The Pieces of Peace

Guest Speaker - Daniel Thompson

The Cure for Fear: 1 John 4:18


The Replacement for Fear: PEACE

FEAR		REALITY IN CHRIST
PAST MISTAKES	(Rom 5:1)	JUSTIFIED BY FAITH
LACK OF BLESSINGS	(Rom 5:2a)	ACCESS INTO GRACE
FUTURE	(Rom 5:2b)	HOPE OF GLORY
STRUGGLES OF TODAY	(Rom 5:3-5)	PURPOSE IN SUFFERING
UNCERTAINTY	(Rom 5:6-11)	DEATH FOR AN ENEMY

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• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:00

  Good morning, everybody.

  00:01-00:05

  First of all, I want to thank Pastor Jeff and the elders of the church for asking me to speak.

  00:05-00:13

  You know, my parents and my siblings that are here know that public speaking is actually not what I'm genetically or conditionally trained to do.

  00:13-00:21

  Thankfully, though, God has seen fit otherwise to make me work with youth, which I've done over the past 10 years.

  00:21-00:27

  And one thing you learn from working with teens is that if you can talk in front of teens, you can pretty much talk in front of anybody.

  00:27-00:30

  You guys are way easier than their attention span.

  00:30-00:32

  So today we're going to be talking about the Book of Romans.

  00:33-00:36

  We're going to be talking about a passage out of the Book of Romans from chapter 5.

  00:36-00:38

  So why study the Book of Romans?

  00:38-00:39

  What's the big deal about Romans?

  00:40-00:43

  You know, it seems like a lot of people focus their attention on it.

  00:43-00:48

  It's the book that changed Martin Luther's whole course of direction of his theology and things like that.

  00:49-01:50

  Well, one of the quotes that I had found out there is Dr. Barnhouse, who is the original pastor of the radio program, the Bible Study Hour. He passed away in like the 60s, so I never actually heard him. But, he had a great quote here, "A scientist may say that mother's milk is the most perfect food known to man. And a scientist may give you the analysis showing all the chemical components. He may give you a list of all the vitamins in the milk and an estimate of the calories in each given quantity. But a baby will take that milk without the remotest knowledge of its content and will grow day by day. So it is, the profoundest truths of the Word of God. Some of us may be able to analyze it and some of us may not. But all of us do well to drink and to grow. The point is, there's a lot of complex stuff in Romans and you may not understand every aspect of it. There's people out there thankfully by God's grace that do understand more than any of us. But the idea is we should always grow every time we look at it. Every time we look at the Book of Romans we should walk away different than before.

  01:50-01:52

  And so that's what I'm hoping we will do today.

  01:53-01:58

  As Pastor Jeff mentioned, I am a teacher, but I hate teaching out of context.

  01:58-02:07

  And since I'm not permitted to speak to get all the way to Romans 5, I only get one Sunday to talk, I have to give you some context to get you to chapter five.

  02:08-02:14

  All right, so here's one sentence summaries of the preceding chapters to get you to chapter five.

  02:15-02:18

  Chapter one, God's wrath is coming on man, and here's why.

  02:19-02:20

  God lists the reasons.

  02:21-02:26

  Chapter two, God's people are no better because we should know better, and we do the same things.

  02:27-02:31

  Chapter three, because no one is righteous, God stepped in.

  02:33-02:39

  And chapter four, Abraham was justified by faith, not the law, and so are we.

  02:39-02:41

  That brings us up to chapter five.

  02:41-02:46

  But before we start chapter five, I wanna give you some insight into how my engineer brain works.

  02:46-02:50

  So I'm a mechanical engineer, I work for a Navy contractor out in Monroeville.

  02:51-02:55

  And probably obvious to most people about engineers is that we're dominated by logic.

  02:56-03:02

  Normally in a battle between feeling and logic, logic's gonna win as long as my brain is appropriately engaged.

  03:03-03:07

  But something that people may not know about engineers is engineers talk a lot about risk mitigation.

  03:08-03:09

  What's risk mitigation?

  03:09-03:16

  Risk mitigation is when you identify what the risks are to a proposed course of action, And then you mitigate them.

  03:16-03:20

  You try to either minimize the impact or the likelihood of those risks happening.

  03:21-03:29

  They talk about that in the business world as well, but I know as an engineer, I'm constantly having to defend my position of is this a bad thing or a good thing?

  03:29-03:31

  And how likely is that bad thing going to happen or not?

  03:32-03:34

  So today I'd like to talk about fear mitigation.

  03:35-03:42

  What fears are out there in life, some of them, and how can we make the impact or likelihood of that fear as small as possible?

  03:43-03:44

  So that's what we're gonna talk about today.

  03:45-03:48

  The Bible actually talks about a cure for fear.

  03:48-03:54

  And that cure for fear is found in a passage we're just gonna read here, 1 John 4, 18.

  03:54-04:09

  It says, "There is no fear in love, "but perfect love casts out fear, "for fear has to do with punishment, "and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." The theme that I want you to get there is perfect love drives out fear.

  04:09-04:12

  So love is the way we get rid of fear.

  04:13-04:23

  What I'd like to focus on today is how can we replace that, what can we replace that fear with, or at least keep it as small as possible so that that fear has no impact in our lives.

  04:24-04:29

  Based on the title of my sermon, you can probably guess that the replacement for that fear is peace.

  04:30-04:32

  And that's what our passage in Romans talks about.

  04:32-04:36

  So turn with me in Romans chapter five, verses one through 11.

  04:38-04:43

  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  04:43-04:51

  Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

  04:52-05:06

  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

  05:07-05:12

  For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

  05:12-05:18

  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.

  05:19-05:22

  But God chose this love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

  05:23-05:30

  Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God?

  05:31-05:45

  For if while we were his enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we now have received reconciliation.

  05:46-05:47

  Let's pray.

  05:50-06:11

  Mighty God, I thank you for this opportunity and I pray that you would use it for your glory, Lord, and I pray that the distractions of my own stumblings and speaking and my own thought patterns, Lord God, that those would be removed. The distractions of the heat, the distractions of our own life, Lord God, would be removed and you would speak through me to reveal this text to our hearts, Lord God.

  06:12-06:17

  Make us understand the reality of what you have done for us and how it should change the way we live.

  06:18-06:20

  We praise you for this time and thank you that we've gathered here together.

  06:21-06:22

  All this we ask in your name.

  06:23-06:26

  So I think there's a lot of confusion out there about what peace is.

  06:26-07:06

  Is peace this, you know, anti-war, anti-God, free love movement of the '60s with that horrific sign that I despise? Did John Lennon have it right whenever he said, when all he was saying was give peace a chance? Or maybe peace is actually when all the UN representatives get together in a fancy room and leave with a peace which is actually just a Cold War like tension where missiles are aimed at each other but actually not fired. Or maybe peace is that feeling that you get when you've made a decision and your heart rate finally goes back to normal and you can sleep at night again. Or maybe you feel peace or at peace whenever you see doves flying in a sunrise or something goofy like that.

  07:07-07:13

  I can't help but think of the classic scene from that movie, Independence Day. It's a victim of my time.

  07:14-07:25

  When President Bill Pullman is in the bowels of Area 51 and he's down there talking to the alien that Will Smith had shot down in his dog fight, and the President asks him, Did you come in peace?

  07:26-07:28

  The alien says, "Peace!

  07:30-07:33

  No peace!" And then he threatens to kill them.

  07:33-07:36

  But that's my response to all these types of peace.

  07:37-07:37

  Peace?

  07:38-07:38

  No peace.

  07:38-07:40

  Those are not peace.

  07:40-07:41

  That's not what peace is all about.

  07:42-07:43

  Peace is not a feeling.

  07:44-07:47

  Dare I say, Jay, that peace is more than a feeling?

  07:47-07:51

  Peace is actually a state of reality for those of us who belong to Christ.

  07:52-08:01

  what God has done for us, through his Son, we can experience a true and lasting peace that is actually beyond our ability to understand, as it talks about elsewhere in the scripture.

  08:02-08:27

  Let's take a look at the text and see what peace is and how it mitigates or minimizes some of the fears that we encounter. So the first fear on your outline, past mistakes. Fear of the past can cripple a person, the realization that what has been done can't be undone, or the feeling that your crimes are beyond redemption or beyond forgiveness.

  08:28-08:35

  Sometimes you get that overwhelming guilt that weighs on your heart and just prevents you from being able to make any future decisions.

  08:36-08:37

  This fear must be dealt with.

  08:38-08:39

  Let's read verse 1 again.

  08:40-08:45

  Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  08:46-08:48

  Well, how does that deal with past mistakes?

  08:48-08:55

  Well, to be justified means to be declared not guilty, which means if we were declared not guilty, we were guilty.

  08:56-09:00

  And it's pretty easy to see the things that we've done wrong, many, many things that we've done wrong.

  09:00-09:03

  Just go through the 10 Commandments and see how well you do.

  09:04-09:14

  Bounce the 10 Commandments against Christ's clarification that the 10 Commandments are not purely external, but actually also internal, and we're downright awful at any kind of obedience towards God.

  09:16-09:17

  So we justified by faith.

  09:17-09:18

  Well, what's faith?

  09:18-09:24

  The writer of Hebrews describes faith as being sure of what we hope for and being certain of what we cannot see.

  09:25-09:27

  None of us have witnessed the resurrection.

  09:28-09:31

  And likely, most of us have not physically seen the risen Christ.

  09:32-09:42

  But in faith, but faith in him is recognizing our own mistakes, admitting that we are sinners and are in desperate need of saving from the punishment that we deserve.

  09:43-09:49

  Faith is trusting that Christ is who he says he is He lived, died, and was raised in place of us.

  09:49-09:54

  If this is you, you can accept this reality that you are justified by faith.

  09:56-09:57

  Alright, so picture yourself in a courtroom.

  09:57-10:00

  You're the defendant and God's the judge.

  10:00-10:06

  All the evidence has been stacked up against you and you've nowhere to run and no excuse.

  10:07-10:11

  You're awaiting your sentencing and God declares you not guilty.

  10:12-10:13

  How is this so?

  10:14-10:16

  Your much deserved punishment will not be assigned to you.

  10:17-10:18

  Not only that, but this ruling is final.

  10:19-10:20

  It can't be undone.

  10:21-10:23

  Because of God's ruling, we now have peace.

  10:23-10:28

  Well, we have peace with God, obviously, because there's not going to be that punishment that we deserve.

  10:28-10:31

  He's not going to ever punish us for the crimes that we have committed.

  10:33-10:39

  Furthermore, we have peace internally because we can let go of all that guilt and that shame and move on from our past mistakes.

  10:40-10:43

  We've experienced His forgiveness, so we should be able to forgive ourselves.

  10:44-10:53

  And finally, we can begin a road of peace with others, either who have hurt us or who we have hurt, because we've seen the example of Christ's free offering of forgiveness.

  10:53-11:00

  And we should be able to model that and do that with others so that we can bridge a road of peace with them.

  11:02-11:08

  So if you are in Christ, do not fear past mistakes, because you have been justified by faith.

  11:09-11:12

  Alright, fear number two, lack of blessings.

  11:13-11:14

  Lack of blessings.

  11:14-11:22

  I bet most people wouldn't say that they fear lack of blessings, but most people live like it, because most people certainly worry about that situation to some degree.

  11:23-11:37

  Everything we watch on TV from the news to commercials makes us so discontent that we not only worry about what we will have tomorrow or what we need to have in the future, but we are blind to the blessings that we have right now.

  11:37-11:40

  The old is not desirable and we need the new.

  11:41-11:45

  We worry about where the money will come from or how God is going to provide for our family, even as Christians.

  11:47-11:49

  Let's read the first half of verse 2.

  11:50-11:55

  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into the grace in which we stand.

  11:57-12:04

  So the reality in Christ in the face of the fear of lack of blessings is that we have access into grace.

  12:05-12:11

  The other week when Mark preached, he brought up a distinction between grace and mercy that's relevant here as well.

  12:12-12:17

  As Mark pointed out, mercy is God not giving us something that we do deserve.

  12:18-12:19

  Mercy was received when we were justified.

  12:20-12:22

  We deserved punishment, but we don't get it.

  12:23-12:23

  That's mercy.

  12:24-12:26

  Grace is the opposite side of that coin.

  12:27-12:30

  Grace is God giving us something that we don't deserve.

  12:31-12:32

  We were declared not guilty, right?

  12:33-12:35

  So that could have been the end of the courtroom scene.

  12:35-12:43

  We could have gone home, left the room, and known that we were no longer guilty for our sins and we were no longer going to receive the punishment.

  12:44-12:45

  But God was not done.

  12:46-12:51

  He gets down from the judge's bench, he opens the door, and he invites us into his chambers.

  12:52-12:56

  He invites us to experience the blessing of having a relationship with him for the rest of our walk on earth.

  12:57-13:03

  The curtain of the temple has been torn and we can now boldly approach our God to ask him for the requests of our heart.

  13:03-13:06

  and we trust that he will provide exactly what we need.

  13:07-13:10

  The Bible says every good and perfect gift comes from him.

  13:11-13:13

  We can taste and see that the Lord is good.

  13:13-13:19

  All this is because Christ has done what he has done and we have now received access into grace.

  13:20-13:34

  So we experience a peace that comes from the idea of knowing that no matter what I have or what I don't have, I know that I have a greater treasure in my relationship with the creator of the universe than anything I could ever possess on my own efforts.

  13:35-13:42

  So, if you are in Christ, do not fear a lack of blessings because you have access into God's grace.

  13:44-13:46

  All right, fear number three, the future.

  13:48-13:50

  The fear of the unknown, what will happen tomorrow?

  13:51-13:54

  What if this happens or what if this doesn't happen?

  13:54-13:56

  Will things go according to plan?

  13:56-13:59

  These kind of questions literally keep people up at night.

  14:00-14:09

  We so greatly desire control of our own lives that we try to control our life by worrying about what may or may not happen in the future.

  14:10-14:17

  In fact, Christ even says, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?" There's the logic that works in my brain.

  14:18-14:23

  What does worrying actually do to increase your ability to control the future?

  14:23-14:26

  If anything, it actually shortens your life because of the stress.

  14:27-14:32

  Christ concludes, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

  14:32-14:37

  Each day has enough trouble of its own." Well, that's fine, but how do we stop this worry?

  14:38-14:40

  Let's read the second half of verse two.

  14:41-14:55

  "And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." The reality in Christ, the way to stop fear is by recognizing, the way to stop fear of the future is by recognizing that we have hope in the glory of God.

  14:56-14:58

  God already has a future for us.

  14:58-15:02

  We've yet to experience this fully, but he has made the promises to us.

  15:02-15:06

  Christ is preparing a place for us, and he said he's gonna come back and take us to it.

  15:06-15:11

  God will reward us for faithful obedience, so we should continue to be obedient now.

  15:12-15:25

  This body that we live in is broken and only getting worse by decay as time goes on, but we hope in the promise that God will provide us with new bodies that will never see decay and will last forever, never breaking down.

  15:26-15:29

  Look, if you read the end of the book, you'll realize that we win.

  15:30-15:34

  The future is not something to fear, but something to rejoice about, as it says in the text.

  15:34-15:40

  This is not a blind and wishful hope that says, "Every day is the best day of my life." This doesn't give you that warm, fuzzy feeling.

  15:41-15:43

  This is a certainty of a reality that is to come.

  15:44-15:48

  Therefore, this reality that is to come, that is certain, should affect our reality right now.

  15:48-15:52

  The future for us in Christ is not only good, but beyond our imagination good.

  15:54-15:59

  If you are in Christ, do not fear the future, but rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

  16:01-16:04

  Fear number four, struggles of today.

  16:05-16:06

  Yeah, that's great.

  16:07-16:10

  Nice thoughts about the future, but what about what I'm dealing with today?

  16:11-16:13

  There are very real struggles going on right now.

  16:13-16:15

  How are we supposed to deal with them?

  16:15-16:17

  What kind of peace can I find right now?

  16:18-16:23

  If God is in control and he's got this great future ahead, why are things so messed up right now?

  16:23-16:26

  Who can ignore that kind of day-to-day reality?

  16:26-16:29

  Who can ignore the hardships that are going on in their life?

  16:30-16:32

  Let's read verses three through five.

  16:33-16:41

  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

  16:42-16:48

  And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

  16:49-16:55

  So, our peace comes from the reality that God has purpose in suffering.

  16:55-16:57

  God knows what he is doing.

  16:58-17:02

  And Paul actually outlines a plan for what God is doing through suffering.

  17:03-17:05

  Suffering produces endurance.

  17:06-17:10

  That's pretty obvious, I think, from the physical training side of things.

  17:11-17:21

  If you're training for any kind of race, I've never run a marathon, but I've run half marathons, you struggle through the training so that you have more endurance to be able to complete the race later on.

  17:22-17:25

  From that ability to persevere, we build character.

  17:26-17:28

  This is the process of God refining us.

  17:28-17:33

  God uses the struggles of our life to strip us of our pride and our selfishness.

  17:33-17:44

  We are chiseled down in a way that removes the undesirable qualities and leaves the things that God desires, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

  17:45-17:52

  When we see this new character shining more brightly in ourselves, We're then filled with hope for the future.

  17:53-18:02

  Not only that hope for the distant future of the glory of God, but we can face the next set of struggles with the idea and a better appreciation, God really is doing something.

  18:02-18:07

  I saw it in the last struggle, and so I know that God is gonna do something in the next struggle ahead.

  18:08-18:10

  God really does have a plan.

  18:11-18:14

  And as the Bible says, this hope does not put us to shame.

  18:15-18:17

  Or as the NIV says, this hope does not disappoint us.

  18:17-18:19

  We're never disappointed by trusting in God.

  18:21-18:29

  So, if you are in Christ, do not fear the struggles of today because God has great purpose in suffering.

  18:30-18:34

  So the last and final one is uncertainty.

  18:35-18:36

  Number five on your outline.

  18:37-18:42

  As I said, I'm an engineer and at my company, as engineers, we make recommendations to the government.

  18:43-19:12

  And without fail, the first question that the government going to ask you is, how certain are you of that? You think that material is going to work in there? You think you don't need to replace that pump? So you did an ultrasonic inspection on that pipe and you think the crack is only 10% through? Well, how do you know? How certain are you? What's your confidence level? That's always the question that the government's asking. So you might be sitting there saying the same thing to me. Well, how do I know that these pieces of peace are really as certain and really a reality as you say?

  19:13-19:39

  you've never experienced them or maybe you're just not sure that this hypothetical piece can stand up against the very real and present fear that is in your life. Well, I could tell you to just take it on faith. Just throw up your hands, check your brain at the door and just believe. But thankfully I don't have to. Paul anticipates this line of reasoning and he gives us an example. An example that tells us the certainty of the reality in Christ.

  19:40-19:42

  That example is death for an enemy.

  19:43-19:44

  Let's read verses 6 through 11.

  19:44-19:50

  I want to read that in the NIV because the ESV is choppy and I don't like it in this particular case.

  19:50-19:50

  Normally I do.

  19:51-19:56

  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

  19:57-20:03

  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.

  20:03-20:05

  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this.

  20:06-20:33

  we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? For if while we were God's enemies we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life? Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

  20:35-20:40

  First of all, at the beginning of that it says, "at just the right time." How comforting is that?

  20:40-20:41

  God's timing is perfect.

  20:42-20:44

  There is no uncertainty for God.

  20:44-20:46

  So we might sit here and say, "We're not sure.

  20:47-20:49

  We're not sure about this." God is always certain.

  20:51-20:52

  But here's the example.

  20:53-20:55

  What are the words that describe our condition in this example?

  20:56-20:59

  We were weak or powerless as it says in the ESV.

  21:00-21:00

  Ungodly.

  21:01-21:01

  Sinners.

  21:02-21:03

  Enemies of God.

  21:05-21:06

  What does God do?

  21:06-21:07

  God steps in.

  21:07-21:08

  He acts.

  21:08-21:10

  What are the action words ascribed to God?

  21:11-21:17

  Christ died, shows his love for us, justified us, saved us, reconciled us.

