“If an individual Christian does not show love toward other true Christians, the world has a right to judge that he or she is not a Christian.” —Francis Schaeffer I read Francis Schaeffer’s The Mark of the Christian  shortly after it was published in 1970. Schaeffer quoted Christ’s words in  John 13:35 : “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Then he cited Jesus’s prayer in  John 17:21  that the disciples “may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Schaeffer tied the verses together: [In  John 13:35 ] if an individual Christian does not show love toward other true Christians, the world has a right to judge that he or she is not a Christian. Here [in  John 17:21 ] Jesus is stating something else that is much more cutting, much more profound: We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus’s claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians. (26–27) A beautiful, biblical slap in the face. The Final Apologetic I was 16—a new believer studying how to defend gospel truth to friends and family. Yet Schaeffer called Christian love and unity “the final apologetic,” the ultimate defense of our faith. Schaeffer helped me see what should have been self-evident in Christ’s words: believers’ love toward each other is the greatest proof that we truly follow Jesus. If we fail to live in loving oneness, the world—or to bring it closer to home, our family, and friends—will have less reason to believe the gospel. In 1977, some of us who’d struggled at our churches gathered to worship and study Scripture. Before we knew it, God planted a new church. Our fellowship was a breath of fresh air. At 23, as a naive co-pastor, I thought we’d found the secret to unity. But eventually, though our numbers rapidly increased, too many left our gatherings feeling unloved, not experiencing what Schaeffer called the “reality of the oneness of true Christians.” Our Deep Disunity In the 52 years I’ve known Jesus, I’ve witnessed countless conflicts between believers. But never more than in the last year. Many have angrily left churches they once loved. Believers who formerly chose churches based on Christ-centered Bible teaching and worship now choose them based on non-essential issues, including political viewpoints and COVID protocols. Churches are experiencing a pandemic of tribalism, blame, and unforgiveness—all fatal to the love and unity Jesus spoke of. Rampant either/or thinking leaves no room for subtlety and nuance. Acknowledging occasional truth in other viewpoints is seen as compromise rather than fairness and charitability. Sadly, evangelicals sometimes appear as little more than another special-interest group, sharing only a narrow “unity” based on mutual outrage and disdain. This acidic, eager-to-fight negativity highlights Schaeffer’s point that we have no right to expect unbelievers to be drawn to the  good news  when we obsess about bad news and treat brothers and sisters as enemies. Playing into Satan’s Strategy The increase in Christians bickering over non-essentials doesn’t seem to be a passing phase. And it injures our witness, inviting eye rolls and mockery from unbelievers and prompting believers to wonder whether church hurts more than it helps. Satan is called the accuser of God’s family ( Revelation 12:10 ) and uses every means to undercut our love for each other. Too often we do his work for him. His goal is to divide churches and keep people from believing the gospel. “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother” ( 1 John 3:10 ). When we fail to love each other,  we are acting like the devil’s children. “Give no opportunity to the devil” ( Ephesians 4:27 ). To resist the devil, we must  love God with abandonment, and love our neighbor as ourselves.  That central principle is the heart and soul of Scripture. “The whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another” ( Galatians 5:14–15 ). Few words of Jesus are as sobering as these: “I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” ( Matthew 12:35-36 ). Unity of Differing Opinions When Paul wrote to believers in Rome, he addressed the issues of eating “unclean” meat and which day to worship on—each certainly as if not  more  controversial in the culture of their day as most political issues or COVID responses are to us today. The paradigm-shifting revelation he shared in Romans 14  is this: while true love and unity are never achieved at the expense of primary biblical truths, they  are  achieved at the expense of our personal preferences about secondary issues. We are to welcome those who think and act differently than we do and are “not to quarrel over opinions” ( Romans 14:1 ). Or as the NLT puts it, “Don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong.” Love doesn’t require wholesale agreement. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. ( Romans 14:3 ) Paul emphatically states that equally Christ-centered people can have different beliefs, which lead to them taking different—even  opposite —actions in faith. They are OK with God and therefore should be OK with us (unless we have higher standards than God). “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” ( Romans 14:5 ). We can take contradictory positions on nonessential issues but still honor God by valuing love over our opinions. Pursue What Makes for Peace As long as we hold our convictions with faith and a good conscience, God Himself approves of people on both sides of nonessential matters. And if God can be pleased both by those who do and don’t eat certain foods that were addressed under Old Testament law, and by those who worship on the Sabbath or another day of the week, can’t He also be pleased with those who choose to take or not take a vaccine, or to wear or not wear a mask? “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?” ( Romans 14:4 ). God warns us not to set up our own judgment seats as if we were omniscient. Why do we imagine we can know that a brother’s or sister’s decisions, heart, and motives are wrong? “Each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another” ( Romans 14:12–13 ). We will not ultimately answer to each other, but we  will  answer to God concerning each other. We lack the qualifications of the only true Judge, including omniscience, infinite wisdom, and righteousness. “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. . . . The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God” ( Romans 14:19 ,  22 ). Peace and edification don’t come naturally; they require Spirit-empowered work. The call to “pursue” peace (or “make every effort,” NIV) means unless there’s a compelling reason to speak or post, and you’ve sought God’s direction and sense his leading, and you can speak graciously, then do what Scripture says and  keep what you believe between yourself and God .   Having a strong opinion never equals God telling us to express it. Scripture confronts us for how we have treated each other before the watching world: “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion” ( Proverbs 18:2 ). “When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent” ( Proverbs 10:19 ). “There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing” ( Proverbs 12:18 ). Steps Toward Love and Unity “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” ( Romans 13:8 ). We don’t simply owe it to God to love each other and thereby obey Him. We owe love to one another.  We are part of God’s family. We need each other. What practical steps might we take toward love and unity in our fractured times? 1. Practice  James 1:19 . If we would only “be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,” this  alone  would foster love and unity to an astonishing degree. 2. When you disagree, if possible, meet face to face and talk. Don’t shred each other publicly. 3. Ask yourself where you are pointing. Will my words or social-media post be more or less likely to draw others to Jesus? 4. Raise your expectations for love and unity in your church. Lower your expectations for them coming naturally or easily. 5. Repent of being an agitator; commit to becoming a peacemaker. 6. Talk to your church leaders. Honestly articulate problems and ask how you can help foster love and unity. 7. Pray for those who’ve hurt you. Doing so transformed my relationship with a brother. One of my wife’s closest friends is someone she chose to intercede for decades ago, despite their conflicts. 8. Ask God to help you reject pride and develop true humility. John Newton wrote, “What will it profit a man if he silences his adversary and loses that humble spirit in which the Lord delights?” A.W. Tozer said, “Only the humble are completely sane, for they are the only ones who see clearly their own size and limitations” ( Tozer on Christian Leadership ). To think clearly is to think humbly. “Think of yourself with sober judgment” ( Romans 12:3 ). Show Them Jesus True unity is grounded on mutually believed primary truths about Jesus, refusal to elevate secondary beliefs over primary beliefs, demonstrated heartfelt love for Jesus and others, and the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. When I reread The Mark of the Christian  fifty years later, when divisiveness is the air we breathe, it spoke to me more deeply than ever. Schaeffer’s message rings true: when we call upon God, and make concerted efforts to live in humble love and unity, people will see Jesus. By His grace, some will believe in Him. “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God” ( Romans 15:5-7, NIV ).  www.epm.org .

Although last year didn’t exactly usher in the post-pandemic era, it’s more likely that 2022 will. While no one can say exactly what the future holds, here are 12 trends I’m watching and would encourage you and your team to consider and process as well. Even without the emergence of another global crisis or virus variant (both of which are plausible), 2022 will be a year where the new ‘normalized’ world will further emerge. CLICK TO TWEET 1. The Demise Of The Old Model Of Church Every church and every leader has a model of Church. Even those who claim they don’t have a model, have a model (their anti-model is the model). A model is simply an approach—a strategy, a way of doing things. The old model of Church has been proving less effective year by year for decades across almost all denominations and traditions. In 2021,  Gallup shared that for the first time ever ,  church membership dropped below 50% nationally . Among Millennials, only 36% identify with a church. Similarly, a decade ago only 22% of Millennials said they have no religious affiliation. Today that number is 31 %. For Gen Z, 33% now say they have no religious affiliation. At the same time, attendance keeps dropping across the board. A  survey by FACT  of over 15,000 churches conducted just before COVID hit shows that between 2000 and 2020, median church service attendance dropped from 137 people to 65. 2022 should start to yield data on where things stand now, and as you already suspect, the new data is highly likely to show further decline. In other words, even if your church returns to 2019 attendance levels or exceeds them, the overall decline in church attendance will continue unabated. So, what does this mean? The  current  approach to church not only isn’t effective, it hasn’t been effective for decades. Yet leaders keep moving forward as though somehow things are going to turn around. Optimism is one thing. Delusion is another. Surveys show that the current approach to church not only isn’t effective—it hasn’t been effective for decades. Yet leaders keep moving forward as though somehow things are going to turn around. C1LICK TO TWEET Please hear what I’m saying:  The death of an  approach  to church doesn’t equal the death of  the  Church . Changing the approach is the best way to begin to see new growth. Wise leaders will become students of what’s happening and seek to find a new approach that’s biblically faithful and culturally effective. The death of an approach to church doesn’t equal the death of the Church. Changing the approach is the best way to begin to see new growth. CLICK TO TWEET As Mark Sayers pointed out in his  Rebuilders Podcast , the model of church is actually being rebuilt right now…as we speak. Maybe leaders aren’t doing it (see the chart above), but  people  are doing it. Rightly or wrongly, they’re deciding how and when to engage with church, and they’re voting with their feet and wallets. Adept leaders will figure out where culture is going, figure out how to meet people where they’re at, and then lead them to where they need to be. The model of church is being rebuilt right now…as we speak. Maybe leaders aren’t doing it, but people are doing it. They’re voting with their feet and wallets. CLICK TO TWEET What was is gone. What will be hasn’t yet emerged. The key is to experiment. Stay faithful to Biblical principles. Experiment with the practice. Study your people. Study the culture. Lead people where they need to go. The task, in other words, is to devise a faithful approach to Church that will reach and disciple the next generation. In the future Church, leaders who are willing to change their methods will amplify their mission. Leaders who don’t, won’t. In the future Church, leaders who are willing to change their methods will amplify their mission. Leaders who don’t, won’t. CLICK TO TWEET 2. Growing Churches Will Innovate Beyond Weekend Services  As leaders rethink the model of Church, more church leaders will start rethinking the role of weekend services. Don’t get me wrong. Weekend services are  extremely  important for a host of theological reasons (and a few practical ones, as well). But for many churches, the weekend service has become either  all  the church does or the main focal point by which everything else revolves. Focusing all your efforts on one hour on Sunday ignores the other 167 hours in a week. Many churches function like restaurants that decide that if you want to eat, it can only happen in a one-hour window and only in this particular building, and if you miss it, you miss it. Think about it. What future would there be for a restaurant whose mantra is: You can only eat food in our building? We’re only open one hour a week? We don’t do much in between> Many churches function like restaurants that decide that if you want to eat, it can only happen in a one-hour window and only in this particular building, and if you miss it, you miss it. CLICK TO TWEET Naturally, Church is a lot more than one hour of performance or participation on Sunday morning (a little harsh, but that’s what it’s become in some cases). A lot of the innovation that has to happen in the Church needs to take place outside of Sunday  and  outside the building. People don’t live in your church building. They live in the  community , where they interact with non-Christians all day long, every day. Churches that equip people where they live and work will start to grow. And yes, that requires innovation.   3.  The Vision For The Future Will Become Clearer Not all churches will find a new vision, but those who do will have a brighter future. Ironically, as you know, the vision for the future has been there all along because the vision of the Church doesn’t change that much. The core of the Church’s vision is always evangelism and discipleship. It’s just that with all the noise, panic, confusion, and hardship of the past two years, it’s been exceedingly hard to focus on anything else. In 2022, at least among a small group of church leaders, the vision for the future Church will become louder than the lethargy of the present or the anger of the dissenters. And they’ll start growing. They will experiment. Find a new approach that’s resonating, and begin to reach new people. Some of them will be bold experimenters. And they’ll receive a lot of criticism for their experimentation as they create a new approach—a new model for church. Many of the ideas you’ll see in the Church in 2022 will be criticized and dismissed—until they’re not. But that’s how innovation works.  The leaders we criticize today will be the leaders who coach us tomorrow . Many of the ideas you’ll see in the Church in 2022 will be criticized and dismissed—until they’re not. But that’s how innovation works. The leaders we criticize today will be the leaders who coach us tomorrow. 4. Attendance Will Normalize (And You’ll Have A New Church) 2021 had many leaders clinging to the idea that the next season – Easter, the new school year, Christmas, etc. – would bring attendance back to 2019 levels (which wasn’t that great in the first place.  Here’s why ). For most churches, that “magic season” never materialized. In 2022, the constant cycle of hope and disappointment will give way to the new reality that  this is your church . It will become evident that some of the people who said they’re coming back later clearly aren’t coming back—ever. But it’s not all bad news. When you look around, you’ll see a lot of new people who have joined you because they found you online or a friend brought them. You’ll get to know you’re online audience like they’re real people (because they are). And potentially, you’ll start to notice small pockets of momentum and hope. Build on those. Regardless, you’ll settle into the reality that, for better or worse, this is your church. These are the people you will build the future alongside. Which is just in time. You can’t build the future of your church when you’re living in the past. You can’t build the future of your church when you’re living in the past.Click to Tweet 5. Hybrid Church Will Simply Become Church The debate between in-person church versus online church has  always been somewhat of a false one . But 2022 is the year where the hybrid-church model will simply become church. In other words, hosting church online and in-person is just how you do church to reach the next generation. People have lived in the slipstream of digital and in-real-life for well over a decade now, and church leaders will realize that church online is both a necessity and an opportunity. It’s good that the debate over online church will fade into the background because then leaders can get on with the key task: Reaching people however they come to you—in person or online. 2022 is the year where the hybrid church model will simply become church. Click to Tweet 6. In-Person Will Become More Personal The future is both deeply digital and deeply personal. Increasingly though, as people show up for in-person events, they’re expecting more personal experiences. Before the pandemic, a look at culture shows a rise in bespoke, custom, private, and VIP services at everything from concerts to clothing stores to vacations. That will accelerate in the post-pandemic world. It is vital to figure out how to care for people personally – to know their names, to care about them as people. And for ministry, that’s always been important. But for larger churches, in particular, dehumanizing systems that make people feel unnoticed will be tolerated less and less. No one wants to be a number. In the future, treating people like numbers will get you declining numbers and not much more. No one wants to be a number. In the future, treating people like numbers will get you declining numbers and not much more. CLICK TO TWEET Even in small churches, it’s easy to ignore the people, thinking that your church is friendly simply because you know six people (but don’t even know the names of the other 40 people who worship with you). The goal is not to have a church where everyone knows everybody (that doesn’t scale). The point is to have a church where everyone is known. The goal is not to have a church where everyone knows everybody. The point is to have a church where everyone is known. CLICK TO TWEET 7. Information Will Move Online And Transformation Will Move To In-Person For a few years in this Church trends series, I’ve flagged the longing people have for  non-downloadable experiences  when they show up for church in person. ( Here’s a post  explaining the distinction between immanent and transcendent experiences). In 2022, many church leaders will likely realize that the best lane for information is online, while more transformational, transcendent experiences are more likely to happen in-person. They’ll design their online ministry and in-person experiences accordingly. It’s not that people can’t come to faith online (they can and do); it’s just that there’s a difference between the kind of experience you can have on a device versus what you can experience in the room. It’s like the difference between listening to an album on Spotify and seeing it perform live at a concert. The in-person experience leans more toward that transcendent moment than simply listening to a studio recording alone in your car. Online might become more transcendent as virtual reality becomes more widespread, but we’re a few years and tech iterations away from that. 8. Location-Independent Church Members Will Increase The last few years have seen a mass migration of people out of cities, out of jobs they once held, and into new frontiers. With that, those who remain in church have discovered church online. While a lot of digital growth is likely  consolidation/transfer growth  (Christians finding a new church) and not just conversion growth, the physical relocations combined with the growth of digital church will find many people identifying with a church that has no physical location in their area. This will lead to micro – think home-based – gatherings and the need for church leaders to focus on connecting people, not just erecting buildings to put them in ( that was Trend #2 in 2021 ). Location independence is part of the fluid world we now live in. Leaders who adapt quickly will reach more people. Location independence is part of the fluid world we now live in. Leaders who adapt quickly will reach more people. CLICK TO TWEET 9. Pastors Will Sense A Diminished Authority We’ve seen significant shifts in authority over the years. As the world has become more connected, power has shifted from institutions to networks. Denominations and seminaries have lost much of the clout they used to have, and grassroots networks have sprung up in their place, some of which have come and gone already while new ones spring up. In the same way, it’s no longer just denominations and seminaries that have lost authority, so have pastors. As any church leader knows, any illusion of control that remained seems to have vanished during the pandemic. You can’t control people. No matter how loudly or softly you speak, people won’t listen because of the position, title, or office you hold. The good news is that this is never where real authority resided anyway. One of the things that defined Jesus’ ministry was that his authority never sprung from an (earthly) title he held, nor did he cling to power. In fact, he gave it up at the cost of his life, which of course, changed everything. Real authority doesn’t spring from an office, a title, or power. It springs from humility, love, and a clear sense of how the Kingdom of God is advancing in the world. Leaders who show those kinds of characteristics will have a bright future. Real authority doesn’t spring from an office, a title, or power. It springs from humility, love, and a clear sense of how the Kingdom of God is advancing in the world. CLICK TO TWEET 10. The Brain Drain Will Become Acute Sadly, the last few years have seen many pastors step back, not just from their current church but also from vocational ministry. Whether the Great Resignation has more legs or not in the wider culture, the Church has struggled through a more chronic gifting shortage for years now. The pandemic only intensified that. Not only is this creating a staffing shortage (more churches vying for fewer leaders), but the quality of candidates is also proving a bit of a challenge. Perhaps renewal and revival will increase intensity in the sense of calling the next generation has, but we’re not seeing the fruits of that labor yet. The future Church will require leaders with great hearts  and  leaders with great minds. The challenges ahead in a fractured world facing numerous existential threats (not to mention the philosophical and theological questions artificial intelligence raises) will require some very sharp minds. The future Church will require not just leaders with great hearts, but also leaders with great minds. CLICK TO TWEET 11. The Exit Of Uninvested Investors (A Recalibration In Giving) One of the strange phenomenon's that happened in many churches in 2020-2021 is that attendance declined while giving remained steady or grew. My guess is that this might be a temporary trend. Historically, declining churches tend to have a lot of money (think endowments) but few people, while growing churches tend to have a lot of people but are tight on money. Their numerical growth has outpaced their stewardship growth. Historically, declining churches tend to have a lot of money (think endowments) but few people, while growing churches tend to have a lot of people but are tight on money. CLICK TO TWEET Some of that recent change in that historical pattern can be explained by donors who did financially well in the pandemic contributing extra and people who are still committed financially but hesitant to attend in person still giving. But, ultimately, it’s rare to have uninvested investors. If someone stops attending, stops serving, and cuts off connection with a church, will their giving continue? Rarely. And how is that an actual model for discipleship moving forward? What you might see this year is a ramping up of new people who start to give while uninvested investors disappear entirely. Second, church leaders will have to find something to  do  with their accumulated surplus to further the mission. Otherwise, why would people keep giving? Money with no purpose is a sign of decline. Regardless, it’s unlikely the current pattern will hold. Money with no purpose is a sign of decline. Click to Tweet 12. Less Predictability Finally, as much as we all long for a return to a more stable, predictable future, that’s likely not happening. As much as we can plot out a few likely trends (which is what this post is trying to do), it’s still uncertain what’s ahead. As COVID-19 fades, we enter into a new era of instability and unpredictability, which most of us have never known in our lifetime. The global supply chain issues, the surge in the gig economy, shortage in blue-collar and service sector workforce, surging stocks, the rise of cryptocurrencies, the exit and entry of people in and out of church in rapid numbers, growing inflation, and the widespread drop in confidence in institutional authority make it exceedingly difficult to trace out a predictable path into the future. Once again, the approach that got many leaders through the pandemic (flexibility and agility) will be required for years to come. The ‘set it and forget it’ approach to leadership that worked in stable areas won’t work anymore. However, agile leaders and organizations that love to experiment and innovate can thrive in an unstable world. The approach that got many leaders through the pandemic (flexibility and agility) will be required for years to come. The ‘set it and forget it’ approach to leadership that worked in stable areas won’t work anymore. 2022 is going to be a year of massive change, and we’ll be here doing our best to help you navigate it. www.careynieuwhof.com .

