Note: The time signatures [00:00] below indicate the start of a question if you'd like to skip to a particular one of interest in the audio file.
[02:50] - Q: What's the point of praying for something if God is going to do what he wants either way?
A: See James 5:16 - The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. | Matthew 7:7-11 | Hezekiah in Isaiah 38
[06:55] - Q: What is your view on the teaching of Joel Osteen?
A: Acts 4:12
[11:00] - Q: "Racial and cultural differences (and subsequent discrimination) seem to be becoming an increasingly important and controversial topic in our world. As a church body and as individuals, how can we show and share Christ's love (race doesn't matter) in a region and church body that lacks diversity?"
[16:04] - LIVE TXT Q: In the Bible it talks about the four corners of the Earth (Isaiah 11:2 and Revelation 7:1), what exactly are the four corners of the Earth? What does that resemble?
[18:01] - LIVE TXT Q: What does the Bible say about what our political response to "illegal" immigration should be?
[20:23] - Q: Can you give me some background re-Hezekiah's tunnel (2 Kings 20:20)?
A: 2 Chronicles 32 | John 9 (the pool of Siloam)
[25:51] - Q: Is there a difference between Hell and the Lake of Fire?
A: See Luke 16:23-24 | Revelation 20:15
[27:23] - Q: Rev 20:12 - "And I saw the dead, great and small standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books." Besides the "Book of Life", what are the names of the other "Books" being referred to?
A: See: Daniel 7:10 | Romans 8
[29:31] - Q: If people kill themselves, do they go to hell? Explain the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
A: The only sin that sends anyone to Hell (condemn a person), is to reject Jesus Christ
[32:52] - LIVE AUDIENCE Q: I have friends that are constantly on social media and claim to be Christians but are in an open same sex marriage situation. What does the bible say about that and how should we respond to them when talking to them about that and their life choices?
A: 1 Cor 6 | As Christians, we need to speak the truth in love, and that applies to any type of sin. Re-listen to Jeremiah Canfield's message from last summer, The Bible's and My Response to Homosexuality.
[36:05] - Q: In Ezekiel 9, what is the significance of the writer's case? And the man carrying it? Thank you. It is interesting how God says "son of man" and "this is what the sovereign Lord says..." very interesting book. Very very deep.
A: Romans 1:18-32
[38:30] - Q: What is the motivation to joining the church, as opposed to just regularly attending?
A: It says that I belong here and that I'm responsible for what happens here. It says that this is a place of accountability for you and that you're committed. For a pastor it means that you want to serve the Lord and His Kingdom.
[39:52] - Q: Could you please address Prov. 26:4-5?
[41:56] - Q: What if you accepted Jesus but you still sin. You try your best not to but you're still doing it. What does God think about it?
A: See: Romans 7:15-20 | 1 John 1:9 | 2 Cor 5:21
Any question that was missed due to time constraints during the service Pastor Jeff will address the answer in a blog posting on the website.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Pastor Jeff:
00:28-00:29
There's Q&A day, right?
Pastor Jeff:
00:30-00:31
All right, ladies and gentlemen, Mark Orr.
Pastor Jeff:
00:33-00:33
So how are you?
Mark Ort:
00:34-00:36
I'm fantastic today, how are you?
Pastor Jeff:
00:37-00:38
I'm not as good as I'm going to be.
Pastor Jeff:
00:39-00:46
So if you're visiting with us and you're wondering what's going on, we do this, what, like twice a year?
Pastor Jeff:
00:48-01:04
So if you're visiting with us, we take questions that the congregation submitted, either here or online over the past month and a half or whatever, And we're going to answer as many of them as we can in how much time?
Pastor Jeff:
01:04-01:06
How much time should we set the timer?
Pastor Jeff:
01:07-01:08
90 minutes?
Pastor Jeff:
01:09-01:15
There's somebody like, "I done visited the wrong church today." I don't know, what do we usually do?
Pastor Jeff:
01:15-01:17
You'd think I'd know this as many times as we've done it.
Pastor Jeff:
01:18-01:20
What do you want me to set the timer for? Go ahead, let's start the bidding.
Pastor Jeff:
01:22-01:24
45, 45, do I hear 50?
Pastor Jeff:
01:25-01:26
50, do I hear 60?
Pastor Jeff:
01:28-01:29
40?
Pastor Jeff:
01:30-01:41
Okay, the man who does our audio podcast says 40, so maybe Maybe we should listen to that guy. All right, 40. All in favor?
Pastor Jeff:
01:43-01:43
Opposed?
Pastor Jeff:
01:45-01:49
All right, 40 minutes. And I'm not starting it until you ask the first question.
Pastor Jeff:
01:50-01:51
Okay, well there are a couple rules.
Pastor Jeff:
01:52-01:55
The first one is we're answering, Jeff
Mark Ort:
01:55-01:59
is going to answer the questions as he understood the question that was submitted.
Mark Ort:
02:00-02:13
Your your intent might have been different, but somehow you interpret things differently. So we're going to answer the question as it was as we understand it to be and it's the short version.
Pastor Jeff:
02:13-02:16
You're right, right. You could do a sermon on every one of these questions.
Mark Ort:
02:17-02:17
So I'm going to give the short
Pastor Jeff:
02:17-02:18
version.
Mark Ort:
02:21-02:27
And end up on the blog. Jeff will blog answers on the Harvest website.
Pastor Jeff:
02:28-02:49
And there's a fourth one that, a fourth rule that was added. We will be taking some live questions with the microphone and you can also text your question in as somebody has done already. You can text your question in. All right, I'm going to start the timer. Let's get to it, Mark.
Mark Ort:
02:50-02:58
Okay, first question, Jeff, and as usual, the questions are, they're thought-provoking and great questions, so yeah, it's gonna be good.
Mark Ort:
02:59-03:00
Oh yeah, great questions.
Mark Ort:
03:02-03:08
What is the point of praying for something if God is going to do what He wants to do either way?
Pastor Jeff:
03:10-03:13
That is a really good question, and that's actually a question that I get asked a lot.
Pastor Jeff:
03:14-04:02
You know, there are people that, you know, say, well, God already has His mind made up what he's going to do. So why does prayer matter? And look, it gets down, we talked about this earlier, it all gets down to view of Scripture, right? If you read the Bible, the Bible clearly teaches that prayer matters, that prayer changes things, and that when God's people pray, God moves. For example, James 5.16 says, "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. So the Bible would clearly indicate that prayer matters. Again, Matthew 7, we talked about this in the sermon in January on prayer, right?
Pastor Jeff:
04:03-04:14
But Matthew 7, Jesus said, "Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you for everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks fines and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Pastor Jeff:
04:14-04:18
So, the Bible clearly teaches that prayer does make a difference.
Pastor Jeff:
04:19-04:28
And if you're looking for a biblical example of that, I always think of Hezekiah, you know, from the book of Isaiah.
Pastor Jeff:
04:30-04:33
And it's clear, Hezekiah was ill.
Pastor Jeff:
04:33-04:35
And you remember the story, Mark, we were talking about that.
Pastor Jeff:
04:36-04:43
But he was ill and God says, "You are not going to recover." and he cried out and he prayed, and then what did God say?
Mark Ort:
04:44-04:44
15 more years.
