Jeff Miller

April 10, 2016

Power & Witness

Power in Unity

Jeff Miller

April 10, 2016

Power & Witness

Review:

The Power of Unity is displayed in an Unselfish church. (Acts 4:32)

See John 17:21

I Am Unselfish When:

I keep my eyes on the Mission. (Acts 4:33)

I come to Give. (Acts 4:34-35)

Review and listen to the I Want to Give Sermon Series

New Testament Giving is:

sacrificial
voluntary
joyful

I follow Godly Examples. (Acts 4:36-37)

Encouragement is:

encourage
voluntary

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

00:00-00:04
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Acts and chapter 4.
00:05-00:20
Acts 4, the title of today's message is "Power in Unity." While you're turning there, Aaron and I, our first experience as parents was actually with foster children.
00:21-00:27
And we had five foster children over the years, but we had a brother and sister at one point.
00:28-00:30
little boy's name was Walter.
00:32-00:39
And we had signed Walter up-- he was five years old-- we had signed Walter up for five-year-old soccer league.
00:39-00:41
Do you know about five-year-old soccer league?
00:41-00:43
Have you ever been to a soccer game of five-year-olds?
00:43-00:44
Have you seen this?
00:45-00:52
OK, it's not exactly FIFA World Cup, if you know what I mean.
00:52-00:56
When we talk about skill levels, certainly, they're five.
00:56-00:56
Come on.
00:56-01:03
when we talk about the enforcement of the rules, it's basically trying to teach some fundamental skills of soccer.
01:03-01:06
Well, this one mother was kind of heading up the team that Walter was on.
01:07-01:11
And she had found out that I played soccer in high school and in college.
01:11-01:14
And she said, would you help me coach the team?
01:15-01:17
And I said, I would be glad to.
01:19-01:23
And I remember coaching these little five-year-olds running around chasing the ball.
01:23-01:26
We had our first game.
01:28-01:31
And the mother came to me and she said - she pulled me aside.
01:32-01:33
I just need to give you the heads up.
01:34-01:44
My son - I can't remember his name - she said, "My son, he has a really hard time when we get scored against." And we're working on that.
01:44-01:50
But I just want to warn you that he might have a little bit of a meltdown if we get scored on.
01:51-02:22
just giving you the heads up. And at this age the coaches are actually allowed to be on the field with the players. We're like running on up and down the field with the players telling them what to do. So the game starts and a couple of minutes in sure enough the other team you know scrambles down and gets the ball and the other team the other team scored on us. And when this mother had told me that her son has a meltdown when we get scored upon, she was is understating the fact.
02:22-02:33
Because after the other team scored, they all ran over to celebrate, and I looked down, and this lady's son was standing in the goal just shredding his uniform.
02:34-02:35
(screaming)
02:35-02:38
He's ripping his clothes and he's ripping his pants.
02:39-02:44
He turned into this 30-pound Incredible Hulk if you get the image.
02:45-02:47
He is screaming and freaking out.
02:49-02:56
I just remember standing there going, "Wow!" Like she wasn't kidding.
02:56-02:57
And then all of a sudden, the thought hit me, "Wait a minute.
03:01-03:12
Where's Walter?" All of a sudden, my foster son who I was supposed to be watching on the soccer team, who I signed up to coach just so I could be close and keep an eye on him especially, he was gone.
03:12-03:16
I'm like, "Where did I lose my foster kid?" I'm looking all over.
03:16-03:17
He's not with the team.
03:17-03:18
Where did he go?
03:19-03:20
I looked down.
03:22-03:26
He was down with the other team giving hugs and high fives to them.
03:27-03:30
And I'm standing back looking at this scene.
03:30-03:35
Here we have a kid on our team completely freaking out because we got scored on.
03:35-03:42
And here we have another kid on our team that's doing handshakes and high fives and hugs and celebrating with the opposing team.
03:43-03:46
And that's why I don't coach soccer anymore.
03:48-03:52
My point is, this unity on the soccer field was humorous.
03:52-03:54
It was actually hilarious - the scene.
03:55-03:59
This unity in the church is not so funny.
04:00-04:02
And today, we're going to be talking about unity.
04:05-04:14
Remember, Jesus told us in Acts 1 that when He leaves, the Holy Spirit would come upon His believers.
04:14-04:16
He said you will receive power.
04:17-04:19
Why does the Holy Spirit live in us?
04:20-04:21
Jesus made it very clear.
04:22-04:23
You will be My witnesses.
04:23-04:28
The Holy Spirit resides in us so that we might be witnesses for Jesus Christ.
04:29-04:33
When we get to Acts 4, Peter and John got the first taste of persecution.
04:34-04:44
The same religious leaders that turned Jesus over to be killed are now after Jesus' followers and they threaten them to stop preaching.
04:46-04:51
Last week we saw Peter and John went to pray with their friends - the church - for boldness.
04:52-04:58
And this boldness was just so evident in this young and exciting church that was so unified.
04:59-05:01
That's what we're going to see in this passage today.
05:01-05:04
At this stage in the life of the church, we see such a unity.
05:06-05:11
But what I want you to see in this passage is the ingredients - the key ingredient of unity.
05:11-05:13
Write this down in your outline.
05:13-05:18
The power of unity is displayed That unselfish church.
05:20-05:24
We're talking about unity today, but specifically, how do we get there?
05:24-05:34
How does a church really be knit together and enjoy a life of Christ-honoring service?
05:36-05:41
The word of the day is "unselfish." Unselfish.
05:42-05:43
Look at v. 32.
05:46-05:49
"The full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul.
05:50-05:59
And no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own." But they had everything in common.
06:00-06:03
You see the unselfishness in this passage.
06:04-06:05
It says one heart and soul.
06:06-06:09
No one said that any things that belonged to him was his own.
06:09-06:13
We live in a culture that folds parking spaces with folding lawn chairs.
06:14-06:15
Like this is mine.
06:16-06:16
"I'm going to park here.
06:17-06:32
This is my space." And the early church said, "Nothing that I have actually belongs to me at all." It says, "But they had everything in common." The power of unity is displayed in an unselfish church.
06:32-06:37
This is what Jesus prayed for the church and what Jesus prayed for us.
06:38-06:41
Specifically, John 17:21 - jot that reference down.
06:41-06:46
It says, "This is Jesus praying in the garden for His church that is coming.
06:47-06:58
Jesus prayed, "They may all be one just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me..." That's the witness.
06:59-07:15
Verse 22, "that they may be one even as We are one." When Jesus was praying for His church, He prayed very specifically that we would be knit together, unified in God's love.
07:17-07:20
And it's ironic that we have become our own problem.
07:21-07:27
And when we become our own problem, it always boils down to one thing, and it's self-centered sin.
07:29-07:37
When there are problems in the church, it is because someone isn't getting their own way.
07:39-07:44
Because the very nature of sin Selfishness.
07:46-07:50
The word "selfishness" is almost a synonym for sin.
07:50-07:52
That's what sin always boils down to.
07:52-07:53
You pick any sin.
07:54-08:01
And at its very root is the statement, I want what I want, not what God wants.
08:02-08:04
Sin is selfishness.
08:04-08:06
Remember the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve.
08:06-08:11
What was the first thing they noticed when they ate off of the tree that the Lord forbid?
08:11-08:13
The first thing they noticed It's selves.
08:16-08:16
Selfishness.
08:19-08:19
Selfishness.
08:19-08:21
Sin is selfishness.
08:22-08:25
We see that so obvious in our children.
08:27-08:37
Those of you that have children, I'm sure you can get up and testify, children will fight over a toy not because they want it, just because someone else has it.
08:37-08:38
True or false?
08:39-08:40
True or false?
08:40-08:41
Shout it out.
08:42-08:42
No!
08:43-08:43
True!
08:45-08:47
This happens in our home all the time.
08:47-08:50
Our two boys will fight over the PlayStation.
08:52-08:55
The thing sat there for three hours and nobody even noticed it.
08:56-09:05
Then all of a sudden, they're both clawing each other's throats out trying to get the PlayStation, and 15 minutes later, they'll be on to fighting about something else.
09:08-09:09
What's up with that?
09:09-09:10
It's selfishness.
09:12-09:13
Sin is selfishness.
09:15-09:19
But you see, Aaron and I didn't sit our children down and teach them how to be selfish.
09:19-09:20
That's inherent.
09:20-09:22
That's part of the sin nature.
09:24-09:26
Some people never grow out of it, really.
09:28-09:36
We all have the tendency, but some never - even those who come to Christ - never really allow Christ to grow them in this area.
09:39-09:41
Selfishness is a unity killer.
09:43-09:51
If you're in a marriage and you're insisting on getting your own way, you're going to destroy your marriage.
09:53-09:53
It's your workplace.
09:54-09:59
If you always insist on everybody doing things your way, you might not have that job for long.
10:01-10:03
But this attitude creeps into the church.
10:04-10:07
What does this church have to offer me?
10:09-10:19
Instead of coming to a church and saying, "What do I have that I can offer this church?" As we look at this text, I want us to be thinking in the back of our minds, what kind of a church do you want Harvest Bible Chapel to be?
10:20-10:25
I imagine everyone in here would say I want this church to be Christlike and unselfish love.
10:27-10:28
That's what I want for this church.
10:29-10:30
Christlike and unselfish love.
10:31-10:32
Well, that starts with you.
10:33-10:38
We're going to look at the example in the days and the church was really living it.
10:40-10:46
Because next week - spoiler alert - next week when we get to Acts 5, we're going to see the first problems in the church.
10:47-10:55
And in this passage, Luke is really highlighting this is what it was like when the church was young and exciting and on task.
10:57-10:59
So jot these three things down today.
11:00-11:02
I am unselfish when...
11:02-11:03
You want unity for this church?
11:03-11:06
result from you being unselfish.
11:07-11:11
I am unselfish when, number one, I keep my eyes on the mission.
11:13-11:16
I am unselfish when I keep my eyes on the mission.
11:17-11:18
Look at v. 33.
11:19-11:41
It says, "And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all." and this early church was giving us a statement that said this is the thing that typified the early church, and it wasn't their potluck dinners.
11:42-11:45
It wasn't the colors of the hymn books.
11:47-11:57
The thing that typified this church was the mission that they were rallying around and behind.
11:57-12:03
With great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
12:05-12:14
They were so focused and driven by the mission that they didn't have the time, the energy, or the interest to think of themselves.
12:16-12:24
Because when you do, when you start thinking about yourself instead of thinking about the mission, then we start thinking about our preferences.
12:25-12:35
And when we start thinking about our preferences, something happens - in our culture and it starts to happen to us, but we come to the church with a consumer mentality.
12:36-12:40
We start to think of the church like Walmart or Target.
12:41-12:45
To say, okay, which church is going to give me what I want?
12:46-12:55
And the problem is the church has bought into the consumer mentality, so churches in turn do what they can to try to make people happy.
12:55-12:56
It's the supply and demand thing.
12:57-13:01
People are like, where can I find a church is going to make me happy.
13:01-13:06
And now people are sitting in churches - leaders in churches are going, we need to find what's going to make people happy.
13:06-13:11
And if we offer them that, they're going to come to our church.
13:12-13:13
So what do you want?
13:14-13:16
Well, we want just a little worship.
13:17-13:19
And we want really, really safe prayers.
13:19-13:22
And we don't really want to get involved with people.
13:22-13:25
In fact, that small group video that you showed is just about perfect.
13:25-13:27
And we want short messages.
13:28-13:30
And we would prefer that you never mention sin.
13:31-13:34
And you really have to contextualize.
13:34-13:37
You know, talk about things that are interesting to me.
13:37-13:39
Not too much Bible now.
13:42-13:50
If an unsaved person feels comfortable in church week after week after week, then there's a real problem with what that church is doing.
13:51-13:57
Because the early church, very clearly, your Bible tells you Great power.
13:59-14:02
The apostles were giving their testimony to what?
14:02-14:04
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
14:07-14:11
The early church was focusing on the very thing that the Sanhedrin had just forbid.
14:13-14:20
And the end of verse 33 says, "and great grace was upon them all." They were seeing God at work.
14:21-14:22
See, that's the result.
14:23-14:30
I heard this expression a long time ago that always stuck with me, and said that God's work done in God's way gets God's results.
14:32-14:33
And that's what this church was saying.
14:33-14:35
God's work done in God's way gets God's results.
14:36-14:40
That's why so often at Harvest Bible Chapel we remind you of our mission.
14:40-14:42
Our mission is to make disciples.
14:42-14:45
The fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.
14:45-14:47
We remind you often of our pillars.
14:49-14:50
Unapologetic preaching.
14:51-14:52
Unashamed worship.
14:52-14:53
Unceasing prayer.
14:55-14:56
Unashamed boldness.
14:59-14:59
Unafraid boldness.
15:01-15:05
The reason we keep going back to that is to remind us why we're here and who we are.
15:05-15:10
This is the kind of church - let's keep our eyes focused on the mission.
15:12-15:13
That's going to keep us unselfish.
15:15-15:21
When we come to church, and it's not about you and it's not about me, it's about what did Jesus tell us we should be about?
15:23-15:29
I'm unselfish when I stay focused Secondly, I'm unselfish when I come to give.
15:31-15:34
When I come to give, look at verses 34 and 35.
15:37-15:39
How would you like to be a part of a church like this?
15:40-15:43
It says, "There was not a needy person among them.
15:45-15:54
For as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
15:54-15:58
and it was distributed to each as any had need.
16:00-16:01
I come to give not.
16:03-16:04
I expect to receive.
16:04-16:08
You see, we talked about the consumer mentality that has crept into the church.
16:08-16:11
The consumer mentality looks to get.
16:12-16:13
Where can I get?
16:15-16:16
That's not everyone.
16:18-16:22
I love talking to people about their church, whether they come here or they worship somewhere else.
16:23-16:34
I want to talk to people about where they worship, and you can tell a lot about what someone thinks about their church when they answer this question.
16:34-16:37
I like to ask people, what do you like about your church?
16:38-16:39
What do you like about your church?
16:42-16:43
Now, we all receive.
16:46-16:48
This isn't a guilt trip sermon.
16:48-16:51
Because at times in the church, we all receive.
16:51-16:53
Receiving should happen very naturally.
16:54-16:55
It can't be your motivator.
16:57-17:00
In the early church, the motivator was in the giving.
17:03-17:05
Sacrificial, monetary giving.
17:06-17:17
And did you see in the text, their idea of sharing, their idea of meeting needs was not, ok, well, I guess I can be generous with the church.
17:17-17:20
Do I have any extra stuff in my closet?
17:20-17:27
And your wife is like, "You know, you have that old nasty purple and gray Baja jacket that I hate.
17:28-17:38
Why don't you donate that to the church?" So I bring this thing down to the church that my dog would be ashamed to sleep on, and I donate that, and then I feel really good about myself.
17:38-17:40
Like, yeah, I'm really generous.
17:42-17:44
And that's not really the definition of generosity.
17:45-17:47
Look at how the early church gave.
17:47-17:57
Again, it says, "As many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds." That's sacrificial giving.
17:59-18:07
You understand, when you sell a piece of property and then take the money and give that money, there's no turning back from that.
18:09-18:11
That's burning the bridges.
18:11-18:20
You're saying I am so committed that I am giving in such a way There's no way I'm going to get that back.
18:22-18:26
But their mentality was not what can I afford, but how can I give more?
18:26-18:33
It's not enough for me to give just out of the income that I receive.
18:34-18:38
Are there creative ways that I can give more beyond what I'm able?
18:39-18:41
They said, well, I have stuff that I can sell.
18:44-18:45
See, it's all God's.
18:47-18:53
It's a blessing to be able to give back to God a portion of what He gives to us.
18:53-18:54
It's a blessing.
18:55-19:09
I need to insert this because there are some people that would criticize Christians that don't embrace a particular political ideology - socialism.
19:10-19:14
Christians should totally understand socialism because it's in the Bible.
19:14-19:21
You look at this passage here next - You know, here's why you should embrace socialism, Christians.
19:21-19:22
The early church did it.
19:22-19:31
Isn't it a shame that the Bible says that the early church were socialists and Christians are not wanting to vote in a socialist president?
19:32-19:35
And this is not socialism.
19:36-19:43
If the Bible were going to promote socialism, it would have to say something like this.
19:44-19:55
So Rome forced the church to give to the government, and then Rome made sure that everybody's needs were taken care of as the government saw fit.
19:55-19:58
That is not what happened at all.
19:59-20:07
What we see in this passage was this giving was initiated and led by the church, not the government.
20:09-20:12
When it comes to this type of giving, there's three words.
20:12-20:21
We've talked all about this in the "I Love to Give" series, but I'm going to remind you, giving - New Testament giving should be three things.
20:22-20:25
It should be sacrificial, it should be voluntary, and it should be joyful.
20:26-20:30
It should be sacrificial, it should be voluntary, and it should be joyful.
20:31-20:32
That is generous giving.
20:34-20:36
You are under no compulsion to give at this church.
20:36-20:39
I don't know what anybody gives outside of my family.
20:39-20:40
And I don't want to know.
20:40-20:42
And we have things set up I don't know.
20:44-20:44
I don't care.
20:45-20:48
Because that is an act of worship between you and the Lord.
20:48-20:50
That's not between you and me.
20:50-20:52
That's not between you and Harvest Bible Chapel.
20:52-20:54
That's not between you and James MacDonald or whatever.
20:54-21:01
That is an act of worship between you and the Lord just as you're singing is an act of worship between you and the Lord.
21:03-21:04
So your giving is voluntary.
21:06-21:10
And we saw in the "I Love to Give" series that God loves a cheerful giver.
21:10-21:11
It should be joyful.
21:12-21:12
You should be joyful.
21:14-21:22
So at this point, the apostles distributed the offering that came in.
21:24-21:27
We see another principle here when we come to give as part of our worship.
21:29-21:33
You need to give and you need to let go because you're giving to God.
21:34-21:40
Sometimes people give to the church with a caveat or with an earmark.
21:41-21:47
I'm going to give, but I want this specifically - I want to give this to the church but it's specifically for this.
21:47-21:53
I want to make sure that this money is not used for whatever.
21:54-21:56
That's a foreign concept to the Bible.
21:58-22:10
What we see in the New Testament was these church members trusted these leaders You're faithful with the offering.
22:12-22:13
And when you give, let go.
22:13-22:16
You're not giving to me, you're giving to God.
22:17-22:19
I'm unselfish when?
22:19-22:21
I'm unselfish when?
22:21-22:22
First of all, when I keep my eyes on the mission.
22:23-22:25
Secondly, when I come to give.
22:26-22:30
And finally, I'm unselfish when I follow godly examples.
22:31-22:33
I follow godly examples.
22:34-22:35
verses 36 and 37.
22:37-23:07
It says, "Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas," which means "son of encouragement," "a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet." You know, this Joseph, who we know better as Barnabas, becomes a prominent character in the book of Acts.
23:07-23:08
He becomes a missionary.
23:08-23:10
He becomes Paul's companion.
23:10-23:18
I was kind of laughing reading this passage because Luke, the doctor, wrote the book of Acts, and he's so into the details.
23:19-23:24
And it's all important, but it's just sort of funny when you see the personality come out.
23:24-23:28
Because Luke doesn't just mention Joseph Barnabas.
23:28-23:31
He goes into the whole pedigree thing.
23:31-23:35
He's a Levite and he was from Cyprus.
23:37-23:41
What else? He lived on 113 Sycamore Lane, apartment B.
23:42-23:44
He liked Captain Crunch's Crunch Berries for breakfast.
23:45-23:51
Luke gives us all these details about this guy's background, but really doesn't tell us anything at all about the property.
23:51-23:53
And it doesn't really matter.
23:54-23:58
The point simply is he's holding this man up as an example.
24:00-24:02
This is what the early church was doing.
24:02-24:04
He says, by the way, you guys know Barnabas?
24:06-24:07
He was leading the way.
24:09-24:12
He was leading the way in this type of sacrifice.
24:15-24:23
At Harvest Bible Chapel, we have some tremendous examples here of this unselfish attitude that leads to unity in the church.
24:23-24:30
One in particular at the risk of embarrassing the family, I think of the orcs when they first came to the church into our first party with the pastor.
24:31-24:36
At that point in the church, we didn't have a lot of youth in the church, and we were wanting to start a youth group.
24:37-24:58
And you see, consumer mentality would have had Mark and Kristen say to each other, well, we need to find a church that's going to be more what we want for the kids, but at the party with the pastor, they said our attitude is we can be a part - by sticking around, to be a part of making it happen.
24:59-25:16
Today we have a tremendous youth program because of families like the Oertz and the Harers and other families - I don't want to start mentioning them, I'm going to forget - committed to, "I'm going to be part of this and I'm going to make this happen." That's an unselfish attitude.
25:17-25:19
Committed to the mission, unified in Christ.
25:20-25:23
You see in the passage, there's two things these godly examples do.
25:25-25:27
These are the things these godly examples do.
25:27-25:28
First of all, they encourage.
25:30-25:39
Joseph was such an encourager that they changed his name to "son of encouragement." That's unselfish.
25:41-25:42
Selfishness says put the spotlight on me.
25:43-25:44
Congratulate me. Give me kudos.
25:44-25:46
Tell me what a great job I'm doing.
25:46-25:48
This is the unselfish attitude.
25:48-25:51
This guy was always looking at how he could encourage somebody else.
25:51-25:53
"Worship, that was fantastic this morning.
25:53-25:55
Great job." Encouraging.
25:55-25:57
Always looking to give.
25:57-26:01
Dan, you and Elisha do such a great job with the youth that we just mentioned.
26:01-26:04
And I'm just hearing so many good things.
26:04-26:04
Keep it up.
26:04-26:05
It's encouragement.
26:05-26:12
It's looking outside of yourself on how you can give somebody else a little push.
26:13-26:17
This guy was so known for that, that they're like, we're just going to change your name, dude.
26:17-26:19
We're not calling you Joe anymore.
26:19-26:20
We're going to call you Barnabas.
26:21-26:22
Because that's all you do is lift people up.
26:24-26:26
The Bible were still being written.
26:27-26:29
What would they change your name to?
26:31-26:36
Your role in the church and the way that you do ministry in the church, what would they change your name to?
26:38-26:39
A little food for thought.
26:40-26:44
But we're all struggling with something and a little encouragement goes a long way.
26:46-26:47
That's one thing Godly examples do.
26:47-26:49
They're constantly looking to encourage.
26:50-26:51
So unselfish.
26:53-27:01
And finally, right in the text, unselfish godly examples they encourage and secondly, they give.
27:02-27:04
As we mentioned before, they give.
27:04-27:07
This Barnabas, he wasn't just a leader.
27:07-27:15
"Do as I say, not as I do." He led by example - verse 37 - by selling a field that belonged to him.
27:18-27:23
If everyone followed your example in giving, What would the mission of this church be funded?
27:25-27:27
Again, I'm not cheering anybody out.
27:27-27:40
You guys have always been tremendously generous and faithful, whether it's Moldova or Romania or this family that we met at the Ronald McDonald House that you never even met that we're struggling.
27:41-27:43
You've always been so generous.
27:44-27:46
We're going to be calling on that again.
27:47-27:50
Like last week when we saw the early church prayed for boldness.
27:51-27:53
Today, we're going to stop and we're going to pray for boldness.
27:54-28:01
Today, we have a huge opportunity to make an impact for the Gospel in Asia.
28:02-28:05
And just as we see the example of this early church, let's follow that example.
28:06-28:14
At Harvest Bible Chapel, when we talk about missions, we talk about praying, giving, and going.
28:15-28:17
Every single one of us can pray.
28:19-28:21
Every one of us has something to give.
28:22-28:25
We're going to be calling on some of us to go.
28:26-28:37
Father in Heaven, as we close our time here today in Your Word, I thank You for the example of the early church.
28:39-28:49
Father, we know in every church, there's going to be problems, there's going to be conflict, there's going to be things that can be done better by Your grace and in Your power.
28:49-28:50
We work through those things.
28:51-28:55
But today, Father, we look at a time in Your church that we don't see criticism.
28:56-29:01
We don't see, "Oh, they could have done this better." Or, "This was lacking." We see a lot of that in Your Word.
29:02-29:07
All of the instructions to the Corinthian church and the churches in the Galatia region and Ephesus and all of that.
29:08-29:18
But how sweet to see a passage of Scripture that talks about a period of time in the life of Your church where things were really happening.
29:19-29:24
The Gospel was being proclaimed and needs were being met and people were being loved.
29:24-29:38
And it was just so easy for me to think about this church as I'm studying your Word because I see the same type of excitement, the same type of generosity, the same type of love.
29:38-29:45
Honestly, I see the same type of unselfishness in our church that we see in this early church.
29:45-29:50
And Father, I know, in Your Word, the next chapter, problems are going to come.
29:50-29:55
And Father, You know in our church, problems arise from time to time and we want to deal with them.
29:56-30:03
I thank You for this predominant, overarching attitude of unselfishness that we're not here for us.
30:04-30:06
We are here for Jesus Christ.
30:06-30:10
We present ourselves before You, Father, as Your servants.
30:11-30:12
We are here to advance the Kingdom.
30:13-30:20
We are here to proclaim the Gospel and we are here to love each other as the church, and we are here to love a lost and dying world.
30:21-30:29
Whether it's in the Pittsburgh community or Chiang Mai, Thailand, Father, You have called us to the ends of the earth with Your glorious mission.
30:30-30:33
Father, stir our hearts.
30:37-30:39
Remove selfishness from within us.
30:41-30:42
I glorify Your name.
30:43-30:45
I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 4:32-37

