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Revelation 3:20 - Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
See Ephesians 4:22-32, Romans 6:19, Ephesians 5:18
1 Corinthians 15:33 - Do not be deceived: Bad company ruins good morals.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 - Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
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00:00-00:14
Today's message, "Done with Addiction." The series, and this message in particular, is "I want to be done with my addiction." You know, there's a TV show all about addiction.
00:14-00:21
It's called "My Strange Addiction." How many people have seen "My Strange Addiction?" Okay, I've seen a couple episodes of it.
00:23-00:30
And if you're unfamiliar, this is a show about people with unusual compulsive behaviors.
00:31-00:40
It can be ritualistic daily activities, things they have to constantly keep doing, or bizarre personal fixations or beliefs.
00:41-00:49
But one of the things featured in the show are people that are addicted to consuming non-food things.
00:51-01:02
And I've seen a couple of these, but I looked it up online what other topics have been covered, what other addictions have been covered in episodes, and I was quite shocked.
01:04-01:09
We're talking about people addicted to eating chalk, or eating toilet paper.
01:10-01:15
One person was addicted to eating household cleaners, drinking, consuming household cleaners.
01:16-01:21
One person was addicted to eating couch cushions.
01:21-01:22
That's actually one that I saw.
01:25-01:27
eating drywall, eating dryer sheets.
01:27-01:30
One person was addicted to chewing on dirty diapers.
01:33-01:36
And one person even was addicted to consuming gasoline.
01:38-01:40
I'm a little skeptical about reality television.
01:41-01:44
Because I think a lot of it is staged, and if it's staged, that's sad.
01:47-01:50
But if this is real, that's even more sad, I would think.
01:53-01:55
Here's reality. Here's true reality.
01:56-01:57
Many of us are addicted to something.
01:59-02:04
And I would dare say most of us are addicted to something.
02:04-02:06
And it doesn't have to be a substance.
02:07-02:09
We talked about this last week.
02:09-02:10
All sin is addictive.
02:14-02:20
You know, when you're addicted to something and you look at other people's addictions, other people's addictions always seem so strange.
02:22-02:24
Okay? I gave you that list.
02:26-02:35
You're like, "Yeah, those things are all bizarre." But the things that we are addicted to seem so normal.
02:38-02:40
Because we've just tried to accept them as normal.
02:40-02:42
We say, "You know what? That's just who I am.
02:43-02:55
That's just part of how I am." Well, today, we're going to be addressing for the person who realizes that they're hooked.
02:56-02:59
See, last week we spent time just defining addiction.
02:59-03:00
Addiction is a worship disorder.
03:01-03:05
It's idolatry, it's adultery, it's foolishness, biblically.
03:08-03:11
Today's message is for the person who is enslaved to an addiction.
03:11-03:17
And I have to say this off the bat, in no way am I condemning anyone.
03:19-03:19
Okay?
03:20-03:24
there's an opportunity to beat down somebody who's struggling with an addiction.
03:24-03:26
That is not the case at all.
03:27-03:31
I heard a person say one time that the Christians are the only army that shoots their own wounded.
03:32-03:33
And I think there's truth in that.
03:33-03:35
By no means are we condemning anyone.
03:37-03:41
Because we all struggle, we're all a work in progress, none of us have arrived, right?
03:41-03:42
You with me?
03:44-03:51
But at the same time, while we are not condemning, we're also not going to minimize the issue.
03:53-03:58
Can we just agree that addiction is a serious issue?
03:58-04:07
If it is idolatry, and if it's literally a matter of life and death, it's a serious issue.
04:09-04:14
At the same time, the Bible says Jesus was known as a friend of sinners.
04:16-04:21
Jesus Christ can transform you no matter what sin you struggle with.
04:22-04:28
So all that to say this, we are not going to ignore addiction, but we're not going to condemn addiction.
04:29-04:32
We're going to see it for what it is, and we're going to seek Jesus.
04:33-04:33
Who's with me?
04:34-04:35
Alright.
04:38-04:38
Sin.
04:39-04:45
Addiction specifically, as a way of making Christians live in defeat.
04:48-04:50
Addiction makes Christians want to avoid fellowship.
04:52-04:57
We feel guilt and shame, and we feel robbed of spiritual vitality.
05:00-05:05
If any of that describes you, I want to tell you this morning, that that is not what Jesus wants for you.
05:07-05:11
And you're like, well, what a coincidence, Pastor Jeff, because this ain't what I want for me either.
05:14-05:15
How did I get here?
05:16-05:19
Look, I get it.
05:21-05:33
Anybody that's struggling with addiction, that person doesn't start out saying, "I got an idea. I'm going to get hooked on something that's going to completely ruin my life." Nobody starts that way.
05:35-05:38
The reality is when an addiction starts, it's seemingly no problem.
05:39-05:40
got this under control.
05:41-05:51
Okay, so I kind of do this on the side, nobody really knows about it, but it's not really hurting anything and the bills are still getting paid and I'm still taking care of my family and everything's fine.
05:53-05:54
That's how it starts.
05:55-06:00
And then suddenly, the addict is losing everything.
06:02-06:03
Like how does that happen?
06:05-06:06
You know what it's like?
06:08-06:15
It's like being outside at dusk during the summer and trying to pinpoint the exact moment it gets dark.
06:15-06:16
Have you ever done that?
06:17-06:18
I've tried it.
06:18-06:19
You can't do it.
06:20-06:23
Getting darker, getting darker, and then suddenly it's like pitch black.
06:23-06:24
You're like, "I missed the moment!
06:24-06:28
"When did that happen?" That's what addiction's like.
06:29-06:47
Getting a little dark, but can still see, still manageable, no problem, then suddenly, "How did I get here?" And when we're trapped, addiction is so hard to break because we are able to justify it.
06:48-06:53
We are able to make any excuse to indulge our addiction.
06:56-07:00
If you're addicted to a substance, you can, and I can, make any excuse to indulge.
07:00-07:04
I had a great day today, I'm going to celebrate with this.
07:05-07:08
Or I had a horrible day today, I'm going to medicate with this.
07:10-07:12
I just had a terrible fight with my wife.
07:14-07:15
This is going to make me feel good.
07:18-07:25
And the boss is really on my case at work, but this is going to let me end the day on a good note.
07:27-07:30
and any emotion can be justified into indulging your addiction.
07:31-07:35
I do it when I'm happy, I do it when I'm sad, I do it when I'm angry.
07:36-07:58
I do it when I'm discouraged, and I do it when I'm lonely, and I'm doing it when to do to get it.
08:02-08:04
Some addicts turn to selling drugs.
08:07-08:10
Lying, stealing.
08:11-08:23
Do you know how many stories I've heard over the years of an addict stealing something from a loved one, something valuable, something sentimental, and selling it for a quick buck?
08:25-08:26
Did you get a hit?
08:29-08:36
Aaron and I even, at our former church, ministered to somebody who was prostituting themselves for drugs.
08:37-08:39
Can you wrap your brain around that?
08:39-08:52
The addiction is so strong that this woman was saying, "I'm willing to give my body up so that I can feed this addiction." That's horrible.
08:53-08:55
Absolutely horrific way to live.
08:58-08:59
That's the bondage that addiction brings.
09:02-09:05
Maybe you're sitting here and you're like, "Okay, I've heard this before.
09:07-09:08
And you know what, I tried to quit.
09:09-09:12
I tried to quit, Jeff, and I was great for like a few days.
09:13-09:13
Went back at it.
09:13-09:19
You know what, one time, like back in 2016, I made it two weeks.
09:20-09:23
I got caught up in the habit again.
09:24-09:29
So the question is, how can I finally be done with my addiction?
09:31-09:36
Because you're certainly not sitting here wanting to get your hopes up again to be disappointed again, right?
09:36-09:38
That would be a big, fat waste of time.
09:41-09:48
Well, you will not be disappointed if you truly go after it God's way.
09:50-09:52
because God's way never fails.
09:54-09:59
And it has to start with you knowing God the way a child knows his father.
09:59-10:00
It has to start there.
10:01-10:02
That's how you have to know God.
10:05-10:17
And if you're not a member of God's family, then you're not eligible for His promises, and His Holy Spirit is not indwelling you to empower you.
10:19-10:21
You need God's Holy Spirit more than anything.
10:24-10:26
You can join God's family today.
10:27-10:36
You can cry out for God's mercy today through Jesus Christ and receive the forgiveness of sin and the eternal life that He offers.
10:40-10:44
I said this last week, if you're not a believer in Christ, you get a bigger problem than addiction.
10:46-10:48
Your journey needs to start with receiving Christ.
10:49-10:54
But today I want to address the people who are believers, yet still struggle.
10:56-11:02
How do I finally get out of this bondage, out of this enslaving thing that's consumed my life?
11:04-11:08
On your outline, five things you need for change to stick.
11:10-11:13
Five things you need for change to stick.
11:15-11:20
Right now somebody's thinking, "Wow, Pastor Jeff is awfully presumptuous.
11:20-11:33
He's going to conquer addiction with one sermon!" I would be a fool to think that I can cover it all with one sermon here today.
11:34-11:35
That's not my goal.
11:36-11:39
My goal today is simply to point you in the right direction.
11:40-11:41
And to give you hope.
11:44-11:51
If you go after these five things, if you get these five things, you'll be done with your addiction.
11:54-11:56
Easier said than done, for sure.
11:59-12:03
Five things you need to get for change to stick.
12:03-12:04
Number one, jot this down.
12:04-12:05
Get real with God.
12:06-12:08
Get real with God.
12:08-12:11
That means we're done with excuses.
12:11-12:15
We're done with blaming everyone else, That's something true of addicts.
12:16-12:17
It's everybody else's fault.
12:17-12:25
It's my dad's fault for this, and my mom this, and the school that I went to that, and my wife that.
12:25-12:27
You've got to be done with the blame.
12:30-12:40
Done with, "I deserve the relief that I get from this substance." Done with, "It's God's fault that He made me this way." It's time to own up to your choices.
12:42-12:44
Here in Revelation 3.
12:46-12:49
Verse 20, this is what Jesus said to the church at Laodicea.
12:49-12:52
He said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
12:52-13:02
If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me." Now, this is something Jesus was saying to a church.
13:05-13:08
But there's a principle I want you to see here that is so important.
13:10-13:10
And the saddest part of that is this.
13:13-13:21
Jesus doesn't barge in and take control over somebody's will.
13:21-13:22
He could.
13:24-13:25
I mean, couldn't He?
13:26-13:27
Couldn't Jesus just kick the door down?
13:28-13:33
Just be like, "God of the universe here, and I'm going to set some things straight." He could do that.
13:33-13:37
He could do that to Laodicea, and He could do that in your life.
13:38-13:45
What we see here is that's not typically how He operates.
13:47-13:54
Using this image of Jesus standing at the door knocking instead of the church at Laodicea.
13:54-13:59
Imagine Jesus is standing outside of your house and knocking.
14:01-14:05
Have you ever heard somebody knocking on your door and you weren't expecting company?
14:06-14:38
happened to you? Has it ever happened to you? Yeah. What sets in when that happens? I don't know about you, but for me it's panic, right? You know, because I'll be, you know, I'll be like in my gym shorts singing Frankie Valli in the Four Seasons while I'm doing the dishes or whatever. You're welcome for that visual. And then there'll be a knock on the door and And I'm like, "Oh no! What did I forget?" But we hear that knocking, and we panic.
14:40-14:46
For the addict, hearing Jesus knocking, they're panicking, saying, "Look, my house is a mess.
14:46-15:12
And if I let Jesus in..." The addict says, "If I let Jesus in, He's going to make me feel worse than I already do." So I'm okay with Jesus standing on the porch but I really don't want Him in because I'm afraid of what He might say." And I just want to remind you, when Jesus is standing at the door knocking, it's not like He doesn't know what's happening inside, right?
15:12-15:16
From His perspective, your whole house is made out of glass.
15:17-15:21
He sees, He knows exactly what's going on.
15:22-15:26
And when Jesus shows up, He doesn't show up to condemn.
15:28-15:29
He shows up to help.
15:32-15:43
Jesus is waiting for you to get to the point where you say, "Lord, I've made a mess." You open the door and say, "Jesus, I'm so glad you're here.
15:43-15:45
I have really made a mess.
15:45-15:55
Would you please help me straighten this up?" And Jesus said, "That's exactly why I came." Is an addiction destroying you?
15:56-15:58
Jesus wants to heal that.
15:59-16:05
Whatever pain drove you to the addiction, Jesus wants to heal that pain.
16:06-16:08
You just have to want Him to heal.
16:11-16:13
But for that to happen, you've got to get real with God.
16:14-16:15
You've got to get real with Him.
16:15-16:17
He already knows.
16:19-16:20
It has to start there.
16:21-16:21
Get real with God.
16:22-16:23
get biblical counsel.
16:26-16:30
Something else you need for change to stick, you've got to get biblical counsel.
16:31-16:38
Come and see me, or go see another pastor, or another committed or knowledgeable believer.
16:39-16:44
But you need to enter a time of regular, intense counseling, prayer, and accountability.
16:46-16:47
Again, you can do that here.
16:48-17:00
And I get it, some people might be a little shy about that, to say, "Well, I'd feel better maybe talking to somebody I'm not as close with." Go over to Northway. Go to the counseling center across the street.
17:01-17:05
Do you have another pastor that you know that you'd be willing to talk to?
17:05-17:06
Go see him!
17:07-17:11
I would say, go wherever you are willing to be open in arms.
17:14-17:18
Whoever you are comfortable just bearing your soul.
17:21-17:22
But do not try to go it alone.
17:23-17:25
God never intended that we try.
17:25-17:27
You know that. That's the purpose of this church.
17:30-17:32
None of us are meant to try to figure things out by ourselves.
17:33-17:36
So get real with God. Get biblical counsel.
17:36-17:39
Number three, we're going to spend a couple minutes on this.
17:40-17:43
I'm going to get specific about putting off and putting on.
17:46-17:54
I need you to pay real close attention to this one, because some of you maybe have never heard this before, but this is something that's all through the Bible.
17:57-18:01
We're just going to spend a couple of minutes on this, but it's so absolutely critical.
18:03-18:07
If you're an addict, this is absolutely critical for you to be done with your addiction.
18:07-18:11
Because most groups, most programs, most systems teach this.
18:11-18:13
We're going to help you quit the addiction.
18:14-18:18
And the goal is to stop the addiction.
18:19-18:26
But did you know that the New Testament does not teach that we should stop sinning?
18:27-18:28
Did you know that?
18:29-18:34
Hang on, I'm going to need to listen to the podcast here because I don't think he said what I think he said.
18:34-18:37
It sounded like he said the New Testament doesn't teach we should just stop sinning.
18:37-18:38
That's right.
18:39-18:41
The New Testament does not say that we should just stop sinning.
18:43-18:44
Sin isn't to be stopped.
18:47-18:59
Biblically - and this is also in the Old Testament - biblically, sin - not stopped - it should be replaced with something else.
19:01-19:09
And if you just stop or quit your addiction, then you're only an addict who's temporarily not engaged in a habit.
19:11-19:13
What you need is change.
19:14-19:18
But not just negative change, as in taking something away.
19:18-19:22
You also need positive change, which is adding something too.
19:23-19:27
And only when you do that, will you change permanently.
19:31-19:36
And the concept we see in the New Testament is putting off and putting on.
19:36-19:38
Again, this is all through the Scripture.
19:39-19:41
But just look quickly with me.
19:41-19:42
We're going to go through this lightning quick.
19:43-19:45
Ephesians 4.22-32.
19:46-20:03
It says, "Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires." Okay, so there's the "put off." He says, "And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds." Look at the next phrase.
20:04-20:14
"And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
20:16-20:23
Therefore, having put away falsehood..." Now he's getting specific here with this concept.
20:24-20:29
He says, "Having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth as neighbor.
20:30-20:31
For we are members of one another.
20:31-20:32
Be angry and do not sin.
20:32-20:35
Do not let the sun go down on your anger.
20:35-20:38
And give no opportunity for the devil.
20:40-20:51
Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands so that he might have something to share with anyone in need.
20:52-21:01
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up if it's the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear.
21:01-21:06
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
21:08-21:15
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
21:16-21:26
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." See that?
21:27-21:52
He doesn't say, "Stop sinning." He says, "Replace sinning with an act of righteousness." The example is quickly, he says, "Put away falsehood." So you put that off, and instead he says, "Let each one of you speak the truth." You put off falsehood, you put on the truth.
21:53-22:00
He says, "Let the thief no longer steal." He doesn't just say, "Stop stealing!" He gives an alternative.
22:00-22:11
He says, "What you need to do instead is get a job, and earn some money, and share with people." So you see, the remedy for stealing isn't not stealing.
22:11-22:12
The remedy for stealing is giving.
22:14-22:15
Putting off stealing, putting on giving.
22:16-22:17
Comes from working.
22:18-22:20
"Put off the corrupting talk," he says.
22:21-22:24
Instead, put on talk for building up.
22:25-22:31
Stop the foul, perverted jokes, and instead, think about how can I use my words to encourage people?
22:31-22:39
And then at the very end of the passage, he talks about hateful attitudes and things, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander.
22:39-22:40
He says put those off.
22:40-22:41
Instead, put on what?
22:42-22:44
Kindness and tenderheartedness and forgiveness.
22:46-22:47
Put off, put on.
22:51-22:56
That's how sin is to be handled biblically.
22:57-23:00
Not stop sinning, replace sinning.
23:00-23:01
Put off, put on.
23:02-23:03
Put off, put on.
23:03-23:04
What does that sound like?
23:04-23:05
It sounds like clothes, right?
23:07-23:10
My friend Mike here was out working in the yard all day.
23:10-23:17
He's mowing and he's painting and he's weed eating and he's chopping down the trees or whatever yard work Judy has you doing.
