Podcasts about god lord

"There is an ancient tradition that the holy, righteous elder Symeon, who came from Egypt, was one of the Seventy learned Jews chosen in the days of the Pharoah Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 BC) for the task of rendering the Hebrew Bible into Greek, and that to Symeon was assigned the translation of the book of the Prophet Isaiah. When he reached the famous passage where the Prophet foretells the virgin birth of Christ, saying: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (Is. 7:14), he was so perplexed that he took a penknife to erase the word 'virgin' in order to replace it by 'young woman'. At that moment, an angel of God appeared and prevented him from altering the sacred text, explaining that what seemed impossible to him was, in fact, a prophecy of the coming into this world of the Son of God. To confirm the truth of this, he promised that Symeon would not see death until he had seen and touched the Messiah born of the Virgin. When, after many long years, Christ was brought into the Temple at Jerusalem by the All-Holy Mother of God, the Holy Spirit revealed to the Elder Symeon that the time of fulfilment of the promise had come. He hurried to the Temple and, taking the Child in his arms, he was able to say wholeheartedly to God: Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation (Luke 2:29). For indeed, the Elder Symeon was the living image of the ancient Israel of the Old Testament, which having awaited the coming of the Messiah was ready to fade away and give place to the light and truth of the Gospel. The relics of the holy and righteous Symeon were venerated at Constantinople in the church of St James, built at the time of the Emperor Justin.   "The prophetess Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, was eighty-four years old. Since the early death of her husband, she had spent her whole life in the Temple in hope of the coming of the Saviour. She is the pattern for holy widows, virgins and monks, who have freed themselves of worldly cares in order to dwell always in the Temple, offering their fasts, hymns and prayers in eager expectation of the Lord's coming. And when, like Anna and Symeon, they have seen the indwelling Christ with the eyes of their heart and touched Him through their spiritual senses, they proclaim with joy and assurance to all mankind that the Saviour is still coming into the world: A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel (Luke 2:32)." (Synaxarion)   The Synaxarion notes that the tradition that St Symeon was one of the Seventy is by no means universal among the Fathers. According to some, Symeon was the son of Hillel and father of Gamaliel, St Paul's teacher. According to others, he was a righteous and devout Jew aged 112, neither a priest nor a Pharisee.

Sunday teaching from Banbury Community Church

Story by: Gail NoblesCover art by: Gail NoblesThe great I AM! Hello!  I'm Gail Nobles. There's something I want to share with you. One day I was watching television and ask God: Lord, did you hear what the president said? He's got me worried. And I heard the Lord say: I know. Hard times are coming, but who am I? My word is fulfilling, and I'm coming just as the scripture said. The great I Am! Oh let me tell you about him! The very essence of existence. The Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end. When you look up at the stars understand this, he created them with just a word. His word. Genesis chapter 1 tells us “Let there be light and there was light.” Not just light, but the light of the world shining through the darkness. John chapter 8 verse 12 tells us that Jesus said: I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but she'll have the light of life. According to Acts 7,  He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of our fathers.The covenant-keeping God who walked through the pages of history and science, parting seas and bringing fourth rivers in the desert-yes he is the sustainer of life!  When Moses stood before the burning bush trembling, God spoke with authority. Exodus 3 verse 14 I Am that I Am: and he said, Thus shslt thou say unto the Children of Israel,  I AM hath set me unto you. Gospel singing Joe Douglas featuring Lena Byrd Miles sings The Great I AM. Gospel singing Shirley Caesar sings Who Is He. I'm Gail Nobles, and you're listening to a show about the gospel greats. But today's topic is The Great I Am. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the message will continue. Tune in again next time for more of the topic: The Great I AM.

In the third chapter of Daniel, 3 men are miraculously saved by God - but that's just half of the story. Before they're rescued, they make it known that “even if God doesn't save them…” they will still follow Him! God was their savior… BUT He was ALSO their Lord! -----Official WebsiteInstagramTwitterFacebook

You Are Destined For All Things And Will Rise VictoriousEphesians 6:13 “Because of this, you must wear all the armor that God provides so you're protected as you confront the slander, for you are destined for all things and will rise victorious.I looked at several different scriptures for this morning's devotional. There are so many good ones in Ephesians. I don't know why I never saw them before. Or maybe I did, and the Lord is just showing me them again in a different light. I am not sure, but I love it! I saw this verse first this morning, and then I went back and forth on a few others, but my eyes kept being drawn back to this one. I know a lot of you are going through some really hard things right now, and what I felt when I kept being drawn back to this verse was that God wants you to know that you will rise victorious!He wants you to know that this thing you are going through, the situation you are in, it will not take you down. This illness will not be the end. These financial matters won't be the end. Your estranged loved ones, this is not the end. You will be victorious. You will be healed. Your loved one will be healed. The Lord will provide for you to pay your bills. You won't be estranged from your loved one forever. Whatever it is you are struggling with this morning, I feel the Lord wants me to tell you you will rise victorious.The last part of this verse made me think of a song I saw in a movie called Pitch Perfect 2. The song was sung by a group of Germans who were competing in an a cappella singing competition. This song came into my mind because their performance was so powerful. They projected such strength when they performed this song. This is what we must do when we are dealing with the enemy.The verse says that we must put on the armor that God provides us so that we are protected when we confront the slander. Make no mistake, the slander is the devil. Of course, he won't look like the devil. He will look like someone who cut you off in the traffic. He will look like the person spreading lies about you. He will look like your co-worker or your boss. He might look like your children or your siblings. Whoever is causing strife in your life, the enemy is working through them. I want to read you the words to the song that popped into my mind as I know it is not a coincidence that when I read this verse this song came to mind. If you want to see the video on youtube you can type in Das Sound Machine  Car Show and it should come up.  Here are the lyrics:They will not control us. We will be victorious[Verse 1]Paranoia is in bloomThe PR transmissions will resumeThey try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed downAnd hope that we will never see the truths aroundCome On![Verse 2]Another promise, another seedAnother packaged lie to keep us trapped in greedAnd all the green belts wrapped around our mindsAnd endless red tape to keep the truth confinedCome On![Chorus]They will not force usThey will stop degrading usThey will not control usWe will be victoriousAt first, these lyrics might not seem to make much sense. However, if you think about them in terms of what the enemy is trying to do to us, they make much more sense. The first line goes perfectly with the verse. They will not control us; we will be victorious. The enemy and his evil henchmen will not control us. We are God's children and we are protected. However, we must put on our armor of protection. We must call on the Lord. We need to give Him permission to protect us. We need to read the scriptures so we know when the enemy is lying to us. We must stand in truth.The next verse in the song says, Paranoia is in bloom. The PR transmissions will resume. They try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down. And hope that we will never see the truths around. Come On! This may not fit perfectly, but when we really think about it, we can see that the enemy is trying to make us feel paranoid. All we have to do is listen to the news for a few minutes, and we can see all the craziness going on in the world today. Also, it says they try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down. And hope that we will never see the truth around us. How many of us know someone who has struggled with drug or alcohol abuse? We know it is all around us, yet do we know that the enemy is the one who is pushing it on us. Do we know he is trying to keep us on drugs so we don't see the truth all around us? When we use drugs, when we drink, it alters our state, and we don't see things as they really are.The next verse of the song says, “Another promise, another seed, another packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed. And all the green belts wrapped around our minds. And endless red tape to keep the truth confined. Come On!” How many people in our lives have promised us promise after promise and yet not kept them? How many times have people in the government, or in any authoritative power, promised something, and yet it never happened? I like how it says, “another packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed.” This is so true in the world today. The enemy will tell us anything we want to hear to keep us trapped in greed. The world is all about how much we have and how much we can get. It is not about giving to others. It is about making sure we have what we need despite others.Next, the song says, “And all the green belts wrapped around our minds. And endless red tape to keep the truth confined.” Do you ever feel like this? Do you feel like the information we get from the news, social media, and YouTube are all just feeding us what we want to hear? Sometimes, I feel like the truth is impossible to find. It is always hidden in someone else's opinion about what happened. It is very hard to find the facts about the actual incident. The truth is harder and harder to find these days.The chorus of this song is one that I recommend we use as a mantra anytime we are having a rough day or anytime the enemy seems to be overtaking our thoughts. It says, “They will not force us. They will stop degrading us. They will not control us. We will be victorious.” We know this is true because the Lord tells us this in Ephesians 6:13. We will be victorious. The enemy can not force you. This is one of those things that the enemy doesn't want us to know. If God is willing to be bound by free will you better believe the enemy is also. He likes us to think he can do whatever he wants to us, and yet if we tell him to leave he must leave. That is a fact he doesn't want us to know.You are so much more powerful than you know. The enemy is trying to keep this from us because He knows the game would be over if all of God's children started living in the power that the Lord gave us. If we all stood up to the enemy and said, “No more! I am done with your games. I know you can't hurt me because I am a child of the one true God. I know you have no power over me. I know you are a liar and I refuse to believe your stupid lies any more.” Can you imagine what type of world we would be living in if we were all able to do that? It would be glorious!I don't want to leave this verse today without addressing the beginning part of the verse. My eyes first went to the part that says, “You will be victorious” and I think that message was what God wanted me to focus on today, yet I also want to make sure you all heard the first part too, so I will end with that today. The verse above says it is important to wear the armor that God provides because “You are destined for all things.” You have a destiny and it is an amazing one. You know how I know it is an amazing one when I might not even know you? Because the enemy is attacking you. The enemy doesn't care about those who are luke warm or those whose soul he thinks he has already won. The enemy attacks those who he is worried will do great things for the kingdom of God. The enemy only attacks those who are powerful warriors for the Lord.You, my friend, have an amazing destiny and you will be victorious. I know things are hard right now. I know you can't see a way out and you think all is about to come crashing down on you. You don't see how your loved one will come back to you. You don't see how the cancer will be defeated. You don't see how will pay your bills when you paycheck can't possibly cover it all. I get it. We can't always see how and we don't need to. All we need to do is believe the Lord when He says we will be victorious. We can just thank Him, praise Him and wait for Him to work all things for our good.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord I ask you to protect our mind from the enemy. I ask you to help us to believe that we will be victorious. Show us how to put on the armor of God Lord. Show us how to protect ourselves from the slanderer. Help us walk in our victory Lord. Help us have hope that even though we don't see how, you will arrange all things for our victory. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I am so excited to announce that the registration site for the retreat is now open and ready for you to register. I will put a link for the registration below the show notes. (Click Here) The link will have all the information. The retreat is October 11-13. Columbus Day weekend. It will be Friday to Sunday this year. It will be $250. That will include a two-night stay at the Holy Cross Retreat House. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Saturday, and breakfast and lunch on Sunday. It also includes tea, coffee, and water throughout the whole retreat; there will be mass, retreat talks, and so much more. I hope you will join us. It was an amazing retreat last year, and I pray it will be even better this year. The theme this year is come as you are. We tend to think we need to wait to turn back to the Lord or to sit and pray with the Lord until we are all cleaned up. This isn't what the Lord wants. He said come to me all who are weary and burdened, not all who are perfect. Come and spend the weekend learning about how much the Lord loves you. Learn to sit and talk with Him and hear Him talk back. I hope you will give it a try. Retreats are not just for those who are super holy, they are for those of us who want to be closer to the Lord. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day and may the grace and favor of the Lord Jesus Christ be upon you!Thursday: Today's Word from the Lord was received in March 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Arise, I say, arise. Declare my works, declare my love, declare my glory and majesty. For as my majesty is, so is my tender mercy. Arise and stand and declare my love and mercy to all you meet.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comREGISTER FOR THE RETREAT HERE!CLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Various August 4, 2024 SS.God's people are expected to love Him with their whole selves.

Live Stream Sunday School - Akron Alliance Fellowship Church, Akron OH - July 28, 2024#Peter #Jesus #salvation #conversion #name #message #believer #Jerusalem #question #God #Lord #pray #spirit #holyspirit #vision #clean #unclean #Gentile #Joppa #Caesarea 

Live Stream Sunday School - Akron Alliance Fellowship Church, Akron OH - June 30, 2024#Peter #Aeneas #paralyzed #healed #Jesus #nameofJesus #strength #growth #Tabitha #Dorcas #help #give #service #conversion #believer #Lydda #Joppa #church #widows #ladies #God #Lord #pray #spirit #holyspirit 

Live Stream Sunday School - Akron Alliance Fellowship Church, Akron OH - June 23, 2024#Saul #damascus #salvation #strength #preach #temple #Jesus #messiah #sonofGod #chase #conversion #believer #God #Lord #pray #desert #Arabia #learn #Jerusalem #apostle #bold #church #Spirit

Live Stream Sunday School - Akron Alliance Fellowship Church, Akron OH - June 16, 2024#Saul #damascus #road #light #voice #jesus #persecuting #chase #conversion #persecution #blind #Ananias #believer #God #Lord #vision #scale #baptize #hands #pray 

Joe & Simon; 'God Lord...and we left Miss Smith at the castle!' We are beguiled by the atmosphere conjured up by Geoffrey Burgeon in this story, but also the delightful Sarah/Harry chemistry, and our brooding, hilarious lead.

Hope Ankeny - Sermon by Pastor Ashley Lentz from Mar 3, 2024

Devotional Prayer by Be Inspired by His Word © Song Hallelujah, He has made me glad Hallelujah, He has made me Oh, He has made me glad Oh, He has made me glad I will rejoice for He has made me glad Lord, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine. The land you have given me is a pleasant land. What a wonderful inheritance! I will bless the Lord who guides me; even at night my heart instructs me. I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. Psalms 16:5‭-‬8 NLT Prayer Eternal rock of ages I give you all the praise and glory because you are God Lord thank you for this beautiful new dawn and grace of life Lord thank you for the forgiveness of sin and your blood shed for my salvation Lord thank you for being my ever present help and for terminating the desires of the wicked concerning me Lord thank you for filling my mind daily with your truth through your word Abba thank you for enabling grace to overcome all challenges victoriously Lord thank you for making all lines fall in pleasant places for me against the wishes of the workers of iniquity Lord thank you for raising me to the next level of supernatural greatness, wisdom, abundance and unending favour Lord thank you for giving me a divine inheritance in you because I am joint heir with Christ Jesus Lord thank you for letting my story end in praise, for not allowing it end the way the workers of iniquity planned it Lord concerning the vessel used for this daily prayers all impacted by it and our household complete what you've started in our lives *Personal Prayer* Thank you abba father for answered prayers in Jesus name amen *Confess Daily: Sin shall not have dominion over me, I am operating in the power of the word of God. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus by faith as Jesus is so am I in this world. The Lord has set me free He heard my cry and gave me beauty for ashes. He gave me oil of gladness in place of sorrow and dispair. Jesus has transformed my destiny. My life is on the level of divine blessings because Christ has intervened in my situation. Hallelujah!* Today's Prayer by Be Inspired (by His Word) © 24th February 2024 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/be-inspired-by-his-word/message

Sermon 4 of 4 in Series through Psalms __________________________ Small Group Questions 1. Psalm 54 moves from lament (1-3) to confident faith (4-5) to unbounded praise (6-7). This pattern in many of the psalms is the pattern of our lives. Can you share ways you have seen this movement in your own life from lament to faith to praise? 2. Employing a variety of the names and attributes of God (LORD, Lord, god, Name, might, faithfulness, helper, upholder), the psalmist prayed consistent with what he knew to be true of God. Do you reflect on the nature and character of God as revealed in Scripture to help you pray? What might be some reasons for endeavoring to pray in a way that is reflective of God's nature and character? Can you give examples of praying in ways that are and are not reflective of God's character? 3. Reflecting on God's nature and character and praying accordingly caused David's faith to soar. Can you name specific times that the Lord has been your helper and the upholder of your life? Have you witnessed God return evil on the head of evildoers? 4. The psalmist prayed that God in his faithfulness would put an end to his enemies. What is the place of imprecation in the prayers of God's people? 5. The psalm begins with lament and ends with praise. Even though the psalmist had likely not experienced deliverance, the anticipation of deliverance filled him with praise. Would you characterize yourself as a thankful person? Are you quick to lament but slow to praise? What are good practices in demonstrating gratitude to the Lord publicly? Are you confident the Lord will finally deliver you safely into his eternal kingdom?

Jesus' glory is fully revealed and unfiltered. His power over demonic forces is seen despite the failure and weak faith of His disciples. In contrast, we must follow Jesus with our full lives and total devotion, running from all sin and fully embracing Jesus as Lord!  #bible #Jesus #Christianity #God #gospel --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/charles-hegwood/message

In this episode, we dive headfirst into one of humanity's most enduring questions: "Who is God?"  For years, the most brilliant minds in the field of astrophysics have embarked on an ambitious quest in unveil a grand Theory of Everything (TOE).  What they may not realize is that the civilizations of old, from the Egyptians to the Hebrews, spoke of a universal cosmic law, a law that governed every single aspect of the cosmos, from the infinitesimal whirl of quarks and leptons to the majestic grandeur of galaxies and the infinite expanse of the cosmos itself.  In this episode, we invite you to discover the Ancient Truth of Everything (ATOE), a quest that promises to reveal the very essence of who God is.Visit us on the web at theancienttradition.com for more amazing comparative religion.

