Podcasts about g god

Welcome to Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran. Sharon has a passion for scripture that will motivate and challenge you to immerse yourself in God's Word and apply His message to your everyday life. Visit SeekingTruth.net to learn more about bringing Seeking Truth to your parish or to become an online learner. Today it's part two of the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, verses 1 through 15. And now, Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran. Jesus, the anointed one. And when they were all waiting for the anointed one to come, and who was the anointed one? The Messiah. So God saves is what Jesus means. God saves. They're waiting for an anointed one. God saves anointed one. Jesus Christ, God's anointed one. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, then we get his identity. Son of capital G God. That's a bold proclamation. To the emperor of Rome, who is calling himself little g God, and he has a son too. So the son of God. Now, this is a striking title, a striking, bold proclamation of faith, because the world did not know that God had a son, because God had not revealed that yet. Even the Jews did not know God had a son, because they said every morning and every night, the Shema prayer, hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God is one Lord. All they knew was God was one. And they would pray at morning, night, morning, night, and they still do. From Deuteronomy chapter 6, the Shema Israel, hear, O Israel, the Lord, the Lord our God is one. They don't know God has a son. They don't know that he's one, two, and three, and one. They don't know anything about that yet. God has to reveal that through his God spell, through his gospel. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart, and you will teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. These are pretty important words. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand. And so the Jews would bind them on their hands. And they shall be in the frontlets of your eyes, and they would put them in the frontlets of their eyes. These are tefillin or phylacteries, they're called. Tefillin or phylacteries, they're little small leather boxes, and they contain leather straps and scrolls of parchment inside with all the verses of the Shema prayer from Deuteronomy 6 in Torah. Bind it to your head, bind it on your hands, bind it on your arms, teach it to your children, and put it on the, write it on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. So if you have any Jewish friends, they have a mezuzah on their door and inside the mezuzah. And when we bought our house from the Katzes and it had a mezuzah in the door and we kept it because inside the little brass thing is a little scroll with the Shema on it. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your might. It's called a mezuzah on your doorpost to this day. So they didn't know that God had a son. They thought God was one. So this is a bold proclamation of identity, that God Almighty, our one God, has a son. So he is already in this short line. We've seen two people of the Trinity, God the Father and God the Son. And we're going to see the Spirit before these 15 verses are over. So he's going to reveal the whole Trinity in the first 15 verses. They didn't know anything about it. But they did know Isaiah the prophet had said that, behold, I send a messenger before thy face that shall prepare the way. The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. They knew Isaiah well. And since Genesis 3, 15 and the fall of Adam and Eve, they had been waiting for a Messiah, one who would bring them back into communion with God because they had lost that when they got expelled from the garden. So they're waiting. Everyone's waiting for a Messiah. And this one's going to come before him who's going to prepare the way. So no one's going to miss this because one's going to come before him to prepare the way. Isaiah said it. I will send my messenger before thy face. He will prepare the way. It's going to be a voice of one crying out in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. Now, Isaiah, we studied Isaiah, and it is called the fifth gospel because there are so many fulfillments to be fulfilled in Isaiah by Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Let's read what that said in Isaiah 40. It's so beautiful. You'll all love this passage. Let's just see where this came from. Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Would that be a good message? Yeah. See it together for the mouth of the Lord has done what? God spoke the word. The mouth of the Lord has spoken it. The mouth of the Lord and God said. God spoke and it was. The mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Now, if we go on to the last stanza of that beautiful Isaiah 40 and we think about St. Peter is really the one who Mark is writing for. Isaiah says this, cry, and I say, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the breath of the Lord blows upon it, and surely the people is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but what will stand forever? The word of God will stand, And how long? Forever. That's what St. Peter said in 1 Peter 1. You who have been born anew, not of perishable seed, but imperishable through the living and abiding word of God for all flesh is like grass, all its glory like the flowers of grass. The grass withers, the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord abides forever. That word is the good news. news, the euangelion, the evangelium, the God spell, the good story that was proclaimed to you. Do you see an essence of St. Peter in Mark's gospel? Yes. Not only was the prophet Isaiah saying this, but the very final prophet of the Old Testament, the very last one, and then God was quiet for over 400 years. The very last prophet was Malachi. Malachi said something. Similar. Mary and Joseph bring him to the presentation and Simeon is outside and the Holy Spirit is so strong. Simeon's like, oh, he goes running into the temple after this baby and this young couple. They're so poor. They don't have a lamb. They just have the two little pigeon offering. Simeon takes that baby in his arms. He blessed God and he said, Lord, now let your servant depart in peace. I can die now according to what? Your word. According to your word, because my eyes have seen the salvation of all people, Gentile and Jew. This is him. This is the anointed one. This is Messiah. This is Jesus. God saves the anointed one, Jesus Christ. I know it by the power of the Holy Spirit. Anna the prophetess knew it too. She's in her 80s. She comes running in. She knows it. Mark's gospel, which is Peter's gospel, is not concerned with the infancy narratives. He is going to start with the ministry of Jesus that started when Jesus Christ was 30 years old. Peter didn't know anything about when Christ was a baby. Peter met Christ when Christ was 30 years old. How do we know that? Thank you, St. Luke, the careful historian, the doctor who's careful with his charting. He said that Jesus was 30 years of age in Luke chapter 3. Why is that important? That's important because in order to be a priest, guess how old you had to be? 30. Jesus won't be a Levitical priest. He will be a priest in the order of Melchizedek, but he's the the age of priesthood. Mark writes about Jesus from age 30 forward. And he says this, John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for what? The forgiveness of sins. So baptism for John had two components. There must be repentance. You must be sorry. You must humble yourself. You must go forward and repent with a contrite heart. And then what? You will be forgiven. You have to humble yourself, though, to repent. That's the hard part. That's where grace comes in. The Holy Spirit stirs us with grace. He acts on us. He acts on that sanctifying grace from our own baptism to get us to niggle enough that we want to go repent and be forgiven in the sacrament of confession. John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Now, this is a picture of St. John the Baptist by El Greco. This is what Matthew said about him. Truly, I say to you, this is Jesus talking now. These are Jesus's own words in the gospel of Matthew. Truly, I say to you, among those born of woman, there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist yet. He who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John. Who's Jesus talking about? Who could be more humble than John the Baptist? Jesus himself. Truly I say to you, among those born of woman, there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist, yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. For all the prophets, Jesus is still talking, for all the prophets and the law prophesied about John the Baptist. And if, if you are willing to accept it, Jesus Christ said, he is Elijah who is come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Everybody knew that someone had to come before Jesus. Remember on the cross when Jesus is crying out and some of the people say, is he Elijah? No, he's Jesus. Elijah was John the Baptist. Jesus told them that in Matthew 11, in his own words, for you with ears to hear, John is Elijah. This is a typology clue from Jesus. Jesus Christ himself said that John is Elijah. They dress alike. They talk alike. They look alike. Now, who is this John the Baptist? His dad was Zechariah. He was a priest. His mom was from the daughters of Aaron, another priestly family. Aaron's the brother of Moses. Elizabeth. And Elizabeth is barren, and they are old, old, old, old. They're advanced in years. She's never had a baby. She's sterile. She's barren. She's past menopause. There's no way they're having a kid, right? But his lot is drawn. And Zechariah goes into the temple that day, and I'm sure Elizabeth said, now make sure you pray that we have a baby. And he goes in, his lot is drawn, and he's in the Holy of Holies, the holiest place on the face of the earth. And an angel appears and says, don't be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. And your wife, Elizabeth, what is he praying for? He's every, any good priest, Levitical priest would be praying for the consolation of Israel, for the Messiah to come and save him from all the suppression of the Roman empire. And, and, and, oh yeah. And my wife wants a baby, but it's the same answer because the baby his wife is going to have is going to be the forerunner to the Messiah that has to come first before the Messiah. So it's a double dip. Don't you love when you get a double dip prayer? It's a double dip. And if you will have joy and gladness and many are going to rejoice at his birth. Why? Because he's the forerunner to the Messiah. And he's going to be great before the Lord, and he's not going to have any drink, no wine, no strong drink. That means he's going to take that Nazarite vow from the book of Numbers, and he's going to be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. This is a first. No one had an indwelling Holy Spirit because Jesus hadn't released the Holy Spirit yet on the face of the earth. John is an exception, the forerunner. He is going to be filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment of conception on. That's how he knows inside her stomach to jump up and down when he's in front of the Messiah. He's full of the Holy Spirit. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord. And he, now listen to this, he will go before him in the spirit and the power of who? Elijah. And what will he do? He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. A people prepared for what? A people prepared to meet the Messiah with clean hearts. That's what John's going to do. These are the famous last words of Malachi chapter 4, the very final sentences of the Old Testament. Malachi wrote, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day that the Lord comes. And what will he do? He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their Just what Zechariah said. Jesus is going to come. He's going to reverse all the curses of the fall and usher in all the blessings. He does just the opposite. He gives the greatest blessing, the gift of salvation, the gift of communion again with the Trinity that we lost in the garden. I will send you, Elijah, the prophet, before the Lord comes. He's going to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. That's exactly what Zechariah was praying. It's a prayer of the church. The deacons say it. The Liturgy of the Hour is every morning you say Luke 1. You say Zechariah's prayer. He's going to go before him in the spirit of the power of Elijah. This is Malachi. His name means my messenger. He's the final prophet in the Old Testament. And his book was written about 400 years before the birth of Christ, about 430 years before Christ. And this was nearly 100 years after the Jews had come back from the Babylonian exile. Now, the only scripture Jesus had were the Old Testament scrolls. He had the law and the prophets. They were scrolls. They were written in Koine Greek at the time because Alexander the Great had changed everything into Greek. Now, everything Everything's Latin because Rome is the world power. But the final words of the final scroll that God revealed to humans was that of Malachi, that he was sending Elijah the prophet before the terrible day of the Lord. So everyone knows Elijah has to come first. At every Passover, they set a place for Elijah, the end of the Old Testament. That's it. That's it. Those are the last words. And then it's silent for over 400 years. And then God spoke. An incarnate word, Jesus Christ. These two boys, Jesus Christ and John the Baptist, they're six months apart in age, half a year, six months difference. God sent Gabriel, who we're celebrating today, the Feast of the Archangels. One is Gabriel. The angel Gabriel came to Mary with a message. Behold, your kin's woman. She's related to Elizabeth. She's in her her old age, and she has conceived a son, and she is in her sixth month, the one who was called barren. She's six months along. Mary in haste goes to see her. She wants to serve her kinswoman. She knows she's old. She's pregnant, too. She has a secret she'd like to share with Elizabeth. She'll get it. Elizabeth is six months along, six months ahead of Mary's newly pregnant. Mary will stay there the whole time till the birth of John the Baptist. They can't believe they're having a baby, And Mary's there to help, to see the baby. But what happens, ladies, at about three months on your first baby? You start to show. Like now, after having seven pregnancies, five kids, and now I look seven months pregnant all the time. But back then, on your first baby, you're not showing until about three months. So Mary's three months along. Guess what? She's in her first trimester. She's beginning to show. She's going to go back to Nazareth. And people are going to be like. Have you seen Mary? Have you seen Mary? Have you seen Mary? Do you think? Do you think? So she has to go back. But Elizabeth and Zachariah have a beautiful baby boy, and he's going to be the forerunner of the Messiah. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. You will go before the Lord to prepare his way. Check, check, check. He will be the forerunner, John the Baptist. Now, in a triptych in the Russian Orthodox faith, they always put Mary, Jesus, and John the forerunner together. John often in icons has his own head on his platter because we'll see in Mark 6 how it ends with him. One of my favorite accounts of John is in Mark 6. And sometimes when it's not his head on a platter, he'll have Jesus in the chalice, baby Jesus, and he's pointing to him. In artwork, John the Baptist is always pointing to Jesus. So he sees Jesus, the true presence in the chalice there. Forerunner, why does he go before the Messiah? To soften their hearts so they can repent, be forgiven, have pure hearts when Messiah comes. Anytime you repent, the Holy Spirit just floods in. Jesus cannot resist repentance. I don't care what you've done. It can be the worst sin on the face of the earth. But if you repent and you have a contrite heart, you will be forgiven. There's nothing

R u trying 2 play or b a little g -god?   R u trying 2 play or b a little g -god? Why? Why? Why? Challenges of Faith Radio has made the following top listener chart on Goodpods: #4 in the Top 100 Spirituality Weekly chart Challenges of Faith Radio has also made the following leaderboards on Goodpods: #12 in the Top 100 Spirituality Monthly chart #22 in the Top 100 Religion & Spirituality Weekly chart #47 in the Top 100 Religion & Spirituality Monthly chart #1 in the Top 100 Author Weekly chart  

Message from Mike G on August 25, 2024

Can y'all believe April 1st is tomorrow? Well in January I shared how I plan to become a better “G” ( God, Goals, Glowing & Growing) woman. I am sharing what went right and what went wrong. My question to you is. How did your is your first quarter go? Did you achieve anything? Do you have work to do?

God is lining you up for your BREAKTHROUGH!! IT'S HERE NOW! Join the Latoya Okeia Academy Group Coaching Membership to get tapped in! Let's get to work on YOUR TRANSFORMATION!! https://www.latoyaokeiaacademy.com/courses/loa-membership *FREE* Follow-Up Videos on YouTube

This … big G God invented marriage, the coupling of a man and a woman till death do us part. Because our Creator, our Designer, thinks that model will work best … He thinks it will work best for your spouse, your kids, your clan, your community. And, our Creator, our Designer, thinks it will work best for you … it will help grow you into what you were meant to be … if … if you do it his way. And his way is hard. God tells us about a kind of love that will make it work, and it's a tough love. The kind of love that makes is work, he says, is “patient and kind.” Those are hard. The kind of love that will make it work is not jealous, or boastful or proud or rude, he says. Every one of those is hard. The kind of love that works does not demand its own ways, he says. And it is not irritable … How many of you guys love like that? How many of you guys practice that kind of love with your husband, or your wife? And then he says … “It keeps no record of being wronged.” “It keeps no record of wrongs.” It doesn't maintain a database of your spouse's failures. How many of you guys … practice that? In other words, God's kind of love – the kind of love that will make it work – forgives … Is it worth it to you?

