God is. So, uh, with that, uh, being said, let's get into our message this morning. Uh, so this young couple was

0:08

8 seconds

about to get married and the young man went to his dad and said, "Dad, I'm really nervous about getting married." "Well, why, son? Why are you worried?"

0:15

15 seconds

He said, "Because you know that my feet really stink. I have really smelly feet and I'm afraid that my wife's going to discover this and I'm going to be so

0:23

23 seconds

embarrassed." He's like, "No problem, son. Just here's what you do. when you go to bed, just make sure you leave your socks on. Just sleep with your socks on

0:32

32 seconds

and and and you'll be good to go. No problem. He says, "Okay, Dad." So then the young lady at the same time is going to her mother saying, "Mom, I'm really

0:40

40 seconds

nervous about getting married." Well, why why are you nervous? Well, because you know, I have really bad breath in the morning. It's like really bad. And

0:48

48 seconds

she's like, "No problem, honey. All you got to do is just don't open your mouth when you first wake up. Don't say anything to them. And just go straight

0:55

55 seconds

to the bathroom and brush your teeth." and you'll be good to go. That's all you got to do. So they're like, "Okay." So for 6 months, they actually kept their

1:03

1 minute, 3 seconds

secrets hidden from the other one. And one morning at like 5 in the morning, the young husband wakes up and suddenly

1:11

1 minute, 11 seconds

realizes that one of his socks has come off in bed. And so he's like under the covers. He's trying to find this one

1:19

1 minute, 19 seconds

lost sock. And his wife actually wakes up. And as he pops his head out from under the blankets, she says to him,

1:27

1 minute, 27 seconds

"What on earth are you doing?" And he goes, "Oh my goodness, you've eaten one of my socks." Do you get it? Do you get it? All right.

1:39

1 minute, 39 seconds

You'll get it later. Okay.

1:43

1 minute, 43 seconds

Ah, relationships. Relationships are always so fun and amazing and interesting. They're definitely always interesting. If you've ever been in any kind of relationship, you know it's

1:51

1 minute, 51 seconds

always interesting. You never know what's going to happen. So, I got a question for you this morning. When you hear about Christianity, all right,

1:59

1 minute, 59 seconds

someone says, if someone asked you, "What is Christianity all about? What does it mean to be a Christian?" I'm

2:07

2 minutes, 7 seconds

guessing most people would answer, their mind would immediately go to, well, you go to church services, right? You sing

2:14

2 minutes, 14 seconds

church songs, you give an offering, you listen to a preacher preach a sermon, right? Stuff like that. I don't know if

2:21

2 minutes, 21 seconds

as many people would answer that Christianity is about a relationship with God. And yet as you read the Bible

2:29

2 minutes, 29 seconds

from even from the very beginning, we read about a creator God who wanted a relationship with the people he created.

2:37

2 minutes, 37 seconds

That's what the whole Bible is about. Do you ever wonder what it means to have a relationship with God? Like what does that look like? What does that mean have

2:46

2 minutes, 46 seconds

a relationship? Or have you wondered what is it? What does it look like to strengthen your relationship with God?

2:53

2 minutes, 53 seconds

What is God like? What is his nature?

2:55

2 minutes, 55 seconds

What is his character? Have you ever wondered that? Like what is he like?

2:58

2 minutes, 58 seconds

What what what is his character? Um is God good? Is there evidence for a creator? That that there was a creator

3:06

3 minutes, 6 seconds

that made everything. So, we're starting a new series of messages today on getting to know and love God. And and I

3:14

3 minutes, 14 seconds

just love that phrase, getting to know God. Getting to know and then hopefully you fall in love with God. Getting to

3:22

3 minutes, 22 seconds

know and love God. And here's what I believe is the more you get to know God, what he's like, his nature, his character, who he is, what he has done

3:30

3 minutes, 30 seconds

for us in the past, and all that he does for us even now today in our lives. You will come to love God. you'll go, "Wow,

3:38

3 minutes, 38 seconds

he is an amazing God and I love him for who he is and I want to be in a relationship with him." That's my hope

3:45

3 minutes, 45 seconds

for this series is that that happens with you. So, one time a teacher of the law asked Jesus what the greatest

3:53

3 minutes, 53 seconds

commandment in the Bible was. And of all the commandments Jesus could have picked from, which there are 613 commandments

4:02

4 minutes, 2 seconds

in the Old Testament that he could have picked from, he said, "The greatest commandment is this." Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your

4:10

4 minutes, 10 seconds

heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is

4:18

4 minutes, 18 seconds

like it. Love your neighbor as yourself." And then he said, "All the law and the prophets hang on these two

4:26

4 minutes, 26 seconds

commandments." So to say, Jesus boiled down everything in the Bible to two commandments. Love God, love others, right? To say that

4:35

4 minutes, 35 seconds

we're supposed to love God implies relationship, doesn't it? Because if you're going to love somebody, that means that must mean I'm going to have a

4:43

4 minutes, 43 seconds

relationship with this person if I'm going to love them. Uh, and it's hard to understand what loving an invisible being looks like, right? because we can't see God like right in front of us.

4:53

4 minutes, 53 seconds

You know, what does it mean to love God?

4:55

4 minutes, 55 seconds

I can't see him. He's invisible. You know, I can't see him right now. But hopefully, as we study the Bible for the next several weeks, it will become

5:02

5 minutes, 2 seconds

clearer what it looks like to have relationship with God. In order to love God, we have to get to know him. After

5:10

5 minutes, 10 seconds

all, you can't love what you don't know, right? Think about that. You can't love what you don't know. So, we got to it

5:17

5 minutes, 17 seconds

starts with getting to know God, who he is before we can love him. We got to know him. You can't love what you don't know. So, let's read a passage of

5:25

5 minutes, 25 seconds

scripture that will help us get to know who God is. Turn to Acts chapter 17. And we do have some Bibles that look like

5:33

5 minutes, 33 seconds

this. If you need to borrow one uh under the chairs in front of you, Acts chapter 17. So, if you're in this Bible, in this particular Bible, it's on page 899.

5:45

5 minutes, 45 seconds

And if you have a different Bible, then you're on your own, okay? You're going to have to use the table of contents in the beginning and find the book of Acts

5:53

5 minutes, 53 seconds

in the New Testament and go to Acts chapter 17, the big number 17. And we're going to go to little number 22. That's

6:00

6 minutes

verse 22. So to a group of people who were religious, they actually were practice a pagan religion. The Apostle

6:09

6 minutes, 9 seconds

Paul, he was a church planter, an apostle in in God's family. He talks about a God who created them, who loves

6:18

6 minutes, 18 seconds

them, and who wants a relationship with them. In Acts 17 verse 22,

6:26

6 minutes, 26 seconds

the Apostle Paul says, "Paul stood there up in the meeting of the Aropagus and said, "People of Athens, I see that in

6:34

6 minutes, 34 seconds

every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, he was in a

6:42

6 minutes, 42 seconds

temple sort of thing. I even found an altar with this inscription to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the

6:50

6 minutes, 50 seconds

very thing you worship. And this is what I'm going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it

6:58

6 minutes, 58 seconds

is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human

7:07

7 minutes, 7 seconds

hands as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and

7:13

7 minutes, 13 seconds

breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth.

7:23

7 minutes, 23 seconds

And he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would

7:30

7 minutes, 30 seconds

seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and

7:40

7 minutes, 40 seconds

move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring.

7:48

7 minutes, 48 seconds

Therefore, since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by human design and skill.

8:00

8 minutes

In the past, God overlooked such ignorance. But now, he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has

8:09

8 minutes, 9 seconds

set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.

8:19

8 minutes, 19 seconds

Who's he talking about that God raised him from the dead? Jesus. Yeah. When they heard about the resurrection of the

8:26

8 minutes, 26 seconds

dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." At that, Paul left the

8:34

8 minutes, 34 seconds

council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed what he was saying. Among them was Dionicius, a

8:41

8 minutes, 41 seconds

member of the Aropagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

8:48

8 minutes, 48 seconds

All right. So, what do we learn about God from reading this? Well, first of all, if you're taking notes, write on the back, God created us. God created

8:58

8 minutes, 58 seconds

us. That's what the Apostle Paul, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit, God gave him that message to give. And part of the message that he gave was God

9:07

9 minutes, 7 seconds

created us, right? The Lord of heaven and earth made us humans. And and I have to think that this was a very special

9:15

9 minutes, 15 seconds

moment for God as he made the first man and the first woman. And the Bible teaches that he made the first man by

9:22

9 minutes, 22 seconds

getting some of the dust of the earth and he formed him. And you know, I imagine kind of like clay, you know, he molded and shaped him. And I have to

9:30

9 minutes, 30 seconds

imagine that I think God was pretty proud of what he had created. What do you think? In fact, we know he was because when he created everything else,

9:38

9 minutes, 38 seconds

when he created the animals and light and dark and you know the sun and the stars and everything, when he created all those other things, he said, "Ah, it

9:46

9 minutes, 46 seconds

is good." But when he created humans, he said, "It is very good." So, we know he

9:53

9 minutes, 53 seconds

was proud of his creation. Much like when we create something, you know, that we worked hard on, we're proud of it when we stand back and look at it. So,

10:02

10 minutes, 2 seconds

this is a family tree that I made back in fifth grade, and I still got it. Look at that. Somehow, I still have it. And I

10:10

10 minutes, 10 seconds

worked hard on this thing. I had to call both of my grandparents and ask them like, "Okay, tell me the family tree.

10:16

10 minutes, 16 seconds

Tell me." And with my uh with my grandma Harper, she told me about my Jess uh my my great-grandpa Jess Richards. the all

10:24

10 minutes, 24 seconds

she knew about their his parents was that they were called Ashbachers and they were Germany immigrants. They immigrated from Germany. That's as far

10:33

10 minutes, 33 seconds

back as I could get. But uh I've always been into music. I play drums. Uh and I've always been into music and so I

10:41

10 minutes, 41 seconds

decided to make a musical theme family tree where there's this trumpet, you know, blowing out all the notes of

10:48

10 minutes, 48 seconds

here's my family tree. So I was pretty proud like and I put music's a blast.

10:53

10 minutes, 53 seconds

music to my ears. You know, fifth grade, I was I was pretty proud. So, you know, when you work hard on something and you finish it and you work on a project,

11:02

11 minutes, 2 seconds

you're proud of it. And and I know that God just had to be really proud. God designed us and was proud of us. He said

11:09

11 minutes, 9 seconds

it was very good. We don't need to take this for granted, church. God created us. We are his special creation. Do you know that you are his special creation?

11:20

11 minutes, 20 seconds

Made in the image of God. It's it's an amazing thing. So, a little girl was sitting on her grandpa's lap as he read

11:27

11 minutes, 27 seconds

her a bedtime story. And as he would read, she would reach up and just touch his wrinkled cheek kind of like this.

11:36

11 minutes, 36 seconds

And then she would alternate and and touch her own cheek. And she'd reach back up and touch his cheek. And and

11:44

11 minutes, 44 seconds

eventually at one point she paused and she said she he had her pause the story and said, "Grandpa, did God make you?"

11:52

11 minutes, 52 seconds

And he said, "Yes, honey. God made me a very long time ago." And she said, "Grandpa, did God make me?" And he said, "Yes,

12:01

12 minutes, 1 second

honey. Grandpa, God made you just a little while ago." And she reached his cheek and touched his cheek and reached hers again and said, "I think he's getting better at it, don't you?

12:16

12 minutes, 16 seconds

God created us. God created us. And the Bible says, get, get this, church. The Bible says that we should be able to

12:24

12 minutes, 24 seconds

look at creation and tell that there was a creator. So in Psalm 19:1, this is a very important Bible verse. The heavens

12:32

12 minutes, 32 seconds

declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech. Night after night they display knowledge.

12:43

12 minutes, 43 seconds

There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. The Bible says we should be able to look at the skies

12:50

12 minutes, 50 seconds

and everything that's been made and say, "Wow, there is a creator." Day after day, that sky is telling us there's a

12:58

12 minutes, 58 seconds

creator. And it even says there is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. There's no culture on this earth where they, the Bible says, they

13:06

13 minutes, 6 seconds

shouldn't be able to tell there was a creator from looking at creation. And then Romans 1 chapter 1 verse 19 says,

13:13

13 minutes, 13 seconds

"Since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of

13:20

13 minutes, 20 seconds

the world, God's invisible qualities like his eternal power and divine nature

13:27

13 minutes, 27 seconds

have been clearly seen being understood from what?" From what has been made so that people are without excuse.

13:38

13 minutes, 38 seconds

You see where the Bible's saying we should be able to look at what has been made. Look at creation and tell that there was a creator. In fact, it even

13:46

13 minutes, 46 seconds

says people are without excuse. It's so clear. The evidence is so clear that you should be able to look at creation, people are without excuse. U I like what

13:54

13 minutes, 54 seconds

Ray Comfort, a guy named Ray Comfort said one time. He said, "We can look at a building and know there was a builder." Right? You look at a building,

14:02

14 minutes, 2 seconds

you know there was a builder. You look at a painting, you know there was a painter. It didn't just get there by accident. There was a painter. There was

14:10

14 minutes, 10 seconds

a mind behind that. And if you look at creation, you know, there was a creator.

14:15

14 minutes, 15 seconds

You know, it's simple, but it's effective. Like, it it should be common sense. Um, I have a friend named Spencer that I'm actually trying to get to come here and give his testimony one day.

14:25

14 minutes, 25 seconds

We'll see if I can get him here, but he has a very interesting testimony. He was an atheist and he was going to college to be a microbiologist. Now, I don't

14:34

14 minutes, 34 seconds

know if you know this. You got to be a really sharp person, a really smart cookie to go to college to be a microbiologist. I don't even know what

14:42

14 minutes, 42 seconds

they do for a living, but I know you have to be really smart. And he was going to college and he was taking college classes and he's learning about,

14:50

14 minutes, 50 seconds

you know, the the scientific theories and stuff and he would ask them questions. He's learning about all the laws, the law of thermodynamics and the

14:58

14 minutes, 58 seconds

law of this and the law all these laws of of of nature, right? And he started thinking through some of these laws and

15:05

15 minutes, 5 seconds

asking questions. And he would ask questions like,"Well, if the law of thermodynamics is true, then how does that mean that the big bang is how the

15:13

15 minutes, 13 seconds

earth got here?" And he's genuinely asking that as an atheist, right? And you and he would ask all these question, well, if this law is true, then how does

15:21

15 minutes, 21 seconds

evolution work? That doesn't make sense to me. Can you explain? And time after time, he said his professors would just

15:29

15 minutes, 29 seconds

shoot him down and tell him to be quiet and and let's get back to the lecture.

15:34

15 minutes, 34 seconds

In other words, they didn't have answers for the questions he was asking. And so he was like, "Okay, if you guys don't have the answers, then I don't know if

15:41

15 minutes, 41 seconds

this stuff you're teaching is true." And so he started exploring the biblical account of creation. And became a

15:49

15 minutes, 49 seconds

believer in Jesus. And he's a he's a really good uh speaker. Uh he became a pastor. He became a believer and then a pastor and started teaching. I hope I

15:58

15 minutes, 58 seconds

can get him here, but I just thought that was so interesting. The answer he they didn't have answers for him.

16:04

16 minutes, 4 seconds

There's an article uh I was reading about how dinosaur bones, they found these dinosaur bones and they uh started investigating them and they found that some of them had soft tissue in them.

16:15

16 minutes, 15 seconds

They found red blood cells in these dinosaur bones. And my question from reading that was, wait a minute, if

16:22

16 minutes, 22 seconds

dinosaur bones are supposedly 75 million years old, how do they still have soft tissue red blood cells in them? I don't

16:30

16 minutes, 30 seconds

think they can be that old, right? Like some of these theories aren't adding up.

16:35

16 minutes, 35 seconds

Um, okay. So, God created us. And why why did he create us? Well, he created

16:41

16 minutes, 41 seconds

us for a relationship with him. With him. The Apostle Paul who was inspired by the Holy Spirit said, "God did all

16:50

16 minutes, 50 seconds

this, created the world, created humans, gave them life and breath, set up times in history where they would live and set

16:58

16 minutes, 58 seconds

up boundaries so that we would have a relationship with him." Verse 27, we read said, "God did this so that they

17:06

17 minutes, 6 seconds

would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him though he is not far from any one of us."

17:15

17 minutes, 15 seconds

This is incredible. The creator of the universe wants to have a relationship with you, with us. Isn't that amazing?

17:22

17 minutes, 22 seconds

That should just blow our minds. The person who made us. The creator who made us wants to have a relationship with us.

17:28

17 minutes, 28 seconds

And God took the initiative. Here's what the Bible says when it comes to our relationship with God. He was the one who took the initiative. The Bible says we love God because he first loved us.

17:40

17 minutes, 40 seconds

He first loved us. He took the initiative. God has taken steps to have a relationship with people. He has uh

17:48

17 minutes, 48 seconds

spoke with specific people like Abraham, Moses. Uh he revealed himself most fully through Jesus. Jesus was God in the

17:56

17 minutes, 56 seconds

flesh and he actually came to earth and was God in the flesh and showed us what God is like. We don't have to wonder what God is like. Jesus showed up in the

18:05

18 minutes, 5 seconds

flesh and said, "Here's what God is like." Right? I'll tell you. I'll show you. Uh he has written a love letter.

18:11

18 minutes, 11 seconds

This Bible is a is God's love letter to us saying, "I love you and I want a relationship with you." That's why he

18:18

18 minutes, 18 seconds

had this written. God has taken the initiative. Now, it's up to us to get to know him. You can't love what you don't

18:26

18 minutes, 26 seconds

know. We need to seek God out. Get to know him. Deuteronomy 4:29 says, "But

18:34

18 minutes, 34 seconds

from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him." If how many of you know if is a conditional word?

18:41

18 minutes, 41 seconds

You will seek him and you will find him if condition if you search after him with all your what? Heart and with all

18:49

18 minutes, 49 seconds

your soul. So, you know, I've had people say something like this to me like, you

18:56

18 minutes, 56 seconds

know, I don't feel that close to God. I don't feel like I know God that well. I don't feel like God has revealed himself

19:04

19 minutes, 4 seconds

to me. Well, my question to you is, are you seeking him with all your heart?

19:09

19 minutes, 9 seconds

Like, this is basically saying, you need to go after him with everything you have, right? You need to seek him. You need to search the Bible. You need to

19:17

19 minutes, 17 seconds

search him in prayer. Seek him out. Have you truly tried to seek him out with all your effort to get to know God?

19:26

19 minutes, 26 seconds

This idea of falling in love with God is very interesting. Um, I recently heard a commercial on a a radio station, Christian radio station called Air1, and

19:35

19 minutes, 35 seconds

the DJ was talking about how there was this guy in California who was trying to break the record for talking on the phone the longest. Bless you.

19:47

19 minutes, 47 seconds

And the record, get this, the record for talking on the phone the longest was 39 hours. somebody had talked on the So,

19:56

19 minutes, 56 seconds

he's trying to break the record of 39 hours and talk longer than that. And this DJ on the radio station says,

20:03

20 minutes, 3 seconds

"Well, that should be easy. All he has to do is fall in love and he'll break that no problem." And I remember thinking that, like, how true is that?

20:11

20 minutes, 11 seconds

That's so true. I remember thinking back to when me and Andrea first started dating. And we would be on the phone like constantly, like in between

20:20

20 minutes, 20 seconds

classes. We we met at college. In between classes, we're getting on the phone with each other. Okay. Okay. Now I got to go. Now it's my next class, right? And we would get on the phone in

20:27

20 minutes, 27 seconds

between classes. At night, we would stay on the phone with each other till all hours of the night. I remember one night we stayed on the phone till 5 in the

20:36

20 minutes, 36 seconds

morning talking on the phone. And you know, at 5 in the morning, your body starts shutting down, right? And so like

20:43

20 minutes, 43 seconds

we're like falling asleep on the phone, but we're waking ourselves. No. No. I got to stay stay I got to stay awake.

20:49

20 minutes, 49 seconds

Got to stay awake. Why? Like, why are we doing this? Why not just give your body the thing it so desperately wants and just go to sleep? But no, I got to get

20:57

20 minutes, 57 seconds

to know this person as much as I can cuz we're dating and we're in love and we got to, right? Like all that stuff. So,

21:03

21 minutes, 3 seconds

like I was thinking, what if we love God so much that talking to him in prayer for hours was like nothing, right? We just wanted to get to know him so much.

21:12

21 minutes, 12 seconds

Or we read his love letter to us, the Bible, just we just want to read it so much. We want to get to know him so much that we would just read and dive in and

21:20

21 minutes, 20 seconds

dig in, right? Um, speaking of which, what are some different ways we get to know God? Write this down. This is going

21:28

21 minutes, 28 seconds

to help you in your life. Um, the first way we get to know God is through God's word, the Bible.

21:35

21 minutes, 35 seconds

Which makes sense, right? I mean, this is God's revelation. He revealed himself, what he's like through his

21:43

21 minutes, 43 seconds

word, the Bible. So, if you want to get to know what God is like, read his word where he revealed himself.

21:48

21 minutes, 48 seconds

Psalm 119-6 says this. Uh, this is all about God's word. All the it's it's a poem. It's

21:56

21 minutes, 56 seconds

poetry that David wrote about God's word in Psalm 119. How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living

22:04

22 minutes, 4 seconds

according to your word. Here's a key part. I seek you with all my heart. Do not let me stray from your commands.

22:14

22 minutes, 14 seconds

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, Lord. Teach me your decrees.

22:23

22 minutes, 23 seconds

With my lips, I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices

22:31

22 minutes, 31 seconds

in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees. I will not

22:40

22 minutes, 40 seconds

neglect your word. So he says, I seek you with all my heart. And where do we find God? Through his word, through the

22:48

22 minutes, 48 seconds

reading of the Bible. All right. Uh another way we get to know God is look at Jesus. Look at Jesus. So the Bible

22:57

22 minutes, 57 seconds

has this concept. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus who shows what God is like. Um, in Hebrews

23:05

23 minutes, 5 seconds

it says in 1 1-3 it says the sun, talking about Jesus, the son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact

23:12

23 minutes, 12 seconds

representation of his being. Everybody catch that. He's like he's like a copy of God. You know, if you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus because he's the exact representation of God.

23:22

23 minutes, 22 seconds

And then Jesus said himself in John 14:8, he said, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the father." You want to know what the father's like? If you've seen

23:30

23 minutes, 30 seconds

me, you've seen the father because we're the same essence, right? All right. Look at Jesus.

23:37

23 minutes, 37 seconds

Number three, pray. We get to know God through prayer. Jeremiah 29:11 through13, for I know the plans I have

23:46

23 minutes, 46 seconds

for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. A lot

23:54

23 minutes, 54 seconds

of people know that verse, but you keep reading. Keep reading. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me.

24:01

24 minutes, 1 second

There's prayer. And I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your what?

24:10

24 minutes, 10 seconds

Heart. Yeah. So notice the connection.

24:12

24 minutes, 12 seconds

We have prayer and then if you seek me and find me, you will find me with all if you seek me with all your heart.

24:18

24 minutes, 18 seconds

Prayer is one of the ways we seek God out. And then another way is through nature.

24:25

24 minutes, 25 seconds

I mentioned Romans 1:20 that the Bible says creation reveals what God is like.

24:32

24 minutes, 32 seconds

Uh that there is a creator. And I don't know about you, but I've had some really cool, powerful moments where God has

24:41

24 minutes, 41 seconds

revealed himself. He's given me little nudges of of that he's there. I remember there's this one time uh me and Andrea were up at a cabin up in Amish country.

24:50

24 minutes, 50 seconds

Uh these friends of ours let us borrow this cabin for free uh anytime we want.

24:55

24 minutes, 55 seconds

uh and and we were up there and we had done some praying and some singing together and then we kind of uh split up. We separated and we're doing our own

25:04

25 minutes, 4 seconds

prayer time and reading the Bible. And I was out at the fire pit and I remember I was praying to God and I was like, "God, I'm just I'm going through a really

25:13

25 minutes, 13 seconds

tough time and I I need you. Like I I need to know that you're with me. Like I need to know you're there and while I'm going through this tough time that

25:20

25 minutes, 20 seconds

you're there." And all of a sudden, this strong gust of wind goes through the trees.

25:26

25 minutes, 26 seconds

And and I know it's subjective, but I felt like it was God's way of saying, "I'm here." Like, it just so happened when I'm praying that, like, God, I need

25:34

25 minutes, 34 seconds

to know you're here. You know, like, okay. Thank you, Lord. You're here.

25:39

25 minutes, 39 seconds

You're with me, right? You're going to be with me and and it's going to be okay. Um, man, h haven't you seen a beautiful sunset? How many of you have

25:48

25 minutes, 48 seconds

ever seen a beautiful sunset and you go, "God is the most amazing artist." Like, he's he's just an amazing artist. I man,

25:56

25 minutes, 56 seconds

I look at creation, I see God. I do. And I'm like, he's amazing. He's amazing. So, we we see God through nature. Okay.