Mark Ort:
04:44-04:44
Yeah,
Pastor Jeff:
04:45-04:55
God's like, "Okay, 15 more years." And the question is, did Hezekiah's prayer change his life expectancy?
Pastor Jeff:
04:56-04:58
From what I can see in the Bible, the answer is yes.
Pastor Jeff:
05:00-05:03
So God does what he wants either way.
Pastor Jeff:
05:03-05:04
I just, I don't see that.
Pastor Jeff:
05:06-05:07
I don't see that in the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
05:07-05:20
What I do see though, is sometimes God doesn't give us what we want for the same reason that we as parents don't always give everything that our children ask for.
Pastor Jeff:
05:20-05:28
Like for those of you that have kids, how often do your children know what is best for them?
Pastor Jeff:
05:28-05:29
How often?
Pastor Jeff:
05:30-05:31
Do your children really know what is best for them?
Pastor Jeff:
05:32-05:33
How often does that happen?
Pastor Jeff:
05:34-05:34
Seldom?
Pastor Jeff:
05:36-05:37
Do I hear a never?
Pastor Jeff:
05:39-05:42
No parent gives their kid everything they're asking for.
Pastor Jeff:
05:42-05:44
And we had an issue like this last month.
Pastor Jeff:
05:45-05:50
I'm not going to name which child it was, but it rhymes with arcade.
Pastor Jeff:
05:51-05:54
But do you remember that?
Pastor Jeff:
05:54-05:55
Okay, we know.
Pastor Jeff:
05:55-05:57
But, okay, do you remember this last month?
Pastor Jeff:
05:57-06:00
You were pretty angry with me because you wanted a credit card.
Pastor Jeff:
06:01-06:02
Yes, he was.
Pastor Jeff:
06:02-06:04
Are you still mad at me for that?
Pastor Jeff:
06:05-06:06
No, he's not mad anymore.
Pastor Jeff:
06:07-06:09
He was very angry with me because he wanted a credit card.
Pastor Jeff:
06:10-06:16
Look, in his mind, think of all the wonderful things that can happen if he had a credit card, right?
Pastor Jeff:
06:17-06:19
Online shopping, and right?
Pastor Jeff:
06:19-06:23
All the wonderful world of opportunities if he had a credit card.
Pastor Jeff:
06:24-06:27
And here comes mean old dad, you can't have a credit card.
Pastor Jeff:
06:28-06:31
Now see, sometimes in that equation, we're like Cade.
Pastor Jeff:
06:32-06:38
talking to God, like, "God, look at all the good that could come if you just do this." And God's like, "No, it's not good for you.
Pastor Jeff:
06:38-06:48
I'm not gonna give you that." So just like sometimes our children don't know what's best for them, I think sometimes when we pray, we don't always know what's best for us.
Pastor Jeff:
06:49-06:50
And God says no sometimes.
Pastor Jeff:
06:52-06:55
But prayer moves the hand of God if you read the Bible straightforward.
Mark Ort:
06:56-07:05
It does, and one of the things that I love about prayer is that it's our participation in our intimacy with God.
Mark Ort:
07:05-07:05
Right.
Mark Ort:
07:06-07:11
He's communicating to us through his word and we're communicating back to him in our prayers.
Mark Ort:
07:12-07:13
So you ready for question number two?
Mark Ort:
07:14-07:15
I'm ready.
Mark Ort:
07:16-07:19
What is your view, Jeff, on the teaching of Joel Osteen?
Pastor Jeff:
07:21-07:28
You know what I appreciate about this question was it didn't ask what is my view on Joel Osteen because I don't know him.
Pastor Jeff:
07:28-07:37
He might be the nicest guy in the world, he might be the most generous, he certainly has some of the nicest teeth, but I don't know him.
Pastor Jeff:
07:37-07:48
But I appreciate this question asked what my view was on the teaching of Joel Osteen, and I didn't go back through his, you know, I didn't print out his doctrinal statement and study it.
Pastor Jeff:
07:48-07:57
But, you know, I remember looking at one of his books, I think it was Your Best Life Now or something like that.
Pastor Jeff:
07:58-07:59
And there was a statement.
Pastor Jeff:
08:00-08:07
He said, "God wants you to think more of yourself." Now, how does that gel with the Bible?
Pastor Jeff:
08:08-08:09
How does that gel with experience?
Pastor Jeff:
08:09-08:10
Because you know what my problem is?
Pastor Jeff:
08:11-08:12
My problem is I already think too much of myself.
Pastor Jeff:
08:13-08:17
And he's coming along saying, "God wants you to think more of yourself." That's just a lie.
Pastor Jeff:
08:18-08:21
We need to think less of ourselves.
Pastor Jeff:
08:22-08:32
And if this is your best life now, then that's a pretty sorry state of affairs, if this is your best life now.
Pastor Jeff:
08:32-08:45
Because you know what I see in this life is disease and suffering and death and disappointment and heartache, all these things that God promises someday He's going to do away with all these things.
Pastor Jeff:
08:46-08:49
And He's saying this is your best life now.
Pastor Jeff:
08:51-08:56
Look, his messages are little more than pep talks about being nice.
Pastor Jeff:
08:56-08:57
He doesn't talk about sin.
Pastor Jeff:
08:57-08:59
He doesn't talk about repentance.
Pastor Jeff:
09:00-09:08
Nothing about getting a deeper understanding of the Word of God or the God who wrote the Word.
Pastor Jeff:
09:08-09:13
So, the short answer is I don't think very much of his teaching.
Pastor Jeff:
09:13-09:15
I don't know him personally, but I don't think very much of his teaching.
Mark Ort:
09:16-09:18
And I certainly don't know him personally either.
Mark Ort:
09:19-09:22
I have looked into some of the things that he's taught and watched.
Mark Ort:
09:23-09:35
I've actually watched pieces of sermons and things, and the one thing I saw that struck me was he said that 99.9 % of the people are not bad people.
Mark Ort:
09:37-09:39
They have a good heart.
Mark Ort:
09:40-09:42
And the Bible teaches something different.
Pastor Jeff:
09:42-09:44
What does the Bible say about that?
Pastor Jeff:
09:44-09:44
In
Mark Ort:
09:44-09:46
Romans 3.12, it said that there's no one good.
Mark Ort:
09:47-09:58
And in Jeremiah 17, 9, it says, "The heart is deceitfully wicked." And so those are a couple of things, and you guys can research this stuff also on YouTube.
Mark Ort:
09:58-10:07
And there's a video of him on Larry King, multiple videos of him on Larry King and different programs like that.
Mark Ort:
10:07-10:12
And on Larry King, Larry King offered up softballs to Joel Osteen.
Mark Ort:
10:13-10:16
You mean to tell me that Jesus is the only way?
Mark Ort:
10:17-10:38
And a perfect opportunity for someone to say, "Jesus is the only way because the Bible teaches that in John 14, 6 or in Acts 4, 12, that there's only one name given by which we must be saved." And he didn't do that, he didn't take the opportunity, the golden opportunity laid before him in front of millions of people to articulate the gospel.
Mark Ort:
10:39-11:05
And our jobs as Christians, and certainly if you're a pastor of a church, is to clarify the gospel not to make it more confusing. And so that's something that bothers me about Joel Osteen. He either is confused on the gospel or he doesn't know it, period, and being outright deceitful about it. And so I would agree with you, Jeff, I don't have a high view of his teaching as well.
