googled the word.

It's a decorative headpiece. They took this literally. Says that you'll bind them as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on your doorposts. And on your house. And on your gates.

The Jewish people took this literally. They took the little Torah scrolls. The law that he was giving. And the commandments that he gave. And they wore them on their wrists in a little box. And they wore them on their head in a little box.

Or at least the Shema. Which is here. Oh Israel. The Lord our God is one. And they put them on their doorposts. And on their gates.

I don't think that we have to take this literally. I think what he means is. For us as Christians. I think the call is. The way you work. Everything you do.

The way you see the world. That you can't look into the world. Without having to see past. The gospel. One of the things we talk about. Is so knowing the gospel.

That it's the lens by which we view the world. So that the way we handle money. And the way we interact with people. And the way we. And he says put it on your doorposts. Meaning that when you go in.

And when you go out. It's intentional. It's in obedience. On the gates. Which means this is how you interact with the world. This is the first thing they see about you.

You ever heard somebody say. Oh he really wears his faith on his sleeve. And what they mean is. It's just out there for everybody to see. It's just kind of out in the world there. For everybody to notice.

And they kind of say it negatively. And maybe you have thought like. God. Christianity is supposed to be private. And I'm supposed to enjoy it. And I'm supposed to love Christ.

But I don't want to bother people with it. And I don't want to be annoying. And we're not really supposed to talk about religion. It's kind of rude. I don't want to wear my Christianity on my sleeve. Moses says wear it on your face.

Put it on your forehead. That you are a Christian. That you know Christ. Love Christ. That you belong to him. Should be how you interact with the world.

Should be something people pick up from you quickly. And know that it is true and real about you. That's it. That's how to be a part of Jesus' mission in ordinary life. That's it. To so love Christ.

That it pours out. In every interaction. When you wake up. When you go to sleep. When you eat a meal. When you walk.

When you work. To have it be the way you interact with the world. So that if it's bound to your hand. It means that when you're interacting with the world. When you're doing stuff. There are things that you do intentionally.

Because you belong to him. Because you love him. So it affects how you work. It affects how you interact with others. To have it put on your face. Means it's how you see the world.

So that you can't just set a normal budget. Based off of what Dave Ramsey says. But the gospel affects your budget. That you can't just pick a major in school. Because of what your parents said. Or because of what field you want to go in.

But the gospel affects it. And your understanding of who he is. And what he's done. Your love for him. Empowers you to do what you're called to do. In the world.

That doesn't mean that everybody has to go be a missionary. It means that everybody already is a missionary. Wherever God sends them. Because it's how they interact with the world. That Christians wear the gospel on their face. And on their hands.

And it's in their heart. And it pours out everywhere. And it's on their doorposts. And their house is used for the gospel. It's on their gate. It's how they interact with the world.

That's the call. That's it. And that has to start with a love for Christ. And then. All we got to do. Is be around people who don't know Jesus.

Be a genuine Jesus loving. Real person. And intentionally. Go out of your way. To be around people who don't know Christ. And then.

When you. It's normal for you to talk about him. It's normal for you to. To point people to him. It's normal for you. And it makes sense.

Because you so love it. You so enjoy it. So. First. All we're going to do. For the rest of our time.

Is look at. Some practical ways. To be around people. Who don't know Christ. So. For you in the room.

If you're saying. Yeah. I love Jesus. I want to see people come to know him. This is the practical part. Where we just talk about.

How do we do that. For some of you in the room. You're going. I'm not sure. I actually love Jesus. The way you're talking about.

I'm not sure. I actually. Have him. In me. The way you're talking about. I want to tell you.

That you can. That we're called to faith. Which means that we. Say. Lord. I believe that the gospel is true.

That you died for my sin. And I want this. I want you to change me. I want you to infuse me. Some of you. You actually know.

No. I believe in him. I just don't feel it right now. I'm not empowered by him right now. And that's where it's. Yeah.

It's called for strength. For you to start. Putting some energy forth. To read. To study. To repent.

Some of you. Need to start. By taking a blank sheet of paper. And a pen. And saying. Lord.

Where do I need to repent? That's a dangerous question. But it is so good. Jesus loves to answer that one. And here's why. You repenting.

You turning from sin. You confessing. Is not punishment. It's a call into joy. You get more of Jesus. Obedience is not punishment.

It's a call to be free. From all the sin. That he's already set us free from. To walk in it. Okay. So here's what we got to do.

You need to take your schedule. You need to look at it. You actually lay out. How do I spend my time? What time do I get up? What do I do?

Where do I work? Who am I around? Where do I go to school? Who's there? When am I there? What time is that?

When does that happen? You just need to make your schedule. And then you get to ask a couple of questions about your schedule. There's really three primary questions. And then there's one follow-up that I want to show us. But the first one is where's a community opportunity?

It just means in my normal schedule, how can I invite church family to be around? Where can I invite someone from my community group? Where can another Christian come join me in this? This is one of the ways that we get to remind ourselves of what matters. So where can I bring somebody in?

This is one of the ways that we get to talk about God and teach each other and walk in that. And help other people know how to raise children and handle finances. So it's like what am I already doing? Where can someone else join me? The second one is where is there a mission opportunity? Which just means where am I around people who don't know Jesus yet?

Or where could I invite someone? What am I already doing that I could just invite someone in who doesn't know Jesus yet? So you've laid out your schedule. You ask where is there a community opportunity? Where is there a mission opportunity? The third question is where is there a gospel opportunity?

Where can I actually begin to show Christ? Where can I actually begin to share Christ? That's one of the things we're going to talk about in this coming week. Is how to explain the gospel. How to say it. Talk to people about it.

The fourth question. One. Which is kind of an underlying question. It's not one of the main ones. Is what needs to be cut? For some of you.

You say like in my evenings I watch some TV. And maybe there's a good community opportunity. You could invite some people to come watch The Walking Dead with you. Or Frasier reruns. Some of you it's. I could invite my neighbors.

I know that I found out that one of my neighbors is really into this show. So we're going to watch House of Cards together. I'm just saying popular shows. But something makes me think that one might have bad stuff in it. And I should have mentioned it. So I don't know.

That was not an endorsement. But maybe your neighbor really likes it. And you should watch it with him. I don't know. Some of you. It's.

I watch three hours of television every night. And therefore have no time to be around anyone else. And that needs to be cut. Some of you play video games like it's a part time Job. And with more intentionality than your part time Job. I have nothing against video games.

In and of themselves. Some of them aren't great. Some of that needs to be cut out. You need to invite a friend over. Play for a couple hours. And then go into the world and talk to humans.

Like you've got to look at your schedule and say. What do I need to cut? What doesn't work? Some of you treat your home like it's the escape from the world. So as soon as.

Introverts pay attention. As soon as you. Get off work. You run into your house. And the goal is to just have enough. Cushions around you.

That no one gets to talk to you. And that's fine. God designed you to be introverted. That's okay. One of the problems with the church. Is that extroverts stand up here.

And tell all the introverts. That they're wrong and sinful. And that's not true. But. You need to make friends. Like an introvert makes friends.

And you need to find ways to be around people. Because you can't just say. Oh I don't like that. Or it's hard. And never do it. And extroverted people.

Need to not say. I hung out with 30 people. That was mission. Did you have a real conversation with anybody? Do you remember their names? Did you just walk around and call everyone guy?

Maybe you need to build some real friendships. With people who don't know Jesus. And get around them. I've got a list of. Eight things I want to talk through quickly. Somebody.

This is just a list that was in the book. Everyday Church. It was written by pastors. Steve Timmis and Tim Chester. That Tim Chester guy sounds really smart. But.

Eight. A list of eight things. I want to. I want to just kind of share with us. As ways to intentionally be around people. Who don't know Jesus.

This is a list they give. That I think is helpful. First one is. Eat with non-Christians. Or eat with people who don't know Christ. You eat.

21 Meals a week. That's an average. Some of you. You're above average. I'm proud of you. You eat 28 meals a week.

That's well done. Some of you skip breakfast. You're at 14. You eat. You have to. God designed us to have to stop.

To eat food. To refuel. Eat with people who don't know Jesus. Invite them to lunch. Talk to your co-workers. Invite them to come eat with you.

Invite people in your neighborhood. To come over and eat. It's about to be summer. Go to your neighbors and say. Hey. After dinner this next week.

We're going to have a watermelon. But there's no way. The two of us. Are going to eat an entire watermelon. If we do. We will not feel good.

So we need you to come over. And help us eat this watermelon. We're going to be in our front yard. We just want to invite people to come. Find ways to get around people. Who don't know Jesus.

The second one they give is to walk. If you live in a walkable area. Of our city. Walk. For the majority of us. Because we live in Columbia.

And that doesn't really matter. We exist. Can't walk. In our city. Can't walk to the grocery store. Can't walk to.

So just walk around your neighborhood. Walk at the same time. Get to know the people. Who live in your neighborhood. One of the things. That we do intentionally.

Is we walk in our neighborhood. And we've gotten to meet. Our neighbors. Just walk around. Get to. Get to know people.

If you. Work at a place. Where you can walk. To get some food. Rather than ride in your car. Walk.

Be. Begin to care about the city. We live in. Begin to see people. Begin to. Start conversations that way.

To meet people. The third one they give. Is to be a regular. Go to the same place every week. Get coffee in the same place. Get breakfast in the same place.

Be around the same people. Go at the same time. This is for people who are saying. Look. I want to be a part of Jesus's mission. I just don't know anybody.

Who doesn't know Christ. And for Christians. That happens some. We become Christians. We start hanging out with the church. Eventually.

All of our friends are Christians. We have a lot in common with them. It's easy. We believe the same stuff. We're fighting for the same stuff. But he's called us.

