back to indexBerean Community Church Wednesday Night Bible Study Session 5
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For those of you guys who are by the cafe bar, please make your way on over. 00:04:47.100 |
For those of you who are newcomers, you guys can take a seat on the side. 00:04:50.420 |
We'll have our worship time first and then join our class for discussion. 00:04:57.660 |
Please join with me in a word of prayer as we get ourselves situated for a time of praise. 00:05:03.180 |
Heavenly Father, we want to, in every situation, give you thanks, Lord God. 00:05:09.720 |
We are truly grateful that every single day we receive from your gracious hand 00:05:15.100 |
blessing for each day, mercies anew, and strength. 00:05:18.840 |
We pray, God, that it would be our faith, our hope in Christ that continues to empower us. 00:05:26.760 |
And, Lord, we know that sweet opportunities like this to sing of your greatness, 00:05:30.860 |
to learn of your word, that all of this, Lord God, is empowering to our soul. 00:05:35.660 |
We ask, God, that as we gather each night, the discussion, the learning, 00:05:40.820 |
that all of this truly would be spiritually fruitful, 00:05:43.720 |
that it would be engaging both to our minds and also to our souls. 00:06:17.480 |
In the city of our God, the holy place, the joy of the whole earth. 00:06:29.840 |
Great is the Lord and whom we have the victory. 00:06:58.280 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your name on high. 00:07:09.280 |
And, Lord, we want to thank you for the works you've done in our lives. 00:07:23.060 |
For you alone, our God eternal throughout earth and heaven above. 00:07:35.640 |
Great is the Lord is the Lord and most worthy of praise. 00:07:47.480 |
In the city of our God, the holy place, the joy of the whole earth. 00:08:13.400 |
Great is the Lord and whom we have the victory. 00:08:14.360 |
Great is the Lord and whom we have the victory. 00:08:20.680 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your name on high. 00:08:38.820 |
And, Lord, we want to thank you for the works you've done in our lives. 00:08:53.720 |
For you alone, our God eternal throughout earth and heaven. 00:09:00.120 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your name on high. 00:09:05.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your name on high. 00:09:06.720 |
And, Lord, we want to thank you for the works you've done in our lives. 00:09:19.720 |
For you alone, our God eternal throughout earth and heaven above. 00:09:43.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your name on high. 00:09:45.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your name on high. 00:09:50.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your hand on high. 00:09:51.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your hand on high. 00:09:52.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your hand on high. 00:09:53.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your hand on high. 00:09:54.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your hand on high. 00:09:55.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your hand on high. 00:09:56.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your hand on high. 00:09:57.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your hand on high. 00:09:58.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your hand on high. 00:09:59.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your hand on high. 00:10:00.720 |
And, Lord, we want to lift your hand on high. 00:10:09.720 |
For a song in itself is not what you have required. 00:11:40.720 |
For a song in itself is not what you have required. 00:13:09.720 |
Father, we thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to worship you. 00:13:19.720 |
As we go deeper tonight, more into your covenant. 00:13:23.720 |
Into the church covenant about Sunday worship. 00:13:30.720 |
We would be committed to attending Sunday worship. 00:13:34.720 |
But not that our worship would be defined just to Sundays. 00:14:00.720 |
Well, I do have some important announcements for you guys this evening. 00:14:04.720 |
This Sunday, we're going to be observing the communion table. 00:14:10.720 |
So please make sure to take some extra time to pray. 00:14:18.720 |
And come prepared to, again, observe that table this Sunday. 00:14:23.720 |
We want to highlight that on October 13th, 2 p.m. 00:14:27.720 |
We're going to be having our all members meeting. 00:14:30.720 |
Plus, this one is where we have our service fair. 00:14:33.720 |
So if you guys haven't been to one of those before, our courtyard will have all the representatives from the various teams that exist at our church. 00:14:41.720 |