23:17-23:28
And then he comes inside and Judy says, "Hey, we're having dinner with our daughters today and their families and I laid you some clothes out if you'd get ready." What's Mike gonna do?
23:28-23:35
Is he gonna go over and put those clothes on over top of his nasty old grungy sweaty clothes that he was just mowing the yard with?
23:36-23:39
You're like, "Well, he might." No, he's not gonna do that.
23:40-23:50
He's going to take off the nasty clothes and he's going to instead put on the clean clothes.
23:51-23:54
And I hope to heaven there's a shower in the middle of that story somewhere.
23:56-23:57
You see the point, right? It's pretty obvious.
23:59-24:01
You put off and you put on.
24:01-24:05
And the Bible says that's how we handle besetting habitual sin.
24:06-24:09
We stop this and we replace it with that.
24:09-24:11
Paul says the same thing in Colossians 3.
24:11-24:12
Verses 8-10.
24:13-24:14
Paul says it in Romans 6.19.
24:15-24:27
He says, "For just as you once presented your members "as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, "leading to more lawlessness, "so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, "leading to sanctification." There it is again.
24:27-24:39
He doesn't just say, "Hey, stop being a slave to sin!" He goes, "No, no, be a different slave." Instead of being a slave to sin, instead of being a slave to righteousness, it's put off, it's put on.
24:42-24:52
At every point, the new lifestyle has to replace all of the ways associated with the old one.
24:54-25:02
You know, there's a key verse in your New Testament that describes the replacement dynamic regarding addiction that we mentioned last week.
25:02-25:04
Ephesians 5.18 Look, here it is again.
25:04-25:05
"Put off, put on.
25:06-25:11
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit." Do you see the "put on"?
25:12-25:26
He says, "Put off the drunkenness, instead put on being filled with the Spirit." That word "debauchery," that's an interesting word.
25:26-25:35
The Greek word is "asotia." And just by the way I've heard it used, I kind of always associated debauchery with just like partying, right?
25:36-25:46
The word literally is "unsavable." It's talking about a life that's ruined, destroyed, beyond reclamation.
25:47-25:50
And here, Paul's saying that's the end of drunkenness.
25:52-25:58
Unless Jesus Christ intersects the path of a drunk, this is where it's going.
25:59-26:02
The botry, which is total ruin.
26:06-26:12
It just takes over and destroys everything.
26:13-26:18
And if the addiction is not put to an end, soon everything else will be.
26:20-26:24
But on the other hand, He says, "Be filled with the Spirit.
26:24-26:34
Have life and joy and wisdom in the Holy Spirit." Now when we talk about being filled with the Spirit, What does that mean?
26:36-26:49
Well, it means the Holy Spirit, the life of Christ must be alive - get this - in every single area of my life.
26:50-26:51
Every area.
26:53-27:05
The Lordship of Christ, the direction and power of the Holy Spirit at home, at work, at school, at play, in my public life, in my private life, The Holy Spirit permeates every single area of life.
27:06-27:14
You see, when we think of being filled with the Spirit, I think we often think of, I am a cup, and the Holy Spirit is like liquid, and He fills me.
27:18-27:19
But that's not exactly the picture.
27:21-27:24
Because it's not exactly like the Holy Spirit can half-fill you.
27:26-27:26
Right?
27:27-27:38
"Hey Pastor Jeff, how's your spiritual walk?" "I'm about half full of the Holy Spirit this week." You're like, "I'm not glad to know that." That's not exactly the picture.
27:39-27:42
I'm three quarters filled with the Holy Spirit.
27:42-27:46
Nor is it like the Holy Spirit is divided up.
27:46-27:49
Like, I have half of the Holy Spirit.
27:49-27:51
He's a person. You don't get half of Him.
27:51-27:53
And you don't get a quarter of Him.
27:54-27:54
He's a person.
27:58-28:00
The matter of being dominated or controlled.
28:01-28:02
Right? We get that.
28:03-28:05
By the Spirit, not the addictive substance.
28:05-28:06
We mentioned this a little bit last week.
28:08-28:18
He says, "Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit." The drunk is controlled by alcohol.
28:20-28:22
It controls how he walks.
28:22-28:24
It controls how he talks.
28:24-28:26
It controls how he thinks.
28:27-28:29
He says, "No, no, no. The Holy Spirit should control this thing.
28:30-28:46
The Holy Spirit should control how you walk, and how you talk, and how you think." But you have to see that this being filled with the Spirit carries over to every single arena of your life.
28:49-28:51
Like, what does that look like?
28:51-28:52
Well, contrast it with addiction.
28:54-28:55
Somebody's an addict.
28:58-29:04
It controls every single aspect of their lives.
29:06-29:07
Think about that.
29:09-29:12
Let's talk about drunkenness, since that's again the example in the text here.
29:13-29:14
Let's talk about drunkenness.
29:15-29:17
Let's say you have a person that struggles with that addiction.
29:17-29:18
A lot of people do.
29:20-29:26
Because they're drinking so heavily the night before, They're hungover and unable to perform at work.
29:28-29:31
So they do a terrible job at work.
29:32-29:34
And they get chewed out by their boss.
29:35-29:38
And they're disappointed in themselves, so now they feel bad.
29:39-29:43
So what do I do as a drunk when I feel bad?
29:43-29:44
What do I do?
29:45-29:46
I drown it out, right?
29:46-29:47
I drink!
29:48-29:50
And that'll make me feel better.
29:52-30:01
You know, my health is suffering, because I haven't been sleeping, and I've been dealing with hangover-type symptoms I'm not going to gross you out with.
30:01-30:06
And my health is really suffering for this.
30:06-30:13
And what can I possibly use to make myself get a little bit of physical relief?
30:15-30:15
Any ideas?
30:17-30:21
drink because I get a little numb for a while, right?
30:24-30:35
But you know my wife, she sees all this going on at work and with my health and she's genuinely concerned but I don't see that. I see a nag. We should get off my case about that.
30:35-30:43
And oh she's just constantly on my nerves and how do I handle that? I drink, right?
30:43-30:48
And they drown out the feelings.
30:48-30:55
So do you see how what happens in one area of life affects the rest of life?
30:57-31:08
For the drunk, every single thing he does contributes to his drinking, and his drinking contributes to the failures of every area of life.
31:12-31:23
If we're going to have freedom from life-dominating sin, that means we have to change in every area of life.
31:26-31:44
Where instead of alcohol dictating what's happening in every area of life, and the solution and the response filled by the Spirit, needs to fill every area of my life.
31:46-31:49
You're like, well, what does that look like for me, Pastor Jeff?
31:50-31:51
That's why you need to see number two.
31:51-31:52
That's why you need biblical counseling.
31:56-31:59
Because you need to sit down with somebody and work through this.
31:59-32:00
This is an exercise.
32:00-32:08
What you're going to have to do is you're going to have to make a list of concrete ways that you've been failing God and failing others.
32:08-32:11
And you need to be specific, and you need to be thorough.
32:12-32:17
These are all of the things that I've been doing to feed my addiction.
32:19-32:23
And then, you need to consider biblical alternatives to each act.
32:24-32:28
Again, your pastor or counselor needs to walk through this exercise with you.
32:28-32:31
"Well, can you give me an example?" Yeah, I'll give you an example.
32:31-32:45
Maybe on your list, the pastor sits down with you He says, "Okay, what's been contributing to your problem?" You say, "Well, you know, I go to the bar every Friday night, and I have like zero self-control there." Okay, well, we're going to replace that.
32:46-32:51
Instead of going to the bar, you're going to volunteer at Light of Life every Friday night.
32:51-32:54
You're going to go down there, and you're going to serve other people.
32:55-32:57
And now put yourself in that place.
32:58-33:07
Oh, and the money that you were spending on alcohol and partying, Instead, you're going to give that money to...
33:08-33:09
missions, whatever.
33:09-33:10
You're going to give that somewhere else.
33:11-33:12
Put off, put on.
33:15-33:16
What are some other areas?
33:16-33:19
Well, you know, I'm just so used to having that drink after supper.
33:20-33:21
And you know what, that's how it happens.
33:21-33:28
I have that drink, and then I sit down in the recliner, and I watch sports or whatever, and the next thing you know, I've had six drinks.
33:29-33:32
Okay, so instead of that drink, we're going to put that off.
33:32-33:33
What are we going to put on instead?
33:35-33:40
Maybe instead of that drink after supper, you're going to just take a walk through your neighborhood and pray for your neighbors.
33:41-33:41
How about that?
33:42-33:42
I don't know.
33:43-33:46
It's a customized thing, an exercise you have to walk through.
33:46-33:49
What are the areas that you need to put off?
33:49-33:53
And let's think of things that we're going to put on instead.
33:55-33:56
You're not going to stop sinning.
33:57-33:58
are going to replace cynic.
33:59-34:04
I have a good friend who is a contractor who had a horrible life of addiction.
34:05-34:08
And when I asked him how he was able to get it behind him, do you know what he said?
34:09-34:16
He said, "I took every side gig that I could, every side job, every single one." Why'd you do that?
34:16-34:19
He says, "Because when I sat at home, all I could think about was drinking.
34:19-34:20
That's all I ever thought about.
34:20-34:27
But when I'm out working, distracted and focused, Addiction is long in this guy's past now.
34:28-34:32
Because he didn't stop sinning, he replaced sinning with something else.
34:34-34:38
So use your list and restructure every single area of life.
34:40-34:40
Put off, put on.
34:42-34:44
You have people that will help you with that.
34:45-34:46
Okay?
34:48-34:49
Number four.
34:49-34:51
Hey, these last two points aren't as long as that one.
34:52-34:55
Number four, we're talking about things you need to get.
34:57-34:59
Things you need to get for change to stick.
34:59-35:00
Number four, get a new fellowship.
35:01-35:02
Get a new fellowship.
35:05-35:08
Meaning, cut off all former connections.
35:09-35:10
Cut 'em off.
35:11-35:20
Whoever you were partying with, whoever you were using with, whoever you were drinking with, whoever was supplying you, burn the bridge and burn it now.
35:22-35:29
And in church, you're like, "Wait a second, Pastor Jeff, shouldn't I be witnessing to these people?" Absolutely not.
35:30-35:30
You should not.
35:35-35:39
Until you have completely put on the new way of life.
35:40-35:41
I mean completely.
35:42-35:45
I mean, that addiction is history.
35:45-35:48
Until then, no, we don't have contact with them.
35:48-35:50
You're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I disagree.
35:50-35:52
and abandon them.
35:53-35:54
They're not gonna influence me.
35:55-35:56
I'll influence them.
35:56-35:58
Do you know what 1 Corinthians 15.33 says?
35:58-35:59
We're gonna remind you.
35:59-36:00
It says, "Do not be deceived.
36:01-36:06
"Bad company ruins good morals." You know that bad company ruins good morals.
36:06-36:10
You're around the wrong kind of people that are going to affect you negatively.
36:10-36:13
You're like, "We all get that, right?" Look at the first phrase.
36:13-36:14
Look at the first phrase.
36:14-36:15
Do not be deceived.
36:15-36:16
Do you know why he said that?
36:17-36:18
Do you know why he said that?
36:18-36:21
because this is an area where we deceive ourselves.
36:21-36:24
I'll influence them, they won't influence me.
36:24-36:27
And God says, "Ha ha ha ha. Don't fool yourself, man.
36:27-36:34
Don't fool yourself. Don't be deceived." Burn those bridges.
36:35-36:38
Get in a small group for prayer and fellowship and accountability.
36:39-36:41
Get with people who are going to encourage you in the Lord.
36:41-36:43
Wholesale change, get a new fellowship.
36:44-36:46
And finally for today, number five, get hopeful.
36:48-36:50
We get hopeful, and we land here exactly where we landed last week.
36:52-36:55
You know, Paul ministering to the Corinthian church.
36:55-37:02
The Corinthian church was full of people who were dominated by besetting and addictive sins.
37:03-37:04
The whole church was full of it.
37:05-37:10
1 Corinthians 6 says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
37:12-37:14
Do not be deceived.
37:16-37:33
nor the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards - addiction to substance, whatever.
37:34-37:38
Like I said, drunkard is the biblical poster child for addictions of all kinds.
37:39-37:42
Nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
37:42-37:44
He says if you're on that list, you are not going to heaven.
37:45-37:50
He says, "And such were some of you." That's who you were.
37:51-37:52
That's not who you are.
37:52-37:53
Like, well, who am I now?
37:54-38:00
You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
38:03-38:17
You know, Jesus Christ who did so much healing in the Corinthian church, I realize He's the same Savior alive and at work in the church today.
38:17-38:17
Did you know that?
38:20-38:22
He's the same Healer.
38:25-38:28
And He brings about the same transformation that these people experienced.
38:31-38:38
Therefore, get hopeful, because the same testimony is available to you.
38:42-38:43
You could say addiction, yeah, yeah.
38:44-38:44
An addict?
38:46-38:47
That's who I was.
38:48-38:53
But thanks to Jesus, that's not who I am anymore.
38:53-38:54
I'm done with addiction.
38:56-38:56
Let's pray.
38:57-39:06
Father in heaven, I pray that Your Word points us in the right direction today.
39:06-39:11
I know this was a hard subject cover in one sermon.
39:14-39:16
Father, I don't presume to be able to fix anybody.
39:18-39:31
Father, You have the power, and You have the willingness, and You have the love and compassion and strength that Father, You can fix anybody of anything.
39:33-39:39
So Father, I pray for the person that's hearing this and struggling with an addiction of any kind.
39:43-39:44
Today is a day of hope.
39:47-39:54
Today is a day of optimism, because maybe we've tried things the world's way, and now we're ready to try them your way.
39:57-40:03
Father, we thank You for the washing, the regeneration, the sanctification, the power that You give us by Your Spirit.
40:04-40:08
And I pray, Father, that You would glorify Your name by continuing to set captives free.
40:12-40:16
Fully and wholly turn our hearts to You.
40:17-40:20
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read any of the passages from this week’s message
What was your big “take-away” from the message?
Explain why “just quitting” is not enough for deliverance from addiction. What else has to happen? Be specific. See Ephesians 4:22-32, Romans 6:19.
Imagine a friend in your neighborhood confesses a serious drinking problem to you. How would you help? Where would you tell him/her to start? Why?
Breakout
Confess any addiction issues you struggle with and pray for one another.
Disease defined: A disease is a diagnosable condition with a primary physical cause.
See Proverbs 23:20, 1Corinthians 6:10, Galatians 5:21
Sin (including addiction) is Enslaving .
John 8:34 - Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin."
Ephesians 5:18 - And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit...
Sin (including addiction) is Deceptive .
Eph 5:5 – For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
1 Cor 1:18 - For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
No one tells me how to live.
Prov 28:26 - Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.
I'm not really worried about the consequences.
Prov 9:17-18 - "Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant."
But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
I'll always get away with it.
Prov 15:3 - The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
No matter how bad things have gotten for me (relationships, money, health), I can't give this up.
Prov 27:22 - Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him.
I know it's bad for me but I can't stop! I keep going back to it over and over.
Prov 26:11 - Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.
It's God's fault I am like this.
Prov 19:3 - When a man's folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD.
1 Cor 6:9-11 - Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
01:10-01:17
Being involved in prison ministry, we would see that it would often go through seasons.
01:17-01:22
We'd have a season where we'd have a lot of people come, so many that we could barely stuff them in the room.
01:23-01:27
And Mark will tell you, right, we had seasons where we'd have one or two guys come.
01:28-01:31
I had one night that I went that nobody came.
01:32-01:36
The correctional officer called for, he said, "Hey, who wants to go to Bible study?" And nobody came.
01:36-01:37
I said, "This is awesome.
01:37-01:39
Like, you guys are doing a great job here.
01:39-01:41
Nobody here needs the Bible.
01:41-01:44
Like, they're in a much better position than I am.
01:45-01:52
But I remember there was a particular season where we would have usually one or two guys come.
01:54-01:56
And one of those guys was a young man named Klaus.
01:59-02:01
And he looked way too young to be in prison.
02:03-02:05
And I remember he would come every week.
02:05-02:07
He had a MacArthur Study Bible.
02:09-02:15
And Klaus would hang on every single word.
02:16-02:26
He would sit on the edge of his seat, look me in the eye, and was just hanging on every word so intent.
02:26-02:29
And he would come with questions.
02:30-02:38
He's like, "I was studying this week and I had some questions for you." And he would just listen, and he was so humble.
02:39-03:03
And I remember he said, "When I get out of here, the first thing I do is I'm going to come to the church, and I want to get involved, and I want to serve Christ, and I want to do what's right." And the following Friday, I went back in for Bible study, and the CO called for any of the guys on the pod that wanted to come to Bible study.
03:03-03:10
And one or two guys came and I said, "Hey, where's Klaus?
03:10-03:19
He hasn't missed a Bible study in months." And as soon as I said that, everybody stopped and almost looked like they saw a ghost.
03:20-03:40
They're like, "Oh, you didn't hear." And I said, "No, I didn't hear what?" And they said, "He got released last week." And I said, "Well, that little punk, he told me he was going to come and see me as soon as he got released." And they said, "No, he overdosed the day he got out and he died." And you know, I wish things would have been different for him.
03:41-03:46
I wish he would have come to see me before he went to see whoever got him hooked up.
03:47-03:48
I wish a lot of things.
03:48-03:53
I wish that this story wasn't repeated with my 27-year-old nephew almost two years ago.
03:54-03:58
I wish that this wasn't so common, but here we are.
03:58-04:07
And that's why we're taking a break from our series in John for a topical series on addiction, because I don't think I have to sell anybody here, right?
04:07-04:10
We are in an addicted culture.
04:10-04:15
And this place, geographically in particular, is an addicted area.
04:16-04:19
People can become addicted to many different things.
04:19-04:28
People get addicted to drugs, to sex and pornography, to food, to alcohol, to work, to gambling.