  21:20-21:31

  Look, if God saved us while we were his enemies, don't you think that all the things that he promised to his people, people that he now calls sons and daughters, are going to come to happen?

  21:31-21:36

  Like, I can't imagine for a second letting Ellie die for anybody.

  21:37-21:40

  My best friends, you know, definitely not my worst enemies.

  21:41-21:50

  So I can't comprehend what God has done, but it certainly tells me that what he says he's going to do, he's going to do.

  21:51-21:58

  So if you are in Christ, do not fear uncertainty because Christ died for us while we were his enemies.

  21:59-22:00

  There's nothing more certain than that.

  22:01-22:13

  Now, the caveat in all of this, the clarifier that I hope that I made at every one of these fears that I want to highlight to you is that without Christ, none of this is a reality.

  22:14-22:22

  For anyone here or anyone that you know that does not have true faith in Jesus Christ as their only Lord and Savior, these fears are their reality.

  22:23-22:25

  You will pay for your past mistakes.

  22:26-22:28

  There will come a time when the blessings will stop.

  22:28-22:33

  The future for you is not only something to fear, but something to run for and avoid at all costs.

  22:34-22:40

  It's quite possible that without Christ there are no purposes for the struggles in your life that you now face.

  22:42-22:44

  If Christ was not raised for you, you are still God's enemy.

  22:45-22:46

  And what certainty do you have?

  22:47-22:48

  Well, I can tell you this.

  22:49-22:52

  It's certain that everyone will stand before God when they die.

  22:53-23:20

  It's certain that there are only two options, God's kingdom or hell, the only place where God is not. And it is certain that there is only one way to enter God's kingdom, a life purchased by the blood of Christ. If this is not you, I pray that the reality of these fears will motivate you to seek peace with God, a complete and forever peace that starts now and lasts for eternity. Don't stay in the spot. Don't let fear dominate your life.

  23:21-23:31

  Destroy these fears with what Christ has done. I pray that you would grab one of the elder or the prayer team members, or myself, or Pastor Jeff, talk about this.

  23:31-23:34

  Don't wait to receive God's peace.

  23:35-23:42

  Now, for those of us that are in Christ, live in the realities of these things that we've talked about.

  23:43-23:47

  There is real peace in knowing who God is and what he has done for you.

  23:48-23:53

  Don't let the feelings of fear dominate your life.

  23:53-23:54

  This is my appeal to you as an engineer.

  23:55-24:02

  Let the logic of the reality of Christ dominate you and don't let the fears have control. Let's pray.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Romans 5:1-11

1. In your own words, describe what peace from God is. It may also be helpful to describe what peace is not.
    

2. It has been said (but apparently not by Einstein) that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". In any case, insanity is definitely a loss of touch with reality. In what ways have you lost touch with the realities discussed in this portion of Romans 5? In light of these realities, what things do you need to do differently in order to expect different results for handling the fears in your life?
    

3. What fear (in the list from Sunday or any other fear) has any control in your life? Why is this so? What truth do you need to remind yourself of to have peace instead of this fear?
    

4. List some people in your life who you would be willing die for or at least risk death for. Assuming that none of your enemies were on that list, how much more grateful should we be for what Christ has done for us: dying for His enemies?
    

5. These fears, and many others (including completely irrational ones), are very much a reality for those that don't know Christ as their Savior and Lord. Describe how this motivates you to share the gospel with the lost. Provide examples of things you can say to explain true peace to those who do not have it.

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!

A song for the Sabbath

Guest Speaker - Darren Miller

It is GOOD to give THANKS to the Lord. (Ps 92:1)

Our worship absolutely must be EMOTIONAL.

It is by God's WORKS in our lives that we joyfully worship. (Ps 92:4)

It is "STUPID" to not acknowledge God's worthiness. (Ps 92:6)

Worshipping God with all our emotions is REVITALIZING. (Ps 92:12-14)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Psalm 92

1. What are some opportunities you find or make throughout the week to worship outside church? How can you make more opportunities for yourself?
    
2. What are some ways you can (and do!) personally worship without the use of music?
    
3. How can you worship God even when you are in a season of discouragement?
    
4. What are some of the ways you’ve seen God move in your life as a result of emotional worship?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!

The Church on Display

Guest Speaker - Pastor Robert Huber

The Church on Display

Some things Jesus said . . .

Church
EKKLESIA
Acts 2:42

"Let the church BE the church!"
When the church is being the church, people will discover:

1. Authentic RELATIONSHIPS
   
   Fellowship
   KOINONIA
   
   John 13:34,35


2. A "SIRIT and TRUTH" kind of worship
   John 4


3. BELIEVING prayer
   
   • Obedience
   • Discipline
   • Ministry
   • Worship
   
   Prayer as WRESTLING


4. The LIFE-ALTERING message of the cross
   1 Corinthians 1:18
   
   FOOLISHNESS or POWER ?
   The MESSAGE of the cross must be central
   The power of the cross must be EXPERIENCED

JESUS

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:04

  Well, I certainly consider it a privilege to have an opportunity to share with you today.

  00:05-00:10

  And I'll tell you, for 11 years, Jeff and I served together.

  00:14-00:20

  And I have a nickname, F-I-T-G, he has an F1-S-I-T-G, father in the gospel, son in the gospel.

  00:21-00:23

  And God put us together for a reason.

  00:24-00:27

  And I know you have a pastor who has a church in Charlottesville.

  00:28-00:33

  and join him in prayer, lift him up, and bless his family in every way.

  00:33-00:34

  And I'm sure you'll all pray.

  00:35-00:38

  Before preaching, I'd like to introduce my first wife, Kathy.

  00:39-00:40

  She's way older.

  00:41-00:42

  I've only been married once.

  00:42-00:44

  She's been married 42 years, but she is my first wife.

  00:45-00:50

  And I was 18, she's 19 when we got married, and I turned 66 years.

  00:51-00:53

  You might want to say hi to her after church.

  00:54-00:58

  I had to say that everyone knew if I was coming, I was going to be staffed back to that.

  00:59-01:03

  And my granddaughters over there, Katie, gave me a wave, and their car broke down on the way.

  01:03-01:06

  I was like, all right, so Kyle, my grandson, he's in the block.

  01:06-01:07

  I don't see him.

  01:08-01:10

  And here's him, here's him, working on the car.

  01:11-01:12

  But anyhow, what a privilege.

  01:14-01:18

  This message is called The Church on the Splice.

  01:19-01:24

  And I want you to know that how many people of the world have their church, their eyes on you and on me.

  01:25-01:27

  We are the ones they're watching.

  01:27-01:29

  We are on display by God's design.

  01:31-01:37

  And I would ask the question, do they observe that our lives are any different than those in the surrounding culture?

  01:38-01:56

  And I would say when they see the strength of our commitment and the sacrifice of arts and fashion, when they discover that we are real, Then comes the invitation to check out the assembly of the called out prophets and the validity of the claims of Jesus Christ.

  01:57-02:01

  Often you are the first driver, your neighbor and friends.

  02:03-02:09

  See they're watching us and they're asking us, "Is this church things out? Are these people genuine?

  02:09-02:13

  Do they really believe what the Bible says? Do they follow what they proclaim?

  02:13-02:16

  Are they any more satisfied?

  02:17-02:18

  Do they have any more contentment?

  02:18-02:19

  Are they happier?

  02:19-02:21

  Do they have a peace that I don't have?

  02:22-02:25

  My appeal to you today as the church is this.

  02:25-02:27

  Let's be the church.

  02:28-02:35

  Let's be the church in the midst of an ever-changing and ever-searching culture, living out the reality of the faith.

  02:36-02:41

  And when we do so, it becomes our best, or our worst, ever, ties.

  02:42-02:50

  And I do believe that we, the conservative evangelical church, are really going to have our metal tested in the next few years.

  02:50-02:56

  When we stand upon the word God, people are going to begin to see a sympathy than they ever have in this culture.

  02:57-03:01

  That rather than being identified with love, we may be identified with faith.

  03:01-03:04

  But you see, we should not change anything.

  03:04-03:07

  We should continue to love God and love people.

  03:08-03:16

  God has said this, the Church is on mission, and the Church is on mission in a theological and form gospel-centered, Spirit-led way.

  03:17-03:24

  And amongst this fellowship, you see, we are seeking faithfully for the purposes of Christ, the one who has been incarnated.

  03:25-03:35

  And the mission of the Church is found in the mission of God, who is calling the world to passionately participate in His redemptive mission in this world.

  03:36-03:39

  God is praying to you, to the world.

  03:41-03:43

  Here are some things Jesus says.

  03:44-04:09

  Back in Matthew chapter 16, He went to His disciples and He said, "Who do people say that I am?" And they said, "Some say you're Isaiah or Jeremiah, one of the prophets." And Jesus said, "Then who do you say that I am?" And it was Peter who said, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And what did Jesus say? He said, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of John, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father which is in heaven.

  04:10-04:20

  And upon this rock I will establish my church." And he says, "The gates of hell will not prevail against my church." And then he went on to say, "And I give you the keys of the kingdom.

  04:21-04:30

  Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." And really, that's the first time we see the word "church" used in the Bible.

  04:31-04:40

  Jesus said to his disciples, "I'm here for a reason, and that's to establish the kingdom of God on earth." And the kingdom of God on earth is identified as visible to you.

  04:41-04:43

  The true church of Jesus Christ.

  04:44-04:55

  And he said, "Listen, listen, with that kingdom, you see, comes a foundation." And the foundation of the church is not denominationism. It's not, you know, through some systems.

  04:56-04:59

  it's through people who do what Peter did, believing what Peter believed.

  05:00-05:04

  He said the foundation is that Jesus is the Christ, I believe you are the Christ.

  05:04-05:18

  And upon this rock, not Petros, the man, Cephas, Cedar, but upon what Peter just said, and it's a play on words, because they were at Petra, which means giant rock, mountain-sized rock.

  05:18-05:33

  And he said upon this Petros, he came to Cephas, to Peter, this stone, I will establish my church so that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, yields to Him, we become a part of that foundation of the church.

  05:33-05:38

  It's not a building. It's not so much a movement. It's God working through people.

  05:40-06:00

  And then you know, before He ascended into Heaven, the Scripture says in Matthew 28, it says, "The eleven disciples gathered in a mountain house, Jesus had called them, and when they saw Him, they worshipped Him." And he said this, he said, "All authority and heavy un-earth has been given to me." Well, if you're like me, see, I'm sort of a Greek thinker more than a Jewish thinker.

  06:00-06:07

  I don't take the word as word necessarily. I want to find out, is what it says really true?

  06:07-06:12

  What are the other competing philosophies? And I find, when I ask questions, I find answers.

  06:14-06:18

  But see, when a guy says, "I have all authority," the first thing you're going to ask is, "What?" So do you.

  06:20-06:24

  You can tell me, I can tell you, listen I have more authority, don't turn right.

  06:24-06:29

  I may or may not have the authority, but Jesus says all authority has been given to me.

  06:29-06:30

  Well that's a big thing.

  06:31-06:35

  And he backed it up by the power of his resurrection and ascension.

  06:36-06:41

  And listen, unless he did not rise from the dead, in my view, he's not alive.

  06:41-06:44

  He's a deceitful and a liar and not a prophet.

  06:44-06:48

  But the resurrection, she settles it all once for us.

  06:49-06:51

  And that's the biggest reason. Listen, listen.

  06:51-06:54

  The biggest reason I believe in creation is because of Jesus.

  06:54-06:56

  The biggest reason I believe in the good life is because of Jesus.

  06:57-07:00

  The biggest reason I believe that Jesus is coming again is because of you.

  07:00-07:03

  He defeated death once for all, rose from the grave and ascended into heaven.

  07:04-07:12

  Back to what he said, he said, "The smallest thorn has been removed from me, heaven and earth." Now you, church, you said, "You go, go!" And you make disciples of all nations.

  07:12-07:16

  You baptize them and teach them everything that I command you to teach.

  07:17-07:18

  You know the great commission.

  07:18-07:21

  Go, make disciples, baptize, teach.

  07:21-07:22

  That's what we're about.

  07:22-07:23

  God's church.

  07:24-07:32

  And so we would see that he had this enterprise, this concept, but it's bigger than a man's idea.

  07:32-07:35

  He said it's the kingdom of God.

  07:36-07:41

  Let me read to you a letter that a fellow wrote.

  07:42-07:58

  Let's talk first of all about this word "church." In the Greek it means "ecclesia." It's two words. It's "ecc-le-o." Say those two words with me. "Ecc-le -o." Oh, just a couple of them got the "ch" in there. Let's try it again.

  07:59-08:03

  "Ecc-le-o." It's two words.

  08:03-08:04

  That means out of.

  08:04-08:05

  Coletto means to call.

  08:06-08:07

  It means to be called out.

  08:08-08:10

  The other word for the church is synagogues.

  08:10-08:13

  The assembly of the called out ones is who we are.

  08:15-08:23

  Now let me read this letter that the pastor wrote because it's real easy to get wrapped around the abstracts about the church.

  08:23-08:24

  Wouldn't you agree?

  08:25-08:31

  Whoever said I'm not human, whoever said I'm a shot in front of the moon, I'm tired of that.

  08:31-08:36

  You know, on Sunday mornings, when I get up and I say, "I don't want to go to that," Kathy says, "You have to.

  08:37-08:45

  They pay you, and you're the pastor." I don't ever say that, really, but, you know, there are times that they didn't pay me, maybe I was in a shopping mall.

  08:46-08:51

  Well, here's a guy that got all the hot -hot assistance at church, and you can do that, and you forget.

  08:52-08:53

  What's it all about?

  08:53-08:54

  Listen, this is it.

  08:55-09:06

  He says, "I convinced myself that I was leaving The church was the one with the problem. I was the one of a few of them who had eyes to see.

  09:07-09:21

  Of course, I hid my inflated sense of self in a lot of church troops that allowed me to quietly sneak out the back door, while my mind continued cycling its laundry list of accusations and complaints of a permanent wound, my own personal negative news-taste.

  09:22-09:32

  Funny how my inflated sense of synthetic disease spent more time in a self-polluting inner monologue than actually working to confront or resolve any issues, real or imagined.

  09:33-09:33

  I'll know it by the end of the day.

  09:34-09:41

  So off to the new church I journeyed, like a frustrated child chasing his ball going home because the game hadn't drawn his attention.

  09:43-09:43

  Now listen to this.

  09:44-10:10

  through the distance obtained by leaving, the humility I gained by entering into a new fellowship of believers in which I had no preexistent identity, no status, no authority or say, and the severe work of the Holy Spirit in my heart, I began to realize where my issues with my former church had originated, my own self-service, self-worth, self-living church.

  10:11-10:14

  What I had created in my mind was a church in my own image.

  10:16-10:17

  I knew how to operate.

  10:18-10:19

  I knew how to lead.

  10:19-10:21

  I knew how to make decisions.

  10:22-10:44

  So when reality didn't line up with my fantasies, my ego and my heart, and I stopped seeing the church as a place where God invites us to serve one another instead of some instruments tainted to a mis-centered consumer standard against which no institution comprise the human beings we ever made for life.

  10:44-10:51

  Once I had lived this to myself and repented of my arrogance, my foolishness, and my brash anxiousness, I could breathe again.

  10:52-10:56

  I could pray again. And I began to hunger for the Word.

  10:57-11:02

  I began to see God's church once again as a motley, a synthetic, and perfect saints.

  11:04-11:04

  around.

  11:05-11:05

  Go ahead.

  11:07-11:17

  Would that describe the group here? A motley assembly of imperfect saints. Well, I could have bought a pay-out-of-Morris Street church today and I guarantee you we're a motley group.

  11:18-11:23

  But we're just a group of redeemed people wanting to serve Jesus and trying to stay on the path.

  11:24-11:29

  And I'm guessing, see I've only ever been in one church for the most uncertain some years there.

  11:30-11:31

  I'm guessing it's that way everywhere.

  11:32-11:45

  But we're drawn together not to demand our own means, but rather to celebrate the model of self-deserving and pride of Christ, whose coming one day to present his church made holy and blameless to his sacrifice.

  11:48-11:53

  And this pastor says, not to the church, I say, I was wrong.

  11:54-11:55

  So sorry.

  11:57-12:01

  See, the idea is to keep it simple.

  12:02-12:04

  On the level of the New Testament teaching and practices.

  12:05-12:10

  I think it's a good thing, and I guess you're probably really striking it here at Harvest.

  12:10-12:20

  You need to keep it brutish, more radical in nature, therefore more spiritually purposeful and attuned to being called out of the world.

  12:21-12:29

  It's really the organizational structure, the image we want to project, the desire to be known and popular.

  12:30-12:47

  In the last couple of decades at least, I think, everybody has made that success as having a celebrity pastor as an in-house sports fan in a large building and saying, "That's the church!" That can be damaged, but it doesn't guarantee the church.

  12:48-12:52

  Open your Bible with me to the book of Acts chapter 2 and verse 4-5.

  12:53-12:56

  And let's just take a look on that early church.

  12:57-13:01

  Learn something about the essence and the atmospheres of that church.

  13:01-13:04

  Learn something about God and ourselves today.

  13:05-13:07

  Acts chapter 2 and verse 4-5.

  13:08-13:10

  Here's a description of the early church.

  13:10-13:26

  It says, "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer for service." Now look at the commentary that's written next.

  13:26-13:32

  "And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done for the apostles.

  13:32-13:35

  And all who believed were together and had all things common.

  13:35-13:41

  And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as they had needed.

  13:41-13:51

  And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God in heaven in favor with all the people.

  13:52-13:57

  And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were in sin.

  13:58-14:15

  And so you see, in 2018, in the largest church in America, smallest church in Asia, Harvest Tribes I traveled most of the church to be a mark of God's peace because that's what he appealed.

  14:16-14:18

  And so today, here's my appeal.

  14:20-14:23

  The appeal is let the church be the church.

  14:25-14:31

  Practically, I'm saying this, quit worrying about who you are or who you are, just be just be.

  14:33-14:40

  Jeff, don't compare yourself to James Macdonald or Pittsburgh East, I don't know how it's going, or any other part of the story, just be a part of the story.

  14:42-14:44

  And people just love each other.

  14:45-14:47

  Stay in the world and encourage each other.

  14:47-14:48

  Be there for one another.

  14:49-14:58

  Now listen, when the church is being the church, and the world is watching us, here's what they'll discover if we are human citizens.

  14:59-15:02

  First of all, they'll discover authentic relationships.

  15:04-15:06

  That's a mark of God's church.

  15:06-15:09

  are on display, people ought to see real people.

  15:11-15:15

  And in our Acts 242 passage, that's the word fellowship.

  15:17-15:20

  In the original language of Greek, the word is koinonia.

  15:21-15:24

  No, I'm just going to-- koinonia.

  15:24-15:29

  And it means this, a communion, a fellowship, a sharing of common.

  15:30-15:31

  It's a participation.

  15:32-15:33

  It's a partnership.

  15:33-15:36

  It means this in our language, do life for heaven.

  15:38-15:41

  See, fellowship is much more than punching punches after.

  15:42-15:45

  In fact, Jesus went in and he said this.

  15:45-15:49

  He says, there's a new command that I give you, and here it is.

  15:50-15:51

  Love one another.

  15:51-15:54

  You are commanded to love one another.

  15:54-15:55

  It's not an option.

  15:56-15:56

  It's not a choice.

  15:58-15:59

  So look around at you.

  15:59-16:01

  You may not know love here or here.

  16:01-16:02

  You may not know love there, but here it is.

  16:03-16:30

  It's a command. He says, "Here's my new command. You church, you love each other as I've loved you, so you must love one another." And look at verse 35, "By this all men will know that you belong to me." "By this the world will be convinced that I've made a difference in your life." "By what? If you love me." So I would say, let's just be real with God and real with each other.

  16:32-16:34

  Jesus said, "By the way, we love one another.

  16:34-16:43

  They who are watching us and who are on display will be convinced that it's real." So in our kynonia, let's live to please God in our faith.

