back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 11-15-20
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♪ You have raised me up so high above my station ♪ 00:00:05.000 |
♪ I'm a child of God by grace and grace alone ♪ 00:00:51.000 |
♪ By your blood I have redemption and salvation ♪ 00:00:57.000 |
♪ Lord, you died that I might be what you have sown ♪ 00:01:03.000 |
♪ And you rose that I might be a new creation ♪ 00:01:40.000 |
♪ As you touched my sleeping spirit was awakened ♪ 00:01:46.000 |
♪ On my darkest hour the light of Christ was shown ♪ 00:01:52.000 |
♪ Caught into a kingdom that cannot be shaken ♪ 00:01:58.000 |
♪ Heaven sent me sent by grace and grace alone ♪ 00:02:04.000 |
♪ So I'll stand in faith by grace and grace alone ♪ 00:02:10.000 |
♪ I will run through grace by grace and grace alone ♪ 00:02:16.000 |
♪ I will slay my sin by grace and grace alone ♪ 00:02:22.000 |
♪ I will reach the end by grace and grace alone ♪ 00:02:51.000 |
♪ Lawbreakers and thieves for the worthless the least ♪ 00:03:50.000 |
♪ The matchless king of all paid the blood price for me ♪ 00:03:58.000 |
♪ Slaughtered lamb what atonement you bring ♪ 00:04:06.000 |
♪ The vilest sinner's heart can be cleansed, can be free ♪ 00:05:05.000 |
♪ That songs of gratefulness ever rise, never cease ♪ 00:05:13.000 |
♪ You're loved by God and called as a saint ♪ 00:05:21.000 |
♪ My heart is satisfied in the riches of Christ ♪ 00:11:29.000 |
We have a few quick announcements before we get started, 00:11:34.000 |
for our sisters' ministry before we get started. 00:11:39.000 |
This announcement is on behalf of the women's ministry. 00:11:47.000 |
and one--by showing the unconditional love of Christ. 00:11:52.000 |
have been able to extend this love to our neighbors 00:12:00.000 |
And as God sent his greatest son to us as our gift, 00:12:04.000 |
we hope to be generous in our giving and blessing others. 00:12:22.000 |
but they are also branching out in the States as well. 00:12:41.000 |
and, you know, it's a very difficult situation to be in, 00:12:44.000 |
so they really shine the love of Christ towards them. 00:12:48.000 |
And this year, those kids will be taking part 00:12:59.000 |
to provide a donation of, like, small gift bags 00:13:05.000 |
while they go through this drive-through nativity scene. 00:13:10.000 |
This is the only one where the donations are due in two weeks, 00:13:16.000 |
but we will be taking donations until November 29th. 00:13:26.000 |
that ministers to refugees and those who seek asylum-- 00:13:51.000 |
So we will be gifting them with a monetary donation as well 00:14:13.000 |
So we will be donating to further their ministry there. 00:14:23.000 |
there is an area where you'll be able to drop off 00:14:36.000 |
they support homeless men, women, and children 00:14:48.000 |
and to help until they can transition out of there. 00:14:58.000 |
and a list of all these, like, specific details 00:15:21.000 |
so that we know to set it aside for that purpose. 00:15:37.000 |
First of all, our CRT seminar that we're starting at 1:30-- 00:15:47.000 |
The meat of what we're doing, the presentation, 00:15:50.000 |
so we encourage you guys to come back as soon as possible, 00:15:54.000 |
And then the first half of it is going to be the presentation. 00:15:57.000 |
The second half is going to be the Q&A that people sent in. 00:16:01.000 |
And so the time is going to last about two hours 00:16:04.000 |
for those of you who just need to know for that. 00:16:07.000 |
The second announcement is starting from today, 00:16:11.000 |
So I know some of the parents are here because of that. 00:16:15.000 |
starting from this Sunday, is at the third song. 00:16:18.000 |
So the first two songs will be here together, 00:16:27.000 |
we ask you guys to take your children to the entrance, 00:16:36.000 |
Okay, so take your children there and have them signed in, 00:16:39.000 |
and then you guys can come back and take your seats afterwards. 00:16:52.000 |
and afterwards we'll just ask you on the third song 00:16:54.000 |
without any prodding that you guys would know 00:16:58.000 |
All right, so we're going to take some time for offering, 00:17:08.000 |
we have a box in the back as well, all right? 00:17:13.000 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege 00:17:18.000 |
We thank you, Father, that we are able to come 00:17:26.000 |
I pray that that truth will guide us, lead us, overwhelm us, 00:17:38.000 |
Help us, Lord God, to break out of a habitual pattern 00:17:42.000 |
where we just do things just because it's time to do it. 00:17:54.000 |
I pray that this will be an opportunity for us 00:18:01.000 |
May the offering we give be multiplied for your use. 00:18:41.000 |
Let's all stand together as we worship our great God. 00:33:40.000 |
All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 11, we're going to be looking at verse 8 and 10. 00:33:51.000 |
