Benjamin Murphy
Small Group Questions
Benjamin Murphy
Sermon Series Highlights
Sermon Series Highlights
,

Abraham: Faith.

,

Introduction:

Faith is: Believing the Word of God, no matter how I feel, because God promises a good result.

3 Reasons Faith is Difficult. (Genesis 22:1-28)
  1. Faith doesn't make (human) Sense. (Gen 22:1-2)
  2. Faith means Doing hard things. (Gen 22:3-8)
  3. Faith requires Total commitment. (Gen 22:9-12)

Faith is always Rewarded.

Hebrews 11:17-19 - By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who hadrecieved the promise was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." He considered that God was able from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did recieve him back.

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

  • 00:24-00:32

    We're starting a series today called "Bible Basics." And this is a series to help you understand the Bible as a whole.

    00:33-00:35

    We want you to become a better Bible student, okay?

    00:35-00:41

    If you want to know God, if you want to know God in a deeper way, then you have to know God's Word.

    00:42-00:53

    And last year we did a series called "Bible 101." And in the "Bible 101" series, we went through the Bible and we took events, major events in the Bible.

    00:53-00:55

    But this series is going to be different.

    00:56-00:57

    It's going to be 10 weeks.

    00:58-01:07

    And also sweeping through the Bible, but instead of looking event by event, we're going to be examining 10 people from the Bible that you need to know.

    01:08-01:11

    Now how hard do you think it was to narrow that list down to 10?

    01:11-01:15

    It was hard. Okay? But we're just going to stick with 10.

    01:16-01:25

    These ten people were selected because of the ten key lessons that you and I need to learn from these people.

    01:25-01:30

    And first up, we're going to be starting in Genesis with Abraham.

    01:31-01:35

    He comes on the scene in Genesis 11. This is after creation.

    01:35-01:38

    This is after sin enters into the world.

    01:38-01:44

    And sin is so bad that God decides to wipe out the world with a flood and start over with one family.

    01:45-01:47

    This is after the Tower of Babel incident.

    01:47-02:01

    We talked about that in Bible 101, where God said, "Spread out, fill the earth." And the people said, "No, we think we're just going to stay here and all cluster together." And God says, "No, I don't think you are." And He confused their language and they spread out.

    02:01-02:04

    That's why we have so many languages in our world today.

    02:04-02:15

    But you get to Genesis 11 and Genesis 12, you see that God chooses a man named Abraham, And he gives him a promise and a responsibility.

    02:17-02:18

    And the responsibility is this.

    02:18-02:24

    He says, "Abraham, pack up and go." "Where are we going? I'll tell you when we get there. Go." That was Abraham's responsibility.

    02:24-02:27

    The promise was for three things.

    02:27-02:32

    It was for land, first of all, a particular chunk of real estate.

    02:33-02:34

    It was descendants.

    02:35-02:38

    "Abraham, you're going to have a family.

    02:38-02:39

    They're going to be like the stars in the sky.

    02:39-02:42

    You're gonna be like the sand on the beach.

    02:43-02:44

    You're gonna have a huge family.

    02:45-02:52

    And the third part of the promise, God says your family is going to bring a blessing that will be for the entire world.

    02:53-02:59

    Spoiler alert, it was Jesus, but the blessing was going to be for the whole world through Abraham's family.

    03:01-03:06

    But like us, like everyone, like you and I, Abraham had some struggles.

    03:08-03:11

    And do you know what one of Abraham's biggest struggles were?

    03:12-03:14

    Abraham liked to take matters into his own hands.

    03:15-03:16

    Anybody else like that?

    03:17-03:18

    Anybody at all, don't leave me up here.

    03:19-03:20

    That sometimes you're like, you know what?

    03:20-03:21

    I'm just gonna do it my way.

    03:22-03:24

    Abraham had a little bit of that going on.

    03:25-03:26

    Like, well, what do you mean?

    03:26-03:33

    Well, you can read this, but there were two separate instances, at least that we know of from the Bible, where Abraham found himself in a situation.

    03:34-03:38

    Okay, he had this wife, Sarah, And according to the Bible, she was very, very attractive.

    03:39-03:46

    And Abraham found himself in some situations where he was afraid that the people were going to kill him and take Sarah.

    03:46-03:48

    Like, let's get rid of the husband and we can have the lady.

    03:49-03:54

    So he said, look, let's, instead of trusting God, Abraham took matters into his own hands.

    03:54-03:55

    And he said, here's what we're gonna do.

    03:56-03:59

    We're just gonna tell everybody that you're my sister.

    03:59-04:02

    And that way they won't feel like threatened that the husband guy is here.

    04:03-04:07

    Okay, took matters into his own hands And that had some disastrous consequences.

    04:09-04:13

    Another instance that Abraham took matters into his own hands is Genesis 16.

    04:13-04:16

    Remember God had promised Abraham offspring, right?

    04:17-04:21

    And at this point, Abraham was 86 years old.

    04:21-04:25

    And he still did not have the son that God promised.

    04:25-04:25

    86.

    04:27-04:29

    I don't mean this to sound harsh.

    04:31-05:07

    is pretty late to be starting a family, but Abraham's like, "We didn't have the son that God promised." Abraham was 86 and Sarah would have been 76 and still didn't have the kids, so Abraham's like, "You know, I'm gonna take matters into my own hands." He says, "Since Sarah's obviously not able to conceive, I'll go to our maidservant, Hagar, and he had a baby with her." Again, he took matters into his own "Throw down your own hands!" And through Hagar came Ishmael, the father of the Arabs, and that caused a family feud that we're still dealing with today.

    05:08-05:11

    Okay, so finally you get to Genesis 21.

    05:12-05:16

    Abraham is 100. Anybody here 100? Close? No?

    05:17-05:22

    Sarah was 90, and Isaac was born to Sarah.

    05:23-05:29

    finally had this baby that they were promised way back when.

    05:29-05:37

    And now a hundred years old, Sarah, 90 years old, Isaac is born, rejoice, celebrate.

    05:37-05:39

    We finally have our child.

    05:40-05:45

    And then you get to Genesis chapter 22, and God says, "Now I want you to give him back.

    05:47-05:48

    I want you to kill him.

    05:49-05:58

    I want you to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to me." What?

    06:00-06:03

    Today, we're gonna talk about faith.

    06:04-06:15

    And this is a great subject to start with, and Abraham is the perfect person to use because according to the Bible, Abraham is the poster boy for faith.

    06:16-06:17

    He's a poster boy.

    06:18-06:19

    Like, well, how can you say that?

    06:20-06:25

    Because Genesis 15.6, Abraham believed God, was reckoned to him as righteousness.

    06:25-06:36

    Romans chapter four, the apostle Paul talking about faith in Romans, the greatest thing ever written about faith, Abraham is the poster boy for faith.

    06:37-06:39

    So the question today is what is faith?

    06:40-06:43

    Because it's a word that we throw around a lot, don't we?

    06:43-06:49

    We talk about faith and we use it a lot, but it's one of those words that's sort of hard to pin down a meaning.

    06:51-06:52

    We use it a lot though, right?

    06:52-06:56

    We say, you know, you gotta have faith in the pirates, right?

    06:56-06:57

    How many did they win in a row?

    06:58-06:59

    Like what, 10?

    07:00-07:00

    11?

    07:01-07:01

    All right.

    07:02-07:03

    So you gotta have a little faith, see?

    07:03-07:05

    You guys thought the pirates weren't gonna do well this year.

    07:06-07:07

    You gotta have some faith.

    07:07-07:12

    See, we're using that word faith inappropriately, but we're using the word faith.

    07:13-07:15

    We say, you know, you gotta have a little faith in me.

    07:16-07:18

    You gotta have a little faith in yourself.

    07:20-07:25

    People say, "You know, my faith is really important to me." Okay, so what's that mean?

    07:25-07:29

    Well, I looked up some definitions online, some secular ones, some religious ones.

    07:29-07:30

    Here's a secular one.

    07:31-07:36

    "Faith is complete trust in something." Okay. Vague.

    07:37-07:40

    Here's a religious definition of faith.

    07:40-07:45

    "Faith is confidence in a religious doctrine." Okay, vague.

    07:46-07:48

    But here's the best definition of faith I have ever heard.

    07:48-07:56

    I think this came from James MacDonald and it always stuck with me because I think this biblically is the best definition of faith.

    07:56-07:57

    It's on the screen here.

    07:58-08:08

    Faith is believing the word of God and acting upon it, no matter how I feel, because God promises a good result.

    08:11-08:16

    Believing the word of God and acting upon it, No matter how I feel, because God promises good results.

    08:17-08:18

    And you're like, "Okay, that's easy, right?

    08:19-08:19

    That's easy.

    08:20-08:20

    It's easy.

    08:20-08:21

    It's easy.

    08:21-08:22

    God says it.

    08:23-08:24

    I do it.

    08:24-08:25

    It's easy, right?

    08:25-08:32

    Faith is easy, right?" Now, faith is not easy.

    08:34-08:48

    And I say this because I love you, but if easy is a word that you associate with your faith, if easy is a word that you associate with your walk with Christ, then you're doing And on your outline today, three reasons faith is difficult.

    08:50-08:52

    Three reasons faith is difficult.

    08:53-08:57

    Number one, here in Genesis 22, I'll write this down.

    08:57-08:59

    Number one, three reasons faith is difficult.

    08:59-09:01

    Number one, faith doesn't make human sense.

    09:01-09:06

    Faith doesn't make human sense. It does not.

    09:06-09:07

    Look at verses 1 and 2.

    09:08-09:37

    "After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham." And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." Why?

    09:37-09:40

    Why in the world would God ask him to do this?

    09:41-09:48

    And, okay, why did Abraham at least ask God some questions, right?

    09:49-10:01

    Why did Abraham at least, at the very least, say, "God, is this open for discussion? Because, boy, I've got some questions here." There's no easy answer.

    10:04-10:07

    We see clearly from the text that God was testing Abraham.

    10:08-10:08

    That's clear.

    10:10-10:12

    But this doesn't make any sense.

    10:13-10:14

    Can we at least acknowledge that?

    10:15-10:27

    God literally promised to bless the world through Abraham's offspring, Isaac, and now God wants Abraham to kill the very son that God promised to use.

    10:27-10:29

    It doesn't make any sense!

    10:32-10:34

    But regardless, there it is.

    10:35-10:36

    "Abraham, do you trust me?

    10:37-10:41

    Then sacrifice your son to me." Wow.

    10:43-10:50

    A guy that was so used to taking matters into his own hands now gets the ultimate obedience test.

    10:53-10:55

    Now there's some things we can't understand, right?

    10:55-11:03

    For example, the test had to be hard, because the only way you can test for obedience is with a hard test.

    11:03-11:04

    You know what I mean?

    11:04-11:05

    Let me explain what I mean.

    11:06-11:13

    If you would say, "Jeff, are your children obedient to you?" Here's two of my children there and a nephew.

    11:13-11:22

    "Are your children obedient to you?" I would say, "My children are so obedient to me." You want proof?

    11:26-11:31

    "Hey, listen, I want you guys to eat this candy, all right?

    11:33-11:39

    Listen, hey, you listen to your father, you eat that candy." And so right now I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second, Pastor Jeff.

    11:39-11:43

    That was your obedience test? Your obedience test? That was too easy.

    11:43-11:50

    Did that prove anything about obedience? Did that prove anything?" It did not prove anything.

    11:51-11:59

    because we would have got the same result if I would have said, "Don't eat the candy." You can only test obedience with hard things.

    12:00-12:02

    And Abraham here was facing the hardest test possible.

    12:03-12:08

    Okay, and as a pastor I was trying to think this week, what can I compare this to?

    12:08-12:31

    Is there anything, and certainly there's no perfect illustration in my life that even lands in the same galaxy as this, but I'm like, is there something? And the only thing I could think of to try to wrap my brain around what Abraham had to go through here, the only thing I could think of was...

    12:33-12:38

    I had this dog named Brody, and I loved that dog.

    12:39-12:41

    I got that dog when I graduated college.

    12:43-12:45

    And that dog went everywhere with me.

    12:45-12:48

    He was always riding shotgun.

    12:48-12:50

    I had...

    12:50-12:55

    that dog slept with me, that dog ate with me from the same spoon, yes, I know.

    12:56-12:59

    You're like, "Pastor Jeff, that's really gross," but Brody got used to it.

    13:00-13:06

    I had that dog before marriage, I had that dog when we got married, I had that dog when we had our children.

    13:07-13:10

    I have pictures of my children laying on that dog.

    13:12-13:15

    That dog was a jerk. He had a chip on his shoulder.

    13:15-13:18

    And he was only a jerk to me. He'd be great to everybody else, but he would bite me.

    13:18-13:21

    He was so mean to me. But we all he was my best friend.

    13:22-13:25

    I I loved him and.

    13:27-13:28

    Well, he got cancer.

    13:30-13:37

    And I had to make the decision that every dog owner just dreads, you know what I'm talking about?

    13:38-13:59

    And I had to take him to the vet, and I remember kneeling down and the vet saying, "No, you know, just kind of hold him and tell him everything's going to be okay." And I had to stand, or kneel rather, and hold this dog who I loved and who trusted me perfectly.

    14:01-14:03

    I had to hold him while I killed him.

    14:04-14:05

    I made the decision.

    14:07-14:11

    That's the closest thing that I can even think of.

    14:11-14:17

    But even that, like I said, is so far removed from, "I want you to do this to your kid?

    14:18-14:19

    I want you to do this to your son?

    14:20-14:39

    Could you do that?" But you see, real faith is when you get to the point where you say, "When God tells me to do something doesn't make sense, he can be trusted.

    14:41-14:43

    Because listen, sometimes faith doesn't make sense.

    14:44-14:47

    Actually, let me change that.

    14:50-14:52

    Faith hardly ever makes sense.

    14:53-14:54

    The Bible's full of this stuff, by the way.

    14:55-14:58

    When faith makes no sense, the Bible's full of it.

    14:59-15:01

    It's just stuff that makes no sense.

    15:03-15:09

    For example, "Do you want to have money?" What does the Bible say to do?

    15:10-15:11

    Give it away, right?

    15:12-15:13

    Right, Alex?

    15:13-15:14

    You want money?

    15:14-15:14

    Give it away.

    15:15-15:17

    Like, well, what sense does that make?

    15:19-15:19

    That's faith.

    15:21-15:23

    "Do you want to be great?" Everybody wants to be great.

    15:24-15:29

    "Do you want to be great?" We just heard Rich Sprung, one of our elders, gave a sermon on this.

    15:29-15:30

    "Do you want to be great?

    15:30-15:32

    How do you be great?" What's the path to greatness?

    15:34-15:34

    Be a slave.

    15:35-15:36

    Well, that doesn't make sense.

    15:37-15:38

    That's how faith works.

    15:40-15:41

    You want to find your life?

    15:41-15:43

    You want to find your life? What did Jesus say?

    15:44-15:46

    Lose it. You want to find it? Lose it.

    15:47-15:49

    I could go on and on and on and on.

    15:51-15:57

    But if you're looking for faith as a logical way of living, it's not going to happen.

    15:57-15:58

    It's just not.

    15:58-16:01

    Faith is the opposite of human logic.

    16:02-16:13

    You're like, "Well, wait a second. I see what you're saying." How could Abraham even possibly consider what God told him to do?

    16:14-16:16

    In a minute, I'm going to tell you exactly how.

    16:17-16:18

    In a minute, though. Hold that thought.

    16:19-16:24

    Because number two, faith means doing hard things.

    16:26-16:27

    Let's pick up verse 3.

    16:28-16:36

    So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac.

    16:37-16:42

    And he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and it rose, and went to the place of which God had told him.

    16:42-16:47

    On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

    16:48-16:52

    Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey.

    16:54-17:01

    I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you." Okay, so do you have the scene?

    17:02-17:15

    Abraham has a couple young guys helping him, and he's with Isaac, and he says, "Okay, to the young men, you guys stay here, we're going to worship." And that's sort of just how he leaves it.

    17:16-17:21

    I mean, it's not like Abraham could explain this to these young men, right?

    17:22-17:29

    Like, "Hey, I'm going to go kill my kid, but you guys stay here and watch to make sure nobody touches my stuff." Like, how do you roll that out?

    17:31-17:39

    Verse 6, "And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and took in his hand the fire and the knife.

    17:39-17:41

    So they went, both of them together.

    17:42-18:08

    And Isaac said to his father Abraham, 'My father!' And he said, 'Here am I, my son.' "Hey," Isaac said, "Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went, both of them, together.

    18:11-18:14

    That's an interesting exchange between Isaac and Abraham, right?

    18:14-18:16

    "Hey, Dad, where's the lamb?

    18:16-18:18

    We're going to worship. We need to sacrifice to worship.

    18:18-18:20

    So where's the sacrifice?

    18:21-18:24

    And Abraham says, "God provides for himself.

    18:25-18:26

    God always gives what he requires.

    18:28-18:41

    God himself will provide it." Now that statement that Abraham makes, "God will provide for himself." I was doing some reading this week, and there are some people that think that Abraham was just placating Isaac.

    18:41-18:56

    Like, almost like Abraham's like, like Isaac's like, "Hey, where's the lamb?" and Abraham's like, "Uh, we'll find out when we get there." Like he was just sort of like being vague and placating, and honestly, I don't think that's what's happening here at all.

    18:58-19:00

    I think Abraham was teaching Isaac.

    19:01-19:10

    The very lesson that Abraham was learning in this moment, and that lesson is this, when God says to do something, you just do it, and you trust God to provide.

    19:13-19:16

    Because faith calls us to move.

    19:17-19:23

    And biblically, it's not faith until you believe God enough to act.

    19:24-19:29

    You see, when God came to Abraham, God didn't throw him out hypotheticals.

    19:29-19:45

    Let's say, "Abraham, would you say that you love Isaac more than you love me?" And Abraham would have been like, "No, I wouldn't say that." The Lord wasn't like, "Abraham, hypothetically, hypothetically, "Would you kill him for me?" Hypothetically, of course.

    19:46-19:50

    And Abraham's like, "Well, hypothetically, I'd think about it." That's not what happened.

    19:51-19:53

    God doesn't come to you with the hypotheticals.

    19:54-19:56

    God says, "Do it! Do it!

    19:58-20:07

    This is what I want you to do, Abraham, now do it!" And church, the ball is in your court. The faith ball is in your courts.

    20:08-20:13

    that just agreeing with what God said isn't faith.

    20:14-20:17

    Faith is acting on what God said, even when it's hard.

    20:18-20:21

    For example, do you believe God hears and answers prayer?

    20:22-20:29

    I imagine if we took a survey of people leaving, "Do you believe God hears and answers prayer?" Everybody would say, "Oh yeah, I believe in prayer. I believe in prayer.

    20:29-20:35

    I believe in the power of prayer. Of course I believe in the power of prayer." I put a really cute kitten meme on Facebook talking about the power of prayer.

    20:35-20:37

    Of course I believe in the power of prayer.

    20:37-20:46

    Well, listen, if you don't get alone and pray, then you don't really believe in prayer.

    20:48-20:58

    Or I could say, "Do you believe missions is important?" "Oh yeah, missions is important." "I believe missions is so important." "Well, do you give to missions?

    21:00-21:06

    Have you gone on mission trips?" "Oh no, no, no, I don't really give to missions, I've never gone on a trip.

    21:07-21:08

    Well, then you don't believe missions is important.

    21:10-21:12

    Because faith isn't about agreeing, faith is about doing.

    21:13-21:14

    Your faith should move you.

    21:15-21:16

    We talked about money earlier.

    21:17-21:23

    I said, "Do you believe God when he said," 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, so many other places in the Bible talks about money.

    21:23-21:27

    "Do you believe God when he said, 'If you give to God, he gives back to you?'" Do you believe that?

    21:28-21:30

    I'll tell you the person who believes that is the person who gives.

    21:32-21:33

    Faith means doing hard things.

    21:33-21:36

    And faith is not agreeing things are hard.

    21:37-21:39

    Faith is doing hard things.

    21:40-21:42

    James says faith without works is what?

    21:43-21:45

    It's dead! It's dead.

    21:45-21:46

    Faith without works is dead.

    21:47-21:48

    And Abraham knew that well.

    21:49-21:53

    You can talk a good game, but it's not faith until it moves you.

    21:54-21:56

    Faith means doing hard things.

    21:58-22:00

    Now number three, why faith is difficult.

    22:01-22:02

    Faith requires total commitment.

    22:03-22:04

    This requires total commitment.

    22:06-22:07

    Look at verses 9-12.

    22:08-22:09

    So we have the scene.

    22:10-22:14

    Abraham tells his helpers, "Hey, you guys stay here.

    22:14-22:15

    My son and I are going to worship.

    22:15-22:16

    Put some wood on Isaac.

    22:17-22:22

    Fire, get the knife. We're going." Where's the lamb? God's going to provide the lamb.

    22:22-22:39

    Verse 9, "When they came to the place of which God had told them, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order "And he called Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

    22:40-22:46

    Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son." He's really going through with this.

    22:48-22:52

    Verse 11, "But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham!

    22:53-23:10

    Abraham!' And he said, 'Here am I.' He said, 'Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, Now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son." Faith requires total commitment.

    23:10-23:14

    God wasn't satisfied with Abraham just saddling up the donkey.

    23:15-23:21

    "Abraham, I want you to kill Isaac." "Okay, I'm going, God. I'm really doing it.

