back to indexJude Wednesday Bible Study v. 24-25
00:01:09.240 |
And in 30 seconds, we will pray to begin our last segment 00:02:01.900 |
by us having such receptive hearts and attitudes, 00:02:06.700 |
it would be honoring and glorifying in your sight 00:02:09.260 |
that ultimately be pleasing, Lord, in your eyes, 00:02:14.900 |
looking for your wisdom, your authority, your guidance 00:02:19.180 |
over us, knowing, God, that your will truly is to our best. 00:02:24.500 |
So God, also as we join our hearts and words and songs 00:02:31.940 |
pray, God, that in all these things you would be honored. 00:03:11.100 |
Early in the morning a song shall rise to thee. 00:04:06.660 |
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea. 00:04:17.100 |
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee. 00:04:50.020 |
Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness hide thee. 00:05:03.420 |
Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see. 00:05:50.620 |
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth. 00:06:59.500 |
[MUSIC - "SHOULD NOTHING OF OUR EFFORTS STAND"] 00:07:05.500 |
Should nothing of our efforts stand, no legacy survive. 00:07:18.980 |
Unless the Lord does raise a house in vain, its builder 00:07:45.420 |
A mist that vanishes at dawn, all glory be to Christ. 00:08:23.220 |
His will be done, His kingdom come on earth as is above. 00:08:39.980 |
Who is himself our daily bread, praise Him, the Lord of love. 00:08:52.460 |
Let living water satisfy the thirsty without price. 00:09:44.860 |
When on the day the great I am, the faithful and the true, 00:10:03.340 |
the Lamb who was for sinners saint is making all things new. 00:10:16.300 |
Behold, our God shall live with us and be a steadfast light. 00:11:46.780 |
Just want to highlight a few announcements for us. 00:11:51.660 |
Just some important dates you want to note down is that 00:11:55.220 |
Saturday, March 4th, we're having our All Church Cleaning 00:12:07.420 |
Friday 3/10 is going to be our praise and prayer, 00:12:11.980 |
the first break we'll have in our Bible study schedule. 00:12:22.580 |
And then the week following is going to be the praise and 00:12:28.820 |
So make sure you just note that on your calendar, okay? 00:12:31.820 |
And then an important announcement for those of you 00:12:37.500 |
who signed up for the retreat and were so excited to go see 00:12:44.100 |
We were waiting until the last minute because we were trying, 00:12:50.140 |
we were trying to wait for the forecast to turn in our favor. 00:12:54.340 |
We were hearing that there was only three inches of snow the 00:12:56.660 |
first day of the storm, something like that with the 00:12:58.980 |
plows and going the more easy route we can get there. 00:13:02.180 |
But the forecast now says on Friday it will snow up to a foot 00:13:08.220 |
So that's not going to do and it's going to be 20 degrees. 00:13:11.860 |
And so trying to leave on Friday is going to be impossible. 00:13:14.940 |
So that being the case, please know that we're not going to go 00:13:19.300 |
You guys are going to get messages for Audible. 00:13:22.100 |
We're going to have the retreat nevertheless because we still 00:13:26.060 |
He's going to be great and we're going to have it here at church. 00:13:34.220 |
Look out for announcements to come and just know that's going 00:13:46.500 |
You can go into your guys' discussion and we'll come back at 8. 00:59:16.820 |
Alright, for those of you guys in the room, this would be a good time to make your way out 00:59:51.820 |
I'm thankfully just recovering. I got over a weird cold. 00:59:56.820 |
I'm all better now. Thankfully no snot and sinus, 01:00:06.820 |
Alright, so I'm not sure if I see some of the groups out from the back rooms. 01:00:11.820 |
If you can signal them if you're back there. Let's take a moment to pray 01:00:26.820 |
fall into the typical temptation, I guess you could say pattern, 01:00:31.820 |
where your word becomes somehow insignificant, 01:00:36.820 |
somehow overplayed, and God, dismissible in our eyes. 01:00:41.820 |
Lord, I pray that we would never come to a place of complaining that 01:00:46.820 |
we do this week in and week out, but rather help us to be those 01:00:51.820 |
who cling to every single word you say. I pray, Father God, 01:00:56.820 |
that our hearts would learn to love and cherish 01:01:01.820 |