04:30-04:36
We're going to be talking about addiction in this series, and there's going to be a heavy emphasis on substance addiction.
04:37-04:41
Things that have a way of hooking our bodily passions.
04:42-04:52
They give us physical pleasure, or they relieve stress, or they soothe some desire, but suddenly, we find ourselves trapped in this really vicious cycle.
04:53-04:57
Like, you know, I need to be done with this, but I'm just gonna have one more, just one more.
04:58-05:02
And then we have that one more, and we have that sense of contentment for a moment.
05:03-05:06
And then when that wears off, I'm just gonna have one more.
05:06-05:09
I am gonna be done with this, I'm just gonna have one more.
05:10-05:16
And the cost becomes worse and worse and worse and worse, right?
05:17-05:21
What was costing me a little bit of money is costing me a lot of money now.
05:22-05:25
And now it's costing me time in rehab.
05:26-05:27
It costs me my job.
05:27-05:29
It costs me relationships.
05:29-05:30
It costs me my marriage.
05:30-05:37
And like Klaus, like my nephew, like so many others, it can end up costing you your life.
05:37-05:40
So with all that's on the line, it's time to get serious.
05:41-05:46
It's time to let God and His word bring healing and maybe even save a life.
05:46-05:49
So today, done with addiction.
05:49-05:52
Addiction is a worship disorder.
05:53-05:56
And on your outline, I just simply want us to do this today.
05:57-06:01
There's a lot of stuff for you to fill in, but really it's just one point, right?
06:02-06:04
And here's the one point. We want to see addiction as God sees it.
06:05-06:07
We want to see addiction as God sees it.
06:07-06:10
So number one, addiction defined.
06:11-06:13
That's a great place to start this series.
06:13-06:17
Let's make sure that we're all speaking the same language. Addiction defined.
06:18-06:28
Addiction is bondage to the domination of a substance, legal or illegal, which becomes the central focus of my life.
06:29-06:33
You're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, you can become addicted to work, and you can become addicted..." You know what?
06:33-06:35
We've talked about those things in the past.
06:35-06:37
Check the sermon archives.
06:37-06:39
We've talked about those things.
06:39-06:58
For this series, again, because of all that's on the line and because of the life and death danger of this. I want to focus most of our attention on substance stuff. Legal or illegal stuff, which becomes a central focus of my life. Here's the short version of the definition.
06:59-07:23
It's enslaving destructive dependency. Enslaving destructive dependency. And how you define addiction determines how you'll go after conquering it. If you've gotten to that point, that you're ready to do that. So for this series and for this message we really have to kick off discussing one thing in particular. Addiction, is it a disease or is it a sin?
07:24-07:47
There's a commercial that's airing right now maybe you've seen it where this doctor I don't think he's a real doctor I think he's like an actor playing a doctor but he gets on there and three times in the same commercial he's like addiction is a disease addiction is a disease don't be ashamed addiction is a disease. Do you see that commercial? For many people that's what it boils down to Addiction is a disease that sort of highlights the way that we feel.
07:47-07:51
But can we rightly call addiction a disease?
07:51-07:54
Because since we're defining things, let's define disease.
07:54-08:01
A disease is a diagnosable condition with a primary physical cause.
08:02-08:04
That's a disease, like diabetes.
08:04-08:09
There's an issue with the pancreas, so sugar is not processed properly.
08:09-08:39
disease or whether it's MS or ALS. It's a diagnosable condition that we see a primary physical cause. And if there's a cure for a disease by definition, a cure for a disease has to be something external, right? Meaning a diabetic can't heal him or herself. But addiction does not fit that definition because for addiction the cure has to come from within.
08:39-08:40
It has to.
08:41-08:46
And I'm not saying that there's not some benefit to some of the external things, okay?
08:46-08:47
I'm not saying that.
08:47-08:54
But I'm saying primarily the root of the cure has to come from within.
08:54-09:04
Because unlike a disease like MS or diabetes or whatever, unlike a disease like that, addicts make choices to pursue their addictions.
09:05-09:12
Therefore, choices must be made to reject, defeat, and forsake the addiction.
09:13-09:17
You see, that's a course of action that's insufficient to a disease, right?
09:18-09:19
A diabetic can't say, "You know what?
09:19-09:25
Today, I'm going to reject, defeat, and forsake diabetes." It just doesn't work that way.
09:25-09:26
But that's exactly how it works with addiction.
09:28-09:34
Now listen, we call it a disease sometimes because, honestly, it has some similarities with a disease, doesn't it?
09:34-09:41
Because it affects your whole being, it's painful, it often leads to death and it's always tragic.
09:41-09:44
Please hear me, I want to say this as compassionately as I can.
09:45-09:57
I think there's a real practical danger in just restricting the definition of addiction to being merely a disease because it gives an easy excuse to not try to conquer it.
09:58-10:06
We say, "Look, you know, your drinking is destroying you." "Phew, I can't help it, I have a disease." And like, what do you say about that, right?
10:06-10:08
What do you, like, how can you even reply to that?
10:09-10:14
Like, you know, you say, you know, hey, you need to take care of your diabetes.
10:14-10:15
Well, I have a disease.
10:15-10:20
Yeah, yeah, okay, you do, but can we treat addiction that way?
10:20-10:23
To say, well, nothing you can really do about it.
10:24-10:26
No choices you can make to better yourself.
10:28-10:36
And I would say it's a huge mistake and just approaching addiction only thinking in terms of the physical, because addiction is rooted in a spiritual need.
10:38-10:43
Biblically, we're defining addiction, we're seeing addiction as God sees it.
10:44-10:46
Biblically, addiction is a sin.
10:46-10:59
That's why the title of this message is "Addiction is a Worship Disorder." In the Bible, drunkenness, which is the timeless and most common form of addiction, And you could say drunkenness is the poster child for addiction.
11:00-11:02
Drunkenness in the Bible is always called a sin.
11:03-11:09
Proverbs 23:20, 1 Corinthians 6:10, Galatians 5:21, it's always called a sin.
11:10-11:17
And because addiction is sin, we need to pay close attention to how the Bible describes sin if we're going to look at it from God's perspective.
11:18-11:26
And here's two things the Bible says about sin, including addiction, that if you know somebody that's an addict, or if you've been an addict, these things are easy sells.
11:27-11:54
First one is this, sin, including addiction, is enslaving. It's enslaving. And nothing demonstrates that more graphically than addiction. You know, Jesus said this in John chapter 8. We're going to get there, Lord willing, this year. "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin." So look, that's true of all sin. It's enslaving. As Paul said nothing more graphically shows that than addiction.
11:55-11:57
You don't need to sell an addict on that, right?
11:58-12:08
I mean, the addiction appears to give this predictable dose of relief, or power, or comfort.
12:09-12:12
But at the end of the day, the addict feels trapped.
12:12-12:14
The addict feels like something's out of control.
12:15-12:18
Because something other than the Holy Spirit is controlling them.
12:20-12:31
Like Paul says in Ephesians 5.18, "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery." When somebody is drunk, that means the chemical alcohol is controlling them.
12:32-12:33
It controls the way they think.
12:33-12:35
It controls the way they walk.
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It controls the way they talk.
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It's controlling everything about them.
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He says don't be controlled like that.
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He said God's Holy Spirit should be controlling you.
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God's Holy Spirit controls how you think, how you talk, how you walk.
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But that's the problem with addiction God's not controlling me.
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Something else is.
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And that is so out of whack.
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So sin, including addiction, is enslaving.
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Sin, including addiction, is deceptive.
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We've had a whole sermon series on this.
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Sin is deceptive.
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Sin is such a liar.
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Boy, that's obvious with addiction, isn't it?
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Whether it's alcohol, food, porn, gambling, they all tell lies, right?
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They all tell lies.
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Like what kind of lies?
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Lies like, "I'll make you feel better." "I'll make you feel better." Or, "You need me." "I'm a part of your life." The biggest lie.
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"I'm not a big deal." "Okay, so you entertain me on the side and people don't really know." "And I'm not that big of a deal." They're lies.
13:39-13:50
You see, God uses His Word and God uses His people to help addicts see it, to say hard things, You have to be willing to hear hard things.
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That's why you have to be willing to confront the beliefs that motivate addiction, and instead you need to pursue Jesus Christ.
13:56-13:58
Somebody asked you, are you addicted to something?
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Do you have an addiction?
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Like, well, I don't know, Pastor Jeff.
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I mean, I have a beer like twice a year.
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Does that mean I'm an addict?
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Or, you know, occasionally I smoke a cigar, or I'll play the lottery a few times a year.
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But do I have an addiction?
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Am I an addict?
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Hey, I want nothing to do with legalism, okay?
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This is something that you have to wrestle through with the Lord.
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But I do want to give you, here's five signs of addiction that we're going to give you, and you can seek the Lord on these for whatever it is that you're wrestling with, and chances are if it's something you're wrestling with, then you really need to pay close attention to it.
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Consider this, here's five signs of addiction.
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Letter A, absorbing focus.
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It occupies my thoughts.
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It dictates my schedule.
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It claims my money.
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This thing has become the central thing in my life.
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And I can't imagine my life without this thing.
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It just, it consumes everything about me.
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Absorbing focus.
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Letter B.
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Something true of addiction, increasing tolerance.
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You always need more.
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Whether it is chemical, whether it's pornography, whether it's gambling, whatever.
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What started with a little bit has to get more and more and more.
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I used to take one pill, but that doesn't quite give me the buzz that I used to get.
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So now I've got to take two, and that's not really doing...
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You're building up a tolerance, and you build up a tolerance spiritually, and always need more, always need worse.
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It grows and grows and grows and grows.
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Letter C, a third sign of addiction is growing denial.
15:34-15:34
Growing denial.
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"Look, I don't have a problem.
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I can quit this whenever I want.
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It's no big deal." Denial.
15:43-15:46
Fourth sign of addiction, letter D, damaging consequences.
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We already mentioned this briefly.
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Money, job, marriage, friendships, health, life.
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Addiction doesn't do anything good for you.
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It doesn't move the ball down the field of your life in a good way in any concept whatsoever.
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It's just consequence, consequence, consequence.
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And then a final sign of addiction, letter E, painful withdrawal.
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quitting is physically painful.
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Even the thought of quitting is emotionally painful.
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You go through withdrawal symptoms physically, emotionally.
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So are you willing to truly consider what the Bible says?
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That addiction is a sin?
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Here's the good news for me.
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I realize a message like this and a series like this is going to offend some people, and it's going to take a shot across the bowels spiritually, Jesus said this in John 10.27, Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice." And if you belong to Christ, and if what I'm sharing with you is truly the Word of God, then you're going to hear what Jesus has to say.
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But if you are not yet one of Jesus' sheep, then you have a much bigger problem than addiction.
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The problem is you have the wrath of God abiding on you, and the best thing you have to look forward to eternity separated from God.
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The good news is that Jesus Christ came to die for your sin and to raise from the dead to give you new life.
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Are you ready for new life?
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Because if you're not one of Jesus' sheep, addiction is the least of your issues.
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But if you are one of Jesus' sheep, and this is a besetting sin, this is something you're still struggling with.
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The same power that saved you is the same power that's going to heal you.
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So number two, let's look at addiction described.
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He defined it, but how does the Bible describe enslaving sin or addiction?
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And there's a lot of ways, but today I'm just going to give you three.
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Three ways the Bible describes enslaving sin, which addiction is certainly under that category.
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Letter A, addiction is idolatry.
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All sin is called idolatry, including addiction.
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Ephesians 5 says, "For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, that is, an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." As soon as we talk about idolatry, people start tuning out.
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That's like Indiana Jones type stuff, right?
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That's like when you go to Thailand, they actually have idols.
18:26-18:30
There's spirit altars, and you see the Buddha everywhere.
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And that's idolatry, but we don't have idolatry in our country, do we?
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Worse than anywhere we do.
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But it's just subtle here.
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You see, idolatry is when you desire something in creation more than you desire the Creator.
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Idolatry is a lordship problem.
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And if you're nursing an addiction, it's not about loving God.
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It's about loving yourself.
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And that's idolatry.
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The hard thing about idolatry is it's always backed by demons.
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This is another whole sermon series, but do a little study yourself.
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Idolatry is so much more than "I worship a rock" or "I worship myself." It's backed by Satan. He's the silent partner of idolatry.
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And because there's a spiritual stronghold, it requires something powerful to break it.
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That's why if you have an addict in your family or in your workplace, somebody you care about that you've been trying to help, your tears aren't going to help them.
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Your pleas to them aren't going to help them.
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You can't threaten them, you can't bribe them, you can't argue with them, you can't reason them into deliverance from addiction.
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Those things won't do it.
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What the addict needs is the power of God.
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Nothing short of that is going to help them.
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Truly, truly help them.
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Like, well, how do I get the power of God?
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The chances are right now it's sitting on your lap.
19:58-20:07
1 Corinthians 1.18 says, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the..." See that last phrase?
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The power of God.
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The gospel is the power of God.
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Paul said the same thing in Romans 1.16, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God." What the addict needs is the gospel.
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You're like, "Well, I know that this person is saved." Well, they need the power of the gospel activated in their lives.
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They need to repent because addiction is idolatry.
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Secondly, letter B, how does the Bible describe addiction?
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Addiction is adultery.
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It's adultery.
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This is another metaphor the Bible uses, and it emphasizes the more, shall we say, intimate details of idolatry, the emotional affection.
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Like, where does the Bible talk about that?
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There's a whole book in your Bible about this.
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It's the book of Hosea.
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CliffsNotes version.
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God tells Hosea the prophet to marry this woman who eventually becomes a prostitute.
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Like, didn't God know that?
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Yeah, God knew that.
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He told him to marry her.
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Like, why would he do that?
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Because God says, this is a graphic illustration.
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Like, this is how I feel.
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When my people who I love, who are my wife, so to speak, are out worshiping other gods, God says, "You're prostituting yourself." And I feel about that the way a husband would feel finding out his wife is a prostitute.
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It's spiritual idolatry, spiritual adultery.
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Your heart that belongs to God has been given to another.
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You know, Proverbs chapter seven, you can read the story.
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Proverbs chapter seven talks about a man who one day was walking down the street and he ends up losing his life because he gets involved with an adulterous woman.
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You're like, "Well, how did that happen?
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"How do you go from I'm walking down the street "to my life is over because I got connected "with the wrong woman?
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"How did that happen?" Well, if you read Proverbs 7 closely, it seems to me that this guy sort of sabotaged himself.
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Think, what do you mean?
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He was walking the streets at twilight, and he just so happened to be in the neighborhood of this woman, it was almost like he was setting himself up to be destroyed.
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You're like, well, what in the world does that have to do with addiction?
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The man was purposeful in his pursuit.
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That's how it is with addiction.
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I know what I need to do to get what I want, and that's what I'm gonna do.
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Purposeful in pursuit.
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Another way it's like addiction is pleasure for a moment.
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Pleasure for a moment.
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That's true with sexual immorality.
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That's true with addiction.
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You're willing to go to any expense to get what you want for what?
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A very tiny window of pleasure.
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I'm willing to kill myself, literally.
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I'm willing to lose every relationship I have so I feel good for a few seconds.
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And again, just like addiction, it cost this man his life.
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You can read that, Proverbs 7.
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This man lost his life.
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That's how it is with addicts.
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I'll get what I want at any cost.
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I'll enjoy the pleasure.
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I'll come down from my high and I can't wait to do it again.
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And unless you seek the Lord to end it, death is going to end it.
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So addiction is adultery.
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And then how else does the Bible describe addiction?
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It's foolishness.
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Addiction is foolishness.
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Now please hear me.
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I am not saying that you're stupid if you have an addiction.
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I don't want anybody thinking, well, Pastor Jeff says I'm really dumb because I have an addiction.
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I didn't know.
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Understand, when the Bible talks about foolishness, foolishness biblically is defined this way.
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It's pursuing a course that is briefly pleasurable, but ultimately painful.
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That's addiction.
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That's biblical foolishness.
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If you're still not sold on that, I just wanna take you through a really quick tour of the book of Proverbs.
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Proverbs is a book that contrasts wisdom and foolishness, and I want you to tell me if Proverbs seems to address the deceptive thinking of an addict.
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You tell me.
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For example, addicts say something like this.
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"No one tells me how to live.
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"Look, nobody tells me how to live.
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"What does Proverbs say?" Proverbs 28, 26 says, "Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool." The addict says, "Well, I'm not really worried about the consequences." Proverbs 9, verses 17 and 18, "Stolen water is sweet, "and bread eaten in secret is pleasant, But he does not know that the dead are there, and her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
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That's the grave.
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That's death.
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Not worried about the consequences.
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Yeah, that's the foolish deceptiveness of sin.
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Not worried about the consequences.
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You're like, I don't understand, Jeff.
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I don't understand.
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Why would somebody do that to themselves?
24:57-25:02
Why would somebody be willing to put a chemical in their body knowing that it might kill them?
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I mean, that's just not rational.
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Sin is not rational.
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Sin, any sin, never stops to consider the consequences.
25:14-25:18
It's just about feeling good in the moment and doing what I want now.
25:19-25:24
An addict says, or more accurately thinks, you know, I'll always get away with it.
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They might not say that, but they think that.
25:26-25:27
I'm always gonna get away with that.
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Well, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
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It seems the Proverbs is addressing the addict again.
25:37-25:51
Another thing addicts say, "No matter how bad things have gotten for me, "I've lost relationships, I've lost all my money, "I've lost my health, I just can't seem to give this up." If you know an addict, you know the lengths they will go to to get what they want.
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You know Proverbs says, Proverbs 27, 22, look at this, "Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle "along with crushed grain, "yet his folly will not depart from him." In other words, somebody that's committed to their sin, you can destroy them into dust and they're still going to go after their sin.
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Does that sound like an addict?
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Addicts say, "I know it's bad for me, but I can't stop.