To be out in the world. Using our ordinary lives. For extraordinary purposes. So be a regular. Get to know all of the wait staff. To have your community group.

Go eat at the same place. Every week. At the same time. And tip well. Even when the service is bad. Have the gospel affect your tipping.

You were terrible. Here's grace. Here's abundant grace. Above and beyond. Your. Worth.

At this. Today. Um. Hobby with people who don't know Christ. Is number four. Join a hunting club.

Join a gym. Join a local book club. Or start one in your neighborhood. Play tennis. Paint. Sew.

Join a local softball league. Little league. Parents. Little league. People will say. I can't.

I can't be part of the stuff. Our group's doing right now. Because our kids. Is playing t-ball. Some of you need to say. Parents.

We're not. We're not rotating off. I'm going to take this one. And I'm going to be there. At practice. And I'm going to get to know.

All the other parents. And I'm going to be a help coach. And we're going to hold a party. For the. For the kids. At the end of the season.

We're going to be the person. Who brings Gatorade. We're going to intentionally. Use t-ball. As an opportunity. To get to know people.

Love people. Serve people. And join Jesus. In his mission. Um. Number five.

They give us. To talk to your coworkers. I used to love it. When I worked. Uh. I used to work at Sears.

One of the things I loved. About working at Sears. Was my coworkers. Were stuck with me. My coworkers. Could not fire me.

Their only option. Was to quit. And I got to talk to them. I got to hang out with them. I got to share with them. I got to be their friend.

Go out of your way. To talk to your coworkers. Get to know the people. In the cubicles near you. Or that work on the same shift. Care about them.

Pray for them. Begin to pray for them. Before you go to work. When you leave. Get to know them. Be their friend.

A genuine. Actual friend. Number six. They give us. Volunteer with non-profits. Find a non-profit.

Serve once a month. Bring your family. Bring your group. Number seven. Participate in city events. Go to a fundraiser.

Or a clean up. Summer shows. Concerts. Talk to people. Get to know the city. Care about people.

Number eight. Serve your neighbors. Or get to know your neighbors. Some of you have lived in the same place for a while. You don't know your neighbors. Let me give you a couple of quick ways to do this.

We're going to talk more about how to use your house. And to be a good neighbor. But a couple of quick ways. If you move into a place. Go knock on everybody's door. And say.

Hey I just moved here. Here's one of the things that happens. Most people feel the obligation to be nice to the people they live around. They don't want to be rude. They will not naturally be rude to you. Go knock on their door.

And say. Hey I just moved here. I'm trying to meet people. And they will feel. Some sort of social pressure. To get to know you.

And talk to you. It's a great way to meet all your neighbors. To talk to them. To pray for them. If you see someone moving in. Go knock on their door.

Say. Hey Saul you just moved in. Wanted to get to know you. We live right down here. Talk to them. If you have a person.

If you have lived in the same place forever. And don't know any of your neighbors. You have a couple of options. You can. Make up. A neighborhood thing.

So that you have a reason to knock on their door. Hi. I'm a part of the neighborhood planning committee. Want to talk to you about the thing out front. Where we need to plant some plants. Hi.

Just talk to them. I'm a part of the neighborhood gathering group. It's a group you made. So you're part of it. You're not lying. Chairman.

Chairman. We're trying to do two cookouts a year. Would you be up for that? Maybe all of your neighbors say no. Maybe you find five that say yes. Have a cookout with them.

Some of you just need to knock on people's doors. And say. Hey. I've lived here for three years. And I've been a terrible neighbor. And I just wanted to get to know you.

Most of your neighbors will say. Yeah. Me too. Sorry. And you can talk to them. One of the things we do.

In our neighborhood. Is we walk. In the neighborhood. And. And. I will.

If I intentionally see my neighbors outside. Sometimes pretend to go get something from my mailbox. Or out of my toolbox. On my truck. So that I can say hey to them.

We walk. One of the things I do. When we're walking. And this. I break social norms. Just for the reason.

To be able to meet my neighbors. If I see a neighbor. And we make eye contact. But I can tell. That was it. They don't want to talk to me.

I will. While we're making eye contact. Do this. Hey. Way too early. But now they have to choose.

To not shake my hand. They have to be willing to break that. And most people aren't. So they. They'll go. And wait.

While I walk like 30 feet. So we can shake hands and talk. And I get to know my neighbors. And then the next time I see them. I can say hey. I already know them.

How's that thing? What's going on? Like. Just find ways to get to know your neighbors. Here's the thing. This isn't a trick.

We're called to be genuine Christians. Who really love Jesus. And then our goal. Is to be genuine friends. With people who don't. Let me explain something to you.

And if you're a Christian. This is true. And you believe this. We only have a certain amount of time here. This is temporary. There is an eternity to come.

And I believe 100%. That every person. Needs to meet Christ. Needs to hear the goodness of the gospel. Most of the people you live around. Think they know the gospel.

Think they know about Christianity. Think they know about Christ. And it's just that they've never really seen. Anybody truly living that out. In life. Christians.

True. True. Genuine gospel. Bible following believing Christians. Are the best people to be around. They should be gracious.

Generous. Forgiving. Loving. Serving. Sacrificial. Not condemning.

But joyous. And welcoming. And merciful. If your neighbors. Never come to know Christ. The best thing they'll ever get.

Is to live a life on earth. Around some Christians. Because it only gets worse from there. The goal is not. Just. See people meet Jesus.

That is the ultimate goal. Because if we truly believe what we say we believe. We want that for everybody. We just want to be friends with the people that are around us. Love them. Serve them.

Care for them. Pray for them. Fight for them. Be the person most likely to take them in. To give them some money. And to swap shifts with them.

Just to ease life a little bit. And show them somebody cares about them. Okay. Homework for this week. Look at your schedule. Pick a thing.

To do with intentionality. Some of you that means you need to cut something. You need to go for a walk. Some of that means you have. Coworkers that you've never really prayed for. Cared about.

Gotten to know. Some of that means you've got to go knock on the neighbor's door. But everybody. Who says they are Christian. Needs to do one thing this week. Everybody's in one of our community groups.

That's it. Just do one thing this week. To try to meet somebody. Get to know somebody. Begin to build a friendship with someone who does not yet know Christ. That's the goal.

Genuine friendship. With a genuine Christian. Let's pray. God my one prayer out of this. Is that we would all love you. With all our heart.

With all our soul. With all our mind. With all our strength. Because naturally. Out of that. We begin to love those around us.

I pray that we would be. Captivated by. The goodness of the gospel. And enamored. With your grace. So that we might begin to see the world as you see it.

And love those who are around us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Raz Bradley 4/30/17 Raz Bradley 4/30/17

Ordinary

Transcript

Alright, good morning. Grab your Bibles, go to John chapter 17. Today's going to be a little bit different. We're starting a new series. This whole series may feel a little different to us. John chapter 17 is on page 527, if you have one of these white Bibles.

We're going to get there eventually. We're not going to start there this morning. And the reason this series is going to feel a little different, most of the time, or I would say the majority of the time, which I guess that means the same thing, we just walk through larger sections of Scripture. We'll walk through a whole book of the Bible. We just got finished walking through three chapters in Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount. And even when we're doing a more, we're not actually going to walk through a whole book, we'll do like we're going to do in a couple of weeks or a couple of months when we're going to start in the summer going through Psalms.

And we're just going to park in one large section of text and just study it and talk about what it tells us, even as we're just kind of bouncing around because we're not going to walk through the whole book of Psalms because that would take a really long time for us. But today what we're going to do, we're actually starting a new series where we're going to look more at concepts that are found in the Bible, and we're going to be bouncing around a little more. So if you're used to us going to one place, staying there, walking through what it has to say, this series may be a little bit different, but we're still teaching biblical things. We're just going to have to look around a couple of different places to see it.

So I tell you that to tell you it's going to be a minute before we get to John. Don't start stressing out. You can say that, Dan. We're going to show some other Scriptures on the screen here in a minute. But as we get started with this series, I want to talk about a concept that I think will help us think through this.

There's memes on the Internet. For those of you who don't Internet very often, a meme is a picture with some words over it. There's memes about you had one Job, and when I used to spend more time on Twitter, I used to follow a Twitter account that was you had one Job. And basically it's just you take a picture of something where somebody messed up something that seemed pretty simple. You put you had one Job on it, and boom, you're a memest. You have made a meme.

But I want to show a few of them to us this morning as we get started. I like this one. And I can just imagine. I want to see the person who actually drove up and stopped at that gate because you can be sure it is the same person that would raise their hand at the end of class and say, you forgot to check our homework. That's who stops there. That gate is accomplishing nothing.

There's another one. I like this one. It pretty much sums it up itself there. The next one. Isn't that great? Like, I don't know which side was done first, but they had to be dodging something.

Or at some point he was like, look, I'm going to draw a picture and just started just driving around. And I don't know the rules there. Do you have to go around it? This one I like. You have to be trilingual to get this one. I guess technically he had two jobs.

Either way, didn't get him accomplished. This one, that's our second to last one here, came in first place. I think it makes you feel a little bit better because it rhymes with first. It's still third. And then this one, which is a little bit eerie. Unless you're going to culinary school, that's kind of scary.

But basically the concept with these, you had one Job, is it was a simple thing. There was just one thing you were supposed to do and you messed it up. And the truth is, that's kind of the church. Not that we've messed it up, but we have one Job. There's one thing that we're called to do as God's people. We have one Job.

Matthew 28 says it this way. This is Jesus. He's come. He's lived. He's walked with his disciples for three years. He's been training them.