Mark Ort:
11:07-11:18
Okay, next question. Racial and cultural differences and subsequent discrimination seem to be becoming an increasingly important and controversial topic in our world.
Mark Ort:
11:18-11:30
As a church body and as individuals, how can we show and share Christ's love, i.e. race doesn't matter, in a region and church body that lacks diversity?
Pastor Jeff:
11:32-11:43
Well, I would absolutely love to see more diversity in this church because I think diversity better reflects the gospel.
Pastor Jeff:
11:43-11:47
You know, the Bible talks about how the gospel has, you know, it tears down the walls.
Pastor Jeff:
11:48-12:01
They're speaking specifically of Jews and Gentiles, but really every tribe, nation, people, you know, diversity better reflects the gospel, but diversity also better reflects the reality of heaven.
Pastor Jeff:
12:01-12:10
When you think you have all people from all nations and backgrounds and, you know, worshiping, you know, the living God.
Pastor Jeff:
12:11-12:19
I would absolutely love to see more diversity in the church, but specifically this question is asking how does that happen?
Pastor Jeff:
12:20-12:25
Well I would say it's the same way no matter what the ethnic background is.
Pastor Jeff:
12:26-12:53
That you love people, you look for ways to bless people, you invite people to church, share the gospel with people, you know, whatever skin color, ethnic background, whatever, look for ways to bless people and invite them, you know, something that I personally have done, the cleaning crew in this building are of a different ethnic background than I am.
Pastor Jeff:
12:54-13:02
And I have just tried over the time that we've been in this building to, you know, have a giant bowl of candy in the office, I'll invite them to come and take a handful.
Pastor Jeff:
13:03-13:05
I'll take them bottles of water while they're working.
Pastor Jeff:
13:05-13:21
There's even been times that I'm like, "Hey, can I go down to Sheetz and get you something?" And they'll be like, "Oh yeah, that'd be great." And just ways of making inroads to the point now that when they see that I'm here, they'll stop in the office and they'll talk about their kids, about their dog, about...
Pastor Jeff:
13:21-13:29
We had one particular person, she's been coming for prayer because she has family back in Nicaragua.
Pastor Jeff:
13:29-13:31
There's so much political unrest there.
Pastor Jeff:
13:31-13:33
But I'm just saying that didn't happen overnight.
Pastor Jeff:
13:34-13:37
That happened over time of relationship building.
Pastor Jeff:
13:38-13:48
And I would love to see them come and worship with us here, but right now that's, these were people of a different ethnic background than me that the Lord has put in my life to seek to bless.
Pastor Jeff:
13:48-13:50
And those are just some of the things that I'm doing.
Mark Ort:
13:51-13:56
Yeah, and Jeff, we have opportunities from our missions team also.
Mark Ort:
13:57-14:03
Yesterday, a team of us went to Pittsburgh and worked with an organization called Off the Floor.
Mark Ort:
14:03-14:21
And it was a beautiful day to do this, a little bit of rain here and there, but Off the Floor is a furniture bank and people who are in a situation where they're needy or starting over in life, a couple of the ladies, their house is burned down and so they have nothing.
Mark Ort:
14:22-14:36
And so the furniture bank, They sign up and volunteers like the ones who went yesterday take this stuff and deliver it and set it up and pray with the people and chat with them.
Mark Ort:
14:36-14:41
And yesterday we had three black women who had nothing.
Mark Ort:
14:43-14:48
Different racial makeup and different backgrounds and things like that.
Mark Ort:
14:48-14:53
And we were able to rub shoulders with them for the morning and bless them that way.
Mark Ort:
14:53-15:00
And nothing's more rewarding to me, Jeff, than, OK, we were hot, and we were sweaty, and we were carrying heavy stuff.
Mark Ort:
15:01-15:06
But the one lady, she hadn't slept on a mattress for two months.
Mark Ort:
15:07-15:11
And she walked over to the mattress, and she was a little grouchy when we first got there, it seemed.
Mark Ort:
15:12-15:14
No smile, no emotion, really.
Mark Ort:
15:15-15:19
And when she got this mattress, she's over there feeling it, like this.
Mark Ort:
15:20-15:22
She's feeling this mattress and a big grin on her face.
Mark Ort:
15:23-15:25
Like, that makes the whole effort worth it.
Mark Ort:
15:26-15:37
And so we can do things like that and rub shoulders with people who aren't like us, skin color wise or background wise, and just share the love of Christ with them.
Mark Ort:
15:37-15:54
We never even said, "Hey, why don't you come to church with us?" We just shared the love of Christ with them and encouraged them to get into a church around them, a Bible-believing church where people would help them and support them, pray for them, and help them out.
Mark Ort:
15:54-15:55
And I think they appreciate that.
Mark Ort:
15:56-15:56
Absolutely.
Pastor Jeff:
15:58-15:59
Do we have any questions coming in for the text?
Pastor Jeff:
15:59-16:01
I have some show up on my phone.
Pastor Jeff:
16:01-16:02
I don't know how this technology stuff works.
Pastor Jeff:
16:03-16:05
So, what came in?
Pastor Jeff:
16:05-16:06
What do you got for me, Mike?
Pastor Jeff:
16:08-16:11
In the Bible it talks about the four corners of the earth.
Pastor Jeff:
16:12-16:14
What exactly are the four corners of the earth?
Pastor Jeff:
16:14-16:15
What does that resemble?
Pastor Jeff:
16:17-16:20
Isaiah 11.2, Revelation 7.1.
Pastor Jeff:
16:22-16:22
Go ahead, Mark.
Pastor Jeff:
16:23-16:24
We're listening.
Pastor Jeff:
16:25-16:27
I haven't studied the four corners of
Mark Ort:
16:27-16:40
the earth recently, but stuff that I had learned in the past - and maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong - that four corners of the earth is kind of a reference to like comprehensiveness.
Mark Ort:
16:41-16:43
It's referring to - - North, south, east, and west.
Mark Ort:
16:43-16:45
Right, it's like on the compass.
Mark Ort:
16:47-16:48
This is everywhere.
Mark Ort:
16:50-16:52
It's not just in one location.
Mark Ort:
16:52-16:54
It's not just to the north or whatever.
Mark Ort:
16:54-16:55
It's everywhere.
Mark Ort:
16:55-16:55
Right.
Mark Ort:
16:55-16:56
That's the way I always read that.
Pastor Jeff:
16:57-16:59
And the Bible says that the earth is a sphere.
Pastor Jeff:
16:59-17:04
You know, the Bible says in Isaiah that God, you know, sits on the sphere of the earth.
Pastor Jeff:
17:04-17:11
So the Bible certainly isn't on one hand saying the earth is cube shaped, and on the other hand, it's shaped like a ball.
Pastor Jeff:
17:12-17:14
You know, the Bible certainly says that the earth is a sphere, but yeah.
Pastor Jeff:
17:15-17:22
Four corners of the Earth, my understanding in reading that has always been it's just a figure of speech for North, South, East, and West.
Pastor Jeff:
17:22-17:25
It's an expression that we still use, right?
