All right, this morning we have a, our China team came back last week and they came back Saturday and Pastor Mark gave a sermon and he gave his update, but we asked if we can have a couple people from the China team to give us an update. Well this morning everyone.

Yeah, so my name is Jeremy and I was part of the missions team that went out to China and we just got back this past Saturday, so it's been about a week now since we got back, but God really used this trip to open my eyes and to teach me a lot of things.

I just wanted to share a couple things that God taught me. So over the past two and a half weeks we had a lot of opportunities to be able to hang out with the students. We had about a hundred students. There were about 90 women and 10 guys, so we got to know the guys pretty well and just throughout the camp during break times, during meals, and during dorm visits we got to talk to them a lot.

And I think as we interacted with the students, God broke my heart a little bit for the students. A lot of the people were living out their lives just like we do here. They're pursuing their goals and they just, you know, a lot of them have been through rough experiences.

I talked to a lot of people that faced depression and even had thoughts about suicide and stuff like that. And I also met people that were a lot older, like in their 50s and stuff, but you know, you could tell that they kind of were looking for something more.

And so as I met these people, I felt like I really connected with them and I could relate a lot with them, at least personally. And God broke my heart for these people because they didn't have the gospel and they didn't know who Jesus was. And they were pursuing the world.

And at least personally, you know, like, you know, like it hurts me to see that because in the end, like none of those things really matter. So something that we questioned a lot with them was, you know, is that all there is to life, you know, just pursuing your job, getting a good education and stuff, studying hard for the students that are in there.

And it made me open my eyes to see the need of the gospel there, which was, you know, something that is kind of hard to see sometimes back at home just because I'm so caught up in like what I'm doing here and stuff. Another thing that challenged me, we did actually a devotion from John 4, 37 to 38.

It says, "For here the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor." Going out for two and a half weeks, it was kind of, I didn't really know what to expect and I didn't know, I kind of had doubts on how effective we would be just being there for two weeks because in the past two weeks, we got close to the students, but, you know, it wasn't a lot of time with them.

And so I think this passage really showed that although we were only there for a short time, that we were really able to make an impact on the students just by showing them love and just by, you know, talking to them. Something that all the students told us was that, like, they all knew that we were Christian.

I think that one thing that they were constantly saying is like, "Wow, like you Christians are like genuinely loving people." And I think just that alone was able to make an impact on them and be able to like help them think about, you know, our message to them more.

And so God taught me that he can use anyone and anything to make his gospel known. We've been learning about it in Romans a lot that although we're weak vessels, God uses us not by our own strength, but just according to his perfect plan. And so that kind of motivated me even coming back home that, you know, anything that we do, you know, can make a difference.

Sometimes I don't try because I feel like, "Oh, what's the point? I'm not going to make a difference." But God taught me that even just by showing someone compassion and just really reaching out to someone can really make a big impact because you never know what someone's going through in their life.

And so those are two things that God taught me during this mission trip. So I would say if you guys could pray for the students that we met. I think a lot of our team has made connections with the students there that they're still keeping in contact with right now.

So just pray that God would use like messaging as an avenue to continue to reach out to the students. They're asking a lot of questions and they're really interested, but just pray that God would open their eyes. And yeah, that's it. Thank you. Hello, church. My name is Christine and I'm one of the 10 team members that went on the China trip.

First, we would like to thank the church for your support and your partnership on this trip. We are just working really mightily in China and we thank you all so much for covering us with your prayers before and during the trip. And please continue to keep China in your prayers.

Our team was so blessed in China and I'm sure we all have so many stories to share. So please feel free to ask any of us about the trip. One of my favorite parts of the program was Pastor Alex's English corners that he added on as an optional session at the end of the day, despite having already had classes from 8 a.m.

to 7 p.m. for the students, a good handful of them still came out. So we were very thankful. A little background, Pastor Alex was a pastor here and he moved out to China a couple years ago. It was my first time meeting him in China and he's a really cool guy and I'm really thankful that I got to get to know him and be able to serve with him.

So the English corners are presentations on random topics. So our topics were culture shock, baseball, dating and marriage, conflict resolution, things like that. And then there's a discussion at the end and for the students it's a good way to practice English. And for us it was used as an opportunity to share the gospel with them.

So during these times God made a few things really clear to me. One thing was that God is going to move and work regardless of my efforts or sometimes the lack thereof of my efforts. By the end of the day we were all really exhausted and there were times when I just wanted to zone out or just sit there.

Yeah, there was one night towards the end where Joyce and I had to sit through eight, nine hours of speeches, which was really long. But yeah, even when I wanted to just sit and not really have a conversation about God, the Holy Spirit still moves. And those nights they asked so many more questions that we didn't even instigate.