  16:44-16:47

  Let's teach it and live it and model it.

  16:47-16:51

  Let's make it our concern that our fellowship with Christ is rich in food.

  16:51-16:55

  Let us help one another in our temptations and our trials.

  16:57-16:58

  See, that's the fellowship.

  16:59-17:09

  Scripture says, "If one of you has fallen, those of you who are spiritual, what?" You go, and you bring him back up. Galatians 6 and 8.

  17:11-17:19

  James says, "Confess your faults one to another for the reason of prayer." So our burden is for the world that they would know the truth, believe the truth, and live the truth.

  17:20-17:28

  Let us work, you see, in being and helping the bride of Christ become more pure, more holy, and more undefiled as we wait for His return.

  17:30-17:34

  So please understand that we, the church, are on a spiritual journey.

  17:35-17:41

  You may ask me a question, "How do you know?" What do they see when they look at us?

  17:42-17:49

  The second mark of the church, when the church is being the church, here's what people will discover, a spirit and truth kind of worship.

  17:51-17:56

  There's some organic threads gathering for worship.

  17:57-18:04

  In John chapter 4, Jesus, remember that story? He was with the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman, the outcast lady.

  18:05-18:09

  And at noon, his disciples went to get eat. She came to draw water.

  18:10-18:12

  Now think about this. Why would he come in the middle of the day?

  18:14-18:18

  I mean, normally, it was in the middle of the morning, the middle of the evening, the ladies got together.

  18:19-18:23

  You know, no texting, no cell phones, no internet. So they just talked face to face.

  18:23-18:23

  and fuck it away.

  18:24-18:29

  Have you noticed the more forms of communication we have, the less personal reason to come?

  18:30-18:32

  I just think that's so insane.

  18:32-18:39

  One of the things that I as a church should not let go of is eye to eye, hand to hand, face to face contact.

  18:39-18:39

  Perfect.

  18:41-18:43

  But anyhow, she came in the middle of the day.

  18:43-18:45

  The reason is she was an outcast of the community.

  18:45-18:48

  She had had five husbands that she was living with.

  18:48-18:50

  She had a reputation in town.

  18:50-18:52

  And the other ladies didn't want anything to do with it.

  18:53-18:55

  So she came to draw water.

  18:55-18:57

  And they had this conversation.

  18:57-19:05

  And Jesus said, hey, if you ask me for a drink, I'll give you a drink where you can never thirst again, meaning I'll have you to be born again from your insides.

  19:07-19:21

  But what I want to end on is he told her, in John chapter 4, he said, the day is coming and has now come that God will have true worshippers who will worship him in spirit and in truth.

  19:23-19:24

  That's what he swears to.

  19:25-19:27

  To the Jews, where did you go to worship?

  19:27-19:28

  Jerusalem.

  19:29-19:36

  To the Samaritans, they had built their own false castle on the mountain there in Samaria.

  19:37-19:42

  And he says, listen, we Jews, we worship according to the truth, meaning we follow the law.

  19:43-19:46

  And you Samaritans, you have all spirit.

  19:46-19:48

  Now, you notice that's not a capital S.

  19:48-19:52

  He doesn't mean through the Holy Spirit we worship and worship the truth of the word.

  19:53-19:57

  He meant with all of your being you jump around, you're the hand, you do everything.

  19:57-20:00

  I mean just think of the prophets of Baal, that was a live creature.

  20:01-20:05

  I mean they cut themselves with hands, they cried out, they did everything.

  20:06-20:11

  And so Jesus says it's not just, you know, putting on a spirit display.

  20:12-20:13

  Nor is it dead orphaned.

  20:14-20:19

  He says true worship is spirit and true, kind worship.

  20:21-20:25

  Now, as soon as we say worship, we think music and stuff.

  20:26-20:29

  And that certainly is part of our corporate worship.

  20:30-20:34

  But scripturally, worship is seen as something more organic than that.

  20:35-20:45

  The Apostle Paul in Romans 12, he says, listen, you present your life to God as a living sacrifice, and this is your reasonable worship.

  20:47-20:51

  Remember under the law, we worship God and end your capitalist games.

  20:53-20:57

  Under the new covenant, we give our lives but we are living sacrifices.

  20:57-21:01

  We got on his head on his altar once for all and we never get off.

  21:01-21:07

  So your life, so to speak, becomes one long worship service.

  21:09-21:12

  Hebrews 13 verses 15 and 16 listen to this.

  21:12-21:22

  It says, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of the lips that confess His name.

  21:22-21:38

  And don't forget to do good and share it with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." And it says, "Every good word that you speak of the Lord, for the Lord is worship." Every good work that we do in the name of Jesus is an act of worship.

  21:39-21:47

  And so we are worshipping 24/7, day and night, with every word that we speak to Him and every work that we do in His name.

  21:48-22:00

  This really worship includes not only our music and our songs, but our teaching, our preaching, the reading of the Scriptures publicly, praying, witnessing, meeting the needs of the poor, and the persecuted.

  22:01-22:04

  See, worship is more substance than stock.

  22:06-22:08

  And so here's what they need to see.

  22:09-22:10

  They need to see a life going on.

  22:11-22:21

  And they just might come to say, "I'm going to go to your church and check that out." "You believe that Bible? I've got to see what it says for myself." You won't see it.

  22:22-22:28

  So far I said, you see, what they'll see when they're looking at the church is authentic relationships.

  22:30-22:34

  Not that just we say we love each other, but they say we like each other.

  22:37-22:40

  And then we will see that they find this spirit and truth kind of worship.

  22:41-22:47

  And then a third month, when the church is in the church, people will see us practicing believing free.

  22:49-22:51

  Now, I think that's somewhat of an oxymoron.

  22:53-23:02

  It sounds a bit redundant to say believing free, As if there's a category of something called unbelievable prayer.

  23:04-23:05

  Scripturally, there is not.

  23:06-23:22

  But I'm convinced that we Western popularized evangelicals oftentimes pray to the pleasure of the ear of the people.

  23:24-23:34

  And we recite the verses one after another, rather than pouring our heart out to a daddy cat who loves us.

  23:35-23:40

  And so unbelieving prayer is something other than prayer, if there is such a sense of prayer.

  23:41-23:42

  But I think we ought to watch it.

  23:44-23:50

  When you travel to a third world country, and you find people who are despots, you don't have to hear the third world country.

  23:51-23:58

  Anybody that's spiritually despot, because something's completely different than what it is when it's not.

  23:59-24:02

  I think our view is sort of like in Acts chapter 12.

  24:04-24:09

  James, he was killed by Herod when they arrested Peter.

  24:10-24:15

  And the Bible says when they arrested Peter that the church would betray him.

  24:16-24:19

  Now I wonder, did they pray when James was arrested?

  24:20-24:22

  and if they did, he was beheaded.

  24:23-24:26

  A prayer man reading number two must have really been serious.

  24:27-24:29

  And if they didn't, it at least was his fault.

  24:30-24:31

  And you know, prayer is a light.

  24:32-24:39

  If I ask a preacher who's really tried to pray and read about prayer every one of his, sometimes it doesn't work the way we think it should work.

  24:39-24:43

  And sometimes it just sort of throw your hands up in the air and say these unbelieving prayers.

  24:43-24:44

  And Lord, I will be done.

  24:45-24:45

  I will be done.

  24:45-24:46

  I will be done.

  24:46-24:48

  And you know, we make-- that's all we say.

  24:49-24:58

  We don't ever go cry out like a kid to his dad saying, "Please, please, please." And I don't know how it all works, except I know believing prayer is what comes on hands.

  24:59-25:02

  But there in Acts chapter 12, they prayed for Peter.

  25:03-25:05

  Peter was miraculously released from prison.

  25:05-25:06

  Remember that story?

  25:07-25:15

  And he got out of prison and went knocking on the door in the service room in the small group meeting in somebody's house to pray in the garden.

  25:15-25:16

  She answers the door.

  25:17-25:19

  She closes the door on Peter.

  25:19-25:21

  She came back and said, Peter's here.

  25:21-25:23

  And the church, what did they say?

  25:23-25:24

  Well, it could not be Peter.

  25:24-25:25

  It has to be his agent.

  25:25-25:28

  They couldn't believe God answered their prayer.

  25:28-25:32

  And then finally, they let him in and he was able to fellowship with them.

  25:32-25:36

  But I think a lot of times when we pray, there's no relief.

  25:36-25:37

  There's no belief.

  25:38-25:38

  There's no rest.

  25:40-25:42

  Now I have this little formula.

  25:42-25:44

  Our prayer life grows.

  25:44-25:48

  I think prayer always begins and should again with obedience.

  25:50-25:58

  Even if you've never done it, and even if you have to start doing it again, even if there's no room to it, obey it, pray, start praying.

  26:01-26:07

  And I think when we have this divine communication with our heavenly father, then it turns to a dissonance.

  26:08-26:16

  Like if you don't do it in the morning, you don't do it in the evening, you feel like, I didn't work out today, or I didn't pay my bills, something that becomes routine.

  26:18-26:20

  And then that discipline turns into a ministry.

  26:20-26:23

  It's sort of like the attitude that turns from inward to outward.

  26:23-26:25

  You start saying, hey, can I pray for you?

  26:25-26:26

  What's your journey?

  26:26-26:28

  And you start to use it this way.

  26:28-26:29

  And then it becomes worship.

  26:30-26:31

  It becomes joy.

  26:31-26:37

  It's like, I'd like-- I think my definite prayer is to find prayer as rest.

  26:40-26:46

  Back in Genesis, chapter 32-- Why don't you go there with me, Genesis 32.

  26:48-26:51

  We'll start in verse 24.

  26:52-26:53

  It's a story about Jacob.

  26:55-26:59

  And Jacob is one of the sons of Israel.

  27:01-27:05

  Remember the nation of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

  27:07-27:10

  I'm going to say one of his fathers of Israel.

  27:11-27:15

  He is one of Isaac's sons.

  27:17-27:23

  And in Genesis 32, beginning in verse 24, it says, "So Jacob was left alone.

  27:24-27:26

  And a man wrestled with him till daybreak.

  27:27-27:33

  And when the man saw that he could not overpower him, he cut the socket of Jacob's hip so that the hip was wrenched.

  27:33-27:34

  And he wrestled with the man.

  27:35-27:41

  And the man said, 'Let me go, for it's daybreak.' And the masked man asked him his name.

  27:41-28:08

  And Jacob replied, "I will not let you go "unless you show your last rites." And the man asked him, "Well, what's your name?" Jacob he answered, and the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob," which means supplant or heel holder, "but Israel, because you've struggled with God "and with men and have overcome." And Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" And then he blessed him there.

  28:09-28:18

  So Jacob called the police to deny, saying it's because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.

  28:18-28:24

  And the sun rose above him and he passed away, and he was limping because of his sickness.

  28:26-28:32

  And I think that's what happens to us when we latch on to God really quickly.

  28:32-28:34

  It becomes a restlessness.

  28:35-28:40

  And I have to confess as a pastor, I'm going to hand out a two-page prayer list every Sunday.

  28:40-28:43

  I can't wrestle over every issue.

  28:44-28:46

  But there's some issue on the signs of wrestle.

  28:47-28:51

  And I won't let up until I know how to sign.

  28:52-28:53

  I just want you to see this.

  28:53-28:58

  If you will faithfully wrestle, I'll give you a new name.

  28:58-29:02

  And you'll leave a mark on it that everybody will know.

  29:06-29:14

  Lastly today, when the church is being the church, people will discover the life of an altering message.

  29:19-29:20

  It's all about the gospel.

  29:23-29:27

  First Corinthians 1 and 18, here's what Paul says.

  29:29-29:41

  He says, "For the message has to be the gospel "of his foolishness to those who are perishers." But to those of us who are being saved, is the power.

  29:46-29:59

  And we the church, on display as a way of life, have to ask, will I identify, will we identify, with the cross?

  30:04-30:06

  And that's foolishness or power?

  30:08-30:09

  Which one is it?

  30:11-30:15

  Now I think it's interesting if you're looking in your Bible, in that verse, and I'll just share this with you.

  30:16-30:25

  Why did Paul not say that the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved is reasonable?

  30:27-30:33

  It's not a... equal equation. He says it's silliness and power.

  30:35-30:36

  We're not silliness and sensitive.

  30:37-30:39

  Because it's not sensitive.

  30:39-30:40

  You understand that?

  30:40-30:47

  It's not perceived with the mind. It's not detached. It's not what you would ever think of.

  30:47-30:53

  Here's what I would think of if I didn't have your information. I would think if there's a God, I better be good.

  30:54-30:58

  And if I've been more good than that, surely He'll take me home.

  31:00-31:12

  But the scripture says through the power of God's, All men, their deliverance is already in their minds, For realizing just one sin could keep you from heaven.

  31:12-31:15

  Only that would be the first because to heaven.

  31:16-31:19

  And it says all men fall short of the glory of God.

  31:19-31:22

  How God locked the balance points.

  31:22-31:31

  How God made it fair what says, I have one son, sinless son, only one born, only adopted sons and daughters.

  31:31-31:35

  Kathy and I are adopted parents, and we have no children born of course.

  31:37-31:40

  But our kids, adoption, you know what they do?

  31:40-31:41

  Who here has adopted?

  31:42-31:43

  Raise your hand if you have anybody.

  31:45-31:46

  On the day of your adoption, you know what you do?

  31:46-31:47

  You go to a dodge.

  31:49-31:56

  And you leave with a title ID just like you bought a car, except it says "birth certificate." And you know what they do on adoption day?

  31:57-32:03

  They change the name of the birth parents to "Robert C. Euclid" and "Kathie A. Euclid" as if that's in the report of the house.

  32:05-32:06

  And you know what?

  32:07-32:08

  I can't give you that.

  32:09-32:10

  They're just like your parents.

  32:12-32:15

  If you're biologically misbehaved, that makes them not your kids.

  32:15-32:15

  No!

  32:17-32:25

  They're your kids, they're my kids, we're his kids, but he had only one son who could make a way and there was no way.

  32:27-32:43

  Listen to what this fellow Ray Kildred said. He said, "Surely Paul could have made the gospel more powerful and less dangerous by saying it was about something else, saying something cleaner, something less ridiculous than the cross, something more glorious, less disgusting." He didn't do that.

  32:45-32:51

  I decided, Paul said, to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

  32:52-32:56

  He said, "That's my specialty." And that has to be our specialty.

  32:57-33:08

  In the face of the worst cultural prejudice imaginable, he fixed the entire gospel squarely and immovably on the fact that Jesus was tasked with a star-off, a cross, and left to die.

  33:08-33:16

  And if he had been trying to find a surefire way to turn the first century's neutral people off from the good news, He could not have done better than that.

  33:17-33:18

  Why did he do it?

  33:18-33:19

  It's simple.

  33:20-33:24

  He knew, because he left the cross outside.

  33:25-33:38

  Or if he ran past it with a glance, or he made a peripheral to the cross, or allowing anything else to displace it at the center of the cross, that it would make it blindly no cross at all.

  33:40-33:42

  The cross passed him.

  33:43-33:44

  good news.

  33:47-33:50

  So I say these same things about the compass.

  33:50-33:56

  First of all, the message of the cross must be sincere to the mission of the church.

  34:01-34:07

  And then secondly, I say this, the power of the cross must be experienced.

  34:09-34:11

  Your life will not change.

  34:13-34:15

  You can get a doctorate in the cross.

  34:18-34:20

  You can read the Bible over and over.

  34:21-34:22

  You can make a chart.

  34:22-34:25

  You can take the hours of Christ's dying on the cross.

  34:25-34:27

  You can do a historical study on the cross.

  34:28-34:31

  You can even explain the gospel to somebody else.

  34:31-34:34

  You have not experienced the power of the cross in your life.

  34:36-34:38

  It's not that the cross needs a new source.

  34:38-34:40

  The cross means...

  34:43-34:49

  That's why Paul said, "I've been crucified with Christ." Was he a cross? No.

  34:50-34:56

  But spiritually he said, "I was slain with Christ." When he died, I died. By his death, I am dead.

  34:57-34:59

  And he said, "It's no longer I who have the death.

  34:59-35:01

  Now Christ lives in me.

  35:02-35:08

  In the life which I live and the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." Do you believe that?

  35:09-35:11

  Do you believe that Jesus died for you?

  35:14-35:34

  And then further in the Galatians, he says, "Does God forbid that I should boast anything except the cross of Jesus Christ, by whom I've been crucified to the world and the world to come?" Now, if you look up here, I have a tuning fluke.

  35:34-35:37

  And I would imagine most people know what a tuning fluke is.

  35:38-35:40

  And I don't know if you'll be able to hear it, Can you give it a try?

  35:43-35:44

  Can you hear that?

  35:44-35:44

  Hear that?

  35:45-35:48

  That's an A45 pitch, okay?

  35:48-35:50

  That's the only note this can play.

  35:51-35:55

  Every time you strike it or play, it vibrates each of those four hundred and forty times.

  35:56-35:57

  Second, is that right?

  35:57-35:58

  There's the second.

  36:01-36:02

  Now listen, listen.

  36:03-36:10

  If we had, let's say we had a hundred pianos, and there was gonna be this big concert, They wanted to play all 100 pianos.

  36:12-36:16

  And the tuner came in, and he tuned the first piano to the A440.

  36:17-36:20

  And he tuned the second piano to the first person.

  36:21-36:23

  And the third piano to the second sound.

  36:24-36:26

  And the fourth piano to the third piano.

  36:26-36:29

  Till they found all 100 pianos, guess what was happening?

  36:30-36:31

  You couldn't play them together.

  36:33-36:38

  Because not a lot of them would have kept the A440.

  36:40-36:42

  And one would be off the other, off the other, off the other.

  36:43-36:45

  There'd be no other way to do that.

  36:46-36:52

  But if he began every A string-- this is A above the middle C, C, A440.

  36:53-36:54

  That's where your star is.

  36:55-36:57

  I was a brain surgeon.

  36:57-36:58

  I was a preacher, but I didn't make enough money.

  36:58-36:59

  So I was a preacher before that.

  36:59-37:00

  I was a piano, piano.

  37:01-37:03

  They tell me that's where your star is.

  37:05-37:06

  But you know what?

  37:06-37:07

  We've got a website.

  37:07-37:11

  It's in 2000, 2000, we can start on the wrong street.

  37:12-37:26

  If we're going to appeal our ministries to a man's name, to a movement, style of worship, anything up in Congress, we're going to become something other than a church.

  37:27-37:35

  And you know, with a little bit of discernment, you don't have to look too far where-- you know, you see lots of different types of people Aren't you a little bit?

  37:37-37:40

  So we saw that's what the world has to say.

  37:41-37:47

  See the cross is the heart of the world, even though it sounds so silly.

  37:49-37:50

  It starts out.

  37:51-37:57

  I think one of the reasons people can't see the cross is because there is no sins anymore.

  37:58-37:59

  Nothing is as sin as itself.

  38:00-38:05

  Until you know the depth of darkness and the oppression of sins, You would know what freedom is.

  38:05-38:11

  People think it's just about human being, and getting along, and doing a little bit of everything.

  38:13-38:17

  Well, my last words today, my last words--

  38:18-38:18

  [AUDIO OUT]

  38:20-38:22

  That's what I want to remind you.

  38:23-38:24

  See this.

  38:24-38:32

  The more we remind ourselves, the more we make it all about Jesus, the better honor you will be in the church being built.

  38:34-38:37

  Just for this purpose, he builds this church.

  38:38-38:40

  He purifies this church.

  38:41-38:43

  He intercedes for this church.

  38:43-38:44

  Get that.

  38:44-38:47

  As we pray to him, he prays for us, to us.

  38:47-38:48

  He intercedes for this church.

  38:49-38:50

  He controls this church.

  38:50-38:51

  He protects this church.

  38:52-38:56

  He puts himself on display for the world.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):

1. Discuss the organic roots of the church found in the idea that the church is the "gathering of the called out ones."
    

2. When observing the popularized evangelical church, what might one assume that church is about?
    

3. What church demographics (size, location, income, staff, programs etc.) would be necessary in order to find authentic relationships, a "spirit and truth" kind of worship, believing prayer and the life-altering message of the cross?
    

