03/24/2025: "Messy Faith"

The messy family drama of Genesis 27 reveals how God's providence works even through our dysfunction and disobedience, demonstrating that while salvation is by faith alone, true faith always produces obedience.

• The evidence of true faith is seen in our obedience to Christ
• God's purposes prevail despite human manipulation and unfaithfulness
• Christians must discern between simply believing in Jesus versus truly following Him
• Five practical works of faith: repent and believe, be baptized, pray, make disciples, be generous
• Most Christians aren't actively making disciples, explaining why churches struggle to grow
• God remains faithful even when His people are faithless

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:22

Good morning church. If you have your Bibles with you, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis, chapter 27. My name is Todd Goulet, by the way. I feel like I have to introduce myself after I've been out of the pulpit for a week. Genesis, chapter 27,. And as you turn there, I'll pray for our time.

Speaker 1 0:47

Lord God, help us to understand and know your word. Help us to set aside the distractions of our hearts and our minds and help us to focus on you. Help us to reach Hopkinsville and build your kingdom here. Bless the labors and the prayers and the saints of this assembly as we do your work. Help us to do it your way, for your glory and never our own. I lift up to you, especially this morning, the men and women in the Christian county jail. I pray that you would touch their hearts and their minds and help them to heal from addiction, from any mental health issues that they face, anything that holds them back, lord, mental health issues that they face, anything that holds them back. Lord, I pray for the business of our church. May it never be our main business. Let it be what we have to do, but let your great commandment and your great commission be what we desire to do. Help us to desire you above all things, and may your spirit be our teacher this morning. Amen, Amen.

Speaker 1 1:46

Genesis, chapter 27,. I'm going to read verses 1 through 13. When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau, his older son, and said to him my son. And he answered here I am. He said Behold, I am old. I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me and prepare for me delicious food such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat that. My soul may bless you before I die Now. Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, rebekah said to her son, jacob, I heard your father speak to your brother, esau, bring me game and prepare for me delicious food that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord, before I die. Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves, and you shall bring it to your father to eat so that he bless you before he dies. But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. His mother said to him let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice and go, and this is God's Word.

Speaker 1 3:14

Well, we know that history is messy. History is messy because history is about people, and people are messy. And people are messy because sin is messy and people are sinners. And we are messy because sin is messy and people are sinners, and we know that Jesus came to save sinners and although we are redeemed by the blood of Christ, we are still messy. You see, the object of our faith is perfect, but our faith can be messy at times. Even grand figures from our history have their actions and legacies tainted by sin.

Speaker 1 3:47

There's been a frenzy of statue toppling in our country over the past several years. It started, of course, in 2020 with the focus around Confederate leaders and their statues, and then moved on to pretty much anyone else. For about five years now I've been following the University of Wisconsin. Students there have been calling for the removal of the statue of Abraham Lincoln from their campus. Now, of course, lincoln was a great president. He was the great emancipator, ultimately giving his life in service to the cause of liberty in the United States. But the students were in an uproar not because of his work in the abolition of slavery, but due to his treatment of Native Americans 160 years since he passed away. And I think Abraham Lincoln is still a great example for America and the world in many areas of human activity. His honesty, his integrity, his apparent lack of pettiness or malice and the leadership qualities that ended the Civil War, ended slavery, held the United States together, all worthy of emulating today. But Lincoln's track record with Native Americans was that's a whole other history lesson. Lincoln was seen at best. You could see that he was apathetic towards Native Americans, and for that the students, of course, wanted his statue removed.

Speaker 1 5:08

One historian I read said that while statues are monolithic, history is not. In other words, statues represent fixed ideas of people or history. And of course history is complex and it's subject to interpretation. This reflects the ongoing debates about how to memorialize the past and the meanings we assign to historical figures and events, but what I know of history and my study of history has done nothing but validate the claims of Scripture. For me, we can look at the best of men and know that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. This chapter affirms it right the best of men are men at best.