Like Jeremy shared, a lot of them, all of them knew that we were Christians and they were really amazed that we would just come and pay for our trip to China to help them. So it was a really good way to really start talking about the gospel. And second, God's work in my life is undeniable and unavoidable.

So in the same way, whenever we were sharing, even if I didn't want to talk about God, He just came out anyways because I realized that all of my life decisions and my actions were based on my faith. And therefore I couldn't share anything about myself or my thoughts on any topic without just going back to the gospel and without sharing my faith with them.

And last, God uses me as a vessel. He's the one who worked in me and therefore He will work in the students' hearts. I was personally able to find a way to sneak in the gospel like once every day during those English Corners. So if you multiply that by 10 and then every night, we were able to share a lot and there's a lot of good conversations that came about.

And Joyce and I personally had really good opportunities sharing with some of the sisters. And one of the students named Felix and we were able to share a lot with her and she had a lot of really good questions. So she was one of the students that we gave a Bible to at the end and thankfully she goes to school really close to Pastor Alex.

So she's interested in going to his Bible studies and things like that. So that's something we're really thankful for and we hope and pray that she'll continue to be there if we ever go back. Yeah, but with that said, a lot of us were also really sad that we couldn't connect the students with any community or church or friends back where they were at because they came from all over China, not just Beijing.

So yeah, it was easy to feel hopeless or wonder if they would ever even think about the conversations we had. There was like nights where Joyce and I would stay there until 11 o'clock just sharing about who God is and like answering their questions. But as I've been reflecting on the trip and myself, I realized that that same principle could technically be applied to me or any of us here that, you know, God didn't have to work in our heart, but he did.

And in the same way he's going to work in their heart, whether or not they have that community or not, God's going to work in his own way. So I think that gave me a lot of hope and assurance in that. Yeah, and I just wanted to end with a couple of prayer requests.

First of all, a big thing, I think, like I just said, there's a lot of people who want to know about the gospel, but there's not enough people sharing. So yeah, China really needs more workers and more people to share and serve and, you know, spread the gospel in China and all throughout.

Also a lot of the Christians that we encountered out of the students, they struggled a lot with kind of just thinking of God as someone who helps them in times of need and kind of that's about it. So as we asked them more questions, it got them thinking, but they definitely, again, need more just people to guide them and help them live out their Christian lives.

For Pastor Alex, continual endurance, family's physical and spiritual strength, and again, more workers because, yeah, just praying that Pastor Alex will have genuine brothers and sisters that he could serve and just be encouraged by and encouraged. I think, yeah, it's hard when you're out there alone, even though he does have his family.

Yeah, so keeping that in your prayers. And finally, those that we reached out to and those that Pastor Alex is still reaching out to that God will soften their hearts and they'll be able to let go of the things that they've been holding on to and really give their lives to Christ.

Thank you. All right. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 11, I'm going to be reading from verse seven through 10. And as Christine shared, if you guys can continue to keep our missionaries out in China in prayer and also for our brothers and sisters, our pastors in India, I kind of updated you that they found a land that they're going to be building the training center in, but I got an email from them that the government is making it difficult for them to pull out money.

So they would only let them pull out a certain small amount each time. So if you've been following what's going on in India, the persecution is like exponentially growing in India. So if you've been following, so please continue to keep them in your prayers. So every little thing that they're doing, they're making it difficult for them.

So again, continue to keep them in your prayers. Romans chapter 11 verses seven through 10. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear down to this very day.

And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for our China team coming back safely last week.

And I pray that all the things that you have shown them and allow them to see and be convicted by that it would last Lord God more than just a few days or weeks. And I pray that it would be applied even at home, that they would see the harvest Lord, not just far away, but here.

And that even for our church, help us to see Lord that we are in the mission ground, that we would live our lives appropriately knowing father that we are a mist that comes and disappears, that everything that we do would be an investment for eternity. We pray father God that your word would speak to us that as Paul has intended his message Lord to convict, to strengthen, to build, to remind, I pray that it would have the same effect on your church in Jesus name we pray.

Amen. So again, if you've been following, and I think most of you guys, as we've been following through the book of Romans, Paul has been sharing about the justification by faith. And that's kind of like the central theme of the book of Romans. And we've landed on chapter nine through 11, where Paul says, what does it mean for the Jews then?

And then specifically in chapter 10, he says that the reason why the Jews missed their Messiah is not because of lack of work. They weren't rebuked for lack of prayer because they were prayer warriors. They weren't rebuked for studying enough. They weren't rebuked for not giving enough. And they were known to be great proselytizers.

