back to indexBAM Retreat: Reserved for God, Session 1
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If you guys could take your seats, we're gonna get started. 00:12:23.000 |
I'm just gonna go over the schedule really quick before we start. 00:12:25.000 |
It's a little bit different than the ones you guys got through Facebook and email. 00:12:30.000 |
So the first session is obviously starting right now. 00:12:38.000 |
So we're gonna have Sam Ho come up here and she'll kind of explain how we're doing that. 00:12:42.000 |
After that, we're supposed to have a time of personal retreat time. 00:12:45.000 |
So that's just gonna be like personal prayer. 00:12:47.000 |
So I think the best way to do it, we have small groups. 00:12:53.000 |
And if you look along the back wall, there's men's and women's small groups. 00:12:59.000 |
I think the best thing to do is find your group and then discuss where you're gonna meet, 00:13:02.000 |
like at a certain time for your small group session. 00:13:07.000 |
And then at 12 o'clock, we're gonna have lunch outside. 00:13:17.000 |
At 2, Pastor Mark's gonna have a mini talk and a Q&A. 00:13:21.000 |
And then around 4 o'clock, we're gonna have a game or an activity. 00:13:24.000 |
And then at 5.30, we're gonna split up into groups to go get dinner. 00:13:28.000 |
So those groups will get sent out at some point too. 00:13:30.000 |
And then with that group, you guys will go out somewhere, buy food, eat. 00:13:39.000 |
And then another small group discussion time at 9. 00:13:41.000 |
And then around 10, we're gonna be closing everything up again. 00:13:45.000 |
So if you guys have any questions or if you guys found that you're not in a group 00:13:48.000 |
for any of the things that you guys wanted to be in, you guys can come and talk to me. 00:13:59.000 |
Father God, we thank you, Lord, for this time and this day 00:14:01.000 |
and this opportunity to come worship you together. 00:14:08.000 |
We pray that it will be intentional and fruitful. 00:14:12.000 |
We pray that you would help us to be attentive and humble to receive your word through Pastor Mark. 00:14:20.000 |
And so, Father, we pray that you'd be with us today and tonight. 00:14:32.000 |
So we're gonna begin our time, our session, with a time of praise. 00:23:17.000 |
You know, it feels just great to be able to meet with you guys together. 00:23:22.000 |
To have an opportunity to study the word of God and then to have extended fellowship. 00:23:31.000 |
I know some people, they're like, oh, retreats, so tired, right? 00:23:36.000 |
And for some of you guys who know how sometimes introverted I can get, the thought of being together for an extended period of time with a large group of people, to some degree, yeah, it's a little bit like daunting. 00:23:50.000 |
But at the same time, to have quantity of quality time together, it's sometimes a rare thing and it's sweet when we get to have it. 00:24:01.000 |
Now, because we sometimes don't get to do this and I see a lot of new faces, too, let's just take like a minute to look around, say hi to the people around you, especially if you don't know who they are, make sure to actually get up, reach over, give them a fist bump and be like, hi, my name is. 00:25:16.000 |
By way of introduction to the theme of our time together today, I just want to ask, because I did see a lot of new faces, you don't -- I'm not going to -- don't worry. 00:25:29.000 |
Sometimes I highlight new people to our congregation, et cetera. 00:25:33.000 |
But just by way of quick raise of hands, how many of you guys are new here, meaning you've only been here for about a month at Berean? 00:25:51.000 |
So for those of you guys who are new to church, one of the things I want to highlight to you is our church practices church membership. 00:25:58.000 |
And for us, that church membership is a really important integral part of making sure from the pastoral standpoint, the shepherding standpoint, that we make sure we're investing into your lives and then also that to the vision of the church, we're like having a buy-in together. 00:26:14.000 |
We hope to worship God in this way and build the community of God in this way. 00:26:19.000 |
And one of the things that we do for that end of ministering to you, investing into you, is we give you a free book. 00:26:29.000 |
So this is an incentive for doing membership. 00:26:34.000 |
But the reason why I bring that up is because there's this question, at a church that emphasizes the holiness of the Lord to the degree that we give you the first book free of charge by R.C. Sproul, 00:26:46.000 |
is there a need for us to talk about holiness at Berean? 00:26:50.000 |
And the answer is, of course, absolutely yes. 00:26:55.000 |
There are times when people will wrestle with this question, is it good for us to have a balance and attention of thinking about God's love and thinking about God's grace and mercies versus God's holiness? 00:27:13.000 |
And when you pose the question in that fashion, what that reveals is your current concept of holiness potentially is a little bit off. 00:27:24.000 |
Because as we study about God, we recognize God's holiness does not equate to His wrath. 00:27:33.000 |
God's holiness does not equate to the absolute purity of His moral character by which He necessitates the judgment of sin. 00:27:43.000 |
Holiness is talking about God's incredible beauty and perfection and the nature of who He is that supersedes every single element and character of His being. 00:27:57.000 |
And so when we say we're going to study God's holiness, we are talking about all the attributes to its pinnacle point. 00:28:06.000 |
We're essentially saying we're going to meditate and soak and bask in the various character traits of God. 00:28:11.000 |
And so I think it has done a disservice if people, when they talk about the holiness of God, they are just simply talking about, "You better not smoke, and you better not drink, and you better not be watching any naughty stuff." 00:28:27.000 |
