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I know it was raining hard, treacherous terrain outside. I'm glad you guys are all here. Let's take a moment to have everybody settle to their tables, and then we'll pray to begin our Bible study. Please join me in prayer. Lord, Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for your amazing grace.
God, we are so grateful when we think about you and your holiness and your absolute grandeur looking upon us with both pity, kindness, and love. And God, knowing who we are, Lord, we're oftentimes slow to learn, oftentimes resistant, and yet with your perfect patience, you continue to instruct us and teach us.
We thank you, God. And Lord, as we participate in another Bible study, we pray with that kind of gratitude. We would be longing, Lord, to receive your instruction. We would long for conviction from your truth, Lord, that we would grow. We want to now join our voices to praise you.
We want to lift you up on high as you deserve, and we ask, God, that as we give to you the worship, Lord, ultimately, it would be pleasing unto you. It's in Christ's name, amen. - Amen. (gentle music) Sing "I Stand." ♪ I stand amazed in the presence ♪ ♪ Of Jesus the Nazarene ♪ ♪ And wonder how he could love me ♪ ♪ A sinner condemned unclean ♪ ♪ Singing how marvelous, how wonderful ♪ ♪ And my song shall ever be ♪ ♪ How marvelous, how wonderful ♪ ♪ Is my Savior's love for me ♪ (gentle music) He took my sin.
♪ He took my sin and my sorrows ♪ ♪ And made them his very own ♪ ♪ And bore the burdens of calvary ♪ ♪ Suffered and died alone ♪ ♪ Singing how marvelous, how wonderful ♪ ♪ And my song shall ever be ♪ ♪ How marvelous, how wonderful ♪ ♪ Is my Savior's love for me ♪ (gentle music) ♪ And with the ransomed in glory ♪ ♪ His face I at last shall see ♪ ♪ And with my joy through the ages ♪ ♪ To sing of his love for me ♪ ♪ Singing how marvelous, how wonderful ♪ ♪ And my song shall ever be ♪ ♪ How marvelous, how wonderful ♪ ♪ Is my Savior's love for me ♪ (gentle music) Sing I will trust.
♪ I will trust my Savior Jesus ♪ ♪ When my darkest hours befall ♪ ♪ And trust him when to simply trust him ♪ ♪ Seems the hardest thing of all ♪ ♪ I will trust my Savior Jesus ♪ ♪ Trust him when my strength is small ♪ ♪ For I know the shield of Jesus ♪ ♪ Is the safest place of all ♪ ♪ Jesus, only Jesus ♪ ♪ Help me trust you more and more ♪ ♪ Jesus, only Jesus ♪ ♪ May my heart be ever yours ♪ (gentle music) ♪ I will trust my Savior Jesus ♪ ♪ He has set his way as best ♪ ♪ And I know the path he's chosen ♪ ♪ Leads to everlasting rest ♪ ♪ Jesus, only Jesus ♪ ♪ Help me trust you more and more ♪ ♪ Jesus, only Jesus ♪ ♪ May my heart be ever yours ♪ Sing oh.
♪ Oh on that cross ♪ ♪ How it was seen ♪ ♪ I can go now ever trusting ♪ ♪ In the one who died for me ♪ ♪ What could I bring ♪ ♪ For your gift is complete ♪ ♪ And so I trust you, simply trust you ♪ ♪ Lord with every part of me ♪ Sing that again.
♪ Oh on that cross ♪ ♪ How it was seen ♪ ♪ I can go now ever trusting ♪ ♪ In the one who died for me ♪ ♪ What could I bring ♪ ♪ For your gift is complete ♪ ♪ And so I trust you, simply trust you ♪ ♪ Lord with every part of me ♪ Sing Jesus.
♪ Jesus, only Jesus ♪ ♪ Help me trust you more and more ♪ ♪ Jesus, only Jesus ♪ ♪ May my heart be ever yours ♪ ♪ Jesus, only Jesus ♪ ♪ Help me trust you more and more ♪ ♪ Jesus, only Jesus ♪ ♪ May my heart be ever yours ♪ ♪ May my heart be ever yours ♪ Okay, let's pray.