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts Recently Tom Huszti interviewed me for his YouTube channel, the Unitarian Anabaptist. We talked about the importance of geography, archeology, and Greco-Roman history for interpreting the bible, especially the New Testament. Next we delved into early church history, starting with the earliest forms of Jewish Christianity in the first and second centuries. We talked about the Jerusalem church, the Nazarenes, and the Ebionites. Next we considered the persecution many Christians faced at the hands of the Romans for their unwillingness to give their ultimate allegiance to Caesar. The conversation was wide ranging, but what came through over and over is the importance of studying the bible and history in order to restore authentic Christianity and live it out today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KefOimH6ZU —— Links —— For the trip to Greece and Turkey with Jerry Wierwille, see the itinerary here and the map here. Follow Huszti's YouTube Channel, the Unitarian Anabaptist Check out episode 478 Unitarian Anabaptist (Tom Huszti)  Get the free class on Early Church History here. Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Transcript —— This transcript was auto-generated and only approximates the contents of this episode. Sean Finnegan:Hey there, I'm Sean Finnegan. And you are listening to restart studio podcast that seeks to recover authentic Christianity and live it out today. Tom Huszti: Sean Finnegan, welcome to Unitarian Anabaptist. Sean Finnegan: Thanks for having me. Tom Huszti: So this has been a long time in the waiting. I was interviewed by you about 8 months ago and now you're being interviewed by the Unitarian Anabaptist. What a privilege there is. A lot that you have to say today in the limited time that we're going to do this, you just came back from a trip of Italy and Greece. You finished a 500 year history of the early church. There's just so much interrelated and what I would like to do, as we discussed earlier is to relate these things back to the 1st century faith of our early Christian brethren. So to begin, could you give us a summary of the important highlights that you saw on your trip related to church history? Sean Finnegan: Yeah, we ended up going to a number of touristy spots in Greece like Santorini and Mykonos, but we also hit Athens and we came into the port of Piraeus and then got to the city of Athens and and the first thing that I will note. And anyone who's been to the Mediterranean in August will. We'll know what I'm about to say is. That it's hot. It's a very.SpeakerHot part of the. Sean Finnegan: World. So is the Middle East, so it's it's. It's interesting that, you know, like times I've been to Israel, times have been to Greece or Turkey. It is a very different climate than what I'm used to here in New York or you in Ohio there. Tom Huszti: Sure. Yes, yes, absolutely. Uh. Sean Finnegan: And you know that that. Brings to mind the importance of water. Hmm. And something that really stuck out to me in Israel I. Would have never. Gotten that from reading books, but going to Israel you go to these ancient sites and. These cisterns dug into the ground these huge caverns to store water because it doesn't rain that much water is is still a big deal in the 1st century in Rome in.SpeakerYes. Yeah. Sean Finnegan: Other cities Pompeii also got to visit Pompeii. Tom Huszti: A lot. Sean Finnegan: And they brought. The water in through aqueducts and this is. All part of. Their system of city structure, but the question. Who pays for the aqueducts? Who pays for the bath houses? You know, I got to see some bath houses in Pompeii where you had the the frigidarium, the tepidarium and the calidore. Yum, you know, and this is the really cold water, the tepid water and the hot water. And this is just what people did. These are these are public facilities. This actually ended up having a great deal of prestige. As wealthy people step forward and this happened in the 1st century, but also in the the 2nd century, was really the heyday of this period, where wealthy people would come forward and they would donate money to build these public works and they would build other great structures like theaters. And whatnot. And these would then be the ones who controlled the cities and won political office. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: And so it's a very different kind of world, you know, just like I don't think about water, I don't think. About wealthy people building bath houses or pools, right? It's just we, you know, we pay taxes and then, you know, we argue about the police. It's just a very different world. And that was really driven home to me on the trip, you know, in Athens, you're on the Acropolis and you're seeing the Parthenon and some of the other structures that still remain. Tom Huszti: Yes, yes. Sean Finnegan: It's just like this is an utterly different world, and it's just so helpful to remember that Tom because. We don't do that when we read the Bible, what we do is we just. We have what we. Understand the world to be, and then we encounter the scripture. We read the text and then we think to ourselves. How can I incorporate this new information? I'm reading about the book of acts or one of the church epistles. For example, how do I incorporate that into what? I know about the world. This is an automatic process and the problem is if you don't force yourself to stop and say wait, they lived in a different world where they had different. Different language, different politics, different weather, different everything. Then you can easily misunderstand so much of the New Testament I. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: Think that's a? Lot of what we as pastors do is we're trying to help people understand the scriptures. So the trip was really enlightening in that sense. Also, I'll make another quick point about it is that we did manage to go to the very edge of Mount Vesuvius. Now Mount Vesuvius blew in 79 AD 79, and that's what killed all the people in Pompeii and Herculaneum. And so they say it's still an active volcano. But you can take a.SpeakerOK. Sean Finnegan: Bus all the way up to the top and then you hike until. Tom Huszti: What's the way? Sean Finnegan: You get to the very crater. You can look down into the crater and it's just incredible. It's just dirt and some like grass and stuff. There's no like lava. Or anything cool but. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: It's just a weird experience to like, stand on the edge of an active volcano and think, wow. This thing blew. And you could kind of see why ancient people were like, ohh, the gods are angry, right? Because. Like who would it? Tom Huszti: Uh-huh. Well, yeah. Sean Finnegan: There's no one in living memory of seeing this thing blow the last time, and it's just such a otherworldly power, sure. Tom Huszti: How far is Pompeii from Rome? Sean Finnegan: I think about two hours. If I had to guess something like that, so we approached. Tom Huszti: Ohh that far OK. Sean Finnegan: Pompeii, from Naples, Naples, is on the. Coast came at it from the West to get to Pompeii in the east, and then you get to Vesuvius and. At the top. Of the Zeus, you can see everything you can see just miles and miles in different cities and. It's really incredible. Tom Huszti: My, my. So how far did the lava have to travel to make it to Pompeii from? Sean Finnegan: Well, wasn't it? They didn't get buried in lava, actually. Yeah, you, you. You would, I guess you would expect that, but it was, it was a I think it was a toxic gas. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: That swept through it well. Initially it was uh. Was launching projectiles and ash and rock straight up, and then that fell because of the wind onto the city and so that, you know, imagine like a hail storm, but with stones and bigger ones and smaller ones. But then a gas came from the mountain and. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: I believe that's what happened and it killed the people, but then it continued to rain. Ash, I think they said like 20 feet of ash, something crazy. Tom Huszti: Oh wow. OK.Speaker 5And it just. Sean Finnegan: Settled on the city and people just didn't have a reason to go there for anything or I'm. I'm not really sure why, but it just laid there. Century after century, and I'm not sure exactly when. Maybe in the 1700s eighteen, 100 something something around there, they're just like, hey, I think we found. A city over here, you know? Archaeology. Just finally gets started. And what happened, Tom, is they would come against these air pockets. So they're digging through. And they hit like a pocket of air and they're. Like this is so weird. What is this? And someone got the bright idea of. Of squeezing into it some plaster, yeah. Tom Huszti: plaster plaster. OK OK. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, if you have you seen these images? Tom Huszti: Yeah, I have. Yeah. That's what I was wondering. OK. Sean Finnegan: Yeah. Yeah. And so then they let it dry and harden, and then they chip around it and then they see the exact shape of a human being. Sometimes even with fine detail. Of like facial expressions and stuff. That's kind of become their customers when they hit an air cavity. They just do that and there there are lots of these casts of human beings in various positions. And what's crazy about them is it's. Just like a. Plaster, but inside the plaster are that person. 'S actual bones. Tom Huszti: Yeah. I was gonna ask. OK. I was gonna ask, you know, something that you mentioned to me back. Louisville, KY, was the length of time that bones. Yeah. And we were talking about resurrection and literal resurrection. And you mentioned that bones last a long time. That's something I really was impressed by something that Rabbi Tovia singer was speaking out against being cremated because. Because the bones are supposed to be the material that used for in part anyhow to reconstitute us as human beings in the resurrection. So that view is very Jewish in origin, as you well know. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, I tend to agree with Rabbi Tovia singer on that. I'm not a fan of cremation. I'm not going to say it's going to defeat God's ability to resurrect somebody, feel like that's a pretty extreme position to take. But I have learned a lot and I know you've been to Israel and you've stood on the Mount of olives and you see. Well, the the tombs there that are, I don't know why they're buried above ground, but they're all these stone rectangles and or stone boxes, really rectangular shaped boxes and inside are the bones. And it's like, well, what's the deal with this? Why are they so worried about bones or not worried but concerned about bones and focused and. Tom Huszti: Yes, yes. Sean Finnegan: About caring for the bones and you know they have these ossuaries where you know they they found Caiaphas ossuary. Tom Huszti: I know I saw it when I was in Israel. Sean Finnegan: Incredible ornate. Tom Huszti: In the Israel, yeah. In the Israel hit Natural History Museum of all places, back in 2004, I was shocked. Sean Finnegan: Isn't it beautiful? Tom Huszti: Well, well, it's a beautiful ossuary, but what was most shocking was the was the plaque beside it. The plaque, the plaque beside it, said this was the high priest in the days of Jesus that was responsible for his crucifixion. And I thought to see that advertised in the Israel. Sean Finnegan: Oh, what did it say? Tom Huszti: Natural History Museum was just shocking because it's a recognition that this thing happened and this is the man responsible to it. I was, yeah, that was the last thing I saw in the museum on my way out because we were we had a very short time frame and it was at the entrance of the. Museum so we saw it as we exited. Very cool. Fascinating, yes. Sean Finnegan: Very cool. And you see that stuff? You just say to yourself. These are real. These are true stories. This is history, you know. You see. The the litho what is that Lithos Stratos? You know that that street that is beneath Jerusalem, that was discovered where this is where Jesus was beaten or. He was. It's the layer that goes back to the 1st century. It's kind of underneath the city of Jerusalem. You see these things you say to yourself like I like. I've stood there, Tom. Like, I know for sure. Now. Vesuvius is a real volcano. I looked into the. Tom Huszti: Yes, yes. Crater. Yes, yes. Yeah, right, right.SpeakerIt's like not that. Sean Finnegan: I ever really doubted it, but like when you do it and you stand there and you see and you, you know, you see the cast and the horror on the faces of the. Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: People in Pompeii, you're like. OK, this is not a story, this is history. Tom Huszti: Yeah, no. Sean Finnegan: And it's very powerful. But back to your point about resurrection and bones. What really started me on this, this is going to be a really random source, is a Freakonomics podcast episode. They're talking about cremating animals. The guy was saying, when it comes to cremating animals, they it was, they were trying to do an investigation. The big question they had was. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: Do they actually give you the ashes for your animal? This is like a pet crematorium. Or are they just like scooping random ashes? And you know what? What's really going on here? Right. And they were talking it. So they got into the subject of cremation and bones. And they're like, well, you know, what really happens to the crematorium is they burn, you know, the human or the animal or whatever. And then the bones are there. Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: Their bones are not burnable, they just, they're just there. Tom Huszti: Right, right, right. Sean Finnegan: So what they do is they grind them. Tom Huszti: That's what Tovia said, too. Sean Finnegan: And after they grind them down, that's the ashes that you get. They're actually ground bones. Tom Huszti: Ohh, is that right? Sean Finnegan: That they return to you. At least, that's what this podcast episode was saying. It was talking about animals, but like, it also talked about humans, whatever. And it and it made me think to myself, like, wait a second. I always just assumed the bones desiccated. I assumed that they disintegrated over. Tom Huszti: OK. Ohh you did. OK. Sean Finnegan: Time and then it it it kind of informed my thinking about, you know, the James Ossuary and the Caiaphas archery and some of these other ossuary findings, like some of the more sensationalized ones said we think we found Jesus and all this, which has been pretty much not accepted by scholarship but anyhow.Speaker 5The idea of. Sean Finnegan: Bones lasting for centuries and centuries was just like common sense to ancient people because they didn't have this separation. Like we have from our dead. Like we don't, we don't. Know but like they would go. Sean Finnegan:A year later. Sean Finnegan: Back to the tomb and they would pick up the bones and put them in a. Little bone box. Space is limited and you want to fit as many ancestors, descendants, relatives in the same cave or tomb as possible. But you're not looking to, like, mix all the bones together. So yeah, it just kind of made sense to get a box the width of the skull and the length of a femur, and to use that to, you know, organize people and just scratch on the side, the person's name. And so I think this all goes back to whether we're talking about the amount of olives. Tom Huszti: Yeah, yeah. Tom Huszti: Oh, OK. Sean Finnegan: To this day in Jerusalem, or we're talking about the austrias in the 1st century this or or Tovia Singer's preferences. This all goes back to the same thing which is this. Really strong belief in resurrection and so burying your dead in a way that preserves the bones or cares for the bones is is in a sense, I think a an act of faith that the Jewish people have always had. Again, I'm not saying that cremation is a sin or that it's going to damn somebody to, you know, eternal judgment or, you know, that's not where I'm going here, but I think. Tom Huszti: Yes. No. Sean Finnegan: We should ask the question, is this really this is really fit as Christians like I know it's less expensive. OK, but like is it? Is that always the right course of action? Just cause something's less expensive. So I I think burial. Traditional burial it can be an act of faith because you're saying I'm going to Mark Toome. I'm going to rise. Out of this to. Him so. Tom Huszti: Let's get back to your your trip details. I'm trying to picture this, the framework of well picture this setting that the acts of the apostles was written in. Is Athens set on a hill? Sean Finnegan: Well, the Acropolis certainly is. Tom Huszti: The acropolises OK. Sean Finnegan: Yeah. So, yeah, there there are definitely hills there. The propolis is a very high point in the center of Athens and it is kind of steep. I don't know what you call like a plateau that just. Rises out of nowhere. In the old days, that would be the spot where you would retreat to if Athens were invaded, because it can be held much longer. Tom Huszti: Apostle Paul preached in that place. Sean Finnegan: Well, I think he preached. On Mars. So which is right next to it. So it's yeah, it's right. Right nearby. Tom Huszti: Can you imagine the possible Paul in that setting? Sean Finnegan: Yeah. Well, I mean, the interesting thing about the apostle Paul at the Areopagus or Mars Hill is that he is looking at all these statues. And I when I was in Athens, I got to go to the museum. Tom Huszti: Can you picture him there? Carry out this OK? Sean Finnegan: The Acropolis Museum, which is. Walk. We got there and we went inside and you see all these statues? These are all these statues that they found? Of course. The Acropolis had actual temples to gods on it and that wouldn't have been unusual. There would be temples and statues of gods all throughout the city. And that's not weird for Athens. All Greco-roman cities had statues to gods, shrines, little other ways of worshipping their gods, you know, depending on what gods we're talking about, they're all a little different. You know, there's Paul. He's not really from the West, you know, for and for his perspective as as somebody from. Horses and cilicia. Athens is the. West, we say Athens is east, but for him that's. Tom Huszti: OK, he's from us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sean Finnegan: West and you know, so for Paul, he would have seen plenty of this throughout his travels and stuff. But for whatever reason, his heart was just so troubled in Athens, he saw that people just in the city just given to this in Act 17, he finds this altar to the unknown God and he's like. All right, well, here's. Here's someplace where I can hook on a gospel presentation. Really good speaking. But it's interesting too, going back to our former conversation about burial and resurrection, when it comes to the part where Paul says that God has furnished proof by raising that Jesus is the Messiah by raising him from the dead. The Athenians had no trouble hearing that Jesus would be the Messiah. I don't think that was like a really understood category to them. They wouldn't have a hang up about that as him being a king or whatever. But when he says. He has given proof by raising him from the dead. Suddenly they're just like this is ridiculous. Everybody knows you don't want your body back again. This is stupid. I'm out of here. And like the Greeks, the Greeks, they're standard approach to the afterlife. Tom Huszti: Ohh yeah yeah. Sean Finnegan:That's right. Sean Finnegan: Was to get rid of the body. It was not to keep the body or to get the body back. Restored and renewed. And so this. This was always a big issue between Jews and Christians. Agree on. Over against the the Greco-roman, whether the philosophers or just like the folk religion of like going down to Hades and you know all the stuff they, you know, they had stories about all that. Tom Huszti: Have you been to Cesarea Philippi in Israel? Sean Finnegan: Yeah, it's like they call it banya or. Tom Huszti: Something banyas. Yes, banyas. And actually, I guess you know why it's called banyas. Sean Finnegan: Well, there was a. Shrine to the God pan there. Tom Huszti: Right pan, right. So the original name was panyas. But the Arabs have a hard time pronouncing the sound, so they change it to bond. Yes, believe it or not. But yes, yes, yes. So now. Sean Finnegan: Well, that makes sense. Thank you. Tom Huszti: You learn something. From me for a change, right? OK. Sean Finnegan: There it is. There it is. Yeah. I have been there. It's a beautiful spot. And you know, again, talking about the heat and the the arid climate of Israel to have a place with a beautiful water supply. Tom Huszti: Oh my. Sean Finnegan: Like sensory flip by where you say, OK, this is it. This is going to be a big spot. This is going to be a place where people are going to want to go and build things and live because there's plenty of water. Tom Huszti: Yes. Yeah. Tom Huszti: Yeah, it's beautiful there, isn't it? Maybe the most beautiful place in Israel. In my my view, as far as the physicality of it, that's arguable, but. Sean Finnegan: I don't know. I loved Dengeki. I thought it was. Tom Huszti: And Betty was beautiful too. Yes. Also water the the shrine. So do you remember what the shrine of Pan looked like? And and with the details about what was happening there. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, yeah. No, no, remind me. Tom Huszti: OK, there's a a graven image of pan on the the wall of the the side of Mount Hermon, the base of Mount Hermon there. And there is a cave right next to it. And there would would have been an altar for a member, correct? There would have been an altar in front of The Cave, and they were doing sacrifices to the God pan, and they were throwing the sacrificed beast into The Cave and the Jordan River begins flowing from that area. So. There was some kind of a relationship to throwing the sacrifice into The Cave and and whether or not the blood came out at the Jordan River that cave. On the side of the mountain, Mount Hermon was supposed to be the gateway to the underworld. Sean Finnegan: It is certainly the case that the Greeks and the Jews looked very differently at the dead. The Jewish mindset was at the dead are resting and they had the term show all for that. The sort of realm of the dead where all the dead are they're they're awaiting, they're asleep, they use that language. Lot, even in the the Christian New Testament. Tons of references, a lot of our translations, just like get rid of it and they say died or. Something like that. But that it actually says fall asleep or fell asleep. Ohh which you know the a Greek person wouldn't say that they would say no, they're in a different realm. And they're in the underworld of Hades, and Hades is not just a realm. It's also the name of a God who's in charge of all of those shades or departed souls. And you know, so, like, these are very different views. You know what I mean? And it's sad to say, but Christianity has more often than not. Agree with the pagans over against the early Christian. Of view, which is a shame, right? Tom Huszti: Unfortunate indeed. Yes, it is in the the first conversation I had with Tovia Singer, we hit upon so many touch points that we agree upon resurrection life in the age to come. The term Messiah is something that we can talk freely about. There's so many things from my Christian view that actually are terms that you can talk to Jewish people in this present day about, especially those who are inclined to study the Old Testament. And that's a conversation that most nominal Orthodox kind of Christians cannot have with Jewish people. The the rule seems to be that Jews have to leave Judaism in order to come over to Christianity. But strangely enough, we received Christianity from the Jews. And so the context that you're you're seeing here is something that is is very interesting. In restoring Christianity to its 1st century foundations, which is your your big desire so. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's what, that's what I'm all about, is trying to clear away the accretions of the Middle Ages and the post Christian. Developments and getting back to that original earlier version of Apostolic Christianity, you know what? What would the church have thought about this in the 1st century rather than in the 2nd and following centuries? The the subsequent centuries? And, you know, I'm not against technology. Renovation. But I am against changing our beliefs from what the New Testament says and that has happened a lot and it happens very slowly. And I've had a a a desire to understand that development. For a long. Time and did my masters on the subject and was really surprised to see that, you know, people are just not asking this question. Like I'm I'm a member. Of the even to this day of the the Boston area patristic society. OK. And so I get emails and, you know, invitations to attend their meetings, which I attended when I lived out there. And, you know, they're held either at Harvard or at Brown University or sometimes at Providence College as well as three schools have good patristic good, early church history programs. And you know so. They they issue these papers a couple. Of times a year. I don't know like 3 or. Four to five times a year and you know you have lint chocolates and a little wine and a little cheese. And you know, you sit around and, you know, just kind of listen in with these, you know, somebody presents on some aspects some facet of. Early church history. Three, I've been a member of this for I don't know a decade they have never done. A doctrine not once. Not once. There's no interest at all in doctrinal development or this mindset that says, hey, let's get back to living out our faith the way they lived out there is, as far as how we treat people or how we think about the government or whatever practical area. There's zero interest in that. In the the more liberal side of the fence and then on the conservative side of the fence, you have the Catholics that really dominate. And not that there aren't liberal Catholics. I'm sure there's plenty of them too. But I'm talking about the more conservative minded ones and they're always just trying to show that what the church teaches now is really what Christians have always believed. So it's apologetic. It's not OK, let's see what happened. It's more like, alright, well, this person like, for example Ignatius of Antioch, there's going to be an amazing presentation on this. Tom Huszti: Come on. Sean Finnegan: At the Unitarian Christian Alliance Conference next month, Nathan Massey has done some cutting edge research on Ignatius of Antioch. But anyhow, people, Catholic scholars in particular love Ignatius, and they'll go to Ignatius and they say, well, see, Ignatius calls Jesus God. Therefore, the Trinity is true as we, you know, 20 centuries later. Teach it it. It's it's all true because Ignatius said Jesus is God, and there's just more problems with that than you can shake a stick at, which you know I won't get into unless you're interested. But like my my point is. There's very few scholars who are honestly going to the sources of ancient Christians. Whatever books have survived right, and saying what were they saying? And and just taking them on their own words, their own terms, giving them the credit that they knew what they. Were talking about even. If it disagrees with what the? First later said was the right way to think, right? So let me let me just give. You one example. So for example. Justin Martyr, Justin Martyr doesn't fit with anybody, right? I mean, he's just idiosyncratic. He has his own way of thinking and talking. About things, he will even call Jesus, the second God sometimes. And you know he doesn't. Think at all that. Jesus, even in his preincarnate state, was equal. With God the. Father ever, you know, at the same time he's he's sort of like very much like in mesh with the Jews and and like very much talking to the Jews and at. The same time, incredibly rude. And it, you know, by what I would say, it's totally inappropriate. You know, some of the ways he he talks to in in one of his books, the book against Trifle. So yeah. So anyhow, Justin Moorer, you know, a church historian will come along and say, Justin, Monta was just. Tom Huszti: Ohh trifle.Speaker 5You know, he was reaching in the dark for the doctrine of the Trinity. He just didn't quite have the language yet to express it, and it's like. Sean Finnegan: No, he wasn't. He had a he had a mature developed view of who he thought Jesus was. And it's just different than yours, man. Just just. Allow him to be him. Tom Huszti: He might have squeeze everybody into the. Sean Finnegan:You know. Tom Huszti: Same mold, huh?SpeakerHe's not. Sean Finnegan: Hinting at anything he thinks he knows what he's talking about. You're not. Tom Huszti: Right. Tom Huszti: He wore the philosopher's robe, didn't he? Sean Finnegan: He did, and he had a he had a a little meeting spot in Rome above a, you know, above a shop, you know, he had a little apartment or whatever, and he'd he'd meet with people and he'd teach him what he thought was the definitive understanding of the Christian religion, just because nobody else later on agrees with him doesn't mean he was just like. Undeveloped or something, you know, he he believes what he believed, and it's just different and that's OK. And what I see when I look at Justin or Irenaeus or, you know, a lot of these guys is I see development. And when I see development, I think to myself, let's rollback the tape and see the trajectory overtime. Yeah. What is the vector? Where is this heading? So if I see you know a couple of points on a line that go in One Direction, I could say OK, I make a measurement here, make a measurement here, connect those dots and trace it backwards. What's there in the? 1st century and that's that's what I love to do. That's what I want to know. That's my my research, my investigation to find. What's the earliest beliefs and practices and that I'm crazy enough to think we can live that out today? Tom Huszti: Yeah, you are a strange bird, but I agree with you I. Guess I am too so. Sean Finnegan: Well, and The thing is we both came to this from very different milieus, different backgrounds, denominations and so forth. But we both recognize that it makes logical sense that if the church has gotten off track. Then you know the best way to do it is to reform back to the, you know, whatever we can recover of the original version of Christian. Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: And you know, that's. Yeah, it makes sense to me. A lot of people don't. They don't believe in Restorationism. They they say, oh, that's you can't go back there. It's impossible and it's like. Tom Huszti: That's so true. Sean Finnegan: Well, well, why let? Tom Huszti: Me. Share you with you my thought on this. So the the 1st century church was waiting for the return of Jesus and it didn't happen in their age, but. We who claim to desire the return of Jesus need to be postured as they were. Like I'm I'm just. Wondering you know. Like if Christianity gets far enough away from their origins, it's an awful lot to ask Jesus to return when we've strayed so far from. What our forefathers believed so that the church that I was put out from is called the Apostolic Christian Church Nazarene. And the term Nazarene is a a term that is very, very honorable, I would say. But when you think in terms of the early church, the term Nazarene meant Jewish believers in Messiah. And I still call myself a Nazarene, even though my community has, for the by and large, has disfellowship. Hit me. I'd like to to trace my origins back to the the Nazarenes my my Jewish Brethren, believers in Jesus, and this is something that you touched upon in your. Your church history. You think you could fill us in a little bit about the views of different Jewish Christians, Abbey Knights and Nazarenes and. Any others that would kind of fit that category maybe give us a little summary. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, to do work on the Ebionites or the Nazarenes is to read late reports. By their enemies. I don't know of a single document that survives other. Than I would. Argue that, dedicate, I would say that dedicat is a Nazarene document. Tom Huszti: Oh wow. Sean Finnegan: It reads that way to me. It has a low Christology. It's very Jewish, you know, it's very Christian, you know. And it it just seems to kind of fit that that mindset. So I would argue that the dedicate would be a Nazarene document. Now these these terms, Nazarene, it's actually in the New Testament. The sect of the Nazarenes. Where was that? They said. Tom Huszti: Right, Paul Paul, was it? Yes, they did. That's correct. Yeah. Yes. Sean Finnegan: That about Paul, right? Yeah. So that's old school. Right. But what we can kind of gather is from these late reports and when I say late, I'm talking like from the year 375, we get this heresy hunter named Epiphanius of Salamis and he writes a book called The Panarion. You know, so this is this is riding 300 years after all the action and the excitement has already happened, right? Where's where's the action? Where's the parting of the ways? As James Dunn's famous book called it? Well, it's really in that post 70AD pre. Justin. So like between like 70 AD when the temple. Tom Huszti: Yeah, yeah. Sean Finnegan: Got destroyed and the Romans conquered Jerusalem to the time of Justin Mortar where, like he begins in, you know, maybe like 135 was the 2nd revolution. Right. So you have the the bar Copa revolt. Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: Actually, some people might call it a third revolution because there was another one in between the two, but whatever. It wasn't in. Jerusalem. But you know, in that period there, what is that like? Probably like 60-70 years something happened and there was a a splitting away and Gentile. Tom Huszti: Ohh there was OK Ohh. Sean Finnegan: Christians and Jewish Christians. Stops influencing each other. And it's a really murky period of time. Scholars have all kinds of theories from there was never a parting of the ways. What are you? Talking about to it. Tom Huszti: Uh-huh. Well. Sean Finnegan: It happened because of this or because of that. But let's just put it this way, the the the official Christian line on it has always been since. The time of Eusebius. That the followers of Jesus when they. Saw the Roman legions coming. Abandoned the city of Jerusalem. And if that's true and they, he says they went to power, they went to this other area. If that's true, then the native Jewish people who stayed and fought and died. And then many of them also survived. Would not very much like the Jewish Christians because. They didn't stay, they didn't like. Tom Huszti: So you're talking for 70, you're talking about from 70 AD that the Christians would have left. Sean Finnegan: Yeah. Yeah. So, like, after the city is conquered by the Romans, things kind of settle down politically. I mean, I guess the last holdouts are at Masada up until what, like 7370? Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: 4 but like. Then that OK, this period ends, the Romans have reasserted their dominance. But you know a lot of Jewish people survive and and. And they're not looking at the Jewish Christians positively, they're looking at them negatively. And we have this Birkat hominem. Yes. Are you familiar with that? It says for the apostates, let there be no hope and uproot the Kingdom of arrogance speedily. And in our days, may the Nazarenes and the sectarians perish, as in a moment let them be blotted out of the book of life. Tom Huszti: I am. Sean Finnegan: And and so forth. So it's like OK by the time of Justin, he makes mention of this and he says you. Know why? Why? You guys cursing us in your synagogues, right? So like Justin knows about it, so. It's got to be before 160 and it's. Probably after the month. Tom Huszti: So let me ask you this, would that curse? Be specific to Jewish believers in Messiah Jesus. She will. Or would it? That was specifically for them because they were thought they were thought to be created. Sean Finnegan: Well, they they would be the ones to go to the synagogue. So this is something. That would be spoken. Publicly in the synagogue, along with the other blessings and. Tom Huszti: OK. Ah. So that would discourage them from attending synagogue. Sean Finnegan: It would expose them as well because they wouldn't be able to recite that. Tom Huszti: Oh, they wouldn't be able to recite it, OK. Sean Finnegan: You can't curse yourself, you know. It's just awkward. Tom Huszti: Yes, so so so.SpeakerYou know, right. Tom Huszti: During the time of the Barkha revolt, the Jewish believers in Yeshua Miss Jesus would not have taken up arms against the Romans and this would have been a further offense against the. Against the revolution, revolutionaries against the Jews. Sean Finnegan: Well, you know. We we see we see rumblings even before in the I don't know if it's the Jewish war or the antiquity of the of the. Jews with Josephus. He talks about how there was a power vacuum just for a moment in Jerusalem and during that power vacuum when the old governor had, I don't know if he died or just had left or whatever happened to him. But the new governor, I think, was Albinus, was on his way then the non Christian. Jewish people were able to gang up on James, and when James was fairly old brother of Jesus and that they were able to more or less lynch him, you know, they just got a mob together and they they were able to to kill. Tom Huszti: A friend. Sean Finnegan: Him. So there was already animosity before the war. War starts in 66, you know it. It did blow up from time to time. We see it in the book of Acts. Right. There's a lot of animosity between the Jewish Christians, the non Christian Jews. OK, so this this continues. But after the war.SpeakerOK. Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: It it's it seems like there's not even much real space left for Jewish Christians to even go to a synagogue with this curse that's put there specifically against them. Again, the war is such a massive historical event. The Jewish War of Rome, 66 to 74, where I mean, how many kinds of Judaism. Do we know? About from the 1st century, you have your Sadducees, you have your Essenes, you have the rebellious types. They call the 4th philosophy and Josephus. You have your Pharisees, and then you have the Christian Jews. Tom Huszti: They would be the zealot. Would there be the zealots or the sikari? Sean Finnegan: Yeah, yeah, that would be the 4th philosophy. The Zealots, the sicari, all the revolutionary types. Right. So you have like, five types of Judaism. And so the Christian Jews. Tom Huszti: OK. OK. Sean Finnegan: Five and the Pharisaic Jews survive, but the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the revolutionaries. They're all gone, or completely disempowered. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: After the war, so now you have pharisaic Judaism, which eventually kind of develops into rabbinic Judaism, and you have the Jesus Jews. And they gave birth to the Christian movement, which is kind of like, it's almost like in a sense gone public like a like a corporation offers an IPO. And then, like, the, the company has kind of a life of its own, independent of what the founder, really. Tom Huszti: Yeah. OK.SpeakerHis vision was. Sean Finnegan: And maybe that's a good analogy for it, cause like Christianity goes pretty much Gentile and there it's Jew and Gentile together in the 1st century for sure. But like as we get into the 2nd century. The kinds of literature that survive from Christian pens. It's just like either ignorant of Jewish practices and interpretations of the Old Testament or outright antagonistic, where you get like documents from like the middle of the 2nd century. Like I'm thinking of the Epistle of Barnabas, and some of the other documents in the Apostolic Fathers, where like they're just like you, Jews are crazy because you kept the law. And it's like, how could you ever say that if you're if you're a little more aware of what the, you know, that that was the law that God gave to the Jewish people to keep, why would they be crazy to keep it? Right? So it seems like there's just a parting of the ways. And that's the term James Dunn used for it. And, you know, we just wish so much that we had. We have more information about it. We just kind of get these little bits and pieces. We don't know exactly how it happened. We just know that it happened.SpeakerOh yeah. Tom Huszti: Some hostile witnesses, of all places. Sean Finnegan: So now you've got. These Jewish Christians, Tom and they're kind of isolated in the east, they're not well loved by the Gentile Christians or they don't have access or I don't know, for whatever reason, there's just not a lot of interaction, which is tragic in my opinion. Tom Huszti: Yeah. Yes.SpeakerBut they're also. Sean Finnegan: Alienated from their own Jewish brothers and sisters because they're not allowed in the synagogue and you know, if you're in a little village and there's only one place putting shoes on horses. Or doing some other craft or trade. And they don't want to sell to you. Guess what? You're in trouble, you know, because you're one of the Nazarenes or. One of the Ebionites. Tom Huszti: Sure, sure. Sean Finnegan: So you know these people had a really tough go of it and you know, we hear about them later on and they may have survived pretty well. Outside the Roman Empire, in the east, in the Persian Empire. But we don't know much about that either, so it's really hard to do scholarship on them. There are more questions than answers, but my best guess, OK. And that's really what it is, is it's a guess is that the community of James, the brother of Jesus, they didn't really get on board. With what Paul? And Gentile Christianity was doing they got on board to a certain degree and and this we see this conflict in the book of. Acts 15 and then later. Tom Huszti: Yeah, 15. Sean Finnegan: On in .2 what happens is.SpeakerThey say all. Sean Finnegan: Right. Well, you you can have. Gentiles and they don't need to keep the law. Fine, but we Jews are going to keep the law. Still, I don't think Paul got on board with that. Paul would say Jews don't need to keep the law either. Obviously they can. Anybody can keep the law. Who wants to? But Jewish Christians, I should say I should be clear. I'm not talking about just Jews in general. I'm saying Jews who believe in Jesus because of a covenantal understanding expressed later. Tom Huszti: Yes, yes. Sean Finnegan: In the Book of Hebrews, whoever wrote Hebrews that it is clear that Jewish Christians don't need to keep the law. James and his group of Jewish Christians disagree with. That viewpoint, they say no. This is the covenant. We're Jewish Christians. We're going to continue to keep the law. So I think this James Community is what left during the war and survived north and east of Jerusalem. And that then this community had a doctrinal division where some of them. Accepted the Gospel of Matthew, which possibly was in Hebrew or Aramaic. You know some language that the people could readily read. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: There are lots of hints of that in the patristic literature. People talk about it quite a bit. They don't talk about any other writing. From the new. Testament, all the other books in the New Testament. They never mentioned as being in Hebrew, just Matthew. Tom Huszti: Wow, just Matthew cross. Sean Finnegan: It's the only one. Yeah. So why would you? Put it in Hebrew, whether it was written in Hebrew originally or translated into Hebrew. Why would why? Because you have Jewish people. Reading it. You read the Gospel of Matthew. What does it begin with? A genealogy? Who loves genealogies? The Greeks? No, they don't care about genealogies. The Jews love genealogies. So Matthew begins by making a convincing argument that this Jesus of Nazareth has a claim. And. Could possibly be the Messiah because of his ancestry. That's how it starts. So you've got this community and in. The Gospel of Matthew as well as. Luke, you have. The virgin birth. You have the virgin conception and you know this idea that in in some way Jesus is the son of God.Speaker 5Some of the. Sean Finnegan: Jewish Christians in this community don't believe that. And others do, and that is, and again, this is a reconstruction based on hostile sources like Epiphanius, and you siberius, and there are plenty of later ones too. Like Jerome mentions this stuff and it, and and it's even possible that these Jewish Christians survive. Arrived and they there was some interaction with them. It wasn't just all hearsay. OK, but it's possible for us to know today how reliable these reports are. But so you have the James, Jewish Christians. They go away from Jerusalem and they settle in north and east of of Jerusalem. And they have this difference. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: Among them the ones who? Believe in the virgin birth. Are Nazarenes the ones that do not? Are Ebionites both of them believe that Jesus is a human being? Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: Whom God anointed as a Messiah. They both believe in crucifixion. Both believe in resurrection. Both believe in Ascension. Both believe in the coming Kingdom. So the question is, you know whether he is biologically. Whatever that means, you know, like, if there was this miracle to get him started or if he was the son of Joseph. OK, so that's that seems to be the disagreement there between the Nazarenes and the Ebionites. And here's here's just one more thing to complicate it, make it worse is some Christians will call both groups of unites. Tom Huszti: Yeah, that's a mistake. Sean Finnegan: And they're saying, well, some of you guys believe this and some even nice believe. That it's like. Tom Huszti: Yes, right. Well, it seems to me the very, very important doctrines they agreed upon. And I know I noticed in the Apostle Paul's writing, he never mentions the virgin birth, he does emphasize. The authority that Jesus received through the resurrection, most notably in Romans chapter one, that's where. Sean Finnegan: Yeah. I mean, I think the closest pull comes is Galatians 4 four, where it says when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law. Sort of like the closest. To it you. Can interpret that a number of different ways. Tom Huszti: So it's fascinating to understand that we've actually lost connection to a large extent to the original source of our our gospel message. And I suppose that makes that makes your challenge of restoring 1st century Christianity even a bit. Your task you're trying to recreate these things based on what you know and based on hostile witness accounts. Sean Finnegan: Here's the good news. We still have the Bible. We have the New Testament. You know, we can read it, we can see. And it's not like the New Testament is hiding or covering over any controversy like the The Paul. James, things is is is plain as day in Galatians like pull, yes, pull lays it out, you know, and I and. I'm going with Paul on. This I'm going to. I'm going to disagree with James. I think he was a great. And but I think he just didn't have the full understanding of how Jesus, through his actions, how he affected our relationship with God and and this whole understanding of covenant. So I'm going to go with Paul on that. What happened among Pauline Christianity is. A development that slowly moved away from the New Testament read from a Jewish perspective because I think Pauline Christianity basically got swamped by Gentiles. Tom Huszti: Yeah, I think so. Tom Huszti: Too and I. Sean Finnegan: Think the leaders. Of Pauline Christian. Probably not in his day, but maybe within a generation or two. Became highly educated intellectual gentiles who were financially well off enough to get an education because education costs them money. Otherwise you got a farm or you got to do a craft or a trade, right? So is that is that sort of movement occurred away from? Apostles and their appointed success. More towards these intellectuals. We get Christian doctrine shifting away from what's in the New Testament into these more Greek and Roman ways of thinking. And that's kind of an area where I've been doing a lot of work recently. Trying to understand. Especially on Christology, how would a a Greek or a Roman person? How would they hear the story of Jesus? What would that sound like to them? And so I've done a lot of work on that and I'm going to be presenting that in a month as well at the UCLA conference. Yeah. But that will be out later on YouTube as well. If you don't make. Tom Huszti: Ohh at the OK. But that should be very interesting. Sean Finnegan: It to the conference, you know. Tom Huszti: I bought my ticket already. Ohh, good. Yes. Yes. I'll look forward to that. I guess we probably shouldn't talk too much about it in advance because we have to. We don't want to. Take the the. Thunder out of your presentation. Sean Finnegan: Well, I I just mentioned, I'll just mention one thing, OK. So let's imagine you're a non believer, you're a Pagan. You've worshiped the gods all your life. You've heard stories about Apollo getting banished down to Earth and having to work as a servant. You've heard stories about Zeus coming down impregnating women. You've heard stories about. Tom Huszti: Hercules. Dad. Huh, Hercules. Dad. Sean Finnegan: You've heard stories about Hercules as well, and Asclepius was originally a human who got deified, and he got deified to such a level that he became essentially an Olympian God, that that level of. Elevation and exultation was possible. So you hear all these stories about these gods who come down to become men, or appear as men being made in appearance as a man, right? Like this is this. Is their vocabulary. That's their world. And then you hear lots of stories. Tom Huszti: Yes, yes, right. Sean Finnegan: Humans, who had a beginning normal humans, but were so exceptional that they got to skip Hades and instead go to Olympia or instead go to some heavenly realm like. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: You this is just your.Speaker 5World these are all your stories. Tom Huszti: OK. Uh-huh. Sean Finnegan: Now you're going to hear a story about a miracle worker, Jewish miracle worker. Who was executed came back to life. And now lives in heaven. And is immortalized. You have a category for that. Kind of a being. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: It's called a God. Tom Huszti: Yeah. Yes. Sean Finnegan: Like in our in our language. Today we would say a lower case G God, right? They didn't fuss with capital. A lowercase. You know, like everything's capital pretty much and all the inscriptions we have in the manuscripts from this period, right. So they would just say, oh, that yeah, we. I know, I know. Plenty of other beings that are like that too. Yeah, they're they're called. Gods. And so you're you're trying to say that Jesus is a man and now he's become. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: God. So like you could just imagine a like an evangelism encounter going like that. And if you don't have that Jewish sensibility to say, well, hold on a second.SpeakerThere's only. Sean Finnegan: One God, and that's the supreme God who created everything. You can just see like Christian saying well. Yeah, I guess so. Like in that way of thinking. Yeah, he's a God. So now people. Start calling Jesus God. And now the question becomes well, in what sense has he got? Does he have a beginning before he was a human, you know, and you're just operating in a totally foreign. World View, mindscape than the Jewish mode, which is the Jewish mode, sees Jesus doing miracles and they say how great it is that God has given such authority to men. Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: What do they say when they see a miracle in the book of acts, when Paul and Barnabas? Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: You know, get that guy filled. Tom Huszti: The gods are come down to us, the gods. Sean Finnegan: Of course, that's what they. Said that's what they believe could happen, right? We really have two different thought worlds that are combining in in weird and innovative ways. And that's just like one step along the path that leads to the doctrine of the Trinity, which doesn't really get fully developed until the late 4th century. Tom Huszti: Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Tom Huszti: So Paul is trying to emphasize that Jesus is a human being, a second Adam. So that has a different flavor to it, like you have to. Paula is using the first Adam story to introduce the second Adam. And this is a glorified human being who is residing in heaven until God sends him back. That's a different. Category isn't it? For the Greco Roman mine? Sean Finnegan: Yeah, they don't. They don't. That doesn't. That doesn't make sense to them. You know, it's just that's just weird. That's like resurrection. Like, why do you want your body back? And what did Christianity do with that one? We get rid of it. You go to any funeral like unless it's somebody from my own group of churches, network of churches, or maybe like one or one or two other denominations. Right. Like you go to a funeral. What 99% of the? Funerals you go to they. Say this person is now in heaven and their soul. Whatever you know, they make up all this stuff. You know, it sounds just like the Greco Roman stuff from the ancient times. It doesn't sound. Like the Bible. Tom Huszti: Right, yes. Can you imagine sitting in the audience when Paul was preaching from the Acropolis? Sean Finnegan: Not to me. Tom Huszti: Can you put yourself in the in the shoes of a a Greek sitting in the audience hearing this message for the first time? And you know the setting. What would have impressed you or what you already mentioned this earlier but like if you as an individual were doing this? What would be going through your mind? Given your background and context. Sean Finnegan: Well, I think. There's a lot of misunderstanding going on. And and that's just normal. We shouldn't be upset about that. We should expect that. I think we see the same thing today. In the 21st century, where you try to explain something and somebody just doesn't get it, who's not a Christian, and I think that's what was happening here. And what happened is Paul is is evangelizing people. He's talking to people in the marketplace, his Jewish sensibilities, I think, are offended by seeing a city full of idols. It's just as somebody who was raised with the 10 Commandments, it's offensive. I mean, it's offensive to most Christians. Well, I don't say most, but many Christians today are offended. By seeing idols and statues and seeing people actually worshiping them, Paul is very disturbed by this. He's trying to to help. He's reasoning in the synagogue. And also in the marketplace every day. You've got the Epicureans, you've got the Stoics there, and then they say this is act 1718, he says. He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities. Because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection and see the word resurrection, there is Anastasia. Tom Huszti: OK. It's a Greek. Sean Finnegan: Word it means resurrection. You know, stand up again, but it seems like. And I I think some translations might do it this way, that they're thinking that. Jesus is 1 divinity. And they think that Paul saying that Jesus is divine being, which is interesting, right in light of what I said just a minute ago. And then the other thing they think resurrection is is another divinity. Right. So there's just. Misunderstandings all over the place. They're. Like you know, it seems like he's bringing in some new gods. Let's go here. What these new gods have to say, he's kind of like you. Remember. Back in the old days, kids would collect baseball cards. Or like when my kids were little, it was Pokémon cards. And you know, you trade with each other. This one, it's like gods to the, to the Athenians. You know, they're like, oh, you've got that. Tell me about that. God, I let me tell you. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: The story about this. One you know, so they're. Tom Huszti: Yes, yes. Sean Finnegan: Interested. And they put them up there and they say, OK, what is this new teaching? Tell us what this is all. About and so we know. There's going to be misunderstanding. We know there's going to be confusion, but that's no reason not to get started. And so he does. He starts in a very friendly and flattering way. Tom Huszti: He used their own poets. Their own poetry. Yeah, yeah. Sean Finnegan: He's building the bridge as much as he can to their thought world, but at the same time. He's so disturbed. Buy the idolatry that like he just. He just wants to hit that, you know, like it's just and it's not. It's not out of sense of superiority. I don't think. I think it's a sense of empathy and compassion. And so it just starts in with, like, explaining who God is. And he's like there's a God above everything else that made everything else. And he doesn't need you. He doesn't need you to. To offer animals. And he believed in animal sacrifice. I don't know if he still believed in animal sacrifice or not, but he believed in it. At least most of his life. And still, he's just like, look, he doesn't need. He doesn't need anything. God is radically. What do they say? Ah, say he's not contingent or dependent on us for anything, and that's not. How they thought about their Greek gods. They thought their Greek gods needed to be cared for. They believed that the Greek gods created humans to do the work for them, so they didn't have to do the work all the time, including feeding them these sacrifices that nourish them.SpeakerRight. Tom Huszti: Right, right. Tom Huszti: A hutch. Sean Finnegan: You know it's a. Tom Huszti: Very the gods. They were very dependent. They're their gods, were very dependent. Sean Finnegan: They needed a bunch of slaves to do all the hard work of cultivating the lands, raising the animals, planting the vegetables, do all the things so that they could be properly cared for and fed. And if you didn't do that, then they messed with you. They stopped the rain, or they brought war or whatever, you know. So that's the kind of thing he's coming against here. And he says, look there the the God who made the world and everything in it, Lord of heaven and Earth, does not need temples. This is a radical message. I mean, it's just like. You're in a. City, now that I've been there, like I've literally seen the temples.SpeakerWith my or. Tom Huszti: Not they're still there. They're still there. Tom remnants. Amazing. Sean Finnegan: Wow, there's actually, when I was there was scaffolding all around it. You know, they're always restoring these things because of the weather erosion and what, you know, but. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: You know, massive, massive. Structures unquestionable. You don't go to a Greek ancient Greek city and say God doesn't need tempo. Tom Huszti: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sean Finnegan: You know that they. Would really get their attention, it's. Like, wow, what is this guy saying? Tom Huszti: Yeah, I can imagine. What would it like these temples were full of pillars and the structure would have been probably unprecedented structures. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're looking at structures that are so impressive that if you didn't live in a city. If you live somewhere out in the country, you can't in the city. It would just take your breath away and then going into the temple itself, seeing most cities, temples they have what's called an apps, which is kind of like the back curved area where they had the statue itself and to see, you know, this huge statue. The artistry was magnificent. And you know, I've seen this where I think I saw this in a museum in Ephesus, on site, they have a little Ephesus museum there. And they had the head of Domitian. Which is a Roman. And it looked like a baby head. The proportions were all wrong. You know, just you know how, like, baby heads look. Weird, I don't know really how to describe it like there. May be a little spot. Tom Huszti: Oh yeah, yeah. Compared to the rest. Of the body you mean? Sean Finnegan: No, no, it was just the head. It was just the head and it and it. It looked like a baby head. And I asked my team. I was a part of a class at Boston University. I asked my teacher. I'm like, what's the deal with this? Why does it look like a baby head? And he just kind of laughed a little bit. And he said. Tom Huszti: Or it was just a hat? A hat. OK, OK. Sean Finnegan: Get low. Imagine this being 20 feet up in the air. Change your perspective and look at it again and it was exactly right. If you got. Low and looked at that same head. Of the mission. From that angle that you would see it. From the ground. All the proportions were perfect. Tom Huszti: So it was designed to be looked up to right? Sean Finnegan: So we're looking at people that have the. Artistry of the skill. Well, to to you know to like factor in perspective and angle. You know what I mean? Like that's something I would never think of you.SpeakerOh yeah. Sean Finnegan: Know. Of course I'm. Not a sculptor, but you know. I mean, you come in and you and you're.Speaker 5Confronted by this? Sean Finnegan: Stone object that is beautifully done. You just takes your breath away. For anyone to question it. It would just be like. What are you talking about, man? Everybody believes in this. And then there's a parade where they bring the portable idols through the city, and then they end up out front of the temple and you get a big barbecue and everybody's rejoicing and you know, the Jews and the Christians are just like, we're not going, we're going to stay home free. Tom Huszti: Oh yeah. Tom Huszti: Neat, right? And they're they're. Sean Finnegan: Well, free meat. Tom Huszti: For the pagans, right? Yeah. For the pagans. Right. Right. Yeah. Do you happen to know this story about the Roman general? Was it Pompeii that when he came into Jerusalem? And he was going to go into the holiest of holies, and the priests were. Standing in the way. And he ordered several, several of them killed with a sword. He wanted to see what the God of Israel looked like, and and he entered in the Holy, Holy Holiest of Holies. After these priests gave their life and he found nothing. What a surprise, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, so the Paul is preaching the same unseen God, but he's preaching the Jewish Messiah, who was seen, who was raised from the dead. Exalted into heaven, and whom God made judge over the earth. So this is the Athenians are being told that this Jesus God gave authority to for judgment, and that the world will be judged by him. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, even before that, you know, just talking about how you mentioned that Paul quoted a couple of their poets. You know that in him we move and have our being, we live and move and have our being and the other statement for we indeed are his offspring. You know, there's a lot of depends on how deep you want to go in this town. But like, there's a lot going on. The schools of the philosophers. Tom Huszti: You know, delve into it? Sure. Sure. Please. Sean Finnegan: OK, so so you have the Epicureans. Founded by Epicurus, and then you have the Stoics founded by Zeno, and they are just. Like total opposites? Right. So the the goal of the Epicurean is to to seek pleasure. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: But not in a primitive like spring break frat party way. You know where, like you just go crazy, and then you you're in pain and suffering the next morning. That's amateur hour. For that, you'd be curious. Or maximizing pleasure over the course of your entire life. Tom Huszti: OK. OK. Sean Finnegan: What would maximize my pleasure, and the Epicureans tended to say that either the gods don't exist, or they exist, but they don't care about us. So you don't need to worry about the gods. There's a lot of precursors to modern atheism and agnosticism there, but the Stoics are saying, ohh pleasure is bad and you got to serve the gods. You have civil duty. The Stoics tended to be the ones in charge of the cities, and the Stoics are absolutely convinced pleasure is. Inherently sinful, like any kind of any kind of pursuit of bodily pleasure, is well, I would say, at least, question. Bowl, but probably like if you could really live without food that tastes really good, or beds that are nice and soft, or a woman's touch or a man's touch if you're. A woman, you. Know like that you would be happier, you would live the good life. So the philosophers are all all about Greek philosophers in particular, or all about how do you lead the good life? Then

