back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 8/8/2021
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For those of you who are brand new to brewing, we want to extend a warm welcome to you. 00:15:14.000 |
After the service is done, please do stop by our welcome booth. 00:15:16.000 |
You saw it when you walked into the parking lot. 00:15:18.000 |
You'll see the table there with our volunteers with the blue lanyards. 00:15:20.000 |
We'd love to just meet you and answer any questions and direct you to find out more about the church. 00:15:26.000 |
It's upon us now, we've been eagerly anticipating our all-church retreat. 00:15:32.000 |
In order to just prep us and make sure we have all the last things situated, I'm going to invite our brother Jason to come up and give us some more announcements about the upcoming retreat this week. 00:15:48.000 |
I have a few final announcements for everyone. 00:15:56.000 |
First things first, he posted about the brewing app that we have and the notifications that you guys need to enable. 00:16:03.000 |
If you guys can go to your apps real quick right now. 00:16:07.000 |
On the top left-hand corner, you'll see a hamburger icon. 00:16:10.000 |
If you don't have the app, download it right now. 00:16:25.000 |
And then enable the all-church retreat notifications at the bottom if you're attending the retreat. 00:16:32.000 |
While you guys do that, I'm going to move on to the next announcement. 00:16:35.000 |
Orientation audio download will be available this Friday at 3 p.m. 00:16:44.000 |
It references his podcast, the passing value podcast. 00:16:47.000 |
There's a bonus episode on there about anecdotal history of Berean church. 00:16:52.000 |
That's a good resource to get some of the answers. 00:17:01.000 |
I will post further instructions regarding that this week. 00:17:07.000 |
We want everyone to listen to it on their drive up. 00:17:11.000 |
Some of you should have received e-mails by now regarding the church, the retreat schedule, small group assignments, and their group assignments. 00:17:18.000 |
If you haven't already, e-mail me or Esther Leung. 00:17:22.000 |
E-mail Kevin Yoon for the BAM and e-mail Bethany for college. 00:17:28.000 |
Our sister Jane Tang created a bulletin for us. 00:17:32.000 |
It's going to be posted on the Facebook page tomorrow. 00:17:34.000 |
And you guys will all receive an e-mail about it. 00:17:37.000 |
It has everything you need to know about the retreat, the schedule, the speaker, your small group assignments, your dinner group assignments. 00:17:44.000 |
It's all in that one bulletin that we're going to post tomorrow. 00:17:48.000 |
That way you guys don't have to go all over Facebook page and go back to your old e-mails to make it easier for you guys. 00:17:57.000 |
So when you guys do plan to leave on Friday for the retreat, the traffic, because of the construction on 9-1, it's unpredictable. 00:18:07.000 |
It has shown that maybe three to four hours with traffic. 00:18:13.000 |
Two hours with no traffic, but three to four hours with traffic. 00:18:17.000 |
I bring that up because the hotel check-in time is at 4 p.m. 00:18:34.000 |
We're really thankful for the volunteers who have been planning. 00:18:37.000 |
Sometimes I see their e-mails going to each other at 1 in the morning. 00:18:41.000 |
So we're very grateful for the team prepping for that event for us. 00:18:44.000 |
Related to that, we've been announcing and want to remind you that we will not be having in-person service here on that Sunday, the 15th. 00:18:53.000 |
For those of you who are able to come join us, you're welcome to just have worship or find another corporate body locally that you can participate with. 00:19:02.000 |
Or, again, at 930, we're going to be live streaming the service that we'll have there. 00:19:07.000 |
Once it goes live, then afterwards it gets recorded. 00:19:11.000 |
So if you're not able to actually jump on at 930, you can actually just watch it at 11 o'clock if that's what you've already allocated for the time. 00:19:19.000 |
Also, I just want to make a brief mention, we are having at 1 p.m. 00:19:24.000 |
We're going to start promptly, small group leaders, for the retreat here in the sanctuary. 00:19:28.000 |
So just a quick note, you have to show up promptly so that we can get going right at 1. 00:19:33.000 |
Some other announcements I want to highlight to you for today, just briefly, is that the Intentional Wives Fellowship is taking sign-ups. 00:19:42.000 |
So the married sisters are going to come together and fellowship by reading this book, this momentary marriage together and having discussion. 00:19:49.000 |
So if you'd like to participate, please make sure you look at the app on Facebook for the link. 00:19:53.000 |
And finally, we've scheduled an all-church maintenance day. 00:19:57.000 |
We're just requesting that people lend a hand, come together, make the church look all nice and tidy, and there are various repairs we need to do. 00:20:05.000 |
So please come participate, lend a hand there. 00:20:07.000 |
Again, the sign-up is on the Facebook and app as well. 00:20:10.000 |
At this time, we'll take a moment to pray for our offering and then begin our worship. 00:20:16.000 |
Our God, we want to give you all thanks, and we truly do want to express to you just what a privilege it is for us to be in your presence, 00:20:27.000 |
God, being able to hear your word and join together in corporate worship. 00:20:31.000 |
We recognize, God, what a privilege it is for us to have this time to express to you our faith and our trust in you. 00:20:39.000 |
And we pray, God, that you would continue to provide for us spiritual nourishment, God, that you would help us to understand the truth that we hear, 00:20:47.000 |
and more and more that our affection for you would grow. 00:20:50.000 |
And as we do this, Lord, I pray that we would grow in even the application. 00:20:54.000 |