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I just keep going back to it over and over, and I don't want to, but I keep going back to it." You know, Proverbs addresses that too, right?
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2611 like a dog that returns to his vomit there's a fool who repeats his folly where's my dog people at dog people okay so I don't have to illustrate this you know what you know what happens here you guys know this okay I'll move on it's disgusting it is disgusting if you have a dog and you've seen it you know what I'm talking about it is just look I'm a dog person we got three of them, "I love dogs, but this is disgusting." And that's what an addict does.
26:56-26:58
Like, why do you come back to that?
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And when things get destructive enough and an addict really brings a lot of pain onto himself, I've seen this so many times, people say, "You know, it's God's fault I'm like this.
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"It's God's fault that I'm like this." And Proverbs 19.3 says, "When a man's folly brings "his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord." You know what that means?
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That means we have a way of screwing up our lives and then it's God's fault for all the choices that we made.
27:25-27:25
What's the point?
27:26-27:30
Point, saying these things is foolishness.
27:30-27:36
These verses are describing a biblical fool and addicts say such things.
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So addiction is foolishness according to the Bible.
27:40-27:46
It's idolatry, it's adultery, and it's foolishness if we're looking at it through the lens of God's word.
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Finally, we've defined addiction, addiction described, and here's why we're doing this series.
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Number three, addiction destroyed.
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Addiction destroyed.
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If you ever read the Old Testament, you see Israel over and over setting up these idols, and then God responds.
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Do you remember any passage in the Old Testament where God says, "Israel, would you please try "to wean yourself off of the idol worship?" Or Israel, I see you're worshiping false gods, but maybe just sort of, would you pump the brakes a little bit on that?
28:25-28:26
What does God tell them to do?
28:27-28:31
He says, "You tear those things down "and you destroy them," right?
28:32-28:40
And if addiction is idolatry, we don't coddle them, we don't flirt with them, we don't entertain with them, we destroy them.
28:41-28:46
The addict says, "You know, I've tried to stop, "but I can't." Well, it's not about changing your behavior.
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It's about changing your heart.
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And I've got some good news for you, because that is like Jesus Christ's specialty, is changing the heart.
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And if you are stuck in an addiction, or you love someone that is stuck in an addiction, I'm gonna share with you the greatest passage in the Bible.
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We're gonna close with this because we're gonna pick it up next time.
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1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 through 11.
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Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
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He says, "Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy." Look at this one.
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"Nor drunkards." Post your child for addiction.
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"Nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." He's like, if you are on that list, if this is who you are apart from Jesus Christ, you're You're not gone to heaven.
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Here's the game changer here.
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He says, "And such were some of you." Past tense.
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He says, "That's who you were." Well, who am I now?
29:59-30:09
He says, "You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." He says, "That's who you were." Please hear me.
30:10-30:24
I know AA and NA, I know those things have done a lot to help people that have been stuck in addiction, but something I struggle with, with that model, with that mindset, at an AA meeting, what's the first thing you say when you stand up?
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"Hello, my name is Jeff and I am an alcoholic." You're saying, "This is my identity.
30:30-30:36
"This is who I am." And then you turn to the Bible and he says, "No, no, no, that's not who you are.
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"That's who you were.
30:40-30:42
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified.
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Your identity is not a drunkard, your identity is not "I'm a drug user." Your identity is a forgiven and transformed child of God.
30:55-31:01
So if you want to be done with addiction, the good news for you is the God of the universe is on your side.
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He's going to supply the power, and He's going to surround you with the right people.
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And that's what we're going to pick up with next week.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, I pray that you would give us a mind of wisdom.
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Father, we need to see things as you see them.
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You made it very clear in your word that when we are committed to sin, we are committed to idolatry and adultery and foolishness.
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But Father, you are committed to life change.
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You are committed to transformation.
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You are committed to forgiveness and cleansing.
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So Father, I pray that as you've called us to renew our minds, I pray Father you would renew our minds to the realities of your word, that we wouldn't make excuses that we have a disease or that's just my identity, that's just who I am.
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I pray that we would truly embrace the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And that after these next few weeks, Father, I pray that there are some people that are also talking about their addiction in the past tense.
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Father, glorify your name we pray in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read any of the passages from this week’s message
What was your big “take-away” from this message?
Define addiction in your own words. How do you know when something is an addiction?
Is addiction a disease? Why or why not? What are the differences between addiction and a disease (like diabetes)?
How is addiction idolatry? How is it adultery? How is it foolishness?
Breakout
Pray for this sermon series to save lives in bondage to addiction.
Note: The time signatures [00:00] below indicate the start of a question if you'd like to skip to a particular one of interest in the audio file.
[00:21] - Q: Why was Zechariah “punished” for questioning God, but others- Gideon- were not?
[01:58] - Q: How old do you believe the earth is? If man has been here since the first week, did we coexist with dinosaurs?
A: Based on the genealogies recorded, 6-10K years old. Yes, according to Gen 1:24-31 God created dinosaurs and man on the same day living together. A fossil record also supports both man and dinosaur living together.
[08:58] - Q: Where do animals go when they die?
A: See Eccl 3:21 which alludes to the concept of the spirit of man and beast. Rev 21:6 notes that we will be fully satisfied in heaven. Book suggestion by Randy Alcorn “Heaven”
[12:01] - Q: Do you have any suggestions on Bible reading programs for the start of the new year? What works, what doesn't, etc? And how do you guard against this discipline becoming just a mechanical exercise?
A: Read what you’re in the mood for from the bible to keep yourself engaged.
[14:29] - LIVE AUDIENCE Q: Why is demon possession primarily mentioned in the New Testament versus the Old Testament?
[15:20] - LIVE AUDIENCE Q: Do you think there is anything the church has failed to do with our societal confusion with sexuality and gender confusion situation?
A: See the excellent sermon from Pastor Jeremiah on homosexuality and how we’re to respond as Christians.
[22:01] - Q: Short-term vs long-term missions work, what the right balance between the 2 should be, when does helping sometimes hurt (in the case of short-term trips being more about the people going than the ones being served, a team coming in with their own agenda rather than local partnership... etc).
[25:50] - Q: After a spouse dies, does the surviving spouse love in the same way again? If there is another love, will it be the same or will it be a different love?
[27:51] - Q: Why do you think church people struggle with those who might not be led by the same life choices? Ex (view-meaning) married people to singles: When are you going to settle down and marry? or Parents to Newlyweds: When are the babies coming? Maybe that isn't where the Lord is leading.
[29:10] - Q: When I'm struggling with a life situation where God doesn't seem to be answering, why do people tell me, "you just need to have more faith"? It just makes my pain worse.
A: It’s not about the amount of faith you have, but whom you have your faith in. See Matt 17:21
[31:24] - Q: In Job 38:7 the Bible says the morning stars sang together. Jesus and Lucifer are both referred to as "the morning star" in Revelation and Isaiah, so who is being mentioned here?
A: The morning star in this context refers to God’s angels in a general sense, no specific angel or person. Job 38:7 specifically is a reminder to Job that He is God and we are not!
[32:51] - Q: What is the church's response on protecting kids from sexual immorality NOW in this sex driven culture? Some possible ideas; promote early marriage to avoid temptation? Also what can parents do to help?
A: Parents are the disciple-makers of their children. The source of authority is always God’s Word and it’s the parents’ responsibility to sow God’s Word into their own children’s hearts.
[35:45] - Q: Do you think today’s church has replaced Israel?"
A: No, see Romans 11
[37:01] - Q: What was the reason/symbolism/significance of baptism when JTB was baptising? Was baptism a new thing? How did the aspect/act of getting baptized help? Repentance of sins was encouraged. What did the priests/sanhedrin/pharisees think about JTB doing this? How did JTB create baptism? Was he the first or was this a new thing?
A: John’s baptism was for repentance and to prepare the way for the Messiah, see Acts 19:4 and Luke 3.
[39:52] - LIVE TXT Q: When we pray, are we only to address God the Father, or can we also pray to Jesus and the Holy Spirit?
A: We are praying to God the Father in Jesus’ name while the Holy Spirit also prays with us.
[40:36] - LIVE TXT Q: Who / what are angels?
A: Eternal beings that God created for His glory.
[41:35] - LIVE TXT Q: What are your thoughts about people who claim to cast out demons or perform exorcisms?
A: See Eph 6
[42:44] - LIVE TXT Q: Luke 11:12-14 tells of Jesus cursing the fig tree for not having figs. However, it was not fig season. Why would Jesus do this? How is this different from Christians not having a specific spiritual gift, such as teaching? Are we still expected to teach?
A: The Holy Spirit gives gifts as God provides them. See the sermon on the fig tree from Pastor Jeff as we studied the book of Mark.
See James 3 on a warning to teachers and a fantastic sermon on this topic by Michael Wolski.
[44:36] - LIVE TXT Q: Due to abortion being a so controversial, and in my opinion a human rights issue, ...1. what does the Bible say about pre-born life? (Psalm 139, Jeremiah 1:5). 2. The church does need to speak truth in love, but is this an instance, like slavery, where we need to get more involved directly?
A: This is a modern day version of child sacrifice to demons as outlined in the Old Testament
Any question that was missed due to time constraints during the service Pastor Jeff will address the answer on the blog.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
Pastor Jeff:
00:00-00:04
I'll tell you what, you want to say like 35 or 40 minutes, is that reasonable?
Mark Ort:
00:04-00:05
Sounds good.
Pastor Jeff:
00:05-00:06
40 minutes? Okay.
Pastor Jeff:
00:07-00:07
He'll pack me
00:07-00:08
right
Mark Ort:
00:08-00:10
on. - Are you using the Pac-Man alarm?
Pastor Jeff:
00:10-00:11
That's the only one I use.
Mark Ort:
00:11-00:12
Good.
00:14-00:14
Alright, you
Pastor Jeff:
00:14-00:16
ready? - I think
Mark Ort:
00:16-00:16
so, go ahead.
Mark Ort:
00:16-00:17
You all ready? - I'm ready.
Mark Ort:
00:18-00:20
Okay, here we go. First question.
Mark Ort:
00:21-00:27
Why was Zechariah punished for questioning God, but others like Gideon were not?
Pastor Jeff:
00:27-00:29
That is a really good question.
Pastor Jeff:
00:29-00:32
And some people put their name on the questions and some people did not.
Pastor Jeff:
00:33-00:36
So I don't know, unless you put your name on it, I don't know who asked what question.
Pastor Jeff:
00:36-00:38
But I thought that was a great question.
Pastor Jeff:
00:38-00:42
And the best answer that I could come up with is this.
Pastor Jeff:
00:43-00:48
Jesus Christ referred to God repeatedly as a heavenly Father.
Pastor Jeff:
00:49-01:00
And I just know from my parenting experience and other parents that I know, You don't always handle every kid and every situation the same way, right?
Pastor Jeff:
01:00-01:08
I was talking to Mark about this stuff earlier this morning, because Mark's a little further down the road than I am in parenting, right?
Pastor Jeff:
01:09-01:11
I still know
Mark Ort:
01:11-01:11
nothing about it.
Pastor Jeff:
01:12-01:13
Okay, well, great.
Pastor Jeff:
01:14-01:16
Anybody know anything about parenting can help us out here.
Pastor Jeff:
01:17-01:19
But you have two sons and a daughter.
Pastor Jeff:
01:19-01:20
We have two sons.
Pastor Jeff:
01:21-01:27
I know in every scenario, we don't always discipline in the same way.
Pastor Jeff:
01:27-01:28
Correct.
Pastor Jeff:
01:28-01:43
So if you're like, "Okay, well then, what's the difference in the scenario?" I would say, sort of tongue-in-cheek, that the task that God had Gideon to do required him to speak and hear.
Pastor Jeff:
01:43-01:45
He had to defeat the Midianites with a tiny army.
Pastor Jeff:
01:45-01:51
The task that God had Zechariah do didn't require him to speak.
01:53-01:54
So...
Mark Ort:
01:54-01:56
Good question and good answer, Jeff.
Mark Ort:
01:56-01:57
Next one.
Pastor Jeff:
01:58-01:58
How old do
Mark Ort:
01:58-01:59
you believe the Earth is?
Mark Ort:
02:00-02:05
If man has been here since the first week, did we coexist with dinosaurs?
Pastor Jeff:
02:06-02:08
That is a really good question.
Pastor Jeff:
02:08-02:13
I believe the Earth is somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 years old.
Pastor Jeff:
02:14-02:21
And I know people are going to say, "That's ridiculous." But let's...
Pastor Jeff:
02:23-02:26
We let the horse out of the barn there, so just humor me for a second.
Pastor Jeff:
02:27-02:28
The idea of millions of years, where did that come from?
Pastor Jeff:
02:29-02:30
That
02:30-02:41
came from secular science. It came from people that wanted a story of origins that didn't involve God's personal creation.
02:41-02:49
So for people that don't want to know God and don't respect God's word, do I really give a rip what they think? I don't.
02:50-02:55
Okay? So when they're like, "Well, the Earth is millions of years old, and that's that way, we don't have..." I don't care.
02:56-02:57
I care what God says, all right?
02:58-03:00
So, and I don't believe
Pastor Jeff:
03:00-03:01
that the Bible's anti-science.
Pastor Jeff:
03:01-03:09
In fact, do a little research on how many branches of science were founded by Christians who used the Bible as their starting place.
Pastor Jeff:
03:09-03:12
But I would say this, here's what I'd say about the dinosaurs.
Pastor Jeff:
03:13-03:16
Do I believe that dinosaurs existed with people? Absolutely, I do.
Pastor Jeff:
03:17-03:20
Now, again, we let the horse out of the barn, so ride this one with me, alright?
Pastor Jeff:
03:22-03:33
Let's tell the story of the dinosaurs purely from a biblical standpoint. Let's forget all the stuff you hear about 4.5 billion years ago and, you know...
Pastor Jeff:
03:33-03:33
Jurassic Park.
Pastor Jeff:
03:34-03:39
Jurassic Park and all the stories about Dinosaurs were killed by, I've heard everything.
Pastor Jeff:
03:39-03:40
They were killed by meteors.
Pastor Jeff:
03:41-03:43
They were killed by the Earth overheating.
Pastor Jeff:
03:43-03:51
I heard they were killed by, you know, they had a lot of gas and they like farted themselves to death.
Pastor Jeff:
03:51-03:52
Have you heard that one?
Pastor Jeff:
03:53-03:55
It's just like, okay, like we're grasping at straws here.
Pastor Jeff:
03:57-04:00
But let's just look at the story from a biblical perspective.
Pastor Jeff:
04:00-04:08
If the Bible's true, and I believe it is, but if the Bible's true and we take it straightforwardly the way God presents it, and I believe that's how we should take the Bible.
Mark Ort:
04:08-04:10
You mean like a day is actually a day?
Mark Ort:
04:10-04:11
I
Pastor Jeff:
04:11-04:14
believe that the days in Genesis were literal days, and there's a lot of reasons for that.
Pastor Jeff:
04:15-04:19
But if the Bible's true, and I believe it is, then when were dinosaurs created?
Pastor Jeff:
04:19-04:22
They were created with the other sea and land animals, right?
Pastor Jeff:
04:22-04:29
So that would mean that necessarily man and dinosaur coexisted at some point.
Pastor Jeff:
04:29-04:32
Now there's actually geologic evidence for that.
Pastor Jeff:
04:32-04:38
They found through digs dinosaur tracks and human tracks and bones and things.
Pastor Jeff:
04:39-04:39
Fossils together.
Pastor Jeff:
04:40-04:42
So there is evidence that supports that.
Pastor Jeff:
04:43-04:48
I believe the dinosaurs coexisted with humans, so the question is, where did the dinosaurs go?
Pastor Jeff:
04:49-04:50
Here's where I believe the dinosaurs went.
Pastor Jeff:
04:52-04:54
Again, this is coming from a biblical standpoint.
Pastor Jeff:
04:55-05:00
The Bible says wickedness was so bad on the earth, by the time you get to Genesis 6, what happened?
Pastor Jeff:
05:01-05:10
Judge the earth with a flood right and he killed every animal and every person that wasn't on Noah's Ark Correct. Is that what the Bible says?
Pastor Jeff:
05:10-05:14
That's what the Bible says. That's what that's what we're going with here, right?
Pastor Jeff:
05:14-05:24
So I believe that Noah and his family took two of every kind of animal seven of some on the Ark as the Bible Described you're like, well, how did he get a dinosaur in the Ark?
Pastor Jeff:
05:24-05:31
That's yeah I'm sure when the Lord told Noah to put the animals on the Ark Noah was like, "Well, we can't put the dinosaur on the ark,
Mark Ort:
05:31-05:34
right?" You can't go and pick the biggest one.
Pastor Jeff:
05:34-05:35
You can pick
Mark Ort:
05:35-05:36
some small ones, right? Some babies, maybe?
Pastor Jeff:
05:37-05:38
That certainly seems reasonable.
Pastor Jeff:
05:38-05:49
I said that to somebody who asked me that question one time, and she said, "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." I'm like, "Wow, you don't get out much." I've heard a lot more ridiculous things than that.
Pastor Jeff:
05:49-05:56
I believe that Noah took young baby dinosaurs onto the ark with him.
Pastor Jeff:
05:56-05:58
Nothing's born full-size, right?
Pastor Jeff:
05:58-06:01
You know, my mother's certainly thankful for that.
Pastor Jeff:
06:01-06:03
Nothing is born full-size.
Pastor Jeff:
06:03-06:06
I believe that he took babies onto the ark with him.
Pastor Jeff:
06:06-06:07
Like, well, what happened...
Pastor Jeff:
06:08-06:13
Oh, and by the way, by the way, Noah's flood is really the only story that accounts for the fossils.
Pastor Jeff:
06:14-06:15
It's the only story.
Pastor Jeff:
06:15-06:20
Because you understand that when an animal dies, it doesn't instantly become a fossil, right?