your instruction as a loving Father gives to us, but also 01:01:06.820 |
because Jude is trying to teach us, help us to be wise in such a way that our eyes 01:01:11.820 |
are actually open and we see the dangerous world that we live in. 01:01:16.820 |
Also, the dangers of the flesh in which we live and we see, Father God, 01:01:21.820 |
that we desperately need your protection, your Spirit's power, and more. 01:01:26.820 |
And the hope that you give according to your truth. So, Father, we thank you so much for your word 01:01:41.820 |
at our overview of the letter that we have been studying, 01:01:46.820 |
we saw Jude's purpose for us. He said, "I wanted to write you 01:01:51.820 |
so much about the common faith we have, but I felt the necessity 01:01:56.820 |
to warn you because there are people who have crept in." 01:02:01.820 |
And he wanted to tell us, "You have to contend for this faith." 01:02:06.820 |
And then, the bulk, just the sheer bulk of 12 plus 01:02:11.820 |
verses, 12 and more, of the description of the warning given to us 01:02:16.820 |
that there are such ungodly people who have come into the midst of the congregation. 01:02:21.820 |
They operate in the same pattern as did many sinful people of the past, 01:02:26.820 |
yet their destruction is certain. And we can be rest assured 01:02:31.820 |
that God knows how to spare, and God knows how to judge. 01:02:36.820 |
Verse 17 through 23, he gave us exhortation to keep building up 01:02:41.820 |
this faith. He gave us exhortation to keep ourselves in the love of God, 01:02:46.820 |
and to also keep others. And then we end today with this doxology. 01:02:51.820 |
Verse 24 and 25, which says, "Now to him who is 01:02:56.820 |
able to keep you from stumbling, and able to make you stand in the presence of his glory, 01:03:01.820 |
blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, 01:03:06.820 |
be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time 01:03:11.820 |
and now and forever. Amen." So as we take a look at this, 01:03:16.820 |
we could summarize it, if we were to summarize into one singular phrase, it would simply be, 01:03:26.820 |
To God who is able be all glory. So when we take a look at this last segment, 01:03:31.820 |
verse 24 to 25, it probably is so familiar to you guys, because both Pastor Peter 01:03:36.820 |
and I, we love reading this at the very end of the sermon. It's an amazing 01:03:41.820 |
summary of how powerful God is, how deserving 01:03:46.820 |
he is, right? And so that's why we call it a doxology. What is 01:03:51.820 |
a doxology? You guys probably heard that term here and there. You know, you see it at the top of the 01:03:56.820 |
heading of your Bibles. Doxology simply just actually means a 01:04:01.820 |
word of glory. Dox is the Greek word for glory, andology is just the word, 01:04:06.820 |
right? So there are many other passages in Scripture 01:04:11.820 |
that speak in kind of magnificent terms, elaborative 01:04:16.820 |
terms of the greatness of our God. And it typically, 01:04:21.820 |
not always, but typically comes at the end of a section where the author has been 01:04:26.820 |
expounding and explaining and going through details of, "Do you see 01:04:31.820 |
how good God is? Do you see his gospel?" And then he breaks into 01:04:36.820 |
a word of praise, basically. One such example is Romans 16. 01:04:41.820 |
It says, "Now to him who is able to establish you according to my 01:04:46.820 |
gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has 01:04:51.820 |
been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifest, and by 01:04:56.820 |
the Scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made 01:05:01.820 |
known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith, to the only 01:05:06.820 |
wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. 01:05:11.820 |
Amen." Here's another one, because it's so good. 01:05:16.820 |
Hebrews 13, it says, "Now the God of peace, who brought up from the 01:05:21.820 |
dead the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, 01:05:26.820 |
even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do his 01:05:31.820 |
will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through 01:05:36.820 |
Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen." 01:05:41.820 |