26:05

26 minutes, 5 seconds

One of the things we like to do at Impact is we encourage you to take next steps. Not just come in and hear a message from the Bible, but actually do

26:14

26 minutes, 14 seconds

it. go put it into practice this week, right? Let's go do the word. Don't just be hearers of the word, but be doers of the word. So, I give you these next

26:23

26 minutes, 23 seconds

steps to put them into practice. So, one, the first one you can do, check off any of these you want to do. You can do one of them, you can do all of them, any

26:30

26 minutes, 30 seconds

of them, whatever. But the first one, uh, I've given you a web address of that article about the soft tissue found in

26:39

26 minutes, 39 seconds

the dinosaur bones. So maybe some of you want to go and read that article if that's your goal that you want to do this week. You just check that off. Make

26:46

26 minutes, 46 seconds

that your goal. Uh another one is sign up for the 15week Bible reading plan in the back of the room. So u we we'll have

26:55

26 minutes, 55 seconds

an announcement about it later, but we're doing a 15week Bible reading plan as a church together. And you put your name on the chart and we're going to

27:03

27 minutes, 3 seconds

come in each week and check off uh what readings we did. Um what did we say? If you want to get to know what God is like, where do we find God? How do we

27:11

27 minutes, 11 seconds

learn about God? In his word, in the Bible, right? So, what better way, great timing. We're starting a 15week Bible

27:19

27 minutes, 19 seconds

reading plan, right? Like, maybe this is your sign. You're supposed to do this this week with us together, right? Let's get to know God better through his word.

27:29

27 minutes, 29 seconds

Sign up for the Bible reading plan. Uh maybe you want to seek God through prayer this week and focus on that.

27:35

27 minutes, 35 seconds

Check that one off. pray five days this week, maybe before you go to work or on your way to work. Um, I know I do a lot

27:43

27 minutes, 43 seconds

of praying on my way to work. Uh, that Columbus traffic forces me to say a lot of prayers, right? Like, Lord, help

27:51

27 minutes, 51 seconds

these crazy people. And please, please protect me. Please protect me. Help me to get there safely to my destination cuz there's a lot of crazies out here.

28:01

28 minutes, 1 second

Uh, Lord, help me. Okay. Uh, but maybe you want to seek God through prayer. So, your goal is pray five days this week um

28:09

28 minutes, 9 seconds

before you go to work. And then maybe some of you want to spend time in nature meditating on God's creation. This is

28:16

28 minutes, 16 seconds

one that I'm going to check off for myself this week because, you know, I do I I feel like I encounter God in nature,

28:23

28 minutes, 23 seconds

but I don't do it often enough. I do my prayers. I do my reading of the Bible, but I want to do that this week outside,

28:31

28 minutes, 31 seconds

out in nature. Maybe I'll go to Black Lake Woods Park and and that's where I'm going to do cuz it's just more special.

28:37

28 minutes, 37 seconds

You know, it I'll say this. Do Do you guys ever feel like sometimes your relationship with God gets stale? Like you you're you're

28:45

28 minutes, 45 seconds

just kind of going through the motions like, "Okay, I'm praying. I'm reading the Bible again." Go out in nature.

28:50

28 minutes, 50 seconds

Change up your scenery. That that's something you can do is change up your scenery. And a lot of times if you change it up, it just gives a fresh new aspect to your relationship with God.

29:01

29 minutes, 1 second

Change up the scenery. All right, I just threw that in for free. No extra cost. All right.

29:08

29 minutes, 8 seconds

Lord help us. Lord help me. Andreo be like, Jeremy, come on.

29:15

29 minutes, 15 seconds

Um, okay. Seriously. Seriously, let's Can we make this commitment? Can we commit to seeking God out this week

29:24

29 minutes, 24 seconds

together as a church family? Can we do that, church? Can we make this commitment? Like, let's dig into God's word. Let's dig into prayer. Let's go

29:31

29 minutes, 31 seconds

out in nature and let's seek God out with all our heart. Let's go after God.

29:37

29 minutes, 37 seconds

Let's seek him out and say, "God, I'm seeking you. You promised in your word if I would seek you out, if I would do these things, you would reveal yourself

29:45

29 minutes, 45 seconds

to me." So, I don't care if you've been a Christian your whole life. You can always know God more, right? Like how many of you know you you don't ever

29:53

29 minutes, 53 seconds

arrive and be like, "Okay, now I know everything about God. I don't need to read the Bible anymore. I don't need to pray anymore." Is never going to happen

30:01

30 minutes, 1 second

because he's so deep. His character is so deep. Like, there's always more to learn. How many of you know that's true?

30:08

30 minutes, 8 seconds

Say, "Amen." Amen. There's always more to learn about God.

30:12

30 minutes, 12 seconds

He reveals himself in pieces to us. So, let's go after God. Let's seek him.

30:18

30 minutes, 18 seconds

Maybe some of you are here this morning and you want to start a relationship with God this morning. You want to start a relationship with Jesus. And maybe

30:26

30 minutes, 26 seconds

you're wondering right now like, "Okay, this sounds good. I want to do this.

30:29

30 minutes, 29 seconds

What are my next steps? What do I need to do?" Here's what what's going to happen. The our band is going to pray uh play one more song. I'm going to go to

30:37

30 minutes, 37 seconds

the back of the room. And if that's you and you want to learn more, just come to the back and see me and say, "I want to I want to start this relationship with

30:44

30 minutes, 44 seconds

God. I don't even know what it's all about, but I just know I want that. I want to start that. What's my starting point? I would love to help you with

30:53

30 minutes, 53 seconds

that. That's that's one of my favorite things to do is helping people start their relationship with Jesus. Um maybe your your next step is I need to learn to believe that Jesus is the son of God.

31:03

31 minutes, 3 seconds

Maybe you don't know that yet. And I can help you learn about how Jesus is the son of God. Maybe your next step you already believe, but you need to repent.

31:11

31 minutes, 11 seconds

That word we read in Acts 17, it means to change your mind and to change your ways. Like you're living one way, just

31:19

31 minutes, 19 seconds

kind of doing whatever you want to do, whatever pleases you, and then you realize there's a God who created us who wants us to live a certain way. And it's

31:27

31 minutes, 27 seconds

different than how you're living. It means to turn and change, right? Maybe that's your next step is tell me how I can make some changes in my life. Maybe

31:35

31 minutes, 35 seconds

for some of you, your next step is to be baptized. And we've got this baptistry behind behind us and uh it's actually on

31:42

31 minutes, 42 seconds

a timer. It has a heater that turns on every Sunday, every Sunday morning and heats it up and gets it ready. Maybe that's your next step. Um but I want to

31:51

31 minutes, 51 seconds

help you if you want to know your next step for your relationship with God. Um maybe you're just like, I I had a

31:59

31 minutes, 59 seconds

relationship with God, but it is kind of gotten stale and I feel lost and I don't feel like I know God anymore. and will

32:07

32 minutes, 7 seconds

you please help me and will you pray with me? Maybe that's you.

Sync to video time

All

up where we left off last week. What to do when you're in trouble. Um, and so last week we talked about it's not a

0:08

8 seconds

matter of if trouble is going to happen, but when trouble happens, it's going to happen. So today is more about like a

0:16

16 seconds

preventative, more of like a preventative um how to avoid trouble in the first place. Right? So we're going

0:24

24 seconds

to be in 2 Kings chapter 5. And uh we do have some church Bibles that look like this in front of you under the chairs.

0:32

32 seconds

And uh this is page 294 in these Bibles.

0:36

36 seconds

So if you're in the right Bible, it'll be in 294. No, I'm just kidding. Um 294,

0:43

43 seconds

but we want to avoid trouble. So I don't know about you, maybe you can relate to this, but have you ever gotten yourself into a bad situation, a negative

0:52

52 seconds

situation, and when you're in the middle of that bad situation, you're like, you know what? I never want to go through this again. And you're already thinking about how can I avoid this next time.

1:02

1 minute, 2 seconds

You ever have that happen? Like uh our family, we it seems like we get we've gotten tricked on this a couple times.

1:08

1 minute, 8 seconds

We'll we'll say, you know, let's treat ourselves and let's go to Chinese buffet. That sounds good. Chinese buffet. And we'll go and you drop like

1:17

1 minute, 17 seconds

$70 on our family. And you're like, it wasn't even that good. Like 70 bucks and it wasn't even that good.

1:24

1 minute, 24 seconds

But we've gotten tricked on that a couple times. go to the same place and you're like, "Yeah, it's still not that good." Like, "Why did we do this again?" You know, uh go go go driving somewhere

1:33

1 minute, 33 seconds

in Columbus and uh and then you get stuck in traffic and you're like, "Why didn't I use Google Maps?" Because

1:40

1 minute, 40 seconds

Google Maps would have told me that there was an accident on this particular road and it would have taken me a different or that there's construction on this road. Like, how long have I

1:48

1 minute, 48 seconds

lived in the Columbus area and I haven't learned my lesson yet? Use maps because it's telling you real time. Don't go this way today. Right? Or how many of

1:57

1 minute, 57 seconds

you have ever forgotten to save something on your computer? You worked a long time and you forgot to save and you lost everything. You turn it on again,

2:04

2 minutes, 4 seconds

you realize all of it is lost. You're like, "No, what have I done?" And you're like, "Okay, how can I never have that happen again?" Thankfully, computers

2:13

2 minutes, 13 seconds

have started autosaving on certain programs, you know, so that's good. But that's kind of the idea is like, how can

2:20

2 minutes, 20 seconds

we avoid trouble on the front end? So last week [snorts] um we started off with the story of non. He was a

2:27

2 minutes, 27 seconds

commander in the army of Aram and uh he had something called leprosy, a really terrible skin disease. And a servant

2:37

2 minutes, 37 seconds

girl who was actually from Israel was like, you know, there's a prophet in Israel that might be able to help you with that. You you should go try to see

2:44

2 minutes, 44 seconds

him. And so the king of Aram writes a letter to the king of Israel on his behalf basically saying, "Hey, I'm

2:51

2 minutes, 51 seconds

sending a commander of my army. Please help him." Right? But the problem is the letter gets completely misunderstood.

2:59

2 minutes, 59 seconds

And so in verse 7, in chapter 5:7, it says, "As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and

3:07

3 minutes, 7 seconds

said, "Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his

3:16

3 minutes, 16 seconds

leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me? See the way the letter was written, it was like written to the king like you help you help this guy.

3:26

3 minutes, 26 seconds

He's like, am I God? Why does he he think I can heal him? It was actually just a misunderstanding.

3:32

3 minutes, 32 seconds

He wasn't actually meaning to say you king heal him. He was just like, hey, you king, can you handle this? can you take care of this and make sure my servant gets the help that he needs?

3:42

3 minutes, 42 seconds

Right? But it got misunderstood.

3:45

3 minutes, 45 seconds

So the first point if you're taking notes uh on this on the back of your program is to stay out of trouble,

3:53

3 minutes, 53 seconds

communicate clearly. Communicate clearly. The message that the king of Aram sent was, I am sending this man to

4:01

4 minutes, 1 second

you to be healed. But is that really what he meant? Did he really mean for the king of Israel to heal non personally? No. What he meant is, "I'm

4:09

4 minutes, 9 seconds

sending this man to your land because I heard there's a prophet that might be able to heal him." So, it got misunderstood and the guy actually thought he was picking a fight with him.

4:19

4 minutes, 19 seconds

How many arguments at work could have been avoided if someone would have just communicated better what was expected of them? Like maybe you've had this happen

4:28

4 minutes, 28 seconds

where you got frustrated at your boss because you're like, "Well, I thought you said to do it this way and and that wasn't apparently that wasn't what you

4:35

4 minutes, 35 seconds

wanted, but that's not what you told me." like if you just would have communicated it clearly, you know, I I wouldn't have misunderstood. And so we

4:43

4 minutes, 43 seconds

just need to try to communicate as clearly as we can. And on on the flip side of that to stay out of trouble is

4:50

4 minutes, 50 seconds

don't make false assumptions. Don't make false assumptions. Um so there was a second mistake. The king of Israel,

4:58

4 minutes, 58 seconds

Jorum, made a false assumption. He assumed the king of Aram, Benhad II, expected him to heal non. And then he

5:07

5 minutes, 7 seconds

jumped to another conclusion that Ben Hay had picking a fight with him. Like he knows I can't heal him. He He must be

5:13

5 minutes, 13 seconds

picking a fight. So Jorah made a false assumption and because of that he got in a huff. He got all upset. He got his

5:21

5 minutes, 21 seconds

undies in a bunch. However you want to say it, right? He went and tore his robes, which is what people did when they were really upset in the ancient

5:30

5 minutes, 30 seconds

world. And he also assumes the other king is picking a fight. How many of you know making false assumptions can really get you into trouble sometimes?

5:39

5 minutes, 39 seconds

Yes.

5:39

5 minutes, 39 seconds

Yeah. So, uh there was this uh couple who had a couple of young kids [clears throat] and the kids the little kids had a bad habit of climbing into

5:48

5 minutes, 48 seconds

the bed with mommy and daddy at night and they were like kind of getting tired of it, you know, like, "Hey, it's time for you to stay in your own bed. Quit climbing into bed waking us up every

5:57

5 minutes, 57 seconds

night." So the the husband was going on a business trip. And so the whole family went with him to see him off. And before

6:04

6 minutes, 4 seconds

he got onto the plane, he said to the kids, to the young kids, he said, "Now listen, if nobody sleeps with mommy while I'm gone, then I'll take you both

6:12

6 minutes, 12 seconds

to Chuck-E-Cheese when I get back." Okay, deal.

6:16

6 minutes, 16 seconds

Okay. So he goes on a business trip and they come to meet him at the airport on the way back. and the kids run up to their dad and they go, "Daddy, daddy,

6:25

6 minutes, 25 seconds

nobody slept with mommy while you were gone." Can you see how that could be taken the wrong way? Um, like if you didn't know

6:34

6 minutes, 34 seconds

the backstory and you just heard two little kids going, "Nobody slept with mommy while you were gone. What? Like what kind of sick family is this? What

6:43

6 minutes, 43 seconds

are they like? Is this woman some kind of adulterous woman? And why are they telling the kids?" Right? But they would be wrong, wouldn't they? they would be making bad assumptions.

6:54

6 minutes, 54 seconds

How can assumptions get us in trouble?

6:56

6 minutes, 56 seconds

You guys probably already know a lot of these that I'm going to say. Number one, it makes you think less of the other person, right? Someone could hear that

7:04

7 minutes, 4 seconds

conversation and assume bad things about this mother, this poor mother. You know, she's some kind of dirty woman, you know, like what is wrong with her? So,

7:13

7 minutes, 13 seconds

it could cause you to think less of someone. Then if you take it to the next step, you tell other people about how bad this person is. Right now you're

7:22

7 minutes, 22 seconds

gossiping and and you know really dragging their name through the mud to other people. Um another thing is you

7:29

7 minutes, 29 seconds

could respond in a bad way based on an assumption. Like you could take drastic action and really cause some damage

7:37

7 minutes, 37 seconds

based on all everything that was a false assumption. Like this guy, this king is like he's trying to pick a fight with me. He knows I can't heal this guy.

7:45

7 minutes, 45 seconds

What? Why is he even expecting me? Why is he even asking me that? He must be trying to pick a fight. And he could have said, "You know what? I'm going to war. That's it. He wants a fight. We're

7:54

7 minutes, 54 seconds

going to fight. We're going to war with with Aram, right?" And it would all be based on a false bad assumption. Like,

8:01

8 minutes, 1 second

how many of you have ever gone to war with your spouse based on a false assumption? Anybody? That ever happened?

8:08

8 minutes, 8 seconds

Like your significant other, like, and you know, you go and you're like, "Why did you say this and why did you do it this way?" That was bad. That was wrong.

8:16

8 minutes, 16 seconds

That was mean. And then they go, "That's not what I said." Or, "That's not what I meant." And then they tell you what they actually said and you go, "Oh,

8:25

8 minutes, 25 seconds

oh, I'm stupid." Like, I see now totally that's not what you meant at all. And I got all mad and started a fight and got

8:32

8 minutes, 32 seconds

mad for nothing. Right? Um, so bad assumptions can cause a fight.

8:39

8 minutes, 39 seconds

[clears throat] All right? And you know what? You know what's really bad about this situation? There's a really simple solution to avoid the false assumption.

8:46

8 minutes, 46 seconds

It's called just go to the other person and ask. Just ask. Just be like, "Hey, this is what I heard." You say, "This is

8:55

8 minutes, 55 seconds

how I took it. Is that what you meant?" And they can clear it up and they can be like, "Actually, no. That's not how I meant it at all. Like, I was meaning this." And you go, "Oh, okay. I got it.

9:05

9 minutes, 5 seconds

Get it. Get it. Got it. Good." Okay.

9:08

9 minutes, 8 seconds

Um, now we pick up where we left off last week in the story of Non. Elisha told non to go to the Jordan River and

9:16

9 minutes, 16 seconds

dip seven times and he would be cleansed of his leprosy. Um, at first he didn't want to, but thankfully a voice of

9:24

9 minutes, 24 seconds

reason, someone outside the situation was like, "Hey, Non, really?" Like, he's just telling you go dip in the Jordan.

9:30

9 minutes, 30 seconds

So what? Who cares if the river is dirty in your opinion? Like if if that will heal you, what do you care? Just do it.

9:37

9 minutes, 37 seconds

Right? He's like, "Okay, you're right.

9:39

9 minutes, 39 seconds

Okay, I'll do it." So, he does. He's cleansed of his leprosy. And when he gets back, he's really thankful to Elisha and he wants to pay him some

9:47

9 minutes, 47 seconds

money out of gratitude. He wants to give him some money. And Elisha, that's that moment where he says, "As surely as the Lord lives, I will not accept anything

9:56

9 minutes, 56 seconds

from you. I I can't take any money from you." All right. This is where we pick up. 2 Kings 5 19 through 27.

10:06

10 minutes, 6 seconds

Verse 19 where it starts off. Go in peace. Elisha said, "Go in peace." Elisha said. After non had traveled some

10:14

10 minutes, 14 seconds

distance, Gahazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said to himself, "My master was too easy on Non." Okay, so

10:22

10 minutes, 22 seconds

get this. Elisha has a servant that goes everywhere with him, right? He saw all this happen. He saw Elisha turn down the

10:30

10 minutes, 30 seconds

money for him getting healed. So Gahazi gets this idea. Verse 20, Gahazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said

10:39

10 minutes, 39 seconds

to himself, "My master was too easy on non this Aramean, by not accepting from him what he brought. As surely as the

10:47

10 minutes, 47 seconds

Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him." So Gahazi hurried after non. When non saw him running

10:55

10 minutes, 55 seconds

toward him, he got down from the chariot to meet him. "Is everything all right?" he asked. "Everything's all right," Gahazi answered. "My master sent me to

11:04

11 minutes, 4 seconds

say, "Two young men from the company of the prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give

11:11

11 minutes, 11 seconds

them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing." "By all means, take two talents," said Non. He urged Gahazi to

11:20

11 minutes, 20 seconds

accept them and he then tied up the two talents of silver in two bags with two sets of clothing. He gave them to two of

11:28

11 minutes, 28 seconds

his servants and they carried them ahead of Gahazi. When Gahazi came to the hill, he took the things from the servants and

11:36

11 minutes, 36 seconds

put them away in the house. He sent the men away and they left.

11:42

11 minutes, 42 seconds

When he went in and stood before his master, when he went in and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, "Where

11:49

11 minutes, 49 seconds

have you been?" Gahazi. "Your servant didn't go anywhere?" Gahazi answered.

11:54

11 minutes, 54 seconds

But Elisha said to him, "Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you?" "Is this

12:02

12 minutes, 2 seconds

the time to take money or to accept clothes or olive groves and vineyards or flocks and herds or male and female

12:09

12 minutes, 9 seconds

slaves? Non's leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever.

12:15

12 minutes, 15 seconds

Then Gahazi went from Elisha's presence and his skin was lepous. It had become as white as snow.

12:24

12 minutes, 24 seconds

When you read that last part, it seems pretty harsh, doesn't it? It makes you wonder what was it that was such a big deal. Was it because he lied? Was it

12:34

12 minutes, 34 seconds

because he was greedy for money? Was it both? We don't know for sure. But let's start with if he lied. So, does

12:41

12 minutes, 41 seconds

everybody see what was going on? He's like, "Man, Elisha just passed up on an opportunity to get some money in his pocket. I think we should have gotten

12:50

12 minutes, 50 seconds

some money. We should have gotten some money out of it. So, I'm going to go tell this guy that, hey, there's two prophets in town that need some stuff." Well, that wasn't actually true, was it?

13:02

13 minutes, 2 seconds

Because what did he do with it? He took it into his house. He took the money and the stuff into his house. So he lied about it. So if you want to avoid

13:10

13 minutes, 10 seconds

trouble, how many of you know if you want to avoid trouble, lying to God is never a good idea.

13:16

13 minutes, 16 seconds

Okay? Lying to a prophet of God is not a good idea. Let me give you some advice.

13:20

13 minutes, 20 seconds

If you ever run into a prophet who can see things before they happen, probably don't try to lie. Pass off a lie to that

13:28

13 minutes, 28 seconds

guy because he could tell, right? He was like, "My spirit was with you. I saw you go to this guy and he got down out of

13:35

13 minutes, 35 seconds

his chariot." Don't lie to a prophet of God.

13:39

13 minutes, 39 seconds

Um, we know that God doesn't take well to people lying to him or his servants.

13:45

13 minutes, 45 seconds

If you are familiar with the New Testament, the story of Ananas and Safh, um, there's a situation where they're a married couple and they sell a piece of

13:53

13 minutes, 53 seconds

their property and they give the money to church, to the church, which was a good thing. The problem was they lied

14:00

14 minutes

about the amount that they gave. So they said they were giving the whole amount, the whole proceeds from the land that

14:07

14 minutes, 7 seconds

they sold, but they were actually only giving like half the money. And and Peter is like, "Wasn't the money yours to do with what you wanted? Like you

14:16

14 minutes, 16 seconds

could have just been honest about it and said you were giving half. We wouldn't have cared if you gave half or whole, but you lied about it and they both

14:24

14 minutes, 24 seconds

dropped dead." Wow. Like don't lie to God. It's not a good idea. I don't think any of us are that bold or that stupid

14:32

14 minutes, 32 seconds

to lie directly to God like that. But one area I think we all struggle with sometimes is making excuses to God. Like

14:40

14 minutes, 40 seconds

we'll make excuses about why we can't help someone or why we can't be somewhere at a certain time to to do something for God to serve him or, you

14:49

14 minutes, 49 seconds

know, why we can't give to a certain cause. And when it comes right down to it, it's an excuse. You know, like we see someone on the side of the road that

14:57

14 minutes, 57 seconds

that's like needs help and we go, "Oh, I would love to help, but I'm too busy. I don't have time." Well, if that was your grandma on the side of the road that

15:06

15 minutes, 6 seconds

needed help, I'll bet you'd make the time. Right? Just guessing. Just guessing. And I'm talking to myself here. We've all done it, right? Or, "Oh,

15:14

15 minutes, 14 seconds

man. I would love to help, but I just don't have the money." If that was someone you really loved, you'd probably find the money. You'd find some way somehow to help them. make a GoFundMe,

15:23

15 minutes, 23 seconds

but we just kind of throw out that excuse. Oh, I'd love to help, but I don't have the money. Right? Um, so let's deal with the the other part where

15:31

15 minutes, 31 seconds

to avoid trouble, don't get greedy. It does seem like Gahazi was being greedy for money here. Um, so Proverbs 15:27

15:40

15 minutes, 40 seconds

says, "A greedy man brings what to his family?" What does it say? Brings trouble to his family. What are we talking about today?

15:49

15 minutes, 49 seconds

How to avoid trouble, right? A greedy man brings trouble to his family, but he who hates bribes will live.

15:58

15 minutes, 58 seconds

We don't need to be greedy. Greed is a powerful thing. How many of you know that greed is a powerful thing that can you can become obsessed with it and it can lead you into some bad stuff, right?

16:09

16 minutes, 9 seconds

Greed can consume you. Um, so I'm a big fan of the CS Lewis series, Chronicles of Narnia. The Lion, the Witch in the Wardrobe, is most famous book or movie.

16:20

16 minutes, 20 seconds

Um, but there's a really good one called The Voyage of the Dawn Treader where they're going to these different islands looking for these these lost lords uh

16:28

16 minutes, 28 seconds

that that sailed out and they never came back. And they're on this certain island and um they go down into this cave and

16:36

16 minutes, 36 seconds

they realize at in this cave there's this pool of water that they discover turns everything into gold that that touches. You just have to touch the

16:44

16 minutes, 44 seconds

water and it magically turns whatever you put into gold. And this immediately like like Edmund and Prince Caspian are

16:52

16 minutes, 52 seconds

just overwhelmed and and like consumed with greed about all these things they could turn into gold and you know we

16:59

16 minutes, 59 seconds

should claim this land as our own and we could become rich and they actually start fighting with each other. They're brothers. They they love each other, you

17:07

17 minutes, 7 seconds

know, but they're fighting and and thankfully Lucy steps in the middle and like stop it. What are you doing? you're letting this greed consume you and

17:15

17 minutes, 15 seconds

you're letting this temptation overtake you and she's able to put a stop to it.

17:20

17 minutes, 20 seconds

But it's amazing how just a little thing like greed, just a little seed of greed can can take root. Um, we need to be

17:29

17 minutes, 29 seconds

careful with this. One dangerous thing that can happen when you get greedy is you stop depending on God to provide.

17:36

17 minutes, 36 seconds

You stop trusting God to provide for your needs. I love this proverb. This is very wise right here. Proverbs 30:es 7-9. Two things I ask of you, oh Lord.

