back to index03-22-20 Our Being Is From His Being
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You can turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 3, 13 to 15. 00:00:14.080 |
I've been teasing you that we're going to be back in Hebrews for a while. 00:00:18.060 |
But knowing that our children are going to be joining us and that this is probably going 00:00:21.360 |
to be temporary, I thought it'd be a great time for us, as we said that our theme for 00:00:26.480 |
this year is knowing Christ and making him known. 00:00:29.780 |
We're going to be spending probably the next month, depending on how long we're together, 00:00:36.560 |
And we're going to start today with the I Am Statement where it started in Exodus chapter 00:00:42.620 |
So as you guys are going there, I'll just give you a minute. 00:00:50.520 |
But as a pastor, there's two dreams that pastors have, negative dreams. 00:00:59.280 |
And one is that you show up to church and you forgot your notes and you have to stand 00:01:03.240 |
in front of people and you got to preach and you just kind of have to wing it. 00:01:05.720 |
And then that's kind of a -- obviously you wake up in a cold sweat. 00:01:09.720 |
The other one is that everybody is -- that you came thoroughly prepared and you show 00:01:23.120 |
So I'm preaching to -- except for you guys here. 00:01:29.320 |
But anyway, let me read the passage and then we'll jump right in. 00:01:31.320 |
"Then Moses said to God, 'Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel and I will say to them, 00:01:46.320 |
And he said, 'Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you.' 00:01:51.720 |
God furthermore said to Moses, 'Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, the Lord, the God 00:01:55.880 |
of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me 00:02:02.040 |
This is my name forever and this is my memorial name to all generations.'" 00:02:08.800 |
Father, we pray for your blessing over this time. 00:02:22.160 |
That all that we think, all that we feel, all that we do may stem from who you are. 00:02:27.960 |
So we pray for your guidance and your blessing. 00:02:33.780 |
You know, this whole thing has been a blessing in disguise. 00:02:37.320 |
And I know a lot of people that I talk to often say how little time that they have, 00:02:42.480 |
especially if you're working full time and you're taking care of children and by the 00:02:46.840 |
time you put the children to bed, you're tired, you wake up early to go to work and this pattern 00:02:53.480 |
And so we speak to many people who are always saying, "It would be great to take a break, 00:03:03.480 |
You know, so I want to encourage all of you out there to make the best of the situation 00:03:10.280 |
that we have, that we don't become like people who are always looking at the grass greener 00:03:21.040 |
That God has given us a blessing in disguise. 00:03:23.600 |
What the virus meant for evil, God means it for good. 00:03:28.480 |
When I think about something that happened in my life with Esther, that at the moment 00:03:36.240 |
was very difficult but turned out to be the greatest blessing, I have to say it was Isaiah, 00:03:45.260 |
And I remember Esther and I, we were all prepared to move on to our next stage. 00:03:52.360 |
Finally Esther was going to be able to get a job. 00:03:54.580 |
And then we were able to just kind of, you know, be okay financially. 00:04:00.760 |
And then when we found out that Esther was pregnant with our fourth child, Isaiah, obviously 00:04:05.460 |
we were surprised is an understatement, right? 00:04:09.480 |
Maybe shocked, stared into the space for a while. 00:04:14.840 |
And I remember breaking the news to the church slowly and not one congratulations. 00:04:23.640 |
It was, you know, and I don't want to repeat the things that I heard during that time, 00:04:30.240 |
But I can honestly say, and I think we, our whole family would agree, that having Isaiah 00:04:37.920 |
And I can't imagine what life would be like without Isaiah. 00:04:44.760 |
If I was Pastor Nate, I would say hi to Addy. 00:04:51.200 |
Was when we had Isaiah, and obviously my parents, my father who was alive at that time, named 00:04:57.720 |
Isaiah's name, his Korean name, and it basically means in Korean, the end. 00:05:05.320 |
And I think, you know, the grandparents were saying like four is enough. 00:05:10.320 |
But you know what's funny was Serenity, Jennifer and Tommy's, their fourth child, and I think 00:05:15.760 |
their birthdays are off by maybe a month or something like that. 00:05:22.840 |
