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Genesis chapter 4 is a story of two worshippers who happen to be brothers, Cain and Abel. And one's sacrifice, or offering, was accepted by God. But the other one crashed and burned. And that is Cain. Now Cain and Abel were similar, we discover. There were certain things that were identical in their lives. They both had the same parents. They both had the same opportunities. They both had the same access to God. They both came to worship God. But that's where their similarity ends and the differences begin. I'm calling this message A Murder After Church. A Murder After Church. Because think about this. The first murderer was a worshipper. The first murderer in history was a religious person. Cain killed his brother Abel after a worship service. Last week in New York City, on a Friday night, two men went into a church, a Methodist Church in New York, for a service of some kind. While they were in that service together, a fight broke out between them. A fist fight. One of them left. The other one stayed. When the service was done, the man who had left was waiting outside. And he attacked the man, the other man, with a machete in the streets of New York after church. When I read that news article, I thought about Jesse James. I've told you about him before. Jesse James was a baptized member of the Kearney County Baptist Church in Kearney, Missouri. Jesse James, the notorious outlaw, loved to sing in the choir. Loved to sing the old hymns. Loved to teach the hymns to younger members of the choir. He taught him singing. And he talked about how much he loved to go to church. The problem is, Sundays were a conflict to him. Because Sundays were his days to kill people and rob trains, so he couldn't always make church. We have a similar story here in the book of Genesis, chapter 4. As we begin the chapter, we see now the effects of what happened in the previous chapter, the choice that Adam make. In chapter 3, then, is the root of sin. Chapter 4 is the fruit of sin. It grows now. And I want to remind you of how Paul summed up this episode in history. In his book, Romans chapter 5, he said, through one man, sin entered the world. And death through sin, so that death spread to all men. For sin and death reigned from Adam to Moses. We're seeing that here. We're seeing now death reigning and death spreading as we get into the fourth chapter. And one other thing we discover. We discover many things, but there's a lot of firsts in Genesis chapter 4. The first pregnancy ever. The first birth ever. The first family. The first dysfunctional family. The first crime ever committed. The first death. So Cain is the first baby ever born on the Earth. Now, just indulge me for a second. I read something that I thought was fascinating. Inside every cell is what's called DNA. And DNA is the coded information that instructs, The set of instructions that tells every cell how to act, from birth to death. 95% of DNA is found in the nucleus of the cell. But on the outside of the nucleus are little energy producing components known as mitochondria. Bear with me. In the mitochondria, there are circular strands of that DNA material, genetic material, call mitochondrial DNA. The mitochondrial DNA is all maternal. That is, it is derived from the mother only. We know that you have 23 sets of chromosomes. Half from mom, half from dad. But all of the ones in the mitochondria come back from the mother. And I'm bringing that up because in 1987, University of California Berkeley did a research test of 147 people in the world. 147 people from five different geographical locations on the Earth. And they made the discovery that all 147 all had the same female ancestor. Whom they called, get this, mitochondrial Eve. And they have referred to her as that, whoever this one ancestor is. We don't know, they say. And some believe that she came from Africa. Others believe she came from Asia. Others believe she came from Europe. Why is that fascinating? Because after Adam came a flood. When Noah settled, his three daughters-in-law raised their children around Mount Ararat, which happens to be the area that is the borderland for Asia and Africa and Europe. So here is Cain, the first baby ever born. Who becomes the first murderer. And we have five titles that I want to give you for Cain. Five designations that map out his life choices, his journey. The first is worker. He was a worker. Genesis 4, verse 1. Now Adam knew Eve his wife. And she conceived and bore Cain. And said, I have acquired a man from the Lord. Then she bore again. And this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. That defines their work. So the chapter opens with joy. It opens with optimism. There has been a fall. There has been banishment from the garden. But now, a woman is pregnant. Eve is pregnant. And I'm sure that Adam got all excited as that tummy began to grow. And he would feel the movement of that baby. And he probably even said something like, Eve, you're putting on a little weight and she wouldn't have cared about that, because there were no other women to compare to. Right? So she was, yeah, this is awesome. I want pickles and ice cream. I don't know what she's craving, but I can just imagine the familiar experience. So a baby is born. And she names the baby Cain, which is a word that means to get or to acquire. Now, I'm guessing that what they meant by this Cain or acqiore, I've gotten somebody from the Lord, is they saw this baby as the fulfillment of a promise made in the previous chapter. Where God promised that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. And they probably thought, this is it. I have gotten, I have acquired. This promised seed, this deliverer. So while they thought they were holding the deliverer, they were actually holding a murderer. One who would grow up to not be what they thought. We're not given a lot of detail about the family life. We're not given a lot of detail about Cain and Abel's upbringing. There is just Adam and Eve out there raising Cain. That's all we know. A little girl went to her mother and said, Mommy, where did the human race come from? And the mother said, sweetheart, there was a man named Adam and a woman named Eve. They had a child named Cain and then Abel. And the whole human race came from them. Well, a couple days later, she decided to ask her father the same question. He said, many years ago, there were monkeys. And we evolved from monkeys. So she's confused. Went back to her mother and said, Mom, I just don't get it. You said God created us. Dad said, we evolved from monkeys. Which is it? And the mother smiled and said, it's simple really, sweetheart. I told you about my side of the family. Your father was telling you about his side of the family. You can take and use that anywhere you'd like. So they grew up. And Cain follows in his father's footsteps. He becomes a farmer. His brother becomes a rancher. Cain is a tiller of the ground, we are told. Now, both occupations were honorable occupations. Both were necessary occupations. Most people in those days lived off of a combination of tilling the ground for farm and raising animals as well. So one chose one and one the other. This was their work. This was their occupation. Now, I'm highlighting this for this reason. Some people say, well, part of the curse that God put on mankind is to have us work. Work is part of the curse. Those are just people who don't like to do their work. So they say it's a curse from God. It's not a curse from God. It's a blessing from God. What was a curse was the painful toil that was the result of the curse put upon the Earth. But work itself was seen as a blessing. God put Adam in the Garden, the Bible says, to work the land. To work the land. So it was part of what God originally designed for people to do upon the Earth. And Cain's work is tied to Cain's worship, we will see. That is his occupation, is the basis for his adoration. He brings to God what he grows from the ground. So he is a worker. Second, he is a worshipper. Verse 3. And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering. But he did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. Now, it tells us that in the process of time, this happened. If your Bible has a marginal note like mine does, it will give you the literal translation of that. Which is, at the end of days. At the end of days. In other words, it's a precise period of time at the end of something. Perhaps the end of the agricultural year, when a sacrifice by God was in view. And this isn't necessarily the first time it happened. This could be something they regularly did. And it would seem as though God had some means of showing his approval or disapproval. Of receiving or not receiving. Accepting or not accepting the sacrifice. For example, when Elijah is on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings chapter 18, fire comes down from heaven and consumes the sacrifice. It could be something like that. Now here's a question. Everybody asks it. Why does God say yes to one offering, accepting Abel's sacrifice, and no to the other offering? Not accepting Cain's sacrifice. Now, the easy answer, and it's not really the accurate answer, I don't think, is that well, one was an animal. The other was a plant. God accepted the animal and wanted the blood sacrifice. He didn't want the plant. I think that's a little too simplistic. In fact, it's not really a biblical answer. So the biblical answer is this. There is two reasons God did not accept Cain's worship. And first of all, it's the quality of the offering. The quality of the offering. Notice in verse 4, there is a special note that Abel brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. So there is a little note there that says, here's a guy who with intentionality wanted to bring the very best to God. The highest quality. All the rabbinical commentators say this shows that he is picking the very best. The first, and thus the very best, to the Lord. He is very careful about it. Cain was indifferent. There is no mention at all about the quality of his sacrifice. Probably because he didn't care about it. So it's the quality. The second reason is the character of the offeror. One is the quality of the offering, second is the character of the offeror. Now, notice down in verse 7, I'm skipping ahead just a bit. God says to Cain, if you do well, or if you live right, will you not be accepted? In other words, if you lived right, your offering would be acceptable to me. Why would God say that? Here's the principle. God does not see worship apart from the worshipper. To God it's not like, oh, that's such a wonderful sacrifice. He's looking over the person who gives the sacrifice. So if you're corrupt, so is your gift. Now, why was Cain corrupt? Here's the answer. He lacked faith. He lacked faith. That life-transforming faith, saving faith that would motivate him to righteous living. I want you to listen to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4. It's a commentary on this section. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. Notice it's by faith. Through which he, Abel, was commended as being righteous. God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. That was Abel. So with Cain, there was no real faith to produce righteous living. In other words, he was just going through the motions. What this means is if you think you can live any way you want to live Monday through Saturday, You can live as though God didn't exist. You can live just like the rest of the world, dominated by all of the stuff that goes on in the world. And think that I can take one hour on Sunday and plop my sacrifice down and God will say, that's awesome. It's not true. God never looks at the worship apart from the worshipper. They're one and the same. Stephen Charnock, a Puritan author, said, without the heart, it is not worship. It is a stage play. It is acting a part without being that person, really. It is a hypocrite. We may truly be said to worship God, though we lack perfection. But we cannot be said to worship him if we lack sincerity. Worship is not about going through the motions. Raising the hand, reading a text, singing loudly, going to church. It's not about the motions. It's about the locomotion. It's about being moved forward in obedience to him. So he's a worker, he's a worshipper. There's a third title for him. He's a waverer. Notice at the end of verse 5, Cain was very angry. And his countenance fell. That is, he frowned. He had the pouty face. He wore his heart on his sleeve. You knew he was bummed out, because he just pouted. Got really bummed out. And so, the Lord, verse 6, said to Cain, why art thou bummed out? Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, And he's given the reason why. It's because sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you. But you should rule over it. Now, the real giveaway that Cain wasn't right with God was his response to God. He's mad. He's angry. He's angry at God. That's his response to God. He was mad when he should have been meek. He was angry when he should have been lowly. You know what the right response would have been if God didn't accept it? He should have just said, oh, Lord. I'm stopping in my tracks right now. I repent. I want to do it right. I humble myself before you. It would have been good. But he got mad. He was mad at God. I meet people, as do you, who are mad at God. And the reason I know they're mad at God is because they discover, oh, you're a pastor. And they want to vent their anger at God at God's representative. I get it all the time. People are mad at God. And people are mad at God because God doesn't see things their way. They're mad that God doesn't accept people based on just sincerity or based on good behavior. They're mad about that. They're mad that God doesn't accept all religions as being equal, all religions being the same. They're mad that God would be so narrow and so restrictive as to say, its only through my son Jesus that anyone can get to heaven. They're mad at that. And he was mad at God. But Cain was also mad at his brother, who brought an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord. So his true colors are starting to show. And the seed of murder is growing in his heart. You know what the seed of murder is, right? It's anger. Anger is what produces murder. Jesus said, you have heard that it was said by those of old you shall not murder. But I say unto you, if you are angry at your brother without a cause, you're in line for the judgment. That's where it begins. Cain was a murderer in his heart long before he was a murderer with his hands. And God knows this. God knows that Cain is struggling inside. He's wavering back and forth. He is torn between doing right or letting the anger that he has toward God and toward his brother be fully vented by a murderous act. So God, knowing this, engages him. God doesn't walk away from him. God doesn't say, I'm done with you if you're angry with me. God talks to him. He reasons with him. I love this about God. Isaiah, chapter 1. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are as scarlet, I'll make them white as snow. And did you notice what God said in verse 7? Did you notice that God personifies sin like a beast crouching at his door, ready to pounce on him? If you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you. But you should master or rule over it. Boy, if you know your Bible, a verse comes to mind about now. 1 Peter chapter 5, where Peter says, the devil is like a roaring lion prowling around, seeking whom he may devour. That's what sin is like. Satan is like that and sin is like that. There was a book put out a few years back, called Death in The Long Grass. A movie was made based on this book. And Death in the Long Grass was written by a hunter, a big game hunter. And he was writing about lions who hunted men, who hunted human beings. That is, these lions get the taste of human blood and they sneak into a camp late at night in the Bush. They'll pounce on their prey and drag that person out, far away into the night, and devour him. And there was one lion, before it was caught and killed, that devoured 100 men. And he called these lions charging lions. Because they'll go around the periphery and they'll prowl. And then late into the night, they'll charge into the camp at a high speed, covering 100 yards in three seconds. Satan is like that and sin is like that. And what Satan uses to destroy us, You know what he uses? He uses us. He uses our fallen nature. The fallen nature, the flesh that is in us, to devour us. To master us. And what the Lord is saying to Cain is, if you don't become a victor over your sin, you're going to become a victim of your sin. You need to master it. If you don't master the beast, the beast will steal the best of your life. It's like what Martin Luther used to say. He said, you can't stop birds from flying over your head, but you can certainly stop them from building a nest in your hair. And if you don't have any hair, you can still stop them from building a nest. So there's that wavering that goes on. That struggle between the flash and the spirit. He went from worker to worshipper to waverer. Fourth title for Cain is he was a wrongdoer. That takes us to the deed itself, verse 8. Now, Cain talked with Abel, his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and killed him. And the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? He said, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? Hear how sarcastic that is? And he said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. So the beast won. Sin has mastered Cain. Cain crashed and burned. This is not involuntary manslaughter, this is murder one. He killed him. We don't know how he killed him. Maybe he got a stone. Maybe he took Abel's own sacrificial knife and killed him. Maybe he cut and bled him like an animal. Like he, in offering his animal to God, did. Maybe he used his own bare hands. We don't know. But I know this, it felt good. For a brief moment, he felt vindicated. He felt justified. He felt good. Revenge always feels good at first. It's, like, yeah. They deserved that. But it didn't last. Because now we move to the fifth designation of this man, a wanderer. God meets up with him. In verse 11, God tells him, so now you are cursed from the Earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the Earth. And Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. I don't know. I don't feel sorry for him right now. Do you? Surely you have driven me out this day from the face of the ground. I shall be hidden from your face. I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the Earth. And it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me. And the Lord said to him, therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold. And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. So he confronts Cain. God confronts him and consigns him to this. Now, he said, am I my brother's keeper? And God causes him now to wander from his family and from his homeland. Since you're not going to be your brother's keeper, no one's going to be your keeper. He becomes a fugitive. Notice in verse 11 He says, so you are now cursed from the Earth. Do you know this is the very first time where a human is cursed in the scripture by God? Up to this point, the only one cursed is who? The serpent. The serpent was cursed in Genesis 3. But now, Cain joins this wretched distinction of a man cursed by God. And he's wandering. In this isn't just like a Bedouin wandering for grass for his sheep. Now all relationships are broken with his family. He's in lifelong exile. And he says to God in verse 13, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Oh, really? Because what did he deserve? He deserved to die. Genesis 9 will tell us, whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. So God now preserves him and protects him from death. This is an act of grace. I want you to think about this. This is grace upon grace upon grace. First of all, when Cain got angry, God didn't abandon him but engaged him in conversation to dialogue and talk this through. That was grace. Second, when Cain struggled within himself of what to do, good or evil, God encouraged him to withstand temptation. That's grace. And having succumbed to it and murdering his brother, God doesn't kill him. God protects him with a mark. That's grace. Now, people ask me, what is the mark of Cain? My answer, so we can get it out there, I don't know. You know why I don't know? We're not told. That's why. You can guess. Some people think it was a tattoo. Other people mention it's some weird hairdo or something. The rabbinical commentators used to say it was a dog. That God gave him a dog to assure him of protection and to keep strangers away. We're not told. I think it's ridiculous. So let me take you back to something else ridiculous. How many of you remember, And I want a show of hands, because I want to see your age. How many of you remember that television show The Incredible Hulk? Honest show of hands. OK. Very good. Others of you have honesty issues to deal with. So The Incredible Hulk was a television show that used to be a comic. Turned into a television show. Turned into a movie years later. And the premise is there's a doctor. Dr. David Banner is the character. And David Banner was a very kind and sweet research scientist doctor. Except when he got angry. And when he got angry, because he had been exposed to gamma radiation, excessive amounts, his eyes turned green and he grew in size. And he became this horrible monster who could throw people around like they were a rag doll. And so, the whole premise of the show after show after show was Doctor Banner's desire to find a cure so this won't happen anymore. So the moral of that television show was that if you don't learn to deal with your temper, it'll turn you into a monster. Now what can we do? What can we learn? What takeaway can we have from this so that we don't crash and burn like Cain? Let me give you a few quick takeaway things. Number one, the basic problem we have, our basic problem, is a worship problem. Our basic problem is a worship problem. Most people are worshippers of themself. It's about them. They are consumers only. What does this do for me? Our basic problem is a worship problem. Cain didn't give his best. And sometimes people go, yeah, there's a beat up old thing. I don't use it anymore. Let's give it away to the church. Give God your best. Give God your best self, your best energy, your best time. The second takeaway is that don't let the root produce its fruit. Don't let the root, the root of sin, produce its fruit. The root from the fall is what he was struggling with within himself in this chapter. And he let the root produce the fruit, which was sinful anger turned into murder. All of us have a wrestling match inside of us. All of us know what it's like to have the flesh warring against the spirit. And what God says to him and he says to us is, you must master it. And we have the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to do that. Don't let the root produce its fruit. The third take away is sin always brings separation. It separated him from God, separated him from his family, separated him from fellowship. Sin always brings separation. And it creates lonely people, isolated people, who because there's a barrier erected of sin, or unforgiveness or undealt with anger, pushes people away. And it's the worst way to live. So the key is always back to worship. Letting the Lord take the first place in our lives. www.sermons.love