17:46

17 minutes, 46 seconds

Do not refuse me before I die. Keep falsehood and lies far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me

17:54

17 minutes, 54 seconds

only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, "Who is the Lord?" Or I may become poor

18:03

18 minutes, 3 seconds

and steal and so dishonor the name of my God. That's really wise. You guys know how what a wise saying that is right

18:12

18 minutes, 12 seconds

there. A guy named Agore wrote this. He says, "Don't give me too much. Don't give me too little because bad things could happen. If I have too little, I

18:20

18 minutes, 20 seconds

might be tempted to steal and that would dishonor you. If I have too much, I might be tempted to say, "Who is the Lord?" In other words, I don't need you

18:29

18 minutes, 29 seconds

anymore, Lord. I have enough. I don't need you. Like, I'm I'm good. I have everything I need. And that's what I think is going on here with the story

18:37

18 minutes, 37 seconds

with Gahazi. I think the reason why Elisha gets so upset with Gahazi is because Elisha is saying, "Don't you get

18:45

18 minutes, 45 seconds

it? We don't need money. We don't need more money. We just need God. God will take care of us." In fact, God has been

18:53

18 minutes, 53 seconds

taking care of us. So, if we actually back up to the chapter before this, in chapter 4, 2 Kings, at the very

19:01

19 minutes, 1 second

beginning of chapter 4, we have this amazing true story of the widow's olive oil.

19:10

19 minutes, 10 seconds

So, if you want to read this with me, it says, "The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to

19:17

19 minutes, 17 seconds

Elisha, your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.

19:29

19 minutes, 29 seconds

Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?" "Your servant has nothing there

19:36

19 minutes, 36 seconds

at all," she said, "except a small jar of olive oil." Elisha said, "Go around and ask all of your neighbors for empty

19:44

19 minutes, 44 seconds

jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. pour oil into all the jars

19:52

19 minutes, 52 seconds

and as each is filled, put it to one side. So she left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring.

20:03

20 minutes, 3 seconds

When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one." But he replied, "There is not a jar left." Then

20:10

20 minutes, 10 seconds

the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go sell the oil and pay your debts. you and your sons can live on what is left.

20:22

20 minutes, 22 seconds

Ain't that cool? God did that, right?

20:26

20 minutes, 26 seconds

God did that. And then another at the end of chapter 4 in verse 42 at the very end of chapter 4

20:34

20 minutes, 34 seconds

verse 42 next page it says a man came from Bal Shalasha

20:42

20 minutes, 42 seconds

bringing the man of God 20 loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain along with some heads of new grain. Give it to the people to eat.

20:52

20 minutes, 52 seconds

Elisha said, "How can I set this before a hundred men?" His servant asked. But Elisha answered, "Give it to the people to eat, for this is what the Lord says.

21:03

21 minutes, 3 seconds

They will eat and have some leftover." Then he said it before them, and they ate and had some leftover [crying]

21:11

21 minutes, 11 seconds

according to the word of the Lord. Does that remind you of a story in the New Testament with Jesus? like the feeding

21:19

21 minutes, 19 seconds

of the 5000, God multiplied it and there was even some leftover. There were so many there were even leftovers.

21:30

21 minutes, 30 seconds

So, Gahazi looks and he sees money walking away. Elisha looks back and sees how God has taken care of them. He took

21:39

21 minutes, 39 seconds

care of a widow in a miraculous way. He fed a hundred soldiers in a miraculous way. We don't need the money. God will

21:47

21 minutes, 47 seconds

take care of us. Don't be greedy. We don't need more. It's so hard sometimes, but we have to get to the point where we

21:54

21 minutes, 54 seconds

stop trusting in money and instead we put our trust in the Lord.

22:00

22 minutes

First Timothy 6:17 says, "Command those who are rich in this present world, not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in

22:08

22 minutes, 8 seconds

what? Wealth and money, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in what?

22:16

22 minutes, 16 seconds

God. put their hope in what?

22:18

22 minutes, 18 seconds

God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

22:23

22 minutes, 23 seconds

Put our hope in God. I love the story by Chuck Swindoll. He's written several books. When my wife and I were at Dallas

22:30

22 minutes, 30 seconds

Seminary back in the early 1960s, we lived in a little apartment that was part of a small group of apartments that

22:37

22 minutes, 37 seconds

have since been destroyed. I am happy to say. Hot and cold, running rats, all the joys of home were there. In the summer, the weather came in and it was hot. Hot.

22:49

22 minutes, 49 seconds

Hotter than you can imagine. Like a desert. That hot fall, we began to pray for an air conditioner. We didn't have one. I remember through the cold blowing

22:58

22 minutes, 58 seconds

winter, we were praying for an air conditioner. Through December, January, February, we told nobody, made no

23:05

23 minutes, 5 seconds

announcement, we wrote no letter. We just prayed. The following spring, before we were to have another summer

23:14

23 minutes, 14 seconds

there, we visited my wife's parents in Houston. While there, one morning, the phone rang.

23:21

23 minutes, 21 seconds

We hadn't announced our coming. It was for a brief visit with her folks and mine before we went back to seminary.

23:27

23 minutes, 27 seconds

The phone rang and on the other end of the line was a man I hadn't talked to in months. His name happened to be Richard.

23:34

23 minutes, 34 seconds

I said, "How are you?" He said, "Great.

23:37

23 minutes, 37 seconds

Do you need an air conditioner?" I almost dropped the phone. Uh, yes. Well, we have just put in central air

23:45

23 minutes, 45 seconds

conditioning here and we've got this little 3/4tonon air conditioner that we thought you might like to have. We'll bring it over and stick it in your trunk and let you take it back if that's okay.

23:57

23 minutes, 57 seconds

That'll be fine, Richard. Bring it on over. We put that thing in our window and we froze summer and winter in that little place.

24:05

24 minutes, 5 seconds

Isn't that awesome? God is good. How many of you know God is good? He takes care of us. It's amazing what we can do

24:12

24 minutes, 12 seconds

if we just give him the chance. It's if we just give him the opportunity to show us what he can do. God can do anything.

24:20

24 minutes, 20 seconds

Do we believe that, church?

24:22

24 minutes, 22 seconds

He can do anything. Do we believe these true stories in the Bible or not? That he provided for a widow

24:30

24 minutes, 30 seconds

through multiplying oil. that he provided for hundred people through multiplying bread. Do we believe that

24:38

24 minutes, 38 seconds

God actually did that story for Chuck Swindoll back in the 60s? Do you believe that is a true story? Does that really

24:45

24 minutes, 45 seconds

happen? And some of us might say, "Well, you know, that was back in the 60s. I I guess maybe God worked back in the 60s that way, but I'm not sure he works in

24:53

24 minutes, 53 seconds

the 2020s that way anymore." Well, if he worked that way in the 60s, I think he could still work that way today. Amen.

25:00

25 minutes

Amen.

25:02

25 minutes, 2 seconds

So what are we going to do? We going to put our trust in money, which is so uncertain, or are we going to put our

25:08

25 minutes, 8 seconds

trust in God? You can lose money, but God has ways that we don't even know about. So what do we learn today? How to avoid trouble? Communicate clearly.

25:20

25 minutes, 20 seconds

Communicate clearly. And on the flip side of that, don't make false assumptions. Just go to the person and

25:27

25 minutes, 27 seconds

what? Ask. Just say, "Hey, this is what I heard you say. Is that what you meant?

25:33

25 minutes, 33 seconds

Because maybe I misunderstood. Let's clear this up." And then definitely don't lie to God. Please don't lie to God this week. Don't do it. It's not not

25:42

25 minutes, 42 seconds

going to lead to anything good. And then instead of greed, trust in God. Instead

25:48

25 minutes, 48 seconds

of greed, trust in God. And I know that's a lot easier said than done, isn't it? Like it's easy to say, "Trust

25:56

25 minutes, 56 seconds

in God. Just trust in God." It's harder to do though, isn't it? Like things happen to keep trusting in God. So, I've

26:06

26 minutes, 6 seconds

got some next steps on the back of your program here that tie in with all the points today.

26:12

26 minutes, 12 seconds

The first one says, "Focus on communicating very clearly this week." Okay? So, some of you may want to focus on that, like, okay, I really want to

26:21

26 minutes, 21 seconds

try to be very specific in my communications this week so that people don't misunderstand me. Okay? Okay, if that's you, check that off. Maybe you

26:29

26 minutes, 29 seconds

want to focus on the second one. When misunderstanding someone, go straight to them and ask what they meant.

26:36

26 minutes, 36 seconds

The third one, and you can do any of these, all these, or just one of them, any of them, doesn't matter. Um, whatever ones you want to do, write down

26:44

26 minutes, 44 seconds

any excuses you've been making to God, and repent of those. Say, "God, I realize I've been making some excuses why I can't serve you in a certain way,

26:52

26 minutes, 52 seconds

why I can't do this or that, and I'm going to change my ways this week on those. I'm going to start when you give me an opportunity to serve you. I'm

27:01

27 minutes, 1 second

going to step up to the plate. Maybe some of you want to do this last one, pray, and put a situation in God's hands. This week, maybe some of you are

27:09

27 minutes, 9 seconds

going through it right now. You're going through something right now as we speak and you say, "Okay, I'm really going to focus on putting that in God's hands and

27:18

27 minutes, 18 seconds

trusting God to cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you." That's what the Bible says. That's what the

27:26

27 minutes, 26 seconds

Bible says, guys. Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Do you believe that? That he cares for you.

27:34

27 minutes, 34 seconds

Cast your anxieties on him. Put them in his hands and then don't take them back.

27:39

27 minutes, 39 seconds

Don't do the takeback thing, right? Put them in his hands and leave them in his hands. Say, [snorts] God, I'm not going to micromanage this. I'm going to put it in your hands.

27:50

27 minutes, 50 seconds

So, let's pray. God, I just pray that you help us this week. God, we know we're going to go through some troubles.

27:57

27 minutes, 57 seconds

We're trying to learn from those mistakes and and avoid those troubles in the future. Help us to learn. Help us to um change whatever we need to change.

28:06

28 minutes, 6 seconds

God, I just want to pray that when uh the the temptation to lie comes in this week, that we would resist that. When

28:14

28 minutes, 14 seconds

the temptation of greed comes in this week, that we would resist that. We would say, "No, I'm not I'm not going to give into that. I'm going to be content

28:22

28 minutes, 22 seconds

with what I have, and I'm going to trust God to provide for me." God, it's it's so hard to do that. It's a lot easier said than done, but I just pray that you

28:31

28 minutes, 31 seconds

would help each and every one of us hearing this message this morning to to learn those things, to learn not to lie, to learn the secret of being content.

28:41

28 minutes, 41 seconds

Um, we love you, Lord. Uh, help us to walk with you closer this week, closer and closer every day. Help us to walk

28:49

28 minutes, 49 seconds

with you. Um, we love you, God. We thank you, as Andrea prayed earlier this morning, that you are with us through the troubles. I'm so thankful for that

28:58

28 minutes, 58 seconds

promise that you said, "I will never leave you or forsake you." That when we go through these troubles and these difficulties in life, we're not alone.

29:06

29 minutes, 6 seconds

We're never alone. We We have you. You are with us. We have brothers and sisters in Christ that will come around us and encourage us and support us. So

29:14

29 minutes, 14 seconds

God, just help us to to to really focus on that promise this week that you are with us. We are not alone. We love you, God. Jesus name we pray.

turn that into our VIP greeter when you leave today. All right. Uh if you are watching online, if you could just comment in the comment section the city,

0:08

8 seconds

the town that you're watching from, we would appreciate that. All right. So, we are going to be in Second Kings chapter 5. We're going Old Testament today.

0:17

17 seconds

Second Kings chapter 5. By the way, my name is Jeremy. I'm the pastor of Impact Church, and we're going to be in Second Kings chapter 5. We haven't been in the

0:26

26 seconds

Old Testament in a little while. Uh but you know what? We believe at impact that all of God's word is uh is God breathed

0:34

34 seconds

and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. How many of you believe that all of God's word is useful?

0:42

42 seconds

Amen.

0:43

43 seconds

Okay. New Testament. Yes, that's the part about Jesus. We love the New Testament. But if all of God's word is useful, that means the Old Testament is

0:51

51 seconds

useful, too. And I think this is going to be useful for you today and helpful.

0:55

55 seconds

Um, so a nun who works for a local home health care agency was making her rounds and in between being at one house going to the next house, she ran out of gas.

1:07

1 minute, 7 seconds

Thankfully, it wasn't very far from a local service station. And so she was able to walk pretty pretty easily to the

1:15

1 minute, 15 seconds

gas station and she says, "Uh, do you have a can that I can borrow that I can put some gas in and take it back to my

1:22

1 minute, 22 seconds

car up the road?" And the the attendant said, "Man, I am really sorry, but it's actually out right now. We have one can and it's out right now, but it should be

1:30

1 minute, 30 seconds

back pretty soon. Uh, if you can just wait." And she's like, "No, I I need to get to my next patient." And so, she walks back to her car and she's looking

1:38

1 minute, 38 seconds

through her car to find anything she can use to put some gas in. And she finds a bed pan. So, she takes the bed pan to

1:45

1 minute, 45 seconds

the gas station, puts gas in it, goes back to her car, and she's using that to put gas in her car. Two guys are walking

1:53

1 minute, 53 seconds

by and they see this and one guy says to the other, "Man, that is what I call faith right there."

2:01

2 minutes, 1 second

[laughter]

2:02

2 minutes, 2 seconds

Think about it. Okay.

2:05

2 minutes, 5 seconds

So, how many of you in the past week, just in this past week, have had some kind of trouble? Like maybe you had some

2:13

2 minutes, 13 seconds

kind of sickness or reason to go to the doctor. Maybe you [snorts] had car trouble. Maybe you had marital trouble. Maybe you had trouble with your kids. Maybe you had trouble with your parents.

2:22

2 minutes, 22 seconds

Maybe you had trouble with a co-orker.

2:24

2 minutes, 24 seconds

Maybe you had trouble with the law and you got a speeding ticket. Anybody have any kind of trouble at all this past week? Wow, that's most of you. So, most

2:32

2 minutes, 32 seconds

of us, including me, I've had some trouble, too. Most of us have been through some kind of trouble. How many of you know it's not a matter of if, but

2:40

2 minutes, 40 seconds

when trouble strikes, right? It's going to happen. So, the question is, what do we do when it happens? When it happens,

2:49

2 minutes, 49 seconds

what do we do? So today we're going to read about a man named Non and in 2 Kings chapter 5 who had a problem. Um he

2:58

2 minutes, 58 seconds

had something called leprosy which we don't really deal with in America. Uh it does still exist in other countries but

3:05

3 minutes, 5 seconds

it's basically where your skin is you have a skin condition where your skin is rotting and it's literally like falling off of you. It's a very bad uh

3:13

3 minutes, 13 seconds

situation. And so this guy non had leprosy and I just don't even want to think about what that would be like. But as we

3:21

3 minutes, 21 seconds

read about him, we're going to see some things he did well, some things he did right. And we can learn from that. And we're going to see some things he did not do so well. And we can learn from

3:29

3 minutes, 29 seconds

that, too, can't we? We can be like, that's what not to do. Don't do what he did there. Okay. So, uh, 2 Kings chapter

3:38

3 minutes, 38 seconds

5, we're going to follow along and read together.

3:42

3 minutes, 42 seconds

Now non was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded

3:51

3 minutes, 51 seconds

because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier but he had leprosy. Now bands of

4:00

4 minutes

raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel and she served non's wife. She said to

4:08

4 minutes, 8 seconds

her mistress, "If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy." Non went

4:16

4 minutes, 16 seconds

to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. "By all means, go," the king of Aram replied. "I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So

4:25

4 minutes, 25 seconds

Non left, taking with him 10 talents of silver, 6,000 shekels of gold, and 10 sets of clothing. The letter that he

4:34

4 minutes, 34 seconds

took to the king of Israel read, "With this letter, I am sending my servant non to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy."

4:43

4 minutes, 43 seconds

As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes, which is a sign of distress, and said, "Am I God?

4:50

4 minutes, 50 seconds

Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is

4:57

4 minutes, 57 seconds

trying to pick a quarrel with me?" When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message. Why have you

5:06

5 minutes, 6 seconds

torn your robes? Have the man come to me so he will know that there is a prophet in Israel. So non went with his horses

5:15

5 minutes, 15 seconds

and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, "Go wash yourself seven times in

5:23

5 minutes, 23 seconds

the Jordan, which is a river, and your flesh will be restored, and you will be cleansed." But non went away angry and

5:33

5 minutes, 33 seconds

said, "I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand

5:40

5 minutes, 40 seconds

over the spot, and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Farpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the

5:48

5 minutes, 48 seconds

waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed? So he turned and went off in a rage.

5:57

5 minutes, 57 seconds

Non's servants went to him and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you have not

6:04

6 minutes, 4 seconds

done it? How much more than when he tells you wash and be cleansed?" So he went down and dipped himself in

6:12

6 minutes, 12 seconds

the Jordan seven times as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young

6:20

6 minutes, 20 seconds

boy. All right, if you're taking notes, and I always encourage you to do that on the back of your program, there's a space here. Your first point is this.

6:30

6 minutes, 30 seconds

When in trouble, a good reputation will go a long way. A good reputation will go

6:37

6 minutes, 37 seconds

a long way. Non had a good reputation and because he had a reputation of being a good soldier, the king grants him

6:44

6 minutes, 44 seconds

permission to go to Israel. How many of you know this? If you are a good neighbor to your neighbors and then you

6:52

6 minutes, 52 seconds

get in trouble, if you've been good to them, they will likely help you in your time of need, right? or if you are work

7:01

7 minutes, 1 second

hard for your boss and and then you need some time off or you need to switch days, your boss will probably help you out. When you're good to others, they are likely to help you when you need it.

7:10

7 minutes, 10 seconds

How many of you know that's true? Okay.

7:13

7 minutes, 13 seconds

Um so also, who else had a good reputation? Elisha. Elisha had a

7:20

7 minutes, 20 seconds

reputation for doing good. So the girl sent him Elisha's way. Like how cool would it be if our church, Impact

7:28

7 minutes, 28 seconds

Church, had a reputation for helping others and because we had that reputation, people sent us others our way and they're like, "Hey, you need to

7:36

7 minutes, 36 seconds

go talk to Impact Church. They love people and they will help you. They will do their best to help you, right? That would be cool." By the way, who pointed out there was a

7:44

7 minutes, 44 seconds

prophet of God in Israel? A servant girl. A servant girl. Don't tell me that

7:52

7 minutes, 52 seconds

kids can't do great things for the kingdom of God. Right? Because of this child, this servant girl non is

7:59

7 minutes, 59 seconds

eventually going to learn to call upon the name of Yahweh God uh as his God.

8:05

8 minutes, 5 seconds

Which by the way, whenever you see in the in the Bible, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, Lord in all caps,

8:13

8 minutes, 13 seconds

that is the Bible translators did not want did not feel like okay with putting the actual name of God. They had so much

8:21

8 minutes, 21 seconds

reverence for it. So they didn't want to put Yahweh. So they put that in its place. But in the Old Testament, God that was his name that he revealed to

8:30

8 minutes, 30 seconds

Moses when remember at the burning bush and he sent him. He said, "You're going to go to the Pharaoh." And he goes, "Well, who should I say sent me?" And he said, "I am that I am." Which is Yahweh.

8:41

8 minutes, 41 seconds

That's what it translates to. So anyway, he's going to come to know Yahweh God as his God. All because of who? A servant

8:49

8 minutes, 49 seconds

girl. Kids can do great things for the kingdom of God. You don't have to be an adult. All right. Second point, follow

8:58

8 minutes, 58 seconds

God's directions. When you're in trouble, you need to follow God's directions. And we're going to spend a

9:05

9 minutes, 5 seconds

lot of time on this point because I think this point is really important in our day and age. Non questions the way

9:13

9 minutes, 13 seconds

he is supposed to be healed. Right? He's given these instructions. Go dip seven times in the Jordan River. And he questions that. He questions the

9:21

9 minutes, 21 seconds

instructions. He's like, I don't want to do those instructions. So, I want to I want to live here on this point for a little bit. Like, even when they don't

9:30

9 minutes, 30 seconds

make sense, follow God's directions. He knows best. How many of you believe that this morning that God knows best? When

9:38

9 minutes, 38 seconds

he gives instructions, he probably knows what he's talking about because he's our creator. So, we have this list in the book of James chapter 5 where it says, "Is any of you troubled? He should pray.

9:49

9 minutes, 49 seconds

Is any of you happy? He should sing songs of praise. All right, we did that this morning. Is any of you sick? Watch this. He should call the elders of the

9:57

9 minutes, 57 seconds

church and have them pray and anoint him with oil.

10:02

10 minutes, 2 seconds

The Bible is really clear sometimes on how we're supposed to handle situations, but because that isn't what we were taught or that isn't what our most of

10:10

10 minutes, 10 seconds

our culture does, we don't do the instructions, right? calling the elders to pray and anoint you with oil. Who

10:18

10 minutes, 18 seconds

does that? Who does that? We are so conditioned that we go to the doctor.

10:23

10 minutes, 23 seconds

That's like our first we go to the doctor. We don't even think about calling the elders of the church. And yet, that's what God's instructions are

10:30

10 minutes, 30 seconds

in James chapter 5. And who knows, maybe if you did that, maybe you could be healed. But you don't know if you don't try. True.

10:40

10 minutes, 40 seconds

my my nephew uh Cameron, he goes by Cam, dealt with for years, he dealt with these things called abdominal migraines.

10:48

10 minutes, 48 seconds

And I don't even I can't even describe exactly what they are. All I know is it was affecting him severely. He wasn't able to eat right. He was losing weight.

10:55

10 minutes, 55 seconds

And for years, I'm talking many years, he was going to specialist after specialist and nobody could figure it

11:02

11 minutes, 2 seconds

out. Reminds me of a Bible story we read this past weekend in a Bible study, right? He spent all he had she spent all she had on doctors. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse, right?

11:11

11 minutes, 11 seconds

Like nobody could help her him. Nobody.

11:14

11 minutes, 14 seconds

And finally, my brother who grew up in church has a light bulb moment like, "Hey, maybe we should take him to the church and have the elders pray over

11:23

11 minutes, 23 seconds

him." So they did. And guess what? His abdominal migraines went away. True story. And this is what my brother said.

11:31

11 minutes, 31 seconds

The lesson he learned. He said, "I don't need to use God as a last resort. He needs to be my first resort. Right? What

11:39

11 minutes, 39 seconds

if you actually did it? And what if it actually worked? That would be amazing, right? Jesus says a lot of things to do a lot of things that go against our

11:47

11 minutes, 47 seconds

logic. Like, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. How many of you that's your first instinct is to

11:55

11 minutes, 55 seconds

love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you? Not mine. I'm just telling you now. That's not my first

12:02

12 minutes, 2 seconds

response. But it's so backwards with how we think and feel. Yet, that's what Jesus says we need to do. I love that billboard that says that love your enemies thing. I meant it. Signed, God.

12:15

12 minutes, 15 seconds

The whole turn the other cheek thing.

12:17

12 minutes, 17 seconds

Are you kidding me? I'd rather slash the guy's tires. Like, I'm just being honest. Turn the other cheek. You're crazy. I'm slashing his tires.

12:27

12 minutes, 27 seconds

But the fact is, nonviolence is a technique that actually works. It really does. God knows what he's talking about.

12:34

12 minutes, 34 seconds

Stuart Holden was in Egypt and met a sergeant in a Highland regiment. "How were you brought to Christ?" he asked this Christian. "Well, there was a

12:43

12 minutes, 43 seconds

private in the same company as myself who had been converted to Christ in Malta." And I gave him a terrible time.

12:50

12 minutes, 50 seconds

I remember one night in particular when it was very rainy and he came in wet and weary from sentry duty. Yet, as usual,

12:58

12 minutes, 58 seconds

he still got down on his knees before going to bed.

13:02

13 minutes, 2 seconds

My boots were covered in mud and I threw them at him and hit him twice in the head. But he just stayed there and kept

13:10

13 minutes, 10 seconds

kneeling and praying. The next morning when I woke up, I found my boots beautifully cleaned and polished. That

13:19

13 minutes, 19 seconds

was his response to me and it broke my heart. That day I was brought to repentance.

13:26

13 minutes, 26 seconds

Wow. What if the guy had gotten angry and thrown the boots back or reported him or something else would have been a

13:34

13 minutes, 34 seconds

different result, right? God knows what he's talking about. Sometimes we think God's instructions are crazy, but they really do work. God, And how many of you

13:44

13 minutes, 44 seconds

believe this? God gives us his instructions because he cares about us.

13:48

13 minutes, 48 seconds

He wants things to go well for us. And so, he's giving us the instructions.

13:52

13 minutes, 52 seconds

Here's how you do it so life can go well for you and you don't have to suffer a bunch of consequences.

13:58

13 minutes, 58 seconds

So, I got this bottle at Boy Scout camp.

14:02

14 minutes, 2 seconds

I forgot to bring a water bottle that was on my list. And so, I had to buy one from the scout store when I got there.

14:08

14 minutes, 8 seconds

It was $1. Hey, pretty good deal. A dollar. Not Not bad for a water bottle.

14:13

14 minutes, 13 seconds

And when I got home from the week of being at scout camp, I thought, man, this thing's nasty. You know, I've been collecting germs for a week. I'm going to throw it in the dishwasher.

14:22

14 minutes, 22 seconds

And that's how it came out. It's pretty warped and and messed up, right? If you can see that. And lo and behold, after I

14:31

14 minutes, 31 seconds

took it out and found out it was warped, I looked on the bottom and there's these instructions that say, "Don't wash in the dishwasher."