And I didn't know this until years later that her grandfather named her in Chinese, the 00:05:30.160 |
So basically it means the same thing in Chinese and Korean. 00:05:33.360 |
You know, I think both grandparents were telling us that's enough. 00:05:39.200 |
What's interesting is that the names that are given, at least in the previous generation, 00:05:46.560 |
That's why when we do baby dedications or presentations, we always ask the meaning of 00:05:51.640 |
So I don't know, you children who are watching out there, if you know what your name means. 00:05:56.920 |
If you don't, you can ask your parents later what the name means. 00:05:59.960 |
But again, in the previous generations, names were given with specific purpose. 00:06:05.840 |
This is what we're praying that God would do in your life. 00:06:10.000 |
Well, in scripture, the significance of the name is very, very important. 00:06:15.680 |
In fact, when God was doing something really great, he would often change the name of the 00:06:23.140 |
So if you look in the Old Testament, Abraham's name, which means father, is changed to Abraham 00:06:28.500 |
because God makes a covenant with him that he was going to be a father of many nations. 00:06:33.020 |
And Abraham basically means father of multitudes. 00:06:36.760 |
Jacob, his name means the one who is slippery or the one who holds the heel because that 00:06:44.680 |
He was always kind of maneuvering to get what he wants. 00:06:47.880 |
And then he wrestles with God later on in life where his faith really grows and becomes 00:06:53.520 |
And God names his name Israel, where we get the name Israel from. 00:06:58.680 |
And the name Israel basically means the one who contends or wrestles with God. 00:07:03.040 |
And I'm not going to go through all the names, but Simon, the disciple, his name is changed 00:07:11.520 |
And Apostle Paul, he already had both names, but Saul was his Hebrew name. 00:07:15.800 |
But when God calls him to be an apostle to the Gentiles, he predominantly uses his Gentile 00:07:23.400 |
And so in the Old Testament and the New Testament, the significance of the name is tremendous 00:07:27.740 |
because just by reading that person's name, you can tell what God is doing in their life 00:07:32.680 |
and what God is doing at that particular time in history. 00:07:39.840 |
When we want to know who God is, the first place that we need to start is how did he 00:07:50.720 |
The way we use it now in our culture, we generally just generically use the word God. 00:07:56.640 |
And as a result of that, I think what has happened is many people, even inside the church, 00:08:01.880 |
has become confused that whether you call God of the Bible or God of Buddhism or God 00:08:08.880 |
of the Islam, that maybe it's the same God because we're calling him God, as God is the 00:08:17.640 |
But that is not how the Bible introduces God to us. 00:08:21.080 |
You know what's interesting in Korean Christian history? 00:08:25.140 |
When Christianity first began to come into Korea, the generic word for God is "Haneunim." 00:08:32.160 |
So for a few of you who speak Korean, you know what I'm talking about. 00:08:35.280 |
Haneunim is how they used to call him or non-Christians call him. 00:08:44.520 |
Korean Christians changed it to distinguish him from the God of the shamans, the shamanistic 00:08:49.800 |
Buddhist background, and changed that name to Haneunim. 00:08:53.960 |
So if you know what that means, Haneunim means one. 00:09:00.040 |
The generic word in Korean means Haneunim, means the one that is above. 00:09:04.640 |
But in English, we just have a generic word, God. 00:09:08.500 |
And if you don't know what the Bible says and you don't know your faith that well, we 00:09:13.360 |
can mistakenly think that God is God no matter how you call him, no matter what your background. 00:09:19.000 |
But that is not how the Bible introduces him. 00:09:21.800 |
The text that we read in Exodus chapter 3, 13 to 15 is where God is answering Moses' 00:09:30.400 |
God is about to deliver Israel from bondage from Egypt. 00:09:34.840 |
They were in bondage for hundreds of years, and finally God hears their groaning and answers 00:09:41.600 |
their prayer, and he calls Moses to speak on his behalf and to go to Israel and say, 00:09:48.200 |
And he asked a question, when they come and ask me who it is that is giving us this promise, 00:09:57.600 |
And this is where we get his name Yahweh, or at least it is explained to us. 00:10:02.820 |
So first thing that we need to understand is God is not introducing himself to the nation 00:10:09.040 |
God is not all of a sudden, like Israel didn't know who he was, and then all of a sudden 00:10:15.920 |