"There is an ancient tradition that the holy, righteous elder Symeon, who came from Egypt, was one of the Seventy learned Jews chosen in the days of the Pharoah Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 BC) for the task of rendering the Hebrew Bible into Greek, and that to Symeon was assigned the translation of the book of the Prophet Isaiah. When he reached the famous passage where the Prophet foretells the virgin birth of Christ, saying: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (Is. 7:14), he was so perplexed that he took a penknife to erase the word 'virgin' in order to replace it by 'young woman'. At that moment, an angel of God appeared and prevented him from altering the sacred text, explaining that what seemed impossible to him was, in fact, a prophecy of the coming into this world of the Son of God. To confirm the truth of this, he promised that Symeon would not see death until he had seen and touched the Messiah born of the Virgin. When, after many long years, Christ was brought into the Temple at Jerusalem by the All-Holy Mother of God, the Holy Spirit revealed to the Elder Symeon that the time of fulfilment of the promise had come. He hurried to the Temple and, taking the Child in his arms, he was able to say wholeheartedly to God: Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation (Luke 2:29). For indeed, the Elder Symeon was the living image of the ancient Israel of the Old Testament, which having awaited the coming of the Messiah was ready to fade away and give place to the light and truth of the Gospel. The relics of the holy and righteous Symeon were venerated at Constantinople in the church of St James, built at the time of the Emperor Justin.   "The prophetess Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, was eighty-four years old. Since the early death of her husband, she had spent her whole life in the Temple in hope of the coming of the Saviour. She is the pattern for holy widows, virgins and monks, who have freed themselves of worldly cares in order to dwell always in the Temple, offering their fasts, hymns and prayers in eager expectation of the Lord's coming. And when, like Anna and Symeon, they have seen the indwelling Christ with the eyes of their heart and touched Him through their spiritual senses, they proclaim with joy and assurance to all mankind that the Saviour is still coming into the world: A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel (Luke 2:32)." (Synaxarion)   The Synaxarion notes that the tradition that St Symeon was one of the Seventy is by no means universal among the Fathers. According to some, Symeon was the son of Hillel and father of Gamaliel, St Paul's teacher. According to others, he was a righteous and devout Jew aged 112, neither a priest nor a Pharisee.

"There is an ancient tradition that the holy, righteous elder Symeon, who came from Egypt, was one of the Seventy learned Jews chosen in the days of the Pharoah Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 BC) for the task of rendering the Hebrew Bible into Greek, and that to Symeon was assigned the translation of the book of the Prophet Isaiah. When he reached the famous passage where the Prophet foretells the virgin birth of Christ, saying: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (Is. 7:14), he was so perplexed that he took a penknife to erase the word 'virgin' in order to replace it by 'young woman'. At that moment, an angel of God appeared and prevented him from altering the sacred text, explaining that what seemed impossible to him was, in fact, a prophecy of the coming into this world of the Son of God. To confirm the truth of this, he promised that Symeon would not see death until he had seen and touched the Messiah born of the Virgin. When, after many long years, Christ was brought into the Temple at Jerusalem by the All-Holy Mother of God, the Holy Spirit revealed to the Elder Symeon that the time of fulfilment of the promise had come. He hurried to the Temple and, taking the Child in his arms, he was able to say wholeheartedly to God: Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation (Luke 2:29). For indeed, the Elder Symeon was the living image of the ancient Israel of the Old Testament, which having awaited the coming of the Messiah was ready to fade away and give place to the light and truth of the Gospel. The relics of the holy and righteous Symeon were venerated at Constantinople in the church of St James, built at the time of the Emperor Justin.   "The prophetess Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, was eighty-four years old. Since the early death of her husband, she had spent her whole life in the Temple in hope of the coming of the Saviour. She is the pattern for holy widows, virgins and monks, who have freed themselves of worldly cares in order to dwell always in the Temple, offering their fasts, hymns and prayers in eager expectation of the Lord's coming. And when, like Anna and Symeon, they have seen the indwelling Christ with the eyes of their heart and touched Him through their spiritual senses, they proclaim with joy and assurance to all mankind that the Saviour is still coming into the world: A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel (Luke 2:32)." (Synaxarion)   The Synaxarion notes that the tradition that St Symeon was one of the Seventy is by no means universal among the Fathers. According to some, Symeon was the son of Hillel and father of Gamaliel, St Paul's teacher. According to others, he was a righteous and devout Jew aged 112, neither a priest nor a Pharisee.

We all read scriptures like Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatham to acquire knowledge of God. Is that enough? Of course not. Theoretical knowledge won't suffice to get a practical realization and experience of God. So, what do we need beyond that? Watch more to learn as Swami Mukundananda explains it in detail by relating Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7, verse 2.

Summary-We continue an Advent series -Living in the Light of Advent- with Peter's exhortation to remember what Scripture says about false teachers in the last days. In response, we are to be growing in godliness and the grace of the Lord while we await our his second Advent to bring the New Heavens and New Earth. Let's listen to what the Holy Spirit has for us today...--Introduction- Advent's backward-looking faith - forward-looking hope--KNOW THE SCOFFING OF ENEMIES -VV. 3-7--- Their underlying desires -v. 3--- Their scoff -v. 4--- Their willful forgetfulness -vv. 5-7--o About the past-o About the future--KNOW THE CHARACTER OF THE LORD -VV. 8-10--- An illustration about time -v. 8--- The Lord's patience -v. 9-- o Towards his people- o Towards all people-- The Lord's judgment -v. 10---KNOW WHO YOU ARE TO BE -VV. 11-18- -- Growing-o ...in grace-o ...in knowledge-o ...in holiness - godliness-- Waiting-o For the coming day of God-Lord-o For the new heavens and new earth--Conclusion-

Summary-We continue an Advent series -Living in the Light of Advent- with Peter's exhortation to remember what Scripture says about false teachers in the last days. In response, we are to be growing in godliness and the grace of the Lord while we await our his second Advent to bring the New Heavens and New Earth. Let's listen to what the Holy Spirit has for us today...--Introduction- Advent's backward-looking faith - forward-looking hope--KNOW THE SCOFFING OF ENEMIES -VV. 3-7--- Their underlying desires -v. 3--- Their scoff -v. 4--- Their willful forgetfulness -vv. 5-7--o About the past-o About the future--KNOW THE CHARACTER OF THE LORD -VV. 8-10--- An illustration about time -v. 8--- The Lord's patience -v. 9-- o Towards his people- o Towards all people-- The Lord's judgment -v. 10---KNOW WHO YOU ARE TO BE -VV. 11-18- -- Growing-o ...in grace-o ...in knowledge-o ...in holiness - godliness-- Waiting-o For the coming day of God-Lord-o For the new heavens and new earth--Conclusion-

Dear listeners, we are in sura 10 Yonis / Jonah / يونس. Verses 1-10 everything around you is a sign for you to believe in your creator. Do you know that all our Souls before coming to earth made a promise to God that we believe in Him. (Sura 7 verse 172) The Quran /The Words of God are a blessing , a guide for us in this world. When your emotions are down , sad, depressed or even lost go and listen/ read it and it will sooth you. It is food for your soul. Affirmations for today : Be mindful while saying them; - Glory be to God سبحانك اللهم - Subhaan Allah . Praise be to God Lord of all the worlds / alhamdulilah rab alaalameen الحمد لله رب العالمين . Peace سلام a form of greeting to all the humans around you.

REFLECTION: Think about control. We control the smells in our homes with incense and plugins. We control bacteria with Lysol. We try to control viruses with vitamin C. We control our babies. We'll burp, we'll reprimand with pinches. When you're at church you get pinched or you get the side-eye from the choir stand. We are good at controlling because we know the past and we're responsibly fearful of the future. When we thought about self-control and knowing that control has been our superpower, from binding our bellies up to our hair to everything we know, controlling our femininity so that people don't attack us. We know how to control. When we are trying to control the world around us, it's like a mightiness. It is a tightness, and when you do it for long enough, it is exhausting.    Self-control is knowing now that you have everything in your power because you are divinely connected.    Because all you have is right now. It is not the fear of the past. It is not the anticipation or fear of the future, but it is the power of right now that you can choose every moment of your life to get more and more awake or to fall deeper and deeper asleep. We are here. God has not given us the spirit of fear. Self-control is fearlessness. It is knowing that I have a constant choice every morning. Self-control is the mechanism by which we employ all of the other Fruits of the Spirit.      PRAYER: Eternal, all-wise, all-knowing, loving, matchless, creator, God Lord almighty, you are wonderful. You are loving. You are the beginning, the end, the Alpha, the Omega. You are our everything, Lord God and we love you. We love you Lord, and we lift up our hands to worship you, oh Lord, for our heart longs to be closer and closer to you.    You ask us to bring our prayers and petitions to you so we can tell you right now to give us the power that we need, to give us the love that we need, and to give us the self-control and self-discipline that we need to move and do the work that you have called for us to do.    We ask, oh Lord, that you continue to hide this work within our hearts so that we can continue to be strengthened to move closer to you, so that in those moments where we lack control of our minds, of our bodies, of our thoughts, we can automatically be brought closer to you so that the control we seek you take over for us. Lord God, it's all about your power, your power that gives us courage to do all that you called us to do.    Amen.  "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Luke 6:1-11Now it happened that He was passing through some grainfields on a Sabbath; and His disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating the grain.2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”3 And Jesus answering them said, “Have you not even read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him,4 how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the consecrated bread which is not lawful for any to eat except the priests alone, and gave it to his companions?”5 And He was saying to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”6 On another Sabbath He entered the synagogue and was teaching; and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.7 The scribes and the Pharisees were watching Him closely to see if He healed on the Sabbath, so that they might find reason to accuse Him.8 But He knew what they were thinking, and He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” And he got up and came forward.9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it?”10 After looking around at them all, He said to him, “Stretch out your hand!” And he did so; and his hand was restored.11 But they themselves were filled with rage, and discussed together what they might do to Jesus. New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.' What if being known by God was all that mattered? In the end, it's all that will matter. God loves everyone the same. God does not have the same relationship with everyone. Not everyone who says, "Lord, Lord!" has made God Lord, and are living and walking in His Way. Jesus is the Way. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. When I'm not walking His Way, I'm walking in darkness, and will experience unnecessary pain. Does God know you? Are you on the way of the wicked or the way of the righteous? God's Ways are the Way of Life. SERMON NOTES: https://www.bible.com/events/49096450