I had a two-point message thinking that I'm going to be able to get it through, but I did not the first service. 00:34:00.000 |
So we're going to stick with the first one today. 00:34:03.000 |
I know I'm going at a slow pace through chapter 11, but I think it's important enough for us to really be grounded in this chapter. 00:34:14.000 |
Just knowing the importance of what he's trying to say here, because this is kind of a transition chapter from chapter 1 through 10 to chapter 12 and on. 00:34:25.000 |
So he's trying to connect right theology with right living, right? 00:34:30.000 |
And so if you miss either side, then it's not either saving faith or it's the wrong faith and wrong gospel. 00:34:36.000 |
So we want to make sure that the point that he's trying to get in chapter 11 is that right belief is what leads to right life, right? 00:34:45.000 |
And so he's really going through person by person to do that. So we want to make sure that we do that. 00:34:50.000 |
So even though if we go a little bit slower, I think it'll be beneficial for us either way. 00:34:56.000 |
Hebrews chapter 11, verse 8 through 10, reading out of the NASV. 00:35:01.000 |
By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. 00:35:10.000 |
By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of the promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in its tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise. 00:35:20.000 |
For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 00:35:30.000 |
I pray that you will protect this pulpit, that only your word would go forth. 00:35:35.000 |
And that your children will hear the voice of Christ and follow him and him alone. 00:35:40.000 |
So we ask, Lord God, that you would hide us in your glory. 00:35:44.000 |
And that we may see Christ's glory and love him and worship him and follow him. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. 00:35:52.000 |
So again, the importance of each one of these characters that we're studying, we studied about Enoch, about Noah, and then now about the life of Abraham. 00:36:03.000 |
Abraham, if you have read through the New Testament, knows he's a very, very significant figure in redemptive history. 00:36:11.000 |
In fact, we said that the life of Noah, there's about five chapters in the book of Genesis that covers his life. 00:36:17.000 |
But for Abraham in his life, there's about 14 chapters in Genesis dedicated to him. 00:36:23.000 |
Not only that, the text that we're looking at, starting from verse 8 all the way up to verse 19, really has Abraham involved in some way or form or other. 00:36:32.000 |
In fact, they said that 308 separate times, Abraham's name is mentioned in the Bible. 00:36:38.000 |
And sometimes when you say something like that, you can say, well, he's mentioned in three books, you know, 400 times or 300 times. 00:36:44.000 |
But his name is actually mentioned in 20 separate, 27 separate books in the Bible, 16 in the Old Testament and 11 in the New Testament. 00:36:53.000 |
All of this to say that Abraham in redemptive history is a central figure. 00:36:59.000 |
He's outside of Christ, his name and his life story is mentioned and is highlighted to help us to better understand what it means to be righteous. 00:37:09.000 |
And so he is called the father of righteousness for two reasons. 00:37:13.000 |
One, God begins the nation of Israel through him and his descendants. 00:37:19.000 |
And so God is making it very clear how the salvation is going to happen by faith through this nation. 00:37:26.000 |
And now the descendant that's going to come from this line is going to be the one who's going to come and crush the head of the serpent and bring us salvation. 00:37:36.000 |
God makes a covenant with him that by blessing him, he's going to bless all the other nations, meaning that salvation is going to come to the world through him. 00:37:46.000 |
He is also the father of faith because there's no greater example that we find in the Bible of what it means to be righteous by faith. 00:37:55.000 |
And so here's a man that's called and lived all of his life simply because God told him to. 00:38:02.000 |
And we'll see that at the end, Abraham and his life in every part of his life, his descendants, how he lived, what he pursued, all of it is an example of what it means to be a follower of Christ. 00:38:14.000 |
And so this morning I had two points from this text, but I'm just going to just give my main focus on on verse one or on the first part, and then we'll get to the second part next week. 00:38:25.000 |
So the first thing that we see about his life of faith is that God calls him out of his comfort zone. 00:38:34.000 |
When we meet God, the first thing that he does is that God has not added to their life that he had a good life and then said, well, you want to make it even better. 00:38:47.000 |
Second thing that we see about his life, and again, these are all very simple points, but when we look at it into his life, it's very profound. 00:38:55.000 |