They went and went far places to share their message. And yet they completely missed God. It says they had zeal, but yet they didn't have knowledge. So as a result of that, they were ignorant about the righteousness of God. They didn't recognize their own sin and they didn't recognize the righteousness of God.

And that's why they ultimately rejected Christ as the end of the law. The passage that we looked at in chapter 11, verses one through six, despite all of that, Paul asks a question. I asked then, has God rejected his people? Considering all the rebellion, many, many years of rebellion against God and being blind, then is God done with the nation of Israel?

And his answer was unequivocally, by no means. God has not rejected his people because he foreknew them. Before they were even formed, he said God ordained to work through them, to made a covenant with them. And despite all of their rejection, he says he's going to work through the remnant, a small group of people that he's going to keep.

And at the end times, he's going to restore to have genuine faith. And through them, he's going to fulfill his promise that despite all of that. The obvious question, the practical question we ask is, how could a nation who is so privileged have been given so much, have become so blind by the time of Christ, that even as he appeared to them physically, not only physically, but he performed miracles.

They were constantly asking for proof and Jesus constantly gave them proof. He opened eyes that were blind all their life that people could not deny. He walks on water. He calms the storms. In fact, at the end, he even raises the dead. And the nation of Israel, maybe they didn't see all of it, but they've seen enough of his miracles.

And he didn't mix words. There was no confusion. When Jesus rode on that donkey to come into Jerusalem, he was saying with an exclamation mark, if there was any doubt who he was, this should prove it. And yet when he was going to the cross, as a whole, the nation of Israel were completely blind.

How can they have completely missed him in that way? In verse seven, he says, what then Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. And they didn't seek casually. It wasn't that they missed him because they didn't put enough effort. The word for seeking in Greek is epizateo. And I mentioned this before, whenever you see a Greek word with the word epi in front of it, it's for the purpose of intensifying something.

So zateo means to seek. So when he says it wasn't the lack of seeking, it was epizateo. They fervently, passionately sought it, and yet they did not obtain it. They sought it intensely, but they didn't get it. You know, when I was a young pastor, younger pastor, okay, I'm not going to say I'm old yet, okay, when I was a younger pastor, you know, I grew up in the church, so I know that especially the Korean community, they're known for prayer.

You know, they get together sometimes five, 5.30 in the morning, and some of them spend an hour, sometimes even two hours, praying every single morning. So I grew up knowing that that's just kind of normal. When I first became a youth pastor, I was a part of a church where they met Monday through Friday, and I think they took a break on Sunday only, and then Monday through Saturday, every morning.

And because I was a staff at the church, I was required to come. So every morning at 5 o'clock to about 6.30, we would have prayer meeting, and then the pastor would give a short devotion, and then we would break, and everybody would go to work. Well, some of them, you know, I saw every single day at the church, and then some of them, whenever they had a break during the day, would come to church, and they would pray sometimes an hour, 30 minutes.

And so they were prayer warriors. And obviously, that was very challenging to me, and even though it was part of, you know, what was required of me, I really enjoyed it, to come in and spending time in prayer with a group of people, and it wasn't a small group.

I think the church, when I first came in, had maybe about 300 people, and then the prayer meetings, you know, maybe had about 50 to 60 people on a regular basis, and sometimes when they had a lot, maybe about 100. And so it was a lot of people gathering together in prayer.

And then I found out that a lot of people, to build that church, they basically offered up their wedding ring, you know. And majority of the people were blue-collar workers, so they weren't millionaires. They were blue-collar workers, and they weren't rich, but they donated their wedding rings, and there was this movement in the Korean church community where they were kind of saying, like, symbolically, they're marrying Christ.

And so when I heard about that, it was challenging, that people would give up something so valuable, and they would donate it to the church so that church could be built. And then, obviously, when I found out about that, I was very encouraged and challenged by it. But at the same time, in this same church, I've seen some of these same people get into arguments and get into fights.

And at one point, it got so bad where the police had to be called and break up these fights, and it was nothing new to me. You know, I grew up in the church. My dad was a pastor, so I've seen a lot of crazy things inside the church.

But what was confusing to me is it wasn't necessarily ungodly people. It was people who were praying in the mornings, who were sacrificing and giving and serving the church. They were the ones up in arms fighting and willing to swing at each other. Again, I would like to say that that was my one unique experience in the church, but that wasn't the case.

I've seen so much of that in the church. Oftentimes, the ones who get into that kind of stuff are not the peripheral people because they don't care. It's the people who are committed in the church, the ones that were leading small groups, the ones who are at the core, who are serving, and something went wrong.

How could people who are at least seemingly on the surface that seem so close to God, and yet when things went wrong, it became so ugly? I mean, since then, I've realized that this is not unique to our generation or even the Korean community. The Jews were guilty of the same thing.

