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Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read John 8:12-30
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.
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00:00-00:05
We're beginning our sermon series that's going to take us through the week after Easter.
00:08-00:14
And we're going to be talking about some famous "I am" statements.
00:15-00:16
Do you know any?
00:17-00:19
How about this one?
00:21-00:21
Muhammad Ali.
00:23-00:26
"I am the greatest." Who knows the rest of that?
00:26-00:28
He said a little more after that, do you know what it is?
00:30-00:33
He said, "I am the greatest.
00:34-00:44
"I said that even before I knew I was." How about this one?
00:46-00:48
Richard Nixon, what was his famous I am statement?
00:49-00:51
I am not a crook.
00:55-00:58
One more, you all know this one.
01:00-01:02
The famous I am statement of Darth Vader.
01:04-01:07
Luke, I am your father.
01:09-01:10
Do you know the rest of that one?
01:11-01:12
Now give me a hug.
01:15-01:20
We're not talking about any of those obviously, but here's my point in sharing those.
01:21-01:27
When you start a sentence with the phrase I am, That's powerful.
01:29-01:30
Because do you know what you're doing?
01:32-01:35
You're defining yourself, aren't you?
01:37-01:38
Think about it.
01:38-01:39
We hear it all the time.
01:42-01:42
I am retired.
01:44-01:46
I am a Marine.
01:47-01:49
I am a cancer survivor.
01:53-01:56
Well, defining yourself with an I am statement.
01:59-02:09
Was sort of a specialty of Jesus Christ because he made some serious, serious I am statements, but they were more than just self disclosures.
02:11-02:17
Because every I am statement of Jesus Christ ties into his deity, did you know that?
02:18-02:49
Remember in John chapter 8 and verse 58, as Jesus once again was facing some antagonism, Jesus made this comment, "Before Abraham was, I am." In that statement, Jesus Christ was claiming to be God himself.
02:51-02:52
Where do you get that?
02:53-03:00
Do you remember when God sent Moses to free Israel from the Egyptians?
03:01-03:03
And Moses was like, "Well, I'm going to go to them.
03:04-03:19
I'm going to go to the Israelites, and they're going to be like, 'Who sent you? What's his name?'" And Moses is like, "So what should I tell them?" And God says, "I'll tell you what to tell them." What did he say?
03:20-03:28
"I am who I am." God said, "That's my name." God's name is I am.
03:32-03:33
Not I was.
03:35-03:37
Like, you know, back in the day, man, I used to be something.
03:38-03:40
I was great back in the day, Moses.
03:40-03:41
you should have seen me in high school.
03:42-03:46
No, nor is God, I will be.
03:47-03:55
Like, you know what, Moses, if I keep practicing, someday, someday, someday I'm gonna, God says, I am.
03:56-03:57
I am.
03:57-04:10
And Jesus Christ was echoing that same claim, claiming himself to be God.
04:12-04:24
And as we look at the I am statements of Jesus Christ, we're going to see not only that he is God, but in these statements, Jesus Christ also reveals how he meets our greatest needs.
04:25-04:26
Are we ready for this?
04:27-04:27
Let's pray.
04:29-04:41
Father in heaven, we are about to embark on a, on a journey that's already shaken my soul a lot over this past week.
04:45-04:48
We're going to be looking at some statements your son made.
04:50-04:58
Statements that we can't just walk away from and say, "Oh, that was nice," or, "Oh, that was interesting." We can't do that because Jesus didn't leave that as an option.
05:03-05:07
I pray, Father, that the veil would be lifted.
05:11-05:20
I pray for hard hearts to be broken up, ready to receive the seed of your Word.
05:27-05:32
I pray that commitment is made to Christ.
05:34-05:46
I pray that lost people come alive through receiving the eternal life that Jesus Christ gives.
05:51-05:52
Father, have your way with us.
05:53-05:55
Let your Holy Spirit reign.
05:57-06:03
Whatever needs to happen, God, we trust You.
06:06-06:10
And ask for nothing more than Your name be glorified.
06:11-06:14
In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
06:15-06:20
Open up your Bibles to John chapter 6.
06:23-06:24
John chapter 6.
06:31-06:38
You know, I've been to a lot of churches, and this church by far is the quietest Bible turners I've ever heard.
06:39-06:39
Come on, turn.
06:40-06:42
Turn like, "I'm ready for this.
06:42-06:46
I'm ready to get into God's Word." This is serious business.
06:49-07:04
The title of today's message is, "To the Hungry, I am the Bread of Life." And while you're turning to John 6, I want you to think about something with me that you've known all your life.
07:09-07:10
But I want you to really think about it.
07:15-10:14
were designed to be hungry. Think about that. We were designed to be hungry. We were designed to need something outside of ourselves. We were created in such a way that we have a constant longing within ourselves that must be fulfilled from an external source. This is a physical and a spiritual truth. I am NOT self-sustaining. That is a physical truth and that is a spiritual truth. I am NOT self-sustaining. I'm not. I ate this morning and I'm going to need to eat again eventually if I want to live. I'm never going to in this life eat and be done with eating. As long as I live I know I'm going to be dependent on something outside of me to keep this body going. And that's exactly how God created us. But we are more than physical beings, aren't we? We get so focused on the here and now, on the immediate needs, an empty belly, a craving, a hunger, that we neglect to focus on the deeper hunger that is within, and that's the one in our souls. You know the hunger in your soul. Every single one of us have it. We have a hunger for significance, don't we? Don't we want to feel like we matter? We who am I? We have a hunger to be a part of something that's bigger than ourselves and something that's beyond ourselves. We have a hunger for eternity.
10:15-10:27
Don't you have a hunger in you that says there's more than this? You know man I I just kind of roll out of bed and I eat and I go to work and I come home and back to bed.
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And there's more than this.
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There's a hunger inside us.
10:39-10:41
But what do people fill up on?
10:44-10:47
That hunger of significance and identification and eternity.
10:48-10:49
What do people fill up on?
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Here's what they fill up on.
10:52-10:56
They fill up on things like lust and greed and pride.
10:59-11:07
Thinking that if I can fulfill my spiritual needs in a self-centered way, I'll be okay.
11:12-11:16
But what we find, those things are just empty calories.
11:16-11:18
Do you know what empty calories are?
11:19-11:21
Amanda Frederick, do you know what an empty calorie is?
11:22-11:23
Let me explain it to you.
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She's a dietician, if you didn't know.
11:28-11:31
She should be up giving this part of the speech, but I'm gonna take a swing at it.
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An empty calorie is when you eat something that does nothing for you, or it has a negative effect.
11:40-11:44
It actually tricks your body into thinking that it's getting nourished.
11:46-11:48
What's a food that would like give you empty calories?
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Soda, okay, what's that?
11:52-11:53
Oh, I thought you said soda.
11:54-11:55
I was gonna say you're from around here, aren't you?
11:55-11:56
Okay, we call it pop.
11:58-12:00
Or a donut, right?
12:00-12:01
Those are empty calories.
12:02-12:15
When you eat those things, you're not full, really, but your body has tricked itself into thinking that you are, but you don't get anything good from those foods.
12:19-12:31
There are a lot of spiritual empty calories out there that we are stuffing our souls with and we find that we're not satisfied.
12:32-12:42
So let's look at John chapter 6 and right now turn to your neighbor and say, "He's not going to read all 71 verses, is he?" No, I'm not.
12:44-12:44
Good question.
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I encourage you to do that on your own.
12:50-12:54
I wanna paraphrase, if I may, because it's important to get the big picture.
12:54-12:58
In John chapter six, in the first 15 verses, it's the big miracle.
12:59-13:03
If you look at all the miracles of Jesus, what would you say is like the highlight?
13:03-13:07
Like, what would you say is like his marquee miracle?
13:07-13:08
Do you know what it is?
13:08-13:10
It's the, go ahead, shout it out.
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Feeding of the 5,000, right?
13:13-13:15
Yeah, good answer. That's like his marquee miracle.
13:15-13:19
Like, "Well, how'd you come up with that?" It's in all four of the Gospels.
13:20-13:29
It was such a huge deal, all four of the Gospel writers were like, "Man, that's going to make it in my account of Jesus." Okay?
13:30-13:35
So, it's in Matthew 14, it's in Mark 6, it's in Luke 9, here it's in John 6.
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Jesus fed, actually, he fed 5,000 men, but there were also women and children there, The estimate is he fed somewhere between 12 and 15,000 people.
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And what did he feed them with?
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You know this story.
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What did he feed them with?
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Don't be shy, come on, we've all been to Sunday school.
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What did he feed them with?
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Okay, little boy brought his lunch, right?
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Like his mom packed his, I'm sure he had some kind of like, you know, whatever passed for Spider-Man in that day.
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he had this lunchbox and he had a couple of biscuits and some fish in there, that was his lunch.
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And it's like, okay, it's time to eat, like how are we gonna feed all these people?
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And this little boy's like, you know, I got my lunch and you can have it.
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And in the hands of God, it fed thousands of people to the point that they were full, to the point that they had leftovers.
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Isn't that awesome?
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Oh, the things that God can do when we put them, when we put things in God's hands, right?
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The things He can do with what we're willing to give up.
14:56-15:05
So, this caused quite a stir and the people were like, "Hey, Jesus, here's a guy that gave us free lunch.
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I think, I think he should be king.
15:09-15:15
And they tried to force Jesus to be king and of course Jesus had no part of that and he withdrew.
15:16-15:23
Well then verses 16 through 21 say that the disciples crossed the sea to Capernaum by boat.
15:23-15:25
I don't understand that part of the story.
15:26-15:30
At least my Bible doesn't say anything like the disciples are like, "Where's Jesus?
15:30-15:39
Should we wait on him?" They're just like, "Let's go." And not a problem for Jesus though, because he just like walks up to them, right?
15:39-15:44
They're on the boat in the water and Jesus just walks up to them, just walks on water.
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And awesome.
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Well, in verses 22 through 24, the crowds started doing a little math.
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They were like, well, OK, there was one boat here and it left and Jesus wasn't on that boat.
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So where is he?
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And they're trying to figure out what happened to Jesus.
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All right, and that takes us to verse 25.
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Eventually, the crowd makes their way to Capernaum, looking for Jesus, and then they find him.
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All right, that's where we are in John chapter six.
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Now, first part of your outline, if you're taking notes, first thing we're going to look at is how to spiritually starve yourself.
16:42-16:42
You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on.
16:42-16:44
I didn't come to hear this.
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I came to hear something uplifting and encouraging and something that'll be good for me.
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And seriously, your sermon's called how to spiritually starve yourself.
16:52-16:53
Well, here's why.
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Some of you are starving yourselves and you don't even realize it.
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That's why.
16:58-17:00
And you're going to see it right from the text.
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Some of you are starving your spirits.
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And you don't know it.
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And I pray that God's Holy Spirit would show you from the word of God the way that we starve our spirits.
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So, first of all.
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Look at verses 25 through 27, how to spiritually starve yourself.
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the first thing you do is ask, "Jesus, what can you do for me?" "Jesus, what can you do for me?" Look at verses 25 through 27.
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It says, "When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, 'Rabbi, when did you come here?' Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, You are seeking me not because you saw signs.
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But because you ate your fill of the loaves.
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Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.
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Which the son of man will give to you for on him, God, the father has set his seal.
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So the first way we see in our text, how to spiritually starve yourself, put yourself in the place of this crowd.
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The first thing they do when they find Jesus, Jesus, what can you do for me?
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They looked at Jesus like, there's a couple of things we could say here.
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First of all, we can say they looked at Jesus like Aladdin.
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Come on, I have some wishes.
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And I don't mean this offensively.
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But they were looking at Jesus like the welfare program.
18:59-19:01
And Jesus called them on that.
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Did you see that?
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You came, not because you saw that I'm God in the flesh performing miracles.
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Jesus said, "You came because," why?
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I was giving handouts.
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You got free lunch from me and that's why you're after me.
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As most of you know, I used to work at a downtown church, a church that was located in the middle of a city.
19:37-19:45
And I had to preach this John 6 sermon a lot because we would get a lot of people walking off the street.
19:46-19:49
Give me free lunch, buy my kids Christmas presents.
19:51-20:11
You know, we certainly would try to reach out and oh, so many times I'd take people into the office and be like, "Hey man, you know what, I want to try to help you, but let me share some things with you from God's Word." And it would just be, "Ahh." So many times I'd see people rolling their eyes and sighing and folding their arms.
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The one guy was actually like falling asleep.
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Like look, are you going to give me the free stuff or not?
20:19-20:21
I didn't come here for the little spiritual lecture.
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Are you going to give me the free stuff?
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If you're going to start with the preaching, I'm out of here.
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I had one time I had somebody call me on a on a Saturday.
20:35-20:39
They called me on a Saturday afternoon and said they didn't have any groceries.
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And I said, I'll tell you what, come to church tomorrow and we'll go to the grocery store afterwards.
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I'll buy you whatever you want.
20:52-20:55
All right, how many people think that they showed up for church?
20:57-21:03
How many people would say they were like, "Yeah, I'm not interested in that bargain." That's what happened.
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Like, "No, I'd rather starve than sit in church for an hour." The scene is played out over and over and over and over across the world.
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We come to the church for a handout, there's a community meal served, or there's a, you know, some sort of a social program to help people.
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But as soon as the gospel is shared, they split.
21:34-21:38
I remember sharing the gospel at some of the community meals at my former church.
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You know, as soon as they were done eating and you'd get up to talk, it'd be like, "Where's the nearest exit?
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You got to get out of here.
21:49-21:52
Now, let me ask you, are there benefits to following Jesus Christ?
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Are there benefits to following Jesus?
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Yes, there are.
21:59-22:02
But here's the thing that Jesus was pointing out to this crowd.
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If you just want the benefits, but you don't want Jesus, you remain spiritually starved.
22:12-22:21
These people came to Jesus saying, "We're just content to have our bellies full." And Jesus pointed out, "Well, my purpose isn't political, and my purpose isn't physical.
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My purpose is spiritual." Jesus said, "I wanna give you eternal life.
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That's what you should be going after." I came to point the way to the Father.
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I came to satisfy the longing that's at the very base of your being.
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That's what you should be going after.
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And you'd rather have a biscuit.
22:50-23:01
You see, God wants to give us gifts, but God is so awesome and God is so gracious that God doesn't want to just give us a gift.
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God wants to give us the giver of gifts.
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Isn't that awesome?
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God says, I'm going to give you the giver of the gifts.
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And if you have the giver, you'll have the what?
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You'll have the gifts. But frankly, here's the problem.
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The giver requires too much.
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The giver requires too much.
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Jesus Christ calls us to die to ourselves, to repent from sin, to turn from self-centeredness.
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Jesus, what can you do for me?
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Let me ask you this morning, did you come to church just for a benefit?
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Is that why you're here today is for a benefit?
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Maybe you're here today and you're saying something like this, you know, maybe God will see that I'm religious and he'll give me money.
23:56-24:00
Or maybe my wife will get off my back if I'm more churchy.