How does selfishness destroy unity? How does focusing on Jesus squelch selfishness? (Acts 4:32-33)
What are creative ways YOU can give to the mission, locally and abroad? Sell something, earn money on the side, etc? (Acts 4:34-35)
How can you set an example like Barnabas without (pridefully) drawing attention to yourself? (Acts 4:36-37)

Breakout Questions:

Pray for unity at HBCPN! Specifically that we:

Stay focused on the mission.
Cultivate an attitude of giving, not taking.
Set an example for other believers.

Jeff Miller

April 3, 2016

Power & Witness

Power for Boldness

Jeff Miller

April 3, 2016

Power & Witness

Review:

I Want to Be Bold for Jesus.

So I need the church to Encourage me. (Acts 4:23)

So I need the bible to Equip me. (Acts 4:24-28)

So I need prayer to Empower me. (Acts 4:29-31)

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

00:00-00:04
Open up your Bibles with me please to the book of Acts in chapter 4.
00:05-00:16
While you're turning there, if you've been around here for a while, you realize that we are a church - we say this from time to time - we're a church that's built on four pillars.
00:17-00:21
Our first pillar is proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.
00:22-00:28
God said some things in His Word, and we're not going to apologize for repeating them.
00:29-00:35
Our second pillar is lifting high the name of Jesus in worship as we had done earlier and as we do every week.
00:35-00:39
Coming together and lifting our voices up in praise and adoration.
00:39-00:43
Our third pillar is believing firmly in the power of prayer.
00:44-00:51
Our fourth pillar is sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.
00:51-00:54
And today we're going to be talking about those last two pillars.
00:55-00:58
We're going to be talking about prayer, and we're going to be talking about boldness.
00:59-01:00
What is boldness?
01:01-01:07
Understand, when we talk about boldness, sometimes our minds go immediately to obnoxiousness.
01:07-01:08
That's not boldness.
01:10-01:14
Boldness also is not being self-righteous when it comes to sharing our beliefs.
01:15-01:24
Boldness is simply this - if you don't know the definition, you need to write it down - but boldness biblically is this - when God gives me opportunity, God will share His Word with others.
01:25-01:26
That's boldness.
01:27-01:29
It's not overly assertive.
01:29-01:35
It's not "you're going to hear this whether you want to or not, so sit down." That's not boldness.
01:35-01:39
Boldness is when God gives me opportunity to share His Word.
01:40-01:43
I'm going to open my mouth and share His Word.
01:43-01:51
And we're getting back to the book of Acts after our series "Incomparable God" through the book of Isaiah.
01:51-01:54
But just a quick review We're all in the same page.
01:55-01:56
Where are we in the book of Acts?
01:57-02:08
In Acts 1, we saw that Jesus promised you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
02:08-02:16
Jesus promised that when He left, His followers would receive power so that we might be His witnesses.
02:18-02:21
In Acts 2, Pentecost.
02:21-02:31
The Holy Spirit came bringing the power that Jesus promised and we saw 3,000 people saved as Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, got up to preach.
02:32-02:44
And in Acts 3, if you recall, Peter and John on their way to the temple healed a lame man that was well known by everyone.
02:44-02:45
It gathered quite a crowd.
02:45-02:48
So Peter preached the Gospel to the crowd.
02:48-02:49
It did not go over well.
02:50-03:07
Because in Acts 4, Peter and John were arrested by the temple guard and put on trial and had to stand before the Sanhedrin who couldn't deny that this man that everyone knew was lame was now walking around.
03:07-03:16
They couldn't deny the healing, so they had no choice but to let them go because the crowds were so excited about what was happening.
03:19-03:27
I recall way back when we shared that message about the healing and the fallout with the trial, we saw a real boldness from Peter and John.
03:29-03:30
Just take note of this.
03:31-03:40
In the book of Acts, and in the United States of America, being bold for Jesus comes at greater and greater prices.
03:42-03:43
Here's what I mean.
03:43-03:47
In Acts 4, which we read and studied, They were threatened.
03:48-03:51
They were basically told, "Ok, you guys can go, but shut your mouths.
03:52-03:54
Stop preaching Jesus." They were threatened.
03:56-04:02
When you get to Acts 5, you see that they were beaten for sharing the Gospel.
04:03-04:09
When you get to Acts 7, you see that they were being killed for sharing the Gospel.
04:11-04:13
This sort of escalation is coming to America.
04:15-04:21
witnessing to Jesus once upon a time, "Well, it's discouraged." And then you're warned not to do it.
04:23-04:24
Then you're threatened not to do it.
04:25-04:27
And then you're sued for doing it.
04:28-04:29
What's next?
04:30-04:39
Is it really inconceivable that the days might be coming that we are going to be beaten and imprisoned?
04:40-04:45
Some of us executed for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
04:45-04:46
We see the Bible. Those days are coming.
04:48-04:49
We see the pattern in Acts.
04:50-04:52
I think we're on that track in America.
04:53-04:54
So what's our response?
04:55-04:56
What's our response to that?
04:56-05:08
Well, Jesus gives us power to witness, and the world says, "Stop witnessing!" True followers of Jesus Christ want to be bold, no matter the cost.
05:09-05:15
I understand that this message today is not going to resonate people here.
05:16-05:43
If you're sitting here, and you are a true follower of Jesus Christ, if you have been born again, if you understand all this that we've been talking about, if you understand we have the power of the Holy Spirit, because God wants me to be His witness, then you're sitting here saying what I have on your outline, you're saying, "I want to be bold for Jesus." I want to give you a chance to say that.
05:45-05:46
Okay, so prepare yourself.
05:47-05:49
I want to be bold for Jesus.
05:50-05:51
Now you say it.
05:52-05:53
That was great out of the gate.
05:54-05:55
Because we are not ashamed.
05:55-05:56
Let's say it again.
05:58-05:59
Do you mean that?
06:00-06:01
Do you really mean that?
06:01-06:02
What about when things get hard?
06:03-06:06
What about when people tell you to shut up with your stupid church talk?
06:06-06:07
What are you going to say?
06:09-06:10
I want to be bold for Jesus.
06:12-06:15
Maybe you're kind of saying that today.
06:16-06:20
You believe and you have been born again and you understand the need for it.
06:21-06:30
I want you to look at this text with me today because when we look at the world, being bold looks like a tall order.
06:31-06:34
But when we look at His Word, we see that we are well equipped.
06:35-06:38
Obviously, because we have the power of the Holy Spirit.
06:39-06:42
Our theme is for the whole year, Acts 1-8.
06:43-06:51
But what we're going to see in this text today is we have some other things that are going to help us along the way to be bold for Jesus Christ.
06:51-06:53
It's all right here in the text.
06:53-06:55
I want to be bold for Jesus, number one.
06:56-07:00
So I need the church to encourage me.
07:01-07:03
I need the church to encourage me.
07:03-07:05
Look at verse 23, Acts 4.
07:06-07:17
because when they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them.
07:18-07:19
Let's stop right there.
07:20-07:22
So when Peter and John were released, what does your Bible say?
07:22-07:26
They went to their associates.
07:27-07:29
No, that's not what my Bible says.
07:29-07:32
It says when they were released, they went to their colleagues.
07:33-07:34
My Bible doesn't say that either.
07:35-07:39
They went to their co-workers, their associates, their - what was it?
07:40-07:41
What does your Bible say?
07:42-07:43
They went to their what?
07:43-07:45
They went to their friends.
07:46-07:50
And you need to make note first of all that this is how you should view the church.
07:51-07:53
This is how you should view the church.
07:55-08:02
If you don't view this church as a place where you come and where your friends are here, this is where I belong.
08:03-08:05
I say this with all the love I can muster.
08:05-08:07
Maybe you should find a church where that is happening.
08:10-08:17
Because this should be the place where you say, "These are my friends." Where else can we be?
08:18-08:23
Where else can we go to be helped in our Christian walk by like-minded people?
08:24-08:25
Where else is that going to happen?
08:26-08:27
At your workplace? At the gym?
08:29-08:39
Where else can you go to be with people to understand a besetting sin or a struggle that you're having, where else can you go to get that kind of understanding?
08:40-08:46
Where else can you go where people are going to be sympathizing with whatever is causing you sorrow?
08:48-08:53
Where else can you go to be encouraged when you're discouraged?
08:55-09:02
Notice the first thing that Peter and John did after this trial, after the threats, It looked like a scary ordeal.
09:03-09:17
The Bible doesn't say they were scared, but I'll tell you, if you put yourself in the scenario, you have to note the first place they went after this encounter was to be with their friends.
09:19-09:19
The church.
09:20-09:22
There's boldness in groups.
09:22-09:24
I don't have to sell you on that.
09:25-09:26
We see it with kids, don't we?
09:26-09:37
You get a kid by himself versus that same kid with a group of other kids will say and do things that he would never do when he's by himself.
09:38-09:40
I could tell you several stories of that.
09:42-09:45
Kids getting awfully bold when their friends are around.
09:45-09:48
Now that's a negative example, but the principle is the same.
09:48-09:52
There's safety, strength, and boldness when you're part of a group.
09:53-09:54
Let me ask you, who's encouraging you?
09:55-09:58
Who's encouraging you in your Christian walk right now?
10:00-10:07
Whether you're going through persecution on any level, or whatever hardship you might be going through, who's encouraging you right now?
10:09-10:12
That's why we encourage you at Harvest Bible Chapel, you have to be plugged in.
10:12-10:17
Not just attending the church, but identifying with the church.
10:18-10:24
That's why we're always encouraging you to join a small group if you haven't already.
10:26-10:30
Email smallgroups@harvestpittsburghnorth.org you plugged in.
10:31-10:34
But listen, you were never meant to do this on your own.
10:34-10:37
The Bible says you were called to be a part of the body.
10:38-10:40
You need the church to encourage you.
10:41-10:44
I need the church to encourage me.
10:46-10:47
We were never meant to do it on our own.
10:49-10:53
Secondly, I want to be bold for Jesus, so I need the church to encourage me.
10:54-10:56
Secondly, I need the Bible to equip me.
10:57-11:03
I need the Bible to equip me You pick up in verse 24 to the end of the passage we're looking at today.
11:03-11:04
This is all a prayer.
11:04-11:06
And I want you to notice ahead of time, be looking for this.
11:07-11:08
They prayed Scripture.
11:08-11:11
They prayed God's Word back to Him.
11:12-11:14
Look at verses 24 through 26.
11:15-11:35
It says, "And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, 'Sovereign God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who threw through the mouth of our Father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit." Why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain?
11:36-11:44
The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His anointed.
11:46-11:48
That's a quote from Psalm 2.
11:48-11:50
The first two verses.
11:51-12:00
Why? Why are the Gentiles, the peoples, the kings and rulers - Why are they all going against the Lord and His Anointed?
12:02-12:15
You see what the disciples were doing here, what they were praying, they were saying, God, this is exactly - what's happening to us today is exactly what Your Word says is going to happen.
12:15-12:20
It is the whole world versus the Lord and His Anointed.
12:20-12:25
In other words, it's the whole world versus God and Jesus Christ.
12:25-12:34
"Yeah, that's what your Word says, and that's what we see." Verse 27, "For truly in this city..." They're commenting on this verse.
12:34-12:45
"For truly in this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed..." That's the one he's talking about in verse 2.
12:46-12:47
Psalm 2.
12:47-13:02
"...whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel." You know, God, way back in the 2nd Psalm, it's the world versus You and Your Christ.
13:04-13:05
We certainly saw that.
13:05-13:18
Verse 28, "To do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place." You see, God didn't just know about these events.
13:19-13:22
God was in control of these events.
13:24-13:32
Did you notice they opened the prayer about creation, and then they mentioned fulfilled prophecy, and then they stated God's sovereignty.
13:32-13:38
Did you see that? In other words, here's what they were praying. "God, you're in control.
13:39-13:43
God, you're in control. God, you're in control. God, you're in control." Do you see that?
13:43-13:57
"God, you're in control You called it and you controlled it.
13:58-14:00
Even if it doesn't look like it.
14:01-14:03
Even if it doesn't feel like it.
14:04-14:05
You have to catch this today.
14:05-14:08
If you don't catch anything else I say today, you have to listen to this.
14:10-14:16
Church, you have to learn to let God's Word equip you to evaluate life.
14:17-14:28
In other words, you need to learn to look at life - your life, your family's lives, world events - these things through the lens of God's Word.
14:31-14:38
Because some people are genuinely shocked at hardship in life.
14:38-14:43
And please hear me, I don't want this to come across as being calloused.
14:45-14:46
I want you to hear what I'm saying.
14:48-14:52
Hardship is normal for now.
14:54-14:56
Some people seem so genuinely shocked.
14:57-15:17
The Bible actually tells us in 1 Peter 4:12, Peter says, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you." So many people seem like they're caught so off guard when hardship comes.
15:18-15:19
Like, "I can't believe this!
15:19-15:24
I thought life was going to be easy!" I just told you that.
15:25-15:27
But I thought my life was going to be perfect.
15:29-15:31
It was never advertised to be that way.
15:33-15:37
Peter says don't be surprised like something strange is happening to you.
15:38-15:39
Like bad stuff happens to other people.
15:39-15:41
Bad stuff doesn't happen to me.
15:41-15:42
Bad stuff's going to happen to you.
15:44-15:46
Bad stuff happens to me.
15:47-15:49
Please hear me, I'm telling you this because I love you.
15:51-16:05
Too many people just get completely - all the wind knocked out of their spiritual sails so to speak, because hardship seems like such a strange thing.
16:05-16:09
I've talked to people who have said things like this.
16:10-16:10
Things like this.
16:11-16:23
"I'm mad at God because He took my mother from me." "God took my mother from me, so I'm mad at God." "I was yelling at God." God allowed my husband to leave me.
16:23-16:25
You know, God could have stopped that, but God allowed it.
16:25-16:28
I'm mad at God for what He allowed to happen in my life.
16:29-16:31
God allowed my kid to be sick.
16:33-16:36
My kid could have been born healthy, and He allowed my kid to be sick.
16:36-16:37
I'm mad at God for that.
16:39-16:49
When we say those things, when we are mad at God for hardships, we are not looking at life from a biblical perspective.
16:50-16:51
We're just not.
16:52-16:58
The Bible says when Adam brought sin into the world, the whole world came under a curse.