They've been walking through life with him. He has been brutally murdered on a cross. He was wrapped up, buried in a tomb, dead. Three days later, he rises again, fulfilling all of the Old Testament promises, fulfilling the promises he had been making to his disciples and offering free grace and forgiveness to all those who would place faith in him. And then he takes his disciples and he says this. He tells them, go therefore and make disciples.

So he's talking to disciples and telling them to make disciples. So he's saying, go make people like you. A disciple is someone who knows Jesus and follows Jesus. So he says, you disciples, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. That means that they would place their faith in Jesus and be baptized in his name, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, meaning teach them how to follow in normal life. Teach them how to walk with me.

And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. So this is called the Great Commission. And this is where Jesus takes his followers and says, here's your job. Be disciples who make disciples. Now, everything that we're called to do rolls up into this one command. Now, there's a lot, but we really have one Job.

Be disciples who make disciples. Know, love, follow Jesus and help other people do that. Believe and follow and help other people do that. Train them, teach them, share the gospel with them, tell them about the free forgiveness and grace offered through Christ and his vicarious death and resurrection on our behalf. That we would see and savor Christ and all of his goodness and all of his glory and that we would want others to know it. And in Acts chapter 1, Jesus says it, that he says you're going to be my witnesses, meaning that you're going to go proclaim this news of what I've accomplished to, and he says to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

That's his call to us. In 2 Corinthians, Paul says it this way, that all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. So what he's saying is that God in Christ was re-inviting the world back into a relationship with him. That Jesus was overcoming our sin that had separated us from God. Some of you maybe in here in this room are saying, I don't know how to, like, what do I have to do to be close to God? The truth is there, your sin stands in the way of you being reconciled to him, but that God through Christ made a way.

He re-invited us into a relationship with God. He reconciled us. And then Paul says he gave us the ministry of reconciliation, meaning that the church has now been called to go tell people this, to be involved in bringing people back to God. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins, trespasses against them, and entrusting to us, the church, the message of reconciliation. In this passage it says, therefore we're ambassadors, meaning we represent God to the world. In Romans 1, Paul says it this way, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship.

So he's specifically talking about the apostles. That would be the disciples and Paul. He's saying we've received grace, meaning he doesn't hold our sins against us. And we've received apostleship, meaning we've been intentionally sent into the world. That's what an apostle is, is a sent one. So he's saying we've received grace, free forgiveness, Jesus' work on our behalf, and sentness through Jesus.

And the truth is you could say that about the whole church, that we've, all Christians have received grace, and been commissioned, been sent, into the world. And then he says why? To bring about the obedience of faith, so that people would believe and follow Jesus, that they would, they would be disciples who make disciples, that they would be baptized, that they would therefore obey everything he's commanded. That's what he's saying. The obedience of faith for the sake of his name, that's Jesus, among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. This is our job.

This is the call to the church, to be disciples who make disciples, for the sake of Jesus' name, and his glory, among all nations. That's all people groups. So Jesus says go therefore, baptizing them, and make disciples of all nations. That's what we're supposed to do. That's the church's Job. That's what we've been called, commissioned, and equipped for.

And it's revolutionary, and eternal, and spectacular, that people would come to know Christ, place faith in him, and have their eternities altered, through his work, and his salvation, and his name, for his glory, that he's accomplished for us on the cross, and offered us free forgiveness. This is what we're supposed to do. That we believe that sin has broken the world, that it's marty, that it's wrecked shop, but that Jesus did not sit far away from us, but joined us in order to rescue us. That God in Christ was reconciling, bringing the world back to himself. And now, we're called into that.

That if you belong to Jesus, you've got one Job. It can be complex at times, it can be difficult at times, it's going to be a lifelong adventure, but it is to be a disciple, who makes disciples. And we see in the book of Acts, there's something in us, that calls us to this. In the book of Acts, you read where they catch a few of the disciples, they tell them, don't proclaim the name of Jesus anymore. The disciples say, we're going to do what God tells us to. Which I love that response.

Later, they catch those same disciples and say, I thought we told you not to proclaim the name of Jesus. And then they beat them. And the disciples leave, excited. They rejoice. It's a celebration. They walk out of their beating, and I can just assume, if they weren't so sore, they would have chest bumped.

And they are excited, that they received the glory and the honor, to be beaten for the name of Christ. And they tell them at one point, we're going to do what God tells us to, because there's no other name under heaven, by which men can be saved. We're not, like there's nothing else for us to do. There's at one point, they catch some of the disciples, they drag them into a different part of the world, at this point. And they say, these are the men, who've turned the world upside down. And if you've been around the church for a while, our church, in Christianity, grew up in the church, maybe you've read books, like David Platt's Radical.

Maybe you've listened to sermons, that call this forth in you. Maybe there's, there have been times, where you've read your Bible, or you've been reading through the book of Acts, and there's something in you, that says, I want this. You hear about missionaries, and you think, is that what I'm supposed to do? Is that what I'm called to? There's something in you, there's a fire in you, and at times, it's like someone takes billows, and pumps it, and just, it swells up in you. And there are times, where you look at your job, and you look at your life, and you say, is this, is this what I'm supposed to be doing?

You get off of a two hour long conference call, you hang up the phone, and you think, is this how I'm going to spend my life? You, you spend a week in classes, a semester in classes, and then you think, is this what I'm going to do? Am I not called, built for, more? There's some sort of internal longing, because God has equipped his church, and commissioned his church for this. There's a quote, from the Bourne Identity, I think that's the first one, it's the first Bourne movie, that I think kind of resonates with me, in this picture. He's, he's sitting, he doesn't know who he is at this point, he's a, he's some sort of like, assassin guy, and so like, on a park bench at one point, some dude tries to touch him, and he just like, kills three people, and then he has to run away.

So there you go, you're pretty much caught up, with the movie at that point. But he doesn't know who he is, he's lost his memory, but he has all these skills, and he looks at somebody with him, and he says, I can tell you the plate Numbers, of six cars in the parking lot. I can tell you that our waitress, is left handed, and that the guy sitting at the counter, weighs 215 pounds, and knows how to handle himself. I can tell you, that the best place to find a gun, is in the gray pickup truck outside, and that at this altitude, I can run flat out for half a mile, before my hands start to shake. And then he says, I don't know how I know that.

And he says, how on earth can I know all of that, and not know who I am? And there's part of that, that resonates with me, because there are these moments in life, where it just feels like, aren't I supposed to be doing something else? Isn't there something I'm supposed to do more? Shouldn't there? You hear a sermon about, or you read in the Bible, where it says that, somebody found a treasure in a field, and they sold everything they had, because it was so valuable to them, and you just kind of sit before God, and say, God, I want that for me. I want to so love you, and your kingdom, that this makes sense to me, that I would sell everything, that I would give up everything, that I would join you in everything for this.

There's something in us, when it says, these are the men, who've turned the world upside down, that go, I want to turn the world upside down. I believe that's infused in us, in Christ, and maybe you go longer periods of time, before you have that feeling, maybe you've never really had that feeling, but I think, as Christians, it's something that happens naturally, and normally at times, where that gets stirred up in our soul. So my question, for us as the church, as those who have been commissioned by Jesus, and have one Job, how's it going? How are we doing? Do you feel, after this past week, like a world flip upside downer?

Do you feel like this past month, I'm a world changing agent, for the kingdom of God? I think for most of us, we have these moments, where we feel this tension, we feel this call, we feel like, is this all I'm supposed to be doing? Is this all that there is? And there are places where we're serving, and working, and trying, but there's, it just feels like, I feel like I'm supposed to be doing more, and I think a lot of times, we feel like, I really want that, but normal life has gotten in the way. So I want to be a missionary, I want to live my life for his kingdom, but I'm going to, I got to pay back student loans first.

Yes, Jesus and his mission, but it's going to have to be week after next, because I got finals. Well, then I'm going to be on vacation for two weeks. Three weeks, three, four weeks from now, that's when I'll be freed up to have time. Some of you are saying, if I could just get my child to sleep at night, all night, then I'll have the mental capacity to do this. Right now, I'm doing great, just to not shout at my spouse, every second of every day, because I have zero mental, maybe some of you are saying, once my kids get out of the house, once they're in elementary school, some of you are saying, no, no, no, once they quit playing sports, some of you are saying, no, no, no, it's once they move away, and I'll have to see them twice a year, then I'll have the freedom, then I'll have the capacity, then I'll have the room, to actually be a part of God's mission.

Some of you are saying, yeah, I really want that, I want to join him in this mission, I know this is what we're called to do, I've heard this a thousand times, but I'm working really hard right now, to pay my light bill, and my water bill. It feels so often, like ordinary life, has gotten in the way, of this extraordinary call, that God's placed on us. That we're supposed to be actively at work, to see people's eternity changed. You know, so often people, people go to work, they fight, they labor, for someone's future on earth, so they'll argue with you, about saving money, or they'll argue with you, about the goodness of an education, and we actually, have been commissioned by God, to go to work, and to fight, and to labor for eternity.

The ultimate destination, for people in a place, where this life is about this big, and eternity keeps going, and going, and going, and going, and there's something, that feels like, I know that matters, and I know it's important, but life gets in the way, if I'm honest with y'all, at my house right now, we have a two year old, a lot of days, it feels like the main goal was, did he eat something, that resembled food? Did we brush his teeth? Is he wearing pants? Like if we can do those things, it was a successful day. And by the time, we finally get that boy in bed, he's not asleep, he's just in there, and the door is closed.

It's just exhausting, and all I know is, I'm going to go to sleep, and do that the next day. And for a lot of us, it feels like that's life. Like we're just, I'm just fighting to get, get his teeth brushed, get his pants on him, there's a lot of screaming, and a lot of crying, and that's just me and his mom. And this is the best we can do right now. I want to tell you all two stories. Well, I want to tell you a story, and then a couple of stories to kind of follow that up as we think about that this morning.