Speaker 1 5:53

I was talking with a skeptic in recent years. He said to me you worship a book that only tells stories of perfect people doing perfect things, stories of perfect people doing perfect things. I said, man, you've got to go back and actually read the Bible. He's like no, I've studied it. I said what you just said to me proves to me that you've never even opened it. There's about 2,000 people mentioned by name in the Bible, roughly, but only one of them is shown to us as perfect, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Most men and women in the Bible are examples for us to learn from, sometimes from the positive, most from the negative.

Speaker 1 6:36

The good news, however, is this the story of history, the story of redemption. Now redemption is finished, but it's not over. Our story is not complete and this chapter is real life, because there's no heroes here. I don't think anyone looks good here, not one of them. But even their history is not over and the history of redemption is not over. So I want to take a few big steps through this passage.

Speaker 1 7:04

Let's start by understanding faith alone. You've heard me talk about faith alone now for quite some time. Last week, pastor Mick showed us that faith is obedience and action. At the very center of this chapter is the disobedience of almost everyone in this family, disobedience to God. Now, to the theological liberal, to suggest that we must be obedient to the commands of God is heard as nothing but legalism. But to the legalist, the proud fundamentalist, disobedience to God is seen as a way to lose one's salvation. I want us as a family to understand we are saved by faith alone and obedience to God and His commands is a good thing. Obedience to God is good and it follows salvation. The Holy Spirit moves in someone's life. They believe and they are saved, and the result are these sanctifying good works, calling faith then obedience. We are not saved by works, but the evidence of our faith is that it works.

Speaker 1 8:17

Without faith, the Bible said, it is impossible to see God, and without faith, I believe it is impossible to even obey God. That's the great problem plaguing mankind. The greatest problem facing the world today is that the Creator of the universe has sentenced every human being to everlasting damnation because we have all committed treason against Him by giving our allegiance to everything else other than Him. That was Esau, and I think that's his story. Esau wanted all the blessings of God without God. We can translate that differently and say our biggest problem then is our sin against God, isn't it? What is the solution? What is the solution? Well, there is one. God has acted. God has moved in jesus christ to bring about this solution. It is the justification of the ungodly by faith alone in jesus christ. And you say now, wait a minute. How does the gospel solve all the issues plaguing mankind? Maybe we should have more and more local, state, federal government programs and agencies and committees and boards. Then we could solve all the problems facing the world. I mean, if you just turn on a program called the News, you know that's probably not the case. The problem is sin. The problem is separation from and rebellion against God. The only solution is Jesus Christ.

The Good News: Justification by Faith

Speaker 1 9:52

I've been watching this case out of Boston since about 2022. I think it's going to happen. I don't know if anyone's heard of this, but January of 22, a Boston police officer named John O'Keefe he was found dead outside of the home of a fellow officer. He was dropped off the night before by his girlfriend, karen Reed. This is the middle of winter and she was subsequently arrested and charged with secondary murder, manslaughter, vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a deadly crash and so on. And prosecutors allege that she killed her boyfriend with her car and then took off. She denies it and, of course, her lawyers deny it, and the jury has ended as a hung jury and the defense is adamant about her innocence.

Speaker 1 10:39

And the courtroom scenes are something else. If you listen to true crime podcasts, you may have covered this one in one of those. But even if you never see the inside of a courtroom in this life, even if no one here, even if you just say I'm never going to do something that would land me in a courtroom, glory to God. But all of us, as it were, will one day stand in the heavenly courtroom of God After the moment of death. There you will be, and the problem is that you are guilty and you know you are guilty and all the evidence that is presented against you, you could do nothing but agree with it. Every single accusation you know is true because you remember every single one. But the good news is that in Christ, not one of those legitimate accusations will be held against you, because before the trial, the judge declared that you're not guilty. Jesus says all that she has done, all that he has done. I've already paid the penalty. Now, to die apart from Christ or far from God, that's a whole other scenario.

