WEBVTT 00:00:06.423 --> 00:00:08.583 Thank you. 00:00:08.583 --> 00:00:42.079 It's been rather hot lately so I thought you might enjoy a little look at a cool, lonely January morning, just to start things off right. 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:44.445 Just to start things off right Now. 00:00:44.445 --> 00:00:47.030 It's Monday morning. 00:00:47.030 --> 00:00:58.271 Imagine and a young pastor and his wife wake up at 6 am, both ready for their morning coffee, but it's a cold, lonely January morning. 00:00:58.271 --> 00:01:02.189 Neither of them has the energy to get up out of bed and make it. 00:01:02.189 --> 00:01:10.290 So the husband says you know, I preached yesterday, which makes Monday my day off, and you should make the coffee. 00:01:10.290 --> 00:01:18.269 His wife responds you know, the Bible says that men should make the coffee. 00:01:18.269 --> 00:01:23.826 Curiously, the husband inquires where does it say that in the scriptures? 00:01:23.826 --> 00:01:26.472 And she responds Hebrews. 00:01:26.472 --> 00:01:37.942 So that's to set your mind on. 00:01:39.024 --> 00:01:52.974 Today we are going to be looking at 1 Corinthians, 15, 24 through 28, and particularly the last part of the verses which deal with what it means to be under someone or what subjection means. 00:01:52.974 --> 00:02:02.515 And in our little coffee example we see that neither one really want to give up their rights. 00:02:02.515 --> 00:02:11.229 Let's take a look at that verse and if you have your, oh, before we start. 00:02:11.229 --> 00:02:16.216 Actually the ushers have outlines for anyone who did not receive them. 00:02:16.216 --> 00:02:26.586 So if you need one, put up your hand and they'll be happy to give you one. 00:02:26.606 --> 00:02:29.991 Let's start by reading the text for today. 00:02:29.991 --> 00:02:42.872 Then the end will come, when he, jesus, hands over the kingdom of God to the Father, after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all of his enemies under his feet. 00:02:42.872 --> 00:02:45.557 The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for he has put all of his enemies under his feet. 00:02:45.557 --> 00:02:48.469 The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for he has put everything under his feet. 00:02:48.469 --> 00:02:56.072 Now, when it says that everything has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 00:02:56.072 --> 00:03:05.608 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him, who put everything under him so that God may be all in all. 00:03:05.608 --> 00:03:17.972 So there are three things that we'll be talking about today, and those are on your outline. 00:03:17.972 --> 00:03:20.344 The first section is what is subjection. 00:03:20.344 --> 00:03:26.158 The second section is what will be subjected to Christ or what is under Christ. 00:03:26.158 --> 00:03:31.473 And thirdly, we'll look at how can we be subject and under Christ ourselves. 00:03:36.300 --> 00:03:40.572 So I'm going to put that verse back up and I highlighted something. 00:03:40.572 --> 00:03:45.329 Is there anything about the verse without looking, looking at the colors. 00:03:45.329 --> 00:03:48.181 That strikes you as unusual? 00:03:48.181 --> 00:03:51.526 That's my question to you. 00:03:51.526 --> 00:04:13.290 And the NIV has conveniently translated this verb, which is used five times for us put under, put under, put under and then slightly different, just to add some variety made subject to and then finally put under. 00:04:13.290 --> 00:04:19.052 That's the same verb used five times in the last part of this passage. 00:04:19.052 --> 00:04:24.247 So that gives us a little clue of something to focus on, and that's what we're going to be focusing on today. 00:04:24.247 --> 00:04:28.324 A little clue of something to focus on, and that's what we're going to be focusing on today. 00:04:28.404 --> 00:04:30.928 So what does it mean to be put under someone? 00:04:30.928 --> 00:04:51.146 Well, first of all, the English words, and if you have the NASB, it's going to say subject, to subject yourself to someone, or another word that might come to mind is submit, but it's the same concept. 00:04:51.146 --> 00:04:54.713 It's to be under the authority of someone, and this is actually. 00:04:54.713 --> 00:05:04.466 This word is actually sort of a military term that refers to rank and order and how structure occurs in military. 