Guest Speaker

Grace in the Garden

Introduction / Context:


Romans 1:21-22 - "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools..."

Ephesians 5:25 - "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..."

5 Examples of Grace Displayed at the Fall (Genesis 3):

  1. Grace is Exclusively for Humans. (Gen 3:14)
  2. Grace promises Ultimate Victory. (Gen 3:15)
  3. 1 Corinthians 15:57 - "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

  4. Grace permits Continued Creation. (Gen 3:16)
  5. Grace leaves us Frustratingly Fallen. (Gen 3:17-19)
  6. Grace gives Accessible Life. (Gen 3:22-24)
  7. 2 Corinthians 5:17 - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

    Revelation 22:14 - "Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates."

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

  • 00:42-00:43

    I did, yeah, it's awesome.

    01:19-01:21

    (applause)

    01:26-01:31

    So thank you Pastor Jeff, and thank you to the elders for giving me the opportunity to speak today.

    01:32-01:36

    I'll tell you, I was a little intimidated today, all this announcements and all this heavy stuff.

    01:37-01:38

    But let's go to the Word.

    01:38-01:42

    Let's go to God and see what He can teach us today.

    01:42-01:42

    So let's pray.

    01:43-01:46

    Heavenly Father, God, You are awesome.

    01:46-01:54

    And God, even in the midst of hearing about really heavy sin, really dark things in the world, that's inside of us even, God.

    01:56-01:57

    Lord, I know that Your Word has power.

    01:58-02:05

    And as much as You have already won the victory, God, You can win the victory today in us through the power of Your Word, Lord.

    02:05-02:19

    And I pray that You would speak through me, God, that these would be Your words, that My failures, My miscommunication, God, that that would get out of the way, God, and it would be Your Word that is clearly proclaimed in this building, God, as it is every week, Lord.

    02:19-02:25

    And I pray that You would just open our hearts but to learn from your word and to change our lives.

    02:25-02:26

    In your name we pray, amen.

    02:28-02:33

    Well, for those of you that don't know me at all, by education, I'm a mechanical engineer.

    02:34-02:37

    By profession, I work for a Navy contractor.

    02:37-02:39

    I'm a manager currently of an IT group.

    02:40-02:44

    And by hobby, I'm a video gamer, among other things.

    02:44-02:50

    But there's one common theme that is thread through all of those areas of my life, and it's that I hate failure.

    02:50-02:55

    The engineer in me sees failure as imperfection or as inefficiency.

    02:55-02:59

    The manager in me sees failure as wasted time or extra cost.

    03:00-03:06

    And the video gamer in me sees failure as frustration that will just cause me to throw a controller or something like that.

    03:06-03:14

    And I'm definitely not here to be one of those motivational posters that says failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor or some garbage like that.

    03:15-03:17

    No, I hate failure.

    03:17-03:19

    And most people don't like failure.

    03:19-03:21

    I hate failure.

    03:21-03:28

    And I can remember a time in my freshman year of college when I faced the weed-out professor of Grove City's engineering program.

    03:28-03:30

    This guy was ridiculous.

    03:31-03:36

    We would have questions on the test that had nothing to do with anything he spoke or anything that was in the book.

    03:37-03:43

    I remember randomly being graded on my ability to draw a wheelchair in an engineering class.

    03:44-03:45

    What does it have to do with anything?

    03:46-03:49

    So I remember my first exam that I got back from him.

    03:49-03:52

    I came back with a big red 37 on it.

    03:52-03:53

    37?

    03:53-03:54

    Out of what?

    03:54-03:55

    Is that a percent?

    03:56-03:57

    I literally had no idea.

    03:58-03:59

    I didn't know what he graded.

    03:59-04:01

    There were just minuses everywhere on the page.

    04:03-04:07

    I came to find out later that he ended up grading on a curve that I couldn't explain to you today.

    04:07-04:09

    And a 37 ended up being somewhere in the middle of the pack.

    04:10-04:12

    But then nonetheless, a 37 is a failure.

    04:12-04:14

    I don't care what standard you're grading by.

    04:15-04:18

    And I've faced failures in my life.

    04:18-04:20

    I'll continue to face failures in my life.

    04:20-04:23

    But that never lessens my hate for failure.

    04:24-04:32

    So that's the reason that I think God has called me to give you this message about failure and about how God responds to it, because it's a lot different than how we respond to failure.

    04:33-04:35

    So if you haven't already, open up to Genesis 3.

    04:35-04:36

    We're gonna be talking about that.

    04:36-04:39

    But let me give you some of the context of our text.

    04:39-04:45

    I am a Bible teacher, so I have to give you the context before we can just dig into a passage.

    04:46-04:54

    And it's kind of funny, Pastor Jeff, a couple of weeks ago was talking about when we go at Harvest Bible Chapel, we preach through a book verse by verse at a time.

    04:55-04:57

    I intend to do that, but I only get one week.

    04:57-05:02

    And so Jeff even talked about, if I got to pick anything, man, I'd pick grace.

    05:02-05:04

    Well, that's what I did, I picked to talk about grace.

    05:05-05:10

    So Genesis three though, actually records the single greatest failure in all of human history.

    05:11-05:20

    This is when we went from the peak of our existence to the downward spiral that we know today, leading to things as horrible as what the Acervo project is fighting.

    05:21-05:23

    God created everything from nothing.

    05:24-05:25

    He created light from darkness.

    05:25-05:30

    He created order from chaos and fullness from emptiness.

    05:31-05:36

    From the largest galaxy to the smallest atom, God had built and designed a universe of perfection.

    05:38-05:43

    And although it was of no celestial significance, God placed his watchful focus on the earth.

    05:43-05:50

    And although it's not as big as the sky or the sea, God put his special attention on the land.

    05:51-05:58

    And although we're not the biggest or the fastest or the strongest, God showed his extreme favor toward mankind.

    05:59-06:05

    God made the first man, Adam, out of this earth, and he uniquely breathed his own breath into him to give him life.

    06:06-06:11

    God even built on this already perfect earth, a perfect home for Adam.

    06:12-06:12

    That's Eden.

    06:13-06:19

    In the Garden of Eden, the Bible says that it was full of every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

    06:20-06:23

    And God gave Adam one job and one rule.

    06:24-06:27

    Work and keep the garden, just don't eat from one tree.

    06:28-06:36

    But even with this complete purpose and this categorical perfection, God saw and knew that it was not good for man to be alone.

    06:37-06:38

    But God needed Adam to know that too.

    06:39-06:44

    So what God did was he paraded every single animal on the planet in front of Adam so that Adam could name them.

    06:45-06:47

    And through this process, Adam learned two things.

    06:47-06:51

    One, everything on earth has a pair, and two, he did not.

    06:52-06:57

    And so God solved this need of Adam's by creating Adam's match.

    06:57-07:03

    In an even more unique way than the way he created Adam, he created Eve out of Adam's side.

    07:04-07:12

    And it was with the creation of Eve and the marriage of Adam and Eve that caused God to say for the first time, it was very good.

    07:12-07:14

    Every other day of creation, God said it was good.

    07:15-07:19

    But after this, after God had created this perfect marriage, He said it was very good.

    07:20-07:24

    He concluded His magnificent creation and He even took a rest.

    07:25-07:27

    So that's where we pick up in our text.

    07:28-07:31

    So, let's read the first 13 verses of chapter 3.

    07:32-07:36

    "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

    07:36-07:59

    And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, "You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit which is in the midst of the garden, God said, "You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die." Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die, For God knows that the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

    08:00-08:09

    So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

    08:09-08:12

    She also gave to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

    08:12-08:15

    Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

    08:15-08:19

    And they sowed fig leaves together, and made themselves coverings.

    08:19-08:22

    And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

    08:22-08:26

    And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

    08:27-08:56

    Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself." And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you that you should not eat?" And the man said, "The woman whom you gave to me, she gave me the tree, and I ate." And the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'" So there's a lot of things to teach on here.

    08:57-09:01

    And I'm going to focus on the second half of this chapter, but I did want to point out some things.

    09:01-09:09

    And I hope, as I think is always the case at Harvest Bible Chapel, that the Word of God is your authority in your life.

    09:09-09:18

    And if you could understand the reality of Genesis here just in this chapter alone, it would change the way that you view the world around us.

    09:18-09:20

    It would change the way that you view marriage.

    09:20-09:25

    It would change the way you view sin and temptation and all these things that are talked about in here.

    09:26-09:28

    But I did want to talk about a couple of things.

    09:28-09:38

    There's a concept that we've all heard that's called "original sin." It's the idea that mankind suffers from a disease called sin that we've inherited from our parents as a result of the first sin here.

    09:39-09:53

    That's part of the fulfillment of what God said, "You will surely die." Or actually better translated, "Dying, you will die." Life we know is a perpetual existence of brokenness where we experience failure over and over again throughout our entire life.

    09:55-09:58

    But our actual failure began before the first bite into the fruit.

    09:59-09:59

    So what is sin?

    10:00-10:06

    Well, sin is doing anything God forbids or failing to do anything that God demands.

    10:06-10:14

    So while eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was strictly forbidden by God, Adam and Eve were already omitting to do two things that God demands.

    10:15-10:21

    And my experience has been that when I fail to do the things I'm supposed to do, I'm pretty sure I'm going to guarantee that I'm going to do something I'm not supposed to do.

    10:22-10:23

    Can you see that in the story?

    10:23-10:24

    Look back at verse 6.

    10:25-10:36

    So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, wait a second, didn't God already fill the garden with every kind of tree that already was that way?

    10:37-10:39

    So why is it that Eve wanted this one?

    10:40-10:45

    Well I can understand my own sinful bent that says, If you put up a sign that says "don't," I'm going to do.

    10:46-10:47

    But Eve doesn't have that sinful bent yet.

    10:48-10:49

    Eve doesn't have that sinful desire.

    10:50-10:53

    So what is it that caused her to still want this?

    10:54-11:01

    Well, Romans 1, 21-22 says, "For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him.

    11:01-11:04

    But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.

    11:05-11:11

    Claiming to be wise, they became fools." Well, this passage isn't talking about Adam and Eve, it's talking about us.

    11:12-11:50

    what actually happens is Eve failed to overtly give God thanks and therefore she became susceptible to foolishness. If she was content with all of the perfection that God gave her, she would never want the one tree that she couldn't eat from. And she saw that it was a desire to be wise and so she ended up claiming to be wise, she became a fool. This is the first step in the sin process, failing to give gratitude to God. And unfortunately gratitude naturally dissipates. It's not something that we just automatically have. We have to actually work with intentional effort. That's the first one.

    11:50-12:06

    The second sin of omission is Adam's alone. See the last part of verse 6, "And she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate." There's nothing more pathetic or more convicting to me than a husband too passive to protect his wife.

    12:07-13:13

    Ephesians 5 25 says, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." Adam stood by and let his wife eat the fruit of the tree that would cause her to surely die. That's inexcusable. And even if Adam had the moral fortitude not to eat the fruit himself, he would certainly have to answer to God for how could you let your wife make a choice that would have such mortal consequences. I should point out that God gave the rule to Adam alone before Eve was created. We don't know did God again come back and tell Eve what the rule was but either way it was Adam's job to protect his wife even to the point of giving himself up for her and he failed to do this. The failures of Adam and Eve have had dramatic consequences. They're everything that we know and experience today down even to the molecular level that cause us to get old and cause us to die. But there are four immediate effects of sin that I'd like to talk about and it's we've all experienced this we've all seen this pretty typical pattern. The first one is separation. Look at verses 7 and 8.

    13:14-13:55

    It says, "Then the eyes of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and they made coverings. Then they heard the sound of the Lord God walking and they hid themselves. If nakedness is the greatest expression of openness and intimacy. They sure lost that real quick. First they were separated from each other by making these ridiculous leaf clothes and then they were separated from God by hiding. After separation comes shame and shame is actually the motivation that leads to separation. The first part of verse 7 says, "They knew that they were naked for all of their existence up until that point." They've been naked and they never thought anything about it and they never hid from God. They never hid from each other. But now as a result of this sin and now they're ashamed.

    13:56-13:58

    Shame is the motivation for our separation.

    13:59-14:04

    When we sin, we know we've done wrong, and so our natural response is to be ashamed.

    14:04-14:10

    Except if as a culture or as a person, you continue to persist in that, then you don't even feel shame anymore.

    14:11-14:12

    After shame comes fear.

    14:13-14:14

    They were afraid of God.

    14:14-14:15

    Sin always makes us afraid.

    14:16-14:17

    We're afraid of getting caught.

    14:18-14:19

    We're afraid of retaliation.

    14:19-14:21

    We're afraid of losing our reputation.

    14:21-14:23

    And so we try to cover it up.

    14:23-14:32

    They made makeshift coverings that never work, and they literally tried to hide from God who created everything, which is an impossibility.

    14:33-14:40

    Lastly, after separation, after shame, after fear, if all else fails and you're called to the carpet, what do we do?

    14:40-14:41

    We blame.

    14:41-14:43

    Look at verses 12 and 13.

    14:43-14:55

    "Then man said, 'The woman who you gave to be with me, "she gave me the tree, and I ate.'" When we sin and we're called to the carpet, We don't want to take the blame.

    14:55-14:59

    So we're going to do whatever we can to play the blame game and blame anybody else.

    14:59-15:03

    That's our society of, I'm a victim, and let's blame everybody else.

    15:03-15:04

    It's not my fault, it was my parents' fault.

    15:04-15:08

    It's not my fault, it's the postman delivered the mail on the wrong day.

    15:08-15:12

    Whatever it is, we don't want to take the blame.

    15:14-15:17

    Adam literally blamed everybody on the planet for his sin.

    15:19-15:31

    Eve, for giving him the fruit, God for giving him Eve. That's the extent of which our blame will go. So these things are always part of our response to sin. This is what we do when we fail.

    15:32-16:20

    Right? We try to hide it. We try to run from it. But God's response is a lot different and that's where I'd like to focus today. So let's read the second half of the chapter, picking up on verse 14. So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field, on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel, or crush his head and you shall bruise his heel. To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. To Adam he said, because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it.

    16:21-16:22

    Cursed is the ground for your sake.

    16:23-16:25

    In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

    16:25-16:30

    Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.

    16:31-16:34

    In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.

    16:35-16:36

    For out of it you were taken.

    16:36-16:42

    For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.' And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.

    16:43-16:47

    And for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them.

    16:47-16:51

    And the Lord God said, 'Behold, man has become like one of us, to know good and evil.

    16:51-17:01

    Now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever.' Therefore God sent him out of the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.

    17:01-17:13

    So he drove man out, and he placed a cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword, which turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life." So I think most of us refer to this as the curse, right?

    17:13-17:15

    It's a pretty negative situation.

    17:15-17:18

    And I'm going to ask you to look at it from a different angle today.

    17:18-17:27

    To see at our hugest moment of failure, God pouring out grace, displayed for His children that He loves.

    17:28-17:29

    So, what is grace?

    17:29-17:38

    Well, grace is God giving to us, as Pastor Jeff says, grace is God giving to us what He demands of us.

    17:38-17:42

    Or, more generally, grace is God giving us something that we don't deserve.

    17:43-17:46

    We don't deserve to see God's examples of kindness here.

    17:46-17:50

    But let's look at five examples of God's grace displayed at the fall.

    17:51-17:55

    The first one, grace is exclusively for humans.

    17:57-17:58

    Exclusively for humans.

    17:58-17:59

    Look at verse 14 again.

    18:00-18:08

    God curses the serpent here, and I'll refer to him as Satan, because we know from other passages of the Bible that this is talking about Satan.

    18:08-18:10

    This isn't some snake that just magically can talk.

    18:10-18:11

    This is the devil.

    18:11-18:20

    This is God's lead rebel that has thrown a third of the angels of God's own creation and turned them against him.

    18:20-18:25

    And now he's trying to turn God's creation of mankind against him as well.

    18:26-18:34

    And I think a lot of us take grace for granted because if you've spent any amount of time in the church, you've heard about grace, you've sung about grace, you've talked about grace, we've experienced grace.

    18:35-18:36

    So we take it for granted.

    18:37-18:39

    But if you notice, Satan doesn't get a second chance.

    18:40-18:42

    He doesn't get another opportunity.

    18:43-18:45

    That's something that is exclusive for people.

    18:46-18:51

    We are God's creation that alone gets an opportunity for a second chance.

    18:52-18:53

    The angels don't get that.

    18:54-18:57

    Psalm 8:4 says, "What is man that you are mindful of him?

    18:57-18:59

    The son of man that you care for him.

    18:59-19:08

    Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with honor and glory." That verse says that we are actually lower than angels.

    19:08-19:10

    Angels are a higher order of creation than we are.

    19:11-19:16

    And yet we are unique in creation in that God gives us the opportunity to receive grace when we fail.

    19:17-19:19

    We expect it now, but we don't deserve it.

    19:20-19:21

    We have to always remember that.

    19:22-19:25

    Number two, God promises ultimate victory.

    19:25-19:27

    Let me reread verse 15.

    19:28-19:31

    "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.

    19:32-19:40

    He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." These aren't in order of importance, and this is certainly the most important one of these five points.

    19:41-19:45

    And you may have heard that all of history is His story.

    19:45-19:48

    Christ is the central theme of every book of the Bible.

    19:49-19:53

    And Genesis 3.15 is the first reference to Christ in all of the Bible.

    19:54-19:55

    The seed of the woman.

    19:55-19:58

    It's interesting to note that it's not the seed of Adam.

    19:58-20:01

    It's the seed of the woman because Christ is born of a virgin.

    20:04-20:08

    It is amazing that God took a risk with creation.

    20:09-20:10

    How did He take a risk?

    20:10-20:12

    He's God. He's in control of everything.

    20:12-20:15

    Well, He took a risk with creation because we have the opportunity to choose.

    20:15-20:18

    We could choose for God, or we could choose against God.

    20:19-20:21

    And in this case, we chose against God.

    20:21-20:25

    But God didn't take that risk without a plan to win in the end.

    20:26-22:08

    1 Corinthians 15.57 says, "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." amazing that God even tells us here at the beginning that there is a cost to solving the sin problem. In verse 15 it says, "He shall bruise your head," meaning Christ shall bruise the head of Satan, "but you shall bruise his heel." So death by crucifixion doesn't quite sound like a bruised heel. I've had a bruised heel before. I'm sure it compares nothing to crucifixion. But the point is, is that whatever Satan's best attack is, sending him to the cross, so Satan thought he was doing, that best attack would not be able to defeat Christ. In the end, Christ would defeat Satan. He would crush the serpent's head. But the point is that grace never comes for free. It always comes with a cost. When you extend grace to somebody because they accidentally drove into your car and you choose not to make them pay for it, who's got to pay for it? You do. So grace always comes with cost, but God is always willing to pay that cost to give us grace. The third point, grace permits continued creation. This goes back to verse 16, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth." We tend to focus on increased pain in childbirth, I think rightly so. My beautiful wife is preparing to face her third delivery and she can attest to the fact that pain is right at the forefront of that event. But you know the interesting thing here is that it actually says increased pain in childbirth which means that pain would have been there in the perfect garden. That's kind of an interesting thought.

    22:08-22:13

    Pain is not a result of sin. It's increased pain that's a result of sin.

    22:13-23:19

    But maybe even more significant here is that God shows unimaginable grace to Adam and Eve and that he doesn't give up on them. It's not three or four chapters later where God is going to wipe out the entire planet, 99% of all living things as a result of sin. Sin that was generated from this moment here. But God doesn't give up on Adam and Eve. He sticks with his children at the lowest point of their failure. And even more than that, he allows Eve to continue to be a creator like God is. He could have taken that right away and continued to make people out of dirt, or continued to put people to sleep and pull them out of the side. But yet, God makes Eve a creator like He is. And she gets to have that purpose, a purpose that most women get to experience. Most women get to be a part of that creation. We get to raise children, whether it's your actual children or whether it's people that you're ministering to. Women are molding and shaping people in a way that Only God does.

    23:20-23:25

    So, it's a pretty amazing reality that God doesn't give up on us in our sin.

    23:25-23:29

    And even further, He has a great purpose for us even when we fail.

    23:31-23:31

    The fourth point.

    23:33-23:36

    Grace leaves us frustratingly fallen.

    23:37-23:42

    If you look at all the stuff that's said to Adam, Adam was given charge of the earth.

    23:43-23:45

    He was supposed to rule over it.

    23:46-24:18

    But when he rebelled against God, rebelled against him. Things were not going to listen to him. And this is the the life that we know where things get hard, right? Work frustrates, sickness attacks, and death seems to always win. We're constantly left thinking, "This is not how it should be." So you ask, "Where's the grace in that?" It's right there. This is not how it should be. We are constantly reminded that God did not intend for us to experience life this way. God did not intend for people to die.

    24:18-24:47

    God did not intend for people to get sick. It's not good for man to be alone, right? Isn't that what God said? It's also true of our life without God. It is not good for man to be without God. And we feel that when we are without God we experience frustration. When we are in this earth and its brokenness we experience frustration. That's grace. Could you imagine if we were completely content with our sinful fallen life? We'd literally be smiling on the way to hell.

    24:48-25:45

    What a terrible tragedy that would be. We don't always love it, but in reality, frustration is an amazing gift from God. It points us back to our need for Him and His redemption. It points us to the fact that this is not the way it should be. So I wonder how that thought will affect our next complaining session, which I am guilty of more than maybe anybody. Grace leaves us frustratingly fallen. The last point is that grace gives accessible life. Look at verses 22 through 24. "Then Lord God said, 'Behold man has become like one of us to know good and evil and now lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.' Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden." You know I always used to think that that God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden because of their disobedience. You don't want to do it my way? Fine. You're Maybe that's because that's how I would respond if somebody disappointed me so much.

    25:45-25:46

    But that's not what happened at all.

    25:47-25:55

    He says in verse 22, "lest ye reach out his hand and take of the tree of life and eat and live forever." God doesn't want us to eat from the tree of life.

    25:56-25:56

    Why?

    25:57-25:58

    Because we're broken, because we're sinful.

    25:59-26:05

    God knows that if we eat from the tree of life, we will now forever and perpetually be in this broken state and he doesn't want that for us.

    26:06-26:09

    So he blocks us from that state.

    26:09-26:14

    If we were to eat from the tree now, we would spend eternity broken, dying without end.

    26:14-26:16

    That's the definition of hell.

    26:17-26:25

    So God goes out of his way to remove man from the garden, to put up barriers so man cannot have access to that tree of life.

    26:25-26:29

    Because he's got to carry out his plan for redemption, to rescue us through his Son.

    26:30-26:36

    We must have the ability to die to ourselves so that we can be born again as a new creation.

    26:37-26:41

    2 Corinthians 5.17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

    26:41-26:49

    The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." It's only through Christ that we can have access to the tree of life.

    26:49-26:53

    Because of God's plan for redemption, we will again have access to the tree of life.

    26:54-27:07

    If you move from the beginning of the story in Genesis to the end of the story in Revelation, in Revelation 22.14 it says, "Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and that they may enter the city by the gates.

    27:09-27:14

    God gives us new life that is free from the stain of our sins because of the righteousness of Christ.

    27:15-27:23

    This new life and Christ's righteousness will bring us to eat from the tree of life in the final days of time and spend eternity with Him.

    27:24-27:25

    That's a pretty amazing thing.

    27:25-27:27

    Praise the name of our great God.

    27:29-27:34

    So while all these examples of grace are interesting and I think individually encouraging.

    27:35-27:38

    The real application is what are you going to do with this?

    27:39-27:42

    God's response to the sin of his children is to extend grace.

    27:43-27:44

    But our response is to run away.

    27:45-27:49

    When we sin, we want to get as far away from God as possible.

    27:49-27:51

    We want to try to do things our way.

    27:51-27:52

    We want to try to cover it up.

    27:52-27:55

    We want to try to make a way to fix the problem.

    27:56-28:02

    When we want to run away, God remains willing to run to us when we turn away from our sins.

    28:02-28:03

    It's all throughout the Bible.

    28:04-28:09

    If you think of the story of the prodigal son, as soon as the prodigal son comes back, what does the father do?

    28:10-28:12

    He sees him off in the distance and runs towards him.

    28:12-28:13

    That's the heart that God has.

    28:14-28:16

    He wants us to come back to him.

    28:16-28:18

    He's willing to run to us to do that.

    28:18-28:20

    We need to learn this principle.

    28:21-28:25

    Our response is to run, but God's response is to welcome us with grace.

    28:26-28:30

    So the question is, What failures are keeping you distant from God?

    28:31-28:33

    What barriers are you trying to hide behind?

    28:35-28:37

    The real question is, is any of that actually working?

    28:38-28:45

    Are you just laughably like Adam and Eve, putting leaves up and hiding behind trees that God invented out of nothing?

    28:46-28:49

    Is life actually operating the way you think it's supposed to be?

    28:49-28:51

    Do you find yourself saying, this is not how it should be?

    28:54-28:58

    God extends grace now, that God's grace won't be extended forever.

    28:59-29:00

    We only have this life.

    29:00-29:04

    Now you might think that life, oh, I got all kinds of years in front of me, but you don't know that.

    29:04-29:08

    Life is not intended to operate the way you think it is.

    29:08-29:11

    Life is intended to operate the way God has outlined a timeline.

    29:11-29:14

    So we don't have forever with this grace.

    29:14-29:22

    At some point in time, we will become the seed of the serpent when we reject God in the end days, and he's gonna crush our head.

    29:23-29:25

    and we will not have that offer of grace anymore.

    29:26-29:38

    So my appeal to you is that you embrace God's gift of grace now while it is available to you, while your hearts are still open to it, and while you still have breath in your lungs.

    29:40-29:51

    Turn away from your sin and run back to God, whether that's for the first time, whether that's you've known God forever and you just sinned this morning and you feel distant from Him, whatever the case may be, our life is always better.

    29:51-29:57

    Our life is always more the way that God intended it to be when we are running back to him and not running away from him when we sin.

    29:57-29:59

    We're going to continue to fail.

    29:59-30:00

    We are.

    30:00-30:02

    That is the reality of the state that we live in.

    30:03-30:06

    We don't have the capacity within us to be perfect anymore.

    30:06-30:09

    We failed when our representatives were perfect.

    30:10-30:13

    So how much better do you think you're going to do now when you're in a broken state?

    30:14-30:16

    So embrace God and run back to him.

    30:17-30:48

    And then by doing so, we will all up eating from the tree of life to face eternity. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, God, you have done an amazing thing through your son. God, you have given us grace upon grace. You have extended to us mercy upon mercy. And we thank you that you never give up on us, Lord, and that you're always waiting for us to run back to you. You will embrace us with open arms. God, I pray that we would get Get our pride out of the way.

    30:48-31:01

    Get our desire to be fixed ourselves out of the way, Lord, so that we can receive Your grace and embrace a relationship with You that is better than anything we've experienced on this life, Lord.

    31:01-31:10

    I thank You for Your Word, for a passage that's so simple and basic that we've all probably heard before, but yet there's new depth there.

    31:10-31:12

    There's new reality, God.

    31:12-31:17

    When we look at You who is infinite, There's always more that we can understand.

    31:18-31:29

    So I pray that, God, that we would grasp on to the things that we've learned today and that it would change us, that it wouldn't just be more information for our head, but it would be more motivation to follow after you.

    31:30-31:36

    I thank you for this opportunity and I pray that you would go forth from here through us and change us forever.

    31:36-31:38

    In your name we pray, amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Genesis 3

  1. The Fall is possibly one of the most basic and well known stories in the Bible, and yet there's so much depth here. Discuss some of the complex concepts you've learned from this story.

  2. It has been said before that most people suffer from two problems: failing to see how big their sin is and failing to see how big God's grace is. Do you believe this? Why or why not?

  3. Describe a time where you have experienced God's grace in your failures.

Breakout Questions:

What is causing you to be distant from God right now? How are you going to respond to His grace?

Shaped by the Master Sculptor

Allow God To SCULPT Your Life While In The Land Of The DYING

  1. Submit to God's Sovereignty. (Rom 8:28 | Jer 29:11)

    1. Discover the power of "TIPHLAH" (Job 1:22)

  2. Confess your Weakness.

    1. Don't deny it or indulge it (Psalm 61:2) The ELIOENAI Treatment – 9 times

    2. Remember what we really are

      1. Weak Sinners (Rom 5:6, 8 | Matt 26:41)

      2. Self - exaltation denounced by Paul (Rom 12:3b)

      3. God knows your frame (Psalm 103:12-14)

    3. Realize that accepting weakness can breed strength (2 Cor 12:10)

    4. Strength comes from humbly abiding in God's Presence (Ps 91:1 | Isaiah 57:15)

    5. Don't LIMIT the Holy One by a lack of trust or unbelief (Psalm 78:41)

  3. Understand God's Big Picture

    1. Develop a "Better than I deserve" mentality (Rom 6:23 | Luke 17:10)

    2. Remember God is the Creator and Owner

      1. You NEVER have a right to be ANGRY WITH GOD!!! (Matt 5:22)

    3. Remember: A strong root always produces fruit

  4. Leave Self on the Shelf

    1. Change your focus to the Lord – BELIEVE (Psalm 16:8-9 | Isaiah 26:3)

      1. Not like Job (Job 29:20-23)

    2. BELIEVE (2 Cor 1:3) – "the God of all comfort"

      1. God is NOT a persecutor, abandoner, adversary, accuser, or prosecutor

      2. Replace your Why with a What (Acts 9:6 | 2 Cor 1:4)

    3. Don't just Live With your mistakes, Learn From your mistakes

      1. Don't live in the WHAT IF, but in the What Now (Phil 3:13)

    4. Confess rather than depress (1 John 1:9 | Proverbs 28:13)

    5. Use your gifts to serve others (Js 4:6 | 1 Pet 5:5b)

  5. Praise God for His Provision

    1. Praise is the ULTIMATE "Depression Medicine" (Psalm 61:8)

    2. Take a "Scripture Prescription" and rejoice

      1. Psalm 16:8-9 | Phil 4:6 | 1 Cor 15:55-57 | Rom 8:37)

  6. Testify to God's AMAZING GRACE

    1. The LIBERATING "Stephen Principle" (Acts 7:51-60 | Rom 1:20 | Eph 2:10)

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

  • Frank Zitzman:

    00:29-00:31

    Yeah, famous, world famous.

    Frank Zitzman:

    00:32-00:33

    Well, I'm humble. I just call it famous.

    Frank Zitzman:

    00:33-00:36

    I took the world out, because I'm humble.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:36-00:37

    Give it time.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:39-00:57

    When I knew Frank was in the air, Frank and Sue lived in Kentucky, when I knew Frank was in the air, I said, "I would love to have Frank share the word with us here at Harvest Bible Chapel." This man has had, and his wife Sue, they have had a profound influence on my life.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:58-00:59

    I'll give you a specific.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:00-01:21

    Fresh out of Bible college, you know when you go to Bible college, you sit in the classroom and they say, "Well this is what the Bible says, but Professor so and so says this, and Doctor so and so says this, and maybe it doesn't really mean this, because so and so says this." And one of the things that Frank really poured into me was, "Hey, what does the Bible say?" That's what it means.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:22-01:29

    God meant what He said, and He said what He meant, preach that and who cares what Dr. What's-his-name says.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:30-01:36

    Just go ahead and just really challenge me on being a better Bible student.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:38-01:41

    You're back out of Bible college, that's really where my education started.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:42-01:47

    So I just wanna publicly thank you for that, Frank.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:47-01:51

    That's just one of many things, but you've had a profound influence on my life.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:52-01:55

    But before you speak, I also got to tell a story about Sue.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:55-01:56

    Uh-oh.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:57-01:58

    This is a true story.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:59-02:00

    This is a true story.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:01-02:02

    Sue tried to get me a record.

