back to index2021-06-27 Do Not Fall Short of the Grace of God
00:00:05.440 |
If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 12. 00:00:10.240 |
And I'm going to be reading from verse 14 to 17. 00:00:19.920 |
Something funny happened right before I came up. 00:00:23.600 |
I was praying and my mom came up to me and she tapped me on my shoulder and then she 00:00:33.680 |
And then she opened up another one and then, so I just ate it. 00:00:46.360 |
And she said, "It's supposed to help you to sleep." 00:00:51.800 |
And I didn't think about it until middle of the worship. 00:00:58.200 |
So I don't think it's supposed to affect me immediately. 00:01:02.600 |
But anyway, that's the love of mom and my obedience. 00:01:08.280 |
If I slur my words as to reason, and I had two of it before I came up. 00:01:17.200 |
So if I make, if it's complete nonsense, it's not the Holy Spirit. 00:01:30.600 |
Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. 00:01:34.800 |
See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing 00:01:39.720 |
up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. 00:01:43.160 |
That there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for 00:01:49.520 |
For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessings, he was rejected, 00:01:54.100 |
for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. 00:01:59.880 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord God, for your grace that sustains us, renews 00:02:09.480 |
I pray that you would give us soberness of mind, heart, ears to listen, and desire and 00:02:15.160 |
will, Father, God, to apply all that you teach. 00:02:23.840 |
If you were to turn the clock back 10, possibly 20 years, I say 10 because some of you guys 00:02:31.560 |
may not have been alive 20 years ago, but some of you guys are older, maybe 20 years, 00:02:37.280 |
If you were able to turn the clock back, what would you tell yourself 10, 20 years younger? 00:02:45.860 |
Maybe financially you'd tell yourself, "Buy some Bitcoin." 00:02:51.800 |
Buy several thousand dollars worth of Bitcoin and you'll become a multimillionaire, right? 00:02:56.360 |
Maybe financially that's something you might be telling yourself. 00:03:00.160 |
Physically, I would tell myself to take care of my knees. 00:03:03.960 |
You know, when you're young, you don't think much about it because you get injured, you 00:03:07.640 |
get right back up, but, you know, like once you mess up your knees, it's over, right? 00:03:15.880 |
Not that I want to run, but the possibility that you can run, right? 00:03:22.480 |
If you ask people who are older, and I thought this was interesting because somebody asked 00:03:26.620 |
me this question, like, "What period of your life would you want to try to like get back 00:03:34.500 |
And without thinking, it's probably in my 30s and the reason why is because that's when 00:03:42.440 |
And so I think most parents, when you think about this, like, yeah, that's the period. 00:03:45.780 |
As hard as that period was, right, financially, church, in every way it was a very difficult 00:03:51.860 |
period, but it's also the period that I have the fondest memory of because the children 00:03:58.300 |
And I know that some of the parents who are, you know, huffing and puffing with small children 00:04:01.700 |
right now, they think, it's like, "Oh, I just can't wait until they are older and you can 00:04:07.840 |
But as soon as they get out of the house, you're like, "Oh, it was great when they were young. 00:04:14.020 |
But our tendency is when time passes, we always look back and our memory and what we value 00:04:19.500 |
at that period of time is very different than, you know, when we're experiencing it. 00:04:23.780 |
So it's good time to time for us to look back and say, "Well, those are things that..." 00:04:28.020 |
And it causes us to see the future differently. 00:04:33.020 |
If you were 30, 40, 50 years, depending on how old you are, on your deathbed, and you 00:04:38.420 |
were to talk to yourself now, who you are now, however old you are, what would you tell 00:04:50.580 |
On your deathbed, what is happening now that if you were able to come back and talk to 00:04:54.820 |
you now on your deathbed, what would you tell yourself? 00:05:00.660 |
Maybe physically, financially, you'll have some other thoughts. 00:05:03.120 |
We don't know what's coming on in the future. 00:05:05.300 |
But I know one thing for sure, if you are a believer, genuine believer, on your deathbed, 00:05:11.660 |
that you're not gonna tell yourself, "Hey, maybe you should have gone to LA and tasted 00:05:21.140 |
I don't think that you're not gonna be regretting that. 00:05:23.260 |
You'll say, "Oh, man, that was a bucket list. 00:05:30.020 |
You know, you may have some of those regrets, but on your deathbed, you're gonna cut through 00:05:33.900 |
all of that clutter, and you're gonna get to what's gonna matter the most, which is 00:05:40.980 |
And most likely, you will say this, "See to it that no one comes short of the grace of 00:05:50.220 |
In one form or another, you'll probably tell yourself this, "Make sure as we are facing 00:05:55.100 |
eternity that no one comes short of the grace of God." 00:06:01.180 |