1096s Jesus and the Tortilla A few years ago the Chicago Tribune reported the story of a New Mexico woman who was frying TORTILLAS when she noticed that the skillet burns on one of her tortillas resembled the face of Jesus.  Excited, she showed it to her husband and neighbors, and they all agreed that there was a face etched on the tortilla and that it truly bore a resemblance to Jesus. So the woman went to her priest to have the tortilla blessed. She testified that the tortilla had changed her life, and her husband agreed that she has been more peaceful, happy, submissive wife since the tortilla had arrived.  The priest, not accustomed to blessing tortillas was somewhat reluctant but agreed to do it. The woman took the tortilla home, put it in a glass case with piles of cotton to make it look like it was floating on clouds, built a special altar for it, and opened the little shrine to visitors.  Within a few months, more than eight thousand people came to the shrine of the Jesus of the Tortilla, and all of them agreed that the face in the burn marks on the tortilla was the face of Jesus.  (except for one reporter who said he thought it looked like former heavy weight boxing champion Leon Spinks). It seems incredible that so many people would worship a tortilla, but such a distorted concept of worship is not unusual in contemporary society. Tragically, although the Bible is clear about how and whom and when we are to worship, little genuine worship takes place today. THE CHURCH HAS SUFFERED THE THEFT OF ONE OF HER GREATEST TREASURES - WORSHIP.   At some time in the not so distant past the church was victimized.  The result is that worship is no longer central in its program. Out of the past comes a parable of this theft. Read I Kings l0:l4-l7.       The 200 large shields of gold contained 7 1/2 pounds of gold at $50,000 per shield.       The 300 small shields of gold contained 3 l/2 pounds of gold at $30,000 per shield. The shields were symbols of splendor and blessing. You know the story of how Solomon's heart began to turn away from God in his later years.  Married foreign women and began to adopt their gods as his own. His heart became spiritually dull. Later the kingdom was split into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. The kingdom was weakened. Let's see what happened to those shields, the symbol of God's blessing and praise. Read I Kings l4:25-26. What is Rehoboam's response?  He has them craft brass shields to replace the golden ones. Read I Kings l4:27-28. In our weakness the enemy stole Biblical worship.  We have substituted brass for gold. Gold and Worship are a lot alike.  In almost any society gold is a standard of value and has been through the centuries.  Gold is a gauge of values and a sign of blessing.  The Bible tells us that gold is plentiful in Heaven.  The same is true of worship. Alas, we have substituted the brass of monotonous form for the gold of true worship. In JOHN 4 , John relates an interesting encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. The woman had a longing inside her which she did not know how to satisfy. She had sought contentment through relationships with men (having been married five times and then living in adultery with a sixth man), but she was not satisfied - she needed God! Within every person there is a longing for God, a desire to know Him. Most people misinterpret this yearning and attempt to fill the void with fleshly activities. Some turn to a hobby, others to a relationship, others to alcohol or narcotics. When God designed man, He built in a need for God that nothing else will satisfy. Read John 4:l9-24. The divine pursuit mentioned in John chapter four has always intrigued me: the Father seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. It is expedient for us to seek the Lord and we are encouraged to do so many times in Scripture, but it seems unusual that He would seek us. I find it amazing that God would seek our worship. WHAT IS WORSHIP? Read I Chronicles l6:28-29. "O people of all nations of the earth, Ascribe great strength and glory to his name! 29  Yes, ascribe to the Lord The glory due his name! Bring an offering and come before him; Worship the Lord when clothed with holiness!" Some definitions may help to further our understanding. The Hebrew word for worship is "Shaha." It means to "bow low" or to "prostrate" oneself.  Worship involves our bowing low before the Lord, not only physically, but in our hearts. The Greek word is "proskyneo." This means "to kiss the hand of one who is revered."       Dog licking hand:  Becky: "That is her hand." Simple definition:  Homage paid to a supreme being. THE MINISTRY OF PRAISE AND THE EXPERIENCE OF WORSHIP ARE NOT THE SAME. Praise is unidirectional - we praise God; He does not praise us. Praise is our acknowledgement of His power, authority, wisdom and worthiness. Praise does not require a response from the one who is being praised; it is one-way communication. Worship, however, is relational; it is not only our confession to God, but His response to us. Illustrate praise that is not worship. Many years ago, watching playoff game between Steelers and Raiders. Raiders had won game. Final seconds ticking off! Terry Bradshaw passes far down field and Raider breaks up pass, ball leading toward ground like shot and along comes Franco Harris and scoops ball off shoelaces and runs to end zone for touchdown! Called immaculate reception! Wow. I shouted for mom and dad!  "You've got to see this!" It took my breath away! I couldn’t believe it! Might praise them, but I would never get on my knees and pay homage to them. WORSHIP IS COMMUNING WITH GOD. Praise usually precedes worship.  The Psalmist has written, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise" (Psalm l00:4 NAS).                                           We come into His presence with worship. Perhaps the most beautiful and illustrative verse on worship in the entire Bible is Revelation 3:20. READ REVELATION 3:20. For years we have missed the meaning of this verse because we have misinterpreted to whom the Lord is speaking. I have shared the gospel message with scores of people and used this verse as part of my closing.  In essence, I say to the lost man, "if you will simply open your heart and invite Jesus to come in, He will save you." I am sure this approach meets with God's approval, because the basic concept is reinforced throughout the Scriptures. However, we know that Revelation was written for the church - not for the unsaved.  Revelation 3:20 offers us a beautiful invitation from the Father to come and worship Him. And notice the reciprocal approach which is advocated:  we will dine with Him, and He will dine with us!  This is the dynamic of worship:  we give ourselves to Him, but He also give himself to us! When Brie was small, she came in where I was reading, "Want to play? Eat?..."  "No, I just came to be with you." Moments like that don't last long; must grab them while we can. Worship is communing with God. The very act of worship draws us near to the heart of God.  In the Act of Worship we get to know God. WORSHIP IS NOT RELATED TO CIRCUMSTANCES. Seen in two contrasting incidents in Scripture. 2 Chronicles 20.Jehoshaphat and Israel about to be attacked.  Read verses l-4.  Jehoshaphat prays.  Read verses l2-l7.  God intervened and next day the enemy destroyed itself.  Look at their response.  Read verse l8. Job, promising life all shattered and fell apart.  Read Job l:l3-l9.  Job's response.  Read Job l:20. Both fell to ground and worshipped!  Whatever worship is it is just as natural and automatic when God fulfills your dreams as when He destroys them! Worship is more than thanking or praising God in good circumstances!  The worship of God is to transcend our circumstances. Many of us only want to worship when God does something nice for us. If worship is not happening among God's people today it's because we have shaped our own concepts of God to fit our own understanding. Now that we've brought God down to our level we have little reason to fall on our faces to the ground before God who takes our breath away. So we only worship when we decide that God has lived up to our expectations! Oh, that God would free us from seeing Him as a spiritual Santa Claus. He longs to give to us Himself, which is worth more than any gift.  Blessed is the man who desires God more than what God can give. It is worship that we best draw near to God in order to commune with Him. Two men standing before Grand Canyon :       One said, "This is the hand of God. I'm amazed."       Man next to him looked over edge and spit: "That's the first time that I ever spit a mile."       Can you believe that? Standing in front of the Grand Canyon and one guy says, "It's the hand of God," and another man just spits. Do you know why? Because one has deep insight and the other is insensitive to the working of God. The Grand Canyon is the Grand Canyon whether I recognize its greatness or not.  God is God whether things are going well in my life or not. Maybe Jehoshaphat is sitting beside you at this moment. He's thinking, "Wow, God is so great...loving...gracious. Job may be on the other side of you, crushed with grief, no hope, no more figuring or planning or dreaming.  Only closed doors, windows, and ceilings.  Falls on his face before the sovereign mystery of an all powerful God and still says, "God, I love you." Maybe the person next to you has no picture of God at all. THE ACTIVITIES OF WORSHIP WILL BRING US INTO THE PRESENCE OF GOD. A. Falling Down Psalm 95:6 - "Come, let us bow down and worship..." Matthew 4:8-9 - Satan to Jesus, "Fall down and worship me..." No worship takes place without a bowing down in submission and humility before one of greater honor. B. Casting Down Cast down crowns before the throne. Read Revelation 4:l0. What is a crown? A crown is anything that exalts the wearer. If it draws attention to you, then it's a crown. No man who worships Jesus ever wants to be exalted. The more that I'm taken up with Him, the less that I demand that my crowns go untouched. A man can't worship God and be controlled by pride. Paul's greatest chapter on humility (Philippians 2) is followed by his greatest chapter on worship (Philippians 3). One leads to the other!  Must be a falling down before there can be worship! Perfect example of this in John l2. Read John l2:l-3. Probably a year's wages for just that amount. She took it and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. I Corinthians chapter 2 says the glory of a woman is her hair.  So, she uses her glory for the lowliest task imaginable. Anybody in that part of the world who washed people's feet would have been thought of as the most menial slave. She uses that which is her glory to wash the dusty, dirty feet of Jesus.  She doesn't just use water but pours out the costly fragrance. Now, that's the essence of worship. Worship is self-humiliating, and worship is profuse in its giving. C. Acknowledging God’s worth . Telling God his worth-ship. Doesn't He already know?  Yes, but it's in the act of worship that God reveals Himself to us and we become what we worship. Revelation 4:ll - "Worthy art Thou!" Get alone with God and tell Him what He's worth to you. Write a letter to the Lord; sing psalms and hymns,. Praise pages in diary. List God's worth and attributes. Soon the communion can begin. WORSHIP FLOWS BOTH WAYS. GOD WANTS TO BE WITH ME. I WANT TO BE WITH GOD. Luke l0 shows God's desire to be near us. READ LUKE l0:38-39 . Note Mary's position, on knees in attitude of worship. READ LUKE l0:40. Martha commands Jesus Christ to do something! The audacity! She was playing the role of anyone of us who gets distracted by doing things for God and thus loses the priority of worship. Look at Christ's response. Luke l0:4l-42. See His countdown:  Many things...few things... one thing. The Christian life is full of many duties.  A few are important...  One thing, however, is mandatory, the worship of God. All else will fade away . Exodus 33 is a preeminent Biblical passage on worship!  See here Moses's desire to see God. READ EXODUS 33:13-17. Note that Moses was not satisfied with God's presence.  He wanted to see His glory. READ EXODUS 33:18-23. Then God's Glory came by. READ EXODUS 34:5-8. The key to endurance and follow through in the Christian life is worship!  Time with God, knowing Him, enables us to live for Christ in this world! Today we saints can't endure much.  We constantly talk about our hurts... problems... feelings... rejections... Little worship = little endurance among the children of God. If we ever were to catch a glimpse of God's glory we would quit all of that nonsense.  Moses wanted more than presence.  He wanted to see glory.  God shared it with him.  We will never see God's glory outside of true worship. What a worship experience!  Did Moses see God's glory!  Yes. READ HEBREWS 11:27:   "He persevered because he saw Him who is invisible." That will change your life and help you through the tough times.  I still go to pew where God called me to Christ. Called to preach at 7...God called me to stay at Casas. George Gallup: "33% of Americans have had a supernatural experience with God but they are afraid to tell about it." Prayed to see God's Glory Story.       I was running one morning and prayed. “God, show me your glory!” Thought no more about it.        One Sunday months later and I saw a blinding light in the congregation. It was coming from a teenager near the back of the church. I told him to turn off the Flashlight. I couldn’t see my notes. A second time the bright light appeared. I told the young man to please turn off the flashlight. Finally, at the end of the service, everyone was leaving. I rushed to the young man and asked him why he was doing that. He denied it. Then I inquired, “Do you mind if I frisk you.” His parents were appalled. Mike wasn’t even a Christian. Three weeks later I received a call from his dad. Mike, the son had called him. He was weeping. He said, “I had asked God on that Sunday that if the pastor would say three things to me in the sermon, I would believe.” I tried to think of three things in the sermon that applied to me, but I couldn’t think of them. Then I realized that God had spoken to me three times during the sermon. Roger pointed to me twice and told me to turn off the flashlight. Then he came to see me after the service to find out where the flashlight was. It dawned on me, those three times were God answering my prayer. So I gave my life to Jesus.” God answered two prayers that Sunday. I prayed to see God’s glory and Mike prayed to see God speak directly to him.          Mike Blevins called dad. Asked God to have Roger speak to me three times.       Only I saw the light. I didn't recognize it. This worship center is a special place to me. INVITATION. When have you last worshipped God?  Do you have any special experiences to look back upon to give you strength in the midst of your trials?

Modern Family “Setting the Tone” Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 For every one of us here, we want to help those we love flourish in life, not hinder them. We want our key relationships, such as people we are dating, or our marriage, or our kids to be accompanied with joy, not tension. Today in this series on Modern Family we are talking about a distinctive of a home or relationship where such positive things happen. Today we are talking about the tone of our home and the tone of our key relationships. We all know that tone is important, certainly in communication. I can say the same words but communicate the opposite meaning just by changing the tone. I can say, “You’re a genius.” Or I can say, “You’re a genius.” Or, “You are so bad. You are so bad.” Or “come here,” versus, “come here.” One makes you want to run and the other makes you want to come over, just by varying the tone. I’ve recruited a volunteer to illustrate this another way, so let’s welcome ________ to the stage. I’m going to ask him/her to shoot some baskets, and if he makes at least __ baskets in 30 seconds, he’ll get this chocolate. He actually gets two tries at it. But you have a role to play in this. You as the crowd are going to set the tone, and I want Epoch and Fairview to play along, too. For the first round, I want you as a crowd to boo like crazy, make fun of him, just be jerks. For the second round, we’ll do the opposite. So, let’s do this. When I count to two, the 30 seconds will start, and I’ll need you guys to be really loud and obnoxious. (DO ROUND ONE). Now, we get to be nicer. He gets another shot at this, but this time you cheer him on and encourage him like crazy. (DO ROUND TWO and debrief). Tone matters. A huge theme of this series is that what make Christ-following homes and relationships distinctive is that we are to relate to those closest to us the same way God our Father relates to us, which is a radically different way to relate. The tone of our relationships is one of those places of radical differences, not a tone of strife and negativity but one that allows that other person to flourish. We can say all the right things and do all the right things, but if we have the wrong tone we can crush the heart of a child or choke the life out of our spouse. Today we are going to examine and apply one of the most recognizable and beautiful passages in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, as well as a passage in Romans to help reset the tone of our relationships. I’m going to read the passage first, and then we’ll talk about it and apply it, so turn with me in your Bibles or the ones under the seat in front of you to 1 Corinthians 13, and we’ll start with v. 4: Slide: ____________________) 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails... Imagine a home where love as just described set the tone of the home, and that’s what we are going to talk about and then work on this week. How do we make this the tone of our home and what would that even look like? You can follow along with me in your outline that you were given when you came in. Slide: ________________) 1) Change the Rules (Defy Gravity) There is so much in these verses, and all of us would want to relate this way and set a tone of love that was patient and kind, not easily angered and not holding grudges, and that is easy to do when the other person is doing the same thing, or when they are doing what we want them to do. It’s easy to be kind to a kind person. It’s easy to be patient with our kids when they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. That’s why even though most marriages don’t end up making it, almost all marriages make it through the honeymoon. You are in love, in an ideal environment, no pressure, no expectations of each other. You are just on the beach and in love. At some point though the honeymoon is over, and reality kicks in, and you realize that your ideal man or woman isn’t so ideal after all. Same with kids. When you first see your child, they are this completely innocent little baby and you look at them and you think, “Wow, he or she is just perfect. I can’t ever imagine this little baby causing any problems.” And then they turn two, and then they become teenagers, and doing the whole 1 Corinthians 13 thing isn’t so easy. We can talk about having a good tone when the other person is doing what we want, but why do that? Instead, I want to talk about choosing a tone of love when the other person is doing the opposite of what we think, because that’s when