Judges: Running Away from God Well, I'll confess that in one sense, I'd love to completely erase the Book of Judges from scripture, because it is the story of the failure of God's people. And it is a sad piece of history, but true nonetheless. So I say on one hand, I'd like to erase it. I want to quickly say on the other hand, I want to elevate it. I want to elevate it, because there's an old saying that probably never is proven more true than in the Book of Judges that says those who fail to learn from history are doomed to relive it. So we have the history of the failure of God's people in this book, and it serves to us as a warning. Now, in my prayer I mentioned this is not a book that we frequent a lot. If you are depressed, I would not recommend you go searching through the Book of Judges to find comfort. There are plenty of other places in scripture to do that. This is a book that might just drag you down a little bit further. But there are some vital lessons to be learned in this book. You see, the nation of Israel were God's people. They were God's unique people, His nation. To use the parlance of Americanism, we would say they were one nation under God. They had the freedom of having a unique covenant with God and walking with God from the wilderness after being delivered from Egypt, marching across the Jordan River into a land that was uniquely theirs that God gave them to inhabit, to be able to settle in it, raise their families, worship God. But they left that. They strayed from that. They disobeyed the Lord, even as Joshua had indicated that they probably would. The very last part of the Book of Joshua, the 24th chapter of that book, the page or two right before the Book of Judges, Joshua tells them in Chapter 24, Verse 14, now therefore fear the Lord. Serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord. And they kept saying, oh, we will serve the Lord, we will serve the Lord. And Joshua tells them in Verse 21, the people said, no, but we will serve the Lord. And so Joshua basically says, look, you've got one or two choices. You keep saying you're going to serve the Lord. If you do, then turn away from all of those false things and false gods and goddesses that you and your forefathers worshiped and serve the Lord. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. But Joshua indicated, intimated that they would have a tendency to want to go back, which is exactly where we are taken in this story. The Book of Judges is a period of history between the entrance of the land under Joshua and the monarchy of Saul, David, and Solomon. It's a period of about 350 to 450 years, let's just say a 400 year period. During that period, there was no central leadership. There wasn't a Moses. There wasn't a Joshua. It had reverted back to tribalism, the 12 tribes of Israel all kind of trying to settle and manage their own estates in this land. So during that period, where it was up and down, up and down, God raises up 13 judges, they are called. Now, don't think of a judge sitting behind a bench in a robe with a gavel, not that kind of a judge. Take it out of the legal parlance, out of that kind of an idea, and think more in terms of deliverers. These are judges-- let's call them champions, sometimes political, often military. God raises them up and uses them to deliver the children of Israel out of a very specific local problem. There are 13 mentioned in this book. 12 of them are men. One of them is a very strong and really cool woman by the name of Deborah. We'll meet here in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5. Now I warn you, the book is rated R, for raunchy, for rebellious, for recalcitrant. And there is material in the book that makes us blush. It's disturbing. By the time we get to Chapter 19 and we get the story of the Levite and the concubine and how he cuts her up into pieces and sends a piece to the different tribes, it's like, what, what, this is the Bible? So it's warning. It's at a very low moral period of their history, a period of anarchy, which makes the Book of Judges so contemporary. I found a little piece from a historian, a Scottish historian named Alexander Tytler in the 1700s, who wrote this. The average age of the world's great civilizations is about 200 years. All travel through the same sequence, from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from great courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to leisure, from leisure to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence to weakness, and then back to bondage. According to his words and another little article that I was reading, the final stage in the demise of a culture is political anarchy. And we see that in the Book of Judges. We'll get this haunting phrase toward the end, where it says, and there was no King in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes. Purely mechanistic, purely relativistic. They just sort of made up their own rules as they went along. Everyone one does what is right in his own eyes. So the theme of the Book of Judges is from conquest to compromise. They conquered the land. Joshua led them into it. They sort of settled it, but not completely. They didn't possess their possession. They didn't really take it. They still allowed enemies to come and populate, and it became a problem. In Chapter 1, Verse 1, it says now after the death of Joshua-- I pause, because that is how the book of Joshua opens up. Different name, now after the death of Moses. And then we're introduced to Joshua. Here we are in this book. It says now after the death of Joshua, and there's no one. There's no strong successor that will follow Joshua. And there won't be until we get to the monarchy written about in the Book of Samuel, with King Saul, then King David, then King Solomon. Now after the death of Joshua, it came to pass the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them? Now just a little background on the term Canaanite. Canaanites were inhabitants of the area called Canaan. There were different groups. It is a catch all phrase to describe numerous indigenous populations within that landmass. Some were Philistines, some were Amarites, some were Jebusites. There's a whole bunch of different people groups, because the way the land was divided in those days is that there were regions, but there were city-states. And every city called a city-state had its own king. And so they had people groups in areas, but they had city-states that were managed in those areas. So it's a generic catch all phrase, Canaanites, of those peoples who lived west of the Jordan River. But they said, who will go up for us against the Canaanites and fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up. Indeed, I have delivered the land into his hand. Now, I don't know if you do this when you read the scripture, but I like to ask questions of the text. You know, we read and it says the Lord said, and we just sort of take it for granted. But the question is, how did the Lord say? How did they ask the Lord? Was it just one dude just kind of lifted his head up toward heaven and go hey, God? You up there? I've got a question. Well, we're not told. In this case, it just says, they asked the Lord and the Lord answered. Now, my belief, because it was in vogue at the time, was through a very interesting manner that God had set up in the Pentateuch. There was the priest, and there was a high priest. And the high priest wore a special garment. He wore a breastplate with 12 stones, one representing each of the 12 tribes of Israel. And in a pouch behind the breastplate were two stones-- do you remember what they were called? You are Bible scholars, man. The Urim and the Thummim, the Urim and the Thummim, a black stone and a white stone, some think. The words Urim and Thummim mean lights and perfections. And it is believed that the priests, the high priest would discern the will of God using these two stones. So there is no Joshua, there is no Moses. There are still these people. What do we do? Let's ask the Lord. The only way they would have known to ask the Lord is find the high priest. He would have used the Urim and the Thummim. Now, we don't know how it worked, but it seemed to be a very straightforward binary system, where they would ask a question and they get a yes or no back, a black or a white back. And so do you want us to go up and fight? Yes. OK, so should Reuben go first? No. Should this tribe go first? No. Should Judah to go first? Yes. So the Lord said, yes. And probably the next question is, will we win? I'd want to know that I wouldn't stop with that. Will you deliver them into our hands? Yes. OK, good. That's-- now we're good to go. So they asked of the Lord, probably through the Urim and the Thummim through the high priest. The Lord said go. He said, Judah shall go up. Indeed, I have delivered the land into his hand. I like the fact that Judah is going first. I like the fact, because of the prophecy in Genesis Chapter 49 that says that the eventual King and leader of the tribes will be Judah. Our Lord Jesus Christ came from the tribe of Judah. So the firstborn doesn't go, but the fourth born tribe from the lineage of Jacob is the first tribe to go to war in the Book of Judges. Also, what I like about it is the name Judah means praise. And if you fight a battle, that's how you start the battle. That's how you enter into the battle, with worship, with praise. You want to bring that up to the front. You don't want to-- you don't want to succumb to fear. No matter what is going on around you in the world, Christians do not give in to fear. And the best way to conquer fear is faith. The best way to engender faith is the Word of God and praise, worship. So praise led the procession. But Verse 3 says, so Judah said to Simeon, his brother, come up with me to my allotted territory, that we may fight against the Canaanites, and I will likewise go with you to your allotted territory, and Simeon went with him. Now, a lot of commentators see this as a wonderful exercise in cooperation. Maybe. Or it's an exercise in cowardice. Because after all, if the Lord said Judah, you go and I'll deliver them into your hands, that's all you need to know. If the battle is won because God has given us the victory,. I don't need backup. It could be that he said, you know, I just want a buddy. But they had an army, right? But the Lord just said, Judah should go. Judah wasn't happy with that, so he got the tribe of Simeon to go, as well. Then Judah went up and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand. And they killed 10,000 men at Bezek. Bezek is a town probably south of Mount Gilboa. I realize not everybody knows where that is, but I also know that those who have been to Israel with us know exactly where that is. You can see it in your mind. By the way, whenever we take a tour to Israel, people who are our Wednesday night regulars get far more out of a tour to Israel than anybody else, because you know the words so well. You know the story so well. Whereas people who are just kind of the Sunday morning crowd, they don't kind of know the history and the background the geography. But those who are Wednesday nighters, it's just so enriching. So Gilboa, just a little bit south of Gilboa, was Bezek. And they found, Verse 5, Adonai-Bezek in Bezek, which is where you would expect to find Adonai-Bezek, in Bezek. Because Adonai, even though you are familiar with that Hebrew word Lord, Adonai can mean Lord of Bezek, or in this case, just simply the King of Bezek or the Prince of Bezek, the leader of Bezek. That's the idea. They found the leader of Bezek in Bezek. They fought against him and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. And Adonai-Bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. I told you it was rated R. What I like about the Bible is it doesn't try to kind of paint a little flowery picture. It just tells you what really happened. It's honest. So the idea of cutting off thumbs and big toes, that sounds really barbaric, and it is. But it's also pragmatic in battle, because in battle, you can't grasp a sword and you wouldn't be able to run and have stability, so you wouldn't really be good in a battle. So it incapacitates a person. That was the idea of doing that. But this is sort of interesting to me. Adonai-Bezek said after they did that to him, he said, 70 kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather their food under my table. So he said, yeah, I've done that too. I did it 70 times. As I have done-- now watch this-- so God has repaid me. Then they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. There is a law in the scripture that whatever you reap, or whatever you sow, you will also reap. Be not deceived, Paul said, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man sows, that will he also reap. And if he sows to the flesh, he will reap corruption. If he sows to the spirit, he'll reap everlasting life. So here's a guy who said, you know what? I'm guilty, and this is payback. I did it to 70 other dudes, so now God is doing it to me. Now, I'm not going to try to examine his theology and his superstition, but that happens to be a spiritual law. You've heard it before, that you reap in kind. If you sow wheat, you're not going to get lemons. You're going to get wheat. s Whatever seed you sow, you're going to reap in kind. So if you sow to the flesh, you're going to reap of the flesh corruption. It's going to come back to you. Now unfortunately, you hear that scripture quoted in a negative sense. Oh, you better watch it, man. You're going to reap what you sow. Well, it's true. You are. But it can also be positive. If you plant, if you sow good things, you can expect good things to come back. Give, Jesus said, and it will be given to you, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall the Lord give into your bosom. Be generous. God will be generous back to you, reaping and sowing. So yeah, you should shudder if you do bad things and you are cantankerous and mean and you sow bad seed. But if you sow love and kindness and mercy, you're going to get back love, kindness, and mercy. You're going to reap what you sow. Same principle. They brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. Now, the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it. They struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. Now hold that thought, because Jerusalem won't be totally conquered for another 400 years. They conquer it, but they let the Jebusites hang out there. They don't really do much except burn it up. They settle sort of in it with the Jebusites, but it won't be until the time of David when David will take this city from the Jebusites by crawling up the water shaft-- he won't do it. A guy named Joab will do it, so hold that thought, if you don't mind, for a couple of books. And afterword, the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who dwelt in the mountains in the south, or in the mountains, comma, in the south, comma, and in the lowland. Now, do you see those three phrases? Those happen to be the three main topographical geographical areas in Israel today. The mountains is the central spine. One thing you notice in Israel is there's this spine of mountains that runs from north all the way down south. Judah is down south. Samaria is in the middle. Of the Galilean mountains and Ephraim mountains are up in the north, but there is a central spine of mountains that runs all the way from north to south. Then you have the south area. It says in Verse 9, in the south-- the Hebrew word is the Negev. The Negev is the desert. From Hebron down, it's all desert. Once you get down past Hebron, which is up in the highlands in the mountains, it goes down into the desert. It's just a vast, open, Rio Rancho-like desert down in the south. And in the lowland-- another term for that is the Shfela. The Shefla is between the mountains and the beach, and it's a set of rolling hills where there were a lot of settlements. And most of the battles in the Old Testament took place in the lowlands, in the Shefla. So you have three geographic areas all set out in that verse. Then Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron. Now, the name of Hebron was formerly Kiryat Arba. Now, I hope you don't mind me explaining some of these words to you, but Kiryat is a Hebrew word for town or village, still commonly used in Israel today. Arba means four in Hebrew. Arba, that's how you say four, Akhat, Shta'im, Shalosh, Arba. Arba means four. So it literally means the village or the town of the four. Either it was named after a coalition of four leaders, four kings, or it was named after a guy who founded the city named Arba, because he did. So there's a dispute as to that. I don't think it's important to us that we understand which is which. That's just the background. And they killed Sheshai, Achiman, and Talmai. Now, Hebron is an important city for you to remember. Some of you already remember it. You go, yeah, I remember Hebron. Abraham dwelt by a terabinth tree in Mamre, which is in Hebron, in Genesis, Chapter 15. Genesis, Chapter 18, he's there again. His wife, Sarah, dies in Hebron. And he buys-- Abraham buys a cave called the Cave of Machpelah, and buries Sarah. And Abraham is buried there. And by the way, you can go to Hebron today-- it's a little dangerous, but it's good to go see it. And you can see the original cave of Machpelah, where Abraham, the patriarch, Sarah are all buried. And there's even a walled enclosure built by Herod the Great himself 2,000 years ago, well-preserved, to guard it. So Hebron became very important to Abraham, number 1. Number 2, it becomes very important to David because it becomes the center of David's throne when he rules the kingdom for seven years. he first made Hebron the capital before Jerusalem. So it will eventually be Jerusalem, but at first, for seven years, it was Hebron. But before David got there, Caleb got it. Remember Caleb? There was Joshua and Caleb. Those were the two spies that believed that God would give them the land. So Caleb is the one that gets Hebron. From there, Verse 11, they went against the inhabitants of the name of Debir, was formerly Kiryat Sefer. Now, Sefer in Hebrew means book. So it's the village of the book, or the village of writing, some translated. It could simply be that there was a collection of books there, a library there, a local library. So it was the village where the books were kept. And Caleb said-- now, this is Caleb. He's old, right? When he's 85 years old, he's the guy who said, give me this mountain, and he took it, Hebron. Caleb said, he who attacks Kiryat Sefer and takes it to him, I will give my daughter Achsah as wife. So it says in Verse 13, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it and he gave him his daughter Achsah as wife. Othiel is introduced. He's introduced here, because in Chapter 3, he becomes the first judge, first deliverer, the first champion. It's Othniel. It's a little interesting story here that we have a guy offering up his daughter-- you know, whoever takes over that town and wins the battle, you can have my daughter as wife. You might think that's a little odd, but it's really not, culturally speaking. Here's the simple background. In those days, when your daughter got to marriageable age, you want her to get married. And they were looking for the right husband. Now typically, a husband would enter into negotiations with a father of a bride, and they would negotiate over the bride price, it was called, the dowry. The dowry was money or goods given to the father of the bride for his daughter. So the young man would say, hey, I've got a few camels and I've got a bunch of sheep, and I'll give you the camels and sheep for your daughter. Good, good deal. They'd shake on it. Deal was done. You say, well, that's kind of crude and mean to women. Actually, it was a form of protection for the woman. Because you see, in those days, women had no rights. And if a man wanted to divorce his wife, all he had to do was write a certificate of divorce, go to the city gate, bring a couple witnesses, and it's like hit the road, chick, and she was gone. So that's where the dowry came in. It was paid to the father of the bride in case a jerk like that let his wife go, divorced her, and she had nothing. She could always go to dad, who had kept the dowry for her. And if he was a smart dad, he would have invested the dowry and it would have grown. So it would be sizable for him. So really, a dowry was simply alimony in advance. It was to protect the woman from that. But in a case where you couldn't have a dowry, like if the guy was a poor kid, so he would go, I guess I'm going to be single my whole life, well, he could perform a feat like this and dad would say, you can have her. So Othniel did that. Now, Verse 14. It was so when she came to him that she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey and Caleb said to her, what do you wish? The Septuagint version and translates it a little bit differently. Our version says, she urged him to ask her father for a field. In the Septuagine, it says, he asked her to ask her father for the field. So we don't know. It could have been both. It could have been simply, hey, Othniel, you're a mighty warrior. You got that village taken care of and squared away. Ask my dad for a field. Ask my dad for something. No, I don't want to do that. Your dad's intimating. You ask. Which it could have been that simple. And by the way, it's much wiser for her to ask her father, because any father would give his daughter something way before he'd give his son-in-law anything. It's my daughter, man. So she dismounted from her donkey and Caleb said, what do you wish? So he said, give me a blessing. Since you have given me land in the south, give me also springs of water. They're down in the desert and they need water rights. So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. Now, the children of Israel, now the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law went up from the City of Palms-- the City of Palms is the ancient name for Jericho. Jericho really was