They were very passionate, zealous, seeking. They were praying, doing Bible study, even proselytizing. They were doing all of this stuff, and it says, "Yet you had zeal without knowledge." There was commitment. There was dedication. There was sacrifice without knowing who Christ was. That's a tragedy of the nation of Israel, and that's a tragedy of many who are in the church where Jesus himself warned that when that day comes, "Many who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall not enter the kingdom, say, 'You had nothing to do with me.'" That's a tragedy of a post-Christian culture where we are raised with the gospel taught in Bible study, doing exposition, and yet never coming to know Christ personally.

It's all a theory, but we're never convicted. Paul gives a description of how the nation of Israel became so blind that even as their Messiah stood before them physically, and even as the Messiah was performing these miracles, they still missed him. There's four things that he mentions here in verses 9 through 10.

I think we need to take heed. How did they get to this point? It's not something that just happened overnight. This was characteristic of the nation of Israel, and again, I think it serves as a warning to anybody who's in the Christian community, in the circle of post-Christian culture, where we just kind of have a tendency to assume the most fundamental things, just like the Jews did.

So there's four things that he mentions here. One, he said God judged them by giving them a spirit of stupor. Now some of these overlap, but I'm going to mention four things. So one is God gave them a spirit of stupor. Second, their eyes that would not—God gave them eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear.

Thirdly, he says, their tables will become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution. Fourthly, he says, their backs will be bent because of their blindness. So I want to look at these four things and how did these things lead to them becoming so blind. First, he says God gave them a spirit of stupor.

The word spirit of stupor basically means to slumber or to be dull. John Stott calls this complete loss of spiritual sensitivity. That maybe at one point you were sensitive, but for whatever the reason, you become slumber, slow, lukewarm. We become so spiritually insensitive that even with the Messiah standing before them, they wouldn't recognize him.

Their hearts became so numb that they couldn't recognize the voice of the Messiah compared to the voice of false prophets. Spiritual dullness, which is oftentimes described in the scripture as lukewarmness or in the book of Hebrews to be drifting and simply neglecting. You might ask the question, well, if that's the case, if God gave them a spirit of stupor so that they would become insensitive spiritually and lukewarm, then how can God say it's their fault if God's the one who gave them the spirit of stupor?

Well, turn with me to Isaiah chapter 29, 9 through 10. Paul is actually quoting a specific text in Isaiah chapter 29, verse 10, but we have to understand the verse in chapter in verse 9 to see the whole context. Isaiah chapter 29, verse 9, he begins by saying, "Astonish yourselves and be astonished.

Blind yourselves and be blind. Be drunk, but not with wine. Sagger, but not with strong drink." In other words, before he gets to verse 10 and saying he gave them a spirit of stupor, he says, "If you continue to blind yourself, you will be blind. If you continue to astonish yourself by other things, then he's going to let you go." So in other words, he's not taking a group of people who are passionately seeking God in love and then he says, "You know what?

I'm going to judge you and turn your heart cold." His judgment basically is, if you continue to go down this path. At some point, the judgment is going to be, "Then go." He says, "If God speaks and over and over again you say, 'I don't want to hear it,' and at some point God is saying, 'I will no longer speak.' If God is revealing his glory and he's trying to get them to move and they keep on closing and turning the other way, at some point he says, 'I will stop revealing my glory.'" And that's exactly what he is saying here.

He says he gave them a spirit of stupor and he allowed them to pursue what they were committed to pursue. Again, in Psalm chapter 81, verse 10-12, it says, "I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

But my people did not listen to my voice. Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own counsels." He says the reason why he gave them a spirit of stupor is because that's exactly what they were doing. That's exactly what they were committed to.

They didn't want to hear what God had to tell them. When God sent prophets to rebuke them and warn them about judgment, basically they said, "We don't want to hear it." And they'd rather have false prophets telling them that everything is okay and God loves you. You're the apple of his eye.

Why would God judge you? And they deliberately chose to listen to them rather than the prophets that God gave. And he said, "Because of that, I will give you a spirit of stupor." Our insensitivity towards spiritual things is simply God releasing us in our rebellion against God. "You don't want to listen?

Then I will stop speaking. You don't want to submit? Then I will stop calling. You're going to harden your heart? Then I will harden it further." In Romans chapter 1, 24-25, it says, "Therefore God gave them up in their lust of their hearts of impurity." God gave them up.

God didn't take somebody who was godly and turn them over to impurity. He says, "They were going after impurity and they were refusing to submit, so he said, 'Then go ahead.'" And that was the final judgment. He says, "To the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the Creator, a creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.

