Podcasts about pastor taylor

Pastor Taylor unfolds the grace of Christ revealed in 2 Samuel 9.

What is Spiritual Warfare? What are the devil's schemes? How do I recognize the powers of the world and spiritual forces? These questions and more are answered by Pastor Taylor this week in Catechism II.Follow us on Instagram @reallifechurchwa

What does the Bible say about women in ministry? Can women be pastors? What does the Bible say about women in leadership? All these questions and more, answered this week in Catechism II.Follow us on Instagram @reallifechurchwa

Thank you for joining us this week as Pastor Taylor leads us in another week of our series called Gentle and Lowly. In this series, we are learning more about the heart and character of Jesus. This week, we take a deeper look at justice. We hope you are encouraged and convicted by this message, and we can't wait to see you at church next week! As always — love God, love others and make disciples!

The truth of suffering is that it's an exercise in humility. We do not want to suffer because we do not think we should have to suffer. But Peter points directly at the One who deserved least of all to suffer. God Himself, suffered by becoming man, and humbled Himself all the way to the cross. How could we think we deserve better than our Lord? In this episode, Pastor Taylor finishes a series on suffering in 1 Peter 5:1-14.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Introduction: What is fasting? – Abstaining from food (and/or other things) for measured periods of time in order to heighten my hunger for the things of God. What Am I Really Hungry For? (Matthew 6:16–18) Am I hungry for ATTENTION ... (Matt 6:16) ...or am I hungry for GOD? (Matt 6:17–18) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Small Group DiscussionRead Matthew 6:16-18What was your big take-away from this passage / message?What is the purpose of fasting? Why do you think that fasting isn't more common in the American church?How would you describe the spiritual benefit of fasting to a believer who has never done it?How would you respond to someone who says “Due to my health issues, not eating is impossible for me.”?BreakoutPray for one another. AUDIO TRANSCRIPT Open your bibles to Matthew chapter 6.Are you there?Look, verse 1, "This is the greatest sermon ever preached,and here Jesus is talking about the heart of religion."And this is how this whole section starts."Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people.In order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven."Jesus says, "Beware of trying to impress people with your religious acts.Beware of doing your church stuff in a way that you want people's attention."And specifically, Jesus goes after three things here.He goes after giving and praying and fasting.And you know, anytime that I teach or preach about fasting,I always feel like I'm playing from behind.What I mean is people recognize giving and prayingas normal religious things that God's people do.Those are kind of no-brainers.But fasting?Well, look at verse 16.Look at the first phrase. Jesus says, "And when you fast..."Stop there. "When you fast..."You know what that phrase tells me?That phrase tells me that fasting is just as expected as giving.Fasting is just as expected as praying.Let's bow our heads. I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful, to communicate.A passage and a concept that's very simple and very hard at the same time.Pray for me and I will pray for you that our hearts would be open to receive what God wants to tell us today.Transform us, Father, by the power of Your Word.We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.Let's talk about fasting, shall we?Our culture is obsessed with food, have you noticed?Turn on the TV.If the commercial is not about a pharmaceutical, what's the commercial about?Food, right?Food. Get on social media.You'll find somebody took a picture of their hamburger.Right? We're obsessed with it.You know the thing that always fascinates me though?These eating contests. Have you ever seen those eating contests?You know the most famous one?Like the hot dog eating contests.How many people here show of hands have been in a hot dog eating contests?Nobody.They're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, have you ever been in an eating contest?"Yeah.And I won.It was eating a pie as fast as you can, hands free.And I won.I won a shop vac.That is a true story.And I needed that shop vac to clean up when I got sickafter eating a pie that fast without my hands.There's all kinds of eating contests.A taco eating contest. I think I could win that too.Wings. How about this one?An oyster eating contest.How many people would be up for that?A couple of you would.All right, Pastor Taylor, game on.Or here's an eating contest.I have no idea what this even is.Slug burger. A slug burger eating contest.Does anybody know what a slug burger is?Anybody?All right.We'll have to Google that one later. Not now, later.But I'm always fascinated by these eating contests.This one caught my eye.There was one eating contest.It was eating a 72-ounce steak.Do you know how much a 72-ounce steak is?That's 4.5 pounds of steak.And I read of this woman.A 120-pound woman ate the 72-ounce steak.And then she ate another one.And then she ate a third in 20 minutes.And with that, she also ate three baked potatoes,three shrimp cocktails, three salads,and three buttered rolls in 20 minutes.I read that.I'm like, you put butter on the rolls?Doesn't that seem excessive?But there's TV shows all about food.Like, you see these shows.They have all these shows about cake.Have you seen this?And it's not just like, what's the best tasting cake?It's like, well, I made a cake that looks like a footballor whatever.And then there's these shows where they travel all over theworld and they eat these exotic foods from all over the world.And we're sitting in our TVs watching people eat.And then you turn the channel.And on the other channel is a show called My 600-Pound Life.We're obsessed with food.And we live in a culture where we are constantly, constantlytaught that life is about consuming.But how much talk is there really about refusing consumption?So with that horrible backdrop, we're going to talk about fastingbecause this is what the Word of God addresses.So what is fasting?We have a definition here.What is fasting?Fasting is abstaining from food and/or other things.We'll explain that in a minute.Extaining from food and/or other things for measured periods oftime in order to heighten my hunger for the things of God.That's fasting.Fasting measured periods of time in order to heighten my hunger for the things of God.You see, Jesus, when He talks about giving, praying, and fasting, that's reallythree categories of things.Giving has to do with what you do with others.And praying is what you do with God.And fasting is what you do with yourself.Right?So there's different kinds of fasting.There's a normal fast that's just no food.Right?There's a partial fast where you only have maybe vegetables and juice.And there's an absolute fast where you have absolutely nothing.But you can and should also fast from other things.And we'll talk about that in a moment.But primarily, primarily, biblically, fasting is about food.Well, speaking of biblically, fasting is mentioned more than 77 times in the Old Testamentand the New Testament.It is almost always connected with prayer.You see fasting throughout the Bible, different occasions, like for example, repentance.I'm guilty of this sin.I need to turn from this sin.I'm going to fast and I'm going to pray in my repentance.In the same line of thinking, fasting accompanies mourning over sin.My personal sin, the sins of our culture, our country, we should be mourning.And part of mourning is fasting and praying.You see fasting in the Bible is seeking God at critical times.We need to fast because I really need to seek the Lord right now.Think Jesus in the wilderness.Right?Think the early church in the book of Acts.Now when you talk about fasting, you always have the person that comes along and says,"Well, you know, Pastor Jeff, fasting isn't explicitly commanded in the New Testament."And that's absolutely true.But something we can't get around is this.Jesus obviously assumed that we would fast.I mean right here, you're going to see in this passage today, twice He says, "When you fast."He says it again in Matthew chapter 9 and verse 15.He's assuming that His people would fast.Oh, and then as I said, by the way, the early church did.They fasted.Fasting though, to clarify our definition here, we're going to make sure we understandwhat it's not.Fasting is not self-punishment.Okay?It's not self-punishment.Fasting isn't like, "I've sinned.I've messed up."You know what?I'm not going to eat because I don't deserve to eat.And like you're sort of punishing yourself.That's not what fasting is about.It's not self-punishment.But fasting also is not self-serving.Meaning somebody could walk away from this service going, "Oh, you know, Pastor Jeff wastalking about fasting and I could stand to lose a couple of pounds.So I'll fast."That's not what it's about.Fasting also is not a bargaining chip.Like I need something from God.Oh, okay.I'll fast and then God will have to give me what I want.Talk more about that in a minute.Fasting is not something that makes you holy.All right?Listen, fasting is not even about getting God's attention.Understand that.Fasting is not, "Look!Look at me, God!I haven't eaten!Look at me!Look at me!"No, that's not what it's about.Fasting isn't about me trying to get God's attention.God noticed me.Fasting is about me noticing God.You see the difference?Fasting doesn't make your prayer more powerful.Fasting makes you more focused.Fasting is what I do when I need my entire concentration, all of my being.Every cell in my body focused on God.That's what fasting is.Because Christ's follower, listen, I know, I know, you want to focus on God.You do.But the problem is sometimes, if we're honest, and we should be, we want to focus on God,but sometimes we want other things more.You're like, "What do I do when what I know I should want is not the thing that I'm goingafter?What do I do?"You fast.Fasting is stopping the feeding of ourselves with other things to focus only on our relationshipwith God.Because here's the reality.Every day, every day of your life, you have the capacity to only consume so much.The capacity that you have to satisfy yourself is limited.Here's what I mean.Let's let this table here, this tabletop, let's let this represent you.Let this table represent you, your heart, your spirit.You realize every day of your life, you are filling yourself up with stuff.Now obviously as we talk about fasting, one of the things that we fill up, we satisfy ourselveswith is food, right?This isn't just life.This is mighty life, cereal.That's how we roll in our house.We fill ourselves up with food.I need to tell Aaron we need to get more pretzels.But we fill ourselves up.We're filling ourselves up.But it's not even just food, right?Think of how much stuff we fill ourselves with every day.For some of us, maybe it's sports.Like I'm on the church softball team, right?That's one of the things that I'm filling myself up with.I'm consuming myself with every day.Maybe it's not even just eating the food.Maybe it's preparing the food.So we have our magazine with the latest recipes and we're filling ourselves up with this stuff.Maybe some of us, we like to grow our food in the garden.We have our seeds here, right?But maybe we're filling ourselves up with that.What else are we filling our hearts, our minds, our souls with?For some of us, we're like, "Well, I've got to do my recreational reading, right?So I've got to make sure I get that into me."And oh, here's more seeds.And for some of us, it's like, "Well, I like to paint, so I've got to take time out."That's something that I fill myself up with, a hobby that I do.For some of us, it's exercise.You've got to make sure you get your reps in, right?Right, Dr. Andrew?We've got to make sure that we get our exercise in.That's something else.This is 6.6 pounds.That's why I'm so ripped.The first service last one, I said that.Can you believe those jerks?For some of us, you're on the golf course, right?That's something that we fill ourselves with, right?For some of us, maybe you're a gamer.You spend time during the day playing your video games.It's something you're consuming.I don't mean to show off, but this is Pac-Man from PlayStation 2.Not the old PlayStation.This is PlayStation 2.That's cutting edge, right?We fill ourselves up.Do you see where we're going with this?We're constantly filling ourselves.Oh, and it's not even just that, because we've got to make sure we entertain ourselves, right?With movies.This is a DVD.I had to explain to the first service what a DVD was.Before streaming, this is a shiny circle that you stick in a machine that plays a movie.This particular one was a gift.It's called The Masked Saint.It's about a pastor who becomes a pro wrestler.Have you ever heard such a stupid thing?But we've got to get our intake of entertainment, right?Do you see how much stuff we're taking in?Do you see?That's not it.How much time do we spend on our computers?We've got to get that in, don't we?Am I forgetting anything?Oh, yeah.How about this little guy?How much time a day do we spend filling ourselves with content from this?Do you see the point over the course of a day how much are you filling yourself with?Your body, your mind, your belly, your spirit, you're constantly, constantly, constantly,constantly consuming.Now, we're going to let this glass cross represent our walk with Jesus.This represents your relationship with Jesus Christ, your personal walk with Him.Now, do you see a problem?We have to...Well, that's...You see a problem?Now we're so full of stuff that we don't have any room left for the thing that really matters.And that's our walk with the Lord.So do you see the purpose of fasting?You know, if fasting does...Fasting just...Fasting takes everything off the table and says the only thing that I'm going to focuson is my walk with Christ.The only thing that my heart, my mind, my attention is getting is my personal walk withthe Lord.That's the purpose of fasting.So on your outline, I want you to draw a couple of things down here.The question is, what am I really hungry for?What am I really hungry for?Number one, am I hungry for attention?Am I hungry for attention?Right?Look at verse 16.Jesus says, "And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they just figuretheir faces that they're fasting may be seen by others.Truly I say to you, they have received their reward."Am I hungry for attention?Jesus calls out to Pharisees.He says, "When they fast, they look gloomy.They disfigure their faces."You know the Pharisees in Jesus, they fasted twice a week.Like, why did they do that?Well, that wasn't commanded in the Old Testament.Like, well, why did they do that?Jesus tells us why they did that.They were putting on a show.That's why.He tells us that they may be seen by others.Actually, the Pharisees in Jesus, they would literally put ashes over their eyes becausethey were all in on the performance.They wanted to make sure that people knew.And when people knew that they were fasting, they were like, "Oh, you don't look so good.What's going on?Well, I'm fasting."You're fasting?Wow.Wow, you are really, you're a really devoted believer.You're a really religious person.Wow.Wow.And that little pat on the back there, that little, as Pastor Taylor calls it, the attaboy, that little thing, Jesus goes, "There's your reward."Have fun with that.It's like giving.It's like praying.We can become tempted to fast with the wrong motive.See, the fasting is supposed to be about seeking God, not human applause.And look, let's just be real.We love the attention.There is something deep down in every one of us that loves the attention, and that'sthe problem with hypocrisy.The problem with hypocrisy is it works.I mean, we've all been there.Someone makes a comment about how devoted we are.Someone sees how religious we must be, and we start to feel pretty good about ourselves.Jesus says, "Beware."Beware.Like, well, what about corporate fasting?I mean, others have to know about that, right?Well, yeah, there's New Testament examples of corporate fasting, Acts chapter 13, Actschapter 14.Now look, here's the thing with that.It's not about whether or not other people know.It's about whether or not you want them to know.See the difference?There's a difference between being seen fasting and fasting in order to be seen.That's how it is with corporate fasting.That's how it is with private fasting.When I fast, I tell Aaron, "Why?"Not because I want her applause, but because she feeds us, right?Oh, and by the way, it'd be a pretty impossible thing for me to hide from her, right?She's going to notice if I go days without eating.The point Jesus is driving us to is the motives.The motives.It's a hard issue.It's the same as giving, and it's the same as praying.It's the same point if you're looking for praises from man, don't look for anything from God.So what am I really hungry for?Am I hungry for attention?Or am I hungry for God?According to verses 17 and 18, Jesus said, "But when you fast, anoint your head and washyour face that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in secretand your Father who sees in secret will reward you."So here Jesus is saying, "Look, on the other hand, instead of making yourself look likeyou're dying, anoint your head and wash your face."Oh, by the way, it goes without saying, right?You don't make that a show, right?Like I shouldn't come to church and catch you in the men's room at the sink washing yourface.Like, "Joe, why are you washing your face?"Oh, I'm fasting and being obedient to our Lord.Like you could make that a show.Obvious point, right?Jesus says don't leave any physical clues that you're fasting.It's like giving, it's like praying, make it a secret, make it between you and God.And He sees and He rewards according to Jesus.He rewards.Listen, reward does not mean, reward does not mean that God owes you one now.Like look, God, I starved myself for you.I sacrificed eating for you, God.No, you have to do what I want.Look, God never works like that.Do you realize anything at all that we have from God is grace?It's all grace.Your salvation in Christ, believing that Jesus died for your sins, believing He rose to giveyou eternal life.If you've received Him, if you are saved, it is only by the grace of God that you aresaved.The gift of the Holy Spirit, God indwelling His people.It's a gift.It's grace.You know, God does not run a swap meet.To say, you do for me, then I do for you.That's not how it works.And that's not how it works with fasting.So like, what is the reward?The reward is connecting with God.The reward is connecting with God because you're seeking Him in a very deliberate way.You have taken off anything else that could distract you because you want to focus solelyon your relationship with Him.And someone would say, "Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, time out."You're telling me that if I choose not to eat or I choose to abstain from other thingsand instead use that appetite and use that time to seek the Lord, you're telling me thatif I do that, that something spiritual will happen.Yeah.Yeah, that's exactly what I'm telling you.Look, I know I could never fully explain it.And it's hard to understand, but you will understand it if you do it.If you do it for the right reason.That's what I want to encourage you.I'm sure there are people here that have never fasted for spiritual reasons in their lives.I want to encourage you to try it.Can you just, as a simple act of obedience, as a simple God, this is what your Word said,so I want to respond in obedience.Can you do that?Now look, you can modify.Like maybe you say, "You know what, I've never done this before, but this week I'm goingto take a few days and I'm going to skip lunch."And instead of eating at lunchtime, I'm going to spend that time reading a passage fromGod's Word and praying to God.I'm going to do that instead this week.Can you do that?You can do that.Or maybe you say, "You know what, I've never had an extended fast, but this week I'm goingto spend one day.I'm going to spend just two days with nothing but water, and instead I'm going to seek theLord over something very specific."You can do that.Because look, if you're sitting here going, "Oh, I hear what He's saying, but you knowwhat, I don't know if I could skip a meal.Like I don't know.I don't know if I could go without eating."Well, that might be a commentary on which appetite really controls you.Are you hungry enough for God that you're willing to forego consuming food and/or otherthings to focus solely on seeking Him?Because if you're finding that focusing on your walk with Christ has been difficult.If you're finding that lately you really haven't had much of an appetite for prayer that youknow you should.If you're finding like, "In this chapter of my life right now, this season of my lifethat I'm in, I haven't really been seeking the Lord as I know He calls me to."If any of these describe you, I want to encourage you to use this gift that God has given andredirect your appetite.This is the heart of religion.God wants your heart.And true religion comes from a heart that wants God.I'm sure some of you have picked up on this, which you realized for the last three weeksbetween Pastor Taylor and I.We've basically preached the exact same sermon three times.Why?Because our goal is to represent the text and really it's the exact same formula inall three things that the Lord calls us to.It's the same sermon.Here it is.If you give, pray, or fast in order to be seen by others, you're going to miss God's reward.But if you do them in secret, God sees in secret and He will reward you.Oh, and there are rewards for a faith that says, "I'm not looking for man's applause.All I'm looking for is God's reward."And with fasting, God is the reward.Let's pray.Father in heaven, we confess before you as a church that we don't seek you as we shouldtoo often.The Father, we've allowed other things to crowd our hearts and our minds and our bellies.We very diligently distract ourselves from what's most important.So Father, I pray that we would be hit with, for some of us it's an old concept that weneed renewed.And for some I'm sure this is a brand new concept.Father, let us take a serious and honest and hard look at your word and that we would fastas our Lord assumed that we would, but with motives that honor you.Father put it in our hearts and minds.Make us feel how desperately we need you.Let us match that desperation with how hard we seek after you.We pray in Jesus' name.

