back to indexBAM Retreat Session 3
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This is 19 to 27, and this is a passage many of you guys are familiar with, or at least 00:00:20.320 |
Now therefore, or therefore brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place 00:00:26.760 |
by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the 00:00:31.960 |
veil that is his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, 00:00:37.960 |
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled 00:00:45.280 |
clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 00:00:51.040 |
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promises faithful. 00:00:58.200 |
And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our 00:01:05.060 |
own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all 00:01:20.840 |
Father, we thank you for just giving us a little bit of a, just a day and a half to 00:01:27.960 |
focus, to just reflect on our own walk, to reflect on your kindness and goodness, the 00:01:40.800 |
power of your word, and tonight, the power of the corporate body. 00:01:46.280 |
I ask, Lord, that you would speak, that you would help us and enable us to figure out 00:01:58.760 |
Help us to draw strength from you and from one another, and would you, Lord, receive 00:02:05.400 |
just a glory from the fruit that is born in our lives. 00:02:12.560 |
So, last night we talked about just the dangers of drifting, and like I said, that's not a 00:02:18.440 |
comfortable topic to talk about, but like I said before, it is important for us to often 00:02:29.300 |
And then earlier this morning we talked about just the importance of really studying through 00:02:35.240 |
the word of God and to clinging to the word of God to discern truth. 00:02:41.440 |
And that's important because more and more in today's day and age, truth is becoming 00:02:51.280 |
I meet all kinds of people who are at churches who hold on to very strange values that are 00:03:02.800 |
And when you cite the Bible, you're immediately labeled as a hypocrite, a Pharisee, a religious 00:03:10.160 |
But nonetheless, you and I are called to anchor down and see everything through the lens of 00:03:16.440 |
Tonight is going to be a little bit lighter, easier, and more applicational so that we 00:03:23.200 |
can learn how to do this effectively, long-term, and together with one another. 00:03:34.800 |
So as you guys now know, I worked in Korea for six years. 00:03:48.760 |
They're objectively cute, I think, objectively. 00:03:52.720 |
And so it was very special when they were born. 00:03:59.580 |
But because they were twins and because I traveled so much, I had to bring my wife in 00:04:03.800 |
January of 2015, and she didn't come back to Korea until September. 00:04:08.440 |
So for eight months, we were living on two different continents. 00:04:13.120 |
And I did visit her a few times, and I was here. 00:04:18.840 |
So just the Lord timed it well, and I enjoyed that. 00:04:25.020 |
But every summer since then, 2015, summer '16, '17, my heart was ripped apart every time 00:04:33.080 |
And it was just a very difficult, emotional, like, I am leaving my wife and my kids here, 00:04:40.200 |
and I'm going back to Korea where I'm not going to see my kids two, three months. 00:04:46.520 |
But last summer, before we came here, oh, 2017 summer, the kids were about two and a 00:04:54.280 |
And I picked them up from the airport, and we brought them into the house. 00:04:58.400 |
And they were familiar with the house because we had lived there before they left. 00:05:04.760 |
And as soon as my kids walked into the house, they were like, "Hee!" 00:05:09.660 |
And then, you know, they were walking around. 00:05:15.640 |
They were opening up everything, taking out all the toys. 00:05:23.600 |
Because for me that home was not complete until the kids came in, and they made a mess 00:05:31.760 |
But having them make themselves at home made me so happy, and I did not care that they 00:05:44.080 |
I just enjoyed having them home, and I really enjoyed watching them open the fridge, close 00:05:49.880 |
the fridge, open the fridge, close the fridge, open the fridge, close the fridge, open the 00:05:56.640 |
And it really, for some reason, that just was so satisfying. 00:06:02.840 |
They're home, and they know that this is their home. 00:06:06.960 |