And you can both find out just information about what's going on, but also you can look for opportunities to serve at that time. 00:14:49.720 |
That day, in order to make sure that things are going well and also to fundraise, our youth group will be preparing delicious Mediterranean chicken bowls. 00:14:59.720 |
It's just $10 per adult, so make sure you guys save your stomachs for that. 00:15:11.720 |
That way we can take card and then the process will be faster. 00:15:15.720 |
I do want to highlight, just because the registration is closing soon, that there's a women's ministry event on Saturday, October 19th. 00:15:33.720 |
Another important announcement is that near the tail end of the year, we do have a lot of children's events, including our Reformation night, etc. 00:15:43.720 |
Anybody who desires to be safety trained, there's a safety training opportunity happening Sunday, October 20th, which takes place at 1:30 in the main sanctuary. 00:15:53.720 |
Members who would like to volunteer must be safety trained prior to having any official position with the children. 00:16:00.720 |
So please make sure that you sign up for that. 00:16:02.720 |
Otherwise, you can also just show up to participate in that. 00:16:09.720 |
One, there is a family ministry picnic that's taking place October 20th from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Bill Barber Park. 00:16:19.720 |
Both members and non-members are welcome to come. 00:16:23.720 |
Mark your calendar for those of you who are in the family ministry and come out. 00:16:27.720 |
The final thing is, as Thanksgiving is just a few months away, we are taking sign-ups for people who want to simply participate and be placed into a regional home group. 00:16:39.720 |
Please also check out our app, website, etc. and register to that. 00:16:44.720 |
That will help us a lot for you guys to register early, because you can imagine trying to get 700-plus people into distinct groups. 00:16:51.720 |
And then, you know, people coordinating, it's going to be a big bear. 00:16:55.720 |
So please make sure you sign up and register early for the regional Thanksgiving dinner. 00:16:59.720 |
That will again take place November 24th, Sunday, Sunday evening, okay? 00:17:07.720 |
We'll see you guys back here at 8:00 p.m. sharp for the teaching time. 01:03:14.720 |
If you guys in the rooms can hear me and make your way out to the main area, I'll give you 01:03:20.720 |
guys about a minute to get situated and then we'll start the study. 01:04:31.080 |
Sorry, I'm just going to grab a napkin real fast. 01:06:00.040 |
So we will go ahead and let me say a brief word of prayer, and then we'll jump into the study. 01:06:04.660 |
Father, we ask God that you would grant to us remembrance, conviction, and ongoing sobriety. 01:06:15.100 |
A lot of the things that we learn throughout this series are both good review, things that 01:06:21.220 |
we have heard before and yet difficult sometimes to apply. 01:06:27.000 |
Grant to us, Lord God, a steady heart that desires to walk after you. 01:06:35.160 |
So, this evening we are talking about covenant number four, and the covenant reads, I commit 01:06:44.420 |
to attending Sunday worship at BCC every week to the best of my ability. 01:07:00.420 |
I mean, in some sense, it could be that easy. 01:07:02.960 |
But just like I prayed just a moment ago, we find actually that life becomes very full. 01:07:09.400 |
We find that actually other kind of distracting things happen, et cetera, et cetera, and there 01:07:16.300 |
are many, many reasons by which we could have, I guess you could also just simply call them 01:07:20.440 |
excuses, where attending Sunday worship can be tough. 01:07:23.620 |
And I do realize, obviously, I am preaching to the choir because the vast majority of you 01:07:28.980 |
here have already signed off saying, I've already committed to this, that I will be here every 01:07:35.120 |
As a part of my commitment to this church, the local body. 01:07:39.340 |
But the problem is, there are not only one or two things, but there are a lot of situations 01:07:45.560 |
and occasions when we say, hey, exception, right? 01:07:48.760 |
I've got family in town I need to take care of. 01:07:51.340 |
My aging parents are here or there, and all that kind of stuff. 01:07:54.280 |
And we need guidance and a bit of wisdom as to think about, okay, where do we draw the line 01:07:58.920 |
with the reasons by which we may not come to church? 01:08:02.600 |
We've also found that we are very privileged, I believe, and through these privileges, there are 01:08:09.280 |
things we can sometimes over-commit ourselves. 01:08:11.700 |
Whether it be just you, you may have your dedication to your own extracurricular activities, or it 01:08:20.500 |