Dios no se atrasa, ni se olvida. A veces pensamos que nuestro momento ya pasó, pero la espera no significa ausencia. Caleb dijo: “Tal como el Señor prometió, él me ha mantenido con vida por cuarenta y cinco años más” (Josué 14:10), y seguía creyendo. ¿Por qué? Porque entendía que las promesas de Dios no expiran con la edad ni con las circunstancias. Lo que parece una demora, es en realidad la sabiduría de un Dios que actúa a su tiempo, no al nuestro.

Although suffering in this life is everywhere and everyone experiences it, we always seem surprised by it. Every new problem we face, we ask the question, "why is this happening to me?" But Christians are told to expect trials. To expect them and even to rejoice in them. In this episode, Pastor Taylor talks about examining the reason for our suffering in 1 Peter 4:12-19.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

What is the Five-Fold ministry? What does it mean to be an evangelist, teacher, prophet, apostle and pastor? Which gift do I have? What does this mean for me and my family? Pastor Taylor answers these questions and more in this week's message.Follow us on Instagram @reallifechurchwa

What is the will of God for my life? This is the question we spend so much of our time asking. How do I know what God wants me to do? Wait! Don't panic! The Bible tells you exactly what God's will for your life is. In this episode, Pastor Taylor talks about the will of God in 1 Peter 4:1-11.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

What is water baptism? Is there a specific way I need to go about it? Does my baptism need to "take" in order for me to be saved? All these questions, as well as the biblical definition of baptism and the reminder that it is a quantifier, not a qualifier, are answered in this week's message of Catechism IIFollow us on Instagram @reallifechurchwa

Pastor Taylor Shippy - 1 Samuel 11:1-15This morning, we wrestle with the tension of anger appearing to be a Fruit of the Spirit. As a crisis unfolds in ancient Israel, God's Spirit rushes upon the newly appointed King Saul—and he becomes angry.But how do we reconcile God's Spirit and human anger? Are they incompatible? What does righteous fury actually look like?Pastor Taylor invites us to examine the anger of God—and consider what it might mean to be angry like God: slow, just, and rooted in love.

Human suffering is undeniable. It is the shared experience of all of humanity to suffer. The world spends all of its energy trying to reduce and avoid suffering. Christianity has a different approach. Our God has conquered suffering. In this episode, Pastor Taylor talks about the King over suffering in 1 Peter 3:8-22. Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

What is Pentecost? What does it mean? When does it happen? Why is it important? What is continuitionism? These questions and more get answered with Pastor Taylors week two of catechism II!Follow us on Instagram @reallifechurchwa

The only path to true freedom is finding the right authority to serve. We examine the stark reality that we will all be servants of something—either sin leading to death or righteousness leading to life. • Paul confronts the misconception that grace gives us license to sin• Christians have both a positional righteousness and a progressive righteousness• True freedom isn't found in having no master but in having the right master• Our past sins don't define us—our new identity in Christ does• The free gift of salvation truly has no strings attached• Christian obedience should flow from delight rather than duty• We follow God's commands not because we "have to" but because we "get to"• Serving Christ transforms our perspective on obedienceIf you want to explore a relationship with Christ or join our church family, please come to the front after the service and speak with Pastor Taylor.

Pastor Taylor kicks off our Catechism II series with a message on the meaning behind and importance of COMMUNION.Follow us on Instagram @reallifechurchwa

Pastor Taylor Shippy - 1 Samuel 7:7-13What is an Ebenezer—and should we have one?In this sermon, we journey to a moment when the prophet Samuel sets up a stone and names it Ebenezer, declaring, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.” But this isn't just ancient history—it's an invitation. Pastor Taylor explores how Ebenezers—both shared and personal—help us remember where God has shown up in our lives and renew our trust that He's not done yet. We reflect on the power of spiritual memory, the danger of forgetting, and the grace of a God who meets us again and again.

"The grace of God is not a license to sin, but a license to live." These powerful words from Pastor Taylor Guerin frame a transformative exploration of Romans 6, where we confront one of Christianity's most challenging paradoxes: If God's grace always rises above our sin, shouldn't more sin simply produce more grace?Drawing from Paul's emphatic response, Pastor Taylor guides us through the radical transformation that occurs when we come to Christ. Using the powerful imagery of baptism, he illustrates how believers experience both a "spiritual obituary" and a "spiritual birth certificate" - the old self dies, and a completely new creation emerges.This sermon doesn't shy away from difficult questions. While no believer would openly suggest sinning more to receive more grace, our actions often betray this very mindset when we willfully disobey with the assumption of forgiveness. Through personal stories and biblical insights, Pastor Taylor challenges us to examine where we might still be clinging to our "old address" instead of embracing the freedom of our new life.Whether you're struggling with persistent sin, wondering about the purpose of baptism, or seeking to understand the relationship between God's grace and our daily choices, this message offers practical guidance for your spiritual journey. You'll discover why motivation matters in overcoming sin, how the Holy Spirit empowers transformation, and what it truly means to be "dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."For believers feeling defeated by recurring sin patterns and those who haven't yet experienced new life in Christ, this message offers both challenge and hope. God's grace doesn't just cover our sin—it transforms our very relationship with it.

Do you realize how much God loves you? He does not only love you in eternity. He also loves you right here and right now. We serve a God who loves us like a son and wants to give us peace and prosperity. This week Pastor Taylor talks about eternal promises of God in Genesis 49:1-33.Get connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

The Bible never talks about dating. That is because dating is a cultural expression of how we end up married. The Bible's concern is how we put the Gospel on display in marriage. If we would focus on that Gospel centered result, dating appropriately wouldn't be so confusing. In this episode, Pastor Taylor talks about the incorruptible quality of the Gospel in marriage in 1 Peter 3:1-7.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Pastor Taylor Guerin explores Romans 5 to illustrate how Christ's redemptive work overcomes the curse of Adam's fall, offering hope and transformation to all who believe.• The life of John Newton demonstrates how Jesus transforms even the "chief of sinners"• Through Adam, sin and death entered the world and spread to all humanity• We are not just sinners because we sin; we are born into a sinful condition• Christ's obedience brings justification where Adam's disobedience brought condemnation• God's grace can reach deeper than sin ever could—there is no such thing as "too far gone"• The righteousness Christ provides leads not just to transformed lives now but to eternal life• Newton's hymn "Amazing Grace" emerged from his personal experience of God's transforming powerIf you want to discuss a relationship with Jesus or make any decision of faith, Pastor Taylor welcomes you to come speak with him anytime.