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Or I'm in a real crisis here and God's going to see that I was in church on Sunday and he's going to bail me out.
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If that's you.
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You are going to leave starved today.
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You're going to completely miss the abundant and eternal blessings because all you're after was your own comfort, your own benefit and your own personal wish list.
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Give me the gift. I don't want the giver.
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So that's how to spiritually starve yourself.
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Ask Jesus, what can you do for me?
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No, no, no, no, not you, Jesus.
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I don't want you.
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I just want what you can give me.
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Here's another way you can spiritually starve yourself, let her be.
24:48-24:51
Ask Jesus, how can I earn my way?
24:52-24:55
This conversation is so fascinating to me.
24:56-24:58
Let's get back in the text here.
24:58-25:04
You see, Jesus told them, you know, you need to go after the food that endures to eternal life.
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The Son of Man will give you.
25:06-25:09
And God the Father has set his seal on him.
25:10-25:14
And look at their response in verse 28.
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Then they said to him, "What must we do to be doing the works of God?" This is evidence to me that Jesus Christ is God.
25:29-25:32
Because anybody else would have started slapping people.
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I want to give you, I want to give you eternal life.
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How must we work for it?
25:50-25:51
Are you not listening?
25:53-25:55
But you know what, that's default mode, isn't it?
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That's default mode.
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It's wrong.
25:58-25:59
But this is man's default mode.
26:00-26:00
"Oh, it's a God thing.
26:00-26:02
Okay, well then tell me what I need to do.
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Tell me what I need to do." You know why it's default mode?
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By nature, we prefer religion over relationship.
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By nature, we prefer religion over relationship.
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You know why?
26:24-26:26
Somebody tell me, why do we prefer religion over relationship?
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Because it's easier, right?
26:32-26:33
Because it's easier.
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You don't believe me, do you?
26:39-26:40
Well, here's a little experiment.
26:42-26:47
Let's line up all the husbands and line up all the wives, and we'll do little separate surveys.
26:52-26:54
You'll hear this from a lot of husbands.
26:54-27:01
"I just want my wife to tell me what she wants me to do to make her happy." Give me a list.
27:01-27:03
Husbands, have you ever been guilty of that?
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I have.
27:04-27:04
I have.
27:04-27:06
"Just tell me what you want me to do to make you happy.
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Write it down.
27:08-27:08
Here's paper.
27:09-27:11
Give me a list." That's religion.
27:12-27:25
Give me the list of things that I have to perform in order to make you happy." Meanwhile, wives, what are you after? You're after the relationship, aren't you?
27:26-30:09
And you think after, you know, how long have we been married now? Like almost 11 years. You'd think I'd get this. Like, what do I need to do? What do I need to do? And my wife's like, "I just want to spend time with you, you idiot!" She's much nicer than that, but I can really feel that "you idiot" thing like in the tone of her voice sometimes. She wants the relationship. She wants, she wants you to, she wants like to share your hearts with each other, and man will tell you that's harder than religion. Just give me the list. So Jesus hits them with it. They're like, "Okay, well you're going to give us something, so apparently there's a way that we need to work for it, so what must we do to be doing the works of God?" I think they were sincere, by the way. I'm not mocking them. I think they were sincere. "Oh, well you just give us the list. Lillia verse 29, "Jesus answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.'" Understand with your mind who Jesus Christ is and what He has done. Embrace trust in your spirit who Jesus Christ is and what he has done. You don't get to work in the church in order to get fulfilled. You know, if you're like, "Oh, I want to sign up to help in the church because I think that'll make me feel fulfilled." It won't. It won't. Fulfillment has to come from Christ and the work you do in the church is simply an extension of that. It's Christ flowing out you. It's a joy to serve. It's a joy to serve when it's done that way. You know, if you're involved in the church because you're thinking it's getting you brownie points and God's going to be happy with you and I'll be more fulfilled, you're going to quit before too long because that doesn't cut it. But when it's Christ in you and flowing through you and coming out of you, that's when it's joy. So if you're on the "I gotta earn it" plan, these are fascinating things you're telling me about Jesus, Pastor Jeff. What works must I do in order to receive Him? You're gonna leave starved.
30:10-30:35
You're going to leave starved. So here's a third way. Here's a third way how to spiritually starve yourself, ask Jesus, "How are you going to prove yourself to me?" Look at verse 30. Again, this conversation just absolutely, it absolutely kills me.
30:38-30:44
Jesus told them, "I'm going to, God's put his seal on me. I'm going to give you eternal life.
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if you come to me, how do we like work for it? This is the work, believe in me.
30:50-30:57
So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?
30:58-31:22
Are you kidding? What sign do you do?" Does that like strike anybody else as just Appalling? What sign do you do? How about verse 26, Jesus reminded them that they saw the signs. Verse 14 says when the people saw the sign that he had done.
31:23-32:32
Verse 2, a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. These were people that had seen Jesus over and over and over and over and over, show that He is God. And the icing on the cake was the feeding of the 5,000. Like, if that doesn't settle it, I don't know what to tell you, pal. And now they're standing before Jesus and they're like, "Okay, what do you got? Show us something. We're about to buy into you being God, but we're gonna need something here. We're gonna need more than a, you know, a nice glossy business card. We're gonna need some kind of a trick. These are the same people that not only saw the miracle, they ate from the miracle. Do you realize that was less than 24 hours ago? Their bellies were full because they were front-row participants of a miracle of God. Jesus, do you have a trick for us?
32:35-32:39
If you demand a sign from Jesus, you're never going to be satisfied.
32:40-32:40
Write that down.
32:40-32:44
If you're demanding a sign, you're never going to be satisfied.
32:44-32:57
There's probably somebody here that's like, "You know what, Jesus, I'm just about to commit to you, "but I really need you to come through here for me, "and you're gonna prove your existence for me "by putting $2,000 in my bank account, "or by making this person call me this afternoon.
32:57-33:11
"And if you just come through for me "and really prove yourself to me, Jesus, You are not going to be satisfied because the person looking for a sign never has enough signs.
33:12-33:15
You're in a church where you're seeing lives changing.
33:15-33:28
I'm just so blessed to hear people sharing with me how God has been working on their lives and healing relationships and the spiritual growth and miraculous provision.
33:29-33:32
I'm so blessed to be at the center where I can hear that from this church.
33:33-33:52
People sitting in this room saying, "Here's how the God of the universe is intervening in my life." And then the person sitting across the aisle says, "God needs to prove himself to me." What work do you perform?
33:52-33:52
Look at the text.
33:53-33:54
This is just like, seriously.
33:57-34:31
fathers ate the manna in the wilderness as it is written he gave them bread from heaven to eat like what tree were they barking up there what they were saying was Jesus can you top Moses I mean you fed a few thousand moderately impressive I suppose, Moses fed hundreds of thousands of people every day for 40 years.
34:32-34:39
So I mean, seriously, seriously, that's what Moses did.
34:41-34:42
You know that story, right?
34:42-34:42
You know about manna?
34:44-34:45
You know about manna?
34:46-34:46
What is manna?
34:47-34:47
You're like, exactly.
34:48-34:50
Manna means what is it?
34:51-34:52
It was this stuff.
34:52-34:57
Actually, it's Exodus chapter 16 to Joshua chapter five.
34:58-35:07
As Israel was going from Egypt to the promised land, as Moses was leading the Israelites out and they were on this pilgrimage to the promised land.
35:08-35:11
Do you know that they didn't have sheets in the Middle East back then?
35:12-35:15
So they couldn't like stop and get like an MTO.
35:18-35:20
When I say sheets, I don't mean bedsheets, I mean with the Z.
35:23-35:24
They didn't have sheets.
35:25-35:27
What did they cover with?
35:29-35:30
Let's try that again.
35:31-35:32
They didn't have get-go.
35:36-35:38
Or as we say in Pittsburgh, they didn't have giant eagle.
35:43-35:44
So, how did they eat?
35:46-35:51
Well, Exodus 16, it started, Joshua chapter 5, it stopped.
35:52-35:54
God actually rained bread from heaven.
35:55-36:07
They woke up every day except for Saturday, the Sabbath, and they would find that when the dew on the ground had dried up, it left behind this flaky stuff.
36:08-36:15
And they would like scoop up this flaky stuff and they would make food out of it.
36:15-36:19
And actually it was perfectly nutritious food.
36:19-36:23
It would have been the absolute superfood.
36:24-36:30
It would have had every vitamin and mineral and it would have been like the absolute most perfect food ever.
36:33-36:37
And they called it manna because that's what they said, what is it?
36:37-36:38
And that's what manna means.
36:40-36:41
That's in the Bible.
36:42-36:48
It doesn't work at my dinner table and Aaron serves me something and I'm like, what is it?
36:52-36:54
But the Israelites got away with that one.
36:55-37:06
But what was the point of man that God was saying to Israel, this, you're going to need to trust me every day, every day.
37:07-37:09
God didn't give them monthly bread.
37:10-37:11
God didn't give them yearly bread.
37:12-37:12
God gave them what?
37:13-37:14
Daily bread.
37:14-37:34
Every day when you wake up, you're going to have to say, "God, I'm going to have to trust you again today because you're all that I got and you're all that I need." So that's what these guys were talking about here with Jesus like, well, here's what Moses came up with.
37:38-37:42
Our fathers ate the man in the wilderness as is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.
37:43-37:51
Now you have to see this in verse 32, Jesus sort of gave them a bit of a verbal smackdown, you could say.
37:52-38:04
Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, "it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, "but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
38:06-38:27
"For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven "and gives life to the world." So Jesus here is saying, well, as they say, "Well, Moses gave us bread." Jesus said, "Well, you're only wrong for four reasons by that statement." And here are the four reasons.
38:28-38:28
This is important.
38:31-38:33
Here are the four reasons you're wrong by your statement.
38:34-38:39
Jesus was saying, "First of all, you're looking to man, not to God." Did you catch that?
38:39-38:44
Jesus said, "Moses didn't give you that food. That was my father." Okay?
38:46-39:24
God gave the man and not Moses. And I would remind you, church, listen, no other person is going to fulfill you. No other person is going to fulfill you. Whether you're married or single, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, dispel of the silly notion that being with the right person means I'm going to be spiritually satisfied, my soulmate so to speak. No, no other person on this earth is going to fulfill you. That was their problem. They were putting all their trust in Moses. Moses did this, Moses did that. Jesus said that Moses did not.
39:24-39:28
Number two, Jesus said you're looking at the physical not the spiritual.
39:31-41:56
Manna is not the true bread from heaven. I am. That's what Jesus told them. The stuff earth can't fill you. Number three, Jesus said you're looking at the present, not eternity. In verse 31 they said our fathers ate manna in the wilderness and in verses 49 and 58 Jesus said your fathers died. He points it out to them twice. Moses didn't keep them alive. The manna in Moses, they didn't have permanence. It was just physical. It kept their physical bodies going along. It didn't do anything to give them eternal spiritual life. You were made for eternity and nothing of the earth can keep you going for eternity. Jesus said, "Okay, here's your fourth problem. You're looking at your little house, not the rest of the world." Did you see that? They said, "Our fathers ate the man in the wilderness and Jesus said the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to who to the world to the world it's time to expand your horizons a little bit Jesus was saying I'm not just here for Israel I'm here for the whole world certainly salvation is of the Jews and there was certainly the priority to Israel but Jesus here again in his ministry was pointing out he just come for the Jews, he didn't just come for Israel, he came for the whole world. So get out of your little self-centered box. God has a global agenda. You want some more proof that Jesus is God? You want some more proof of divine patience? Look at verse 34. "They said to him, 'Sir, give us this bread always. Let me get a shopping cart. Load us up. We would like some of this bread that you speak to us of." Wow. Wow. "You're going to give us superfood." That's what they thought. They were so missing, and how many times did Jesus say what the bread is and they're like, okay, well give us some.
42:03-42:06
Then Jesus makes the shocking statement.
42:06-42:06
You ready for this?
42:10-42:18
You've probably read this before, but I want you to imagine if you can, putting yourself in this context and these people say, oh, do you have this really amazing bread?
42:19-42:19
Can I have it?
42:20-42:21
Look at what Jesus said.
42:21-42:24
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life.
42:28-42:54
"Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, "and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." The hunger you have inside you, the longing, the there's more than this, the restlessness, All of that is satisfied by consuming the true spiritual bread.
42:59-43:10
Spiritual fulfillment is not going to come from something within yourself, something on the earth, true spiritual bread, true spiritual fulfillment is going to come from heaven.
43:12-43:14
And it's God himself, Jesus Christ.
43:18-43:33
Just as manna came down at night to feed Israel, Jesus Christ, the true bread of life, came down in the darkness of this world to feed us spiritually.
43:36-43:38
So that's how to spiritually starve yourself.
43:39-43:41
Would you like to hear how to spiritually be full?
43:43-43:43
Would you like to hear that?
43:46-43:50
"I don't think I could let you leave "without telling you the good news." Here it is in verse 35.
43:51-43:53
Jesus said, "I am the bread of life.
43:53-44:04
"Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, "and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." It's a two-step plan.
44:06-44:09
Come to Jesus, believe in Jesus.
44:12-44:15
If that's hard for you to memorize, it's really just a one-step plan.
44:15-44:16
It's Jesus.
44:18-44:21
You know, we often tell people, "Seek the Lord," which is biblical.
44:24-44:25
But you know what else the Bible says?
44:26-44:27
The Bible says God's seeking you.
44:29-44:33
Because let's be honest, God's not lost.
44:36-44:36
We are.
44:38-44:40
We're the ones that are lost.
44:40-44:42
We're the ones that are wayward.
44:44-44:52
And that's why Jesus over and over in this passage is teaching that God draws people to himself.
44:54-44:59
He says it in verse 37, verse 39, verse 44, verse 65, verse 70.
45:03-45:07
I've already told you, I can't explain the whole Calvinism, Arminianism thing.
45:07-45:10
Does God pick us or do we pick God? The answer is yes.
45:10-45:11
They're both in this passage.
45:12-45:17
Jesus said, "Come to me and believe in me." Oh, by the way, you can't do that unless God's drawing you to me.
45:20-45:21
Here's what I do know.
45:23-45:27
I do know that a dead body is pretty worthless and useless.
45:28-45:32
And the only way that it can do anything is if life is put into it.
45:32-45:51
So unless God somehow takes the initiative to take my dead spirit, my dead self, self. But I can't figure all of that out. Here's the good news, I don't need to.
45:52-46:38
Jesus said that both are true. I haven't lost a minute's sleep over it. But God is drawing people unto himself. How many people here went to the Chris Tomlin concert last night. Oh, like even more people than I realized were there. The Katie's were there? Wow. What's that? You were there. You saw me and totally pretended you didn't. That's okay. No, actually I went and sat down. I'm like in the exact same section. Aaron and I were in the exact same section as Taylor and Kate. I'm like, "Well, that's cool." But they were talking, Louis Gigliar last Last night was talking about Luke 15, that God is one who seeks after the lost.
46:39-46:41
Like a shepherd would look after a lost sheep.
46:42-46:43
Like a woman would look for a lost coin.