Speaker 1: I couldn't even begin to express the difference that LifeChurch has made to the global church around the world. Speaker 2: Speaker 3: Speaker 4: Speaker 5: Speaker 6: Speaker 7: Speaker 8: Speaker 9: Speaker 10: Speaker 11: Speaker 12: Speaker 13: Speaker 14: Craig Groeschel: This community started in Oklahoma has now changed the landscape of church around the world. You guys have left a mark for a lifetime. When they write the history of the church in America, when they talk about the spread of the word of God in the modern age, when they talk about multi-site church, when they talk about reaching people others weren't reaching, they'll have to start the article with LifeChurch, Pastor Craig and Amy Groeschel. A massive rescue and recovery operation is underway in Ecuador, with the category four winds reaching 140 miles an hour. I just want to say thank you to everyone at LifeChurch for your support of Samaritan's Purse. I think Church Online is a big step for Saudi Arabia, there are so many people there that don't know about Christ. By working with the local church here in Uganda and across the world in poor communities. We feel like the resources that are given to us are some of the best resources around. Thank you for being a part of that church that launched one of the most powerful communication tools ever built. I have to think that staff saved my life (singing). It'll continue to launch churches, because we believe that God works in this church, through His church to reach people (singing). [inaudible 00:01:36]. Love Jesus is the one, because Satan couldn't stop. We're called to live according to the purposes of God. We don't just go to church, we are the church. Our mission unites us. We stand together to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. Get a little excited and celebrate. Can you believe we get to be a part of something so special. We're not just praying for revival, we're living in the middle of one right now. I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas. All 26 LifeChurches, all the Open Network churches all over the world, those of you on the other side of computer screens at Church Online, you are a part of our family. What I want to do today is quite honestly tell you what I've been praying for. I've been praying very specifically that this time together would really, really minister to those of you who maybe have had a change of plans. Let me talk about this. What I want to do today is real, real simple. I'm going to read a few verses and kind of expand your thinking on these verses from Matthew chapter, then I'm going to give you one big thought, just one simple and big thought that I hope that you will remember. As I said, I'm dedicating this message to those of you who may be facing something that you didn't plan, something's gone a little bit different than maybe you thought it would and you've had, what I call, a change of plans. I'm curious, all of our churches, how many of you are naturally planners? Raise your hands up. You're kind of a planner, right? If you had your Christmas shopping done by the end of summer time you are officially a planner, right? I mean you're in there. If you have not started your Christmas shopping yet not only are you not a planner, but you shouldn't even be in church right now. You are so in trouble, it's almost too late to get anything done about it. Whether you're a planner or not, whenever life goes in a different direction than you had planned it can be a little bit rattling at times. I know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that simply based on the number of people that I'm talking to there are many of you right now that you're facing something that you didn't plan. It hurts me how many people I know that are now job hunting that never planned to be job hunting at this time in their life. I know so many people that are close to me, and I know that you do as well, you might be one of them, who say, "I didn't plan on having a medical battle at this point in my life." There are some of you that unfortunately as you go into the Christmas time, it's supposed to be like the best time of the year and you're thinking, I didn't plan on being separated at this time. This wasn't what I thought would happen. We could even say like symbolically, I call it the empty chair, whether there's a real empty chair at your table or not, but there are many of you that thought somebody would be there with you this Christmas time and they're not here and you'll have the symbolic empty chair and you're thinking this isn't what I had planned. Again, whenever we face things that we didn't plan, for some it can really kind of jar your, rattle your faith and you're wondering, okay, God, where are you? Why are you allowing this to happen, God? This isn't what I had planned, God. What's going on? This isn't what I had planned. Like I said, what I want to do today is look at some verses from Matthew chapter 1 and I want to talk about the mother and father of Jesus. They're physical parents on earth. They're names are Mary and Joseph, and if you're not real familiar with the Bible you may want to read a little more about the birth of Page 2 of 13 MP3_MessageChristmas2016ChangeofPlans Jesus. You can read in Matthew chapter 1 or in Luke chapter 1 and Luke 2. Matthew 1, Luke 1 and Luke 2. What you'll find is there are several paragraphs describing what took place over months and months. If you think about it we know a little bit, but there are so many things that happened in the story that we don't know about, right? For example if you summarized the last year, 2016, in your life with the three paragraphs you'd hit the high points, but there'd be detail after detail after detail after detail after detail that were not in the high points. What I want to do is kind of just imagine together about some of the details that we don't have access to, but something like this probably happened. Does that make sense to you? For example, how did Mary and Joseph meet? We don't have that recorded in the Gospels, but they met somehow and so I want to kind of make up and read between the lines, and certainly this isn't exactly what happened, but if you use your imagination something like this happened. How did they meet? How did Mary and Joseph meet? Let's just pretend it's Wednesday night and Mary goes to the synagogue for youth group, because she's a teenage girl and that's what she would've done, because she loves God. There was a youth leader teaching that night named Joey. You with me? Okay. Joey is charismatic, he's passionate, he's teaching from the Book of Isaiah about the coming of the messiah, and Mary and her friends are kind of looking on, they're trying to focus on God, but they kind of can't help but notice he's really, really cute, you know? When he teaches his face does this kind of funny thing and he's really, really into it. She's like, "Oh, he's amazing. I wonder what he's like." Well after he's through teaching they're kind of hanging out in a group and Joey walks over to her group and the next thing you know they're talking and she kind of thinks she might be interested but there's no way. I mean she's a couple of years younger, you know? He starts asking her questions and she finds out a little bit about him and, oh my gosh, he's a got a job. This guy, he makes furniture. The last guy she liked was unemployed, still lived with his parents, and was addicted his PS4, but Joey, this guy's got potential, you know? The evenings over and she kind of is thinking about him and she wonders, is he interested? Probably not. Well, he was interested. In fact all week long he's praying and thinking about it and the next week he gets his nerve up, he puts on an extra couple squirts of cologne and afterwards he asked her out for coffee. She's like, "Oh, is this like a friend coffee thing or is this like a something else coffee thing?" They agreed to meet at the Nazareth coffee shop, because they're going to keep it local, you know? They're sitting across from each other and they're hitting it off and they're enjoying it all. They go and do something again and before long she meets his parents and he meets her parents and they like each other and they're spending more time together. Page 3 of 13 MP3_MessageChristmas2016ChangeofPlans Then one day every love song on the radio starts to make sense. She can tell this going somewhere. When he buys her a stuffed walrus she knows he's totally lost it, he's into her. She has no idea he's saving up his furniture money and he eventually goes and puts down a bunch of change on a nice rock and he takes her on a walk one night out on this ... The sun is setting and they walk across this bridge and she's thinking, could this be? Oh, I don't know. The next thing you know he's got his photographer with a distance lens hiding to catch the Instagram moment, you know? He kneels down on one knee and he says, "Will you marry me?" She kind of acts surprised, but she's beside herself with excitement and she cries and says, "Yes. Yes. Of course, I will." They tell the parents. Her mom starts planning the wedding. Her mom makes everybody crazy. Her mom is a control freak. Can you see this happening? Just imagine with me. We don't know exactly what happened, but something like this certainly happened. Something like this. Then what did they do? They're a young couple. They are crazy about each other, in love. They did the exact same thing that you would do, that Amy and I did, and that is they started to plan their future. You know they did this. Everybody does this. We don't know the details of their plan, but we do know that they decided to wait before sharing intimacy until they were married. We do know that about them. I'm kind of reading into it. Maybe they're planning to buy a house one day. They're going to go through financial peace university, because they don't want to be in debt, you know? Maybe Mary could stay at home with the kids if she wanted to. They've decided they're going to have children one day. They want to have a boy first and then a girl. They're going to name the boy, Blade, and the girl, [Ladasha 00:10:15]. Ladasha. If you're not laughing you just told us you weren't here at church last week, because if you were here at church you know what Ladasha is. If you miss a week of church you miss a lot. I'm just saying, "Ladasha." They're making plans, then one day Mary's off by herself and she has the most special and holy encounter with God of her whole life. An angel appears to Mary. She loves God. She cannot believe this and the angel tells her, "You've been chosen. You're going to give birth to a son." She was like, "Ah, haven't you heard, Joey and I aren't, we're not married yet and we're not" ... The angel says, "No, no, no, you will conceive this child by the Holy Spirit." You can only imagine this little girl loves God, is in love with Joseph, she's getting married and her God has chosen them to be a part of history. She's thinking to herself, I can't wait to tell Joseph, he's going to be beside himself with excitement. God has chosen us. She goes and tells Joseph she's pregnant. Let's take a vote. Is Joseph excited or is he freaking out? Excited? Freaking out? Audience : Freaking out. Page 4 of 13 MP3_MessageChristmas2016ChangeofPlans Craig Groeschel: You're right, he's freaking out. He's being a regular guy. Pregnant by the Holy Ghost? I'll kill him. Show me where this guy is? These are real people and we don't know how it came about, but we know that between verse 18 and 19, the polite way to say it is that everything hit the fan. Let's just look at this and we're reading between the lines because we don't know exactly what happened, but we can kind of imagine. Verse 18 of Matthew 1 says this, "This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about. His mother, Mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph," but all of our churches say, "But he was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together they had a plan, but before they came together she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit." She goes off and tells Joseph, "Hey, I pregnant, it was the Holy Spirit." We don't know how he responds, but we know he gets really, really hurt and upset and we see the result in verse 19, because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace. He had in mind to divorce her quietly. What do we know? The dude is devastated. He's crushed. He's humiliated. He's brokenhearted. Read between the lines. He's already put down a nonrefundable deposit on the Garden Chapel Inn, right? The wedding invitations maybe have already gone out. Somehow he's got to tell his mom and his dad, he's got to tell his friends. He's going to be so publicly humiliated, but worse than public humiliation is the fact that he loved her, he trusted her, he told her things that he never told anybody before. He believed that God had brought them together. He was saving himself for her and now she's done this, she's cheated. He's like, he's half mad, half torn. He cannot believe this. If you'll notice in the text it said, "He planned to divorce her quietly." If you were paying real careful attention you might say, "Wait a minute they weren't married yet, why divorce?" Well at this time in history if you were engaged the only way you could break off an engagement was to get an official divorce and culturally then a divorce was much more serious and frowned upon. If you're divorced you're kind of like almost pushed out completely and Joseph's like, "I'm trying to serve God, now I'm going to be divorced." Think about Mary's perspective. Think about her. When the angel of the Lord appeared to her, according to Luke 1:38 this is what Mary said, she said this, she said to the angel, "May it be done unto me according to your word." That's what she said. If she were living today she would've said something like, "I love God with all my heart and I will do whatever He wants me to do." She said yes to what God asked. Now her life is totally over. She's pregnant without a husband, she's going to be a divorced single mom in a culture where she can't get any type of a real job to support herself. She's going to be begging for the rest of her life, trying to raise this kid. You can only imagine the rumors. Oh, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary. Joseph hates her. Her life is over and you know what she's thinking? God, this isn't what I had planned. God, I said yes to you, I did everything you wanted me Page 5 of 13 MP3_MessageChristmas2016ChangeofPlans to do, God why are you allowing this to happen? God, I only tried to do what you asked. This isn't fair, God. This isn't what I had planned. Right? This is exactly where some of you are right now. This isn't what I had planned and I don't know what it may be for you, but you were finally getting ahead financially and we're going to have a great Christmas for our kids and then the car breaks down and it's hundreds of dollars. Like, no, this isn't what I had planned. You poured your life into your kids, they were your life, everything you did was for your kids and now they're making decisions, you're looking and going, "What are you doing? This isn't what I had planned." You took a job and you did for your family, you knew it would be a better job, a chance for promotion, a chance to move up and you were moving up and then the economy kind of turned and your company downsized and you were last in, first out. You were one of the causalities. This isn't what I had planned. There's so many of you, too many of you, and I hurt with every single one of you who thought you would live happily ever after with him or with her and the happily's not there and neither is the ever after and you're thinking, this isn't what I had planned. God where are you? The list could go on and on. I didn't plan on having migraines. I didn't plan on battling depression. I didn't plan on fighting cancer. I didn't plan on losing my scholarship. God, what are you doing? This isn't what I had planned. I told you are the beginning of the message that I was going to give you one thought, one big thought, one truth to embrace, and this is for every one of you who've had a change of plans. If you're taking notes I hope you'll write this down, and, more importantly, you'll plant this truth in your heart, and that is this: if you had a change of plans and you don't have to understand, embrace this truth. You don't have to understand the plan to trust God has a purpose. Let me say it again. I want you to feel this and believe this. You don't have to understand the plan to trust God has a purpose. In fact, proverbs 19 and 21 is one of the first verses that I memorized years and years ago and it goes like this, many are the what? Let's say it aloud at all of our churches. Many are the plan? Say it again. All of our churches, somebody in Florida, somebody in Arkansas, somebody in Texas, say it aloud, many are the plans in a person's heart, but even though we have so many plans what happens? It is the Lord's purpose that prevails. Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails. You don't have to understand the plan to trust God has a purpose. Mary and Joseph's plans were wrecked, shattered. Joseph determines I have no choice but to divorce her, so he considers that and then in verse 20 we read this: "But after Joseph had considered this an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.'" Wait. Wait. Wait. Everything she said is true? The angel says, "Yes," in the dream. Verse 21 shows us the purpose. Verse 21, she will give birth to a son and you're to give Page 6 of 13 MP3_MessageChristmas2016ChangeofPlans him the name, Jesus. Why? Why? Because he will save his people from their sins. You could almost imagine Joseph going, "Wait. Wait. Wait. You're telling me God is in on this? You're telling me the last thing that I ever wanted is exactly what God wanted to happen? You mean there is a purpose in the middle of my pain?" You can almost hear God whispering to him, "My thoughts are so much different than your thoughts and my ways are higher than your ways and even though you may not feel that I'm working in all things to bring about good to those who love me and are called according to my purpose." Sometimes God may even redirect our plans when he has a different purpose. You don't have to understand the plan to trust that God has a purpose. Let me unpack this for just a minute and tell you a few times in my own life that things didn't turn out as I had planned, and maybe you can see and think about how this would be true in your life as well. My dad played professional baseball and so I was born and bred to be a professional baseball player. Everything was baseball from the time I was born and I'm not going to say that I was guaranteed to go to the pros at all, but I will say that I had good genes and a lot of good coaching and things did look decent. I was the starting pitcher in the championship game in the eighth grade. Big time, eighth grade, you know? The night before I was going to pitch we went out to the batting cage to take a few cuts and normally we'd get in the age appropriate one, but we got in the fastest one, kind of at the college level, because I thought I could handle it. The first pitch jammed me on the inside and crushed my pitching hand up against the bat, broke it and shattered it into all sorts of pieces and I was out for a long, long, long time. Not that big of deal. I hear you, like, yeah, what's the big deal? When you're in the eighth grade and your life is baseball and your pitching hand is crushed, the world is falling apart. God, where are you and why did this happen? At the time we moved from Beaumont, Texas to Ardmore, Oklahoma. I actually loved being in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Those of you around the world you've never heard of Ardmore, Oklahoma, let me tell you what Ardmore's known for. If you're driving from Dallas, Texas to Oklahoma City, Ardmore's where you stop to go to the bathroom. That's where I lived, in the bathroom place. I loved this little town, but that's what it is known for, you know? Back then we didn't play sports year around like kids do. Then we played a bunch of different sports. I played football and I ran track and I played baseball and I played soccer. Well I came there and it wasn't baseball season and there was this cute girl that was on the tennis team, so I thought, hey, I'm off for a semester, let's play some tennis, you know? I didn't like tennis. Well I ended up making the team. I was the last guy on the team and baseball season came and I thought, I'm not ready. I still feel much pressure. I'm going to take a year off, it'll be good for me. I'm going to play tennis. We ended up taking second in state that year. The next Page 7 of 13 MP3_MessageChristmas2016ChangeofPlans year when the season started again a couple of guys graduated and I actually ended up playing number one on the team the second year and I thought maybe I should give this a go. We ended up winning the state championship the second year and because I played a different sport I got a full ride to go to a school I never would've gone to otherwise, which is exactly where I fell deep into sin and met Jesus in a life changing way, which lead people to make fun of me. One day a girl said, "You are so weird for Jesus. There's a girl at another school that's weird for Jesus like you. Her name is Amy, you guy's should meet and get married." Boom. That's exactly how we met. We just got really, really weird together and ended up starting LifeChurch 21 years ago. The fact that I'm teaching today at this moment is a reflection of a time when life didn't go according to my plan and God had a different purpose. We had plans when we met. We decided we were going to have two kids. We're going to have a boy first and then a girl. We were going to have a Josh and a Joy. Well instead we had a Katie, a Mandy, and Anna, a Sam, a Steve and a Joy. We got the Joy in. Who knows what happened to Josh. We were drunk with six kids, didn't know how to get through it, you know? We didn't have cable. Couldn't afford cable, so we had six kids and it's what we did. Whenever Sam was born I was supposed to preach Saturday night and Sunday morning. Amy was pregnant with Sam. At 5:00 a.m., before Sunday services, Sam came out. Well I obviously couldn't preach and so we're like, "What are we going to do? The plan was for me to preach. We can't get anybody ready fast enough." We said, "Let's just run the video from Saturday night and hope they forgive us, they'll understand we just had a baby." We ran the video and people didn't even notice that I wasn't there. There were more people that came to Christ. I'm scratching my head, going, "I wonder if this would actually work in other places." Then I'm actually preaching in a building that the vast majority of you cannot see, which doesn't upset me at all, because I don't love this building and the reason is because this wasn't supposed to be the building that I'm preaching for the rest of my life, but it is, okay? This is a double gymnasium. It's long, narrow, it's boxy and it was simply a middle phase before we built the big permanent phase with the raisers and the balcony and all that kind of stuff and then this would become a gym later on, but somewhere along the way, even though we had a plan, God had a purpose, and we thought if we did video teaching, instead of building bigger, what if we built more in more places and tried to reach more people that way? I want to declare and tell you that I'm incredibly excited about this, that at 26 LifeChurch locations in eight different states this week alone there will be 186 Christmas worship services, 186 Christmas worship services. You would be sitting in one and there will be 185 more than the one that you're in. Think about the lives that will be impacted because things didn't go Page 8 of 13 MP3_MessageChristmas2016ChangeofPlans according to my plan. I'm glad that every now and then God interrupts my plans to bring about a different purpose, even in those times where I may not understand it and don't like it and confused by it, am hurting in the middle of it. Years later you can almost always look back and you might say, "I'd never choose it or I'd never want to go through it again, but I can see how God used it." You don't have to understand the plan to trust that God has a purpose. This would've been so true of Mary and Joseph. Think about this, Mary's pregnant with the son of God. If I'm like, in this I'm Joseph, I'm thinking, well, we're doing this for God, we got connections. This is going to be smooth, right? Heavenly epidural, no pain, totally free. She sneezes, baby comes out. We've got a baby. This thing's easy. No. No. No. No. No. Instead she's in labor and guess where she is? Ladies, on the back of a donkey. On a donkey. She's in labor. Joseph is so dead. He's pulling that donkey through red lights, come on donkey. Come on. Come on. Running red lights. They get to the town and guess what? He's even deader. He didn't make reservations. There's no hotel there. Where does she give birth? Ladies, in your dream place, in a cave next to farm animals, that's where she gives birth to the son of God. If you kind of go through it eventually she's, no epidural, no soft music, just ... And she's got a baby. They're going to live happily ever after, right? Guess what she finds out? This is true. King Herod wants to kill her son. Think about that. Internalize it. This is a real mom, this is a real dad. The ruler of your universe wants your kid dead. How does that feel? What do you think she's thinking? But God, I said yes to you and they're on the run. They're hooking it to Egypt. They're hiding out in houses. Don't tell anybody we're here. Like in the movies, they're on the run. Fast forward 33 years. Mary, the mom who said "Yes, may it be done unto me according to your word. God you know I love you, I'll do whatever you ask me to do." She's standing on, looking at her son, her son stripped down naked, hanging on a cross only supported by spikes through his wrists and through his heels. His back is so cut open by being whipped again and again it's likely his vital organs are exposed. The only way that he can breathe is to push up as the spikes drive through his feet and pull up on his hands to get a breath. On his brow is a crown of thorns. His face is so bruised and bloodied that he doesn't even look like a human being. The mother who said, "Yes," looks on and it's not recorded but you know what she's thinking. God, this isn't fair. He didn't do anything wrong. He did everything right. We did everything you asked us to do. Make it stop. No mom should ever have to see that. What did Jesus do? They're spitting on him. They are spitting on him. Hail. Hail, King of the Jews, you call yourself that. You've saved others, save yourself. Jesus looks up to heaven and prays, "Father, please forgive them, they don't even know what they're doing." She looks on, her son is righteous in every way and the Jesus declares with faith and with passion, through the pain, through the agony he says, "It is finished." Page 9 of 13 MP3_MessageChristmas2016ChangeofPlans Then he breathes one last breath and says, "Into your hands I commit my spirit." Boom and the earth goes dark and everything shakes. This is not recorded in scripture, but let me tell you this did happen, Mary's legs could not contain the weight of her grief and she falls to the ground and she wails and sobs, "No, my baby!" Right? Put yourself there. Real people. Real agony. This isn't what I had planned. Mary and Joseph had a plan, God had a purpose. Mary and Joseph had a plan, God had a purpose. Mary and Joseph had a plan, God had a purpose. What was that purpose you ask? What was the purpose? Let me tell you what the purpose was. The purpose was you. The purpose was you. Mary and Joseph had a plan. God had a purpose. People say all the time Jesus is the reason for the season. Jesus is the reason for the season. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jesus is the reason for the season, but if you ask God what the reason for the season was in His heart, it was you. That was the reason for the season. That was the reason Jesus came. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son. For God so loved you that He became one of us. You couldn't make up the Christmas story. Man had a plan of how the messiah would come. God had a purpose that he would be stripped of His righteousness in heaven and become a person in Jesus, who was born of a virgin. Why did a virgin matter? Because he didn't inherit the sin nature from an earthly father, but instead the divine nature from a heavenly father, therefore he could be perfect in every way, never sinning. Dying on the cross for who? For you, for me, for us. We were the purpose. Mary and Joseph had plan, but God had a purpose and you were that purpose. It was right there in scripture, and yet so many people missed it. Verse 21, Mary will give birth to a son and you're to give him the name, Jesus. Why? Here's the purpose: Mary and Joseph had a plan, but God had a purpose. What His purpose? You were that purpose because Jesus will save his people from their sins. If you are one of those who've had a change in plans, and maybe right now things are really difficult and I'm not going to tell you for a moment that your pain's not real, because sometimes it just hurts and sometimes you just don't understand and sometimes you ache and you just want to cry out, "God, what's going on?" I'm going to tell you right now, because of the goodness of God, because of His sovereignty, because of who He is you don't have to understand the plan to trust God has a purpose. Many of the plans in a man's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails. On this Christmas, as we talk about the birth of Jesus, please understand Mary and Joseph were people just like you and me, who had a plan, but I thank God that He had a purpose and His purpose was you. Father, today I pray especially for those who are hurting, confused and grieving, that we'll put our faith in you and recognize, God, you have a greater purpose than anything that we could ever imagine. We trust in you. At all of our churches, as you continue praying, nobody looking around, there are many of Page 10 of 13 MP3_MessageChristmas2016ChangeofPlans you right now if I simply asked you, maybe just we're sitting down over a cup of coffee and I say, "Hey, how are you doing spiritually," what a lot of you would do is say what I've heard a million times over and again, you say, "Hey, I don't know. I'm doing okay." I'd say, "Well tell me about it" and you'd say one version or another of some conversation I've had too many times to count. You'd say, "Well, I try to be a good person and I'm better than some and maybe not as good as others. Sure, I've done some things wrong, but I go to church at Christmas time and I gave money to help some guy out and I try to be a nice person. I'm doing the best I can. I hope that's good enough." If we knew each other well enough what I would do is just look at you squarely and say, "You know what? Sorry, but that's not good enough. It's simply not." No matter how hard you try you can't try hard enough to be good enough for God. If we were talking openly you would admit, as I have to, you've done some things wrong and I've done some things wrong, and let's call it what it is, we've sinned. We've done some horrible things and the truth is that our sins separates us from God. Our sins separates us from God and that's why this Christmas story matters. The story of Jesus is called the gospel and gospel means good news. This is the good news, God had a purpose. God loved you so much that He sent His son, Jesus, who was born and lived without sin so that he could become the perfect sacrifice on the cross for us. He died for our sins. On the third day the stone was rolled away, it wasn't there. Why? Because Jesus rose from the dead. Why? Because God had a purpose so that anyone, and this includes you, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter how dark your life has been, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved and forgiven. At all of churches there are many of you, you had a plan, I'll do the little church thing, I'll watch this deal on the computer. You had a plan, but you recognize, oh my goodness, I think I may be a part of a bigger purpose. I'm supposed to be here because God wants me, He wants all of me. You have a choice, just like Mary, she said, "Yes, may it be done and to be according to your work. Yes, I give you my life. Yes, I want your will." At all of our churches there are those of you, you recognize you need His grace, you need His salvation, you need His forgiveness. Simply say, "Yes, Jesus, I turn from my sins. I turn toward you." That's my prayer today. All of our churches, those who say, "Yes, I recognize I'm part of a bigger purpose." I'm here to say, Yes, Jesus, I need your grace. I give my life to you. That's your prayer. Left your hands high right now, all over the place and say, "Yes." Back over there, God bless you. Others of you, way back here toward the back, say, "Yes." Both of you right here, lift them up high. Both of you over here, third person over here, say, "Yes, Jesus, I surrender to you." Church Online, you click right below me, we're all going to pray together, pray aloud. Pray heavenly father. Audience : Heavenly father. Page 11 of 13 MP3_MessageChristmas2016ChangeofPlans Craig Groeschel: Today I trust you. Audience : Craig Groeschel: Audience : Craig Groeschel: Audience : Craig Groeschel: Audience : Craig Groeschel: Audience : Craig Groeschel: Audience : Craig Groeschel: Audience : Craig Groeschel: Audience : Craig Groeschel: Audience : Craig Groeschel: Audience : Craig Groeschel: Audience : Craig Groeschel: Today I trust you. To save me. To save me. To make me new. To make me new. Jesus, be first in my life. Jesus, be first in my life. Fill me with your spirit. Fill me with your spirit. So I could follow you. So I could follow you. For the rest of my life. For the rest of my life. My life is not my own. My life is not my own. I give it to you. I give it to you. Thank you for new life. Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. Now you have mine. In Jesus' name I pray. Page 12 of 13 MP3_MessageChristmas2016ChangeofPlans Audience : In Jesus' name I pray. Craig Groeschel: All of our churches, would you worship big, worship loud, welcome those born into God's family today. Page 13 of 13 MP3_MessageChristmas2016ChangeofPlans Even when they’ve been on the calendar all year, the holidays can sometimes take us by surprise. In fact, even the first Christmas started with a change of plans. No matter what you’re facing, you can approach it full of peace, hope, and love. www.lifechurch.tv/open In this message,  Pastor Craig Groeschel  will tell the story of the first Christmas in a contemporary setting.