Like, what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ and why was he credited as the father of faith? 00:39:01.000 |
And what is it about his life that we are to emulate? 00:39:04.000 |
So the second point is he lived all of his life by faith and not by sight. 00:39:10.000 |
He was pursuing the promise that God made to him. 00:39:13.000 |
And so whether he saw signs or not, his whole life, everything that he had, he went all in, in following God's command and his promise. 00:39:25.000 |
He didn't simply, you know, spent a part of his life or his youth. 00:39:29.000 |
Everything that he had was poured into the promise that God has made with him, that if you follow me, that I will fulfill this covenant that I'm making with you in Genesis chapter 12, 1-3. 00:39:39.000 |
So we're going to look at the first part of it. 00:39:43.000 |
When he encounters God, the first thing God tells him to do is to come out. 00:39:48.000 |
Hebrews chapter 11, verse 8. By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out. 00:39:55.000 |
In Genesis chapter 12, 1, it tells us, "Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Go forth.'" Abram is the name that he had before God changed it to Abraham. 00:40:04.000 |
He said to Abram, "Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your fathers out to the land which I will show you." 00:40:14.000 |
If you read chapter 11, right, before you came or read some part of chapter 12, you'll know that Abraham was not a poor man. 00:40:23.000 |
He didn't leave everything because he had nothing to lose. 00:40:26.000 |
Right. Well, you know, nothing else that I did work. So let me let me follow Christ and maybe my life will get a little bit better. 00:40:33.000 |
In fact, we know that Abraham was already a very wealthy man. 00:40:38.000 |
And he didn't leave empty handed. He left with his family and God called him out from where he was. 00:40:44.000 |
Now, first question we need to ask is why did he have to leave? 00:40:48.000 |
Couldn't God keep him where he was and blessed him and let his nation, let this nation multiply? 00:40:55.000 |
He already had land. Why did he have to put that aside and walk out into the desert? 00:41:00.000 |
It wasn't like God showed him that if you sacrifice this, here's a greater city waiting for you. 00:41:05.000 |
So if you're willing to go and trust me and I'll take you out of all of this and I'm going to give you this great land. 00:41:11.000 |
He said he didn't know where he was going. Why did God call him out? 00:41:16.000 |
Well, it's consistent with everything else that we see in Scripture. 00:41:21.000 |
When we first encounter God. What does it mean to repent? 00:41:27.000 |
We did. Our sins were not justified because we did righteous things or you basically acknowledge some facts about God. 00:41:35.000 |
We repented. And that's why the message, the very first message that Jesus gives is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 00:41:43.000 |
Repent basically means you acknowledge that whatever it was that you are pursuing, whatever that you value. 00:41:50.000 |
That you're saying that all of that was wrong. 00:41:54.000 |
So when we repent, we're not just simply saying, you know, I lied when I was three years old and I cheated and I took a candy from the store when I shouldn't. 00:42:02.000 |
And remembering all these little sins. And so I'm not going to do that. So I repent because I've done some bad things. 00:42:09.000 |
Justification isn't simply acknowledging there are some things that I did that was wrong. 00:42:14.000 |
Repentance that leads to justification is recognizing that my being was corrupted by sin. 00:42:23.000 |
So every thought that I had, everything that I considered to be good, everything that I hoped for, everything that I pursued was wrong because it was outside of the will of God. 00:42:34.000 |
I was pursuing my comfort, my safety, my glory, my family. And all of that I surrendered to God. That's what repentance is. 00:42:45.000 |
So whether it is the old covenant or new covenant, the very first thing that God calls us is to call us out. 00:42:51.000 |
But here's the problem that you and I have in our generation. 00:42:55.000 |
So many people have only just added Christ to their life. 00:42:59.000 |
They've never genuinely repented of whatever it was that they were pursuing. 00:43:03.000 |
They say, you know what, I'm going to do this and I'm going to work hard and I'm going to get to the next level. 00:43:10.000 |
So a good Christian goes to church, they serve, they may give. 00:43:14.000 |
But their life, nothing in their life ever changed. They never left behind the world. 00:43:19.000 |
Until all they did was just add Christ and pray to Him that He may help us pursue what we desire. 00:43:27.000 |
The very first step in meeting Christ is to recognize that all of this is under judgment of God. 00:43:41.000 |