How much does … “God's will” matter to you? If you are a Jesus follower, is it important to know and to follow God's will? Isn't that kind of what being a “Jesus follower” means? And what if “God's will” clashes with your will for your life? Because it will! When they clash, who wins? And, if you are not a Jesus follower yet, and if there really is a big G God, and if that big G God actually does have a purpose for your life … if God has a “will” for you, should you care? What will you miss if you don't?

The Follow-Up is a podcast by Coram Deo Church. In this podcast, we take the truths of Sunday and make them applicable to your everyday life. In this episode, Billy and Michael discuss the latest sermon in our new series "The Dearest Place". This week we talk about Luke 10:1-12 and how it plays out practically in everyday life. ............ In this episode, Michael shares a helpful acronym for sharing the Gospel. G - God created us to be with Him O - Our sins separated us from God S - Sins cannot be removed by our good deeds P- Paying the price for our sins, Jesus came and lived perfectly on our behalf, died in our place, was buried, and rose from the dead E - Everyone who believes in Jesus will have eternal life L - Life that's eternal is living forever with Jesus, enjoying God in His presence. ____________________ Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/far-far-away https://uppbeat.io/t/tatami/journey

God's Ultimate Purpose

Twelve Step programs have helped millions of people recover from addictions over the past 85+ years. In this episode we talk about why they work, the myths and the criticisms, and we make an attempt at a balanced look at the pros and cons of these programs. This is a solo episode with Ben Goresky - an addiction recovery coach with 15 years of personal experience in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. After embedding himself in these programs and studying them in depth, Ben stepped away from the programs to focus on other healing modalities. He shares a viewpoint of the program that is rare: the inside view, and the outsider view. Topics discussed in this episode: Who can benefit from Twelve Step programs: Discover if you're an ideal candidate. Exploring the variety of 12 step programs for different addictions. Navigating triggers, pitfalls, and negative experiences within these programs. The role of spirituality and the use of "big G" God language in the steps. Debunking the religious overtones: Are Twelve Step programs religious or spiritual? Addressing powerlessness and disempowering language in the steps. Understanding the reality of addiction: Loss of control and continued substance use despite consequences. The empowering use of the Disease Concept in addiction recovery. Overcoming tribalism and cult-like tendencies within 12 step communities. Unraveling the connection between underlying trauma and addiction. The dynamics of sponsorship: Challenges and strategies for making it work for you. Embracing empowering terminology and breaking free from the label of "addict." Examining the frequency of the term "addiction" and its implications. Reframing the saying "Once an Addict, Always an Addict." Foundational steps 1-3 - Breaking through denial, accepting the problem, and choosing a guiding wisdom. House cleaning steps (4-9): Embracing radical ownership and personal growth. Maintenance steps (10-12): Mastering growth and evolution on a daily basis. Harnessing the power of service work for successful sobriety and recovery. Identifying the two crucial factors that make Twelve Step programs effective. Tips for optimizing your Twelve Step experience and finding resonant meetings and like-minded individuals. Links for this episode: The Freedom From Addiction men's recovery circle Podcast - High Functioning Addiction - with Alex Olshonsky Podcast - Everything you need to know about addiction - with Chris Bevaqua See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now, I'm actually going to give you one “long” sermon in three parts. Part one today, and part two next week, and part three the week after that. But they are all connected; they all flow out of the same big ideas. Four big ideas. Here they are: • Big idea #1: God owns it all. It's all his. Everything we have, everything we can do, how we live, what we live for … it's all his. We think it's ours, when, in reality, it's all his … whether we acknowledge it or not. Because he is God, right? • Big idea #2: The big G God is lavishly generous, he's amazingly generous. Whether you are a Jesus follower, or not, God has given you so incredibly much! Do you buy that? It's all grace, guys! • Big idea #3: With gifts comes responsibility. How did Spiderman put it? “With great power comes great responsibility.” Well, it's the right idea: “With great gifts comes great responsibility.” • And, Big idea #4: If you live these 3 big ideas out, you'll have a better life, and you'll be better at life. It's all his; he's extravagantly generous; but he expects you to use what he gives you in a God-honoring way. Living that way will be better for you, and for everyone around you. … Because we have a very good, and a very wise God, right?

Now, I'm actually going to give you one “long” sermon in three parts. Part one today, and part two next week, and part three the week after that. But they are all connected; they all flow out of the same big ideas. Four big ideas. Here they are: • Big idea #1: God owns it all. It's all his. Everything we have, everything we can do, how we live, what we live for … it's all his. We think it's ours, when, in reality, it's all his … whether we acknowledge it or not. Because he is God, right? • Big idea #2: The big G God is lavishly generous, he's amazingly generous. Whether you are a Jesus follower, or not, God has given you so incredibly much! Do you buy that? It's all grace, guys! • Big idea #3: With gifts comes responsibility. How did Spiderman put it? “With great power comes great responsibility.” Well, it's the right idea: “With great gifts comes great responsibility.” • And, Big idea #4: If you live these 3 big ideas out, you'll have a better life, and you'll be better at life. It's all his; he's extravagantly generous; but he expects you to use what he gives you in a God-honoring way. Living that way will be better for you, and for everyone around you. … Because we have a very good, and a very wise God, right?

The ninth album from Pennsylvania's Alex G contains compelling and immediate melodies and emotional, personal lyircs SOME of the time. It can also drift a bit.

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IndieheadsPodcast On the premiere episode of FYC (For Your Consideration), our new series focusing on new music/album discussion, Jackie and Max talk Alex G’s latest LP, God Save The Animals. Editor’s Note: FYC used to be a write-up series I did on the r/indieheads subreddit talking about records not on the […]

We are starting a new series called Owning Your Gift. If you hang out with me for any length of time, you will SOON know that I am sooo passionate about this topic. I desire to see you THRIVE!!!! Part of thriving is owning your gift. This month my goal is for you to truly step into what God has called you to do. We are going to take the letters in the word GIFT and unpack 4 statements that we are declaring when it comes to our gifts. Today's episode is G: God gave them to me! #liveloveleadcommunity   If you enjoy these podcast episodes, become a member of the Live Love Lead Media Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/liveloveleadmedia   You're invited to join my LIVE LOVE LEAD FB Community. It's a place to build authentic community around God's Word. Check it out here.   If you want weekly inspiration coming to your inbox each week, make sure you SUBSCRIBE to the Live Love Lead Weekly.   For additional resources and coaching services available, visit: https://www.aprilnicolescipio.com   My latest book, "There's More", is a 52-week Devotional Journal is an invitation to slow down and enjoy God's Presence. Each week, you will focus on ONE scripture and choose a worship song to listen to and reflect on during the week. You will have an opportunity to ask God two guided questions each week. There is space to write down your prayers to God and what His response is to you. This devotional journal was designed to remind you that God always has more to say. We just need to lean-in and listen..  GRAB A COPY OF THE BOOK HERE   Interested in the LIVE LOVE LEAD Planner and SUCCESS Journal? Click here for more info.   I would love to connect on social media. Find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter: @aprilnicolescip   Thank you for listening. It would mean so much for you to rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast.

The Hunks are joined by Abbey to discuss the 8th (streaming) release from the Italian-Pennsylvanian singer-songwriter, Alex Giannascoli.

The Hunks are joined by Abbey to discuss the 8th (streaming) release from the Italian-Pennsylvanian singer-songwriter, Alex Giannascoli.