    23:21-23:39

    I'm really doing it. You see me going?" God's like, "Okay, that's good." "No." He wasn't even satisfied Abraham was chopping the wood, or halfway on the journey, or even when he got to the point of binding Isaac, laying him on the wood.

    23:39-23:41

    Okay Abraham, I see that you're serious now.

    23:42-23:47

    Abraham was not stopped until the knife was in his hand.

    23:47-23:49

    That's total commitment.

    23:49-23:51

    That's going all the way.

    23:52-23:53

    And that hasn't changed by the way, church.

    23:53-23:55

    God wants all of you.

    23:56-24:01

    Nothing in your life can be more important than your walk with Christ.

    24:02-24:04

    That's why God chose this test for Abraham, by the way.

    24:05-24:11

    Abraham, he waited forever to get this kid, to get this son.

    24:11-24:15

    He finally got the one thing he waited so long for.

    24:15-24:22

    And God comes back with a test and says, "Abraham, am I still number one?" Blessings can become an idol.

    24:23-24:43

    Maybe you purchased that home, you get this new home, "Thank you God for providing this home, and God thank you, this is the perfect home, God we thank you for this." And then over time the home gets all of your time and money and attention, and it becomes more of an object of worship than God is.

    24:43-24:44

    It becomes an idol.

    24:45-24:47

    For some people it's a relationship, right?

    24:48-25:01

    Some people are like, "Oh God, would you please just bring the perfect person into my life?" and you have this relationship and suddenly this person is now more important to you than your walk with Christ.

    25:02-25:03

    Do you see how the blessing became an idol?

    25:04-25:08

    Like in Abraham's case, it applies to us, church.

    25:08-25:10

    Listen, if the shoe fits, you've got to wear it, right?

    25:13-25:15

    Even kids. Your kids can become an idol.

    25:17-25:33

    So the question that was posed to Abraham, that needs to be posed to you and needs to be posed to me, the question is this, "Do you love God?" Or, "Do you love what God has given?" Do you...

    25:33-25:49

    Phrasing it another way, "Do you delight in knowing God, or do you delight in getting from God?" Your commitment that Abraham rediscovered here is first and always to God.

    25:50-25:56

    No matter what he gives, no matter what he takes away, your walk with God must be first place.

    25:58-26:08

    At this point you might be saying, "Well, faith is hard. Then why would we live by faith?" Like, "Pastor Jeff, you have given a terrible sales pitch today. That was horrible.

    26:09-26:12

    I came here for a feel-good message, and that was terrible.

    26:13-26:20

    I sat down, I even brought my Bible, and you're like, "Faith is really hard, by the way." There's a P.S. on your outline.

    26:21-26:22

    P.S.

    26:23-26:26

    I can't just leave you hanging, because here's the rest of the story.

    26:27-26:28

    This is the good part.

    26:28-26:30

    Faith is always rewarded.

    26:32-26:33

    Faith is always rewarded.

    26:34-26:43

    Look at verse 13, "And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns.

    26:44-26:57

    And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son." You need to underline that in your Bible, that's the first substitutionary sacrifice in the Bible.

    26:58-27:35

    "So Abraham called the name of that place, 'The Lord will provide.' "As it is said to this day on the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided." And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, "By myself I have sworn," declares the Lord, "because you have done this and have not withheld your Son, your only Son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies.

    27:36-27:45

    And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice." Faith is always rewarded.

    27:47-27:52

    And you're like, "Wait, wait, wait, doesn't that contradict what you just said?" No, not at all. You say, "Listen, listen, listen.

    27:53-27:58

    This is important." It always is, but emphasis here, right?

    27:58-28:06

    Abraham was rewarded because he cared more about trusting God than keeping His blessing.

    28:07-28:09

    That's why Abraham was rewarded.

    28:10-28:20

    He cared more about trusting God than keeping His blessing, and when you have faith like that, it will always, always, always, always be rewarded.

    28:20-28:21

    Every time.

    28:23-28:32

    Abraham was rewarded not only with keeping his son, but he was rewarded by being the spiritual father of all who would believe.

    28:32-28:33

    You know that?

    28:34-28:37

    If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're a son of Abraham.

    28:38-28:43

    I just want to say, church, that you're never going to do something by faith that you're going to regret.

    28:44-28:51

    And I can tell you there's a lot of things that I've done in my life, taking matters into my own hands, not done by faith.

    28:51-28:53

    I've done a lot of that stuff in my life and I regret that.

    28:54-28:56

    I've regretted every one.

    28:57-28:59

    But I have never done something by faith.

    28:59-29:05

    I have never gotten to a place in my life where I'm like, "Okay God, I'm going to trust You on this." I have never regretted those moments, not one time.

    29:06-29:07

    Nor have I met somebody that has.

    29:09-29:19

    Now earlier you were like, "Pastor Jeff, you told us that you knew why Abraham was able to consider sacrificing Isaac.

    29:19-29:20

    I think, you know, how could he have done it?

    29:20-29:20

    What was he thinking?

    29:21-29:27

    I mean, without resistance, how was Abraham able to do this?

    29:28-29:28

    Do you want to know?

    29:30-29:32

    You know, the Bible tells us.

    29:33-29:35

    Look at these verses with me as we close.

    29:36-29:38

    Here's why Abraham was able to do this.

    29:38-29:39

    This is from Hebrews 11.

    29:40-30:00

    It says, "By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, "And he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.'" Look at this last statement, this is it.

    30:01-30:04

    This is one of the most awesome things in the Bible.

    30:05-30:18

    It says, "He (Abraham) considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, He did receive him back.

    30:18-30:23

    So you see, these verses take us through Abraham's logic.

    30:25-30:26

    And this was Abraham's logic.

    30:28-30:35

    So God says, "Abraham, I want you to kill Isaac." And Abraham's like, "All right, let's reason this out.

    30:36-30:42

    God has promised that He was going to bless the world through Isaac.

    30:43-30:47

    That's fact number one. We know that, right? God said that. We're sure about that, right?

    30:48-30:49

    He's going to bless the world through Isaac.

    30:51-31:00

    Fact number two, God says, "Kill Isaac." Oh. Easy. God can raise the dead.

    31:02-31:03

    That's the only thing that makes sense?

    31:04-31:07

    You see, that's faith.

    31:09-31:13

    I'm sure God said this. It doesn't make sense.

    31:13-31:21

    But I trust Him, and I'm acting on it, because trusting God always brings the best result.

    31:23-31:27

    It was a hard lesson for a man who was used to taking matters into his own hands.

    31:28-31:31

    Was Abe rewarded? He was.

    31:31-31:39

    Because from Abraham came the Jews, and from the Jews came Jesus, and from Jesus Christ alone comes salvation to all who would believe.

    31:40-31:43

    So we were all rewarded from Abraham's faith.

    31:44-31:51

    And now you are writing your own faith story by the way that you live today.

    31:52-31:52

    Let's pray.

    31:54-31:56

    Father in heaven, we thank you for your Word.

    31:59-32:02

    A father has a dad with two sons.

    32:04-32:09

    There's a part of me that just has a hard time even wrapping my brain around this passage.

    32:11-32:14

    I understand it on some level, and I sure don't on another.

    32:16-32:22

    But God, I thank You for the clear lessons that You're teaching us from Your Word today.

    32:24-32:25

    But God, You have to be number one.

    32:26-32:29

    Faith requires that we...

    32:29-32:45

    Faith requires, Father, not just that we agree with what You say, but that we act on what You say, even in those times that our minds might not sense any logic.

    32:45-32:54

    I pray, Father, for myself, and I pray for this church, that we would learn to have logic like Abraham, who said God promised to bless the earth through Isaac.

    32:55-32:59

    God says kill Isaac, therefore God must be able to raise the dead.

    33:02-33:03

    That's incredible logic.

    33:06-33:09

    But Father, give us such faith.

    33:12-33:19

    Father, there are some people here right now who are having to make some hard decisions because of faith.

    33:23-33:28

    There are some people here right now that probably feel like bailing on a marriage.

    33:32-33:33

    Bailing on life.

    33:35-33:44

    People listening to this Father who maybe feel like they need to take matters into their own hands.

    33:48-33:49

    Because the way of faith is hard.

    33:53-33:54

    I pray for that person.

    33:54-33:59

    I pray for those people that they would trust You though it is hard.

    34:02-34:08

    And I pray, Father, just as Abraham, he had an immediate reward and he had a long-running reward.

    34:09-34:22

    I pray, Father, that You would greatly reward the person who right now today - Father, please greatly reward that person who decides, "I'm going to trust God.

    34:23-34:27

    I'm going to do what God said, and I'm going to leave the results to Him.

    34:29-34:32

    Thank you, Father, for the example that You've given us in Abraham.

    34:35-34:38

    We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion

WHOLE GROUP
Read Genesis 22:1-18

  1. Define “faith”. What are some wrong ideas about what faith is?

  2. Why did God test Abraham (Gen 22:1)? Does God still test people today? Do you believe God has ever tested you?

  3. What is the hardest thing you’ve ever done because of your faith?

BREAKOUT
Is there any area YOU have struggled to be “100% all in”? Be honest, encouraging, and judgment-free! Pray for one another to over-come that struggle area of faith.

Life after Salvation: Where's the Effort?

Introduction:

Three Parts to Salvation (2 Peter 1:3-10)

  • Justification: Past
  • Sanctification: Present
  • Glorification: Future

Results When Every Effort is Made:

  1. Making every effort results in Spiritual Maturity. (2 Pet 1:8)

    2. Jeremiah 29:13 - "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."

  2. Making every effort keeps us from Habitual Sin. (2 Pet 1:9)
  3. Making every effort produces Confidence in our salvation. (2 Pet 1:10)

Ryan Stroupe - Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North Small Groups Ministry Leader

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

  • 00:28-00:30

    All right, welcome.

    00:30-00:31

    And that was a funny joke.

    00:32-00:34

    I laughed for a long time about that.

    00:36-00:39

    And it was my uncle, so I'll admit who it was.

    00:40-00:41

    Most of that was true.

    00:42-00:44

    It wasn't the next day, but it was several hours.

    00:45-00:46

    And I actually did feel a little bit bad.

    00:48-00:52

    I did feel a little bit bad after it, but I did laugh for a long time.

    00:53-00:54

    You should have just asked Erin.

    00:54-00:55

    She saw right through it from the beginning.

    00:56-01:01

    All right. Before I get started, I just want to say I am humbled to be here.

    01:02-01:07

    I do not take it lightly to bring the gospel. This is something I've never done before.

    01:08-01:15

    And most people are always, "Hey, you give the announcements, it's great." That's a lot different giving the announcements than it is getting up here and telling you what the Bible says.

    01:15-01:18

    The announcements I can get wrong, and nobody cares.

    01:19-01:33

    So this is a little bit more important, and I want to, on behalf of Mike, Rich, and Justin, I want to say thank you to Jeff for the past six months, for putting your faith in us to bring the message, and I hope we've brought honor to you and honor to God.

    01:34-01:37

    And I want to say thank you very much for the training that we've had.

    01:37-01:50

    And church, trust me, after seeing what Jeff does behind the scenes, the passion and the commitment that he puts into preaching, we can all rest assured that he's putting everything he has into this church and into the gospel, into each and every person here.

    01:51-01:51

    So Jeff, thank you.

    01:53-01:54

    All right, before we get started, let's pray.

    01:56-01:57

    Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for this day.

    01:58-02:01

    I want to ask you to please speak through me.

    02:02-02:05

    Don't allow my words to come out, but allow your words.

    02:06-02:15

    Father, if there's somebody here that has not received you as their Savior, please do not let them leave this building today without getting that taken care of.

    02:16-02:18

    I ask you to bless this day and bless this sermon.

    02:19-02:20

    In Jesus' name, amen.

    02:21-02:29

    Like Jeff said, my wife and I are the small group coordinators at the church, and that's something that we never had at our other churches.

    02:30-02:32

    And so coming here was kind of a new thing.

    02:33-02:35

    It was something that we kind of got asked to do.

    02:35-02:38

    We weren't really expecting to ever be in this position.

    02:39-02:40

    And it's been such a blessing to us.

    02:41-02:48

    And if you're not in a small group, please come see me afterwards, because I can go on and on about the blessings of what small group will do for you personally.

    02:49-02:52

    But that's what I do under the name Harvest Bible Chapel.

    02:52-02:55

    That's what we do inside the church for the church.

    02:56-02:59

    Some of you may not know what I do outside of the church.

    03:00-03:02

    I work for my father, who's here today.

    03:03-03:04

    I'm gonna talk about you, Dad.

    03:07-03:22

    But I've now gotten to a position in our company that my dad has given up, my brothers and I also, or my brothers work for my dad as well, and we all have a part ownership in the company, and we have a vice president position, which means nothing because my mom runs everything.

    03:23-03:23

    (Laughter)

    03:26-03:29

    That is not where I started at all.

    03:29-03:30

    That is not where I started.

    03:30-03:33

    I have to take you back 13 years ago to when I started.

    03:34-03:38

    I was 18 years old, coming out of high school, no idea what I wanted to do in life.

    03:38-03:42

    And my dad was not going to pay for me to go to college to major in Undecided.

    03:43-03:47

    If that's you today, I'm sorry, but my dad was not paying for that.

    03:47-03:53

    So, he told me, "Hey, come to work for me until you know what you want to do." I'm still waiting to figure out what I want to do.

    03:54-03:55

    But it's been pretty good so far.

    03:57-04:06

    So I came to work for him, and I thought in my mind, I was going to spend the summer goofing around, all my buddies weren't going to college till September, I thought this was going to be great, going to be the summer of awesome.

    04:07-04:14

    It was not, because my dad gave me a week off from school and I had to go to work, and rent was due at the end of June.

    04:15-04:15

    (Laughs)

    04:16-04:29

    But then I thought, "Okay, this will be great, because by the end of summer, I'm going to have this cool car, I'm going to have all this cool stuff, and all my buddies are going to be jealous of me." Again, I was wrong, because it's really hard to make a car payment on $9 an hour.

    04:30-04:30

    (Laughter)

    04:30-04:31

    And again, rent was due.

    04:33-04:37

    So you see, what my dad did was my dad gave me an entry-level position.

    04:37-04:39

    I was the bottom of the barrel.

    04:39-04:41

    Everybody told me what to do.

    04:41-04:45

    I was the youngest brother, I was the youngest guy in the company, I was the new guy in the company.

    04:46-04:47

    I had to start at the bottom.

    04:48-04:52

    But you could not deny that I was an employee of my company.

    04:53-04:56

    So my dad gave me a job, and that was it.

    04:57-05:02

    But beyond that, it was up to me to take the tools that my dad had given me and learn how to use them.

    05:03-05:05

    Follow the path that my dad had put down for me.

    05:05-05:09

    Follow the path that my dad had laid out for me to become successful in the company.

    05:10-05:13

    My dad could not force me to work hard.

    05:14-05:18

    My dad could not force me to become very good with the tools that we use.

    05:20-05:25

    Now he'll tell this story differently that I still don't work quite hard enough, but he's not up here preaching today, I am.

    05:26-05:28

    So I get to say what I want.

    05:29-05:34

    No, but I don't say it publicly enough, "Dad, thank you for what you've done for us.

    05:36-05:45

    And thank you for laying out that path for us and making our lives successful that way." So like I said, it was up to me to take those steps.

    05:45-05:49

    It was up to me to follow that path that was laid out before me.

    05:50-05:56

    And even still to this day, 13 years later, I still go to my dad and ask for advice, ask for questions.

    05:56-06:00

    My dad is still leading us along as we try to become more successful.

    06:01-06:03

    But again, my dad could not force that.

    06:04-06:05

    I could have, "Hey, I'm an employee.

    06:06-06:07

    I like $9 an hour.

    06:08-06:14

    I'm going to live like that forever." I probably would have gotten my beautiful wife that I have now, but that's okay.

    06:15-06:23

    I could have stayed there, and I could have been just a mediocre employee, but I was an employee and you couldn't deny me of that.

    06:23-06:24

    But I wanted more than that.

    06:24-06:26

    I wanted to become successful in the company.

    06:28-07:03

    When I tell that story, in my mind it's going to relate to what we're going to speak about today because God too gave us a free gift and all we had to do was accept that. But then we had to put out an effort as to whether we were going to be successful in our Christian walk. And you might say, "Ryan, whoa, that sounds like legalism. That sounds like works-based salvation." No, legalism and works-based salvation tells you you have to do that before you're saved. You see, Christ died on the cross for us and in that moment when we accept that gift we are saved.

    07:03-07:35

    Nothing we have to do on our own. Why we are here on earth. We have work to do. We have to prove our salvation. We have to make every effort to have a successful walk with God and a successful Christian life and a Christian relationship with God. It's up to us to start taking those steps and just as my dad laid out the path for my brothers and I to become successful in our company. Christ too has laid out the path for us. But God cannot make us start walking that path.

    07:36-07:43

    We have to decide whether we are going to take the steps and we're going to follow Christ and we're going to keep our eyes on Christ. God can't force us to do that.

    07:44-07:52

    He wants us to. He's already done the work. It's up to us now to prove our salvation and do our work for Christ.

    07:54-08:02

    Because you see, if all the gospel is to you is punching your ticket to heaven and avoiding hell, then you are not understanding the gospel.

    08:03-08:04

    You see, there's three parts of salvation.

    08:05-08:09

    You see, there's justification, there's sanctification, and there's glorification.

    08:10-08:12

    Justification is what God did for us on the cross.

    08:12-08:14

    That was the past, that's been done.

    08:14-08:16

    Our sins were paid on the cross.

    08:18-08:21

    When we become saved, that's what God did on the cross.

    08:21-08:23

    That's the past, it's been done.

    08:24-08:28

    And a lot of times what we want to do is we want to skip from justification down to glorification.

    08:29-08:31

    And that's the future, that's the ultimate prize.

    08:31-08:34

    That's when we get to heaven, that's when we get to spend eternity with Christ.

    08:35-08:37

    'Cause that is the ultimate goal, is that we do want to go to heaven.

    08:38-08:41

    We want to escape the death of hell, and the pain of hell.

    08:43-08:51

    But you see, what we so often want to do, and what so many Christians want to do, and so many churches today wanna do, we wanna skip sanctification.

    08:52-08:56

    And that is us in a process becoming more Christ-like.

    08:57-09:00

    That is what we are doing right here and right now.

    09:01-09:05

    We have to make the effort to become sanctified.

    09:06-09:09

    And that's what our passage is gonna talk about today.

    09:10-09:17

    So everybody, if you turn in your Bibles or if you have something with your Bible on it, Turn to 2 Peter 1, verses 3 through 10.

    09:18-09:25

    And as you're turning there, I want you to understand that when Peter wrote this, God had revealed to him that he was about to die.

    09:25-09:27

    His life was about to end.

    09:27-09:33

    So this was the last letter that Peter got to write to the church at the time, Church of Asia Minor.

    09:34-09:35

    So I want you to kind of picture that.

    09:36-09:40

    If somebody, if there was a way that somebody had reeled to you, hey, next Tuesday, you're out.

    09:40-09:41

    You're going to heaven.

    09:42-09:44

    Life is done for you next Tuesday.

    09:45-09:47

    So you have to picture yourself, what am I gonna tell my children?

    09:48-09:49

    What am I gonna tell my wife?

    09:49-09:50

    What am I gonna tell my parents?

    09:50-09:53

    What am I going to leave on this earth?

    09:53-09:59

    What are the most important things that if you get nothing out of my life, this is what I want you to understand.

    09:59-10:02

    And so that is how Peter was writing this letter.

    10:03-10:05

    He's going, listen, my time is short.

    10:05-10:09

    I don't have a lot of time left, so please understand these truths before I leave.

    10:09-10:13

    If there's nothing that you get out of this, please understand these truths.

    10:14-10:16

    So have that in your mind as we read this.

    10:17-10:19

    All right, picking up in verse number three.

    10:20-11:14

    His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in this world of a sinful desire. So we pause there for a minute. So Peter's talking to people that are already saved. They understand, they have access to the divine power that we have through God. Because we've accepted the free gift of salvation, we now have this access to a power that God may at times use through us. We have the power to defeat sin. We have the power that we've escaped death because of Christ. So that's what he's talking about in those verses. Picking up back in verse This next phrase is where I want to focus our sermon today.

    11:15-11:29

    "For this reason, because you were saved, make every effort." And I talked to Jeff about this, and he told me that the Greek, if you translate it in the Greek, it literally means, "Make every effort." That translates perfectly.

    11:30-11:34

    Not make a little effort, not make some effort, make every effort.

    11:36-11:56

    Make every effort to supplement or add to your faith with virtue, that's moral excellence, and virtue with knowledge, that's a spiritual discernment, and knowledge with self-control, this is a hard one, that's a spirit-empowered ability to say no to sin, and self-control with steadfastness.

    11:57-11:59

    Steadfastness is perseverance in our walk with Christ.

    12:00-12:05

    And steadfastness with godliness, becoming Christlike, In godliness with brotherly affection.

    12:06-12:12

    That's the same love you would have for your own kin, but extending that to your brother or sister in Christ.

    12:13-12:14

    In brotherly affection with love.

    12:14-12:16

    That's agape love, that's unconditional love.

    12:16-12:18

    That's the love that Christ has for us.

    12:19-12:22

    There's nothing we do that makes God love us more.

    12:22-12:23

    He already ultimately loves us.

    12:23-12:25

    He paid the price for us on the cross.

    12:27-12:28

    It's unconditional.

    12:29-12:31

    But man, those are some powerful tools, are they not?