What do you do when life gets confusing and hard? Or when things don’t seem to fit into a bigger, better plan? Joseph, the father of Jesus, wrestled with those same questions over 2000 years ago—and his response can inspire our own. Join us this weekend as Jeff takes a fresh look at the faithfulness of Joseph. www.chaseoaks.org . The Cast of Christmas Week 1 December 10/12, 2021 1 The Cast of Christmas Week 1 “The Faithfulness of Joseph” December 10/12, 2021 Jeff Jones Merry Christmas everybody! Today begins the Christmas season here at Chase Oaks as we start a new series called The Cast of Christmas, about the main characters at the manger scene. Even just seeing this manger scene for me brings with it warm and fuzzy feelings, because Christmas is the best time of the year, and it retells such a wonderful and true story. It makes me want to drink hot chocolate, wear a Christmas sweater, and relish in the meaning of the season. 2000 years after the event, it all makes so much sense and demonstrates the love and beauty of God in a powerful way. But 2000 years ago, at least for the couple in the manger scene, things were not always so warm and fuzzy and were not so clear. They were amazing and awe- inspiring, but also scary, uncertain, confusing, and at times demoralizing. We know the big picture, but at the time they did not, which will bring us to the cast member for today—Joseph. For Joseph, as we will see, there was so much he did not know. But he went with what he did know, obeyed God with the light he had been given, and just kept trusting and doing the next right thing even when being in the middle of the story made no sense at all. We will see that, and here is our big idea today: SLIDE__________________) When you don’t know what you don’t know, go with what you do know. Some of you are in circumstances right now or are still trying to figure out life events in your past that make little sense if God as the author of your story is writing one with a good ending. Often, in the middle of our story, life events happen that are confusing and demoralizing. Maybe it is something with your family life, your professional life, your own emotional or physical health, or that of someone you love. Maybe you have experienced deep loss, and it was not the way life was supposed to play out. What do you do when the journey gets confusing, uncertain, and difficult—when you can’t make sense of how things might fit into a big picture that is good? Joseph is going to teach us by example: The Cast of Christmas Week 1 December 10/12, 2021 2 SLIDE______________________) When you don’t know what you don’t know, go with what you do know. Let’s go the Christmas story: SLIDE___________________) Matthew 1:18 “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph…” So far, so good. Engagements are always a happy thing. Joseph and Mary would have been very young. Girls were married about twelve or thirteen, and guys a few years after that, so Joseph was probably fifteen or sixteen. We also know that this teenager was a construction worker, relatively poor. And we know as we will see in the next verse that he was a godly person. He intentionally sought to obey the instructions God gave in the Old Testament law. Marriages were arranged by parents back then and happened in two stages, the betrothal period and then the wedding ceremony that initiated full marriage. Joseph and Mary were betrothed, which usually lasted about a year. During that time the couple would usually see each other very little, but they would have been looking forward to the big wedding party and marriage after that. However, a big wrinkle appeared in the story: Not the only time that surprise has ever happened, but this one was different. Joseph and Mary had not been together sexually, so for Joseph all he can possibly think at the time is that she must have had sex with someone else. Matthew lets us know in hindsight she was pregnant “through the Holy Spirit,” but Joseph didn’t know that right away. He just finds out she is pregnant, and he knows that the baby is not his. As a godly guy who lived his life according to the Old Testament teachings, this presented a big dilemma. On the one hand, as a righteous guy in the OT way, he knew that he should not go forward with the wedding. On the other hand, he also did not want to shame Mary publicly. That’s what we read in verse 19: The Cast of Christmas Week 1 December 10/12, 2021 3 SLIDE____________________) Matthew 1:19 “Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.” What most guys would have done is to disgrace her publicly, and in the OT law, she could be stoned to death. He didn’t want her to experience that kind of public shame, so he decides to call off the engagement, a lot like a divorce, and keep it on the downlow. That choice was actually a very loving choice for Mary because it would protect her but would make him look bad—like he must have done something wrong. He chooses righteousness and love. Obey God and love people. We’ll come back to that choice, but that is his plan, at least until he finally went to sleep that evening, where he has a dream: SLIDE___________________) Matthew 1:20-21 “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’” An angelic announcement to let him know that he should in fact marry her and drops the new information that SLIDE_____________________) Matthew 1:20 “…what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” That may be clear to some of us, but it certainly wasn’t clear then. He was told it was all good because this baby was from the Holy Spirit. What does that even mean? The Holy Spirit is God. God is one and three. He is trinity: Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit. So, God made this pregnancy happen, and we know the big story that this is a virgin birth. She hadn’t had sex with anybody, but God made her pregnant with Jesus, the Son of God. So, he knows very little, only that he should still marry her and should chill out about the whole pregnancy thing because this baby is from the Holy Spirit. That’s a whole lot to take in! But two basic instructions: Marry her and when the boy is The Cast of Christmas Week 1 December 10/12, 2021 4 born, name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. The name “Jesus” is a form of the name Joshua, which means “Jehovah will save” or “God will save.” This baby wasn’t just any baby, but the one promised from God for centuries that would be the one who would take away the sins of the world. Matthew then adds that this confusing event, Mary getting pregnant while engaged, was actually part of God’s plan that had been prophesied hundreds of years before in the Old Testament: SLIDE____________________) Matthew 1:22-23 “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us.’)” Matthew had the advantage of hindsight, which is 20/20. The virgin birth might make sense to believers looking backwards, and it was even prophesied in the Old Testament. But that was not front of mind for Joseph. He knew very little, but: SLIDE____________________) When you don’t know what you don’t know, go with what you do know. What he did know is that God sent an angel to tell him that he should marry her and name the baby Jesus. What he did know is that even when life is confusing, God can be trusted. So, he trusts God, obeys, and does the next right thing: SLIDE____________________) Matthew 1:24-25 “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.” He simply does what he knows to do, even though the big picture would have been really hard to see. Matthew doesn’t tell us about the other confusing parts of the story, like no room in the inn forcing the baby to be born in an animal shelter, or the shepherds who come to worship the baby after angels appear to them. They just store all that up in their hearts and minds and move forward to be a family. The Cast of Christmas Week 1 December 10/12, 2021 5 They stay in Bethlehem, move into their first little house, and all is fairly normal. Some of you are hoping to get your first house. For others, I bet you can look back and remember your first one. A happy little family…until the next event. This next one was confusing, but really cool. The wise guys from the East. What do you know about the wise men? Let’s see…how many were there? What were their names? Some of you got it. There were three wise men, and their names were Curly, Larry, and Moe. Actually, not. Matthew doesn’t tell us how many, and he doesn’t share their names. So, we have no idea how many of them came. What we do know is that they were likely from the area of Babylon, advisors to leaders there, and God led them to come to look for the newborn King of Kings. They go first to the palace at Jerusalem where one with the title King of the Jews lived, Herod, and ask where the newborn King of the Jews lived. That didn’t go over well with Herod. He liked his title. They are guided to Bethlehem, with a celestial sign, and end up knocking on the door of Mary and Joseph. So, the wise men aren’t part of the manger scene. Jesus is now two years old, a little toddler, and they show up at the door. Joseph was a lot nicer than me, I guess. When people I don’t know just knock at my door, I often act like I’m not home, especially if they are dressed in black pants and a white shirt with a book under their arm. Terrible but true. These guys weren’t dressed that way though, so maybe that’s why Joseph opens the door. What happens is a very unexpected surprise. They worship the toddler Jesus as God, and they give to the family in his honor very expensive gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold we know. Frankincense and myrrh are what cryptocurrency used to be called. No, they were very expensive perfumes, which was one of the ways people stored wealth back then. For Joseph, the worship by these guys from the exotic east was amazing, and the expensive gifts exciting for a poor pair of newlyweds. If he was like me, he was already spending the money in his head: “We can add on to the house, get an 80- inch TV, go ahead and join that golf club, put away some money for Jesus for college.” They had never seen that amount of money in their lives and never expected to. That was confusing but cool, even euphoric. But the euphoria wouldn’t last long. That night, another dream with an angelic announcement that would let them know what God sent the money for: The Cast of Christmas Week 1 December 10/12, 2021 6 SLIDE______________________) Matthew 2:13-15 “When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.” This was also not in Joseph’s plan. They were a young family trying to establish a life together and having to flee for the life of the baby in the middle of the night, to be a refugee in a foreign country was not his dream. They likely traveled on foot all the way to Alexandria, about 200 miles away. Alexander the Great had set up Alexandria as a refuge for Jews in times of trouble, so there was a large Jewish population there. The money from the gold, frankincense, and myrrh almost certainly is what made that sojourn possible and much easier, but still—not in Joseph’s plan. That would have been really disruptive and really confusing. Why would God allow that to happen to this baby of all babies? And Joseph had no idea how long Herod would live and how long they would have to be refugees in a foreign country. It would have been really hard for him at the time to put this together with a big picture plan. Once again though Matthew, with the gift of hindsight, lets us know that this indeed was not an interruption from the plan of God but part of the plan of God that had also been prophesied centuries before: SLIDE______________________) Matthew2:15 “And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’” Looking back, Matthew could see it, but there was no way Joseph did at the time. What does he do? Well, SLIDE_______________________) When you don’t know what you don’t know, go with what you do know. He knew God could be trusted. He knew what God had asked him to do in the shortrun. So, we read it already: The Cast of Christmas Week 1 December 10/12, 2021 7 He did exactly what he knew to do, even though he had no clue how that would have fit some bigger plan. They would end up staying in Egypt at least several months, probably close to a year. And then another angelic announcement in a dream giving him the next immediate thing to do: SLIDE_____________________) Matthew 2:19-23 “After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.’ So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.” Joseph’s plan was to go back to Bethlehem, but the angel diverted them once again to a new location—where Joseph and Mary were first engaged, Nazareth—a tiny little village in the middle of nowhere. That may have seemed random to Joseph at the time, but it wasn’t. Matthew once again lets us know that this too was part of the divine plan as had been prophesied in the Old Testament. This is all we know of Joseph, but the narrative tells us so much about him. He was a young guy, sixteen to nineteen years old during this story, but he was a mature and faithful young guy. When he found out Mary was pregnant and could only assume that she had sex outside of their relationship, what was he going to do? The right thing. In that culture, a quiet breaking of the engagement that would not shame her even though it would make him look like a goober. The loving thing. The righteous thing in an Old Testament way. When he got more information from the angel, he changed course in obedience to what he did now know. Those Christmas events are heartwarming for us because we like Matthew have the gift of hindsight. It all makes sense looking back. But for Joseph going through it, the events were hard to reconcile with a good plan controlled by a good God. Even though he didn’t know the big picture, he chose to trust the one who did and obey what he did know. And that basic way of life is what got him through the ups and downs of those early years trying to raise the savior of the world. The Cast of Christmas Week 1 December 10/12, 2021 8 For you and me who also face confusing times as we try to follow Jesus in this crazy world, Joseph is such a great model of how to navigate times that do not make sense. We all go through times when it is hard to connect the dots, how what we are going through now or perhaps have gone through in the past, could have anything to do with a good plan controlled by a good God. I know that many of you this Christmas are trying to put on a happy face and say, “Merry Christmas,” even though your heart is not merry. You are anxious, confused, struggling to figure out what is going on and maybe how you can possibly go on. When that happens, learn from Joseph: SLIDE___________________) When you don’t know what you don’t know, go with what you do know. Like Joseph, here is what you do know. You know that God is in control. You know that God is good. You therefore know that God can be trusted. So, trust him. It’s okay that you don’t know how all this fits into the big picture, because he does. And you know what he has already revealed. He has told us in the Bible principles of how to live through tricky times, and he has given us as the basic ethic, love. So, what has God revealed in the Bible for me to do and what does love of the other person demand? That’s what Joseph did, and that’s what we can do too. If we do, then something wonderful happens over time. We become the kind of people we all want to become. We become godly, mature, more full of faith. It’s a way of life that one writer called “a long obedience in the same direction” that over time produces maturity, that helps us become the kind of people we really do want to become. There’s really no other way to get there. We go through confusing or difficult times going with what we know, trusting him with the big picture, and doing the next right thing, the loving thing, and we become godly over time. Author Gary Thomas said, SLIDE__________________) Salvation is free, but maturity comes at a price.”

f you find yourself in a dark place, Pastor Mark shares four helpful hacks:1) It’s always darkest before dawn2) Widen your aperture3) Live in day-tight compartments4) Let your light shine www.. national.cc.com .

The Giant of Overwhelming Odds Transcription The Giant of Overwhelming Odds - Judges 7:1-15 - Skip Heitzig Turn in those Bibles to the book of Judges 7. Judges 7. Seventh book in the Old Testament. Just so you know, this little film that we show every week, this wasn't done in some Hollywood vault. This was done by our own staff. Our own team did this. They did such a good job at this media. Judges 7. So there's this Amish family, and they went to the city for the very first time in their lives. And they ended up at a mall. So, they were completely overwhelmed by the sights, the sounds, the crowds, the stores, the lights. And they, in the mall, came to an elevator. And they watched as the elevator doors opened and an elderly woman stepped in, and the doors closed and it went up and it went down. And then, when it came back down, the doors opened and this young beautiful woman stepped out. And so, the little boy said, "Papa what is that?" And he said, "Never mind son. Just go get your mama quick." I don't know what you feel like or how you react when you are feeling overwhelmed by something, but chances are you've used that word in the past year, year and a half, two years. With the events that have occurred in our world, you have perhaps felt overwhelmed. That's the word a lot of people have used. One news source said people are feeling more stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed than ever before. And one of the reasons why it feels or seems overwhelming to us is we start thinking, well, we didn't see that one coming. We didn't see coronavirus shutting down the world, and the economic freefall. And if that happened, what else could happen? What does the future hold for us? In ancient times, when they drew maps out, the map makers, the cartographers, they would draw what they knew. And so they would draw the land masses and the lines for the countries, that's what they knew. But when they were writing down or drawing what they didn't know, they would, at the edge of the map, simply write these words. "Beyond here, there be dragons." And to use our own little analogy, we might say, beyond here, there be giants. We don't know what the future holds, but we know that God's got it covered, and I want to talk to you about that today. We have been studying standing up to giants. We began with the giant of conformity, and we saw how Daniel didn't bend, that he refused to indulge himself in the delicacies of the king. He didn't conform to the culture. We looked at the giant of silence, how John the Baptist stood up and spoke up against the abuse of hypocrisy of King Herod, Herod Antipas. We looked at the giant of apathy, how Nehemiah had a pretty cushy job and he decided that he would leave his comfort zone and be involved in God's work. We looked at the giant of fear, how David took on the whole Philistine army, and, in particular, that intimidating NBA guy named Goliath. We looked at the giant of self, and we saw that Esther put her life on the line to save the Jewish people with the words, "If I perish, I perish." Today, we want to look at another giant. And I'm calling this the giant of overwhelming odds. What do you do, how do you act, how do you calibrate, when the odds just seem overwhelming? When the news that comes to you is just so devastating, so intimidating. Now, let me just sort of set it up, and I'm going to give you the numbers of the army, and I'm going to count on you to remember these. In fact, I'm going to test you during this message. So, the Israelite army-- under a guy by the name of Gideon in chapter 7 of Judges-- the Israelite army has 32,000 men. The enemy army-- the Midianites-- has 135,000 men. So, he is outnumbered four to one. So how many people are in Israel's army? No, 32,000. We'll get this. Don't worry, by the end you will have this memorized. 32,000. How many are in the enemy's camp? 135,000. So, that's what we're up against. Gideon is facing not a giant, but a giant army. He is outnumbered, which is precisely the position we find ourselves in as believers today. We are always outnumbered. You know that, right? That is our MO. That's how we operate. That's our modus operandi. We are always outnumbered. There's always more unbelievers than there are believers. There are always more faithless people than there are faithful people. But sometimes, we know that, and on top of that, we have family issues and health issues and economy issues, and it all piles up and we feel overwhelmed. And I love David's prayer in Psalm 61, "When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I." I want to show you how to get to that rock. I want to show you five keys to standing strong when the odds are against you, when the circumstances seem overwhelming. And here's what's great about this story. What's great about this story is it's not just a story of a man with a small army against a big army. It's a story of a weak man who leads a small army against a big army. He's a man of very frail faith. He's learning. He's growing in his faith. He's learning to trust God. Chapter 7 of Judges is a battle scene. The enemy has come into the land. There's a coalition of tribal nations, Midianites, Amalekites, people from the East. They all band together, they come in, and they invade the land of Israel. So, I want to show you those five keys to standing strong. Here's the first key. Your faith is gradual. That is, you have faith in God, but that faith grows. And God doesn't expect you to get all As on the first day of class for a test or a class that may take a year for you to sit in. Your faith, and the journey of your faith, is gradual. So look at verse 1. Judges 7:1. "Then"-- get this name, don't ever name your child this name-- "Jerubbaal"-- or, the Hebrew pronunciation, Yeh-ru-buh-al. Yeh-ru-buh-al. I'm not going to even pronounce it that way. We're Americans, so we're going to say Jeru-bale. So, "Then Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon"-- I'll explain that in a moment-- "Jarubbaal, that is, Gideon, and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley." What I want you to notice is the very first name we get for Gideon in chapter 7 isn't Gideon. It's a name with pagan ties. It's a nickname that his dad, who at one time was a pagan worshipper-- he worshipped like God, the God of Israel, and this god named Baal-- it was the nickname that his dad gave him. And it's there to remind us that Gideon, though he's going to be used by God, had the influence of paganism from his dad in the past. Now, if you know your Bible, you know that Gideon is not just an Old Testament hero, but he makes it all the way into the New Testament. Do you know what book he's in in the New Testament? The book of Hebrews. So, the writer of Hebrews gives the Hall of Fame-- the Hall of Fame of Faith-- and he lists all these faithful examples, and he says, "And time would fail me to tell you about Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah." So , he begins not with faith, but he ends up in the Hall of Faith. Do you know how Gideon started? How Jerubbaal started? Fearful. That's how he began his journey of faith. He believed in God, but he was so timid. Let me explain. When God calls him in chapter 6, it says that he was threshing wheat at the winepress. Now, we would just read that through and not maybe understand the background of why that is important. Nobody threshed wheat at a winepress because the winepress is down in the valley. The place you thresh wheat-- the threshing floor-- is on the top of the mountain. And the reason you do that is because the afternoon breezes carry the chaff away. So you take a pitchfork full of your grain, throw it in the air, the wind blows the chaff away, the grain falls on the rock. That's where you thresh wheat. He's not doing that. It says he threshed wheat in the winepress-- listen to this-- in order to hide from the Midianites. Does that sound like a man of faith? No, it sounds like a man of fear. A man of fear. So, it's funny when the angel of the Lord shows up while he's throwing that stuff in the air, and he says, hey, what's up? That's kind of a paraphrase. And he says, you mighty man of valor. And I'm guessing Gideon is looking around, going, is there somebody else here that I don't see? Who's he talking to? He's talking to the man who would become a mighty man of valor, but was not at that moment. He began very fearful. OK, forward a little bit more in chapter 6. In chapter 6, God comes to Gideon. He says, Gideon, your dad has a statue in his backyard of Baal. I want you to cut it down. I want you to kill it. Cut down the statue. Burn it. Get rid of it. What's interesting is that the name Gideon literally means hacker, or hewer, or one who cuts something down. So, God comes to Gideon in this journey of faith and he says, Gideon, it's time for you to live up to your name. Go cut down that cult object that your dad has been worshipping. Now, why would God require that of him? Because he's about to lead an army, that's why. Before you can ever lead publicly, you've got to work on things privately. You've got to start in your own backyard. And so, he starts in his dad's own backyard. But even cutting down the statue, he wouldn't do it during the day. He did it at night, secretly. So this is Judges 6:27. "Because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it at night." You can say, well, that's just practical. Maybe, but he's still scared. He started out scared, and God calls him to do something. He does it, but he's still timid. Now, we come to chapter 7, and in chapter 7, he's going to lead this army. He's going to do these great exploits. We're told in Judges 6:34, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, so that's a good thing. He's got the Holy Spirit, he's empowered by God to do this. But even filled with the Spirit, he's still scared. He's still timid. He's still fearful. Because he says, you got to show me a sign. I need a sign that you're in this. So, God gives him not one sign, not two signs, three signs. Sign number one, fire comes out of a rock and consumes the sacrifice. That's a pretty good sign. Sign number two, he takes an animal hide, a fleece, puts it out. The next morning, there's dew on the fleece but there's no dew anywhere else in the land. That's the second sign. Gideon didn't know if that was just a fluke of nature, so he wanted God to repeat it but reverse it. So He gives him a third sign. There's no dew the next day on the fleece but there's dew everywhere else. Three signs. So, he believes, he acts, he's called upon to lead an army, but all the way along, he's still scared, and God has to confirm it. Here's what I want you to see. Hunting giants is a progressive skill. It's a progressive skill. You learn how to do it. And you learn how to do it gradually over time. Gideon started out fearful before he ever became faithful. I hope that encourages you. He started out fearful before he ever became faithful. In Psalm 144:1, we read this. "Blessed be the Lord who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle." You're in a learning process. You're in school God is teaching you through your life, through the trials, through the difficulties, in this journey of faith, how to hunt giants. You're a work in progress. And here's what I mean. You believe in God, but sometimes you're afraid. You trust, but I have a little bit of fear and trepidation here in this area. Right? Is that true about you? Yeah, it's true for most of us. It's like the guy in the New Testament who brought his son to Jesus who was demon possessed. He said, please heal my son. Jesus said, all things are possible to him who believes. And the man said back to Jesus, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. I trust you, but I'm scared. That's Gideon. That's the journey of faith. We're all on it. You are in process. Long before I ever stood before heads of state and rulers with the gospel, I stood in my classroom. I stood with my family. I had to make a stand with my friends and at work. And God knows that you are in this process, and He cuts you a lot of slack. He doesn't condemn you. He understands. I love the Bible verse that says, God knows our frame and remembers that we are dust. God knows what you're made out of. He doesn't have high expectations for dust, right? It's like, OK-- not to put you down, not to put me down-- I don't expect a lot out of dirt. I know what you're made out of. You're human, and it's only natural for humans to trust but have a little bit of fear mixed in with it. So, I love also Hebrews 4. Jesus is called our great high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses. So, here is the gradual growing of Gideon's faith. By the way, why does God test our faith? And He does. He's testing Gideon's faith, every little increment here. He's testing his faith. Testing, testing, testing. Why does God test our faith? Any takers on that? That's good. I'm hearing some good answers. Let me give you two of them. Number one, God tests your faith not so He can find out what kind of faith you have. It's not like God's saying, gosh, I got to find this out. He knows already going into it how much faith you have or don't have. But, you don't. So the test is to reveal to you the level of your faith. Number two, God tests your faith, and I heard it shouted out, so it will grow. So, I go into the gym. The only way for those muscles to grow is for you to put some resistance on them, and when that resistance, those weights, are added, and the muscle breaks down, it's going to build back up. And so, the trials, the hardship, the testing of your faith is what builds you up. God tests your faith. A faith that can't be tested is a faith that can't be trusted. So, your faith is gradual. Second key. God's math is unusual. And we would even say, God does weird math. He does it way differently than we do. So, there's Midianites and there's Israelites. How many people are in the Israelite army? 32,000. How many in the enemy's army? 135,000. You got the number down now. 32,000 to 135,000. Four to one odds. By the way, Midianites were like a Bedouin tribal peoples in ancient times. I don't know if you know this or not, but Midian was one of Abraham's sons. You're going, I don't remember that. There was Isaac and there was Ishmael, but that was with his first wife, Sarah. After she died, he got married again to Keturah, and had a whole bunch of kids. One of them was named Midian. He goes down into the Sinai desert in northern Saudi Arabia, and that's his area. By the way, Jethro, the Father-in-law of Moses, was a Midianite priest. So they have ties way back. At this time, they have invaded the land and they've encamped around. They're stealing their crops. They're terrorizing them. And there are way more of them than there are of God's people. So, it already seems impossible, 32,000 to 135,000. Now, look at verse 2. "The Lord said to Gideon, 'The people who are with you are too many.'" Uh, hello? Because that's not what I was thinking. Yeah, God, I wanted to talk to you about the size of my army because I'm outnumbered four to one. And I was just about to say, I have too few, and what did you just say? "The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.'" How many of you think Gideon was shocked when God said that? Yeah, I do. I think he was pretty shocked. Did you know that we rarely think that size-- bigness of size-- is a hindrance to the work of God. Most Christian organizations, most churches don't see size as a hindrance. They see that as a good thing. They see the hindrances as things being small, not big. But when things are large, and resources are abundant, and there's lots of people, it's often harder to trust God. What we trust in is our resources. Those resources may be from God, but it doesn't take much faith when the cupboards are full, and the money's in, and the crowds are there. Sometimes, churches are wowed by size and statistics, and they think they're strong because they're big. That's a misconception. I want to throw up on the screen what Gary Inrig wrote, just a little portion. He says, "You cannot be too small for God to use, but you can be too big. That is why, as you look around, you will see God working in a powerful way in the lives of some very weak people." Well, I hope that encourages you. Because if you're thinking, man, I just feel so weak. Perfect. You are a great candidate for God to use. Do you know that? God has chosen the foolish things of this world, the weak things of this world, to confound the mighty and the wise. Size can hinder the work of God. Now, wait a minute. I have 32,000. They have 135,000. You're telling me I have too many? Did you notice how God wrote that, or put that, how He spoke it? "The people who are with you are too many." What's the next two words? "For Me." "Too many for Me." I know they're not too many for you, Gideon. You think you need 10 times more. Too many for Me. Who's doing the work here? Who's doing the fighting here? God's doing the fighting. Too many for Me to deliver them into your hands. Listen to this principle, never forget this. Difficulty must always be measured by the capacity of the agent doing the work. Difficulty must always be measured by the capacity of the agent doing the work. Gideon, you're not doing the work. You're going to blow off some trumpets and hit some jars. That's basically what you're going to do. I'm doing the work. I'm doing the deliverance. And difficulty must always be measured by the capacity of the agent doing the work. So, God's math is pretty simple. It's pretty straightforward. Here it is, here's God's math. I'm here, and it doesn't matter how many are out there. They're outnumbered because I'm here. That's what Martin Luther said. He said, "With God, one is a majority." So, here's God's math. I'm here. No matter who's out there, they're outnumbered. Here's another story in the Old Testament. Elijah the prophet, 2 Kings 6. He goes to a town called Dothan. He's there with his buddy, his assistant. And his assistant looks around one morning, and he sees that he is surrounded by Syrian soldiers, the army of Syria camped around them. And they're ready to pounce on Dothan to kill Elijah and his buddy. So, he looks around, the servant, and says, alas, my master. That's Bible talk for, oh no, we're toast. Alas, my master, what shall we do? And Elijah, he's just so cool. He goes, chill out, dude. Now, that is a paraphrase. He actually didn't say that in the Bible. Maybe in the NSV, the New Skip Version. But, it's like, relax. Literally, it says, "Do not fear. Those who are with us"-- listen to this-- "are more than those who are with them." That's God's math. Those that are with us are more than those who are with them. That's God's math. Now, let me throw something fun at you. In Deuteronomy 32, before this was written in the law, God promised his people, hey listen, if you obey Me, if you do what I say, if you keep my commandments, listen to these words, one man shall chase 1,000, and two will put 10,000 to flight. How's that for math? According to God's math, all Gideon needed, then, was 27 men to fight 135,000 Midianites. All of that to say this, don't be surprised if God starts trimming your resources. If He starts tearing down your strength. And you say, man, I'm not as strong as I used to be. I'm feeling weaker and weaker and weaker. Paul the Apostle thought that. He had a thorn in the flesh. 