The physical world can help us understand spiritual truths. The problem is we often just let it distract us from seeing anything spiritual at all. If we began to use our physical reality to understand and seek God we would see His hand everywhere. This week Pastor Taylor talks about seeing the faithfulness of God everywhere in Genesis 37 and 38.Get connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Please note: The audio quality in the first few minutes of this recording is poor, but it improves significantly once the sermon begins. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience. —The Audiovisual Team We live in a culture that prizes independence, yet many feel lonelier than ever. Social media has replaced deep and lasting relationships. This kind of individualism, like a black hole, quietly drains the life out of us—leaving us empty, cold, and isolated. But there's a better way.In this sermon, Pastor Taylor walks us through Ecclesiastes 4:4–16 to show how we can move from the bitter life alone, to the better life together, and ultimately to the best possible life—life under the good King Jesus. If you're tired of chasing independence and hungry for something more, this message points the way.Time:MorningMinister:Rev. Taylor KernTexts:Ecclesiastes 4:4–16Series:Ecclesiastes

How are Christians supposed to view our relationships? When do I stand up for myself? When do I put others first? Peter frames all our relationships against Christ's sacrifice for us. This week, Pastor Taylor talks about sacrificial living in 1 Peter 2:18-25.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

What are you enslaved to? You will give yourself to something or someone in this life, but only God's man can give you life. Many others will promise life only to take it. This week Pastor Taylor talks about the source of life in Genesis 47:1-27. Get connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Introduction: Two Problems Jesus Has with Divorce (Matthew 5:31–32): Divorce TRIVIALIZES MARRIAGE. (Matt 5:31) Genesis 2:24 – Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Deuteronomy 24:1–4 – When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the LORD. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance. Divorce RESULTS In ADULTERY. (Matt 5:32) Ephesians 5:24–25 – Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her... Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Small Group DiscussionRead Matthew 5:31-32 & Mark 10:2-12What was your big take-away from this passage / message?What are some beliefs you've heard Christians believe about divorce and remarriage? How do these line up with Scripture?Explain what Jesus meant in Matt 5:32, how someone's divorce even leads to other people committing adultery.How exactly would you counsel a trusted Christian friend who is considering divorce?BreakoutPray for one another. Audio Transcript Matthew chapter 5, are you there?This section we are in on the Sermon on the Mount is about the heart of God's law.And we saw that Jesus said, "I didn't come to abolish the law or destroy the law."That's what we would call the Old Testament.Jesus said, "I didn't come to do away with the Old Testament."He said, "I came to carry out everything that was said in it."It's not irrelevant at all.And through this section you're going to see, as we've already seen many times, Jesus says,"You have heard that it was said, but I say to you."And when Jesus says that, what He's saying is, "You've lowered God's standard."And Jesus is correcting them, and He's correcting us when we take the Word of God and just makeit purely external.God wants your heart.God wants your heart.That's what we saw a couple of weeks ago.Pastor Taylor taught us, Jesus said, "Murder isn't just the physical act of killing someone.It's a heart issue."We saw last week adultery is not just the physical act.It's a heart issue.And in these verses we're looking at today, Jesus is continuing His teaching on the destructivenessof adultery.And today we're going to talk about divorce.And look, there's so much controversy on this topic.And if we're going to be honest, the controversy doesn't come really from God's Word becausethe Bible is clear.The reason there's so much controversy is because if you are a divorced person, thisgets very personal and it gets very painful.And look, I've done so many weddings over the past 20-some years, so many weddings.And I can tell you emphatically that nobody gets into marriage wanting a divorce.That doesn't happen.I've never seen the wedding ceremony where the vows include something like, "I can'twait to be done with you."Or "I love you today, but in six months I will hate you more than anybody on the planet."Nobody thinks that.Nobody expects that.And when divorce happens, it's always, it's just always so painful.And we get through a passage like, "Look, I know some of you are going to be temptedto tune out because you're going to think, 'Well, you know what, Jeff, you don't knowmy circumstances.'And you're right.I don't.I don't know your circumstances."And I'm certainly not trying to be dismissive of the pain that you've gone through.And I'm certainly not trying to be judgmental for what brought about your divorce if that'syour situation.And I'm also keenly aware that I cannot exhaust everything that the Bible says on the subjectin just one sermon.What I want us all to do, it's nothing new.I just want us to do what we do every week.We're just going to take a giant step back and we're going to see what our Lord sayson the subject.And we're going to see Jesus speaks on divorce here.And I can't undo anything that happened in the past, nor can you as much as we mightwant to.It's gone.But I'm hoping with this message that we can prevent any future pain and hurt that comesfrom divorce.So let's look at Matthew chapter 5, looking verses 31 and 32.Jesus says, "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate ofdivorce.'But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality,makes her commit adultery and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."What is going on in these verses?Well, first of all, look at verse 31.Jesus says, "It was also said," what?Jesus gives a quote, "Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce."You're like, is that what the Old Testament says?Ish.Here's the problem.This statement was used by the scribes and the Pharisees as a gross misrepresentationof a passage in the Old Testament.So does the Old Testament say that?Yeah, it kind of does, but they took a direction that the Lord never intended it to go.The scribes and the Pharisees took a passage from Deuteronomy, we're going to look at herein a few moments, and they twisted it for their own purposes.Jesus says, "But I say to you," and this is one of the most difficult verses in yourBible.Jesus says, "I say, everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexualimmorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commitsadultery."So here's the short version.See the scribes and the Pharisees, as I said, twisted this passage in Deuteronomy, and theyreduced it to this.Look, divorce and remarriage is okay as long as it's legal.As long as you do the paperwork, it's fine.It's just fine.It is just fine.And I think it's obvious that Jesus did not agree with their assessment because He saiddivorce leads to adultery.That's the short version.So let's unpack that a little bit today.On your outline, excuse me, we're just very simply calling this "two problems Jesus haswith divorce."All right, let's look at these two verses very intently, and we see there's two problemsthat Jesus has with divorce.Number one, write this down, divorce trivializes marriage.Divorce trivializes marriage.That's the problem.Quick review, marriage was defined once and for all to the first two people that God created,Adam and Eve.And I know there have been attempts to redefine marriage.It doesn't matter.God defined marriage once and for all.With the first two people that He created, Adam and Eve, and the most important versein your Bible on marriage is Genesis 2.24.It says, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to hiswife, and they shall become one flesh."That's the most important verse in the Bible about marriage.And I can say that emphatically because when Jesus was asked about marriage and divorce,this was the verse He quoted, Matthew 19, Mark chapter 10, when the Apostle Paul waswriting about marriage and divorce and husband and wife issues, this was the verse He quoted,1 Corinthians chapter 6, Ephesians chapter 5.God's plan in marriage is two people turning into one person.That's the plan.There's not a relationship on the earth like that.Not a business partnership.Not members of a sports team.There's nothing like the marriage relationship.This was God's intention of marriage in the very beginning.I want two people to turn into one person.And when you study Genesis, you'll see divorce was never part of God's original design formarriage.Like, "All right, well, if it wasn't part of God's plan, where did divorce come from?Where did this idea for divorce come from?"So allowance was made for divorce in the Old Testament law.I want you to look at this.We're going to put this passage on the screen.I want you to look at it very closely because this is the passage that's in question herewhere Jesus is confronting the scribes and the Pharisees.This is from Deuteronomy chapter 24.Because, again, Law of Moses here, when a man takes a wife and marries her, if thenshe finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her and he writesher a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house andshe departs out of his house and she goes and becomes another man's wife and the latterman hates her and writes her certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sendsher out of his house.Or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, whosent her away, that's husband number one, may not take her again to be his wife aftershe has been defiled for that as an abomination before the Lord.And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for aninheritance.Now listen, it's a tough passage but we're going to get through this together.Here's what Moses was saying.Divorce had to have a cause.And here it's defined in the Law as some "indecency."It could have been a natural or a moral or a physical defect or whatever.It had to be something that they categorized as unclean, whatever that is.This limited the possible reasons for divorce.This was the purpose, understand.The reason Moses wrote this Law was so that a man couldn't just divorce his wife for anyreason whatsoever.Just make up some excuse, something frivolous.I'm just divorcing you because I feel like it.I don't like the meatloaf you made or I don't like your new haircut or those shoes lookhorrible.You can't just willy nilly divorce your wife.Moses is saying, "Look, there has to be a reason for the divorce."So this was actually to emphasize the importance of marriage.Like, well why would he allow the divorce then?Why go through this?Don't miss this.The purpose of divorce in this case in Deuteronomy 24 was to protect the woman.You see, when you give her the certificate of divorce, that woman had legal proof that,listen, she was dismissed from the marriage but it was not because she was unfaithful.You see that certificate for the woman showed, "Look, I did not have an affair.My husband found something wrong with me and dismissed me but it wasn't because I wasunfaithful."That's what's going on in Deuteronomy 24.But I want you to see here, listen, because this is where the Pharisees and the scribesmissed it.In Deuteronomy 24, there is not a command to divorce.That passage is just simply describing a scenario.In that passage, if we're going to boil it down, we would say this, they were told towrite a certificate of divorce if there was a divorce.The only command that you see in this passage, the only one in that passage is this, if youdivorce your wife, you cannot take her back if she's rejected by her next husband.Or if he croaks, you cannot take her back.Again, the reason for this was to protect the woman.It was to keep women from being used and discarded.It was to keep men who are hogs admittedly, it's to keep men from saying, "You know what?I'm going to try out women."But you know what?My first wife was better than this one.So I'm going to get rid of her and I'm going to take the first one back because I preferredher.That's a horrible, horrible way to treat a woman.See, that's the heart of the law here.Like God's like, "No, no, no, no, no, you're not going to treat women that way, men.This isn't a high school relationship, boyfriend, girlfriend, on again, off again.No, no, no, no, no, no.We're not treating women like that.Marriage is a very serious covenant and you're not going to just have a woman on a leashwhere you let her go and you anchor back and let her go and you anchor back.No, you are not allowed to do that."That's the heart of the law here.Deuteronomy 24 was intended to stop divorce from happening willy-nilly.Everybody on board with me now.Okay, because now I want you to see how the scribes and the Pharisees twisted it.Look at verse 31 again in Matthew chapter 5.Jesus quotes them.He