Amen." Spiritual backsliding doesn't happen because you made a decision to do so. Spiritual backsliding often happens simply out of neglect. Lukewarmness is not a decision that you make. It is a dullness of us constantly refusing his call. When we refuse God, we never say no. We never say no because you know enough.

Who's going to come before God and say, "I disagree with you. I refuse to submit to you." We don't refuse God that way. Typically the way we refuse God is we say, "Not now. Not now." Because by saying not now, we are submitting. It's just not at this time.

Not in this particular circumstance. Not now. See, basically what God is saying is, "If not now," and you keep saying not now, at some point it will never be now. That's why in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 7, it says, "Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts and end the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness.'" In other words, what he's saying is when God is speaking to you today, it's his kindness that caused you to be convicted.

If you refuse his kindness to bring you to repentance, today, tomorrow, God may not convict you. I hear people saying all the time. "In the Christian community, you can't say no because that would be rebelling against God. That would not be Christian." We know enough that we need to submit, that God caused us to pick up our cross, but we don't say no.

We say, "Not now. Not in this circumstance. Not while I'm young. Not while I'm at school. Not when I have tests. Not when I have children. Not when I have these financial issues. Not when I have these trips planned. It's not now." Not realizing, not now, that tomorrow, God is not at the door just saying, "Okay, is it time now?

Is it time now?" Again, in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 13, it says, "But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." Whenever God calls and we say, "Not now," we become that much more hardened toward our sin.

Even though in our mind, we didn't refuse Him, we just postponed obedience. Any of you who's raising children, you know when you tell your child to do something and they say, "Not now," you don't think of it as like, "Oh, my obedient son. He's just not ready." That's not what the kid is thinking.

The kid is thinking, "I just said not now. I didn't say no." But a parent doesn't hear, "Not now." The parent hears, "No." When I ask you to do something, I mean to do it. The only reason why you're postponing it is because you don't want to do it.

I'm waiting for my motivation to kick in. I hear so many people thinking that the grace of God will always be there no matter what. I've been working with young people and I've seen the gamut of them, a lot of the young people that I work with now in their 40s.

So many of them have said, "Yeah, but just not right now. I really want to serve God, but after this, after I get my job and my career, my children, all of this, after this is all set up, then I can think seriously about what I can do." So I always have plans to serve God and go to the mission field sometime in the future.

But when days go by, I meet them two, three years later, they're never in the same spot. They're always much more hardened than when I first met them. They're much more callous than when I first met them. People never reject Christ by saying no. How many of you have met people who are really hostile to the gospel?

Some of you may have. Majority of the people that I meet are not hostile to the gospel. I mean, I've experienced some of it. I remember when I was younger, I got so zealous in sharing the gospel. I went out to the mall and I started sharing and this guy was not interested.

And my youth kicked in and said, "I got to share anyway." And I kept on sharing and he got angry with me. And then the more angry he got, the more motivated I got, because maybe I'm going to be persecuted for his name. And he got so angry, he chased me out of the mall with a broom.

And I left feeling good about myself, because I got persecuted. Majority of the response that I've gotten for sharing the gospel was not that. I can think of a few instances where people actually got angry. Majority of the times, it's, "Well, I'm glad that you believe that. I'm glad that you believe that.

I just don't. I'm glad it works for you, but it doesn't work for me." Majority of the times, even in the church, it's never a no. It's never a no. It's maybe not now. Maybe sometime in the future. Our biggest struggle, in our mind, isn't disobedience. Even though it may lead to disobedience, even though in God's eyes, He probably thinks it's disobedience, but in our mind, it's just distraction.

We've given so much of our time and effort to things that don't matter at all in eternity, and our hearts are filled with the things that have nothing to do with God, and hearts become callous and more and more callous. We hear, but we do not hear. We see, but we do not see.

The things that used to excite us and say, "Oh, somebody came to Christ," and be exciting for us, but our hearts become so dull that when you hear that somebody came to Christ, like, "That's great." And that's about how long it lasts. We become so callous to the things of God.

He says, number two, their eyes, they would see and not see. They would have ears, and yet not hear. In Romans 1, 19-20, it says, "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse." It's not that God shut their eyes and said, "You know what?

I'm going to play hide and seek, and I'm going to show myself only to those people, to some of those people. And the rest of you, I'm just going to close your eyes." He didn't say that. He said He made it very clear. He made it very clear. He left an imprint to lead all creation to Him, and yet they said they refused to see the glory of God.

Not because He was hiding, but because our hearts were darkened. How can you look at the universe? And again, I'm no scientist, but just common sense, and I look at how our body works and how fragile our life is. If we don't have proper blood circulation, if our heart doesn't work properly, if our lungs break down, if our liver doesn't work, any part of our organs doesn't work, we're dead.