In fact, if you look at the text in Genesis 2, 4 through 9, I gave you a short example. 00:10:22.040 |
And I highlighted every time the word Lord is used. 00:10:25.840 |
And if you notice that it should be in your Bibles capital L, capital O, capital R, capital 00:10:38.640 |
The reason why that's highlighted is because every time the word Yahweh appears in the 00:10:43.520 |
Bible, because the Jews didn't want to use the Lord's name in vain, breaking one of the 00:10:51.080 |
commandments of God, they would not pronounce it. 00:10:54.080 |
Instead, they would use the word Adonai, the word Lord. 00:10:57.920 |
But in the original Hebrew, it has the word Yahweh. 00:11:01.600 |
The reason why I gave you this example is because the word Yahweh, his name Yahweh was 00:11:10.040 |
And I only gave you this example, but all throughout the Bible, when the word Yahweh, 00:11:15.360 |
his specific name Yahweh is used, it is much more frequent than the generic word God. 00:11:22.760 |
And the generic word for God is either El or Elohim. 00:11:26.880 |
The word Yahweh, his specific name Yahweh is used 6,828 times, where the word God generically 00:11:41.080 |
The reason why this is significant is because if we're not careful, we can also reflect 00:11:51.240 |
It's just like calling me Asian man, or guy, hey guy. 00:11:56.280 |
You know, we may do that if we don't know, when we meet each other for the first time, 00:11:59.720 |
or calling my name in a crowd to distinguish me from everybody else. 00:12:04.480 |
But if we have a personal relationship, you would not call me, hey dude, hey guy, you 00:12:20.640 |
And it is not to say that every time we call him, that if we don't use his name Yahweh, 00:12:27.760 |
But again, if we're not careful, our generic understanding of God may be a reflection of 00:12:34.160 |
a generic relationship that we have with him. 00:12:37.520 |
And it's important for us that God was not introducing himself for the first time. 00:12:47.200 |
He wasn't saying, he wasn't saying, what is your name? 00:12:50.320 |
Who do I tell, what do I say to the nation of Israel who is telling me that he's going 00:12:54.840 |
Well he said, tell them, I am who I am is sending you. 00:13:01.800 |
He says tell them, again in verse 14, tell them that I am has sent you. 00:13:07.800 |
And then the third time he says, tell them that Yahweh has sent me to you. 00:13:16.120 |
So in other words, the word Yahweh, or his name Yahweh, is being described. 00:13:21.560 |
And that's why the theologians believe that the statement I am is the description, is 00:13:37.060 |
Because our understanding of who he is, our personal relationship with him, is directly 00:13:44.480 |
Because a lot of people imagine God to be one way or the other. 00:13:49.120 |
Some people think of God as a holy bell hop that if I need something I pray to him, he 00:13:55.040 |
Or he's a grandfather who always has candy in his pocket. 00:13:58.840 |
If I go to him, he always loves me, there is no judgment, and he's always caring no 00:14:07.760 |
Bits and pieces of that is true, but we need to make sure that we understand how the Bible 00:14:20.000 |
Because Jesus uses that exact same term to describe himself as God of the New Testament. 00:14:26.880 |
He says if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. 00:14:30.520 |
Because he is I am, and then starting from next week we're going to go to the book of 00:14:34.080 |
John and we're going to be studying through when he says I am. 00:14:43.760 |
What does he mean by that and how is that tied to this, what he's saying here? 00:14:49.960 |
First of all, there's three things that I want to mention. 00:14:52.320 |
First of all, first and foremost meaning of the word I am is that God is. 00:15:00.320 |
Now if you're paying attention, you should be asking what does that mean? 00:15:05.880 |
Because that's what the word literally means. 00:15:12.940 |
In fact, there's two very well-read books, one from Francis Schaeffer and another from 00:15:19.820 |
D.A. Carson, and the title, both of the books' title is God Who Is There. 00:15:26.380 |
So I remember the first time picking up this book from Francis Schaeffer, reading the title 00:15:32.340 |
He's going to be talking about some weird philosophy that I don't understand. 00:15:36.380 |
But one of the most profound things that I learned about the identity of God, that God 00:15:43.780 |
And I could probably spend weeks and weeks and weeks just diving into this because there's 00:15:48.900 |
so much content, it's just in that phrase, God is. 00:15:53.680 |