And as we now give offering two, we pray, Lord, that we'd be able to offer it up to you in faith. 00:20:59.000 |
We ask, God, that the finances we give, Lord, you would use it to further your kingdom cause. 00:21:05.000 |
And, Lord, that we as a church would collectively continue to share your gospel and make sure that your ministry is being done. 00:21:13.000 |
Lord, we pray all this in Christ's name. Amen. 00:22:30.000 |
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord. 00:22:36.000 |
It is laid for your faith in his excellent word. 00:22:43.000 |
What more can he say than to you he hath said, 00:23:15.000 |
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand. 00:23:37.000 |
When through the deep waters I call thee to go, 00:23:55.000 |
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless, 00:24:16.000 |
When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, 00:24:48.000 |
The flames shall not hurt thee, I only desire 00:25:17.000 |
That soul, although hell should endeavor to shake, 00:26:05.000 |
Though the nations rage, though the nations rage, 00:26:11.000 |
kingdoms rise and fall, there is still one king 00:26:43.000 |
None above him, none before him, all of time in his hands. 00:26:53.000 |
For his throne it shall remain and ever stand. 00:27:02.000 |
All the power, all the glory I will trust in his name, 00:27:20.000 |
Though the dread of night overwhelms my soul, 00:27:39.000 |
Though his love is short and he knows my name, 00:27:56.000 |
None above him, none before him, all of time in his hands. 00:28:07.000 |
For his throne it shall remain and ever stand. 00:28:16.000 |
All the power, all the glory I will trust in his name, 00:29:23.000 |
None above him, none before him, all of time in his hands. 00:29:34.000 |
For his throne it shall remain and ever stand. 00:29:43.000 |
All the power, all the glory I will trust in his name, 00:30:40.000 |
Let's take a moment to go before the Lord and pray, 00:30:47.000 |
Heavenly Father, God, we pray that as each Sunday 00:30:51.000 |
we open up your word, God, we know that you are revealing 00:30:55.000 |
to us your will, your truth, and it is our prayer, God, 00:31:03.000 |
the intentions of our mind and the contents of our heart 00:31:10.000 |
that we would be edified by your powerful word. 00:31:19.000 |
So just by way of asking you to get in a frame of mind, 00:31:23.000 |
I want to ask you to think about the last time 00:31:27.000 |
that you're about to get into some major trouble, okay? 00:31:31.000 |
Now, for some of you guys, you're thinking maybe at work, right? 00:31:39.000 |
There was a time when I used to work at a sales admin 00:31:42.000 |
at a warehouse distributor, and I accidentally sent 00:31:46.000 |
the end product, you know, the merchant's price tag to them, 00:31:52.000 |
and the upper department managers immediately all sent me 00:31:57.000 |
one e-mail ticket, like a bunch of e-mails at one time. 00:32:00.000 |
I felt my body just shrinking and then just wanting to escape, okay? 00:32:05.000 |
You know, think about a time when you were getting into trouble, 00:32:11.000 |
And the reason why I want you to think of that is because 00:32:14.000 |
I want you to think about when was the last time 00:32:20.000 |
"This silly machine, I don't know why it sent the thingy." 00:32:24.000 |
When was the last time you were tempted to fudge on what really happened? 00:32:30.000 |
And the thing about it is when it comes to maturity, 00:32:32.000 |
even from a young age, we recognize that for little ones, 00:32:38.000 |
that lying came pretty natural to us, you know? 00:32:41.000 |
If your mom asks, like, "Did you eat that candy?" 00:32:48.000 |
And the thing about it is our maturity doesn't mean 00:32:52.000 |
Actually, our parents are looking at us like, 00:32:54.000 |
"Do you have the maturity to tell me the truth 00:33:05.000 |
sometimes even though I wish I would mature a lot faster, 00:33:15.000 |
Silliest example, very recently I purchased some camping gear. 00:33:19.000 |
Now, the thing is I don't go camping, like, a lot, a lot. 00:33:24.000 |
But I have enough camping gear to last me, like, months. 00:33:28.000 |
So my wife already knows, like, "We don't need another thing." 00:33:38.000 |
I bought this really amazing solar panel generator, okay? 00:33:43.000 |
And the thing is, as guys-- for things for guys go, 00:33:48.000 |
So the next time you go camping, they're like, 00:33:58.000 |
But the next question always is, "How much did it cost?" 00:34:01.000 |
And immediately I felt this weird tingling sensation. 00:34:05.000 |
They're going to judge me if I say how much this thing cost. 00:34:11.000 |
So I said something silly like, "Oh, you know, just a pretty penny." 00:34:15.000 |
But then the question doesn't stop there, "How much did it cost?" 00:34:21.000 |
And it's like, "Oh, don't be silly. It's just on Amazon," you know? 00:34:24.000 |
But then I think, "Oh, gosh, they're going to know." 00:34:28.000 |
Once they look it up on Amazon, they're going to know how much I paid. 00:34:43.000 |
But I started in my head looking for a number that seemed reasonable. 00:34:48.000 |
Now, I'm giving you the most menial, smallest of peripheral temptations. 00:35:00.000 |
And that's a bit scary because that can be a habit. 00:35:04.000 |
It can be a lie that exists in major decisions. 00:35:12.000 |
And in the end, it could cause us to be very, very far from the holiness of God. 00:35:17.000 |
Now, the reason why I think through this is because I've been doing my devotions through Genesis. 00:35:21.000 |
And so today's sermon is going to be a bit of a walkthrough of passages in Genesis. 00:35:25.000 |
As a heads up, we'll hit lots of different passages. 00:35:28.000 |
And what I want to do is observe, "Wow, when sin expresses itself, it expresses itself in the way that we talk." 00:35:38.000 |
And our Lord Jesus talked about this, saying, "Out of what's contained in your heart, the mouth speaks. 00:35:47.000 |
And what I realize is as we look at the history of mankind through the book of Genesis, 00:35:52.000 |