0 (0s): Good morning harvest church. Let's 1 (3s): Come together. Let's stand and worship our Lord and savior Jesus Christ this morning. Amen. 0 (31s): Worship hockey. Come let bow his feet. He has John Gray things. 2 (45s): See 0 (45s): What a savior has done. See how his loves. He has done great things. 2 (58s): He 0 (59s): Has done great things. D oh, hero of heaven. You conquer the you free and cat and break every, oh God, you have done great. We, your you've been faithful through every store. 0 (1m 49s): You'll be faithful forever. You have great beans. You conquer the great, you free recap and break every chain. 0 (2m 30s): God, you have to, we, oh God, you have done great things. Sing. Hallelujah, 2 (2m 56s): Hallelujah. 0 (2m 58s): Above it. Hall hall. You done great things. Great things. And hall it. God shakeable you have done great things. You've done great things. Oh, hero of heaven. You conquer 2 (3m 36s): The great you 0 (3m 38s): See and break every chain. Oh God, you have done great days. We, your freedom alive. Oh Jesus. I save lived. Oh God, you have done great. Oh of heaven. You conquer. And, and 2 (4m 10s): Every, 0 (4m 11s): Oh God, 2 (4m 13s): You, 0 (4m 21s): Oh, savior, great. You great things. God, you, 2 (4m 47s): Oh, great 3 (4m 52s): Church. We're gonna sing a song called new wine. And this week, as I have been meditating on the lyrics, I've been in Matthew, Matthew nine, where talks about how you can't have new wine and old wine skins. And you can't have old wine and new wine skins. You have to have new wine and new wine skins. And I don't know about you, but I know that God wants to bring new wine out of my life. And I know he wants to bring new wine out of your lives as well. So would you sing this with me 2 (5m 43s): In the, 0 (5m 57s): To 2 (6m 30s): You 0 (6m 42s): The, in the soil 2 (7m 17s): Make me 0 (7m 18s): Your 2 (7m 24s): Make me, 0 (7m 37s): Me, 2 (7m 39s): Jesus, 0 (7m 50s): Outta out being 2 (8m 18s): A, 0 (8m 44s): Do five sing. Make me, so make me your, make me, me, whatever you want to. But all 2 (9m 14s): You 0 (9m 15s): Have given me Jesus out me. Jesus, 2 (9m 31s): Jesus. 0 (9m 55s): Out your spirit out your, we need your love. We need your love church. If you feel comfortable, would you just raise up your voice and sing out a song to a word in this moment? Love leg, your 2 (10m 40s): Me 0 (10m 41s): And me, whatever you want me to be. God, the Jesus out me. Jesus, Jesus out. 0 (11m 46s): And could not hold you the on before you 2 (11m 53s): You sign and the you, your what name? 2 (13m 3s): Name? The you're hitting. 2 (14m 21s): So what, what 0 (14m 56s): A, what a, 2 (15m 36s): The, 0 (15m 50s): Do you have? No. The what? 2 (17m 13s): Powerful name? Powerful name. What a powerful name, name? 0 (17m 48s): What 4 (18m 0s): We praise Jesus. You're so good. God, nothing compares to you. You have no rival and you have no equal Jesus. You are incredible. We lift your name high. We praise you in this place Lord. And when the world is chasing after this thing or that Lord in this house, we praise the Lord. We praise the Lord above all else. Jesus, because we realize our hope is in you, Lord. You are so, so, so good. And Lord, I just pray over every person here, the circumstances in their lives that they're coming in with Lord, you can address them. 4 (18m 44s): You can heal them. You can pour your love out on them. Jesus, your holy spirit is the great, the wonderful counselor. Jesus, you are the wonderful counselor. And so Lord, I just pray that you would counsel each person in this room. Lord, I just asked that each person would open their hearts and open their minds because you want to speak to us this morning. Jesus. And we want to hear from you. God, you are so good. We humble ourselves before you. We just exalt your name this morning. Jesus. We love you so much. And it's in his name. Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. 4 (19m 25s): All right. You can take your seats and thank you worship team. Thank you, Jesus. Let's give Jesus a hand. Woo. So good. All right. Well thank you for being here this morning. My name is Curtis. It's great to have you all here today. If you are new here, we've got a couple things for you. We've got coffee and tea out on the patio. We've got bathrooms down these hallways and water back there as well. So make yourself at home. We're we're really glad that you're here. We've got some stuff happening around here and we just encourage you to connect. So one of those things is that to be able to connect with you, we have to have your information. 4 (20m 8s): We have to have some way like your email or your phone number or something. And we would love to that. We would love for you to do that. And that's just a way for us to be able to get you on the email updates and all of that. So you can connect with life groups and really just so your walk with the Lord can continue to grow. So we wanna empower you. We wanna walk with you in that. So if you'd like, and you haven't done it yet, or if it's been a long time, since you've given us your information and maybe it's outdated, you can head back to the info center and fill out your info there. And we'd love to connect with you in that way. The next thing is that we've got a outreach happening this next Saturday. 4 (20m 47s): The harvest festival is gonna be happening. Lots of people right outside this building that we get to love on and just encourage. So at the harvest festival, we are gonna be out front, handing out love first and foremost. And then also we got water bottles and balloons for the kids and stuff like that. So if you want to come by, we're gonna be here from 8 45 to noon and just to love on the people coming by, they're coming right to our front doors. And so how can we pass that opportunity up? It's gonna be great. So we'd love for you to join us. Also, we've got our Bonko for babies event. This is gonna be to support lifeline and all of the unexpected pregnancies, the, the young girls and young boys, young men who are having unexpected pregnancies. 4 (21m 32s): If you wanna support them, head back to the info center and, and learn more about how you can get connected to that event. It's gonna be awesome. The last thing is that the Christian ethics class that I announced last week, apparently I did a really bad job explaining it. So, so these are some of the questions that we're gonna be talking about in the Christian ethics class, Dr. Stacy, Harmon's gonna be leading it. And it's just gonna be a powerful time to kind of dig into some of the harder questions in our lives. So if Sarah live today, we should get an IVF. Did Sampson commit suicide and our frozen embryos alive and have a soul. So these are just some of the questions that they'll be discussing. And it just kind of helps you dig into your faith a little bit and get some, get some Bible behind you. 4 (22m 16s): So if you wanna do that, it's gonna be on Thursdays at six 30 in the loft. So you can sign up at the info center for that. And then in just a minute, we're gonna be having Jeremy come back up and he's gonna share. The second part of his series of the veil is getting thinner and it's gonna be really great. But right now we're gonna have you get up and meet somebody you haven't met before. And we'll be back in just a minute. Thanks. 6 (24m 10s): All right. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. So glad to see you all fellowshiping. What a great Sunday morning I, I gave the children's ministry. That, that, that heads up that I'm gonna go a little long. Alright. So I guess we need every bit of 35 minutes and plus more to get through the content for today, but I'm excited to be here. 6 (24m 56s): I'm I'm, I'm grateful for Steve who gave me once again, another privilege to come and share this. It seems like it's resonating with a lot of you. So that, that encouragement encourages me. I, I hope that you're digging in hope. You've looked at those passages. I hope you continue to do that. I, I, I hope you never just take, you know, a preacher's word for it. I hope you go back and really study and find it in the word of God. So that be principle from acts chapter 17, but I'm glad to be here sharing this message. Once again, we're talking about the veil is getting thinner and, and this and this, this thing that we're seeing and witnessing and around our world about the supernatural getting mixed or, or getting mingled with the natural realm. 6 (25m 44s): So what's what last week we really dug into like, what's, what's going on? What, what is, what is this, why are, why is the government releasing all this UFO stuff? Now? Why, why is this stuff happening? So we, we dug into that a little bit last week. If you missed that message, I would really encourage you to go back after this and, and listen to that, dig in steady. But so as we dig in, let me just give you the answer. Jesus is the answer. Okay? Jesus is the answer. Let's pray and we'll dig in heavenly father. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the complexities in it. We thank you that my daughters, a seven year old, a 10 year old can read your Bible and know it and understand it and coming to a saving knowledge Lord, but we're also thankful for a lifetime of study. 6 (26m 36s): Could never mind the depths of which your holy scriptures have Lord and what they, how they speak into our life and our culture, our context, the things that we're going through Lord. So we pray Lord that we would have the wherewithal to have to dig into the meat of the word of God, to be able to chew on these things. Lord. So Lord to God, as we open up your scriptures, Lord, speak to us in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Let me tell you about three rebellions in the Bible. Because to the, the, the, to the biblical authors to the, the first century Jews, there was, there was three main rebellions that they understood that we've kind of lost sight of. 6 (27m 16s): We, we UN we know the first rebellion. That was the rebellion that happened in Genesis Genesis, chapter three, with the fall of man, kind of the fall of Adam, that sin that was passed on through Adam's sin of, of disobeying God, he, the sin that came upon him and the death, that how that was passed on through Adam to us. Now, we understand that Jesus came to undo and to pay for the penalty of that sin by dine on the cross, thereby giving us life. We understand that as Western Christians that is accurate, but what we missed is that they're actually in the old Testament, there was two more divine rebellions that happened. 6 (27m 56s): And it all goes back to the Genesis chapter one through 11, the more you understand, the more you dig into what was happening in Genesis chapters, one through 11, the more the, you will unlock the different complexities of the Bible of the word of God. Revelation will become something that you'll understand more greatly. As you understand the context of Genesis chapters, one through 11. The second rebellion is what we really talked about last week, the rebellion of the sons of God, see God made man in his own image and the image, God, he created the male and female. He created them. God made man in his own image and he placed his own code into us, but then the sons of God and their rebellion and, and, and justice, chapter six, they came and they tried to implant their own image on humanity. 6 (28m 43s): That's what the whole thing was. There was the mixing of the sons of God with the daughters of, of, of men. And so that was Genesis chapter through this, the second rebellion, these angels, these sons of God, rebelled of God's natural habitation for them and Jesus in his ministry was became not only to undo the fall of our sin of Genesis chapter three, but he also came to, to reclaim and to undo the sin of these sons of God. That's why Jesus so often, and throughout the scriptures, we see that Jesus came against many demons like March chapter one, verse 23. It says now there was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit. 6 (29m 25s): Whoa, wait a second. There's a church. And there's a man with an unclean spirit, a demonic spirit within him, a church that still happens today. But that man began to climb out, you know, who led us alone? Who have we to do with you? Jesus of Nather. You did you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You're the holy one of God. And Jesus cast him out. He rebuked him, caused him to be quiet because Jesus came to undo the fall of the sons of God. And not only that, but all three gospels record that Jesus went up onto a mountain and was transfigured before his disciples and then was joined by Moses and Elijah. That is because Jesus was showing himself to be greater than these sons of God. 6 (30m 9s): He was showing not only his disciples, but he was showing the evil, spiritual realm that he was God in flesh. And he was coming for them. The third rebellion that we find in scripture is the rebellion at Genesis chapter 11 at the tower of vowel, God blessed no one, his sons. And he says, go out and be fruitful and multiply. But one of those sons decided that they were not gonna do that. They were gonna then gather up the nations into one and they were gonna build a tower, remember to try to get above the flood as well, but to build a tower, to, to get to the heavens. And so they were building this tower. They gathered the nation into one place under the leadership of one person into one government. 6 (30m 56s): And not only that, but they Satan led this merging technology, human centered ATIC religion and a global government. All that was found in the, the supernatural rebellion in Genesis chapter 11. This is what Todd Hamson who wrote the book, the nonprofits guide to spiritual warfare. It has, if you look at the book, the front of the cover, it's corny, but it's really in depth. So I, I recommend this book at the parable bookstore, the nonprofits guide to spiritual warfare. This is what he said about Babylon. Babylon means gateway to God or gateway to the gods. Several times in scripture, phone angels are referred to as lowercase G gods at the tower of Babybel man and evil entities were attempting to work together through the veil that separates the scene and the unseen realms in open defiance against the Lord, knowing that with that, they would, that rebellion would incur God's judgment. 6 (31m 55s): That's what was happening at Babylon. So how did Jesus undo that? Well, you see at babble, the languages and the nations were divided. Deutero 32 that says within that division, Deutero 32 versus seven through nine says, remember the days of old consider the years of many generations ask your fathers and he will show you your elders. And they will tell you when the most high gave the nations, their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples, according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob, his allotted heritage. 6 (32m 38s): So I said, when God divided the nations, not only to divide the languages and he sent out nations, is that he also put over the, these different nations, supernatural powers, these divine, these sons of God, these divine beings. And he gave them over the ch that's why we see a Daniel. When Daniels in Persia, the, he, he, his prayers were withheld by the prince of the, the prince of the Persia. He was withheld by the spiritual force that was overseeing that nation because God had given that nation to that according to D 32, but God claimed for himself is Israel and Jacobs allotted heritage. 6 (33m 18s): That's why in Jesus' ministry. Jesus first sends out his 12 disciples. That's who his important ministry was to reclaim the, the nation of Israel, what they were called to be the light of the world. He sends his 12 disciples out, and then when they come back, they bring good report. And then later on, we see Jesus sends out the 70, have you, any of you ever wondered why Jesus sent out the 70 disciples? We understand the 12 for the 12 tribes of Israel, but the 70 correspond back to Genesis, chapter 10 and 11 Noah shaman and Shaham and Jacob Noah's three sons were sent out and they were divided up into 70 different nations. 6 (34m 0s): Go back to Genesis, check that out. So when Jesus sends out the 70, what is he doing? He's saying I'm not only the God of Israel. I am the God of the world. And I am reclaiming these nations for myself, showing that I am superior to that. Isn't it interesting that God's a nationalist. God believes in the rights of sovereign nations because sovereign nations hold power back from each other, help us keep back the evil at bay. You think of when we went in and invaded Iraq, how all of a sudden Iran came to power. When we took Saddam hue out of power, we didn't realize that all of a sudden Iraq or Iran would come to power within the region. 6 (34m 45s): There was a withholding of the powers there. God is a nationalist. He believes in nations, God design nations. So Jesus having sent out the 70 and seeing the result back when he says that I saw state and fall like a, like fall out of heaven. He now says ILOs chapter two, verse 13, through 15 of what Jesus did over all these supernatural entities was this. He said, and you being alive in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him having forgiven you all trespasses having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. 6 (35m 27s): And he has taken it out of the way. Having nailed it to the cross. You know, that God is a God of justice. And he's a God who believes in the legal system. God has a legal system that he's worked out for the salvation of us. God can't extend out of that because God keeps within his own legal boundaries. He's there's handwritten requirements that were, that were against us. But after he did that, having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed the principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them and triumphing over them all. That's why Jesus is the answer. That's why Jesus is the answer. He is the name above every name. 6 (36m 7s): So that's where we leave off this week. But let's, let's remember where we left off last week. And that last week we talked about the diff or we left off with the difference between angels and demons. So let's get into that. Now, first of all, there's a number of different types or classes of angels. There's types, kinds hierarchy within the angels, angelic realm. There's the Sarah F in the chair of him. Those are normally found around the throne room of God. We have the arc angels who are these kind of warrior angels that are given much power, much authority. We have messenger angels, guardian angels, and then over 70 different types of angels are described in the book of revelation. There's a guy who recently wrote a book on 70 angels in the book of revelation, but we don't have time to jump into those guys. 6 (36m 53s): Those are, I'll leave those for further study for you. But what, where we were at last week was the sons of God. That statement the sons of God, the sons of God in the old Testament were direct creations of God, okay? God directly created the sons of God. So if I were gonna get onto a tangent, which I'm going to, because it relates to you and I today, the tangent is that in the old Testament, they're called the stone of God. What about now? What about in the new Testament? And that's where the genealogy is really interesting. Interesting. Both Matthew one and Luke three have different genealogies for Jesus. One follows the lineage of Joseph. 6 (37m 34s): One follows the lineage of Mary Luke's lineage follows Mary Luke and Luke chapter three, the genealogy, we see it all the way down from, from Mary's, from Mary. Her, her father is that we fall that all the way down. The son of the son of the son of, until we get to Adam, the son of God, why was Adam called a son of God? Because he didn't have a mother or father because God directly created Adam. So how does that relate to us today? Well, that's, that's, what's encouraging about the new Testament says second Corinthians five says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 6 (38m 14s): The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Or what about Romans eight versus 12 through 14? Paul says, therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. But if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you are put to death, the deeds of the body you will live for as many as are led by the spirit of God to these are called the sons of God. Isn't that interesting that we, by believing in who Jesus Christ has have been given the rights to be called the sons of God, John one also says, but as many received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name. 6 (39m 4s): First John three, one behold, what manner of love the father's bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. We, because of Jesus can be called the son or the child of God, because we've made a new creation in him. And that means that we are co-heirs with Christ, But we don't become angels. We don't become angels because we're a new creation. We're still humans, but we've been made in the image of God angels. When a person dies, they don't become an angel. Can I dispel that the Bible does not teach that? 6 (39m 45s): Okay. We will be humans. Humans will be humans. And these divine beans will continue to be that. So back to angels, supernatural, divine beans that dwell in a realm above ours in an unseen realm, you see, we have arch angels, messenger angels, guardian angels, angels unaware to us. In fact, the, the one thing that separates angels in the Bible is angels ability to manifest into our world and even disguise themselves as humans. Isn't that interesting angels are able to manifest into our world into our seen realm. 6 (40m 26s): Hebrews 13 chapter 13 verse two says, do not forget to entertain strangers for BISO, doing some, have unwittingly entertained angels. Isn't that interesting that person you bump into on the street, they might be an angel. He was just be careful. You might, you might be that might be an angel that because angels are able to manifest into our scene realm, and that didn't just happen. He's not just warning in, in Hebrews or, or message in Hebrews. It's also in the old Testament in Genesis 18, we see that yawe himself and two other divine beans met with Abraham in the flesh and they ate a meal together. 6 (41m 13s): These angels met with lot and ate Genesis 19 that says those two angels had to physically grab lot and pull him out. That means that angels were able to manifest into our existence into a physical substance and pull lot out of that city. And though even the townsmen of those of that city of Sodom and Gamora thought that those two angels were men it's because the angels are able to manifest Genesis chapter 32 says that Jacob arrested with a man in that text also described as Elohim or Hebrew for God twice. 6 (41m 54s): They had a physical struggle that left Jacob injured for the rest of his life. Matthew chapter four verse 11 says that angels came and ministered to Jesus after 40 day fast Jesus in the wilderness fasting, then, then net by Satan to, to try to deceive him, to try to make him worship God. Jesus was tired after that 40 days, how was he ministered to, is the question, was he just kissed on the cheek by a bunch of butterflies as they kind of like floated around these angels beans that were unseen? No, I think they brought him food. I think they brought him water. 6 (42m 33s): I think they brought him maybe even a pillow or a place to rest. They ministered to his physical bodily needs because they were able to manifest in acts chapter five. We see that angels can open doors. We also see angels appear in speak to shepherds in the field. By speaking, we know that sound waves came out of their vocal chords. So these angels manifested into our existence and were able to speak there by creating vocal, creating these sound waves, which those shepherds were able to hear angels hit the disciples or smacked Peter around to wake them up in acts chapter 12, physically able to manifest into our world. 6 (43m 19s): And it's interesting that the angels throughout the Bible always given in the masculine gender they're, they aren't sexless. There's a book that was written in 1830. It's called flatland by a, a, a minister who was also kind of dabbled in hobbies of, of science and, and physics and stuff. And he wrote this book called flatland, where there was a, he explained and, and brought, made to life a whole world that lived in two dimensions. So the squares or the triangles were female or males in the squares were females. And they, they, he shows how they interact until one day, a three dimensional, a higher being interrupted and, and, and got involved in that two dimensional world. 6 (44m 9s): And it blew the mind of the, the guy that was the, the triangle, how this extra dimensional bean could then intercept and add in. And I wonder how our three dimensional world can be intercepted in, in Why, why, why don't we see four or five or six or 10 dimensions? Like there's theories of science that show because angels are able to manifest. So what about the fallen angels that we talked about last week and the really fallen angels? Let's talk about that. Both Peter and Jews say that both angels who rebelled at the time of no were cast away until the judgment, those angels, that specifically rebelled were cast away. 6 (44m 55s): So what that does is that leaves us two groups of fallen angels. There are those that are bound in chains or locked in tarter. They left their natural habitation, had sex with women, thereby breaking what God had designed them to do. And those, those ones are bound in chains, but there's also a group of angels of fallen angels that are still free to roam. They're the ones that rebelled with Satan, but didn't leave their natural habitations. So what does that mean? It means that some angels, some fallen angels are still at work in our world today. Galatians one eight is the warning, but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you, then we have preached to you, let him be a cursed. 6 (45m 43s): Don't listen to it. Don't listen to another gospel. Even if it's some supernatural being, if it, whatever it is, don't listen to it. Let him be a cursed. Ephesians six reminds us of what we're struggling with or what we're wrestling with for, we do not wrestle against the flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heaven, places, those are different boundaries in hierarchy. What about in our history? What about our world's history? Have you ever seen or heard of fallen angels come in contact with humans? 6 (46m 22s): What about the prophet Muhammad? The so-called prophet Muhammad 40 years old, he's in a cave near Mecca and he's, he's, he's praying to his God. And in that cave appears what he called the angel Gabriel. Now we know the state that they're a liar, so they can say who they want to be. But this angel grabbed Mohamed and threw him up against the wall and said, he said, read or recite. And Mohamed said, I, I, I don't, I don't know how to read. He was illiterate. He could not read. And he slumped down and the angel, then again, picked him up and threw him against the cave once again, and said, read or recite Muhammad slumped down again. 6 (47m 4s): Once again, after holding them there for a while, thought thinking that he's gonna lose his life. He let him down again. Muhammad was like, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't do that. I, I, I don't have that skill. And the angel once again, the third time threw him up against the cave wall until Muhammad thought he was gonna die and said, read a sight. And then finally let him go. He went back to his home, back to his wife and hid under a blanket, not knowing what he had just dealt with. And that's how he come, how we get the message of Islam, an angel throwing him up against the wall. Or what about Joseph Smith and his dealing with angel Morona this angel that, that then gave him special golden spectacles and a golden tablet and said, there, this read Christianity is not correct. 6 (47m 50s): This is the true religion. And, and, and this is what you're gonna do. That was the angel moron fallen angels involved in our world. Today. You see Dr. David Jeremiah said this. He said, fallen angels don't prevent us from worshiping. Instead they changed the object of our worship. Something other than the almighty God Prevent us. They don't prevent us from worshiping. They just change the object of our worship. That is why it's my personal opinion. I brought this up last week of what UFO are. I believe these are fallen angels distracting us, preparing us in the world for when Christians suddenly disappear. 6 (48m 33s): And I'm talking about the great rescue, the great snatching, where, where we will be caught up in a moment where those who believe in Jesus Christ will be snatched up and, and just gone just off the face of the world. How is the world gonna explain that? Well, they're gonna, they're gonna use these UFO site and these fallen angels that, oh, well, the angels had to take them. New age has a belief that the world will not enter into full piece until those people who resist that are taken away that's within the new age. Belief says my belief that these things are conditionings for what to come. There's a law of prophecy that says future events, cast their shadows ahead of them. 6 (49m 18s): Future events, cast their shadows ahead of them. Turn on discovery plus, and you'll find a whole channel loaded with the paranormal, Go to the history channel. You'll have all this, all this supernatural things there. It's becoming normalized in our culture. So if angels and fallen angels are able to in manifest into our world today, what about demons? What's up with them. And this is what Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 12. Jesus taught that demons are disembodied spirits. 6 (49m 58s): Demons are disembodied spirits. Matthew chapter 12, verse 43 to 45. Jesus said when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest and find none. Then he says, I will return to my house from which I came, which he, and when he comes, he will find it empty, swept, and put an order. Then he goes and takes it with him, seven other spirits, more wicked than himself. And they enter and they dwell there. And their last state that man is worse than the first shall. So it shall be with this wicked generation. Notice the language that Jesus has using there says unclean spirit goes out of a man out of a man. 6 (50m 42s): And then later on, he says that the Demonn says I will return to my house. That because the Demonn wants to find a place of rest of Possession as a son of missionaries to a third world country. I, I remember hearing some of these stories very early on about how my parents would once in a while, once in a while, come across these people. And, and, and they would try to exercise the demons because this little girl, young age would from her would come the weirdest and most guttural noises and sounds and speak in, in, in horrible things. And that those demons would try to hurt that girl. 6 (51m 22s): And so my parents spent time casting out these demons. I heard that from a young age. So what is going on? Well, Jesus spoke that these demons are disembodied spirits. They seek to find a body and there is levels of wickedness within the demons themselves. You see that demon didn't like whether it left or whether, if it was, it was cast out of that, that man, that person, that body, that it was in, it says, well, I'm gonna return there. And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept and put order. And he says, oh, I'm gonna take seven more, more wicked than myself so that we won't be cast out again Out of a man. 6 (52m 6s): I'm gonna return to my house. So where do these disembodied spirits come from? Be the question we should ask, where do these disembodied spirits come from? And that goes back to Genesis chapter six, Genesis chapter six, verse four says there were giants on the earth in those days. And also afterwards, we'll, we'll leave that. We'll, we'll set that aside for another time. Another discussion there were giants on the earth in those days when the sons of God came into the daughters of wi of men and they bore children to them. And these were the mighty men who were of old men of renowned that were giants is the Hebrew word for Nephem. 6 (52m 50s): There were superior beings because they were half angel and half man that Hebrew word ne ne is, is a compound word it's it's Neal, which means fallen one. See, this was another reason for the flood because the spiritual wickedness that had intercepted the human race, the human seed human DNA, and that the promised Messiah of Genesis chapter three verse 15, would, could not therefore have Satan seed within it. It had to be a pure strain. That's why the Jews were so interested in their genetics, in their lineage, their family lineage. 6 (53m 33s): And as weird as that sounds to us, the technology today is increased in increasing. We have this technology called the CRISPR technology, gene splicing technology, where we're able to split apart the human DNA and there, and put into DNA, other blocks of DNA. Now, that sounds good. When you think of how, how it could be used for cancer, if there's a, if, if, if a person has a, a, a genetic disposition that, that, that caused them to have cancer, well, you think well going in and removing that chunk of DNA, that causes, that could be a good thing, but it also can be used. Very nefariously. 6 (54m 14s): China has openly said that they're working on Chimera, they're working on and they have worked on, and they have created a live pig monkey hybrid. Please fact, checking on that because they eventually want to make super soldiers. They want to take human DNA and mix it with pig DNA. So you get these transhuman soldiers. They're working on that. As all comes down to transhumanism that we can become something greater than God. We, we could become a hybridized at the, at the fall at that second divine fall, where the sons of God came into the Dodge as a woman, they were trying to make their man and their own image. 6 (55m 3s): And that is now continues to gate today with the technology that we're at. So that's why Noah was chosen. Noah was found perfect in his generations, in his Tolo dot because he hadn't his genes hadn't been mixed. And it's interesting to look back at the mythology from all around the world, every culture, even here in the native Americans here in the us claim to have some half human half man demigod and every culture around in the, in the world also has a global flood story with one family surviving it, where these lowercase G God's coming into human women and creating hybrids. 6 (55m 48s): Superpowered beans, Gilgamesh, Hercules, a Achilles, all those speak to this demigods. But what happened to those? NELI those superpowered those half human half spiritual beans. What happened to them? Well, that's why Genesis six over and over again, says that God wiped everything out. A global worldwide flood. They all died. Jesus talks over and over again about that flood and how it wiped everything out. You see the understanding is that the, the Def the Neum, their bodies died, but their spirits lived on their bodies died in the, in the flood, but yet their spirit has been left here to Rome first or second Corinthians five, one through eight. 6 (56m 44s): Talk about how our bodies are home to our spirit. That's why when people have, or claim to have these near death experiences where their spirit is detached from their body, it's because their bodies are home to their spirit. I'm told by another pastor. And I have not been able to verify this. So don't take this as, as, as word, but I'm told by another pastor that the common name for demons at the time of Christ was Timon Neal or dead NELI. So if you can find that source that let me know, please, but that's what I'm told. And it seems to be that this was the accepted view during the time of Jesus, that demons are the disembodied spirits of the neph limb that were killed during the flood. 6 (57m 28s): And they look once again to inhabit an animal, an object, or a body. They want to have a body again, which makes sense with Jesus, talking about them being disembodied spirits. So a couple facts on demons, demons. Also, like we said, it would vary in wickedness and Inkin remember Jesus and Matthew 12 says seven other spirits, more wicked than himself. And then later on in mark, chapter nine versus 28 through 29, his disciples could not cast this certain Demonn out. And when they had Jesus privately, they said, when they'd come into the house to discipled, asked him privately, why could we not cast it out? 6 (58m 10s): So Jesus said to them, this kind can only come out by nothing but prayer and fasting, Prayer and fasting is what, how that kind would come out. You see demons seek to oppress and enticed people to sin. And if possible, to possess a person, which is the, the work that's still going on today, why? Because they want to get a body again. They want to use human vocal chords to speak. If you look at mark chapter five in Luke, chapter eight, we've we, you hear of the, the Legion, the man who had many who was naked, who was wandering the two living in the tombs. 6 (58m 55s): Jesus comes and simply cast them out. But he, but he says, he, he, he allowed those spirits to talk to. I don't know why, but he allowed those spirits to then say, Hey, can we go on those pigs? And those pigs ran off the cliff. And once again, those pigs died. Does that remind you of the flood story? 7 (59m 11s): There's 6 (59m 12s): A connection. The good news is a Christian. A Christian cannot be possessed by a, when they're filled with the holy spirit. That's pretty good. Come on. More amens on that one. Thank you. First Corinthians six says this, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit? Who is in you, whom you have from God. And you're not your own. You are bought with a price, therefore, therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are gods. Your body is the temple of the holy spirit. You've been made a new creation. You cannot be filled or possessed by a Demonn. 6 (59m 55s): Now demons have many different kind of names. I encourage you to, to look up unclean spirits, familiar spirits Diablos or devils. We don't have enough time to go into that today, but not everything can come down to well, the devil made me do it. Okay. We battle against a world system against our, our own flesh. And we battle against the devil, the world, the flesh, and the devil, but what are with specific ways to open the doors, to demonic oppression, or for those who are not believers possession, let's talk about those first one would be worship of other gods or idols, worship of other gods or idols. 6 (1h 0m 37s): Deuteronomy 32 says when they provoked him to jealousy with their foreign gods with abomination, they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons and not to God, to God's. They did not know, knew God's new arrivals that their fathers did not fear. That's backed up in, in the new Testament with first Corinthians 10, when he says in verse 19 and 22, what, what am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything rather that the one things at which Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. 6 (1h 1m 19s): That is that's. Yeah. You cannot partake at the Lord's table and the table of the demons, or, or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he see by worshiping things made out of hand, the Demonn can then occupy that object. They, they were what they thought were, they were just worshiping just statues or idols. They were actually sacrificing and worshiping demons. So why you gotta be careful when you, when you, when you move into your house or if your front lawn has a Buddhist statue, a Hindu statue, get that thing outta there. 6 (1h 2m 2s): That's no right in a Christian's life. And even then we still need to be careful of what we bring into our houses. My wife loves the thrift store, the thrift shop. And she brought maybe, maybe she, yeah, I didn't ask her if I could tell the story, but she brought home this plate and it was really pretty, it was a decorative plate. It was kind of made outta her bra and it had some really cool inscriptions and it, but it had this, this kind of almost writing that went around it. And I, and I, I wasn't sure about it. And we had it in a, a house for a number of months. And, and I remember just, just, I never, I just never felt good about that thing. Never. 6 (1h 2m 42s): I just, just felt wrong. And during that time, my, my wife was having dreams and even kind of just strange stuff going on in the house. And I was like, honey, I think we gotta get rid of that plaque. Oh, but it looks so nice. No, it just needs to go. So she ended up throwing away and I never followed up with it a few months ago passed. So a couple months later, a few months ago, she's like, Hey, you remember that plate? And I was like, yeah. She's like, you know, all those things that was like experiencing, they went away. When I got rid of that plate, I was like, weird Worship of other gods right now. We never worshiped the plate. We did not do that. Okay. What about involvement in the cultism oui boards, TA cards, Palm readers, talking with the spirits of the dead witchcraft, spells movies shows even the new thing right now, crystals. 6 (1h 3m 40s): These all have their foundation in the cultism. You can all bring those all the way back to the Babylon, to Nimrod. These are things that we need to be careful of, and we think we should not have any involvement. They open the door to demonic oppression or possession D on the 18 says there shall not be found among you. Anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire or one who practices witchcraft or so there, or one who interprets omens or a sor or one who conjures up spirits or spells, or a medium or a spiritist or one who calls up the dead for all these things are an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations, the Lord, your God drives them out from you before you, these things are, do not belong in the life of a, of a, of a, a Christian. 6 (1h 4m 28s): What about alcohol? Especially too much of it. Where can you find alcohol in a store? You can find it in the spirits section Ephesians five, eight says, or five 18 says, and do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. What is that saying? That you're gonna be either filled with the spirit or you're gonna be filled with the holy spirit, or you're gonna be filled with this unclean spirit spirit. Be careful with that. Jesus warns about worshiping. Mamon what we think of money and our wealth and holding onto it too tight, trusting too much in it is the way we open up ourselves to, to the demonic realm. 6 (1h 5m 17s): What about sexual sin and perversion? We open the door to of our life, to these unclean spirits. We give them footholds in our lives. They are filthy and perverted first Corinthians six says this, please sexual sexual immorality. Every sin that man does outside his body is outside of his body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body, his own, the, the temple of the holy spirit and that word for I immorality, or is fornication. And the Greek word is pornea sexual sin. 6 (1h 6m 2s): It's perversion I'm told the average age currently is between six and eight years old. That if boy sees his first pornography, Six to eight years old parents be very careful with the technology that you allow your kids to have six to eight, open that door into the, the demonic realm where clean UN unclean spirits filthy perverted. The Bible also says that sexuality is anything outside the boundary of one man. 6 (1h 6m 45s): And one woman in a married relationship. Hebrews 13, four says the marriage bed is undefiled, but anything outside that is defiled. That includes transgenderism. Beastiality homosexuality, adultery pornography. All of that is outside the grounds of biblical marriage. And that does not belong in the life of a Christian in college. As I was dealing with my own struggle in this area, remember there was a night when my, my college roommate wasn't home and I woke up in the middle of the night with temptations from a deep sleep. 6 (1h 7m 27s): I didn't share this first service woke up from a deep sleep and there was next to my bed, a bean. And it wasn't there. There wasn't, it was, it was real enough to be not physically there, but there was a spiritual being in my room that was hovering over me. And I couldn't get a word out. I was like, pinned, locked my room. All I knew, I knew that I needed to say the name of Jesus. I knew that I needed to cast that thing out. That the thing had no right to be in my room. And I struggled for a minute. So to try to finally get the words out and that finally, that, that Jesus, that unlocked it in this beam that had a faith that was standing over me. 6 (1h 8m 10s): I somehow molded and just walked away out into where into, into the, where my roommate's room was about 15 minutes later when I got the courage and finally jumped outta bed, I ran and I made sure all the doors and the windows shut and sure enough, everything was locked up. There was a demonic bean in my room that was trying to get me to thin. What about drugs as an opening to the demonic realm? We sometimes think of these things as harmless. Just a, just things that we do once in a while, but drugs in revelation 19 night, sorry, revelation nine verse 20 through 21. 6 (1h 8m 52s): But the rest of mankind who are not killed by those plagues did not repent from the works that the hands that they should not worship demons and idols of silvers, brass stone and wood, which can either see, nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent from the murders of the, or their Soaries or their sexual immorality or their Thefts. That that word forestries is an interesting word because in the Greek, that word forestries actually is the word PIAA PIAA. And that in the context of the new Testament is mind altering substance for a long, long time throughout the century's pagans have used in their worship ceremonies, different plants and different medicinal things to get high. 6 (1h 9m 37s): And once they're high, they're in the altered state, they're in a higher state and they're able to communicate with outside extra, extra dimensional beans. You're giving your Liberty for these demons to enter your life. As you do these mind altering drugs, I'm gonna show a clip. I promised it last week of VI of Joe Rogan. He's a, a world famous podcaster, one of the most listened to podcasters, and he's gonna talk about his experience using a drug, but this, and using this drug, he enters into something that he feels is more real than real. 6 (1h 10m 21s): And from that place where he feels more real than real, he he's getting outside wisdom. So let me just play this clip and we'll go from there. 9 (1h 10m 29s): I have one way of looking at it that I always describe. This is what I say to people. I say, if there was a thing that you could do like a door you could go through and that door would take you to another dimension where you would communicate with Some entity beyond your wildest imagination, that's constantly visually changing and communicating with you telepathically and knows everything about you sees all your, and is trying to impart some ideas that will help you with your life. Cuz it's a God-like experience like you're experiencing like some sort of Uber, powerful entity, some more Uber, intelligent entity, something beyond any, if we just looked at humans and thought of the hu the evolution of human one day, we'll get to this. 9 (1h 11m 19s): We're not gonna get to that. That is a different, it seems like it's so beyond the body. It's so beyond the, the human monkey body, this is what I tell people. I go, if I could give, if you would open a door and you would go there and you'd have that experience, would you do it? And most people are like, yes, I would do it. If I gave you a drug that gave you that experience, you still have the exact same experience. It's the exact same experience. You've just decided it's not real. And you've decided it's not real because you're putting into this category of hallucination. Like what does that even mean? What does that even mean? You're actually having that experience. I don't know what it is 6 (1h 12m 1s): There. Joe Rogan is talking about how he's opening up in a door and that goes back to Genesis, right? Kane soon is knocking at your door and it seeks to master you here, here, Joe Rogan is staying. I, I I'm, welcomely opening this door into my life with this wisdom from outside to come in and give me insight. He's opened himself to demons because demons, if they are the bodies of the distant bodies, spirits of the LAN, they have been around for thousands of years and they've witnessed, they know Joe Rogan's tendencies. They know each of our tendencies, they know what we're our proclivities are. They know what we're what sins draw us. 6 (1h 12m 42s): Everyone has different sins that they're drawn to. And so these demons he's through this drug, he's allowing becomes more real than real. He's allowing these things to speak into 'em He's wrestling with that. Is that more something that's more real than real is because we are being conditioned in this culture into this day and age, that that the veil is getting thinner. The normalization of this supernatural is a trick of Satan to, to steal line from the of great movie, the usual suspects. He says that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was trying to convince the world he didn't exist. But one of the other tricks, the devil pulls is just to get you okay with the humdrum of life like CS Lewis, the screw tape letter, just, just let them kind of do their thing. 6 (1h 13m 28s): They're okay. Because as we watch more and more and more and more come down the forest, the UFOs, the movies, the TVs, the news, the cold we're gonna be, be getting this. So we need to get back to our supernatural biblical worldview because the world needs it. The Bible has the answers. So how do we do that? Well, one, we, Jesus, Jesus, the name of every other name. We claim the name of Jesus. If you have not claimed the name of Jesus, if you have not become a follower of Jesus Christ, you need to do that today because either Jesus will influence you or these, the unseen realm will be influencing. 6 (1h 14m 12s): You Need to remove that veil from our eyes, realize that there's an unseen realm around us and that we rest will not against flesh and blood. Then for some of us, we need to close the door to the demonic strongholds in our life, drugs, alcohol pornography, those things, those doors need to be closed in the name of Jesus Christ. And those spirits cast out. We need to pick up our spiritual armor and the weapons that God has given us. He's given us directions of how to fight how and to do that. So let's do that. Go to Ephesians six, to look up your spiritual armor that God has given you. And we need to fight by getting on our knees in prayer fast. 6 (1h 14m 53s): When you, when God calls you to fast, pick up your Bible, we need to pray and speak out against our, against the demonic strongholds in our community. Our families in our country, these things are real pray. Jesus, we'd lift up your name higher than any other name, your God in the flesh who came to save sinful man to save us. So we bow our knee to you. God, cuz you've paid the price. 6 (1h 15m 41s): Jesus, we need you. We need you to fight this fight. We need to be equipped for the battle, but help us to dig into what you have for us. For Jesus. Then we pray. 2 (1h 15m 56s): Amen. 0 (1h 15m 59s): Church will you stand as we worship. So make me in offering, make me whatever you want me to be. God, I came here with nothing but all you have given me, Jesus, bring new wine out. Me, me, your 2 (1h 16m 42s): Me 0 (1h 16m 42s): In with nothing 2 (1h 16m 55s): At 0 (1h 16m 55s): All you have given me. Jesus, bring new wine outta these Jesus spring, new wine Jesus, where the is your freedom? Lay down old. 6 (1h 18m 18s): See the fight got brought to me. It became really personal. We bought an old house as a, it's a house that was built in 1934 in Santa Maria. And after moving in and we started, there's strange things happening. My daughter was saying, dad, I'm really afraid at I it's like I see something in the corner of my room. I'm like, that's what do you see, honey? And she described a Grotes old woman in the corner of her room. And I was like, well that's that's really okay. Well let's pray. Let me give you the tools. I use the name of Jesus. If you, if you sense something in your room, use the name of Jesus. Say Jesus, help me, Jesus be here. And that thing will have to flee well, talking to then after that, talking to my next door neighbor, who's a Christian as well. 6 (1h 19m 3s): He's like, I've seen that exact same old Haggard woman as well. I'll be alone in the house and I'll see her peek out, out the corner of the room and then another neighbor. And then my wife all reported three different people, independent of each other, knock talking all reported to seeing this, this abarition. And so we prayed and they, I gave them the tools I gave them that fight guard brought to me. So I said, no, there's either. I'm either run from this or I'm gonna fight it. And we chose to fight and we fight in the name of Jesus Christ. We fight in the power of God, but there is a power. There is Power in the name of Jesus Christ. Come forward. If you need prayer, come forward and deal with that. 6 (1h 19m 46s): Come forward to submit yourself and, and to yield to Jesus today. Thank you. 0 (1h 20m 0s): So make me whatever you want me to be. God, I came here with nothing, but all you have given me Jesus new one out of me. 3 (1h 20m 27s): One more time. 0 (1h 20m 30s): Me your thank me an me. Want to God, nothing at all you have given me, Jesus, bring new wine outta me. Jesus, bring new wine outta me. Jesus, bring new wine out of me. 3 (1h 21m 13s): God, that is our prayer this morning. But the old would fall away that we would step into the new God that you would bring new wine out of our lives, that any bad habits or mindsets, but that, that those would end today. God, thank you for your spirit. Thank you for your power. Thank you for your love in your precious name. We pray. Amen.