Speaker 1 11:57

Jesus doesn't describe hell in great detail, but one of the most challenging verses for me to read or study is in Matthew 13, and Jesus uses two words to describe hell weeping and gnashing of teeth be cast into the outer darkness. With as much weeping and gnashing of teeth, it's as if somebody were to wake up in that courtroom and is guilty, but they've rejected Jesus. You can't reject Jesus in this life and expect that he's going to stand for you in the next. And they find themselves in hell, weeping. How did I get here? I went to the church, I did all the things, I said all the right words, I gave to the right charities, but here I am, cast away from God in hell, weeping and sobbing or they find themselves waking up in hell. And the Bible uses this phrase gnashing of teeth, which really is human fury. How dare you cast me here? Do you know who I am? Do you know what I do? Do you know what I've done in my life? How dare you? But in Christ, with faith in Christ, he is your representative, he is your judge and ultimately, your rescuer. Instead of weeping and gnashing of teeth, it is feasting and celebration with Jesus.

Speaker 1 13:34

Now, how can any of us be separated from a love like that? I've always told my wife that if she ever leaves me, I'm going with her. I'd get too bored by myself. The only thing that will separate our love is physical death. Even then, love endures from the human perspective, doesn't it? But who will separate us from the love of Christ? God says you are innocent. Who can bring an accusation against you? Who can condemn you? Nobody. How do we get there? How do we enter the courtroom of heaven already innocent? It is faith alone in Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 14:16

We turn from our sin and we believe in Him. To repent of our sin means we turn away from our rebellion against God. It doesn't mean we will stop and bring an end to our sinning immediately. It doesn't mean that we don't live at peace with Him anymore, but we turn to God also in faith. That's reliance, it's the promise-founded trust in the risen Jesus to save us from our sins.

Faith is Never Alone: Jacob's Deception

Speaker 1 14:43

See, if God is ever to count you or me righteous, he has to do it on someone else's record. And that's what happens when somebody is saved by Jesus Christ. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, god takes all of our sin, all of our shame, all of our record and he puts it onto Jesus. Then he takes the perfect record of Jesus and he gives it to us. And now, if you are in Christ, if you can say today I've turned from my sin, I believe in Jesus Christ, when God looks down upon you, he sees the perfection of his Son. Glory to God, amen, somebody. When God looks at the believer in Jesus Christ, he sees the perfection of Jesus Christ. You're saying Goulet? Are you saying you're perfect? I think I am, but I have a family that always reminds me of how imperfect I am. Right, I don't think I am. If you want humility, just have a couple of adult daughters. So we're saved by faith alone. So when I say faith, it's implicit in that faith is repentance. Repentance and faith are the ways we talk about the human side of conversion. So let's move then to the second big step here. So we're saved by faith alone, but that saving faith is never alone.

Speaker 1 15:58

Look at verse 8. Rebekah convinces Jacob to deceive his father. Therefore, my son, obey my voice. I command you, go to the flock and bring me two good young goats. Now, prepare them delicious food to your father, such that he loves. You shall bring it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies. But Jacob said to Rebekah's mother Be, behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, I'm a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me and shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. His mother said to him leave your curse, let your curse be on me, my son Only, obey my voice and go bring them to me. It's an interesting thing that's happening here Now also, when I like to mess around with people and they say hey, pastor, what's your life verse?

Speaker 1 16:45

I typically say it's Genesis 27, 11. Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. And then they look at me quite strangely so. She would then take the best of Esau's clothing and put it on Jacob and make sure he had the same funky smell as his hairy brother. And so they had to cover Jacob with the imitation to make him seem like his brother Isaac's old and nearly blind. At this point he says but imagine if you could see what was happening here. Imagine how ridiculous jacob must have looked all covered. Maybe they taped on the animal for with scotch tape or something. He's carrying a bowl for his dad. He's wearing all this ridiculous garment. But there's a deeper absurdity here.

Speaker 1 17:36

The mother and son believe that God would not be able to accomplish His own purposes without their help. Mother and son believe they were doing God's work and so their deceit was justified. They believe their unrighteous acts were appropriate and good if they aided the righteous works of God. I mean, this is not new and I don't think it's changed. One pastor that I was reading recently said it's okay to use unbelievers and entertainers on a Sunday worship because that's what draws in an audience. Well, it might, but they won't hold fast, they won't remain, not unless you entertain them more next week. If we want to draw people in, we entertain them. If we want to make disciples, we teach them. It's no different than Rebecca and Jacob's scheme here, isn't it?