says, "It was also said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate ofdivorce."What the scribes and the Pharisees did was through their twisting this passage, theyactually made it say the opposite of what God intended.They used this passage to justify easy divorce, that you can get a divorce for any reasonat all so long as the paperwork is done.That's what they reduced this to.Like, well look, you studied the Old Testament, it tells you very plainly.If you get a divorce, make sure that all the documents are filled out appropriately.That's really all that matters, right?That's all that matters.Just that we signed on the right line and we crossed our T's and we dotted our I's.That's really what matters.As long as you do the paperwork, as long as the divorce is legal, hey, everybody's goodwith that because everything's above board then, right?I mean, I'm not like one of those illegal divorcers, right?You know, that I get some janky, unofficial, illegal divorce document from online, fromthe dark webs.I'm not like that guy.You better be sure that when I get a divorce, it's done right.That was their mindset.The Law of Moses commands divorce to be done legally, so make sure that you do it right.And see, that's Jesus' problem with their attitude.He says your attitude about divorce trivializes marriage.And you have justified in your mind the mistreatment of women in the name of making sure the paperworkis filled out properly.That's not what the Law is about, Jesus is saying.Now, over the years, I have heard all kinds of unbiblical justifications for people wantinga divorce.And I don't even have time to get into all that today.And we're going to get to the biblical reason for divorce in a moment.But we need to stop here and say, listen, marriage should not be taken so lightly amongGod's people.The scribes and the Pharisees were so diligent to make sure that the divorce was done right.We church should be so diligent to make sure that the marriage is done right.So that's the first problem Jesus has with divorce.You trivialize marriage.You trivialize marriage.Not on board with that.But here's the second problem Jesus says I have with your attitude towards divorce.Scribes, Pharisees, church in 2025, divorce results in adultery.Look at verse 32 again.Like I said, this is a difficult verse.But this is what our Lord said.Jesus said, but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the groundof sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery.And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.So Jesus is saying, listen, with divorce, even when the paperwork is done properly, divorceleads to nothing but more and more adultery.And I think one of the troubling things about this passage is I could see in my mind thatI make choices that cause me to be guilty and suffer consequences for my own choices.But it's very clear here in verse 32, Jesus is saying that a choice for a divorce resultsin other people being guilty of sin.That's a tough pill to swallow, but that's what He said.What does He mean?In Deuteronomy 24, that passage we just looked at, when the woman was divorced for somethingless than sexual immorality, which by the way, sexual immorality breaks the bond of marriage,but in the Deuteronomy 24 case, she was divorced for something less than that, right?Jesus said, even when you divorce for less than sexual immorality, that still makes foran adulterous situation.Jesus said the divorced wife moves on, she consummates a new union when there was nogrounds to break the first one, and if you do that, if you divorce like that, you arenow guilty of adultery, and whoever marries that woman is guilty of adultery, and whoevermarries you is guilty of adultery.And Jesus is saying when you unbiblically break the marriage covenant and people gooff and get remarried, He says now we've resulted in more and more adultery happening in otherpeople.That's what He said.He says now everybody's guilty.So what Jesus is saying to the scribes and the Pharisees is that you could sit here andsay, "Oh, I'm not an adulterer.I have never slept with another man's wife.I have never committed adultery."Jesus says you shouldn't think that way.Actually, you've made adultery worse because you have such a shallow view of divorce.Jesus said you lowered God's standard because all you're focused on is the external.I didn't commit adultery.Jesus said you did.You commit adultery when you look at a woman lustfully.It proves that you already had adultery in your heart.And furthermore, when you divorce without biblical grounds, which Jesus says is sexualimmorality, Jesus said you have committed adultery and you've made her and you've made her newhusband commit adultery too.Your sin not only affects you, but it affects so many more people than just you.And I really don't have to sell people who have experienced divorce how far reachingthe damage goes.The pain is not limited to just the two people in the marriage.I mentioned biblical grounds for divorce.Biblically, now looking at the whole counsel of God, I believe that there is one biblicalgrounds for divorce and it's hardheartedness.Like wait, wait, wait, wait.How do you know when somebody is heart-hearted?Because it would be real easy, right?You're like, "I'm divorcing you because I think you're heart-hearted."Like how do you know that somebody is heart-hearted?Biblically, heart-heartedness in a marriage manifests in two ways.One is abandonment.I don't have time to get into all this today, but just jot down 1 Corinthians 7 verse 15.Abandonment.When you have a spouse who just walks out of the marriage, "I'm not willing to counsel,I'm not willing to reconcile, I'm not willing to consider anything, I'm leaving you, I don'tcare.I am done."Abandonment.My best understanding from Scripture is that is biblical grounds for divorce.When you've tried, but your partner is completely unwilling.That gives evidence that their heart is so hard, they're not willing at all to investin a covenant.Abandonment.And the other evidence of heart-heartedness in marriage, well Jesus references here,and that's adultery.Your heart is so hard towards your spouse that you were willing to physically sleepwith somebody else.It's evidence of a heart-hearted.I want you to listen very closely because even these conditions, even the issue of adulterydoes not obligate anyone to divorce.Because you study God's Word.God's Word never condones divorce and it never commands divorce.There is not one passage in your Bible where God says, "If this happens, I command my peopleto get a divorce."That it is legitimate in abandonment and adultery, but it's still not commanded.So if you're married, you should do everything that you can to avoid divorce.See the scribes and the Pharisees, they live their marriages with one hand over the ejectseat button.It's like I'm not happy with you for any reason.I am done.Jesus said, "No, no, no, no, no, that's not how it should be.You should do everything you can to avoid divorce."You're like, "Well, what about abuse?What if I'm in a relationship where there's abuse that absolutely should not be happening?"And listen, if you're in an abusive situation, you need to let me know as soon as possible.Because we will protect you.We will get you out of harm's way.We will do everything to keep you from being abused.That should not be happening.Somebody else would say, "Well, what about neglect?What about detachment?What about my husband's a lazy bum?Do not be too proud to get biblical counsel.Because there's something else I've seen over the last two and a half decades or so.No marriage is beyond saving.I've seen couples come in hours away from filing for divorce whose marriage ended upin a better place than it ever has been through the result of the ministry of the Word ofGod.If both parties are willing, the marriage can be saved.And when we talk about, yes, abuse and neglect and things like that, we have to readily admitthat there are extreme cases that require extreme action, 100%.But in our day, like in Jesus' day, the vast majority of divorces weren't because of that.The vast majority of divorces were motivated by sinful, selfish desires.The vast majority of divorces result from people treating people like used cars.Like, "Well, this one isn't working out for me.I thought I would like it, but I'm not really digging it anymore.I'm just going to trade it in."That's most divorces.And Jesus says, "Now, you've reduced the marriage covenant.You've trivialized it.You've made it purely external.And now, as a result, all kinds of adultery is happening because you're unwilling to takemarriage seriously."That should not be among God's people.It's a hard passage.What I want us to do, just so I don't want anybody to think that this is some oddballpassage, this is a one-off.Because I want you to turn to Mark chapter 10, because what I want you to see here isJesus teaching the exact same thing, but in a different context.In Mark chapter 10, the context, you'll see they were testing Jesus.They were trying to trap Jesus.They were always trying to trap Jesus.And they thought, "Oh, we know how to trap Jesus.We'll ask Him about marriage and divorce.That'll get them for sure.Why?"Well, you know the story of John the Baptist.He objected to a marriage and divorce, and he lost his head.And I go, "We get Jesus on that.They'll get them for sure.We'll trap them."So I want you to see, now we have context, but I want you to see Jesus teaching the exactsame thing, but in a different context.Mark chapter 10, verse 2, "The Pharisees came up and in order to test Him asked, 'Is it lawfulfor a man to divorce his wife?'"They're like, "We got them.We got them."Slam dunk.Because, see, if Jesus says no, we're like, "Oh, you disagree with the Old Testament,which tells us to get a divorce."If Jesus says no, you shouldn't get a divorce, rather.You're disagreeing with the Old Testament.If Jesus says, "Oh, yeah, you can get a divorce.Oh, now Jesus is taking marriage lightly, and we're going to get Him either way."You know, Jesus is disregarding the serious system of marriage, or He's disregarding whatthe Old Testament says about divorce.We got them.We got them."Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"I love this.Jesus answered them, "What did Moses command you?"Jesus is like, "What's the Bible say?"Turned it back on them.They said, "Look at this.Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away."Do you see?It's about the stinking paperwork again.That's all they were fixated on.Yeah, Moses said, "Fill out form A-27, and you're good."Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart," there it is, "because of yourhardness of heart," He wrote to this commandment."But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and thetwo shall become one flesh."Sound familiar?Genesis 2.24.And Jesus comments on it.He says, "So they're no longer two, but one flesh.But therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."Verse 10 says, "And in the house the disciples asked him again."That's controversial, wasn't it?Disciples asked him again about this matter.And he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adulteryagainst her.And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."See, it's the same teaching.Same two points in this exchange that we see in Matthew chapter 5.Jesus says you've trivialized marriage, and it just causes more adultery.God takes marriage very seriously, especially to those who claim to be followers of JesusChrist.Why is God so...Why does God seem so strict about marriage?Why is God seems so serious about marriage?It's because divorce ultimately misrepresents God.See God takes marriage seriously because there's a picture that's to be on displayin the marriage.So when that picture is broken, God is misrepresented.Ephesians chapter 5 tells us what the picture is.It says, "Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everythingto their husbands."Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.See this, this is the idea behind marriage.The ultimate goal of marriage is the ultimate goal of everything else in the universe isto glorify God.And the way God is glorified in your marriage is by demonstrating the relationship thatJesus Christ has with His bride, the church.And in this picture, the wife represents the church following, submitting, honoring, andthe husband is to represent Jesus loving, leading, laying His life down.And when you live this out, God is glorified and your marriage is blessed.But when you divorce, you're misrepresenting God.So my friends, what are we showing the world about God and the way we conduct ourselvesin our marriages?Our worship team and communion servers would come up.It's only appropriate that we close by gathering around the Lord's table.Like, well, what does this have to do with marriage?The answer is everything.Because we gather around the Lord's table, we are reminded that Jesus Christ has a covenantlove for us.This love that Jesus Christ has for us is forever.It's never going to change.And even when His bride fails Him, and we do.Oh, and we will.Jesus isn't going to give up on us.This is our reminder of what covenant love looks like.And this is a reminder of how covenant love is to be demonstrated in our marriages.