may be just the members of our family, our own children with lots of things they've committed 01:08:24.340 |
Everything from Korean class, piano class, Taekwondo class, and more, right? 01:08:28.620 |
But when we think about this commitment that says, I will commit to attend Sunday worship 01:08:34.540 |
at Berean every week to the best of my ability, now we've got to ask the question, what does 01:08:44.840 |
And I'm going to say this, the best of my ability then means that I am going to make every effort 01:08:52.020 |
I will also do due diligence to schedule everything else around Sunday service. 01:08:57.860 |
Building an expectation in first my own mind, but in all of my children, my friends, my co-workers, 01:09:05.760 |
and classmates, et cetera, et cetera, that your worship to God is non-negotiable. 01:09:10.980 |
Everybody else works around Sunday worship schedule. 01:09:19.600 |
Now, as we think about, I'm starting off already with an application here, then as we think about 01:09:26.380 |
this high-level commitment, what we're saying is, by making it a non-negotiable, meaning nothing 01:09:32.360 |
else, nobody can negotiate with me, my child can't say, oh, pretty, pretty, pretty, please. 01:09:38.720 |
I am placing the worship of God, but more particularly, the gathering of the Christians, as the highest 01:09:49.440 |
To such a degree that, for example, if we think about the common conflicts that come our way, 01:09:55.960 |
most of the time, for you guys, it's probably work. 01:09:58.100 |
During COVID time, we actually took a survey of how many of our church people work in the 01:10:02.660 |
medical field, and we know that your schedules are sometimes very unpredictable. 01:10:06.800 |
They won't give it to you until a certain point. 01:10:09.300 |
You don't have that much say, even though you can request. 01:10:11.960 |
Even back at COVID, we had somewhere around 200 people who were working within the medical 01:10:17.840 |
Now, that being the case, the questions aren't going to be, did you make it, you know? 01:10:22.660 |
Did you make it to Sunday, every single Sunday? 01:10:25.340 |
But it's that question of, did you make every effort, or did you pre-plan, and did you do 01:10:31.540 |
If you have a business trip, we've said this in our membership class, if you have a business 01:10:39.680 |
I was just trying to see if you're paying attention. 01:10:44.180 |
The corporate time of worship is so important. 01:10:47.580 |
You're going to Florida, then you're going to go find Bible Baptist Church of Tallahassee, 01:10:53.020 |
Florida, and schedule in Sunday worship, and talk to your boss, and say, hey, you know that 01:10:58.780 |
I love going to church, Sunday morning, 10 to 12, give me two hours. 01:11:04.780 |
So that your boss knows, dang, that's of high priority, right? 01:11:11.700 |
Likewise, if you have family coming in, the example is, if you have family coming in, your 01:11:16.840 |
family members should know, dude, if we're going into Irvine with Mark, we're going to 01:11:26.840 |
We'll go to, you know, the 11 o'clock service, and then afterwards, I'll take you to Laguna 01:11:31.460 |
Beach, or whatever it is you're taking them to. 01:11:33.120 |
But you're setting the agenda because you're doing the due diligence to make sure that's a 01:11:40.220 |
priority even in their schedule, so your family knows. 01:11:43.940 |
And then, obviously, there are people who take family vacations, et cetera, et cetera. 01:11:49.280 |
Likewise, the question is, did you schedule into the vacation time? 01:11:56.200 |
That along the route of wherever you're going to visit, it's like, we're going to go and 01:12:00.220 |
worship God because it's Sunday morning, and God has called his children to gather and give 01:12:09.540 |
And maybe you might say, oh, but if we're here at this time, I'd even posit the thought, if 01:12:16.860 |
majority of the trips, because the weekend you take from Friday to Sunday, the other option 01:12:26.480 |
You'll have to eat the extra cost, but your soul will be fed on Sunday. 01:12:31.040 |
Your commitments will be upheld, and your priority structure and the value system in your life 01:12:42.960 |
Because the commitment is, to the best of my ability, my corporate worship given unto 01:12:49.360 |
God is going to be a non-negotiable in my life. 01:12:52.120 |
It should be such a staple that my children don't even bother asking me, can I please go 01:13:00.240 |
Because they know I never, never skip church for fishing, any other hobby, any other event. 01:13:07.180 |
Let them know if my parents come into town, because I always make sure that I worship God 01:13:15.520 |
That being said, I do want to share this interesting, this quote. 01:13:20.960 |