2 Corinthians 12, he prayed to God about it, and God came to him and said, "My strength is made perfect in your weakness." "My strength is made perfect in your weakness." Listen, man's extremity is God's opportunity. That was a good place for an amen, right there. All right, that's good. Man's extremity is God's opportunity. God likes when you're weak because you lean into Him. You lean in Him. You trust Him. When you got the resources, the strength, the bigness, you don't do that. When you have none of that, you lean into Him. So God's math is unusual. Here's the third. People's fear is transmissible. People's fear gets passed on. It's like coronavirus. Others get it. People's fear is transmissible. I'm going to add to that, people's fear, or faith, is transmissible. Look at verse 3. "Now therefore"-- this is God talking to Gideon. You got too many, Gideon. "Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, 'Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.'" OK, stop. He's already outnumbered. How many are in his army? 32,000. You thought this number keeps changing. 32,000. How many are in the enemy's army? OK. 32,000 to 135,000. So, he's already outnumbered, and then God says, whoever's scared-- here, I'll make the announcement-- any of you in my army afraid to go to war? Go home. And Gideon's expecting that nobody's leaving. They know what they signed up for. They're in this army to fight. Nobody's scared here. Well, let's finish verse 3. "And 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained." Wow, 2/3 just walked out on Gideon. They just bailed. They dropped their weapons. See ya, I'm going home. Bye. I'm scared. See ya. Just like that. So, he was already outnumbered four to one. Now, there are only 10,000 people left. Here's what you may not know. What God called Gideon to do with this was standard operating military procedure in the Old Testament. That was. When God gave the law to Moses, He said, when the people go to war, there are four exemptions I'm going to list. Four reasons why they don't have to go to war and fight. This is Deuteronomy 20. "What man is there who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go home." It'd be frustrating to plan and build and save and have a house, and then you get drafted to go to war and you can't enjoy it. So, God says, go home, enjoy your house. That's number one. Number two. "What man is there who has planted a vineyard and not eaten of it?" Again, very frustrating. You plant, you fertilize, you water, it grows up. You got the grapes, but you can't enjoy it because there's a war. God says, no, you stay home and enjoy the vineyard. Third exemption. "What man is there who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her?" You got the wedding announcements, everybody's coming, you're all happy, and then you have to go fight? God says, no, let him stay and get married and enjoy. Here's the fourth exemption, listen to this one. "What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart." You know why God said that? Because fear is contagious. Fear is contagious. One timid soldier can do more damage than a whole bunch of enemies. I mean, imagine if the battle begins, and in the middle of the battle, 22,000 people leave. If 22,000 people leave, everybody is gone. It would be mass panic. It would be crowd panic. We see this in stadiums when there's some threat that happens and people try to rush out and they trample others because of it. John Wesley wrote, "Give me 100 men who fear nothing but sin and love nothing but God, and I will shake the gates of hell." I don't need a lot. I can shake the gates of hell with just 100 faithful people. It's all I need. You see, a few people with faith is better than a lot of people without faith. You want a lean, mean, fighting machine. G. Campbell Morgan, I'm going to throw this up, said, "The trouble today is that the fearful and trembling man insists on remaining in the army. A decrease that sifts the ranks of the Church of men who fear and tremble is a great, a gracious, and a glorious gain." You see, and here's why. When you feel overwhelmed, it's different than feeling stressful. We all get stressed. There's a number of things that cause stress in our lives. It could be our job. It could be our family, relationship with a friend, or health. We're stressed. But, when you have one, two, three, four, five, several things piling up, and you start feeling overwhelmed, that's like stress on steroids. And when you're feeling overwhelmed, you don't need people around you filled with fear. You need people around you filled with faith. They're the ones that are going to carry you through. And you need not only fearless people, you need people who are alert. They're watching. They got your back. They're ready for action. And I want you to see that in verse 4. "The Lord said to Gideon"-- OK, you've got 10,000. So how many were in the army? 32,000. How many were in the enemy's army? Yeah, come on, group participation. 135,000. Now, how many are in the army? 10,000. 135,000. Their odds haven't changed, but the odds toward Gideon's defeat go way up. OK. I lost my place. Verse 8. "The Lord said to Gideon, 'The people who are still too many, bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, "This one shall go with you," the same shall go with you, and whomever I say to you, "This one shall not go," the same shall not go.' So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, 'Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, like a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself. Likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.' And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouth, was 300 men. But all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, 'By the 300 men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.' So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those 300 men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley." We read this, and I go, this is weird. What does drinking water have to do with fighting a battle? Well, the way a man would drink water in those days would tell an awful lot about the man. If on one hand, he bows all the way down, gets on all fours. And here's the stream of water, and he just bows down like this, drinks water, what's he looking at? Just the water, right? He is predisposed. He is vulnerable. He is not able to act quickly, right? Because he is just into drinking the water. Self-gratification. But, if somebody bows down slightly, and takes water in his hands, and brings it up to his mouth, and laps it, he still has eyes out. He's less vulnerable. He's on the alert. He has his priorities right. There's a sense of urgency about him. I think that's behind this little test. Listen, some people take unnecessary time with necessary things. You got to do it, you got to drink. Everybody has to do it. But some people take unnecessary time with necessary things. There's no sense of urgency about their lives. There's no sense of priority. And you need people around you in a battle that have a sense of vigilance, right? Peter said, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Get friends on your side like that. Fearless people, watchful people. Fear is transmissible. Here's the fourth. Enemy's words may be helpful. Your enemy's words may be helpful. Now, normally I wouldn't say this, and you wouldn't expect a pastor to say, go listen to your enemies. You would think the pastors would say, don't listen to your enemies. They don't trust God. Don't listen to what they have to say. You need to just listen to words of faith, et cetera. But in some cases, it's actually helpful for you to listen to your enemies because what they say, what they reveal, will be encouraging to your heart. I want you to see that. Look at verse 9. "It happened on the same night that the Lord said to him, 'Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hands.'" In other words, strike by night. "'But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant.'" Now, the fact that he goes down to the camp with Purah his servant indicates that he was afraid. He's still fearful. "'And you shall hear what they say, and afterwards your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.' Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp." So, get the scene. He's being real sneaky here. He takes Purah, shhh, let's go. Let's go. Tiptoe. We're going to the camp of the Midianites. I don't know why, but God said if I'm scared, I should go do this, and I'm really scared, so let's just go down. Come on, come on. So, they go down, verse 12. "The Midianites and the Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts." I mean, there's 135,000 of them. "And their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude. And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, 'I've had a dream. To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.' Then his companion answered and said, 'This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.'" Now, God just gave Gideon another sign. Another sign. He got fire out of a rock, the fleece thing, the fleece thing again. Now, he just sneaks into the camp and he happens to hear a conversation spoken out loud about a-- you know, I had this weird dream last night. Yeah, it just woke me up, just now, man. There's this piece of bread, this loaf of bread came tumbling down, destroyed the tent. What's up with that? Well, the guy said, well, I'll tell you exactly what's up with that. That is a prophecy saying that we're about to get wiped out by this guy named Gideon. And Gideon just happens to hear that and be there at that time. This is where I'm going with this. So often, you and I are afraid to engage with unbelievers. We're intimidated by them. Let's say they're agnostic, atheist. Maybe they're real smart, they're clever in their arguments. They're very articulate. We're afraid to engage with unbelievers because we're afraid of what they might say. We're afraid we won't be able to stand up to their arguments. We're afraid to answer the questions that they have coming. We're afraid we're not going to be able to penetrate their defenses. But listen to them. Sometimes, when you listen to them, they will betray their true feelings. They will reveal to you that God has been working on their hearts, and it will encourage you. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me. I'm just going to give you a couple examples. Number one. When I was in my college training-- it was a UCLA program-- I was at San Bernardino County Medical Center where there was a radiology internship. I worked there every day. So, I'm going to work. And I noticed this one guy, he was an orderly. He would pick up patients and bring them down to the wards-- from the wards, down to radiology. And I noticed him, and I'd say hi to him. I didn't know much about him, but come to find out, he claimed to be a Satan worshipper. Now, I don't know if he really was a Satan worshipper, but he claimed it. And I don't know if he just wanted to scare little kids or scare me, kind of look at me and go, augh. So, I'd wave at him, and, come to find out also, he lived right across the street from my apartment. One day, in an afternoon, knock on my door. I opened the door. It's Satan worshiper guy. And he comes, and his eyes are shifting a little bit. He goes, this is going to sound really weird. I work with you. I notice you. I go, yeah, I've seen you at the hospital. He goes, well, I've seen you too. And I've watched you with people. And, I don't know how to put this, but it's like you glow. I said, what? Come again? I what? Well, it's like you have a glow. I'm thinking, OK, I work in radiology, maybe I should go look in the mirror, and maybe I have radioactive poisoning or something. I didn't notice any glow. But he said, no, I noticed you have something about you. I invited him in my house because it was such a weird thing. And just as he was talking about it, and I listened to him, and listened to his arguments and his rebuttals to things, I could see God has been working on his heart. And I said, would you like to receive Jesus Christ as Savior? And he goes, I would like that. And I got to pray with him to receive Christ that afternoon. That's one. Number two. I worked in another hospital with a gal who worked at the front desk. And she knew I was a Christian, and she didn't believe what I believed. And she brought evidence and papers and articles to work, and wanted to show me that I was wrong and she was right. And this went on for days and weeks. And one day, one evening, I walked her out in the parking lot, the St. Joseph hospital in Orange. I walk her out to the parking lot, to her car, and she still has her papers, and she's saying this and saying that. And I stopped in the parking lot, and I said, Linda, throw in the towel. She goes, what? I said, stop. You're fighting God. I have a hunch that all of this wrangling that you are doing is because you are convicted by God and you know that you need to receive Christ. Am I right, Linda? And I did not expect what happened next. She broke down weeping. She broke down weeping. And she stood with me in the parking lot and prayed to receive Christ. To this day, she and her family are still walking with the Lord. So, when those things happen, they build up your faith. Sometimes, you need to listen to your enemies to find out what God is doing in their lives. And then fifth, and finally. We only have a couple of minutes to finish this off. Fifth, our worship is essential. Look at verse 15, it closes out the paragraph. "And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshipped." You're going, well, yeah. He just had four signs from God. Yeah, but follow me here. "He heard the telling of the dream and it's an interpretation, he worshipped. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, 'Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand." Here's what I want you to notice. Gideon worshipped before the battle, not after the battle. Now, he may have worshipped after the battle. He probably did. Praise God, we won. But before the battle, he was a worshiper before he was a warrior. You see, worship reorients you when you're in a battle. It recalibrates your spiritual GPS, so to speak. It adjusts your compass. It reaffirms your purpose. So, there's a great passage in Romans 8. I know you know it. Paul said, in all these things, we are more than conquerors. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. It's one thing to be a conqueror. What is it to be more than a conqueror? More than conquerors, those are three words in English. In Greek, it's one word, [SPEAKING GREEK] And it means, the best translation is, you'll be a hyper conqueror. In all these things, we are hyper conquerors. We are super conquerors. Well, what's the difference between a conqueror and a hyper conqueror? Super conqueror? To be a conqueror is to rejoice when the battle is over. To be more than a conqueror is to rejoice before the battles start. And that's Gideon. He goes, boys, the Lord has given the enemy into our hands. Let's march down. That's how you stand when you face overwhelming odds. That's how you stand up to devastating news. Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States-- I talk about overwhelming times, the Civil War. He said, "I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go." There's nowhere else to go. There's no plan B. It's plan A all the way. It's trust God, trust God, trust God. And so, he paused and he worshipped. He'd been praying, and now he worships. All of that deep prayer life. You've heard the name John Knox, the Great Reformer of Scotland. John Knox was a pretty fiery preacher. He got in the face of Mary Queen of Scots many times. He just sort of said it like it was. You need to repent of your sins, on and on and on. So, there was a debate between them. Mary Queen of Scots said, "I fear the prayers of John Knox more than I fear all the armies of Europe." That's quite a statement, isn't it. "I fear the prayers of John Knox more than I fear all the armies of Europe." The Midianites should have been afraid of the prayers of Gideon, because he's the guy who took the battle. So, as you map out your future, as you look ahead, and you are tempted to say, I don't know what the future holds, it's been such a bad year, couple of years, granted. It's OK, it's OK. You're fearful. You're learning. We're all getting our faith feet on. But, know this. God's got you covered. God's got you covered. In the old times, when they made maps, cartographers-- did I tell you this already? Beyond here, there be dragons, right? So, as you look at your future and map it out, instead of saying, beyond here, there be dragons. How about, beyond here lay the everlasting arms of God, who holds you right where He wants you. Father, thank you for this incredible story, and all of these lessons we have been learning about men and women of great faith and great courage. And I pray, Lord, that you will make us such. A people who trust you. We are weak. We are fearful on many occasions. You know what we're made of. You know our frame. You remember that we're but dust. But Lord, what you can take with dust-- what you can do with dust. We're just clay pots, but that clay pot filled with your Holy Spirit is a mighty weapon. I pray, Lord, that you will use us in this faithless generation-- Paul called it-- faithless generation. Make us faithful, men and women full of faith. In Jesus's name we pray. Amen. We hope you enjoyed this special service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how this message impacted you. Email us at mystory@calvarynm.church And, just a reminder, you can support this ministry with a financial gift at calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for this teaching from Calvary Church. By now you have discovered that we who are Christians are surrounded! There seems to always be more who are against us than who are for us. We face the reality (and we feel it, too!) that we are living in enemy territory. That doesn’t give us permission to be adversarial or combative, for we’ll attract more flies with honey than with vinegar (see 2 Timothy 2:24-25 ). But Christians are either overcome by their unbelief or they are overcomers because of their faith. How do we navigate through life when the odds are stacked against us and circumstances seem overwhelming? www.connectwithskip.com .

NATIONAL COMMUNITY CHURCH July 05, 2020 Unshaken_ Daniel Chapter 4 Dr. Mark Batterson In 1860, there were 54,543 doctors in the United States, only 300 of them were women and none of them were black. That year, the New England Female Medical College admitted its first African American student; Rebecca Lee Crumpler would become the first black woman to earn a medical degree, a Doctorate of Medicine. To appreciate how high and how hard this glass ceiling was in 1920, 60 years later, there were still only 65 African American women practicing medicine. Dr. Crumpler graduated from med school in 1864. She moved to Richmond, Virginia in 1865. Imagine this, moving to the capital of the Confederacy to practice medicine as an African American woman. She endured relentless racism and sexism, but she did so with amazing grace and tremendous courage. How? How did she do this? Rebecca Lee Crumpler made no distinction between medical practice and religious practice. In her words, it was a proper field for real missionary work. She wasn't just a doctress she was a prophetess. I want you to hold that thought. March 3, 1865 Congress establishes the Freedmen's Bureau to provide food and housing, education, medical care for 4 million slaves who were now free. The head of the bureau from 1865 to 1874 was a civil war general nicknamed 'the Christian General', Oliver Otis Howard. He helps secure the vote for emancipated slaves and served as the president of the school that bears his name. We've got a few alums at NCC shout out to Howard University. So Crumpler is practicing medicine but supplies are short, and doctors are few and far between 120 doctors to care for 4 million emancipated slaves. So what does Rebecca Lee Crumpler do? Well, she's already broken one glass ceiling, why not break another one? If slaves can't get the medical care they need, then she will empower them and equip them and train them to be nurses and doctors themselves. In 1883 she publishes a book of medical discourses, the only female physician author in the 19th century. What does any of that have to do with the book of Daniel? Well stick with me. Daniel spent three years learning the language and literature of the Chaldeans. We talked about this week one, why so that he could influence the culture from the inside out. Daniel is bilingual. The book itself written in two languages, you've got Hebrew - this would have been Daniel's native tongue. And it is revered by the Jewish people as Lashon Hakodesh, or the holy tongue. And you've also got Aramaic, which is the international language of diplomacy, and politics. This is not insignificant; prophets are fluent in two languages, the language of God, and the language of man. And their ability to code switch between them is a gift of the Holy Spirit that I would liken to the gift of interpretation, 1 Corinthians 12. - 1 - Now we'll talk a little bit more about that next week but here's the bottom line. We need a word from God. And the way you get a word from God is by getting into the Word of God. It's so critical that we take our cues from Scripture, right now. Scripture is our ideology, it's our theology. May God give you an insatiable hunger for his word that our weekend messages cannot satisfy. If you want to influence culture, you can't just be Christianese. If you want to influence culture, you can't just create a subculture. We are not trying to build a church we are trying to bless the city to the third and fourth generation and we are praying some bold prayers. We're praying one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Here's the problem. We like saying, come to church and that's great. Listen; please invite your friends to our online campus - live.national.cc. But Jesus said, "Go into all the world". And this is not just geography, this is ethnology and technology. In fact, If you're from somewhere around the world that our online camp just let us know where you're from around the country, where are you from technology is allowing us to literally fulfill this great commission, and it encompasses every sphere of society. The Dutch politician and theologian Abraham Kuyper said it this way, "There is not a square into the whole domain of human existence over which Christ who is sovereign over all does not cry, mine." I don't care who you are. I don't care what you do. You are called by God to be a prophet to your sphere of influence. We get so focused on people going to heaven that we get this backwards. What did Jesus say what did Jesus pray? "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth on earth, as it is in heaven." This is heaven invading earth. This is eternity invading time. All too often I think we're guilty of complaining about culture, rather than creating it. I love Michelangelo's maxim, "Criticize by creating". You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing, right. Goodness is not the absence of badness. It's not enough to not be part of the problem. God calls us to a higher standard. What is it? To bring supernatural solutions to seemingly impossible problems. That's who we are, as the Church of Jesus Christ. How? With some prophetic imagination. We're gonna be talking a lot about it the next two weeks. Bottom line quit cursing the darkness and light a scented candle with the aroma of Christ. How? Write a better book. Start a better business. Draft better legislation. Produce a better film. How? With the help of the Holy Spirit. And Speaking of films - 1930s a producer at 20th Century Fox writes a letter to the presidents of prominent Christian colleges asking them to send screenwriters, he wanted to produce films with redemptive storylines. One of those presidents wrote back and said he would rather send his students to hell than Hollywood. God is raising up a generation of Daniels and Esthers and Deborahs and Nehemiahs ordinary people with a prophetic anointing that enables them to do things they can't take credit for. - 2 - Prophets don't predict the future. Listen to me, prophets are the future. They break glass ceilings, they blaze new trails. How? With that same 10 x anointing that helped Daniel do what he did. It is available to you. I pray it on your life right now. And that brings us all the way back to Rebecca Lee Crumpler. In America in 1860 a black woman learning the language of medicine was the dynamic equivalent of Daniel learning Chaldean, and it inspires me. I know code switching has a lot of connotations, but that's what prophets do. They get a word from God and then they exercise the same gift that Daniel did this gift of interpretation. Prophets speak two languages. Prophets have what W.E.B. Du Bois called second sight or double consciousness. I'm taken a little bit of liberty right here, but it's the ability to see things and say things in two ways. We need that 10 x anointing, we need that double consciousness. We need that prophetic imagination to come up with those supernatural solutions to those impossible problems. Why? So that God's kingdom can come. So that God's will can be done on earth as it is in heaven? Alright, let's do this thing. Daniel chapter four, you can meet me there. Here we go. Verse one, "King Nebuchadnezzar sent his message to the people of every race and nation and language throughout the world: “Peace and prosperity to you! 2 “I want you all to know about the miraculous signs and wonders the Most High God has performed for me. 3 How great are his signs, how powerful are his wonders! His kingdom will last forever, his rule through all generations." This sounds so good. Nebuchadnezzar is saying all the right things. But I'm gonna call his bluff. Virtue signaling is as old as Nebuchadnezzar. It's publicly expressing an opinion that's socially acceptable, that's politically correct, but it's disingenuous. It's saying the right things, but you can't just talk the talk; you have to walk the walk. My concern is it relates to cultures that we would rather look good than do good and we'd rather be right than be righteous. That's not good enough. It's not going to get us where we need to go. A lot of virtue signaling, a lot of virtue shaming, right now, and we'll talk about a little bit more in our post message Q & A. Virtue signaling, it's not going to get us where we need to go as a nation. Newsflash, hash tags aren't going to get us where we need to go as a nation, political ideology not going to get us where we need to go as a nation. Listen, praying for people who work in that sphere of influence, is not easy right now. We are praying for you. Now here's what I believe. We need revival. We need revival. And revival starts with repentance and repentance starts with the church. 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If My people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." We're going to keep climbing that Upper Zoom. By the way, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday new rhythm, we're going keep climbing that Upper Zoom. We're gonna keep standing on, keep kneeling on that promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14 - 3 - Verse four, "I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at home in my palace, contented and prosperous." Now if you read this whole chapter, tell me if you notice who's narrating it. Really interesting, verse four Daniel takes the mic and he hands it to Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar himself narrates this entire chapter which is amazing because it lets us into this ancient kings head space into his heart space. The word prosperous in Aramaic can translate luxuriant. Nebuchadnezzar is living in the lap of luxury. He is the epitome of Babylonian privilege. And that's when a dream scares him, half to life. You read all about it, verse 10, I'll give you the cliff notes. In that dream Nebuchadnezzar sees a tall tree so tall you can't even see the top, it provides food, and it gives shade. And then in the vision a watchman appears and says, cut down the tree, cut off the branches, shake the leaves and scatter the fruit. Now it sure seems it sure sounds like this tree is being destroyed. Yes, the tree is being cut down to size, no doubt. But if you know anything about dendrology, this is called pruning. Okay, if you want a tree to grow the right way, you've got to trim it you've got to prune it for structural integrity, for maximum fruitfulness. Pruning mitigates the risk of broken limbs. And here it is this is key, It allows for new growth, for new growth. You get to the end of the dream and there's a promise God leaves a stump. Why? So that it can grow again. You tell me, you tell me. Does it not seem like God is cutting down that tree, is shaking that tree? Does it not seem like a season of pruning in the church, in our country? But I want to personalize this. How and where is God pruning you? He loves you, just the way you are, loves you too much to leave you that way. Listen, God wants to produce fruitfulness in your life. And one of the ways that he does it is through pruning. Why? Because he loves you. Potential, God's gift to you what you do with it is your gift back to God. And pruning is a part of this process. I don't know how we're gonna look back on 2020, I don't know yet. But I'm more and more convinced it's a year of pruning. I'm more and more convinced it's a year of reckoning and I'm going to talk more about that next week. Versus eight, “At last Daniel came in before me, —he who was named Belteshazzar, after the name of my god, and in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God." And in verse nine, he flips the coin and doubles down. "The spirit of the Holy God is in you, and no mystery is too difficult for you." I got the strangest prompting this week as I was preparing this message. Someone needs to hear what I'm about to say. I trust the Holy Spirit in you. I have no idea who that's for. I have no idea what that is about. I want you to hear me. I trust the Holy Spirit in you and God does too. - 4 - There’s a lot happening right here. We're reminded of the name given to Daniel by Nebuchadnezzar. Please hear what I'm about to say the enemy wants to undermine your identity in Christ. How? By giving you a false identity, fashioned in the dominant image of cultural icons. Did you hear what I just said? The culture wants to name you. The culture wants to tame you. And Daniel somehow remains Daniel. How does this happen? I'm gonna tell you exactly how. The internal pressure of the Holy Spirit at work in his life is greater than all of the external pressure that Babylon can bring to bear. Daniel is spirit filled. Daniel is spirit lead. JND - psychologists would call it just noticeable difference. It's the thing that sets you apart. It's the X Factor. It's the IT factor. It's the thing that makes you noticeable and remarkable and unstoppable. It's that 10 x anointing that we talked about week one. It's the Spirit of God, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead that dwells in you. That is your JND. That is the just noticeable difference in our lives. Now, this is hard to explain, stick with me. At this point outside Israel, gods were geographical gods were territorial. They sheltered in place. They only had power in their jurisdiction, not Yahweh. Daniel is 900 miles from the temple in Jerusalem doesn't matter. Why? Because God doesn't dwell in temples made by human hands. The Talmud says it this way. "From the day the temple was destroyed God has nothing in this world, but four cubits of Halakha. Halakha - Hebrew for law, oral and written etymologically. It means the way or the way of walking. The curveball is four cubits. What's that about? God has nothing in this world, but the four cubits of Halakha. Well, according to one rabbinic tradition, four cubits, which would be six feet refers to you and to me. And that's precisely what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians six, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?" So many people don't know this? This is a game changer. You are a walking, talking Torah. You are a walking, talking temple. Daniel will never see the temple again. Temple is 900 miles away. No, no, no, no, no, no temple is right here, right now. You are the only Torah some people will ever read. You are the only temple that some people will ever visit. I hope you're picking up what I'm throwing down. Daniel is the Torah. Daniel is the temple to the most powerful person on the planet in the sixth century BC. Listen to this. Nebuchadnezzar plunders the temple in Jerusalem. That doesn't deter God. God uses a human temple named Daniel to do what Israel's army could not and bring an ancient potentate to his knees. That's the power of God in you. You're the only Bible some people ever read. You're the only church some people will ever attend. Listen, as terrible as this COVID crisis is as much as we can't wait to meet again. It has reminded us you can't go to church because you are the church, hash tag NCC anywhere. Now, here's the amazing thing about Daniel. Daniel is operating in the gifts of the Spirit 700 years before those gifts are even named or identified. Birds don't need or anthropologists to fly; fish don't need a ichthyologists to swim. Daniel is functioning in at least six of the nine supernatural gifts of the Spirit mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 - they don't even exist yet. But Daniel is exercising them. - 5 - Please hear me, we are entering a season where we need to download and upgrade the gifts of the Spirit out work in our lives, and it's happening. God is activating words of wisdom and words of knowledge. God is activating faith and healing and miracles. By the way, today, four years ago today God healed my lungs. 