I don't know why I did that accent in that way. 00:28:32.000 |
It's a disservice to think about holiness in that kind of fashion. 00:28:36.000 |
Don't you dare do this, this, this, and this, and this. 00:28:41.000 |
Because God's holy, and He's going to get you, right? 00:28:43.000 |
If that is your concept of holiness, that's actually what I want to talk about is when we think about the application then of holiness, we see how now we're on different paths. 00:28:55.000 |
In one sense, the application of holiness therefore could be, it's like, "Oh gosh, I did it again. 00:29:01.000 |
I need to make sure that I not do that anymore in my life." 00:29:05.000 |
Well, surely in our Christian faith, there's a ton of that in terms of what we're learning not to do because we're regularly trying to kill our sin, kill our flesh. 00:29:16.000 |
But what we're trying to say today is there's so much more to the holiness of God than that. 00:29:22.000 |
And therefore, on the path of our application, there's so much more to us applying holiness into our lives above and beyond, "Thou shall not." 00:29:39.000 |
If that is your concept, then you already feel a sense of the tension. 00:29:44.000 |
Whenever we're going to talk about grace, understand that that tension comes in a misconception. 00:29:51.000 |
It was a theologian, A.A. Hodge, who said this, "The holiness of God is not to be conceived as one of the attributes among others. 00:30:00.000 |
It is a general term representing the conception of God's consummate perfection, the totality of His glory. 00:30:08.000 |
It is His infinite moral and just perfections crowning His infinite intelligence and power and more." 00:30:18.000 |
What he's trying to say is if you're just thinking about God in terms of His holy, as in this is this part, whereas our Father, that's the part where He gets angry. 00:30:49.000 |
And I wanted to introduce the theme of this day to you and the fact that what we're going to try and do is really think about the broad scope of what God's holiness is. 00:31:00.000 |
And then think about what path of application can we take. 00:31:10.000 |
Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for every single brother and sister here. 00:31:19.000 |
I pray, Father God, that you would grant to us your grace. 00:31:23.000 |
And this grace, Lord God, you have shown to us an incredible measure already, which is the fact that you have revealed yourself to us. 00:31:32.000 |
A holy God who is so transcendent, so above us to a degree that we don't even fully know yet. 00:31:49.000 |
So, Lord, as we look at your scripture, as we meditate and think, would you bless us with the knowledge of you. 00:31:59.000 |
God, we desire and long to truly be saved from this wicked and perverse generation. 00:32:06.000 |
To be spared, Father God, from our own bondage. 00:32:12.000 |
God, that we would be transformed to the image of your son. 00:32:16.000 |
And so, God, we pray that each endeavor and days that we have like this, we're able to be exposed and nourished by your truth. 00:32:25.000 |
I pray, Father God, that you would provide that change. 00:32:28.000 |
We thank you, Lord, it's in Christ's name we pray. 00:32:33.000 |
So, as we think about this, I want to move to our point number one. 00:32:48.000 |
God's holiness should not be limited to the following. 00:33:00.000 |
God's holiness should not be limited to the following. 00:33:04.000 |
So, right now, point number one has a couple sub points. 00:33:07.000 |
And what I'm going to talk about is just a description really fast of the typical ways that we conceive of holiness. 00:33:17.000 |
Frequently, when we think about holiness, we are talking simply about purity. 00:33:26.000 |
A lot of times when we think about, oh, we need to be holy, right, what we're talking about is a kind of purity where because sexual perversion is so, so common. 00:33:35.000 |
Because, you know, deviance and immorality and all that kind of stuff is so common. 00:33:40.000 |
When we think of holiness, a lot of times what we're thinking about is just purity. 00:33:53.000 |
Scripture has so much to say about sexual purity. 00:33:56.000 |
Scripture, what it describes to us, if there's a category of, hey, what are some of the things that really show for a man to be very, very pure, is a man who has this lust in control. 00:34:14.000 |
Because when it describes the individual who is very, very ungodly, given over to fornification, we know the fruits of the darkness. 00:34:29.000 |
And that kind of constant licentiousness is absolutely unholy. 00:34:36.000 |
But you recognize that, yes, God is so pure and clean. 00:34:46.000 |
But the concept of holiness that we're trying to think about should not be limited to that. 00:34:51.000 |
What's more, holiness is often described as perfection. 00:34:56.000 |
So, more so thinking about the idea of the perfection of knowledge, the perfection of wisdom. 00:35:02.000 |
And the thing about it is, Scripture has so much to say about that. 00:35:10.000 |
There is not a thing where he is surprised by. 00:35:15.000 |
There is not a thing where he is caught off guard. 00:35:18.000 |
And when the Scripture talks about God's holiness, it is talking about this perfect element of God's wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, where Scripture says everything, past, present, and future, it's just already yours. 00:35:35.000 |
I bring those up because, again, today we're talking about not just the concept of holiness, but the application of it. 00:35:41.000 |
And, yes, I could make this conference or retreat about the application of these communicable attributes. 00:35:50.000 |
In the sense that God has absolute purity and God has knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. 00:35:56.000 |
Those are things that God says, "Because I am holy in that fashion, so should you." 00:36:04.000 |
