back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 3/27/2022
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We will begin our service by singing "As a Deer." 00:12:51.000 |
And the title of the song borrows from the first verse of 00:12:53.000 |
Psalm 42, which reads, "As a deer pants for the water brooks, 00:12:57.000 |
So as we sing this song, let this be our cry and our prayer 00:13:01.000 |
that we would thirst for the Lord in this way, 00:13:05.000 |
and that our God would be our source of life, hope, and strength. 00:13:29.000 |
>> As a deer pants for the water, so my soul longeth after thee. 00:13:42.000 |
You alone are my heart's desire, and I long to worship thee. 00:14:16.000 |
You alone are my heart's desire, and I long to worship thee. 00:14:32.000 |
You're my friend, and you are my brother, even though you are a 00:14:47.000 |
I love you more than any other, so much more than anything. 00:15:21.000 |
You alone are my heart's desire, and I long to worship thee. 00:15:53.000 |
You alone are the real joy giver and the apple of my eye. 00:16:26.000 |
You alone are my heart's desire, and I long to worship thee. 00:16:42.000 |
You alone are my heart's desire, and I long to worship thee. 00:17:03.000 |
>> All right, welcome to Breen Community Church. 00:17:06.000 |
Our college department is up at the retreat right now, and 00:17:09.000 |
they're having their service up there, and they'll be down this 00:17:12.000 |
afternoon, so please continue to keep them in your prayers. 00:17:15.000 |
We have a few announcements before we get started. 00:17:18.000 |
First of all, Breen membership class is starting on April 3rd, 00:17:21.000 |
so we are a church that practices membership at the 00:17:24.000 |
church, and so if you're not a member and you're coming to the 00:17:28.000 |
church, and we encourage you to participate in that, and again, 00:17:32.000 |
Pastor Nate is the one who oversees that, so if you haven't 00:17:36.000 |
signed up and you're planning to, please sign up for that, and 00:17:41.000 |
It's an eight-week course from 9 a.m. to 1020 a.m. 00:17:45.000 |
in the Sprouts Room upstairs, so if you haven't signed up for 00:17:51.000 |
The evangelism outings that are happening, if you haven't signed 00:17:54.000 |
up for that and you want to come and participate, there's three 00:17:59.000 |
One is the Spectrum, one is at UCI, and the other one is in 00:18:03.000 |
Buena Park, so if you're anywhere in that area, you can 00:18:07.000 |
sign up and they'll kind of assign you, and then they'll give 00:18:12.000 |
The other thing is, obviously, the Passion Week is coming up, 00:18:15.000 |
and so each year when we have Easter coming, we spend that 00:18:20.000 |
whole week preparing for the Good Friday, where we celebrate 00:18:25.000 |
and remember Jesus' death, and then we have early rise service, 00:18:29.000 |
and then we have the resurrection service on Sunday. 00:18:33.000 |
Every year, obviously, it's important, and we want to make 00:18:35.000 |
sure that we're being very deliberate about the way that 00:18:38.000 |
we're celebrating so that it would cause us to think deeply 00:18:41.000 |
about the meaning of it and that we would be affected by it, 00:18:44.000 |
but in particular this year, and I've mentioned this several 00:18:48.000 |
times before, but we've seen a stirring up of people where 00:18:54.000 |
What if the nuclear bomb actually does go off? 00:19:02.000 |
It's more real to us than it's ever been, at least in our 00:19:06.000 |
lifetime, for the most part, and so God has created this 00:19:10.000 |
environment where I've seen more people interested, seeking. 00:19:14.000 |
People who've been going out in the streets have noticed that 00:19:17.000 |
it's easier to have conversations with people for 00:19:20.000 |
Some of you guys may be aware of it, may not be aware of it, 00:19:23.000 |
and so that's something that I believe that God has created, 00:19:26.000 |
you know, something that you and I could have never done 00:19:29.000 |
through the pandemic and through all the turmoil that we're 00:19:31.000 |
experiencing, and we want to make the most of that to make 00:19:35.000 |
sure not only for our own hearts, but that you have family 00:19:38.000 |
friends around you who may not be Christian, that you've been 00:19:41.000 |
waiting for the right time to invite them, so as you're 00:19:43.000 |
coming in, you probably got that card, invitation card for 00:19:46.000 |