Speaker 1 18:27

So Jacob goes in, he lies to his dad three times I'm Esau, I had success. Then he gives him the food and the meal's over and his father kisses him and blesses him. And look at verse 26. His father, isaac, said to him come near and kiss me, my son. So he came near and kissed him and isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said see, the smell of my son is a smell of the field that the lord is blessed. May god give you of the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you and the nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you. Wow, so I mean, what's the issue here? Well, isaac's passionate hubris, I guess, erupts to bless Esau, who is actually Isaac in disguise, and he's doing this with the covenant that's intended for Jacob and he's already taken Esau's birthright earlier. And Isaac sorry, it's Jacob in disguise, but Isaac here is attempting to thwart God. But Jacob had displaced Esau yet again.

Speaker 1 19:43

Now to the ancient Hebrew culture. Receiving a blessing from your father is a high honor, really the highest honor that you could give to another person, and losing that blessing was just like being cursed. So Isaac's blessing on Jacob, which was meant for Esau, gave him the earth's bounty, gave him authority over his brother, who was the firstborn. It also promised that those who blessed him would be blessed, those who cursed him would be cursed. And later, when Jacob blessed his own sons, the twelve sons, he would make predictions regarding their future. This is in chapter 49. And the Bible records the direct fulfillment of many of those predictions, revealing what is almost the supernatural ability given through this family as heirs of the covenant that God made with Abraham.

Speaker 1 20:34

And so Esau returns and the whole thing just goes all cattywampus. At this point it all goes sideways from here on in. And this is real life. I mean everyone here is sinning against God. Isaac fought against God's word and God's promises. He would be the captain of his fate, not God.

Speaker 1 20:50

Rebecca attempts to manipulate the circumstances to ensure that God's promises come true. Husband and wife are working against each other and against God. Esau just disregarded God's Word. At best, he despised the promise, but he still wanted the blessing of his father. Don't you have anything left for me? I mean, they wanted God's blessing without any obedience to God whatsoever.

Speaker 1 21:17

And so we see blind ambition and jealousy and envy and lying and malice and manipulation and ultimately everyone loses. Esau vows to kill his brother. Rebekah sends Jacob off to her brother saying she doesn't want to lose him, but essentially she does, because there's no evidence that she's ever going to see her favorite son again. Not that I could find. Jacob would then have extended misery and exploitation at the hands of his uncle Laban, which we'll study together.

Speaker 1 21:47

But even in this whole mess we see something beautiful. Even when the leader of the house throws a torch into the family tents, as it were, the determination of God, the Word of God, the promises of God are all kept, despite the unbelief and unfaithfulness of His people. God's promises, god's Word will always come true despite our unfaithfulness, and I am thankful for that reality. Esau wanted all the blessings that came from God. Without God, jacob wanted the birthright given by God. Without the power of God, the human heart hasn't changed. I mean, writ large across the pages of the Old Testament are these words and they stream to us throughout history. Two words Obey God, obey God, obey God. When you obey God, you can then watch Him work in His way in His time as you quietly obey Him. We understand we're saved by faith alone, but that faith that saves us is never alone.

Speaker 1 22:52

Jesus said if you love Me, do what? Do what? No, he said christian t-shirts. Jesus said if you love me, make sure you got a christian bumper sticker on your car. Jesus said if you love me, make sure you wear the right clothes, play the right music, use the right words when you go to church. Jesus said if you love me, make sure you put on a phony smile when you go around the other Christians who have phony smiles. Jesus said if you love Me, do this church thing, but make sure you're a phony. No, jesus said if you love Me, keep my commands. If you love Me, obey Me. I've got nothing against Christian t-shirts, that's pretty much all I own.

Speaker 1 23:38

But the point is, if we love Jesus, we will obey His commands. Our saving faith results in sanctifying works, doesn't it? And these works come from an abundance of love and satisfaction and joy from the Lord that flows back out into the world. One author said if we demand a reward to obey God, we love the reward and not God. The soul that loves God seeks no other reward than God. Who gives it With a soul to demand anything else, then it would certainly love that other thing and not God.