There was a Scottish guy named John G. Patton. He was in the mid-1800s. He felt called to go be a missionary to the New Hebrides Islands off the coast near Australia, but he was in Scotland. He felt called to go do this. There's islands where cannibals were, and part of his story, and I'm kind of paraphrasing this, he's telling people he's raising money, he's trying to raise support to go be a missionary there, and he has one of the pastors, elders of his church say, there are cannibals.

You're going to be eaten by cannibals. Wrote that to him in a letter. And he responds in a letter, basically, sir, with the utmost respect I have for you. You are on up in age, here soon to pass away, be placed in a box, be placed in some dirt, and eaten by worms. And whether I shall be eaten by worms or cannibals, I tell you the truth, I really don't care, as long as I get to spend my life for Christ and his glory. That for me is when billows hit the flame in my soul that I'm like, yes.

That's so beautiful. I hope I one day get to say, I don't care if I'm eaten by worms or cannibals, I'm just going to slide it into conversations where it doesn't even make sense. Like, it's so good. He goes. In his first year, he buries his wife that went with him, his children that went with him because of sickness. Spends the time perfectly alone on an island where everybody hates him.

There's a time in his life where he has to hide in a tree because some cannibals were trying to catch him. Had they killed him, it was very likely he would have gotten eaten. I don't know if at that point if he cared still or didn't care still. It says that he prayed and in that moment he felt closer to God hugging that tree than he had felt anywhere else. Eventually, some people on the island began to become Christians. Eventually, through God's providence, grace, and work of His Holy Spirit, the entire island comes to Christ.

So there was a guy in Scotland halfway around the world who felt called to go do this, was unwilling to say no, travels to an island he knew very little about, and sees it ultimately come to Christ. If that doesn't light your fire, your wood may be wet. Like that is an exciting Jesus at work story. I want to tell you another one. There was a lady who's part of our church family who moved to South Carolina from Iowa. Her name is Dawn.

She went to get her hair cut. There's a lady in our church family named Kelly who is very nice and talkative and invited her to come hang out with our church. Said, you should come. Oh, you're new. You don't know anybody. You should come hang out with our church.

Our church is so welcoming and loving and our community groups are great. And she said it all in a very clear and compelling way. And Dawn thought, no, no thank you. First of all, I'm sure y'all seem nice. I'm willing to bet you're all terrible. She's pretty close on that one.

We are sinners, but Jesus is at work in us. But she, by God's grace, has short hair and so she has to get her hair cut every five weeks, which I had to ask, like how often do you get your hair cut? Because of my hair, I have to cut it like every two weeks so it starts looking really weird. But like my wife goes once a quarter or something like that. I can't really keep up with it. But by God's grace, she has short hair, has to get it cut every few weeks and Kelly Weed does not stop inviting her.

Dawn does not stop not accepting those invitations. Eventually, Dawn felt like, okay, maybe I should give this a shot and I'm pretty sure Kelly will never shut up and I don't want to have to get a new haircut or a person. Sorry, Kelly, I couldn't think of the name right then. Stylist. And so Dawn comes. Starts hanging out.

Eventually starts hanging out with a community group and places her faith in Christ and has her eternity changed because she moved to South Carolina and had to get a haircut. There's a guy in our community group named Mike who hung out at a video game store, met a girl who worked there. Eventually, he had some stuff going on in life and asked her, you know of any churches? And she said, yes, mine. So he started hanging out.

He placed his faith in Christ. I got to spend some time last week studying the book of Colossians with him and I asked him, what was your take on spiritual stuff before you became a Christian, before you started hanging around? And he said, oh, nothing. I was like, did you believe there's a God or anything? He's like, no, that always sounded kind of stupid. I think bogus may be the word he used.

Bogus. It sounded bogus. And I was like, okay. But then you started hanging out, started believing there was a God, started believing that he had joined us on earth as Christ, had died for our sins and that you could have forgiveness and salvation through him. And he said, yep. Now, neither of those stories, unfortunately, have the pop and sizzle of cannibals.

I don't know how often Kelly went to work in absolute danger for her life and had to learn how to use her scissors as a weapon. I'll be glad to share some of those stories later. Hanging out at a video game store sounds so nondescript. And God, in his act of grace and sovereignty, was using it to change the eternity of people who live right here in our city and are now part of our church family. I think we're tempted to say, well, John G. Patton led a whole island to Christ.

And I would argue, no, he probably didn't. He led some people to Christ and then a whole bunch of fishermen led other fishermen to Christ and a whole bunch of islanders who were building nets. And they began to, I don't know what happens on islands a whole lot, but I've watched Moana recently. So something with coconuts, coconut getters, began to lead other coconut getters to Christ and that the whole island became to Christ through a whole bunch of normal people being Christians in their normal lives and pursuing their families. Now God had to use John G.

Patton to maybe set the spark. But we would say, yeah, but my life's so normal, it's so ordinary. And my question to you is, how much did God's grace have to go to work to save Mike and Dawn just as much as it would have to save anybody on that island? And how much did Jesus have to spill his blood to affect how much of an eternity in all of those stories? And it's the same. And here's what we're going to look at as we walk through this series is that God intends to use our ordinary, everyday lives for his spectacular, extraordinary purposes.

That God intends to use our ordinary, everyday lives, cutting grass, having hobbies, going to work, hanging out at a playground. He intends to use all of our normal to see eternities changed in the lives of those around us because that's what he's always done. John chapter 17. Told you we'd get there. This is Jesus praying the night before he's going to go to the cross. He's praying for his disciples.

We're going to pick up in verse 15. I do not ask that you take them out of the world so that I there is Jesus. The you is God, the father, and them is the disciples. So he's saying, I, Jesus, don't ask that you, the father, take the disciples out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. So the intention for his disciples is not that they would escape the world, but that they would be protected in the midst of the world.

That you keep them from the evil one. It's the enemy that's actively at work to see people not come to faith. They are not of the world, meaning that they have tasted, believed, in Christ and his gospel and that they have been transformed into having eternal life so they belong to him just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them, that means change them, grow them, build them up in the truth. Your word is the truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. and for their sake, I consecrate myself, meaning I'm going to the cross, that they may be sanctified in truth.

I do not ask for these only, these men that were with him right then, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. If you are a Christian, Jesus just prayed for you. He's at work praying for you. That those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Jesus takes his disciples and says, I'm sending you into the world just as I've been sent into the world. And I'm praying for you that y'all would be a team, that you would be one, that you would be in me as I'm in the Father so that the world will come to know that I've been sent, will come to believe the truth of the gospel.

But I'm sending you the same way I was sent. After this, Jesus leaves. He is crucified. He's buried in a tomb. He rises again victoriously and we're told in John chapter 20 that he shows up in a house where the disciples are which terrifies them. He shows them the holes in his hand and his side and then he says this, Peace be with you as the Father has sent me even so I am sending you.

That is what Jesus is doing. He's saying, as I was sent, you're sent. So I think it's fair for us to ask how was Jesus sent. Let's just make a few observations about the way in which he was sent. Most of Jesus' life was unspectacular. He lived in a rural town to poor parents.

Angel showed up at his birth. I'll give you that. But he was born in a barn so it's got to even out somehow. He lived his life working. He at one point goes back to his own hometown and he's doing miracles and teaching things and they're like, Isn't this the carpenter or the carpenter's son? Like, we know this guy.

So for most of his life he seemed like a normal kind of unspectacular, maybe gracious, maybe loving, maybe really good, obedient son, but he wasn't doing miraculous things. And then even in his three years of walking with his disciples, he performed miracles. He went actively at work to proclaim the gospel in so many beautiful ways and tangible ways, but a lot of his time was spent walking and talking and eating, sharing meals with people. One of the main issues that the religious leaders had against Jesus was that he partied too much. They accused him of being a drunkard and a glutton. Now he didn't party too much, but it sure looked like he almost did.

Because there was on a regular basis he was at somebody's house eating, spending time with them, celebrating, that he walked in the normal rhythms of life, that God, when he sent Jesus, sent him to be a human. The Son of God could have just cracked the sky open. He could have shown up like a lightning bolt. And instead he shows up like a baby and then lives his life in so many normal ways. It's surprising how much of Jesus' life was normal and ordinary given the fact that he was the Son of God. He had a surprising amount of a normal, ordinary life given the fact that he was the Son of God and we're sent in the same way which means move in, wear the clothes, speak the language, take part in the celebrations, be a normal person in normal life, actively, intentionally working that for God's glory and his name and his fame among the nations.

That's what we're called to do. Jesus did radically call us to allegiance to his name above all else that we would believe that every penny, every ounce of energy, every amount of money we spent for his name and his glory was worth it. And he does commission his disciples to go out into the world but as they go out into the world and people come to Christ they start up churches and say y'all stay right here and keep pursuing the city that's here. Some of you are meant to sell everything you have, to come up on stage one day like we're going to get to with Chris Romalia soon who is a friend of ours and talk about the place that you're going to be among the poor, to be among the hated, to be among those that hate you and we're going to pray for you and we're going to hand you dollars and we're going to send you out.

Some of you are meant to stay in the same job you have for the next 20 years being a disciple who makes disciples in the normal life where God's already placed you. See, I think we're called because we're sent as Jesus was sent into normal life. I think we're sent with a life apologetic. Apologetics is the field of argument where we give reasons to believe so that you'll have things like someone has a good reason why it's very likely that the world was created by a creator rather than just exploded out of nothing and there'll be arguments for these sort of things but we as the church are given a life apologetic meaning that as you live your normal life around the people around you your life bears testimony and gives a reason for faith. that the people around you begin to see you believe that this is real to you that the way you spend your money and your time and your effort and your energy and the way you neighbor and the way that you work and the way you raise your kid points to your love for Jesus and his gospel.