Now if I invited you guys to our house, and you were opening the fridge, closing the fridge, 00:06:12.680 |
opening the cupboards, closing the cupboards, and you were just making yourself at home, 00:06:21.200 |
Same thing is if I went to your house or apartment, and I just started looking through all your 00:06:25.880 |
stuff, checking out what you got in the fridge, just looking in all the rooms, you would feel 00:06:33.840 |
uncomfortable because I am not a resident there. 00:06:41.120 |
If you came to my house, I would expect you to ask before you started. 00:06:45.800 |
If you wanted something in the fridge, like, "Can I have a Coke?" 00:06:49.080 |
Or like, "If we're having ice cream, can I get some for myself?" 00:06:53.800 |
I probably won't say no, but it's polite to ask. 00:06:58.840 |
My kids, if they asked, I would think that's weird. 00:07:03.440 |
So we live with my in-laws in a very big house. 00:07:07.080 |
I don't have to ask to see what we have to eat in the fridge. 00:07:17.800 |
And my kids, they run around without any discomfort because it's their home also. 00:07:26.240 |
So they have confidence in living in this house. 00:07:32.720 |
And so for me, though my kids have to respect and honor me as their dad, they don't have 00:07:41.280 |
And if I saw that my kids were extra careful around me, I would feel bothered by it. 00:07:55.960 |
So you know one of the things I love about Karis? 00:08:00.920 |
I don't know if you noticed, she actually put on the princess clothes and she told my 00:08:04.320 |
wife, "I wanna go downstairs and to show everybody." 00:08:15.840 |
But one of the favorite things I love about my daughter is when she comes up to me and 00:08:28.200 |
So when she runs in front of me, stands in my way, say, "Hold you," right? 00:08:42.400 |
Every morning, if I'm home, he takes out four or five books and says, "Read. 00:08:56.160 |
Now if you guys were to run in front of me, "Buster, Peter, hold you." 00:09:08.420 |
If you were to ask me, "Read me a book," I would say, "Read it your stinking self." 00:09:16.040 |
Even if my kids, they're starting to kind of pick out words, but even if they could 00:09:27.240 |
When I was working in Korea, I have had the opportunity to work with just a good number 00:09:36.020 |
And because I was a pastor and I was a pastor at Compassion, they treated me very well and 00:09:41.060 |
then treated me with a lot of respect as a pastor. 00:09:44.480 |
If one of them owned a restaurant, they invited me to come. 00:09:46.800 |
And so he and his wife, we had a little double date. 00:09:53.720 |
So whenever I was with our celebrities, I would feel uncomfortable a little bit because 00:10:00.140 |
I felt like it's not royalty, but I feel like I'm sitting here in the presence of someone 00:10:13.720 |
I visited the home of one of them and everything I touched, everything I looked at, I was like, 00:10:25.700 |
I didn't take out my phone to take any pictures. 00:10:33.300 |
If I were to visit one of your homes, I wouldn't feel that way. 00:10:39.540 |
But humanly speaking, when you are in the home of someone who is someone, a degree of 00:10:55.060 |
The one -- but that celebrity, his daughter, I saw her run out and jump into his arms and 00:11:16.740 |
But that was a familiarity that I did not have clearly because I was a guest and not 00:11:27.200 |
When you and I approach God, we are in the presence of the someone of someone's. 00:11:39.540 |
So when you're coming into the house of God, in your heart, if you are an outsider, you 00:11:48.460 |
need to handle everything with reverence and care. 00:11:55.180 |
But with the arrival of Christ, with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, this is 00:12:06.300 |
And though the God who is your Father is a someone and is the someone of someone's, 00:12:14.100 |
you can approach Him with complete confidence. 00:12:22.220 |
And you could make demands out of that person because there is a love relationship. 00:12:31.500 |
Your daddy is a king of kings and a lord of lords. 00:12:46.180 |
Every now and then I wonder what it would be like to be like Kobe Bryant's daughter 00:12:52.420 |
I was about to say Donald Trump, but no, thank you very much. 00:13:02.860 |
Like do you ever wonder what it would feel like to be a famous person's child or a Bill 00:13:11.400 |
You would enjoy a relationship with that person that no one else would. 00:13:17.140 |