we typically give ourselves permission to temporarily throw this passage out of our Bibles. We are going to talk about changing the rules, defying relational gravity. By relational gravity, I’m talking about the negative spiral that naturally and immediately starts when you hurt me or wrong me or frustrate me, and then I respond in kind, and then you respond in kind, and then I do so again, and so on, and we spiral down to some pretty low places. That’s the natural thing to do. It’s relational gravity, just like when I drop this ball; it’s pretty predictable what’s going to happen. It’s not going up, it’s going down. In relationships, relational gravity is just as predictable. You hurt me, I’m going to hurt you back. You wrong me, I’m going to get even. Even if it takes awhile, I am now holding a grudge, and I’m going to make you pay. You frustrate me, and I’m going to put you back in your place. It feels like justice to do so. So, our spouse treats us badly or blows an expectation we have for them, and we react. The spiral starts going downhill. Our kid does something wrong or is disrespectful or irresponsible, and boom, there goes gravity. Once gravity starts, we feel very justified in throwing 1 Corinthians 13 out the window, and we justify being rude and impatient and unkind and being angry quickly and holding on to that anger in the form of a grudge. Yet, as Christ-followers we are called to respond in a very different way that breaks the cycle and sets a whole different tone in that home or that relationship. We choose to love at all times. Romans 12:21 tells us how to respond when someone wrongs or frustrates us: Slide: ___________________) Romans 12:21 (NIV) Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. You choose to break the laws of relational gravity and overcome evil with good, you respond to wrong with right, you choose love always. So, if someone acts immature or foolish or hurtful, you don’t respond in kind. You don’t sink to that level. You don’t let that set the tone. Instead, you break the spiral and respond with love. That’s not easy to do though. It’s amazing what a spouse or a child can do to you, how easily you can sink to the level of a two year old or a 16 year old. Someone told me this week that as they were driving home from church, this mom and her teenage daughter pulled up next to them at a light, and they were arguing in the car, and the mom was just going off on her kid, who I’m sure frustrated the heck out of her. Soon, the mom threw something at her daughter, which I’m sure felt good at the moment. I’ve been there. They then drove away, and guess what was on the back of their car? A Chase Oaks sticker. One of us! Because we’ve all been there. It could have been me, but I’m not a mom and I don’t have a daughter. Hey, if you have toddlers or teenagers, you’ve done the gravity thing too. It’s natural. Proverbs 29:22 says, Slide: ____________________) Proverbs 29:22 (NIV) An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered one commits many sins. Anger is maybe the biggest reason we choose sin over love, and allow relational gravity to do its evil work. In an angry moment, I can justify a toxic tone and violating love feels right. And our lives are so stressful that it makes all this even easier to get it wrong. In the moment, it feels so right but in the aftermath we realize our oops after the damage is done. You can probably all remember something someone you love said to you in anger that hurt you. It may have been 30 years ago, but you still remember it. You can probably remember things you’ve done or said in anger that wounded too. So easy to jettison 1 Corinthians 13 when we get frustrated or angry, but we have to learn the opposite response, and choose to overcome evil with good. We may have to call a time out and go to separate corners before responding to each other when we are mad. That’s fine. But so much damage happens when we are frustrated, and the gravity spiral leads to soul damage and relational damage 100% of the time. Instead, choose to break the laws of relational gravity that allows you to respond to evil with good. You can still speak the truth about how you feel and correct a wrong attitude or action. You just speak the truth in love, as Ephesians says. Rather than being rude and angry and spiteful, you choose to be patient and kind and respectful. As a Christ-follower, you’ve got to be the one to break the downward spiral so that the tone of the home isn’t ruined, so that hearts don’t get crushed, so that regrets don’t build, and so that you don’t shut down the willingness of your kid or teenager to communicate with you or open up to you in the future. In that tense moment, you choose to overcome evil with good. Slide: ___________________) 2) Believe the Best (Defy Logic) What I’m about to say does defy logic. It isn’t necessarily rational, but it is a choice that love makes that changes the whole tone of a home or a marriage. These next couple of verses in 1 Corinthians 13 are just crazy verses, and when people describe love as making you crazy, this is a great illustration of that. Let’s look at 13:7, and this is one crazy passage: Slide: ___________________) 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NIV) [Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Notice the repetition of “always” here. This is what love does. It always protects, believes, hopes, and perseveres. The New American Standard translation reads: bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Another way to say this is that love is incredibly generous toward the other person, always. Love chooses to believe all things and hope all things. Love chooses to believe the best, to see the other person through the lens of incredible generosity and just assume that if you don’t know the motives of the other person, that they are probably really great. Love sets this crazy, generous tone that says, “I believe you. I trust you. I’m not going anywhere. And I’m always holding out hope for you.” That is a very different tone than most marriages and in most parent-child relationships. Rather than a negative, mistrusting, I’ve got to watch you all the time because you are so messed up tone, it is just this positive, trusting, “I am for you and I believe in you” tone that sometimes defies logic. Let’s talk about how this generous tone craziness affects marriage. A few years ago I read a book by Marcus Buckingham, who wrote Now Discover Your Strengths and other best-selling books. This one was called, The One Thing You Need to Know. Although the book is not about marriage, he illustrates the one thing you need to know at the beginning of the book with an illustration that comes out of one of the largest marriage studies ever done. This marriage study was a study done on hundreds of marriages of ten years plus that by various standards were good marriages, to find what these good marriages had in common. They found one primary common denominator, and the finding blew all their expectations out of the water. None of them expected that to be the one thing they all had in common. They assumed that these marriages would be couples who had a very accurate and realistic view of each other, and had realistic expectations of that other person based on those. That love is not blind for these couples, but highly informed. What they found was the opposite. What they found was that for these couples, love is blind. They irrationally see the other person as being much better than they are, and they treat them accordingly. They choose to believe the best. Here’s the way Buckingham worded it: Slide: ____________________) The one thing: Find the most generous explanation for each other’s behavior and believe it. The one thing was an overly generous view of their partner that caused them to interpret everything through that positive lens. They just refused to go negative. When they described their partner, they were irrationally generous and worded their weaknesses as strengths. So her husband was not impatient, he was intense. His wife was not lazy but laid-back and fun-loving. He was not insensitive, but highly-focused. They focused on the positive and chose always to believe the best. They chose a positive tone for the marriage that allowed trust and love to then flourish. They were for each other. The same is true in parenting. Massive amounts of research have demonstrated the reality of self-fulfilling prophecies in child- raising, how we create in our kids what we believe our kids are and are becoming. Our kids become what they feel we think they are. If that means we think they are a pain in the rear, that’s what they will become. Or, on the positive side, if they feel our belief in them, they tend to rise to that level of belief. In the biblical era, one way that this was communicated was through names. When people named their children, they did so carefully and the names meant something. Names like “faithful,” and “God is my focus.” Not, klutz or moron. An interesting Bible study is to look at names of Bible characters, and you see how these people actually grow into their names, so much so that sometimes you think the Bible had to cheat...that they had to be named after they grew up, not before. Just think about how God fathers us, how he views us. He does so with a generous, positive tone. The Bible says that God delights in us multiple times. One of the more dramatic verses is in a song we sometimes sing about God dancing and singing over his children with delight, from Zephaniah. God is patient with us, as Psalm 103 so eloquently says: Slide: ____________________) Psalm 103:13-14 (NIV) As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. He believes in us, and focuses on our strengths, not our weaknesses. The Bible emphasizes our gifts, not our deficiencies, which means we should do the same with our own kids. Our kids should feel the same. They should never feel like an object of our disgust, but of our delight, not our shame but our pride, not our pain but our pleasure. That’s true even in discipline, which we will talk about next week. This sets the tone of our discipline, so that rather than words or a tone that communicates, “You are such a screw up. You always do the wrong thing and you never choose what’s right,” you change the tone. It’s more, “I love your strong will, but this time you chose to cross a line that I can’t let you cross without consequences.” The point here is to have an overly generous view of our kids that sets a positive tone of belief, and that is rare. Of all the things I am thankful for in my life, near the very top is how my parents did this for me. I have said this before, but I cannot remember one second in my life where I doubted the fact that my parents love me and believe in me and are cheering me on in life. That foundation is one that I do not take for granted, and one that I certainly want to give my own kids as their dad. We take Collin to college this week, and when he is going to bed in his dorm room (same with Caleb), I want him to go to sleep with the reality that his mom and dad treasure him and believe in him and are cheering him on in life to do what God has put him on this planet to do. We can say those words to our kids, but if the tone in which we relate with them doesn’t match, it renders the words hollow. A negative, suspicious, condescending tone robs our kids and teenagers of dignity, and they will struggle with a low self- esteem or they will get as far away from us as quickly as they can to get out of the toxic environment our negative tone creates. So, how would you describe the tone you set as a husband or wife in your marriage? What would your spouse say? How about the tone you set with your kids? What would your kids say? For some of you, we actually asked your kids last week in Kidzone and made a video of their responses. We got some pretty shocking responses, so I hope you won’t be too embarrassed, but go ahead and show the video. I’m kidding. Wouldn’t do that to you, and we all have our less than perfect moments on this tone thing. Yet, this is one we need to get right. You and I, as parents, are the ones who are responsible for the tone in our home, not our kids. For kids to flourish, that tone must be one of unwavering belief in them. Slide: ___________________) 3) Keep on Loving (Defy entropy) The last little statement in 1 Corinthians 13 is a good statement for us to go home with: Love never fails. Love doesn’t quit, even when it gets hard. It just keeps on going. Love always holds out hope, grace, and forgiveness. One of the most biblically important concepts about God as our father is an Old Testament, Hebrew word, pronounced hesed , and often translated “lovingkindness” or “unending love” in some translations. It is God choosing to love us with a never ending love. His love never exhausts. He just keeps loving, regardless of our performance. For you and me as parents, we must love the same way, but that isn’t easy. Marriage and parenting can be really exhausting, and therefore maintaining a 1 Corinthians 13 tone in our home can be easy for a little while to maintain, but hard over a long period of time. For this to happen, it means we must stay close to God and we must manage our own lives well. Staying close to God, in his Word, in prayer, keeps us in touch with his delight in us, how he loves us, which then helps us treat others the same way. He also empowers us to keep us going. Managing our own lives well is also so important, because stress is not a friend to a healthy tone in the home. We need to manage our stress and those things that stress us out so that we can be loving. The other night I came in from a day where I had meetings from 8 in the morning to ten at night, and after 14 hours of meetings, I was spent and stressed and I was one grumpy guy by the time I got home. And that was my fault for not managing my day better than I did. I could have managed it better, to insert a little bit of rest or recreation into it so that I could be more effective in those meetings and more loving at home, but I didn’t. So, I was kind of a jerk. Every once in a while, that’s going to happen, but I sure don’t want it to be my pattern. I don’t want it to be the way my kids describe me one day to their kids. We need to stay close to God and manage our lives well if we are going to be spouses and parents who foster a good tone in the home; otherwise, it won’t happen. Where is your stress level right now? How could you manage your life better, in a way that makes you far more effective at setting the kind of tone that helps a family flourish and not falter? This week we realized that our main air-conditioning unit is going out, which is not good in 110 degree weather. Nor is it good for our pocketbook. Between car expenses and this, so far life is not making our Go Boldly commitment easy, but that’s okay; God will provide what we need to be faithful to that. But on the house, what I want is to be able to come in and set the thermometer to a healthy temperature, one where we can flourish as a family. So, on this tone element, picture yourself looking at the thermostat now, and what is the temperature of your home? What is the tone you are setting? To get more specific, let’s review the message: First, defying relational gravity. How are you doing there? This week, make a choice to stop the negative spiral and choose to overcome evil with good. Choose to respond with kindness, and patience, and respect. Don’t sink below the level of what love would do. How about defying logic with how we view our kids? Are you irrationally generous in the way you see your kids in a way that comes across in your parenting of them? Do they believe you believe in them completely, trust them, choose to believe the best when you don’t know what’s going on? And last, are you defying entropy by leaning on God to love well and lead your home with a healthy tone? Great questions as we go to God in prayer. This week, let’s ask for God’s help in changing the tone of our home. www.chaseoakschurch.org

MESSAGE SUMMARY One of the most used (if not  over used) terms of our culture is the term  dysfunctional . It has become the chic descriptor of flawed and broken people and especially families. Too often this expression is used as an excuse to justify bad behaviors in other people. But this story of Jacob and Laban yields much insight into human behavior as well as divine intervention. Here we discover three levels of relational interaction and family dynamics. STUDY GUIDE Connect Recap Notes: June 3, 2018 Speaker: Skip Heitzig Teaching: "Families Are Dysfunctional... but God" Text: Genesis 31 PATH One of the most used (if not overused) terms of our culture is the word dysfunctional. It has become the chic descriptor of flawed and broken people and especially families. Too often this expression is used as an excuse to justify bad behaviors in other people. But this story of Jacob and Laban yields much insight into human behavior as well as divine intervention. Here we discover three levels of relational interaction and family dynamics. I. Every Family Is Dysfunctional (vv. 1-2) II. God Can Function in Dysfunction (v. 3)  III. Growth Is Seeing God Instead of Dysfunction (vv. 4-11) Points Every Family is Dysfunctional (vv. 1-2) Families are like fudge: they're mostly sweet but sprinkled with a few nuts. You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family --- but you can choose to adjust to your family. In Genesis 31, we find two dysfunctional families --- Jacob's and Laban's. Consider the family of Jacob, the grandson of Abraham: His parents played favorites. Esau and Jacob were twins: Esau was born first, but Jacob had grabbed Esau's heel at birth, a symbol of reversed birth order and blessing. God said Esau would serve Jacob, but their father, Isaac, preferred Esau and fought against God's prediction. Jacob connived and deceived and ultimately tricked Esau out of his birthright for a mere bowl of stew. When Isaac was old, Jacob and his mother, Rebekah, conspired to deceive Isaac into blessing Jacob. As a result, Jacob had to flee Esau's wrath and was sent away to his uncle Laban's house. Consider Laban's dysfunction: Laban was a master deceiver. He had promised Jacob his daughter, Rachel, in marriage, but on their wedding night, Laban switched Rachel for his older daughter, Leah. Jacob had two wives, two surrogate (concubine) wives, lots of kids, and many problems. Every person --- and every family --- has issues. We are all dysfunctional. The culprit is sin which affects every person and every family. Jesus described humans as poor, brokenhearted, captives, blind and oppressed (see Luke 4:18). Probe: If you're comfortable sharing, describe some of the dysfunctional aspects of the family you grew up in. How did you cope with the dysfunction? God Can Function in Dysfunction (v. 3) A dysfunctional family never stopped God from blessing a family and working through them. Our perfect God uses imperfect people; our holy God works through unholy people. There is no other kind of people for Him to use.. Amid dysfunction, God spoke to Jacob and Laban. God did not withhold truth until Jacob got it together or got past his dysfunction. God spoke and led despite imperfect relationships and circumstances. Taking failure as the final word is to fail. To grow, we must learn from failure. Don't let your failure define you; make your failure serve you. God reserves the right to use people who disagree with us and don't like us. God uses as He chooses. Probe: Share a time when God worked through a dysfunctional situation in your life. What were the circumstances? How did God work despite them? Growth Is Seeing God Instead of Dysfunction (vv. 4-11) Jacob grew. He included God in his situation and acted. He gathered his family together to discuss the problems. He was honest and candid. He revealed a new way of seeing, of processing evil and pain. Jacob wore a new set of glasses with lenses that focused on God, not garbage: but God bifocals. Jacob knew that bad things happen, but he set his gaze on God. Jacob's actions revealed: God's presence (v. 5): When life gets weird, it's easy to feel like God has abandoned you, but He doesn't. He is right there with you. God's protection (v. 7): "…but God did not allow him to hurt me." God's partnership (v. 9): God gave Jacob a new life. Jacob looked at God, who functioned despite dysfunction. Other biblical heroes also wore but God bifocals: Joseph: "You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good…" (Genesis 50:20). David: "David stayed in…the wilderness…. Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand" (1 Samuel 23:14). Ezra: "They refused to obey…. But You are God…" (Nehemiah 9:17). Paul: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God…" (Romans 8:28). The right glasses let you see the divine hand; they pull back the curtain of God's providence. No matter how bad things have been, don't let dysfunction define you; God is able to function in your dysfunction. Probe: What steps can you take to put on a new set of glasses—but God bifocals—and step away from dysfunction? Focus on the Family counselor Tim Sanford recommends these steps: become aware, take ownership, purposefully observe, educate ourselves about dysfunction, evaluate relationships, read Proverbs, practice healthy living, and be patient.1 What else can you think of? Practice Connect Up: The Christian life has three stages: justification (salvation), sanctification (being conformed into the image of Christ), and glorification (going home to the Lord upon death)—all part of His desire for us to overcome our dysfunction. How can we better partner with God in the sanctification process, turning dysfunction into function, and clothing ourselves with the character of Christ? Read Colossians 3:12-17 for insight. Connect In: Though we wish it wasn't, the church is full of dysfunctional people, at times mimicking a biological family. How are we to handle one another when dysfunction arises within the church? Read and discuss these verses: Matthew 18:15-20; Philippians 2:1-4; James 4:7-12. Connect Out: How would you explain to an unbeliever the fact that saved people are still sinners (see 1 John 1:10), at times acting dysfunctional? How would you share the process of going from spiritual dysfunction to function via the gospel? Tim Sanford, "Eight Steps to Break Up a Cycle of Family Dysfunction," May 19, 2014, http://www.boundless.org/adulthood/2014/8-steps-to-break-a-cycle-of-family-dysfunction , accessed 06/03/18. DETAILED NOTES I. Introduction A. You can't choose your family, but you can choose to adjust to and add positivity to your family B. The term dysfunctional family has been used since the 1960s to describe families that have problems that follow children into the next generation C. Dysfunctional is overused, but dysfunction is pervasive II. Every Family Is Dysfunctional (vv. 1-2) A. Genesis 27-33 chronicles one messed up family: Jacob, his wives Rachel and Leah, and his father-in-law, Laban B. Jacob both came from and married into a dysfunctional family 1. Dysfunctional people tend to attract dysfunctional people 2. Jacob and Laban were two peas in a dysfunctional pod C. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are biblical heroes, but lying and deception was practiced and passed on for generations 1. Jacob's parents played favorites: Isaac preferred Esau; Rebekah preferred Jacob (see Genesis 25:28) 2. God predicted Esau, the oldest, would serve Jacob, the youngest (see Genesis 25:23); Isaac fought against God's prediction 3. Jacob connived, deceived, and tricked Esau out of his birthright in exchange for a bowl of stew (see Genesis 25:29-33) 4. When Isaac was old, Jacob and Rebekah conspired to deceive Isaac into giving Jacob his blessing (see Genesis 27) D. Jacob fell in love with Rachel, whose father, Laban, was a master deceiver (see Genesis 29:18-28) 1. Laban forced Jacob to work for him for seven years in order to marry Rachel 2. On their wedding night, Laban switched Rachel for his older daughter, Leah 3. Jacob worked seven more years for Laban to finally marry Rachel E. Jacob had two wives, two concubine wives, lots of kids, and many problems F. Every human has their issues that affect their family and the family they marry into 1. We don't function the way God intended 2. Dysfunction is the result of sin (see I Corinthians 15:21) 3. Even the church is dysfunctional 4. Jesus described humans as poor, brokenhearted, captives, blind, and oppressed (see Luke 4:18) III. God Can Function in Dysfunction (v. 3) A. A dysfunctional family never stopped God from functioning, blessing, or working through that family 1. God spoke to Jacob (see v. 3) 2. God spoke to Laban (see v. 24) B. Perfect God works through and uses imperfect people; Holy God speaks to and works through unholy people 1. There is no other kind of people for Him to use (see I Corinthians 1:27) 2. Peter failed; Moses failed; David failed; Abraham failed; Isaac and Jacob failed 3. Taking failure as the final word is to fail; learning from failure is to grow 4. Don't let your failure define you --- make your failure serve you C. God reserves the right to use people who disagree with you, who don't like you IV. Growth Is Seeing God Instead of Dysfunction (vv. 4-11) A. Jacob demonstrated real spiritual growth (see vv. 4-8) 1. He included God in his situation 2. He gathered his family together to discuss the problems; he was honest and candid 3. candid He revealed a new way of seeing, of processing evil and pain; the lens through which he now viewed his life and events was but God bifocals 4. He acknowledged God's presence (see v. 5), God's protection (see v. 7), and God's partnership (see v. 9) B. Jacob saw the functioning God rather than the dysfunction around him C. Other biblical heroes also wore but God bifocals 1. Joseph (see Genesis 50:20) 2. David (see I Samuel 23:14) 3. Ezra (see Nehemiah 9:17) 4. Paul (see Romans 8:28) V. Closing A. But God bifocals let you see the divine hand; they pull back the curtain of providence B. Let's interpret life through the lens of but God bifocals C. God is never intimidated by our flaws of failures; He can match all our dysfunction with His faithfulness D. The gospel --- the cross --- is the greatest example of how God functions in our dysfunction Figures referenced: James Montgomery Boice, George Burns, Richard Carl Hoefler, J.I. Packer, George Bernard Shaw Cross references: Genesis 25:23, 28, 29-33; 27; 29:18-28; 31; 50:20; 1 Samuel 23:14; Nehemiah 9:17; Luke 4:18; Romans 8:28; 1 Corinthians 1:27; 15:21 Topic: Family Keywords: birthright, blessing, deceive, dysfunctional, failure, family, providence

Following Jesus as an act of resistance to our cultural push toward hurry, hustle, distraction and shallowness. Most of our greatest mistakes tend to come when we’re in a hurry. Maybe the life Jesus invites us to is to move more at the pace of grace. We are not anti-work, we are anti-hurry. As followers of Jesus, we're called to walk in the way of love and one simply can not love in a hurry. Join us as we seek to slow down. We’ll lean into some practices and rhythms that help us live unhurried, so we can actually build up our life with God and others. As followers of Christ, we must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives." –Dallas Willard To live more unhurried...to move more at the pace of grace. To continue to put roots down into the practical nature of what it means to align ourselves with Jesus, his teachings and his rhythms/practices — SO THAT we grow to be more and more like him... The practices of slowing, of simplicity, of solitude and silence — the more you lean into them will craft your soul and cultivate your heart to reflect more of Jesus - that’s part of that great invitation of Jesus... Practicing the life rhythms of my Savior, with HELP from my Savior, will actually enable me to live more like my Savior. Matthew 11:28-30 NIV 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Quote: “It’s because it kills love that hurry is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life. Hurry lies behind much of the anger and frustration of modern life. –John Ortberg Hurriedness leads us into reactionary living & selfish living, but living unhurried – frees us to respond intentionally and lovingly. Q) Do you know the most described emotion of Jesus we see in the Scriptures? Exodus 34:5-8 5 The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, “the Lord.” 6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished...8 Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped. Psalm 103:8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. Matthew 9:35-36 35 Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. if this is the most described emotion of Jesus — the real question must become: is this the most described emotion of his followers? Of you? WE see in the life of Jesus dazzling displays of empathy and compassion... Empathy is the ability to recognize, understand, and share the thoughts and feelings of another. Empathy is the ability to feel what someone else feels, to exit our own feelings and enter the experiences of others. Thus, empathy is the ability to see the world through others' pain. Compassion is the outworking of empathy. In a culture that cultivates empathy and compassion, people will not be made to feel invisible - they will be seen and heard. WE must become people and a church - a place where people are seen and heard. Where love notices and responds and that people feel it. We must develop an “empathy radar” with an instinctive bias toward acts of grace, peace, mercy, and goodness for everyone. Empathy notices Compassion responds 4 practices to grow in compassion: Remembering the compassion we received. Mark 5:18-20 NKJV 18 And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. 19 However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” 20 And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled. 4 practices to grow in compassion: Remembering the compassion we received. Listening “Ask 1 more question” principle — listening might be the superpower the world needs more of... Rejoicing and Mourning (see Romans 12:15) Serving Acts 20:35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” We must become more like Jesus - deliberately cultivating Compassion Don’t grow old and grow grumpy -- grow in compassion like Christ. Truth: The greatest apologetic for our theology is the way we treat people. Unless, of course, we act like a jerk. Then, the greatest threat to our theology is the way we treat people. Quote: "As followers of Christ, we must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives." –Dallas Willard

Luke 15:11-32; Genesis 2-3 •SLIDE #1: (Slide of Prodigal son as soon as offering special concludes and I walk to the pulpit.) •BUILD SLIDE #2A: Most people love Christmas time. People love the hype—joy—families—gifts •BUILD SLIDE #2B: But not everyone will enjoy this Christmas. Some will experience it alone. We received several emails this week from lonely singles. One newly divorced: “I dread enduring this holiday, alone.” Aloneness reaches deep into the inner recesses of the human heart. No one likes to be alone. •SLIDE #3: I was flying recently to Orlando: girl on airplane: Celestine Prophecy: spiritual search. Why? Stillborn baby: I am going to tell you what she said, it is integral to the story. Comfort Catholics. What I am about to share happens at times in every church. RCC priest refused to baptize child. “I am so sorry.” Comforted her. She broke from anger to hurt to sorrow. “Four miscarriages.” What do you think I am thinking? (Don’t try any more.) No. I’m thinking, “I bet she endured all four miscarriages alone. We husbands can be so clueless. So, I said to her, “I bet he had no idea what you were going through. You carried that baby. You were already getting close to that child. Your husband just kind of blew it off. He had no idea what you were going through.” She got real quiet. “I am so sorry.” Comforted her. What was I doing? “I was ministering to her aloneness. She endured some of life’s toughest events—alone. Ministering to people’s aloneness reaches to the deepest recesses of the human heart. •BUILD SLIDE #4A: Genesis 3, Adam fell and God dealt with fallenness: “I will send a savior to die in your place in payment for your sins.” •BUILD SLIDE #4B: Before God ever ministered to Man’s fallenness, He first ministered to Man’s aloneness in Genesis 2. •SLIDE #5: Adam was alone and “it is not good to be alone.” The struggle with aloneness is a big deal. We fight it throughout our entire lifetimes. •SLIDE #6: STORY of kid in airport in Orlando. Mom with 5-year-old and two year old toddler. Put them in play area with tv. Hear them playing and singing along with tv children’s video. Suddenly, this piercing voice, “Mommy? Mommy!?? Mommy!!!!!” Came running from the play area. He realized he was alone and he didn’t like it. •SLIDE #7: See him grow up to teenage years. He still won’t like to be alone. Why do teenagers congregate in cliques? They don’t want to be alone. They will even see another teenager hurting and alone and they will even join with their clique in ostracizing and teasing mercilessly another if that is what the group does, just to stay part of the group—so deep is the need not to be alone. •SLIDE #8: I imagined him 80 years from now, old and frail, and his children sit down with him and say, “Dad, it is time to put you in a nursing home.” Sorrow, he is going to be alone. It is not good to be alone. •SLIDE #9: Let me tell you the natural, human response to loneliness. Self Reliance: “I am alone, well, I can make it on my own. I don’t have any needs and if I do I will take care of them myself, thank you.” Self condemnation: “I am not good enough to have any friends. No wonder no one likes me.” Selfishness: “I have needs and to meet those needs I am going to take from you.” •SLIDE #10: Let me show you something else. This is also what fallenness looks like. It looks just like our natural response to our aloneness: Self Reliance; Self condemnation; and Selfishness. •SLIDE #11: The human response to loneliness of Genesis 2 looks just like the manifestation of our Fallen sin nature in Genesis 3. This stuff is all over the Bible. •SLIDE #12: This is why the fallenness of sin is so terrible. It isolates us from God and from others. It makes us alone. The story of the Prodigal Son, the Elder Brother and their Dad is a story of self-reliance, self- condemnation and selfishness which brought loneliness and isolation among people who longed to enjoy closeness, support and companionship. READ Luke 15:11-12: Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. •SLIDE #13: What symptom of fallenness do we see here in the younger son? “Give me” is selfishness. This reminds me of the man at Casas who won a trip for two to Hawaii and was so selfish that he went twice. What does this selfishness produce? (pause) Aloneness. How do you think the father felt? Father’s feelings: “Dad, I wish you were dead.” Talk about separation. Now the boy is alone and the dad is very much alone. STORY of selfish man at MacDonald’s at breakfast. Noticed couple coming in. Shabby dress. Looked for coins in telephone, and newspaper box. Man enters. Couple looking at menu and I hear him say, “Well, get out of the way. If you don’t know how to get in line, I do. I have to go to work and you don’t look like you are going anywhere. I don’t have all day.” “Well, I guess, I don’t have anything much to do today.” Silence in the room. Total separation. Sensed that the man was very much alone. “You look like you’ve had a hard morning. May, I buy your breakfast?” I was ministering to his aloneness. Was the selfish man alone? Yes. I was too angry at the moment to minister to his aloneness. He was hurting, too. Selfishness is a terrible thing. READ Luke 15: 13-15: "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. •SLIDE #14: What is this? Self-reliance. Neediness presented itself so Prodigal handled it with self-reliance. Lost it all, “I will get a job and take care of this.” Taken to its ultimate end, self-reliance produces extreme aloneness. Self reliant people won’t let you minister to their needs and they become very insensitive and intolerant of other people’s neediness. They end up very alone. Julie and I were in Albany NY several months ago leading a conference for pastor’s and wives on how to heal the hurts of ministry. One pastor’s wife was hurting and very alone. Handled her hurt and loneliness by self-reliance. She had recently written a poem about her feelings toward life. Based on Beatitudes. •SLIDE #15: Blessed are the poor in spirit. No, Blessed are the strong, who are always in control and never show weakness. •SLIDE #16: Blessed are those who mourn, No, Blessed are those who deny their pain and deaden their hearts—they need no comfort. •SLIDE #17: Blessed are the meek. No, Blessed are the survivors who need no one and depend only on themselves. •SLIDE #18: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, No, Blessed are those who have killed their longings, who no longer have any expectations---nothing will disappoint them. •SLIDE #19: Blessed are the merciful, No, Blessed are those who have minimized the damage in their soul so that there is no need for mercy or forgiveness for “nothing bad really happened.” •SLIDE #20: Blessed are the peacemakers, No, Blessed are those who keep the peace at any cost (even to the peril of their own soul) so that conflict, self-revelation and the possibility of rejection is avoided at all costs. What do you say to a woman like that? Fortunately, I know what to say. We will talk about that on January 2 as we enter the new millennium. READ Luke 15:16-19: He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' •SLIDE #21: What is this? Self-condemnation. Slopping pigs: “My father’s hired hands do better than this. But I am not worthy...” is self condemnation. •SLIDE #26: READ Luke 15:20a: So he got up and went to his father. Picture the Prodigal: Selfishness failed. Self-reliance was a disaster. “I am not worthy.” Utterly defeated. Completely humiliated. Utterly alone. It doesn’t get any lower than this. Close eyes and allow the Lord to identify you with the Prodigal in your self-reliance, selfishness, and self- condemnation. He imagines in his mind his father’s response. Accusations: Where have you been? What have you done? What happened to the Money? Endless questions. Comparisons between him and his elder brother. Scolding and shaming him for all his sins Now, look up here: What sets us free, folks, is the prodigal’s next experience: So much dysfunctional views of God that we don’t have the right view of the Father. •SLIDE #27: Look at the dad with outstretched arms. READ Luke 15:20: "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” Picture the Father as he comes running off the front porch, arms outstretched, wounded side, nail prints. Runs to embrace. This is the picture Jesus gives us of the dad when we have allowed self-reliance, selfishness, and self- condemnation to make us prodigal. READ Luke 15:21-24: “The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate. Father hardly heard the words. Best robe, probably had it made up for him. Symbolic reminder. Never thought he’d use it. Sandals: he had no shoes. Ring for finger Feast: hungry. This is how God accepts us back. If we see this picture with awe and wonder we can be free from self- reliance, selfishness, and self-condemnation. •SLIDE #28: Meanwhile, all is not well at home. READ Luke 15: 25-28: "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. READ Luke 15:29-30: But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!' •SLIDE #29: Father’s response: “But you had me.” READ Luke 15:31-32: "My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." He wanted a relationship with his dad and never saw it. If you look closely you will see again the problem of aloneness and fallenness with the elder brother: He was blinded by self-reliance, self-condemnation and selfishness. Glenn will deal with the elder brother next week. Let me go just a little deeper here. Reflect on the hurting heart of God. •SLIDE #30: Here is a picture of Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal. Now, his younger son has come home; it is time for rejoicing —and the elder brother stands by in anger and isolation—and the Father has to rejoice (what?) alone. It is time to minister to his long-lost, son—and He has to minister (what?) alone. This is why he pleaded with the elder brother to come to the party. He did not want to minister alone. I want to read a poem written by my youngest child when she was in middle school. We found it on the floor one day after she had gone to school. It absolutely broke our hearts. It expresses the loneliness, isolation, self-condemnatory rejection felt by millions of Americans: •SLIDE #22: People come and people go, But never get attached “Cause usu’lly by the time you do They drop you down the hatch. •SLIDE #23: People only care about what you wear As stupid people do, But they never look inside of you To see the real, true you. •SLIDE #24: Older sisters let you know How awful that they feel But sometimes it is in a way That shoots straight for the kill. •SLIDE #25: I know that life is full of twists and turns And the occasional little loop, But I feel I have to tell you That I really feel like poop.” We were so busy that we had not seen this? Well, we knew she was hurting. Middle school is a tough time for a girl. God said, “Roger, I really want to minister to Bronwyn. Do you believe that?” “Yes, God.” “Well, Roger, too often I feel like I have to minister to her alone. I need you to help me.” Changed my whole view of parenting. My biggest job as a parent is to minister to her aloneness. When she called, we answered. Spent hundreds of hours with her. Now doing well in Germany. “I miss you, you and mom are my best friends.” Imagine God is wanting to minister to your wife, child, co-worker and there we stand by in criticism and judgment and isolation. God says, “You know what is breaking my heart? I want to minister to your wife, husband, children, friends, but, I am having to do this alone. I am pleading with you to help me. •SLIDE #31: You know God wanted to minister to that alone child in the airport in Orlando. He did not want to do it alone. He needed a mommy. •SLIDE #32: You know God wanted to minister to the aloneness of the spiritually searching girl on the airplane—but He was having a hard time doing it alone. “Roger, why don’t you minister to her aloneness and then introduce her to Me again.” When I ministered to the aloneness of the girl on the airplane, I had an open door to address her isolation from the father. I came down with the resurrection. Reached right into her heart. •SLIDE #33: There will be many lonely people this Christmas: Don’t let them spend Christmas alone. •SLIDE #27: When we see the Father’s heart, we can be fully and forever free of our self-reliance, selfishness, and self-condemnation.