But for today's sake, and the purpose of this is really to kind of use that as a springboard 00:16:00.740 |
Look what it says in Acts 17, 24 through 18, how God is described. 00:16:06.980 |
The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, 00:16:14.600 |
Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives 00:16:18.860 |
to all people life and breath and all things. 00:16:23.700 |
He made from one man every nation of mankind to live in all the face of the earth, having 00:16:29.020 |
determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that you would seek God. 00:16:35.620 |
If perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of 00:16:46.060 |
In the NIV it says we live and move and have our being. 00:16:52.300 |
So our being is directly connected to his being. 00:16:57.540 |
It's because he is that we are able to call ourselves human being. 00:17:03.460 |
So our being is not independent of his being, because our being comes from his being. 00:17:08.380 |
So the Bible says the reason why death came to mankind is because we were disconnected 00:17:15.100 |
from his being, because only his being is self-sustaining. 00:17:22.140 |
Only his being who is independent of anything else. 00:17:27.100 |
So in order for us to have our being, we need to be connected to his being. 00:17:34.180 |
I can't tell, because I don't see your face expressions. 00:17:38.420 |
But the core of our understanding of our salvation is connected to this. 00:17:44.740 |
You and I cannot have our being independent from him, because our being has a cause and 00:17:51.900 |
We are here because our parents had us, our parents had us because their grandparents 00:17:55.580 |
had us, and we all came from this chain, because ultimately our life, spiritually and physically, 00:18:04.860 |
When God says that he is, there is nothing beyond him. 00:18:11.300 |
And so when Moses is asking the question, who is going to deliver us from Israel, God 00:18:18.620 |
is reminding them there is nothing above him. 00:18:28.140 |
From Shakespeare's play, The Hamlet, probably the most famous question is to be or not to 00:18:37.860 |
Some of you may be familiar with that, because you did homework when you were in high school 00:18:48.700 |
Basically the question to be or not to be is really a question about life. 00:18:53.860 |
And if you remember reading that or studying that, basically Hamlet is giving a speech 00:18:59.780 |
or in his speech he basically is going over, should I live or not live? 00:19:15.060 |
But he also goes over the benefits, the sufferings of living. 00:19:20.540 |
And then he'll switch over back and forth to what it means to not to be. 00:19:25.540 |
And the benefit of not to be is the cessation of suffering. 00:19:32.400 |
But then also the difficulty of not to be means to be separated from your loved ones. 00:19:39.260 |
To go somewhere where you have no idea what is there. 00:19:43.460 |
And that's what he contemplates, to be or not to be. 00:19:48.940 |
But at the fundamental thing that that question gets wrong is that you and I do not have the 00:20:09.660 |
So only God could actually answer that question, to be or not to be. 00:20:15.300 |
Now we say, well, we can physically take our life, right? 00:20:17.820 |
So that means that we are able to be or not to be. 00:20:20.400 |
You can physically take your life, but the true life that is inside of us, the Bible 00:20:31.220 |
There is a physical life and there's a spiritual life. 00:20:34.280 |
And only God has the ultimate power for that. 00:20:37.620 |
And so when he says, when they ask, when they were faced with this tremendous task, who 00:20:54.100 |
This tiny little group of people who's worshiping this God, he's going to challenge Pharaoh 00:21:02.740 |
So he's not introducing, hey, my name is Yahweh. 00:21:08.540 |
And the very first thing that he is, he's saying is, I am. 00:21:17.740 |
Doesn't matter how great Pharaoh is, no matter how powerful he is, no matter how small Israel 00:21:22.620 |
is, tell them the God that you serve is I am. 00:21:26.340 |
You know, right now with all the coronavirus thing going on, people are freaking out. 00:21:34.800 |
Be careful that we do not react like the rest of the world. 00:21:43.540 |
Hebrews chapter 11, 6, he says, and without faith, it is impossible to please him. 00:21:48.700 |
For he who comes to God must believe that he is. 00:21:53.700 |
This is one of the reasons why I switched to NASB. 00:22:01.100 |
In your other translation, they may say that God exists. 00:22:05.200 |
But I think Hebrew really captures, the NASB really captures the meaning behind that. 00:22:10.180 |