Those are things that God says, "I want you to mimic, follow these character traits that I have." 00:36:11.000 |
But also, Scripture talks about God's holiness in terms of power. 00:36:26.000 |
Essentially, He has the power to create, ex nihilo, He speaks, and it comes to being. 00:36:32.000 |
He has such strength and He constantly asks us, "Why in the world do you keep thinking of me like one of you guys? 00:36:43.000 |
There is nothing in this entire world that can stay in my hand." 00:36:48.000 |
God is so utterly powerful that nobody is going to resist, nobody is going to fight back. 00:37:00.000 |
That's the way the Scripture describes God's absolute power. 00:37:03.000 |
And the Scripture describes that element as His holiness as well. 00:37:07.000 |
And then lastly, we think of God's holiness as His authority and judgment. 00:37:16.000 |
God, by nature of having all of these attributes, He is essentially in a role where He is judge and Lord over all. 00:37:32.000 |
We don't have a right to point that back at Him and say, "God, what are you doing?" 00:37:37.000 |
No, no. His holiness is also describing this attribute that He has both the authority, the ability, and His own prerogative to judge the world. 00:37:53.000 |
Right there in this first point, all I want to do is present to you every single one of those points we can make into an entire seminar. 00:38:01.000 |
Every single one of those points we can make into a retreat of its own. 00:38:10.000 |
But it's funny to me that we regularly limit God. 00:38:14.000 |
It's funny to me that when we conceive and think of the Lord, a lot of times it has to do with our angle. 00:38:20.000 |
Which is, if I see God's holiness in some light, typically I'm receiving it in terms of, "Then what am I permitted to do? 00:38:32.000 |
Those are some of the questions we ask when we think about application. 00:38:35.000 |
But my challenge to you is, try not to think like that. 00:38:43.000 |
Understand that when we're thinking about God's holiness, it has more to do than just simply that element. 00:38:51.000 |
And also, if for you, in your habit of thinking about the holiness, it is the case and actually reality for you, where you always thought of holiness as always a scary term. 00:39:05.000 |
I want to challenge you today and say, make sure that you are broadening your scope to the biblical scope, which is vast. 00:39:14.000 |
Which is much bigger than what is commonly perceived. 00:39:26.000 |
At the same time, because we only have limited time to talk about this topic, point number two is going to be this. 00:39:36.000 |
An incredible element of God's holiness means that He Himself is set apart. 00:39:43.000 |
So point number two is, God Himself is set apart. 00:39:48.000 |
A.K.A. another way of saying that God is set apart is to say that He is absolutely unique. 00:39:55.000 |
And so here, would you please take your Bibles and open up to Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 32 through 39. 00:40:07.000 |
It's so funny, I just got a flashback of one of my seminary professors. 00:40:12.000 |
He would always be like, let's turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 4. 00:40:20.000 |
I was like, he was at the time when I was in his class, he was like 68. 00:40:24.000 |
And I was like, what an interesting individual. 00:40:34.000 |
And notice, and I'm going to read from verse 32 to 39. 00:40:39.000 |
And notice what the scripture has to say here. 00:41:03.000 |
"Indeed, ask now concerning the former days which were before you since the day that God created man on the earth, 00:41:09.000 |
and inquire from one end of the heavens to the other." 00:41:13.000 |
He's just calling us to think deeply about this. 00:41:17.000 |
"Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? 00:41:23.000 |
Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire as you have heard it and survived? 00:41:31.000 |
Or has a God tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, 00:41:37.000 |
by signs and wonders, and by war and by mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, 00:41:43.000 |
as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 00:41:47.000 |
To you it has been shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God. 00:41:57.000 |
If you're highlighting and underlining, there is the thrust of this entire retreat. 00:42:02.000 |
"God has shown this to you, that He is God, and there is none other like Him. 00:42:08.000 |
Out of the heavens He lets you hear His voice to discipline you, 00:42:12.000 |
and on earth He lets you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire, 00:42:18.000 |
because He loved your fathers before He chose their descendants after them, 00:42:22.000 |
and He personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, 00:42:26.000 |
driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, 00:42:30.000 |
to bring you in to give you their land for an inheritance as it is today. 00:42:40.000 |
that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on earth below. 00:42:48.000 |
If you're highlighting and underlining, verse 35 and 39 shows to us the aspect of His holiness. 00:42:57.000 |
What I'm trying to say is that there is an aspect of His holiness that is not conceived of easily because it's so conceptual. 00:43:05.000 |
And the conceptual is also phrased most of the time in a negative form. 00:43:12.000 |
Negative form meaning, "There is no other. There is nothing like God." 00:43:18.000 |
Shall I try to creatively think of an example? 00:43:22.000 |
Scripture says, "To what shall I compare thee?" Impossible task. 00:43:33.000 |
There is this otherness, and the way that sometimes we try to think about it, 00:43:38.000 |
falsely, although yes, the intention is good, 00:43:42.000 |
is to think that God Himself, when He is talked about as unique, 00:43:46.000 |
talked about as set apart, we try to think of Him as the best of the best. 00:43:52.000 |