16:59-17:01
We're not going to turn there. You can read this.
17:01-17:12
But Genesis 3 says the results of sin being in the world - struggling relationships, struggling to survive in a hard world, and death.
17:14-17:18
That's what the Bible promises because of sin in this world now.
17:21-17:27
Christ redeemed us and is preparing a new place for us - a place of perfection.
17:28-17:33
And He said if He goes to prepare a place for us, He will come again to take us to be with Him.
17:33-17:37
Someday we will join Christ in this place of perfection.
17:37-17:41
But in the meantime, what should we expect?
17:42-17:44
What should we expect in the meantime?
17:46-17:49
We should expect life to hurt.
17:51-17:53
We should expect life to hurt a lot.
17:54-17:55
I've had my share.
17:57-17:58
Many of you know my story.
17:59-18:02
Our story of some of the things that we've been through.
18:02-18:05
I'm not saying my story's any better or any worse than yours.
18:05-18:06
I'm not saying that at all.
18:06-18:07
Here's what I am saying - we all have our share.
18:09-18:10
We all have our share.
18:11-18:25
But when you are equipped by God's Word The disciples were, "You're expecting hardships to be part of living in this world." You know, I found this verse in the Bible.
18:27-18:32
John 16:33, Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble." I found that verse. Did you find that verse?
18:33-18:34
I found that verse.
18:34-18:37
It says, "In this world you will have trouble." So I kept looking.
18:37-19:15
I was trying to find a verse that said something like, "In this world, life will be perfect." "In this world, you will have that you want. In this world everything will be optimal all the time. I could not find that verse. The Bible speaks of heaven with such terminology. This world was never advertised to be like that. And in our passage, the particular context we're looking at today, you can't be surprised that following Christ is going to become harder, less popular, and more costly. You thought you'd be popular?
19:15-19:17
You thought following Jesus would make you popular?
19:17-19:21
Well, the Bible says the world's going to hate you purely by association.
19:21-19:30
Jesus said, Mark 13, 13, He said, "And you will be hated by all for my name's sake." Jesus never sugarcoated it.
19:31-19:34
He says, "You follow me, people are going to hate you." Why?
19:35-19:40
"Just because you're following me, that's why." So we're not surprised at this.
19:41-19:54
hasn't blindsided us or surprised us. The disciples didn't run home and hide under the bed after this trial. I thought this was gonna be easy. Did you hear the mean things the Sanhedrin said about us?
19:54-20:08
They didn't do that. They ran to their friends and they prayed to God together and they said basically their prayer they said yeah the Bible's true Everyone hates God and Jesus, just like you said.
20:10-20:17
They were equipped to handle this persecution because they knew and they trusted God's Word.
20:18-20:29
Notice they said in verse 25, "Through the mouth of our father David, your servants said by the Holy Spirit." They were acknowledging David said this stuff, but it wasn't really David saying this stuff.
20:29-20:34
It was the Holy Spirit, God. It was you speaking these things through David.
20:36-20:39
They were equipped because they knew and trusted God's Word.
20:40-20:46
And I'm telling you today that you can handle anything when you know the Word of God.
20:47-20:48
Yes, it's going to hurt.
20:48-20:49
I'm not minimizing that.
20:50-20:51
Life is going to hurt.
20:51-20:53
Yes, you're going to experience disappointment.
20:54-21:06
But like the disciples, you're going to be able to take a step back I say, you know, as hard as it is, God said this is the way that it's going to be for now.
21:07-21:13
For my few years of shuffling my feet on this earth, God said it was going to be like this.
21:15-21:16
But it's not going to be like this forever.
21:18-21:22
So if you want to be bold for Jesus, first of all, you need the church.
21:22-21:24
I need the church to encourage me.
21:24-21:26
I need the Bible to equip me.
21:28-21:33
Finally for today, I need prayer to empower me.
21:34-21:36
I need prayer to empower me.
21:36-21:37
Let's pick up in our text.
21:38-21:40
Verse 29, they're still praying.
21:40-21:53
"And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your Word with all boldness." Stop there. Look at the words.
21:54-21:54
Every word's important.
22:05-22:10
I'm praying that this church leads the charge to bring that concept back.
22:11-22:12
We're not entitled people.
22:13-22:14
We're not presumptuous people.
22:15-22:16
We're not demanding people.
22:16-22:18
The disciple says, "We're just your servants, God.
22:19-22:26
You are an awesome, loving, and merciful Master, and we are your servants." And we're not entitled people.
22:26-22:29
"No, I'm too good for persecution.
22:30-22:41
This stuff shouldn't happen to me. I'm entitled." They're like, "Yeah, well, we're just servants." "We're just servants." "Servants to do what?" "To continue to speak Your Word." Do you see that?
22:42-22:44
"Continue to speak Your Word." The Gospel.
22:44-22:50
They're saying, "We don't want to lose focus." You have to know something, I pray for this church all the time.
22:50-22:54
I pray this all the time for the church, is that we would stay on mission.
22:55-23:06
Because it's so easy when it gets hard, when people aren't responding to the gospel and sharing the word of God and trying to be a genuine, authentic church.
23:07-23:09
It's hard when that's not the popular thing.
23:09-23:13
And it's easy to start thinking about shortcuts.
23:13-23:16
Well, what if we tried to be more culturally relevant?
23:16-23:28
Maybe if we just kind of watered it down or sugarcoated it just a little, not denying the message, but what if we just turned it back just a little bit and made it just a little more comfortable for people.
23:29-23:31
And I never want to do that.
23:32-23:35
I pray constantly, God, keep us on mission.
23:35-23:47
I don't want to get distracted spending three hours in an elder meeting talking about what flavor of muffins are we going to sell.
23:48-23:49
I don't care.
23:50-23:54
I want to stay on focus the mission that Jesus Christ gave us.
23:56-23:57
Speak Your Word, the Gospel.
23:58-23:58
Speak it how?
24:00-24:01
Again, verse 29.
24:02-24:05
"Grant Your servants to continue to speak Your Word with all..." What?
24:06-24:13
"...with all boldness." "With all boldness." Look at what they prayed for.
24:13-24:18
You should underline and highlight the word "boldness" in your Bible because I want you to see what they prayed for.
24:20-24:54
contextualize a little bit. Let's pretend for a second my good friend, elder of the church, bass player, small group leader Jay Naur, let's pretend that he got arrested because he was sharing the gospel. And it became this big thing and it was on the news and he's being publicly berated by all the news stations and there's just you know all these Facebook posts are going out sharing the link about this you know fool talking about Jesus and why didn't and keep his mouth shut, and why doesn't he just mind his own business, and put on trial for it.
24:56-24:57
Publicly humiliated.
24:58-25:01
Comes through the trial, and he shows up back to church.
25:02-25:09
It's his first day back to church since this huge media mess went down, and all the stuff that put his family through.
25:10-25:12
Okay, so Jay's here.
25:13-25:16
And I say, hey, after service today, we're going to bring Jay up front, we're going to pray for him.
25:17-25:18
What do you think we'd pray for?
25:20-26:13
be honest okay don't give me church answer let's just be honest what do you think we'd pray for we'd be tempted to pray for revenge say God you saw how those people treated Jay and I pray that you strike them down you know maybe give them a case of the leprosy some of the more mature of us I didn't say that I didn't say that was me but some of the more mature of us might say we need to pray for justice like this is America and people shouldn't get treated like that in America and we need to pray for justice you know which amendment is it that we're gonna pray for that's the amendment we're gonna pray for First Amendment right First Amendment that's we're gonna pray for justice some of the more mature might want to say you know we need to pray for we need to pray for for the persecution to stop.
26:14-26:18
Let's pray that these people stop persecuting Christians.
26:19-26:24
We need to pray that they are going to develop a tolerance for the gospel.
26:27-26:30
You see in the text, the disciples prayed for none of those things.
26:31-26:32
They didn't pray for revenge.
26:33-26:35
They didn't even pray for justice.
26:36-26:39
But you have to see, they didn't even pray for the persecution to stop.
26:40-26:41
What did they pray for?
26:41-26:42
Shout it out.
26:43-26:44
Some of you got it.
26:44-26:45
The rest of you - what did they pray for?
26:46-26:48
Boldness. Do you see that?
26:48-26:49
It blows my mind.
26:50-26:51
That's the thing that they prayed for.
26:52-26:54
Their biggest fear wasn't the persecution.
26:56-27:02
Their biggest fear was being afraid to preach the Gospel while they were being persecuted.
27:02-27:03
Do you see that?
27:04-27:07
Like this is what we need to pray for because this stuff is going to keep happening.
27:08-27:09
And it's going to be less popular.
27:10-27:12
and we're going to be more tempted to not want to share the Gospel.
27:13-27:14
So do you know what we need to pray for right now?
27:14-27:18
We need to pray that we're going to be bold when these opportunities come.
27:19-27:22
That we don't shrink back from sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.
27:22-27:24
That's what we need to pray for.
27:26-27:31
Persecution's not going to stop, so the boldness has to come, and it only comes from the Holy Spirit.
27:32-27:35
That's what we've been talking about all year.
27:35-27:37
You will receive power.
27:38-27:51
will be my witnesses." As we close, see that they also asked the same thing that I pray for often for our church - signs of God at work.
27:52-27:53
Look at v. 30.
27:54-28:08
"While you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus..." They're saying, "God, please, God, and see you at work.
28:09-28:11
Talk about an immediate answer to prayer.
28:11-28:12
Look at verse 31.
28:13-28:26
"And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and continued to speak the Word of God with boldness." That is a direct answer to prayer.
28:26-28:35
Verse 29, "they're praying that we may continue to speak the Word with boldness." And then you get down to verse 31.
28:35-28:36
It's all the same words.
28:37-28:39
to speak the Word of God.
28:41-28:43
They asked for a sign of God at work.
28:44-28:45
I prayed that.
28:46-28:47
God, I need to know.
28:48-28:51
I need to know that the message is going out faithfully.
28:51-28:54
God, I need to know that the Gospel is changing people.
28:55-29:03
God, I need to know that You are being glorified in what we're trying to do in this church by Your power, by Your grace, according to Your will.
29:03-29:06
God, can You show us?
29:07-29:08
You're at work.
29:09-29:28
And as encouraged as they were by their friends, as equipped as they were by the Word of God, as empowered as they were by prayer, I imagine for the disciples on this day, the icing on the cake was this personal verification by God as the place in which they were gathered together was shaken.
29:29-29:30
Awesome!
29:31-29:39
"God, we want to see your hand at work." God just grabs the place where they were and gives it a shake.
29:39-29:40
He's like, "Come here.
29:41-29:42
"I see what's happening.
29:43-29:51
"I'm behind what's happening." So I thought, what better way to close this message than by putting the Word of God into practice right now.
29:52-29:56
I want you to stand with me as the worship team comes forward, and we're going to pray.
29:58-30:02
that we're going to pray as the disciples prayed.
30:03-30:08
Father, as we close our time here, we want to put Your Word into practice.
30:10-30:16
Right now, God, we are just asking, first of all, that You would give us opportunity to share the Word.
30:18-30:30
Give us eyes to see the people that You are putting into our lives with whom You want us to share the good news of Jesus Christ; that He died for our sins, that He rose from the dead to give us eternal life.
30:32-30:33
Give us opportunity, Father.
30:33-30:37
And when that opportunity comes, Father, I pray for boldness.
30:39-30:45
Father, we never want to come across as obnoxious or know-it-alls or self-righteous.
30:45-30:47
But we want to come across clearly.
30:49-30:52
We want to come across with simplicity.
30:53-30:55
I want to come across with urgency.
30:57-30:59
Father, make us bold.
31:00-31:03
We can't muster up boldness in ourselves, Father.
31:03-31:06
We can't decide today, I want to be bold.
31:06-31:07
It has to come from You.
31:07-31:11
And that's why we're asking You now, Father, to make us bold witnesses.
31:12-31:13
Show us, Father.
31:13-31:15
Give us the words to say when these opportunities arise.
31:16-31:20
And might we lovingly and graciously share the words.
31:22-31:27
Father, like the disciples, I just want to unashamedly pray for confirmation.
31:28-31:33
I thank You for what we have seen in this little church.
31:34-31:35
People getting saved.
31:36-31:37
People getting baptized.
31:38-31:51
Just last week, we celebrated with two more people who made the public profession of faith in baptism, announcing that they're identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus.
31:52-31:53
Father, I thank You for that confirmation.
31:54-31:56
And I pray that would continue to happen.
31:57-32:06
Father, I pray that this church would grow, not because we're trying to be the biggest church in town or it's some kind of a mark of macho-ness.
32:06-32:10
We want to grow as we see people come to You.
32:10-32:15
As we see people not only become disciples, but become disciple-makers themselves.
32:17-32:23
to also increase our capacity and influence in Jesus Christ.
32:24-32:26
Serve Him, Father, to make His name known.
32:28-32:43
Father, I pray that You would confirm this by not just people being saved and baptized, but Father, people growing into roles of leadership where they are serving this church and Your kingdom by leading.
32:46-32:49
Father, I know that You can reach down right now and grab Marshall Middle School and give it a shake.
32:49-32:50
I know You can.
32:54-32:56
God, You've given us much greater signs.
32:58-33:02
Much greater verification of Your hand at work.
33:04-33:06
And it's not when you shake a building.
33:07-33:09
It's when you turn a dead person into an alive person.
33:10-33:12
It's when somebody gets saved.
33:13-33:15
Father, that's what I pray for this church.
33:17-33:19
It's not going to happen by accident.
33:19-33:31
It's going to happen as You are proclaiming Your Gospel through Your servants here, boldly.
33:32-33:33
Grant us that boldness, Father.
33:35-33:37
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 4:23-31

Why do you think Peter and John went straight to their friends (Acts 4:23)? What does this say about the purpose and importance of Christian fellowship?
Why did their prayer mention creation (Acts 4:24)? Why did they mention that in praying in the aftermath of persecution?
*How does the verse they quoted (Psalm 2:1-2) apply to Jesus and their current situation? What does this tell you about why knowing God’s Word is important?
*How does understanding God’s sovereignty help us in persecution (Acts 4:28)?
What signs does God give us today to confirm His message (Acts 4:30-31)?

Breakout Questions:
Pray specifically for boldness.

Jeff Miller

March 27, 2016

Incomparable God., Holiday

Incomparably Gracious.

Jeff Miller

March 27, 2016

Incomparable God., Holiday

God is Incomparably Gracious...

...and His Grace is displayed in Jesus. (Is 53:1-12)

Three Amazing Things About the Grace of Jesus:

His grace isn't based on our Conduct. (Is 53:1-3)

His grace takes away our Sin. (Is 53:4-9)

His grace is Unchanging and Never-Ending. (Is 53:10-12)

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

00:00-00:15
You know, last year about this time I had gone to the doctor and you know how the physician's assistant comes in before the doctor comes in and asks you the questions, the general health questions.
00:15-00:28
And on this particular day the physician's assistant came in and went through the questions and part way down the list she said, "Do you smoke?" And I said, no, I don't smoke.
00:30-00:30
She looked at me.
00:32-00:36
She said, have you ever smoked?
00:38-00:38
I panicked.
00:40-00:41
I said, yes.
00:42-00:44
I had a cigar several years ago.
00:47-00:47
Just one.
00:47-00:49
I said, I haven't had one since.
00:50-00:53
And my next scheduled cigar is never.
00:55-00:56
She's like, OK.
00:59-01:04
And after my doctor appointment, I left and was looking at the paperwork they gave me.
01:05-01:08
And on the papers, it said, smoker.
01:11-01:13
There must be some mistake here.
01:13-01:15
So I called up and I explained.
01:15-01:17
I said, look, here's what happened.
01:17-01:19
And the lady at the front desk, she laughed.
01:19-01:20
She goes, you're not a smoker.
01:21-01:23
I promise I'll never do it again.
01:23-01:24
I won't do it again.
01:24-01:25
She goes, "You're not a smoker.
01:26-01:28
We're just going to take that off the chart.
01:28-01:29
I'm sorry about that.
01:29-01:33
That must have been a misunderstanding." I was thinking about that this week.
01:34-01:39
You know, it doesn't work that way with sin when it comes to God.
01:41-01:43
Because I've sinned, have you?
01:44-01:51
Wouldn't it be nice to say, "You know what, I'd just like you to strike that from my record.
01:52-01:56
I sinned once a few years ago, and I have no intention of sinning again.
01:57-02:00
So I'm not a sinner, so just take that off my record.
02:02-02:03
It doesn't work that way.
02:03-02:10
Because God is holy and just, and if I've sinned one time, that makes me a sinner.
02:13-02:19
And the truth of the matter is, even if I say today, you know what, I'm never going to sin again, That's going to happen.
02:22-02:25
So I have a problem and so do you.
02:27-02:31
Some would say, well, it looks like God has a dilemma because we've been going through this series.
02:32-02:33
God is incomparable.
02:33-02:35
We've seen that nothing is like the Lord.
02:36-02:46
As we've been walking through Isaiah, we've seen that God is holy, and that God is just, and that God is awesome, and that God is loving, and that God is sovereign.
02:47-02:48
Comparably, all of those things.
02:50-02:57
The truth is, church, these attributes of God alone are not good news for sinners.
02:59-03:02
Because we still have a problem of guilt.
03:04-03:10
I mean, yeah, we know that God's loving, but God's also just.
03:11-03:18
So how can God love us and satisfy His justice We have this sin problem.
03:20-03:34
Well, with all these attributes we've discussed - holy, just, awesome, loving, sovereign - today we have the pleasure of looking at what is in my opinion probably the most amazing thing about God.
03:34-03:40
With everything we've talked about these past five or six weeks, this is the most amazing thing about God.
03:41-03:42
It's His greatness.
03:44-03:48
We're going to look at one of the most in the entire Bible.
03:48-03:50
I want you to turn with me to Isaiah 53.
03:52-04:02
Isaiah speaks of God's grace as He prophesies about the Messiah, the coming Christ who we know is Jesus of Nazareth.
04:03-04:08
Isaiah prophesies about the coming Christ dying for His people's sins.
04:08-04:15
This was written somewhere around 650-700 years before Jesus suffered.
04:15-04:18
I understand this is going to be a little bit of a different Easter message.
04:20-04:21
We've done it years past.
04:21-04:27
We've gone to the empty tomb and we've talked about what happened in those events as Jesus walked the earth.
04:28-04:39
But this passage is actually a flashback, a prophecy that's describing in perfect detail not only what Jesus Christ did, but what it means.
04:41-04:44
Interestingly, this is a very troubling passage of the Jews.
04:45-04:54
You know that when religious Jews in their synagogues read their Scriptures, they skip Isaiah chapter 53.
04:55-04:59
They read through, they read Isaiah 52, and then they jump to Isaiah 54.
05:00-05:01
Why do they skip that?
05:02-05:19
Because it's unthinkable for them that the Messiah that's promised in the Old Testament, the eventual King who's going to rule over all the world, It's unthinkable that this king would suffer as described in this passage in their Scriptures.
05:21-05:24
And that's called making the Bible say what you want it to say.
05:25-05:28
That's called making Jesus out to be what you want Him to be.
05:28-05:31
That's making your own God, and that's idolatry.
05:32-05:41
You see, Israel didn't want a Savior for the same reason that many people today They don't want a Savior.
05:43-05:44
It's just simply this.
05:45-05:46
They don't think they need one.
05:47-05:54
The people that don't receive the grace of God through Jesus Christ are the people that in their estimation don't need a Savior.
05:54-05:55
They're not that bad.
05:56-05:59
It's offensive to suggest that you need one.
06:01-06:06
It's offensive to suggest - and we live in a day that everybody's offended about everything, have you noticed?
06:06-06:08
Imagine this statement today.
06:09-06:11
You are a rebellious, rotten-to-the-core sinner.
06:12-06:14
You deserve hell and you can't save yourself.
06:16-06:18
And not much has really changed like Israel.
06:19-06:22
We've just sort of redefined what the Bible says about Jesus.
06:22-06:25
You see, some people want to make Jesus out to be a sacrament.
06:26-06:28
Jesus is a religious duty.
06:29-06:39
Whether it's going to church or lighting a candle or praying this or going through the religious motions, I want Jesus out to be sort of a sacrament.
06:39-06:42
I feel better because I've performed a religious duty.
06:43-06:45
That's all Jesus is to some people.
06:46-06:48
Some people make Jesus out to be a superhero.
06:49-06:52
They're only interested in Him when they're in trouble, right?
06:53-06:57
I mean, let's be honest, nobody really wants Superman around when everything's going well.
06:58-06:59
He's kind of boring.
07:00-07:06
But you know, the minute you're in that burning building, that bad guy has the gun pointed at you.
07:06-07:09
That's when you want Superman to show up and do his thing.
07:09-07:11
And that's how some people look at Jesus.
07:11-07:23
No regard, no thought, no mind towards Him whatsoever, but as soon as we get this diagnosis or we have this financial problem, it's Jesus swoop in and rescue!
07:24-07:27
And some people make Jesus out to be a superhero.
07:29-07:31
And some people just make Jesus out to be a story.
07:32-07:33
He's just a story.
07:34-07:35
He doesn't really have relevance for today.
07:36-07:37
He's just a man from history.
07:37-07:47
And we go to church and we talk about this man that lived a couple thousand years ago, this good Jewish man, and it's a shame what they did to him.
07:49-07:50
He's just this story.
07:52-07:57
The truth of God's Word - He's not a sacrament, He's not a superhero, and He's not a story.
07:57-07:58
He is a Savior.
07:59-08:02
Jesus Christ came to save you from your sin.
08:04-08:09
Number one on your outline - God is incomparably gracious.
08:11-08:16
Before we look at the text, I want to remind you what this term means.
08:16-08:17
Grace. How do we define grace?
08:19-08:23
In a lot of ways, it's described as unmerited favor - a gift from God.
08:25-08:28
The best definition of grace I've ever heard is this.
08:29-08:32
Grace is God giving to us what He requires from us.
08:32-08:33
That's grace.
08:33-08:37
God giving to us what He requires from us.
08:37-08:39
What does God require from me?
08:39-08:46
He requires me to be holy, perfectly righteous, unblemished.
08:47-08:49
God requires me to be perfect.
08:49-08:52
And I am so far from that.
08:55-08:56
But God requires that.
08:56-09:01
You see, in His grace, He gives to me what He requires from me.
09:03-09:05
It can't be earned. It can't be bartered for.
09:05-09:09
It won't be deserved.
09:10-09:12
Grace can only be received.
09:14-09:19
Another way I like to think of grace is just through this little story.
09:19-09:21
Just imagine you have a 15-year-old son.
09:23-09:32
Some of you do, but just imagine if you don't, let's pretend you have a 15-year-old son He goes to a party with some other students his age.
09:33-09:42
And another boy at this school premeditated attacks and murders your son.
09:44-09:51
Now if you track that murderer down and killed him yourself, that's called vengeance.
09:52-09:59
If you help the police apprehend this murderer He goes to trial and gets a sentence.
10:00-10:01
That's called justice.
10:03-10:15
If somehow this murderer is in court and you somehow convince the judge to drop all charges and just let him walk out the door, that's called mercy.
10:16-10:27
But, if you take this murderer into your home, and you raise him as your own child, That's called grace.
10:28-10:33
And that's exactly what God has given to us.
10:34-10:36
God is incomparably gracious.
10:36-10:37
Let's get to the text.
10:38-10:43
Number two in your outline, His grace is displayed in Jesus.
10:44-10:45
His grace is displayed in Jesus.
10:46-10:50
Today I want to share with you three amazing things about the grace of Jesus.
10:52-11:08
Number one is this - Now, before we look at the text, I could literally preach a couple dozen sermons from this passage we're looking at today, but I want us to look at the big picture.
11:09-11:18
But understand the way that this is written, the Bible says at the end of history, at the end of days, there's going to be this mass revival in Israel.
11:19-11:20
The Bible talks all about that.
11:20-11:26
You see Ezekiel 36, you see it in Zechariah 12, 13, 14.
11:26-11:29
There's going to be this mass revival in Israel.
11:29-11:39
And this passage is told from the perspective of Jews in the last days who come to Christ and look back saying, how did we miss Him before?
11:42-11:46
Look at v. 1. It says, "Who has believed what He heard from us?
11:46-11:49
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
11:50-11:59
For He grew up before Him like a young plant like a root out of dry ground." What does that mean?
12:00-12:01
It just means He was insignificant.
12:03-12:12
I was walking around my yard the other day and I saw randomly little plants, little trees or shrubs or something, I don't know what it was, just growing up in the middle of - it was insignificant.
12:12-12:13
And that's the point here.
12:15-12:19
He just kind of grew up among us insignificant.
12:20-12:28
He says He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.
12:30-12:41
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed Him not.
12:43-12:47
Interestingly, this is the only description of Jesus' appearance in the Bible.
12:47-12:48
Did you know that?
12:49-12:51
The only description of Jesus' appearance.
12:51-13:00
In our day, we're so fascinated and we're so enthralled with appearance and supermodels and good-looking athletes and appearance is everything to us.
13:01-13:06
The Bible only gives us this description of Jesus' appearance.
13:06-13:09
And all it says is there was nothing special about it.
13:09-13:24
I think sometimes we think that Jesus was like seven feet tall and He had perfect chiseled features and He had the beautiful long flowing hair and highlights, and you could just see Jesus from across a football field and be like, "That's Him right there!
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Look at Him! He's gorgeous!" And the Bible says no, He didn't have anything special about His appearance.
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You couldn't have picked Him out of a group of Jewish men His age.
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In fact, when Judas betrayed Him, do you remember in the garden Judas said, "I'm going to kiss the one"?
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Why did Judas have to do that?
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He had to identify Jesus from all the other Jewish men Because you couldn't tell Jesus just by looking at Him.
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That's what Isaiah prophesied here.
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Nothing special about the way He looked.
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He just looked like a Jewish man.
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And the prophecy - as Israel's looking back, as we look back, we say, you know, the time we considered Jesus to be insignificant.
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And this is the first manifestation of grace that we see in this passage because Jesus, the God of Israel, He came to Israel and was rejected by His own people.
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Rejected by His own people.
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We can't gloss over this because how many people here have ever - can you think of a time that you felt rejected by people?
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Can you think of a time - raise your hand - if you've ever felt like I've been rejected for whatever reason?
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We don't handle that well, do we?
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I'm sure you handle that much better than I do.
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When we're rejected, we get bitter, we get hateful.
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But when you've been rejected, we don't often react with grace, do we?
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Years ago, Aaron and I did this wedding for this couple.
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And when I do a wedding, it's not just show up, do the wedding, 25 minutes and see you later.
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We're talking about months and months of premarital counseling, and planning the service, and getting them equipped, getting everything ready for this wedding.
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And normally it's customary that after the wedding, there's the wedding reception.
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And a lot of times people say I want you to pray for the meal, etc.
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So we had the wedding at the church, and we went down to where they were having the wedding reception.
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And Aaron and I walked in.
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how they have those little folded pieces of paper on the table that has your name and tells you what table you're sitting you know the thing I'm talking about so Aaron and I are looking what table are we at what table we at what table we at you see our card Aaron's like no I don't see it okay it's in here somewhere we we were not on the guest list so we said hey we're all gussied up let's just go to dinner so we said of going someplace else for dinner.
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And when we came out, I realized that I had the couple's marriage license still in the car.
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I thought, well, they're going to need this, so let's stop by the reception hall again, and I'll give them their marriage license.
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At this point, the reception was a couple hours over, and I walked in, and I saw the groom, and I said, "Hey, I have your marriage license here." He looked shocked to see us.
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He goes, "Jeff!
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Hey, I think there's some leftovers in the back if you're hungry." And I'm like, "Leftovers?!
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You would feed me the scraps from your table like a dog?!" I didn't say that, but I thought that.
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I've got to tell you, I felt a little rejected this whole time, and then he comes back and give you scraps of food.
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And at the time I was thinking there's no way that I'm going to be hanging out here socializing.
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I felt rejected.
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It's taken me years to get over that.
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But you see, the point is this is how Israel was to Jesus.
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You're not really wanted here.
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You're sort of insignificant to us.
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And the good news here is grace isn't based on our conduct.
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Jesus didn't show up rejected by His people and say, Well, they're not interested in Me, so guess what?
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I'm not interested in them either.
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I came to give them grace.
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I came to give them life.
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I came to point them to the Father.
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And they don't want anything to do with Me?
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I'm the one that they've been waiting for since creation?
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And they don't want anything to do with Me?
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You know what?
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I'll just go back to heaven where I'm exalted as I should be.
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But He didn't do that.
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Despite the rejection, Jesus carried through with His mission of grace to the very end.
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Why?
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Because His grace isn't based on our conduct.
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This is good news for you today because if you're sitting here and you've rejected Jesus in the past, you can receive Him today.
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It's not too late.
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Somebody might be sitting here saying, "Pastor Jeff, I've rejected Christ for decades.
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I know about Him and I've known who He is, but I've never really received Him as my Lord and Savior.
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And Jeff, don't you think it's a little hypocritical if I would give my life to Jesus today?
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The answer is no.
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Because He's still extending His grace to you today.
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Because His grace isn't based on your conduct.
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His grace is based on His goodness.
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Comparable grace.
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Letter B.
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"Without this done, His grace takes away our sin." Pick up in verse 4.
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It says, "Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
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Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
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But He was wounded for our transgressions.
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He was crushed.
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For our iniquities upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
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And with His stripes, we are healed.
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All we like sheep have gone astray.
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We have turned everyone to His own way.
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And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
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I think an amazing thing about the incomparable grace of God in Jesus Christ is this, His grace takes away our sin.
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Look at verse 6, it says, "All we like sheep have gone astray." The Bible says that we are sheep.
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I don't particularly like that description, because sheep really are the stupidest animals in the animal kingdom.
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They are.
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They're stupid.
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They're weak.
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They're defenseless.
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Sheep are just idiots.
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Like why can you say that?
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How can you say that?
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What do you call the guy that babysits the cows all day?
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What's he called?
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Well, there is no guy that just babysits cows all day.
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Exactly.
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What do you call the guy that babysits the chickens all day?
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There really is no guy that just babysits the chickens all day.
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Right, what do you call the guy that babysits the sheep?
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Shepherd.
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There's a job created to take care of the sheep all day because they're stupid.
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Sheep are so stupid that people train dogs to take care of sheep.
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That blows my mind.
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My dog is the stupidest animal I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.
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I love him to death, but he's so dumb.
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But I look at him and I think, you know what, they take animals like you and they train them to take care of an animal that's much stupider.
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Sheep are stupid.
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How are they stupid?
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Other animals have enough sense to stay with the pack, the flock, the gaggle, whatever.
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Most animals have enough sense to stay with the group.
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And that's why sheep are so stupid, because they just wander away and put themselves in danger.
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And the Bible says that's you.
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And that's me.
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We all, like sheep, have gone astray each to his own way.
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We're just not paying attention.
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We're stupid in our sin, And we're just kind of wandering around and putting ourselves in danger, and we don't even realize it.
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We are like stupid sheep that wander.
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But notice also your Bible says, "to his own way." What does that mean?
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That means your sin tendency and my sin tendency are going to be different.
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Do you ever look at somebody - maybe they committed some kind of a crime or something, That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen.
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Why would somebody do something like that?
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That's so stupid.
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That seems stupid to you because that's not your sin tendency.
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I guarantee you if we brought that guy whose sin you think is so stupid, if we brought that guy and sat him down and shared your sin with him, he would look at you and say, "I can't believe you would do something like that.
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That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." It seems stupid to us because we have different sin tendencies.
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That's what the Bible says here.
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We're all like sheep.
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We've gone away, we've turned, and we just go our own way.
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But the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
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This is a beautiful verse.
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I want to share this with you again.
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The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
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Pretend with me for a second that this Bible is not the Bible.
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Let's pretend instead This is a book of all of the sins I've ever committed.
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Now, it would be a much thicker book.
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It would be huge.
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It would be several volumes, but we're pretending.
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Every sin I've ever committed is in this book.
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And let this hand represent me.
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You see, when God sees me, He sees my sin.
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He says, "Jeff, I see all of the wrong things that you've done." Here's the glorious thing about Jesus Christ.
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This hand represents Jesus.
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The Bible says the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of a son.
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God put My sin on Jesus, so now when God sees Me, what does He see?
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No sin.
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Perfectly righteous.
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How can God say that I'm perfect?
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How can God say that I'm holy?
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Isaiah 53:6 Because He put My sin on His Son.
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"as laid the iniquity of us all upon Him." You see, it's not even like, "Well, we put all that sin on, but Jeff, you still have a little bit of sin left on your account." It's not that at all.
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All of my sin on Jesus Christ.
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Look at verse 7.
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Because he was oppressed.
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He was afflicted.
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This is talking about his trial.
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We talked about that as we went through Mark.
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The trial of Jesus Christ is the biggest sham in history.
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They broke every rule about court that they could break in order to expedite the execution of Jesus Christ.
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That's what it's talking about when it says He was oppressed.
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He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth.
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Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep that before its shears is silent, so He opened not His mouth.
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you say, "Well, wait a minute. Jesus did say some things in his trial." That's not what that means. It means that he didn't defend himself. It means that he didn't fight back. He's just like we talked about sheep being weak. Jesus allowed himself to be weak. He didn't fight them. So when it says he opened out his mouth, that's what it means. Never defended himself. "By oppression and judgment," verse 8, that He was taken away.
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And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of My people?
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That's just saying that nobody came to Jesus' defense.
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Nobody came alongside to help Him.
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Nobody rightly considered what was really happening.
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They made His grave with the wicked.
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Jesus was crucified beside two criminals.
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What's the next phrase?
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"And with a rich man in his death." We're talking about Joseph of Arimathea.
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A rich man who gave Jesus his tomb.
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Prophesied 700 years before it happened.
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Incredible. Absolutely incredible.
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"Although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth." Jesus didn't do anything wrong.
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Why didn't He defend Himself?
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Sometimes I read through the Gospels and I see these ridiculous charges, these ridiculous accusations, and there's a little part of me that reads the Gospels and I'm like, Jesus, say something!
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You know, defend Yourself!
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He couldn't.
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Jesus didn't speak up to defend Himself because He was guilty.
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Oh, not for anything He had done.
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Jesus was guilty for everything that I had done.
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Jesus was guilty for everything that you had done.
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He knew that the iniquity was going to be laid upon Him.
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His grace takes away our sin.
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If you're sitting here today and you've received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you never have to fear God's judgment.
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As I said, Jesus took our sin on Himself.
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And when He did, when Jesus was on the cross, God punished my sin as He poured out His judgment on Jesus.
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Understand that God is not going to turn around and punish me for my sin.
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That would mean that Jesus died for nothing.
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Your sin has been taken away, it's been removed.
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In Christ, your sin never again is an issue with God.
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And some would say, "Well, what if I mess up tomorrow?" I need to point this out.
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I've met some people that teach and preach and believe this, but it's wrong.
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There are people that teach that, "Okay, I received Christ and I'm forgiven, but if I commit a sin, and I would die tragically in an accident, that sin that I committed came after I received Christ as my Savior, and if I didn't confess it, and it wasn't forgiven, that means I'm going to hell for that sin." It is a crazy theology. It's like this umbrella.
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Like, "I'm under the protection of God's salvation today.
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I mess up, I'm out from under the umbrella.
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I better get right, I better confess.
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I better receive forgiveness again so that I can go to heaven again." And that is wrong.
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Keep in mind that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, every single sin that you committed was still in the future.
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So your sin, the ones you committed yesterday, the ones you committed this morning, the ones you commit tomorrow, all of them have already been paid for in advance.
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This is the incomparable grace that takes away my sin.
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And finally for today, look down at verse 10.
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He jots this down.
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His grace is unchanging and never-ending.
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Verse 10 says, "Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him." He has put him to grief.
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When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring.
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He shall prolong his days.
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The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
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I want to circle this verse in your Bible because this is talking about the resurrection.
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You see, if this suffering servant, this suffering Christ, if He just died and stayed dead, this verse makes no sense.
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How else would He see His offspring - His spiritual offspring?
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How else would His days be prolonged?
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How else could we say that He prospered if He died and stayed dead?
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This verse is talking about the resurrection of the Messiah.
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Look at the first part of verse 10.
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This is, to me, one of the most incredible verses in the entire Bible.
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It says, "Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him." Remember a few years ago when the Passion of the Christ came out?
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And there was this big controversy.
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It's anti-Semitic!
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The Passion of the Christ is anti-Semitic because you're saying that the Jews killed Jesus.
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I just kind of laughed.
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To say it's anti-Semitic, like wait a minute, The star of the movie Jesus is Jewish, and all of His disciples depicted in the movie are all Jewish.
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How can you say that this is an anti-Jewish film?
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The mistake is even deeper than that because it wasn't the Jews that killed Jesus.
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At the time, they thought it was them out of envy handing Him over to the Romans.
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They thought they were killing Jesus, but ultimately it wasn't them.
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And also, the Romans thought But they had a hand in it.
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Pilate's like, "I'm washing my hands of it." It was the Roman guards that were nailing Jesus to the cross and executing Him, so there's a sense in which you could say, well, the Romans thought that they were killing Jesus.
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And that's not right either.
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The Bible says, verse 10, "Who killed Jesus?" It says that God the Father did.
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Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him.
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God used the Jews and the Romans, but ultimately, ultimately, it was God who gave His Son to die for my sin.
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This is the most amazing aspect of God's grace that I can even think of now that I'm a parent.
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Because get this, if saving you meant that I had to kill my son, That would never happen.
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I would not sacrifice my son for anyone or anything.
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I wouldn't sacrifice either of my kids for the 7.3 billion people on the planet.
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If it was one of them, or all of you, I would pick them every time.
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I'm just being honest with you.
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Hey, I love you. You're a love.
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I love you.
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I'm just being honest with you.
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I love you.
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I would not sacrifice my son for you.
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That's what makes God, God.
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Because not only would He, but He did sacrifice His Son.
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That is incomparable grace.
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Home stretch. Look at verse 11.
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Out of the anguish of his soul, "He shall see and be satisfied.
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By His knowledge shall the righteous with My servant make many to be accounted righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities.
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Therefore, I will divide Him a portion with the many, and He shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet He bore the sin of many." intercession for the transgressors.
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That's us saying a lot.
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To paraphrase, sin defeated, mission completed, Jesus exalted, making intercession.
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Hebrews 7.25 really sums this up.
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It says, "Therefore, He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him - through Jesus - He always lives to make intercession for them.
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Understand, the Bible says that the work of salvation is complete, but the care and the attention of Jesus Christ for you is not complete.
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Grace didn't just stop at the cross.
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You know, the Bible says Jesus right now is praying for you.
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Jesus is praying for me.
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Jesus is praying for you.
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Well, what's He praying for?
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I know one thing for sure.
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Revelation 12.10 says that Satan is constantly accusing God's people before God.
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Satan is constantly accusing.
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Christ is constantly defending.
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He's like the ultimate defense attorney.
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You see, Satan would point at Russ and he'd be like, "Russ is no good. Russ is dirt.
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God, I don't know why you spend any time dealing with him or his family because they're worthless.
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They're sinners.
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And here's Jesus Christ saying, "No, no, no. I died for Him.
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He received me by faith.
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He's one of mine.
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He is perfect!" And God's like, "Case closed.
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My son says Russ is perfect." So, Jesus is constantly interceding for His people.
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The same incomparable grace that saves His people for the First Christ to continually intercede for us.
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I think that right now, Jesus is praying for you.
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He tells us that grace isn't just momentary, nor is grace just history, nor is grace just future - something that we will receive someday.
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Grace is constant, it's unchanging, it's never-ending, is incomparable.
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Would you bow your heads, please?
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The reason I want you to do that is I just want you to focus individually.
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I want you to focus on your walk with the Lord.
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Evaluate, do I even have one?
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Have you received this grace that God has offered in Jesus Christ?
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Have you been trying to earn it?
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Have you been questioning it?
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Have you been doubting it?
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Have you been wrestling with questions like does God really love me?
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Is God really for me?
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Can I really be forgiven for all of the stupid choices and mistakes that I've made?
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All of the sin that I've committed, can I really be forgiven for these things?
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the answer to all of these questions, finds God pointing to Jesus.
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Finds God pointing to the cross, saying this is where your sin was punished because I put it on My Son.
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We see God pointing to the empty tomb to say Jesus wasn't just some martyr.
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He is alive and He is victorious.
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And His resurrected life another aspect of my grace that He wants you to receive.
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God points to Jesus and says, "Here is the display of My incomparable grace." Is there anyone here today who says, "Pastor Jeff, I so desperately need the grace of God in my life." Is there somebody here Maybe you made a decision to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior some time ago.
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Maybe over time, you've started to believe a lie that you need to do things to earn this grace.
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And that Jesus loves me more when I'm doing right things, and Jesus loves me less when I mess up.
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And that's a lie.
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Nothing can increase or diminish God's grace in your life.
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It is always perfectly constant.
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Is there somebody here today that says, you know what, I need this reminder that God's grace is not based on my performance.
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Is there anybody here?
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I need the reminder that God's grace is not based on my performance.
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Father, I want to lift up those - God, You know every heart.
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Through Your Word, God, we know Your heart.
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You have revealed Your heart.
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And Your heart says although we don't deserve it, You have chosen to pour out Your grace and Your love in the most mind-boggling way by allowing Your Son to die in our place.
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I thank You, Father, for those that by faith acknowledged that before You today.
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Whether they need to receive it today, Father, that You would reveal Yourself to them in a mighty way, and that this would be the day of salvation.
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This would be the day that they're done trying to do it their way, and instead embrace what You've already provided through Jesus Christ.
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I lift them up to You now, Father.
39:50-40:27
I pray those who have started to believe a lie, attitude towards us is based on our conduct. She would remind them today Father that you love them. You love them with an eternal love. And whether we're having the best day of our lives or the absolute worst day of our lives, it doesn't change the grace and the love that you show us. It doesn't change your and gratitude towards us because our standing with You isn't based on our conduct.
40:27-40:30
It's based on the work of Jesus Christ.
40:31-40:37
I pray that today, God, You would reaffirm the truth of Your Word in these hearts.
40:39-41:19
Father, we would leave here rejoicing as we've spent these past few weeks, Father, we've tried to take a glimpse We've had a peek through Isaiah at who you are, but Father, as we close this series and we celebrate, as Darren had said earlier, the most significant event in history, Father, we see that every attribute was never more simultaneously and graphically on display than they were on the cross.
41:20-41:23
On the cross, Father, we see that You are holy.
41:24-41:25
You will not tolerate sin.
41:27-41:37
You are so holy, and Your hatred of sin is so holy, that You will pour Your wrath on the spotless Lamb of God.
41:39-41:42
Father, on the cross, we see that You are just.
41:44-41:50
In order to satisfy Your justice, Someone had to pay the penalty.
41:51-41:54
You didn't just ignore it or overlook it or write it off.
41:54-41:57
The penalty had to be paid for your justice to be satisfied.
41:57-42:00
And Jesus Christ accomplished that on the cross.
42:02-42:04
Father on the cross, we see that You are awesome.
42:06-42:14
We look at the events of the cross - darkness and earthquakes and graves open and dead people alive again walking around.
42:14-42:18
We see your awesomeness on the cross.
42:20-42:22
On the cross, Father, we see that you are loving.
42:24-42:27
That is what motivated you to send your Son.
42:27-42:30
Your Word tells us that you so loved the world that you gave your Son.
42:32-42:34
On the cross, Father, we see your sovereignty.
42:36-42:44
While the religious Jews thought they were killing Jesus, and the Romans thought they were killing Jesus, It was the will of the Lord to crush Him.
42:46-42:48
Father, on the cross we see Your grace.
42:49-42:50
Your gift to us.
42:53-42:54
Unearned, unmerited salvation.
42:55-42:57
To Your glory and honor, Father.
42:58-43:00
May the celebration continue.
43:02-43:04
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Isaiah 53:1-12

Why is this prophecy from Isaiah 53 important for us in understanding why Jesus died on the cross?
Describe how each of the attributes of God we’ve studied the past 6 weeks show up graphically and simultaneously while Jesus was on the cross. How did the cross show God’s incomparable:
- holiness
- justice
- awesomeness
- love
- sovereignty
- grace
Explain how Is 53:10 mentions the resurrection of Jesus. Why is this significant?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

March 20, 2016

Incomparable God.

Incomparably Sovereign.

Jeff Miller

March 20, 2016

Incomparable God.

God is Incomparably Sovereign... (Is 45:1-8)

See 2 Kings 20

...so I can either Resist or Rest in His sovereignty. (Is 45:9-13)

Two Reasons Resisting is a Bad Idea:

Because resisting is Foolish. (Is 45:9-10)

Because resisting is Futile. (Is 45:11)

Two Reasons Resting is a Great Idea:

Because God has Proven Himself. (Is 45:12)

Because God's Plan is for my good. (Is 45:13)

See Romans 8:28-29

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

00:00-00:04
Open up your Bibles with me please to Isaiah.
00:06-00:07
We're going to be in chapter 45.
00:10-00:14
And you remember in school when you had the opportunity to take a makeup test?
00:14-00:15
How many people remember that?
00:15-00:19
Like maybe you took a test and it didn't go so well, so you have an opportunity to do a makeup.
00:20-00:22
Well, I'm going to give you a makeup test right now.
00:22-00:22
Are you ready?
00:23-00:25
I've asked you this before, I'm going to ask you again.
00:27-00:29
Which of the following is like God?
00:31-00:32
My dog?
00:33-00:33
Me?
00:34-00:35
Or an angel?
00:36-00:36
What's the answer?
00:38-00:39
The answer is none of the above.
00:40-00:40
Right?
00:40-00:41
And that's our whole series.
00:42-00:46
Our series is called "Incomparable God." And the truth is nothing is like God.
00:46-00:48
And that's what we've seen throughout Isaiah.
00:48-00:51
God over and over and over says to whom will you compare me?
00:52-00:53
To whom will you liken me?
00:53-00:55
There is no one like me.
00:55-00:56
There is no other God.
00:57-01:03
And that's our series, "Incomparable God." And in this series, we've seen that God is incomparably holy.
01:04-01:15
He is high and lifted up and exalted and there is nothing anywhere in the physical or the supernatural universe that is even close to Him.
01:15-01:17
We've seen that God is incomparably just.
01:17-01:23
That the day is coming that He's going to make all things right in the world as His Messiah reigns over all the earth.
01:24-01:27
A couple of weeks ago, we've seen that God is incomparably awesome.
01:29-01:33
However big you think God is, He's infinitely bigger than that.
01:35-01:38
And then last week, we talked about God being incomparably loving.
01:39-01:46
There is no kind of love that compares to the love that God has for His people.
01:47-01:53
And today, we're going to be using another word that's really reserved just for God.
01:54-01:58
The word is "sovereign." God is incomparably sovereign.
02:01-02:07
I don't know about you, did you ever have one of those days that nothing just seems to go right?
02:07-02:19
Did you ever have one of those days like you roll out of bed and you're like today, this is going to happen, this is going to happen, and I'm going to go to work, and then this is going to happen, and then nothing at all that day happens like you intended.
02:19-02:20
Did you ever have a day like that?
02:22-02:24
My entire week was like that last week.
02:25-02:33
And Aaron will tell you, I get so frustrated because there's things I want to do and I have plans and this is my agenda and my schedule for the day.
02:34-02:39
And everything kept getting flipped upside down and nothing happened as I wanted it to happen.
02:40-02:42
And why did that happen this week?
02:42-02:52
And I really believe, 100% of my heart, the reason I believe that that happened this week is because I was going to get up before you today that God is in control.
02:54-02:57
And it was God's way of reminding me this week that I am not.
02:58-03:05
God is in control of the entire universe, in control of 7.3 billion people on this planet.
03:05-03:11
I can't even manage a household with four people, a dog, two lizards, and a guinea pig.
03:12-03:14
I can't manage that household.
03:14-03:17
God is in control of everything.
03:19-03:20
That's what the word "sovereign" means.
03:21-03:24
It means God solely reigns.
03:26-03:27
It speaks to His authority.
03:27-03:28
No one else.
03:28-03:30
No one else reigns with God.
03:32-03:33
It speaks to His power.
03:33-03:35
He reigns over everything.
03:35-03:42
Understand that there's not a molecule that moves in this universe without God's permission.
03:45-03:53
There's not an event that happens anywhere - anywhere - unless God has ordained it.
03:55-03:59
Nothing has ever or will ever happen without His sovereign permission.
04:00-04:02
Nothing ever slips by God.
04:04-04:07
That means, honestly, there's no such thing as luck.
04:07-04:08
We use that word a lot.
04:08-04:12
"Oh, that was lucky." Or a coincidence.
04:12-04:42
"Well, that was an amazing coincidence happened and when we use those words it's just simply stating things from our perspective because the truth of the matter is God's perspective there is no such thing as luck or coincidence those things really don't exist to God for us they really don't either let's look at what God's Word has to say you ready Write this down.
04:42-04:44
Number one, God is incomparably sovereign.
04:45-04:46
Isaiah 45.
04:48-04:49
Look at the first three verses.
04:49-05:09
It says, "Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him, and to loose the belt of kings, to open doors before him "Gates may not be closed.
05:10-05:13
I will go before you and level the exalted places.
05:13-05:18
I will break into pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.
05:20-05:38
I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes and the secret places that but you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name." Let's talk about Cyrus for a second.
05:38-05:40
I want to give you a quick history lesson.
05:42-05:47
After Solomon's reign, we're talking 1 Kings 12.
05:48-05:50
Remember, the nation of Israel divided.
05:50-05:56
There was the northern kingdom, which was called Israel, and there was the southern kingdom called Judah.
05:57-06:13
And because both halves of Israel persisted in sin, God said that He was going to discipline, He was going to judge Israel, He was going to punish Israel by allowing them to be conquered by other people.
06:15-06:17
It was a temporary thing as we've seen through Isaiah.
06:18-06:21
It was an act of chastisement.
06:22-06:52
And Israel, the northern kingdom, actually conquered by the Assyrians in 740 BC. And the southern kingdom, not far behind, 586 BC, the southern kingdom Judah was conquered by the Babylonians. King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, he displaced the Jews, and the Bible says that he stole items from the temple.
06:54-06:58
They took the best young men who ended up becoming slaves in Babylon.
06:59-07:01
That was Daniel from the book of Daniel and his friends.
07:02-07:07
They were taken by the Babylonians to be slaves, to serve the king.
07:08-07:13
Well then Babylon was conquered by the next big world power in town.
07:13-07:15
That was the Medo-Persians.
07:16-07:27
They were conquered on October the 12th, 589 BC, the Medo-Persians were led by a Persian man named Cyrus.
07:30-07:33
Persians allied with the Medes, that's why they're called the Medo-Persians.
07:34-07:36
But Cyrus said he was going to be a different leader.
07:36-07:41
He wasn't going to be one of these tyrannical, whipping everybody into shape kind of...
07:41-07:48
He wanted to be nicer to the people that they conquered, so Cyrus actually let the displaced people go back to their homelands.
07:49-07:56
And he allowed the Jews by the thousands to return back to Israel.
07:58-08:16
If Cyrus hadn't come on the scene, if the Medo-Persians hadn't come on the scene to defeat the Babylonians who had defeated Israel, if that hadn't happened, hypothetically, if that hadn't happened, You could say there might not have been an Israel at all after that.
08:18-08:23
You could take it a step further and say if that hadn't happened, there wouldn't have been a Jesus.
08:24-08:28
At least not according to the plan that God had laid out in His Word.
08:29-08:31
But I said if that hadn't happened.
08:31-08:34
But here's the thing that...
08:35-08:36
Are you wearing socks today?
08:38-08:39
Are you wearing socks?
08:40-08:42
Because you might want to reach down and hold on to them.
08:43-08:45
Because this might blow your socks off.
08:47-08:53
The amazing thing about this passage, when Isaiah wrote this, it wasn't history.
08:55-08:58
Isaiah was talking about events that hadn't happened yet.
08:59-09:13
In other words, God announced to Isaiah 150 years before it happened, that he would use a man named Cyrus to accomplish his purposes for Israel.
09:15-09:19
You're like, "Oh, Cyrus, he sounds like a good, godly, God-fearing man." No, he wasn't.
09:20-09:21
Cyrus was a pagan.
09:22-09:24
God says that's the one I'm going to use.
09:24-09:25
His name's Cyrus.
09:26-09:26
He's coming.
09:27-09:28
And I'm going to use him.
09:30-09:37
To put it into perspective, About 150 years ago in the United States, do you know who the president was?
09:40-09:44
1865. We'll go 1865, 1864. Do you know who the president was?
09:46-09:46
Abraham Lincoln.
09:48-09:54
Abraham Lincoln was the president in 1864, 1865. That was about 150 years ago.
09:57-10:09
I want you to imagine with me that they discover in Washington, D.C., these ancient journals that were written during the time of Abraham Lincoln.
10:10-10:20
And in these journals, they record that this certain preacher used to go to Abraham Lincoln and tell him things that the Lord was revealing to him.
10:21-10:29
And one of the things that's written in these journals, It says that the preacher told Abraham Lincoln, "The day is coming.
10:31-10:41
The Lord says My servant, Barack Obama, will send a strike force after a Middle Eastern terrorist." Now what would that have meant to Abraham Lincoln?
10:43-10:44
Who's Barack Obama?
10:46-10:52
But you see, 150 years later, we're looking at that and we're like, that was completely fulfilled.
10:53-10:57
In fact, God mentioned Barack Obama by name to Abraham Lincoln.
10:57-10:58
Wouldn't that blow your mind?
10:59-11:02
That's exactly what happened in this passage here.
11:02-11:07
God was identifying Cyrus 150 years before he came on the scene.
11:08-11:09
He called him by name.
11:10-11:15
This godless pagan king that God said I'm going to use you to accomplish My purposes.
11:17-11:24
Look at verse 4. It says, "For the sake of My servant Jacob and Israel My chosen, I called you by name.
11:24-11:28
I named you, though you do not know Me.
11:30-11:32
I am the Lord and there is no other.
11:32-11:35
Besides Me, there is no God.
11:36-11:45
I equip you, though you do not know Me, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides Me.
11:45-11:54
I am the Lord and there is no other." I see the theme, God, speaking to Cyrus.
11:56-11:58
I call you by name.
11:58-11:59
I equip you.
11:59-12:00
You don't know me.
12:00-12:03
God's saying, "You don't even exist yet!
12:03-12:07
You don't even know me!" But Cyrus, I have plans for you.
12:09-12:10
What's the point?
12:11-12:15
The point is this, God is sovereign.
12:17-12:36
God is sovereign to the extent Even before and as Israel is being judged for her sin, God's already very specifically announcing how this is going to play out.
12:38-12:44
Again, calling people by name that aren't even born yet.
12:45-12:46
God is sovereign.
12:47-12:50
God never, ever, ever does damage control.
12:50-12:51
Did you know that?
12:52-12:54
God's never in heaven like, "Oh, they messed that up.
12:54-12:55
What am I going to do now?
12:55-12:56
Ok, think, think, think, think.
12:56-12:57
Huddle up, angels.
12:57-12:59
How are we going to fix this?
13:00-13:05
That has never happened." Do you realize God has never had plan B?
13:07-13:11
God has never said, "Well, here's my plan, Cyrus.
13:13-13:17
But if for some reason it doesn't work out, I'm going to do something else." God never has plan B.
13:19-13:21
God says this is what's going to happen.
13:21-13:22
Here's the plan.
13:23-13:24
Here's the events. Here's the schedule.
13:26-13:27
That's sovereignty.
13:28-13:30
God has it all worked out ahead of time.
13:32-13:39
Even controlling events, we see in this passage, God even controls events through people who don't know Him.
13:41-13:42
Look at verse 7.
13:43-13:44
Would God really do that?
13:44-13:50
God really use a pagan who doesn't know Him to accomplish His purposes?
13:50-13:55
Verse 7 says, again this is the Lord speaking, "I form light and create darkness.
13:55-13:58
I make well-being and create calamity.
13:58-14:09
I am the Lord who does all these things." You know, it's funny, this passage is like controversial to some people.
14:09-14:13
They're like, "Is this passage saying that God creates sin?
14:13-14:15
Is this passage saying that God is the author of sin?
14:16-14:19
It says nothing about sin at all in the passage.
14:21-14:22
The passage really isn't difficult at all.
14:22-14:24
Look at the context.
14:24-14:25
Look at the context.
14:25-14:29
What God is saying here is, "I create well-being." Some Bibles say peace.
14:30-14:31
I create calamity.
14:31-14:43
God says, "I make that happen." In other words, "Peace under Cyrus?" God says, "I make that happen." about calamity under Nebuchadnezzar.
14:44-14:57
God says, "I make that happen too." So you see Israel with all of these events that are ahead - Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and conquering and restoration - God says, "I am behind all of that.
14:58-15:05
There is nothing happening here that is going to surprise Me, and I'm going to tell you ahead of time." That is sovereignty.
15:07-15:08
That is sovereignty.
15:11-15:31
Some will say, "Well, okay, so when you're talking about Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus and God using them as He has, does this mean that they didn't have a choice?" Here's the thing, God's sovereignty somehow does not violate our free will.
15:33-15:48
God's sovereignty does not negate We spent some time already talking about Ephesians 1, about God's plan and election and predestination.
15:48-15:54
We talked about John chapter 6 where Jesus said that you can't come to Him unless the Father draws you.
15:54-15:55
We talked about those.
15:56-16:07
We can also walk through the Bible and see Moses saying, "I set before you life and death. Choose life." You can see Joshua saying, "Choose this day whom you will serve as for me and my house." we will serve the Lord.
16:07-16:19
You can look at Jesus saying, "Ok, there's a wide gate and there's a narrow gate, and you have choices that you need to make." And God's sovereignty does not violate free will.
16:21-16:26
Because we have the ability to make choices, that doesn't mean that God isn't sovereign even over that.
16:29-16:30
People get really caught up on this.
16:31-16:32
I get asked this a lot.
16:32-16:38
And in fact, we spend a lot of time in our small group talking about this conversation, but does it matter what I do?
16:39-16:42
Does it matter - here's one of the people I've asked this - does it even matter if I pray?
16:43-16:47
If God's going to do what God's going to do, does it even matter if I pray?
16:47-16:49
And the answer is yes, it matters.
16:50-16:51
Like, well, how can you say that?
16:51-16:52
Because God did.
16:53-16:55
What does James 4:16 say?
16:55-16:59
The prayer of a righteous person has much power as it's working.
17:02-17:05
You're like, well, how does that tie I don't know.
17:06-17:07
I don't know.
17:07-17:08
I'm just a preacher.
17:09-17:14
I have to take out of a God. I don't know how it works. But it does.
17:15-17:16
The Bible teaches both.
17:19-17:32
Here's another example, since we're speaking of Isaiah. Just jot this down. I want you to read this because people try to do all kinds of hermeneutical acrobatics around this passage. But 2 Kings chapter 20, I'm going to paraphrase, you read it. Not now, don't Don't read it now.
17:34-17:41
But 2 Kings 20, God says to King Hezekiah, very clearly, He says, "You're going to die.
17:41-17:47
You're not going to recover." The Bible says that Hezekiah prayed and he wept and he cried out to God.
17:48-18:04
And God says, "Okay, I'm going to heal you." It looks to me - just reading that straightforwardly Prayer changed God's mind.
18:05-18:06
That sounds shocking.
18:07-18:08
I'm just saying that's what it looks like.
18:09-18:15
You're going to die. He prays. God's like, "Okay, I'm going to heal you." Prayer moved God.
18:17-18:29
And somebody will say, "Well, you know, in God's sovereignty, in God's sovereignty, he already knew that was going to happen." And my response to that is, "Well, God actually very explicitly says, 'You will not recover.' Does that mean that God was lying?
18:31-18:33
because God knew he was going to pray and God was going to heal him.
18:33-18:39
So that meant God was actually lying in that moment when he said you're not going to recover because in fact God did allow him to recover.
18:39-18:41
I don't think God was lying.
18:41-18:51
It appears to me that even though God is sovereign, even though God has a plan, prayer moved God.
18:53-18:57
I would just say this, how powerful do you think God is?
18:57-18:58
How powerful do you think he is?
18:59-18:59
Here's what I say.
19:00-19:09
I believe that God is powerful enough to create a world where we do have a choice, where prayer moves Him, but it doesn't stop or change His sovereign plan.
19:10-19:24
I believe God's powerful enough to create a world where man's choices and will and His sovereignty and His will aren't contradictory things that make our heads explode.
19:26-19:31
I really think about it, me just making it very personal, I think about my call to ministry.
19:33-19:35
1995, I was called into the ministry.
19:37-19:39
And I did not want to go into the ministry.
19:39-19:40
I'm just going to be honest with you.
19:41-19:44
God very clearly called me to preach the Gospel.
19:44-19:47
At the time, I wish I could tell you that I was like, "Yes, God!
19:48-19:54
That sounds like a great idea!" But the truth is, I was like, "God, that's a terrible idea." I am not a good speaker.
19:55-19:57
I am not a people person, and I-- no.
19:59-20:01
Preaching is actually at the bottom of my list.
20:01-20:02
I don't want to be a preacher.
20:04-20:07
And God was like, yeah, that's what we're doing here.
20:08-20:10
And I'm like, no, I don't think so.
20:10-20:18
And I remember in my arrogance and stupidity exploring other areas of work.
20:19-20:20
And everything just hit a dead end.
20:21-20:28
And finally I was like, "All right, God." Twenty years later, here we are.
20:30-20:45
And I can look back on that incident in my life and I can say, "Did God choose me, or ultimately was I making choices as a response to what God was doing?" And I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
20:45-20:58
God definitely called me to this, and God definitely chose me." And then I think to, you know, enrolling in Bible college and going through all of that, and I made some choices.
20:59-21:01
So yeah, I had some choice in the matter.
21:01-21:04
And I'm like, no, no, no, God was orchestrating all that.
21:05-21:06
But I was part of it.
21:06-21:07
I wasn't a puppet.
21:07-21:11
I wasn't sleepwalking through my life for the last 20 years.
21:13-21:14
It's just the way it is.
21:16-21:17
God is sovereign.
21:20-21:22
even over people that don't know Him.
21:24-21:25
God has a plan.
21:27-21:28
Look at verse 8.
21:30-21:34
"Shower, O heavens, from above and let the clouds rain down righteousness.
21:34-21:38
Let the earth open that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit.
21:38-21:40
Let the earth cause them both to sprout.
21:41-21:51
I the Lord have created it." Just as God predicted Cyrus, here's another spoiler alert for what's ahead.
21:52-21:54
The days coming when righteousness will rule globally.
21:55-22:03
Israel returning to her land was a tiny taste of what was ahead as all of God's people will be assembled under one perfect king.
22:05-22:08
That was the whole sermon on February 28th.
22:09-22:12
God taking us back there to say, "Hey, I have a plan.
22:12-22:17
Here's where it's going to end up." So God is incomparably sovereign.
22:19-22:20
And you say, what does that have to do with me?
22:21-22:22
Here it is, write this down.
22:23-22:30
I can either resist or rest in His sovereignty.
22:32-22:36
Now we're talking about Israel and nations and things like that, but please understand church.
22:37-22:47
I can take you to several Scriptures that show that God is in complete control not just of nations and people groups and world events, God is in complete control over every single event in your life.
22:48-22:52
Every single event in your life, God is in complete control of that.
22:53-23:03
See, in a passage here, God's turning to Israel and He's saying, "Are you going to trust My sovereign plan?" And church, we have the same question posed to us.
23:05-23:09
When we talk about sovereignty, it's a biblical fact.
23:10-23:17
And we can either rest in it We can trust the Lord, or we can resist it.
23:19-23:24
Notice I didn't say we can understand it, because we can't.
23:26-23:28
Understanding God's sovereignty is not an option.
23:30-23:36
Understanding God's sovereignty, it would be like explaining an iPhone to a fruit fly.
23:38-23:39
How do you think that's going to go?
23:40-23:42
I don't know how this thing works.
23:42-23:53
thing every day. I have no idea how this thing works. Imagine me with my limited knowledge trying to explain this thing to a fruit fly. Do you think he's going to get it?
23:55-24:00
It's the same thing if we're trying to explain God's sovereignty to us.
24:00-24:02
We're these finite beings.
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We're these temporary, you know, these spirits walking around in these bodies of dirt and water and we think that we're going to grasp the sovereignty of the eternal one? That's not on the table. That is not on the table. There are two options that are on the table and you're going to see them very clearly from the text. Your options are this. Resist.
24:31-24:52
You can rest. Those are your options. And as the Lord is persuading Israel, I'm going to persuade you. Two reasons resisting is a bad idea. Two reasons resisting is a bad idea. First of all, letter A, because resisting is foolish.
24:53-24:56
Look at verses 9 and 10. Resisting is foolish.
24:58-25:04
"Woe to him who strives with Him who formed him." A pot among earthen pots.
25:04-25:18
Does the clay say to him who forms it, "What are you making?" Or, "Your work has no handles." That's what it sounds like when I read the Bible.
25:18-25:20
In my head, I'm just sharing that with you.
25:21-25:30
"Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?'" with what are you in labor?
25:33-25:33
Resisting is foolish.
25:34-25:37
These are two intentionally absurd pictures.
25:39-25:40
Intentionally absurd.
25:41-25:50
Imagine you have a lump of clay on the wheel, and you know, the potter's coming, and he's making something with the clay.
25:50-25:53
Could you imagine the clay like, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
25:54-25:55
What are you doing?
25:55-25:56
You're messing this up.
25:56-26:02
up. You're making me into a pitcher. I don't want to be a pitcher. I want to be an ashtray.
26:03-26:17
Okay? And you're doing this wrong. You're making this wrong. Could you imagine how foolish that would be for a piece of dirt to say to a human being, "You're doing this all wrong.
26:17-26:27
You don't know what you're doing?" That's foolishness. It just cracks me up. Your work has no handles. Everybody's a critic, right?
26:29-27:02
What are you making? This is terrible. Look at the next picture. Talking about a father, talking about a woman. It's kind of the same picture here. Imagine, those of you that have kids, can you remember the day your child was born? Do you remember that? Those of you that have children? Imagine the day your child's born, you know, maybe you had a home birth or whatever, maybe you're in a hospital, wherever you were. Imagine and says, "Hey, what are you doing?
27:03-27:08
Who said that you could have a baby?" You're like, "I'm sorry, you are again?
27:09-27:11
Who are you to tell me whether or not I'm allowed to have a baby?
27:11-27:12
Who do you think you are?
27:13-27:17
Just walking in here telling me, you know, I can't have a baby?
27:17-27:21
What's the matter with you?" They're intentionally absurd pictures.
27:22-27:25
Well, I mean, I mean, I'm not saying I mean, it sounds absurd.
27:26-27:27
Until we do.
27:29-27:30
We do the same thing to God.
27:32-27:34
God, what are You doing?
27:36-27:37
God, why would You allow this?
27:38-27:43
God, why would You allow this person to be suffering with cancer?
27:45-27:49
God, why would You allow this person - this person of all people - to be in a fatal accident?
27:50-27:52
Why would you allow that to happen?
27:54-28:02
We get mad at God and we're angry with God and Suddenly we're the clay. What are you doing?
28:05-28:06
Do you think you know better than God?
28:08-28:24
And I want to know why Here's why God allowed Whatever you're going through financial issue health issue relationship issue, whatever it is you're going through, God allowed that for a reason.
28:26-28:27
That's just where trust comes in.
28:29-28:32
Your question is are you going to trust your finite mind and your limited perspective?
28:33-28:38
Are you going to trust the sovereign, all-knowing God who lives outside of time?
28:39-28:40
Resisting is foolish.
28:40-28:43
Letter B, resisting is futile.
28:45-28:48
Very hard to say that without sounding like a robot He's a super villain.
28:49-28:50
Resistance is futile.
28:51-28:52
Look at verse 11.
28:53-29:09
God says, "The Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and the One who formed Him, ask Me of things to come." Will you command Me concerning My children and the work of My hands?
29:10-29:11
Look at verse 11.
29:12-29:15
God says, "Ask Me." Will you command Me?
29:17-29:18
Are you going to command God?
29:18-29:19
Are you going to tell God what to do?
29:19-29:21
How do you think that's going to work out?
29:23-29:25
We don't tolerate questioning from our kids.
29:27-29:30
We're talking about the sovereign and holy God of the universe.
29:32-29:37
I'd like to remind you once again that He is God and I am not.
29:39-29:40
Neither are you.
29:41-29:42
God takes prayer requests.
29:44-29:45
It doesn't take orders.
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Requests come from humble, dependent hearts.
29:55-29:57
Orders come from spoiled brats.
29:59-30:01
It's the issue of are you going to submit to God's will?
30:01-30:04
Are you going to try to command God's will?
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That's what he's saying in this passage.
30:05-30:07
Are you going to ask me what I'm doing?
30:07-30:09
Or are you going to try to tell me what to do?
30:11-30:17
And I know there are people in this room with this, struggling with, why would God allow this?
30:18-30:35
Maybe some circumstances entered into your life that you have prayed for and things haven't appeared to have changed, and you've been praying for so long, and you've been trusting God, and you've been asking people, and you're just quite frankly worn out with praying for it.
30:37-30:46
And over time, you've stopped praying for it, Maybe you've gotten even angry with God because He hasn't given you this thing that you've been asking for.
30:49-30:58
And you're at the point now that even hearing a message on God's sovereignty, you might be sitting in your seat right now just kind of gritting your teeth a little bit saying I don't like this.
30:59-31:00
I don't like this.
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And I want to tell you there's only one thing that changes when you resist God's sovereignty.
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There's only one thing that will ever change when you resist God's sovereignty, and that's you.
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A life of constant questioning, constant demanding, constant anger, constant resentment.
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You're going to end up bitter, to the point that you're not going to have anything to do with God.
31:36-31:38
God's sovereignty is a bad idea. It's foolish.
31:40-31:41
It's futile.
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I want to leave you with this today. Two reasons resting in God's sovereignty is a great idea. Two reasons resting in God's sovereignty is a great idea. Letter A, because God has proven himself. Look at verse 12. I love this. You know, God's not like scatterbrained that all of a sudden he's talking about one thing and then all of a sudden, "No, something completely different!" I know a lot of people that are like that.
32:10-32:16
You'll be in the middle of a conversation with someone, and all of a sudden you're like, "Wait a minute, I have no idea what they're talking about now.
32:16-32:17
Has that ever happened to anybody else?
32:18-32:21
Thank you, I thought it was just me." I'm like, "You're going to have to back up.
32:21-32:24
You change subjects like five times in one sentence.
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God's not like that." I'm saying that before we look at verse 12, because verse 12 he says, "I made the earth and created man on it.
32:34-32:40
It was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their hosts.
32:43-32:51
See, God's not like, "Sovereignty, sovereignty, sovereignty, sovereignty." "Oh, by the way, creation, where did that come from?" The point is, God has proven himself.
32:52-32:54
God's proven, oh, not that he has to.
32:55-32:57
God doesn't have to prove himself to anyone.
32:58-33:04
But, he gives a reminder here, if we start to wonder about his sovereignty, Is God in control?
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Does God really have all power?
33:06-33:08
Does God have the ability to manage my life?
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Newsflash, God is managing the universe.
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And He has from the beginning.
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All of these planets and stars and asteroids and comets and all the other stuff that's out there that's going around the sun and spinning and all the moons spinning.
33:28-33:29
He's managing that.
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on the earth with 7.3 billion souls and all of the events and you know locally and individually and globally and he's managing all of that and that's his reminder here in case you're wondering can I handle it I can handle it I've been handling it since day one that's one of the reasons that I rest in God sovereignty because God has a pretty good track record batting what thousand He's got it. He's got it.
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And finally, because God's plan is for my good.
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Because God's plan is for my good.
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Look at verse 13.
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God says, "I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level.
34:21-34:29
He shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price, but for reward, says the Lord of hosts." He's talking about Cyrus again.
34:30-35:00
He's circling back. He's like, "Oh, by the way, I'm just going to cap this section off by saying I mean it. Seriously, I mean it. I'm going to use Cyrus and I'm going to plow the way ahead for him so he is going to easily conquer the Babylonians and let my people return home. I'm going to make it easy for him." I mean it.
35:01-35:02
It's going to happen.
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God's plan is for my good.
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That should be the most reassuring thing you ever hear.
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I'd like to close with just one part of one verse.
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You know Romans 8.28, don't you?
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Doesn't we know?
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For those who love God, all things work together for good.
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And God's plan is for my good.
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Break that down.
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All things.
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That's totality.
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There is no such thing as a wasted trial.
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No such thing.
35:36-35:43
They're like, "Oh, but my ministry would be so much more effective if I didn't have to face these health issues." Or, "God, don't you understand?
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I could do so much more if I had more money." Or all things.
35:53-35:55
God's using whatever you're going through to accomplish His purpose.
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Everything.
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Next work together.
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That's harmony.
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See, the purpose of whatever trial or trials you're going through, that's just a little piece of a bigger project.
36:09-36:09
You know that.
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Your trial, your thing that you're struggling with, that's just a puzzle piece as part of the bigger picture that God is bringing all of these pieces together.
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work together.
36:24-36:28
Romans 8.28 - we know that those who love God, all things work together.
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Last two words - here it is, church.
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We're good.
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That's outcome.
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That's outcome.
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God's sovereignty is about taking all of these pieces of your life and working them together to ultimately benefit you by making you the person He has called you to be.
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That's what Romans 8.28 says.
36:54-37:00
The very next verse, Romans 8.29, says that God's purpose for you is to be conformed into the image of His Son.
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Every single thing that God is bringing into your life, that God is allowing into your life, however you want to describe it, God is behind it.
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All these things that God is allowing to happen in your life is the purpose of making you more like Jesus Christ God's sovereignty never results in random outcomes.
37:29-37:34
God's never in heaven saying, "I wonder how this is going to turn out." Never random outcomes.
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God's sovereignty never results in you being defeated.
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His sovereignty graciously, gloriously, is ultimately for your good.
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You just have to be grateful for it.
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I'm not going to trust you.
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Father in Heaven, Father in Heaven, I confess before You and before my brothers and sisters here, this is one that punches me in the heart.
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Because God, I've questioned Your sovereignty.
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I've questioned why You would allow certain things to happen in my life that just don't make sense.
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to my shame.
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I've even said that to you.
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It doesn't make any sense to me.
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It seems pointless.
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Your Word brings me back to the place.
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And I pray for my brothers and sisters here that it brings them to the same place.
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It brings us to the place where, Father, You are in complete control.
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And even if things look bleak now or for the next week, for the rest of our lives.
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If things don't look optimal for us, that's not outside of your control.
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You are sovereign.
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Father, I pray that every single one of us could leave here today in full confidence knowing that there is not one thing that's going to happen to us today or tomorrow or however long you give us on this earth.
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There's not one thing that's going to happen that will catch you by surprise.
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that you were already ahead of us like a shepherd.
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Leading us, protecting us, guiding us, using all of it, so that we can be conformed into the image of your Son.
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Doing it all so that we would be more like Jesus Christ.
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I pray against the resistance, Father.
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I pray against the foolish questioning, the futile arguing.
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I pray against that, Father.
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I pray against the bitterness, And I know I've been tempted to carry in my own heart.
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I pray today, Father, is a new day.
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A day of rest, a day of trust.
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We look again at your Word and say, God has proven himself.
39:58-40:00
We look again at your Word and say, I know what God's ultimately after.
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He's ultimately after my good.
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for us all in this area, Father.
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We pray in Jesus' name.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Isaiah 45:1-13