yes, we're looking at patriarchs, members of the hall of faith, so to speak. 00:35:57.000 |
But when you look at the history of sinful man, what we will find commonly is this pervasive expression of our sin, which is lies. 00:36:09.000 |
So straight into it, my point is going to be that as I read through these passages, I recognized, 00:36:15.000 |
I myself, I'm a man of unclean lips, and we come from a people of unclean lips. 00:36:22.000 |
We begin by going to Genesis chapter 4, to at least turn your Bibles there. 00:36:28.000 |
In Genesis chapter 4, we have the story of Cain. 00:36:33.000 |
Essentially, these are the early first human beings, first sons. 00:36:44.000 |
It says in this passage, "Cain told Abel his brother, and it came about when they were in the field. 00:36:50.000 |
Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. 00:36:54.000 |
Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' 00:37:03.000 |
Just from the very get-go, what we see is Cain exhibiting this false claim of ignorance. 00:37:12.000 |
And it's wild because he, of all people, being that close to God where God is speaking to him, 00:37:19.000 |
should know in the back of his head, God probably knows. 00:37:27.000 |
I don't know, but then there's also deflection. 00:37:33.000 |
This is at the heart of the kind of motivation behind sin. 00:37:39.000 |
Have we ever instinctually lied to avoid guilt and blame? 00:37:45.000 |
Have we ever instinctually just lied to shift? 00:37:58.000 |
This is at the knee-jerk reaction of the sinful heart when it comes to these circumstances. 00:38:13.000 |
In the story of Abraham, what we see is another motivation to deceive. 00:38:21.000 |
And what happens is as God had called Abraham to travel out of his homeland into a promised land that he was going to give, 00:38:35.000 |
Verse 11, "It came about when he came near Egypt. 00:38:38.000 |
He said to Sarai, his wife, 'See now, I know you're a beautiful woman. 00:38:44.000 |
And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife,' and they'll kill me. 00:38:51.000 |
Please say that you're my sister so that it may go well with me because of you and that I may live on account of you.'" 00:39:20.000 |
You see what happens here is he is lying to save his hide. 00:39:25.000 |
One of the great motivators of the lie is when you're afraid, maybe even paranoid of what's going to happen, it tends to lie. 00:39:33.000 |
Scripture says actually those who are paranoid, they'll say, "Lions and bears out there." 00:39:39.000 |
But you'll say it because it gives them every excuse for you to guard yourself, right? 00:39:46.000 |
These predictions, so to speak, cause us to lie. 00:39:54.000 |
Now, here's the dangerous thing that sometimes lies lie about. 00:39:59.000 |
What am I saying there is your lies that you actually commit lie to you. 00:40:08.000 |
They say to a gambler, "One of the worst things that can happen to you ever is what?" 00:40:31.000 |
Turn your Bible to Genesis chapter 20 verses 1 through 7. 00:40:36.000 |
In Genesis chapter 20 verses 1 through 7, it says, "Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of Negev 00:40:45.000 |
Then he sojourned into Gerar and Abraham said of Sarah his wife, 'She's my sister.'" 00:40:55.000 |
"So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah." 00:41:00.000 |
"But then," this is one of the most scariest things that I've ever read in Scripture. 00:41:04.000 |
"God came to Abimelech in the dream of the night and said to him, 'Behold, you are a dead man.' 00:41:14.000 |
Because the woman whom you have taken for she is married. 00:41:21.000 |
So Abimelech, he hadn't come near here yet and he said, "Lord, will you slay an entire nation even though we're blameless? 00:41:28.000 |
Did he not say to me, 'She's my sister,' and she said herself, 'He's my brother?' 00:41:33.000 |
In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.' 00:41:38.000 |
'Yes, I know in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also kept you from sinning against me. 00:41:46.000 |
Now therefore, restore the man's wife for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. 00:41:51.000 |
But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.'" 00:41:59.000 |
Some silly part of superstitious living will read these stories of the Old Testament and be like, "Oh, what a cunning man. 00:42:18.000 |
What God was doing is God has a plan for his people to come through this pure line. 00:42:31.000 |
And utter sin tends to create incredible drama. 00:42:35.000 |
See, we have this false belief that it's just a small lie, maybe a white lie, and maybe something really, really unharmful. 00:42:51.000 |
Lies tend to create this kind of drama where, man, lo and behold, the entire nation could have been wiped out because of Abraham's lie. 00:43:02.000 |
Because we ourselves are deceived when we lie. 00:43:06.000 |
Now, what's more is when we resort to ungodly means, lying is a tool. 00:43:13.000 |
When we resort to ungodly means, it ends up setting a pace for the rest. 00:43:18.000 |
It ends up actually inspiring more ungodliness around us. 00:43:22.000 |
Take a look at the next story in Genesis 26, verses 6 through 9. 00:43:30.000 |
I know right now it's already like feeling a little heavy because as we walk through the biblical narratives, we recognize there is just a lot of sin. 00:43:40.000 |
And for me, as I walk through it, I recognize there is because more and more I also recognize there are a variety of ways. 00:43:47.000 |
Where, yes, I may not be saying blatant, high, brazen lies, but there's a lot of deception. 00:43:54.000 |
Here, what I was trying to make the point of is when we lie, it sets a precedence for the rest. 00:44:00.000 |
And look at Isaac, Abraham's son, Abraham's precious son, the one who was so dear. 00:44:06.000 |
In Genesis 26, it says, "So Isaac lived in Gerard, the same place that his father was. 00:44:11.000 |