That's why so much of the New Testament is spent writing to household managers and household servants and moms and dads and husbands and wives and how to interact with the government and whether or not you should pay your taxes. If everyone was supposed to sell everything and go somewhere else the New Testament would read like why do you still have a job? Why are you still married? Run away! But it's written and so much of the bulk of the New Testament is taken up with here's how to have a marriage that points to Christ.

Here's how to spend your time and work in a way that points to Christ. Here's how to spend your money in a way that points to Christ. Here's how to actively live a life so that those around you see Jesus. The third way Jesus I think models this for us is that he lived a life of intentional invitation. He used to live the life of intentional invitation that he was constantly calling people to come be around him because ultimately his entire life was the intentional invitation of God to humanity for us to have a relationship with him again that we were designed to be God's children and we broke that and ran from that.

That's why whenever anybody says well we're all God's children the Bible says no that's actually not true. That was the intent but we've all run from the household. But that Jesus came so that God could adopt us again so that he could welcome us back in that we could become sons and daughters again. That Jesus' entire life was an intentional invitation. That God intends in our lives as we are sent as Jesus was sent into normal everyday stuff he intends to take your ordinary life and do extraordinary things with it. That's the point of the series title.

See what we did there? That's the intent. That your mundane that your simple and small would be used by God to change lives. And just think about your life if you're a Christian how did you become a Christian? Think about this for a second if you would say no I believe without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ died for me and that that truth has altered my eternity. How many of you grew up on an island as a cannibal?

How did you become a Christian? Think about this for a second if you would say no I believe without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ died for me and that that truth has altered my eternity. How many of you grew up on an island as a cannibal? How many of you just went to a normal middle school and had another student who was 13 years old who would not quit inviting you to a youth group because they had pizza and cute boys and eventually you heard the gospel

And it clicked. How many of you it was a co-worker who just you could tell that they loved you and that was weird for you at first until the day when your life hit the wall and they were the first person you thought of to call. How many of you it was a co-worker who invited you and invited you and invited you and invited you to the point that you thought I might just have to quit this job and you ran out

Of excuses so eventually you started hanging out and at some point it clicked and Jesus saved and rescued your soul and how many of you would look back if someone said tell me how you came to Christ you'd say nothing really to it nothing that special I just had a friend and you've just said my eternity was changed through some ordinary stuff that's what Jesus intends to do there's a story in Ezekiel 47 where Ezekiel the prophet

Is taken and he's getting to see a vision and there's an angel walking around with him and the angel's measuring everything and telling him showing him the temple and he's measuring everything and so a lot of this vision is taken up with Ezekiel being like and this is how big this room was and this is how big this room was and so when you're reading it it's hard sometimes to like keep staying focused on what we're looking at here but in Ezekiel 47 the angel takes Ezekiel out of the temple

And he's measuring the outside of the temple and they come to the side of the temple where a trickle of water is running out underneath one of the doors it's a trickle if you say that a lot it becomes where it doesn't mean anything but it's a fun word to say it trickles it's just a small amount of water like you kind of turned a faucet on like if you took a water bottle and you were out somewhere and you had to wash your hands so you couldn't do if you just turned it up that would be too much so you just trickle some on your hand

To get some of the dirt off maybe some of y'all have never had to do that but that's a thing it's a small amount of water coming out from under the door which is weird because it shouldn't be doing that but it's coming out of the temple and what we learn in this vision is this is a picture of what God's going to do so he's reset up his temple and there's a trickle of water coming out and then what we're told is that the angel says come on we aren't actually told that he says that but he somehow says let's go and water's trickling out

And they walk 500 yards this way and then the angel says stop and they walk across the water and when they walk across this water it's ankle deep now that is shocking and none of us are shocked so I'll explain why that's shocking trickles of water don't turn into ankle deep water without more water being added into it so a river becomes a river because of tributaries which is extra creek water runoff

Rain this is a trickle of water that has turned into ankle deep water this is shocking if you took your water hose and laid it at the top of a hill and just turned it on the amount of water would never get greater than the amount coming out of the water hose the ground's going to soak it up it would get wet but as long as it's a hill it's no point turning into a river and what we see is a trickle of water coming out and it's suddenly ankle deep

They walk 500 more yards they walk across and it's knee deep they walk 500 more yards they walk across it's waist deep they walk 500 more yards and they can't cross it and the angel looks at Ezekiel and says do you see this and then we're told that that river begins to wherever it goes it turns salt water into fresh water which means it brings life and that there are trees that begin to grow alongside of it and the tree of life grows alongside of it and the leaves are for the healing of the nations

And that those trees bear fruit that bring joy and life we're given this same picture at the end of the bible where there's a river running out of the city of God and the tree of life is there and the leaves are for the healing of the nations and what we're shown in that picture in Ezekiel is that what's going to start so small as a little Jewish man being nailed to a cross where trickles of blood run down and a little group of men who fell apart after that happened but he brings them back together and there's only about a hundred of them

Men and women that he sends out to be his church is going to become an unstoppable river because this was God's intent all along that something so mundane so simple so small so unnoticeable was going to miraculously spectacularly extraordinarily turn into something that's unstoppable and the truth is he's designed that to happen in our lives that we would join him in the normal parts of life and see eternities changed that God would take your ordinary

And do something spectacular and glorious and eternal with it that he would take the simple daily parts of your life and do something amazing see we believe if you're Christians that sin has messed up the world that there's brokenness and pain disease fear depression destruction loneliness and that we're commissioned by God to be his active agents to bring the gospel to bear

In all of those situations to see people freed and loved and welcomed and one of the ways we do that is we live normal ordinary lives of intentional invitation and so I just I want to put this out for us this morning as we think about this if all the Christians in our church all the people in community groups would intentionally build a relationship and invite one person into your life we would see the size of our church family double

If every Christian in our church family all of our members all the people who are in community groups would intentionally build a relationship with one person begin to invite them into our lives we would potentially see the size of our church family double we'd see people come to know Christ we'd see people welcomed in we'd see eternity changed through simple things like hey we're having a cookout you want to come

Through simple things like hey we're going bowling you want to come simple things like you want to go grab a cup of coffee helping someone cut their grass getting to know your neighbors there would be eternities changed now for some of you who've been around for a while you maybe just felt weird inside and here let me explain why when I said we'd see our church family double some of you went

Not because you don't want our church family to double but for some reason that sounds really church growthy and what's the point want to see just a whole bunch of people in this room there's some sort of skepticalness to you and that has to do with how we got started here's what I mean we started talking about this concept I started thinking about this concept I hated that sentence so some of that comes from me when we got started

As a church we intentionally started with eight people terrible church planning strategy by the way if you read any kind of church planning strategy stuff they see you need at least about 75 to be a church that exists and lives so if you get online and just google that they'll say don't start without 50 don't start without 75 your church won't make it we started with eight I was leading a community group I had never done that before

I've never been a pastor before I'm just winging it some of y'all think he's really bad at this I'm learning on the job you guys when we got started there was just eight of us and all we said was we wanted to be a family we wanted to love each other we wanted to know each other we wanted to pursue Christ in normal life and we were only willing to multiply groups and we weren't going to do anything on a Sunday where we invited anybody in until we had something real to ask them to join we did not want to

Open up put out signs have banners put out mailers get a bunch of people in a room and say Jesus is good we'll see you next week we wanted to say Jesus is good come see what that looks like in a bunch of people as they try to live a normal life changed by him we wanted to have something real to invite people into and the truth is we do you and your community group we have something real to invite people into now here's the other thing

That's real for me when I think about okay build a relationship with someone and invite them in and our church will grow we'll see more people become church family with us and some of that feels a little bit like we want a really big church like the point of it is a really big church but if I actually will think about my community group over the past couple of years and you would tell me that that means there's another Don you would tell me that there's another Mike

That there's another Russ that there's another Jack that there's another Ashley that there's another Quincy I'll sell out for that if you could look at your community group and know who wasn't there two years ago and say you mean to tell me if we hustle and grind and if I pray and if I'm intentional and if I open up my door and my house and my life to somebody we'll get another one of these we'll have another Tony yeah let's just do that and I know part of me and I've talked with my group about this before part of me knows

Things will have to change if we grow groups will have to multiply some of the people you've been walking through life with you won't get to see as much anymore and I've told my group the only thing that helps me with that because that hurts and that in some ways is so terrible to me to think that half of my group would have to be somewhere else as we invited people in and that by inviting people in and seeing people come to know Christ would mess up the great thing that we have and the family that we have right now but the truth is

I've got to love what we have so much to be willing to invite people in but the one thing that helps me get over that is that all the little tables we share right now are just a picture and a hint and a glimpse of the table we'll get to share in the kingdom you see the picture of this river it keeps going and we're told in Revelation that it's there in the kingdom and that there's going to be a wedding supper of the Lamb where Jesus takes his bride

To himself and I can't help but feel in that moment some of the people that I used to be in a community group with some of the people that I used to get to walk in life with that I don't get to see as much anymore that I'm going to get to see them as they sit at that table next to someone else who wouldn't have been there if our group hadn't have multiplied as I get to see them at that table as I sit with people who wouldn't have been there if we hadn't have been on our hustle there's going to be a moment where we make eye contact

And we're going to know without a shadow of a doubt every ounce was worth it every bit that we were willing to leverage our ordinary lives that we were willing to risk being made fun of that we were willing to put ourselves out on a ledge to make an invitation every time we made up a thing so that we could invite people into it all the money we spent bowling just so we could invite somebody the time we worked out a thing to go to Dave & Buster's