You know, there's that idiom, "The creme de la creme," right? 00:43:56.000 |
If you can think about somebody who's quite loving, He is the most loving. 00:44:00.000 |
If you can think about somebody who's super skilled and talented, He is the most skilled. 00:44:06.000 |
Scripture says, that's actually a far, far understatement to describe the uniqueness of God. 00:44:14.000 |
There is no superlative to actually correctly describe God. 00:44:24.000 |
To give Him the thumbs up would still undermine God. 00:44:29.000 |
Because Scripture says, "There is none other. There is nothing to compare Him." 00:44:36.000 |
You know, what's really interesting then is, for us to conceive of God, 00:44:43.000 |
there is this endeavor for us to appreciate that. 00:44:47.000 |
Okay. And I want you to start thinking about this, okay? 00:45:04.000 |
This is going to be fun. I printed this last night, 00:45:07.000 |
and then I realized I didn't print the updated version that I worked on. 00:45:12.000 |
So the reason why I'm flipping back and forth is like, "Where is my note?" 00:45:20.000 |
What Moses is trying to communicate to us is this element of God, 00:45:26.000 |
where we must then—and then I want you to start using the verbs, 00:45:29.000 |
because we're talking about holiness applied. 00:45:32.000 |
If God truly is so unique, there is none other, 00:45:35.000 |
start rapidly thinking and meditating about the verbs that come after that thought. 00:45:42.000 |
There must be a treatment of God that then—He is not then placed in the same categories as the stuff that I see. 00:45:55.000 |
And that was the common error and common faltering of the people of God in the Old Testament. 00:46:01.000 |
"Why do you keep placing me with images? Why do you keep placing me with totem poles? 00:46:06.000 |
Why do you keep placing me in the palm of your hand?" Wrong. 00:46:12.000 |
In terms of the value system, think about the incredible weight and value that God has. 00:46:18.000 |
"You shall not treat Him as though, 'Oh, He happens to be kind of like our treasure, just like we have gold.'" Wrong. 00:46:25.000 |
As soon as you start comparing Him with the treasures and values that you have on earth, 00:46:30.000 |
you're not treating Him as set apart, are you? 00:46:34.000 |
What I'm talking about is you have to see Him as so unique. 00:46:39.000 |
There's a quote I want to highlight for you by A.W. Tozer, and he says, 00:46:42.000 |
"We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something just very pure, 00:46:49.000 |
then raising that concept to the highest degree that we can think of. 00:46:57.000 |
God's holiness is not simply the best we know, infinitely better. 00:47:05.000 |
It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible, and unattainable. 00:47:10.000 |
Only the spirit of the Holy One can impart to a limited human spirit this knowledge of the Holy." 00:47:24.000 |
And that's what I'm trying to tackle is, I think, subtly, sometimes unintentionally, because we are limited, 00:47:37.000 |
But the Scriptures says that God Himself is holy, holy, holy, 00:47:43.000 |
then you would then think He is so set apart, so set apart, 00:47:46.000 |
because the Hebrew term literally means to be set apart, He is like none other. 00:47:51.000 |
In the book of Exodus 15, Scripture says, "Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? 00:47:56.000 |
Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?" 00:48:02.000 |
And so if there is nothing like God, that means that God is absolutely wonderful, 00:48:08.000 |
and the things that we are wowed by, there is no comparison. 00:48:14.000 |
If I am wowed by God just the same way I am wowed by a professional athlete, 00:48:20.000 |
I am wowed by delicious food, the comparison there. 00:48:27.000 |
If God is so set apart, He is absolutely beautiful is what I'm saying. 00:48:32.000 |
If God is so set apart that there is none other like God, 00:48:35.000 |
then earlier what I mentioned is He is not just simply of greatest prize, 00:48:40.000 |
He is to the degree so priceless, we cannot quantify it. 00:48:46.000 |
We can talk about bazillions of dollars, billions and trillions, right? 00:48:52.000 |
But no, there is going to be no quantifiable measure of the value of God to us. 00:48:57.000 |
And if there is no one like our God, He is absolutely worthy. 00:49:09.000 |
What I'm trying to say is today we're talking about the holiness of God 00:49:13.000 |
and thinking about that concept and understanding of God by our faith 00:49:21.000 |
And so, point three is going to be if God is truly set apart, 00:49:32.000 |
We live in such a generation that has regularly flipped the tables around 00:49:41.000 |
and said, "No, I'm sacred. My feelings are sacred. My value is sacred. 00:49:51.000 |
That's our generation and it applies itself in so many different ways. 00:49:58.000 |
By the way of Scripture, we're going to make that table right side up 00:50:04.000 |
and say, "No, no. There are some things so sacred, yes. 00:50:09.000 |
But for us, our treatment of God must be truly holy." 00:50:15.000 |
If God is truly unique, then we must truly sanctify Him in our hearts. 00:50:29.000 |
And there's already going to be individuals in our generation, 00:50:36.000 |
that our treatment of God must be holy and it should be like observably holy. 00:50:42.000 |
There should be a sacredness in the way that we treat the Lord 00:50:45.000 |
and in our attitude to Him, there should be honor, reverence, and more 00:50:48.000 |
to the degree that it actually shows Him to be a cut above the rest. 00:50:55.000 |
It's like, "Ooh, but history has told us that that turns into legalism. 00:51:00.000 |
History has told us that that turns into ritualism." 00:51:03.000 |
Yes, but that fear needs to be rejected in of itself. 00:51:08.000 |
What is true, though, is God has painstakingly tried to show His people. 00:51:15.000 |
God has through instruction, through drama, through example and model. 00:51:20.000 |