00:05:04.466 --> 00:05:15.627 There is a commander, right, maybe he's the general, and then he would have underlings under him, maybe sergeants or whatever they might be, and then eventually you work down to the commoners. 00:05:15.627 --> 00:05:29.264 But there is a structure, an order, and that order is there for a purpose and yet, at least to me and maybe to you sometimes it's really hard to be subject to someone. 00:05:29.264 --> 00:05:31.692 It kind of runs against our grain. 00:05:41.528 --> 00:05:53.069 Well, there are a few examples of how we subject ourselves in life, and I want to look at some of those both from a positive and negative standpoint, because we actually do this all the time. 00:05:53.069 --> 00:06:00.571 When you drove here today, you stopped at a stoplight if you had one, hopefully or a stop sign. 00:06:00.571 --> 00:06:09.699 You subjected yourself to the traffic laws sign. 00:06:09.699 --> 00:06:15.428 You subjected yourself to the traffic laws, you ordered yourself or put yourself under the authority of the laws of the state of Illinois. 00:06:15.428 --> 00:06:20.341 And when we do that, we see that there are very positive results. 00:06:20.341 --> 00:06:22.124 Let's first look at a negative example. 00:06:22.124 --> 00:06:23.807 I have one here Now. 00:06:23.807 --> 00:06:27.132 For most of us in America we miss this, but this was a huge thing. 00:06:27.192 --> 00:06:33.343 July 3rd and 4th in France, the air traffic controllers went on strike and guess what happened? 00:06:33.343 --> 00:06:43.226 Maybe you can't see it All these canceled flights, all the red disruption in the whole system. 00:06:43.226 --> 00:06:54.711 1,400 flights were canceled, a million passengers were affected and the cost of the airlines was about $140 million. 00:06:54.711 --> 00:07:03.747 So that shows us a negative example of what failure to subject yourself is how it impacts our lives. 00:07:03.747 --> 00:07:16.213 If we don't have order, if we don't have that order, we end up with a situation that is somewhat chaotic, somewhat disruptive and difficult for us to function in. 00:07:16.213 --> 00:07:20.389 But now let's think about a more positive example. 00:07:20.389 --> 00:07:23.067 Here's a gentleman who just got off a flight. 00:07:23.067 --> 00:07:26.560 Imagine you got off a flight and you felt like him. 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:28.305 Oh, that was a great flight. 00:07:28.305 --> 00:07:36.875 Everyone put their bags in order, they lined up in order, they obeyed the stewardesses, there were no scuffles during the flight. 00:07:36.875 --> 00:07:39.185 In fact, we got there on time. 00:07:39.185 --> 00:07:46.790 In fact, we got there a little bit early because the air traffic controllers had everything organized and arranged and our flight got there 20 minutes. 00:07:46.790 --> 00:07:51.331 And so the Response to that is it's a happy accomplishment. 00:07:51.331 --> 00:07:56.670 So that's an example of how things can go well. 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:04.483 Okay, sports fans, you guys out there, here's an example. 00:08:04.483 --> 00:08:07.511 Who's the greatest quarterback of the last decade? 00:08:07.511 --> 00:08:12.353 Arguably, I'm going to go by Google Tom Brady. 00:08:12.353 --> 00:08:21.911 I know that's not going to be real popular in Chicago, but nevertheless, you can't argue with Google and AI, can you? 00:08:21.911 --> 00:08:25.057 That's what Google says. 00:08:25.057 --> 00:08:32.517 Tom Brady was the leading quarterback in the last decade and you know, tom actually called a number of his plays. 00:08:32.517 --> 00:08:55.701 But what we don't realize is that, even though he was very good at reading the scrimmage line and he could call his own plays, he actually called less than half of his plays because he had a coach who trained him who he was subject to, who he was under an order, and that allowed him to become arguably one of the greatest quarterbacks of the last decade. 00:08:55.701 --> 00:09:03.091 So I want to look at our example. 00:09:03.110 --> 00:09:06.975 You know how do we think about as human beings, how do we think about subjection. 00:09:06.975 --> 00:09:18.270 This is a relief from the British Museum and this character here you might recognize looks pretty Assyrian. 