CONSOLATION IN THE FIERY FURNACE DR. ROGER BARRIER Daniel 3:1-30 S-1445 •BACKGROUND SLIDE : Love jalapeños: The hotter the better Describe Queso appetizer Grabbed in fingers Incredible burn Ate meal with fingers in glass of ice water I have one verse in mind this morning from which we will take our text. •SLIDE # Daniel 3:25: "Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods." In this verse we see Muammar al-Gaddafi watching his three victims quietly surviving the fire which he had intended for their instant destruction. Did I say, “Muammar al-Gaddafi”? I meant King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon—2600 years ago. How do three of God’s men manage to end up in the furnace? •SLIDE # Daniel 3:1: “King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.” What kind of guy was Nebuchadnezzar? Totalitarian ruler over Babylon Hanging gardens one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world See his gate with giant lion reliefs Honored Daniel, Meshach and Abednego as young teenagers Dream of multi-metallic man: “You are the head of Gold.” Neb praised the name of Jehovah Sixteen years later and it has gone to his head. Egomaniac who thinks he is god. Grotesque: Statue: 90 feet by 9 feet is a 10:1 ratio. Tall and skinny. Average ratio of a man is 5 to 1. I know some 4 to 1 and some 3 to 2. Looks like missile set up at Cape Canaveral. “Plain of Dura” would be like the airport - Large expanse of territory which enabled a great multitude to assemble. •SLIDE # Big Tex at state fair is 52 feet tall: 75 gallon hat Not uncommon for a ruler to make posters and images of himself to remind people to submit and often to worship. Talk about over compensating. Monster truck and 5’3” guy gets out Called all high officials through out the kingdom for the dedication. •SLIDE # Daniel 3:4-6: “4 Then the herald loudly proclaimed, "This is what you are commanded to do, O peoples, nations and men of every language: 5 As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace." •SLIDE # Daniel 3:7: Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations and men of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Except for three men who did not cooperate. The royal orchestra began to play and the great multitude fell quickly on their faces while some cried urgently to the three who remained standing, “Get down! Didn’t you hear the music? Get down or you’re dead!” They stood out like sore thumbs. But from early childhood they had developed a relationship with God that went to the very core of their beings: Exodus 20:3-4: “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make any graven image of anything in heaven above or earth below and fall down and worship it.” Verse 3:13: Nebuchadnezzar blows his stack… Calls in the three Hebrews to give them a second chance! •SLIDE # Daniel 3:15: “… if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?" Fire is a horrible way to die. •SLIDE # Daniel 3:16-18: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." Goes both ways: look at their understanding: Our God is Able—but may choose not to. Not upset if God chooses for them to die in the flames. Times in God's sovereign will when He has more important plans for us in the furnace than out of the furnace. •SLIDE # Daniel 3:19-20: “Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual 20 and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace.” •SLIDE # Daniel 3:21-23: “So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. 22 The king's command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, 23 and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.” God delights in leading us into green pastures, but to be frank about it, we do not always think that the paths into which God leads us are very pleasant. Sometimes He takes us through the Valley Of Death. Some of you are wrestling with this because some of you are not walking in pleasant places. You have done what is right to the best of your ability; but even though you have done what is right, the furnace of testing is hotter than ever For you in particular Daniel 3 is included in the Bible. •SLIDE # Daniel 3:24-25: Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, "Weren't there three men that we tied up and thrown into the fire?" They replied, ‘Certainly, O king.’ He said, •SLIDE # Daniel 3:25: "Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods." This is a preincarnate appearance of Jesus Christ—who walked with Enoch, feasted with Abraham, wrestled with Jacob, spoke to Moses in the burning bush, spent the night in the Lion’s Den with Daniel, and came to be born in a manger. The Son of God has been in many fiery furnaces through out the ages. It makes no difference how hot the furnace or how severe the test, He will always be there. •SLIDE # Daniel 3:26: So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, 27 and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. We find the three saints in the fiery furnace, and to tell the truth, that is the place where God’s people are usually to be found. Ask any Christian and he’ll tell you, he’s always got problems. •SLIDE # FURNACES COME IN ALL SHAPED AND SIZES •SLIDE # ☻Some furnaces are kindled by people against other people. Business Troubles Slander Gossip Broken Relationships Persecution Julie and Sally •SLIDE # ☻Some fires are stoked Satan by furiously using a large bellows. Fires of Physical Pain and Suffering. Paul's Thorn Accusations. Mom: OK to go to Middle East. Turn for the worst: Come home. Ron, no plenty of time left. DFW: drove to hospital. Her bed empty—sheets stripped. Said the preachers’ curse word: “Boulder” biggest damn around. Satan: “If you were a good son, you would have been there. ☻SLIDE # Our broken world fires some furnaces. Japan earthquake (Already off the front page)—but pain is still going on Tsunamis Nuclear meltdowns (Many brave volunteers will not live a full and normal life.) Floods on Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri bring devastation to many. Tornadoes in South and Midwest ☻SLIDE # Some furnaces are fired up for God’s eternal purposes. John 9:1-3 How I deal with Jessie's death To appreciate the application of Daniel 3, we should look first into the second chapter of 1 Peter. As silver is purified in the furnace simply because it is silver, so saints are sometimes afflicted simply because they are saints. •SLIDE # 1 Peter 1:3-4: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you… SLIDE # 1 Peter 1:6-7: In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. DRAW CRUCIBLE OF REFINING GOLD. Men do not cut common pebbles, but the diamond is cut again and again with sharp cuttings – and so must be the believer in Christ. I can’t leave this point without observing that these holy men were helpless when thrown into the fire. READ Daniel 3:23. They were cast and bound – they fell down in the midst of the fire. How often we feel bound when we’re cast into the fire. So often a fit of fainting overtakes the saint at the beginning of his troubles – the very troubles in which afterward he’ll rejoice. But the present fills them with heaviness. Pity that plight to be in – none of us willingly choose it. Stages Of Loss Recovery: Disbelief—Anger—Grief—Depression—Resolution •SLIDE #: Daniel 3:26-27: Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!" So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. Now. let's learn some lessons from the midst of the fire. •SLIDE #: NOTICE WHAT WE LOSE IN THE FIRE The text is clear that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego lost something in the fire! Not turban, coats, pants, not one hair on their heads or beards - NO! What then? They lost their BONDS there —the ropes tying their hands: “Cast three men in bound? See four men loose!” The fire did not hurt them, but it burned away their bonds. Note carefully: Many of God’s servants never know the fullness of spiritual liberty until they are cast into the midst of the furnace. Corrie Ten Boom forgiving German soldier after the war. When Nebuchadnezzar had done his worst to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, what more could be done? Already heated the furnace, seven times hotter. He had done his worst. What more could there be to fear? •SLIDE #: NOTICE WHAT WE DON’T LOSE IN THE FLAMES CROWN: Nebuchadnezzar says, “And they have no hurt.” They did not lose anything there. The child of God loses nothing worth losing in the fiery flames. He doesn’t lose salvation, or garments – not one grain of heavenly treasure. In summary, he loses nothing. GIRL MARTYRS IN CHINA Chiu-Chin-Hsiu and Ho-Hsiu-Tzu Jiangxi, Mainland, China During the Red Guard era, 1966-69\ The two Christian girls waited in the Chinese prison yard for the announced execution. A fellow prisoner who watched their faces from his prison cell described their faces as pale but beautiful beyond belief; infinitely sad, but sweet. Chiu-Chin-Hsiu and Ho-Hsiu-Tzu had decided to submit to death rather than to renounce their faith in Christ. Flanked by renegade guards, the executioner came with a revolver in his hand. It was their pastor! He had been sentenced to die with the two girls. But, as on many other occasions in Christian history, the persecutors worked on him, tempting him. They promised to release him if he shot the two girls. He accepted. The girls whispered to each other, then bowed respectfully before their pastor. One of them said, “before you shoot us, we wish to thank you heartily for what you have meant to us. You baptized us, taught the ways of eternal life, you gave us holy communion with the same hand in which you now hold the gun. You also taught us that Christians are sometimes weak and commit terrible sins, but they can be forgiven again. When you regret what you are about to do to us, do not despair like Judas but repent like Peter. God bless you and remember that our last thought was not one of indignation against your failure. Everyone passes through hours of darkness. May God reward you for all the good you have done for us. We die with gratitude. They bowed again. The pastor pulled the trigger twice. Afterwards the Communists shot him. •SLIDE # NOTICE WHO WAS WITH S, M and E IN THE FURNACE It's in the furnace that we always have our nearest and dearest dealings with Jesus. Personal example. Psalm shadow of his wings Psalm 23 •SLIDE #: NOTICE WHAT DO SAINTS DO IN THE FURNACE? Praising God See Paul and Silas - prison stocks - yet sing for all to hear. I know you dread the furnace, brethren, but have courage. The Lord who permits that furnace to be heated will preserve you in it. Therefore, be not dismayed. •SLIDE #: 1 Corinthians 10:13: No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. DRAW: REFINING CRUCIBLE WITH LOVE THERMOMETER God never promised to keep us out of the fire. Instead, He promised to walk with us through the fire. •SLIDE #: ONE LAST THOUGHT. THE KING BECAME A BELIEVER WHEN HE SAW WHAT HAPPENED TO GOD’S PEOPLE IN THE FLAMES. •SLIDE #: Daniel 3:28-30: Then Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. •SLIDE #: Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way." Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon. I believe that’s probably where people see God in us more than in any other place. They see God in us when we are going through the fire. It is easy to be a Christian when everything is going great - but when the fire is hot and all our friends are watching - Do they see God in us? A couple in the Midwest came to Casas Of course suffering in the Midwest has been intense in recent years... factories shutting down... car industry on the rocks (Uh -- Roger -- how old is this? --TW) One particular Christian couple had suffered greatly. Both lost jobs. All benefits had run out. House foreclosure. Just eaking out a bare existence. Gaining assistance through local church benevolence funds. During this time their next door neighbors came to Christ. Someone asked them how they had come to Christ. They gave this testimony: “We lived next door to this Christian couple and we watched as God literally took away everything that they had - and we saw them with as mile on their faces, never complaining, but rejoicing in their faith. One night, after supper, we were talking about that and we said to each other, ‘Whatever they have, that’s what we need.’ We went over to their house and they led us to Christ.” When God frees us up from the things that bind you it is impressive. We become the sermon.

Reversing Demonic Consequences Dr. Tony Evans Mark 5:1-20 If you feel tortured by sin and demonic activity, the consequences of them can be completely reversed once you submit to the authority of Jesus Christ. Now, throughout Jesus's life in ministry, he had to deal with demons. When you read the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, he is constantly confronting physical realities with spiritual causation, demonic influence, oppression, or possession; where demons that infiltrated a situation, bringing destruction to a life or to a community because they were undetected or unaddressed. One of the more famous encounters of Jesus with demons is in Mark chapter 5, and that I want to use to bring this to your attention; so that in case you are dealing with a demon in your life and did not know it, you can become both aware and acquainted and seek to address that undiagnosed cause of everything else that may be wrong. Jesus has crossed the sea in verse 1 of chapter 5 of Mark. "He gets into the boat, and immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He had been dwelling among the tombs. No one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces. And no one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly, day and night he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains and gashing himself with stones". And the reality is, something is graphically wrong with him, but the root of his problem, it says, was an unclean spirit. The behind the craziness that we were looking at, that people observed was something that you could not see. It was a spirit that was unclean. Now, it's not that folk didn't try to help this guy. We're told they tried to shackle him. They tried to chain him. They tried to control him. They tried to manage him. And every time they tried to do something to control the anger, the outburst, the craziness, he shook it off. In other words, society couldn't help him, people couldn't help him, programs couldn't help him because the demons were so much in control. When you see yourself or others living an out-of-control life, this is not an out-of-control moment. This says day after day, night after night. In other words, Now, the demon is described with his nickname, an unclean spirit. He's going to be called a demon later, but right now he's just called an unclean spirit. And with that one phrase, we are introduced to the root of this man's problem. You see, demons go where dirt exist. So they look for unclean mess to make themselves at home. And when they come and infuse themselves through either influence, oppression, or domination and possession, they amplify what is already unclean. So it is unfortunate today that even though we're in church, we regularly have meals with the devil, and we don't even know he's being invited to dinner. Paul goes on to say in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 to 5, that the demonic world feeds on lies. See, the Scripture says Satan is the father of lies. He is a liar from the beginning and he's the father of lies, and any father has childrens. The demons, the ones who followed Satan's rebellion against God, or the unclean spirits gravitate towards lie. That's why it is in their interest to keep you from the truth because they feed on lies. So this demon thing is real. The problem is, it's unseen. It's invisible because it's spiritual. And this man's life has been taken over by the demonic, and he is now out of control. He's gotten worse and worse and worse. And I would like to submit to you, things in our lives that are dirt, that go unaddressed, ongoingly unrepented of invites demons, the demons come, make themselves at home and begin to reorganize the furniture in our lives so that we are carrying out their bidding not even knowing that it's them, and the way we know it is, it's getting worse and worse and worse even while we're taking over the-counter solutions. But because it's unseen and unfelt in terms of the spiritual nature of it, it goes unrecognized, unaddressed while we come to church because there's something else going on. This man, however, sees Jesus in verse 6 from a distance. He ran up and bowed down before him. So this man who's demon-possessed sees Jesus, and he comes down and he falls down on his knees in a posture of worship and submission. He bows down before Jesus in worship and submission, which creates a problem. Notice verse 7. "And shouting with a loud voice he said, 'What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the most high God? I employ you, by God, do not torment me.'" Okay, this now is getting very confusing. This is very confusing. The man runs and drops down in a posture of worship, but then the man says, "What do we have to do with you"? Wait a minute. I don't know if you follow that. The man that's a singular, that's a he dropped down in worship, but then the man says, "What do we have to do with you, oh Son of God"? So what the man does is he drags his demons to Jesus 'cause the demons are inside of him. They're controlling him. But he brings his demons to Jesus, and so, the question now is a group question. "What do we have to do with you, oh Son of God? Do not torment me". We did go back to singular. So we did go from singular to plural back to singular again because the man is battling with himself. When demons take over but Jesus is brought into the equation, there is going to be an internal conflict between what you want Jesus to do and what the demons want to do. He says, "Do not torment me". And it is in this tormenting phrase that this man drags his demons to Jesus, and he is now wrestling because the demons want to know, "Why you bring us here? We don't want this. Don't you torment us". What is the torment? Here it is. The spiritual is meeting the spiritual. For he had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit". Jesus asked him in verse 9, "What is your name? What is your name? Tell me your name". He's asking the man, him, "What is your name"? "My name is Legion for we are many, and we don't want to be tormented by you". Jesus is saying, "Come out of him". And he began to employ him. The man began to employ Jesus earnestly not to send them out of the country. "Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. The demons employed him, saying, 'Send us into the swine so that we may eat them.' Jesus gave them permission, and coming out of the unclean spirits entered the swine. The herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about 2.000 of them, and they were drowned in the sea". Oh, there's so much here. Number one, the demons asked for permission. That's 'cause even the devil can't do anything without God allowing it. They asked for permission, and what they asked for is, "If you're going to make us leave this man, give us another place to go". Because as you see in the movies, demons need host. They need something alive in order for them to express themselves because they are spirit. They're invisible although they are persons. They have intellect, emotion, and will. So they are persons, but they are invisible. So Luke 11:24-26 says that when they're in waterless places; that is, places without life, where there's no water, there's no life, when they're in waterless places, no life, they're looking for a place. They've got to express themselves. And so when they see dirt in our lives unaddressed, then they come upon us so that they can express their uncleanness in our uncleanness, making our uncleanness worse than the uncleanness it was before they arrived. And so they express themselves in us. Jesus says, "Come out". They say, "Well, will you allow us to go to the pigs"? Why? Why did Jesus say, "You can go to the pigs"? Simple. They're unclean animals. So he lets them leave an unclean man for an unclean animal because they can only flow where there's uncleanness that goes unaddressed. When they enter the swine, they go hog wild in pig-slop crazy. It says they run downhill and drown themselves because the goal of demons, one, is to always take you downhill. It is to div of your life, defeat your life, ravel up and tie up your life, destroy your life. Demons have one goal; that is, you go down, and their ultimate goal is suicide. It says that the pigs went out down the hill and drowned themselves. The difference between the pig and the man is that the pig doesn't have a soul and the man does. So there was some resistance in the man that does not exist in the pig. So when they went to the unclean pig, the unclean pig committed suicide. Jesus comes along and he addresses it because he addresses the spiritual cause, not merely the physical symptoms. The enemy looks for spaces, and we've all given him some at some time or another. He doesn't need a lot of space, he just needs it to be open and dirty. And if it is, he will seek to enter that space, bring his family behind him in order to bring demonic downturn into our lives. "The herdsmen," verse 14, "ran away and reported it to the city and in the country, and the people came to see what had happened. And when they came to Jesus, they observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed, and in his right mind, the very man who had had legion, and became frightened". Do you see what happened? It looks like a U-turn to me, looks like a reversal to me. He now has clothes on. He was naked. He was not in the tomb. He's out of the tomb. He was cutting himself. He's now in his right mind all because Jesus overruled the demonic, the spiritual. And when he overruled the spiritual, sanity came to the insane. Now, this man is way off 'cause he's had 2.000 demons. How many demons do you have, or do I have? Maybe you only have 2, maybe you have 200, or maybe 2.000. But the more the demon, the more the oppression, influence, and possession. Let's look at the herdsmen. Verse 17, "And they began to employ him to leave the region". They told Jesus, "Get out of here. We don't want you here". You would have thought they would have been grateful. You would have thought, "Boy, this man has a power to get rid of demons, to make insane people listen to him so he can work with everybody". You would have thought they would have been glad. They said, "Get him out of here". Why? "Get him out of here 'cause he costing us money". See, the pigs went and committed suicide. They were pigs' herdsmen. So when their pigs drowned, their money got funny. They said no more pork chop, no more pig feed, no more chitlins, no more ham hock. Sweet Georgia Brown got to shut down 'cause there is no more pig. "This man is costing us money. Get rid of Jesus. Let's keep the business coming even if we've got to keep the folk hooked". The man wanted to get in the boat with Jesus, in verse 18, who was demon possessed, employing him, Jesus, that he might accompany him. And Jesus said to him, "You go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you". That tells me right there the man needed mercy 'cause of how unclean he was. "And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed". I want to make two observations. When they told Jesus, "Get out of here," he left, 'cause Jesus doesn't want to be where he's not wanted. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man opens the door, I will come in and sup with him". But if you do not open the door for him, he will not stay where he's not welcome. He has to be welcomed in order for him to stay. But the second thing is, he told the man, "No, don't come at me. I want you to go to Decapolis". That's made of two words. Polis meaning city, decap meaning ten. "Go to the ten city region. You go home first, then you go to the ten cities in your community, and I want you to talk about what I did for you". So here's the deal. I challenge you to approach the downward hill of your life spiritually first. Do that first. Let's get to the right question first, the whole first, and see if there's a demonic thing by throwing yourself at the feet of Jesus in worship and submission. And yes, it may be tough at first because if it's demonically influenced they don't want to come out. They want to hold on to you as long as they can, but you keep throwing yourself at the face of Jesus. And like Jacob say, "I will wrestle with you till my change come". "But I am going to throw my face and submission to you, Jesus. That's what I am going to do". And then when he delivers you from your demonic infestation, you bet not keep that to yourself. You go to all the communities around and you let it be known, from family and friends and everybody you know in the surrounding neighborhoods. You go to Frisco and Plano and you let it be known, "Jesus Christ has delivered me, and I'm not keeping this to myself. Anybody who can deliver me from what I could not deliver myself from, I'm going to tell it, I'm going to tell it, and then I'm going to tell it again 'cause I am not ashamed of anybody who can deliver me at no charge". Demons are real. These are rebellious angels who have been removed from God and whose job it is to serve Satan by bringing spiritual death and consequences into our lives. Demons want to possess us. They want to influence us. I remember the adage, "Ain't nothing but the devil". Well, that's not too far off. It may not be the devil directly, but it could be one of his posses, the demons. They wreak havoc in our lives and in our circumstances, and it's easy to snuff them off as just bad people, bad problems, bad timing, bad days, when it's really bad demons. But because we don't take demons seriously, we don't identify things as demonic, even though we wrestle not against flesh and blood but principalities and powers that are in heavenly places, demonic forces. But as long as you can discard them and not recognize them, then you won't treat them for who they really are. And so you'll be dealing with symptoms and not causal powers behind the symptoms that you and I are facing. You know what you do with demons? You don't pet them like a pet. You must exercise them, remove them, and only Jesus Christ can do that. The closer you are to Christ, the more power you have over demonic influence. The further you are from Christ, the more controlled you will be by demonic influences. So if you're tired of demons influencing your thinking, influencing your walking, your talking, your acting, oh, then let's get Jesus. He's the ultimate Ghostbuster. He's the ultimate demon discarder. Recognize where there is spiritual influence and let the Spirit of God, 'cause greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world, begin the process of releasing you from demonic influence and, if necessary, demonic possession.