46:45-46:49
Like a loving father would be looking for his lost son.
46:50-46:58
That's why Jesus said, "God is out actively looking for you." What does that look like?
46:59-47:29
hear me, when you sense the reality of Jesus Christ, when you realize your need for forgiveness in eternal life, that is God drawing you to himself. When you know that your heart is stirring, when you know God is trying to get my attention and I really feel like I really feel like God is after me. He is.
47:34-47:57
And Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me and whoever believes in me. So do you believe? What does belief look like? And I'm going to close with just a couple thoughts here, and we're going to be receiving the Lord's Supper.
48:01-48:47
But what does belief look like? Look at verse 53. I want you to skip down. Jesus I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you." This is another shocking statement. Jesus said we must consume Him. This has nothing to do with communion. Do you know that? Jesus actually said this before the Lord's Supper was instituted, and if this has something to do with communion, what that would imply is all you'd have to do is take communion and you'd have eternal life.
48:47-48:48
And that's not true.
48:51-48:52
It's about Jesus.
48:56-49:00
But in this shocking statement, Jesus said we must consume him.
49:00-49:04
Jesus does not offer us the option to try him out.
49:06-49:08
It's it's not a taste.
49:09-49:13
It's not take a little nibble and and see how see how you like him.
49:16-49:25
Jesus said, you have to consume him, I am in him and he is in me, my whole life is Jesus.
49:26-49:37
That's what it means, and you'll see skipping down to verse 66, you're going to read this whole passage because it just it blows my mind every time I do the verse 66 after this teaching, it says.
49:38-49:50
After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him." This is a dividing line.
49:52-49:55
And the question is, where are you going to go from here?
49:58-50:07
Sad reality is some people are confronted face to face with Jesus Christ and walk away.
50:12-50:36
The one who came to seek and to save the lost, the one who was found to be perfectly sinless, the one who loves you with a love that's far beyond anything you can wrap your brain around, confronts you, and some people are content to just walk away from that.
50:40-50:42
So where are you going to go from here?
50:43-50:46
What have you done with the bread of life?
50:50-50:58
In your heart, in your home, at your job, Your words, your attitudes, your conduct.
50:59-51:17
Let me ask you, when someone consumes Jesus Christ, when someone has Jesus Christ at the center of their very existence, what does that person's prayer look like?
51:19-51:20
What do you think?
51:21-51:23
How do you think somebody prays?
51:27-51:30
When Christ is the driving force.
51:33-51:38
What do you think that person's worship looks like when Christ is at the center?
51:39-51:53
Do you think when somebody's sole purpose for existence is Christ at the center because they've consumed the bread of life, do you think they can come in to an exciting worship service like this and kind of stand with their hands in their pockets and kind of mumble the words.
51:57-52:04
More like, I'm going to need a few of you to grab me because I'm about to start break dancing in the middle of the aisle.
52:04-52:06
That's how excited I am.
52:10-52:18
When somebody's consumed with Jesus Christ and has consumed the bread of life, what do you think their church involvement looks like?
52:26-52:30
Let me ask you, is Jesus everything to you?
52:33-52:36
If not, He's nothing to you.
52:38-52:38
Pray with me.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read John 6:25-35
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.
Guest Speaker - Taylor Brown
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
00:00-00:01
What's the best gift you've ever been given?
00:02-00:05
You opened it, you were so excited, your mind was just blown.
00:05-00:07
And you couldn't wait to play with that gift.
00:07-00:11
You couldn't wait, like you're in bed at night, I can't wait to wake up, I can't wait 'til sleep is over.
00:11-00:13
I can't wait to use that gift.
00:13-00:14
Does anyone, can anyone think of anything?
00:16-00:16
Anyone?
00:17-00:18
Uncle Reej?
00:20-00:23
By the way, this is my whole like family, like support group section, if anyone was wondering.
00:26-00:32
When I was a kid, I got a bag of Roman soldiers and chariots and horses.
00:33-00:35
That was my favorite gift.
00:35-00:36
Okay, cool.
00:37-00:37
Anybody else?
00:39-00:40
Is that Jay?
00:41-00:44
When I was 16, I got more than 100.
00:45-00:49
My favorite song was "Oversize." That's cool.
00:50-00:50
Okay, one more.
00:51-00:51
Trav?
00:53-00:53
Favorite gift?
01:00-01:06
Cool. Okay. Well, actually, in this box, I have the best gift I've ever been given.
01:07-01:11
Can anyone guess what's in this box? No, not you guys, because most of you know what it is.
01:11-01:14
But everyone back there, can anyone guess what's in this box?
01:16-01:20
No. Oh, now I look bad. Okay.
01:21-01:23
Anyone have any other guesses? One more guess?
01:27-01:28
Close. Close.
01:29-01:33
It's actually the best video game system ever.
01:34-01:35
A Nintendo 64.
01:36-01:37
Who remembers N64?
01:39-01:43
I remember when I first got this, I was like 7 or 8, I was freaking out.
01:43-01:46
I was so, my whole, my little kid mind was just blown.
01:46-01:48
I couldn't believe I got this gift.
01:48-01:51
And what was the best game for N64?
01:52-01:52
John Persic?
01:53-01:53
You remember.
01:55-01:56
No, man.
01:57-01:57
Goldeneye.
01:58-01:59
This is your game.
01:59-02:00
It says Persic on the back.
02:06-02:07
OK.
02:07-02:13
Well, actually, I actually have a video of me opening up an N64.
02:14-02:15
Who wants to see that video?
02:15-02:16
Does anyone want to see it?
02:16-02:18
OK, don't judge me.
02:20-02:21
I'm pretty excited in this video.
02:22-02:25
And I'm trusting you by letting you watch this.
02:25-02:30
And if you're confused which one I am, I'm the little boy whose voice is so surprisingly high.
02:31-02:33
So let's get this video going.
02:38-02:39
[VIDEO PLAYBACK] -No way, what's that?
02:39-02:40
Wait, how am I going to choose those?
02:41-02:41
Wait.
02:42-02:42
-Uh -oh.
02:43-02:44
-Oh, there we go.
02:44-02:45
-No way, what's that?
02:45-02:46
Wait, how am I going to choose those?
02:46-02:50
He keeps, he keeps, he keeps uh...
02:51-02:52
One more!
02:52-02:53
We're gonna need more!
02:54-02:55
Yeah!
02:57-02:57
Yes!
02:58-02:59
Thank you!
02:59-03:01
DK's coming up too close.
03:01-03:04
I'm gonna have to get the other fish down the whole half of the thing.
03:05-03:05
What?
03:06-03:07
Easy, easy.
03:07-03:08
What do you guys think?
03:08-03:09
Thank you, Dad!
03:09-03:09
Thank you, Mom!
03:09-03:11
I missed all the fish you had here.
03:11-03:12
How'd you know?
03:12-03:14
You know the stream, isn't it?
03:14-03:14
Yeah.
03:15-03:15
Huh?
03:18-03:22
>> I think the best part of that video is that my brother actually dips me.
03:23-03:24
Like we're dancing or something.
03:24-03:26
Like I was the female in that situation.
03:28-03:30
I mean, I remember when I got-- I was so excited.
03:30-03:32
I played this for years.
03:32-03:33
I was so excited about it.
03:34-03:37
And then after a couple years, a new system came out.
03:37-03:38
What was it, PS1 or something?
03:39-03:41
Then PS2, then Xbox 360.
03:42-03:45
I just put this in my basement where it gathered dust for years.
03:46-03:49
Every once in a while I'd take it back out, I'd plug it in, and I'd play it.
03:49-03:51
But it was never really the same relationship ever again.
03:51-03:54
I never really had the same excitement playing it like I did before.
03:55-03:57
And you're probably wondering, "Taylor, why are you talking about the N64?
03:58-04:05
What's it have to do with anything?" Well, I think, if we think about it, I think the same experience can be had with the Gospel.
04:05-04:08
That we receive this amazing gift in Jesus Christ.
04:08-04:10
We receive life, purpose, hope.
04:11-04:13
and we're so excited about when we first receive it.
04:14-04:16
We're on fire for Christ, we want to tell everyone about it.
04:17-04:25
After a certain amount of time, we get used to it, and even bored with it, and we end up putting it in the basement of our minds, where it gathers dust for years.
04:27-04:32
And as I was preparing this message, God was just showing me that I need to hear this.
04:33-04:41
I don't think anyone's going to benefit from this message more than I have, because God's been so working on my heart about how complacent I've become with the gospel and how bored I've become with it.
04:42-04:45
'Cause how much greater is the gospel of Jesus Christ than N64?
04:47-04:48
There's no comparison.
04:49-04:59
But I always, it seems like I'm on fire for Christ, I'm telling people about Christ, and all of a sudden I just get used to it, I get bored with it and I move on.
05:00-05:06
So I pray that for us who have opened this gift before, we are Christians.
05:07-05:16
that today would be a time to remind us of all that we have in Christ, because in Christ, we've been given the best gift of all, and this gift is the best life of all, amen?
05:18-05:24
Okay, so I'm going to read the passage I have for today, Ephesians 2, one through 10, so if you wanna turn there.
05:25-05:28
And I just wanted to ask you, out of reverence for God's word, will you please stand as I read this?
05:29-05:30
Thank you, I appreciate it.
05:34-05:35
Okay.
05:36-06:01
It starts out with, "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins "in which you once walked, "following the course of this world, "following the prince of the power of the air, "the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, "among whom we all once lived, "and the passions of our flesh, "carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, "and were by nature children of wrath, "like the rest of mankind.
06:02-06:13
But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ.
06:14-06:15
By grace, you have been saved.
06:16-06:29
And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
06:30-06:33
For by grace you have been saved through faith.
06:33-06:35
And this is not your own doing.
06:35-06:41
It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
06:41-06:52
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
06:52-06:53
Let's pray.
06:54-06:58
God, I come before you and admit how unworthy I am to preach your word, God.
06:59-07:04
I thank you so much for all that you've done in my life, that in Christ I have been saved, I have been made new.
07:05-07:12
Lord, I pray for every single person in this room, whether you would touch our heart with your word, you would speak in and through me, God.
07:13-07:14
Lord, we all need you in this room.
07:14-07:20
I pray we'd never get used to the gospel, Lord, that it would always bring us excitement, God.
07:22-07:25
Lord, thank you so much for what you are going to do in this place.
07:25-07:26
In the name of Jesus, amen.
07:27-07:28
Okay, you can be seated, thank you.
07:29-07:38
So, I think more so than other verses in the Bible, I think Ephesians 2, 1 through 10 covers the awesomeness of the gift we've been given in Christ.
07:38-07:41
And there's four different aspects of this gift I want to go through today.
07:42-07:48
And the first aspect is that in Christ we have been saved from death to life.
07:49-08:03
Look what it says in verse 1, "And you," that's all of us, you, plural, "were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked." This verse is saying that apart from Christ, you're dead.
08:04-08:11
Now you're thinking, "Okay, Taylor, I don't really get that because I'm not a Christian, or even before I was a Christian, I wasn't dead.
08:12-08:27
I inhaled, I exhaled, I walked around, I ate, I had family and friends. That doesn't really make a lot of sense to me." Well, when you read this verse, it's really saying that you are dead spiritually if you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
08:28-08:32
Because truly living is knowing and being in relationship with Jesus Christ.
08:34-08:38
In John 17 3, Jesus is praying to the Father in the garden before he's going to be crucified.
08:38-08:53
And he says, "This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." So Jesus is saying, if you don't turn to him, if you don't know God, then you are dead.
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I know this isn't a flattering picture, like what's the best way I can describe people?
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Oh, they're dead. Okay, thanks. That's great.
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It's really offensive to our minds, like that's so rude, why would you say that?
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But it's true. It's true, right?
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The Bible says that apart from Christ, we are cut off from God because of our sin.
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And we can't be in relationship with God.
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on the doctor's table of life, we are spiritually unresponsive without a pulse.
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And that we are incapable of living the life that God offers us in Christ.
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And because of that, we will spend this life dead in our sins spiritually.
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And if we don't turn to Christ, we will spend eternity dead in our sin in hell.
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That's what the Bible says.
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I think it's interesting because a lot of times we hear people say, you know, we're sick in our sin.
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No, we're not sick, we're dead.
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We can't do anything.
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We can't help ourselves.
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Lauren, you're a nurse.
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Can dead people really help themselves that much?
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No?
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Yeah, I don't think so.
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You need someone outside of yourself, someone outside of you to revive you and bring you to life.
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And keep going.
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He says, "Following the course of this world." So Paul is saying right now that apart from Christ, we're all walking down the wrong path.
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That Jesus said in Luke that apart from him, we're walking down the broad and easy path.
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And it's easy, everyone's going that way.
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But it ultimately leads to destruction, despair, and brokenness.
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And we reject the ways of God.
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We reject his word.
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We don't think God's thoughts.
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We don't like what God has to say.
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We want to do what we want to do.
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He keeps going and says that we are following the prince of the power of the air.
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And in that verse, he's saying that we were all under the power of Satan.
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We were all deceived by Satan.
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It says in God's word that Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the glory of Christ and see the gospel of Christ.
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Please listen to me.
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Satan is real.
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He's not a made up concept.
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He is real and he hates us, and he doesn't want us to experience a life that God has for us.
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And he wants to distract you from the true source of life, and he wants you to live a defeated and broken life.
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Paul keeps going and says, "The Spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, "among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.
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There may be some people in this room who think, well, I'm a good person.
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I mean, compared to most people, I don't murder anybody, I don't sleep around, I'm faithful to my wife, I'm a good father, I'm a good person.
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You see, you may not be a terrible person in the eyes of God, but, I mean, in the eyes of the world, but to God, He can't look at your sin.
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He is a holy and perfect God who cannot stand sin.
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And there's not one of us in this room who doesn't need the grace of Jesus Christ.
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We all once lived out of our distorted desires.
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We were all sinful.
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No matter how good we seem, there's something inside of us that's wrong.
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We are sinners by nature.
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We are born in sin and by choice, we constantly choose sin every day.
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And he keeps going and says, And we were by nature, just like I said, by nature, we were born in it, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
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God hates sin.
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He is a perfectly holy God.
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He is so set apart from us and so different, we can't even understand Him.
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He cannot stand sin and He has to punish it.
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He has to.
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And because of our sin, we're all under the wrath, the divine anger and judgment of God himself.
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Now this situation in verse one through three couldn't be more serious.
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It couldn't be more dark, am I correct?
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And God would be perfectly within his rights to close the book right there and say, that's the end of the story.
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They're dead in their stands, they're falling in the ways of this world, they're under my wrath, they're dead, that's it.
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We would deserve that.
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I would have deserved that.
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But as you read on, I think this is the best phrase in the whole entire Bible.
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I get so excited every time I read this.
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He says all these things.
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I was lost under the wrath of God, fallen away to this world.
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What's it say next?
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But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love of which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
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By grace you have been saved.
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Isn't that awesome?
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Isn't that awesome?