Father, we just thank you for this time of worship. And as we just sang, God, we wanna trust in you, Lord, and we wanna trust in you more and more each day. Lord, as you just remind us, God, that you are the same God that made those promises to Abraham.
We're the same God that we worshiped here today. So God, as we just continue through the study and just continue to reflect on the cross, Lord, we pray that we would continue to just grow in amazement, Lord, of the beauty of the cross and what you've done for us, God.
I would just thank you for this time once again, and it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. So we'll just break off into our small groups and then meet back at eight o'clock. Thanks. - Thanks. 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It looks like everybody's coming back into the main room. If you're in a classroom, please make your way over so we can start our review. (indistinct) (indistinct) (indistinct) (indistinct) (indistinct) (indistinct) (indistinct) (indistinct) (indistinct) (indistinct) Okay. So as we're thinking about that or getting situated, if you have questions about the passage, you can shoot me a text.
I will try to peer over at my phone and if I can address the question in lesson, we can go ahead and try and do that. Okay. Well, let's take a moment to pray and we'll begin the review. Let's pray together. Lord God, we do want to just understand more of how you've worked in history and God, just how faithful you have proven to be, how sovereign you have proven to be.
And we know, God, that that is such a challenge for us to trust, but I ask that, God, you would cause us to grow in it, to have such a confidence in your character, in your work, and who you are to us. We thank you in Christ's name. Amen.
Okay. So this is just a quick review that if you guys kind of think about it, there's a sense in which this is one letter and we're chopping it up, so it'll feel pretty repetitive. At the same time, he is repetitive. Within the letter, essentially, he is highlighting and then restating and then now giving example of the point that he's been already making, which is, whoops, in the previous section, he said, "Before, you didn't know God, right?
Before, you were a slave. You were a child slave. You had no freedoms and you were underneath a strict, strict disciplinarian. How in the world is it that you would go back, right?" There was a frustration. There was a perplexity to such a degree where he made a very personal plea saying, "I beg you, be like me." Yes?
So when we think about that, the last, last time that we studied, he moved from there to just highlight his relationship, right? His relationship with the church and say, "You guys know that we were good. You guys know that I had no false ulterior motives and you were good to me.
What in the world happened?" From that, he comes back to highlight this idea of how can you go back? How can you go back to slavery by talking about this illustration? So our passage today, if you took a look, you had to essentially read all of it down to verse 31, maybe even to verse 1 of chapter 5 to get the full thrust of the argument.
Look at the contrast between slavery and freedom. Look at the contrast of the two lines, the two sons, okay? Look at what's happened. And so today, we're looking at an illustration, okay? An illustration, sorry, give me a second here, an illustration of that point. And by way of just quick like outline, okay, you don't need to copy this down and stuff.
This is just for-- it's good for us to think about the flow of thought that Apostle Paul is leading us down, okay? So in verse 21, he is giving this poignant rebuke, "You who want to be under the law." And then in 22 to 23, he gives just the setup of the story.
There are two sons, okay? One was of the flesh, one was of the promise. And then in verse 24 to 30, he actually explains that this is this, this is that, et cetera, et cetera. And then for today, it is a little bit awkward because we cut it right in the half just simply talking about the bondwoman, yes?
And then verse 31 is the conclusion. It's like, "Therefore, you need to know we're of freedom," okay? Now, by way of review then, remember that whenever you're trying to outline a passage, whenever you're trying to study, it's good for you to follow essentially the flow of thought, and the flow of thought really is constantly just contrasting.
Look at this, look at this, look at this, look at this, and that's how it's been so far. This, again, you don't have to write down a copy because this is all review of the stuff you know, but we just want to feel how he is feeling about all this because in the illustration, even setting up the illustration, it comes at us with just that poignant kind of rebuke like, "Do you even know the law," right?
