back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 5/2/2021
Chapters
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16:24 Announcements
16:51 Mother's Day Luncheon
17:54 First Annual Break Golf Tournament Fundraiser
18:45 Family Ministry
39:18 Greatest Enemy of Hunger for God
42:19 Corinthians 6 12
45:50 Is It Sinful
00:16:20.920 |
And to those of you who are also online as well, 00:16:29.920 |
All right, I'm just going to have to wing it. 00:16:35.940 |
First of all, Mother's Day is coming up next Sunday. 00:16:47.920 |
or you want to make an announcement next Sunday, 00:16:49.920 |
you can just show up to the Mother's Day lunch. 00:16:52.920 |
And it's going to be held at the new building 00:17:29.920 |
So the fathers will be there watching the kids 00:17:36.900 |
And if you are planning to bring your mom to this, 00:17:47.900 |
So please sign up for that as soon as you can. 00:17:54.900 |
Our first annual Marine Golf Tournament fundraiser 00:18:12.900 |
International Mission Fund for the Southern Baptist. 00:18:37.900 |
and they'll give you more information on that, okay? 00:18:44.900 |
the family ministry led by Pastor Peter Chung 00:19:19.880 |
All right, we'll give you a minute to respond 00:19:23.880 |
Again, the physical offering box is in the back. 00:19:30.900 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your blessing 00:19:32.880 |
and another week of your grace that sustains us 00:19:40.880 |
And I pray that as we continue to study through your word 00:19:43.880 |
that you would cause our hearts to be surrendered to you 00:19:46.880 |
and that whatever it is that we so easily get entangled in, 00:19:52.880 |
that no matter what we've brought into this room, 00:19:54.880 |
that you would cause us to have a greater vision of Christ. 00:19:57.880 |
And we pray, Father, that as we give our offering, 00:19:59.900 |
may it be multiplied for your use and your glory. 00:29:40.820 |
If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 12, 00:29:55.820 |
"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses 00:29:58.820 |
surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance 00:30:04.820 |
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. 00:30:08.820 |
Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, 00:30:11.820 |
who for the joy set before him endured the cross, 00:30:14.820 |
despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of Jesus, 00:30:20.800 |
For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners 00:30:23.800 |
against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." 00:30:40.800 |
that they may all be surrendered to your word. 00:30:48.800 |
that we may go forth and that your word would not come back 00:30:51.780 |
until it has accomplished the purpose you have ordained it. 00:30:54.780 |
And so we ask for your guidance in Jesus' name we pray, amen. 00:30:58.780 |
All right, so this is part two of what we started last week 00:31:05.780 |
the main imperative in this text is to run with endurance. 00:31:13.780 |
And those are all supporting ideas of the main idea 00:31:18.780 |
So the question I want to start with you this morning is, 00:31:25.780 |
And I'm not talking about what race did you sign up for. 00:31:34.780 |
what do we call it, what does the world call it? 00:31:42.780 |
And there's a reason why they call it a rat race, right? 00:31:45.800 |
Because everybody is in some kind of a race, right? 00:31:49.780 |
Competing, trying to get ahead, trying to be somebody. 00:31:54.780 |
We work hard to get promotions and, you know, 00:31:56.780 |
we invest money so that we can be at the next level. 00:31:59.780 |
And so every one of us is competing in some way. 00:32:05.780 |
but are we in the race that the rest of the world is in 00:32:08.780 |
or are we in the race that has been set before us, right? 00:32:13.800 |
So the rat race is basically constantly living 00:32:17.780 |
your primary goal is to graduate and get a job. 00:32:19.780 |
If you got a job, your primary goal is to make sure 00:32:26.780 |
your primary goal next one is to find somebody to settle down. 00:32:29.780 |
And if you're married, your primary goal is to have children 00:32:36.780 |
your primary goal is to have enough money in retirement 00:32:50.780 |
Nevertheless, it is a race that we're constantly concerned about 00:32:53.780 |
and each stage of our life has some other thing 00:33:00.780 |