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See, God loves all of us so much that he gave his only son, who came to this earth, lived a sinless life that we couldn't live, and he died the death we should have died on the cross so we could be free and have hope and not be under the wrath of God.
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Isn't that awesome?
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Amen?
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Isn't that awesome?
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(congregation applauding)
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See, I was dead and I had no true life, but God raised me to life.
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He breathed his life into me.
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I was following the ways of this world, which leads to despair, brokenness, and hell, but God intervened.
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He put me on his path, which leads to joy, freedom, and hope.
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I was lost in my sin under the wrath of God, but God poured his wrath on his own son, so I can go from being a child of wrath to a child of God.
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And no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter how dark and hopeless you think your story is, God can change your ending.
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There's no story in this room that is so bad, it's so sinful, that the words but God can't be added to the story of your life.
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The story of your life doesn't have to end in all the things that you've done before.
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It can be changed.
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And some of you think, well, Taylor, that's good for some of you, that's good for you, but not for me.
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No, listen to me.
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God can change your ending.
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He is the author of life himself, and he can make a rewrite to the ending of your life.
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There's no one in this room where God can add, but God to your story and everything changes, amen.
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My life, across the pages of my life, were written depression, pornography, and self-hatred, but God intervened.
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He wrote, but God in the story of my life, and Jesus Christ changed everything, and I'm not who I used to be.
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I have to believe that's the story of most people in this room.
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So please don't give up on the people in your life who seem far from God.
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Don't give up on those people if they seem to hate God and they couldn't be farther away.
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They may seem too far gone, but so were you, and so was I.
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We were all dead in our sin, but we serve a God who can bring the dead to life.
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There is no one God can't save.
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So don't stop praying, don't stop sharing, don't stop believing that God will do something, amen.
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Okay.
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My second point, the second aspect of this gift is that we have been saved from condemnation to blessing.
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Let's keep reading.
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Paul writes, "And God raised us up with him "and seated us with him in the heavenly places "in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages "he might show the immeasurable riches "of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." I love this verse 'cause it's saying one of the reasons that God has saved us, I'm sorry, one of the reasons that God has saved us is to bless us.
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He wants to show us how much he loves us.
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He wants to pour his kindness upon us.
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And when Paul writes, "raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." When you read that, it's kind of like, what?
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What's that even mean?
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I was reading that, me and Jeff were talking about this and we're just like, how can I even communicate what this means?
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'Cause we barely understand what it means.
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But I was doing some studying, while you guys were doing whatever you were doing this past week, I was studying this verse.
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And it actually means that we are literally seated on the throne of God.
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Isn't that awesome? He's saying that in Christ, spiritually, we are seated on the throne of God.
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That our identity is no longer in sin, in defeat, it is in the victory of the King, Jesus Christ.
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and that we don't have to be victims anymore, we're victors in Christ.
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Some of you may have been victimized, abused in your past, and that has become your identity, but in Christ it doesn't have to be anymore.
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Your identity can be a son and daughter of the living God who rules and reigns over the entire universe.
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That once we become saved, once Jesus comes into our lives, we are adopted sons and daughters of the living God.
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And we have an inheritance that is unbelievable.
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And one day it will blossom into us ruling and reigning beside the living King of the universe.
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That's unbelievable to me.
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I was reading that like, oh my gosh, this is awesome.
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I can't believe that.
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And then Paul continues and says, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
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that God has blessed us with immeasurable riches.
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It can't even begin to be counted.
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It's incalculable.
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I just think how amazing it is that God has extended this invitation to us.
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It'd be like if the president of the United States called, let's see, called Bob up today and said, hey, Bob, I want you to move into the White House today.
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I want you to help me run the Oval Office for the next couple of years.
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That's unbelievable.
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That'd be amazing.
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But in a much greater way, the King of the universe has extended the same invitation to each and every one of us, amen.
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That is amazing.
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And what God has prepared for each and every one of us in Christ, it's unbelievable.
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We can't even begin to dream it up.
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The Bible says that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has fully imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.
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That we can't even, with our small human sinful minds, we can't even begin to comprehend all that God has for us in eternity, all the blessings He has for us.
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That one day, we will see our Savior face to face and we will worship Him and live in His presence forever.
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I don't know about you, but that's what keeps me going.
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That's what my life is all about, living for that day when I get to see Jesus Christ face to face.
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And I realize it was all worth it, it was all true.
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So believe it or not, God is not out to get you.
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He is not a stingy father, you have to convince to bless you.
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He wants to bless you.
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He is our loving, gracious, heavenly father.
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And like a good father, a good parent, he loves to bless his children.
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And yes, of course, he doesn't give us things that will hurt us, like you don't give your children things that will hurt them, but he always gives us good gifts.
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He wants you to come before his presence and ask for things and say, "God, I need you.
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I'm in desperate need of you.
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Please answer my prayer." He loves that.
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We don't have to twist God's arm. He wants to hear from you. He wants you to be in prayer before Him.
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Okay, the third aspect is we have been saved from self-centered works to God-centered works.
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Now Paul keeps going and he says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.
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It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
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See, none of us has saved ourselves.
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None of us has earned this gift.
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The Bible says that salvation belongs to the Lord and Him alone.
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Salvation is 100% God's doing and 0% our doing.
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Now some of you may be thinking, "Well, Taylor, I prayed the prayer, I walked down the aisles, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, and I walked down the aisle, went to the front of the stage, I knelt down, and I prayed.
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I'm the one who had faith in Christ.
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Well, actually, according to this verse, it says that we've been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it's the gift of God.
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So, apparently, even our faith is a gift from God, that we don't even have within ourselves to believe in God, that God has to grant us this faith.
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God revealed Himself to us, and He gave us the faith to believe.
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And we couldn't help but respond to his grace.
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You can't earn this gift, you can't work for it, you can only receive it.
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You can't boast in it.
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You can't, I didn't go around Man 64 and say, "Oh, look what I worked so hard for everyone in fourth grade.
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Look, I earned this, look at that, look." No, my parents got me because they love me and they care for me.
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I didn't pay for this at all.
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I didn't deserve this.
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But in a much greater way, we always, a lot of us go around and we say, "Oh yeah, I'm a good person.
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I do good things.
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I've really done a good, I haven't really had a good year.
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I go to church every week, I pray every day, I read my Bible, I get my devotion time in.
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It's great.
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I'm doing awesome." We fail to forget that our salvation is a gift from God.
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And a lot of times we try to earn this gift and some of us know we can't save ourselves, we feel we need to keep ourselves in the family of God by earning it.
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How would you feel if most of your parents in this room, if your son or your daughter came up to you and said, "You know what?
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My mom, dad, I've been having a bad year.
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I haven't been listening to you.
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I haven't been obeying you.
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I haven't been doing my chores.
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I'm not worthy to be called your son or your daughter.
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Just give me a list of chores and I'll do them so I can earn my place in this family." Parents in the room, would that make you happy if your kid said that?
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Did that make you happy?
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No, it would break your heart.
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I don't have a son myself, but I have a nephew.
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And I can just imagine a little kid coming up to me and saying, "Taylor, I don't really listen to you.
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"I kick you a lot, I punch you a lot.
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"I don't deserve to be called your nephew.
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"What can I do to earn it?" That would break my heart.
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But in a much greater way, we do it to our heavenly Father every day.
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Like, "God, I don't deserve your mercy.
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"I don't deserve your grace.
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"What can I do to make myself feel better "and earn this and to stay in this family?" We can't, we can't.
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It's entirely the grace and mercy of God that keeps us in his family.
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And a lot of times, us trying to earn it either leads to self-righteousness when we think so highly of ourselves, or self-hatred, where we know we can't get anything right and we beat ourselves up every single day.
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So some of you are thinking, "Okay, Taylor, I understand what you're saying.
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"How can I know if my works are selfish and they're not God-centered.
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Well, I actually have a list of three different things to check our hearts by.
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Number one, whenever you're doing these, whenever you're working, whenever you're doing things for the Lord, ask yourself this question.
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Do I do this to be seen by others or by God?
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Whenever you're helping out in church over the weekend, whenever you're going down to the soup kitchen to help the homeless people, are you doing this so other people can see you and say, Wow, what a great Christian, he is awesome.
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Are you doing this because you love God, you care more about what he thinks about you than everyone else thinks about you?
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Number two, do I do this out of sheer obligation or do I do this out of pure joy?
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You roll out of bed 7.30 in the morning to go help out at church.
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Oh, I hate going there every single Sunday to help out.
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Oh my gosh, this is the worst.
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Now I'm not saying we're never ever gonna have a selfish motive or we're never ever gonna feel that way.
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But I'm saying, if that's your heart all the time, that it's a burden to do the things of the Lord, it's a burden to help people out, then we need to check our hearts and see what our real motive is.
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Are we doing this out of sheer obligation 'cause I have to, or out of pure joy that I get to do this?
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Number three, do I do this to feel important or do I do this to show how important God is?
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I'm not trying to guilt you guys here.
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I'm not trying to do a drive-by guilting of all of you.
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I really want you and myself to check our hearts and see, am I doing this out of gratitude and love for God, or am I doing this for selfish reasons to earn my place?
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And whenever people ask you, "How do you know you are saved?" If the words out of your mouth are, "Because I," that's a red flag.
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but the words that come out of your mouth immediately are because God, because Christ did this for me.
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That's a good sign.
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So number three, number four, we have been saved from meaninglessness to purpose.
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Paul goes on in verse 10, and he says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
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That word workmanship actually in the Greek means masterpiece, work of art.
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That each and every one of us is created by God.
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He knows each and every one of us.
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He's given us talents and abilities and the personality that we have for a reason.
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and God has invited us to work alongside of Him.
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How awesome is that?
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We get to do the work of our Father.
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I remember back when I was, I think it was second grade, my dad came to my school for career day and he's an orthopedic salesman, so he, I don't know the best way to describe this.
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People always ask me and I'm always like, I don't know.
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He's an orthopedic salesman, so he provides people with, well, how would you say it, Dad?
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You can just, total hip and knee implants, thank you.
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I remember he came to my work and he had his scrubs on, because he's always in the surgery room.
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He comes in with his scrubs on, and he had my own pair of scrubs for me, that were for a little kid.
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I remember I felt so cool, I was changing in the bathroom, I was like, "Oh, this is so cool, this is so awesome!" And I remember we're showing everybody all the different implants that my dad has, the different bones and stuff, and I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, this is what this is, yeah, yeah, look at that, yeah." I feel like I actually know what I'm talking about.
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I remember how cool I felt.
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I'll never forget that day working alongside my dad.
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Do you remember that?
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That was so great.
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I think we have a picture of it, but I couldn't find it.
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It was so awesome.
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But in another way, God himself, our father, has called us to work alongside of him.
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He doesn't need us or want us.
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He doesn't need us, but he wants us.
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My dad didn't need me to help him that day.
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He knew what he was talking about.
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He didn't need me, but he wanted me to help him 'cause he got joy out of seeing me help him, and I got joy out of helping him.
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See, God doesn't need us, but he wants us.
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And isn't it awesome to realize that God has created us for good works and he's prepared them beforehand for us.
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How awesome is it to realize that even before you were born, even before this world came into existence, God knew you, he had a plan for your life, he knew exactly how he was gonna use you for his glory and for others' good.
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That for Travis, he had this list prepared for you and was like, "Man, I can't wait for Travis I'm gonna bless him, I'm going to bring him to life, I'm gonna empower him, I'm gonna give him gifts so he can use them for my glory and others good.
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I can't wait, he has no idea what's in store for him.
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Isn't that awesome that God knows us?
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He wants us to be a part of his plan for this world.
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We've been given front row seats to seeing Jesus Christ transform this world.
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We've been given front row seats to see families change for the glory of Christ and seeing addictions broken in the name of Jesus.
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There is no better life than this.
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We see the living God change people.
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That is awesome.
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But I think a lot of times we give up this best life of all because we feel like God has given us nothing and we have nothing to offer.
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But listen to me, that God has gifted each and every one of you in this room with something.
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He has not forgotten you.
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And it is a slap in the face of God to say, He forgot me, He's given me nothing.
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I have nothing to offer, nothing.
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That is an offense to God himself.
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That is an offense to His goodness and His mercy and His kindness.
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You're calling God a liar.
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'Cause in His word, He says He's gifted each and every one of us.
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And He's prepared works for us.
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I remember for the longest time, I just had the pity party for myself.
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I had nothing to offer.
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I'm not good at music, I'm not good at sports, I'm not good at anything.
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I have nothing to offer anybody.
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And even now I struggle with that.
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I would love more than anything to do what Darren and the rest of the band does, come up here and lead you in worship.
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I would love to do that, but I can't.
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I remember my brother tried to teach me a guitar and he's like, "Your fingers are too big.
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You can't do this.
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Like your fingers are so awkward.
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You can't do this." I tried playing piano, but I gave up.
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I just couldn't do it.
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And for the longest time, that really, that kind of messed with me.
31:02-31:03
I couldn't do certain things.
31:05-31:07
I would ignore the gifts that God has given me.
31:08-31:13
'Cause the word says, "Don't neglect the gift you have been given." And I was doing that for a while.
31:13-31:17
Because of that, I missed out on a lot of the works that God had for me.
31:19-31:20
I don't want to miss out on that anymore.
31:21-31:26
Like God has given each and every one of you gifts to make disciples for Christ and to build up his church.
31:28-31:36
And not utilizing your gifts, it's like not using, not utilizing your talents, it's like not playing with this.
31:37-31:38
It's not using the whole part of the gift.
31:38-31:45
It's like, "Okay, this is awesome. I'm going to plug this in." I'm gonna plug this in.
31:47-31:48
Got my game all ready.
31:49-31:49
Okay.
31:57-31:58
Oh, this is pretty boring.
32:01-32:01
Okay I'm done.
32:02-32:08
But in the same way, we've been given this gift in Christ, but we're not using all of it.
32:09-32:19
utilizing the talents and the abilities that God has given you is like plugging this in and putting the game in but not even playing it. Do you remember how boring it is for your kid to watch somebody else play games? It's torture, it's terrible.
32:20-32:40
Every time my brother and I would get a new game, like, "Oh, let's play co-op, let's play co-op." No, we can play co-op whenever I beat the game myself. Oh, that's great. So I just sit there like for four hours on end, just be like, "Okay, this is great." No wonder so many Christians are miserable and bored. We're not living the life that has called us to live.
32:41-32:49
That God has called you to use the gifts and talents you've been given to build up his church and to make disciples and see people's change for the glory of Christ.
32:50-32:51
We're missing out on so much.
32:52-32:58
I'm tired of having a pity party for myself and not taking advantage of the opportunities that God has given us.
32:59-33:01
So if you're thinking, okay, Taylor, I understand.
33:01-33:02
I've been given gifts, but I don't know what they are.
33:02-33:03
I don't know how to use them.
33:04-33:08
Please, after service, talk to Jeff, talk to myself, and we'll find a way to get you plugged in.
33:08-33:14
We would love nothing more than to sit down with you and talk about how God has gifted you, how he wants to use you in his church.
33:14-33:15
We would love nothing more.