And what he's saying is the works of the law, it's causing you to be cursed. It's leaving you in ignorance. It's leaving you in bondage, whereas by the sovereignty of God, in faith in Jesus Christ through the grace of God, there is blessing upon blessing, the blessing of justification, the blessing of righteousness, blessing of receiving the Spirit, and all the blessings that come just like with Abraham, okay?
And so he is contrasting for us, this side is all flesh. This side is by the promise of God. Let me show you. And that, he says, is let me show you by the example of the bondwoman and of the free woman, okay? So that's just all kind of intro and overview of the paragraph.
Let's now take part one. He begins with, "Tell me, "you who want to be under the law, "do you not listen to the law?" What is Apostle Paul really asking here? Now, there was a temptation in me just to say, "Hey, we've already "talked about his tone. "We've actually asked the question, "'Guys, why do we keep falling "'to these kinds of errors "'over and over again?'" And we talked about how sometimes we can fall into a just rote like ritual of going to services, having specific times of worship, and that's the only time I go.
We have talked about times when our hearts aren't right and we just kind of lazily fall into giving God just our meager offerings of the 30 minutes to an hour, whatever it may be, and we think he's going to accept that. We talked about this and that. But even though there's a temptation to say, "Hey, I don't want to repeat this," I actually realized, "Oh, I shouldn't," because Apostle Paul is doing just that.
He's already pounded the point, and to use an idiom of beat the dead horse, but not only is he beating the dead horse, he's giving a visual example of let's beat it again. And the reason why he's doing that, I realized, is because how pervasive is actually the reasons why we fall to things like wanting to be under the law.
So we have to ask that question, and I think, essentially, when we think about wanting to be under the law, I want to highlight Galatians 6, 12. Apostle Paul describes why the false leaders want to be under the law, because they love making a good showing of the flesh.
How many of us struggle with wanting to have a sentiment of, "At least I did it." Another way to put it is, how many of us struggle with the value of self? How many of us struggle with wanting to be valued by others, because we can do what everybody else does?
Stuff like that, we don't just wrestle with it one time, we wrestle with it over and over again. Stuff like our own pride, where we don't want to feel like we're falling behind anybody else, that we're not meeting up to somebody's expectation, stuff like that, we struggle all the time.
Stuff like fear of man, stuff like wanting to make a good showing in front of others, to the degree that men need to be told, "Do not lust, flee from sexual immorality." The pervasiveness and subtleness of pride is something we need to hear over and over again, amen? Now that being said, Apostle Paul asks this question, "Do you not listen to the law?" And in asking the question of like, "What is he really asking?" He's not really asking, is he?
He's more so just making an accusation. You don't know the law. Even though you try to bind other people, even though you try to get everybody within the system, you have no idea the demand of the law, you have no idea the purpose of the law, and obviously you have no idea how the law set us up for Christ and freedom in the Lord, right?
So we move forward to the example that Apostle Paul is giving, and the example is of Abraham and Sarah, and so for that, it's story time. Please turn your Bible over to Genesis. I hope that in your own personal study, you read the passage because you really had to rehearse and review the story in order to get the points, okay?
So please turn to Genesis 15, verses one through six, and we are going to be hitting several large portions of the text, so make sure that you're following along in your own Bibles, okay? So let's remember the narrative that Genesis chapter 12, God had already given Abraham promises of blessing, incredible blessing, okay?
And then in chapter 15, it says, "After these things, the word of the Lord "came to Abram in a vision, saying, "'Do not fear, Abram. "'I am a shield to you. "'Your reward shall be very great.'" Amen. What an incredible promise of blessing from God. Verse two, "Abram said, 'Oh, Lord God, "'what will you give me, since I am childless, "'and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?' "And Abram said, 'Since you have "'given no offspring to me, "'one born in my house is my heir.' "Then behold, the word of the Lord "came to him, saying, 'This man "'will not be your heir, but one "'who will come forth from your own body "'shall be your heir.' "And he took him outside and said, "'Now look toward the heaven and count the stars, "'if you are able to count them.' "And he said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.' "Then he believed in the Lord, "and he reckoned it to him as righteousness." What a beautiful scene, right?