I grew up snowboarding in Minnesota's version of mountains: Afton Alps, Trollhaugen, Lutsen, all that. And at some point along the way I'd learned that if you wanted to the real experience of snowboarding, the real thrill, you had to head west. It was in college that I got the opportunity to do it with a trip out to Vail, Colorado. The first morning I was there I woke up early, got my lift ticket, and headed over to the mountain. I'd already studied the map of the mountain and knew well which chair lift I'd need to get on in order to get to the very top-most peak. Exiting the chair lift at the top, having moved over to the very edge of the peak where nearly flat land meets a near 90 degree angle downward-land, I found myself absolutely swallowed up by my surroundings – sky, just gigantic blue sky, stretching all around behind me, the lines of trees and boulders down below that appeared almost toy-like in size from where I was standing. Mesmerized by what appeared to be miles of steep, cavernous, snow-covered space in between. There may have been other people around me, if there were I didn't notice them. There may have been sounds from people talking, snowmobiles driving, chair lifts running, if there were I didn't hear them. I was entirely engulfed by the situation. In awe of the awesome. In that moment the sense of wonder, fear, excitement, joy, and all of it in overwhelming amounts came flooding in. And though I felt totally inadequate for the situation, even more I felt fully invited into it all. And I had no words. I just stood there. I just stood there, mouth open, no words, just silence, and awe, and joy. “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion.” To some it's a word that falls flat and feels stale. To some, praise is a word fit for mere preamble, a word soon to be drowned out by others more significant than it. Because of how often we see it in Scripture, even we can tend to skip over it like it's a mere formality. “Psalm 65:1, ‘Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion.' Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's move on and get to the point here.”Tread carefully brothers and sisters, praise has an object. Praise always has an object. And there is nothing ordinary about the word “praise” when it comes to its ultimate object, God himself. God turns praise into quite an intrusive word. With God as its object, praise cuts loose from all its civility and domestication. It's as if when God walks into the room, the word praise awakens from its slumber and reaches out to seize anyone and everyone around it, saying, “Look here, look at God, look at him, and be amazed! ‘Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion.'” It's a phrase fit for bowed heads and bended knees.And along with this word praise in the original is a word that connotes silence. Paired with praise it puts a sense of anticipation into the air – Praise is due to you, like praise is marked out for you, praise awaits you – praise is coming, we wait for it in silence. Even the silence itself, in a very real way, is the praise. The silence allows the awe and wonder of God to just hang there. It allows the reader to say, “slow down, slow down, slow down – I am a human being beholding my maker and I am in need of more time to take it all in.” Swallowed up by the reality of God, engulfed by all that he is, there's really no words fit for such a moment, at least not at first. Just silence, and awe, and joy. I got just a hint of that while atop a mountain in Colorado, we get it even fuller force here in psalm 65, and indeed it is the tone of this entire Psalm from beginning to end – “praise to God.” It's in that tone that the Psalmist moves through the rest of the Psalm testifying to God's working on behalf of his people, and it seems he does so according to three main categories: God supplies his people with life, he saves them from death, and he satisfies them with himself. That'll be our 3-part structure for the rest of this sermon, with the tone of “Praise to God” Lord willing, continuing to ring in our ears. God supplies his people with life, he saves them from death, and he satisfies them with himself.1) SuppliesGod supplies his people with life – it's our first major point within this Psalm and it's one that's relatively easy for us to spot, especially as we turn to the latter half of this psalm. In fact, verse 11 says it all, “You crown the year with your bounty.” From verses 9 to 13 that's really what we see – a year-long, God-supplied growing season from beginning to end. It begins with watering, verse 9, “You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it.” And there's this interesting phrase, “The river of God is full of water.” When I first read that I thought, what river is he referencing? The Jordan, the Gihon spring? On the map is it here, or here, or here? But many suggest, the “river of God”, may be better understood as the “fountain of God.” Not here, but up there. It's His heavenly storehouse in which water is always at a surplus. So the idea would be “You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it,” and the reason you can not only do that, but also (verse 10) soak the ground until its soft, pour forth rain upon the ridges until they give way, is because your river, your storehouse of water never runs dry. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and he also owns the water in a trillion clouds. Does he not possess enough to flood the whole world? So, part 1 of the growing season, God waters the earth.As the year progresses, and the months of planting and watering turn into the months of first growth, the Psalmist says of God (back to verse 9), “You provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.” But you say, what grain?Look to the wilderness (v 12), “The pastures of the wilderness overflow.” Look to the hills (v. 12) “the hills gird themselves with joy!” Look to the valleys (v. 13), “the valleys deck themselves with grain,” Look to the flocks gathered upon the meadows (v. 13), see the sea of sheep and goats as they gather to feed in so great a number that their sheer mass seems to cloth the land in white wool. And listen (v. 12, 13) as the harvest and flock shout together and sing for joy! Listen as praise to God and delight in his work bursts forth from every leaf and every lamb in the land.Lastly, past the days of water, past the days of first growth, now to harvest at the end of the year – here come the workmen to gather. (Verse 11), they gather so much that their wagon tracks overflow with abundance. Just picture a harvest piled up so high upon the wagons that it just keeps falling off the top all down the line leaving a kind of breadcrumb trail of harvest stretching all the way from field to barn. This is the abundant supply of God. This is his happy harvest in the world. And to a people living in a largely agrarian society, it meant life. God supplies his people, with life! So, imagine a timeline, we'll call it a timeline of God's working on behalf of his people. Spanning the entire timeline, a thick, consistent line stretching from beginning to end, is, point 1, God's consistent, year-to-year supplying of life for his people with life. Dotting that line then, at intermittent points throughout is, point 2, God's saving of his people from death. Don't think the more common causes of death per se – old age, more common illness, etc. – but large-scale, epoch-making, chapter in a history-book type causes of death. Think armies, plagues, natural disasters. Dotting the timeline at intermittent points is God saving his people from these kinds of threats of death. 2) God SavesWhere do we get that in this Psalm? Look at verses 5-8. The language is different here, is it not? The tame, picturesque view of grain fields and meadows is preceded, verse 5, “By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness” Some translations have it “By terrible deeds.” There's a sense of holy fear bound up here. We could say it this way: if God is the gardener who supplies in verses 9-13, then he is the warrior who saves in verses 5-8. We see this strength, this awesome power, exercised in God's creation of the world. Verse 6, It was “By his strength (God) established the mountains being girded with might.” The mountains – can your mind comprehend the sheer mass of even one mountain? Here we're talking all the mountains – The Andes, Rockies, Himalayas, all of them – to these billions of tons after billions of tons of rock God says, “Rise up, stand up straight, and don't move until I tell you otherwise!” We see his awesome strength in his continued rule over creation (verse 7). God is the one who stills the roaring of the seas, (God is the one who stills) the roaring of the waves. Why did the flood of Noah dissipate? Like what caused the water to recede? Why do flash floods, or tsunami's, or hurricanes ever give way to calm? Because to all those gallons of raging waters God says, “Peace, be still.” In his creation of the world, the Psalmist says, we see God's strength. In his continued rule over the world we see God's power. And - perhaps especially - we see his awesome deeds worked out through his sovereign rule over the kings and nations of the world. Don't miss this - Still verse 7, “Who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of the waves, the tumult of the peoples.” The tumult, the raging, of the nations. All throughout history kings have arisen, produced weapons, amassed armies, drawn up battle plans, taken over empires. And God has, and continues to, still every one of them. And here's where things get really cool. When God saves his people from death, particularly when it's the threat of death from enemy forces (Assyria, Babylon, Rome, whoever), he not only succeeds in saving them, but along with them, he wins the nations. He not only succeeds in saving his people from death, but in the train of these victories, he wins the nations. Back up to verse 5, “By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and the farthest of the seas.” Hold up. “By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and the farthest of the seas.” How does this work? He answers us, he is the source of hope for them. How?This is how, verse 7 into 8, “Who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the people, so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe of your signs. You make the going out of the morning [That's the east, the sun first rises in the east] and the evening [That's the west, the sun sets in the evening] to shout for joy.” See what's happening here? The land shouts for joy (verse 12), the flocks shout for joy (verse 13), and yes, the nations, even the nations, the result of their beholding of the awesome deeds of God, is that they, too, shout for joy! God's working on behalf of his people catches the eyes of the nations around them. Causes them to look and say, “The one who did that could only have done that if he were the God over this whole world. He must be the king of all. He must be the great sovereign. And I find my heart saying, “Behold, behold the one you've longed for. Behold the one you've been made for. Behold your God and I respond, ‘I must have him. I must be found amongst his people.'” You believe that? You think that could ever happen? The Jews had been slaves in Egypt – the powerhouse of the world at that time. God answered his people by awesome deeds, sending Moses, sending plagues, splitting a sea in half and then smashing it down upon Pharaoh and his army. A deed so awesome, that the inhabitants of Canaan - many miles away from Egypt - heard of it.As one of its own residents would come to say, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.” God saves his people and wins the nations in his wake.Breathtaking, right? And yet, there is still something here, a supplying of life that surpasses the grains and flocks, a saving from death that overshadows the glories of stilled seas and quieted nations.The Psalmist says, verse 3, “When iniquities prevail against me.” When they prove too strong for me, when they rise up above me, when they like a dark, menacing, merciless ocean wave grow far above my head and threaten to pulverize me into the ground. And now I want to ask that we not move on from here just yet, because its my fear that many of us rarely feel the threat of death that attends our sin, and we should. For many of us, sin is just a normal part of life. It's not our enemy, it's not our foe, it's akin to that extra slice of cake in the fridge that we probably shouldn't eat, and definitely have no plans to make a regular part of our regular diet, but every couple days or so, a slice here, a slice there, after all its only human to indulge every once and a while. To many, sin is the thing that knocks at our door and we look and say, “Oh You don't look that menacing to me, come on in, but you can only stay for a short while.” In our mind, the verse would go, “When sin gets a bit too attached, yet I still prevail over it.” Brothers and sisters, do you know that your sin could end up prevailing over you? On your own, if left to your own devices, just you in one corner, your sin in the opposite corner, the bell rings and you come out fighting – your sin would destroy you. Your sin would knock you to the ground with no intention of letting you up again. Your sin, if you were left to fight it all on your own, your sin would prevail over you. Do you think I'm exaggerating? Just look outside and see how many millions of men and women are being absolutely ruled by their sin. Go to any church and ask for the list of souls who have destroyed their relationships, destroyed their marriages, destroyed their souls by allowing their sin to prevail over them. “When iniquities prevail against me” – he's not exaggerating. He's not playing games. He's telling the truth – iniquities prevail against people. Picture that sin in your life right now that you think you've got a handle on. Picture that sin in your life that you think you've established a boundary with and will go no further. Brothers and sisters there have been plenty of others before you who felt similar and today have their sin standing over them with its foot upon their neck. Make no mistake, your sin aims, it always aims, to prevail over you. Now, having pressed all the way down on this spring, all the way to the floor, now is the time to hit the switch and let the spring launch and send us heavenward for, as David says, “When sin prevails against me, when sin thinks it's defeated me, when sin thinks it's got me down for the count, God says, “No More!” When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions!” God saves his people from death! God says to us, down on the ground, with sin upon our necks, “Rise up! Sin will not have the final say over you!” Rise up, for in my presence, death must flee! God atones for your sins, my brothers and sisters, God atones for your sins! He saves his people from death. And that's not all.God supplies his people, God saves his people, and God satisfies his people.3) God SatisfiesLook at that word atone, verse 3 – you atone for our transgressions. Atone is an old word that combines the concepts of “at” and “one.” Like, “Where are you at with God?” “Where do you stand with him?” Atone says, “Well, I'm “at” “one” with him.” Reconciled with him. He's my Father, I'm his child. Brothers and sisters, here's where things come together. To the one who'd say, “Great, I'm just going to go back to my normal with sin since God's just going to forgive me for it anyways.” To the one who'd say, “Thanks God, walk out of the courtroom with your stamp of not-guilty and go on with your life.” Brothers and sisters, don't make the mistake of thinking your salvation consists of you merely being saved. Like merely being saved from death, merely declared not guilty before God, merely not having to go to Hell when you die. Yes – to be saved from death, declared not guilty, and rescued from Hell – these are some of the greatest enjoyments of the Christian life, but not thee greatest. See God doesn't settle for merely saving his people. He atones for them. He makes them “at one” with him. See The greatest thing in all of life – the very point of it all – is to be brought near to God – At One with him. Not only being pulled up out of the grave of death but sat up to the feast of his very table. To enjoy God. To be “at one” with God. To be satisfied by God. That, and nothing short of it, is Christian salvation. Brothers, sisters, don't think yourself merely saved. Don't aim to be merely saved. I mean, don't you find your soul calling out for more than that? A gospel where freedom from death is the highest aim is a hollowed out gospel. Brothers and sisters, if nearness to God is absent from your picture of salvation, if at-one-ment with God is not at the very center. Oh don't you hear your hearts crying out for more? Don't you hear your hearts shouting, “that's not enough.” “I've been made to be filled with so much more than that!” I mean, if intimacy with God is not in the plans, if nearness to him is not in our future, if fellowship with Him, if satisfaction in Him is not at the end of all things – Oh how our souls would starve! What you need is not to be merely saved by God, but satisfied in God. What your spouse needs is not to be merely saved by God, but satisfied in him. What your children need is not to be merely saved by God, but satisfied in him. What your neighbors, and your co-workers, and all the people you pass by on the street need is not to be merely saved by God, but satisfied in him. Pastor Kenny and Malaina, we'll have more to say at the commission, but for now, do you know what Orlando needs? Orlando needs a church planting couple who are not merely saved by God, but satisfied in him.So I say thank you God, thank you Jesus, for Psalm 65:4, “Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your Temple.” That, my brothers and sisters, is what we set our sights upon. That, my brothers and sisters, is where we will finally find satisfaction. Now, and this is where I'll close, getting to preach this part of the Psalm, having just gone through both Leviticus and Hebrews as a church is just too cool. You put your Leviticus/Hebrews lens on this and it just gets so cool. The Table“Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts!” – David, who wrote this Psalm, was most assuredly referring not to the common Israelite, when he wrote those words, but to the Levitical priests at the Temple. As we saw in Leviticus, it was the priests who were chosen by God, due to their bloodline through Levi and Aaron, it was the priests who were brought near to dwell in the Temple courts. But note the change in grammar in the second part of verse 4: Blessed is the one you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts (the Priests), we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!”What's he talking about? The priests go near, they're blessed, And we (out here) shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house. Of the five major sacrifices prescribed in Leviticus carried out at the temple, the peace offering was the one that came at the very end. It came at the end because it depicted what the offerings before had accomplished – peace between God and man. That peace having been brought about through sacrifice, the priests take a portion of the sacrifice back to the people, and together they all eat it in the presence. The priests go near, offer the sacrifices, and then we sit up to the table of fellowship with God – satisfied with the goodness of his house, the holiness of his temple.And that is what brings us to the table. Here is where we, an assembly of the Royal Priesthood, celebrate that God has atoned for our sins, not by the blood of bulls and goats but by the blood of his very own son. And he has not merely saved us from death, but has brought us near, raised us up with him, where we will be ever-satisfied by the goodness of his house, where we sit down to the marriage supper of the lamb and feast for ages to come. We eat from this table in anticipation of that greater table. So if you're here today and you've trusted in Jesus, then we invite you to take and eat. If you've not put your trust in Jesus, we ask that you'd let the elements pass, you not partake, but we pray you would, in this moment, draw near, for the very first time, to him by faith.

Today there is truth that transcends our culture and onlv comes from Heaven. With many of our hearts restless and full of fear, anxiety, worry, and trying to measure up or become somebody we find solace and strength as we look at our Heavenly Father's heart. This is "Lord Teach Me!"

Praise is one of the core reasons for us to pray. Praise God whenever you see the Stars Shining Psalm 8:1 and 3 Psalm 46:10 Praise God whenever you see a Child Eating Psalm 8:2 Attachment and a Bond of dependance Praise God whenever you see People Ruling Psalm 8:4-8 The Image of God "LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Remember as a child what it was like—when you fell down, who picked you up? When you were scared, who did you run to? For most of us, the first place we ran is to mom, dad, grandma, — to someone who took care of us. We had simple faith that they will make it better, But then something strange happened. We stopped running, not altogether, but we stopped running to our parents, and it became so easy to run to other things. Today is return to our childhood in Christ as we reflect on what it is to be God's child and to run into His loving arms. This is “Lord Teach Me!”

K-4th School Mass How to pray whenever I'm afraid, mad, or sad... - 3rd Wednesday of Easter - Father Edward 4-26-23

Encountering The Presence of God – Lord, Teach Us To Pray – John McGowan – 3.26.23 – Restoration City Church The post Encountering The Presence of God – 3.26.23 appeared first on Restoration City Church.

This is an incredible truth that we often just take for granted, or it's become so familiar that we don't grasp the depth of it. But try to focus on this—the marvelous fact that you are loved—individually and personally—by Jesus, by our Heavenly Father. Five times in his Gospel, the Apostle John referred to himself as the one whom Jesus loves. These all occurred on the day before his crucifixion and immediately after his resurrection. For example, John writes about this scene at the cross: John 19:26:  When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” And then he writes about the time when he and Peter were fishing in the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus appeared them in his resurrected body: John 21:7: Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. No other disciple referred to himself in that way, as the one Jesus loved. Why did John choose that description? Well, it wasn't because he thought Jesus loved him better than anyone else. It was simply because that was his identity—an identity that was grounded in knowing that Jesus loved him. If you asked him, “Who are you?,” he would say, “I am the one Jesus loves.” This is something I've talked about a good deal to the women in my church, where I served as director of women's ministries. After studying John, we began the tradition of starting every class asking: Sisters in Christ, who are you? And they readily and heartily reply: I am the one Jesus loves. It's a great way to encourage each other to remember who you are in Christ. If you know Jesus in a personal relationship and you've placed your trust in him, then you can join with us in this joyous declaration that you are the one Jesus loves. It should be your number one identity, the most important thing about you. When Lazarus was ill, the sisters sent for Jesus and they said, “Lord, he whom you love is sick” (John 11:3). That was their approach to Jesus—they appealed on the basis that they knew Jesus loved Lazarus. They didn't even mention his name because they knew Jesus would know who they were talking about. They were totally confident that Jesus loved Lazarus, and they appealed to him on that basis. Maybe this should inform us in our own prayer lives. How do you approach Jesus when you pray? Do you ever pray: Lord, the one you love needs you. Or Lord, I come to you because I'm the one you love and I know you care about me. I've begun to do this, and it has a beautiful effect on my prayer time. You begin with your one credential, that one thing that qualifies you to present your requests to God: Lord, I'm the one you love. It establishes that family relationship you have and reminds you that your heavenly Father invites you to come into his presence with confidence and boldness and approach his throne where you'll receive mercy and find grace to help you in your time of need (Hebrews 4:16). What difference will it make in your everyday life if you truly bask in the daily knowledge that you are the one Jesus loves? Judah Smith writes: “People who know that Jesus loves them, who know that Jesus is with them and for them—those people can not only endure pain and loss and difficulty, they can come out the other side stronger and better people” (Jesus Is_______ pg. 159). It will indeed get you through some tough times and cause you to be victorious. It will make you sit up straighter and hold your head up higher, not from pride or self-righteousness, but from gratitude and joy in knowing that you are the one Jesus loves. So, regardless of what's going on around you or what other people think, you are less and less vulnerable to their opinions and more and more confident of who you are in Christ. And here's a really important point: When we are sure of God'...

This is an incredible truth that we often just take for granted, or it's become so familiar that we don't grasp the depth of it. But try to focus on this—the marvelous fact that you are loved—individually and personally—by Jesus, by our Heavenly Father. Five times in his Gospel, the Apostle John referred to himself as the one whom Jesus loves. These all occurred on the day before his crucifixion and immediately after his resurrection. For example, John writes about this scene at the cross: John 19:26:  When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” And then he writes about the time when he and Peter were fishing in the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus appeared them in his resurrected body: John 21:7: Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. No other disciple referred to himself in that way, as the one Jesus loved. Why did John choose that description? Well, it wasn't because he thought Jesus loved him better than anyone else. It was simply because that was his identity—an identity that was grounded in knowing that Jesus loved him. If you asked him, “Who are you?,” he would say, “I am the one Jesus loves.” This is something I've talked about a good deal to the women in my church, where I served as director of women's ministries. After studying John, we began the tradition of starting every class asking: Sisters in Christ, who are you? And they readily and heartily reply: I am the one Jesus loves. It's a great way to encourage each other to remember who you are in Christ. If you know Jesus in a personal relationship and you've placed your trust in him, then you can join with us in this joyous declaration that you are the one Jesus loves. It should be your number one identity, the most important thing about you. When Lazarus was ill, the sisters sent for Jesus and they said, “Lord, he whom you love is sick” (John 11:3). That was their approach to Jesus—they appealed on the basis that they knew Jesus loved Lazarus. They didn't even mention his name because they knew Jesus would know who they were talking about. They were totally confident that Jesus loved Lazarus, and they appealed to him on that basis. Maybe this should inform us in our own prayer lives. How do you approach Jesus when you pray? Do you ever pray: Lord, the one you love needs you. Or Lord, I come to you because I'm the one you love and I know you care about me. I've begun to do this, and it has a beautiful effect on my prayer time. You begin with your one credential, that one thing that qualifies you to present your requests to God: Lord, I'm the one you love. It establishes that family relationship you have and reminds you that your heavenly Father invites you to come into his presence with confidence and boldness and approach his throne where you'll receive mercy and find grace to help you in your time of need (Hebrews 4:16). What difference will it make in your everyday life if you truly bask in the daily knowledge that you are the one Jesus loves? Judah Smith writes: “People who know that Jesus loves them, who know that Jesus is with them and for them—those people can not only endure pain and loss and difficulty, they can come out the other side stronger and better people” (Jesus Is_______ pg. 159). It will indeed get you through some tough times and cause you to be victorious. It will make you sit up straighter and hold your head up higher, not from pride or self-righteousness, but from gratitude and joy in knowing that you are the one Jesus loves. So, regardless of what's going on around you or what other people think, you are less and less vulnerable to their opinions and more and more confident of who you are in Christ. And here's a really important point: When we are sure of God'...

