back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 2/27/2022
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Let us begin our worship service this morning 00:14:58.800 |
by singing together the song, Bless the Lord, O My Soul. 00:16:02.400 |
Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me, 00:16:47.400 |
You're rich in love and You're slow to anger. 00:17:07.400 |
For all Your goodness, I will keep on singing. 00:18:36.900 |
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending. 00:18:45.900 |
10,000 years and then forevermore, forevermore. 00:20:12.900 |
The reason why we're a little thinned out today 00:20:23.400 |
but that there might be fruitfulness in their hearts 00:20:29.900 |
Three announcements, and they're all sign-ups. 00:20:32.400 |
So the first announcement is monthly evangelism outing. 00:20:40.900 |
Second announcement is a season fellowship lunch. 00:20:42.900 |
So anyone 50 years and older can sign up for that. 00:20:45.900 |
And then the third announcement are spiritual development 00:21:03.400 |
So please sign up for those as they're there for you. 00:21:09.900 |
we are going to be having baby introductions. 00:21:17.400 |
Well, as you know, there's a lot going on right now. 00:21:19.900 |
If you turn on the news, you see what's going on in Ukraine. 00:21:23.400 |
And the SBC is taking funds to help with displaced families 00:21:30.900 |
but next week we will be taking some special offering, 00:21:36.400 |
And as always, all our offering, you can do it digitally. 00:21:39.400 |
And then there's an offering basket back there. 00:21:52.400 |
use the resources that we would freely give to you 00:21:57.900 |
to accomplish your purposes and your kingdom. 00:22:00.900 |
And Lord, I pray that we would recognize and remember today 00:22:10.400 |
And Father, where we don't find that alignment, 00:22:12.900 |
would you allow us to use these times of offering 00:22:32.400 |
I pray that it would be effective unto your kingdom. 00:31:10.900 |
[MUSIC - "WHO ELSE COULD RESCUE ME FROM MY FAILING"] 00:33:42.880 |
And we picked his name Ezra because we love the verse. 00:33:51.380 |
Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord, 00:34:01.880 |
Ezra from the book of the Bible, when we do that. 00:34:07.380 |
given to him by our grandparents, his grandparents. 00:34:38.880 |
And we already got a picture of his name, or his name. 00:34:51.380 |
She's going to go with the name Judson, which 00:34:56.380 |
And Jinsung, we wanted something to match our daughter's middle 00:35:13.380 |
So yeah, our hope is that our son will grow up 00:35:16.880 |
to be this man of faith, and be able to share the gospel, 00:35:21.880 |
and to find his greatest joy in Christ, and Christ alone. 00:35:43.380 |
And this is our almost eight-month-old baby boy, 00:36:00.880 |
And his Chinese name is Han Xing, which is also 00:36:09.880 |
that he may come to know our Lord, have genuine faith, 00:36:29.880 |
We're actually introducing both of our kids today. 00:36:44.180 |
She took care of a patient during her pregnancy 00:37:04.880 |
And it's just a reminder for us and for him as he grows up 00:37:08.380 |
that to be thankful for God forgiving our sins 00:37:32.880 |
We chose Michaela because it means resembles God. 00:37:36.380 |
And our hope and prayer is that she will not only know Christ, 00:37:38.880 |
but also resemble Christ more and more each day. 00:37:42.880 |
We chose it because we want her joy to come from the Lord 00:37:51.880 |
We also chose it because we want it to be reminded as believers 00:37:56.880 |
nor how we feel, but it should rest on the unchanging promises 00:38:12.880 |
and that we would be faithful to teach Michaela 00:38:20.380 |
this incredible responsibility to entrust her 00:38:25.880 |
and we pray that we would store this responsibility well. 00:38:42.880 |
so he's been with us since the end of October. 00:38:51.380 |
Mainly the Isaac part is that we hold him with open hands 00:39:05.880 |
that he would be a great force for the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:39:26.880 |
And his middle name--my mom really wanted me to name him Daniel, 00:39:42.880 |
But our prayer is that we would be faithful stewards 00:39:44.880 |
and that he would depend on the God who keeps him. 00:39:52.880 |
Hi, my name is David, and this is my wife, Fionn. 00:40:05.880 |
She said that I could make some other suggestions, 00:40:11.880 |
Our prayer request is that for us, as first-time parents, 00:40:14.880 |
just that we can be good examples of Christ to him 00:40:17.880 |
and then one day soon, hopefully, that he too will come to know the Lord 00:40:28.880 |
Hi, my name is Alex, and this is my wife, Melissa. 00:40:30.880 |
We're introducing our second daughter, Violet. 00:40:33.880 |
We mainly picked the name because Melissa's favorite color is purple, 00:40:36.880 |
but we also wanted something a little unique and different. 00:40:41.880 |
We just pray that--yeah, I mean, for her and for her sister Faith 00:40:46.880 |
as they grow, that as parents we can just be good shepherds of the gift 00:40:51.880 |
that God has given us as well as that they will come to know the Lord 00:40:56.880 |
at an early age, hopefully, and that we can just really love on them. 00:41:01.880 |
Fun fact, I guess Melissa started having contractions here at church, 00:41:17.880 |
We have a 2-year-old named Chloe, and here we're introducing Aiden 00:41:23.880 |
who was born on New Year's Eve, which is pretty awesome 00:41:28.880 |
But yeah, his full name is Aiden Ren-An Chang. 00:41:34.880 |
We like Aiden--we chose Aiden just because we liked it, 00:41:37.880 |
and we didn't want anything that started with the letter C. 00:41:44.880 |