Speaker 1 24:13

Friends, too many Christians and this has been my experience, too many Christians want a church without accountability and they want a preacher without conviction and they want a loving Jesus without any correction from Jesus and, worse, they want a heaven without God, without God. John Piper, who I love to read. He asked and I want you to answer this for yourself he asked if you could have heaven with no sickness and with all the friends you ever had on earth and all the food you ever liked and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed and all the natural beauties you ever saw and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed and all the natural beauties you ever saw and all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or natural disasters. Could you be satisfied with heaven if Christ were not there? Friends, this church is nothing without Christ. We could be a neat social club that has songs and messages and meets some needs in the community, but without Christ it's nothing. Without Christ, our salvation is nothing.

Five Works of Faith

Speaker 1 25:28

Listen to me If you are a Christian, you must love Jesus. If you are a Christian, you must love Jesus. That's what it means to be a Christian. You are saved by Jesus and you are loving the Savior. Would you take the benefits of heaven if Jesus were not there? The answer to Piper's question is yes. You need to repent of your sin and believe in Jesus before it's too late. You see, the evidence that we are in Christ is that we obey Christ.

Speaker 1 26:12

Aw Pink said thousands of souls who give no evidence of being born again are quite confident that Christ has saved them. What is the evidence? It's our obedience. Our obedience to God is driven first and foremost by our motivation to do so. What motivates you to obey God If you're in Christ? I hope you come to a place where your obedience to God is ultimately for His sake. We heed the command. You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. We need to learn to serve God and seek no reward other than God Himself.

Speaker 1 26:47

1 Samuel says has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Of course it's a rhetorical question. The answer is no. God delights in our obedience and His commands much more than any sacrifice that we can bring with our hands. You say okay. Well, you're saying obey a lot, goulet. What does it mean? What are we obeying? Like a general feeling we get bubbling up in our heart. That could just be the Thai food that you had last night. We could summarize the perfect will of God in the Ten Commandments, can't we in Exodus 20.

Speaker 1 27:26

But Jesus made it even easier for us. He took the ten and brought it down to two Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Let's start there all your soul, all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Let's start there. When God says love others like yourself, we need to love others like we love ourselves. When we need to love God, we're not helping others so it can benefit us in return. When we worship ourselves and not God, we're being disobedient. That's what we see with the people in this chapter. So it stands to reason that God would be displeased with disobedience because at every point it's really an attack on His glory, isn't it? And that brings us to the third heading then. So we have the Ten Commandments, which is God's command to obey. Jesus boiled it down to two love God, love others.

Speaker 1 28:18

But I think there's also things that we can do every single week, and I'm going to give you five. Is there five, One, two, three? Yeah, there's five. I don't know if I had six or seven, who knows? My notes change all the time. But there's five things that we can do this week. Five works of faith. Week Five works of faith. You don't need a degree, you don't need time, you don't need anything else, you just need to obey God. Jesus didn't leave us here with zero instructions. In fact, throughout the Gospels, he holds seven basic commands to equip His followers.

Speaker 1 28:51

I want to give credit to George Patterson. He wrote a book and it's called Seven Basic Comm commands of jesus christ. I've taken a couple of his and I've adopted it for this framework. I think I've used like three of his. But get his book and read all seven, because it's a very good read.

Speaker 1 29:06

But let me give you, let me give you my list. Here's the first one, the first thing that you can do this week repent and believe. This is the first command of jesus in the new testament, isn't it the come? He said the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news. Right there in the beginning of Mark. One of the first commands of Jesus Repent and believe.

Speaker 1 29:28

And when you read the first four books of the New Testament, the word repent is used just over a hundred times. So I think it's pretty important. It's mentioned a lot in church services and conferences, but it means that we change our mind, we change our purpose. It isn't just asking for forgiveness, it's turning away, it's changing our behavior as it relates to sin. And so why do I always say you need to repent and believe and not just believe? It's difficult because people say, well, all you need to do is believe on Jesus and you'll be saved. And I understand what they're saying, but we need to be very clear about this, because Satan believes in Jesus. So I'm not asking you if you believe in Jesus. I'm asking you if you believe in Jesus and you've turned away from your sin, because that's the evidence of it, isn't it?