What we're gonna regret, if we regret anything, is that we didn't live to the fullest in this 00:06:07.220 |
short period of time that we have to love Christ and to love our neighbors as ourselves. 00:06:13.380 |
We're not gonna regret that we didn't put enough money in retirement, not on our deathbed. 00:06:18.060 |
We're not gonna regret that we didn't get to travel as much as we did, or that we didn't 00:06:25.140 |
Those are all things that we have concerns during this life. 00:06:29.200 |
But as we face eternity, none of those things are gonna matter. 00:06:34.040 |
And so, verse 15 is an accumulation of everything that he's been really trying to say to the 00:06:40.420 |
readers of Hebrews, that you're drifting because you've forgotten what it is that you have 00:06:45.220 |
in Christ, to have an eternal perspective that Christ is worth whatever it is that you're 00:06:51.020 |
Christ is worth whatever it is that you're sacrificing, and to make sure that no one 00:06:59.100 |
What does it mean to come short of the grace of God? 00:07:08.040 |
So I wanna take a few minutes this morning to talk about, like, who is he referring to? 00:07:13.840 |
I think there's three different categories of people that needs to take heed of what 00:07:21.140 |
If there's anyone in this room or on the internet who is kind of on the fence, and you're here 00:07:27.520 |
because you're just curious, or maybe your friend has brought you here, and you're coming 00:07:32.980 |
because you think something is there, there's gotta be more to life than this, but you haven't 00:07:45.020 |
Maybe sometime down the line, maybe when the kids are older, maybe when my business is 00:07:48.720 |
more established, maybe when I find my job or finish my school, then I'll give my full 00:07:52.620 |
attention to this, but right now I'm just too busy. 00:07:56.460 |
Well, Mark chapter 8, 36, Jesus addresses this thinking, "For what does it profit a 00:08:02.460 |
man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" 00:08:07.120 |
If eternity is real, if God is real, if what the Bible says is real, there is nothing more 00:08:12.760 |
important for every human being to not only make a decision of what this is, but do our 00:08:24.400 |
If Christ is real, then everything that we do is a preparation for eternity. 00:08:31.420 |
It doesn't matter, even if you were successful in your wildest dream, that you bought $100,000 00:08:38.660 |
worth of Bitcoin 15 years ago, and now you're a multi, multimillionaire, as you face eternity, 00:08:47.760 |
Maybe if you're young, your fantasy is to become a professional baseball player or an 00:08:54.020 |
Even if your most wildest dreams came true, as we face eternity, it will mean absolutely 00:09:02.500 |
If it is not true, there is no bigger lie that has been told in human history. 00:09:10.100 |
Jesus didn't just say he's a good moral teacher, gave us a good example of how we ought to 00:09:15.060 |
live to make mankind a better place during this lifetime. 00:09:27.520 |
He resurrected from the dead, and his followers gave their life telling this lie, if it's 00:09:35.740 |
Not tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people have forfeited the benefit 00:09:42.140 |
of this world in order to proclaim this truth. 00:09:46.760 |
So there is no lie that has done more damage to mankind than this lie if this is not true. 00:09:56.600 |
If he is God, that means everything in this world is temporary, and all of it should be 00:10:07.580 |
Or you deny him, these bunch of crazy people, that this is probably one of the worst things 00:10:22.820 |
The Bible says in Hebrews 9, 27, "Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and 00:10:36.260 |
I've never had a conversation with a non-Christian where we said, "Inasmuch as it is appointed 00:10:40.580 |
for all men to die once," and somebody said, "No, not all men, some men, most men." 00:10:47.460 |
I've never had that discussion because it's not debated. 00:10:51.600 |
We all know whether you are a multimillionaire or whether you are poor and homeless, we all 00:11:11.440 |
But if eternity is real, shouldn't that be the greatest question that we wrestle with? 00:11:16.720 |
Even more than Bitcoin, how much money we have in retirement, even more than any other 00:11:21.580 |
question that we wrestle with, shouldn't that be the greatest question? 00:11:26.460 |
The Bible says, "Inasmuch as it is appointed for all men to die once, after this will come 00:11:33.200 |
To come into the judgment seat of Christ simply because we didn't have time, simply because 00:11:43.780 |
What a tragedy to come into judgment when the Word of God says that we will have to 00:11:49.180 |
give account for every careless word, every sinful thought, to stand before a holy judge, 00:11:55.420 |
everything that you and I think that we got away with because the government didn't catch 00:12:05.140 |
But a holy God who sees all things, knows all things, who is all powerful, he said, 00:12:08.100 |
"We're going to stand before this holy judge," and he said, "We're going to have to give 00:12:11.060 |
account for every sin, every lustful thought." 00:12:15.820 |
To go into eternity to meet this holy God simply because we were too busy. 00:12:22.980 |
