back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service November 13, 2022
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As we gather this morning together for worship, 00:16:25.120 |
as we come to sing, to hear his word, to remember the gospel, 00:16:29.620 |
I pray that we would come humbly before our God, 00:16:33.420 |
for it is he who gives us life, it is he who sustains us, 00:18:48.120 |
So teach my soul to rise to you when temptation comes my way. 00:20:30.120 |
I want to welcome everyone to this morning's service. 00:20:34.520 |
to extend a warm welcome to you and ask that after the service, 00:20:40.420 |
It's the canopy that you saw in the parking lot. 00:20:46.520 |
If you have questions about Berean, et cetera, 00:20:48.520 |
we'd be happy to answer any of those things for you. 00:20:51.620 |
I want to highlight that in November 27 at 1 PM, 00:21:01.220 |
It's going to be called Jubilee Moving Forward. 00:21:04.200 |
Please be sure to sign up so they can get a head count. 00:21:08.100 |
If you have any questions, reach out to Elder Philip. 00:21:10.940 |
Also, I want to make note that on December 4, 00:21:14.180 |
we are going to be having another communion service. 00:21:17.200 |
And at that time, we're going to be doing it in such a way 00:21:26.140 |
as we're going to give a diagram on how we can facilitate that 00:21:32.340 |
we have a special announcement for some opportunities 00:21:47.200 |
My name is Evangeline, in case you haven't met me. 00:21:50.320 |
Merry Christmas, since holiday is coming up soon. 00:21:54.080 |
you can get involved in the holiday outreach this year. 00:21:56.460 |
It's kind of long, so I'll try to keep it as quick as possible. 00:21:59.880 |
The first is going to be through the OC Rescue Mission. 00:22:03.240 |
You can see some of the information here on the slide 00:22:07.840 |
which is located in Tustin, whose mission is to just share 00:22:17.760 |
One way that you can serve is through their soup kitchen, 00:22:23.720 |
Or if you can't make it, you can sponsor a meal for them, 00:22:26.920 |
where you just donate money to pay for their meal that day. 00:22:30.240 |
Or if you're feeling ambitious, you can do both. 00:22:32.560 |
So this event will be held on Friday, December 2, 00:22:38.480 |
So mark your calendars, because the date is coming up soon. 00:22:47.640 |
The next opportunity is going to be at Brookdale Assisted Living 00:22:54.440 |
And there are two opportunities where you can serve here. 00:22:59.560 |
And this is open to everyone, including children. 00:23:02.080 |
And we know that old people love kids, so bring your kids. 00:23:07.000 |
So you'll be able to sing with them, share the gospel, 00:23:09.560 |
do crafts, and just interact with the residents as well. 00:23:13.720 |
This opportunity will be held on Saturday, December 17, 00:23:20.000 |
The second opportunity is going to be through cardmaking, 00:23:22.480 |
where you can make a Christmas card either by yourself 00:23:26.080 |
And it will be delivered to the residents the same day 00:23:30.320 |
You have the option to either come to church with your family 00:23:35.440 |
or after second service, which will be between 1 to 3 PM 00:23:44.040 |
and then bring it by that same date, December 11. 00:23:48.360 |
OK, so there's a lot of information for that one. 00:23:50.640 |
So you can find Sharon's saying for any questions. 00:23:54.840 |
For both of the events that I just mentioned, 00:23:57.040 |
the last day to sign up is going to be the Sunday before each 00:24:05.400 |
So the last day to sign up will be Sunday, November 27. 00:24:13.120 |
And then last but not least is through Living Well Pregnancy 00:24:18.480 |
that provides free pregnancy services for women 00:24:21.640 |
who are at the crossroads of an unplanned pregnancy 00:24:25.360 |
They provide many free services, such as pregnancy tests, 00:24:29.040 |
ultrasounds, support and counseling, baby supplies, 00:24:41.260 |
may be going through a difficult time as well. 00:24:44.800 |
So the church will be hosting a baby bottle drive. 00:24:47.200 |
So this is where we will distribute these baby 00:24:50.480 |
You might have seen them outside at the booth. 00:24:52.720 |
But what you can do is just fill it with loose change, cash, 00:24:58.200 |
And then we'll donate that to the pregnancy center. 00:25:03.640 |
will be December 11, which is the same day as the card making 00:25:07.320 |
So you can just bring it if you have it next week or whenever. 00:25:16.800 |
of in light of the election and everything that went on, 00:25:19.120 |
this is a tangible way that we can get involved. 00:25:23.720 |
So please take all the bottles and clean me out 00:25:30.680 |
So if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. 00:25:33.560 |
Again, all of this is going to be on either the brain app. 00:25:36.000 |
So I know there's a lot of deadlines and dates. 00:25:44.000 |
Ultimately, our biggest desire for this holiday outreach 00:25:48.520 |
and that he will be glorified in all of this. 00:25:50.400 |
So we just ask that you would be prayerful over these ministries 00:25:59.880 |
Yeah, we are very thankful to our sisters ministry, 00:26:07.480 |
Again, please do check out the app for further information 00:26:12.720 |
At this time, let's move into a moment of prayer 00:26:29.640 |
God, we gather together to give you our worship and adoration. 00:26:34.160 |
Lord, we want to acknowledge that you deserve it all. 00:26:36.920 |
And Lord, the more that we come to you, we receive from you 00:26:48.640 |
So we want to lift up our heart of gratitude to you. 00:26:52.260 |
that it would be an expression, Lord, of our thankfulness. 00:26:55.480 |
And God, that you would continue just to use everything 00:27:01.640 |
this church for the furthering of your kingdom. 00:27:57.840 |
Church, let us stand together as we continue our worship. 00:29:31.320 |
You came down to bind us, let us out of death. 00:30:31.400 |
You came down to bind us, let us out of death. 00:31:28.160 |
You came down to bind us, let us out of death. 00:31:53.120 |
You came down to bind us, let us out of death. 00:36:22.240 |
And we'll be reading from Joshua 1, 1 through 9. 00:36:25.920 |
It's a familiar, very familiar passage for a lot of people. 00:36:33.440 |
And it has very, I guess you can say, broad and familiar teaching points. 00:36:40.720 |
Everything from the idea of trusting God, being strong in the Lord, 00:36:48.280 |
obeying as you go, and entering into the promises of the Lord. 00:36:53.280 |
And so these are themes that we learn and repeat multiple times. 00:36:59.920 |
But I felt the need for me personally to review. 00:37:05.280 |
I'm doing my devotion in it and found that there were so many details that 00:37:10.080 |