00:09:18.270 --> 00:09:21.881 That's Sennacherib, and he is. 00:09:21.881 --> 00:09:27.933 Here is the other king who's in subjection to him. 00:09:27.933 --> 00:09:30.970 Well, look, he's got him by the arrow. 00:09:30.970 --> 00:09:32.765 He's standing on his head. 00:09:32.765 --> 00:09:38.951 This is how we as people tend to look at subjection. 00:09:38.951 --> 00:09:40.624 That's how we feel about it. 00:09:40.624 --> 00:09:47.701 Sometimes we're forced to, but that's not the kind of subjection that God wants us to know. 00:09:50.245 --> 00:09:55.812 Our example is Jesus, and I'm going to read for you again. 00:09:55.812 --> 00:10:03.881 We had this passage read earlier, but I'm going to read it again and I'm going to read it from the slide, because I have a different version here. 00:10:03.881 --> 00:10:17.134 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who, being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used to his own advantage. 00:10:17.134 --> 00:10:19.524 Rather, he made himself nothing. 00:10:19.524 --> 00:10:32.921 By taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a criminal cross. 00:10:32.921 --> 00:10:36.745 So Jesus is a contrast. 00:10:36.745 --> 00:10:39.009 That's God's idea of submission. 00:10:39.009 --> 00:10:51.672 It's something that is good, that is powerful, that is wonderful, and that's different than our idea of being under someone's thumb. 00:10:53.841 --> 00:10:56.850 Now, maybe you've had bad bosses in the past. 00:10:56.850 --> 00:11:07.486 You can identify with what it means to be under subjection to someone that you're not happy with. 00:11:07.486 --> 00:11:10.720 But we need to look at Christ. 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:15.392 So our problem is this that we've had bad experiences. 00:11:15.392 --> 00:11:25.572 We've had people who are bosses over us, that were selfish and for us subject objection is hard. 00:11:25.572 --> 00:11:52.490 And it goes further than that If we look back to Genesis 3, which actually I don't have a slide, so I'm going to read that, so I do that properly when we think back on original sin in the garden, the first move that Satan made was to say did God really say to put doubt in Eve's heart? 00:11:53.111 --> 00:12:06.270 And then he said you will not certainly die, for God knows that on the day that you eat from the tree your eyes will be opened and you will become like God, knowing good and evil. 00:12:06.270 --> 00:12:15.114 So his second move here was to cast doubt on the goodness of God. 00:12:15.114 --> 00:12:25.381 When we think about the desire to be like God and you know what God is actually really holding back from you, he's got a bad plan for you. 00:12:25.381 --> 00:12:27.525 He's not in your interest. 00:12:27.525 --> 00:12:34.441 That was the original sin failure to subject and follow God's law. 00:12:34.441 --> 00:12:53.989 So we have that strain in us, we carry that forward and that makes subjection very sometimes difficult and uncomfortable for us. 00:12:55.255 --> 00:12:57.900 But Jesus is our example of willing subjection. 00:12:57.900 --> 00:13:04.898 He said I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me, the Father. 00:13:04.898 --> 00:13:10.865 And he went further and said I lay down my life so that I might take it back. 00:13:10.865 --> 00:13:14.431 No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own. 00:13:14.431 --> 00:13:18.365 I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it back. 00:13:18.365 --> 00:13:23.427 So Jesus willingly subjected himself to the Father. 00:13:23.427 --> 00:13:26.243 He is our example, our object lesson. 00:13:26.243 --> 00:13:32.888 And yet we need to say it's very important Jesus was co-equal with the Father. 00:13:32.888 --> 00:13:33.408 He was equal. 00:13:33.408 --> 00:13:41.845 Jesus said the Father has given all judgment to the Son so that all will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. 00:13:41.845 --> 00:13:46.065 And he said further that I and the Father are one. 00:13:46.065 --> 00:13:53.677 There's no question that in the Godhead, the Trinity God, the Father, god, the Son, god, the Spirit are all co-equal. 00:13:53.677 --> 00:13:57.443 This tells us something about subjection. 00:13:57.443 --> 00:14:04.139 It tells us that subjection, order, doesn't mean inferiority. 