Okay? And so in this way, we have many pastoral 01:05:46.820 |
scriptures that essentially say, "To God be the glory forever and ever." 01:05:51.820 |
And it reminds me of when I got saved as a young senior in 01:05:56.820 |
high school, they had at the church, a Korean church, at the end of the service, that like 01:06:01.820 |
singing of the, you know, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." 01:06:06.820 |
Okay? I can't sing right now. What am I doing? But then it kind of 01:06:11.820 |
crescendos into, right, that all glory, all power, 01:06:16.820 |
to God forever and ever. Amen. And then it's so powerful. 01:06:21.820 |
You know? And for us, we take a moment to just think about at the end of a letter like this, 01:06:26.820 |
it is interesting to be like, "Woe to you guys, 01:06:31.820 |
because there is creepers who have come in, dangerous men, 01:06:36.820 |
apostate men, and they follow their lust, they're arrogant, they're deceivers." 01:06:41.820 |
And this goes on. And at the end of that, just a breakout in praise. 01:06:46.820 |
Okay? So I want you guys to kind of think about, 01:06:51.820 |
what does it mean to really give God glory then? 01:06:56.820 |
We've heard the idea, the book of Ephesians tells you, "Bless the Lord." Right? 01:07:06.820 |
word association to praise God or glorify God 01:07:11.820 |
would automatically translate to just sing and sing and sing. 01:07:16.820 |
Does singing glorify God? And the answer is yes. Okay? But beyond that, 01:07:21.820 |
in terms of your state of mind, in terms of the content and the 01:07:26.820 |
sanctuary of your head, what is contained in the content of your thoughts, 01:07:31.820 |
in the way you express your views, the words that you use, 01:07:36.820 |
and in the actions that you decide on doing, what does it mean to glorify God? 01:07:41.820 |
Right? And I want to just share one of the interesting things, 01:07:46.820 |
as I remember early on when I was a Christian, there was this overly dramatic gentleman 01:07:51.820 |
who was my teacher. And what was so funny is that every time he would get the youth group 01:07:56.820 |
to go to a school, he would be very critical. And he knew some of us were 01:08:01.820 |
essentially lying or we weren't telling the full truth. He would always look at us and say, 01:08:06.820 |
"Tell the truth. Shame the devil." Right? Not in that voice, but something similar. 01:08:11.820 |
Right? He'd say, "You tell the truth. Shame the devil." But also he would say, "You tell the truth. 01:08:16.820 |
Glory to God." Right? And was he just being a charismatic? Was he just 01:08:21.820 |
being a charismatic? No, he was making perfect sense. 01:08:26.820 |
You either make Satan nice and proud because you're hiding yourself, you're not telling the full truth, 01:08:31.820 |
you're not being forthright. Right? Or the flip. 01:08:36.820 |
Because it only makes sense to be broken, truthful, and honest because you trust God, you glorify Him. 01:08:41.820 |
And it was kind of really interesting that he made a connection and drew a line 01:08:46.820 |
every time he challenged us to do something because this is the will of God. 01:08:51.820 |
Right? But I want you to think. We're ending with a passage that tells like, 01:08:56.820 |
"Glory to God." And if we just end with, "Yeah, next time I sing, 01:09:01.820 |
I'm just going to sing a little louder." I'm not sure if we're going to be able 01:09:06.820 |
to apply this passage in its full extent. Right? So meditate on that. 01:09:11.820 |
But if we take a look at the full of the text, 01:09:16.820 |
in thinking about all that's contained, what we can tell just from my color coding, 01:09:21.820 |
I hope it helps you guys when I do this, is that, 01:09:26.820 |
yes, we're supposed to give glory to God, but in relationship to some of the other ones 01:09:31.820 |
that I showed you, the book of Romans, clearly, he centered the book of Romans 01:09:36.820 |
doxology on the glory of God because of the revelation of the gospel. 01:09:41.820 |
And the book of Romans happens to be such an emphatic book on the explanation 01:09:46.820 |
of the gospel truth. The book of Hebrews, if you want to talk about a book 01:09:51.820 |
that connects the dots for you on the covenant of God, that's the book you go to. 01:09:56.820 |
Well, guess what? He ends the book with that connection. Here, what's really interesting is, 01:10:01.820 |