And when the men of the place asked about his wife, guess what he said? 00:44:17.000 |
For he was afraid to say, 'My wife,' thinking the men of this place would kill me on the account of Rebekah. 00:44:29.000 |
You marry a beautiful woman, your life is hard. 00:44:32.000 |
No, what we recognize actually is these guys are just trying to save their own lives. 00:44:41.000 |
"It came about when he was there for a long time, Abimelech, king of the Palestines, looked out through a window and saw. 00:44:47.000 |
And behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah. 00:44:49.000 |
And Abimelech called him and said, 'Behold, certainly she's your wife.' 00:44:54.000 |
Now then, didn't you say, 'She is my sister?' And Isaac said to him, 'Because,' I said, 'I might die on her account.'" 00:45:02.000 |
You recognize, you recognize that the same logic, something that may seem pretty rational, he's just projecting ahead. 00:45:19.000 |
And what we're getting at is there is a thought process. 00:45:22.000 |
There is not just this like, "Oh, I just happened to say. It just happened to come out of my mouth." 00:45:27.000 |
There is absolutely a thought process behind the lies that come. 00:45:31.000 |
The last individual we're going to see as we walk down these patriarchs and we walk down these significant figures of the Old Testament is Jacob. 00:45:42.000 |
A story that you guys are very familiar with. 00:45:46.000 |
As you know, Isaac, once he becomes old in his age, he can't really even see. 00:45:52.000 |
And as he thinks about his passing, he calls his oldest son Esau and says, "Come. 00:46:03.000 |
And from that, he wants to give his blessing over. 00:46:06.000 |
Mom hears of it and she devises a plan, tells the son Jacob and says, "I want you to act like your Esau. 00:46:14.000 |
It's going to be delicious because I'll make it for you and earn that blessing." 00:46:27.000 |
He says, "Then he came to his father and said, 'My father.' 00:46:38.000 |
I mean, maybe he did the, "I am Esau, your son, firstborn. 00:46:45.000 |
Get up, please, sit and eat of my game that you may bless me." 00:46:52.000 |
"Now Isaac said to his son, 'How is this that you have it so quickly, my son?' 00:46:57.000 |
And he said, 'Because the Lord your God has caused it to happen to me.'" 00:47:10.000 |
And when you have no rhyme or reason, you actually don't really have boundaries. 00:47:14.000 |
You think about the extent of his lie and what he has to say when Isaac starts to question him. 00:47:20.000 |
He is going to use pieces and family members probably to uphold his story. 00:47:25.000 |
But here and now he uses God as a piece in his false narrative. 00:47:43.000 |
In order for Jacob to hold up the story, he has to be quite brazen. 00:47:53.000 |
In verse 21, it says, "Then Isaac said to Jacob, 'Please come close, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.'" 00:48:01.000 |
So I am guessing if you just picture yourself in this scenario and you're Jacob, 00:48:07.000 |
Like you put on, you know, the wool and stuff like that. 00:48:11.000 |
But in the end, I mean, you got to be scared to your--like you got to be deathly afraid like he's going to know, right? 00:48:18.000 |
He's inching closer and he already knows his voice wasn't a good sell because he says, 00:48:23.000 |
"So Jacob came close to Isaac his father and he felt him and said, 'The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.'" 00:48:32.000 |
He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hand. 00:48:36.000 |
So he blessed him and he said, "Are you really my son?" 00:48:40.000 |
And so even after as he's blessing him, Isaac is suspicious of him. 00:48:52.000 |
What I found both in pattern of sin and as I think and as I prepared this sermon, 00:48:59.000 |
I started thinking about various sins that I've committed and moments that I lied. 00:49:07.000 |
And one of the patterns that I saw in my own life and then also in the lives of people at council too, 00:49:13.000 |
is when we're in a lie, you rarely actually give up. 00:49:26.000 |
He's even asked for proof by touching his hand and he doubles down. 00:49:32.000 |
It was a long time ago and so I feel like I could share with you. 00:49:35.000 |
This was when I was really interested in Bia. 00:49:38.000 |
But the thing about it is I had done that thing where I told my guy friends, 00:49:43.000 |
I'm going to do the godly thing and focus on my spiritual growth so I'm not interested in anybody." 00:49:49.000 |
So as you guys know, my good older brother at that time was Elder James Hong. 00:49:55.000 |
And one time he just kind of grabbed me by the shoulder and was like, "Hey." 00:49:58.000 |
And back then he called me Moon, my Korean name. 00:50:01.000 |
And he was like, "Hey, Moon, like are you interested in Bia?" 00:50:09.000 |
And then I remember him asking me like, "Did you like, you know, try anything? 00:50:17.000 |
And then he was like, "Oh, let's go for a drive and stuff." 00:50:19.000 |
Because back then he--like when we were stressed with studies or stuff like that, 00:50:24.000 |
And he went on a drive with me and he was just giving me the opportunity, dude. 00:50:29.000 |
And then he looked over at me and he grabbed my shoulder and he was like, 00:50:32.000 |
"Dude, she asked me what I thought of you because she told me you talked to her." 00:50:41.000 |
So embarrassed because he asked me multiple times, "Did you talk to her?" 00:50:49.000 |
And I'm going to be honest, it's so embarrassing. 00:50:52.000 |
And I looked at him and I was like, "Oh, my God. 00:50:58.000 |
But I think back to that and it's like even in--again, I share with you funny stories, 00:51:03.000 |
but there is a wicked sinfulness that does not want to give up. 00:51:18.000 |
I imagine if we were to just jump in that scenario and watch him, it would be comical. 00:51:27.000 |
Because he's covered in a facade, literally in sheep's clothing. 00:51:34.000 |
But it convicts my heart because do you guys remember Pastor Peter preached a sermon 00:51:39.000 |