Taste the Grace of God, Lord's Table

“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17) Is there something “at Hand” in 2023? REPENTANCE and the KINGDOM OF GOD John the Baptist - In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt 3:1-2)  Jesus - From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt 4:17)  Peter -       “Repent” (Acts 2:38, 3:19) – to believing Jews Paul -         “Repent” (Acts 17:30) – to pagan Greeks in Athens DO CHRISTIANS NEED TO REPENT? – turn from sin (stop) and obey God Lord's Prayer - …And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. (Matthew 6:12) James – Book of James written to believers! Apostle John - 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. (1 John 1:8-10) Apostle John – to CHRISTIAN churches       in Ephesus          “Repent” (Rev. 2:4)       in Pergamum        “Repent” (Rev. 2:16)       in Thyatira         “Repent” (Rev. 2:22) - only those committing immorality       in Sardis            “Repent” (Rev. 3:3)       in Laodicea          “Repent” (Rev. 3:19) Pete(r) - to the church in 2023                            in Irvine            “Repent” (PEF)  PEF = Pete EVERY Friday THE ANSWER? – YES…but only on an “as needed basis” What might our repent on an “as-needed basis” be this morning? Complaining? Arguing? Philippians 2:14 - Do everything without complaining or arguing. Broken relationships?  Matthew 5:23-24 - 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Inappropriate Talk? Ephesians 4:29 - Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. “Let no foul language come from your mouth” “Stop all your dirty talk…” Giving? Mistreated? Luke 6:30 - Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. 1 John 3:17 - 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Sharing the Gospel? Mark 16:15 – He [Jesus] said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Unbelief? Doubting God's Word? John 14:26 - But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Lustful thoughts? Impure thinking? Matthew 5:28 - But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to desire her [with lust for her] has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brothers, …whatever is pure…think about [dwell on] these things. Anger? Slander? Unkindness? Unforgiveness? (“Cluster Bomb”) Ephesians 4:31-32 - 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. James 4:11 - 11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers (Slander) Prayerlessness? Unthankfulness? 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 - “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”  Selfishness? Pride? Superiority? Philippians 2:3 - Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Favoritism? (especially towards rich/powerful) James 2:1, 9 – 1 My brothers and sisters, believers…must not show favoritism…. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. Worldliness?  James 4:4 – …Don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Romans 12:2 –        Do not be conformed to this world Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world Don't be like the people of this world… Gluttony/Care of Body?    1 Cor 6:19-20 – body = temple of the Holy Spirit…glorify God in your body  

God's Name Over Everything | A Powerful Morning Prayer To Praise & Worship God | Lord Over AllSUBSCRIBE to catch all the latest prayers uploaded to the Daily Effective Prayer Podcast!For more powerful daily prayers and to connect with the ministry visit:https://www.dailyeffectiveprayer.org© Copyright DailyEffectivePrayer.com 

The Bible is such a wonderful book full of life's lessons, wisdom, and God's promises to His children. The Old Testament is full of stories that actually pertain to character development and God's patience towards His children. Last week we went over the story of Jacob, the trickster, who gets tricked into marrying the sister of his true love. He was promised Rachel, the younger sister who was beautiful, but woke up in the morning with Leah, the older sister. By morning Jacob was sober and could see that his new wife was Leah and not Rachel. As Jacob had tricked his father Isaac who could not see clearly, Jacob was now suffering from his own blindness on his wedding night.  Both Jacob and his father in law Laban have character flaws and use deceit to accomplish their goals. Jacob who bought Esau's birthright for a pot of stew and tricked his father into giving him the first born  blessing has now been tricked and has to work an additional 7 years  to pay for his wife Rachel. Why would God choose Jacob?God had made a promise to Jacob's grandfather Abraham and that promise was passed down to his father Isaac and then was passed to Jacob. The promise included a multitude of descendants, the promised land, and through his blood line all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Jesus the Messiah).One night as Jacob was escaping from Esau after stealing the blessing from his father, he camped out and had a dream. In this dream there was a ladder from the ground to heaven and angels were going up and down the ladder. Then God who was above said to Jacob that He was the God/Lord of Abraham and Isaac and He would bless him with the promises given to Abraham. He also said that He would be with him and keep him and bring him back to his homeland.Jacob woke up and made a vow to God saying that if the Lord would be with him, keep him and provide bread to eat and clothing to wear and bring him back to his father's house in peace then the Lord would be his God and he would give a tenth of all that God would give him. Later, Jacob would spend twenty years working for his uncle and father in law Laban. Fourteen years for his true love Rachel and the next six to build his wealth and provide for his family.God honors His promises and next week we will see how God provides financial blessings on Jacob in a very unusual way.  The point is that God keeps His Word and we as His children should remind ourselves that sometimes God's promises may take longer to manifest than we expect. God is more interested in changing our character first than changing our circumstances.  Read the rest at https://litwithprayer.substack.com/p/the-promise?sd=pf 

Jesus is God Introduction: I'm gonna to play an audio clip of a poor ignorant Christian being persuaded to believe Jesus is not God. That is sad. Today we will study a few verses on this topic. Jesus is God. 1. Instances that Show Jesus is God. John 5:17-18, Acts 8:37,1 John 4:5, John 8:24-25, John 8:56-58. I Am means egō emi- enteral. Jesus rightfully applied the title I AM to Himself because He is God.God the Father applied “I AM” to Himself in Exodus 3:14. John 10:30, John 14:7-11, Matthew 22:41-46, Philippians 2:6-11 Note that Lord is Jesus respectful tittle it means “God Lord master Sir”. It means Supreme authority. 1 John 5:7. Note: to understand who the Word is see John 1:1. The Word is Jesus. Isaiah 9:6, John 20:28,Hebrews 1:8. 2. Disbelief leads to eternal hell John 8:24 Application:STUDY THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF THIS!!!!! That young Christian didn't know his Bible and got his faith shaken! Hosea 4:6 King James Version 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