Pastor Jeff:
06:20-06:24
Like, if you're driving down the road and you hit a deer, it's not like, boom, fossil!
Pastor Jeff:
06:24-06:26
somebody's going to find that in a million years.
Pastor Jeff:
06:26-06:29
What happens? It lays on the side of the road and the birds pick at it.
Pastor Jeff:
06:29-06:32
It decays and rots and eventually it's gone.
Pastor Jeff:
06:32-06:34
So how does an animal become fossilized?
Pastor Jeff:
06:34-06:36
It has to be quickly covered and preserved.
Pastor Jeff:
06:37-06:43
So my question is, how do you quickly cover and preserve an animal bigger than your car?
Pastor Jeff:
06:44-06:46
It would have to be one heck of a rainstorm.
Pastor Jeff:
06:46-06:48
You know the Bible talks about one heck of a rainstorm?
Pastor Jeff:
06:48-06:50
Genesis chapter 6, right?
Pastor Jeff:
06:50-06:51
Noah's flood.
Pastor Jeff:
06:51-06:59
I believe that it was that cataclysmic flood that the Bible clearly describes that fossilized the dinosaurs.
Pastor Jeff:
06:59-07:04
I believe the dinosaur fossils are a forever testimony to the truth of God's word.
Pastor Jeff:
07:05-07:06
How else are you going to fossilize a dinosaur?
Pastor Jeff:
07:06-07:14
I mean, it's sprinkling this morning, but no rain that we had this year would be capable of burying a dinosaur.
Pastor Jeff:
07:15-07:16
I believe Noah's flood did it.
Pastor Jeff:
07:17-07:18
So what happened afterwards?
Pastor Jeff:
07:18-07:20
I believe the dinosaurs starved to death.
Pastor Jeff:
07:20-07:21
Why do I think that?
Pastor Jeff:
07:21-07:25
I believe that food wasn't as abundant after the flood.
Pastor Jeff:
07:25-07:31
Why? Because God told Noah, after the flood, that he could kill and eat.
Pastor Jeff:
07:31-07:35
Right? So, apparently everybody was vegetarians before that.
Pastor Jeff:
07:35-07:40
But after the ark, it was like, you can totally go to keto if you want.
Pastor Jeff:
07:41-07:44
And I believe the reason for that is food was not as abundant.
Pastor Jeff:
07:45-07:47
And how much food would it take to feed an animal that large?
Pastor Jeff:
07:47-07:49
I would think a lot.
Pastor Jeff:
07:49-07:51
So I believe that dinosaurs start...
Pastor Jeff:
07:52-07:54
And the Bible actually does speak of dinosaurs.
Pastor Jeff:
07:54-08:07
In the book of Job, it talks about behemoth, it talks about leviathan, and it describes creatures that some people want to say, "Well, that was an elephant." No, you look at the description, it couldn't possibly be an elephant or a rhino or a pachyderm, of which we are familiar.
Pastor Jeff:
08:08-08:14
So I believe that the dinosaurs did coexist with man, and Job actually described some of them.
Pastor Jeff:
08:15-08:16
That's what I think happened in the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
08:16-08:20
And that all comes from believing the Bible straightforwardly.
Pastor Jeff:
08:21-08:25
And somebody would say, as somebody has said, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
Pastor Jeff:
08:25-08:38
I would say, "Okay, well, let's hear your story." "How do you think the dinosaurs got fossilized?" "Let's hear it." "I have reason for believing what I believe." "So let's hear your story." Like, I still think the gas thing.
Pastor Jeff:
08:39-08:44
I'm just saying that that doesn't line up with God's Word, and it certainly doesn't line up with what we see in the fossil.
Pastor Jeff:
08:44-08:45
We could
Mark Ort:
08:45-08:46
talk about that for millions of years.
08:47-08:47
[laughter]
Pastor Jeff:
08:49-08:51
Or we could talk about it for one 24-hour day.
Pastor Jeff:
08:51-08:52
Exactly.
Mark Ort:
08:54-08:56
This is a great question. This is from Emma Ingram.
Mark Ort:
08:57-09:02
She asks, "Where do animals go when they die?" I love that question.
Pastor Jeff:
09:03-09:04
I love that question, too.
Pastor Jeff:
09:05-09:09
And I'll be honest with you, it's a tough one, because the Bible doesn't really talk about that.
Pastor Jeff:
09:09-09:19
You know, there's one verse in the Bible that sort of alludes to the concept, and that is, if you're writing this down, Ecclesiastes 321.
Pastor Jeff:
09:20-09:28
He makes reference to the spirit of man ascending upward, the spirit of beast or animal descending downward.
Pastor Jeff:
09:28-09:32
And the problem is Ecclesiastes isn't written from a perspective.
Pastor Jeff:
09:32-09:36
Solomon wasn't like, here's your systematic theology book.
Pastor Jeff:
09:37-09:47
He was more like a philosopher looking at life under the sun and the meaning of life apart from God, how there is no meaning apart from God, and how God brings meaning to life.
Pastor Jeff:
09:47-09:58
I think the philosophical nature of Ecclesiastes, I don't take that verse as build your whole theology on the death of animals around this.
Pastor Jeff:
09:59-10:05
All I can say for sure is Revelation 21.6 tells us that we are going to be fully satisfied in heaven.
Pastor Jeff:
10:06-10:11
And if there's anything that you need to be fully satisfied, it's going to be provided in heaven.
Pastor Jeff:
10:12-10:13
What all that entails, I don't know.
Pastor Jeff:
10:14-10:26
I just know that you're not gonna be walking around in heaven for eternity saying, "I'm eternally sad because my dog's not here with me." God's going to satisfy every need that you have.
Pastor Jeff:
10:27-10:32
But as far as what happens to the animals, the Bible just doesn't really talk about that.
Mark Ort:
10:33-10:40
One of the things that I found helpful is a book by Randy Alcorn about heaven.
Mark Ort:
10:40-10:43
It's called "Heaven." And he does make mention in there.
Mark Ort:
10:43-10:45
I found him to be a reliable source of information.
Mark Ort:
10:45-10:52
There's so much things on the internet you could read about this, but he does ask some good questions.
Mark Ort:
10:53-10:57
For instance, he'll ask a question about this particular topic.
Mark Ort:
10:58-11:16
Would God give you something like an animal who's your companion and your friend and possibly like your, we'll say like your service dog, that's been such a big help, would that animal be created just for destruction?
Mark Ort:
11:17-11:19
And it's a good question to ask.
Mark Ort:
11:19-11:20
It is a good question.
Mark Ort:
11:20-11:20
We don't know.
Mark Ort:
11:21-11:22
Yeah, the Bible
Pastor Jeff:
11:22-11:35
certainly spends a lot of time talking about how God redeemed man, but there's just not a lot of material in the Bible or really not really any material about what happens to animals when they die.
Mark Ort:
11:36-11:38
Yeah, we do see animals in the Bible, like horses.
Mark Ort:
11:38-11:40
There's abundance of horses.
Mark Ort:
11:40-11:41
And Jesus
Pastor Jeff:
11:41-11:45
returns to the earth on a horse, right?
Pastor Jeff:
11:45-11:47
According to Revelation 19.
Pastor Jeff:
11:48-11:53
So animals, you know, my usual answer to that, all dogs go to heaven.
Pastor Jeff:
11:54-11:54
And?
Pastor Jeff:
11:56-11:57
Cats, not so much.
Mark Ort:
11:57-11:58
All right, next question.
Pastor Jeff:
11:59-12:01
They go back from whence they came.
Mark Ort:
12:01-12:06
Okay, Jeff, do you have any suggestions on Bible reading programs for the start of the new year?
Mark Ort:
12:07-12:09
What works, what doesn't, et cetera?
Mark Ort:
12:10-12:16
And how do you guard against this discipline becoming just a mechanical exercise?
Pastor Jeff:
12:17-12:18
For me personally.
Mark Ort:
12:20-12:23
I thought that was a really good question, by the way, because
Pastor Jeff:
12:23-12:24
I submitted it.
Pastor Jeff:
12:24-12:27
I'm sure, yeah, I was gonna say, I'm sure you thought that was a great question.
Pastor Jeff:
12:27-12:28
I often have
Mark Ort:
12:28-12:30
permission to speak honestly.
Mark Ort:
12:31-12:38
I often have trouble with my Bible reading discipline becoming mechanical.
Mark Ort:
12:39-12:40
And I don't want it to be that. So,
Pastor Jeff:
12:41-12:41
tell me how.
Pastor Jeff:
12:42-12:48
For me, obviously, part of my job requires intense study of God's Word.
Pastor Jeff:
12:49-12:56
So, personally, I'm always reading something in the Bible that I have zero intention on teaching.
Pastor Jeff:
12:56-13:04
And it's just for me. It's for God's Word to feed me, because I never want the Bible to be like a work manual for me.
Pastor Jeff:
13:04-13:06
Like this is where I go to get lessons.
Pastor Jeff:
13:06-13:11
Like, so I'm always reading something I have no intention on teaching anytime soon.
Pastor Jeff:
13:12-13:15
So this is my scientific approach to that.
Pastor Jeff:
13:15-13:15
You ready?
Pastor Jeff:
13:15-13:17
I read what I'm in the mood for.
Pastor Jeff:
13:18-13:27
And sometimes it's a narrative, sometimes it's prophecy, sometimes it's Proverbs, sometimes it's like the straight instruction from the New Testament, like the pastoral letters.
Pastor Jeff:
13:27-13:33
I just read what I'm in the mood for, because I find when I do that, it's not a chore.
Pastor Jeff:
13:34-13:48
Like, "Oh, I gotta sit down and read this, "and I don't really feel like..." I'm really in the mood for God to feed me from His Word in this way, so it makes me more naturally inclined to go after it, and it makes me more able to learn when I do it.
Pastor Jeff:
13:48-13:51
So that's how I do it.
Pastor Jeff:
13:51-13:59
I'm usually, personally, I'm usually somewhere in the Old Testament and somewhere in the New Testament in addition to whatever I'm preparing to teach.
Pastor Jeff:
13:59-14:00
And you use a
Mark Ort:
14:00-14:00
checklist, right?
Pastor Jeff:
14:00-14:05
Yeah, I use one of those Bible reading chart things just to help keep track of what I've read.
Pastor Jeff:
14:05-14:09
You can download them online and-- - Plenty of apps that can help you.
Pastor Jeff:
14:10-14:19
There's apps that help you with that if you're one of those people that like the, the app will tell me what to read, my daily reading of the day.
Pastor Jeff:
14:20-14:23
I'm sure there's lots of great Bible programs out there for that kind of thing.
Mark Ort:
14:24-14:25
You ready to pass the mic?
Pastor Jeff:
14:25-14:26
Yeah, you wanna pass the mic?
Pastor Jeff:
14:26-14:27
Anybody have a question?
Pastor Jeff:
14:27-14:28
Anybody have a question?
Audience Question:
14:29-14:32
Why is demon possession only mentioned in the New Testament and not in the Old Testament?
Pastor Jeff:
14:33-14:34
Demon possession?
Pastor Jeff:
14:35-14:37
It is mentioned in the Old Testament.
Pastor Jeff:
14:39-14:44
Like for example, King Saul, he was afflicted by an evil spirit.
Pastor Jeff:
14:46-14:54
It says that God sent an evil spirit, interestingly it says God sent the evil spirit to torment Saul and his downfall.
Pastor Jeff:
14:54-15:01
So we do see some of that in the Old Testament, but yeah, it seems a lot more prevalent in Jesus' day.
Pastor Jeff:
15:02-15:05
Like when Jesus was on the earth, it was like literally all hell broke loose.
Pastor Jeff:
15:07-15:13
And we see more straightforward discussion on demonic possession.
Pastor Jeff:
15:14-15:19
But yeah, it's in the Old Testament, but it's not as frequent as what we see during the Gospels.
15:20-15:20
Do
Audience Question:
15:20-15:30
you think there's anything that we as the church have failed to do regarding promoting marriage and promoting gender that lead us in this crazy world that we live in?
Audience Question:
15:30-15:34
Is there anything on the churches that we should be reflective on and do differently?
Pastor Jeff:
15:35-15:36
That is a really good question.
Pastor Jeff:
15:37-15:37
Mark, what do you think?
Pastor Jeff:
15:39-15:40
As a church?
Pastor Jeff:
15:40-15:41
As a church, yeah.
Mark Ort:
15:42-15:55
Well, I know, and this kind of leads into one of the other questions, but parental instruction with your children, And maybe that is augmented by the church.
Mark Ort:
15:55-16:03
Maybe we have classes or teaching or sermons based on the scriptures that help in that area.
Mark Ort:
16:04-16:14
I don't know how that looks as far as a church program or teaching outline or whatever.
Mark Ort:
16:15-16:23
But I know for us, it's all about instruction, in the home from God's Word.
Pastor Jeff:
16:23-16:23
Right.
Pastor Jeff:
16:24-16:34
To clarify, Dan, your question, do you mean, like years ago we did the thing tighten the knot, where we talked about marriage for a month and then we had the big marriage event and things like that.
Pastor Jeff:
16:34-16:36
Do you mean the church doing more things like that?
Pastor Jeff:
16:37-17:05
Or do you mean the church more in the public forum as the culture is denying, yeah, we live in a day that, it's funny to me, that very issue, Dan, Because for somebody to think it's not a spiritual issue, it's crazy because you know, like the Bible, in the beginning, Genesis 2.24, "For this purpose, a man shall leave his father "and mother and cleave to his wife, "and the two shall become one flesh." God says marriage is to be one man and one woman.
Pastor Jeff:
17:06-17:08
And the culture says, that's not true.
Pastor Jeff:
17:09-17:22
And the insanity we're seeing now, the culture's taking it even to a more perverse and more insane level, because the Bible says God created them male and female.
Pastor Jeff:
17:22-17:24
And the culture says, that's not true.
Pastor Jeff:
17:25-17:27
How many gender distinctions are there now?
Pastor Jeff:
17:27-17:30
There's like, last I heard was like 71 or something like that.
Pastor Jeff:
17:30-17:31
Like, what?
Pastor Jeff:
17:34-17:37
Like, it's a direct affront to the word of God.
Pastor Jeff:
17:38-17:42
And here's my knee-jerk answer, response to that, Dan.
Pastor Jeff:
17:42-17:50
My knee-jerk reaction to that is, I'm not sure how much we as a church can do to disciple those people out there.
Pastor Jeff:
17:50-17:57
My concern is to disciple people in here that are going to go out there and carry the truth of God's Word.
Pastor Jeff:
17:57-18:12
So from a church standpoint, I would see our job is to encourage people to hold to the foundation of God's Word in your workplaces, in your communities.
Pastor Jeff:
18:13-18:13
You take that with you.
Mark Ort:
18:14-18:14
Absolutely.
Mark Ort:
18:14-18:14
And you stand there.
Mark Ort:
18:15-18:17
And we need to be like bold about it.
Mark Ort:
18:18-18:25
I mean, we can't be concerned, in my opinion, we can't be concerned that we're gonna hurt somebody's feelings.
Mark Ort:
18:26-18:29
Although we gotta share with people the truth and love.
Mark Ort:
18:30-18:30
You know what I'm saying?
Mark Ort:
18:31-18:39
You know, whenever they start talking at my kid's school about this stuff, and all of a sudden now they're haters just because they speak the truth.
Mark Ort:
18:39-18:41
Like, no, we're not haters.
Mark Ort:
18:41-18:43
we're actually haters by not speaking the truth.
Mark Ort:
18:44-18:47
We gotta speak the truth and speak it in love.
Mark Ort:
18:47-18:53
People need to know where we stand as Christians and we need to be bold about it.
Mark Ort:
18:53-18:55
And if people are gonna hate, they're gonna hate.
Mark Ort:
18:56-19:02
But the ultimate form of hate is withholding the truth because somebody's feelings are gonna get hurt.
Pastor Jeff:
19:03-19:27
Right, I one time invited a man to church and then just a guy that I had met actually on an airplane, He was, I said, "Is Pittsburgh your home?" He goes, "Yeah, that's my final stop." And I invite him to church and he said, "You wouldn't want me at your church." And I said, "Why?" And he said, "Because I'm a homosexual." And I said, "Well, absolutely you're invited to our church." You know, it opened up this door for this whole discussion.
Pastor Jeff:
19:28-19:34
I said, "Look, we can disagree about what we believe "about that without hating each other.
Pastor Jeff:
19:35-19:38
"But my intention is I want you to come and meet Jesus.
Pastor Jeff:
19:38-19:44
I want you to come and know what God has said in His Word and the transforming power of the gospel.
Pastor Jeff:
19:45-19:52
But I think just taking that message out like you're saying, Martin, being bold, not shrinking back to say, you know, we're not jerky about it.
Pastor Jeff:
19:52-19:56
We're like, look, this is what God said, and here's what we believe.
Pastor Jeff:
19:57-20:03
But I can just tell you, Dan, as a pastor, my concern is that the people in here get it, right?
Pastor Jeff:
20:04-20:07
My concern as a pastor isn't for the people that aren't here.
Pastor Jeff:
20:07-20:26
My concern is for the people who are here to say, "Look, you are going to be going into your communities and workplaces, you stand firm in the word of God, you be filled with the Holy Spirit, you be the evangelist where God sends you because you go places I'll never go." So that's my perspective on it as a pastor.
Mark Ort:
20:26-20:38
Yeah, and the challenge we have as a church is, okay, yeah, we wanna be bold, but Pastor Jeremiah Canfield was here and preached convicting message about this topic.
Mark Ort:
20:38-20:47
And his challenge to us at the time was, yeah, we're gonna be bold, but we need to learn how to love people that don't know the truth.
Mark Ort:
20:48-20:55
We need to learn how to love people from that community who have had Christians look down their nose at them.
Mark Ort:
20:56-21:01
And we need to learn to love them 'cause they're never gonna hear us if we don't love them.