On today's Spark of Faith episode Kristin talks about following God's plan for our life or following your plan G instead of trying so hard to create our own plan A or plan B. Are you partnering with God to step onto the path he is calling you onto? It's time to take that next step and walk into the opportunities and promptings God is whispering for you to pursue. #christianliving #christiandevotional #faithpodcast #bibleverses

Vi går igenom Babylons Q4 siffror med analyschef Stefan Wård Disclaimer: ”Informationen i denna podd ska inte ses som investeringsråd. Tänk på att placeringar i värdepapper alltid medför en risk. Historisk avkastning är ingen garanti för framtida avkastning. De pengar som placeras i värdepapper kan både öka och minska i värde och det är inte säkert att du får tillbaka hela det insatta kapitalet. Det är viktigt att fortlöpande bevaka sitt innehav och vid behov ta initiativ till åtgärder för att minska risken för förlust.” http://www.paretosec.com/download/compliance/disclaimer.pdf

listening back to this episode shook me!! i hope it shakes you in just the right way, too. and be sure to head to the Vibrant Coven for more resources, or to tell us what you thought about this episode — www.patreon.com/vibrantcoven

0 (0s): Okay, man. Well, welcome. Welcome. My D who read the most recent headline. Did you guys read the headline that about the post Thanksgiving inflation? Did you guys read about it? It's mostly in the midsection, but it's, but it's definitely, definitely happening. Nobody else read about that? Just curious. How many eight, wait, how many ate way too much during the holidays? Holy cow. I'm still stuff from yesterday. We had Thanksgiving on Thursday, like most people and I'm at my in-law's house. And then we had a double birthday party at my house yesterday with two of my grandkids to my grand boys. 0 (41s): And then, huh, Friday, Friday. Thanks. And then Saturday I'll get it straight eventually. And then Saturday we were at my mom's house. If 30 people doing more food. And so I'm just totally stuffed. So I'm ready to stop eating for a few days. I probably won't. I mean, let's be honest. It's a good, but Hey, we're in Hebrews chapter three, I'll be reading out of the new living translation today. They were answering the question. What do we do with Jesus? What do we do with Jesus? I mean, that's really the challenge that the writer of Hebrews is issuing. He's challenging these believers, these are Jewish believers, beat people who are Jewish, but believe that Jesus is the Messiah. 0 (1m 29s): And yet in their belief, they begin to waffle and have a second thoughts and second guessing their, their decision to, to really serve Jesus wholeheartedly. And so we're, we're going to work today on answering that question. What do we do with Jesus? Number one in your notes, we're going to see this in Hebrews chapter three, verse one. I'm going to ask you to think carefully about him. Think carefully about Jesus. Why? Because in Hebrews three, one, it says this. And so dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and our partners with those called to heaven, the writer says, think carefully about this Jesus, whom we take glare to be God's messenger and high priest. 0 (2m 16s): So the writer again is speaking to believers. If you look at the English standard version or the king James version, it inserts the word holy. And so the writer is speaking to a holy group of people, brothers and sisters in the Lord. People made holy by the work of Jesus on the cross. And we're going to celebrate communion at the end of service today, celebrating that work that Jesus accomplished on the cross. He made possible for people to, he made it possible for people to be made holy by his sacrifice. And so the writer of Hebrews is speaking to God's people he's speaking to his church. 0 (2m 56s): So he's speaking to them then, and he's speaking to us now. So what do we do with this Jesus, he's admonishing us to think carefully about this Jesus, whom we declared to be God's messenger and high priest. Maybe some of us are here today, and we need to rethink about this Jesus about this person, about the work and miracles in life of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Maybe we need to rethink because maybe like he's Jewish believers, we're waffling in our connection to and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so maybe the answer for us is to rethink, to reevaluate, to reconsider who we believe Jesus to be last week, the writer of Hebrews instructed his audience and Hebrews chapter two. 0 (3m 49s): So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it Hebrews two one. So we've got to think and listen, and be reminded about what we believe about Jesus in the thinking and being reminded and listening to the truth. We will be refreshed in our spirits as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So in thinking carefully about him, we ask killies Jesus, who is Jesus, this person that we're going to celebrate here at Christmas time, the person that we celebrate at Easter, his birth, and then his resurrection, who is this Jesus. 0 (4m 31s): Well in our study, Hebrews chapter one actually outlines that information for us and tells us very clearly who this Jesus is. And so I just kind of made some notes as I re-read Hebrews chapter one, to remind us and to remind myself who this Jesus is. We read from Hebrews one that God speaks to us through Jesus, God speaks to us through his son. We read that God promised everything to the son as his inheritance. Why does Jesus get everything? Well? We know that Jesus created everything as we read through Hebrews chapter one. 0 (5m 11s): So we know because he created everything. He actually inherits everything. Everything belongs to him. It says through the son, he created, God created the universe through the son. God created through Jesus. God created the universe. So Jesus gets it all because he, well, he created it all. Verse three tells us that the sun radiates God's own glory. The sun radiates the beauty and the glory of the living. God also, Jesus sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. So he created it all and he sustains it all. 0 (5m 56s): We also see that Jesus cleanses the repentant of their sins. We know that he is seated at the right hand of the throne of a majestic God in heaven, we see that he is greater than the angels. We see that the angels actually worship Jesus. We see that God, the father declared this information, this truth, this revelation about the son and Hebrews one eight, God, the father said your throne, oh God, capital G God endures forever and ever. So the father is calling the son, God, your throne, oh God, in yours, forever and ever Hebrews one eight, the sun rules with a sector of justice. 0 (6m 41s): So we know that he is just, and we see that he loves justice and actually hates evil. Did you know, there's some things that Jesus actually hates. He loves justice, but hates evil. We see that the oil of joy has been poured out on him more than on anyone else. So imagine the most joyous person in your life. The most joyous person that you know, personally, the oil of joy has been poured out on Jesus. More than on any one else. He is filled with joy. We know that Jesus laid the foundations of the earth and made the heavens with his own hands, laid the foundations of the earth and made the heavens with his own hands. 0 (7m 25s): I don't know about you, but I'm getting a bigger perspective, a greater understanding about who this Jesus is. As I read through this one chapter Hebrews chapter one, we see that Jesus is eternal. He will remain forever. He is always the same and he will live forever. Use the same yesterday today and forever. Another verse says, God will make his enemies, his footstool. So every enemy of Christ will be made his footstool. In other words, Jesus is victorious over everybody and over everything. So who is Jesus? He is the king. He is the king of all Kings. 0 (8m 7s): He is the Lord. He is the Lord of all Lords. He is God. In the flesh. He is the great high priest. He is the savior of all who call on his name. He is the judge of the university is a victorious. He will have the last word. What do we do with this Jesus who the scriptures declare so powerfully that he is God and king and savior and Redeemer that he is judged. And the one who will have the last word we have to think carefully about him. Every time I opened the scripture and think carefully about Jesus, I'm built up in my most holy faith. 0 (8m 49s): I'm reminded of the glory of God through Jesus, the power of God through Jesus. The awesome wonder of God through Jesus. What do we do with this? Jesus think carefully. And maybe you're here today. As I said earlier, you need to rethink, maybe you need to reevaluate what it is that you believe about. Jesus. Maybe you've held him too loosely or have had him in a box in your life. Maybe you just haven't properly understood the person work of the living. God, I heard a sermon recently that was disturbing and disheartening at the same time, this gala was teaching or preaching and leading a service. 0 (9m 43s): And she was talking about the throne room of God, this place where the angelic hosts cry out. Holy holy, holy is the Lord. God almighty this place where there's adoration and praise going before the throne constantly. And she concluded that the angels around the throne room of God are probably texting each other distracted, just kind of doing what humans might do. She joked that they're probably having a farting contest in the throne room of heaven. It is unbelievable what people will say and declare, she said, got us a lot more fun than we give them credit for being. 0 (10m 36s): And this was her point it's it's. It is a gross injustice to talk about the throne room. That way to talk about God, that way with such little regard, for his holiness, for his power, for his authority, for who he is. And it's disheartening that in, in, in our culture, there are people who hold that understanding. And I don't know about you, but if I had that understanding or if I held that understanding, I would be very flippant about my faith. Very flippant about my purity, very flippant about anything having to do with my walk as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 0 (11m 18s): Because well, if that's what they're doing around the throne room of God, and God's not very serious, he doesn't take sin very serious. Doesn't take life very serious. We need to think carefully about Jesus. Number one, number two, we need to choose to believe that truth about him. We have to believe that truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that means we don't get our information about Jesus from popular culture. We get the truth about Jesus from the pages of scripture, the 39 old Testament books of the Bible and the 27 new Testament books, 66 books of the Bible from Genesis to the revelation. That's where we get our information about Jesus. 0 (11m 60s): This is where we get our information revelation about the one that has saved us and has redeemed us. We have to choose to believe the truth about him. We can only believe the truth. If we hear the truth and read the truth and work, to understand the truth. As we think carefully about him, Hebrews three, one again says, and so dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and our partners with those called to heaven, think carefully about this Jesus, whom we declare to be God's messenger and high priest. So the truth that we're beginning to see about Jesus is that he is God's messenger, that he is a high priest. 0 (12m 44s): A better translation for messenger is actually a possible apostle means sent one. We see that God sent Jesus, sent him into the earth in the incarnation, born of a Virgin. As a baby, came into the earth to live, to die, to resurrect and to ascend, to make atonement for our sins, John 17, 18, and Jesus' prayer to the father. He said, gee, just as you sent me father into the world, I am sending them into the world. Jesus was sent with a message and now he sends us as his messengers. 0 (13m 29s): As we get ahold of that revelation, that Jesus came with a message and has given us that message to proclaim. We realized that we've had great purpose in the earth. I was talking with a gal this morning who attend church here. And she was in a coma for six days and they thought that she was going to die. So they were going to unplug her and take her off of life support. And as she was hearing this in her coma, her eyes began to Twitter, a blink and, and shut her. And, and she, she awakened from her coma and they, when they took her off of life support, she lived and she was here at church this morning. There's there's purpose in our living. 0 (14m 10s): God has kept this woman alive. He has kept us alive, not just to warm a seat in church, but to do the supernatural and wonderful work that he has called us to. He has sent us. He is sending us into the world with his message. Hebrews three, two says for, he was faithful. Jesus was faithful to the father who appointed him just as Moses served faithfully when he was entrusted with God's entire house. Well, why does Moses come up? Why Moses is esteemed in the Jewish faith as the giver of the law. And so the people who have given their life committed their life to Jesus are now waffling and thinking. 0 (14m 53s): Maybe I should go back to Judaism. So there's a comparison. That's beginning to take place in the text here. And this is what it says. So we, we, we read about the faithfulness of Jesus alongside the faithfulness of Moses, but it says in verse three, but Jesus deserves far more glory than Moses. Just as a person who builds a house, deserves more praise than the house itself, or every house has a builder. But the one who built everything is God. We go back to Hebrews one, two again, and it says, it declares that through this Jesus, that God, it was God created the whole universe. So every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God we're speaking of Jesus there. 0 (15m 36s): Verse five. Moses was certainly faithful in God's house. As a servant, we're getting a clearer understanding of Moses role in his job in the earth. He was here as a servant. His work was an illustration. The verse goes on of the truths. God would reveal later. So Moses brought the law. The law was given so that we would recognize our desperate, desperate need for God's grace, because as the law was given, people realize never ever can we keep the whole law. In fact, the Bible says, if we break one part of the law, we're guilty of breaking all of the law. So it's impossible for us to find righteousness in a good standing with God, through the keeping of the law. 0 (16m 22s): The law was given so that we might recognize our desperate need for God. Moses had a role to play as a servant when doing the will of God. It's a reminder to the reader in the first century that the law did not actually originate with Moses. He was just a messenger to bring the law. Exodus 31 18 tells us that the law was written with the finger of God. God actually wrote on the stones of, on the tablets of stone with his finger, writing out the CA the 10 commandments. So Moses was a servant. That is all he is. He is not deity. So the writer's attempting to put Moses in his proper place so that the people might keep Jesus in his proper place. 0 (17m 11s): So Moses was a servant. That is all, he's not deity like Mary, the mother of Jesus. There's this effort to esteem Mary beyond her proper role. But Mary was just a servant doing the will of God. And she is not deity like John, the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ. He was there to prepare the way for Christ and for the new covenant, John declared about Jesus, John three 30, he must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. John understood his role as a servant, preparing the way for Jesus pointing his followers to Jesus, that they might find salvation in him. 0 (17m 54s): John went on to say, whoever believes in the son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. So John was pointing to the sun to Jesus, and he said, whoever believes in this son has eternal life. But then the language changes a little bit. He says, whoever does not, oh, bay, the son shall not see life. So the believing and the obeying go hand in hand, you can't really say, we can't really say we believe if we're not actually obeying our obeying indicates what we actually believe about Jesus and the word of God. 0 (18m 36s): If we really believe Jesus and the word of God, then it's followed by obedience. If there's no obedience, then there's no real belief. And so what is it that we believe about this? Jesus, what do we do with him and is, is our, is do our, does as our life reflects actual belief through our obedience, John understood that Jesus was the son of God, the savior of the world and that his job, his only job was to point people to Jesus, Mary and Moses also prepared the way for Jesus. 0 (19m 20s): That was their job, your job. My job is to point people to Jesus. We're not here to warm a seat on Sunday morning. As much as I love seeing all of your faces, we are here for purpose in the earth. What has God equipped you to do? Donald Guthrie wrote the mission of the servant. Great though. It was prepares the way for the far greater mission of the sun. So whatever your earthly mission in life is, the mission of the sun is far greater Supreme over anything else we might attempt to do Hebrews three, six, but Christ says the sun is in charge of God's entire house. 0 (20m 3s): And we are God's house. If we, we are God's house. If we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. So what do we, what do we do with this? Jesus? Who do we say that he is? Who do we believe that he is? Who do we declare by our obedience? That he is, what do we do with this? Jesus. Some have said, I'm not going to do anything with Jesus, but in declaring, you're not gonna do anything with Jesus. You're saying I'm ignoring Jesus and I'm not going to follow him. So in your non-decision, you've made a decision in your declaration to be middle of the road. 0 (20m 45s): You decided what will you do with Jesus? I would encourage you to think carefully about him. Your eternity hangs in the balance, what you do with Jesus, determines your eternal place and states, I think carefully about him. Number two, choose to believe the truth about Jesus. You want to know truth about Jesus. Read Hebrews one, read the pages of scripture, the 66 books of the Bible that declare the person work of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Even the old Testament points us to the person work in the and grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Number three. 0 (21m 25s): What do we do with Jesus? Keep your courage and remain confident in him. Keep your courage and remain confident in him. This is a battle for us. Isn't it to stay courageous as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, especially in our culture is becoming less and less. As culture is becoming less and less, God centered and more and more secular. And so it's harder to keep our courage because we're swimming against the tide against the culture. People don't understand Christians. They don't understand the Bible. They don't understand why we would serve Jesus. And so it's more difficult to keep courage and remain confident in him. 0 (22m 6s): So how do we keep our courage and remain confident? Let's look at the rest of Hebrews chapter three, because in there there's plenty of challenging statements, plenty of warnings that help us to see our courage and remain confidence. Hebrews three seven. That is why the holy spirit says, and there's a quote here from Psalm 95, 8 through 11. This is what the holy spirit says today. When you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts. Maybe you're here today and your heart is hardened a bit toward the Lord. Maybe you've been disappointed, frustrated, saddened by the things that are happening in the culture in the world. 0 (22m 52s): Maybe you're disappointed at God's response. Maybe you're disappointed in the way that God has handled. Your life has allowed things to happen in your life. And maybe there's a subtle hardening of the heart. It's a subtle thing. It's something that creeps in little by little and it's hard to even detect until we begin to realize that we're distant from the Lord that were angry with the Lord that were frustrated with the Lord. And the result of those things is a hardening of the heart. It's a, it's like a, a self protection Lord. I, I'm not sure if I can trust you so I'm not sure I want to let you in Lord. I'm not sure I believe you. 0 (23m 33s): So I'm going to protect my I self from you. And there's a subtle hardening of the heart. If you're there today, the only remedy for a hard heart is just brokenness and contrition where you're saying, Lord, I, I don't understand these things have happened. I don't understand why things have unfolded the way they have unfolded in my life. If I don't understand, but God I'm choosing to trust you. I talked with my sister sure. In Oklahoma earlier this week, last week and she's 41 and from birth, she's had physical problems. So for four decades, she's had physical problems. 0 (24m 15s): She's going in Monday morning, tomorrow morning at seven o'clock because they're trying to save her left eyes. She's already completely, mostly blind in her right eye. And she's pretty well blind in her left eye as well. And they're going in just to do what they can to salvage any site that she might have in her left eye. So she told me, she said, I just, I feel like, I feel like God's picking on me. I feel like I just want to give up. And it's hard for me to believe she just lost. You know, we, we shared the same dad. We just lost her dad. She was devastated by that. She lost her mom. 0 (24m 55s): And year before that it's been one hit after the other for her. And she's struggling with her faith. And I said, I don't understand why God's allowing these things. I don't have answers for you, but I know that God loves you and I'd like to pray for you. And so I just prayed for her. And I just asked the Lord's grace and mercy and, and help for her situation. And after I pray with her and she said, you know, my mom used to pray for me just like that. And would always encourage me. Thank you so much for praying for me. You know, we don't always have to have the answers, but we've got to hold on to our confidence, our faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Many things will happen in this life that we just flat do not agree with or understand. 0 (25m 41s): Be careful not your hardened your heart today. When you hear his voice, don't harden, your heart as Israel did, when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness there, your ancestors tested and tried my patients, even though they saw my miracles for 40 years. So the people of Israel watch God deliver him, deliver them out of Egypt, where they had been enslaved for hundreds of years. Now, he's taking them through the wilderness, into the promised land and that there for 40 years, because of their hard hearts, their rebellious attitudes and their, their, their inability to believe God. 0 (26m 21s): And so, even though God delivered them and showed them miracles by providing water and food and clothes that didn't wear out and shoes that didn't wear out as they walked around for 40 years, they, they, they weren't touched by the miracles of God, much like the new Testament, when God would through the work person, working power of the holy spirit through Jesus life, he would heal people, resurrect people from the dead, do all kinds of wonderful, supernatural things. They were people who just had a hard heart toward him and just flat refuse to believe him. So I don't think it's a miracle that we need in our lives that we'll change our mind. It's a decision to change our minds where we say, God, I don't understand, but I am choosing to believe I am choosing to walk by faith and not by sight. 0 (27m 17s): I am choosing to love you. I'm choosing to believe you. I'm choosing to be obedient. I'm choosing to follow you. Verse 10 says, so I was angry with them. God was angry with them. And I said, their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them. And we see the kindness of God throughout the old Testament, throughout the new Testament, the patience of God, the faithfulness of God, to his people. And it didn't matter. They continue to refuse him to refuse obedience, to refuse, to acknowledge him as Lord and as king. 0 (27m 60s): So in my anger, I took an oath. They will never enter my place of rest. And so because of their sinfulness, their disobedience, their rebellion, they wandered tell a whole generation of unbelievers died off so that they might finally enter into the promised land. He said, verse 12, be careful. Then be careful than dear brothers and sisters make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving turning you away from the living God. And so we have to be aware of what's going on internally. What's going on in our hearts, in our minds and our lives spiritually. What is happening? Are we keeping a tender heart and available heart, a humble heart? 0 (28m 41s): Or are we hardening up getting cynical? I know that I'm getting a hard heart when it becomes cynical or critical. My wife's like what's going on with you? Does she can read it like, you know, cynicism and criticism, critical spirit. She's like, what's going on? I don't know. I'm just having a bad day. And then I'll realize that my heart is hard enough about something. And I just need to confess and repent and yeah, she'll point out my furrowed brow she'll do, she'll do a furrowed brow. She'll go kind of look at me like that. Can you see him? I'm like, what are you doing? I'm like, oh, I know what you're doing. So I'm a furrowed brow. 0 (29m 21s): And she'll, she'll, it's an indication that I'm, you know, getting grumpy about something. And so she'll remind me in the most gracious way possible she'll remind me, be careful. Then dear brothers and sisters make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving turning you away from the living God. So we, to be careful, he said, you must warn each other every day, verse 13 while it's still today. So that none of you will be deceived. And that's the problem with sin and the heart hardening of a heart. There's a deception that's taking place. And when we choose to open up the scripture and allow the scripture, the truth of God's word, to inform our understanding, to inform us spiritually, then we can't be as easily deceived verse 14 for if we are faithful to the end, trusting God, just as firmly as when we first believed we will share in all that belongs to Christ. 0 (30m 21s): Remember what it says, verse 15 today, when you hear his voice, don't harden, your hearts as Israel did when they rebuild. And so we have this opportunity today to examine our hearts, examine our lives, to choose, to believe the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, to choose, to walk by faith and not by sight to refuse to be rebellious verse 16 says, and who was it? Who rebelled against God? Even though they heard his voice, wasn't it? The people Moses led out of Egypt, remember where God has brought you and she's not to be rebellious. And who made God angry for 40 years? Wasn't it? The people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness and to whom was God speaking. 0 (31m 4s): When he took an oath that they would never enter his rest. Wasn't it? The people who disobeyed him. So we see verse 19 that because of their unbelief, they were not able to enter his rest. Listen, you and I will never keep our courage. We will never remain confident in Jesus. If we allow rebellion, sinfulness disobedience, if we allow those things into our life, we will begin to suffer with unbelief. We will begin to suffer with doubts, with anger and all sorts of things that will draw us away from the goodness of God. 0 (31m 47s): We will instead fall into unbelief and ultimately be defeated at the very least deflated in our faith. So what do we, what do we do with Jesus? Think carefully about him. Choose to believe the truth about him and keep your courage and remain confident in him. As we talk about Jesus, we're going to take communion. Hopefully everybody received their elements. I think mine are there somewhere. If you do not have elements, go ahead and raise your hand and we will make sure that you get elements. So keep your hand up. We've got a couple people working on that right now, before we take communion, I want to challenge us if you're here today and you, you don't know Jesus, you, you, you haven't known what to do with him up to this point. 0 (32m 52s): I want to give you a chance to come to know him. I want to give you a chance to understand who he is so that you might think properly about him and respond properly to him. So if you're here today and you are saying, man, I don't know this Jesus, but I recognize my need for him is the elements of being past that. I just want us to close our eyes and we'll just pray for a moment. And so Lord, your word has gone out and people who have heard it may need to get saved and write with you Lord. And so I pray God that if there are people here today that need that Lord, that they would submit their lives to you, that they would say yes to you. 0 (33m 38s): And you're here with everybody's eyes closed. This is how you say yes to Jesus. You declare your need for him. You say, Lord, I need you. I need you to forgive my sin. I need you to come into my life. I need you to adopt me into your family. I need forgiveness and grace and love. And as you make that declaration of your heart to the Lord in prayer, he hears you. Scripture says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. So if you're here today and you need salvation, salvation from judgment, the Bible says the wages of sin is death, spiritual death, spiritual separation. 0 (34m 26s): We talked about that a lot last week, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord, if he needs salvation in the quietness of your own heart receives him. And then after the service tell somebody that you received the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Maybe you're here today and you've received him, but your heart has been hardened. And you've been filled with some rebelliousness and disobedience and you need to rethink think clearly about Jesus and then make some decisions based on truth about him. If you're here today and you felt distant from the Lord, I want you to consider reconsider re committing your life to the Lord and where that can be done just by simply acknowledging Lord. 0 (35m 12s): I've been distant from you. I, my heart's been hard. I don't know why I've been rebellious and disobedient, but Lord, I don't, I don't want to be rebellious and this will be any longer Lord, would you please lead my life? And I commit Lord to submit my life to you and to follow you and to love you and to allow you to love me. And so, as you declare your heart's intents to the Lord, he hears you. Bible says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So anything that has been committed, that is a sin can be forgiven as you confess those things to the Lord. And so if you're here today, I'm going to ask you before we take communion, not to take communion. 0 (35m 52s): If you haven't trusted the Lord for salvation, this is a believers' time to remember, to reflect on Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross. It says in first Corinthians 1123 for I pass on to you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's go ahead and take away from, Oh, thank you, Lord. 0 (36m 42s): Thank you for your sacrifice. You're willing sacrifice. You're obedient sacrifice. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for taking my place. Thank you for taking our place. Thank you Lord. In the same way, verse 25 says he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me, as often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. 0 (37m 26s): Let's go ahead and take the cup. Thank you for the cup Lord that represents the blood that was shed for our sins, that they might be cleansed in that supernatural transaction, that supernatural exchange or righteousness has been imputed to believers and the sin of those believers have been imputed to you and you took them and died. 0 (38m 6s): You died for all of the sins of the world, that whoever believes in you, you might be saved. Thank you, Lord. I pray that everyone who hears the message of the gospel, whether here or an Azerbaijan or an Africa or Mexico, or in Greenland or wherever we have people stationed for the gospel or God all over the globe, Lord God that people would hear and respond to the message of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Thank you for this. We love you, Lord. We bless you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Worship team. Come forward. We're going to sing another song and then we'll close things up. 2 (38m 56s): Just stand as we worship God, we worship you in this place. We thank you that your holy we think of that God has need us. 3 (39m 51s): your holy word. 3 (42m 32s): We thank you for your holiness.