4. Read Acts 2:42 - What are the four marks of the early church?
   Discuss the terms:
   postles Doctrine -
   Fellowship -
   Breaking of Bread -
   Prayer -
    

5. Read John 13:34,35 - What is the defining mark of Christ's disciples? Discuss koinonia.
    

6. When you think of great worship, what comes to your mind? Read Romans 12:1,2 - what is this "spiritual act of worship?" (NIV) "reasonable service?" (NKJV) "your spiritual worship?" (ESV)
    

7. Read Hebrews 13:15,16 - What does the Hebrew writer say about our "good words" and our "good works"?
    

8. How important is the message of the cross to the "church being the church"?
    

9. Read I Corinthians 1:18. Discuss - Why wouldn't Paul have said that the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but reasonable to those who are being saved?
    

10. Discuss, "the message of the cross must be central". What kind of gospel (good news) would we have if the message of the cross were eliminated? How is the power of the cross experienced?

Breakout Questions:
On a scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate your prayer life? (0 being nil and 10 being "without ceasing".)

Describe a time when you "wrestled" in prayer. Can you "wrestle in prayer" over every matter? What kind of need would cause you to "wrestle with God"?

Pray for one another!

Highly to Be Praised

Guest Speaker: Mark Ort

Effects of Psalm 145:

1. We gain a PROPER VIEW of God.



2. God receives glory through our PRAISE .



3. Our PRAYER LIFE is enhanced.



4. We become EFFECTIVE WITNESSES of His greatness.

Mark Ort - HBCPN Elder

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:00-00:04

  Bringing the word this morning is Mark Ort, if you'd make your way up.

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:06-00:27

  If you're around Mark for more than four seconds, you learn some things about him. And one of them is Mark loves the Lord. And Mark loves his family. I first met Mark about, I think it was 14 or 15 years ago, in jail. I love telling people that story.

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:27-00:28

  Like, how do you know Mark?

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:29-00:30

  We met in jail.

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:31-00:31

  Like, you've been to jail?

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:32-00:33

  Yeah, I've been to jail a lot.

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:34-00:35

  And so has Mark.

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:35-00:38

  Mark's been to, like, multiple jails, okay?

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:39-00:41

  And but I first met Mark in jail.

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:42-00:43

  We had a mutual friend.

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:43-00:54

  I wanted to get involved in prison ministry, and the pastor of the church where I was serving said, "Hey, we, you know, have a guy from our church that is involved with prison ministry," and I got to know this guy, and his name was Frank.

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:54-01:01

  He said, you know, there's this other guy that goes in named Mark Ortt, and that was where I had the privilege of first meeting Mark.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:01-01:10

  And because it is such a small world, we found out that Mark is actually married to Kristen, who is a grade between my wife and I.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:10-01:13

  We went to high school together and even had art class together.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:14-01:18

  And so we made kind of a fun connection there.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:18-01:22

  But Mark loves the Lord and Mark loves his family.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:22-01:30

  And what I'm really excited about is something that I know about Mark that maybe a lot of you don't, and that's that Mark loves the Word of God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:31-01:38

  And I've had the privilege in the prison—we go in for Bible study, by the way, if you're visiting with us, I probably should have said that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:38-01:54

  Somebody's going to leave like, "Man, like the preachers of that church are like always in trouble with the law." But no, we go in to do Bible study, and I've had the privilege of listening to Mark on many occasions bring the Word, and Mark loves the Word of God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:55-02:12

  And Mark has been given a special insight into the Word of God and understanding it and applying it, and I know that I've always been blessed every time I've been able to hear him bring it, and that's why I've been so excited to hear him bring it today.

  Pastor Jeff:

  02:13-02:19

  So let's give Mark a warm Harvest Pittsburgh North welcome and prepare to receive God's Word.

  Mark Ort:

  02:24-02:25

  Well, good morning.

  Mark Ort:

  02:26-02:28

  Please open up your Bibles to Psalm 145.

  Mark Ort:

  02:30-02:38

  When Pastor Jeff had asked me to speak this morning, I usually, if I'm going into the jail or whatever, I just usually teach people what I'm learning.

  Mark Ort:

  02:38-02:41

  And I was actually in the book of James at the time.

  Mark Ort:

  02:42-02:55

  And it just wasn't clicking with me for a couple of days, and I thought, you know what, I love Psalm 145, and I haven't been in Psalm 145 for a while, so I thought, why don't we just go there?

  Mark Ort:

  02:56-02:58

  Why don't I take a look at Psalm 145?

  Mark Ort:

  02:58-03:04

  And as I was taking a look at the passage, and then the message that Pastor Jeff brought last week, it just kind of all fit together.

  Mark Ort:

  03:05-03:11

  And I thought, you know what, I'm gonna study 145, and we're gonna talk about it this morning.

  Mark Ort:

  03:12-03:15

  Wasn't that great singing this morning?

  Mark Ort:

  03:16-03:17

  Amazing singing.

  Mark Ort:

  03:17-03:18

  It was awesome.

  Mark Ort:

  03:19-03:27

  And part of me thinks, man, we could just go home now because we basically did what David was doing here in Psalm 145.

  Mark Ort:

  03:28-03:29

  The music was amazing.

  Mark Ort:

  03:29-03:31

  We're blessed with a lot of talent here in the church.

  Mark Ort:

  03:31-03:34

  And I appreciate you guys putting the music program together.

  Mark Ort:

  03:36-03:47

  I'd like for you to just think for a moment about an occasion in your life that impacted you greatly, positively.

  Mark Ort:

  03:48-03:51

  Maybe it was a high school or college graduation.

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  03:52-04:03

  Think for a minute about something that you look back on and it was like, wow, that was a moment in my life where I turned a corner or something.

  Mark Ort:

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  Could have been a marriage, maybe a wedding, about having kids.

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  04:10-04:17

  I remember when each one of our children were born, it was like, wow, this was like the greatest day.

  Mark Ort:

  04:17-04:19

  You know, our wedding, it was like the greatest day.

  Mark Ort:

  04:19-04:22

  You know, after that, you're not the same.

  Mark Ort:

  04:23-04:25

  After these occasions, you're different.

  Mark Ort:

  04:25-04:26

  You're not the same anymore.

  Mark Ort:

  04:28-04:40

  Whenever we got married, I actually was not nervous that morning, but whenever the doors opened up and I saw my beautiful bride, Like I literally thought I would collapse.

  Mark Ort:

  04:40-04:42

  My knees were about ready to buckle.

  Mark Ort:

  04:43-04:49

  And I knew at that moment, it was like, from this point forward, my life is different.

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  You know, just like when we walked out of the wedding, and just like when we walked out of the delivery room after our babies were born, we were different.

  Mark Ort:

  05:00-05:12

  And hopefully it's that way when we come to God's word, especially this morning, when we look at Psalm 145, I hope by the end, that we're different.

  Mark Ort:

  05:12-05:28

  That we look back and we're like, wow, I remember when we did Psalm 145, when I encountered God in 145, that was a different, I could just see the difference in my praise and adoration and my worship toward the Lord.

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  05:30-05:37

  Not just 145, but anytime we come to Scripture, We're hearing from God.

  Mark Ort:

  05:37-05:39

  We're hearing the voice of God.

  Mark Ort:

  05:40-05:42

  It's Him speaking to us.

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  05:42-05:50

  And my knees might've buckled in the church that day, but our knees should be buckling before we come to the word of God.

  Mark Ort:

  05:51-05:53

  Our heart, is your heart pounding this morning?

  Mark Ort:

  05:54-05:55

  Is it beating a little bit faster?

  Mark Ort:

  05:56-05:59

  Did you get goosebumps when we're singing those songs because we're in a presence of God?

  Mark Ort:

  06:00-06:05

  I mean, if you didn't get goosebumps in those songs, I really got to wonder if you have a pulse.

  Mark Ort:

  06:06-06:09

  Seriously, those were some amazing worship songs.

  Mark Ort:

  06:10-06:15

  And so, getting up in front of people and speaking makes my heart pound a little bit.

  Mark Ort:

  06:16-06:20

  But knowing that I'm coming to Scripture, it pounds a little bit harder.

  Mark Ort:

  06:21-06:29

  We've had this discussion in our car on our way to church many times where, you know, I tell the kids, it's like, I have some butterflies in my stomach.

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  I feel a little bit nervous, like a healthy nervous.

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  06:33-06:35

  "Why would you feel that, Dad?" they ask.

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  06:35-06:39

  And it's because we're coming to hear from God.

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  06:40-06:42

  We're coming to hear from Him.

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  06:43-06:44

  It gives me some butterflies.

  Mark Ort:

  06:44-06:47

  I'm thinking, is God gonna receive my worship?

  Mark Ort:

  06:48-06:51

  Did it ever occur to you that God could send you away?

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  06:53-06:54

  Like, I don't like your worship today.

  Mark Ort:

  06:56-06:57

  Does that make you nervous?

  Mark Ort:

  06:58-06:59

  It makes me nervous.

  Mark Ort:

  07:00-07:04

  And it makes me nervous that I would be the one bringing the word to you.

  Mark Ort:

  07:04-07:06

  It's something that I take seriously.

  Mark Ort:

  07:06-07:12

  This is no trivial thing to stand behind this podium and speak for God.

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  07:14-07:18

  And I know your pastor is committed to sharing the truth.

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  07:18-07:21

  And Pastor Jeff needs you guys to pray for him every week.

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  07:22-07:38

  In fact, I would like you to commit to that, to pray for your pastor or anybody who stands behind this pulpit, that they would share the truth, that they would work hard and labor in the word and study so that you can hear what God is saying.

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  It's not a small matter.

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  It makes my heart race, and it makes it beat a little faster than normal.

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  Just pray for Pastor Jeff and for the leadership of the church that we would be free from distraction and things that would keep us from delivering what God has to say to you.

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  08:03-08:10

  And I think as for you, the people who are worshiping with us, we should be trembling.

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  08:12-08:19

  I think of in 1 Kings 8, you've heard of Solomon, King Solomon, he was building God's temple.

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  08:20-08:27

  And when the temple was done, This is a great prayer in the Old Testament.

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  08:27-08:34

  When the temple was done, Solomon stood before the congregation in 1 Kings 8.

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  He stood before the congregation and his arms were stretched out toward the heavens.

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  And he stood there and he started this magnificent prayer.

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  And maybe that can be your homework this week is to read this prayer.

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  This prayer of dedication of the temple.

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  And something happened while he was praying, Because when you get to the end of the prayer, it said that Solomon got up from kneeling, he got off his knees with his hands outstretched toward heaven.

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  09:07-09:11

  It doesn't tell what happened in there, but apparently his knees buckled.

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  09:12-09:13

  He was before the presence of God.

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  09:15-09:19

  And at the beginning of the prayer, he's standing, and by the end of the prayer, he's not, he's on his knees.

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  09:21-09:26

  And as a congregation, we should be trembling before God because this is His Word.

  Mark Ort:

  09:29-09:35

  That song we sang, it was on the screen, "You're Beautiful Beyond Description." And we're gonna learn about that today.

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  09:36-09:37

  We stand in awe.

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  09:38-09:41

  I stand in awe of Him, it said on the song.

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  He's the one that communicates to us in His Word, His precious Word.

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  09:48-10:00

  Hopefully, as you think about those events in your life that changed you, hopefully Psalm 145 is one of those things that changes your life.

  Mark Ort:

  10:01-10:07

  A couple of weeks ago, I spoke to a self-professed agnostic.

  Mark Ort:

  10:08-10:13

  Now an agnostic is someone who is not sure there's a God.

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  10:14-10:15

  Maybe they don't care.

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  It's different than an atheist.

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  He has said that there's no God.

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  And he told me in our conversation that, he said, "You know, there's millions of religions "and people have fashioned God after their image." We say that we were created in God's image, but he was saying the opposite, that people have fashioned a God in their image.

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  They've created God.

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  And I said, you know, you're right.

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  That's why there's so many religions because people have tried to fashion a God that suits their needs or their wants.

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  The longer I thought about our conversation, the more I thought, you know, he's right not only for like the false religions, but he's right about us.

  Mark Ort:

  11:08-11:19

  We have been guilty of creating a God in Christianity that is made from something that we think.

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  11:19-11:23

  For example, is God like hard of hearing?

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  Does he have an ear problem?

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  11:26-11:30

  Sometimes I pray and it's like, does he hear me?

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  11:30-11:31

  Is he up there?

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  11:32-11:32

  Is he hard of hearing?

  Mark Ort:

  11:32-11:33

  Does he need a hearing aid?

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  I don't think he quite hears what I'm saying at times.

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  And so, we think he doesn't answer our prayers the way we think He should answer our prayers.

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  11:46-11:48

  And so it's His fault, He's hard of hearing.

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  11:50-11:57

  Or we've made Him out to be some kind of celestial grandfather that's sitting up there, He's kind of aloof.

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  He's not up with the culture.

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  11:59-12:00

  He doesn't understand.

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  12:00-12:03

  He's kind of like in the fog.

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  12:03-12:05

  He doesn't get it.

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  Maybe He's a little forgetful.

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  And we say something, He heard it, but He forgot about it.

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  Or maybe we've made him into some kind of a overbearing ogre type being that he's ready to smash us at the drop of a hat.

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  12:28-12:33

  At every turn, he's going to punish us. We see him, we view him like that.

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  Or we see him as maybe he's untrustworthy, maybe he's uncaring.

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  12:38-12:41

  There's any number of things that we've made God into, right?

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  12:42-12:43

  But he's not that.

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  These are unbiblical views of God.

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  12:49-12:52

  We cannot praise God right if we have an unbiblical view of Him.

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  We cannot praise Him right if we view Him wrong and have an unbiblical view of Him.

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  13:00-13:01

  Psalm 145 is going to help us with that.

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  We don't have to wonder.

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  We don't have to make things up about God.

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  He has revealed to us in His Word exactly who He is.

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  13:14-13:21

  When we have an encounter with Psalm 145, it should profoundly affect our lives.

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  In the book of Psalms, we know that David wrote a lot of the Psalms.

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  13:29-13:35

  And if you go back through your Bibles, I think some of your Bible, my Bible has this.

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  13:35-13:37

  has titles at the beginning of each Psalm.

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  Some of them have more like a bigger title, like a description, like David when he was being chased by Saul or David and Bathsheba and things like that.

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  But you'll see there's titles in a lot of the Psalms that say, "A Psalm of David." Now, David didn't pencil that in there.

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  13:56-14:05

  Somebody who was putting the book together in its order and everything, tried to make it maybe easier for us or dividing things up into chapters.

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  And that wasn't obviously in the original.

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  14:08-14:15

  And these titles, I don't know if all of them weren't in there, but most of the titles were not in the original.

  Mark Ort:

  14:15-14:17

  Somebody put those in there.

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  14:17-14:26

  But you'll see a lot of the Psalms, if you go through your book of Psalms, like Psalm 8, it's a Psalm of David.

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  Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name.

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  14:31-14:33

  Psalm 19, it's a Psalm of David.

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  14:34-14:36

  the heavens are declaring the glory of the Lord.

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  This is one that we like, popular, hear it a lot, Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd, it's a Psalm of David." And it goes on like that, Psalm 103, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name." It's a Psalm of David.

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  139, "I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made a Psalm of David." When we get to Psalm 145, it said, "A Psalm of David of praise." And from the commentaries that I read, they were saying that Psalm 145 is the last Psalm of David.

  Mark Ort:

  15:15-15:16

  Now there's a couple after that.

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  15:17-15:20

  Some of the scholars say that they were all together.

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  I'm not sure if they were all together or not, but we get to this Psalm, and this Psalm is a Psalm of David of praise.

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  And that word here in the title is the word tehillah, which has the same root word as the word hallelujah.

  Mark Ort:

  15:38-15:39

  Pretty interesting.

  Mark Ort:

  15:40-15:55

  You have these hallelujahs throughout the book of Psalms, these praise songs, but this is the hallelujah of hallelujahs is what the people are trying to say here.

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  15:56-15:59

  This is like the climax of David's writings.

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  16:00-16:04

  This is the crescendo of praise here.

  Mark Ort:

  16:04-16:05

  Now what's a crescendo?

  Mark Ort:

  16:06-16:09

  Jesse, you're a music person, you know what crescendo is, right?

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  16:10-16:10

  What is it?

  Mark Ort:

  16:11-16:12

  Bigger and louder.

  Mark Ort:

  16:13-16:15

  I'm not a music person, but I know what crescendo is.

  Mark Ort:

  16:16-16:18

  It's big and it's loud.

  Mark Ort:

  16:18-16:22

  This praise here, this Psalm is that.

  Mark Ort:

  16:23-16:23

  The word is tehillah.

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  16:24-16:26

  It's a Psalm of David of praise.

  Mark Ort:

  16:27-16:29

  All these other Psalms, we love them.

  Mark Ort:

  16:29-16:32

  We sing them, we recite them, we memorize them.

  Mark Ort:

  16:32-16:37

  But we get to this Psalm, and it's like we're exploding with praise.

  Mark Ort:

  16:38-16:39

  There's nothing louder.

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  16:40-16:44

  We're exploding with praise, excitement and praise.

  Mark Ort:

  16:46-16:53

  When we have a crescendo of some of this music this morning, The crescendo should produce goosebumps.

  Mark Ort:

  16:54-16:59

  It should produce in your soul that something welling up and giving to God.

  Mark Ort:

  17:00-17:04

  Charles Spurgeon said this about this particular Psalm.

  Mark Ort:

  17:04-17:14

  He said, "There's no chorus too loud, no orchestra too large, and no Psalm too lofty for the lauding of the Lord of hosts." I love that.

  Mark Ort:

  17:15-17:23

  No chorus is too loud, no orchestra too large, And no psalm is too lofty for the lauding of the Lord of hosts.

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  17:25-17:31

  So let's look at the passage here and see what God has for us in this crescendo of praise.

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  17:32-17:32

  Let's pray.

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  17:34-17:38

  Lord, we wanna look at your psalm that you've given us this morning.

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  17:39-17:45

  We wanna learn what you have for us, give you all the praise that you deserve.

  Mark Ort:

  17:46-17:49

  Lord, You are amazing, You're awesome.

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  17:50-17:55

  As the song said, You're beautiful beyond description and too marvelous for words.

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  17:56-18:02

  Our vocabulary isn't rich enough to describe how You are.

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  18:03-18:10

  So Lord, just help us to have hearts that will hear what You have for us this morning.

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  18:10-18:16

  And may Your Holy Spirit go over the congregation this morning.

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  18:17-18:20

  And may we lift you up in praise as we look at your word this morning.

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  18:21-18:22

  Thank you, Lord.

  Mark Ort:

  18:22-18:22

  Amen.

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  18:24-18:35

  Psalm 145, if you open your word there, it says here in the first three verses, "I will extol thee, my God, O King, and I will bless thy name forever and ever.

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  18:35-18:39

  Every day I will bless thee, and I will praise thy name forever and ever.

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  18:40-18:43

  "Great is the Lord and highly to be praised.

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  18:44-18:52

  His greatness is unsearchable." The first thing I guess we have to do then is define what praise is.

  Mark Ort:

  18:53-18:55

  And I think we're gonna put that up on the screen.

  Mark Ort:

  18:56-18:57

  We have an acrostic.

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  18:58-19:00

  I like acrostics, they kind of help me to learn.

  Mark Ort:

  19:01-19:18

  A good definition here of praise is publicly and privately reciting the attributes and actions of the invisible sovereign God of eternity.

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  19:21-19:23

  I don't know what else to say about praise.

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  19:23-19:24

  I mean, that's what it is.

  Mark Ort:

  19:25-19:32

  Praise is ascribing to God what He's due.

  Mark Ort:

  19:34-19:46

  Praise is giving back to God publicly and privately with our voices, the credit that he deserves and recognizing God for who he is.

  Mark Ort:

  19:47-19:52

  It's ascribing glory and strength and praise and honor and greatness.