Pastor Jeff:
21:02-21:10
Right, and I think like Westboro Baptist Church and people like that, I think the culture looks at that as representative of the church.
Pastor Jeff:
21:10-21:12
God hates homosexuals.
Pastor Jeff:
21:15-21:17
I think it's a gross misrepresentation.
Pastor Jeff:
21:17-21:21
Like no, God so loved the world that he gave his son.
Pastor Jeff:
21:21-21:24
And the transforming power of the gospel is for everyone.
Pastor Jeff:
21:25-21:27
So I think you're right, Mark.
Pastor Jeff:
21:27-21:28
I think it has to start with
Mark Ort:
21:30-21:32
genuinely loving the people
21:32-21:33
before
Pastor Jeff:
21:33-21:37
you, you're loving them and you're praying for them even before you talk with them.
Mark Ort:
21:38-21:39
Dan, thanks for that question.
Mark Ort:
21:39-21:40
That's a very serious thing.
Pastor Jeff:
21:40-21:45
It is, and I think that question is going to be more and more relevant.
Pastor Jeff:
21:46-21:50
Doesn't look like things are backing off in that area any time soon.
Mark Ort:
21:50-21:51
Did we do the short-term mission question?
Mark Ort:
21:52-21:52
No, we didn't.
Mark Ort:
21:52-21:54
Okay, let's go on to the next one.
Mark Ort:
21:54-21:57
And we had Mandy up here talking about missions.
Mark Ort:
21:57-21:59
I love this about our church.
Mark Ort:
21:59-22:00
we are a missions-minded church.
Mark Ort:
22:01-22:03
Short-term versus long-term missions work.
Mark Ort:
22:04-22:06
What the right balance between the two should be.
Mark Ort:
22:07-22:09
When does helping sometimes hurt?
Mark Ort:
22:09-22:19
In the case of short-term missions, trips being more about the people going than the ones being served, a team coming in with their own agenda rather than local partnership, et cetera.
Pastor Jeff:
22:20-22:21
This is a really good question.
Pastor Jeff:
22:21-22:31
And I think this is extremely wise thinking regarding missions because I think a lot of short-term mission trips are about me.
Pastor Jeff:
22:32-22:40
I went to this place and I got to do this and it's like, hey everybody, applaud me because of what I did.
Pastor Jeff:
22:41-22:44
And I remember one time hearing somebody talk about a mission trip that they went on.
Pastor Jeff:
22:45-22:46
Like, well, tell me about the trip.
Pastor Jeff:
22:47-22:50
And they said, oh, we went to this beach for a while and it was really nice.
Pastor Jeff:
22:51-22:54
And then later we went to this other beach and it wasn't as nice as the first one.
Pastor Jeff:
22:54-22:59
So the next day we went back to the first one and they were just talking about...
Mark Ort:
22:59-22:59
Their vacation.
Pastor Jeff:
23:00-23:01
Yeah, I'm like, beach?
Pastor Jeff:
23:02-23:04
Like, that's what it means to be a missionary?
Pastor Jeff:
23:05-23:06
Like, where do we sign up for that?
Pastor Jeff:
23:07-23:15
So I think the point is, I think a lot of it was, I'm not here to serve, I'm here to vacation.
Pastor Jeff:
23:15-23:28
And I know there are a lot of trips being taken from harvest people associated with other ministries, And I know each mission and ministry is gonna have sort of its own strategy.
Pastor Jeff:
23:29-23:33
What I can speak to regarding this mainly is our strategy with Thailand.
Pastor Jeff:
23:34-23:44
Our missionary friend over in Thailand has 20 some churches in the mountain jungle region, the Lisu Bible Institute, which trains pastors and evangelists, and three children's homes.
Pastor Jeff:
23:45-23:54
And what we do in our partnership with Thailand isn't just short term, get in, get out, make a big splash for a week and leave.
Pastor Jeff:
23:56-24:01
What we are working on is investing in the people that do the work over there.
Pastor Jeff:
24:01-24:09
Because honestly, if I walked into one of those villages, I couldn't speak the language, but they're not gonna listen to me.
Pastor Jeff:
24:09-24:17
They're not gonna listen to chubby white guy that they don't know, but you knew they will listen to.
Pastor Jeff:
24:17-24:18
They'll listen to their neighbor.
Pastor Jeff:
24:19-24:52
They'll listen to somebody from their own tribe their own language. So when Justin and Rich and Dan and I went over, we poured into 50 or 70 or something like that, however many people were there, we poured into those people and then they went back to their villages with like, loaded for bear. They had all this extra ammunition now and tools to be used for ministry and we look at that as being much more effective, you know, pouring into those people who are going to go out into their respective churches.
Mark Ort:
24:52-24:55
That's a big bang for your buck when you can multiply the message like that.
Pastor Jeff:
24:55-24:55
Right.
Pastor Jeff:
24:56-24:56
It is.
Pastor Jeff:
24:56-24:57
It is.
Pastor Jeff:
24:57-25:01
And we realized that it's not, that is not dependent upon us.
Pastor Jeff:
25:01-25:06
You know, that's, that's stuff that's going to have a ripple effect for generations.
Pastor Jeff:
25:06-25:08
So our goal is to do that every couple of years.
Mark Ort:
25:09-25:11
I liked what Mandy said when she was up here.
Mark Ort:
25:11-25:16
She said how it impacted her going on the missions trip.
Mark Ort:
25:16-25:21
And, you know, these four guys that went to Thailand, um, that changed your life.
Mark Ort:
25:21-25:21
Right guys?
Mark Ort:
25:21-25:24
I mean, that's a thing that changes your life.
Mark Ort:
25:24-25:35
You know, I had the privilege of going on one missions trip while I've been here, and it did something inside of me, making me aware of just how things are somewhere else.
Mark Ort:
25:35-25:45
I mean, we're blinded a lot of times in America to what's going on somewhere else, and it does something to you.
Mark Ort:
25:45-25:45
Right.
Pastor Jeff:
25:46-25:47
It certainly does.
Mark Ort:
25:48-25:49
Okay, next question, Jeff.
Mark Ort:
25:50-25:55
After a spouse dies, does the surviving spouse love in the same way again?
Mark Ort:
25:56-25:59
If there is another love, will it be the same, or will it
Pastor Jeff:
25:59-26:00
be a different love?
Pastor Jeff:
26:02-26:07
This is a very hard question because I've never experienced this.
Pastor Jeff:
26:08-26:13
So it's very hard for me to speak to this because I have zero first-hand knowledge.
Pastor Jeff:
26:14-26:22
I have a lot of second-hand knowledge because I know people that had a spouse die and get remarried and I've never asked them.
Pastor Jeff:
26:23-26:33
I just never thought it appropriate for me in asking how does your love for your current spouse compare with previous.
Pastor Jeff:
26:33-26:35
I really can't speak to that.
Pastor Jeff:
26:36-26:40
All I can say is I can't imagine it being the same.
Pastor Jeff:
26:40-26:56
And again, I'm speaking, I couldn't imagine loving anyone else anywhere near or like I love Aaron. I just can't imagine that. So I just can't imagine it being the same.
Pastor Jeff:
26:57-27:05
I would think it would almost have to be different if a person got remarried or fell in love after a spouse passed away.
Pastor Jeff:
27:05-27:06
It would have
Mark Ort:
27:06-27:22
to be because I think we do love people in differing degrees. To lose spouse would be a horrible thing and to have someone else enter the picture that's a difficult thing to adjust to.
Pastor Jeff:
27:22-27:37
And I think just by very nature I think would have to be different because maybe you know the things that you loved about your spouse maybe this this new person doesn't have those same qualities and you love different things about them but...
27:37-27:38
I
Mark Ort:
27:38-27:45
don't think it would be a better or worse kind of thing, I think it would just be a different kind of love.
Pastor Jeff:
27:45-27:50
That would be my best guess. Again, I just couldn't imagine, but that'd be my best guess on that.
Mark Ort:
27:50-28:11
Okay, why do you think church people struggle with those who might not be led by same-life choices? And an example would be married people talking to singles, "When are you gonna settle down and marry?" Or parents talking to newlyweds, "Hey, when are the babies coming?" Maybe that isn't where the Lord is leading.
Pastor Jeff:
28:12-28:18
Right, I don't think people who ask questions like that are trying to be malicious.
Pastor Jeff:
28:18-28:21
When those questions come up, I don't think somebody's like, "You know what I'm gonna do?
Pastor Jeff:
28:22-28:27
"I'm gonna hurt this person's feelings "and I know just how to do it." I don't think it's intentional.
Pastor Jeff:
28:28-28:31
I think, here's the mindset that I imagine.
Pastor Jeff:
28:31-28:33
When somebody asks those questions, they probably think, "You know what?
Pastor Jeff:
28:34-28:42
"You're a nice person and I think you'd make or a nice husband for someone, or a nice wife for someone, and I'm just having conversation with you.
Pastor Jeff:
28:42-28:48
I don't think it's meant to be malicious, but I do think the answer is right here in the question.
Pastor Jeff:
28:49-28:50
Maybe that isn't where the Lord is leading.
Pastor Jeff:
28:51-28:55
If that question bothers you, I think that's the response you have to have.
Pastor Jeff:
28:56-28:58
They say, "When are you going to get married?" Well, that's up to the Lord.
Pastor Jeff:
28:59-29:01
"When are you guys going to have kids?" Well, that's up to the Lord.
Pastor Jeff:
29:01-29:05
But I don't think the questions are ever asked maliciously.
Mark Ort:
29:06-29:07
I agree with that, Jeff.
Mark Ort:
29:08-29:09
Next question.
Mark Ort:
29:10-29:17
When I'm struggling with a life situation where God doesn't seem to be answering, why do people tell me, you just need to have more faith?
Mark Ort:
29:17-29:19
It just makes my pain worse.
Pastor Jeff:
29:20-29:21
Yeah, the people that say that are wrong.
Pastor Jeff:
29:22-29:27
You need to have more faith because it's not about the amount of faith that you have.
Pastor Jeff:
29:27-29:30
It's about who your faith is in, right?
Pastor Jeff:
29:31-29:37
Because Jesus in Matthew chapter 17, verse 20, was talking about faith.
Pastor Jeff:
29:38-29:52
And he said, "For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed." That was the smallest edible seed or seed to produce something edible in the world.
Pastor Jeff:
29:52-29:56
And Jesus said, "You can have faith that tiny." Have you ever seen a mustard seed?
Pastor Jeff:
29:56-30:03
I know sometimes like, you know, Christian tools of affirmation or whatever, put one in a pendant or whatever.
Pastor Jeff:
30:05-30:16
But Jesus goes on, he says, if you have faith even that big, he says, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.
Pastor Jeff:
30:16-30:25
So Jesus said, it's not about how big your faith is, it's about who your faith is in, like our ice skating friend, right?
Pastor Jeff:
30:25-30:29
You know, I've told the story a couple times, little boys ice skating, you know the story?
Pastor Jeff:
30:29-30:30
You're like, please don't tell it again, okay.
Pastor Jeff:
30:31-30:37
Oh yeah, okay, okay, the kids, The pawn freezes, he's all excited, he wants to go ice skating, so he goes running down, all excited, all excited.
Pastor Jeff:
30:37-30:39
He jumps on, but the pawn didn't freeze and he falls through.
Pastor Jeff:
30:40-30:47
Week later, another freeze, pawn frozen, the kid runs on, but he's not so anxious this time because of his accident last time.
Pastor Jeff:
30:47-30:52
So he very gingerly steps onto the ice and oh, it holds and he skates and he has a jolly good time.
Pastor Jeff:
30:52-30:57
And the point of that story is this. The first time, he had a lot of faith, but what his faith was in was very weak.
Pastor Jeff:
30:58-31:01
The second time, he had very little faith, but what his faith was in was very strong.
Pastor Jeff:
31:01-31:05
So it's not about how much faith or how big your faith is, it's about what your faith is in.
Mark Ort:
31:06-31:07
That's a great word picture, Jeff.
Mark Ort:
31:08-31:12
And by the way, mustard seeds are one of God's greatest creations.
Pastor Jeff:
31:14-31:15
Right up there with the hot dog seed, right?
31:16-31:17
(laughing)
Mark Ort:
31:17-31:18
Absolutely.
Pastor Jeff:
31:18-31:19
The hot pretzel seed.
Mark Ort:
31:21-31:22
Okay, next question.
Mark Ort:
31:23-31:24
Lost my place here.
Mark Ort:
31:24-31:36
In Job 38, seven, the Bible says, "The morning stars sang together." Jesus and Lucifer are both referred to as the Morning Star in Revelation and Isaiah.
Mark Ort:
31:36-31:38
So who is being mentioned here?
Pastor Jeff:
31:38-31:42
I was impressed with the academic level of this question.
Pastor Jeff:
31:42-31:58
Again, I don't think this one was signed, but I'm like, "Hey, that's a really good question." So I'm back in red Job 38, and if you read Job 38 7, there's a couple of phrases there, and they both just refer to God's angels in general.
Pastor Jeff:
31:58-32:06
And I think, and it boils down to, again, approach to scripture and view of source material and how you read the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
32:07-32:09
And I know I've shared this with you before.
Pastor Jeff:
32:10-32:15
I believe in reading the Bible straightforwardly, that you just read it as it's presented.
Pastor Jeff:
32:16-32:21
So when you read Job 38, basically it's God saying to Job, "Hey, where were you when I did this?
Pastor Jeff:
32:21-32:22
"Where were you when I did this?
Pastor Jeff:
32:22-32:30
"Where were you when this happened?" God was telling Job, "Hey, I am God and you are, Not, right? That's Job 38.
Pastor Jeff:
32:32-32:36
So really, that's all he's referring to here, is he's just talking about angels in general.
Pastor Jeff:
32:36-32:39
You know, it's not really about, is he talking about Satan?
Pastor Jeff:
32:39-32:40
Is he talking about Jesus?
Pastor Jeff:
32:41-32:43
He's just making a general statement.
Pastor Jeff:
32:44-32:47
It's like, hey, where were you when the angels...
Pastor Jeff:
32:47-32:49
So I think it's just a general statement.
Pastor Jeff:
32:49-32:50
Okay,
Mark Ort:
32:51-32:51
here we go.
Mark Ort:
32:51-32:52
We got
Pastor Jeff:
32:52-32:53
30 seconds, let's go quick.
Mark Ort:
32:53-33:00
Oh, what is the church's response on protecting kids from sexual immorality now in the sex-driven culture.
Mark Ort:
33:01-33:05
Some possible ideas, what about promoting early marriage to avoid temptation?
Mark Ort:
33:06-33:07
Also, what can parents do to help?
Pastor Jeff:
33:08-33:09
Oh gosh, I don't know, next.
Pastor Jeff:
33:10-33:11
No, I'm just kidding.
Pastor Jeff:
33:12-33:14
Parents are the disciple makers of their own children.
Pastor Jeff:
33:15-33:21
And they need to not only teach them, but I would also encourage parents, especially teenagers, monitor phone and internet use.
Pastor Jeff:
33:22-33:31
I know that doesn't sound very popular, but I think you need to safeguard covenant eyes or things like that, especially for your kids.
Pastor Jeff:
33:32-33:36
I would like to ask, and this is again on the spot, but hey, we're put on the spot.
Pastor Jeff:
33:37-33:44
Dan and Alicia Thompson, what have you guys done with the youth ministry to talk about these types of issues in any of your talks or messages?
Pastor Jeff:
33:45-33:49
'Cause you guys have been in youth ministry forever, 4.5 billion years or whatever.
Pastor Jeff:
33:50-34:02
So, (laughs) only six to ten thousand years. You guys have been in youth ministry. What are some things that you guys have done in teaching the kids? Thank you,
Audience Question:
34:02-34:27
Corinne. So I think it's similar to the answers that you've given before. I mean, relying on what does the scripture say, right? And being, teaching that the source of authority here is God's Word. And so you can decide for yourself, but there's consequences when you decide. Just like if you choose to not, you know, change the oil in your car at 3,000 miles, you don't have to, but there's consequences for that.
Audience Question:
34:27-34:34
And so we try to give word pictures and examples and consequences, talk through things.
Audience Question:
34:35-34:40
Alicia does a really involved retreat for the girls.
Audience Question:
34:40-34:41
I'll let her talk about that.
Audience Question:
34:43-34:51
But then the other side of it is just there's self-confidence and a self-esteem aspect to all of this.
Audience Question:
34:51-35:17
I mean, the parents obviously can have the biggest influence there in terms of reminding your children that they are valued by God and that God has a plan for them and that God has boundaries and all those things that give them a sense of confidence and assurance that aren't necessarily directly there, but they are always the leading reason that people go and look for satisfaction in other ways like that.
Pastor Jeff:
35:18-35:18
Right.
Pastor Jeff:
35:18-35:19
No, that's good.
Pastor Jeff:
35:19-35:20
That's good.
Pastor Jeff:
35:21-35:25
Thank you. We are like out of time, but there's two questions left.
Pastor Jeff:
35:26-35:28
You want to do them or nah? Okay.
Pastor Jeff:
35:28-35:30
One came in through...
35:30-35:31
I don't know how it came through.
35:31-35:39
Brooke, how did that question come in, "Did the church replace Israel?" That came online? Okay. Somebody asked...
35:39-35:41
Hang on, I'll get it exactly right here.
35:42-35:44
I have a minute and a half still, Mike.
35:45-35:55
Okay. It says, "Do you believe the church has replaced Israel/the Jewish people?" The answer to that question is emphatically, absolutely not.
35:55-35:57
The church has not replaced Israel.
35:58-35:59
Romans chapter 11 is all about
Pastor Jeff:
35:59-36:00
that.
Pastor Jeff:
36:00-36:00
You can go read that.
Pastor Jeff:
36:01-36:06
Romans chapter 11, Paul says, "Look, I know that Israel has not been abandoned "for three reasons.