the Palm Springs of Israel. Well, tomorrow the high in Jericho in Israel will be 112 and then 113 the next day. So it's like Phoenix, or like Palm Springs, below sea level and very hot. So the children of the Kenite, Moses, now do you remember his name, Moses' father-in-law? Jethro. Jethro was a Kenite. The Kenites were an ancient nomadic desert-dwelling people, go all the way back to Genesis. I think Chapter 15, they're first mentioned. So they're dwelling with the children of Judah. They went up from Jericho, the City of Palms, with the children of Judah to the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the south near Arad. Arad is down by the Dead Sea, about 15, 20 miles away from it. And they went and dwelt among the people. And Judah went with his brother Simeon, and they attacked the Canaanites who dwelt in Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah. Also, Judah took Gaza, which is still a city in that part of the world, with its territory Ashkelon, with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. Now, look again at the name of those three cities, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron. They're going to keep coming up in the Old Testament books, Samuel and Kings. And those three are part of a-- will be part of a coalition of five Philistine cities. This is where the Philistines will inhabit the land later on. So it says Verse 19, the Lord was with Judah. And they drove out the inhabitants of the mountains, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland, because they had chariots of iron. Now hold that thought-- not for two books, but just for a few verses. Chariots of iron, man, they had the technology that the children of Israel did not have. A chariot in those days was like a tank, and a chariot of iron, right, is like a Merkava tank, man. It's like vicious. Chariots of iron. And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said. They expelled from there the three sons of Anak. The three sons of Anak. Anak was a person who lived there. He had three sons. If you have a whole bunch of those relatives, they were called the Anakim. That's the plural in Hebrew, -im ending, Anakim. Now, the Anakim, or the sons of Anak, the relatives of Anak, were the ones that when the 12 spies in Numbers 13 and 14 came to the land to spy it out, they came to Hebron, they came to this area. And it's what intimidated 10 of those spies, right? They had a little recon mission, and 10 saw the giants, these big, tall dudes, and said, man, there's some big dudes over there. And they're huge, and we're not. And. And we were grasshoppers in their sight that's what they said. That wasn't the truth. The truth was, we were grasshoppers in our sight. And with their sight. They weren't considering how big God is next to the children of Anak. They only measured the difficulty of the situation by the size of the inhabitants of the land rather than by the size of their God. So the 10 said, they're huge. And Joshua and Caleb said, they're not huge. God is way bigger than them. God gave us the land. Let's take it. This will be fun. But the one report that prevailed was the one of unbelief, and so they wandered around, as you know, for 38 more years. Verse 21, but the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem, so the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem until this day. And the house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, middle of the country, and the Lord was with them. So the house of Joseph sent men to spy out Bethel. Now, the house of Joseph is whom? Two tribes, Ephraim and Manassa. The name of the city was formerly Luz. And when the spy saw a man coming out of the city, they said to him, please show us the entrance to the city and we will show you mercy. So he showed them the entrance of the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword. But they let the man and all his family go. And the man went to the land of the Hittites, built a city, and called the same Luz, which is its name to this day, the day of the writing of this book. We read these verses. They sound a little odd, because the entrance to the city, all you have to do is look at any old walled city, you would think and see a gate that goes to it, there is the entrance to the city. But they weren't looking for the main entrance. They were looking for a hidden entrance. You see, when cities were built back then, the problem was often a water supply. So when they would find a water supply, they would often quarry right through the rock from the water supply to an area within the city, build a well at that site so they could within the city walls get the water, whose spring may be outside the city walls. And then they would cover over that site. So for example, when you come with us on a tour to Israel, we'll take you to Megiddo. And you'll go to Megiddo and you'll see these civilizations, but you'll come to this place where they dug the spring out outside the city walls, and they have a rock shaft that we walk through from inside the city all the way to the outside of the city, and then we walk out. So they would dig that shaft, and then they would cover it over, the well part of it, the source of it with rocks and then bushes, so it looks like nobody knew where it was. But if you could get to that spring, you could go right into the city and take it over. That's how Jerusalem was taken by David. David said to his men, whoever climbs up the water shaft will be commander of my forces. Joab said, I'll do it. And he scurried up the water shaft, got into the city, and helped the children of Israel overtake it. So they're looking for the secret way in. The guy tells them how to get in. They conquer the city. Verse 27, however, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beit She'an and its villages. Now, Beit She'an is up north, a little bit northeast of Mount Gilboa. I keep mentioning Gilboa. Gilboa is where King Saul will die and the people will hang his body from the walls of Beit She'an. We always take people to Beit She'an, because today you can see the New Testament city, the Roman city, and then in the background, the Old Testament city, all still there. So the Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beit She'an and its villages, or Ta'anak and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Eblaim and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages, for the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land. Notice that phrase, the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land. Your flesh, your old habits is determined to dwell in that land. It doesn't go easily. It came to pass when Israel was strong that they put the Canaanites under tribute, that is, they taxed them. They had to pay a fee, but did not completely drive them out, nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites who dwell in Gezer, so the Canaanites dwelled in Gezer among them, nor did Zebulon drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol. So the Canaanites drew all among them, and were put under tribute. Nor did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Acco. I wish I could tell you about Acco. One of my favorite places to go. We never take tour groups there, though I used to hang out there when I lived in Israel. It's a old Phoenician seaport on the upper coast of Israel, but we have to move on. Or the inhabitants of Sidon, this is all the Phoenician territory in the upper coast of the land, or of Ahlab, or Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, or Rehob. I have no idea exactly where those are. I just know the general area. So the Asherites dwell among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out, nor did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh-- It's down south-- inhabitants of Beth-anath. They dwell among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath were put under tribute. Now we have a series of defeats, or a series of almost taking the land, but settling for less. So God gave them the land, but they let the Canaanites live in the land. They didn't kick them out of the land. And Joshua had told them, the Lord told them, and in the Pentateuch, and then Joshua reminded them, if you let them stay in the land, they're going to become thorns in your sides, and snares to you. Well, you say they had excuses. They have chariots of iron. We don't have chariots of iron. Wait a minute, didn't God say to Judah, I'll give you the land, just take it. Now, you can stand there and go, yeah, but they've got chariots of iron, sort of like your forefathers said, there's giants in the land. If God said take the land, take the land. He wouldn't tell you to take it unless you could have the victory for it. And by the way, by the time we get to chapter four and five, the only strong one among them is a woman named Deborah, who becomes a judge and defeats the enemy with who have 900 chariots of iron, but she knew the Lord. Oh you cowards, you guys, you won't do it. I'll do it. Takes a woman to do this, I'll do it, me and the Lord. And she let that brigade, 900 chariots of iron. By the time we get a few chapters ahead of that, or after that, there's a guy named Gideon. He has 300 men against 135,000 Midianites. He starts off with 10,000, and God says you have too many men. He said, too many men? We have 10,000 and there are 135,000. Yeah, but there's still too many men for me to deliver them into your hand, because if 10,000 men take over 135,000 people, you're going to say, boy we're really a good fighting force. But if 300 men wipe out 135,000, you'll be forced to say it was the Lord. So there's too many. So God gave the victory, though they were outnumbered. Psalm 20 says, "Some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord, our God." That's a principle in spiritual warfare. Verse 34, "Then the Amorites, and the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountains, for they would not allow them to come down into the valley. The Amorites were determined to dwell in Mount Heres in Aijalon in Shaalbim. Yet, when the hand of the house of Joseph became stronger, they were put under tribute." Now the boundary of the Amorites is from the ascent of that name from Sela and upward, Akrabbim. Dan didn't even take any of their territory. They just hid it in the mountains till later on. We get to chapter 18, and they scurry from the allotment that God gave them down south all the way up north. We'll get to that later. I won't even tell you the story. We'll get to the story, so don't worry. But look at chapter 2 verse 1. "Then the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And said." Now, notice it's not an angel of the Lord, it's the definite article "the." The-- and then is "The Angel" capitalized in your Bible? That's mean to give a commentary on it. It's because the translators are identifying the Angel of the Lord with the Lord himself. Follow me here. So the angel of the Lord says 'this, "I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers. And I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land, but you shall tear down their altars. But you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this?" Or it could be translated, look what you've done. "Therefore, I also said, I will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be thorns in your side, and their God shall be a snare to you. So what was when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept." Now, the angel of the Lord, I believe, is what theologians call a theophany, a theophany, an appearance or a Christophany, an appearance of Jesus Christ before his incarnation. Whenever we read of the Angel of the Lord in the book of Genesis, and a couple of times, even in this book, the language that the angel of the Lord uses is the language that only God himself can use. I delivered you. I am the one who did this. So here's a messenger, that's with the word angel means, a messenger of God, but the messenger of God says I'm the one who did it. I'm the one who delivered you, when the Bible says God did it. So we're forced to make an interpretation, who then is the Angel of the Lord? Well, it's the same as in Genesis chapter 18, when three visitors came to Abraham. We find out later on two of them are angels. One of them is the Lord himself, but they're in some human form. t's the same in the book of Joshua chapter 5, when Joshua sees the commander of the Lord's army. He sees a guy with a drawn sword, a man, a soldier, and says, are you on our side, or their side? And that person says, I'm not on either side. I'm the commander of the Lord's armies. You better get on my side. That was the Angel of the Lord at the burning bush. The bush spoke and it was an apparition, and it speaks of the Lord's Angel. The Angel of the Lord speaking to him there from the burning bush. So I believe it's a pre-incarnate form of Jesus in the Old Testament. It is the Lord Himself showing up. So if you wonder where Jesus is in the Old Testament, many scholars will point to this christophany or theophany, that this is one of them. But notice what the people do after the angel of the Lord says this. It says, "They lifted up their voice and wept." They got all emotional. And they call the name of that place Bochim. Weepers. And they sacrifice there to the Lord. Boy, that sounds promising, but they cried, oh they cried, oh, they had a deep emotional experience, and a wonderful worship service, but they did nothing to change their behavior. They'll leave the worship service. They'll leave their emotional experience, and they will not trust the Lord. They will not take the land. They will revert to disobedience, and the rest of the book from this point on shows how it goes from bad to worse. Now, oftentimes, when Lord deals with us, when the Lord deals with a person over an issue, it can become a very emotional thing. You know, we feel it in the core and in a person will weep and cry and go, wow, what happened? Well, the Lord touched me. Did you change? No, I'm still doing the same behavior, but boy, did I have a good cry. Sometimes you can weep away the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And you just get satisfied with having an emotional experience with no heart change, with not putting into practice the principles that change behavior. That's what the Lord is after. Later on, God will say, book of Joel, "Rend your hearts, and not your garments." You rip your-- oh, I'm having an emotional experience with God. Rip your heart, man. Get changed deep down inside. Rend your heart, not your garments. "When Joshua dismissed the people, the children of Israel when each to his own inheritance to possess the land. So the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen the great works of the Lord, which he had done for Israel. Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord died when he was 110 years old. " That's about time. "And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath-heres, in the mountains of Ephraim in the Northwest side of Mount Gaash. When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord, nor the work which he had done for Israel. " Now, remember I said this is the end of strong central leadership? It was Abraham. There was Isaac. There was Jacob and then there was Joseph that the Lord raised up. Then they went into Egypt, when the Lord raised up Moses. And after Moses, Joshua, and after Joshua, you got like 400 years of floundering, and now the author of this book, whom I believe is Samuel by the way, the prophet Samuel, gives a summary of the rest of the book. In the verses that follow in chapter 2, he gives a summary of what I call the sin cycle. Seven cycles of behavior that take us downward. It's like they served the Lord while Joshua was alive, and while those elders were alive who experienced that firsthand experience of greatness with God in the wilderness, and crossing of the Jordan. But once that generation died, the next generation didn't follow. And it's an interesting thing, revival rarely makes it into the next generation, unless those children themselves have their own personalized encounter with the Lord. You can never live off what your parents went through and saw and did. You have to have your own. Christianity is always one generation away from total extinction. We see it all the time. Children who are raised in the church, but they go to college, and you know, all they got was a couple of youth group jubilees from time to time, and great experience. But then they get into the real thinking environment, they walk away from the faith. So it's incumbent upon the older generation, as best they can to live it and pass it down to the next generation. But the sin cycle is like this, rebellion, first phase, after rebellion comes retribution. God allows them to suffer at the hand of their enemies. They become enslaved by the enemies whose gods they worship to begin with, because they were tired of the Lord. And then, there's repentance, they call out, oh, God, please forgive us, and then there's restoration. God hears them. Sends them a judge, a champion, a deliverer, delivers them, and they're back on top with God. And then it goes all through the same cycle again. Seven times outlined in this book with different judges. "So when all that generation had been gathered to the fathers and another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord, nor the work which he had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals." I'll explain that next week, who they are. "And forsook the Lord God of their fathers who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger. " "They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtaroth." Again, I'll explain who they are next time. "The anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So he delivered them into the hands of plunderers, who despoiled them, sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so they could no longer stand before their enemies." This is the second phase of that cycle, retribution. "Whenever they went out, wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity. As the Lord had said, and the Lord had sworn to them, and they were greatly distressed." After that, comes repentance and restoration. "Then the Lord raised up judges, who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. They would not listen to their judges." Again, judges, these are like guys and a gal who went on military expeditions, they were champions. "They would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way which their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord. They did not do so. And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies. All the days of the judge for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning, because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. And when it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more correctly than their fathers, by following other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way, and then the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He said, because this nation has transgressed my covenant, which I commanded their fathers, and is not heeded my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died. So that through them, I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the Lord to walk in them as their fathers kept them or not. Therefore, the Lord left those nations without driving them out immediately, nor did he deliver them into the hand of Joshua. " Last week when we gathered together-- and this is all recovering this chapter 1 and 2-- Last week we told you that originally, the map of the land that God granted to Israel was 300,000 square miles. And that at their peak under King David and Solomon they only occupied 30,000 square miles. They only took a tenth of what God really wanted for them. That's because they were promised the land and they conquered the land, but they never occupied the land. They didn't possess their possessions. So the corollary is this, we are given the Bible says Ephesians chapter 1, "Every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus in heavenly places." I am convinced there is so much more God wants us to experience than we are presently experiencing. You say, well, what's the problem? The problem often is we let the enemies, the flesh, dwell in the land. The flesh is determined. The bents, the habits, the old ways of doing things and, we make excuses for them. Oh, I'll just make a covenant with them. Look, I'm just Irish, man, I'm hot headed. That's just who I am. You don't like it, tough. Or I'm Hispanic, man, I'm a scrapper. If you start making those kind of excuses, you're simply saying, I'll let the propensities, the proclivities, the bents of my flesh live, take root, and flourish. God wants you to live not by the flesh, but in the spirit to conquer those propensities, proclivities, bents of your flesh. You and I are to be more than conquerors. And so that's why I say the Book of Judges will prove to be very contemporary, but we're out of time, more to be said, save it for next time when we cover the next couple chapters. Father, thank you for the opportunity to be able to look through the lens of Old Testament history and find how honest this report is of your people. Your covenant people, the people of God, the chosen people, who made the wrong choices. What they chose was not what you had in mind for them. And they never took all that you really wanted them to enjoy. Father, I pray that those enemies, those sins of the flesh, that we may find victory for a while, but we give into them, and they can dominate our lives, would be subdued by a powerful work of your Holy Spirit, moving in and through us your church. Thank you, Lord, that we are saved completely by grace through faith not of ourselves. We don't work for it, you accept us the way we are. But it's also true you love us too much to leave us the way we are. You want us to grow and you have so much for us. I pray we would apprehend that and occupy. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's all stand.