33:16-33:17
We can use you.
33:18-33:19
We all need each other.
33:20-33:21
I need you, you need me.
33:23-33:24
We need each other.
33:25-33:27
Not one of us is unneeded.
33:28-33:32
No matter how small your role, it is important and needed.
33:33-33:37
So please don't leave this room thinking that God's left you giftless.
33:37-33:42
And please take steps today to utilize the gifts that God has given you.
33:48-33:48
Okay, conclusion.
33:49-33:55
The main reason I love this passage so much is because it's saturated with Christ.
33:56-34:05
It just says, "In Christ, with Christ, in Christ, by Christ." That in Christ, we are saved and made alive.
34:06-34:10
That God has united us to himself and raised us up with Christ.
34:11-34:14
We are on the throne of God in Christ.
34:14-34:20
God has lavished undeserved blessing and kindness on us which was purchased for us in Christ.
34:21-34:27
And in Christ we are recreated and empowered to live a life of true meaning and walk in the works that God has prepared for us.
34:29-34:33
If you try to live this best life of all apart from Christ, you're going to fail.
34:34-34:35
I'm gonna fail.
34:36-34:42
If you try to live this life apart from Christ, you'll forever be lost in a search for meaning.
34:42-34:43
You'll never find it.
34:45-34:59
But if you stop and accept this gift of the gospel, you stop and unwrap the gift, God inspires you and opens up your heart to open up this gift, you will find all that you were looking for, not all that you failed to find before.
35:01-35:08
So I pray if you haven't opened this gift, if you don't know Christ, God would open up your heart and He would inspire you to open this gift.
35:10-35:28
And if you do know Christ in this place, but you become bored with it and you've put Him in the basement of your minds, I pray that God would fill you with a passion again for the gospel and all that He has for your life.
35:29-35:36
because in Christ we've been given the gift of the best life of all.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Ephesians 2:1-10
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.
What do I need to learn about contentment?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
00:00-00:01
You're in Philippians 4, I'm sure.
00:05-00:09
Do you know what I love about my wife?
00:11-00:13
Yes, I knew you would get that.
00:13-00:15
The correct answer is everything.
00:16-00:17
Would you like to hear something specific?
00:19-00:25
One of the things I love about my wife specifically is she can't keep secrets very long.
00:25-00:31
Now, I don't mean like you confide something in her and she comes and tells me or gets on the phone.
00:32-00:44
I mean, when it comes to gifts, giving gifts, Erin does not keep secrets long because she's so excited to give the gift.
00:44-00:49
Is there anybody else like that, that as soon as you, okay, there's a few, all right, kindred spirits from my wife.
00:52-01:45
It's fun for me because if she finds a birthday present early, I get it a month early because she can't wait to give this gift to me and have me enjoy what she so thoughtfully picked out. Just so excited to let me know the secret. Well, as we close our series, I have a secret that I'm very excited to tell you. Anybody ready to hear a secret? A big juicy secret? A secret that will change your life. And it's the secret of always being content. You ready?
01:49-02:20
Let's take another run at that one. Are you ready? Okay, I'm going to pretend that silence was just like the anticipation led you to be speechless. Alright, here's the secret. Philippians chapter 4 verse 10. The Apostle Paul writes, "I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You but you had no opportunity.
02:22-02:30
Not that I'm speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
02:33-02:38
I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.
02:39-02:48
In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger.
02:51-03:50
abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied having received from Epaphroditus the The gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
03:53-04:05
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
04:07-04:11
To our God and Father be glory forever and ever, amen.
04:13-04:14
Greet every Saint in Christ Jesus.
04:15-04:17
The brothers who are with me greet you.
04:18-04:22
All the Saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.
04:24-04:28
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits.
04:31-04:42
We live in a day and we live in a culture of radical discontentment.
04:47-04:51
I don't like the way I look. I don't like my clothes. I don't like my hair.
04:51-04:54
I don't like how much I make. I don't like who I'm married to.
04:54-05:16
I don't like where I work. I l "I have a problem." Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up.
05:19-05:40
Some of you said, "Jeff has a problem." Turn to your neighbor and say, "I have a problem." I know I do, and you do too, because we are always after two things, more and different.
05:41-05:43
Those are the two things that we're after.
05:45-05:47
More and different.
05:50-05:54
Because we're under the illusion that either would be better than where we are.
05:54-05:58
If only I had a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more.
06:00-06:04
Sometimes it's not about the amount, it's just, I just want different.
06:04-06:06
I'm not happy with what I have, I just want different.
06:09-06:11
What are we going after this year, church?
06:13-06:13
Joy.
06:15-06:29
Well, our last message on joy from Philippians, mark this down, joy is being content in Christ, regardless of my circumstances and regardless of my possessions.
06:31-06:32
Going to say that again.
06:33-06:35
Joy is being content in Christ.
06:40-06:57
"Regardless of my circumstances and regardless of my possessions." Now you see, just to clarify, there are some things that we should never be content with.
06:58-07:00
And we have already studied that in Philippians.
07:00-07:52
in Philippians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul says, "Not that I'm perfect, but I do what?" He said, "I press on." We should never be content with our spiritual maturity. We should never be content with...this is good, I think we've reached enough people for the gospel. We should never be content with those things, but we should always be content with the externals. Fantastic news for you this morning and I'm sure you saw it in verses 11 and 12. Look at it again. He says, "For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content." And then in verse 12, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger.
07:54-07:59
This is good news for you this morning, contentment is learned.
08:00-08:00
Isn't that good news?
08:03-08:12
There's no excuse for anybody to walk in here this morning, listen to this message and walk out and say, well, contentment, some people got it, some people don't got it.
08:12-08:14
I guess I'm one of those people that just don't got it.
08:16-08:18
I guess I'm just I just I just don't get it.
08:19-08:20
This is fantastic news.
08:20-08:22
You can learn contentment.
08:23-08:23
You can learn it.
08:25-08:30
So the first thing we need to do when we learn things so often is we have to unlearn some things.
08:33-08:39
So if you're taking notes and I hope that you are, jot these things down, these are myths of contentment.
08:41-08:43
These are myths of contentment.
08:48-08:50
Counting down from four.
08:52-08:53
Here's a myth of contentment.
08:54-09:01
Number four is, "If I was him or her, I would be content." That's a myth.
09:01-09:05
If I was Taylor Brown, I'd be content. I mean, I'm discontent.
09:06-09:16
Because I got a whole lot of things going on, but I look at Taylor Brown, man, if I were him, I'd be content. How can I be so sure about the contentment of another person?
09:18-09:41
Right? We tend to idealize people. And meanwhile, that person that we're idealizing is thinking, "I wish I were you." So contentment doesn't come from, "I wish I was someone else." Let's get that myth off the table here. Number three, "If I had a different spouse, I would be content." That's a myth.
09:44-09:46
If I had a different spouse, I would be content.
09:48-09:53
Or single people here, "If I had a spouse, I would be content." Okay?
09:54-09:55
Both of those are myths.
09:56-09:56
Okay?
09:58-10:00
Once again, we run into the danger of idealizing.
10:02-10:11
Man, his wife is so nice, and she seems to really have a great relationship with him and their marriage is probably perfect.
10:11-10:14
And he's thinking that about your marriage.
10:15-10:17
It's a myth, okay?
10:19-10:22
If I had a different spouse, I would be content.
10:25-10:25
That's wrong.
10:26-10:27
If I had a spouse, I would be content.
10:27-10:36
If you can't be content in the Lord in your singleness, adding another person and their problems isn't going to make you more content, okay?
10:38-10:43
Number two, if I lived somewhere else, excuse me, if I lived somewhere else, I would be content.
10:44-10:45
If I lived somewhere else.
10:45-10:46
I hear that a lot from people.
10:46-10:48
If I lived somewhere else, I'd be content.
10:51-10:53
If I lived in Orlando, I'd be content, Derek.
10:55-10:57
Because you know what they're not dealing with in Orlando?
10:58-10:59
All that stuff.
11:00-11:01
That chill to the bone stuff.
11:02-11:03
They don't deal with that down there.
11:03-11:05
I'd be a lot happier if I live somewhere else.
11:05-11:06
And you know what?
11:06-11:07
The people are nicer there too.
11:08-11:11
And if I live somewhere else, I would be content.
11:11-11:12
That's a lie.
11:14-11:23
Because if I move, I'm taking myself with me and I'm going to miss the white Christmases and I'm not going to be content there either.
11:24-11:24
Myth.
11:26-11:28
The number one myth.
11:30-11:31
You can preach this one.
11:32-11:33
What's the number one myth?
11:34-11:37
If I had, I heard somebody say it.
11:38-11:41
Yes, if I had more money, I would be content.
11:42-11:43
That's a myth.
11:43-11:46
If I had more money, I would be content.
11:48-11:50
You will not.
11:55-11:56
Do a study sometime.
11:57-12:00
Google this, quotes from famous rich people.
12:03-12:08
about how they have everything, and how they're completely miserable.
12:09-12:16
I read an account from Henry Ford, you know, like the guy that invented the automobile.
12:18-12:22
He said the best time of his life was back when he was working in the shop and had nothing.
12:24-12:25
That was the best time of his life.
12:25-12:29
And we'd look at him and be like, man, he had so much money, he could have had everything, and he did have everything.
12:30-12:34
Why wasn't he content? Because contentment doesn't come from stuff.
12:36-12:38
That sounds so un-American, doesn't it?
12:39-12:41
What's the problem with these myths?
12:42-12:50
The problem is if I had blank, I would be content, but contentment has nothing to do with what you have or what you don't have.
12:50-12:51
It's the attitude.
12:52-12:57
It's the attitude that with Christ, whatever you have is the perfect amount.
12:57-12:58
That's contentment.
12:59-13:08
I have Christ, so whatever whatever is in my possession, wherever I live, the people I'm with.
13:10-13:11
It's perfect.
13:13-13:15
So contentment is learned.
13:16-13:25
What do you need to learn about contentment, what do I need to learn about contentment, right, these three things down in your outline, number one is contentment is trusting God's timing.
13:27-13:29
Contentment is trusting God's timing.
13:31-13:32
Look at verse 10 again with me.
13:33-13:40
Paul says, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me.
13:41-13:43
You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.
13:47-13:52
At the time of this writing, 10 years had passed since the Philippian church was planted.
13:53-13:57
And they had given much support to the Apostle Paul early on.
13:57-13:59
That's what we read in those latter verses.
14:01-14:06
Well, at some point, obviously, from the text, we see they stopped supporting him.
14:07-14:11
And now the Apostle Paul is under house arrest.
14:11-14:12
Remember, we talked about this.
14:12-14:15
He was chained to a guard.
14:17-14:17
24/7.
14:21-14:29
So the Philippian church sends Epaphroditus with some provisions for the Apostle Paul.
14:29-14:32
We saw that in chapter 4, verse 18.
14:32-14:35
We talked about it in chapter 2, verse 25 and following.
14:36-14:38
And really, that's what Philippians is.
14:38-14:44
This whole book, this Holy Spirit inspired book is really a thank you card.
14:45-14:59
Paul was saying, "Thank you." That's why he says in verse 10, "I know that you cared, but you just couldn't act upon it.
14:59-15:04
You didn't have the opportunity." But verse 11, you see the apostle Paul's contentment.
15:07-15:27
He throws this out here, "Not that I'm speaking of being in need." You see the contentment? Paul's saying, "I'm okay, but I'm rejoicing to see that you love me and care about me." Now, get this down because this is really important.
15:29-15:34
Paul says that he rejoiced in the Lord.
15:36-15:36
Did you catch that?
15:37-15:46
Yes, this is a thank you letter to the Philippians, but this isn't a letter where Paul's like, "You guys came in just in time," Because if you hadn't sent Epaphroditus with the provision, I would have been sunk.
15:46-15:49
I would have been done. I would have been hopeless.
15:50-16:01
And I was like leaning on the panic button, I sure hope somebody sends something, and, "Oh, you guys came in just in time." He's not saying that at all.
16:03-16:11
He says, "I'm rejoicing. Your concern for me has been revived." But it's all God's timing.
16:13-16:14
It's all God's timing now.
16:15-16:16
God works through people.
16:16-16:17
True.
16:19-16:21
God provides through people.
16:22-16:22
True.
16:25-16:29
But the important thing to take away from this is we trust God, not people.
16:31-16:33
OK, we trust God, not people.
16:36-16:39
Yes, thankful for the people that the Lord used.
16:39-16:51
"Yes, loving the people that the Lord uses." But Paul says, "I rejoiced in the Lord." Trusting God, not people.
16:53-16:55
Hey, any hockey fans here?
16:57-16:59
What happened yesterday?
17:00-17:01
Somebody wanna explain that one to me?
17:04-17:10
We lost to, we didn't just lose, we lost to the devils, which as Christians has a little bit of a sting to it, right?
17:12-17:14
I was watching this game.
17:15-17:18
Oh, if you DVR'd it and didn't get a chance to watch it, spoiler alert.
17:21-17:22
They play them again tonight.
17:24-17:27
As I'm watching this game, I saw that the penguins, they just like unraveled.
17:28-17:29
They were unraveling.
17:29-17:30
And I had an idea.
17:31-17:46
I thought, well, I thought if I could get to the arena and get like one of Mario Lemieux's sticks and throw it on the ice, all the penguins problems would be solved.
17:48-17:48
Why?
17:49-17:54
Because I've seen Mario Lemieux's stick do some amazing things.
17:55-17:56
I have.
17:58-18:02
And you're like, you know, it's not really about the stick, right?
18:03-18:05
That stick in my hands is what?
18:07-18:16
a stick, I might be able to hit somebody with it, which actually would have helped the penguin yesterday.
18:16-18:19
But that stick in my hand is just a stick.
18:19-18:22
But that stick in Mario Lemieux's hands is what?
18:23-18:25
I believe the word is magnifique.
18:29-18:38
Well, you see the point, the stick is just the tool used, but in Mario's hands, it's special, And it's true as God works through people.
18:41-18:42
We're just like the stick.
18:46-18:52
The praise and the thanks goes to the God who is using the tool, right?
18:55-18:57
Praise and thanks goes to God.
19:00-19:01
But it's trusting God's timing.
19:04-19:05
trusting God's timing.
19:08-19:16
A couple of weeks ago, we had some friends that are part of planting actually about a month ago now, as I think about it, but we had some friends that are.
19:17-19:21
I'm going to be planting harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh East, come up and.
19:23-19:27
Introduced my wife and I to a doctor that deals with autistic children.
19:29-19:31
And gave us this doctor's information and.
19:33-19:34
We called this doctor on a Friday.
19:39-19:41
And what he was saying was really resonating with us.
19:41-19:45
And he said, well, I can set up an appointment for you if you would like.
19:46-19:48
And we said, well, OK, let's set up an appointment.
19:48-19:56
And a lot of times when you deal with specialty doctors, it's we're taking bookings for like 2017 kind of thing.
19:58-19:59
He said, I can see you next Thursday.
20:00-20:02
Did I mention it was Friday when he told me this?