But the middle name was chosen by my parents, 00:41:49.880 |
So the first character, Ren, is part of a poem that spans multiple generations, 00:41:54.880 |
and so all the kids and all the sons in his generation has that Ren character. 00:41:59.880 |
And then An, just together, Ren-An means peaceful man. 00:42:04.880 |
But in terms of prayer, we just hope that he'll come to know the Lord 00:42:19.880 |
This is my wife, Hannah, and this is our third son, Marcus. 00:42:22.880 |
Fittingly, I come from three brothers, so God ordained us to have three sons as well. 00:42:28.880 |
We chose Marcus just to refer to the Gospel of Mark 00:42:32.880 |
because our first son's name is Tobias, which means the goodness of God, 00:42:35.880 |
and our second son is Adam, to man through the Gospel of Mark. 00:42:40.880 |
So it's kind of a stretch, but we hope our kids to be able to share the Gospel 00:42:46.880 |
and show the goodness of God that was given to us through Jesus Christ. 00:43:03.880 |
So we didn't have a particular reason for Emma. 00:43:08.880 |
But in terms of her middle name, Joy, our prayer for her is that, 00:43:12.880 |
like some of the other parents have said, we pray that she would find her joy in Christ, 00:43:19.880 |
And I think our biggest prayer request is, as we transitioned into having two kids, 00:43:24.880 |
our first is Jordan, that we wouldn't get caught up in the nuances of parenthood, 00:43:29.880 |
but that we would really desire to minister to our children 00:43:32.880 |
to be the first line of defense for being a good witness to them 00:43:36.880 |
so that they can know what genuine Christianity is. 00:43:51.880 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for each of these gifts. 00:43:55.880 |
Lord, you are the giver of life, the sustainer of life. 00:43:58.880 |
And so, Father, we pray that you would give them eternal life, 00:44:03.880 |
let these parents be strengthened in your gospel of grace. 00:44:07.880 |
Father, teach them to walk with you day by day. 00:44:14.880 |
All right, let's give them a final round of applause as they go off. 00:44:25.880 |
I wasn't sure if we were going to make it through that. 00:44:34.880 |
Okay, well, today we're going to be kind of anchoring on a text in Exodus, 00:44:42.880 |
but the sermon title is going to be "God Worthy of Worship." 00:44:45.880 |
And the reason why I wanted to go into a text -- 00:44:48.880 |
I mean, a few months ago I wanted to preach on the fear of God 00:44:59.880 |
and I've been wanting to share with you guys the idea of, like, 00:45:07.880 |
I don't know if it's been trained or something, you know, 00:45:13.880 |
and I could give a lot of the reasonings and the answers. 00:45:17.880 |
But the more I walk this walk, the more I realize there can be a greater 00:45:29.880 |
And I know when I'm worshiping well because I feel close to the Lord. 00:45:38.880 |
where things that I know about God start to come in alignment with my sight. 00:45:44.880 |
And so I'm going to begin by asking this question of us, 00:45:47.880 |
because I'm going to kind of preach a sermon. 00:45:49.880 |
I haven't preached a sermon like this before, 00:45:51.880 |
where I'm kind of mashing up three different things. 00:45:55.880 |
And I wanted to do that because a lot of what I'm going to be asking you to do 00:46:02.880 |
to continue to seek the Lord in your own life. 00:46:05.880 |
So we're going to start with this question, "Where is your heart today?" 00:46:09.880 |
And to engage in that question, and not just let it float by, 00:46:13.880 |
but to peer into your heart right now and to ask, "Where is it? 00:46:21.880 |
And other ways you can kind of look at it, "What are you distracted by?" 00:46:26.880 |
What's been consuming your faculties, your thoughts, your anxieties, your fears? 00:46:46.880 |
Ultimately, if we were to wrap all this up into one common theme or thing, 00:46:51.880 |
is to ask this question of us, "Where is our worship?" 00:47:03.880 |
and I was a little hesitant, again, to go into this topic, 00:47:07.880 |
because I've been studying the attributes of God recently. 00:47:11.880 |
And what I've been noticing in my own life as I was studying is, 00:47:14.880 |
man, I was blown away as I'm thinking about some of these common truths 00:47:20.880 |
And why is it that these common truths that I already know 00:47:24.880 |
from time to time, moment to moment, become stale? 00:47:34.880 |
When we come to Sunday worship, what is it that we're trying to accomplish? 00:47:38.880 |
And to come to this place and to say, "Okay, here's where my heart really is." 00:47:43.880 |
And from that position of wherever your heart is, 00:47:46.880 |
how do we get to this place where an active, genuine, honest, real worship of God, 00:47:58.880 |
What we know about worship is that it involves sight. 00:48:08.880 |
We need to have a relationship with Him, walk with Him. 00:48:12.880 |
This is what we mean when we say, "Abide in Him." 00:48:17.880 |
There needs to be an intimacy between me and God 00:48:24.880 |
I can't get away from this fact that when I just know a bunch of things about God 00:48:28.880 |
and I'm trying to coach myself of truth, it's not that that's a wrong thing to do. 00:48:34.880 |
But where worship becomes realized is when I simply see Him for who He is. 00:48:40.880 |
If we come to church and try to generate some worship in our hearts 00:48:45.880 |
to muster up spiritual willpower to say, "Believe this. 00:49:00.880 |
This is the biggest problem, I think, in our day. 00:49:06.880 |
We're missing worship in our lives when we're not seeing God correctly 00:49:16.880 |
We might have some church-generated view of God. 00:49:19.880 |
Or we might have someone telling you who God is. 00:49:27.880 |