Pastor Jeff:
17:25-17:28
We use expressions that we know aren't scientifically accurate.
Pastor Jeff:
17:30-17:32
Look at that pretty sunset.
Pastor Jeff:
17:32-17:34
Like, well, actually, the sun's not setting.
Pastor Jeff:
17:34-17:37
The Earth is rotating, and that's why it looks like the sun is setting.
Pastor Jeff:
17:38-17:39
Yeah, OK, thank you, Galileo.
Pastor Jeff:
17:41-17:43
But-- yeah, it's a beautiful Earth revolving.
Pastor Jeff:
17:43-17:44
Yeah, doesn't that sound nice?
Pastor Jeff:
17:44-17:45
Put that on a Hallmark card.
Pastor Jeff:
17:47-17:50
I wanna grow old with you and watch the earth revolve.
Pastor Jeff:
17:52-17:53
We have another one come in, Mike.
Pastor Jeff:
17:53-17:54
That's a good question.
Pastor Jeff:
17:55-18:01
What does the Bible say about what our political response to illegal immigration should be?
Pastor Jeff:
18:02-18:02
Wow.
Pastor Jeff:
18:04-18:06
Look at that, we are out of time.
Pastor Jeff:
18:07-18:07
(laughing)
Pastor Jeff:
18:08-18:09
All right, you are loved.
Pastor Jeff:
18:10-18:11
Come on, play something, Darren.
Pastor Jeff:
18:14-18:30
This is such a multifaceted issue that I believe certainly the United States should do everything that we can to accommodate people that are hurting, running from oppressive regimes and things like that.
Pastor Jeff:
18:30-18:36
But I do think there has to be some common sense vetting for people that are coming in.
Pastor Jeff:
18:39-18:45
You know, I think the problem with this is I think people so gravitate towards the extremes on every issue.
Pastor Jeff:
18:45-18:59
People so gravitate towards the extremes that there's people that are like, "Move it along, don't let anybody in!" And then you have the people on the other end that are like, "Everybody come!" And I don't think both of those are right.
Pastor Jeff:
18:59-19:13
I think that, yes, we should be a place of refuge, but at the same time, I think just because of the nature of the world that we live in now, I think that we need to be smart about the way that we do it.
Mark Ort:
19:14-19:14
Yeah, I agree.
Mark Ort:
19:15-19:19
And you know, God, I mean, he's a God of laws.
Mark Ort:
19:19-19:23
I mean, there are laws that we need to obey.
Mark Ort:
19:23-19:25
The 10 commandments are pretty good laws.
Mark Ort:
19:26-19:27
You know, you don't wanna kill anybody.
Mark Ort:
19:27-19:28
You don't wanna commit adultery.
Mark Ort:
19:28-19:29
Yeah, those are good laws.
Mark Ort:
19:29-19:30
They're good laws.
Mark Ort:
19:31-19:34
And, you know, as a country, we need to have laws to maintain order.
Mark Ort:
19:35-19:39
And so do we want immigrants?
Mark Ort:
19:39-19:41
I mean, we love immigrants.
Mark Ort:
19:41-19:46
We're a country of immigrants, but we probably need to do it legally.
Mark Ort:
19:46-20:01
And we could head down a political path on that, but in any case, illegal or legal, our job as Christians is to, I believe, is to love these people the best way that we know how,
Pastor Jeff:
20:01-20:02
within the bounds of the law.
Pastor Jeff:
20:03-20:04
Absolutely.
Pastor Jeff:
20:05-20:06
Do you want to take one with a live mic?
Pastor Jeff:
20:08-20:10
They may have a question here you'd like answered on the spot right now.
Pastor Jeff:
20:12-20:13
All right, keep thinking then.
Pastor Jeff:
20:14-20:16
Let's go to the next one on our list here.
Pastor Jeff:
20:16-20:21
Can you give me some background regarding Hezekiah's tunnel, 2 Kings 20.
Pastor Jeff:
20:21-20:22
Thank you.
Pastor Jeff:
20:23-20:25
We actually did plan on...
Pastor Jeff:
20:28-20:32
Mark just taught an apologetics class and talked about Hezekiah's tunnel, so why don't you address that?
Mark Ort:
20:33-20:39
I'm going to open up my Bible to that scripture, and if you have your Bible you can do that too.
Mark Ort:
20:40-20:43
It's in 2 Kings 20.
Mark Ort:
20:44-21:05
It says, "Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he made the pool and the conduit, and brought the water into the city, are they not all written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?" And if you flip over to 2 Chronicles, I believe it's chapter 32, there's some more detail on that.
Mark Ort:
21:06-21:09
King Hezekiah was a good king.
Mark Ort:
21:10-21:21
We have a slide, we have actually a couple slides, I think, and we talked about this in our class, and I promised my wife I was going to be like two minutes on this question because I could spend hours on this.
Mark Ort:
21:21-21:24
I love this kind of stuff, history and archaeology.
Mark Ort:
21:24-21:32
And so the Assyrians back in the day, they were governed by a king called Sennacherib.
Mark Ort:
21:32-21:35
And Sennacherib was going to attack Jerusalem.
Mark Ort:
21:36-21:50
And Hezekiah caught wind of this, and he said, "Hey, why don't we take this river, this Gihon Spring, outside of the city and reroute the water?" Why would he want to do that?
Mark Ort:
21:51-22:02
"Well, if you have water outside the city, and you have enemies coming, one of the reasons would be to route the water away from your enemies, so that they don't have water.
Mark Ort:
22:03-22:09
And then, when you bring it through your city, then now you have water." So what he did was he assembled a crew of people.
Mark Ort:
22:11-22:26
One part of the crew started on this end, outside the wall, and built this tunnel, started digging underground under the city, and another group started over on this side by this pool over here, which we're going to talk about in a second.
Mark Ort:
22:27-22:33
And they started digging the way that the rock was formed in the ground.
Mark Ort:
22:33-22:34
And that's why it's not straight.
Mark Ort:
22:34-22:35
That's why it's kind of crooked.
Mark Ort:
22:36-22:37
And they met in the middle.
Mark Ort:
22:38-22:39
It's actually an engineering marvel.
Mark Ort:
22:40-22:44
And you can actually go there today and tour that.
Mark Ort:
22:44-22:51
You can go in the Hezekiah's Tunnel, And you can walk through that, and the water in some places is like waist deep.
Mark Ort:
22:52-22:58
And if you go on TripAdvisor, TripAdvisor has this on there, and it only has a 4.5 rating, which surprised
Pastor Jeff:
22:58-22:58
me.
Mark Ort:
22:58-22:59
Out of what? - Out of five.
Mark Ort:
23:00-23:03
So there are some people that didn't really like their tour for some reason.
Mark Ort:
23:03-23:03
Maybe you
Pastor Jeff:
23:03-23:11
should take like a little canoe through there or something, like a romantic, like, take your sweetheart on the Tunnel of Love through Hezekiah's Tunnel.
Mark Ort:
23:11-23:13
Like who wouldn't give it a 5.0 rating?
Mark Ort:
23:13-23:18
I mean, you're walking in water, hip deep, and for 1,800 feet, It's pretty long.
Mark Ort:
23:19-23:22
But anyway, you can go there and tour this place.