20:03-20:04
Like, oh, that's six days.
20:05-20:06
And we had to get all of this testing done.
20:09-20:14
You know, this test is gonna be $500 and the office visit is gonna be this much.
20:14-20:16
And by the way, we have two children.
20:17-20:29
So doing the quick math on that, I realized that I was going to need a couple of thousand dollars in six days.
20:31-20:35
I go on eBay to see how much one of my lungs could go for.
20:37-20:38
Then I found out you're not allowed to do that.
20:41-21:01
So Friday night, Aaron and I were excited about talking to this doctor, but we're like, "Six days, where are we going to get that kind of money in six days?" The following day, Saturday, a friend of mine showed up at our house that I hadn't seen in months.
21:04-21:09
He said, "The Lord laid it on my wife's heart "and on my heart to give this to you.
21:10-21:16
"I gotta get going, I have some other errands to run." Anybody wanna take a guess what he gave us?
21:18-21:24
It was the money that more than covered what our children needed.
21:29-21:38
Now somebody could chalk that up to an absolutely amazing coincidence. I don't.
21:40-22:05
How is it that someone who had no idea what situation we were going through, that we were talking to this doctor, and that we needed this money, meanwhile the Lord was laying it on their heart to make that provision so we could get this treatment for our kids? You see, God is never late, but He is seldom early. So let me ask you, do you believe that God knows the hardship that you are going through?
22:06-22:17
Do you believe that? Do you believe that God knows the hardship you're going through? Sometimes when we're in the middle of it, we're like the psalmist, Where are you, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
22:23-22:25
Do you believe that God's timing is perfect?
22:28-22:33
Do you believe that God will meet your needs? Do you believe that?
22:36-22:39
I encourage you to trust in the Lord's timing.
22:39-22:45
So often we have our credit cards out when God is on his way over with the cash in his hand.
22:47-22:50
That's why the apostle Paul says, I rejoice in the Lord.
22:51-22:54
You know, here this long period of time went where I didn't hear from you.
22:55-22:59
You didn't support me and you show up at just the right time.
23:03-23:05
He says, not that I'm speaking of being in need.
23:08-23:09
God's timing was perfect.
23:11-23:11
OK?
23:13-23:18
Number two, contentment has nothing to do with my circumstances.
23:20-23:22
It has nothing to do with my circumstances.
23:22-23:24
We're learning things about contentment.
23:24-23:25
We trust God's timing.
23:27-23:30
But secondly, it has nothing to do with my circumstances.
23:31-23:33
Look at verses 11 and 12 with me again.
23:36-23:41
Picking up where we left off, he said, For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
23:43-23:49
I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance.
23:49-23:56
I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
24:00-24:01
See here, Paul rolls it out.
24:01-24:02
He goes, I'm content.
24:04-24:06
I'm praising the Lord for what you've done, but I'm content.
24:06-24:08
This is actually a very interesting Greek word.
24:09-24:28
In ancient literature, this Greek word for contentment was used to describe countries that didn't do imports, countries that just supplied their own needs, but didn't need things from the outside coming in to meet their needs, content.
24:33-24:40
And Paul writes, and we're learning, that my contentment is constant no matter what I have and what I don't have, but it's something we have to learn.
24:40-24:42
So you're ready to go to contentment class?
24:43-24:45
You have your number two pencil sharpened?
24:46-24:47
Okay, here's contentment 101.
24:50-24:51
Contentment 101, jot this down.
24:52-24:55
The contentment 101 course is about being brought low.
24:55-24:56
Do you see that in the text?
24:57-24:58
He says, I know how to be brought low.
25:00-25:00
Brought low.
25:04-25:06
Where is contentment often learned?
25:08-25:12
Often it's learned when we're in times of distress, right?
25:15-25:17
It's learned when we're in times of distress.
25:22-25:27
Jesus is all you need, but you'll never know it until he's all you got.
25:30-25:33
And then when he's all you got, you realize.
25:35-25:36
He's all that you need.
25:40-25:46
We learn contentment when we're put in a situation that requires God to show up.
25:47-25:48
That's fantastic news.
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We call those Red Sea moments.
25:50-25:59
That, yeah, I've been brought low, and if I'm going to keep going, it's going to require the Lord to show up.
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So contentment 101 brought low, don't be in despair.
26:07-26:10
Those times in your life that God brings you low.
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That's one of the ways he teaches contentment.
26:14-26:15
Contentment 102.
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That course title is called Abound.
26:22-26:41
He says, "I know how to be brought low "and I know how to abound." This is much harder to learn than contentment when you're brought low.
26:41-26:42
This is much harder.
26:46-27:01
I've been to places in the world on mission trips where I think of these children in the children's home in Thailand, elementary school age children who literally owned one possession.
27:02-27:04
Do you know what that one possession was?
27:04-27:07
It was one change of clothes.
27:08-27:08
That was all they had.
27:09-27:16
They had the clothes they were wearing, and in their closet, they had another set of clothes, and literally, that was all that they had.
27:20-27:25
But I've never been anywhere in the world where I've seen children more joyful and more content.
27:27-27:29
than those Thai children.
27:35-27:38
The really hard lesson is being content when we abound.
27:38-27:40
Wealth has destroyed more people than poverty.
27:43-27:45
The question is, can you have it?
27:46-27:47
Can you have stuff?
27:48-27:52
Can you have more without drifting from God?
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That's the issue.
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to the psalm say when riches increase, do not what?
27:58-28:00
Set your heart upon them.
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So let's dispel from our minds once and for all the silly notion that it's the externals that dictate contentments.
28:11-28:13
And you're like, well, Pastor Jeff, that's easy for you to say.
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I get a stare down the barrel of disappointment every day.
28:17-28:23
When I walk out of this school today, it's back to reality, pal.
28:25-28:29
And I'm not walking the yellow brick road like you apparently are, Captain Contentment.
28:31-28:32
I'd appreciate you not call me that.
28:35-28:41
But it's easy for you to say, how do I get this contentment the Bible speaks of?
28:44-28:51
Paul says, "I've learned the secret." You ready for it?
28:52-28:53
You ready for the secret?
28:57-29:01
Well, it's not really that much of a secret because it's like in your Bible.
29:02-29:05
And it's probably underlined or highlighted in your Bible.
29:06-29:10
Philippians 4.13. How many people have memorized Philippians 4.13?
29:10-29:11
How many of you like have that memorized?
29:12-29:15
All right, I'm going to give you a whirl at it. No looking. Look up here. Everybody up here.
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I'm going to count to three and you're going to quote Philippians 4.13. You ready?
29:20-29:22
1, 2, 3.
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"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Perfect.
29:28-29:37
"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." So, number 3, contentment is resting in the strength of Christ.
29:41-29:47
Contentment is resting in the strength of Christ.
29:48-29:51
So here it is, the secret.
29:53-29:55
But I would also say here it is.
29:57-30:04
The most misquoted, taken out of context verse in the whole Bible, here it is.
30:05-30:07
Do you know where I usually see this verse?
30:10-30:15
I usually see this verse on a poster with like a pole vaulter.
30:16-30:17
Right? You see the pole vaulter?
30:17-30:20
And he's like mid-air, muscles rippling.
30:21-30:24
That bar's like, you know, 30 feet in the air.
30:25-30:27
And he's action shot.
30:28-30:34
And at the bottom, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Or a poster of a little kitten.
30:36-30:39
Little kittens hanging on the hand of a wicker basket.
30:40-30:40
Bless his heart.
30:42-30:43
So precious.
30:44-30:45
I can barely stand it.
30:46-30:48
But the kitten's like, "I can do all things.
30:49-31:01
"Through Christ who strengthens me." That verse has nothing to do with pole vaulting, or kittens, or even kittens that can pole vault.
31:03-31:05
That verse has nothing to do with that.
31:06-31:09
I would encourage you, read the Bible in context.
31:09-31:14
So often people take a verse out of context and like run with it.
31:15-31:19
This is the secret to contentment that Paul has been talking about.
31:22-31:26
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
31:28-31:31
It's not I can do all things because of Christ.
31:32-31:35
Like somehow Jesus inspired me.
31:36-31:40
You know, I think of Jesus on the cross and I just feel all eye of the tiger about that.
31:41-31:42
And I'm inspired.
31:42-31:44
not what he's saying and he's not saying.
31:46-31:50
I can do all things for Christ who strengthens me as if.
31:51-31:56
Jesus, I owe you one and I'm going to do this for you, but what does he say?
31:57-31:59
I can do all things through him.
32:01-32:02
Who strengthens me?
32:04-32:05
Through Christ.
32:08-32:13
This word for strength in the Greek is where we get the word dynamite.
32:15-32:17
It's coming to the end of your rope.
32:18-32:28
It's coming to the end of your strength to discover that God is there to infuse you with his strength.
32:33-32:39
And as we get on the home stretch, there are some people here this morning that are saying, "Yes, Pastor Jeff, you're absolutely right.
32:39-32:47
From now on, I'm going to try harder to be content." And my response to that is, "You missed it.
32:48-32:59
You missed it." The answer is not trying harder, because the Christian life was never meant to be lived out by our resources.
33:00-33:03
In fact, it's impossible to live the Christian life by our resources.
33:05-33:06
So I would encourage you to stop trying.
33:08-33:16
And instead, start getting on your face and crying out the reality of the situation.
33:16-33:18
God, I can't do this.
33:19-33:21
Can we be honest with God?
33:21-33:25
Can we get on our faces and say, God, I look around and I'm discontent.
33:27-33:29
You have so richly blessed me.
33:34-33:40
But I'm so discontent. God, I need your strength to be content.
33:43-33:46
Can you bow your head? Go ahead, bow your heads right now.
33:50-34:09
Can you say this in your heart? Can you say, "God, you are my contentment." God, in You I've been forgiven. No shame, no condemnation. You have totally forgiven me in Jesus Christ.
34:11-34:19
You have given me eternal life. God, You have given me the promise of heaven.
34:22-34:24
My best days are ahead of me.
34:25-34:31
God, you have given me your Spirit who lives in me and works through me.
34:34-34:39
Can you say with your head bowed, "God, you have been my provider.
34:40-34:48
Here I sit today as a testimony to your faithfulness because you've brought me this far.
34:49-35:28
And because you have promised to take me the rest of the way, with your head bowed, can you say, "God, I need nothing besides you, because you are all that I need, because you've given me yourself." So Harvest Bible Chapel, we close the book of Philippians.
35:30-35:36
Let me ask you, can we just go back to joylessness?
35:37-35:38
Can we?
35:41-35:44
Can we look at everything that the Lord has taught us in His Word?
35:46-35:55
Can we look at these glorious promises of God for this supernatural joy and just turn away from it?
35:57-36:02
Can we just be content to go back to not choosing this glorious pursuit of joy?
36:08-36:09
Can we go back?
36:12-36:12
We cannot.
36:18-36:24
So I would like to remind you as we close our message, as we close this series, if our worship team would make their way forward.
36:29-38:33
In chapter one we learned that joy comes from being thankful for what God is doing in His church. It's easy to complain about the church, it's easy to criticize the church, it's easy to nitpick, but to stop and be thankful at what God is doing, you're on the path to joy. In chapter 2, we learned that joy comes from humility. Oh, we are so eager to broadcast ourselves and our amazingness and put the spotlight on me and we are so miserable when we live that way. True joy comes from putting other people ahead of yourself. In chapter 3 we learned that true joy comes from growing in the Lord. There is no joy in thinking, "I've arrived, I'm perfect," because that's a lie and you know it's a lie. Nor is there joy in saying, "I'm never gonna get it. This is the best that's gonna be for me." There's no joy in that either. Joy is saying, "I know God has pronounced me perfect, and by His grace and the power of His Spirit, He is growing me and changing me and conforming me into the image of His Son. I'm not yet the person that I want to be, but I thank God that I'm not the person that I was. Then we got to chapter four, we learned that joy comes from peace. Joy comes from peace. Do you have some conflicts in your life that need resolved? You know, preachers used to say, when you go home, you need to make some phone calls. We live in a much better day. You don't even have to wait until you get home.
38:35-38:41
Because you probably all have a cell phone. Maybe you need to make a call when you get to the lobby or the parking lot today.
38:43-38:46
Peace and resolving conflicts, peace and prayer.
38:48-38:51
Peace and experiencing.
38:55-38:57
That relationship with God that he's blessed us with.
38:59-39:00
And then finally, we learned that.
39:02-39:03
Joy comes from contentment.
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to say, "God has given me everything that I need. He promised He'll never leave me or forsake me.
39:17-39:33
I have all of the promises of Jesus Christ. What more could I possibly want or need? I am content." Let's keep pressing on.
39:35-39:36
Let's keep pursuing joy.
39:37-39:38
Will you bow your heads with me please?
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Philippians 4:10-23
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
00:01-00:02
What do you think?
00:06-00:13
What do you think? All right, um, what do you think?
00:17-00:25
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Yeah, let's get in the truth.
00:26-00:35
Amen. As long as you promise not to tell anyone, I'm going to tell you a little secret.
00:35-00:49
At the pastor retreat, we had sessions and meetings and stuff in the morning, and then they gave us kind of a break in the afternoon, and then there was an evening session, And I skipped one.
00:50-00:51
All right, don't tell.
00:52-00:56
But Aaron and I snuck away and went to Universal.
00:59-01:04
And we went there several years ago and just really enjoyed it.
01:04-01:09
And it was literally 15 minutes away and we just couldn't resist.
01:12-01:15
But you know, you know what those places are called?
01:16-01:23
like Universal and Disney World and Kennywood and Cedar Point.
01:23-01:24
What do you call those places?
01:25-01:27
Amusement parks, right.
01:27-01:30
Those are called amusement parks.
01:31-01:33
Do you ever think about that?
01:33-01:37
What does amuse mean?
01:38-01:39
What does that word mean?
01:42-01:43
Well, muse means what?
01:45-01:46
Amuse means think.
01:47-01:52
And when you put an A in front of a word, when you put that prefix, what does that do to the word?
01:53-01:54
It negates it, doesn't it?
01:55-01:57
So amuse means what?
02:01-02:01
Come on, shout it out.
02:02-02:03
Amuse means what?
02:04-02:05
You're not thinking, right?
02:05-02:06
You're not thinking.
02:07-02:08
So here's a park.
02:10-02:11
Here are several parks.
02:11-02:19
Here are millions and millions and millions of dollars spent to build a place where we can go to avoid thinking?
02:23-02:39
Well, your brain, all three pounds of it-- some of us a little more, some of us a lot less-- has more information in it than the Library of Congress.
02:41-02:42
17 million volumes.
02:43-02:43
Did you realize that?
02:46-02:48
Take all the information in the Library of Congress.
02:48-02:51
You have more information than that in your brain.
02:54-02:58
I see some parents looking towards their children now.
02:59-02:59
Use it.
03:01-03:01
Right?
03:02-03:06
Psychologists say that we have 10,000 thoughts per day.
03:08-03:10
Honestly, I would have guessed more than that.
03:11-03:13
I'm not a psychologist though.