  Mark Ort:

  19:54-19:55

  That's what David was doing here.

  Mark Ort:

  19:57-20:04

  First point on our outline is, this is the effects of Psalm 145.

  Mark Ort:

  20:04-20:06

  We will gain a proper view of God.

  Mark Ort:

  20:08-20:13

  Again, we can never praise God or worship Him right unless we have a proper view of Him.

  Mark Ort:

  20:13-20:15

  We have to see Him correctly.

  Mark Ort:

  20:16-20:23

  Like I said, we don't have to wonder who He is or what He's about because the word has told us.

  Mark Ort:

  20:24-20:27

  And so we gain a proper view of God.

  Mark Ort:

  20:28-20:43

  And actually I'm gonna give you the next two items on your outline because you're gonna see these two things throughout the Psalm The next one is God receives glory, God receives glory through our praise.

  Mark Ort:

  20:46-20:47

  And our prayer life is enhanced.

  Mark Ort:

  20:49-20:55

  God will receive glory through our praise when we have a proper view of Him, right?

  Mark Ort:

  20:56-20:58

  And our prayer life is enhanced.

  Mark Ort:

  20:58-21:02

  I often struggle with prayer because sometimes I don't know what to say.

  Mark Ort:

  21:03-21:04

  There's a lot to pray about.

  Mark Ort:

  21:06-21:07

  asking Him for things.

  Mark Ort:

  21:08-21:09

  We're good at that.

  Mark Ort:

  21:09-21:10

  I'm good at that.

  Mark Ort:

  21:11-21:13

  Give me this or help me with that.

  Mark Ort:

  21:13-21:14

  I can ask for things.

  Mark Ort:

  21:15-21:16

  I think we're all good at that.

  Mark Ort:

  21:17-21:26

  But I think, I don't know if you're with me or not on this, but sometimes I just have a problem giving God praise.

  Mark Ort:

  21:27-21:28

  I don't know what that is.

  Mark Ort:

  21:28-21:38

  I don't know why that is, but if we can study the attributes of God It will help us with our prayer life.

  Mark Ort:

  21:39-21:42

  We'll like bubble over with things to pray about.

  Mark Ort:

  21:44-21:49

  So let's see what David is saying here in verses one and two.

  Mark Ort:

  21:49-21:51

  Praise ought to be personal.

  Mark Ort:

  21:51-21:52

  It should be personal.

  Mark Ort:

  21:53-22:06

  Note in verse one that David says, "I will extol thee." He says, "My God, I will extol thee, my God." He claimed God as his own.

  Mark Ort:

  22:07-22:10

  God isn't a distant relative that we never see.

  Mark Ort:

  22:11-22:12

  We're his adopted children.

  Mark Ort:

  22:13-22:14

  He adopted us.

  Mark Ort:

  22:14-22:16

  He made us his own.

  Mark Ort:

  22:17-22:19

  So it's a personal thing for David.

  Mark Ort:

  22:20-22:25

  He loves us infinitely more than an earthly father loves his own children.

  Mark Ort:

  22:26-22:33

  And we can say, if we love Jesus Christ and we love his father, God, we can say with David, he is my God.

  Mark Ort:

  22:34-22:35

  He is my God.

  Mark Ort:

  22:35-22:36

  We can say that.

  Mark Ort:

  22:36-22:38

  And that's what David was saying here.

  Mark Ort:

  22:38-22:45

  And if you notice also in these in verses one and two, David says that I will do something four times.

  Mark Ort:

  22:47-22:49

  He says, I will four times.

  Mark Ort:

  22:49-22:51

  This is highly personal with David.

  Mark Ort:

  22:52-22:54

  He says, I will extol thee.

  Mark Ort:

  22:54-22:56

  I will bless thee.

  Mark Ort:

  22:57-22:59

  He says, I will bless thee again in verse two.

  Mark Ort:

  23:00-23:03

  And I will praise thy name in verse two.

  Mark Ort:

  23:04-23:08

  This is a conscious, volitional decision that David has made.

  Mark Ort:

  23:09-23:10

  He said, "I'm going to do this.

  Mark Ort:

  23:11-23:13

  Whatever somebody else is doing, I don't care.

  Mark Ort:

  23:14-23:30

  Whatever those group of people are doing or this guy back here, it doesn't matter to me, but I'm going to do these things." David wasn't content to let somebody else do this stuff.

  Mark Ort:

  23:31-23:51

  There's an author that I like, A.W. Tozer, and he said, and I'm paraphrasing, I don't have the exact quote, but he said, "Too often, "we like to let other people do our study for us." It's like, "Oh, that's for the pastor, "or that's for the Bible guy, or whoever, "that's for somebody else.

  Mark Ort:

  23:51-24:04

  "I'll just go and sit, and I'll kind of listen and absorb." A.W. Tozer said, it's a great book, "The Pursuit of God." He said that far too many people are content to let other people do their Bible study for them.

  Mark Ort:

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  And while he's correct on that, I would say that too many people are willing and ready to let other people do their praise and worship for them.

  Mark Ort:

  24:18-24:19

  Let the other guy do that.

  Mark Ort:

  24:21-24:23

  Let the other guy sing at church.

  Mark Ort:

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  My voice isn't that good.

  Mark Ort:

  24:25-24:28

  Those guys over there are better than me, so I'm gonna let them sing.

  Mark Ort:

  24:29-24:30

  Let them do the worship.

  Mark Ort:

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  I'll mouth the words and it'll look like I'm singing.

  Mark Ort:

  24:34-24:34

  Am I right?

  Mark Ort:

  24:35-24:36

  Is that what we do?

  Mark Ort:

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  We can't be content with that.

  Mark Ort:

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  Corporate worship is very important.

  Mark Ort:

  24:43-24:46

  It's important to get together and worship together.

  Mark Ort:

  24:47-24:51

  But it's also this personal matter between you and the Lord.

  Mark Ort:

  24:52-25:07

  It was personal between the Lord and David and he made it personal when he said, "I will do these things for my God." And not only is it personal, but it's perpetual.

  Mark Ort:

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  He says, "Every day," well, back up in verse one, he says, "I will bless thy name forever and ever.

  Mark Ort:

  25:17-25:29

  Every day I will bless thy name." It's not something that we do on Sunday or at the one day a week, this was a normal part of David's life.

  Mark Ort:

  25:29-25:31

  It was every day.

  Mark Ort:

  25:32-25:36

  There were some passages, morning, noon and night.

  Mark Ort:

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  This was something that he did.

  Mark Ort:

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  It was part of his regular routine.

  Mark Ort:

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  It was ongoing.

  Mark Ort:

  25:44-25:47

  It was never ending, continual, forever.

  Mark Ort:

  25:49-25:50

  He's not gonna let up on this.

  Mark Ort:

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  This was a daily experience for David.

  Mark Ort:

  25:58-26:08

  If spending time with God is not part of your daily experience, not part of your routine, I would encourage you to change your habits.

  Mark Ort:

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  Get in the Word, experience what God has for you.

  Mark Ort:

  26:13-26:15

  Block off some time during the day to do that.

  Mark Ort:

  26:15-26:16

  I know we have a busy life.

  Mark Ort:

  26:17-26:24

  You know, I get up really early and my habits are actually changing because I have trouble seeing in the morning.

  Mark Ort:

  26:25-26:28

  So if you're driving around me, make sure you're far away.

  Mark Ort:

  26:29-26:36

  When I go to work early, and I can't read my scripture in the morning like I used to.

  Mark Ort:

  26:36-26:41

  I read a little bit, but I can't see very well in the morning, about 10 o'clock.

  Mark Ort:

  26:43-26:44

  So I changed my habits.

  Mark Ort:

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  I started reading at night.

  Mark Ort:

  26:46-26:47

  Well, now my eyes get tired at night.

  Mark Ort:

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  I start to burn really bad.

  Mark Ort:

  26:50-26:51

  I had to change my habits.

  Mark Ort:

  26:52-26:55

  I started taking my Bible to work and taking a break at lunch.

  Mark Ort:

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  And I'll read my Bible at lunch because that's the best part of my day.

  Mark Ort:

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  I can see really well, my eyes aren't burning.

  Mark Ort:

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  And so we encourage you to make that an important part of your day, ongoing.

  Mark Ort:

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  Sure, we may skip a day, something happens.

  Mark Ort:

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  We miss a day here and there, It should be a regular part of your daily routine.

  Mark Ort:

  27:21-27:24

  Just communicating and experiencing God through the word.

  Mark Ort:

  27:26-27:35

  And then David launches right into his, the first of his reciting of the attributes of God that helps us with this view of God, how we're gonna see him.

  Mark Ort:

  27:35-27:38

  He says, "Great is the Lord and highly to be praised.

  Mark Ort:

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  His greatness is unsearchable." His greatness is unsearchable.

  Mark Ort:

  27:44-27:45

  What does that even mean?

  Mark Ort:

  27:46-27:52

  His greatness is so vast and incomprehensible that even the greatest mind can't figure it out.

  Mark Ort:

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  I mean, if you took the greatest theologians in history, the Jonathan Edwards and the Spurgeons and A .W. Tozer and combined their theological backgrounds with somebody like a James MacDonald and a John MacArthur, and you took the intellect of Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison and Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and you put all these great minds together, it wouldn't even scratch the surface of the greatness of God.

  Mark Ort:

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  It doesn't even come close.

  Mark Ort:

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  His greatness is unsearchable.

  Mark Ort:

  28:37-28:40

  But that doesn't mean we just stop looking for it.

  Mark Ort:

  28:42-28:46

  We're gonna jump to verse five, 'cause we're gonna come back to verse four here at the end.

  Mark Ort:

  28:47-28:57

  He says here, "On the glorious splendor of thy majesty "and on thy wonderful works I will meditate." David is using some pretty vivid language here.

  Mark Ort:

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  It's hard to describe the greatness of God.

  Mark Ort:

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  We just said he was unsearchable.

  Mark Ort:

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  David was reaching into his reservoir of vocabulary and pulling out the best words that he had He was probably speechless before God, as we could see that.

  Mark Ort:

  29:20-29:26

  If we were standing before God and all his radiance and resplendence, we would be speechless.

  Mark Ort:

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  We probably would not know what to say.

  Mark Ort:

  29:30-29:35

  So he's reaching into his vocabulary and pulling out the very best adjectives that he has.

  Mark Ort:

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  And he comes up with these and he says, glorious, on the glorious splendor, I will meditate.

  Mark Ort:

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  And glorious here is speaking of richness and wealth and abundance.

  Mark Ort:

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  And splendor is referring to adorning decoration and holy ornamentation.

  Mark Ort:

  29:58-30:03

  And majesty, majesty is beautiful and lofty.

  Mark Ort:

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  In Psalm 96, six, it says, "Splendor and majesty are before him.

  Mark Ort:

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  Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary." Do you see this?

  Mark Ort:

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  Do you see what David saw?

  Mark Ort:

  30:19-30:30

  He was meditating on the richness and the beauty of God, the abundance of wealth in the Lord God, the holy array of ornamentation.

  Mark Ort:

  30:31-30:33

  This is what he was gazing upon.

  Mark Ort:

  30:35-30:49

  One thing about gazing at the beauty of God and His glorious splendor is that the longer we fix our eyes on Him, the less appeal that sin has to us.

  Mark Ort:

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  When we're used to feasting at a table, when we see Him and we're eating from this table of beautiful food that He's provided for us, We don't want to go back and eat out of a dumpster, right?

  Mark Ort:

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  So there's this beauty that we're looking at, and if we're fixing our eyes on that beauty, it has a tendency to keep us away from sin.

  Mark Ort:

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  I know this is gonna be a horrible analogy, but it may give you an idea.

  Mark Ort:

  31:26-31:30

  I used to like to eat dull pineapple chunks.

  Mark Ort:

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  I don't know what it was, they just were really good.

  Mark Ort:

  31:34-31:34

  I used to like them.

  Mark Ort:

  31:36-31:46

  When Kristen and I were in Maui, we stopped at a little stand along the road, and they had just picked pineapples, like five minutes ago.

  Mark Ort:

  31:47-31:50

  And I ate this pineapple, and I couldn't believe how good it was.

  Mark Ort:

  31:51-31:52

  It was amazing.

  Mark Ort:

  31:53-31:55

  It was just like the best thing I had ever tasted.

  Mark Ort:

  31:56-31:57

  Like really, really, really good.

  Mark Ort:

  31:58-32:03

  And we had bananas there, too, that had actually ripened on the vine, or ripened on the tree.

  Mark Ort:

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  And I'm not a real big banana fan, but these things were like eating from like the best fruit trees ever.

  Mark Ort:

  32:13-32:20

  But when we came back, I don't know that I've knowingly ever had another pineapple chunk out of a can.

  Mark Ort:

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  You know what I'm saying?

  Mark Ort:

  32:23-32:30

  It's like a canned pineapple after I just had this amazing fresh pineapple.

  Mark Ort:

  32:33-32:38

  So we're gazing on Jesus Christ and we're gazing on the beauty of God.

  Mark Ort:

  32:39-32:43

  And when we see that, why would we fall into sin?

  Mark Ort:

  32:43-32:44

  I know we're human and we're gonna do that.

  Mark Ort:

  32:45-32:47

  But what appeal does it have to us now?

  Mark Ort:

  32:48-32:50

  We've seen the beauty of God.

  Mark Ort:

  32:54-32:58

  Jonathan Edwards said that God is altogether lovely.

  Mark Ort:

  33:01-33:08

  When we gaze on His beauty and His loveliness, the passing pleasures of sin appear as what they really are, they're sick and twisted.

  Mark Ort:

  33:10-33:15

  A great Christian friend of ours just passed away a couple of days ago.

  Mark Ort:

  33:17-33:19

  And we're sad because we're gonna miss her.

  Mark Ort:

  33:21-33:28

  But we're happy for her because right now, Right now, she is gazing at the beauty of God.

  Mark Ort:

  33:29-33:32

  She's looking at him in all his majesty.

  Mark Ort:

  33:35-33:44

  David goes on reciting these attributes of God in verses eight and nine, helping us to gain this proper view of God.

  Mark Ort:

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  He says in verse eight, "The Lord is gracious and merciful, "Slow to anger and great in loving kindness." Grace is God giving us something that we don't deserve, while mercy is actually withholding what we do deserve.

  Mark Ort:

  34:05-34:13

  If we got what we deserve, we would have been extinguished a long time ago.

  Mark Ort:

  34:15-34:16

  But he's gracious and merciful.

  Mark Ort:

  34:19-34:21

  It says he's slow to anger.

  Mark Ort:

  34:22-34:25

  Do you know somebody that snaps at the drop of a hat?

  Mark Ort:

  34:26-34:28

  It's like the littlest thing.

  Mark Ort:

  34:28-34:29

  Boom, they're like, they're blowing up.

  Mark Ort:

  34:31-34:32

  That's not God.

  Mark Ort:

  34:33-34:35

  It says he's slow to anger.

  Mark Ort:

  34:37-34:38

  He's patient with us.

  Mark Ort:

  34:40-34:41

  Does he get angry?

  Mark Ort:

  34:42-34:43

  Of course he gets angry.

  Mark Ort:

  34:45-34:50

  Psalm 711 says that God is a righteous judge and has indignation every day.

  Mark Ort:

  34:53-35:10

  And that's a quote from earlier in the book of Psalms, Psalm 711, and I always remember that verse because one time I walked into a 711 on Route 8 South up in Butler, and I was about to pay for my gas, and I looked behind the counter and I saw pornography everywhere.

  Mark Ort:

  35:12-35:17

  And I don't know if it was the day before or the day after, I read that verse.

  Mark Ort:

  35:18-35:24

  In Psalm 711, that God is a righteous judge and has indignation every day.

  Mark Ort:

  35:24-35:26

  He is indignant about that kind of stuff.

  Mark Ort:

  35:29-35:33

  Yes, God gets angry, but he's perfectly balanced in his character.

  Mark Ort:

  35:35-35:39

  Certainly he's indignant over sin, but the Bible says in this verse that he's slow to anger.

  Mark Ort:

  35:40-35:47

  And we can rest in the truth that God does not wink at sin, but he is patient with us as we're developing in our faith.

  Mark Ort:

  35:50-35:52

  And He's great in loving kindness.

  Mark Ort:

  35:53-35:56

  It says here, "The Lord is good to all.

  Mark Ort:

  35:58-36:01

  His mercies are over all His works." He's good to all.

  Mark Ort:

  36:02-36:04

  He extends His goodness to everyone.

  Mark Ort:

  36:06-36:14

  To men, to women, young, old, all races, nations, atheists, agnostics.

  Mark Ort:

  36:14-36:17

  We're all beneficiaries of God's goodness, right?

  Mark Ort:

  36:19-36:22

  There is no one that God hasn't been good to.

  Mark Ort:

  36:23-36:26

  We're borrowing his air right now, right?

  Mark Ort:

  36:28-36:31

  Atheists and agnostics are getting free air to breathe.

  Mark Ort:

  36:31-36:34

  We've been given abilities to work and earn money.

  Mark Ort:

  36:35-36:43

  We've been able to enjoy the pleasures of life, marriage and having babies and raising children and things like that.

  Mark Ort:

  36:44-36:47

  These are all benefits and gifts from a good God.

  Mark Ort:

  36:47-36:48

  Says He's good to all.

  Mark Ort:

  36:49-36:54

  And the only reason that we're still standing and have a pulse is because of God is gracious and merciful.

  Mark Ort:

  36:55-36:55

  He is good.

  Mark Ort:

  36:58-37:05

  We should have been incinerated immediately the very first time we sinned, but God is gracious and merciful and good.

  Mark Ort:

  37:06-37:07

  That's what the Bible says.

  Mark Ort:

  37:10-37:11

  This is stuff that we haven't made up.

  Mark Ort:

  37:12-37:13

  This is what the Bible says.

  Mark Ort:

  37:13-37:18

  And it says in verse 13, that God's kingdom is everlasting.

  Mark Ort:

  37:19-37:19

  His reign is forever.

  Mark Ort:

  37:20-37:24

  There will never be a time when God is not on the throne.

  Mark Ort:

  37:25-37:26

  He won't abdicate.

  Mark Ort:

  37:26-37:29

  There's never a time where he's like, I had enough of this, I'm leaving.

  Mark Ort:

  37:30-37:36

  He's in complete control in times past, right now, and in the forever future, he's in control.

  Mark Ort:

  37:38-37:39

  His kingdom is everlasting.

  Mark Ort:

  37:41-37:49

  Verse 14, "For the Lord sustains all who fall, He raises up all who are bowed down.

  Mark Ort:

  37:52-37:57

  The eyes of all look to Thee, and Thou dost give them their food in due time.

  Mark Ort:

  38:00-38:10

  Thou dost open Thy hand, and Thou dost satisfy the desire of every living thing." He's our sustainer, He picks us up when we're down and we're hurting, He cares for us.

  Mark Ort:

  38:11-38:12

  He's our provider.

  Mark Ort:

  38:14-38:15

  He provides everything we need.

  Mark Ort:

  38:18-38:21

  Jehovah Jireh is the word that we see in the Old Testament.

  Mark Ort:

  38:22-38:22

  My provider.

  Mark Ort:

  38:23-38:29

  Every time I see a field that has cows in it, I think of God being my provider.

  Mark Ort:

  38:30-38:30

  You know why?

  Mark Ort:

  38:30-38:33

  Because God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

  Mark Ort:

  38:35-38:36

  That's a lot of hills.

  Mark Ort:

  38:37-38:38

  That's a lot of cattle.

  Mark Ort:

  38:38-38:45

  And when I see that, every single time I think, God is my provider.

  Mark Ort:

  38:46-38:47

  He owns it all.

  Mark Ort:

  38:48-38:52

  And so it's not hard for him to provide the things that I need.

  Mark Ort:

  38:55-38:56

  He has abundant supply.

  Mark Ort:

  38:57-39:02

  He's perfectly capable of supplying the things that we need.

  Mark Ort:

  39:03-39:09

  And when we are tempted to doubt his capabilities and His ability to provide for us.

  Mark Ort:

  39:11-39:15

  We need to start rehearsing these characteristics in our prayers and out loud.

  Mark Ort:

  39:17-39:29

  We should go over them, over and over and over, rehearsing them in our minds and in our hearts, convincing ourselves of the truth about God instead of viewing Him as impotent and uncaring.

  Mark Ort:

  39:31-39:35

  I hear stories about people who, you know, "Oh, God provided this big thing for us.

  Mark Ort:

  39:36-39:38

  God, you know, this was an amazing thing.

  Mark Ort:

  39:38-39:41

  You know, we didn't have this and God provided that for us.

  Mark Ort:

  39:41-39:43

  That kind of stuff happens to me too.

  Mark Ort:

  39:44-39:50

  This past winter, we had a lot of things go wrong at our house and a lot of things we had to buy.

  Mark Ort:

  39:50-39:53

  And I needed new tires on our minivan.

  Mark Ort:

  39:54-40:00

  One Sunday, right after church, I had gone south of Pittsburgh to take some pictures for somebody.

  Mark Ort:

  40:01-40:11

  They asked me to work, you know, hey, we're in this contest, and they own a AAA dealership, and they tow cars, and they have a fleet of like 17 or 20 trucks.

  Mark Ort:

  40:12-40:14

  I said, I'd love to take pictures for you.

  Mark Ort:

  40:14-40:22

  They're gonna put 'em in a publication, and they're gonna be judged, and maybe win this award for being the best AAA service in America.

  Mark Ort:

  40:23-40:24

  And I said, I'd love to take pictures for you.

  Mark Ort:

  40:25-40:29

  And so we did that on a, it was actually a snowy, I think it was in December, maybe.

  Mark Ort:

  40:29-40:36

  So we drove down there, it was really treacherous, And we get there and we spent a couple hours, you know, the kids were hungry and everything.

  Mark Ort:

  40:37-40:39

  And so I took these pictures and we had fun.

  Mark Ort:

  40:39-40:40

  And we went home.

  Mark Ort:

  40:41-40:47

  I had to take my car to that person's shop to get something done on it.

  Mark Ort:

  40:47-40:49

  I don't know if it was an oil change or I forget what it was.

  Mark Ort:

  40:50-40:54

  Whenever the car was done, they did the inspection.

  Mark Ort:

  40:55-40:59

  And I said, oh, probably ought to wait for the inspection because I got to get tires.

  Mark Ort:

  41:00-41:01

  And she said, "Don't worry about it.

  Mark Ort:

  41:02-41:13

  We put tires on it." I said, "I don't have the money right now." She said, "No, we put tires on it." She said, "We did that for you just as a thank you for taking those pictures." I didn't want anything for doing the pictures.

  Mark Ort:

  41:14-41:17

  We got $600 tires that I couldn't afford.

  Mark Ort:

  41:19-41:19

  And you know why?

  Mark Ort:

  41:20-41:23

  Yeah, they're nice people, but it's because God is my provider.

  Mark Ort:

  41:24-41:28

  God knew I needed tires on our van, and he provided those for us.

  Mark Ort:

  41:29-41:30

  God is our sustainer and He's our provider.

  Mark Ort:

  41:33-41:36

  It says in verse 17, "The Lord is righteous and kind.

  Mark Ort:

  41:37-41:39

  He is not unjust or impure.

  Mark Ort:

  41:40-41:43

  Everything He is and does is right and good.

  Mark Ort:

  41:44-41:45

  He cannot be wrong.

  Mark Ort:

  41:48-41:49

  He doesn't make any mistakes.

  Mark Ort:

  41:51-41:53

  His planning is perfect and impeccable.

  Mark Ort:

  41:54-41:59

  His decisions are all according to His will." Listen to this quote by Charles Spurgeon.

  Mark Ort:

  42:01-42:07

  "In the salvation of his people, he is as righteous and holy as in any other of his ways and works.

  Mark Ort:

  42:08-42:27

  He has not manifested mercy at the expense of his justice, but rather he has magnified his righteousness by the death of his son." The death of his son wasn't some kind of a mistake or I gotta figure out a way to save these people.

  Mark Ort:

  42:28-42:31

  I guess I'm gonna have to send my son and sacrifice him.

  Mark Ort:

  42:32-42:36

  No, this was a decision made by God in eternity past.

  Mark Ort:

  42:37-42:44

  And I'm thinking, wow, he's magnified his righteousness by the death of his son.

  Mark Ort:

  42:46-43:04

  God was not wringing his hands wondering, how in the world am I gonna save these people when we sin, the dealing with sin by the substitutionary atonement and death of Jesus on the cross, this was magnification of God's righteousness.

  Mark Ort:

  43:05-43:07

  God never makes a mistake.

  Mark Ort:

  43:08-43:11

  He is perfect and he's absolutely righteous.

  Mark Ort:

  43:13-43:24

  And then in verse 18, you'll see in verse 18, it says, "The Lord is near to all who call upon him." to all who call upon Him in truth.

  Mark Ort:

  43:25-43:28

  He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him.

  Mark Ort:

  43:28-43:34

  And He will also hear their cry and will save them." We'll save them.

  Mark Ort:

  43:35-43:38

  We're in desperate need of being saved.

  Mark Ort:

  43:39-43:40

  We need to be delivered.

  Mark Ort:

  43:40-43:43

  That's what being saved is, being delivered.

  Mark Ort:

  43:44-43:46

  We did a message in the prison.

  Mark Ort:

  43:47-43:55

  Ben, I think you were there that night when we were talking about deliverance and how to be delivered, what's a deliverer do?

  Mark Ort:

  43:56-44:01

  A deliverer takes somebody who's in danger and moves them to a place of safety.

  Mark Ort:

  44:02-44:14

  He takes somebody who's in trouble and pushes them over to this stable place.

  Mark Ort:

  44:15-44:16

  He's rescuing them.

  Mark Ort:

  44:16-44:18

  The deliverer is rescuing them.

  Mark Ort:

  44:18-44:25

  That's what Moses, Moses' job was when he went in back into Egypt, God said that he was gonna be the deliverer.

  Mark Ort:

  44:27-44:28

  What a great picture that was.

  Mark Ort:

  44:30-44:36

  Moses with God, of course, pulls these people out of Egypt and delivers them from the bondage they were in.

  Mark Ort:

  44:36-44:39

  And that's what it is to be saved.

  Mark Ort:

  44:40-44:45

  A deliverer is somebody who liberates you, giving you freedom and relief.

  Mark Ort:

  44:47-44:50

  He causes rescue and escape from a dire situation.

  Mark Ort:

  44:54-44:59

  This is what God did for us through his precious Son.

  Mark Ort:

  45:01-45:02

  That's how we get our deliverance.

  Mark Ort:

  45:03-45:10

  That's how we get saved, is because we put our faith and our trust and our hope in Jesus Christ alone.

  Mark Ort:

  45:11-45:12

  God did this for us.

  Mark Ort:

  45:13-45:18

  He rescued us from the punishment that was due because of our sin.

  Mark Ort:

  45:20-45:24

  He cleanses us from the stain of our sin and our guilt.

  Mark Ort:

  45:25-45:26

  Takes the guilt away.

  Mark Ort:

  45:27-45:28

  That's what deliverers do.

  Mark Ort:

  45:30-45:31

  It says also here, He's our keeper.

  Mark Ort:

  45:35-45:40

  If Jesus was able to save us, God is able to save us through His Son.

  Mark Ort:

  45:41-45:42

  Don't you think He's able to keep us too?

  Mark Ort:

  45:43-45:47

  If you did the thing that was the hardest, don't you think the easier thing is easier?

  Mark Ort:

  45:49-45:50

  He's able to keep us.

  Mark Ort:

  45:50-45:53

  The word for keep here, I love this.

  Mark Ort:

  45:53-45:55

  I love studying words.

  Mark Ort:

  45:56-46:00

  I'll get latched onto a word and it's like I gotta figure out where this word comes from.

  Mark Ort:

  46:01-46:02

  I love studying words.

  Mark Ort:

  46:02-46:09

  The word for keep here means that He is in charge of watching over and guarding it.

  Mark Ort:

  46:10-46:15

  It's the same word when the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks by night.

  Mark Ort:

  46:15-46:21

  They were standing there watching their sheep, making sure that nothing was going to happen to them at night.

  Mark Ort:

  46:22-46:23

  He was keeping guard over it.

  Mark Ort:

  46:24-46:26

  Well, that's what God does.

  Mark Ort:

  46:27-46:29

  He's keeping watch over our salvation.

  Mark Ort:

  46:29-46:31

  He's guarding it, keeping it intact.

  Mark Ort:

  46:33-46:41

  A God who isn't able to keep us isn't really a God who is doing his job as guardian now, is he?

  Mark Ort:

  46:44-46:46

  He's not as powerful as we are.

  Mark Ort:

  46:47-46:57

  Because if we do something where we could actually lose our salvation, then we're actually more powerful than the seal that God had put on us in his Holy Spirit.

  Mark Ort:

  46:59-47:00

  I don't wanna make that claim.

  Mark Ort:

  47:01-47:02

  I am not stronger than that.

  Mark Ort:

  47:03-47:05

  God is able to keep us.

  Mark Ort:

  47:05-47:10

  It says in Luke, or I'm sorry, in Jude 24, that God is able to keep us.

  Mark Ort:

  47:11-47:14

  Now unto him who is able to keep us from falling and stumbling.

  Mark Ort:

  47:17-47:20

  We belong to him and he is not letting go.

  Mark Ort:

  47:21-47:22

  That's what David says here.

  Mark Ort:

  47:23-47:23

  He says he's our keeper.

  Mark Ort:

  47:26-47:31

  Is this kind of stuff not exciting to know what kind of a God we have?

  Mark Ort:

  47:32-47:35

  Do you see how a proper view of God provokes praise?

  Mark Ort:

  47:36-47:38

  You see how it helps you in your prayer life?

  Mark Ort:

  47:40-47:45

  If we don't see God properly, how could we possibly praise Him right or pray right?

  Mark Ort:

  47:49-47:55

  People have often told me that it's important to preach the gospel to yourself, rehearsing it over and over again.

  Mark Ort:

  47:55-47:56

  And we need to hear that.

  Mark Ort:

  47:56-47:57

  We need to do that.

  Mark Ort:

  47:58-48:02

  And I would say we need to preach God's attributes to ourselves too.

  Mark Ort:

  48:02-48:06

  We need to tell ourselves who God is according to his word.

  Mark Ort:

  48:06-48:15

  And we need to recite those attributes back to him over and over and over again, reinforcing to ourselves the truth of who God is.

  Mark Ort:

  48:16-48:19

  And so when we study Psalm 145, we gain a proper view of God.

  Mark Ort:

  48:19-48:21

  God receives the glory through our praise.

  Mark Ort:

  48:21-48:23

  Our prayer life is enhanced.

  Mark Ort:

  48:23-48:30

  And lastly, we become effective witnesses of his greatness.

  Mark Ort:

  48:32-48:33

  You know what a witness is, right?

  Mark Ort:

  48:36-48:38

  A witness is somebody that sees something.

  Mark Ort:

  48:38-48:41

  Maybe you've seen a crime happen or something like that.

  Mark Ort:

  48:42-48:45

  You would relate to the judge or the jury what you saw.

  Mark Ort:

  48:46-49:02

  If you saw a bank robbery or something, if you saw something going on, you saw a red car and you saw somebody hop out and go in with a gun and they had a mask on or something, And the police were talking to you, were interviewing you, or the judge, or you're the jury.

  Mark Ort:

  49:03-49:05

  And they said, "Mark, come on up here.

  Mark Ort:

  49:05-49:07

  "We want your testimony on this.

  Mark Ort:

  49:07-49:16

  "We want to hear what you have to say." And you actually saw everything happen, and you went up and you're, well, I don't know, I don't really want to get into it.

  Mark Ort:

  49:17-49:18

  I don't know.

  Mark Ort:

  49:19-49:21

  You wouldn't be much of a witness now, would you?

  Mark Ort:

  49:22-49:26

  But if you went in and said, "Hey, I saw the red car.

  Mark Ort:

  49:26-49:31

  I saw the guy, he was about six foot tall and he had dark hair, he did have a mask on.

  Mark Ort:

  49:32-49:34

  And when he came out, they went that way.

  Mark Ort:

  49:35-49:37

  You know what a witness is, that's what a witness is.

  Mark Ort:

  49:40-49:41

  You would tell your experience.

  Mark Ort:

  49:42-49:48

  And when we encounter God, as David did in the Psalm, what would be the logical outflow of that?

  Mark Ort:

  49:50-49:59

  You're gonna say, "I don't know." Or you're gonna bust open, you're gonna tell people, I gotta tell people about this Jesus, about this God, His character.

  Mark Ort:

  49:59-50:04

  I gotta tell people about how He saved me, about how He delivered me and delivered me to safety.

  Mark Ort:

  50:06-50:07

  I gotta tell people.

  Mark Ort:

  50:09-50:12

  We let everyone know what an amazing experience, don't we?

  Mark Ort:

  50:13-50:17

  I was at the Grand Canyon in the year 2000.

  Mark Ort:

  50:17-50:20

  I took an eight-day whitewater raft trip through there.

  Mark Ort:

  50:20-50:28

  Whenever that topic comes up, which amazingly for me, the Grand Canyon comes up a lot at work or whatever.

  Mark Ort:

  50:28-50:29

  I don't know why, it just comes up.

  Mark Ort:

  50:30-50:37

  And I got to tell the story every time it comes up, where, I mean, there were some neat things that happened on that trip.

  Mark Ort:

  50:37-50:40

  I got food poisoning, that's not one of the great things that happened.

  Mark Ort:

  50:41-50:42

  I was sick for a day and a half.

  Mark Ort:

  50:42-50:44

  That's not the thing that I usually relay to people.

  Mark Ort:

  50:45-50:50

  But we were camping one night on these ledges.

  Mark Ort:

  50:51-50:54

  And when you're in the, I don't know, has anybody been in on the floor of the Grand Canyon?

  Mark Ort:

  50:56-50:57

  You've been on the floor of the Grand Canyon?

  Mark Ort:

  50:57-50:58

  Is it amazing?

  Mark Ort:

  50:59-51:00

  It's amazing.

  Mark Ort:

  51:00-51:03

  You see pictures of it and stuff, there's a picture on your bulletin of it.

  Mark Ort:

  51:03-51:05

  The Grand Canyon is a spectacle, it is amazing.

  Mark Ort:

  51:06-51:25

  But I'm on the floor of the Grand Canyon on this whitewater raft trip, and we're about three, four, I don't know, halfway through, and we were camping on some pretty dangerous rocks where the ledges, we got out of the boat and you had to like climb up these ledges.

  Mark Ort:

  51:26-51:32

  And they were about this wide and maybe eight foot long.

  Mark Ort:

  51:32-51:34

  And everybody in the boat had to pick a ledge.

  Mark Ort:

  51:35-51:38

  My particular ledge was not big enough to put a tent on.

  Mark Ort:

  51:39-51:42

  And it didn't matter to me because I'm sleeping out under the stars every night.

  Mark Ort:

  51:43-51:48

  I wanna see the stars at the Grand Canyon because you know what there's not at the Grand Canyon?

  Mark Ort:

  51:48-51:49

  There are no 7-Elevens.

  Mark Ort:

  51:50-51:52

  There are no lights.

  Mark Ort:

  51:52-51:55

  There's no telephone poles or telephone lines.

  Mark Ort:

  51:56-52:00

  There's no cell phone reception at the Grand Canyon.

  Mark Ort:

  52:01-52:04

  And so it was me and God.

  Mark Ort:

  52:05-52:07

  And I didn't want the tent blocking that out.

  Mark Ort:

  52:08-52:09

  And so every night I slept out under the stars.

  Mark Ort:

  52:10-52:14

  And this particular night, there was not enough room for some of the people to have tents.

  Mark Ort:

  52:15-52:22

  And I just rolled out my sleeping bag I'm laying there and all of a sudden the lightning started to flash way off in the distance.

  Mark Ort:

  52:23-52:24

  And I could hear the thunder coming.

  Mark Ort:

  52:26-52:39

  And as the thunderstorm got closer, you know, my first thought was not, "I'm gonna get soaked." I'm thinking, "Let it rain, like, just let it come. I don't care." It never did rain.

  Mark Ort:

  52:39-52:51

  But as I'm standing there on this ledge and the thunder would come, These lightning flashes would peel across the sky, and the thunder would start to rumble at one end of the canyon.

  Mark Ort:

  52:52-52:56

  And as it came down the canyon, it was like a freight train.

  Mark Ort:

  52:57-52:58

  Like literally like a freight train.

  Mark Ort:

  52:59-53:01

  And it's like pounding against my chest.

  Mark Ort:

  53:02-53:06

  It's like "vrooom" pounding against my chest, and then I could hear it go away.

  Mark Ort:

  53:08-53:09

  And then another one would come.

  Mark Ort:

  53:09-53:14

  And I'm standing there with my hands wide open like this, and I'm feeling, I'm just feeling it.

  Mark Ort:

  53:15-53:20

  I'm experiencing the brunt of this thunder pounding against my chest.

  Mark Ort:

  53:23-53:25

  And I got to tell everybody about that story.

  Mark Ort:

  53:25-53:31

  And you know, me telling that story, it doesn't convey it as the same way as if you were there.

  Mark Ort:

  53:32-53:38

  Just to be there and feel that emotion and look up at the sky and say, God, you are awesome.

  Mark Ort:

  53:39-53:40

  You are amazing.

  Mark Ort:

  53:41-53:46

  to let me feel that, to let me experience one of your storms in this way.

  Mark Ort:

  53:47-53:48

  It was just, it was unbelievable.

  Mark Ort:

  53:52-53:59

  When you experience something that awesome, then you wanna like stop people and say, "Wait, hold it, stop.

  Mark Ort:

  53:59-54:01

  "I gotta tell you about this.

  Mark Ort:

  54:02-54:08

  "I'm gonna shout it to you." And that's what David was doing here.

  Mark Ort:

  54:08-54:18

  And there's different verses here that tell us how David tells, how he communicates to others this greatness of God.

  Mark Ort:

  54:19-54:22

  And I had never seen this in here until I studied it this week.

  Mark Ort:

  54:22-54:25

  But in verse four, we're gonna jump back to verse four.

  Mark Ort:

  54:26-54:36

  "One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts." To declare here, we see praise here being relayed from generation to generation.

  Mark Ort:

  54:37-54:40

  telling their kids and their kids telling their kids and so on.

  Mark Ort:

  54:41-54:43

  But I see it the other way too.

  Mark Ort:

  54:44-54:47

  Kids can tell their parents and their parents and then tell their grandparents.

  Mark Ort:

  54:48-54:51

  It's kind of neat having generational conversation here.

  Mark Ort:

  54:53-54:59

  This declare here is pronouncing or proclaiming to make known.

  Mark Ort:

  55:00-55:03

  It's kind of like, hey, I have an announcement to make.

  Mark Ort:

  55:04-55:05

  Can I have your attention please?

  Mark Ort:

  55:05-55:07

  I have an announcement I need to make.

  Mark Ort:

  55:07-55:11

  I need to declare something to you is basically what this word means here.

  Mark Ort:

  55:13-55:20

  And in verses five and seven, five through seven, we talked about on the glorious splendor of thy majesty and wonderful works, we're gonna meditate.

  Mark Ort:

  55:21-55:26

  And men shall speak of thy power, of thine awesome acts, and I will tell of thy greatness.

  Mark Ort:

  55:27-55:32

  They shall eagerly utter the memory of thine abundant goodness and shall shout joyfully at thy righteousness.

  Mark Ort:

  55:34-55:36

  You see all these different words here.

  Mark Ort:

  55:36-55:37

  Men shall speak.

  Mark Ort:

  55:38-55:41

  This is a telling or a commanding with authority.

  Mark Ort:

  55:42-55:49

  It's actually the same Hebrew word as whenever God said in the beginning of Genesis.

  Mark Ort:

  55:49-55:58

  When God said, "Let there be light," He didn't suggest, "Hey, how about some light here?" He was commanding light.

  Mark Ort:

  55:58-56:00

  He was commanding with authority.

  Mark Ort:

  56:00-56:02

  And that's what this word is here.

  Mark Ort:

  56:03-56:04

  It's to tell or command with authority.

  Mark Ort:

  56:05-56:06

  It's a common word actually in the Old Testament.

  Mark Ort:

  56:07-56:15

  And this is kind of the kind of speaking that we're referring to actually in the first of our four Harvest Bible Chapel Pillars.

  Mark Ort:

  56:17-56:20

  Proclaiming the authority of God's word without apology.

  Mark Ort:

  56:22-56:25

  It's a proclamation, it's telling.

  Mark Ort:

  56:26-56:28

  It's telling of God's awesome acts and his greatness.

  Mark Ort:

  56:29-56:30

  And I love this eagerly utter.

  Mark Ort:

  56:31-56:35

  It means to gush out or bubble over or flow like a waterfall.

  Mark Ort:

  56:37-56:39

  And we were at Niagara Falls recently.

  Mark Ort:

  56:40-56:44

  Many of you have seen the Niagara Falls in person and you'll all that water gushing over there.

  Mark Ort:

  56:45-56:46

  That's what this is.

  Mark Ort:

  56:47-56:48

  There's no reason to hide God's greatness.

  Mark Ort:

  56:49-56:51

  We can gush God's greatness out.

  Mark Ort:

  56:51-56:53

  There's no reason why we have to hold it in.

  Mark Ort:

  56:54-57:05

  When we see God's beauty and his magnificence and his majesty, we will gush forth like a waterfall, like David did here with praise and worship and adoration.

  Mark Ort:

  57:06-57:08

  And there's another word in here, shout.

  Mark Ort:

  57:09-57:11

  Shout joyfully of thy righteousness.

  Mark Ort:

  57:12-57:15

  It's another action word from David that means cry out.

  Mark Ort:

  57:16-57:18

  And remember, this is a crescendo, right?

  Mark Ort:

  57:19-57:22

  We're crying out in worship and praise.

  Mark Ort:

  57:22-57:24

  We're crying out loud, loudly.

  Mark Ort:

  57:26-57:32

  And then in verse 11, They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power.

  Mark Ort:

  57:33-57:37

  This speak and talk and make known, this is kind of like just everyday conversation.

  Mark Ort:

  57:40-57:46

  It's normal flow of the day and you're discussing, you're explaining, revealing.

  Mark Ort:

  57:47-57:50

  The actual to make known is like arranging in order.

  Mark Ort:

  57:51-57:53

  It's arranging something in a logical order.

  Mark Ort:

  57:53-57:56

  So it's kind of like apologetics when you're sharing a gospel with somebody.

  Mark Ort:

  57:57-58:00

  It's not this random quoting of Bible verses.

  Mark Ort:

  58:00-58:02

  You kind of have a methodology to it.

  Mark Ort:

  58:02-58:07

  And it's with the intent or the purpose of instructing or understanding.

  Mark Ort:

  58:07-58:16

  You're explaining, you're in normal everyday conversation with the purpose for the recipients understanding.

  Mark Ort:

  58:17-58:19

  That's what this speak and talk and make known is referring to.

  Mark Ort:

  58:20-58:24

  And we'll close with verse 21.

  Mark Ort:

  58:25-58:38

  He says, "My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord and all flesh will bless thee, his holy name forever and ever." And here it is, remember David was taking this personal, this was David's personal thing.

  Mark Ort:

  58:38-58:46

  This is me, my, my mouth, my God, I will, remember that?

  Mark Ort:

  58:47-58:49

  My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord.

  Mark Ort:

  58:50-58:56

  Whatever anybody else is doing or saying, They might even be silent, but I will not.

  Mark Ort:

  58:57-58:58

  I will not be silent.

  Mark Ort:

  58:59-59:01

  I will praise God as long as I have breath.

  Mark Ort:

  59:03-59:04

  I am not gonna stop.

  Mark Ort:

  59:05-59:07

  And let us fix our minds on this.

  Mark Ort:

  59:07-59:08

  We don't need to be ashamed of that.

  Mark Ort:

  59:10-59:12

  We don't need to be ashamed of speaking the praise of the Lord.

  Mark Ort:

  59:14-59:21

  And word of mouth is often the best advertisement, right?

  Mark Ort:

  59:22-59:31

  I had a friend who was coming to Pittsburgh that lived in Cincinnati, and she asked me, "What's there to do in Pittsburgh?" I'm thinking, "What's there to do in Pittsburgh?

  Mark Ort:

  59:31-59:37

  "Pittsburgh's a great place, let me just tell you." And so I started to advertise Pittsburgh.

  Mark Ort:

  59:38-59:46

  You know, I said, "Oh man, you gotta go "to the Phipps Conservatory, "beautiful flowers and stuff like that." I didn't have to tell her to go to the Pirate Game, she was going to the Pirate Game.

  Mark Ort:

  59:47-59:52

  You know, you tell people, "You gotta go see the Bucs." I mean, they have pierogi races and everything.

  Mark Ort:

  59:53-59:54

  You know, you get the pirate game.

  Mark Ort:

  59:55-59:57

  I mean, and I told her, you gotta go on the incline.

  Mark Ort:

  59:58-01:00:00

  You can't come to Pittsburgh and not go on the incline.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:01-01:00:02

  And she did, she went on the incline.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:02-01:00:03

  She says, Mark, that was a great tip.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:04-01:00:05

  I love the incline.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:05-01:00:06

  Pittsburgh's a beautiful city.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:07-01:00:11

  She came by way of the parkway, and there's no city, no city.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:11-01:00:14

  You go through the tunnel, boom, Pittsburgh.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:15-01:00:17

  It's like one of the most breathtaking sights.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:18-01:00:20

  I was advertising Pittsburgh to her.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:22-01:00:26

  And not that I'm comparing Pittsburgh to heaven or anything like that.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:26-01:00:35

  But when we're excited about something and we talk about it, the word gets around, right?

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:38-01:00:42

  So Psalm 145 gives us a proper view of God.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:43-01:00:49

  It's showing us clearly who God is by the revealing of His character, what He is, who He is.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:51-01:00:54

  And as a result, we're able to pray better.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:55-01:00:57

  It enhances our prayers in praise.

  Mark Ort:

  01:00:58-01:00:59

  We're able to praise Him rightly.

  Mark Ort:

  01:01:01-01:01:05

  In our response, tell it to the world.

  Mark Ort:

  01:01:07-01:01:08

  Declare His excellencies.

  Mark Ort:

  01:01:10-01:01:11

  Tell people about it.

  Mark Ort:

  01:01:13-01:01:19

  Let's your mouth praise God privately and publicly.

  Mark Ort:

  01:01:20-01:01:25

  Remember, we're reciting those attributes of God and he gets the glory from that.

  Mark Ort:

  01:01:26-01:01:27

  Let's pray.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Psalm 145

1. What did you learn about the character of God in this passage that you did not know before?
    

2. What aspects of your prayer life need to change in light of Psalm 145?
    

3. Is it important or necessary to recite God's attributes back to Him in our prayers?
    

4. How does Psalm 145 affect your evangelism? Who do you need to talk to specifically and what will you tell them?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!

Homework:
Write your own four or five sentence prayer of exultation and post it on the refrigerator as a reminder to praise God! Maybe even start your own prayer and praise journal.
Read 1 Kings 8 (prayer for the temple)

Greatest Love of All

Guest Speaker: Eric Posteluk

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK

• Audio Transcript

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:00-00:15

  speaker today. This is Pastor Eric Posteluk. He has been a dear brother, a friend, encourager in the Lord. He is from Harvest Bible Chapel, Joliet. How many people know where Joliet is?

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:16-00:57

  How many people know where Joliet is because of the Blues Brothers? Okay, I appreciate your honesty. And I actually interned with Pastor Eric after I graduated from the Harvest Training Center to train to plant the Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North because Joliet is very similar to Pittsburgh in the demographic and and the people and just had a real privilege to serve with him. And Eric is He is a man of humility, and a man of prayer, and a man of really deep spiritual insight because he walks with the Lord.

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:57-01:09

  And this past January at the pastor retreat in Orlando, we got to talking about some things that the Lord was teaching him in his personal walk.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:11-01:17

  And I said, "Man, I would love to have you come and share those things with our church." And he graciously accepted our invitation.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:17-01:21

  So let's give a warm Pittsburgh welcome to Eric Posteluk.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:29-01:30

  Good morning.

  Pastor Eric:

  01:30-01:30

  Good morning.

  Pastor Eric:

  01:32-01:36

  Go ahead and open up your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 15.

  Pastor Eric:

  01:37-01:38

  Mark Chapter 15.

  Pastor Eric:

  01:39-03:25

  And while you're doing that, I just want to let you know that I really appreciate your pastor, Pastor Jeff. When I think of your pastor, I really think about a man who is very patient. I'm sure if you know him, you know he's a very patient guy, very humble, teachable. And the thing that has been abundantly clear to me as I've been out here and I've talked to him in the past is how much he loves each and every one of you. He said, "I can't imagine being anywhere else than right here and these are the people that I love these are the people that I want to do life with so and I just I've heard about the way that you all have sacrificed and you're serving the Lord and I just I want you to be encouraged that your labor is not in vain God sees what you do the Bible says that every good deed will be rewarded by God Ephesians 6 8 just know the Lord sees what you're doing blessing upon blessing is coming and greater and greater fruitfulness is going to come in and through this church so be encouraged but I'm glad to be here and I want to ask you all to bow your heads with me I know that this is a different setting than normal but God doesn't he's not restricted by rules if God wants to show up he's gonna show up and I want nothing more this morning than for God himself to show up so the best way to usher in his presence is to begin by prayer so bow your heads with me and let's pray.

  Pastor Eric:

  03:29-03:33

  Father each and every one of us want to humble ourselves before you right now.

  Pastor Eric:

  03:35-03:43

  We acknowledge God that you're great and we are not. You are holy, holy, holy.

  Pastor Eric:

  03:47-04:02

  Father, we pray that you would remove every distraction. Father, I pray for humble hearts. I pray for focused minds. I pray for pliable wills.

  Pastor Eric:

  04:03-04:16

  And God, I ask that you would speak specifically to each and every individual here this morning. And Lord I ask that you would use me as your vessel of blessing.

  Pastor Eric:

  04:17-04:30

  Encourage this church God. Get their eyes on you like never before. We pray this in Jesus name and all of God's people said amen.

  Pastor Eric:

  04:32-05:27

  In my experience there's a huge percentage of people that think the Bible is mainly about what you do. What you do for God, what you do for other people, what you do for yourself. The Bible is mainly about what you do. And I'm going to tell you this morning that is completely wrong. The Bible is not mainly about what you do. In fact, if you approach the Bible thinking that it's mainly about what you do, it's going to lead you to two places. It's going to lead you to despair over your failure or it's going to lead you to arrogance as you deceive yourself into thinking you're actually living it out because nobody lives it out. Only God is perfect, not us.

  Pastor Eric:

  05:28-08:13

  The Bible is not mainly about what you do. The Bible is mainly about what's been done for you. The entire Bible has one central message. It's the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. I want you to think of the Bible as like there's a lot of commandments in the Bible. Do this, don't do this, do this, do it this way, don't do it this way. Those are like spokes on a wheel. A lot of people have a bunch of spokes in their hands. But unless you have the hubcap of the gospel that connects all the spokes together, you're not going to have a functioning wheel and it's not going to take you where you need to go. You need to understand that the central message of the entire Bible is the gospel. What Jesus Christ has done for you. Now the gospel centralizes on the crucifixion, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It's interesting that the whole Bible is leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. We're going to be looking at the book of Mark. We're at the very end of Mark and the whole book of Mark has been leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus this is the main event Jesus told us it was the main event Mark chapter 10 verse 45 Jesus says for even a son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many I want you to understand something this morning the more clearly you see what Jesus has done for you on the cross The more clearly you'll see God's love for you and the more passionately you'll want to live for Jesus. You see when you see what Jesus has done for you on the cross it changes everything. You might be here this morning and you're half here. You're yawning on the inside. You're thinking okay I'm gonna hear a little more about the Bible and then I got whatever's going on in the afternoon. The reason why that's your attitude is because you don't see the cross. When you see the cross, when you are gripped by the crucifixion of Jesus, changes everything. Your whole life will be changed. You will never be the same and you can't live the same. You don't just come to church to hear a few nice things about the Bible to learn how to be a nicer person. No, no, no, no. When you see the cross everything changes.

  Pastor Eric:

  08:15-09:07

  Now the passage that we're going to look at this morning is in the book of Mark and I want to help put it into context so you can understand where it is. Right now Jewish people from around the ancient Near East have all taken a pilgrimage into the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. They came to celebrate the Passover and there's thousands upon thousands upon thousands of extra people in the ancient city of Jerusalem. It's kind of a carnival atmosphere. Extra people, extra food, people lodging and camped out all over the place. And along with these thousands and thousands of Jews is Jesus and his 12 disciples. They came to celebrate the Passover as well.

  Pastor Eric:

  09:09-09:30

  Now while Jesus is celebrating the Passover he's betrayed by Judas and then he's seized by a mob. He's condemned by the religious leaders of the nation and And then he's sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor.

  Pastor Eric:

  09:31-09:41

  There were three primary sins that literally put Jesus on the cross. The greed of Judas, he wanted money.

  Pastor Eric:

  09:43-09:50

  The envy of the religious leaders, they were jealous of Jesus. He was taking away their popularity.

  Pastor Eric:

  09:50-09:53

  They wanted the attention. Look at me, not him.

  Pastor Eric:

  09:54-10:24

  Kill him and there was the fear of others by Pontius Pilate He didn't want to kill Jesus, but he was afraid of the mobs. And so he submitted to their wicked pleas So Pontius Pilate Says send him away to crucify him, but before Jesus was crucified Pilot had him scourged or flogged.

  Pastor Eric:

  10:25-10:27

  Now what was flogging?

  Pastor Eric:

  10:28-10:40

  Flogging in the ancient world was such a horrific event that it was illegal for a woman to witness it. All women had to go. A man's about to be flogged.

  Pastor Eric:

  10:41-10:44

  All females out of the entire area.

  Pastor Eric:

  10:45-10:45

  Why?

  Pastor Eric:

  10:47-10:53

  Absolutely horrific, gruesome, torturous, what Jesus is about to go through.

  Pastor Eric:

  10:54-10:59

  When someone was flogged, they would take off all of their clothing.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:01-11:04

  So Jesus would have had all of his clothing completely removed.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:05-11:08

  And then they would tie their arms around a post.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:08-11:13

  What that would do is it would stretch the skin on your back tight and your muscles.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:14-11:19

  But what made flogging so horrific was the whips that were used.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:20-11:23

  These whips had multiple throngs on them.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:24-11:29

  And on the throngs, there were metal balls and sharp pieces of bone.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:31-11:42

  And the trained Roman soldiers would begin to whip Jesus and they would get him across the back and the buttocks and the back of his thighs.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:42-11:46

  And the metal balls would act like meat tenderizers.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:47-11:54

  they would begin to cause bruising and deep bruising all the way into the back of Jesus, even popping through the skin.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:54-12:02

  And then the sharp bone would literally shred through his skin, his muscle, all the way down to his skeletal muscles.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:02-12:05

  This is what Jesus was experiencing.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:05-12:08

  It was absolutely horrific.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:10-12:20

  Now, after they got done flogging Jesus, he would have gone into what's known as hypovolemic shock because of all of the blood he would have lost.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:21-12:26

  What happens is when you lose that much blood, your heart begins to beat rapidly.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:27-12:36

  And this would have caused Jesus to be faint and dizzy, and it would have ravaged him with thirst, and his kidneys would have begun to fail.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:37-12:40

  Now, he's been flawed.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:41-12:47

  The most horrific thing we could probably imagine a person going through.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:47-12:55

  None of us have probably suffered anywhere close to that, but that's just the beginning of the pain Jesus is going to go through.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:56-13:00

  Right after being flogged, they send him away to be crucified.

  Pastor Eric:

  13:02-13:14

  Jesus was led out of the city of Jerusalem to a place called Golgotha by four Roman soldiers and one centurion. That was what was called an execution squad.

  Pastor Eric:

  13:14-13:20

  Five of them, one being a centurion, who normally oversaw 100 soldiers.

  Pastor Eric:

  13:21-13:25

  Now you need to understand something about crucifixion.

  Pastor Eric:

  13:26-13:53

  In the ancient world, it was widely believed to be the worst possible way a human being could die. And when you understand the purpose of it, that makes a lot more sense. You see, crucifixion was designed to be that way. The Roman government had one purpose with crucifixion.

  Pastor Eric:

  13:54-13:56

  They wanted to terrorize.

  Pastor Eric:

  13:57-13:59

  They wanted to horrify.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:01-14:12

  They wanted to terrorize the victim being crucified, and they wanted to terrorize every other person who observed the crucifixion.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:12-14:21

  In fact, you may not be aware of this, they purposely crucified people in public places so as many people as possible could see them.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:23-14:29

  It was common for a person who'd been crucified to live in that state for two to three days.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:30-14:31

  Common practice crucifixion.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:32-14:40

  Because they wanted to terrorize you, they not only wanted to do it physically, but they wanted to do it emotionally, so they took off all of your clothing.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:41-14:50

  They wanted you to be humiliated in front of everyone, and what's more humiliating than being chilled without clothing?

  Pastor Eric:

  14:50-14:53

  So most likely, that's what they did to Jesus.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:55-14:57

  They laid him on the cross beam.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:58-15:06

  They stretched out his arms, and they would have taken spikes that were like railroad spikes, five to seven inches long, and they would have driven them through his wrist.

  Pastor Eric:

  15:06-15:14

  You see a lot of paintings where the spikes in the hand, it wouldn't have worked that way because the spike would tear right through the hand.

  Pastor Eric:

  15:14-15:20

  In the wrist, there's bones that would lock the spike into place so that it could not get out.

  Pastor Eric:

  15:20-17:10

  they would drive one spike through both of the feet. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, one of the first things that would have happened to him while they propped up is both of his shoulders would have dislocated. Now I want you to hear what Wayne Graham says as he describes the process of how you actually died on the cross. A criminal who is crucified was essentially forced to inflict upon himself a very slow death by suffocation. When a criminal's arms were outstretched and fastened by nails to the cross, he had to support most of the weight of his body with his arms. The chest cavity would be pulled upward and outward, making it difficult to exhale in order to be able to draw a fresh breath. But when the victim's longing for oxygen became unbearable, he would have to push up with his feet thus giving more natural support to the weight of his body releasing some of the weight from his arms and enabling his chest cavity to contract more normally by pushing himself upward in this way the criminal could fend off suffocation but it was extremely painful because it required putting the body's weight on the nails holding the feet and bending the elbows and pulling upward on the nails driven through the wrists the criminals back which had been torn open repeatedly by the previous flogging would scrape against the wooden cross with each breath now I want you to understand as we open up the passage this morning.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:12-17:15

  This is where Jesus is at right now.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:16-17:27

  If you just open the Bible and you didn't have that background, you wouldn't begin to see the cross as clearly as you could now.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:27-17:29

  This is what he's experiencing right now.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:30-17:32

  Look in your Bibles, Chapter 15, verse 33.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:34-17:41

  And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:42-17:45

  You see it says the sixth hour had come.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:46-17:54

  The sixth hour was noon, because according to those days, your day began at 6 a.m.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:55-17:58

  So the sixth hour is 12 noon.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:58-18:01

  So from 12 noon until the ninth hour, which would be what?