He takes him outside and looks at the stars and says, look, your descendants will be like this. What a beautiful scene. And praise God, at that moment, Abram exercised faith. And so Abram's righteousness was that he walked miles and miles from the Ur of Chaldeans and all the way through Canaanite land and went through Egypt and all that kind of stuff?
Was this righteousness that he did amazing things and was victorious and stuff like that? It's kind of crazy to think his righteousness is just staying still and being amazed at the stars and saying, God, I believe you when you say you're gonna bless me. Take that as a point of conviction for us.
Righteousness in this moment for Abram is for him to be able to sit still, to trust and wait beyond what he sees with his situation. He's getting old, his wife is getting old, and he has nothing to show for it in the physical flesh. His righteousness is to say, but I still trust you.
Amen? The story continues. Go over to verse 12 of chapter 15. Verse 12. God decides to show Abram it was enough. Hebrews says it would be enough for God to just say the word because God never lies. But God expresses, visually expresses his sovereignty by giving Abram this covenant expression.
Verse 12 says, "Now when the sun was going down, "a deep sleep fell upon Abram, "and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him." Jump down to verse 17. Verse 17 says, "It came about when the sun had set "that it was very dark, and behold, "there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch "which passed between these pieces.
"And on that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, "saying, 'To your descendants, I have given this land "'from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, "'the river Euphrates.'" Okay? Now, the reason why I'm reading these passages is because by God's great expression, he was showing visually so that we could all see.
Yes? But what's more, as you know, in our passage, it talks about covenants, and this is one of the more profound biblical covenants that we need to know God plans to fulfill all that he has promised to Abraham. And not a single one of his promises will fail, and we believe it.
We trust it. Why? That's his character. Okay? And when we think covenant, then, I want you to think a gift of God's will, a gift of God's blessing. Yes? It's not just simply a contractual agreement. You do this, then you do this, and then you do that, and when you fulfill it, then I will keep my part.
This here is God's will and testament. Okay? Now, the story continues to the part that we are all probably very familiar with when Abraham and Sarai is met with doubt. Go over to chapter 16, verses 1 through 6. Chapter 16, 1 through 6. Chapter 16, 1 through 6 says, "Now Sarai, Abraham's wife, had borne him no children, "and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.
"So Sarai said to Abraham, 'Now behold, "'the Lord has prevented me from bearing children.'" You know, before reviewing this passage, I had forgotten two elements of the story, that Hagar wasn't just, you know, just like a maid servant. She was an Egyptian servant. She was an Egyptian slave. And what's more, Sarai, in trying to convince Abraham, she invokes the name of God saying, "Maybe this is God's doing." Now, we continue and it says, "Please go into my maid.
"Perhaps I will attain children through her." And Abraham listened to the voice of Sarai. No, right? Don't listen to her. Now, by way of giving some sympathy, like I remember from the past that, like, it was 25 years since the time God promised him children, and then when they finally received Isaac, 25 years.
And as you guys know, but it wasn't just any 25 years. It was 25 years at the tail end when Abraham was essentially 100 years old and Sarai was 90. Imagine that, right? Imagine visually seeing that at that age. And what's more, periodically, in certain moments, there was these struggles.
These struggles where, like, you know, from year to year, I'm guessing. Can you imagine, like, bragging? For example, if you were bragging, like, "Oh, my goodness, I've got this incredible master plan "to invest in stocks, "and I'm going to make millions, millions. "Just watch." And you're so excited. I could imagine him doing that and the people around you saying, like, "Okay, it's been a year.
"Where's the money?" It's like, "Just watch." Ten years later, "Just watch." You know, like, I could imagine him just getting smaller and smaller. You know what I'm saying? Just to sympathize with the weakness of our hearts to continue to wait with trust. Now, we read the story continuing on in verse 3, and it says, "After Abraham had lived "ten years in the land of Canaan, "Abraham's wife, Sarai, took Hagar, "the Egyptian, her maid, "and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife.