40 years I had asthma and God says, "Be open". I haven't touched an inhaler from that day to this day. How do you steward a miracle like that? You believe God for even bigger and better miracles. Do you need healing today? Our prayer team is ready to pray with you pray, for you and believe God for a miracle. We are being reminded of how dependent upon the Holy Spirit we are. In him we live and move and have our being. Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord. We need the Spirit of God to stir and prompt and reveal and seal and heal and comfort and convict and quicken. We just need the Holy Spirit to take over and fill these temples in a way that we have never experienced. Next week we'll talk about the gift of prophecy. I want to talk about prophetic imagination? I want to take two minutes talk about one of these gifts that I think is overlooked and underappreciated. It's a gift of discernment. If you're taking notes, you'll find this in the notes tab if you're at our online campus. If you're taking notes, you can jot this down. It's the ability to distinguish between what is true and what is false. But let me nuance this a little bit. I think that includes false motives. I think it includes false humility. I think it includes false narratives. It's rightly dividing the word of truth, 2 Timothy 2:15. It's an awareness of the enemy schemes, 2 Corinthians 2:11 The enemy, who I don't like to give a whole lot of airtime to, but I think it's important. Three signatures, you know the; One, he's the accuser of the brethren. One of the tactics he uses is guilt and shame to keep us trapped in the past. So there's no energy left for us to dream about a better about a different future. You have to identify the false accusations. Cancel culture is playing right into the enemy's hands. One strike and you're out. No, it's not how we roll. 70 times seven, this is a moment for an extra measure of grace. And there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Aren't you grateful today? Would you just take a deep breath, no condemnation for those who are in Christ? Second signature, smoke and mirrors, he masquerades the Bible says as an angel of light. Angel of light makes wrong seem right and right seem wrong. There’s a lot of that happening right now. We live in a culture where it's wrong to say something is wrong. I think that's wrong. We sacrifice truth on the altar of tolerance where we celebrate, God help us, where we celebrate as right things that we know are wrong. This goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. The serpent calls into question what God said. How? Just a slight distortion to cast out; even quote scripture to Jesus in the wilderness. What makes you think that the enemy won't try to misinterpret and misapply scripture in your life? You need to rightly divide it need the gift of discernment. Curse of Ham Exhibit A. I mean come on, slave owners used and abused the Bible to defend their racism. And finally, the enemy is called the father of lies. I love the way Pastor Heidi our pastor of prayer and our Sozo team says this, "Anywhere there is a loss of hope you have believed in a lie of the enemy." His - 6 - native tongue false narrative, false ideology, fake news, we have never needed discernment more than we do right now. Let's keep it real. Verse 19, Daniel was perplexed. It's okay to be confused. Different translations use the words alarmed, appalled, confused, worried, and scared. And does that sound like about where we are right now? This COVID crisis seems to be making a resurgence. Conversation around racism sometimes feels like a fiery furnace. Hey, listen, at least we have an election coming up so that should calm things down - or not. I know we're tired, we're frustrated. We're angry. We're exhausted. We're genuinely concerned about a country that seems to be at a crossroads. Please hear me. Don't lose faith. Don't lose heart. We're going to confront the brutal facts but we're going to do it with unwavering faith. Why? Because God's got this. God's got you. The battle belongs to the Lord. Don't lose faith in the end of the story. I am so out of time just gonna go for verse 29. At the end of 12 months, I love it. God gives Nebuchadnezzar a year. He is so long suffering. He is so patient with Nebuchadnezzar's pride. But at some point enough is enough. He's a year older but he's not a year wiser. He's a year prouder and a year louder. Nebuchadnezzar was talking, taking a walk on the flat roof of the Royal Palace in Babylon as he looked out across the city. He said, just look at this great city of Babylon. You'll have to forgive me this. I built this city built this, built this in rock and roll, like that's what's probably going through his head, okay, " And I by my own mighty power, have built this beautiful city as a royal residence as an expression of my royal splendor." First of all, who talks like this? Right? And what is going... Could he be any more impressed with himself? There comes a moment where there's a straw that breaks the camel's back. And it's almost like pride takes over his entire personality. It says the king is reduced literally to animal instincts. "Let him be given the mind of an animal for seven periods of time." I want to be careful here, I want to exegete this without too much liberty, but you know, psychologists would talk about our lizard brain This most primitive part of our brain that really only gives us two options fight or flight. And there's some of that happening right now. And you flash forward seven years his hair is like eagles feathers, his nails are like birds claws. Listen to me. It's a picture of what pride does and it's not pretty. Pride will bring out the worst in you it will reduce you to animal instincts. Some lessons take seven years to learn. Some lessons take seven years of humbling. Some lessons take seven years of pain and suffering. This is right about rock bottom. I want you to hear this. We may give up on God; God doesn't give up on us. It's like he gives Nebuchadnezzar a seven year grace period. I'm gonna close with this. It's the tipping point. It's a turning point. Verse 26, Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, "Your rule will be restored." God is in the restoration business. Your rule will be restored when you acknowledge that heaven rules. One of my all time favorite movie moments I'm going to close with this, invite the band to come. Rudy all time classic, you know having this moment in - 7 - the chapel with Father Cavanaugh and Father Cavanaugh says, "Son, in 35 years of religious study, I've come up with only two hard incontrovertibly facts - There is a God and I'm not him. Have you had that revelation yet? There is a God in heaven. He is seated on his throne. He's not nervous. He's gracious. He's loving. He's powerful. He's just. He's merciful and his kingdom is gonna come and his will is going to be, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. But would you do that right now? Listen, playing God is exhausting. It's what Nebuchadnezzar does his entire life. I think one of the greatest gifts God can give us is letting us get to the end of our rope, letting us come to this revelation that the world doesn't revolve around us. And because of that we don't have to keep the planets in orbit. You don't have to solve every problem. You don't have to judge every issue. You don't have to be right every time Why? You're not God. Can I invite you in this moment to surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He died on a cross. You mean the cross to Christ. He loves you. He loves you. On the third day, rose from the dead, walked out that tomb and that is what makes all things possible, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." If you're at our online campus right now, would you just raise that hand? Our team is ready waiting to pray with you, to pray for you. And I want to be the first to say welcome to the family. - 8 - One of the greatest gifts God can give us is letting us get to the end of our rope! That’s often when and where and how we discover that there is a God. And just as important, I am not Him! Playing God is impossible! The good news? God is still on His throne! Don’t lose faith in the end of the story! Virtue signaling won’t get us where we need to go as a nation. Neither will hashtags. What we need is revival sparked by repentance. God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble! The Spirit of God can’t fill you if you’re full of yourself, but if you’ll empty yourself of pride, God will fill the void with His love, His power, His grace. Preached at National Community Church.

NATIONAL COMMUNITY CHURCH September 06, 2020 Heaven on Earth_ Ephesians 1 - 'An Extra Measure of Grace' Dr. Mark Batterson Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. We know it as the Lord's Prayer but it's more than a prayer. It is our mission. It is our vision. We talk a lot about going to heaven and there's nothing wrong with that but we get this backwards. Heaven is not just a future tense reality it is a present tense reality. Now I know that that's a little counterintuitive, might even be countercultural, but Heaven is invading Earth right here, right now. How? How? Well, when we love our enemies, heaven invades earth. When we pray for those who persecute us or bless those who curse us, heaven invades earth. When we care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, when we exercise faith, hope and love heaven invades earth. When a relationship is reconciled, when someone experiences miraculous healing, when justice flows like a river, heaven invades earth. This weekend, we begin a new series, a new season. This is more than a title this is our prayer, this is our mission 'Heaven on Earth'. Let me do a quick flyover. If you are at our online campus, there is a notes tab; you will find a link to the Bible project. Would you take eight minutes and 57 seconds that's how long it is to watch their overview on the book of Ephesians - great on ramp to this book two this series. Over the next 12 weeks we're going to walk through the book of Ephesians verse by verse and we will do it Monday to Friday as we shift gears to daily church. More on that in a few minutes, but you can sign up NCC.re/daily. Now the book of Ephesians it forms this beautiful chiasm, this mirrored image, if you will, and listen our media team, our production team, they're amazing. Dave and Reagan and Josh, JJ, Ethan, Robbie, all of our volunteers, man that trailer with this beautiful picture of what the book of Ephesians is all about. Let me butterfly cut this book, six chapters, 155 verses you can read it in about 20 minutes flat. Klyne Snodgrass said pound for pound Ephesians may be the most influential document in history. Now that's a pretty bold statement but give it 12 weeks and see if you don't add an amen. Paul is writing around 62 AD and this is sort of like Dr. King's letter from a Birmingham jail. Paul is in prison in Rome. I've actually stood in that prison cell in Rome where Paul is purported to have written this letter. He's writing to the church at Ephesus, but we think it's a circular letter. So it went to Ephesus, then probably forwarded by FedEx to some of these other churches in Asia Minor. The first half of Ephesians, it's all about this heavenly realm. We have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing. Where? In the heavenly realm. Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. Where? In the heavenly realm. All power and dominion is his. That heavenly reality is our identity in chapter one. It's our destiny in chapter two. It's our authority in chapter three. And then Paul flips this script. And there's this word therefore, kind of right in the middle of the book. Now preachers love this because you got to find out what the therefore is there for, and this is where we shift to the earthly realm. It's all about behavior in form by belief. It's about culture transformed by Christ, this is heaven invading earth. And so the net result is unity in chapter four, its maturity in chapter five and then finally, its security in chapter six. And so ready or not, here we go. - 1 - Ephesians one verse one, and we'll put it on the screen. "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: grace and peace to you from our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." We read right past Paul, we read right past apostle, listen, Paul and apostle go together like Ruth and Chris, right? Steakhouse, okay? But this is an ancient oxymoron. Listen, before becoming Paul, his name was Saul. He was a domestic terrorist who hunted Christians like wild animals. He is the least likely person on the planet to become an apostle. And listen, so, if you're watching this weekend, you aren't sure you're a first round draft pick. Okay, welcome to the team to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Job 11:6 says true wisdom has two sides. Now, you've heard me say this many, many times - truth is found in the tension of opposites. Okay? Lots of two sided truths in Scripture and you have to flip the coin to see both sides. And I think this is a great example. You've got another chiasm right here from the heavenly point of view we're saints. This is how God sees us, that is our position in Christ but from an earthly POV we are faithful in Christ Jesus. There's this process called sanctification. We are being conformed to the image of Christ. So in Christ, you are perfectly and positionally sanctified. Your sin is forgiven and forgotten. There is no record of wrong. You are the righteousness of Christ, all of it right here, right now. Practically speaking, sanctification is a process. You are a work in progress, so am I. God is working his plans, his purposes, his promises in your life and so you are sanctified - past tense - that moment you put your faith in Christ. But you are being sanctified present tense. Well, which isn't Pastor Mark? No, no, no, it's not either or it is both, and. And that'll make a lot more sense as we move forward, absolutely critical as we talk about identity formation in Christ. Now, let me back up the bus a little bit. I want to take us on a field trip this weekend to ancient Ephesus. If content is king, then context is queen. So let me give us a little bit of backdrop as we begin to look at this book. Ephesus, one of the largest cities in the ancient world, best guess few hundred thousand people had an amphitheatre that sat 25,000 people. I'm going to show you a picture of these ancient ruins, think Russell Crowe and Gladiator. Ephesus was a port city. It's sat at the intersection of four major trade routes and it was Wall Street. This is where the Caesars open up their offshore bank accounts. Even more important than all of that is the temple to Artemis actually ranked as one of the seven Ancient Wonders of the World four times the size of the Parthenon, 127 columns if you're keeping score at home and I'll show you that artist's rendering. A few years ago, I read this book titled, The Geography of Genius. Fascinating book about how different geographies have a unique genius to them. You've got Athens, Greece, sixth century BC, a lot of philosophers. You've got Florence, Italy, 14th century a lot of artists, right? And then you've got even Silicon Valley 20th century and a lot of technological breakthroughs. And so those geographies and demographies are marked by a unique genius. Okay, are you still with me? Let me take this a little bit further. I think different cities have different personalities. Have you found this to be true? They have a unique tone a unique tenor. They even have a unique pace and there's a word for it - urban metabolism. But I want to take it even a step further than that. I think different places have different idols, there are powers and principalities. And I think it's our responsibility to identify those idols. Why? So that we can operate in the opposite spirits. We just finished the book of Daniel, is this not what Daniel did? He would not be named or tamed by Babylonian culture, lived counterculture for 70 years. I think we're called to do the same. - 2 - Now we'll talk a little bit more about this in upper zoom. But I do wonder if political correctness is one of those powers or principalities right here in Washington, DC. Question, would you rather be biblically correct or politically correct? Because sometimes they are at odds with each other and I'm just going to say it. I think sometimes it's harder to be biblically correct when you sit in the shadow of the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court. Long story short, Ephesus is all about Artemis idols all over the city. She is their patron goddess, the goddess of fertility. And so when sailors would dock at Ephesus, they were greeted by signs, some of these signs still exist, that would point them to the nearest brothel. To say that the city was central what would be an understatement. The Temple of Artemis would have been surrounded by temple prostitutes. Every year, they celebrated the Festival of Artemis, and they would take to the streets of Ephesus and they would carry this statue of Artemis down to the harbor, almost like a Thanksgiving Day float. And they would, in a sense, baptize her in that water and wash the statue of Artemis believing that it would restore her virginity. Now I know that we have a lot of different ages listening and so I want to be careful right here, but let's just say that she lost it and they lost it by the time they got back to the temple. Ephesians five Paul is talking about marriage as a metaphor for the church. And here's what he says. "25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 so that he might sanctify her, (How?) having cleansed her by the washing of water (you getting where this is going?) with the word." We read right past this. The Ephesians would have known exactly what Paul is referencing. He is flipping the script and he's calling these Christians to live counterculture. How? Well, in a culture where there were very few sexual boundaries, Paul is advocating monogamy sex. It's a sacred covenant between a husband and a wife. It was countercultural 2,000 years ago and it is once again. You need a biblical theology of sexuality if you're gonna live, countercultural, and I might add, and love everybody who doesn't believe the way that you do. I've never seen a statue of Artemis, but she is alive and well. We follow Christ in a culture that parades Artemis through the streets. All right, how are we doing? Let's keep going. A few weeks ago talked about this Jewish hermeneutic called Pardes - four levels of learning four levels of study, kind of different ways of engaging scripture at different levels. And so level one is Peshat - it is a plain reading of Scripture. And I want to say there is nothing wrong with reading the Bible devotionally. In fact, this is such a great place to start; you do not need a seminary degree to hear the still small voice of the Spirit. That said, I kind of think of Peshat as like the 13% of the iceberg that's above the surface of the water. I mean, come on there is 87% beneath the surface. And so I won't share all of these levels, but the third level is Derash and its connecting the dots. I would liken this to a Google search that produces lots of hyper links. It is letting scripture interpret scripture. And that's what we want to do this weekend. About a decade before writing this letter, Paul went on three missionary journeys, visited Ephesus twice. And I'm going to show you a map of that third missionary journey just to get you oriented. It starts in Antioch, which is really a home church for Paul, a little family reunion in Tarsus, which is where Paul is from, and then he heads west and I bet you'll recognize some of these cities. You've got Thessalonica, you've got Philippi, Athens, and then he doubles back. Now what the itinerary doesn't reveal is how long Paul spent in each of these cities. Of all - 3 - the churches that Paul planted - Ready - he spends more time in Ephesus than anywhere else, at least two years. And it may have been the most discipled church in the ancient world. Paul is writing to people that he pastored, okay, people he baptized and discipled, people that he married and families where he had done burials. I mean, these are people that he knew by name. Now, if you had the Bible, I want you to turn over to Acts 19. It's the backdrop for a lot of what we're going to look at over these coming 12 weeks. When Paul arrives there are only 12 disciples in Ephesus, that's it, but that's all it takes. Give God 12 people who go all in and it might turn into 2 billion couple millennia later. Now, here's the fascinating thing to me. They have only heard about John's baptism, and so they have no idea who the Holy Spirit is. Come on if you try to follow Jesus without the help of the Holy Spirit good luck with that, okay. When we get to chapter five it says, "Don't be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit." Present imperative verb - keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit I am below average, with the help of the Holy Spirit game time whoop. Let me highlight four things that are happening here in Acts 19. If you're taking notes, you can jot these down. 1) You've got unbelievable miracles happening in Ephesus. It says that there handkerchiefs that touch the disciples were used to heal people, but what what? What? And I say, do it again, Lord, do it again. I'm believing for a supernatural demonstration of God's love and power. We have experienced a lot of miracles. I don't think we've seen anything yet. You wait and see or better yet taste and see. 2) You've got radical repentance. Now this is a key ingredient when it comes to revival. Radical repentance sets the stage for radical reconciliation, which sets the stage for revival. And I might add reformation in the church and renaissance in culture. Long story short, the Ephesians were incredibly spiritual. They also dabbled in the occult. And so when you begin to follow Christ, like that's where you look, okay. So what do you do with all of these sorcery, scrolls or books that they had? I mean, this is pretty amazing an epic bonfire in Acts 19. They burn the boats, they burn the bridge. It says that the books were valued at 50,000 drachma. Now you know me well enough that I'm going to do the math and so a drachma is a day's wage. I multiplied it by the average daily wage in DC. This bonfire, they burn $9,850,000 in DC, dollars. 3) You've got incredible courage. The Ephesians actually riot in the streets and so they're dragging some of these Christians into the amphitheatre. Now, 1 Corinthians 15 Paul references this moment he says, "I fought with wild beasts in Ephesus." Now I want to be honest here I we don't know whether this is literal or figurative. In fact, I think I translate it literally but one way or the other, Paul, is you've got to live counter culture when you've got people rioting in the streets. They actually shout for two hours great is Artemis of the Ephesians. When you mess with someone's idols, it may just incite a riot. Now, finally, Paul held daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus, from 10 o'clock in the morning to three o'clock in the afternoon. So five days a week, five hours a day, six days a week and that is 3,120 hours. And so that's about a third of the way to that 10,000 hour rule in two years flat. And I wonder if that's why this letter is much less corrective than say Corinthians, and far more proactive. - 4 - The only ceiling, on your intimacy with God and your impact on the world is daily spiritual disciplines. God is shifting us from a weekly mindset to a daily rhythm. And I'm not saying you have to give him five hours. Listen, give him five minutes. And that really is the challenge would you sign up NCC.re/daily? You can download our brand new app. You give God five minutes and then see what happens. Why? Because we're not just going to study Ephesians we're going to do Ephesians. Let's follow their example daily church, Monday to Friday. Now all of that adds up to verse 17. "The name of the Lord was magnified." All of that adds up to verse 20, "The Word of God spread widely." The Gospel brings a city to its knees. The Gospel shifts an entire socio economic system on its axis. They put idolatry out of business. They experienced this radical reconciliation as they tear down the dividing wall of hostility in Ephesians 2. And I love verse 23, "There was no small commotion." Come on, do it again, God. We are not just trying to build a church, we are trying to bless a city to the third and fourth generation. All right, that's a lot of context; it's a lot of backdrop. I'm going to go back to verse one, we're going to look at two words and then we're done. "1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful to Christ Jesus: (Here it is) 2Grace and peace to you from our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." All of Paul's epistles start with the same salutation - wonder twin powers activate form of grace, form of peace. Grace and peace, set the tone, shift the atmosphere, start revolutions and stop riots. I'm gonna take these one at a time we'll start with grace. It is the unmerited favor of God. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you do not deserve. The only way you can qualify for it is by not qualifying for it. And listen, the guy who is writing this letter knows a little something about it. Paul self identifies as the worst of sinners. What that tells me is he knew an awful lot about the grace of God. Let me pause right here. I'm deeply concerned about canceled culture. One wrong word one false step, subscription cancelled. We are writing people off left and right, well double entendre right there, worked hard at this okay. The good news, there is a vaccine for cancel culture and it is called grace, Jesus, full of grace and truth. Truth means I'm going to be honest with you no matter what. Grace means I'm going to love you, no matter what. It's loving people that you don't even like. And you know what? That's usually the people who don't look like us, vote like us or think like us. Jerry Bridges said this, “Our worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace.” Every day is a day of relating to God on the basis of His grace alone. That is so good. The Gospel starts with grace and His grace is sufficient. And that's a word for someone this weekend. I feel it in my spirit, you needed it and now you know it. His grace is sufficient in your life. A few weeks ago, Lora and I did this listen and learn series. And we were talking about restorative justice and we interviewed Marcus Bullock, man, he is a new friend of mine. He made a mistake when he was 15, carjacked someone, got tried as an adult spent eight years in prison from the age of 15 to the age of 23. His mom wrote him a letter every day. He said, "Mom, don't do it." She didn't listen. She would send him pictures of a hamburger and say someday you're going to eat this. She would send him pictures of a mattress and say someday you're going to sleep on this. I was so moved by his story and by his spirit that I had to ask him the question. How does a 15 year - 5 - old kid survive eight years in prison? He did not hesitate. He answered with one word, you know what it is? Grace, Grace. That is how God turned Saul into Paul. That is how God turns sinners into saints. That's how God turns Marcus from a prisoner into this entrepreneur. I love this. He applied for 41 jobs, couldn't get any of them. Why? Because they all asked if he had a felony on his record. Finally, he got an application that said if you committed a felony in the last seven years, well, he'd been in prison for eight years. Okay, so he was able to finally answer no, gets a job at a paint store, turns it into his own contracting business. And then start something called Flikshop, where families can send picture postcards to their loved ones in prison, come on somebody. Now, let me say this again for good measure. If you confess your sins, He's faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all on righteousness. You are justified just as if you had never sinned, no record of wrong that is the grace of God. Would you let God grace you this weekend? Now, let me touch on peace. I'm going to unpack this idea a lot more but peace is not passive. In Ephesians 4:3, Paul says make every effort every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond, of peace. It takes some blood, sweat and tears; you have to fight for it. If you're married, you know what I'm talking about. Okay? It is not easy. I want to paint a picture. In Mark's Gospel, Jesus is on a boat, they're crossing the Sea of Galilee. And here's the deal Sea of Galilee, 700 feet below sea level. And then you've got the Golan Heights to the east 2,500 feet above sea level. And so the topography like creates these perfect storms. And so sure enough, a furious storm of hurricane proportions arose and the waves kept beating into the boat. Do you remember what happened? The disciples wake Jesus up; they are panicked, to say the least. And these are professional fishermen. What does Jesus do? Ah, it's one of my favorite moments in the Gospels. He gets up and he rebuked the wind and the waves, - Peace be still. You know what, this is a moment for those of us who follow Jesus to stay calm and carry on with faith, hope and love. This week at work I bet I bet the winds are gonna blow. I bet someone is going to make waves. Someone's going to say something or do something that is going to rock the boat. Now what are you going to do? What are you going to do? It's a lot easier to act like a Christian than it is to react like one. A lot of us we wake up we panic. No, no, no. Let's be the people that shift the atmosphere that say, peace be still. Come on. You're gonna have an opportunity this week and I'm believing that you're going to show God's grace and peace. Now I'm going to close with this 2018 Chadwick Boseman gave the commencement address at his alma mater, Howard University. He knew then what we know now, he had stage four, colon cancer. It makes his words even more meaningful, even more powerful. By the way, in that speech talks about a role he refused to play, because it reinforced the stereotype that he was trying to change. Now that takes courage, and it takes something else. Are you ready? An extra measure of grace. It's the title of the message. It's my whole point this weekend. I just believe this is a moment where we need an extra measure of grace. How do you find the strength to play King T'Challa when cancer is ravaging your body? How in the world do you love on and encourage all of these kids with cancer when you know that you're dying from the same thing? I think it takes an extra measure of grace. - 6 - We are the grace givers. We are the peacemakers. We're going to talk more about it in our NCC daily. I'm out of time. Monday to Friday, we're going to talk about passing the peace. How do we be these grace givers, peacemakers in our culture? But I'll quit with this. An old Welsh pastor named John Thomas said, you supply the grit and God will supply the grace. I'm believing that for you this weekend. You're here and you've never experienced the grace of God. You mean the cross to Christ. He went to that cross because he wants to show you the full measure of His grace. Listen, it's as simple as confessing our sin and professing our faith. If that's you this weekend, you want to take a step of faith. You want to experience God's grace. Would you just raise a hand right now at our online campus? You'll see a button right there. And you're here and you need an extra measure of grace. As our band comes, we're just about to sing about it. Our prayer team is waiting to pray with you to pray for you. You need that extra measure of grace, you need the peace that passes, all understanding. I don't know all that you're going through. I know that all of us are fighting a battle that no one else knows about. But I know that his grace is sufficient. There's a little line in this song. I love it. Grace holds that ground. I believe Grace is going to invade your life this week and the peace of God is going to invade your life. Heaven is going to invade earth. May his kingdom come, may his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus name amen - 7 - As the people of God, we live COUNTERCULTURE. When we love our enemies, heaven invades earth. When we pray for those who persecute us, heaven invades earth. When we bless those who curse us, heaven invades earth. How? GRACE and PEACE. Paul begins each of his thirteen epistles with those two words, and they pack a one-two punch. We have a vaccine against cancel culture—the grace of God. We have a vaccine against political polarization and racial discord—the peace of God. We are grace givers and peacemakers. National Community Church.