And invite people in and none of the people we invited came and we still had to spend all that money at Dave & Buster's that's a true story and it made me sad to tell it just then it's going to be worth it it's going to be absolutely worth it as we get to see people brought into his kingdom if every one of us would begin to pray intentionally and invite intentionally into our lives I'm not saying Sunday morning some we got people in our church

Who came the first time on a Sunday morning and became Christians so we're not anti that y'all know we every Sunday open the Bible and talk about Jesus you can invite anybody you want to here we're going to tell them about Jesus some of the people you're building with this room terrifies them and that wouldn't be the best invitation that wouldn't be intentional some people you're building with the first thing they need to be invited to is your community group we've had people who came first

To what they thought was just a Bible study it ended up being it's more than that and they eventually became Christians that's a great invite some people that's terrifying want to come to a house with some people who study the Bible that you don't know no some people your first invite is hey you want to sit at this table in the break room when we get our break today some of you it's hey

You want to walk down here and get a cup of coffee some of you it's hey a few of my friends and I get breakfast every week some of it's hey a few of us go get wings at 50 cent wing night at D's and that's the first invite but the goal is to see somebody walk in life with you so that maybe now maybe a year from now maybe five years from now as you built a genuine friendship and something happens

In their life where Jesus begins to pull on them by his grace he started something now so that an eternity is changed and there's one more voice gathered around the throne proclaiming the goodness of Jesus and his excellency forever the band's going to come back up if we begin to be intentional and invitational into our lives we'll get to see more people invited into the family Jesus' family that we get to be a part of all of the things that you love

About our church about your community group about how this gets to work are offered through the gospel to everyone in our city and most of them do not have this and do not know him here's what we're going to do for the next four weeks we're just going to talk about how do we do this next week we'll get to talk about normal everyday rhythms of life and how to use them intentionally for the kingdom the following week we're going to talk about how to use your house that every single one of us lives in a home and it's our most paid for asset and God has actually designed it

To be a weapon for his kingdom we're going to talk about the reasons why you don't want to do that and then why it'll actually be good the following week we're going to talk about how to share the gospel how to actually tell someone about Jesus clearly lovingly helpfully and then we're going to talk about how we get to do all of this together with our community groups I would encourage you not to miss if you do to catch up online so that you can walk through this in our groups with your community group

I would encourage you if you've just been hanging out a little while and you're a Christian and you want to be a part of Jesus' mission hang out for the next couple of weeks maybe join a community group just for the next four weeks so you can walk through this and see how we're going to try to apply this and be used by God in all of our normal and some of you God has been stirring in your soul to bite off way more than you can chew and I would encourage you to do that he's been stirring in your soul the billows have been blowing

For a while for you to sell everything and go on a mission somewhere for you to maybe lead a group maybe for you to say I think I'm called to lead a community group and I know that may not happen for another year and I'm terrified of that because from what I understand it's really difficult to walk with a bunch of sinners through life and to help them and pastor and shepherd them and I would tell you yes it is and it's beautiful and you'll get to see more of Jesus in it

And maybe some of you that's what you need to do but all of us are called to leverage what we have for God's kingdom and he'll take our normal our mundane our folding clothes our going to the park with our dog and use it for his spectacular purposes and I'm excited to see him do it among us as we get to love and know him more y'all pray with me God we ask that you'd use our ordinary and that we wouldn't waste it help us not to make excuses that keep us from taking all the things you've given us

And using them for your kingdom God I pray for the people in this room right now who've been postponing joining your mission that you would shatter their excuses that over the next few weeks you'd help us to see how we get to use our normal our ordinary for your kingdom I hope over the next few weeks you'd help us see the things we have to let go we have to give up we have to say no to in order to join you in your mission and God we praise you for all the ordinary that's happened to completely change our lives

For the better and for your glory in Jesus name Amen

Raz Bradley 4/23/17 Raz Bradley 4/23/17

The House on the Rock

Transcript

My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. The Bible starts off, it says, In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The heavens and the earth. And it says that he made everything good. That all of creation was good and that it was intended to exist before him in a loving relationship.

That humanity is the pinnacle of creation. And that we were meant, humans were meant to exist in a relationship with God. And that was beautiful and worked out perfectly for like two chapters of the Bible. And then it falls apart. Like it was two people put on earth and it just falls apart. One of the things we see throughout the Bible is that any two people, any of us, it could have been us, it could have been not Adam and Eve, it could have been Greg and Tina, it would have still fallen apart.

The names wouldn't have been, you know, maybe it's not as the same kind of ring as Adam and Eve, but it would have still fallen apart. There still would be sin. There still would be brokenness. And what came out of that and what we see very quickly in the Bible is that questions arise because we were designed to exist in a relationship with God as our good and loving father and as our creator. We were designed for that to be good. And what happens is there's still his imprint on us so that we all feel like we have to wrestle with, ask this question of what is God like?

Who is he? What is he like? And then in response to that, what does he want from me? That that's a normal human question. And maybe people would say, what are the gods like? Or what is the universe like?

Or what's going on out there in the cosmos? And even the people who come to the conclusion that there is no God still spend a lot of time in this area of thought. There is no God. And you'd think they would come to that conclusion and move on, but they don't. They say there is no God. And then they still answer the question of how should we respond to that?

How should we live in light of that? But for most of history and most of humanity, even now on earth, the question is, what is God like? Or what are the gods like? Or what are the spirits like? And then how do we respond? And that's been a normal human question.

And there have been countless number of people who have come along and said, here's what God is like, and here's how we ought to respond. And when we're in the Sermon on the Mount, that's where we are today. We're finishing up our last sermon, last section of this. This will be the last week we spend on it. We're starting a new sermon series next week. Go ahead and go to Matthew chapter 7.

We've been spending three chapters of the Bible. We've spent several weeks just walking through what Jesus says. Matthew chapter 7, if you have one of the white Bibles on your row, it'll be page 474. We're going to start in verse 15 today. But Jesus is stepping into a situation where they were inundated with people coming along and saying, here's what God is like and here's how we ought to respond.

The biggest group of these people that did this, that taught, were the Pharisees. They said, here's what God is like. They studied what we have as the Old Testament, the law and the prophets and the Psalms and Proverbs, the wisdom literature and the history books. And they studied all of them and they taught, here's what God is like and here's what we have to do. Here's how we ought to respond. I mean, if we're honest, that's what a lot of us struggle with, wrestle with, are thinking through.

What's he like? How do I respond? What's my right response to him? And so the Pharisees came along and they taught calmly, patiently, systematically. Here's how we apply these rules. Here's what we do to make God okay with us.

Here's what we do to have him on our side. Here's what we do to have him be pleased with us. And so when Jesus comes along and starts teaching, a couple of things happen. Everyone listening to him is going, is he teaching the same thing the Pharisees taught? Or is he teaching something different? And the Pharisees sent people out to listen to him.

This was the largest religious group in Judaism at the time. They sent people out to listen to him to basically ask, is he teaching what we teach or is he teaching something different? And you'll see that in the Sermon on the Mount and as it continues in Matthew, if you continue reading, Jesus basically starts the Sermon on the Mount and then towards the end of it, plants his foot and says, I'm breaking from the Pharisees. We're doing some different stuff here. And that's what he's doing here. See, this is the last section of the Sermon on the Mount.

And he's really kind of finished the bulk of his teaching. And now what we're going to see today is that he gives us three distinct warnings and one way that we ought to respond. Three distinct warnings in Matthew chapter 7 and one way that we ought to respond. That's what we're going to look at today. But he's answering the question.

He's stepping into the realm of who is God and what do we need to do? How should we respond? What's the appropriate action for us? And Jesus is going to give us some warnings and then call us to a specific response. So let's pray as we begin this morning to read God's word.

Father, we ask that through your Holy Spirit, you would give us fresh ears to hear the warnings that we find in this passage. And fresh zeal and energy to respond. That you would break through barriers. That you'd help us listen well this morning. And that we wouldn't leave this place having had your words have no effect on us. But that you would make us tender and receptive to your word.

In Jesus' name. Amen. So he's coming to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. And he's giving us three specific warnings and then one response. We'll pick up in verse 15. This is the first warning.

Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Jesus' first warning is to beware false prophets. There's kind of a two-fold warning here. The first one is beware of false prophets. Realize people are coming along that are going to claim to speak on behalf of God. And they are intentionally misleading.

They're trying to make themselves look like sheep while they are actually ravenous wolves. These people are intentionally misleading. That's one of the things that we have to have as Christians. As people trying to figure out what God's talking about. What the Bible says is we have to have discernment. Which just means we have to have some sort of a radar up for is this person true or not true?

Is what they're saying true or not true? Are they a sheep or are they a wolf wearing sheep's clothing? That's what he's talking about. And he says you'll know them by their fruit. His second warning that's tucked in here in this first warning. It's kind of a two-fold thing.

Is that all bad trees, all diseased trees end up in the fire. And that's just a basic tree fact for them. You have a bad tree. You burn it. Like it's good for firewood. That's about it.

So he's saying though we will recognize false prophets by their fruits. And it's a real simple analogy. If you have a tree and it makes apples. So like it's a tree and hanging from it, connected to it are apples. What kind of tree is that? Y'all can do it.

I believe in y'all. What kind of tree? An apple tree. Yeah, that's all he's saying. He's saying you don't get apples from thorn bushes. Like if you, that just doesn't happen.

That's his point. So he says you'll know them by their fruit. So I think the appropriate question for us is what is fruit? What's he talking about? He says you'll recognize them. You'll know the difference.

That's the way we're supposed to spot false prophets. People who are intentionally coming along and saying here's what God is like and here's how we ought to respond. He says you'll recognize them by their fruits. He does not, however, tell us what fruits are in this first section. He just says you'll see them. You'll recognize them by their fruits.