There's no greater question that a non-Christian should be asking and to be affirmed. 00:12:28.440 |
This is true, and to give my life to make him my king, or this is the biggest lie that's 00:12:37.880 |
been ever told, but to be in the middle is not safe. 00:12:42.260 |
See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God. 00:12:44.680 |
The second group of people that this is a warning and encouragement to is professing 00:12:48.860 |
believers but maybe in danger of drifting into damnation themselves. 00:12:58.340 |
These are people that probably are not Christians. 00:13:01.740 |
We live in a post-Christian culture where people are born into Christianity, or you 00:13:11.040 |
If you are a Christian, they're in one of these campus ministries, it's hard not to 00:13:22.420 |
You get persecuted for not coming to Bible study. 00:13:25.060 |
You get persecuted for not joining small group. 00:13:35.420 |
You have to pick up your cross, almost not to be a Christian. 00:13:40.280 |
So in a post-Christian culture with so much pressure, during that period, now that begins 00:13:45.960 |
to die down after you graduate, but during college where there's so much pressure, especially 00:13:50.200 |
if you grew up in the church from the home, from your friends, from your environment, 00:13:54.280 |
and so you end up just kind of going and then not really giving it serious thought. 00:14:05.580 |
You know the doctrines to profess, but it was always superficially from a distance in 00:14:10.520 |
order to be accepted by whatever church or whatever group that you belong to. 00:14:16.660 |
You know what the sociologists call that contagion norm theory. 00:14:20.260 |
Contagion norm theory is anything that you do repetitively, you become blind to. 00:14:26.820 |
That's why when we're young, we're blind to the love of parents because they just do it 00:14:33.680 |
And then when your friends do it, it's like, "Oh my gosh, he's the best friend in the world," 00:14:40.200 |
And then you get a little bit older, then the things that you value the most, sometimes 00:14:49.340 |
And then you realize, "Wow, that had the biggest impact in my life." 00:14:53.520 |
And again, that's what they call the contagion norm theory. 00:14:56.360 |
If you are an individual who grew up in the church and just kind of affiliated yourself 00:15:03.320 |
with Christianity, so you came and you did all of that, but you've become blind to what 00:15:10.540 |
You just enculturated yourself to Christianity, but you're not really a follower of Christ. 00:15:18.520 |
It's a warning to those people who just kind of accepted superficially. 00:15:23.840 |
And then when the test came and when it became difficult, when the persecution to become 00:15:28.380 |
Christian starts to die out, and then the real persecution to bring you away from Christ, 00:15:33.680 |
all of a sudden, now the tide is going the other way. 00:15:38.040 |
It's a warning to them, again, not to drift, not to neglect. 00:15:41.560 |
In Matthew 7, 21 to 23, it says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the 00:15:47.840 |
But he who does the will of my Father, who is in heaven, will enter." 00:15:52.720 |
Not everybody who professes and says the right things are genuine Christians. 00:15:57.200 |
Verse 22, "Many will say to me on that day," many, not a few, "Many will say to me on that 00:16:03.120 |
day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?'" 00:16:07.720 |
Even prophesying is not evidence of genuine faith. 00:16:22.880 |
They are prophesying, casting out demons, performing miracles, calling him Lord, Lord, 00:16:30.160 |
in verse 23, "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. 00:16:35.520 |
Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'" 00:16:39.760 |
I remember the first time I came across this text as a young Christian, and it shook me 00:16:51.840 |
How do I know that my faith is just cultural? 00:16:56.400 |
I came from a Christian home, surrounded by Christians. 00:16:59.840 |
I was part of a campus ministry, went to a Christian school. 00:17:04.400 |
And I wanted to make sure that this was not me. 00:17:06.600 |
And that was part of the motivation behind why I wanted to pursue. 00:17:12.280 |
How can I believe that this Bible is really God's inerrant word, simply because somebody 00:17:21.040 |
How do I know I'm not a Christian simply because I'm surrounded by other Christians? 00:17:27.320 |
Would I follow Christ, even if I was the only one left? 00:17:31.200 |
If I was living in Iran, would I be a Christian? 00:17:34.000 |
If I was living in the villages in India, where they're hostile toward Christianity, 00:17:40.520 |
And so I wrestled, and that's part of the reason why I pursued and I asked questions. 00:17:48.240 |
When he says, "See to it no one comes short of the grace of God," he's referring also 00:17:52.360 |
to people who are professing Christians, but the faith that they have is just being around 00:18:02.480 |
They grew up, and that's the right thing to say. 00:18:07.280 |
Sometimes just being around and hearing the gospel and hearing the word of God preached, 00:18:11.400 |
and again, being so much around that we become blind. 00:18:16.360 |