"He went into Hagar, and she conceived. "And when she," that is Sarai, "saw that she," Hagar, "had conceived, "her mistress was despised in her sight." Jealousy. Green monster. And then it says, "May the Lord judge," oh, sorry. Did I just, oh, I skipped it. In verse 5, "And Sarai said to Abram, "'May the wrong done to me be upon you.
"'I gave my maid into your arms, "'but when she saw that she had conceived, "'I was despised in her sight. "'May the Lord judge between you and me.' "But Abram said to Sarai, "'Behold, your maid is in your power. "'Do to her what is good in your sight.' "So Sarai treated her harshly, "and she fled from her presence." Wow.
This is like the craziest Korean drama. You know, like, I can just picture it now. It's like she's screaming at the top of her lungs, like, "You did this!" And he's like, "What are you talking about? "It was your idea." And then she's like, "No, look, she's mistreating me." Now, I don't know if she is.
Like, if Hagar was actually like, "Yeah, that's right. "Like, I'm pregnant. "You're not." You know, like, I don't know. I can't read into the lines. But what I can imagine is the two of them just blaming each other. You know what I mean? And then I do think this is a moment of weakness.
And the Scripture is so real about the weakness of man. Straight up, he's just like, "Not my problem. "It's not my problem. "It's your problem." You know? Like, that is just cowardice. It's complete, like, you know, error of not owning up to what's happened. And the problem with this, as you know, is not only does it genuinely-- like, they turn to this solution.
It created division between Sarai and her servant. It creates division between the two of them. And as you know, this has lasting consequence for generations to come. It just wreaks a snowball of havoc, and more and more sin ends up being produced. And this is how we know every idol you have in your life, it becomes to us first a fortress where you think, "Oh, this is where I'm going to receive blessing." But it becomes your prison, and then it becomes your death.
That is the way of Satan. That is the schemes of our enemy. And so we ask, like, "Why did Apostle Paul use this analogy?" Right? When we think about this analogy, what are the points, and what are the stuff? When we think about it, it's like, "Dude, I could totally see why, "because Apostle Paul was first perplexed.
"I don't understand how you could do this." Same thing we would say to Abram. "I don't understand how you could listen "to your wife at that moment. "She tells you to go into another woman "and commit adultery. "How does that make sense?" And then we have a moment of sympathy, because if we're desperate for something we want so badly, we'll compromise, because sometimes all it requires is a little lie.
Sometimes all it requires is just like, "Just do it. "No one's gonna notice." Right? Sometimes you just turn to whatever recourse you have right in front of you, because the means don't matter as long as you get the blessing. How many of us have been compromised that way? Right?
This analogy is perfect, because we could see ourselves. It's perplexing, it's dumbfounding, and yet we could see it. How many of us would turn to our own measures to receive blessing? Now I know in the context of Galatians, what he's talking about primarily is justification. You cannot be justified by your works through the law, but neither can you receive God's promises and blessings in your life by you somehow coercing it.
You can't force God's blessing on you. That's crazy. Were you gonna barter with him? No, no, no, no. The blessings of God were his promises, and it's going to come by his glory, it's going to come by his grace, and by his sovereignty he has ordained it that it's going to be by grace through faith, that when we receive with humility, he's going to in his glory bless.
No other way. No show of your flesh, no dealing with him, no bartering, and definitely no going around the back. And so this analogy then, when he says, look, in the earlier passage, that this bondwoman was born, the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh. What is he highlighting?
Well, it's not as though Sarai had like, Sarah had like a immaculate conception and the Holy Spirit impregnated her. Both were through the flesh. But obviously what we're talking about is through selfish motive and by fleshly means, trying to get God to move is completely of the world. It's completely of the dark forces.
Okay. Now, in saying this, I want to continue reading the story a little bit more. Can you turn your eyes to chapter 17, verse 1? Chapter 17, verse 1. What's crazy is, I do believe in some sense, perhaps it doesn't say explicitly, but that their lack of faith and their doubting caused the delay.