amidst all the troubles, he focuses our attention on the one who is able. 01:10:06.820 |
Right? As we think about giving glory to God, 01:10:11.820 |
there is this question of, do you trust truly in your heart and have faith 01:10:16.820 |
that yes, with man, all things impossible, but with God, 01:10:21.820 |
there is nothing impossible. He is fully able to keep us amidst 01:10:26.820 |
all of this. And so, let's move to the very first section. 01:10:31.820 |
If I were to break it up, I would say verse 24 has to him who is able 01:10:36.820 |
as the centerpiece. And so we think about this idea that he is clearly able 01:10:41.820 |
to keep. And yes, it's the same word that he uses when he challenges 01:10:46.820 |
you to keep yourself. And I mentioned it is a very descriptive word 01:10:51.820 |
because he is watching and guarding, securing and preserving. 01:10:56.820 |
But it is often used at the top of the dictionary entry, it was most often used 01:11:01.820 |
as to guard something, even as a guard guards a prisoner. Yes? 01:11:06.820 |
And he guards you from stumbling. And he's also able to make you stand. 01:11:11.820 |
First, I want to ask an interesting question just for your guys' thought is, 01:11:16.820 |
so clearly here, oops, sorry, the pen's there, okay. 01:11:21.820 |
There's this idea of to keep you. And then there is this thought of stumbling, 01:11:26.820 |
and we should ask, like, I know if we were to do a track record, 01:11:31.820 |
meaning you just start tallying how many times you sin in the month, 01:11:36.820 |
like, some of us would be like, well, I'm not exactly sure how he's keeping me 01:11:41.820 |
from sinning, meaning daily mistakes, errors and sins. 01:11:46.820 |
But is that what he's talking about when he says stumbling? Right? 01:11:50.820 |
Daily mishaps and sins. Or is he talking about an ultimate kind of falling away? 01:11:54.820 |
Something to think about. But nevertheless, I want us to just keep in, 01:12:01.820 |
like, mind the context. Lately, what's been interesting is that there's been 01:12:07.820 |
a lot of people feeling this eerie sense of, oh, my goodness, the end is near. 01:12:12.820 |
Right? Because everything that we've been seeing around us in context of just, 01:12:17.820 |
like, how the scriptures describe the end times, it talks about everybody's 01:12:21.820 |
going to be really angry. Everyone's going to be very greedy. 01:12:24.820 |
Children will be haters of parents. People will be lovers of self, 01:12:27.820 |
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then what's more, scripture has told us 01:12:31.820 |
as the end gets closer and closer and closer, the church itself, 01:12:36.820 |
it's going to look like the seven churches in the book of Revelations. 01:12:41.820 |
Whether it's all compromised, form without spirit and power. 01:12:47.820 |
And so there is this bleak outlook. But even in the midst of all of these 01:12:52.820 |
threats, attacks of apostates, false teachers, even though that laundry list 01:12:57.820 |
of character traits that we saw was, truthfully speaking, was so overwhelming 01:13:02.820 |
we couldn't keep track of all of them, God says, "Do you understand? 01:13:06.820 |
I am going to preserve and keep you." So yes, in the midst of all that 01:13:12.820 |
and also in the end of all that. And what's pretty amazing is 1 Peter 01:13:16.820 |
describes it very similarly, where he talks about for us, we're going to 01:13:21.820 |
obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, will not fade, 01:13:27.820 |
reserved in heaven for you, you who are protected by the power of God 01:13:32.820 |
through faith for our salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. 01:13:36.820 |
Right? So that's 1 Peter 1, 3 to 5. And so in thinking about all that, 01:13:42.820 |
I think this is something we should just put a stake down and say, 01:13:46.820 |
"Man, do I ever struggle with this weary thought, like, 'Oh my gosh, 01:13:51.820 |
where is the world headed?' And do you also have any sentiment where you 01:13:57.820 |
have this heart in you that is already defeated? 'Ah, I'm going to struggle, 01:14:05.820 |
always struggle, and then I'm just going to squeeze by.'" You know? 01:14:09.820 |
This is it. The challenge to you is hear God's word that He is actually 01:14:15.820 |