If the earth rotates too fast, if it rotates too slow, if we're too far from the sun, too close to the sun, and we're all freaking out to death that this ozone layer is going to break and we're going to die. That one crazy guy in North Korea is going to push a button and we're going to die.

That there's going to be some storm coming and there's going to be flood, we're going to die. I mean, our life is so fragile. And it is fragile. And the only reason why we are being sustained is by the power of God. So it's just to me, it doesn't make any sense to look at the intricacies of how every one of these things have to work together just to live, and then to say, "All that happened by chance." The reason why I got long legs is because you had to run further, so Mother Nature just decided to give you long legs.

You know what I mean? My ancestors had to lift heavy things, so He gave us stocky legs. And it just happened that way. It just happened. How can you see what you see, what God has made, and then not to see His glory? The scripture says, "Because our hearts were darkened." Second Corinthians 4.3, it says, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.

In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." Who is the image of God? To have God reveal His glory, and then to say, "I don't see it." I mean, Jesus performed all those miracles in front of those people, but they kept on coming to Him.

What did they ask Him? "Give us a sign." Again, remember John chapter 6? All 5,000 people ate the miraculous bread. And then when they saw Him on the other side, Jesus said, "Don't work for food that is temporal but for eternal." And then remember what they said? "Then show us a sign." I mean, Jesus had been showing signs.

They ate the miraculous food, and they said, "Well, we need more signs." They were completely blind. You know, when we become spiritually insensitive and dull, we're not able to discern even right or wrong. We can be completely right, but we can be completely wrong. I mean, when our hearts become dull, we're not in a position to determine what is holy and not holy.

I keep hearing arguments from people saying, "How do we determine what is holy and not holy based upon if I'm not bothered by it?" I keep hearing people saying, "Well, when I watch this and when I do this, it doesn't bother me." If it bothers you, you shouldn't do it.

"So it doesn't bother me, so it's okay." At what point in Scripture did the Scripture say, "If it doesn't bother you, I'm okay with it?" Maybe the reason why we're not bothered by it is because our hearts have become so callous and dull. If you're even refusing God and refusing God, and our hearts become so callous, how can you use that callous heart to determine what is acceptable and unacceptable before God?

The Scripture says if you keep going down that path, at some point, God's going to give you a spirit of stupor. You're going to see, but you're not going to see. You have ears, but you're not going to hear. I don't know how many people who grew up in the church and try to talk about them the gospel, and they don't understand the gospel.

They can't articulate the gospel. And I know it's not because they didn't hear it. And I know some of their pastors, and I know that they preach the gospel. How can you be sitting under that teaching every single week and then not be able to explain the core of the gospel message?

They have eyes that cannot see. They have ears, but they do not hear. And God gave them over to spirit of stupor. The third thing he says, "Their tables will become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and retribution." The table, the way the Bible writes it, is talking about a place that symbolizes for the nation of Israel, a place of peace and security.

So in Psalm 23 verses 4 to 5, this is a text that we all know, where it says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies." He's comparing what he said in verse 4 with verse 5, and he's taking it to the next level.

He says, "Your rod and your staff, they will comfort me, just as you will prepare for me a table even before my enemies." In other words, he says, even in the context of all your enemies, God's going to prepare a table to sustain you, to give you peace, to bless you.

So the table that Paul is mentioning here, is quoting, is basically saying that this table that you relied on for safety and sustenance, will turn around to become a trap, a stumbling block and retribution. Again, we see it again in Revelation chapter 320, where Jesus is standing at the door, knock, and he says, "If you open the door, I will come into you and dine with you and you with me." So he describes repentance and restoration as dining with him.

So this idea of the table and dining is to find peace and blessing and safety. So the judgment that is being proclaimed in this text is that those things that the Jews, that the nation of Israel was seeking for peace, for seeking for sustenance, rather than giving them that, will end up becoming a trap, a stumbling block, and even retribution, Now, what could he be possibly talking about?

Obviously, in the context, he's talking about the law. That the Jews pursued the law, thinking that that's where they were going to find peace. If they kept the Sabbath perfectly, that they were going to find blessing. And every single day, they greeted each other by saying, "Shalom!" Peace! Peace be unto you!

Peace be unto you! And they thought that the path of peace was through keeping this law. But instead, what did Paul say in the beginning? Those with the law will be judged by the law. Those without the law will be judged without the law. So the very thing that they thought was going to bring life was going to bring judgment.

The very thing that they pursued, it became their stumbling block. Martin Luther, in describing this judgment, says this, "It is like a flower in a field whose nectar is used to make honey for the bee. But the nectar is poison to the spider. To those who are being saved, the word of God is sweetness and honey.