TRANSCRIPTION Well, it's that season of the year and this morning I like you to turn in your bibles to three different places. Get ready for the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 2. Turn there, that's where we'll begin, Matthew 2. Then put a marker in the Old Testament, prophet Jeremiah Chapter 10. So Matthew 2, Jeremiah Chapter 10 and then the Gospel of John. We're familiar with that book, Chapter 10, Matthew 2, Jeremiah 10 and John Chapter 10. Let's pray. Our Father we have entered into a month that we have come to celebrate. So many of us Lord looks forward to the Christmas season, the songs that sung. The memories that it brings but some of us have painful memories of past Christmases. We pray that You would heal those. We Pray Father that as a body, we would understand who we are in Christ, but the freedom that we have and the responsibility that we have to make Christ known even among legends and myths. We pray Lord that You would help us to be creatively using the gifts, the talents that we have individually, to do that. Give us ears to hear what Your spirit might want to say to us on this day in Jesus' name, amen. And today's study is going to be a little bit different. If you don't mind I'm going to wax a little historical, not hysterical, historical on you and then give you a little bit of background of some things that you seen that you know about but you may not know where they came from and what is our response to them. I've had you open with the Gospel of Matthew, that's where we're going to begin. But the title of this message is "Can Christmas lead you to Christ?" Which might sound like a dumb question to ask because we're thinking, "Wait a minute, Skip, His name is in the word." Of course it can, Chris, Christ, mas. It's sort of like asking, "Does Lincoln's birthday have anything at all to do with Abraham Lincoln?" However, let me ask it in another way. Can this lead you to Christ? What about this wrapping paper, could that lead a person to Christ? I know we have big trees on the stage. There's a little one for a prop Christmas tree. Do you think that could do it? Will that lead a person to Christ? What about the stuff we put on the Christmas tree like the lights that are here? Do you think that could lead a person to Christ? Now, most people started saying, "No, no, no and then fewer and fewer and fewer." and perhaps that's because you're thinking about it a little bit differently because I submit to you that perhaps, even these things can be used to draw a person's attention to Jesus Christ. Now, the first thing we have to do is get rid of a lot of the fiction that comes with this time of the year and you know there is a lot that is surrounding the Christmas story and Christmas story have been added to an embellish over the year. So I want to begin by reading to you something that someone passed along to me, some facts about Santa Claus. Number one, no known species of reindeer can fly, you knew that. But there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified and while most of them are insects and germs, that doesn't completely rule out flying reindeer. Fact number two, there are two billion children in the world. Those persons who are under 18 years of age, but since Santa doesn't appear to handle Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist children, that reduces the work load by 85%, leaving 378 million according to the Population Reference Bureau. At an average census rate, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes that there's at least one good child per house. Number three, Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with. Thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming that he travels from east to west which seems logical. This works out to 822.6 visits per second. That's to say that for each Christmas household with good children, Santa has one thousandth of second to park, hop out of the slay, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back onto the slay and move to the next house. Assuming that each one of this 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth which of course we know to be false but for purposes of our calculations, we will accept. We are not talking about 0.78 miles per household. A total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us do at least once every 31 hours, plus eating et cetera. That means that Santa's slay is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. Now, for purposes of comparison, the fastest man made vehicle on earth the Ullysses space probe moves at a pokey 27.4 miles per second. A conventional reindeer can run at tops between 25 and 30 miles per hour. Number four, the payload on the slay adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium size Lego set which is two pounds, the slay is now carrying 321,300 tons. Not counting Santa who is invariably described as over weight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds, even granting that flying reindeer could pull 10 times the normal amount. We can't do the job with eight or even nine. We now need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload, not even counting the weight of the slay to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison that is four times the weight of the HMS Queen Elizabeth. Number five, 353,000 tons travelling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance. This will heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as space crafts reentering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will then absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they will burst into flames almost instantaneously exposing the reindeer behind them and creating a deafening sonic boom in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa meanwhile will be subject to centrifugal forces of 17,500.06 times greater than gravity, which means that 250 pounds Santa will be pinned to the back of the slay by a 400,315,015 pound force. In conclusion, if Santa ever did deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's now dead, lots of fiction at Christmas so much so that a person might make this leap all of that is fiction. How do we know then that that baby in the manger isn't also fiction? There's been a campaign in the last few years by the American Atheistic Association of small but growing and very vocal group of people that are trying to relegate everything in Christmas to a myth. Get this, here's an ad that was put up in Ohio recently and you'll notice on the sign there's a picture of Neptune and Jesus and Santa Claus and Satan. And the sign reads "1.6 million Ohioans know myths when they see them. What do you see?" One of the reasons in an article that I read that the American atheist feel the need to bring this stuff up every Christmas. According to the article is Christmas is a time when atheists feel lonely. They feel like everybody's celebrating something but not us. So they're feeling a little isolated. Now, I have the solution for them, probably one that they don't want to hear. That's another sermon. But it brings up this point. This is what we want to deal with. Christmas has become so commercialized over the past 100 or 200 so years. Is it even okay for Christians to engage in it at any point, in any regard? Should we have anything at all to do with Christmas? I'll bring that up because every year we get letters or e-mails or phone calls or pastoral stab deals with this, this time of the year, every year. Why do you guys have a tree in the foyer? How come you're celebrating a pagan holiday? Now, that was bad enough. Look at our platform, we got like -- well this is our effort to make Albuquerque green. We'll just have trees up on the platform. Now, if we look back in our history we understand that this issue we're dealing with has been a long standing issue. The puritans for example in early American history did not celebrate Christmas. They thought it was so filled with paganism. It was to be shunned. That was a worldly holiday. They never celebrated Christmas. First of all because the word "Christmas, Christ-mas" has mas in it and because they felt that the mas undermines the finished work of Christ on the cross with the need to have it done all the time, it shouldn't be celebrated. Number two because it distracted Christians from keeping the Lord's Day, the first day of the week. That's what people should be keeping, they didn't celebrate it. Did you know that because of the puritans, Christmas was actually outlawed for a period of time in the east coast? For 22 years, it was illegal in Boston, Massachusetts to commemorate Christmas. If you're a business owner and you had a store, you're forbidden by law to close your store on Christmas and go home and celebrate it with your family. If you defy that and you went home, you could be prosecuted by law. That was repealed in 1681 incidentally, but it was even illegal to bake plum pudding on Christmas and the puritans instead of saying, "Happy Yuletide!" which was a common greeting. They mock people and said, "Happy Fooltide!" Because they have said it was so foolish. Now, Puritanism inculcated the culture in the east to the extent that it wasn't until 1847 that colleges and universities back east even allowed the student body or the teachers to have Christmas day off. And it wasn't until 1855 that Federal workers in America had Christmas off. So that culture has persisted. Now, let's look in a different direction. The Jehovah Witnesses is a group that will say, "You shouldn't celebrate Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving or birthdays, they're forbidden." And if you were a Jehovah Witnesses, you would be forbidden to celebrate them and some of you know that because you have relatives who are into that. Now, the reason that Jehovah Witnesses will say that will say that is, first of all because we don't know when Jesus was born and the bible never celebrates the birth of Christ. It only commemorates the death of Christ. And so, since the bible never celebrates the birth of Christ, neither should you. Of course, I think they would have a hard time convincing the angels outside of Bethlehem in Luke Chapter 2 about that. Can you imagine the angels saying, "We're so happy Jesus is born"? But you should never do this. More disturbing is an article in the Watchtower magazine put up by the Jehovah Witnesses that says, "Celebrating Christmas can cause you to lose your good standing before God." In other words, you could lose your salvation keeping Christmas because they say it encourages idolatry. They define idolatry as the worship of Jesus Christ as God. U.S.A today even had an article a few years back that said, "There's still a significant amount of people in the English speaking world that regard Christmas as pagan blasphemy." So, what are we to do? Are we to just make our mantra bah, humbug or should we take a different act? Now, this morning I'd like to do a few things with you. I would like you to look back with me, look in the past. We're going to look back at some traditions that have come our way. Number two, we want to look to the present how to answer those aged, old traditions. What do we do now? What is the solution? How do we address them? And then third, we want to look to the future and I want to challenge you to come up with your own innovations. What and how could you make this time of the year something that speaks of Christ for His glory? We turn to Matthew Chapter 2. This is actually taking place after the birth of Jesus Christ. It's the story of the wise man. Now, I've had you turn here because talk about a story that is fraught with tradition and this is it. Okay, without the biblical record how many wise man are there, quick? You said three and then say there are three. We say there are three because a song written in 1857 called "We Three Kings of Orient Are" has been sung a long time and since then people have been making Christmas cards and how many wise man did they put on there? Three and they're all riding what? Camels. Probably really what it was, it was a whole entourage of men riding Arabian steeds because they make a big splash in Jerusalem, Herod the king gets really upset that they're there. I don't think he'd get upset of three guys on camel show up, but it upsets all of Jerusalem. Well, let's look at the story. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. Wise man is the Greek word Magos, we get the term Magi. This was probably a priestly cast of Mede. They were from Medo-Persia, a 500 mile journey following an astronomical wonder saying, "Where is He who has been born King the Jews? For we have seen a star in the East and have come to worship Him." When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled. Better word, agitated, worked up and all Jerusalem with him. When he gathered all the chief priests and the scribes and the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet; 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler who will worship my people Israel." So this is a story of the wise men who came after the birth of Jesus to celebrate and to bring gifts. One person that I have it here suggested it would be considerably different if they were wise women instead of wise men and this person says -- first of all, they would have asked directions. They would have arrived on time. They would have helped deliver the baby. They would have cleaned the stable, made a casserole and brought practical gifts from Babies "R" Us like diapers, wipes, bibs and formula. Okay, whatever. This is the story. And they came after Jesus was born and they came to Bethlehem after He had already been born. When did they come after He was born? When was He born? Silence, it's because nobody knows when Jesus was born and you gave the right answer. There is no answer. When was Jesus born? Nobody knows. Most people believe He wasn't born December 25th simply because shepherds according to most sources don't keep their flocks at night in Judea after the fall of the year. Mid October to early November, that's when they stop and they bring all the flocks inside. So we don't know when Jesus was born. You can say December 25th, nobody knows. The earliest date we have in history. The very earliest guess as to when Jesus was born was from the late 2nd century AD by Clement of Alexandria who affixed the birth date of Christ as May the 20th. And that sort of ruins it for you, right? You don't think about putting up a tree and giving gifts May 20th. Other early dates besides May 20th, April 18th, April 19th and another one March the 28th. All those are the earliest dates we have on record as people guessing the birth of Christ. We don't get December 25th in history until about the 3rd century AD when a man named Hippolytus of Rome said, "Jesus was born on December 25th." Now get this, he said He was born December 25th because he said he knew the exact day when Mary was conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was conceived in the womb by the Holy Spirit and he said that was March the 25th. So he counted exactly nine months later from March 25th and came up to December 25th. As if babies are like exactly nine months, but that's another story. So Jesus, it was sad. His birth was to be celebrated December 25th. Now, there was a convenient pagan holiday going on in Rome at that time. That has a very interesting background that I want to tell you about. I told you I was going to get a little historical with you. The Babylonians years before the Romans, but it got passed down culturally to the Romans, the Babylonian culture began with the guy named Nimrod. Now you know his name. He's from Genesis Chapter 10. Raise your hand if you know who Nimrod or if you've ever heard the name. Okay. The rest of you need to read your bibles. Nimrod was the guy who founded the town of Babel which became Babylon. Nimrod it says was a mighty hunter in the earth. Nimrod according to Babylonian legend marries a woman named Semiramis whom they called the queen of heaven. Nimrod marries the queen of heaven, Semiramis. Nimrod dies according to the legend and over time Semiramis turns up pregnant quite a bit after the time of her husband's death. She says she got pregnant by a miraculous flash of light that came from heaven, a lightning bolt. The son that was born, she named Tammuz. Tammuz was born December 25th, after the winter solstice. Semiramis' story is that Tammuz is the reincarnation of her husband Nimrod. He is the sun god and ziggurats were built around Babylon, these inspiring huge places of worship for the sun god. Two festivals that celebrated this whole event, two festivals in Babylon, one was in the spring and one was in the winter. The one in the spring was called Ishtar and Ishtar celebrated Semiramis getting pregnant with that bolt of lightning. The way it was celebrated was by giving little bunnies to one another which symbolizes fertility and little eggs called Ishtar eggs. You can see the connection, right? Tammuz was celebrated December 25th after the winter solstice. The days are getting longer. He is the reincarnated sun god and incidentally, his birth was celebrated by taking a log called Yule log. That's a Babylonian term for the infant log. The log symbolized the dead stock of Nimrod. It was placed in the fire. It was consumed and the next day that was consumed on mother night, December 24 and in its place the next day was this beautiful tree which symbolizes the reincarnation of the sun god in the person of Tammuz. Now, turn back to the Old Testament, Jeremiah Chapter 10. Some of you know where I'm going with this and are you familiar with this text? Jeremiah 10, Jeremiah is denouncing the pagans around Israel including the Babylonians. "Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; do not be dismayed of the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them for the customs of the people are futile; one cuts a tree from the forest; The work of the hands of the workman with an axe cuts a tree from the forest. They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammer so that it will not topple." Now, some of you right now are going, "Uh-oh" and you're looking up at this platform that all the trees are going, "Uh-oh." Now, some people see this as the origin of the Christmas tree. Actually, it could be tied into that Babylonian festival but the tree was then cut down and crafted into an image and they put gold and silver chains. It was a little idol that they would carry around and the rest of the context makes that clear. Okay, this festival of the sun worshipped from Babylon gets passed down from culture to culture to culture. So remember I said that in Rome, there were a couple of festivals and Hippolytus said, "December 25th, Jesus was born. Let's celebrate his birthday." But there was a convenient pagan festival going on. Let me tell you about the pagan festival in Rome. During this season of the year, two festivals in ancient Rome were celebrated. One called Brumalia, one called Saturnalia. Saturnalia was first, it was December 17th through December 24th. It was the festival of the unconquered sun and on December 25th was Brumalia, the festival of the invincible sun because now the days are getting longer and the solstice has passed and they're celebrating that whole coming of light and the worship of the sun. So these two festivals coincided with the celebration by Hippolytus of Christmas. Then there's Santa Claus, he comes up every time this year. A big fat man in a red suit who lives at the North Pole and travels at the speed of -- well, almost the speed of light. It's so much more than speed of sound. He can do this thing miraculously and there's enough historical ammunition to make any of us as Christian say, "Well then bah, humbug." But again, I caution you, don't get so part in the term Santa Claustrophobic over this. Hold on just a little bit longer. We can be reactive or we can be redemptive. Okay, we've looked at the past. I want to move this into the present now. Let's look at the present. Let's ask ourselves, "What are the solutions to some of these past traditions"? Because--this is an important question, if you're the kind of a person and I would even salute you and applaud you for the heart that you have behind this. It says, "Oh, I'm not going to have anything at all to do it, any even pagan inclination or pagan naming at all." That's cool, but you're going to have a problem because if you say, "I worship on Sundays." Somebody could say, "Well, Sunday is the day the sun god was worshipped." You can't say that term anymore. Well then, I'll worship Saturday but Saturday was Saturn's day. You certainly are not going to worship on a day when Saturn was worshipped and you can't worship Monday. That's the day of the moon, moon day was worshipped. Tuesday, Tyr the north god for Mars, the god of war was worshipped. You get my point. You can't use January anymore because that's the Roman god Janus. You can't use March, that's Mars. You can't say June because that's Juno, the wife of Jupiter. July was the month when the commemoration of the deification of Julius Caesar. I could go on and on and on. So what do you do, what do you do? You have not only days and months. You have all of these traditions. I suggest to you that we do what the little bracelet that some Christians wear says we do, WWJD "What would Jesus do?" We do what Jesus would do. Now I have you turn to John Chapter 10. I want you to see what Jesus did with a popular holiday, not biblical holiday but a popular holiday that was going on at the time He was around, John 10:22. Notice how the Verse begins. "Now, it was the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem: and it was winter." It was like around this time of the year. "And Jesus walked in the temple in solemn, in Solomon's porch and the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, How long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do on my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." Okay, what feast was it? It was the Feast of Dedication. Feast of Dedication is known as Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights. Now, the Feast of Dedication is not a biblical feast. Hanukkah is not a biblical feast. It's not like pass over. It's not like Pentecost. It's not like the three mandatory feasts. The Old Testament made every Jews to celebrate in Jerusalem. But there was a celebration in Jerusalem and Jesus was at it, it was Hanukkah. Let me give you a quick little background of Hanukkah. This feast happened between the Old and the New Testament. That's when it started. There was a group