Bible teaching on the resurrection, God's purpose, and Christ's victory over death.

Names matter in the Bible, because names are used descriptively to describe something or somebody, and one name that, we'll look at other names a little bit later, but one name that I would like to focus on today is found in Matthew !:23. It reads as follows, "'Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,' which translated means, 'God with us.'" Here we have a name given to Jesus Christ and that he was to be called Immanuel. Now, if you will notice closely in your Bibles, you will see that this is a quote. Verse 22 says, "Now all that took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet," so verse 23 is a fulfillment of something that had been previously predicted or prophesied. That comes from Isaiah 7:14, where it says a virgin shall have a son. So, in order to understand what Matthew 1:23 means, you have to go back to what Isaiah 7:14 meant, since Matthew 1:23 is a fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14. We know what it's translated to mean. It means "God with us," but what does that really mean to call Jesus Immanuel, God with us? Well, back in Isaiah 7:14 God's people were being attacked by the enemy. God showed up and told King Ahaz, "I'm going to give you a sign of victory, and the sign of victory I'm gonna give you is a virgin having a son, which will be my sign that you win and the enemy loses. So, the virgin that has the son is really a sign of your victory and that I'm gonna be with you in spite of what is attacking you". Matthew picks up that quote and quotes it related to the birth of Jesus Christ, so one of the things you need to understand about Immanuel is that no matter what you have gone through, no matter what's been good, bad, and ugly this year, no matter what you're going to face next year, you need to know the name Immanuel, because that means you're not facing it alone. God is with you. So, when he talks about the birth of Jesus Christ, he talks about it in the context of things not going well, of things not being apparently in your favor, of things that are coming against you, and he reaches back into history, prophetic history, and to say that the birth of Jesus Christ is God showing up at the worst of times. He says that this child that is born will be not just with you, but God with you, so the first thing you need to understand about Jesus Christ is his designation as God. He is designated as God. Now, we'll talk about how that happened in just a moment, but for right now the New Testament over and over and over again equates Jesus with God, so when we talk about Jesus we're talking about God, not just another man. When I began to look at some of the names of God in the Old Testament and then some of the declarations about Jesus in the New Testament, it became even more replete about the deity of Jesus Christ. That he is God. For example, God is called in the Old Testament "Elohim," the Creator God, yet the New Testament says everything that was created was created by Christ Jesus. In the Old Testament God is called Jehovah, the I Am. Jesus says to the Jews, "Before Abraham was I am". In the Old Testament God is called Adonai, the boss. In the New Testament the Bible says we must confess Jesus as Lord, your boss. In the Old Testament he's called Jehovah-Nissi, your banner of victory. In the New Testament Jesus says that "I have overcome the world". In the Old Testament God is called Jehovah-Rohi, the Lord is my shepherd. In the New Testament Jesus says, "I am the Good Shepherd, and the sheep hear my voice". In the Old Testament God is called Jehovah Sabaoth, he's the Lord of hosts. In the New Testament Jesus said, "I could have called 10.000 angels". In the Old Testament God is called El Elyon, the Lord who is high and mighty. In the New Testament Jesus says, "I sit on the right hand of the Father way up high". In the Old Testament God is called El Shaddai. In Revelations 1:8 the Bible says Jesus Christ is Lord Almighty. So, if you can get confused about the name of God, all you gotta do is remember Immanuel, because he is not only with us. He is God with us. But how did God get to be with us? Because God is transcendent in nature. The theologians say he is holy other. That is, he's outside of our realm. He exists in another realm. He is infinitely distinct from his creation, so you cannot talk about creation as though God is a part of it, because he's distinct from it. He's in another zone, but he wanted to be with us, dwelling among us, so exactly how did this occur? Well, the prophecy tells us, because the Scripture says that a virgin would get pregnant and have a baby boy. Well, a lot of things go into that. We call this in theology the hypostatic union. That means the union of two natures in one person, unmixed forever. Let me say that again. The hypostatic union is two natures in one person unmixed forever. That's why Jesus is sometimes called the Son of God, because he has the nature of deity, and other times he's called the Son of Man, because he has the nature of humanity. Two natures in one person that never cross each other, unmixed forever. Well, the way that occurred is that a virgin would have a baby. When Mary asked the question in the book of Luke, "How could this possibly be that I'm pregnant"? The angel told her, "Well, let me explain, girlfriend, how this works. You have an egg, and the Holy Spirit has got the sperm, and he's going to fertilize your egg with the sperm of deity, and so you are going to apart from a man get pregnant and give birth to a baby boy". That is the only time in history that this has occurred, so the reason that Jesus Christ can be God and man is he has the egg of humanity and the sperm of deity coming together to produce two natures in one person, unmixed forever. The Bible explains how that occurs in Philippians 2, because it says in verse 6, "Who, although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped," or held on to. So, let's just stop there. It says, "Although he existed in the form of God". That is, Jesus, before he became a man, existed as part of the Godhead. That's why Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6 says, "Unto us a child is born, but unto us a son is given," because even though the child was born the son had to be given, because the son existed before the child ever got born, because the son existed in the form of God prior to the child being born in the form of man. So, the only reason you got the child being born is 'cause you previously had the son in existence. He says now the way that that occurred, according to this next verse, it says, "But he emptied himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men". He emptied himself. What does that mean? Well, let's pretend you've got a pitcher of water. The water in the pitcher represents deity, or divine nature, and then you've got a glass, and you take the pitcher and you pour the water. You empty the water out of the pitcher into the glass. Whatever is in the pitcher, the water, now has been deposited or emptied into the glass, so what you had at the virgin birth was deity being poured into humanity. So, all that made God, God was poured into human flesh so that apart from sin God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. He emptied himself into humanity. And why did he do that? So he could be with us, so that he could be human in every aspect of the word apart from sin, while at the same time being God, and go through the growth and development process that every human being goes through without losing his deity. So, what you're dealing with: fully God, fully man wrapped up in one person, the unique person of Jesus Christ. And so, it says he emptied himself and made himself in the likeness of men. "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient even to the point of death". The Old Testament prophesied that one day there would come a Messiah, and when this Messiah came, he would come through the legal and the biological lineage of David. Now, I need you to follow me on this one. The whole Old Testament said there will come a King and this King will be God in the flesh, and he has to come through the line of Judah, via the lineage of David, because there were a lot of lineages in the line of Judah, but it had to come through this one line that would be through the lineage of David. Now, there are two genealogical records in the Scripture. One is the record of Joseph, and the other is the record of Mary, the most boring parts of the Bible, the parts you don't wanna read and that you skip over when you read your Bible. God never wastes words, and so what the Bible had to show was that Jesus Christ could be proven to be the one that had been prophesied in the Old Testament. So, when you read the genealogical record, it designates that Jesus Christ is from the line of David both biologically and legally. One story is in a whole book of the Bible called the book of Ruth. Ruth wasn't even a Jew. She was a Moabitess, but because she followed Naomi, her mother-in-law, back to Israel and met Boaz, got married to Boaz, Boaz was a Jewish man. She had a baby named Obed, Obed had a baby named Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David, so God even reached to a foreign country to get her to the right country, to meet the right man so that they could be in the right lineage to fulfill the list in Matthew chapter 1. He goes even further, and he traces this line, and then he comes to verse 16. "Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah". So, we get to Joseph, but if you look carefully you'll see a switch. It doesn't say Joseph was the father of Jesus. It only says Mary was the mother of Jesus. Let me show you two words that would be easy to skip over: by whom. You need to know that "by whom" is a relative feminine pronoun. Why? 'Cause Joseph had nothing to do with this. This was totally outside of Joseph, but Jesus had to come from the legal line, so since Joseph became Jesus's stepfather, 'cause he was not his biological father, and Joseph is from the legal line of David, Jesus qualifies to be Messiah because Joseph is his legal father, even though he is not his biological dad. But according to the Jewish line, the Messiah also had to have the biology of David. That's why when you look in Luke 3 there is a whole 'nother genealogy, but that's not the genealogy of Joseph. That's the genealogy of Mary, and he traces the genealogy through David biologically and comes all the way down to Mary, who is the physical mother of Jesus. So, now God's gotta do something else. He gotta get two people to fall in love who are both from the same line, one from the legal and one from the biological, so he gets a cupid to shoot some arrows, and Joseph sees Mary, and the two fall in love, and they get engaged. But we still got a problem, because the Old Testament prophecy said that Messiah, Micah 5:2, had to be born in Bethlehem. It's like a little country town, but Jesus was prophesied: the Messiah would be born in this little town called Bethlehem, so God not only has to get two people from the line of David, one legal, one biological, to fall in love. He's also gotta get them in the right location to fulfill the prophecy the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. So enter the Roman IRS, because a census was taken and people were being taxed and had to go back to their place of birth. Joseph then had to go back to Bethlehem, which was his place of origin, in order to fulfill the Roman IRS census. He wind up going back at the exact time that it was time for Mary to give birth to her baby boy so that the prophecy would be fulfilled that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem through the right line. See, God will deal a whole lotta stuff for you, and the God of heaven has entered into human history. And why? Because he wanted to let you feel like you experienced what it's like when God is sitting right next to you. And guess what else he wanted? He wanted to know what it feels like for man to sit next to him. You see, God in his core essence is a spirit. The Bible is clear in John 4 that God is a spirit and that he is not in his essence corporal. That is, he's not in his essence physical, so he knows all about you, but he wants to feel you, okay? That's why when Abraham was sacrificing Isaac, and he says, "Now I know that you fear me". He says, "Because now I know what it feels like to be chosen above your own son, and I like how that feels". God wants to feel you, so God became a man, according to Hebrews 4:14-16, so that he could sympathize with our weakness. That we have a high priest who feels it, why? Because during his 33 years on earth he went through every category of situation you now face. He went through loneliness. He went through being forsaken. He went through being rejected. He went through being crucified. He even went through death. He went through everything you're going through, so you ain't saying nothing to him that he doesn't know what you're talking about, 'cause he not only knows it informationally and academically, he knows it experientially, see? So, when you talk to Jesus, you're talking about somebody who can feel you, who not only knows you, 'cause he's God with us. No, he's not a movie. He's the real deal, and he became flesh and blood and lived among us so that we can have a personal relationship with the living and true God. That's who he is, so let's give him what he deserves. Let's give him the adoration. What should be the response? Well, let me close with Philippians chapter 2. Here is what it says, beginning in verse 9. "For this reason, God has highly exalted Jesus," he's highly exalted him, "and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of the Father". You say, "I wish I could feel Jesus. I wish I could feel the closeness that God with us was meant to say". Well, it gives you the secret, if I can call it that, of not only knowing him, but feeling him. He says at the name of Jesus God has proclaimed that every knee should bow, every knee up in heaven, so let me tell you what's in heaven right now. Everybody who's in heaven is paying homage to Jesus Christ, because God has declared that everybody is to give recognition to Jesus Christ. Then he says everybody on Earth is to pay homage to Jesus Christ. Then he says everybody, folk who have died, God is calling to pay homage to Jesus Christ, so here is the option. You can pay homage to him now voluntarily, or you will pay homage to him later mandatorily, but everybody is gonna have to pay homage to the Christmas miracle of Jesus Christ, so why don't we give him some real praise during the holiday season? Why don't we give him some real glory? Because this is not another man. This is Immanuel. This is God become a man, who wants to dwell among us, and all you gotta do is bow and give him the glory due his name, give him the recognition that he deserves, because he is Lord of life, and he is Lord of Christmas. Well, let me say merry Christmas to you, and, you know, when I think about Christmas, I think about the name of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, all of God, all of divine nature deposited into humanity, so in Christ all that God is, is resident in the person of Jesus Christ. So, when you think of Jesus this Christmas, you're actually thinking about God Almighty, since the fullness of God dwells in him in bodily form, so I'm excited. I'm excited about Christmas because I'm excited about Jesus, and since God became a man, the incarnation in the person of Jesus Christ, you have someone relating to you this holiday season who can really relate to you, because when God became a man he came into the realities of life, the realities of oppression, the reality of social conflict, the reality of poverty, the reality of family struggle, the reality of life and death, so in Jesus you have a real person who is really also God. So, as you get together with family and friends and as you celebrate all the things that will make up this holiday, I hope that you will remember the name Immanuel, God with us. Unto us, unto us a son is given, but a child is born. That's the incarnation right there. That's God with us. Stay close to Jesus, because in staying close to Jesus you are really staying close to God. Merry Christmas, God bless you, and remember his name is Immanuel.