14:40

14 minutes, 40 seconds

Oh. Huh. I should have followed the instructions. And this is us. God has given us his instructions, his

14:48

14 minutes, 48 seconds

instruction booklet. And when we don't follow it, it gets us all warped. And and sometimes we can do things that God

14:55

14 minutes, 55 seconds

tells us not to do and it warps us and and we can live in those consequences.

15:00

15 minutes

Like sometimes we can't come back from certain things. Um life has a way of having consequences. God's trying to protect us. He loves us. He's giving us

15:09

15 minutes, 9 seconds

his instructions because he cares about us. I hope you know that. I hope you believe that this morning.

15:16

15 minutes, 16 seconds

Do you trust that God knows what he's doing or not? If you do trust him, follow his plan.

15:23

15 minutes, 23 seconds

So, there's a section uh towards the end of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 28. And I'm just going to read it for you. It's it's a kind of a famous section, blessings

15:32

15 minutes, 32 seconds

and curses. So, it says, here's what it says, 28 verse one. If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow

15:39

15 minutes, 39 seconds

all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany

15:48

15 minutes, 48 seconds

you if you obey the Lord your God. You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed. So that's our children.

15:57

15 minutes, 57 seconds

The crops of your land and the young of your livestock, the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be

16:05

16 minutes, 5 seconds

blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated

16:13

16 minutes, 13 seconds

before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. Okay, so those those are blessings if you obey the Lord and do his commands. Here's the curses.

16:24

16 minutes, 24 seconds

However, verse 15, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I'm giving you, all these curses will come

16:32

16 minutes, 32 seconds

on you. And they're basically the opposites of all that we just read. You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The

16:39

16 minutes, 39 seconds

fruit of your womb will be cursed. the crops of your land, the calves of your herds, the lambs of your flocks. You'll be cursed when you come in, cursed when you go out. The Lord will send on you

16:48

16 minutes, 48 seconds

curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you put your hand to.

16:53

16 minutes, 53 seconds

Blessings if we obey God's commands, curses if we do not. In the New Testament, Jesus said in Luke 11:28,

17:00

17 minutes

"But he said blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it." Hear the word of God and do it. Right?

17:08

17 minutes, 8 seconds

Those are the people who are going to be blessed. And the reason I bring that up, I I want to make this point because

17:15

17 minutes, 15 seconds

there's a lot of people I' I hear people see people talking. There's this kind of thinking like, you know, well, why isn't

17:22

17 minutes, 22 seconds

God blessing me? Well, why is my life going so bad? Doesn't seem like God's looking out for me. Doesn't seem like God's blessing me. And I want to go,

17:30

17 minutes, 30 seconds

okay, are you obeying the instructions that God gave for us? Like I I've had some people, they'll say, you know, I'm

17:39

17 minutes, 39 seconds

a believer in Jesus, but God doesn't seem to be taking care of me. Okay. Oh, let me ask you some questions. Are you attending church faithfully? Because

17:47

17 minutes, 47 seconds

that's one of the instructions God gives in his word. He says, "Do not forsake the assembling together of other believers." Right? How many of you know

17:54

17 minutes, 54 seconds

that's in the Bible in Hebrews 10? Do not forsake assembling together with other believers. So, are you assembling together with other believers? Because

18:02

18 minutes, 2 seconds

if you're not, then why are you expecting God to bless you? You're not doing the instructions, right? Or another area is they're just living

18:10

18 minutes, 10 seconds

however they want to live and not living according to how God says we're supposed to live, right? They're not honoring God's plan for marriage or they're, you

18:18

18 minutes, 18 seconds

know, just different ways. And I go, "Okay, so you're you're not living for God how he says to live, but you're expecting him to bless you." That's not

18:26

18 minutes, 26 seconds

how God works. God does not bless disobedience.

18:31

18 minutes, 31 seconds

That's what his word teaches us. God does not bless disobedience. He blesses obedience, right? God is not a genie in a bottle

18:40

18 minutes, 40 seconds

and that's how people treat him. They're like, "Oh, he's just this genie that I bring out whenever I need him." That's not the relationship that we read about

18:47

18 minutes, 47 seconds

in the Bible, right? This is this is a he's our heavenly father and he's our master and we need to learn how we're supposed to live for him. He doesn't

18:56

18 minutes, 56 seconds

just bless anyone for any reason, like for whatever random reason. He blesses those who are trying to live for God.

19:04

19 minutes, 4 seconds

Um, in specific areas, God's not going to bless your finances if you're not doing God's way of handling finances.

19:11

19 minutes, 11 seconds

Right? So, one of the things God says is the borrower is slave to the lender. I was going to see how many of you knew

19:19

19 minutes, 19 seconds

how the end of that goes. The borrower is slave to the lender. When you go out and you take out a bunch of debt and a

19:27

19 minutes, 27 seconds

bunch of loans and you get up to your eyeballs in debt, um the Bible says you are now slave to those lenders. That's

19:35

19 minutes, 35 seconds

not a good place to be, right? And then it says if you are in debt, you need to get out of it as fast as you can, like a

19:42

19 minutes, 42 seconds

gazelle. This is Dave Ramsey teaching, by the way, like like a gazelle, but he's teaching from the word of God, right? You need to get out of it as fast as you can, the Bible says. And don't

19:50

19 minutes, 50 seconds

get back in it, right? So if you're if you're getting in debt up to your eyeballs and then you're going, "Well, God, how come God you're not blessing

19:59

19 minutes, 59 seconds

me? How come we're struggling financially financially?" He's like, "Because you're not doing the instructions I gave you." Right? Is that fair? Does everybody get like It's not

20:07

20 minutes, 7 seconds

God's fault that we didn't obey his instructions. He's he's given us the directions. Um the point is we get ourselves in a lot of trouble simply

20:16

20 minutes, 16 seconds

because we refuse to obey God's directions. Um, here's one that I think is really, really interesting. It's it's

20:23

20 minutes, 23 seconds

weird to me. It's interesting to me how baptism has be to be questioned in our modern times. So, here's a couple of uh Bible passages that talks about baptism.

20:34

20 minutes, 34 seconds

Mark 16:15-16, he Jesus said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all

20:42

20 minutes, 42 seconds

creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And in

20:49

20 minutes, 49 seconds

Acts 2:38, Peter replied,"Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of

20:57

20 minutes, 57 seconds

your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Is it just me or do those seem really straightforward that

21:05

21 minutes, 5 seconds

we need to be baptized? Right? Seems pretty direct, pretty straightforward instructions. Uh, I have a friend who was a minister in Mountain Home,

21:14

21 minutes, 14 seconds

Arkansas. And back in the days when radio ads were like the the really popular way to put ads out. He put an ad out and all it did was quote Acts 238.

21:24

21 minutes, 24 seconds

It was a direct quote. Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized everyone." Right? Direct quote. And then they tagged it at the end. This message was

21:32

21 minutes, 32 seconds

brought to you by Mountain Home Church of Christ or whatever the name of the church was. Right? a lady called him

21:38

21 minutes, 38 seconds

upset, complaining, and saying, "I heard your radio ad and you guys are making it sound like we have to be baptized, and I

21:46

21 minutes, 46 seconds

don't believe that. I don't believe you have to be baptized." And he goes, "Ma'am," it was a direct quote from the Bible. Like, it was just Acts 2:38. We

21:55

21 minutes, 55 seconds

didn't add anything to it. It was literally a direct quote. Um, so to some it may not make sense, but the fact is

22:03

22 minutes, 3 seconds

God said to do it, so why not just do the instruction?

22:08

22 minutes, 8 seconds

All right, I told you we were going to spend a lot of time in that point about follow God's directions when you're in trouble or follow God's directions to

22:16

22 minutes, 16 seconds

keep from getting in trouble. All right, next point is listen to the voice of reason. Listen to the voice of reason.

22:25

22 minutes, 25 seconds

Sometimes it takes a voice of reason, someone outside the situation to point out our illogical thinking. I love what

22:34

22 minutes, 34 seconds

somebody said to non. They were like, "What if the prophet asked you to do some really hard thing? Wouldn't you have done that? Like, wouldn't you have

22:42

22 minutes, 42 seconds

done whatever it took to be cured of this leprosy?" Like what if he had said I want you to cross a hot desert and

22:49

22 minutes, 49 seconds

then I want you to climb to the top of a mountain and I want you to drink fresh uh mountain spring water from the peak of that mountain. Like wouldn't you have

22:58

22 minutes, 58 seconds

done that? Wouldn't you have done whatever to be healed? All he has asked you to do is go dip seven times in the

23:06

23 minutes, 6 seconds

Jordan River. Right? And apparently that voice of reason got through to them.

23:11

23 minutes, 11 seconds

They're like he was like, "Oh, okay. I guess you have a good point, right?

23:16

23 minutes, 16 seconds

Sometimes we need a friend to help us think clearly. Before we go out and do something major, ask someone else about it and seek godly advice.

23:25

23 minutes, 25 seconds

Proverbs 208, and there's lots of proverbs that say, "Seek godly advice." I could have used lots more. It says,

23:33

23 minutes, 33 seconds

"Make plans by seeking advice. If you wage war, obtain guidance.

23:40

23 minutes, 40 seconds

Before you do something major, seek guidance. Billy Burke was a famous actress on stage and in film. And in her

23:48

23 minutes, 48 seconds

50s, she played the good witch of the north in the Wizard of Oz. Once when she was on a transatlantic ocean trip, uh

23:56

23 minutes, 56 seconds

she noticed a man getting some sun on the deck who seemed to be suffering from a head cold. "Are you uncomfortable?" she asked. The man nodded his head.

24:06

24 minutes, 6 seconds

"Well, I'll tell you just what you do.

24:08

24 minutes, 8 seconds

You go to your room and you drink lots of orange juice. Take two aspirins.

24:13

24 minutes, 13 seconds

Cover yourself with all the blankets you can find. Sweat the cold out. I know just what I'm talking about. I'm Billy Bird from Hollywood.

24:22

24 minutes, 22 seconds

Thank you, the man said. I'm glad to meet you. I'm Dr. Mayo of the Mayo Clinic. [laughter]

24:31

24 minutes, 31 seconds

The moral of the story is make sure the person you're asking advice from is an actual authority on the topic, not just some bozo with an opinion. Right?

24:44

24 minutes, 44 seconds

If you're buying a house, maybe talk to someone who's an expert in the housing industry. If you have trouble with your car, maybe talk to a certified mechanic.

24:53

24 minutes, 53 seconds

Right? In everything, consult God first. Amen. In everything, consult God first.

25:02

25 minutes, 2 seconds

Pray to him. Put it in his hands. So non gets permission to go to Israel because of his good reputation. He listens to

25:09

25 minutes, 9 seconds

the voice of reason, dips himself in the Jordan seven times, and he is healed.

25:14

25 minutes, 14 seconds

His problem is now over, and he's thankful.

25:19

25 minutes, 19 seconds

So, two more verses of this story, verses 15 and 16, and we'll we'll close this out, and then we'll actually pick up this story, the rest of the story

25:27

25 minutes, 27 seconds

next week. Verse 15. Then non and all his attendants went back to the man of

25:33

25 minutes, 33 seconds

God. He stood before him and said,"Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept

25:42

25 minutes, 42 seconds

a gift from your servant." The prophet answered, "As surely as the Lord lives whom I serve, I will not accept a

25:51

25 minutes, 51 seconds

thing." And even though non urged him, he refused.

25:56

25 minutes, 56 seconds

All right, I like this. I think there's a good point here, which is help those in trouble in order to point people to

26:03

26 minutes, 3 seconds

God, not to get rewards. Okay, we may get rewarded, but that's not why we do it. We do it, we help people to try to

26:11

26 minutes, 11 seconds

point people to God. So Elisha refuses payment for his help, but not only that,

26:18

26 minutes, 18 seconds

notice what he says. He says, "As surely as the Lord lives, I will not take a

26:25

26 minutes, 25 seconds

thing from you." He points to God. He remember L O R D is Yahweh, right? He says, "As surely as the God Yahweh

26:33

26 minutes, 33 seconds

lives, I cannot accept a thing from you." He points the man to God. And because of that, he's going to become a believer in God, which is really cool.

26:43

26 minutes, 43 seconds

Notice he doesn't just say, "Sure, I'll do it because I'm a nice guy, right? I'm a nice person and I'll help you." He's like, "No, as surely as the Lord lives,

26:52

26 minutes, 52 seconds

he wants to point people to God." I remember there was a guy in a pickup truck who broke down in front of our

26:59

26 minutes, 59 seconds

house in Hebrew Springs, Arkansas. And this truck is just sitting there and I noticed it. And so I go out there and I'm talking to the guy and I'm like, "Do

27:08

27 minutes, 8 seconds

you know what's what's wrong with your truck?" And he's like, "No, I don't really know. I've been having trouble for, you know, a few weeks on it." Um,

27:16

27 minutes, 16 seconds

and I said, "Well, hang on a second. Let me call a friend that I know. So, I called up my buddy Edward, who I know is a Christian. He's a mechanic. And I

27:24

27 minutes, 24 seconds

said, Edward, what are you doing right now? Is there any way you can come look at this guy's truck? He's broke down in front of my house. He says, "Sure, I'll

27:31

27 minutes, 31 seconds

be over there." In 10 minutes, he was over there. So, he gets the guy's truck back up and running. And so, the guy's super thankful, right? He's super happy

27:40

27 minutes, 40 seconds

that his truck's running again. And before he was about to pull off and leave, I said, "By the way, you just got

27:47

27 minutes, 47 seconds

helped in the name of Jesus." And Edward said,"Amen." And uh we said, "We're Christians and that's why we wanted to help you. You

27:56

27 minutes, 56 seconds

just got helped in the name of Jesus." Um so he drove off. I don't know what ever came of that if if he ever, you know, tried to find Jesus or whatever,

28:05

28 minutes, 5 seconds

but we planted a seed, right? We we didn't just want to do the good deed. We wanted to try to point him to Jesus at the same time.

28:14

28 minutes, 14 seconds

So in life, we're going to have trouble, right? Whether it's something physical like non had leprosy or car trouble or

28:21

28 minutes, 21 seconds

whatever trouble. Learn from the story of non. Build good reputations with others so that when you are the one in need, they're willing to help you.

28:32

28 minutes, 32 seconds

Listen to God's instructions. Even if they don't make sense to you, just do the instructions. Just trust God that he knows who he's talking about. Trust

28:40

28 minutes, 40 seconds

God's wisdom. And then listen to the voice of reason. Seek the advice of somebody outside the situation.

Hello

a few years back. It was uh when was Orion built at at uh Kings Island? Maybe seven years ago, six. Anyway, um when

0:08

8 seconds

that ride first came out, so Orion is called a giga coaster because any coaster roller coaster that's 300 feet

0:15

15 seconds

or higher is called a giga coaster. And so that was the first giga that Kings Island got. And I remember I was there, my oldest son Eric was there, and our

0:24

24 seconds

our kids that live in the house were there. And uh early in the morning, they first off, they wanted to go ride the new ride, Orion, right? And I was like,

0:32

32 seconds

"Uh, you guys go ahead. I'm I'm good." And they're like, "You're not going to ride it." And I'm like, "Nope. I'm good.

0:39

39 seconds

I don't need to go on I'm seeing how tall it is. I don't need that. I don't need that in my life. I'm I'm I'm not going to miss it if I don't do it." So,

0:47

47 seconds

the day goes by and they just keep on like, "Dad, are you really not going to ride Orion? Are you not going to try

0:54

54 seconds

it?" I'm like, "No, I am good. I really don't need to try it. I'm good. So, finally there's like an hour left and they're like, "Dad, seriously, you've

1:02

1 minute, 2 seconds

got to go on it. It's a really good ride. It's really smooth. Like, it's Yes, it's a tall hill, the first hill, but after that, it's like really smooth,

1:11

1 minute, 11 seconds

you know? I I know you would like it." And I finally gave into the peer pressure. I was like, "Okay, fine. I'll give it a try." I had my eyes closed the

1:20

1 minute, 20 seconds

whole way up that first hill. I was not going to look down. And but I went down that first hill. Oh man, that is

1:27

1 minute, 27 seconds

something. And it was smooth and it was fun. And that was one of my favorite rides. So I actually was glad I gave in

1:35

1 minute, 35 seconds

to the peer pressure. Uh and I have since then rode other roller coasters that are giga coasters. Uh we'll come back to that peer pressure idea here in

1:44

1 minute, 44 seconds

a minute though. So I don't know about you, have you noticed this? When whenever somebody experiences something good that they like, um they're pretty

1:52

1 minute, 52 seconds

quick to tell others about it. They'll be like, "Hey, have you seen the new Spider-Man movie? Has anybody seen the new Spider-Man movie?" Okay. Right. So,

2:00

2 minutes

when the people who have seen it, they're like, "Oh, man. You haven't seen it yet?" That is a good movie. I've had people tell me like, "You need to see it's really, really good." I'm like,

2:07

2 minutes, 7 seconds

"Okay, I'll go." Uh, I remember we took our family to the last uh I think it was No Way Home. Is that the one that has

2:15

2 minutes, 15 seconds

all three of the Spider-Mans? Toby Magguire and Andrew Garfield and Tom Tom. Tom Tom, what's his face? Holland.

2:22

2 minutes, 22 seconds

Thank you. has all three. Yeah, that's the one we watched. And I remember coming out of the theater and there was this little boy. He was maybe seven or

2:30

2 minutes, 30 seconds

eight years old and he goes, "Hey, you look like Toby Maguire." And I was like, "Don't tell anybody. I'm Spider-Man."

2:38

2 minutes, 38 seconds

Um, but you know, when we see that good movie, we're quick to tell people, "Hey, you got to see this. This is a really good movie." You try out a new restaurant, right? Hey, have you been to

2:47

2 minutes, 47 seconds

such and such a restaurant? Oh man, it's really good. This has really good food, right? We're quick to tell. So why not take that same attitude towards how God

2:54

2 minutes, 54 seconds

has changed our lives and tell others like, "Hey, have you have you heard about God? Like he's really good and he'll change your life in a good way." Like why aren't we the same with those?

3:04

3 minutes, 4 seconds

So a couple weeks ago we talked about how we are the light of the world, the light of the world. And so we should let our light shine brightly. As Christians,

3:13

3 minutes, 13 seconds

we're supposed to stand out. And the reason that we want others to notice our light is so that we can then point them to Jesus who can change their life. Like

3:22

3 minutes, 22 seconds

it's not about us so they'll notice us, but they notice our light and we say, "It's actually God's light in me and you need to know him if you don't." Yeah.

3:30

3 minutes, 30 seconds

Right. So Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be

3:37

3 minutes, 37 seconds

hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand and it gives light to

3:45

3 minutes, 45 seconds

everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men so that they may see your good deeds and praise

3:53

3 minutes, 53 seconds

your father in heaven. So, if you're taking notes today, the first point that I want to make today is don't conceal your light. Don't cover up your light.

4:04

4 minutes, 4 seconds

What did Jesus say? When you light a lamp, you don't come in after you light a lamp and then stick a bowl over it, right? Because that would do what? that would defeat the whole purpose, right?

4:13

4 minutes, 13 seconds

You light a light and then you just cover it up. That doesn't make any sense. So Jesus is like, you have a light within you. Don't cover it up. Let

4:21

4 minutes, 21 seconds

don't conceal your light. Now, I'll be the first one to raise my hand and admit, I have covered up my light at

4:29

4 minutes, 29 seconds

times in different situations around different types of people. I have covered up my light. I have covered up that I was a Christian in that moment.

4:38

4 minutes, 38 seconds

I'm not proud of it, but I I suspect if we were all honest, we could all say we've probably covered up our light. Has anybody ever else covered up your light

4:46

4 minutes, 46 seconds

at times in your life? Yeah. So, we've done it. And I got to thinking about it.

4:50

4 minutes, 50 seconds

I was like asking myself the question, why why do we cover up our light? Why would we try to hide that we're Christians and hide our light from

4:59

4 minutes, 59 seconds

shining? And what I came up with, and I think I'm right, is we are way too concerned about what other people think about us. That's what

5:08

5 minutes, 8 seconds

I think it is. So, next point to write down in your notes is don't conform to the culture. And we're going to go to

5:16

5 minutes, 16 seconds

Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 is in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and then Romans

5:23

5 minutes, 23 seconds

chapter 12. Uh so, first of all, we care way too much about fitting in. And here's the problem with that is as

5:31

5 minutes, 31 seconds

Christians, we're not supposed to fit in. We're supposed to stand out and we're supposed to be different from the world. Did you know that we're actually supposed to be nonconformists?

5:42

5 minutes, 42 seconds

We are not supposed to conform to the culture around us. According to Romans 12, every Christian is supposed to be a nonconformist.

5:50

5 minutes, 50 seconds

So go ahead and turn there with me.

5:52

5 minutes, 52 seconds

According to Romans 12 1-2, we are called to be rebels. But I don't mean that in how you might hear that. Like

5:59

5 minutes, 59 seconds

you might hear rebels and non-conformists and be like, "Oh, Jeremy's talking about how we should um not care about the laws of the land and just go be rebels." No, I'm not talking

6:08

6 minutes, 8 seconds

about that kind of rebel. But I am talking about being different from how the rest of the world lives in that sense. Be a nonconformist.

6:17

6 minutes, 17 seconds

The Bible encourages us to be a positive force in a negative world.

6:22

6 minutes, 22 seconds

So while the rest of the world is following the path that leads to destruction, we are on a different path that leads to life. Romans 12 1-2.

6:31

6 minutes, 31 seconds

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy

6:39

6 minutes, 39 seconds

and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Here it is. Do not conform to the pattern of this world. I

6:48

6 minutes, 48 seconds

told you we're supposed to be non-conformists. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your what?

6:57

6 minutes, 57 seconds

Mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

7:07

7 minutes, 7 seconds

So, there's an interesting thing about this verb where it says, "Do not be conformed." Okay, those of you who are

7:14

7 minutes, 14 seconds

into grammar, all right, anybody who likes grammar, we got one, we got one grammar person in the house. Anyone who knows and appreciates grammar knows that

7:22

7 minutes, 22 seconds

in uh in grammar in English, a verb can be an active verb or a passive verb. So active verb is you're doing the action.

7:35

7 minutes, 35 seconds

Active verb. Passive verb is the action is being done to you. Does everybody understand the difference? So active verb the dog ran. Passive verb the dog got ran over. Everybody say a a.

7:49

7 minutes, 49 seconds

So, where it says this verb, do not be conformed, it's in the passive voice, it's saying don't sit back and allow

7:58

7 minutes, 58 seconds

yourselves to be shaped by the world, by the culture around you. Don't just sit

8:05

8 minutes, 5 seconds

back passively and let the world shape you into its values. But instead, you

8:12

8 minutes, 12 seconds

need to be transformed by the renewing of your what?

8:16

8 minutes, 16 seconds

Mind. Don't just sit back and let the world tell you how to be and what your values should be and how you should live.

8:25

8 minutes, 25 seconds

Don't don't do that. But you be transformed by the renewing of your minds. In other words, don't be

8:33

8 minutes, 33 seconds

a sheep. Look at my pitiful little sheep.

8:38

8 minutes, 38 seconds

Don't be a sheep. Don't just let the world dictate to you and lead you around how you should be and how you should

8:45

8 minutes, 45 seconds

talk and how you should act. Don't be a sheeple, right? Instead, be transformed by the renewing of your mind and be

8:51

8 minutes, 51 seconds

shaped by God and his word and how he wants you to live. Everybody got it? Get it? Got it? Good. All right.

9:01

9 minutes, 1 second

Okay. Whether you admit it or not, a lot of what you do is influenced by the culture around us. Okay. So, I'm wearing

9:10

9 minutes, 10 seconds

my shirt today like this for a reason. I know some of you are wondering, why is he wearing a shirt like that?

9:16

9 minutes, 16 seconds

So this was how we used to wear our shirts in junior high. This was the cool way was to tuck it in but to leave it,

9:24

9 minutes, 24 seconds

you know, unbuttoned. There also was another trend at the same time in junior high where we tight rolled the bottom of our jeans. Did anybody used to tight

9:33

9 minutes, 33 seconds

roll your jeans? Okay. Why did we do that? Why did we tight roll our jeans?

9:38

9 minutes, 38 seconds

Was it because somebody put put themselves in a wind tunnel and tried out different ways of your gene and they said, "Oh yeah, this tight roll is the

9:47

9 minutes, 47 seconds

most aerodynamic." And so that's why we did it.

9:51

9 minutes, 51 seconds

No, we did it cuz it was a popular trend, right? We just did it cuz that's what everybody else was doing and we wanted to do what? Fit in and we wanted

10:00

10 minutes

to be cool, right? That's all it was. It wasn't that it was a better way to wear your jeans. In fact, it took more work.

10:07

10 minutes, 7 seconds

It was an annoying way to wear your jeans, but we wanted to be cool and trendy and fit in. So, so we did it,

10:14

10 minutes, 14 seconds

right? The truth is the way we dress, the way we talk, the way we act heavily is because of how our culture has taught

10:23

10 minutes, 23 seconds

us to act, right? So, which side of the road drivers do we drive on? What's the what's the correct side of the road to drive on?