    Frank Zitzman:

    02:03-02:04

    Oh, yeah.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:05-02:06

    You remember this Sue?

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:06-02:06

    Oh.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:06-02:07

    You're going to.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:08-02:10

    I've been keeping this story in the hopper for years.

    Frank Zitzman:

    02:10-02:11

    Oh.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:12-02:14

    And I'm like, now's the time to share it.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:14-02:28

    Back when we did prison ministry together and we'd go into the guy's side and Sue and somebody would be doing the girl's side, to hand out Bibles, share the gospel, and that's where I've really learned to appreciate.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:31-02:42

    But anyways, so I don't know where you are this night, but I'm in the lobby, it was at the old prison up in Bowery, I'm sitting in the lobby, waiting for them to let me back for Bible study.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:43-02:49

    And one of the prison transport lobby, and he's standing, do you remember this now, sir?

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:50-02:52

    You're going through, he's standing there, I remember this.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:53-02:56

    And he was doing some paperwork.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:56-02:57

    And I'm sitting there.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:57-02:59

    And he turned around and just looked at me.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:59-03:02

    He goes, take your laces off.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:04-03:05

    What?

    Frank Zitzman:

    03:06-03:07

    [LAUGHTER]

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:07-03:09

    He's like, take your laces off.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:15-03:16

    What were we talking about?

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:24-03:31

    I'm like, "I have no idea what's going on." Finally, the guy goes, "I can't transport you with laces in your shoes.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:31-03:40

    You've got to take your laces out." And I said, "I'm not a prisoner to be transported." And that's where Sue jumped in.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:41-03:48

    I said, "Yeah, this is your guy." I'm here for Bible study.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:48-03:48

    it

    Frank Zitzman:

    04:16-04:17

    uh...

    Frank Zitzman:

    04:18-04:18

    (laughter)

    Frank Zitzman:

    04:22-04:23

    You have to forgive, though.

    Frank Zitzman:

    04:23-04:25

    I know, forgiving people forgives.

    Pastor Jeff:

    04:28-04:30

    But anyway, let's give a warm Harvest Bible Chapel welcome.

    Frank Zitzman:

    04:31-04:31

    Thank you.

    04:31-04:31

    (applause)

    Frank Zitzman:

    04:31-04:33

    Praise the Lord.

    Frank Zitzman:

    04:37-04:38

    Praise the Lord.

    Frank Zitzman:

    04:39-04:39

    Oh, man.

    Frank Zitzman:

    04:41-04:43

    Darren, I want to thank you so much for the music.

    Frank Zitzman:

    04:46-04:50

    I can tell a lot about a fellowship when you go and they play their music.

    Frank Zitzman:

    04:51-04:53

    I mean, you can tell so much.

    Frank Zitzman:

    04:53-04:58

    If the leadership sings along, or if they're just going through the motions.

    Frank Zitzman:

    04:59-05:02

    I'm sure everybody's - you've been to churches where they just go through the motions.

    Frank Zitzman:

    05:02-05:09

    It's so refreshing to go to a fellowship where when they do the music, they're really doing it.

    Frank Zitzman:

    05:09-05:11

    I mean, everybody's just really singing.

    Frank Zitzman:

    05:12-05:13

    You don't know what a blessing.

    Frank Zitzman:

    05:13-06:00

    The older I've gotten, I've learned I guess really really appreciate music and That's I have just loved since the first Sunday. I came here. It's just such a blessing I'm so thankful just have the opportunity to thank you personally Darren for because it's just been a blessing for me a great lesson So keep up the good work Or I'll leave Now but it's a blessing one of us, you know Jeff says it We had an impact on his life. Let me tell you you don't know what a blessing you folks have To have this guy's your pastor I'll tell you what I mean from the day. I met Jeff Miller From the day I met him his heart for God Is such a blessing to me I?

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:02-06:10

    Mean I just so he's the master of analogies. He's just such a great job with analogy He told me something about a fly in his office today, and I'll never forget it now.

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:10-06:12

    I hate flies. Now I've got to like them now.

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:12-06:15

    But anyhow, geez!

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:15-06:16

    He's just a master of analogy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:17-06:21

    But more than pouring it out, he's just his heart when he speaks and stuff.

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:22-06:26

    And you know, everybody knows, anybody that's been in church for a time, you know when someone's speaking.

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:27-06:29

    If it's coming from the heart.

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:30-06:31

    And it's just such a joy for me.

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:32-06:33

    It is such a joy for me.

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:34-06:35

    To even be able to come here.

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:36-06:46

    When I found out we were an hour away, I said to my wife, "We're going to Jeff's church." The first time I walked in, I'm like, "Whoa." The last time I saw his church, it was in a school building.

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:47-06:49

    I come walking in, I'm like, "Wow, what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:49-06:52

    This place is amazing." Jeff said, "I didn't do any of it.

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:52-06:58

    It was everybody else here." But it is such a blessing, and it's a blessing for me to be here.

    Frank Zitzman:

    06:59-07:01

    First of all, you're invited to Troy's Creation House.

    Frank Zitzman:

    07:01-07:02

    That's our house.

    Frank Zitzman:

    07:04-07:11

    what we do there is we have folks stay with us. I want to go see the Creation Museum. I want to go see the Ark. And I give them a tour if they so desire.

    Frank Zitzman:

    07:11-07:22

    And it's a real blessing for me to be able to do that. And what we're all about is firming family foundations to the glory of our - and please take note of that word there - awesome Creator.

    Frank Zitzman:

    07:22-08:51

    That's the other thing I so appreciate about the fellowship here. You really emphasize that a lot. And we use that word so many times for things like a cookie or a cake. We ought to reserve that just for the Creator. I mean that is just, and that's what we're all about. And it's interesting, we encourage others to bring glory to our sovereign God by building their life on the solid foundation of God's Holy Word. That's the passion behind our ministry at our home. And that's what I try to do. Everybody comes to our house, I have a lot of great discussions with them, I take them on tours, is it's really a blessing. And it's interesting to me, I took this off the internet, I think this is interesting, consider a fallible psychotherapy. Listen to this, I read this right off an internet site. When you're going to get counseling, somebody to help you, okay, somebody's going to give you a foundation, all right. Listen to what this says, "No therapist will be right all the time." Now if you know that when you walk through the door, why would you even gonna be there all right now it says of course and it may be that your expectations for change are just unrealistic or misguided yet sort this out together but the final word is yours what are you paying this other guy for if the final word's yours why so what a joke that is see if you don't have a foundation now if you don't have a credible reliable authoritative source of truth in your life and that's what the Bible is by the way the Bible is a credible, reliable, authoritative source of truth.

    Frank Zitzman:

    08:52-08:54

    If you don't have that in your life, this is what you're left with.

    Frank Zitzman:

    08:55-08:59

    What a tragedy. If you're here and you don't know the Lord, I feel sorry for you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    09:00-09:03

    Because see, what's great is there is something that's perfect.

    Frank Zitzman:

    09:04-09:14

    And the Bible says this. And what you're going to see, whenever Jeff asked me to do this, I wasn't going to do this PowerPoint, but when I started to look at it, I have so many verses of Scripture in here. And I'm thinking, you know what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    09:14-09:18

    If there's anything I want people to remember when I'm done talking is the Bible.

    Frank Zitzman:

    09:19-09:21

    I don't want them to see me, I want them to see scripture.

    Frank Zitzman:

    09:21-09:24

    So I thought, I'm gonna have to use this PowerPoint 'cause I've got so many verses in here.

    Frank Zitzman:

    09:24-09:31

    But look at it, Psalm 19, seven says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.

    Frank Zitzman:

    09:31-09:39

    "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise and simple." One of the things that I do a lot of times when I study the Bible is I look words up, like that word perfect, for example.

    Frank Zitzman:

    09:39-09:52

    That word means complete, whole, and this particular commentator said it, "An unerring guide of conduct conveys the idea of something able to cover all aspects of an issue." Now, see, if I have a problem, that's where I want to go.

    Frank Zitzman:

    09:53-09:55

    Why go to somebody that's not right all the time?

    Frank Zitzman:

    09:55-09:57

    We've got something that's right all the time!

    Frank Zitzman:

    09:57-09:59

    I mean, it's perfect! How many things in this world are perfect? Nothing!

    Frank Zitzman:

    10:01-10:04

    But we have a book that is! Oh, what a blessing that is!

    Frank Zitzman:

    10:04-10:07

    And then, the word "sure" means reliable and trustworthy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    10:08-10:12

    And see, that's what I love about the Scripture. It's like, I don't care what issue you have.

    Frank Zitzman:

    10:12-10:15

    You may not like what it says, but it will address it.

    Frank Zitzman:

    10:16-10:17

    It will address it.

    Frank Zitzman:

    10:17-10:18

    And what a blessing that is.

    Frank Zitzman:

    10:19-10:24

    And this is one of my favorite verses I want to start with before we do our full message here.

    Frank Zitzman:

    10:25-10:33

    1 Thessalonians 2.13 says, "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, "because when you receive the word of God," now this is Paul talking to Thessalonian church.

    Frank Zitzman:

    10:33-10:50

    "When you receive the word of God which you heard of us, "you received it not as a word of men, "but as is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." See, the Bible's perfect, it's sure, and because of that, it will effectually work in your life.

    Frank Zitzman:

    10:50-10:55

    And what's really interesting, you look that word up, and that's the word "energeo." Now, what's that sound like?

    Frank Zitzman:

    10:55-10:57

    Energy, right? It sounds like energy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    10:57-11:02

    Energeo, that means to be operative, be at work, to put forth power, to aid one.

    Frank Zitzman:

    11:02-11:15

    It's actually used in Hebrews 4:12 when it says, "The word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword." So this verse is saying that God's Word will work effectively in your life.

    Frank Zitzman:

    11:15-11:21

    But notice what it says, "in you that believe." See, the issue comes down to, it's not that the Bible doesn't work.

    Frank Zitzman:

    11:22-11:30

    I've had people tell me, "I don't know, you tell me that it doesn't work for me." And I say, "Well, I know what the problem is." I can tell you, you don't believe.

    Frank Zitzman:

    11:31-11:35

    See, if you really believe what the Bible says, it will work.

    Frank Zitzman:

    11:35-11:36

    That's the issue.

    Frank Zitzman:

    11:36-11:55

    Anytime that you're given a Bible verse that applies your life situation and it's not working for you. I guarantee you I know the problem. You're not believing it. You're just not believing it so Just so you know Jeff gave me an introduction I'll say it's really important that you know, the credentials of the people that are speaking to you. Okay?

    Frank Zitzman:

    11:56-12:31

    So this is my these are my credentials. All right here they are. I have a THD from HKU I got. Okay, now this is what it is. Now, HKU, you may not have heard of this, but it's a prestigious school with facilities all around the world. Though the majority of my training took place at HKU branch located in Western Pennsylvania, that's where we're from. I continue to routinely attend HKU classes in my local area. Okay, so this is where I want you to understand, you don't just have some rookie here. Okay, now you might be wondering now Now what's THD and HKU stand for?

    Frank Zitzman:

    12:32-12:32

    So here's what they stand for.

    Frank Zitzman:

    12:34-12:36

    THD is a Truth Heralding Degree.

    Frank Zitzman:

    12:37-12:38

    I got that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    12:39-12:42

    And I got it from Hard Knocks University.

    Frank Zitzman:

    12:44-12:44

    And you know what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    12:45-12:46

    All of us go to that school.

    Frank Zitzman:

    12:47-12:49

    The issue is, are you learning anything when you go there?

    Frank Zitzman:

    12:51-12:52

    But you know what's really neat?

    Frank Zitzman:

    12:52-12:59

    When you start to become somebody, when you're a Christian, and you love God, Hard knocks really started coming from the world.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:00-13:02

    Just because we live in a fallen world.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:03-13:06

    And God a lot of times behind those hard knocks just to shape us and mold us.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:07-13:13

    Well back on June 20th, 2004, I lost my dad to a sudden brain aneurysm just out of nowhere.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:14-13:15

    He just got a brain aneurysm and he died.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:16-13:17

    It was a major shock in our family.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:18-13:23

    But nine days after that, just nine short days after that, something else happened.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:24-13:31

    I lost my 17-year-old son in a motorcycle accident, nine days after I lost my father.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:32-13:34

    My son actually was in one of the pole barrels at my dad's funeral.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:35-13:36

    And I spoke at my dad's funeral.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:36-13:41

    I spoke on behalf of the Lord, because I didn't know where my dad stood with the Lord.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:42-13:44

    And any time somebody asks me to do a funeral, I'm very honest.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:45-13:46

    I just stand up and tell people the truth.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:47-13:48

    I have a truth-telling degree, OK?

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:48-13:49

    I tell people the truth.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:49-13:50

    I don't know where my dad stood.

    Frank Zitzman:

    13:51-14:21

    And I'll never forget the day I left that hospital, my son said, "Troy, my boy," said, "Dad, no one here has an excuse. They heard the message today." He said, "They have no excuse." Nine days later, that son was killed in a motorcycle accident. And soon I had to go to write past the scene where it was at, and it was just a horrific, horrific thing. But you know, the good news is, let's see, if you're a Christian, if you're a Christian, you know that there's There's nothing that comes into your life that isn't Father filled.

    Frank Zitzman:

    14:23-14:25

    It comes through the hands of your loving Father.

    Frank Zitzman:

    14:26-14:28

    God allows it for a reason.

    Frank Zitzman:

    14:29-14:38

    And today what I want to do with you is I want to share with you a little cross I put together called "Sculpt." And we're going to go through this and I have an outline with you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    14:38-14:44

    It's called "Shaped by the Master Sculptor." And I try to emphasize to people, allow God to sculpt your life while you're in the land of the dying.

    Frank Zitzman:

    14:44-14:45

    See, we're in the land of the dying.

    Frank Zitzman:

    14:46-14:47

    We're all going to die someday.

    Frank Zitzman:

    14:48-15:18

    gonna die someday. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna take that word sculpt we're gonna use each letter, highlight a biblical principle and this is the principle that helped us, my wife and I, my whole family actually get through what we went through in losing my son. And the first letter, S, stands for submit to God's sovereignty. Submit to God's sovereignty. You know there's no better book in the Bible that you turn to to see an example of this than the book of Job.

    Frank Zitzman:

    15:19-15:45

    If you read the book of Job, Job chapter 1, what happens in the book of Job, just to summarize for you the Job chapter 1, Job loses, he loses 11 ,000 animals and 10 children in one day. Now can you imagine that? Here's a man, he He lost his entire livelihood and his entire family, all his children, in one day.

    Frank Zitzman:

    15:46-15:48

    Now I know what it's like to lose one child.

    Frank Zitzman:

    15:49-15:54

    I can't imagine losing that in one day.

    Frank Zitzman:

    15:54-15:55

    I can't imagine that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    15:56-16:00

    But really interesting in the last verse in the book of Job, is Job 1.22.

    Frank Zitzman:

    16:01-16:47

    look at verse up it says in all this Job sin not nor charged God foolishly I mentioned to you before see when I read the Bible I like those words that just I call them jump out words they just jump out to me and that word foolishly jumped out to me when I read it and this is way long when I first became a Christian when I was reading the book of Job I remember telling my wife hey this job character I mean Job or what's his name again I I thought his name was job at first. You know when you're on a Christian, I mean I don't know, I thought job what? I'll read this book I like to know about a job, I find out it's a guy's name's Job. But anyhow, I said this character, this is something else what he's going through. I remember reading it, but when I got to this word foolish, I thought you know there's something about that word. I just looked that word up. And it's the Hebrew word tifla.

    Frank Zitzman:

    16:48-17:51

    Now that almost sounds like a like a whisper, like tifla. But what that word means is so significant it means that which is empty now what I do then is let's take out and put that in Job 122 in all this Job sin not nor charge God of that which is empty see Job knew Romans 8 28 before it was ripped he knew that all things were together for good but as a love God and are called according to his purpose. He knew that before that verse was even written, all right? And actually, so I tell people all the time you need to discover the power of Tiflah in your life. You need to realize if you're a Christian, if you're a Christian, and you know isn't it great to be a Christian? I mean, you know when I talk with atheists sometimes I'm just like, "Oh, you're just, you have no idea what you're missing. No idea." But what I try to emphasize to people all that whole idea that nothing comes into your life that's empty.

    Frank Zitzman:

    17:52-18:00

    And see, the reason this was so significant to me is because in the prison ministry, and Jeff can vouch for you for this, one of my major topics in the prison ministry was worship.

    Frank Zitzman:

    18:01-18:03

    And I would tell guys all the time, "You know what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    18:03-18:04

    God deserves to be worshipped no matter what.

    Frank Zitzman:

    18:05-18:06

    I don't care what you're going through.

    Frank Zitzman:

    18:07-18:11

    He deserves to be worshipped no matter what." And I used this passage as an illustration of that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    18:12-18:47

    Because right before this it says that Job fell down and worshipped God dust and ashes. He basically repented in dust and ashes and he worshipped God and this is right after that this verse and that's why he could worship him because he knew nothing was empty because it was life. Now I really made an issue of that. Well see when I realized my son, see this is when you hear people talk about when the rubber meets the road. Well this is when it does, when you have something like this happen. But I remember so specifically. We got to the hospital and the people at the hospital said, I said where's my son I want to see him. They said well sir he was on a motorcycle accident and they had already told us that he was that he had died. I said I don't care what he looks like I want to see him.

    Frank Zitzman:

    18:48-19:46

    And they said well okay so I took me into a little room where he was at and I walked into that room and I saw a Troy lying on a garnet on a gurney he was covered up to his face and his face didn't have a scratch on it. I don't know if the Lord hid that from me or what but he didn't have a scratch on it. And I looked at him and I looked at him it's like I felt like he was sleeping. That was the only time we had peace in our house when the kids were sleeping. I used to go in and pray my kids when I watch them sleep but I stood there looking at Troy and I'm thinking and then it hit me I realized he's not going to get back up and let me tell you when you're in a situation like that there is nothing that any psychotherapist any human you can't handle it and I said to God I said what am I gonna do without this young lad in my life anymore and my god because I All I could hear was that word, "Tiflah" in my ear.

    Frank Zitzman:

    19:48-19:49

    And you know what's so neat?

    Frank Zitzman:

    19:49-19:54

    Is that since Troy died, I've had so many opportunities to share with people.

    Frank Zitzman:

    19:55-20:00

    Troy used to say, when he was a, he said, "Dad, he used to play golf." And he broke like 40 on a golf course.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:00-20:01

    He's 13 years old.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:01-20:02

    He loved playing golf.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:02-20:06

    He said, "Dad, someday when I'm a professional golfer, "I'm gonna buy a radio station.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:07-20:10

    "And I'm gonna put you on there to talk to people about God because you're really good at that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:11-20:14

    You know, that never materialized into Roy's life.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:15-20:18

    But through his death, God's made that possible for me.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:19-20:19

    In a lot of ways.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:20-20:21

    Don't believe me, I'd rather have him back.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:22-20:31

    But you know, there's a lot of times I told Sue, the relationships that we've established down in Kentucky now with different people, all since this happened, it's amazing.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:32-20:35

    So you need to, folks, you need to discover the power of Tiflin in your life.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:35-20:36

    I don't care what's in your life.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:36-20:37

    I don't care what it is.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:38-20:41

    People use it if you have the right perspective.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:41-20:42

    You've got to have the right perspective.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:43-20:45

    And tragically, a lot of us many times don't.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:47-20:55

    Romans 8:28, the verse I just said, "We know all things work together for good, and them love God, and them are called according to His purpose." Here's another good verse, Jeremiah 29.11.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:55-20:56

    And all these things are on your outline.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:56-20:57

    All the verses are on there.

    Frank Zitzman:

    20:58-21:00

    But I like to just print them out for people to see.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:00-21:02

    It's because I love this verse, Jeremiah 29.11.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:02-21:06

    "A future and a hope." Everybody wants that, right?

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:07-21:08

    I've never met anybody who doesn't want that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:08-21:09

    Everybody wants that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:09-21:10

    Well, the Bible tells us that we can get it.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:11-21:13

    That's what I love about the God's word.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:14-21:15

    Let's move on to the C.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:15-21:19

    The C stands for confess your weakness.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:19-21:26

    Now this ought to, after you do the first one, in fact, as we go through each one of these, you're gonna see a progression, all right?

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:26-21:32

    Well, when you see submitting to God's sovereignty, hey, if you submit to God's sovereignty, it's gonna be real easy to confess your weakness, 'cause you're gonna see it real clear.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:34-21:34

    I mean real clear.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:34-21:35

    You should.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:36-21:39

    If you're really submitting to God's sovereignty, you should really see it real clear.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:40-21:44

    Because, see, you don't want to deny it or indulge it.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:45-21:47

    See, that's what a lot of people do when they go through a tragedy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:48-21:51

    They try to say, "I'm just going to block it out of my mind." Well, that won't work, but it's still there.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:53-21:56

    Or they end up not being able to function in anything.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:57-21:57

    They indulge it.

    Frank Zitzman:

    21:58-21:59

    You don't want to do either one of those things.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:00-22:00

    You know what you need to do?

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:01-22:04

    You just need to confess your weakness to God.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:04-22:07

    That's what I did when I went and saw my son on that gurney.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:07-22:16

    I just admitted, "Hey, I can't handle this." And the great thing about our God, if you're a Christian, He sees that and He answers.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:16-22:17

    Oh, this is so wonderful.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:17-22:18

    It's so great to be a Christian.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:18-22:21

    Psalm 61 too is probably my favorite version of the Bible.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:22-22:24

    I was telling Jeff in his office, I was saying this a lot yesterday.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:24-22:27

    I was working on some jobs at my daughter's farm.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:27-22:29

    And you'll use this verse a lot in your life.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:29-22:30

    You need to memorize this.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:30-22:35

    Okay, it says, "From the ends of the earth "Woe, I cry unto thee, lead me to the rock.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:35-22:42

    "When my heart is overwhelmed, "lead me to the rock that's higher than I." See, that's what's great about being a Christian.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:42-22:43

    We got a rock.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:44-22:46

    And that's what's so sad when you don't.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:47-22:52

    You know, when I talk with people and they don't know the Lord, I always tell them, I said, "Just wait, time's coming.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:53-22:55

    "You're not gonna be able to handle a situation.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:55-22:58

    "You need a rock." And I just love Psalm 61 too.

    Frank Zitzman:

    22:58-23:00

    That's one of my favorite, favorite verses.

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:02-23:03

    See, we need to remember what we really are.

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:04-23:12

    In Romans 5, 8, Romans 5, 8 says, God commends his love toward us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:12-23:13

    Now, I wanna show you something here I think is really neat.

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:14-23:23

    See, the verse right up from that, Romans 5, 6, look at it says, "For when we were yet without strength, "in due time, Christ died for the ungodly." See the connection there?

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:24-23:25

    Sinner without strength.

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:26-23:27

    You wanna know why you're a sinner?

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:29-23:29

    I'll tell you why you're a sinner.

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:30-23:32

    because you don't have the strength not to be.

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:34-23:35

    And you never will.

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:36-23:37

    That's why you need a rock.

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:38-23:40

    That's why you need one that has no sin in your life.

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:41-23:48

    In fact, the Bible says, Jesus said that the disciples watched and prayed that he entered into temptation, the spirit of need is willing, but the flesh is weak.

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:50-23:55

    So on your outline, you see you have a blank there, and I even put the number of letters in the word, it'll really help you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    23:56-24:00

    So you gotta put weak, W-E-A-K, we're weak sinners.

    Frank Zitzman:

    24:00-24:05

    We're actually weak sinners in need of a mighty God.

    Frank Zitzman:

    24:06-24:07

    Boy, don't ever forget that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    24:08-24:10

    And it's easy to forget that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    24:10-24:11

    You need to remember that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    24:11-24:13

    You need to remember you're a weak sinner in need.

    Frank Zitzman:

    24:13-24:19

    And see, what's interesting is that the apostle Paul actually chimes in for us.

    Frank Zitzman:

    24:19-24:28

    He says, "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that's among you, you ought to think of himself more highly than he ought to think." That's another good verse to keep in your mind a lot.

    Frank Zitzman:

    24:29-24:35

    Psalm 103, 13 and 14, "Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him, for He knows our frame." He remembers we're just dust.

    Frank Zitzman:

    24:37-24:50

    See if you just keep the perspective right all the time, keep God up here and you down here, you can handle anything. I can't think of anything more tragic for a parent than to lose a child. There isn't any. Jeff already highlighted up here how important that is.

    Frank Zitzman:

    24:51-24:58

    But with the Lord, you can handle it. And we've just been able to do that, and I'm I'm so thankful, and I give all the glory to God for that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    24:59-25:01

    You have to realize that accepting weakness will breed strength.

    Frank Zitzman:

    25:02-25:14

    2 Corinthians 12.10 says that, "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, and approaches, and necessities, and persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong." Then am I strong.

    Frank Zitzman:

    25:15-25:20

    See, I guess the reason I'm really emphasizing all these verses to you is because, see, that's where it's at, folks.

    Frank Zitzman:

    25:21-25:26

    You need to put these deep into your soul before the tragedies come.

    Frank Zitzman:

    25:27-25:30

    And if you do, when they come, it's like a flood.

    Frank Zitzman:

    25:32-25:33

    And I know that, I've experienced that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    25:33-25:35

    It's amazing, it's amazing.

    Frank Zitzman:

    25:36-25:49

    My wife and I did a seminar one time, they said, somebody raised their hand, it was like a question and answer thing, they said, "Can you recommend a book "that could really help with tragedy?" And Sue and I were both sitting on a stage, I looked, I went,

    Pastor Jeff:

    25:49-25:49

    "Oh,

    25:50-25:50

    the

    Frank Zitzman:

    25:50-25:56

    Bible?" They were like, "Oh, well, I know that." I'm like, "Oh, see, as soon as they said that, I said, 'No, you don't.'" They don't.

    Frank Zitzman:

    25:57-25:59

    See, we underestimate the Bible.

    Frank Zitzman:

    25:59-26:01

    We do, we just underestimate the power of it.

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:01-26:03

    You put God's word into your heart and you really believe it?

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:04-26:05

    Folks, it really works.

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:06-26:07

    It really works.

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:08-26:10

    Strength comes from humbly abiding in God's presence.

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:11-26:13

    Two verses that support that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:14-26:14

    Call 911.

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:15-26:16

    I tell people that all the time.

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:16-26:16

    You hear that, call 911?

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:18-26:26

    Okay, Psalm 91, one says, "He who dwells in the secret place of the most high you'll abide under the shadow of the Almighty. You want to call 911? Go to that one.

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:27-26:41

    That's the one that can really help. Isaiah 57 15 says, "Thus saith the High and Lofty One of Heaven's Eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in a high and holy place." That's what I love about this music. You don't know. I just, oh, it's so great.

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:41-26:51

    "I dwell in a high and holy place with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit. He revives the spirit of the humble and he revives the heart of the contrite ones." If you If you aren't being revived, I'll tell you why that's a problem.

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:51-26:53

    It's certainly not because God isn't high enough.

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:54-26:55

    It isn't powerful enough.

    Frank Zitzman:

    26:55-26:59

    It's because you're not humbling enough.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:00-27:01

    You're not contrite enough.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:01-27:02

    See, that's what I love about the Bible.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:02-27:03

    Like I say, it has the truth.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:04-27:05

    You might not like it.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:05-27:06

    I don't like that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:06-27:07

    It offends me.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:07-27:08

    But I'll tell you what.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:09-27:10

    It heals.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:10-27:12

    The truth heals and the lie kills.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:12-27:13

    Don't forget that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:13-27:15

    That's a Dan Smith little rhyme.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:17-27:47

    You don't want to limit the Holy One by lack of lack of belief. That's what Israel did and in Psalm 78 41 Yea, they turned her back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. You don't ever want to limit God and So exciting folks. I can't you know, I wish I could put into words the experience it is to know God's Empowering and stamina in your life. I mean once you feel what it's like man. I'll tell you what That's why when I meet an atheist they say to me. Oh, there's no God My first thought was, "Oh, you're just ignorant.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:48-27:55

    You're just ignorant. That's the problem." Because I'm just like, "Don't tell me there's no God." I mean, it's just, you've got to be kidding me.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:55-27:57

    But whatever, that's another story.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:57-27:59

    I could go on all kinds of stuff about that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    27:59-28:00

    We'll have to come back and talk about that message sometime.

    Frank Zitzman:

    28:01-28:07

    So we'll go to the next "U." Understand God's big picture.

    Frank Zitzman:

    28:08-28:09

    Understand God's big picture.

    Frank Zitzman:

    28:09-28:11

    And here's the number one thing you need to do.

    Frank Zitzman:

    28:12-28:14

    You need to develop a "better than I deserve" mentality.

    Frank Zitzman:

    28:14-28:35

    When I was coming in today, I was asked, "How you doing, Frank?" First thing I said was, "Better than I deserve." But my buddy Dan Smith, friend of another friend who was in the prison ministry, I was talking with him the other day, we were at a wedding, and Dan goes, "Oh, I came up with another thing," I say, "Now." I said, "What do you say now?" He said, "Well, when people ask me how I'm doing, I'm saying, 'Not as good as I'm gonna be.'" And I'm like, "Whoa, that is really good!

    Frank Zitzman:

    28:36-28:39

    "Not as good as I'm gonna be!" 'Cause then right away people say, "Well, what do you mean?

    Frank Zitzman:

    28:39-28:41

    "You're gonna inherit something?" I go, "Well, I am!

    Frank Zitzman:

    28:42-28:46

    "I mean, it opens the door That's a good one too, but that's another good one.

    Frank Zitzman:

    28:46-28:48

    Okay. I mean, it's really great.

    Frank Zitzman:

    28:48-28:53

    And I get that you need to develop a better than I deserve mentality for Romans 6.23, because this is what we deserve.

    Frank Zitzman:

    28:53-28:55

    The wage of sin is death.

    Frank Zitzman:

    28:56-28:58

    So if you're still breathing, guess what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    28:59-29:00

    You got better than you deserve.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:01-29:02

    'Cause you're a sinner, folks.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:02-29:03

    We've already established that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:03-29:04

    We know you're a sinner.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:05-29:06

    Well, you deserve death.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:06-29:10

    And people say to me about my son, they say, well, I said, my son lived for 17 years.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:11-29:12

    He lived for 17 years.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:12-29:13

    He should have been dead when he was born.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:14-29:14

    All this should have been.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:15-29:19

    The fact that we breathe it all is such a blessing from God.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:19-29:20

    And see, we forget that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:21-29:21

    We forget it.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:23-29:25

    We got this horrible mentality in America.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:26-29:33

    Luke 17, 10, "So likewise you, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded to you, say, 'We are unprofitable servants.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:33-29:38

    We have done only that which is our duty to do.'" I've had so many people say to me when they've gone through something, "I don't know why God would do this to me.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:38-29:39

    I mean, I go to church.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:40-29:41

    What's happened to me?" Oh, really?

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:42-29:43

    I hear that and I think, "Oh yeah.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:44-29:44

    Have you done all?

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:46-29:54

    I mean, the Bible says, see, that's just a, you might not like that verse, but see, that verse is telling you that after you've done everything, after you've done it, then you're supposed to say you're on your duty.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:55-29:56

    You shouldn't be expecting anything.

    Frank Zitzman:

    29:58-30:03

    And again, we don't wanna hear that because we've got the Joel Olsteins preaching on TV and all these other knuckleheads.