Because it connects us to God of Exodus chapter 3. 00:22:13.880 |
It says, before you come to God, you must believe that he is I am. 00:22:20.380 |
Because if you don't believe he is I am, you can make him into something that you want 00:22:26.980 |
But no matter what you make him out to be, he will always be a lesser God of the Bible. 00:22:32.960 |
No matter how great your imagination, he will always be a lesser God than the God that we 00:22:41.800 |
So whatever you imagine God to be, it is lesser if we do not first and foremost recognize 00:22:50.440 |
Because if you do not recognize he is, the second part, that he is a rewarder of those 00:22:58.220 |
If you don't believe that he is, he is not the one you're going to seek. 00:23:03.620 |
You're going to be seeking comfort, you're going to be seeking other authorities, you're 00:23:07.060 |
going to be seeking a fatter bank account, you're going to be seeking a better marriage, 00:23:11.040 |
you're going to be seeking everything else because you do not truly believe that he is. 00:23:18.020 |
Because he's the only one who has the power of life and death. 00:23:21.420 |
In fact, in the Lord's Prayer, when the disciples asked, "How should we pray?" 00:23:25.740 |
The first thing that he says in the Lord's Prayer is, "Acknowledge God. 00:23:30.020 |
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." 00:23:37.300 |
In Psalm chapter 90 verse 2, "Before the mountains were born, or you gave birth to the earth 00:23:42.100 |
and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God." 00:23:49.140 |
Now to theists, or to Christians in particular, we don't need to reemphasize this because 00:24:00.220 |
But there is a huge difference between saying it, confessing it, signing a doctrinal statement, 00:24:14.460 |
Sometimes God allows certain things to happen in our lives to refocus our attention. 00:24:21.180 |
You guys who are watching me from the internet, you won't know, but our sanctuary looks very 00:24:31.060 |
The reason why I like it turned on is because I can see your faces. 00:24:37.660 |
I know who's alert, who's taking notes, who's going to the bathroom four times. 00:24:43.780 |
But today we deliberately turned off the lights. 00:24:45.540 |
And the reason why we did that is so that the film, what do you call it, internet, whatever 00:24:52.420 |
you're seeing on your screen, would have a better effect, to highlight what's going on 00:25:00.340 |
Sometimes God will turn off the lights in our lives in order to highlight what is most 00:25:07.940 |
And I think we will all admit that that's what's going on with us. 00:25:12.580 |
All the clutter, all the busyness, and even though our heart is anxious, that God has 00:25:17.020 |
taken away all the fluff and right now to focus on what's most important. 00:25:23.500 |
In Revelations 1.8, "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who 00:25:32.900 |
So in the midst of all of this turmoil, first and foremost, let's recognize who it is that 00:25:49.460 |
No matter what country, no matter what authority, no matter how great the army, he is and no 00:25:56.420 |
Secondly, the second meaning or the ramification of his name, "I am," is that God is the ultimate 00:26:07.060 |
John 5.26, "For just as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son, also 00:26:16.820 |
Not only does he have life, remember, John 5.26, Jesus basically is saying that he is 00:26:23.060 |
I am because nobody else has life within themselves. 00:26:27.260 |
Only God can say that and Jesus says, "As the Father has life in himself," he says, 00:26:34.860 |
But not only does the Son have it, he can give it to other people. 00:26:40.500 |
Only God can create something out of nothing. 00:26:44.260 |
There are a lot of really great magicians who are really good, especially some of these 00:26:53.940 |
Some of the things that they do, it's mesmerizing. 00:27:05.620 |
They can go out in the street and levitate in front of people or turn a $1 bill into 00:27:13.420 |
But we all know all of that is a movement of the hand and tricking you and diverting 00:27:19.220 |
attention to get you to see over here and then just to wow you with that. 00:27:25.460 |
But only God has the ability to create something out of nothing. 00:27:31.060 |
And no matter how much you study science, science will never be able to answer that 00:27:37.020 |
question because our reality, something has to come from something. 00:27:44.340 |
No matter whether you believe in the Big Bang or something beyond that, there will always 00:27:55.620 |