It says, if it's important to you, you will find a way. 01:13:31.560 |
It's just a saying that if it is of that high of a value system priority for you, this idea 01:13:40.140 |
of scheduling everything, making everything else have to step around it is possible. 01:13:46.180 |
Imagine if you went into a commitment that you're going to play softball every Sunday for 13 weeks 01:13:54.500 |
Now, I know some of you guys do, and thank goodness it's in the evening, right? 01:13:57.300 |
But imagine if it was Sunday right at that time, 9 to 12, you know? 01:14:05.260 |
Like, oh, Pastor Martin, do you think it's okay to schedule 13 weeks missing it? 01:14:09.900 |
It's like, you know, sometimes commitment is good, but sometimes commitment still can be 01:14:16.500 |
vanity because the object of your commitment is not Christ and His church. 01:14:23.480 |
Now, did you guys get time to read all the silly excuses? 01:14:26.700 |
I just put that up there because some of this stuff happened just in the last several years. 01:14:32.840 |
You know, silly NorCal people are like, but the Niners. 01:14:41.380 |
But you guys know, in recent history, Christmas fell on a Sunday. 01:14:46.940 |
And then there was this weird hoopla amongst the Christian community, like at large in America, 01:14:51.540 |
where some people were like, oh my gosh, it's on a Sunday. 01:15:03.740 |
And I'm going to get all suited up because what a special day. 01:15:09.560 |
Because we're going to give God worship together. 01:15:13.160 |
And the reason why I keep saying that little phrase over and over again is because now I want 01:15:18.320 |
to go into the perspective and attitude that will fuel this kind of application in our hearts. 01:15:23.940 |
And the first perspective, we all know that God called for specifically corporate worship. 01:15:38.720 |
Is He happy that you are worshiping in your car as you're driving to work? 01:15:45.220 |
Sitting at the top of your lungs in your car, you know, et cetera, et cetera. 01:15:48.800 |
But to say, because I've done that, that there was a generation of people who are this kind of weird mantra of like, 01:15:55.740 |
the church is not within the walls and the church can be anywhere. 01:16:03.920 |
But don't say the church is just anywhere, right? 01:16:16.420 |
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. 01:16:20.340 |
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving. 01:16:26.080 |
For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods, 01:16:31.060 |
whose hands are the depths of the earth, the peaks of the mountains are His also. 01:16:37.240 |
The sea is His, for it is He who made it, and His hands formed a dry land. 01:16:41.720 |
And again, in this poetic, repetitive term, it's a call to worship, drawing out the worshiper to join in the assembly. 01:16:49.680 |
God has called us to join together in the assembly to His praises, and a New Testament corollary to that is in Romans 15, verse 5 through 6. 01:17:12.940 |
Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 01:17:21.780 |
so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 01:17:31.000 |
And so if we think about this, we are saying that God has designed then, if sometimes we shouldn't be thinking of it, 01:17:40.220 |
but here and now it's so much emphasis on singing to the Lord and our voices raised aloud, right? 01:17:44.880 |
Let's say God desired actually whether your voice is great or not, to join in the choir. 01:17:50.600 |
And He said, choir meeting Sunday morning at 8, 9.30, and 11.30, right? 01:17:55.940 |
And we said, no, no, no, we can sing anywhere. 01:17:59.080 |
The question we have to ask then is not just simply, did I sing, but did I sing in the way God desired? 01:18:05.500 |
And what He desired was the joint voices of His church. 01:18:12.640 |
Unfortunately, during the COVID time, there was for us a weird, weird situation. 01:18:20.740 |
That was a very difficult, very chaotic, and strange situation. 01:18:25.460 |
One of the bad fruits that came out of that was this kind of mentality that's like, oh, you know what? 01:18:31.060 |
I can actually get everything I need to get through the video. 01:18:40.240 |
And there was this weird phrase that I heard from people from side to side. 01:18:43.920 |
Sometimes they'll miss Sunday and be like, it's okay, I got the sermon. 01:18:46.940 |
Okay, to say it's okay, I got the sermon, you get maybe one point. 01:18:52.520 |
At least you got the sermon and you followed along in the biblical teaching. 01:18:56.640 |
But you understand how insufficient that is, right? 01:19:00.360 |
And that's my point, is did God receive our sincere corporate united voice and worship 01:19:12.480 |
On Sunday morning, did God get what he wanted? 01:19:16.360 |