It says that now when Abram was 99 years old, still no children, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly. Abram fell on his face, and God talked to him saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations.
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. I have made you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come forth from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after you.
And then he says, I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojourning and all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will bless their God, and I will be their God. Verse 15. Then God said to Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.
I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old?
And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? And Abraham said to God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before you. Okay. There's a reason why I read that long section. God is just like, for a long section telling him, this is what's happening, this is what's happening, and this is how I will hold my covenant with you.
But you notice how that segment comes with Abraham's response. Abraham's response is, Why don't you just bless Ishmael? What do you think God's answer to that is? Why can't God just bless Ishmael? Why can't just God be like, Fine, Abraham. Right? Take some time to think about that, and I think this is to where I said earlier, what is to us the greatest matter is the blessing.
To God, beyond just simply the blessing, it's always His glory. Right? It's always His glory. God had designed that through the way that He was going to bless Abraham, that God would be honored and glorified because He was going to be their God and by God's sovereign choice. Just like in Romans chapter 9 through 11, Scripture says, Salvation is not by the will of man, is not by the running of man, but is by God's choice.
This passage is essentially saying the exact same thing. Yes? Why does it have to be that we have to go through this means? It's because God's glory is at stake. That's my point. Okay, now moving to the last portion of our segment for today, Apostle Paul describes this kind of allegorical thing where he says, now you see the story, but I'm going to identify certain reference points for you.
You guys know how an allegory works. You tell a story like Pilgrim's Progress, and then it kind of coincides or has correspondence to a spiritual reality. It's essentially a big illustration, right? And he talks about the fact that Sarai, Sarah, and Hagar are two covenants. For us, we're just going to focus on Hagar, and he says here that one is proceeding from Mount Sinai, bearing children who are slaves, and she is Hagar.
What's really interesting is you would think that the illustration or the allegory has some really far spiritual reality, but it's actually like he's just restating. He says, now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds with current Jerusalem for she is in slavery with her children. What do I mean by, okay, you have these two things.
Hagar is Mount Sinai in present Jerusalem and in slavery. I want us to follow this, I guess, this line of thought, right? And I don't think it's so complicated that we need hours and hours to discuss. For us, when we think Hagar, she is an Egyptian slave. From her comes Ishmael, and Ishmael is then underneath as a slave, right?
That was the whole point. But then she points to this idea of Mount Sinai, which is in Arabia. So guess what? In terms of the lineage of Ishmael, history has it that the lineage of Ishmael, if you continue to trace it down, are those who are adversaries of the nation of Israel generation to generation, and now comprise of the majority of the Arabs in that area.
What you would think as current like Saudi Arabia and that whole peninsula, that's the people of Ishmael. And what's more, Mount Sinai is in there. Okay? And then what he says is, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem. What is he talking about here? What are the reference point, and what is this analogy really pointing to?
Okay. What I'd like to say about this is, let's see if I can boil it down so that it doesn't get too long, because I've already gone 30 minutes. What I'd like to say about this is, one, we understand that what he's trying to point at is she represents that line that is to be rejected.
But what's more, there is a spiritual reality to this analogy. Maybe another way to think about it is, if you take a look at verse 26, okay? Okay. He makes this reference in comparison. There is a present Jerusalem, and then there is a Jerusalem above. Yes? Okay. Earlier, we were just describing the contrast between what is fleshly and earthly, and that's all he's trying to refer to.
Right? Haggad represents that which is condemnation. Here's a passage for you that you'd want to jot down, and it comes from Hebrews 12, verse 18 through 24. Okay? Hebrews 12, verse 18 through 24. In comparison, the author of Hebrews says in verse 18, "For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched "and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, "and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words, "which sound as such that those who heard beg "that no further word be spoken to them.
"For they could not bear the command, "if even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. "And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, "'I am full of fear and trembling.' "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, "the heavenly Jerusalem." Okay?