perhaps I thought I knew, and just the question of do I really even 00:37:16.640 |
So with that said, let's take a moment to read Joshua 1, 1 through 9. 00:37:20.960 |
And it says, "Now it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, 00:37:25.520 |
that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying, 00:37:34.120 |
Cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, 00:37:40.440 |
Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, 00:37:46.000 |
From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as this great river, 00:37:50.080 |
the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the great sea 00:37:53.920 |
towards the setting of the sun, will be your territory. 00:37:56.960 |
No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. 00:38:01.280 |
Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. 00:38:08.400 |
Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land 00:38:17.840 |
Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. 00:38:22.280 |
Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success 00:38:28.680 |
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate 00:38:32.520 |
on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that it is 00:38:38.080 |
For then, you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. 00:38:46.400 |
Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. 00:38:55.080 |
God, we want to ask for your grace and blessing. 00:39:01.560 |
God, we need the ministry of your spirit to help us understand, not just 00:39:08.040 |
conceptually, but to help us have deep conviction, to understand in such a way 00:39:13.880 |
where we can apply and also be the kind of strong and courageous followers, 00:39:20.440 |
children, Lord, that have your power and your strength abiding in us. 00:39:40.960 |
So, as we take a look at this passage, we needed to set up a little background 00:39:48.520 |
As we look at Old Testament passages, we want to make sure we're jumping into 00:39:54.000 |
This obviously is a familiar story where it's a story of conquest. 00:39:58.080 |
It's a story where the biggest portion of the book of Joshua is them entering 00:40:03.160 |
into Jericho, then from there, basically having conquest over the land 00:40:08.360 |
of the Canaanites, and then the rest of the book is just making sure every tribe 00:40:13.320 |
got a piece of the land and how God divided it for the nation, okay? 00:40:18.520 |
So, a lot of times when you look at the book of Joshua, people see it as a 00:40:24.440 |
And if you sometimes go on YouTube, which I do, I sometimes write my sermons and 00:40:29.520 |
then I go on YouTube to see, "Oh, I wonder what people are saying about it." 00:40:32.960 |
A lot of it happens to be the, "You can do it. 00:40:36.960 |
The Lord is with you in your endeavors, in your business, in your school, 00:40:40.920 |
in your family, in your job, whatever it may be, you can do it. 00:40:48.600 |
And in many ways, it is because they are on the biggest enterprise ever in their 00:40:56.120 |
They're seeing the fulfillment of God's promises that has been from ages ago. 00:41:07.840 |
The reason why I say this is because obviously God felt the need, okay, 00:41:22.760 |
And it begs the question, why is he so emphatically three times over saying, 00:41:31.320 |
And it's because leading up to this point has been anything but that, okay? 00:41:38.360 |
There has been so much fear in the journey of the Israelites. 00:41:42.040 |
Leaving Egypt alone was, "I don't know if I can talk to Pharaoh. 00:41:46.800 |
Oh, my goodness, they're going to oppress us more. 00:41:56.920 |
That was the fear that was filling their hearts. 00:42:00.920 |
And then when they actually got past all that, and as you know, Joshua, 00:42:07.800 |
Commentators say that they believe he was a slave there too, and he was a young man, 00:42:11.960 |
and he served as a servant of Moses all the way through. 00:42:17.040 |
They come to the Promised Land once before, right? 00:42:21.240 |
And at that time, there were 12 men sent as scouts. 00:42:25.520 |
When you go and take a look at the land, what do we have there? 00:42:28.480 |
They actually come back with hordes of fruit. 00:42:32.480 |
The land is a land flowing with milk and honey. 00:42:45.600 |
And that was the sentiment of the entire group, that cohort of scouts, 00:42:56.480 |
Numbers 13, "Oh, my goodness, should we have just died in the land of Egypt? 00:43:07.280 |
And the ramifications of that fear was God had them wander the desert for 40 years. 00:43:16.880 |
To set the stage for you then, they are coming to this point riddled with failure, 00:43:24.000 |
riddled with doubt, tons of fear, and now they're just older. 00:43:29.840 |
Before, maybe they were younger, you know, 30, 40-year-olds, 00:43:37.080 |
And the many people who were militiamen of that time, unfortunately, they have died. 00:43:44.320 |
That generation of people who came out of Egypt and saw the wonders of God, 00:43:49.080 |
the pillars of fire, the smoke, all that stuff, 00:43:52.760 |
they walked through the wilderness and experienced, 00:43:55.600 |
but a lot of the older generation, they passed along the way. 00:43:59.760 |
So is this really a situation where it's, "Let's go, we can do it. 00:44:13.280 |
Can we go in and actually take this fortified city? 00:44:21.720 |
We've actually spent the entire time just eating manna. 00:44:28.360 |
And in that situation, God says, "Joshua, you are now going to be the man. 00:44:34.160 |
You're the leader, my servant that will take my people into the promised land. 00:44:44.560 |
I hope that helped you kind of place the scenario, and then you would have to do 00:44:47.440 |
the, "If I was Joshua, what does it mean to be strong? 00:44:51.600 |
Are you going to become maybe in the figment of our imagination kind of like 00:45:00.800 |
He's just galloping up and down the army, telling them, "Don't ever take us." 00:45:05.720 |
He's pounding his chest, screaming, "Freedom." 00:45:08.600 |
And he's going to become the greatest motivational speaker that ever was. 00:45:15.080 |
And I think, again, we have to understand what does God command us really when He 00:45:24.720 |
And I want to, again, remind us that these points are not points that you've 00:45:30.280 |
These are age-old truths that we have to learn over and over again and understand. 00:45:36.000 |
First, one of the things that God does in this passage in Joshua 1 is actually 00:45:41.720 |
before He is telling Joshua, "You need to be strong," there is a scenario where all 00:45:48.000 |
of the confidences and strengths of the humankind are being removed. 00:45:52.320 |
So, point number one to you, God will purposely, not in every single instance, 00:45:58.360 |
but at key moments in time, He has clearly, purposely removed your 00:46:04.880 |