1 (2s): Good morning harvest church. Let's stand and worship our Lord and save your Jesus Christ this morning. When all I see you see, when is about you see, I, I, my knees with my hands lifted God, the belongs to you in your, against 0 (1m 42s): Me 1 (1m 49s): For Jesus. There's almighty fortress. 1 (2m 50s): You go before us, nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine. The shadows you win. Every battle. Nothing can stand against power. 0 (3m 54s): The 1 (4m 18s): I'll 0 (4m 19s): See you. This 2 (4m 57s): Is my, how that me now top joy, chaos. 2 (5m 50s): Got that makes no sense. So I won't. So my house was built on you. 2 (8m 27s): I'm with you was built on you, save 0 (8m 48s): With 2 (8m 49s): You 0 (8m 57s): And make built. 0 (10m 14s): He 3 (10m 38s): Thank you, Laura, real quick. Before we continue to sing a couple weeks ago, we were in worship and there was this pause in the worship time. And I didn't know what was going on in the platform. I just had my eyes closed and I was just trying to worship. And, but I thought, man, this is as, as I had my eyes closed out, this is very sweet moment right here. And as I looked up to find out why the pause, I realized somebody was trying to get their cap ball on their guitar and it was, but I thought this, this was a good experience. I think for us just to have a, a moment of pause you our worship time. And so from time to time, most, most Sundays, I would imagine we'll, we'll just take time where there's gonna be a bit of a pause and just kind of a Salah moment in our worship. 3 (11m 27s): And if you feel at that time, like you, the Lord has put something on your heart to pray for pray out loudly so that we can hear we've got some mics on the, on the crowd so that we can try to hear everything that's going on, but it's a good time. If you feel like the Lord's put a verse on your heart, or if you got a word of, of exoration or affirmation for the body of Christ, that's, that's your moment to do that. So just be sensitive to the holy spirit. And if you feel like the Lord's giving you something, go ahead, ahead and speak that out. And then we'll continue to worship as we kind of feel led to do that. So let's pray and then we're gonna continue to worship. And, and after I get done praying, I'm just gonna give it a pause and we're just gonna kind of practice here. 3 (12m 8s): So Lord, we just want to thank you for your presence. Thank you that you are here, Lord. And as we pause as an act of worship before you just kind of in holy adoration with a gratitude and appreciation with the heart of worship, God, we'll, we'll just take time To listen and respond. We thank you, Lord. Let's just take a moment. And if you feel led in this moment to pray out or whatever, just do that loudly from your seat. 3 (12m 55s): Darren will agree with you. 4 (13m 1s): As we are worshiping the Lord, put on my heart, that there are many in this room that have prodigals prodigals in our family, whether they be children or parents or grandchildren, and God wants us to know that as he was faithful to reach us in our lives, he will reach them. He is faithful through all generations and he will not fail. He goes after them as a, that shepherd leaves the 99 to find that one, the encouraged this morning that your God hears those prayers. 4 (13m 43s): As you cry out for your loved ones, 5 (13m 55s): Lord, we are to be still and know that you are God father. I'm reminded that it's big to rise up early and to stay up late, try to make work on, but you Lord the of our need. I think trust that some will trust jar, but 1 (15m 28s): You stood before creation. You stood before your shoulders. 1 (16m 14s): My what can I see? 1 (17m 42s): What could I see? What could and, 0 (19m 30s): And the to 6 (21m 29s): Stand in worship of the king, the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who's over everything who created everything, who is in us and living through us. And Lord, we just give our hearts, our souls, our minds to you. Jesus, you are the king of everything. Lord, we are so grateful for you, Lord, we thank you for moments of pause. We thank you for moments of being able to just reflect on your goodness, no matter what's happening in our lives and our worlds around us, Lord, we can reflect and be grateful for the goodness that, that you are Jesus for the greatness that you are Jesus. 6 (22m 10s): And we are just so grateful for you. We are eternally grateful for you. No matter what's happening in our worlds. Lord. You're so good. You're so good, Lord. Thank you that in a world that is so hurried and so desperate. And so, and just running around Lord that we can just rest in you. We can come and, and just cast our eyes on you. We can fix our eyes on you, the author and perfect of our faith. Jesus, you're so good. We look to you for our needs. We look to you for our, to fulfill us Lord in every aspect of our lives, where, where we're looking for fulfillment in other places, Lord, I just pray that each person would find fulfillment in you. 6 (22m 56s): Jesus alone. We love you so much, Lord. It's in your name. We pray. Amen. Amen. All well, you can go ahead and take your seats. My name's Curtis, and I'm excited to share announcements with you this morning. We've got a few things going on. We've got the beach bonfire baptism happening this afternoon, but I'm gonna have Jeremy come up and share about that in a minute. Cuz there's, it's pretty exciting. So I'm gonna let Jeremy take that one and then we've got another great thing coming up is the lifeline banquet. If you weren't here last week, I shared a bit about that, but they've got some exciting announcements going on at that banquet. 6 (23m 42s): They've also got Pam Tebow, which is Tim Tebow's mom. She's this guest speaker. She's gonna be sharing her story, which is pretty powerful. So that banquet's on the 20th. If you want more information about that, about purchasing a table or about giving to lifeline, you can get information about that at the info center at the back there, they'd be glad to help. Also M six is tomorrow evening. So join us for that great opportunity for men to get connected into community, to have some worship and testimony. It's a great time. Also, along with that, we just want to share a little bit about what's happening around the world. So our, our missionaries in AAI, Jean, which is a country between Russia and Iran are doing some incredible things. 6 (24m 30s): One guy in particular, our main missionary, his name's Igar, him and his family are doing some incredible things, traveling around Azerbaijan and also in some of the Eastern parts of Russia that are very Muslim oriented. So basically a hundred percent Muslim in that area. And so they're sharing the gospel. They're seeing some amazing fruit. So we've got a couple of pictures that I'm gonna show up on the screen. So this is Igar here on our left and this is them baptizing. I'll get outta the way here. They're baptized in this man. This is in a region of Azerbaijan this last week. And so doing some awesome stuff, we can show the next picture here. 6 (25m 16s): So this is the part of Azerbaijan where they're ministering this last week. And as you can see, you can kind of get an idea of where AAI Jean is on the map. Russia's right up here. And then if you show the next picture, one of the spots that they're ministering is called DESTAN. So you can pray for that specifically that area. So Russia as a whole has about 50, 57% Evangel evangelical Christian is about 57%. But in this region, it's 0.03, 3% Christian. So they've got their work cut out for them. 6 (25m 55s): And just in this region alone, if they're gonna reach this one region, it's estimated that they need about 87 full-time missionaries to reach the population there. So Igar is there, he's equipping other Christian leaders to be sent out from their church in Azerbaijan to reach this region and other parts of Azerbaijan. So they're doing amazing things. And so we just wanna share that with you so you can be praying so you can be partnering with them in prayer and yeah. Joining along with us. So with Adam, I'm gonna invite Jeremy up and he's gonna share a little bit about the baptism, 7 (26m 33s): Right? Well, good morning. The exciting thing about tonight is nothing is changing. Sharks are not changing anything. The beach access being closed. That's not gonna change anything. We are still having our beach baptism and bonfire tonight from five to seven, exciting we have over 13 people already signed up to be baptized. That's amazing. So I just, I just know that there's gonna be more people that are gonna show up that are gonna wanna be baptized there. That is okay. We don't require a baptism class, nothing like that. They just a clear understanding of the gospel, who Jesus is, what baptism is. And, and, and so we're, we'll be ready tonight to, to baptize more people. And it's gonna be exciting, just a, a couple updates parking wise. 7 (27m 17s): If, if amazing, we got a family that it's already, they're already set up on the beach, they're reserved our spot. So you're gonna drive down to the end of grand there's fins restaurant. You can park in that lot. You can park in all those different parking spots right there. End of grand. And then just simply walk onto beach between the toll booth and fins and 20 feet off, off the sea off the sidewalk is where we're gonna be set up. So we're gonna be right there. We'll have some flags up and then tide's gonna be high. So don't worry about sharks. We don't have to go that far out there to get baptized. Somebody showed me of a great white jumping at the end of here. Don't worry about that. No, no sharks. And if you do wanna drive on the beach, this will be right at the end of the, the section where you can drive. 7 (27m 58s): If you do wanna drive on the beach, we recommend that you go and get your parking passes right after church, they say about two o'clock. They, they fill up for the, they stop issuing the parking or the driving on the beach thing. So exciting hope to see you all there. We'll have some hot dogs and, and some s'mores. So see there five to seven at the end of grand. And now I just wanna release you to say hi to someone around you. We'll do a minute mingle, and then we'll gather back up 3 (30m 10s): Back. We have a lot, a lot, a lot to do today. So it's already been super, super busy. I'm gonna try to teach from first Peter today. Even if I do though, I'm getting through two verses. And so it's gonna be, it's gonna be a, there's a, there's a lot crammed into the day. So in preparation for communion at the end of the service, make sure you've got your elements. And then we'll at the end of the service. We'll take communion together. And so these are the elements, the COVID safe elements that we're still using. So I talked a couple weeks ago about how a couple people are getting ready to retire. 3 (30m 56s): Well, that has happened now. Ron D and Christie swor are the, those guys here. Come on up. If you guys are here, there's Ron D where's Christie SWO. Oh, there she is. Come on up. So Ron and Christie have both been with us for 14, 15 years. A long time. Has it been 15 years? 4, 12 0 12. It just seems like 15. It just seems like, it seems like you've always been here with us. That meant that was a good thing I meant to say. And so Ron's been with us for 14 going on 15 years as, as well. And so, but both of them are well, Ron's retiring. So Ron, why don't you tell 'em what you're doing? 3 (31m 37s): Sure, sure. 9 (31m 38s): Let me just take a few minutes to kind of give you my story. Yeah. Yeah. So I've been serving the Lord full-time ministry for 38 years started when I was two. So actually, cuz some people have asked me, you know, well how old are you? You're too young or whatever. So I'll be 64 in a couple of weeks. So DJ and I, so DJ's right back here. So she and I started a home Bible study in our home in 1984 and then the two of us and another couple we went on a planting, a church in ALA beach. Didn't know what we were doing, but we just felt that's what God would have us do. So we planted the church in Ava in 1985 and I served as assistant pastor there for eight years and then senior pastor there for 13 years. 9 (32m 25s): So 21 years in Avala Avala beach Christian fellowship. How many used raise your hand if you were part of Avala. Yeah, I know there's we had a bit of a reunion last Saturday because Cheryl Hancock went home to be with the Lord recently. She was a dear friend of ours that we sent out from our church in Avala. And so we had a Memorial service for her and it was just one of those wonderful reunions of, of folks that we served together with at Avala. So it was after about 21 years, I just felt the Lord stern my heart just saying, you know what, your time in AOUS coming to an end. And I had no idea what the next step was, but so deja and I would talk about it. And, and so I, I resigned my position there and then so for about three years, so for my me, my life it's always been a venture of faith. 9 (33m 11s): So it's like, I don't exactly know what, what is next. And so for about three years, I actually served with Amanda's dad. So Jim, Jim and I traveled the country and did ministry around the country. And then it was, I think it was about 2007 where our family began to attend here at harvest church. When, when you guys were meeting in the grass area behind the parsonage first time, you know, Julie spill was on the worship team. Yeah. So then pastor Steve asked me if I would begin to come on staff here. So in 2008, I took on the role of associate pastor here. So been serving here for 14 years. And so just within maybe the end of last year began this year. 9 (33m 54s): I just felt the Lord stirring my heart again, just saying, you know, your time here and that role is coming to an end. So to be sure, retirement for me is not riding off into the sunset golfing, fishing, hunting. I don't do any of those things. So what it means to me is another step in the adventure of ministry that, that God would have me to do. So I will still be here. I'm still serving on the elder team. I'll still be teaching occasionally. In fact, I'll be teaching on the 21st because Curtis is getting Mary Curtis and Clark. 9 (34m 34s): And then, and then basically that means the whole Henry family are off for about couple of months. I don't know. I, I think they're all going, going on your honeymoon together. Hope you're prepared for that. Right? So I will still be around harvest church is still our home. I will just be serving a little bit different role. So I don't, I wanna say this in, in conclusion, you know, how long it takes pastors to conclude something. It has been a phenomenal joy in my life, in our life, serving here at harvesting, the, the role we've had both with the staff team and, and, and the community believers here. I mean, it's just been truly wonderful. 9 (35m 15s): It's been a great privilege. So you will still be seeing us around until I die. 3 (35m 21s): Cool. Yeah, we're talking now. Christie is all together way too young to be retiring. So she's actually starting a, it's kind of a ministry. It's a, it's a business called AA, right? Is it a, is that, did I get, get that right? 10 (35m 38s): ACORS and arrows. 3 (35m 40s): Learnings and arrows 10 (35m 40s): Community. Yes. 3 (35m 41s): A I was close. Yeah. Anyway. So tell us what you're doing, how long you've been here, what's going on and how the words moving. 10 (35m 47s): Yeah. I echo so much of what Ron said, but prior to coming on staff here at harvest, I was a public school teacher for 14 years and then God shifted my path a bit and came on board here. And I started out working on with children's ministries for about nine years and then transitioned into some other roles. And like Ron said, it has been just an absolute joy to get to know. So many of you work with families and children and then into adult ministry and children and families has always been my passion if you know me well and, and especially young moms and working with moms. And so over the past couple years, God's been kind of stirring my heart a little bit into some other areas back toward education. 10 (36m 32s): And so I've been stepping out of things here a little bit slowly, and it's taken a little bit of time, but yeah, in the past few months God's opened the door for me to open my own business in the community and really continue our mission of harvest of impacting our community and our world with the life changing message of Jesus Christ. And so I'm going to be offering a homeschool support program for families who have chosen a homeschool, their children, as many of you know, our educational system is shifting a lot. Our culture has changed a lot and parents are feeling the tug to bring their, their children home and educate them at home. And so God's called me to really support families in doing that. 10 (37m 12s): And so we'll be offering a program where students come two days a week and they're with other homeschooled children. And we have classes for them. I provide support for the moms in how to homeschool and answering questions. So I'm really excited about it. It's very scary. I've never opened my own business before. So I'm learning a lot, but God just brought so many amazing people around me to do this. So I feel so blessed and like, Ron, we're not going anywhere. My, our family is here, we're harvest through and through. And so we're here, you'll see us serving and being involved. And it's just a joy to be a part of this church, the staff team's amazing. Pastors love them dearly. And so thank you so much. 3 (37m 53s): Gather around here. Let's get Gary and Jim up here as well. We're gonna pray over these guys. So Neil, one of our other elders is outta, outta state currently. So Jim and Gary, let's get you guys right here. We're gonna lay hands on you and pray for you. And so Gary, I'm gonna have you pray for Ron and Jim. I'm gonna have you pray for Christie. So here you go. You need to have that. And so it's all agree. It's power heads and prayer 11 (38m 24s): Father. We just come before you right now, Lord. And we thank you Lord for Ron. What a man of God, he is Lord, we thank you father for his service at this church and in Avala and everywhere that he served you Lord across this country. We thank you, God, that as your word says, Lord, a tree that's planted by the water will bring forth fruit in its season continually. And we know God that you have more ministries and just different works that you have for Ron to do. And for DJ and we pray God that you would just bless them, continually bless their family, bless all of their friends and, and relatives and help them Lord to continue being a shining light as they have been for so many years. 11 (39m 20s): I thank you for my brother and my friend, and I pray that you would just really bless his latter days in Jesus' name. Amen. 3 (39m 29s): Amen. Amen. Thank you Gary. Mr. 12 (39m 35s): Ericsson, Lord. Thank you for today, Lord. It's what pleasure it is being in the house of the Lord. And thank you for giving us another day to worship you, to praise you and offer our praises and ourselves. Everything that we have to you. Lord, Lord, thank you for Christie and her service here at harvest and her passion for education. I share that passion as well. So Lord, we pray that as she's opening up her new business, Lord, pray that all that goes well and pray that families in the community will learn about Christie and her services. 12 (40m 19s): And we just pray that it will blossom and it'll spread the good news of Jesus Christ to maybe those that don't attend church, but yet will hear the word through what Christie's going to be doing. Lord, we thank you for her presence here. We thank you that her and her family are staying here at harvest to continue to serve our great God Lord. We thank you for everything. All the blessings that you give us every day, Lord in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. 3 (40m 55s): Amen. Hey, before you guys go, I just wanted to say that on Wednesday last week, our staff team gathered for lunch and we honored Ron and Christie. Oh, with gifts. So Ron doesn't hunt, but he does shoot trap. And so we got him a new trap gun and we're gonna might not know what trap, you know what? So you know, Paul boom. Yeah, there we go. Paul boom. Yeah. That pigeon yeah. Clay pigeons. Yeah. So, so that's we got him a gift there and we got Christy. Beautiful. Are you have it on? Oh, she has her necklace on, there we go. 3 (41m 35s): She own it off there. So anyway, just, we wanted to honor them with nice gifts saying thank you. We love you. The church is richer, better, more fruitful as a result of your input, your participation, the using of your gifts and talents. And so we're eternally grateful. The kingdom is eternally impacted because of your faithfulness. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the privilege that it's been for me to serve with both of you as a leader, you, you really pray that God would bring you a great team and I've been so, so incredibly blessed by you both. 3 (42m 20s): And I just wanna say, thank you. I love you both. And let's continue to March forward together. Amen, man. Let's give a hug here. Love you. Love you. Love you guys. Hey, the elders you guys can go and except for you, Christie can go the elder. So Ron's still an elder here. So yeah, stay up here. So as God raises up, we're actually gonna, well, I turned it off. You turned it. Okay, go ahead and have it is Joe Daon here. Where's Joe, is he here? Hey there's Joe, come on, Joe. There we go. So can I get the certificate right there as well? Left that there Joe got a fresh haircut. 3 (43m 2s): You're looking good. I got a fresh haircut too. Yeah, it looks good. Is you're staying on the top? Like my, yeah, yeah, right there. Yeah. Yeah. Try to keep that long. Do the comb over, but it's not a good, not a good look on me. Yeah. Yeah. Try and try and try and try. And so Joe and his family, Katie and their kid, they've been here for how many years have you guys been here? Joe going on 10 years. 10 years. Yeah. 13 (43m 24s): 10 years. Yeah. There we go. Going on 10 years, 3 (43m 26s): There we go. 10 years. And Joe has been volunteering at lifeline crisis pregnancy center for a number of years 13 (43m 34s): Now. Oh yeah. Yeah. Going about going on two years, 3 (43m 37s): On two years, on two years and working out of his passion and out of his experience to minister, to the dads who are unexpectedly dealing with pregnancy and that sort of thing. And so Joe had that experience and you wanna share a little bit about that? 13 (43m 55s): Yeah. So about 27 years ago, I was faced with me and my wife were faced at the time was boyfriend girlfriend faced with pregnancy. I was, we were 16. And so obviously at 16, you know, you want to cover up and you want hide it and you don't want anybody to know, especially mom and dad. And so we were going through the whole motion of trying to figure out what we were gonna do, what the next step was. And so we were thinking about abortion. And so we called my wife called down to an abortion clinic that was giving abortions up to six months. And so through that time, we had opened up to close friends and relatives, cousins. 13 (44m 41s): And one of my cousins in class was like, Hey, you should tell her to go down to lifeline pregnancy center and see what they can do at that point. We didn't know what lifeline was. You know, we didn't know what, what their services were or what we thought. Okay. Maybe it's a local abortion clinic and come to find out that the women there as she went, she decided to go and she didn't give no information, no nothing. They just kind of just brought her in with love and kindness and really just kind of minister to her. They, you know, officially gave her the announcement that she was pregnant. And at this time I want to say she was about three or four months. 13 (45m 24s): And so they just asked if they could pray to her and pray with her and pray for her and the baby. And right there, she just felt that the holy spirit was telling her that you're gonna keep the baby. And so she called me later that night and said, Hey, you know, I just wanna share with you that I am, you know, definitely pregnant. And if you want out, this is your time out, but I'm gonna keep the baby. And I said, no, I'm definitely there for the long haul and we're here and let's do this. So yeah, that's where it started. And you know, I think it was 25 years later. I found myself getting involved with lifeline as an advocate, as you know, and just came full circle. 13 (46m 9s): And now here we are, and going around speaking to young men and, and ladies at different youth ministries at different churches throughout the central coast, sharing about, you know, healthy choices and, you know, there's just options and you know, just the whole thing about relationship and what it should be under Christ and what it looks like. And so we're just there to love them, support them and know that they're not alone. And so that's what we do. And so we've been doing that for a couple years now and it's been great, it's growing and we're excited to see what happens. 3 (46m 47s): Yeah. We couldn't be more proud of what God is doing with you. I, I love that God uses the broken pieces of our lives to minister, to others out of that brokenness. We can relate to people. We can love people deeply under with understanding and compassion, right. And so Joe, Joe's been doing this with lifeline clients, but also at work Joe's been salt and light, you know, impacting his, his work with the, with the message of the, the gospel. And so he's been mentoring, young men and one guy in particular at works, he's getting ready to get married. And he said, Hey, Joe, you know, help me out. So Joe's been kind of counseling with that or helping him navigate that. 3 (47m 30s): And then the guy said, Hey, would you officiate my, my wedding? And so Joe's like, I don't know. I, I'm not. Yeah. 13 (47m 38s): I was like, okay, well let me check it out. And so yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I was gonna go online and do it. And then I ended up actually getting pointed into the direction of the church and they're like, Hey, no, go check out pastor Steve and see what they can do and see if, you know, that's something that, you know, you can move forward with. And so I just stepped out in faith, you know? Yeah. And didn't know what it was gonna do or lead into. And here I am and getting presented with this and it's just the goodness and faithfulness of God that he's showing throughout my life. And I don't want to miss that, you know, because he's pulled me out of the ashes and, and, you know, before Christ and to bring me up here and to be that confirmation through elders and, and my family members that've been there, you know, really, really is why I'm stepping out. 13 (48m 34s): And, and just like this young man asking me, you know, just sharing through, through my, through my testimony and just sharing the gospel like we're called to do, you know, being that light is just really just confirmed that this is the next chapter. And so I'm just stepping down and seeing what 3 (48m 51s): Happens. Yeah. So we're here to recognize what God is doing in Joe's life. He asked if there would be a possibility for us to honor him with a, a license, a minister's license, so he can do the service, the marriage. So he can officiate the service, the marriage ceremony. And, and so we gathered his elders and Neil was there as well. And we just spent some time interviewing Joe. And again, he's been here for 10 years, so we know Joe pretty well. And so we had the chance just to interview him and really ask him some hard questions about his faith, about his life and about his purpose in life. And so we've all got when, when we come to faith in Jesus, we're all given gifts and talents. 3 (49m 40s): And when those gifts and talents are affirmed by people in our lives, we know that God's really doing something. So sometimes we think, oh, I, I feel called to this, but if nobody's affirming it, then there may be some questions around that. But, but we affirm what God is doing with Joe. Joe's gonna continue his ministry at lifeline as a volunteer. He's not coming on staff with us at harvest church. He's going to be a lay lay minister though, that we recognize and honor. And so we've got a certificate of license here. It says certificate of license, this certifies that Joe Daon has completed all the requirements to become a licensed minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 3 (50m 20s): And is hereby awarded the certificate by harvest Bible fellowship. That's our formal name, 1 24 west branch street, Ray Grandy. So we signed it. And I wanna read from second Timothy chapter four to you and over you. And there's a challenge. And as kind of some marching orders for you as you move forward. Before I do that, though, we've talked about just maintaining a gratitude and a humility before the Lord a lowness, as you serve people, Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom. For many, he came as a lowly servant, he's the king of Kings, but he came to serve. 3 (51m 4s): And so as you serve men and women, as you serve people, it's never from a place of I've arrived or I've got it all figured out, or I've got all of the answers, but it's from a place of gratitude that the Lord has given you. Opportunity has placed you in a position to speak words of life and grace and truth so that others might be, be drawn to him, be ified in the most holy faith and continue to pursue him. And so I'll read to you what Paul wrote to Timothy about his ministry. And first second, Timothy chapter four says, I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead. 3 (51m 47s): When he appears to set up his kingdom, preach the word of God, be prepared whether the time is favorable or not patiently, correct rebuke and encourage your people with good teaching for a time is coming. When people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching, they will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths, but you, you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Keep a clear mind in every situation, don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord. 3 (52m 31s): Work at telling others the good news and fully carry out the ministry God has given to you. As for me, Paul writes, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight I have finished the race and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me, but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. So preach the word, be faithful, and just watch what God will do in your life as you surrender yourself to him. 3 (53m 16s): And so with that, as Ron is the outgoing pastor on our team, we're gonna let him pray. He's still a pastor here, but you know what I mean? So we're gonna have her on prey over you. 9 (53m 27s): All right. So Lord, we're just following the model that we see in scripture, that when it's obvious someone is called to ministry, Lord, that we agree with that. We agree with your calling upon Joe's life. We lay hands upon him, which is really a formal way of setting him apart for the work of the ministry that you've called him to do. So Lord, not only us up here, the elders, but all of us as a community believers, we, we recognize that that your hand is upon Joe and that you have lots of opportunity both now and into the future for him to minister to people. So we say, yes, Lord, to what you're doing in Joe's life. We pray for he and Katie, the whole family Lord, we, we expect that you're going to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think because of the fact that Joe is, is your servant. 9 (54m 17s): And you've filled him with your spirit. You've put a passion with it in his heart to speak your word faithfully. And so Lord, we, we lift him up to you. Thank you. That whom you call you also equip Lord. You've equipped Joe to accomplish the purposes for which he is pursuing. So Lord, thank you for our brother, Lord. We bless him. We love him and we wanna support him and encourage him and pray for him. And we, we just bless you. Thank you for the fruit that that will be coming about eternal lasting fruit because of the, the obedience Lord that he said yes to you and you've called him. And so Lord, we expect that you're going to just take him on this journey. 9 (54m 58s): It would be a, a, not a easy journey, but certainly a incredible journey as he walks this out with you, Lord, we pray and we all agree in Jesus' name. God's people said, 3 (55m 8s): Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you guys. Love you, Joe. Congratulations buddy. Love you. Love you. So, as we said, Joe is as a volunteer at lifeline and Curtis talked about the lifeline banquet that is coming up harvest church. We actually bought a table. How many sit at the table, Joe? Was it like eight or 10? 10, 10. So we've got, we've got space for 10, but listen, we're not letting just anybody sit at the table. So if you're coming just for a free meal, it's not for you, but if you want to come in preparation to give and to bless the ministry of lifeline with a financial gift, then we've got a place at the table for you. 3 (55m 53s): So it's easy to ask for money for somebody else. It's harder to ask for money for yourself. So for lifeline, if you want to go and be a part of that celebration at the banquet, let us know. We've got 10 spaces that are available for people who again, want to plan to show up and prayerfully support financially the work of the ministry there. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Hey, we're gonna be inviting Jean to nay up. Where's Jean. I told you we got a lot going on today. So, so Jean is yeah, take the microphone. Jean, come on up. Jean's been out sick, dealing with all kinds of stuff and the Lord's been blessing her and touching her and healing her. 3 (56m 34s): And so what's the latest on your cancer scare there, girl. All clear. All clear. All good. That's awesome. Yeah. Congratulations. Yeah. So Jean is a prolific poet and she writes poetry like nobody's business. And so when we started our study through the book of James, she wrote Jean, the Lord just kind of gave her the ability to write a kind of a synopsis of each chapter. And so my goal today was to get up and kind of teach and kind of close out the book of James. But then I reread her poem and I'm like, this does it. So Jean's gonna take five minutes and read her poem in her British accent, her English accent. 3 (57m 18s): So that it sounds like she wrote it. And then we'll jump into our next study here. 15 (57m 23s): So they don't like it when you read them. 3 (57m 25s): No, they don't. Yeah. I don't do them. Any justice gene. 15 (57m 28s): Well, we did James at our ladies Bible study recently Thursday mornings in the loft. And I always like to recap like Steve does and as I was going through the lessons, we're just turned into a poem. Yeah, no one was more amazed than me. So here we go. This is the book of James. And you know, we need to recap because we tend to what forget. And James is such an incredible book on how to live the life that we've signed up for. So here we go. Chapter one, the trials of life, perfect us. So we joyfully embrace hardships and difficulties looking to the master's face, requesting wisdom from above it's free and there for all though, don't be double minded or you'll get none at all, rich or poor. 15 (58m 17s): It makes no odds in God's economy. Death comes to all in trials, too. God tests your faith. You see every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord above. He birthed us by his word of truth. Enveloped us in love. Watch your tongue. It is a fire. Listen more than talk. Be doers of the word you hear. You need to walk the walk. Don't just sit and soak up. God, you need to help each other to truly be a child of God of this world. Be not a lover. Chapter two, God shows no partiality to man and neither friend should you all are equal in his sight. 15 (59m 2s): The rich and homeless too. Love your neighbor. As yourself. Favoritism is a sin. God chose the poor for richest faith. Their honor is in him. Break one item of the law and you're guilty of it. All show no mercy. You'll get none. God judges one and all look around to meet and need work out. What's been worked in the fruit of faith is what you do to hoard. It is a sin. Ape was proved a righteous man by all the things he did, faith and action trusting. God made him a friend of God. Rayhab the Harlet trusted too. 15 (59m 44s): Became an ancestor of the Lord. Saved from distraction by her faith. Her actions saved her life. Chapter three. If you decide to teach the folk, be careful. What you say for all of us can give offense imperfect. As we are a tongue, a deadly weapon, lifting up or tearing down like a spark. It sets a blaze, a world of hurt and pain with our mouth. We bless the Lord and then run someone down a fountains, either good or bad. No compromise should be found. Are any here intelligent, full of wisdom. 15 (1h 0m 24s): Good and true. Then live an upright noble life. Humbly helping others too. Jealousy and contention comes from Satan and his crew. But wisdom comes from God. Above is pure and peaceful, loving, true wholehearted and straightforward, no doubts or wavering here. Fill your life with righteousness, creating peace for all who hear chapter four, discord and contention come from our earthly war soul. We want the things we do not have. We feel they'll make us whole ask of God. The things you need with a heart that's pure and true. 15 (1h 1m 6s): Not with selfish motives though. He'll give you all. That's good for you. You cannot be the world's friend. When you belong to God, he loves you with a jealous love. He'll give you grace to choose the things that truly please in most though, the holy through the holy Spirit's power resist that wily Satan, and he will run for cover humble your heart and drawing close to Papa almighty God he'll hold you tight and keep you near forgive your wandering heart. He'll lift you up, exalt you high he'll glorify your life. When in remorse you seek his face. 15 (1h 1m 48s): He will make all things right. There is one judge, one law giver, and it definitely isn't us. So mind your own business and leave the judging to the boss. Pray before you make your plans to visit here and there. Pray God's will upon your life and let him lead you there. Gold, silver will chapter five, gold and silver will rush through be careful what you store. Don't cheat workers of their wages. Their cry comes before the Lord be patient till you see the day the coming of the Lord do not kill the innocent or in soft living. 15 (1h 2m 29s): Put your store before too long, the Lord will come as a farmer, awaiting reign, be patient knowing it will come be strong until that time be steadfast and enduring. As the prophets were before remember job and all he lost. And then God gave him more. If you are sad, then pray to God. If happy, sing his praise. If sick have people pray for you and knocked with oil and pray with faith, confess your faults, your slips, and pray forgiveness for your sins. Prayer is a very powerful tool that changes many things. 15 (1h 3m 11s): Elijah was a man like you, and he prayed. It would not rain for three and a half years. That drought came on until he prayed again. And you are like Elijah. So if you see a sister or brother fall, lovingly restore with prayer for God loves you. So that's all. 3 (1h 3m 40s): Thank you, Jean. You know, Jean's been writing poems forever and then years ago, just real quick story. She read Bible stories and put that I'm on tapes and CDs. And so a lot of our young people that are now adults around here grew up listening to Jean's Bible stories and that's how they learned the books or the different Bible stories and things like that. So a lot of people have really been blessed and ministered to by our friend, Jean. So thank you. I'm so glad you're clear and good. Your cancer's gone. And so we'll celebrate that with you. So good stuff. Good stuff. First Peter, chapter one, go ahead and open up first Peter chapter one, you know, as we attempt to understand what the scripture tells us and helps us to, as we attempt to understand what the verses mean, there's a process called exegesis and there's a principle in exegesis called the synthesis principle. 3 (1h 4m 38s): And so I want to explain kind of the synthesis principle for us because I, I think it helps us understand how to read the Bible and how to understand the Bible. God's got a message for us in the word of God. So as we think through the scripture that we're reading, as we come across something, we need to consider the context, what is the immediate context of this, this verse? And so as you look at a verse and you are considering the context, there's the immediate context, the verses prior, and after the verse that you're reading, you want to understand what is being communicated and there's nothing better to interpret scripture than scripture itself. 3 (1h 5m 21s): And so there's the immediate context. What is written just prior and just after the verse that you're trying to understand, and then there's the wider context. And so we're gonna be in first Peter. And so if you come across a verse in first, Peter, that you're not fully grasping, so you look at the immediate context, but then you look at the wider context. What is the writer of Peter trying to communicate? What's the message of first Peter. And so as you read through that difficult passage, you can begin to consider not just the immediate, but the wider context and begin to get some better understanding of that verse. And then as you are still maybe still struggling and you wanna make sure that the way you understand the verse is actually the way God intended for us to understand the verse. 3 (1h 6m 9s): Then we need to look at the complete context of the word of God, the old and the new Testament. So this synthesis process or, or, or program will help us to understand the scripture. And so, as we read the scripture and as we decide what it is that we believe about the scripture, we need to make sure that our theology, because we've all got a theology about God theology is the study of the nature of God. And so we all have a theology about God. We all believe something about God. So we need to make sure that our theology, what we're believing our doctrine is communicated in the scriptures of the old and the new Testament, the, the scriptures and the old and the new Testament, all speak a message. 3 (1h 6m 53s): And that message points us to Jesus and there's understandings throughout the old and the new Testament that will help us serve Jesus. And so that's why, when we talked about the different types of laws a few weeks ago, we talked about the ceremonial laws. We talked about the civil laws and we talked about the moral laws. And so we, in an effort to understand what our obligation is as believers, we really applied that synthesis model. And we just, we know from that model, from that type of ex, at least that portion of, of exegesis, we know that the ceremonial laws for a were for a time, but when Christ came, all of that ended, we know that the civil laws were for the people in Palestine and the, the people of Israel, they were there. 3 (1h 7m 41s): A lot of them are transferable today and they kind of share space with moral laws. And so we see some of the civil laws and we covered those a couple weeks ago, actually are moral laws as well. And so we looked at the moral laws and we know that those moral laws are seen in the old, the new testaments and that Jesus affirms them. The, the apostles affirmed them, the writers of the new Jess reform them in the scripture. And so as we kind of study the word of God, I'll share more kind of tidbits about exegesis and about how to study the Bible as we move forward. Because I, I think it's just gonna help us to continue to grow in our understanding. I think we all desire to understand the Bible, to grow in our ability, to read, understand, and apply the truth. 3 (1h 8m 26s): And so it'll be my effort to try to share different tidbits like that from time to time, just to kind of give us a little more information as we open up the scripture. So again, we must examine a passage in relation to its immediate context. What was the next one wider context? And then beyond that it's complete context, right? So immediate, wider, and complete context. We need to understand that the Bible does not contradict itself. Sometimes we read the scripture and it appears that the Bible is contradicting itself, but we know that the Bible does not contradict itself. 3 (1h 9m 7s): And so we need to be faithful to understand those difficult passages in light of those of the context of the word of God. And as we do that, we will have greater confidence in the Bible, greater confidence in who we are as Christians, as believers. And we will be able to trust God moving forward. So let's look at the first couple verses in first Peter chapter one, and then we're just gonna unpack things from there. And I'm, I look like I've got about 30 minutes left. Is that 30 or three? I think I might have three minutes left. So I'm not sure actually how far we will get today. Cuz we actually have another service that we gotta get to. 3 (1h 9m 47s): But maybe I'll just tell you what I'm gonna tell you. And then next week I'll tell you what I'm gonna tell you. How's that sounds good. So first Peter one, one and two, this is greetings from Peter. So what do we know about Peter? Peter was kind of reckless, right? He was kind of this gruff and tough guy. He was always speaking up when he probably should have been quiet. He was always just a little bit rambunctious and headstrong, but God uses people who are rambunctious and headstrong for his kingdom purposes. And he also uses people who are more timid and quiet and soft spoken. 3 (1h 10m 27s): He uses all of us with our personalities as he gives us gifts and talents to Edify, to build up the body of Christ. And so that we might be salt and light. So I love Peter because he steps all over his own tongue and he gets himself in trouble. But Peter learns, he learns from his mistakes and don't, we all need to have that perspective. Like man, I misstep there or I misspoke there. I need to back up a little bit, reconsider my life, my motivations, my words, and then think clearly about what God would have me to do. 3 (1h 11m 7s): So Peter he's all over the place. But in acts, we read that as Peter preached, how many people came to faith in Jesus, the thousands, right? Thousands come to faith in Jesus Christ because of Peter's newfound clarity and unction. He's filled with the holy spirit and he's speaking the truth with passion and clarity and people are responding. This letter is from Peter in apostle of Jesus Christ. So he was one of the ones where Jesus said, Peter, come follow me and I will make you a Fisher of men. So Jesus identified Peter as a man that he wanted in his inner circle because he had purpose for him. 3 (1h 11m 47s): And so Peter lives the rest of his life, serving, honoring and giving himself to Jesus. Ultimately Peter's crucified upside down. He has martyred like most of the other apostles and he gives his life all the way through and through for the gospel I'm writing to God's chosen people. He writes and we see it kind of a similar greeting in, in James chapter one, as James writes to his listener, Peter writes to his listener, this letters from Peter and apostle of Jesus Christ. I'm writing to God's chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pius Galatia, captia Asia and Bethia. 3 (1h 12m 31s): These are all Roman provinces that are now located in a place called Turkey. So Turkey, we just heard about Igar in Azure by Jean. And if you look on the map, like we just had up there, you'll see that Azure by John's just east of Turkey. And so this letter is written to people in this part of the world. And so I'm so excited that we get to support the work of the gospel in Azure, by John. So to reinforce that we need to be praying for Igar. As Curtis said, we need like 87 full-time missionaries for that one area, that one region to be saturated with the gospel. 3 (1h 13m 12s): And so for 2000 years, the gospel has been communicated to this region gospel. God's been trying to reach the people of this region. And to this day, we're still trying to reach the people of that region. Verse two God. The father knew you and shows you long ago and his spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ made God, give you more and more grace and peace. So again, who is Peter writing to verse one, I am writing to God's chosen people. 3 (1h 13m 56s): That's the new living translation of that verse. The NIV, the new international version says I'm writing to God's elect. The SV says to those who are elect, what does it mean to be elect? So when you, you go to a, a polling station and it's midterms or whatever the election season is, and you're casting your vote, you are hoping to elect the next person in the office. So the elect are those who are chosen. They are pit. They are chosen by God for a purpose and for salvation. 3 (1h 14m 39s): So Christ has elected. God has elected those who will be saved. And so now we get into all kinds of murky water and I'm down to 49 seconds. Now who put it back up now I had 8 51. You guys are so confusing me. Did I? Negative eight? Is that a negative? My eyes are so bad. Here we go. I am overdue. Okay. So this is what we're gonna talk about next week. Next week, we're gonna answer the question. Did we choose God or did God choose us? 3 (1h 15m 21s): And we're gonna be looking at the difference between Calvinism and our manism, John Calvin coined, what we, or what's the word kind of described what he believes about God and his sovereignty and about his foreknowledge. And, and then his student, Jacob Armenian, who was a Calvinist because of his tutelage under John Calvin, he, after getting into the ministry, he decided to think differently and began to read the scripture and think differently about God and his sovereignty and his foreknowledge. 3 (1h 16m 5s): And so we're gonna unpack it. I, I, I'm so anxious to get to this right now. And I was really hoping we could get to it today, but there's just so much going on. So next week I'm gonna tell you, we're gonna get into this Calvinism versus our manism and we're gonna unpack this thing. And hopefully by the end of the week, next week into the service next week, we'll have some clarity about who God is about his four knowledge about election, about what God is doing in the world. Amen. Amen. Let's with that, go ahead and stand up. We're gonna invite the worship team back and sorry to tease you with that, but we're going to have to pick it up next week. And so Lord, as we continue to worship God, we, we thank you Lord. 3 (1h 16m 50s): And, and we're grateful Lord for your word that it teaches us Lord and that so many amazing things happened, and we're just grateful for who you are. And so Lord, as we get ready to take communion, we just want to reflect on what happened on that cross 2000 years ago, Lord, we want to remember God who you are and what you're all about. And so God, we, we, once a month, Lord, we stop. We pause and we reflect on that sacrifice that you made when Calvary 2000 years ago. 3 (1h 17m 33s): And we read from first Corinthians chapter 11, where it says for, I pass on to you. What I received from the Lord himself, Paul writes 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 the bread. 3 (1h 18m 21s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank you Lord, for your body. That was crucified, pierced whipped S scourge beaten for me in my place. The wages of sin is death, But the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus of the Lord. And so thank you for paying the penalty for my sin, for our sin individually, collectively corporately God you've died for our sins. And we believe that we honor you for that sacrifice today. We love you Lord in Jesus name in 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. 3 (1h 19m 8s): Do this to remember me, as often as you drink, if for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Let's take this use Lord, thank you for the opportunity to be refreshed by the juice as it represents your blood. And your blood is what cleanses us. 3 (1h 19m 48s): There's no remission of sins without the shedding, your blood Lord. There's no forgiveness without the shedding. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ our Lord. So you gave your body and your blood and we praise you for that. We thank you for that. We thank you, Lord for your grace and God. As we, we worship you with these, with this last set of worship, this last song, we pray that you would be glorified as we, as we align our lives with you. As we confess our sin, as we allow you to be Lord and leader of our lives, Lord God today, and every day, Lord be glorified. If you're here today and you've never given your life to Jesus, Jesus died for you. 3 (1h 20m 29s): He loves you. Bible calls us all sinners. We've all sinned and fall short of God's glorious standard. And that wage of sin, the penalty for that sin is death. And so Jesus came to die for us paying the penalty, taking the sins of humanity upon himself so that we might be forgiven and walk in newness of life called being born again. And so Lord, we thank you for that gift. Pray that whoever's here today, who has never made that decision to make you Lord and leader of their lives to receive your grace and your mercy and your love. God, I pray. They do that now. Thank you, Lord God. We love you. As we worship, help us to just continue to worship and spirit and the truth. Be glorified. We pray in Jesus name. 3 (1h 21m 10s): Amen. Amen. Let's worship 2 (1h 21m 27s): One with God time hitting what? A beautiful, what a beautiful, the name. What a, what a beautiful name. 2 (1h 22m 10s): It's so she was great. You love was great. Wonderful name, nothing. 0 (1h 24m 9s): The 18 (1h 26m 45s): Thank you Jesus for your powerful name. Thank you for your presence. Thank you for this morning in church. And for the time we took to take communion and the time we took to honor people, God, we thank you for your presence. We thank you for your love. We thank you for your truth. We just give you the rest of our days, the rest of our weeks and your precious new praying. Amen.