Galatians 1.4 says, "He who gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from the present evil age, 00:43:48.000 |
according to the will of our God and Father." According to the evil age. 00:43:52.000 |
The age that he's referring to is the culture. 00:43:59.000 |
You know, as soon as we are born, right, we're in this competition, this rat race, right? 00:44:05.000 |
You don't know it, but your parents were competing with you when you were a kid. 00:44:10.000 |
Who spoke first? Who learned to brush their teeth first? 00:44:14.000 |
Who walked first? Who ate first? Who started going to the bathroom first? 00:44:18.000 |
So when you have young children, young parents get together and they compare. 00:44:21.000 |
They don't tell you they're comparing, but they're comparing. 00:44:24.000 |
So if you walked before the other kids, like, "Oh, my kid walked 10 months." 00:44:29.000 |
Oh, your kid still doesn't walk? It's okay. You know, eventually they'll get there. 00:44:34.000 |
So from the moment that we're born, there's this competition, seen and unseen. 00:44:38.000 |
You get a little bit older, like, "What kind of grade did your kid get? 00:44:41.000 |
What college did they go to?" Then you go to college, like, "What kind of job did you get?" 00:44:46.000 |
And you get a job, it's like, "Well, who did you marry?" 00:44:49.000 |
And after you get that, then you have your own kids. 00:44:51.000 |
So when did your kids start walking? When did you retire? 00:44:55.000 |
And then you retire, and it's like, "What are your kids doing for you?" 00:44:59.000 |
It doesn't end. This rat race, from the moment that we are born until the day that we die, 00:45:07.000 |
we're in this trap, constantly comparing with each other. 00:45:16.000 |
See, the cultural Christianity has never abandoned that. 00:45:20.000 |
Cultural Christianity embraces that, and then want the security and the fellowship 00:45:27.000 |
and the hope that we have in Christ, while we're still pursuing. 00:45:31.000 |
Nothing about the pursuit of this world has ever changed. 00:45:35.000 |
But the primary thing that God says He is saving us from, 00:45:38.000 |
and the reason why the world is under this condemnation, 00:45:41.000 |
is because everything that the world is doing is in rebellion against God. 00:45:46.000 |
In Colossians 1, verse 13, it says, "He rescued us from the domain of darkness 00:45:53.000 |
and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son." 00:45:58.000 |
Everything that we knew from the previous kingdom, He said He delivered us from it. 00:46:03.000 |
And that's why He says in James chapter 4, "You adulterous, you do not know, 00:46:08.000 |
do you not know that the friendship with the world is hostility toward God?" 00:46:12.000 |
Do you notice here, He doesn't say an outright pursuit, a covenant that you made with the world. 00:46:18.000 |
He says, "No, simply a friendship, a friendly term with the world is hostility toward God." 00:46:24.000 |
He goes even further. He says, "Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world 00:46:29.000 |
makes himself an enemy of God." He just wishes. 00:46:33.000 |
A man who just desires, desires to be friendly with the world. 00:46:38.000 |
Why can't I be cool in the eyes of the world and still love Jesus? 00:46:48.000 |
Oftentimes the excuses that we make is, "Well, God didn't call everybody to mission. 00:46:52.000 |
God didn't call everybody to ministry. God didn't call everybody to do this. 00:46:56.000 |
God doesn't want Christians to be poor. God doesn't want people to be this way." 00:47:00.000 |
And so we rationalize in our head, all the while compromised, chasing after the same thing 00:47:05.000 |
before we met Christ, and we never left behind the world. 00:47:09.000 |
And we're trying so hard to reconcile living in the world, and having the world, 00:47:14.000 |
and pursuing the world, and yet adding Christ. 00:47:18.000 |
Because in the pursuit of the world, there are holes. 00:47:22.000 |
No matter how much you pursue it, you still feel lonely. 00:47:25.000 |
No matter how much you pursue the world, there's still fear, like, "After I die, what's going to happen?" 00:47:29.000 |
No matter how much I pursue the world, you don't have the kind of friendship that you have among Christians. 00:47:34.000 |
You don't get the morality that you pass on to your children. 00:47:38.000 |
And so there's a lot of secular, worldly benefits of being a cultural Christian. 00:47:47.000 |
And that's why he says, "He who wants to be friends with the world, 00:47:52.000 |
he who desires to be near to the world, makes himself an enemy of God." 00:47:57.000 |
If you take that literally, which we ought to, 00:48:01.000 |
it basically means that there's a lot of people in the church who are living friendly with God, 00:48:11.000 |
The Bible tells us that you are an adulterer, John 15, 19. 00:48:15.000 |
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. 00:48:18.000 |