10:33

10 minutes, 33 seconds

The right side of the road. And if we saw someone driving on the left side of the road, we would say they were wrong

10:39

10 minutes, 39 seconds

or crazy or weird, right? But guess what? That's in America. If you're in

10:47

10 minutes, 47 seconds

the UK, then they would say we're the weird ones for driving on the right side of the road. It's all about the culture, isn't it? We believe the way we believe

10:56

10 minutes, 56 seconds

because our culture has taught us to think this way. Um, we like a certain song or certain music because if you want to know the truth, they played it

11:04

11 minutes, 4 seconds

enough times on the radio that we finally, okay, yeah, I think I like this song, right? They they pumped it into our heads enough that we decided we

11:12

11 minutes, 12 seconds

liked that song. It was a cool song. So, we are passively sitting back and allowing ourselves to be molded by the

11:20

11 minutes, 20 seconds

culture. So, what's the problem with that? Well, the problem is that Jesus said that wide is the road that leads to destruction and many be that find it.

11:30

11 minutes, 30 seconds

But narrow is the road that leads to life and only a few find it. I don't want to blend in with the culture

11:38

11 minutes, 38 seconds

because most of the culture is on the road to destruction, right? Why would I want to be on that road? No, I want to be on the narrow road that leads to

11:46

11 minutes, 46 seconds

life. We actually sang about that in Take You at Your Word. I want to be on that narrow road that leads to life. I don't want to be like the majority. As

11:54

11 minutes, 54 seconds

Christians, we're supposed to live differently from the rest of the world.

11:57

11 minutes, 57 seconds

The way we talk, the way we act, the way we dress, the way we treat others. We are supposed to be so different that we

12:04

12 minutes, 4 seconds

stand out like a bright light against a pitch black dark sky. This is how Philippians 2 puts it in the New Living

12:13

12 minutes, 13 seconds

Translation. It says, "Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it

12:20

12 minutes, 20 seconds

is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with a deep reverence and

12:27

12 minutes, 27 seconds

fear. For God is working in you. Watch this. Giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Did you

12:36

12 minutes, 36 seconds

know that God gives you the desire and the power to do what pleases him? Do everything without complaining and

12:43

12 minutes, 43 seconds

arguing so that no one can criticize you. live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like, here's

12:51

12 minutes, 51 seconds

the key part, like bright lights or stars in a world full of crooked and perverse people. The NET translation says, a crooked and perverse society.

13:03

13 minutes, 3 seconds

Hold firmly to the word of life, then on the day of Christ's return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.

13:13

13 minutes, 13 seconds

So, what did it say? We're supposed to shine brightly in contrast to a pitch black dark sky. They should see

13:21

13 minutes, 21 seconds

something different in us. We should stand out as a stark contrast. The

13:29

13 minutes, 29 seconds

majority of our society is crooked and perverse. That those words mean twisted or warped. How many of you know the

13:38

13 minutes, 38 seconds

world we live in is getting more and more twisted and warped? All you got to do is turn on the news and be like, "Man, this world is twisted and warped,

13:47

13 minutes, 47 seconds

right? And that world needs a positive alternative." But too many times we don't offer that drastic alternative for

13:55

13 minutes, 55 seconds

them to see a difference in the way we live. Too many times we blend right in with the culture around us.

14:02

14 minutes, 2 seconds

So, this is some Milo's tea. It's actually not Panera.

14:08

14 minutes, 8 seconds

Pay no attention to that. It's Milo's tea. Hopefully, I'm getting some paid sponsorships through this. Panera, if

14:16

14 minutes, 16 seconds

you're watching, I'm giving you give give me some money because And Milo's uh this is Milo's tea. I poured it full of

14:22

14 minutes, 22 seconds

Milo's tea there. And let's pretend that I took that tea and I added this is just regular water,

14:31

14 minutes, 31 seconds

just tap water. Okay, just adding some water to it. Okay, question.

14:39

14 minutes, 39 seconds

Is this still tea?

14:43

14 minutes, 43 seconds

Yes, technically. Technically, it is still tea, but just barely, right? Like, I wouldn't want to drink that tea. Would you? Like, it's tea. It has tea in it.

14:55

14 minutes, 55 seconds

You can see it still has tea in it, but man, I don't really want to call that tea. Do you? It's so watered down that

15:02

15 minutes, 2 seconds

it doesn't even have the flavor of tea in it anymore. And that can happen to us as Christians sometimes. We get so watered down by the world's influence.

15:11

15 minutes, 11 seconds

We become so much like the world. We're like this watered down tea. We become tasteless. No flavor. They don't taste

15:20

15 minutes, 20 seconds

or sense that different flavor in us to so to where they can be like, "Hey, what's that flavor you have? I want to

15:27

15 minutes, 27 seconds

know where you got that." Right? That's that's the goal is people should ask us, "What is different about you and how do I get that?" That's the goal, right? So,

15:36

15 minutes, 36 seconds

don't be like the tea. Don't be so watered down by the world that they can't see anything different in us.

15:44

15 minutes, 44 seconds

We'll never be the light of the world until we stop conforming to the world. And that brings me to the next point.

15:50

15 minutes, 50 seconds

So, one powerful influence is the culture in which we live. Another powerful influence in our lives is other

15:57

15 minutes, 57 seconds

people. Other people. And when it comes to other people, we care way too much about being accepted by others. And this

16:06

16 minutes, 6 seconds

really is a key problem. The reason we're afraid to let our light shine sometimes is we're afraid that of what people will think about us, aren't we?

16:15

16 minutes, 15 seconds

Like that's that's my been my reason when I covered my light is because I was afraid of what someone else might think of me. Um we're afraid that people might

16:23

16 minutes, 23 seconds

think we're weird. Think about it. Have you ever had this happen to you? Okay, you're driving down the road and you've got you've got your tunes on. You've got

16:30

16 minutes, 30 seconds

some song and you're just like rocking it out. You're just belting out. You're singing it out at the top of your lungs.

16:36

16 minutes, 36 seconds

You're singing really loud. Maybe like me, you and then you come up to a stop a stoplight and maybe you're like me and you start playing the drums on the

16:44

16 minutes, 44 seconds

steering wheel, right? And then and so you're singing and you're playing on the steering wheel and then all of a sudden you see out of the corner of your eye

16:51

16 minutes, 51 seconds

another car pulls up next to you and you stop. you stop. Why do we stop? Because

16:58

16 minutes, 58 seconds

we're worried those people will think we're weird, right? And the and the ironic thing is those people don't even

17:06

17 minutes, 6 seconds

know us. We don't even know who they are. But here we are worried that this person we don't know, probably will never meet is going to think we're

17:15

17 minutes, 15 seconds

weird. And so we stop, right? We got to act normal, right? This is this is part of the problem. Why do we hold back our

17:22

17 minutes, 22 seconds

tears when a sad I'm talking to the men now. Why do we hold back our tears when a sad part of the movie comes up and instead we say, "Oh, a a bug flew in my

17:31

17 minutes, 31 seconds

eye." That's what it is, right? Why do we care? So what if they care? They think we're soft or whatever because we cried during Why do we care? We care way

17:40

17 minutes, 40 seconds

too much about what others think about us. The reason we don't take our Bibles to work or to school is because we're too worried that people will think we're

17:48

17 minutes, 48 seconds

weird. Oh, we're one of those weird Christians. Or how about this one? At a restaurant. You sit down in a restaurant

17:55

17 minutes, 55 seconds

and maybe you pray at home, but when you're at the restaurant out in public, you're like, "Yeah, we're going to skip the prayer this time because we don't

18:03

18 minutes, 3 seconds

want other people to think we're weird." I actually love it when I see a family in a restaurant and they join hands and pray. And I don't know if I should do

18:12

18 minutes, 12 seconds

this or not, but I do. I take a picture because I'm like, "That is so cool. I love that they're praying together as a family and they don't care who's

18:20

18 minutes, 20 seconds

watching, right? They're going to live out their Christian faith and they don't care. That's where we need to get. Like, why are we so worried? The key to not

18:28

18 minutes, 28 seconds

conforming is to not care. Don't care what others think. Last scripture I want to go to first Thessalonians. And it's it can be one of those that's hard to

18:37

18 minutes, 37 seconds

find if you're turning there. It's in with it's towards the end of your Bible within with all the other T's. There's Thessalonians, there's Timothy, and then

18:45

18 minutes, 45 seconds

there's Titus. So, turn there to First Thessalonians, and we're going to be in chapter 2.

18:52

18 minutes, 52 seconds

So, the Apostle Paul wrote this, and he definitely had the right attitude um when it came to, you know, not being so

19:00

19 minutes

worried about what others think about us, but instead, we're going to worry about one person's opinion of us. We'll

19:08

19 minutes, 8 seconds

we'll see who that is. Okay. Uh Paul had the right attitude when it comes to the work that God had Paul to do. He is

19:16

19 minutes, 16 seconds

going to do his job whether other people like it or not. He's going to do God's work. 1 Thessalonians 2 1-6.

19:25

19 minutes, 25 seconds

You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results. We had previously suffered and been treated

19:34

19 minutes, 34 seconds

um outrageously in Philippi, as you know. But with the help of our God, we dare to tell you his gospel, that means

19:41

19 minutes, 41 seconds

good news, in the face of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives,

19:50

19 minutes, 50 seconds

nor were we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We

19:58

19 minutes, 58 seconds

are not trying to please people, but God who tests our hearts. You know, we never use flattery, nor do we put a mask to

20:07

20 minutes, 7 seconds

cover up greed. God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from people, nor from you or anyone else. Even though

20:15

20 minutes, 15 seconds

as apostles of Christ, we could have asserted our authority.

20:21

20 minutes, 21 seconds

So notice what he says. We dared to tell you his gospel, his good news, in spite of strong opposition. Even though people

20:28

20 minutes, 28 seconds

were attacking them for what they were doing, we kept preaching God's good news gospel. Right? And then he said, "We are

20:36

20 minutes, 36 seconds

not trying to please men, but God who tests our hearts." We need to learn that

20:43

20 minutes, 43 seconds

we are not to be people pleasers, but God pleasers. We serve an audience of one.

20:51

20 minutes, 51 seconds

In this passage, Paul says, "I'm not going to change my message to make it more popular. That's not what I'm about.

20:56

20 minutes, 56 seconds

I'm not going to water it down. I'm not going to change it to make it more acceptable. I'm going to preach it as it is. I have to give the message just as

21:04

21 minutes, 4 seconds

God told it to me. And it's tempting to compromise your values to gain friends.

21:10

21 minutes, 10 seconds

Right? And and right now some of you may be thinking that I'm talking to teenagers. And I am talking to teenagers, but not just teenagers. I'm

21:18

21 minutes, 18 seconds

talking to adults, too. Because adults as well as teenagers, we can bow to the peer pressure around us. We feel that

21:25

21 minutes, 25 seconds

pressure of wanting to be liked and accepted. And so we tone down certain things. We tone down our Christianity.

21:31

21 minutes, 31 seconds

We hide our Christianity at work. We hide our Christianity while hanging out with our friends. So we laugh at the dirty jokes. And we talk just like

21:39

21 minutes, 39 seconds

everyone else. And we blend in because we want to be liked. But we have to stop worrying what others think of us and

21:46

21 minutes, 46 seconds

stop and start caring about what God thinks about us. A lot of times we're so concerned about what everyone else's opinion of us is. But on judgment day,

21:55

21 minutes, 55 seconds

there's only one person's opinion that's going to matter of us. Amen.

22:00

22 minutes

So if we displease God, it doesn't matter who we please here on earth. And if we displease everyone on earth, it doesn't matter as long as we please God.

22:11

22 minutes, 11 seconds

Amen.

22:13

22 minutes, 13 seconds

We serve an audience of one. And so we have to develop this attitude that says, "I don't care what anyone thinks of me except for God. My life isn't about

22:20

22 minutes, 20 seconds

others liking me. My life is about pleasing my Lord and Savior." A fine lad entered the army. He faced a

22:28

22 minutes, 28 seconds

real test the first night he went to be in the barracks. He had formed the habit of placing his Bible on his bed at home and then he would kneel down and read a

22:37

22 minutes, 37 seconds

chapter while having his daily prayer time before he went to sleep. Surrounded by scores of rough men in the one great

22:44

22 minutes, 44 seconds

company room, many of them cursing and jesting loudly, he thought it might be wiser to just go to bed and then read his Bible where nobody would notice it.

22:54

22 minutes, 54 seconds

But he told himself, "I'm a Christian and I ought to give these fellows a testimony. I won't strike my colors.

23:00

23 minutes

I'll do just as I did at home." And so the courageous youngster uh got into his sleeping clothes. He spread out his Bible on his cot.

23:11

23 minutes, 11 seconds

He kneelled down and he started to read.

23:13

23 minutes, 13 seconds

And in two minutes, the barracks got as quiet as church. He felt like a goldfish in a glass bowl. After a while, the talk

23:21

23 minutes, 21 seconds

started back up and nobody said anything about his behavior. But the next night when he again opened his Bible and knelt to read, guess what happened? Eight

23:30

23 minutes, 30 seconds

other boys dug out their Bibles and did the same. And about and within a month, every man in that outfit would have

23:37

23 minutes, 37 seconds

fought for that boy. They brought their troubles and their questions to him to be settled. And he influenced more men for Christ in that in those barracks

23:46

23 minutes, 46 seconds

than than a dozen chaplain could have done in a year's worth of Sunday churches. Right guys, we've got to stop worrying about what everybody else is

23:54

23 minutes, 54 seconds

thinking and just be who we are. We're children of God. Just be that. To say, "I'm not going to change what I do because I'm around other people. I'm

24:02

24 minutes, 2 seconds

gonna be the same person in public as I am in private. Like the the person named Daniel in the Old Testament. You guys

24:10

24 minutes, 10 seconds

know that story where they they some guys tricked the king into making a law against praying against the the God of Daniel, the the Hebrew god, right? And

24:19

24 minutes, 19 seconds

you know what Daniel did? He didn't hide where he prayed. You know what he did?

24:24

24 minutes, 24 seconds

He prayed in the same exact spot he always prayed in. Right in front of his window where anyone could see. right in

24:31

24 minutes, 31 seconds

front of his window. He He knelt down three times a day and he prayed right where anyone could see like he always had. And they arrested him. And you know

24:40

24 minutes, 40 seconds

what happened? He got thrown into a den of lions. But what happened? God protected him.

24:46

24 minutes, 46 seconds

And the lions did not eat him. And then God told turned the whole story around and had the guys who tricked the king into making law them thrown into the den of lions and justice was served. Right?

24:58

24 minutes, 58 seconds

But Daniel was gonna be who he was and do what he does for his God no matter what. Right? That's where we need to get to. That's where I need to get to.

25:07

25 minutes, 7 seconds

That's where we need to get to. So, let's pray.

25:10

25 minutes, 10 seconds

Father, I ask that you please help us, God. I pray in the name of Jesus. Help us to stop feeling value based on what

25:18

25 minutes, 18 seconds

others think of us. Help us to realize that the only approval that we need is yours, God. As it said in Philippians,

25:25

25 minutes, 25 seconds

you have promised to give us the desire and the power to do what pleases you. So God, we ask right now, give us the

25:33

25 minutes, 33 seconds

desire and the power to go against the current and to let our light shine. God,

25:40

25 minutes, 40 seconds

give us boldness. Give us courage to let our light shine and let the world see a different flavor in us so that they

25:48

25 minutes, 48 seconds

might want to know you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right. On the back of your programs, I

25:57

25 minutes, 57 seconds

have those next steps. There's four of them. You can do one of them. You can do a combination. You can do all of them.

26:02

26 minutes, 2 seconds

One or as many as you want, but the first one I put in there, and you can always add your own, but the first one I put in there is serve at the Heart Food

26:10

26 minutes, 10 seconds

Pantry this week. That'd be a good way to let your light shine, wouldn't it?

26:14

26 minutes, 14 seconds

Volunteer. Call them up. You can sign up on their uh website and volunteer at Heart Food Pantry. They can always use more help. Um, the other one, next one

26:23

26 minutes, 23 seconds

is pray five days this week that God will give you the courage to let your light shine. Okay, if you've been covering up your light, maybe this is

26:31

26 minutes, 31 seconds

you. Pray five days this week, Lord, help me. Give me the courage to let my light shine. Maybe some of you want to do this third one. Read your Bible on

26:40

26 minutes, 40 seconds

your lunch break and let people see you actually being a Christian. Remember some of you remember Miss Lillian the story of Lillian where she read her

26:48

26 minutes, 48 seconds

Bible and daily bread on her lunch break and because of that her coworker was inspired to be baptized. Remember that it all started just because she was reading her Bible on her lunch break.

26:57

26 minutes, 57 seconds

That's it. She wasn't going around preaching necessarily. She just was reading her Bible and it made an impression. And then some of you may

27:05

27 minutes, 5 seconds

want to do the fourth one. Pray before your meal at a restaurant this week.

27:09

27 minutes, 9 seconds

Right. And I might take a picture of you if I if I see you like good job. Great job, church. Let your light shine. Who

27:17

27 minutes, 17 seconds

cares who's looking? We got to stop caring. Instead, care about letting our light shine. And people see something different in us. Amen. They need to see.

27:26

27 minutes, 26 seconds

The world needs to see something different in us. Some people are starving for seeing something different in us that's different from the world,

27:35

27 minutes, 35 seconds

right? They need to see that. So, God, give us the courage. I hope you take some of those next steps. um take one or or more of those and check those off and

27:44

27 minutes, 44 seconds

make that your goal for this week. We'll send out an email tomorrow to remind you of those next steps so that we can put this into practice. All right, let's let our light shine. Can we do that, church?

27:53

27 minutes, 53 seconds

Can we do that this week? Can we let our light shine? Come on, let's do that. Let's do that.

28:01

28 minutes, 1 second

Not not to bring attention to ourselves, but to redirect and point them to Jesus, right? Hey, this light you see in me, it's just a reflection of Jesus, right?

28:10

28 minutes, 10 seconds

We're just like that. That moon doesn't have any light within itself. It only reflects the light of the sun, right? And that's us. It's not the light in us.

28:19

28 minutes, 19 seconds

We're just reflecting the light of the sun, Jesus. Amen. Let's do that. Let's do that this week. So, um this is our

28:26

28 minutes, 26 seconds

time of decision and uh our band is going to lead us in one last song. And uh I just want to invite you if you have any kind of decision that you want to

28:34

28 minutes, 34 seconds

make this morning. Um I'm going to go to the back of the room. Um, if you if you feel uh like you need to take some steps towards following Jesus today, come see

28:43

28 minutes, 43 seconds

me and I'll help you walk through what is your next step to following Jesus.

28:47

28 minutes, 47 seconds

Uh, maybe you're going through a difficult time, you just want somebody to pray for you. I'd love to pray for you. U maybe it's something else.

how should I introduce you? And he said, I'm the best thing since sliced bread.

0:05

5 seconds

Yeah, I think I I think I said introduce me that way. I said, no, don't.

0:08

8 seconds

[laughter]

0:09

9 seconds

Too late. So, we're in for a treat. Um, and so I I'm not going to take any thunder. Welcome. Welcome, brother Tom.

0:18

18 seconds

Good morning. Good morning.

0:21

21 seconds

Uh, as happens sometimes when you travel, your your uh slides don't work with the with the system you got. So, we're going

0:29

29 seconds

to do this the oldfashioned way. I hope you have a Bible with you, and I'm not going to do a whole lot of jumping around, so it should be fairly easy for

0:36

36 seconds

you. Uh, if if you're like me and a little slow at turning the pages, I've been doing this for 52 years. And, uh, I

0:44

44 seconds

have some dyslexia, so I'm I'm slow. It takes me a while, you know, to find things. So, I understand if it does you as well. Um, you you might want to turn to Acts to the book of Acts, chapter 1.

0:54

54 seconds

That'll kind of get you started. And I think we're going to be there. and in Matthew. And that's about it for this morning. Hey, we're going to be talking about

1:01

1 minute, 1 second

um a kingdom revival this week. And you can see from the slides up here that we've got uh that we're going to be talking

1:10

1 minute, 10 seconds

about thy kingdom come tonight. That little three-word prayer that's kind of in a prayer. We're going to talk about that tonight. And tomorrow night is the

1:18

1 minute, 18 seconds

kingdom priority. Making the Lord's kingdom your priority. And then on Tuesday night is kingdom living. How are

1:25

1 minute, 25 seconds

we going to live out for our king Jesus uh in his kingdom while we're still walking around in a world that's gone

1:32

1 minute, 32 seconds

absolutely nuts? And we'll talk about that on Tuesday night and on Wednesday.

1:38

1 minute, 38 seconds

Very different, very different from the other messages is don't grow weary in kingdom service. I'm going to talk about things that make us weary and why people

1:45

1 minute, 45 seconds

walk away from church. And uh you might get a little weary listening to it, but we're going to lift you up the very end.

1:51

1 minute, 51 seconds

And I hope uh we're all going to be stable and keep working for the Lord at the end. And uh this is uh Roll and Road will be doing this. It'll be more

1:58

1 minute, 58 seconds

traditional for the rest of the week and the evenings, but we hope you'll come and and share with us and bring your friends. It's for Christians and non-Christians alike. Uh let's begin

2:07

2 minutes, 7 seconds

with a word of prayer before we start this message on the Lord's church today.

2:10

2 minutes, 10 seconds

[clears throat]

2:11

2 minutes, 11 seconds

Father in heaven, thank you so much for everyone that's here. Thank you for the blessings we have of just being with Impact Church today. uh just a special

2:19

2 minutes, 19 seconds

treat for us as something added on and extra for the uh for this revival that Roland Road was putting on. And Father, I pray that you you knew every one of us

2:28

2 minutes, 28 seconds

and you knew we were going to be here and we're going to be in this service today. This is not by accident. So, Father, I pray that you would uh touch our hearts with your word. Teach us what

2:37

2 minutes, 37 seconds

we need to know, Father. And we're not praying that we be um challenged today, but that we be changed. that real

2:47

2 minutes, 47 seconds

revival comes when we're changed. So, Father, bring real revival into our hearts today and we'll thank you for doing that. For we pray this prayer in Jesus name. Amen.

2:56

2 minutes, 56 seconds

No, a man was answering questions for a national poll and he was asked for his church preference. He thought for a bit

3:03

3 minutes, 3 seconds

and finally he said, "Red brick." Red brick. Yeah. Yeah. I see you looking. And you know some people some

3:11

3 minutes, 11 seconds

people that's all they know about the church, you know, and and they think, "Oh, yeah. red brick or I like those white frame buildings, you know, or maybe I like a metal building or

3:19

3 minutes, 19 seconds

whatever. But when it comes to the Lord's church, that's about as deep an understanding as most people have. But what's the church supposed to be? And

3:26

3 minutes, 26 seconds

what's the church supposed to do? To help answer these questions, we're going to take a look at the church of the first century, the Lord's church. We're

3:34

3 minutes, 34 seconds

going to look at its beginning, its nucleus, and its assurance. Uh first, let's take a look at its beginning. Oh,

3:41

3 minutes, 41 seconds

its mission, too. I missed that. And its mission. We'll look at its beginning. We need to realize that the church came from God. It's not a man-made

3:49

3 minutes, 49 seconds

institution, folks. A lot of people seem to think that Jesus came to earth and well, he failed. They they killed him.

3:57

3 minutes, 57 seconds

And so God said, "Well, what we going to do now? I'll put the church down there and we'll see what will happen if I put the church down there and then uh and

4:04

4 minutes, 4 seconds

then I'll send Jesus back at some other later date." But that's not the case.

4:09

4 minutes, 9 seconds

From the beginning of time, God had in his mind the church.

4:16

4 minutes, 16 seconds

So after Jesus came into the world, after his death, burial, and resurrection, the church was established.

4:23

4 minutes, 23 seconds

The church began on the first day of Pentecost. And you can read all about in the book of Acts. In the first chapter of the book of Acts, Jesus has a meeting

4:31

4 minutes, 31 seconds

with the apostles on the Mount of Olives. And there he tells them,"Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard

4:38

4 minutes, 38 seconds

me speak about." Acts 1:4. Um, and he also tells them, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,

4:47

4 minutes, 47 seconds

and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." Acts 18. And

4:54

4 minutes, 54 seconds

uh, by the way, if you're trying to figure out what translation, I'm using the mostly using the English Standard Version. So, if that helps you at all.

5:02

5 minutes, 2 seconds

So in Acts 1:14, we're told that they went to Jerusalem and all these with one accord were devoted uh were devoting

5:10

5 minutes, 10 seconds

themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and his brothers. Now, starting with the

5:18

5 minutes, 18 seconds

first verse of Acts 2, we read about the beginning of the church. Uh and we're just going to open up right there and

5:25

5 minutes, 25 seconds

and start verse two or chapter 2, verse one. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And

5:34

5 minutes, 34 seconds

suddenly there was from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were

5:41

5 minutes, 41 seconds

sitting and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were filled with the

5:48

5 minutes, 48 seconds

Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues or languages as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling

5:55

5 minutes, 55 seconds

in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they

6:03

6 minutes, 3 seconds

were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

6:08

6 minutes, 8 seconds

And they were amazed and astonished, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of them in his own native

6:17

6 minutes, 17 seconds

language?" And then from this, it goes on and it talks to us about where they were from, and so we don't understand their languages. Well, you just bypass that right now and go down to verse 12.