And so I think we could sit and try to guess what fruits are. And I did that some while I was working on this. And then I kept reading and I feel like Jesus helps us out. So we're going to read his next warning. We're going to talk first about how I think that helps us understand fruit. And then we're going to spend a little time on that warning.

But the first warning is there are going to be people who come along and intentionally try to mislead. But you will be able to spot them by their fruits. Now we have to ask, okay, what are fruits? So let's look at verse 21. It's his next warning, but we're going to talk first about how this helps us with the first one. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Okay, that helps us. We cannot say, oh, they say they're Christians. Oh, they say Jesus is Lord. Oh, they put Jesus Christ on their pamphlet. Like that can't be it because he says not everyone who does that is going to enter the kingdom of heaven. Not everybody who does that is okay.

So we can't have that be a litmus test, like the litmus test. It may help us because if we're Christians and we're trying to follow other Christians and they don't say anything about Jesus, that should be a red flag. That one's free. That's just to help you all out. You go to church. They don't talk about Jesus.

Not a good church. Okay. So he says, but not everyone. So that can't be the only test. We'll enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Okay. I think this helps us because fruits cannot be spiritual ministry, spectacularness, spiritual ministry stuff. He says, many will say to me, didn't we prophesy? Didn't we cast out demons in your name? Didn't we do many mighty works?

Like he sets the bar really high here so that for us who were going, okay, no, I hadn't, maybe I hadn't, like I don't prophesy and cast out demons. I hadn't, you know, I think that would include any type of ministry stuff. He takes it to the extreme, but I think it includes ministry. So when he says, you'll know them by their fruits. What we can't say is obviously they're right because look at how big it is, or obviously they're right because look at how many people have been baptized or obviously they're right. Look at this person.

Obviously they're right. They're in Sunday school every week. Obviously they're a Christian. They hang out with our group all the time. Obviously they're a Christian. They serve in kid city.

That can't be what he means by fruit. Still doesn't tell us what he means by fruit. It just tells us that it's not that. I think we're going to get to see finally in his third warning what he means, but let's go ahead and look at the second warning while we're here. This one is scary and should cause us to pause here. The first warning is beware.

There are false prophets who are intentionally leading people astray. They want you to think they're a sheep, but they're actually a wolf. The second warning is not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. And then at the end of this, he says, depart from me. I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness, meaning that this group of people claim Jesus as King, but are actually working against his good work in the world. This is a group of unintentional false prophets.

This is a group of people who would say, I trust Jesus. I know Jesus. I believe in Jesus. I serve Jesus. And they are working towards lawlessness into the world. They are sowing and leading people astray.

So let's read it again. And then let's look at it. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. And here's what that means. Very basically, just saying you are a Christian or just calling Jesus Lord is not sufficient for salvation. Just saying you are a Christian or just calling Jesus Lord, just claiming that, saying that out loud is not sufficient for salvation.

Not everyone who says this will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven on that day, this would be judgment day. Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. The picture he gives us here is there's going to be a day when Jesus sits in judgment over the world. And there's going to be a group of people at that judgment. Who are shocked.

A group of people at that judgment who are baffled. And terrified. Because Jesus says, I don't know you. And they're going to respond. They're going to argue. They're going to say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Lord, Lord, Lord, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. But, but, but didn't we prophesy? Didn't I spend my life casting out demons? Didn't we do mighty works? Weren't we in service? Didn't we, didn't we do all this stuff?

And he's going to say, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. I never knew you. There are people who live in our state. There are people that you know, that believe with everything they have, that when they die, they will stand before Jesus and he will say, well done, my good and faithful servant. And on that day, he will look at them and say, depart from me. I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness.

That is terrifying. That for us in this room, who actively are calling Jesus Lord, that may not be you, you may not be in that place, but for those of us who are, and who are serving, and who are doing ministry, fill in the blank. There are going to be people who look at God and say, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Didn't I serve? Didn't I serve every week? Wasn't I there every Sunday?

Wasn't I there? Didn't I go to Sunday school? Didn't I get the perfect attendance award? There are going to be people who say, God, didn't I preach? Didn't I play in a church? Didn't I get to stir up the waters of baptism and baptize people?

Didn't you see? He's going to say, I didn't know you. There are going to be people who, weekly, do exactly what I'm doing right now. Stand before people, open the Bible, proclaim the gospel, and Jesus is going to look at them and say, I don't know you. That ought to shake us. Let's look at his third warning.

And then we'll look at what he says, how we ought to respond. Verse 24. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them. He's referring to the entire Sermon on the Mount and then also the bulk of what he's going to do. Everyone who hears the words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell. And great was the fall of it. And when Jesus had finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. So they listened to him and he sounds more like a prophet than the people they're used to, than the Pharisees, the people who were studying the word and teaching.

But what his third warning was, there's going to be people who hear me and follow me and build their house on the rock and storms are coming, but that house won't fall. That's what wisdom looks like. But they're going to be a group of people who build their house on sand and when the storms come, great was the fall of that house. His third warning is that a house built on sand will fall. And sand, in this picture that he gives, is anything other than his word. Anything other than his word is sand.

But he gives us the way to respond. And he says it in both his first, his second warning and his third warning. And I want to read those now as we try to ask the question, what do we do? How do we respond? What is it supposed to look like if just saying Lord, Lord isn't enough? If people are actively walking around trying to trick us, if there's going to be a day when a storm comes and that we're going to see at that moment, you know you can't see a foundation.

Until a storm comes. That's what Jesus says in this story. You won't be able to tell the difference. Those houses are going to look the same. But there's going to be a day when a storm rolls through and house after house after house after house falls down.

And there are going to be some houses that stand because their foundation is on the rock. Look at verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. You could flip that sentence. It would be the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter the kingdom of heaven. Verse 24.

Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who builds his house on a rock. Jesus says that the call to us is obedience. That we do the will of his father and that we do his words. Not ministry success. But doing his words, doing his will, obedience.

What's he talking about? What words? What will? He's talking about everything he's already taught in the Sermon on the Mount. When he comes to this conclusion, he's saying if you do all the stuff I just said, so what is that? It's to be salt and light.

To trust him and to follow him and to live normal life bringing light and refreshment and goodness to everything around us. It's to teach his word to others. It's to not be angry but to reconcile quickly with those we've hurt or that have hurt us. It's to not lust and to fight for your marriage. It's to be honest and say what you mean. To not retaliate.

To turn the other cheek to overlook offenses. It's to hold your pride and your reputation and your finances with an open hand. It's to love your enemies and to do good to those who persecute you. It's to not practice all of your good works in front of other people so that they'll see you. It is to pray and to give and to fast but all in secret. Forgive others.

Don't hoard your possessions acting like all that matters is here on earth. Be generous ready to give and not to spend your life worrying about tomorrow and what you'll wear and what you'll eat to trust your father to not be judgmental to care about your brothers and sisters enough to address their sins and to live as if God is a good father who loves you to treat others the way you want to be treated. Now, what on that list sparkles and has razzle dazzle? What on that list is like a I'm following Jesus flare that shoots up into the sky and everyone says look at how amazing they are. What on that list would you see in someone and go oh obviously they're a Christian.

When we list off oh they're a Christian what do we say? When you point to someone and say I'm pretty sure they're a Christian and they say why and you say they gave money but I don't know anything about it. That's not how that works. We say well they're always at church they always do this thing they've done this ministry they run an orphanage they went as a missionary overseas like we list off all this stuff but who can do the list.

Jesus just said? Your mailman teachers students people in middle school you can't do hardly anything in middle school you can do this people who work in your office two cubicles down can do this people in our community groups that hardly say a word can do this the vice president of a region can do this and so can the sales associates missionaries sure women who homeschool their children absolutely there's nothing in here that is magical or beautiful it's a life of regular devotion that's the obedience.

Jesus is talking about when he says who hears my words and does them there's someone in your group your community group they've been fasting for four days you don't know because they're not supposed to do that as a show there are people in your community group in our church family who opened their wallets and gave money to someone the person who received the money doesn't even know where it came from people who get up earlier than they have to every day to spend time on their face praying.

For their families and our city and our groups and our community group leaders and for Jesus' will and the lives of those around them you don't know people who just show up to your group they're the person who brings shredded cheese every time it didn't even make sense this week they were just like put it in the refrigerator it'll work next week that are doing this they were prayerfully actively forgiving people in your group before they showed up they said Lord they hurt my feelings last week.

But I don't want to retaliate I want to overlook offenses help me to love them there are people who work with you that every day face an enemy at work that they love and serve and pray for that they don't undercut and talk about behind their backs Jesus says those who do my words those who do the will of my father that's the people who enter the kingdom and there's going to be a whole lot of ministry leaders and a whole lot of razzle dazzle that's going to stand before the king one day and say didn't I do this and he's going to say I don't know you.

Now if you've been around a while and hopefully because we work on discernment here hopefully some of you are thinking wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait time out time out time out time out isn't that work isn't that one of the things we say over and over again that religion is I do these things so God will love me but that Christianity but the gospel is that God loves me and therefore I do these things didn't you just say you have to do this stuff in order to be.

Okay didn't you just say you have to you have to do his word isn't Jesus just saying the opposite of the gospel here I have two things to say to that good point no and here's why I think I think he hid it in there and we're going to see because we have to use the rest of scripture to understand what he's talking about but I think he hid it in here he hid it in his tree and fruit analogy when he says you'll know them by their fruits a tree makes the type of fruit.

For what type of tree it is the fruit just shows it to you you can look at the fruit on a tree to know what type of tree it is but the tree is what makes the fruit here's what I mean you come to my house this isn't true this is pretend because I don't actually have a peach tree in the backyard but you come to my house and say I had a peach tree and you say man that's a beautiful peach tree and I'm like that tree is garbage and you're like why and it's like.