God has through generations, through the nation of Israel, His law, 00:51:24.000 |
legally, ceremonially, communally, and ritually, 00:51:28.000 |
God has tried to show His people all the time. 00:51:36.000 |
And therefore, when you think about the Old Testament, think back. 00:51:41.000 |
Think about all that He's been trying to teach the nation of Israel. 00:51:45.000 |
You see this item here? I'm going to just use it as an example. 00:51:55.000 |
You see this tent right here? When you meet God, it is consecrated to God. 00:52:04.000 |
The negative way, because I think for us, we have to see both sides to really understand. 00:52:10.000 |
One of the common errors of the people of God has been, 00:52:23.000 |
God has tried to show them that you have to see God as so significantly holy, 00:52:33.000 |
In terms of what importance and significance He has, 00:52:36.000 |
He has such vast space that you treat Him always with an incredible amount of specific holiness and sacredness. 00:52:51.000 |
There are times when people talk about doing things with the Lord, 00:52:57.000 |
People say this, and if you said this, don't feel bad, 00:53:00.000 |
but I want to actually challenge you to think of it in another way. 00:53:04.000 |
In terms of prayer, I know I should pray, so what I do is I pray when I walk. 00:53:12.000 |
Because we have a dynamic relationship with God, and you should be praying when you drive. 00:53:19.000 |
But then I've also heard of people, in terms of devotions, 00:53:26.000 |
In order for the sake of routine, I do that on the toilet. 00:53:35.000 |
they come to church, it feels just like a cafe. 00:53:39.000 |
They come to church, they have coffee, they watch the TV. 00:53:45.000 |
It sort of seems so much like a routine habit. 00:53:47.000 |
It seems so much like something you normally do in your every single day of life. 00:53:51.000 |
That's fine in some sense, because should you be walking with God in your normal walk in life? 00:54:03.000 |
But where are the moments when you have sacred moments with God? 00:54:08.000 |
Where you put aside all the distractions and you say, 00:54:11.000 |
"Lord, because you're holy and you're sacred, 00:54:15.000 |
when I come into your presence and I want to commune with you, 00:54:18.000 |
I'm not treating you like my buddy, like my coffee, or my poop. 00:54:31.000 |
But I'm going to set apart this time with you as a sacred time with you. 00:54:46.000 |
And that means you have such value, you have such worth, you have such respect. 00:54:57.000 |
Would it be weird if one of us bammers came into service just completely decked out? 00:55:10.000 |
And then before they walked into the service, they started wiping their feet. 00:55:15.000 |
And then when they came in, they sat down and they did some kind of ritualistic, 00:55:19.000 |
like first confession of prayer, and then they first laid down everything. 00:55:23.000 |
And then when they came in, they first like bowed, they put their nose to the ground. 00:55:42.000 |
Or would we look at that and be like, "Maybe I should be doing that." 00:55:53.000 |
reminder, long before us, the vast majority of history, 00:55:59.000 |
They'd wash their hands before they even picked up their Bible. 00:56:01.000 |
They would be appalled at the fact that modern day Christians take their Bibles into the bathroom. 00:56:09.000 |
There are Christians and believers long before us, 00:56:21.000 |
And so they would always wash themselves before coming in. 00:56:30.000 |
I'm just challenging our naturally accepted norms, right? 00:56:45.000 |
Long time ago in--I say long time ago. It's not that long ago. 00:56:51.000 |
there was this really popular song by John Mayer called "Comfortable." 00:56:55.000 |
And it would go, "Our love was comfortable and-- 00:57:05.000 |
And I thought it was so cool. I learned it on the guitar. 00:57:08.000 |
And I thought it was so cool. I was playing and stuff. 00:57:13.000 |
It's about him already being in another relationship that he doesn't like, 00:57:18.000 |
and him just reminiscing about a nice, comfortable love that he had with another woman. 00:57:23.000 |
And I was singing that. I was like, "Wait a minute." 00:57:28.000 |
And I realized part of the catchiness is there is such an affinity to a kind of love 00:57:32.000 |
that is so comfortable and so broken in, just feel natural. 00:57:35.000 |
And you don't have to feel like you have to behave. 00:57:37.000 |
And in the song itself, he talks about this girl who says she loves the Bible, 00:57:42.000 |
and then he's not really able to say what he wants to say. 00:57:45.000 |
But with the comfortable girl, he can mess around at the shops. 00:57:48.000 |
He can stumble over the aisles, and he can do whatever he wants. 00:57:51.000 |
And then his love is so comfortable because they can be free. 00:57:56.000 |
And I realized that kind of song resonates with us. 00:58:03.000 |
But actually, it's just so far from the reality, right? 00:58:10.000 |
Now, what I want to say is moving on to point number four. 00:58:16.000 |
Point number three was our concept of God as unique, singular, 00:58:23.000 |
means that he is elevated to, right, beyond even the top. 00:58:30.000 |
And if you see him that way, then your treatment of God must be sacred. 00:58:36.000 |
Point number four is if there is a specific command, 00:58:40.000 |
stop treating him as though he does not matter. 00:58:48.000 |
If we're thinking about God's holiness as uniqueness instead of partness, 00:58:56.000 |
What am I talking about here is there is then in us the worldview and value system 00:59:10.000 |
God, if you are of such immense value, then you matter the most to me. 00:59:21.000 |
Not only the most, but I want you to think about this. 00:59:23.000 |
Think about the things that are so significant to your life that if you have it, 00:59:28.000 |
you have everything, and if you don't have it, you have nothing. 00:59:32.000 |