    12:32-12:33

    Those are hard tools.

    12:34-12:35

    Characteristics of Christ.

    12:36-12:37

    That's who Christ is.

    12:38-12:42

    And we are to make every effort to become like that.

    12:43-12:49

    And I don't want to spend a lot of time just on those characteristics alone because I want to see what the results are of those characteristics.

    12:49-12:57

    But I urge each and every person here, go home, study those, make those your bucket of tools.

    12:59-13:04

    go home, master them, become students of those.

    13:04-13:09

    Because I promise you they're gonna come up every day and you're gonna need them every day.

    13:09-13:12

    And you might say, "Hey, I'm good at some of these." Are you?

    13:13-13:15

    Are you a virtuous person when somebody cuts you off in traffic?

    13:17-13:18

    'Cause I don't know if I always am.

    13:19-13:22

    Are you always able to say no to sin?

    13:25-13:27

    Are you persevering in your walk with Christ?

    13:28-13:40

    being steadfast? At times, yes. But what happens when somebody makes fun of you at work about being a Christian? Or what happens when somebody wants to take your life because you're a Christian?

    13:42-13:56

    And sometimes we don't experience that in Wexford here. But the day may come when you have to stand up when somebody's pointing a gun at you and say, "Denounce Christ or or you're gonna die, are you able to persevere through that?

    13:59-14:06

    These are the tools that God gave us if we wanna have a successful walk and a successful relationship with God.

    14:07-14:08

    And that should be our desire.

    14:08-14:15

    Every person's desire is to be as successful as we can be in our walk with Christ.

    14:16-14:22

    Effort is defined by Webster as a vigorous and determined attempt.

    14:22-14:30

    A vigorous, determined, I'm determined to make every single one of these characteristics who I am.

    14:31-14:34

    Those characteristics are going to start defining who I am.

    14:35-14:38

    Because I'm a child of God and these characteristics are who God is.

    14:40-14:42

    So I want to be more Christ-like.

    14:42-14:44

    I want to be like God.

    14:46-14:48

    And you should never stop trying.

    14:49-14:53

    You have to constantly make that attempt, constantly make the effort.

    14:55-15:03

    If we want to do more than just punch our ticket to heaven like I said earlier, then you must continually be growing in these qualities.

    15:04-15:07

    You must make these qualities everything.

    15:09-15:12

    And again, I encourage you, go home, study these.

    15:14-15:14

    Figure out where they are.

    15:15-15:16

    I'm telling you, they are all through the Bible.

    15:17-15:19

    All of these are everywhere through the Bible.

    15:19-15:21

    What's the Strong's Concordance?

    15:21-15:23

    It's like five Bibles put together.

    15:23-15:25

    Open that up and just look up virtue.

    15:25-15:27

    See how many verses are under there.

    15:27-15:31

    Look up all those and see how many verses the Bible talks about.

    15:33-15:43

    And I'm telling you, you're going to grow if you start studying those and practicing those and not just becoming knowledgeable, but putting them in practice, using them.

    15:43-15:44

    You're going to grow in Christ.

    15:46-15:47

    That was all my intro.

    15:49-15:58

    Now, what I really wanna discuss and what I really wanna get into is what are the results when every effort is applied in our salvation?

    16:00-16:05

    Number one, making every effort results in spiritual maturity.

    16:06-16:07

    Let's look at verse eight.

    16:08-16:14

    For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of God.

    16:16-16:20

    You know, when I first met my wife, I think we were 18 years old.

    16:21-16:22

    We dated for a couple years.

    16:23-16:24

    I don't even know if it was that long.

    16:24-16:26

    A couple years, maybe.

    16:27-16:28

    We were married at 20 years old.

    16:30-16:31

    And we've now been married 11 years.

    16:32-16:34

    Very proud and thankful to be married to my wife.

    16:35-16:53

    You know, but I look back at year one, it makes us chuckle and sometimes we talk about this and how, you know, I know a lot of you in here are newly married, and I know a lot of you have been married longer than I have, and so I get that, but when I look at year 1 and I look at year 11, year 1 was such an infatuation.

    16:54-16:57

    You know, you thought the world could be conquered with love.

    16:58-17:00

    Love does not pay the heat bill, okay?

    17:01-17:01

    Money does.

    17:04-17:07

    Love doesn't always solve the problem.

    17:08-17:18

    You know, it's an infatuation that we had with each other, and I love my wife, but when I look back at it, it was much more immature of a marriage than what it is now at year 11.

    17:20-17:22

    You know, and why is that?

    17:22-17:24

    Because we grew with each other.

    17:24-17:25

    We got to know each other.

    17:25-17:36

    We put time into our marriage because there was this desire for us to get to know each other, to have a strong relationship that we could conquer anything as long as we were together.

    17:38-17:43

    And we went through hard times, we went through good times, we had children, the hardest thing of all.

    17:43-17:44

    That'll turn your life upside down.

    17:46-17:57

    But I love my children, and I love my wife, and our marriage would not have been what it is today if we had not put the time and the effort into our marriage, to get to know each other.

    17:59-18:01

    And that's exactly what God is telling us to do.

    18:02-18:05

    Get to know Him, spend time with Him.

    18:05-18:10

    So many times we want to do as Christians is just go, hey, I'm like, I'm not good at reading my Bible.

    18:10-18:13

    I'm not good at praying, you know, but I, but hey, I want to be spiritually mature.

    18:14-18:16

    And you always want to be like, how much time have you put into it?

    18:17-18:17

    What do you do?

    18:17-18:19

    Do you sit down and read your Bible?

    18:19-18:20

    And you just go, okay.

    18:21-18:25

    But if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of God.

    18:25-18:26

    All right, good set.

    18:26-18:27

    And you go on with your day.

    18:29-18:30

    But do you study that?

    18:31-18:33

    Do you look into what does that mean?

    18:35-18:38

    How is that affecting my daily life?

    18:40-18:54

    You know, one of the best answers I got was actually from Rich Sprunk, who preached a couple weeks ago, and it was so simple, and I always kind of had this idea in my head that's like, oh man, I'm not that educated of a guy.

    18:54-18:55

    I didn't go to college.

    18:55-18:57

    I don't always understand the Bible.

    18:59-19:04

    Sometimes it's hard for me to read, and I said to Rich, hey, how do you do that?

    19:04-19:05

    Like, Rich is a smart guy.

    19:05-19:11

    If you've ever talked to Rich, Rich is super smart and he knows the Bible and I love Rich and I love his knowledge.

    19:13-19:17

    And he said to me, he's like, "Ryan, you're being dumb." I was like, "Wow, that's hard."

    19:17-19:18

    (audience laughing)

    19:19-19:22

    He's like, "The Bible was written by simple men.

    19:23-19:24

    "Not always was it educated men.

    19:25-19:34

    "They were average men that wrote the Bible." He said, "Start on page one and read it "and you'd be surprised what you learn." And it was like, man, that's so simple.

    19:35-19:36

    Just read it.

    19:37-19:39

    Just open it and want to learn.

    19:40-19:41

    Actually read it.

    19:41-19:42

    Don't just read it because that's what you have to do.

    19:43-19:43

    Hey, I got my check mark.

    19:43-19:44

    I read my Bible today.

    19:45-19:47

    No, pour yourself into it.

    19:47-19:49

    Jeremiah 29, 13 tells us this.

    19:51-20:00

    "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart." When you make every effort, God will reveal himself to you.

    20:00-20:08

    When you come after God, when you get down on your knees and cry out to God and spend the time in the Bible, God will reveal himself to you.

    20:08-20:12

    He will give you the mind to interpret what he is saying.

    20:13-20:24

    And in today's world, there is no excuse for us to go, "Hey, I don't know what this means." Just in this church alone, the elders and Jeff that we have, you can go to them anytime.

    20:24-20:26

    I'll send you all of their numbers if you want it.

    20:26-20:28

    And you can text them at any time.

    20:28-20:29

    (audience laughing)

    20:31-20:37

    And Google, and I know like Mike said a couple weeks ago, not always does Google have the best answers, but so what?

    20:38-20:43

    Read it, figure out if it's right or wrong, and then read something, ask somebody.

    20:44-20:55

    There's no excuse for us not knowing the Bible, and I've been guilty of this myself, and I've had to put this into practice, especially if I was gonna get up here and tell you you had to do it, I had to do it too.

    20:56-21:05

    And I'm telling you, just in the past couple years of me getting into the Word and studying and pouring myself into it, it's changed my life.

    21:05-21:08

    And I understand a lot more than I thought I was going.

    21:10-21:14

    So making every effort results in spiritual maturity.

    21:15-21:21

    Point number two, making every effort keeps us from living in habitual sin.

    21:21-21:25

    Notice I said habitual sin, and I'll explain that more in a minute.

    21:25-21:26

    Let's look at verse nine.

    21:27-21:34

    Whoever lacks these qualities, he is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he is cleansed from his former sins.

    21:36-21:39

    When I say habitual sin, I'm not talking about a stumble.

    21:40-21:42

    As humans, we are always going to stumble.

    21:42-21:46

    We're gonna have moments where we go, oh man, I messed up there, I messed up there.

    21:46-21:49

    I'm talking about a sin that controls your life.

    21:49-21:51

    It's a stronghold.

    21:51-21:53

    Satan's got his foot on your throat and he's not letting up.

    21:55-21:58

    and your own flesh is taking over.

    21:58-22:02

    Your own flesh is controlling you.

    22:02-22:05

    And that sin controls every aspect of your life.

    22:06-22:13

    It controls your relationships, your work, your marriage, your relationship with your children, your relationship with friends, everything.

    22:14-22:15

    It borderline defines who you are.

    22:17-22:20

    It's a stronghold, it's something you can't get out from under.

    22:22-22:27

    And by the way, you thinking that that sin defines you is a lie of the devil.

    22:28-22:31

    Because if you're a born again believer in Christ, that is what defines you.

    22:31-22:33

    That sin will never define you.

    22:33-22:37

    Even though Satan will tell you over and over and over again, no, that's who you are.

    22:37-22:39

    Don't you forget, that's who you are.

    22:39-22:41

    No, you're not, you're a child of God.

    22:43-22:51

    You know, in an illustration that I was trying to come up with how to explain this, and I actually found it on Google.

    22:51-22:51

    (laughs)

    22:53-22:54

    Sometimes Google does help, Mike.

    22:55-22:55

    (laughs)

    22:57-22:59

    I actually looked it up from another pastor, so I'm stealing it from him.

    23:01-23:02

    The Christian life is like swimming against the current.

    23:03-23:05

    Okay, and I want everybody to picture a lazy river at a water park.

    23:05-23:08

    We all been to one of those lazy rivers, they're awesome.

    23:08-23:11

    You just sit on a raft and you float, life is awesome.

    23:12-23:15

    But there's a current and you go in a circle and you just keep kind of going that way.

    23:16-23:20

    But the thing about it is you can get off that raft and you can swim against that.

    23:21-23:23

    I mean, I can't, I'm a terrible swimmer, but most people can.

    23:24-23:26

    Sometimes you can even just walk along it.

    23:26-23:28

    It's not that hard of a current.

    23:28-23:29

    So that's kind of the current I want you to picture.

    23:30-23:36

    And that's what we do as Christians, is we are constantly, if we're following Christ, we are swimming against the current.

    23:37-23:42

    We can do it, and there are times you're gonna get tired, and you're gonna go, "Am I going anywhere?

    23:43-23:49

    "'Cause all I'm doing is swimming against this current, "and I'm so tired." Because God does not promise ease in our Christian walk.

    23:50-23:56

    He promises temptation, he promises struggle, but he promises he will always be there for us.

    23:57-24:03

    So you're swimming, you're constantly swimming, you're tired, and you might say to yourself, okay, I gotta let up, I gotta take a break.

    24:03-24:05

    I'm out of breath, I gotta catch my breath.

    24:06-24:10

    The second you stop swimming, you do not stay still.

    24:10-24:13

    There is no such thing as a stationary Christian.

    24:14-24:21

    The second you stop swimming, you go backwards, right back to the old person that you were, right back to the person you were before you were saved.

    24:22-24:23

    And Satan knows that.

    24:24-24:28

    And the second he sees you stop swimming, he is gonna pounce.

    24:28-24:30

    And he is going to help you go backwards.

    24:30-24:32

    And he is gonna push you.

    24:32-24:35

    And he is going to get that stronghold back in your life.

    24:36-24:38

    So you have to keep swimming.

    24:39-24:40

    You have to keep swimming.

    24:40-24:49

    You have to continually chase after God 'cause if you don't, Satan is there to pounce and he will take you backwards.

    24:50-24:52

    You have to make every effort.

    24:54-24:58

    'Cause if you do, you will avoid that habitual sin.

    24:59-25:02

    And I could go on and on and on about sin.

    25:03-25:05

    Sin, I think Jeff and I were talking, that's what, like a year long sermon?

    25:06-25:07

    If you actually just talk about sin.

    25:08-25:10

    But I wanna leave you with this.

    25:11-25:24

    I don't wanna avoid this because you may be here today and you're struggling with a sin and there is a stronghold in your life, and there's something that Satan's got you, or your own flesh has you locked in the sin.

    25:24-25:40

    And you might say, "Ryan, I've tried and I've tried "and I've tried to defeat sin, and I'm not successful at it." Maybe you've just given up and you've accepted that sin, and you've almost started defining yourself as that sin.

    25:41-25:47

    I'm here to tell you, and this is hard for me to say, but I love you and I have to say this.

    25:48-25:55

    If you're here today and that's you, you are completely ignoring what Jesus did for us on the cross.

    25:56-25:57

    He paid our sin.

    25:58-26:02

    That sin was wiped away when he died on that cross.

    26:02-26:08

    And if you live in that sin and you profess to be a Christian, you are denying what he did on the cross.

    26:09-26:19

    And when you deny what he did on the cross, you as well also say to God, hey, the power that you had that raised your son from the dead, that's not strong enough to beat my sin.

    26:19-26:23

    That's not strong enough to defeat the devil.

    26:25-26:38

    Just like we talked about back in verse three and four, we have access to a divine power through God because of the death of the cross, and he can defeat anything in our lives.

    26:39-26:44

    There is nothing that God cannot defeat, And all we have to do is say, "God, take it.

    26:45-26:53

    I can't do it because I've been trying to do it on my own, and I don't have the power to do it." And you never, ever will defeat sin on your own.

    26:54-26:55

    Only God can.

    26:56-26:58

    You must immerse yourself in Christ.

    26:59-27:04

    You must make every effort to go after God, and He will take that sin from you.

    27:04-27:09

    He doesn't promise you won't be tempted by that sin again, 'cause you will be tempted, just as God was tempted in the wilderness.

    27:11-27:24

    but God knew the Bible and he was able to stare sin in the face and go, "No, that is not what my father's word says." You have to make every effort to pursue God.

    27:27-27:33

    Point number three, making every effort produces confidence in our salvation.

    27:35-27:36

    Let's look at verse 10.

    27:37-28:15

    Therefore brothers, be all the more diligent to make calling an election sure. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. You will never fall. I've struggled with doubt in my life. I've struggled with doubt in my salvation. And I want you to kind of picture this. I talked about my dad and myself earlier in my intro, and I've never doubted my father's love for me. Why? Because he was always there hunting, he took me to baseball games, he put in the effort and there was never a doubt that I knew my dad loved me.

    28:17-28:18

    And the same went back and forth.

    28:18-28:20

    There's no doubt that I love my dad.

    28:21-28:23

    And my dad never doubts that I love him.

    28:23-28:25

    Because we put effort, we had a relationship.

    28:26-28:27

    But I want you to picture this.

    28:28-28:43

    Let's picture my dad constantly is texting me, constantly is calling me, constantly is showing up at my house and when he texts me, when he calls me, either I don't answer the text or I send him the voicemail or when he shows up at my house I'm real quick to kind of, "Dad, just get out of here.

    28:44-28:45

    I don't want to do anything with you.

    28:45-28:51

    Just go." And I'm nice to him, but I don't really do anything with him.

    28:52-29:00

    And then one day I'm sitting there at home with Sarah and I say, "You know, I don't know if my dad loves me." She goes, "Well, no kidding you don't know because you don't spend any time with him.

    29:01-29:02

    He's here all the time.

    29:02-29:09

    He's constantly trying to reach out to you, but you never reciprocate." Man, that sounds familiar.

    29:10-29:12

    We do that to God all the time.

    29:13-29:14

    God is constantly reaching out to us.

    29:15-29:16

    God is constantly calling us.

    29:16-29:18

    God is constantly begging us to spend time with Him.

    29:20-29:27

    And we're real quick to kind of dismiss it or we're real quick to kind of come up with an excuse why we can't read our Bible, why we can't pray, why we can't develop our relationship with God.

    29:29-29:30

    We're real quick to dismiss it.

    29:30-29:34

    And then we want to sit here and go, "I don't know if God loves me." Hey, just so you know, it's not God, it's you.

    29:36-29:38

    You're the one that may not love God enough.

    29:38-29:39

    God loves you.

    29:40-29:43

    He sent his son to die on the cross for you.

    29:44-29:46

    He loved us before we were even a thought.

    29:47-29:51

    He loved us in a way that we cannot imagine.

    29:52-29:56

    And then we wanna sit here and go, I don't know if God loves me.

    29:56-29:58

    It is not God, it is you.

    29:59-30:50

    You have to make the effort and God will reveal himself and you will not doubt your salvation If you make every effort And I kind of love how Peter put these in my mind he put them in succession Because first you got to have spiritual maturity because once you're spiritually mature you're gonna avoid habitual sin Once you have those two in your life, you're not gonna doubt Your salvation because your spirits are mature You're living in God's Word. You're making every effort. So you're constantly spending time with God. Just like I said with my dad and I, we're constantly together. We work together. We do everything together. But I never doubt it because I see it. I live it. I know it. And that's what we have to do with God.

    30:51-30:56

    We must make every effort in our Christian walk.

    30:59-31:02

    Every effort, not a little effort, every effort.

    31:02-31:05

    Every fiber of our being has to chase after God.

    31:08-31:15

    And as I close, I want to use this analogy that I got off YouTube of all things.

    31:15-31:19

    And it was one night I was sitting there laying in bed and I had the iPad.

    31:20-31:31

    You ever get stuck in a YouTube wormhole where it's like you're just clicking and clicking and clicking and like two hours later you're like, "Whoa, how did I get here?" And sometimes that suggestion list is just awesome.

    31:32-31:34

    You're just like, "Yup, yup, yup," and you're watching them all.

    31:35-31:38

    If you know anything about me, I love comedians.

    31:38-31:39

    I love them.

    31:39-31:42

    And my favorite comedian right now is this Christian comedian and his name is Michael Jr.

    31:43-31:46

    I actually had the privilege to go see him for my birthday.

    31:46-31:47

    My wife took me to see him.

    31:47-31:50

    It's just, I encourage you, go home with your family.

    31:50-31:53

    He's super friendly, super clean, awesome comedian.

    31:54-31:55

    You'll laugh forever.

    31:57-32:00

    But I was in this wormhole, and I'm watching Michael Jr. videos like crazy.

    32:01-32:03

    I'm starting to memorize his jokes.

    32:03-32:05

    I've seen so many of them now.

    32:06-32:13

    But I clicked on this one called The Good Room, and I thought it was gonna be funny, and it was not at all.

    32:14-32:16

    Because what he did was he started preaching at his audience.

    32:18-32:25

    And when I heard this analogy, it was so fitting to what I was talking about today and just kind of put everything into perspective for me.

    32:25-32:28

    All right, so I don't want to take credit for it, so it's Michael Jr.'s, but I'm going to tell you about it.

    32:29-32:31

    So I want everybody to picture themselves as a house.

    32:32-32:36

    You can make it whatever you want it to look like, but it's a house.

    32:37-32:39

    And outside that house is Jesus, and he's knocking.

    32:41-32:43

    And it's just this knock, this steady knock.

    32:44-32:47

    and he's not gonna force his way in, he's just gonna keep knocking.

    32:49-32:52

    He's never gonna kick that door in, but he's never gonna stop knocking.

    32:54-33:00

    And inside your house is just this filth, this sin everywhere, that filth represents sin.

    33:01-33:12

    And you might say, "No, no, I don't want God to come in "until I get this cleaned up, until I get this in order, "this sin, whatever it may be, until I get that in order, "I don't want God to come in.

    33:12-33:16

    I know he's there, but stay out there until I get this under control.

    33:16-33:30

    And you might bring in other Christians, or you might bring in people that you know are Christians, and they might temporarily help you clean that up, and you might have this feel-good day, but that filth and that sin is gonna come back with a vengeance, 'cause it always comes back harder.

    33:31-33:33

    And you might get it cleaned up and it's coming back.

    33:34-33:43

    And the only person that can clean up that sin is at your door knocking, and he's got a mop and a bucket, and he's begging you to let him inside.

    33:45-33:52

    And you might go through a hard time and you might go to the front door and you might open it, just a crack so you can pray and you feel better and you go back to your sin.

    33:54-34:05

    And then finally, one day, you open that door and Jesus comes blasting through that door and he brings in this contractor named the Holy Spirit and your house is running at optimum.

    34:06-34:07

    And it's amazing.

    34:08-34:13

    And your house is so full because you finally let Jesus into your life.

    34:13-34:23

    You've accepted that free gift, and you let him into your life, and he has your house spotless, and he's running your life, and things are great.

    34:25-34:31

    And then as time goes on, Christ is still in your life, but you put him into your good room.