Turn in your Bibles please to the book of Acts; the second chapter of the book of Acts. So a Sunday school teacher was telling her third graders about the Resurrection, and then she asked them a question. She goes, OK, students, does anyone here know the first words Jesus said when he left the tomb? And little Bethany shot her hand up in the back. She goes, I know, I know. And so she stood up and said, Jesus' first words when he came out of the tomb, and she opened her arms up, were this, ta-da! I always liked that story. Ta-da. From time to time when I travel, I like to, if I have spare moments, go to cemeteries and read the inscriptions on the gravestones. You might think, you are a weird person. But I love to see what either they have made sure was written about them, or what loved ones had to say about them. Some are quite lengthy; some are very minimal. But some of them are funny. And I did a little research. And these are recorded, registered inscriptions on gravestones. Let me just share a few with you. This is from Niagara Falls, Canada. It reads on the tombstone, here lies the body of Jonathan Blake, who stepped on the gas instead of the brake. Well that's one way to always remember that he died in an automobile accident, I suppose. Another one from Edinburgh, Scotland was the grave of a local dentist. And the stone reads, stranger, tread this ground with gravity. Dennis Brown is filling his last cavity. And here's one from Ruidoso, New Mexico that reads, here lies Johnny Yeast, that's his name, Johnny Yeast, here lies Johnny Yeast, pardon me for not rising. New Mexico. If there was an inscription over the Tomb of Jesus Christ, it might have been appropriate if it read, don't worry I'm just borrowing this for the weekend. Because he only was in that grave just a part of three days, and then he rose again from the dead. Well that is one of the themes... Yes, it's worth celebrating. You can't clap too much for that truth. In Acts chapter 2, that is the main theme of Peter's sermon. It is a sermon on the day of Pentecost. It is Peter's first sermon that is recorded in the Bible. And what's interesting is that while this is Peter's first sermon, this is our last sermon in the series, Against All Odds. So I'm just going to rip Peter off and let him preach the last sermon in the series. We're going to take a portion of what he said and we're going to examine it in Acts chapter 2. Now, let me just say, as a preacher, I'm going to give Peter an A on his preaching exam. This is his first sermon. He gets an A; not that he cares what I think. But I give him an A for two reasons. Number one, 3,000 people respond to his message and get saved that day. That's a good message. 3,000 people. And number two, because it was a message filled with hope. Filled with hope because it's about the fact that Jesus conquered death through resurrection. Now, I want you to think of Peter for just a moment. We know what Peter did. What was his occupation? He was a fisherman. So he had what a lot of men like that around the Sea of Galilee had. He had a few boats and nets, and he'd get up every day, and he'd fish for fish, and it was a very meager kind of a life. It was a very predictable life. In many ways a monotonous life. I'm even sure that Peter looked over the Sea of Galilee in a few days and thought, is this all there is to life? Is this it? I'm born, I die. In between I catch a few fish, period. But then, one day, one day, a man named Jesus stepped into his life and said, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. And in hanging around Jesus, watching him, hearing him day after day, something happened in Peter's heart. It's called hope. Hope. It was a hope that began to grow and grow and grow, and he thought, man, this is the life. Watching him perform miracles. And what he's saying, nobody has done anything like this. He was greatly impacted. But then one day, something happened that shattered all of Peter's hopes. And that was Jesus died on the cross. Peter did not expect that. The day Jesus died, Peter's hope died. It's like those disciples on the road to Emmaus who said about Jesus, and we were, past tense, we were hoping that he would have been the one to deliver Israel. So Peter went from an all-time high to an all-time low until the third day. And that first day of the week, that Sunday when Jesus rose from the grave and showed himself to Peter. Now Peter's hope, well, it could be called, a living hope. That's what Peter called it. Peter said in first Peter, chapter 3, he said, according to His abundant mercy, He has begotten us again to a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." The day of the Resurrection, Peter's hope came alive and stayed alive. On that day, on Resurrection Sunday, Peter's life moved from hopeless living into a living hope. And that becomes the theme of this sermon that we're looking at. And again, we're not going to look at all of it, just a portion of his sermon. But Peter has a premise. He's speaking about Jesus. That's the main subject of his sermon. It's always good to have Jesus as the main subject of a preacher's sermon. Jesus is the main subject, but what Peter wants to show is that this man Jesus was a man, but not an ordinary man. He was the God man. That He was unique from all other people in history. He was not normal. He was supranormal. He was not ordinary. He was extraordinary. He was, in fact, God's predicted Messiah fulfilling all of the Old Testament prophecies. And so Peter gives three lines of evidence for this. And they're simple. Jesus' life, Jesus' death, and Jesus' resurrection. That's what he looks at in a few verses. His miraculous life, his meaningful death, his magnificent resurrection. Go to Acts chapter 2 and look at the 22nd verse. Just one verse to begin with. Here, Peter zeros in on the life of Jesus when he says, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst as you yourselves know. Jesus' miracles got people's attention. It's easy to figure out why. They never had seen a miracle before. People got sick, people died. There were blind people around, there were deaf people around. People got hungry. Then Jesus shows up. And he touches people who are blind. Suddenly, they can see. Deaf people, suddenly, they can hear. It got people's attention. And it was to them overwhelming evidence that Jesus was who He claimed to be. And the New Testament records over 30 miracles that Jesus performed where He suspended natural law and enacted supernatural force. He had power over disease, He had power over deformities, He had power over demons, He had power over death. He miraculously showed power giving evidence of who He was. And Jesus Himself appealed to His power, His own power. He said this, John 14, "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or at least, believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves." Then, Jesus said in John, chapter 10, "The works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me." Sort of like saying, nobody else can do what I've just done. Nobody else is out there performing miracles. I am; and it shows that I am who I claim to be. So He appealed to his miraculous life. Even Nicodemus, who came to Jesus at night, said, "We know that God is with you for no man can do the signs that you do unless God is with him." And for that matter, the most bitter enemies that Jesus had were forced to admit that He had miraculous power after Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. His detractors in Jerusalem said, what shall we do? For this man works many signs. They had heard of them, they had seen them, there was evidence all around them. Simon Greenleaf, who was once a lawyer and at one time the professor of Law at Harvard University said, and I quote, "A person who rejects Christ may choose to say that he does not accept it, but he may not choose to say there is not enough evidence," close quote. Jesus' miraculous life, as attested by the New Testament historians, prove that God's power was uniquely operating in Him. And if He can do those miracles, then He can do the greatest miracle. You know what that is? Save someone. What greater miracle could there be than getting a person from Earth to heaven? That's the biggest miracle ever. And if Jesus can unstop deaf ears and open blind eyes and raise people who were dead back to life, then He can do the greatest miracle. And that is get a person from Earth to heaven by salvation. A while back, a girl approached me. She had been at our Wednesday night Bible study. We were going through the Old Testament. And the text that I read, one of the texts in that evening Bible study says, "The Lord saved Israel on that day." She got so excited. And I'm trying to listen; trying to figure out why she is so excited that that text made so much difference. The Lord saved Israel on that day. And she goes, I was praying for my boyfriend; and my boyfriend came forward that Wednesday night at the altar call. I go, well that's great. I'm trying to think, what does that have to do with the text? God saved Israel that day. And I said, well that's great. And she goes, no you don't understand. My boyfriend's name is Israel. The Lord saved Israel on that day; and that day he gave his life to Christ. She saw a miracle. She'd been praying for that for a long time. And I get the privilege of watching people every week say yes to the Savior, and have Him immediately and eternally change their lives. So His miraculous life, that's Peter's first line of evidence. Second, Jesus' meaningful death, verse 23. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, "You have taken, by lawless or wicked hands have crucified and put to death." Now, at first blush, it would seem unthinkable, unimaginable, that a man of that caliber like Jesus Christ could even die. I mean, think about it, the very one who raised people back to life died? Unstopped deaf ears, walked on water, fed the multitudes. So Peter wants to make it clear that just as Jesus' life was no ordinary life, his death was no ordinary death. In fact, do you notice in one verse how Peter approaches it from two different angles? It was God's foreordained plan, but you by your lawless or wicked hands have crucified and slain. So on one hand, Jesus' death was a vicious plot. On the other hand, it was a victorious plan. God ordained it. So we have both those elements together. Divine sovereignty, God purposed it. Human responsibility. You did it. All in one verse. There's an age old question I've been asked time and time again. The question goes like this, who's responsible for the death of Jesus Christ? Is it the Romans? Is it the Jewish leaders? Is it Judas Iscariot who betrayed him? Is it Pontius Pilate who gave him the sentence? Is it the false witnesses who accused him before the Sanhedrin? Answer? Yes. All of the above. But wait, you've left someone out. Me. I'm responsible. You. You're responsible. Because Jesus died for our sins. But wait, you left somebody out. God. God. It says, who being, verse 23, "delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God." What that tells me is God predetermined it. It was part of his plan all along. All along. For years there has been a theory about Jesus' death and resurrection. That it was all part of a plot. In fact, there was a book out years ago called, The Passover Plot that says Jesus' death was staged by Him, and His Resurrection was also staged by Him. That Jesus had one of His followers give Him water laced with a drug that would render Him unconscious but not dead. And then He had another friend of His, Joseph of Arimathea, stick Him in a tomb and nursed Him back to health, because He was still alive. Though I don't agree with that theory at all, I do agree with the premise. It was part of a plot. But it wasn't a plot hatched by Jesus or Joseph of Arimathea or a few followers. It was a plot hatched in heaven by God Himself, who determined in advance that His son would come into this world; part of a divine plan. So in summing up the death of Jesus, let me make a few statements. Jesus' death was a strategy. A divine strategy. He is called in Revelations 13, "The lamb slain from the", do you know the rest of it? "Foundations of the world." From the very beginning of time, it was part of the plan of God, the purpose of God, that His son would be crucified. So it was a strategy. It was also voluntary. Jesus didn't get caught and taken to court where He said, aw man, bummer. I got caught. No, He didn't get caught. And this is not an accident. And it wasn't that He was just murdered by them. He chose to do it. It was voluntary. He said that He was the good shepherd and the good shepherd lays His life down for the sheep. He even made this statement, No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of myself. I have the power, listen to what He said, I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it back up again. So His death was a strategy, and His death was voluntary. But there's more. His death was substitutionary. Jesus didn't die for His own sin. Because He didn't have any sin. He was the only one that lived a perfect life from beginning to end. Never committed a single sin in His life. No, He died as a substitution for others. Isaiah the prophet put it this way, "All we like sheep have gone astray, but God laid on Him the iniquity of us all." So His death was a strategy. It was voluntary, and it was substitutionary. Another statement I want to make about it is that Jesus' death was necessary. Had to happen if the obstacle between us and God was going to be removed. It was absolutely necessary. There is this separation that mankind has from God. You may not know about it. You may not feel it, but it's there. It's called your sin, and my sin. And that roadblock can only be removed by that atoning death on the cross. Romans chapter 5, Paul says, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His son. That is, we were reconciled. The roadblock, the obstacle, was removed so that one party and the other party can be reconciled or brought together. They're brought together by the removal of an obstacle. That's what the word reconciliation means. So His death was necessary. Now, although it was God's plan from the very beginning, as stated here by Peter, it doesn't make the ones who put Jesus on the cross any less guilty. Because it was their choice. They chose to be in that crowd and shout, crucify Him! Pilot chose to listen to the persuasive voices of the crowd and say, OK. Take him to the place of execution. Everybody that day made a choice. And today, you have a choice to make. What are you going to do with Jesus Christ? You can say, well I don't plan on really doing anything with Jesus Christ, thank you. I'm just going to wait and see what happens. I'm just going to live my life as I live my life. I'm not going to do anything. I'm not going to accept Him, I'm not going to reject Him. But you know what Jesus said? That if you don't receive Him, you've rejected Him. If you don't receive Him, you've rejected Him. You either are either for me, He said, or you are against me. So if you say, well I'm not for Jesus, then and Jesus' view, you're already against Him. You have a choice to make. And then, I want to makes one final statement before we get into the third vital point of Peter and His line of evidence. And that is Jesus' death was a victory. And you know why it was a victory? Because He didn't stay dead. Pretty simple, right? He didn't stay dead. Remember the old saying, you can't keep a good man down? Well, you can't keep the God man down. They put Him in a grave, but three days later, He got up from that tomb. His resurrection conquered death. It was a victory. So that's Peter's line of evidence in two short verses to them. His miraculous life, His meaningful death. Now, he goes to the third line of evidence. That Jesus is different than anyone else, and that is His resurrection. His miraculous resurrection. Now I want you to notice how important the Resurrection is. There are nine verses that Peter uses to speak about the Resurrection. Now think of it. He has used one verse to speak about Jesus' whole life, one verse to speak about Jesus' atoning death, and nine verses to speak about His resurrection. Why? Because it's that important. Because that's the theme of His sermon. That's the theme of every sermon in the book of Acts. That is really, essentially, the theme of the New Testament. The culmination of all redemptive history is the Resurrection. So Peter says, verse 24, after speaking of His life and His death, "Whom God raised up having loosed the pangs of death because it was not possible that He should be held by it. For David said concerning Him, 'I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart rejoiced, my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh will also rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in Hades nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of joy in your presence." That's the quote. Peter's quoting a psalm, Psalm 16. He in his sermon is preaching from the Bible, in this case, Psalm 16. Now look at his application, "Men and brethren let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David," that is the one who wrote the psalm, "that He is both dead and buried and His tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to Him that of the fruit of His body according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit on the throne. He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the Resurrection of the Christ or the Messiah. That His soul was not left in Hades nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus, God has raised up of which we are all witnesses." You know, the world has noticed that we make a big deal out of Easter. I was walking my dogs yesterday and somebody recognized me and he said, well, tomorrow's your big day. I smiled and I thought, well, you know, I'm not really doing much. I'm just showing up. It's already been done. But thank you. Yeah, it's your big day tomorrow, and good luck, he said. Good luck. You want to know why we make such a big deal out of Easter? And by the way, we do. We make a huge deal out of it. We like to party hardy on Easter. We like to have the stadium fulfilled and have joyous music. Because to us, Easter is like the World Series and the Super Bowl and the Balloon Fiesta all rolled up into one. And it's simple why. It's because as Paul said, without the Resurrection, we're hopeless. Without the Resurrection, we're dead in our sins. Without the Resurrection, we just die. And it's over. Period. We're like everybody else that lives without hope. And he said in 1 Corinthians 15, "If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable." His point is that our hope goes way beyond it. That's why we celebrate it. We don't just celebrate it once a year, by the way. We celebrate it every Sunday. The whole reason the church doesn't meet on Saturday, the Sabbath, but on Sunday, is because of the Resurrection. It's a weekly celebration. Look at verse 24 for just a moment. Look at how Peter phrases it. I love this fisherman's sermon, "Whom god raised up having loosed the pangs of death," now look at this, "because it was not possible that He should be held by it." You know, that makes perfect sense. That is pure logic. The one who said, I am the Resurrection and the life can't be held by death. The one who had no beginning can't have an end. The one who caused all things to exist cannot Himself cease to exist. Perfect logic. It's impossible. Death cannot hold the author of life. It's not possible that He could be held by it. Now when Peter was preaching, he was aware that he had a Jewish audience. He was also aware that they knew and had seen the miracles of Jesus. He did it in their town. They saw them. But he also knew that as a Jewish audience, because Jesus had died on a cross, that Jewish audience would reject Jesus as being their messiah. Because He died on that cross. Their messiah, in their view, that would never happen. So that's why Peter says, doesn't end there. He died for a purpose, but then God raised Him to life. So he demonstrates that not only did He rise from the dead, but He rose from the dead, listen, as predicted by the prophets, in this case David. He said, him being a prophet, foresaw what was going to happen. And he quotes Psalm 16. Now Psalm 16, most of us have read it. We're familiar with it. Peter was Jewish. As were all the apostles. They grew up on psalms like Psalm 16. They heard it all their lives. They heard it in synagogues. But Peter never understood its meaning till the Resurrection. Have you ever been around something familiar, but you were oblivious to a lot of what's going on? I know some of you gals are going, you just described my husband. Sorry, couldn't resist. But I'm going to use myself as the illustration husband, so relax a little bit. So my wife will frequently, when I come home, she'll bring me into a room of our house and she'll go, now stop, look around. Do you notice anything different? So now I'm on high alert. And it's usually a plant. She bought a plant and she placed it in a certain place and goes, oh! That's a perfect plant for there! So she did this not long ago. She took me in her room she goes, do you notice anything different? So I start looking around I go, oh, I see that vase is gorgeous! I start talking about it, she goes, that vase has been there for 10 years, honey. She wanted me to see the plant that she got. So Psalm 16 to Peter and the apostles was like that vase to me. Been there all along. But now for the first time, they're understanding really what it's all about. And here's Peter's premise. He's saying Psalm 16 speaks of a resurrection. But since David died and didn't get resurrected, it can't be speaking of him. So therefore, David was speaking as a prophet. That the messiah who was to come, namely Jesus, would rise from the dead. That's his premise. He sums it up in verse 32, "This Jesus God raised up of whom we are all witnesses." Premise is simple. When David wrote this, he wasn't writing it as a personal story but rather a prophetic statement. A statement of Jesus. Now, why is the Resurrection such a big deal? Why do we make such a big deal out of it? Why is it the center point of the whole New Testament? Why is it the heart and theme of every sermon in the book of Acts? Because after all, if Jesus' death on the cross was enough for our salvation, why did He need to rise from the dead? Well, one of the reasons is that this psalm predicts a resurrection. It says, "You will not leave my soul in Hades," that is the grave, "nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption," or literally, decay. Now there's only two ways for your body not to decay. Number one, never die. Never die. And I know some people that are working real hard on that. They'll stretch their face, they'll put creams on their face, they'll try to look like they're 40 years younger. It only works, well, barely. Never die. If you never die, your body will never decay. OK, so that's out. Second option, as soon as you die, get raised from the dead shortly thereafter. Resurrection is the only cure. And if you can get resurrected, it means that death has died. Death has died. You see, when Jesus died on the cross, he conquered sin. When Jesus rose from the grave, he conquered death. And he appeared to his disciple. I mean, He showed up after. He didn't just rise and people said, let's spread that rumor. He actually for 40 days showed up with them, hung out with them, and even ate food with them. You see, He wasn't some little translucent being when he ate fish. You could like see the fish going down, wow, check that out. He didn't like, hover over the ground. He was a real human god in human flesh raised back from the grave. For the last 12 weeks we have been looking at a series, Against All Odds. We've considered the odds of one man fulfilling those prophecies the Old Testament has spoken about. We've gone into great detail, mathematical detail. And we have discovered that in all three of these categories, life, death, and Resurrection, the Bible prophesied in advance hundreds of years before. We have considered that the Bible predicts hundreds of years before He would be born of a virgin. He would be born in Bethlehem. He would come from the tribe of Judah. His ministry would begin in Galilee. His work would be working miracles. He would enter Jerusalem one day on a donkey. He would be betrayed by a friend. He would be sold for 30 pieces of silver. He would be wounded and bruised. His hands and His feet would be pierced. He would be crucified next to thieves. His garments would be torn and lots cast for them. That His bones would not be broken at His death. That His side would be pierced. That He would be buried in a rich man's tomb. And finally, that He would rise again from the dead. We've been considering that the last 12 weeks. And we have made known the fact and we discovered the fact and today we just sort of affirmed the fact that it is impossible for those things to be humanly arranged. You can't decide what tribe you're going to be born in. You can't decide or arrange what place you're going to be born at or what mother you are going to be born to. And we have looked at the mathematical probabilities of one man fulfilling 8, then 16, then 48 prophecies, etc. And let me just remind you that in 100 billion years, there would be no chance for one person in history to fulfill all of those predictions apart from God. Apart from God. There's just no other way to explain the Bible's ability to predict the future. And every time a prophecy is given, and it is fulfilled, it's as if God is saying, ta-da. I love it. Most of you have heard of the name Harry Houdini. His name is synonymous with magic or escaping. He was an escape artist. His friends said he could escape from anything. And people tried everything. They said he had the flexibility of an eel and the lives of a cat. They would place him in a casket, lock it up, he'd escape. They put him in a box, put the box wrapped with chains in a river. He'd escape. They would put him a canvas bag and rivet him to the side of a big boiler. He'd escape. They'd put him in water upside down in a straight jacket. He'd escape. But in 1926, in October, death got a hold of Harry Houdini and took him to the grave. Before he died, he said to his wife, "If there is a way out, I'll find it." He never found it. But he said, "If there is a way out, I'll find it." I'm here to tell you, there is a way out. It's called a resurrection. And Jesus found it. And when Peter was preaching this sermon, Jesus was alive at that moment. Raised from the dead in power, He was alive when Peter was preaching that. But there were hundreds, thousands of people in that crowd who were dead. Living physically, dead spiritually. Peter himself was alive. He was born again. John, 120 other disciples, they were alive spiritually. But when Peter was preaching, there were many in that crowd who were dead. The Bible says, in trespasses and sins and needed as Jesus said, to be born again. Oh, how Jesus wants to touch the deadness of your life today. I just want to take it a step further. Some of you believers need a resurrection. Some of us followers of Christ have gotten a little stale over the years. A little stagnant over the years. Some of you believers in Jesus have come to believe that your best days are in the past rather than ahead of you. And so you have sort of put your life into cruise control. You've resigned to barely making it through life and then, I'm going to die and go to heaven. That's not a good plan. We need a touch from God. Maybe it has to do with a relationship you're struggling with. Maybe it has to do with an addiction that's got a hold of you or a practice, a sin, a pattern that you need to break. Or maybe it has to do with the first step of coming to Jesus Christ. You know, it's quite simple, really. You just come. You come as you are. You don't say, OK I'm going to do something first and then I'm going to come. I'm going to fix this first, and then I'm going to come. I'm going to get my act together first, then I'm going to come. You just come as you are and admit that you need him. You have to first realize that you're a sinner. The Bible says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." All of us have sinned. You have to realize that you are a sinner. Now some are better sinners than others. I'll grant you that. I'm not as bad as so-and-so. Great. He's a better sinner than you are. He sins much better than you do. But you're still a sinner. And I've got to tell you, God does not grade on a curve. It's the same. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory. You have to realize that. Next, you have to recognize Jesus died for you; that he loves you. To bridge that gap, if you have ever wondered about how much God loves you, just look at the cross. That'll tell you. Then number three, you have to repent of your sin. You say, what does repent mean? It means to turn around. You make a U-turn on the road of life. You change your mind about the direction you are going and you say, I'm going to go His way. You say, well I feel really bad for things that I've done. Repentance isn't just being sorry. Repentance is being sorry enough to quit what you're doing and go His way. And He'll give you the power to do that. And then, you must receive Jesus as your Savior and your Lord. You can't do this on your own. You can't do it by your own works. The Bible says, as many has received Him, He gave them the power to become His children. And let me just add one other thing. I think you should do it publicly. Because when Jesus called people, He didn't say, hey, you, while nobody's listening, meet me over here. We'll have a private conversation. He just would walk right up to Matthew's tax station, and in public, say, get up, follow Me. And he got right up right there and publicly followed Jesus. And Jesus even said, if you acknowledge Me before people, I will acknowledge you before My Father in heaven; if you deny Me before people, I'll deny you before My Father in heaven. Hey, why not make a public stand for Jesus? He made a public stand for you on that cross. Make a public stand for Him in your life. And you don't want to wait another day. You want to settle this now. You can leave this room, this building, or this amphitheater, or this overflow room, wherever you're at, a changed human being from this day forward. You go, well how can I be sure? You'll never know unless you receive Him. You take that step and you see if Jesus doesn't change your life completely. Let's all stand. Father, as we close in prayer, we pray that you would do what no man can do. And that is convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Bring people into a relationship with your Son. Bring people to the foot of the cross. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. As we sing this final song, if you've never given Jesus your life before, you've never said yes to Him, you may have been raised in a church, you may have gone to Sunday school your whole life your parents taught you at home about Jesus, but it's not a personal discipleship. You're not following Him. You haven't made a decision to surrender your life yet to Him. I'm going to ask you to get up and find the nearest aisle and stand right up here where I'm going to lead you in a prayer to receive Christ. Maybe you've wandered away from Him. Whatever excuses are in your life, the truth is, today you're not following Him, you're not obeying Him, and you need to come home to Jesus. As we sing this song like we did in the stadium, we saw over 140 people come forward just an hour and a half ago. I'm going to give you an opportunity. You get up and come right here and stand right up in the front. Some of the counselors are going to show you how it's done. Come with a friend. Come with a relative. If you're in the family room, walk through that door. Come and receive eternal life for yourself. We'll give you that opportunity. If you're on the balcony, walk down those steps. Walk down those steps. We just want to give you a couple minutes. Make your way down here. Want to do that honor. Just be a little bit patient as we make room for the most important decision that could ever be made is being made in some people's lives right here, right now. You might be in the middle of a row and you're thinking, I'm in the most inconvenient place to walk forward. I don't think I'm going to do this. No, just turn to the person say, pardon me. And they may stand with you, but believe me, we're used to this. And you will part the Red Sea in your row. They'll get out of your way or you'll encourage others to come. We'll wait just another few more minutes. If you're thinking if you should do this or not, let me ask you a question. What do you have to lose? What do you have to lose? What do you have to lose by right now getting up from where you're standing and making your way here? What do you have to lose? You say, well, I'll lose my dignity. No, I'll tell you what you have to lose. You have to lose hopelessness, you can lose that. You have depression to lose. And you have everlasting hell to lose. That's what you have to lose. If you don't receive Christ, those things are true in your life. If you give your life to Christ, you will lose all of those things. But now what do you have to gain if you say yes to Jesus? Peace. Hope. A family of God. Peace. And heaven in the end. That's what the Bible, the same Bible who talks about the Resurrection, talks about heaven, Jesus said I've gone to prepare a place for you. But you won't go there automatically. You have to receive what He has done for you on the cross. So you come as we sing the song one more time through. You get up and come. I neglected to say, if you're out in the amphitheater, in the overflow, or in the overflow rooms, there's a pastor there. You could raise your hand right where you're seated in the amphitheater out there. Just raise it up and a pastor will acknowledge you right where you're at. If you're in the overflow rooms, you can raise your hand and a pastor will acknowledge you there. But those of you who have come forward, so glad you're here. I'm going to lead you now in a prayer. Come on up, come on up close. We're family now, or just about to be. So I'm going to lead you in a prayer. I'm going to ask you to pray these words out loud after me from your heart. Say these things from your heart to the Lord himself. Say: Lord, I give you my life. I know that I am a sinner. Forgive me. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe He died for me. That He shed His blood for me. And I believe He rose again from the grave. I turn from my sin. I repent. I turn to Jesus as Savior. I want to follow Him as my Lord. Help me to do that. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen.