going to, here, go to the next one, also make you stand. 01:14:19.820 |
He's going to make you stand where? In the presence, and I believe this idea 01:14:23.820 |
of also with great joy is supporting this idea of how He's going to, 01:14:28.820 |
okay, make you stand. And we think about this as a means to appreciate 01:14:34.820 |
what He's saying. I want you to do the whole, like, envision together, right? 01:14:41.820 |
Envision together me asking you, "Hey, I wanted to use as an example 01:14:47.820 |
for my sermon and illustration somebody who's just a great, great church man 01:14:51.820 |
and church woman, an example and model of faith. Can I ask you to come stand 01:14:56.820 |
with me on the pulpit?" Okay? Just picture with me, okay? 01:15:00.820 |
How many of you would be like, "Yeah, let me be the sermon illustration 01:15:06.820 |
for you, Pastor Mark." Right? I'm guessing nobody. 01:15:10.820 |
You would automatically be like, "No, no, no, no. I have a fear of public speaking. 01:15:15.820 |
No, no, no, no. You could use somebody else." And for sure, I'm not like 01:15:20.820 |
the prime example. There's other people, da, da, da, da, da, and you'll name off others. 01:15:24.820 |
Right? We don't even like being stood in front of our friends, okay? 01:15:28.820 |
That's what I'm talking about. God Himself is the greatest quality control. 01:15:33.820 |
He's the greatest judge. He has the most piercing eyes, and He sees through all. 01:15:38.820 |
Right? And so for Him to say, "I am going to make you stand before the glory of God 01:15:44.820 |
with not incredible fear and dread that you're just going to be spotted 01:15:50.820 |
for all that you are, but that you're going to be presented before God with joy," 01:16:01.820 |
And so I wanted to encourage our hearts that this has been the heart of God, 01:16:08.820 |
where He has said that He has His ambition. In Ephesians 5, the description of the role 01:16:14.820 |
of the husband was to nourish, cherish, wash, and present, holy, blameless, 01:16:19.820 |
in all her splendor, the church. And that has been Christ's agenda. 01:16:25.820 |
And then Christ said, "I will accomplish it without losing a single one." Amen? 01:16:31.820 |
Next, we take a look at the middle section, and we see that there is kind of like 01:16:39.820 |
just a reiteration. Right? It says, "To Him," and then it goes on to say, 01:16:44.820 |
"To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 01:16:48.820 |
Now, within this text, there's nothing new. And so it's kind of like, 01:16:54.820 |
"Hmm, I don't know how to pull observations from verse 25a." 01:17:00.820 |
So I'm just going to say, "To God be the glory," and I was about to pass, honestly. 01:17:04.820 |
But then I started saying, "No, I'm going to try to think about each word." 01:17:09.820 |
And then you start realizing, well, clearly there is this idea of the only God, 01:17:13.820 |
and in our day, to say He is the only way, there is only one God, 01:17:18.820 |
that's like fighting terms. Right? If you say we have the only truth, 01:17:25.820 |
the only revelation that will ever save you, you are an exclusive arrogant man. 01:17:31.820 |
And what's more, if you talk about nowadays our Savior, I saw a hilarious thing. 01:17:37.820 |
About nowadays our Savior, I saw a hilarious thing. 01:17:42.820 |
His name was Benjamin Watson. He's a pro football player. 01:17:46.820 |
And it was already old. It's like five years old. 01:17:49.820 |
But he was talking about how, hey, there's not necessarily like a social problem 01:17:54.820 |
there's a sin problem. The reason why we're so angry at each other 01:17:58.820 |
is because there's sin in our hearts. And then he started to say, 01:18:01.820 |
"But I believe that our only solution is not just simply government and policies, 01:18:06.820 |
I believe it's Jesus Christ." And the screen went green. It was like static. 01:18:10.820 |
And the announcer was like, "Oh, just like that, we lost him." 01:18:13.820 |
He got cut off. And I thought that was hilarious. 01:18:16.820 |
That the pushing of Jesus as a solution to our societal woes is silenced in our day. 01:18:23.820 |
This is fighting terms to say, "No, no, no, no. You need a Savior like I need a Savior." 01:18:30.820 |