And to you, even though you know that that person is a person of significance, it's dad 00:13:29.340 |
Here in Hebrews 10, the author of Hebrews is actually describing this new relationship 00:13:40.640 |
19 to 22, "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by 00:13:49.180 |
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil 00:13:55.060 |
that is his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God." 00:14:01.900 |
So the writer of Hebrews has just written about how the Levitical sacrifices could never 00:14:09.420 |
Human priests could never take away their sin. 00:14:12.060 |
And we just finished the study of Leviticus before Colossians. 00:14:18.860 |
There's grain burnt, peace offering, guilt offering, sin offering, and they were constantly 00:14:26.980 |
And in Hebrews 10, verse 4, it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away 00:14:34.340 |
And then it goes on, "And every priest has to stand there daily offering again and again 00:14:43.260 |
But verse 14, "But by one offering, Jesus has perfected." 00:14:52.220 |
Literally, made perfect, perfect, "for all time those who are sanctified." 00:15:03.100 |
Verse 18, "Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering 00:15:09.580 |
So there is no sin legally standing between you and God now. 00:15:16.900 |
You are a child and you can come and demand to be held. 00:15:22.860 |
You have confidence in a way that no outsider could. 00:15:28.620 |
And that veil, when it was torn, basically it was a visible, symbolic reminder now that 00:15:35.760 |
this division between God and man has now been broken. 00:15:39.620 |
You are a child of God and you have every legal right to enjoy life of a prince. 00:15:50.300 |
And let me paint you like a little picture of this. 00:16:04.780 |
And as an ethnic Korean, I could actually stand in the Korean line. 00:16:09.500 |
And Koreans, everything's "palli palli," which means everything's hurried up. 00:16:15.180 |
How many of you guys have ever been to Incheon? 00:16:21.400 |
One time, I got off the plane and into a taxi in 19 minutes. 00:16:28.560 |
And because I have this special visa, I didn't have to stand in the foreigner's line. 00:16:34.160 |
And that helped because I was at that airport 20 times a year. 00:16:47.020 |
When I came to America, I actually had a thing which is called global entry. 00:16:51.620 |
Which basically, all of my records are in the US system. 00:16:55.020 |
So, if I ever come through a US port, I just scan my face and I'm good. 00:17:00.660 |
It used to help in LAX before they updated everything. 00:17:05.180 |
So actually, the global entry is useless in LAX. 00:17:09.140 |
But in Uganda, where I was not a citizen, I got stuck at the port. 00:17:21.340 |
Because the person who was looking at my passport said, "Are you from China or Korea?" 00:17:35.580 |
And I was like, "I don't know what to tell you. 00:17:38.940 |
I don't know how to explain to you that I'm not from Korea or China." 00:17:52.420 |
So, it took a few minutes before his supervisor came and said, "He is an American. 00:17:57.860 |
Otherwise, you couldn't have gotten a passport." 00:18:01.720 |
And everything at that trip in Uganda was a hassle. 00:18:12.780 |
When you are in a right standing before just a legal -- what do you call that? 00:18:26.700 |
When you are in fine, proper standing, everything moves easily. 00:18:34.200 |
But when you're an outsider, you have to go through all kinds of hoops and inconveniences. 00:18:41.240 |
Before, to get to God, every person had to go through all kinds of trouble to feel like 00:18:58.880 |
So, I don't know -- you're going to have to take time to mull over this. 00:19:12.980 |
You are a delight to the heavenly Father as a child of God. 00:19:20.220 |
And Jesus, your high priest, intercedes now on your behalf. 00:19:27.800 |
And when Jesus prays, when the Holy Spirit prays, you cannot go against it. 00:19:38.300 |
And this Jesus is interceding for your well-being. 00:19:47.400 |
He is praying on your behalf for you to be sanctified into His likeness. 00:19:58.380 |
And nothing is going to stop that from happening. 00:20:07.900 |
Yeah, He's praying for you with groans that words cannot express. 00:20:21.740 |
But when you are engaged or entangled in some sin, it's not that God moved away. 00:20:29.000 |
You just feel super bad and sometimes laden with guilt. 00:20:34.020 |
And you kind of get entangled and you have a hard time focusing and worshiping. 00:20:40.700 |