You know, recently I've been trying to exercise, so we bought a bike, and I've been trying 00:18:23.240 |
And I've lived in the same street, right, for the last maybe about 12, 13 years on a 00:18:28.400 |
cul-de-sac, and right behind us we have this nice trail that people walk on and bike along. 00:18:35.560 |
For the first 10 years, I didn't think anything about it, because nobody's on that trail, 00:18:42.880 |
And then the pandemic hit, and all of a sudden there's so much noise back there, it's annoying, 00:18:47.640 |
because there's a little hill, and kids go skateboarding there. 00:18:51.280 |
So I hear them, you know, with music on, and they're playing, and I want to be one of those 00:19:00.360 |
So they started using that, and then now, because I started to bike and we started to 00:19:07.560 |
But it was there all along, all along, it was right behind us, but because we weren't 00:19:12.960 |
Now I'm thinking, like, we have a wall, you know, between that trail and our house, so 00:19:17.520 |
like I'm thinking of ways to knock the wall down without HOA knowing about it, right? 00:19:23.560 |
All along, we've been there for over 10, 12 years, you know? 00:19:27.440 |
And all I was, it's like, there's a train track right there, just annoyed with the train 00:19:31.720 |
track, but not realizing there's this great trail right behind the house. 00:19:37.000 |
There are so many people who are in the church, around the gospel, preaching, small groups, 00:19:44.240 |
mission work, and being around all of this all your life, and never fully coming to Christ. 00:19:55.120 |
Those people will miss and come short of the grace of God if they do not stop and ask themselves, 00:20:01.680 |
"Am I a cultural Christian, or do I really believe this Jesus?" 00:20:11.880 |
The author says in Hebrews 6, 4-8, this is a passage that we looked at many months ago, 00:20:17.360 |
and he's referring to these very people, these cultural Christians. 00:20:23.400 |
He says, "For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the 00:20:27.560 |
heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good 00:20:33.240 |
word of God, and the powers of the age to come." 00:20:36.720 |
Now if you just look at verse 4 and 5, he's saying, "I mean, clearly this must be a Christian." 00:20:44.280 |
He's not talking about a Christian, he's talking about somebody who has understood. 00:20:53.120 |
I mean, he's been around the church, the benefit of being in a covenant community, partakers 00:21:01.020 |
They had first row seats of the work of the Holy Spirit with other people, hearing testimonies, 00:21:06.160 |
baptism, going out to summer mission trips, and he was around all of that. 00:21:11.640 |
And then yet, in verse 6, "And then they have fallen away. 00:21:16.960 |
It is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucified to themselves the 00:21:24.040 |
Now, some people have interpreted this as saying, like, it seems like they're Christian, 00:21:28.200 |
and if they fall, God won't allow them to repent again. 00:21:31.120 |
Now, you have to make sure that Scripture has to interpret Scripture. 00:21:35.840 |
The Bible clearly says that our salvation is a gift that God has given to us freely. 00:21:44.400 |
So if it's a free gift, we didn't earn it, so we can't lose it. 00:21:51.960 |
He's talking about an individual who's in the church, who's been fed, and had every 00:21:59.880 |
That you were so close, you had all the benefits that any human being could possibly have to 00:22:05.440 |
come to Christ, and you choose to drift away to the world. 00:22:10.600 |
So when he says "fallen away," he's not talking about somebody who is Christian and 00:22:15.600 |
He's talking about somebody who's so near and chooses to go the other path. 00:22:18.680 |
And when he says "there is no repentance," he's talking about if you do not receive the 00:22:28.200 |
There isn't two, three, four different ways to get to God. 00:22:33.900 |
And so if you drift away from that, if you drift away from the grace of God, there is 00:22:40.560 |
And so that's what he means in verse 7, "For the ground that drinks the rain, which often 00:22:46.600 |
falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it has also been tilled, 00:22:54.200 |
In other words, the other fruits that actually come to Christ, they receive the feeding, 00:23:00.440 |
the teaching, the church, and then they bear fruit. 00:23:04.520 |
But then in verse 8, "But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to 00:23:10.920 |
He's talking about an individual who's in the church, knows the vocabulary, knows the 00:23:16.120 |
culture, meets the minimum standard, and yet with all their heart pursuing the world. 00:23:24.600 |
He's giving warning to them that they will miss the grace of God, being so close and 00:23:34.160 |
In fact, you know, some people say, "You know, Pastor Peter, why do you speak so much about 00:23:40.640 |
Because I think where you and I are, this is the greatest problem. 00:23:44.700 |
My concern, I am more concerned about people who hear the gospel, who are in the church, 00:23:54.800 |
Every once in a while I'll meet somebody who gets hostile after you preach the gospel. 00:23:59.400 |
How can you be so arrogant to think that Jesus is the only way? 00:24:04.000 |