So I think my way of conclusion-- I'm going to just-- you know, I realize I probably, like, have a better way of trying to explain the thought, but what I'm going to just say by summary is, you have on one side, earlier, everything that resonated with man's resources, flesh, turning away and down.
You had everything in relation to turning to slavery again, turning to things that would cause us to be imprisoned, yes? And then, here, he corresponds that and says, to this present Jerusalem, that is still earthly. If you think that being in Jerusalem is causing you to be free, he's saying, no, spiritually, you're still enslaved, yes?
And so this sets us up for the contrast to say, what we're looking forward to is nothing earthly. We're looking forward to the Jerusalem above, okay? All right. So let's take a moment to conclude there, and we'll pray over this teaching. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are challenged today as we remember a very familiar story, that, God, we can so easily turn away from trusting the God of the universe to trusting our own hands.
And what's more, we keep trusting the things that we can see. We trust kings, we trust nations, we trust all these other things. But, God, we want to be trusting you. So I pray, Father God, that you would continue to challenge us to not walk by sight, but walk by faith, and to, therefore, invest all the more, invest in the things that are spiritual, no longer in the things that are earthly, but, God, to have such an eternal perspective.
This we pray in Christ's name, amen. Okay, we'll do some announcements. How do I get to the--ah. All right, if you guys are-- have been kind of following along with all the announcements, Passion Week is just three weeks away. And, as you guys know, that Monday to Wednesday on 730, we're going to be having Passion Week devotionals.
Tuesday, this is for the BAM, we're going to have a dinner fasting, just a time just to pray for unsaved loved ones and family members and for the church. So that's Tuesday. So Monday through Wednesday, we have our Passion Week devotionals. Thursday, we have a Passover meal. And it starts at 630, and it's going to be in here, and it's 160 seating maximum capacity.
And Pastor Mark's going to be leading us through just how the disciples would have had the Last Supper with Jesus, and how the Jewish people for many years conducted the Passover meal. And so if you haven't done so and you are a member and you sign up, you will be given priority.
And so if you sign up, just know that. Like, priority will be given to first-time participants who are members. It's not quite yet open for non-members, so just kind of keep that in mind. Just because of seating, it's $10 per adult and then $5 per child. If the child is under four, obviously it's going to be free.
Friday of the Passion Week, we have a Good Friday service. This is going to be an overflow room. That part of the youth room is going to be an overflow room. So we're expecting it to be a little bit chaotic. So what we're asking everybody to do for the Passion Week, but especially Good Friday, is to get here early.
Last Friday, we had All-Church Praise and Prayer, and then the shuttle team, they said between 7:20 to 7:45, like two-thirds of the church came all at once. So it just threw everything into a little bit of a clump. So if you can, on Good Friday, come early. And the cafe will be open every day that week from 5:30 and on.
And so we're going to need a lot of help that week just to get everything running. So there are sign-ups available, so please do take note of that and then sign up as the Lord leads your heart. And then Sunday morning, we have early sunrise service in the courtyard, followed by our 8 a.m.
service. It's a quicker turnaround. And then if you are here, you can pick up a Hawaiian barbecue lunch and eat it here or take it home. Happy Easter. But it's three weeks away, so just kind of keep that in mind and start preparing your hearts for all that's to come.
We're going to be having, this coming Saturday, starting at 9 a.m., All Church Cleaning and Maintenance Day. There's a lot of stuff, a lot of little corners and crevices to organize and to clean up. So if you can sign up, please do sign up like Josh Yoon is doing right now.
And then if you show up, you can show up, but there's no guarantee you're going to get a specific task. So there will be refreshments, and by about noon, we typically finish. All right, so that's this coming Saturday. And then, as I mentioned, we do need volunteers for the Passion Week signup.
And this is not up here, but just for all the ladies, April 13th, Saturday, there's going to be a women's conference, just morning until about lunchtime, in the sanctuary. So if you guys can, just kind of start clearing your schedule for that to save the date. All right, and then here are the discussion questions, and have a good discussion time with your groups.
Thank you.