6:26

6 minutes, 26 seconds

And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others mocking said, "They

6:34

6 minutes, 34 seconds

are filled with new wine." But Peter standing with the 11 lifted up his voice and addressed them, "Uh, men of Judea

6:42

6 minutes, 42 seconds

and all who are in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my

6:48

6 minutes, 48 seconds

words. for these people are not drunk as you suppose since it's only the third hour of the day. And before I read any

6:56

6 minutes, 56 seconds

further, I if you know anything about Peter, he was always, oh my goodness, he was always saying uh things you ought not saying. I can almost hear Peter

7:04

7 minutes, 4 seconds

almost hear Peter saying not even the Romans are drunk at 9 in the morning and you think a bunch of Jews are up here drunk uh doing this and and this is why

7:11

7 minutes, 11 seconds

it said no no he didn't say it. That's just Tom. I just that just comes to mind, you know. But anyway, for these people are not drunk, you suppose, only

7:19

7 minutes, 19 seconds

the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. Now from there, he goes on and he

7:27

7 minutes, 27 seconds

gives them the prophecy of Joel. I think it's from Joel chapter 2, uh, but you can read it right here, the prophecy he's talking about. And he's just

7:35

7 minutes, 35 seconds

explaining that that Joel prophesied that this was going to happen in the last days. Now, I'm asked many times over the years. I've been preaching for

7:44

7 minutes, 44 seconds

51 years now, and I've been asked many, many times. Uh I started when I was 10, by the way, trying to figure out the age thing. But anyway, uh uh they they uh uh

7:54

7 minutes, 54 seconds

they ask, "Do you think we're in the last days, Tom? You know, all these terrible things." I say, "Yes, but we have been for 2,000 years. Ever since

8:03

8 minutes, 3 seconds

Jesus ascended to heaven, then he ushered in the last days. We are in the Christian age. and this is the last days

8:11

8 minutes, 11 seconds

of the earth. And so, yes, we're living in the last days. But he gives them that prophecy there. And then he begins to

8:18

8 minutes, 18 seconds

preach to them about Jesus. Start with verse 22. Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested

8:28

8 minutes, 28 seconds

to you by to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did

8:35

8 minutes, 35 seconds

through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite

8:42

8 minutes, 42 seconds

plan and fornowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up losing

8:50

8 minutes, 50 seconds

the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. So, he's talking about Jesus. And so, you don't have to listen to two full sermons

8:58

8 minutes, 58 seconds

this morning, Peter's and mine. We'll skip down to his conclusion and his invitation starting with verse 36. Let all the house of Israel therefore know

9:07

9 minutes, 7 seconds

for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now when they heard this,

9:14

9 minutes, 14 seconds

they were cut to the heart. And Peter said, and Peter and the rest of the apost said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

9:24

9 minutes, 24 seconds

And Peter said to them,"Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you'll receive the gift

9:33

9 minutes, 33 seconds

of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children, for all who are far off. For as many as the Lord

9:40

9 minutes, 40 seconds

our God calls to himself," and with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save

9:48

9 minutes, 48 seconds

yourselves from this crooked generation." So those who received his word were baptized. And there were added that day about 3,000 souls.

9:58

9 minutes, 58 seconds

3,000 souls baptized on that day after that first sermon that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost.

10:09

10 minutes, 9 seconds

Think about this if you will. They they had no uh sanctuary or or worship center. Uh they had no formal Sunday

10:17

10 minutes, 17 seconds

school, no preacher training colleges, no written curriculum. My goodness, they didn't even have a projector. And and

10:24

10 minutes, 24 seconds

they did it all without that. How how did they do? And yet and yet with little of what we have today, but heavily armed

10:32

10 minutes, 32 seconds

with prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, they were able to change the world of their day. Now that's the

10:41

10 minutes, 41 seconds

Lord's church. With the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit, you can change your community. You can bring people to Jesus

10:49

10 minutes, 49 seconds

Christ. The church back then was not what what we call the church then.

10:54

10 minutes, 54 seconds

Pardon me for saying that this mambby pami come in and put in an hour on Sunday. Okay, Lord, we're the church.

11:00

11 minutes

We're going home. See you next week. No, that's not the church. The church changes its surroundings. That's the Lord's church. The church has an impact.

11:11

11 minutes, 11 seconds

Church has an [laughter] impact on its community and you ought to be having that impact on everybody around you.

11:18

11 minutes, 18 seconds

People ought to be saying, "What's going on with you?" You say, "Let me tell you about Jesus. What's going on with me and Jesus?" Now, let's take a look at the

11:26

11 minutes, 26 seconds

nucleus of the church. Who were these men who made up the nucleus, the core group of the early church? Let's go back

11:33

11 minutes, 33 seconds

to Matthew uh uh or go to Matthew 28 and we can learn uh a little bit about the core group. There were 11 of them. Judas

11:41

11 minutes, 41 seconds

was now dead. In Matthew 28:16, now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed

11:49

11 minutes, 49 seconds

them. Now they were fishermen. There was a tax collector in there. The men from the hill country of Galilee. There's no

11:58

11 minutes, 58 seconds

indication of anyone rich or influential or highly educated among them. Uh they were just ordinary people. Now later on

12:07

12 minutes, 7 seconds

there were some rich and influential people like uh like Saul of Tarsus. But the first thing we notice is the men who

12:14

12 minutes, 14 seconds

made up the nucleus of the first church were very ordinary.

12:20

12 minutes, 20 seconds

You know that ought to be encouraging to us us ordinary people. Amen.

12:25

12 minutes, 25 seconds

Yeah. Ought to be really encouraging to us. The the second thing we notice is that these these men were not perfect.

12:32

12 minutes, 32 seconds

We look at Matthew 28:17.

12:35

12 minutes, 35 seconds

And they saw him. And when they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. Don't you just love the honesty of the

12:42

12 minutes, 42 seconds

scriptures, church? Here they were meeting with Jesus after the resurrection. They look at him. They can see the nail prints and the hands and

12:49

12 minutes, 49 seconds

the feet and holding the side and and the brow. He's standing right in front of him.

12:56

12 minutes, 56 seconds

And yet someone said, "Could it be Jesus? Might not be Jesus. Not really sure." And they certainly weren't perfect guys. You take Simon the Zealot.

13:08

13 minutes, 8 seconds

Today, people probably call him a redneck. I mean, you know, now I got to explain that. I was I was preaching near one of our forts one time and I had to

13:16

13 minutes, 16 seconds

explain to somebody who wouldn't who who wasn't from, you know, around where I'm from and they thought I was saying he's part of the Kulux Clan. No, that's not

13:23

13 minutes, 23 seconds

what I was saying, folks. Okay, I want to make this clear. What I'm saying is he worked hard out in the sun. He drove a pickup truck if he had him back then.

13:31

13 minutes, 31 seconds

He maybe had his gun on a rack in the back so he'd go hunting when he wanted to go hunting. If your car broke down, he's going to be the first one there to help you change change it, change the

13:39

13 minutes, 39 seconds

tire or fix whatever you need. He's just a good old boy is what I'm saying, what what they call him nowadays. And now, uh, how about Simon Peter? You never

13:48

13 minutes, 48 seconds

knew what that man was going to say. I so identify with him. Not because he was a big fisherman, because he was always putting both feet in his mouth at the

13:56

13 minutes, 56 seconds

same time. That is me, people. and and James and John had problems with their egos. Always had

14:04

14 minutes, 4 seconds

to be first in line for those fellowship dinners. That was that was where they were. And and then there was Thomas the doubter.

14:11

14 minutes, 11 seconds

All right. I mean, he wasn't there that first time. There were some of those guys that Thomas shows up and they said Jesus was here and he says, "Well, I

14:19

14 minutes, 19 seconds

doubt it. No, no, no, no, no. Jesus was." Well, I I'd have to see him and put my fingers, you know, in his wounds

14:26

14 minutes, 26 seconds

and everything. Later on, Jesus shows up and I kind of see him saying, "Tommy, come here."

14:34

14 minutes, 34 seconds

You know, he said, "My Lord, my God." And he said, "You know, you are so blessed because you see and believe, but how blessed are those even more so who

14:41

14 minutes, 41 seconds

don't see and yet believe." Yeah, church. That's wonderful thing there.

14:45

14 minutes, 45 seconds

But even though others had doubted, they labeled him the doubter. Yeah, let's put it on him. See, they weren't too

14:54

14 minutes, 54 seconds

perfect, were they? And how would you like to have that label forever? The doubter. We start this prayer meeting if the doubter get here. Hilarious.

15:01

15 minutes, 1 second

Doubter, come on in here and lead us in prayer. Doubter, we're going to let the doubter pray for us now. You know, wouldn't you hate that? So they the these men were not who made the new.

15:12

15 minutes, 12 seconds

They were not perfect in that first church. They were far from it. And that'll be encouraging to us because we're imperfect, too. Amen.

15:20

15 minutes, 20 seconds

You know, everybody in this room has problems. We're all have our areas of weakness. You pick you you think right now in your mind the person in your

15:28

15 minutes, 28 seconds

church that you most admire their spiritual walk. Whoever he or she is and you think I really I wish I could be like him or her. I guarantee you they're

15:38

15 minutes, 38 seconds

struggling with something. We're all struggling with something. And what I'm saying is we're in good company. We're in good company with

15:46

15 minutes, 46 seconds

these guys in the first church. But they had one more characteristic which made all the difference. They loved Jesus.

15:52

15 minutes, 52 seconds

They wanted to obey him. Go back to verse 16 of 28. Matthew 28. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the

15:59

15 minutes, 59 seconds

mountain to which Jesus had directed them. Now I want to ask you this morning. Is that kind of people we have here today? People who love Jesus.

16:11

16 minutes, 11 seconds

People who want to obey Jesus.

16:14

16 minutes, 14 seconds

Great. I'm glad to hear it. The nucleus of the first century church, the Lord's church, was made up of ordinary imperfect people who desired to make

16:22

16 minutes, 22 seconds

Jesus not only the savior of their lives, but the lord of their lives. If that was the nucleus of the Lord's first church, it needs to be the nucleus of the impact church. Amen.

16:32

16 minutes, 32 seconds

Amen.

16:34

16 minutes, 34 seconds

Third thing, we need to see the mission of the church.

16:40

16 minutes, 40 seconds

Matthew 28:19 and 20. They went to the place where Jesus told them to go. And this is what they heard. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,

16:48

16 minutes, 48 seconds

baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. In the 13th century, the

16:56

16 minutes, 56 seconds

colo polo, the father of Marco Polo, was visiting the court of the great Kublakhan. Kublan was the emperor of all China at the time. And he was so

17:05

17 minutes, 5 seconds

impressed with this man, his Christian values, his Christian faith that uh he wanted to know more about it. So he sent

17:12

17 minutes, 12 seconds

a letter with with uh Marco back to uh

17:19

17 minutes, 19 seconds

uh excuse me with Nolo, not Marco, back to Rome asking that Rome would send

17:27

17 minutes, 27 seconds

Christian educators to China to teach all the Chinese about Jesus. Kublakhan

17:36

17 minutes, 36 seconds

said, "Send us," he didn't know the word, but send us missionaries.

17:40

17 minutes, 40 seconds

The church could send as many as you wanted, a hundred, a thousand to China.

17:48

17 minutes, 48 seconds

Well, it was still what we call the dark ages

17:56

17 minutes, 56 seconds

in Europe, and the church leaders were too involved with political upheavalss of the day to give any serious attention to that request.

18:05

18 minutes, 5 seconds

In the end, only two men were sent.

18:09

18 minutes, 9 seconds

Can you imagine how the map of the world would be different today if China had been one to Christ back then? Can you imagine? And yet just two men were sent.

18:22

18 minutes, 22 seconds

That's not the end of the story. The trip was so difficult they lost heart and turned back without ever reaching China.

18:31

18 minutes, 31 seconds

So because of the failure of the church that day, Kublakhan turned to Buddhism and that's been the predominant religion in that area of the world ever since.

18:41

18 minutes, 41 seconds

I wonder if the return of Jesus terries and I hope it doesn't but if it does and

18:50

18 minutes, 50 seconds

impact church continues for another 50 70 years and we have the freedom in this country to meet which has been a little

18:58

18 minutes, 58 seconds

doubtful in the last several years you know but I pray that we do have that but you're say your church is here in in 50

19:05

19 minutes, 5 seconds

75 100 years how will people in this community speak about impact church if they were asked will somebody say

19:13

19 minutes, 13 seconds

I don't know there's some cars over there but you know I've been pretty close by but I don't know I've never been there before I don't know anybody I've never talked to anybody from there

19:22

19 minutes, 22 seconds

yet I see them come and go and I don't know anybody or will somebody say you know somebody from that church years ago

19:30

19 minutes, 30 seconds

stopped by my my great grandma's house or my grandma's house started talking to her about Jesus or

19:38

19 minutes, 38 seconds

my grandfather father had a real good friend that went to impact church and they used to go to coffee or breakfast once a week and he started talking to him about Jesus and he came to Jesus.

19:48

19 minutes, 48 seconds

Now we got five missionaries and four preachers in our church and we are we are out there winning people to Jesus Christ. Impact Church has made an impact

19:57

19 minutes, 57 seconds

in our community for 50, 75, 100 years.

20:03

20 minutes, 3 seconds

I hope that's what they'll say. I hope they won't have to speak of impact the way we speak of the church of the dark ages.

20:13

20 minutes, 13 seconds

Remember, the mission of the church is to make disciples of all nations, starting right here. To be the the Lord's church, this church must take its mission of world evangelism seriously.

20:24

20 minutes, 24 seconds

Now, you may be thinking, well, there you go. There's three points from the preacher. I got four. So, we're going to So, I'll say this word. You're going to love this. You can say amen if you want to. Finally.

20:34

20 minutes, 34 seconds

Amen. All right, there you go.

20:37

20 minutes, 37 seconds

The assurance of the church. Jesus said, "Behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age." Matthew 28:20. You know, to

20:46

20 minutes, 46 seconds

the early church, these these were some of the most precious words Jesus ever spoke. Every time they gathered to worship, they knew that soldiers might

20:55

20 minutes, 55 seconds

come and arrest. They had seen many of their friends die. They had seen them tort. They'd heard their cries of pain just because they were followers of

21:02

21 minutes, 2 seconds

Jesus. So when Jesus said, "I am with you always." That meant something to those people back then.

21:10

21 minutes, 10 seconds

You know, it means something to us now, too.

21:13

21 minutes, 13 seconds

I don't know about you, but you know, just a few years ago, they were telling us to shut our churches down that we couldn't meet. We didn't do it.

21:21

21 minutes, 21 seconds

But we are a traveling ministry. We've been traveling for 23 years. We got two evangelists and our wives, and we travel coast to coast into Canada, uh, I think

21:30

21 minutes, 30 seconds

30 states and four provinces. we've done and almost 800 revival that we've done and we've been all over. And so we took those six weeks off, you know, in in in

21:39

21 minutes, 39 seconds

March, April, whenever that was, let churches decide what they're going to do. And someone said, "Just re reschedule us, you know, right after that." And other churches said, "No, we're not going to do it." Because they

21:47

21 minutes, 47 seconds

kept continuing that thing. And then other churches said, "Well, they're not going to do it. We're going to do it." And we went to towns where the churches were threatened where they said, "If you meet, we'll arrest you. We'll shut you

21:55

21 minutes, 55 seconds

down." And they said, "Not only do are we going to have church on Sunday, we're having a revival. Would you like to come? And we did that in Southern

22:03

22 minutes, 3 seconds

California during this time, folks. We kept on going. So Jesus saying, "I'll be with you always." We understand that. We understand that in this country. And we

22:10

22 minutes, 10 seconds

understood it a lot. We really began to understand it just a ways back. But just in a simple in simple terms, it means when Jesus is saying, "When you tell

22:19

22 minutes, 19 seconds

your neighbor about me, you're a little nervous about that. I'm with you when you do that. When you invite someone to church, I'm with you. When when when you

22:27

22 minutes, 27 seconds

tell them about Jesus and you're nervous about I'm with you. you can do that. Uh and and by the way, tonight we're going to have some free stuff out there

22:35

22 minutes, 35 seconds

that'll help you tell people about Jesus. So, you might want to come and get that. But, uh he's saying when you're excited and joyful, I'm with you.

22:43

22 minutes, 43 seconds

When you're discouraged and confused, I'm with you then, too. When someone says you can't bring your Bible to work, I'm with you when you're going to go ahead and do that.

22:54

22 minutes, 54 seconds

I am with you always. Signed Jesus always.

23:00

23 minutes

Missionary statesman Hudson Taylor had complete trust in God's faithfulness. In his journal, he wrote, "Our heavenly father knows very well that his children

23:08

23 minutes, 8 seconds

wake up with a good appetite every morning. He sustained three million Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. We do not expect he will send

23:16

23 minutes, 16 seconds

three million missionaries to China, but if he did, he'd have ample means to sustain them all." I want to tell you a little bit about our story.

23:26

23 minutes, 26 seconds

I'd been preaching 29 years when I was called into this ministry 23 years ago.

23:32

23 minutes, 32 seconds

And this man came to us and said, "I don't know how to preach. I don't know how to do revivals, but Tom, you've been doing revival for 29 years.

23:42

23 minutes, 42 seconds

The church needs it. If you'll go, we'll send you my wife and we'll pay your salary and we'll cover your expenses.

23:47

23 minutes, 47 seconds

We'll set a budget. We'll just do it." They grew up poor. poor and lower middle class, but God had blessed them and they had money and he said, "We know how to

23:55

23 minutes, 55 seconds

give. We'll do this. If you'll go, we'll do it." So, after we prayed a lot about it, we we did this very thing and God

24:03

24 minutes, 3 seconds

provided over the years. Uh and we have never in 23 years asked a church for a check or an offering. Never. For anything we do, everything we do is free. But over the years, churches kept

24:11

24 minutes, 11 seconds

saying, "We want to" and individuals did. So, finally, we said, "Okay, we'll allow you to do that." And we were able to do some more things. But, but we still do things free of charge. When we

24:21

24 minutes, 21 seconds

started this, people said, "Tom, don't do revivals. You're good at starting churches. Don't do revival. Uh, revival are dead." My answer was, "Churches are

24:29

24 minutes, 29 seconds

dead. We need revival." And like I say, almost 800 revival later, 793 or 94 revivals later, we're

24:39

24 minutes, 39 seconds

still doing it. After 15 10 years, we couldn't keep up with the request. So, we brought in another team. And I want to tell you about this.

24:48

24 minutes, 48 seconds

that man who started this ministry, him and his wife. We sit outside a Cracker Barrel in a storm in his pickup truck.

24:55

24 minutes, 55 seconds

And I had one of those yellow ledgers.

24:57

24 minutes, 57 seconds

And we had to hire someone to run the office, too. I said, "I can't run the office, you know, and do this anymore. I mean, you're going to have somebody else. We got to have somebody handle all

25:05

25 minutes, 5 seconds

this." So, we hired a young lady to run the office in January. We were going to hire this man in in in in uh June or

25:13

25 minutes, 13 seconds

July. And uh he knew we were all set to do it. And as the devil would do it, he got fired. Uh because he was preaching

25:21

25 minutes, 21 seconds

the truth, be honest with you. And and so we said, "Well, we need to we need to go ahead and hire him." He said, "Don't worry about it. I'll work another job.

25:28

25 minutes, 28 seconds

I'll do something else until the time comes." We sat down there and he said, "Put down these numbers." I put them down. And I said, "Oh, it ain't going to make it." And he said, "Well, put down

25:35

25 minutes, 35 seconds

these numbers." I put them down. And he, "No, it ain't going to make it." Well, maybe I can give this. And I put it down. And I said, "Brother, it don't write tally out. It ain't going to work." And this is what he said to me.

25:44

25 minutes, 44 seconds

He said, 'Brother Tom, if we don't do this, we don't need God and we don't need prayer.

25:51

25 minutes, 51 seconds

He's right. And so we did it. And we hired him that day and paid him for the month before. And God has taken care of

26:00

26 minutes

everything for now 12 years. They've been with us. That was a scary time.

26:07

26 minutes, 7 seconds

But going what he said about the missionaries to China, let me share this with you. We've been trying for over a year. We we've been working under

26:15

26 minutes, 15 seconds

Midsouth Christian College and they're a 501 for for quite a long time since 2006 and for their sake and ours we were trying to separate and uh when you have

26:24

26 minutes, 24 seconds

one family that gives a the bulk of your giving it makes it kind of hard with the IRS and we've been trying trying the

26:31

26 minutes, 31 seconds

lawyer came and I got a he our guy gives guy cost you time not going to let us do it. They said the only way you're going to do this is to become a church. We

26:38

26 minutes, 38 seconds

said for years we are not a church we are a parurch organization.

26:42

26 minutes, 42 seconds

There was a young man in our town from California, actually the oldest son of our partner, who was planning on resigning, moving to our town, and

26:50

26 minutes, 50 seconds

spending a couple of years raising support and raising a church because we've lost

26:57

26 minutes, 57 seconds

three of of the six churches in our area in the last 15 years. And the other three, bless their hearts, are doing the best they can, but they're not doing

27:05

27 minutes, 5 seconds

very well. And there he was. And I found out on Monday, he's out looking for a job. I've had on money. We We're going to have to be a church. On Sunday, I'd passed a building that was for sale.

27:16

27 minutes, 16 seconds

So, we met out there and we prayed.

27:19

27 minutes, 19 seconds

A 9,000 square foot church building sitting out on our main highway for sale for over a year to rebuild today would

27:27

27 minutes, 27 seconds

cost four three to five million.

27:32

27 minutes, 32 seconds

They were asking 300,000.

27:38

27 minutes, 38 seconds

Now, we had some money, but we said that we can't operate. We do that. We're not going to be able to operate. You know, we prayed about it. We stood out on the

27:47

27 minutes, 47 seconds

highway. We prayed about it. We said, "God, we don't want to rush ahead of you. If this is what you're putting ahead of us, you do it. We don't want to do what what we want to do." And say, "Now, you bless what we just did." And

27:55

27 minutes, 55 seconds

we prayed about it. We talked to that young man and everything. This is three and a half weeks ago, maybe three and a half. Well, I was in Wyoming.

28:05

28 minutes, 5 seconds

Everything was rolling.

28:07

28 minutes, 7 seconds

Our board met online. We decided we're going to step on faith and we're going to make an offer on that building.

28:16

28 minutes, 16 seconds

And overnight the price dropped to 250,000.

28:21

28 minutes, 21 seconds

Before we made an offer, we put a guy to negotiate. He said, "I'm going to offer 125." We said, "You're nuts."

28:30

28 minutes, 30 seconds

Back and forth. Back and forth. While I was in West Virginia. No, while I was in Illinois. Or was I? I was in Illinois

28:37

28 minutes, 37 seconds

two weeks ago. Kristen, who runs our office from Knoxville, Tennessee, drove to Mississippi with a check and we

28:45

28 minutes, 45 seconds

bought that building. And we hired that young man for $6,000 a year.

28:51

28 minutes, 51 seconds

He said, "I'll come." And then another organization stepped in, the Atlas Uriah Fund, and said, "We're going to be a teaching church.

28:59

28 minutes, 59 seconds

We're going to train preachers out of our church." And the Atlas Ria fund does that. and this young man's connected and they said, "You're going to do what we do. We're going to have a campus now.

29:11

29 minutes, 11 seconds

We're going to come step up and we're going to trust the Lord and we're going to pay his salary for one year." So now we have a full salary. Today he's resigning his church in California.

29:23

29 minutes, 23 seconds

This is what I want to tell you. You can depend on it. God's work done in God's way will never ever ever lack supply. I

29:32

29 minutes, 32 seconds

would say this to you church. What I did in my last ministry, we went to a new church in a farmhouse and we said to

29:39

29 minutes, 39 seconds

them with my family of five, we were 15 people on four acres. I said this, this is one of my prerequisites.

29:47

29 minutes, 47 seconds

Somebody says this is how we can win people in the community. Nobody ever says we can't afford to do that. The first thing we say is would God have us

29:55

29 minutes, 55 seconds

do it? We pray about it. If God wouldn't have us do it, you don't got to worry about the money. if he would have us do it, then he's going to supply. We're

30:03

30 minutes, 3 seconds

going to do it. Nine years later, we tore down the building. We had 17,000 square foot of building, 300 members,

30:10

30 minutes, 10 seconds

almost 300 members, and and we were growing. And then we left for this ministry. You're a new church. You can make an impact.

30:20

30 minutes, 20 seconds

Don't be foolish, but trust God. Depend on him. Now, I I don't know how you perceive the church. I don't know if you

30:27

30 minutes, 27 seconds

picture a little church where you and a few of your friends can get together.

30:30

30 minutes, 30 seconds

You perceive a church where thousands come together on the weekend.

30:35

30 minutes, 35 seconds

But I know this, the church does not exist solely for its members. The church exists to reach the lost. And the moment you turn your sights inward and begin to

30:43

30 minutes, 43 seconds

think the church is just for you, then you're no longer a church. You're just a social gathering.

30:51

30 minutes, 51 seconds

You're just a private club.

30:53

30 minutes, 53 seconds

I'm going to wrap it up here in just a moment, but I want to share one more story with you. Beth and I just finished six weeks holding revivals in Eastern

31:01

31 minutes, 1 second

Canada and we were coming back through Maine.

31:05

31 minutes, 5 seconds

We were getting across the border on Saturday morning and the nearest Christian church we could find was down in Portland, Maine and it was a new church and there weren't but two other

31:13

31 minutes, 13 seconds

churches in the whole state Christian church the whole state of of Maine and they were hard to find there on rural routes but we could find this one. We drove all day hard to get down to

31:21

31 minutes, 21 seconds

southern Maine. We got our motel. We went out to find where the new church was meeting. It was in a warehouse. We said, 'Okay, it'll be be just a handful

31:28

31 minutes, 28 seconds

of people, you know, handful of sad folk, you know, trying to get a church started in New England.

31:34

31 minutes, 34 seconds

Next morning, we went and we went to the church. We came around the corner of the warehouse. There were men in yellow jackets and women parking cars,

31:42

31 minutes, 42 seconds

two 300 people walking in. It was amazing. And the services were great. It was a nice mix of old style, new style

31:50

31 minutes, 50 seconds

music. The preaching was great. The communion time was great. The prayer time was great. Something happened.