Speaker 1 30:21

Salvation is believing in Jesus, turning from sin that he hates and obeying Him as you walk with Him to eternity. Salvation changes everything about you. It's not just an add-on to your already overstuffed busy life, and I know some of you and some of you are the busiest people I've ever met in my life I don't even know when you have time to breathe. But the problem is we take Jesus and we say, well, I'm going to add Jesus on here, when Jesus should be everything. Jesus isn't just a little add-on so you can get the kids into church. Every now and again. Salvation changes your life and it really concerns me when men and women come here once every two or three months and they think they're growing in Jesus and then when I say that to them, other people here get upset with me. That's very legalistic. No, it isn't. It's called shepherding. It's taking the crook and slapping the sheep every now and then, isn't it?

Speaker 1 31:21

Acts 3.19? Repent and then turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that the times of refreshing may come from the Lord. God wants us to repent from sins we commit and turn away from them, not because we're trying to perform and get good reputation with God, but because of the immensity of His forgiveness, and we love Him so much. Second only to that is be baptized. This is an unmistakable command of Jesus. This is the starting gun of your discipleship in Christ. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, son and the Holy Spirit. So receiving baptism means we are identifying outwardly with Jesus as our Lord. It's an outward expression of an inward reality. We are telling the world that we're His.

Speaker 1 32:13

Mick and I were able to attend a mission lunch this week specifically about church planting in India. You see, when somebody in India, which is predominantly Hindu, when a Hindu, comes to Christ, their life is put in danger. When they get baptized, it's likely that they will be murdered. One young Hindu man came to Christ and he said his parents told him that they will kill him if he were to be baptized, because a Hindu coming to Jesus isn't a big deal, it's just adding Jesus to all the other millions of gods. But a Hindu being baptized is identifying. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by Him. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by him. Baptism is how we tell the world that we are his. If you are in Christ and you haven't been baptized. You are walking in disobedience to the one who saved you.

Speaker 1 33:12

But there's good news. What kind of church are you sitting in right now? It's in the name, right First, no Baptist People say well, why are you Baptist? I am Baptist by conviction. I am Christian by salvation. I am Baptist by conviction because I baptize people who are believers. And I'm Southern Baptist because some crazy guy in Vermont drew me into a Southern Baptist church. And here I am still. We're going to have baptisms here on Easter Sunday. Hey, glory to God. So we're going to have a class, a Baptism 101 class, next Sunday, just to kind of get ahead of all the busyness of the month. That's for anyone, anyone who wants to even just learn about baptism. That's next week, right at 9.30,. It's going to be in my office and hopefully we fill that up and we have to go somewhere else.

Speaker 1 34:06

So we repent, believe, be baptized and pray. Prayer, in its essence, is simple, isn't it Communicating with God? If we believe that our faith is a relationship with god, we need to talk to god and hear from god. And if we don't talk with god, the one who's giving us instructions, how can we be faithful and diligent believers. We need to talk to him, pray for others, pray for forgiveness, pray for to come to a place of repentance, pray for resistance to temptation. Now I know some of you right now are listening. You're like, hey, I've been a believer for a long time. Gulay, come on, let's get to the meat and potatoes. This is too simple. Let me ask you a question when was the last time you were alone with god in prayer, just you? And especially, when is the last time you did number four, which is go and make disciples?

Speaker 1 35:02

In my experience, very few christians are actually are actual disciple makers. One of the clearest commands of our savior to us was to make disciples, but very few christians are actually disciple makers. And we can ask questions. Well, why do most kids leave the church as adults? They weren't discipled. Why do kids go off to college and never come back to church? Because they weren't discipled. Why do most men and women have a lukewarm relationship with Jesus and they leave a church whenever anything happens? Because they weren't discipled. Why do the majority of men in the majority of churches leave all the work of discipleship to the women? Because they're not discipled? Why do most men leave the discipleship of the children to their wives in their homes Because they're not discipled.

Speaker 1 35:50

Most Christians that I talk to don't believe that they have the intellect or the wherewithal or the time to make disciples. Well, I'm friends with a lot of you on Facebook and I know you have the time, because I see what you're doing with your time. So my advice if that is who you are, you need to re-read this chapter. Go, get some goat skins and tie them to your arms and make some soup and try to fool God. No, go do it. Listen to me if you've been following Jesus for six months, you know a lot more about Jesus than somebody who's been following for two months. If you've been following Jesus for your whole life, you're without excuse. Go and make disciples. If God has commanded you to do it. He's equipped you to do it.