It's ridiculous that you would think that the Son of God had come and He forgave us 00:24:09.320 |
of our sins, He was resurrected, and that if we don't believe Him that we're going 00:24:17.080 |
To me that makes sense because that's an unbeliever. 00:24:19.080 |
That's a reasonable response from an unbeliever because what I said was very offensive. 00:24:25.560 |
In fact, if you hear Jesus preaching, either they loved Him or hated Him. 00:24:33.040 |
There's very few people who are just like, "Yeah, yeah, you know, I think He kind of 00:24:41.280 |
My biggest concern are people who are in the church who may have deceived themselves to 00:24:49.960 |
I've heard people say in the past years that the greatest mistake that a preacher can make 00:24:57.800 |
is to cause a genuine child of God to question God's love for them. 00:25:03.360 |
So therefore, our preaching has to be affirming. 00:25:06.920 |
That we need to constantly remind people God loves you. 00:25:12.760 |
So it is the greatest tragedy that someone would come to church and leave questioning 00:25:19.680 |
Now there is some truth to that, but I don't think that that's the greatest tragedy. 00:25:24.800 |
The greatest tragedy is to have people who are in the church headed toward eternal damnation 00:25:31.040 |
and constantly giving them false assurance that they're okay. 00:25:37.320 |
An individual who is shaken of maybe a genuine believer in Christ, maybe wrestling with the 00:25:42.160 |
love of Christ, will have an uncomfortable path to eternity. 00:25:47.440 |
So when they die, they're going to look back and say, "You know what? 00:25:56.840 |
And an individual who has falsely believed that he is a believer in Christ may have had 00:26:12.920 |
I think you will all agree with me that the greatest tragedy, especially in our generation 00:26:18.240 |
where you and I live, is that many who profess to be Christians will meet Christ in his judgment 00:26:33.680 |
Around it, talked about it, memorized scripture, recited it to one another, but never really 00:26:42.440 |
That's why I think one of the greatest mistakes, if you want to call it a mistake, that we've 00:26:51.080 |
seen in our generation is the seeker-friendly movement. 00:27:04.620 |
But the problem is we're trying to make the seekers comfortable, non-Christians comfortable 00:27:10.240 |
with our music, with our culture, with the way we talk, the way we bring them to church. 00:27:18.760 |
We don't want them to have a bumpy ride once they come in. 00:27:23.680 |
If someone is genuinely seeking God, you know what they need more than anything else? 00:27:31.240 |
Because the Bible says, "My sheep will hear my voice and follow me." 00:27:36.680 |
They're not going to follow Christ because you're nice. 00:27:39.720 |
They're not going to follow Christ because the community here is good. 00:27:44.440 |
They're not going to follow Christ because they like the music. 00:27:47.520 |
They're not going to follow Christ because the pastor is funny. 00:27:51.040 |
They're going to follow Christ because they hear the truth. 00:28:04.880 |
There's no amount of money, no amount of talent, no amount of experience can get somebody 00:28:09.160 |
who is condemned for eternity to change their mind and say, "I'm going to follow Christ 00:28:16.200 |
Because this pastor is interesting to listen to." 00:28:19.000 |
The only power to save a non-Christian is the voice of Christ. 00:28:23.800 |
And so the greatest challenge, calling for every church is to make that clear, even if 00:28:33.600 |
To build a church filled with nominal Christians who feel safe on the way to eternal damnation 00:28:46.280 |
There's no different than being on the sinking ship, the Titanic, and your biggest concern 00:28:51.800 |
is not that they're going to die, but your biggest concern is to not to disturb their 00:28:58.920 |
If their peace is not disturbed, how will they know that they're in danger? 00:29:03.680 |
You know, I hear people every once in a while say, "Who am I to judge? 00:29:08.800 |
If they say, if you think, "I want to be gracious. 00:29:15.440 |
Is it loving to tell somebody that you believe is headed to hell that, "I don't want you 00:29:24.060 |
If you really believe that damnation is coming, to have them feel comfortable near you, is 00:29:33.120 |
Now it doesn't mean that we need to be jerks. 00:29:36.760 |
It doesn't mean that we need to be offensive for no reason. 00:29:43.120 |
If we actually love them, we have to make sure that our greatest goal is that they come 00:29:53.480 |
That make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God. 00:29:58.940 |
The third group are genuine believers who have become fatigued and tired. 00:30:04.840 |
And you may be asking yourself, "Is this really worth it?" 00:30:08.680 |
And at time to time, even genuine Christians will ask that question. 00:30:11.800 |
And then that's what he was referring to, someone who is drooping hands and weak knees 00:30:17.160 |
to make straight path for the Lord, to persevere. 00:30:21.760 |
First Corinthians 15.58, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable." 00:30:32.620 |
Always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the 00:30:43.160 |