00:14:04.139 --> 00:14:06.341 Did you catch that? 00:14:06.341 --> 00:14:20.043 That's very hard for us who've been under someone in a bad situation to accept, but jesus is our example now. 00:14:20.885 --> 00:14:37.642 The other thing that's extremely important here is that we have a good, loving father, and remember satan's trick was part of his trick was to deceive and say God doesn't really care about you, god is not interested in you, you're not his number one priority. 00:14:37.642 --> 00:14:44.464 He's not really good, and I tell you that I struggle with that. 00:14:44.464 --> 00:14:45.285 Is God good? 00:14:45.285 --> 00:14:51.342 I think we all struggle with that at one point in our lives. 00:14:51.342 --> 00:14:52.767 Is God good? 00:14:54.176 --> 00:14:55.522 Let's look at what the scripture says. 00:14:55.522 --> 00:15:07.663 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. 00:15:07.663 --> 00:15:10.883 So our first example is God has made us his children. 00:15:10.883 --> 00:15:12.235 He's brought us into his family. 00:15:12.235 --> 00:15:14.000 That's a good, loving father. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:24.488 And in Corinthians it says praise be to the God and Father of our Lord, jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. 00:15:24.488 --> 00:15:31.100 And when you're hurting, god brings compassion, he brings comfort to you because he is good. 00:15:31.100 --> 00:15:32.414 That's part of his goodness. 00:15:32.414 --> 00:15:32.995 It's check that. 00:15:55.615 --> 00:15:57.280 Psalm 119.68. 00:15:57.280 --> 00:15:58.344 I'm going to read that for you. 00:15:58.344 --> 00:16:07.207 This is a wonderful verse to memorize, to hold on to, psalm 119.68. 00:16:07.207 --> 00:16:10.317 Psalm 119.68. 00:16:10.317 --> 00:16:15.754 Verse 68. 00:16:15.754 --> 00:16:17.581 You are good and you do good. 00:16:17.581 --> 00:16:19.782 Teach me your statutes. 00:16:19.782 --> 00:16:26.023 You are good, god and you do good. 00:16:26.023 --> 00:16:28.621 Teach me your statutes. 00:16:28.621 --> 00:16:30.938 Hang on to that one. 00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:43.083 When you're struggling, it's easy for us to say God is good when everything is going well, but how about in the difficulties? 00:16:43.083 --> 00:16:47.943 How about Camp Mystic? 00:16:47.943 --> 00:17:07.199 About Camp Mystic, how do those parents feel who've lost their children to the flood, broken-hearted, hurt, questioning God's goodness? 00:17:07.199 --> 00:17:09.663 And in life we're going to question God's goodness, but we need to hold on to the truth of Scripture. 00:17:09.663 --> 00:17:11.989 He is good and he does good. 00:17:11.989 --> 00:17:13.819 Teach me your statutes. 00:17:13.819 --> 00:17:19.144 That's a great verse to memorize. 00:17:23.477 --> 00:17:26.204 One of the problems is that evil is still real. 00:17:26.204 --> 00:17:28.660 Evil is still present in our world. 00:17:28.660 --> 00:17:30.305 God is good. 00:17:30.305 --> 00:17:37.167 Satan is still present in our world and active, and he's out to hurt us and he's out to hurt people. 00:17:37.167 --> 00:17:39.836 He's out to deceive. 00:17:39.836 --> 00:17:41.441 That's his nature. 00:17:41.441 --> 00:17:42.865 But God is good. 00:17:42.865 --> 00:17:44.088 God is good. 00:17:45.292 --> 00:17:58.660 So we have a good, loving father and oh, I don't have the slide on this, but it is on your handout we also have in the Trinity the example of a loving son. 00:17:58.660 --> 00:18:06.338 You know, jesus said greater love has no one than this to lay down his life for his friends. 00:18:06.338 --> 00:18:12.067 And that's exactly what Jesusesus did. 00:18:12.067 --> 00:18:14.931 He laid down his life that we could be free. 00:18:14.931 --> 00:18:18.500 He paid the price for our sin and debt. 00:18:18.500 --> 00:18:29.118 We have a loving son, a giving son, and, don't forget, we have the spirit. 00:18:29.118 --> 00:18:42.270 Now, the Spirit does a lot of things, but I like this verse from Romans 4.17 that says For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 00:18:42.270 --> 00:18:47.778 The Holy Spirit gives us joy. 00:18:47.778 --> 00:18:56.609 So God not only loves us the Father, the Son who gave his life for us and demonstrated his love for us but the Holy Spirit gives us joy. 00:18:56.609 --> 00:19:20.234 So we have a good God, a very good God, and when you struggle with hurt, when you struggle with the difficulties of life, remember God is good. 00:19:23.974 --> 00:19:24.435 Back to subjection. 