    Frank Zitzman:

    30:04-30:08

    I mean, just polluting God's word and polluting what, ah, it just drives me nuts.

    Frank Zitzman:

    30:09-30:14

    I mean, people that love God, love the Lord, when they hear that stuff, it's just like, You just want to crawl out of your skin.

    Frank Zitzman:

    30:14-30:20

    I mean, it's so hard for me to deal with that, but anyhow, we had to go through that sometimes in a jail a couple times.

    Frank Zitzman:

    30:20-30:21

    It was kind of interesting that happened.

    Frank Zitzman:

    30:21-30:27

    Okay, remember, God is the creator and owner.

    30:29-30:30

    Please don't ever forget that.

    30:30-30:36

    See, that means, see, when you own something, that means that you get to say when it stays here, when it comes here, where it goes.

    30:37-30:38

    See, that's what I remember.

    30:38-30:39

    When my son died, I thought, you know what?

    30:40-30:40

    He's not my son.

    30:41-30:42

    Ultimately, he's God's son.

    30:43-30:46

    And if God chose to take him out of this life now, he has a reason for it.

    30:47-30:54

    See, if you just remember that, that God is the Creator and Owner, it'll really keep you from ever getting into this situation.

    30:55-30:59

    You never - I can't make that word big enough or bold enough -

    Frank Zitzman:

    30:59-31:03

    you never have a right to be angry with God.

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:04-31:04

    Oh.

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:05-31:13

    You know, when we lost our son, we had a pastor call us and tell us, "We can do counseling." counseling with people, grief counseling with people that lose loved ones.

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:14-31:18

    I just want you to know that, you know, if you get angry, when you get angry with God, you can give me a call.

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:19-31:21

    Like, a moment Sue said that to me, I said, "What?

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:22-31:23

    Angry with God?

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:24-31:27

    Are you kidding me?" I said, "What?

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:28-31:29

    Like it was God's fault?

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:30-31:32

    I mean, we brought sin in the world, right?

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:32-31:33

    I mean, and my son was a sinner.

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:33-31:36

    It's like, well, so now we're going to get angry with the only...

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:36-31:37

    You know, and you know what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:37-31:38

    Here's the real big thing.

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:38-31:40

    I mean, this is a selfish thing, but it's just the truth.

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:40-31:45

    I mean where else you gonna turn? Why you gonna get angry with anyone who can help you?

    Frank Zitzman:

    31:46-32:42

    I mean that's about stupid isn't it? I mean I'm just saying even if you're just being selfish about it but more importantly than that look at this verse Matthew 5 22 Jesus says this but I say unto you whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in the danger of judgment whosoever shall call his brother Raca shall be in danger of the council whosoever shall say Adolf Full shall be in danger of hellfire now this word Raka means a senseless empty-headed man all right the word fool there is the word moros it means kind of like moron right foolish impious godless okay so but the point of this verse is is that Jesus is saying if you get angry and disrespectful with a fellow sinner look what you're in danger of what do you think you might be in danger of if you get angry and disrespectful to the sinless one.

    Frank Zitzman:

    32:44-32:45

    You don't want to go there.

    Frank Zitzman:

    32:45-32:47

    I had a famous Bible teacher and he's really famous.

    Frank Zitzman:

    32:47-32:48

    He's written a lot of books.

    Frank Zitzman:

    32:49-32:52

    Him and I had a conversation one day and he told me, "Oh, Frank, listen.

    Frank Zitzman:

    32:53-32:54

    It's okay to be angry.

    Frank Zitzman:

    32:55-32:59

    You just don't stay there." I'm like, "Oh, you mean like murder.

    Frank Zitzman:

    32:59-33:00

    It's okay to murder.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:00-33:07

    Just don't keep doing it." "Well, it's just not quite the same." I said, "It's exactly the same because being angry is God's sin, folks.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:07-33:10

    It is." Now again, you might not want to hear that, but that's the truth.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:11-33:13

    People say, "Well, it's only the natural thing." Guess what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:13-33:15

    As Christians, we don't live in the natural.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:16-33:17

    We should be living in the supernatural.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:19-33:20

    And I understand why that happens.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:20-33:23

    I have a whole message I do on angering God, and maybe I'll come and do that sometime.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:24-33:26

    I try to be sensitive with people.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:26-33:27

    I don't have time to be sensitive today, so I'm going to be real blunt.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:29-33:32

    But anyhow, you just never, ever want to be angry with God.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:33-33:34

    Don't ever get in that situation.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:34-33:37

    It's just not a good place to be.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:38-33:43

    No, the next thing, remember a strong root always, always produces fruit.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:44-33:48

    And when you have a strong root in God's word, there'll always be fruit from it.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:48-33:50

    What a blessing it is to know that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:51-33:52

    So let's go to the L.

    Frank Zitzman:

    33:53-33:58

    The L is leave self on the shelf.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:00-34:05

    All right, now there can't be a better illustration of that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:06-34:07

    Well, you know, change your focus to the Lord.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:07-34:08

    Psalm 16, 8, 9.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:09-34:11

    I've set the Lord always before me, 'cause he's in my right hand.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:11-34:15

    I shall not be moved, therefore my heart is glad, my glory rejoices, my flesh will rest in him.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:15-34:17

    Take a moment and just look at that verse, okay?

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:17-34:19

    I want you to see what that says.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:19-34:24

    Okay, it says, "I shall not be moved." That means stability.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:25-34:28

    It says, "Therefore my heart is glad." Okay, that's happiness.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:29-34:30

    And my glory rejoices.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:31-34:32

    That's joy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:33-34:35

    So you get stability, happiness, joy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:36-34:41

    and the last one, "And my flesh shall also rest in hope." Stability, happiness, joy, and hope.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:41-34:43

    Do you know anybody that doesn't want that?

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:45-34:48

    I have never met anybody in my life that doesn't want that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:49-34:50

    And you know what, the way we get it?

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:51-34:52

    We set the Lord.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:52-34:53

    See, that's why I hate evolution so much.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:54-34:56

    'Cause what evolution does is it takes God out.

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:56-34:57

    You know what it does?

    Frank Zitzman:

    34:57-34:59

    It deprives everybody of that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    35:00-35:01

    They'll never have stability.

    Frank Zitzman:

    35:02-35:02

    They'll never have happiness.

    Frank Zitzman:

    35:03-35:03

    They'll never have joy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    35:03-35:14

    have hope without God. That's one of my favorite favorite verses. But see the only way you're gonna do that is if you leave self on the shelf. So you quit looking at self, quit looking at self's problems and everything else. You look at the Lord.

    Frank Zitzman:

    35:14-35:33

    You keep the Lord always before you. That's why knowing his word and having it ingrained in you is so helpful. Then the next verse, one of my favorites too. I'm probably gonna drive you people crazy I keep saying every verse is my favorite verse. I just love God's word so much. Isaiah 26 3 and 4, "Thou will keep him in Perfect peace! Who doesn't want that?

    Frank Zitzman:

    35:34-35:41

    "Who's my estate on thee, because you trust in Him." Trust you in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

    Frank Zitzman:

    35:41-35:44

    I mean, perfect peace, everlasting strength.

    Frank Zitzman:

    35:44-35:45

    I mean, who in the world?

    Frank Zitzman:

    35:46-35:47

    Think about that, folks.

    Frank Zitzman:

    35:47-35:51

    And if you're a Christian here today, that's available to you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    35:53-35:54

    No matter what you're going through.

    Frank Zitzman:

    35:54-35:59

    And see, I can say that with all authority, because I went through the most horrible thing a parent can go through, and I'll tell you what, I had it.

    Frank Zitzman:

    36:00-36:07

    It wasn't that second I was angry with God, because my God was there right by my side, and His word was flooding my mind.

    Frank Zitzman:

    36:08-36:09

    It made all the difference.

    Frank Zitzman:

    36:09-36:10

    Oh, it made all the difference.

    Frank Zitzman:

    36:11-36:18

    And then, you know, "Perfect Peace" is just something that I heard a guy do an illustration one time about peace, and he said they wanted this artist to draw a picture of peace, and they had this big contest.

    Frank Zitzman:

    36:18-36:28

    And one artist drew this picture of this beautiful summer setting, and there was a lake and a house, and everybody's like, "Oh." Then the next person, they showed their picture, and it was like a winter scene.

    Frank Zitzman:

    36:29-36:32

    And there's this little cabin and snow around and a little smoke coming out of the cabin.

    Frank Zitzman:

    36:34-36:35

    Then the third artist showed you this picture.

    Frank Zitzman:

    36:36-36:39

    Everybody goes, "Ah, there's a big gas!" Like, "What?" "It's a waterfall!

    Frank Zitzman:

    36:39-36:43

    "Waterfall coming over this, waves crashing and everything!" People were like, "What?

    Frank Zitzman:

    36:43-36:49

    "Who's the jerk that made a picture like that for peace?" And the artist's like, "Wait a second, folks.

    Frank Zitzman:

    36:49-36:57

    "You're not looking so close, like close enough." He went over to the waterfall and he showed a little branch sticking out there and there was a bird filling this nest right there.

    Frank Zitzman:

    36:59-37:09

    And this author said, "See, you have peace when in the midst of the turmoil, you're making a nest in your home right in the middle." That's perfect peace.

    Frank Zitzman:

    37:09-37:17

    And see, it's available to us if, if you put your mind on Him and not on you and your problems.

    Frank Zitzman:

    37:18-37:23

    So, but here's the ultimate example, Luke 22, 42 to 43.

    Frank Zitzman:

    37:26-37:29

    Anybody that knows the gospels, You know who's speaking here, right?

    Frank Zitzman:

    37:30-37:30

    This is Jesus.

    Frank Zitzman:

    37:31-37:33

    And I wanna show you something here that a lot of people miss.

    Frank Zitzman:

    37:33-37:35

    I think this is so, so important.

    Frank Zitzman:

    37:36-37:41

    Saying, "Father, if you'll be willing, "remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will, "but thine be done." That's verse 42.

    Frank Zitzman:

    37:43-37:48

    Then verse 43, "There appeared an angel unto him from heaven." So here you have the scene.

    Frank Zitzman:

    37:49-37:56

    Jesus has gone through the most horrendous trial and event anybody go through, carrying the sin of the world.

    Frank Zitzman:

    37:57-38:03

    And he's crying out to God, but he says, but you know what, I would just let this cup pass from me.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:04-38:05

    So there's nothing wrong with asking for that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:06-38:09

    But notice Jesus right away says, nevertheless not my will, but yours be done.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:09-38:12

    So he basically submits to God's sovereignty.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:12-38:18

    And there appeared an angel into him from heaven, and look at what the angel does, strengthening him.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:19-38:22

    See, if you want God's strength, that's what you need to do.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:23-38:24

    He is the ultimate example.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:26-38:30

    And I'm telling you folks, and when you do it, it's astounding.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:30-38:34

    It is absolutely astounding what God can do in your life and the strength He brings.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:35-38:36

    It's just overwhelming.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:37-38:37

    Overwhelming to me.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:38-38:40

    And again, I don't know how anybody...

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:40-38:41

    Well, they just don't know.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:41-38:42

    But here's an example.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:42-38:44

    We talked about Job at the beginning.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:44-38:45

    I was saying what a great guy Job was.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:45-38:50

    But see, if you read all the books of Job, you start finding out, uh-oh, there's a few places where Job's not too great a guy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:51-38:52

    And here's one of them.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:52-38:53

    Job 29-23.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:53-38:55

    Notice the words I have in white.

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:56-38:57

    Can everybody see them?

    Frank Zitzman:

    38:58-39:05

    "My, me, my, my, me, me, my, my, me." Now, does that sound like you've got the Lord always before him?

    Frank Zitzman:

    39:06-39:08

    I mean, what's that sound like?

    Frank Zitzman:

    39:08-39:12

    "My words, they spoke, they waited for me as the fruit of the rain." He's remembering how great he was.

    Frank Zitzman:

    39:14-39:17

    You know what? If you read Job 29, that's one of the lowest parts in Job's life.

    Frank Zitzman:

    39:18-39:18

    And isn't it interesting?

    Frank Zitzman:

    39:19-39:21

    Isn't it interesting where he's focusing?

    Frank Zitzman:

    39:21-39:23

    And you'll see that throughout the book of Job.

    Frank Zitzman:

    39:24-39:28

    Anytime Job's at a low point, take a look at what he's thinking about God, and what he's thinking about him.

    Frank Zitzman:

    39:29-39:33

    He's derailing God, essentially, really, and he's thinking about him.

    Frank Zitzman:

    39:34-39:37

    See, you need to believe what 2 Corinthians 1:3 says about God's character.

    Frank Zitzman:

    39:38-39:48

    And that is, "Blessed be the God, even the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort." He's the God of all comfort.

    Frank Zitzman:

    39:48-39:50

    One of the greatest titles there is in the Bible for God.

    Frank Zitzman:

    39:50-39:56

    And when you go through a tragedy, let me tell you, you realize that's a man's life.

    Frank Zitzman:

    39:56-39:59

    See, God is not a persecutor.

    Frank Zitzman:

    40:00-40:02

    And He's not a forsaker.

    Frank Zitzman:

    40:02-40:04

    Now I know your outline says abandoner, I never changed that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    40:04-40:06

    Forsaker, that just sounds like a more educated word.

    Frank Zitzman:

    40:07-40:13

    Forsaker! He's not an adversary, He's not an accuser, and He's not a prosecutor.

    Frank Zitzman:

    40:13-40:14

    Not a persecutor or a prosecutor.

    Frank Zitzman:

    40:15-40:46

    And the reason I put those on there like that is because unfortunately, If you look in the book of Job, you're gonna see that's exactly what Job says about God And every time he says it He's always down He's not able to deal with the situation What a great picture see if we can just avoid it. See that you know what folks That's why the book of Job is there by the way. That's why God gave that to us to show us that's humanity But we know with Christ see we can overcome that So we need to replace our why?

    Frank Zitzman:

    40:47-40:48

    With a what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    40:49-40:51

    You know when every time tragedy happens you go why just why?

    Frank Zitzman:

    40:52-41:05

    You need to replace it with a what and I use an example that acts 9 6 And acts 9 6 it says and he trembling. This is the Apostle Paul God slammed his face in the dirt and he looked up and he said why are you doing this to me?

    Frank Zitzman:

    41:06-41:09

    No, he says Lord. What will you have me to do?

    Frank Zitzman:

    41:10-41:14

    So you need to get that mentality in your life. You change your why to a what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    41:14-41:29

    You know what God answers prayer in that passage by the way if you if you read through it Then second Corinthians 1 for just another verse that I threw in there to talk about how the reason God Comforts us in our tribulation is so we can cover other people. I mean that makes sense, right?

    Frank Zitzman:

    41:30-41:34

    I have a pastor our pastor down in Kentucky. He when we first moved there. He said, you know what Frank?

    Frank Zitzman:

    41:34-42:00

    He had me speak at their church and he said that you know He said there are that Sue and I were on special assignment in Kentucky When he said it I thought you know what that's so true See whatever trial you go through some big tragedy if you go through a major tragedy you ought to consider it a privilege if you're a Christian Because God's chosen you with a special son You're gonna be able to comfort others and go through the same thing. How's the world gonna get comfort?

    Frank Zitzman:

    42:01-43:10

    Gonna do the psychotherapist We already find out he ain't gonna help. Okay, so You just don't want to live with your mistakes you want to learn from them. Psalm 85 8 is a verse that I just kind of threw understanding your outline but this is about the God saying to the children of Israel I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace unto his people and to his saints and let them not turn again to following. See when you have make a mistake in your life you just need to learn from it. Okay now see the reason this is significant to me is because guess who bought my son his motorcycle me see the day that Troy was killed what do you think I was second you know what maybe was a mistake but you know what there's nothing I can do about now I mean I said I'd live with but see that's where my next point comes in we don't live in the what-if we live in the what now don't ever forget that. Even if you're responsible, you know what? That's in the past, man. You can't do anything about the past, but you know what you can do? Something about the future. And really, we don't live in the past, we live in the future, we live in the present, right?

    Frank Zitzman:

    43:11-43:36

    So what we need to do is focus on the present and learn. Just learn. And believe me, hey, we all got a lot to learn, right? We're never done. We're never done learning. Philippians 3.13 illustrates that. "Brethren, I count on myself to apprehend it, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth with those things that are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

    Frank Zitzman:

    43:36-44:51

    That word "press" is really interesting. It's a word in the Greek is "dioko" and what it means is to pursue in a hostile manner. Are you doing that? You need to pursue the goal of being Christ-like in a hostile manner. And actually, another thing is that that word is in what they call the present tense in the Greek. What that means is it's a continual action so you should always be doing that now I know that's not easy but I'm telling you we should be doing that and again like I say the Bible has answers we just have to just gonna do it so the next one you need to confess rather than depress a couple verses there for that first John 1 9 I'm sure you're all familiar with that one just about all of us know that one cuz we gotta do that lot if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us And then Proverbs 28 13 another one of my really favorite ones that anybody that confesses and forsakes going to have God's mercy So and then the last thing I have on this point is you need to use your gift to serve others and You can look those verses up But both of them talk about being good that God gives grace to the humble God gives grace to humble We just need to be humble and the best way to do that serve others. That's my that's my wife She's like oh my gosh. I mean I've never met anybody in my life that serves like her.

    Frank Zitzman:

    44:52-44:55

    I mean, everybody's needs all the time.

    Frank Zitzman:

    44:55-44:57

    I mean, she's just a blessing, but you know what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    44:57-44:59

    That's how Sue can deal with her situation.

    Frank Zitzman:

    44:59-45:00

    You know what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    45:00-45:02

    You need to use your gifts, whatever gifts God's given you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    45:02-45:04

    You're in a tragedy, hey, get busy using those gifts.

    Frank Zitzman:

    45:04-45:07

    Get your eyes off of you, and you'll see such a difference.

    Frank Zitzman:

    45:08-45:14

    Okay, so the next one, P, praise God for his provision.

    Frank Zitzman:

    45:16-46:17

    And I like to say that praise is the ultimate, depression medicine It really is Psalm 61 8 and I never think Psalm 61 8 is just the reverse of Psalm 16 8 Look what it says so I sing praise and I name forever that I may daily perform my vows and I really prefer this translation when it says that because some parents I should say as And I think it should be that because let me tell you that's how you end up doing your vows If you start singing praises unto his name that that's where the power comes from to do this that's why you don't indulge your weakness and you don't lay in it you praise God and move on and it's just a blessing and once again the scripture tells us that pretty clear there so I always encourage people to take a scripture prescription and rejoice and this is the verse that applies with that be anxious for nothing but everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be known to God and the peace of God, there's that peace again, passes all understanding.

    Frank Zitzman:

    46:17-46:24

    I had a lady stay at our house one time that was going to the museum, she said to me, she says, "When you're in a fix, "think of Philippians 4:6.

    Frank Zitzman:

    46:26-46:37

    "And if you want a piece of heaven, read verse seven." So I thought that was pretty neat, 'cause she said, "You're in a fix, "and then you get a piece of heaven "because God gives you your understanding." I'll just never forget that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    46:38-46:39

    You're in a fix, think of Philippians 4.

    Frank Zitzman:

    46:40-46:41

    I'm kind of a poet at heart.

    Frank Zitzman:

    46:43-46:53

    Okay, 1 Corinthians 15 is another great verse that shows, that just illustrates this point of how when you praise God, you put these verses into your mind, He gives you victory.

    Frank Zitzman:

    46:54-46:58

    I mean, think of this, folks, victory over death and the grave.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:00-47:02

    That's our biggest enemies, and they've been conquered.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:04-47:06

    Oh, I'm just so thankful for that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:06-47:10

    You stand by a girl with a dead child, Let me tell you, you're really thankful.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:12-47:14

    Isn't it just great to be a Christian?

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:15-47:17

    If you're here today and you're not a Christian, I feel sorry for you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:18-47:19

    I really do.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:19-47:20

    I really do.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:22-47:28

    Romans 8, 37, "Nay, in all these things, "we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Think about that for a second.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:28-47:29

    More than a conqueror.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:29-47:31

    I mean, everybody, I mean, conqueror, that's like the peak, isn't it?

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:31-47:32

    I mean, how could there be more?

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:33-47:34

    What in the world?

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:34-47:38

    What would be more, what's better than a conqueror?

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:38-47:41

    I mean, and I think I have the answer for that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:41-47:44

    And it's this, an endurer.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:45-47:47

    'Cause see, sometimes when you conquer, you just quit.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:48-47:48

    Hey, I won!

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:49-47:52

    But see, somebody that's an endurer, they never quit.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:53-47:55

    Win or lose, they keep going.

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:56-47:56

    And you know what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    47:57-48:00

    That's exactly what Christ does in your life for you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    48:00-48:03

    He enables you to keep going if you keep your focus on Him.

    Frank Zitzman:

    48:04-48:05

    What a blessing.

    Frank Zitzman:

    48:06-48:15

    The last thing in sculpt is T, and that is testify to God's amazing grace.

    Frank Zitzman:

    48:15-48:26

    And again, like I told you before, the progression there, if you're submitting to God's sovereignty, you're confessing your weakness, you're understanding God's big picture, you're leaving self on the shelf, you will praise him and you will testify.

    Frank Zitzman:

    48:26-48:27

    That's gonna happen.

    Frank Zitzman:

    48:27-48:28

    It's just gonna flow.

    Frank Zitzman:

    48:29-48:30

    It's just gonna flow.

    Frank Zitzman:

    48:31-48:33

    And I wanna show you something here that I think's really interesting.

    Frank Zitzman:

    48:34-48:36

    You're probably familiar with this passage, Matthew 7.

    Frank Zitzman:

    48:37-48:49

    "Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine, "I will like him unto a wise man "and build his house upon a rock." So this is a very powerful passage, but I think a lot of people have never seen this, I'm sure you probably haven't.

    Frank Zitzman:

    48:49-48:56

    It says, "The rain descended, floods came, "and they beat upon that house." Now see that verse 25 says, "Beat upon that house." But notice what's different.

    Frank Zitzman:

    48:57-49:02

    Beat upon in verse 25 is a different word, a different Greek word.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:03-49:04

    Now this is why that's important.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:06-49:07

    Okay, this is Matthew 7.25 again.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:07-49:09

    "Beat upon that," that's the word prospecto.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:10-49:12

    It means this, to fall upon.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:13-49:18

    Every place else that's used in the Bible, it means to prostrate oneself before in homage or supplication at one's feet.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:18-49:19

    That's worship, folks.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:21-49:23

    Okay, now look, six times it refers to Christ.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:24-49:25

    I have all those verses down there for you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:25-49:26

    One time it refers to Paul.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:28-49:29

    Now think about this.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:29-49:32

    The Bible's saying that if you're built on a rock, the storm comes.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:33-49:35

    See, when you're built on the sand, you just get knocked over.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:36-49:36

    You're built on a rock.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:36-49:42

    Not only does it not knock you over, it bows to you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:43-49:49

    See, you can use your grief instead of your grief abusing you when you're built on a rock.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:50-49:51

    That is such a powerful...

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:51-49:54

    You know, when I found this, it got so good to me.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:55-49:59

    I found this one day I was grieving, just really upset about losing Troy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    49:59-50:00

    I was just having a rough day.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:01-50:03

    And the Lord laid on my heart, you need to read Matthew 7, Frank.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:03-50:05

    And I thought, why do I need to read that for?

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:05-50:06

    I know what that says.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:07-50:09

    I mean, I taught that in a jail for years.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:09-50:10

    I don't need to read that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:11-50:15

    I went and I looked it up and I found out, I discovered this.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:16-50:17

    Now, isn't that interesting?

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:18-50:22

    See, so many times the Bible is, they're such so rich, it's so deep.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:22-50:24

    We don't even scratch the surface.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:24-50:25

    Don't even scratch the surface.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:25-50:26

    That's just a powerful truth.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:27-50:32

    And it's another reason I testify to God's amazing grace because God showed that to me when I needed it.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:33-50:35

    I just think that's a powerful, powerful truth.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:36-50:38

    Then a couple other verses there I'd draw your attention to.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:38-50:43

    The invisible things of him, Romans 1:20, for the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:44-50:49

    He was the eternal power and God had, oh, I could stand here for a long time and talk to you about the things that were made.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:49-50:51

    But I want you to see that that's creation, okay?

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:52-50:56

    Now that word there for creation is the same word here for workmanship, Ephesians 2:10.

    Frank Zitzman:

    50:57-50:59

    We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus under good works.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:00-51:01

    Here's what's really interesting.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:02-51:04

    Poiema is the word for both of those, things that are made in workmanship.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:04-51:05

    What's that word look like?

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:07-51:07

    Home, right?

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:08-51:16

    You realize, folks, that God's creation and God's recreation, us, are God's poetry for the world.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:17-51:19

    And we should be, you know, what's poetry do?

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:20-51:22

    Poetry's just so comforting and soothing.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:22-51:23

    That's what we're meant to be.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:24-51:28

    And if you apply what I share with you here today, I'm telling you, you'll be able to do that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:29-51:30

    you will be able to do that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:30-51:32

    It's just such a wonderful blessing to know that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:34-51:38

    I have a poem I want to read to you, Real, that I think will bless you, I hope it does.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:39-51:43

    It's a poem that I wrote about this whole situation we went through.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:44-51:48

    And it's just really meaningful to me and I hope it's a blessing to you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:48-51:50

    I call it an opportunity to.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:51-51:52

    And it goes like this.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:52-51:55

    Several years have passed since we lost our dear Troy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:56-51:58

    Words can't describe how we miss that boy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    51:58-52:03

    We will never forget his smiling face and the joy that he brought us here in this place.

    Frank Zitzman:

    52:04-52:07

    Yes, the grief is real and sometimes hard to bear.

    Frank Zitzman:

    52:08-52:12

    But praise be to God, there's still victory to share.

    Frank Zitzman:

    52:13-52:20

    Death's ugly sting has been vanquished, you see, by the Jesus who died for you and for me.

    Frank Zitzman:

    52:21-52:25

    Oh, tragedies will come on this old cursed earth, but they can quickly become opportunities for birth.

    Frank Zitzman:

    52:25-52:33

    If we keep our dear Lord in his rightful place and offer him praise, oh what a difference it makes.

    Frank Zitzman:

    52:35-52:42

    So here's my praise to the awesome one who not only holds my precious son.

    Frank Zitzman:

    52:43-52:50

    Thank you dear Lord for the opportunity to tell others about the glories of you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    52:50-53:14

    for the way that you comfort in the midst of such sorrow, for the hope that you bring and you give in a brighter tomorrow, for the doors that you open for us to proclaim the soul-cleansing gospel that wipes away shame, for the stamina that comes from your powerful word, for the freedom that comes when your message is heard, for the way that you take what is broken and crushed and infuse it with life through your sovereign touch.

    Frank Zitzman:

    53:16-53:18

    Oh, what a blessing to be a child of the Master.

    Frank Zitzman:

    53:20-53:27

    and experience from the face of disaster, just thank you, dear Lord, for the opportunity to tell others about the glories of you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    53:28-53:31

    If you're a Christian, folks, that should be your attitude.

    Frank Zitzman:

    53:32-53:35

    Telling others about the glories of God, no matter what happens.

    Frank Zitzman:

    53:35-53:42

    And I assure you, folks, if you develop that attitude and cultivate it, whatever does happen, well, you will.

    Frank Zitzman:

    53:44-53:50

    We are so blessed, so blessed to know the King of Kings And Lord of Lords.

    Frank Zitzman:

    53:51-53:54

    The last thing I have up there, the Liberating Stephen Principle.

    Frank Zitzman:

    53:55-53:58

    That's out of Acts 7, 51 to 60, and I'm not going to read all those to you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    53:58-53:59

    Everybody will go to sleep.

    Frank Zitzman:

    53:59-54:00

    But I encourage you to read that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:01-54:04

    I really encourage you to read that because this is a story about Stephen.

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:05-54:07

    And what I really love about this story is this.

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:07-54:08

    This really ministers to me.

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:08-54:09

    I hope it ministers to you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:10-54:12

    See, Stephen was the first Christian martyr.

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:14-54:16

    Now, just imagine how the church felt.

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:16-54:18

    You got this firebrand.

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:18-54:20

    I mean, this guy that's turning the world on fire, man.

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:20-54:25

    He's standing in front of this anhedral bonus, and all of a sudden he's dead!

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:27-54:29

    People will be like, "Oh man!

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:29-54:30

    Why God let that

    54:30-54:32

    happen?"

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:32-54:32

    Oh!

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:33-54:42

    But when I mention Stephen in the Bible to anybody that knows the Bible, the first word they think of, it isn't coward.

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:44-54:45

    And it isn't timid.

    Frank Zitzman:

    54:49-55:15

    courageous, brave, bold. See, Stephen's job for the church was to infuse it with that at that particular time at the church of all. You know what folks, whatever your gift is, God wants you to use it. But when you're done using it, it's time for you to leave. When I lost my son, there's so many things I remember about Troy as a 17 year old. If he'd have been a 30 year old, I might not remember I remember those.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:16-55:16

    He may have changed.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:17-55:20

    But I'll never forget some of the greatest things that he did in my life.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:20-55:21

    I'll never forget that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:22-55:23

    I had another dear friend, his name was Joe McEwen.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:24-55:26

    He went into the prison ministry with me for years before Jeff came along.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:26-55:27

    And Jeff's a lot like him.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:28-55:29

    That's why I love Jeff so much.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:29-55:30

    I love Joe so much.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:31-55:32

    Joe died of a sudden heart failure.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:34-55:35

    And I'll never forget when that happened.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:35-55:38

    I was like, and one of the guys in the prison, this is what the prison was like.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:38-55:45

    We went into prison, I went into prison the next week, and one of the guys in the prison says to me, "Hey, tell us about your good God now.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:45-55:46

    It's your buddy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:46-55:54

    What happened to your buddy?" You know, sometimes in the prison ministry, it was really hard for me to restrain myself.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:55-55:56

    In fact, that's why Joe was there.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:57-55:59

    And I really believe that's why Jeff came to my life too.

    Frank Zitzman:

    55:59-56:00

    'Cause there was times I was telling

    Pastor Jeff:

    56:00-56:01

    him, "Whoa."

    56:02-56:02

    And

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:02-56:06

    I'm like, "Okay." And right away, the Lord's so good to me now.

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:06-56:07

    God says.

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:08-56:09

    So I said, "You know what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:10-56:13

    I'm really glad you brought up about that God, that good God.

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:14-56:16

    Because that guy, that guy you talked about, Joe, I said, "Do you know him?

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:17-56:19

    "Did you know him really well?" Well, I knew he came in here.

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:19-56:21

    I said, "No, I mean, do you know him really well?

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:22-56:25

    "I mean, Joe McHugh wouldn't come in here "and take the shoes off his feet and give to you guys.

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:26-56:27

    "He was a giver, man.

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:27-56:33

    "I mean, he was so compassionate, he just gave everything." I said, "He came to a point in his life, "he had a bad heart.

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:34-56:39

    "He's got to be a taker and not a giver." That would have been a living hell for Joe McHugh.

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:40-56:51

    So what did my good God do? He says, "Hey Joe, you're done spending your gifts this time." So I'm glad you brought him up. Let's talk some more about him.

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:51-56:54

    About what you need from that good God. It was a great night.

    Frank Zitzman:

    56:55-56:59

    But the whole point of the Stephen principle is, you know what, God has a purpose for everybody.

    Frank Zitzman:

    57:00-57:05

    So when anybody passes and you, I mean, you know what, that was God, God's gonna use, you just need to think.

    Frank Zitzman:

    57:06-57:08

    God thoughts. Just gonna think God thoughts.