our Easter week and then Sunday to, one, to remind yourself 00:19:51.000 |
so that you can pray and participate, but also to use 00:19:54.000 |
that to invite other people to come to service, and so that 00:19:57.000 |
this Easter in particular, that many people will come, not only 00:20:02.000 |
to our church, but all around the world, that we would see a 00:20:06.000 |
revival that correlates with the stirring of people's heart this 00:20:11.000 |
coming year, and so for that reason, you know, when Passion 00:20:15.000 |
Week happens, every week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we 00:20:18.000 |
have devotions that take place, you know, tracing the life of 00:20:21.000 |
Christ that week, like Monday, he goes into the temple and he 00:20:24.000 |
cleanses the temple, Tuesday, he goes in and he does his last 00:20:27.000 |
public teaching, and then Wednesday, we call Silent 00:20:30.000 |
Wednesday, but that's the time when there's plans being made to 00:20:34.000 |
turn Jesus over to the authorities and they're going to 00:20:37.000 |
plan to crucify him, and then Thursday, we have the Passover 00:20:41.000 |
meal, and so we haven't been able to do that last couple 00:20:44.000 |
years because of the pandemic, but we're picking it back up, 00:20:47.000 |
so if you, every year, we have a Passover meal that happens on 00:20:52.000 |
Thursday night, and so if you come, especially if you have 00:20:55.000 |
young children, it's not limited to people who have young 00:20:58.000 |
children, but we go over the steps and what the meal 00:21:01.000 |
represents, so when Jesus, before he went to the cross, he 00:21:04.000 |
participated in the Passover meal, and he says, "Do this in 00:21:07.000 |
remembrance of me," so what is the "this" that Jesus is 00:21:10.000 |
referring to? So we go through each of the meal, each of the 00:21:13.000 |
elements that they participated in, and so it actually reveals 00:21:17.000 |
quite a bit of what was embedded into the Jewish culture, and 00:21:22.000 |
so if you haven't participated in it before, I highly 00:21:25.000 |
encourage you to sign up for that. It is going to be limited 00:21:27.000 |
in number, and so it's going to be first come, first serve, 00:21:31.000 |
so try to sign up as soon as you can, and once we reach that 00:21:35.000 |
number, it is going to be capped because we don't want to 00:21:37.000 |
have more than we can fit into this room, so please sign up 00:21:41.000 |
for that as soon as you can, and then obviously we have that 00:21:43.000 |
Good Friday service, and we're going to remind you as time 00:21:46.000 |
goes on, but to really do your best to be sober, and so not 00:21:50.000 |
just that week of, but that's part of the reason why I'm going 00:21:55.000 |
through this series and preparing us for Easter, okay? 00:21:58.000 |
All right, so let me pray for us for our offering, and right 00:22:01.000 |
after the offering, our sister Jessie Kim is going to come 00:22:04.000 |
give her testimony and be baptized, all right? Let's pray. 00:22:10.000 |
Heavenly Father, we pray for guidance. We pray for the power 00:22:15.000 |
of the Holy Spirit to wake us up from our slumber, help us to 00:22:20.000 |
know the spiritual battle that we are in, that we do not just 00:22:26.000 |
come and go and worship Lord God to check off our religious 00:22:31.000 |
duty, but teach us, remind us, guide us, sanctify us, Lord 00:22:36.000 |
God, that we would be people who worship you in spirit and 00:22:38.000 |
in truth. Help us to love you, honor you, that even in this 00:22:43.000 |
giving, Lord God, may it be an act of worship to you, multiply 00:22:47.000 |
30, 60, 100 fold for the sake of your name and your kingdom. 00:24:03.000 |
>> Who breaks the power of sin and darkness, whose love is 00:24:25.000 |
so much stronger, the King of glory, the King above all kings. 00:24:31.000 |
Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder, who leaves us 00:24:42.000 |
breathless in all our wonder, the King of glory, the King 00:25:19.000 |
Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. 00:25:52.000 |
Who rules the nations with truth and justice, shines like the 00:26:03.000 |
sun in all of its brilliance, the King of glory, the King above 00:26:40.000 |
Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. 00:27:58.000 |
Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. 00:28:43.000 |
When the enemy surrounds and my heart grows faint within. 00:28:52.000 |
When the darkness overwhelms and my fears are pressing in. 00:29:37.000 |
In the midst of every threat, though the wicked never yield, 00:30:48.000 |
Through your sacrifice so great, I have peace that's undeserved. 00:30:57.000 |
For the battle has been won, and I fear no shame or loss. 00:32:00.000 |
Carrying out our hearts before you, we will trust in you. 00:32:13.000 |
Perfect Savior, strong defender, we will trust in you. 00:32:30.000 |
Pouring out our hearts before you, we will trust in you. 00:32:49.000 |
Perfect Savior, strong defender, we will trust in you. 00:33:28.000 |
My name is Jessie Kim, and I'm currently in BAM ministry. 00:33:39.000 |
but there have been multiple milestones in my faith 00:33:44.000 |
I was born in Korea and moved to Toronto, Canada 00:33:48.000 |
I was raised in Toronto for a lot of my younger years, 00:33:59.000 |
So every couple years, I'd be in a new house or a new city. 00:34:02.000 |
But the biggest move growing up was to Vermont in grade six. 00:34:06.000 |
It took me some time to adjust, but when I did, 00:34:16.000 |
This was really hard for me to hear, but on top of all this, 00:34:27.000 |
This was a super emotional and dark year for me, 00:34:29.000 |
and eventually led to self-harm and some negative thoughts. 00:34:33.000 |
And after struggling with these thoughts for a year, 00:34:45.000 |
Gradually, after that night, the self-harming stopped, 00:34:50.000 |
So in grade 10, I moved back to this old but new city, 00:34:53.000 |
and that's when God started softening my heart 00:34:58.000 |
So I asked my mom to see if there was a church near our house, 00:35:02.000 |
My parents still weren't going to church at this time, 00:35:05.000 |
so I'd walk to and from church every Sunday and Fridays 00:35:10.000 |
And at this point, I thought I was able to overcome 00:35:13.000 |
my struggles because I had a good personality 00:35:15.000 |
and I was good at adapting to new situations. 00:35:23.000 |
and this is when God revealed to me that it was all Him. 00:35:26.000 |
Until this retreat, I totally forgot about the prayer 00:35:29.000 |
that I said that one night, and I was reminded of that prayer 00:35:32.000 |
and realized my hopefulness, my desire to go to church, 00:35:37.000 |
That night is when I learned that God is so real, 00:35:40.000 |
and I repented for even thinking that the past years 00:35:44.000 |
and that He was with me all of those dark nights. 00:36:05.000 |
and spent our time there supporting the missionaries 00:36:09.000 |
This trip is where God taught me how perfectly sovereign He is 00:36:19.000 |
During this trip, I learned how I needed the gospel 00:36:37.000 |
Since then, I've had to take a few more stops 00:36:45.000 |
When people would ask me, "Where's back home for you?" 00:36:50.000 |
and that fact used to make me feel very lonely. 00:36:53.000 |
But now I have comfort that this earth is not my home, 00:37:49.000 |
- All right, thank you, Jesse, for that testimony, 00:37:59.000 |
especially that last part when she was sharing, 00:38:07.000 |
When people say, like, "Where's your hometown?" 00:38:13.000 |
But again, thank you, Jesse, for your testimony. 00:38:16.000 |
If you can turn your Bibles with me to Isaiah 61, 00:38:20.000 |
and I'm gonna be reading the first three verses. 00:38:26.000 |
we want to help prepare us for Easter that's coming 00:38:37.000 |
and we want to look at the hope of the Messiah 00:39:03.000 |
"He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, 00:39:20.000 |
"the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting, 00:39:24.000 |
"so they will be called oaks of righteousness, 00:39:26.000 |
"the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." 00:39:34.000 |
Heavenly Father, we pray that Your Word would speak to us. 00:40:23.000 |
You know, but, you know, like, whenever that is, 00:40:38.000 |
And I understand, going through that stage myself, 00:40:45.000 |
I don't have personal experience for females, 00:40:47.000 |
but for men, why they go through midlife crisis. 00:40:56.000 |
is much more real than it was ever before, right? 00:41:09.000 |
We've lived more than we're going to live going forward. 00:41:26.000 |
and maybe even discouragement and disappointment, 00:41:29.000 |
so people do strange things during that period 00:41:33.000 |
to make them feel like the makeup or whatever it is, 00:41:38.000 |
I think depending on how much time and effort 00:41:41.000 |
and energy and money that you spent to build that up, 00:41:50.000 |
maybe some people who came from a difficult family 00:41:58.000 |
the same difficulty that you saw when you were young, 00:42:11.000 |
you realize the struggle of just even raising kids. 00:42:15.000 |
And so whatever it is that you put time and effort 00:42:21.000 |
and if it doesn't turn out the way that you want it, 00:42:23.000 |
the disappointment that comes in as a result of that. 00:42:27.000 |
Now, all the disappointments that I could possibly think of, 00:42:43.000 |
that this is not the Messiah that they wanted. 00:42:49.000 |
ended up rejecting him at the end of his life 00:42:54.000 |
The text that we looked at right now in Isaiah 61 verses 1-3 00:42:59.000 |
is probably one of the most clearest presentation 00:43:06.000 |
In fact, this is the text that Jesus opens up 00:44:03.000 |
And everything that he did proved over and over again. 00:44:14.000 |
got to the point where after he fed the 5,000, 00:44:20.000 |
And that's why Jesus was trying to escape the crowd 00:44:26.000 |
But this is exactly the kind of king that you would want. 00:44:30.000 |
If you were to imagine that the king was going to come 00:44:41.000 |
he started giving them hope by the thousands. 00:44:53.000 |
when Jesus began to tell them why he really came. 00:45:05.000 |
it's not simply so that the lame could walk." 00:45:14.000 |
that maybe Jesus wasn't going to fulfill their dreams, 00:45:23.000 |
they said, "Oh, he really is giving his life up. 00:45:26.000 |
He really isn't going to fulfill these dreams." 00:45:28.000 |
And so that same crowd that followed him for three years 00:45:37.000 |
it didn't start just with the nation of Israel. 00:45:48.000 |
"I will put my enmity between you and the woman 00:45:56.000 |
And so they called it--the theologians called this 00:45:59.000 |
proto-evangelium, basically means pre-gospel, 00:46:04.000 |
that he was going to send the seed of the woman, 00:46:06.000 |
and he's going to crush the head of the serpent. 00:46:10.000 |
You ever wonder why the Bible is filled with genealogies? 00:46:14.000 |
Right? I don't know if you've ever really, like, 00:46:18.000 |
but these genealogies are there for a reason. 00:46:23.000 |
is the record of God's fulfillment of this promise. 00:46:27.000 |
So they're connecting that whoever is going to 00:46:30.000 |
come down this line, that they have a clear record. 00:46:33.000 |
So they teach you, even though we may not fully understand, 00:46:43.000 |
That's why if you open up the book of Matthew, right, 00:46:46.000 |
the first thing that you see in the book of Matthew 00:46:51.000 |
connects Jesus with the promise of the Davidic kingdom, 00:46:57.000 |
the promise that goes all the way back to the creation 00:47:10.000 |
after not only just hundreds, but thousands of years of waiting, 00:47:14.000 |
that he didn't turn out to be what they thought he would be. 00:47:19.000 |
You see, when Isaiah writes this, the book of Isaiah, 00:47:26.000 |
The northern kingdom has already fallen to the Assyrians. 00:47:35.000 |
the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 00:47:41.000 |
that they were relying on to come and help them, 00:47:43.000 |
they're the ones who are going to take you into captivity. 00:47:50.000 |
happens about 140 years after this book is written. 00:47:54.000 |
So everything that he says actually gets fulfilled. 00:47:58.000 |
That all their children get carried on to Babylon, 00:48:01.000 |
and eventually they adjust and they start to live, 00:48:04.000 |
and again, you remember reading the book of Daniel, 00:48:06.000 |
and it tells us what their life was like in captivity. 00:48:15.000 |
and then the Persians, during the Persian reign, 00:48:18.000 |
because of God's work, and as Isaiah predicted, 00:48:24.000 |
But by that time, the Israelites have been so accustomed 00:48:27.000 |
to staying where they are, only a very small percentage 00:48:30.000 |
of them come back to build the second temple. 00:48:35.000 |
the people who remember the first temple were weeping, 00:48:39.000 |
because this could not be the fulfillment of that prophecy. 00:48:46.000 |
was nothing like what it was in the beginning. 00:48:48.000 |
But the Bible says that the glory is going to far outweigh 00:48:53.000 |
So the older people realized that this could not be 00:48:59.000 |
Their momentary excitement goes right back into despair. 00:49:04.000 |
A couple hundred years later, Alexander the Great comes in, 00:49:07.000 |
and he comes and takes over, and they're under their oppression 00:49:14.000 |
And so for over 700 years, they've been waiting, 00:49:18.000 |
specifically for this prophecy to be fulfilled. 00:49:23.000 |
You have to understand what their life was like, 00:49:27.000 |
The Romans did their best to kind of keep the foreign nations 00:49:37.000 |
but they also wanted to make sure that everyday life 00:49:50.000 |
"If they ask you to go a mile, go the second mile." 00:49:53.000 |
The reason why he says that was because there was a Roman law 00:49:56.000 |
that said if a Roman soldier, as he's walking down, 00:49:59.000 |
and he just gets tired, and he could just ask any Jew, 00:50:03.000 |
he could just ask anybody, even if you're a young mother 00:50:06.000 |
with small children, if he just got tired, by law, 00:50:09.000 |
they had to drop what they were doing and carry at least a mile, by law. 00:50:15.000 |
And that's why he was saying he's talking specifically 00:50:17.000 |
to people in that culture that instead of rebelling, 00:50:24.000 |
And in fact, if you happen to be very religious 00:50:35.000 |
the Romans made sure that every time you went to the temple, 00:50:39.000 |
there was a reminder that our God is much more superior than yours. 00:50:43.000 |
And made them bow down to that in order to get to the temple. 00:50:47.000 |
That's the oppression that they were living under. 00:50:51.000 |
We could spend the whole Sunday just talking about the oppression 00:50:55.000 |
And for 700 years, every time they felt some sort of injustice, 00:51:02.000 |
every time a young mother or young man who had to carry 00:51:06.000 |
all the equipment of the soldiers for a mile, 00:51:10.000 |
they probably reminded each other, Messiah is coming. 00:51:14.000 |
One day he's going to come, and he's going to do everything 00:51:18.000 |
And so it was that that Jesus came and he read this. 00:51:28.000 |
So you could understand the excitement that they were in. 00:51:31.000 |
And for three years, everything he did was to prove 00:51:38.000 |
See, there was this longing in the Israelites 00:51:43.000 |
The amount of time, energy, tears that went into waiting 00:51:53.000 |
you probably remember at some point in the Psalms, 00:52:00.000 |
If you don't, if you go back and read the Psalms, 00:52:02.000 |
you'll see "selah" just scattered all throughout the Psalms. 00:52:05.000 |
The theologians don't know exactly what that term means. 00:52:09.000 |
There's no exact Hebrew interpretation of that. 00:52:12.000 |
And so some have said that maybe it's a musical thing, 00:52:15.000 |
like the intermission or maybe a crescendo, right? 00:52:18.000 |
Maybe when you get there, you're supposed to read it louder. 00:52:25.000 |
is to kind of take a breather, take a break, right? 00:52:28.000 |
To read that and kind of pause a second and then to read it. 00:52:32.000 |
I think that what makes most sense is that it's kind of 00:52:38.000 |
It is a break, but it's not simply a break because 00:52:45.000 |
But I believe "selah" basically is a deep sighing. 00:52:48.000 |
Like when you're thinking something deeply or emotionally, 00:52:59.000 |
You know, if you ever studied through the book of Psalms, 00:53:06.000 |
"Where are you? Why do you let the wicked prosper?" 00:53:25.000 |
the equivalent in the New Testament is this groaning 00:53:29.000 |
that's been deposited in us groans on our behalf 00:53:46.000 |
So in His groaning, justification is the deliverance 00:53:53.000 |
Sanctification is the deliverance from the power of sin. 00:54:03.000 |
And so this groaning inside of us, the Holy Spirit, 00:54:13.000 |
And in our sanctification, in our wrestling with our flesh, 00:54:44.000 |
When will we be delivered from the presence of this sin? 00:54:48.000 |
So I believe that Selah all throughout the book of Psalms 00:55:07.000 |
So this groaning God has placed in their heart 00:55:15.000 |
that the celebration would match their groaning. 00:55:19.000 |
See this text that we're looking at in Psalm chapter 61 to 3 00:55:23.000 |
gives us five things that He promises that I want to review. 00:55:27.000 |
"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me." 00:55:32.000 |
And the point of this is to separate Him from any other king, any other prophet. 00:55:41.000 |
or one of the priests would come and lay hands and anoint Him. 00:55:53.000 |
before Jesus reads this text in the synagogue in Luke chapter 4, 00:56:02.000 |
Remember at baptism, heaven opens up and Jesus gets anointed 00:56:06.000 |
and God the Father says, "This is my Son in whom I am in love." 00:56:11.000 |
And so He was anointed and separated and then He goes up and gets tested. 00:56:15.000 |
And then right after that beginning of the ceremony, 00:56:23.000 |
To be anointed by God means that He was unlike any other king, any other priest. 00:56:29.000 |
That He was going to represent all the authority. 00:56:33.000 |
Not somebody who was going to come and disappear. 00:56:36.000 |
Not like Moses, though he was a great leader, 00:56:41.000 |
Where he was disqualified to even enter into the Promised Land. 00:56:45.000 |
Not like David who was a man after God's own heart, 00:56:49.000 |
but at the tail end of it he commits adultery and then he even becomes a murderer. 00:56:54.000 |
And as a result of that he's not allowed to build a temple and his kingdom gets split. 00:57:00.000 |
builds a temple but he chases after the world with all the knowledge that he has. 00:57:12.000 |
And the very few kings who were right with God started off well 00:57:18.000 |
and then they kind of tapered off at the end. 00:57:23.000 |
If you were to name one of maybe like four kings that was good in Israel's history, 00:57:36.000 |
he started to align himself with the Babylonians because he forgot who God is. 00:57:41.000 |
See, when he says, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me," 00:57:45.000 |
he's saying he's going to be different than any other king. 00:57:48.000 |
God himself is going to be working through this man, this Messiah. 00:57:52.000 |
Number two, he said he's going to bring good news to the afflicted. 00:58:02.000 |
Because when you say poor, you automatically think financially poor. 00:58:08.000 |
The word poor basically means those who have been afflicted and hurt and damaged. 00:58:16.000 |
but this word carries a much more significant... 00:58:20.000 |
He's talking about people who have been afflicted, 00:58:31.000 |
And that word, euangelion, that the good news, right? 00:58:37.000 |
the word gospel is euangelion, which literally means good news. 00:58:41.000 |
That this one who has been anointed by God is going to come, 00:58:44.000 |
and he's going to be spreading the good news to those who are afflicted. 00:59:03.000 |
Some of us may be more aware of it than other people 00:59:12.000 |
your parents were fallen, your grandparents were fallen, 00:59:14.000 |
your school teachers were fallen, and you were fallen. 00:59:19.000 |
And as a result of that, there are things that we have said and done 00:59:25.000 |
And as a result of that, there are things that people have said and done 00:59:30.000 |
So every human being that has been born in this life 00:59:41.000 |
And then he goes on in number three, he says, "He sent me to bind up, 00:59:44.000 |
to literally wrap up those who are brokenhearted." 00:59:48.000 |
Psalm 34, 18, "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted 00:59:57.000 |
It's much easier to build community with young people. 01:00:04.000 |
You have this idealism, "We're going to build a community. 01:00:12.000 |
We're going to open up Sunday schools and build schools." 01:00:15.000 |
By the time you get to a certain age, it's like, "Yeah, right. 01:00:21.000 |
Are you sure you want our kids to be friends with those people? 01:00:24.000 |
It's much harder to build community with older people 01:00:27.000 |
because we've experienced more of this world, 01:00:31.000 |
of being disappointed, relationships not working out, 01:00:38.000 |
And so there's years and years of this kind of got piled up, 01:00:46.000 |
We don't have the same kind of idealism when we're younger. 01:00:50.000 |
That's what happens when you live in a fallen world. 01:00:54.000 |
When I was a young youth pastor, I heard a statistic 01:01:02.000 |
some sort of molestation when they're young, one in four. 01:01:07.000 |
When I first heard that, I couldn't believe it. 01:01:09.000 |
It's like, "Oh, maybe in some other communities, 01:01:14.000 |
But through the years, not only has that been confirmed, 01:01:22.000 |
because majority of the abuse that takes place 01:01:25.000 |
happens within the home because you feel safe. 01:01:31.000 |
And so the things that are reported is one in four. 01:01:35.000 |
So there are many of those instances that are never reported 01:01:56.000 |
And I remember trying to counsel through that. 01:02:17.000 |