0 (0s): I get to lift your name. Hi, please seem to you this morning, world. 0 (2m 18s): Israel. 1 (5m 6s): . 1 (7m 15s): We can hear the 2 (15m 8s): Your name is powerful. Thank you. Lauren. Got to remind us of all of the ways in which we are reminded that you are powerful. You were resurrected from the dead to live forevermore. God, you, you are in our midst. Lord, God powerfully encouraging us and challenging us and moving in our lives. Lord God, you are a healer and a provider and you and you are indeed the soon coming king, Lord God. You're powerful, Lord God. So be powerful in our midst today, Lord, with the preaching of the word, you've already been powerful. 2 (15m 53s): Lord God, to just send the worship through song Lord, and as we pray and as we fellowship together throughout the day, Lord, God be, be powerful, Lord God, God help us to be a blessing and encouragement to one another and help us to be a blessing to you. Ultimately, Lord God, that we would be excited about you and grateful for you. God, move in the minister all over this campus, Lord, and then whoever's watching online. Lord, we just pray. There. Just be a blessing of grace poured out upon them. Lord God, each of us, Lord God would experience your power and your grace in a fresh way today. God, we love you. We need you. Thank you for your power in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 2 (16m 33s): You may be seated. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 2 (17m 16s): I was muted. Yeah, that was my fault. I clicked the button the wrong way. Sorry. So we're in Hebrews chapter one, starting over Hebrews chapter one, talking about not giving up. We got a five-point message. I started to give three weeks ago and we weren't able to finish it. So turn to Hebrews chapter one, we're going to get through this message today. Titled don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. And as we were singing this last song, I thought I thought the reality that we can trust Jesus is seen in the powerful move of God all over the earth. 2 (17m 59s): As from the time that he was born in the way that he impacted the first century, all the way through this 21st century that we're in. We've just see the power of God, the holding power of God in the universe where people trust him. And this, this letter is written to Jews who had believed that Jesus is the Messiah. They, they believed when Jesus came and taught and when he was crucified and when he was resurrected, they decided to believe they put their faith in their trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ. They believe that he is indeed who he says he is and who the scripture declares him to be. 2 (18m 40s): And so as they move along in their faith, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ in the first century, they're, they're experiencing persecution from family and, and others who don't understand their decisions, who don't understand why they've decided to follow Jesus. And so this passage in Hebrews one, and then throughout the scripture in Hebrews one, all the way through the end, it's about the declaration, that, that Jesus is God and that he is worth following and that he is worth everything that we endure to follow him from the first century, all the way to this century. And until he comes again. 2 (19m 20s): So don't give up, Jesus can be trusted. The enemy is always trying to get us to give up, to give up on God, to give up on our marriages, to give up on important things in our life. Somebody asked me recently, they said, how have you endured these last two decades of ministry? What, what do you do when you feel like giving up? How have you endured and stayed in the ministry for the last 20 years? I said, I just, I just keep showing up. I just, I keep showing up. I've realized, and I haven't always understood this, but if I just keep showing up it's number one, it's an act of worship and praise to the Lord. 2 (20m 1s): It's a declaration that I, that that is is it's it's me declaring that. I believe God. I believe that God has called me that he is in this, that he is working in our lives and ministry and that he's doing something good. Sometimes we want to give up and the answer is just giving it a little more time. I was running a yesterday as kind of an illustration and I wanted to give up, I, I was tired mentally and physically, and I just didn't want to finish my run. And I was wanting to give up, but I knew if I could just make it to the next corner, then that would have the energy to make it the rest of the run. 2 (20m 44s): There was something about this stretch that was difficult. It was, it was a hill. It was just a difficult stretch. But I knew if I just got to that corner and turn the corner, that things would get better. And that's exactly what happened. I got to the corner and was able to finish and actually add, added a leg to the, to the, to the run, just to make it a little extra longer. I think there's truth about just not giving up. If you want to, if you want a good marriage, just continue to show up in your marriage. If you want a great marriage, show up and figure out how to serve your spouse, get up every day and figure out to serve your spouse. You'll have a long marriage and you'll have a great marriage. If you want to have a long walk with the Lord and a great walk with the Lord, continue to show up and then figure out how to serve the way that God has called and equipped you to serve. 2 (21m 32s): But don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. Number one, Jesus can be trusted because he is God. And this is the declaration to a people who have experienced him as God. They've experienced him as Lord and savior, but they were doubting. They were in the face of a difficulty in their life. They began to doubt and who hasn't done that. We've all in the face of difficulty. Begin to doubt God's faithfulness. We doubt his existence. Maybe we doubt who he is. And so this text today, and as we teach through Hebrews is designed to build us up in our most holy faith. Jesus can be trusted. 2 (22m 12s): Number one, because he has God verse three, Hebrews one says this, the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God. And he, Jesus sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. This shows that the sun is far greater than the angels. Just as the name. God gave him as greater than their names. God is declaring that the son, Jesus is God. We see the same thing in Philippians chapter two, verses five through eight. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had though. 2 (22m 55s): He was God. He did not think of equality with God has something to clean to. Instead he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross. Jesus fully God, fully man, born of a Virgin lived taught, modeled, performed miracles was crucified and then resurrected from the dead. And now he sits at the right hand of the father forever making intercession for us. 2 (23m 36s): He is God. And he can be trusted in his death, Jesus and pukes righteousness. This is this, it shows the both the divinity of God, but also the goodness of God. He imputes righteousness to us and that he took our sin. So our sin was imputed to him. He became sin for us and he in exchange imputed righteousness to us. And so we become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, because of God's goodness. And because of his plan, when we begin to doubt his goodness and begin to doubt his divinity, we, we need to return to the gospel and return to the pages of scripture and be reminded. 2 (24m 17s): His righteousness has been imputed to us. Our sins have been imputed to him. Jesus can be trusted because he is God Hebrews one verse five says for God, never said to any angel, what he said to Jesus, you are my son today. I become your father. God also said I will be his father. And he will be my son. And when he brought his Supreme son into the world, God said, let all of God's angels worship him regarding angels. He says, he sends his angels like the winds, his servants, like flames of fire. But to the sun, he says your throne, oh God endures forever. 2 (24m 57s): And ever you rule with a Sceptre of justice. I wonder what Jesus' closest friends said about him. If you think about his life, he spent 33 years in the earth and he lived with people. He experienced relationship with people. He ultimately declared that he was God in the flesh that he was the Messiah. The son of God. I wonder what others around him thought about him. What his closest friends thought about it. And the people who knew him most while the beloved John, the apostle John declared this about Jesus. He declared Jesus to be a full of unfailing, love and faithfulness. 2 (25m 42s): John also said from his abundance, we have received one gracious blessing. After another John calls Jesus, the stairway between heaven and earth. In other words, Jesus is the way the truth and the life. And no man comes to the father except through him. This is what John declared. This is what he believed. This is what he understood. After walking with Jesus for a few years, watching Jesus teach and perform miracles, watching Jesus crucify, be crucified and resurrected from the dead. He calls me. He said, that's that man right there. He's a stairway between heaven and earth. He is the way the truth and the life. No man comes to the father except through him. 2 (26m 23s): These are strong declarations spoken to by a man who had walked with Jesus, watched him die. Witnesses. Resurrection then served him all the days of his life. Even through suffering and persecution. When they tried to kill John and they couldn't kill him. And they exiled him to the island of Patmos and then serve Jesus his whole life. And in his old age received the revelation. And he in the revelation saw Jesus and he spoke and wrote truth about the Lord. Jesus Christ. John didn't give up. He believed that Jesus was indeed living for worth living for and worth dying for. He believed he didn't give up. 2 (27m 4s): Even after they tried to kill him and exile him, he would not give up. John declared in the revelation, all glory to him, all glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us, he has made us a kingdom of priests for God, his father, all glory and power to him forever and ever a man. He goes on. Look, he comes with the clouds of heaven. There's something powerful about a person's testimony about the person and work of the Lord. Jesus Christ. You have a testimony of God God's working in your life into that. Testimony is powerful to encourage. Even as John is encouraging us this morning, look, he comes with the clouds of heaven and everyone will see him. 2 (27m 49s): Even those who pierced him and all the nations of the earth will mourn for him. Yes, a man. So John believed his that Jesus' earthly life and ministry was real and genuine. And he believed in Jesus plan to return again and come back to the earth. After time of the time of redemption and judgments, don't give up, Jesus can be trusted. He can be trusted because he is God. He is not a God. One of many gods. He's out of small G God. He is a capital G God, the creator and sustainer of all things don't give up. He can be trusted because he has God. 2 (28m 29s): Number two, Jesus can be trusted because he is just, we get that from Hebrews one nine, where it says you love justice and hate evil. What does it mean? That Jesus is just, it means that if Jesus tells you that your sins are forgiven, then your sins are forgiven because he is a, just an, a righteous judge. And he can't, he can't ally. He can't say things that aren't true. And, and, and try to make you believe that they are true. He is a just God who declares to you that your sins are forgiven. What does it mean? That he's just, it means he is perfect, perfectly righteous. 2 (29m 10s): He judges the wicked and grants mercy to the repentance. He can do no wrong. It's impossible for him to be unfair. It's impossible for him to be unfaithful. It's impossible for him to forget his promises to you. He is a just judge. You can always be counted on to do the right thing. If he makes a promise to you, he will be faithful where he directs. He will guide and provide. When he speaks, his words can be trusted. This is why we pray. This is why we read this scripture because we believe when we commune with God that he listens and he's responding to us, he's adjust and good God. And when he says our sins are forgiven and when he adopts us into his family and welcomes us into a relationship with him, it's true. 2 (29m 57s): And we can take that to the bank. It's a powerful truth. It's a powerful truth. We met over in 1 0 2, our new worship center on Wednesday night at six o'clock and about 30 people gathered. And part of the purpose of gathering was to write verses of scripture on the, on the framed walls, inside that new space, they're going to get covered up shortly. So we wanted to get in there with black markers and write out the promises of God on this, on the walls in there. So that they're forever in the framing of that building as a foundation, as part of the building, the strength of that building is the word of God being recorded on the studs and on the walls. 2 (30m 39s): In that space, we record promises because we believe them. We believe the promises of God. And so we write them and we also believe that God desires to seek and save the loss. And so we have this wall of faith where we wrote down. I wrote down, I think about eight names of people that have been on my heart. People that I'm praying for, believing God to save or to touch or to heal or to minister to in some way. And so we wrote their names down. If you missed last, this last week, we're gonna probably meet again in probably a week from Wednesday and do it again. You'll have the opportunity to come and worship in that space. You'll have an opportunity to come and pray in that space and record the promises of God in that space and write the names of the people that you're praying for and believing God for in that space. 2 (31m 29s): So when we gather in worship, we'll continue to pray for those people and pray that God ministers to the people that we have put the people in our hearts that we put on that wall, declaring that these people will be touched by the living. God, you can't do any of that stuff unless you believe that Jesus has God. And that he's a just God. And that he's faithful to minister. When we call out to him, it's his desire that he would minister to people that he would reach people. We can trust that he is just and faithful. When he speaks, his words can be trusted. Jesus is adjusts and righteous. 2 (32m 9s): God, if we have any other perspective of God, we're missing it. We're we're, we've got a, a reduced version of the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We need to allow not the world to define who Jesus is, not our imagination to define who Jesus is, but we need to allow the scriptures, the word of God to define who Jesus is. Then it becomes big again, in our perspective, he doesn't change ever, but he becomes big and our perspective and we've grown in our faith and we grow in our ability to trust him. Verse nine continues Hebrews one, therefore, oh God, your God has anointed. You pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on any one else. 2 (32m 50s): You know, that righteousness and joy go hand in hand. It says that the oil, the, the, the pouring out of the oil of joy is poured out on him more than on any buddy else. Jesus can be trusted. Number three, because he is joyous. Bible says, it's the joy of the Lord. That is our strength. I remember seeing a picture years ago of this joyful Jesus, this picture of Jesus. And he's got this big grin on his face. I thought this is an accurate, I think is an accurate portrayal of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Years ago, a friend of mine was in the movie and he played Jesus. It's it's called the Matthew movie. And Dennis Marciano was, or excuse me, Bruce Marciano. 2 (33m 32s): Dennis' brother was playing Jesus. And it was the word for word, speaking of the gospel of Matthew, and he declares true throughout the whole movie. And as he's speaking, you see this joy all over his face. You see, as he portrays the life and message and work of the Lord, Jesus Christ, he's got this joy filled face. It's not water that people in the regions were drawn to him. He had this presence about him that was magnetic. It drew people in, he had this countenance about him. That was not offensive, but it was, it was welcoming. And then he would minister to people and he was, he would speak truth. 2 (34m 13s): And even in his truth speaking, he did it in such a gracious and gentle way, much like he maybe does with us when there's correction that needs to come into our lives. He just, he speaks with such tenderness and gentleness. He is joyous. And even now, as I said, he's at the right hand of the throne of God. He's interceding for us wanting our wanting the very best for us. So he's not a, he's not a mean ogre. He's not a tire and Twitter. What's your picture. When you pray to Jesus, what are you seeing in your mind's eye? What are you seeing? What are you envisioning? 2 (34m 54s): What we envision will indicate how we pray or the faith with which we pray. If we see that Jesus is joyous and that he's loving and gracious and wants to be involved and is involved in the inhumanity. If you, if we see him that way, we will pray with greater expectation, with greater faith, with greater passion, with greater ability to believe in, see what God wants to do. We'll just pray with greater faith. But if we see him as a menial ogre, as a tyrant, then we won't pray much at all. What is your picture of Jesus? What is your picture of Jesus? You see a smiling Jesus, or do you see a sour? 2 (35m 36s): Jesus, he's our savior after all, he's our savior. After all, while we are sinners, Christ died for us in our desperate need. Christ died for us. I was up at French hospital on Thursday to visit a friend Jr Ramy, a guy that's been coming to our church for a lot of years. And he just passed away this morning. We had a chance to pray for him. We weren't actually able to get into his room, but we prayed as friends and family for him outside. And we just prayed for God's peace upon his life, because as you get to the end and he knew that his days were numbered, sometimes there's a fear and there's an anxiety, no matter how much faith we have, there's an anxiety around dying. 2 (36m 29s): It's maybe not being with Jesus so much, but it's about the process of dying. It's a scary and unknown thing. So people find, find themselves in a fearful place. I remember talking with Don gainer, he had the, you know, Donna been serving the Lord for 80 plus years and loved Jesus, but he's still the unknown. It was just unsettling for him. And so remember praying over and over again, throughout the course of my life in ministry, praying for people who are passing from this life to the next. And they're an, there's just uncertain. There are things that happen in this life also that just make us uncertain about the goodness of God. But when we can remember that Jesus is our savior and that he's redeemed us and he's got good plans and purposes for us that he's our friend and intercessor that he has for us and not against us. 2 (37m 20s): Then we can have a greater measure of peace. And so it was my prayer for Jr that he would just have the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. And sadly, I didn't get a chance to talk with him before he passed, but I got a text message this morning that said he had gone to be with the Lord. The text message said, he's gone. He is now with Jesus. And that's the reality. When all of our lives wrap up, we will one day breathe. Our last I was on Facebook. I don't have a Facebook account, but I stuck on my wife's Facebook account. And that was on Facebook and at a Ray Grady high school. 2 (38m 0s): They've got a, I think it's a Facebook page called fallen angels. And they list all of the different people who have passed away from graduating classes, going back, you know, from the beginning of the school. And as I looked through, I saw people from my people that I've known since junior high school, people that I went to junior high and high school with actually some back to fifth, sixth grade in the area, people who have passed away, people who are no longer with us, I felt life is so short. And we just never know how much time we have. We have to, in this brief time that we've got in the earth, we've got to be all in with God and believe that Jesus is who he said he is being fully present with him and allowing, be fully present with a Sherry's adjust judge, but his desires that we would escape his just judgment and receive his great grace. 2 (38m 59s): I did a Memorial service for a guy that I've known since I think sixth grade did the service for him earlier this year. And as friends gathered, it was tough to talk about our friend, Josh, who had passed away. It was tough because in the end, he's struggled. He knew Jesus, but he struggled the, he knew Jesus, but he struggled to believe and to follow wholeheartedly. But I know that he know, I know that. I know that. I know that he knew Jesus. I thought about Jesus, earthly, life and ministry. And he's. He was always going after those who were struggling, those who are sick, those who are outcast, those who were in need of his grace and healing, Jesus was always going after those people. 2 (39m 48s): And so I know that in the course of our lives, as we struggle, God is going after us. God is wanting to minister to us. God is wanting to bring his light and life to us. Hebrews one 10 says, he also says to the son in the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. They will perish, but you remain forever. They will wear out like old clothing. You will fold them up like a cloak and discard them like old clothing. But you are always the same. You will live forever. So point number four, we can trust Jesus and not give up because Jesus is eternal. Jesus can be trusted because he is a terminal. 2 (40m 29s): Listen, he's not going anywhere. He's always been any will always be. If we can imagine life in the earth, like a long parade. And Jesus is in the, the announcement, the announcement, a booth up top, and he's watching it from start to finish. He sees everything in the parade of life from start to finish. And so he's never perplexed by anything. Never confused by anything. Never surprised by anything he's eternal has always been, will always be. He's not going anywhere. He can be trusted. He's not surprised by anything because he's seen everything. And so anything that may be a surprise in your life is not a surprise to him. 2 (41m 10s): And so put the full weight of your trust in him. And when surprising things happen, because surprising things, well, they always happen and say, God, I didn't know this was coming, but you did. He promises never to leave us nor forsake us. Verse 13, Hebrews one. And God never said to any of the angels, sit in the place of honor at my right hand, until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet. Therefore angels are only servants. Spirits sent to care for people who will inherit Sal vation. Jesus is eternally working to bring people to salvation. Number five, Jesus can be trusted because he is our salvation. 2 (41m 51s): This is the heart of who he is. This is why the incarnation, why he came into the earth to live and to die and to be resurrected for us because he wanted us saved. Jesus wants what is best for us. Jesus made salvation possible. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for you. And for me, if he can be trusted to save us, Jesus can be trusted in every other area of our lives. Maybe you're here today and you just feel like giving up. Maybe you feel like giving up on your faith. Some things have happened that have discouraged you dissuaded. You have hindered your ability to trust and believe God, I would just say, give it another day. 2 (42m 35s): Sometimes we want to give up and we just need to give it a little time. Maybe you say, okay, Lord, I feel like giving up, but I'm going to give it one more day. I find that if I am feeling discouraged and I go to bed and I wake up the next day, what the scripture says, it's true. His mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. If you're here and you're tempted to give up on your marriage, or you're tempted to give up on your kids, you're tempted to give up on relationships or a job. I would say, just give it another day and then pray and say, Lord, I know that your it's not your will for me to give up. I want to press in and believe, but I need your grace. Everything that God asks us to do requires that we're filled with his spirit and with his power, with his truth and with his wisdom so that we can walk it out. 2 (43m 21s): Don't give up. Jesus can be trusted with Alex. Go ahead and stand up. And we're going to pray. And Lord, thank you that you are indeed our salvation. God, you are faithful to seek and to save those who are lost, Lord God, we give you praise for that. Thank you that you are eternal and that you are the same yesterday today and forever God, that means we can trust you and believe you and follow you wholeheartedly. So help us to do so. Lord, thank you that you are joyous. That is such good news. 2 (44m 2s): Lord, God help us to have a different perspective of you. God help us to think differently about you. Help us to believe you. We pray, Lord God, thank you that you were just thank you, God, that you are, God, God, we trust you and God in those moments where we are doubting and fearful, I pray that you would strengthen us now that you'd reveal truth to us and that we wouldn't the lies of the enemy. We wouldn't give into the difficulty of life, Lord God, but that we would keep our eyes on you continually and constantly. 2 (44m 42s): Thank you for this time. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to open up your word, Lord God, we just invite you to speak to us continually through this time of worship. Lord, help us to worship in spirit and in truth, we pray Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship 0 (50m 28s): Gabi pays you this morning. We worship you. We lift your name. Ha.

0 (0s): I get to lift your name. Hi, please seem to you this morning, world. 0 (2m 18s): Israel. 1 (5m 6s): . 1 (7m 15s): We can hear the 2 (15m 8s): Your name is powerful. Thank you. Lauren. Got to remind us of all of the ways in which we are reminded that you are powerful. You were resurrected from the dead to live forevermore. God, you, you are in our midst. Lord, God powerfully encouraging us and challenging us and moving in our lives. Lord God, you are a healer and a provider and you and you are indeed the soon coming king, Lord God. You're powerful, Lord God. So be powerful in our midst today, Lord, with the preaching of the word, you've already been powerful. 2 (15m 53s): Lord God, to just send the worship through song Lord, and as we pray and as we fellowship together throughout the day, Lord, God be, be powerful, Lord God, God help us to be a blessing and encouragement to one another and help us to be a blessing to you. Ultimately, Lord God, that we would be excited about you and grateful for you. God, move in the minister all over this campus, Lord, and then whoever's watching online. Lord, we just pray. There. Just be a blessing of grace poured out upon them. Lord God, each of us, Lord God would experience your power and your grace in a fresh way today. God, we love you. We need you. Thank you for your power in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 2 (16m 33s): You may be seated. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 2 (17m 16s): I was muted. Yeah, that was my fault. I clicked the button the wrong way. Sorry. So we're in Hebrews chapter one, starting over Hebrews chapter one, talking about not giving up. We got a five-point message. I started to give three weeks ago and we weren't able to finish it. So turn to Hebrews chapter one, we're going to get through this message today. Titled don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. And as we were singing this last song, I thought I thought the reality that we can trust Jesus is seen in the powerful move of God all over the earth. 2 (17m 59s): As from the time that he was born in the way that he impacted the first century, all the way through this 21st century that we're in. We've just see the power of God, the holding power of God in the universe where people trust him. And this, this letter is written to Jews who had believed that Jesus is the Messiah. They, they believed when Jesus came and taught and when he was crucified and when he was resurrected, they decided to believe they put their faith in their trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ. They believe that he is indeed who he says he is and who the scripture declares him to be. 2 (18m 40s): And so as they move along in their faith, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ in the first century, they're, they're experiencing persecution from family and, and others who don't understand their decisions, who don't understand why they've decided to follow Jesus. And so this passage in Hebrews one, and then throughout the scripture in Hebrews one, all the way through the end, it's about the declaration, that, that Jesus is God and that he is worth following and that he is worth everything that we endure to follow him from the first century, all the way to this century. And until he comes again. 2 (19m 20s): So don't give up, Jesus can be trusted. The enemy is always trying to get us to give up, to give up on God, to give up on our marriages, to give up on important things in our life. Somebody asked me recently, they said, how have you endured these last two decades of ministry? What, what do you do when you feel like giving up? How have you endured and stayed in the ministry for the last 20 years? I said, I just, I just keep showing up. I just, I keep showing up. I've realized, and I haven't always understood this, but if I just keep showing up it's number one, it's an act of worship and praise to the Lord. 2 (20m 1s): It's a declaration that I, that that is is it's it's me declaring that. I believe God. I believe that God has called me that he is in this, that he is working in our lives and ministry and that he's doing something good. Sometimes we want to give up and the answer is just giving it a little more time. I was running a yesterday as kind of an illustration and I wanted to give up, I, I was tired mentally and physically, and I just didn't want to finish my run. And I was wanting to give up, but I knew if I could just make it to the next corner, then that would have the energy to make it the rest of the run. 2 (20m 44s): There was something about this stretch that was difficult. It was, it was a hill. It was just a difficult stretch. But I knew if I just got to that corner and turn the corner, that things would get better. And that's exactly what happened. I got to the corner and was able to finish and actually add, added a leg to the, to the, to the run, just to make it a little extra longer. I think there's truth about just not giving up. If you want to, if you want a good marriage, just continue to show up in your marriage. If you want a great marriage, show up and figure out how to serve your spouse, get up every day and figure out to serve your spouse. You'll have a long marriage and you'll have a great marriage. If you want to have a long walk with the Lord and a great walk with the Lord, continue to show up and then figure out how to serve the way that God has called and equipped you to serve. 2 (21m 32s): But don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. Number one, Jesus can be trusted because he is God. And this is the declaration to a people who have experienced him as God. They've experienced him as Lord and savior, but they were doubting. They were in the face of a difficulty in their life. They began to doubt and who hasn't done that. We've all in the face of difficulty. Begin to doubt God's faithfulness. We doubt his existence. Maybe we doubt who he is. And so this text today, and as we teach through Hebrews is designed to build us up in our most holy faith. Jesus can be trusted. 2 (22m 12s): Number one, because he has God verse three, Hebrews one says this, the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God. And he, Jesus sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. This shows that the sun is far greater than the angels. Just as the name. God gave him as greater than their names. God is declaring that the son, Jesus is God. We see the same thing in Philippians chapter two, verses five through eight. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had though. 2 (22m 55s): He was God. He did not think of equality with God has something to clean to. Instead he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross. Jesus fully God, fully man, born of a Virgin lived taught, modeled, performed miracles was crucified and then resurrected from the dead. And now he sits at the right hand of the father forever making intercession for us. 2 (23m 36s): He is God. And he can be trusted in his death, Jesus and pukes righteousness. This is this, it shows the both the divinity of God, but also the goodness of God. He imputes righteousness to us and that he took our sin. So our sin was imputed to him. He became sin for us and he in exchange imputed righteousness to us. And so we become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, because of God's goodness. And because of his plan, when we begin to doubt his goodness and begin to doubt his divinity, we, we need to return to the gospel and return to the pages of scripture and be reminded. 2 (24m 17s): His righteousness has been imputed to us. Our sins have been imputed to him. Jesus can be trusted because he is God Hebrews one verse five says for God, never said to any angel, what he said to Jesus, you are my son today. I become your father. God also said I will be his father. And he will be my son. And when he brought his Supreme son into the world, God said, let all of God's angels worship him regarding angels. He says, he sends his angels like the winds, his servants, like flames of fire. But to the sun, he says your throne, oh God endures forever. 2 (24m 57s): And ever you rule with a Sceptre of justice. I wonder what Jesus' closest friends said about him. If you think about his life, he spent 33 years in the earth and he lived with people. He experienced relationship with people. He ultimately declared that he was God in the flesh that he was the Messiah. The son of God. I wonder what others around him thought about him. What his closest friends thought about it. And the people who knew him most while the beloved John, the apostle John declared this about Jesus. He declared Jesus to be a full of unfailing, love and faithfulness. 2 (25m 42s): John also said from his abundance, we have received one gracious blessing. After another John calls Jesus, the stairway between heaven and earth. In other words, Jesus is the way the truth and the life. And no man comes to the father except through him. This is what John declared. This is what he believed. This is what he understood. After walking with Jesus for a few years, watching Jesus teach and perform miracles, watching Jesus crucify, be crucified and resurrected from the dead. He calls me. He said, that's that man right there. He's a stairway between heaven and earth. He is the way the truth and the life. No man comes to the father except through him. 2 (26m 23s): These are strong declarations spoken to by a man who had walked with Jesus, watched him die. Witnesses. Resurrection then served him all the days of his life. Even through suffering and persecution. When they tried to kill John and they couldn't kill him. And they exiled him to the island of Patmos and then serve Jesus his whole life. And in his old age received the revelation. And he in the revelation saw Jesus and he spoke and wrote truth about the Lord. Jesus Christ. John didn't give up. He believed that Jesus was indeed living for worth living for and worth dying for. He believed he didn't give up. 2 (27m 4s): Even after they tried to kill him and exile him, he would not give up. John declared in the revelation, all glory to him, all glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us, he has made us a kingdom of priests for God, his father, all glory and power to him forever and ever a man. He goes on. Look, he comes with the clouds of heaven. There's something powerful about a person's testimony about the person and work of the Lord. Jesus Christ. You have a testimony of God God's working in your life into that. Testimony is powerful to encourage. Even as John is encouraging us this morning, look, he comes with the clouds of heaven and everyone will see him. 2 (27m 49s): Even those who pierced him and all the nations of the earth will mourn for him. Yes, a man. So John believed his that Jesus' earthly life and ministry was real and genuine. And he believed in Jesus plan to return again and come back to the earth. After time of the time of redemption and judgments, don't give up, Jesus can be trusted. He can be trusted because he is God. He is not a God. One of many gods. He's out of small G God. He is a capital G God, the creator and sustainer of all things don't give up. He can be trusted because he has God. 2 (28m 29s): Number two, Jesus can be trusted because he is just, we get that from Hebrews one nine, where it says you love justice and hate evil. What does it mean? That Jesus is just, it means that if Jesus tells you that your sins are forgiven, then your sins are forgiven because he is a, just an, a righteous judge. And he can't, he can't ally. He can't say things that aren't true. And, and, and try to make you believe that they are true. He is a just God who declares to you that your sins are forgiven. What does it mean? That he's just, it means he is perfect, perfectly righteous. 2 (29m 10s): He judges the wicked and grants mercy to the repentance. He can do no wrong. It's impossible for him to be unfair. It's impossible for him to be unfaithful. It's impossible for him to forget his promises to you. He is a just judge. You can always be counted on to do the right thing. If he makes a promise to you, he will be faithful where he directs. He will guide and provide. When he speaks, his words can be trusted. This is why we pray. This is why we read this scripture because we believe when we commune with God that he listens and he's responding to us, he's adjust and good God. And when he says our sins are forgiven and when he adopts us into his family and welcomes us into a relationship with him, it's true. 2 (29m 57s): And we can take that to the bank. It's a powerful truth. It's a powerful truth. We met over in 1 0 2, our new worship center on Wednesday night at six o'clock and about 30 people gathered. And part of the purpose of gathering was to write verses of scripture on the, on the framed walls, inside that new space, they're going to get covered up shortly. So we wanted to get in there with black markers and write out the promises of God on this, on the walls in there. So that they're forever in the framing of that building as a foundation, as part of the building, the strength of that building is the word of God being recorded on the studs and on the walls. 2 (30m 39s): In that space, we record promises because we believe them. We believe the promises of God. And so we write them and we also believe that God desires to seek and save the loss. And so we have this wall of faith where we wrote down. I wrote down, I think about eight names of people that have been on my heart. People that I'm praying for, believing God to save or to touch or to heal or to minister to in some way. And so we wrote their names down. If you missed last, this last week, we're gonna probably meet again in probably a week from Wednesday and do it again. You'll have the opportunity to come and worship in that space. You'll have an opportunity to come and pray in that space and record the promises of God in that space and write the names of the people that you're praying for and believing God for in that space. 2 (31m 29s): So when we gather in worship, we'll continue to pray for those people and pray that God ministers to the people that we have put the people in our hearts that we put on that wall, declaring that these people will be touched by the living. God, you can't do any of that stuff unless you believe that Jesus has God. And that he's a just God. And that he's faithful to minister. When we call out to him, it's his desire that he would minister to people that he would reach people. We can trust that he is just and faithful. When he speaks, his words can be trusted. Jesus is adjusts and righteous. 2 (32m 9s): God, if we have any other perspective of God, we're missing it. We're we're, we've got a, a reduced version of the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We need to allow not the world to define who Jesus is, not our imagination to define who Jesus is, but we need to allow the scriptures, the word of God to define who Jesus is. Then it becomes big again, in our perspective, he doesn't change ever, but he becomes big and our perspective and we've grown in our faith and we grow in our ability to trust him. Verse nine continues Hebrews one, therefore, oh God, your God has anointed. You pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on any one else. 2 (32m 50s): You know, that righteousness and joy go hand in hand. It says that the oil, the, the, the pouring out of the oil of joy is poured out on him more than on any buddy else. Jesus can be trusted. Number three, because he is joyous. Bible says, it's the joy of the Lord. That is our strength. I remember seeing a picture years ago of this joyful Jesus, this picture of Jesus. And he's got this big grin on his face. I thought this is an accurate, I think is an accurate portrayal of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Years ago, a friend of mine was in the movie and he played Jesus. It's it's called the Matthew movie. And Dennis Marciano was, or excuse me, Bruce Marciano. 2 (33m 32s): Dennis' brother was playing Jesus. And it was the word for word, speaking of the gospel of Matthew, and he declares true throughout the whole movie. And as he's speaking, you see this joy all over his face. You see, as he portrays the life and message and work of the Lord, Jesus Christ, he's got this joy filled face. It's not water that people in the regions were drawn to him. He had this presence about him that was magnetic. It drew people in, he had this countenance about him. That was not offensive, but it was, it was welcoming. And then he would minister to people and he was, he would speak truth. 2 (34m 13s): And even in his truth speaking, he did it in such a gracious and gentle way, much like he maybe does with us when there's correction that needs to come into our lives. He just, he speaks with such tenderness and gentleness. He is joyous. And even now, as I said, he's at the right hand of the throne of God. He's interceding for us wanting our wanting the very best for us. So he's not a, he's not a mean ogre. He's not a tire and Twitter. What's your picture. When you pray to Jesus, what are you seeing in your mind's eye? What are you seeing? What are you envisioning? 2 (34m 54s): What we envision will indicate how we pray or the faith with which we pray. If we see that Jesus is joyous and that he's loving and gracious and wants to be involved and is involved in the inhumanity. If you, if we see him that way, we will pray with greater expectation, with greater faith, with greater passion, with greater ability to believe in, see what God wants to do. We'll just pray with greater faith. But if we see him as a menial ogre, as a tyrant, then we won't pray much at all. What is your picture of Jesus? What is your picture of Jesus? You see a smiling Jesus, or do you see a sour? 2 (35m 36s): Jesus, he's our savior after all, he's our savior. After all, while we are sinners, Christ died for us in our desperate need. Christ died for us. I was up at French hospital on Thursday to visit a friend Jr Ramy, a guy that's been coming to our church for a lot of years. And he just passed away this morning. We had a chance to pray for him. We weren't actually able to get into his room, but we prayed as friends and family for him outside. And we just prayed for God's peace upon his life, because as you get to the end and he knew that his days were numbered, sometimes there's a fear and there's an anxiety, no matter how much faith we have, there's an anxiety around dying. 2 (36m 29s): It's maybe not being with Jesus so much, but it's about the process of dying. It's a scary and unknown thing. So people find, find themselves in a fearful place. I remember talking with Don gainer, he had the, you know, Donna been serving the Lord for 80 plus years and loved Jesus, but he's still the unknown. It was just unsettling for him. And so remember praying over and over again, throughout the course of my life in ministry, praying for people who are passing from this life to the next. And they're an, there's just uncertain. There are things that happen in this life also that just make us uncertain about the goodness of God. But when we can remember that Jesus is our savior and that he's redeemed us and he's got good plans and purposes for us that he's our friend and intercessor that he has for us and not against us. 2 (37m 20s): Then we can have a greater measure of peace. And so it was my prayer for Jr that he would just have the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. And sadly, I didn't get a chance to talk with him before he passed, but I got a text message this morning that said he had gone to be with the Lord. The text message said, he's gone. He is now with Jesus. And that's the reality. When all of our lives wrap up, we will one day breathe. Our last I was on Facebook. I don't have a Facebook account, but I stuck on my wife's Facebook account. And that was on Facebook and at a Ray Grady high school. 2 (38m 0s): They've got a, I think it's a Facebook page called fallen angels. And they list all of the different people who have passed away from graduating classes, going back, you know, from the beginning of the school. And as I looked through, I saw people from my people that I've known since junior high school, people that I went to junior high and high school with actually some back to fifth, sixth grade in the area, people who have passed away, people who are no longer with us, I felt life is so short. And we just never know how much time we have. We have to, in this brief time that we've got in the earth, we've got to be all in with God and believe that Jesus is who he said he is being fully present with him and allowing, be fully present with a Sherry's adjust judge, but his desires that we would escape his just judgment and receive his great grace. 2 (38m 59s): I did a Memorial service for a guy that I've known since I think sixth grade did the service for him earlier this year. And as friends gathered, it was tough to talk about our friend, Josh, who had passed away. It was tough because in the end, he's struggled. He knew Jesus, but he struggled the, he knew Jesus, but he struggled to believe and to follow wholeheartedly. But I know that he know, I know that. I know that. I know that he knew Jesus. I thought about Jesus, earthly, life and ministry. And he's. He was always going after those who were struggling, those who are sick, those who are outcast, those who were in need of his grace and healing, Jesus was always going after those people. 2 (39m 48s): And so I know that in the course of our lives, as we struggle, God is going after us. God is wanting to minister to us. God is wanting to bring his light and life to us. Hebrews one 10 says, he also says to the son in the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. They will perish, but you remain forever. They will wear out like old clothing. You will fold them up like a cloak and discard them like old clothing. But you are always the same. You will live forever. So point number four, we can trust Jesus and not give up because Jesus is eternal. Jesus can be trusted because he is a terminal. 2 (40m 29s): Listen, he's not going anywhere. He's always been any will always be. If we can imagine life in the earth, like a long parade. And Jesus is in the, the announcement, the announcement, a booth up top, and he's watching it from start to finish. He sees everything in the parade of life from start to finish. And so he's never perplexed by anything. Never confused by anything. Never surprised by anything he's eternal has always been, will always be. He's not going anywhere. He can be trusted. He's not surprised by anything because he's seen everything. And so anything that may be a surprise in your life is not a surprise to him. 2 (41m 10s): And so put the full weight of your trust in him. And when surprising things happen, because surprising things, well, they always happen and say, God, I didn't know this was coming, but you did. He promises never to leave us nor forsake us. Verse 13, Hebrews one. And God never said to any of the angels, sit in the place of honor at my right hand, until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet. Therefore angels are only servants. Spirits sent to care for people who will inherit Sal vation. Jesus is eternally working to bring people to salvation. Number five, Jesus can be trusted because he is our salvation. 2 (41m 51s): This is the heart of who he is. This is why the incarnation, why he came into the earth to live and to die and to be resurrected for us because he wanted us saved. Jesus wants what is best for us. Jesus made salvation possible. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for you. And for me, if he can be trusted to save us, Jesus can be trusted in every other area of our lives. Maybe you're here today and you just feel like giving up. Maybe you feel like giving up on your faith. Some things have happened that have discouraged you dissuaded. You have hindered your ability to trust and believe God, I would just say, give it another day. 2 (42m 35s): Sometimes we want to give up and we just need to give it a little time. Maybe you say, okay, Lord, I feel like giving up, but I'm going to give it one more day. I find that if I am feeling discouraged and I go to bed and I wake up the next day, what the scripture says, it's true. His mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. If you're here and you're tempted to give up on your marriage, or you're tempted to give up on your kids, you're tempted to give up on relationships or a job. I would say, just give it another day and then pray and say, Lord, I know that your it's not your will for me to give up. I want to press in and believe, but I need your grace. Everything that God asks us to do requires that we're filled with his spirit and with his power, with his truth and with his wisdom so that we can walk it out. 2 (43m 21s): Don't give up. Jesus can be trusted with Alex. Go ahead and stand up. And we're going to pray. And Lord, thank you that you are indeed our salvation. God, you are faithful to seek and to save those who are lost, Lord God, we give you praise for that. Thank you that you are eternal and that you are the same yesterday today and forever God, that means we can trust you and believe you and follow you wholeheartedly. So help us to do so. Lord, thank you that you are joyous. That is such good news. 2 (44m 2s): Lord, God help us to have a different perspective of you. God help us to think differently about you. Help us to believe you. We pray, Lord God, thank you that you were just thank you, God, that you are, God, God, we trust you and God in those moments where we are doubting and fearful, I pray that you would strengthen us now that you'd reveal truth to us and that we wouldn't the lies of the enemy. We wouldn't give into the difficulty of life, Lord God, but that we would keep our eyes on you continually and constantly. 2 (44m 42s): Thank you for this time. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to open up your word, Lord God, we just invite you to speak to us continually through this time of worship. Lord, help us to worship in spirit and in truth, we pray Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship 0 (50m 28s): Gabi pays you this morning. We worship you. We lift your name. Ha.