Here it says, "Brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 00:20:48.100 |
by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is His flesh. 00:20:52.500 |
And we have a great high priest over the house of God. 00:20:55.160 |
So all of these things are now the benefits that you have. 00:21:01.160 |
And there are three "let us's" that he describes. 00:21:05.900 |
There are three broad "let us" statements with participles connected to it. 00:21:12.860 |
The first one is, verse 22, "Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of 00:21:20.840 |
faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with 00:21:30.180 |
"Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts 00:21:38.580 |
sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." 00:21:45.640 |
When you examine yourselves to see whether you are of the faith and you realize indeed 00:21:50.340 |
that Christ Jesus is in you, you can approach God fully assured of your faith and He will 00:22:02.060 |
start washing away anything of a tainted conscience and He will present you as a glorious bride. 00:22:13.700 |
This section, Hebrews 10.22, is very similarly worded to Ephesians 5.26, "Husbands, love 00:22:21.180 |
your wives as Christ loved the church," right? 00:22:23.260 |
And washing her with pure water through the word. 00:22:26.200 |
And we looked at this week in Colossians chapter 1, verse 22, to present you holy and blameless 00:22:36.240 |
You are already clean if you are a child of God. 00:22:39.920 |
So it's just a matter of growing to appreciate it, growing to be free in it, and growing 00:22:47.920 |
to enjoy and delight in this confidence that we have in approaching God. 00:22:54.600 |
The second, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised 00:23:03.480 |
Does our faith and our walk with God depend on our efforts, our goodness, our spiritual 00:23:09.880 |
gifts or does it depend on Christ's faithfulness? 00:23:15.920 |
Our walk with God does not depend on our effort. 00:23:21.620 |
It depends all on Christ's faithfulness and that is how a true saint of God really can, 00:23:32.200 |
without wavering, hold fast, even in times of difficulty. 00:23:39.640 |
And those are things that I encourage you guys to kind of think through. 00:23:42.960 |
Hey, I am a child of God and I'm not perfect by any means, but I can approach God with 00:23:51.920 |
absolute just freedom and delight and knowing that I'm accepted, that he loves me just as 00:24:01.000 |
But because of the spiritual DNA that's in me, he's changing me. 00:24:04.520 |
So give me enough time, I'm going to look, feel, smell, and sound like Jesus. 00:24:10.900 |
It's absolutely going to happen one day because he is the one doing all this. 00:24:17.440 |
And for me, it's not a matter of like, am I going to fall away or am I going to like 00:24:28.360 |
What it is, is am I going to just really enjoy being a child of God? 00:24:45.520 |
And let us consider how to stimulate one another to loving good deeds. 00:24:53.440 |
Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one 00:24:59.160 |
another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. 00:25:06.280 |
And verse 24 and 25, you guys have probably heard before, right? 00:25:09.080 |
Let us consider how to stimulate one another to loving good deeds. 00:25:18.280 |
What does it mean to stimulate or stir up one another? 00:25:35.440 |
First of all, it does not mean to compel or force. 00:25:42.760 |
Stimulating someone to loving good deeds is not under compulsion or by force. 00:25:52.080 |
So when you feel like you need to rebuke somebody in love, and some of you guys are more gifted 00:26:02.960 |
Some of you guys are a lot more like, "Oh, I don't want to hurt that person." 00:26:06.280 |
But regardless of your temperament, you were called to stimulate, incite people to loving 00:26:15.600 |
One way you don't do that is by forcing them to love, by forcing them, compelling them, 00:26:33.660 |
Have you ever been guilt tripped to do something? 00:26:50.720 |
And when that bitterness toward being guilt tripped over, when it kind of passes away, 00:27:02.800 |
Guilt is never a way that we should, never a means by which we should compel some, or 00:27:15.300 |
You cannot guilt trip them by saying, "Oh, look at all that Jesus did for you to cause 00:27:28.060 |