through Chapter 11 about the members of the Hall of Faith, so to speak, and Jacob's in there. 00:51:45.000 |
And I'm sitting here, you know, reading through Genesis thinking, "That guy doesn't belong in there. 00:51:54.000 |
So much so he lies to his own father to his face, but his father is basically deaf. 00:52:05.000 |
His father is easily manipulated because he's blind. 00:52:14.000 |
And it was just so--what a juxtaposition of how sinful he is. 00:52:21.000 |
Because not only does he lie to his father, he lies to his brother whom he has swindled 00:52:26.000 |
and lied to multiple times, even after the reconciliation of the brothers. 00:52:32.000 |
So turn your Bibles over to Genesis Chapter 33 and look at the track record of sin in mankind. 00:52:45.000 |
What happens is Jacob, because of the consequence of his sin, he has to run away and escape. 00:52:51.000 |
And as you guys know the story, he comes into a land, works for this individual, Laban, 00:52:58.000 |
He ends up getting tricked, and then it's kind of like, "Ha, ha, just desserts. 00:53:02.000 |
You trick people, you get tricked, bada boom," right? 00:53:05.000 |
And then he ends up having two eyes, which is, again--and then there's all this turmoil going back and forth. 00:53:10.000 |
There's actually a lot of deception back and forth with his father-in-law, Laban, where he has to do some trickery 00:53:16.000 |
to get all the sheep, and then he's tricking him so that he doesn't get all the sheep, 00:53:22.000 |
Upon leaving, God tells him, "I want you to go back to your homeland where your family is." 00:53:33.000 |
And he goes, and on his journey there, bum, bum, bum, one of his servants says, 00:53:37.000 |
"Your brother is coming for you with 400 men." 00:53:44.000 |
And as a side note, as a consequence of sin and lies, you will always be paranoid. 00:53:53.000 |
But secondly, what happens is Jacob decides, "I'm going to produce this drama of a presentation of gifts for him, 00:54:01.000 |
He creates droves of his family, and what's really sad is you could tell who are his favorites 00:54:05.000 |
because he knows they're coming for him, so he puts the least favorites right up at the top, 00:54:09.000 |
and incrementally there are massive amounts of gifts given to Esau. 00:54:13.000 |
And finally, when Esau and Jacob meet, Esau actually embraces Jacob and says, 00:54:23.000 |
There is sweet reconciliation that happens, but then the story doesn't have a happy thingy. 00:54:30.000 |
Take a look. Chapter 33, verse 12 through 17. 00:54:38.000 |
"Then Esau said, 'Let us make our journey and go now, and I will go before you.'" 00:54:43.000 |
So Esau's great idea is like, "I don't hold this revenge against you. 00:54:47.000 |
Let's go down together to our homeland," right? 00:54:50.000 |
Verse 13, "But he," Jacob, "said to him, 'My lord knows that the children are frail, 00:54:56.000 |
and that the flocks and herds which are nursing are a care to me, 00:55:00.000 |
and if they are driven hard one day, all the flocks will die. 00:55:04.000 |
Please let my lord pass on before his servant, and I will proceed at my leisure 00:55:09.000 |
according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children 00:55:16.000 |
Esau said, 'Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.' 00:55:20.000 |
But he said, 'What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.' 00:55:24.000 |
So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 00:55:27.000 |
Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built for him a house and made booths for his livestock, 00:55:36.000 |
Okay, I'm not sure if you catch all that, but essentially what's happening is Esau is like, 00:55:40.000 |
"Come with me," and Jacob's like, "No," right? 00:55:46.000 |
People who tend to lie make really convincing excuses. 00:55:50.000 |
"You know the children and the flock, and then they die," you know? 00:55:53.000 |
Like, it's all about they're going to die if you do this. 00:55:56.000 |
And what ends up happening is that you go on ahead. 00:55:58.000 |
Esau's like, "I'll leave you my men. They'll protect you." 00:56:03.000 |
Esau goes down to Seir, which is about 50 miles south of the Dead Sea. 00:56:08.000 |
So if you--Jerusalem, that area, there's Dead Sea that's like a long strip. 00:56:15.000 |
What ends up happening is Jacob says, "You go on ahead. I'll join you." 00:56:26.000 |
It's like, "Wait for me there," and then he never intended to go. 00:56:34.000 |
You lied to your brother even after you reconciled. 00:56:39.000 |
As we observe this ongoing list of the various motivations 00:56:58.000 |
It's like, "You think Esau really is so mature he doesn't have any ill feelings, 00:57:06.000 |
I'm pretty sure Jacob's thinking, "No, no, we'll stay a safe distance over here." 00:57:12.000 |
Because if you're a suspect, you're a suspect of other people. 00:57:20.000 |
Lying causes you to live in the fruit of the kingdom of darkness. 00:57:25.000 |
And you yourself get deceived, you are deceiving, 00:57:29.000 |
and there is just a constant feeding of deception that goes on into that land. 00:57:35.000 |
And Scripture calls out and says this, Proverbs 6, verse 12 through 14, 00:57:41.000 |
"A worthless person, a wicked man, is the one who walks with a perverse mouth, 00:57:46.000 |
who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who points with his fingers, 00:57:50.000 |
who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil and spreads strife." 00:58:01.000 |
He's basically exhibited every form of lying you can do, 00:58:06.000 |
and he's even did the subtle stuff where maybe he feigns like, 00:58:11.000 |
but he's not actually forthright with your intentions. 00:58:15.000 |
It's a lie when you claim ignorance. It's a lie when you exaggerate. 00:58:21.000 |
And the thing about it is Jacob is such a survivor, 00:58:33.000 |
Now the thing is, as I was thinking about that, 00:58:44.000 |
Are any single one of us, when we look back at our pre-converted state, 00:58:50.000 |