Mark Ort:
23:22-23:24
And these other places on here, it looks like a pool.
Mark Ort:
23:25-23:29
This is, this bottom one is the Pool of Siloam.
Mark Ort:
23:30-23:33
Well, you read about the Pool of Siloam in John chapter nine.
Mark Ort:
23:34-23:51
In John chapter nine, Jesus healed a guy and said, "Hey," a blind guy, and he said, "Hey, I want you to go to the Pool of Siloam and wash, and you're gonna be healed." And so this pool of, it's called the Pool of Siloam, You can see that today, and the upper one is kind of the runoff from that.
Mark Ort:
23:51-23:54
It's down a little bit further, several hundred feet away.
Mark Ort:
23:55-23:55
It's like a runoff.
Mark Ort:
23:56-24:08
Now, archaeologists are divided over this, and they think that the Pool of Siloam, spoken of in John chapter 9, is actually underneath this stuff that's there now.
Mark Ort:
24:08-24:14
And there's no hard proof of that, but just different things that they've studied.
Mark Ort:
24:14-24:15
they think it's kind of underneath that.
Mark Ort:
24:16-24:19
And other archeologists say, no, this is the Pole of Siloam spoken of.
Mark Ort:
24:20-24:34
In any case, it's pretty neat how God used Hezekiah to, I look at this story, and there's a couple of verses in the Bible, as God's sovereignty in preserving the Jewish people at the time.
Mark Ort:
24:34-24:40
It's kind of a neat story, or a neat thing that we could probably gloss over quickly.
Mark Ort:
24:41-24:54
But archaeologically and historically, we can look at this thing right here, right now today, and say, "Hey, there's something from the Bible." One of those building blocks in proving that the Bible really is God's Word.
Pastor Jeff:
24:56-24:56
Absolutely.
Pastor Jeff:
24:56-25:08
That was, wasn't that sort of rediscovered like in the 1800s, but it was still full of a bunch of rubble and stuff from Jerusalem, and it wasn't cleared out until like 1904 or something like that, yeah.
Pastor Jeff:
25:09-25:09
Yeah.
Pastor Jeff:
25:09-25:14
All right, there's a group of questions here about hell.
Pastor Jeff:
25:14-25:15
Let's go through these quickly.
Pastor Jeff:
25:16-25:17
It seems that...
Pastor Jeff:
25:17-25:25
All right, I thought after the series on Nahum, people would want to stop talking about judgment and hell for a week, but we got a lot of questions regarding that.
Pastor Jeff:
25:25-25:26
So let's...
Pastor Jeff:
25:26-25:27
Yeah, Jeff,
Mark Ort:
25:27-25:29
is there a difference between hell and the lake of fire?
Pastor Jeff:
25:29-25:30
Yes, there is.
Pastor Jeff:
25:31-25:35
If you look at Luke chapter 16, Jesus tells the account of the rich man and Lazarus.
Pastor Jeff:
25:37-25:43
The Lazarus went to heaven, and the rich man went to a place of suffering.
Pastor Jeff:
25:43-25:49
He was in such anguish, he asked, "Dip your finger in water and touch my tongue." And such anguish.
Pastor Jeff:
25:50-26:10
And we know that that wasn't the lake of fire yet, because Revelation chapter 20 says, "At the end of the age, at the last judgment, "everyone who's rejected Jesus Christ "is thrown into the lake of fire, "including death and Hades, thrown into the lake of fire." So, yeah, there is a difference.
Pastor Jeff:
26:10-26:17
There's a place of suffering now, according to Jesus, and then ultimately, the lake of fire is the last judgment, the second death.
Mark Ort:
26:18-26:21
And we're all about the Gospel here because we don't want to see people go there.
Mark Ort:
26:21-26:23
I mean, who would want to go there?
Mark Ort:
26:24-26:30
People will say, "Well, all my friends are going to be there." It's not a place where we're playing cards and drinking beer.
Mark Ort:
26:30-26:33
I mean, you're not hanging out with your buddies in hell.
Mark Ort:
26:33-26:51
It's a place of eternal - punishment. Okay, so the next one, Revelation 20 12, it says this, "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened.
Mark Ort:
26:52-27:05
Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books." Besides the book of life, what are the names of the other books being referred to here?
Pastor Jeff:
27:06-27:46
We don't know the name of the book, but this verse tells us what is in the books. It says, "The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books." And whatever that book is, we don't know the name, but these books have every sinful thought, attitude, word and action. And try to wrap your brain around that. God in his sovereignty is recording everything that you say, think, do. He has these books. And on Judgment Day, that's evidence.
Pastor Jeff:
27:47-28:03
You know, when somebody stands before God and says, "I wasn't really a bad person." And God says, "Well, according to this record of your life that I've kept, you've been a But see, that's the beautiful thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
28:04-28:11
Romans 8 says, "There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Who will bring a charge against God's elect?
Pastor Jeff:
28:11-28:17
When you receive Jesus Christ, He takes that evidence and He just says, "Not guilty.
Pastor Jeff:
28:18-28:25
You are not guilty." And He pronounces you free and forgiven in Jesus Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
28:25-28:26
So you have a choice there.
Pastor Jeff:
28:27-28:34
When you appear in court, you're either going to be pronounced guilty or not guilty, and the difference is what you do with Jesus, right?
Pastor Jeff:
28:34-28:39
But this is God's evidence for the person that rejects Christ but still thinks they're a good person.
Pastor Jeff:
28:41-28:43
This is God's evidence that you're not.
Mark Ort:
28:44-28:45
Okay, thanks for the answer to that, Jeff.
Mark Ort:
28:46-28:49
And one last one on that topic.
Mark Ort:
28:50-28:53
If people kill themselves, do they go to hell?
Pastor Jeff:
28:53-29:01
You know, there are some churches that teach that, that if you commit suicide, that you go to hell, and that's just, that's not true biblically.
Pastor Jeff:
29:02-29:09
There's really only one sin that condemns a person to hell, and that's the sin of rejecting Jesus Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
29:10-29:26
That's the sin of God saying, "Hey, here's my son whom I love, who I gave as a sacrifice for your sin." And you say, "I don't want Jesus, I don't have anything to do with Jesus." That's really the only sin that will ultimately condemn you, because every other sin in Christ can be forgiven.
Pastor Jeff:
29:28-29:37
But see, some people think that hell is a condemning sin because it's like you end your life on a sin.
Pastor Jeff:
29:37-29:44
And how can I ask for forgiveness if my life ends while committing an act of sin?
Pastor Jeff:
29:45-29:54
And you know, the truth is when Jesus died on the cross, how many of your sins were in the future?
Pastor Jeff:
29:55-29:56
All of them, right?
Pastor Jeff:
29:57-30:02
So when you receive Christ, when you receive God's forgiveness in Christ, all your sins are forgiven.
Pastor Jeff:
30:02-30:10
The ones you've done in the past, the ones that you're going to do today, and the ones that you are surely going to do tomorrow, they're all forgiven in Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
30:11-30:15
So, you know, suicide is not the unforgivable sin.
Pastor Jeff:
30:15-30:25
Is it possible that a true believer in Christ can get to such a point of despair and despondency and hurt that they take their own life?
Pastor Jeff:
30:25-30:27
I believe that that's possible even for a Christian.