The way you and I stimulate one another toward loving good deeds is that whenever we get 00:27:33.860 |
together, we reflect on God's goodness in our lives, mull over the love of God, and 00:27:44.420 |
strategize together how to respond appropriately. 00:27:49.080 |
So don't ever guilt trip people into following Christ. 00:27:51.660 |
That's why I don't believe in the Turner Burn gospel message. 00:28:00.540 |
He points to sin, but he doesn't guilt trip and condemn people. 00:28:08.160 |
So here it says, "Let us consider how to stimulate one another to loving good deeds and not forsaking 00:28:23.820 |
You know, last year, or two years ago, I was walking around my daughter's high chair, and 00:28:32.900 |
I kicked with my pinky toe 25-pound weights that were sitting against the wall. 00:28:41.280 |
So I was walking past my daughter, and bop, my pinky toe went straight into a 25-pound 00:28:52.380 |
So I just thought, you know, I've stubbed my toe many times, because along with chubby 00:28:55.580 |
fingers, sausage hands, I also have chubby toes. 00:28:59.660 |
So I was like, "Ow!" and then I couldn't walk for the next few days. 00:29:04.220 |
And so I actually had to go to the hospital, get that checked out, and for a very painful 00:29:09.580 |
week and a half, I was in a boot, and my little tiny pinky toe that was chubby was all I could 00:29:17.740 |
Because all my attention and all my focus went there. 00:29:30.020 |
And when God saves us into His family, He doesn't save us into individual islands or 00:29:44.060 |
So when you are a child of God, the local church is absolutely important to your spiritual 00:29:57.280 |
When you're happy, the body of Christ rejoices with you, and that is how God designed it. 00:30:03.900 |
Have you guys ever heard of a pastor named Charles Spurgeon? 00:30:07.260 |
So he, there's a story where he actually visited the home of his, one of his members who had 00:30:14.060 |
stopped coming out to church for about a month and a half. 00:30:18.580 |
He knocks on the door and the man is shocked. 00:30:20.820 |
He's like, "Oh, pastor, what are you doing here?" 00:30:24.460 |
And so they sit by the fireplace and they're just kind of shooting the breeze, and at the 00:30:29.100 |
very beginning of the conversation, Charles Spurgeon grabs one coal out of the fireplace 00:30:35.700 |
and just puts it aside and just keeps engaging in a conversation with this guy. 00:30:40.260 |
And the guy thought, "Dude, this is a very weird thing that my pastor did, because, you 00:30:43.860 |
know, people don't come into your house and take out the coal in the fire." 00:30:47.060 |
So they were engaging in a conversation, and the man kept looking at the coal. 00:30:53.540 |
And after about like 30 minutes, guess what happened to that piece of coal? 00:30:57.700 |
It went black, it went cold, but the rest of the fire was still burning. 00:31:02.660 |
And then after about 30 minutes, the man looked at Charles Spurgeon, smiled, and said, "Pastor, 00:31:12.500 |
Your love and passion for God cannot be kindled outside of your involvement in the body of 00:31:21.820 |
And that is something that I want to just kind of reemphasize tonight. 00:31:45.160 |
But the tricky thing about sin and kind of like straying and wandering from the faith 00:31:52.040 |
is when you are in sin, you want to be by yourself. 00:31:58.660 |
So the more you sin, the more you start withdrawing. 00:32:02.740 |
If you're doing something that everybody around you has told you is wrong, but you don't want 00:32:08.540 |
to let that go, guess what's going to happen to you? 00:32:10.140 |
You're going to start withdrawing from the people that actually care about you enough 00:32:14.560 |
to tell you, "Look, I am speaking the truth in love here, brother. 00:32:18.780 |
I am speaking the truth in love here, sister." 00:32:24.300 |
But when you unplug from the body of Christ, your love for Christ will grow cold and you 00:32:33.860 |
And we talked about yesterday, or today and yesterday, the enemy is out for blood. 00:32:42.900 |
And the first step in doing that is to divide and conquer. 00:32:45.880 |
He wants to split you away from the rest of the body so that you're left in isolation 00:32:55.260 |
And that is something that you have to always be kind of mindful of. 00:33:06.020 |
The enemy wants me to be away from the body of Christ and he may plant thoughts in your 00:33:14.900 |