God Remains Faithful Despite Our Failures

Speaker 1 36:43

Friends, imagine if this church, if the people in this room, took the command seriously and with passion. What would this church look like one year from now? I can tell you right now we'd probably have to open up the top. We might even have to go to a second service. We'd probably have to open up the top. We might even have to go to a second service.

Speaker 1 36:58

People say well, why won't the church grow? Why won't the church play the music I want? Why won't the church do this? Why won't the church? Goulet never wears a suit. If he did, it would just Go make disciples. If you want to see the church grow, amen, somebody. It's not a hard formula. Do what God has commanded you to do.

Speaker 1 37:24

Listen, if you're relying on my personality, that's not funny. But if you're relying on my personality or my teaching or my good looks or anything else to fill the church, most churches are looking for a guy. That's going to be the secret sauce to fill the church. If that's what you're looking for, your faith is misplaced. If a church relies on the charisma, the content or the appeal of one man, what happens when that one man goes away? What happens when that one man goes away? So do his fans. I have very little interest in fans. Instead, my job is to equip you to go and make disciples, because I want you to multiply. If everyone listening in here right now had one person that they were discipling, the church would double in a year by the fall, maybe, of next year. Who knows what we would be doing. If you are multiplying, and I'm equipping you to do so, then it doesn't matter who stands here, because you're doing the work and you're multiplying and you're making disciples.

Speaker 1 38:38

Every believer should have someone teaching them and someone that they're teaching. It is teaching believers all that Christ has commanded you about His life and hungry, teachable, faithful believers will be continual learners from Jesus as they sit under the preaching and the teaching of God's Word and become doers of the faith. And fifth and final, be generous, repent, believe, be baptized, pray, make disciples and be generous. Proverbs 22 said Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.

Speaker 1 39:15

Rc Sproul has frequently commented on the distinction between believing in God and believing God. And it's easy to believe that the Lord exists and to believe in what both nature and Scripture tell us about His attributes, but there's so much evidence for our Creator, from both these sources and divine revelation, that it takes a lot of effort to deny what we know about God to be true. But when it comes to our daily trials, however, actually believing that the Lord will do what he has promised is much more difficult for us, isn't it? We're tempted to walk by sight and not by faith, and even the most faithful among us have doubts that the Lord will do what he says he will do. But the Bible the same Bible that we trust to tell us truths about God also assures us that the Lord is not mentioned specifically in that proverb, but the immediate context of the Proverbs gives us ample reason to infer that His presence is assumed there. It's talking about trusting in the Lord, and the characteristic of the person who stands in the Lord is the antithesis, if you will, to the greedy man those who are not generous and who do not help, insofar as they are able, reveal hearts that do not really trust in God to provide for them. They hold money back, they hold talent back, they hold time back because they believe it's up to them to guarantee that they will have everything that they need. We need to give ourselves away for Jesus Christ. Let me end this way.

Speaker 1 40:52

I think the wonderful truth of this whole chapter is that, even amidst our sin and our silliness, the invincible determination of God is set to bring us to completion, even when we resist it. Paul says it to Timothy. He said if we have died with him, we live with him. If we endure, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are faithless, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. God will be faithful to his word and his children and to his own, even as we manipulate and fight against his will and even each other, and more, his word prevails. Don't play games with God's Word and say to Jesus your will be done and give yourself away for the cause of Christ.

Speaker 1 41:43

Let's pray together and then we'll sing our closing song. Lord God, would you show us Christ, our Lord and our King, sitting on His throne, waiting for us, who will look us in the eyes and say well done, good and faithful servant. Lift up our eyes to that great day when all the saints from all time will stand before that throne and exalt the One who gave His life for us. Lift up our eyes to get just a glimpse of the glory today, a glimpse of what awaits those who love the Lord. Make us hearers who do what you say, lord. God, you are everything to us. There is none like you. So please, lord, come and help your people, and we pray this, we beg this, we plead in Jesus' name, amen.