And for a lot of us, what that typically translates to is our family members. 00:59:36.000 |
If you lost your parents, you would feel like you've lost it all. 00:59:40.000 |
Who cares if you live in a nice house, you know, four-bedroom, two-bath, 00:59:50.000 |
Sometimes I feel like nowadays because the housing market is real nice, 00:59:53.000 |
everybody is staring like, "That's what I want." 00:59:57.000 |
If your family member, like your beloved brother or sister, died, 01:00:02.000 |
you're not going to care about anything else. 01:00:05.000 |
If you got the horrendous news that your sibling has now stage 4 lung cancer, 01:00:11.000 |
you're not going to care what your hair looks like. 01:00:14.000 |
You're not going to care who's around you at that point 01:00:20.000 |
It outweighs whatever complaint, whatever minor issue, 01:00:27.000 |
whatever circumstantial blessings or curses you experience. 01:00:37.000 |
I was trying to think about like how do I illustrate this point, right? 01:00:41.000 |
We all have the ability to experience that weight of matter 01:00:49.000 |
where it's so heavy that if it goes right, it means the world to us. 01:00:56.000 |
And my question to you as I think about our perspective on our mentality towards God 01:01:01.000 |
is when has been the last time that you expressed your love for God in that way? 01:01:26.000 |
and it would make me live if I'm close to you." 01:01:34.000 |
I have shared a couple times that sometimes I have these really anxious moments 01:01:41.000 |
where I just wake up in the middle of the night crying 01:01:43.000 |
because I've dreamt that one of my kids drowned. 01:01:54.000 |
But within my dream, I specifically remember the moment 01:01:59.000 |
where I see one of my kids drowning in the pool, 01:02:02.000 |
and I'm about 50 yards out, and I'm screaming, "Get him! Somebody get him!" 01:02:13.000 |
And then the next time I have the dream, I'm only running, 01:02:15.000 |
but by the time I get there, he's already upside down, right? 01:02:19.000 |
Okay, that feeling, if I lose this, my life is done. 01:02:30.000 |
I don't know how I would react if I actually lost one of my family members, 01:02:34.000 |
if I lost my wife, and then because I have these hero dreams all the time, 01:02:41.000 |
and I'm pretty sure some of you guys have them too, 01:02:43.000 |
where some thug comes over with a knife to threaten my wife. 01:02:49.000 |
And I come over and I'm like, "Psh, psh, psh, psh!" 01:02:55.000 |
But then sometimes in your sadistic way, in your head, 01:02:59.000 |
it doesn't always end--your fantasy doesn't end with you saving, 01:03:03.000 |
your fantasy ends with her actually getting killed, 01:03:10.000 |
I'm not just sharing these things with you to have like a sob feeling. 01:03:15.000 |
What I'm trying to say is it's sometimes good for us 01:03:22.000 |
to recognize that there are some things in our lives so significant 01:03:27.000 |
that matter so much, it would truly wreck us, 01:03:34.000 |
and we would be undone, and I wouldn't know what words to say, 01:03:39.000 |
and all I could probably do is just be like, "Lord, help me!" Right? 01:03:46.000 |
My question to you is, in your love relationship with God, 01:03:51.000 |
if you're appropriately thinking about the holiness of God, 01:03:56.000 |
have there been times when you've come before the Lord and said, 01:03:59.000 |
"Lord, I realize I've come to a point where I love you so much 01:04:08.000 |
I wouldn't know what to do. I wouldn't know what to say. 01:04:13.000 |
And Lord, that's how important you are to me. 01:04:23.000 |
I want you to turn to a passage in 1 Peter 3, verse 15. 01:04:33.000 |
Compare that mentality with people who have come to the Lord 01:04:39.000 |
with that kind of devotion and experiential love, 01:04:44.000 |
and individuals who act and talk like God doesn't matter. 01:04:52.000 |
Let me show you this interesting passage in 1 Peter 3. 01:04:56.000 |
I'm going to start reading from verse 13, and he describes a situation. 01:05:04.000 |
Tribulations of all various kinds, persecution, getting chased. 01:05:08.000 |
Verse 13 says, "Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? 01:05:14.000 |
But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed." 01:05:22.000 |
That if you suffer for the sake of righteousness, you're being blessed. 01:05:28.000 |
"And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled." 01:05:33.000 |
But, look at this, highlight this and underline this. 01:05:37.000 |
"Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense 01:05:43.000 |
to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, 01:05:52.000 |
Keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, 01:05:56.000 |
those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. 01:06:11.000 |
"Sanctify the Lord in your heart. Regard Him as set apart. 01:06:16.000 |
Regard Him as the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ, 01:06:20.000 |
who is unique to the degree there is none other like Him. 01:06:24.000 |
He is the only singular begotten Son of God, of such value, worth, 01:06:35.000 |
To the degree that even if you suffer, you feel like being blessed, as opposed to, 01:06:44.000 |
The people who are suffering, and you try to encourage them and say, 01:06:48.000 |
"But remember, Christ loves you, and you're in Christ." 01:06:52.000 |
They say, "Yeah, but how has He helped me lately?" 01:07:03.000 |
As though for you suffering, and then me saying, "Jesus Christ is still with you," 01:07:07.000 |
is some kind of third tier, like some kind of, you know what they say, 01:07:12.000 |
like when you--what is that thing you call where you fight for a prize, 01:07:16.000 |
you don't win, and then so they give you a little, bloop, 01:07:21.000 |
Thank you so much. I had a blip of my own, okay? 01:07:25.000 |
People who act like Jesus, when you say that He still loves you, 01:07:29.000 |