The “Trimsaran Bible Readings”, in south west Wales, UK, took place each August for several decades in the second half of the 20th century and featured famed Welsh singing. Here's a recording of the following 11 hymns from the 1975 meetings: Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour Thou O Lord our souls adoring view On Christ salvation rests secure O Christ Thou Son of God Lord of glory we adore Thee What raised the wondrous thought (Albert Leckie, who led the The post Singing from Trimsaran, Wales (36 min) first appeared on Gospel Hall Audio.

Connect with us and never miss a new episode: Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheGoodNewsBaptistChurchOfStMaarten Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gnbcnetwork Donate to the work: https://cxpay2fund.me/charity/online-church-services The Inspiration by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/gnbc/message

A very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, 27th May, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.If we go to 1 Corinthians 11 and I am reading from verse 24, Jesus says:“Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner, He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This, do as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”You know, when we consecrate everything we have to the Lord Jesus, then He blesses and even multiplies it as He did with the two fishes and the five barley loaves of bread. Remember in Mark 6:38 - He took those two fishes, and those five barley loaves and consecrated them to His Heavenly Father and then He fed 5,000 men. You know, every morning when we have breakfast together, Jill and I and we break bread. That is right, we have Holy Communion, every single day. God blesses what we eat and also what we do. When we say our grace before we sit down and eat, then also we eat our food heartily. You know, many times we are invited to places overseas where the food is prepared in ways that we are not accustomed to but do you know what we do? We say our grace, we give thanks to the Lord and then we eat it, heartily. Sometimes some people will come with us and they are concerned about their weight, their figures. We ask them not to come with us, please, I tell you why - because when you start pushing food away from you and you start picking at your food or you don't eat it, you embarrass and you offend the host and that is not the objective of us as believers. Sometimes you will win somebody to Jesus quicker by participating in their home and their food than you will with any fancy sermon.We need to forget about ourselves and start being concerned about other people. We need to get into the habit of thanking the Lord for everything that we do. You know, before we travel, we give thanks to God: “Lord, please protect this trip.” Before we do a business deal, “Lord, today we are going to do a business deal. We are going to buy cattle or we are going to sell cattle. We are going to plant a certain crop.” We pray over it.Before somebody gets employed we pray over them and then God multiplies and He consecrates it.Today, get used to committing every aspect of your life to the Lord and He will do the rest.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

Teaching NotesFor from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. (John 1:16)“Your mess is mine” - Vance JoyFor I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 1 Corinthians 15:3-10In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”“Yes, Lord,” he answered.The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength…When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord… Acts 9:10-28Paul had grace from God but not from the people of God“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. (Acts 9:13)When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. (Acts 9:26)Grace is messy and confusing{Jesus}, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)Grace takes gutsThen Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul,... (Acts 9:17)But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how… (Acts 9:27)QUESTION: To whom do you need to say, “Your mess is mine”?Fill in the blank: “But {Insert your name} took {insert name of person} and {insert action of grace}4. Grace unlocks the church.Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. (Acts 9:31)Your mess is ours! Going DeeperWhen has someone extended a hand beneath the bathroom stall and said (in one way or another), “Your grace is mine”?Per John 1:14, are you more of a “Gracer” or a “Truther”?What's the most confusing or difficult part about extending that hand to someone?Who is someone in your life that God is nudging you towards?Based on Acts 9:27, can you fill in your own blanks: “But {Insert your name} took {insert name of person} and {insert action of grace} Sunday Set ListWFC Lenexa/OnlineChild of God- Mitch LangleyNothing Else- Cody CarnesThe Blessing- Kari JobeWFC SpeedwayUnstoppable God- Elevation WorshipGoodness of God- Bethel MusicNo Longer Slaves- Bethel MusicThe Blessing- Kari JobeBe sure to save our Spotify Worship Playlist, updated weekly with the upcoming Sunday's set!