an average 30-year-old has, an average 40-year-old has. 00:33:12.780 |
But the race that he has set before us is a race, 00:33:15.780 |
he says, that we ought to run with endurance. 00:33:17.780 |
And that's why we have 11 chapters of him telling us 00:33:20.780 |
that this is the right race that you need to go to. 00:33:23.780 |
And then so chapter 12 and 13 is reminding us 00:33:28.780 |
that in considering, in considering knowing who Jesus is, 00:33:32.780 |
if you confess that Jesus Christ is truly worthy 00:33:40.780 |
So basically what he's saying in these three verses 00:33:51.780 |
about that man who ran the race in Mexico, Marathon, 00:34:00.780 |
for over 13 miles in order to finish this race?" 00:34:03.780 |
And again, he said, "My country did not send me 00:34:18.780 |
you know, most of us have started the race at some point, 00:34:27.780 |
at some point you met Christ, your eyes were opened 00:34:31.780 |
and you began this race, but the challenge now is 00:34:34.800 |
that these listeners, these recipients of this letter, 00:34:45.780 |
and realized, "I don't know if I want to follow Christ." 00:34:52.780 |
and realized, "I don't know if I believe in these doctrines." 00:34:56.780 |
The pressures of life, the concerns for this world, 00:35:04.780 |
caused them to get distracted and begin to ignore 00:35:10.780 |
and they began to drift back into the rat race. 00:35:14.780 |
This is not a danger of just a few Christians. 00:35:23.780 |
We talked about last week when he challenged us 00:35:27.780 |
that we ought to keep our eyes on the race that we're in. 00:35:32.780 |
That we may run this race to finish this race 00:35:35.780 |
and then to look back and see the cloud of witnesses 00:35:38.780 |
that have gone before us who have finished the race as well, 00:35:41.780 |
that we would see them as examples and inspiration 00:35:46.780 |
Today we want to look at verse 1 at the end of it 00:35:49.780 |
when he says, "Let us lay aside every encumbrance and sin 00:35:59.800 |
and I've been mentioning, and if you've been following the news, 00:36:02.780 |
the persecution against Christians has been rising rapidly 00:36:10.780 |
we've been hearing more and more rumors of our government 00:36:13.780 |
targeting Christians that if you believe in biblical Christianity, 00:36:28.800 |
We're going to take away the ability to be able to do church, 00:36:37.780 |
that the government desires, we're going to come after you. 00:36:46.780 |
But in comparison to what's going on around the world, 00:36:49.780 |
I mean, we're still living in comfort and safety. 00:37:01.780 |
are severely persecuted around the world today. 00:37:05.780 |
We're not talking about people who are just, you know, 00:37:08.780 |
living in a place where it's not popular to be a Christian. 00:37:11.780 |
We're not talking about people who just get shunned at work 00:37:15.780 |
We're talking about, he says, severe persecution, 00:37:17.780 |
meaning that you're literally risking your health, 00:37:27.780 |
One in nine Christians live in intense persecution. 00:37:34.780 |
in this intense persecution in the last few years. 00:37:38.780 |
4,136 Christians were martyred for their faith 00:37:50.800 |
Five years ago, North Korea was the only country 00:37:54.780 |
on the list of the extreme persecuted countries. 00:38:01.780 |
and out of the 11, India has become number 10. 00:38:20.780 |
So they're in the category of the 11 countries 00:38:28.760 |
And again, you've heard stories about our pastors there. 00:38:38.760 |
who are trying to share the gospel in remote villages. 00:38:48.780 |
When you wake us up and cause us to be concerned, 00:38:50.760 |
when the government threatens to shut us down 00:38:59.760 |
Most of us are not shaking in our boots day to day 00:39:02.760 |
because of the threats that the government's making. 00:39:05.760 |
We feel bad and we pray for the persecuted church 00:39:15.780 |
John Piper describes it this way in "Hunger for God." 00:39:28.760 |
but endless nibbling at the table of the world. 00:40:05.760 |
that I hear regularly people are bored with their faith. 00:40:10.760 |
They're bored because they're comparing it with entertainment. 00:40:20.760 |
that we are constantly nibbling at the world. 00:40:33.760 |
when people backslide, that does not happen overnight. 00:40:37.760 |