03:14-03:19
And you're like, well, when we're talking about thinking and thoughts, this is really a psychology thing, right?
03:19-03:20
Well, wrong.
03:21-03:24
God's word says much about your thinking.
03:26-03:29
God's word says much about your thinking.
03:29-03:36
And I've actually done sermon series on thinking and was tempted to do so again.
03:38-03:40
But let me just share this with you, for example.
03:42-03:44
You know, what does the Bible say about thinking?
03:44-03:46
What does the Bible say about your mind?
03:46-04:00
One of the most important teachings in the Bible, the teaching that every single preacher in the Bible, every sermon started with this concept is to repent, right?
04:01-04:03
You see it all through the Bible, don't you?
04:03-04:03
Repent.
04:04-04:04
Repent.
04:04-04:05
What does that mean?
04:07-04:13
I think sometimes we think that means we just change our actions, but that's not what repent means.
04:14-04:17
Repent literally means to change your mind.
04:19-04:26
Speaking for myself, you know, there was a time that I was in sin and loving it.
04:27-04:30
At the same time, while it was destroying me.
04:34-04:39
The call to repentance was for me to stop and rethink about what I was doing.
04:39-04:40
What am I doing?
04:42-04:48
It's thinking the way God thinks, it's looking at my sin the way God looks at my sin.
04:49-04:50
This isn't great.
04:51-04:52
This is wickedness.
04:52-04:53
This is destructive.
04:55-04:58
So repent means to change your mind.
05:00-05:04
The question is, Christians, is that just a one time event in your life?
05:06-05:08
Like, yeah, I repented back in 1995.
05:09-05:16
Well, actually, no, the Bible says Luke 3 8 to bear fruits in keeping with repentance.
05:17-05:18
So hear me.
05:20-05:27
Yes, it is a one time event, but it's a one time event that is continuous for the rest of your life, meaning this.
05:28-05:30
Change your mind about sin.
05:32-05:37
And when sinful thoughts enter your mind again, you keep getting back on track.
05:39-05:42
This is what the Bible calls renewing your mind, right?
05:43-05:49
Romans chapter two, verse two, you know, do not be conformed to the image of the world, but be what?
05:50-05:57
Be transformed by the well, how do we get transformed by the renewing of your mind?
06:01-06:21
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 23, the Apostle Paul writes, "Be renewed in the spirit of your minds." We still live in fallen flesh, we live in a fallen world, so it's easy to get off track sometimes upstairs.
06:23-06:31
You know, when we first came to Christ and we experienced the joy of forgiveness and we're like, you know what, I'm going to forgive people.
06:31-06:39
And then a year, two years, five years down the road, we have a fallout with somebody and we say, I will never forgive that person for that.
06:42-06:43
Now, you need to repent.
06:43-06:50
You need to change your mind again or still, because your thinking has gotten off track.
06:52-06:53
Change your mind.
06:56-06:59
Let God's Word and God's Spirit renew your mind.
07:03-07:11
So not only do we still live in fallen flesh, we live in a fallen world, but the other problem we have is we have a storehouse of sin in our brains.
07:11-07:22
I have 20 years worth of, you know, history, a big head start in life of stockpiling sinful thoughts and sinful images.
07:22-07:30
And as I told you last week, we need to check up from the neck up because we're tore up from the floor up.
07:31-07:31
Right.
07:34-07:36
So we're talking about your mind.
07:37-07:38
We're talking about your mind.
07:39-07:43
And you're like right now, you know, I hear what you're saying, but we're kind of in church right now.
07:43-07:47
And really I'm trying to get to a spiritual place right now.
07:47-07:49
So why are we talking about the mind?
07:49-07:51
Do we really need to talk about the mind?
07:51-07:53
Like I said, that's sort of a psychology thing.
07:54-07:57
Do we really need to be talking about these kinds of things in church?
08:00-08:02
Well, let me offer you this.
08:05-08:08
What goes in your car affects the way it drives, correct?
08:09-08:13
Is that true or not true? What you put in your car affects the way it drives, right?
08:16-08:34
If you don't believe me, go fill your gas tank with syrup and see how your car drives. What goes in your car affects how it drives. What goes in your body affects your health. Now, I don't need to like ask the general audience, we have an expert.
08:34-08:58
Is that true? What goes in your body affects your health, right? I know when I eat healthy I feel good, and when I have a milkshake I feel terrible. But what goes in your body affects your health. What goes in your computer affects the programs that it runs, right?
09:02-09:07
We're going to see from God's word here this morning that what goes in your mind affects your attitude and your actions.
09:11-09:23
Last week. We were talking about peace and the apostle Paul was teaching us, do you want peace? Well, you've got to ditch some things, you've got to ditch conflict, you've You've got to ditch negativity.
09:24-09:25
You've got to ditch unreasonableness.
09:25-09:26
You've got to ditch anxiety.
09:28-09:30
You're going to cast these things off.
09:30-09:31
So what should go in my mind?
09:32-09:33
You know, I can't think about nothing.
09:34-09:39
I've had this conversation with my wife, probably 10,000 times.
09:39-09:40
Like, what are you thinking about?
09:40-09:41
And she says, nothing.
09:42-09:44
And my response is always, that's impossible.
09:45-09:46
You can't think about nothing.
09:47-09:47
It's impossible.
09:47-09:50
You're thinking about something at all times.
09:54-09:57
So what we're going to look at today, really just one verse.
09:58-10:00
These things are the other side of the coin.
10:00-10:09
You know, Paul says, "Get rid of the conflict, get rid of the negativity, the unreasonableness, the anxiety." So what should I be thinking about?
10:11-10:15
Well, let's look at verses 8 and 9, and really we're going to camp out in verse 8.
10:17-10:53
Paul writes, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, If there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
10:55-11:06
What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.
11:08-11:18
I drew a line in my Bible from verse 7 to verse 9 because in verse 7 he says, You can have the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.
11:18-11:22
And in verse nine, he says, you also have the God of peace.
11:28-11:30
So what goes on in that head of yours?
11:33-11:34
What are you thinking?
11:36-11:43
And for many of you, you might be struggling with, you know, life just seems so rotten and life stinks.
11:43-11:49
and I've been having such a hard time, and I hate everyone, and I hate everything, and I just can't seem to get it together.
11:50-11:53
The problem is happening between your ears.
11:54-11:55
It is.
11:57-11:58
And I want you to write this down.
11:58-12:02
Before we get to our, we're gonna look at the six things that he kind of lays out here for us.
12:03-12:06
But I want you to write this down at the top of your outline.
12:06-12:08
I am in charge of my mind.
12:08-12:09
I want you to write that down.
12:09-12:11
I am in charge of my mind.
12:14-12:16
You control what you think about.
12:19-12:21
I am in charge of my mind.
12:27-12:37
Some of you aren't convinced, but you know, I took a whole class on this, about being in charge of your mind.
12:37-12:39
I took a whole class on it.
12:41-12:42
It's called Lamaze.
12:44-12:45
Aaron was there too.
12:47-12:49
Otherwise that would have been weird.
12:52-12:53
But do you know what they teach you at Lamaze?
12:53-12:55
At least the class I went to.
12:56-12:57
Do you know what's up with that breathing?
12:57-12:58
Do you know why you do that breathing?
12:59-13:00
Do you know why?
13:02-13:04
You're like, yeah, because your lungs need oxygen.
13:05-13:07
Yeah, but there's another reason you do the breathing.
13:07-13:07
Do you know why?
13:09-13:11
Yes, it's a distraction, right?
13:12-13:25
It was (whistles) at least that was the pattern that we had and Erin had this whole thing about like the pattern tracing down like my face, like she had this whole thing.
13:25-13:49
Anyways, it was a distraction because you're thinking about this rhythm and pattern of breathing and thinking about, okay, we did the three short ones and then the long one and then you go back to the three shorts and the long three shorts and a long..." And you're thinking about that so much that it's supposed to take your mind off the fact that a human being is coming out of you.
13:52-14:10
And one of the exercises we did, this is... I pray for my wife, but one of the exercises that we did was the person that was teaching the class says, "Okay, I I want you to close your eyes and you're going to create a place in your mind that you're going to go to.
14:11-14:16
And this place is a garden. And this place has a wall.
14:16-14:22
And she was just going on and on and on about the flowers and the sounds of the birds and the sun.
14:23-14:25
And it just... she was going on and on.
14:25-14:36
And then finally I said, "The flies in my garden are terrible." And I got some laughs and a dirty look from Aaron.
14:37-14:45
But the whole point of that whole exercise was, you're having a baby and it's painful.
14:46-15:01
So what we're going to do as much as we can is to put some tricks in your magic hat, so to speak, that you can get your mind off of the incredible pain.
15:02-15:06
But the point of all that is this, I'm in charge of my mind.
15:09-15:10
I'm in charge of my mind.
15:10-15:12
So what should I be thinking about?
15:12-15:14
This is all straight from the text.
15:14-15:18
Really like any one of you could come up here and preach this message.
15:18-15:20
It's all right there in the text.
15:22-15:25
So number one, what should I be thinking about?
15:26-15:27
I think true thoughts.
15:28-15:29
Think true thoughts.
15:35-15:40
Racing through your mind should only be thoughts that are true.
15:42-15:43
Like where do I go to for that?
15:44-15:52
Well, John chapter 17, verse 17, Jesus said, "Thy word is truth." The Bible tells us that the truth is in Christ.
15:52-15:55
John 14, six Ephesians 421.
15:56-15:58
Jesus Christ is truth.
16:01-16:05
So the first thing the apostle Paul says, racing through your mind should be truth.
16:06-16:21
And isn't it interesting when God wanted to give us a revelation of himself, of his character, of his mercy, of his judgment, of the condition of the human race, of history, of future history.
16:21-16:24
And what form did he provide that?
16:25-16:27
You know, he could have given us a DVD, right?
16:29-16:39
God's like, here's my revelation to man, available on Blu-ray, and you just pop it in and you sit down and watch it, but he didn't do that.
16:40-16:42
God could have said, here's a CD.
16:43-16:47
You know, when you're in the car, you can kind of listen to it, and it's, he didn't do that either.
16:47-16:51
What did God give us to reveal himself?
16:52-17:04
What did he give us? He gave us a book, right? And why did he give us a book? The reason he gave us a book is when you read a book you need to use your mind.
17:05-17:23
You read the words. It's objective outside truth that you you read and you think about and you meditate upon and you examine. And he gave us a book to engage our minds. So my encouragement to you is have a plan to get in the book.
17:26-17:45
Get the word in you. Be preaching the word to yourself. You know, that's the problem that I have. I only get to preach to you for about 40 minutes a week. Do you know who's preaching to you for another hundred and sixty seven hours in 20 minutes. You are.
17:47-17:56
You are you are constantly preaching to yourself, did you know that you ever stop to listen? What's the content of your sermon?
17:58-18:00
All this little sin that I'm hiding, it's not that bad.
18:01-18:02
I'm not going to get caught.
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I'm not really hurting anyone with this little sinful secret thing that I have hidden, this little flirtatious affair that I've had going on, it's not really hurting anyone.
18:13-18:15
And, you know, I deserve this.
18:15-18:18
And, you know, things have been rough lately.
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I kind of deserve this little release and I can handle it.
18:21-18:22
It's not going to get out of control.
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Your preaching lies to yourself.
18:29-18:36
Instead, when you get this and this, your sermons take on a different tone.
18:39-18:45
"This is not who I am in Christ. In Christ, I am a child of God. I'm dead to sin.
18:46-18:55
Sin is not my master. I should hate my sin because it killed my Savior." Those are the sermons that start coming out when you get this and here and in here.
18:58-19:01
Every thought, every thought doesn't line up with God's Word.
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Does this thought echo His truth?
19:06-19:09
You need to take every thought, you know the Bible tells us to take every thought captive.
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We think horrible things sometimes.
19:17-19:18
I think horrible things sometimes.
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Let's be honest.
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Have you ever thought of something that you were like ashamed that that thought ever entered your mind?
19:26-19:30
That's happened to me. Anybody else? Just me and Taylor? Must be a preacher thing.
19:31-19:35
Okay, thank you. You're like, "I'm embarrassed that I even thought that.
19:36-20:01
I can't believe that went through my mind." That's why the Bible says, "Take every thought captive." You know, when you say things like, "I'm completely useless. I'd be better off dead." That's a lie, man. The Bible says that you were fearfully and wonderfully made.
20:02-20:07
The Bible says that in Christ, God has good works prepared beforehand that you should walk in them.
20:10-20:12
You're ignoring your big why.
20:14-20:16
And you've been preaching to yourself, why bother?
20:20-20:28
For this one, my wife is just on my nerves and that raises your mind or my spouse, you know.
20:30-20:37
He's just been on my nerves, I can't even stand to look at him or she is such a nag, I am so sick of her.
20:40-20:43
Preaching God's word to yourself says, you know, I'm commanded to love her.
20:44-20:45
I am commanded to love her.
20:46-20:51
My love for my wife should emulate the love that Jesus Christ has for His church.
20:52-21:08
And wives say, "My love for my husband should be like the love that the church has for Jesus Christ." How about this one? "My children are rebellious." "My children just aren't going to get it. They're rebellious, they're wayward.
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I've failed as a parent.
21:13-21:15
I've completely failed as a parent.
21:18-21:19
You're preaching lies to yourself again.
21:21-21:28
Instead, what you need to be preaching from God's word, God gave me the job of discipline and correction and instruction.
21:29-21:30
God gave me that job.
21:30-21:31
And yet I don't do it perfectly.
21:32-21:33
I don't do anything perfectly.
21:35-21:36
But I press on.
21:40-21:48
I'm going to do the best I can to do the job of raising my children because God gave this job to me.
21:50-21:55
And yes, I'm going to rely on Him and I'm going to get other people to help me, but it's my job.
21:58-22:01
Now, speaking of, here's a sermon that we preach often to ourselves.
22:01-22:04
I hate my job. I hate my job.
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My job stinks and I hate my boss and my.
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The Bible says I should work as if I'm working for Christ himself and I could go on and on and on and on and on, but you see, so often the things that run through our mind are contrary to what runs through God's word.
22:26-22:30
So the first thing is think true thoughts, think true thoughts, is that true?
22:30-22:32
Is that true? Is that true?
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Think true thoughts.
22:34-22:40
Secondly, it's right there in your text, what's the H word think?
22:42-22:45
Honorable thoughts, honorable thoughts.
22:48-22:52
Right down the word gracious, really, that's a good synonym for this.
22:52-22:53
What's it mean, honorable thoughts?
22:53-22:58
It means gracious, gracious air on the side of grace.
22:59-22:59
Right.
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It's taking the high road. It's asking yourself, "Is this the highest option?" Do you remember the fad?
23:09-23:13
Oh gosh, must have been like 15 years ago now.
23:13-23:17
How many people remember the WWJD bracelet fad?
23:18-23:27
It was at the point where you're like, "Your salvation is seriously in question if you're not wearing a WWJD." Is there anybody wearing one today?
23:30-23:33
How many people were rocking them though back in the day?