But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you. 00:48:25.000 |
Part of the reason why, in our world, where you and I live, 00:48:31.000 |
why the persecution doesn't seem to be, at least for the moment, in our face, 00:48:35.000 |
is because we probably don't look like Jesus. 00:48:39.000 |
When persecution comes, and when I say persecution, I'm not talking about just not fitting in. 00:48:46.000 |
I'm not talking about not going where they go. We're talking about possibly losing your jobs. 00:48:52.000 |
The Bible says that they hate me, so they will hate you. 00:48:56.000 |
So the more we look like Christ, the more the world is going to remind us that they don't want us. 00:49:02.000 |
We don't want you here. You don't belong here. You don't think like we do. 00:49:06.000 |
You don't value the things that we value, so therefore we're no longer going to tolerate it. 00:49:11.000 |
Here's the thing. Up to this point, because we lived in this free country with religious freedom, 00:49:16.000 |
the world always hated genuine Christianity, but they tolerated it up to this point. 00:49:25.000 |
But they tolerated it because of the law, because it was acceptable. 00:49:31.000 |
But we are entering into a phase, at least in United States history, that the rest of the world is already in. 00:49:40.000 |
It's no longer going to be tolerated. They say they're going to be hostile toward Christian faith. 00:49:45.000 |
So those of us who have been trying so hard, holding on to the world, yet holding on to God, 00:49:55.000 |
Either you embrace Christ or you embrace the world. 00:49:58.000 |
But the thing is, that's exactly what God has been telling us from the beginning. 00:50:03.000 |
The world kingdom and God's kingdom has always been in conflict. 00:50:09.000 |
And it is to our own deception that we fooled ourselves that somehow we're going to be Switzerland and be in the middle and hold on to both. 00:50:16.000 |
That's exactly the problem that the author of Hebrews is writing to. 00:50:22.000 |
These guys are persevering for a while, and they started drifting back into the old world. 00:50:26.000 |
If you notice, if you've been with us for 10 chapters of study, the author does not mention any specific idolatry. 00:50:34.000 |
He doesn't say that there's a question to Jesus' identity. 00:50:39.000 |
The primary problem was they were just simply drifting back. 00:50:44.000 |
So that they can have some of the world and take some of the pressure off of the consequence of following Christ, and still have Christ. 00:50:52.000 |
And basically, he's shutting the door on them. 00:50:54.000 |
You may fool yourself to think that you are saved. He said he's shutting the door. 00:50:58.000 |
He said, no, either you're a follower of Christ or you're still in the world. There's nothing in between. 00:51:05.000 |
Jesus said that very clearly. If you want to follow me, you must what? 00:51:14.000 |
Somehow in our generation, for whatever the reason, we have sanitized that, cut off the edges, and made the cross a bearable cross. 00:51:25.000 |
That he didn't actually mean what he said to the disciples. 00:51:28.000 |
When he said he's going to the cross, he actually went to the cross. 00:51:32.000 |
He wasn't talking symbolically. He wasn't talking theoretically. 00:51:38.000 |
He actually physically went and he told his disciple, where I'm going, you're going to come to if you want to follow me. 00:51:45.000 |
Show me where in the Bible did that ever change? 00:51:48.000 |
Show me where in the Bible that after saying that, a generation passed, 100 years, 200, 1000 years passed, 00:51:55.000 |
that we have a new revelation and saying now that's not required. 00:51:59.000 |
That God's calling for his church has changed. 00:52:03.000 |
Clearly, he doesn't mean that for Christians in this generation living in America. 00:52:08.000 |
Possibly the reason why the American church is so impotent is because we are trying to hold on to both and we are miserably failing. 00:52:19.000 |
From the get-go, an encounter with God demands that we leave behind our comfort. 00:52:27.000 |
See, he called Abraham out in his reaches, out in the desert. 00:52:32.000 |
He didn't come from one place and took him to another place of safety. 00:52:36.000 |
He didn't abandon his riches and then gave him even more wealth. 00:52:40.000 |
No, simply by promise. Trust me and leave it behind and come. 00:52:45.000 |
A wealthy man who already had his family and walked out into the desert, 00:52:50.000 |
not knowing the enemies he was going to face, not knowing if he was going to be able to survive, 00:53:00.000 |
There was nothing that he could tangibly see that if he followed God that this was going to happen. 00:53:10.000 |
That his whole life trajectory was he believed. And so he packed up his bag and he went. 00:53:19.000 |
See, in the scriptures, the second in the book of Leviticus, it says, 00:53:26.000 |