up north of Syrians and there was a Syrian oppressor named Antiochus Epiphanes who hated the Jews went in, destroyed their temple in part by sacrificing a pig on the altars of the unclean Jews' gut all over the temple. Forbid the worship of Yahweh. Stop circumcision. Stop all the Jewish festivals and commanded the people to worship Zeus on that temple. That oppression continued until a group of priest called Hasmonean priest, one in particular Judas Maccabeus overturned the Syrians and rededicated the temple to the worship of God. That's where the Feast of Dedication comes from, when they did that dedication of the temple, according to -- listen carefully, legend. There was only one slag of oil. One crucible oil that could be put into the Menorah, the seven-branched candlestick in the holy place, an oil enough for one day only, but according to legend miraculously it lasted for eight days. So, today if you see in Jewish homes during this time of the year. A candlestick, it has nine branches on it called Hanukkah that symbolizes the eight days plus one candle is the lead candle to light all the rest. It's celebrating the Feast of Dedication. Here's a question. Did that really happen? Did the lengthening of the oil really happen? We don't know. It's a legend. It's a good story, but it was a tradition that was passed down. It may have happened. It may not have happened. A lot of people just think it was a tradition and never really happened. It's not a biblical feast and yet, Jesus didn't stay away from Jerusalem. It's winter time, it's Hanukkah. He's in Jerusalem and He's using this time of the year the Festival of Lights to point to himself as the light of the world. It's very significant and important. I suggest you and I do what Jesus would do with the holiday that is similar in sorts. Think of it this way, people right now in shopping centers and malls are singing the same songs you just sang moments ago in worship. It's the only time of the year they do that. They're humming, Hark the Herald Angel sing, Joy to the World. It's a really cool opportunity for you to bump up. Next time you go, "Hey, that's a great song." Let me tell you about the words. It could be used as a tool. So we do what Jesus did or what about the Christmas tree where did that come from? And why is it in church? That's a question I get. Why would you do that? Let me tell you why. The Christmas tree's origin that is far as we can tell comes from Latvia and in Germany. In the middle ages, the Latvians and the Germans will take a tree and they called it -- not a Christmas tree but a paradise tree. The only decorations that were on it were apples because it was the festival of Adam and Eve they were celebrating and the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, they would take from it and they would eat it to commemorate that. But also on the tree were little wafers of communion that symbolized the redemption of Christ to end the curse that Adam brought on the earth, that's the paradise tree. It's pretty cool huh? You know where they first put them up? Churches, the redemption that finished work of Christ taking away the curse of Adam eventually, they started being brought inside of a home. Okay, in ancient Latvian and German homes besides the paradise tree were little triangular wooden configurations with shelves on them and it was ornaments. They would take and decorate it with evergreen. They would put little figurines of the Christmas story like an activity set and a star on top. It is believed that Martin Luther was the guy who said, "Let's just combine them. Let's celebrate Christ with this tree." We are already doing it in the paradise tree and it is thought that Martin Luther was the first one to put candles on the tree, the light. Put candles on the tree bring children around it and say, "Just as these candles eradicate the darkness in this room." So Jesus Christ came to take away the darkness in our lives. He used it to preach the Gospel. I think it's a really great idea. Now, understand something. Go back to Hippolytus in Rome, 3rd century when he said, "We're going to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ as December 25th." Okay, you can stop there and get all hang up ago, but we don't know when he was born. I have a deep theological response. Who cares? I mean, don't you want to celebrate that He came to the earth to pay for our sins? And this is good of a time as any, I mean it's already happening. Why not take part in it and use it for the right way? Give me an example. Every year we celebrate the birthday of Lincoln. Did you know historically, we don't exactly know when Abraham Lincoln was born? So do we stop doing it? I don't think so. Here's a better example. Let's say you go overseas and adopt a child from a poor country and they don't have good birth records in a lot of those countries. So they're going to say, "Mister and Missis so and so, we're glad you adopted this child. They're going to take him home to America but you have to know. We don't exactly when this baby was born. So or forever, you're going to take this child home. We'll never celebrate your birthday." No, you're going to take a date and celebrate the birth of that child. Now, I had you turned only three portions of scripture. I'm going to read you a fourth portion. You don't have to turn there. If you want to mark this down, you can. This is Romans Chapter 14. Here is Paul slamming down an argument about days of worship and commemoration. This is Romans 14:4, "Who are to judge another man's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. One person's esteems one day above another, another esteems everyday alike." Here it is, "Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it." So, I simply encourage all of us to do what Jesus did with a popular non biblical holiday and capitalize on it. Also, I would say do what Santa did. I'm glad I got a couple of your attentions like, "Wait a minute where does that fit in?" We may do what Santa did. There is no Santa Claus skip. Okay, there's no fat man in a red suit who lives at the North Pole and hangs out with little guys wearing tights with pointed ears, that I grant you. However, though there may not be this kind of Santa Claus, there was a guy in the 4th century and this guy comes from that guy. His name was Nicholas, Saint Nick. Nicholas, Nicholas in the 4th century AD in the town of Myra. He was a clergy man. The bishop of Myra in the province of Lycia in the country of Anatolia, that's modern day Turkey. And Nicholas by the way was at the Counsel of Nicaea in 325 AD. He's one of the good guys who stood up for the doctrine of the Trinity against all the heretics. Nicholas had intention for compassion and every year he would load up his wagon and put toys in it, put fuel in it for the poor, put food on it for the poor and distribute it. When he died, people were so impressed with his example that on the Feast of Saint Nicholas they said, "Let's give gifts to one another." That's where it came from. Okay, so the red and the white hat. It is believed that the bishop's miter, headdress and cape which were red and white in ancient days. That's where it came from and it was added by artists later on. And also later on, it was added. Saint Nicholas in Dutchman and German, Saint Nicholas and the contraction to sinter Claus comes from Saint Nicholas, sinter Claus, hence the anglicized Santa Claus. There was actually a man named Santa Claus. So, can these things lead you to Christ? Probably in and out of themselves but boy you could sure tell a kid about Nicholas who gave gifts to the poor and loved people on the name of Christ and a tree with lights that Martin Luther once said, "Points to Jesus as the Light of the World." And the wrapping paper, you can talk about the simple wrapping of God in a human form given as a gift to this world. What a wonderful set of opportunities we have. So now I end with the third. We've looked to the past, the present real briefly. As we look the future, let me challenge you to be innovative. Come up with some ideas to bring Christ into your home and into the community at this season. Let me throw out a few ideas. Number one, you could put ornament on your tree that marks spiritual milestones. Some of you have told me recently after an altrical. "My nephew went forward today or my father went forward or my daughter went forward." Why don't you make an ornament that has his or her picture with the date they were saved, commemorate that. Put that on your tree or a baby dedication or some spiritual milestone. Here's a second thing you could do and some of you are already doing it, adopt a needy person. Nicholas did. You do that with OCC, Operation Christmas Child. Some of you do with Caring Tree, visiting the detention centers. A third thing you could do, this is a tradition from my family now. It was my wife's idea. I cannot take part for any of this. On Christmas Eve, we usually want to teach Nathan how Jesus changes us and we took a little brown paper bag. The narrower the bag, the better because it represents the old year, the old life and you write on the outside of the bag something you want God to change in your life. Some sin you're confessing. You write that on the bag and you put it out. The next morning my wife had three bags, new one set out in place of the old brown ones with goodies inside and sweets inside to show that God changes us and it's so sweet when he does. And the first thing they did Christmas morning was not go to the tree but find the bag. ourth thing you could do. You could find a neighborhood and drive through it slowly praying for each house on that block, maybe your neighborhood, maybe a poor neighborhood, maybe a richer neighborhood. I just warn you, when you go through neighborhoods really slow be careful. Keep going because it looks like you're casing a joint, right? Drive by praying, a pray for the houses in the neighborhood. I want to show you what one group did in Enid Oklahoma to take what goes on during this time of the year in the form of Christmas trees and use it to share the Gospels. It's very creative and innovative. I draw your attention to this screen. (Video Playing 00:41:01 - 00:41:57) Male: Today, you guys have took that step out of the queue and you guys are out now and this is a chance for you guys to really go out and show these people the love of Christ. That's why we're out here, the tree is the way to get us in into the houses but the real thing that they need to see is the thing that's living inside of you and that's what they really need. You're going to see a lot of brokenness. You're going to see a lot of houses that are really shattered, a lot of clutter. It's going to be hard to probably even get in some houses, but the people are really excited to meet you. They were just blown away knowing that someone was going to come out give them a Christmas tree for Christmas. And all these people that you're going to, they will not have a tree this Christmas if it wasn't for you all. Pastor Skip Heitzig: Let's all stand. Here is the bottom line. Do you want to be known for what you are against or do you want to be known for what you are for? There's a lot of people who are known for what they're, "I'm against that. I'm against that." Nobody wants to hang-out with anybody like that. When you're known for what you are for, I'm for Jesus and I want to make Jesus known to you and tell you the rest of the story. It could be a very compelling thing. So that's our challenge this month. To see what ways the Lord would inspire us to reach out in His name, with His love for His glory. The very message of Christmas is the message of salvation.

1195s SPIRITUAL GIFTS-PART ONE DR. ROGER BARRIER 1 CORINTHIANS 12:1-11 As we look back over the distance we have come on our royal route to heaven, we see some of the pitfalls from which we have been delivered. Then we look at what lies ahead, and ask ourselves whether or not we really have the equipment that will see us through to the end of the road. I WOULD NOT HAVE YOU IGNORANT ABOUT SPIRITUAL GIFTS (12:1) READ I CORINTHIANS 12:1 The church at Corinth seemed to be plagued with about every problem known to any church. The question of spiritual gifts was no exception. This chapter is important because there are many in our day who seem to be as confused as the Corinthians were in regard to the gifts of the Spirit. Paul said, "I don't want you to be ignorant I don't want you to be agnostics. I want you to understand this subject." Why? 1. The church can't mature or function without the operation of spiritual gifts. (1) Strengthen the local church fellowship (1 Cor 12:25-26) (2) Extend the church's witness and ministry (1 Cor 14:20-25; Eph 4) 2. In addition, Satan is counterfeiting it- to confuse, cause chaos, and split the church. In addition, Satan has people afraid of gifts. One lady this week called totell me of her prayers because she was so afraid of this subject. Another related that she couldn't come to church and hear the sermons because she was so nervous about all this subject. 3. And Christians today are fighting over the gifts. Instead of unifying the Body, they were splitting the Body. SPIRITUAL COUNTERFIETS ABOUND: TRUE BELEIVERS ARE SPIRIT INDWELT AND PROVE IT BY THEIR LIFESTYLES (12:2-3) READ 1 CORINTHIANS 12:2-3. Let me tell you what was happening in their worship service. Verse 2 : Recently saved out of the pagan Greek mystery religions. Modeled their worship accordingly. This is perhaps how the scene would look: Everyone would be doing something at the same time - someone singing, someone speaking ecstatic speech, someone giving a prophecy, someone shouting out a word of wisdom, and someone in the middle of it all shouting "Jesus is anathema." Verse 3: The Tests The negative (v. 3a): "No man speaking buy the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed." They had heard the term "Jesus be cursed" before. 1. Jesus was cursed in the synagogue: "Cursed be anyone who hangs on a tree." 2. Christian proselytes to Judaism were required to curse Jesus. 3. Roman persecution required obedience to the emperor: "Caesar is Lord." Christians were already beginning to have difficulty with that. Now, in that hysterical atmosphere anything might happen and might be claimed to be the work of the Spirit. Paul lays it down that no man can say a word against Christ and attribute that word to the influence of the Spirit. The positive (v 3b): "And that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit." Here is the Christian battle cry, "Jesus is Lord." In so far as the early church had a creed at all, that simple phrase was its creed. When a man could say "Jesus is Lord" it means that he gave to Jesus the supreme loyalty of his life and the supreme worship of his heart. The man who speaks by the Spirit will put the Lord Jesus in His rightful place, on the throne. I can speak the words, "Jesus is Lord," and so can you. Anybody can say it, because no one can check our vocabulary. But no man can say with authority and absolute certainty that Jesus Christis Lord, and back it up by the evidence of his life, but by the Holy Spirit. The true believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit will never speak disrespectfully or disparagingly of Christ. Speaking of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus said, "He shall glorify Me" (John 16:14). This provides a clear-cut test for faith. Does one truly believe in Christ? If he does, his life will prove it. The indwelling Spirit will glorify Christ in a holy life. It is blasphemy for one to say he believes whole continuing on in a life of sin. A well-known Scottish university professor was once asked to give a religious address at a fashionable and select club in the west end of London. This is how he began: "Gentlemen, the entrance fee into the kingdom of Heaven is nothing ; the yearly subscription is everything ." The test of anyone's gift or of the use of that gift is an accurate doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit always leads men to ascribe deity, lordship, and all-sufficiency to Christ. The Thrust of verses 4-11 is unity UNITY DOESN'T MEAN UNIFORMITY; THEREFORE THE CHURCH HAS DIFFERING GIFTS AND FUNCTIONS (12:4-6) READ 1 CORINTHIANS 12:4-5 Unity in the Trinity. Holy Spirit gives the gifts, Jesus assigns the place of service, God the father turns on the power. In the midst of all the diversity, there is unity - different gifts, services or workings, but the same God in all. GOD NEVER DESIGNED US ALL TO BE ALIKE! DESCRIBE CASAS WIDE UMBRELLA UNFORTUNATELY MANY CHRISTIANS ACT JUST LIKE CHILDREN. THEY ARE FIGHTING OVER THE PRESENTS. STORY OF CHILDREN FIGHTING at Christmas over the presents Some Christians are arguing over who has what gift. No one has all the gifts. Because you have one of them, you are not entitled to become a spiritual aristocrat because somebody else does not have your gift. Don't demand that, in order for another person to be spirutual, he must heal, or he must speak in an unknown tongue. Be careful when you criticize those who may not have your gift - he has his own. God gives to each of His children one or more, not that we may have spiritual pride, but for the benefit of others. Some Christians want to take the presents away so no one can have them. THE BRIDE It is no surprise to me that there is a fight in America over Spiritual gifts. A quick survey of the major times of spiritual renewal in church history indicates that with each of these great movements there was a proliferation of small groups, and a high degree of participation of lay individuals utilizing their basic talents, abilities, or gifts. By recognizing and using our gifts we may see a great spiritual renewal in our day. THE STUDY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS CAN BE CONTROVERSIAL. Two Extremes Should Be Avoided . 1. Neglect of the whole subject because of problems and disagreements. 2. Overemphasis on spiritual gifts as a cure-all for the church. Four Problems To Recognize. 1. Disagreement - there's disagreement as to the definitions of the gifts and even the existence of certain gifts. 2. Neglect and Ignorance-(Dr. Lott used to read this passage and skip over tongues. 3. Confusion between supernatural and natural - there's confusion concerning the relationship between spiritual gifts and natural abilities. 4. Abuse of gifts - certain spiritual gifts are emphasized by some as signs of a necessary work of the Holy Spirit. This emphasis at best causes spiritual pride and at worst can be divisive. Six Principles To Remember 1. Disagreements usually indicate the lack of conclusive Biblical evidence upon which to resolve the question. Hence be tolerant and allow others their views without dogmatically insisting upon your particular view. 2. Go slowly. Model the gifts. (Four intercessor groups provide natural check and balance) (electrical balance, sin among the leaders. Indeed all the help I can get.) 3. Don't worry about distinction between gifts and natural abilities. God will clarify the distinctions if it will make your ministry more effective. 4. Beware of stressing one gift above another 5. Encourage the exercise of gifts. I want you to know your gift and to use it well. 6. Trust the Holy Spirit to give whatever clarity is needed concerning gifts in order to make our church more functional as a New Testament church and bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. We are each different in temperament, personality, race,. culture and social background. What a very precious thing it makes of Christian fellowship when we recognize that whatever we contribute to the service of the King of kings, we must all get from the same source! We are not alone on the road; there are many other travelers - in fact, all who have been washed in His precious blood, and all who are sharing the gift of life in Jesus Christ. SPIRITUAL GIFTS ARE FOR THE COMMON GOOD. VICTORY COMES IN A GROUP AND NOT IN ISOLATION (12:7). READ 1 CORINTHIANS 12:7. Unity of purpose - Purpose of spiritual gifts is to edify the church. "The common good" (see 12:25). They are to edify the church - for body ministry - not self-edification. Observe closely that victory if in the group and not in isolation. One of the most damaging things done today is to grieve the Holy Spirit and divide the body. For victory, the body must work together in harmony and fellowship and love, under the Authority of the Holy Spirit. I need your gift to see me through and you need mine: all of us need each of us, for we have mutual dependence as a body. God forbid that any of us should do one thing, or say one thing, that would harm the Lord's body, the church, by ruining another's gift or destroying the fellowship. By the way this speaks forever to the person who wants to go out on the hillside all alone and worship God all by himself as the basis for his religion. THE NINE SPIRITUAL GIFTS ARE REPRESENTATIVE (12:8-10). READ 1 CORINTHIANS 12:8-10.  There is a diversity of existing gifts. Paul just lists a cross-section here. These are not all the gifts. At least three different lists in the Bible. 1. Here 2. 1 Corinthians 12:28-30 3. Romans 12:4-8 I cannot help bring impressed by the significance of the order in which Paul lists some of these gifts of the Spirit. The one that comes first is wisdom, and the last is the gift of tongues. Spiritual gifts have a spiritual dimension. They are not easily explained in human terms. If they can be easily explained in human terms, there is not much spiritual about them. Are spiritual gifts for today? THE HOLY SPIRIT DISTRIBUTES GIFTS FOR THE GOOD OF THE CHURCH AS HE SEES FIT (12:11). EVERYBODY GETS A GIFT. READ REVELATION 12:11. What a precious thing is Christian fellowship in the body of Christ! If you are walking today in the company of God's people, you find strength and comfort from gifts they have that you do not possess. The secret of reality is a blessed submission all along the road to the authority of the Holy Spirit, who will give you all you need to be a blessing to others. 10% do all of work. Say at CABC, 25% do all work. Most of us don't notice. But how many would notice if your 8-cylinder car ran on only 2! CASAS PEOPLE USING THEIR GIFTS Two people dying. Jerry DeLeeu Jim Conrad We have absolutely nothing for the road except we receive it from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, we are saved by grace, and by grace alone, and we are kept and equipped for the rest of the journey by grace alone. It is not man's natural gifts that God uses, but the gifts of the Spirit which He imparts. SALVATION IS BY GRACE AS WELL.