And then even now in our converted state, being a Christian, 00:58:56.000 |
Maybe we can make the excuse that we would never, ever lie directly to the face of my parents. 00:59:03.000 |
I will never, ever use God for my gain in my fake story. 00:59:08.000 |
But if you were to ask me, in my short 38 years of life, 00:59:26.000 |
looking stupid, or promoting, "Look what a good job I did." 00:59:30.000 |
And what I realized is, the scripture is true. 00:59:41.000 |
I may falsely believe Satan will deceive you and tell you, 00:59:45.000 |
"Your lies are just what everybody does, okay? 00:59:52.000 |
'No, I don't want to be with you because what if you change your mind?' 00:59:54.000 |
You don't want to hurt him like that, so just lie. 01:00:02.000 |
What we realize is, "Woe is me. We're ruined. 01:00:05.000 |
I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips, 01:00:09.000 |
for my eyes have seen the King and the Lord of hosts." 01:00:12.000 |
When we take our eyes off of what is the normal practice and pattern of this earth, 01:00:17.000 |
and we look upon the God of truth, whose standard is perfect, 01:00:26.000 |
as I was preparing this sermon, I started, like, again, counting, 01:00:31.000 |
and I feel like the temptation to lie is almost every day. 01:00:39.000 |
And I've got to confess that because the motivation in the heart, it's all there. 01:00:44.000 |
The earthly, fleshly rationale to do it is all there every day. 01:00:52.000 |
We have to make sure that we turn to the one true God, 01:01:00.000 |
You see, when we think about it, what is the solution for these men? 01:01:10.000 |
"Do you have any idea what you've done to your family? 01:01:12.000 |
Do you know the consequences of your sin and lies? 01:01:15.000 |
You have broken relationships. Look at you, Jacob. 01:01:18.000 |
You had such a good relationship with your mom. 01:01:21.000 |
She didn't ever do anything bad to you, and you didn't do anything bad for her, 01:01:25.000 |
but your relationship's broken. Why? Because you had to run. 01:01:28.000 |
Your relationship with your brother's broken. 01:01:33.000 |
And you go down in history almost equated with deception in the Old Testament. 01:01:48.000 |
Do you think trying to show him, like, "That's illogical, dude. 01:01:57.000 |
He's around everywhere and knows all things. He's told you that. 01:02:02.000 |
and he dictates everything that happens in the middle. 01:02:08.000 |
But you and I both know, at the core heart of deception, 01:02:17.000 |
What we need is the gospel truth of God entering into our lives, 01:02:23.000 |
redeeming us and moving us from the kingdom of darkness 01:02:32.000 |
Outside of the transforming power of God moving you kingdoms 01:02:38.000 |
and then working in your heart through his gospel, 01:02:46.000 |
Recently, stories of people lying, just faking, like, 01:02:57.000 |
But then, for you and me, I'm going to move to my second point. 01:03:01.000 |
I know that first point was the longest point ever, 01:03:06.000 |
is the consequences of not turning to the God of truth 01:03:11.000 |
means you are going to be regularly living in the kingdom of darkness 01:03:14.000 |
because without the truth, without the God of truth, 01:03:23.000 |
You have the kingdom of the flesh not only inspiring you to lie, 01:03:34.000 |
Whenever you fall to the deception of thinking that, 01:03:38.000 |
"You know, I'm going to use this lie as a means to mitigate my risk, 01:03:45.000 |
as a means to look even slightly just a little bit better," 01:03:48.000 |
there is a massive lie that's putting over you. 01:03:53.000 |
The lie isn't, "Oh, you're so good and great," or something like that. 01:04:01.000 |
Like, I want you to think about God, like, being there 01:04:08.000 |
And this little human thinking, "You know what I'm going to do? 01:04:12.000 |
I'm going to dupe you," you know, like, it's so pathetic. 01:04:17.000 |
But Satan is so good because he is the father of lies, 01:04:23.000 |
He wants you to believe that your feeble attempt and strategy, 01:04:26.000 |
it's your tactic, that somehow it's going to work. 01:04:31.000 |
But we as believers, we're coming to a point for us of surrender. 01:04:43.000 |
It has never worked, and it's never going to work. 01:04:47.000 |
Because what I am seeking is never provided by this kingdom of darkness. 01:04:53.000 |
I want you to go back and think about why the pattern of sin, 01:04:59.000 |
Do you remember that we highlighted that these individuals were lying 01:05:10.000 |
These individuals were lying to find protection. 01:05:16.000 |
These individuals were lying to promote themselves. 01:05:21.000 |
These individuals were lying to find security. 01:05:24.000 |
These individuals were lying to find provision. 01:05:26.000 |
These individuals were lying to get their way. 01:05:29.000 |
There is motivation behind all these things, you guys, 01:05:36.000 |
The gospel addresses that stuff in every single way. 01:05:45.000 |
God says, "I not only take your shame, I expose it to the light. 01:05:51.000 |
I not only expose it to the light, I forgive you your guilt. 01:05:56.000 |
I 100% deal with your guilt by taking that debt of your sin upon the cross of Christ, 01:06:06.000 |
I take that security that you're seeking, and I want you to know I guard you in my name." 01:06:13.000 |
Jesus says, "I want you to sanctify them in your truth and guard them in your name. 01:06:23.000 |
Do you realize that the gospel we have is God says, 01:06:26.000 |
"I will glorify you and exalt you in due time." 01:06:33.000 |
Every truth that God has given to us eradicates every motivation there is to lie. 01:06:41.000 |
Through the gospel, all inspiration for lies dissipates 01:06:47.000 |
because we're 100% provided for in the kingdom of light, 01:06:51.000 |
and that's why Scripture says if we are walking according to the light and walking in the truth, 01:07:06.000 |
There's no suspicion like, "Are you going to hurt me?" 01:07:08.000 |