if something is unclean, that you have to take it outside the camp. 00:53:30.000 |
And to be taken outside the camp basically means that you're forsaken from the community. 00:53:35.000 |
So if they have to have capital punishment or somebody had some kind of disease, 00:53:42.000 |
But here's the strange thing. By the time Christ came, 00:53:45.000 |
in order for John the Baptist to do his ministry, he went outside the camp. 00:53:51.000 |
And that's why they didn't know what to do with him. 00:53:54.000 |
Because when he should clearly, it seems like God's anointing is upon this man. 00:53:59.000 |
He's speaking with authority. He wasn't like any other man. 00:54:03.000 |
He was the new prophet that everybody acknowledged, 00:54:06.000 |
but it didn't fit their paradigm because he went outside the camp. 00:54:10.000 |
He didn't go into Jerusalem and pick up Pharisees. 00:54:13.000 |
He didn't go to the Sanhedrin and influential people. 00:54:16.000 |
He went outside the camp and he had the poor people. 00:54:20.000 |
He had the prostitute tax collectors coming to him and they were baptizing him. 00:54:23.000 |
So even the Pharisees would come just curious, what's going on? 00:54:28.000 |
Clearly something is going on. But why are you doing it out here? 00:54:35.000 |
I mean, if he was bad, Jesus came and he took it even further out. 00:54:43.000 |
If John the Baptist clearly had God's anointing, 00:54:46.000 |
Jesus literally had the doves fall on him and God saying, 00:54:52.000 |
But the very first thing that he says is, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 00:54:59.000 |
whatever righteousness that you are holding on to as a security blanket, 00:55:05.000 |
Put that beyond and then come outside the camp. 00:55:10.000 |
In the time of Christ, in order to meet Christ, 00:55:14.000 |
instead of saying inside the camp, you actually have to go outside the camp. 00:55:20.000 |
"For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest 00:55:25.000 |
as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp." 00:55:28.000 |
"Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered outside the camp." 00:55:33.000 |
"So let us go out to him outside the camp bearing his reproach." 00:55:38.000 |
"For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come." 00:55:43.000 |
In order to follow Christ, the very first thing that he commands us, 00:55:49.000 |
And so therefore, if we want to meet him, we are called to go outside the camp. 00:55:54.000 |
Outside the camp at that time basically means whatever religious system that they set up, 00:56:06.000 |
So when Jesus came to the temple and he was angry, 00:56:10.000 |
he was looking not only because here these people were taking advantage of the outer court 00:56:15.000 |
and wouldn't allow the women and the Gentiles to come in and worship, 00:56:18.000 |
that represented their whole attitude toward worship. 00:56:25.000 |
And he wasn't simply turning the tables over of the merchants. 00:56:29.000 |
He was condemning the whole religious system. 00:56:36.000 |
They were just going through religious motions. 00:56:41.000 |
And they could care less whether genuine worship was happening or not. 00:56:46.000 |
And that's why these disciples remembered that the love for his house, 00:56:50.000 |
love for his father's house would consume him. 00:57:02.000 |
When he says that there's going to come a time that he is looking for people who will worship him in spirit and in truth, 00:57:10.000 |
and that desire and his looking is going to consume him, 00:57:16.000 |
meaning this religious system is jumping through the hoops, 00:57:20.000 |
becoming a member, finding the right church, having a good family, raising godly children. 00:57:29.000 |
But so much of all that we do within the religious system 00:57:34.000 |
is to maintain the cultural Christianity that you and I committed to. 00:57:49.000 |
to repent of whatever it is that we were pursuing. 00:57:56.000 |
"The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone." 00:58:02.000 |
In other words, they looked at Jesus and clearly there was something, 00:58:06.000 |
there was something anointing about him and people were amazed that he was speaking with authority. 00:58:12.000 |
He was speaking as if God was speaking because God himself was speaking through him. 00:58:21.000 |
So they ended up rejecting him, crucifying him, and trying to discard him. 00:58:26.000 |
But he says, "The very stone the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone." 00:58:32.000 |
Meaning, without that cornerstone, you couldn't build anything. 00:58:39.000 |
That whatever that you and I have built outside of Christ, 00:58:51.000 |
Keeping up with the Joneses or the Lees or the Chains, right? 00:58:54.000 |
Whoever it is that we're trying to keep up with. 00:59:01.000 |
who are perfectly fine and living a great life, 00:59:04.000 |
and all of a sudden they visit somebody's house and it's like, "Oh shoot, we're behind." 00:59:08.000 |