00:19:24.435 --> 00:19:25.298 So what have I said here? 00:19:25.298 --> 00:19:27.443 Well, first of all, I said subjection is kind of a natural thing. 00:19:27.443 --> 00:19:48.717 We do it in part of our daily lives without even thinking about it, without even thinking about it, and it's very effective because it allows us to do complex things, to work as a people, to work as a society, to do things like take an airplane flight that takes the coordination of a lot of people to make that come off nicely. 00:19:48.717 --> 00:20:01.688 The plan of God, though, is that the plan of a good father, and the power of God is our salvation through the subjection that Jesus took. 00:20:03.557 --> 00:20:07.221 So let's move on to our second point what will be under Christ? 00:20:07.221 --> 00:20:18.809 Well, for that, I'm going to read this a few verses, starting with Revelation 19. 00:20:18.809 --> 00:20:27.259 I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called Faithful and True, and with justice he judges and wages war. 00:20:27.259 --> 00:20:31.464 His eyes are like blazing fire and on his head are many crowns. 00:20:31.464 --> 00:20:34.700 He has a name written on him that no one knows but himself. 00:20:34.700 --> 00:20:38.519 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the word of God. 00:20:38.519 --> 00:20:44.298 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 00:20:44.298 --> 00:20:48.903 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. 00:20:48.903 --> 00:20:51.728 He will rule them with an iron scepter. 00:20:51.728 --> 00:21:01.108 So Christ is the ruler over all the nations and he will make that the reality. 00:21:02.955 --> 00:21:04.417 Revelation is a wonderful book. 00:21:04.417 --> 00:21:12.369 It tells us about how life on earth ends and how the reign of God comes to be full. 00:21:12.369 --> 00:21:21.006 Jesus is reigning now, but he will achieve full salvation, full restoration, in the future. 00:21:21.006 --> 00:21:24.824 There is a future time and Revelation tells us some of that story. 00:21:24.824 --> 00:21:29.925 If you read Revelation 12, you'll hear about Satan. 00:21:29.925 --> 00:21:34.683 He has his team right the beast, the false prophet and Satan. 00:21:34.683 --> 00:21:40.880 People call that the unholy trinity because Satan is not very creative and he tries to imitate God. 00:21:40.880 --> 00:21:42.766 So that's the unholy trinity. 00:21:42.766 --> 00:21:46.260 What happens to them? 00:21:46.260 --> 00:21:58.138 Well, revelation tells us that in the end the beast was captured and the false prophet would perform the signs on his behalf, and with these signs he deluded those who'd received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. 00:21:58.138 --> 00:22:01.997 The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 00:22:01.997 --> 00:22:13.880 The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. 00:22:13.880 --> 00:22:28.458 So we see that at the end of time, satan and all of his henchmen will be removed and they will be under Christ. 00:22:28.458 --> 00:22:39.441 Now there's one more thing that will be under Christ, and that's from our passage today, but also from Revelation. 00:22:39.441 --> 00:22:48.061 Each person was judged according to what they had done, and then death and Hades, which is the storage place for the dead, were thrown into the lake of fire. 00:22:48.061 --> 00:22:53.326 So Jesus will destroy death forever. 00:22:53.326 --> 00:23:00.897 That day is coming Under Christ. 00:23:00.897 --> 00:23:10.287 The devil and his agents, all the nations and death itself will fall and be subject to Christ. 00:23:12.356 --> 00:23:33.930 Let's go back to our verse here, and I'm going to recapitulate and also try to fit this into the whole chapter of 1 Corinthians 15, because we dropped into this passage and I took it a little bit out of context without letting you see everything. 00:23:33.930 --> 00:23:41.505 So if you have your Bible and you want to follow along 1 Corinthians 15, we're going to take a look at how this all fits together. 00:23:41.505 --> 00:23:47.465 1 Corinthians 15 tells us about the gospel. 00:23:47.465 --> 00:24:13.429 Verses 3 and 4, we see that Christ was died, that Christ died according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised, he conquered death and that he appeared, and that itself is the true message of the gospel the victory of Christ over sin and death. 