But for those who are perishing, it becomes poison." The very thing that we pursue, that the Jews pursued, turned out to be their source of judgment. The table that he is describing, obviously to the Jews, it was the law. But this is applicable to us even if we are not Jews.

Basically, anything that we place in our pursuit and our hope where Christ ought to be, eventually becomes a trap. If we put our confidence in our friendship, that can easily become a trap. If our refuge is found in money, it easily becomes a source of a trap, retribution. Anything that we place where God was supposed to be, God is supposed to be.

If you think about the sin of Adam and Eve, of eating the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, that simple sin, and we can almost say it's innocent, and yet that innocent sin led to condemnation of mankind. Compare that to the sin that you may have even committed this week.

Think about the things that we commit, both things that we know or don't know. In comparison, we're kind of like, "Well, it's not bad. At least it's not as bad as those people." But compare that to Adam and Eve, what they did. What Adam and Eve did was very innocent in comparison to most sins that you and I have very intimate knowledge of.

But why did that particular sin lead to condemnation and death, not only for them, but all descendants from that point on? Because at the core of that sin was a rebellion against God. At the core of that sin, instead of receiving life and wisdom from God, they sought it outside of Him, saying, "I'm going to live.

I'm not going to trust in you, and I'm going to live on my own." They sought wisdom outside of God. Anything that replaces God as Lord will eventually lead to a trap, a stumbling, and a retribution. So at the core of that sin, it wasn't just the act in itself.

It's a rebellion in their heart that chooses to find life somewhere else. When you see it that way, when you see the heart of the sin, it may at times seem very innocent. In fact, we may even look righteous on the outside. We may be seeking certain things inside the church by serving, by giving, but at the core of it, it's not to serve Christ.

It's not to honor Him. It's not to worship Him. Even in the church, even in our passionate pursuit, it could be finding our safety, our worth in something else outside of Christ. And all it does is lead to bitterness, a stumbling. Our hearts are so fickle, and it's constant in rebellion against God.

And sometimes, a lot of times, we don't even know it. We can give ourselves to something and be completely blind. You know, the most bitter people in the world that I've met, and I'm sure I haven't met a lot of people, but at least the people that I've met are pastors.

You know, I used to hear that when I was a young pastor, that pastors, you know, usually the retired pastors, their hearts are dark, and they're black. You know, and I understood it because I grew up in a pastor's family, and I saw all the mess, and that's why I didn't want to be a pastor.

But I see why. You know, now that I've been in ministry a certain period, and you know, when I meet young pastors in their 20s, they're the ones usually with a lot of vision. You know, I'm going to do this, and you know, I found a new way of doing church, and we have this new cutting way, and they're always excited about going to conferences.

And then you meet pastors in their 30s, and they've kind of gotten punched in the face a few times already, you know. They're not beaten up yet. They've just been punched. And so it's not as idealistic. They're not idealistic about ministry, and they're not as eager to jump in and do something, and they're kind of like, they're a little bit more cautious, right.

But they haven't beaten up yet. They've just been punched a few times. When I meet guys who are in their 50s and over, you know, they're one messed up people. You know, and I have friends that every once in a while I'll meet and talk to them, and most of the times we'll share our stories, you know.

And a friend of mine, again, I had a friend who came up to the retreat, to the BAM retreat, and he's gone through a lot in ministry, and I could go through everything he went through, but he spent, I mean, he's been in ministry as long as I have, and we're talking about various things, and he just, you know, on the way up, he just leaned over and asked me, "Peter," like, because on the surface, it seems like everything's together, and he said, "Do you ever think about quitting?" And you know, I didn't want to discourage him, and I said, "Every day." You know, every...

And he started laughing. He's like, "No, I'm serious." You know, like, sometimes I feel like a schizophrenic. I feel like Sunday night, like, this is the best job in the world, and Monday morning, I don't know if I can keep doing this. And then Tuesday night, you know, I want to preach the gospel, you know, and see revival come, and Wednesday morning, I'd rather dig ditches.

And so it really depends, back and forth. And I see so many pastors who have been burned out and beaten, and you know, and we have our own struggles. And I realize, and there are times, again, it's honest confession. There are times when I ask myself, "Is this worth it?" And I struggle with that at times, okay?

I don't want you to get all discouraged, like, that's how I feel right now, all right? I feel great right now, all right? But there are times when I ask myself, "Is this all worth it?" You know? And I, because I see frustration, and I see struggles, and you know, I've been at it for so many years, that maybe the remaining time that I could do something else, and I have those thoughts.

But when those thoughts come to me, I always have to step back and ask myself, "Why are you doing it in the first place?" And I take a step back, and I ask, "It's because if I give, I want to see something. If I sacrifice, there has to be reward for the sacrifice." And I have to ask myself, "Is that why you started it?