and when we see passing, fleeting convictions in our lives, 00:49:31.880 |
it's because perhaps there's just too much where we're not walking with Him. 00:49:38.880 |
It's been a struggle for me to worship God rightly, 00:49:56.880 |
And beyond even outside there and what's going on with people, 00:50:09.880 |
It's tempting to fix my eyes on things that are around. 00:50:12.880 |
And especially right now with all the crazy stuff. 00:50:20.880 |
I was trying to think of a more, you know, like a smarter word than crazy. 00:50:33.880 |
And then we see the crazy, and then we become crazy. 00:50:39.880 |
We're just moving along with what's going on. 00:50:44.880 |
And thinking about it, I'm thinking, "What is this?" 00:50:49.880 |
It's not just what's going on with Russia and Ukraine. 00:50:53.880 |
There's all these different things going on in our lives. 00:50:57.880 |
We move along with the things that are external to us. 00:51:00.880 |
And too many times what I'm worried about in myself and in our church is that we turn to God, yes, and that's good. 00:51:06.880 |
We turn to God and we have the proper theology. 00:51:22.880 |
We move along with everything that's going on. 00:51:26.880 |
And then when our backs are against the wall and we realize there's nothing that we can do, we come to God and say, "God, I trust in you." 00:51:42.880 |
Like when the scriptures say that we are not to be tossed to and fro, I wonder why I'm tossed. 00:51:53.880 |
Why was there such great anxiety in our hearts? 00:52:03.880 |
And those places, I think, are places where we can start to look and see that perhaps our worship has been there. 00:52:12.880 |
Because when it's not lining up, the unsettling feeling in us is coming from what we have been worshiping. 00:52:28.880 |
Not to come to our last ropes and say, "Oh, I should worship God." 00:52:35.880 |
And that's what I wanted to concentrate on today. 00:52:38.880 |
Our anxieties reveal deep-seated things about our worship. 00:52:43.880 |
When we think of a future that doesn't resemble what we would want it to be, for me, I actually don't care. 00:52:53.880 |
I've come to this place where whatever happens, happens. 00:52:57.880 |
I look at my kids and I see what's going on and I'm like, "What's going to happen?" 00:53:02.880 |
And it begins to again show me what I've been worshiping. 00:53:14.880 |
And it splays and it shows that I've been having a low view of God. 00:53:21.880 |
It means that I've been able to say all the right things. 00:53:43.880 |
These things have become addendums in our lives. 00:53:49.880 |
We wrestle with things and then we come to this conclusion of, "Oh, but God is in control." 00:53:56.880 |
And it's not leading us many times as what we're forced into. 00:54:03.880 |
We need to reclaim a high view of God so we can see everything else rightly and not misplace our worship. 00:54:13.880 |
And I'm going to read our main passage for today and then let me pray for us. 00:54:16.880 |
So, from Tozer, he says, "To this I reply, that because we are the handiwork of God, 00:54:21.880 |
it follows that all our problems and their solutions are theological. 00:54:27.880 |
Some knowledge of what kind of God it is that operates the universe 00:54:30.880 |
is indispensable to a sound philosophy of life and a sane outlook on the world scene." 00:54:38.880 |
Exodus 3, verse 13. This is our main passage for today. 00:54:42.880 |
You could turn there. It's also going to be up here. 00:54:46.880 |
"Then Moses said to God, 'Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, 00:54:50.880 |
and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' 00:54:53.880 |
Now they may say to me, 'What is his name?' What shall I say to them?' 00:55:00.880 |
And he said, 'Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I am has sent me to you.'" 00:55:09.880 |
Heavenly Father, we confess to you that our eyes, with good things, with bad things, 00:55:16.880 |
intentioned or not, are so quick to roam and to be diverted away from you. 00:55:23.880 |
And Father, I pray that we would be a church this morning united in our desire to see you 00:55:28.880 |
and to have you captivate our full attention. 00:55:32.880 |
Father, that we might worship you and you alone, that we might love you with all our hearts. 00:55:37.880 |
God, we're in great need for you this morning. 00:55:41.880 |
Father, help us, teach us, mold us, and grow us. 00:55:47.880 |
And Father, teach us to obey and to move along with what you want of us. 00:55:56.880 |
So we're going to be going through three attributes of God today. 00:55:59.880 |
The first one is going to be God's independence. 00:56:02.880 |
And with every attribute, there's going to be a second part to that, which is that we are not. 00:56:07.880 |
We're going to look at incommunicable attributes of God. 00:56:11.880 |
So we see, as image bearers, we see like little imprints of it in our lives. 00:56:27.880 |
So looking at this passage again, when God says of himself, "I am who I am," 00:56:39.880 |
He's saying, "Hey, when they ask who, who is it that's sending you, say, 'I am.'" 00:56:45.880 |
And if you've grown up in the church, you just believe it. 00:56:56.880 |
And this statement actually drips with this idea of God's independence. 00:57:01.880 |
This is a statement where it's just, "Whoa," you know, like, "I am." 00:57:07.880 |
It almost feels incomplete because this statement belongs only to God. 00:57:10.880 |
For us, we need to complete it with something because we're dependent creatures. 00:57:31.880 |
There's nothing more that needs to be said at that point. 00:57:39.880 |
He is independent of everyone, everyone else. 00:57:43.880 |
Every other thing is dependent upon the only true independent one. 00:58:06.880 |
There's nothing new that will be preached today. 00:58:09.880 |
So if you're looking for something new, it's not going to come. 00:58:31.880 |
If we actually lived in this reality, think about what would happen to us. 00:58:38.880 |
If we actually believed that God is not dependent on anyone, and therefore, 00:58:44.880 |
everything, everyone, everything that we see in this world happening is dependent upon him. 00:59:06.880 |
We can't sit here and force ourselves to believe that. 00:59:10.880 |
Because the only way to have that apprehended in our heart is when we walk with God. 00:59:22.880 |
It's not something that needs to be told to me because we know it. 00:59:26.880 |
It's something that happens when I see him day by day by day by day. 00:59:37.880 |
Acts 17.24 says, "The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, 00:59:43.880 |
does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, 00:59:49.880 |
since he himself gives to all people life and breath and all things." 00:59:57.880 |
That statement right in the middle, "as though he needed anything," it's a scoffing statement. 01:00:08.880 |
And then the part after that is the necessary repercussion of it. 01:00:12.880 |
That is that he himself gives to all people life and breath and all things. 01:00:36.880 |
The way we live shows you actually what you currently believe. 01:00:46.880 |
There are things, we talk about independence. 01:00:55.880 |
I talk with a lot of college students who are saying, "I'm independent." 01:01:13.880 |
It's foolishness to think we're actually independent. 01:01:22.880 |
Is there anything, you or me, that any of us can do? 01:01:39.880 |
We wake up in the morning and pride ourselves on our efficiency and productivity. 01:01:52.880 |
Can any single one of us accomplish any of it? 01:02:07.880 |
We are fully dependent on the only independent God to accomplish anything. 01:02:16.880 |
I'm going to sound like a broken record today. 01:02:21.880 |
But how we live, where our fears are, our anxieties, our frustrations, our emotions, show our worship and therefore show our faith and our belief. 01:02:36.880 |
We're down to the smallest minutia we're dependent. 01:02:58.880 |
Ever since I was born 35 years ago, my heart has beat. 01:03:02.880 |
I know every single beat was dependent upon him. 01:03:15.880 |
Proverbs 16.9 says, "The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." 01:03:20.880 |
James 4.13 says, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.'" 01:03:29.880 |
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. 01:03:33.880 |
You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 01:03:53.880 |
Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." 01:03:59.880 |
But as it is, and I want to bring some highlight to this verse 16 here, "You boast in your arrogance. 01:04:10.880 |
Because at any moment, if we've been realizing and recognizing now that I've been living thinking I am independent, 01:04:19.880 |
this arrogance is not flaw and it's not something we need to just fix. 01:04:33.880 |
That this boasting is evil, the thought that I can actually do, that I am actually able, that I can accomplish what I set my mind upon, that there is evil here. 01:04:45.880 |
Because he says, "Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills.'" 01:04:53.880 |
And there's not just faith of some Christian religion, but reality. 01:04:59.880 |
Only if God wills, whatever He wills is whatever will come to pass, down to the smallest minutia and the smallest detail. 01:05:08.880 |
Every breath that I take is sustained by God. 01:05:15.880 |
Every plan that I make, every thing that I do, it's dependent upon the only independent God. 01:05:34.880 |
Or do we create Him to be an addendum, an afterthought in our lives, the place when everything else fails, when my strength fails, when all that I plan and purpose fails, fine. 01:05:53.880 |
And we purpose ourselves and condition ourselves and discipline ourselves and to walk with God day by day, understanding this is who He is. 01:06:21.880 |
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 01:06:26.880 |
All things came into being through Him and apart from Him. 01:06:29.880 |
Nothing came into being that has come into being. 01:06:33.880 |
He's saying everyone and everything has origin. 01:06:37.880 |
But as we think about this fact that all things come through Him, let's look at Colossians 1.16. 01:06:44.880 |
For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. 01:06:51.880 |
All things have been created through Him and for Him. 01:06:54.880 |
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 01:06:58.880 |
This passage is saying that all things were created through Him, for Him, in Him, and it's being held together. 01:07:11.880 |
For even if there are so-called gods, and I love the cheekiness of some of this stuff, so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us, we can circle that one, yet for us, we're different. 01:07:28.880 |
We know the one true God, yet for us, but one God, the Father from whom are all things, and we exist for Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. 01:07:54.880 |
And so everything that God is is central to my life. 01:08:04.880 |
A.W. Tozer says, "Man is a created being, a derived and contingent self, who of himself possesses nothing but is dependent each moment for his existence upon the one who created him after his own likeness. 01:08:16.880 |
The fact of God is necessary to the fact of man." 01:08:23.880 |
In redeeming a high view of God, as we walk with God, we can't just be taught things about God. 01:08:31.880 |
We need to look up and see, oh, this is who He is. 01:08:37.880 |
And so it's not me trying to follow a list of rules and regulations that I set upon my own life. 01:08:42.880 |
It's not me trying to guiltily stop sinning or all this kind of stuff. 01:09:03.880 |
When you realize and recognize God is independent and God alone. 01:09:09.880 |
Everything that I see around here, whatever country or nation, is dependent upon Him. 01:09:18.880 |
And so when you look up at the sky and say, this is who you are, you know what that is? 01:09:34.880 |
Not being taught these things that you actually do not believe. 01:09:37.880 |
We need to reclaim this high view of God that our desire is to see Him for who He is. 01:09:43.880 |
It's quite elementary if you think about it this way. 01:09:53.880 |
And so necessarily that means that we are finite. 01:10:18.880 |
Wayne Grudem says, before God created the universe, there was no time, at least not in the sense of a succession of moments one after another. 01:10:24.880 |
Therefore, when God created the universe, He also created time. 01:10:28.880 |
When God began to create the universe, time began, and there began to be a succession of moments and events one after another. 01:10:34.880 |
But before there was a universe and before there was time, God always existed without beginning or without being influenced by time. 01:10:41.880 |
And time, therefore, does not have existence in itself, but like the rest of creation, depends on God's eternal beings and power to keep it existing. 01:10:48.880 |
Now there's this idea of always, that God always existed. 01:10:54.880 |
There are many words that we use that we don't know what to do with it. 01:11:01.880 |
And because we're finite beings trying to comprehend infinity, we'll use it to say something more like a very large sum or much, much, much. 01:11:11.880 |
So we'll say there are infinite possibilities out there. 01:11:17.880 |
If you've ever sat across a marriage counselor, and you guys are going, one of the common things that come out, don't use superlatives. 01:11:28.880 |
And then the counselor looks at them and says, really? 01:11:35.880 |
I did the same thing with one of my kids yesterday. 01:11:38.880 |
He had that face, you know, the face like I've been wronged. 01:12:00.880 |
But we have a hard time grappling these words of infinity. 01:12:04.880 |
When it says in scripture that God is infinite or eternal. 01:12:15.880 |
In the language, it's actually there is no time associated with it. 01:12:32.880 |
When we think of infinity, we think of a long terms of time. 01:12:39.880 |
Another way to think of infinity is boundless, measureless, or unable to -- oh, man, what was the word? 01:12:50.880 |
So infinity means that we have no way to quantify. 01:13:04.880 |
It's hard for us because we have origin to think back before the foundations of the world. 01:13:14.880 |
We try to go back in time as far as we possibly can. 01:13:20.880 |
And then we try to imagine what it would be to keep going back in time. 01:13:28.880 |
When we think about eternity future, when we're in the new kingdom, when we're going to be forever, how do we think about it? 01:13:36.880 |
We think about it, wow, what would it be like to be in the kingdom forever? 01:13:44.880 |
I'm even more excited now after all the things that have been happening. 01:13:48.880 |
We think about it and we say, wow, what would it be like to 100 years? 01:13:58.880 |
And then we think about what would it be like a thousand years or a million years because we're trying to grapple with this idea of infinity. 01:14:04.880 |
And that would help me to understand and to be joyful and excited for this thing that's to come. 01:14:09.880 |
And so we say a thousand years, a million years, what would it be like to be there a billion years? 01:14:36.880 |
And you haven't even begun to scratch the surface of infinity. 01:14:44.880 |
See, when we think about God's infinitude, it's a completely different plane of existence. 01:14:51.880 |
And there's repercussions for this on our lives. 01:14:55.880 |
When we see God for who he is, I think this is why, like, worship just happens. 01:15:03.880 |
When I think of an infinite God who just time is in his hands, he's not bound by it. 01:15:24.880 |
We have ways of measuring huge distances, numbers, and forces, but not God's infinity. 01:15:29.880 |
We can measure the diameter of huge planets and stars, but we can't quantify. 01:15:45.880 |
In Psalm 90, verse 1, it says, "Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 01:15:49.880 |
Before the mountains were born, or you gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. 01:15:58.880 |
You turn man back into dust and save eternal children of men. 01:16:01.880 |
For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it passes by or as a watch in the night." 01:16:12.880 |
But think of the repercussions of that, that we walk with a God who is eternal. 01:16:20.880 |
In 2 Peter 3, 8, "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, 01:16:28.880 |
In Revelation 1, 8, he says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." 01:16:37.880 |
When we have a high view of God, when we know him rightly, this draws us into worship. 01:16:44.880 |
We understand that this is the God who we walk with, we talk to, we pray to. 01:16:51.880 |
God exists outside of our understanding of time. 01:17:00.880 |
Time has no effect on his memory, his emotions. 01:17:04.880 |
They don't change, they don't wane, they don't contract with time. 01:17:15.880 |
He knows everything instantaneously as clear as we see today. 01:17:20.880 |
Do you see the repercussions of this in your life? 01:17:28.880 |
God sees as vividly what I ate for lunch last Wednesday as I can see right now. 01:17:45.880 |
He is able right now at this moment to see vividly when he created the heavens and the earth. 01:17:54.880 |
Vividly he can see right now a billion years into eternity. 01:18:01.880 |
He sees that, he sees what it's like for me to have lived a billion years face to face with him. 01:18:10.880 |
All the joy that it brings, all the hope, the peace, the comfort, the gladness. 01:18:22.880 |
I mean it makes sense, right? That God is able to look down upon us and say like, 01:18:26.880 |
"Hey, it's a fleeting time you're living in." 01:18:30.880 |
No matter how crazy the things are going on around, he can look down upon us and say, 01:18:41.880 |
For him, he has to use our language to say, "Look what I have in store for you." 01:18:47.880 |
But in his reality, he vividly sees it right now what he has in store for us. 01:18:52.880 |
So when we struggle with the things of this world, imagine what it would be for God to look upon his children 01:18:58.880 |
who are going after these things and he's saying, "Look!" 01:19:06.880 |
And it is infinity to say that with no constraint of time, in my moment of sin, 01:19:12.880 |
he is able to vividly see his son being nailed to the cross. 01:19:25.880 |
He sees it all beginning to end, infinity to infinity. 01:19:29.880 |
He is from everlasting to everlasting. He knows what is best and we get to walk with him. 01:19:49.880 |
It is not the last thing we turn to. It is not an addendum. 01:20:05.880 |
For us, we're limited in so many ways, in time, energy, and resources. He alone isn't. 01:20:23.880 |
Again, necessarily that means we are mutable. 01:20:26.880 |
We change and we change constantly. Everything keeps changing. 01:20:30.880 |
So in Exodus 3, verse 13, again, God said to Moses, "I am who I am." 01:20:34.880 |
I want to emphasize this thing. "I am who I am." 01:20:46.880 |
We're going to look at a quote a little bit later, but this idea, everything else is becoming. 01:20:49.880 |
Only God can say, "He is." He is the only true being. 01:20:54.880 |
Everyone else is changing. Everything else is mutating. Everything else is warping. 01:20:59.880 |
I hate change. I'm a person who hates change. 01:21:09.880 |
I look back at my pictures a year ago, I'm like, "What happened?" 01:21:14.880 |
I leave my kids at home in the morning. House is nice. 01:21:22.880 |
I see change everywhere. The chairs you're sitting on. 01:21:26.880 |
Some of the pastors kind of make fun of me sometimes saying I'm very anal. 01:21:33.880 |
I like control. I like things being a certain way. 01:21:36.880 |
These chairs, it bothers me every Friday when we put the chairs back for Sunday. 01:21:44.880 |
I'm always up. Did you notice that? The ones who sit on the edges? 01:21:52.880 |
It kind of bothers me right now. I don't know why, but this pad I'm standing on is one inch this way. 01:21:58.880 |
I'm leaning forward a little bit more because of that. 01:22:01.880 |
Things keep changing. Everything changes. I hate it. 01:22:10.880 |
Maybe I shouldn't be exposing all of these things. 01:22:14.880 |
They're fake. You think those things don't change. I see a layer of dust on somebody's sleeves. 01:22:21.880 |
Everything changes. Everything is prone to change. Every single little thing. 01:22:26.880 |
From the moment I started preaching, I've changed. 01:22:31.880 |
I'm 20 minutes older. I'm 20 minutes closer to my death. 01:22:41.880 |
All of us change. Everything changes. We already know this. 01:22:51.880 |
We look into the future and try to create a world that hopefully is static for us. 01:22:57.880 |
That dream and that hope and that aspiration is static. 01:23:05.880 |
In the midst of a changing world, we try to place our hopes on things that are constantly changing. 01:23:14.880 |
When we say that God alone is immutable, that's huge. 01:23:22.880 |
Only God doesn't change. He has never changed. He will never change. 01:23:32.880 |
"Man is like a mere breath. His days are like a passing shadow." That's us. 01:23:37.880 |
James 4.14. We read that before. You don't know what your life will be like tomorrow. 01:23:41.880 |
You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 01:23:46.880 |
Why do we keep placing our hopes on things that are going to change? 01:23:51.880 |
If you're like me, I've been waking up every morning early to see what happened in Ukraine. 01:23:56.880 |
To see, did they make it? Have any of you been doing that? 01:24:05.880 |
There's a part of me that's like, "Oh, this is good." 01:24:09.880 |
There's parts of me that go, "Oh, this is bad." 01:24:13.880 |
Then there's another part of me as I'm thinking about these things that goes, "Wait a second." 01:24:22.880 |
If these things change, then we're going to turn around and face a world that's changing. 01:24:28.880 |
If they're alive today, then they're going to die tomorrow. 01:24:32.880 |
In fact, that's the inevitable conclusion to all of us. 01:24:36.880 |
We all die. It's a good morning to all of us. 01:24:44.880 |
We put our dreams and hopes and aspirations upon these things that we've created. 01:24:48.880 |
As the thing that like, "If I had this, these things are the things that make me happy." 01:25:02.880 |
We look inside and peer inside and we know the things that we say is going to bring us happiness. 01:25:07.880 |
We're able to theologically condition ourselves to say, "But I don't, right? 01:25:11.880 |
I don't believe that this is the way to happiness. I don't believe that this is the way to life." 01:25:19.880 |
But we keep coming to him as a conclusion at the end of all our wrestling. 01:25:28.880 |
And that's good. That's good that we conclude these ways. 01:25:38.880 |
That can't be at the back. That needs to be at the front. 01:25:45.880 |
Because we see him. It's not like I have to be like, convince myself of things. 01:25:59.880 |