00:24:13.429 --> 00:24:14.519 He paid the price for us. 00:24:14.519 --> 00:24:16.224 He rose from the dead, hallelujah. 00:24:19.036 --> 00:24:23.948 As we continue on verse 20, it talks about the firstfruits. 00:24:23.948 --> 00:24:28.066 The fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits for those who are asleep. 00:24:28.066 --> 00:24:29.738 Now, what does that mean? 00:24:29.738 --> 00:24:32.465 You might remember previously we talked about first fruits. 00:24:32.465 --> 00:24:34.903 That is the first part of a crop. 00:24:34.903 --> 00:24:40.185 This is an agricultural term First part of the crop that guarantees that the rest of the crop is going to develop. 00:24:40.185 --> 00:24:46.346 So the first fruits in this case are Jesus and his resurrection from the dead. 00:24:46.346 --> 00:24:47.922 And what does that assure to us? 00:24:47.922 --> 00:24:56.244 That assures us that we will rise from the dead, that we will have new bodies, that we will be given victory over death due to Christ. 00:24:59.115 --> 00:25:03.337 And then we skip down to our passage where we were, verse 24,. 00:25:03.337 --> 00:25:05.925 Then comes the end. 00:25:05.925 --> 00:25:10.766 Now we're talking about the end of life on earth here. 00:25:10.766 --> 00:25:24.299 Now we're talking about the end of life on earth here, when he hands over the kingdom to God, our Father, and when he has abolished all rule, authority and power. 00:25:24.299 --> 00:25:30.910 So here we see that Christ abolishes everything, all rule, power, authority. 00:25:30.910 --> 00:25:33.796 We already saw that. 00:25:33.796 --> 00:25:35.519 He destroyed the devil and his agents he destroyed. 00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:37.383 He took control over the nations. 00:25:37.383 --> 00:25:42.298 For he must reign until he's put all of his enemies under his feet. 00:25:42.298 --> 00:25:46.887 Reigning that's what a king does ruling, leading, guiding. 00:25:46.887 --> 00:25:51.526 And Christ will reign until he has put his final enemy under him. 00:25:51.526 --> 00:25:55.844 And verse 26 says the last enemy that will be abolished is death. 00:25:57.407 --> 00:26:03.045 Hallelujah, death is something we can't avoid. 00:26:03.045 --> 00:26:10.887 As a physician, I can tell you you're not getting out alive. 00:26:10.887 --> 00:26:22.462 The day is coming for each one of us, unless Christ returns before that, where we will be meeting death. 00:26:22.462 --> 00:26:34.646 And in fact many of you know just two weeks ago we had a death in our family and I want to thank you all for praying for us during that time. 00:26:34.646 --> 00:26:37.361 We really appreciate it. 00:26:37.361 --> 00:26:40.604 It's hard to say goodbye to someone. 00:26:40.604 --> 00:26:49.726 It's hard to let go in this life, but death is not the victor Christ is. 00:26:57.605 --> 00:27:04.571 We continue on, for he has put all things in subjection under his feet. 00:27:04.571 --> 00:27:09.987 But when he says all things are put in subjection, it's clear that this excludes the Father, who put all things in subjection to him. 00:27:09.987 --> 00:27:18.182 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him so that God may be. 00:27:18.182 --> 00:27:24.913 All in all, all in all, that needs a little explanation. 00:27:24.913 --> 00:27:36.201 When I first heard that, you know I don't think I comprehended that and I'm not sure that we can totally comprehend that. 00:27:36.201 --> 00:27:40.210 However, I like what the NLT translate this. 00:27:40.450 --> 00:27:45.166 All in all, how it translates it, it says that God will be utterly supreme over everything. 00:27:45.166 --> 00:27:52.542 Everywhere Wow, Supreme over everything. 00:27:52.542 --> 00:27:58.732 Everywhere there will be unity, and we can think of that. 00:27:58.732 --> 00:28:00.924 May remind you of Eden. 00:28:00.924 --> 00:28:02.873 Back to the beginning. 00:28:02.873 --> 00:28:05.461 What was it like before sin entered the world? 00:28:05.461 --> 00:28:12.595 The world was a place where there was joy, fullness, walking with God. 00:28:12.595 --> 00:28:18.150 But what's different from the Garden of Eden to the end of time? 00:28:18.150 --> 00:28:28.105 The difference is that all the nations, all the tribes and nations, all difference is that all the nations, all the tribes and nations, all the people that have been redeemed, have come along, have filled the earth and populated the earth. 