Yeah when you go, you don't really need them. 00:33:18.460 |
You're not going to be noticed if you don't go. 00:33:22.620 |
And you're going to start nitpicking things about the church that is going to make you 00:33:28.540 |
So you actually have to be resolved to love the Word of God, to study the Word of God 00:33:33.740 |
passionately and to do it with brothers and sisters in Christ. 00:33:48.580 |
If you feel like, "I need to withdraw because people are causing me to be stumbled." 00:33:55.540 |
Or, "Yeah, I don't want people to know what I'm doing right now." 00:33:59.220 |
If you have that impulse to withdraw, that may very well kill you. 00:34:05.900 |
And that's something you need to be aware of. 00:34:09.420 |
Do your best to plug in to the local body, to meet as often as you can with your brothers 00:34:19.860 |
And I want to close going backward in Hebrews chapter 3. 00:34:27.020 |
Hebrews chapter 3, verses 12 to 13 is what I'm going to read. 00:34:49.140 |
Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart 00:35:04.680 |
Because apostasy is real and it's a real danger. 00:35:09.460 |
Verse 13, "But encourage one another day after day as long as it is still called today, so 00:35:20.620 |
that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." 00:35:30.940 |
How often should you guys get together with your brothers and sisters in Christ? 00:35:46.460 |
And whenever you get together, one of the first things that is on your mind should be, 00:35:55.340 |
how do we daily rekindle our passion for this living God? 00:36:02.180 |
Our heavenly daddy with whom we have absolute confidence, the one who is on our side, the 00:36:09.500 |
one whose love we can never be separated from if we indeed are children of God. 00:36:15.300 |
Verse 13 says, "But encourage one another day after day as long as it is called today," 00:36:23.500 |
because the day is approaching, "so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness 00:36:48.620 |
I am committed to rejoice when you are rejoicing. 00:36:53.660 |
I am committed to mourn with you when you go through times of mourning. 00:36:58.520 |
I am committed to speak the truth in love, in rebuke, and encouragement. 00:37:05.980 |
And you need to do the same for me and for the people around you because by ourselves 00:37:14.460 |
So when you are tempted to withdraw from the body of Christ, be very careful. 00:37:22.580 |
Drifting may already have started in your heart. 00:37:28.420 |
The more you feel like you're wrestling with sin, the more you need to cling to the people 00:37:42.140 |
Unless you're clinging to people who are indulgence and then it's just chaos. 00:37:46.780 |
You and I always, we need to commit to growing in the Word of God and growing hand in hand 00:38:02.820 |
You know, recently this week, do you know our church is a part of a denomination? 00:38:11.580 |
And recently there was an article, I forget who published it, but about 700 something 00:38:17.580 |
pastors in the Southern Baptist denomination, it's one of the largest ones in the world, 00:38:23.340 |
so about 700 local church pastors have been publicly accused, called out, even sued for 00:38:40.100 |
And then the Gospel Coalition started talking about it. 00:38:42.380 |
And so it's actually on, it's kind of being passed around on the internet. 00:38:46.780 |
Southern Baptist pastors, 700 something people, it's kind of like the Christian version of 00:38:53.820 |
All these people are coming out speaking against the pastors in their churches. 00:39:00.260 |
So one brother who I meet up with regularly actually asked me, he said, "Pastor Peter, 00:39:09.500 |
So let's say if one of our sisters at our church is harassed or mistreated or like sexually 00:39:19.300 |
abused in some sense, like where they can turn to? 00:39:24.340 |
Is there some kind of protocol on your job description on how to handle the women at 00:39:37.500 |
I didn't receive any HR training on like just impropriety and stuff when I came to this 00:39:46.780 |
But I said, "You know, brother, we don't have that. 00:39:52.340 |
But we have so many things set up just naturally that I don't think there necessarily might 00:40:00.260 |
be a need for some kind of on paper standards to be written." 00:40:06.420 |
Okay, so pay attention, especially for you sisters, on what I told this brother. 00:40:13.500 |
First of all, the four of us pastors, we see our schedules together every week. 00:40:18.300 |