31:53

31 minutes, 53 seconds

happened. I don't know what it was. I didn't really care for, but other than that, it was a great service. We're walking out, the people are going their cars. Beth and I are walking out thinking, "Wow, this is amazing in

32:02

32 minutes, 2 seconds

Maine." And I just happened to mention to my wife, I said, "You know, I wasn't really pleased with with this." And I told her, and she stopped in her tracks,

32:12

32 minutes, 12 seconds

and she looked at me and she pointed her finger up at me, and she can do it.

32:14

32 minutes, 14 seconds

We've been married for a while. And she said, "Well, Tom Weaver, since when is the church about pleasing you?

32:25

32 minutes, 25 seconds

Oh man, she was right. It ain't about pleasing me. We exist for a lost world.

32:32

32 minutes, 32 seconds

In fact, we exist to give ourselves away. We exist to serve Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

32:40

32 minutes, 40 seconds

You know, on the Greek islands near the home of Hypocrates, the founder of modern medicine, you'll find an old olive tree that supposedly uh uh goes

32:49

32 minutes, 49 seconds

back 2400 years before the time of Jesus. You know, the trunk of the tree is huge, but it's almost completely hollow and

32:58

32 minutes, 58 seconds

virtually dead. What few branches it has are propped up on stakes driven into the ground. But each year it sprouts an

33:06

33 minutes, 6 seconds

occasional leaf or two and it might even produce a few olives. So I guess you could say the tree is still alive, but it's long since stopped fulfilling its

33:15

33 minutes, 15 seconds

primary function. Now it's just an ancient tree for tourists to come and have a look at.

33:20

33 minutes, 20 seconds

Listen to me. The church must never be like that tree. It is so much more than a relic of the past. It it is the body

33:29

33 minutes, 29 seconds

of Christ, the family of God. It has been entrusted with the message of salvation for the world. To be the Lord's church, we must understand our

33:38

33 minutes, 38 seconds

history, carry out our mission, and trust in the assurances of Christ for our present and our future. If if if

33:46

33 minutes, 46 seconds

you're one of these Christians who's not been trusting the Lord like you need to, then this is what revival is about. It

33:53

33 minutes, 53 seconds

it's about getting right again with the Lord. And I want to invite you in just a moment. We're going to have this this final song and I'm going to step back to

34:02

34 minutes, 2 seconds

the back here and I'll just be standing there for you while

Text...

Good morning everybody.

0:44

44 seconds

Welcome to Impact where we can worship our God together. We're so glad to see each and every person here today and I

0:53

53 seconds

just pray that you feel welcome and that you you feel that you can come as

1:01

1 minute, 1 second

you are we want people to be able to just come as you are and you want to find and follow Jesus or just or deepen

1:09

1 minute, 9 seconds

your already relationship with Jesus we just pray you feel comfortable finding

1:15

1 minute, 15 seconds

God and following him today

1:22

1 minute, 22 seconds

all right so uh hey has anybody um through these teachings on the Holy

1:30

1 minute, 30 seconds

Spirit, just has anyone become more mindful of the Holy Spirit in your life?

1:35

1 minute, 35 seconds

Like, has this helped you uh to understand the Holy Spirit better and just to be more mindful of the Holy Spirit in your everyday life? Has it

1:44

1 minute, 44 seconds

helped anyone? Good. Good. I I hoped it would. Um because the Holy Spirit is a very important part of our lives as

1:51

1 minute, 51 seconds

believers. And um you know, I just I just hope this has blessed somebody.

1:56

1 minute, 56 seconds

This this will be our last uh sermon in this series on the Holy Spirit. We're going to be in John chapter 14 if you

2:04

2 minutes, 4 seconds

want to go ahead and turn there in your Bibles. We do have some uh extra Bibles like this underneath the chairs in front

2:11

2 minutes, 11 seconds

of you or use a Bible app if you are more comfortable with the app on your phone. That's great, too. Whatever you like best, whatever works for you. Uh if

2:19

2 minutes, 19 seconds

this is your first time with us today at Impact, we want to say welcome and hopefully you received one of the uh the

2:26

2 minutes, 26 seconds

programs on your way in that has the pen clipped in. There's some extras on the back of the communion tables if you need that. And inside of those programs is a

2:36

2 minutes, 36 seconds

blue card that says, "Welcome home." And if you are visiting here for your first time, we would love if you would fill that card out with the information on

2:44

2 minutes, 44 seconds

there, your name, your email, your phone number, and then at the end of the service, on your way out of the building, there's a blue tent. As soon as you go out the doors, there's a blue

2:53

2 minutes, 53 seconds

tent. You turn that in at the blue tent, and we'll have a gift for you that has a bag, a gift bag of chocolates, coffees,

3:00

3 minutes

and Chick-fil-A gift cards in it. Uh just for us saying thank you for being our guest today. we would love for you

3:07

3 minutes, 7 seconds

to turn that in and get that gift. Um, and then if you're watching online, if you could just uh comment the town or the city that you're watching from

3:15

3 minutes, 15 seconds

today, we would appreciate that if you're watching online. All right. Well, uh, my dad uh, was a coach, a little

3:23

3 minutes, 23 seconds

league baseball coach when I was growing up, and he was my coach for at least a couple years that I remember. and he had

3:30

3 minutes, 30 seconds

this kind of trick play um where he found a loophole in the rule book that you know if you if you if the pitcher

3:38

3 minutes, 38 seconds

throws you four balls, you get to take a walk, right? You get a free ride to first base, right? And he found a

3:46

3 minutes, 46 seconds

loophole that it doesn't actually say you can only take one base that it nowhere said you can only take one base.

3:52

3 minutes, 52 seconds

So he would train us in practice. He said, "Now, you can only do this one time in the season because once we do it, the cat's out of the bag. Everyone

4:00

4 minutes

will be on to us." But he said, "We're going to train you when you're running to first. If you if the first base coach gives you one of these, that means

4:09

4 minutes, 9 seconds

you're going to jog like you're just going to take your normal one base, but then as soon as you get close to first, you would take off as fast as you could

4:16

4 minutes, 16 seconds

and run to second." And so, we would do that about once a season. And boy, you want to talk about the other coach getting mad. They would get red in the

4:24

4 minutes, 24 seconds

face. They say, "You can't do that. You can't do that." And my dad would just calmly walk out there with the rule book with the page turned to where it says

4:32

4 minutes, 32 seconds

walk and say, "Show me where it says I can't do that." And they'd look and they, "Well, I know it's in there

4:40

4 minutes, 40 seconds

somewhere. I don't see it, but I know it's in there." And they they'd go to the ump. That's wrong. They can't do that, right? And my dad would show the ump and say, "Show me where it is." And

4:47

4 minutes, 47 seconds

he it doesn't say you can only, you know, you can't take more than one bait.

4:52

4 minutes, 52 seconds

and they would get so mad. Uh, and it was funny from our side, right? We would laugh because, you know, we got we got it in on them. Uh, another thing my dad

5:00

5 minutes

did is he taught uh, he would always teach people to get their bat all the way back because he said what people do is they'd stand here about like this and

5:08

5 minutes, 8 seconds

when the pitch would come in and they they'd go back and then forward and they would miss. He said, "Just get your back

5:15

5 minutes, 15 seconds

all the way back first." And I remember we were about to take the field. We were watching this game that was going on before we took the field and this guy

5:24

5 minutes, 24 seconds

hit a home run and then he pointed to my dad and he said, "That's the guy who taught me how to hit home runs. He taught me how to get my bat back." It

5:33

5 minutes, 33 seconds

was really cool that he gave my dad credit, you know. Uh my dad was a pretty good coach, not just in uh baseball

5:40

5 minutes, 40 seconds

games, but really in life. Uh he was a good coach, a good mentor to people. How many of you have ever experienced

5:47

5 minutes, 47 seconds

moments where you needed help? Like you just thought to yourself, man, I could use a good coach, a good mentor, someone

5:55

5 minutes, 55 seconds

to help me through life. You know, I could really use some help, someone really wise to give me some good advice, right? Anybody ever felt like you should

6:04

6 minutes, 4 seconds

could use some good advice? Uh maybe a good friend to just you just needed some encouragement, some help with some

6:11

6 minutes, 11 seconds

encouragement. Uh someone to keep me going, right? Maybe you just needed a comforting presence. Someone who could just sit with you and be a comforting

6:19

6 minutes, 19 seconds

presence. Well, let me tell you, there's someone who wants to actually be all those things for you. It's called the Holy Spirit. He wants to do all those things for you, all wrapped up in one.

6:30

6 minutes, 30 seconds

In John chapter 14, we're going to start reading here in a little bit where but before we get to 14, in John 13, Jesus

6:38

6 minutes, 38 seconds

announces to his followers, to his disciples that he's going to be leaving.

6:44

6 minutes, 44 seconds

And just imagine the person you love the most leaving you, right? Like some of you have experienced divorce or even the

6:53

6 minutes, 53 seconds

death of a spouse maybe and and that sadness you feel. And when Jesus announces to his closest followers that he they loved him so much that he was

7:02

7 minutes, 2 seconds

leaving, what was their response? They were sad and they were scared and and like, well, what's going to happen next, right? If Jesus leaves, what's going to

7:10

7 minutes, 10 seconds

happen next? And so their their hearts are kind of broken. And in John 14,

7:17

7 minutes, 17 seconds

starting in verse one, he says to his disciples, to his followers, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in

7:25

7 minutes, 25 seconds

God, believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you that I'm going

7:34

7 minutes, 34 seconds

there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so

7:42

7 minutes, 42 seconds

that you may also be where I am. So Jesus comforts them with something that would have been very familiar to them.

7:51

7 minutes, 51 seconds

See, back then in the first century, when some when a couple was engaged to be married, the man would go away and he

7:58

7 minutes, 58 seconds

would literally build a house. He would prepare a place and when it was ready, then he would come back and get married

8:06

8 minutes, 6 seconds

and then take his new bride to the place where he had prepared. So once the the place was prepared, he would come back.

8:14

8 minutes, 14 seconds

And so that's what Jesus is basically encouraging them with. like yes I'm going away but I'm going to prepare a place and then I'm going to do what?

8:21

8 minutes, 21 seconds

Come back. I'm not going away permanently. I'm going to come back someday. They would get that like oh he's coming back. Okay. Um so don't

8:30

8 minutes, 30 seconds

stress the the theme right here is don't stress. Verses 15 through 18. Let's skip to that. Verses 15 through 18. If you

8:39

8 minutes, 39 seconds

love me is how it starts. If you love me keep my commands. And if I ask the father, he will give you another

8:48

8 minutes, 48 seconds

advocate to help you and be with you forever. And what did he say? He is the spirit of truth.

8:57

8 minutes, 57 seconds

The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he lives with you and will be in you.

9:09

9 minutes, 9 seconds

He's going to live inside of you. Jesus says, "Don't stress. I'm sending another counselor. In other words, what he's

9:16

9 minutes, 16 seconds

saying, another counselor, one who's just like me. Yes, I'm leaving, but I'm going to give you another counselor. One just like me that's going to help you.

9:26

9 minutes, 26 seconds

He's going to come alongside you. That's what the word advocate means. Is someone who's called alongside to help and

9:33

9 minutes, 33 seconds

encourage and exhort you, right? So, just imagine like a a marathon runner, right? Imagine someone's running a marathon and they've got a coach and

9:42

9 minutes, 42 seconds

that coach is alongside them and he's saying, "Hey, you're you're doing a good pace right now. Perfect. On pace, you're doing good. Keep that up." Or, "Hey,

9:50

9 minutes, 50 seconds

you're actually running too fast. You're going to burn yourself out. Slow it down a little. Slow down the pace a little." Or, "Hey, you need to pick up the pace."

9:57

9 minutes, 57 seconds

Right? That coach is running alongside them, coaching them. Here's what you need to do. Right? That's what the Holy Spirit's doing for us, coming alongside

10:05

10 minutes, 5 seconds

of us to encourage and exhort and and help us, right? Um, so I remember there

10:12

10 minutes, 12 seconds

was a time that uh my son Christian was playing soccer. He was maybe nine or 10 years old and he was a defender, right?

10:19

10 minutes, 19 seconds

So they're on the other side of the field. When the other team is dribbling the soccer ball towards them, the defender's job is to get it kick it out

10:27

10 minutes, 27 seconds

away from them and get it going back down the other side of the field. Right?

10:30

10 minutes, 30 seconds

If it gets on your side of the field, get it back on the other side of the field. And I remember Christian was especially just on fire that day. And he was just, you know, kick kick kick.

10:39

10 minutes, 39 seconds

Somebody would come up and he would just kick kick kick and get it out away from him and get him and then come up on this side and he would run up and kick kick kick. And he was just aggressive and and

10:48

10 minutes, 48 seconds

he did his job just perfectly. And I remember being so proud of him. And when the game was over, I just ran over. I said, "Man, good job." And I picked him

10:55

10 minutes, 55 seconds

up and put him on my shoulders. I said, "Man, I'm so proud of you. Good job, man. Good job today. And the Holy Spirit

11:02

11 minutes, 2 seconds

wants to be an encourager for you like that. Right? If we can stay in tune with the spirit, if we can really try to pay attention and listen to the Holy Spirit, he's trying to encourage you in life.

11:13

11 minutes, 13 seconds

You can do this. Don't stress. Jesus messages. The theme is peace. It starts

11:22

11 minutes, 22 seconds

in 14. Jesus starts out with peace. And if you read all the way through 16, it ends in peace. He's trying to say,

11:29

11 minutes, 29 seconds

"Don't stress. Have my peace that I'm trying to give you." Because imagine it would have been scary

11:36

11 minutes, 36 seconds

when Jesus announces to you, "I'm leaving." They don't know what's going to happen in the future, right? That would have been a scary moment. I

11:44

11 minutes, 44 seconds

remember one time me and Andrea were kind of freshly newly married and um there was I was woken up in the middle

11:51

11 minutes, 51 seconds

of the night and I thought that there was an intruder in the house. We were in this little three-bedroom tiny house,

11:58

11 minutes, 58 seconds

our first house. And I I I woke up because I thought there was an intruder in the house. And so I did that thing where I first of all, I grabbed my baseball bat.

12:07

12 minutes, 7 seconds

Right now I've got my baseball bat and I'm doing this thing where I'm going out from our bedroom into the next room,

12:14

12 minutes, 14 seconds

which was the kitchen. And I did this thing where I go around the corner. I'm like, "Ha, right. I'm ready to beat somebody down."

12:21

12 minutes, 21 seconds

And then, "All right, nobody's in this room." room and I go into the next room and I'm like, "Somebody in this room." And I go into

12:29

12 minutes, 29 seconds

the next room. Ah, and nobody's in there. And I'm like, "What's going on?" And and then I saw a flash of light for

12:37

12 minutes, 37 seconds

through the window. And I was like, "Wait a minute. What was that?" And then it flashed again. I said, "Oh, there's a storm." And we had just gotten a dog that we we took in. Her name was Ebie.

12:50

12 minutes, 50 seconds

And I learned that night that Ebie was scared of storms.

12:54

12 minutes, 54 seconds

And that's what had woken me up. She was whimpering in the other room. I thought it was an intruder, but it turned out it

13:01

13 minutes, 1 second

was just a scared dog. Right. But hey, I was ready. I was ready to defend my house. Don't mess with me. I got my

13:09

13 minutes, 9 seconds

baseball bat. All right. Um, but sometimes some of you uh you feel like you're just in this mode where you're

13:17

13 minutes, 17 seconds

like fighting to survive. like you're just barely hanging on by a thread. And Jesus doesn't want you to feel like that where you're just barely getting along.

13:25

13 minutes, 25 seconds

You know, sometimes we think we have to do things all on our own, like as if we're alone and we have to do things in our own power. And Jesus is like, "No,

13:33

13 minutes, 33 seconds

I've given you my Holy Spirit. You don't have to do this all alone. You don't have to do it all in your own power." Chapter 14 23.

13:43

13 minutes, 43 seconds

23. It says, "Jesus replied,"Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My

13:50

13 minutes, 50 seconds

father will love them and we notice we will come to them and make our home with

13:58

13 minutes, 58 seconds

them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own. They belong to the

14:05

14 minutes, 5 seconds

father who sent me." It says they will make their home not just with us, in us.

14:13

14 minutes, 13 seconds

The Holy Spirit comes to love live inside of us. They will make their home in us. He's like, just love us and we'll love you back. The father will love you.

14:22

14 minutes, 22 seconds

I Jesus will love you and you don't need to fear. You don't need to be afraid.

14:27

14 minutes, 27 seconds

You can have my peace. The God who made the universe will live in you and be with you. Isn't that amazing? That's

14:34

14 minutes, 34 seconds

amazing. Right? So, why am I freaked out? Why am I stressed out? Why am I scared? I've got I've got God with me,

14:43

14 minutes, 43 seconds

living in me. We need to claim those promises. We need to be reminded of that this morning and claim these promises.

14:49

14 minutes, 49 seconds

The God of the universe is living with me and in me. The Holy Spirit in me. I don't need to be freaked out. I don't need to be scared. He is with me. All

14:57

14 minutes, 57 seconds

right, let's look at six things the Holy Spirit does for us this morning. First of all, the Holy Spirit teaches and

15:04

15 minutes, 4 seconds

reminds us verse 25, right where we left off. Verse 25 and 14. All this, Jesus says, "All this I have spoken while

15:12

15 minutes, 12 seconds

still with you." But the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things.

15:21

15 minutes, 21 seconds

And then what's he going to do? Will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. There's

15:29

15 minutes, 29 seconds

that theme of peace. My peace I give you. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be

15:36

15 minutes, 36 seconds

troubled and do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. The Holy Spirit is going to teach and remind us. I have had some

15:46

15 minutes, 46 seconds

great teachers in my lifetime. Some very great teachers. I remember one of my teachers, one of my professors in college, his name was Flavl Jakeley. Can

15:55

15 minutes, 55 seconds

you imagine if your name was Flavl? And we had a very talented fellow student of mine who was very good at artists at

16:03

16 minutes, 3 seconds

drawing. and he one day he drew without Mr. Jakeley being there. He drew a likeness of him on the dry erase board.

16:10

16 minutes, 10 seconds

I think that's pretty good. Wouldn't you say that's a pretty good drawing on the board and it was he actually made

16:18

16 minutes, 18 seconds

another uh picture, but I didn't have that one. I I didn't have that one saved. Dr. Favlley, this was during the time when Fable Flave was really big.

16:27

16 minutes, 27 seconds

And he actually drew he actually drew that big clock necklace around Dr. Flavl Jakeley. He said Dr. Flavl Flave.

16:36

16 minutes, 36 seconds

It was pretty awesome. But uh Dr. Dr.

16:39

16 minutes, 39 seconds

Jakeley was one of my preaching professors. So I had three preaching classes and he was over my preaching to class, my second one that I had. And one

16:48

16 minutes, 48 seconds

of the things he did is he evaluated us as we preached. And one of the one of the things he pointed out is he said, "Okay, first of all, you need to get

16:56

16 minutes, 56 seconds

your hands out of your pocket. When you you're preaching with your hands in your pocket, get them out of your pocket. Don't stick your hands in your pocket.

17:02

17 minutes, 2 seconds

The other thing he said is everybody has their own filler words or phrases. Most people say um a lot. Um he said yours is

17:12

17 minutes, 12 seconds

you know. He said you said the phrase you know. You know you know about 30 times during your preaching. He said you

17:20

17 minutes, 20 seconds

got to cut that filler word out. You know. So you have Dr. Jakeley to thank for me being a better preacher today.

17:29

17 minutes, 29 seconds

He's the one who trained me and taught me. I've had many great teachers in my life. Many great teachers, but none were as good of a teacher as the Holy Spirit.

17:38

17 minutes, 38 seconds

The Holy Spirit is a great teacher to us believers. And he has taught me many things in my life. I remember driving

17:46

17 minutes, 46 seconds

down the road one day and the Holy Spirit brought to my mind Andrea's face.

17:52

17 minutes, 52 seconds

And it was like a defeated look. She had this defeated look as if she couldn't do enough to please me or or make me happy

18:02

18 minutes, 2 seconds

with what you know with how she was living or whatever. And I saw that face in my mind and the Holy Spirit was saying, "You need to stop discouraging

18:10

18 minutes, 10 seconds

your wife and you need to work on saying more encouraging words." That was the Holy Spirit working on me and I wow I I mean it was as clear as day her face

18:19

18 minutes, 19 seconds

like man I don't want her to be like that feel like that. I need to encourage her. Uh, some of you have heard me tell the story where the Holy Spirit

18:26

18 minutes, 26 seconds

convicted me about my daily devotion time with reading the word and prayer and how I was staying up too late watching TV and the Holy Spirit

18:34

18 minutes, 34 seconds

convicted me, cut off your cable. Quit staying up so late so that you can get up earlier in the morning and do your daily devotion time with me, right? And

18:44

18 minutes, 44 seconds

and I did. And I cut off my cable. And it wasn't easy, but I did it. And apparently I need a new microphone.

18:53

18 minutes, 53 seconds

So I cut off that cable and uh and got into my habit, my routine of daily devotion time with him. That was

19:00

19 minutes

something the Holy Spirit taught me. Um another time he convicted me regarding personal evangelism and how we we need

19:09

19 minutes, 9 seconds

to be concerned about the lost, those who are lost and dying apart from Jesus and headed towards hell. and and all of a sudden I started seeing all these

19:17

19 minutes, 17 seconds

scriptures that I heard all my life but in a new light like wow like like trying to reach the lost all through the Bible,

19:25

19 minutes, 25 seconds

right? That was the Holy Spirit trying to teach me. Um and then he said he would not only be a teacher but a reminder. He's going to remind the

19:34

19 minutes, 34 seconds

disciples. Did you did you notice that part? He said he's going to remind you of all that I've taught you. which is very practical because the disciples are

19:43

19 minutes, 43 seconds

going to have to remember everything Jesus taught them and pass that on. So the Holy Spirit is going to help them do

19:50

19 minutes, 50 seconds

that to remind them of all the things Jesus said and did. Um so very practical

19:56

19 minutes, 56 seconds

reason for that for me the Holy Spirit reminds me of scriptures at just the right time when I need them. Like when

20:04

20 minutes, 4 seconds

I'm being tempted, all of a sudden the scripture will come into my mind.

20:08

20 minutes, 8 seconds

Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. In other words, greater is the Holy Spirit who lives in me than

20:15

20 minutes, 15 seconds

the devil who's in the world. And I'll just remember that scripture when I'm being tempted. Okay, greater is he that is in me. I have a greater power on my

20:22

20 minutes, 22 seconds

side. I don't need to give in, right? I don't need to give in. Or when times are just looking really bad, things are just going really bad and all of a sudden the

20:30

20 minutes, 30 seconds

scripture will come to mind. Uh, and we know that God works all things for the good of those who love him and are

20:37

20 minutes, 37 seconds

called according to his purpose. Like, does the Holy Spirit ever do that for you? Bring to remembrance scriptures for

20:44

20 minutes, 44 seconds

that time, for that situation. Isn't God good? Isn't God good? The Spirit testifies.

20:51

20 minutes, 51 seconds

Chapter 15. The Spirit testifies. Just flip over one page.

20:58

20 minutes, 58 seconds

Chapter 15 verse 26. At the very end of chapter 15, when the advocate comes, still talking about the Holy Spirit.

21:08

21 minutes, 8 seconds

When the advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the father, the spirit of truth who goes out from the father,

21:16

21 minutes, 16 seconds

he will do what? Testify about me. He will testify about me. He will testify that God is real, that God is true.

21:25

21 minutes, 25 seconds

And you must you must also testify disciples for you have been with me from the beginning. What does the do spirit

21:32

21 minutes, 32 seconds

do? The spirit testifies on behalf of God. All right, let's look at 16 verse

21:39

21 minutes, 39 seconds

7. Very truly I tell you, but very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I

21:48

21 minutes, 48 seconds

go away, the advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will do what?

21:56

21 minutes, 56 seconds

Prove the world to be in the wrong about sin. Convict is another word. Convict the world about sin and righteousness

22:04

22 minutes, 4 seconds

and judgment. About sin because people do not believe in me. About righteousness because I am going to the father where you can see me no longer.

22:13

22 minutes, 13 seconds

And about judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

22:19

22 minutes, 19 seconds

So what does the spirit do? He's going to convict. He's going to convict the world in regard to sin. He says, "It is

22:26

22 minutes, 26 seconds

for your advantage that I go because unless I go away, the spirit cannot come to you and help you." Right? I always

22:36

22 minutes, 36 seconds

thought it'd be easier to be a disciple who actually lived in the time of Jesus to have him there, you know, among you.

22:43

22 minutes, 43 seconds

And so when it came to witnessing, like Christians are supposed to witness for Jesus, right? You know, back then you could just point at Jesus and be like,

22:50

22 minutes, 50 seconds

"There he is. This is Jesus. That's Jesus." Right? There's my witness.

22:55

22 minutes, 55 seconds

Right? When you're thinking a bad thought that you shouldn't be thinking, and Jesus knows your thoughts and he's like, "I know what you're thinking."

23:02

23 minutes, 2 seconds

You're right. Sorry, Lord. Sorry. I apologize.

23:06

23 minutes, 6 seconds

But don't you feel like sometimes like it's your job to convict people of their sin? Be honest. Sometimes some of you feel like it's your personal job to

23:15

23 minutes, 15 seconds

convict people of their sins and you think, "Man, I'm just never going to get through to this person." Guess what?