The Fight: Ancient and Modern Transcription The Fight: Ancient and Modern - Jude 5-11 - Skip Heitzig [CHEERS] [ALARM] [MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning. Great to see you this morning. A few weeks ago I was so happy to see school buses driving down the street. I made a-- I made just a little announcement on Wednesday night. I said, yeah, I've never been excited to see school buses before. I always go, oh, it's school time. I got to slow down. I got to-- it's going to take more time. But to see school buses up and running was so good, and I've always thought they should have been opened all along and not closed down. And I just want to say this. If you are a teacher in our public school system or private school, thank you for what you do. At the same time, I'm a little frustrated with the educational system and how it would seem the government tries to foist upon young children a sexual identity decision and a number of other things, and so it just sort of struck me a few weeks ago when all this was going on that what if we could have a school that taught kids the truth about science, the truth about history, the truth about social studies, that we could form the character of a child as well as provide a high academic threshold and really train and equip kids for the future. I don't honestly think they're going to get it in public school system as readily. I think the challenges are much higher. So I say this, because a few years ago we attempted of doing some kind of a school. And there many fine Christian schools in the community. I think there should be oodles more. And so I just thought, well, what if we could help with that. And we tried to start one at one time. There wasn't that interest, but I just feel like we've hit critical mass, and we should move ahead with it. So we're having an interest meeting over in the hub following this service at 1 o'clock. If you are interested, if you have ideas for it, if you have questions about it, Brian Dixon will be there. Dr. Nixon will be there answering questions and kind of showing you where we plan to go. We've had a lot of interest, and it looks good, but wanted to invite you to be a part of that. Now would you turn in your Bibles please, to the book of Jude also known as, hey, Jude. Turn to the book of Jude. Just find the book of Revelation. Go left one block, and you will find a little book of Jude. So after last week's message, I've gotten lots of feedback, positive feedback, lots of notes and cards and emails and texts thanking me for the message. And it's funny, because I thought, well, gosh, the feistier I am, the more they like it. So buckle your seat belt for number two. We're going to be in Jude verses 5 through 11. Matthew Henry-- I'm going to throw this up on the screen. Matthew Henry, a Bible commentator, said hypocrisy is to do the devil's work in God's uniform. So just think about that, doing the devil's work in God's uniform. You dress the part, but it's not who you are. Apostasy, which is the subject of the Book of Jude, is related to hypocrisy, except if hypocrisy is doing the devil's work in God's uniform, apostasy is where you just take the uniform off and let people see who you really are and have been all along. So if hypocrisy is putting on a show, then apostasy is leaving the theater altogether. And people can wear God's uniform for a long time until for whatever reason either they have their own crisis of faith or they come to a point where they just don't believe anymore or they never have believed can happen. One of the outspoken critics of Christianity over decades has been a guy by the name of Ted Turner. Ted Turner is a media mogul. He's the founder of CNN and a number of other like portals and outlets, but he has criticized Christianity. He went on record in an Atlanta newspaper saying Jesus probably would be sick to his stomach over the way his ideas have been twisted. Now I read that, and I thought, well, that's a little arrogant, right. It's almost like saying nobody has gotten it right in the past, but now I do. I understand what Jesus really meant. Everybody else, they've twisted it, but that's what he said. He said that he had a strict Christian upbringing, and at one time considered becoming a missionary. I don't know. I have a hard time thinking of Ted Turner as a missionary, but I'll go with it. He said-- and he said this mockingly said, I've been saved seven or eight times, but then he said he became disenchanted with Christianity after his sister died despite all of his prayers. But here's his closing remark the more I strayed from the faith, the better I felt. The more I strayed from the faith, the better I felt. He just framed apostasy. Don't be surprised when you hear of Christian leaders who say I don't believe that anymore. Don't be too shocked when you read of or hear of a Christian influencer who goes on social media and renounces his or her faith. Don't be too astonished when a theologian starts deconstructing the truth. That's their term, deconstructing. And that has the idea of revisiting truth and rethinking beliefs that were once held as valid or true. That's not new. It's as old as the hills and twice as dusty. I mean, it's been going on a long time. It's not novel. It's not new. According to Jude, it's been going on at least 2,000 years, and according to Jude's writing in this letter, it's been going on for about 4,000 years. It goes all the way back. So it's not new. It's not novel, but it is noteworthy, because Jesus predicted that there would be a period of time before his second coming that would be marked by Spiritual deception. In fact, you remember he gave a parable, the parable of the tears in the wheat. He said wheat was sown, but somebody came in through in tears. The tear is a weed, and the word he used, the [NON-ENGLISH] is a weed that even a seasoned farmer cannot tell the difference between the weed and the wheat until it ripens. And he has to get really close to mark the difference. But the idea is you can have them growing together, one looks just as real as the other but it's fake. It's not real. It is apostate. And then the most haunting question I think I've ever heard from the lips of Jesus is when Jesus said when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on the earth. It's a scary question for Jesus to ask. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Move forward to the book of Revelation, Jesus gives seven letters to seven churches in Revelation 3 one of the little postcards he writes to the Church of Laodicea. The entire church is filled with apostates. Jesus isn't even in that church. He's on the outside knocking to get in. That's where we get the text, behold, I stand at the door and knock. He's knocking on the door of the church, because he's outside of it. In fact, there are no believers in that church except a few precious overcomers. Jesus gives them that name. Paul predicted that, as we saw last week. He said in the end times, there will be a falling away. That's apostasy. He said many will depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. In fact, did you know this every single New Testament book except for one, the book of Philemon, has warnings against false teachings. So the whole New Testament says this is coming down the pike. The book of Jude has as its theme that word I brought out last week, the theme of apostasy. The Greek word apostasia, a departure, a falling away. The renowned New Testament scholar Gerhard Kittle will define that as a rebellion, a rebel. He said it's someone who rebels against the faith they once claimed to believe. Now that can happen as an individual. It can happen as a group. You can have a person who is an apostate. You can have a church assembly that by their statement of faith is apostate. You can have an entire denominational structure that is apostate. And here's the thing. You can't like tell. Nobody carries a badge that says, hi, I'm an apostate. How can I help you? People don't put bumper stickers on their car. Honk if you're an apostate. Nobody does that. So the similarity is not going to be outward, but I remind you of what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. It's no big deal if his ministers disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. New Testament scholar RC Leonski-- I've always loved his books-- said the worst forms of wickedness consist in perversions of the truth. So what I want to do is look at Jude verse 5 through verse 11 this morning, this paragraph, and I want to show you three basic lessons as we step into the ring and put up a good fight for the faith, defend earnestly the faith that was once delivered to the Saints. So the first truth is this is that truth needs a memory. Truth needs a memory. Let me take you to verse 5 and let me show you this. But I want to remind you, though, you once knew this-- and then he reaches back to the Old Testament that he supposes they knew that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe. Jude is appealing to their memory. He's appealing to what they already learned presumably because it was a Jewish audience. I'm guessing Jude lived in Jerusalem, was writing to the Jerusalem church. He's writing to Jewish believers who heard and knew all of these stories from there growing up, all of these stories of the Old Testament, and Jude is going to bring out several Old Testament examples that they would have been familiar with. And he goes, I want to remind you of this. I know you already know it, but I want to remind you. And here's the principal. Truth needs a memory. Lessons must be recalled for those lessons to be active. For truth to have an impact in the present, we must remember the past. OK, this happens in a number of levels. Every September 11th for almost the last 20 years at Ground Zero in Manhattan, New York City, at Ground Zero the names of those people who died in the World Trade towers are read publicly. Why every year? Why every-- why go through that? So no one forgets that, so they'd never forget that. Also it's the same with December 7th every year in Hawaii because of what happened in 1941, the famous words of FDR. Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a day which will live in infamy the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. So every year in Pearl Harbor the names of the dead are recited. There's a commemoration. Relatives come so that America never forgets. If you go with us to Israel, we'll take you to Yad Vashem the Holocaust Memorial where you will see evidence of the Nazis decimating, killing six million Jews in the 1940s, and you walk out with such a heavy heart having seen the evidence but the overwhelming thought is I must never forget what has happened in recent history. And so he writes to them and he says I want to remind you, though you once knew this. Truth needs a memory. That, by the way, is the goal of preaching. It's why we preach. Matthew Henry, again, said, "Preaching is not designed to teach us something new in every sermon, but to put us in remembrance, to call to mind things forgotten" So didn't God do this a lot with the children of Israel? Deuteronomy, chapter 8, he said this. "You shall remember all the way the Lord your God led you these past 40 years. That's a commandment. I want you to remember it." And what a God give to them so they could remember it? Passover. Every year, the Jews were to meet in their homes, have a Passover celebration. It's still commemorated to this day. It's to keep the memory alive. Truth needs a memory. Jesus took the Passover and used that to tell his disciples to do that. He said, "Do this in remembrance of me." when you take these elements, it's going to speak of my death, my suffering, and my subsequent resurrection. Truth needs a memory. Paul wrote to the Romans, and said, "I have written to you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again." Peter did the same thing. Second Peter, chapter 1-- "So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. Yes, I think it is right, as long as I'm in this tent, this body, to stir you up by reminding you. You know, it's a funny thing. I have taught the Bible almost my entire adult life. I've had the opportunity to teach every verse of every chapter of every book of the Bible a few different times, all the way through. And I even wrote a book called The Bible from 30,000 feet. So you think, this guy probably like knows the Bible. You know, every time I read the Bible, you know what thought I'm struck? With how much I have forgotten since the last time I read that. Now, this came to my mind because I just finished this little Bible plan that I was a part of for 90 days, reading through the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation, in 90 days. That's about 15 chapters a day. So I did it. And every time I'd go through, I'd go, I forgot that was there. I forgot that was there. It's so good. But I've forgotten about it. And it was so rewarding. I thought, after I finished it, I'm going to do it again. So now, I'm on round two. And I don't know if I'll keep this up. But if I did, I suppose I could go through the entire Bible four times a year. But the point is, truth needs to be reinforced, reinstilled, reintroduced, recalled, repeated for every generation. Because we forget stuff, right? Good teachers, like Jesus, often repeated themselves. I remember when I first read the New Testament. Cracked it open. It was just a New Testament. And the first book I came to was the Book of Matthew. That's the first book in the New Testament. Start reading through it. I go wow. This is awesome. I'm really learning about this Jesus. Then I finished Matthew, and I started reading the second book, which is Mark. And my thought going through Mark is, didn't I just read this? Isn't this like the Book right before it? And so I finished that. It was the same story, but a little bit shorter. Then I am in the third book, and it's the Gospel of Luke. And it's like, he's-- they're doing it again. They just like to tell the same story, over and over and over again. And I went to the Gospel of John. A little bit different, but same basic story. And I just remember, as a young believer, going why is this thing repeated? And there's a number of reasons. But one great reason is that some stories are so important, you need to hear them over and over again. And one of the grand reasons is because what I just said. We forget stuff. One development and journal and training journal I found said people will retain 25% of what they hear. That's at best. And that statistic is so discouraging to a teacher. It means that no matter how much I prepare and pour into and spend hours getting ready for this sermon or this teaching in a classroom, my students, if they're engaged and not reading their cell phones, and tuned in, and taking notes, are going to retain 25%. So, I want to remind, you though you once knew this. It's the same truths they grew up hearing. We don't need new truths. We don't need novel truths. We need never changing truth. We need-- we need noble truth. And that's what we have here. So truth needs a memory. The second lesson we come to in stepping into the ring for this battle is that judgment has a history. Now watch what Jude does. He goes back and gives them a few different examples from the past. Verse 5, I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt-- that is, the people of Israel, the Jewish people, the children of Israel-- having saved them out of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels-- so that's one. Here's the second example. The angels, who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day, and then there's a third example. Verse 7, as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality, and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Three examples from the past to warn them of this truth-- God is not afraid to judge even those in the most favored positions. First on the list, nation of Israel. We know the story. They were in Egypt. God delivered them miraculously through the wilderness. He opened up the Red Sea. That's one miracle. Sent plagues on the Egyptians. That's another miracle. Fed them with manna that came from heaven. Gave them water out of the rock. Followed them around with a cloud by day, right? So that's important in the Sinai Desert. Think of Phoenix in summertime, with a cloud cover over it, permanently. So that's a nice feature to have. God did that for 40 years. Not only that, but at night, it was a pillar of fire. So he tucked them in bed with a nightlight for 40 years. And he preserved them for 40 years. But at the same time, it says God destroyed those who did not believe. God destroyed the entire generation of the children of Israel aged 20 and above, except for two people. Joshua and Caleb were the only survivors of the original group that came out of Egypt. Everybody else died. You go, well why did God do that? Because of apostasy. They kept turning away. They kept rebelling-- not once, not twice, over and over and over again. One of the things they said is take us back to Egypt. Can you imagine being a slave, and be set free, and then you want to go back to slavery? And they even cried this out. This is one thing they cried out in the wilderness. They said oh, that we had died in the wilderness! And God said, OK, I'll answer that prayer. If that's what you want, I'll let you do that. And so for the next 40 years, it was a funeral march. One person tried to figure it out. He figured there were at least 1.2 million people who died in the wilderness, given what we know in the historical record. That means there were approximately 85 funerals a day, or seven per waking hour. So they were reminded, day by day, as another person was buried, and another person, that God will judge those who turn away and do not believe. And by the way, notice, these are unbelievers. He destroyed those who do not believe. It was their unbelief that led to their destruction. God wasn't going to let unbelieving apostates into the promised land. And Jude's point is that the deliverer of Israel became the destroyer of Israel, that the Savior can also be the judge, that the God of love is also a God of wrath, that both of those go together. So that's the first example, the nation of Israel. The second example are the angels of God. The angels, verse 6, who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. There's a dispute, a debate, about the interpretation of this. Some feel this is a reference to Genesis chapter 6, that fallen angels somehow cohabitate with human women to produce this odd race of giants known in Genesis six as nephilim in the Hebrew. And that's what brought the flood. Others don't think that's what he is referring to. Others think it refers to the original fall of Satan from heaven with the third of the angelic beings in that rebellion spoken about in Isaiah chapter 14. And the reason for the debate is the angels mentioned here are chained and reserved for future judgment, which seem to be different from fallen angels that are Satan's agents, demons, that are at work in the world and are free to roam around. I'm not here to solve that, because that is not the point. The point Jude is making is simply this. Even angels, God judged, not just the nation of Israel. God judge specially created beings, made by God, who fell away, who withdrew, who departed, who rebelled from him. They had, once, a position of privilege and authority and blessing and opportunity. But even angels don't get a hall pass poor judgment. So the nation of Israel, the angels of God-- and then, the third example is Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities of the plain. Now, everybody knows about Sodom and Gomorrah. After it is recorded what happened there, the Old Testament and the New Testament give comment. So we have a body of historical evidence that know how people throughout history interpreted the events of Sodom and Gomorrah. And you wonder, well, why does he bring Sodom and Gomorrah up? Because one of the marks, remember in verse 4-- one of the marks of false teachers is they turned the grace of God into lewdness. They turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. They turned the grace of God into immorality. They say God loves us we. Can do anything we want. God is a God who will certainly tolerate any type of behavior. So he mentions Sodom and Gomorrah. Because false teachers evidently felt the freedom either to endorse or practice immoral sexual autonomy. You know what I mean by that? Immoral sexual autonomy is look, I can love who I want to love. And you can't say that's wrong. It is my prerogative. Who are you to say my behavior, or my predilections, are wrong? Well, notice that Jude calls this sexual immorality. The Greek word that he uses is [NO SPEECH]. It's a compound word that suggests a sexual deviancy-- that is, a departure from the original intent. And then he also uses the phrase strange flesh, a term that speaks of sexual activity outside of God's originally ordained intention. Because he's using the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, we know that was, in that case, the sin of homosexuality. It's always been interpreted that way. It has throughout history been interpreted that way, until like the last decade. It has been challenged as to its interpretation. But we know the story, how the men of Sodom wanted to have homosexual relationships with two ambassadors that God sent to that town, and God judged that town. Here's what's interesting. Amidst all of the mail that I got this week, after last week's message, one of the emails I got was from somebody I highly respect. Because he is a scientist, a historian, and the chief archeologist of the ancient city of Sodom. He is digging up, in the last decade, over the last decade, he has been digging up the city of Sodom in the country of Jordan. So he wrote me an email, and I wanted you just to see a part of that. He said Skip, in listening to your teaching today, which was excellent, by the way, I had a thought. As an archeologist and a historian, I think there is something that current apostate church leaders, be they theologians or ministers, have completely missed, of which they are either factually or willfully ignorant. Their attack on embracing LGBTQ lifestyle always goes something like this. The Bible was written in ancient cultural milieus, and got accommodated himself to the people of those cultures. That is to say we must therefore adapt to make scripture relevant to our evolving culture, realizing that the New Testament writers spoke to their day. Similarly, we must adjust for and speak to our day. While this may sound logical, even reasonable, it is categorically wrong and entirely lacking in an understanding of history. Old Testament Revelation came at a time when sexuality was fluid, unfettered, and wives were kept for-- were for keeping households and having and raising children. The sexual lives of men and women were often, if not usually, of a same sex nature, especially in military context. This is what archeology reveals, and what the Old Testament presents as the ancient pagan reality. As Christianity eventually washed over the Roman world, Western culture shifted toward biblical morality. Judaism and Christianity were never accommodating to sexual perversion, but were clearly corrective to bring humankind in line with God's creative design. Now that the Western culture is moving away from the Bible, society is returning to what had been the old norms of sex without bounds. God's Old Testament and New Testament revelation were prescriptive and corrective. To bend or reinterpret Revelation to accommodate meandering sexual norms not only ignores why it was given in the first place, but also strips Revelation of its power to keep humanity from destructive perversion. The LGBTQ movement is nothing more or less than the norms of ancient sexual license and perversion rising up in the guise of evolving morality, as if that is something noble. It is not. Take away the corrective, the scripture, and humans readily return to their old vomit. [APPLAUSE]The point Jude is making is that we need to remember-- truth needs a memory. We need to remember that God has never been afraid to judge even his own people called out of Egypt, even angels that he created, and even, in this case, whole cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding region. So truth needs a memory. Judgment has a history. And then, the third basic lesson that comes from this paragraph is that corruption brings apostasy. Go down to verse 8. Likewise-- now, what he's doing is taking the past lessons bringing it into the present situation that he is dealing with. Likewise, also, these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the Archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed over the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said the Lord rebuke you. But these-- that is, these false teachers-- speak evil of whatever they do not know and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts. In these things, they corrupt themselves. Woe to them. Never a good word to hear. Woe to them. For they have gone the way of Cain. They have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit and perished in the rebellion of Korah. Notice again, he's reaching back into the Old Testament for examples. He again appeals to their memory. Now, he is speaking of the false teachers that he is dealing with in the congregation he is speaking to. And he speaks of their corrupt character, their corrupt thinking, their corrupt practices. That's verse 10. In these things, they corrupt themselves. So corruption leads to apostasy. Now, I don't have time to unravel everything in these verses, because of time. But I want you to notice a few things as I untangle some of these verses. First of all, notice their authority. What was their authority? Now, I ask that because everybody has an authority base. Why do you do what you do? If you were to ask me, Skip, what is your authority, it's not my mom anymore, right? She's in heaven. It's not my dad anymore. Both gone. My authority is the scripture. I'm not always perfect at doing it, keeping it, learning it. I still forget a lot of it. But my aim in life is to be brought under the authority of the prescriptive, the corrective, the revelation of God. That's my authority. What was the authority of the false teachers? Notice in verse 8, these dreamers-- most every commentator will tell you, it probably refers to the fact that these false teachers use their own dream life as being of divine authority. God spoke to me in a dream, and my dream says-- that was their authority base. A lot of times people will say gosh, I've had this weird dream. And I say, I always have weird dreams. Say I've been having this recurring dream. Do you think God might be speaking to me? Well, maybe. God can do anything he wants. But if you're going to live your life based on your dream life, you're going to be whacked. I mean, my dreams are so weird and disjointed. I'm flying. I'm a winged creature, flying into a Volkswagen, driven by a dog, right? Doesn't make any sense. So translate that into real life. It can be quite dangerous. Somebody once said, dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives. So keep the insanity in the dream world. Their authority is that they got dreams which superseded any authority that the church offered, that the elders offered, that the pastors offered, or that the scripture offered. That was their authority. Something else-- notice their vanity. He said they reject authority and speak evil of dignitaries. I don't exactly know what he's referring to. I'll take a stab at it in a minute. But to sum it up, he's saying, whoever these people are and whatever they're speaking against, they are arrogant in their speech. They reject authority and speak evil of dignitaries. So we don't know if they were-- and commentators are very different in how they interpret it. Some think it's speaking against church leaders, the established authority within the church. People are mouthing off about church leadership. Others think it's people who are against governmental authority. Be careful what you say about governmental authority. Because Paul said in Romans, it's all ordained by God. So it could be that they feel the hubris and pride and vanity to be able to do that. Others think that they're mouthing off against Spirit beings, angels or demons. Or it could be all the above. I'll tell you this. Arrogant preachers love to stir up the pot. Arrogant preachers are equal opportunity haters. They just like to stir it up. They're angry at everything and everyone. But here's his point. Even Michael the Archangel, the most powerful archangel around, did not dare reproach Satan personally. He at least respected the authority structure, even though Satan was a fallen angel and has hell forever. Michael seemed to respect that, and said the Lord rebuke you. Now, I'll tell you why this is important to me. I've been to enough Christian meetings where people talk to the devil. Satan, we bind you, and we want you to know-- I say whoa! Why are you praying to the devil right now? Why are you talking to the devil? The Bible says resist, the devil-- not carry on long conversations with the devil, not invite him to Starbucks for a nice latte and talk it out. Don't talk to him at all. You can talk to God about him. But don't talk to him. By the way, just so you know, Satan is not scared of you. You do not intimidate him. It's not like, ooh, Skip walked into the room. Now the devil's-- he didn't care. None of us intimidate Satan. He is not scared of us. But he is scared of the God inside of us. And never forget this little quip. Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees. That's where you fight the battle. Get on your knees and talk to God about your enemy. [APPLAUSE] But these false prophets, they have dreams for their authority. They have vanity for their arrogance, speech. And notice their similarity. Verse 11, woe to them, for they've gone the way of Cain. They've run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and they have perished in the rebellion of Korah. I'm going to presuppose you know those stories from the Old Testament and just touch on them. The way of Cain is religion without saving faith. That's the way of Cain. Cain brought his own little offering that he thought God should respect, and God did not. It is the way of pride in one's own works. I'm working hard. I produced this. I do my best. I attend. I give. I, I, I-- it is religion without saving faith. That's the way of Cain. The error of Balaam-- you know the story Balaam, right? He was a prophet in the Old Testament. Very gifted orator. The King of Moab hired him to curse the children of Israel. He ended up blessing them. Some of the most beautiful words in the Bible come from the lips of Balaam, the prophet. But he was money hungry, and he had a position of status. And he figured out a way that he could tell Balak, the enemy of the Israelites, how to watch God judge Israel. He said listen, I don't need to curse them. Let's do this. Let's entice the young Moabite women, the prostitutes, to go into the camp of Israel, seduce the young men to have sexual relations with these women. And then they can bring out their little gods or little idols during that act. And that's idolatry. God will judge his people for that idolatry. So listen, here is the error of Balaam. He leveraged his influence as a faith leader to lead other people astray. That's the error of Balaam. He leveraged his own influence as a faith leader. Today, he would have gone on Instagram or Twitter and announce to his followers who follow him and respect him or her why they should leave the Christian faith. That's the error of Balaam. Then there's the rebellion of Korah. And Korah rebelled against God's authority by rebelling against the authority of Moses and Aaron, he and a few other people. I'm going to throw this. And this is very interesting. I thought you'd love to hear a tidbit. William Barclay, the New Testament scholar, said there was a sect of Gnostics in the early church, when Jude was writing. There was a sect of Gnostics called the Orphites who regarded Cain, Balaam, and Korah as great heroes, the three bad actors of the Old Testament, one that on every list of good people, they're not on. And a group comes up and says, oh, these three bad actors, they're heroes. And that caught my attention, that you take people like that and say, they're my heroes. And I say that because that is a word I'm hearing more often when there's aberrant behavior. The trans community will say Caitlyn Jenner is a hero. Bruce Jenner, now Caitlyn Jenner, is a hero. I think it was Newsweek Magazine that even said the new hero. And why? Because they've never taken the courage to make a stand. That is not a hero. A hero is somebody who puts their life on the line for somebody else. That's a hero. A firefighter is a hero. A police officer is a hero. A soldier who fights for our freedom on the battlefield-- that's a hero. [APPLAUSE] Not Cain, not Korah, not Caitlyn. Not Balaam, not BLM-- those aren't heroes. So what are we to do? What should we do? I'm going to give you a few take away practical things to maintain purity in the church. Number one, be aware. Just know. Know the word of God. Let your life be shaped by the truth. Get some Bible plan going, where you are exposed and have the truth repeated over and over and over again, so your mindset, your worldview, is a scriptural worldview. Be aware. Number two, be watchful. Jesus said, watch and pray. The enemy is already among us. We need to not go to sleep. We need to watch and pray. Be aware. Be very discerning when we hear things, and not just go yeah, whatever, right? So be watchful. Number three, be careful. Be careful which ministry you support. Be careful which ministry you send money to. Be careful which candidate you support. One politician said the church needs to change what they teach to agree with the modern age. The church needs to change what they teach to agree with the modern age. Ain't going to happen. Ain't going to happen. [APPLAUSE] We don't need to change what we teach to agree with the modern age. We're here to change the modern age.I love what Billy Sunday said. Billy Sunday was a baseball player turned evangelist, and he was pretty spicy. And he got up in the pulpit one day. And said, you know, they tell me I rub the fur the wrong way. Let the cat turn around, he said.So be aware. Be watchful. Be careful. Then, finally, be courageous. Know what you believe. Say what you believe. Don't apologize for what you believe in. Stand up for it. Defend the faith, once for all, delivered to the saints. It's going to take courage. It's going to take some backbone. It's going to take some bravery to maintain biblical separation. So though Ted Turner said, the more I strayed from the faith, the better I felt, I say the more I stick to the faith, the better I feel. [APPLAUSE]Father, thank you for the faith, the truth, once for all delivered to the saints. Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, who came out of love to save a world that could not be saved any other way. Thank you that he said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. I pray, Lord, that many will come, not by our compromise, not by accommodation, but by us loving and speaking the truth, and always setting forth the Gospel of a God who loves people enough to let his own son pay the ultimate penalty for their sin, so that he could shower them, and protect them, and preserve them in his love, all the way from Earth to heaven. In Jesus' name, Amen. We hope you enjoyed this special service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how this message impacted you. Email us at mystory@CalvaryNM.church. And. Just a reminder, you can support this ministry with a financial gift at CalvaryNM.church/give. Thank you for joining us for this teaching from Calvary Church. As Jude called his readers to  fight for the faith , he wanted them to know that turning from the truth was not new, nor was it novel. The battle for truth has been unfolding since the very beginning—ever since another’s will was allowed to compete against God’s will. Jude reaches back into the historical record to fortify his warning to his audience. Three basic lessons emerge that will allow us to be successful as we engage in this ancient battle in modern times.