How do we navigate being in the world and not of the world? The Bible tells us how to relate to those around us, and it tells us why it's important. We do everything we do for the sake of the Gospel. In this episode, Pastor Taylor talks about our identity in the world in 1 Peter 2:11-17.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Introduction: 2 Kings 18:4 – He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery (Matthew 5:27-30): Adultery Is a DEVASTATING SIN. (Matt 5:27–28) Matthew 15:19 – For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. Titus 1:15 – To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. Adultery has DIRE CONSEQUNECES. (Matt 5:29–30) 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 – Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Adultery requires DRASTIC MEASURES. (Matt 5:29–30) Romans 13:14 - But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 – And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Small Group DiscussionRead Matthew 5:27-30What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Explain Matthew 5:28 in your own words.What did Jesus mean by gouging out your right eye and cutting off your right hand (Matt 5:29-30)? What are some practical ways to apply this teaching?Is Jesus saying a believer who commits adultery will go to hell? Who exactly is “thrown into hell”?What would you say to a professing believer who confesses that they can't break free from lusting? BreakoutPray for one another. AUDIO TRANSCRIPT Open up those Bibles to Matthew chapter 5.If you're visiting with us today, we are going through the Sermon on the Mount verseby verse.And Happy Mother's Day, the title of today's sermon is "Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery."I, I, um, we go where the text goes, okay?That's what we do.We go where the text goes.So let's do that.I'd like you to bow your heads please and just pray for me to be faithful to communicateGod's Word.And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what is an extremely challengingpassage.Let's pray.Father in heaven, we thank You for Your Word.We're not going to shy away from it.We just heard two testimonies of the way that Your Word has transformed lives.We're going to hear at least four more in the next service.That's why we, um, we just want to go after Your Word, God, because we believe that YourWord does Your work because that's what You said.And that is certainly what we've seen.So Father, I pray for all of us here today, all those who are going to be listening, watchingthis stream or downloading the podcast.Father I pray that You would bring revival in each and every heart in a way that greatlyglorifies Your name.We pray in Jesus' name.And all of God's people said, "Amen."Amen.Matthew chapter 5, are you there?In Numbers chapter 21, you have Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt to the promisedland and Israel complained and grumbled against God, against Moses.And the Lord sent these fiery serpents who, and these serpents bit some of the Israelitesand many of them died.Well they repented.And God told Moses to put a bronze serpent on a pole.And if the Israelites, when they were bitten by one of the snakes, if they looked at thisbronze serpent, they would live.Well then fast forward, Israel in the land established and they had kings.Some kings were very bad and some kings were just not as bad.Right?Can you relate to that at all?And Hezekiah was a king who was not as bad and he brought a lot of reforms to Israel.Here's one.We put this verse up from 2 Kings chapter 18.Hezekiah says, "He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the ashram.He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made for until those days the peopleof Israel had made offerings to it."It was called Nahushdin.See what happened?You see what happened?People took a blessing that God gave them for their benefit and they turned it into anidol.That's exactly how it is with physical intimacy.It is a gift that God gave those in the covenant of marriage, but we have turned it into anidol.So on your outline today, this is it."Thou shall not commit adultery."I want you to write some things down.Number one, write this down.Adultery is a devastating sin.Adultery is a devastating sin.Now just that statement alone, it's a hard sell because we are a sex-obsessed culture.You've taken this gift from God and we've perverted it and we worship it.Do I have to point that out at all?Look at all the homosexuality madness, all the transgender stuff.And you're like, "Yeah, you know what, Pastor Jeff, you're right.You're right.It's bad out there."And I would say, "Church, it's bad in here."I was reading some polls for what they're worth.But according to one poll, one half of self-identifying Christians believe that casual sex is okay.Consenting but not in a relationship.They believe that's okay.Half.Think that's alright.What?I read a poll about pornography use among non-Christian men.Non-Christian men, 65%.Like, yeah, that's pretty bad.Christian men, 64%.The same poll, lest you think, "Yeah, creepy men, right?Creepy men, same poll, 51% of women."And you know at this point, you could be like, "Well, look, Jeff, we're only human.Everyone does it.It's not hurting anyone."Well according to Jesus, it's a devastating sin.Look at verse 27, Matthew chapter 5.Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'"Stop there.Adultery.What is adultery?Well the technical term is defined as intercourse with another person's spouse.But it's become a catch-all term for relations with anyone who is not your spouse.And you're going to see in this passage, it's very clear that that's how Jesus was usingthe term in the most general sense possible.You go to Exodus chapter 20 and verse 14, you see that it's the seventh commandment.You go to Deuteronomy chapter 22 and verse 22, you'll see that under the law in Israel,adultery was punishable by death.And I don't have time to get into it this morning.We've done whole sermon series on this, by the way.But I just encourage you, if you're ready to just brush it off as, "Oh, church people,just making a big deal out of nothing," read Proverbs 5, 6, and 7 sometime.And you will see that adultery is a devastating sin.I heard one pastor this past week call it a sin for fools.And I think that's a very good description.adultery is devastating.I mean, it wrecks you, destroys your reputation, affects your relationship with your spouse,relationship with your kids.Oh, and the other person, what about them?It affects, now if they're married, it affects their relationship with their spouse.If they have kids, it affects their kids.And what has done to their reputation.But the devastation of adultery is way deeper than that.Look at verse 28.Jesus says, "But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent hasalready committed adultery with her in his heart."Do you notice verse 27, verse 28?Jesus said, "You have heard, but I say to you," what was Jesus doing?Pastor Taylor talked about this last week.Same thing with murder.Same thing.Jesus was contrasting their definition of sin with God's definition of sin.Because their definition of sin in Jesus' day was all about externals.So when they hear adultery, they're thinking only in terms of the physical act with anotherperson.But that, not alone, is adultery.And Jesus says, "No, you're not taking it far enough.And you're understanding.It's a hard issue.Like murder.You don't have to actually kill someone to be considered a murderer in the eyes of God."Jesus is saying the same thing about adultery.You don't have to physically be with another person to be an adulterer.Look at verse 28 again.He says, "I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has alreadycommitted adultery with her in his heart."Now you have to understand this looking with lustful intent, it's not an accidental glance.This is literally in the process of continuing to look.It's looking in such a way that you are fueling your sexual imagination.When that happens, the deed's already done.Adultery has happened.Now listen, I don't want you to misunderstand because it's even worse than you think itis.Listen, Jesus did not say that looking at a woman with lustful intent causes you to commitadultery in your hearts.Jesus said looking at a woman with lustful intent means you already committed adulteryin your heart.Jesus is saying that you looked with lustful intent because it was already in your heartto commit adultery.I think this is where a lot of people get this mixed up.It's not, "Oh, I was going about my business and I just stumbled across this woman andI looked at her and that is what caused me to lust."That's not the extent of it.It's this, I have an adulterous heart that's looking for a woman with lustful intent.See the difference?The look did not cause the lust.It is the lust that caused the look.You see the difference?Look, look, I can't, there's no way I can overstate this.This is a real problem.And this is a real problem that people sitting here have right now and are not dealing withit.You're not an adulterer because of something you do, it's who you are.It's a heart thing.You see with adultery like murder, as Pastor Taylor talked about last week, before it'san act, even if it doesn't become an act.That is what is in your heart.This is the heart of the law.Jesus said in Matthew 15, 19, "For out of the hearts, out of the heart come evil thoughts,murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander."You see that?The sinful acts are symptoms of a sinful condition.Committing the act of adultery, those are the leaves on the tree that has the root ofan adulterous heart.And if you're sitting here still somehow magnanimously saying in your head, "I would never committhe act."I did not and I would never commit the act of adultery.But if that sin is in your mind, if that sin is constantly in your imagination, you havea real problem.That's why pornography is such a big business.Why?Because sinful hearts are literally searching for it.And you have to understand that if that's your issue, the sin started even before yougot online because it's in here.It's a devastating condition to live in.You're unable to live a holy and upright life because when your heart is full of adultery,it perverts everything.And consider Titus 1.15.Look at this verse.Paul says to the pure, "All things are pure."But to the defiled and unbelieving, meaning your heart is full of perversion and sin,to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure.But both their minds and their consciences are defiled.Do you know what that means?That means that when you're in that latter condition, you cannot look at another womanpurely.You cannot see another woman as a sister, as a mom, as even just another human being.When this is where your heart is, every woman that you encounter, you're evaluating.And many become objects in your minds and hearts of fantasies.Lust just becomes all-consuming.And the people that live in this defiled state don't even see a problem.God's gift of marital intimacy has become an idol that you use to gratify your flesh.So see, Jesus is telling us out the gate, this is a devastating condition.And secondly, I shall not commit adultery.Not only is adultery a devastating sin, but adultery has dire consequences.Adultery has dire consequences.Look at verses 29 and 30.These two verses kind of saying the same thing, but this is some of the most startling stuffJesus ever said, in my opinion.He says, "If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away, for itis better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it is betterthat you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."And you're like, "Man, gouge out your eye?Like cut off your hand?"Like, "Man, that seems awfully extreme."If that's the part you're focusing on, then you have completely missed the point.Because neither of those things are extreme.They're not extreme at all compared to hell.Notice twice Jesus says, "Thrown into hell."Thrown into hell.What's the obvious implication, right?We get it.We get what He's saying.Jesus is saying here that people with adulterous hearts go to hell.If you're still not convinced, Paul backs this up, verse Corinthians 6, verses 9 through10.He says, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?"Meaning go to heaven.Meaning go to hell.He says, "Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral nor adulterers nor men whopractice homosexuality nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlerswill inherit the kingdom of God."Your priority in this life, more than anything, should be preparing yourself for eternity.Are you doing that?Because the Bible says your decisions in this life matter.And someday you're going to stand before God.So if lust is a problem for you, if lust characterizes you, and look, I can't answerthat.I can't answer that for you.But you know if this sin consumes who you are.And if it characterizes you, there are consequences.As we talked about before, here and now, apparently, obviously, easily seen, there are consequencesfor adultery.But Jesus says there's also consequences when you take your last breath.Adultery has dire consequences.So let's talk about the other big thing in these verses.Number three, adultery requires drastic measures.Look at them again.He says, "If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away, for itis better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it is betterthat you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."Weren't you just blessed by the obedience of those who were baptized today?Didn't you say obedience is a wonderful thing?Awesome.Who's first?I mean, didn't Jesus just say if your hand causes you to sin, to cut it off?Who's first?We're not going to do it over the tub because we get more baptisms in the next service.And you're like, "Yeah, what about the other verse?"Well, don't worry.We can take care of the eye, too.We'll get Pastor Taylor up here.We'll do them both at the same time.You won't know.You won't even know what's going on when both of them are happening at the same time.And you're like, "Man, gouging out your eye and cutting off your hand.Man, that sounds drastic."Oh, it absolutely is.Maybe even more than you think.Because you see, Jesus was speaking to Jews.And the Jews viewed the right greater than the left.Just as a general thing.If you're left-handed, I don't need any hate emails.Okay?That's just the way it was, right?Sitting at the right hand.My right hand, man.The idea was right is better than left.So your right eye and your right hand and the Jewish mindset, those were the two most importantthings that you own.What Jesus is saying is this, there is nothing that is too important to eliminate from yourlife if it is causing you to sin.Adultery is destructive, it's enslaving, it's condemning.We got to deal with that.We have to deal with it.Do you believe that?Whatever.Listen.Whatever it is that feeds the lust in your heart, no matter how important that thingis, it has got to go.It's got to go.If you're feeding your lust through your phone or maybe a tablet, smash them up.And you're like, "Pastor Jeff, I have the newest iPhone.I spent a lot of money for that."It's not worth hell.Is it your laptop?Smash it up.Or you know, take your laptop to the kitchen and only use it around your family.You're like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, my family is really nebby."Good.So glad to hear that.It's not worth hell.Maybe for some of you it's your social media accounts where you're having inappropriaterelationships, conversations with people online or looking at things through those that youshouldn't be looking at.Delete them.Delete those social media accounts.You're like, "But Pastor Jeff, that's how I stay connected.Join a small group."You're like, "Put Pastor Jeff, the social media, that's just my leisure time.Take up pickleball.It's not worth hell."You know what?Maybe we'll just take care of all this.Call and cancel your internet if it's a problem.If it's leading you to feed this lust, Jesus says, "It has to go."And you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I need the internet for my job.Get a new job.I will find you a job where you don't need the internet because it's not worth hell."Maybe for some of you as we are approaching summer, maybe it's a membership in a publicpool.Like, you know what?I go there, Pastor Jeff, and I look at the women there, and I get to tell you what didJesus say.You've got to get extreme here, people.But Pastor Jeff, my pool membership, that's just kind of our thing like we do in the summer.Swim at home.And I don't have a pool at my house.Do you have a bathtub?It's not worth hell.And I know people are like, "Okay, Pastor Jeff, I hear what you're saying, but I'm goingto be honest with you."It's going to be kind of embarrassing to have to explain to people why I smashed my phoneand canceled my internet.It's going to, I'm going to have to explain to people why I did that.That's kind of embarrassing.I'll tell you what's going to be more embarrassing than that is you not cutting off your sin,and someday you're going to stand before God.And God's going to say, "Do you remember the strangest Mother's Day sermon you've everheard?"Why didn't you listen?Why did you despise my word?Why did you think following me was not worth cutting off the stuff that keeps you from followingme with your whole heart?Why did you find me not worthy?Notice Jesus says it's better.It is better to lose your eye, lose your hand.It's better.What's better than going to hell?Literally anything.Anything you have to lose for the sake of your soul is going to be worth it.Romans 13, 14, same thing.Paul's saying the same thing.Maybe not in as graphic terms as Jesus, but it's the same thing.He says, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratifyits desires.Make no provision.Take drastic measures to cut off anything that feeds the flesh."It's like that old story I heard, an old metaphor.Maybe you've heard about the guy.He had a white dog and a gray dog.And every time he put food out for them, the gray dog would whoop up the white dog, takeall the food.The white dog would get none.After a while, the white dog, not eating, got weaker and weaker and weaker and the graydog getting all the food, got stronger and stronger and stronger.The guy said, "I've got to do something about this."So he put both the dogs on a leash.And for a month, he only fed the white dog.This isn't a real story, by the way.Don't call it PETA.But he only fed the white dog.The gray dog barely surviving.But after that time of only feeding the white dog and not the gray dog when he let themoff the leash, now the white dog was strong because it was the one that got fed.The gray dog was weak because it was the one that got starved.And I think you see the obvious application.The dog you feed is going to be the dominant dog.And the dog you starved was going to be the weak dog.See in this analogy, the white dog represents walking by the Spirit.The gray dog represents walking in the flesh.I think some of you are so weak because you're not feeding the Spirit, so to speak.You're not into Word.You're not worshiping.You're not praying.You're not in fellowship.You're not listening to good biblical podcasts.You're starving that.When instead you need to be starving the flesh.Make no provision for the flesh.Starve the adulterous heart by making no provision for whichever dog you feed is going to bethe dog that is strong.And the dog that you don't feed is the dog that gets weak.And you're like, "Man, Pastor Jeff, this sounds impossible."Oh, it is.Absolutely.That's why we put Romans 13 back up there, please.It is impossible.Hence the first phrase in this verse, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ."Reformation is not going to work.If your goal here is to just try to clean up your act, you're not going to get very far.You need transformation.You need the life of Christ in us to be able to make these choices.Oh, and by the way, earlier we read, well, 1 Corinthians 6, we read verses 9 and 10.I'd like to go back and I'd like to look at the very next verse.Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?Do you not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor adulterers, nor adulterers, normen who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers,nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God?Look at verse 11.And such were some of you that you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, youwere justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God.I just want to ask you today, are you an R?Or are you a Wurr?Because today, today could be the most important day of your life because today you can becomea Wurr.Like it about your heads as the worship team makes their way back up.Just like it about your heads.Close your eyes.Look, this is a between you and God thing here, alright?There's some of you that have been trapped because you don't know Jesus Christ as yourLord and Savior.You don't have the power or resources to overcome this sin because you're living in the flesh,not by the power of His Holy Spirit because you don't know.Today can be the day that you receive Him.And you know what?We're baptizing in the next service.Pastor Taylor would be thrilled to be able to baptize you because you've repented fromyour sin and turned to Jesus Christ.But if you, heads bowed, eyes closed, if you're sitting here and you're like, you know whatpastors, I am a believer in Jesus Christ, but I'm honestly, I'm stuck in this sin.I just want to ask you, Christian, stuck in this sin.Why in the world would you indulge in a sin that Jesus died for?Today Christian, you need to repent.Today Christian, you need to do some cutting.Father in heaven, I just simply ask today that you open up the eyes of our hearts that wedon't look at this sin from a worldly perspective because the world celebrates it.Father, let us see this sin from your perspective.It's a horrible sin.Father, let us see the consequences that Jesus laid out for us.There is eternal separation from you for the heart that chooses to live in lust insteadof walking by the Spirit.Father, I pray that you would give us the wisdom, you would give us the strength, andyou would give us the faith to be able to cut some things today.It's ultimately going to bless us to be free from this bondage, but the end goal of allthings, Father, is for the glory of your name.Father, I pray that you would glorify your name through a work of your Holy Spirit, bringingpeople to you in repentance and bringing your people back from a willing bondage tosin.Please, Father, let our life, let our very life be an act of worship in the way we repent.We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Sometimes we forget that God has plans for our lives. As Christians, He has already done the impossible by making us right with Him. If He has done the impossible, why would we doubt Him with all of our earthly plans? This week Pastor Taylor talks about submitting to God's plans in Genesis 46:1-34.Get connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Are you built into the church? If you are not built into the church, you are not built on Christ. Christ is the foundation of the church. Church is not an individual effort, it's a group effort towards sanctification and disciple making. In this episode, Pastor Taylor talks about making disciples as part of the church in 1 Peter 2:4-10.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Pastor Taylor speaks a message on how God has MORE for you, but that in His abundance, it doesn't end with you- He has intentions for your blessings. Follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa

You were not saved just so you could spend eternity comfortable in heaven. If that were the case, we would get saved, and God would just zap us into heaven. You were born again for a purpose. That purpose is meant to be lived out in this life. In this episode, Pastor Taylor talks about living out the love of Christ in 1 Peter 1:22-2:3.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Pastor Taylor kicks off this new mini series on how it all started - this week, with the miracle of a meal. Follow us on Instagram @reallifechurchwa

In today's sermon, Pastor Taylor Kern begins our journey through the book of Ecclesiastes, confronting the hard truth that there is "nothing new under the sun." We explore how the endless cycle of life under the curse of sin drives us to long for something truly new—something only Christ can provide. Pastor Taylor shows how Jesus entered our world of futility, broke the power of death through His resurrection, and secured for us a hope that will never fade. Listen as we are called to stop chasing fleeting glories and to find lasting joy in Christ alone, who turns all hevel into pure shalom.Time:MorningMinister:Rev. Taylor KernTexts:Ecclesiastes 1:1–11Belgic Confession: Article 14Series:Ecclesiastes

Satans first objective to distort the truth of what God says. In this teaching, Pastor Taylor talks about how there are 3 distortions that hinders believers from walking in the fullness of God's Word.

We understand that we are called to obedience. But the Bible seems to indicate that we are called to perfection. How can we possibly be perfect? We cannot accomplish perfection, but we are made perfect. We are made perfect by Him who is perfect. In this episode, Pastor Taylor talks about how obedience is possible in 1 Peter 1:13-21.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Pastor Taylor preaches a message on how not only WILL God move in your life, but He already has and has prepared a way ahead of you, as we celebrate the resurrection on Easter Sunday.Follow us on Instagram @reallifechurchwa

Introduction: John 19:28-30 - After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Revelation 16:17 - The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” The Hope is Real: The Truth About Heaven (Revelation 21:1-8) Everything is New. (Rev 21:1-2) Every day is in God's Presence. (Rev 21:3) Everything that Hurts is Gone. (Rev 21:4-5) Everything is Yours. (Rev 21:6-7) Romans 8:16-17 – The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Everyone is Not Going. (Rev 21:8) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Audio Transcript After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the Scripture,"I thirst." A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on ahissy branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished."He bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Over this past month, we've been examining God's Word tosee that the Son of God came to finish some things. And we've been trying to just answer one question.What is finished? Jesus made the declaration, "It is finished." Well, what is? Well, I guess to put itall in one word, salvation. The way of salvation, it's done. The work is done. And we've been spendingtime looking at different facets of salvation. First, we saw justification. The guilt is gone.You realize Jesus has taken your sin away. There are no grounds for punishment when you're in Christ.The guilt is gone. He's made you righteous. And then we saw reconciliation. The relationship isrestored. By nature, you are not God's friend. The Bible says by nature, we are enemies of God.And Jesus Christ came to restore the relationship with God. Pastor Taylor a couple of days agotalked about redemption. The price was paid. There was a literal price that was paid. You see, youhave sinned against God, and it wasn't as if God was like, "Oh, that's okay. Don't worry about it. I'mjust going to forget about it." No, no, no. As Pastor Taylor pointed out, you owe God an infinite debt.And God paid that Himself through the death of His Son. It is finished.You know, you think of those words on the cross, "It is finished." You know,that's not the only time that Jesus declares that something is finished.It's only the first time. Do you know the next time Jesus says it is finished?It is when God pours out judgment. Revelation 16-17, it's the last bold judgment. The book ofRevelation talks about there's seal trumpets and trumpet judgments and bold judgments. When thelast judgment of God is poured out, look at this, Revelation 16-17, the seventh angel poured outHis bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, "It is done."That's the next time Jesus says it is finished. Today I want to talk about the last time He says it.Do you know the last time Jesus declares something is finished?As after He creates a new heaven and a new earth. Revelation chapter 21, I want you to turn there.Revelation chapter 21,Revelation chapter 21, look at verses 5 and 6. It says, "And He who was seated on the thronesaid, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'" Also, He said, "Write this down. For these wordsare trustworthy and true. And He said to me, 'It is done.'"Like, wait, wait, what is He talking about here? What is finished, the promiseof glorification? That is, the hope is real. The hope is real. We're going to talk about hope today.Because when we talk about hope, we use it in a different way than the Bible uses the word hope.When we say hope, what we mean is wish. You know what I mean? We say, "I hope it doesn't rain today."What are we saying? "I wish that it doesn't rain." Or we say, "I hope that the pirates win today."What are we saying? We're saying that our theology allows for miracles.But you see, that's not how the Bible uses the word hope.Biblically, church, listen, hope is the confident anticipation of receiving Jesus' promises.Biblically, hope, it's in the bag. It's happening. I'm just waiting for it to take place. But it'sgoing to happen. I'm not wondering if it's going to happen. I can't wait. I know it's going to.I'm just waiting for that to happen. That's biblical hope. That's the receipt that we hold on tothat says it's coming. I know that it's coming. And I can't wait for that day. That is biblical hope.See, that's what we're here to celebrate today.Actually, every Sunday we celebrate this. And actually, for the Christian,you celebrate this every day of your life. That Jesus Christ rose from the dead.We've been spending so much time talking about the fact that He died for our sins. Yes,that's true. But three days later, He rose from the dead to give us the promise of eternal life.And the Bible says that He went back to heaven. And you're like, "Well, what's He doing now? Doyou know what Jesus is doing right now? Like, right now, do you know what He's doing?"He told us in John chapter 14 what He would be doing. He says, "I go to prepare a place for you.Right now, Jesus Christ is building a place for His people in heaven."We're going to talk about heaven today, the place of our hope. Do you know what heaven's like?Sadly, there's so much confusion about heaven because people embrace ideas about heaven thatjust aren't in the Bible. I think for a lot of people, their ideas of heaven come more from aBugs Bunny cartoon than from what God actually said. There's just so much nonsense aboutthat people believe about heaven. It's just not true biblically. You know what number one is,by the way? The most nonsensical, wrong, false thing that people believe about heaven that's justabsolutely not true? Is that good people go to heaven. You have to be a good person to go toheaven. That's just bombarded onto us from society. Good people go to heaven. Good people...Well, that's not true. If that was true, heaven would be empty. We're going to talk more about thatin a bit. But no, you do not get to heaven by being a good person.But you know, even Christians, honestly, even Christians are clueless about heaven.Just grab your Christian, your average churchgoer, and say, "Well, what's heaven like?"You're going to get answers like, "Well, I'm thinking grandma's there."They're like, "Well, what are you doing heaven?" "Well, I guess you play a harp."And then you sit on clouds. And yeah, that's all I got. Like, well, maybe you've been gettingyour theology about heaven from Bugs Bunny or from a far-side cartoon.But I think many Christians aren't really excited about heaven because they don't know what theBible actually says about it. You know, we had a funeral last week for the oldest member of ourchurch. She was two weeks shy of 99. And she's having a good day. What a great celebration of her lifeand a celebration of the fulfillment of her faith. But I think a lot of people, even that we're sittingin that funeral, might not have been excited because they don't really know what she's experiencingin heaven. What is coming in the future in heaven? We need to educate ourselves, church.I mean, think about it this way. Imagine if I booked you a three-month vacation.Imagine that. If I booked you, I'm like, "You know what? You've been working hard. You know what?I'm going to get you the plane tickets. You know, you just bring your wife, jump at the airport,and get on the plane, three-month vacation on me." Would you want to know where you're going?Would you want to know what you'd be doing? What if you said, "Oh, thanks, Pastor Jeff. That wasreally nice of you. Where am I going? What am I doing? What if I said, "Don't worry about it. You'lllike it." No, I want to know where I'm going to be spending three months of my life. And I'm like,"Oh, it'll be nice. What am I going to be doing there? Fun stuff."Wouldn't you want more information of where you're going to be spending three months of your life?Okay, reminder, heaven is eternal. Wouldn't you like to know what it's going to be likefor eternity? If you do, you're in the right place this morning, because that is exactlywhat we're going to be seeing from God's Word. So on your outline, take some notes.The hope is real. The hope is real. The truth about heaven.The truth about heaven. Number one, write this down. Everything is new.Everything is new. Verses 1 and 2 in Revelation 21, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Stop there. New heaven and new earth. Why?Why do we need a new heaven and new earth? Well, because this is talking about what'shappening in the future. And at this point, the heaven and earth now, the one that you'resitting on right now, will be vaporized by God's glory according to 2 Peter 3, according to Revelation2011. He talks about this new Jerusalem. Like, what is new Jerusalem? What's the capital cityof the new heaven and the new earth? And John describes it as coming down from heaven onto thisnew earth. It's a fascinating study. You can really dig into it on your own. Just to give you a littleoverview. Verses 15 and 17 give us the dimensions. And by the way, these are literal measurements.The Bible is clear about that. But new Jerusalem is a massive city and it's shaped like a cube.And each wall is 1,380 miles long. And each wall is 216 feet thick. You're like,"Can you give me a frame of reference?" Yeah, absolutely, I can. If you were to take this newJerusalem and put it on our current earth, just drop it onto North America. If you were to dropit onto North America, it would go from Canada to the Gulf of America. It would go from the AtlanticOcean. I'm still trying to adjust to that. I'm sorry. It would go from the Atlantic Oceanto Colorado. That is the size of new Jerusalem. You're like, "Why do I need to know this?That is the place that Jesus is preparing for you right now."And this passage describes the final and eternal heaven. And over and over, he usesthe greatest word possible that he could use to describe anything. And it's the word "new."New. Look at verse 5. This is the best verse in the Bible. And I know somebody would say,"Well, actually, Pastor Jeff, it's all God's word." Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. But this is the bestverse in the Bible. It says, "And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all thingsnew.'" Look, that is awesome. And we can relate to that, can't we? Because there's nothinglike getting new stuff, right? Don't we love new things? New shoes? A new car? New jeans?A new phone? I'm pleased to announce that Pastor Taylor finally upgraded from his iPhone 8.Yeah, a little bonus celebration today. But wasn't it so exciting getting that new phone, Pastor Taylor?You know what? I thought it was bad until Jane Auer showed me. He has, what do you have an SE?Yeah, take good care of that, Jay. We're going to put that in the museum.So we love getting new stuff, right? Getting a new computer. Men, get that new fishing rod. Ladies,get the new purse. How about a new puppy? Oh, that's the best. But there's nothing likegetting new stuff. And you know, the Bible says in heaven everything is always new.So a little tip for you. If you're in Christ and if you are, you will end up in heaven. I just wantto encourage you, if you're trying to make friends, to not walk up to somebody in heaven and say,hey, what's new? Because they're going to say, you are an ego because I don't know if you got thememo, but everything here is new. I had people say to me sometimes like, you know, heaven soundskind of boring. Like, what are you talking about? That is a clueless statement. Boring.Everything is always going to be new.And if that's not a beautiful enough description with that little word,he gives us a word picture that really drives it home. He says, it's preparedas a bride adorned for her husband. Like Jesus, what kind of care and attention are you puttinginto creating this new heaven and earth, this new Jerusalem? You know, what kind ofmeticulous care is going into preparing this new city? The Bible says it's like a bridepreparing herself for her husband. That's a word picture that really impacts me.Because I've been to a lot of weddings. It's part of my job. I've been to a lot of weddings.And you know something that I've never, ever, ever seen in a wedding is this. Like, it's wedding dayand you know, I come to the front of the chapel or the woods or the barn or whatever we're havingand like, and like, oh, they have them everywhere now, but like, I'm up there with the guys, right?And here comes the bridesmaids and they take their place. Oh, it's the big moment.The music shifts, right? And you know what's next. Here comes the bride, right?You know what I've never seen? It's the doors fling open and there's the bridein a college hoodie.Wearing sweatpants and crocs.Crocs will not be in heaven, by the way. Well, the Bible doesn't say. I'm justthinking it's a safe assumption, but I've never seen her where she's got a near-terminal case of bedhead.I've never seen that ever. Do you know what I have seen though? Every time.A breathtakingly beautiful bride.How did she get that way? She prepared. Do you know how much time and effort and energy and moneyand detail and it goes in? She puts everything into making herself as beautiful and perfect as she canfor her husband.And that is the kind of attention and care that Jesus is putting into preparing this placefor his people. Wrap your brain around that. But the Bible says in heaven,everything is new.Oh, it gets even better than that. Because number two, write this down, every day is in God's presence.Everything is new and every day is in God's presence. Look at verse three. Verse three.He says, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is withman. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as theirGod.'" Every day is in God's presence.Don't you wish that you lived at the time that Jesus lived? Wouldn't it have just been absolutelyamazing to watch Jesus, like to sit down with Him, to hear Him teach, to watch Him heal,to watch Him feed the thousands with the little kids lunch? Wouldn't that have just been awesometo personally be in the presence of Jesus Christ?Well, I got good news for you. In heaven, you're going to get that, like every single day.Because according to verse three, we're always in God's presence.You see, that's good news, my friends, because I think if we're honest, sometimes God seems distantright now. I mean, He's not, right? He's not distant.But can we just be honest in church for a second and say sometimes it feels like He is?You know, we go through trials. We're hurting. Maybe you've been betrayed.Disappointed. You're just worn out. And you're like, "God, where are you?"Seems like I need you the most right now. You seem absent. Where are you?Well, never again will God seem distant.The Bible says He is going to tabernacle with His people. He is going to pitch a tentin unprecedented, perfect fellowship in the midst of His people. Every day of heavenis being in the presence of God. It's the truth about heaven. Everything's new.Every day is in God's presence. In number three, everything that hurts is gone.Everything that hurts is gone. Look at verse four."He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there bemourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.No mourning, no crying and no pain." Do you know what that means?That means no a lot of other things. That means no depression. That means no cancer.That means no diabetes. That means no organ failure. That means no autism.That means no wheelchairs. That means no mental health problems.That means no dentist appointments.I see somebody rejoicing in the back greatly over that.But I get to tell you in the first service, there was a group of dentists sittingright about where the Zentcos are right now. I told them, "Look, we're going to be out of a job in heaven.Nobody's going to need to hear about Jesus from me. Nobody's going to need their teeth fixed by them."There's no more tears. There's no more death. There's no more goodbyes.Every bit of pain and heartache and discouragement. Never again. Never. Everything that hurts is gone.People ask, "Well, will I remember the failures of my life on earth?"Because I would think if I could remember my failures of my life on earth, that, boy,there'd be some tears over that in heaven. Will I remember the failures of this life?I don't know. But I do know this for a fact.That if you do remember the failures of this life, it's not going to bother you.Because there's no more mourning or pain. I'm sure about that.And you can get to this point, you're like, "Really?" Hang on a second.This sounds just a little too fantastic. Really? Well, look at verse 5 again."And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'Also, he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'"Oh, everything is made new. Everything stays new. And you're like, "Is that really true?"Jesus says here, "Write this down. You write this down. You take this to the bank.You build your life on this, man. This is trustworthy and true."Listen, this isn't fantasy stuff. This isn't like fairy tale stuff that we say toplacate children when grandma passes away.Jesus says this is real. This is trustworthy and true."Every hurt is forever behind you." Everything that hurts is gone. Number four,oh, it gets even better. I know you don't think it can, but check this out.Number four, everything is yours. Everything is yours.Look at verse 6, "And he said to me, 'It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega,the beginning and the end, to the thirsty. I will give from the spring of the water of lifewithout payments.'" Who are the thirsty? Who are the thirsty? I hope you are.Thirsty refers to people who realize their spiritual need and genuinely thirst for God.Heaven is for people who know they need Jesus Christ and they receive Jesus Christ and they loveJesus Christ. That's what he's talking about here. You see, water biblically is a symbol offulfillment. It's a symbol of satisfaction. "I was thirsty in a need. Now from the living water,I have been satisfied." That's what water is talking about. That's what the Bible is talkingabout when it talks about water. It's satisfaction. It's great news. That means heaven is not goingto be lacking anything that would add to your satisfaction. You know that? That means you'renot going to be walking around heaven and say, "You know what? This place is pretty good, butI have a few ideas that would make it a little better."You're going to be absolutely, totally, perfectly satisfied in heaven.And this, this is your heritage. Look at verse 7. He says, "The one who conquerswill have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my Son."We talked about this with justification. We don't live in fear of God as judge. If you're in Christ,that is. You're not afraid of God as judge. You live in the freedom of God as Father.That He adopted us as His children.But being a child has implications for the future.Like what do you mean? What I mean is, if you're a child of God, you receive an inheritance.Look at Romans chapter 8 here.Romans 8 says, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And ifchildren, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Himin order that we may also be glorified with Him."You see, Paul wrote this to the Romans and Roman adoption was very interesting. I was readingabout it this past week. Do you know in Roman culture adopted children actually received greaterhonor than naturally born children in the home? Like if a couple has natural children, it's like,well, you just came into the world the regular way. But if you adopted someone, it was, ah, you,though on the other hand, you were chosen to be a part of this family. But there's something elseinteresting about Roman children, including the adopted children, by the way, that they allreceived an equal share of the inheritance. You're like, good for the Romans. What does that haveto do with me? Here's what this has to do with you. Look at this. We are fellow heirs with Christ.Do you know what that means? I can tell some of you aren't very excited about that. So we're goingto walk through this together. You are fellow heirs with Christ. Do you know what that means?That means you will receive the same inheritance that Jesus receives.So what does Jesus own? Everything. So what do you stand to inherit? Everything.Everything. You're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, hang on a second there, Pastor Jeff.You was talking about the new heavens earlier. Do you mean I'm going to inherit the new heavens?Everything. And if you're like, oh, well, he's creating the new earth. Do you mean I'm going toinherit that new earth too? That's going to belong to me? Everything. And you're like, well, thatgiant city that you was talking about, am I going to inherit that too? Is that going to belong to me?Like, look, I'll do respect. What part of everything do you not understand? Everything will belong to you.But do you know the greatest thing that you're going to inherit?Is God Himself? Do you see that in verse 7? He says, "I will be His God." Oh, no, let's not gloss over thatbecause that's like the Levites in the Old Testament. Remember, Israel was told, you know,that they were going to receive an inheritance in the Promised Land. But you got like Deuteronomy 18-2.The Levites did not get an inheritance like the other tribes of Israel. They were toldthat God is their inheritance.And if you get God, you get everything. If you're a fellow heir with Christ,that means someday everything is yours.And finally, number five, truth about heaven, everything's new.Every day's in God's presence. Everything that hurts is gone and everything is yours.But we do have to say this because it's in the text. Everyone is not going.Now look, you know, it'd be real easy to come into Easter service and we're all wearing ourspiffy clothes and the music is fantastic and it would be so easy to get caught up in this passageand get excited about a heaven that some of you aren't going to see.Look at verse eight. John says, "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable,as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars,their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur," which is the second death.See this list? These are people that love their sin more than they love Jesus.But I could ask you, are you on that list?Is there anything here that characterizes you?Understanding that murder means hateful and sexually immoral means lustfuland immoral.Are you there?You know the one that always sticks out to me in this list is the first one, cowardly.What does that mean? It's not saying, being afraid of stuff is a sin, like in the sense ofI'm afraid to go camping because I'm afraid of bears and snakes.And that's not what that's talking about at all. It's talking about being afraid to follow JesusChrist because there is a cost. And what will my friends think? And what am I going to have to giveup? And refusal to follow Christ, God says, "You're a coward." You mean He bought your way to heavenwith the blood of His Son? And you're too afraid to receive Him because of what your goofy friendsmight think. Because of what sinful thing you might have to give up. You're a coward.And that's not my opinion. That's God's opinion. Well, I guess it is mine if it's God's.But He said it.You think following Christ is easy? You think it's easy to trust God?Do you think it's easy to say no to sin? Do you think it's easy to say yes to serving Christwhen it's inconvenient or difficult or harder than we thought it was going to be?This ain't for cowards, okay?All of the items on this list characterize people who have never repented. They've never receivedChrist. And these are just evidences. He's saying that this is what they lived like.And I have to ask you, if you took an honest inward look at yourself, would you say that my life isgenerally characterized by a love for Jesus Christ? Or would you say my life is generallycharacterized by a love of my sin, myself, my way? Which one is it for you?Because if it's the latter, then none of these promises about heaven, none of this hope is for you.If I can have the worship team join us back up on the platform here.It is finished.It is finished. Someday, you're going to hear Jesus say those words again.For some of you, you're going to be horrified to hear him say it when he brings judgment.And for some of you, you will rejoice when you hear him say itbecause he's giving you everything, the hope of heaven.It is finished. Today, today, we hear those words from the cross.So if you have received Jesus Christ, your sin has been taken away. If you have received JesusChrist, he rose from the dead to give you eternal life. And if you have received Jesus Christ,you do not need to wait for heaven to rejoice in him. So let's stand and let's celebrate himfor who he is and all that he's done. Let's rejoice in the victory of Jesus Christ. Small Group DiscussionRead Romans 8:16-17, Revelation 21:1-8What was your big take-away from this passage / message?What are some wrong ideas about heaven that even many Christians believe?What is an aspect of heaven covered in Revelation 21 that was new or surprising to you?What does it mean that we are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17)? What exactly do we inherit?BreakoutPray for one another.

When we think about suffering, we typically think of persecution. But suffering for the cause of Christ is when we deny ourselves in the flesh in order to be more like Christ. If we are not suffering for Christ each day how do we know that we love Him? In this episode, Pastor Taylor starts a series on suffering in 1 Peter.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Thank you for joining us this week as Pastor Taylor continues in our Easter series diving into the book of Hosea!We hope you are encouraged and convicted by this message, and we can't wait to see you next week! As always — love God, love others and make disciples!

Introduction: John 19:28-30 - After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. What the Cross Proves About God's Love for You. (Romans 5:6-11) God's Love for You is an Unconditional Love. (Romans 5:6-8) God's Love for You is a Rescuing Love. (Romans 5:9) God's Love for You is a Committed Love. (Romans 5:10) John 1:12 – But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Philippians 1:6 – And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Audio Transcript Open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Romans in chapter 5.You know, there's that old saying, "It's not how you start, it's how you finish," right?I was thinking a lot about that concept this week, and I realized that's really true, like,in everything, isn't it?Like, have you ever taken an airplane flight?What determines if it's a good flight?How you land, right?And I was thinking about that also.Have you ever watched a movie that you're like, "Oh, this movie is so good," and thenit has this completely idiotic ending?Have you ever seen a movie like that?Do you walk away saying that was a good movie?No.Do you say, "Oh, that movie was terrible," because it didn't finish well?And I don't think we ever feel this as deeply as we do being Pittsburgh sports fans.Heavens to Mercutroy, how many pirate games have I sat through?I'm like, "Oh, this is awesome," and then we blow it into night thinning, and we say,"Oh, that game was terrible," or all penguin fans, how many times?Oh, this is such a good game, and then we lose it over time.Like, oh.But you know, the Son of God came to do some work, and He finished perfectly.John 19, Jesus on the cross, says after this, "Jesus knowing that all was now finished,said," to fulfill the Scripture, "I thirst."A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a Hissabranch and held it to His mouth.When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished," and He bowed Hishead and gave up His Spirit.And in this four-week series, we're going to be answering the question, "What is finished?"Jesus cried out, "It is finished!""What is?"Well, today, today we are going to be looking at the glorious reality that the work of reconciliationis finished.The relationship with God is restored.Would you bow your heads, please?And I'm going to ask you, just take a moment and pray for me.I was telling Pastor Taylor in my office before we came in here, "Man, I can't possiblycommunicate the gravity of this passage."You always feel that, but sometimes you feel it a lot more.And today we're going to be looking at the love of God.And I feel so inadequate to communicate it the way it needs to, but we're going to takea swing at it.All right?I may, I'll pray for you.Father in heaven, we're about to go after a topic that hits us in the heart, probablymore than anything.So we talk about your great love.So once again, we just pray against any preconceived notions any of us might have going into this.And we would honestly just take a look at what your word actually says.Father, transform us as only you can.We pray in Jesus' name.And all of God's people said, "Amen, amen.It is finished.The relationship with God is restored."We started this last week that the Bible says in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, God wasdemonstrating some things.He was showing us some things.He was, a better word, proving some things.And in Romans 3.25, we saw that God demonstrated His righteousness.Jesus died to fulfill the demands of God's law.The guilt is gone.So here, in this passage, just look at verse 8.It says, "But God shows," again, better word, "proves," but God shows His love for us.And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.You see, it's this love of God He tells us in verses 10 and 11 that reconciled us.The relationship is restored.Look, this is one of the greatest doctrines in all of God's Word, because God is not somecold-detached judge.And you would wrongly take that away from Romans chapter 3 to say, "Well, God's justthis judge, and we're guilty."Okay, and He did this judicial thing, and He pardoned us, but He's not this cold judgein the sense of now God's looking down from heaven saying, "Turn or burn, I don't care."Right?Get right or get left.Look, I made provision, accept Jesus or don't, makes no difference to me whatsoever.The glorious truth of God's Word, it's that He loves you.I mean He actually, really, infinitely loves you.And last week we talked about one of the greatest struggles we have as people is strugglingwith guilt.Am I really forgiven?But you know, there's another question that we struggle with as people, and it's thisone.Does God really love me?Does God really love me?Oh yeah, I know John 3.16.Everybody knows John 3.16.For God so loved the world.But maybe that's just like a general statement about God's disposition towards people asa whole.But does He love me?You know, there are two things that make people question God's love.And one is the awareness of my sin.Some people question God's love because you're like, "You know what, I just feel unworthy."The other thing that makes you question God's love is going through hardship.You're like, "If God really loved me, why would He let this allow this cause this horribletrial in my life to happen?"But this is the question on the table today.Am I loved by God?In other words, am I accepted by God?Is God on my side?Will that ever change?Well, I got some great news for you.God settled all of this with the death of Jesus Christ.So on your outline, the relationship is restored and we're focusing on the cross as we headinto resurrection day next Sunday.And good Friday this Friday, we're focused on the cross.Today what the cross proves about God's love for you.Does God love me?Look at the cross.That answers all of it.Let's unpack that a little bit.Number one, the Bible tells us that God's love for you is an unconditional love.It's an unconditional love.You know, I get a pause here.People say, especially in circles like ours, they're like, "Well, you know, it's not aboutreligion.It's about what?Relationship."Oh, you travel in those circles.It's not about religion.It's about relationship.And okay, that's true.But you know, technically, technically.God has a relationship with Jesus.The question is, do you have a good relationship with Him?Or do you have a bad relationship with Him?Because biblically, there's no neutral.It's not like there's these on fire, born-again, Bible-believing Christians,and these evil, wicked, nasty, violent, hurtful people who hate God,and somewhere in the middle is just that really nice person.Not a Christian, but not...There's no neutral.And in this passage, you're going to see that unsaved people, people alienated from God,are described in four ways.They're described as weak in verse 6, as ungodly in verse 6,as sinners in verse 8, and as enemies in verse 10.And we have to understand that going in.Looking at these four, weak means you're powerless to save yourself.There is not a thing you can do to get right with God on your own.You're weak.You're ungodly.You are nothing like God intended you to be by birth.You're a sinner.That means in the eyes of God, you are rebellious.And in verse 10, as I said, He uses the word "enemy."And that means you're hostile towards God.But really, this enemy concept, it's really a two-way street.As you see, by nature, we resent God's authority.I don't want somebody telling me what to do.I don't want somebody telling me the things that I want to do are wrong, so that's hostilitytowards God.But you know, it goes the other way, too.God has a holy hatred of sin.So we could say that we have a wicked opposition towards God, and God has a holy oppositiontowards us.It's a dual opposition.So something major has to happen if there's going to be any kind of reconciliation betweenthese two parties that have such hostility towards one another.Something huge has to happen.Look at verse 6.It says, "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."Let's not fly through this too quickly, shall we?Can we just pause for a moment and as much as we can try to get the weight of God's lovein this statement?He said, "Christ died for the ungodly."Who does that?Who dies for rebellious, wicked, evil people?Who does that?It's a shocking statement.But Paul illustrates, look at verses 7 and 8, how he illustrates this incredible truth.He says, "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, that perhaps for a good person onewould dare even to die."But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.I love Paul's illustration.Look at verse 7 again.He says, "One will scarcely die for a righteous person."What does he mean by a righteous person?Well, a righteous person is just like somebody who's upright and a good, holy person, butmaybe you sort of have a detached relationship from them.Like for example, your favorite preacher that you listen to on a podcast.Maybe there's somebody that you follow their podcast, you listen to them and they're preachingreally blesses you, but you don't know that guy, right?That's Paul's point here, is like your favorite podcast preacher, besides me, but your favoritepodcast preacher, I had to clarify that, but you're like, "Jeff, you're not even in thetop 15."Moving on.That favorite podcast preacher of yours, if you had an opportunity to die so that hecould live, would you do that?Probably not.That's why he says scarcely.There might be one or two of you, like, "Yeah, I would do it."But Paul's like, "That's pretty scarce that somebody would die for a good person."You don't really know.But then he dials it up a notch, he goes, "Perhaps for a good person one would dare even todie."And now he's talking about maybe that holy, upright, good Christian person that we knowand love.All right?So if I were to ask, "Okay, forget about your podcast guy, would you die for Pastor Taylor?"You're like, "Wow, that really ups the ante.I would really strongly consider that one."And now we get the weight of verse 8 when he says, "But God, but God on the other handshows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."See Paul says maybe somebody would die for a good man, but no one would die for an evilman.But that's exactly how God showed His love for you.God loved you when you were a wuze.You're like a what?A wuze.I just made that word up.W-S-E, a weak, ungodly, sinful enemy.That's just in the text.I just paraphrased it.God loved you as a wuze.And God didn't say, "Look, when you get your act together, then we'll talk about salvation."God didn't say, "When you start living a certain way, then I'm going to love you."It says, "While we were still sinners, what God says is, 'Look, I love you.I sent my son to die for you.'You come to me and then we'll get your act together."See God knows you better than you know yourself.And He loves you at your worst.So that's where Paul starts.God's love for you is unconditional.Secondly, what does the cross prove about God's love for you?God's love for you is a rescuing love.It's a rescuing love.Look at verse 9.He says, "Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall webe saved by Him from the wrath of God."I love this.You're going to see this a couple of times in this passage.Much more.Much more.What he's saying is, "If Jesus' death could do this, then much more Jesus' life can dothis."So here, Jesus' blood justified has made us righteous before God, which is...I tried so hard to think of a way to describe that and I wrote down, "Infinitely enormous."I don't know.If Jesus' blood could make us righteous before God, which is infinitely enormous, even waybigger, He says, "We will be saved from the wrath of God."And that is a profound thing in the cross of Jesus Christ that God was saving you fromHimself.He was saving you from His own wrath.But you know as a pastor, bless you as a pastor, oftentimes I hear people say, in wanting toargue, certain doctrines people will say, "You know, you're talking about God's wrath.A loving God wouldn't send someone to hell."Look, I believe that God is love and a loving God wouldn't send somebody to hell.Have you ever heard that?Pastor Taylor, I'm sure you've heard that a lot.A loving God wouldn't send someone to hell?Well, there's a lot of problems with that statement.One, it ignores what the Bible actually says about hell.You know, Jesus talked about hell more than anybody.Something like twice as much as He talked about heaven.So not only does it ignore what the Bible actually says about hell, it also ignores God's holiness.A holy God can't tolerate sin.So help me understand, if you're somebody that doesn't believe in hell, if you're somebodythat still subscribes to the loving God wouldn't send somebody to hell, are you saying thatsomebody can live their entire life rejecting their Creator, living in flagrant sin and rebellion,they want nothing to do with God, and they want nothing to do with God's gifts, and somedaywhen they die, God's going to be like, "Hey, that's okay.Come on into heaven.Let me show you around."Like, how does that work?By the way, an unsaved person would be miserable in heaven.Do you know that?An unsaved person would be absolutely miserable in heaven.You're like, "Why?"Now, that unsaved person has spent their life saying, "I don't want anything to do withGod, God's truth, God's people, worship.I don't want anything to do with that."You know what heaven is?God, His truth, His people, and worship, that would be absolutely miserable to spend ineternity.What the God you want nothing to do with.So you're ignoring God's holiness when you're selecting which doctrine you want to adhereto.Oh, and here's one.A loving God would send someone to hell.I like to quickly remind people that God's love is not in question.What more could God have possibly done to save you?The Bible says, Romans chapter 8, "God spared not his own son.God was willing to kill his son so that you could be saved."I wouldn't do that.If your salvation meant that I had to kill my son, you'd all be gone to hell.And I wouldn't think twice about it.What more could God have possibly done to demonstrate His love than by giving the most precious thingthat exists, the life of His Son.So don't please, don't come at me with this, a loving God wouldn't send someone to hell.God's love is not in question here.But church, if we brush off God's wrath, we're also brushing off the impact of the cross.We're brushing off the impact of the cross as minimizing the greatest act of God's love.But let's get real personal.Like I said at the beginning, one of the biggest reasons we doubt God's love is because weendure hardship.And I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand.But I imagine it would be high 90% of you.If I said raise your hand if you've ever questioned God's love because of a trial that you'regoing through.I bet most of those hands would go up.And I just want to lovingly encourage you.When we get in that mindset where we're doubting God's love and a hardship, what we're assumingis the way that God shows love is keeping me from trials.We've already attached that love language to God when His Word does not.And we think, okay, so God shows me love by making my life easy and trouble free.So if God doesn't do that, then He must not love me.Well, we studied the book of Job last fall.If we learned anything, it's that God loves me through hardship.No, no, no, no.God loves me with hardships.God shows the greatness of His love by meeting our greatest need, which is to be rescuedfrom sin and hell.And if that's all God's love ever did for you, is to rescue you from hell.If that was all He ever did, you should be eternally grateful.Like the goofy guy in the infomercial.But wait, there's more.And number three, write this down.God's love for you is a committed love.What does the cross prove about God's love?Well, it proves it's unconditional and it proves it's rescuing.And thirdly, it proves that God's love for you is a committed love.Look at verse 10.For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much morenow that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.Very similar to verse 9 with the much more thing, but there's a different emphasis here.In verse 9, He says we will be saved from His coming wrath.And here He's saying God will keep us saved in the meantime.In other words, He's saying if God could reconcile us by the death of His Son, much more He cankeep us saved by the life of His Son.Remember to put it another way, if God loved you when you were His enemy, how do you thinkHe's going to love you now that you're His child?That's why He uses that word here.That's the word of the day.Reconciled.This in verse 10, telling us this, God is committed to a restored relationship withyou.How committed?How committed is God?How committed?He adopted you as His child.Talk to somebody here that's adopted someone and ask that parent of the adopted kid, "Howcommitted are you?"They're committed.John 1.12 says, "But to all who did receive Jesus, who believed in His name, He gave theright to become children of God."In Christ, we are God's children and He is our heavenly Father.And as you parents know, your kids will always be your kids and nothing can ever change that.No matter how bad your kids are, no matter what bad thing they've done, nothing will everchange that kid from being your kid.When we planted this church back in 2011, we were meeting at Marshall Middle School,which is right beside Covenant Community Church.I was friends with Pastor John Price, who was a pastor there.He invited our church over to, they had a church picnic on their property.He said, "Hey, why don't you guys come over and invite your church, come over, we'regoing to get the bouncy houses and have a big thing, have a bunch of kids.And why don't you bring your family over and like to introduce you, kind of like welcometo the neighborhood kind of thing."I'm like, "Oh, that sounds like a great time."Well, so our family went and Aaron and I were in the pavilion talking to some of these wonderfulpeople at this church.And our kids were much littler at the time.And all of a sudden, I hear Cade's voice.He says, "Hey, Dad!Dad!Dad!"I look over.Cade and Owen are standing in the yard in the green space in Covenant Community withtheir pants around their ankles, urinating on the lawn.And I look over and Cade hollers, "Look, Dad!We made a P-cross!"And these dear sweet people we were talking to said, "Are those your children?"I said, "I've never seen those kids!"Somebody really needs to rein them in, you know what I'm saying?You know, as badly as I wanted to put them on eBay that day.I didn't.And Cade will tell you, grab him, he'll tell you something I've told him over and overthroughout his life.He says, "Look, I love you on your best day and on your worst.And I've told him nothing will ever change that because you're my son."And it's the same with God's kids.You've been adopted.And you know, I've been reading the Bible for a long time.There is zero Biblical language about being unadopted.We touched on this last week, you know, people often ask, "Can I lose my salvation?"And the answer to that question is, "Well, you know, if I could lose my salvation, thenI definitely would.But thankfully, it's not up to me.Because what Paul's teaching here is it's not really about how tightly I'm holdingon to Jesus.It's how tightly he's holding on to me.So if you've ever struggled with, "Can I lose my salvation?"Here's a great verse.You're going to help me out here.Philippians 1-6, can we get that on the screen?Let's do a little Bible study here, shall we?Paul says, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring itto completion at the day of Jesus Christ."That means to the very end.All right, so help me out here.Did God begin a good work in you?Well, if you're a follower of Jesus, then the answer to that is, "Yes."Okay, next question."If God began a good work in you, is he going to finish it?"Yeah, he is.Oh, one more question.Are you sure?Paul said he was.I am sure of this.That when Jesus starts something, he finishes it.True of the cross and the atonement.True of his death.Yes, true of that, but also true of adopting you and raising you and getting you to thefinish line of heaven.If God didn't save you and say, "You know what, kid, good luck, you're on your own,don't mess this up, I hope to see you in heaven."Paul makes it very clear here that God's love for you is a committed love.We have the worship team.Join us back up here.Church, God loves you.As we said and can't emphasize enough, that is not in question.He showed us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.We are rescued from His wrath.He is committed to keeping us all the way to heaven.The real question that we have to ask is not does God love us, but do you love God?God demonstrated His love for you.Are you willing to demonstrate your love for Him?You're like, "How do I do that?"Well, let's look at what the passage says.Look at verse 11.He says more than that.Which is a hilarious statement.More than all of this.He says, "We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have nowreceived reconciliation."I just want to ask you, church, will you rejoice?Rejoicing is the natural emotional result of being reconciled.And your worship should be an overflow of love and joy and gratitude for Jesus Christ,for all He is, and for all He's done, and for all He's promised that He will do.Let your worship be an expression of love.Would you stand and lift up your voices and demonstrate love for Jesus Christ? Small Group DiscussionRead Romans 5:6-11What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Have you ever questioned God's love for you? Why? What is God's response, based on this passage?What 4 words are used to describe lost people in this passage? How does this speak to the idea that “deep down, man is basically good”?Read John 1:12 and Philippians 1:6. What do these verses teach us about God's love being a committed love?BreakoutPray for one another.

Pastor Taylor speaks on the death of Lazurus and how Jesus' reaction and claim speaks to us even now, and alludes to Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and the Resurrection. Follow us on Instagram @reallifechurchwa

Pastor Taylor encourages us with a word on how to be Priests in our every day life, and how to keep going even when it's discouraging.Follow us on Instagram @reallifechurchwa

Pastor Taylor reminds us in this message that there is a fragrance that draws the Lord near, and that is our sacrifice of laying what we do down at His feet, and showing our heart to Him.Follow us on Instagram @reallifechurchwa

In Week 4 of S.O.S., Pastor Taylor unpacks the essentials of healthy relationships by tackling two key questions: What does a woman need? And what does a man need? Whether you're dating, married, or simply wanting to grow in your relationships, this message offers valuable insight to help you build stronger, healthier connections! Thank you for partnering with Social Dallas! To GIVE Online- head to our website: www.socialdallas.com/give Make sure to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE! Also follow us on all Social Media: Instagram: www.instagram.com/social_dallas

Pastor Taylor encourages us with this message by emploring us to not only share the Gospel & the Good News, but to share our story and testimony with others, to show God's goodness everywhere we go.Follow us on Instagram @reallifechurchwa

In Week 4 of S.O.S., Pastor Taylor unpacks the essentials of healthy relationships by tackling two key questions: What does a woman need? And what does a man need? Whether you're dating, married, or simply wanting to grow in your relationships, this message offers valuable insight to help you build stronger, healthier connections! Thank you for partnering with Social Dallas! To GIVE Online- head to our website: www.socialdallas.com/give Make sure to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE! Also follow us on all Social Media: Instagram: www.instagram.com/social_dallas