Well if he is, if he's the only being that is independent and sustains by himself, that 00:28:11.180 |
He, God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. 00:28:21.260 |
Only he can create something that is not there and say it's going to be there. 00:28:31.240 |
Maybe they can prophesy and they can look at the picture and describe what they're seeing. 00:28:36.260 |
But only God could create something from nothing. 00:28:42.540 |
For by him all things were created, both in heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, 00:28:47.300 |
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created 00:28:54.100 |
He is before all things and in him all things hold together. 00:28:58.980 |
So in other words, our God is the ultimate cause. 00:29:02.980 |
So let me break that down and how that applies to us. 00:29:08.260 |
Just as God created all things from nothing in the beginning, only he can create a man 00:29:26.740 |
Basically when he says foreknew, he's talking about people he loves. 00:29:29.980 |
He also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. 00:29:34.780 |
If you notice the whole order of salvation, it's all him from the beginning to the end. 00:29:43.180 |
There is no breaking in and saying, "Well, if you do this, I'll calculate this." 00:29:47.900 |
Whom he loved, whom he chose, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son so 00:29:51.940 |
that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. 00:29:56.020 |
And these whom he predestined, he also called. 00:30:00.400 |
And these whom he justified, he also glorified. 00:30:04.020 |
In every stage of our salvation, he said, "God did it." 00:30:09.580 |
The reason why you and I do not have power of our own salvation is because you and I 00:30:19.460 |
A dead person does not just one day say, "I'm going to live." 00:30:25.380 |
Only God who created and only God can recreate. 00:30:33.180 |
Obviously, you and I are here not because we're smart, not because we made some wise 00:30:44.780 |
He opened our eyes so that we may see his glory. 00:30:50.340 |
And then he will preserve us until the day of glory. 00:30:55.060 |
If you're sitting out there and maybe you haven't confessed Christ as your Lord and 00:30:59.380 |
Savior, maybe the fact that you are even watching this is because God is calling you, that God 00:31:07.620 |
is beginning to open your eyes and your heart is becoming softened. 00:31:12.020 |
And the whole reason why you may be doing that is because God is drawing near to you. 00:31:17.660 |
Only God can recreate man into the image that God intended. 00:31:25.620 |
Because remember, when God calls Moses, remember Moses' response? 00:31:29.940 |
Moses' response was just like any one of us would respond. 00:31:41.380 |
I know he lived 40 years in his house, not, you know, they didn't know his true identity, 00:31:46.620 |
that he was a Hebrew, but he spent the next 40 years cleaning up and taking care of sheep, 00:31:53.900 |
which at that time would have been the lowliest of jobs. 00:31:58.220 |
So maybe for the first couple years, maybe he was humbled, but 40 years, he forgot about 00:32:06.380 |
Egypt's, you know, Egypt's palace a long time ago. 00:32:12.200 |
His identity now, after 40 years, is he's a shepherd. 00:32:18.140 |
You're calling a shepherd to go talk to Pharaoh and demand that Israel be released? 00:32:31.260 |
In fact, my older brother Aaron, he's the one who speaks, he's always the one who's 00:32:39.860 |
And you would think that God would say, well, you know, stop being humble. 00:32:45.940 |
You would think that God would say that from our perspective. 00:32:52.380 |
And the reason why he gets rebuked is because he didn't know who God was. 00:32:58.460 |
I didn't call you because I needed your help. 00:33:02.180 |
I didn't ask you to do this because I created a universe, but Pharaoh, I can't handle without 00:33:14.220 |
So I am calling you not because I need you, because I choose to use you. 00:33:24.740 |
Not only was he telling Israel, but he was telling Moses, go speak on my behalf because 00:33:40.420 |
But ultimately, the way he delivers Israel, he was going to declare his glory to Egypt 00:33:50.900 |
They were sitting on the top of the world thinking everybody else is going to have to 00:33:55.900 |
He's going to use this tiny little nation who was serving as slaves at the time, and 00:34:08.060 |
You know, when all of this happened, our vice president, Pence, took the people who were 00:34:15.740 |
overseeing the coronavirus and making decisions, and they had a prayer meeting, and the media 00:34:23.380 |