I never would have believed God could use me! I didn’t grow up in church. In fact, I was an atheist as a young man. I stumbled into a midweek evangelism meeting because I wondered why so many cars filled a church parking lot. That’s where I met Jesus. And that’s how I met pastor Roger Barrier. My ministry story is nothing short of astonishing. I hope that Christ could convince you that you can see God work in your life more than you can imagine. ’ve been in broadcasting for 37 years in Arizona, New Mexico, and Turkey, with ten of those years in Mongolia serving as manager of Eagle Television, the first independent TV station in that country following the fall of communism. Eagle TV was the first independent TV station in Mongolia that was not owned by politicians or programmed by government officials. Because Eagle TV was independent it afforded me a special status. I had everything in Mongolia that a TV manager could want. In Mongolia I had status, power, finances, powerful friends, and powerful enemies. I interacted with ambassadors, parliament members, presidents, and prime ministers. I was awarded with medals twice by the Mongolian government, including once from the President who also gave me a signed letter of recommendation. I had a staff of 136 people and a budget around $70,000 a month to use for our ministry. We saw thousands of people become familiar with the Gospel and our ministry planted 50 new church groups. Anywhere from 9% to 23% of people responding to our call center made professions of faith in Christ. It was all I could have hoped for and more. Yet, after ten years, it was time to leave Mongolia and return to the States for a new ministry assignment. I’ll come back to Mongolia in a moment. Now I currently serve at the headquarters of Cru in Orlando, in two capacities: (1) Director of Global Broadcast Strategy for the Jesus Film Project. (2) Broadcast Consultant for Christian radio and TV in the developing world. My role is to help facilitate the airing of the JESUS Film, and several other films, on TV stations all around the world. Our goal is to give every person who sees our films a chance to say yes to Jesus. Let me give you a little background on the JESUS Film. The JESUS Film The JESUS Film, first released in theaters in 1978 has been called the most accurate depiction of the life of Christ ever put to film. It is still shown all over the world in a variety of venues to tell people the story of Jesus. Why is the JESUS Film important for evangelism and fulfilling the Great Commission? Because it is the single most effective evangelism tool ever created in the history of the church. JESUS has been viewed over 7 billion times, more than any other film in the history of the motion picture industry. 600 million people have made decisions for Christ after seeing the JESUS Film. 60% of all new church plants involve a JESUS Film showing. In my current role as director of Global Broadcast Strategy, since 2016, JESUS has been viewed or heard over 850 million times through TV and radio in 155 countries. Starting in 2022, our goal is to have 500 million people a year see the story of JESUS on television. Engagement 94% of people watching TV watch with a device in their hands—a tablet or smartphone. 71% of people watching TV are looking up information on their device about what they are watching. In case you think that’s not a lot, consider this: In a country where 10 million people might be watching JESUS, 7.1 million are looking up information about the film or about Jesus while they are watching. 41% are messaging family and friends about what they are watching. Prior to the age of the Internet, we could only address those who were watching at that moment. But because of how people are using their smart devices while they are watching, we are picking up millions of additional people seeing the films that we might not have reached before. In view of this behavior, we place website addresses and WhatsApp numbers on many of our films so that we can direct people where to go to learn more about Jesus. Some Results Since 1979 over 600 million have made decisions for Christ watching the JESUS Film. Our West Africa broadcasts of JESUS in December 2020 saw 634 people in Nigeria, Ghana, and Liberia sign up online for discipleship materials to help them grow in their faith. In 2017 in Orissa, India a showing of JESUS to 11 million people on TV resulted in more than 4,000 phone calls from people wanting to know more about Christ. Our December 2020 airing of the JESUS Audio Drama resulted in more than 4,700 calls and emails from people in dozens of countries wanting to know more about Jesus and looking for discipleship. During 2020, 42% of all viewings of JESUS happened through broadcast! That’s near half of all views of the film globally. In 2019, 22 million people made decisions to follow Chris through the JESUS Film. Testimonies “I have studied Islam and discovered that it is not the truth. I listened to the drama about the life of Jesus. I’m scared to believe in Jesus, but I know that Jesus brings comfort and peace.” “My husband never liked to listen with me to your programs, but the JESUS drama has moved him very much. There are very few gospel radios, but I believe that the Spirit of God works through you. You should air JESUS often, more often, as often as possible.” “I was released from prison on Sunday. I heard Luke’s Gospel (JESUS), and the world has made sense again.” “One of my friends used to be very negative about anything I tried to share with him, and totally rejected the idea of Jesus’ death. But eventually, after many years of friendship, he started to show some interest in stories about Jesus. Every time we would study a story together, he would show more and more understanding and interest. I knew that it was a very sensitive topic, but eventually I shared the Good News with him about Jesus’ willingness to bear everyone’s sin on the cross. I was hoping he would not be offended at my boldness, but to my surprise he said, “Oh yes, I believe that. I’ve believed it for quite a while.” “I was shocked and wondered how he could have changed his mind so dramatically. He told me, ‘It’s true that I used to be confused about Jesus. But then I started watching the JESUS film on TV every night. I learned about the history of what happened and then I understood. It’s true, Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for sin and if we follow him, he will take responsibility for our sin.’” Here is a brief story about an Iranian man who was watching the JESUS Film in Iran on TV. “Mohsen was addicted to drugs for many years. He tried AA meetings, going to boot camps, nothing helped. Watching the JESUS Film on Mohabat TV, he prayed; ‘Lord, if you really are who you claim to be, please set me free of this addiction!’ The next day he was sober and has never again used drugs to this day. He witnessed to his friends that only Jesus can set them free, and many have come to faith as a result of his testimony.” Comparison Now, let me draw a comparison with our Mongolia work. I noted earlier that our ministry in Mongolia saw many thousands exposed to the Gospel with many coming to Christ. We had a budget of $70,000 a month to make our ministry work. However, when we left Mongolia after ten years, everything changed. Upon leaving Mongolia, we lost 90% of our personal ministry support. We nearly drained our bank account in the first year just to make ends meet. But once we got resettled in the US, I began working with JESUS Film Project on global broadcast strategy. And something remarkable happened. When I reported to Orlando, I was given a tiny workspace, no assistants, no staff, no authority, and no budget. Yet, in the last six years we’ve had over 850 million views of our films in 155 countries. The Lord gave us partnerships with key people around the world to make our efforts for television possible. Millions have come to faith in Christ because of our TV showings. The lesson: You don’t need a big office or powerful friends to make a difference for Christ. You don’t need a big budget or massive resources, you just need the partnership and support of the right people, willingness, faithfulness, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Look at the Apostle Paul: When he got started, he had no office, no staff, no car, or smart phone, or plane, or horses, and no budget. He likely walked from country to country. Yet, Paul did have three important things: (1) He had a sending church, (2) He had partnerships, and (3) He had the leading of the Holy Spirit. With just these three things Paul changed the world. If you get involved in fulfilling the Great Commission, you may have precious few resources to use to bring those you know to faith in Christ. But if you walk faithfully, trusting the Holy Spirit for your efforts, you too can see fruit from that faithfulness. To learn more about how to support our ministry, please visit www.thomasterry.com.

So, you’ve decided to leave your church: you’re moving, or you’ve come to a doctrinal impasse, or there has been conflict that you’ve tried to navigate, but the church has been unwilling to biblically walk through a peacemaking process to bring about reconciliation. As a pastor, every person who leaves the church hurts. There have been hundreds that have left the churches I’ve served at and some of those departures still make me wince. Every goodbye is painful. There are times to say goodbye (although a lot fewer than we are led to believe). When you say goodbye, say goodbye well. Sadly, in today’s culture, most of us say goodbye very poorly (often times we just slip away). We’re called to say goodbye in a harder, but better, way. Here are six things you should do before you leave your church: 1) Speak to your pastor A pastor is called to “shepherd the flock of God.”[i] It’s hard to shepherd when the sheep wander off without any communication. You are helping your pastor love you well and you are loving him well when you communicate to him that you are leaving, whether that is for easy (moving) or hard (conflict, doctrinal) reasons. 2) Speak humbly Every pastor is a sinner. Every church contains in it brokenness, injustice, and sin that grieve God. But of course we also are sinners. And we all have a finite understanding of God, the church, and the world. Scripture exhorts us to speak to one another (and especially our leaders[ii]) with humility.[iii] We often wait too long to have these conversations with our pastors and, by the time we have them, we are revved up and fully armored coming in. We’ve played the objections over in our mind, we’ve honed our arguments, and we’re ready to shoot to kill. Don’t come as an adversary. Come as one seeking to not just to teach, but also to learn, not just as one demanding repentance, but one willing to repent.[iv] 3) Allow space and time for your concerns to be addressed Change takes time. If you believe your church is seriously deficient in its teaching or has not appropriately dealt with conflict, don’t come with an ultimatum. Give the leadership time to remedy the situation. At any church at any given time there are a number of emergencies and crises already going on that you probably are unaware of. Grant grace and be patient with your leaders.[v] 4) Speak the truth in love For the conflict-avoiders among us, your temptation might be to minimize the issues or to put forward surface reasons that are not actually the most significant issues. Perhaps an elder has demonstrated a violent temper or you have seen behaviors that indicate infidelity – papering over these issues is not loving to that brother or to the church. You are not loving the church to not share the true reasons for your departure. If you are leaving because of a doctrinal issue, it is not loving to tell the pastor that you’re leaving because you want to go to church with your extended family. It is loving to step into that difficult conversation and speak the truth in love.[vi] That is loving Christ’s bride well. 5) Do not gossip Scripture minces no words when speaking about gossip. In Romans 1:29, Paul lists gossip right alongside envy, murder, slander, and hatred of God as exhibiting unrighteousness and evil. We must speak in a manner that builds up in truth and love. This isn’t to suggest that we cannot speak the truth in the face of deception or warn of false teaching,[vii] but that we must be careful to “let no corrupting talk come out of [our] mouths, but only such as is good for building up… that it may give grace to those who hear.”[viii] 6) Speak blessing As you leave, be sure that you speak encouragement to your pastors and leaders. They surely did some things well or else you never would have called that church home. Speak your affirmation to them and thank them. It’s no accident that Paul almost always begins his letters offering up thanks to God for his readers and closes with words of exhortation and encouragement. May this be a pattern for us as well. Leaving a church isn’t easy. Frankly, it shouldn’t be easy. But the right way and the easy way are rarely the same. If you are called to leave your church, leaving well will be an opportunity for growth both for you and your church and will bless you both eternally. Say goodbye well, friends.

The Danger of Living with Dreams LEVI LUSKO If you have a copy of the scriptures, we are going to start out in the book of Acts, chapter 2. I want to read to you a few verses from the day the church was born. Some of you are familiar with this text, and I hope by the end of our time together all of you will be invigorated by it. I'm going to read it to you out of the King James version. I know. It is getting for real up in here. But there is a few phrases I just love in King James. And so, if you'll grant me that. Acts 2, starting in verse 1. "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly", someone say, "suddenly". Suddenly. "There came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance". And at the same time as this happened, the text tells us for 5, "there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven". And in the following verses, we have a chronicling of the reaction of these other people from every nation. While witnessing what God was doing in the hearts and lives of these believers, gathered together in this house that was now full of the Holy Ghost and full of people who were responding to the power now that was upon them. That Jesus had promised before he left. That made him say the shocking but incredible statement, "It's better for you that I leave. Because if I leave, my spirit cannot just be in one body with you, wherever you twelve are. But my spirit can come inside of all of you, no matter where you go, that you equally each can be filled with my spirit. And through that we will build my church. And the gates of hell will not prevail". So that is what is happening. But to the watching world it's like, you all are drunk. You all have straight lost your mind. You're hitting Lil Wayne's sizzurp or something, because this isn't normal. You're acting a fool here filled with the Spirit. Because when people are gripped by passion, they lose their minds. Go to a football game. Watch someone get that perfect buck when rifle season starts. People who are filled with passion lose their minds and don't even care about it at all. We will go crazy for the Biebs on his tour, every stop. People are going to act crazy, because why, they're filled with passion. And when you're filled with the ultimate passion, that is the passion of the creator God, who knows you, loves you, wants to use you, has plans to fulfill in your life. When you get gripped by destiny like that, they can't, no other lesser passion on Earth can compare to that. There ain't no high like the most high, is what I'm trying to get you to see. Verse 12. "And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying to one another, 'What meaneth this?'" It's one of my favorite phrases, OK? Don't begrudge me a good "meaneth this". "Others mocking said, these men are full of new wine. But Peter standing up with the eleven, he lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day". We wouldn't even have had time to get drunk yet. None of us are morning people. "But this," he says, verse 16, "is that". Someone say, "this is that". This is that. "But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel". In your notes, if you take notes in church, just write down, "this is that". This is that. "And it shall come to pass," he says, "in the last days, sayeth God. I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants, and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy". I'm just going to give you two seconds to thank God for the power contained in his word. Because even just the reading of it is eye opening, is life changing. So Father, we do pray. Not for anything new, just for us to see that you're still doing now what you were doing then. These are the last days. They began the moment Jesus ascended to heaven. And so God, I pray we would be quicken, and there's a good old word. To see that we are living in these epic moments. These last days. What an honor it is. What a privilege it is. It's scary, God. Because like a woman who's about to have a baby, the labor pangs of this world seem to be getting more violent and more intense. There's earthquakes, there's wars, there's pestilence, there's famine. In other words, there's everything Jesus said we would experience before his return. And so I pray, Father, as we live in wild times, we would not be disheartened by that. We would be invigorated and encouraged. That what you said was going to happen is happening and will continue to happen. And we would, more to the point, see the part we are meant to play in these violent last days. And I pray, asking for a fresh feeling of your spirit today, to be upon your bride. We ask this in Jesus's name. Amen. I had to go to the dermatologist last week. Had to get a little piece of skin cut off my knee, not the first time this has happened in my life. Where a dermatologist had said, hey, this probably needs to go. It's a wonderful experience, like my own body betraying me. Like, what are you doing, body? And so she cuts this off and she says, "Hey, it's up to you, would you like me to send it to the lab and find out if it's cancerous"? I said, "Is that a possibility"? She says, "Of course it's a possibility". She says, "It's very, very rare". In this particular instance, it's probably not. But if it were, would you want to know? I said, "Of course I would". If there's even the slightest potential, I mean, isn't it better to know early? Isn't it better to know sooner? If I did have cancer, wouldn't I want to know about it? She said, "That's fine. We'll call you in a few weeks with the results". It's an interesting thing to be offered, what potentially could be, lifesaving information. This day, we begin, a series of messages that we've called Canary in a Coal Mine. And it goes back to the 1890s, when a Scottish scientist by the name of John Scott Haldane - that's a good Scottish name. He's got Scott as his middle name. Great Scott! John Scott Haldane, he was an expert in birds. And he was obsessed with oxygen. They called him the father of oxygen consumption, the father of modern oxygen. And so he loved to study and to focus on oxygen therapy. Specifically, when scuba divers go deep, deep, deep, deep down. Why is it they get really sick if they come up really, really, really, really, really fast? We know it's because of something called the bends. Nitrogen builds up in the blood. And he devised the crudest, earliest version of a diver's decompression table. Which tells a diver, and those of you who scuba dive, you forever know how deep down you go. How slowly you have to come up so it doesn't kill you. You'll come up bleeding out of your ears and out of your nose if you come up too fast And there's something called narcosis, that when you dive really, really deep down, that happens, where you start to a little bit go crazy. And so sometimes in that moment, they'll turn on each other as divers and then burst up to the surface. And it tragically has killed many. Many actually died building the Brooklyn Bridge because of bends. Because they were deep down putting the pilings in to build the Brooklyn Bridge and didn't know about the bends. And so Scott, John Scott Haldane, was obsessed with that stuff. And he figured out that birds, specifically canaries, were more susceptible to death by carbon monoxide poisoning than other creatures. And that's because they fly. Now of course, flying isn't easy. If it was, anybody would do it, everybody would do it. To fly, one of the things you need, in addition to wings and really light bones, is a crap ton of oxygen. That's not a scientific term, I came up with that all by myself. But basically, he discovered that birds, this is crazy, listen to this, birds absorb oxygen or whatever else they're breathing, as they're inhaling and exhaling. Try it sometime. Not particularly easy. To do this, they don't just have lungs, they also have these extra air bags. And the air bags are filled with air or oxygen as well. And so, when they breathe in, of course, they're taking oxygen to the lungs. But even as they're exhaling, these bellows push additional oxygen, reserve oxygen, into their lungs. So they're getting oxygen as they fly, on every flap, both as they breathe in and as they breathe out. But part of the downside of that, is if they're breathing anything dangerous or damaging, they get twice as much of it as other creatures do with every single breath. What was interesting to him about that, and specifically in England at that time, which had so many coal mines. As coal has been a mainstay of power and electricity and light. Is that there were so many coal mines where miners were dying due to carbon monoxide build ups. And explosions when methane gases would build up, and then someone would start a spark somehow, and big explosion. And so they needed to figure out how to know when a mine was safe versus when a mine was unsafe. And what he realized is that a canary in a coal mine could save a lot of lives. Because all you had to do was watch the canary, and the canary would suffer the effects of the carbon monoxide long before a human being would. And if the miners kept their eyes on the canary, and anything happened to it, they knew to get the heck out of Dodge. Because either there was an imminent explosion or a dangerous deficit of oxygen. And that is, of course, how we have in our lexicon in Western civilization, this curious phrase, "like a canary in a coal mine", to speak of anything that tells you of a greater problem that's on the horizons. In my research, of course, I fell in love with these little birds and the miners who took care of them. Because they were a continual presence throughout coal mines around the world until 1986. John Scott Haldane postulated that canaries could be used in this way as early as 1890. And for 100 years, you had Sleepy, Happy, Grumpy, Doc, Bashful - all the Seven Dwarves were all buddies with these canaries around the world. And it is shocking to think it was until 1986. I was born in '82, so when I was born there were still miners, and here's a photo of a miner with a canary. With the canary that he... look at that guy. So awesome. And just to think of this. But what I love about it, is that they would become more than just tools. They would become pets. And miners talk about how they often couldn't see the canary because they were working in very dark mines. And so what they would do is they would constantly be whistling back and forth to the canary. And as long as the canary was responding through song, they knew everything was going to be OK. They did, however, have to declaw all the canaries because they found out one of the tragic side effects of death through carbon monoxide poisoning was the canary would latch on to their stoop. And so they would still oftentimes look alive even when they weren't. And so, they had to have their talons removed so they would actually fall off the swing. Now you all should see some of your faces. You're like, bro, that's cold. That's cold, that's straight cold. Well, don't fear. Because the canaries almost always lived. Because they developed this special box, look at this right here. This is a canary re pressurization device. And this was how they could rehabilitate, this is amazing, this is all true. Don't you love history? This is how, the canary that fell over, the miners all ran out of there. Run, Forrest, Run! Then they would get little Petey, it's OK Petey, and they'd put him back. Look Petey was not going to be OK. Petey's head was off. But this little bird would sing again. Come on, let's give it up for the canaries that served in the coal mines. What is crazy about all this, is the fact that it was, it's a relatively modern phenomenon. Within my lifetime, perhaps some of yours, this was a thing. Why is that? Because it wasn't until 1993 that the modern battery powered carbon monoxide detector became readily available. Public service announcement, check the batteries in your carbon monoxide detectors. Because hundreds of people, every single year in the United States, still die due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Most of them in their sleep. Proverbs 22:3 says, "A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton", on the other hand, "goes blindly on and suffers the consequences" Back to my earlier question. If there was something that puts you in great danger, would you want to know about it? Detection is always preferable to cure. I believe God asked us to focus on this, for these weeks of this collection of messages, Canary in a Coal Mine. Because the Lord does not want you to have a flat life. He does not want you to have a life where you're barely coping. He does not want you to be hanging on by a thread or working for the weekend. Church, you were meant to thrive. You were meant to flourish. You were set free for freedom. Your eyes were meant to sparkle with life. And the enemy wants to smother you in your sleep. Or to smother you with sleep. And I believe that God has us in these days to focus on how to protect our passion. For as I said, protection is better than cure. Prevention is better than cure. Protection comes best when it serves through early detection. And here's the big question of these weeks. And I invite you back, for four Sundays, we'll be focusing on this. And in between our small groups, we'll be talking about it. The big question we're asking is, is your canary singing? Is your canary singing? Is there something in life to tell you that you are in trouble? And what can you look for, to know that you are? Today, we're going to begin with a message that I'm calling The Danger of Living Without Dreams. The Danger of Living Without Dreams. For the absence of dreams should be a sign that you should be concerned. The absence of dreams in your life should be a cause for concern. It should be a warning light. That you would live a life free from the passion that would come through dreams, should be to you a warning light on the dashboard. A sign that you are in grave danger. That your canary is not whistling back, and minutes are hours. Proverbs 29:18, and here's a theme verse for this message today. "Where there is no vision, the people perish. But he that keepeth the law, happy is he". Without vision, our eyes grow flat. Our eyes grow dull. We grow listless and have no purpose. But to be focused like a laser on God's law, his plan, his words, his son, happy is he. The blessing that comes, the vitality that comes, the vivaciousness that comes. The lust for life in a good way. The waking up every day with your feet hitting the ground. And being able to spring out of bed, knowing that you are divinely arranged by God to be on mission today. That it counts. That he cares. I hope that by the end of this message, you have a greater passion, a greater dream. I hope that God helps you to see that there are dreams for you to dream for your marriage. God's got a dream for your home. He's got a dream for your children. He's got a dream for your company, for your calling, for your church, for your city. I hope you get bit by a rabid dog called a dream. I hope you get infected. Too soon? Can we start using infected analogies? Is it still? Because where there is no vision, if you don't have a vision for your home, there will be despair. There will be a perishing. You're like, what will perish? What's the danger? What's at risk here? The miners leave, it's a pretty drastic analogy, they're going to die of carbon monoxide poisoning or explode. What am I at risk of losing? Here's the great danger. You are in danger, not necessarily of losing your life, but wasting it. If you don't find your heart racing with God's dream for it, you are at risk of wasting your life. The devil doesn't just destroy, he also distracts. And if he can get us to settle for average, if his proven tricks of bread and circuses can anesthetize us. If we can just accept comfort, and status quo, and this is how everyone lives, and why dream of something better or bigger, when I would probably be disappointed. So I'll just settle for this. I'll just watch the football. Just eat the TV dinner. I'll just accept that no one from my family ever has done this. Or gone to college, or done this, or this company probably wouldn't work, and why should I? I'll just get disappointed. If the enemy can get you just to settle for average. I just hope you'll see that it's a tragedy to settle for average when you were destined for impact. And you, ladies and gentlemen, were destined, are destined for impact. You make your mark and God has some apple carts he wants you to knock over. And God has, God has some things for you to do. To build, to dream, to