And after years of frustration, I came to the conclusion 01:02:23.000 |
that the only one that could deliver them from this pain 01:02:30.000 |
So the best that I can do is not to have the right words 01:02:34.000 |
or the system or the accountability or the community, 01:02:46.000 |
either directly or indirectly through family. 01:02:57.000 |
Every single one of these Jews, one way or another, 01:03:07.000 |
Can you imagine the excitement when Jesus says, 01:03:13.000 |
Then he says he's going to proclaim liberty to the captives 01:03:20.000 |
You know, today, when the president leaves office, 01:03:26.000 |
is he uses his authority and power to pardon people 01:03:28.000 |
who may be in jail and uses his authority to do that. 01:03:35.000 |
But in the ancient Near East, the practice was 01:03:49.000 |
So it was custom that the people who were desperate to come out 01:03:53.000 |
would be waiting for the next king to be anointed 01:03:57.000 |
because that would be the first thing that he does. 01:04:09.000 |
That the only hope that they had for the next king, 01:04:11.000 |
the righteous king, to come and deliver them. 01:04:19.000 |
It's clearly, this is in reference to the year of Jubilee 01:04:28.000 |
every seven years they were supposed to give the land rest 01:04:33.000 |
And then the seventh year they would do this again. 01:04:38.000 |
the 50th year it was declared to be the year of Jubilee. 01:04:42.000 |
Now, I don't have time to go through all of the things 01:04:49.000 |
of what they were to do at the year of Jubilee. 01:04:55.000 |
Now, if you're in finance, or if you just, you know, 01:05:13.000 |
"All land," he says, "number two, was returned 01:05:24.000 |
"All the slaves were free, without exception." 01:05:32.000 |
Now, this sounds good on paper, but how can this possibly work? 01:05:35.000 |
Can you imagine what the economy would have looked like 01:05:44.000 |
I mean, but if you were a poor person, it's like, 01:06:00.000 |
like all the amount of money and time and effort 01:06:12.000 |
But so much money, time, and effort went into 01:06:17.000 |
So that every Jew, when they looked on the cities of refuge, 01:06:40.000 |
All the lands, and there's going to be a fresh start 01:06:51.000 |
I mean, they were waiting for this for so long. 01:07:04.000 |
Who else can tell the storm to stop, and it stops? 01:07:11.000 |
So can you imagine the excitement when Jesus went in 01:07:16.000 |
because there's a specific prophecy that says 01:07:18.000 |
that your Messiah, the King, is going to ride on a donkey 01:07:24.000 |
to fulfill that prophecy, to make a public declaration, 01:07:44.000 |
If you read the text that Jesus read in Luke 4, 17-21, 01:07:55.000 |
He only reads up to the middle of the second verse. 01:07:58.000 |
And He says, He reads, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me 01:08:01.000 |
because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, 01:08:03.000 |
He has sent me to proclaim the release of the captives 01:08:13.000 |
So if you read 61, that stops in the first line. 01:08:28.000 |
"So they will be called oaks of righteousness, 01:08:30.000 |
the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." 01:08:35.000 |
And there's a reason He doesn't read that part. 01:08:46.000 |
But His first coming was to fulfill what He says in Isaiah 42. 01:08:54.000 |
"Behold, My servant whom I uphold, My chosen one, 01:08:57.000 |
in whom My soul delights, I have put My Spirit upon him. 01:09:28.000 |
Did He think that maybe justice isn't what He wants anymore? 01:09:33.000 |
Well, He describes this justice in verse 2 and 3. 01:09:45.000 |
and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish. 01:09:54.000 |
until He has established justice in this earth, 01:09:56.000 |
and the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law." 01:10:10.000 |
the justice that He carried out at the cross. 01:10:17.000 |
The only person who can cry out to His Father, 01:10:45.000 |
So when He does that, when He brings punishment, 01:11:07.000 |
So the greatest injustice was absorbed by Christ 01:11:31.000 |
Because they portrayed upon Christ their dreams, 01:11:38.000 |
If you had no legs, He's going to come bring us legs. 01:11:50.000 |
to show us that He had authority to forgive us of our sins. 01:12:18.000 |
You know, among the Jews, there are four different groups. 01:12:31.000 |
We've been waiting for Him, and dealing with the Romans, 01:12:33.000 |