    Frank Zitzman:

    57:09-57:12

    But see, usually when I share this message with people, I say, "You know what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    57:13-57:14

    I'm talking to people that are Christians.

    Frank Zitzman:

    57:14-57:24

    I want to believe everybody here knows the Lord, but I'm not so naive to think that everybody does." So all the things I told you about the sculpt, those are applicable to a Christian's life.

    Frank Zitzman:

    57:25-57:28

    But if you're here today and you're not a Christian, I have something I want to share with you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    57:29-57:30

    And it has to do with my son.

    Frank Zitzman:

    57:32-57:40

    Whenever we were in a hospital and we first got there, they took us to this little room And Sue was just devastated.

    Frank Zitzman:

    57:41-57:46

    I was devastated too, but to tell you the truth, I kind of felt in my heart, we drove past, we had to drive by the accident scene.

    Frank Zitzman:

    57:46-57:51

    We saw the motorcycle smashed, book bag splattered over the pavement.

    Frank Zitzman:

    57:52-57:54

    So I kind of figured that Troy was gone.

    Frank Zitzman:

    57:55-58:01

    And I was praying the whole way from that scene to the hospital, God just give me the strength to hold my family together.

    Frank Zitzman:

    58:02-58:36

    And we get there and they get us to the room and we're in the room and Sue's just begging the nurse is saying, "Hey, is my son, how is he?" And I said, "Ma'am, we can't say anything, the doctor ought to tell you." And Sue was just like, "Just tell me if he's alive, tell me if he's alive." Well, the doctor comes in the room and he walks in and we're both standing there and Sue's just, you know, tears, doctor looks and he says, he's standing there and he leans over to the nurse and he goes, "What was his name again?" I'm standing there thinking, "What kind of an idiot?" I'm, you know, that's just my flashback.

    Frank Zitzman:

    58:37-58:43

    What kind of an idiot would come into a room with a grieving mother and father and not even know the boy's name?

    Frank Zitzman:

    58:44-58:45

    But he wasn't done yet.

    Frank Zitzman:

    58:46-58:47

    They said his name's Troy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    58:47-58:49

    He looks at us, he goes, oh, Troy's dead, he died.

    Frank Zitzman:

    58:51-58:51

    Just like that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    58:53-58:55

    I'll tell you, soon she collapsed in my arms.

    Frank Zitzman:

    58:56-58:56

    It's a good thing she did.

    Frank Zitzman:

    58:57-59:00

    'Cause if she had not collapsed in my arms, the doctor would have probably collapsed on the floor.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:00-59:02

    'Cause I was ready to nail him, buddy.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:02-59:03

    I was like, you gotta be kidding me.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:04-59:05

    And I looked at the nurses, I said, you know what?

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:05-59:08

    The best thing for you to do is to get this man out of here and get him out of here now.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:09-59:10

    So they took him out.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:13-59:20

    I share that story with you to let you know that, see that doctor, he had a message of death for me.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:21-59:26

    He had a message that was communicated to me very rudely, a life and death message.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:28-59:34

    Well, the Lord impressed upon my heart, he said, you know, Frank, You have the real life death message, the gospel.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:36-59:39

    And you don't wanna be rude like that doctor was to you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:40-59:42

    And sometimes I have been, and I feel bad about that.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:43-59:46

    So if you're here today and you're not a Christian, I don't wanna be rude to you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:47-59:48

    But I do want you to know something.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:49-59:56

    You need the God that I know, and you need him desperately, desperately.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:56-59:57

    And here's how you get him.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:57-59:58

    You need a sculpt.

    Frank Zitzman:

    59:59-01:00:00

    You need to submit to God's sovereignty too.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:00:00-01:00:01

    You need to confess your sin.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:00:02-01:00:10

    You need to understand that God sent his son, his only begotten son, to pay for that sin, and then you need to turn away from self and put your trust in him.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:00:10-01:00:14

    And if you do, you will praise and testify to God as well.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:00:15-01:00:17

    Now for the final picture.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:00:18-01:00:19

    Isn't that great?

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:00:19-01:00:19

    I love that picture.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:00:20-01:00:26

    People, when they see this picture, they usually say, "Oh, it's the lion laying down "with the lamb and the millennial and everything.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:00:26-01:00:33

    "In fact, there's a millennial theater "that they have this out in front of there "and everything." And everybody goes, "Oh yeah, it's the lion." If you do a little Bible search, you're gonna find out He talks about the lion and the lamb laying together.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:00:35-01:00:38

    Talks about the wolf and the lamb, but never says a lion and a lamb.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:00:39-01:00:46

    See, the reason I love it, we came to Kentucky, and I said, I have this at home, I pick it up when I do a presentation, when I have it with me, but I can't pick that up, so we'll get it up first.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:00:46-01:00:50

    I always tell people, praise the Lord for Hobby Lobby, 'cause I got that at Hobby Lobby.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:00:51-01:00:55

    But what I love about this picture is that it's a lion and a lamb.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:00:56-01:01:02

    See, Jesus came the first time as a lamb, In humility, offering salvation.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:04-01:01:06

    He's coming the second time as a lion.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:08-01:01:10

    In wrath, offering judgment.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:11-01:01:13

    I don't know how much you know about a lion or a lamb, but you don't want to meet a lion.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:14-01:01:15

    You want to meet a lamb.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:16-01:01:21

    So I encourage you here today, if you don't know Jesus, come to Him as a lamb.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:22-01:01:25

    Because I assure you, you will be coming to Him.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:26-01:01:28

    If you don't come to Him as a lamb, you're going to come to Him as a lion.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:29-01:01:30

    and you don't want to see him that way.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:33-01:01:35

    So, praise the Lord.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:36-01:01:38

    Thanks so much for this opportunity to share with you folks.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:40-01:01:41

    But let's pray, and I'll be done.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:42-01:01:46

    Almighty God and Father, what a blessing, Lord.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:47-01:01:53

    I'm so thankful to my brother Jeff for just giving me an opportunity, Lord, to go through all this information again for my own life.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:01:54-01:02:04

    Forgive me, Father, for the many times that I have forgotten all the things that I've encouraged and exhorted everybody else here to do, Lord, there's so many times when I get frustrated.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:02:04-01:02:06

    I don't think of Psalm 61 too like I should.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:02:08-01:02:09

    I get frustrated with my wife.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:02:09-01:02:10

    I don't treat her the way a lot of times I should.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:02:12-01:02:17

    Thank you, God, so much for your Word and the cleansing power that it has.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:02:17-01:02:25

    And I do pray, Lord, sincerely for all these people, that if they know you, God, that they grow deeper in your Word and fall deeper in love with you.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:02:25-01:02:26

    It makes all the difference.

    Frank Zitzman:

    01:02:26-01:02:36

    don't know you God please burden their hearts Lord God use us Lord as a tool to reach them for your glorious kingdom it's in Jesus name I pray

Homosexuality

The Bible and My Response

- (Genesis 2:24-25)

Intro:


What is marriage in the eyes of God?

  1. A Covenant relationship between a man and a woman.

  2. A Picture of Christ and the Church.

  3. A married couple enjoying a God Designed sexual expression.

Jeremiah Canfield - Pastor Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh East

Review: Leviticus 18:22; 20:13 | Romans 1:18-33


What do we do?

  1. Stop Avoiding them.

  2. Give them the Gospel first.

  3. Love them, but not Accepting what they do.

  4. Guide them as part of the body of Christ.

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

  • Mark Ort:

    00:21-00:21

    Good morning, guys.

    Mark Ort:

    00:22-00:28

    If you're new around here, usually Jeff Miller's going to be standing here right about now.

    Mark Ort:

    00:29-00:35

    And he is over at our sister church in Pittsburgh East, near Monroeville.

    Mark Ort:

    00:36-00:39

    And Jeremiah Canfield from Pittsburgh East is here this morning.

    Mark Ort:

    00:39-00:40

    We did kind of like a pastor swap.

    Mark Ort:

    00:41-00:50

    So Jeff usually studies and takes the month of July to prepare for the next calendar year of preaching.

    Mark Ort:

    00:50-00:53

    And so we have guest speakers lined up for the month of July usually.

    Mark Ort:

    00:54-01:01

    And today is our last guest speaker, and it's Jeremiah Canfield, again from Pittsburgh East.

    Mark Ort:

    01:01-01:03

    And just a couple of things about Jeremiah.

    Mark Ort:

    01:03-01:11

    I first heard Jeremiah speak at Harvest University two years ago on the very topic that he's going to be speaking about today.

    Mark Ort:

    01:11-01:19

    And it really changed my view of other people who may not be like us.

    Mark Ort:

    01:20-01:22

    And I was very convicted about that.

    Mark Ort:

    01:23-01:25

    And it really changed the way I think.

    Mark Ort:

    01:26-01:27

    And so you'll be challenged with that today.

    Mark Ort:

    01:28-01:33

    I didn't meet Jeremiah until last year at a pirate game.

    Mark Ort:

    01:34-01:36

    We met at a pirate game and that was pretty cool.

    Mark Ort:

    01:37-01:39

    I don't even remember if the pirates won that game or not.

    Mark Ort:

    01:40-01:50

    And then we spent some time together, Jeremiah and his church's leadership and our church's leadership spent some time together in January in Pittsburgh.

    Mark Ort:

    01:51-01:54

    And I really kind of got a feel for who he was.

    Mark Ort:

    01:55-01:58

    He's a warm and engaging individual.

    Mark Ort:

    01:58-02:01

    And you could tell that he loves the Lord.

    Mark Ort:

    02:01-02:03

    And he loves God's people.

    Mark Ort:

    02:04-02:05

    He loves the church.

    Mark Ort:

    02:05-02:13

    And we have some things that we want to do Pittsburgh East in the coming years, and we're looking forward to that.

    Mark Ort:

    02:13-02:27

    Jeremiah has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biblical Studies from Northland University, and he has a Master's of Arts in Religion from Liberty University, and he's been serving at Harvest Pittsburgh East since 2013, right?

    Mark Ort:

    02:28-02:29

    He is married.

    Mark Ort:

    02:29-02:31

    His wife and kids aren't here today.

    Mark Ort:

    02:32-02:41

    They're over at their church, his wife Stephanie, and they have five kids, two sons, Titus and and three daughters, Eliana, Selah, and Charis.

    Mark Ort:

    02:42-02:46

    And so maybe we can give a warm Pittsburgh North welcome to Jeremiah.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    02:54-02:54

    Well, good morning.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    02:56-02:57

    It is a privilege and an honor to be here.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    02:58-03:00

    So grateful for your pastor.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    03:01-03:04

    Jeff is a good friend and a godly man.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    03:04-03:08

    And if this is your first time here, then please come back because you need to hear Jeff speak.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    03:09-03:11

    So don't judge the church by how I speak, okay?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    03:11-03:15

    But I know Jeff is gonna do a great job.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    03:15-03:16

    Look forward to him bringing the word at my church.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    03:17-03:35

    And it's just a privilege to be 45 minutes from each other and not have to worry about fighting, but able to say, "Hey, we're here for one goal, "and that is to see the gospel proclaimed in Pittsburgh "and to be able to come together and to do things like this "and look forward to doing it more in the future "and just how that we can be a greater force." Two's better than one, right?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    03:35-03:40

    And Lord willing, we're gonna have three and four and five and more churches planned here in this area.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    03:41-03:43

    And we look forward to seeing what God's gonna do in Pittsburgh.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    03:44-03:47

    And so I thank you for the privilege to come and to preach.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    03:48-03:55

    If you have your Bibles, you can go to the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter two, Genesis chapter two.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    03:55-04:01

    Now, I can't say that the topic today is probably the easiest one to speak on.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    04:02-04:04

    To be honest, I don't even like to.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    04:04-04:08

    when Jeff asked me to speak, it's always an honor to preach at someone's church.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    04:09-04:17

    But then when he said he wants me to speak on this topic, I can't say I got truly excited about it, but I do believe it's an important one.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    04:18-04:34

    And if you've looked at your bulletin and seen what we're gonna talk on homosexuality today, I believe it is in our culture today and where we are at and what is taking place in our culture and what is being pushed in our culture, I believe it's important that we understand what the Bible truly says.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    04:35-04:49

    And so I hope what we get across today as we walk through some things is to understand truly what the Bible says about homosexuality, but also what is our response as the Christians, what are we supposed to be doing?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    04:49-04:53

    Because I'll be honest, I believe the church is not doing a very good job at that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    04:54-05:02

    And I believe we've almost been blindsided over the last probably five to six, maybe seven years that this has kind of become more predominant.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:02-05:05

    And I believe the church has been behind, has not responded properly.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:06-05:09

    And so I wanna share some things as we look at God's Word today.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:10-05:18

    And if you would, let me just pray real quickly as we dive in, because I can't do this without God's strength, and I don't think you can listen to it without God's strength.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:18-05:19

    And so let's pray.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:20-05:20

    God, we need you.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:21-05:24

    As we sang today, Lord, you are our only hope.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:25-05:32

    God, I pray, Lord, as we look at this topic, Lord, I pray that we would see clearly what the Word of God says.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:33-05:35

    Lord, You know every heart here.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:35-05:40

    You know if they're struggling with this issue, if they know somebody who's struggling with this issue.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:40-05:46

    So God, I pray that You would show them truly what Your Word says on this issue and how to move forward.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:46-05:48

    Lord, for Your glory, we ask these things.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:48-05:49

    In the name of Jesus, I do pray.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:51-05:51

    Amen.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    05:52-06:38

    Oprah asked a former pastor, Rob Bell, a question - Rob Bell is no longer a pastor, but is a speaker and does many other things - him this question says, "Well, when is the church going to get it?" Speaking of this topic of homosexuality, when is the church going to understand it? When is the church really going to start to embrace it? And here's what Mr. Bell said. He said, "Well, moments away. I think culture is already there and the church will continue to be more irrelevant when it quotes letters from 2,000 years ago as their best defense. When you have in front of you flesh and blood people who are your brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and co-workers and neighbors and they love each other and just want to go through life with someone.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    06:39-06:54

    I believe that Mr. Bell is right. Many churches have started to go irrelevant today, but the reason it is not because they are holding to a book that is written 2,000 years ago, it's because they have neglected a book that was written 2,000 years ago.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    06:55-07:02

    And I believe the Word of God is very clear and what we need to stand and how we need to stand on this issue.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    07:02-07:04

    So what does the Bible say?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    07:04-07:10

    In issues that we thought, you know, 10, 15 years ago, we never even thought we'd have to even have this conversation really.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    07:11-07:17

    It was almost in many of our minds, black and white, of what needed to happen in the whole area of homosexuality.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    07:18-07:22

    But because of kind of where our culture has gone, it is an issue that we have to address.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    07:23-07:29

    Now, here's, you know, there's a lot of messages that you preach, and when you preach a message out of your head, it's because you know it.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    07:30-07:34

    You preach a message out of your heart because you feel it.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    07:34-07:39

    But you preach a message out of your life because you've walked through it.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    07:39-07:56

    The reason why this topic hits close to home, and I'm gonna try not to cry through this whole message, so bear with me if I start, is because my younger brother, my younger brother about 15 years ago came to me and told me that he had a same-sex attraction.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    07:57-08:02

    And actually, when he told me that for the first time, I can't say I responded the greatest.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    08:02-08:13

    I just came out of Bible college, and I gave him all, "Hey, this is not biblical, "and you need to change this, "and this is not natural, and you need to do this." And I look back now, and I realize I did not respond correctly.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    08:14-08:23

    About four years ago, about a month before we planted a church down in Pittsburgh East, my little brother sent an email to my family.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    08:23-08:43

    four brothers and a sister. My dad's been in ministry for 40 years. All three of my other brothers are in ministry. My brother Josh is in New York City. He's an actor there, actually on Broadway right now, performs with Josh Groban, and been very successful in what he does. He was on Survivor about three years ago.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    08:45-10:10

    And about four years ago, a month before we were about to launch the church, he sent an email and told us that he believed that it was biblical and that God had made him a homosexual and that this is the lifestyle that he was now going to embrace. And I can still remember sitting in my--I was sitting in McDonald's actually in Monroeville, I was talking to my worship guy and I just kind of stopped me and said I had to go. And I remember going home and crying with my wife and Josh was my best man at my wedding and I have a good relationship with him and I'll tell you it hurt. It hurt a lot and it made me have to go to the scriptures and I told Josh, I said, "Josh, listen, with all I have, go to the scriptures and with no presuppositions look at this topic again and study it out and see what does the Bible truly say." And he gave me a book that he wanted me to read and I said I'd read it and I said I will go and over the next months I read books I read articles I listened to people talk on both sides and what I share with you today is really where that point has brought me and yes it's a continual thing and it's a continual action of learning and growing but the journey that I've on it took time it It took tears and a lot of prayer.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    10:11-10:14

    And do we really have ground to stand on?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    10:15-10:21

    What we have believed and what church history has believed for over 2000 years really, do we have ground to stand on?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    10:21-10:25

    And what does the Bible really say about this?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    10:25-10:27

    And what does the church do now?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    10:28-10:31

    You may sit here and say, Jeremiah, the Bible, it seems so clear.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    10:31-10:33

    How did they get around it?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    10:33-10:36

    I mean, there are verses that we've kind of held up for so many years.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    10:36-10:37

    How do we get around these verses?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    10:38-10:40

    Well, some don't even care what the Bible say.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    10:41-10:49

    Some, you know, look at it and say, well, Jesus made me this way, and if he made me this way, then I'm gonna embrace this, and I'm gonna walk through this, and not really giving any thought to what the word of God says.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    10:50-11:07

    And then some, including my brother, have changed the new, have put a new hermeneutic, or a new interpretation to the verses that we would usually go to and say, these are the verses that talk about homosexuality and why we believe it's wrong, and that they put a new hermeneutic to it, a new interpretation to it.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    11:08-11:19

    And they say that most of those verses, as it talks about homosexuality, are talking about proactive or adulterous or fleshly acts, you know, like a gang rape, like you would see in Sodom and Gomorrah.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    11:20-11:26

    They say it's not talking, Jeremiah, about a covenant relationship between one man and one man or one woman and one woman.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    11:27-11:44

    So it is. It's hard to debate somebody because when they change the hermeneutic of the scripture to say what they wanted to, And let me just say, it's very dangerous when you start to take the Word of God and start to change interpretation that the church really has held for for over 2,000 years.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    11:45-12:00

    And so what I want to do this morning is I want to help you understand homosexuality and understand biblically what the Word of God says, and hope that you see that's coming from a heart that has walked through a tough journey over the last years.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    12:01-13:26

    You know, I'd say that most of the books that I read that were for homosexuality, most of the pastors that have kind of gone over and accepted it now, it's because they usually start their argument like this, "I know somebody who's a homosexual, and I know how much they love that person, how much they love God, so it has to be right." And so they say, "Okay, because of that presupposition, "Now I'm gonna go to God's Word." And listen church, that's not how we go to God's Word. We go to God's Word as the foundation of what we believe. And as hard as it was, as I studied and I journeyed through this, as hard as it was to set aside my love for my brother and my love to want to see him be happy, I have to go with this book right here, and I have to stand on what God's Word says. So I want to give you a couple things and I think if you're gonna understand why biblically homosexuality is wrong, I think you have to understand what marriage is in the eyes of God. Look at Genesis chapter 2, number one, it's a covenant relationship between a man and a woman. You say, "Jeremiah, where do you see that? Where do you see that's between a man or woman?" I think we start at the beginning at Genesis chapter 2 verse 18. It says, "And the Lord God said, 'It is not good than a man should be alone. And I will make him a helper fit for him.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    13:26-13:52

    Skip down to verse 21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon this man Adam. And while he slept he took one his ribs and closed up his the place of his flesh. And the rib that the Lord had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. And she shall be called woman because she was taken out of the man, and look at verse 24 right here.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    13:53-14:07

    "Therefore, man shall leave his father and mother "and hold fast to his wife, "and they shall become one flesh." Listen, that verse right there, verse 24, I believe is a definition of what marriage is.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    14:08-14:11

    You say, Jeremiah, why do you think that verse 24 is the definition of marriage?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    14:11-14:16

    Why is it not just really connected with this whole story of what is taking place there?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    14:17-14:25

    Because I believe that God is setting a precedence right there at the beginning in creation of saying, hey, listen, this is what marriage will be for all.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    14:25-14:25

    Why?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    14:26-14:30

    Because you look at verse 24, did Adam and Eve have a father or a mother?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    14:31-14:35

    No, they were the first two adults on the earth.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    14:35-14:42

    And so he can't be talking about Adam and Eve because they didn't have to leave their father, they didn't have to leave their mother and cling together.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    14:42-15:54

    No, Jesus was setting a precedent, a creation principle and saying, listen, this is what marriage would be from all time. It would be when a man shall leave his father and mother, because from here on out everybody's gonna have a father and mother. And so yes, they're the first one, they didn't, but here a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. You know, they'll try to sit there and they'll say, Jeremiah, in the books that kind of promote homosexuality, will take this passage and say, "No, that was, this is just for Adam and Eve and this is kind of how the world started, this is what took place, but it's not a principle that has to be cleared through the whole scriptures and through all time and I believe that's not understanding what the Word of God is saying here. God is setting up precedence. This is what marriage is. It's between a man and a woman when they leave their family and they cling to each other and they become one flesh. And then you start walking through the scriptures. You walk through the scriptures, there's no story or even a picture of a same-sex marriage ordained by God. In the Word we always see marriage pictured and defined as a relationship between a man and a woman.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    15:55-16:15

    And I've read the articles and a lot of times will say well homosexuality was not a big emphasis during that time, during that time frame it wasn't known and that's just not understanding history. You go back and you study history you can even look at Wikipedia online and they put homosexuality all all the way back at the start of what they would know history to be.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    16:15-16:41

    So my thing is, if homosexuality was a big part of the culture, even back in that time frame, then why do we go through the whole scriptures and we don't see God ordain one homosexual act, we don't see God bless one couple, if it was prominent then, if it was known, why does every marriage that we see take place in the word of God between a man and a woman.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    16:42-16:48

    Because God was setting a pattern, this is what marriage is, this is what takes place.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    16:48-16:49

    You say, well, that's just the Old Testament.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    16:50-16:52

    You can flip and you have to turn there.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    16:52-16:54

    But in Matthew, Jesus starts to talk about it.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    16:54-16:58

    They come to Jesus in Matthew 19, they say Jesus, asking him about divorce.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    16:59-17:03

    And before Jesus talks about divorce, first he says, listen, let me define marriage.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    17:03-17:05

    And how does he define marriage?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    17:05-17:12

    He goes back to Genesis chapter two and says, Listen, this is how God defined it in Genesis chapter two, so let me tell you.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    17:12-17:17

    He says, "Have you not read that he who created them "from the beginning made male and female?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    17:18-17:33

    "And he said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father "'and mother and hold fast to his wife, "'and the two shall become one flesh.' "So they are no longer two but one, "therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." So Jesus goes back and says, listen, before we even talk about divorce, let me tell you what marriage is.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    17:34-17:38

    It's between a man and a woman, They become one and let that not separate.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    17:38-17:41

    They say, Jesus, that's really insensitive.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    17:42-17:50

    Why didn't Jesus just say, therefore a person shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to each other and the two shall become one flesh?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    17:51-18:00

    Listen, don't you think Jesus knew that the people he was talking to, the people standing in that crowd, that there were some there probably with the same sex attraction, the people who would have heard that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    18:01-18:08

    Why did he make it so clear when he said, This is between a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    18:10-18:13

    Because Jesus was defining again what marriage was.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    18:15-18:22

    We can flip a little bit later in the epistles, Ephesians chapter five, the apostle Paul is talking on marriage.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    18:22-18:28

    And at the end of his talk on marriage, he quotes the same verse in Genesis chapter two.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    18:29-18:31

    He said, "Listen, this is what marriage is.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    18:32-18:38

    It's when a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    18:38-18:40

    Listen, he was talking to the church at Ephesus.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    18:41-18:46

    Ephesus would have been full of, yes, of idolatry and people who would have had that same sex attraction.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    18:48-18:55

    So why wasn't Paul more sensitive unless he was communicating truly with the word of God says, this is what marriage is.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    18:56-18:57

    You see, listen to me, church.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    18:57-19:05

    If God defines marriage as between a man or woman Genesis 2. And Jesus defines marriage between a man and a woman in Matthew 19.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    19:06-19:58

    And the Apostle Paul defines marriage between a man and a woman in Ephesians chapter 5. Listen, I'd have to say that's pretty good company to be able to sit there and say between God, Jesus, and the Apostle Paul, I'm saying this is what marriage is. This is what it looks like. I think God would have known. I think God's not connected to time so he would have known that this would have been an issue today and as prevadent as it is that he would have put one verse or one illustration or one of something saying this is what marriage is. You see if you read in the books that are for homosexuality what they do is they go to the scriptures and they try to say well that's not really what the author was intended and but when you ask him okay we're in the Word of God does it is it for homosexuality, there isn't anything.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    19:59-20:03

    Their whole argument is on silence because there isn't anything.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    20:03-20:10

    Yes, you can change the hermeneutics to something and you can say that's not what it was, but the bottom line, that there's nothing that is for it.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    20:10-20:35

    I've looked and as I've counseled and talked to people with same-sex attraction, I've told them, listen, if I get to heaven and what it is for you to have a homosexual relationship was ordained by God and God is for that, then listen, I'm gonna be mad at God Because I know the pain, I know the hurt that I have as I've counseled those people, I've talked with my brother, that the desire they wish they did not have.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    20:36-20:39

    Why was God give us just one instance on it?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    20:41-20:56

    And that's why I have to go back and say, God was totally clear from the beginning, and even when Jesus walked in there, started the church with the Apostle Paul of what marriage should be, is a covenant relationship between a man and a woman.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    20:57-21:03

    There's another reason I'd give you, and that is this, is that marriage is a picture of Christ in the church.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    21:04-21:06

    Marriage is a picture of Christ in the church.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    21:06-21:08

    Ephesians chapter five is what it talks about.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    21:08-21:12

    This is one of the big reasons why I believe homosexuality is wrong.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    21:13-21:20

    The illustration that we see in Ephesians chapter five is between Christ and the church and how the husband represents Christ and how the wife represents the church.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    21:20-21:27

    and how the wife submits under the husband just as Christ, and as the church submits under Christ.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    21:27-21:28

    It's an illustration that is given.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    21:29-21:34

    And this can't be an illustration just for that church or for that time frame.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    21:34-21:39

    No, he goes back again and pulls the creation principle from Genesis chapter two.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    21:39-21:47

    I believe that according to this passage, that one of the reasons why marriage is set up is to picture Christ and the church, it's two opposites uniting as one.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    21:49-21:53

    We have roles that are played out so clearly, what the man is supposed to do and what the woman is supposed to do.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    21:53-21:56

    And in the same sex relationship, how does that play out?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    21:58-22:03

    If they say, well, it's just one of them should do it, well then in a heterosexual relationship, you should be able to say the same thing.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    22:04-22:20

    If we tear down that picture and say, well, it doesn't matter if it's the man that's the leader or the woman that submits or this woman that submits or the man's leader, it doesn't really matter what it is, then we've torn down really the picture of what the family is and how God designed the family to be.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    22:21-22:33

    And then I'll give you one more quickly here is we won't take a long time to look at it and I promise I'll keep it PG rated, but it's a married couple enjoying a God-designed sexual expression.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    22:34-22:36

    It must be a married couple or it is sin.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    22:37-22:43

    I believe there's one way that God designed sex to take place and that is between a man and a woman.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    22:43-22:49

    Sex is not just a union, it is a reunion of the two difference becoming one.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    22:50-22:54

    And only in a heterosexual relationship will that take place.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    22:55-23:00

    And so understanding in the eyes of God this is what marriage truly is.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    23:01-23:04

    And that we can stand on God's word of what marriage is.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    23:05-23:10

    Now you say, "Jemar, are there other passages in God's word that talk about it?" Yes, I'll quickly just kind of give you a couple.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    23:11-23:41

    Leviticus chapter 20, chapter 18 and chapter 20, both talk about it and just I'll go to Leviticus 20 for a second here. It says in Leviticus 20 verse 13, "If a man lies with a man as with a woman, both of them have committed abomination and they shall surely be put to death. Their blood is upon them." Jeremiah, that seems so clear. How do they take this? Well, they'd say this is Levitical law and they'd say if you're gonna follow this then you have to follow all Leviticus, right? Well, understand what the Levitical law is.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    23:41-24:09

    They sit there and say that God has done away with the law, Jesus did away with the law, and that's not true. You see in the New Testament that Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law. There's a difference of fulfilling the law and doing away with the law. A very important difference. They say, "Why, Pastor, then do you practice some of the things in Leviticus and not other ones? You don't still sacrifice, you don't still do that, so why?" Well, again, you have to go to the New Testament understand this, that when Christ came, he came to fulfill the law.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    24:09-26:44

    So all foods that were declared unclean in Leviticus, we see in the book of Mark and in Acts, that Jesus says these foods are now clean. You can eat what you want. Also we see all the holy days and all the things that they kept with the Sabbath and things they couldn't do and they couldn't walk this far. And what took place, we see in Romans chapter 14 that Jesus said, "Listen, you don't have to do that anymore. Fulfill those things." And then the whole sacrificial system that has written Leviticus. We see in Hebrews chapter 7 that Christ was the last sacrifice, but lying with another man is a purity issue, and there's a difference. That this is the purity law as you walk through Leviticus, that God is calling his people to holiness, and so the things that God talks about and the issues of purity are still supposed to be followed today. It's interesting in this verse here, it's the only time, actually there's one other time, and that's in Leviticus 18.22 when he's talking about homosexuality, that God uses the word "abomination" as Moses goes through and writes Leviticus. He is saying that this is an abomination to him. Now, you say, "Jeremiah, how can they pull this verse out?" And what they say is that, you know, this is talking about, you know, a more of a gang rape or someone who is you know raping someone but that's not what the word is talking because they both it says shall be killed if they practice this. Now again, the punishment was fulfilled at the cross so we don't fulfill the same punishment that took place at that time but what God said is still supposed to happen. Look at the verses around it. It talks about committing adultery, it talks about the man lies with his father's wife, it talks about if a man lies with his daughter-in-law. It talks about in verse 15 if men lies with an animal. What we still all say today that those are wrong so why would we not say that the Homosexuality Act is also wrong? Again we can't just take one verse and pull it out we have to look at what it communicates there. And so here it is talking about and it is wrong. I'll look at one more chapter here and then I want to get you some practical things. Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 verses 18 through 23. Let me read some of this with It says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness oppress the truth. For what we can be known by God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For this is his invisible attributes, namely, his internal power and divine nature, has been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, the things have been made.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    26:44-26:50

    So they are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not honor as God or give thanks to Him.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    26:50-26:58

    "for they became futile in their thinking, "and their foolish hearts were darkened." So he's talking about a generation that is not seeking after him, that is seeking after their own thing.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    26:59-27:02

    "Claiming to be wise, they become fools." He says this in verse 24.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    27:02-27:10

    "Therefore God gave them up." You know, I'll tell you, one of the worst things to do is receive the passive wrath of God.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    27:11-27:16

    That when God says, listen, my discipline, I'm not even gonna put in more, I'm just gonna give you up and step back.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    27:16-27:19

    It's the passive wrath of God that you don't wanna walk down.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    27:20-27:29

    He says, "I gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, the dishonor of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    27:30-27:34

    And they worship and serve the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    27:34-27:35

    Amen.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    27:35-27:39

    For this reason, God gave them up." What did he give them up to?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    27:39-27:41

    "To dishonorable passions.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    27:42-27:46