Pastor Jeff:
30:29-31:04
But I would like to say, you know, it's a horrible thing, you know, when you think about the wake of just devastation that you leave for family and friends that you're leaving behind. And if there's somebody, maybe the person that asked this question, if this is something that you've been thinking about, I would really strongly encourage you to come and talk to me. Or get one of our leaders in our church. We have some ladies here. If it's a lady that wrote this, you want to talk to a lady. It is a horrible thing for those left behind.
Pastor Jeff:
31:08-31:10
If you need to talk, we have people here that would love to talk to you.
Pastor Jeff:
31:12-31:15
And blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the same thing as rejecting Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
31:15-31:29
See those people that Jesus was preaching to, they saw everything that God was doing by the power of the Holy Spirit through His Son, they saw all of that and they're like, "Eh, he does it by the power of Beelzebub." So that's what they did.
Pastor Jeff:
31:29-31:31
They wholesale rejected Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
31:31-31:35
And that's what Jesus called blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, and I think we can still be guilty of that today.
Pastor Jeff:
31:36-31:45
We see everything that God had accomplished in Christ, which is revealed to us through the Word, through the enlightening of God's Holy Spirit, and we reject it.
Pastor Jeff:
31:45-31:49
I believe, that's a really great question, Keith, but I believe that's the same sin.
Pastor Jeff:
31:49-31:53
Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the wholesale rejection of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
31:54-32:02
Seeing everything that God did through His Son by the power of the Holy Spirit, and just being, "Eh, not interested." That's what the religious leaders did.
Pastor Jeff:
32:02-32:06
"Eh, eh, the power of Beelzebub, he casts out demons." Like really?
Pastor Jeff:
32:07-32:07
Really?
Pastor Jeff:
32:07-32:08
That's your answer?
Pastor Jeff:
32:09-32:12
Like you get to that point, you're gone, man.
Pastor Jeff:
32:13-32:13
Yeah, there's nothing
Mark Ort:
32:13-32:14
else he can do at that point.
Pastor Jeff:
32:14-32:15
No, there's nothing else you can do.
Pastor Jeff:
32:17-32:18
Yeah, let's take another from the audience.
Pastor Jeff:
32:19-32:20
Anybody have one live?
Questioner 1:
32:22-32:31
So I have some friends that are constantly on social media and claim to be Christians but are in an open same-sex marriage situation?
Questioner 1:
32:32-32:39
What does the Bible say about that and how should we respond to them when talking to them about that in their life choices?
Pastor Jeff:
32:39-32:42
Did you say open same-sex relationship?
Questioner 1:
32:42-32:44
Like they're married to a same-sex partner.
Pastor Jeff:
32:45-32:45
Oh, okay.
Pastor Jeff:
32:45-32:49
So they're in a married homosexual, right.
Pastor Jeff:
32:50-32:55
I really, I think it was John Piper that said this and I really appreciated this.
Pastor Jeff:
32:55-33:07
He said that as the church, we need to lovingly tell people in that situation, "Look, I love you, but this is wrong." And I think we talked before about the extremes.
Pastor Jeff:
33:07-33:11
I think that's been the problem with the church in our day is the extreme.
Pastor Jeff:
33:11-33:26
Because you have some churches that are just like, "Hey, God loves everybody, and it doesn't matter what your sin is, whether you're an adulterer or a homosexual or a thief, it doesn't It doesn't matter.
Pastor Jeff:
33:27-33:30
And then you have the other extreme.
Pastor Jeff:
33:30-33:39
We have like those knuckleheads from Westboro, you know, that are picketing and they have their signs, "God hates," you know, really derogatory term.
Pastor Jeff:
33:39-33:47
And, you know, it's really hateful and aggressive and that's not the answer either.
Pastor Jeff:
33:47-34:00
You know, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul gives a list of some of the sins that Corinthians were involved in, including homosexuality, and he says, "And such were some of you." And he says, "That's not who you are anymore.
Pastor Jeff:
34:00-34:01
You were washed.
Pastor Jeff:
34:01-34:10
You were regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit." And it's taking those opportunities, Kaylee, to say, "Look, I love you.
Pastor Jeff:
34:11-34:16
I love you in the Lord, but I want you to understand that the Bible says this is wrong."
Mark Ort:
34:17-34:21
And we're not really doing them any favors by concealing the truth.
Mark Ort:
34:22-34:32
We need to be bold but loving, speaking the truth in love, and say, like Jeff said, this is what the Bible says, point them to certain scriptures, and they may disagree with that.
Mark Ort:
34:33-34:40
But as Christians, whether it's that sin or any other sin, we're not doing people favors by kicking it under the carpet.
Pastor Jeff:
34:41-34:57
Right, and it's, again, it's, I have friends who are homosexual, people that I used to work with, and still stay in contact with me, and they know where I stand on that, but I don't feel the need to try to slap them down every time they talk to me.
Pastor Jeff:
34:57-34:59
Like, you know what the Bible says about that?
Pastor Jeff:
34:59-35:01
And yeah, they know, we've had that conversation.
Pastor Jeff:
35:02-35:05
They need to know, look, I love you, but what you're doing is wrong.
Pastor Jeff:
35:05-35:08
And that translates really to any sin that somebody's involved in, right?
Pastor Jeff:
35:08-35:17
Somebody can be involved in a heterosexual, adulterous relationship, like, look, I love you, but what you're doing right now, what you're doing is wrong.
Mark Ort:
35:18-35:22
Yeah, when Jeremiah Canfield was here, it was a pretty convicting message.
Mark Ort:
35:22-35:29
And as a church, we need to learn how to love these people instead of looking at them as outcasts.
Mark Ort:
35:30-35:33
We need to learn how to love them, but to share the truth with them.
Mark Ort:
35:34-35:34
Right.
Mark Ort:
35:35-35:36
Okay, next question, Jeff.
Mark Ort:
35:37-35:43
In Ezekiel 9, what is the significance of the writer's case and the man carrying it?
Mark Ort:
35:43-35:43
Thank you.
Mark Ort:
35:45-35:51
It is interesting how God says, "Son of man," And this is what the Sovereign Lord says.
Mark Ort:
35:51-35:54
A very interesting book, very, very deep.
Mark Ort:
35:54-35:55
And so what do you say about that?
Pastor Jeff:
35:56-35:59
I had to do a little research on this man with clothed in linen.
Pastor Jeff:
36:00-36:04
And apparently this one man in particular was sort of highlighted above the other ones.
Pastor Jeff:
36:04-36:06
And was he an angel?
Pastor Jeff:
36:06-36:14
Was, sometimes in the Old Testament, when it talks about the angel of the Lord, sometimes that's a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
36:14-36:24
But interestingly, his job was to go through Jerusalem and to mark the people that actually were faithful to God.
Pastor Jeff:
36:24-36:29
And God says that those people were going to be spared from death when the Babylonians came through.
Pastor Jeff:
36:29-36:30
He was marking them.
Pastor Jeff:
36:32-36:38
And an interesting thing in that chapter, the Bible says that God's glory was leaving the temple.
Pastor Jeff:
36:39-36:50
And it's a very sad thing that God dwelt with His people, and His people persistently rejected Him, persistently to the point that you get to Ezekiel 9, God's like, "I'm leaving.