He has removed the human confidence within this scenario. 00:46:08.240 |
And let me show you by reading this beginning portion of our text again. 00:46:12.480 |
In chapter 1, verses 1 through 2, it says, "Now it came about after the death 00:46:17.400 |
of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, 00:46:22.080 |
the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying, 'Moses, my servant, is dead. 00:46:30.080 |
Cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, 00:46:35.120 |
Doesn't it sound like in that passage, God's timing is very purposeful, right? 00:46:42.200 |
It looks like He intentionally waited for Moses to pass before going 00:46:49.600 |
In our human minds, in the human sense of the strength, it would have only made sense 00:46:55.880 |
that the main leader, the primary one that God has been talking to, 00:47:00.560 |
the one who has vigor and sharpness, that He be the one to lead. 00:47:06.320 |
Doesn't make sense that at the pinnacle moment, we've journeyed, we've traveled, 00:47:10.400 |
and now that we're going, that God will purposely cause His death. 00:47:15.360 |
Now, I say this because I want to highlight this interesting passage 00:47:24.000 |
There it is on the screen, but I recommend you flip back and forth. 00:47:26.960 |
We're going to be looking at a lot of passages today, just as a heads up to you, 00:47:32.360 |
Deuteronomy 34 says, "Although Moses was 120 years old," he was an old man, 00:47:40.440 |
"his eyes were not dim, nor his vigor abated." 00:47:49.040 |
And that being the case, if I was a man looking at him, I would be thinking, 00:47:53.600 |
"You're like that God with the glory, the white hair. 00:48:00.480 |
But instead, God commanded him to go up to the mountain to pass. 00:48:04.800 |
And so, reading this, it says, "So the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the 00:48:11.440 |
Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end. 00:48:13.880 |
And now Joshua, the son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom, 00:48:20.080 |
And the sons of Israel listened to him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. 00:48:24.440 |
Since that time, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, 00:48:31.640 |
For all the signs and the wonders which the Lord had sent to him to perform in the 00:48:36.480 |
land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants and all his land, 00:48:40.280 |
and all the mighty power, and for all the great terror which Moses 00:48:51.720 |
He performed all these miracles, produced terror in the land. 00:48:56.720 |
He was the one that people actually saw as the prophet so much so neighboring 00:49:05.520 |
And you're telling me that as we go in, not to a skirmish, but to war, 00:49:11.560 |
to put a ban on other nations and to destroy them utterly, 00:49:19.840 |
Well, it makes sense if God intentionally is stripping away the kind of human 00:49:27.800 |
Don't you know that in the history of the Israelites, one of their greatest faults 00:49:32.160 |
was that they always wanted a human leader like the rest? 00:49:36.080 |
They always wanted a prophet, "You be our prophet. 00:49:39.600 |
They always wanted a king, "You be our king." 00:49:42.520 |
And so a lot of what got them into trouble was thinking, presuming, 00:49:48.120 |
"Of course, if we had a man this tall, we had a man with this much army, 00:49:59.840 |
God removes human confidence because the people themselves, 00:50:04.240 |
the Israelite nation, they were, they are, and they will be a failure 00:50:11.920 |
That sounds mean and like an unfair judgment, but think about the fact that 00:50:16.360 |
when they were here multiple times, and it wasn't just once, 00:50:20.400 |
it wasn't just that time with Joshua and Caleb where they said, "Oh, 00:50:24.120 |
these people of Jericho, the people of the land of Canaan, 00:50:33.160 |
When they wandered, they actually wandered towards the south end of Canaan, 00:50:37.080 |
They came to the north side of Canaan, they failed. 00:50:40.640 |
In the past, they've already said so many times with their own human wisdom, 00:50:45.320 |
But what's more, before Moses passes, God tells them this incredible 00:50:53.320 |
Take your Bibles and go to Deuteronomy 31, verse 14 through 18. 00:51:02.360 |
Recall that Deuteronomy is God's rallying of the people through Moses saying, 00:51:08.840 |
"When we enter this land," they're on the plain of Moab looking at the land and 00:51:12.720 |
saying, "When we enter, you guys, you better obey. 00:51:21.960 |
"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Behold, the time for you to die is near. 00:51:26.440 |
Call Joshua, present yourself at the tent of meeting that I may commission him.' 00:51:31.480 |
So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the tent of meeting." 00:51:37.640 |
"And the Lord appeared in the tent, in a pillar of cloud. 00:51:46.040 |
And then he said, "Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers, 00:51:51.680 |
and yet this people will rise, they'll play the harlot with strange 00:52:00.120 |
And then it says, "This land in the midst of which you are going, 00:52:03.800 |
and they will forsake me, break my covenant which I have made with them, 00:52:07.520 |
and then my anger will be kindled against them in the day. 00:52:10.680 |
I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be consumed. 00:52:15.480 |
Many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, 00:52:20.760 |
'Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?'" 00:52:33.920 |
But in the moment when He is regathering the people and saying, 00:52:39.720 |
"You're about to enter the land," and Moses is like, "Yes, 00:52:42.600 |
there's curses for disobedience and blessings for obedience. 00:52:50.560 |
And God says, "But they're going to play the harlot, and my hand is on them." 00:52:56.160 |
You talk about the most deflating thing you can say at a rally event is to say, 00:53:07.240 |
If they had any confidence like, "Yeah, now that we have fresh blood, 00:53:10.680 |
now that we're younger, and now that maybe we learned some things," 00:53:19.720 |
And you're going to understand the reason why you're suffering is because you're 00:53:28.720 |
With your own power, you could have everything. 00:53:31.400 |
You could have multiple kings if you want to. 00:53:37.400 |
You guys remember the story of Gideon and his army, right? 00:53:41.160 |
Gideon, he is one of the judges, and he comes out in the hall of faith, 00:53:47.080 |
but no one necessarily see him as, "Oh, I want to be that guy." 00:53:51.000 |
The guy who was so timid, he said, "God, can you make sure we win? 00:53:56.800 |
And just so that I know that we win, can you make this fleece wet? 00:54:03.600 |