23:21

23 minutes, 21 seconds

It's not your job. It's the Holy Spirit's job. So there, I just took the pressure off of you. You don't have to worry about trying to convict the whole

23:28

23 minutes, 28 seconds

world in regards to sin, right? That's the Holy Spirit's job. And then chapter 16:12

23:36

23 minutes, 36 seconds

where he says, "I have much more to say to you." Wow, he's already said a lot.

23:40

23 minutes, 40 seconds

He says, "I could say a lot more. I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of

23:48

23 minutes, 48 seconds

truth, comes, he will do what? Guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on

23:55

23 minutes, 55 seconds

his own. He will speak only what he hears. And he will tell you what is yet to come." That's the future. He will

24:04

24 minutes, 4 seconds

glorify me because it is from me. He will receive what he will make known to you.

24:11

24 minutes, 11 seconds

What he will make known to you. All that belongs to the father is mine. That is why I said the spirit will will receive from me what he will make known to you.

24:21

24 minutes, 21 seconds

So what's the spirit do? He guides us into truth and apparently he's going to tell the future. He's going to reveal the future to the disciples of Jesus.

24:32

24 minutes, 32 seconds

So, um, you know, you know who's not good at predicting the future? Uh, whoever predicts who's going to win the

24:40

24 minutes, 40 seconds

college football, uh, team, you know, they make these big predictions and they're almost never right, are they? I

24:48

24 minutes, 48 seconds

mean, every once in a while they'll get it right, but they they sure sound like they know what they're talking about, but they're really not good at predicting the future. But have you ever

24:57

24 minutes, 57 seconds

had a light bulb moment where you just felt like God really helped you understand something that you had not understood before? Like you're just

25:06

25 minutes, 6 seconds

reading the scriptures and you're like, "Oh man, I've never understood that, but now I get it. Now I get it." That's the

25:13

25 minutes, 13 seconds

Holy Spirit teaching you. When you have that light bulb moment, that's the Holy Spirit teaching you. I remember one time Andrea uh had an insight to the

25:22

25 minutes, 22 seconds

scriptures and she was saying she was telling me what she had this insight she said Jesus is the good shepherd and the

25:30

25 minutes, 30 seconds

true sheep know his voice right that's what the scripture says true sheep know Jesus' voice and then the Pharisees

25:38

25 minutes, 38 seconds

wanted to kill Jesus so Jesus retreated away from them and it says the disciples

25:45

25 minutes, 45 seconds

followed him showing that they were true sheep because they followed Jesus, right? And you know, just little things

25:53

25 minutes, 53 seconds

like that, that's the Holy Spirit teaching us. So guys, the message this morning is don't stress. Don't stress.

26:01

26 minutes, 1 second

What's the message? Don't stress.

26:04

26 minutes, 4 seconds

Don't stress because when you need corrected or adjusted, the spirit is going to convict us. When you are confused, the spirit will bring clarity.

26:13

26 minutes, 13 seconds

When you're confused, the spirit will bring clarity and teaching. When you are stressed, the spirit brings peace and comfort.

26:22

26 minutes, 22 seconds

But we've got to stay in tune with the spirit. And so, let me just pray for us this morning. Father, help us as we close out this series on the Holy

26:31

26 minutes, 31 seconds

Spirit. Help us to be more aware of the Holy Spirit in our life. Help us to be mindful that we are trying to be led by

26:39

26 minutes, 39 seconds

the spirit. And because we have the Holy Spirit, we don't need to be afraid. We don't need to be scared. We don't need to be confused because the Holy Spirit's

26:47

26 minutes, 47 seconds

going to be there to help us and encourage us and comfort us and give us strength and give us peace and and and

26:55

26 minutes, 55 seconds

bring us teaching. And sometimes when we need our toes stepped on a little bit, he's going to bring some conviction, right? He's going to lead us. In other

27:03

27 minutes, 3 seconds

words, we thank you for your comforting presence for the believer. We thank you for giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us that does

27:12

27 minutes, 12 seconds

all these things for us. We're not doing this life alone. So God, when the devil tries to get us to believe that we're all in this alone and oh, all we can rely on is ourselves, it's not true.

27:23

27 minutes, 23 seconds

Help us to believe the truth, the spirit of truth that lives inside us and is with us 24/7 to lead us and to comfort

27:30

27 minutes, 30 seconds

us and to strengthen us and to encourage us. Thank you for this amazing gift.

27:37

27 minutes, 37 seconds

Thank you for this amazing gift that you give us. So, Father, uh, if there's anyone here this morning that doesn't have that gift, they haven't taken those

27:46

27 minutes, 46 seconds

steps to follow Jesus yet, I pray that you would work on their hearts right now and just help them to to see you for who you are, how good you are, how loving

27:54

27 minutes, 54 seconds

you are, how you sent your son, Jesus, to die for them on the on the cross to pay the price for our sins so that we could be forgiven of our sins and that

28:03

28 minutes, 3 seconds

we could have you uh the relationship with you and the Holy Spirit living inside of us. and uh and not only that,

28:11

28 minutes, 11 seconds

but the promise of heaven in the next life. God, you're so good to us. You have mercy on us. You have grace. You

28:18

28 minutes, 18 seconds

show us grace, and we're so thankful for that. Lord, we love you. For those of us who are already believers, uh we just

28:26

28 minutes, 26 seconds

say thank you right now. And help us, God. Help us just because we're closing out this series on the Holy Spirit that

28:32

28 minutes, 32 seconds

we can continue to focus on the Holy Spirit leading us in life. So God, help us not to forget about that just because

28:40

28 minutes, 40 seconds

we're closing this out. We need you, God. Apart from you, we can do nothing.

28:45

28 minutes, 45 seconds

Apart from you and your help of the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing. We can do nothing good. Uh we depend upon you.

28:52

28 minutes, 52 seconds

Help us to lean on you. Help us to lean on the Holy Spirit. Every day, every moment of every day, we lean into the Holy Spirit for your help, for your

29:01

29 minutes, 1 second

guidance, Lord, for a mentor, for a coach. We love you, God. And I just pray that you be with the rest of this worship service. Uh that we can make you a bigger part of our lives every day.

29:12

29 minutes, 12 seconds

Every day. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.

29:17

29 minutes, 17 seconds

All right guys, so our band is going to play one last song. I'm going to go to the back of the room. And if any of you feel the need to come to me at the back

29:24

29 minutes, 24 seconds

and just just pour out your heart, just if there's something God has put on your heart that you want me to pray for you about or encourage you and lead you in

29:32

29 minutes, 32 seconds

your next steps, uh I would love to lead you in those next steps. Maybe your next step is um just putting your faith in Jesus. You've been fighting it and you

29:41

29 minutes, 41 seconds

just finally need to put your faith in Jesus and believe he's real and that his son Jesus is real. Maybe your next step is repentance. You need to repent of your sins and turn and make a change.

29:52

29 minutes, 52 seconds

Maybe your next step is baptism. You haven't done that yet and you say, "Jeremy, help me. What do I need to do to be baptized? I need to be baptized

30:00

30 minutes

into Christ." Maybe your next step is rededicating your life to Jesus. You know, you were a believer and but you strayed away and today you say, "I need

30:08

30 minutes, 8 seconds

to rededicate my life and and commit myself to him again in a fresh new way today." I'll help you do that. If you're

30:16

30 minutes, 16 seconds

going through a tough time, you just need some prayer. you're going through it. How many of you have just you're just going through it, right? And you just need somebody to lift that prayer

30:25

30 minutes, 25 seconds

up to God and say, "God, help us. We're going through some stuff right now." I would love to pray for you at this time.

30:31

30 minutes, 31 seconds

So would you stand as we

Sync to video time

All

From the series

From Impact Church Reynoldsburg

Hello

Today he's here.

0:14

14 seconds

That's right. All right. Well, what I'd like to do is pray before we begin.

0:20

20 seconds

Okay. Let's ask God's spirit just to be in the room today. Uh this is not about what I have to say, but about what God

0:27

27 seconds

has to say to us. So, let's pray about that this morning. God, we open your your word before us today

0:36

36 seconds

with the prayer and the hope that you will teach us what we need to learn.

0:41

41 seconds

Each one of us might need a different lesson, but your Holy Spirit knows what that lesson is. And I pray, God, that you will just open our hearts and minds to see what we need to see today.

0:53

53 seconds

Be with me in my weakness as I preach. I pray these words will will uh be your words and not mine and that your word

1:01

1 minute, 1 second

will be clearly spoken and clearly understood. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen.

1:09

1 minute, 9 seconds

Well, it is good to be back with you again today. You know, in just a couple of weeks, the Ohio State football season starts.

1:16

1 minute, 16 seconds

Amen. Amen.

1:19

1 minute, 19 seconds

I learned a long time ago when I first moved to Columbus in 1991 that even though I wasn't an Ohio State fan because I came from the state of Indiana

1:28

1 minute, 28 seconds

and I I didn't Yeah. But I I learned quickly as a pastor I needed to be an

1:35

1 minute, 35 seconds

Ohio State fan because after about 15 years, I actually did

1:42

1 minute, 42 seconds

some research and I found that when Ohio State football team lost on Saturday, our church attendance was 15% lower the following day.

1:54

1 minute, 54 seconds

I'm not lying about that. It was true because when the Buckeyes lost, everybody felt sick and stayed home.

2:04

2 minutes, 4 seconds

Well, I I want you before I get into a little more Ohio State talk, I want you to tell

2:11

2 minutes, 11 seconds

me one word that describes what what Jesus has done for you. I'll start it by

2:18

2 minutes, 18 seconds

just saying, "I'm forgiven." What do you have? What how has Jesus changed Jesus changed your life? Set me free.

2:26

2 minutes, 26 seconds

Set you free. Great. Love. Renewed. Renewed.

2:34

2 minutes, 34 seconds

Healed. Very good. Second chances. Yeah. Do I have a strong in the house?

2:43

2 minutes, 43 seconds

Are we stronger because we know Jesus?

2:46

2 minutes, 46 seconds

Yeah. How about this? Are we dangerous because we know Jesus?

2:53

2 minutes, 53 seconds

We're supposed to be, aren't we?

2:55

2 minutes, 55 seconds

Let me tell you about a receiver on the Ohio State football team named Jerus Jeremiah Smith. Y'all have heard of him, right?

3:03

3 minutes, 3 seconds

Jeremiah Smith is a dangerous player.

3:07

3 minutes, 7 seconds

Every opposing coach is going to be coaching to stop Jeremiah Smith's danger to their team every game this season,

3:16

3 minutes, 16 seconds

starting with Texas and going all the way to the team up north. Because everybody knows that that man can catch

3:23

3 minutes, 23 seconds

balls that most people can't catch. He can keep his feet in bounds miraculously, defying gravity and

3:30

3 minutes, 30 seconds

momentum just to get a toe down. So, it's a completed pass. And if he catches it and he's out in front of you, you're

3:37

3 minutes, 37 seconds

not going to catch him. All right? So, everybody understands that Jeremiah Smith is a dangerous player

3:45

3 minutes, 45 seconds

and he gets in the heads of his opponent, doesn't he? Now, let me tell you about one of my favorite players in baseball, Ellie de la Cruz,

3:54

3 minutes, 54 seconds

a young man from the Dominican. I think he's only 23 years old right now. And and this this guy is the fastest player

4:01

4 minutes, 1 second

in baseball. Let me tell you some of the things he's done in the three short years that he's been with the Reds, my favorite team.

4:09

4 minutes, 9 seconds

You feel sorry for me? Is that what Oh, okay.

4:14

4 minutes, 14 seconds

This man on one day in April, April 8th, 2024, hit a 459 foot towering home run.

4:24

4 minutes, 24 seconds

Wow.

4:25

4 minutes, 25 seconds

To straightaway center field, showing his power. In the same game, he hit an inside the park home run where

4:34

4 minutes, 34 seconds

the ball never went over the fence, but he got home before the ball did, showing his speed. And if you're wondering about

4:42

4 minutes, 42 seconds

his defense, that man caught a ball about 40 or 50 feet beyond second base from the center

4:49

4 minutes, 49 seconds

fielder. He grabbed it out of his glove and he turned towards home and he threw a strike to the catcher who tagged out the runner coming to home plate. and

4:58

4 minutes, 58 seconds

they clock the ball at 104 miles an hour. So, he's got it all, doesn't he?

5:03

5 minutes, 3 seconds

He's got the arm, he's got the speed, and he's got the bat.

5:07

5 minutes, 7 seconds

When he gets on base, because of his speed one game, he stole second. He got

5:14

5 minutes, 14 seconds

on first, he stole second on one pitch, and the next pitch, he stole third. And when the catcher threw the ball, or when

5:21

5 minutes, 21 seconds

they threw the ball back to the pitcher, the pitcher wasn't paying attention, and he stole home. He stole three bases on two pitches.

5:30

5 minutes, 30 seconds

He has the fastest speed of any player from home base to third base on triples.

5:38

5 minutes, 38 seconds

In fact, he has the 10 fastest times since they started measuring that speed.

5:43

5 minutes, 43 seconds

He goes from home to third in about 10 and a half seconds. Now, if you can imagine running 90 feet in 3 seconds and

5:51

5 minutes, 51 seconds

another 90 ft and 3 seconds and another 90 ft and another 3 seconds because it takes you a good second to get your feet under you after you hit the ball, right?

5:59

5 minutes, 59 seconds

So, in 10 seconds, he goes from home to third base. When this man gets on base, he gets in the head of the opposing

6:07

6 minutes, 7 seconds

pitcher because that pitcher knows he's going to go to second. There's not a lot I can do about it. And so, they do their best to keep him close to first.

6:16

6 minutes, 16 seconds

Sometimes he gets picked off, but he's got a lot of stolen bases, 131 of them in the first two years he was in the

6:22

6 minutes, 22 seconds

league. And the catcher Ellie de la Cruz is in his head if he's

6:29

6 minutes, 29 seconds

on base. Everybody, the whole team, they're thinking, "What's he going to do next?" And it it messes with them. Now,

6:39

6 minutes, 39 seconds

the reason I say that we ought to look at ourselves and see ourselves as dangerous is because that's what Christ has called us to be.

6:49

6 minutes, 49 seconds

Christ has called us to get into the head of our enemy. But you know what happens too often is that old devil gets in our heads far before we get into his.

6:59

6 minutes, 59 seconds

And we're we're letting him bring fear and discouragement into our lives to the point where we're almost paralyzed to do

7:08

7 minutes, 8 seconds

what Jesus has called us to do. And I talked too long and my iPad just shut off.

7:16

7 minutes, 16 seconds

All right, there we go. We're back. So, God has called us to be dangerous.

7:23

7 minutes, 23 seconds

And when we look at the book of Acts, we see a dangerous church. I want to remind you that after Jesus ascended into

7:31

7 minutes, 31 seconds

heaven, he told them to wait until they received power. Power makes people dangerous.

7:38

7 minutes, 38 seconds

And they went and they gathered in an upper room, 120 of them, and they prayed for 10 days. And on the first day that

7:45

7 minutes, 45 seconds

the church began, Peter and the other apostles got up and preached a sermon, and 3,000 people were saved.

7:54

7 minutes, 54 seconds

That was a dangerous church.

7:56

7 minutes, 56 seconds

Those people who became followers of Jesus were dangerous people. And the religious establishment of the day knew

8:04

8 minutes, 4 seconds

just how dangerous they were. And that establishment wanted to do everything they could to oppose the church, to oppose the apostles.

8:13

8 minutes, 13 seconds

At one point, Peter and John were walking up to the temple.

8:18

8 minutes, 18 seconds

They're just going up to the temple and probably going to do some preaching, but they didn't know what the Holy Spirit was going to lead them to do. On the way

8:27

8 minutes, 27 seconds

there, Peter and John healed a lame man that was sitting by the temple gate.

8:33

8 minutes, 33 seconds

Everybody saw it. Everybody around saw it. There was no way that anybody could deny that this healing took place. And

8:40

8 minutes, 40 seconds

Peter used it as a beautiful opportunity to preach a dangerous sermon that landed him in jail, got him beaten, and

8:47

8 minutes, 47 seconds

released the next day. And the only reason he was released was because there were too many witnesses that saw the

8:54

8 minutes, 54 seconds

power of God at work. There was no way that the the establishment who had him imprisoned overnight and beaten could

9:02

9 minutes, 2 seconds

deny that this this poor beggar, this lame man had been

9:08

9 minutes, 8 seconds

healed and was up walking around. So that's danger. Paul and Silas went to

9:15

9 minutes, 15 seconds

the city of Philippi and they healed a demon-possessed woman. That sounds like a good thing to do, right? That doesn't

9:23

9 minutes, 23 seconds

sound like a bad thing for anybody to do. You would think that the whole town would have been cheering Paul and Silas on. But no, this town was a little

9:31

9 minutes, 31 seconds

heavily involved in occult practices, pagan worship, false gods,

9:41

9 minutes, 41 seconds

mysticism, and what they saw it as was a threat to their economy because the the idols that

9:48

9 minutes, 48 seconds

they made there and sold the the business was in danger if too many people believed in Jesus. And so they saw Paul and Silas as dangerous men.

9:58

9 minutes, 58 seconds

They were thrown in prison. In fact, at one time it was said of that first century church, "These men have turned

10:06

10 minutes, 6 seconds

the world upside down, and now they've come here to our city to do the same thing." It was dangerous, but it was

10:13

10 minutes, 13 seconds

dangerous in a good way. I want Jeremiah Smith on my team if I'm playing football. I do not want to be a

10:21

10 minutes, 21 seconds

defensive back on the other side of the ball. I want Ellie de la Cruz on my team if I'm a catcher because I

10:29

10 minutes, 29 seconds

don't want to have to try to throw him out. And I want people like Peter and John and Paul and Silas on my team

10:35

10 minutes, 35 seconds

because they're dangerous Christians who understand the power of the Holy Spirit and aren't afraid to take a stand in the

10:43

10 minutes, 43 seconds

name of Jesus Christ to make sure people come to know him. So, this is where we are today.

10:52

10 minutes, 52 seconds

We are 2,000 years later and it seems to me that the church is a little powerless.

11:00

11 minutes

It's not dangerous because it has succumbed to some of the tools of the devil, fear, discouragement,

11:08

11 minutes, 8 seconds

and and we're not completely dedicated to what God has called us to be. I'm going to give you a scary statement that's very true. Satan is trying

11:17

11 minutes, 17 seconds

ridiculously hard to reach your friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors before you do.

11:24

11 minutes, 24 seconds

And he's got many of them, doesn't he?

11:28

11 minutes, 28 seconds

And if he can make us not care about that, then he's won the battle.

11:34

11 minutes, 34 seconds

But I want you to care today. I want you to care about your neighbors who are going to hell if they were to die today.

11:41

11 minutes, 41 seconds

I want you to care about the co-workers that you work with every day, that you have these superficial relationships with, and you know that they're lost,

11:50

11 minutes, 50 seconds

but you've never once tried to influence their life for Christ.

11:56

11 minutes, 56 seconds

Our enemy does not want us to be dangerous. He wants to be the dangerous one. But Jesus promised us

12:05

12 minutes, 5 seconds

when he told Peter and the other apostles when Peter said, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." Jesus said, "Blessed are you, Simon, son

12:12

12 minutes, 12 seconds

of Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but only my father who is in heaven." And he said, "Because of this,

12:21

12 minutes, 21 seconds

the gates of hell will not prevail against the church." Now, I want to believe that. Don't you?

12:29

12 minutes, 29 seconds

Don't you want to believe that Satan does not stand a chance against the church?

12:36

12 minutes, 36 seconds

And he doesn't. If the church gets its act together and begins to understand that prayer is the key to our danger,

12:45

12 minutes, 45 seconds

we have to believe that every person we know would be better if they knew and walked with Jesus.

12:54

12 minutes, 54 seconds

I know the devil believes that. That's why he's trying so hard to keep them.

12:59

12 minutes, 59 seconds

He's trying to convince you that it's not your responsibility to be dangerous.

13:04

13 minutes, 4 seconds

Let the preacher do that. Let certain people do that, but not me. I don't want to be dangerous. I just I just want to come to church and feel good.

13:14

13 minutes, 14 seconds

Well, church makes me feel good, too.

13:17

13 minutes, 17 seconds

But it makes us feel better when we're a dangerous church and we're reaching people with the good news about Jesus.

13:24

13 minutes, 24 seconds

Satan is loving this fact. On the average last year, if you take the average of all the churches in America,

13:34

13 minutes, 34 seconds

on average, the churches in America reached less than one person for Christ, true converts to Jesus Christ last year.

13:44

13 minutes, 44 seconds

And I think that's a sad statement.

13:46

13 minutes, 46 seconds

Jesus said this in John chapter 10 verse 10. The thief, and he's talking about the devil, isn't he?

13:54

13 minutes, 54 seconds

The thief comes only to steal, to kill, and destroy. That's right.

14:00

14 minutes

That's what he wants to do. He wants to do it to your neighbors. He wants to do it to your children and grandchildren.

14:06

14 minutes, 6 seconds

He wants to do it to your co-workers. He wants to do it to your enemies. And and we really need to care about this. Even

14:13

14 minutes, 13 seconds

our enemies, we need to care about their salvation. We need to care about the fact that they need Jesus. So, I want to encourage all of you today to work

14:21

14 minutes, 21 seconds

harder to prove God's love to the people around you. Sometimes that might mean swallowing our pride and making the

14:28

14 minutes, 28 seconds

first move to repair a relationship that we have damaged by our own actions or words. This is not something that we take lightly.

14:39

14 minutes, 39 seconds

God has put in your life, people who you are uniquely positioned to reach with the gospel.

14:49

14 minutes, 49 seconds

You have people in your life that I don't have. I have people in my life that you don't have. Jeremy has people in his life that you don't have.

14:59

14 minutes, 59 seconds

Likewise, you got people that he doesn't have. God has uniquely placed you where you are for such a time as this.

15:08

15 minutes, 8 seconds

so that you can reach your one. Because imagine if every church in America reaches an average of less than one

15:16

15 minutes, 16 seconds

person a year with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

15:21

15 minutes, 21 seconds

That's that's still a lot of people being reached. One per church is still is still a pretty good size number. But

15:29

15 minutes, 29 seconds

what if each Christian in every church in America would reach one person?

15:35

15 minutes, 35 seconds

The church would double in size. I didn't really do the math, but there were 120 believers on the day of Pentecost. 3,000 people were baptized on

15:44

15 minutes, 44 seconds

the first day. What What does that add up to? You know, somebody a mathematician or 3,000 divided by 120. It's a lot of

15:52

15 minutes, 52 seconds

people per believer, isn't it? That church grew fast.

15:57

15 minutes, 57 seconds

A couple chapters later, it says there were 5,000 men plus women and children who believed. And pretty soon it says even even a great number of priests were believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

16:10

16 minutes, 10 seconds

And the church was growing and growing and growing and growing because every person in the church knew that it was their responsibility to go into all the

16:18

16 minutes, 18 seconds

world and make disciples. So here at impact you love people.

16:25

16 minutes, 25 seconds

You should because God calls us to love people. What's the greatest commandment?

16:29

16 minutes, 29 seconds

Love the Lord your God with all your heart. with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.

16:40

16 minutes, 40 seconds

So you know that God has commanded us to

16:48

16 minutes, 48 seconds

without telling them about Jesus, you're not loving them at all. No. And so we've got to get into our heads.

16:55

16 minutes, 55 seconds

We've got to get into our minds and our hearts that we're going to give people what they need the most. We're going to give them Jesus.

17:05

17 minutes, 5 seconds

There are hungry people every day who who are going to bed hungry. It's important that we feed them. But you

17:13

17 minutes, 13 seconds

know what's more important? That we tell them about Jesus while we're doing it.

17:18

17 minutes, 18 seconds

You know Jesus said, "Who among you seeing his son is hungry will give him a stone rather than bread.

17:30

17 minutes, 30 seconds

That's a bad person. Oh, you're hungry. Here, try this rock." That doesn't help.

17:40

17 minutes, 40 seconds

And sometimes we're giving people things that they want, but we're never telling them about Jesus. They need the

17:47

17 minutes, 47 seconds

lifegiving message of the gospel. And we have to be sure that we talk about more than the

17:54

17 minutes, 54 seconds

weather. When we're talking to people, we have to believe that every person would be better off if they knew and walked with Jesus.

18:03

18 minutes, 3 seconds

I believe that. You believe that?

18:06

18 minutes, 6 seconds

All right. If we if we believe that, then let's figure out what to do about it. Okay. Now, I I noticed there's a little picture

18:14

18 minutes, 14 seconds

over here on the wall, and it talks about the 99 sheep that weren't lost, but the shepherd went after what?

18:22

18 minutes, 22 seconds

The one. Yeah. Now, we're all sitting in here today, and I I'm glad you're here.

18:30

18 minutes, 30 seconds

And I can I can say I love every one of you even though I haven't even met you all.

18:35

18 minutes, 35 seconds

But that's what God encourages us to do, right? and and we can have we could have dinner on the grounds. We could spend

18:42

18 minutes, 42 seconds

the whole day together and and we could have a great time and we could feel really good when we went home tonight.

18:49

18 minutes, 49 seconds

But there's also a lot of hungry people out there that need to know Jesus that don't benefit from this. And now this is good. This is important. I'm not telling

18:58

18 minutes, 58 seconds

you that you don't need this. We all need this. We ought to be here every Sunday to have this.

19:05

19 minutes, 5 seconds