SERMON SERIES: PARABLES Pastor Chris Brown Message #10: Lessons From A Foolish Father North Coast Church Luke 15:11-32 October 8-9, 2016 Lessons From A Foolish Father The Story: Luke 15:11-32 Four Family Truths:
God loves us enough to let us leave . Luke 15:11-13 Romans 1:21-32 Mark 10:21-22 Judges 16:20 Psalm 81:11-12, Proverbs 1:22-33 Matthew 23:37-39 Acts 7:39-43  Turning to God is the only option that makes sense . Luke 15:17 Proverbs 12:5 2 Timothy 1:7 Colossians 2:2-4  The road back home starts with an attitude change. Luke 15:12 & 19 2 Chronicles 30:6-9 James 4:7-10 Mark 14:36 Romans 12:1-2 The core of rebellion = “give me” The core of brokenness = “make me”  Unconditional love has to be accepted , not earned . Luke 15:22-29 Luke 10:38-42 Ephesians 2:8-9 John 3:16 John 4:10 Titus 3:3-7 The Moral Of The Story: We have a God that would rather rescue than punish. For a free audio or video copy of this message go to northcoastchurch.com facebook.com/NorthCoastChurchVista • Twitter: @northcoasttalk Growth Group Homework For the week of October 9, 2016 QUICK REVIEW Looking back at your notes from this week’s teaching, was there anything that particularly caught your attention, challenged or confused you? MY STORY 1. Our siblings and childhood friends have often been present during some of our most memorable times. What’s a great memory you share with your siblings or childhood friends? 2. Chris mentioned turning to God is the only option that makes sense. As much as this is true, we often turn to other things when we should be turning to God. What are some things people are tempted to turn to when stressed or going through a trial? Can you think of any things you default to when running from God? DIGGING DEEPER 1. While it’s OK to present our desires to God, we also need to be aware of the possibility of only having a self-seeking type of relationship where we only seek God when we need something. In the Bible, the book of Psalms gives examples of prayers and praises that offer us a different perspective of what prayers can look like. How could the following verses help move us away from only praying “God give me” prayers? Psalm 51:10-12 New International Version (NIV) 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Psalm 26:2-3 New International Version (NIV) 2 Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; 3 for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness. Psalm 25:4-6 New International Version (NIV) 4 Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. 5 Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. 6 Remember, LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. What could be some people’s hesitations or fears of putting the kind of prayers we see in these verses into practice? Can you think of any ways they might benefit you? If so, explain. 2. This weekend we were introduced to two brothers with completely different issues. While it’s easy to point out the fault of the one brother who walked away, it can be easy to overlook the brother who held tightly to the rules but in hopes of personal gain. Jesus wanted to make the point that getting lost in our work and service to God can be just as damaging as getting lost in the world. Read the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38- 42 and answer the following questions. Luke 10:38-42 New International Version (NIV) At the Home of Martha and Mary 38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” If Mary and Martha were seeking your help to work out this problem, how would you explain each of their positions in your own words? Can you think of any ways serving God can become a distraction from “choosing what is better?” If so, explain. Which one of the actions in 1 Peter 4:7-11 would be most helpful to you in remembering how to serve God without getting lost in what you’re doing? 1 Peter 4:7-11 New International Version (NIV) 7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. 3. The irony in this week’s parable was that both sons were searching for the unconditional love that their father had already given them from the beginning. How do the following passages help us gain further understanding of the same love that has also been given to us? Romans 8:35-39 New International Version (NIV) 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 3:16-19 New International Version (NIV) 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 1 John 4:9-11 New International Version (NIV) 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Which of the above verses is most meaningful to you and why? TAKING IT HOME Are there any “God make me” prayers you’d like to incorporate more frequently into your prayer life? Prayer Requests:


REAL MAN WEEKEND – “The Palomar Experience”- Oct. 28-30 Lookin’ for some crazy guy stuff to do? Want to kick back or get refocused on God? Join us for another epic man’s weekend that will get you recharged and refreshed as a man following God. The weekend will also include plenty of man event options like paintball, high ropes course, skeet shooting, archery, zipline, horseback riding, etc. Space is limited so don’t delay! Register online at: northcoastchurch.com/real-man-weekend .

I really believe prayer works.  I have here some of my prayer notebooks from 1982, the year Bronwyn was born. DID YOU EVER NOTICE THAT JESUS PRAYED A LOT. He prayed early in the morning.      Mark 1:35: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the   house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” Jesus sometimes prayed all night      Luke 6:12: “Jesus went out into the hills to pray, and the spent the night praying.” Jesus prayed before every great crisis of life.      He prayed before choosing the 12; before the sermon on the mount; before, before death on the Cross! Jesus prayed after every great victory of life.      After he fed the 5000, they wanted to make Him a King. Matthew 14:23: “After he had dismissed them, he went up into the hills by himself to pray.” Jesus prayed when life was unusually busy.      Luke 5:15-16: The news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people    came . . .  But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”      Sometimes He had no time to eat (Mark 3:20) - sometimes He had no time for        rest or sleep (Mark 6:31,33,46), but He always took time to pray.      We would do well to learn this secret from Christ and when life is more busy than     usual we set aside an unusual amount of time for prayer. WHY DID HE PRAY SO MUCH?  WHY BOTHER TO PRAY? Three simple reasons. 1. Prayer allows us to know the heart and mind of God. 2. Our prayers interact with God’s will to bring changes on earth. 3. Prayer is where the action is. 1. PRAYER ALLOWS US TO KNOW THE HEART AND MIND OF GOD.      Emphasis on the word, “know,” has to be an intimate relationship. George MacDonald: “It is not what God can give us, it is God we want.” PSALM 105:4: “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.” Gaze at God’s face; glance at his hand. God   | gaze   | me---glance---Hand It is possible to get our gaze and glance mixed up. Whenever we spend more time looking at God’s hand for what He will give us than looking at His face to know Him, we set up circumstances which can cause us to stumble. Illustrate with financial need.  Brother comes to you in need of house payment.  Can you loan me the $1,000?  You have noticed your brother’s poor stewardship.  He had the $1,000 he just spent it on all sorts of luxuries and toys.  Easy to be the answer to his prayers.  But, Maybe God has something else in mind.  Perhaps God is forcing his to learn to handle money well.  Short circuit God’s processing if we just provide the money. Maybe God is testing faith and He is going to provide it some other way.  Must look at God’s face and see what He has in mind. Man’s definition of prayer is to get his needs met. The Bible’s definition of prayer is that we may know Him. When we gaze at our requests they will dominate our prayers - we tell God what needs to be done and that is dangerous. We can always tell when our gaze and glance our reversed. We get upset when things and circumstances are not what we wanted. My humanity says, “God heal my body, fix these circumstances, turn around this tragedy.” But God says: 2 CORINTHIANS 4:16-18:  “Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary afflictions are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For that is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” We must develop an eternal perspective so that we never allow earthly discomfort and problems to destroy our view of God. See Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He also needed to see life from God’s perspective! READ LUKE: 22:42: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet, not my will, but yours be done.” Let me Illustrate.  Several years ago one of the young mothers in our congregation was stricken with a brain aneurism on a Friday afternoon.  I went to see her in the hospital. God told me she would be healed and would live to raise her children. I prayed for her and her tumor disappeared. Tell Ruth Ann Prather Story 1. PRAYER ALLOWS US TO KNOW THE HEART AND MIND OF GOD. 2. OUR PRAYERS INTERACT WITH GOD’S WILL TO BRING CHANGES ON EARTH. Prayer is like mixing a recipe in cooking.  Our prayers mix will God’s sovereignty to effect changes on earth. God has brought us into full partnership with Him.  Let me show you some verses. LUKE 12:32: “Fear not, little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” 1 CORINTHIANS 6:2-3:  “Do you not know that saints will judge the world?  And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?  Do you not know that we will judge angels?  How much more the things of this life.” MATTHEW 16:19: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” God makes His decisions in heaven - but the responsibility for implementing those decisions He has left to His church on Earth, Notice our sphere of influence. “On Earth” “On Earth”. Like safe deposit box at bank. Bank has key and you have a key. Neither alone will open the box. But insert bank’s key and insert your key and box opens. God has a plan and a will for all sorts of things to happen on earth.  But the Bible teaches that much of his will only occurs when we pray.  God’s will + our prayers are both needed to make things happen on earth. Let me illustrate: King Hezekiah received letter that Sennacherib the Assyrian is going to besiege Jerusalem and destroy the city and all the inhabitants.  Hezekiah went to the temple and spread the letter before God on the altar and prayed for God to deliver them. ISAIAH 37:14-21: “Because you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, I will deliver you.” That night 185,000 Assyrians died in a plague.  Remember when Abraham was pleading with God for the salvation of Sodom:  “If we find 50 righteous men, 45, 40, 10.  “All right, I will do it for ten.” God begs us to pray: MATTHEW 7:7: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Why does God have a system like this? Is God dependent on us to act? He is almighty! He is ultimate Judge and Jury and Executioner! Why does God wait for our prayers? Because our Christian life on Earth is “On the Job training” for Eternity. God will never do over the head of his Christians on Earth. He will not sabotage His training program. Only by exercising our full weight and responsibility can God bring us to the full stature of maturity of one day being co-sovereign of the universe! If we do not pray then God will not act! He will not take things out of the church’s hands! He will let the whole world go to destruction first! We can change the course of world history - By prayer. Keep our loved ones safe - change personalities - By prayer.  Our children and loved ones and friends need our prayers! And many of us are too busy. Somehow our priorities are mixed up. Watching TV - following sports - hunting - fishing - swimming - boating - moonlighting... We’re so busy with iphones, technology, new cars and new homes, new appliances, new furniture - that we don’t have time to pray. We are not only cheating God, and the world, but ourselves, and our families by our failure to pray.  Pray, because you care about the lives of the people around you. 2. OUR PRAYERS INTERACT WITH GOD WILLTO BRING CHANGES ON EARTH. 3. PRAYER IS WHERE THE ACTION IS. Exodus 17 - Israel and Amalek - war in valley. Action was on hilltop with Moses, Aaron, and Hur. Exodus 17:8-13: “Aaron and Hur held his hands up. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.” I think prayer sometimes suffers from a poor image.  We tend to think of it as something for the weak and more delicate saints to engage in while those-who-get-the-job-done are up and doing. Let me illustrate.  I remember an episode of the Lone Ranger when I was a child. The Lone Ranger and Tonto were outside a little Spanish mission talking to a monk with a bowl haircut, wearing a coarse brown robe, with a length of rope. His hands are clasped prayerfully together; he appears meek and fragile, unworldly, unsophisticated and undernourished (from fasting) He stands there gazing up at the Lone Ranger and Tonto, their steeds straining at their reins, flared nostrils snorting, legs dancing amid exploding clouds of dust. The Lone Ranger and Tonto have drawn their guns and their faces are fixed in determination. The monk says something about going with them. "You are a brave man, Father," the masked man says. "But it may be dangerous. You had better stay here where it is safe." "But I want to help." says the monk. The strong yet kind eyes of the masked man fasten on the eyes of the monk: "You can pray." Suddenly the great white horse rears up on its hind legs, and with a wave of his hat and a hearty "Heigh Ho Silver - Awaaaay!" the Lone Ranger and his faithful companion gallop off to the danger that awaits them. The camera does not follow the priest into the mission to watch him pray. It chases after the Lone Ranger and Tonto. That's where the action is. But the God says there is something powerful going on inside the mission in prayer. Prayer is not a substitute for work, nor is it merely preparation for work. Prayer is work. It is hard work. Did you see the recent article, PATIENTS HELPED BY PRAYER IN STUDY? Growing bodies of scientific evidence that people who are prayed for recover faster than those who are not prayed for.  More than 130 blind studies of people organized to pray by name for patients.  Those who receive prayer experience shorted hospital stays and faster recoveries than those who aren’t. Let me tell you about RALPH REED Wycliffe Translator at the Catalina center. Anaphylactic shock when bitten by insect.  Coma.  We all prayed.  Now over a week.  Basically no brain waves.  It didn’t look good.  Called for elders to pray on the basis of James 5. Prayed.  Saw no reason for God to take him.  Translation not finished.  My age.  Not time to die.  Prayed for God to heal him.  Sensed that was His will. We enter the room in intensive care.  Anointed with oil the comatose man.  Nurses came in and out.  Very encouraging. Three hours later he was sitting up in bed talking.  I am not surprised any more. Prayer is where the action is.

There are three test areas to evaluate if we’re personally doing church right – are we growing in knowledge, love, and service? How do the following verses reinforce the importance of each and their relationship to one another? Psalm 119:10, 13-16 10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. 13 With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. 14 I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. 15 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. 16 I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. [NIV] 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. [NIV] Matthew 25:31-32, 37-46 The Sheep and the Goats 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” [NIV] Is there one you would typically tend to think is more important than the other? Could there be any danger in thinking this? Is there one you would say you’ve grown in understanding or applying more than the other in recent years? Our understanding of the “part we play” and our personal area of ministry can be confusing at times. Our calling to serve God shows up in two areas where we have a responsibility to do our part for God’s Kingdom. The first is in our daily life (how we live and interact with those around us) and the second is in support and service to God’s people and his kingdom. How do the following verses speak to your own vision and focus for your daily life ministry opportunities? Micah 6:8 Matthew 22:37-40 Colossians 3:13-14 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. [NIV] 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” [NIV] 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. [NIV] Colossians 4:5-6 How might this view of our ministry and service for God take the pressure off when it comes to ministry? How might it put the pressure on? One of the keys to finding the specific “part to play” that God has designed for us is to simply start serving and see where we’re effective and what we gain energy from. What do the following verses tell us about the importance of every single ministry role? 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 1 Corinthians 12:21-26 Have you ever found yourself seeking a role that didn’t fit you? What happened? At what point can thinking a role doesn’t fit become a cop-out for an unwillingness to serve? Can you think of anything in your life that could help you or has helped you to learn humility? 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. [NIV] 4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. [NIV] Unity and Diversity in the Body 12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. [NIV] 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. [NIV]

Hebrews 12:1-3 S-1685 The book of Hebrews was written to some Christians who were suffering for their faith. They had not yet shed blood—but it was getting close. Don’t know who wrote the book. SLIDE #: KJV: The letter of Paul to the Hebrews… written by Timothy to the saints in Rome SLIDE #: Living Bible: “Love Paul” Comes to book of Hebrews, just says, “Good-Bye” Many think it was written by a woman named Priscilla of Aquila and Priscilla fame in the Book of Acts. She and her husband were both powerful preachers of the gospel. Intellectual, sharp as tacks. SLIDE #: If so, it is the one Bible book written by a woman. We do know this, whoever wrote the book, certainly loved Jesus. It is perhaps the most lovely lyric portrayal of beauty of Jesus Christ to be found anywhere in the Bible. SLIDE #: HEBREWS 12:1: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. SLIDE #: HEBREWS 12:2: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Here we find one of the great moving passages of the New Testament. In it the writer of Hebrews has given us a well nigh a perfect picture of the Christian life. SLIDE #: The Christian life is a race and every one of us can finish well! Many people feel that the Christian life is running a race to get to Heaven and many feel that they will eventually run out of wind and will end up in Hell. Once heard an earnest but poorly-instructed preacher who addressed his congregation as follows: “I am preaching today on a text of only four words, taken from 1 Corinthians 9:26. The text is, ‘I therefore so run.’ Three points to my sermon: (1) You’ve got to run to get the Heaven. (2) You’ve got to run awful fast to get to Heaven. (3) You’ve got to keep on running so you won’t end up in Hell.” But, we run because we are saved – not to obtain salvation! SLIDE #: Some of you have never trusted Jesus. Know the facts of the Gospel, but have never committed your lives to Jesus Christ. He’s imploring you to surrender to Jesus and get in the race. You must be born again by a personal relationship with Jesus Christ to get in the race. The Christian is not competing against other Christians! We’re competing against Satan and against everything that he throws up in our faces to hinder our running. SLIDE #: “Let us throw off everything that hinders.” “weight” = “okou” = a flat blob or bulk. Makes sense. When a guy comes to a race you don’t expect him to take off his sweat suit and then find a big pot belly hanging over his shorts. No, every racer must train to keep the weight off. Notice that a weight is not necessarily a sin. Many things and pleasures which of themselves are quite all right may become weights and sins if they hinder our Christian growth. Here is the test: Does it help or does it hinder you in running your Christian race? Do you run more swiftly after the party than you did before? Whatever helps, cling to it. Whatever hurt, throw it away. Years ago in the hills of Tennessee, a man killed a great American Bald Eagle with a small charge of bird shot. Was astounded as to why this king of the air had allowed him to get close enough to kill him with a charge of bird shot! The bird was enormous – 8 feet from tip to tip. But as he looked closer he found that an old steel trap clung to one of his legs. The trap didn’t kill the eagle; didn’t even break his leg. But it held him so close to the ground that it indirectly proved to be the death of him. What a parable that is for us! What a spread of wings some of us have – how we might soar! How grandly we might win the race! But we are weighted down. We remain so very close to the filth of the earth and thus an easy prey for Satan. SLIDE #: Notice that we must also beware of the “sin that so easily entangles us!” “Entangles” = “surround”. Here’s the guy who runs the race with the Harris Tweed coat on! Now, this could perhaps refer to any sin. But he’s probably talking about something specific. If you’re trying to run the race of faith, what’s the biggest hindrance? That’s right – unbelief! So you get some fat man who’s all weighted down and put on him the overcoat of unbelief and he’ll collapse in the middle of the track. That’s why we Christians must also be hurdlers. Must continually keep jumping over all of the Christians who are lying exhausted in the sweat of legalism and sin and unbelief. SLIDE #: The race mentioned here is not your morning walk, it’s not an evening saunter; it’s not a mid-day stroll. It’s a race – says so right here in the Bible.  It’s not a sprint. It’s an endurance race. “Run with patience” – “steadfast endurance” – takes a lifetime of running with Jesus. SLIDE #: SINCE OTHERS HAVE RUN WELL, WE CAN, TOO! “So great a cloud of witnesses” – It’s the testimony of all the great saints mentioned in Hebrews 11. We have before us the testimony of these great saints that the life of faith really works. Often hear this pictures as a great stadium and all the saints peer down over the edge to see how we’re doing. See Moses and Abraham and Abel and Paul all hanging halfway out of the ramparts of Heaven to check on us. But for me, that would be more frustration than motivation just to know that they’re watching – frankly, I think that they’re more involved with Jesus Christ than with worrying about us. Picture of verse 1 is not them looking at us in a stadium; rather, it’s us looking at them as in a testimonial that the life of faith really wins. They’ve left us a history of victory. Now that really motivates me. To hear Enoch say, “God’s company is better than that of sinners.” To hear Abraham reveal, “I’d rather walk with God in the dark than walk alone in the light.” Moses would say, “I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold.” We look at those guys and see that they’ve faced things that we’ve never faced. I’ve never been in a lion’s den. Never had lions licking their hungry chops at me. Don’t know how long my faith would last before I’d be climbing the walls. I’ve never been in a furnace and heard a king holler to heat it up to seven times its normal heat. Never been in a crisis position where I was tied to the stake and ready to be burned. Nobody’s ever threatened to chop my head off with a sword – at least Julie’s never really meant it. I’ve never been through cruel mockings and scourgings. I’ve never been in prison for the cause of Christ. I’ve not come close to what those guys have been through. I haven’t shed a drop of blood for the cause of Christ. “We’ve lived the life of faith and it worked for us – we were victorious – you can be, too.” SLIDE #: looking at jesus inspires us to run well (Hebrews 12:2). READ HEBREWS 12:2 You say, “Well, I didn’t think that you had to keep your eyes on anything in running.” Try running full speed ahead and looking at your feet. Story of John Albright – tackle in football – runs mile with head down – hit tennis net support pole and dropped on the spot. We are not to undertake the Christian race looking at hypocrites in the church, or at some faulty church member! If we look for a pattern among men we’ll fail. You may get drunk like Noah or lie like Abraham or deceive people like Jacob or lose your tempter like Moses. SLIDE #: We must learn to spend our lives looking deeply into the eyes of Jesus. READ HEBREWS 12:2 Ever stop to realize what Jesus Christ gave up to save us. See how high up He was. Ever think how low He stooped to come to earth, humiliated to save us. SLIDE #: Philippians 2:6-8: Who, being in very nature God,  did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, Angels to wait on Him and care for Him – humbled Himself to become a man. taking the very nature of a servant,  being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man,  he humbled himself  Made Himself of no reputation – King born in a stable. A slave, a servant. See Jesus Christ. Emptied Himself of his heavenly glory to become one of us. Got hot, tired, thirsty, hungry – agony. See Him with woman at well – Noon – disciples gone. Samaritan woman comes. “Give me a drink. I’m thirsty”. Son of God. He who made the water in the well – has to ask a women he created for a drink. Sits sweating at mercy under hot sun He made, draining His strength. “Give me a drink.” and became obedient to death-  even death on a cross! SLIDE #: Ladder going down See Jesus Christ – despising the shame – ignore it! Many men would rather die than be shamed in front of their fellow men.  Nothing can so break the human spirit as to be continually put to shame. Men hate to be ashamed. Prayer: Asleep, “Lord, please bless her legs.” Bless the women who have pinched their tits. Abimelech wasn’t ashamed to murder his brothers! Philistine king. Woman dropped millstone on his head. Committed suicide rather than be killed by a woman. “Never let it be said that the great king of the Philistines was put to death at the hand of a woman.” Saul wasn’t ashamed to try to murder his own son-in-law – but after mortally wounded in battle had servant kill him rather than suffer the shame of being killed by the enemy. Nothing can so break human spirit as to be continually put to shame. Look at Jesus Christ. He despised it, ignored it, endured it. SLIDE #: SHAMEFUL REJECTION John 1:10-12 – “He came to His own and His own received Him not.” Came to his hometown – They kicked him out. Tried to push Him off a cliff and kill Him. The shame and embarrassment. SLIDE #: SHAMEFUL ACCUSATION Brought before Annas and Caiaphas – charge – blasphemy. Blasphemy! Charged to One who never sinned – Charged with blasphemy against God. Remember that He said, “My meat is to do the will of Him who sent Me!” Charged with taking God’s name in vain. Charge some here with blaspheming God and would startle no one. Some have done it. But to charge one who loved like Jesus Christ loved, obeyed as He obeyed, charge Him with blasphemy – must have caused him peculiar suffering. SHAMEFUL MOCKING SLIDE #: MOCKED HIS DEITY Before Herod. Spit on Him and blindfolded Him. Poked God’s Son with sticks. “Prophesy who hit you.” “Do tricks”, says Herod. “Prove you’re the Son of God and I’ll let you go free.” Mocked Him, laughed at Him. SLIDE #: MOCKED HIS KINGSHIP Shameful mockery before Pilate. Scourged. Pilate – “Are you a king?” Here stands King of all creation. Humbled Himself. You and I get mad. Have temper. Not Jesus Christ – Who for joy set before Him, endured cross, despised shame. Had goal in mind. Joy before Him. SLIDE #: MOCKED HIS PRAYERS Never read in the annals of execution that anyone would mock the prayers of a dying man. Read of villains about to die: “Give me a moment or two to pray.” Rare case when prayers disallowed. Look at Jesus Christ. Even his prayers are objects of derision. “Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabbathanai: My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me!” “He’s calling for Elijah! Let’s see if Elijah comes to rescue him!” SLIDE #: SHAMEFUL SUFFERING No more shameful way to die. Men devise many ways – guillotine, gas chamber, firing squad, electric chair, hanging… Nothing worse than cross. Reserved for lowest criminals.  Old Testament says cursed is everyone who dies in a cross. Yet Jesus Christ took it. Jesus Christ became a curse for us – bore our sins. Placed between two thieves. Evidence that He was biggest thief of all. See Him as He patiently endured the nails through His hands. READ JOHN 1:10-11 Don’t you know that His tender heart bled as he was put to death by the very ones he had come to save! Looked up in love as they put the nails through His hands and loved these very folks to whom He’d given life. And now they were raking His. Those were His men, His creation… and He held still as the creature took a hammer and drove nails through the hands of the creator. Head fell on breast. They said, “He’ll never lift that head among the multitudes again!” Look at those nails… hands. Those were the hands which healed, raised the dead, touched lips, made mud and opened blind eyes, lifted against the winds to calm the storm. He will never use those hands again. SLIDE #: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despised the shame, sat on the right hand of the throne of God.” Why endure it? Why?  Why? Because He could see the joy on the other side. Joy of saving us. Why did He do this? Why did Jesus go through all the agony and turmoil?  He had a dream in mind. SLIDE #: One of the greatest speeches in U.S. history was enunciated by Martin Luther King: “It was his I have a Dream sermon which he delivered on numerous occasions. He had a dream for his people.  And he preached it and believed it until he changed the course of this nation—even though it cost him his life. Jesus had a dream: That dream was us.  He suffered the shame for the joy of saving us. SLIDE #: STORY OF NEW ENGLAND PREACHER AND THE BIRD CAGE Christmas Eve, 1968. Paul Harvey New England preacher. Bird cage. Boy caught two old cow birds. What are you going to do with them? Play with them. Get tired of playing with them, then what? Old cat, she loves cow birds. How much for the two birds in the cage? Jesus met Satan. Bird cage. What do you have in the cage? Some human beings. Play with them. Murder, divorce, slavery, war. How much? You don’t want them. Spit on you, mock you, reject you. How much? Nothing less than your blood on the cross. Let me have the cage. Doesn’t end with that bleak ending of death on the cross. But victory in Jesus Christ. SLIDE #24: READ PHILIPPIANS 2:9-11: Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. SLIDE #: Ladder going up to glory of God. SLIDE #: READ HEBREWS 12:2 Today is the day to bow before Christ and confess Him. Communion

Soul-Structuring Arts Enoch’s Faith; Or, How to Mezuzah Your Life Dr. Roger Barrier Hebrews 11:5 God never intended for the sacred to separated from the secular. For two centuries we lived in a society that made sense. The secular and the sacred intertwined. It was like we had a sacred canopy over our country—like most other societies throughout history have had. We now live in a “twisted” society that seems Hell-bent on eradicating the sacred from our every day lives. This is a most unnatural thing. The secularization of our society is being done under the auspices of the “Doctrine of the Separation of Church and State.” This concept is foreign to the U.S. Constitution; as far as the Constitution is concerned, this idea was created by the U.S. Supreme Court out of nothing. Note carefully the wording to the 1st amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting and establishing religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right to the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” This has to do with forbidding the establishment of a state religion (like existed in England from whence the colonists had just come) and forbids the establishment of laws which would hinder the free expression of anyone’s religion (which the U.S. Supreme Court has been violating since the early 1960s). Many surveys reveal that the average American believes that we have less religious freedom in America than ten, twenty, or forty years ago. Coming out of WWII America lost its sacred canopy. Many people are now putting up their own “sacred umbrellas”. There is nothing unusual about this. The second-century church leader, Tertullian had this to say about the practice: “In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting off our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever activity occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross.” What spiritual advantage might Christians have who returned to this practice? Let’s take a moment and review the Soul Structuring Lifestyle Arts we have previously examined in Hebrews 11:1-4: •Lifestyle Art: My faith means I listen to what God says and live accordingly. •Lifestyle Art: My faith means I live and act on the basis of the supernatural, invisible world. •Lifestyle Art: My faith believes that in a universe as large as ours, my God is really big. •Lifestyle Art: My faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ for my sin restores my broken relationship with God. Now we come to the Lifestyle Art from the life of Enoch in Hebrews 11:5: My faith means I creatively integrate the sacred into my everyday life. In Hebrews 11:5 we have the sacred testimony that this man, Enoch, pleased God. We would do well to discover why and do likewise. Enoch’s story is found in Genesis 5:18-24. (Please feel free to get the supplemental sermon #S-213 for a further study on Enoch’s life and times. Enoch’s translation is a picture of the Rapture of Christians. The age in which he lived paralleled the age which will exist just before the 2nd coming of Christ.) 1 Enoch’s walking with God was very attractive to the Almighty.This morning I want to describe what that might look like in our generation. Mezuzah (or Sacredize or sacramentalize) Your Life Deuteronomy 6:4-9: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Colossians 3:15-17: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” A contemporary mezuzah is a ritual that helps us grow our own souls by modulating the mundane into the eternal. As we go through life we set up “sacred canopies” in all sorts of spaces to make life make sense. Mezuzah your home Mezuzah your artifacts Mezuzah your relationships Mezuzah life’s transitions Mezuzah your moments These lifestyle arts are critical in a society where the sacred canopy has been removed. Enoch learned to have heaven on Earth, so it was an easy transition when God decided to take him right up to heaven. Transitioning to the eternal in death is easy when we’ve already "mezuzahed" meaning into our lives. Who do you know who died well? Ponder why.

I Kings 17:17-24 WHAT STORIES OR CONCEPTS IN THE BIBLE GIVE YOU HOPE? 17 Now it came about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 So she said to Elijah, “What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!” 19 He said to her, “Give me your son.” Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed. 20 He called to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, have You also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, I pray You, let this child’s life return to him.” 22 The LORD heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived. 23 Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.” 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.” BACKGROUND Resurrection in General Early Israelite religion did not have a theology of resurrection, though there were some references to resurrection in early Old Testament scriptures. In general, people did not think in terms of resurrection, but in God rewarding or punishing in this life. Yet, resurrection as a concept, for some, did exist. The first was Abraham. When taking his son, Isaac, to Mount Moriah to be sacrificed, he reasoned that though he slay Isaac, God would raise him from the dead. Hebrews 11:9 reveals this when it says of Abraham, “He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead.” Job also, during his suffering, reasoned that God would raise him from the dead. Job 19:26 says, “Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God.” These were early ideas about resurrection in scripture. They were communicated to Israel long after these men lived. Abraham and Job had no scripture to learn from, so their ideas about resurrection were remarkable. But sometime later in scripture we see another idea of resurrection from Samuel’s mother Hannah. After giving birth to Samuel, Hannah sings a song of thanksgiving in which she says, “The LORD kills and makes alive; he brings down to Sheol and raises up” (I Samuel 2:6). Notice the order in her statement. Kills comes before makes alive. Sheol (or the grave) comes before raises up. This signifies these things happen in order, death before resurrection. So, even with these three, Abraham, Job, and Hannah, we see that early ideas about resurrection were centered on hope. Resurrection is a theology of hope for the righteous. Resurrection in the Old Testament The Old Testament’s later passages build on this notion of hope in resurrection. One of the firsts is in our passage today. Resurrection was a sign to the widow that Elijah was a true prophet. The resurrection of her son gave her hope. Elijah’s successor, Elisha, raised the Shunammite’s son from the dead (II Kings 4:18-37). It may be argued that she believed Elisha could raise her son, which is why she so diligently sought him out. She had hope. The clearest example of a resurrection theology in the Old Testament comes from the book of Daniel, where a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked is mentioned. “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). Meaning and Types for Resurrection Ultimately, all mentions of resurrection in the Old Testament are a type pointing to the true resurrection of Christ in the New Testament and our resurrection that will happen at a future time. The biggest difference being that Jesus’ resurrection and our resurrection are permanent. The resuscitations in the Old Testament were not permanent. Someone may be raised from the dead, but they would ultimately die again later. This was also true with Lazarus in the New Testament. But Jesus died and rose again, never to die again. And the same will be true with our resurrection. Someday, we will be given a new body, and we will be raised from the dead never to die again. “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality” (I Corinthians 15:51-53). Notice the use of the words imperishable and immortal. This signifies never dying again. Our resurrection will be permanent. This is truly a theology of hope. SO FAR IN OUR STUDY ABOUT ELIJAH, EVERYTHING HAS BEEN ABOUT THE DROUGHT. SO WHY DO YOU THINK THERE IS A STORY HERE ABOUT A RESURRECTION? WHAT DO YOU THINK THESE THINGS HAVE IN COMMON? But Why Here? But why does resurrection appear in this passage following God’s punishment of Israel with a drought? What do these stories have to do with each other? They are so different. It is because the Lord wants to give hope. Remember that at this time the Israelites believed in Baal, of whom it was said that when he rises from the dead, the rains come. Yet Elijah had already shown that Baal was a false deity by the fact that Baal could not make it rain again—but God could. Remember, also, that in the theology of Baal, Baal died and rose again every year. But he did not raise human beings from the dead. Only the true God can do that. And that’s the point of the story. Resurrection is the theology of hope. The author of the scripture here wants to give Israel hope that God will restore the rain and thus restore life. The resurrection is a picture of what God would do for Israel. He would restore the rain, but more importantly, he will, one day, restore a true spiritual life to the nation. EXAMINATION (V.17) Now it came about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. Some scholars debate whether this language, “No breath left in him,” means that the boy was dead, just near death, or perhaps in a coma-like state. I come down on the side of the boy being dead because in verse 18 the widow says the boy is dead, and in verse 21 Elijah asks for the boy’s life to return to him. And saying there was no breath left in him implies the boy was not breathing. He was dead. (V.18) So she said to Elijah, “What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!” DO BAD THINGS SOMETIMES HAPPEN TO US BECAUSE OF OUR SIN? Some commentators think that by referring to Elijah as a “man of God,” the widow is acknowledging Elijah’s spiritual authority. But I don’t think that’s what’s going on. I think this is a cry of bitterness and anger. If you’re a man of God, why did my son die? Maybe a better way to say this in the modern vernacular is, “What have you done to me, man of God?” Notice the sarcasm and bitterness. She is speaking from deep pain and anguish, lashing out, looking for someone to blame. The widow seems to have forgotten that Elijah saved the boy’s life, and her’s, from famine. In fact, when this happened, she was still receiving the miracle of the perpetual flour and oil that kept the three of them alive. Why she seems to blame Elijah is not clear. She is clearly desperate. She was desperate for food when she met Elijah, and now she is desperate for the life of her son. Notice that she makes mention of her sin. When tragedy befalls someone, even a loved one, a person might wonder if they are to blame. Did I do something to cause this tragedy? This is not an unreasonable thought. Remember David. Years after his sin with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah the Hittite, David’s family fell into chaos with a dead baby, two sons murdered, and a raped daughter. Remember also Joseph’s brothers, when facing Joseph, they recalled that their misfortunes were because of what they did to their brother years earlier. The widow might have had some sin in her life in mind, though we are not told what it is. Whether the widow’s sin was a cause of the boy’s death is not stated. There are times when bad things just happen, and we don’t know why. So, it is most likely that she is simply speaking out of desperation for her son. (V.19-20) He said to her, “Give me your son.” Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed. He called to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, have You also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?” ELIJAH SEEMS TO BE QUESTIONING THE LORD’S MOTIVES OR ACTIONS. HAVE YOU EVER FELT THIS WAY, BEREFT OF HOPE? Elijah’s speech seems to reflect that of the widow. Elijah may have been confused. They were living off of a miracle, yet the child was struck ill and died? Wasn’t the miracle enough? It seems that both Elijah and the widow have lost hope because of their confusion in the situation. The widow lost hope at the death of her son. Elijah, struck with confusion, seems to also have lost hope; so he questions the Lord. Elijah was not the only one to think this way. The Israelites often complained to Moses by saying, “Have you brought us here to die?” (Exodus 14:11). Even Moses asked the Lord, “What shall I do to this people? A little more, and they will stone me” (Exodus 17:4). And, “Moses said to the LORD, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people!’ But You Yourself have not let me know whom You will send with me’” (Exodus 33:12). Sometimes the situations we find ourselves in would seem to strip us of hope. But, not even death is beyond God’s ability to restore and provide hope. (V.21) Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and called to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, I pray You, let this child’s life return to him.” 22 The LORD heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him, and he revived. When Elijah asks for the boy’s life to return to him, the Hebrew word used for life is nephesh, which is usually translated as soul and sometimes as breath. It’s the same word used in Genesis 2:7 when God breathes into Adam the breath of life. Clearly, the boy was dead in that it seems to be that his soul was departed. Why does Elijah lay himself on the boy three times? Some commentators think that it was in reference to the thrice holy nature of God. Others believe that he was trying to resuscitate him with his own warmth. Though I think that is doubtful. Why he stretched himself over the boy three times is unknown. However, it just might be that he was trying anything, anything at all to revive the boy because he was so desperate. What is important is that the scripture says the Lord heard him, and he restored the life of the boy. This is the first resurrection in scripture. Additionally, II Kings 4:34 records Elisha doing something similar in raising the Shunammite’s son from death. (V.22) The LORD heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived. DO YOU SOMETIMES FEEL THAT THE LORD DOES NOT HEAR YOUR PRAYERS, THAT YOUR PRAYERS ARE BOUNCING OFF THE CEILING? HOW CAN WE KNOW THAT GOD ANSWERS OUR PRAYERS? Here’s the thing to hold onto in this passage, “The Lord heard the voice of Elijah.” The Lord hears not just his prayers, but all of our prayers. And to say that God hears means that God answers. This resuscitation is interesting because Baal, the storm god whom the widow’s people worshipped, was said to die in the winter and rise in the summer. The gods rise. People do not. By restoring the boy’s life, Yahweh is demonstrating his power over life and death—something Baal does not have. (V.23) Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.” Good saves the widow’s son and restores her hope. Just as someday the drought will end, so too, someday death will end, as we see in the picture of this resurrection. And this is something we can say to God. “See, your Son is alive.” Jesus is alive. He gives us hope that not all is lost. (V.24) Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.” WHAT CONVINCES YOU THAT THE WORD OF GOD THAT YOU READ IS TRUE? WHAT CONVINCED THE WIDOW THAT ELIJAH’S WORD WAS TRUE? Whereas the widow first spoke out of bitterness and anger, now she speaks repentantly. It’s almost a surprise. Elijah had done the impossible. He had raised the dead to life! You really are a man of God! The widow becomes convinced that Yahweh is the true God, signifying that she believed in the word of his prophet. In the Bible, miracles were attestations that the word of a prophet was true. Moses performed miracles to show his word was true. Samuel prophesied future events in the life of Saul to show God’s choice of him. Other prophets predicted future events to attest to their truthfulness. This is also true about Elijah, which the widow recognizes. Only a true prophet can raise the dead. No false God had that power. The same is true, and much more so, with Jesus. Jesus claimed to be the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). This was a unique claim made by no prophet, but only by the Son of God. And then Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and he raised others from the dead as well. Only the true Son of God could have that power, to raise people from the dead at will. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? The widow’s faith had faltered upon the death of her son. The widow thought her sin might have brought about her son’s death, but she also blamed Elijah. Elijah’s heartfelt cry to God for the boy was answered, though he had his own questions. Upon the restoration of her son, the widow’s faith is strengthened and she believes God’s truth—her hope is restored. God is giving us a picture of hope, that someday the drought will end, that someday our sin will end and we will have a resurrection like Jesus. INTERPRETATION What is the author’s big idea? Though the situation may seem hopeless, God wants to give his people hope. Although the widow lost hope in the middle of living through a miracle of the flower in the oil, still God restores hope. There was hopelessness because of the drought. No one knew when it was going to end. People’s lives were affected. And then on top of that, her son became sick and died. It would seem that she would have no hope. She lost her sustenance. She had lost her husband. And now she was losing her son. That would drive anyone of us into doubt, depression, and bitterness, as it did to her. But, Elijah, though questioning, was faithful to God, and God restored the life of her son through his ministry. Thus restoring her hope. And God wants us to have hope as well. No matter what the situation may be in our personal lives or in our nation. God wants to give us the hope that comes through the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection is the key to understanding hope. Because without the resurrection, there is no hope. Remember Paul’s words in I Corinthians 15:16-19, “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” But, Jesus has been raised. We are not without hope. We have hope, even in the midst of facing our death, that God will reward us because of his faithfulness. We will be in his presence forever, and someday we will be in his presence in a new glorious body that he will give us that is just like the one Jesus has. APPLICATION When faced with what seems to be an insurmountable problem or situation, take the issues straight to God’s throne. He is the god who gives hope, he is the God who answers our prayers. Even if you have doubts, even if you feel like you need to blame God, take those doubts and take that blame to God in prayer. He wants to hear all of our frustrations. And yet remember to hold onto Christ more than anything else; he is the god of hope. When God answers, give him praise, and trust him, because he is the god of hope. As we get older, we know that the days ahead of us are fewer than those behind us. And therefore, we should hold onto the hope of the resurrection more than anything else. Because we will soon meet our maker, and we will soon see him face-to-face, and he will reward us.

Introduction Gold: emblematic of Jesus coming to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Matthew 2:2 A metal fit for a king Frankincense: emblematic of the priesthood and Jesus as our Great High Priest Myrrh: symbolic of what Jesus would do in His sacrificial death for us We considered the gifts; now we'll consider  the  gift Start to think of the gifts that you give as symbolic and reflective of the gift God gave John 3:16 Part of love is giving You have an opportunity to reflect the love of God in a simple gesture of giving a gift The gift of salvation that comes through the person of Jesus Christ given to mankind by God Romans 5:12-16 The gold, frankincense, and myrrh were gifts given by men to Christ; the one gift that Paul wrote about here is a gift given by Christ to men The three gifts were given when Jesus was a child, but they symbolized His future; the one gift was given when Jesus was a man and is central to our future The three gifts were monetary, physical, and valued only on this earth; the one gift is a monumental, revolutionary, spiritual gift valuable in the court of heaven in eternity The three gifts were costly, but didn't cost the wise men everything; the one gift cost Jesus everything Paul drew a contrast between Adam and Jesus Adam sinned; Jesus saves When Adam did what he did, many died; when Jesus did what He did, many can live What Adam did brought bondage; what Jesus has done can bring freedom Adam disobeyed God his Creator; Jesus obeyed God His Father Adam sinned, and people thereafter were declared unrighteous; Jesus paid the price, gave the gift—His life—and people thereafter can be declared righteous The gift means we are loved Typically, you give a gift to express your love True love can never be passive; it must always be active Marriages deteriorate; couples somewhere along the line stop giving to each other You can tell the depth of the well by how much rope is lowered You can tell the depth of God's love by how much rope was lowered He sent His Son out of heaven If you're ever tempted to doubt God's love, remember this gift 1 John 4:8 It's hard to grasp that God loves you 1 John 3:1 Human love is object-oriented; God's love is subject-oriented When we see something we like, we place value on it God's love is based on His character The gift means we can be forgiven The gift does not mean we will automatically be forgiven Genesis 2:16-17 Sin always overpromises; it doesn't completely satisfy Romans 6:23 Death is separation Mankind has a sin issue The news of the gift is that we can be forgiven Thousands of years ago, Adam threw the rock that destroyed the reflection, the image of God in the creation God made Then Jesus came along and essentially said, "I'll take the hit" One man messed up the image; one Man restored the image back Ruined by one man's misdeed, rescued by one Man's merit John 10:10 The gift means we can live forever The gift has to be received Any gift has to be received, opened, used, tried on—or it's of no value John 1:11-12 You can receive what you need: love, forgiveness, and life But in order to get all of those things, you have to receive the gift If you do that, it's a package deal, and it has great benefits now and forever If you haven't yet, take the gift; it'll be the best Christmas gift you've ever had Cross references: Genesis 2:16-17; Matthew 2:2; John 1:11-12; 3:16; 10:10; Romans 5:12-16; 6:23;  1 John 3:1; 4:8

THE RICH MAN, LAZARUS AND HELL DR. ROGER BARRIER Luke 16:19-31 S-1795 (“Lazarus, The Rich Man and Heaven” is for next Sunday.) In the midst of our short series concerning, “Life Lessons from New Testament Characters,” we come to the Rich Man who went to Hell. We have learned from the Good Samaritan and the Gadarene Demoniac in previous weeks. Our series concludes next week with an inspiring look at Heaven from the life of Lazarus. Sermon notes, videos and audios of these sermons as well as hundreds more are available on “ PreachItTeachIt.org ” What happens when we die? Just ask children; they aren’t short on ideas! But, most of them only speculate. On the other hand, Jesus doesn’t speculate. He knows. He has been there. In Luke 16 He pulls back the curtains on eternity. ●The Rich Man And Lazarus are incredibly divergent characters. Banquets and Clothes and “Ptochos” (πτωχος) and Paupers Pharisees and Listening (Luke 16:14) Palace “Gates” and Crumbs ●The Rich Man Died And Was Buried. The Poor Man Died And Was Carried—To Abraham’s Side. Bosoms and Laps Sumptuous tombs and last Dimes “Kolpos” (κολπος) and Places of Honor Torment and Surprises ●The words, “Father Abraham,” caused goose bumps to climb the spines of Pharisees. Their theology said that Rich Jews were especially blessed by God! That’s why they were rich. They certainly didn’t go to Hell! ●Now, Let’s Talk About The Reality Of Hell. Matthew 25:41, 46: "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’…. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." Two Extremes The "Thinker" Suffering and Torment (Mark 9:47-48) Sadness and Regret (Matthew 25:30) Spiritual Darkness and Physical Aloneness (Matthew 25:30) Multiple Levels and Different Degrees (Revelation 20:10, 12: and 2 Peter 2:4) Forever and Ever (Matthew 25:46) ( By the way, God never intended for anyone to go to Hell (Matthew 25:41). In fact, the Bible teaches that Hell was enlarged to make room for those who were choosing to go there.) ●“Is Hell really fair?” “How could a loving God send anyone to Hell?” Two answers are helpful. One revolves around the justice of God. We all sin and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). The “wages” we earn for our sin are spiritual death in Hell (Romans 6:23). The second answer revolves around the overwhelming love of God. That’s what the cross is about. Jesus didn’t come to earth to die on a cross for the fun of it. He came to our rebellious race of humanity which traded paradise for curse and damnation. Jesus came to reverse the curse and rescue us from the damnation of Hell. He came as our substitute and took our punishment in order to satisfy justice. That’s love. ●Abraham’s reply makes it sounds like rich go to Hell while the poor and suffering go to Heaven. But, notice that Abraham said not a word about how or why they came to be where they were. These are two isolated, individual cases which are neither universal nor normative for us. ●God spoke to the rich man three different times and he just wouldn't listen. He spoke through material blessings ... through Lazarus … and through a man's death. ●Abraham: “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” There was another man named Lazarus who resurrected from the grave and the Jewish leaders tried to kill him in order to silence his testimony (John 11-12). “One day the Lord Jesus stood up in the Temple and he cried out with a loud voice, ‘If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scriptures have said, “out of his inner most being shall flow rivers of living water”’” (John 4:13-14). TAKE AWAYS What we highly esteem may be detestable to God (Luke 16:14). What God highly esteems is attention to His Word (Luke 16:29-31). Those who submit to the Scriptures will always come to Christ (John 5:39-40).

FEAR SERIES TWO PASTOR JACK SCHULL CHOOSING FAITH JUNE 10, 2007 Intro Jos 1:9a This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged... That’s a bold statement – God is speaking with Joshua… Story It was a nice summer morning, I remember like it was yesterday…it happened when I was about 6 yrs old. - playing with my friends baseball with one of those long skinny bats and a wiffle ball -- when all of the sudden it came out of no where on a kamikaze mission for me. It was this giant bumblebee! It was at least this BIG, I’m sure…It circled me once just to tease me – I contemplated hitting it with the bat – but quickly realized that wasn’t full of a lot of common sense since it was around my head…so I did the spin cycle/swat dance – we’ve all done it when a bee is circling us looking to devour…then went in for the kill – targeting my ear…it stung me right on the ear lobe. Man did it hurt – I ran the whole 2 blks home with my earlobe feeling like it was on fire – but the worst of it was the sound – the deafening sound of buzzing that was sting ringing in my ear….from that moment onward thru my journey of life – I would fear the bee. Any bee. It was like war flashbacks anytime a bee would travel within my personal bubble…that sound would instantly trigger the hairs on my neck to stand up – ➡️I was a young lad when I visited the Desert Museum – we toured the hummingbird exhibit with my family – hummingbirds are so sweet and innocent. ‘til one humming bird flew up by my ear – then suddenly I was transformed back to my six year old mind – the buzzing – make it stop and my hand flew upward in an instant Chuck Norris karate move to protect myself…hitting the hummingbird and sending it sailing threw the air – it was …I obviously still feared the bee – feared the buzzing sound… ➡️that fear stayed with me for awhile (I’m still skittish – I watch the people that cover themselves with bees and I just squirm inside…) T We all have childhood fears – as we age there are others…some of you wrote in about fearing • Being trapped in elevators • Falling • Grasshoppers / petting zoo goats • Gecko lizard on their kitchen floor – being stuck in Tucson the rest of their lives ➡️fears can take us on an emotional ride ➡️even a literal ride: check out this guy (who’s chair got stuck in grill of a semi-truck for 4 miles/50mph) ➡️fear is just a natural part of life – isn’t it? Glenn mentioned last week that fear is universal…that sometimes these looming fears aren’t even reality – but they begin to impact the reality of how we live…they can consume and handicap us – keep us from being able to face or handle the truth. Let me ask you: Q what is the most common command given in scripture? (pause) --not to be more loving – although that is highly crucial essential --not to be more sexually moral, though that is certainly expressed --not even to be more forgiving – although you’ll see that a lot ➡️ it is: FEAR NOT -- why? Why does God say that to humanity more than any other command? The number of verses in Scriptures speak of fear as it is most commonly experienced by the human race is not a good thing. It is fear that threatens to keep people from truly living and following God in faith ➡️Scriptures seem to indicate two different mindsets as it comes to facing fears - 1 based on faith . You can trust God - trust that God's power and goodness are sufficient for life and live in a relaxed confidence in him -OR- I can live in mindset of fear and I'm on my own! If I'm not careful and cautious, than something might happen to me and I might NOT be able to handle it... God knows that the biggest thing that will hold people back from experiencing life with Him -- is FEAR! Q Have you ever noticed how 2 people can see the exact same thing - and yet have two totally different reactions to it? There are different perspectives at work within them. (ie. the glass is half full or half empty) . (the extreme pessimist would dump it out and say: water is all gone, we live in the desert and now there's no hope now) EX: (funny example of this) “I know this is an stereotype – but I thought it was good: Men and women and how their perspective toward shopping shapes how they engage and approach the Mall (show picture) ➡️Same thing- two diff. viewpoints! …Our perspective on situations will affect us – our mindset has a way of shaping how we see things... T Over and over again you see this pattern throughout life – and woven throughout scripture that two sets of people will see the same thing and there are two different responses… • Story of David and Goliath ➡️Israel’s army see’s goliath and is frozen in fear, david sees goliath and goes out armed in faith…to face this giant… (they see the giant and say ‘he’s too big, we’ll never win – David says: He’s huge, there is no way I can miss) 2 sets of people see the same thing: it’s not the situation, it’s not the circumstances – it’s the perspective… b/c Perspective is a powerful thing… ILL: I came across this note from a college girl sent to her parents: Dear mom and dad, I have so much to tell you! Because of the fire’s set of by the student riots I experienced some temporary lung damage, so I had to go to the hospital. There I met an attendant and we fell in love. We have moved in together. I dropped out of school after we found out we were pregnant. He got fired b/c of his drinking. So we have decided to move to Alaska to start over, where we might get married after the birth of the baby. Signed, Your loving daughter PS: none of that happened: but, I did flunk my chemistry class and I wanted you to keep it in perspective. (SMART GIRL – she understands power of perspective) Unhealthy fear (that looming fear, that Glenn spoke of) – is a result of an out of kilter perspective, a mindset stuck staring at the present troubles and blinded to the past provision and promises of God… The Question seems to be: Will you live with perspective fear – or will you live with perspective of faith? Number 13:1 ➡️Spies sent to scope out the land that God is going to give to his people – the promised land! Key word here is promise – God is a God who seems to be one that keeps his promises – he’s just led them out of Egypt like he said he would – performed all these miraculous signs/wonders to demonstrate he can be trusted – now they stand on the brink of the land that he has been promising to give them for – stemming back to Abraham’s lifetime… So they send in 12 spies (one from each tribe of Israel) 10 come back and say: no way! 2 come back and say: with God’s help we can totally do this!! ➡️Caleb and Joshua! 10 came back with a perspective of FEAR • It’s too much – we haven’t seen this situation before – WE can’t do this – it’s too scary 2 came back in a perspective of FAITH • It’s a lot – but man is it sweet this land – God has proven himself to be trustworthy and we can totally do this – we can face this fear – grounded in faith and do it!!! ➡️it becomes this battle b/t a perspective of anxiety versus trust – a position of fear versus faith! And that same battle – gets played out in your life today – and mine… Will I live with an overwhelming perspective of fear – or will I choose to ground myself in a perspective of faith? ➡️when we get caught up staring through the binoculars of life – starring at our fears ➡️it creates blind spots – limits our scope -- we become blinded to all that God has done and said he would do...all his past provision, power, and promises get crowded out by our focus on the fears -- it feeds this perspective of fear and those fears just keep piling on til we lose hope...get stuck ➡️a mindset stuck staring at the present troubles and blinded to the past provision and promises of God…is the perspective that led these 10 spies – the nation of Israel – and us at times to miss out and leads us away from what God desires for our lives… The rest of Numbers 13-14 ➡️   …and the story unfolds that the people cling to their fears – side with these 10 spies and they walk away – they even begin complaining that they were better off in Eygpt as slaves…neglect their faith and God sends them wandering around the desert for another 40 yrs ‘til that generation dies off – before he gives them another opportunity to enter the land again… Jos 1:9 ➡️we see that a little later in Joshua's life - he no longer is simply a spy - he's now Moses' right hand man - who has been entrusted with leading the people ➡️it’s 40 yrs later now and they have returned to the same historical spot – to the same hinge point of standing outside the promised land – and the same question is being weighed – will we choose to cling to our fears and forgo this life God is calling us into – or will we ground ourselves in a position of faith and trust Him? God is telling Joshua – don’t be afraid – trust me! You can trust me! I will not fail you – don’t be afraid – step out and go in faith!!! The single most imp command in scripture is to FEAR NOT! Why? When God says this in scripture – very rarely is it to spare them anxiety…(Joshua has a huge challenge and adventure ahead of him) God is usually asking people to respond or take a risk in life. He’s calling them to an adventurous faith. And it all generally comes down to: will they go with their fears or faith? God says: trust me! He does that so often. There are a lot of fears in present day life, huh?! There are many that humanity has wrestled with for centuries and that you and I still wrestle with today… • Fear of failure • Fear of loss • Fear of rejection, abandonment, disapproval, death, the future, the unknown) It seems to me that there is an underlying fear that flows within a lot of others… it’s this fear of trust! Can I trust in you – or am I left to only trust myself? Think about the times TRUST gets tested in life… • Time you stand at the edge of the pool and your parent is telling you to jump (no floaties) • Time you as a parent hand over the keys of the car for the 1st time to your teenager • 1st trip (or maybe every trip) to the dentist • With every surgery/treatment you undergo • Dating – getting to know one another – you’re searching out… Can I truly trust you? -It’s a question we ask of the people around us – it’s a question we wrestle asking God?... God, can I trust you? Often we determine that it’s too high a risk…so we attempt to navigate life on our own. When things get difficult, storms in life arise we are at that crossroads of choice again: Will I sweat it out– attempt to get thru this on my own skills, abilities, strength and know how… Or will I surrender to dependence in someone else…? T one of my favorite stories in the NT - speaks of this dilemma...centers around a boating trip... Mark 4 --unpack the story • Some of you when you think of being out on the lake (cooler, fishing pole, ski, pillow) In this story: -Jesus is fully God and fully human – and he’s asleep in the boat -these are trained, experienced, skilled fisherman – who are very familiar with this sea, it’s their livelihood -the trip starts off just fine, cool evening, calm water… -Sea of Galilee is located 700 ft below sea level, in a valley surrounded by mtns. – it’s known to experience some troubled, swirling water in storms… -all of the sudden – w/out warning huge storm comes up….(start CD/Lights) -the water starts lapping -the original greek word (megasismos) you don’t (sismos = ) (mega = huge) -the wind is blowing, waves are crashing, lighting is flashing, rain is pounding, -the disciples are trying to paddle through it – ‘til they simply can’t seem to make thru it – -the disciples come to a point where they have to choose: are we going to continue to sweat this out? – work at this from the way we know and surely fail – b/c we’re going down… OR are we going to surrender ourselves to trusting in Jesus for help? - and in THAT moment – they decided we need Jesus! they go to Jesus (stressed and anxious – we’ve been working hard and it isn’t getting us anywhere) Jesus don’t you care that we’re going to die – we’ve been trying all we can…don’t you care? God, don’t you even care? -God, who’s going to hire someone in this late stage of life? -God, when I walk into my wife’s room, I’ve got to reintroduce myself every time, as the Alzheimer’s has taken me out of her memory? -I’m all alone trying to raise and provide for my kids? -I’ve been battling this habit for so many years and it’s destroying all I love…? God, don't you care? We all have those moments – where we’re asking God, don’t you care? They get Jesus, perhaps he’s carrying his pillow, he’s looking the storm, the fear in the disciples’ eyes, the waves crashing over the boat… AND HE SAYS TWO WORDS …BE STILL! (and it became just this still) Just like that it stopped – just like that the water became like glass… FRIENDS. The miracle isn’t that the storm died down – b/c eventually all storms die down. The miracle is that fact that it happened instantly… The issue is always God with me!!! As Jesus is walking back in the Jesus says: • why are you so afraid? Do you have no faith? Same circumstances, same situation: 2 different reactions 1 group clinging to their paddles and life vests – scared to death Another sleeping on His pillow ➡️when it was all over; the disciples who were so terrified by the storm, are now awed Mark 4:45 (it’s there 2nd question in this story) WHO IS THIS? EVEN THE WINDS AND WAVES OBEY HIM! That is a great question? And it is one of the most important questions you’ll ever wrestle with in your life…Who is this man? And what makes him greater than the storms in life – the things I fear the most? Here’s what Apostle Paul writes about Jesus: Colossians 1:15-17. Who is this man? He is the ONE who holds all things together – he is mighty and powerful! He’s God incarnate… He is the ONE who can say to Joshua – the last part of the verse we started with… Jos 1:9b ➡️ you can b/c God says over and over again in scripture -- I will be the God who is with you! Truth is: without God Joshua and Israelites - get squished in Promised Land Truth is: without Jesus the storm overwhelms the disciples BUT, when God is WITH you – you can go thru any storm, you can face any fear – b/c you can lean into his promise and provision: he said: “we’re going to make it to the other side…” Some of you might need to have a conversation today with God: you’ve been holding back portions of your life – not wanting to totally trust him with that area – or that decision -- and today he’s again saying to you: don’t be afraid – for I am with you… Some of you might be here today and you have never come to a place where you’ve trusted Jesus with your life… ➡️ you’re busy sweating it out – trying to manage on your own – you’re tired, worn out – you’re asking: -- God don’t you care? -- God don’t you care? Who are you going to trust? Are you trusting in their skill, training, equipment – for most pp in the world is the things I can control – the things I know ➡️are the disc going to give up what they can trust in and take their fears to someone else – --And all Jesus has been waiting for – is for you is exercise faith in Him! To Trust Him! The bible makes it very clear: we all have to answer the question: Who is this man, Jesus, // will I trust him? Scripture makes it clear how to do this… ➡️ it’s changing your perspective – it’s choosing to trust in someone other than yourself…. There are some of you here – you believe in God – you come to church from time and time – and today is your chance to …. Jn 1:12 Taking that step of faith thru prayer - surrendering yourself to be rescued: Rescued from the sin, your brokenness, your past Rescue From the fears in your life Rescued from mere self-reliance that isn't leading you to experience the life you truly desire... I want to invite you to pray with me through a prayer which is that step of faith in 3 minutes – that next step that the disciples did – they turned to Jesus step of faith … But first, I want you to meditate on this song ➡️ imagine the stress disc were feeling –maybe that’s the feelings you can identify to your life recently– and then their discovery of this profound promise – truth was: the answer to their struggle was with them all along… Song (kutless) (Promise of a Lifetime) ➡️ that’s the promise the Scriptures speak of That’s the promise that Jesus fulfilled on the Cross This promise of never being abandoned – that this is nothing that can separate us from Us with Him and Him with us Invite them to pray through the prayer-- Prayer Rescue angle prayer: God, I’ve been facing storms alone ….i choose to trust in your goodness and power - I yield my heart and my life to you – I believe in Jesus, sent to rescue me – Jesus I receive you as my Savior and friend – who’s never going to leave me …God, thank you for being with me NOW and forever more… If you prayed that prayer – I just want you to take a deep breath– you just took your first breath as a follower of Jesus – that’s a big deal – that little step you just took – that step of faith, just changed your destiny, your eternity, your today’s and tomorrow’s ➡️ if you did that would you just raise your hand just so I can see it and celebrate with you, pray for you? I’m going to ask you to do something more daring and I want to share something else with you – this community wants to share with you – I know that’s scary – I’ll walk out from where I’m at – if you’re feeling afraid then grab a friend – you just took the most important step spiritually – and I’m going to If you took this step a long time ago – you be praying for the people that just took this step. If there is time – you celebrate them a little bit ➡️ get the congregation to celebrate a bit. Invite them back to -- if you’re legs froze – just follow us back – we want Sharing in the backstage: T Can I trust you God? You said yes to God today and you’ll never regret it. There isn’t one person in Scripture or one follower of Jesus I know who has ever regretted doing what you just did. I am so proud to be in the family of God with you! 1 Peter 5:7 tells us about God’s character… We just wanted to celebrate with you – rejoice with you. I want to encourage you any way I can! We as a church really believe in this calling of following Jesus isn’t meant to be a solo pursuit – so we eat, sleep and breath community here! I want so much to be able to encourage you and you encourage me, together. So here’s what I’m going to ask: • 1 – I want to write you a note this week (so I’m going to need some info from you) • 2 – starting in July (july 1) we’re going to have a NEXT STEP class – with all of you who just made this commitment to God – it’s a few wks long and will help answer questions, journey together in following Jesus…get you to know one another and connected here at Casas so we can journey life with you! Turn it over to Ray and Carol!.... pray for them together in the back room! Random stuff: ------------------------------------------ When God says don’t be afraid – it’s not fear avoidance (Glenn talked about that lst week) It’s not fear avoidance – it’s where do we go with our fears – God wants us to go to HIM I want to invite you to really invite God to be with you (Jn 12:) As paul said in Romans 6 to all who believe ➡️ What do they recognize right now: Maybe they need to recognize I’m the person who is hanging on to the paddles and life vest – I’m trying to manage the fears/storms of life – you’re looking at the storms you’re facing (you’ve got blisters and my hands are soar – and I have to surrender that I can’t manage this storm – this fear all on my own) What do you do with this truth – that I can’t handle the truth ( I can’t handle the truth) ➡️ you can be like the 10 spies who simple run – avoiding it got them nowhere in life Or you can be like the disciples who took their fear to the right person!! I can do what is taught in scriptures – when you’re afraid – who do you The crossing of the Jordan river (metaphor) is a step of faith (it’s a picture of Christ) it’s a step of faith T Maybe today finds you in a season of life – a day where you’re facing the fear of trusting…can I totally trust God with the leadership of my life – can I count on him? Can I totally turn over the driver seat of life to him? Fear is the antithesis of faith. Examples like the terrified Hebrews spying out the Promised Land, David facing the giant Goliath, the disciples panicking on a stormy boat, illustrate the fact that faith changes our perspective of fear. True faith begins and ends in the person of Jesus Christ. He alone can still the storms and bring peace.