    For the woman exchanged their natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    27:47-30:45

    And the men, likewise, gave up natural relations with women consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error." You say, "Jeremiah, how did they get around that?" Well, during that time frame, there was an emperor who would basically bring kids in and adults in and have sex with them. And so they would say, as Apostle Paul wrote this, that they would have been thinking of that emperor, they've been thinking what was taking place in that time. The problem that again as these are says there they were consumed with passion for one another these are two people consenting to have a relationship with each other that goes against what God designed it to be and because of that it is wrong and that God gave us this dishonorable passions listen if there's one thing that I want you to make sure you walk out today is understanding that we can stand strong on God's Word. You know as you walk through, as you read through articles and you see articles on Facebook and you see pastors slowly just falling in this area of saying, "This is fine, this is biblical, they're allowed to practice these things." And yes, it can make you start to doubt and go, "How is this happening? What is taking place?" Please understand that God's Word is very clear on it. That we don't have to waver, we don't have to doubt. We don't have to sit there and say is what they're saying true? No, you go to the scriptures and God's Word is clear and we can hold on the same hermeneutic that we've held to for 2,000 years and we don't have to change on that. That God's Word is clear on what it says. Now let me give you just a couple street-level objectives before I give you what you could do, because here's what some people will say as you walk the streets, you talk with someone, you have a friend, or you have a sibling, or a parent, or somebody who's in walking down this this problem, this is what they'll say, "Jesus did not say anything about homosexuality, so we don't need to take a stand on it." And I've heard pastors say that. You know, "Jesus really didn't say anything about it, so I don't need to take on a stand on it either." Well listen, Jesus didn't say anything about incest or idolatry either, at least that we have recorded, and we still believe both of those are wrong. Jesus was an actual person, lived a specific time, and yes, as the Apostles wrote what he said, they didn't write down everything he said. He could have said something about it, and they just didn't write it down, maybe because it was so clear in their minds and so clear of what was taking place that they didn't have to write anything about it, because it wasn't an issue as this right or wrong back then. They knew it was wrong. I think also Jesus did as marriages where he looked at Matthew 19 that he did talk about it because he said this is what marriage is and so if he said this is what marriage is then what he also is saying this is what marriage is not. So this is what it is.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    30:45-31:55

    He also in Mark chapter 7 used the word sexual immorality. It's the word pornia and there's a broad word that is used for any sexual sin and that would be idolatry, fornication, or homosexuality. Listen, just because we don't see Jesus giving specific instructions saying homosexuality is wrong does not mean that Jesus didn't talk about it. Also, if we believe these are all God's words, then everything in this book, not just what is in red. So I don't believe that that objective stands for anything. Another objective that I've heard is this, is some animals have same-sex relations, it must be natural. They try to go to the animals and say, "Well, some of those animals, they have sex and they're man and man, a woman and woman, so that must be fine." Well listen, the female black-widowed spider after mating with a male eats the husband. I don't see anybody promoting cannibalism today. Also the hippo after the mom gives birth, the male hippo tries to eat the child because it doesn't want the child to take over the dominance of the herd. So listen, just because nature does it does not mean it's right. Listen, nature is under the same curse that we are under.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    31:55-31:58

    And so not everything out there is perfect.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    31:59-32:08

    And so there are still some things because of the curse, just because an animal does it, nature does not make it natural in what it should be.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    32:09-32:13

    Someday creation will be freed from the same curse of sin that we will be freed from.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    32:14-32:21

    The other objective that you sometimes hear is this, is the church used to think slavery was right, and they were changed on this topic also.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    32:22-32:28

    They try to compare it a lot to slavery and say this is what happened, you know, with slavery, and so the church is gonna come around, they're gonna get it also.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    32:29-32:37

    Listen, the church has changed numerous times throughout history on their stance on things, and slavery always being the biggest one of what they say.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    32:37-32:42

    But first, we don't decide what we do because of the church, we stand on what we believe because of God's word.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    32:43-32:46

    And so just because the church does, it doesn't mean that it's right.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    32:46-32:52

    And we've gotten a problem when we start to declare the church as the authority and not God's word.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    32:52-33:01

    Now, when we talk about slavery, we think of people being beaten and treated harshly, unjustly, and listen, the Bible was never for that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    33:02-33:06

    And that's why conservative Christians throughout history have fought against that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    33:07-33:10

    William Wilberforce being one trying to abolish slavery.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    33:11-33:17

    You read through and study through the Bible what it talks about slavery and understand slavery in that culture.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    33:17-33:19

    Slavery back at this time was like a job.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    33:20-33:28

    People would put themselves into slavery, as slaves you could become a doctor, you could become a lawyer, you could move up because you don't go work at McDonald's or Lowe's, what do you do?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    33:29-34:10

    You go find somebody who has a lot of money and you work under them. And the Bible is clear that you treat them nicely. If you do something to them, you deserve it back. So what we think of slavery of being beaten and tortured, the Bible was never for that and was against that, and there are clear laws in the Bible of how you're supposed to treat someone like that. But understand, we're looking at in our 21st century mindset and we look back at the Civil War and what took place there, that was not what slavery was back in the Old Testament, at least what God said it could be. It was a job that people had in what took place. And so homosexuality is different when it comes to that issue.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    34:11-35:13

    So slavery and homosexuality I do not believe can be compared. Let's close by this. Let me give you a couple things. What do we do? Say, "Jeremiah, the Bible's what do we do? Here's the first one I would say is stop avoiding them. Listen, please stop avoiding them. That they don't have the plague. Stop making fun of people. Remember in college people making fun of someone who is homosexual or are talking in the girl's voice or whatever it may be. These are real people with hurts and feelings so please stop it. No wonder they have run from the church. Most same-sex desire as having this unforgivable sin. Listen, that is not the case. I've seen damage the church has done, and many of them, they don't want to have anything to do with the church because they've run. They don't want the desire. You know how many times my brother have told me and talked to me and said, "Listen, I don't want this." He wants it to go away.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    35:15-35:19

    Listen, they're not less because they feel like that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    35:20-35:22

    We all have problems, we all have sins.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    35:23-35:25

    We don't push them aside because of that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    35:26-35:28

    Will most of them ever get rid of that desire?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    35:29-35:31

    No, but can they be used for the glory of God?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    35:31-35:32

    Yes.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    35:33-35:34

    Yes, and yes.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    35:35-36:22

    I actually wonder if my brother would still be where he should be according to the scriptures and how he was raised if the church would have treated him a little bit better. You see, we didn't know five, ten years ago really how to handle it. It was just kind of, "Oh, if you have that, you have to change, and you know, this needs to be done, and just, you know, be finished with it." And I think a lot of that, that's why a lot of these homosexuals have run to these bigger cities where they've found a community of people that they can get around. They just want to be accepted in it. And listen, if there's any place that we should be accepted, it is here, we should be loving them. But listen, here's what I want you to know, here's number two is this, is give them the gospel first. Give them the gospel first.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    36:22-36:56

    You're not trying to fix them. Listen, they need the gospel. Don't rush into this specific sin problem when first they just need Jesus Christ. And we so quick want to try to fix this and fix this when they just need the gospel. They need a Savior. They need to know that He loves them and He cares for them. So when you talk with them and you look at them, see them through Christ's eyes, give them the gospel first. Because listen, the gospel changes everything. And don't so quickly point their sin and say, "Listen, you got to stop this." No, give them the gospel.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    36:58-37:06

    I did not say the gospel will free them from the desire of same-sex attraction, but it will free them from the change of the same-sex attraction.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:07-37:11

    It might not be the desire, but the change, yes, the gospel can free them from.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:11-37:24

    You say, "Jeremiah, what do you do with someone who believes they're sexed?" Like my brother. Listen, let me tell you, if you talk with my brother, and you didn't know he had a same-sex attraction, you would think he's a Christian sold out on fire for God.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:25-37:29

    Gets up and reads his Bible probably more consistently than most people in our churches today.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:29-37:30

    He goes to church.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:31-37:34

    But you have a conversation with him, I guarantee you he'll bring Christ into it.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:36-37:37

    So what do you do with that?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:38-37:40

    To be honest, I wish it wasn't.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:40-37:41

    I wish you would just kind of renounce the faith.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:42-37:43

    It'd be so much easier.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:43-37:43

    But what do you do?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:44-37:49

    Here's the third thing I would say, is love them, but not accepting what they do.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:50-37:52

    Love them, but not accepting what they do.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:53-37:55

    Listen, I will embrace them, but not the sin.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    37:56-38:01

    But the person I will embrace, I will love my brother, I will continue to love him.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    38:01-38:06

    I will show him, I will let him know I love him, but listen, I cannot accept what he does.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    38:07-38:08

    And he knows that also.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    38:09-38:18

    Jean Lloyd, who is a former lesbian, she said this, "Continue to love me, but remember that you cannot "be more merciful than God.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    38:18-38:21

    "It isn't mercy to affirm a same-sex acts as good.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    38:22-38:23

    "Don't compromise truth.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    38:24-38:31

    "Help me to live in harmony with it." Listen, we know what the truth of God says, so we have to stand on that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    38:32-38:39

    But we don't have to say, listen, we accept what they're doing, but we push them away when we say stupid things, when we don't say anything at all.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    38:39-38:43

    And really, that's where the church has been for so many years, is we never even talk about it.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    38:44-38:50

    I wonder how many times you've ever heard a message on homosexuality, we don't talk about it, we've kind of just kind of pushed that aside.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    38:50-38:57

    And because of that, those who are struggling with that same sex attraction think that there's something less, and that they should just kind of be pushed aside.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    38:57-38:58

    And that is not the case.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    39:00-39:01

    Listen, we love them.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    39:01-39:03

    Yes, we cannot embrace that lifestyle.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    39:03-39:09

    And someone who is fighting against that lifestyle, then we should put our arms around them quicker than anything.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    39:10-39:19

    I remember as I spoke this in my church, afterwards there was a couple that I talked with or that was talking in their small groups and just like, I don't know about that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    39:19-39:21

    I've just really embraced them into our church.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    39:22-39:23

    Listen, that's wrong.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    39:24-39:30

    Yes, I'm not going to say that what they're doing is right, but I'm going to love them, and I'm going to show them love.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    39:31-39:39

    There was an article by a man named Garrett Kell who wrote, do you remember some years ago, a boy named Josh Alcorn, who committed suicide.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    39:40-39:42

    He believed he was a girl trapped in a boy's body.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    39:43-39:48

    And in this article by Garrett Kell, he said this is what he would have said to this young man.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    39:49-40:06

    And I really wish I would have known this about 15 years ago when my brother first came to me and told me a same-sex attraction. In the article it says this, he said, "This is what Jesus would say to you today. Jesus would say you are made in my image and I love you.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    40:07-40:23

    Jesus would say you are broken just like everyone else. Jesus would say you have a unique struggle and I will use it. Jesus would say I came to rescue people like you so trust in me. Jesus would say the journey is hard but it's worth it and I I will help you.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    40:25-40:28

    Jesus would say, your parents aren't perfect, but they love you.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    40:28-40:30

    Jesus would say, go to my people.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    40:30-40:33

    They will walk with you in grace and truth.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    40:33-40:35

    Listen, will we do that, church?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    40:36-40:39

    Will we walk with those people in grace and truth?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    40:40-40:43

    Jesus would say, don't give up your life.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    40:43-40:44

    I make life worth living.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    40:46-40:50

    Jesus would say, remember, I'm coming back to make all things new.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    40:51-41:00

    Listen, if you're here today and you struggle with the same sex attraction, then please understand that you're not anything less than the person sitting next to you.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    41:01-41:07

    God has made you in a unique way and He's gonna use that for His glory and for His praise and for His honor.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    41:08-41:13

    And also, I sit there with your family and you have someone like I have as a brother.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    41:14-41:19

    If you have a son or a daughter, I know there are many couples in my church who have kids that we pray for.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    41:20-41:26

    I pray for my brothers, we pray for them, and we ask God to do what only God can do.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    41:26-41:27

    Listen, those families, they need encouragement.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    41:28-41:36

    I have wept with some of those families in my church who are walking through the same thing, and I've wept with my parents.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    41:37-42:06

    As my dad has been in ministry for 40 years, I remember about three years ago, my dad sent an email to my brothers and I, and it was right before I went to bed, And I woke up that morning, or actually it was about three or four o'clock in the morning, and just went out because I wanted to respond back to my dad because my dad was at that place where he was like, Jim, I don't just want to quit.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    42:07-42:14

    As, yes, he's walked through ministry for so many years, seeing his son walk down this road was tough on my family.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    42:15-42:51

    And I remember sending an email to my dad, I'll read this to you because if there's someone here who If you have a child or you have someone that you know Then then listen don't don't give up and that's what I told my dad. I said this you can't quit dad because I'm watching I've been watching what you're doing and say and how you're going to respond You've been my role model for 34 years, and I'm still watching you can't quit that. I need you to stay strong I need you to see how to finish strong when the hardest battles of your life comes at the end of the race.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    42:52-42:58

    I need to see your passion for Christ and love for the gospel grow as you walk this road. Dad, you can't quit. I'm watching.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    42:59-43:04

    Dad, you can't quit. My kids are watching you. I need you to show my kids how to live for Jesus.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    43:05-43:09

    They love their Papa and I want them to know the greatest thing in your life is Christ.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    43:09-43:14

    Someday they will fully understand the story and I need them to see Christ all through it.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    43:15-43:19

    You are giving my kids a legacy and I need you to paint it clearly for Christ.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    43:19-43:24

    You can't quit dad, my kids are watching. You can't quit dad, the gospel is on display.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    43:25-43:31

    It's being destroyed and misused on one front, so you must show it more clearly.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    43:31-43:42

    You must love when it's hard to love. You must stand for truth when lies take the form of truth. You must show how the gospel sustains us in the hard times, how to proclaim mercy and grace in our deepest struggles.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    43:43-43:49

    You must show how when you feel unworthy and weak, the gospel gives you hope and peace and reason to keep fighting.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    43:49-43:54

    You must paint the picture of the gospel more clear than those who are blurring its beauty.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    43:54-43:56

    You must continue to preach and to minister.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    43:56-43:58

    God is not finished with you.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    43:59-44:00

    You can't quit, Dad.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:00-44:01

    The gospel is on display.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:02-44:04

    You can't quit, Dad, 'cause we're all watching.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:05-44:08

    You are the patriarch, and you have this charge for this family.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:08-44:12

    You have a wife, five kids, four daughter-in-laws, and 14 grandchildren that are following you.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:13-44:16

    We are behind you and we will help you as you walk through this valley.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:16-44:20

    We will stand together as a family for that is how you have taught us.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:20-44:22

    We look to Christ and he will sustain us.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:23-44:27

    He will use this valley to encourage others who are walking through the same valley.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:27-44:29

    He will use this valley to proclaim Christ.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:30-44:31

    You can't quit, we are watching, Dad.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:32-44:33

    I need you to finish strong.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:33-44:36

    You can't quit, there's too much at stake.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:37-44:39

    I love you and we all love you and don't ever forget that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:39-44:42

    You can't quit 'cause that's not an option, so stop saying it.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:43-44:47

    We're in a battle and this is the war, it's one of the toughest our family has faced.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:47-44:51

    We need you to lead us and to show us how to follow Christ while in it.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:52-44:54

    Dad, I hope to see that you can't quit.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:55-44:56

    Don't ever forget, Dad, that I mean every word of it.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    44:57-44:59

    I write this in tears because I feel your pain.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    45:00-45:01

    We're all with you, we love you.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    45:01-45:03

    We're a family, we're staying together as we keep our eyes on Christ.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    45:03-45:04

    We live for his glory.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    45:07-45:17

    Listen, if you know somebody, you've walked down that road before, listen, it is more clearly and more important today that we stand truthfully on the gospel.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    45:18-45:24

    And we stand strong in a world that is pushing something the wrong way, that we stand for what is true.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    45:25-45:28

    And then here would be the last one, guide them as part of the body of Christ.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    45:29-45:32

    Listen, guide them as part of the body of Christ.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    45:33-45:35

    Help them learn how to walk in the Spirit.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    45:35-45:38

    Help them put to death the deeds of the flesh.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    45:39-45:44

    We are learning to put to death the deeds of the flesh in our sin, so let's help them.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    45:45-45:49

    Listen, they should be able to come into a small group and share with their struggle and not be judged.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    45:51-45:55

    Guide them, help them, pray for them, because listen, church, if you don't, the world will get there.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    45:56-46:03

    And listen, if you sit here today and you struggle with the same sex attraction, then I pray that you will find these here.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    46:03-46:21

    I've said numerous times that I pray that someday, that when my brother does get the blinders off his eyes and see the truth, I hope he comes back and starts a ministry in my church, the LGBT movement, because I wanna show those people that gospel changes things, and I wanna help them.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    46:22-46:32

    And as hard as it is to see what my brother's walking through, and yes, it's a story I never would choose, I never would sign up for, to have a life story like this.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    46:34-46:57

    But it's where God has me, and it's where God has our family. And so yes, it has made me study the scriptures and know I can stand strong on the scriptures, but it's also given me a love for those people who have a same-sex attraction because they're struggling. And just like I struggle with sin and I have difficulties, they do too. So we don't treat them any differently.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    46:57-47:15

    we love them, we embrace them, and we help them walk and see the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's been a joy as I have, as hard as it is for me to share this message, to have people email me and write me after and say that they have a same-sex attraction and they just want to know how do they keep walking.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    47:16-47:28

    And it breaks my heart, the emails that I get from people who struggle with it, who are walking down this road and thinking that they're alone and they don't have anybody, listen, that's what the church is there for.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    47:29-47:31

    And that's why as you as a church are here.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    47:32-47:55

    It's not something to push aside, but something to embrace. Listen, as a body we need to help them. As if you're a critical judge and you're casting judge on these people, then listen, stop. If you're a hurting family, then I say there is hope. And if you're someone here today with the same sex attraction, then know that God has a plan for you to trust and rest in Him.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    47:56-48:29

    Listen, to be honest, some of this stuff I don't say with happiness. I wish I could tell my brother that he could act out what he's doing, and that's by God. So I don't say it with happiness, but I say it with confidence because I know it's what God's Word is, and I know I can stand on that. And I pray that you will see that also, and no matter if you have someone who is a same-sex attraction to yourself, that you would understand truly how God sees them. They're made in His image and and made for His glory, and made to be used for His glory. Let's pray to God.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    48:31-48:58

    Father, as come before you, God, Lord I thank you that your word is clear. Lord I thank you we can stand strong on your word. God I thank you for every person that is here, Lord I pray for those who do have that struggle with the same sex attraction, Lord you might never take it away from them, but God I pray that that they would see clearly what you have for them, that you have plans for them, you have desires for them, that you're gonna use them for your glory in incredible and magnificent ways.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    48:59-49:01

    Just like I wanna see you use my brother someday.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    49:02-49:09

    And God, I pray for those who have maybe a son or a daughter or a grandchild or a friend, Lord, who struggles with it.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    49:09-49:15

    God, will you help them to see how to love, but to still stand strong on the truth of what your word says.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    49:17-49:24

    And God, will you raise up a church here in Pittsburgh North that, yes, welcomes without judgment.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    49:25-49:30

    Yes, we don't accept sin, but we welcome and we love and we show them the gospel and the truth.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    49:31-49:34

    God, will you please do what only you can do here.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    49:35-49:36

    And God, we give you praise.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    49:37-49:38

    We give you glory.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    49:38-49:39

    We give you honor.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    49:40-49:41

    In the name of Jesus, I do pray.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    49:42-49:42

    Amen.

    Mark Ort:

    49:43-49:44

    Thank you, Jeremiah.

    Mark Ort:

    49:45-49:51

    Before you step down, is it all right if we open it up to the people to ask a couple of questions?

    Mark Ort:

    49:51-49:53

    We have time for maybe three or four questions.

    Mark Ort:

    49:54-50:00

    I know it's a hot cultural topic right now, and Jeremiah is willing to answer some questions if you have any.

    Mark Ort:

    50:00-50:02

    And Corinne will walk around with the microphone.

    Mark Ort:

    50:03-50:05

    Anybody have a question that I can try to answer

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    50:05-50:06

    for you?

    Audience Question 1:

    50:07-50:08

    Thank you, Jeremiah.

    Audience Question 1:

    50:09-50:13

    You could see it in the media over the last 30 years.

    Audience Question 1:

    50:13-50:19

    It started with cohabitation, that's okay now. They went to homosexuality, that's okay now.

    Audience Question 1:

    50:21-50:37

    And now it's heading towards transgenderism. That's something that they're pushing for being okay now. So what are you doing to teach your children the truths so that they can battle through this onslaught of media?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    50:39-50:44

    Yeah I have five kids and my kids don't know the whole story about Josh.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    50:44-50:47

    One reason why my family's not here is because they don't.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    50:47-50:52

    My oldest son's 12 and we've started to have conversations with some of that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    50:53-50:54

    He knows what homosexuality is.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    50:54-50:56

    I said I haven't wanted to link that to my brother yet.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    50:58-51:16

    You know, what we have tried to do is, my wife and I, I've tried to do is teach them this is the difference between a male and a female, and make it very clear and had a nice set of conversations the other day that your DNA, 'cause he was watching something and it came on, transgenders came on, he was like, "I don't understand that." And I explained to him, I wasn't trying to hide anything, that's the way it is.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    51:16-51:22

    Some people think that they're this, but you gotta understand, when God made somebody, your DNA shows that you're a male or a female.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    51:22-51:30

    And you can say whatever you want and your mind can say this or that, but scientifically, you go back to the DNA and it shows that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    51:30-51:36

    So try to bring them back, God created the human body and created it in a great way, and it's incredible.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    51:36-51:43

    And so to go back and help them see this is clearly what is, and we have as they have grown is trying to, the difference between a male and a female.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    51:43-51:50

    I can't promise that my kids won't have a same-sex attraction, they could, but they are still going to know the difference between a male and a female.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    51:51-51:59

    And that God designed, God didn't make it, hey now you can decide as now we're seeing, and some of the laws that are being passed in Canada right now are amazing.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    52:00-52:04

    You know, you could take, your child could be taken away from you if you don't let them choose what sex they want to be.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    52:06-52:55

    I'm going to teach my children this is different a male is different a female and to be honest because the culture we live in I've been pushed that even harder to a place what this is the difference We are different and to go back to science and to show them that I'm not a scientist So if you're a scientist and you know more of that stuff and help them see that that as they read those things Just you know, you don't when you point those people out and say hey, listen, they see something TV So those people are just confused I don't want to give them a perspective where they hate those people or say how stupid I don't make them think those people are stupid because that's what the church has done for so many years Then they have this mindset No They're just confused and they understand how God really loved them and God made them this way and they're just confused They need the gospel and so point them back to the gospel of the truth But help them understand the difference between a male and a female. So it's a good question anybody else

    Mark Ort:

    52:56-52:58

    So what do you do when you get invited to a same-sex wedding?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    53:00-54:06

    What do you do when you get invited to a same-sex marriage if you didn't hear that and that's one that I get asked a lot. My brother was dating someone, they were very close, they actually were engaged, and if you saw Survivor about three or four years ago, he was on there with his partner, and they broke up, so he's not dating anybody right now. I would say I would never be able to go to his wedding, and I can't. You know, a wedding is, when you sit in a wedding, what you're saying is, "I approve of what's taking place." And they used to ask the question, "Does anybody disapprove of this?" Well, they don't ask that anymore, because everybody sitting there, they said they approved of this. And so I could never sit in a wedding. I could never do that. If my brother got married, yes, I couldn't go to that because I don't approve what's taking place. And I think your presence there shows that. And so I don't see how if I stand truly what I believe a marriage is, to be able to go and sit in a marriage of the same sex, and I would show him my love. I love you, I wish, but I don't approve of it. After they were married, would I love the spouse that he's— yes, I would. But they still would know I don't approve of what's going to take place in that. Good question.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    54:07-54:08

    Anybody else? Yeah, right over here.

    Audience Question 2:

    54:08-54:28

    Okay, and so piggybacking on that, if you have a family member who did get married or have a relationship with somebody and you had a family get-together, how would you handle that as far as in front of your children and them showing public affection in front of your children or something like that?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    54:29-55:24

    You know, that's been a tough one for my family from the beginning, especially when Josh started to like this guy and they started to date. What is that? And I would say this, I think every family, there's no clear verses on that. I think you need to go as a family and look at that. I think a family is different than a church, okay? You know, as a church, if someone's living in that sin of homosexuality, yes, you love them, if they're members of the church, then church discipline's there, because that shouldn't take place, and happen. But as a family, yes, he's still my brother and so I'm gonna still love him. What we have kind of, I would let Josh come. I would not let them sleep in the same room because under my house I would say, "Hey, there's no physical contact and there's no, you're not sleeping in the same room," because I don't believe it's right. But I would still let him and his partner come. I just not, and that's what kind of when my parents have landed, they always said.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    55:26-55:30

    I would not let them with my kids, I'd ask Josh not to.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    55:30-55:35

    I think it's different if you have younger kids to if you have older kids and no kids and what that is.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    55:35-55:37

    And again, that's where as the spouse you got to go.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    55:38-55:42

    Right now with younger kids, I would not let them display any affection.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    55:42-55:43

    I would say I don't even want that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    55:43-55:44

    I don't want that communicated.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    55:44-55:48

    I want to talk about it because I don't agree with it and I don't want to mess with my kids minds already.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    55:48-55:49

    We're trying to raise them one way.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    55:50-55:54

    If you have older kids, then it might just be, "Hey, we're not, you can't stay together." And I don't want that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    55:54-55:56

    So I think that's something you have to decide.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    55:56-56:08

    to think you have to let them know though, this in this home we don't agree with it and it's out of love, it's not coming out of anger, it's not yelling at them, please don't do that because you're you're the run from that so quickly.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    56:09-56:40

    But just say hey will you honor me because yes I want to show I love you, I want to show you that I care for you, but this is not and even though the state may say you're legally married, in my eyes and in God's eyes I don't believe you are, and so we're not going to stay in the same room, and that's not going to happen. And so that's kind of where we've landed as a family, but again I do think that's every family has to go and pray and ask God, "What does that look like?" I think you love them, but you still have got to help them see that they don't approve of what your lifestyle is.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    56:42-56:43

    One more in the back.

    Audience Question 3:

    56:44-57:30

    So I used to live in Boston, very liberal city, you know, they painted rainbow crosswalks on the streets and stuff during June and whatnot, and they have the parades and stuff like that. So, and also being in the music industry, and you know, my sister's in musical theater, which is even, you know, further, I guess my question would be how do you exist in, or is there anything you can say to how to exist in kind of an environment where it's so celebrated? Because, you know, if you don't to agree with it, you're automatically labeled a bigot, which that's not true. I mean, I guess for some people maybe it is, but I guess, is there anything you can say to speak to that, just like sort of existing there, but trying to... does that make sense?

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    57:31-58:02

    To be honest, it's because of the church that it's harder for those people to do it. You should have seen some of the texts and emails and stuff, tweets that my brother got when he was just from church people and church pastors, I mean he had whole churches that were just told to just lamb blast him and just tell him he's going to hell and da da da. It's because of that, that's why most of the people in the musical theater issue just have pushed away the church so much. Do we need people who understand the truth, the gospel, who understand light to be in that atmosphere? Yes. Is it a tough one? Yes.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    58:03-58:39

    And so yes, for those who are, I would say what? I'd say show them love, but you've got to stand on the truth, but show them how to love in truth, and that's not because they don't think that, they don't see that. I don't think you come in with, you know, the big sign on your shirt that says, "I don't agree with this." You come in and show them love and understand who you are, and you say, "No, this is what I stand for." I don't think you hide—it's not like you hide your Christianity. I think we live out the gospel, we live out the truth. I mean, Christ, he was with the tax collectors and the sinners, and he was with all those people, but he still stood for what he believed. We have to be able to penetrate this world, but still have the light of the gospel on us.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    58:39-58:43

    And so for those who are in there, I would say, make sure you're grounded in God's word.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    58:43-58:44

    I think that'd be the biggest thing.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    58:44-58:49

    I'd probably challenge anybody who's in that atmosphere that God's called you to into that atmosphere.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    58:49-58:57

    Make sure God's called you, 'cause it is a tough one, but we need lights in there, but be grounded in God's word, because this is what our foundation is.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    58:57-59:00

    When the world's starting to sway back and forth, we have to stand on this.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    59:01-59:24

    And so make sure you're grounded in this book right here, and then also make sure you have people that are keeping you accountable and that you aren't just becoming like them. So I'm just kind of, I think it's so easy for them, eventually I'll get to whether they've been there for two, three years, they never share the gospel with anybody. I think that's a problem. God's called you in there, he wants you to be a light. And yes, are they gonna persecute you at times? Yes, and the Bible says that.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    59:24-01:00:07

    When they persecute a Christ, they put them on a cross. So be grounded in God's Word, make sure you know this. If you don't know this, then I'd be challenging not to, because it'd be hard to go into that atmosphere because it's just like the sand, it's just waves back and forth, and we have to have the rock, and we have to be grounded in this. So, and listen, that's for those who—and that's for all of us— that says the culture goes where it's going, and the direction it is, if we're not solid on this book right here. That's why it's important that you come to a church that preaches God's Word, and I know Jeff does that, because you have to know what this book says, or are we going to shift back and forth? And we have to be grounded in God's Word so we know how to stand and continue to live out the gospel. Okay, if you have other questions though, I'd be more than happy to answer.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    01:00:08-01:00:11

    I'll be up here, but thank you so much for allowing me to share.

    Pastor Jeremiah:

    01:00:13-01:00:14

    [APPLAUSE]

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Genesis 2:24-25

  1. What overall thoughts do you have from the message and what where some take-a-ways and "nuggets".

  2. What other "street level" objectives have you heard. If so, talk about them and come up with an answer for them.

  3. How do we show love and give the gay community the Gospel in today culture?

Breakout Questions:
Spend time praying for those in the your small group who know someone that is struggling with this issue. Pray for God to free them of their bondage. 

Seeking God

Lessons from the Life of King Asa

- (2 Chronicles 14-16)

Intro:


Romans 15:4 - For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.


A Person Who Truly Seeks God is One Who:


  1. Is Serious about it. (2 Chron 14:2-7)

  2. Makes it Personal. (2 Chron 14:11)

  3. Perseveres in their seeking. (2 Chron 15:7)

  4. Is Serious about it. (2 Chron 15:8-16)

  5. Is not without Flaws. (2 Chron 16:1-12)

HBCPN Elder - Mark Ort

Click illustration to enlarge

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

  • Pastor Jeff:

    00:22-00:27

    Our guest speaker this morning, also no stranger, Mark Ort, if you would come up here.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:28-00:31

    I first met Mark Ort in prison.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:32-00:33

    That is a true story.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:34-00:36

    And I love telling that story just for the look on people's faces.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:37-00:38

    Well, you would be surprised.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:38-00:44

    In prison, if you needed somebody roughed up, if you gave this man a pack of smokes, he would break some knees.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:45-00:47

    That's what I... We were cellies for a while.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:47-01:19

    And I just thought I love saying we met in prison because you always get that reaction of like You guys you guys were in jail and we were how many times were we in jail mark literally like a hundred literally hundreds of times we've been in jail and doing Bible study We went every week for like two or three hours, but that's how I met mark I was involved at North Street Christian Church, and there was a guy in our church that was involved in prison ministry and I'm like, "Hey, I'd really like to get involved in that." And you were at First Baptist at the time, and you were, right?

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:19-01:20

    Weren't you at First Baptist?