Pastor Jeff:
36:51-37:35
You obviously don't want to worship Me, you don't want Me in your midst, I'm gone." The significance of that is so in our faces today because Romans chapter 1 teaches the exact same thing. That when people abandon God, God abandons people. You know, you read Romans chapter 1, just mark that, starting in verse 18, over and over it talks about how God gives people over to their sin. Like, they've suppressed the truth for a lie, and they started worshipping the creature rather than the Creator, and they've abandoned natural relations for unnatural ones, and over and over and over in Romans chapter 1, it's just them up.
Pastor Jeff:
37:36-37:36
God's like, "You want to sin?
Pastor Jeff:
37:36-37:37
Okay.
Pastor Jeff:
37:38-37:45
Okay." And that's a terrifying thing when God, you know, allows you to be so hard-hearted.
Pastor Jeff:
37:46-37:47
He's like, "Okay, you know what?
Pastor Jeff:
37:47-37:47
You want to sin?
Pastor Jeff:
37:47-37:56
Go ahead." So, I think that's the significance that's happening in this passage in Ezekiel chapter 9, same thing we're dealing with here.
Mark Ort:
37:57-37:59
All right, thank you for your insight on that, Jeff.
Mark Ort:
37:59-38:00
And how about this one?
Mark Ort:
38:01-38:05
What is the motivation to joining the church as opposed to just attending regularly?
Pastor Jeff:
38:07-38:08
That is a really good question.
Pastor Jeff:
38:08-38:12
Membership in the church says, it says a lot of things.
Pastor Jeff:
38:12-38:17
It says, "I belong here." And it says, "I'm responsible for what happens here." Right?
Pastor Jeff:
38:18-38:31
It's one thing to like come to a church and kind of sit and take it in, and it's real easy to be, "Well, I've been going to this church, but I don't like this and I don't like that." member of this church, that means you're responsible for what happens here.
Pastor Jeff:
38:32-38:36
And that also says, this is a place of accountability for me.
Pastor Jeff:
38:36-38:40
And I've been a pastor now for 20-some odd years, and I've seen that.
Pastor Jeff:
38:40-38:49
Somebody doesn't want to join a church, and as soon as they're involved in sin and we have to lovingly confront them about that, it's like, "Well, I'm just going to go to the church across the street or whatever.
Pastor Jeff:
38:49-38:54
I'm not even a member here anyways." And but being a member says, "Look, I'm committed here.
Pastor Jeff:
38:55-39:01
This is where I belong, and this is where I'm accountable, and I'm part of what's happening here.
Pastor Jeff:
39:01-39:22
And for a pastor, it tells me the people that are saying, "Look, I'm on the team, I'm here to serve, I want to get involved, you can call on me to be involved in the advancement of the kingdom ministry that you're doing here at Harvest Bible Chapel." That's what membership to a church communicates.
Mark Ort:
39:23-39:29
Okay, let me read a passage from Proverbs 26, and this is the next question.
Mark Ort:
39:30-39:35
The passage says, "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will also be like him.
Mark Ort:
39:36-39:43
Answer a fool as his folly deserves, that he may not be wise in his own eyes." And the question is, could you please address this?
Mark Ort:
39:43-39:48
It appears—we covered this in our apologetics class, but I want to hear what you have to say.
Mark Ort:
39:48-39:50
It appears almost like that's a contradiction.
Mark Ort:
39:50-39:53
Are we going to answer a fool or are we not going to answer a fool?
Pastor Jeff:
39:54-39:56
Right, and these two verses, they're meant to go together.
Pastor Jeff:
39:57-40:00
And when you take them together, it's how to answer a fool.
Pastor Jeff:
40:01-40:06
And when it talks about a fool, it's not talking about somebody of lower intelligence.
Pastor Jeff:
40:06-40:13
When the Bible talks about a fool, it's speaking specifically to someone who is rebellious against God's truth.
Pastor Jeff:
40:13-40:15
Like they don't want to hear what God has to say.
Pastor Jeff:
40:16-40:17
That's a biblical definition of a fool.
Pastor Jeff:
40:18-40:24
who rejects the wisdom of God. So what's the first? Read the first one again.
Pastor Jeff:
40:24-40:25
Proverbs 26.4.
Mark Ort:
40:26-40:30
"Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will also be like him."
Pastor Jeff:
40:31-40:48
Okay. It's saying you don't agree with the fool. When a fool is speaking foolishness, you don't agree with him. You don't answer him on his level, like you're coming alongside and agreeing with him. You don't do that, but verse 5 says what you should do. Read verse 5 again.
Mark Ort:
40:48-40:56
"Answer, O fool, as his folly deserves, that he may not be wise in his own eyes." Verse 5 says you need to
Pastor Jeff:
40:56-40:59
point out his error.
Pastor Jeff:
40:59-41:07
You need to answer him or rebuke him on the basis of his foolish stance.
Pastor Jeff:
41:08-41:13
You're supposed to use the truth to show someone how foolish their foolishness is.
Pastor Jeff:
41:14-41:16
So those two verses go together.
Pastor Jeff:
41:17-41:21
Don't get on his level. Use the truth to show him how foolish he's being.
Mark Ort:
41:22-41:24
I do have one more question for you.
Mark Ort:
41:24-41:27
What if you accepted Jesus but you still sin?
Mark Ort:
41:28-41:32
You try your best not to sin, but you are still doing it.
Mark Ort:
41:33-41:34
What does God think about it?
Pastor Jeff:
41:36-41:37
That is a really good question.
Pastor Jeff:
41:38-41:41
And I wanted us to make sure that we got to this one.
Pastor Jeff:
41:42-41:47
Romans chapter 7, verses 15 through 20, you can jot that down.
Pastor Jeff:
41:47-41:52
But it's a common experience that even the apostle Paul went through.
Pastor Jeff:
41:52-41:56
You're born again, you're regenerated, you are a partaker of the divine nature.
Pastor Jeff:
41:57-42:00
And even Paul said, "Why do I do the things I don't want to do?
Pastor Jeff:
42:00-42:03
I recognize the law is good and I want to do it and I don't do it.
Pastor Jeff:
42:03-42:05
I'm like, I'm not going to sin and I go right out and sin.
Pastor Jeff:
42:06-42:16
Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" Like, that's such a common experience that sometimes I read Romans 7 and I'm like, "Did I write this?" You know?
Pastor Jeff:
42:18-42:21
And the battle with temptation and sin is never going to end.
Pastor Jeff:
42:21-42:22
It's not going to end.
Pastor Jeff:
42:24-42:31
And you have to fight it a day at a time, a moment at a time, with the resources that God gave you.
Pastor Jeff:
42:31-42:32
See, God didn't leave us without resources.
Pastor Jeff:
42:32-42:34
We have the armor of God.
Pastor Jeff:
42:34-42:35
We have the Word of God.
Pastor Jeff:
42:35-42:38
We have God's Holy Spirit indwelling us.
Pastor Jeff:
42:38-42:43
But the fight against temptation and sin isn't going to end.
Pastor Jeff:
42:44-42:47
So what does God think of a believer in sin?
Pastor Jeff:
42:47-42:48
That's the question.