Teaching NotesFor from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. (John 1:16)“Your mess is mine” - Vance JoyFor I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 1 Corinthians 15:3-10In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”“Yes, Lord,” he answered.The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength…When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord… Acts 9:10-28Paul had grace from God but not from the people of God“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. (Acts 9:13)When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. (Acts 9:26)Grace is messy and confusing{Jesus}, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)Grace takes gutsThen Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul,... (Acts 9:17)But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how… (Acts 9:27)QUESTION: To whom do you need to say, “Your mess is mine”?Fill in the blank: “But {Insert your name} took {insert name of person} and {insert action of grace}4. Grace unlocks the church.Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. (Acts 9:31)Your mess is ours! Going DeeperWhen has someone extended a hand beneath the bathroom stall and said (in one way or another), “Your grace is mine”?Per John 1:14, are you more of a “Gracer” or a “Truther”?What's the most confusing or difficult part about extending that hand to someone?Who is someone in your life that God is nudging you towards?Based on Acts 9:27, can you fill in your own blanks: “But {Insert your name} took {insert name of person} and {insert action of grace} Sunday Set ListWFC Lenexa/OnlineChild of God- Mitch LangleyNothing Else- Cody CarnesThe Blessing- Kari JobeWFC SpeedwayUnstoppable God- Elevation WorshipGoodness of God- Bethel MusicNo Longer Slaves- Bethel MusicThe Blessing- Kari JobeBe sure to save our Spotify Worship Playlist, updated weekly with the upcoming Sunday's set!

This episode focuses on the importance of making God Lord of our lives through our actions and not just with our words. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dailyrowe/support