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:21-01:25

    Okay, whatever, but anyways, you weren't at, that's where we had met.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:26-01:27

    And here there was a connection.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:28-01:38

    Mark is actually married to Kristen, who my wife and I went to high school with, and three absolutely beautiful children, Jack, Jessie, and Livvy.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:39-01:46

    No stranger around here, but if you're visiting with us, maybe this is something you don't know about Mark, but something I really appreciate about Mark.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:46-02:04

    He loves God, he loves God's word, he loves his family, and every time Mark gets up to bring the word, you should have your Bible, you should have your sheet for your notes, and you should have your pencil ready, and you should be ready to write down a lot, because Mark always has a lot to say.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:05-02:08

    So let's welcome him, and let's get ready to get into God's word with him.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:08-02:09

    Mark Ort, thank you, brother.

    Mark Ort:

    02:10-02:10

    Thank you.

    Mark Ort:

    02:13-02:16

    Thank you for the kind words, Jeff, I appreciate that.

    Mark Ort:

    02:17-02:19

    Why don't we just take a second and pray.

    Mark Ort:

    02:21-02:25

    Lord God, we are about to open up your Word.

    Mark Ort:

    02:27-02:28

    That's no small thing.

    Mark Ort:

    02:29-02:32

    You're going to show us things from your Word.

    Mark Ort:

    02:32-02:40

    It's just an amazing thing to be able to go into this book that you've given us and learn from it.

    Mark Ort:

    02:41-02:52

    And Lord, it's impossible for a mere man to understand your word apart from your Holy Spirit, and infinitely more so to try to teach it.

    Mark Ort:

    02:52-03:00

    And so God, I pray you'd give me just the wherewithal through your spirit to communicate the things that I've learned in your scripture.

    Mark Ort:

    03:01-03:04

    Thank you, Lord, for what you're doing in our church.

    Mark Ort:

    03:05-03:09

    I thank you for all these smiling faces out here that I call my friends.

    Mark Ort:

    03:10-03:16

    And so God, we look to you now and ask that you would do amazing things through your word.

    Mark Ort:

    03:16-03:18

    In Jesus' name, amen.

    Mark Ort:

    03:20-03:29

    If you would turn in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles 14, I like to spend a little bit of time in the Old Testament.

    Mark Ort:

    03:31-03:36

    And I've been asking myself recently, why do you spend time in the Old Testament?

    Mark Ort:

    03:36-03:38

    Like, aren't we under the new covenant now?

    Mark Ort:

    03:39-03:40

    And we are, of course.

    Mark Ort:

    03:41-03:44

    And so I spend time in a New Testament, you guys do too, hopefully.

    Mark Ort:

    03:45-03:46

    Why would we go to the Old Testament?

    Mark Ort:

    03:48-03:51

    Paul in the New Testament actually says why we do that.

    Mark Ort:

    03:52-03:57

    And I have a scripture up here from Romans 15.

    Mark Ort:

    03:58-04:09

    And the apostle Paul says, "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

    Mark Ort:

    04:10-04:14

    And so Paul says, and he's talking about the Old Testament here.

    Mark Ort:

    04:15-04:18

    This stuff was written in earlier times and what was it written for?

    Mark Ort:

    04:18-04:19

    It was for our instruction.

    Mark Ort:

    04:20-04:31

    It wasn't written so that we could leaf through the Old Testament and win some kind of Bible Bee contest or something in Sunday school.

    Mark Ort:

    04:32-04:40

    It wasn't written so we could look great in a living room with our parents, like watching Jeopardy or something in a Bible category.

    Mark Ort:

    04:41-04:43

    I mean, it's nice to have some facts, right?

    Mark Ort:

    04:45-04:49

    But the Old Testament here, Paul's saying it was written for our instruction.

    Mark Ort:

    04:49-04:50

    And what's instruction?

    Mark Ort:

    04:51-04:58

    You know, when you send your kids off to school to get instruction, they're not just filling their brains up with facts and mathematical equations and things like that.

    Mark Ort:

    04:59-05:04

    They're doing that so that they can learn and do something with it, right?

    Mark Ort:

    05:04-05:09

    Eventually they're going to maybe go to college a job and be fruitful.

    Mark Ort:

    05:10-05:11

    That's what this word is here.

    Mark Ort:

    05:12-05:13

    It's for your benefit.

    Mark Ort:

    05:13-05:15

    You're going to do something with it.

    Mark Ort:

    05:15-05:16

    It's not just facts.

    Mark Ort:

    05:17-05:21

    And so Paul says, this is why we go to the Old Testament.

    Mark Ort:

    05:21-05:22

    And that's good enough for me.

    Mark Ort:

    05:23-05:29

    I wanna go to the Old Testament and I wanna not just get trivial facts.

    Mark Ort:

    05:29-05:33

    I wanna get something and learn from it and use it.

    Mark Ort:

    05:34-05:38

    Now, when we go to the Old Testament, we have things in there that are complicated.

    Mark Ort:

    05:38-05:45

    There's prophecy, there's genealogies, there's measurements of the temple and things like that.

    Mark Ort:

    05:45-05:47

    And there's a lot of narratives in there.

    Mark Ort:

    05:48-05:59

    And one thing we need to be careful of, and this is just a quick warning before we dive into our passage, is that there's a tendency for some people to do what's called spiritualizing of passages.

    Mark Ort:

    06:00-06:00

    And what does that mean?

    Mark Ort:

    06:01-06:13

    Spiritualizing of a passage is kind of like allegorizing it to fit something that is maybe going on in your life, a circumstance or something.

    Mark Ort:

    06:13-06:20

    And there's a more technical definition of that, but I might be able to explain it better through a couple of examples.

    Mark Ort:

    06:21-06:22

    And tell me if you've ever heard this kind of thing.

    Mark Ort:

    06:24-06:27

    The story of like David and Goliath, for instance.

    Mark Ort:

    06:28-06:36

    David was a small kid, he picks up a small stone, he wings it at Goliath and hits him in the forehead and he kills him, he slays him.

    Mark Ort:

    06:36-06:44

    So when you're a Christian, maybe even a baby Christian will say, you're gonna have giants in your life.

    Mark Ort:

    06:45-06:53

    And the little things that you do, staying in the Word and going to church and things like that, you can slay the giant.

    Mark Ort:

    06:53-06:55

    You can slay the giants in your life.

    Mark Ort:

    06:56-06:59

    That would be an example of spiritualizing the passage.

    Mark Ort:

    06:59-07:03

    That's not what that passage is getting at at all.

    Mark Ort:

    07:04-07:07

    And similarly, how about the Jericho walls?

    Mark Ort:

    07:07-07:11

    And I've heard this, the Israelites, they march around the Jericho walls, you know that story?

    Mark Ort:

    07:12-07:17

    And they blow the trumpets and they yell and stuff, and the walls go crumbling down flat.

    Mark Ort:

    07:18-07:37

    And people in books and on the internet and pastors will say things like, "We need to tear down the walls in our life." "just like the Jericho walls, we need to tear no walls." And I'm looking at that passage and I'm like, "I don't get that at all out of that passage." That's not what these passages are saying at all.

    Mark Ort:

    07:37-07:40

    These passages are talking about how great God is.

    Mark Ort:

    07:41-07:49

    And so when we go to the Old Testament, we don't wanna do stuff like that, but we do wanna get principles from the Old Testament.

    Mark Ort:

    07:49-07:54

    There's principles that we can glean out of the Old Testament that we can apply directly to our lives.

    Mark Ort:

    07:55-08:10

    And that's kind of what we're going after this morning is we're gonna go through this narrative of King Asa, and we're gonna pull out some principles that were characteristic of his life and say, is this something that maybe I could employ in my life?

    Mark Ort:

    08:11-08:12

    Would this work in my life?

    Mark Ort:

    08:13-08:16

    And so let's take a look at the life of King Asa.

    Mark Ort:

    08:17-08:21

    Now, before we get into the scripture, we need to have a little historical background.

    Mark Ort:

    08:22-08:23

    Who in the world was Asa?

    Mark Ort:

    08:23-08:26

    And where does he fit in with history?

    Mark Ort:

    08:27-08:28

    Where does he fit in?

    Mark Ort:

    08:28-08:33

    So this is a lot of stuff on here, but I just want you to get the gist of this, okay?

    Mark Ort:

    08:33-08:39

    If you go back in your Old Testament and learn about Saul, Saul was the first king of Israel, right?

    Mark Ort:

    08:40-08:41

    You know, Israel wanted a king.

    Mark Ort:

    08:42-08:43

    And so they clamored for a king.

    Mark Ort:

    08:43-08:44

    They wanted to be like everybody else.

    Mark Ort:

    08:45-08:48

    And so they get a king and his name's Saul.

    Mark Ort:

    08:48-08:49

    And right after Saul was David.

    Mark Ort:

    08:50-08:51

    And right after David was his son Solomon.

    Mark Ort:

    08:52-08:54

    That was what they called the United Kingdom.

    Mark Ort:

    08:56-09:03

    And right at the end of Solomon's life, there was a split and you can read about this in 1 Kings.

    Mark Ort:

    09:04-09:09

    You can read about what happened with Jeroboam up at the top there and Rehoboam.

    Mark Ort:

    09:09-09:15

    And you can see in the light colors here, you have Israel on the top and Judah on the bottom.

    Mark Ort:

    09:16-09:19

    And the kingdom split at that time.

    Mark Ort:

    09:19-09:28

    And if you read through these historical narratives of the kings and you don't understand about how the kingdom split like that, it can be very confusing.

    Mark Ort:

    09:29-09:39

    I remember a time in my life I'd be reading and I'd be like, you know, they're talking about King Basha and Asa, he's the king too, like, why is there two kings?

    Mark Ort:

    09:39-09:41

    I thought, you know, why are there two kings?

    Mark Ort:

    09:41-09:43

    But this is the reason why.

    Mark Ort:

    09:43-09:48

    You had Israel, they were to the north on your map and Judah was on the south.

    Mark Ort:

    09:49-09:58

    And you can see in the orange there, I have a couple of prophets kind of by date, and it goes through Elisha.

    Mark Ort:

    09:58-10:02

    Now there's more kings after that, I just didn't have room to put them on the screen.

    Mark Ort:

    10:02-10:07

    And you can read all about these kings as you go through 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles.

    Mark Ort:

    10:09-10:16

    And 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles, I chose 2 Chronicles because the account is a little more in depth.

    Mark Ort:

    10:17-10:19

    There's four chapters spent on Asa.

    Mark Ort:

    10:19-10:22

    and I think there's like a half a chapter in 1 Kings.

    Mark Ort:

    10:22-10:24

    It's a little more detailed account here in Chronicles.

    Mark Ort:

    10:25-10:32

    So you can see in Judah on the bottom, you had Rehoboam, Ahijah, and then Asa.

    Mark Ort:

    10:33-10:36

    And that's about 9, 10 BC, somewhere around that timeframe.

    Mark Ort:

    10:37-10:46

    Now, Asa is pretty important because if you look in Matthew chapter one and look at the genealogy of Jesus, who shows up in that genealogy?

    Mark Ort:

    10:46-10:47

    There's a bunch of kings in there, right?

    Mark Ort:

    10:48-10:49

    And Asa is one of them.

    Mark Ort:

    10:50-10:52

    So Asa has a pretty important place in history.

    Mark Ort:

    10:52-10:58

    He's like the 21st, if I counted right, he's like the 21st great-grandfather of Jesus.

    Mark Ort:

    11:00-11:01

    So kind of an important guy.

    Mark Ort:

    11:02-11:08

    So that's the historical landscape of this guy, Asa.

    Mark Ort:

    11:09-11:12

    And what about the spiritual condition of Israel at the time?

    Mark Ort:

    11:12-11:15

    What was going on spiritually back at this time?

    Mark Ort:

    11:16-11:23

    Well, the children of Israel always had issues with immorality and idolatry.

    Mark Ort:

    11:23-11:25

    That was nothing new to them.

    Mark Ort:

    11:26-11:27

    They always had issues with that.

    Mark Ort:

    11:27-11:29

    And this was no exception.

    Mark Ort:

    11:30-11:35

    Rehoboam, his grandfather, and Abijah, they were wicked guys, Ahijah.

    Mark Ort:

    11:36-11:39

    Different versions of the Bible will say Ahijah or Abijah.

    Mark Ort:

    11:39-11:40

    It's the same guy.

    Mark Ort:

    11:42-11:43

    They were wicked people.

    Mark Ort:

    11:43-11:48

    In fact, all the kings on the north up there were referred to as being wicked.

    Mark Ort:

    11:48-11:57

    We had some good kings on the bottom, like when you get to Josiah, there were some good kings, the people who wanted to honor the Lord.

    Mark Ort:

    11:58-12:00

    And Asa was one of those guys.

    Mark Ort:

    12:01-12:04

    He was one of the guys that wanted to honor the Lord.

    Mark Ort:

    12:04-12:07

    So historically, that's what's going on.

    Mark Ort:

    12:07-12:14

    Spiritually, you had apostasy, you had immorality, rampant, ideology, rampant.

    Mark Ort:

    12:16-12:24

    Now, the focus of this passage, when I went through this, I noticed there was some repeating words in here.

    Mark Ort:

    12:25-12:33

    And when you're trying to interpret scripture, one of the things, if you see repeating words, that's probably something that you ought to take note of.

    Mark Ort:

    12:33-12:44

    And if you go through these four chapters, 14, 15, 16, I'm sorry, just three chapters, nine times, at least nine times, some form of the word seek appears or sought.

    Mark Ort:

    12:45-12:47

    And so I thought, that must be pretty important.

    Mark Ort:

    12:48-12:50

    They're getting to something here by repeating that word.

    Mark Ort:

    12:50-12:57

    So the focus of this passage for when I studied it, appears to be seeking God.

    Mark Ort:

    12:57-13:02

    Now, I don't know if I really need to define seeking, but I'm going to.

    Mark Ort:

    13:03-13:04

    We kind of know what seeking is.

    Mark Ort:

    13:05-13:08

    When I looked it up, it's, we're gonna search intently.

    Mark Ort:

    13:08-13:10

    We're gonna investigate thoroughly.

    Mark Ort:

    13:10-13:14

    Diligently going to great lengths to find in order to obtain.

    Mark Ort:

    13:15-13:21

    I mean, there's no real need to define that any further, is there?

    Mark Ort:

    13:21-13:22

    I mean, you guys know what seeking is.

    Mark Ort:

    13:23-13:25

    Has anybody been on Google this morning?

    Mark Ort:

    13:26-13:27

    Have you been on Google this morning?

    Mark Ort:

    13:27-13:28

    Yeah, some of you guys have been on Google.

    Mark Ort:

    13:29-13:29

    How about this past week?

    Mark Ort:

    13:30-13:33

    Everybody goes to Google when you're searching for stuff, right?

    Mark Ort:

    13:33-13:34

    You know how to seek.

    Mark Ort:

    13:34-13:36

    You know how to look for things.

    Mark Ort:

    13:36-13:38

    And what do we look for?

    Mark Ort:

    13:38-13:42

    We're a culture that's like really intent on information.

    Mark Ort:

    13:42-13:43

    We love information.

    Mark Ort:

    13:43-13:46

    And so we have Google and we go there and we search for stuff.

    Mark Ort:

    13:46-13:49

    You know, last week we weren't here because we were on a little bit of a vacation.

    Mark Ort:

    13:50-13:53

    And I spent hours prepping for this thing.

    Mark Ort:

    13:53-13:53

    Where?

    Mark Ort:

    13:54-13:54

    On Google.

    Mark Ort:

    13:54-13:55

    I was searching.

    Mark Ort:

    13:55-13:58

    I was hunting for the perfect place to stay.

    Mark Ort:

    13:58-14:03

    You know, I'm reading reviews and I'm looking at websites and I'm searching.

    Mark Ort:

    14:03-14:05

    I'm hunting for something in order to obtain.

    Mark Ort:

    14:06-14:10

    And, you know, we do that in other ways like clothing, for example.

    Mark Ort:

    14:10-14:14

    You're going to go to a store and you're looking through all the racks to find the perfect thing.

    Mark Ort:

    14:15-14:17

    You're going from store to store.

    Mark Ort:

    14:17-14:20

    You're trying to find the perfect thing, school shopping or whatever.

    Mark Ort:

    14:20-14:22

    In fact, we've done that.

    Mark Ort:

    14:23-14:25

    I've actually gone to Kohl's.

    Mark Ort:

    14:26-14:31

    I've gone to three different Kohl's department stores in the same day looking for a specific shirt.

    Mark Ort:

    14:32-14:33

    Has anybody else done that?

    Mark Ort:

    14:33-14:34

    Am I the only one that's done that?

    Mark Ort:

    14:35-14:37

    We know what seeking is.

    Mark Ort:

    14:37-14:38

    You lose your keys or something.

    Mark Ort:

    14:38-14:44

    It's like, "Oh, okay, I don't really need my keys." Well, you're gonna search, you're gonna turn your house upside down, right?

    Mark Ort:

    14:45-14:48

    So this is not a foreign concept about seeking or searching.

    Mark Ort:

    14:49-14:55

    And so let's get into this passage here and kind of discover what's happening with Asa.

    Mark Ort:

    14:55-15:01

    And let me just give you like Reader's Digest version of this account because it's three chapters long.

    Mark Ort:

    15:01-15:07

    Typically, like Jeff has said every Sunday is, we do expository preaching here.

    Mark Ort:

    15:08-15:09

    we go verse by verse.

    Mark Ort:

    15:09-15:14

    And if you want me to do that, I can, but we're gonna be here a really long time today.

    Mark Ort:

    15:15-15:24

    So what I decided to do was kind of give you like the Reader's Digest version and hit the high points, and then we'll go back through and fill in the blanks.

    Mark Ort:

    15:25-15:31

    So Asa, he's the next king in line here after a Bajah or a Hajah.

    Mark Ort:

    15:32-15:40

    And it says here at the beginning of chapter 14 that Asa did good and right in the sight of the Lord his God.

    Mark Ort:

    15:41-15:47

    So the writer, inspired by the scripture, said that because he was doing things that were good and right.

    Mark Ort:

    15:47-15:48

    He was tearing down altars.

    Mark Ort:

    15:49-15:50

    He's like, "Hey, we're gonna have a reform.

    Mark Ort:

    15:51-15:58

    We're gonna get rid of this bad stuff." And so he starts ripping down all these altars and then they have a time of peace.

    Mark Ort:

    15:59-16:02

    And so he says, "Well, I'm gonna fortify the cities now.

    Mark Ort:

    16:03-16:04

    I'm doing some kind of action here.

    Mark Ort:

    16:04-16:08

    I'm gonna fortify these cities in case we ever do have a time where there's not peace.

    Mark Ort:

    16:09-16:10

    We have a little bit of strength behind us.

    Mark Ort:

    16:10-16:12

    So he's fortifying cities.

    Mark Ort:

    16:13-16:15

    You got this guy from Ethiopia.

    Mark Ort:

    16:15-16:20

    He comes against Judah, and he has a million people with him.

    Mark Ort:

    16:20-16:25

    And Judah, it says, if you total up the numbers, it's like 580,000 or something like that.

    Mark Ort:

    16:25-16:28

    So there's a little discrepancy in the number of people.

    Mark Ort:

    16:28-16:30

    Now, is it exactly a million?

    Mark Ort:

    16:30-16:33

    The scripture does this sometimes, and we do this too.

    Mark Ort:

    16:34-16:38

    Like, I have a collection of baseball cards that I was trying to get rid of.

    Mark Ort:

    16:38-16:42

    And I would tell somebody, I have a million baseball cards.

    Mark Ort:

    16:43-16:48

    Well, I didn't sit there and count them, you know, 999,000, you know, I didn't count them.

    Mark Ort:

    16:48-16:50

    I just looked at them, I said, I have a million of them.

    Mark Ort:

    16:51-16:52

    And scripture will do this too.

    Mark Ort:

    16:52-16:59

    And I don't know if that's what's happening here or not, but it says that this guy from Ethiopia had a million soldiers.

    Mark Ort:

    17:00-17:01

    Hey, so he's outnumbered.

    Mark Ort:

    17:01-17:03

    And so immediately he goes to prayer.

    Mark Ort:

    17:03-17:07

    He prays to his God, and it's a great prayer, and we're gonna look at it in detail.

    Mark Ort:

    17:07-17:10

    He prays, bam, God answers.

    Mark Ort:

    17:10-17:12

    He defeats the Ethiopians.

    Mark Ort:

    17:12-17:16

    And the next chapter, you have this prophet named Azariah.

    Mark Ort:

    17:17-17:20

    It looks like he's warning him a little bit, like, "Hey, you just had a really big victory here.

    Mark Ort:

    17:22-17:25

    "So don't get too prideful here, "but you need to stay the course.

    Mark Ort:

    17:25-17:26

    "You need to do what you're doing.

    Mark Ort:

    17:27-17:29

    "Be careful, be strong.

    Mark Ort:

    17:30-17:35

    "Don't lose heart, don't lose courage." And so Asa, he's all pumped up.

    Mark Ort:

    17:35-17:37

    He's like, yeah, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna take more.

    Mark Ort:

    17:37-17:40

    We're gonna search the country and we're gonna take more idols down.

    Mark Ort:

    17:40-17:42

    We're gonna do this right.

    Mark Ort:

    17:43-17:49

    And so he has the people, he wants them to swear that they're gonna seek the Lord with all their heart and soul.

    Mark Ort:

    17:51-17:53

    He does some other things with these idols.

    Mark Ort:

    17:53-17:56

    He throws them, he burns them and throws them into this body of water.

    Mark Ort:

    17:57-18:04

    And then later on, Asa doesn't, it appears like he's not seeking the Lord.

    Mark Ort:

    18:05-18:14

    It almost looks like it's a tragic end to his life where this Basha guy wants to come down to Judah and war against him.

    Mark Ort:

    18:14-18:16

    And so he's like, "Well, how can I finagle this?

    Mark Ort:

    18:16-18:23

    I'm gonna bribe some people." And he works out this bribery scheme with an alliance of the guy from the North.

    Mark Ort:

    18:24-18:26

    And he's doing it all on his own power.

    Mark Ort:

    18:27-18:30

    And then he gets sick and gets a disease in his leg.

    Mark Ort:

    18:31-18:39

    And you know, when we get sick, Hopefully we're praying to the Lord and saying, "Lord, I have this illness, I have this sickness, "will you please help me?" And Asa doesn't do that.

    Mark Ort:

    18:39-18:44

    He doesn't consider the Lord and he dies with this disease in his feet.

    Mark Ort:

    18:45-18:47

    It's like, man, that's kind of a tragic ending.

    Mark Ort:

    18:50-18:52

    So what do we wanna do with this passage here?

    Mark Ort:

    18:53-18:58

    Well, on your outline, I don't have any secrets to you about seeking.

    Mark Ort:

    18:58-19:00

    Like I said, we know what that is.

    Mark Ort:

    19:01-19:11

    I don't have any tips or advice about, you know, well, if you do this or do that, but I wanna tell you about the person who's seeking God and that person's characteristics, all right?

    Mark Ort:

    19:12-19:17

    So on your outline, the first one, the person who truly seeks God is one who is serious about it.

    Mark Ort:

    19:18-19:20

    We gotta be serious about this if we're gonna seek God, right?

    Mark Ort:

    19:23-19:25

    I'm just gonna read a couple of verses here at the beginning.

    Mark Ort:

    19:28-19:31

    Asa did what is good and right in the sight of the Lord as God.

    Mark Ort:

    19:31-19:42

    And he removed the foreign altars and the high places and tore down the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherim, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandment.

    Mark Ort:

    19:43-19:49

    He also removed the high places and the incense altars from the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was undisturbed under him.

    Mark Ort:

    19:50-19:55

    And then there were a couple of passages about when he's fortifying the land, but I'm just gonna focus on tearing these altars down.

    Mark Ort:

    19:56-19:59

    This was a big deal, tearing these altars down.

    Mark Ort:

    19:59-20:00

    It was a huge deal.

    Mark Ort:

    20:01-20:10

    If you think about who the Asherah is, or the Asherim, Asherim is just a plural word for Asherah.

    Mark Ort:

    20:10-20:15

    And Asherah was the goddess of fertility, the false goddess, of course.

    Mark Ort:

    20:16-20:19

    She was the false goddess of fertility, and she was depicted on statues.

    Mark Ort:

    20:19-20:26

    Now, the Bible doesn't say how she was depicted, but we have archaeological evidence of these Asherah.

    Mark Ort:

    20:26-20:33

    And those findings, it shows that Asherah is depicted as a naked, pregnant woman.

    Mark Ort:

    20:35-20:39

    And this was kind of like their good luck charm, I guess.

    Mark Ort:

    20:40-20:43

    You know, like we have this goddess of fertility.

    Mark Ort:

    20:43-20:45

    Look, she's pregnant, she must be fertile.

    Mark Ort:

    20:45-20:48

    So we can't part with her.

    Mark Ort:

    20:49-20:53

    Well, Asa comes in and he's like, you know, he tears this stuff down.

    Mark Ort:

    20:54-21:17

    high places, you know, there were mountains that they would put these poles on and try to get them higher. And this picture, you know, this statue of Asherah was on the top of this thing, and they would look to that as their good luck charm. So he's tearing this stuff down. So he's acting in a way that's serious. It's like he's serious about this.

    Mark Ort:

    21:17-21:22

    We're not leaving this stuff here. We're getting rid of it. They're steeped in this idolatry.

    Mark Ort:

    21:22-21:29

    and his grandfather and all the cultural things going on, and he's like, "We're doing away with it.

    Mark Ort:

    21:29-21:32

    "We're tearing it down." So he's demonstrating his seriousness about it.

    Mark Ort:

    21:33-21:36

    The people were commanded to seek God.

    Mark Ort:

    21:37-21:41

    He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers.

    Mark Ort:

    21:41-21:43

    Did you know seeking God was actually a command?

    Mark Ort:

    21:44-21:46

    It's commanded throughout scripture.

    Mark Ort:

    21:47-21:53

    And you can write a couple of these references down, one from the Old Testament, one from the New, and you might be familiar with these.

    Mark Ort:

    21:53-21:57

    Isaiah 55, six says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found.

    Mark Ort:

    21:57-22:04

    Call upon him while he is near." So he's not suggesting you seek him, he's telling you to seek him, he's commanding you to.

    Mark Ort:

    22:04-22:06

    And to not do that is disobedience.

    Mark Ort:

    22:08-22:14

    In Matthew 7, seven, it's the famous ask, seek and knock passage.

    Mark Ort:

    22:14-22:15

    And you guys can look that up.

    Mark Ort:

    22:16-22:18

    You can go on Google and do a search, right?

    Mark Ort:

    22:18-22:19

    And look for seek.

    Mark Ort:

    22:20-22:23

    And you'll find it's all through the scriptures.

    Mark Ort:

    22:24-22:30

    So to be serious about seeking God would mean that we're rushing to be obedient in that.

    Mark Ort:

    22:31-22:35

    It would mean, if we're seeking God, it would mean that there's no half-heartedness in this.

    Mark Ort:

    22:37-22:39

    It's a careful and diligent search.

    Mark Ort:

    22:39-22:41

    There's no half-heartedness about this at all.

    Mark Ort:

    22:42-22:45

    So first thing is we're serious about it.

    Mark Ort:

    22:46-23:22

    The second point is a person who truly seeks God it personal. When Asa prayed in verse 11, listen to this prayer, this is this is a great prayer. In fact it might be one that's worthy of memorizing I think. Asa called to the Lord his God and said, "Lord, there is no one beside you to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength." And he's like getting ready to get bombarded by these people from Ethiopia. And so So it's almost like he doesn't have a chance.

    Mark Ort:

    23:22-23:24

    He's outnumbered almost by double.

    Mark Ort:

    23:24-23:32

    So he says, "So help us, O Lord, our God, "for we trust in you, and in your name "have come against this multitude, O Lord.

    Mark Ort:

    23:33-23:34

    "You are our God.

    Mark Ort:

    23:34-23:38

    "Let not man prevail against you." So do you see the personal effects here?

    Mark Ort:

    23:39-23:40

    First of all, he's going to God.

    Mark Ort:

    23:41-23:42

    So he sees him as his father.

    Mark Ort:

    23:44-23:46

    But look at the personal pronouns in here.

    Mark Ort:

    23:46-23:53

    We have His God, our God, our God, repeated, help us.

    Mark Ort:

    23:54-23:56

    It's this relationship that He has.

    Mark Ort:

    23:56-23:59

    And you think about like your husband or your wife.

    Mark Ort:

    23:59-24:10

    You know, when I talk about Kristen at work or whatever, I talk about my wife, she belongs to me, we're in relationship together.

    Mark Ort:

    24:11-24:15

    my daughter, my son, my other son.

    Mark Ort:

    24:16-24:18

    That's how we talk, right?

    Mark Ort:

    24:18-24:23

    We're in relationship with these people, so they're ours, they belong to us.

    Mark Ort:

    24:23-24:25

    We're in this vital relationship together.

    Mark Ort:

    24:27-24:28

    That's what Asa's doing here.

    Mark Ort:

    24:28-24:33

    He didn't like refer to God as like, oh, the big guy upstairs, you know, the big man.

    Mark Ort:

    24:34-24:36

    That drives me crazy when I hear people talk like that.

    Mark Ort:

    24:37-24:39

    It's like, he's not the big man upstairs, okay?

    Mark Ort:

    24:40-24:42

    He's Father God, and He's my Father.

    Mark Ort:

    24:45-24:47

    This really could be a model prayer here, I think.

    Mark Ort:

    24:49-24:49

    Help us.

    Mark Ort:

    24:50-24:51

    He's like, help us, oh Lord, our God.

    Mark Ort:

    24:52-24:53

    We trust in you.

    Mark Ort:

    24:53-24:55

    He's seeking God here, right?

    Mark Ort:

    24:55-24:56

    He's making it personal.

    Mark Ort:

    24:56-25:01

    So not only is he serious about it, but he's making it personal.

    Mark Ort:

    25:04-25:11

    And the third blank on your outline, A person who truly seeks God perseveres in their seeking.

    Mark Ort:

    25:14-25:17

    And you'll see that in chapter 15.

    Mark Ort:

    25:19-25:22

    This prophet, Azariah, was coming to warn Asa.

    Mark Ort:

    25:23-25:25

    You know, he just had this great victory over this Ethiopian.

    Mark Ort:

    25:27-25:28

    God heard the prayer.

    Mark Ort:

    25:29-25:33

    He answers the prayer and routs the Ethiopians, destroys them.

    Mark Ort:

    25:35-25:38

    And it's like, wow, God showed up.

    Mark Ort:

    25:38-25:46

    You know, all these people, and these million people, and you had this other army of 500 and some thousand people, and God showed up and destroyed it.

    Mark Ort:

    25:46-25:48

    It says in verse 14, "They destroyed all the cities.

    Mark Ort:

    25:49-25:54

    "They struck down those who own livestock." I mean, this was a route, and it was from God.

    Mark Ort:

    25:54-25:56

    He answered this personal prayer.

    Mark Ort:

    25:56-26:08

    And so, Azariah comes and says, "Now the Spirit of God came to Azariah, the son of Odette, and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa and Judah and Benjamin.

    Mark Ort:

    26:08-26:10

    The Lord is with you when you are with him.

    Mark Ort:

    26:10-26:13

    And if you seek him, he will let you find him.

    Mark Ort:

    26:13-26:23

    But if you forsake him, he will forsake you." In their distress, in verse four, they turned to the Lord God of Israel and they sought him and he let them find him.

    Mark Ort:

    26:24-26:35

    And right after that, in verse seven, Azariah says to Asa, "But you be strong and do not lose courage for there is reward in your work.

    Mark Ort:

    26:36-26:39

    And he's telling them, okay, you just need to keep doing what, don't lose heart.

    Mark Ort:

    26:41-26:42

    He's on a high right now.

    Mark Ort:

    26:42-26:45

    It's probably not like he's not gonna lose heart, but you know how it is.

    Mark Ort:

    26:45-26:45

    There's ebbs and flows.

    Mark Ort:

    26:46-26:46

    We're on a high point.

    Mark Ort:

    26:46-26:50

    We get down the hill and rollercoaster ride kind of thing.

    Mark Ort:

    26:50-26:54

    And he says to him, I want you to be strong.

    Mark Ort:

    26:54-26:55

    Do not lose courage.

    Mark Ort:

    26:55-26:57

    There's reward for your work.

    Mark Ort:

    26:57-27:07

    And so Asa encourages him, one, against possible pride, and two, he gives him a charge to keep up his reforms and keep seeking the Lord.

    Mark Ort:

    27:10-27:14

    So as Christians, things come along and bring us down.

    Mark Ort:

    27:14-27:15

    Like, what are we gonna do, give up?

    Mark Ort:

    27:16-27:17

    Are you serious?

    Mark Ort:

    27:17-27:18

    Like, we're not giving up.

    Mark Ort:

    27:19-27:21

    We have God on our side, right?

    Mark Ort:

    27:21-27:22

    We're not giving up.

    Mark Ort:

    27:23-27:24

    And that's what he's telling him here.

    Mark Ort:

    27:24-27:29

    You need to persevere because be strong, do not lose courage, why?

    Mark Ort:

    27:29-27:31

    Because there is a reward for your work.

    Mark Ort:

    27:32-27:34

    You're gonna be rewarded for that perseverance.

    Mark Ort:

    27:36-27:41

    And keep that word reward in your mind just for a second, because we're gonna come back to that toward the end here.

    Mark Ort:

    27:43-27:46

    The person who seeks God is, he's serious about it.

    Mark Ort:

    27:46-27:49

    He makes it personal, he perseveres in it, right?

    Mark Ort:

    27:50-27:53

    Now, the fourth thing is, he's serious about it.

    Mark Ort:

    27:53-27:55

    Am I allowed to put two series in here, Jeff?

    Mark Ort:

    27:56-27:58

    Okay, no more series after this, right?

    Mark Ort:

    27:58-27:59

    Are you serious about that?

    Mark Ort:

    28:01-28:08

    I think this is in here for us because the writer wants to emphasize that this is serious, this is serious business, okay?

    Mark Ort:

    28:09-28:14

    So Asa, he takes courage, he takes encouragement with this, and he's like, you know what?

    Mark Ort:

    28:15-28:17

    We're gonna go take some more idols down.

    Mark Ort:

    28:17-28:18

    We're gonna go throughout the country.

    Mark Ort:

    28:19-28:22

    And you see that happening here in verse eight.

    Mark Ort:

    28:24-28:32

    He took courage and removed the abominable idols from the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim.

    Mark Ort:

    28:33-28:35

    He restored the altar of the Lord.

    Mark Ort:

    28:36-28:37

    Let's keep going down here.

    Mark Ort:

    28:38-28:39

    He sacrificed to the Lord.

    Mark Ort:

    28:39-28:41

    So that's something serious.

    Mark Ort:

    28:41-28:52

    God requires certain sacrifice or whatever in Old Testament accounts here, that he's sacrificing 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep.

    Mark Ort:

    28:54-28:54

    That's a lot.

    Mark Ort:

    28:55-28:56

    I mean, he's serious about this, right?

    Mark Ort:

    28:57-29:12

    Now, here's the thing that really struck me when I read through this part is, if you get on to verse 16, it says, "He also removed Maahka, the mother of King Asa," which actually is his grandmother.

    Mark Ort:

    29:13-29:16

    Sometimes the Old Testament uses language like that.

    Mark Ort:

    29:16-29:21

    We'll talk about their fathers, but it wasn't actually their father, it was like their ancestors.

    Mark Ort:

    29:23-29:25

    This was his grandmother, actually.

    Mark Ort:

    29:25-29:26

    She was the queen mother.

    Mark Ort:

    29:28-29:33

    She was removed from her post as queen mother because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah.

    Mark Ort:

    29:35-29:39

    And Asa cut down the horrid image and crushed it and burned it in the Brook Kidron.

    Mark Ort:

    29:42-29:50

    This would be the equivalent of Kate and William, the prince and the princess, taking down Queen Elizabeth.

    Mark Ort:

    29:51-29:52

    Do you realize what a big deal that would be?

    Mark Ort:

    29:53-29:55

    I mean, the whole world would be in an uproar.

    Mark Ort:

    29:55-29:56

    You can't do that.

    Mark Ort:

    29:56-29:56

    She's the queen.

    Mark Ort:

    29:58-29:58

    She's the queen.

    Mark Ort:

    29:59-30:08

    And so he's taken her down because she made a horrid image of Asherah, and he cut this thing down and he crushed it and he burned it in the Brook Kidron.

    Mark Ort:

    30:09-30:13

    Now, we can pass over that passage really quickly and think, oh, it's the brook.

    Mark Ort:

    30:14-30:15

    This is really cool.

    Mark Ort:

    30:15-30:17

    You need to do a study on the Kidron Valley.

    Mark Ort:

    30:18-30:23

    'Cause the Kidron Valley is, it's a ravine outside of Jerusalem.

    Mark Ort:

    30:24-30:27

    And you can go there right now and walk through the Kidron Valley.

    Mark Ort:

    30:27-30:28

    It's still there.

    Mark Ort:

    30:28-30:29

    The river's still there.

    Mark Ort:

    30:31-30:38

    But back then, it was such a steep ravine that the bottom of that ravine would never see the sunlight.

    Mark Ort:

    30:39-31:15

    the Sun wouldn't get there because the ravine was so was so so steep. You've probably been in places like that it's like man this place never gets Sun. Well this this is what that place was like and so what people did was whenever their relatives died or if a criminal would die they would take their relatives and they would take them down there and they would bury them there and they would take criminals in some places and just throw them down there and that's land and people had like this eerie feeling about that, about that place.

    Mark Ort:

    31:15-31:17

    It was like, I don't want to go there.

    Mark Ort:

    31:17-31:21

    It's like, they actually called it the valley of death.

    Mark Ort:

    31:22-31:37

    And some of the theologians that I read believe that whenever David was writing Psalm 23, and he said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley "of the shadow of death," that he could have been referring to that place.

    Mark Ort:

    31:37-31:42

    Like, when you walk through there, it's not the most fun place to walk through.

    Mark Ort:

    31:43-31:49

    There's hints of dead things, and things that are in there are like cast off forever.

    Mark Ort:

    31:50-31:52

    And so it was kind of spooky.

    Mark Ort:

    31:52-31:56

    And so, you know, David, when he wrote that, was he referring to this valley?

    Mark Ort:

    31:56-31:57

    Likely.

    Mark Ort:

    31:58-32:03

    Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

    Mark Ort:

    32:05-32:06

    Why do I say all that?

    Mark Ort:

    32:08-32:18

    Because when he threw that stuff, the idol that was burned up and he threw that in there, what he was saying was to everybody around him, like, "This stuff is dead to me.

    Mark Ort:

    32:18-32:19

    I'm done with it.

    Mark Ort:

    32:20-32:20

    We're getting rid of it.

    Mark Ort:

    32:21-32:29

    It's down here where nobody wants to go and we're done with it." It would be a good visual for the people to see.

    Mark Ort:

    32:29-32:31

    So he was serious about it.

    Mark Ort:

    32:32-32:36

    And when you're serious about going after God, You do whatever it takes.

    Mark Ort:

    32:39-32:43

    Do you think that you're gonna experience the fullness of God if you're only half in?

    Mark Ort:

    32:44-32:45

    Do you think that?

    Mark Ort:

    32:46-32:48

    I mean, hardly.

    Mark Ort:

    32:49-32:55

    There's no way that we can experience God's fullness if we're only in this part way.

    Mark Ort:

    32:55-32:56

    We gotta be serious about it.

    Mark Ort:

    32:57-33:07

    A.W. Tozer said this, "How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done by our teachers." I mean, are we content with letting other people do your seeking for you?

    Mark Ort:

    33:07-33:16

    Seeking is not just for me, it's not just for your pastor, it's not just for the guy on Word FM, the preacher, it's just not for them.

    Mark Ort:

    33:17-33:21

    Seeking is a commandment for all of us and we need to be seeking Him and be serious about it, 100%.

    Mark Ort:

    33:23-33:29

    Just like Asa, getting rid of his idols, that's what we need to be doing.

    Mark Ort:

    33:30-33:35

    We don't have Asherahs in our homes, I don't think, We have other idols in our life, right?

    Mark Ort:

    33:35-33:39

    We need to be like Asa and throw them away, get rid of them.

    Mark Ort:

    33:39-33:41

    They're dead to us, they're gone.

    Mark Ort:

    33:42-33:48

    And this last point here, a person who truly seeks God is one who is not without flaws.

    Mark Ort:

    33:50-33:55

    To me, this was like the most encouraging thought from the whole passage.

    Mark Ort:

    33:56-34:15

    Here you have a guy where I read a lot of stuff about Asa, And I think Asa gets a bad rap, because at the end of his life, he bribes this ally of Bashar, Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram.

    Mark Ort:

    34:15-34:18

    He has an alliance with the king up north.

    Mark Ort:

    34:19-34:21

    And so Asa comes in and he says, you know what?

    Mark Ort:

    34:21-34:25

    I'm going to bribe you, and you're going to break your alliance with him.

    Mark Ort:

    34:25-34:26

    And it worked.

    Mark Ort:

    34:26-34:38

    I mean, he defeated-- he carried away things and was able to have some victory here, but he did it without God.

    Mark Ort:

    34:38-34:46

    He did it in his own power. He did it without the Lord and he didn't seek God here. And so, you know, the things that I read, people were crushing him about that.

    Mark Ort:

    34:48-34:56

    And you can see here where this, this seer, Hanani, the seer came to Asa, and this is is in 16, verse 7.

    Mark Ort:

    34:58-35:08

    The seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him, "Because you have relied on the king of Aram and not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand.

    Mark Ort:

    35:09-35:16

    Were not the Ethiopians and Lubam an immense army?" He's referring back to this big victory that happened.

    Mark Ort:

    35:17-35:25

    "Because you have relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand." So you relied on the Lord back then, but now you didn't.

    Mark Ort:

    35:25-35:34

    "For the eyes of the Lord," in verse nine, "move to and fro throughout the earth, "that he may strongly support "those whose heart is completely his.

    Mark Ort:

    35:35-35:36

    "You have acted foolishly in this.

    Mark Ort:

    35:37-35:43

    "Indeed, you from now on will surely have wars." Asa was angry with this and he put the guy in prison.

    Mark Ort:

    35:44-35:50

    And if you go on to the last verse, I believe it is, two verses up from the end.

    Mark Ort:

    35:51-35:54

    "The 39th year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet.

    Mark Ort:

    35:55-36:05

    His disease was severe, and yet in his disease, he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians." And I'm looking at that, and I'm like, this was a hard passage for me.

    Mark Ort:

    36:05-36:09

    And there's some other hard things in here that you guys need to go home, and I'm giving you homework.

    Mark Ort:

    36:09-36:10

    You can read this and study it.

    Mark Ort:

    36:11-36:14

    There's a couple of things we need to wrestle with in this passage that we don't have time for today.

    Mark Ort:

    36:16-36:18

    But here's Asa, he doesn't seek the Lord.

    Mark Ort:

    36:19-36:20

    He does this bribery thing.

    Mark Ort:

    36:21-36:26

    He doesn't seek the Lord in his illness, and he died with his feet disease.

    Mark Ort:

    36:28-36:30

    And I had a problem with that.

    Mark Ort:

    36:31-36:35

    I thought Asa was seeking God, and now he isn't.

    Mark Ort:

    36:36-36:40

    So who does Asa remind me of?

    Mark Ort:

    36:42-36:43

    He reminds me of me.

    Mark Ort:

    36:44-36:46

    He reminds me of us.

    Mark Ort:

    36:47-36:48

    We do this, right?

    Mark Ort:

    36:49-36:58

    We're seeking God, we're on fire, we're doing our disciplines, we're praying, we're studying, we're doing the things.

    Mark Ort:

    36:58-37:03

    And then all of a sudden it's like, we do something and it looks like, oh, I thought you were seeking God.

    Mark Ort:

    37:03-37:04

    Like, what are you doing?

    Mark Ort:

    37:06-37:09

    It's the flaws that we have, it's the faults that we have.

    Mark Ort:

    37:09-37:13

    And I'm not excusing that, but I'm saying that we're just like this guy.

    Mark Ort:

    37:14-37:24

    And so for somebody to come along and say, well, Asa abandoned God and Asa, He really wasn't sincere, he wasn't serious.

    Mark Ort:

    37:26-37:29

    I think they may be wrong with that, because Asa is just like us.

    Mark Ort:

    37:29-37:32

    And the reason I can say that is just not because of what I think.

    Mark Ort:

    37:33-37:35

    But take a look at a couple of verses, alright?

    Mark Ort:

    37:36-37:47

    If you take a look at 2 Chronicles 15, 17, it says, The high places were not removed from Israel.

    Mark Ort:

    37:48-37:49

    We got a problem there, right?

    Mark Ort:

    37:49-37:51

    Because I thought they removed the high places.

    Mark Ort:

    37:52-37:56

    Well, he did remove the high places in Judah, but Israel was to the north, remember?

    Mark Ort:

    37:57-37:59

    So I don't think he had jurisdiction over that.

    Mark Ort:

    37:59-38:01

    And so I don't have a problem with that.

    Mark Ort:

    38:01-38:04

    It's like he didn't remove those places because he wasn't up there.

    Mark Ort:

    38:06-38:16

    But it says, "Nevertheless, Asa's heart was blameless all his days." And there's a similar verse in 1 Kings 15, 14, you can just write that down.

    Mark Ort:

    38:17-38:19

    It says that he was wholly devoted all his days.

    Mark Ort:

    38:20-38:25

    Now, how can he be wholly devoted and blameless in his heart all his days?

    Mark Ort:

    38:26-38:28

    And then at the end of his life, he's not.

    Mark Ort:

    38:30-38:34

    That appears to be a contradiction, but it's not.

    Mark Ort:

    38:34-38:35

    And let me tell you why.

    Mark Ort:

    38:38-38:41

    This Hanani guy, it says that he was a seer.

    Mark Ort:

    38:42-38:44

    I don't know much about Hanani.

    Mark Ort:

    38:44-38:46

    Now, I don't know, was he a...

    Mark Ort:

    38:46-38:48

    It doesn't say much about him in here.

    Mark Ort:

    38:48-38:50

    Is he a self-proclaimed seer?

    Mark Ort:

    38:51-38:52

    What is he?

    Mark Ort:

    38:52-38:53

    And what's a seer?

    Mark Ort:

    38:53-38:55

    Is it really a prophet of God?

    Mark Ort:

    38:55-39:01

    We don't know a lot about Hanani, but I can tell you one thing, Hanani doesn't see one thing.

    Mark Ort:

    39:01-39:02

    He doesn't see Ace's heart.

    Mark Ort:

    39:04-39:11

    The writer of this passage, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God sees the heart, right?

    Mark Ort:

    39:11-39:19

    And God, I believe God, it says here that he was blameless all his days.

    Mark Ort:

    39:19-39:21

    Now, blamelessness isn't perfection, right?

    Mark Ort:

    39:22-39:23

    We can't be perfect.

    Mark Ort:

    39:24-39:29

    Blamelessness is a characteristic of our, it's our character, right?

    Mark Ort:

    39:29-39:32

    We live a blameless life, but we're not perfect.

    Mark Ort:

    39:34-39:38

    The writer of Scripture here, the author of this passage, says that his heart was blameless all his days.

    Mark Ort:

    39:39-39:47

    That gives me hope because when I screw up, when I mess up, yes, I'm seeking God, but I messed up in a certain situation.

    Mark Ort:

    39:47-39:48

    That doesn't make me a non-Christian.

    Mark Ort:

    39:49-39:51

    That doesn't make me going to hell.

    Mark Ort:

    39:53-39:55

    It makes me flawed, right?

    Mark Ort:

    39:55-39:56

    I'm a flawed human being.

    Mark Ort:

    39:57-40:09

    And that gives me hope because if there's hope for somebody like an Asa, God saw his heart, there's hope for us, right?

    Mark Ort:

    40:10-40:12

    There's hope for us flawed people, how?

    Mark Ort:

    40:13-40:13

    By faith.

    Mark Ort:

    40:14-40:17

    Now, remember when I asked you to remember that thing about the reward?

    Mark Ort:

    40:19-40:22

    Here's where that comes into play.

    Mark Ort:

    40:22-40:24

    And we're gonna wrap this up with this.

    Mark Ort:

    40:25-40:33

    In Hebrews 11, verse six, By faith, we're able to please God, it says.

    Mark Ort:

    40:34-40:48

    In 11.6 in Hebrews, it says, "Without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." Well, what's the reward?

    Mark Ort:

    40:50-40:51

    It's God Himself.

    Mark Ort:

    40:52-40:59

    When we seek God, there's a lot of benefits to seeking God.

    Mark Ort:

    40:59-41:04

    I mean, if you think about what we get when we seek God by faith, and what is that?

    Mark Ort:

    41:04-41:13

    I mean, if you're here and you're like, "What's he talking about faith?" You know, we're sinners, we're sinners and we're on our way to hell, and God intervened.

    Mark Ort:

    41:13-41:16

    He sent Jesus Christ to be the substitute.

    Mark Ort:

    41:17-41:19

    There had to be a penalty for our sin, right?

    Mark Ort:

    41:19-41:28

    And so Jesus Christ came and died on the cross to bear the burden, to pay the penalty for our sin.

    Mark Ort:

    41:28-41:30

    And we have to choose to accept that.

    Mark Ort:

    41:31-41:32

    We accept it by faith.

    Mark Ort:

    41:33-41:35

    And this is what's pleasing to God.

    Mark Ort:

    41:35-41:47

    We put our faith, our hope, our trust in Christ alone, only Him, not in the church, not in our tradition, not in our family, not in some creed.

    Mark Ort:

    41:48-41:50

    We put our faith alone in Jesus Christ.

    Mark Ort:

    41:51-41:54

    And by that faith, we're able to please God.

    Mark Ort:

    41:54-41:55

    And He rewards us with Himself.

    Mark Ort:

    41:56-41:57

    We get other things.

    Mark Ort:

    41:57-42:12

    I mean, we get rewards like, we get Jesus Christ, we get heaven, we get a fellowship of believers that care about us and love us and the salvation of our souls, eternal life, a place.

    Mark Ort:

    42:12-42:18

    I mean, all the beautiful things God gives us, but primarily the reward is God himself.

    Mark Ort:

    42:20-42:23

    So I ask you a couple of these questions here.

    Mark Ort:

    42:24-42:26

    Is everything going okay for you?

    Mark Ort:

    42:27-42:30

    I mean, are you in a point of your life where you're having victory?

    Mark Ort:

    42:31-42:32

    And we have those, right?

    Mark Ort:

    42:32-42:32

    And that's great.

    Mark Ort:

    42:34-42:36

    That doesn't exempt you from seeking God.

    Mark Ort:

    42:36-42:37

    You still need to seek Him.

    Mark Ort:

    42:39-42:46

    But I know that there's a lot of people in my circles and in this church that struggle with different things.

    Mark Ort:

    42:47-42:50

    Is there a relationship problem?

    Mark Ort:

    42:51-42:52

    We need to seek God in that.

    Mark Ort:

    42:53-42:55

    It sounds pat, it sounds trite.

    Mark Ort:

    42:56-42:57

    You need to get serious about it.

    Mark Ort:

    42:57-42:58

    We talked about that, right?

    Mark Ort:

    42:58-43:02

    If you're having a relationship problem, seek God in it and see what he has to say about it.

    Mark Ort:

    43:03-43:03

    What about a health issue?

    Mark Ort:

    43:04-43:05

    You got a health issue?

    Mark Ort:

    43:05-43:05

    You got some relatives?

    Mark Ort:

    43:06-43:07

    I have relatives that have health issues.

    Mark Ort:

    43:08-43:09

    Are we trying to do that on our own?

    Mark Ort:

    43:10-43:12

    Or are we seeking God in it?

    Mark Ort:

    43:12-43:18

    We need to get our face buried in the scripture, looking for God in here.

    Mark Ort:

    43:18-43:23

    And we need to be praying regularly, heartfelt prayers.

    Mark Ort:

    43:24-43:29

    You know, when I said I don't have any secrets to seeking God, I mean, that is what we do.

    Mark Ort:

    43:29-43:36

    We seek God through the reading and the study of his scripture, pouring over it and going to him in prayer.

    Mark Ort:

    43:36-43:37

    He's right there.

    Mark Ort:

    43:38-43:39

    He's waiting for us to talk to him.

    Mark Ort:

    43:39-43:40

    So we need to seek him in that.

    Mark Ort:

    43:42-43:54

    Jobs or financial issues, pursue the Lord, go after him 100%, not 50%, not 70%, not even 99%.

    Mark Ort:

    43:55-43:56

    We need to seek Him in that.

    Mark Ort:

    43:57-43:58

    What about a spiritual battle?

    Mark Ort:

    44:00-44:02

    A wayward child or something like that.

    Mark Ort:

    44:03-44:06

    We need to go hard after God and His strength.

    Mark Ort:

    44:08-44:10

    If we seek God, what do you think we're gonna get?

    Mark Ort:

    44:11-44:11

    We're gonna get God.

    Mark Ort:

    44:14-44:21

    So in your victory and in your disappointments, God will let you find Him if you seek Him.

    Mark Ort:

    44:23-44:24

    Why don't we bow our heads and pray?

    Mark Ort:

    44:25-44:32

    Heavenly Father, Lord, there is no possible way that I could do this passage justice in 40 minutes.

    Mark Ort:

    44:32-44:57

    And Lord, as we take the things that we've learned this morning, just about Asa and his seriousness about seeking you and his perseverance, or at least his encouragement to persevere, making it personal, Lord, we wanna come to you and make this seeking a personal thing.

    Mark Ort:

    44:59-45:00

    God, help us with those things.

    Mark Ort:

    45:00-45:01

    We're weak.

    Mark Ort:

    45:02-45:04

    We have our flaws as we discovered.

    Mark Ort:

    45:08-45:15

    Lord, if Asa could seek you, despite his flaws, certainly we can attempt to seek you.

    Mark Ort:

    45:16-45:36

    And Lord, I pray that we would be all in with the seeking, that we would put aside everything that distracts us, that we would throw away the things that dishonor you and that drag us down and that push us away from you and push us in another direction.

    Mark Ort:

    45:37-45:50

    Lord, I pray that today would be the day that we do away with these things, that we would set our gaze upon you and seek you with all of our hearts because you promised us that if we seek you With our whole heart, you will be found by us.

    Mark Ort:

    45:52-45:53

    And we thank you for that, Lord.

    Mark Ort:

    45:54-46:00

    Lord, I wanna thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from our unrighteousness.

    Mark Ort:

    46:02-46:06

    Lord, he's the reason why we're even breathing and the reason why we exist.

    Mark Ort:

    46:07-46:09

    So Lord, we thank you for him.

    Mark Ort:

    46:11-46:13

    Lord, forgive us of our sins and our trespasses, Lord.

    Mark Ort:

    46:15-46:17

    Lord, we're weak and we need you every hour.

    Mark Ort:

    46:18-46:19

    Thank you, Lord, for loving us.

    Mark Ort:

    46:20-46:22

    Lord, I thank you for the opportunity to share from your word.

    Mark Ort:

    46:22-46:24

    And I thank you for this church that I love very much.

    Mark Ort:

    46:25-46:27

    And Lord, I thank you for them.

    Mark Ort:

    46:27-46:28

    Bless them, Lord.

    Mark Ort:

    46:29-46:36

    Lord, as we sing our last song, I pray that we would sing it with all of our hearts, that we would bring you glory through our voices and through our attitudes.

    Mark Ort:

    46:37-46:41

    Thank you, thank you so much, Lord, for what you're doing in our lives.

    Mark Ort:

    46:42-46:42

    In Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 2 Chronicles 14-16

  1. Christians live under the New Covenant. So why is it important to study the Old Testament?

  2. Describe what 'seeking God' really means?

  3. What obstacles are in your way that prevent you from a serious pursuit of God? What kind of plan will you put into place to change that?

  4. How can other believers help you in your quest to seek the Lord? In what ways will you help them in their quest?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another to act on their plan to intentionally seek God this week. Hold each other accountable in this plan. 

Worth Repeating

Alex Giannetti - alexgiannetti.com

With over a decade of Real Estate experience, Alex began as an investor and at the market's peak in 2006 owned 11 properties including his personal residence. The bubble burst and hit his family hard, but they regrouped and carried on with a No Debt Philosophy thanks to discovering the teachings of Dave Ramsey. Alex and his wife, Stacie, began teaching Dave's course, Financial Peace University and to date have helped hundreds of people to pay off over a million dollars in debt. Alex and Stacie are members of Harvest Bible Chapel with their two teen boys, Christian and Samuel

Intro:

Matthew 6:24 - No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

  • There is no such thing as Good Debt. (Prov 22:7)

  • Protect your Four Walls. (Prov 21:20, 13:22, 22:6)

  • Align your finances with True North. (Romans 12:2, Phil 4:6)

  • Keep it Real. (Prov 6:1-5)

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

  • 00:21-00:23

    Is that the most awkward introduction you've ever heard?

    00:24-00:25

    (audience laughing)

    00:26-00:26

    Pretty much, right?

    00:27-00:29

    No one ran out of here, so that's good.

    00:29-00:35

    I wanna thank Pastor Jeff and the elders here at Harvest for, I see some open mouths still, it's okay, it's okay.

    00:35-00:36

    We made it, we made it.

    00:38-00:39

    For allowing me to come and speak today.

    00:40-00:42

    Clearly, I'm not a pastor, I'm just a regular guy.

    00:44-00:54

    You know, I think what gives me the credibility, what's earned me the ability to come up here and speak is that basically I have my PhD in DUMB.

    00:56-00:57

    You know, you heard all that today.

    00:59-01:03

    But that's okay, there's a way around this and we're gonna be talking about that a lot this morning.

    01:03-01:06

    You know, there are over 800 scripture verses about money.

    01:07-01:10

    And Jesus spoke more about money than he did on any other subject.

    01:11-01:16

    He talked more about money than he did about hell, about heaven, about salvation, about sin, about some temptation, about love.

    01:18-01:18

    It's interesting.

    01:19-01:31

    Why would there be so much discussion about money when you add in other areas like our possessions, our wealth, contentment, then that number leaps to over 2,000 verses.

    01:33-01:36

    You know, what I'm talking about today, I've entitled it Worth Repeating.

    01:38-01:42

    When something is repeated in the scripture, It's important.

    01:43-01:50

    And clearly money is something that is heavily repeated, the topic of money and wealth and possession, something heavily reported in the scripture.

    01:50-01:52

    And the reason for that is pretty simple.

    01:53-01:54

    Things are repeated for two reasons.

    01:54-01:55

    Number one, for emphasis.

    01:56-01:58

    God is saying, "Hey, listen, this is important.

    01:58-02:03

    "I need you to pay attention." So all throughout scripture, there are things that are repeated.

    02:04-02:13

    And then the other one is that, especially back in ancient times and biblical times, In order to give something credibility, it needed to be sustained by two or more witnesses.

    02:15-02:32

    So when you really think about the things that we kind of take for granted as we read the scripture on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, when we hear a message on Sunday morning, the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, four in a row, back to back to back to back, repetition, the life and times of Jesus Christ.

    02:33-02:35

    It's important, we need to hear it.

    02:37-02:42

    The Ten Commandments are repeated, not only in Exodus 20, but again in Deuteronomy 5.

    02:43-02:44

    It's important.

    02:45-02:46

    It's worth repeating.

    02:47-02:48

    So money is no different.

    02:50-02:54

    It interferes with our relationship with God, and that's what I hope to drive home today.

    02:56-02:59

    And so right off the bat, Matthew writes about this, but Jesus said it.

    02:59-03:01

    He said you can't serve both God and money.

    03:03-03:16

    And the church overall, big church, big C, Christian Church, not just here at Harvest, does a pretty poor job actually of talking and approaching the subject of money.

    03:18-03:22

    How often do you hear a sermon on money, or better yet, a sermon series on money?

    03:23-03:23

    You don't.

    03:24-03:31

    You know, there are two things that really, really disrupt our relationship with God, and that's money and sex.

    03:31-03:33

    And the church doesn't talk about either.

    03:35-03:37

    that they'll talk about a lot of variety of other topics.

    03:38-03:42

    And so I think it's important that we don't just sidestep this and that we take it for what it is.

    03:42-03:44

    It's something that's really, really important.

    03:44-03:48

    Not just to go up and talk about it when there's a need for money.

    03:48-03:50

    We hear the word stewardship drive.

    03:51-03:54

    And Pastor Jeff talked about it a little bit at the offering this morning.

    03:54-03:58

    You know, that word stewardship has become a church word that has lost its meaning.

    03:59-04:03

    The meaning of that word is to be a manager for God, for what he's entrusted us with.

    04:04-04:09

    And all of a sudden you go to church and you hear stewardship, grab your wallet, 'cause someone's gonna build something and they're asking you for money.

    04:09-04:11

    And that's what it's turned into.

    04:11-04:12

    But the church did that.

    04:14-04:15

    And so that's definitely something that we can improve.

    04:17-04:25

    You see a lot of times sermon series on important subjects, marriage, relationships, family, raising children.

    04:27-04:32

    But the number one cause of divorce is money problems and money fights.

    04:33-04:38

    And money weaves its way into every aspect of our lives.

    04:38-04:41

    And we've got to talk about it. We have to address it.

    04:41-04:44

    We have to understand what God is trying to tell us about money.

    04:45-04:55

    So my goal today is to try to help you to understand the importance of creating a God-centered plan for your finances.

    04:57-04:59

    It's really, really important that we do this.

    04:59-05:04

    And I think that we can all agree that it's simple to understand that that's an important part of what we need to do.

    05:05-05:07

    You know, it's a simple concept.

    05:08-05:10

    Changing our behavior is the hard part.

    05:12-05:16

    And an example of this that we could probably all relate to in here is weight loss.

    05:17-05:21

    There's a very simple formula to lose weight.

    05:21-05:25

    All you have to do is burn more calories than you take in.

    05:27-05:28

    #math, right? I mean, it's pretty simple.

    05:30-05:36

    Yet the health and beauty industry, if you will, the fitness industry is a multibillion-dollar industry.

    05:37-05:45

    Why? There's infomercials on, I guarantee, right now, that are trying to get us to get a new gadget, to get off the sofa.

    05:46-05:51

    Right? So what keeps us all from doing the simple thing that we know we have to do?

    05:52-06:00

    But when I want to binge-watch Netflix and Kimmy Schmidt at 10 o'clock at night and eating ice cream, it's not a good combination.

    06:00-06:01

    It doesn't fit.

    06:01-06:03

    It's not going to help me with weight loss.

    06:03-06:04

    Right?

    06:05-06:07

    And so it's our behavior.

    06:07-06:08

    We know what we need to do.

    06:08-06:10

    We have a hard time doing it.

    06:11-06:12

    Finance is the same way.

    06:13-06:14

    You want to win with money?