23:33-23:35
Okay, see? It's kind of a fad.
23:36-23:37
You know what the sad thing is?
23:38-23:41
Like the bracelets went out of style and so did the concept.
23:46-23:47
What would Jesus do?
23:49-23:53
And see, that's what he's talking about here, thinking honorable thoughts, thinking gracious thoughts.
23:53-23:55
How would Jesus think about this?
23:56-24:03
You know, that guy at work that has been just harassing you has blatantly insulted you in front of your other co-workers.
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How would Jesus handle that? What would He think about that?
24:11-24:13
Somebody lashes out at you.
24:15-24:19
Somebody's gossiping behind your back. Somebody's making false accusations.
24:23-24:29
And you say, "Well, I could defend myself. I could retaliate against my enemies.
24:29-24:37
I could use social media to write messages about them publicly." You know, those little veiled messages, like, "Oh, you know I'm talking about you.
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I'm gonna update my Facebook status." And to the rest of the world, it's gonna look a little cryptic, but Derek Edwards, you know I'm talking about you in this, pal.
24:51-24:53
Yeah, could you see Jesus doing that?
24:54-24:58
How many people could totally see Jesus tweeting stuff like that?
24:58-25:01
No, absolutely not. It's immature.
25:02-25:05
And that's what he's talking about here. Think honorable thoughts.
25:06-25:08
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable.
25:10-25:30
So easy to get caught up in the emotions and forget this basic foundational truth of the gospel, And it is, we've already studied it twice in Philippians, "I am not a citizen of this world, and I shouldn't act like I am." That's why Paul tells us in Philippians, "We're citizens of where? Heaven.
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We're citizens of heaven, act like it." That's what he said.
25:34-25:37
Just imagine all the stuff that's happening in heaven right now.
25:37-25:39
Do you think there's gossip happening in heaven right now?
25:40-25:45
No. Do you think there's retaliation, revenge, vindictiveness, anger, hostility?
25:45-25:48
No. None of that stuff's happening in heaven.
25:49-25:51
I shouldn't be letting that stuff roll around in my head.
25:52-25:55
I'm a citizen of heaven. I should act like it. I should think like it.
25:57-26:00
So, number three, think just thoughts.
26:00-26:04
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just.
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Just literally means right, meaning righteous.
26:13-26:19
God has a standard, His standard is perfection. He has given us His perfection in Jesus Christ.
26:21-26:28
Thinking just thoughts means thinking about the right things, thinking about specifically how to do what is right.
26:31-26:38
You know, don't think that just thoughts means that like justice, like what's the best way for me to get even with Him.
26:41-26:43
Just thoughts, that's thinking this way.
26:44-26:46
"Okay, I have decisions I have to make.
26:49-26:51
What's the right thing to do?
26:52-26:53
What's the right thing to do?
26:53-26:59
Not what's going to make me feel the best, not what's going to get me in the least amount of trouble.
27:00-27:04
It's what is right." And look at this next one.
27:06-27:11
"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just." And then he says, whatever is what?
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Shout it out.
27:15-27:15
Shout it out.
27:15-27:16
Come on.
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Pure, yes, pure, think pure thoughts.
27:22-27:23
What does pure mean?
27:25-27:27
Like, seriously, what does that word even mean anymore?
27:29-27:33
The question is, is this morally faithful?
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Does this line up with God's design for marriage and sexuality?
27:46-27:47
Think pure thoughts.
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In 2013, I don't even know what I don't even know how to communicate this.
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I don't think people even have a grasp on what purity is.
28:01-28:09
And the church is trying to hold the line, right, you have the silver ring thing, and we've done purity classes and things of that nature.
28:11-28:14
Do you think the world at large really gives a rip about purity?
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Do you think?
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Anything goes.
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That's how it is for the world for sexuality.
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Anything goes, right?
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Whatever makes you happy.
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Well, let me ask you, when it comes to issues of sexuality, where do you draw the line?
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As in, let's talk about what's right and what's wrong.
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Let's talk about that for a second.
28:51-28:52
What's right and what's wrong?
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Because we live in a day that there is no right or wrong.
28:55-28:57
So what's right and what's wrong?
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All right.
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How about marriage, right or wrong? Marriage between a man and a woman?
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I think most people would say that's right.
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What about cohabitation? What about living together without being married?
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Is that right or wrong?
29:19-29:29
What about sexting? We're not like really in a relationship, but we send impure messages to each other. Is that right or wrong?
29:29-29:34
What about adultery? Is that right or wrong? Is it ever right? Is it always wrong?
29:35-29:37
What about homosexuality, right or wrong?
29:40-29:43
What about pedophilia, right or wrong?
29:44-29:45
See the problem?
29:47-29:53
When we decide where we're going to draw the line, we are all over the place, right?
29:54-29:57
You'll have people that'll say, "You know what, pedophilia, that's definitely wrong.
29:58-29:59
Pedophilia is definitely wrong.
30:00-30:06
But homosexuality really isn't wrong, because it's just between two loving adults that care about each other.
30:07-30:08
So that's on the right side.
30:11-30:20
And then you have people, well, pedophilia wrong, but homosexuality's okay, and adultery's wrong, because you're betraying.
30:23-30:25
The problem is, here's the problem.
30:28-31:43
What in the world makes us think that we have the right to draw the line? I just don't get that. Like, we're going to vote for the definition of marriage? Like, I'm sorry, I thought that was already established. I thought God already defined that. I didn't realize that God appointed a committee to reevaluate this marriage thing to see if we needed to change it. Who do we think we are? I'll tell you where the line is. The line is where God drew the line. And God says marriage is for one man and one woman for one lifetime. That's right. Well, what goes in the wrong category? Somebody tell me. Everything else goes in the wrong category. Think pure thoughts. Think pure thoughts. That's why pornography is such a danger. There was a day that you had to find it in certain stores or certain gas stations and it was only limited where it was available. Now it is just one mouse click away.
31:45-31:51
And it gets images in our minds that have no business being in our minds.
31:56-31:58
I heard one preacher, a preacher friend of mine say this.
31:58-32:05
I don't know if it was original with him, but this Baptist pastor friend of mine said, "Sex is like fire.
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"In the right place, it's beautiful.
32:09-32:12
in the wrong place is destructive, right?
32:14-32:16
Fire in the fireplace is fantastic.
32:16-32:17
It heats the house.
32:17-32:17
It's warm.
32:17-32:18
It's beautiful.
32:20-32:26
Fire on the middle of the living room floor will burn your house down.
32:30-32:31
But we live in sexual anarchy.
32:33-32:44
Pure thinking is this-- My affection, my physical attraction, my thoughts are reserved for my spouse or my future spouse.
32:46-32:47
Pure thoughts.
32:49-32:56
Every time I marry a couple, I tell them this phrase, "Sex and marriage is God's thing. Do God's thing God's way." That's all I got.
32:57-33:02
I didn't invent marriage. Some pastor or theologian didn't invent this concept of marriage.
33:02-33:04
God invented sex and marriage.
33:05-33:09
It's God's thing to do it God's way and think of it God's way.
33:09-33:12
That's why he says whatever is pure.
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Hey, two more, think lovely thoughts, think lovely thoughts.
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This is the only time this word is used in the New Testament, it means pleasing, attractive, literally it means it means friendly towards.
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It means friendly towards.
33:37-33:41
The best way to define it is to give you the antonyms, really.
33:43-33:45
There are many ugly things that we think about.
33:46-33:49
Envy and violence and hatred.
33:51-33:52
Right? Envy.
33:53-33:57
"Oh, I can't stand that guy. I can't stand that.
33:57-33:59
I don't know why everybody thinks that guy is so great.
33:59-34:03
I think he's an idiot." That's an ugly thought.
34:06-34:07
You know, violence.
34:08-34:10
I would just like to punch that guy right in the throat.
34:10-34:12
Man, I'd like five minutes with that guy.
34:13-34:14
Can't stand him.
34:14-34:16
Violence, that's an ugly thought.
34:17-34:20
Hatred, hatred, I will never forgive that person.
34:23-34:25
I hope their life is miserable.
34:25-34:27
I hope they burn in hell.
34:28-34:30
Those are hateful thoughts, right?
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Hateful and they're ugly.
34:34-34:37
And see this word actually means the opposite.
34:37-34:39
We're thinking friendly thoughts.
34:40-34:44
We're not thinking of things that are stirring up a part of me that doesn't need stirred.
34:47-34:55
Think lovely thoughts, friendly towards, positive, not negative.
34:55-34:55
Do you get that?
34:56-35:03
And the last one, he says, "Whatever is commendable." Whatever is commendable.
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This literally means well-sounding words.
35:12-35:14
Well-sounding words.
35:15-35:19
I think sarcasm is hilarious, and that can be a problem.
35:22-35:24
Because have you ever been around that guy?
35:25-35:26
You know what I'm talking about?
35:26-35:27
Have you ever been around that guy?
35:28-35:31
The guy that has to give a sarcastic comment about everything.
35:33-35:34
Anybody know that guy?
35:34-35:35
You've worked with that guy?
35:35-35:37
You have an uncle that's that guy?
35:37-35:38
You know what I'm talking about?
35:38-35:45
You can't say anything that they don't have to cut it up, make fun of it, make their little sarcastic comment.
35:45-35:47
I never wanna be that guy.
35:47-35:49
Don't let me be that guy.
35:51-35:52
Ripping on everything.
35:52-35:53
It gets old.
35:54-35:57
And here he's talking about well-sounding words.
35:57-35:59
I don't have to be the comedian.
35:59-36:04
I don't have to express my opinion and commentary on every matter.
36:05-36:07
Instead of thinking, how can I make a joke out of this?
36:08-36:12
Commendable thoughts is thinking, how can I be an encouragement to this person?
36:13-36:15
How can I be an encouragement to this person?
36:16-36:18
At this point, you're like, you know what?
36:18-36:19
Can you just stop?
36:20-36:21
This is a lot of stuff.
36:22-36:23
You're right, it is.
36:23-36:26
You're like, how about you just like stop here and sum it up for me?
36:26-36:27
Fantastic, here it is.
36:28-36:32
He says, if there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
36:33-36:35
That's a summary statement, really.
36:35-36:36
That's really all that is.
36:36-36:37
It's a summary statement.
36:39-36:39
Excellence.
36:41-36:42
What does that mean?
36:45-36:46
Brace yourself.
36:46-36:47
Are you sitting down?
36:50-36:51
Excellence means human goodness.
36:53-36:55
It's a word that the apostle Paul like never uses.
36:56-36:56
Why?
36:57-37:03
Because he talks about how by nature, we're fallen and sinful and dead in our sin.
37:03-37:07
He doesn't often talk about inherent goodness in people.
37:07-37:09
That's what this word means.
37:09-37:12
It means, it literally means this.
37:13-37:18
Excellence is something that the whole human race would regard as good.
37:18-37:19
Does that make sense?
37:20-37:23
the whole human race would regard it as good.
37:26-37:27
Can you think of anything?
37:30-37:33
Oh, I got one, a baby, a baby.
37:34-37:37
Well, isn't that something like the whole human race would be like, babies are great.
37:38-37:42
For the person that says otherwise, they're a monster, honestly, they're a monster.
37:42-37:47
And I don't mean like a Sesame Street monster, I mean like a real nasty monster.
37:47-37:48
Babies are fantastic.
37:50-37:52
That's something like the whole world rallies around, right?
37:53-37:55
Or like puppies, right?
37:56-37:57
The whole world rallies around puppies.
37:57-38:00
He's not just saying, think about babies and puppies.
38:01-38:03
What he's saying is, think about things that are good.
38:06-38:07
Think about things that are good.
38:10-38:12
And then he says, praiseworthy.
38:12-38:14
That's really the icing on the cake here, right?
38:14-38:15
Which the icing is always the best part.
38:16-38:18
Praiseworthy means this, is it vertical?
38:18-38:19
Is it vertical?
38:19-38:22
Meaning, is this something people think about in heaven?
38:24-38:35
And as people are standing around the throne of Jesus Christ and shouting adoration of praise, is this something that's running through their minds in heaven, praiseworthy?
38:40-38:42
He says, think about these things.
38:45-38:55
And that phrase comes from an Old Testament concept, which comes from a, which actually comes from a farm animal concept.
38:55-38:56
It's ruminate.
38:57-38:59
Think about these things means ruminate.
39:00-39:01
Do you know what ruminate is?
39:02-39:03
You know what ruminate is?
39:06-39:07
Ruminate is this.
39:08-39:09
How many stomachs does a cow have?
39:11-39:12
Four, right?
39:12-39:13
Don't cows have four stomachs?
39:15-39:15
Two?
39:16-39:16
We gonna vote?
39:16-39:17
I think it's four.
39:19-39:20
More than one, thank you.
39:21-39:23
See, thank you, Mark.
39:23-39:25
And what a way to bring peace back.
39:26-39:29
Somebody Google that, but not now because we're like in sermon time.
39:32-39:36
A cow has more than one stomach, I think we can all agree with.
39:38-39:43
Reason being is when it eats grass, it doesn't just like eat it and pass it through.
39:43-39:44
What does a cow do?
39:45-39:46
A cow eats it.
39:48-39:51
Somebody wanna come up and do a demonstration as to what happens next?
39:53-39:55
He eats it and then he brings it back up again.
39:59-39:59
Like that.
40:02-40:03
And then what does he do?
40:05-40:06
He chews on it.
40:08-40:09
Swallow.
40:12-40:13
Chews on it some more.
40:14-40:22
That is a really gross picture, but it is a really good picture because this is what we are to do with God's word.
40:22-40:31
As we read it and memorize portions of it, the reason we do that is to get it gone in our heads that we're constantly chewing on it.
40:31-40:33
We're constantly chewing on it.
40:34-40:36
That's what we do in sermon prep, isn't it, Taylor?
40:36-40:42
We get that passage of scripture and we like, our goal is to tattoo it onto our brains the whole week.
40:43-40:46
So we are constantly meditating on God's word.
40:46-40:50
And you don't have to be preparing for a servant to do that wherever God has you in his word.
40:51-40:52
Constantly be thinking about it.
40:52-40:54
Why does God's word say this?
40:54-40:55
And what does it mean?
40:56-40:59
And I wonder why he used this word and why he didn't say it this way.
40:59-41:01
And what all does that include?
41:01-41:03
And how can I reflect this to my family?
41:04-41:06
And what does this mean at my workplace?
41:06-41:09
And that's meditating on God's word.
41:09-41:14
That's getting it in and bringing it up and chewing on it.
41:14-41:17
Ruminate, Paul says, think about these things.
41:22-41:28
You know, there's very little you can control in life.
41:31-41:33
You can't control your circumstances.
41:36-41:39
Many times there are health issues that you can't control.
41:41-41:44
You can't control the choices that other people make.
41:45-42:01
You can't control when wrongs are done to you, but there is one thing that you always have control over, and that is what you are going to focus on in your mind.
42:03-42:04
So what do you think?
42:04-42:07
Let's pray.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Philippians 4:8-9
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.