Pastor Jeff:
36:07-36:08
"God has always had a remnant.
Pastor Jeff:
36:09-36:10
"God has a remnant now.
Pastor Jeff:
36:10-36:12
"And God always will have a remnant.
Pastor Jeff:
36:13-36:17
"And the day's coming when all of Israel will be saved." And we talked about some of that stuff in Revelation.
Pastor Jeff:
36:17-36:25
"I do not believe the church replaced Israel many churches do, and I think that is dead wrong, and I will fight you to the death on that.
Pastor Jeff:
36:26-36:28
Did you have another question, or are we gonna go with the
Mark Ort:
36:28-36:28
one on here?
Pastor Jeff:
36:28-36:29
Yeah, we'll go with the one on here.
Pastor Jeff:
36:30-36:32
That was the only one I knew of that wasn't on
Mark Ort:
36:32-36:32
our list here.
Mark Ort:
36:33-36:36
Okay, so this will be the last one.
Pastor Jeff:
36:36-36:38
And did anybody text a question?
Pastor Jeff:
36:39-36:41
Oh, we got three texted questions.
Pastor Jeff:
36:42-36:43
Three texted questions.
Pastor Jeff:
36:44-36:45
Five texted questions.
Pastor Jeff:
36:46-36:47
Do I hear six?
Pastor Jeff:
36:47-36:49
Do we have them up on the screen?
Pastor Jeff:
36:49-36:51
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, it didn't do Pac-Man.
Pastor Jeff:
36:51-36:52
We'll have to start that over, Darla.
Pastor Jeff:
36:53-36:54
Another 40.
Mark Ort:
36:54-36:55
All right.
Mark Ort:
36:55-36:58
While they're looking for that-- - Let's go quickly here.
Mark Ort:
36:58-37:06
Yeah, what was the reasoning, or what was the reason, symbolism, significance of baptism when John the Baptist was baptizing?
Mark Ort:
37:06-37:07
Was baptism a new thing?
Mark Ort:
37:08-37:11
How did the aspect or the act of getting baptized help?
Mark Ort:
37:12-37:14
Repentance of sins was encouraged?
Mark Ort:
37:16-37:16
That's okay.
Mark Ort:
37:16-37:21
What did the priests, Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, if they think about John the Baptist doing this.
Mark Ort:
37:21-37:23
How did John the Baptist create baptism?
Mark Ort:
37:24-37:26
Was he the first or was this a new thing?
Mark Ort:
37:26-37:27
So a lot of questions rolled up.
Mark Ort:
37:27-37:28
You know what, people
Pastor Jeff:
37:28-37:32
criticize me when I do the small group questions, when there's more than one question in a line.
Pastor Jeff:
37:33-37:34
People criticize me.
Pastor Jeff:
37:35-37:37
This guy better not ever criticize me.
Pastor Jeff:
37:38-37:40
I think I know who asked this one, so.
Pastor Jeff:
37:41-37:43
And he's a small group leader, if it is who I think it is.
Pastor Jeff:
37:44-37:45
Okay, here's the short answer.
Pastor Jeff:
37:45-37:49
John's baptism was for repentance.
Pastor Jeff:
37:49-37:54
And John's baptism specifically was to prepare people for the coming Messiah.
Pastor Jeff:
37:54-37:56
Acts chapter 19, verse four talks about that.
Pastor Jeff:
37:57-38:01
Now in the history of Israel, there were a lot of ceremonial cleansings.
Pastor Jeff:
38:01-38:04
Read Leviticus chapter 15.
Pastor Jeff:
38:05-38:09
Israel, that was part of their ritual, part of their ceremony.
Pastor Jeff:
38:09-38:18
One of the biggest ones was when Gentiles converted to become a Jew, there was a baptism-like cleansing that took place.
Pastor Jeff:
38:19-38:35
But John the Baptist thing was, I would say it was taking sort of an old concept, the cleansing thing, and it had a very new and specific meaning for him because he was the one appointed to announce the Messiah.
Pastor Jeff:
38:35-38:36
We talked about that at Christmas.
Pastor Jeff:
38:36-38:39
He jumped for joy, that was his first announcement, in the womb.
Pastor Jeff:
38:40-38:42
So his thing was kind of new.
Pastor Jeff:
38:43-38:47
in that sense, because nobody else would have been preparing for the Messiah the way he did.
Pastor Jeff:
38:48-38:55
But the act of baptism took on new significance with the baptism of Jesus and the birth of the church.
Pastor Jeff:
38:56-39:01
And then the question, what did the pre-Sanhedrin Pharisees think about John the Baptist doing this?
Pastor Jeff:
39:01-39:03
I would just encourage you to read Luke chapter three.
Pastor Jeff:
39:04-39:09
John the Baptist was not exactly Joel Osteen, okay?
Pastor Jeff:
39:09-39:21
People showed up, like some of the Pharisees And some of the religious people of John's day would show up to be baptized, and John's like, "Who warned you of the wrath to come, you bunch of snakes?
Pastor Jeff:
39:22-39:28
Like, you are loved, right?" So he was very confrontational.
Pastor Jeff:
39:28-39:33
In fact, that's how he died, because he told Herod, "Hey, you shouldn't have your brother's wife.
Pastor Jeff:
39:33-39:38
Like, what you're doing is wrong, pal." So he was imprisoned and ended up being beheaded.
Pastor Jeff:
39:39-39:43
a whole horrific ending to the man's life.
Pastor Jeff:
39:43-39:46
But yeah, you can imagine how that went over.
Pastor Jeff:
39:46-39:48
I think we have the questions.
Pastor Jeff:
39:48-39:49
Do we have the questions?
Pastor Jeff:
39:49-39:50
Yeah, I think we have them.
Mark Ort:
39:50-39:51
All right.
Mark Ort:
39:52-39:53
Can you guys throw them up on here?
Mark Ort:
39:53-39:54
Here we go.
Mark Ort:
39:54-39:55
Yeah, let's get through them quickly.
Mark Ort:
39:55-40:01
When we pray, are we only to address God the Father, or can we also pray to Jesus and the Holy Spirit?
Pastor Jeff:
40:01-40:04
Again, depends on what you believe about your source material, the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
40:05-40:09
You see no example in the Bible of prayers being directed to Jesus or the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Jeff:
40:10-40:16
Biblically, the consistent teaching and pattern and example was we pray to the Father.
Pastor Jeff:
40:16-40:25
Now also biblically, we pray to the Father in the name of Jesus, and the Bible says the Holy Spirit actually prays with us.
Pastor Jeff:
40:26-40:32
So all three members of the Godhead, so to speak, are involved in prayer.
Pastor Jeff:
40:32-40:33
But who do we direct our prayer to?
Pastor Jeff:
40:34-40:35
Biblically, God the Father.
Mark Ort:
40:35-40:36
Okay, next one.
Mark Ort:
40:37-40:39
Who or what are angels?
Pastor Jeff:
40:40-40:42
Who or what are angels?
Pastor Jeff:
40:42-40:53
Angels are created beings that are, they were created by God actually to minister to us.
Pastor Jeff:
40:54-40:57
You know, Hebrews has a verse in there about to minister to those who inherit salvation.
Pastor Jeff:
40:58-41:04
And we went through Revelation, we saw that a third of the angels rebelled with Satan.
Pastor Jeff:
41:04-41:06
and that is who we refer to as demons.
Pastor Jeff:
41:07-41:12
But they are eternal beings that God created to serve and glorify him.
Pastor Jeff:
41:12-41:14
So is there such a thing as a guardian angel?
Pastor Jeff:
41:14-41:26
As a guardian angel, a strong case can be made for that based on, there's a verse in Matthew about a child's angel always seeing the face of God.
Pastor Jeff:
41:27-41:34
So yeah, I think a case can be made for that, that there are angels that, and we know that again, from Hebrews, that they minister to those inheriting salvation.
Mark Ort:
41:35-41:42
Well Jeff I don't see any more questions up on the screen over there. Wait a minute. Do we have another one? Yeah but you had to read it really quick. Oh okay.
Mark Ort:
41:42-41:47
What are your thoughts about people who claim to cast out demons or perform exorcisms?
Pastor Jeff:
41:47-42:16
I believe that this stuff is real. I believe a lot of times it's fake, but I believe a lot of times it is real at the same time. I believe demonic affliction and possession, I believe those are real things and I believe that God still has the power in the name of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit to drive those out. Like I said, I think a lot of times it's fake, but I do believe that these things are real.
Mark Ort:
42:16-42:26
Yeah, there is a real thing here I think based on some passages in Ephesians. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, right?
Pastor Jeff:
42:26-42:30
Yeah, against principalities and strongholds.
Pastor Jeff:
42:30-42:33
And it's a spiritual war.
Pastor Jeff:
42:34-42:38
That's why Ephesians says, well, Ephesians 6 put on the armor of God, right?
Pastor Jeff:
42:38-42:38
Right.
Pastor Jeff:
42:39-42:41
So any other questions?
Pastor Jeff:
42:41-42:43
We answered every question.
Mark Ort:
42:43-42:48
Okay, Luke 11 tells of Jesus cursing the fig tree for not having figs.
Mark Ort:
42:48-42:50
However, it was not fig season.
Mark Ort:
42:50-42:52
Why would Jesus do this?
Mark Ort:
42:52-42:59
How is it different from Christians not having a specific spiritual gift, such as teaching, are we still expected to teach?
Pastor Jeff:
43:00-43:04
Wow, there's a lot of really good questions here.
Pastor Jeff:
43:04-43:06
We did a whole sermon about the fig tree.
Pastor Jeff:
43:07-43:10
It was actually a pronouncement of judgment against Israel.
Pastor Jeff:
43:11-43:18
When we went through Mark, we did a whole sermon on that and the reason that Jesus cursed that fig tree.
Pastor Jeff:
43:19-43:22
And there's a lot of teaching about prayer and stuff that followed up.
Pastor Jeff:
43:23-43:23
What is that, Mark?
Pastor Jeff:
43:23-43:24
Is that Mark chapter 11?
Pastor Jeff:
43:25-43:26
We did a whole thing on that.
Pastor Jeff:
43:27-43:37
As far as Christians not having specific spiritual gifts, the Bible makes it so clear that the Holy Spirit gives gifts as God decides.
Pastor Jeff:
43:38-43:48
So if you don't have a spiritual gift, there's nothing to feel bad about because the Lord determines who gets what gifts.
Pastor Jeff:
43:48-43:52
You know, the Holy Spirit gives everybody a gift to be used for the edification of the whole body.
Pastor Jeff:
43:52-43:57
So if you don't have that gift, then I don't think you're expected to teach.
Pastor Jeff:
43:57-44:01
In fact, doesn't James 3 give a warning, not many of you should be teachers?
Pastor Jeff:
44:02-44:05
Like, hey, think twice before you do that.
Pastor Jeff:
44:05-44:08
I think Wolski did a sermon on that last summer, didn't he?
Pastor Jeff:
44:08-44:11
You, about not many of you should be teachers.
Pastor Jeff:
44:11-44:12
Didn't you preach about that?
Pastor Jeff:
44:12-44:14
That was part of your message from James 3.
Pastor Jeff:
44:15-44:17
Okay, so you can look that one up online too.
Pastor Jeff:
44:18-44:25
But the fig tree thing, yeah, we had a whole sermon on that, But ultimately that was a pronouncement of judgment against Israel.
Mark Ort:
44:26-44:30
And did you also know that figs are also one of God's greatest creations?
Mark Ort:
44:31-44:32
Am I right, Jesse?
Mark Ort:
44:32-44:32
Fig Newtons?
Pastor Jeff:
44:33-44:33
Fig Newtons.
Pastor Jeff:
44:34-44:35
So do we have any more questions?
Pastor Jeff:
44:36-44:37
Go ahead, read that one.
Mark Ort:
44:37-44:46
Due to abortion being so controversial and in my opinion, a human rights issue, one, what does the Bible say about pre-born life?
Mark Ort:
44:47-44:49
Psalm 139 and Jeremiah 1:5.
Mark Ort:
44:50-44:59
And two, the church does need to speak the truth in love, but is this an instance like slavery where we need to get more involved directly?
Pastor Jeff:
45:00-45:02
Okay, pre-born life, yeah.
Pastor Jeff:
45:02-45:05
I believe that life is a life from the moment of conception.
Pastor Jeff:
45:07-45:10
Those are good references there, Psalm 139, Jeremiah 1.
Pastor Jeff:
45:10-45:17
Another one is our Christmas message about John the Baptist sleeping in the womb, obviously full of the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Jeff:
45:18-45:29
He was obviously a person in the womb, and I think the church should do everything that we legally can to be directly involved in fighting abortion, yes.
Mark Ort:
45:30-45:32
And we can legally vote for people who are pro-life.
Mark Ort:
45:32-45:34
That's a start.
Pastor Jeff:
45:34-45:44
Yes, I think the church should do everything the church can, and I think slavery's a good example of that, the way the church getting involved and the way the gospel can change a culture.
Pastor Jeff:
45:45-45:47
I think the church should do everything.
Pastor Jeff:
45:48-45:57
This is a whole other subject, but I believe the whole abortion thing, we talked about this a little bit in Revelation, I believe it's just a modern day child sacrifice to demons.
Pastor Jeff:
45:58-46:10
Like you look at biblically, a lot of the pagan religions require that you kill your child to appease them as an offering to them.
Pastor Jeff:
46:11-46:16
And I believe this abortion thing, I think it's just a modern day version of let's kill our babies.
Pastor Jeff:
46:17-46:18
It's satanic at its very
Mark Ort:
46:18-46:19
root.
Pastor Jeff:
46:19-46:20
It is.
Pastor Jeff:
46:20-46:25
And I'm not saying that anybody who's had an abortion or considered an abortion is evil.
Pastor Jeff:
46:26-46:30
I'm saying the act is wrong because you're taking a
Mark Ort:
46:30-46:30
human life.
Mark Ort:
46:31-46:35
And there's surely forgiveness from Jesus Christ.
Mark Ort:
46:36-46:37
That's why he died, to save people.
Mark Ort:
46:37-46:38
Yeah,
Pastor Jeff:
46:38-46:38
there is absolutely.
Mark Ort:
46:39-46:41
From the guilt and the stain of those kinds of
Pastor Jeff:
46:41-46:41
things.
Pastor Jeff:
46:41-46:43
Yeah, absolutely there is forgiveness.
Pastor Jeff:
46:44-46:58
But the whole idea of late-term abortion and abortion on demand and tax-funded abortion, I think that is one of the most wicked things a culture can do, period.
Mark Ort:
46:59-47:11
Yeah, and there is a narrative out there, and I'm sure you're all aware of, "Well, if the baby's going to be born, then it's going to be in a worse condition than if we just abort it." And that argument is horrible.
Mark Ort:
47:11-47:13
It's like, "Okay, so it's a problem, so let's just kill it.
Mark Ort:
47:14-47:15
let's kill the baby.
Mark Ort:
47:16-47:26
Or the other part of that is, well, you Christians, you want the baby to live, but then you're not willing to do anything when the baby's born.
Mark Ort:
47:26-47:27
And that's just not true.
Mark Ort:
47:28-47:44
Because I don't know anybody in my circle of friends or in my church that would not help somebody that has a baby that maybe was conceived in an affair or however it was conceived.
Mark Ort:
47:44-47:50
I don't know anybody, do you know anybody that wouldn't help this mother or this baby?
Mark Ort:
47:50-47:51
I think we would all do that.
Pastor Jeff:
47:51-48:05
Right, yeah, I have a very good friend that adopted three babies that came from three unwanted pregnancies where the child would not have had much of a life or an opportunity.
Mark Ort:
48:05-48:11
Yeah, and I think the way to get more involved directly is to get on our knees.
Mark Ort:
48:12-48:14
We need to be praying about this stuff right here.
Pastor Jeff:
48:14-48:15
It's a spiritual thing.
Pastor Jeff:
48:15-48:24
It's, you know, we can dress it up with talking about freedom of choice and call it healthcare or whatever.
Pastor Jeff:
48:25-48:29
You can dress it up any way you want, but at the end of the day, it is child sacrifice.
Mark Ort:
48:30-48:31
Guys, do we have any more questions?
Mark Ort:
48:32-48:32
We hit them all.
Pastor Jeff:
48:33-48:38
Well, that's good because it is like 11:30 and people are gonna start throwing things at us if we don't wrap it up.
Pastor Jeff:
48:39-48:45
So, our worship team would make their way up onto the platform and close us in song.
Pastor Jeff:
48:46-48:54
Thank you everybody for submitting your questions and hopefully we got answers from God's word for these questions.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Review the questions submitted above. Discuss any of these that stuck out to you, or that maybe your group finds particularly interesting.
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
01:04-01:07
Open up your Bibles please to Luke 1.
01:09-01:10
Luke 1.
01:14-01:19
We're expecting this year at Harvest Bible Chapel.
01:22-01:23
We expect joy.
01:25-01:35
When I was in college, I worked as a magazine vendor, stocking magazines for Wal-Mart's and K-Mart's, It was not as glorious as I just made it sound just now.
01:36-01:40
But in this one magazine, I saw an advertisement for a watch.
01:42-01:44
And we have that picture we can put up there.
01:44-01:45
This wasn't the actual ad.
01:45-01:48
You know, I looked and looked and looked for the actual ad.
01:49-01:50
But that's the watch.
01:51-01:54
And the ad, it had a dark backdrop.
01:55-02:04
And the lighting on the watch was just so-- and it was much closer up-- that I was completely mesmerized with this watch.
02:04-02:09
And I'm not that, I'm just not the kind of guy that just buys stuff like this, right?
02:10-02:16
But I saw this watch, and I remember there was a, there was a little description by this ad for the watch.
02:17-02:34
And the description said something like, behold as gleaming pistons activate to elevate the stainless steel plate, revealing the shimmering time piece underneath.