fight for, to invent, to speak into life. Your chosen generation, you're a royal priesthood. The blood of the most important person who ever lived was shed to purchase you from slavery to sin. So you please explain to me, how you should just settle for something. You know, it is what it is. And then just grin, and bear it, and get through it. And life is to be endured, and not enjoyed, I'm just telling you, there's more in store. God wants you to dream again. God wants you to fight. You are meant to be a conduit of God's power and prophetic vision into the world. And my whole sermon in a sentence is that, if God's spirit is on you, his dreams will radiate through you. That's what Peter said. In response to the birth of the church, which we are still very much a part of, which Jesus is very much still building. Which the gates of hell very much still cannot prevail against it. There is no "PS: unless COVID". There is no, "but in the event of a plague", because that's how the church was born. In the midst of a plague worse than this one. And the church radiated in the glory with which she has always been intended to shine. In the midst of the worst times. This church, this church, this church, the Church of Jesus Christ that will go marching on was born out of death and blood. And it will always rise like a Phoenix from the ashes as Christ's resurrected body did. And so we get to be a part of it. What? The dream. The original. Dream the dream of dreamers. The dream of dreams. And that, Peter says, is now upon us. And in so doing, he was indicating that it wasn't always the case, that everyone gets to dream. That you are now free to move about the country dreaming. You see, he was suggesting and insinuating, as everybody was full of dreams and full of passions and like, dude, what's up in that church? What's in the communion, do you see all right? He thought they were getting crunk. They were just worshiping. He was saying no, it's here. The thing Joel talked about is here. The thing Moses talked about is here. The thing that God's amazing people dreamed about is now here. What are you talking about? Let's go back to the Numbers, chapter 11. A young man comes running to tell Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. That's Numbers, chapter 11. These are two guys, just random dudes. We don't know the names. We don't know their bios. You don't have a baseball card with Eldad and Medad on them. No one knows who those guys are. Did they go to Billings? I don't know them. And someone runs to tell Moses, two dudes seem to be filled with the Spirit but they're not authorized. So Joshua runs in, verse 28, and he says, Moses, let's tell them to stop. Let's forbid them. Let's tell them they are not sanctioned. They do not have the proper pedigree or training. Did they see a burning bush? I think not. Moses, we've got to shut this down, bro. This is unauthorized preaching. And Moses said, are you crazy? Are you crazy, he says. Joshua, do you think I'm going to like that kind of talk? He said, are you zealous for my sake? Do you think I'm in this for me? Do you think I'm building this kingdom? He said, are you kidding me? And then he said a prayer. He said, "Oh," and this is the prayer answer to Pentecost. "Oh, that all the Lord's people could prophesy. Oh, that the Lord would put his spirit upon each of them". Do you realize, Moses and Joshua only got to see it happen when God freaked, broke out in Eldad and Medad's life. Normal people didn't get to dream like that. Only prophets and priests and kings did. It wasn't like everyone could just expect the spirit of God to come upon them, back in the day. That's why Jesus told the disciples, don't take for granted that you get to be a part of this point in history. He said better men than you dreamt of this day, but didn't get to see it. He said, lots of people live their lives and die. And never got what you're getting. So we today are in the accentuation, the continuation of that moment. Joel said, is the day coming? Don't you worry. There's a day coming when everybody, a maid servant and a man servant, a old person and a young person. Could all expect, regardless of age, or station, or race, or class, or rank of life, and just expect that God equally upon each of us would pour out his spirit and use us. Guys, guys, guys, Peter said, "this is that". This is that. We are now here. This is the moment in history. We are in that moment. The day that Moses and Joshua didn't get to see. And Joel didn't get to see. And Elijah didn't get to see. And John the Baptist, even though he heralded it, did not get to experience it because he lost his head. But it's now here. The time God dreamed about is now here. He dreamed about it from before the foundation of the world was laid. So I say to you, ladies and gentlemen, start your dreaming. This is the moment to dream. This is the time to dream. And I loved that throughout history, so many phenomenal things have come in dreams. Not even just biblical history. What has been widely considered the greatest song ever written, Yesterday by Paul McCartney. He says, I did not write that. That came to me completely in a dream. He was dreaming and he woke up and the unmistakable melody was in his head. And he rushed to the piano to capture "Yesterday. All my troubles seemed so far away". Except he didn't have lyrics yet. So he just substituted gibberish. The way he actually sang it that morning was, "Scrambled eggs. Oh my lady, how I love your legs. Not as much as I love scrambled eggs". Came to him in a dream. Winston Churchill, constantly dreaming as a boy, as a little boy, about soldiers. And his cousin writes that he would come into his bedroom, and he would have spread out all over the dresser, hundreds of little toy soldiers. Every boy plays with little soldiers, not like this. He would have battalions of them and he would have them, you're flanking from this side. And he was inventing war strategy that he literally would execute upon decades later as the prime minister of Great Britain. During one of the darkest moments in history. But that destiny, it was visible as a dream as a little boy. While he was a student at Harrow College, he had a dream one night. And in his dream, he saw a great evil darkening over Europe. He saw it all concentrating as he was put into a place of leadership, and influence, and power, at a time when he would have to mobilize people to stop that great evil. And he woke up describing it to those who would listen. Who later have confirmed that this happened exactly as he said it did. That there was bombs being rained down upon Britain. That London itself was being attacked, all of course, a dream that came to pass during World War II. When the evils of Nazi controlled Europe were ravaging and threatening to take Great Britain. And the Spitfire and all the rest, that glorious period that we've had much to say about. The periodic table, those of you in chemistry and in school, was literally a dream. The chemist came up with the entire idea of how it was all going to be arranged, it all came to him in a dream. He woke up and wrote it down quickly. And with only two minor changes, that is exactly as it sits in your chemistry class today. It all came in a dream. I think about my own life and how there were many dreams. And many, almost visions, that I can almost see still. I saw a dream of an empty sanctuary. I was a little boy nine, ten years old. And I stood in an empty church building. And there was not a single person in the room. And I saw my life. I saw my life that God put me on this Earth to stand on. The little nine, ten years old, I'm standing looking at an empty room. And God just gripped me with this crushing reality of, you're going to preach to people. You're going to, people are going to be in rooms and you're going to preach to them. I think about another dream I had, where I was fishing with a little Mickey Mouse fishing rod. And I was just trying my absolute hardest. I was on a chairlift of all things. You don't fish on chairlifts. And I'm fishing with this Mickey Mouse fishing pole on a chairlift, and I am trying to reel in this enormous killer whale. It is so big and I am so scared and it does not make any sense. I shared that dream with the church I was pastoring in Southern California before we moved to start Fresh Life. And someone from the congregation later on wrote me a long letter about how they saw the things coming together. And I'm going to be in the mountains, preaching, and chairlift, and I will feel foolish, and none of it's going to make any sense. But God's going to do something that nothing can explain from a human perspective. And as I look back on the dreams and God's call, and all of it just encourages me to tell you, don't be afraid to dream. For this reason, not even spiritually just pragmatically, creativity always functions best in the most relaxed state. So if there's a business plan you're working on, business women, business men; if there's some song you're trying to write or something you just can't figure out, take a quick nap. It is something that seems to be a reality. That when you're, you can get a hemorrhoid if you push so hard, but you're not going to push out any great idea. It's not going to happen. But when you work while you can work, and maybe take a little walk, then take a little nap, oftentimes you will wake up in that lucid state with just the perfect breakthrough idea. And then spiritually as well. We have a great credibility in making this statement, that God moves things forward throughout history through dreams. The dreamers, the crazy ones, the wild eyed. It seems to be that's how God works. In fact, I compiled just a little list and this was by no means exhaustive. Though I have spent this last week looking at every dream in scripture. Which is considerable. But I noted this seven item list, that is some of the things that we see throughout biblical history, that dreams do. You can grab a photo of it if you want to. But revelation, of course, this idea of something new being disclosed. Of the future being opened up. I mean, hello? We have an entire book of the Bible called Revelation that is all, literally, a vision that God gave to someone named John where he just had this vision, this idea, this dream, that God gave him of what's going to happen in the future. We, of course, even in the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. We have Jacob and the whole idea of the church was given to him through a dream of a ladder. That this is how people are going to get to heaven. A ladder that God puts down, not you building your way up through the Tower of Babel. That all came to him in a dream. Dreams also worked for preparation. God uses dreams to get people ready for things. I think about Joseph and the dream that he interpreted for Pharaoh. What was that dream? Seven skinny cows, seven fat cows. The seven fat cows came first, the seven skinny cows came later. You need to prepare for hardship coming tomorrow. Dreams oftentimes do that. God gave Ananias a dream about Paul, and God gave Paul a dream about Ananias preparing him for the hardship that awaited him and the way he would need to preach around the world. Dreams are useful for navigation. If someone's trying to figure out a hard decision, God oftentimes, as you read scripture, helps them figure out what to do through dreams. Like when Paul couldn't get into Asia, none of it made any sense. And he had a dream, and in a dream a dude from Macedonia was like, well, come here. He's like, dang it, Samsonite, I was way off. He was, I wasn't supposed to go to Asia, I was supposed to go to Macedonia. The dream helped. Number four, correction. God corrects us through dreams when we're about to make a mistake. There's a man named Abimelech, and he was about to do something with Abraham's wife that he would have regretted. And God warned him in a dream. He woke up in a panic, he woke up in a cold sweat. God was like, don't you do that. Ain't your wife, bro. And the dream corrected him. I've been having a dream lately, that I keep waking up, that I feel like God's been correcting me. This is just a small thing but from my life, and I'm gonna share it in case it helps anybody else. I feel like I've been having dreams about how bad it could be to use my phone while I've been driving. And I just have this dream, 2 AM, fully panicked. Like something terrible could happen to someone else or someone I love if I don't stop using my phone while I'm driving. And so I finally, dang it, called a family meeting. Jennie and Olivia. Life360 has this feature, I didn't want to pay for it because it can tell us each if we're using our phone while we're driving. And I have specifically avoided it because I don't want my daughter to text and drive, but I also don't want her to know that I do. And so I was, look, shared accountability. We're going to have three drivers in this household soon. There's going to be three report cards, all of us are going to be able to see each others. And we're going to have a family meeting every single week and we're going to look at how each other are texting or not texting while we're driving. Because I want to receive God's correction. If that's God speaking to me, I don't want to miss out on what he's saying because I was too foolish, or too stubborn, or too stupid to just listen. I believe that God can and does speak through dreams. Number five, I believe the dreams are meant to prompt intercession. Intercession is another fancy word for praying for somebody. Intercessory prayer is a spiritual gift that God gives to some people in a unique measure, in a heavy measure. Some of you have a spiritual gift from the Holy Spirit. You are prayer warriors, and we honor, and recognize that gift. Just like you were a worship leader, or a preacher, or a creative web designer. There's people that can intercede in a unique way, but all of us are called to intercede as the spirit prompts us. And I believe God at times will wake us up. You've had it happen haven't you? With someone just randomly on your mind, what should you do? You should pray for them. And then when the time is right, you should tell them about it. Because who doesn't like to be told, I was praying for you. You came to my mind and I prayed for you. And I dare you. I dare you to do that. And I'm just going to tell you how it's going to happen. You're going to get some cool stories back about someone saying, you have no idea. You have no idea. What that meant to me. When you reached out at the perfect time. And the way you will confirm to people that God is real, and he is love, and that he tapped one of his kids on the shoulder when one of his other kids needed a hug. I'm just telling you. Just get ready for some beautiful God encounters. Number six, dreams are used for motivation. God will use dreams to encourage us, to keep us to keep going as we run a race that's hard. As we run a race that's exhausting. I believe God can and will use dreams to motivate us. Several times in the Book of Acts, Paul will be in a crazy storm, or in a crazy moment. And he'll just have some random dream where God just stands by him and through the dream says, it's going to be OK, bro. It's going to be OK. This isn't going to kill you. This is not going to end you. And I just dare you to believe that through dreams you have, through dreams that God gives you, he's saying to you, no one's going to hurt you. And you're going to get through this. And you are unstoppable. And I am a shield about you. I am a fortress for you to run to. And then, lastly, God confirms things he's doing through dreams. He confirms things that at times, he's hinting at us, and we sense happening, but then a dream will be, no, I really am saying this. I think about how God was trying to get the Jewish people to quit being so selfish with the gospel. And how none of them wanted to share it. And everyone wanted to think it was just for Israel. And God's like, no, I'm doing something bigger than you know. I'm doing something wider than you know. It ain't just about you. It ain't just about this little thing. It's about the whole thing. It's about eyes on the horizon. It's about other nations. It's about people that don't have it as good as we do. We got to get the gospel out. We got to get the gospel out, and none of them are getting it. So God gives Peter the weirdest dream ever. And he knew he needed to get a hold of him, so he used bacon. That's how you get a hold of a man's heart. And that's what he did, he gave him this awesome dream about food. And Peter kept arguing with God so the dream had to come numerous times to Peter before he finally got the memo. He was like, dang it, I'll preach the gospel to the Gentiles also. It's a very funny story. But that's just a little list of some of the ways that dreams play a part. And some of the biggest moments in biblical history. But a couple of words of caution. I will give this to you. Number one, not all dreams happen at night. Because some of you are, I can see it, are really discouraged. You're like, dang it Levi, I never have dreams or they never make any sense. I would just say to you that, welcome to the club. Not all dreams happen at night though. The scripture didn't just say dreams, it also said visions. Visions are dreams that happen at day. You can dream without sleeping, it's something called a daydream. And this message isn't as much a prescription for you to go to bed every night, putting enormous pressure on what happens when you're lying on the pillow, as it is an invitation for the Holy Spirit to speak to you whether you're sleeping or you're awake. You're saying God, you want to give me a daydream? I'm willing to daydream. I'm not going to get on Instagram. I'm not going to sit on Netflix on this airplane. I'm going to sometimes just look out the window. Sometimes I'm just going to doodle in my notebook. I'm just going to wander in a meadow. I'm just going to stand here by this dream. God you can and should, I spoke this morning to God as I was watching the sunrise. And I said, God, how majestic is your name in all the Earth. If you want to give me vision today. If you'll give me a dream today. I'm going to continue to fight for the dreams you've already given me, but God, I am yours. You wanted to do something, let's roll. You see what I'm saying. Dreams and visions. Not all dreams happen at night. A lot of the significant dreams in scripture happened during the daytime. They're daydreams. Secondly, not all dreams come from God. So let me just caution you with that one too. Sometimes they come from Mexican food. Sometimes they come from too much chocolate right before bedtime. Sometimes they come from bad decisions and unwise media consumption choices. We can invite terrible, terrible, terrible things into our dreams because psychologists do tell us that dreams are all, a lot of times, material that your brain's filing and sorting away. You have a little librarian who walks through the tables of your mind, putting things away. What goes into long term storage? What's going to be deleted because it's unhelpful? What gets grooved, because it's a repeated thing that you've pulled up a lot of times? And so that's why we always have to be careful what books we leave open, because that librarian is going to put some stuff into permanent storage, and you might not like it when it gets there. And the rumination that will come as a result of us being unwise. So some dreams come from God, some dreams don't. Number three, not all dreams are for now. God has a funny way of depositing time delayed dreams. Again, my dream of preaching would not be fulfilled for, well, it would be about 10 years before I would be asked. And I didn't invite myself, I got asked to preach. I was standing in Budapest, Hungary, and someone asked me to get up and preach. And I was terrified. I almost wet my pants. And it didn't go very well from what I remember. Or so I thought. I was standing there preaching and a translator was translating what I said. And I tried to do my best to tell the story of the gospel, and asked people to raise up their hands. There was a couple hundred people standing there, and no one raised their hand. And I was like, dang it. I was like, oh, it's OK. E for effort. And walked away. And then someone approached us and rushed up to us. And was, through the translator, telling us that he had raised his hand. But no, I couldn't see it, because of where I was at in the perspective in the crowd. And he had raised his hand that day. And then as I was talking to him and trying to encourage him, someone came rushing up to him, and had a bunch of shopping bags. And apparently he was so excited to come up and tell us that he had given his life to Jesus, he had just left literally everything where he was and had come up. And that was the first time I ever got to preach and see that dream fulfilled. But I believe that dreams aren't always for now. We just have to, at times, do what Mary did and hold on to the dreams in our heart. I also want you to know that not every dream you have is going to look like its final version, the first time you get a glimpse of it. Many things in Revelation, John used the phrase, I think it was like, to a man it would look like, I mean it was his first time ever seeing it. So he's just doing the best he could to describe it. So I don't want you to put the pressure on yourself, the first time you get a vision. The second time you get it, even if it's just as God begins to just bring things sharper and sharper into focus like a telescope. That you're just fine tuning it to think that, you know for sure based on the first glimpse of a dream, what it's finally and fully going to look like in its exhausted state. Because does not Ephesians 3:20 say, "now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us". Did you get it? He can do more than we imagine. What's imagination? A daydream. So as you're imagining God's will for your family, his vision for your home, what it could look like in your calling at work. What you're going to see at times is not fully what God wants to see. So sometimes he has to say no to things we want to do now. But God, my dream! And that's because he wants to do more than you imagined. It just doesn't... so when God says no to what you thought was a dream, just remember he's doing more than we imagine. So he has to say no to this, because maybe it's not big enough. And I want to encourage you with that. I also want to tell you that not all dreams are for you. Not all dreams you have, are for you. This is where we're going to close today. Joseph had a dream, the adopted father of Jesus Christ. And in his dream, what did God tell him? He told him, support Mary's dream. In his, he had a dream. And his dream was get behind Mary's dream. Because Mary's dream is my dream. So Joseph, I have a dream for you. It's to fight for, and give your life for, a dream that wasn't yours. There's freedom in this sentence. You don't have to have had the dream, to have a dream. A million people got behind a guy, said once, "I have a dream". That was their dream too. So the pressure is not on us to have a dream. Sometimes God will ignite our hearts with a dream not ours. I think oftentimes about my friend Kevin Gerald. He's a pastor in Tacoma, Washington. And God has blessed the writing of books in our home, and Through the Eyes of a Lion has gone out around the world. But I always think about Pastor Kevin. Because God called Pastor Kevin one day to call me, he didn't know this, three days before Eyes of a Lion came out. And he said to me, Levi, are you doing anything right now? Because God told me to do whatever I can to make your life louder. So, bro, I'm about to release a book. Maybe you could tweet about it. Again, what I thought was smaller than what he thought. In my dream, I pictured, I said, tweet about it. What I said, "Could you tweet about it? If someone could see on Twitter, you know"? He said, I'm going to do more than that. I want to bring you to Tacoma. And get you up in front of the conference we're having. And at this conference, you're going to get to tell everybody, I want you to tell everybody there about the book. And I had a long dream, a long time before that. I had, just a random dream. This idea, this vision, this thought, man, I sure would love to be friends with Louie Giglio. And I had no idea of how and why God would make that happen, or make me think that. But I was sure not going to try and show up where he was and be weird about it. Wasn't going to write him a letter and say, "I want to be your friend". Because that is a guaranteed way to not begin a friendship. God told me, oh, even worse. God told me we were supposed to be together. Run from that man, women. If it happens, God, if God is in it he's going to do it, has always been my thought on that. And so, Kevin says, "Come to this conference in Tacoma, you're going to talk about your book, I'm supposed to make your dream louder. That's my dream, it's your dream". So I don't even have a dream, man. I just wrote a book. I'm just exhausted from the book. Could you tweet about it? He goes, no, you've got to come to the conference. You got to talk about it. I said OK, cool. What's happening? He goes, you'll be talking about your book. Then Louie is going to get up and talk. And I was like, well, crap. Now I've got my man crush moment. There's a lot of pressure on this. Louie and I met, it was awesome. We hung out till two in the morning that night. We went our separate ways. A few days later, a few weeks later, it was the anniversary of our daughter Lenya going to heaven. And before that was her birthday. And it was her birthday that Louie texted us, and said, "Would you come to this Passion event we're having, and talk about your book"? That was in 2016 and it just is amazing to look back at what God was doing. And what God was writing. And how God would take this message to the people who needed it. And he had no idea that as we were receiving that text message, while driving, my wife read it to me. We were pulling into the cemetery to stand and lay flowers at Lenya's grave as Louie texted me, "I want to use our platform to tell the story of Lenya and what Jesus is doing". And the point is, I just see great freedom in looking back and seeing how God gives dreams to people. And he gives dreams to other people. And I want to live my life filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Helping other people's dreams come to life. And finding and taking as much satisfaction and joy, like my friend Pastor Kevin, like Pastor Louie, in helping your dreams come true. And leaning into what the Holy Spirit is doing, and the people in our lives, as God gives dreams and God causes people to have as much passion for other people's dreams as he does for our own. So to close, and we're going to end our time together. I wonder if you would be willing, as you pray with me, just as a gesture of openness. Just to say to God, I want to receive whatever dreams you have for me. I want to be open to your leading. So if you're comfortable with that as we pray, maybe just raise your hands. They could be low at your side, it could be high in the air. But if you're open to God's leading through dreams and visions and signs and wonders. And we'll talk more and I hope you come back next week. Because we talk about how to figure out what dreams are what. That's going to be next week. So do come back. But Father, we are here to hear from you. And we believe that you are speaking and we want to listen. We want to be open to what you're doing in the world as you build your church. As you draw people to yourself. So I pray now for the people of Fresh Life Church. For your spirit to supernaturally do what only you can do. Come upon them like that mighty, rushing wind. Like fire that falls from heaven. Whether we're sleeping or whether we're awake, I pray we would have ears to hear what you are saying to your people. And we pray this. You can put your hands down in Jesus's name. If you're here today and you've never yet said "Yes" to Jesus. Invited him into your heart to be your Lord and Savior. We wouldn't want this worship experience to end without giving you an opportunity to make that decision the best decision you could ever make. And I pray that as we're praying, if you sense God's spirit tugging at your heart. You know it if you feel it. It's something you can't shake, it's something you can't ignore. It's just that little conviction. It's that little, well, Jesus called it knocking. Knocking at the door. If Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart, it's real. It's him. He loves you. That's not your imagination, that's not the devil, it's Jesus. If you let him in, he'll come into your heart. He'll make you new, he'll save you. It's called the Second Birth. We can't conjure it up, it's not a religious thing. It's a Holy Spirit thing. And it's the only way we can have confidence of heaven. I'm going to say something hard. You don't automatically go to heaven. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". Which automatically means that if we reject Jesus, we reject heaven. We reject God. But Jesus loves you enough to be, even now, pleading with you. Drawing you to him. Draw near to him and he will draw near to you. With our heads bowed and eyes closed, I'm going to say a prayer. Giving language to a confession of a need for salvation. And putting our confidence in the hope of the Resurrection. To save us from death, and sin, and hell. And if you would receive this as your salvation, Jesus, God's man, come into your heart. Who's coming again to this world. And in these last days, nothing is more important than salvation. I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. God will hear it and save you. Church, say it with us, no one praying alone: