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Strong biblical teaching on the implications of Christ's death and our salvation.

Revelation 1; Revelation 4 Hello, and welcome to this message from Pastor Skip Heitzig of Calvary Albuquerque. We pray that God uses these messages to reach people around the world, and we're always thankful to hear the stories of lives being changed by his love. If this message has impacted you in any way, we would love to know. So e mail us at mystory@calvaryabq.org . If you'd like to support this ministry financially, you can give online securely at calveryabq.org/giving . As followers of Jesus, we look forward to eternity with Him. And in our series "What's Next," we study the incredible prophecies found in the Book of Revelation. And we get a glimpse into the throne room of heaven, as Skip shares the message, "Come Up Here." Now we invite you to turn in your Bibles to Revelation 1 and 4, as he begins. Would you turn in your Bibles, please, to Revelation 1. So Powerball got up to $1.6 billion. And I don't know if it affected any of you, but your odds of winning Powerball, well, the odds were 292 million to 1 that you would not win Powerball. You would be more likely to be struck by an asteroid than to win. So I noticed that a clerk was on the news being interviewed who was selling tickets to people buying the $2 tickets to Powerball. And there was a line around the store. And somebody said, so why do you think so many people want to buy this ticket? What are they buying? And the cleric had an interesting answer. He said, they're buying hope. It's $2 worth of hope. And then he explained what he meant. He said, they take their ticket home, and then the number is read on the news. And the first number is their number. And they get all excited. Hey, that's my number! Then they read the second number. It's their number again. They get all excited. Third number isn't their number. But for a while there, he said, they had hope. It didn't last long, but that's what they're buying, $2 worth of hope. Well, I want to tell you about something a whole lot better than $2 worth of hope. It's called the blessed hope. When Paul wrote to Titus, he said, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. The blessed hope-- it's also what Peter called a living hope, living because the one who promised it is alive because of a Resurrection. And he has promised to come back. And he promised to come back for those who believe in Him. Now, that is in event I want to discuss with you this morning from the pages of the Book of Revelation to look at this idea, this thought, of what I think we have depicted here before us. And that is a word, and when I say it, it causes some to get excited. It causes others to roll their eyes. And that is the Rapture of the church. I say it causes people to roll their eyes because some of us can remember 1988. And we may remember the book that was published. It made a lot of news. Some people here told me almost that I had to tell people, warn people, that the Lord is coming back. The book said Jesus Christ will come back in the Rapture for his church in 1988 between September 11 and September 13 of that year. That's Rosh Hashanah on that year. Jesus is coming back. 88 Reasons Why that will happen. That's what it's called. So after the date came and went, the author Edgar Whisenant published a second book called The Final Shout, Rapture 1989. And then when that date came and went, he called it The Final Shout 1990 and once again The Final Shout 1994. And I think that was his final shout, because he's no longer with us. So a lot of people have predicted the event of the Rapture. And because of that negative press, some will dismiss the idea altogether. And that's unfortunate, because it is a real event. It's a distinct event. And it's an event for the church. And it's an event that is given detail in passages like John 14; First Thessalonians 4; I Corinthians 15. But here, I think we see it. We see it in the chronology of Revelation. There's only two people in the Bible that were given a trip to heaven. One was Paul. The other was John. Paul was taken there, but he didn't give us any details. We start reading II Corinthians 12, and he says, I was taken to the third heaven. And we're getting so excited because we want him to tell us what it was like. And he goes, I can't tell you what it was like. It's just too amazing. It's unlawful for me to even talk about it. It's like, oh, great. John, on the other hand, sees it, and he is commanded to write about it. And he does so in chapters 4 and 5 in a detailed description in the Book of Revelation. Now let me throw something out at you to hopefully jog your memory. Do you recall when Jesus told His disciples, some of you standing here will not taste death until they see the coming kingdom in glory? Then he took Peter, James, and John, and he was transfigured before them on a mountain, and so we kind of think, well, that's the fulfillment of that promise. However, what John sees in this vision of the Book of Revelation, though it was partially fulfilled in that little glorious snippet of a transformation, he sees in real, full-blown, expanded vision of the glorious Christ the things of the church and the details that follow in the Book of Revelation. So we discussed last week in Revelation one that John hears a voice behind him. And he turns to see who it is speaking, and he sees one like the Son of Man. And the words are in red because it's Jesus in this vision talking to John and giving him instruction. Now what I want you to notice with me, beginning in chapter 1 but then looking at chapter 4, are three occurrences that happened to John the Apostle-- three occurrences that happened to John before he writes about this tribulation that the bulk of the book takes up. And the three occurrences are simply this. John is commanded to write, John is called to heaven, and John is captivated by glory. So first of all, he has to look down, because he's told to write something. He then looks up because he goes somewhere. And then he looks around. And he describes to us the glories of heaven. Let's look back at chapter 1. Let's take it up in verse 17 this week. And will notice that John is commanded to write. "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid his right hand on me, saying to me, do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. I am He who lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore." Only one person can say that. "And I have the keys of Hades and death. Write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after this, the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lamp stands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lamp stands, which you saw, are the seven churches." Now, do you remember last week I told you that this book was written in symbols? We all notice that as we read the book. There's signs and symbols. In verse 1, it says that God gave it to him. He said, He sent and signified it. The word "signified" in verse 1 of chapter 1 means "given in signs or symbols." And so we ask the question, why? Why is it given in signs, why all these symbols? And then I said I won't answer it. I'll wait till this week to answer it. So let me give you the reasons why I believe this book is written in symbols. First reason is preservation. Symbols can withstand the test of time. Symbols transcend normal human language. And therefore, they are not weakened by time. They're not weakened by language. They're not weakened by culture. They're preserved because of that. The second reason is emotion. When you read symbols, they arouse a certain kind of an emotion, usually a strong emotion. So when we get to it, instead of just saying a dictator is going to come on the world scene, it's written like this. "And I saw a beast rise up out of the sea." That does something to the reader far different than just plain didactically writing it. So preservation, emotion, and the third is orientation. I mentioned last week that out of the 404 verses that comprise the Book of Revelation, almost 300 of them hearken back to an Old Testament reference. And so with the symbols that we read about, most of the symbols are rooted in the Old Testament. That is why they might sound weird to us, but to a first century Jewish reader familiar with the Jewish apocalyptic literature like Daniel or Ezekiel or Zechariah, they make more sense, so the orientation. And then number four is protection for the sake of protection. I don't know if you're aware of this, but the early church was under the watchful eye of the Roman government, and they were seizing documents to try them in a court for treason. And sometimes they would find their writings, their scriptures. And they would try to say, look, subversion, sedition, et cetera. Well, can you imagine a Roman soldier finding a copy of the Book of Revelation? He'd look at it and go, what? This just is all weird, all these signs and symbols. I don't get this. And it would be confusing to them and thus for protection. So all of those reasons help us understand why the book was given in signs and in symbols. Something else-- John is told to write, but he's given an outline in how to write. Verse 19, did you notice the command is "write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after this." Now, this is important, because that is exactly what John does in the book. That's how this book is laid out. Verse 19 of chapter 1 becomes the outline for the entire book. Look at it more carefully. "Write the things which you have seen." What did John see in chapter 1? A vision of Jesus, and he writes that down. He writes down the details of what he has seen. He had never seen Jesus like this before. He remembered Him in his earthly, unexalted state. He turned, and he saw one like the Son of Man but vastly different. And he writes that. Second, he is told to write the things which are. And John does that in chapters 2 and chapter 3 of Revelation. Those are the things going on at that time, the churches, seven churches in Asia Minor. In fact, if you look at verse 20, the meaning of a couple of the symbols are given. So we don't even have to guess. The mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lamp stands-- the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. Angels is the Greek word "angelos." It could mean heavenly messenger. It could mean earthly messenger. Both are seen using that term in the Bible. It could mean the pastors, the elders of the church. And the seven lamp stands, which you saw, are the seven churches. Now, these seven churches, which are written about in chapters 2 and 3, were actual, literal congregations in Asia Minor within a 100-mile radius close to each other in modern-day Turkey. I visited the ruins of them all. They are in close proximity to each other. They were literal, actual, living congregations at the time of John. But also, I believe, for a lot of reasons I don't have time to get into, that they were seven periods of church history, all the way from the apostolic church era all the way to the apostate state church era. It comprises all of church history. It's like a panorama of the things of the church. So John writes about the church in chapters 2 and in chapter 3. By the way, the churches are represented by a lamp stand. I think that's so fitting. A lamp stand raises the lamps, the oil lamps, high so that it gives light. Didn't Jesus say about us, you are the light of the world? Have you ever thought of yourself that way? Have you ever thought of yourself, when you walk into a room, hey, I'm the light of the world? You probably haven't, but you are. You really are. And think of it this way. People in this world are looking for a way out of their darkness. But if they look at God's people, and we seem to be in the dark, there's not a whole lot of hope. So it's like that lighthouse in Florida I read about some time ago. One of the glass panes broke out, and so they replaced it. They didn't have glass at the time, but to replace it to preserve the light from blowing out-- this is an old lighthouse-- they put a piece of tin in that one side. So it kept the light going. The only problem was, from one direction there was a dark spot. And I'm told that a ship trying to find harbor one night couldn't see it because in looking at the lighthouse, it saw a dark spot. And people trying to navigate through life and looking at what is on the lamp stand, us shining our light, they need to be able to see it bright and clear. We're the lamp stand. And Jesus holds the lamp stands and walks in the midst of the lamp stands So write the things which you have seen, the vision in chapter 1. Write the things which are, the things of the church, chapters 2 and 3. And then notice verse 19, the very last phrase, "and the things which will take place after this," Now, in the Greek language, it's meta tauta, after these or after this, meta tauta. And that's how John writes the book. Now turn over to chapter 4, please for a moment, chapter 4. Because John was commanded to write, but now John is called to heaven. And watch this. Chapter 4, verse 1, after these things, stop. If you and I were reading the Greek text, it would say, meta tauta. Back to the outline, chapter 1, verse 19, the things which are, the things which you have seen, the things which are, and the things which will be, meta tauta, after this. We come to chapter four, meta tauta, after this, or after these things, I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, come up here, and I will show you things which must take place meta tauta, after this. So after these things-- after what things? After the vision he saw in chapter 1, after the message that Jesus gives to the seven churches, chapters 2 and 3. Now suddenly John is in heaven. Suddenly John is in the presence of God. Suddenly John sees it, the throne, and he writes about it. He holds it in chapters 4 and 5. Now follow me here. The church has been in focus in chapters 1, 2, and 3 of the Book of Revelation. 19 times-- 19 times-- the word "church" appears in chapters 1, 2, and 3. It's Jesus and the church, Jesus and the church. The church is in focus. Now suddenly in chapter 4, after these things, the church, it's as if they disappear. It is not seen. It is not spoken about. It is not even mentioned at all until the end of the book after Jesus comes back and the kingdom is developed and the new heavens and the new Earth are put in place. The word "church" appears. But from chapter 4 on, it's gone. In fact, the very last mention of it is in the verse right before verse 1 of chapter 4. Look at Revelation, chapter 3, verse 22. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches," last mention of it in the book. Now it's meta tauta, after this, after the things of the church, after the church age has run its course. So those are the three divisions of the Book of Revelation. That's how it's laid out-- what John has seen, chapter 1, the things which are, chapters 2 and 3, and the things which will take place after this. Now John is in heaven instantly. And I believe we would call this a preview of coming attractions. This is a depiction of the Rapture of the church. In fact, even the language in verse 1 of chapter 4 sounds a little bit familiar if you're a Bible student at all and you know the text in I Thessalonians 4, right? John says that "a first voice that I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, come up here." Doesn't that sound familiar? In fact, if it's not familiar, you need to be familiar with it. Turn with me to I Thessalonians now, chapter 4-- I Thessalonians 4. Love to hear those Bible pages turning. It's not the same when you have a little phone, and you're kind of doing this with your finger. It doesn't make the [IMITATES PAPER CRUMPLING] sound. They should put that in an app, by the way, that little [IMITATES PAPER CRUMPLING] sound. They could do that. [LAUGHTER] I Thessalonians 4:13, "But I do not want you to be ignorant brethren," concerning those who have fallen asleep, died. "Lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this, we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep." Now, what you need to know is the Thessalonians were all worried. They believe Jesus was coming. Paul had told him he's coming back. But many of their friends and relatives have already died. So they're wondering, what about them? They're going to miss the coming of the Lord. And Paul is saying, oh, no, no, no, no. They're not going to miss the coming of the Lord. They're going to be there. In fact, they're going to see it first. Verse 16, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God." You got that? Voice of an archangel-- the Lord himself is going to shout with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. So your relatives who have gone into heaven, they're not going to miss this. They're going to see it first. Of course, they have six feet further to travel, so they need to get a little head start, I suppose. But look at verse 17. Here's the classic passage. "Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words." OK, so I hear people all the time say, well, the word "rapture" isn't in the Bible. Well, the word "bible" isn't in the Bible. Who cares that the word isn't there? The teaching, the idea, that doctrine is clearly there. You say it is? Where? You just read it. "We who are alive and remain shall be caught up." The word in Greek is harpazo-- harpazo. Harpazo shows up 18 different times in 13 different verses in the New Testament. And when it's translated, it means four times "to catch up," or to be caught up, three times it means "to take something by force," one time it's translated "to snatch away," twice "to snatch," twice "to catch away," twice "to pluck," and one "to pull." You get the idea? It means to grab something suddenly, harpazo. So when Jerome translated the New Testament from Greek into Latin in around 400 AD, it became the Bible of the church until the Reformation. He translated harpazo, to be caught up, by the Latin word "raptus," or "rapere," which means to seize or to catch. So when people say, well, the word "rapture" isn't in the Bible, I guess it depends which version you read. If you read the New King James or NIV or NASB, you're right. If you read the Latin Vulgate, it's there. It's there. Now listen to this verse, verse 17, in what is called the Wuest translation of the New Testament. Written by a Greek scholar, teacher of Moody Bible Institute, Kenneth Wuest, he translates verse 17 this way. "We shall be snatched away forcibly in masses of saints having the appearance of clouds for a welcome meeting with the Lord in the lower atmosphere." Doesn't get any more graphic than that. Doesn't get any plainer than that. And what is written by Paul is experienced by John. It's a voice like a trumpet. It says, come up here, which illustrates what will happen to God's people when the Church Age is done. The Lord will descend from heaven with a shout. What's he going to shout? I can't be sure, but I would be surprised if he didn't say, come up there! Wouldn't that be great? In whatever language you're used to hearing it in, come up here! Boom, instantly. So then in Revelation, chapter 4 and 5, the church is in heaven. The church is safely ensconced in heaven, tucked away for a seven-year honeymoon. A seven-year tribulation is going on on the Earth. After that seven years, Jesus will return to the Earth to stop a judgment, a war that is going on, and we will come with him. I similar to a Jewish wedding. At a Jewish wedding in ancient times, there would be a wedding ceremony, followed by a feast that usually lasted seven days. While people were feasting, hanging out, fellowshipping, the bride and groom would be tucked away, away from the crowd, away from the world, t the end of which the groom would present his bride after that wedding. So that takes place in heaven. Meanwhile back at the ranch, back on Earth, chapters six through 19, is the worst possible tribulation period the Earth has ever seen, ever, ever, ever in its history, according to Jesus, worse than any other time in history. God pours out his wrath on a Christ-rejecting, sinful world. So John is commanded to write. John is called to heaven. Third and finally, John is captivated by glory. Once he's there in heaven, verse 2, "Immediately I was in the spirit, and behold a throne sat in heaven. And one sat on the throne. "And he who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were 24 thrones. And on the thrones, I saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white robes. And they had crowns of gold on their head. "From the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Before the throne, there was a sea of glass-like crystal. And in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back." So John is caught up into heaven. What's the first thing that catches his attention? A throne. Not his Aunt Lucy. It's not, where are those people I wanted to have a reunion with? That will come, but more and first and foremost, it's a throne. "Throne" is mentioned 13 times in chapter 4. So that is the dominating feature of heaven, is the throne of God, the control, sovereignty of God. He sees the throne and one who sat on it. I love what Dwight L. Moody used to say about heaven. He said, it's not the jewelled walls, it's not the pearly gates that are going to make heaven attractive. It's just being with God. Being with God-- that's why heaven is more than a what or a where. It's really a whom. You'll be where He is. Jesus said, "Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself-- listen-- that where I am, there you may be also. That's heaven, and he sees it. And notice how he describes God. He describes the indescribable in the appearance of stones. Did you notice a jasper stone and a sardius stone? These are stones, and they're not just stones. They're particular types of stones. They were the first stone and the last stone on the breastplate of the high priests in the Old Testament. A Jasper stone was clear like a diamond. I'll be honest with you. I have never really understood the value of diamonds. I'm sometimes shown diamonds, oh, look at that. And I just go, you know, OK, glass, you know? It's not a big deal to me. Now, trust me, I've been schooled on this. I've been corrected on the value of diamonds. But you know, there's a couple of planets in our galaxy where it rains diamonds on them. So in some places, it's like dust. Women, however, you value jewels on this Earth, heaven is so inestimably more, that everything on this Earth pales in comparison to it. I know it may not mean much to you now. But notice the next stone is a sardius. Sardius stone is a stone that is sort of a translucent reddish stone. And why that is there, I'm not certain, perhaps to remind us of the redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. He also sees 24 elders on 24 thrones around the throne like an ancient courtroom, a court of the king. And trust me, I could do two weeks on the identity of the 24 elders. I could drill that deep down. But we would be in Revelation for at least 7 to 10 years, so I'm not going to do that. But I am going to say that 24 is a representative group. Just like in the Old Testament there is a genealogy that has 24 patriarchs listed that represent all of the patriarchs listed. Also, the 24 elders who were over the 24 courses of priests, those 24 elders represented all of the priests and, in fact, all of the nation of Israel. And also, there were 24 courses of Levitical singers with representatives that represented the nation. So it's safe to say that 24 is a representative number. And I believe the 24 elders, since that is a New Testament term, "presbuteros," elder, that they are representatives of the church. It is 24 elders representing the church of Jesus Christ in heaven during the tribulation. Now, some of you are looking at me like, oh, dude, you are so stretching it. You are walking on thin ice. I don't know if it really is the church. It could be angels. It could be anybody. It could only be the church. It could only be the church. And I want to show you why. If you look at the song they sing, and you read the lyrics of the song, there's only one group that can sing those lyrics. And that's church people, people who have been redeemed, saved. Angels can't sing that. Angels haven't been redeemed. Go down to chapter 5 for a moment, verse 8. "When he, the lamb, had taken the scroll, the four living creatures"-- notice-- "the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp, golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you are slain and have redeemed"-- listen-- "us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation." Only one group can sing that song, and that's the church. We sing songs, like "Redeemed, How I Love to Proclaim It" or "Jesus Paid It All, All to Him I Owe," songs of redemption. So as soon as we are raptured, as soon as we are taken to heaven, however we get there, by death or by rapture, but at that rapture when we're there, we are going to be consumed by the vision of the glorious God upon his throne. And I'll tell you, the immediate response is you're going to want to worship. It's been said there's three surprises you'll find in heaven-- who's there, who's not there, and that you're there. [LAUGHTER] I've always liked that. First of all, who's not there? Hey, where's So-and-So? I was sure they'd be here. Nope. And then you look at some people, how did you get here? [LAUGHTER] You were the last person I'd ever expect to see in heaven. Surprise. And then, surprise of surprises, you're there. And you're just going to say, oh, I am redeemed by his blood out of every tribe, tongue, nation. So while there is tribulation on the Earth, chapter 6 through 19, there is adoration in heaven, chapters 4 and 5. Now, did you notice in verse one John says, after these things, I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. You see, it's not a gate with Saint Peter holding a clipboard like all those lame jokes. Peter has nothing at all to do with you getting into heaven. Jesus has everything to do with it. He said, I am the door. Anyone who enters by me will be saved. By the way, twice in Revelation-- twice in Revelation-- heaven is opened-- twice. Here, chapter 4, verse 1, second is Revelation 19:11. In the first occurrence, somebody goes up. In the second occurrence, somebody comes down. In the first occurrence, church goes up. The second occurrence, Jesus with the armies of heaven come down. T here is more to say on that, but time is running out. Let me just go back to that verse, which is, I believe, the first promise in the New Testament of the Rapture of the church given by Jesus. He said to his disciples, remember, let not your heart be troubled. This is in the upper room after the Last Supper. Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house, there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you so. I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Did you get that language? He says, I'm coming for you. I'm coming to get you. I'm coming to take you where I am. He didn't say, I'll send for you. I am coming, I will return, and I will come for you. The disciples were so bewildered at that point, that's why Jesus said, don't let your hearts be troubled. Because they had believed he was the Messiah. But they can't conceive of what he just said, that he's going to die. Their messianic script did not include a crucifixion. They couldn't conceive of a messiah who comes to Earth, hangs out for a few years, and then goes back to heaven and then comes back. That was not in their script. They're bewildered. So he says, hey, let me tell you how it's coming down. I'll be back. [TERMINATOR VOICE] I'll be back. [LAUGHTER] I'm coming to get you, that where I am, there you may be also. So, you know what? Powerball is cool. But it's only $2 worth of hope. This is the blessed hope. This is the living hope. I suppose if I was to get a phone call if I were to have even bought a Powerball ticket, and I were to get a phone call that said, you won, I bet that would be really exciting. I get that. But there's something else I'd much rather hear than I'm the winner of $1.6 billion or split three ways before taxes. [LAUGHTER] You know what I'd rather hear? Come up here. [APPLAUSE] Come up here/ That's better than Powerball. That's a power call. [LAUGHTER] Father, thank you for the hope that is found in your word, the hope that has become, for the last 2,000 years, the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you for the living hope, that even when loved ones that we were so close to die before this event, they will be there. They will see it first. They will be transformed in their resurrected bodies first. But then we who are alive and remain will be caught up to meet you, Lord, in the air, and we will always be with you. I pray that hope would change us. Because it could happen at any moment. In Jesus' name, Amen. How amazing it will be to worship God forever in the glorious throne room of heaven. Did this message influence how you worship the Lord right now? Well, let us know. Email us at mystory@calvaryabq.org . And just a reminder, you can give financially to this work at calvaryabq.org/giving . Thank you for joining us for this teaching from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Albuquerque

Paradise Regained: The Garden of Heaven - Revelation 21-22 - Skip Heitzig Well, good morning to you and Happy Christmas. We're in this season and we're doing a series called Follow The Trees. Last week, we looked at one tree in the Garden of Eden. This week we'll look at the Tree of Life in the new Jerusalem in the future. And then Christmas Eve, we'll talk about the third tree, and that is the cross. A question or an issue about the book that Nate wrote, Christmas Under the Tree. There are 50 copies left. That's all that we have presently. They're all signed copies. So if you want a great children's book for Christmas to read to your kids, it follows this theme. We have 50 left, and you can get a copy over in our bookstore, SoPo. Turn in your Bibles, please, to the Book of Revelation this morning. Chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21. It's good if you have a Bible. I hope you brought one. If you don't have a real one, maybe you have a fake one on your phone or your tablet. So whether you have a real Bible or a fake Bible, take out your Bible. Get to Revelation chapter 21, back of the book, and we'll begin in a moment. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we want to thank You for the season that we are in. It is an opportunity for us as believers to share the meaning behind this season. It is lost. It is obscured every year by commercialism. And yet we have an opportunity to let the light shine in our world. And I pray that we as believers will use it. We pray that You will comfort those in our midst who are afflicted because of loss, Lord. This time of the year is very difficult for some carrying a heavy burden of somebody they love who's not with them this year. We pray that you would comfort and strengthen and uphold them with your righteous right hand. In Jesus's name we ask. Amen. Well, last week, two men in Rockland, Maine, tried to steal a Christmas tree, here we have footage, from a hotel lobby. Now, this is a full on Grinch move right here. So they go into this hotel lobby. It's an artificial tree. They unplug the tree. They try to remove it and take it into an elevator. I don't know why an elevator. If you're going to steal a tree, go out the front door. But they took an elevator. The bottom of the tree did not come up, so it came apart. So they finally yanked it and brought it in the elevator. They were identified and they were arrested 25 minutes later. That's all it took for the police to find them and arrest them. And the funniest part of it is the police report. They said, we don't know why and no one quite knows the reason. It could be their head wasn't screwed on just right. It could be perhaps their shoes were just too tight. Or perhaps their heart was two sizes too small. Yes, it was a full on Grinch experience. But the ultimate Grinch was Satan himself, who tried to steal the Tree of Life. In fact, stole man's opportunity to partake of the Tree of Life, which would grant them living forever, and instead turn them toward disobeying God, eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Last week, I told you that all of history can be viewed through the lens of three trees, the first being the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Second is the Tree of Life, and the third is the cross of Christ. Those are the trees we are following. In Genesis chapter 2 and 3, because man and his wife disobeyed God and they took the one thing God says, do not take, do not do, they were banished from the Tree of Life. Now, you might just say, well, it's gone. It's over. Until we get to the very end of the Bible itself, and we discover it's as if the Tree of Life has been transplanted. It shows up again at the very end of time in the new Jerusalem. We're going to see it in chapter 22. I'm excited about this message, because it's going to be a wild message for some of you, but we are going way into our future and talk about heaven. And I made a discovery about heaven, and that is the older we get in life and the closer we get to the end of our earthly lives, the more people think about heaven. Whatever you think about during your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, by the time you see that there's more road behind you than in front of you, you start thinking about where you're going next. I had a couple friends of mine. He's a pastor and this is a pastor's wife. And she was fatal. She had a fatal disease. And she was in another state, and she asked me if I'd visit her. So I went to visit her in the hospital. And she just wanted some time alone with me. She said she considered me her pastor. Her husband wasn't really excited about that part of it. But she just said, I'd just like to ask you some questions. Just tell me about heaven. I know the Bible. I know what it says about heaven. I just want to hear you describe to me as best you can what heaven is going to be like. Because she knew in a few hours she would be there. And I told her. We went through the scriptures. I helped to describe what I knew. And then as I was leaving the room, she said, Skip. And I turned around. And she said, I'll see you around the corner. She knew she would be in God's presence very shortly. In Revelation 21 and 22, we learn things we are going to see and things we're going to do in heaven. People always wonder, well, what am I going to see. Angels? Am I going to be sitting on a cloud in a white robe? Am I going to be playing a harp? Am I going to be singing all day long, endlessly? No, you're going to be doing something very, very different and seeing things that really defy description almost. In chapter 21 of Revelation, we are entering into what is called the eternal state. The eternal state. It is an entirely different dimension than we now presently know. In Revelation 21 and 22, we are entering into timelessness, into eternity. Remember in school when you were growing up and the teacher would teach history with a timeline? So they'd put a line on a chart or on a chalkboard, and that represented time. And so you have little dots along the timeline. This dot might represent the founding of our nation. Then there's another dot that would represent World War I, then another dot that would represent World War II, et cetera. That's time on a chart. So you might think eternity is simply the line goes on forever. But I want to suggest to you that's not the best way to think of eternity. Think of it this way. Remove the line altogether. There is no line. There is no time. Einstein showed us that time is relative, that time has physical property and will vary according to mass, acceleration, and gravity. But God does not live within the constraint of a time space continuum. He dwells in an eternal realm. And so I just want to get your mind there as we get into chapter 21 and 22. By this time, the rapture is over. The tribulation is over. Armageddon is over. The second coming of Christ is over. It's all past tense in this point. The 1,000 year reign of Christ on the Earth called the millennial kingdom, the kingdom age, is also over. That Earth and the heavens will have been destroyed by God, and a new one is put in its place. That's what we enter into when we get into chapter 21 and 22. Now, what I'd like to do is give you four aspects of heaven's design. Four aspects of heaven's design. Of course, this is not the totality of heaven. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard. It has not entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. But read the next verse. It says, but God has revealed them to us by His spirit. We're going to read what God has revealed to us by His spirit in the scripture of what the future is going to be like in heaven. First of all, this eternal state has a design that I'm calling the anterior design. That is from the front. What does it look like, generally speaking? So look at chapter 21, verse 1. John the apostle writes, "Now I saw a new heaven and a new Earth. For the first heaven and the first Earth," that's this one, "had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem," get this, "coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God." The general appearance that strikes John as he sees this coming down out of heaven is that it is like a dazzling bride. That's the general description. That's the anterior view. It's like, wow, breathtaking to him. Now, you will notice in verse 1, he says, "Now I saw." And then in verse 2, "Then I, John, saw." And I'm bringing that to your attention because the book of Revelation is filled with that phrase. In fact, 36 times in this book it's then I saw, now I saw, and I saw, I, John, saw. And so what we are getting here is an eyewitness description of a future vision. John is a spectator of future events. And I bring this up because some people try to squeeze the Book of Revelation into a non-literal symbolic meaning. It doesn't really mean what it says it means. I know John saw this, but he's not really meaning that literally. It's all just a bunch of symbols. And if you ask them what the symbols mean, then they say, well, I don't know. I can't tell you what it means, but it is symbolic. But they can't tell you what the symbols mean. Or if they tell you what the symbols mean, 40 other people have 40 other symbolic meanings. I think it's best to read it in a literal, grammatical, historical sense. Take it at face value. Yes, there are emblems and symbols, but they point to a reality, to real events. So this is what he sees. This is his eyewitness description. And one of the troubling things to me, I have told you before, because I've covered this with you before, one of the troubling things to me is that little phrase in verse 1 where he says, also there was no more sea. I have long wrestled with that text, but I take it to mean-- you know what it means? There's no more sea. [LAUGHTER] That's it. There is no more sea. And here's the best way to explain it. The new Earth, the new heavens and Earth, are no longer going to be water-based in their existence. The present universe, of course, depends on water. 2/3 of the surface of the Earth is water. 65% of your body is water. 90% of your blood is water. You live in a water based environment. You need that. The present watery Earth will be reconstructed for the millennial kingdom, 1,000 years. And after that, it's done. It's over. It gets destroyed. Verse 1, I saw a new heaven and a new Earth, for the first heaven and the first Earth had passed away. This should be not new news to us. In the book of Isaiah, the prophet said, God's going to make a new heaven and new Earth. 2 Peter chapter 3 in the New Testament, Peter says, "Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements that is on the Earth will melt with fervent heat." That's total destruction. "Nevertheless, we according to His promise look for new heavens and a new Earth in which righteousness dwells." So we're dealing with a whole new planet Earth in Revelation 21, a new physical planet, not water based. No need for a water based system. We'll have glorified bodies. We won't have the same dependency as we do now. Let me take you down to verse 9. We're still dealing with the anterior view, the frontal view. Verse 9. "Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, come, I will show you the bride." Because that's what it looked like to John at first. The lamb's wife. "And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God." This is not like the Jerusalem in the Middle East in present day Israel. This is new Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. "Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." So John looks up, sees this city coming out of heaven from God toward the new Earth, perhaps affixing itself to the Earth, perhaps just out from the Earth a little bit. Can't be sure. But settling somehow in juxtaposition to the new Earth as the capital city of the eternal state. And John wants to describe to us the light that it has. Having the glory of God, it says, verse 11, her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Now, there's an interesting word that he uses here for light. It is the word phoster. It's a little bit different than the typical word for light. The typical word for light in Greek is phos. But here it's phoster, and phoster means a light source, an illuminator. Think of a light bulb. That would be a phoster. It is something in which light is concentrated and from which light radiates. That is, light is pouring out of the new Jerusalem. Why? Verse 11 says, having the glory of God. Now, he mentions a stone here, the jasper stone. In modern times, jasper stone is opaque. In ancient times, it was more clear. It was more translucent, and it was more diamond-like. So think of it, John is trying to describe a diamond-like appearance. But he says also in verse 11, please notice the last part of that verse, it is clear as crystal. Here's the idea. John is looking at the light. It is radiating from this glorious city that he sees coming down, and it is able to go through all the surfaces because it is clear as crystal. And you know, I'm guessing, I'm guessing this, that in the Bible, the revelation of God, the appearance of God is often associated with light. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. In 1 John chapter 1, God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. And oftentimes, when God shows up, it's in the form of light. Moses wanted to see the glory of God. God said, you can't see my glory and live. You'll die. But I'll pass alongside of you. You will see my afterglow only because if you look at me in full, blazing glory, you'll be dead meat. I'm paraphrasing a little bit. So that experience happens. Moses comes down from the mountain and his face is what? It's glowing. Just that after presence of God coming by the cave where he was hiding himself caused his face to glow. And then when God was with his people in the wilderness, it was a pillar of cloud by day, but a pillar of light by night. So God is often associated with light. And so then in the new Jerusalem, light is radiating from this city, the Shekinah glory of God is radiating from the city. That's the anterior design. That's the front general appearance. Let's notice a little bit more the exterior design of this future capital city, your future home. I'm not going to go through all the verses. He talks about 12 gates and 12 foundation stones. The 12 gates have the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. The 12 foundation stones of the city have the names of the 12 apostles. Let me take you down to verse 15. "And he who talked with me," that is this angelic representative, "He who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city." A measuring tape. "Its gates, and its wall." Evidently then, this angel wants John to know what the measurements are. Verse 16. "The city is laid out as a square. Its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed 12,000 furlongs." Now, I know you're thinking, that doesn't help me. Well, 12,000 furlongs is 1,500 miles. So the angel says, let's measure this baby. And they take out the measuring stick and it is 15,000 miles. And notice this. Its length, its breadth, and its height are equal. Can you picture it? It is a perfect cube. The measurement of the future city of Jerusalem is a 1,500 mile cube. Now, let me help you understand 1,500 miles. 1,500 miles is the distance from Maine to Florida. 1,500 miles is the distance from Dallas, Texas, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1,500 miles is the distance from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Spokane, Washington. That would make the new Jerusalem 2,250,000 square miles. Or, to put it in easier configuration, the size of London, England 15,000 times. So it's 15,000 times larger than London, England. Or if you prefer this, just slightly larger than our moon. So he sees a square object the size of the moon radiating light called new Jerusalem, coming out of heaven to the new Earth. Erwin Lutzer said this. This city could be composed of 396,000 stories at 20 feet per story, each with an area as big as half the size of the United States. Divide that into separate condominiums, and you have plenty of room for everyone who has been redeemed since the beginning of time. By the way, this should help you understand what Jesus said when He told His disciples, in my father's house, there are many mansions. One of the worst translations ever. It doesn't even make sense in English. How do you have a house with mansions in it? So a better translation. In my father's house, there are many rooms, many abiding places. Maybe He was talking about the new Jerusalem. Let me just throw something out at you for fun. In verse 3, it says, behold, the tabernacle of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. Let me take you back to the Old Testament. There was that tent structure called the tabernacle. And what was the one room where God dwelt? Where the Ark of the Covenant. It was called the Holy of Holies. The measurement of the Holy of Holies was 15 feet by 15 feet by 15. It was a 15 foot cube. It's just sort of interesting to me that the new Jerusalem, the tabernacle of God that is with man, is 1,500 miles cubed. This is your future home. New Jerusalem. Dr. Henry Morris, a scientist and an engineer, said 20 billion people could inhabit this city and assume that if 25% of the city is used for dwelling places and the rest for whatever else, streets, parks, public buildings, he calculates each person, all $20 billion people, could have a cubical block with 75 acres on each face to call his own. Pretty big place. Now, because it's 1,500 miles, not just flat in two directions, but high, I'm going to throw something else out at you. Probably don't think about this much. The streets run not just vertically, but-- or horizontally, but vertically. You remember when Jesus rose from the dead? He rose from the dead. How was it that He could be in one place physically and then the next minute in a whole different city physically? Just appeared, just walked through the walls and showed up. He's on the road to Emmaus and He's in the upper room, hanging out with His disciples. Or He's up in Galilee. So my suggestion to you is you in your glorified body, in the new Jerusalem, having the same capacities as Christ will be able to travel multidimensionally. Again, Dr. Henry Morris says it should also be remembered that our new bodies, the new bodies of resurrected saints, will be like those of the angels, no longer limited by gravitational or electromagnetic forces as at the present. This will be easy, for-- thus it will be easy for the inhabitants to travel vertically as well as horizontally. Consequently, the streets of the city well may include vertical passageways as well as horizontal avenues. Now, I ask you, this is not what you thought of heaven would be like. You're still thinking clouds, harps, singing. Sounds pretty fun. Now, let me take you to the interior design. We've seen the anterior from the front. We've seen the exterior. It's all measured. Let's go inside this city. Verse 22. He goes inside. "But I saw no temple in it. For the Lord God Almighty and the lamb," that's Jesus, "are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The lamb is its light." Verse 25, "Its gates shall not be shut at all by day." And I love this little part. "There shall be no night there." Because light is emanating from it. It is perpetual. There's no sun and moon. There's no cycles like we have of sun and moon, sunrise, sunset, et cetera. There shall be no night there. Now, as we go inside, the first thing John makes a mention of is that there's something not there. There's no temple. And I think the reason John writes this is because he's surprised. John, in his day, in every ancient city, the center of town was a temple. Always. It was the most noticeable feature. It was the predominant feature of every ancient city. John had lived in Ephesus. The Temple of Diana dominated that city. If you were to go to Rome or Corinth or Athens, same thing. Temples dotted the landscape and they were always in the center square. Even Jerusalem, Earthly Jerusalem, had a temple in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The temple was a dominant feature. Also in the millennial kingdom, which is by now passed, but there will be a temple in the millennial kingdom for 1,000 years of Christ's reigning upon the Earth. So here he expects to see one, and he doesn't see one. In the eternal state, there's no need for it. But again, I want you to think a little bit differently here. Rather than thinking of the temple as being eliminated, I want you to think that the temple is being expanded. That every part of it is the Temple. Henry Alford puts it this way. The inhabitants need no place of worship or sacrifice. The object of all worship being present, that is God the Father, and the great sacrifice Himself being there, that is Jesus Christ. So the temple is expanded. Because He's going to occupy in blazing glory the whole of the new heavens and the new Earth. Do you remember Jesus praying before His crucifixion to His father? He said, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world was. We are now seeing the glory that Jesus came from, and He will occupy again. So that's the interior design. Let me take you now to the superior design. What I mean by that is the new Jerusalem, your future home, this aspect of heaven, the eternal state, is designed for superior living. It is life at its fullest. It is like the Garden of Eden. Remember, we saw last week the Garden of Eden, paradise lost. Well, now you're about to see paradise regained. Verse 1 of chapter 22. "And he showed me a pure river of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the lamb. In the middle of its street and on either side of the river," was what? There it is again. It shows up again. Was the Tree of Life. Get this. "Which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse. But the throne of God and of the lamb shall be seen in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun. For the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever." This is Main Street. This is downtown new Jerusalem. And what we notice is it's like a garden. It's a garden-like environment. And it's flanked by a river that comes from the throne of God and the lamb. By the way, there's a word in the New Testament, paradise. It's only found twice. Paradise. Paradise, referring to heaven, is a word that actually means a walled garden, which perfectly fits the description of the new Jerusalem. A walled garden-like environment. And as we read the description in the first five verses, it reminds us of the Garden of Eden. Remember, the Garden of Eden had one river with four different branches that watered the entire garden. Here there is one river. The headwaters are from the throne of God, the Father, and the throne of Christ. That is, the lamb. The water is cascading across these transparent gold surfaces. Again, you just have to try to picture it in your head. We've not seen anything like it. This is the eternal state. Before this was a millennial kingdom. The millennial kingdom was 1,000 year reign of Christ on the Earth. Now, from our perspective, that hasn't happened yet, but it will happen. There will also be a river in that millennial kingdom. In the Jerusalem on Earth, in that glorious kingdom age, there will be a river that flows from Jerusalem into the Dead Sea and into the Mediterranean Sea. This river is different. The throne of God is the source of this river. As if to say, God is our source. God is our portion. God is our provision. God is our very life. It is called the Tree of Life. This is called the River of Life. Again, I don't want to get too deep into the weeds here, but I kind of get deep into the weeds here. This is a very different river than any river we have known on the Earth, because the hydrological cycle, as we now know it, will not be present in the new Jerusalem. Because to have a river, you got to have a sea, and there's no more sea. So the typical cycle, the hydrological cycle of evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and collection is not present. That's in the present day Earth. But in this reality, it is not. This is a different kind of river, but a river nonetheless. Just simply a garden-like environment. Now, this takes me in my mind to Psalm 46:44, where the psalmist says, "There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the most high." Now, let me take you down to this tree. It says, "In the middle of the street," verse 2, "and on either side of the river was the Tree of Life, which bore 12 fruits." Remember, the Tree of Life appeared in the Garden of Eden, the beginning of history. Now at the beginning of eternity, it shows up again. Back then, in Genesis 2 and 3, mankind was forbidden from eating of the Tree of Life because they had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, put them in a sinful state. God placed cherubim to guard the tree of life and kicked man out of the garden. You say, what kind of a God of love is that? A God who really loves them a lot. Because if they would have been allowed to eat of the Tree of Life after they have sinned, they would have been perpetually, eternally in a state of sinfulness. So God said, you can't have it. But he doesn't obviously get rid of the Tree of Life, because it shows up here again. What's interesting about the Tree of Life here is it says it's in the middle of the street and at the same time on both sides of the river. Explain that to me. How do you have something in the middle of the street and on both sides of the river? Well, here's some possibilities. Do the branches extend over? Are there two trees? Are there several trees, like a Tree of Life forest? Or is the trunk of the Tree of Life so wide, like the sequoias in California, where you have the road going through the trunk. Maybe you have the river going through the trunk of the Tree of Life. I can't help you there. But I can give you a couple of examples on this Earth. There is something in Colorado they call a clonal colony where they have 106 acres of trees called pando trees, and they're actually just part of one tree, one root system that shows up in 106 acres. Or there's a tree called the banyan tree. And the banyan tree, which is found in India and subtropical places on the Earth, grows limbs, and the limbs become quite heavy. So as the limbs grow out and get heavier, they actually drop new root systems down from the branches. And the root systems go down, form new trunks to support the large limbs. So if you were to step underneath an old banyan tree, it would feel like you are in a forest of trees when you're actually only under one tree. Just a thought. But then in verse 2, it says it bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every what? Now, that's troublesome. Every month? I thought we're not dealing with time anymore. I thought this is the eternal state. The timeline has been removed. How are we dealing with months? Well, this is one of those anthropomorphic expressions where you have the language of God written in simple human terms, just so we can grasp the idea of some form of reality. One commentator simply puts it this way. There will be a regular cycle of joyous provision filled with variety, changing all the time. God in heaven is going to make sure you're not bored. And when you go through Main Street of new Jerusalem, there's going to be a changeover of different kinds of fruit every season, every month, from our perspective. But there's something else that requires us looking at. It says the leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations. Now, the reason that's noteworthy is because they're healed from what? If there's no disease, if there's no pain, if there's no death, which it says in chapter 21, there is no more death, no tears, what are they being healed from? The word for healing is the Greek word therapeio, which sounds like therapy or therapeutic. These leaves are for therapeutic means. These leaves enrich life. Think of it like vitamins. You don't take vitamins because you're sick and you need healing. You take vitamins to enhance your life. So think of these leaves as eternal life vitamins, eternal life boosters. So we got fruit on the tree. You have leaves on the trees. And somebody will say, well, does that mean we're going to eat in heaven? We're in glorified bodies. Are we're going to eat? Why not? Angels in the Old Testament ate with Abraham. Genesis 18. Jesus, when he rose from the dead, ate meals with his disciples, cooked for them, and ate with them on the shores of Galilee. And then Jesus at the Last Supper said, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine anymore until I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom. So maybe we will. All of that to simply say, heaven is not sitting on a cloud with white robes, playing harps, singing endlessly. But it's a place of dazzling beauty, lots of variety, and enrichments that supplement joy. Well, what are we going to do in heaven? Well, you're going to do three things according to this text. You're going to serve Him. You're going to see Him. And you're going to support Him. I want to show you that. Look at verse 3. You're going to serve Him. There shall be no more curse. I love that. But the throne of God and of the lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. You say, well, like what? What are we going to do? Whatever he wants you to do. But like putting man in the Garden of Eden to keep it and to tend it, he gave Adam a job as soon as he made him, God is going to have us do something. Serve Him. So again, I just want to get to this idea of if you ever think heaven is boring, I mean, really? I mean, I'm not bored on Earth. I'm active on Earth. I don't think heaven would be boring. In fact, what's great about it is there's no more curse. No more curse. No more pain. All of that is gone. Serving God now in a cursed world is hard. It's hard because I find myself handicapped by my own weakness and my own sin. To be in a perfect environment and a glorified body, serving the Lord will be a joy and will be easy. I'll never get tired. So, number one, you're going to serve Him. Number two, you're going to see Him. Verse 4. They shall see His face. Remember, Moses said, or God said to Moses, you cannot see my face and live. You can't have that experience. You will die. And His name shall be on their foreheads. Now in glorified bodies, in this eternal state, we are going to be able to look upon the blazing glory of God and not die, because we too will be glorified. And by the way, this is the best part of heaven. People say, what are you looking forward to when you get to heaven? The gold streets, the River of Life, the Tree of Life? No, seeing God face to face. Heaven is like home. The greatest thing about a person's home isn't what's there, but who's there. Seeing God personally, being with Him intimately is the best part of heaven. Then it says, and you might just want to skip over this, but I don't want to skip over it. It says, His name shall be on their foreheads. What does that signify? It signifies ownership. They're mine. He's mine. She's mine. Listen to this promise. Revelation chapter 3, verse 12. Jesus speaking to the church at Philadelphia. "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he will go out no more. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God. And I will write on him my new name." So you'll have a lot of information there. God's name, the name of the city in which you dwell in new Jerusalem, and the name of Jesus. In other words, this one belongs to me, and this is his home or her home. So you will serve Him. You will see Him. Three, you will support Him. Verse 5. "There will be no night there, no need of lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever." You're not just going to serve him, you're going to reign with him. The Bible says you are heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And just as He was glorified, you too will be glorified. So again, you're not just sitting on a cloud, bored out of your mind thinking, great, I'm going to be in heaven. I won't even have my cell phone to kill time. No, it will be exciting, it will be diverse, and you will be busy. And by the way, that's how our lives should be right now. Filled with joy, filled with diversity, and being busy about His business. But this is your future home if you're a believer. Do you want to be there? Do you want to eat of the Tree of Life? Do you want to drink of the River of Life freely? That's the last invitation, by the way, in chapter 22. Whoever wills, let him come and drink of the water of life freely. If you do, then put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, because this is His kingdom and the kingdom of His Father. He said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if you're ever wondering, well, what does that look like? Now you know. This is it. It's a wild scene, but it will be your reality and my reality one day. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for the glories of heaven. We get a little bit of Revelation, not much about the new Earth, but a whole lot about this new capital city, new Jerusalem, the eternal state. You have prepared this for us. In your Father's house, there are many rooms, and one of them has our name on it. And your name will be on us, because you own us. You purchased us at another tree, the cross of Jesus Christ. How thankful we are that we are yours, and that your plan for us not only includes forgiving us, not only includes adopting us, not only includes making us your own, but includes taking us to heaven. And I think of the prayer of Jesus when he said, I pray that those who believe in me will be with me where I am and see my glory. And this is the glory that we will see. Lord, I pray for anyone who might be with us who has not put their trust in the Lord Jesus. Just like this sounds outlandish to some, the whole Bible sounds outlandish to some, Lord, I pray you would reveal its truth and its importance to hearts, minds of some who are here and have never trusted in you. They would realize everything they have tried up to this point has fallen short. And they during this season will turn to you and invite you to be their Lord, their master. Just like Adam and Eve were given a choice, we are given a choice. I pray that we would choose wisely. Choose Christ. It's in his name we pray. We hope you enjoyed this special service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how this message impacted you. Email us mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can support this ministry with a financial gift at calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for this teaching from Calvary Church. More from series

We've been studying the names of the Holy Spirit, because those names indicate his function, indicate his work. Remember now this third member of the Trinity is the one given to do work on earth on behalf of the godhead in heaven. God the Father was the point person in the Old Testament. Jesus the Son was the point person on earth during the gospels. God the Holy Spirit is the point person during this which we call the Church Age. He is that member of the Trinity who has been assigned to act on their behalf in history. The Father functions from the third heaven. The Son sits on his right hand to rule spiritually in heaven to earth, and he does that through the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. I want to look at this name given to him, this identification, this symbol in 1 John 2. He's called the Anointing. This word is a word that speaks to a specific work of the Holy Spirit that you don't want to leave home without. The Bible says in Acts 10:38, that Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in Luke 4:18,19. "The Spirit of the Lord has come upon me, and he has anointed me". So, the Anointing and the Anointed One is speaking of the work of the Holy Spirit in a person's life, including in the life of Jesus Christ. Now, the first thing we want to establish is this: Every Christian has the Anointing. If you are saved, if you have accepted Jesus Christ, you have whatever this Anointing in, we're going to explain it in a moment, you have it, you possess it, you own it, it is there. This Anointing speaks of the indwelling presence and work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Let me say that again. The Anointing is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit designed to do his work in your life. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says that you have the Holy Spirit who indwells you. Well, in the New Testament, when Jesus said, "I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit, I'm going to gift him to you as a permanent resident in your life, and he's going to anoint you". When the soul gets the information from the human spirit, that has been illuminated by the Holy Spirit, the soul feeds that data to the body. When the body gets the data from the soul, that is received from the human spirit, that has been anointed by the Holy Spirit, the body now functions differently, because it has new data that has been in it. The reason why we have problems with our bodies is we have infection in our soul. But the reason we have infection in our souls is because we have a human spirit that's been contaminated by sin. But when the Anointing enters the human spirit, because the Anointing is perfect, the human spirit is now perfect, because it has been anointed. So, you've got a perfect resident in your human spirit that now wants to give information to your infected soul. And when the Holy Spirit, that now invades your human spirit, sends out data that is received, adopted in your soul, your soul begins to get healed. When the soul is getting disinfected because of the infectedness, due to the expression of the human spirit that's been invaded by the Anointing of the Holy Spirit, it then tells the body what to do. It tells the mind what to think. It tells the eyes what to see. It tells the ears what to hear. It tells the leg where to move, because it's got new information about how to function. So, if you want to fix your body, you've got to clean up your soul; but if you want to clean up your soul, it's gotta get information from your spirit; but to get information correctly from your spirit, it's gotta be inhabited by the Anointing. So, that is how the Anointing flows. The Anointing is divine messaging that you have now been qualified to receive, because the Holy Spirit has now entered into your human spirit. So, that is the concept. It authorizes you. It authorizes you to receive information from heaven for living your life on earth. It is a divine authorization for that. The passage I would love for you to read this week is 1 Corinthians 2:9-3:3, verse 3. Okay? So, go all the way to chapter 3, verse 3. Read that once a day every day, but I want to go over it with you now. Here it is, verse 9. "But it is written, things which eyes have not seen and ear have not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him. For to us God revealed them through his Spirit". He's not talking about heaven. He's talking about earth, 'cause he says God has already revealed it. So, listen to this. When the Anointing is turned on and turned up, you get to see things eyes cannot see. That's what verse 9 says. When the Anointing is turned on and turned up, you get to hear things ears have not heard. When the Anointing is turned on and turned up, you get to think things that you would not normally think. In other words, the Anointing is taking you beyond the physical. It is showing you what your eyes can't see. It is letting you hear what your ears don't audibly pick up. It is letting you perceive what you didn't normally think on your own. It is taking you out of your physical into a spiritual reality, so that the physical is now perceiving, experiencing, seeing, and hearing things that is outside of its normal physical realm. Or as I like to say, if all you see is what you see, you do not see all there is to be seen. If you are limited to your five senses, then you will not get divine messaging; because even though you are a Christian, the dimmer switch is off, or it's so low, you can't see the light shining. So, there must be the ability to see beyond the physical: the eye, the ear, and your own human mind. Look at what he goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 2. He says, "We receive them from the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God". Remember, the Anointing is the Spirit. The Spirit has a search engine. Google. The Spirit Googles God. It knows the deep things of God. In the next verse, he says, "No one knows the thoughts of a man, except the spirit of a man. No one knows the thoughts of God, except the Spirit, the Anointing, the Spirit of God". So, the Spirit of God has a search engine. It says he searches the deep things of God. So, he can go deep like a deep-sea diver into the thinking of God, and his job is to transfer God's thoughts to your life, just like when you Google something on Google, and you pull up stuff you didn't know to transfer to your understanding. So, we have exposed to us the World Wide Web, but believers have exposed to them the knowledge of God, and he says, and it's the job of the Spirit. So, let me clarify something before we go any deeper. The job of the Spirit is to reach into the mind of God and transfer to the thoughts, sights, and ears of the believer. His job is to take truth and make it your experience, to bring it, to make it your reality, not just for information, but for transformation. Now notice what he goes on and says in 1 Corinthians 2:12, "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God". Here's what I like about the Anointing. It doesn't cost you anything. Once you accept Jesus Christ, it's freely given to you. So, it's available to every believer, and it's available for free. You don't have to buy the Anointing, okay? "Now, which things we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom". Keep that in your mind, because that's gonna be key in a moment. You don't get this by secular understanding. You don't get this by popular viewpoint. Once you introduce human wisdom, you've turned down the dimmer switch, and the light will not shine, because you've compromised the data. You put a virus in the programming. And so he says, "not taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words". So, the Spirit of God dips into the mind of God, since he is the third member of the Godhead, and he brings to the mind of man, or into the spirit of a man, that which he cannot see physically, cannot hear audibly, and would never think naturally, but he has revealed them unto us. That's what the Anointing does. Now, here's the issue. Verse 14, "The natural man receives not the Spirit of God". Let me put it another way. The non-Christian does not have the Anointing. Now he goes to another person. He says in verse 15, "But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ" The natural man doesn't have a receiver. The spiritual man not only has a receiver; he keeps his receiver on. The spiritual man can appraise or evaluate all things, because a spiritual person sends everything through a spiritual grid. You are only a spiritual Christian if you consistently send all data through a spiritual grid. So, that means you keep the dimmer up all the time, because everything is going through the grid of spiritual words, combined with spiritual thoughts. And guess what he says you have in verse 16? You have the mind of Christ. Do you know what it is to have the mind of Christ? It means Jesus is thinking his thoughts in your brain, by means of the Holy Spirit, who is the Anointing. And what thoughts is Jesus thinking in you? Thoughts that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, and thoughts you wouldn't have thought about thinking about, even if you would've thought to think it, because he's bringing his thoughts to your brain, because you have the mind of Christ. Then there's a third group. 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, he says, "And I, brethren", brethren, you're Christians, "could not speak to you as a spiritual man but as men of flesh, as infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink and not solid food, for you were not able to receive it. Indeed, even now, you are not able, for you are still fleshly". And he concludes the verse by saying, "You walk like mere men". You walk like a natural man. Your life is not any different than the non-Christian. Paul went to Corinth in 50 AD. He wrote back to them, 1 Corinthians, in 55 AD. So, there was a 5-year gap between when he went there and led them to Christ, when they got the Anointing, and when he writes them 5 years later. He says, "After 5 years, you ought to be operating on the Anointing by now. After 5 years, you ought to be spiritual and consistent with keeping the dimmer switch up". But he says, "After 5 years, you still walking like you've never been saved in the first place". So, if you're here, and you've been saved for 5 years or more, and you're still not walking in the Spirit, you're still not living in the Anointing, but you're still walking like mere men, you've wasted 5 years of spiritual growth. In fact, in the book of Hebrews, he condemns them, because they've been saved for 30 years and still don't know how to walk in the Anointing. You can be in church for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, you can spend your life in church and never get divine programming, because you were not walking in the Anointing. So, the Anointing is the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer to illuminate divine insight into your sight, your ears, and your thoughts. But he says you can't do that if you are operating on human wisdom. Now back to 1 John 2. He says to them, "Here's what I want you to do. If you want the Anointing to be turned on and turned up, here's what I want you to do". He says in verse 24, "As for you, let that abide in you, which you've heard from the beginning". Verse 27, "As for you, the Anointing which you have received from him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you". But as his Anointing teaches you all things, and is true and not a lie, just as it has taught you, you abide in him. Do you see that word "abide," the many times I read the word "abide"? We saw that last week, too. It means you have to hang out in the Anointing. You can't visit it on Sunday. You must hang out. Abide means to hang out. You must hang out in the Anointing. That is, you must hang out in a divinely-oriented perspective. When you begin to ask the questions, "What does God say, and what does God think? Holy Spirit, reveal it to me," you have turned on the receiver, for it to bring down the programming, to illuminate the mind and the thoughts. Notice what he says. He says, "You have the anointing, and you do not have need for anyone to teach you". Now, that's interesting. It's interesting, number one, 'cause he's teaching them right now. He's writing to them, teaching them about the Anointing. It's interesting, because the Bible says God gives teachers to the church. It's interesting, because Bible tells you to come and to study the Word of God in the collective worship, which includes teaching. It's interesting, because Paul says to Timothy to teach the Word and to preach the Word in season and out of season. So, why would he say, "If you have the Anointing, you don't need anyone to teach you, for the Anointing teaches you". Ah, okay. Well, remember who he's dealing with. He's dealing with the antichrists who are lying to them. So, let me tell you what he's saying when he says, "You don't have a need for anyone to teach you". He is saying, "You no longer need to be led by secular thinking, secular information, and secular instructors. You no longer need to use the world for your data. For your spiritual data, you don't first go to the world. You don't need them to teach you how to live, how to work, how to have a family, how to be single, how to have, you don't need them. Start with me, because then the Anointing will teach you". That's why the psalmist prayed in Psalm 119:18, "Open my eyes that I might see". Many of us are being attacked physically, and we don't know what to do, 'cause we don't see anything spiritually. All we see is what we see. And if all you see is what you see, you'll never see all that God is doing, because you don't have the eyes to do it. But here's how the Holy Spirit works. See, I said, when I preach, I give you national news. I'm giving you cable news, because what I'm giving you is something general, applies to everybody. But when you have the Anointing, the Holy Spirit gives you local news. He gives you news for your life, for your situation, for your problem, for your pain, for your needs. Because you need one kind of program, you need another kind of program, you need another kind of program, you need another kind of program, you have a different job, you've got a different family, your kids are different, your finances are different. So, you need local programming for the general problem. I'm giving you cable news, but you have the Anointing, and I can't answer all of your specific answers, but you have Somebody inside who'll give you thoughts you didn't think, let's you see what you couldn't see, bring ideas you didn't have, and you already have them, because you all have them, he says. You already have the Anointing. Give the Anointing a chance. Put it first. Make it priority. Take the written Word, put it in the face of the Holy Spirit, do it on the front end, and let's see what programming God brings up into your life. In the midst of the beauty of the Rocky Mountains, I do have a problem. I'm surrounded by that which blocks me being able to receive an Internet or satellite signal. In other words, my surroundings are getting in the way of me being able to pick up something from out there. God never wants our surroundings on earth to get in the way of receiving messages from heaven. That's why he's given every believer what the Bible calls the Anointing. The Anointing is that work of the Holy Spirit, where he delivers heavenly messages to our earthly environment. It is this connection, as we apply with the Spirit, that God can speak specifically into our earthly circumstances, situations, challenges, difficulties, and need for clarity and guidance to show us which way God wants us to move and how he wants us to take the next step in life. Don't leave home without it. Yes, we're surrounded by the rocks and boulders of earth, but don't lose sight of heaven because you leave the Holy Spirit behind. The Holy Spirit, the Anointing is the key to keep the messages of heaven reaching you, no matter where you're situated on earth.

Luke 15:11-32; Genesis 2-3 Aloneness reaches deep into the inner recesses of the human heart. No one likes to be alone. 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. : Genesis 3, Adam fell and God dealt with fallenness: “I will send a savior to die in your place in payment for your sins.” : Before God ever ministered to Man’s fallenness, He first ministered to Man’s aloneness in Genesis 2. 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. 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. : 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. 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. 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.” : 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. : 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. 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. 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. 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. Blessed are the poor in spirit. No, Blessed are the strong, who are always in control and never show weakness. Blessed are those who mourn, No, Blessed are those who deny their pain and deaden their hearts—they need no comfort. : Blessed are the meek. No, Blessed are the survivors who need no one and depend only on themselves. : 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. : 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.” 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.' What is this? Self-condemnation. Slopping pigs: “My father’s hired hands do better than this. But I am not worthy...” is self condemnation. : 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. 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. T his 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. : 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!' 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. 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: People come and people go, But never get attached “Cause usu’lly by the time you do They drop you down the hatch. People only care about what you wear As stupid people do, But they never look inside of you To see the real, true you. Older sisters let you know How awful that they feel But sometimes it is in a way That shoots straight for the kill. 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. : 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. 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. There will be many lonely people around you: Don't just look away •When we see the Father’s heart, we can be fully and forever free of our self-reliance, selfishness, and self-condemnation.

I want to begin our time by going over today how the world works, because many Christians do not understand how the world works. Because we do not understand how the world works, we approach issues in an illegitimate way, because we're operating on a faulty frame of reference. It is in understanding how the world works that allows us to be able to approach the struggles, stresses, needs in an appropriate way. Many of us are trying to mop up messes in our lives; and every time we try to mop it, there's more mess to mop up, because we haven't gotten to the root of the problem. If you will understand the theology I am going to attempt to communicate to you today of how the world works, then it will shift how you approach living and especially shift how you approach challenges in living. In 2 Chronicles 15:3, "For many days, Israel was without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law". Verse 5 says, "In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for many disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every kind of distress". It says there was no peace to him who went in or to him who came out. "No peace" means they were living in conflict. There was conflict. It says, first of all, there was personal conflict, "no peace to him". Many of the problems of coping today are people unable to live with themselves. That's why they often go to devices to help them to cope. That's why they become dependent, because they can't live with themselves, and so they are dealing with inner conflict. But not only was there no peace to him, it says there was no peace to him who came out or who went in; that is, when he left home and when he came back home. So, if you have an issue on earth that has been caused by heaven, trying to solve it on earth is a waste of time. If it's an issue on earth caused by heaven, "God troubled them," then you need heaven to come to earth to fix the issue on earth that heaven is responsible for, even if it's a problem, "because they were living in distress". In the Old Testament, you ran into the active wrath of God, when God would directly bring pain about. He would rain down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. He would flood the earth with water. He would open up the earth and swallow up rebellious people. That would be the active wrath of God, when God directly addressed things on earth, bringing about distress. When Jesus died on the cross, God's relationship to the world shifted. The Bible says that with the death of Christ, the world was reconciled to God. So, some people believe the God of the Old Testament has to be different than the God of the New Testament 'cause the God of the Old Testament, they say, seems so mean and judgmental, while the God of the New Testament seems so nice and full of love. Well, there aren't two Gods, but there are two relationships. In the Old Testament, before the permanent solution to sin was addressed, there was only a temporary solution, and God directly dealt with things. In the New Testament, because the death of Christ reconciled the whole world to God, God could now relate to the world differently; not because he changed, but because his relationship to the world changed, predicated on the death of Christ, which is why Jesus Christ is the key and the center of all of life. So, now you do not face the active wrath of God. You face the passive wrath of God. Now, that's spoken of in Romans 1:18 to the end of the chapter, where it says, "The wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness of men who don't want to retain the knowledge of God". And then Romans 1:24,26,28 say the same thing. It says, "Therefore God turned them over". That means God released them to life without him. It says, "Because they did not wanna retain the knowledge of God", God, like a dog on a leash, let the leash go so the dog could run away. So, when men don't want God, he lets you not want him, and he lets go of the leash, and you can go your own way. But when you do that, you also invite, in the space between where God is and between where you want to go, that space becomes occupied with consequences. And so, the consequences we are dealing with in our lives, in our homes, in our culture, we are dealing with them because there is a gap between where God is and where we are. Because they no longer wanted to retain the knowledge of God, it says God turned them over or released them to the consequences of their decision to be separated from him and the built-in side effects that are the result. So, the problems that people were facing on earth were predicated on what God was allowing to happen. Now, the question is, why? They were in distress, in other words, troubles they couldn't fix. And I know in this house today, there are troubles we can't fix, and you know you can't fix them because you've been trying to fix them for a long time; and they either stay broke or look like they're fixed but still break. He gives three reasons in verse 3 for this calamity. "For many days," that is, for an extended period of time, "Israel was without the true God" So, there was conflict in the family. When he entered back into his home, there was more conflict or disturbances. It says city rose up against city, and nation rose up against nation. There was cultural conflict. We'll say city, urban conflict, international conflict. Many disturbances. That was the situation. Ah, but here's where it gets interesting. The end of verse 6 says, "For God troubled them". "For God troubled them with their distresses". End of verse 6. Now, wait a minute. I would've thought with all that chaos, it would've said the devil troubled them. I would've thought, with all this confusion, verse 6 would end by saying the devil troubled them with every kind of distress, but it says God troubled them. So, now we're gonna mess with your thinking a little bit, because a lot of things you're blaming on the devil is God. There was no peace, the family disintegration, conflict, urban conflict, international conflict, and God says, "If you gon' blame somebody, blame me". See, a lot of us are blaming the wrong person, 'cause here's how it works in the world. If God is your problem, only God is your solution. If God is the cause, only God is the cure. You say, "But wait a minute. How can all this evil be given over to God"? Because God uses the devil to carry out his dirty work. 'Cause even the devil is not the devil. The devil is God's devil, 'cause the devil can only do what God allows him to do. So, even if the devil is messing with you, it's by divine permission. "For God troubled them with every kind of distress". Let me put it another way. The spiritual always precedes the natural. The spiritual governs the natural. The heavenly determines the earthl Okay, problem number one, for many days, an extended period of time, Israel was without the true God. Israel was not without religion. Israel was not without church attendance. Israel was not without choir singing. Israel was not without religious programming. It says Israel was without the true God. The key word is the word "true". They kept the name of God. They kept praying to God. They kept religious activity. They were doing all of that without the true God. So, evidently, you can have church without God. The biblical word for a false god is idol. That's the biblical word for a false god. An idol is any noun: person, place, thing, or thought, that you look to as your source. Now, in third-world countries, we would condemn their idolatry. In third world countries and in backward nations that haven't come into the 20th and the 21st century, they may worship trees or rocks or nature. Okay, we would condemn that. But in the West, we have designer idols. No, we don't worship trees and rocks. We have American idols. Let me look at some of the idols that we have that have replaced the true God. We've got the idol of, oh, let's see, race, where my color trumps God, where people get offended when you correct their blackness with the Bible, where folk get offended when you correct their whiteness with the Bible, because their race is more important than God's rules, where they wind up worshiping black being beautiful or white being right, rather than both having to be biblical. Whenever your race is your source of your ultimate identity, your race is an idol, and you are a false worshiper. Oh, let's look at another designer idol. Politics is a designer idol, where you think God rides the backs of a donkey or an elephant. Politics is a designer idol when you're more Democrat than godly, when you're more Republican than God, when God says one thing but you still talking about what your party says. In Ezekiel 43, God says, "How dare you bring the throne of your king and set it next to my throne, like we're equals". When God speaks, elephants got to sit down and donkeys got to back up. It's okay to be a Democrat, it's okay to be a Republican, as long as the Bible can overrule either or both, 'cause nobody should own you but the kingdom of God. Oh, let's see, do we have another designer idol? Let's see. Oh, yeah, science. Science is a designer idol, 'cause science teaches your kids not an evolutionary theory, but an evolutionary fact. Atheistic evolution is a fairytales for adults. It's a fairytale for adults. Because in the name of science, they deny God, and they set up a whole system of divine denial based on that science. So, because of that science, man becomes the ultimate definer of life. Man becomes the ultimate definer of meaning. Man becomes the ultimate definer of where God should be placed in the culture. When people elevate science... science is a beautiful thing, but all science does is show how God does stuff. He says there were idols. There are economic idols, the class idols. Because of a certain amount of money, or where a person lives, or the car they drive, they have elevated themselves to the height of pride, where they're better than other people who have been equally created in the image of God. So, it can come in shapes and forms. So, you don't have to be an overt God denier to be an idolater. All you've got to do is place anything or anybody in the place or the position of being the source of your identity. Then it doesn't matter how much you pray, 'cause you're praying to a false god, not the real God, 'cause the real God is not listening if you have another idol. Now, why, why, why were they worshiping a false god? Well, verse 3 tells us, 'cause the second thing it tells us is there was not a teaching priest. There was no teaching priest. It didn't say there were no preachers. He just said they weren't talking about nothing. They were talking smack. A lot of these problems that we have in our culture is because the church, Christians, have not risen to the occasion to be what God has called us to be, and it's just showing up in the public square. If your life is falling apart, you're in personal distress, then my responsibility, a leader's responsibility, even another believer's responsibility is to take the Word, show you what God says about whatever you're dealing with, then give you practical steps to apply what God said, then ask the Holy Spirit to take your practical steps of obedience, based on what God said, to bring change in your life. But what we've got is a generation of folk who change books. They use this book for some things. They use human understanding for other things. They use popular opinion for other things. And they wind up living in distress. The third thing it says is there was no law. There was no law. You see, when there's no true God, no teaching priest, there are no rules. People make up their own rules, you see. They either have no rules, or they have their own made-up rules, you know. People come up with their own, you know, they walk around, saying, "I know my truth". You know your truth? No, it's either truth or it's not truth. We want to adjust truth. We want to make truth "relevant". It's okay to be relevant as long as you're not changing truth, and truth is whatever God says on any subject about what he speaks. That's truth. So, if God says it, that is the Word about it. Science just has to catch up. No rules, wrong rules, your own rules, no standard. Was there a solution? Now that you understand how the world works, the spiritual governs it. If God has caused it, you don't know anybody who can fix it unless it's God using that person. Verse 4 gives us a solution, 'cause verse 4 says, "But in their distress, they turned to the Lord God of Israel. They sought him, and he let them find him". Ah, key word, "distress". "In their distress, they turned to the Lord God of Israel". That's the same word of verse 6. "God caused their distress". Verse 4 says, "But in their distress, they turned to the Lord God," which means God will let it get bad enough, long enough, till you wake up. 'Cause it was in their distress. See, God will let us get addicted. He'll let us get into all the consequences of our sin. He will let you go down, and down, and down, and down till the only way you can look is up. He won't let anybody fix it, any money be able to get you out of it. He will let the distress go down. But in their distress, when things got deep enough, bad enough, long enough, it says they called on the Lord God. Oh, watch this now. When they returned to the Lord God, he let them find him. Ah, so, God created distress. I told you about, you know, Sister Evans, when I met her, and she was not responding at the rate to which I was accustomed. Girlfriend was moving a little slow, so I had to help a sister out. So, in Baltimore, there's this amusement park called Gwynn Oaks Amusement Park. They had a roller coaster that did this... but the roller coaster would, like, go out to the end like it was gonna jump off and turn real quick. I said, "Give me two tickets". We got on the roller coaster for two. The wilder the ride got, the closer she got. By the time the ride was over, you thought only one person got on it. Why did I buy two tickets? I bought two tickets to create distress, because I knew the worse things got, the closer she'd get, you see. Sometimes God has to put us on a roller coaster ride so that we move over, and we slide over, and we get a little closer, and we get a little closer. So, if you're in distress, don't let that drive you away, draw you near, closer, so that you're like Jacob and say, "I'm not gonna let you go until you answer me". And when you do that, when you get close and want to live for him, want to please him, want to honor him, want to exalt him, want to draw near to him, then heaven opens up, and he lets you find him. He lets you find him. Everything visible and physical is preceded by that which is invisible and spiritual. So, if something needs to be changed or corrected in the visible physical realm, we must identify its invisible spiritual cause. Heaven has something to say about what's happening on earth. So many things are in chaos, out of order, in conflict in the world in which we live. On every level, whether it's people's personal lives or family disintegration, racial conflict, class conflict, political conflict, these earthly realities have a spiritual root. And if you skip the spiritual root and just try to fix the visible fruit, then you won't get to the source or the solution to the issues that need to be transformed and corrected. God must be consulted if correction is going to take place and improvement is going to come in our lives and our circumstances. Heaven rules. And when we understand that if we grab the spiritual, if we grab heaven and allow that to intervene in the circumstances of earth, then we will have put things in its proper order and proper perspective. As I like to say, if all you see is what you see, you do not see all there is to be seen. If we continue to only try to solve our earthly problems with earthly solutions, we will continue to live in earthly frustration and earthly failure. But if we will allow God's perspective, the reality of heaven, to interfere with and intervene with what we are dealing with on earth, then we will have positioned ourselves for real solutions, long-term solutions, because God doesn't make mistakes. In fact, if it's something God has allowed, that means only God can fix it. So, let's stay in touch with heaven, because earth is in trouble. We need to have earth touched with the power and presence of God in heaven so that order can replace chaos.   www.ocbfchurch.com . www.tonyevans.com.

Perhaps the biggest impediment to believing in God (as stated by those who don’t) is the presence of pain and suffering in the world. How can there be a God who is benevolent and omnipotent with the sheer volume of grief, misery, travail, and torment at any given moment? Today we explore the theme of a loving God in a universe pockmarked by pain. As Jesus was in Jerusalem with His disciples, they came across a blind man. I’d like to show you four features of this most common and universal of human experiences. www.skipheitzig.com .

TRANSCRIPTION Judges 6-7 - Skip Heitzig Calvary Church is dedicated to doctrine, and we want you to experience a life change that comes from knowing God's Word and applying it to your life. So we explain the Bible verse by verse, every chapter, every book. This is Expound. We're in the book of Judges 6. A few years back, I had a privilege to go to India, and I think it was the first time that I went. We were out with a group street witnessing in a town, in a village, and we noticed that the people in the area were hostile toward the message. We used interpreters. They were using their native language and dialects. And so we started sharing, and I noticed that after a while we were surrounded by people, people all around us, and they did not look happy at us. And so as the crowd grew, I turned to my interpreter and I said, can you tell me what's going on? And he said to me in that sweet Indian accent-- Ravinder, sorry, I'm going to probably butcher it-- but he said, (INDIAN ACCENT) I think we are going to get beat up. And I thought, you're kidding me, right? He goes, (INDIAN ACCENT) No, I think we are going to get beat up. Well, we didn't end up getting beat up, but we were surrounded and the Lord did disperse the crowd, I suppose. Did you know that we are surrounded as believers in this world? What we believe and what we stand for, the people of this world, the value system of this world is not simpatico with us. We are surrounded, and we are surrounded by hostile beings. And I just don't mean on the physical, but in the spiritual. Paul said, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts-- that means armies, spiritual armies-- of wickedness in heavenly places. We are in the midst of a battle. The children of Israel, as we open up chapter 6 of the book of Judges, finds themselves surrounded by conflict. Now, part of the problem for the children of Israel is they should have gotten rid of their enemies a lot sooner. When they settled the land, we recorded in chapter 2:1-2, that they let the people of the land live among them. They made covenants with them. They didn't do what the Lord told them. And when you live that way, when you don't obey the Lord in the present, your past has a habit of catching up with you. It catches up with them, so they are continually plagued by people. They are surrounded by enemies. Now, though we are surrounded-- and I have to say this, too. I just sort of launched into that little thing on spiritual warfare. We are also are surrounded by God's angels. We sometimes just focus on the demonic hordes that are against us, and that's true. But 1/3 of the angels of heaven fell. That means 2/3 didn't fall. 2/3 are on our side. They are dispatched, according to the book of Hebrews, to those of us who are heirs of salvation. Not only that, but greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. So you have the Holy Spirit in you, as well as those resources on the outside. So yeah, we're surrounded, but in effect, they're surrounded. And God is going to get the victory in the end. Something else, and we see it here in this book. When we face battles, we discover that sometimes God seems to cut down on our resources, so it looks like we don't have all that we need to fight the battle. Why does He do that? Why does He cut down the visible resources? To trust. I heard somebody whisper that. Exactly. So that we might learn to trust Him. I've told this story a dozen or so times. But when I was in school and college-- and I was on a very minimal stipend income for the scholarship that I had in radiology-- I thought I budgeted for my groceries. I didn't quite budget right. And so I came down to-- right before I was going to get paid, I had peanut butter and jelly and a few slices of bread. But I thought, I can make this stretch to the end of the week. And the end of the week came and I ran out of bread and jelly. So I just had a spoon with peanut butter, right? So I'm thinking, Lord at any time now you could provide. Now would be a good time. But watch here how the Lord, in this story-- if God willing, we get to it-- see how the Lord strips them of their outward resources to get them to trust in the Lord. In chapter 6, verse 1, it says "the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord." This is beginning to be a pattern. "So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds, which are in the mountains. So it was, whenever Israel had sown"-- that is, planted their crops, their seed-- "Midianites would come up. Also, the Malachites and the people of the east would come up against them." Now these are marauding bands, like Bedouin type people. They lived in tents. They didn't build cities. These two people groups, by and large, just lived according to the seasons with their flocks, and they looked for opportunities to feed their huge numbers of people. Let me tell you a little bit about these people because we need to get a historical reality check. First of all, there are Midianites. Midian was a son of Abraham. When Sarah died, Abraham remarried a woman by the name of Keturah. That's Genesis 25. He had six sons through that gal, and the fourth born son was a guy by the name of Midian. And these are the descendants of that Midian. So he is the offspring of Abraham that settled in that area. The Midianites settled in what we would today call Saudi Arabia, northwest Saudi Arabia, closer toward the Gulf of Eilat, if you have a map in the back of your Bible. And that's where they settled, but they would maraud. They would attack these areas for their people and for their flocks. Later on in the book of Exodus, we find that Moses' father-in-law, by the name of Jethro, was a priest of Midian. So it's all that region where Moses took his family and the children of Israel when they went through the wilderness. Now, later on, the Midianites become enemies to the children of Israel as they wander through the desert. So a guy by the name of Balak-- remember Balak? Balak tells the elders of Midian that you have the children of Israel. They're going to take over everything. If you let them come into this land, they're going to take over your land, my land, everything. So Balak instructed the elders of Midian to call for a guy by the name of Balaam, who would pronounce curses on them. He ended up blessing them instead of cursing them. But he came up with an ingenious plan because he knew that if the children of Israel were tempted centrally enough, that God would judge them if they sinned in that area. So he said, get some of the young Midianite women to come into the camp and lay with them sexually, and that's exactly what happened. And a plague swept throughout the camp of Israel. You know the story, I'm just quickly tell it to you. But that's the background of the Midianites. The Amalekites, Amalek, was the grandson of Esau. Esau was the brother of Jacob. Esau was the man of the flesh, right? He didn't care about his spiritual birthright. He sold his spiritual birthright for a bowl of red chili stew. And he became one who lived after fulfilling the desires of the flesh. Amalek, the Amalekites, his grandchildren, seemed to take that over throughout history. So the Amalekites kites were the first people group to attack Israel when they left Egypt on their way out of Egypt toward the land of promise. The Amalekites came to a place called Rephidim, and there they attacked Israel. And you'll know this story because Moses stood on a hill and Aaron and Hur lifted up the hands of Moses. And as long as the hands of Moses were lifted up against the Amalekites, Israel prevailed. When the hands went down, the Amalekites prevailed. Now, the Amalekites and Amalek does become a type of the flesh. And God said, you're going to have war with Amalek from generation to generation. That's Exodus chapter 17. Because they kept compromising with them and settling with them. Now later on, it's going to turn around and bite them. The first king of Israel, Saul, goes out to battle against the Amalekites. So they're still around during the monarchy. Saul goes out to battle, does not kill the King Agag. Keeps some of the kings and some of the entourage, as well as some of the choice animals for himself. And he comes back into the camp. Saul comes back and Samuel the prophet says, hey, there Saul. What are you doing? He goes, oh, I've just come back from obeying the voice of the Lord. I did everything God told me to do. Now, God told him to wipe out the Amalekites. Samuel said, if you obeyed God fully, then what is the bleating of the sheep that I hear in my ears and the lowing of the cattle? He said, well, you know, I've kept these animals to sacrifice to the Lord. You get really spiritual when somebody puts their finger in your chest like that. So he came up with a spiritual excuse, but he also kept Agag, who was an Amalekite. Agag was the king. And obviously, not only Agag, but a whole bunch of his family survived, because much later on, there will arise a man in the court of Persia by the name of Haman, the Agagite, who comes up with a plan to destroy every single Jew alive in the empire. That's the story of Esther. So the Amalekites proved to be problematic, all the way from way back, all the way through much of their early history on into the history, even when they were in Persia. So the mention here deserves sort of a summation of us understanding who these people were. So verse 4. They would encamp against them, destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza. So I just want you to know that we're dealing with the area of the north, all the way down south. You've heard of the Gaza Strip, today where the Palestinian refugee camps are. Gaza is down south. So these Amalekites and Midianites have basically dominated the entire land of Israel from north to south. "And they leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor oxen nor donkey, for they would come up with their livestock and their tents coming in as numerous as locusts. Both they and their camels were without number. And they would enter the land to destroy it, so Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord." Let's see how the Lord responds to that cry. "It came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel." Now, this is a prophet who is unnamed. We don't know who he is, but he is noteworthy because there is only two people in the book of Judges that are known as prophets, this guy and the gal in the previous couple chapters. Deborah was a prophetess. Now we have an unnamed prophet. But he comes in, he delivers a message. So "the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, thus says the Lord God of Israel. I brought you up from Egypt. I brought you out of the house of bondage. And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppress you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. Also, I said to you, I am the Lord your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you have not obeyed my voice." This prophet does not come like the prophetess Deborah, to give a prophecy and to become the deliverer. This prophet only comes to speak God's word of rebuke to them, not deliver them from their oppression. They cry out to God. God sends them a prophet. The prophet speaks to them words of indictment, words of rebuke, saying just so you know-- because a deliverer is coming. His name is Gideon. But just so you know, this is because-- you are in this because-- you have walked away from God. So the prophet is there to rebuke them to get them to further cry out to the Lord, to get them to pray harder, you might say. I wonder how many things the Lord allows in our life just so he can hear from us more often. Everything's good. We're not really praying that much. Everything's great. We're not really reading our Bible all that much. We get a little inconvenience-- oh, God. It's like God kind of smiles and goes, you know, I haven't heard from you in a while. Great to hear from you. "Now the angel of the Lord"-- verse 11-- "came and sat under the terebinth tree, which was in Ophrah-- not Oprah, but Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite-- and Abiezrite is a clan, a family of the tribe of Manasseh-- while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites. You have to understand this setup. Whenever you would thresh wheat in those days, you would typically thresh wheat on a threshing floor, a rock surface, on a raised hill. The reason you want a raised hill is because you want to take advantage of the prevailing winds that are in that part of the world that come just about every evening, every afternoon and evening. The winds come from the Mediterranean and they softly blow. So you want to get on a raised hill so that you can, with your winnowing fork, throw the grain up in the air, the stock and all. And the chaff, which is lighter than the meat of the grain, the chaff blows away in the wind and the grain goes back to the rock surface. So that way you can separate the chaff from the wheat. That's how you winnow it. When you want to press wine, the winepress was always in the lowest part of the valley because when you squeeze the grapes the juice runs out, so you pick the lowest spot to do that. So we find Gideon. Because he's so afraid of the Midianites, he doesn't want to do it in plain sight. So because he is so fearful, he is so afraid, like everybody else in the land, he is winnowing down in the valley, in the low place, down where the winepress is. And the wind isn't that great. So you throw it up in the air and it just all goes back down. It's very frustrating. That's what he's doing. So I set that up because I want you to get what the angel of the Lord says to Gideon. So verse 12. "The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor." Now, that could be sarcasm. He could have just sort of smiled and winked, hey, Mr. Courageous, down here in the winepress, winnowing. Or, or he is speaking a prophecy. It's as if the Lord says, I know you're a scaredy cat, but I've got big plan for you to become a mighty warrior and I'm going to speak this word because this is what you are going to become. You might be scared today, but when you're an instrument in God's hands, you're going to become a mighty man of valor. That's what I think he's doing. Just like the Lord Jesus sometimes renamed people based upon what he knew they were going to become, rather than what they were at the moment. So I love that about God. I'm going to turn you into this. This is what I'm going to make you. And history shows that he became one. "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor." And Gideon said to him-- I'm sure Gideon looked around, like is there somebody else here that I don't know about? Gideon said to him, "Oh, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, then why has all this happened to us and where are all his miracles, which our fathers told us about saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites." What a statement from Gideon, from this mighty man of valor. The Lord is with you. Really? If the Lord is with us, then how come I don't see the miracles I read about or heard about. Where's God now? I don't see any evidence of God. I don't see any signs and wonders. Because he says this, now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. Boy, talk about being a revisionist. The Lord hadn't forsaken them, they have forsaken Him. That's the reality. He's got it all wrong. Then the Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. That's the command. Have I not sent you? So he said to him, oh, my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. You know, sometimes God has a hard time getting people to surrender to him as vessels. Sometimes the Lord wants to use people, but with some folks it's hard. God wanted to use Moses. Moses, I've sent you to Pharaoh. Who am I? I can't even talk right. I-- I-- I stutter. I can't do this. The Lord spoke to Jeremiah. Jeremiah, I'm going to use you to speak to the nation. Are you? I can't be your spokesperson, I'm so young. God has a tough time using some folks. Gideon, I want you to go. I can't go, I belong to a bad, crummy family. We're all poor. We can't really do anything. I didn't live a great childhood. I'm the least in my father's house. "And the Lord said to him, surely I will be with you." It's all you need. That's everything. Doesn't matter who you are, it matters who He is with you. "Surely I will be with you and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man." Then he said to him, "if now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me. Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to you and bring out my offering and set it before you. And he said, I will wait until you come back. Then Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour"-- unleavened because he has to do it quickly. He didn't want to let it rise. "The meat he put in a basket and he put the broth in a pot. And he brought them out to him under the terebinth tree and presented them. The angel of God said to him, take the meat and unleavened bread and lay them on this rock and pour out the broth. And he did so. And the angel of the Lord put out the end of his staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight." He wanted to sign. This is a pretty good one, right? The thing just went up in flames. Now, once again, we are introduced to the angel of the Lord. And I've told you before that I believe the angel of the Lord is a theophany, or more precisely, a christophany, an appearance of Christ, a pre-incarnate apparition of Christ in the Old Testament. And that is because in most all of the occurrences of the angel of the Lord, either the angel or the audience, the person watching or interacting with the angel, acknowledges deity. Either the angel of the Lord will say that he is the Lord or the person will recognize this is the Lord. So for example, when the angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar in the book of Genesis and gave a promise that God is going to work through her and through her offspring, she gave a name to the angel of the Lord. You are the Lord who sees. You are Yahweh-Roi, she said to the angel of the Lord. You are the Lord who sees. That's one instance. On Mount Mariah, the angel of the Lord indicated to Abraham that he was the Lord. At Bethel, when the Lord appeared to Jacob, again, the angel of the Lord identified himself as the Lord. So we find this all the way throughout the Scripture. Look at verse 22. "Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord." Now I don't know if it's in your Bible, but in my Bible, He is capitalized and Angel is capitalized. That's the translators doing that, because the original Hebrew has no capitals in the documents that we work off of. But in English, they're capitalized because the translator wants you to know this is probably the Lord Himself. "He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, alas, oh Lord God, for I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. And the Lord said to him, peace be with you." I love this. He's all scared, like I'm going to die. I'm going to die. And the Lord comes back and says, peace. Peace. Settles him down. Peace. That's the Lord's heart, wants to speak to you His peace. "Peace be with you. Do not fear. You shall not die." I think the Lord wants us to hear that tonight during this pandemic, during this time of great fear. I'm going to die. Peace. You're not going to die. My peace I give to you. "Do not fear. You shall not die. So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it Yahweh-Shalom, the Lord is Peace, the Lord Shalom." To this day, it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. "Now it came to pass that same night that the Lord said to him, take your father's young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal"-- this is interesting-- "that your father has. And cut down the wooden images, that is, the wooden image that is beside him." Interesting that in Gideon's own backyard, his dad has an altar, a cult worship idol. I've told you before about syncretism. One of the problems of ancient Israel wasn't that they denied God. They didn't deny Yahweh, as much as they worshipped God. They worshipped Yahweh. But they also worshipped other gods and goddesses. So they just brought it all together, and they conflated these different religious systems into a smorgasbord of different ideologies, and that was their worship. It's like, well, there's a lot of different ideas and ideologies. I can't afford to make anybody mad. I don't want to insult anybody. Just worship them all. So in his own backyard, he's got this idol happening. So the Lord says, OK, first thing I want you to do is to take this animal, this bull-- and notice how old the bull is. It's specified in the text. How old? Seven. Do you think this is here by accident? Probably not. I think every time you find a detail you should ask yourself why. Now here's why I guess. The Midianites oppressed Israel, we are told at the beginning of this chapter, seven years. So get a seven-year-old animal. This animal has been alive as long as the Midianites and Amalekites have troubled your land. Let's kill it. Let's get rid of it. Because I'm going to do a new thing and I'm going to drive your enemy out and this worship system out and reign over Israel. So tear down the altar of Baal that your father has and cut down the wooden image. I am presuming it's the Ugaritic goddess Asherah that we have seen mentioned in this book already. "And build an altar"-- verse 26-- "to the Lord your God on the top of this rock in the proper arrangement. And take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image, which you shall cut down. So Gideon took 10 men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night." Now you can say he was a coward. He was a chicken. He should have done it if he was a man of faith. Remember, he's the guy threshing wheat in a winepress. So God is working with this "mighty man of valor." He's going to get there in stages. Don't be too hard on him, just like you shouldn't be too hard on Nicodemus who came to see Jesus at night. I've heard so many preachers just bad mouth him. Hey, he came to Jesus at night. Give him credit for that. Hey, he tore down the altar here give. Him credit for that. He did obey. "And when the men of this city rose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal torn down and the wooden image that was beside it cut down and the second bull was being offered on the altar which he had built." Question. Why was it that the Lord wanted Gideon to tear down his father's altar? Well, what is God calling Gideon to do? Deliver the children of Israel from their enemy. That's what He is going to do, the Midianites. So if you're going to lead people publicly, you better live it out personally. You start in your own backyard. You start with your own household. If you're going to be the guy out there, you begin at home. You begin with your family. You begin there. So that's where he's called to begin. By the way, you know what the name Gideon means? Hacker. Hewer. Hewer, actually, somebody who cuts down. So it's like the Lord is saying, hey, hacker. You hack. Time to live up to your name and hack that alter down. Let's get at it. Hack away. "So they said to one another"-- verse 29-- "who has done this thing? And when they had inquired and asked and said, Gideon, the son of Joash has done this thing. Then the men of the city said to Joash, bring out your son that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it. Joash said to all who stood against him, would you plead for Baal?" Really? You have to fight for your god? Your god won't fight for you so you have to defend your god. Would you plead for Baal? "Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him plead for himself because his altar has been torn down." Now, this is fascinating to me. The boldness of Gideon inspired his dad to take a stand for righteousness. He was just sort of going along with everybody and everything up to this point, but just seeing the example of his son and the boldness of his son inspired him to stand for Yahweh. And I like that. So a lot of times we think parents influence their children, and they should and they do, but sometimes children influence parents and they take a bold stand. And I love how the son's boldness and faith in God inspired dad to put this gauntlet down. Therefore, on that day, he called him Jerubbaal, or Yerubbaal, saying, let Baal plead against him because he has torn down his altar. That means Baal pleads or let Baal plead. That's what the name means, so they renamed him. "Then all the Midianites and Amalekites and people of the east gathered together and they crossed over and they encamped in the valley of Jezreel." Or for you New Testament folks, the valley of Armageddon. Same valley. Valley of Jezreel, Valley of Esdraelon, Valley of Armageddon. It's that whole northern plain, that vast farmland in the north. But verse 30, "for the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. And then he blew the trumpet and the Abiezrites gathered behind him." That is his own family, his own clan. "And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also gathered behind him." so. Now his own tribe. He also sent messengers to Asher, a neighboring tribe, Zebulon and Naphtali, two other neighboring tribes, "and they came up to meet them." And we'll discover how many of the children of Israel came up to meet him, 32,000 of them gathered together with Gideon. Now, it says in verse 34, "the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon." Let me give you the literal translation. It's very picturesque. The Spirit of the Lord clothed himself with Gideon. Isn't that interesting? The Spirit of the Lord clothed himself with Gideon. That really is a beautiful definition of what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Think of being filled with the Spirit like a glove. The hand that does the work puts itself into the glove, and the hand is controlling the glove. Your life is that glove. He fills you with His Spirit, so that glove becomes His clothing. He does the work. He empowers. The glove gets to come along for the ride, but the hand is doing the work. So the Spirit of the Lord clothed himself with Gideon. Here's a prayer. Lord, may I be your suit of clothes today. May you do a work in my family, in my world, in my neighborhood through me. I want you to clothe yourself with me. That really is a beautiful prayer. That really is the idea of being filled with the Holy Spirit. So many times I hear people say, I want more of the Holy Spirit. I need more of the Holy Spirit. No, no, no, no. The Holy Spirit needs more of you. You surrender yourself to Him, He's the one that does the work. You, with all that power of the Holy Spirit at your disposal, you'd be scary, man. That's like giving you the red button to push, the nuclear pack. No thank you. But when the Holy Spirit, who knows what He's doing, has you, you get the excitement of coming along for the ride, being part of the work. Spirit of the Lord clothed Himself with Gideon. "And Gideon said"-- verse 36-- "to God, if you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only and it's dry on all the ground, then I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said." Boy, this guy likes signs, doesn't he? And it was so. He rose early the next morning, squeezed the fleece together, wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. You would think, OK, OK. That's good. I'm good with that. "Then Gideon said to God, do not be angry with me and let me speak just once more. Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on the ground, let there be dew." That is all around the fleece. "And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only but there was dew on the ground." So here's Gideon. He's thinking, it could just be a fluke, the way the temperature goes down and the moisture goes in the air. A soft material like this would tend to gather more moisture than a dry surface, so that's why I need to reverse it. I don't know what he was thinking. But this is a famous portion of Scripture, Gideon's fleece, that I ever heard abused, or at least misused, by a number of believers, who will say, I'm asking the Lord for a fleece. I'm putting a fleece out. You've heard that before. That's terminology that they use. Now, what they mean by that is I am trying to determine what the will of God is so I'm going to do something or ask God to do something, like Gideon did with the fleece. First of all, Gideon isn't trying to find the will of God. He knows the will of God. God told him, go. Defeat the Midianites. It's going to happen. So he's not using this to determine the will of God. Gideon wants a confirmation. Not a determination, a confirmation of the presence and the power of God. So be careful when you say, I'm putting a fleece out. I need a sign. Jesus said a wicked and an adulterous generation seeks after a sign. Folks, you have the Holy Spirit living in you, in you. He came upon Gideon. He lives in you. He resides in you. So it's one thing to ask God for direction, ask God for guidance. But how about this? What if God says, I have a better plan. Don't ask me for guidance. How about if we let the guide Himself live inside you? If the guide lives in you, you're all set. He'll take care of the guidance because the guide lives inside of you. Something else. When I hear people say I'm putting out a fleece, I want God to show me his will, they usually look for a natural sign, a natural sign. Well, if the phone rings at 1:00 in the afternoon, then it's from the Lord. This was not a natural sign that Gideon asked for, nor got. Both of them were supernatural signs, supernatural. Oh, by the way, if you ask God for the 1 o'clock phone call, what do you do if the phone call comes at 1:10? You say, well, that's good enough. God has a 10% margin of error. No, you'd probably scratch your head and go, gosh, was that really the Lord? Because wouldn't the Lord, if you ask him for a 1:00, be 1:00 promptly? Just a thought. I'll let you wrestle with that. "Then"-- verse 1-- Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, and all the people who were with him rose and encamped beside the well of Harod so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of him by the hill of Moreh in the valley. I tell you what, I wish we were in the land of Israel right now, because this passage is just so fun to teach standing by that very brook and well of Harod. Looking at Mount Gilboa to one side and the camp down by the hill, where the other mountains are, were the Midianites, where you can see it all. I don't even know why I said that. I just taunted you and made you wish that you can go to Israel and you maybe can't, so sorry about that. I'll get back to the text. "And the Lord said Gideon"-- now, before we get to what the Lord said to Gideon, Gideon, as I mentioned, has 32,000 troops, who have volunteered. All these tribes come. The Midianites have more than 135,000. That's about how many die in this battle, so presumably they had hundreds of thousands. But let's just say 135,000 to 32,000. Israel safely is outnumbered 4:1. "So the Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many." Now, if you're Gideon, you're going, uh, I was just about to say I have too few men and you're telling me I have too many. But notice the language. "The people who are with you are too many for me-- for me-- to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against me, saying my own hand saved me. Now, therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilboa." Gideon, before you go to battle, you have too many men. Because if you win this battle with a 4:1 odds, you're going to come home from the battle patting yourselves on the back going, man, are we warriors or what? There've been plenty of battles in history where men have been outnumbered and they won the battle. But if you make the odds ridiculous, if you stack the odds against you so that there's no way you could win except for God, you can't brag about it. You can't boast about. So it's too many for me to do it. There is a principle I want you to learn. Difficulty must always be measured by the capacity of the agent doing the work. Difficulty must always be measured by the capacity of the one doing the work. Who is going to do the fighting in the battle? The Lord is. The Lord promises to be the one delivering. So it doesn't matter if there's one guy or a million guys, God is doing it. So numbers really aren't an issue. So He says there's too many. So He says, go to your men and tell them, whoever's scared, if anybody is fearful and afraid, go home. Depart from Mount Gilead. And look at verse 3 at the end, "and 22,000 of the people returned and 10,000 remained." So now there's not 32,000 against 135,000. Now there are 10,000. And all he had to say is, hey, you know what? Before you get into battle, anybody here scared? Go home. Really, it's OK. And they all said, OK, and they just left. Now, that shouldn't surprise you. That is actually a principle. Back in Deuteronomy-- you don't have to turn there, but if you're quick with your fingers, you can-- Deuteronomy 20, God says, when you go to battle, have the priest approach the people and give them a mandate. Tell them you're about to fight a battle. The Lord is going to give you victory, but there is a few reasons why you can stay home from the battle. Number 1, if you've planted a vineyard but you haven't eaten of it, stay home. If you built a house but haven't dedicated it, stay home. If you're newly married, stay home. I mean, your wife's been looking forward to this and you're just going to go get married and go right out to war? No, no. Just go enjoy your honeymoon. Stay home. But then he says this. This is Deuteronomy chapter 20. "Speak further to the people and say, what man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart." Here's the principle. Faith is contagious, but so is fear. If those 22,000 men would have entered the battle and ran away in the midst of the battle, everybody would have run away. It would cause sheer panic to break out. Fear is contagious. Knowing that fear is contagious, get rid of those who are afraid. If they're living by fear-- I'm surrounded by fear. They can't get out because of fear, stay home. Stay home. Don't go to battle. Don't fight. We don't want your fear spilling out into the others. So 22,000 left. Now he's got 10,000. "And the Lord said to Gideon"-- this back in Judges now, verse 4 chapter 7-- "the Lord said to Gideon, the people are still too many. Bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. And it will be that of whom I say to you, this one shall go with you, the same shall go with you. And whoever I say to you, this one shall not go with you, the same shall not go." So he brought the people down to the water. "The Lord said to Gideon, every one who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself. Likewise, everyone who gets down on his knees to drink. And the number of those who lap, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men. But all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. And then the Lord said to Gideon, by the 300 men who lapped, I will save you, deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people, so every man, go every man to his place. So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands, and he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those 300 men. Now that the of Midian was below him in the valley." If you have ever done any stint of duty in the United States military, I almost am certain you were not tested in this manner before you were allowed to get in or kicked out. Nobody said, let me see how you drink water. No, its usually let me see how you can handle that weapon. Let me see how your physical stamina will be in running long distance with a pack on your back, et cetera. Let's see how you are with others in the battle. This probably is not one of them. But in ancient times, this made sense. You see, this was a test. It was a test of urgency. The first was the test of courage. If you're fearful, go home. Now it's a test of urgency. So you could drink a couple of different ways. You could bow all the way down to the ground, like on all fours, and drink right out of the river. Or you could bend down slightly, kind of crouched down slightly, take your hands, put the water in your hands, bring the water up to your mouth. And only 300 did that, proving that they, let's call it, "lived in the yellow." Ever heard that phrase? In law enforcement or in training, they tell you to live in the yellow. A guy named Cooper came up with a color code-- white, yellow, orange, and red-- and that aware people should live, and do live, in the yellow. A lot of people just sort of live their lives in the white-- there's no problem. There's no big deal. And then if something escalates to a life-threatening situation, red, they are totally unprepared and typically will die. So a person who is prepared walks and looks at things and notices things, and walks into a room and takes note of people and situations and thinks, if there is an emergency, how would I handle it? What would I do? OK, so that's living in the yellow. So if you're a soldier and you bend all the way down to the ground, now you're just staring at the ground. You are temporarily incapacitated. If you bring the water to your mouth, you can still look around and notice things, and if an emergency situation arose, you're on your feet and you can fight. So it's a test of urgency and preparedness. They're going to drink water, but they're going to do it in a very circumspect way. There's a good little principle here. Sometimes some people take a lot of unnecessary time with necessary things. You got to drink water, that's necessary. But you can do it, or you can make it an elaborate thing and just spend so much time doing it. So if you're going to fight in my army, Gideon said, do it quickly, do it circumspectfully, and be ready to fight. And it happened, verse 9. "On the same night, the Lord said to him, arise. Go down to the camp, for I have delivered into your hands. But if you are afraid to go"-- boy, he knew Gideon-- "but if you're afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah, your servant, and you shall hear what they say. And afterwards, your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. And he went down with Purah,"-- his servant, which indicated he was, indeed, afraid-- "to the outpost of the armed men who were there in the camp." After all, he's got 300 guys. I don't blame him. I'm going to do that. I have 300 men. I'm going to fight hundreds of thousands of enemy, Purah, let's go. "Now the Midiantes and the Malachites, all the people of the east, were lying in the valley, as numerous as locusts, and their camels were without number as the sand by the seashore in multitude. And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, I've just had a dream. To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian." Now, barley is what the poor ate. And remember, Gideon said, I'm poor. I come from a poor family. I come from the least in my father's house. And the children of Israel were impoverished by the onslaught of these marauding tribes. "A barley loaf in the dream tumbled into the camp of Midian." And listen, this is a pretty big loaf of bread, but dreams are like that. "It came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned and the tent collapsed." That's one big, mighty loaf of bread. Where's the beef? "Then his companion answered and said, this is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel, for into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp." He comes down into the camp. Gideon hears at exactly the right moment a guy telling his dream and a guy interpreting the dream for him. He said he wanted a sign. God said, if you're afraid, go down and listen to this conversation. He does. So it was when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation that he worshiped. I love that. You must first be a worshiper before you are a warrior. You want to be a good warrior, learn to be a good worshipper. Public victories are the result of private devotions. So he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand. And he divided 300 men into three companies, put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers. He said to them, look at me and do likewise. Watch. When I come to the edge of the camp, you shall do just as I do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you shall blow the trumpet on every side of the whole camp and say, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon." 300 are about to go into battle, 300. Untrained, probably, for the most part, but it's a lean, mean, fighting machine against hundreds of thousands of enemy. As you watch this, you might be tempted to say, does the Lord want to kill them? No. The Lord wants to get the victory, and often-- as I mentioned, here's the principle-- God stacks the odds against us. I want you to know that if you feel overwhelmed, God will often stack the odds against us so that He might get the victory. Elijah was against 300 prophets of Baal. And then God told him, put water on the altar. Or Elijah told them, pour water on the altar. Doused his altar completely with water so it wouldn't burn, and then fire fell down from heaven and consumed it. The odds were stacked against him in that situation. Jesus told the 11 disciples, go into all the world and preach the gospel. That's the odds stacked against us. Sometimes-- and this is really rare in the church-- sometimes you don't need more people. And I say it's rare in the church because, typically, the church never thinks fewer is better. Bigger is always better. Well, I understand that, and I hear you. And I've had people say, would you make an announcement for this ministry or that mission, we need more people. We just don't have enough people. Listen, you don't always need more people. Sometimes you just need the right people. Because more people can just muck it up. A few of the best people and you could be on your game. And so you will find that as a principle throughout the Scripture that sometimes fewer is better. We're going to get to it in 1 Samuel, but Jonathan and his armor bearer are going to go into the camp of the Philistines. And Jonathan will say to his armor bearer, what restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few? God could use an entire army. But you know what? God could just use you and me, just us two. Just us two. And the Lord did, just two of them. So Gideon and his men did that. They blew their trumpets. They broke the pitchers. So they heard 300 cracks. They heard and saw flashes of fire and trumpets being blown, and people scattered and they were defeated before Israel. In verse 24, "Gideon sent messengers throughout the mountains of Ephraim, saying, come down against the Midianites. Seize them from the watering places as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan." That's down at the crossing. That's down where Jesus was baptized, way, way, way down there. "Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together and seized the watering places as far as Beth Barah the Jordan. And they captured two princes of the Midiantes, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the Rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb." Fitting. "They pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan." They won the victory, but it's going to create problems. The problem it's going to create is the largest tribe and most powerful tribe in the north, the tribe of Ephraim, wasn't included. And when they heard that there was a battle and they didn't get invited to the fight, they get jealous. And jealous people are the ruin of anything God wants to do. And so they'll iron it out, but it does become an issue because of that, but we'll get into that in chapter 8. Father, we want to thank you for an opportunity to look at one of the great stories in the Bible, one of the great battles that Israel, a people who have largely, for generations, been greatly outnumbered by hundreds of millions of enemies all around, and have survived. We read their early history in these chapters. And we need to remind ourselves that it's the same God, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that these principles are principles that are still in effect today. I pray you will speak peace to your people. I pray, Lord, that you would tell them, once again, you don't have to be afraid. You're not going to die. And if something happens where you do die, you're going to heaven, so I've got you covered. I just pray that you would bring comfort and peace to your people during this time. Lord, we need a fresh boost of it. Lord, if we are feeling overwhelmed, if we are feeling outnumbered, just remind us that you are with us. And because you are with us, if God be for us, then who can be against us? Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for the New Covenant. Lord, we have so many enemies all around us, but we have your angelic hosts also surrounding us, sent to minister to those of us who are heirs of salvation. And we have your Holy Spirit, and we pray that He would fill our lives like a hand fills a glove. Clothe yourself, Holy Spirit, with our lives. Use us for Your sake, for Your glory, for Your purpose, that we might extend Your truth throughout all the earth. It's in Jesus' name we ask, amen. Let's all stand. For more resources from Calvary Church and Skip Heitzig, visit calvarynm.church . Thank you for joining us during this teaching in our Expound series.

HOW DO YOU HEAL A WOUNDED BODY? 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 S-1290 ●SLIDE: HOW DO YOU HEAL A WOUNDED BODY? It depends.      Injured in war?      Broken leg in car accident?      Family hurt?      What if it happens in church? Broken arm ●SLIDES: READ 2 Corinthians 2:5-11.       The context indicates that he is referring to a specific case. The word IF does not refer to a         hypothetical situation. The IF clause is in the form which assumes the truth of the statement.          "Since there is a certain person among you who ." ●SLIDE: I don’t know how you read this, BUT I READ A LOT OF PAIN in these words. THE BODY HAS BEEN WOUNDED.  People have been hurt.  PAIN IS EVERYWHERE.  AND IT NEEDS TO BE HEALED.      INDIVIDUAL²------------------³BODY  (When one hurts, all hurt.) ●SLIDE: LET’S EXAMINE WHAT CAUSED THE HURT  IN THE CHURCH. Apparently when Paul visited Corinth there was a ring-leader in opposition to him. The short, unhappy visit had been poisoned by the activity of one man. This man had clearly personally insulted Paul. Paul had insisted that discipline must be exercised upon this man. The majority of the Corinthians had come to see that this man's conduct had not only hurt Paul, but had injured the honor and the good name of the whole Corinthian Church. Discipline was exercised, but some felt that it had not been sufficiently severe and who desired to take still sterner measures and to impose a still greater punishment. Paul's plea is that quite enough had been done; by their exercise of discipline the Corinthians had demonstrated their obedience. The man is penitent and to exercise still further discipline would do far more harm than good, for it might simply drive the man to despair, and to do that is not to serve Christ and the Church, but to offer an opportunity to Satan to exert his power. This incident is specifically about a personal case which resulted in hurt and pain and ended up in formal church discipline.  I want to expand the principles beyond just hurts from discipline. ●SLIDE: EVERY CHRISTIAN WILL EVENTUALLY BE WOUNDED IN CHURCH.       READ 2 Corinthians 2:5. ●SLIDE: Anyone here have brothers and sisters? Anyone here never have a fight with a brother or sister? Every family has problems  “We always hurt the ones we love.” I had an altercation with Julie this week.  She doesn’t take care of her purse or her keys.  She is constantly losing them and I am forever encouraging her to put them up safely.  She was under a lot of pressure Wednesday afternoon.  I parked new to her car and looked in to see her purse on the front seat, and the door was unlocked!  I was angry. I came in the church and interrupted what she was doing to scold her about her carelessness.  Almost brought her to tears; but I was trying to make an impression.  Later apologized for my behavior. We live in a society where people are looking for perfect companions:  “I want someone who will love me unconditionally, never let me down, disappoint, hurt, or cause me pain.  And if you let me don’t love me unconditionally, let me down, disappoint, hurt, or cause me pain, then I’ll leave you, and find some one else who will love me unconditionally, won’t let me down, disappoint, hurt, or cause me pain.” They will look long and hard for that person.  They are doomed to disappointment. ●SLIDE: The hurt and pain which occurs in the family is bound to happen in any church family. They can be rather low level, but cause pain nonetheless       Roger being penned in by tables in nursery at Park Cities.  Remember my mother’s anger at the    injustice of what they had done to her son.  Never went back again.  Founded a church nearby. Of course the hurts can go much deeper than that. ●SLIDE: Some of you have had friends in church Betray you.  You trusted them and they turned on you. ●SLIDE: Some of you have gone through the trauma of Divorce.  And you looked to the church for help and felt dirty, left out, and ostracized--a second class citizen. ●SLIDE: Some of you were Abused in church.  The newspapers are filled with the sexual trauma being exposed now in the RCC priesthood.  Many wonderful priests who have dedicated lives to Christ.  But maybe that’s not the one you had.  Perhaps you went to a pastor for spiritual counsel and you were spiritually abused with all sorts of legalism and you came away beaten down spiritually instead of set free. ●SLIDE: Some of you were dire need and feel Abandoned by the church family which pledged to help you. ●SLIDE: Some of you experienced tremendous emotional Trauma and you looked to the church for care and support--and there was none. ●SLIDE: Some of you are Lonely.  And the church people you thought were friends just are not there. I am so sorry for your hurts.  I feel a sense of compassion as I look into your faces week after week and sense the hurts--many of them caused right here in this place. ●SLIDE: HOW DO WE HEAL A WOUNDED BODY? (wounds in individual and the church)       READ 2 Corinthians 2:6-11. ●SLIDE: 1. BE AWARE OF SATAN’S SCHEMES . Warren Wiersbe at Moody Pastors Conference - Psalm 78 ●SLIDE: 1. Sheep stink 2. Sheep need to be led, not driven. 3. The sheep are not the enemy:  Ephesians 6:10-12:  “Wrestle not against flesh and blood . . .” A. HE DELIGHTS IN CAUSING DIVISION AND DISSENSION IN THE CHURCH FAMILY. B. HE ENCOURAGES TOLERATING SIN. C. HE DELIGHTS IN HARSH DISCIPLINE WHICH OSTRACIZES, DISCOURAGES, AND DRIVES PEOPLE AWAY. D. HE PROMOTES AN UNFORGIVING SPIRIT WHICH LEADS TO BITTERNESS AND RESENTMENT. HOW DO YOU HEAL A WOUNDED BODY? ●SLIDE: 2. DISCIPLINE EXPOSES ISSUES SO THEY CAN BE HANDLED WITH HONESTLY. Heard of dysfunctional families.      Dysfunctional families communicate double messages.      In a dysfunctional family, love had to be earned.      There’s a certain amount of denial and delusion that goes on in a dysfunctional setting. Church family can be dysfunctional.  Refuse to recognize and deal with the truth.  And that brings tremendous pain and wounding. ●SLIDE: Several years ago interviewing candidates for Worship minister.  Met at his home for lunch and interview.  Asked all my questions. Turned to wife to see how she was handling ministry.  Wife began to open up and share pressures of ministry.  “Should I tell him?”  “Yes.”  Paused and them began to weep.  Story begins to come out.  Chairman of deacons making passes and sexual advances to her.  Tell pastor and he refuses to deal with it because he is so powerful, influential, and financially supportive.  She was weeping now.  Encouraged them to have pastor deal with issue or get out as soon as possible.  Don’t want to remain in that sort of dysfunctional system. Pain was incredible. CHURCH DISCIPLINE KEEPS US FROM BECOMING DYSFUNCTIONAL BY GIVING US A METHOD TO BRING WOUNDS AND PAIN OUT INTO THE OPEN WHERE THEY CAN BE PROPERLY HANDELED. READ Ephesians 4:15:  “Share the truth in love.”      Most of us have never seen this.  We have seen the truth shared in anger, bitterness, and resentment..  We have seen people refuse to share the truth. HOW DO YOU HEAL A WOUNDED BODY? ●SLIDE: 3. FORGIVENESS RESTORES RELATIONSHIP SO HEALING MAY PROCEED. FORGIVENESS removes the offense as a barrier to future fellowship. Forgiveness does not mean that the offense is forgotten or belittled. It is rather to act in grace, like that of God's, and use the ruptured fellowship as a stepping stone to a more loving fellowship in the future. ●SLIDE: One night this week with Bronwyn.  10:30 late for bed.  “Is mom home?”  “No.”  “why did you lie to me?”  “Please forgive me.  I don’t lie to you often.”  Next morning, “Please forgive me.”  Need to restore relationship. HOW DO YOU HEAL A WOUNDED BODY? ●SLIDE: 4. COMFORT DISARMS AND BRINGS ENCOURAGEMENT. We don’t know much about how to bring comfort in American society any more. Comfort deals with the inevitable disappointments of life. Imagine your ten year old struck out with the bases loaded and his team lost.  Or, he came home to tell you that he didn’t even make the team.  Or, your daughter comes in the door weeping to tell you that she failed to make the cheerleading squad.  Freeze frame.  What do you say to her?  “That’s life.”  “Better luck next time.”  “You didn’t really expect to make it, did you?”  Your ten year old was mercilessly teased on the school bus this afternoon and comes weeping in the front door.  And you say to your child, “What did you do to cause them to treat you like that?”          That 10 year old shared that story in a shelter after trying to commit suicide. Freeze Frame: Comfort is weeping with those who weep.  “I am so sorry.  I know this really hurts!”      “Thanks, Mom.” IT TAKES EMOTION TO HEAL EMOTION.      Not logic, facts, reasoning, or advice. Let me tell you what comfort sounds like:      “I have a great pain and sadness that you were hurt by . . .”      “I feel compassion for you because I love you . . .”      “My heart is filled with sorrow because of what has happened to you . . .” Comfort is filled with feeling words.  It brings love, acceptance, security, and understanding. HOW DO YOU HEAL A WOUNDED BODY? ●SLIDE: 5. LOVE REAFFIRMS AND RESTORES. I was shaken by a small news item about a 14-year-old boy who took his own life because “no one seemed to care.” He felt no love from anyone, except his dog, and in a brief suicide note written to his parents, he left instructions for the care of his dog. “No one seemed to care.” What a sharp rebuke to our lack of love -- or lack of showing our love. It is likely that the boy’s parents really did care, but distracted by the cares of everyday living, they failed to communicate their love. ●SLIDE: MAYBE THAT IS WHY THE LOCAL TAVERN IS SUCH A POPULAR PLACE. LESSONS FROM A TAVERN By Charles Swindoll An old Marine Corps buddy of mine, to my pleasant surprise, came to know Christ after he was discharged. I say surprise because he cursed loudly, fought hard, chased women, drank heavily, loved war and weapons, and hated chapel services A number of months ago, I wan into this fellow, and after we'd talked awhile, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, "You know, Chuck, the only thing I still miss is that old fellowship I used to have with all the guys down at the tavern. I remember how we used to sit around and laugh and drink a pitcher of beer and tell stories and let our hair down. I can't find anything like that for Christians. I no longer have a place to admit my faults and talk about my battles - where somebody won't preach at me and frown and quite me a verse." It wasn't one month later that in my reading I came across this profound paragraph: "The neighborhood bar is probably the best counterfeit that there is to the fellowship Christ wants to give his church. It's an imitation, dispensing liquor instead of grace, escape rather than reality - but it is a permissive, accepting, and inclusive fellowship. It is unshockable. It is democratic. You can tell people secrets, and they usually don't tell others or even want to. The var flourishes not because most people are alcoholics, but because God put into the human heart the desire to know and be known, to love and be loved, and so many seek a counterfeit at the price of a few beers With all my heart," this writer concludes, "I believe that Christ wants his people to be unshockable, a fellowship where people can come in and say, 'I'm sunk, I'm beat, I've had it.' Alcoholics Anonymous has this quality - our churches too often miss it." Now before you take up arms to shoot some wag that would compare your church to the corner bar, stop and ask yourself some tough questions, like I had to do. Make a list of some possible embarrassing situations people may not know how to handle. A woman discovers her husband is a practicing homosexual. Where in the church can she find help where she's secure with her secret? Your spouse talks about separation or divorce. To whom in the church do you tell it? Your daughter is pregnant, and she's run away - for the third time. She's no longer listening to you. Who do you tell that to? Financially you were unwise, and you're in deep trouble. Or a your wife is an alcoholic. Or something as horrible as getting back the biopsy from the surgeon, and it reveals cancer, and the prognosis isn't good. Or you had an emotional breakdown. To whom do you tell it? We can become the most severe, condemning, judgmental, guilt-giving people on the face of the planet Earth. ●BUILD SLIDE: Or we can (1) be aware of the schemes of Satan, (2) deal honestly in the open with the issues, and (3) forgive like Jesus, and 4) comfort like Christ, and (5) open our lives and express love to those who are hurting. And we will be the people God has designed us to be on this earth. ●SLIDE: PICTURE OF DANNY HANSEN, OUR CHILDREN’S MINISTER. Danny does a wonderful job around here with our children.  Has a heart to see them know Christ. Stand if you had a child or were in Awana, or Danny’s children’s Sunday School, or if Danny counseled you about becoming a Christian. Fifteen years ago Danny and I had a falling out.  He was chairman of deacons and we did not agree on some issue.  Locked horns.  Ate lunches to try to resolve it.  Couldn’t.  Like Paul and Barnabas when they disagreed over John Mark.  And to this day I don’t know who was right in our dispute.  In fact, I’ll tell you how important it was, I don’t even remember what it was. Finally he was in my office.  “If you want me to leave, just say the word.  I will leave.”  “O.K.  I want you to leave.”  And he did.  I was hurt.  Danny was deeply hurt.  Danny left.  Went into Christian ministry. Then one day we needed a full time Minister to Children.  Bill said, “Let’s go get Danny.”  And Danny and I talked over our hurts, and forgave, and he’s been here ever since. And if Danny and I can heal our wounds and minister together for Christ, so can You. ●REPEAT SLIDES: 1. BE AWARE OF SATAN’S SCHEMES. 2. DISCIPLINE EXPOSES ISSUES SO THEY CAN BE HANDLED WITH HONESTY. 3. FORGIVENESS RESTORES RELATIONSHIP SO HEALING MAY PROCEED. 4. COMFORT DISARMS AND BRINGS ENCOURAGEMENT. 5. LOVE REAFFIRMS AND RESTORES.

ACCEPTANCE S-1717 I want to tell you a story of a lonely woman who needed awakening. She was drawing water alone from a deserted well in a valley in Palestine. It was noon and the reason she was out in the hot of the day and not the cool of the morning or evening—when all the other women came to draw water—was because she didn’t fit in—she was rejected, out cast by the women in her town. The woman struggled with a rejection which put her mentally, emotionally and spiritually asleep. Then, one day—like Prince Charming kissing Sleeping Beauty—Jesus came to town with open arms of loving acceptance and woke her up! All of us fear rejection—whether it is stepping into class on your first day at school—wondering if you will picked last on the team, or if once more your dad will tell you how worthless you are. Maybe you were petrified on a Cupid.com set up date that he might take one look, turn on his heel and go out the door! Maybe you felt green and gawky like Mr. and Mrs. Shrek going to meet your in-laws for the first time. You remember the beautiful Fiona, by spell, being changed into a green ogre like her husband. She is the lovely princess returning home with her new husband—only on the outside, she is not so lovely any more. Mom and Dad are standing at the front door the castle. Hundreds of people line the walkway, waiting for glimpse or the newly married couple. Let’s meet the parents. (Shrek Video) Sometimes we get fed up with being rejected and take matters into our own hands. “Dear Professor Willingham, chair, search committee, Whitson University. Thank you for you letter of March 16. After careful consideration I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to hire me as an assistant professor in your department. Despite Whitson University’s outstanding experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor in your department in August. I look forward to seeing you then. Sincerely, Chris L. Jensen Turn to John 4: If first time here and don’t have a Bible, perhaps some one near can share with you. SLIDE: John 4:3-4: 3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. Three roads led from Judea up north to Galilee: Coast, across Jordan, or through Samaria. Jews never went through Samaria – many reasons – hated enemies – different worship place—intermarried with Assyrians in 700 BC. Jesus had to go through the heart of Samaria. He had a divine appointment with a woman struggling with rejection—who needed love and acceptance. Did you know that the Bible says that Jesus has His eye on you? He knew you before He laid out the foundations of the cosmos. He is longing to accept you into His family. You might just meet Him at the well, or at dinner with a friend, or at an office party with people you are just getting to know—or in church on a Sunday morning. SLIDE: John 4:5: So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. SLIDE: John 4-6: Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 6 th hour – 12:00 noon. Jesus is hot, tired and thirsty. SLIDE: John 4:7: When a Samaritan woman came to draw water; Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" I love to see here the humanity of Jesus Christ. He is thirsty.       He made that water – and He can’t get to it.       It’s noon and He’s sweating under the hot sun that He created. And He can’t turn off the heat.       He asks a drink of a creature that He’s made. When Christ says, “Give me to drink,” He shattered her mind! SLIDE: John 4:9: The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan. Tremendous racial barrier here – Samaritans were only half Jews: Jews who had intermarried with Gentiles – and Jews hated them for that. He was a man and she was a woman. Unwritten law that men didn’t speak with women in public. How did she know that He was a Jew? His physical features revealed that fact. That was obvious. People say that Jesus was of all different nationalities. No, He was a Jew. Here’s what really shook her up. A Jew wanted to drink out of her glass. None of that mattered to Christ. He knew her before the foundation of the cosmos. He was out to capture her heart: He accepts the rejected. He loves the unlovable. Already on screen: READ John 4:10: Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." What is the gift of God? John 3:16 – Gave what? “His Son”. “If you knew the Son of God and who…” Notice that the encounter starts out He’s thirsty and she’s got the water. All of a sudden she’s thirsty and He is the water. SLIDE: John 4:11: "Sir," the woman said, "You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?" “You don’t even have a bucket. The well is 105 feet deep!” Already on screen: READ John 4:13-14: Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  Jesus says, “Look, what H 2 O does for your parched, dry mouth, my water will do for your parched, dry soul!” Let me describe the living water: A woman causes a gardening apocalypse by using the wrong fertilizer but gardening tips from Yahoo! Miracle Gro tv Ad: woman sprays miracle-gro on dying plants in the flower bed. Plants spring to life. Keeps spraying and all of a sudden the ground opens up and a poodle comes up from under the ground and begins to run around the yard. Mom: “Scruffy!” Daughter Scruffy, you’re alive!” SLIDE: John 4:15: The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." READ John 4:16: He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."  READ John 4:17-18:  "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." I wish I could have seen the look on His face when He said that—broken hearted with her pain. Five men had rejected her—man could initiate a divorce—never the woman. Five times she heard the words, “Clean out your closet and get out of the house.” It is no wonder she has not married this sixth guy. With her track record, he could easily be marriage failure number six. Divorce is such devastating rejection. Many find it so hard to risk love again after a divorce. Love means I am willing to open my heart again—but the thought of rejection is too much. I will not ever again risk such rejected pain. I am so sorry. Some of life’s most painful rejections come from childhood experiences: ●SLIDE #: Acceptance—Rejection Affection—Abuse Appreciation—Criticism Approval—Condemnation Attention—Ignored Respect—Ridicule Security—Abandoned Support—Betrayed In fact, write Reject over the right side: Message: “you’ll always be second best!” SLIDE: In a Rolling Stone interview, Christina Ricci, an edgy teen actor who recently starred in Sleepy Hollow, talks about self-mutilation and pain: She stretches; her sleeves ride up; there are raised round scars on her forearms, burns on the back of one hand. She later explains where each mark came from: how she heated a lighter, held it against her hand, a stunt to impress some boys when she was angry about "not looking very good." The forearm scratches come from soda tops and fingernails: "It's like having a drink," Ricci says, "but it's quicker. You know how your brain shuts down from pain? The emotional pain would be so bad, it would force my body to slow down, and I wouldn't be hurting as much. It made me calm." People are designed by God to get along with others, and being excluded, has significant effects. SLIDE:The woman at the well could have well said, “I just wanted a loving husband.” But she didn’t say that. SLIDE: She could have said, “My life’s so fouled up. I’ve had five husbands. Now, I’m living with a guy. I am hurting so badly. I am so lonely. I feel so rejected and alone.” But, she didn’t say that either. She has no intention of opening the door to her pain. She stiffens her upper lip and changes the subject. SLIDE: John 4:19: "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Some of you have endured that much hurt—and there was no one to whom you could go to help comfort the pain—so your decided never to get hurt again. I call these “Rocks.” 1-10 in G6 seminars are rocks. Don’t really enjoy holidays. Don’t get to excited about things, nor too upset. Just stop feelings. SLIDE: John 4:20: Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." Maybe she is trying to turn to God for help. Deep in the human heart is the desire for meaning and purpose and love—and acceptance with the God who created us. I have discovered that a lot of people are afraid to approach God because of their fear of rejection. We think of all the things we have done wrong. We blush with redden faces as we remember some of the shameful things we have done—and done to others. Certainly He will not accept me! I am not good enough to come into His presence—nothing could be farther from the truth. SLIDE: Fortunately, in the life of Jesus Christ we see the heart of the real God—the one with the outstretched arms of acceptance, Who died to accept us into His family, warts and all. SLIDE: John 4:21: Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.… SLIDE: John 4: 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. SLIDE: John 4:25: The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." SLIDE: John 4:26: Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."  SLIDE: Now she is awake: It is like He threw a bucket of cold water in the face. An encounter with the living Jesus will always wake us up! SLIDE: John 4:28-30: Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Ah, here’s an experience that causes a woman to leave her dishes in the sink. She literally leaves her water pots and runs into town to tell the men about the man who’s told her all about herself. SLIDE: John 4:39-40: Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. SLIDE: John 4:41: And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said, now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.’” One of my friends asked me yesterday what my sermon was going to be about. I told her. She said to me: “All women struggle with rejection around the well. “I thought I’d found the perfect man. My mom always told me to find a man who loves you a little bit more than you love him.” “I found that man. He was crazy about me. He loved children; he would be a good dad. He didn’t make enough money but everything else looked so good. “One year later we separated. I felt so rejected. “What really hurt was that I was being rejected by some one I didn’t care that much about. I was better looking, smarter, made more money, and godlier than he was (and more humble). This can’t be happening! How could this happen to me? We went to marriage counseling and I decided to throw myself into my marriage. It was no longer about me. Modeled myself after Hosea—I would love him regardless. For ten years I worked and loved and compromised to make it work. We had children now. But things just weren’t right. Something was hidden. I prayed with my girl friends for all to be revealed. Then, after 10 years I discovered that he was cheating on me. In fact, he had carried on a secret affair with a woman he was dating back when he first met me. “I went to the Bible for help and claimed this verse from Isaiah: ‘Woe to the wicked for destruction is upon them and they will be paid back for what their hands have done.’ “Christ became my husband. He was my sustainer, confidant, my very life. I was clinging to Him just to get through—like AA—one day, hour, minute—at a time. “Pictured my self as a little lamb that Jesus carried around His shoulders. (She was crying now.) SLIDE: “I survived by submersing myself in the Word of God, my intimate relationship with Him, and in my girl friends in my Bible study group.” Why did she respond so readily to Christ—because He was the only one who understood. Why did the woman at the well respond so readily at an invitation from Christ? Because Jesus knows what it’s like to be despised and rejected. ● SLIDE #: John 1:9-11: The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.  10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. “He was in the world”. Whose world? His world! “World was made by Him, and the world did not recognize Him!” “He came to his own.” Who came? The one who made it all. And how did His own respond? They didn’t want Him. He was no stranger here. For 33 years Christ lived among men; He taught - loved - died - bore sin... and the very hands that formed men from the dust of the earth were held as the creature picked up a hammer and drive nails through the creator’s hands! This was His world. Those were His men! His will! His world! He made it - it didn’t know Him - the unrecognized Christ. You say, “Poor God. He must be terribly frustrated by all of this. He loved this world. He sent His Son and look what they did to His Son.” No. God doesn’t get frustrated. Jesus Christ was a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. God knew it was coming. ● SLIDE #: John 1:9-12: Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- Accepts and welcomes the thief on the cross. How do you get to be a child of God? Born into the right family? No. Doesn’t come biologically. Notice who these children of God are. They are those who receive the Christ who died and rose again. They are the ones who affirm the incarnate Word. They receive Him, and as a result, they are born of God. The woman at the well invited some men and a whole town to come to Jesus. Your friend may well have invited you her today. You have not come here to experience a deep, rich acceptance of Jesus Christ. It may be the farthest thing from your mind. But, you felt this deep stirring in your soul. You have been rejected and alone for so long. Woman at the well only went to draw water but she came away with Jesus. Citizens of Sychar only followed to see what an outcast woman was so excited about. They came away with Jesus—and full acceptance with God and others. You can go away with Him and His opened-armed love and acceptance today. Receive Him into your life now. Only God can meet all your need and be your sufficiency in every situation. Through your relationship with Jesus Christ you hold a valued place in the family of God that no one else can occupy. PRAYER RESPONSE TIME: Have you ever thought about “Trusting your issue with Christ?” With heads bowed, raise your hand if you’ve been rejected by (give examples). Let me pray for you. Who is having a struggle in your life (examples) raise your hand. Let me pray for you. Who has been hurt (give examples) raise your hand and let me pray for you. Those who did not raise their hands but still have gone through these hurts, let me pray for you. Jesus loves you—You have a valued place in His life: even if you feel like an outcast, that’s the way it is! … 16-year-old teenager betrayed by your friends…struggling with rejection at work… lonely grandfather estranged from his children… watching mom and dad go through a divorce… The character of Jesus’ nature is to love and accept.

Saul and Jonathan: No Weapon? God’s Got This! Steven Furtick. First Samuel 13:16: "Saul and his son Jonathan and the men with them were staying in Gibeah in Benjamin, while the Philistines camped at Mikmash. Raiding parties went out from the Philistine camp in three detachments. One turned toward Ophrah in the vicinity of Shual, another toward Beth Horon, and the third toward the borderland overlooking the Valley of Zeboyim facing the wilderness. Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, 'Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears!' So all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their plow points, mattocks, axes and sickles sharpened. The price was two-thirds of a shekel for sharpening plow points and mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and for repointing goads". This is a rip-off. We don't measure in shekels, but this is entirely too much to pay to get your goads sharpened. "So on the day of the battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them". So, on the day of battle… This is bad, to be in a day of battle and not have a sword or a spear. "So on the day of the battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them". I want to preach to you today from the subject No Weapon. Usually when we shout, "No weapon!" it's exciting, and it's a promise from God that "No weapon formed against you will prosper," but maybe you heard it different in the context where I just talked about how on the day of the battle, not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or a spear in his hand. No weapon. This message is for somebody who is in a war without the weapons you need for that war. I have no idea what area of your life this will apply to. My first thought goes to financial. My second thought goes to relational. My third thought goes to emotional. I think I covered everybody in those three, when I said, "You're in a war, but you don't have the weapons". If that has been you lately, and you have been thinking things along the lines of, "What the…am I supposed to do right now"? things that you have been thinking about lately, then this word is for you, because you're in a war that you don't have the weapons for. The question I want to work with a little bit today is…Where are your weapons? Every once in a while, I like to revisit a passage that was a part of my past, drag it into my present, and see if God has given me any perspective in the space between. The funny thing about this passage is it's a story I've been preaching since I was 16 years old. I outlined 1 Samuel 14… I know I read to you from 13, but I preached from 1 Samuel 14 for the first time when I was 16. What brought it back to my mind was that we celebrated our church's sixteenth anniversary last weekend. Not only that. My oldest child is 16 years old. So, now I have a kid who's at the stage of life I was at the first time I preached this passage. The first time I preached it, it had 12 points. When I preached it the first time, I said all 12 points and didn't make one. I missed the whole thing. I can see now some things God wasn't able to show me at the time because I wasn't ready to see it. Now, having a son who's 16 years old who is smarter than I am, more talented than I am, taller than I am… See, I'm not changing out any of the pictures of my family in my house from this point forward, because I want it all to be right at that last time that he came up to my nose, just so he doesn't ever think he can beat me. I have to keep that mental edge, that psychological advantage. But the passage I read to you mentions a father and a son. You might recognize the name Saul. He was the first king Israel ever had. He was the first king Israel had, and God didn't want them to have him, but they just had to have one, like that car you're making payments on for the next 76 years. You just had to have one. I'm not going to go to the person you are sitting next to. You just had to have them. Valentine's Day. When we look at the text as a father and son, it's really powerful, because you have Saul, who was the first king, and Jonathan his son, who is supposed to be king next from a human perspective, but can't be king because God has chosen David and rejected Saul, and it provides a contrast, which has been eye-opening for me to study this week. It has been eye-opening for me to study for a couple of reasons. The other day, I was saying something to one of my kids, and the Spirit of the Lord told me nicely, "Shut up". He said it nicer than that, but the way I'm saying it to you is "Shut up". What I was doing in the middle of telling my sons something was I was visiting my insecurity on them and making it a limitation that did not apply for their lives. I was kind of having one of those moments where I thought I was telling them the way things are, but what I realized in the middle of saying it was "That is the way things were for you; that does not have to be the way it is for them". And the Spirit of the Lord said, "Shut up. Don't say that. Don't speak that over them. Go scream it in your pillow. Go tell it to a counselor. Go write it down and scratch it out, but for God's sake, don't put your stuff on them. Don't weigh them down with your own unmet expectations of life so that they have to carry with them your resentment about things you didn't experience, but maybe I want them to". And the Spirit of the Lord said, "Shut up". In 1 Samuel 13, the Bible says, "There was no weapon in the hands of God's people". What a horrible place to be, to have an enemy attacking you, not just from one side, not just from both sides, but the Bible says there were three detachments that had gone out from the Philistines. You recognize the name Philistine from the famous Philistine in the Bible, Goliath, but he hasn't showed up yet. He's in 1 Samuel 17, and he gets killed by David with a little tiny stone that he didn't think could do anything to him, but he found out that when God gets behind something, it has enough momentum to kill any enemy, regardless of scale, size, or strength. Goliath hasn't showed up yet, but he's a Philistine. Also, you might remember Delilah. Yet there were Philistines all over the place in this passage…one in Ophrah, one in Beth Horon, and one in that other place I can't remember the name of, but it starts with a Z. I practiced pronouncing it, but I can't remember it right now. They're coming from everywhere against the Israelites. They're actually so strategically occupied in the land of Canaan that they have blocked off the passages by which the Israelites can move about. They've blocked off the passages in opposition to Israel's possession of the land. When God moved his people into the Promised Land, he didn't guarantee that none of their enemies would live there too. The relevance of this for us is God does not promise that he's just going to give us everything automatically. God never promised you for one moment that you wouldn't have to fight for joy through the feelings of despair. God never promised you for one moment that you wouldn't have to fight for an optimistic perspective in the face of a negative default setting. God never promised you for one moment that you would not have to fight for influence in the face of things that make you feel like, "Who am I to speak anything? Who am I to be anything? Who am I to do anything"? God never promised that. He only said it's possible, but the fact that it's possible doesn't mean it's automatic. Possible is not automatic. If I had never invited her to be on my summer impact team, she would have never fallen in love with me on the bus, and if she never fell in love with me on the bus, we never would have walked down the aisle, and if we never walked down the aisle, she could not have experienced the gift of the goodness. What I'm trying to say to you is there are some things God has given you, but you still have to go for them. Go for it! If God puts something in your heart, you will have to go for it. "But I have God's grace". You have God's grace to empower you to go for what he has given you. That's what the grace is for! Yet with the passage of time, I've come to see this passage a little differently than I did when I was 16. When I was 16, I felt like Jonathan, but 25 years later (that's a quarter of a century), I saw myself as Saul this week. I want to read you both, and I want to see which one you've been acting more like lately. Then we'll talk about that, and then the Holy Spirit will show you what he needs to show you, and I'll be out of your way. I won't bother you anymore for at least seven days. First Samuel 14 says something so interesting. "One day Jonathan son of Saul said to his young armor-bearer, 'Come, let's go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side.' But he did not tell his father. Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah…" That's where he was from. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. He never asked to be king. All indications are he never fully accepted his role as king. All indications are his insecurity kept him from embracing his God-given destiny. This is the guy I felt like this week. I want you to contrast the two, because it's a very powerful picture here. "Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree in Migron. With him were about six hundred men, among whom was Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod. He was a son of Ichabod's brother Ahitub son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh. No one was aware that Jonathan had left. On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez [the slippery one] and the other Seneh [the thorny one]. One cliff stood to the north toward Mikmash, the other to the south toward Geba". Verse 6 has been a source of many sermons for this preacher. "Jonathan said to his young armor bearer, 'Come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men.'" The first time he talked about them, he called them, politely, the Philistines. Now he's talking trash. "Those uncircumcised enemies of the living God". "They don't have a covenant. We do. Let's go. They don't have the God of heaven fighting for them. We do. Let's go". "'Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.' 'Do all that you have in mind,' his armor bearer said. 'Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.' Jonathan said, 'Come on, then…'" I like it when you tell me to do whatever I have in my mind, because it makes me feel less crazy. "'…we will cross over toward them and let them see us. If they say to us, "Wait there until we come to you," we will stay where we are and not go up to them. But if they say, "Come up to us," we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands.' So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost. 'Look!' said the Philistines. 'The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in.' The men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, 'Come up to us and we'll teach you a lesson.'" They need some trash-talking tips. This is very PG. "So Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, 'Climb up after me; the Lord has given them…'" Will give? Has given them. Is going to give? Has given them. "…into the hand of Israel". How do you know? Because they threatened us. How do you know? Because they insulted us. So, the insult (I'm just showing you this) from the Philistines is a sign to Jonathan and an invitation for what God can do: the impossible. I'm just giving you some context. "Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet, with his armor-bearer right behind him. The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer followed and killed behind him. In that first attack Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed some twenty men in an area of about half an acre". So, that's Jonathan. He moves toward the Philistines with one weapon. And let's hear it for the armor bearer. He had no weapon. That's the one, to me, in the passage who ought to be celebrated: the one who had to climb behind this young man. A friend of mine asked me… I told him, "I'm preaching on Jonathan in 1 Samuel 14 this week, how he went over to the Philistines and said, 'Perhaps the Lord will act,' and how he stepped out, and he wasn't really sure, but he had to leave that in God's hands and do what he could do. I'm going to preach to people and tell them, 'You're in a situation where you're not really sure right now, and you have to go through a slippery, thorny place, and you have to go up, and you have to expose yourself, and you have to be willing to be seen, and you have to be willing to try something, and you have to be willing to make a move. You can't just sit around waiting for it.' I'm going to talk about how he made a move in that direction and God gave him a miracle, but God didn't give him a miracle before he moved". I'm going off on my friend, and then my friend said, "What do you think made Jonathan able to do that"? The Lord gave me on the spot an alliterated outline what made this young man able to do that. First was development. He wasn't 25 yet. Your prefrontal cortex doesn't fully develop until you're 25. So, the first thing Jonathan had going for him was that he was dumb. He was dumb enough to do something based on the assumption that God can do anything. (I felt happy when I said it.) Everybody over 25, make some noise, because your prefrontal cortex is too developed for you to step out on a "Perhaps". Your primary question is, "What if it doesn't work"? Jonathan is like, "What if it does? What if God does say yes? What if God does deliver? What if we do get a victory? What if something amazing does happen? What if this is the time? What if this does work"? The second thing Jonathan had going for him in my mind was (psychological term) detachment. To me, it's interesting that the text says, "Three detachments of Philistines". That's the enemy. They go out in detachments because there are thousands of them, but they go out separately. Detachments the Bible calls them. Well, Jonathan had a sense of detachment as well. The major world religions all coopt this term, but I'm using it in the Christian sense, because I am one. There's a sense in which Jonathan had to detach from the outcome and move forward by faith. How do you climb up to the enemy? How do you climb out of insecurity? How do you climb past what other people told you wasn't possible? One step at a time. Jonathan understands. "I know God can, and I think he might. Let's go". That is some advanced-level detachment to go, "All right. This is what I'm going to do. This is what we're going to do. We're going to go up. We're going to show ourselves. If they say, 'We're coming down to you,' we're not going up. If they say, 'Come up to us,' we'll go up, and God will give us the victory, and that'll be the sign that he has given them into our hands". There is a part of this that has to be left in God's hands. Detachment. The third thing I told my friend was desperation, because they had no weapons. He knew, "If we stay here under this pomegranate tree, we will surely die. They will surely plunder us. If we go over there, God might give us the victory, so I'm going to move toward the might". Who is this for? You need to move toward the possibility of victory. A lot of times we can't do this, because while Jonathan is moving toward Philistines, enemies, battles, challenges… While Jonathan is moving toward that, remember where his father was. While Jonathan is moving toward Philistines, Saul is sitting under pomegranates. I don't know if this will make sense, but I want to ask you. Pomegranates or Philistines? You're like, "What's so wrong with pomegranates, Preacher? What do you have against pomegranates? Pomegranate is a perfectly acceptable fruit. There's nothing wrong with sitting under the tree". I agree with you. In fact, I so agree with you that I want to show you a Bible verse about pomegranates. So, don't be sitting there thinking I'm hating on pomegranates, I have prejudice toward pomegranates. I love pomegranates as much as the next guy. They're messy, but I like them. Do you remember when the spies first went into the Promised Land, and Moses told them, "Bring back some of the fruit of the Promised Land," because they were coming out of Egypt? Remember when they came back carrying this pole full of the produce of Canaan, the fruit of what God was giving them? Do you remember it said they brought back a cluster of grapes that they had to carry between two of them because the cluster of grapes was so big? But watch what else was on that pole in Numbers, chapter 13. "When they reached the Valley of Eshkol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them…" Two of them carried it between them, and including on the pole were some pomegranates. "I really don't see the need in pointing out that there were pomegranates". Pomegranates don't grow in Egypt. This is new fruit for a new place that God is taking them by faith. So, when I saw Saul sitting under the pomegranate tree, it served as a reminder to me that he was sitting under something God gave him. He was sitting under something that represented God's promise. Take this to Bible class this week. Ask about the pomegranates. The pomegranates are not only a sign of the promise, but it's what the priests wore on the edge of their robes. There was a vestment called an ephod. You saw it in 1 Samuel 14 as well. The priest would wear the ephod with the 12 stones that represented the 12 tribes, and he had Urim and Thummim that represented the will of God. All of this is under the pomegranate tree with Saul, long after God has brought his people into the Promised Land. Can I teach you this from the Bible for a moment so you can get the background to understand what's happening in your life? Saul is not sitting in a bad place. He is sitting under something that represented the promise of God. On the edge of the robe the priests would wear was a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, alternating…A, B, bell, pomegranate, bell, pomegranate. This pomegranate is no accidental fruit. This is not an ordinary fruit. This is not a random detail the writer of 1 Samuel gives to us to let us know. He is sitting under the promise of God, and that's a problem. It is a problem when you sit under a promise of God when God is calling you to go forward. Now, there come situations in your life… All you can do is sit under the promise of God. I can't heal my own body. I just have to hold on to the fact that my life and my days are in God's hands and that by his stripes I am healed, and he can, and even if he doesn't, he's God and he's good and he's with me, but I also have a responsibility in other seasons of my life to move toward what I'm praying for. That's so anointed what Jonathan said to the armor-bearer. "Let's go toward the Philistines". You are in a season where God is calling you to go toward something, and Saul is sitting under something with somebody. Did you notice he had one of the descendants of Ichabod with him under the tree? Ichabod was the one who was named right after the ark was captured by the Philistines, the great-grandson of Eli the priest. I know this is a lot of Bible background, y'all, but it's so significant for you to realize that where you sit, who you sit with, and what you believe about the will of God is critical to what happens next in your life. Of course Saul was sitting under the pomegranate tree. He had just been told by Samuel that God was going to take his kingdom away because he hadn't waited to offer the sacrifice. He was disappointed, literally. He had been appointed as king, and he was going to lose what he was. He had been defeated by the Philistines in chapter 15, and also, he didn't have the weapons. "Yeah, I hear you, Furtick. This all sounds good, and if I was a preacher and I knew all of these Bible verses and I had a perfect wife like Holly, like you're always up there talking about how great and how perfect she is, maybe this would be good for me too". Why didn't the Israelites have any weapons? The Scripture said there was not a blacksmith found in the land of Israel. The reason there was no blacksmith found in the land of Israel is because the Philistines knew, "If we can keep the Israelites from taking what they have and shaping it into something they can fight with, they will always be weak". Here's what had happened that put Saul under the pomegranate tree and that keeps you in states where you don't trust God, don't think God wants to hear from you, don't pray, don't believe anything can change, just stand there in surrender to the way things are and call it faith. Trusting God without moving toward is not faith. The importance of a blacksmith is something I never saw when I was 16, but I see it now, because I have a 16, and I have a 14, and I have a 10. I have three of these. I see Philistines all around my kids. Graham is going to roll his eyes when I say this, because he hates when I do it, but I see social media raising a generation. What worries me about that, church… It's not about the technology. You have to understand. The Philistines had the best technology. They had learned how to work with iron. The Israelites were still working with bronze. So, when it says they didn't have weapons, the reason they didn't have weapons… The Philistines knew what to do with iron. So, every time the Israelites wanted their farming equipment sharpened, they had to go to the Philistines, which represents the world, who are not God's people, who do not have God's Spirit, who do not have God's promise. So now they had to go to the world to get their weapons. I talk to my kids about everything that is age appropriate to talk to them about, which includes, as much as they hate it, sex. I talk to my kids about sex, as much as it's appropriate for their age, and they hate it, but if you think I'm going to let TikTok teach my kid… Yeah, I said it. If you think I'm going to leave my kid without weapons because I'm uncomfortable, if you think I'm going to let somebody teach Abbey how to twerk, and I'm not going to talk to her about what it means to be a woman… Get out of my face! Are you crazy? Do you think I'm going to send my kids into the world to fight the Devil without weapons? Not just sex. Let's get off of that. I know. That's long enough. It's emotions too. Let me ask you. How many of you have lost battles because you didn't have a blacksmith? Is this not true? It's too late when you get into the battle to get a blacksmith. "What do you mean"? It's too late until you let anger take you over, and now your little lizard brain is running the show. Now you have a little lizard driving your decisions. It's too late at that point for you to learn that "My emotions don't control me if I have the Spirit of God inside of me". See, as much as you can know that… Is that a pomegranate tree you sit under or is it an actual process in your life that produces victory? There's a difference…the stuff we can shout over versus the stuff we can fight with. It's one thing to have farming equipment. It's another thing to have fighting instruments. The Israelites had the raw material. They didn't have a blacksmith. Have you ever had to go to battle but didn't have a blacksmith? Have any of you in the room had to be a dad, but you didn't have a dad who showed you along the way how to do this? That was my dad's story. I'm in utter amazement what a good job my dad did considering the blacksmith he never had. His dad killed himself. He did good to stay alive. Then he told me… One time he said, "If you ever run into anything and you start thinking you have to kill yourself, you talk to me". He said, "I will drop everything I'm doing, and I'll take you fishing". I'm like, "Dad, I don't like fishing". He's like, "Whatever. The point is I will take you… You do not have to go that route". What was that? He was trying to be the blacksmith he never had. "Oh, that's wonderful you're telling me to just go for it. You sound like a Rocky movie, Pastor Steven. I can't put this into practice in my life". I know you can't, because you didn't have a blacksmith. When you don't have a blacksmith showing you, "Here is how you navigate this emotional state" or "This is how you take a Scripture and actually live it out," then you'll have plenty of pomegranates to sit under, plenty of good-sounding things, plenty of words, but no weapons. I am seeing people go down left and right as a pastor right now. What else is new? It wouldn't bother me if the Devil was stronger than us. I messed up and stumbled across a verse that said, "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world". Or as Jonathan said, "Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few". If that is true, why are you losing? If that is true, why isn't it working? The Lord spoke to me. He didn't have a blacksmith. When you don't have a blacksmith, you don't have anybody to show you how to take the raw material and turn it into something that is useful in your life. That's why I want to be a better blacksmith to you, man, so I don't tell you, "Oh, you can't do this, and you can't do that". I don't want to be Saul so you sit under the pomegranates with me. Even if I take this to a level of Elijah's music… That boy just made an album on his computer in his bedroom over the last four months…an entire album. I never did that, but I've been a pretty good blacksmith to him along the way. Two and a half years ago, he didn't even know what I was doing, but I snuck a recording mic in his room. At the same time, he was saying, "I don't like my voice. I don't want to sing. I don't like my voice". Nobody likes their voice when they're 13 if they're not Justin Bieber, but I'm not trying to get you to love your voice right now. I'm just trying to put something that you have to trip over when you wake up in the morning, so every time you see that mic, you might step on it one day, and you might sing something, and then you might sing something else. I'm not taking credit, because it's his battle, but I'm his blacksmith. I need every dad in here to change your Instagram bio to "Blacksmith". If you are nothing else… I need every pastor watching this sermon to rip something off, and you can preach it later, to just change your job title and put "Blacksmith," at least for the rest of 2022, because you have to see yourself as someone who has been given the responsibility by God to shape and to form. I found myself this week feeling sorry for Saul, because he didn't have anybody to show him how to be a king. He was the first one. He had a powerful dad, but he had never been a king before. He didn't have a blacksmith. Then when I was feeling sorry for Saul, I was feeling sorry for Jonathan, because the one who was supposed to be his blacksmith was so broken he couldn't show him how to do it either. Then I started wondering about you. I started wondering: Are you in a battle without a blacksmith? Are you in a war where you didn't have the weapons for it? That was the state of Israel, and that was why Saul was under the tree, and that was why the children of God were running to the world for their weapons. Let me bring this into a New Testament context. In 2 Corinthians, Paul is talking to the church about how we fight. Not if we fight (everybody has a fighting style) but how we fight. He says that though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. We don't go to the Philistines to get our weapons sharpened. It's too expensive. We don't go to social media to get our emotional needs met. It's too expensive. We don't go to the Devil for our dopamine hit. "Please, Devil, give me some dopamine. Make me feel good for a second. Give me pleasure for a second. Make me feel something for a second". It's too expensive. You can get it from the Devil, but it's too expensive. How many of you have found out it is too expensive to go to the world to get your weapons? It's too expensive, because even if it works, it isn't worth it. That's why Paul says we don't wage war like the world does. We have to fight these battles. We have to live in this world. We have to be realistic, but we don't have to fight it that way. The weapons we have have divine power to demolish strongholds. That's in the Bible, y'all. That is the Spirit of Jesus inside of you. It is divine power to demolish strongholds. When you go to the world for your weapons, there's no power in them. When you go to the world for your weapons, it doesn't demolish strongholds; it creates strongholds. It creates dependence on the thing you are going to for the need you are trying to meet. Why would you go to the Devil for it when your dad has it in abundance when you are a child of God? So Jonathan said, "Nothing can hinder the Lord. I have a covenant with almighty God". No weapon, and he got a victory. Well, he had one weapon. The armor-bearer had no weapon. Even in that the Lord spoke to me. He said, "Quit saying you don't have any. You have one". Sometimes one is enough. I am 42 in six days. (That's right in the middle where you're not sure if that's cheerable or not.) The thing I found out is that there is only one thing in the world I know I'm pretty good at, other than loving my wife, my kids, and all that. It's not baseball, at least not at a professional level. Even when it comes to the things I do in my life today, I'm not saying I'm great at administrating. I'm not saying I'm horrible at it, but I'm not great at it. I don't say I'm good at managing people. I'm good at it sometimes. I'm good at it in certain seasons, but I can't say I'm great at it. I found one thing I can do that God's hand is on, which I'm saying is sharing his Word, in case that's not clear. I hope it's clear. I hope that's obvious that God gave me that gift. Maybe it's not. I don't know. Sometimes I wonder. I'm saying I can do this, and God uses it, and I've been doing it since I was 16. Out of that one thing God gave me… Let me tell you what the Devil will do. He will tempt you to diminish what you've been given. Out of this one thing I've given my life to do, I've been able to see God do amazing things. I've been all over the world doing this. I have stood in front of people who didn't even speak my language with an interpreter doing this. I have met people I never thought I'd get to meet doing this. I've seen people who came up to me and said their life was greatly helped doing this, yet this this that I do is talking. This this that I do is imperfect. This this that I do… Sometimes…I'm going to be honest with you…I feel like what I do is one of the weirdest things in the world: try to tell you what God thinks about stuff. Key word try. I'm figuring it out as I go as well. But out of this one imperfect, uncertain thing God has given me to do that I believe he called me to do, that I believe he graced me to do, that I stand up and do no matter how I feel about it… Out of this one thing God gave me to do, I have seen God do things. One is enough. I don't have to be good at basketball to do this. I don't even have to be good at counting to do this. There's a lot of stuff that I have reconciled to the fact that I will never be great at that, but standing in the grace God gave me and doing the thing God called me to do, this gift… I have been preaching on this boy called Jonathan for 25 years. I have preached at least 300 sermons on this one text, and one was enough. I preached it in Australia. I preached it in Singapore. I preached it in London. I preached it in Camden, South Carolina. I'll preach it in Ballantyne when I'm 42. I'll preach it, if God gives me the grace, when I'm 84. I will preach this one word, one gift, one calling, one weapon. You say, "There was no weapon". No, there was one. God has always given you something. The prophet asked the woman, "What do you have in your house"? She said, "Nothing except a little oil". Do you see that thing you almost overlooked, that thing you didn't think was worth mentioning? That was the one the miracle was in. "You mean one weapon was enough to kill 20 Philistines"? It was by faith. God likes to do it like that, because he doesn't want you giving the credit to your weapons. He doesn't want you to praise your weapons. He wants you to praise him. I don't know if it's true that they didn't have any weapons. They just didn't know where their weapons were. Can I show you something? What's your name again? Your story inspired me. Yolanda. I was thinking this might just be for you. This whole word might just be for Yolanda. They were talking about Yolanda earlier and all she has been through. I thought about telling you… Do you know where your weapons are? A lot of people don't. They just accept depression. They don't know how to worship. I'm not saying I don't feel depression. I'm saying I don't accept that as being my new default setting and the limitation of my life. We have addictions. We all have addictions. "Not me," as you scroll. You are delusional. Yolanda, I started by calling this sermon No Weapon. There were no weapons with the Israelites because there were no blacksmiths. All of the ways the Enemy kept you from getting what you should have had, and all of the ways he wants to use what you think you should have had that you don't have to keep you from doing what God called you to do… That was my message, and it said there wasn't a weapon in the hands of Israel. In the hands of Israel, that's true, but guess who did have weapons. The Philistines. They had weapons. They made weapons. They had the monopoly on metalmaking, so they were fully weaponized. That's just the way God wanted it. I'm about to show you something that blew my mind. Oh, I hope it blows your mind, because while you're sitting there thinking about what you don't have that God didn't give you… You know he has given you all things richly to enjoy, and he has given you forgiveness of your sins and salvation through the blood of his Son…all that. "I don't have any weapons". You have the Holy Spirit, the mind in Spirit, which is life and peace, to show you everything, every good and perfect gift. "I don't have any weapons". Y'all, I remind myself of the older brother in the prodigal son story, sitting in the father's house talking about, "You never gave me a goat. You give your other son, the one you really like, the goat. You don't give me a goat". The father is like, "You're always with me, and all I have is yours". This is not about resource; it's about recognition…recognizing what you already have, recognizing who you already have. "Everybody left me". Not everybody. Not everybody is gone. Not everybody is flaky. Not everybody is a Judas or a betrayer. I love how Jonathan moved toward what was too big for him with what he had. Go with what you have. If it's one armor-bearer, go with what you have. If you are already past the point in your life… See, Saul didn't have to stay under the tree either. Saul had a weapon. At the end of his life, he fell on his own sword. The weapon Jonathan won with Saul killed himself with. It wasn't about what they had; it's about what they did with it. There is somebody on your row who went through a divorce and lived through it and learned from it and moved forward, and it did not make them… I'm telling you, it hurt them. It was hard for them. They wished they never would have had to go through it. They wouldn't wish it on you, but they made it through it. It is not what happens to you that defines you. Do you need me to turn Yolanda loose with the microphone? Did you hear what she went through? And did you see her worshiping? Some of us didn't worship because we didn't get to park close enough. They were saying all of these things she went through, and she's still worshiping. You must have read all the way to 1 Samuel 14:20. I'm not sure if you did, but something tells me you did. In 1 Samuel 14:20, the Bible says that when Jonathan moved toward the enemy with his one weapon… Look at what God did that Jonathan could not do. You've been looking at what's against you, forgetting what's for you, forgetting who's for you, forgetting who's in you. When Jonathan moved forward in the strength he had, with the sword he had, with the partner he had, with the resources, the wisdom, the plan he had…not the one he wanted, the one he had…watch what God did. The Bible says, "Then Saul and all his men assembled and went to the battle. They found the Philistines in total confusion…" "But we don't have any weapons". But your enemy does. When they got to the battle, guess what happened. The Philistines, their enemies that had kept them in hiding, were striking each other with those iron swords. I just picture the Philistines sharpening their swords, not knowing their swords that they were sharpening were going to be the very instruments of their own demise. I want the Devil to know that no weapon formed against me will prosper. No weapon! The Devil has been busy, hasn't he? He has been trying to defeat you and discourage you and get you depressed, and he's sharpening the swords. He planned the attack, and he thought, "If I hit them here, if I hit them there, if I cut them off here, they'll stop coming". What he didn't know is the weapons may be in the hands of the Philistines, but the Philistines are in the hands of God. When you move toward what God has called you to, you will be surprised, and maybe the very weapon you thought was going to kill you is going to be the one God is going to use to save you. There it is. That is the prophetic word. You've been praying. You've been asking God to show you something. Some of you have been asking God to confirm, "Why am I going through this? Why is this coming against me? Why can't I get past this? Why can't I move through this? Why didn't I have someone to help me with this"? God said, "I wanted to show you what I could do". So, the thing the Enemy sharpened to kill you is going to be the thing God uses to save you, if you move toward. If you sit under the pomegranates, your faith will surely weaken. If you move toward the Philistines… I'm talking straight into the face of your fear, straight into the face of what's fighting you, in the power of God. The weapons we fight with don't come from the world. I see Isaiah 54:16 in a new light now, where God said, "Behold, I created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire, who brings forth an instrument for his work". Your enemy is God's instrument too. He uses all of that. Think of the thing you think God can't use. That's what I'm talking about. Think of the thing that makes you embarrassed. That's what I'm talking about. Think of the thing that is facing you from three different detachments, and that's what I'm talking about. When they got to the battle and used what they had, they found that God created the blacksmith. God will not permit anything to happen to me in my life that he will not use for his glory. Do you believe that? "Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few". I came to talk to somebody who is down to one weapon, one person, one word from God. You're moving toward some Philistines today. Who are you? Wave at me. The Lord said to tell you: the promise of Isaiah 54:17 is that no weapon formed against you will prosper. Not that it won't be formed; it's just that it won't work. The enemy was killing the enemy. The swords they sharpened to kill the people of God… When God moved, they started… I see your enemies beginning to scatter today. I see your enemies fleeing from you seven ways today. I like to picture what the Devil thought when he was prompting the heart of Judas to betray Jesus. "Oh, this is going to end it. This is going to kill the ministry of Jesus". Do you not realize the very thing the Devil prompted Judas to do set salvation in motion? He killed the Enemy with his own sword. Now, you have to put your own faith on this word, because if all you do is sit under this like it's another pomegranate, it won't deliver you, but if you can move forward on this word today…  Lord, I pray for those who are moving toward a passageway today. I don't know if it's the beginning of a new relationship. I don't know if it's the beginning of a new challenge, but they've been feeling it down deep. "I don't have the weapons for this war. I don't know what to do. I'm not literate in this. I've never been exposed to this. I'm not experienced with this". But, Lord, you have not left us without a weapon. You have given us your Word. You have given us your Spirit. You have given us your Son. We're going forward with what we have. Father, I thank you today that as this word has been preached, somebody is getting up from a pomegranate tree, walking away from Ichabod, and moving toward what they're praying for. This week, give them the courage, the instruction, the specific prompting of your Spirit to move toward something they're praying for, something they're hoping for. God, you know how hard it is to come out from under that tree. Everybody is under that tree. Everything we've known is under that tree. The ephod is under that tree. The priest is under that tree. Everything is under that tree…except you. You're calling us forward. I thank you for your presence, God, not only in this place. I thank you for your presence as we go forward toward the Philistines in our own lives. That's where we need you. That's where we need your Word. That's where we need to worship. Lord, I thank you today that your Word never returns void. No weapon. No disease, no heartbreak, no failure…no weapon. No accusation, no virus…no weapon. No betrayal, no pain, no trauma…no weapon. No weapon is greater than your Word. No weapon is greater than your Spirit. No weapon is greater than your presence. No weapon is greater than the covenant we have with you. No weapon that is formed shall prosper! No weapon! It was formed, but it didn't work. No weapon! Put it in the chat right now. No weapon. I'm going to tell you something. If God didn't give it to you, you don't need it right now. He gave you what you need for where you're going. No weapon, no problem. I have a word from almighty God!

I want you to turn with me to Mark the sixth chapter, the sixth chapter of Mark, starting at verse 14. These words, "And king Herod heard of him, (for his name (was spread abroad)"... Now this is... He was hearing of Jesus, all the things that Jesus was doing. Making the blind to see, and the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak, and even raising the dead, and king Herod heard about it. "And he said that John the Baptist was risen from the dead". They said, "You've made a mistake, his name is not Jesus, it is John the Baptist". John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, I killed John the Baptist. When Salome danced in front of me I was so taken with her dancing that I promised her anything in my whole kingdom, and she asked for the head of John the Baptist to be brought on a platter. And I regretted it. I liked John the Baptist, even though I didn't agree with some of the things he was saying, especially when he accused me of adultery. But I didn't want to have to kill him, but I had made a promise in front of all my lords and ladies, and all the heads of state, that I would give this girl anything she wanted, and she asked for the head of John the Baptist so I had to send an executioner to go and bring his head. And I know he's risen from the dead, that's the only explanation for this man that's going around the country now who's become very famous. They call him Jesus, but actually he's John the Baptist. Why did Herod say that? He said it because his conscience was killing him. All he could think about, night and day, was that head, that bloody head of John the Baptist that he had had brought on a platter because a girl had performed a sensual dance for him and gotten his passions all aroused. You know, there's a conscience fund in almost every major post office in the United States. If you've cheated the government and your conscience bothers you, you can send it to that conscience fund. All over the world little children know that certain things are wrong, wherever you find them. Who told them? Now when the wind is coming from this direction, we get the planes because the airport is right over here and they come right down low over the stadium, and it's marvelous sound effects for preaching. But conscience is the moral judiciary of the soul, and conscience does not lay down a law, but warns of the existence of a law. Think about that a moment. Conscience warns you that there is a moral law. That moral law is expressed verbally by God in the Ten Commandments. It is also expressed verbally by the Lord Jesus Christ in the sermon on the mount. These are laws. And conscience is put within you to tell you when you are breaking one. Conscience is in the heart of every one of us. There's a little red light that goes on. But there's something in your own heart and your own soul that flashes red and says, don't do that, you're wrong. And most of us go against our conscience time after time, and in a moment I'll show you how we pay for it. Because the Bible speaks of several kinds of conscience. First there's the evil conscience. Hebrews 10:22, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water". In another place the Bible talks about the defiled conscience. Titus 1:15 defiled". You can have an evil conscience and a defiled conscience. And here is the thing that shakes me about these scriptures. The very thing that tells us when we are knowingly wrong, itself becomes debauched, like a little bell that is supposed to ring and give us a clear note, becomes cracked so that its note will be false. And it's true when you reject the voice of conscience time after time after time after time, after a while the voice of conscience itself becomes defiled and becomes evil, and gives you the wrong signals. So that you too may crash as you approach the runway of a decision. Because you see, your conscience will begin calling evil good. It'll call good evil. It'll put darkness for light and light for darkness, and it will say that bitter is sweet and that sweet is bitter. It becomes evil itself. When you go against your conscience time after time there comes a point, a dividing line, when your conscience is no longer reliable at all. In fact, it will lead you in the wrong direction. And when you've reached that point you have reached a very dangerous situation in your life. "For then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshipers once purged have no more conscience of sins". In other words, there is a possibility that you can destroy your conscience. The Bible talks about, the apostle Paul writing to Timothy talks about people that have a conscience that have been seared with a hot iron, like a branding iron. Your conscience seared! Your conscience has been driven away as a friend and a counselor, and comes back in the form of remorse, and comes back in so many different forms. Conscience can even be used by evil spirits. You see, God put it in your heart to help you and to guide you through life. And your conscience has told you not to tell that lie, not to go to that place that you went the other night, and you did it anyway. Told you not to disobey your parents, but you did. So you make your conscience harder and harder and harder. You see, the Holy Spirit uses the conscience to convict you of sin, and righteousness, and judgment. The Holy Spirit uses the conscience to draw you to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you say no! No! No! No! No! And after a while your heart gets harder and harder, and harder and harder and harder and harder and harder and harder and harder. God stills loves you, God wants to forgive you. It's still not too late for anyone here, but I do know people, very brilliant theologians, who think that there's a line beyond which you can go in which you can no longer be saved. You become a reprobate, with a reprobate mind. So hardened that you cannot come to Christ. I know that the Bible says that there is a sin unto death, and I also know that Jesus talked about a sin that could not be forgiven, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that total rejection of Christ that cannot be forgiven? I think that's what it is. We're talking about something here tonight that's very, very sensitive, and delicate, and dangerous. And I know so many people that have some "Churchanity", and they go to church, and they've been baptized, but they've never really known Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Savior. And they're in danger of hardening their hearts, and hardening their conscience, until they can no longer hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. And if you can come to a meeting like this and hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ sung and preached, and it doesn't touch your heart at all, beware. Because, you see, you can become Gospel hardened. We have so much Gospel now in America on television, radio, churches. Thank God for every one of them. I don't care what they do just so they get people to Christ. But the danger is that we hear so much Gospel that it goes in one ear and out the other, and doesn't get lodged into our hearts, and we don't go deep, as Andréa Crouch was talking about a moment ago, and singing about. It must go deep until we become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm delighted to hear how many churches in this city have Bible studies, and Bible classes, and how many preachers in the city preach expository messages, taking people right through the Bible, and teaching the Bible as they preach, because that helps the people to grow. But we have so many people that they think because they've been faithful to the church or because they have given to the church, or because they've done some good deeds, that they are going to go to heaven, and the Bible plainly says you can't go to heaven by works. "For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, not of works, lest any man should boast". If I could work my way to heaven, Christ would never have died on the cross. If I could work my way to heaven I'd be working from morning till night, all day long. And still it wouldn't be enough. Because I have come short of God's glory, and that's why Christ went to the cross, and paid the penalty and the price of my sins, and gave to me eternal life. And here's an interesting thing that happened when I accepted Christ, and this will happen to you. You can have your conscience resensitized, and your conscience can become the conscience of a little child again. Just, and I don't hold myself up as an example at all, of any goodness, but I can tell you this, I can do something like this or like that, or like the other thing and my conscience speaks to me immediately about little things. And I believe that a Christian walks that way, the Holy Spirit speaking through conscience, and guiding and directing and instructing. Oh, to have a conscience that is clear of all offense, the apostle Paul said. To have a clean conscience. That little light that God has put in our hearts. Now the Bible talks about a convicting conscience. "And they being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one". And of course, that's the story of the woman taken in adultery. Jesus had been teaching, and these pharisees had brought this woman that they'd caught taken in adultery to Jesus and they said, "Lord, you claim to be a rabbi, you claim to be a great teacher from God. All right, what shall we do? Shall we stone this woman? The law says stone her and kill her. What do you say"? And Jesus wrote on the ground, we don't know what he wrote, but I think he wrote the Ten Commandments, and they read the Ten Commandments, and he said, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone". They might not have been guilty of breaking the 7th commandment, but maybe they were guilty of breaking the 10th commandment, or the first commandment, or the third commandment, because not one of those religious leaders could pick up a stone and throw it, because they too were guilty. The Bible teaches that all have sinned, we've all come short of the glory of God. Now the Bible teaches also that the conscience cannot heal the wound which it inflicts. It cannot wash out the stain of the soul, it cannot undo the past, it cannot cover up your sins. That's not its business. Its business it to convict. It is the Lord Jesus Christ's death on the cross and his resurrection that saves us from our sins. Christ alone can say to our souls and to our conscience "Be still"! As he said to the angry sea very long ago. I'm asking you tonight to come to the foot of the cross and find forgiveness of all your past sins. I'm asking you to come to the cross tonight and receive eternal life. I'm asking you to come to the cross tonight while you can still hear the voice of the Spirit of God. Because you see, there's some strange passages in the Bible it talks about Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone. In other words, Ephraim is so taken up with his playthings, God said, leave him alone, don't disturb him. Let him have a good time, he's lost. The Bible says "He that hardeneth his heart, being often reproved, shall suddenly be cut off, without remedy". I do not pretend to know all the meaning of those scriptures. I dare not tread beyond the teaching of the Word of God. But I'll tell you that warning is all the way through the Bible. I remember a story that they used to tell years ago, I think dr. R.G. Lee used to tell it, about a man at Niagara. And they have a place there, and I've seen this place, it's called beyond redemption's point. And this man had been able to swim the English channel several times, so he came to America and he said, "I'm going to swim Niagara River at that point that they say you can't swim it". So a big crowd gathered and he dived in, and he began to swim, powerful strokes, a very strong man, and a fast swimmer. And he came to that place that they call redemption's point, and he waved at the crowd, and dived in, swimming. They picked his body up way downstream. There's a point there beyond which you cannot go, there's a point in your rejection of Christ, or in your neglect of Christ: a point beyond which you cannot go without endangering your eternal soul. I'm going to ask you tonight to surrender to Christ. You say, "What do I have to do"? It's very, very simple. You see, God made it so simple that the uneducated, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the educated, people of all races, all over the world can do what God asks. He just asks you to believe. And that word believe, though, has a lot in it. It means to stand on, to put your trust in, and your confidence in. Totally! And it means that you are willing to repent of your sins, which also means a change in your lifestyle, a change in the way you live. From now on God is first: not your lust, not your idols, not your work, but God. And Christ becomes the Lord of your life, and you receive him as Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to ask you to do something tonight we've seen hundreds of people do in this stadium this past week. I'm going to ask you to get up out of your seat right now, and come and stand in front of the platform and say tonight, "I'm not sure that Christ lives in my heart. I don't know whether I've hardened my conscience or not, but I want to make sure tonight by letting him come in. I want to surrender my life to him as Savior and Lord. I want to make sure of it". You get up and come right now, hundreds of you, from all over the stadium. Why do I ask you to come? Jesus said if you're not willing to acknowledge me publicly before men, I'll not acknowledge you before my father. He hung on the cross publicly for you. People were laughing at him, they may laugh at you. They were mocking him when he hung there, but he did it for you, because he loved you. Now you get up and come, and stand here quietly and reverently, and say tonight, "I want Christ in my heart, I want to know that he's there. He's spoken to me tonight. He's convicted me tonight. I've been disturbed tonight". You come and stand, and after you've come and stood here, I'm going to say a word to you and have a prayer with you. And we're going to give you some literature, and you can go back and join your friends. If you're with friends or relatives, they'll wait, or if you've come in a bus, they'll wait. Just get up and come, quickly, right now, from all over the stadium. From the choir, from everywhere. I would like to say a word to you that have been watching by television. As you already know, we're here in the liberty bowl in Memphis, Tennessee. Some 40,000 people are here tonight, and hundreds of people are coming from every part of the stadium to make their commitment to Jesus Christ. You don't have to be here in this stadium to find Christ, you can find him where you are. You may sitting at a bar, you may be in a hotel room, you may be in your own home, but you can say yes to Christ. He'll forgive all the past. I don't care how dirty and how sordid it may be, he'll forgive it because he loves you. He loves you so much that he died for you. And I hope that you'll go to church next Sunday