And then he just constantly tried to test the Lord. 00:54:07.480 |
But one of the craziest things about his excursion and his military fight that he 00:54:13.000 |
was about to get into was he tried to rally everybody, and he rallied 32,000 00:54:21.600 |
Now, unfortunately, that wasn't enough for all these other kingdoms that they had 00:54:27.240 |
That was just a blimp compared to the hundreds of thousands that other nations 00:54:44.040 |
He said, "You know, if you're afraid," like this is literally the kind of 00:54:47.040 |
verbiage God used, "If you're afraid, let everyone who's afraid just go home." 00:54:54.240 |
Do you know how many people of the 32,000 went home? 00:55:00.200 |
Ten thousand were left, and God said, "That's too much for me to just give the 00:55:11.040 |
And with that, God said, "I am doing this purposely." 00:55:22.360 |
"The Lord said to Gideon, 'The people who are with you are too many for me to give 00:55:29.000 |
For Israel would become boastful, saying, 'My own power has delivered me.'" 00:55:37.680 |
God, I said earlier, may at certain times strip you of your confidence. 00:55:50.440 |
And the thing about it is we are already taught that for salvation, all God, that's the 00:56:07.360 |
But on the flip side, I want to ask you this question. 00:56:11.360 |
Subtly have you been duped to think, "But everything else, my finances, my relationships, 00:56:17.320 |
my well-being, my security, my success in this life, it's my education, my people, 00:56:29.600 |
Have you made that weird distinction where we think that the peripheral things, the on-this-life 00:56:37.560 |
things, the human, earthly things that I need to care of is on me, and therefore I need, 00:56:44.520 |
I need more education to make sure this, I need more that, and I need more this? 00:56:48.880 |
Well, let me say to you, God says, "No, I make rich and I make poor." 00:56:56.080 |
When you're alone, God is sovereign over the relationships you have. 00:56:58.980 |
God is also the one who blesses you with community. 00:57:02.000 |
God has sovereignty over every element of your life, including the elements we think 00:57:16.120 |
And therefore, sometimes if we ourselves as the children of God, as He is our Father, 00:57:21.160 |
we start thinking, "You know, I have accumulated enough. 00:57:28.080 |
Think about your life currently with all of those facets, right, of your finances, people, 00:57:34.520 |
and the different things that really matter, right? 00:57:37.340 |
And then ask yourself, "If I remove God from my life, does it make any difference?" 00:57:42.720 |
And that means we have been working hard to secure an environment where we don't need 00:57:48.480 |
Now, in wisdom, you have to pursue all of these things, your finances, your relationships. 00:57:52.600 |
In wisdom, you have to make sure you're guarding your family, yourself, all that stuff. 00:57:58.600 |
But at certain moments, God will teach us, "Within all of that, I'm sovereign." 00:58:04.600 |
And there should be no confidence that you alone are going to secure for yourself even 00:58:13.320 |
They are supposed to walk into a nation and it's simply, it can be just a calculation. 00:58:20.960 |
Do we have more chariots, more weapons, more manpower? 00:58:28.920 |
Your people are going to be a failure and there's going to be no confidence in the flesh 00:58:32.480 |
because this success is going to be entirely on my fulfillment of my promise of my grace." 00:58:43.360 |
So from that, we know we don't have confidence in the flesh. 00:58:46.240 |
We don't have confidence in our power, but we have to have confidence in His promise 00:58:57.000 |
There's another thing to be strong in it, to take risk and base your life on it. 00:59:07.840 |
But His promises and His provision, you believe to such a degree where you are strong in it. 00:59:17.160 |
And notice in verse 3, He talks about how God is the one who has given it to you, okay? 00:59:24.220 |
And then starting from verse 5, He says, "No man will be able to stand before you all the 00:59:30.800 |
And then look at this, "Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. 00:59:41.520 |
Verse 9, "Have I not commanded you therefore? 00:59:46.660 |
Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." 00:59:56.400 |
The promise of God in this verse specifically is that just as God was speaking to Moses, 01:00:04.000 |
just as God was in a relationship close, near, and intimately involved in the decisions, 01:00:10.400 |
the worries of Moses, God says, "I will be with you. 01:00:17.040 |
And this is the promise God has given all the saints of old. 01:00:20.120 |
This is the promise God has given to the early fathers, the patriarchs, to Abraham, Isaac, 01:00:26.640 |
He said, "I will be with you, and I will be the one to bless you." 01:00:31.800 |
And it therefore makes us think, "Man, that's kind of crazy." 01:00:37.800 |
It makes us think about the fact that if I truly believe God's presence is with me, that 01:00:47.800 |
And yet there are moments when I don't feel that power. 01:00:51.920 |
And to me, it's like having a billionaire then going to Costco and wondering, "Do you 01:01:02.080 |
It would be like going into war with a billion soldiers and wondering, "Do you think we 01:01:09.160 |
Now, I want us to take that analogy and just think for a moment. 01:01:14.200 |
God is impressing on Joshua, "I will be with you." 01:01:19.000 |
But if we keep asking this question, "But Dad, can we really afford this hot dog?" 01:01:23.600 |
At some points, it gets really offensive, doesn't it? 01:01:27.120 |
Why would you sit there and ask, you're going with your father to the Costco, why would 01:01:31.680 |
you sit there and ask, "But what are we going to do about the hot dog? 01:01:36.440 |
When we get to the register, what are we going to do?" 01:01:41.080 |
But the thing about it is that sometimes is the state of affairs of our heart. 01:01:45.600 |
"God, what's going to happen in my next five-year plan? 01:01:53.640 |
What's going to happen with," and then we have an X, Y, and Z of all of these questions 01:01:58.640 |
and all of these, I guess you can say even demands. 01:02:02.640 |
"Bless us with this and bless us with that," and God is going to say to you, "I have in 01:02:07.520 |
my plan a blessing already that I want to give you and I've promised it. 01:02:13.480 |
Don't give me your own plans of your provisions and the things that you think you need. 01:02:18.580 |
Don't demand the provisions of your blessing. 01:02:24.200 |
That should produce in us an incredible kind of strength." 01:02:29.080 |
And so here's a passage from Ephesians chapter 6. 01:02:33.800 |
We think about this idea of being strong in God and that strength then has to come from 01:02:41.720 |
something that comes from God's promises, provisions, His might, and more. 01:02:47.880 |
Ephesians tells us, "Be strong in the Lord in the strength of His might, putting on His 01:02:54.600 |
It's the armor of, that says in verse 11, "Put on the full armor of God so that you'll 01:03:00.160 |
be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 01:03:03.480 |
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against powers, against 01:03:07.520 |
forces of darkness, and against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 01:03:17.360 |
And then that list goes on to tell us about how there's going to be like the truth, the 01:03:23.080 |
breastplate of righteousness, the feet of the gospel, the shield of faith, helmet of 01:03:30.680 |
My only admonition to us is if we allow fear to rest, if we allow fear to dictate and have 01:03:39.360 |
authority of us, we're basically telling the Lord, "You haven't given us much." 01:03:45.680 |
You see, sometimes I wonder if any of us were in genuine deep, deep pains, and this summer 01:03:55.440 |
Many individuals in our church family, they've lost loved ones, grandparents, their fathers, 01:04:06.080 |
And all of us would assume if in the midst of that tragedy and pain, someone came and 01:04:11.200 |
said, "Be strong and courageous," that would be slightly insensitive, yes? 01:04:18.200 |
And we would say, "Hey, hey, the emotions are real. 01:04:23.240 |
You can't just tell somebody, 'Be strong,' right?" 01:04:29.280 |
However, you can when the God of the universe says, "I have given you all of my presence, 01:04:38.160 |
I have given you provision, the Spirit, the community. 01:04:47.680 |
If sometimes you're in a position of counseling somebody, it would be actually incomplete 01:04:57.240 |
What actually needs to happen is to say, "Think about the provisions of God." 01:05:02.680 |
Now, as we think about that then, this is the way that Moses was thinking. 01:05:11.560 |
The provision of God is, "He's going to fight for me." 01:05:16.680 |
The provision of God is, "He's not going to leave me." 01:05:19.480 |
The provision of God is Romans 8, "What is going to actually separate me from the power 01:05:26.600 |
No angel, no demon, no famine, no sword, nothing. 01:05:40.160 |
And so today, if any of you have come in here and you have incredible fears, fears about…and 01:05:47.520 |
it's not just financial, but recently I've been talking to a lot of people and they are, 01:05:52.880 |
They'll say, "I feel like my job is on the chopping block." 01:05:55.760 |
They'll say, "I'm actually already doing two to three people's jobs because other people 01:06:02.960 |
What are you going to do in that kind of scenario? 01:06:09.160 |
You already have a good degree and good work experience. 01:06:13.680 |
Is that the source of your power and strength? 01:06:17.440 |
We're supposed to say, "In the state of joblessness, in the state of hopelessness, in the state 01:06:21.480 |
of any kind of darkness, God has told me He will never fail me." 01:06:28.320 |
That is the kind of strength and conviction we want to have. 01:06:31.600 |
Number three, God says that He wants us to be strong in His commands. 01:06:37.880 |
God says that He wants us to have a kind of strength where we have vigor in obedience. 01:06:45.200 |
If you think about a person who's strong, you can think about a lot of different types 01:06:51.680 |
I could have strength of power to control you. 01:06:54.200 |
I could have strength in the sense of influence, or maybe you're thinking strength as in just 01:06:59.040 |
like this angry, mad, you're just picturing this person who is just violent and he has 01:07:08.280 |
But this kind of strength is more like even if you're calm, even if you're collected and 01:07:15.600 |
self-controlled, you have conviction and you say, "No matter what happens, I'm obeying 01:07:26.480 |
Take a look at this passage, what God commands Joshua. 01:07:30.440 |
The biggest portion of Joshua chapter 1 is not so much, "Be strong, be strong, be strong," 01:07:36.160 |
although that is repeated three times, but undergirding every single one of those be 01:07:42.460 |
He says, "Be strong and courageous, for you shall give the people the possession of the 01:07:47.720 |
land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 01:07:50.560 |
But only be strong and courageous, being careful to do according to all the law which Moses 01:07:58.240 |
Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever 01:08:03.280 |
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate it day 01:08:07.240 |
and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. 01:08:12.800 |
For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. 01:08:24.520 |
Have I not given you my instruction and my law, and my goodwill has been given to you 01:08:33.420 |
My character, my provision and protection, my instruction has been given to you by the 01:08:40.140 |
So what is actually popping out from this portion from verses six through nine in Joshua 01:08:45.940 |
Yes, he says, "Be strong, be strong, be strong." 01:08:48.860 |
And then maybe I'm thinking as a man, it's like, "That's right. 01:08:52.860 |
And when I speak, you're going to hear me, and you're not going to interrupt. 01:08:55.860 |
And I'm going to be a man because I'm going to lead. 01:09:01.220 |
I have had all of those silly thoughts in my head. 01:09:11.100 |
If we're walking through this, look at everything He says. 01:09:17.900 |
Let me ask you, brothers and sisters, when you look at the Scriptures, are you content 01:09:24.260 |
Or are you looking at it with precision, with, "What does that mean? 01:09:31.980 |
Are you bent on making sure that you're going to do it to the T? 01:09:40.380 |
Brothers and sisters, are you content that you got the general big five? 01:09:44.460 |
It's the stuff like, you know, the big golden rule, "I love people. 01:09:48.020 |
Like, you know, I want to be loved, so I'm a pretty good Christian." 01:09:51.620 |
And then the other commandments, "I don't know about them." 01:09:57.940 |
To have such a shallow, to have such a limited view of all of God's will is actually ignorance, 01:10:07.900 |
What's more, just in the commandments to say, to tell Joshua that he needs to have the Word 01:10:19.020 |
We kind of think like you just kind of have to have it up here in your head memorized 01:10:22.180 |
or you're thinking about it or you heard the sermons, so you're meditating. 01:10:31.100 |
You're ready in that situation where it seems dire to say, 'This is what the Word of God 01:10:37.740 |
He wants us to meditate on it all because He wants us to be so careful that there is 01:10:48.900 |
You don't have to have a loud, booming voice. 01:10:52.980 |
You can be a soft 12-year-old girl in this room, but if you're like, "No, I don't want 01:10:57.940 |
to lie because God said so," you're like the strongest person in the room, right? 01:11:06.220 |
If you just stick to your convictions of, "This is the will of God," you are strong, 01:11:13.940 |
And God says, "The weak person is like seaweed in the ocean, just getting swayed left and 01:11:19.340 |
And Satan's scheme is to move you like that, just manipulate you. 01:11:24.540 |
No, you don't have to make it all the way to Jerusalem. 01:11:29.180 |
The reason why I talk about this too is because I do believe that our church is under threat. 01:11:33.860 |
I have been kind of reading and also thinking that a church, it's not just our church, any 01:11:40.420 |
church that says, "We are a Bible-teaching church designed to convict the membership 01:11:46.060 |
of obeying the Scriptures all the way through, even if it's hard." 01:11:52.180 |
The rest of the modern day, I think, you know, Christianity and mainstream will say, "What 01:12:04.300 |
You're kind of a rule-meister, but that's not who God is." 01:12:08.780 |
You probably already have heard stuff like that. 01:12:11.620 |
Or somebody will say, "You know, we're better than that. 01:12:21.020 |
Or maybe even someone will say, "No, no, we're even more noble than even that." 01:12:25.140 |
As opposed to having this like stickler to the Scriptures, we're going to progress beyond 01:12:32.140 |
that and we're going to experience greater experience of religion because God is not 01:12:38.820 |
He is a live God and we're going to be experiencing Him in newfound ways. 01:12:43.100 |
There's an entire class of what's called progressive Christianity that desires to move on this. 01:12:54.760 |
And that strength is going to come from an extremely exacting, vigorous dedication that 01:13:01.340 |
I am going to abide by the Word of God because the Word of God is ancient, unmoving, it's 01:13:11.300 |
It doesn't change today, it doesn't change tomorrow. 01:13:14.180 |
The Word of God is sure, the Word of God is perfect. 01:13:17.980 |
And I thank God that God gave Joshua such a clear path. 01:13:20.980 |
If God says, "Oh my goodness, Joshua, you have to be so strong. 01:13:24.220 |
I don't know anything about those pagans over there, but you got to find out what their 01:13:28.440 |
I want to make sure that you train your people the right way. 01:13:31.060 |
You got to be up to date with all the weaponry." 01:13:33.540 |
No, no, God said, "Let me just make it simple for you, Joshua. 01:13:41.220 |
Moses says to the people, "The Word of God is near you and I've explained it repeatedly 01:13:58.180 |
Nowadays, if you have a new angle, you saw scripture in a new light, you become a thought 01:14:04.180 |
No, we have the gospel handed down to us by the saints, by the prophets, and Jesus 01:14:15.140 |
I love that because I am not a creative person. 01:14:21.420 |
Let that be a source of encouragement to you. 01:14:23.900 |
Now, I do want to take us down this interesting journey because the moment in Joshua is a 01:14:31.100 |
It is a buildup of Moses trying to lead the people and saying, "Do you understand how 01:14:37.980 |
important, how consequential it is for you to heed and obey God?" 01:14:42.540 |
I'm going to go through several passages for you and just turn your Bible to Deuteronomy 01:14:47.100 |
26, and we're going to do one of those run along the passages in the scriptures. 01:14:52.220 |
The thing about it is God drew it out of them, meaning He gathered the people, rallied them 01:14:58.300 |
up and said, "We're going to go into the promised land. 01:15:00.860 |
Here we are, plains of Moab, you see Jericho." 01:15:04.740 |
In that moment, God drew out of them and said, "Covenant with me. 01:15:14.620 |
In verse 16 says, "This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and 01:15:21.180 |
You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and all your soul. 01:15:25.040 |
You have declared that the Lord is your God and that you would walk in His ways, keep 01:15:30.080 |
His statutes and commandments and His ordinance and listen to His voice. 01:15:33.600 |
And the Lord today declared to you to be His people." 01:15:40.000 |
That whole conversation of the gathering of the people, they are covenanting with God 01:15:47.920 |
And then what's more, chapter 27, if you scan it, you'll notice it says, "Cursed, 01:15:54.400 |
And the reason why is because Moses said to all the people and charged the people saying, 01:15:59.200 |
"Keep all the commandments which I command you today, otherwise be cursed." 01:16:04.280 |
So in case you missed it, there are incredible consequences to your disobedience and any 01:16:16.740 |
I do believe subconsciously, not explicitly, not arrogant rebellionly, but subconsciously, 01:16:24.740 |
New Testament Christians are in danger because we believe there are no consequences to sin. 01:16:29.420 |
That because of grace, we're excused from all the ramifications of sin. 01:16:35.860 |
You know how sometimes when we read the Old Testament, it feels a little weird because 01:16:40.020 |
if I said something like this, "You obey and you will be prosperous and God will watch 01:16:46.140 |
Feels a little bit like health and wealth, right? 01:16:49.620 |
Kind of like up to you, when you work hard, God will bless you kind of theology. 01:17:00.700 |
And what he says is he warns, chapter 27, in your relationship with God, if you disobey, 01:17:09.340 |
Now I want to make the distinction, Old Testament and New Testament is different. 01:17:13.100 |
God actually says within this context that I have not given the Spirit to them. 01:17:18.720 |
To us we have the Spirit, but does that mean since we have the Spirit, we're more excused 01:17:29.840 |
Since we have the Spirit, are we more just simply guarded from the penalties and the 01:17:38.380 |
God actually says when the time of judgment comes, I will hold you account for everything 01:17:46.900 |
To highlight even more how imperative it is that we have this strength to say, "God, I'll 01:17:53.180 |
I'll do no matter how inconvenient, no matter how stressful, no matter how much I think 01:18:02.700 |
Chapter 28 of Deuteronomy is all about blessings. 01:18:06.140 |
Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His 01:18:10.460 |
commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all 01:18:17.460 |
All these blessings will come upon you, right, and overtake you if you obey the Lord. 01:18:22.660 |
So in case we're kind of missing it, He just repeats over and over again, "You have to 01:18:29.460 |
And then He warns you, "If you don't, this is a ramification." 01:18:32.460 |
And then He motivates you, "If you do, these are the blessings." 01:18:43.240 |
He says, "It shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all 01:18:48.500 |