You know, the children are happy, they're doing fine, 00:59:10.000 |
and all of a sudden, you know, like, "Oh, my kids have kids, but we don't." 00:59:15.000 |
Or, "Their kids are doing this, but we don't have it." 00:59:18.000 |
Or, "Their kids are able to send their kids to do this and learn this and learn that, 00:59:24.000 |
and we live the rest of our lives just like anybody else. 00:59:30.000 |
not realizing it's that carrot, it's what's ruining us. 00:59:35.000 |
That's what's causing the contentions in marriage oftentimes. 00:59:42.000 |
It causes contention that even when God blesses you, 00:59:46.000 |
you're not thankful because it's not as great as the next guy. 00:59:50.000 |
And so the whole worldly system is based upon us wanting to elevate ourselves. 00:59:56.000 |
So we try hard, and then we, you know, when we fail, we're upset. 01:00:02.000 |
And then we don't make it, then we pour our hopes into our children so that they may have it. 01:00:10.000 |
You and I know how to recognize the health and wealth gospel. 01:00:17.000 |
I mean, if you are a health and wealth gospel person, 01:00:20.000 |
and you happen to be at Bering Community Church, I'm guessing you're frustrated, right? 01:00:30.000 |
no matter how long you've been here, that you can recognize health and wealth gospel 01:00:34.000 |
because if it comes off of this pulpit, you're going to say, "Oh my God, that's not biblical." 01:00:38.000 |
And you can point to verses that Jesus speaks. 01:00:44.000 |
The health and wealth gospel is so deeply embedded in all of us 01:00:50.000 |
that we may automatically say, "Oh, that's wrong," theologically. 01:00:55.000 |
But in life, in every part of our life, we practice. 01:01:08.000 |
How much of our prayer when we get sick is to be healthy? 01:01:16.000 |
So automatically, even though we reject it theologically, 01:01:20.000 |
but in life, we practice it without giving it a second thought. 01:01:26.000 |
First and foremost, God calls us out, recognizing, 01:01:32.000 |
to leave behind the temptations of this world, 01:01:36.000 |
and to look at Christ, that if He is not better than whatever is tempting you, 01:01:43.000 |
it's just a matter of time you're going to fall. 01:01:46.000 |
If He's not better, if you didn't gaze upon the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 01:01:51.000 |
and then you said, "Jesus is better than whatever it is that I'm tempted, 01:01:56.000 |
whatever it is that I'm comparing my life to, 01:01:59.000 |
He's better than anything else that is around me," 01:02:02.000 |
then at some point, you're going to give in to that. 01:02:11.000 |
to recognize that all that we pursue in this world, 01:02:31.000 |
And He's not simply telling us this to come out 01:02:41.000 |
It is the only way that He can lead us to the promised land 01:02:50.000 |
and to experience this life that He promises, 01:02:56.000 |
Living in between, thinking like, "I'm going to somehow have a little bit of this, 01:03:01.000 |
and then being frustrated the rest of your Christian life, wondering why 01:03:08.000 |
And so we have a generation filled with people 01:03:11.000 |
who can recite quotes from other godly men and women 01:03:16.000 |
Missionary books that we've read, testimonies that we've heard, 01:03:19.000 |
sermons that we've heard, and we have quotes. 01:03:31.000 |
And so we have a generation filled with people 01:03:34.000 |
who have all these great sayings in our head. 01:03:37.000 |
Bible verses memorized, text that we've studied, 01:03:59.000 |
I can tell you godly men that I admire from a distance, 01:04:05.000 |
I'm just feeding off of the crumbs falling off the table. 01:04:09.000 |
And we always wonder why I don't experience this intimacy with God. 01:04:15.000 |
If you're going to a banquet and you know that the best food is waiting for you, 01:04:19.000 |
you don't go there and pick up cup ramen right before you go. 01:04:33.000 |
You want to make sure that you're going to enjoy 01:04:35.000 |
and you're going to be able to taste every part of this meal 01:04:38.000 |
because you're anticipating and preparing yourself. 01:04:41.000 |
How much of the dissatisfaction do we have in our relationship with God 01:04:45.000 |
because we have nibbled on the crumbs of this world 01:04:52.000 |
And we come to worship God and we say, "I don't feel anything." 01:05:00.000 |
That He somehow, if we've got to figure it out, 01:05:03.000 |
if we adjust this and do this, that somehow we can figure this out. 01:05:10.000 |
Maybe we've given our hearts and our lives to the things that don't matter 01:05:13.000 |
and then now we come to Christ and there's no room for Him. 01:05:29.000 |
And you have to understand, Assyria, these guys were brutal people. 01:05:33.000 |
They would be equivalent to the modern terrorists. 01:05:36.000 |
In order to bring fear, they would behead people. 01:05:41.000 |