When we are fatigued and we're tired, our first inclination is, "I want to take a break. 00:30:48.880 |
I want to change the circumstance, change the group, change this. 00:30:56.600 |
I've rarely found somebody who said, "I need to take a break." 00:31:00.320 |
And then after the break, they came back more rejuvenated. 00:31:08.600 |
I'm just going to come to church and do nothing." 00:31:11.300 |
And at the year end of that, they come back and say, "I'm ready. 00:31:17.900 |
Most of the times at the end of the year, they're more tired. 00:31:30.200 |
They were just tired and they just wanted to just be on their own. 00:31:36.080 |
For the time being, I'm going to take a break." 00:31:38.120 |
You notice here the encouragement is to continue, to be steadfast, to be immovable, always abounding 00:31:50.680 |
When I'm tired, usually I'm tired not because I had a long day. 00:31:58.740 |
Most of us feel tired because we haven't moved enough. 00:32:09.700 |
And I think most people who feel tired may be tired for that reason. 00:32:18.800 |
And the answer is resounding emphatically, "Yes." 00:32:26.200 |
The fatigue comes from, for most of us, is not because we've been working so hard, but 00:32:30.160 |
it's because we've forgotten that Christ is worth it. 00:32:38.960 |
Christ is better than anything that you're tempted by. 00:32:44.680 |
Christ is better than anything that this world can offer you. 00:32:48.240 |
And when we can say emphatically, "Yes, he is better than all of that," all of a sudden 00:32:52.600 |
we gain strength, energy to persevere and to continue. 00:33:04.520 |
Christ is worth whatever we wrestle with, because in the end, the reward is in Christ. 00:33:11.480 |
Have we forgotten what it is that we profess? 00:33:23.560 |
Think about how often we are so frustrated because we didn't get the job we wanted or 00:33:28.560 |
somebody said something to us that we didn't like. 00:33:30.520 |
It's how fixated we are on that, and then we easily forget God sent his only begotten 00:33:37.680 |
Son to take our place so that we would have eternity, and then to call him our Abba Father. 00:33:52.160 |
When that becomes contagion norm, that's when fatigue comes in. 00:34:00.880 |
I told you our family immigrated to the United States in 1975. 00:34:07.840 |
Korea was a third world country at that time. 00:34:21.360 |
In fact, I think our family was probably better off than most people because my grandfather 00:34:28.440 |
But I don't remember that many times just eating candy. 00:34:33.200 |
The way that my mom would motivate me to take medicine was she would put sugar in water. 00:34:42.800 |
She would say, "Oh, if you eat this medicine, I'll give you some sugar water." 00:34:47.920 |
Most of you guys, that sounds ridiculous, but that's what we ate. 00:34:52.480 |
When we came to the United States, our cousin who was born and raised in the United States 00:34:57.400 |
said, "Hey, what are you going to do for Halloween?" 00:34:59.400 |
He said, "This is a day where you go and knock on strangers' doors and they give you candy." 00:35:12.320 |
Some of you guys probably know exactly what I'm talking about, but imagine hearing that 00:35:15.980 |
for the first time from the first seven, eight years of my life. 00:35:20.720 |
That's just like me telling you, go to the neighbor, just any door down the street, they're 00:35:32.840 |
Once a year, just knock on strangers' door and they're going to have a pile of money 00:35:38.040 |
ready for you and just going to give it to you." 00:35:47.800 |
Me and Phillip went because my older brother, I don't think he believed it. 00:35:53.040 |
So we went and I said, "Oh, before you go, there is a thing you had to do. 00:36:01.720 |
I said, "We didn't have anything, so we weren't prepared." 00:36:03.720 |
And it was already Halloween, so we drew a face on a paper bag and put two holes in it. 00:36:20.000 |
So we would be walking to the door and I would put the hat on and then, you know, we didn't 00:36:23.560 |
speak English, so we just knocked on the door and just looked at them. 00:36:27.320 |
And they would put candy in the bag and then said, "They gave us candy." 00:36:31.440 |
Because we only had one bag, so now it's Phillip's turn. 00:36:35.200 |
He would go back and knock on the door and say, "Hey, weren't you the same kid?" 00:36:38.120 |
I said, "No, it's the other guy with the paper bag." 00:36:41.520 |
So we came home that night, probably about hour and a half, two hours of knocking on 00:36:45.080 |
the door, and I remember the bag of candy that we poured onto the dining room table. 00:36:57.120 |
This is why everybody wants to come to the United States. 00:37:01.680 |
To this day, if you ask me what's my favorite childhood memory, it was that day. 00:37:15.080 |
You know, now you offer a lollipop to kids, it's like, "Nah." 00:37:25.720 |
Even this simple offering of candy, I couldn't believe it. 00:37:39.240 |
Think about what it is that you and I have in Christ. 00:37:43.160 |
We sing these songs, we memorize scripture, we go out evangelizing, we sing all this stuff, 00:38:01.040 |
Because we have forgotten what it is that we have in Christ. 00:38:04.960 |
The scripture says He has given us everything that we need for a life of godliness in the 00:38:12.520 |