of His commandments and His statutes which I charge you today, that all these curses 01:18:56.680 |
I'm going to enter into a time now of reading some of the things that God says about His 01:18:59.940 |
curses and it's going to be, in my eyes, incredibly, incredibly gloomy but scary and fearsome. 01:19:09.760 |
In Deuteronomy 28 verse 55, well, before that, verse 35, Deuteronomy 28, 35, okay, He says, 01:19:19.200 |
"The Lord will strike you on the knees and legs with sores and boils from which you cannot 01:19:34.200 |
In that passage, He'll talk about how pagan nations will take your wives and children 01:19:42.440 |
Verse 55, "If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written 01:19:47.960 |
in the book to fear this honored and awesome name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will 01:19:53.560 |
bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe lasting plagues, 01:20:04.040 |
If you read chapter 26 through 28, it's almost like, like, you almost have to sigh, like, 01:20:12.440 |
But here is why I say is because for the New Testament Christian, again, I've already made 01:20:18.680 |
the kind of case to you, I think we may have the misconception that since I am underneath 01:20:23.520 |
Christ, there are going to be no practical consequences to my sin. 01:20:28.200 |
But let me tell you, in this admonition for you to be strong, the weakest person is the 01:20:34.040 |
person who is being disciplined by God Himself. 01:20:39.360 |
The weakest person is the person who is most far away from God's command, that he would 01:20:43.800 |
be far from the Lord, the Holy One, to the degree that God Himself is hurting you. 01:20:51.800 |
And God has said, "If you are my true child, I will always make sure you get disciplined 01:20:58.280 |
So, brothers and sisters, like, when we think about strength, it is not health and wealth 01:21:07.520 |
for me to think I have to obey because I want to be underneath the graces of God. 01:21:18.080 |
It's the reality of affairs, that our obedience and disobedience has incredible consequences 01:21:24.400 |
for our relationship with God, my personal well-being, and this entire church. 01:21:28.640 |
And the standard of holiness that is existing in our community is always going to be under 01:21:36.080 |
You think about things like sexual purity, that's going to be under threat. 01:21:41.520 |
More and more, we're going to say, "It's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. 01:21:48.960 |
But Scripture says, "Let there not be even a hint of sexual morality." 01:21:55.560 |
"It's okay, I struggle with this too, trying to buy stuff I can't afford. 01:21:59.320 |
It's okay, we always do this stuff, trying to take loans I can't pay back." 01:22:03.040 |
But the Scripture says, "Do not have greed in your heart. 01:22:09.840 |
Let there not be even a seed of greed inside of you. 01:22:16.000 |
So Scripture's expectation of us in the New Testament is a higher standard, actually. 01:22:22.120 |
Somehow we've reversed that to think that the New Testament is less. 01:22:26.000 |
Brethren and sisters, I'm saying that our obedience and the vigor that we take to obey 01:22:30.880 |
the Lord is of great, great importance because God has said that is going to predicate your 01:22:45.160 |
And this, with that, I want to move to the next point, is that I want you to be strong 01:22:52.400 |
We need to be strong in what God defines as success. 01:22:57.120 |
We need to be strong in what God defines as the blessing He is giving to us. 01:23:03.160 |
We're not going to be strong just because I'm strong because I am a go-getter. 01:23:08.640 |
We're not going to be strong because I'm a person who doesn't give up. 01:23:12.220 |
You can not give up on something and it'd be completely a waste of time. 01:23:17.240 |
I didn't put it up here because I thought it was a little inappropriate, but there was 01:23:25.480 |
And what he's done, he took rubber bands and he made a massive ball the size of his body, 01:23:30.680 |
But he's sitting next to it and it says, "Excellence in vanity," right? 01:23:41.240 |
We need to seek that which God says, "This is my vision of success for you." 01:23:46.880 |
Even if it's, yes, really painful and I guess inconvenient or not in line with what we would 01:23:53.400 |
think is success, God says, "That's what you have to do." 01:23:57.640 |
Take a moment to look at what verse 10 through 15 of Joshua chapter 1 says. 01:24:03.640 |
In Joshua chapter 1, 10 through 15, God uses the word "give" in so many different ways. 01:24:12.640 |
"I gave you, I'm giving you, and I will give you." 01:24:16.200 |
And the thing about what he says is, "I am giving you this land to possess it. 01:24:20.600 |
This is a promise he has given from almost 480 years ago when he gave that promise to 01:24:29.920 |
But on top of what he said is, "I am going to give you," verse 13, "Remember the word 01:24:34.560 |
which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying, 'The Lord your God gives you 01:24:45.920 |
And it says, "Your wives, your little ones, your cattle will remain in the land which 01:24:49.440 |
Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but you shall cross before your brothers in battle 01:24:53.920 |
array, all your valiant warriors, and shall help until the Lord gives your brothers," 01:25:00.840 |
"Rest as he gives you, and they shall then possess the land which the Lord your God is 01:25:08.360 |
Then you shall return to your own land, possess that which Moses, the servant of the Lord, 01:25:12.640 |
gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise." 01:25:17.440 |
This point I haven't just truthfully speaking, it's just a huge massive point so I haven't 01:25:23.520 |
But what I'm trying to get at is what has plagued mankind, what has plagued all of Israelite 01:25:30.240 |
history is God says, "I am going to give you," right? 01:25:41.520 |
No, God actually said, "This is the kind of king I want. 01:25:43.880 |
This is the kind of king and this is what he's going to do." 01:25:47.880 |
So many times without waiting for God's provision, people have essentially envisioned their own 01:25:56.660 |
And what God is telling us is actually that he has a desire to give us far beyond just 01:26:03.080 |
And what that means to me is God is giving us a kind of grace, yes, that he has devised. 01:26:12.760 |
In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9-10, he says, "I have this thorn on my side and I've asked 01:26:22.360 |
"Three times, 'Will you remove this thorn from my side?'" 01:26:27.800 |
Verse 9, "He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected 01:26:35.400 |
I don't know if I can fully wrap my head around all of that. 01:26:40.000 |
But he says, "Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weakness so that the 01:26:51.480 |