How can we get this superstitious guy who's going to be praying to some unknown God, how 00:34:31.300 |
We need somebody smart, not somebody religious. 00:34:42.100 |
No matter how smart we are, no matter how many smart people are putting their attention 00:34:52.100 |
This pestilence didn't happen because we didn't have enough smart people in the world. 00:34:56.180 |
It's not spreading because we don't have enough money in the world. 00:34:59.460 |
It's not happening because we're not organized enough that maybe people are thinking that 00:35:04.020 |
if we made the right decision at the right time with the right people, with the right 00:35:07.380 |
money, with the right organization, this wouldn't have happened. 00:35:15.020 |
Do not forget that when God chose to deliver Israel and to show his glory, he used pestilence. 00:35:25.340 |
And every one of those 10 plagues was an idol that they were worshiping. 00:35:31.820 |
And one of the things or many of the things that God used to demonstrate his power was 00:35:35.940 |
pestilence to show them that you do not have power. 00:35:44.420 |
Third and fourth, third, finally, the third meaning of his name is that God is the ultimate 00:35:51.900 |
Not only is he self-existing, not only is he the cause, he's our ultimate goal. 00:35:58.160 |
Our purpose in life is ultimately to get to him. 00:36:02.620 |
Because that was the biggest problem in our life. 00:36:06.020 |
All the problems that we have, maybe you're having struggling with your children, maybe 00:36:10.940 |
because of what's going on now, there's going to be many, many people who's going to lose 00:36:17.500 |
A lot of you health workers who are literally risking your health and possibly even your 00:36:21.700 |
lives to be in the front line, you're doing something very, very noble. 00:36:41.580 |
The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:36:46.520 |
Meaning that we've all been separated from I am. 00:36:51.320 |
So we're trying to have this being independent from God. 00:36:55.060 |
But just like any other household products, when you disconnect it from the source of 00:37:03.880 |
Either it will die immediately or maybe you have one of those rechargeable batteries. 00:37:07.920 |
It'll last for a while but eventually it will wind down and it will also die. 00:37:12.840 |
It's just a matter of time when you are disconnected from the source of life. 00:37:16.960 |
The Bible says that all of mankind, because of our sins, we've fallen short of that glory 00:37:24.460 |
That's why a one-year-old versus a 90-year-old is closer to the finish line. 00:37:32.500 |
We don't grow and we don't become more alive as we get older. 00:37:42.880 |
And the Bible says that inasmuch as it's appointed for all men to die once, after this comes 00:37:51.300 |
So our greatest goal in mankind before anything else is to be reconnected with this being, 00:38:02.220 |
You know the problem with the health and wealth gospel is that they see God as an avenue to 00:38:15.640 |
God is somebody that they go through to get what they want, health and wealth. 00:38:22.200 |
Because even though they may be preaching the same gospel, they are not worshiping the 00:38:32.600 |
This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you 00:38:43.720 |
It says this is eternal life, that they may know you. 00:38:54.960 |
Christ came and he suffered for our sins, for the penalty of our sins that you and I 00:38:59.680 |
deserve in order that he may restore us back into a relationship with this being. 00:39:07.440 |
That's why Jesus says in John chapter 14 verse 6, I am the way. 00:39:26.460 |
It's not that we have Christ and a job, and a good family, and friends, and even church. 00:39:34.060 |
In the end, God will allow certain things to happen in our life for us to recognize 00:39:40.740 |
that all I have is Christ and all I ultimately need is Christ. 00:39:47.340 |
Right now, all of us, there are certain things that we value and like, certain habits that 00:39:57.300 |
Your health and finances, they are important. 00:40:06.500 |
God has turned off the light, not just locally, but globally. 00:40:10.980 |
A lot of people don't like getting on Facebook because many people have shared with me how 00:40:19.840 |
They don't like what looking at Facebook does because they see what everybody else does 00:40:24.200 |
in the world, which is, to be honest, it's not fake, but they're highlighting the best 00:40:31.060 |
They don't record themselves getting angry at their children. 00:40:34.420 |
They don't record themselves when the food that they cook burned or they get fired from 00:40:43.220 |