We pass out, we, everybody, all of our pastors know who's meeting with who, male or female, 00:40:26.140 |
where they're preaching, everything we just share naturally. 00:40:30.660 |
And we're pretty much committed to being at church, unless we're doing some kind of ministry, 00:40:40.140 |
And because we do have a lot of sisters at our church, if we actually do have to counsel 00:40:44.100 |
or talk to one, this has never been shared, but we always leave the door open so that 00:40:50.900 |
people, if there's a sister in the room, someone understands that, "Oh, there's a conversation 00:41:00.280 |
But if it really is a very private conversation and very, like, just painful details need 00:41:07.300 |
to be shared, we close the door, but we open the blinds. 00:41:11.260 |
And if at all possible, every conversation that we have, we try to keep it at the cafe 00:41:22.180 |
And Pastor Peter, Pastor Mark, myself, and Pastor Nate, we pray together at some point 00:41:35.120 |
We go after in prayer all the people that we need to shepherd together. 00:41:42.660 |
And because we're always together, I feel like it's kind of tough to even be tempted 00:41:58.900 |
My biggest prevention, the biggest preventer of any impropriety is my brothers in Christ 00:42:13.340 |
The source of the most humbling rebuke, challenge, and stimulation to love and good deeds comes 00:42:23.420 |
And I tell people, like, they're like, "Oh, are you adjusting okay to America?" 00:42:25.900 |
I'm like, "This is the happiest I've been in 10 years." 00:42:34.620 |
I come every day to work, to just spend time doing kingdom work with brothers that love 00:42:43.100 |
the Lord, that love His Word, and that love me. 00:42:55.580 |
And the funny thing is every time we play ping pong, church people come in, and they 00:43:01.540 |
Just as a reference, we play ping pong Tuesday afternoons really only, okay, the four of 00:43:08.500 |
And if like Ryan or whoever is there, then they challenge us, and then we have to, you 00:43:12.100 |
know, like, we have to actually like step up, and we got to play. 00:43:21.460 |
But when you have like-minded people who love God, love His Word, love each other, silly 00:43:27.940 |
stuff like ping pong really becomes fellowship. 00:43:35.060 |
Just goofing around, playing a board game becomes family time. 00:43:45.440 |
The best way to keep from drifting is to stick yourself with people who are not drifting. 00:43:58.560 |
To latch on to people who are spiritually heavy. 00:44:06.560 |
But a really spiritually fat person, you just cling on. 00:44:13.800 |
But imagine a church like ours, a BAM group of 250 people, every member in this 250, with 00:44:24.560 |
all our imperfections, with all our insecurities, with all our quirks and weird habits, if all 00:44:31.160 |
of us commit to loving God, loving His Word, loving our neighbor, there aren't going to 00:44:40.040 |
There aren't going to be people who are drifting out from this place. 00:44:46.000 |
There aren't going to be random, silly things that divide the church in this place, if we're 00:44:53.560 |
all committed to loving God by knowing His Word and applying His Word by loving each 00:44:58.880 |
other and stimulating each other to love and good deeds. 00:45:12.520 |
Because some of you guys complain that somebody, you know that person spiritually nagged me 00:45:18.160 |
And that really was done out of love, probably. 00:45:22.800 |
But as we grow in Christlikeness, we move other people to grow in Christlikeness without 00:45:45.640 |
Man, that family's going to overseas missions work. 00:45:55.600 |
That guy every weekend goes to visit an orphanage or goes to visit a homeless shelter. 00:46:00.240 |
Man, I couldn't do that, but maybe I should start trying." 00:46:06.560 |
The more you thrive in your relationship with God, you will start seeing others around you 00:46:18.660 |
But if your get-togethers are always just about goofing around and having fun without 00:46:23.960 |
Christ involved, there's nothing necessarily in and of itself wrong, but you may drift 00:46:34.880 |
And I've seen that in our group too, where people hang out and just do silly stuff all 00:46:42.680 |
Not necessarily sinful, but you kind of get cold together. 00:46:48.640 |
But imagine if you are on fire for the Lord, and you're like, "Dude, let me share with 00:46:55.400 |