If He gave all things, if He was willing to give His only begotten Son, how will He not, 00:38:21.160 |
You think that He doesn't have any power to prevent that suffering in your life? 00:38:24.880 |
If He didn't think that that was what's necessary for you? 00:38:34.840 |
And so the encouragement to not to miss the grace of God to the believers is to persevere, 00:38:40.520 |
continue, be immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. 00:38:45.720 |
He says, "So that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled." 00:38:51.400 |
The root of bitterness, the way that you and I typically understand it is like not being 00:38:56.920 |
able to let go or forgive of somebody, and then you have bitterness and it grows up to 00:39:06.360 |
It's not a false way to understand it, but again, we need to understand biblical terms. 00:39:11.340 |
In the biblical language, what do they mean by that? 00:39:13.480 |
Well that term, bitter roots, comes from Deuteronomy 29, 18-19. 00:39:18.840 |
So if you look at that, as Israel is getting ready to get into the promised land, God warns 00:39:24.900 |
the nation of Israel, and this is what He says, that there will not be among you a man 00:39:30.240 |
or a woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God. 00:39:35.920 |
So again, this bitter root ultimately has to do with relationship with God more than 00:39:42.960 |
To go and to serve gods of those nations, not to backslide, that there will not be among 00:39:48.720 |
you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. 00:39:53.500 |
In our relationship with God, everything that I've taught you, instead of continuing to 00:39:58.640 |
worship me, that you allow these bitter roots, meaning that this thing that's going to grow 00:40:05.020 |
up to become useless fruit, that you do not allow this to happen. 00:40:09.600 |
And then verse 19, He says, "It shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that if 00:40:15.360 |
you turn away from him, that he will boast, saying, 'I have peace, though I walk in the 00:40:22.760 |
stubbornness of my heart, in order to destroy the watered land with the dry.'" 00:40:31.120 |
He's warned the nation of Israel, after all the instructions, all the commandments, all 00:40:35.200 |
the warnings that have been given to you, and then you enter the promised land and you 00:40:38.840 |
drift to where everybody else is and you begin to worship idols. 00:40:45.000 |
And then you say, after all the warnings have been given, you say, "I'm good. 00:40:48.920 |
I'm at peace because nobody's trying to cut my throat. 00:40:55.600 |
So because the curse and the judgment is not today, He's like, "I'm at peace. 00:41:02.000 |
So what He is saying is that you are watering this root. 00:41:09.680 |
And then the more you pay attention, the more you allow this to happen, what's going to 00:41:18.480 |
So what He means by, if you are not right with Christ, if you're a nominal Christian, 00:41:25.400 |
you've never fully surrendered your life to Christ, watering that life is only going to 00:41:37.000 |
To let no root of bitterness spring up that causes trouble. 00:41:42.580 |
So a lukewarm life, a half-hearted pursuit, a nominal Christianity that has not surrendered 00:41:49.680 |
to Christ, the fruit that it will bear is going to be bitterness. 00:41:56.280 |
The reasons why churches split is because the fruit of bitterness, because they cultivated 00:42:03.440 |
The reason why there's turmoil, the reason why so many pastors are falling now is because 00:42:11.620 |
Because He was talented, He was gifted, the church was growing, He was articulate. 00:42:16.900 |
And so we've allowed things that we shouldn't allow in the church, and the fruit that's 00:42:22.460 |
coming out of that is because the root of bitterness was cultivated in the church. 00:42:29.820 |
More than our horizontal relationship, He's talking about the vertical relationship. 00:42:35.580 |
Because without peace with God, you can't have peace with mankind. 00:42:42.820 |
Hebrews 2.3, "How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" 00:42:51.640 |
The greatest concern in our generation where you and I live are not people who've heard 00:42:56.500 |
the gospel and were hostile and hated us, because they knowingly rejected the gospel. 00:43:04.060 |
I think the greatest tragedy are people who are going to stand in front of the judgment 00:43:07.780 |
seat simply because they neglected such a great salvation. 00:43:16.940 |
They postponed it till later, and they just drifted into the world. 00:43:23.040 |
The temptation when we're young is to think that we are billionaires with our time. 00:43:31.980 |
When we're young, we know we're not going to live forever, but we live like we're going 00:43:38.100 |
If you're a billionaire, you're not going to sweat it if you get in a car accident, 00:43:41.460 |
or you lose $10,000, because you're a billionaire. 00:43:48.100 |
You spend money freely because you have all this reserve in the bank account. 00:43:52.460 |
When we're young, our temptation is to think you can spend 10 hours watching Netflix, and 00:43:59.980 |
watching three, four hours of video games every single day, because you have all the 00:44:07.940 |