You're not looking around other people, seeing people as threats to your well-being. 01:07:14.000 |
Because you exist in the presence of the God of truth. 01:07:19.000 |
And so my final last exhortation to you is you have to. 01:07:24.000 |
We have to believe and walk in this God who neither is powerless, 01:07:33.000 |
He is 100% dependable, that he by his character and nature never, never, ever lies. 01:07:42.000 |
So as point three, God is a God of truth who sanctifies with truth, 01:07:46.000 |
and we have to make sure we're abiding in his presence, operating as his kingdom, 01:07:50.000 |
according to his truth, and say, "God, I want all of that. 01:07:56.000 |
and I want you to reach down into every single part of my life, and it's all there." 01:08:02.000 |
Why? Because Scripture says in Titus chapter 1, which we're going to be studying in the future, 01:08:07.000 |
Titus chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, Scripture says this, 01:08:12.000 |
"Paul, a bondservant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, 01:08:18.000 |
and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, 01:08:21.000 |
and the hope of eternal life which God cannot lie, promised long ago, long ages ago, 01:08:27.000 |
but at the proper time manifested even his word, 01:08:30.000 |
and the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God, our Savior." 01:08:36.000 |
Scripture says, "God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. 01:08:46.000 |
For has he not spoken, and will he not make it good?" 01:08:52.000 |
Let's take a moment to do a compare and contrast, and just thank the Lord. 01:08:59.000 |
We're talking about essentially, in order to fight the temptation to lie, 01:09:04.000 |
in order to address this problem that I think every single person struggles with to some degree, 01:09:10.000 |
we need to see ourselves in these two massive different kingdoms, 01:09:13.000 |
and here is reigned by the prince of darkness, 01:09:16.000 |
and here is reigned by the God who never ever lies. 01:09:20.000 |
Here you have one who's duping you, telling you, "You can do it. Just do this. It'll work." 01:09:28.000 |
Here's one who's telling you, "They're after you." 01:09:30.000 |
Here's one who is telling you, "Wait a minute. Now things are different. 01:09:40.000 |
Here's a God who says, "When I say, it is so." 01:09:45.000 |
I'm not your boss at work who says, "You know, change of thought. 01:09:48.000 |
I know I had you start this project. We wanted something that was just broad picture, 01:09:54.000 |
He doesn't sit there and say, "You know, I had a different thought. 01:09:59.000 |
You have a God who says, "I'm so powerful and true. 01:10:05.000 |
And the scripture says, "The sum of His word is truth." 01:10:18.000 |
Your fear is that make you just like, "Uh, uh, uh, but what if I look silly? 01:10:25.000 |
What if I look not capable of doing what you ask? 01:10:28.000 |
What if I don't look as good as that other guy?" 01:10:34.000 |
Do you understand you have your securities in God who is true? 01:10:44.000 |
And His mercies and His grace likewise share the same characteristic. 01:10:50.000 |
There's a passage that's really, really beautiful where God is talking about His promises to David. 01:11:02.000 |
"But I will not break off my loving kindness from Him, 01:11:13.000 |
Once I have spoken by my holiness, I will not lie to David. 01:11:19.000 |
His descendants shall endure forever, and His thrones as a sun before me." 01:11:34.000 |
And if you revert back to that sermon that I referred to Pastor Peter preaching a while ago, 01:11:40.000 |
talking about Jacob, that was not to excuse his sin. 01:11:45.000 |
He's a conniving, cunning individual who lied in heinous ways. 01:12:13.000 |
There are people in the Old Testament narrative 01:12:15.000 |
where because of the lack of fear of God and lack of trust in God, 01:12:20.000 |
But Jacob, every time God said, "I want you to move," do you know what he did? 01:12:23.000 |
He looked at his posse, so to speak, his whole crew, 01:12:33.000 |
Because he trusted this unchanging, trustworthy, dependable, consistent God. 01:12:42.000 |
And so my challenge to you is if you struggle with the temptation to hide, 01:12:49.000 |
you recognize that that is at the core of the sin of every single person 01:12:58.000 |
Obviously, they would just want to hide themselves. 01:13:09.000 |
This is one great promise of the Gospel and the Scriptures. 01:13:12.000 |
God has chosen you to be conformed to the image of his Son. 01:13:18.000 |
God has chosen you to be holy and blameless as he is. 01:13:23.000 |
And God has chosen you to be truthful as he is. 01:13:31.000 |
And that is a great, great blessing of the Gospel promise of God. 01:13:36.000 |
And so I pray, and I'm going to read a couple of verses here as we start wrapping things up, 01:13:43.000 |
that we turn not simply away from falsehood as a means to just like, 01:13:51.000 |
But you're seeing what I'm saying is we need to turn in faith and trust to believe this God who said this. 01:14:00.000 |
"But I will leave among you a humble and lowly people, and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord. 01:14:07.000 |
The remnant of Israel will do no wrong and tell no lies, 01:14:13.000 |
nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths, 01:14:17.000 |
nor will they feed and lie down with no one to make them tremble." 01:14:22.000 |
As we close off, I want to ask you this interesting question. 01:14:32.000 |
Now, for me, when I got saved as a senior in high school, our church, 01:14:37.000 |
I was so thankful for the ministry, but our church, like, they wanted to provide opportunities for people to just come 01:14:43.000 |
out to God, so they had revival nights, right, every Fridays. 01:14:47.000 |
Now, for me as a young individual, I approached it the wrong way. 01:14:50.000 |
I approached it with, like, "Okay, I'm just going to come, and I'm going to stick out my hands, and you fill me." 01:14:57.000 |