In this sermon series, “Tell Me What You Want,” we learn that God sees and cares about our brokenness, hurt, and need. He invites us to turn to Him for help, and the process is simpler than we might think. Tell Me What You Want” “I Want to Be Healed” Jeff Jones Hello everybody! Welcome to our series, Tell Me What You Want—What You Really Want, which comes from a Jesus story we covered the first week of this series where Jesus looks at someone who is blind and says, “What do you want me to do for you?” It may have seemed obvious, but Jesus ended up doing way more than just make the guy be able to see. So, the idea of this series is, “How would you answer that question—what you want?” And are you open to all that Jesus has for you? From feedback, we build this series around what you would say, and today is the most popular one and whenever we ask for prayer requests this category is also always at the top. Today we are talking about healing, like physical healing—but also other ways God heals what is broken in our lives too. Some really good news today is that God is way more like my wife Christy than me—in at least one big way. Christy is a repairer, a fixer. I’m not. If something is broken and it looks like it is going to take a whole lot to fix it, I’m pretty quick to say, “Well, we need a new one of those!” I hate fixing things, and I usually just make them worse when I try. Our vacuum cleaner broke the other day, a back wheel snapped off. I was ready to push the Amazon app and take care of it by getting a new one right away. But I knew that Christy would want to try to superglue it back on. She’s pretty convinced that she can superglue anything, and she will always try because she is not a throw-away-er. She is a fixer. And she is pretty good at it. That’s great news by the way for me because last week I had a cold, and she didn’t just throw me away because I was broken. She did superglue my nose shut to keep it from running, which was kind of a problem, but she didn’t throw me away. God, even more than Christy, is a repairer, a redeemer, a healer. He doesn’t move away from our brokenness but desires to move toward it--when we open up that part of our life to him. That’s great news because we are all broken. We all have areas of life that need healing and help. Some of you feel that in a big way right now. Maybe you or someone you love is physically sick and getting better is beyond your control. It’s a scary time. We are going to talk about that. Or maybe the brokenness is not physical. Perhaps you are broken emotionally, relationally, in your marriage, family, or career. It might feel beyond repair, even with superglue. Maybe you feel spiritually beyond repair right now. Whatever is going on, God cares about. We can go to him for healing and help, and today we are going to see how that works. Today is a little different around Chase Oaks because today is a healing service. That may sound really scary, and some of you may be thinking, “I knew I shouldn’t have tried church!” This is not the kind of healing service you may be thinking about. No snakes involved and I’m no faith healer, which is why my hair isn’t slicked back. And you can give me money if you want to I guess, but it won’t help you get healed because that’s not how the New Testament says it works. But the New Testament does tell us how it works, and we will simply do what it says to do. We will see this illustrated in another time Jesus asks a really big question, and then go to a very clear instruction we are given in the book of James on what to do when we need healing. So, let’s do this! The Jesus story with the big Jesus question is in John 5, John 5:1-5 “Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.” The ancient pool of Bethesda is one of the places that we visit on our church trips to Israel, and it is one of the places you know you can walk where Jesus walked. After our Immerse Series at the beginning of the year a lot of you have asked about when our next Israel trip will be, and it looks like Christy and I will be hosting one in October 2023. More details to come, but pencil that in if you are interested. The pool of Bethesda was a very popular place for people who wanted healing because of a popular rumor that is reflected later in the story. Every now and then the water level would quickly rise up and then fall back down, which would make it a little more like a jetted tub. The rumor spread that when this happened it was an angel who stirred up the water, and if you were the first one into the water when that happened, you would be healed. It was a magic pool of healing, which is why a large number hung out there, hoping to be there at the right time for the angel magic to happen to them. Jesus comes to the pool, and he sees all these people desperate to be healed. For whatever reason he zeroes in on one paralytic, who had been unable to walk for 38 years. Imagine that, especially 2000 years ago when there were no wheelchairs and no social safety net. We don’t know how long he had been hanging out at the magic angel pool—we just know he was there when Jesus visited and that he had been there for some time, unsuccessfully trying to be the first one in when the waters stirred. Jesus walks up to him and asks a big question: John 5:6 “When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, ‘Would you like to get well?’” A strange question, “Do you want to get well?” Why does Jesus ask it? Why doesn’t he just heal him? We can’t be completely sure, but there are a couple of possibilities. It may be because a lot of people really don’t want to get well—they just want to stay sick. A lot of people just choose to be stuck in their brokenness. You’ve probably heard the horrible stories about some parents who keep their children sick because the parents are codependent and prefer their children to be that way. Terrible. A lot of people though do that same thing to themselves. We just choose to stay broken because it becomes our identity. It’s comfortable, and we get the kind of attention we want. We like the role of the victim because we don’t have to take responsibility. Our problems are someone else’s fault, not our own. Playing the victim card seems trendy these days. So, we stay addicted. We don’t move from anxiety or depression to get help. We always have the most dramatic prayer requests in any group of people praying. We refuse to forgive and let go of hurt, because our hurt is part of who we are. Some call it Stockholm syndrome, where people are more comfortable in prison than they are free. God will heal those who are open, but a lot of people really aren’t open. It could have been that for this guy, but I think for him it was another common trap—false hope. We know that was at least part of his issue by how he responds to the question, “Would you like to get well?” He replies: John 5:7 “’I can’t, sir,’ the sick man said, ‘for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.’” He thought his big problem was that nobody would help him get into the magic angel pool soon enough, because that magic pool was his big hope. But guess what? There was no real hope in the magic pool. The pool was a spring fed pool where water flowed into it from upper elevations. Every now and then natural cisterns along the flow would fill up, overflow, and inject a bunch of new water into the mix causing the quick up and down in the pool. That was it. No angels, and of course Jesus knew that. So, when Jesus asks him, “Would you like to get well?” there is a sense of “Would you (actually) like to get well—because it doesn’t seem like it. At least, it’s never going to happen in a mythical angel pool.” With some space and time, the guy’s false hope seems kind of silly…except for the reality that we all have our own false hopes that we stake our lives on. These are things that make us feel better but don’t actually make us better. They often make our lives worse. We might come home from a hard day and say, “Wow, I need a margarita!” Nothing wrong with a margarita. But if a drink, followed by another drink, and another drink becomes our way to try to dig out of life disappointment or difficulties, it’s not going to make us better. Hear Jesus say, “Would you like to get well?” Or Dr. Phil, “How’s that working for you?” There are lots of these, pornography, that feels like an escape but is actually trapping you. Henry Cloud calls these pseudoconnections, things we connect to for life that don’t actually give life. They can even be good things we use in a bad way, like relationships—one more guy or one more girl or spending time with people who only tell us how wonderful we are. Materialism, food, more money, more hobbies, a promotion at work…we probably get the idea. We all have places we go to make us feel hope that don’t give hope, that make us feel better that don’t make us better, that we are looking to for life that don’t bring life, that we hope will fill us which just empties us. False hope. The wonderful news for this guy, who doesn’t realize it yet, is that the only sure hope is right in front of him asking the question, “Would you like to get well?” He can see that the guy of course does, so Jesus then gives a command: John 5:8 “Jesus told him, ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!’” Catch what Jesus is doing here. He gives him a command. He commands him to do something that he has no ability to do. He looks at the guy and says, “Stand up! Pick up your mat! Walk!” He has no ability to do any of that, and he hasn’t that ability for 38 years. Jesus doesn’t so, okay, “poof” I just healed you, so now try to walk. He says, “Get up and walk!” That first step is a faith step, and he is either going to take it or not. He has no idea what will happen if he tries to get up and walk, but by faith he decides to take the step Jesus asks him to take. That’s what we read next: John 5:9 “Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking!” One thing we must understand about Jesus healing our brokenness is that most of the time he will ask us to take faith steps. Faith is not simply a feeling. Faith is an action. Jesus asks us to step forward, to walk with him toward a new life. He will enable us to do that step which we have no power on our own to do, but we must take a step. You can stay stuck in your brokenness if you want to, or you can hang on to false hopes. But Jesus is right in front of you saying, “Do you want to get well?” If so, walk with me. Take a step. Whatever step God is calling you to take, take it. So maybe you are struggling with addiction. Okay. God can bring healing and help, but you need to take a step. Maybe you are struggling with depression, which I have in my past, so I get that. And depression makes you feel helpless. But you aren’t helpless because help is right in front of you. So, follow Jesus toward healing. Take a step. Reach out to somebody. Talk to a counselor or a pastor. Maybe you are dealing with a broken relationship, a marriage or a parent child relationship. By faith take a step. Maybe you are struggling with guilt or shame, and, it has you trapped. You don’t have to stay trapped. Hear Jesus say, “Get up and walk!” Today is an opportunity to take an important step, and I’m going to challenge you take it. Because today we are talking about healing and how healing works. We’ve talked about emotional and relational healing, but let’s talk about physical healing. Some of you are dealing with a sickness with you or someone you care about, and you would love Jesus to show up like he did for this guy and ask, “Do you want to be healed?” Jesus isn’t walking around the planet right now, so that’s not going to happen. So, does healing still happen? The answer is yes, and the New Testament tells us how. In fact, it is so straightforward. It’s not what you see on TV with the slick faith healers with all of their drama, that get satirized like “The Righteous Gemstones.” We don’t roll that way, but we do have an approach to healing, and here it is from James 5. James 5:14 “Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well.” That’s really straightforward. It’s not mysterious. It’s not flashy. Just call the elders, a church word for leader, and have them pray for you for healing and God will answer that prayer. We take James 5 very seriously around here, so you can reach out to the church when you want healing prayer, and we’ve seen God work in all kinds of ways. God promises to always answer, though he doesn’t always heal the way we ask him to. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t. I’ve shared before how I believe I was healed from leukemia when I was 12 years old as my pastor granddad prayed, and it is a dramatic healing story. I love those dramatic healing stories. You’ve also heard me talk about my dad, who died six or so years ago from ALS, and God did not heal him from that. Or my brother who had brain cancer and died a little over a year ago. We prayed for that cancer to be healed, but God did not choose to do that. They were both Chase Oakers, and the elders of the church prayed for them, so what’s up with that? Haddon Robinson, a former professor at my theology grad school gave a very helpful way to look at how God answers prayers for healing. He says that God can bring his healing power to bear in one of three ways. Intervention, Interaction, and Innervention. Intervention is always on the front of our minds, when God just chooses immediate healing. God can just heal right then and there, and we do see that from time to time. I have a really good friend in cancer treatment right now, and I would love for God to just heal her that way. And it is the one we expect, even feel entitled to it. But God often doesn’t do that, which is why we don’t have 2000-year-old Christians walking around who always get physically healed and never die. Interaction Another way God answers healing prayers is Interaction, which is a process of healing where he interacts with steps we take or that doctors take toward healing. So, with my friend, Susy, right now, I am also praying for interaction—that God will give the doctors wisdom and that the treatment will work. It’s amazing what God has enabled humans to do with medical treatment, and we should pursue that. Innervention The third way God will answer is what Haddon calls Innervention, where God doesn’t heal our sickness but does do something in our lives even more profound. We see that in the life of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12: 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” He did not choose to heal Paul physically but gave grace in the sickness to bear it. It is not always God’s will for people to be healed. Many times, God chooses to not heal but to give grace to help the person endure the suffering. In such times God is wanting to do something in our lives that can only happen through the difficulty. I certainly saw that at work with my brother and with my dad, how he did things in their lives in the lives of others of us that were really profound that would have only happened in that kind of journey. Bottom-line, God will always answer such prayers for healing, though he can do it any of those three ways. Praying for healing is a step that Jesus asks us to take if we want healing, and today we are going to do that in this service. Picture Jesus in the story we looked at today walking among all the sick and broken people, coming to you like he did that guy, and asking, “Would you like to be healed?” Today is that kind of opportunity, as we are going to encourage you to take one step that we are told in the NT, in James 5, to take. The leaders of the church are here, at each campus, and we are going to invite you to come toward the front of the room to ask them to pray for you so that you may be healed. We are about to sing a song, and during that song is your opportunity to slip out of your seat and come for prayer. The truth is, we are all broken, and we all have areas in our lives that need healing. So, where do you need healing? Maybe you need physical healing for you or someone close to you. I invite you to come. You may need healing in your marriage or some other relationship, because it is broken, and one step you can take to walk toward wholeness is prayer. You might need healing from a recent loss or a broken heart. You might need emotional healing as you are weighed down with anxiety or depression. Maybe it is a failure that keeps haunting you, and it is weighing you down. You feel so much guilt and shame, and you are stuck in that. Maybe you’ve really messed something up, had an affair or gotten fired, and you need healing from that regret. Or perhaps you’ve been hurt by someone else, and you are stuck in that hurt. You don’t have to stay stuck. Maybe you are bitter and angry, and you need help to forgive so that you can be healthy again. We talked about false hopes that can entrap you, and you could need help to move beyond an addiction. Today may be the day you stop being a victim and take responsibility for your own life, to take a step you know God wants you take and you want prayer for courage to do that. I don’t know, but I do know that God answers prayer. I get that it is easier not to come forward, because it is uncomfortable. Some of you may think, “If we come forward, people will know we have problems.” Guess what? They already know you have problems. That’s not news. The reason is that we all have problems. We are all broken. The smart people are those who are willing to bring their brokenness to Jesus. Chase Oaks is not a collection of perfect people who impress each other. It’s a collection of imperfect, broken people who are on an authentic journey with Jesus toward wholeness. Today is just an opportunity to take a step on that journey. So, let’s go to God in prayer right now, and again, I invite you at your campus to come forward for prayer in this song. We do this from time to time, and God always works just as he promises he will. I will pray, and then your campus pastor and worship leader will take it from there. For those online and not in our area, you can reach out for someone to pray with you or even contact you if you want for prayer remotely. Let’s pray together. www.chaseoakschurch.org . Used by permission.