    34:32-34:34

    You guys know what I mean by good room?

    34:35-34:36

    You know what I mean by good room, Mike?

    34:37-34:40

    All right, so we had a good room in our house, And this was right in the front of the house.

    34:42-34:47

    My parents took the carpet out of this room like 35 years later after it was put in.

    34:47-34:50

    It didn't have footprints in it because we weren't allowed in the good room.

    34:51-34:53

    It had sharp corners on the furniture.

    34:53-34:55

    You could go in there once a year.

    34:55-34:56

    That was for Christmas.

    34:56-34:59

    And I think my mom made us take the presents out of the room to open them.

    35:01-35:02

    Nobody was allowed in that room.

    35:04-35:06

    But you know, we've been to people's houses.

    35:06-35:07

    Maybe they still have plastic on the furniture.

    35:08-35:41

    like this really nice room, but it's always in the front of the house. So when somebody were to look into the windows, they see this good and they go, "Wow, look at that guy's house." And that's where we put God. We put him in the good room. So he's still in our lives, but we kind of are starting, we want to control things again. And what nobody sees is the rest of our house that has gone back to the filth and the sin because we're not allowing God access to our entire house or our entire lives.

    35:42-35:47

    We come to church on Sunday and we put on a show and everybody goes, "Wow, look at that guy.

    35:48-35:50

    He's got it going on." All you're seeing is this good room.

    35:52-35:54

    So I ask you, is that you today?

    35:56-35:58

    Is God in your good room?

    35:58-35:59

    Is God in your house?

    36:01-36:09

    I beg you, if he's not in your house, go to the prayer team in the back after I'm done preaching, pray with them, they will lead you to Christ.

    36:09-36:10

    I promise you they will.

    36:12-36:15

    If God's in your good room, let him out.

    36:16-36:19

    Remember what it was like when he had complete access to your house.

    36:20-36:28

    Let him out and start making the effort to allow God to control your life, to run your life.

    36:29-36:35

    You start making the effort to have a relationship with God.

    36:36-36:39

    Make every effort in your walk with Christ.

    36:41-36:46

    If God's running your whole house, then praise the Lord today and don't ever let him in your good room.

    36:47-36:54

    Make every effort to keep him out of your-- we must make the effort in our relationship with God.

    36:55-36:56

    Let's pray.

    36:58-36:59

    Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day.

    37:01-37:09

    I thank you for this opportunity, and I am humbled as a blue-collar construction worker to get up and think that I can share your word.

    37:11-37:14

    And I thank you for allowing that.

    37:14-37:26

    And God, I beg you right now, if there's somebody in this building today that does not know you, please do not let them leave this building until they get that taken care of.

    37:28-37:37

    And God, if somebody has you in their good room, I beg you the same way, don't let them leave today without getting that taken care of.

    37:38-37:50

    And please help each and every person in this room to remind them to make an effort to chase you, God, so we can experience complete sanctification through you.

    37:52-37:54

    I ask you to bless this day, amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 2 Peter 1:3-10

  1. Why should we want to do more than just "punch our ticket to Heaven"? What would you say to someone that doesn't want to do more than the bare minimum to get to Heaven?

  2. Why do we as Christians ignore Sanctification and focus on Justification and Glorification?

  3. As Small Groups what are some practical ways we can assist a fellow Christian or Small Group Member get past a habitual sin? 

  4. What are ways we can teach our children to start making every effort at a young age, i.e. teenagers?

  5. How much effort do you put into your relationship with God compared to other areas of your life? Would you say God is outside your house, in your "Good Room", or is running your entire house?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

Taking the Test

Intro: Mark 12:30-31 | 1 John 3:10-24

  1. Study Failure: Heart of Cain (1 John 3:10-15)
  2. Study Success: The Heart of Christ (1 John 3:16-18)

      3 Aspects to Loving Like Christ

    1. The Love of Christ is Willing (1 John 3:16)
    2. The Love of Christ is Fueled by Compassion (1 John 3:17)
    3. The Love of Christ is Driven to Action (1 John 3:18)
  3. Take the Test: Is My Heart like Cain or Christ (1 JOhn 3:19-24)
  4. Pass the Test: Gain a Heart of Confidence (1 John 3:23-24)

    5. Galatians 5:14 - For sthe whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

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

  • Pastor Jeff:

    00:26-00:32

    I remember walking into Chick-fil-A and Justin and Michelle were both dressed like cows.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:33-00:37

    Because it was dress like a cow, get free Chick-fil-A day, right?

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:38-00:48

    So I walk in, here's this new, exciting, really fun young couple from church that pastor's gonna sit down and meet, and I walk in there and they are both dressed like cows.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:48-01:00

    And I knew from that moment, I said, "I like these people." Justin is a profoundly deep thinker and he's a great communicator and we're really privileged to be having him bringing us God's Word today.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:00-01:03

    So Justin, let's hear from the Lord today, shall we?

    Justin Cady:

    01:03-01:04

    Thank you very much, Pastor Jeff.

    Justin Cady:

    01:05-01:06

    Good morning, everyone.

    Justin Cady:

    01:06-01:10

    It is an honor to be with you here this morning sharing the Word.

    Justin Cady:

    01:11-01:12

    Let's say a quick prayer.

    Justin Cady:

    01:12-01:14

    Lord God, I thank you for this day.

    Justin Cady:

    01:14-01:16

    I thank you for this church.

    Justin Cady:

    01:16-01:18

    I thank you for the people that are gathered here today.

    Justin Cady:

    01:19-01:24

    I pray that right now, God, as we discuss your word, that that would be the focus.

    Justin Cady:

    01:24-01:28

    And God, you would just use your word to speak to us this morning.

    Justin Cady:

    01:29-01:30

    Please bless this time in Jesus' name.

    Justin Cady:

    01:31-01:31

    Amen.

    Justin Cady:

    01:32-01:35

    How many people here have ever taken a test?

    Justin Cady:

    01:36-01:43

    I'm talking about a written exam, you know, the pop quiz, filling in the circles with the number two pencils.

    Justin Cady:

    01:44-01:45

    Most of us have done that, right?

    Justin Cady:

    01:46-01:51

    How many of us here have taken a test that we did not study for?

    Justin Cady:

    01:52-01:52

    Is it just me?

    Justin Cady:

    01:52-01:53

    Okay, all right.

    Justin Cady:

    01:54-01:56

    I was worried, but thank you for the honesty in this room.

    Justin Cady:

    01:57-02:01

    This happened to me way back when in AP US History.

    Justin Cady:

    02:02-02:05

    And what do we typically do in these situations?

    Justin Cady:

    02:06-02:07

    We sort of talk ourselves into it, right?

    Justin Cady:

    02:08-02:12

    I'm thinking, "How bad can this be?" You know, I've been to every class.

    Justin Cady:

    02:13-02:15

    I've read some of the chapters.

    Justin Cady:

    02:15-02:16

    I live in the United States.

    Justin Cady:

    02:17-02:18

    I should be able to do all right here.

    Justin Cady:

    02:20-02:21

    And then what happens next?

    Justin Cady:

    02:21-02:29

    Of course, teacher hands out the test, and I look at the first page, and I'm like, "I have never heard of that guy." I turn the page.

    Justin Cady:

    02:29-02:31

    Yeah, I've never seen any of this in my life.

    Justin Cady:

    02:31-02:32

    Has anyone been there?

    Justin Cady:

    02:33-02:38

    So now, reality is setting in, and sweat starts coming down the brow.

    Justin Cady:

    02:38-02:41

    I'm not even really reading the questions on the test.

    Justin Cady:

    02:41-02:46

    I'm just thinking, "How many times in a row do you think C is going to be the multiple-choice answer.

    Justin Cady:

    02:46-02:49

    So needless to say, I did not do well on that test.

    Justin Cady:

    02:50-03:00

    I'm sure many of us here probably have similar stories, or maybe recurring dreams, but what a feeling of panic and dread in that moment.

    Justin Cady:

    03:01-03:02

    And why do you think we have that?

    Justin Cady:

    03:03-03:09

    I think it's because when we take a test, we're trying to prove whether or not we know something.

    Justin Cady:

    03:09-03:13

    If you didn't study, it's super unlikely that you're going to know.

    Justin Cady:

    03:13-03:16

    And today, we're going to take a test together.

    Justin Cady:

    03:16-03:18

    Don't worry, we're going to study first.

    Justin Cady:

    03:19-03:24

    The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 13, 5 that we are to examine ourselves and test ourselves.

    Justin Cady:

    03:25-03:30

    And today, we're going to test ourselves on if we're loving the way that God calls us to.

    Justin Cady:

    03:30-03:35

    Now, at hearing that, the first reaction might be, well, sure, I love God.

    Justin Cady:

    03:36-03:36

    I love people.

    Justin Cady:

    03:36-03:37

    I should be fine.

    Justin Cady:

    03:38-03:41

    And I think on the surface, we can say that.

    Justin Cady:

    03:41-03:44

    But today, we're really going to have to dig deep.

    Justin Cady:

    03:45-03:48

    And that's because the Bible teaches that God is love.

    Justin Cady:

    03:48-03:54

    And the commandment that Jesus gives to us, above all others, is to love.

    Justin Cady:

    03:55-03:58

    And we see that in Mark 12, verses 30 and 31.

    Justin Cady:

    03:58-04:03

    Jesus here is asked which commandment is the greatest, the most important.

    Justin Cady:

    04:03-04:05

    And this is how he responds.

    Justin Cady:

    04:05-04:11

    "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength.

    Justin Cady:

    04:12-04:16

    The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

    Justin Cady:

    04:17-04:28

    There is no other commandment greater than these." So in light of Jesus' response there, testing ourselves on the way that we love seems pretty important, doesn't it?

    Justin Cady:

    04:28-04:37

    And actually, the test that we're going to take together today is the most important thing that you're ever going to evaluate about yourself.

    Justin Cady:

    04:38-04:44

    First off, I think we need to clarify a little bit, what do we even mean when we say, "I love people"?

    Justin Cady:

    04:45-04:59

    Culturally, today, the first thing that comes to your mind might be, "We're all sitting in a circle, holding hands, singing kumbaya, everybody's accepting everything that everyone else does, it's all cool." That's not love.

    Justin Cady:

    05:00-05:07

    At its core, love is putting the needs of someone else ahead of your own needs.

    Justin Cady:

    05:08-05:09

    That's the essence of love.

    Justin Cady:

    05:11-05:16

    So if you'll turn with me to 1 John 3, we're going to see more about that.

    Justin Cady:

    05:16-05:20

    It's towards the end of your Bible, and it's going to be the guide for our test today.

    Justin Cady:

    05:21-05:31

    And of course, as we hopefully learned from my experience in US history so long ago, we need to study first, and then we're going to take the test.

    Justin Cady:

    05:32-05:38

    And in this passage, John is going to give us two examples that we can study in preparation.

    Justin Cady:

    05:40-05:44

    So 1 John 3, and we're going to pick it up in verse 10.

    Justin Cady:

    05:45-05:51

    It says, "By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.

    Justin Cady:

    05:52-05:59

    Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

    Justin Cady:

    05:59-06:05

    For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

    Justin Cady:

    06:06-06:10

    We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.

    Justin Cady:

    06:11-06:12

    And why did he murder him?

    Justin Cady:

    06:12-06:15

    Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous.

    Justin Cady:

    06:16-06:19

    Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

    Justin Cady:

    06:20-06:26

    We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.

    Justin Cady:

    06:27-06:29

    "Whoever does not love abides in death.

    Justin Cady:

    06:30-06:42

    Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." So John laid out our test in verses 10 and 11.

    Justin Cady:

    06:42-06:43

    Did you see that?

    Justin Cady:

    06:43-06:50

    He said, "Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

    Justin Cady:

    06:51-06:57

    For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." That is the test.

    Justin Cady:

    06:58-07:00

    To be children of God, we must love.

    Justin Cady:

    07:00-07:07

    And John is writing to his brothers and sisters in the church here, reminding us that we've heard this from the beginning.

    Justin Cady:

    07:07-07:10

    He's referring back to Jesus' response that we just saw.

    Justin Cady:

    07:11-07:13

    So we know what the test is.

    Justin Cady:

    07:13-07:16

    But before we take the test, we have to study.

    Justin Cady:

    07:16-07:18

    And that brings us to our first point today.

    Justin Cady:

    07:19-07:22

    Study failure, the heart of Cain.

    Justin Cady:

    07:23-07:26

    So the first example John describes for us in this passage is Cain.

    Justin Cady:

    07:27-07:34

    Way back near the beginning of your Bible, and actually near the beginning of time, there were two brothers, Cain and Abel.

    Justin Cady:

    07:35-07:38

    Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd.

    Justin Cady:

    07:39-07:43

    To make a long story short, both of them brought an offering to the Lord.

    Justin Cady:

    07:44-07:47

    Abel's offering pleased God, but Cain's did not.

    Justin Cady:

    07:48-07:58

    And rather than listening to God and changing his ways, Cain became jealous of his brother Abel and how God was pleased with him, and he killed him.

    Justin Cady:

    07:59-08:01

    It was actually the first murder in history.

    Justin Cady:

    08:02-08:10

    So what does John, writing through the Holy Spirit here, want us to learn from the example of Cain as we study how to love others?

    Justin Cady:

    08:11-08:19

    Well, of course, Cain is provided as the exact opposite of the way that we're supposed to love, and literally, because he's an example of hatred.

    Justin Cady:

    08:20-08:22

    And certainly we know that we're not supposed to hate.

    Justin Cady:

    08:24-08:31

    It's important to know how did Cain get to the point of hatred, to the point of killing his own brother.

    Justin Cady:

    08:32-08:34

    It started with jealousy.

    Justin Cady:

    08:35-08:44

    Cain was jealous of Abel's approval from the Lord, and that jealousy grew into resentment, and that resentment led him to murder.

    Justin Cady:

    08:45-08:55

    And today, we don't get jealous over sacrifices of animals or crops, But we still have plenty of opportunity to repeat Cain's mistake.

    Justin Cady:

    08:56-09:00

    We can see the other person at work getting the promotion that we think we should get.

    Justin Cady:

    09:01-09:05

    Or we see our friend driving a brand new car that we would want to drive.

    Justin Cady:

    09:06-09:10

    And in those little moments, a seed of jealousy gets planted.

    Justin Cady:

    09:10-09:17

    And as we saw in the case of Cain, sometimes we get jealous even when the other person is doing everything right.

    Justin Cady:

    09:18-09:21

    maybe especially when the other person is doing everything right.

    Justin Cady:

    09:21-09:26

    And over time, that jealousy grows into a resentment of that person.

    Justin Cady:

    09:27-09:44

    You think, "You know, he's never been the same since he got that promotion, or since he started driving that new car, but really, who has changed?" And that resentment turns into hatred, and you can see just how quickly we can fall into that same spiral of jealousy before we even know it.

    Justin Cady:

    09:45-09:50

    But still, you might be saying to yourself, "Okay, I get it. Cain is a bad example.

    Justin Cady:

    09:51-09:53

    But this is pretty extreme, right?

    Justin Cady:

    09:53-10:00

    I mean, even if I've been a little jealous of a co-worker or a friend, I've never killed anyone. I'm not a murderer.

    Justin Cady:

    10:01-10:11

    So, if we're taking a test, can I just mark the 'not a murderer' checkbox, and we can keep studying something else?" And the answer is no.

    Justin Cady:

    10:12-10:17

    You see, God has a higher standard for loving the people around us than just not killing them.

    Justin Cady:

    10:18-10:33

    And it ties into that last verse that we just read, where it said, where John wrote, "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." The immediate reaction to that is, "Wait a second.

    Justin Cady:

    10:33-10:38

    Does that mean that God can't forgive murderers?" No.

    Justin Cady:

    10:39-11:41

    You see, there's heroes of the Bible, like David, who committed murder and had to face the consequences on earth, but repented and was forgiven by God. And remember that Jesus himself, while he was on the cross, prayed for his murderers to be forgiven when he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." So no, that's not what John's talking about here. What he's talking about is having the heart of a murderer, a heart that's marked by hatred. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 that those who hate will be liable to the same judgment as murderers. So John is echoing those words of Jesus here, saying, "By hating someone, it's the same to God as if you had killed them." So the example of Cain is here to remind us that yes, we should not murder like Cain, but also we must not hate like Cain. So back to the test.

    Justin Cady:

    11:41-11:48

    We've now studied an example of someone who failed, but we want to pass, right?

    Justin Cady:

    11:49-12:35

    And the next example that John provides is someone who passed the test so hard he became the answer key. I think you'll see what I mean. Let's pick it back up in verse 16. "By this we know, love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. That brings us to our second point today, Study success, the heart of Christ.

    Justin Cady:

    12:36-12:42

    In these verses, John is referring to Jesus Christ, who laid down his life for us. Amen?

    Justin Cady:

    12:43-12:57

    With the example of Christ, we're definitely at the other end of the spectrum now, and it really is striking to look at just how opposite of an example Christ is from what we read about Cain. Cain's heart was full of hatred.

    Justin Cady:

    12:57-13:01

    Christ's heart was the truest love that's ever walked on the earth.

    Justin Cady:

    13:02-13:07

    Verse 12 said that Cain was of the devil, but we know that Jesus was the son of God.

    Justin Cady:

    13:08-13:22

    Verse 14 said that hatred like Cain's leads to death, but we know that the love of Jesus leads to life. Cain took a life in committing a murder. Jesus sacrificed himself.

    Justin Cady:

    13:23-14:07

    So these two examples really are polar opposites. Cain's example shows us what we should avoid in our heart. Jesus' example shows us what to strive to change our heart into. Well, Christ's love is infinite and it could be the subject of every sermon from now until the end of time. There are three specific aspects of Christ's love that we can pull out of this passage. So here are the three aspects we see here of loving like Christ. Number one, in verse 16 we see that the love of Christ is willing. Jesus willfully made the decision to lay down his life for us. Love starts with a choice.

    Justin Cady:

    14:08-14:26

    That's what love is. You have to choose to love. Jesus didn't just show up at the cross and decide right then and there, "I guess I'll sacrifice myself." No, the whole reason that he came was that He had already chosen to love us, and He wanted to rescue us through His sacrifice.

    Justin Cady:

    14:27-14:32

    And there's a very common place that we remind ourselves of love beginning with a choice.

    Justin Cady:

    14:34-14:34

    Wedding vows.

    Justin Cady:

    14:34-14:52

    When you're at a wedding, and you hear the bride and groom say, "In sickness and in health," you can directly translate that to, "I am choosing to love you, whether we are sick or healthy." "I am choosing to love you whether we are richer or poorer.

    Justin Cady:

    14:54-15:17

    "I am choosing to love you when our circumstances are better "and when they're worse." And those words stem from Jesus looking at all of us and saying, "I am choosing to love you "no matter what you've done "and no matter what it costs me." What an incredible choice Jesus made.

    Justin Cady:

    15:18-15:21

    Number two, the second aspect we see here.

    Justin Cady:

    15:21-15:27

    In verse 17, we see that Christ's love is fueled by compassion.

    Justin Cady:

    15:29-15:50

    It says, "But if anyone has the world's goods "and sees his brother in need, "yet closes his heart against him, "how does God's love abide in him?" You see, Jesus made the choice to love not just because God said so, though that would be enough, but because he saw our need and he felt compassion.

    Justin Cady:

    15:51-16:02

    And the Bible even specifically records in Matthew 9.36 and 14.14, and in many other places, that Jesus had compassion on the crowds that were following him.

    Justin Cady:

    16:04-16:14

    And we likewise need to love people not just because God said so, though again, that is enough, but because we care about them.

    Justin Cady:

    16:15-16:18

    And as I was thinking about this, I thought about the dentist.

    Justin Cady:

    16:19-16:26

    And the reason I say that is, it was just before Michelle and I were getting married, and I needed to find a new dentist.

    Justin Cady:

    16:26-16:29

    So I did what I thought was a sensible thing to do.

    Justin Cady:

    16:30-16:33

    I googled and scheduled an appointment with one of them.

    Justin Cady:

    16:34-16:45

    And to be fair to them, maybe they were just having an off day, but have you ever been at the dentist and they're a little bit too cavalier with that minty buzzsaw that they have.

    Justin Cady:

    16:46-16:52

    And so not only do your teeth get polished, but everything in the near vicinity is getting hit.

    Justin Cady:

    16:52-17:00

    And then after that, the dentist comes back and I just, I've never met this person before and I just said, "Yeah, so how's everything looking?

    Justin Cady:

    17:00-17:04

    What's the plan?" And he said, did not look up at me.

    Justin Cady:

    17:05-17:10

    "Well, I'm going to look through your teeth and try to find holes, and if I find some, I'm going to fill them up.

    Justin Cady:

    17:12-17:14

    That's dentistry." "OK!"

    17:15-17:15

    (Laughter)

    17:16-17:16

    So

    Justin Cady:

    17:16-17:25

    I told Michelle about this, and she said, "Well, why don't you just come to my dentist?" So the next time, when my next appointment was up, I did just that.

    Justin Cady:

    17:26-17:31

    And let me tell you, maybe it was because of the first experience, but the second one was completely different.

    Justin Cady:

    17:33-17:36

    The chair was comfortable and luxurious.

    Justin Cady:

    17:37-17:40

    People were just complimenting my teeth as I walk in.

    Justin Cady:

    17:40-17:44

    They were careful and precise with that buzzsaw.

    Justin Cady:

    17:44-17:45

    It was completely different.

    Justin Cady:

    17:46-17:55

    Now, I know that technically, both of those offices did the exact same procedure to my teeth, didn't they?

    Justin Cady:

    17:55-17:57

    Technically, they did the same thing.

    Justin Cady:

    17:58-18:09

    But what a difference it made when someone was carefree and not super concerned about my needs, and someone who was extremely caring and careful.

    Justin Cady:

    18:09-18:16

    And in the same way, we can tell when someone's helping us and their heart's not really in it, can't we?

    Justin Cady:

    18:16-18:21

    When they're just going through the motions, we cannot be like that.

    Justin Cady:

    18:22-18:34

    We not only need to help people, but do it out of a true compassion for them. They can tell the difference and it makes a huge difference, like at the dentist.

    Justin Cady:

    18:35-18:55

    The third aspect we see about loving like Christ from these verses is in verse 18. We see that Christ's love is driven to action. After first choosing to love us and then being fueled by his compassion for us, Christ didn't just talk about making the ultimate sacrifice. He did it.

    Justin Cady:

    18:57-19:34

    And we need be the same way. Love without action isn't love. I tried really, really hard to come up with another way to say this, but loving like Christ is not talking the talk, it's walking the walk. That's exactly right. We can't just talk about loving. We have to be like Christ and actually walk it out like He did. So we see from the example of Christ that we should first choose to love, then be fueled by compassion for the people that God has placed in our lives, and then do something about it.

    Justin Cady:

    19:36-19:41

    So now that we've studied both examples, it's time to actually take the test.

    Justin Cady:

    19:42-19:44

    And that's point number three for today.

    Justin Cady:

    19:45-19:46

    Take the test.

    Justin Cady:

    19:46-19:48

    Is my heart like Cain or Christ?

    Justin Cady:

    19:49-19:51

    Let's pick it back up in verse 19.

    Justin Cady:

    19:53-20:04

    By this, meaning loving like Christ in the verses that we just read, by this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.

    Justin Cady:

    20:05-20:10

    For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything.

    Justin Cady:

    20:11-20:23

    Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him.

    Justin Cady:

    20:25-20:34

    And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He has commanded us.

    Justin Cady:

    20:34-20:38

    Whoever keeps His commandments abides in God, and God in him.

    Justin Cady:

    20:39-20:51

    And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us." So there's a lot to unpack in this text, but I want to focus on verse 19.

    Justin Cady:

    20:52-20:57

    By loving like Christ, we shall know that we are of the truth.

    Justin Cady:

    20:58-21:08

    And so, I want you to ask yourself, and you can just limit it to the last week, have I been willfully choosing to love people, or am I choosing to ignore them?

    Justin Cady:

    21:09-21:14

    Does seeing their need fill me with compassion, or do I not care at all?

    Justin Cady:

    21:15-21:19

    Do I go from seeing that need to actually loving and helping them?

    Justin Cady:

    21:19-21:26

    Or do I just talk about loving and helping people with words that end up hollow because I don't do anything about it?

    Justin Cady:

    21:28-21:31

    We talked at the beginning about academic experiences.

    Justin Cady:

    21:32-21:34

    Do you remember what it feels like when you fail a test?

    Justin Cady:

    21:35-21:38

    The teacher is handing each one back.

    Justin Cady:

    21:39-21:41

    Yours goes face down on the desk.

    Justin Cady:

    21:41-21:42

    They just keep walking.

    Justin Cady:

    21:43-21:43

    There's no eye contact.

    Justin Cady:

    21:44-21:50

    And after a few minutes, you finally get the courage to turn it over and see what the damage is.

    Justin Cady:

    21:51-21:52

    Doesn't feel good, does it?

    Justin Cady:

    21:54-22:00

    Maybe answering those questions about how you've been loving people might have brought back some of those feelings.

    Justin Cady:

    22:01-22:08

    And if so, I can promise you, you are not alone, because I've felt that so much while studying this text.

    Justin Cady:

    22:10-22:17

    But the unique thing about testing yourself on loving like Christ is there's not a single other person on the planet who can give you a grade.

    Justin Cady:

    22:18-22:22

    The only people who know your true heart are you and God.

    Justin Cady:

    22:24-22:24

    That's the end of the list.

    Justin Cady:

    22:26-22:29

    And sure, people who know you can make a really educated guess.

    Justin Cady:

    22:30-22:34

    They can look at the fruit of your life and how you act when you're in front of them.

    Justin Cady:

    22:35-22:43

    But ultimately, only you and God know if, like we just read, your heart is condemning you or not.

    Justin Cady:

    22:44-22:52

    Only you and God know what your heart really looks like when you're driving and someone cuts you off and slams on their brakes.

    Justin Cady:

    22:54-22:56

    Do you feel the hatred like Cain in that moment?

    Justin Cady:

    22:58-23:10

    Only you and God know what your heart really looks like when your coworker messes up in the exact same way for the fifth time this week.

    Justin Cady:

    23:11-23:17

    Do you have compassion and try to get to the root cause and try to help them?

    Justin Cady:

    23:17-23:20

    Or do you just gossip about them behind their back?

    Justin Cady:

    23:21-23:30

    Only you and God know what your heart really looks like when you see someone struggling and you have the means or the skills to help them.

    Justin Cady:

    23:30-23:35

    Is your first reaction to help or is it to come up with excuses not to?

    Justin Cady:

    23:36-23:49

    And we have to understand that John's writing here is starkly black and white, total hatred or total love, and even at our best, we're not going to achieve the perfection that Christ did.

    Justin Cady:

    23:49-23:50

    We're not.

    Justin Cady:

    23:51-24:04

    But we need to take a long, hard look inside and ask ourselves, "Am I focused on imitating Christ and I'm stumbling here and there, but getting back up and getting back on track?

    Justin Cady:

    24:05-24:11

    Or is the truth that I haven't looked at Christ's example in a long time?

    Justin Cady:

    24:12-24:16

    And my heart is so bitter now that I don't even recognize it.

    Justin Cady:

    24:17-24:18

    I don't know your heart.

    Justin Cady:

    24:20-24:21

    Only you and God do.

    Justin Cady:

    24:22-24:31

    But I do know that all love comes from God, and so a habitually loveless person does not know Him.

    Justin Cady:

    24:32-24:33

    It's straight from the text.

    Justin Cady:

    24:34-24:44

    "Whoever does not love abides in death." A habitually loveless person does not know him, even if you think you do.

    Justin Cady:

    24:46-24:52

    But the beauty of this passage is that it doesn't end there, and it doesn't just remind us of failing.

    Justin Cady:

    24:53-24:59

    Do you remember studying hard for a test and passing, getting an A+?

    Justin Cady:

    25:00-25:01

    You studied so hard.

    Justin Cady:

    25:02-25:07

    the work, all that you put into it, and you did it, you passed.

    Justin Cady:

    25:08-25:14

    What a sense of calm and relief, the weight being lifted off your shoulders, the peace.

    Justin Cady:

    25:15-25:22

    And the feeling of passing an exam is amazing, but it's nothing compared to what John writes here.

    Justin Cady:

    25:23-25:28

    When we are walking in love, we have complete assurance in the Lord.

    Justin Cady:

    25:29-25:31

    And that's our final point for today.

    Justin Cady:

    25:32-25:36

    Point number four is pass the test and gain a heart of confidence.

    Justin Cady:

    25:38-26:06

    Verse 19 says, "By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him." Verse 24, "By the Spirit whom He has given us, we know that He abides in us." Verse 21, "We have confidence before God." Verse 22, "We keep His commandments and do what pleases Him." You see, when you take the test and you do see the love of Christ flowing out of your life, there's only one explanation.

    Justin Cady:

    26:07-26:12

    You know the Lord and His Spirit is working through you to love others.

    Justin Cady:

    26:13-26:22

    What a feeling of peace and confidence comes from the fact, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you know Him and you're an active participant in His plan.

    Justin Cady:

    26:23-26:45

    And as you love others around you, the power of love is not only are you blessing that person, but you yourself are being reassured, "My walk with God is real." You have a confidence that Christ is molding you and shaping you, and you will see him one day, and you know it without a shred of doubt.

    Justin Cady:

    26:47-26:52

    in a lot of areas in our lives, we have a tendency to overcomplicate things, don't we?

    Justin Cady:

    26:53-26:58

    We can get wrapped up in the details and miss the bigger picture.

    Justin Cady:

    26:59-27:05

    So don't miss this foundational truth about our call to love others.

    Justin Cady:

    27:05-27:07

    It's right there in verse 23.

    Justin Cady:

    27:08-27:19

    And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and we love one another just as He has commanded us.

    Justin Cady:

    27:20-27:37

    Galatians 5.14 also speaks about how Jesus has commanded us, saying, "For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

    Justin Cady:

    27:38-27:48

    Those words of Jesus are so often repeated, twisted and mixed up and we hear them all the time in some form.

    Justin Cady:

    27:49-27:52

    May we never become numb to them.

    Justin Cady:

    27:53-28:16

    Those words are mind-blowing because they're so simple and at the same time condensing thousands of years of teaching into one statement and even at the same time asking us to do the single most difficult thing that we will ever be asked to do, to die to ourselves.

    Justin Cady:

    28:17-28:31

    But by following his supreme commandment of love, we serve Christ, we serve others like he has called us to, and we gain complete confidence in our relationship with him.

    Justin Cady:

    28:33-28:35

    That is passing the test.

    Justin Cady:

    28:36-28:41

    So as we close for today, John's call to us here is clear.

    Justin Cady:

    28:42-29:02

    We need to study the examples and not be like Cain and fall into jealousy and resentment and hatred, but instead study Christ and follow his example of choosing to love through compassion and with action.

    Justin Cady:

    29:04-29:12

    And we need to take the test and remember that today should not be the only day that you do, because we're all going to stumble.

    Justin Cady:

    29:14-29:23

    But rather than dwelling in it, we're going to retake the test and refocus ourselves, our lives, on loving like Christ.

    Justin Cady:

    29:24-29:30

    And that'll lead us to pass the test and have complete assurance of our standing with God.

    Justin Cady:

    29:31-29:33

    And maybe you've stumbled.

    Justin Cady:

    29:35-29:41

    But today can be the day that you can refocus and take the test and get back on track.

    Justin Cady:

    29:42-29:47

    Or maybe you're here today and you don't have the assurance that I was talking about.

    Justin Cady:

    29:48-29:55

    And you know that it's not because you've just stumbled, but it's because you don't yet know the Lord.

    Justin Cady:

    29:57-30:05

    And if that's you, you need to let Christ into your life, because without Him, you cannot pass the test.

    Justin Cady:

    30:06-30:12

    Today can be your day, and you can get that confidence that we're talking about.

    Justin Cady:

    30:13-30:15

    You can pass the test.

    Justin Cady:

    30:17-30:17

    Let's pray.

    Justin Cady:

    30:19-30:21

    Father God, I thank you for our time today.

    Justin Cady:

    30:22-30:23

    I thank you for your word.

    Justin Cady:

    30:25-30:30

    I thank you that you sent your Son, and He first loved us.

    Justin Cady:

    30:33-30:45

    I pray, God, that all of us here would focus our hearts on imitating the example of love that Christ was for us.

    Justin Cady:

    30:48-30:57

    God, let us continually be transformed by His love and pass that love through ourselves on to others, God.

    Justin Cady:

    31:02-31:11

    God, I pray that everyone here would pass the test, Lord, and you would continue to mold us and shape us to be more like your Son.

    Justin Cady:

    31:13-31:15

    Thank you for His sacrifice.

    Justin Cady:

    31:16-31:18

    In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 1 John 3:10-24

  1. How can we guard ourselves against falling into the spiral of jealousy*/resentment/hatred?
     

  2. What challenges do we face in loving others the way that Christ does?
     

  3. How can we build the habit of testing our hearts in order to avoid bitterness?
     

  4. Beyond assurance of our own faith, what benefits can we gain from complete confidence in our relationship with God?

Breakout:
Pray for each other

Seeking Wisdom During Trials

Introduction (Job 28:20-28)

Seeking Wisdom

  1. Wisdom cannot be found Apart from God. (Job 28:20-27)
  2. Wisdom is found with God. (Job 28:28a)

Proverbs 9:10 - "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight"

James 1:5 - "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him"

2 Ways to Fellow with God and His Word during Trials

  1. Utilize Small Groups
  2. Pray the Bible

    3. Seeking Wisdom

  3. Wisdom brings us Closer to God. (Job 28:28b)

Michael Wolski - Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North A/V Ministry Leader

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

  • Pastor Jeff:

    00:28-00:37

    If you're visiting with us today, my name is Jeff, and I serve as the pastor here at Harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh North, but I am not preaching this month.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:38-00:43

    We have four wonderful speakers that we'll be introducing the next one here in just a minute.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:45-00:45

    So what am I doing?

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:46-00:52

    Well, this week I will be working on the preaching calendar for the next year.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:53-01:01

    I pre-prepare the messages from October to September is when our preaching calendar runs.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:01-01:09

    So I would greatly appreciate your prayers for this week as I seek the Lord on direction for preaching.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:10-01:13

    And I just thought I'd open up the floor now if anybody has any suggestions.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:15-01:16

    Any suggestions?

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:17-01:18

    Jay, I know what you're gonna say.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:19-01:20

    Amos, right?

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:21-01:22

    Okay, noted.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:22-01:23

    And I appreciate the suggestion.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:23-01:24

    Anybody else?

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:25-01:26

    Joshua?

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:27-01:28

    Anyone else?

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:30-01:31

    I'll tell you what, think about it.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:31-01:32

    What's that?

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:33-01:33

    Romans!

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:35-01:37

    The whole book in one year.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:38-01:39

    In one sermon.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:43-01:44

    Yeah, thanks for that, Mark.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:46-01:47

    I appreciate that.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:48-01:48

    All right.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:49-01:57

    If you get any big brainstorms or any big revelations, just go ahead and shoot me an email for that.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:57-02:01

    But I'd like to introduce our preacher for today, Mike Wolski, if you would make your way up.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:03-02:11

    As I said, years past, we would basically hire some preacher friends of mine to come in during July and they give the word.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:12-02:17

    And this year, the word will be brought by four men from our congregation.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:17-02:20

    And today we're privileged to have Mike Wolski.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:20-02:27

    Now, usually Mike is delivering the word of God back in the AV booth with his team.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:28-02:30

    Mike heads up our AV ministry.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:30-02:36

    So all of the words and the pretty pictures and all of those kinds of things, Mike is the head of that ministry.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:36-02:42

    So today he's going to be delivering the word on this side of the room.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:42-02:52

    And I have been real excited to have Mike come because Mike and I are in small group together.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:52-02:57

    And this is gonna be just unapologetically, this is going to be a shameless plug for small groups.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:57-03:05

    But one of the things I appreciated about small groups so much was I really got to know Mike and Jessica.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:05-03:09

    I got to see their heart for the Lord, their heart for their family.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:10-03:17

    And also through that, as it pertains to preaching this morning, I really got to see Mike's heart for God's word.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:18-03:21

    And that happened through small groups.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:21-03:22

    That's where relationships are made.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:22-03:24

    That's where accountability happens.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:24-03:31

    And if you're here, if you consider this your church home and you're not part of a small group, you need to sign up.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:32-03:37

    And just email smallgroups@harvestpittsburghnorth.org and say, sign me up for small groups.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:37-03:41

    And Ryan and Sarah Stroop would love to get you plugged in to small group.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:41-03:51

    But I not only had the privilege of getting to know Mike through small group ministry, but at DeMar's Home for Youth, was that last year when you got up and gave your testimony?

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:52-03:56

    I get to hear Mike speak and he did a fantastic job.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:56-04:02

    And I thought this guy, this guy's got a heart for the Lord and a heart to give a message from the Lord.

    Pastor Jeff:

    04:02-04:06

    So today, without any further ado, give a warm Harvest welcome to Mike Wolski.

    Mike Wolski:

    04:16-04:22

    You know, one thing you might not know about the A.V. ministry is that everybody that joins is required to be an expert in puns.

    Mike Wolski:

    04:25-04:35

    Peter when he was promoting Harvest Got Talent, he did that week after week because today what I wanted to say is I feel like a pony today because my voice is a little hoarse.

    Mike Wolski:

    04:37-04:41

    That has nothing to do with the sermon by the way, just circumstances.

    Mike Wolski:

    04:42-04:51

    So turn with me to Job chapter 28, and while you're doing that, I want you to think of the smartest person that you know.

    Mike Wolski:

    04:52-04:55

    And it doesn't have to be somebody that you know personally either.

    Mike Wolski:

    04:55-05:00

    Almost anyone in the entire world, whether alive or dead.

    Mike Wolski:

    05:01-05:11

    When I first thought about that and asked myself that question, my first instinct was to go towards an inventor or a scientist, like Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein.

    Mike Wolski:

    05:12-05:17

    These are men who refined scientific principles and have had a profound impact on our lives today.

    Mike Wolski:

    05:18-05:22

    Thinking about somebody more recently, Elon Musk.

    Mike Wolski:

    05:22-05:27

    He's the guy that is head of SpaceX and Tesla Automotive.

    Mike Wolski:

    05:27-05:31

    He's making autonomous cars and he's sending rockets in outer space.

    Mike Wolski:

    05:31-05:35

    All three people, very smart in their respective fields and studies.

    Mike Wolski:

    05:36-05:43

    But taking it a step further in a slightly different direction, I want you now to think of the wisest person you know.

    Mike Wolski:

    05:44-05:45

    There's a subtle difference there.

    Mike Wolski:

    05:46-05:57

    If you look up wisdom in Merriam-Webster dictionary, they define it as the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships, or accumulated philosophical or scientific learning.

    Mike Wolski:

    05:58-06:05

    That definition aside, I think we can all chalk up wisdom as being a combination of knowledge and experience.

    Mike Wolski:

    06:07-06:09

    But let's get more specific with our definition.

    Mike Wolski:

    06:10-06:12

    What kind of wisdom am I talking about today?

    Mike Wolski:

    06:13-06:18

    Well, there's the worldly wisdom we get from doing our everyday hobbies and tasks.

    Mike Wolski:

    06:19-06:22

    Those are tips and tricks we learn along the way to make those activities easier.

    Mike Wolski:

    06:23-06:35

    So for instance, if you work on your own car, the more you do it, the more pieces and components fix or replace, the more knowledge and experience you have with that, right?

    Mike Wolski:

    06:35-06:37

    The more car fixing wisdom you have.

    Mike Wolski:

    06:39-06:48

    I mean, I remember working on a car, Jessica and I have, and I had to do work that went beyond just oil change or simple brake pad replacements.

    Mike Wolski:

    06:49-06:53

    I had to venture into new grounds by working on the suspension and on the exhaust system.

    Mike Wolski:

    06:55-07:05

    I can laugh about it now, but there are numerous barriers and struggles I had that made what I thought would be a relatively easy repair into a weeks-long hair-pulling fun.

    Mike Wolski:

    07:07-07:12

    All the reading that I did up on how to do the fix didn't compare to my experience I had actually doing it.

    Mike Wolski:

    07:13-07:20

    But now I'm glad that I did because I was able to add a plus one to my car-fixing wisdom.

    Mike Wolski:

    07:21-07:27

    But while worldly wisdom is valuable, in the grand scheme of things, it's optional.

    Mike Wolski:

    07:29-07:33

    Knowing how to fix a car, cook a steak medium rare, or plumb a toilet isn't going to change your life.

    Mike Wolski:

    07:35-07:38

    Now the wisdom I'm talking about today is biblical wisdom.

    Mike Wolski:

    07:39-07:45

    Applying the word of God to every aspect of your life to answer the big questions.

    Mike Wolski:

    07:46-07:49

    For example, how can I be a good witness?

    Mike Wolski:

    07:51-07:53

    What should my role be in relation to my spouse?

    Mike Wolski:

    07:55-07:57

    How can I share my faith with a co-worker?

    Mike Wolski:

    08:00-08:02

    What values should I instill in my children?

    Mike Wolski:

    08:04-08:07

    Getting deeper here, what about questions we have during our trials?

    Mike Wolski:

    08:09-08:11

    How do I forgive someone who's hurt me?

    Mike Wolski:

    08:12-08:14

    I just lost my job. What do I do?

    Mike Wolski:

    08:16-08:20

    I don't think I can pay my bills on time. Who can I turn to?

    Mike Wolski:

    08:22-08:25

    I lost my child to a drunk driver. Why would God allow this?

    Mike Wolski:

    08:28-08:31

    We live in a fallen world, and with that comes deep and painful trials.

    Mike Wolski:

    08:32-08:35

    Each one has its own set of questions and answers we seek.

    Mike Wolski:

    08:37-08:40

    How to handle and react to the situation, defuse tension, or just heal?

    Mike Wolski:

    08:41-08:56

    Circling back to my first two questions and those two folks that you chose for being both smart and wise, I mentioned Thomas Edison, and he's credited with inventing the light bulb, so clearly a very smart and wise person in his scientific field.

    Mike Wolski:

    08:57-08:59

    But did you know he was an atheist?

    Mike Wolski:

    09:00-09:02

    Well, he called it being a free thinker.

    Mike Wolski:

    09:03-09:36

    But when you make statements like, and I'm paraphrasing quotes of his here, heaven and hell don't exist, there is no afterlife, all religion is bunk, you get the idea where he stands. The reason I mention this is because the people we look to as being smart and wise aren't necessarily wise when it comes to biblical wisdom. So with that said, those two people you identified in your life, would you go for them to counsel? Would you go for them for counsel? Could they provide biblical wisdom when you're going through a trial?

    Mike Wolski:

    09:38-09:45

    The title of the sermon today is "Seeking Wisdom During Trials." And coming to the text, we're in Job 28.

    Mike Wolski:

    09:46-09:50

    Now Job 28 is a little more than halfway through the book of Job, the entire book of Job.

    Mike Wolski:

    09:51-09:58

    And at this point, Job, a man righteous in God's eyes, has had his entire life turned upside down by Satan.

    Mike Wolski:

    09:59-10:01

    He's lost all his possessions and even his good health.

    Mike Wolski:

    10:02-10:09

    And his friends, they've come to comfort him, but instead they're arguing back and forth, accusing him of wrongdoings.

    Mike Wolski:

    10:10-10:15

    You know, Job is arguing that he's innocent, but Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar believe he must have sinned.

    Mike Wolski:

    10:16-10:20

    For all this bad stuff to happen to him, there's something deeper here that needs exposed.

    Mike Wolski:

    10:22-10:27

    And leading up to this chapter, Job is arguing back and forth within himself on God and His justice.

    Mike Wolski:

    10:28-10:30

    Is God being just with him?

    Mike Wolski:

    10:30-10:33

    Now wait a minute, I thought this sermon was on seeking wisdom.

    Mike Wolski:

    10:34-10:36

    Where does God's justice fit into all this?

    Mike Wolski:

    10:36-10:37

    Where did this come from?

    Mike Wolski:

    10:39-10:39

    Well hear me out here.

    Mike Wolski:

    10:41-10:47

    So when you're going through a trial or facing a difficult situation, you're probably wondering, what can I do about it?

    Mike Wolski:

    10:49-10:54

    Even if it's beyond your control, you still want to know what's the best way to handle what's being thrown at you.

    Mike Wolski:

    10:56-10:57

    What you're doing is seeking wisdom.

    Mike Wolski:

    10:58-11:32

    what Job was doing. He had no explanation as to why he was suffering, so him and his friends were pouring out their wisdom upon one another to try to come to some sort of conclusion. And chapter 28 is all about finding true wisdom. You know, each person had their own answers and understanding of God, but this gets to the core of where you and I can find wisdom. Let's pick it up in verse 20. "From where then does wisdom come, and where It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air.

    Mike Wolski:

    11:33-11:39

    Abaddon and Death say, "We have heard a rumor of it with our ears." God understands the way to it, and He knows its place.

    Mike Wolski:

    11:40-11:43

    For He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

    Mike Wolski:

    11:44-11:53

    When He gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure, when He made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder, then He saw it and declared it.

    Mike Wolski:

    11:54-11:56

    He established it and searched it out.

    Mike Wolski:

    11:56-12:08

    And he said to man, "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and a turn away from evil is understanding." Not really what Merriam-Webster said, right?

    Mike Wolski:

    12:09-12:12

    You know, I thought wisdom could be found in any sagely person.

    Mike Wolski:

    12:13-12:18

    I thought wisdom would give me the answers right away and allow me to solve all my problems.

    Mike Wolski:

    12:19-12:23

    Well, God's definition is a bit contrary to ours.

    Mike Wolski:

    12:24-12:26

    This brings me to my first point.

    Mike Wolski:

    12:28-12:33

    My first point to be made about seeking wisdom in trials is that it cannot be found apart from God.

    Mike Wolski:

    12:34-12:36

    Look at verses 20-27.

    Mike Wolski:

    12:38-12:47

    And just as a side note, if you read the book of Job and especially this chapter, the poetry and the imagery in it is just very beautiful and I would encourage you to read the whole thing.

    Mike Wolski:

    12:48-12:53

    kind of what stuck out to me and why I wanted to use this passage for my sermon.

    Mike Wolski:

    12:54-13:04

    But it starts out asking the question, "Where then does wisdom come and where is the place of understanding?" It's a pretty straightforward question.

    Mike Wolski:

    13:05-13:19

    But in the following verses it says, "Both are hidden and even death does not know, but God knows it because he's created it, established it, and searched it out." So how can we say we found biblical wisdom apart from God?

    Mike Wolski:

    13:21-13:22

    Honestly, we can't.

    Mike Wolski:

    13:23-13:27

    I think we try to say we have based on, you know, the advice or experiences we've gone through.

    Mike Wolski:

    13:28-13:31

    But how can we say we know true wisdom when we aren't the Almighty?

    Mike Wolski:

    13:32-13:36

    To say we have intimate knowledge of the world around us on the same level as God.

    Mike Wolski:

    13:38-13:40

    And to understand our trials the same way God does.

    Mike Wolski:

    13:42-13:50

    There are plenty of times I've gone through turmoil and thought, "You know what? I can figure this out." Right? Let me Google it.

    Mike Wolski:

    13:52-13:56

    You know, let me Google what other people have said or ask some friends.

    Mike Wolski:

    13:57-14:01

    Isn't that the 21st century solution to everything? Google it. Google knows.

    Mike Wolski:

    14:02-14:04

    Or rather, something Google shows you knows.

    Mike Wolski:

    14:05-14:10

    Well, Google was telling me a few months back that eating Tide Pods is all the rage.

    Mike Wolski:

    14:11-14:17

    And that this sore throat that I have could be a common cold, or Ebola.

    14:18-14:19

    (Laughter)

    Mike Wolski:

    14:20-14:25

    So for all the information we have at our fingertips, there's a lot of garbage out there.

    Mike Wolski:

    14:26-14:34

    A lot to sift through, and a lot that is deceptively wrapped in a pretty present to tickle our ears or to bolster our self-righteousness.

    Mike Wolski:

    14:34-14:41

    Pages and videos of echo chamber rhetoric that takes the lens to others in the world rather than to yourself.

    Mike Wolski:

    14:44-14:48

    A lot of the wisdom I've sought in my life and received, God's hand wasn't in it.

    Mike Wolski:

    14:49-14:51

    So really you could say it wasn't wisdom at all.

    Mike Wolski:

    14:53-14:59

    You know, one thing I think we can all relate to is working through difficulties at our jobs, right?

    Mike Wolski:

    14:59-15:09

    And not just the person commuting back and forth to Pittsburgh or wherever, you know, there's mothers and caretakers, They all have important jobs, you know, take care of families, raising children.

    Mike Wolski:

    15:09-15:10

    So all of us.

    Mike Wolski:

    15:12-15:18

    But you know that bad day or week that you have makes you want to throw the towel and start searching around for something else.

    Mike Wolski:

    15:19-15:25

    I mean, I've had some really trying weeks that make me second-guess if I did the right thing in taking my current position.

    Mike Wolski:

    15:26-15:29

    Why would I leave my job that I like to go to this new position?

    Mike Wolski:

    15:31-16:01

    You can imagine it's easy to find advice online. That's how to handle job related stresses You see articles about your job satisfaction and how you deserve to be happy at your job You don't feel appreciated find a new role and tell your boss to pound salt Maybe that's not what God's plan is for you Maybe there's some character refinement or lesson to be learned from your struggles Like in Job, we don't always get a definitive reason as to why we're getting put through our trials.

    Mike Wolski:

    16:02-16:06

    But we can't expect to find wisdom in our trials apart from God.

    Mike Wolski:

    16:08-16:15

    This leads me to the next point. So if wisdom isn't found apart from God, then obviously wisdom is found with God.

    Mike Wolski:

    16:16-16:18

    Let's look at the first part of verse 28.

    Mike Wolski:

    16:19-16:44

    "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom." You know this verse is so profound because it's so contrary to what we define wisdom to be in the worldly sense You see Biblical wisdom has its foundation in fear of the Lord Not purely on our personal experience and knowledge And I say foundational because yes biblical wisdom can be gleaned from others, right?

    Mike Wolski:

    16:44-16:58

    It's not like you fear the Lord and suddenly, you know get through your trial Right. There's still knowledge and experience that goes along with it But that fear of the Lord is just such a vital difference between biblical wisdom and worldly wisdom.

    Mike Wolski:

    17:00-17:04

    God's definition puts our reliance for wisdom entirely upon Him first.

    Mike Wolski:

    17:07-17:20

    Proverbs 9 10 is actually closely paralleled saying, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." So we know this is an established truth in God's Word. It's His definition.

    Mike Wolski:

    17:22-17:27

    So now we see what wisdom is, but what is this fear of the Lord?

    Mike Wolski:

    17:27-17:29

    Why would that be required for wisdom?

    Mike Wolski:

    17:30-17:35

    Well, fear here is not being scared of God, like He's going to smite you on a moment's notice.

    Mike Wolski:

    17:36-17:38

    Rather, it's reverence towards God.

    Mike Wolski:

    17:39-17:42

    It's what allows us to be receptive to God's wisdom and insight.

    Mike Wolski:

    17:44-17:45

    What He's teaching us during a trial or struggle.

    Mike Wolski:

    17:47-17:54

    You know, if we're not reverent towards God, then how do we expect to seek or gain wisdom from Him?

    Mike Wolski:

    17:55-17:56

    I mean, think about it this way.

    Mike Wolski:

    17:57-18:03

    He's the Almighty, Creator of the universe, who can number the grains of sand on the beach and knows the number of hairs on your head.

    Mike Wolski:

    18:05-18:08

    You can't fully submit to His authority and be reverent towards Him.

    Mike Wolski:

    18:09-18:10

    You're not gonna glean from His wisdom.

    Mike Wolski:

    18:11-18:21

    Like, has there ever been a time or times when you're seeking advice from somebody, You know, somebody even biblically rooted, like a Christian, the best people to get advice from, actually.

    Mike Wolski:

    18:23-18:47

    You hear what they say and you're like, "Yeah, that's good. I totally understand that. That makes sense." Then they say that one thing that you're like, "Ugh, no, you can keep that one. I'll take those first two points, that last one. No." You might be getting some of the best godly advice from that person, somebody who has fear of the Lord and understanding from God, So your reverence towards that person isn't fully baked.

    Mike Wolski:

    18:48-18:51

    You're allowing your feelings and thoughts to override that wisdom you're receiving.

    Mike Wolski:

    18:53-18:54

    I mean, I do it all the time.

    Mike Wolski:

    18:55-18:56

    It's hard to fully submit under authority.

    Mike Wolski:

    18:57-18:59

    Our pride always gets in the way.

    Mike Wolski:

    18:59-19:02

    In the end, we think we know what's best for us.

    Mike Wolski:

    19:05-19:50

    You see, if you believe in the Bible, if you believe it's God's book, and what he wrote is perfect, and exactly the message he wanted to convey to the world, then you can't pick and choose of his wisdom. It's all or nothing. To say you agree with a few pieces and disagree with others, you might as well just throw it all away, go back to Google and eating Tide Pods. I'm joking. I hope I'm clear here. Don't eat Tide Pods. Serious medical conditions, results. But God's wisdom is unparalleled. We can't even begin to compare what we think we know with what God already knows. So when you're seeking wisdom during a trial, it has to be found in God. What better source than Him?

    Mike Wolski:

    19:51-20:11

    Well, how do I do that? I am reverent towards God and I want to understand what He has for me. How do I glean wisdom from Him? Well, I've got good news. God has a book. You ever wonder why the Bible is so over 31,000 verses across 1,200 pages. It's chock full of wisdom.

    Mike Wolski:

    20:12-20:18

    And as Christians, we've got a 24/7 prayer hotline direct to the Almighty Creator of the universe.

    Mike Wolski:

    20:20-20:33

    The wonderful thing about both those sources is that God's Word does not return void, a truth that's been established in Isaiah 55 11, and that He listens to all prayers, another truth he's established in Matthew 7.

    Mike Wolski:

    20:36-20:41

    So when you're struggling and seeking wisdom from God, you can rest assured that He will provide.

    Mike Wolski:

    20:42-20:46

    In fact, God comes out and tells us His truth very blatantly and obviously.

    Mike Wolski:

    20:47-21:06

    In James 1.5, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without approach, and it will be given him." Now I can't say exactly how or if it's going to be the answer that you want.

    Mike Wolski:

    21:07-21:08

    I mean that's the challenge, right?

    Mike Wolski:

    21:08-21:14

    If we knew how God is going to respond, then there'd be no point in seeking wisdom, seeking Him for His wisdom.

    Mike Wolski:

    21:16-21:28

    But to give a practical application of this, here's two ways that we can fellowship with God and His Word during trials, ways that we can get more and more of His wisdom while we're going through struggles.

    Mike Wolski:

    21:30-21:33

    The first one is utilize small groups.

    Mike Wolski:

    21:35-21:40

    See here at Harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh North, we have church on Sundays and small groups the rest of the week.

    Mike Wolski:

    21:41-21:50

    You know, these are breakout groups held across Beaver, Butler, and Allegheny County where we as a church congregation can get a little smaller but much closer together as individuals.

    Mike Wolski:

    21:52-22:06

    You know, I've been going to the Murphy's, now Howell small group for, my wife's been going for about four years now and the amount of wisdom that we've been able to pour out on one another is just absolutely incredible.

    Mike Wolski:

    22:07-22:12

    You know, as an individual, your understanding and lens on your trial is one-sided.

    Mike Wolski:

    22:14-22:21

    There might be a facet or a biblical truth that you aren't aware of or you're blinded to because you're just anxious or you're stressed out.

    Mike Wolski:

    22:23-22:27

    You know, for me, job stress has always been a big thing with me.

    Mike Wolski:

    22:27-22:31

    And it might just be because that's how I am as a person.

    Mike Wolski:

    22:31-22:34

    But I don't deal well with multitasking.

    Mike Wolski:

    22:34-22:38

    If five people asking the same thing, stress goes through the roof.

    Mike Wolski:

    22:38-22:45

    But all the men in my small group can probably agree with me that that's the biggest thing I ask wisdom for week in and week out.

    Mike Wolski:

    22:47-22:52

    But you see, I know I can go there because the wisdom I get from small group is biblically rooted.

    Mike Wolski:

    22:53-22:56

    It's not just someone's opinion or Google search, right?

    Mike Wolski:

    22:57-22:58

    is tested against God's Word.

    Mike Wolski:

    23:00-23:07

    And in the situations where you're overwhelmed or sometimes just frozen in place, you need that person to come alongside, to pick you up, to encourage you.

    Mike Wolski:

    23:08-23:10

    That's what small groups are all about-- fellowship.

    Mike Wolski:

    23:11-23:16

    Pray as a small group about our trials and send each other scripture verses and ask questions.

    Mike Wolski:

    23:17-23:20

    And then when someone else is going through difficulties, hey, that's my time.

    Mike Wolski:

    23:21-23:23

    It's my time to encourage that person.

    Mike Wolski:

    23:24-23:29

    So it's really a key thing I use because we as Christians need to use one another.

    Mike Wolski:

    23:31-23:35

    The second way you can fellowship with God and His Word during a trial is pray the Bible.

    Mike Wolski:

    23:37-23:41

    This might sound a little weird, but, you know, and I'm totally stealing this from Jeff.

    Mike Wolski:

    23:42-23:50

    He brought this up in the last prayer meeting we had as a congregation, and even before that there was another time that is, you know, job stress, you know, old story.

    Mike Wolski:

    23:51-23:53

    But he told me about this method.

    Mike Wolski:

    23:53-23:54

    What we can do is pray the Bible.

    Mike Wolski:

    23:56-24:03

    And it's phenomenal that not only will you fellowship deeply with God, but this is a way to potentially change your prayer life.

    Mike Wolski:

    24:04-24:16

    The idea is that you take a passage or a verse or a chapter, say Psalms, and you read verse by verse, and after each verse, you take that truth that God's revealed to you and you pray about it.

    Mike Wolski:

    24:16-24:25

    So for instance, Psalm 23, the first verse is, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Something we, most of us are familiar with, right?

    Mike Wolski:

    24:27-24:34

    But imagine you're in a situation when you're under financial stress or you're eager about some incoming layoffs you heard about at your job.

    Mike Wolski:

    24:35-24:39

    Well, you can pray something like this, "Lord, you are my shepherd.

    Mike Wolski:

    24:40-24:41

    You provide everything I need.

    Mike Wolski:

    24:42-24:47

    I'm anxious about my finances or my job, but thankful that you've blessed me thus far with work.

    Mike Wolski:

    24:50-24:57

    And I know you will provide despite things not looking well, and I ask you to still my anxiety." You know, something like that, something simple.

    Mike Wolski:

    24:58-25:00

    And then you go on to the next verse, and so on and so forth.

    Mike Wolski:

    25:01-25:02

    And it's a double whammy.

    Mike Wolski:

    25:02-25:05

    You're gleaning wisdom from God, and you're praying about it at the same time.

    Mike Wolski:

    25:08-25:09

    This leads me to my final point.

    Mike Wolski:

    25:12-25:36

    wisdom brings us closer to God. The second part of verse 28 is, "And to turn away from evil is understanding." You see, we can seek God's wisdom in our trials, read scripture and pray about it. But if we don't submit to His wisdom, take it to heart and act upon it, it's just head knowledge. In this verse, it explicitly mentions turning away from evil as being understanding.

    Mike Wolski:

    25:38-25:44

    In the early verse in Proverbs 9.10, understanding is the knowledge of the Holy One.

    Mike Wolski:

    25:46-25:50

    Basically, it comes down to God's character, understanding and mimicking that.

    Mike Wolski:

    25:51-25:56

    Once we have some biblical wisdom, what would cause us to turn away from evil?

    Mike Wolski:

    25:58-25:59

    Well, it's part of God's character, right?

    Mike Wolski:

    26:00-26:02

    He is holy, and he abhors sin and evil.

    Mike Wolski:

    26:04-26:09

    And we can know that because as we're revering God, we gain wisdom into His character.

    Mike Wolski:

    26:09-26:19

    As we glean more and more from God and His wisdom, we'll understand more and more on how to act in and outside of trials.

    Mike Wolski:

    26:19-26:22

    How we can put on His righteousness daily in our lives.

    Mike Wolski:

    26:23-26:30

    I can speak for myself that when I turned my life over to Christ, my understanding of God grew exponentially.

    Mike Wolski:

    26:31-26:35

    what He was like, what He's commanded me to do, how I should act.

    Mike Wolski:

    26:36-26:37

    All wisdom from Him.

    Mike Wolski:

    26:39-26:42

    Most importantly, I drew closer to Him.

    Mike Wolski:

    26:43-26:49

    And I would urge you that if you haven't trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, a lot of this won't make sense.

    Mike Wolski:

    26:51-27:03

    Because 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:14, Paul talks about how we have a new heart in Christ, That Christ is the wisdom of God.

    Mike Wolski:

    27:03-27:07

    That His Spirit that dwells in us is what reveals God's wisdom to us.

    Mike Wolski:

    27:09-27:13

    So how can you get God's wisdom or draw closer to Him if you don't have that?

    Mike Wolski:

    27:14-27:18

    You might look to the Bible for advice or throw some prayers out.

    Mike Wolski:

    27:20-27:25

    But if you want a relationship with your Creator, you need to submit to Him, revere Him.

    Mike Wolski:

    27:26-27:30

    Only then will you have biblical wisdom and understanding of God's character.

    Mike Wolski:

    27:33-27:37

    I know getting started with seeking wisdom during a trial is a hard thing.

    Mike Wolski:

    27:38-27:42

    It's natural to feel deflated, beaten up, and tired.

    Mike Wolski:

    27:43-27:45

    Like what's the point?

    Mike Wolski:

    27:45-27:46

    Or here we go again.

    Mike Wolski:

    27:46-27:47

    Why now?

    Mike Wolski:

    27:47-27:48

    Why is this repeating?

    Mike Wolski:

    27:49-27:53

    For some of you, it can get to a point where you don't even know if God cares.

    Mike Wolski:

    27:55-27:56

    Job was at that point.

    Mike Wolski:

    27:57-28:00

    He had a really hard time understanding if God truly loved him.

    Mike Wolski:

    28:01-28:05

    I think when we're starting out, it's easy to push blame on God.

    Mike Wolski:

    28:06-28:08

    We look at Him as He's an almighty deity.

    Mike Wolski:

    28:08-28:11

    How could He possibly understand our plights? He doesn't need money.

    Mike Wolski:

    28:12-28:16

    There's a lot of things on this earth that don't even apply to God, right?

    Mike Wolski:

    28:18-28:21

    Well, He does understand our plights. He does understand our trials.

    Mike Wolski:

    28:22-28:27

    He came to this earth as a man, being fully God and fully man.

    Mike Wolski:

    28:28-28:34

    You know, Jesus experienced every bit of humanity we have-- pain, compassion, happiness, sorrow.

    Mike Wolski:

    28:36-28:39

    And he underwent the ultimate trial, quite literally.

    Mike Wolski:

    28:40-28:47

    He was sold out, taken without reason, sentenced to die, mocked, beaten, spat upon, and crucified.

    Mike Wolski:

    28:50-28:58

    And while we look to his death as a terribly painful, horrendous event, nothing compares to the trial he faced being separated from the Father.

    Mike Wolski:

    29:00-29:05

    To have God turn away his face from him while he bore the entire weight of sin upon himself.

    Mike Wolski:

    29:06-29:09

    That is a trial none of us could face.

    Mike Wolski:

    29:11-29:12

    And he did that for us.

    Mike Wolski:

    29:13-29:14

    So does God care?

    Mike Wolski:

    29:15-29:16

    Does he understand our plights?

    Mike Wolski:

    29:17-29:18

    Of course he does.

    Mike Wolski:

    29:20-29:25

    You know, Amanity has been sinning since the dawn of time, constantly rejecting God for generations.

    Mike Wolski:

    29:26-29:32

    I have a daughter who's a little over three years old now, and there are times when she can be the sweetest little girl.

    Mike Wolski:

    29:33-29:38

    You know, just watching her grow up, just things click in her brain, her understanding of the world.

    Mike Wolski:

    29:40-29:41

    And I love those times.

    Mike Wolski:

    29:42-29:47

    But there's other times where she's rebellious, mannered and just...

    Mike Wolski:

    29:48-29:54

    And I think every parent who's ever lived or people who have been around little kids know how fiendish they can be.

    Mike Wolski:

    29:56-30:08

    But when you think you're having a trial with your kid or your kids, what about God? He has 8 billion kids that all act that way. So yeah, even God the Father understands our trials.

    Mike Wolski:

    30:10-30:15

    You know, for Job and his friends, understanding this, that was a hard lesson for them.

    Mike Wolski:

    30:16-30:21

    His friends were giving Job the wrong counseling because their wisdom was not speaking the truth about God.

    Mike Wolski:

    30:22-30:27

    God even condemns them later on in chapter 42, verse 7, saying the same things.

    Mike Wolski:

    30:27-30:35

    "You're not speaking truth about me." They had a wrong view about Job, the situation, God's character, and his justice.

    Mike Wolski:

    30:36-30:37

    Their wisdom was faulty.

    Mike Wolski:

    30:40-30:44

    At the beginning I asked you all, who's the smartest person you know and who's the wisest person you know?

    Mike Wolski:

    30:46-30:50

    And again, reflecting back on that wise person, is their wisdom biblical?

    Mike Wolski:

    30:51-30:52

    Would you say it matches God's definition?

    Mike Wolski:

    30:53-31:02

    Do they seek wisdom apart from God or do they fear the Lord, revere Him, and understand their wisdom must foundationally lie within Him?

    Mike Wolski:

    31:03-31:06

    Those are the people we need to draw towards in trials.

    Mike Wolski:

    31:08-31:39

    You know, I said the best source for wisdom himself. That's true, but there are also many Christians who fear the Lord and have gleaned God's wisdom. They're a great source for counseling and advice, and they align with God's biblical standards. You know, here at Harvest we have elders and a prayer team. Those folks are exactly like that. They're fearful and reverent of the Lord. And I would encourage you to speak with them after service and use their wisdom to bolster your own.

    Mike Wolski:

    31:41-31:44

    If you're going through a trial right now, why continue to waste time on Google?

    Mike Wolski:

    31:45-31:49

    Or asking the world what they think about your trial?

    Mike Wolski:

    31:50-31:58

    And if you're not plugged into a small group, you can find all the information about the locations, the times, and the leaders online at our website.

    Mike Wolski:

    31:59-32:00

    And I urge you to take that step.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:02-32:05

    Life happens during the remaining 167 hours in the week.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:07-32:09

    When you're praying, try praying the Bible.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:10-32:13

    See how the verses come alive and directly impact you during a trial.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:14-32:19

    How biblical truths can calm your heart and encourage you that God is with you and He does care.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:21-32:23

    Seeking wisdom during a trial can be a tough thing.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:25-32:28

    Many of those big questions I mentioned earlier can be life changing.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:29-32:33

    We'd like to hear things that comfort us, but it might not be what we need.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:35-32:37

    I hope this message encourages you to seek God for your wisdom.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:38-32:40

    It cannot be found apart from Him.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:41-32:42

    It is only found in Him.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:44-32:47

    And as you glean from His wisdom, you'll draw closer to Him.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:48-32:49

    Let's pray.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:50-32:53

    Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:53-32:55

    We thank You for the church body.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:55-32:57

    We thank You for our congregation.

    Mike Wolski:

    32:58-33:01

    and all the wisdom that is contained within your Scriptures.

    Mike Wolski:

    33:03-33:13

    We thank You that You have Your Word and that we as Christians can turn to You in prayer and in Scripture to understand Your wisdom more and more.

    Mike Wolski:

    33:14-33:20

    That during our trials, we have a strong comfort in You and in Your Son Jesus Christ.

    Mike Wolski:

    33:22-33:40

    And I thank You for Harvest just the different groups, small groups, prayer team, our elders, all just full of your biblical wisdom that we can turn to and seek during our trials, Lord.

    Mike Wolski:

    33:41-33:47

    We might not always understand why You're putting us through a difficult situation.

    Mike Wolski:

    33:48-33:51

    Even years after, we might not understand.

    Mike Wolski:

    33:52-33:55

    But we know that we can seek wisdom from you, Lord.

    Mike Wolski:

    33:57-34:00

    That it can't be found apart from you, that it's only found with you.

    Mike Wolski:

    34:01-34:05

    And as we strive more and more towards you, that we will get closer to you.

    Mike Wolski:

    34:07-34:10

    We thank you especially for your son, Jesus Christ, and the redemption through him, Lord.

    Mike Wolski:

    34:13-34:23

    And that you've defined Jesus Christ as wisdom, that his spirit that dwells in us reveals Your wisdom to us.

    Mike Wolski:

    34:24-34:28

    We're just so humbled to be surrounded by these truths, Lord.

    Mike Wolski:

    34:30-34:31

    We thank You, God.

    Mike Wolski:

    34:31-34:33

    We pray this in Your Son Jesus' name.

    Mike Wolski:

    34:33-34:34

    Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Job 28:20-28

  1. Where do you typically go first for your 'wisdom' during a trial?

  2. Why do you think Christians struggle with seeking God for wisdom first?

  3. What’s the worst advice you’ve received? Now applying biblical wisdom, how would that advice change [i.e. slight alteration, 180-degrees]?

  4. What has been the most difficult piece of biblical wisdom you’ve received? [i.e. forgiveness, just waiting, etc.]

  5. What is your go-to verse, chapter, book, etc. in God’s Word that has helped you out the most during a trial? What about that particular passage gives you comfort, guidance, etc.?

  6. What fellowship activities with God and His word have worked best for you during a trial?

  7. (For the sliding scale fans) On a scale of 1 <-> 10, how much do you enjoy sliding scale questions?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

The Last Jesus

Introduction (Mark 10:31, 35-45)

"But many who are first will be last, and the last first." - (Mark 10:31)

  1. Only One can be First (Mark 9:33-35 | Luke 22:24-27).
  2. The First are Killers (Luke 9:52-55 | Matt 5:21-22).
  3. The Last are Servants .
    1. The Transforming power of being last.
    2. First, Adjust our Attitudes (Phil 2:3-11).
    3. Second, Adjust our Actions (John 13:1-5, 15-17).

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. - (John 13:1-5 NIV)

"For I have given you an example..." - (John 13:15)

Rich Sprunk - Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North (Elder)

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

  • Pastor Jeff:

    00:25-00:29

    And if you're visiting with us and you're like, "What's this church about?" Simple. We're about four things.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:30-00:33

    Number one is proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:33-00:35

    We believe that God wrote a book.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:35-00:40

    And we're not shy about telling you what God said in His book.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:41-00:44

    The second pillar is lifting high the name of Jesus in worship.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:44-00:50

    As you've seen over this past, oh, half hour, we're pretty serious about lifting high the name of Jesus Christ in worship.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:51-00:53

    Our third pillar is believing firmly in the power of prayer.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:54-01:04

    Prayer is at the beginning and end, and during everything that we do at Harvest Bible Chapel here, small groups, outreaches, we believe that when God's people pray, God moves.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:04-01:08

    And our fourth pillar is sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:09-01:30

    And as it pertains to the first pillar, proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology, we do place an extremely high premium at Harvest Bible Chapel on preaching, Because preaching is the God-ordained method of getting the message out, speaking the Word of God through a man of God.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:30-01:37

    And years past in this church, in July, we would bring in other preachers to share the Word, but we're not going to do that this year.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:38-01:45

    We realize that even among our own people here, we have some men who have a message from God's Word.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:45-01:50

    And over the next four weeks, we're going to be having four men from our church sharing God's Word.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:51-01:52

    It's going to be fantastic.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:53-01:55

    Our first preacher is Rich Sprunk.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:55-01:58

    Rich serves as an elder here at Harvest Bible Chapel.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:58-02:00

    And you've been an elder, what, for almost a year now, right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    02:01-02:02

    I think about eight months.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:02-02:03

    About eight months? Okay.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:03-02:08

    Something maybe a lot of people don't get to see and appreciate that I do.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:08-02:09

    Rich has a shepherd's heart.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:10-02:13

    And he loves the Lord, he loves God's Word, he loves his family.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:14-02:15

    But Rich loves his church.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:16-02:18

    It just happened to me a couple of weeks ago.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:18-02:26

    I had a couple that was visiting came to me and they said, "Do you know, after church, the nicest couple came and just prayed with us.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:26-02:39

    And we were just kind of hurting a little bit and this really nice couple came and prayed and I said, 'Was it Rich and Bethany Sprunk?' 'Yes, that was it!' And I'm like, 'How did I know that?'" Because that's just the kind of people Rich and Bethany Sprunk are.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:39-02:42

    They have a great love for God and for God's people.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:42-02:44

    Rich is going to be bringing the Word today.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:45-02:46

    Let's just pray for Rich.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:47-02:50

    Father in Heaven, we are about to turn to Your Word.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:50-02:52

    And I pray, Father, You would speak through this man.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:52-02:56

    And I pray that the rest of us have ears to hear what You're going to speak through this man.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:57-02:58

    Do what only You can do.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:58-03:00

    We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

    Rich Sprunk:

    03:01-03:02

    Good morning, everyone.

    Rich Sprunk:

    03:03-03:12

    I have a $10 bill for anyone who can name three of the linemen from the 2008 Detroit Lions.

    Rich Sprunk:

    03:13-03:33

    Anyone? Once? Twice? No? Of course not. We don't know anything about the 2008 Detroit Lions as they finished absolute dead last. Since the advent of the 16-game season, the Detroit Lions were the first team to finish 0-16. Absolute last.

    Rich Sprunk:

    03:34-04:15

    See, we don't care about people who are last or things that are last. We want to first. When I was a kid we would test ourselves against one another. We'd wrestle and play games and sometimes fight. Now I didn't like to fight. I was not a fighter. I was a coward. But somehow one day in the summer I got into a contest with Johnny Van Parren. And Johnny Van Parren was bigger than me, but I got into it and the kids, the other kids are goading us on and so we're like half hard swinging at each other and pushing each other and I tackled him and I got him down on the ground and I'm straddling him but I didn't want to hit him in the face.

    Rich Sprunk:

    04:16-04:31

    I didn't want to punch him. So instead I reached out and I grabbed his nose and went beep beep and he was just humiliated, absolutely humiliated. He got out from under me, he ran home crying and I didn't see Johnny Van Perren for a few weeks because he went off to summer camp.

    Rich Sprunk:

    04:31-04:39

    I think he was gone most of the summer and one day towards the end of summer I heard all the kids outside making noise and playing.

    Rich Sprunk:

    04:39-04:40

    I'll go out and join my friends.

    Rich Sprunk:

    04:40-04:43

    And I go out there and there's Johnny Van Perren.

    Rich Sprunk:

    04:43-04:45

    Except now he's John Van Perren.

    Rich Sprunk:

    04:45-04:46

    And he's about this big.

    Rich Sprunk:

    04:47-04:49

    And you all know where this is going, don't you?

    Rich Sprunk:

    04:50-04:53

    Next thing you know, I'm on my back, on the ground, and what does Johnny Van Perren do?

    Rich Sprunk:

    04:54-04:58

    Beep, beep, I was completely, thoroughly humiliated.

    Rich Sprunk:

    04:58-04:59

    And I ran in the house.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:00-05:02

    Yeah, we don't like to be last.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:02-05:04

    We don't like to be on the bottom rung.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:05-05:06

    We want to be first.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:06-05:08

    We want to be the best at everything.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:08-05:09

    We want the best grades.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:09-05:11

    We want to be recognized in school.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:11-05:13

    We want to be recognized at work.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:13-05:15

    We want people to notice us, right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:15-05:16

    That's why we have social media.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:16-05:19

    Look, look it, look it, look, I got the best house.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:19-05:22

    Look at my kids, kindergarten graduate, right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:23-05:24

    My kids are better than your kids.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:24-05:25

    My cat's better than your cat.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:26-05:28

    My dog's better than your dog and he doesn't even eat kennel ration, right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:29-05:30

    Look at my feet on the beach.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:30-05:32

    My life is better than your life.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:32-05:35

    And if we can't be first personally, what do we do?

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:36-05:39

    And we identify with those that we think are champions, right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:39-05:40

    We identify with the best.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:41-05:43

    That's why we love the Steelers and the Penguins.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:43-05:48

    That's why we love the stars who dance and the survivors and the idols, right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:49-05:50

    We know who all those people are.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:50-05:53

    We know who won the Academy Award and the Emmy and the Tony.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:54-05:54

    They're first.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:54-05:57

    And we buy their merchandise and we talk about them all the time.

    Rich Sprunk:

    05:58-05:59

    That's why we worship Jesus, isn't it?

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:00-06:00

    Because He's our champion.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:01-06:04

    He's absolutely first, right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:04-06:05

    He's first.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:05-06:07

    He's our Savior, our King.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:07-06:11

    He stands at the right hand of God the Father, interceding for us.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:11-06:14

    He's given us salvation and we owe Him everything.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:14-06:16

    It's why we love Him.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:16-06:23

    But what we also do, church, is we identify with the privileges and rights that accrue only to our risen King.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:24-06:26

    You see, we all want the first Jesus, right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:26-06:31

    We all want the Jesus who can do for us whatever we ask and we enjoy.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:31-06:34

    We are entitled to the benefits of being children of God.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:35-06:36

    We're adopted into his family.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:36-06:37

    We're loved by him.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:38-06:42

    We're filled with his powerful spirit, the same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:42-06:43

    He's at work in us.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:44-06:51

    But when we start thinking we're able to exercise the rights that belong to the Lord Jesus Christ alone, we go astray.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:51-06:57

    See, in going directly to the first Jesus and identifying with him, we neglect the last Jesus.

    Rich Sprunk:

    06:58-07:03

    What would our congregation be like if we had sought to identify with this last Jesus?

    Rich Sprunk:

    07:03-07:13

    humbling ourselves below others, forgiving one another, falling all over each other in an attempt to get to the end of the line, the last place, so to speak, where the last Jesus is standing.

    Rich Sprunk:

    07:14-07:23

    A place where instead of seeking to be great, we do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility count others more significant than ourselves.

    Rich Sprunk:

    07:23-07:23

    Let's pray.

    Rich Sprunk:

    07:24-07:31

    Gracious Father, I'm venturing out into dangerous territory here to think that I can preach the Word of God.

    Rich Sprunk:

    07:31-07:33

    But this is not my word, This is your Word.

    Rich Sprunk:

    07:34-07:35

    This is your truth.

    Rich Sprunk:

    07:35-07:38

    Father, just make me the vessel.

    Rich Sprunk:

    07:39-07:41

    You convey the message to our hearts this morning.

    Rich Sprunk:

    07:41-07:52

    I pray we would all have listening ears, attentive hearts, that we would recognize, Father, we're not just here to sit passively in some seats and hear somebody talk.

    Rich Sprunk:

    07:53-07:57

    No, we are gathered together around your Word, which is living and powerful.

    Rich Sprunk:

    07:58-08:04

    We are gathered around your word to continue worship, for to speak and to think about your word is worship.

    Rich Sprunk:

    08:05-08:14

    I pray you unite our hearts as one, that we would understand we are ushered into your presence at the throne to hear from you.

    Rich Sprunk:

    08:15-08:17

    Transform our lives, I pray, through your word.

    Rich Sprunk:

    08:18-08:20

    It is healing and strength for our bones.

    Rich Sprunk:

    08:21-08:26

    It is life, and we thank you for this in your great name, Jesus, amen.

    Rich Sprunk:

    08:27-08:54

    In Mark chapter 10, after Jesus talked to the rich young ruler and told him, "Sell everything you've got and give it to the poor and follow me." And after he had told his disciples, "We're going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man is going to be crucified and he's going to be turned over to the Gentiles and be crucified by the religious leaders." Immediately after he tells them he's going to die, two of his disciples approach him, James and John.

    Rich Sprunk:

    08:55-09:03

    And Jesus says, "Many who are first will be last, and the last first." And if you want to follow along with me, I'm in Mark 10, verses 35-45.

    Rich Sprunk:

    09:04-09:21

    And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking.

    Rich Sprunk:

    09:21-09:35

    Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?' And they said to him, 'We are able.' And Jesus said to them, 'The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.

    Rich Sprunk:

    09:35-09:46

    But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.' And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.

    Rich Sprunk:

    09:47-09:55

    And Jesus called them to him and said to them, 'You know that those who are considered rulers "and their great ones exercise authority over them.

    Rich Sprunk:

    09:55-09:57

    "But it shall not be so among you.

    Rich Sprunk:

    09:58-10:03

    "But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, "and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

    Rich Sprunk:

    10:04-10:13

    "For even the Son of Man came not to be served, "but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." You see, only one can be first, only one, and that's Jesus Christ.

    Rich Sprunk:

    10:13-10:17

    But James and John, they had the audacity to ask for first place.

    Rich Sprunk:

    10:17-10:20

    And this wasn't the first time that this subject had come up.

    Rich Sprunk:

    10:20-10:31

    In Mark chapter 9, verses 33 through 35 we read, "And when he was in the house, he asked them, 'What were you discussing on the way?' But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

    Rich Sprunk:

    10:32-10:40

    And he sat down and called the twelve, and he said to them, 'If anyone would be first, he must be last, and servant of all.'" This topic comes up again at the Lord's Supper.

    Rich Sprunk:

    10:41-10:46

    After the supper, a dispute arises among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.

    Rich Sprunk:

    10:46-10:53

    "And Jesus said to them, 'The kings of the Gentiles "exercise lordship over them, "and those in authority over them "are called benefactors.

    Rich Sprunk:

    10:53-10:54

    "But not so with you.

    Rich Sprunk:

    10:55-10:59

    "Rather, let the greatest among you "become as the youngest, "and the leader as the one who serves.

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:00-11:03

    "For who is the greater, "the one who reclines at table, "or the one who serves?

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:03-11:05

    "Is it not the one who reclines at table?

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:05-11:14

    "But I am among you as one who serves." You look at this in the scriptures, and you'll see every time Jesus tells his disciples, "The Son of Man is going up to Jerusalem.

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:14-11:15

    "He's gonna be crucified.

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:16-11:23

    "I'm going to die." Immediately, the disciples come back and they're arguing about who's the greatest, who's the best, who's first.

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:24-11:26

    You know, what's going on in the minds of the disciples?

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:27-11:30

    Are they thinking, "Well, if Jesus is going to die, somebody's got to take over.

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:31-11:32

    Might as well be me." Right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:33-11:36

    I don't know what they're thinking, but it's deja vu all over again.

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:37-11:42

    Three times, he tells them, "I'm going to be killed." And three times, somebody wants to be first.

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:42-11:47

    And Jesus says to remind them, "You've got to be servants of all." The disciples don't get it.

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:47-11:51

    James and John are so bold as to go to Jesus and ask first place.

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:51-11:52

    We want first place.

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:52-11:55

    But they have not got a clue what they're asking for.

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:56-11:59

    And Jesus flips all their expectations upside down, doesn't He?

    Rich Sprunk:

    11:59-12:09

    "To be great, one must be a servant. To be first, you must be last of all." Jesus says, "Look at me. I'm among you as a servant, a slave." Where are you getting your ideas about greatness?

    Rich Sprunk:

    12:10-12:15

    Some people see Christianity as a gateway to getting ahead, to having the best earthly life, right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    12:15-12:24

    A life with abundant material possessions, perfect health, holy ghost power that sets them apart from less spiritual Christians.

    Rich Sprunk:

    12:25-12:30

    Some even see it as a means to having respect and a good name and a reputation for good character.

    Rich Sprunk:

    12:30-12:32

    Through Christ, they get power for living.

    Rich Sprunk:

    12:32-12:34

    They become unshakable and fearless.

    Rich Sprunk:

    12:34-12:41

    They become purpose-driven warriors of the light, killing metaphorical lions and conquering all their enemies.

    Rich Sprunk:

    12:42-12:51

    I listened to a podcast not long ago where the pastor was just exulting about, "I just love this conqueror theology." Who are we conquering?

    Rich Sprunk:

    12:51-13:06

    In response to our, "We want you to do for us whatever we ask," Jesus replies, "Be a servant." In response to, "My faith is all about me first," Jesus says, "Be a slave, be last." So we're gonna turn to the stark differences between being first and the last.

    Rich Sprunk:

    13:07-13:12

    And I will tell you that those who want to be first, humanly speaking, those who want to be first are killers.

    Rich Sprunk:

    13:12-13:14

    And there's a multitude of ways to kill.

    Rich Sprunk:

    13:15-13:16

    Now that might seem like an overstatement.

    Rich Sprunk:

    13:17-13:27

    But consider, not too long before they asked to be first, James and John wanted to turn an entire city in Samaria into crispy critters, because they rejected Jesus.

    Rich Sprunk:

    13:28-13:35

    See, Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, and they were going to go through a town of Samaria, and he sent messengers ahead to let them know he was coming.

    Rich Sprunk:

    13:36-13:48

    And when the Samaritans found out he was going to Jerusalem, they were like, "We want nothing to do with you, Jesus." And when James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them.

    Rich Sprunk:

    13:49-13:51

    Do we do this when we see people rejecting Jesus?

    Rich Sprunk:

    13:53-13:54

    Yeah, yeah we do.

    Rich Sprunk:

    13:55-13:57

    But this goes back even further, all the way to the beginning of time.

    Rich Sprunk:

    13:58-14:02

    Because, you see, Satan wanted, Satan still wants to be first.

    Rich Sprunk:

    14:03-14:09

    And Jesus said of him, "He was a murderer from the beginning." And what did he use to bring down Adam and Eve?

    Rich Sprunk:

    14:09-14:13

    Question, words, doesn't take weapons to kill.

    Rich Sprunk:

    14:14-14:16

    Cain wanted to be first, and he just brought some fruit.

    Rich Sprunk:

    14:17-14:18

    God be happy with this.

    Rich Sprunk:

    14:19-14:20

    God was not pleased.

    Rich Sprunk:

    14:21-14:21

    Cain got angry.

    Rich Sprunk:

    14:22-14:29

    Cain wanted to justify himself, and he couldn't get his hands on God, but he could get his hands on Abel, the one whom God favored.

    Rich Sprunk:

    14:29-14:30

    And what did he do to his brother?

    Rich Sprunk:

    14:31-14:32

    He killed him.

    Rich Sprunk:

    14:33-14:41

    Lamech, we read in Genesis, killed others for injuring him, and proclaimed that if Cain is avenged seven times, Lamech 77 times.

    Rich Sprunk:

    14:41-14:53

    Moses, raised in the palace, but he knew he was a Hebrew, and so he goes out among the Hebrews, fancies himself the deliverer of his people, and he sees an Egyptian beating an Israelite.

    Rich Sprunk:

    14:53-14:54

    What does Moses do?

    Rich Sprunk:

    14:55-14:58

    "Hey, you two, don't fight anymore." No, he kills the Egyptian.

    Rich Sprunk:

    15:00-15:02

    This impulse affects even people who profess love for God.

    Rich Sprunk:

    15:03-15:04

    Look at the life of David.

    Rich Sprunk:

    15:05-15:15

    When Nabal humiliated and embarrassed David after David and his men had protected Nabal and all his goods, David got angry. He was going to kill him.

    Rich Sprunk:

    15:15-15:18

    He was going to go kill Nabal, but for Abigail intervening.

    Rich Sprunk:

    15:19-15:25

    And we know he did kill Uriah the Hittite to cover up his sin with Bathsheba and maintain his first place.

    Rich Sprunk:

    15:26-15:32

    James points out that our passions are at war within us and that we desire and do not have, so we murder.

    Rich Sprunk:

    15:34-15:37

    After the Passover, Jesus' disciples pulled out a couple of swords.

    Rich Sprunk:

    15:37-15:39

    They were ready for insurrection in Jesus' name.

    Rich Sprunk:

    15:39-15:43

    They were willing to kill people for the name of Jesus.

    Rich Sprunk:

    15:44-15:46

    Peter even cut off the servant of the high priest there.

    Rich Sprunk:

    15:47-15:56

    Jesus said, "Enough of this." The ultimate example of those who would be first among God's people committing murder is the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

    Rich Sprunk:

    15:57-16:02

    They plotted Jesus' death for years until they finally got what they wanted.

    Rich Sprunk:

    16:04-16:06

    And if we think, "Well, that's not me.

    Rich Sprunk:

    16:06-16:19

    "I wouldn't kill anybody. I wouldn't do those kinds of things." In Matthew 5, 21-22, Jesus reminds us that murder starts in our hearts, and it's in our hearts where we desire to have supremacy over other people.

    Rich Sprunk:

    16:20-16:23

    We would do well to remember that there are many ways to kill others.

    Rich Sprunk:

    16:24-16:34

    Harsh and cutting words, gossip and innuendo, condescending attitude, emotional and physical neglect, silence, verbally shutting down.

    Rich Sprunk:

    16:35-16:38

    At the time of my marriage, I was shut down on my wife and I wouldn't talk to her.

    Rich Sprunk:

    16:39-16:45

    I was killing my marriage. I was killing my wife. Jealousy, bitterness, anger.

    Rich Sprunk:

    16:46-16:50

    We nurse grudges against people and think we're justified in doing it.

    Rich Sprunk:

    16:52-16:59

    Unforgiveness and refusing to be reconciled. It's a refusal to love as Jesus Christ loves us.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:00-17:03

    And as a result of these things, marriages die.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:04-17:05

    Families split up.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:06-17:06

    Children run away.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:07-17:07

    People leave churches.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:08-17:09

    Churches divide.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:10-17:15

    See, the real problem with being first is someone else is going to be last.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:15-17:17

    Someone else is going to be put down.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:17-17:19

    They're going to be put into a difficult and painful place.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:20-17:24

    We all have known people who build themselves up by tearing other people down.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:26-17:30

    They exalt themselves by denigrating and insulting others.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:30-17:33

    Look at our country. We're tearing ourselves apart.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:33-17:36

    Tearing ourselves apart, one tweet at a time.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:37-17:39

    One post, one insult at a time.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:40-17:42

    Maybe we do this in the church too.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:42-17:46

    There's no patience, there's no love, no long suffering for the unsaved.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:46-17:50

    We look with contempt on people who are different, who espouse different ideas.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:51-17:57

    We pass judgment and sinners who have never heard the gospel are nevertheless despised and criticized because they don't obey God.

    Rich Sprunk:

    17:58-18:00

    Of course they can't because they're dead.

    Rich Sprunk:

    18:01-18:06

    How can you expect someone to obey the commands of God when they're dead in their sins and trespassing?

    Rich Sprunk:

    18:07-18:09

    How do self-respecting Christians treat each other?

    Rich Sprunk:

    18:10-18:17

    Why, what happens when there are two or more people who want to be first about some matter of doctrine or style of music, style of preaching?

    Rich Sprunk:

    18:17-18:18

    How about the color of the chairs?

    Rich Sprunk:

    18:19-18:21

    We fight and argue about colors of chairs and carpet.

    Rich Sprunk:

    18:21-18:26

    Or maybe somebody has a ministry and they've been doing it for years and somebody else wants to join in.

    Rich Sprunk:

    18:27-18:31

    And it's like, "No, no, this is mine. Mine, mine, you can't touch it, can't be part of it.

    Rich Sprunk:

    18:31-18:52

    You can do what I tell you to do, but my minister." Yeah, those self-respecting Christians, they do what every self-respecting Christian would do. They fight. We fight about it. Or better yet, we don't talk about it at all. We just walk away from one another. And one or both sides nurses hard feelings. We have deep wounds and broken hearts. And someone thinks they're justified.

    Rich Sprunk:

    18:52-18:54

    I'm right, they're wrong.

    Rich Sprunk:

    18:55-18:56

    I don't have to forgive them.

    Rich Sprunk:

    18:57-19:00

    Or maybe there's an expression of forgiveness, but there's no true reconciliation.

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:01-19:04

    So perhaps the person who can't be first, they go somewhere else.

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:04-19:06

    They probably go somewhere else and pick a fight.

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:07-19:08

    Person who stays, they stay put.

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:09-19:13

    And in their self-justification, they become a cancer in the church and wreck it.

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:14-19:17

    Or maybe instead of a church imploding, people just kind of slip away.

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:18-19:20

    Nothing said, there's no conflicts.

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:20-19:23

    the congregation just kind of slowly wastes away and die.

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:23-19:26

    I've seen these things. I've lived through them.

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:26-19:28

    To my shame, I've done some of them.

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:30-19:31

    So you see, those who want to be first are killers.

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:32-19:34

    And there's a multitude of ways to kill.

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:35-19:37

    But the last, the last are servants.

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:38-19:50

    If I were to ask you, at the beginning I asked you, "Does anybody know anything about the 2008 Detroit Lions?" Nobody knew anything. But if I asked you something about 2018 Super Bowl champions, somebody could name the quarterback, right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    19:50-20:10

    Anybody? Nick Foles. Nick Foles. Everybody knows about Nick Foles. Nick Foles' Cinderella story of winning the Super Bowl is a study of perseverance and faith. You know, a few years ago, he thought he was washed up. He was ready to retire. He was going to pack it in, but he just patiently persevered. And when opportunity knocked, he answered in a big way, didn't he?

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:11-20:18

    See, we approve of guys like Nick Foles, right? A seemingly humble, hardworking believer. Oh, Oh, he just happens to be first, right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:18-20:20

    He's a winner, but he's a servant leader.

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:21-20:22

    We'd follow a guy like that anywhere.

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:23-20:24

    But would you really?

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:24-20:25

    Would you gear up?

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:25-20:36

    Would you get out on the field with Nick Foles and run a play and throw a sacrificial crossbody block on that 300 pound outside linebacker charging straight at Nick?

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:36-20:37

    Yeah, I don't think.

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:37-20:39

    I wouldn't.

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:40-20:42

    I don't think in that case I'd take one for the team.

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:43-20:43

    But you know what, beloved?

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:44-20:46

    This is what Jesus asks us to do.

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:46-20:46

    Be a servant.

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:47-20:48

    Be a slave.

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:49-20:50

    Lay down your life.

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:50-20:51

    Put to death the sin of pride.

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:52-20:54

    Put selfish ambition to death.

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:54-20:55

    Put self to death.

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:55-20:56

    Put to death your self-interest.

    Rich Sprunk:

    20:57-20:59

    You see, in the body of Christ, we don't get to be first.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:00-21:01

    And we don't even get to be second.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:02-21:03

    We have the high task of being last.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:04-21:07

    So let's look at the transforming power of being last.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:08-21:11

    During His earthly ministry, Jesus did everything the opposite of the world.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:11-21:15

    He did everything opposite of what you would expect a Messiah to do.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:15-21:17

    He didn't insert His power or His prerogatives.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:18-21:23

    Unlike Adam and Eve, He didn't grasp at equality with God, but He showed us true humility.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:24-21:30

    In His earthly ministry, He did not assert His first rights, but He made Himself least and last of all.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:31-21:31

    He was poor.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:31-21:32

    He was homeless.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:32-21:33

    He was despised.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:35-21:38

    The challenge of being last begins with changing how we view ourselves as disciples.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:39-21:41

    It begins by adjusting our attitude.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:42-21:51

    We should, as Paul says in Philippians 2, verses 3-11, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:52-21:56

    Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

    Rich Sprunk:

    21:57-22:17

    Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grabbed, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

    Rich Sprunk:

    22:18-22:22

    Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

    Rich Sprunk:

    22:23-23:20

    So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." We see that Jesus was obedient, pursuing identity not in the success and material trappings of this world. But in conforming himself to the will of his Father alone, we should notice that he was exalted to the highest place precisely because he made himself nothing. Precisely because he made himself last. You see, in this earth, we worship first Jesus, we worship the Son of God, and one day we will be like Him in glory. We will be like Him and we will see Him as He is. But right now, where we walk, we need to imitate the Son of Man. We walk like the Son of Man. So we need to adjust our actions. That's the next thing. We need to adjust our actions. Look with me at John 13, verses 1-5 and 15-17.

    Rich Sprunk:

    23:20-23:42

    "Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper.

    Rich Sprunk:

    23:43-24:43

    He laid aside his outer garments and, taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. And then down further, 'You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If then I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." I'd like to look at this part of this passage in the New International Version. It says that Jesus knew the Father had put all things under his power and that he'd come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with a towel that was wrapped around him." I want to focus on some particular words in this passage.

    Rich Sprunk:

    24:43-24:53

    Read this, "Jesus had all power, so he began to wash his disciples' feet." Jesus had all power, and he began to wash his disciples' feet.

    Rich Sprunk:

    24:54-25:02

    Say that, "Jesus had all power, and he began to wash his disciples' feet." You see, Jesus has always been first.

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:02-25:07

    And unlike us who quarrel and kill and fight to be first, what does he do with all his firstness?

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:08-25:09

    What does he do with his power?

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:10-25:12

    He becomes a menial slave.

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:12-25:17

    He becomes a doulos, the lowest, most menial slave in the Roman economy.

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:18-25:21

    Beloved, this ought to pierce our hearts.

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:21-25:25

    We ought to look on this scene and cry out, "Woe to me! I am ruined.

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:25-25:29

    I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:29-25:32

    And my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:33-25:35

    How then should we respond to God's word?

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:36-25:37

    I return to my opening question.

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:37-25:51

    What would our families, our homes, our church be like if we sought to identify with this last Jesus, humbling ourselves below others, forgiving one another, falling over each other in an effort not to get to first place, but to last.

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:53-25:54

    Let's look at a couple applications.

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:54-25:55

    How about the world?

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:56-25:56

    How about the world?

    Rich Sprunk:

    25:57-25:59

    What do you do when you encounter somebody different?

    Rich Sprunk:

    26:00-26:05

    Different color, different clothes, different ideas, you pass judgment.

    Rich Sprunk:

    26:06-26:10

    I can't associate with this person because they have fill in the blank.

    Rich Sprunk:

    26:11-26:14

    I'm not going to have anything to do with this person because they're fill in the blank.

    Rich Sprunk:

    26:15-26:16

    I do this.

    Rich Sprunk:

    26:17-26:19

    God forgive me when I do this.

    Rich Sprunk:

    26:19-26:21

    What are you going to do when the world hurts you?

    Rich Sprunk:

    26:22-26:26

    What are you going to do when the world does what the world does to you?

    Rich Sprunk:

    26:26-26:36

    When somebody takes away your job, what are you going to do when someone hurts you, wrecks your stuff, and you got a lawsuit you could bring? What are you going to do when someone hurts your family?

    Rich Sprunk:

    26:37-26:40

    When someone nearly kills you, what are you going to do? You're going to go get vengeance?

    Rich Sprunk:

    26:41-26:45

    You're going to seek revenge? Are you going to seek to forgive? Are you going to show mercy?

    Rich Sprunk:

    26:46-26:54

    Beloved, what are we going to do in the church? Some mornings I come in here and the pain is I see it in people's faces.

    Rich Sprunk:

    26:55-26:57

    Our brothers and sisters are hurting.

    Rich Sprunk:

    26:58-27:00

    Their marriages stink.

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:02-27:02

    They're in pain.

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:03-27:04

    What are we going to do?

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:04-27:06

    Are we going to give them mindless little platitudes?

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:07-27:09

    Or are we going to enter into their pain with them?

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:09-27:10

    Are we going to pray with them?

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:11-27:12

    Are we going to be compassionate towards them?

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:13-27:19

    Or are we just going to, "Oh, God knows what he's doing." "The Lord has something better for you." Are we going to get into their pain?

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:19-27:22

    and we're gonna get down into the place where our brothers and sisters are at.

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:23-27:27

    Get down into that last place with them and love them.

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:27-27:29

    When we're wronged in the church, are we gonna forgive?

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:30-27:35

    Are we gonna do everything in our power to try to be reconciled with that person?

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:36-27:37

    Are we gonna hold onto our pride?

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:37-27:39

    Are we gonna seek to justify ourselves?

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:39-27:40

    What are you gonna do?

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:41-27:43

    Because Christian, that's where the rubber meets the road.

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:44-27:46

    That's the litmus test of your belief.

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:46-27:51

    What you do when you're wrong, What you do towards your brothers and sisters who are hurting.

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:52-27:54

    I'd like to talk a little bit about families.

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:54-27:57

    Husbands, do you serve your wives?

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:57-27:58

    You need to.

    Rich Sprunk:

    27:59-28:01

    If you've got little ones, you better be serving your wife.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:02-28:18

    "Honey, you've been in the kitchen all day. I'll do the dishes. I'll take care of this." "You go do something else you want to do." "Honey, you've been with the kids all day. I know they're sick. It's been a hard day." "You go get ready for bed. Go unwind." and I'll get the kids ready for bed.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:18-28:21

    I'll bathe them, I'll read to them, I'll pray with them, we'll get them to bed.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:21-28:22

    I'll take care of the kid.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:23-28:26

    Husbands, if you don't do this stuff for your wives, nobody else is.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:26-28:29

    And she wants you to do these things for her.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:29-28:31

    Do you spend time with your wife?

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:31-28:38

    Do you make time out of every day, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, sit down and talk with your wife?

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:38-28:39

    Listen to what she has to say.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:40-28:45

    I read somewhere, women have so many thousands of words they gotta speak a day, and man, we got like 100.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:45-28:47

    We come home from work and we're all talked out.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:47-28:48

    We're done talking.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:48-28:49

    Your wife is just getting started.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:50-28:51

    She needs somebody to talk to.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:52-28:53

    And you need to listen to her.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:54-28:56

    When she needs your help, husbands.

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:57-28:58

    What?

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:58-28:59

    What do you want now?

    Rich Sprunk:

    28:59-28:59

    I'm busy.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:00-29:01

    I'm watching the football game.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:01-29:04

    Just, I tell you, wait, let me finish this level, right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:05-29:05

    No.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:06-29:07

    Put your controller down.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:08-29:09

    Yes, honey, what can I do for you?

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:10-29:11

    How can I help you?

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:12-29:13

    Not, give me 15 minutes.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:14-29:18

    No. Your wife is you. Right?

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:18-29:20

    Your wife is you. You are one.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:22-29:23

    Wives, what can you do for your husbands to serve them?

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:24-29:24

    Some simple thing.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:25-29:26

    Respect your husband.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:27-29:28

    You may not think he's worthy of respect.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:29-29:31

    Maybe he's doing things that you don't respect him for.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:31-29:32

    But respect him.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:33-29:37

    And don't go out talking trash about him to your girlfriends or other people.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:38-29:43

    Now ladies, I'm not talking about a husband who abuses you, who hurts you physically.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:43-29:45

    You need to get out of that.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:47-29:54

    But if you've got a husband, even if he's just kind of a lump, you've still got to respect him and love him and bring him along.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:54-29:56

    My wife was patient with me.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:57-29:58

    It took me 31 years.

    Rich Sprunk:

    29:59-30:00

    Spend time with your husband.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:01-30:02

    Find out what he likes to do.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:03-30:04

    And just be there.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:04-30:07

    You might not have to help him with what he's doing, but just be around him.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:07-30:11

    I read one guy, he said, you know, my wife, I like to work on cars.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:11-30:17

    and my wife, she'll just come out and she'll pull up a chair and she'll sit there and she'll do her nails while I'm changing the oil.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:17-30:18

    He loved that.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:19-30:21

    He loved that his wife was just there with him.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:22-30:24

    That's how she respected her husband and loved her husband.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:25-30:28

    These are some simple things, beloved, simple things.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:28-30:29

    There's more that could be said.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:30-30:34

    I wish I could say I do all the things that I've just talked about.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:34-30:35

    I don't.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:35-30:36

    I fail.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:38-30:59

    But I don't go around hangdog and (groans) of failure. No, I realize, and all of you should realize, God has begun a good work in us and He is faithful to complete it. And it's our job to walk and work out our faith with fear and trembling, not give up, but to put the death, the desire to be first.

    Rich Sprunk:

    30:59-31:03

    We should remember that those who are last, those who seek to be last, are not losers.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:05-31:14

    We're the real overcomers of the world. And it's there where we find true victorious living, And it's precisely there where real fellowship with Jesus exists.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:15-31:16

    None of us here wants to be a killer.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:16-31:19

    We want to be imitators of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:19-31:22

    We want to be imitators of the Son of Man.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:22-31:23

    He has set us an example.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:24-31:26

    Beloved, it's time to gear up and get in the game.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:27-31:27

    Let's pray.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:28-31:32

    Our gracious Father, we thank you for your patience and long-suffering with us.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:33-31:36

    You didn't look at us and say, "Oh, look at that miserable sinner.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:37-31:45

    I'm not going to save him or her." No, while we were yet enemies, while we were still enemies, Christ died for us.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:46-31:50

    He loved us with steadfast love.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:51-31:52

    You served us.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:53-31:54

    You still serve us.

    Rich Sprunk:

    31:55-32:01

    Father, we ask that You help us to be imitators of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man.

    Rich Sprunk:

    32:02-32:11

    To treat others with the same love and compassion and generosity that you have lavished on us.

    Rich Sprunk:

    32:11-32:19

    And it's for the name of Jesus and in the glorious name of Jesus that we ask these things.

    Rich Sprunk:

    32:20-32:20

    Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read a selection of the passenges above...

  1. Why was it necessary for Jesus to come in poverty rather than power in His first advent?

  2. In what ways do we seek to be first in the world?  In the Church?

  3. If we should not seek to be first in the Church, how should one lead?

  4. Is it an exaggeration to say those who seek to be first are killers?
    Consider these verses:

    1. Luke 9:53-55

    2. John 8:44

    3. Genesis 4:3-8

    4. Genesis 4:23-24

    5. Exodus 2:11-15a

    6. 1 Samuel 25:10-13, 21-22

    7. 2 Samuel 11:14-17

    8. James 4:1-4

    9. Matt 5:21-22

    10. Luke 22:36-38, 49-51

    11. Mark 10:33-34

  5. What are some ways people serve?  Are we susceptible to involving ourselves in “activities” as a substitute for serving?

  6. Why, in God’s economy, are the last not losers?  Why, in the world’s eyes, might we look like losers?

    1. What are some ways we can adjust our attitudes?  About who and what do we need to adjust our attitudes?

    2. What are some ways we can adjust our actions?

    3. Will our actions matter if we have not first adjusted our attitudes, i.e., the motives of our hearts?

“For I have given you an example….”

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.