It has to be through Jesus Christ. There is no only way. And guess what? 01:18:34.820 |
He is Lord. A primary description of God. Right? 01:18:39.820 |
He is, and then we're going to study later, He is the creator. He owns everything. 01:18:44.820 |
Guess what? He is the control. He is sovereign. He is Lord. 01:18:48.820 |
Unfortunately, we live in a generation where Jesus, He is depicted as 01:18:52.820 |
the one who is our friend, the one who is our comforter, which is true. 01:18:58.820 |
But the primary anticipation in our hearts when we think about Jesus coming back is 01:19:03.820 |
Jesus is coming back with splendor, majesty, power, reign. 01:19:11.820 |
Jesus is coming back as king over your life. Yes? 01:19:15.820 |
And so what I did was I said, "You know, every single one of these words, 01:19:20.820 |
it describes a way by which we can actually fight every falsehood that faces us today." 01:19:27.820 |
Every single word, it was pretty amazing that he wanted to talk about the gospel 01:19:32.820 |
and the common faith that we have, and then he did it in two phrases. 01:19:38.820 |
That the consideration of, like, if there is somebody who wants to teach you something, 01:19:43.820 |
if there happens to be an event, you have to ask, "Does this give attention to God or to us?" 01:19:49.820 |
If there is an event or a movement, you have to ask, "Is it exclusive to the one true God 01:19:55.820 |
or are we catering to everybody?" You know, everybody of all faith, we are equally welcome. 01:20:02.820 |
Does it involve your personal conversion where it has to be my savior? 01:20:09.820 |
Does it actually adjust the fact as a necessity for exaltation because our greatest problem in this life 01:20:14.820 |
is not societal woes, our greatest problem is that my sin deserves God's wrath. 01:20:22.820 |
And then you can just go down the list. Every single one of these, our generation will see as contentious words, 01:20:29.820 |
and therefore, every single one of these words presents to us a way by which we can truly contend for the faith. 01:20:38.820 |
Next. In the last segment, that to him must be all glory, describes that he is deserving, 01:20:50.820 |
or I guess to him be, and there's a question for you there. We don't talk like that, okay, normally, right? 01:20:58.820 |
Even if we're talking about, I guess, human characters, lately, because LeBron became the highest-scoring player 01:21:06.820 |
in the NBA ever, everyone started to say, "Man, this guy truly is the GOAT," and there has been debates. 01:21:12.820 |
"No, no, no, you fool, Michael Jordan's the GOAT." It's like, "No, no, no, LeBron's the GOAT," you know? 01:21:17.820 |
But you would never say, "To LeBron be the glory," you know? You would never say, like, "To LeBron be the recognition." 01:21:26.820 |
Like, who talks like that? So we have to ask, in what way to be God are all of these descriptions, or I guess possessions, 01:21:38.820 |
or I guess, and it kind of makes you think, right? To have glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, 01:21:45.820 |
and it would be good for you to, I hope you guys at least took one of these words and did the whole definition thing, 01:21:52.820 |
or where else are they used? And then you realize, "Oh my gosh, it's like everywhere," you know? 01:21:57.820 |
Obviously, it's in Revelation multiple times, the angels are singing. For example, let's see here. 01:22:06.820 |
The angels are singing in Revelation 5, right? The elders are singing, the creatures are singing. 01:22:13.820 |
Just as an example from Revelation 5, 11, he says, "I looked, I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, 01:22:22.820 |
living creatures, elders, the number of myriads, myriads, thousands, thousands, saying with a loud voice, 01:22:30.820 |
'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, riches, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing, 01:22:40.820 |
in every created thing which is in heaven and on earth, under the earth and the sea, all things in them, 01:22:45.820 |
I heard them saying, 'To him who sits on the throne, be blessing, honor, glory, dominion forever and ever, amen.'" 01:22:52.820 |
That was like an incredible, incredible vision. And so I thought about that for a moment, this idea of like, 01:23:00.820 |
huh, that's pretty cool that through reading these other passages, you get a vision, you get a picture, right? 01:23:13.820 |