Are you caught between doubt and despair because you've been trying to worship the bodyguard god, on-demand god, boyfriend god, guilt god, anti-science god, gap god, or angry-Old-Testament god? If big-G God has lost his appeal because you've mixed him up with a gaggle of little-g gods who don't exist, then how can you know what God is really like? If you could see God just once, wouldn't it settle your fears, give you assurance, and motivate you to hold firm in your faith? If you want to know what God says, listen to Jesus. If you want to know what God is up to, watch Jesus. If you want to have a closer relationship with God, follow Jesus. John 14:7-11; John 4:24; Luke 11:2; 1 John 14 

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

1 (11m 53s): Us. Thank you. That your love is totally dependable. Lord. It's unconditional. So we can know, we can know of your love no matter what, Lord, it's hard for our, our human minds are finite minds to get ahold of the love of an infinite God. It's beyond our ability. Lord, all we can do is say, thank you. And we love you too, Lord God, thank you for just your goodness to me and to each and every one of us, we need your grace and your mercy and we just, we just need you all the time or so refresh us today where we need to be refreshed. 1 (12m 47s): I know so many people are struggling today with sicknesses and I've got people in hospitals and nursing homes and all kinds of stuff going on, Lord God. So many difficult challenges and yeah, it's on the other side of things. So many amazing things, so many good things, Lord God. And so I pray that you administer grace to those who are struggling and suffering today and encouragement to those and health to those Lord and, and God that you would also just bless those who are just so grateful today. We're grateful that you are faithful. Lord, thank you for who you are because we know all too well who we are and we need you. 1 (13m 33s): Jesus. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. This while everybody is still standing, I want to mix things up a little bit today. Why don't we take communion at the beginning of service instead of the end of service. So hopefully everybody's got elements that if not raise your hand and we will get those elements to you. I want us to stay standing. Just, this is a way to honor the Lord worship team. You guys can be dismissed. So as people grab their, okay, I've got elements. Thank you. 1 (14m 17s): So communion here at harvest church once a month, the family Sunday, fourth, Sunday of every month. And it's just a reminder of God's goodness, this, the sacrifice that he made for us, he reminds us through the scripture and we are reminded as we take communion that before the foundation of the world, God had a plan to bring salvation to us. We're going to be reading passages of scripture that communicate that truth to us. And so it's a bit tricky, but if you can peel off that top layer of cellophane on, there we go. Mine came off very easy that time. So I'm going to read and we're going to take communion. 1 (15m 1s): And I just want to encourage you if you're here today and you need to get yourself right with the Lord before you take communion, you simply do that by confessing your sins to him, acknowledging your need for Jesus, opening your heart to his love and to his life. And as you do that, the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ washes over you. The kindness of God is re is renewed in your heart and mind. And there's just beauty that follows. And so Lord, we thank you that your mercies are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. 1 (15m 42s): We thank you that your word we're thankful that your word speaks to us life and grace and truth. So Lord, as we read your word, as we take communion, as we pray, Lord, we just avail ourselves to you. We give ourselves to you. We say yes to you. Paul wrote in first Corinthians 1123 for I pass on to you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you do this in remembrance of me. So let's go ahead and take the wafer. 1 (16m 29s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, that you willingly went to the cross, allowed yourself to be nailed to a cross. Not because you were bad, but because I was mad now because you are a sinner, but because I, I am a sinner. So thank you for taking that, making that substitutionary sacrifice on our behalf, Lord, the same way. Verse 25, he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. 1 (17m 12s): Do this in remembrance of me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. So with that, let's go ahead and take the juice. Thank you, Lord. Thank you Lord. That when we're washed in the blood of the lamb, we are made white as snow. All of our impurities are gone in Jesus name. 1 (17m 54s): All of our failures have been forgiven. All of our sins are washed away in Jesus name. Thank you, Lord. That is such a refreshing truth. Lord God. As we talked about salvation and sanctification today, we're so excited for who we are in you and for the possibility of salvation coming to everybody that we know and sanctification coming to everybody that we know. And so Lord, we pray that you would make us excited about salvation and sanctification. Lord make us excited that we carry this message and that we've got something of life to offer people. 1 (18m 37s): So Lord help us to humbly do so excitedly do so. Bring that message to those in our world. We love you, Lord. We bless you Lord in Jesus name, amen. You can be seated. You can be seated. We're a brand new study today. We are in the book of Titus. We finished up Timothy and now we are in Titus and much like Paul's letters to Timothy. Paul has written a letter to this young man named Titus. He's a Greek believer in the Lord. Jesus Christ. Most likely the apostle Paul through his life in ministry led Titus to faith in Jesus Christ. 1 (19m 23s): And I want us to get this connection. I want us to make this connection to see that a life can be radically changed. And then through a process of salvation and sanctification can be used mightily by the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And so we see that Paul was instrumental in Titus's salvation, but then also instrumental in his discipleship process, equipping him to take the gospel message and to teach others the gospel well message. Titus traveled extensively with the apostle. Paul was involved extensively in his ministry. 1 (20m 3s): We read in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians that he, he lists Titus's name nine times over and over again. Titus is right there with the apostle Paul ministering, the administered together on the island of Crete, which is where Titus is assigned to minister to churches that have sprung up all over the island. And now we're seeing that the apostle Paul is passing the Baton. This is something that is part of the Christian faith. The Baton gets passed to us. Jesus passed the Baton. I shared this last week when he said, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit this week. 1 (20m 51s): Well, last Friday we baptized 14 people at the beach. And then I think it was a couple of days after that there was this mom and her adult son. They took a mutual friend of theirs down to the beach at nine o'clock at night because he needed to get that ties. And there's no better time than the presence. And so they took him down at nine o'clock at night and the sons videotaping the baptismal and the mom is taking this man down into the waters of baptism in Pismo beach about the same place that we baptized all those people the Friday before. And they baptize him. 1 (21m 33s): Isn't that cool? The Baton has been passed to us. Jesus said, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. So we're seeing people get baptized, get discipled in the faith, get saved first and then get baptized and discipled in the faith. And we're so excited to have that Baton passed to us. And so as we study Titus, we're going to see that Paul gave very specific instruction to Titus this young pastor who is going to help strengthen the body of believers that have sprung up in this Greek island to here. And so what I've done is I've downloaded this Bible project video. 1 (22m 17s): That's about eight minutes long, and this is something that we do from time to time when we're launching a new book of the Bible study, we'll take a moment and watch the video because the Bible project people put together an amazing video that just helps us to understand the purpose of the book of Titus, the chapters, the overall message, that conclusion and all of that. So before I preach through the rest of chapter one, before we, before I preach through the chat chapter one, we're going to take eight minutes and watch this video. So let's go and throw that up here. 2 (22m 53s): Can I sit here? Paul's letter to Titus. Titus was a Greek follower of Jesus who was for years, a trusted coworker and traveling companion of Paul's. He had helped Paul in a number of crisis situations in the past. And in this letter, we discover that Paul had assigned him the task of going to Crete, a large island off the coast of Greece to restore order to a network of house churches. Now creating culture was notorious in the ancient world. One of the Greek words for being a liar was created. So to be a cretin, these people were infamous for treachery and greed. Most of the men on the island had served as mercenary soldiers to the highest bidder and the island cities were known as being unsafe, plagued by violence and sexual corruption. 2 (23m 36s): However, the island of Crete had many strategic harbors and they serve as cities all over the ancient Mediterranean sea. And so from Paul's point of view, Crete was the perfect place to start a network of churches. Now we don't know the details, but somehow these churches came under the influence of corrupt cretin leaders. They said they were Christians, but they were ruining the churches. And so Paul assigned Titus with the task of going there to set things straight. And this letter provided the instructions. It has a pretty straightforward design. After a brief introduction, Paul gives Titus clear instructions about his tasks in the church. He then offers guidance about the new kind of household and then about the new kind of humanity that the gospel could create in these cretin communities. 2 (24m 20s): Paul then closes the letter with some final greetings. So Paul opens the whole thing by reminding Titus that his message as an apostle is about the hope of eternal life. That is the life of the new creation that is available starting now through Jesus, the Messiah and this hope was promised long ago by the God who does not lie. Now this little opening comment introduces an important theme underlying the whole letter. One of the problems in the cretin churches was that they had assimilated their ideas about Jesus, the Christian God, to their ideas about the Greek gods that they grew up with specifically Zeus, their chief, God cretin. People claimed that Zeus was actually born on their island and they love to tell stories and mythologies about Zeus's underhanded character. 2 (25m 7s): He would seduce women and lie to get his way. And Paul wants to be really clear. The God revealed through Jesus is totally different than zoos. His basic character traits are faithfulness and truth, which means the Christian way of life will be about truth also, which will be a real change for these cretins. So Paul then addresses Titus with a two-fold task. He says the first one is to appoint new leaders for each church community, a team of what he calls elders, mature husbands or fathers, whose way of life is totally different from cretin culture. They're to be known for integrity, total devotion to Jesus, for self-control and generosity, both in their families and in the community at large. 2 (25m 49s): And these new leaders are to teach the good news about Jesus and replace the corrupt leaders who need to be confronted that's Titus a second task. Paul identifies the teachers as those of the circumcision. In other words, they were ethnically Jewish cretins who said that they followed Jesus, but similar to the problems in glacier, these people demanded that non-Jewish Christians be circumcised and follow the laws of the Torah. If they really wanted to become followers of the Jewish Messiah. Paul says that they're obsessed with Jewish myths and human commands. And to top it off, they're just in the church leadership business to make money. And so Paul, in a brilliant move, he pulls a quote from an ancient cretin poet at the amenities who was very Frank and honest about the character of his own people. 2 (26m 35s): He said, Cretans are always liars, vicious beasts, and lazy gluttons. They blur the lines between true and false between good and evil and they're just in it for the money. And so while these leaders claim to know God, they're cretin way of life denies him, they have to be dealt with. And this leads Paul into the next section because of these corrupt leaders, many Christians in these churches now have homes and personal lives that are a total wreck and three different times. Paul highlights the result of all of this, the message about Jesus is discredited. Their non-Christian neighbors now have good cause to make evil accusations. And all of this makes the teaching about God, our savior totally unattractive, not compelling to anybody. 2 (27m 18s): So Paul paints a picture sure of the ideal cretin household that is devoted to Jesus. It would be elderly men and women who are full of integrity and self control. So they can become models of care, character to the young people. And the young women shouldn't be sleeping around and avoiding marriage as was fashionable and Crete at the time. But rather they should be looking for faithful partners so they can raise stable, healthy families. And the young men are to do the same they're to be known as productive, healthy citizens, Christian slaves on create we're in a unique position because we know that because of the gospel, they were treated as equals in Paul's church communities. However, there was a danger that they would use that equality as licensed to disrespect their masters and then become associated with slave rebellions, which would further discredit the Christian message. 2 (28m 6s): You can see Paul negotiating a fine line here. He believes that the gospel about Jesus needs to prove its redemptive power in the public square. If it's really going to transform, create and culture, and that's not going to happen through social upheaval or by Christians, cloistering away from urban life. The Christian message will be compelling to cretins when Christians fully participate in public life, when their lives and homes look similar on the surface, because after it closer look, their neighbors will discover that Christians live by a totally different value system out of devotion to a totally different God. And that's the difference that Paul beautifully summarizes at the end of chapter two, he says the value system driving the Christian way of life is God's generous. 2 (28m 52s): Grace, which appeared in the person of Jesus and will appear again at his return. This grace was demonstrated when Jesus gave up his life honor to die a shameful death on behalf of his enemies so that he could rescue and redeem them. And it's that same grace that calls God's people to say no to corrupt ways of life that are inconsistent with the generous love of God. Paul then zooms out from the Christian household to a vision of Christians living like new humans and credence society of all people. Christian should be known as the ideal citizens, peaceable, generous obedient to authorities. Yeah. Known for pursuing the common good, but this is really different from how cretins grew up. 2 (29m 35s): How are Christians it's supposed to sustain this counter-cultural way of life? And Paul believes the power source is the love of the three in one God announced in the gospel. And he explores this with a really beautiful pawn. He says, God's kindness and love are what saved us despite ourselves. So that through the holy spirit, God washed and rebirth and renewed people and through Jesus has provided a way for people to be declared right before him. And all of this opens up eternal life. That is a new future in the new creation. This living story is so powerful. It can produce new kinds of people. 2 (30m 15s): Paul convinced that spirit empowered faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus will declare God's grace all over the island of Crete and all over the world. Paul concludes by promising to send back up for Titus, either Artemis or tickets. And then he says hello to their common friends. And so the letter ends, the letter of Titus shows us Paul's missionary strategy for churches to become agents of transformation within their communities. It won't happen by waging a culture war or by assimilating to the Korean way of life. Rather, he calls these Christians to wisely participate in creating culture. They need to reject what's corrupt, but also embrace. What's good there. 2 (30m 55s): If they can learn to live peaceably and devote themselves to Jesus and to the common good Christians will, in his words, show the beauty of the message about our saving God. And that's what the letter to Titus is all about. 1 (31m 12s): Good stuff, good stuff. You can watch. Any of those videos, a video, I believe for every book of the Bible, how's that you think after all of these years, I would have that microphone figured out. Thank you, pastor Ron. Hey, we're looking at a, the title of the message today. The faith, the faith that saves and sanctifies that's really what Paul was talking about is, is what he's talking about in the letter to Titus. And that's really what we were just understood is that God is in the business of saving people from dark and destructive cultures. 1 (31m 60s): And then it's not just saving us out of our culture and out of our sin, but then sanctifying us as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so we're not just meant for fire insurance, where we just get saved and move on with our lives, but we're actually saved for the purpose of serving God and becoming more and more sanctified as we follow him throughout the course of our life. Now sanctification is a lifelong process. Salvation happens immediately when we trust Jesus for our salvation, but sanctification takes to the rest of our lives. And we have to be patient with that process patient with ourselves and then patient with one another, because every one of us are in a different place on that sanctification process. 1 (32m 44s): So let's take a look at Titus chapter one, verse one, we'll get through all of Titus chapter one today. It says this, this letter is from Paul. A slave of God ended up possible of Jesus Christ. So Paul out of the gate reminds everyone. Now he doesn't need to remind Titus who he is. He doesn't need to speak to Titus and communicate who he is. He's writing this for the benefit of everybody who will read this book after, or this letter after it's been dispersed to Titus into the churches. Or so even to this day, we're reading this letter, understanding who the author is and what the purpose of it is all about Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. 1 (33m 30s): He's a bond servant of God and an apostle taking the message of Jesus, the message of the gospel to those that he is called to take it to you. I've been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to change them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives. So there we have it in the first verse, we see the purpose of this letter. I had been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows, shows them how to live godly lives. So in this opening verse, we see the purpose of this letter. 1 (34m 13s): Faith brings us salvation and sanctification. Faith brings salvation and sanctification. Paul said, I have been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives. Number one, in your notes, faith in Jesus first and foremost saves simplistic, right? But we are here as followers of the Lord. Jesus, because our faith in the risen savior has saved us. Or we're here sitting in church this morning with the opportunity before us to receive this salvation that is made available to us because of what Jesus has accomplished. 1 (34m 57s): We, we can't jump over this point. We can't forget about this point. This is why we take communion on a regular basis because it reminds us constantly of our desperate need for the salvation that is available through our faith in Jesus, this expression, those God has chosen that he said I've been sent to proclaim faith to those. God has chosen this expression embodies. It embodies the true balance of the gospel that says God initiated salvation and then respond. There's a divine initiation where before the foundation of the world, God saw our for him before you ever knew you needed God before you were even ever born before the foundation of the earth. 1 (35m 47s): God saw you and saw that you needed salvation. And so he made a way through Jesus, this to offer you salvation, there's this balance. And so this, this divine work of God, God, coupled with our need to respond. And so we have this information, this revelation, this gospel message communicated to us. And then we get to choose what to do with maybe you're here today and you've heard the gospel over and over and over and over and over and over again. But you've never truly embraced the gospel message. 1 (36m 26s): You've never truly accepted that race message of the Lord. Jesus Christ. That message is before you again, today that Jesus loves you and he died for your sins. And he's welcoming you with open arms, into his family, wanting to, to forgive you, to save you and to say defy you. And you simply accept that grace gift by saying yes to Jesus. Some of us have said no to that grace gift because we don't feel like our lives are in order or because we don't feel like we can follow through on our commitment to follow Jesus. 1 (37m 6s): Some of us have a dozen different excuses for not saying yes to Jesus. Maybe we just don't want to surrender our lives to him. Maybe we just don't want to allow someone else to be in charge of our lives. Jesus, grace is there for you. What will you do with them? The Bible says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead. You will be saved the Bible. Doesn't say, get your whole life in order. Get all of your biblical questions, answered, figure out every dilemma in your life and then come to faith in Jesus. 1 (37m 49s): He said, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. There's this divine initiative and the human response that is before us. And I would just encourage you to accept the grace and the mercy of the Lord. Jesus Christ. I can't tell you how my life has been radically transformed since coming to faith in Jesus. My BC days are nothing like my AAD days, my, my after Christ days. And I'm so grateful for that. Verse two says this truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life. 1 (38m 30s): So Paul it's writing truth to those who have decided to follow Jesus. And this truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God who does not lie, promise them before the world began. So we're told in scripture that we're saved by grace through faith. And we see that throughout the old and the new Testament. And we can believe that we're saved by grace through faith because God does not lie. It's actually impossible for God to lie. So if God says that we're saved by grace through faith, and we have accepted that grace gift of his, then we are indeed saved by grace through faith. Some of us have a hard time believing that we're actually saved. 1 (39m 13s): And so we maybe confess our sins over and over again, come to, you know, make that prayer of declaration over and over again. And I think there's something great about confessing our sins to the Lord. If we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so I think we need to be regular confessors of our sin, but it's not for the sake of salvation over and over and over again. Once we come to faith in Christ, it's a finished work of the Lord, Jesus Christ. God can not lie. And if we can not believe God about our salvation, we're going to have a whole lot harder time believing God about everything else in our lives. We're going to have a hard time believing that God loves us. 1 (39m 54s): We're gonna have a hard time believing that God is a provider for us. That he's a healer for us. That he's a Redeemer for us. That he's good. And we're going to have a hard time believing all of these things that we sing and read about in the scriptures. Hebrews six 18 says this. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore he or we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. So in creating culture, Paul's communicating this message with Titus they're ministering on the island. 1 (40m 38s): They leave. And then Titus gets sent back to minister in this culture where Zeus has been there, prominent God, and he's a liar and a womanizer. And so they've got to go into this culture, explaining something about this new God who never lies and who is always good and who is always faithful. There, there, there needs to be a differentiation in their hearts and minds about that. True living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the three in one God, the God that God, the father, the son, and the holy spirit, they need to see the difference. And this is part of the reason that God saves us out of a culture and sanctifies us so that people can see the difference in the lives of believers, of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 1 (41m 25s): But it's also what causes people to hunger for something that they haven't experienced before that they are used to following Zeus and his role model as a liar and a womanizer. That's all, they know, people are hungry for something of choice, true religion, true faith in the living. God people know that this can not be a proper representation of who God is. And so the gospel comes in and as the gospel goes throughout the island of Crete house, churches are popping up all over the place because people are hearing of this real gospel. 1 (42m 5s): Good news message. And they're believing it. And they're beginning to walk in it. And they're beginning to abandon Zeus abandoned this small G God, who's not a God at all. Who's a counterfeit. Who's there just to distract and to hinder people from following their real Lord and savior Jesus Christ. And so people begin to see the reality of the truth of who God is. And they begin to follow that. Some of us have done though, what the Christians have done. And we've kind of married Christianity with, with pagan culture. We've blended the two in such a way that people are confused by the way that we live our lives. 1 (42m 47s): They see us calling ourselves Christians, but we, we engage in pagan, cultural type things that cause confusion and hinder our ability, our sanctity education as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so we're dealing in our culture, what the cretins we're dealing with in their culture. This temptation to bring our old life into this new life with Jesus and try to marry those things we've been saved by God's grace, so that we might be redeemed and delivered out of that old life and sanctified by his grace because he's good. Not because we're good. So our God is real. And God's plan of salvation was determined before the foundation of the world. 1 (43m 31s): So you think about zoos, he's a liar, he's a womanizer. He's all about Zeus, right? God, on the other hand, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the try, you and God, father, the son and the holy spirit. They're all about you and me. So before the foundation of the world, imagine the Godhead, they have this plan to create mankind, but they know because they know everything. He knows everything. I'll say he knows everything. When I say they I'm talking about Trinity is there it's, it's, it's a really, really difficult concept to, to fully internalize, but they, God had his, they speak among themselves being one God in three persons, father, son, and the holy spirit. 1 (44m 14s): They're thinking about how things will unfold. And they're saying, Hey mankind, we'll see. And God said, let's make a way of salvation for them so that we might know them and have relationship with them and bring them into fellowship with us. This is what it says in second Timothy, one nine for God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time and that interesting. So before you would ever sinned, before you would ever born, they made a plan. God made a plan for you to know him. And it happened before the beginning of the time to show us his grace through Christ Jesus, all right, Titus one, three. 1 (44m 56s): And now it just the right time. He has revealed this message through the Bible, which we announced to everyone. It is by the command of God, our savior that I have been entrusted with this work for him. What's the work that Paul's talking about. The writing of the inspired word of God, the proclamation of the gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ, right? Like on the road to Damascus, the apostle gets the Baton handed to him and he gets saved on the road and that the Baton is passed to him. And then he begins to take the message of the Lord, Jesus Christ, everywhere he goes. And then God uses him to write two thirds of the new Testament. 1 (45m 36s): And we're talking about the apostle Paul again, who, who persecuted the church and who was a hater of God and his people. And yet God redeemed him by his salvation. I am writing to Titus my true son in the faith that we share, may God, the father and Christ Jesus, our savior give you grace and peace. Paul's entails about what he's writing to Titus. This grace and peace that he's writing about is contrary to what the experience is of the church or the people who live or living in Crete. It's, they're not experiencing grace and peace because they're following false God. 1 (46m 16s): A false ideology. May God, the father and Christ Jesus, our savior give you grace and peace. So Titus working, create a title. So again, the faith that saves and sanctifies, number one, faith in Jesus saves. And the second point, the last point, faith in Jesus sanctifies, what does it mean to be sanctified? It means to be made holy or to be set apart, to be used for God's purposes, to be consecrated, to be dedicated to God. So Titus was set aside for his work on the island of Crete. I wonder what you are sanctified, set apart to do what work are you sanctified and set apart to do here in the earth? 1 (47m 4s): Because I always say this, I believe this is true. Then if you've got a pulse, you've got a purpose. If you're here in the earth, you've got work to do. And so the question is what is the work that God is calling you to do? Christie Suiza will be sharing a ways to get involved at harvest church here in just a few minutes. When I invite her up after I preach, she will talk about small groups that you can be involved in. And in those small groups, you can learn what salvation is all about, what sanctification is all about. And you can help lead small groups. You can be involved in the work and ministry of harvest church. As we get ready to move into 1 0 2 here in the next few months, we're going to need more people. 1 (47m 44s): It's another venue we're holding on to all of this venue, all of this, these buildings and location. And so we're going to need more people to be involved. Many of you are involved in para church ministries and organizations where you're ministering in the community, doing the things that God has called you to do, even as Titus was set aside for the work of God on the island of creed. I want us to figure out what we are set aside to do what sorry, serving opportunities are before you. How is it? The Lord has equipped you to do the work that God it has called you to do. So just be thinking of about that and be praying about that. 1 (48m 24s): And maybe as you hear Christi present today, all of the opportunities, maybe the thing will peak your interest and you'll say, Hey, I'd like to be a part of that. Or I'd like to be a part of that. And then just jump in with both feet and watch what we'll do Titus in verse five, I left you on the island of Crete. So you could complete our work there and appoint elders in each town. As I instructed you, I liked that. He said complete our work there because it means that Titus isn't in it by himself. Paul started the work. Titus has carry on carrying on the work, but others will be there with him supporting him along the way. 1 (49m 7s): You are not in this life. As a follower of Jesus Christ alone, others have gone before you, there are people who will support you in your journey, and then you will pass the Baton at some point in your life. I left you on the island of Crete. So you could complete our work there and appoint elders in each town. As I instructed you, an elder must live a blameless life. And now we're going to kind of get a snapshot of what sanctification looks like. And these are actually qualifications for those who want to serve as elders within the church of the living, God, there it's a high bar. This list of expectations and qualifications, for those who want to start as elders, it's actually very difficult, but by the grace of God, nobody would be able to manage this list and live up to it. 1 (50m 4s): So an elder must be a blame. A leader live a blameless life. Maybe your Bible says to you live above reproach. That means that somebody, because as if your lifestyle is not even able to actually use you, it's not that you get accused and acquitted it's that your life is so far above reproach that can even accuse you of doing wrong. That's the standard. Isn't that crazy? That's the, that's the standard. But this is by God's grace. What is capable for us as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. When we allow the sanctification process that God wants to accomplish in our lives. 1 (50m 45s): So an elder must live a blameless life. We see it here in verse six, and we'll hear the same qualification repeated in verse seven. Let's continue verse six. He must be faithful to his wife. That just means a one woman, man, someone who's married to one woman at a time and his children must be believers who don't have a reputation for being wild or rebellious. That's going to disqualify most of us, right? That's a tough one. She's children must be believers who don't have a reputation for being wild or rebellious. So part of the, the, the what's to be understood about that text is that we actually, as parents, as people who follow Jesus, have that responsibility to pass the Baton to our kids. 1 (51m 37s): And so it's not actually the church's responsibility, the Sunday school or the youth department. It's not our responsibility to make sure that your kids are saved. It's actually your responsibility. And we as Sunday school teachers or youth leaders come alongside what you are already doing, helping your kids to know Jesus. So that's part of that process. Salvation comes as your kids, see you model godliness in your life. And this will only happen if we allow the sanctification process happen in our lives. If we allow that sanctification process in our lives, then our, our kids will see something in us that they desire. 1 (52m 19s): They won't see perfection, but they will see on an honest pursuit of who God is and honored pursuit of God. And out of that, we get saved and sanctified, and our kids see something that is genuine. It's something that they want a child, a church leader and oversee, or a Bishop is a manager of God's household. So he must live there. It is again, he must live a blameless life. He must not be arrogant or quick tempered often when we're arrogant, it's because we're comparing ourselves to someone else. And we estimate that our lives are in better shape than somebody else's life. And so we become arrogant a few weeks ago, Dr. 1 (53m 0s): Stacey Harmon, when he was teaching and preaching here from the pulpit, he said the, he said, we need to remember that we are not the standard. Remember when he said that you said we are not the standard, meaning that my life is not the standard. Your life is not the standard God. And his word is the standard. And so we need to make sure that we're when we're comparing ourselves, we're comparing ourselves to God and his word and trust. All arrogance will go out the window. You want to have any room in your life for arrogance. If you're looking at the word of God on a regular basis and comparing your life to the word, you will eliminate all arrogance from your life. So you must not be arrogant or quick tempered. 1 (53m 42s): It must not be a heavy drinker, violent or dishonest with money. I think Paul's writing this list in light of the culture, in the island of Crete. He's writing this because he understands the culture that he's up against. And so he's writing about living a blameless life, not being arrogant or quick tempered, or a heavy drinker or violent or dishonest with money because he's seeing all of these things happen on the, in the creed and culture on the island of he's seeing the people do all of these things. He said rather, and then he gives a whole list of things that we should be doing. 1 (54m 26s): And again, these are things that we do as we allow the sanctification process of God in our lives. We can't do it in our own strength with our own willpower. Yeah. Make these things happen. We can do some of these things okay. For a while. But if we want to do all of these things well for the long-term, we have to be filled with the holy spirit, the power of God that gives us the ability to do what God has asked us to do. So we can't not do the things. And we can't do the things apart from the work of the holy spirit, sanctifying our lives, rather Mercede he must enjoy having guests in his home, speaking of elders and, and what they should be doing. 1 (55m 9s): He must have enjoyed having guests in his home. Why? Because that's where fellowship and relationship and connection takes place. That's where people are getting, getting a discipled in their faith and growing as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He must love what is good. He must live wisely and be just, or fair again, thinking about what's going on in the culture in that day and thinking about what's going on in the culture of our day, this is the list. This is the standard that by God's grace, we are able to accomplish. As we just allow that sanctification process in our lives, we must live a devout and discipline life. 1 (55m 56s): You must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught. So not a new believer, but someone who understands and believes wholeheartedly the message of the gospel and what the scripture teaches. Then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it, where they are wrong. So wholesome teaching is teaching that confronts. This is what essentially Paul doing. He's offering wholesome teaching that is confronting the culture of the day. Wholesome teaching confronts the unbiblical teachings of those who are confused about God's plan of salvation and sanctification. 1 (56m 41s): Okay. First Sandy goes on for, there are many rebellious people who engage in useless talk and deceive others. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. So he's saying, Hey, if anybody's saying it's Jesus plus anything else, and that's the gospel, they're wrong. They're confused about what the gospel is all about. So if we say it's Jesus plus tithing, that equals salvation. That's wrong. If we say it's Jesus plus serving we're wrong because it's Jesus plus nothing else that equals salvation. 1 (57m 22s): Now sanctification is the process whereby we come, we become more and more like Jesus and less and less like our old self, our old man, our old woman. So there's a sanctification process that begins to change the way that we live our lives, the way that we spend our time, talent and treasure. So they were Judaizers in the island there and they were saying, well, if you really want, like, we are here on the video. If you really want to be a follower of the Messiah, then you, you have to be circumcised. And the disciples had already put that dispel, that myth and said that that wasn't accurate. It's Jesus blessed, nothing else. 1 (58m 4s): That equals salvation. First of all, 11, they must be silenced because they are turning whole families away from the truth, from the truth, by their false teachings. And they do it only for money. So they were spiritual leaders within the church who were operating only for financial gain. So they were being dishonest, not doing the true work that God called them to do. And so we have to be careful that we're not being conformed to the culture in which we live, but that the Bible is shaping us and be, and we're becoming more like Jesus and the culture of Christian, true Christianity, even one of their own men, a prophet from Crete. 1 (58m 51s): He said about them. The people of Crete are all liars, cruel animals and lazy gluttons. You know, that's the culture that they were in. I wonder what could be said of our culture. What would be their little pithy statement that would be said about our culture? I don't know. No, I haven't taken the time to write it out, but, but there are challenging and desperate and sinful things about our culture that are trying to influence us and draw us away from the things of God. People of Crete are liars, cruel animals and lazy gluttons. 1 (59m 31s): This is the culture. Titus is ministering. Yeah. And it's helpful for us to know the culture that we're in. Let's just play a game real quickly. I'm out of time already. Anyway. So let's just play a game and you just go with that. What would you use as a word to describe our 21st century culture? Sure. In Western and the Western part of the world here in California on the central good G get, get specific to like to the central coast. What would you use as a word? What is it unfocused? Interesting. Very good word on the word is unfocused. What else could we do you use to describe the culture of the central coast, worldly, unfocused, and worldly. 1 (1h 0m 15s): So we're, we're, we're kind of getting close to this year. Where, what else? Unfocused and worldly, let's do one more. Oops. That was a bunch of them. Who, what was it? Fearful, depraved, fearful and depraved. So it's helpful for us to understand our culture so that we, number one, don't become like our culture, but number two, so that we understand what we're trying to, what we're trying to do to help what we can do to help people who are stuck in that culture. So think about the culture of your family. Think about the culture of your work. Think about the culture of your neighborhood, and then ask the Lord, Lord, how do I operate within that culture? 1 (1h 0m 57s): So that I might bring salvation to those who need salvation so that God, you might work too, brings sanctification to their lives. Here we go. Let's finish this up. This is true. So reprimand them sternly to make them strong in their faith. They must stop listening to Jewish myths and the commands that people who have turned away from the truth. So Jewish myths are Jewish laws and traditions that NOLA Phi and contradict the holy scripture. So anything that we're believing that either no Ify replace or contradict the scripture is something that we need to be, be wary of circumcision. 1 (1h 1m 38s): Hand-washing these, these are examples, extreme rules around the Sabbath. I, I D these are all things that were happening in the day. And these are things that not even Jews even knew how to honor and obey. Let's get to these last couple weeks. Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure, but nothing is pure to those who are corrupted and believing because their minds in common, the agencies are corrupted to the right. Everything is pure. Have you noticed that in your life, like when you're in a really good place with the Lord, like everything is pure. Somebody can tell you a story. And all you do is see the episode about the story. But when your mind is corrupt to the perverse, everything is, somebody might tell you the same exact story, but you can come up with this perverse conclusion about, about the story. 1 (1h 2m 28s): Maybe you're seeing someone of the opposite sex walking down the street, a man, or a woman. And you're attracted to that man, or that woman, someone who is pure, what might say that is a handsome person, right there. Someone who is perverted would say, let's take that a step further. And it's not just a handsome person. That's someone that they want to get with. And because their perversion is in their mind, everything that they think about ends in perversion, but to the pure, everything is pure. So you've got this culture where there's perversion everywhere. And then the culture is they're trying to shift the culture by bringing purity into the culture. 1 (1h 3m 11s): And this is what they're up against. They're trying to communicate truth and trying to live differently. And there's perversion in the culture. There's corruption in the culture, verse 16. So people claim, they know God, but they such people claim. They know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient worthless for doing anything good. So you see the value of sanctification sanctification actually helps us to be qualified. We're qualified by God's grace and through the process of sanctification to do the works that God has called us to do. And so there's a process there, the faith that saves and sanctifies, faith, faith, faith in Jesus saves and faith in Jesus sanctifies. 1 (1h 3m 52s): And we can't, we don't want one without the other. We don't, we can't be sanctified without salvation, and we don't want to be saved without sanctification. We need both. We need both. And that's God's plan for both for, for all of us in Jesus name. Well, we've already taken communion. That's the end of my message. I'm wondering if it's Christie Suiza here. There she is. Christie's going to talk to us today about opportunities to get involved, to get plugged in. And so this is Christie . Christie has been on our staff team for the last dozen years or so. Something like that long time, she's only 20, but she's been with us for a very long time. 1 (1h 4m 33s): Christie, your full attention. 3 (1h 4m 35s): Good morning, everybody. Don't worry. I'm not going to sing. Yeah. I'm the director of discipleship here at harvest, and I have some exciting ways you can get connected and get plugged in. I know many of you are newer to our church and looking for ways to build those relationships, grow deeper in your faith and have that community of connection outside in our driveway. On the right-hand side, you'll find a couple of tables today. One of them has a list of all of our life groups that are going to be launching here in September. We have a lot of different groups, something for everybody just to highlight a few things. We have quite a few home groups that meet in a Royal Grande date. We have some home groups this time focused on parents of teenagers, and that are focusing on family groups. 3 (1h 5m 19s): We have a couple that meet in the Nipomo area. We also have a young professionals group as well as a college group. So those are great ways to get plugged in with others, your age in the community. Here we have men's groups and women's groups, both daytime and evening for men. We have a morning, one for women and one for young women. And then we have a new financial peace university class that's starting up as well. So if you're interested in learning about budgeting and how to honor God with your finances, stop by the table, and we'll be able to answer questions for you there on those. So stop by pick up a flyer and ask whatever questions you have. We'll also be out there next week as well, taking signups and getting as many people plugged in as possible. 3 (1h 6m 4s): Our second table is for getting involved in an area of ministry here at harvest church. And ed is such a blessing to serve and be involved and connected with the heartbeat of what we do here at harvest. So if you're not plugged in to a ministry team, I really encourage you to pray about where God wants to connect you. We have so many ways you can connect children's ministry. Don't worry, not everyone is teaching. And children's. We have people that help people that serve behind the scenes, people that greet children. So there's lots of ways to connect there. We have a women's ministry team. We have folks that serve and our coffee bar ministry that make the coffee and keep that area refilled throughout our Sunday morning services. 3 (1h 6m 46s): Believe it or not. We actually have people that clean this place too during the week. And we love our cleaning team members. So if you have free time during the week and would love to help clean, there's a big need. There, we have folks who serve on our tech team, behind our camera's up here on our worship team and our prayer ministry as well. So we have so many ways you can get connected here at harvest. So pray about it. Stop by the table, ask questions, and we'd love to help you find a spot or the Lord can use you here in our body. So thank you. Please stand with us. We're going to sing one more song bursty inside. 3 (1h 7m 47s): Yes, we can surely see 4 (1h 11m 9s): Thank you for salvation, for who you are, Lord, and for just this place, you have us in our community. And I just, I just pray that our Holly ladies would be multiplied in, would just stretch out across our region and across our, our, our communities and our families. Lord, when people just be pointed straight to Jesus, because of it, because of the, the worship that we give to you. And thank you for today. And I see blessed. It says, we go, let us never be the same.