00:28:28.105 --> 00:28:40.965 So what a day of rejoicing that's going to be in heaven when we meet our Savior with all the people that have been redeemed over time. 00:28:54.599 --> 00:28:56.241 Now we need to turn to how can I be subject to Christ or how can I be under Christ? 00:28:56.241 --> 00:29:04.355 That should be a question that we ask ourselves, Since we know that everything the nations, the people will be under Christ. 00:29:04.355 --> 00:29:09.417 How do we do that? 00:29:09.417 --> 00:29:14.703 Well, isaiah tells us today if you hear his voice, turn to me and be saved. 00:29:14.703 --> 00:29:20.049 The call from God is to turn, turn to him. 00:29:20.049 --> 00:29:22.573 Jesus is making that plea. 00:29:22.573 --> 00:29:23.454 He paid the price. 00:29:23.454 --> 00:29:33.228 He redeemed you, but you have to turn to him to be saved. 00:29:33.228 --> 00:29:38.654 So if you haven't done that, my prayer for you today is that that would be the first thing you do before you listen to another word of the sermon Turn. 00:29:38.755 --> 00:29:53.009 Listen to another word of the sermon Turn, and Isaiah goes on to tell us further that, really, to me, every knee will bow and every tongue will swear allegiance. 00:29:53.009 --> 00:29:59.208 Paul repeats that a couple places Romans and I think it's Philippians as well. 00:29:59.208 --> 00:30:16.991 Paul picks this up and tells us that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess this is all humanity, from the roughest of us, from the toughest of us, from the most selfish of us, we will all turn to him. 00:30:16.991 --> 00:30:19.727 Now, how is that going to happen? 00:30:19.727 --> 00:30:26.301 Here's something that I don't have scripture on, but I think some of it. 00:30:26.301 --> 00:30:35.030 You know, I don't think it's going to be like that Sennacherib, where he's holding the spear over you and standing on you. 00:30:35.961 --> 00:30:37.446 I think it's going to be this. 00:30:37.446 --> 00:30:51.049 The glory of the Lord is just going to be so overpowering that we can't help but confess you are Lord that day that Jesus returns. 00:30:51.049 --> 00:30:54.996 Think of Paul on the road to Damascus. 00:30:54.996 --> 00:31:00.509 When he was struck by the glory of God, people were blinded. 00:31:00.509 --> 00:31:03.961 That's what it's going to be like on that day, when we see God. 00:31:05.163 --> 00:31:16.324 Even John in the first part of Revelation, when he saw Jesus and John was his disciple, but we saw Jesus he fell on his face. 00:31:16.324 --> 00:31:21.511 I don't think it's going to be unwilling submission. 00:31:21.511 --> 00:31:25.964 I think it's going to be just a recognition. 00:31:25.964 --> 00:31:29.653 The awesomeness of God is going to strike us all. 00:31:29.653 --> 00:31:32.299 So turn to the Lord and be saved. 00:31:32.380 --> 00:31:55.526 If you haven't done that Because at the end of time, revelation tells us that only those whose names are written in the book of life are saved and the others were thrown into the lake of fire this is the time to turn. 00:31:55.526 --> 00:32:06.644 If you've done that, the call to us as believers is the following If you're in Christ, be reconciled to God. 00:32:06.644 --> 00:32:08.269 Be reconciled. 00:32:08.269 --> 00:32:09.111 How do we do that? 00:32:09.111 --> 00:32:13.142 John tells us. 00:32:13.142 --> 00:32:22.750 He says now, dear children, continue in Christ so that when he appears, we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. 00:32:22.750 --> 00:32:26.210 Do you want to be confident and unashamed at Jesus when he comes. 00:32:26.210 --> 00:32:33.307 I do, I do, we don't want to shrink away. 00:32:33.681 --> 00:32:34.565 So how do we do that? 00:32:34.565 --> 00:32:42.509 Number one we ask Everything in the Christian life is is by faith, by grace. 00:32:42.509 --> 00:32:44.093 We ask. 00:32:44.093 --> 00:32:49.374 I say to you ask and it'll be given to you. 00:32:49.374 --> 00:32:51.921 Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you. 00:32:51.921 --> 00:32:57.803 For everyone who asks, receives, and to the one who seeks, and the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, the door will be open. 00:32:57.803 --> 00:33:08.648 If you, even though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? 