Did God get the beautiful, pleasing sight of his children joined together, praising his name? 01:19:26.720 |
But subtly, even sometimes for us who've just been regular to church and we're serving hard, 01:19:32.080 |
there can be this weird thought in our mind, subtly, the object changes to, I got what I needed from the service, 01:19:39.280 |
which is encouragement, inspiration, and also biblical teaching. 01:19:46.620 |
So, I move on to the second perspective and attitude, which is the grand privilege. 01:19:55.520 |
Being able to join together as a group, remember, for the longest time, was actually not allowed for all of us who aren't Jewish. 01:20:13.060 |
We were the goyim, the ethne, the unholy ones, the untouchables. 01:20:21.920 |
It was a massive privilege for us to gather in person. 01:20:26.540 |
And so, in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 19, it says, 01:20:32.720 |
Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 01:20:38.600 |
by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh, 01:20:43.720 |
and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 01:20:47.080 |
let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, 01:20:51.360 |
having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, 01:20:56.940 |
So, the perspective here in this passage has so many, since then, 01:21:06.300 |
the perspective of understanding what a massive and grand privilege it is to enter in, right? 01:21:17.880 |
And so, he says, since we have this immense privilege to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 01:21:22.800 |
and he describes in this passage that there is this anticipation of a new life. 01:21:27.980 |
Verse 20 says, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil. 01:21:33.520 |
Still, the imagery is there is this massive veil, and there's a new way, 01:21:40.920 |
Point three, since we have a great priest over the house, 01:21:44.460 |
and for us, having this clarity of conscience because we've been washed. 01:21:49.480 |
You're not a person who's supposed to scream unclean and clean. 01:21:54.320 |
You weren't the outcast, or you were the outcast, 01:21:59.280 |
but now because of Christ, you're allowed to enter in. 01:22:02.220 |
And therefore, since you have this privilege, 01:22:04.440 |
then let us hold fast the confidence of our hope without wavering. 01:22:10.600 |
and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 01:22:21.720 |
and all the more as you see the day drawing near. 01:22:33.080 |
I feel like somebody who really, really understands this, 01:22:54.980 |
But that individual who is overjoyed to come assemble is right. 01:23:15.340 |
Because sometimes we ourselves are just burdened with some kind of guilt. 01:23:21.060 |
Because those of you guys who are long-term members, 01:23:28.480 |
would you know how to inspire and encourage a younger believer, 01:23:34.320 |
and you find this young individual didn't come to church? 01:23:45.320 |
And maybe it was just such a common sin as I was tired at the end of the week, 01:23:51.100 |
and I gave in to watching some inappropriate movie, 01:23:58.480 |
and you know, I didn't want to be a hypocrite, 01:24:06.960 |
Because every single one of us would have the responsibility to motivate and inspire, 01:24:38.200 |
Let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, 01:24:52.720 |
God has set the regular attendance on Sunday to be a purifying event for us. 01:24:58.800 |
You should have come 15 minutes early and prayed with me. 01:25:17.620 |
I'm going to consider how to stimulate a brother. 01:25:33.540 |
Why do you think they were in the habit of doing that? 01:25:36.760 |
I think those of you guys who know the context of Hebrews, 01:25:50.880 |
These individuals were maybe tempted to be like, 01:26:07.740 |
let that be a challenge for us in terms of their context 01:26:13.980 |
what's really interesting is in Hebrews chapter 12, 01:26:19.140 |
and you have not resisted to the point of bloodshed, 01:26:28.680 |
and then chapter 12 talks about how God will discipline his children. 01:26:32.320 |
But what's really interesting is there's an added phrase 01:26:35.360 |
that you have not resisted to the point of bloodshed 01:26:47.820 |
were flaking on their commitments to come to service, 01:26:52.800 |
Even your fear of the persecution and the hardships by men, 01:27:09.500 |
and that's why we read that wonderful passage 01:27:17.120 |
those who had received his word were baptized, 01:27:19.920 |
and that day there were added about 3,000 souls. 01:27:34.860 |
But they were continually devoting themselves 01:27:52.400 |
And so what we find here is that the spirit-filled, 01:27:57.860 |
to simply the fellowship of genuine believers 01:28:17.020 |
just being honest with you on a certain topic,