and that you have His eternal hope, is some kind of consolation prize, 01:07:33.000 |
and they have this attitude of, "Yes, but what am I still going to do 01:07:49.000 |
And so I want to challenge you to think of God as the most consequential 01:08:01.000 |
We are most holy and godly when we see Christ as set apart in our hearts, 01:08:08.000 |
when we see God as unique and set apart in our hearts. 01:08:13.000 |
There is an interesting passage that we tackled during our Bible study 01:08:24.000 |
In your Bible studies, in 2 Thessalonians 3, verses 6-10, 01:08:33.000 |
And I want to draw a connection here, because the unruly life 01:08:44.000 |
But recognize that the unholy life is not just unholy in and of itself. 01:08:50.000 |
The unholy life is unholy because it fails to sanctify God as the thing 01:09:00.000 |
Let me make this connection for you by way of another passage. 01:09:20.000 |
This is what happens when you print the wrong version of your sermon. 01:09:34.000 |
You guys understand the connection that I'm making is clearly an unruly life, 01:09:38.000 |
one who is contrarian to the tradition and the teaching of the disciples 01:09:45.000 |
You are unholy when you live that kind of lazy, undisciplined, 01:09:49.000 |
"I'm not going to do what you say. Don't tell me what to do" kind of life, right? 01:09:59.000 |
I want to share with you a parable that's so famous. 01:10:02.000 |
It's the parable of the talents, but because it's long, 01:10:18.000 |
Matthew 25, there's verse 24 and following it says, 01:10:22.000 |
"And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, 01:10:30.000 |
reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. 01:10:36.000 |
And so I went away and I hid your talent in the ground.'" 01:10:44.000 |
Jesus is telling this parable and you're having this scene. 01:10:47.000 |
You guys know this scene, so I'm not going to rehearse it for you. 01:10:50.000 |
But essentially, you've got other guys who actually invested 01:10:53.000 |
and worked and labored and produced and were productive. 01:11:01.000 |
He could have taken on a risky endeavor and just lost it all, 01:11:06.000 |
And clearly the master is coming in, suddenly and calm, being like, 01:11:17.000 |
That means you didn't fulfill your slavery, your duties." 01:11:22.000 |
And then what ends up happening is this individual, 01:11:25.000 |
he points the finger back and says, "That's because you're messed up. 01:11:32.000 |
And once more he points the finger back and says, "You're a bad man. 01:11:38.000 |
Which is typically the MO of people who are unruly, undisciplined, and lazy. 01:11:45.000 |
If you ever try to rebuke an individual who's given to that kind of heart, 01:11:57.000 |
But the interesting part of the story comes in the next section, verse 26. 01:12:01.000 |
"But his master answered and said to him, 'You wicked!'" 01:12:05.000 |
Underline that because the way God sees it is vile wickedness. 01:12:11.000 |
Not just, "Ah, what are we going to do with you, lazy?" 01:12:17.000 |
So you knew that I would reap where I did not sow 01:12:23.000 |
Then you ought to have put my money in the bank 01:12:26.000 |
and on my arrival I would have received my money back in interest." 01:12:30.000 |
What the narrative is doing is the master is calling his bluff. 01:12:36.000 |
You point the accused-toward-finger at me like I'm the bad guy? 01:12:42.000 |
If you were really afraid of me, actually you would work harder. 01:12:45.000 |
If you knew I was a hard man, you would do even more. 01:12:56.000 |
But essentially, the heart of the lazy person 01:13:10.000 |
"You better clean up your room and you better do your laundry 01:13:17.000 |
I'm going to go out to the market. I'm going to come back. 01:13:23.000 |
What is the psyche and mentality of the kid who's like, 01:13:29.000 |
He plays, he does whatever he wants, and the parent shows up 01:13:37.000 |
And the parent thinks so much that the child thought like, 01:13:40.000 |
"You parents, you stink. You're so mean. I hate you." 01:13:44.000 |
Most of the time, the sin of man and the sin of that child is, 01:13:54.000 |
The belief that upon the arrival of the parents, 01:14:02.000 |
The belief that the command of the parents are so inconsequential 01:14:06.000 |
that it doesn't matter that you can just do whatever the heck you want. 01:14:09.000 |
You can play and that your agenda is priority over his. 01:14:17.000 |
So when I say at the heart of man has to see the weight of God 01:14:29.000 |
When we say in our hearts that the showing up of the Lord, 01:14:35.000 |
again, none of us would ever articulate that verbally. 01:14:39.000 |
We wouldn't explicitly say like, "I don't care what you say." 01:14:49.000 |
What's the definition of that child who's sitting there? 01:14:51.000 |
He knows his parents commanded him certain things to do. 01:14:55.000 |
He knows his parents are going to show up eventually, 01:14:57.000 |
but just decides, "We'll see when we get there." 01:15:03.000 |
That is the falsehood that sometimes lies also in our minds. 01:15:10.000 |
So for the sake of time, we're going to start wrapping things up 01:15:13.000 |
and I'm going to conclude with like a preview of point five 01:15:20.000 |
The preview of point five then is to regularly see God's holiness applied 01:15:28.000 |
as the abiding in a relational presence with God. 01:15:35.000 |
The holiness applied for you then would be to abide in the regular presence of God. 01:15:44.000 |
Because what he's going to say then is at this point, 01:15:47.000 |
the way that we've described God, he's so other he's up here. 01:15:54.000 |
Remember, what God has done is not only is he breaking the false limitations 01:16:00.000 |
of our concept of him, what he's setting up is there is a unique relationship 01:16:08.000 |
that only can be had by God's immediate presence and work in your life. 01:16:16.000 |
And what he's going to do is he's going to set you apart for him. 01:16:21.000 |