because the terrorists targeted certain people. 01:05:45.000 |
and anybody that they would consider a threat, 01:05:47.000 |
they would literally behead them, crucify them, 01:05:50.000 |
and then hang them up so that their children and their wives 01:05:57.000 |
They would skin people alive to bring fear upon Israel. 01:06:04.000 |
Assyria, after they do their damage, is not mentioned. 01:06:15.000 |
And then Babylonians kind of take them into captivity. 01:06:21.000 |
And then they've actually gave them opportunity to grow. 01:06:40.000 |
They started to adopt their idols into their life. 01:06:43.000 |
And so we have stories of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, 01:06:47.000 |
But for the most part, the nation of Israel just assimilated. 01:06:51.000 |
But God's plan was always to bring them back. 01:06:59.000 |
and then the Persians were going to let them come back. 01:07:04.000 |
he actually did a fundraiser to support them. 01:07:07.000 |
You guys can go back and reestablish the nation of Israel, 01:07:10.000 |
reestablish the temple, but by the time he lets them go, 01:07:16.000 |
A very few remnant volunteered and went back. 01:07:32.000 |
And so the way the nation of Israel scattered 01:07:39.000 |
Because they were tempted and they assimilated, 01:07:43.000 |
and they wanted to stay where they were comfortable. 01:07:46.000 |
That's why if you look at the book of Revelation, 01:08:04.000 |
They gave opportunity for the Jews to assimilate 01:08:14.000 |
You know, we're afraid that persecution is going to come, 01:08:44.000 |
Because they're not going to tolerate nominal Christianity. 01:08:54.000 |
It's where the world has saturated into our thinking, 01:09:02.000 |
where we voluntarily are drifting away from Christ. 01:09:07.000 |
We're not drifting away from Christ kicking and screaming. 01:09:11.000 |
We're not drifting away from Christ yelling out 01:09:30.000 |
if we're going to be a man and woman of faith, 01:09:35.000 |
that we need to repent of all that has seeped into us 01:09:46.000 |
It is the rat race that causes the contention 01:09:51.000 |
It is the rat race that the children that we are raising, 01:10:26.000 |
that period of tolerating biblical Christianity 01:10:36.000 |
And I think it's going to come pretty quickly. 01:10:41.000 |
I don't say this to get you to be uncomfortable. 01:11:21.000 |
The Catholic Church drifted so far away from God 01:11:34.000 |
You and I come from a tradition of protestors. 01:11:47.000 |
What you're doing doesn't fit the Christianity that I know. 01:11:51.000 |
is not the Jesus that I'm reading in scripture." 01:11:55.000 |
And it is the protest that led us to where we're at. 01:12:01.000 |
Now the Christianity that you and I participate in 01:12:11.000 |
or we can open up the scriptures for ourselves. 01:12:15.000 |
And this is why we're trying to get you into the Bible, 01:12:22.000 |
But I want you to look at the scripture yourself, 01:12:29.000 |
looks anything like the Bible that you and I are reading. 01:12:55.000 |
we're not just praying for God to give us a job, 01:13:04.000 |
so that my children can be raised in a comfortable place, 01:13:09.000 |
We're not simply praying for these small things. 01:13:12.000 |
And again, I'm not saying that these things are not important. 01:13:15.000 |
But I believe what you and I need to pray for 01:13:27.000 |
that what's happening in the Middle East looks strange to us. 01:13:31.000 |
What's happening in India is like, "Oh my gosh, 01:13:38.000 |
and they're risking their lives and their well-being 01:13:46.000 |
Not realizing what you and I experience here is weird. 01:13:58.000 |
What we see over there is exactly what we see here. 01:14:09.000 |
I pray that it would not simply be an academic study, 01:14:15.000 |
"I don't believe in health and wealth doctrine. 01:15:01.000 |
Life is hard enough as it is, living in this fallen world. 01:15:06.000 |
Raising children in this fallen world is hard enough as it is. 01:15:09.000 |
Resisting temptation is hard enough as it is. 01:16:48.000 |
to have the things that the world tempts us with, 01:16:58.000 |
that we may see the treasure that is in Christ. 01:17:05.000 |
that as a farmer found the treasure, Lord God, 01:17:19.000 |
Let us stand together for the closing praise. 01:20:43.000 |
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power 01:20:45.000 |
and the glory and the victory and the majesty. 01:20:48.000 |
Indeed, everything that is in the heavens and the earth, 01:21:19.000 |
Help us, Lord God, not to simply give lip service, 01:21:35.000 |
our finances, our youth, and our age, Lord God, 01:21:51.000 |
Know, Father God, that they do not have what we have, 01:21:57.000 |
the peace that we have, that the world cannot understand. 01:22:11.000 |
So we ask, Lord God, that You would guide us, 01:23:47.000 |
Just like we do each week, if we can have that group 01:23:55.000 |
who are attending the CRT, try to be back here by 1.30.