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit MosaicBoston.com.Good morning church, and welcome. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Tyler. I am the teens director here at Mosaic Boston, and it is an honor and a privilege to be able to preach God's word to all of us today. If you haven't known, we've been going through the book of Romans. We are in the middle of our series on Romans and we are taking it nice and slow and digging in deep to this text. To try and see and understand the truths that God is revealing to us in it.And one thing I want us to understand as we go into this text today is that Paul throughout the book of Romans is making an argument. Each verse, each thought is building upon the previous and leading into the next, making an argument. It's a continuous thought. And I bring that up to say, if you were here last week and heard pastor Jan's sermon on the previous verses, I want you to remember that. I want you to remember the idea that he preached on that was in the text of the power of the gospel for salvation. That is where Paul leaves off and launches into this text. If you haven't heard that sermon, I strongly encourage you to go back and listen to it right after. It'll make this make even more sense.And the reason why I bring that up is I have the joy of preaching on the wrath of God today. Not many of us like to talk or think about the wrath of God, let alone want to stand up in front of people and stare them in the eyes while you tell them about God's wrath. It's not what we like to do. I remember my first day in Boston, I was looking at colleges, just visiting. And I was here with my parents and we were just walking around the city, having food, enjoying the sites and things like that. And there was a guy with a sign. You know the signs I'm talking about. The signs that say like "Repent for the wrath of God is at hand." Or like, "You are going to hell repent and believe." Things like that. I don't remember exactly what it said, but it had that sign.And I was like, "Oh, praise God I'm not a fire and brimstone type preacher. I like to focus on the love and grace of God. Thank you." And last time I preached, I got to preach on the love of God. And I was so thankful and grateful for that. Because I love God's love. But today the text is about God's wrath. So we're going to deal with God's wrath, because it's in scripture and it's in the word and it's true. So with that, will you pray with me over the preaching of God's word.Heavenly father, we come to you humbled, submitting, knowing that we are unrighteous before you. Knowing that you are great and glorious and have provided salvation through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord help us to submit our entire lives, to you to let the gospel permeate all of us, every area of our life to sanctify us, to change us, to make us more like you, and use us to bring and proclaim the gospel to those around us, into the world. Lord, we thank you. Praise you for who you are and your goodness and your love your mercy, and even your wrath, praise you in Jesus's name. Amen.So today we are in Romans chapter one, verses 18 through 23, you can turn in your Bibles or you can follow along on the screens behind me, but it says "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God as plain to them, because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. For, although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile and their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise they became and exchange the glory of the immortal God for images, resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, and authoritative infallible word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts.We will spend our time in three points, but the three points is really one point. It's all point it's even one sentence. So it should be nice and easy to remember. God's wrath is coming so stop suppressing the truth by honoring and thanking him. So first point, God's wrath is coming. This is verse 18. The first part of it, where it says for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.So before we address the elephant in the room of God's wrath, there's a small word that we need to deal with first. It's the word, for. If you've been in church or Christian culture for a long time, you've probably heard the phrase. If you see the word, therefore scripture, you have to ask, what is it there for? Similarly, if you see the word for at the beginning of a sentence or clause, you need to ask what in the world is it referencing that came before. It's a little less catchy, but the truth is still the same. And it's good, helpful advice.We have to look at the previous verses and see what is Paul talking about? So if you will follow with me, we'll go to verse 15 of the same chapter where it says, "So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome for, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first and also the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith."Paul used the word for a lot there again. He's stream of thought. He is making a point, it's all connected. You can't separate it. So what is being addressed. Says, "I am eager to preach the gospel." Why is Paul eager to preach the gospel? For he is not ashamed of it. Why is Paul not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation. How do we know it's the power of God for salvation? For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. We see and understand the gospel because in it we understand God is righteous, but we also understand that in his righteousness, he provided a sacrifice and penalty for our unrighteousness. And our response to that is living by faith.It says the righteous shall live by faith. Now the natural next step question is why do the righteous live by faith? That's where our text picks up, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." What Paul is addressing is we are called as Christians to live in faithful obedience to God because we also know what the alternative is.The alternative is the wrath of God for our unrighteousness. Now we can talk about what is wrath. Wrath is different than anger. Anger is just an emotion. It's you get mad about something, something you don't like. It's distasteful to you, hurts you, you get angry and you get mad. The definition for wrath in this context is the strong indignation of wrongdoing with a focus on retribution. So if you remember any part of that, I hope you remember that ending part. So it's with a focus on retribution. So unlike anger, that's just an emotion. Wrath is an emotion, strong indignation, strong hatred and distaste and anger against wrongdoing against sin. But it's also an action of bringing in retribution, bringing in payment for that wrongdoing. God's wrath is not just anger. It is requiring and bringing in payment for sin.And one of the things we need to know about God's wrath is that it's not just blind rage, either. It's calculated, it's precise. He is using his wrath, his characteristic of wrath in perfect harmony with all of his other attributes. We like to focus and talk about how God is love. That is true, but God's love does not negate his wrath and God's wrath does not negate his love. And it's not that at certain points in time, God is acting in love. And at other points in time, God is acting in wrath. It's always all of it. He is always fully his attributes and this can be difficult to understand. But one of the texts that I find clearest demonstrating this idea comes from the book of Exodus. With the teens downstairs we've been going through the book of Exodus. We actually finished it last week.And one of the most famous stories in the book of Exodus is the story of the golden calf. And this text comes in Exodus, chapter 32, wherein verse seven, it says, "And the Lord said to Moses "Go down for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, these are your gods, oh Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." And the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people and behold it is a stiff necked people. Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them. And I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you.""God had just led the people of Israel out of Egypt. He saved them from slavery and from oppression and he delivered them and they choose to worship something that they made. And say, this is what saved us rather than God. That's sin. That's unrighteousness. It's putting something else in the place of God and rightfully so, God's wrath burned against them.And he says, let them... Sorry, "That my wrath may burn hot against them. And I may consume them." Why consume them while in Romans, it tells us, and throughout scripture it tells us that the penalty for sin, the retribution that is required for sin is death. That is the only payment for it.And so God's wrath is anger at the wrongdoing, but it's also bringing in that payment. However, God's wrath does not negate his other attributes. God is still trustworthy and he is true. And he has promised Abraham that he would make a great name out of him. So how does God's wrath and God's trustworthiness, God's love, God's mercy work together in this moment. God relents, but there's still punishment in verse... The next chapter in verse three, it says "Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you unless I consume you on the way for you are a stiff necked people." God has mercy. He doesn't kill them. He spares them. But he also says, I'm not going to go with you, lest my wrath consume you because that is the only right response to sin.So he has mercy, but there's still punishment. And then Moses prays to God, begs him and says, "Save them, forgive them. We ask that you forgive them." And God says, "I will forgive them. I will go with you. However, there will be a day. He says, I will blot them out of my book." He says, "Those who persist in unrighteousness, I will blot out." And so God's wrath didn't come requiring retribution in that moment, but he promised that it would come. So the natural question then is why are we all alive today? If we have sinned, if we have done wrong, the penalty is death. God requires retribution. Why are we even here? How are we alive? It's all God's mercy. Jonathan Edwards in his sermon, sinners in the hands of an angry God, if you haven't read it, I encourage you to read it.It's free online in PDF form. It's a very convicting and challenging sermon, but it helps us understand the wrath of God. In this text, in this sermon, Jonathan Edward says this. "The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this. There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God. By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will restrain by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else, but God mere will had in the least degree or in any respect whatsoever any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment." Wat he's saying is the only reason why we don't all die immediately when we sin is because of the will of God. It's because it's God's will, it's God's plan, it's his mercy on us to give us a chance, to repent, to give us opportunities, to turn to him and repent of our sin.But that doesn't negate the fact that penalty still needs to be paid. Retribution still will need to be paid at some point. This is why I again started this sermon talking about remember week sermon on the gospel, because that is what the gospel is. Is that Jesus Christ came and died on the cross to be that penalty for us, to pay that penalty of sin for us. In Romans chapter five, verse nine, it says, "Since therefore we have been justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. Through the gospel, we are saved. We are justified, we are declared righteous before God, but we are also saved or spared from his wrath. Praise God for that." But the reason for that is something that we need to think about. If you're like me, I like to get technical.I like to get it like into the nitty gritty. How does Jesus dying forgive us. How does it pay the penalty for our sins? Well, first again, the penalty for sin is death. So that is why Jesus needed to die. But Jesus didn't only die he also took on himself, the fullness of the wrath of God. In the garden before his crucifixion, Jesus is praying and he is anxious and stressed and he starts sweating blood. This is actually a medical thing called hematidrosis. You can look it up.It's where so much stress and anxiety comes upon you, that blood vessels in your forehead burst, and it starts sweating out of your pores. It's gruesome, but it's that much anxiety that Jesus was having in the garden. Why was Jesus so anxious? It's not because he knew he was going to be crucified. It's not by the way he knew he was going to die. It's because he knew he was bearing the wrath of God. How do we know this? He says, "Lord, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me." What is the cup? It's always talking about the cup of the wrath of God.But he submitted anyway. He lived in obedience and faithfulness to the father because he loved us and knew he can save us from our sins. Isaiah 53 prophecy about this in verse four through six, it says, "Surely he, Jesus, has born our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all."Praise God that there needs to be a penalty for sin. And that Jesus willingly took it. He did it. He died on the cross, bearing the fullness of the wrath of God for us. Let's run to him. Let's thank him. Let's live a life and full faithful obedience to him because he is worthy because he saves us and he spares us.But if you choose not to accept this free gift of God, there still needs to be payment for sin. And if we don't let Jesus take that payment for us, we have to pay it ourselves. This is in Revelation, chapter 14 versus 10 through 11. It says he, the he that's talked about here is any buddy who rejects Christ, no other qualifications. Doesn't matter, race, ethnicity, nationality, political... Doesn't matter. Do you reject Christ?"He also will drink the wine of God's wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger. And he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image and whoever receives the mark of its name." That ending part, the beast and its image and its worshipers. What is that talking about? It's the antichrist. We often think of this in the graphic image that's depict did in Revelation, but the idea is anti-Christ, anyone who is in opposition to Christ, who rejects Christ will have to bear the fullness of the wrath of God Themselves.And I was thinking about it. Why would anybody choose to do that? And one of the things I was thinking about is that we don't actually fear hell. Hell, doesn't scare us. We think about it as just like this red painting, where Satan lives with his pitchfork. And like, it's not fun, but it's fine. We view of it like a campfire where you stick your hand and you get a little bit burned, but it's not that bad. And it's also where all the fun happens, because that's where all the sin is and things like that.That's not what hell is. I want to tell you, God is love. There's no love in hell. God is joy. The greatest parties that have ever been thrown in the history of the world are in the Bible, thrown by Jesus. If you want to have a good time and have a party, it's going to be in heaven. There's not going to be any party in hell. It's not what we think of. And also we think we can take it. We think we can handle it. Oh, it's not that bad. I was watching a YouTube video this week of a guy who was playing a game where he had to like answer questions about himself and see what it said about him. And it was complete and utter nonsense.But one of the questions was if there's a hell, which there is, would you go there? And his response was, well, I don't believe in God. So I don't believe in hell. But if there was hypothetically a hell yeah, I'd probably go there, but I could take it, I've got tough skin. I want to tell you something. None of us can take the fullness of the wrath of God. None of us. We are not as strong as we think we are. How do I know this? I almost died this past week. First service, I said, no one knew this, but now first service knows it, but no one else here who hasn't heard the sermon yet knew this. Besides my wife. I almost died this week. How did I die? I didn't die phrase God. How did I almost die? Sorry. How did I almost die?My wife was out to dinner on a business dinner. And so I was like, okay, she's out. She's been like being really good about being health conscious, trying to eat well. And so she hasn't been eating fried food, but I love fried food. But I feel a little bit guilty. So like I'll make it healthy. I'll have fried fish, fish and chips, fish and french fries. French fries, potato, super food. It's basically a health meal right there. And so it was a great time having fish and chips.And I'm actively writing this sermon as I'm eating my dinner. And I have this vivid image burned in my mind of me grabbing three french fries. Someone after the service was like, you should only eat one french fry at a time. I was like, "Who does that?" I ate three and I put it in my mouth. And one of those three immediately went straight down my throat and then turned sideways and stopped. And I started choking and gagging and coughing. And all at first I could think of was, "I'm going to be a guy who gets killed by a french fry."Who wants to be known as the guy who died to a french fry, I'd become famous. I would make the news, but it'd be idiot gets killed by a french fry. And then I start to think my wife is going to come home and see me dead on the floor with a french fry in my mouth. Be like "He got killed by a french fry. Why was I ever married to this guy? Like, what is he doing?" Then my next thought was, "She's not even here. No one can save me. There's nobody here to help helped me. I'm helpless. I'm vulnerable to a french fry."And then praise God. I remember that he had a purpose for me still to continue living in preaching the sermon and Lord willing many more things. He will use me for afterwards. So I, in that moment, thanked God. I said, "Thank you that you have a purpose for my life. I know I'm not going to die now." And then I threw up the french fry. All this is to say, we aren't as tough as we think we are. We can be killed by french fries.We cannot withstand the wrath of God in and of ourselves. We can't. Don't try. Don't even try. Turn to Jesus who has fully paid the penalty for you. Trust him, submit your life to him. Let him bear that penalty for you. Now, how do we go from being in God's wrath to being in his good graces. It starts by stopping suppressing the truth. We can't suppress the truth. This is verse 18, again, through verse 20, where it says "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to the because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. So they are without excuse."And verse 19 starts again with the word for. So again, what is it referencing? It's explaining why the wrath of God is coming against those who suppress the truth. Well, we need to understand what that word suppress is. If you're like me, I think of the word suppress as like push down. The image I have in my mind is packing for a vacation where the weight limit is 50 pounds on planes. So you take the smaller suitcase, but you still shove everything in that you want, that would actually fit into the bigger suitcase. And you're trying to get it to fit in.And so like you put everything in it, won't close. So like you jump on top of it with a knee and knee it down and you're sitting on it and you finally get it zipped up. That's what I picture when I think of suppressing. And that's not what's going on here. That's not what's happening at all. The word is more of an idea of restraint. It's the idea of a prisoner breaking free and you being like, oh no, we can't let this out. Let's put shackles on his wrist and anchor him to a wall. We don't want this thing to escape.What this verse is saying is that our sin suppresses truth. It's not just truth in general, it's a specific truth. It's the gospel. That is what Paula is referring to. Our sin restrains and holds back the gospel.The past few weeks pastor Jan has been talking about how he believes that God is wanting to do a great work, miracle in this city. And he wants to use this church and praise God, I agree. But he's also said that if we tolerate and we live in sin, it's holding God back from doing that. Where does he get that from? It's this verse. Our sin, our unrighteousness is suppressing the power of the gospel from being let out. We are restraining it. We are holding it back. Do we want to see God work mightily in this city and in our lives? Yes. Then live in righteousness, live in obedience, stop suppressing the gospel.Now why is God's wrath coming against those who do suppress it? It says in verse 19, "For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them." This word plain is a word that is plain. It doesn't affect us in any way. It doesn't make us feel a certain way. But the idea of this word is it's obvious beyond a doubt, beyond a question. We get a reference to this word in Acts chapter four. And in the story, Peter and John just healed a man who was lame from birth. The whole city of Jerusalem knew that he was lame, couldn't walk. They heal him in the name of Jesus and he jumps up. It says he leaps up and walks out.And then Peter and John are proclaiming that this is the work of Christ. This is the grace of God that has done this, repent and believe. And then the Pharisees come and arrest them and bring them and put them on trial. And after they hear what happened, they send them out. And this is where it picks up in acts chapter four, verse 15. It says, "But when they," the Pharisees, "Had commanded them," Peter and John, "To leave the council, they conferred with one another saying, what shall we do with these men for that a notable sign has been performed through them is evidence to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And we cannot deny it."The same word is the word evident. It's so clear that when you see someone who their whole life couldn't walk, jumps up and walk. You're like, "Oh, That's clear. I can't deny that." And the Pharisees wanted to deny it. This doesn't help their cause. They were trying to suppress the preaching of the gospel. They were trying to prevent people from proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ. This doesn't help their cause. So they want to deny it. But they can't. They're like we know this guy, the whole city of Jerusalem knew this guy. He was in the gates begging and his whole life, he couldn't walk. Now he can, it's clear.And that's the same way that God reveals himself to each and every one of us. It's plain. It's clear. It's undeniable. And this leads us into the question. One of the many pushbacks and many questions about Christianity is like, what about those who have never heard? What about those who live in a remote island or a remote part of the world where no missionary has ever been? Nobody has ever gone with the Bible and proclaimed the gospel. What about them? Well, what this text is saying is that God is revealing himself even to them.And actively, it says because God has shown it to them. God is actively involved. God doesn't want anybody to not know who he is. He is actively showing it to them. One of the craziest stories that I love when I think about this is the story of the Paumarí tribe and the Amazon, Paumarí, if you haven't heard of them, you should look up this story. It's incredible. But there's this small tribe in the Amazon of the Paumarí who live up this river. That's like black with gun and dirt and debris. It's hard to get to. And then they live in a lake village.And so there were people that decided they were going to be the first missionaries to go and preach the gospel to these people. So they gather their resources, their supplies, everything they need. And they go to get there. And they can't because of this river. And so they feel that God is calling them to sell everything that they had brought, all of the provisions, to get a boat ride, to get somebody who can make the journey for them up there. So they do. And it's the exact amount that they needed for a boat ride.And so then with nothing but the clothes on their backs, they go up this river and they get to this village. And the people of the village welcome them joyfully. They throw a feast and a party for them. One of the elder women of the community comes to them and says, "Why are you here? What are you here for? What are you doing?" And they say, "Well, we want to share with you the story of Jesus, the son of God who loves you and wants to save you." And she says, "Good. We have houses built for you."And they're like, "What?" And she said, "You don't know this, but we have radios. And a rogue radio wave came to us and we heard a sermon about a God who loves us and wants to save us. And we said, if this God is real, he'll clearly send people to help us. And so we built houses in preparation for you.'Let's not limit the ways God can reach people. He is all powerful. He is all knowing, all loving. He can reach anybody he wants to, he can reveal himself to anybody he wants to with or without us. We should still be faithful in proclaiming the gospel. Let's not stop that. Later, Paul says, "How are they to hear if no one preaches?" So we still need to preach. But it also says in verse 20, "For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made." This is saying is creation is crying out to reveal God to us. Creation is an example, is God showing us, "Look at how great I am." You can't deny God's existence when we look at creation, I challenge you to study the origins of science.I challenge you. I talked about this briefly in the first service and then someone, a brother came up to me and gave me even more information, praised God for him. And reminded me that we came at a time when people were worshiping odds over every specific area. And then Christians came and said, no, there's one, God, who's over all things, but he's a God of order and of design. And so we can know God through the order of creation. When we look at creation, we can understand who God is. So the first scientists that ever existed were studying creation to see the proofs of God.A small example of this, I don't know. Do you guys remember high school chemistry at all? Most of us probably blocked it out. But Boyle's law. I don't know if anyone remembers Boyle's law. I can't even tell you what it was about, but it's one of the fundamental principles in chemistry. In seminary, I was reading a book, a theological work by a guy named Boyle. And I was a like, who is this guy? What does he... I want to know more about him. This work is really good. And he is the guy who made Boyle's law that is named after him. Why is a theologian founding scientific laws? Well, because he knew that within it, he saw the greatness of the glory of God. He couldn't help, but look at creation in the world around him and be like this screams that God exists. The screams that God is here. And so we are without excuse.God is revealing himself to us. We are given his gospel. And even those who don't hear, he is actively revealing himself to, and all of creation testifies to the existence of God. And it says, so we are without excuse if we reject him. And that phrase without excuse is not like you got caught off guard and you weren't prepared to give an answer. So you're like tongue tied. It's not that you gave an excuse, but it wasn't good enough. It's that there's not even an option for excuses. It's the idea that when we get to heaven and stand... Well, when we get to the judgment throne of God, we stand before him and he doesn't say, "Why didn't you believe?" And then be like, "Oh, okay. I understand that reasoning or, oh, that wasn't good enough reasoning." That's not what happens when we get before the judgment seat of God, he says, "Did you believe? Or did you not?" No.No. Then you have to incur the wrath that we have is in bio disobeying God. Now, one of the main reasons why throughout history, we suppress this truth, even when it's so obvious to us is that we're arrogant and we're stubborn. I know I am arrogant and I am stubborn. You can ask my wife. But God calls us to stop being arrogant, and in the very next chapter in Romans chapter two, verse five, it says, "But because of your heart and I'm-penitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself. On the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed." I know many brothers and sisters in the church, not many. I do that to make everyone feel a little bit more anonymous. But there are some brothers and sisters in this church who I know that come every Sunday, that sings songs go to community group. And we're thankful that you do that. But that you don't call God Lord of your life, that you don't put him as king and ruler over your life.And there's excuse and reason after reason. And what I want to challenge you with guys, soften your hearts. Stop fighting against the truth of the gospel. Let the gospel change your life. I didn't say this first service, but I was thinking about it. The church I grew up in there's a pastor named Ted Martins. I'm very thankful for him. He had a huge impact on my life, specifically in love for scripture and love for debating, love for arguing the truth of scripture. But he had an example that I loved and has stayed with me my whole life. Says the gospel is like a lion. Now imagine that there's a lion and a cage behind me and I'm standing here like back up against the cage.You'd be like, "What are you doing? The lion's going to reach out and claw you. You're going to die. What are you doing?" And I'm saying, "No, no, I'm, I'm protecting the gospel. I'm protecting this lion." And he says, what we need to do is not stand and protect it. We need to let it out. We need to let the gospel come out and transform our lives. Change every single part of us. Come into the parts we don't want God to be in, reveal the truth of the gospel in us. And then we can stop suppressing the truth. Just let God work in you. Let him, he loves you. He sacrificed and gave up everything for you.He incurred God's wrath for you. Let him change your life. Now again, I said, I am stubborn. So I know that hardheaded, stubborn people don't stop doing things just by saying, don't do it. Again you could ask my wife. And so how do we actively stop suppressing truth? How do we actively stop being stubborn. It's by honoring and thanking God. This is verses 21 through 23, where it says "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. They became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the images, resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things."They're suppressing the truth because they did not honor God or give thanks to him. What do we mean when we say we need to honor God? What is honor? Honor is putting someone or something in the rightful place that they deserve. What does it means to honor God is to put him in his rightful place as king and ruler and Lord of our lives and Lord of all creation. That's what it means to honor God. So if you want to honor God, you first have to start by acknowledging God exists. Then you need to acknowledge that he is ruler. He is creator over all things, and you have to live in faithful obedience to him, let him change your life. And to give thanks to him. We don't do it begrudgingly. We don't do it because we have to.We actually realize, oh, the gospel spared me from God's wrath. Praise him. I'm alive because the gospel, because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God, you're a ruler of my life. Thank you. I'd be dead apart from you. You have something you want to command me to do and tell me to do all right, I'll do it. Because if I don't, I don't have any reason to live. I'm thankful that you allow me to live. So I'll do whatever it is that you tell me to do. Thank you. Thank you for life. Thank you for the ability to do anything. Thank you for creation that proclaims your goodness and your glory. Thank you.And when we don't. It says that we become futile in our thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Were darkened is not the idea of putting on sunglasses or closing the blind so it gets a little bit darker. It's the idea of complete and utter darkness. We see this in Matthew 24, verse 29, where it says "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. And the stars will fall from heaven and powers of the heavens will be shaken."It's the idea that there is no more manmade light. There's no sun, there's no moon. There's no more stars. Complete utter darkness. The darkness where your hand can be an inch in front of your face and you can't see it. That's what happens in our hearts when we reject God. It's not that God makes us darkened. It's that we reveal that our arts are dark as well. If you're here today, you're not a Christian. You're thinking, you're saying I have questions. I have doubts. I'm thinking about it. I'm on a journey.I want to ask you a question. If, hypothetical, it's not hypothetical, but hypothetically, if there is an all powerful God. A God who created all things, a God who willingly suffered for you to save you and offered you a free gift of salvation and you choose to reject it. What kind of a decision is that? Is that a smart one? It's not. It's not. And it shows that our thinking is futile. The word futile means useless. Shows that if we can't trust God with the most important thing in life, our thinking is flawed. Because of sin all of us start this way. So how does our hearts change from a darkened heart to one of light. That loves the truth, gives glory to God and thanks him. What changes?We need light. Revelation 22:4-5 says, "They will see his face," Jesus' face, "And his name will be on their foreheads and night will be no more. They will need no light or lamp or son for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever." How do we get rid of the complete utter darkness in us? We let Jesus come in and change our lives.We welcome Jesus into our life and say, "Jesus, I need you. You are light." And his light pierces all darkness, nothing will be hidden from him. He will expose all of it, help us, heal us, transform our lives, sanctify us when we let Jesus in. I beg of you, let Jesus into your heart. Let him transform your life. Verse 22, it similarly says "Claiming to be wise, they became fools." Again it's showing that when you say you're smart, but you reject God it shows how not smart you are.And then verse 23, "And exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." The word exchanged means understandably, giving up. You can't exchange something you don't know you have. And what God is saying is I offered you really my glory eternity with God, praise him for it. But we gave it up. We gave up the immortal glory. The word immortal we think of as only not dying, but that's part of it. But the other part of it is it's imperishable. It's untaintable. It can't be diminished, withered or hurt or destroyed in any way. God's glory is immortal. And we gave it up for what?For mortal, for perishable, for things that are on their way to death. And what was that? For man, for creeping things for... Sorry, for man and birds and animals and creeping things. This phrase at the end should immediately bring us back to Genesis 1, the story of creation, where these are the categories of the creatures God created on earth. And the idea here is that yes, throughout history, people have created images of these things. We read that in the beginning in Exodus. They created a calf, an animal. But it's also the idea of anything in creation. We exchanged the immortal glory of God for things in creation, for things God created, we worshiped creation over creator.So the question is, what do we put in the place that God alone deserves from his creation? Doesn't have to be just animals and birds and creeping things. What in creation takes the place of God in our lives. What are the things that we say, "I'm not going to listen to God on that. I'm not going to budge." What are the things that we say, "I can't believe in a God like that." Or, "I don't need to go to church today because I have more important things to do."I don't need to spend time with God and his word and praying to him because I'm just so busy. What are the things that we put in place of God in our lives? And what are we to do with them? We're to exchange them back, or to get rid of them. We're to give them up and say, "God, I don't want these things. I want you, I want your glory, I want your love, I want your grace, I want the gospel." Praise him for it. And if you're not a Christian, think of those same things and say, God, I don't care. Any of it. I'm changing my life. I'm submitting all of it to you.With this, I'd like to close. And if you know anything about preaching, when someone says, I'd like to close you got to at least 10 minutes left, but I'll try and be a little bit shorter than that. I'd like to close with a quote from Jonathan Edwards' sermon again, sinners in the hands of an angry God that he brings up at the end.Where he says, "And now you have an extraordinary opportunity a day wherein Christ has flung the door of mercy wide open and stands in the door, calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners. A day wherein many are flocking to him and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west, north, south many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are in now a happy state with their hearts filled with love to him who has love them and washed them from their sins and his own blood and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day, to see so many others feasting while you are pining and perishing. To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for so of heart and how for vexation of spirit. How can you rest one moment in such a condition. Are not your souls as precious as the souls of the people at Suffield where they are flocking from day to day to Christ."Suffield is another place where the gospel was being preached and people were being saved. And his point is the people he's preaching to your souls are just as valuable. If you're here today, you're not a Christian, God values your soul. He loves you. He willingly died to save you. Why put all off committing your life to him? Why, when you see the rejoicing.It says that wherein many flocking to him pressing into the kingdom of God and that we were not that long ago in the same state. There was a point in my life where I wasn't a Christian. I'm a Christian because God revealed his love to me because God showed the gospel to me. And I'm willingly submitting my life to him because he is worthy. And I could tell you, I rejoice. I praise him. I get to sing songs of praise to him. Again, the greatest parties are in heaven. God is great. I'm rejoicing. I want that rejoicing for you too. If you're not a Christian, let Jesus bear the wrath for you. Let him do it. Let the gospel transform your life. If you are a Christian, praise him, he has paid the penalty, has spared us from his wrath. Let's glorify him. Let's praise him. Let's honor him and rejoice. Let's pray.Heavenly father, Lord, we love you. Help us to love you. Lord, help us to no longer suppress the gospel in our lives. Let the gospel run free and reign in our lives. Let it transform us. Sanctify us. Make us more like you. Lord, we thank you that Jesus has spared us from your wrath. Lord, we ask that everyone here who is on the path of incurring your wrath, that you soften their heart and change them. Help them to see your love and your grace for them and spare them. Lord, we thank you and praise you that you are good. You are holy. You are honorable and praiseworthy. In Jesus' name, amen.

"There is an ancient tradition that the holy, righteous elder Symeon, who came from Egypt, was one of the Seventy learned Jews chosen in the days of the Pharoah Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 BC) for the task of rendering the Hebrew Bible into Greek, and that to Symeon was assigned the translation of the book of the Prophet Isaiah. When he reached the famous passage where the Prophet foretells the virgin birth of Christ, saying: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (Is. 7:14), he was so perplexed that he took a penknife to erase the word 'virgin' in order to replace it by 'young woman'. At that moment, an angel of God appeared and prevented him from altering the sacred text, explaining that what seemed impossible to him was, in fact, a prophecy of the coming into this world of the Son of God. To confirm the truth of this, he promised that Symeon would not see death until he had seen and touched the Messiah born of the Virgin. When, after many long years, Christ was brought into the Temple at Jerusalem by the All-Holy Mother of God, the Holy Spirit revealed to the Elder Symeon that the time of fulfilment of the promise had come. He hurried to the Temple and, taking the Child in his arms, he was able to say wholeheartedly to God: Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation (Luke 2:29). For indeed, the Elder Symeon was the living image of the ancient Israel of the Old Testament, which having awaited the coming of the Messiah was ready to fade away and give place to the light and truth of the Gospel. The relics of the holy and righteous Symeon were venerated at Constantinople in the church of St James, built at the time of the Emperor Justin.   "The prophetess Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, was eighty-four years old. Since the early death of her husband, she had spent her whole life in the Temple in hope of the coming of the Saviour. She is the pattern for holy widows, virgins and monks, who have freed themselves of worldly cares in order to dwell always in the Temple, offering their fasts, hymns and prayers in eager expectation of the Lord's coming. And when, like Anna and Symeon, they have seen the indwelling Christ with the eyes of their heart and touched Him through their spiritual senses, they proclaim with joy and assurance to all mankind that the Saviour is still coming into the world: A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel (Luke 2:32)." (Synaxarion)   The Synaxarion notes that the tradition that St Symeon was one of the Seventy is by no means universal among the Fathers. According to some, Symeon was the son of Hillel and father of Gamaliel, St Paul's teacher. According to others, he was a righteous and devout Jew aged 112, neither a priest nor a Pharisee.