And back then, we sang a lot of Vineyard songs where it was just like, "Fill me, fill me, fill me. 01:15:06.000 |
And sometimes, yeah, honestly speaking, I was just waiting for something to touch me deep, 01:15:11.000 |
and I wished that would produce in me a revival. 01:15:14.000 |
But, brothers and sisters, revival is not nebulous, mystic, and strange. 01:15:21.000 |
Revival, according to the Bible, is anytime revival happened, God presented himself and revealed, 01:15:40.000 |
And the people, upon looking, just like Isaiah, just like Jacob, 01:15:43.000 |
when they saw him and heard him, what they said was, "Whoa! 01:15:54.000 |
Whether it was King Josiah in the past, he read the Word and says, "Let's put all those idols away. 01:16:02.000 |
And all they had to do was say, "God, I want to trust you." 01:16:07.000 |
So all this stuff I'm retaining in my life, the idols are for blessings. 01:16:14.000 |
The people that I hold on to as idols are for joy. 01:16:28.000 |
That to us is our revival here, and we could have it any given Sunday. 01:16:42.000 |
Lord God, as we think about the long trail of sin, heavenly Father, you are so good to us, and it's astounding. 01:16:54.000 |
I also think about, Lord, as we pray, your perspective where people have tried to lie to you, 01:17:02.000 |
maybe making a case that our intentions or heart is good or making excuses here or there. 01:17:08.000 |
Father, today we want to come before you so open, exposed to your glorious light and your truth, 01:17:15.000 |
and to say, "You are the God of truth who sees all things, and in you there is nothing that can be hidden. 01:17:22.000 |
You are the God of light, and Lord, in you there is nothing but truth." 01:17:27.000 |
I pray, Father God, that we would be so drawn to that. 01:17:33.000 |
If there's anybody struggling, so afraid, if anybody is struggling where they've already made a web, 01:17:40.000 |
I ask God that you would grant to them strength in the power of your truth and your spirit. 01:17:46.000 |
Lord, grant to us to walk with spiritual strength that we might combat and fight against the flesh, 01:17:52.000 |
fight against the lies of this world, and fight against even the own motives of our own heart. 01:17:58.000 |
And God, help us to walk in faithfulness to you. 01:18:04.000 |
Today, we're going to be observing the communion. 01:18:07.000 |
And so as we do so, what an appropriate time to think about for us to examine, 01:18:13.000 |
are there any ways in us where we are not only untruthful, deceptive, 01:18:19.000 |
but also if there's any residual sin in your life. 01:18:22.000 |
What I'm going to do is read you a passage from 1 Corinthians chapter 11 01:18:30.000 |
It says here in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23, 01:18:34.000 |
Apostle Paul says, "I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, 01:18:39.000 |
that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread. 01:18:44.000 |
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. 01:18:50.000 |
And in the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. 01:18:56.000 |
Do this as often as you drink in remembrance of me.'" 01:19:00.000 |
And so we participate in this remembering the amazing, perfect substitutionary sacrifice 01:19:07.000 |
where our Savior was broken and he shed his blood for us. 01:19:11.000 |
But continuing on in verse 26, it says, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, 01:19:16.000 |
you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 01:19:19.000 |
Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner 01:19:24.000 |
shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 01:19:27.000 |
But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup." 01:19:35.000 |
What we'll do is I'll give you just a few moments to reflect upon your current faith and relationship with God. 01:19:43.000 |
And if there's anything you want to repent of, you know that God is a God of mercy. 01:19:50.000 |
And then after I give you several moments to pray, we'll participate in this together. 01:19:55.000 |
I do want to make mention that if you've joined us here today and you have not believed on Christ as Savior, 01:20:01.000 |
do not participate in this yet because this is an act where we proclaim Christ. 01:20:09.000 |
Our Savior is so good that he can break through any sin. 01:20:14.000 |
And if there's any part of you that desires the forgiveness of God, ask him for it today. 01:20:19.000 |
At this time, if you would, please take about a minute or two to pray, 01:20:23.000 |
and then I'll gather us to participate in this together. 01:24:05.000 |
Show me your path, O Lord, for I am devoted to you. 01:24:41.000 |
Give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name. 01:25:01.160 |
No other gods, no other love, no other gods before you. 01:25:15.320 |
Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth. 01:25:28.920 |
Show me your path, O Lord, for I am devoted to you. 01:25:51.080 |
Give me-- give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name. 01:26:13.080 |
No other gods, no other love, no other gods before you. 01:26:47.320 |
No other gods, no other love, no other gods before you. 01:27:27.720 |
going to bring about for your children a provision, Lord God, 01:27:31.640 |
where we will be able to rest with you fully. 01:27:34.840 |
And God, until that day, I pray that you will help 01:27:39.880 |
And Lord, we recognize that even the challenge 01:27:41.800 |
we receive from your word today, to examine just how we use 01:27:45.480 |
our words, to examine the tools and tactics that we use, Lord, 01:27:49.920 |
even in this, we absolutely need your spirit's power. 01:27:55.560 |
that the daily strength that we need, we trust you for. 01:28:01.400 |
And so I ask, Lord, that every single one of us, 01:28:04.000 |
you would challenge us and move us to walk with you faithfully. 01:29:25.080 |
And life is worth the living just because he lives.