It's reliant on this. Me walking with God and seeing him for who he is. 01:26:20.880 |
No amount of time will change him. No experience changes him. 01:26:27.880 |
I just look at my own life. Everything changes me. 01:26:31.880 |
I could come home in a certain mood and my kids can be happy and it changes my mood. 01:26:36.880 |
And they're complaining and that changes my mood. 01:26:59.880 |
To the exile times. To the Ezra's and Nehemiah's. 01:27:03.880 |
We think of the time of Jesus and the Pharisees and the Roman centurions. 01:27:07.880 |
We think of all these times in history. All the way up to modern history. 01:27:10.880 |
And all we see is wow that's a long period of time. 01:27:13.880 |
But when you look back and think of a God who doesn't change. 01:27:19.880 |
It's for us. What I do when I read the Old Testament. I have to fight this all the time. 01:27:22.880 |
I kind of clump it all together and be like those were the old days. 01:27:28.880 |
And then these were like the reality old days. 01:27:37.880 |
But when we look at the Old Testament. We have to see the span of time that goes. 01:27:46.880 |
Because what you see in scripture is change, change, change, change, change. 01:27:55.880 |
And the only thread that's connecting everything that doesn't change is God. 01:28:02.880 |
And that is the same God during the time of Adam. 01:28:05.880 |
How he dealt with Adam. How he dealt with Noah and David. 01:28:14.880 |
And all the Christians that were walking around those days. 01:28:29.880 |
And then 1,000 years and 1,500 years. The last 2,000 years he's been the same. 01:28:32.880 |
And the last 20 years into the 2,000 he's been the same. 01:28:41.880 |
He was the same yesterday. He is the same today. He is the same tomorrow. 01:28:44.880 |
He just doesn't change. He doesn't shift. He doesn't move. 01:28:47.880 |
He doesn't quake. He doesn't quiver. There is nothing in him that will ever change. 01:28:56.880 |
That we put our hope on things that keep changing? 01:28:59.880 |
And even more so when we look inside of ourselves and try to find truth here. 01:29:17.880 |
Do we truly begin to see the understanding of what is Christ in me. 01:29:26.880 |
And only in him do we see the understanding of what is Christ in me. 01:29:29.880 |
What is the Holy Spirit dwelling in a temple like me. 01:29:35.880 |
It was supposed to go from temporary to permanent structure. 01:30:02.880 |
And all of them will wear out like a garment. 01:30:11.880 |
Like clothing you will change them and they will be changed. 01:30:14.880 |
God does not need to change. We need to change. 01:30:17.880 |
But you are the same and your years will not come to an end. 01:30:38.880 |
"The doctrine of God's immutability is of the highest significance for religion. 01:30:41.880 |
The contrast between being and becoming marks the difference between the creator and the creature. 01:30:47.880 |
It is changeable, constantly striving, seeks rest and satisfaction 01:30:59.880 |
Being and no becoming. Hence in Scripture God is often called the rock. 01:31:02.880 |
A way to think about that is an ocean of things that keep changing. 01:31:05.880 |
In our lives when we see what's going on out there 01:31:08.880 |
and every morning we're looking to see the changes 01:31:11.880 |
and we're seeing the changes that are going on in our own families, 01:31:17.880 |
all these different changes that are going on. 01:31:23.880 |
"Man, we're so prone to just get taken by those things." 01:31:28.880 |
Because perhaps we haven't been walking with God as closely as we should. 01:31:45.880 |
will you seek Him and pursue Him with all your heart? 01:32:03.880 |
"A voice says, 'Call out.' Then He answered, 'What shall I call out? 01:32:06.880 |
All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. 01:32:09.880 |
The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon it. 01:32:12.880 |
Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades. 01:32:18.880 |
And in Psalm 119.89 it says, "Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven." 01:32:23.880 |
And jumping to 151, "You are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are truth. 01:32:27.880 |
Of old I have known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever." 01:32:31.880 |
For us, of old, whether it's the foundation of the earth, 01:32:36.880 |
or whether it's when I became a Christian, we can talk about that. 01:32:40.880 |
But the idea is, long before, who you were there is the same as who you are now. 01:32:51.880 |
If you're a little bit on the older side, then you start to meet up with old friends. 01:32:56.880 |
And then many times, you look and you go, "Wow, we've really aged." 01:33:13.880 |
At a certain point, you're like, "Okay, we can't stop this." 01:33:20.880 |
But what we do know is that all through that period of time, God never changed. 01:33:28.880 |
If you didn't realize, I've been reading through Tozer. 01:33:30.880 |
I have another Tozer one. This is a long one, but it's so good. 01:33:38.880 |
You're not supposed to do these long ones, but I'm going to do it. 01:33:43.880 |
"What peace it brings to the Christian's heart to realize 01:33:45.880 |
that our Heavenly Father never differs from Himself. 01:33:48.880 |
In coming to Him at any time, we need not wonder whether we shall find Him in a receptive mood. 01:33:53.880 |
He is always receptive to misery and need, as well as to love and faith. 01:33:57.880 |
He does not keep office hours nor set aside periods when He will see no one. 01:34:01.880 |
Neither does He change His mind about anything. 01:34:04.880 |
Today, this moment, He feels toward His creatures, toward babies, toward the sick, the fallen, the sinful, 01:34:10.880 |