What does sovereign mean? If God is sovereign, why do people resist / challenge God’s sovereignty in their own lives? (Is 45:9-10)
What’s the difference between someone asking the Lord and demanding of the Lord (Is 45:11)? What is the heart condition of each position?

Breakout Questions:

What trial / circumstance in your life have you struggled to trust God’s sovereignty?
What trial / circumstance has caused you to be frustrated or even bitter? Pray over these things.

Jeff Miller

March 13, 2016

Incomparable God.

Incomparably Loving.

Jeff Miller

March 13, 2016

Incomparable God.

  
    God is Incomparably Loving... (Is 43:4a)

  See: Rom 9-11  | Rom 11

...so I am Secure. (Is 43:1-11)

I am secure because I am Paid For. (Is 43:1)

  See: 1 Cor 6:20  |  1 Cor 7:28  |  Acts 20:28  |  Heb 9:12

I am secure because I am Protected. (Is 43:2-4)

I am secure because my Future is written. (Is 43:5-9)

  See: John 14:1-4

I am secure because I am Chosen. (Is 43:10-11)

    See: Rom 8:29-30  |  John 6:44  |  Eph 1:11  |  Matt 5:16

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

00:00-00:03
Open up your Bibles with me please to Isaiah 43.
00:04-00:10
And our series is called "Incomparable God." Incomparable.
00:10-00:12
Nothing is like the Lord.
00:12-00:16
And so far we've seen in our series that God is incomparably holy.
00:16-00:18
Who is like the Lord?
00:18-00:19
Nothing. No one.
00:19-00:24
That's why even the angels proclaim holy, holy, holy.
00:26-00:27
Nothing is like God.
00:29-00:37
Last week we saw that God is incomparably just and it might not look like it today, but appearances can be deceiving.
00:38-00:43
The day is coming when He's going to make all things right and rule in perfect justice and righteousness.
00:44-00:47
Last week we saw that God is incomparably awesome.
00:48-00:54
He's the God that holds - what was it - 326 million trillion gallons of water in the hollow of His hand.
00:55-00:56
He's incomparably awesome.
00:58-01:04
Last week we talked about how that word "awesome" is so often overused.
01:04-01:19
And today we're going to talk about another word that's overused, and it's the word "love." Not only is the word "love" overused, but the word "love" is often inappropriately used.
01:20-01:23
And in the Greek, there were different words for love.
01:23-01:26
There was phileo, which is brotherly love.
01:26-01:27
That's the love you have for your buddy.
01:27-01:29
And there's eros.
01:29-01:31
That's where we get the word erotic.
01:31-01:35
That's a kind of husband and wife kind of passionate love.
01:35-01:38
And there's the word agape, which is self-sacrificing love.
01:39-01:47
And our deficiency in the English language is we use the word love in every context we can think of, right?
01:48-01:50
I can say I love pizza rolls.
01:51-01:52
And I love this church.
01:53-01:54
And I love my dog.
01:54-01:55
And I love my kids.
01:55-01:55
to my wife.
01:58-02:05
But I don't mean the same thing in all of those contexts when I talk about love.
02:06-02:11
When you think about it, love is expressed in a lot of different ways.
02:14-02:20
I love my kids, and there are ways that I show my kids that I love them.
02:22-02:26
But that doesn't translate other things. Like, I love pizza rolls.
02:28-02:31
And I was thinking this week, how do I show my love for pizza rolls?
02:34-02:35
I guess I eat them.
02:36-02:40
I guess they give themselves without even realizing how much I love them.
02:41-02:44
And I don't show love for my kids that way.
02:45-02:46
Then I was thinking about my dog.
02:47-02:49
Do you know how I show love to my dog?
02:49-02:51
He likes to be scratched.
02:51-02:53
Right there. Right on the jaw line.
02:54-03:02
You scratch him on the jawline, he puts his head back, he puts his ears back, he closes his eyes, and he will sit there as long as you scratch him right there on the jawline.
03:03-03:09
Oh, he just loves that. His little tail wags, and that's how I show my dog that I love him.
03:09-03:12
But I noticed that that doesn't work with my wife.
03:15-03:24
I'm like, "Aaron, I love you more than anyone on the earth. Who's a good girl? Who's a good girl?" And that's how I got this bruise right here.
03:25-03:27
But it doesn't work.
03:28-03:37
So we're talking about love, and then we turn to God's Word, and God's Word says that God loves us.
03:39-03:41
So the question is how does God express that love?
03:43-03:59
We express our love in so many different ways depending on the context, and then we turn to God's Word, God's Word says, "For God so loved the world." And we're like, "Well, God, how do You show it?" Is it with a hug or is it with a present?
03:59-04:01
Is it with a note?
04:03-04:05
How do You show Your love for us, God?
04:08-04:10
I want you to jot some things down in your outline.
04:10-04:12
First of all, we need to get this clear.
04:12-04:15
God is incomparably loving.
04:17-04:18
We're going to skip down.
04:18-04:19
We're going to start in verse 1.
04:22-04:24
We'll get to the sub-points here in a second.
04:24-04:27
But I want us to start off by looking at verse 4.
04:29-04:34
Verse 4 says - now this is the Lord speaking to Israel and to us.
04:34-04:35
We'll talk about that in a second.
04:35-04:43
"Because you are precious in My eyes and honored, and I love you." This is God speaking to His people.
04:44-04:52
He says, "Because you are precious in My eyes." What does the word "precious" mean?
04:53-04:56
Again, I was thinking about this this week.
04:57-04:58
What does "precious" mean?
04:58-05:02
I brought this this week.
05:03-05:08
This is a very old briefcase and a very well-used briefcase.
05:08-05:15
And inside this briefcase, This is an old, one of those old clicky pens.
05:15-05:17
It's in a really nice little display case.
05:17-05:21
It says Citizens National Bank of Evans City, Pennsylvania.
05:23-05:28
And there's an old calculator, solar power.
05:29-05:32
There's some newspaper clippings in here.
05:32-05:36
And this thing here, it's a little desk knick-knack.
05:37-06:11
And it says, I don't know if you can see it, but there's a guy like laying on his desk and he's in his pajamas and he's got a blanket and it says I'd quit this job but it's the only place I can get any sleep. Somebody wrote in pen on the bottom it says this is you Miller if you stole briefcases and I don't recommend that but if you stole briefcases and you stole this one what would this be worth to you? The answer is nothing right? You couldn't eBay all this stuff and get a nickel.
06:11-06:12
You really couldn't.
06:12-06:15
To you, this is worthless.
06:17-06:18
But I've got to tell you something.
06:19-06:23
To me, this is one of the most valuable things in my house.
06:24-06:26
Because these were all my dad's things.
06:27-06:30
My dad passed away back in 2003.
06:31-06:35
And I remember as a little kid going to his office at the bank and seeing these things on his desk.
06:35-06:38
And before he died, he put some of these things in his briefcase.
06:39-06:41
He goes, "There's just some things that I have from the bank.
06:41-06:49
If you want them, I'd like you to have them." And I said, "Yeah, I would like to hold on enough with the death talk." My point is this.
06:50-06:52
To you, this doesn't mean a thing.
06:54-06:56
To me, this is so valuable.
06:58-06:59
That's what precious means.
07:01-07:03
Precious means it has value to me.
07:04-07:10
And you see, God's Word says - The Lord says that you are precious to Him.
07:12-07:14
And the world might not think you're very valuable.
07:16-07:18
Your neighbors might not think you're very valuable.
07:19-07:22
Your co-workers might not think you're worth a thing.
07:23-07:26
And your family might think that you're worthless.
07:27-07:35
To your family, you might be worthless, but to God, God says to me, to me you're precious.
07:36-07:50
"Me, you have incredible value." Next he says, "And honored, and I love you." And this is in God's Word.
07:50-07:54
It settles it that there's no wondering how God feels about His people.
07:56-08:04
Now, this passage, as we've been going through Isaiah, I'd like to remind you since we're in the Old Testament, these passages are obviously directed towards Israel.
08:06-08:19
As we look through these principles that we're going to continue today to study, I want you to understand that God has not replaced Israel with the church.
08:19-08:29
There are some churches that teach that because Israel sinned, God's done with Israel, and the church has now replaced Israel as God's special people.
08:29-08:29
And that's not true.
08:31-08:39
In fact, Romans 9, 10, and 11, the Apostle Paul takes those three chapters is talking about that subject, to say God has always had a faithful remnant in Israel.
08:40-08:44
God has a faithful remnant now, and God always will have a faithful remnant of believers.
08:45-08:54
And it's just so clear throughout Scripture that God has not forsaken Israel, and there are big things ahead for the nation of Israel.
08:55-09:11
But you have to see that this is the same God who became Jesus Christ - flesh, taking on flesh and blood to be like His brothers in every way, as the Bible says.
09:11-09:12
This is the same God.
09:13-09:15
This is the same love that God has for His people.
09:16-09:22
So when we look through these principles, yes, at the time Isaiah wrote this, these were directed for Israel.
09:22-09:27
But these promises are also for us because we are God's people.
09:29-09:33
Gentiles that are brought in God's plan according to Romans 11.
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But something you need to know about the love of God as He's expressed in His Word - you need to know that the love of God is secure.
09:45-09:52
The love of God - God's incomparable love is secure.
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What do you mean by that?
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Well, any time love is expressed, it is possible for the object of that love question the security of the love.
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Whether it's in terms of husband and wife, girlfriend or boyfriend, parent, child - any time love has expressed the object of that love can question the security of it.
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Asking things like, are you always going to love me?
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Do you really love me?
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If I mess up, will you stop loving me?
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Is there any circumstance in which you will stop loving me?
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And I think these questions are often asked relating to God's love, and they're often wrongly answered.
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We say things like this, if God really loved me, why did this happen?
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We're questioning the security of God's love.
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I thought God loved me.
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If God really loved me, why is this happening to me?
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If God really loved me, why am I sick?
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If God really loved me, why did my spouse die?
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If God really loved me, why am I struggling?
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Why can't I get ahead?
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I thought God loved me.
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God really loved me.
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Why do I feel so alone?
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Well, here's the best news you're ever going to hear in your life.
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Got this down.
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God is incomparably loving.
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Number two, so I am secure.
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And that's what we're going to see in this passage.
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This is about security.
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Verse 1 and verse 5.
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Twice in this passage, God's people were told to fear not.
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saying, "Israel, fear not. Church, fear not." The way that God expresses His love shows security.
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I want you to jot these down.
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God's love is secure.
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I am secure in God's love.
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Letter A.
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I am secure because I am paid for.
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Look at verse 1.
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It says, "But now, thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel, Fear not, for I have redeemed you.
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I have called you by name.
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You are Mine." Circle that word "redeemed" in your Bible.
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We are redeemed.
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Redeemed means we are bought back.
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Church, we bring this penalty of condemnation on ourselves because we are sinners.
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And in our sinful rebellion, we have sold ourselves to hell.
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God has stepped in to pay the penalty for our sin.
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And there is so much I want to tell you about that.
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But in two weeks, that's going to be the entirety of the message as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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But for today, as we talk about the security of God's love, you need to understand this.
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That your salvation not based on your performance.
12:58-13:18
You know, your salvation isn't based on your performance in the sense of, "Well, I better do good or I might not get saved or God might change His mind about the forgiveness or I better behave myself." You see, if that was the mentality, you would never be secure in God's love.
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Your salvation would never be secure.
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And that is a completely unbiblical idea.
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Your salvation is not based on your performance.
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Your salvation is based on the blood of Jesus Christ.
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A price needed to be paid for your sin, and God paid it.
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I'm going to read a couple of verses.
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I just want you to listen.
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1 Corinthians 6:20 says that you were bought with a price.
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1 Corinthians 7:23 says the exact same thing.
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You were bought with a price.
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Acts 20.28 says that God obtained the church with His own blood.
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Hebrews 9.12 says by means of His blood, He secured an eternal redemption.
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So I am secure because God paid for me.
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You understand how secure that is.
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It's like when you go to Walmart.
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I don't know if this happens to you.
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If this happens to you, I need you to raise your hand.
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How many people set off that stupid alarm when you go out of Walmart or Target?
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I thought it was just me.
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Every time I go to one of those retail stores, this happened to me.
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Walmart's happened to me in Target, it's happened to me in Kohl's.
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It seems like every time I go to one of these stores and I walk out, those stupid alarms go off.
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I've never panicked though.
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You know, here's what I do.
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I don't know what you guys do.
14:45-14:50
When the alarm goes off, I just typically turn around, take a look around to see if if anybody's going to tackle me or whatever.
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And then I just keep on walking out the door.
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But I'm never alarmed, even though the alarm goes off.
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Why?
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Because I know that everything that I have is paid for.
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And I can just walk out there confidently and say, yep, all my purchases are paid for.
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I'm not trying to steal anything.
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I've been on the other end of that, catching shoplifters.
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But you see, when it's paid for, there's security.
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You have to understand that God paid incredibly high price for you.
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So you're secure.
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To the days you feel like does God really love me?
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God's answer from His Word is yes, I love you.
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I love you so much that I gave My Son to die for you.
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The blood of My Son paid for you.
15:36-15:37
You are bought back.
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You are heading to hell.
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And I bought you back.
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So you are secure because you are paid for.
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Letter B - I am secure because I am protected.
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Look at verses 2-4 here.
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Let's start in verse 2.
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It says, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.
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And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.
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And when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned.
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And the flame shall not consume you." waters, rivers, fire, flame.
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A lot of Old Testament concepts there, right?
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Waters make you think of the Red Sea.
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Israel passing through Exodus 14.
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The rivers, think of Israel crossing over the Jordan in Joshua 3.
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The flame, the fire, you think of Daniel 3.
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Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown in the fiery furnace and crank it up as high as it'll go and let's incinerate them.
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And Jesus shows up.
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So rivers, water, fire, flame.
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The point is various trials.
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We're going to go through various trials.
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The Bible doesn't say, at least no passage that I've ever read in the Bible says that if you're walking with the Lord, you're going to avoid going through trials.
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that says is He's going to be with us in the trials, and nothing's going to happen outside of His control.
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God is going to protect you.
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God is going to protect you.
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And I know as soon as you say that, there's going to be somebody sitting here saying, "If God's going to protect me, what's with the cancer diagnosis?
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If God's going to protect me, why was my friend in this horrible accident?
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I thought God was going to protect us!" We live in a fallen world bad things happen, and we can't deny that.
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But let me just get you to think about this.
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Do you have any idea through the course of your life how many times you've been protected that you don't even know about?
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Do you have any idea?
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The answer is you don't.
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And I don't know either.
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How many times in your life did the Lord allow your kids not to find their shoes that you were five minutes late in leaving so that you weren't in an accident down the road.
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You're like, "I don't know." I don't know either.
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Something I do know is you're a lot more protected than you think you are.
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Whatever the case, we're going to talk about God's sovereignty next week.
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There's not a hair on your head that's going to be afflicted outside of the sovereign control of God.
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So you're protected.
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Look at this. How protected?
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even at the expense of others.
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Look at verses 3-4.
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"For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
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I gave Egypt as your ransom.
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Push and seabuck in exchange for you, because you are precious in My eyes and honored and I love you.
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I give men in return for you, in exchange for your life.
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That's a hard truth, isn't it?
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God will protect His people even at the expense of others.
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You're like, well, what does that even mean?
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Well, let's think about one of the examples that He just gave.
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Let's take the first one there.
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Verse 3 talks about Egypt.
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Did God save Israel at the expense of Egypt?
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You know the story of the Red Sea.
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Israel leaving Egypt, the Book of Exodus, and they're basically cornered.
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They've got the Red Sea in front of them.
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Here come the Egyptians.
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Red Sea, Egyptians. Red Sea, Egyptians.
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What do you think the Egyptians were going to do when they caught up with the Israelites?
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What do you think the Egyptians were going to do?
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Do you think they were going to maybe slap them on the wrist?
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and say, "Now Pharaoh didn't appreciate that.
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We need you to come home now." I don't think that that's what was going to happen at all.
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I think if those Egyptians would have caught up with Israel, I think they were going to slaughter them because of the plagues and everything else that went down.
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I don't think they were there to chat.
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Okay, so here's Israel at the Red Sea, here comes Egypt, Israel at the Red Sea, here comes Egypt.
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And what does God do?
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God, from His perspective in heaven, sees somebody's going to get hurt.
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God says, "It's not going to be Israel." God opens up the Red Sea and Israel walks through, and here comes Egypt and God closes the sea on them.
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So do you see how God's protecting love, says, "I am willing." I'm willing to protect you even if it's at the expense of someone else.
20:57-21:18
do you see that? And somebody would say, "Well, I don't think that's fair. I don't think that's fair. God seems awfully cruel to do that." You would do the exact same thing. Like, "I don't think I would." And I say, "I think you would." I want you to think about this scenario. I'm going to paint a little picture for you.
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Imagine you have this 10-year-old child. Some of you have kids, some of you don't, but whether you do or not, we can all pretend, right?
21:30-21:30
We can pretend.
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You have a 10-year-old child, and imagine that you're driving to school to pick your child up from school.
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And we're just painting a little picture here.
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We're pretending.
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So you're driving to pick your kid up from school, and your child is just sitting in the playground.
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It's a boy.
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He's sitting in the playground, and he's just kind of playing.
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And you're on the street to pull up to pick him up, and you see 100 feet ahead of you, standing in the middle of the road, as a man that has a gun, and he has that gun pointed at your child, what are you going to do?
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What are you going to do?
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Well, I would have to consider the morality of the situation.
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And would it really be-- what would you do?
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Would you tattoo that guy with your car?
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How many people would hit that guy with your car without a second thought?
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Why?
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Because you will do whatever it takes to protect your child.
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Because that child is precious to you.
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And if it means giving your life, you will do it.
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You won't think twice about running that guy over.
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You will hit the gas.
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You will hit the guy.
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And then you'll put it in reverse and back over him.
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because you will protect your child.
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What would motivate you to mow a guy down in the street?
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What would motivate you is this love that you have.
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And you see, that's the kind of love that God has for His people.
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God's like, listen, if it comes down to them or you, it's going to be them.
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And if I have to destroy someone else in order to protect you, God says I am willing to do that.
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That's the kind of love that God has for you.
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I'm secure because I'm paid for it.
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I'm secure because I'm protected.
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Letter C.
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I'm secure because my future is written.
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Look at verses 5-7.
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Because my future is written.
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God says, "Fear not, for I am with you.
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I will bring your offspring from the east and from the west I will gather you.
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I will say to the north, 'Give up!' And to the south, 'Do not withhold.' Bring My sons from afar my daughters from the end of the earth.
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Everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.
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The future is already written for God's people.
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And in this passage in particular, it's talking about the day that God is going to reassemble Israel from the corners of the earth, and that's already been partially fulfilled.
24:12-24:20
And the days are coming when it's going to be fully fulfilled that Israel is going and they're tied back together totally in the land that God promised.
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Verse 8 says, "Bring out the people who are blind yet have eyes, who are deaf yet have ears.
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All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble.
24:32-24:35
Who among them can declare this and show us the former things?
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Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right and let them hear and say, 'It is true.'" is saying, "Who else can predict the future?
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Is there any other God who has called the end from the beginning?
24:50-24:56
Let's bring the people here." And it's just that incomparable thing again.
24:57-25:01
God is basically saying again in other words, who is like the Lord?
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Who is like Me?
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Bring Him out.
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The point here, church, is your future's already written.
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That's a guarantee.
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And that's security.
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history and eternity to not play out for you the way that God has promised in His Word that it would play out for you, would make God a liar and give you no hope for your faith.
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We have, church, full assurance of Heaven and all the blessings that are ahead simply because God promised.
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I love how Jesus said it in John 14.
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He said to His disciples, "In my Father's house are many mansions." He said, "If it were not so, what I've told you..." Jesus was like, I'm not giving you fairy tale stuff.
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I'm not talking about unicorns.
25:53-25:56
Jesus is like, if this stuff wasn't true, what I'd be telling you?
25:57-25:57
That's assurance.
25:58-26:00
That's assurance.
26:00-26:01
My future's already written.
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To God - think about this - to God who lives outside of time - think about this.
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Future events are as factual as past events.
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Think about that.
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From God's perspective, future events are as factual to God as past events.
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Because He sees it all.
26:26-26:29
That's how He can declare the end from the beginning.
26:30-26:31
Because to Him, it's all fact.
26:32-26:35
Like for example, Justin, what did you have for breakfast this morning?
26:36-26:37
A cinnamon roll.
26:39-26:55
breakfast at their house next week. Okay, on March 13th, Justin, Katie had a cinnamon roll for breakfast. That is now a historical fact. Your kids aren't likely to learn this in history class at school. I'm just saying that's a historical fact.
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Now, is there anything that can change that fact? Like, for example, tomorrow somebody says, "What did Justin, Katie have for breakfast on Sunday morning?" The The answer is a cinnamon roll.
27:08-27:17
And if we're still here in 100 years, and somebody says March 13, 2016, what did Justin and Katie have for breakfast?
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The answer is going to be cinnamon roll.
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That is a fact that will never change.
27:24-27:29
Maybe Justin tomorrow, he's like, you know what, I felt really bad about making everybody at church covet.
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So just tell them I didn't have a cinnamon roll for breakfast.
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Guess what, Justin?
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Everything's going to change the fact because it's over.
27:37-27:42
Do you realize for God, the future events are like that cinnamon roll?
27:42-27:45
For God, it's like I'm sure what's going to happen.
27:45-27:47
Well, God, what if this happens?
27:47-27:49
God, what if I ran this?
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Or what if the next president that?
27:52-27:53
God's like, no, no, no.
27:54-27:56
I see the end from the beginning.
27:56-27:59
To me, they're all equally heavy facts.
27:59-28:01
It's truth. Truth is truth.
28:01-28:09
to God outside of time, everything's a cinnamon roll, so to speak.
28:10-28:12
The future is certain and unchangeable.
28:13-28:18
And finally, I am secure because I am chosen.
28:19-28:23
I am secure because I am chosen.
28:23-28:24
Look at verse 10.
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"You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, and My servants whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He.
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Before Me no God was born, nor shall there be any after Me.
28:41-28:47
I am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior.
28:49-28:52
I am secure because I am chosen.
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If you are saved, is because God has chosen to save you.
29:01-29:09
The theological terms, the biblical terms, we can talk about election, predestination, chosen - what does all of this mean?
29:09-29:14
It's God's sovereign act to initiate and complete salvation.
29:16-29:25
Romans 8:29-30 says that whom God foreknew, He predestined to be conformed into the image of His Son.
29:26-29:27
Those whom He predestined He called.
29:27-29:28
Those whom He called He justified.
29:28-29:31
And those whom He justified He glorified.
29:33-29:34
It wasn't an accident.
29:35-29:37
Like, well, God's going to be surprised to see me when I show up in heaven.
29:38-29:39
No, God already knew.
29:39-29:40
God knew before you did.
29:42-29:49
John 6:44, Jesus said no one comes to Him unless the Father draws them to Him.
29:49-29:53
That's God's sovereign act to initiate and complete salvation.
29:53-29:57
Ephesians 1:11 says that we are predestined according to His purpose.
29:59-30:02
So why does God save us in the first place?
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If God doesn't need us, and we are rebellious, why would God go to such incredible lengths to save us in the first place?
30:14-30:15
Look at verse 7 again.
30:15-30:16
We're going to jump back there.
30:17-30:22
He says, "Whom I created..." These last three words are really what it's all about.
30:23-30:23
It's for my glory.
30:25-30:29
We are created to manifest God's presence.
30:30-30:48
In Matthew 5:16, Jesus said, "Let your light shine before men so that they see your good works and give glory to your Father in Heaven." You see, the whole reason that God has saved us - the reason God has chosen to save us is to manifest His presence.
30:48-30:56
God wants the world to see Him - He has love and He wants to do it through His people.
30:57-31:03
So when we talk about election and predestination and all those things, I'm just going to be honest with you, I don't know what it all means.
31:03-31:05
I don't know how it all works.
31:06-31:07
I don't.
31:08-31:12
The Bible says that God chooses us, but we have responsibility to respond.
31:13-31:15
I don't know how it all works, okay?
31:15-31:17
I live in time and space.
31:17-31:18
God does not.
31:18-31:22
I'm just telling you, The Bible says that both of these things are true.
31:24-31:29
I don't know how it works, but I do know one thing for sure about the doctrine of election.
31:30-31:31
And that is this.
31:33-31:34
It's security.
31:35-31:40
Because Jesus said in John 6:44 - remember I referenced that way back a couple of minutes ago?
31:40-31:44
Jesus said no one comes to Him unless the Father draws him.
31:44-31:45
But then Jesus made this statement.
31:46-31:49
I will raise Him up on the last day.
31:51-32:01
If you are one of God's, that means He's chosen you and He's going to take you all the way to the finish line.
32:02-32:05
And you are secure in His love.
32:06-32:08
He's not going to stop loving you.
32:09-32:11
Nothing can separate you from the love of God.
32:11-32:12
You are sealed in the Spirit.
32:13-32:20
You are promised and guaranteed to be secure in this incomparable love.
32:22-32:33
So Monday morning, when you have a rough start to your work week, Tuesday afternoon, you just can't seem to get things going.
32:35-32:39
On Thursday evening, it seems like your whole world is crashing around you.
32:40-32:45
And the enemy would tempt you to start to wonder does God really love me?
32:47-32:50
I want to remind you, church, that you are paid for.
32:52-32:53
You are protected.
32:54-32:59
Your future has already been written and you have been chosen by God.
33:00-33:04
So you are secure in His incomparable love.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Isaiah 43:1-11

From this passage, describe ways God expresses His Incomparable Love!
Is 43:7 says God created His people for His glory. What does that mean? What does that look like in your life?
Explain how you understand the doctrine of election, that is, “God chooses us”. How would you explain it to a new Christian that never heard the concept before? How does this concept tie into God’s Incomparable Love?

Breakout Questions:
Confess your sins and pray for one another.

Power in Unity

Power for Boldness

Incomparably Gracious.

Incomparably Sovereign.

Incomparably Loving.

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

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