02:35-02:40
I was like, "Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho." And it was really close up.
02:40-02:45
So I had in my mind this watch and the description and everything.
02:46-02:50
I had in mind this big James Bond looking thing.
02:51-03:04
And I imagine the plate was as big as my hand and you push a button and it was like, "Vrooom!" And I'm like, "Ha, ha, ha, ha." Like Dick Tracy, eat your heart out, right?
03:06-03:07
And I couldn't resist.
03:08-03:13
Like I said, I don't normally, never normally did this, and I don't know if I've bought anything from a catalog since, but I just could not.
03:14-03:15
I was mesmerized with this watch.
03:15-03:16
Anybody else there?
03:16-03:17
Is that picture doing it for anybody else?
03:18-03:18
Just me?
03:18-03:20
Okay, all right, Mike, thank you.
03:20-03:22
I had to buy the watch.
03:23-03:25
And the day came, I got the watch in the mail.
03:26-03:28
And do you know I still have the watch to this day?
03:30-03:31
Do you want to see it?
03:32-03:33
Yeah, you do.
03:36-03:37
I'm glad you're all sitting down.
03:39-03:40
Watch.
03:42-03:43
(Laughter)
03:47-03:48
Do you want to see that again?
03:51-03:52
Do you know...
03:54-03:58
Do you know how much time I spent trying to convince myself that that was still pretty cool?
04:00-04:02
But it was nothing like I had it in my head, right?
04:04-04:05
It doesn't even work.
04:07-04:07
I try twice a day.
04:10-04:15
But the reality is this, church, my expectations were to the moon for this thing.
04:17-04:21
And the reality was a solid meh.
04:23-04:28
And we've all been disappointed at times with a gift.
04:30-04:33
Even one that you bought for yourself.
04:35-04:43
But you know what, the Lord, we expect things from God, but it's a little different with Him because He always over-delivers.
04:47-05:00
And the story of God becoming a man, As it unfolds in Luke 1, the story begins with two women who were miraculously expecting.
05:01-05:12
That's why we're calling this "We're Expecting." One of these women was an elderly and barren woman, and one was a young virgin.
05:14-05:22
And in this passage we're going to look at tonight, These two parallel stories come together.
05:22-05:29
Elizabeth was the mother of John the Baptist, and Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ.
05:30-05:39
Their stories are strikingly and intentionally similar in almost every way.
05:40-05:42
And these messages are on our website.
05:42-05:45
If you want to go back and take a listen, go back and read the passages.
05:46-05:49
These two ladies' stories, they're almost identical.
05:50-05:53
Here's the ingredients in the story for both ladies.
05:53-05:54
We meet them.
05:54-05:57
We read of the obstacle to them getting pregnant.
05:57-06:01
And then Gabriel shows up, and there's a reaction to him.
06:01-06:03
And he makes a statement and gives a promise.
06:04-06:08
And then he describes the future life of this baby that's promised.
06:08-06:19
And then the human offers to Gabriel an objection to the pregnancy "Here's why it can't happen." And then Gabriel promises a sign.
06:21-06:33
And before we look at this account with the ladies' visit with each other, you need to keep in mind before they met, there was no Facebook, right?
06:34-06:42
It wasn't like Mary got on Facebook and said, "Oh, my relative Elizabeth's pregnant. Good to know." She found out through the angel.
06:43-06:48
But Elizabeth had no idea, to this point, what was happening with Mary.
06:51-06:59
So again, the angel told Mary that Elizabeth, that was going to be Mary's sign, that Mary was going to become miraculously pregnant.
07:02-07:04
And we talked about this on Sunday. Could you imagine?
07:06-07:11
If an angel showed up to you and said, "Hey, you know your 87-year-old Aunt Francine, you know her?
07:11-07:22
the one that never had children and always wanted children, you're like, "Oh yeah, I know old Aunt Francine." And the angel's like, "Yeah, she's pregnant." Like, "Whoa, you'd be like Mary." You'd be like, "I got to see this." Right?
07:22-07:26
And that's what Mary did. She went to see Elizabeth.
07:27-07:28
It was about an 80-mile trip.
07:29-07:32
All right? So look at verse 39 with me, Luke 1.
07:35-07:42
It says, "In those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah.
07:44-07:50
And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth." Stop right there.
07:52-07:59
Understand that this is why the stories were almost exactly the same between Mary and Elizabeth.
08:02-08:02
Like, what do you mean?
08:07-08:09
Mary had never been with a man.
08:09-08:12
And she was told she was going to be pregnant, and Elizabeth was the sign.
08:14-08:15
Now let's be honest.
08:17-08:29
If your young teenage daughter came to you and said, "Hey, I'm pregnant, but don't worry, God's responsible for this." You're like, "Okay, I've heard them all, but this is a new one." It sounds crazy.
08:31-08:40
So Mary has to be thinking at this point, "Who in the world is going to believe this story?" So when she shows up to Elizabeth, They start swapping stories.
08:41-08:43
And Mary's like, "This is crazy, but an angel showed up.
08:43-08:46
And what would Elizabeth have said?" "That's what happened?
08:47-08:53
An angel showed up to my husband." And Mary's like, "Yeah, this angel's name was Gabriel." And Elizabeth's like, "You're not gonna believe this.
08:54-09:02
Gabriel showed up and talked to my husband." Yeah, and then they start swapping these stories and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second, wait a second.
09:04-09:09
Mary knows now that Elizabeth is going to believe her.
09:11-09:12
Look at verse 41.
09:14-09:18
It says, "When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.
09:20-09:23
And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
09:24-09:36
And she exclaimed with a loud cry, 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.'" "And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
09:36-09:42
For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
09:45-10:01
And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." John the Baptist leaped for joy in the womb.
10:02-10:11
And they're like, "Yeah, can you explain that?" And, "No, I cannot. I can't." But Elizabeth knew.
10:14-10:16
Right, moms? Because moms know.
10:17-10:21
That this wasn't normal baby movement, adjusting, shifting.
10:22-10:25
Elizabeth knew something was going on here.
10:28-10:34
Back in 1:15, John the Baptist was said filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb.
10:36-10:37
And understand that this is why.
10:40-10:44
Because John the Baptist's whole ministry was to point to the Messiah.
10:46-10:47
And this was his first announcement.
10:48-10:51
Obviously, he couldn't speak in the womb.
10:52-10:53
If he could, I don't think anybody would have heard him.
10:54-10:58
But the only way he could communicate was leaping within his mother.
10:59-11:00
And that's exactly what he did.
11:03-11:13
So Mary, in making this connection with Elizabeth, and comparing stories, and the whole baby jumping for joy in the womb, Mary breaks out in a psalm of praise.
11:13-11:15
All of these concepts come from the Old Testament.
11:16-11:18
Look at verse 46.
11:18-11:20
Mary's response to all this.
11:20-11:27
And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
11:28-11:31
For He has looked on the humble estate of His servant.
11:33-11:36
For behold, from now on, all generations will call Me blessed.
11:37-11:42
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name.
11:43-11:48
And His mercy is for those who fear Him.
11:49-11:54
From generation to generation, He has shown strength with His arm.
11:54-11:57
He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
11:58-12:03
He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.
12:04-12:07
He has filled the hungry with good things and the richest in a way empty.
12:09-12:19
He has helped to serve in Israel in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.
12:20-12:26
And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
12:29-12:34
Tonight, we're not going to look at the trees.
12:37-12:38
We're going to look at the whole forest.
12:39-12:47
Because if we were to go through every little ingredient of everything Mary said, this sermon would last some time until Easter.
12:48-12:51
We're not going to do that. We're going to look at some broad strokes.
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And what you see bursting forth from Mary, as you step back and kind of take this all in, what you see bursting forth from this young teenage, suddenly announced that you're pregnant, but you're pregnant to give birth to the Messiah, what you see is joy.
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And that's pretty amazing.
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I want to talk about joy for a few minutes tonight.
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Often joy is confused with happiness.
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We use the two terms sort of interchangeably, but it really shouldn't be so.
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Happiness is the warm, fuzzy feeling of the moment, right?
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Happiness is a cookie.
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Happiness is a Christmas party.
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Happiness is new shoes.
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And happiness sort of comes and goes with circumstances, right?
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But joy, joy is much different.
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Joy is the confident assurance that God is actively in control of every detail of my life.
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It's the confident assurance that everything is going to be okay because God is on my side in Christ.
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Joy is the fruit of the Spirit.
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A fruit of the Spirit.
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Which means joy is something supernatural.
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And joy abides, despite circumstances.
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And while Christmas can be a wonderful time of happiness, when you know Jesus Christ like John the Baptist in the womb, You can have way more than happiness.
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You can have joy.
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When you know the Lord, I mean, not just know about the Lord, but I mean know the Lord.
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Like Mary obviously did.
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You can have joy.
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So if you're taking notes on your outline, I just want you to jot down three things that we all see from this song of Mary.
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How to live in the joy of the Lord.
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How do you live in the joy of the Lord?
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Number one, magnify the Lord.
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Magnify the Lord.
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You see, that's what Mary came with right out of the gate.
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She said, "My soul magnifies the Lord." What does it mean to magnify the Lord?
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I mean, it's not like you can make God any bigger, right?
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Well, it is about making Him bigger.
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In your sight, you see.
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In your heart.
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In your mind.
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Because let's be honest, what we normally do, what we usually do, and I have been so guilty of this, what we usually do is magnify our problems.
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We dwell on them.
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We focus on them.
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We think about them over and over.
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And we talk to people about them.
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And when we do that, we're magnifying our problems.
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Anybody else been guilty of that?
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I'll never get out of this financial mess.
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I don't know how I'm going to do it.
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I don't see a way out of this.
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I'm never gonna get healthy.
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And it just seems like every trip to the doctor, I get sicker and every medicine I take, I get sicker.
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I'm never going to get healthy.
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I'm never going to be able to save my marriage.
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It's too far gone, and there's been too much hurt.
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And when we get in that mode, that mindset, what we're doing is we're magnifying our problems.
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And in the process, to us, God ends up looking small.
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Like Mary.
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You need to magnify Him instead of your problems.
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Well, how do I do that?
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Easy.
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You do it the same way that you would have magnified your problems.
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Dwell on Him, focus on Him, think about Him, talk to Him.
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And the best way you can do that is the same way that Mary obviously did it, is by getting God's Word in your heart.
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Because let's be honest.
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You're like, "What does Mary know about stress?" Think about it.
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From a human standpoint, she was facing the most stressful thing she possibly could have faced.
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I'm young, I'm engaged, I'm pregnant, and ain't nobody going to believe what happened except for Elizabeth.
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Nobody else is going to buy this story.
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But you know what we don't see?
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We don't see Mary stressing.
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We don't see Mary getting defensive.
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We don't see Mary panicking.
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What do we see Mary doing?
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We see her worshiping.
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We see her rejoicing.
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Because instead of magnifying all of the potential problems that she could have worried about, and there would have been a plethora of problems that she could have magnified, what are people gonna say?
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What's Joseph gonna say?
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What's his parents gonna say?
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What's the town gonna say?
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What are my neighbors gonna think?
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And how is this going to affect She didn't do that. Her focus was on God, you see.
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In church, you can make the same choice.
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You can magnify your problems, or you can magnify the Lord, but you can't do both.
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Because when you magnify one, it just automatically shrinks the other.
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And if you think you have big problems, God's going to look small.
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But if you think you have a big God, which you do, but if you think you have a big God, your problems are going to look small.
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And that brings big joy.
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Secondly, how to live in joy.
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Not only do you want to magnify the Lord, you need to minimize myself.
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as myself." Do you notice in verse 48, Mary said, "For He has looked on the humble estate of His servant." How many women in getting this news would have had the temptation to be proud?
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To somehow think it was about them.
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Like, "Yeah, I'm going to give birth to the Messiah, the promised one of Israel.
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I can totally see why God picked me.
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Totally get that God.
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on the same page, I would have picked me too.
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I certainly wouldn't have picked that witch that lives down the street.
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I'm going to do this right.
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Start thinking it's about them.
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Mary, that just wasn't Mary.
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She was humble.
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And she recognized this was all grace.
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Somehow we think we're going to be happy if we make more of ourselves.
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And we live in a day, more than ever, that people are so focused on themselves.
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That's just reality.
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It's like, hey, check this out.
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This picture is called a selfie.
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Who took that picture?
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I took it myself.
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What's it a picture of?
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It's a picture of myself.
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And who's going to be looking at that?
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I'll be looking at it myself.
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True or false?
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Do we not do that?
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of ourselves for us to look at? Now look, look, look. There's nothing sinful about a selfie.
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I hope that's not your big takeaway from tonight. There's nothing sinful about it, but can we just acknowledge that we live in a self-absorbed culture?
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My rights, what offends me, how does it benefit me, gonna do what's best for me?
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And when you are so self-focused and you're so concerned about making sure you get your piece of the pie and your fair share and what's coming to you, this self-focus has made people angry.
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Everybody feels like life's unfair.
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This self-focus means I turn every scenario that I see into grounds for drama.
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Like, "Hey, Merry Christmas, Pastor Jeff.
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What's that supposed to mean?
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You call me a merry? You want to go?" We look for drama in everything.
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And it all comes from being so stinking self-absorbed.
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Let me ask you, this preoccupation that people have with themselves, this desire to magnify ourselves and put the spotlight on ourselves and draw the attention to ourselves, has it made people really feel more fulfilled in life?
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Has it?
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Do you think people are generally happier?
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What I've found, the more self-focused you are, the less joy you have.
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That's what I heard one person say a long time ago.
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Say, "Joy." Right? J-O-Y.
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Do you want to have joy?
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J, you put Jesus first.
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O, you put others second.
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And Y, you put yourself last.
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And boy, we have flipped that around.
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But Mary got it.
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And while there are some churches that have wrongly elevated her status, calling her the Queen of Heaven, calling her the dispenser of graces, You certainly don't see that from the Bible.
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You obviously don't see that from Luke 1.
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If you read Luke 1, you see Mary saying, "I'm just a servant.
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Anything good in my life has come from God.
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So you've got to minimize myself." And then finally, number three, meditate on God's work.
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Meditate on God's work.
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Meditate on God's work.
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So the natural result - more of God, less of me.
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The natural result - my eyes are open to the things that the Lord is doing, and for that I am thankful.
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And if you want joy, you have to live in thanksgiving.
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Like thankful for what exactly?
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Well, Mary gives us three arenas to consider.
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I'll jot these down quickly.
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Thankful for what? Thankful where?
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Thankful in what am I thanking God for?
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Letter A, I would say first of all, get personal.
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Get personal.
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That's where Mary started.
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Do you see that in verse 49?
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"He who is mighty has done great things for me." Start there.
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What is God doing in my life?
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What are things happening right now in your life that can only be attributed to God?
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I would encourage you to write them down.
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Share them with your family. Share them in your small group.
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Get personal and get specific and get current.
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But get personal. What is God doing in your life right now?
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Start there.
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Letter B, get hopeful.
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Get hopeful. Thanks isn't just for the past.
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You can actually pay thanks ahead.
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In other words, you say, "God, I thank You, not just for what You're doing in my life now, but God, I thank You for what You've promised You will do, because I know that You will do it." Specifically here in Mary's song, She said that someday, God is going to flip everything upside down.
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He's going to turn it.
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Someday, God's going to make everything turn 180 degrees.
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Did you see that? Look at it again with me quickly.
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She says, verse 51, "He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
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He has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of humble estate.
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He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty." That day is coming.
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That day is coming.
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The people who choose to humble themselves, to minimize themselves, are going to be exalted.
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The proud are going to be brought down.
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The hungry are going to be filled up.
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The rich are going to be bankrupt.
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Can you just imagine how awesome that day is going to be?
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Think about it.
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Every arrogant politician, everyone, kicked off their throat.
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Every greedy person that made their wealth by taking advantage of other people.
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Their day is coming.
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Cast down and sent home broke.
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But everyone who has magnified the Lord and minimized themselves, the day of exaltation is coming.
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That's why I would encourage you to make this part of your regular prayer routine, as I have, to say, "Thank you God, You have promised things will not always be as they are now.
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It's not going to be like this forever.
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I'm so thankful for that.
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Get hopeful.
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And finally, get reflective.
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You see, God has this track record.
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Maybe right now you're in a hard season.
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Maybe right now you're discouraged.
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And you're having a hard time being thankful for what's happening today.
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Look, I get that.
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But I want to encourage you to look back.
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That's what Mary did.
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She went all the way back to Abraham.
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Say, "God, You have this awesome track record.
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You always keep Your Word. You always come through.
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You always fulfill Your promise. God, You're always good." And I want to encourage you, especially again, And if you're going through a hard time right now, as Christmas has a way of escalating some of those things, look back.
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Look back where?
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Look back right here.
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By right here, I mean right here.
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What's happening right here?
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I want you to look back here.
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Look at what we're celebrating tonight.
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God became a man for the purpose of laying down His life on the cross.
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So that everyone who acknowledges that they are a sinner in need of His grace can be forgiven.
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You're going to have eternal life.
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You're going to have the promise of heaven.
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So within the next week, the family will be going home.
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Your toys will break.
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And the tree will go back into the box.
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into the fire, and the happiness sort of fades away.
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But, you can expect joy that's going to take you well into 2020 and beyond.
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magnify the Lord, and minimize yourself, and meditate on the things that God is doing.
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We're going to invite you to stand as the worship team makes their way forward, and the ushers make their way forward.
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We're going to close with worship and candlelight as we close our time here tonight with worship.
Small Group Discussion
Read Luke 1:39-56
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
You want joy? Give thanks like Mary did in Luke 1:49-55!
List 1-3 things from each category.
Things I am thankful for:
I am thankful right now God is _____________.
I am thankful God promised to _____________.
I am thankful that in the past, God has _____________.
Breakout
Pray for one another. Merry Christmas!