There's a reason why the Bible says to teach us to number our days. 00:44:12.300 |
Ask anybody who's a bit older how quickly time passes. 00:44:24.540 |
I remember the first time, because we love basketball so much when we're young. 00:44:39.260 |
What is a committed Christian going to do outside of ... We play basketball. 00:44:45.180 |
I remember playing basketball, and I reached a certain age. 00:44:58.660 |
I remember one day, in my mind, I went around him, but physically, I went right through 00:45:15.540 |
I was casually running there, because I knew I caught this 1,000 times. 00:45:20.500 |
I missed it by 20 feet, because my legs were going to get me there. 00:45:42.740 |
The danger is, when you're young, you don't see time as something valuable. 00:45:48.380 |
Instead of investing your time, you just spend your time. 00:45:53.780 |
Next thing you know, 10, 20, 30, 40 years go by, and then you're trying to tell your 00:46:09.620 |
At your deathbed, what would you tell yourself? 00:46:13.260 |
When you're in your 30s and 40s, you're so busy taking care of kids. 00:46:21.060 |
Once they go to school, I would have some free time." 00:46:26.660 |
That's when the rat race really is full force. 00:46:32.540 |
It's interesting that, whenever we compare morality, we always compare with people who 00:46:39.860 |
It's like, "Yeah, Ian, I know I cheat, but at least I didn't kill anybody." 00:46:46.460 |
Whenever we compare morality, we always choose somebody who's worse than us. 00:46:51.620 |
I know I'm not the best Christian, but at least I go to church." 00:46:58.260 |
For whatever reason, when it comes to money, we always compare with people above us. 00:47:04.020 |
We're just like, "Man, I have more than them." 00:47:06.340 |
Usually, it's like, "I don't have as much as that guy." 00:47:11.260 |
For morality, we compare with people worse than us because it makes us feel better. 00:47:16.620 |
When it comes to finances, we're always comparing with people who have more than us. 00:47:20.100 |
Even if we're filthy rich, we never feel rich. 00:47:23.620 |
That's a tendency during that period of 30, 40, where we use the excuse of, "Well, it's 00:47:32.740 |
You invest all that time pursuing worldly things, convinced that it's for godliness. 00:47:54.500 |
Christian and non-Christian use the same reasoning to pursue the world. 00:47:59.060 |
Then, when you get older, the temptation is, "I'm old now. 00:48:10.020 |
Those are for kids, college kids, passionately. 00:48:15.940 |
Passionately making disciples, going on missions. 00:48:22.860 |
So we have a tendency to kind of have a retired mindset, and then just enjoy life, talk about 00:48:30.900 |
Esther always says my favorite word is "used to." 00:48:37.060 |
That's the temptation when we get older, as if the race is already over, and we're just 00:48:45.060 |
In every stage of life, our enemy plants seeds in our heads, to ultimately to do what? 00:48:55.260 |
To stop passionately pursuing this grace of God. 00:49:00.380 |
That's what he means when he says, "Let no one fall short of the grace of God." 00:49:05.740 |
This is a command not to treat the grace of God lightly. 00:49:10.020 |
Take seriously that this period of time that we have, in light of eternity, there's nothing 00:49:16.620 |
more important that we must do than to give all our attention for God's glory. 00:49:27.800 |
That those who do not know Christ may hear the voice of God, and they also would come. 00:49:32.680 |
Those who have given themselves to false Christianity in the church, that they would be waken up 00:49:37.380 |
from their slumber, and to meet the God of life. 00:49:43.180 |
Those of you who are fatigued, to persevere, to re-examine the glory that opened your eyes, 00:49:51.940 |
That we would continue to strive, wherever we are, to see Christ, and to Christ alone. 00:49:58.580 |
Fix your eyes upon Christ, the author and the perfecter of our faith. 00:50:07.860 |
Again, as our worship team comes, I want to invite you to take some time to pray, examine, 00:50:15.900 |
and if you are an unbeliever, at least ask and seek. 00:50:23.180 |
Maybe at the end of this, you might come to the conclusion that this is the biggest lie. 00:50:31.620 |
And if all this is true, that God is offering salvation to you, and all he asks is that 00:50:38.580 |
you recognize that you have fallen, that you are in desperate need of his forgiveness. 00:50:45.720 |
To confess your sins, ask God for forgiveness, receive this grace. 00:50:53.020 |
Those of you who are nominal Christians, and you committed, you committed to have the best 00:51:00.520 |
of this world, and to the best of God, knowing full well the Bible says it is impossible. 00:51:09.420 |
You cannot serve mammon and God at the same time. 00:51:14.060 |
To take a step back, examine, where is my faith, what do I believe? 00:51:21.540 |
And those of you who are fatigued, have you forgotten what it is that you have in Christ? 00:51:26.700 |
When was the last time you truly celebrated your salvation, the son of God? 00:51:31.900 |
When was the last time you closed your eyes just to thank God for what he's done already? 00:51:38.500 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.