you what the Lord is teaching me," and you grab onto a brother and sister, and you share 00:47:00.080 |
with them all that's being done in your life. 00:47:02.600 |
You don't think that person's going to be challenged and encouraged and inspired? 00:47:10.120 |
I guarantee you no one's going to be drifted. 00:47:13.360 |
No one's going to be straying away, because we're always being recharged and being sharpened 00:47:23.720 |
So I don't know if necessarily our pastors, we need to have some kind of rules down on 00:47:31.980 |
A lot of our job description, it doesn't work, because all four pastors are doing more than 00:47:38.720 |
You know, we are our worst enemy, because we keep creating more work. 00:47:44.200 |
You know, you have four workaholic pastors who create more and more and more work. 00:47:49.840 |
People are doing Bible studies and discipleships all the time. 00:47:53.720 |
We're already juggling full plates, but someone goes, "Can you meet with me?" 00:48:00.840 |
We're not the best at administration, because we're all too busy doing ministry. 00:48:10.560 |
It's not just because I'm extra motivated, but because these brothers around me are doing 00:48:17.920 |
it, and I want to carry my load to building this church with these men. 00:48:27.680 |
But see, the pastors don't necessarily make the church. 00:48:40.360 |
And it can't just be the pastors who honor the Word of God. 00:48:49.960 |
I don't want you guys to think so much about drifting. 00:48:55.920 |
Focus more on growing together, and drifting won't be an issue. 00:49:13.360 |
Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart 00:49:22.480 |
But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, so that 00:49:50.640 |
will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 00:50:07.400 |
If you can remember that from this retreat, this was a good retreat, even though we didn't 00:50:12.280 |
go to the mountains, even though we didn't see no snow or throw shaved ice at each other. 00:50:20.960 |
Anchor deep into His Word and stimulate others to do the same. 00:50:38.080 |
As the BAM young adult pastor, I'm committing to do that. 00:50:52.240 |
And doing my best to try not to go anywhere near sin, focusing all of my waking hours 00:51:03.880 |
to His Word and to prayer, so that I can establish a strong anchor, so that you can anchor with 00:51:25.560 |
Because in Orange County, the worries of this life, riches, deceitfulness of wealth, pleasures 00:51:41.240 |
are trying to kill you, kill all the fruit that you could potentially bear. 00:51:58.400 |
And my commitment is to fight with and for you. 00:52:11.400 |
And you need to do the same for the pastors and the church leaders. 00:52:27.040 |
And as the Berean leadership stands in the front, trying to lead this charge of together 00:52:34.280 |
building the kingdom of God and doing our role as this local body of Christ, we are 00:52:42.720 |
the first ones to get attacked by all kinds of stuff. 00:52:47.640 |
Distraction, temptation, discouragement, fatigue. 00:52:56.160 |
We've got your back and you've got to get ours. 00:53:06.720 |
It has to be a God-centered, word-intensive church in order for us to bear fruit that 00:53:20.320 |
You guys understand the procession, like the progression of my thoughts here? 00:53:35.600 |
And as the enemy is constantly wanting us to fall apart, we have to be resolved to anchor 00:53:44.480 |
deep, hunker down, and fight for one another. 00:53:49.000 |
To rejoice with one another, weep with one another, pray with one another, read with 00:53:53.560 |
one another, memorize with one another, study with one another. 00:54:14.400 |
My hope is that we learn how to do that properly and we learn how to do that together. 00:54:39.960 |
Thank you, Lord, for teaching us tonight about the great freedom we have in Christ. 00:54:48.320 |
And I pray that you would help us to remember not to use our liberty as a license to sin, 00:54:57.080 |
but to use our liberty and freedom to release other people from their bondage to sin in 00:55:15.780 |
Help us to build up your church and to passionately carry our load, do our part to building up 00:55:32.160 |
Help us to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. 00:55:36.000 |
Help us to encourage one another and really at all times to point one another to the Lord 00:55:47.580 |
Thank you, Father, for just this reminder this weekend that Christ is central and that