Because you thought if you gave, God's going to give you something." And I realize that every time my thoughts go back to that, the very thing that I've been pursuing becomes a snare. It becomes a trap. Because my heart isn't motivated by the love of Christ. Can't be sustained.

I can't sustain it. Whatever small task, whatever big task it is, I can't sustain it, because I don't have the energy. Wherever, whatever I place where only Christ was supposed to be, even for a minute, if I put anything else in there, my confidence in you, and I'll just be honest with you, I don't have any confidence in you.

Don't get hurt by it, because I don't have confidence in myself either. I shared this with my friend, and he was like, "What? You said that to the church?" Yeah, I'm going to say it again today. I don't have confidence in you. I don't have confidence in myself. I don't have confidence in any system that you may think is better.

I don't have confidence in finances. I don't have confidence in your riches. I don't have confidence in your experience. I don't have confidence in any of that. I've been in ministry long enough. I know certain things are better, and certain people are smarter, and whatever, but in the end, that's not why he called us.

If that's the reason why I do what I do, I don't think I'll keep doing it. I've lost all confidence in myself. I've lost all confidence in you, which caused me to see Christ and Christ alone. The moment I take my eyes off of Christ, despair comes in. I don't think I'm going to keep doing it if I can't, which forces me to pray and come before God and ask myself, "Why did you start this in the first place?" He says, "That very table that you think is going to feed you is going to turn into a snare.

That very thing that you are hoping for is going to turn out to be a stumbling block. The very thing that you're clinging onto is going to turn out to be your judgment." And fourthly, it says, "Their backs will be bent because of their blindness." Basically it's a description of somebody where burden is so heavy that he bends his back.

When you lift something that is not that heavy, you just lift it, but when it's heavy, you tend to bend your back. And that's the description that he's making, that the very thing that you thought was going to give you life is going to be so burdensome that your back is going to be bent forever.

Isn't that exactly what happened to the Jews? They put all their confidence in the law. Law ended up becoming their stumbling block, and it became a burden too much for them to bear. The very thing that they put their confidence in caused them to be judged. We look at all of this, and the end conclusion of all of this, and God must be done.

He must be done with us. He must be done with the nation of Israel. If I ended right here, if the Bible ended right there, then we would all be in despair. Because you know, when we first become a Christian, you know, we read the stories of Israelites, and I think we look at the Israelites and say, "Man, these are foolish people.

God is so harsh with the nation of Israel." But the more we study, and the more we live, and the more we fail, the more we realize, that's me. That's our description. And so the end conclusion is, if God was done with them, then we would be done. So I'm not going to get into it this morning.

So after all of that, that this is the reason why they were so blind. God gave them over to their blindness. God gave them over to their hardness. God gave them over to their pursuit, and it all backfired on them. And so the natural question is, is that it?

And that's the question that we're going to start with next time. Verse 11, so I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? Is it done? Did their hardness got to a point where there is no hope? And the answer to that is, by no means. By no means.

You and I are here today because God is a God of covenant. God is a God of covenant. Just like he told his disciples, how many times do I forgive them? Seven times 70? Right? Seven times, they know, seven times 70. As long as they repent, forgive them. You and I are here today because God is faithful to that covenant.

If he asks for forgiveness, he is faithful and just to forgive all of our unrighteousness. That's why we are here. Not because of what we had done, not because we figured out how to do church, not because we figured out a way to be more clever, but because he said, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

And that is the only reason why we're here. And that is the only place where we should have confidence. Christ in Christ alone. Let's take some time to pray as we ask the worship team to come up. I don't know about you, but I've been a Christian long enough and I've been a pastor long enough that everything I've seen work and fail.

Everything. Small group, leader, follower, discipleship, home groups, you know, study, exposition, missions. Like all of it. It has its time. You know, bearing fruit, there are seasons of fruitfulness, there are seasons of dryness, there are seasons of hardship, there are seasons of fellowship, there are seasons that come and go.

But in the end, there's always seasons. And the only thing that is consistent day in and day out is Christ and his love. We put our confidence in anything else, we're going to be disappointed. We're going to stumble. It'll become a trap. So my encouragement, again, and I believe that this is the encouragement and challenge in the scripture, over and over and over and over again, fix your eyes upon Jesus.

I know you've heard it a hundred times. And you're going to hear it a hundred times more. Fix your eyes upon Jesus. What are you pursuing? What are you hoping for? Who did you desire to meet this morning? What are you pursuing? What are you waiting for with your retirement?

Fix your eyes upon Jesus. He's the author. He's the one who began it. And he's the one who's going to perfect it. Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.