exactly as did when He sent His only begotten Son into the world to die for mankind. 01:34:16.880 |
God never changes moods or cools off in His affections or loses enthusiasm. 01:34:20.880 |
His attitude toward sin is now the same as it was when He drove out the sinful man from the Eastward Garden. 01:34:24.880 |
And His attitude toward the sinner, the same as when He stretched forth His hands and cried, 01:34:28.880 |
'Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' 01:34:32.880 |
God will not compromise, and He need not be coaxed. 01:34:35.880 |
He cannot be persuaded to alter His word nor talked into answering selfish prayer. 01:34:39.880 |
In all our efforts to find God, to please Him, to commune with Him, 01:34:43.880 |
we should remember that all change must be on our part." 01:34:57.880 |
Only when we see Him and when we're walking with Him will we not be tossed to and fro. 01:35:04.880 |
That only in that place will you be able to come to this conclusion, 01:35:08.880 |
definitively, no matter what is happening out there, that I am secure. 01:35:14.880 |
And it's not some random song that we use at the beginning of some random day 01:35:19.880 |
to say that He is my shelter, my refuge, my strength. 01:35:22.880 |
It is our day-to-day, moment-to-moment, heartbeat-to-heartbeat reality 01:35:32.880 |
In conclusion, Tozer, again, to repeat a quote from the beginning. 01:35:47.880 |
I said that because we are the handiwork of God, it follows that all our problems 01:35:55.880 |
Do you believe that all of your problems, every single one of your problems is theological? 01:36:05.880 |
That regardless of what is happening out there, 01:36:09.880 |
what is going on in my heart and what is happening in my family, 01:36:15.880 |
do you believe that the problem cannot be rectified 01:36:21.880 |
though these things fall in the line of wisdom I'm saying, 01:36:23.880 |
that these things, the solutions ultimately fall in the fact that 01:36:37.880 |
I worry for myself and I worry for our church. 01:36:42.880 |
I worry because I'm afraid that we're going to just know a lot of things about God 01:36:48.880 |
and we're going to forget what it is to intimately walk with Him, 01:36:51.880 |
to be able to just simply look up at God and relationally know Him, 01:36:55.880 |
to trust Him instinctively because who we see Him to be. 01:36:59.880 |
And I'm afraid with what's happening all around, 01:37:02.880 |
that we're going to be not just tempted but to succumb to the temptation 01:37:06.880 |
of being thrown this way and that way by everything that's going on. 01:37:10.880 |
That even when we come to right theological conclusions, 01:37:13.880 |
that our hearts are not going to that place where we believe 01:37:17.880 |
that finally and ultimately that I'm good in God. 01:37:23.880 |
That our hope is not going to be fixed when we say that this invasion goes away, 01:37:28.880 |
when things are a little bit better, that perhaps I'm not asking for much, 01:37:32.880 |
I'm just saying that there's just at least no nuclear war, 01:37:37.880 |
that we're able to solidly say today that though the world is on fire, 01:37:49.880 |
And I turn to my kids and I give them a message 01:37:52.880 |
that I don't just say with my words but they see it in their father. 01:38:07.880 |
That finally when everything else is outside my power 01:38:19.880 |
We need to start at the point of walking with them day by day 01:38:27.880 |
Otherwise we're going to be spiritual maintenance people 01:38:31.880 |
who are constantly trying to just convince ourselves the truth 01:38:34.880 |
and we will not be bold Christians who cut into the culture, 01:38:40.880 |
That we will be people who will be able to actually believe these things 01:38:43.880 |
so that we will be people of courage and boldness. 01:38:49.880 |
That says I have already been crucified with Christ. 01:38:54.880 |
I have already known and understood and seen and felt the idea 01:38:57.880 |
that all of these things that are here in this world, I've given it up. 01:39:02.880 |
They are indefinite things. I don't want these things. 01:39:05.880 |
I already want God that this is our natural thing 01:39:07.880 |
so that when these things come, we are ready and we are ready to stand strong 01:39:20.880 |
And that we are not using each other as a standard to say, 01:39:23.880 |
"Oh, it must be okay to buy this. Oh, it must be okay to go there." 01:39:26.880 |
But instead to say, "We have the same heartbeat." 01:39:29.880 |
It is not based upon the permissible things in our lives, 01:39:36.880 |
Please, walking with God is not just for you. 01:39:47.880 |
Because when I see one of you living like that, it spurs me on. 01:39:54.880 |
I need you. I need you to be living like that. 01:46:18.880 |
That is what we believe with all of our hearts. 01:46:24.880 |
And we recognize, Father, that today our worship has been threatened. 01:46:28.880 |
And God, I pray that not just singularly, but together, all of us, 01:46:34.880 |
would have a desire to reclaim a high view of you. 01:46:40.880 |
And that they would not be truths we simply just try to digest from time to time. 01:46:44.880 |
But Lord, that it would be a daily living and walking with you. 01:47:00.880 |
even as God, the only independent, unchanging, 01:47:09.880 |
that you came to the world and did not consider equality with God 01:47:14.880 |
Father, you made yourself as us when you sent your Son, 01:47:21.880 |
is able to understand and experience all that we are weak in. 01:47:28.880 |
more glory, recognizing what kind of God you are. 01:47:35.880 |
We freely give you worship because we see you. 01:47:44.880 |
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all,