Because I have worked for five years to get that thing to make oranges I trim it the way you're supposed to trim an orange tree I fertilize it with orange tree fertilizer it exists I found it on Amazon every orange season I go pretend to pick oranges off of it just so it'll kind of get the feeling like it's an orange tree help it out a little bit now you're not a scientist but you know I'm stupid but you're gracious so you say that nicely to me hey buddy that thing is only ever going to make peaches and also.

Because I love you peaches are better than oranges like you might would coach me up a little bit you can't flex you can't manufacture you can't work to make a different type of fruit you have to be a different type of tree so when he says those who do the will of my father those who build their life on my words they'll bear this type of fruit they'll look like this there's a step in front of that that makes that happen.

Jesus has to change our tree Jesus has to uproot us and replant us he's got to change us on the inside because I know this because of what the rest of the Bible says and I want to show you a few places where Jesus says this clearly we have to change on the inside before the outside changes John 14 and we're going to just take a few quotes out of John 14 to help us see this Jesus says if you love me you will keep my commandments you.

See there is an obedience that follows faith there is an obedience that follows a love for Jesus if you love me you will keep my commandments that's verse 15 21 he says whoever has my commandments and keeps them he it is who loves me and then in 24 and 23 and 24 he says if anyone loves me he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him whoever does not love me does not keep my words that's why he says you can.

Look at a false prophet and you'll know them by their fruits that's one of the reasons why in our church family we take so long to raise up leaders because the only way you can see it has nothing to do with can they talk well from the bible can they lead a good bible study do their prayers sound delicious like it's none of that the test is are they doing a whole bunch of character things that you can't even see the thing about not being able to.

See them is that they're hard to see it takes years to walk with somebody you gotta get stuck in traffic with somebody you gotta be at a restaurant when the waitress has completely forgotten your table exists you gotta be at their house when they're in the middle of a deep conversation and their child runs over and hits them with a stick and then spills juice all over their leg you gotta watch people count to ten a few times calm their soul back down that's why he says you'll know them by their fruit like you gotta get around them you gotta figure out how this works you gotta.

See all this underworking of normal everyday Christianity and that'll show you their heart Jesus later in Matthew's gospel says make the tree good and the fruit good or make the tree bad and the fruit bad the tree starts it we have to have a love for Jesus in order for this to happen how for the person sitting in this room who may be in that moment when we were talking a minute ago and I thought about this a lot who may be in that moment.

When you thought about yourself for a second before the king and he looks at you and says I don't know you what's going to be the first thing that runs out of your mouth what's your wait wait what's your Jesus no what are you going to point to what are you going to say to show that what I would do on that day and maybe you began to think okay okay okay okay okay okay I'm going to go love my enemies I'm going to go start forgiving this one person I have to forgive I'm going to forgive them I'm going to start giving money I'm going to start fasting I'm going to fast.

So that I have money to give but I'm not going to hell anybody here's the problem with that the only type of fruit you can manufacture is ministry fruit without a love for Jesus you cannot do the stuff he's called us to not for any amount of time you can do it for a little while without him refreshing your soul renewing your heart changing you from the inside out you can't walk around and love your enemies you can't forgive you can't not retaliate you can't fight.

For your marriage without him coming in and changing your heart to love in a way that's supernatural and beyond you you need Jesus to change your heart and then you can bear this type of fruit Jesus says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven I want to show you John 6 38 through 40 because this is the beginning of God's will.

Jesus says for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me and this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day for this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day the will of the.

Father is that we would place our faith in Jesus that wasn't just words it was connected to our heart that when we talk about Jesus as Lord we talk about the way someone speaks about someone they love we talk about it the way that people who are engaged or newly wed speak about each other our little cheeks start glowing that we love him let me tell you how that happens Jesus Christ said I didn't come to do my will but the will of the.

Father Jesus lived a perfect sinless life and died on a cross to love his enemies and when his heart becomes connected to your heart you can start loving your enemies Jesus calls us to fight for our marriages to stay married and we see that he pursued his bride the church even gave his life up and we can fight we can hold on as his heart changes our heart Jesus didn't retaliate Jesus he took beatings on behalf of those who were harming him he prayed.

For them when his heart gets connected to our heart we can begin to change Jesus gave his life when nobody noticed and nobody cared and when that changes our hearts we start handing out money left and right without it being a show without putting our name on something see Jesus goes to work in us and then we become different Jesus came to save sinners and when you see that when you see how far you have fallen and how much you deserve you have earned.

For him to look at you and say depart from me I never knew you you work that way that he was cast out that he was harmed that he was cut and bruised and beaten and hanged and buried because that's what we deserved our hearts change and then we truly believe and place our faith in him and he goes to work in us to make us new he digs us up which is a painful process but that he plants a new tree there that bears good fruit the gospel leads to a changed heart which leads to evidences of faith the gospel love.

For Jesus changes our heart so that we love him that we our response is because we truly love him and then there's evidence of faith you can't manufacture it you can for a time you can a little bit you can struggle and try that's where you hear people say I tried religion it didn't work out for me it's because they were white knuckling it and it's exhausting so the question isn't do you do good things the question is why has your heart changed are you bearing this type of fruit.

Because you're this type of tree there's a story I've heard before there was a king he had a kingdom and he was in his court and somebody told him that the farmer comes in he stands before the king he says sir I'm a simple farmer I have about an acre of land and mostly I produce carrots and this week I dug up this carrot and he shows the king a very nice carrot as far as carrots go and he says I think this is the most beautiful largest carrot I will probably ever grow.

Because I love you and appreciate you as my king I just wanted to give it to you king looked at him saw that he was telling the truth kind of discerned his heart and he said you know what I know the farm you're talking about I own the ten acres behind it I want to give you that ten acres I want to make your one acre farm an eleven acre farm and you just tend to it as you can and as you can get to it.

But thank you farmer was overjoyed caught off guard by this leaves all excited there was a nobleman who was in the king's courts that day and he watched this and he thought all that for a carrot and this nobleman raised horses so he went home picked out his best horse took it to the king the next day says oh king my king this is the greatest steed I will ever breed it is the most beautiful from nose to haunch I don't know.

If I'll ever have a greater horse and because I love you and I appreciate you he's my king I wanted to give this horse to you the king looked at him saw his heart and said thank you you're dismissed the nobleman froze he was struck this is not how this was supposed to go at all this actually is a good horse and the king goes I think you're confused let me help you out the farmer yesterday was giving me the carrot you were giving yourself the horse there are some of us who are doing a lot of christian things.

Because we think it makes God owe us because it puts him in our debt because it's the best way we've been told to have a good life and have a good family and go to heaven and Jesus says there's going to be a day when I'm going to look at a lot of people who are going to be shocked and terrified because they spent their whole life serving themselves and there was no love that's why he says I don't know you we're not close you don't love me it was all a scam what's what's what's your motivation do you have a love.

For Jesus deep in your core so that even in the times when you're running and sinning you hate it and you long for him do you truly believe when you stand before the king are you going to stand and say I'm here because Jesus is good and he's died for me and his work has taken the place of my work I have nothing to give nothing to prove it's all him are you sitting here today building your life on sand your effort your work your goodness your name it's going to fall down it cannot last or have you dug deep anchored yourself on Christ and said I'm not going anywhere.

Because he's not going anywhere my only hope is him and he will keep me Matt's going to come back up he's going to lead us in a song and I just all these things I just want us to sit and reflect and I want you to ask what am I building my life on what am I banking on when I stand before him where is my hope found it is my fear that there are people in this room maybe you've been a part of our church.

For a couple of years and all you're doing is building a house on sand he hasn't changed your heart there's no love for him you got some ministry you got some work you've done some good things you share the gospel every once in a while you've seen people come to faith do you believe have you trusted in Christ as your king have you devoted your life to him Jesus helps us out here look at the sermon on the mount what kind of fruit are you bearing is there love.

For enemy is there service when nobody sees you do you pray and fast and give only to be noticed if no one knows you're going to do it are you going to do it do you forgive those who hurt you or are you holding grudges and have bitterness towards other people maybe Jesus hadn't changed your heart maybe he hadn't enraptured you and overwhelmed you by the forgiveness the free forgiveness that he gives all of those who harmed him and hated him.

Jesus love for us as the type of love that fills us up and colors us in and brings us to life and changes us so while Matt sings I just want us to sit if you will if you're willing I want you to ask Jesus the question is my life built on you or am I banking on something else have you really changed my heart and for those of you who know that's not you all you have to do is say.

Jesus I want you I love you I believe in you I trust in you it's the will of the father that all those who call in the name of the son all those who trust in him believe in him won't be lost that Jesus will lose none of those that the father has given him will you trust him today will you commit today for those of you who deal with anxiety and fearfulness and this stirred it up in you and you're being told right.

Now you've never believed you've never trusted your whole life is a sham okay believe and trust now say okay Jesus I commit to you now I love you now I want you now begin to grow fruit in me make me yours forever father through your grace and through the power of your holy spirit we pray that a sermon preached over two thousand years ago through the lips of your son who is going to die in our place for our sin and rise that we might have hope eternal we pray that your spirit would empower it again to.

Let us hear the warnings and heed the call that we might respond to live lives of simple unnoticed faithfulness as we love you God through your grace grant us faith help us to dig deep and plant our lives firmly on Christ the rock that will not move his word that will not change and the gospel that will stand forever though kingdoms rise and fall the gospel will stand and may we hide ourselves in you that we will one day stand before you.

Because Jesus was your good and faithful servant we'll be called good and faithful because we've been wrapped up and covered by Christ in Jesus name amen y'all sit let's think while Matt sings.

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