    06:15-06:15

    Simple solution.

    06:16-06:18

    Spend less than you make.

    06:19-06:20

    Problem solved, right?

    06:21-06:27

    but we can't do it because we love stuff and stuff gets in the way.

    06:29-06:34

    First scripture verse I'm going to read this morning is Genesis 1 26.

    06:36-06:48

    Because I think it's important to understand who it is that we really are when it comes to our money. And the first thing we need to understand is that we are made in his image.

    06:49-06:55

    And so, let us make man in our image, in our likeness.

    06:57-06:58

    We talked about repetition.

    06:58-07:02

    There's repetition within a verse, back to back.

    07:02-07:07

    And I have one of these kind of fancy study Bibles that gives you all the cheater notes at the bottom.

    07:07-07:13

    It says, "Make no distinction between those two." In our image, in our likeness, it's one and the same.

    07:14-07:16

    Repetition right there.

    07:17-07:18

    Who are we made to be?

    07:19-07:22

    Pastor Jeff talked about it again this morning in the offering.

    07:22-07:23

    He stole some of my thunder this morning.

    07:23-07:24

    It's okay, I forgive you.

    07:24-07:25

    It's all good.

    07:25-07:30

    But God is the ultimate giver, the creator of heaven and earth.

    07:30-07:37

    Everything that we see, hear, smell, touch, it's all given to us, created for us.

    07:38-07:41

    And then we, created by Him.

    07:43-07:48

    Scripture says that He owns a cattle on a thousand hills, and Larry Bukett used to say, and he owns the hills too.

    07:49-07:51

    So everything is his.

    07:53-08:02

    Romans says in 3.23, Paul writes that, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We know that, we're all sinners.

    08:02-08:10

    Again in 6.23, "For the wages of sin is death." There is a cost for our sin that we are unable to pay.

    08:12-08:20

    And so Jesus is that gift again to us who gave his life on the cross for us.

    08:20-08:21

    He took our place.

    08:23-08:25

    That's a debt that we are unable to pay.

    08:27-08:28

    You and I can't pay that debt.

    08:31-08:37

    And so we are all now spiritually debt-free as a result of Jesus and his giving.

    08:39-08:42

    This is the image that we are made in.

    08:43-08:53

    God made us in his image with that giving that is need to give, made to give, woven deep inside of us.

    08:54-09:01

    Somewhere in our DNA is woven this amazing thing that we are just called to.

    09:02-09:17

    And if there's anyone in here today who maybe you don't fully believe, maybe you don't really consider yourself a Christian or a believer and you kind of think some of this, you know, Jesus God stuff is hokey, I tell you what, you're made in his image too.

    09:19-09:28

    And we never feel it more than when the offering plate goes by or when you pretend to be fidgeting with your radio when there's a homeless person on the street at the light right next to you.

    09:29-09:31

    Why then do we feel so called to give?

    09:31-09:33

    Why do we feel that compassion?

    09:34-09:37

    That's just a spiritual truth right there.

    09:38-09:40

    There are some things that are just plain true.

    09:42-09:56

    And we know that. Everything in this book right here, the inerrancy of Scripture, there's nothing new under the sun. It is true. These aren't stories about people, they are accounts of actual things. The greatest history book ever written.

    09:58-10:21

    There's just a spiritual truth in that verse. And you know what? When you and I do a horrible job with our finances, when we spend all of our money, we can't give, can we? And when we can't give, then you and I are not able to be who God created us to be. And that's an unsettling feeling.

    10:23-10:27

    As Christians, we make the mistake of thinking that the church needs our money.

    10:29-10:40

    You might want to plug your ears, but the church doesn't need our money. Church established everything as his.

    10:42-10:45

    What the church needs is sold out believers in Christ Jesus.

    10:47-10:50

    And when you have that, the natural byproduct of that is giving.

    10:51-10:55

    You can't be a Christian, you can't be Christ-like without being a giver.

    10:56-11:07

    And so, our job, the church's job, is to help us to align our behaviors and our actions and our finances with God.

    11:07-11:12

    bring them together so that we can be the blessing that we are supposed to be.

    11:14-11:15

    That's the job of the church.

    11:15-11:16

    That's where that comes in.

    11:17-11:18

    And that's the reason for that offering plate.

    11:19-11:19

    It's for us.

    11:22-11:25

    This is all really easy to understand, but it's hard to do.

    11:25-11:31

    Everything that you heard in that very awkward introduction, 100% true.

    11:32-11:33

    100% true.

    11:33-11:35

    It's crazy, isn't it?

    11:36-11:38

    It's absolutely insane, and I did, I did.

    11:38-11:42

    I saw some mouths that were still open after I got up here, and it's okay.

    11:42-11:43

    It all worked out okay.

    11:45-11:46

    But as scary as that is, it's all true.

    11:47-12:00

    You know, at the time that that was happening, I mean, I included God in every aspect of my life, in my prayer life, in my walk, in my marriage, but when I was making money decisions, I was making those money decisions over here.

    12:01-12:02

    God, I got this part.

    12:03-12:04

    I don't need you for that.

    12:05-12:11

    You know, yeah, I'll bring you into my marriage, I'll bring you into my family, I'll bring you into my house, I'll pray to you every single day.

    12:12-12:20

    I will, you know, go and, you know, at the time I was an elder in my church, I mean, there was a lot of stuff that was going on, but the money part I got.

    12:20-12:22

    I don't need you for this, I got this.

    12:23-12:24

    That's a bad place to be.

    12:24-12:25

    That's a bad place to be.

    12:26-12:31

    Number one point for this morning is there is no such thing as good debt.

    12:33-12:34

    No such thing as good debt.

    12:34-12:36

    We're gonna be cruising through Proverbs this morning.

    12:37-12:44

    If you wanna turn to Proverbs 22.7, Proverbs is a great book of the Bible if you wanna get wisdom on life and money.

    12:44-12:46

    There are 31 chapters in Proverbs.

    12:46-12:50

    It's a great one-a-day read if you wanted to get some wisdom for the month.

    12:52-12:55

    Dave Ramsey says you could get a master's degree in finance if you read Proverbs.

    12:56-12:57

    There's a lot of wisdom in there.

    12:59-13:05

    Proverbs 22.7 reads, "The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender.

    13:07-13:23

    See, people today, in our culture today, many of us in this room, we're making payments based on what we did yesterday and in the past, instead of investing in the future and tomorrow.

    13:26-13:27

    It's backwards, isn't it?

    13:28-13:30

    I don't know who you're enslaved to.

    13:30-13:34

    For me, it was B of A, it was MasterCard, and it was Visa.

    13:35-13:37

    Maybe for you, it's someone a little more local, right?

    13:38-13:45

    PNC, Sally Mae, some kind of motor company, car payment maybe that you're making.

    13:46-13:47

    Those are the most common ones.

    13:49-13:51

    This is another spiritual truth.

    13:51-13:57

    See, when your money has someone else's name on it before it gets to you, that's a bad place to be.

    13:57-13:58

    God doesn't want that.

    14:00-14:01

    God doesn't want that for you.

    14:03-14:10

    Who wants to be in a situation where you have the stress before your check doesn't even get to you yet and it's already spent, most of it's already spent.

    14:10-14:11

    We don't wanna be in that place.

    14:12-14:27

    And the spiritual truth here also applies because when, at the time that this was written, in biblical times, if I owed you money, I would have to work it off.

    14:28-14:30

    I literally would become your slave.

    14:31-14:34

    I'd have to either work or I'd have to send my kids to work for you.

    14:34-14:35

    I want them as a broken foot.

    14:35-14:36

    It's not gonna be much use to you.

    14:37-14:42

    But when this was written, right, you literally had, you were slave to the lender.

    14:43-14:44

    I'm indebted to you.

    14:44-14:46

    And that became for a lot of things.

    14:46-14:47

    It wasn't just necessarily financial.

    14:47-14:51

    Sometimes it was a promise you made, the striking of hands with somebody, et cetera.

    14:52-14:56

    You had to go and pay that debt off with your life, with your sweat, with your back.

    14:57-15:02

    So today we have a hard time with reading this verse maybe and figuring out how it applies.

    15:03-15:12

    But there's a modern day master and servant that we've all probably experienced, whether it be personally or maybe through a friend or a family member.

    15:12-15:13

    And let me explain this to you a little.

    15:14-15:24

    If you've ever lent money to a friend, a family member, or a coworker, or if you've ever borrowed money from a friend, a family member, or a coworker, then you understand what I'm about to tell you.

    15:25-15:33

    See, let's say that you loan me $500 to help end me, to get me through the next paycheck or the next pay period because you knew that I was hurting.

    15:35-15:40

    Couple days later, we run into each other, wherever, grocery store, small group, church.

    15:40-15:44

    As we go up to meet each other, I see you look down and you notice my shoes and you look back up.

    15:45-15:46

    I happen to be wearing a new pair of shoes.

    15:48-15:49

    In my head, what am I thinking?

    15:50-15:54

    Oh man, this guy thinks that I took his money and went and got a new pair of shoes.

    15:55-15:56

    What are you thinking?

    15:57-16:00

    Did this clown really borrow $500 from me to go buy new shoes?

    16:01-16:03

    He said he needed to pay his rent.

    16:05-16:08

    Now, this is where this gets interesting.

    16:08-16:11

    See, we'll never say those words to each other.

    16:12-16:14

    And I'm going to avoid contact with you.

    16:15-16:17

    I'm going to get out of that conversation as quickly as possible.

    16:17-16:21

    And I'm going to avoid all contact with you until I get you paid off.

    16:21-16:26

    And even after you're paid off, our relationship will never be the same.

    16:28-16:28

    Isn't that interesting?

    16:29-16:31

    Because Satan will drive a wedge right there.

    16:33-16:47

    Because what is intended was good, what was well-intended, an act of giving, not really giving, loaning, was a difference, was used by the enemy to create a wedge in our relationship.

    16:50-17:03

    And when you're doing that with family, you have grandkids who don't talk to their grandparents for years, you're sitting at Thanksgiving and eating turkey with your master, it doesn't taste very good.

    17:04-17:05

    It's not a good place to be.

    17:08-17:11

    So part number two today, step two today is protect your four walls.

    17:14-19:30

    Proverbs 21 20 reads, "In the house of the wise are stores of choice, food and oil, but foolish man devours all he has." You know, some Christians like to wear their lack of money as a badge of honor, right? "Blessed are the poor," and you know, they see rich as being evil. You know, Jesus said it was harder to, you know, the eye of the needle and, you know, rich people are bad and that's not necessarily true, you know. Money doesn't have morals. Money is paper, right? It's a piece of paper. I like the analogy that Dave Ramsey uses. It's like this rock. If I have a ton of these rocks it doesn't make me evil. If I don't have any rocks doesn't make me good. I could take this rock and I could throw it through that window or I could take this rock and I could build a home, a shelter for battered women. Put something in the hands of someone who wants to do something good with it. Someone who wants to do the will of God and we can do powerful things with it. It's not about how much money you have or how much money you don't have. It's about aligning ourselves with the will of God and when you can get a bunch of Christians who've aligned their finances with God and they have a lot of money and a lot of resources that can be a very powerful tool. USA Today back in 2008 published a report said that 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That's crazy. 70%. Now that was a decade ago. But earlier this spring the US Department of Statistics published a statistic. That's what they do. And they said that we have more consumer debt today than we did during the downturn 10 years ago. That's crazy. But in the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil. God wants us to have good stuff. The best stuff it says, doesn't it?

    19:32-19:42

    Yet, when we're foolish and we spend everything we have, we become the wrong side of that verse.

    19:44-19:46

    The thing is, God wants us to have stuff.

    19:46-19:49

    He doesn't want our stuff to have us.

    19:50-19:51

    And that's where we get confused.

    19:53-20:01

    Proverbs 13, 22 says, "A godly man leaves an inheritance "to his children's children." How?

    20:02-20:03

    How is that possible?

    20:03-20:10

    We didn't we just establish that at least 70% of us, more like 75 maybe, are living paycheck to paycheck?

    20:11-20:18

    When I was researching this, I found a quote and something that I really had, I checked it three times 'cause I didn't believe it.

    20:19-20:25

    85% of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for their retirement.

    20:31-20:32

    85%.

    20:33-20:36

    We have the greatest opportunities around us.

    20:37-20:39

    Are we really, are we that?

    20:39-20:40

    Are we that foolish?

    20:41-20:42

    Are we not prepared?

    20:43-20:44

    That's insane.

    20:46-20:46

    So how do we do this?

    20:46-20:49

    How do we leave an inheritance to our children's children?

    20:50-20:51

    How do we do that?

    20:51-20:52

    How do we accomplish that?

    20:54-20:57

    One thing I want to tell you is that there is so much about this verse.

    20:59-21:01

    You could probably do an entire talk on this.

    21:01-21:06

    But what I want to discuss at this particular moment is, let's forget about finances for a second.

    21:08-21:17

    What if we left an inheritance of integrity, an inheritance of character, so that we can stop right here and right now?

    21:18-21:21

    We are one generation away from being debt-free, aren't we?

    21:23-21:30

    What if you and I were the last ones to ever have debt in our family?

    21:30-21:32

    How powerful would that be?

    21:34-21:40

    What if this generation of Christians right now decided, "I'm done.

    21:41-21:50

    This is the last generation of believers that will ever have debt, that will ever be slave to the lender." Wouldn't that be powerful?

    21:52-22:01

    If you're a parent, you know the next verse, Proverbs 22.6, Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.

    22:03-22:11

    Ironically, this is the verse just preceding the first verse, which was the rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

    22:13-22:16

    I wonder if we should be teaching our kids about how to handle money.

    22:18-22:18

    Interesting.

    22:20-22:21

    Who taught you how to handle money?

    22:23-22:25

    You know who taught me how to handle money? My broke parents.

    22:26-22:27

    That's who taught me how to handle money.

    22:29-22:32

    What's funny is they didn't have a formal discussion with me.

    22:32-22:36

    They didn't call a family meeting and say, "Alex, come here, sit down at the table.

    22:37-22:41

    We're going to teach you how to really make a mess of yourself financially and screw everything up.

    22:42-22:43

    Come on, this is important.

    22:44-22:46

    Put the iPhone away." We didn't have those back then.

    22:47-22:48

    But they didn't do that.

    22:49-22:50

    They didn't do that.

    22:50-22:58

    I did probably what you did and what your kids and my kids are doing right now.

    22:59-23:04

    I don't care how old you are, your kids are still doing it, and that is watching.

    23:04-23:09

    See, more is caught than taught when you parent, and children learn what they live.

    23:11-23:17

    So I didn't listen in on a formal meeting, but I watched and listened to everything that was said and done.

    23:17-23:19

    I watched how purchases were made.

    23:19-23:24

    I watched how money discussions, money fights were handled.

    23:26-23:29

    And then I would also watch my friends and their parents.

    23:31-23:38

    And so because there was no formal training, there was no formal discussion on the matter, then I had to figure my own way.

    23:40-23:44

    When it was time for me to be an adult, go out and start making purchases, I just did what felt right.

    23:46-23:48

    And that's no way to go about this.

    23:50-23:52

    Our feelings will mess with us.

    23:53-23:56

    Our feelings often lead us in the wrong direction.

    23:58-24:00

    We're going to prove a little exercise here for a second.

    24:00-24:01

    Everyone do me a favor.

    24:01-24:03

    Stand up to your feet here really quick.

    24:04-24:12

    I know it's a pain, I'm sorry, but I can see all of you, so please play along nicely and I won't mess with you, OK?

    24:12-24:13

    Here's what you're going to do.

    24:14-24:23

    everyone for a second to close your eyes. Close your eyes. Then without cheating, without giving anyone an answer, don't do anything. I want you to think about where north is.

    24:23-24:56

    I want you to point north. Point north. Okay. Now, don't change your answer. Don't move your arm, but I want you to open your eyes and look around. Look around the room. We all over the place. All right, go ahead have a seat. North is actually right through here. According to my compass, North is right through there. Some of you are pointed over here, some of you are there, someone was pointing straight up.

    24:57-25:09

    Okay, we're all over the place. And see, our feelings will mess with us. Our feelings can lead us in the wrong direction.

    25:11-25:14

    You know, some people I can see some discussions going on, right?

    25:14-25:16

    Like I don't think that's North, North is really over here.

    25:18-25:20

    This is North, right?

    25:21-25:26

    So I don't care how strongly you feel that that's North, this is North.

    25:27-25:32

    You could have a doctoral degree from CMU on magnetic pull, this is still North, right?

    25:33-25:34

    The truth is the truth.

    25:35-25:54

    So for the rest of what I want to talk about today, we're going to talk about true North, ourselves with God and I'm just going to use this because I don't want to be turning my back to you all the time but I'm going to be using some arm motions probably as I'm as I'm flailing around up here. And that's step number three today is align your finances with true north, with God.

    25:57-27:05

    Romans 12 to Paul writes, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will. When I was doing all of that crazy stuff that you heard about in the beginning, when I was doing all that stuff, I really and truly felt and authentically believed with all my heart that I was making good decisions. I was adamant that this was north. 180 degrees in the wrong direction. But I was sure of it. This was it. This was the way. This is going to be the breakthrough. You know, if you're outside the will of God, if we're supposed to be here, anywhere else by definition is wrong. Isn't it? And so, If you're out here in your prayer life, if you're out here in your marriage, if you're out here with your walk with God, that's tough.

    27:06-27:07

    That's hard.

    27:07-27:09

    It causes stress and anxiety.

    27:10-27:15

    But when you're out here with your finances, you don't sleep at night.

    27:17-27:34

    We need to take all of these things, every aspect of our lives, and we need to align them with God, our prayers, our relationships, our marriage, our money, and that's going to be powerful. Because we don't want to be stressed. We don't want to be sleepless.

    27:36-28:04

    Paul speaks to this in Philippians 4.6. He says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to God, And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Because when you can align every aspect of your life with the will of God, you get this peace that comes upon you that you just can't explain.

    28:06-28:10

    You heard how we lost some properties to foreclosure.

    28:10-28:12

    Stacey and I came home from a trip to Costco one day.

    28:13-28:19

    There's a notice on the door that says, "You don't live here anymore." And I'll never forget it.

    28:19-28:21

    I can picture it like it happened yesterday.

    28:22-28:35

    We were already at the time knee deep into fixing our problem and we had found Dave Ramsey and we were going through and for the first time in our life, first time in our marriage we had been talking, communicating about money and we actually had a plan.

    28:36-28:37

    And it was working.

    28:37-28:47

    We were negotiating hard with the bank to try to allow them to keep our home while we were trying to sell it and we were trying to just make things work and finally they they just said, "We're done with you." And they got rid of it.

    28:47-28:48

    They sold it out from under us.

    28:48-28:56

    And we're there and we're carrying our stuff in from Costco and there's a notice on the door and we just kind of went, "Huh, well, that sucks.

    28:58-29:05

    Okay, plan B." And we just had a plan.

    29:06-29:09

    We had a plan and that was okay.

    29:09-29:10

    It was just stuff.

    29:10-29:12

    And I don't know that I can explain it.

    29:12-29:13

    It's literally the verse.

    29:14-29:16

    It's a piece that I couldn't understand.

    29:16-29:19

    I knew that we were going to be okay.

    29:20-29:22

    And we were, we landed on our feet, everything is good.

    29:23-29:27

    Point number four this morning is keep it real.

    29:29-29:31

    See, here's one thing that I know.

    29:31-29:36

    I know that in this room right now, there's a lot of people who are struggling.

    29:38-29:45

    And part of that struggle is dealing with the lies of the enemy that you're playing in your head.

    29:46-29:51

    Because some of you in this room think that maybe you're the only ones who are struggling financially that you haven't talked to anyone about.

    29:52-29:57

    Some of you in this room maybe are the only ones who think that you're arguing with your spouse about finances.

    30:00-30:03

    Maybe you're the only ones who are nervous about your job.

    30:04-30:08

    Maybe you're nervous about being able to retire.

    30:08-30:12

    Maybe that statistic I talked about retirement today applies to you.

    30:12-30:26

    Maybe you're concerned because your son or daughter is gonna be going into college and accumulating, like unfortunately many do, tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt because you didn't do anything to prepare for their college.

    30:28-30:33

    But what I want you to know is you can't listen to those lies.

    30:35-30:42

    Satan is the father of lies, and what he wants to do, nothing more than anything else, to separate you from those who love you.

    30:45-30:53

    So when we fail to talk about this stuff and you get separated from your small group, you get separated sometimes even from your spouse.

    30:54-30:56

    See, Stacy and I didn't argue about money ever.

    30:56-30:58

    We just never talked about money.

    31:00-31:02

    So don't listen to those lies.

    31:03-31:07

    There's nothing he wants more than to separate you from your small group, your church, and the people who love you.

    31:07-31:09

    I used to be that person.

    31:10-31:13

    When we were going through this mess, I was an elder at my church.

    31:13-31:14

    We had been going to this church.

    31:15-31:16

    It was a church plant for a decade.

    31:17-31:22

    I knew every person who came every Sunday and loved every single one of them.

    31:23-31:28

    And I would show up every Sunday morning and be greeted by many of my friends and people that I love deeply.

    31:29-31:30

    And they would say, "Hey Alex, good morning.

    31:30-31:33

    "How you doing?" And my response was, "Oh, I'm doing great.

    31:33-31:35

    "How are you?" Right?

    31:36-31:38

    Man hug, you know, we do that guys, a man hug we do.

    31:39-31:41

    It was a lie, it was a lie.

    31:42-31:54

    I wasn't doing good, I was terrified, absolutely terrified that I was gonna lose everything, my wife was gonna leave me, I'm a disaster.

    31:56-31:56

    This is bad.

    31:58-32:03

    Why couldn't I, why didn't I have the guts to tell the truth to the people I loved?

    32:06-32:09

    Don't you think things might have been a little different if I was able to just come forward?

    32:11-32:18

    Someone comes up to me and says, "Hey Alex, how you doing?" And I say, "Well, you know what, Varney, I'm not doing well this morning, man.

    32:20-32:22

    I've done some really dumb stuff financially.

    32:23-32:24

    I'm scared.

    32:25-32:33

    I don't even know that Stacy knows the full brunt of everything that's going on, and I need help." Wow.

    32:33-32:35

    It's powerful, isn't it?

    32:36-32:38

    Anyone in this room going to laugh at someone who comes to you with that?

    32:40-32:41

    Wouldn't your heart break for that person?

    32:41-32:43

    Wouldn't you want to help them find help?

    32:43-32:45

    Wouldn't you want to find a way to help that individual?

    32:46-32:47

    No, but that's not what we do.

    32:47-32:51

    We believe the lies and we believe the talk and we just keep it to ourselves.

    32:52-32:54

    And that's a really bad place to be.

    32:55-32:58

    Some of you in this room lied to someone that you love this morning.

    33:00-33:05

    And some of you were lied to by someone that you love this morning.

    33:06-33:11

    No matter where we are financially, no matter where we are, we can all do better.

    33:13-33:23

    That statistic that I was telling you about earlier, the US Department of Statistics released the number and the quantity of consumer debt earlier this spring.

    33:24-33:29

    12.3 trillion dollars in consumer debt.

    33:31-33:46

    I saw that number and I went, "Huh, interesting." Then they released, "Well, here is the top items "that it's made of." 10.6% of it was student loan debt, 9.2% of it was auto, and 6% was credit cards.

    33:47-33:53

    The rest of it, the other 75%, just imagine, death by a thousand cuts, just stuff.

    33:54-33:56

    all kinds of stuff that we need.

    33:57-34:02

    This is consumer debt, it's not mortgages, this is not people's homes.

    34:03-34:04

    This is just stuff.

    34:05-34:06

    It's insane.

    34:07-34:14

    So the first question I thought is, and I have some, you know, a few brain cells that work.

    34:14-34:16

    I'm a fairly intelligent guy.

    34:16-34:21

    I can't wrap my head around what a trillion dollars is, much less 12.3 trillion.

    34:21-34:23

    So I did what anyone would do today.

    34:23-34:25

    I asked Google, right?

    34:25-34:27

    Hey, what's a trillion bucks?

    34:27-34:34

    And you see all kinds of images of like money on pallets piled over stadiums, but that doesn't help me.

    34:34-34:36

    I still can't figure that out, right?

    34:39-34:41

    Here's what a trillion dollars looks like.

    34:42-34:44

    Just one trillion, not the 12.3.

    34:44-34:55

    If I gave you a trillion dollars and asked you to spend a million dollars since the day Jesus was born, you would have $300 billion still in your pocket today.

    34:57-34:59

    What if Christians were debt-free?

    35:01-35:06

    Majority of these people, I'm gonna say, a good 50% of that consumer debt probably belongs to Christians.

    35:06-35:08

    What if Christians were debt-free?

    35:08-35:16

    What could the people of God do for the kingdom of God if our money didn't have someone else's name on it before it came to us?

    35:18-35:20

    Would there be poverty in the world?

    35:21-35:22

    I mean, think about this for a second.

    35:24-35:28

    Would we have to be begging people to build wells in Africa?

    35:29-35:32

    Would we have a problem stopping human trafficking or drugs?

    35:34-35:35

    Couldn't we fix all that?

    35:37-35:37

    It's crazy.

    35:39-35:41

    We don't want to be burdened with debt.

    35:42-35:45

    It doesn't allow us to be who we are supposed to be.

    35:48-35:53

    So what do you do if you find yourself in a situation that you're less than pleased with.

    35:54-35:56

    I'm not happy with my financial situation, what do I do?

    35:58-36:03

    Proverbs 6, it's a crazy, crazy, crazy verse.

    36:04-36:09

    It's probably the keystone verse for what Dave Ramsey teaches.

    36:11-36:31

    Proverbs 6 reads, "My son, if you have put up security "for your neighbor, if you borrowed money, If you have struck hands in pledge for another, if you've made some kind of deal, if you've been trapped by what you said and snared by the words of your mouth, he's covering all the bases here, right?

    36:32-36:46

    If you've done anything stupid here, then do this, my son, to free yourself since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands, since you've become a slave, since you've enslaved yourself.

    36:48-36:49

    "Go and humble yourself.

    36:50-36:53

    "Press your plea with your neighbor." But see, here's the kicker.

    36:54-36:57

    "Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids.

    36:58-37:09

    "Free yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, "like a bird from the snare of the fowler." If you have messed up, if you've got debt, you gotta get rid of it.

    37:09-37:10

    You gotta pay it off.

    37:10-37:12

    You have to work.

    37:13-37:18

    Sure, pray like it depends on God, but work like it depends on you.

    37:19-37:20

    You have to own it.

    37:22-37:35

    Our culture today, and I'm just gonna sound like an old man 'cause I just, you know, I read, I see the news and I just shake my head at some of the stuff that goes on politically, but our culture today has really just decided that nothing is our fault.

    37:36-37:38

    It's always someone else to blame.

    37:38-37:39

    We're a Teflon culture, aren't we?

    37:41-37:47

    We always want someone else, well, you know, It's because of them, or it's because of that, or, you know.

    37:49-37:51

    Here's a news flash for you.

    37:52-38:00

    CNN, the North Koreans, the Russians, climate change-- I'm sorry, global warming, all that stuff-- none of that had anything to do with our debt.

    38:01-38:02

    It's all us.

    38:02-38:05

    We can't blame this on something else, on someone else.

    38:06-38:07

    We have to fix this.

    38:08-38:09

    We're the ones who have to own this.

    38:11-38:15

    You've got to get fired up about making a change, or it's not going to happen.

    38:17-38:26

    There's too much important things that we could and should be doing with our finances to be blessing to others, to be who we were created to be, to have a pity party for ourselves.

    38:27-38:28

    And there's no pity party in scripture.

    38:30-38:33

    Get off your butt and work, is what it says.

    38:34-38:37

    There's a great place to go when you have debt, to work.

    38:38-38:39

    Let's get it paid off.

    38:42-38:49

    Now, if you're out here financially, and you're married, and you're not here where you're supposed to be, it's a really bad place to be.

    38:51-38:59

    And, you know, I have an amazing marriage, I'm married to an amazing woman who definitely should have left my rear end when all this stuff was going on, but she didn't.

    39:01-39:03

    And it's hard.

    39:04-39:10

    And if you're the man, Your wife is terrified if you have that.

    39:11-39:13

    She's not just nervous or scared, she's terrified.

    39:14-39:18

    Because that's a huge, huge security need for women.

    39:19-39:20

    Women, am I right?

    39:21-39:21

    Absolutely.

    39:23-39:30

    And women, if you've got financial struggles, your man isn't feeling very manly.

    39:32-39:34

    John Eldredge wrote an amazing book called Wild at Heart.

    39:35-39:41

    And in his book, he wrote that men need a beauty to rescue and a battle to fight.

    39:42-39:52

    And when we suck at fighting our battle and we don't feel like we can rescue our beauty and take care of our household, that's a really bad place to be.

    39:53-40:28

    And so you need to be aware of those feelings for each other and what each of you is going through, because that leads to even worse fights when the topic of money starts coming up. So what I really want us to do is to get on track and align with God. You need to get your marriage and your finances, your prayer life and your walk and everything important in your life all in tune. We're in the middle of or we just are about to start Financial Peace University here at Harvest. We had our first meeting last week but it was just an introduction.

    40:28-40:30

    Week one really starts on Wednesday night.

    40:32-40:37

    So if you don't have answers to some of the questions that you have, that's a great place to be.

    40:39-40:43

    We've seen marriages saved as a result of couples coming to Financial Peace University.

    40:44-40:51

    And there's no reason why we have to conform to what today's norms are.

    40:52-40:57

    Because if you come through Financial Peace University, what you'll learn is that, yes, you can be a student without a student loan.

    40:58-41:00

    You can own a car without a car payment.

    41:02-41:04

    You can retire with dignity.

    41:06-41:12

    It's perfectly possible to have a budget that actually works and a realistic plan to pay off your debt.

    41:13-41:18

    Don't you think it's about time to start telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went?

    41:20-41:22

    There shouldn't be any need to stress about finances any longer.

    41:23-42:00

    What I want us all to be able to do experience the peace that Paul talked about in Philippians 4.6, the peace that transcends all understanding. God's peace. Let us pray. Isaiah 40 tells us that God measured the oceans of the earth with his hands. Let's just all take a second right here and think about the God that holds the universe in his hands. Contemplate the enormity of our God, our loving and giving God. I want you to picture Him right now in your mind.

    42:02-42:24

    Father God, you know our hearts and the struggles we have. There is nothing in our lives that is bigger than you, not even close. Let us measure our worry against the size of the love that you have for us, Father. Help us today to align ourselves with your will to embrace the image in which we were created and to be the blessing that you intend us to be.

    42:26-42:30

    We pray Lord that each of us here today would learn how to honor you with all that you have entrusted us.

    42:31-42:36

    For those of us who need help that we would seek and that help would be found.

    42:38-42:43

    And for those of us who have been blessed that we would continue to be that blessing to others.

    42:43-42:44

    We pray this in Jesus name.

    42:45-42:45

    Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Proverbs 6:1-5

  1. Money and sex are probably the two areas of our lives that separate us most from God.
    Why do churches then avoid these topics?

  2. Proverbs 22:7 reads, "The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender."
    Have you ever borrowed or lent money to or from a friend or family member? How did that work out? Is your relationship the same today?

  3. US consumer debt is at an all time high. What would you do if you were completely debt free?
    - For your family
    - For your church
    - Would your giving look different? How

  4. Who is teaching your children about money and do you know what they are learning

  5. Money problems and money fights are the #1 cause of divorce.
    How would you rate your communication about money?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for each individual and their relationship with money as God has design us to.