I can have insults, distress, persecutions, and difficulties, all for Christ's sake, 01:27:02.360 |
I believe what more precisely he's saying is, yes, you can have categorically all the 01:27:17.880 |
But God has for you an entirely different definition of success, which is, "You have 01:27:27.800 |
I gave you the sufficiency of Christ, His Spirit, and therefore dare we not settle for 01:27:34.160 |
anything less than the blessing of God, amen? 01:27:37.000 |
It would be radically, radically us settling for trash if I said, 'No, God, give me today 01:27:44.160 |
that house, the car, the people, the friends, and the money.'" 01:27:50.280 |
And the reason why I say this is because back in Deuteronomy, God in His sovereignty was 01:28:01.200 |
I already highlighted to you that God has predicted their failure, miserable failure. 01:28:06.320 |
Take another look at Deuteronomy 30, verse 1 through 3. 01:28:12.880 |
In this idea of failure and yet graced, He says, "So it shall be when all these things 01:28:18.520 |
have come upon you, the blessings and curses which I have set before you, and you call 01:28:23.880 |
them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you. 01:28:29.520 |
And yet you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart, soul, according 01:28:34.400 |
to all that I have commanded you today, you and your sons. 01:28:38.720 |
Then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and will 01:28:45.800 |
gather you again from all the people where the Lord your God has scattered you." 01:28:50.680 |
That to me is difficult to wrap your mind around. 01:28:54.400 |
But He says, "Right now I am commanding you to obey and have a successful entrance into 01:28:59.320 |
the promised land," but He says, "You're going to experience banishment because of your sins." 01:29:07.000 |
And if I was Moses, I would just be dumbfounded. 01:29:13.400 |
These people are going to go through banishment and you're going to hide your face and you're 01:29:17.600 |
going to listen to them and you're going to bless them? 01:29:25.300 |
And that last day where God has emptied them, He has humbled them, and then He has restored 01:29:34.500 |
It was for Him to give His grace and His blessing all apart from our own flesh. 01:29:42.040 |
And so I will, I will just say, all I have to say about that is, Lord, perhaps sometimes 01:29:50.120 |
the hardest time for me to be strong is when I'm staring at my own weakness square in the 01:29:57.520 |
If I have failed or sinned in any way, outbursts of anger, greed, lust, right, selfishness 01:30:04.680 |
and pride, too many to speak of, those are the times when I'm most not motivated because 01:30:14.360 |
All I want to do is not think about my failure. 01:30:17.840 |
But God says, "Remember, my purpose is to restore you." 01:30:21.480 |
And I wanted to give every single one of you that encouragement today. 01:30:25.400 |
God has told you He will not leave you or forsake you. 01:30:29.080 |
God has told you, "I have provided you and I have given you promises." 01:30:32.600 |
And just like every servant of God has been told, "I will be there for you to restore 01:30:37.000 |
you and to bring you up," our Lord Jesus Christ has told us, "I am with you, lo, to the end 01:30:43.180 |
And He has also said that He is going to perfect you. 01:30:48.380 |
And so my desire to obey the Lord fully, to be more like Christ, to strive for perfection, 01:30:58.460 |
I am actually so challenged that God sees it all and is bringing perfection. 01:31:03.340 |
Now with that said then, I want to close by saying God has commanded every single one 01:31:09.380 |
of you to be strong and courageous and it does not have to look like you're this articulate 01:31:13.980 |
person with words to say and you're just destroying people with your arguments. 01:31:25.020 |
God says, "I want you to be so strong in me, so strong then in my presence, so strong in 01:31:31.780 |
my provision, my plans, my will and purposes, everything has to do with me. 01:31:39.660 |
And I don't want you to be this wishy-washy like, "Oh, I don't know. 01:31:42.660 |
I don't know what we're going to do next season." 01:31:47.620 |
You're going to take over the world, not by way of might or power intellect, but by the 01:31:52.860 |
And you will have no fear because you know God is with you and He will not forsake you. 01:32:07.700 |
Lord God, we thank you for your mercies and grace that continues to just forgive our sins. 01:32:15.980 |
And sometimes, Lord, even in well-intended ways of maybe wanting to be strong, we can 01:32:20.420 |
pervert that by trying to be strong by my own intellect, willpower, and strength. 01:32:26.900 |
But I pray, Lord, that our true strength would come from your presence. 01:32:31.340 |
And God, we've been at our church talking a lot about prayer so that we would know what 01:32:36.740 |
it means to be strong in the spirit versus strong in form and function. 01:32:42.480 |
And God, we know that we'll probably need many reminders of this. 01:32:48.500 |
And it is my prayer that anybody here going through worries, anxieties, despair, and fear, 01:32:55.580 |
would you, Lord, strengthen their heart and mind to know, Father God, that you are the 01:32:59.980 |
one who goes before us, you are the one who surrounds us, you are the one who grants us 01:36:31.740 |
>> Amen. Let's close in a word of prayer together. 01:36:35.740 |
Heavenly Father, we want to thank you so much. 01:36:39.740 |
Your grace is upon us, Lord, and God, you have sustained us 01:36:45.740 |
You sustained this church and all the saints in this world. 01:36:52.740 |
And Lord, we pray, God, that we would be heeding this word to be strong. 01:36:57.740 |
Perhaps we feel now a lot of worries and concerns about where just the generation, culture, 01:37:03.740 |
whatever it may be, that the wickedness of our day may be headed. 01:37:08.740 |
But on another thought, God, we have not experienced the kind of suffering 01:37:12.740 |
that's even close to the nation of Israel or your son, Jesus Christ. 01:37:16.740 |
So, Lord, help us, knowing that the spiritual battle is going to get more intense, 01:37:22.740 |
knowing, Father God, that there are difficulties ahead, 01:37:25.740 |
help us to find true strength, not simply of manpower or of our own flesh, but truly in Christ. 01:37:32.740 |
And now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, 01:37:35.740 |
to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy, 01:37:39.740 |
through the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, 01:37:42.740 |
be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. 01:38:19.740 |
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lived. 01:38:59.740 |
And life is worth the living just because he lived.