"You know what, I don't want to follow Christ anymore." 00:40:39.760 |
You see a gradual decline of interest toward Christ, 00:40:52.760 |
than feeling like you're being spiritually fed. 00:41:10.780 |
You remember what you were like when you were younger, 00:41:52.760 |
We're perfectly fine with the house that we bought 00:41:57.760 |
We're perfectly fine with the retirement fund we had 00:42:00.760 |
until you hear that your friends have a bigger one. 00:42:03.760 |
We're perfectly fine with what our kids are doing 00:42:06.780 |
until we compare with what other kids are doing. 00:42:29.760 |
In this race, the first thing that he calls us to is not, 00:42:34.780 |
The second thing he tells us is, "Is it helpful?" 00:42:44.760 |
and your goal is not to finish the race or to win the race, 00:42:48.760 |
we're just satisfied that we're in the race itself, right? 00:43:02.780 |
So this is what we would expect runners to look like, right? 00:43:18.760 |
because they don't want anything encumbering them, right? 00:43:25.760 |
and everything else, you know, outside of being naked, right, 00:43:30.780 |
A long time ago, when they first started the Olympics, 00:43:32.760 |
they ran naked because they didn't have shorts. 00:43:39.760 |
is to take off whatever it was that they had, 00:43:45.760 |
And even the swimmers, some of you guys who swim, 00:43:52.760 |
you're not that intense, but if you've ever competed, 00:43:57.760 |
who was, like, really competed as a swimmer, you know, 00:44:12.740 |
This is what we would expect, if you can go to the next slide. 00:44:23.740 |
or maybe his wife told him to lose some weight 00:44:26.740 |
and then he signed up, but he really wasn't interested, 00:44:35.740 |
They're in the race probably to get their picture taken. 00:44:43.740 |
I don't believe they may have finished their race, right? 00:44:48.740 |
But you can tell just by what they're wearing 00:44:53.740 |
You know, I looked up to see if these marathons have rules 00:45:10.720 |
And so if we're asking the question in our pursuit, 00:45:28.740 |
that says that I can't be dressed like a chicken? 00:45:58.720 |
And many people are living right on that line. 00:46:03.720 |
And they say, I don't know if that's profitable. 00:46:14.720 |
in order to run this race with endurance to win, 01:20:59.380 |
And you say, "Oh, God doesn't answer our prayer." 01:26:31.320 |
♪ I'm a child of God by grace and grace alone ♪ 01:27:15.320 |
♪ By your blood I have redemption and salvation ♪ 01:27:21.340 |
♪ Lord, you died that I might reap what you have sown ♪ 01:27:27.320 |
♪ And you rose that I might be a new creation ♪ 01:27:57.320 |
♪ A pit full of rocks, a heart made of stone ♪ 01:28:06.320 |
♪ At your touch my sleeping spirit was awakened ♪ 01:28:12.340 |
♪ On my darkened heart the light of Christ had shown ♪ 01:28:18.320 |
♪ Called into a kingdom that could not be shaken ♪ 01:28:25.320 |
♪ Heaven's citizen by grace and grace alone ♪ 01:28:31.320 |
♪ So I'll stand in faith by grace and grace alone ♪ 01:28:37.340 |
♪ I will run the race by grace and grace alone ♪ 01:28:43.320 |
♪ I will slay my sin by grace and grace alone ♪ 01:28:50.320 |
♪ I will reach the end by grace and grace alone ♪ 01:29:02.320 |
Heavenly Father, we pray for your grace, Lord God, 01:29:06.340 |
Lord, you know how easily we get entangled, Lord God, 01:29:09.320 |
and distracted by the temptations of this world. 01:29:12.320 |
I pray that you would keep us from temptation, 01:29:16.320 |
that we may come seek you, Lord God, for our daily bread, 01:29:27.320 |
that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven 01:29:37.320 |
to put away all sins that easily entangles, Lord God. 01:29:41.320 |
And so we pray that you would ordain this week 01:31:23.300 |
All right, as we go, I'll get a quick announcement, okay? 01:31:32.320 |
And the new building and the building behind it, 01:31:35.300 |
I've already made this announcement on Friday, 01:31:39.300 |
So if you're in the habit of parking way down there, 01:31:50.300 |
and then everybody else can park in those area. 01:31:53.300 |
So the way to get there is you kind of have to go 01:31:57.300 |
So starting from next week, you might want to check there. 01:31:59.300 |
And then if it's not open, then you can park down there. 01:32:03.280 |
So if you see Susan, you can thank her, okay? 01:32:06.280 |
So again, if we can have this side go out that side