Titles don't matter if the story doesn't match it. If someone asked you, "Who do you worship and call god?" how would you describe him? Just because you call something god doesn't mean it's the almighty and all-powerful God (of the Bible). There are tons of gods out there begging to be worshiped. About "The Nonmicrowaved Truth":How fast do you have to have "IT"? Our culture tells us to find a microwave to speed up the process. C.L. Whiteside, a man who sees and hears multiple perspectives through his life of coaching sports, serving in education, and attempting to conform to Christ, searches for the nonmicrowaved truth. C.L. gets that what's cool and acceptable now, may not be cool and acceptable tomorrow—and most importantly, may not be what's best.Hit up C.L. on Twitter or Instagram: @ChampionLife23"The Nonmicrowaved Truth" is a Time of Grace production.

Today's episode went completely unexpected.  Our scheduled guest speaker was unable to join us live so I was persuaded by the live audience to "take the mic" and give a little of my own experience, strength and hope.  While impromptu, I am grateful for that opportunity and hope that it was and will be helpful to someone out there.Welcome to the Reco12 Speaker Meeting.  We are an organization whose addictions include alcohol, drugs, lust and sex, food and gambling, just to name a few.  We come together from all places, faiths and backgrounds to learn the similarities of addiction and to gain tools and hope from others who are walking a similar path.  We invite recovering addicts with at least 1 year sobriety and who are actively working their recovery in their respective fellowships to share their experience, strength and hope on a live Zoom webinar, each Friday at 12:00 pm central time, for 20-25 minutes.  Then, we, the live audience, get the opportunity to ask questions of the speaker for another 20-25 minutes.  If you are hearing this meeting in recorded podcast form and would like to participate as a live audience member in the future, please go to www.reco12.com to learn more and submit your email address there to receive weekly invitations.   Reco12 is a self-supporting service and we appreciate your help in keeping us working our Step 12 in this manner.  We gratefully accept contributions to help cover the costs of the Zoom platform, podcast platform, web hosting, and administrative costs.  To contribute, you can go to https://www.reco12.com/support  or you can click the link to PayPal (https://www.paypal.me/reco12)  in the chat of the live meeting.  When you contribute, please specify the meeting number.  This is meeting number 55.Resources mentioned in this meeting:SAL - https://www.sal12step.orgStep Into Action - https://www.sexaholics.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=97Two Way Prayer - https://www.twowayprayer.orgJourney Through Life Podcast:  https://www.jtlpod.com/episodesOutro music is “Standing Still” by Cory Ellsworth and Randy Kartchner, performed by Mike Eldred and Elizabeth Wolfe.  This song, and/or the entire soundtrack for the future Broadway musical, “Crosses:  A Musical of Hope”, can be purchased here:  https://music.apple.com/us/album/crosses-musical-hope-by-cory/528476262  This song is used with the  permission of Cory Ellsworth.Support the show (https://www.reco12.com/support)

This week we begin a four-part series on the 4 G's, four liberating truths about God: God is great, God is glorious, God is good, and God is gracious. In part 1, we take a look at the importance of discipleship in the everyday stuff of life and how the first G –God is great so we don't have to be in control – shapes us in following Jesus.

John 20:19-31

The first ever episode, in which the brothers introduce themselves and then jump into the sprawling subject at the center of their lives: capital-G God. Recommended and Referenced Resources include: Lectures: "On Not Being C.S. Lewis" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh4lrpBj3I8) by Francis Spufford Books: The Harrowing of Hell by Evan Daum, Dangerous Journey by John Bunyan, PZ's Panopticon by Paul Zahl Songs: "God Knows" by Donna Eyes, "Stand Back" by Stevie Nicks, "Shot Down in Denver" by Chalice, "When You Wish Upon a Star" by Gene Simmons, "Son of the Father" by Elton John, "More Than Molecules" by Fox, "Funky Funky Beat" by Jean-Michelle Navarre Click here (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1avwpuAHwUIVqM2BaNtMQ4?si=euSMGQIgQhiKb0l8vYXgWA) to listen to a playlist of the available tracks on Spotify.

Follow Vernonia Christian in this new teaching series focused on Personal God. Connection Card: https://www.vernoniachristian.com/sermons Prayer Request: https://www.vernoniachristian.com/prayer-request Give: https://www.vernoniachristian.com/give

In this episode, Austin and Travis discuss how to share the Gospel and give some tips. We find the following acrostic a helpful reminder of the key points of the gospel. This is from Dare2Share.org. G - God created us to be with Him. (Genesis 1-2) O - Our sins separated us from God. (Genesis 3) S - Sins can not be removed by good deeds. (Genesis 4-Malachi) P - Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew-Luke) E - Everyone who trusts in Him alone has eternal life. (John) L - Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever! (Acts-Revelation) https://www.dare2share.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/gospel-journey-4-up.pdf

About 25 years ago, while sharing an early morning cup of coffee with my dear friend and practice partner, family physician John Hartman, MD, he asked, “Walt, how come we don’t bring our faith to work with us more often?” It was a question the Lord used to convict me of the fact that although my personal relationship with God was the primary and most important relationship in my life, more often than not I tended to leave Him at the door when entering the hospital or medical office. The question was the catalyst for this talk: Spiritual Interventions in Patient Care. Research findings, a desire to provide high-quality care, and simple common sense, all underscore the need to integrate spirituality into patient care. It is highly ethical for healthcare professionals and healthcare systems to assess their patients’ spiritual health and needs and to provide indicated and desired spiritual interventions. Clinicians and health care systems should not deprive their patients of the spiritual support and comfort on which their hope, health, wellbeing, and longevity may hinge. Before you get started, I must share this caution from Stephen Post, PhD: “Professional problems can occur when well-meaning healthcare professionals ‘faith-push’ a patient opposed to discussing religion.” However, on the other side of the coin, “rather than ignoring faith completely with all patients, most of whom want to discuss it, we can explore which of our patients are interested and who are not.” Simply put, a spiritual assessment can help us do this with each patient we see. We can potentially gain the following from a spiritual assessment: The patient’s religious background, The role that religious or spiritual beliefs or practices play in coping with illness (or causing distress), Beliefs that may influence or conflict with decisions about medical care,  The patient’s level of participation in a spiritual community and whether the community is supportive, and ‹ Any spiritual needs that might be present. Several fairly-easy-to-use mnemonics have been designed to help health professionals, such as the “GOD” spiritual assessment I developed for CMDA’s Saline Solution: G = God: − May I ask your faith background? Do you have a spiritual or faith preference? Is God, spirituality, religion or spiritual faith important to you now, or has it been in the past? O = Others: − Do you now meet with others in religious or spiritual community, or have you in the past? If so, how often? How do you integrate with your faith community? D = Do: − What can I do to assist you in incorporating your spiritual or religious faith into your medical care? Or, is there anything I can do to encourage your faith? May I pray with or for you? However, this and other spiritual assessment tools fail to inquire about a critical item involving spiritual health: any religious struggles the patient may be having. A robust literature shows religious struggles can predict mortality, as there is an inverse association between faith and morbidity and mortality of various types. Sir William Osler, one of the founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital and frequently described as the “Father of Modern Medicine,” wrote, “Nothing in life is more wonderful than faith…the one great moving force which we can neither weigh in the balance nor test in the crucibIe - mysterious, indefinable, known only by its effects, faith pours out an unfailing stream of energy while abating neither jot nor tittle of its potence.” You can experience that driving force of faith when you apply these principles of spiritual assessment in your practice of healthcare, thereby allowing you to minister to your patients in ways you never imagined possible, while also increasing personal and professional satisfaction. One doctor recently shared with me, “Ministering in my practice has allowed God to bear fruit in and through me in new and wonderful ways. I can’t wait to see what He’s going to do in and through me each day. My practice and I have been transformed.”

Exodus 20:3  (NLT) 3 “You must not have any other god but me.”   3 “You must not have any other god (Lowercase g) but me.”  Point number 1: The Ten Commandments were given to everybody, including me.   Exodus 24:3 (NLT) 3 Then Moses went down to the people and repeated all the instructions and regulations the Lord had given him. All the people answered with one voice, “We will do everything the Lord has commanded.”   Point Number  God needs us to remember at all times that we should have no other gods.    Joshua 24:15-25 (NASB) 15 If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”   16 The people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 17 for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed. 18 The Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”   19 “You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.” 21 The people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.” 22 Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord, to serve Him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” 23 “Now therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” 24 The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and we will obey His voice.”      Point number 3 in your notes this morning:  Christians do not have a choice not to serve Uppercase G, God.      Exodus 20:5  (NLT) 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.     Philippians 4:19 (NLT) 19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Luke 12:32 (NLT) 32 “So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.

G - God's Glory, R - Relationships, O - Opportunities, V - Vibrant, E - Everyone

Éphésiens chapitre deux, verset huit et neuf. « Car c’est par la grâce que vous êtes sauvés, par le moyen de la foi. Et cela ne vient pas de vous, c’est le don de Dieu. Ce n’est point par les œuvres, afin que personne ne se glorifie. » C'est peut-être l'un des versets les plus clairs du passage d'Éphésiens deux versets un à dix, décrivant l'Évangile et comment être sauvé. Voici un petit acrostiche du mot Évangile en anglais. À partir d’Éphésiens 2, pensons aux lettres G-O-S-P-E-L (Évangile, Gospel en anglais). G pour God. Pensez au caractère de Dieu. Dieu est saint. Il déteste le péché, et pourtant il aime montrer son salut. Nous voyons sa sainteté, son amour, sa grâce, sa miséricorde et sa colère dans tout ce passage, le caractère de Dieu, G-God.

Official podcast of The Oceans Church OC, With Pastor Mark Francey

Who Needs God? - Part 4The God of Jesus - September 30- Speaker: Andy StanleyDescription: If big-G God has lost his appeal because we've mixed him up with a gaggle of little-g gods who don’t exist, then how can we know what the true God is like?

Pastor Jordan Sunday September 16th 2018 P.M.

In the long line of people using capital-G God to defend their capital-C Crazy, Justin and Mal cover S18E19 "Conversion" which narrates a church's attempts to "rape the gay" out of its members. They also talk sport movies, and the important distinction between fuckbois and douchenozzles. Welcome back ;) Share, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes. Follow us @yaaaasvu on Twitter and Instagram, or email us at yaaaasvu@gmail.com! Mal is @malgrocks, and Justin is @BlackManThatsMe.

Episode 13 Leave us a message - https://www.speakpipe.com/SoberSpeak Email us - feedback@soberspeak.com Visit our website - www.soberspeak.com

If big-G God has lost his appeal because we've mixed him up with a bunch of little-g gods who don't exist, then how can we know what the true God is like?

Two lords and two gods are presented in the AVB. Mr Hart will identify both, and show which is superior. At the end of this episode you will know which lord you are serving, if any.

There are many questions in the AVB; Mr Hart will give a presentation on AVB questions, then he will continue speaking on LORD all caps.

Mormonism has a distinctive view of God that differs quite a bit from traditional theism. And though we as Latter-day Saints recognize and most often celebrate the differences, in our Sunday and typical discourse about God and God’s power and influence, we very often sound as if there is little distinctiveness. One way into a discussion of things like this is through the term "worship." The Bible and LDS scriptures all speak of "worshiping" God, yet the term has pretty distinct meanings in wider theism that perhaps don’t match up with the kinds of attitudes toward God that Mormon claims might suggest. (For instance, in the LDS view, would God even be interested in being "worshiped"?) This concept of worship, then, becomes a good diving off point into the wider discussions about LDS versus traditional theism, concepts like omnipotence, and whether the LDS God could really even be considered a God with a "capital G" (God) or if better described with a "lower-case g" (god). In these episodes, Dennis Potter poses such questions about Mormon views and language about God, calling for greater clarity. Jim McLachlan and Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon respond with reasons for their preferences for the LDS view of God and why terms like God and omnipotence and worship should be allowed breathing room and a chance to evolve in ways that avoid charges of dodging certain issues or equivocating on terms in order to still have a coherent and compelling view.

Mormonism has a distinctive view of God that differs quite a bit from traditional theism. And though we as Latter-day Saints recognize and most often celebrate the differences, in our Sunday and typical discourse about God and God’s power and influence, we very often sound as if there is little distinctiveness. One way into a discussion of things like this is through the term "worship." The Bible and LDS scriptures all speak of "worshiping" God, yet the term has pretty distinct meanings in wider theism that perhaps don’t match up with the kinds of attitudes toward God that Mormon claims might suggest. (For instance, in the LDS view, would God even be interested in being "worshiped"?) This concept of worship, then, becomes a good diving off point into the wider discussions about LDS versus traditional theism, concepts like omnipotence, and whether the LDS God could really even be considered a God with a "capital G" (God) or if better described with a "lower-case g" (god). In these episodes, Dennis Potter poses such questions about Mormon views and language about God, calling for greater clarity. Jim McLachlan and Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon respond with reasons for their preferences for the LDS view of God and why terms like God and omnipotence and worship should be allowed breathing room and a chance to evolve in ways that avoid charges of dodging certain issues or equivocating on terms in order to still have a coherent and compelling view.

Don't miss this compelling look at the very first relational story in the Bible. Within this incredible story lies absolutes that define how we read and interpret the rest of the Bible but most importantly how we live as followers of Jesus. Title of message is: Law vs. Grace. Living in the Tree of life means: Making choices that lead to life. Living in the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil means: Making choices that lead to death. (Proverbs 14:12) (NLT) There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.  (Genesis 3:6) (NIV) When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. MISGUIDED MYTHS (2 Timothy 4:3-4) (NIV) For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 1.    If I do something wrong, I should do something right.  2.    If I do something right, I deserve something good. (Galatians 3:1) (NLT) Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? (Galatians 3:1-2) (NLT) For the meaning of Jesus Christ's death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross.  Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. (Galatians 3:3) (NLT) How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? (Galatians 3:10) (NLT) But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God's Book of the Law.” (Galatians 3:11) (NLT) So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” (Galatians 3:19) (NLT) Why, then, was the law given? (Galatians 3:24-25) (NLT) Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.  And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.  1.    Where there is no law, there is no sin.  2.    The Law leads us to Christ Grace is: 1.    G - God's gift to me.  (Romans 6:23) (NIV) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord 2.    R - Received by faith. (Ephesians 2:8-9) (NIV) For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. (Romans 4:16) (NCV) So people receive God's promise by having faith. This happens so the promise can be a free gift. 3.    A- Available to everyone. (Romans 10:13) (NLT) “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 4.    C- Comes through Christ.   (John 1:17) (NIV) For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:15) (NCV) …many people died because of the sin of that one man. But the grace from God was much greater; many people received God's gift of life by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.  (Galatians 2:21) (NLT) I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. 5.    E - Extended throughout eternity.  (Romans 6:1-2) (NLT) Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?  Of course not!   (Isaiah 30:18) (NIV) ...the Lord longs to be gracious to you.

nwlifechurch.com

nwlifechurch.com

Host Linda Goldfarb invites you to spend a few moments with her in God's Word. Today we are reading from Philippians 2:12-18 In this scripture we are called to put into action God's saving grace in our lives. Find out more about Linda and her ministry at www.LivePowerfullyNow.org

Host Linda Goldfarb invites you to spend a few moments with her in God's Word. Today we are reading from Philippians 2:12-18 In this scripture we are called to put into action God's saving grace in our lives. Find out more about Linda and her ministry at www.LivePowerfullyNow.org

Relationship Priority:·        God·        Spouse (if applicable)·        Children·        Extended Family·        Friends How did it get this way? (Genesis 1:26) “Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,…” (Genesis 1:27) “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”     (Genesis 2:9) “And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:16-17) “And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:18) “The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (Genesis 2:21) “So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.”         (Genesis 2:21-22) “Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” (Genesis 2:23)  “The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman', for she was taken out of man." (Genesis 2:24) “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:25) “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” (Genesis 3:1) “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:3) “…God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' " (Genesis 3:4) "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.” (Genesis 3:5) "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:6) “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Genesis 3:7) “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” (Genesis 3:21) “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” (Proverbs 14:12)  “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Religious thoughts: ·        If I do something wrong, I should do something right.·        If I do something right, I deserve something good. (Galatians 3:2-3)  “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.  I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” (Galatians 3:10-11)  “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.'  Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, the righteous will live by faith.” (Galatians 3:19)  “What, then, was the purpose of the law?” (Galatians 3:24-25)  “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” Are you frustrated with religion? Discover G.R.A.C.E. 1.  G – God's gift to me. (Romans 6:23)  “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” 2.  R – Receive by faith. (Ephesians 2:8-9)  “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith --- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Romans 4:16 NCV)  “People receive God's promise by having faith.  This happens so the promise can be a free gift…” 3.     A – Available to everyone. (Romans 10:13)  “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 4.     C – Comes through Christ. (John 1:17)  “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:15 NCV)  “... many people have received God's gift of life by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 2:21 NLT)  “Don't treat the grace of God as meaningless.  For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die.” 5.     E – Extended throughout eternity. (John 3:16)  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (Isaiah 30:18)  “…the Lord longs to be gracious to you.”  1.     Is my relationship with God clear or tainted? (John 10:10 NLT) “….My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” 2.     Are the rest of my relationships clear or tainted?   For more information on the vision of Freedom Church, please visit our website at www.freedom-church.org.