The greatest mentality in the greatest world that we could have is to recognize 01:16:26.000 |
that the unique ultimate value, ultimate worthy, ultimate powerful God 01:16:31.000 |
has set you apart for a unique relationship with him. 01:16:39.000 |
It changes everything in terms of how we behave, how we function, 01:16:46.000 |
This unique God desires a unique relationship for a set apart, 01:17:05.000 |
Heavenly Father, Lord, we are so thankful, God, 01:17:14.000 |
that you are showing us the reality of things. 01:17:18.000 |
That we are so accustomed to just operate and live life according to what 01:17:23.000 |
we are accustomed to, what seems normative and acceptable to us. 01:17:30.000 |
But, God, we're now considering what is normative and acceptable to you. 01:17:35.000 |
And we recognize, Father God, that to treat you as everyday material, 01:17:43.000 |
to treat you like the way we treat our course books, 01:17:47.000 |
to treat you like the way we treat simply our acquaintances, 01:17:54.000 |
And I pray, Father God, that our faith would then rise to you, 01:17:58.000 |
that we would conceive you in greater measure as you are. 01:18:02.000 |
And I pray that by doing so, first and foremost, 01:18:09.000 |
You would be honored by the faith in our hearts. 01:18:12.000 |
And I pray, Father God, that as we do so then, 01:18:15.000 |
we would all the more experience the joy of communing with you, 01:18:30.000 |
Why don't we all stand for the response song? 01:19:02.000 |
Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring. 01:19:08.000 |
Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe. 01:19:36.000 |
Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe. 01:19:57.000 |
Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are 01:20:05.000 |
and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love 01:20:37.000 |
Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring. 01:20:44.000 |
Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe. 01:21:12.000 |
Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe. 01:21:33.000 |
Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are 01:21:41.000 |
and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love 01:23:09.000 |
Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are 01:23:17.000 |
and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love 01:24:33.000 |
We thank you for being a God who is transcendent, 01:24:39.000 |
We pray, Lord, that as we reflect on our own personal lives, 01:24:44.000 |
our own personal walks, that we can say that if you are far, 01:24:48.000 |
then it pains us, that if you are close, then we have life. 01:24:53.000 |
We pray, Lord, for this time, for this retreat, 01:24:57.000 |
that we could take time to reflect on our own personal walks of holiness 01:25:02.000 |
and asking ourselves whether or not we view you in a high regard. 01:25:06.000 |
We pray for this time of discussion, that it would be a fruitful time. 01:25:21.000 |
So at this time, what we're going to do is -- 01:25:24.000 |
I was just taking a moment to think about it. 01:25:26.000 |
And what makes sense is that moment of just reflection. 01:25:30.000 |
I called it retreat time because it is good for us to actually feel like 01:25:35.000 |
we're coming away from our normal habits, normal routine, 01:25:39.000 |
and then to take that time and say, "God, I'm approaching you." 01:25:43.000 |
So I think what would be good, Kevin, is we're going to do that time of your 01:25:48.000 |
personal reflection now and then just set your clock at 1045 01:25:53.000 |
and come to the sanctuary front and center here, 01:25:56.000 |
because most likely we'll take our photo around this area. 01:25:59.000 |
And that way we can take our photo, and then when we're all together, 01:26:02.000 |
and then on your way back, take a look at the sign, 01:26:08.000 |
and that way when we're together for the pictures, 01:26:11.000 |
then you can bunch up into your groups and then head over to do your discussion. 01:26:18.000 |
a couple things for practicality-wise is that building over there, 01:26:24.000 |
There's chairs over there and tables, so feel fine over there. 01:26:28.000 |
Over here too, downstairs and upstairs, you can use for meetings, 01:26:33.000 |
So if you're going to do your small groups here, 01:26:35.000 |
just grab some chairs with you and then bring them back when you're done. 01:26:40.000 |
Now I want to give a little bit of instruction for this reflection time. 01:26:44.000 |
The way I want you to use it is I asked a very specific question. 01:26:48.000 |
In your relationship with God, have you recently expressed to Him, 01:27:01.000 |
And in terms of the thing that is so consequential 01:27:04.000 |
that I would either be in fear or greatest joy, it's you. 01:27:12.000 |
because let's say you're one of those individuals 01:27:15.000 |
who just never grew up saying things like, "I love you," 01:27:18.000 |
and it just feels awkward coming out of your mouth, do it. 01:27:24.000 |
maybe your heart's already ripe and ready to say it, 01:27:28.000 |
"I don't want to say things that I don't genuinely feel." 01:27:43.000 |
"What is causing me to feel some kind of hurdle 01:27:51.000 |
that's causing me to have this kind of free relationship, 01:27:58.000 |
if you are already cognizant of the fact that like, 01:28:02.000 |
"Oh, goodness, I've been treating you out of convenience, 01:28:06.000 |
and I've been treating you out of very much like commonplace," 01:28:24.000 |
You can stay here too. It's going to be fine. 01:28:26.000 |
I'm just going to ask the team to play some background music here. 01:28:29.000 |
Again, 1045, meet back here for pictures, okay? 01:28:36.000 |
If you haven't paid yet, you can Venmo BCC BAM Finance, 01:28:46.000 |
And then there's also a lot of snacks back there. 01:28:50.000 |
So you guys can grab any of those that you guys want to eat. 01:28:53.000 |
So yeah, so you guys can go for your personal part-time,