So we get to see the highlights, the good things that we want to present, and then when 00:40:46.580 |
we look at that, we covet and we get jealous. 00:40:48.740 |
It's like, "Oh, why are other people's lives like this?" 00:40:51.460 |
But when you actually talk to people, we're all going through the same thing. 00:40:55.940 |
But now I invite you to come onto Facebook because it's easier for me to communicate 00:41:12.420 |
Nobody's outside playing basketball, or they shouldn't be. 00:41:25.260 |
Why did he put us in a place where we are sitting hours upon hours of, "How are we 00:41:35.460 |
Maybe some of that is so that the light can shine on the I am. 00:41:45.660 |
I saw this on the internet and I thought it was really interesting. 00:41:48.020 |
It was a woman who was stuck at home with her teenage girl and was having a conversation 00:41:53.420 |
and she was so encouraged by what her daughter said that she put it online. 00:41:58.380 |
It says, again, this woman describing her conversation with her 15-year-old daughter 00:42:03.540 |
said, "I had a very interesting conversation with my 15-year-old yesterday. 00:42:07.900 |
She said, 'You know, mom, God has allowed us to be at a point in this country where 00:42:15.940 |
Sports, the arts, entertainment, education, money, travel, and even church and traditions. 00:42:26.660 |
I am thinking maybe he wants us to get our eyes on him and be like the early church in 00:42:36.980 |
We are blaming the big government for this chaos and confusion. 00:42:41.000 |
Have we ever stopped to think that God in his wonderful loving kindness is giving us 00:42:45.540 |
this opportunity to experience him fresh and anew? 00:42:52.900 |
I, for one, was very convicted by her words." 00:42:58.060 |
You know, all of you out there, you have the print of that and I was so encouraged, challenged, 00:43:03.660 |
I pray that what God is doing all over the world would not be wasted on us. 00:43:09.540 |
That at the end of this, that we would come out more focused, more loving, more challenged, 00:43:23.740 |
Sorry before I pray, if I can have the priest come up. 00:43:29.820 |
So the way we are going to end this is we are going to sing this song, "All I Have is 00:43:33.060 |
Christ" because it correlates with what I just spoke. 00:43:35.540 |
I am going to ask you guys instead of taking time to pray, I mean you can pray as we are 00:43:40.060 |
singing this, but after we pray we are going to sing this song and we are going to finish 00:43:44.900 |
it and then we are going to finish our service for today. 00:43:51.140 |
But starting from tomorrow, again, our church is going to be more present online through 00:44:00.860 |
You are going to see more devotions and possibly video content. 00:44:04.260 |
Our soul ministry, our sprouts and seeds and vines ministry, they have already made a bunch 00:44:14.740 |
of videos for the children to see and I am very thankful because we didn't ask them to 00:44:22.220 |
And also, many generous people have donated masks and I do have different masks still 00:44:28.820 |
at home so if you are in the health work system and not only for you but you want to get some 00:44:34.700 |
for your friends, I still have some so please text me or email me and I will be able to 00:44:42.740 |
All I have is Christ and I want to review it over with you so that when you sing it 00:44:50.300 |
I once was lost in darkest night, yet thought I knew the way. 00:44:56.540 |
The sin that promised joy in life had led me to the grave. 00:45:01.460 |
I had no hope that you would own a rebel to your will and if you had not loved me first, 00:45:10.340 |
But as I ran my hellbound race, indifferent to the cost, you looked upon my helpless state 00:45:19.520 |
And I beheld God's love displayed, you suffered in my place, you bore the wrath reserved for 00:45:28.380 |
Hallelujah, all I have is Christ, hallelujah, Jesus is my life. 00:45:34.340 |
Now Lord, I would be yours alone and live so all might see. 00:45:39.180 |
The strength to follow your commands could never come from me. 00:45:42.940 |
Oh Father, use my ransom life in any way you choose and let my song forever be, my only 00:45:56.780 |
Father, I pray that the words of this song would be our honest confession. 00:46:04.680 |
Whether we have been sober entering into this or whether we have been drifting, we pray 00:46:11.140 |
Father God that your word and your spirit would cause us to have a fresh look at the 00:46:20.580 |
That we would be able to confess that you are I am and we are because of you. 00:46:27.760 |
So we ask Lord God that you would bless this time, amen.