00:33:09.161 --> 00:33:13.511 So our first step to be reconciled to God is to ask. 00:33:13.511 --> 00:33:20.846 And then we need to think what's your perspective on life? 00:33:20.846 --> 00:33:29.234 What's your worldview? 00:33:29.234 --> 00:33:29.777 How's it shaped? 00:33:29.777 --> 00:33:34.689 Thought is important, paul tells us. 00:33:34.689 --> 00:33:37.078 Set your minds on the things above, not on earthly things. 00:33:37.078 --> 00:33:43.001 How do we do that? 00:33:43.021 --> 00:33:50.202 Well, we'll go through this very quickly for time, but I borrowed from the American Time Survey from last year and it shows that we spend, oh say, 10 hours for personal time most of that's sleeping. 00:33:50.202 --> 00:33:55.383 Five hours for leisure and sports there's a subcategory. 00:33:55.383 --> 00:34:05.507 Two and a quarter hours of television watching, and then this is three and a half hours working, two hours household activities. 00:34:05.507 --> 00:34:07.785 These are people 18 and older, all people. 00:34:07.785 --> 00:34:12.173 Anything missing? 00:34:12.173 --> 00:34:17.947 Oh, the average American spends eight and a half minutes in religious and spiritual activities. 00:34:20.461 --> 00:34:23.802 Now you might say, well, that's just the average American. 00:34:23.802 --> 00:34:25.085 I'm not like that, really. 00:34:25.085 --> 00:34:31.603 Most surveys show that evangelical Christians are pretty similar to the rest of America. 00:34:31.603 --> 00:34:34.409 So ask yourself, how are you spending your time? 00:34:34.409 --> 00:34:41.753 Because Jesus said where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. 00:34:41.753 --> 00:35:00.329 Where your treasure is there, your heart will be also If we allow ourselves to be shaped only by the world, by the things of entertainment and media, even for the things that are not grossly immoral, just something neutral. 00:35:00.329 --> 00:35:05.483 If that's what we're doing, we're feeding ourselves, we're saying, oh, I'm the most important. 00:35:05.483 --> 00:35:13.525 Well, take the time to make God important. 00:35:13.525 --> 00:35:18.873 And we should think about this Ask, think, use time wisely. 00:35:19.795 --> 00:35:21.577 It's kind of like compound interest. 00:35:21.577 --> 00:35:28.164 All of you financial people know that interest grows and compounds and it becomes much bigger over time. 00:35:28.164 --> 00:35:44.217 Spiritual activities are like that the more that you allow God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit to influence you, the greater the return, the steeper, the experience. 00:35:44.217 --> 00:35:47.623 And again, do you want to be ashamed when Christ comes back? 00:35:47.623 --> 00:35:52.998 I don't, so I'm going to leave you with the 7-7 challenge. 00:35:52.998 --> 00:35:56.887 Being a practical person, I want you to think about this. 00:35:56.887 --> 00:35:59.152 Don't look at your neighbor if you're sitting with somebody. 00:35:59.152 --> 00:36:01.264 Don't look at your friend or your spouse. 00:36:01.264 --> 00:36:04.532 Just ask yourself okay, can I do this for a week? 00:36:05.679 --> 00:36:10.228 The 7-7 challenge is to take seven minutes every day. 00:36:10.228 --> 00:36:16.905 Can be morning, that's for most people the right time, but it doesn't have to be and use that seven minutes. 00:36:16.905 --> 00:36:18.668 The first minute, one minute of worship. 00:36:18.668 --> 00:36:24.701 The next minute, minute two converse, talk with God. 00:36:24.701 --> 00:36:28.668 So praise him, talk with him, that's prayer, right. 00:36:28.668 --> 00:36:33.804 And then five minutes, immerse God's word. 00:36:33.804 --> 00:36:39.771 The scriptures are there for us to help us think like him. 00:36:39.771 --> 00:36:42.755 If God didn't reveal himself to us, we would not know him. 00:36:42.755 --> 00:36:44.744 And he has told us. 00:36:44.744 --> 00:36:56.666 He has given us a whole story, a whole book, a whole collection about what's important, what things are important in his kingdom, how to live properly. 00:36:56.666 --> 00:36:59.530 Start with, maybe, psalms. 00:36:59.530 --> 00:37:04.235 Just do Psalm 1 through 7 or 100 through 107. 00:37:04.235 --> 00:37:22.152 That's my challenge to you is to ask think, use time wisely and think about the seven-day challenge, because there we go. 00:37:22.152 --> 00:37:26.996 Everything is under christ, amen.