And so it kind of begs the question, like, number one, I do think there is a potential pitfall where these terms 01:23:23.820 |
are too big and lofty for us to connect with. It's just like, okay, majesty, dominion, and authority. 01:23:32.820 |
I know God's powerful, right? But there is this other question of like, do you have a kingdom vision, 01:23:41.820 |
a vision like that, so glorious, where everything is perfectly right? 01:23:51.820 |
Let me say that again, it's like, some of us, we want to fix various problems in the universe, 01:23:58.820 |
and we want to fix a lot of the problems in our lives, but there is a high and lofty vision 01:24:04.820 |
where everything is in its perfect place, and that vision is what I just read to you from Romans 5. 01:24:11.820 |
Where every single creature is honoring the only individual who's truly worthy. 01:24:20.820 |
And we're saying exactly correct things, which is, look at how deserving this Lord is. 01:24:27.820 |
Look how beautiful he is. And so we're saying the truest, the most appropriate stuff, 01:24:34.820 |
and we're not arguing about trivial things like, nah, you fool, Jordan's better, right? 01:24:40.820 |
It's so trivial, so vain, and so menial. But it's kind of funny because, again, this is a knock on a lot of guys 01:24:49.820 |
who are debating and stuff like that. Some of us are kind of offended. Are you stupid? 01:24:56.820 |
Did you not see how good Jordan was? Did you not see how many opponents he took down? 01:25:03.820 |
Did you not see his ambition, his prowess, his skill in every single, like, whatever, 01:25:10.820 |
they can go on and off and off. But there's that question, like, do you have a vision of God 01:25:16.820 |
that's so great that you'd be willing to say to other people, like, dude, you reject God right now, 01:25:22.820 |
you're the fool. Do you have any idea how perfect this maker is? Do you have any idea how perfect 01:25:29.820 |
his patience is every season? Do you have any idea how glorious this God is? 01:25:37.820 |
You know? So as I was reading that, I was like, man, like, if I had that vision, 01:25:43.820 |
the implications that come from it, if I had that vision where I said my greatest ambition and goal 01:25:51.820 |
is to see God glorified in my life and yours, and truthfully speaking, in every form of discipleship, 01:25:59.820 |
whether it's the preaching from the pulpit, whether it's leadership training or biblical counseling, 01:26:05.820 |
any form of discipleship, one of the number one goals is, dude, if you and I are not united 01:26:12.820 |
on this one vision to first and foremost be about the high priority of glorifying God, 01:26:19.820 |
then we're on two different, entirely separate paths. There's no discipleship here. 01:26:25.820 |
Every form, like in counseling, if I have somebody who's like, oh my gosh, like, you know, 01:26:31.820 |
something tragic happened, and da da da da da, it's like, yes, you have my compassion, you have my, 01:26:36.820 |
you know, all my empathy and sympathy that I can possibly muster, and you have the compassions of Christ. 01:26:41.820 |
But even in your crisis, if you and I are not set on the priority of the glory of God, 01:26:48.820 |
we have no solution to this situation. Right? Why? Because if you have as your priority, 01:26:56.820 |
as a number one goal, to remove all the pain from your heart and nothing else, 01:27:01.820 |
then you'll never ever get there. Right? You're gonna miss the entire thing, which is Christ. 01:27:08.820 |
When he is glorified, when he is honored, when he has authority, when he has dominion, 01:27:15.820 |
and he has all glory, all of your pains also diminish underneath that great, great glory of God. 01:27:23.820 |
And so I wanted to say that in so many ways, actually, this potentially, potentially, 01:27:31.820 |
kind of lofty, hard to conceptualize, big old terminology words, has a huge ton of application 01:27:41.820 |
in everyday scenario, because it becomes the greatest driving force of the things that we decide. Right? 01:27:48.820 |
And between those decisions that we make in our lives, whether it's your dating, financial, right, 01:27:54.820 |
whatever it is, practical, you will have to cross that question of, does this bring more glory to God? 01:28:01.820 |
You have to. And based upon those answers, you end up applying some of the greatest wisdom 01:28:08.820 |
for every scenario in life. And so, by a wrap up and review, we had before as a big, big chunk, 01:28:17.820 |
you don't have to take notes on this, I sent you the PowerPoint, and it's just like, right? 01:28:22.820 |
All the way starting from verse four, down to verse 16 and 17 and more, 01:28:27.820 |
there were descriptions of the ungodly men. Ungodliness is around you. Okay? That was a warning. 01:28:36.820 |
And then the scripture in Jude told you, "Contend." And it told you to contend by remembering 01:28:42.820 |
and knowing all that's going to happen. It commanded you to contend by building up your faith, 01:28:47.820 |
praying in the Spirit, keeping yourselves in the love of God, and keep looking. 01:28:52.820 |
Show compassion towards the wavering. Seek urgently to rescue some, and use yourself, stay pure. 01:28:59.820 |
And in these last portions, it tells you, it told you, contend by trusting God's ability. 01:29:05.820 |
Contend by seeking His glory. Amen? Let's take a moment to pray. 01:29:14.820 |
Heavenly Father, we pray, God, that you would help us to see and recognize, 01:29:22.820 |
Lord, that your calling for us was to glorify you whether I eat my dinner or not. 01:29:32.820 |
Your desire for us was to glorify you. Even in my drinking. 01:29:40.820 |
Even in taking a sip of whatever it was, attending this or that, 01:29:45.820 |
the daily menial decisions that I think have no bearing, I was supposed to think about your glory. 01:29:53.820 |
And so I pray that you would help us to be so intentional and genuinely so considerate about you. 01:30:02.820 |
Father God, we live in a generation where so many pastors and teachers are so considerate of men 01:30:07.820 |
that they are more than willing to simply hide you in the backseat. 01:30:12.820 |
I pray, Father God, that we would say no to this generation, 01:30:16.820 |
and we would place you as truly the first place, the head of the church, 01:30:23.820 |
that God, you would have first and primacy place in everything. 01:30:28.820 |
I also pray, God, that you would guard us, truly guard us from the temptations of our enemy, the devil, 01:30:36.820 |
that is content to have us nod our heads in agreement to facts. 01:30:41.820 |
But I pray that your spirit will move us so that personally, God, we would surrender and be broken 01:30:50.820 |
We thank you, God, that's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. 01:30:54.820 |
Okay, so it's now 8.30, and as a highlight for you guys of just preparation for next week, 01:31:02.820 |
we have second and third John, and again, I try to email you guys, and we'll post as a reminder as well. 01:31:10.820 |
Just do your broad reading so that you can highlight the themes and central exhortations. 01:31:16.820 |
Please make, compare and contrast, you know, I guess, of the similarities and differences with first John as well. 01:31:24.820 |
And then always be in the practice of summarizing, okay? 01:31:28.820 |
So that you can boil down teachings into a driving point. 01:31:33.820 |
Summarize second and third John, and then do your inductive process for verses one through three, okay? 01:31:43.820 |
And then, as a discussion questions for the rest of the night, please again think about what does it mean to give glory to God? 01:31:53.820 |
How can that express itself in your thoughts, words, and actions? 01:31:57.820 |
Number two, for you personally, do you struggle with balancing your responsibility with God's power? 01:32:02.820 |
And you know what that means, it's like, you had the exhortation, you keep yourself in the love of God. 01:32:10.820 |
And then the scripture says, God will keep you, okay? 01:32:14.820 |
So does that mean that if you try your hardest, and you toil, and you cry over, you know, trying to keep yourself in the love of God, 01:32:23.820 |
Like, what is the balance there, and how do I make sure I keep both in my understanding? 01:32:30.820 |
And then number three, what are the implications? 01:32:33.820 |
If we had God's glory and honor as the top priority in my life, 01:32:39.820 |
what other implications, impacts would it have on the way I think and what I do? 01:32:45.820 |
So please take some time to discuss that, and then that'll wrap up our study in June.