and the Pharisees, and so they just packed up their bags, 01:12:36.000 |
and they went out to the desert and lived in a cave. 01:12:52.000 |
They're just like, "I don't want to deal with it." 01:12:57.000 |
We don't know much about them, because they're not in the Bible. 01:13:05.000 |
Sadducees were the people who basically had given up. 01:13:24.000 |
were they're the ones who were the leading Israel at the time. 01:13:34.000 |
it was the Sadducees who were running the temple. 01:13:36.000 |
And that's why the outside, they were selling stuff. 01:13:39.000 |
Because to them, worship was just something that you did. 01:13:46.000 |
So they were salvaging whatever they had on their face. 01:13:52.000 |
but they didn't believe in any of that stuff. 01:13:57.000 |
where Christianity has been for over a thousand plus years, 01:14:15.000 |
But yet they still have the signs upon the churches. 01:14:18.000 |
But if you go in, they don't believe in any of that. 01:14:27.000 |
and feed the poor and make this place a better life. 01:14:31.000 |
That's exactly what the Sadducees were doing. 01:14:34.000 |
Because they no longer believed in the miracle of God. 01:14:51.000 |
Remember when Pontius Pilate presented to the Jews, 01:14:55.000 |
do you want Jesus, possibly the king of the Jews, 01:15:02.000 |
who was caught in the middle of his insurrection 01:15:26.000 |
He's actually going to just give in like that? 01:15:46.000 |
So AD 70, Israel disappears because of these Zealots. 01:15:53.000 |
The saddest of these groups are the Pharisees 01:15:57.000 |
because the Pharisees somehow convinced themselves 01:16:09.000 |
We're going to do this, and we're going to do that, 01:16:28.000 |
They prayed and fasted, some of them three times a week, 01:16:33.000 |
because they believed that if they were righteous enough, 01:16:48.000 |
was so that you would know why you need the Messiah. 01:16:52.000 |
The whole book of the law was to make sin utterly sinful. 01:16:56.000 |
So at the end of that, you would be surrendered 01:17:00.000 |
like the tax collectors and like the prostitutes, 01:17:55.000 |
there's a glimpse of this in every single one of us. 01:18:55.000 |
Our inclination to be better than our neighbors 01:19:10.000 |
And we recognize that life is found in him and him alone. 01:19:36.000 |
that it would be an opportunity for us to look deeply, 01:19:39.000 |
not only the Word of God, but our own passions. 01:19:43.000 |
Even as a pastor, even as I preach the Gospel, 01:19:47.000 |
my desire to be somebody can easily creep in, 01:20:14.000 |
and refreshment in our hearts as we meet the Lord. 01:20:17.000 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads. 01:20:20.000 |
Father, we come before you needing your grace again and again. 01:20:33.000 |
Lord, I know we have brothers and sisters in this room, 01:20:47.000 |
that we may see the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 01:20:51.000 |
that our hope will be placed in Christ, in Christ alone. 01:20:55.000 |
Lord, help us, Lord God, to see who Christ is, 01:21:09.000 |
Help us, Lord God, to fix our eyes upon Christ, 01:21:21.000 |
[MUSIC - "THE GRACE OF GOD HAS REACHED FOR ME"] 01:22:28.000 |
Who is like the Lord our God, strong to save faith? 01:22:42.500 |
Faithful in love, my debt is paid and the victory won. 01:23:34.500 |
when I know lost when I am weak, I know His grace 01:23:54.500 |
Who is like the Lord our God, strong to save faith? 01:24:04.500 |
Faithful in love, my debt is paid and the victory won. 01:24:19.500 |
And when I reach-- and when I reach the final day, 01:24:48.000 |
Who is like the Lord our God, strong to save faith? 01:24:58.500 |
Faithful in love, my debt is paid and the victory won. 01:26:32.500 |
grace of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, 01:26:39.000 |
the continued perseverance, and the mediator that 01:26:51.000 |
the sympathetic high priest calling us, Lord God, to him. 01:26:56.000 |
God the Father, who loves us, who initiated his love for us, 01:27:00.500 |
adopted us, promised us eternal inheritance with Christ. 01:27:07.000 |
Guide us, lead us, rebuke us, challenge us, encourage us, 01:27:21.000 |
cause us to be the light wherever it is that you send us. 01:28:02.000 |
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives. 01:28:42.500 |
And life is worth the living just because he lives. 01:28:59.000 |
For his throne it shall remain and ever stand. 01:29:05.000 |
All the power, all the glory, I will trust in his name.