  Pastor Eric:

  18:02-18:05

  3 p.m. 12 noon to 3 p.m.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:05-18:07

  there was darkness across the whole land.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:09-18:15

  Now darkness in scripture represents grieving over sin.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:16-18:19

  Amos chapter 8 verses 9 and 10 point that out.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:20-18:29

  I think the darkness that's occurring here is representing God's displeasure with what's happening to his beloved son.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:31-18:41

  God sees the sin of humanity, killing the only innocent person who's ever lived on earth, and he hates it.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:42-18:47

  He despises what's happening, and so darkness covers the land.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:47-18:51

  But darkness in scripture also represents the wrath of God.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:53-19:17

  You remember Moses and Aaron, and God called Moses to lead the people out of slavery and into the promised land. Pharaoh would not listen. He hardened his heart and God began to pour out his wrath on the Egyptians. And one of the judgments from God was that darkness would cover the land for three days.

  Pastor Eric:

  19:18-19:31

  I want you to understand something that you've maybe probably never pondered all that deeply and I want to help you ponder it more deeply than you may have ever before.

  Pastor Eric:

  19:32-20:07

  The most horrifying thing about Jesus being on the cross was not that he had been flogged, beaten, spit upon, mocked, repeatedly striked in the head, hit with reeds, and nailed to a cross, humiliated, as terrible as all of those things were, none of that was the most horrific thing. The most horrific thing for Jesus was that he had to face the wrath of God himself on the cross.

  Pastor Eric:

  20:11-21:49

  In verse 34 we see Jesus verbally responding to this. Look at verse 34, "And And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lemme se bakthani," which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Now as we study the Gospel of Mark, we understand that just the day before this happened, Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, before Judas came and betrayed him to the mob. While Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, the Bible tells us that he repeatedly pleaded with God. He said, "God, if there's any other way, please take this cup from me. I don't want to have to face the cross. If there's any other way your work can be done, please don't make me go to the cross." The Bible says that Jesus was so distressed, he was in such anguish that in the garden of Gethsemane that while he was pleading blood literally dripped from his face and lest you think that that is ancient people trying to be poetic it's a medical condition that you can look up on the internet when you are in tremendous distress and anguish the blood vessels begin to thin and your blood literally can sweat out of the pores of your face.

  Pastor Eric:

  21:53-21:57

  Why was Jesus so horrified?

  Pastor Eric:

  21:59-22:07

  Why was he at a point that he pleaded, "Oh God, please, not the cross!" Why would he sweat blood from his face?

  Pastor Eric:

  22:08-22:12

  He wasn't so horrified because of facing the wrath of man.

  Pastor Eric:

  22:14-22:20

  He was so horrified because he had to face the wrath of God himself.

  Pastor Eric:

  22:22-22:24

  Why did he have to face the wrath of God himself?

  Pastor Eric:

  22:25-22:29

  Because he had to bear the sins of the world.

  Pastor Eric:

  22:31-22:33

  Now many people, you've been hearing that your whole life.

  Pastor Eric:

  22:34-22:36

  Jesus died on the cross for my sins.

  Pastor Eric:

  22:36-22:38

  He died on the cross for my sins.

  Pastor Eric:

  22:38-23:26

  knows that. A lot of people don't even understand what that means. What does it mean that he had to bear the sins of the world? Listen, when Jesus was on the cross and he had to bear the wrath of God for the sins of the world, he was being treated by God as though he was the worst liar, the worst thief, the worst gossip, the worst adulterer, the worst child molester, the worst murderer that the world had ever known. The wrath of God was being poured out on him as though he had committed all of those sins himself.

  Pastor Eric:

  23:28-25:19

  Now we all know what it's like to feel guilty. We all know what it's like to be caught doing something we shouldn't have been doing. I've been caught but it's even worse when you're doing something you're not supposed to do and you're caught by the very person you're sitting against. I remember when I was a young boy I had a cousin named Richie I was really close to him and I was with some friends and Richie wasn't there and I decided to start making fun of him behind his back and I was backstabbing him and getting everybody to mock him and laugh at him and while I was talking about my cousin he walked in behind me he heard everything I was saying and when I turned around and saw him I was immediately filled with guilt in shame. It felt like somebody took poison and injected every vein of my body with it. I just, I could, I could feel how guilty I was in that moment. You understand what I mean? God gave all of us a conscience and we understand what it's like to feel guilty. You can know you're guilty, but there's an actual physical feeling of feeling guilty. Now when Jesus is bearing the wrath of God on the cross, he's not feeling the guilt for one person's sins.

  Pastor Eric:

  25:19-25:41

  He's feeling the guilt for the sins of the whole world on him emotionally and he's not just feeling the guilt for sinning against another person he's feeling the guilt for sinning against God himself.

  Pastor Eric:

  25:43-27:05

  You see when Jesus is on the God is literally relating to him as though he personally committed all of these sins and it's emotionally terrorizing him because the holy pure fiery eyes of God are peering deep into his soul and he's laid bare before God with no excuse, no way to justify anything. He just feels horrible. One commentator describes this, "Jesus became the object of intense hatred of sin and vengeance against sin which God had patiently stored up since the beginning of the world. God had not simply forgiven sin and forgotten about the punishment in generations past. He had forgiven sins and stored up his righteous anger against those sins. But at the cross, the fury of all that stored up wrath against sin was unleashed against God's own Son.

  Pastor Eric:

  27:08-27:20

  As God's own Son, Jesus had lived for all eternity in constant intimacy and love with God the Father.

  Pastor Eric:

  27:23-27:30

  God the Son had never even experienced an ounce of displeasure from God the Father.

  Pastor Eric:

  27:33-27:43

  But on the cross, Jesus' best friend, in a moment, became his worst enemy.

  Pastor Eric:

  27:49-27:59

  Imagine, back to when you were seven years old, if you had a friend who had invited you to spend the night at their home.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:02-28:09

  And in the morning you got up, they gave you some food, and you got in the car and began to drive back to your home.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:10-28:16

  While your friend's mother was driving you, they were in a terrible car accident.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:18-28:18

  The mother died.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:19-28:23

  Your friend was severely injured and you're severely injured as well.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:23-28:25

  You're only seven years old.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:25-28:27

  You don't even know what hit you at the moment.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:30-28:37

  Now imagine waiting there, seeing all the sirens, the broken glass, the terror that you would feel at that moment.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:39-28:55

  Imagine they called your mother and your mom walks up to the car and looks in your eyes filled with terror and she looks at you and says, I hate you.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:57-28:59

  I can't stand you.

  Pastor Eric:

  29:00-29:02

  You disgust me.

  Pastor Eric:

  29:02-29:05

  I wish you were never born.

  Pastor Eric:

  29:12-29:26

  If you can feel the emotional terror A seven-year-old would feel at that moment to be told by his or her mother that they hate him.

  Pastor Eric:

  29:27-29:44

  In that moment of greatest vulnerability, you are getting just a tiny glimmer of what it feels like for Jesus to have God the Father hate him for the sins of the world.

  Pastor Eric:

  29:50-29:56

  He's bearing the sins of the world and he's being forsaken by God the Father.

  Pastor Eric:

  29:57-30:01

  His best friend is now his worst enemy.

  Pastor Eric:

  30:03-30:08

  After bearing the wrath of God longer and longer, Jesus quotes Psalm 22.

  Pastor Eric:

  30:09-30:39

  He says in Aramaic, "Iloi, iloi, lemme se bakthani." Which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Now Jesus clearly knew that he was gonna be forsaken by God, but in his humanity, he probably didn't understand how long he would have to endure being forsaken by God.

  Pastor Eric:

  30:39-30:53

  And if you understand the context of Psalm 22, it's as though Jesus is saying, "How long is it going to last?

  Pastor Eric:

  30:55-31:19

  God, how long is your wrath going to continue to be poured out on me?" You see, when Jesus was on the cross, millions upon millions upon millions upon millions sins were on his shoulders and he was being treated as though he committed all of those facing the wrath of God.

  Pastor Eric:

  31:21-31:28

  I remember when I was a little boy, I saw an electric fence.

  Pastor Eric:

  31:30-31:31

  I think I was five.

  Pastor Eric:

  31:31-31:42

  And I grabbed a hold of that electric fence and I could still to this day feel the electricity shooting through my whole body.

  Pastor Eric:

  31:43-31:47

  And I held on to it maybe for two, three seconds max.

  Pastor Eric:

  31:47-31:50

  It gave me a jolt that I can feel to this day.

  Pastor Eric:

  31:53-32:43

  what it would be like to face the wrath of God for the sins of the whole world for just one minute. And Jesus is facing the wrath of God longer and longer and and longer and longer to the point that he cries out, "God, how long? How long?" Now everyone here knows what it feels like to go through a valley, to enter into a time of great sadness or darkness, a time where you feel lonely and isolated, a time where you're tremendously discouraged and you're battling with depression.

  Pastor Eric:

  32:44-32:46

  Everyone here has faced heartaches.

  Pastor Eric:

  32:48-33:00

  But even in those moments, even in your darkest valleys that you'll ever face, you will never be abandoned by God.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:03-33:08

  God will always be there for you if you know Jesus by faith.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:10-33:13

  And at the end of the day, God will be enough.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:15-33:17

  But it's not the same for Jesus here.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:18-33:25

  He is going through the greatest crisis a human has ever experienced.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:26-33:31

  And he doesn't have God and his comfort at all.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:32-33:46

  In fact, not only is he devoid of God's comfort, God is actively pouring out his hatred on him for the sins of the world.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:48-33:52

  And Jesus did this for you.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:56-34:00

  We face the wrath of God because that's how terrible your sin is.

  Pastor Eric:

  34:03-34:08

  Isaiah 53, 6 says, "All we like sheep have gone astray.

  Pastor Eric:

  34:10-34:13

  We have turned everyone to his own way.

  Pastor Eric:

  34:15-34:25

  And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Look at verse 36, chapter 15.

  Pastor Eric:

  34:27-34:44

  And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.

  Pastor Eric:

  34:46-34:50

  John 19, verse 30 tells us what Jesus said when he cried out.

  Pastor Eric:

  34:52-34:52

  You know what he said?

  Pastor Eric:

  34:53-35:01

  He said, "It is finished." Jesus is dying on the cross.

  Pastor Eric:

  35:01-35:09

  Before he dies, he cries out, "It is finished!" It says he cried out with a loud voice.

  Pastor Eric:

  35:10-35:11

  What was finished?

  Pastor Eric:

  35:12-36:12

  had paid the full price of the wrath of God for your sins. He paid the price for all of your past sins, for all of your present sins, for all of your future sins, so that if you come to Him there is no condemnation, there is no judgment, There is no wrath for you whatsoever. That's what Jesus meant. It is finished. You will never ever ever be condemned Because I paid it all if you come to me Verse 38 and the curtain of the temple was torn in two From top to bottom Now the curtain in the temple had a significant role.

  Pastor Eric:

  36:13-36:18

  It was 30 feet wide, 60 feet high, 2 to 3 inches thick.

  Pastor Eric:

  36:20-36:27

  And the curtain blocked off anyone from entering into the Most Holy Place.

  Pastor Eric:

  36:28-36:32

  The Most Holy Place is also referred to as the Holy of Holies.

  Pastor Eric:

  36:34-36:43

  The Most Holy Place was the part of the Temple that everyone was separated from except one individual, the High Priest.

  Pastor Eric:

  36:44-36:55

  And the High Priest could only enter into the Most Holy Place one time a year, on the Day of Atonement, which is still celebrated to this day.

  Pastor Eric:

  36:55-37:50

  you know Jewish people, they still celebrate the day of Yom Kippur. That was the day when the high priest would enter in to the most holy place. Now look at what it says, "And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." The curtain was not torn in two from bottom to top. That's how man would have done it. The curtain was torn in two from top to bottom because that's how God did it. God tore the curtain in two as a symbol to show everyone that there will no longer be any separation between me and humans if you come to my son Jesus.

  Pastor Eric:

  37:51-38:43

  You understand that when Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden and they said, "God we don't want to do things your way, we want to do things our way," that at that moment a separation occurred from every human being and God. Every single person who's born is born separated from God. That's what it means to be a sinner. The Bible refers to us without Jesus as being spiritually dead, as being in darkness, as being blind. It's separated from the life of God, not having a relationship with God. And that doesn't mean that everybody in this room has a relationship with God. You may be here this morning and you are still separated from God. God would need to show you that.

  Pastor Eric:

  38:44-40:00

  But just because you're at church, just because you've gone to church, just because you find Jesus somewhat interesting doesn't mean that you're still not separated from God himself. Something radical has to occur for that to change. But when God tore the temple from top to bottom, he was saying this, "Every person can enter into my presence and experience an intimate relationship with me that's more real than anything you've ever experienced. And if you know Jesus this morning, I want to encourage you and remind you God has opened up the most holy place for you. He promises that if you would seek him, if you would draw near to him, he'll draw near to you. There are no barriers keeping you from enjoying the presence of God. Jesus has paid for your sins. He has ended the separation. He came to lead you out of darkness and into the light. And you can take full advantage of that. Are you?

  Pastor Eric:

  40:00-40:33

  Are you enjoying the God who paid for all of your sins. Verse 39, "When the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God.' And there were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene and marry the mother of James the younger and of Joses and Salome.

  Pastor Eric:

  40:35-40:37

  When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him.

  Pastor Eric:

  40:38-40:42

  And there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

  Pastor Eric:

  40:43-41:02

  And when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:04-41:06

  Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have died already.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:07-41:11

  And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:12-41:17

  And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:19-41:28

  And Joseph bought a linen shroud and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:29-41:32

  And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:33-41:44

  Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid." I want to give you two takeaways from this message today.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:47-41:52

  Number one, recognize how terrible your sin is.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:56-41:57

  That's a takeaway.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:59-42:12

  Let the terribleness of Jesus suffering on the cross make you face the terribleness of sin that remains in your heart.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:16-42:30

  If you're here this morning and you have never come to Jesus to deal with your sin, I plead with you on behalf of God, come to Him today.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:31-42:35

  There will come a day when you will have to face the wrath of God.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:36-42:39

  It doesn't matter how nice everyone else thinks you are.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:39-42:43

  It doesn't matter how professional you appear to be on the outside.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:43-42:48

  It doesn't matter how much success in this world you feel like you have.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:49-42:51

  All of that is going to go away.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:52-42:53

  You are going to die.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:54-42:56

  You cannot avoid your death.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:56-42:58

  It is inevitable.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:59-43:01

  I don't care how healthy you are.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:01-43:03

  I don't care how safe you are in life.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:03-43:05

  You will die.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:07-43:18

  And when you die, you are going to meet your Creator face to face, and His holy eyes will peer into your soul, and you will have no excuse for your sin.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:20-43:27

  It's easy now to blame your sins on other people, but when you're before God, there will be no excuse.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:28-43:31

  God will see right through every justification.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:32-43:39

  He will show you all the times that you mocked and ridiculed and looked down on people who do the same things you do.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:40-43:48

  He'll show you all the times you felt superior to other people who do the same things you do in private and in your own mind.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:49-43:55

  He will rid you of all your pride and arrogance and bring you low and you'll say, "I have no excuse.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:56-44:07

  I am condemned." You will have to face the wrath of God yourself if you don't come to Jesus to face the wrath of God for you.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:10-44:12

  You don't have to face His wrath though.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:14-44:18

  Jesus paid for all of your sins so that you could be forgiven.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:19-44:22

  Today is the day of salvation, the Bible says.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:22-44:26

  If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:27-44:28

  I don't know what's going on in your hearts.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:29-44:33

  I have no clue what you're thinking right now, what you're feeling, but God knows.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:34-44:37

  God hears your thoughts as clearly as you hear my words.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:39-44:43

  The Bible says man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:44-44:51

  And if God is convicting you right now that you're not right with him, today is the day to come to him.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:52-44:53

  Don't put it off.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:53-44:55

  Tomorrow is not guaranteed to you.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:57-44:59

  You do not know if you will live another day.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:00-45:04

  People say, "Pastor, are you trying to scare us?" I'm trying to tell you reality.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:05-45:10

  Not too long ago at my church, I was talking to a guy right after the service.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:12-45:14

  And as far as I know, he did not know Jesus.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:14-45:16

  He was far from God.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:16-45:18

  It was the first time he had come to our church.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:18-45:20

  The next week I found out he was dead.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:22-45:30

  We were praying, "God, bring this man to you." I had a friend named Jeff in his late 20s, working on his sermon.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:31-45:35

  Late at night, his wife woke up in the morning, he was dead on the floor.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:36-45:38

  He died of a brain aneurysm.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:38-45:39

  Nobody saw it coming.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:40-45:41

  Very healthy.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:41-45:44

  When it's your time to go, that's it.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:44-45:49

  You understand that the only reason why your heart is beating right now is because God is making it beat.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:50-45:52

  You are not generating your life.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:53-45:57

  You do not have the ability to make yourself live.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:57-46:00

  You are utterly contingent upon God.

  Pastor Eric:

  46:03-46:09

  So today, if you don't know Jesus, cry out to him because his grace is coming to you.

  Pastor Eric:

  46:09-46:15

  Receive the forgiveness of sins and be cleansed by his death.

  Pastor Eric:

  46:17-46:22

  And if you're here this morning and you know, Jesus, I have a word for you as well.

  Pastor Eric:

  46:24-46:26

  Are you dealing with your sin Christian?

  Pastor Eric:

  46:30-46:36

  Has God been pointing out some things in your life and have you been ignoring those things?

  Pastor Eric:

  46:38-46:40

  Have you been trying to justify those things?

  Pastor Eric:

  46:40-46:43

  Have you been telling lies to get around it?

  Pastor Eric:

  46:44-47:01

  When you look at Jesus and you see the terribleness of his suffering, it should make you think about the terribleness of your sin. Why would I want to play around with sin when Jesus had to go through all of that for me? How can I take any sin lightly?

  Pastor Eric:

  47:02-47:25

  How can I allow my mind to be bitter toward another person and hate them? How can I gossip and slander against other people? How can I click on that website and give in to lust? How can I flirt with that person and play around with an adulterous relationship is God putting things on your heart?

  Pastor Eric:

  47:27-47:27

  You know if he is.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:28-47:28

  That's not me.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:28-47:29

  That's God.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:29-47:31

  Is he bringing things to mind right now?

  Pastor Eric:

  47:33-47:34

  Are you willing to deal with it?

  Pastor Eric:

  47:35-47:40

  When you look at the cross, when you really see the cross, you'll deal with it.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:43-47:45

  Because Jesus had to be killed for your sin.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:46-47:48

  You should be willing to kill all of your sin.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:50-47:57

  Number two, recognize how great God's love is for you.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:59-48:01

  I wonder if you see it this morning.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:03-48:05

  Do you see how great God's love is for you?

  Pastor Eric:

  48:09-48:14

  Don't say, "I wonder if God loves me." Don't say, "I'm not sure does God loves me.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:14-48:18

  I wonder if he loves me." Don't say that.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:18-48:19

  Here's what I want to encourage you.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:20-48:21

  Look at the cross.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:22-48:23

  Look at the cross.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:24-48:26

  He showed you how much he loves you.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:27-48:36

  He not only was beat and whipped and mocked and ridiculed and nailed to the cross, he bore the wrath of God for you.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:37-48:38

  He loves you.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:39-48:39

  Do you see?

  Pastor Eric:

  48:40-48:47

  He's paid the full price so that you can be with him forever and ever and ever.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:48-48:51

  So you don't have to question if God loves you.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:51-48:52

  Of course He loves you.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:53-48:54

  It's the cross.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:54-48:58

  That's why the cross is central in all of Christianity.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:58-48:59

  That's why people wear crosses.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:00-49:02

  That's why we have crosses in churches.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:02-49:08

  We want you to be reminded that God loves you in spite of your sin.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:09-49:12

  He loves you in spite of your sin.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:13-49:16

  He didn't expect you to clean your life up and get it all perfect.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:16-49:53

  No, he came and sought after you when your life was dirty and filthy and he paid for it all So that you could have his love in the fullest The cross is a window into the heart of God Where you see his love most vividly you don't see the love of God any more clearly than on the cross the crucifixion of Jesus shouts with the loudest voice through the loudest speakers in the universe.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:54-49:57

  God loves you.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:59-50:02

  God loves you.

  Pastor Eric:

  50:04-50:04

  Let's pray.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 15:33-41

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.