Pastor Jeff:
42:49-42:53
And He loves you based on the blood of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
42:55-43:03
God's love for you, whoever wrote this and whoever else is thinking this, God's love for you is not based on your performance.
Pastor Jeff:
43:04-43:08
And I think a lot of times in life, we're sort of conditioned that way.
Pastor Jeff:
43:10-43:12
That we feel like our parents love us when we do good.
Pastor Jeff:
43:13-43:16
Or our boss likes us when we do good.
Pastor Jeff:
43:18-43:20
Or our spouse likes us when we do good.
Pastor Jeff:
43:20-43:21
Then we translate that to God.
Pastor Jeff:
43:21-43:23
God likes me when I do good.
Pastor Jeff:
43:24-43:27
But God's love for you is not based on your performance.
Pastor Jeff:
43:27-43:29
And we just can't seem to get that out of our head.
Pastor Jeff:
43:29-43:33
God's love for you is based on what His Son accomplished for you.
Pastor Jeff:
43:34-44:26
love for you is based on the blood of Jesus Christ. So you see when I pray I might have had the worst day, been the worst husband, worst father, that I could say, "Well I probably shouldn't pray because God's mad at me." God's not mad at me because I was a knucklehead at home. God loves me because his Son died in my place and granted me forgiveness and eternal life and God sees me through the lens of his Son so I can boldly go to God in prayer, not based on my performance because if that was the case, I think I'd be qualified to pray maybe once every three years if it was based on my performance, but I can come to God and be loved and accepted by God because of what His Son did on my behalf.
Pastor Jeff:
44:27-44:27
Amen, he
Mark Ort:
44:27-44:30
even wants us to come.
Mark Ort:
44:30-44:37
I have a note written down here that 1 John 1.9, if you confess your sin, what
Pastor Jeff:
44:37-44:40
happens if you confess your sin according to that passage?
Pastor Jeff:
44:40-44:43
He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
Pastor Jeff:
44:43-44:45
Yes, he wants to cleanse us.
Pastor Jeff:
44:45-44:47
Who doesn't want to be cleansed?
Pastor Jeff:
44:47-44:50
And he's, in Christ, he's already done that.
Pastor Jeff:
44:50-44:51
The work is done.
Pastor Jeff:
44:52-44:57
So shall we continue to sin so that grace may abound?
Pastor Jeff:
44:57-44:58
Absolutely not.
Pastor Jeff:
44:58-45:01
We should still be fighting sin, fighting temptation.
Pastor Jeff:
45:01-45:05
You know, God's goal for every believer, He has the same goal for everyone.
Pastor Jeff:
45:06-45:07
It's Romans 8.29, right?
Pastor Jeff:
45:07-45:09
He wants to conform you into the image of His Son.
Pastor Jeff:
45:10-45:17
And that's a process called sanctification that happens a day at a time, a moment at a time.
Pastor Jeff:
45:17-45:33
So the fight is always going to be happening, but we can't let setbacks or, "Okay, I failed today." We can't let that make us think that God looks at us differently, because He doesn't.
Pastor Jeff:
45:34-45:44
Our salvation was not based on our performance, and our continual right standing with God is not based on our performance.
Pastor Jeff:
45:44-45:49
It's based on the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
45:49-45:50
2 Corinthians 5.21.
Pastor Jeff:
45:51-45:57
God took him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Pastor Jeff:
45:57-46:00
God gave us the righteousness of Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
46:00-46:01
That's how he deals with it.
Pastor Jeff:
46:02-46:04
So the rest of the questions, we had a bunch of them.
Pastor Jeff:
46:05-46:06
You're gonna blog those, right?
Pastor Jeff:
46:06-46:09
Yeah, we got up, yeah, we had like, I had like three and a half pages here.
Pastor Jeff:
46:09-46:11
Did we get a bunch more in the text?
Pastor Jeff:
46:12-46:13
Okay, Mike says we did.
Pastor Jeff:
46:13-46:17
So we'll have like enough blogs until like what, Christmas looking like.
Pastor Jeff:
46:18-46:18
All right.
Pastor Jeff:
46:19-46:22
We might not even have to solicit questions for the next Q&A day.
Pastor Jeff:
46:24-46:39
So I wanted to end with this one because this whole, this whole fighting sin thing, you know, next month, it's actually starting next week, we have four guest speakers.
Pastor Jeff:
46:41-46:44
This is a new thing for us as a church.
Pastor Jeff:
46:44-46:58
But I wanted to take some guys that I knew, so I found these rock solid guys that love the Lord, love His word, and are passionate.
Pastor Jeff:
46:58-47:02
And I'm like, let me get some of the best guys that I can.
Pastor Jeff:
47:02-47:04
And so I got them and I also got Ryan Stroop.
Pastor Jeff:
47:05-47:22
And they're going to be speaking, they're going to be speaking next month, You know, four guys have never preached, and they're gonna be giving the word, but actually Ryan is going to be addressing this very subject in his sermon.
Pastor Jeff:
47:23-47:37
So if that was you that asked that question, he's going to be talking about what it means to make every effort to pursue the Lord and the effect that that has on your battle with sin.
Mark Ort:
47:37-47:39
And we're totally looking forward to these four guys.
Pastor Jeff:
47:39-47:46
You know what, they've been rehearsing, they've been working hard, and I have been completely blown away.
Pastor Jeff:
47:46-47:51
Their sermons aren't good by the standard of, well, they're not preachers.
Pastor Jeff:
47:52-47:54
Their sermons are good by preacher standards.
Pastor Jeff:
47:55-48:16
I've heard a lot of pastors, and these guys, their sermons just blew me away, how well put together and prayed and presented, And I am really looking forward to the word that these guys are giving next month and all of you should be too, because it is going to be fantastic.
Pastor Jeff:
48:18-48:28
I'm just like excited for the church, knowing the awesome things that these guys are gonna be giving over this next month.
Pastor Jeff:
48:28-48:30
So our timer went up a while ago.
Pastor Jeff:
48:30-48:35
So let me pray and then we'll close up our time with worship.
Pastor Jeff:
48:36-48:40
Father in heaven, we thank You that Your Word has the answers that we seek.
Pastor Jeff:
48:41-48:44
And Father, I thank You that this is a place where we can answer questions.
Pastor Jeff:
48:45-48:51
And I know there were a bunch presented today and there were a bunch that had been submitted over the last few weeks that we did not get to today.
Pastor Jeff:
48:51-48:58
And I just, Father, I just pray that the people that are seeking answers from Your Word are not discouraged.
Pastor Jeff:
49:00-49:06
I feel that some of these questions that have come in have been from a position of maybe Maybe hurt, maybe disappointment.
Pastor Jeff:
49:08-49:13
But you are the same God who still says, "Everyone who asks, receives.
Pastor Jeff:
49:13-49:14
The one who seeks, finds.
Pastor Jeff:
49:14-49:24
And the one who knocks, it will be opened." So Father, let us boldly go to Your throne of grace, not because of us, not because of our righteousness, but because of You.
Pastor Jeff:
49:24-49:27
Because of what You've accomplished through Jesus Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
49:28-49:38
And we ask that You would reveal and manifest Your glory in a mighty way person seeking you. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Review the questions submitted above. Discuss any of these that stuck out to you, or that maybe your group finds particularly interesting.
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!