WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:03.120 I have a message for you called In the Fullness of Time. 00:00:03.359 --> 00:00:17.199 And we're going to be digging into how God is a redeemer tonight, how he has come to redeem you and every broken place in your life, and how he has redeemed us out of this world and bought us back here. 00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:20.719 And so we're going to look at how we can cooperate with his redemption. 00:00:25.039 --> 00:00:27.199 If we'll desire that and chase after it. 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:31.760 And here is how Merriam Webster's dictionary defines redemption. 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:33.280 God's a redeeming God. 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:51.520 Redeem to redeem means to buy back, to get or win back, to free from what distresses or harms us, to free from captivity by payment of ransom, to extricate, to release from blame or debt and clear that. 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:56.719 And to free from the consequence of sin, to reform, repair, restore. 00:00:56.799 --> 00:00:57.840 Are you getting the idea? 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:00.719 God wants to restore the world back to himself. 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:01.920 He wants to restore you. 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:04.480 He wants to restore all the broken parts of your life. 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:08.799 And he does that in the fullness of time. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.959 So if you would turn with me tonight to Galatians chapter 4. 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:16.879 And uh and I'm gonna start reading in just in verse 1. 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:19.519 It says uh Paul is talking to the Galatians. 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:32.159 He says, Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the Father. 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:43.040 Even so we, the the Israelites, the Jewish race, even so we, when we were children, when they were young in their history, they were in bondage under the elements of the world. 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:45.680 They had to obey the Jewish law. 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:50.879 But here is the time when everything, there is a time when everything changes. 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:54.159 There is a time in your life when everything changes. 00:01:54.400 --> 00:02:15.520 And uh, and so in verse 4 we get to that, but when the fullness of time had come, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under that law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:18.080 In the fullness of time, God did that. 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:24.800 He sent his son, he changed their status from slaves and servants to sons and heirs. 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:28.879 He changed everything in the fullness of time. 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:33.120 And uh, you know, I read a post on X is good for something every now and then. 00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:39.520 I read something this week that really inspired me, and I'm really gonna share some of the thoughts that I had uh over that. 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:44.080 But um, there is a full, there's a fullness of time. 00:02:44.319 --> 00:03:00.159 God works outside of time, uh, and yet there he set the universe in order with this this times and seasons, with the the celestial bodies in the universe, and they're all following his wonderful pattern. 00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:05.199 And something about the first century, something happened. 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:07.759 This was not just in the fullness of time. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:18.080 God didn't decide to just drop Jesus to the earth at a random thing, and he doesn't, and he didn't pick the the time randomly from even when he created the world. 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:21.360 He prepared, everybody say he prepared. 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:34.319 He prepared the world, he was working behind the scenes when nobody could see it, and everything was set, the table was completely set when he sent Jesus. 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:36.479 And I want you to think about your life. 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:46.479 I want you to think about when he sent the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem you, when you finally answered the call to come into his kingdom. 00:03:46.639 --> 00:04:03.520 And then I want you to think about the things that are broken in your life and know that he is working behind the scenes like he did in creation in this time in the first century, so long ago in history, but God was working then and he is putting together a plan right now. 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:04.560 Right now. 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:26.399 Jesus came one time, he came as a humble infant born in a stable and laid in a manger, and he is coming back again as a ruling and reigning king, with king of kings and lord of lords written on his thigh, carrying a two-edged sword with his eyes burning like fire. 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:27.759 He is coming. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:36.160 And so the prep the preparation God did for that time is actually going on right now again for this second coming. 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:38.639 And so we have something to be excited about. 00:04:38.959 --> 00:04:43.040 And um, and I so what is it about the first century that was so great? 00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:46.079 It wasn't God just saying, Oh, it's time, the clock said. 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:48.800 No, no, the entire world was prepared. 00:04:48.879 --> 00:04:51.279 And here's what here's what I learned this week. 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:52.399 It's really interesting. 00:04:52.639 --> 00:04:59.759 Um, first of all, there was uh the Jewish sacrificial system was fully in place when Jesus came. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:07.759 He was born into this people group, the Jewish race, the Jewish people who had spent 2,000 years forming Israel. 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:12.399 They had a covenant, they had a sacrificial system, they had prophets. 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:18.879 They had 700 years ago, Isaiah had written uh Isaiah uh 53, 3. 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:23.360 He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows acquainted with the grief. 00:05:23.839 --> 00:05:28.480 We hid our faces, but he has borne our griefs, surely he's borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:30.000 Y'all know that scripture. 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:36.800 Uh yet we esteemed him stricken of God, smitten uh of God, and afflicted. 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:41.519 And he yet he was root wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:46.000 The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:49.920 Isaiah didn't know Jesus was gonna get whipped with the cat of nine tails. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.680 He didn't know his back was gonna be opened up, he didn't know he was gonna die on a cross. 00:05:53.839 --> 00:06:04.720 But the prophet Isaiah, 700 years prophesied that there would be a Messiah that would come into this system, the Jewish system, the sacrificial system, and he would be the sin. 00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:10.959 He would be, he would represent, he would be the lamb that was slain for the sin of the world. 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:30.560 And uh, and so the Jews they were shaped over that time by exile, by wilderness, by divine discipline, by keeping every jot and tittle of the law, trying to tithing their mint and cumin, and by all the things they did, um they had that infrastructure for atonement and it was fully in place. 00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:45.040 And do you know that at the exact moment that the Jews were killing their last sacrificial lamb, Jesus was also outside the camp being sacrificed at nine o'clock in the morning, hanging on the cross. 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:58.240 It was a it was a divine moment, and it was all set forth when God created the world, and he used the Jewish sacrificial system, he used religion, he used a religion. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:08.319 All right, he also used the gentile philosophers, he used philosophers. 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:12.480 This is something I did not know that there was a philosopher named Heracletus. 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:21.279 Heracletus lived in Ephesus, and 500 years before Jesus came, he came up with this idea of the logos. 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:39.439 This irrational or this very rational, this invisible principle, but it was very rational, and it ruled the universe, and it it would it was called the order or account that governs the the entire universe was this idea of the logos. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:08:02.160 And so then for 500 years, that idea is cooking around in the Greek philosophers, the other philosophers, and then there's this other philosopher years later during the time of Jesus, right before the time of Jesus named uh Philo of Alexandria, and he was a Jew, but he was also a Greek philosopher as he spoke uh Hellenistic Greek. 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:12.160 And he I built on this idea of the Logos also being the mind of God, and so all the philosophers were just really keen on this subject. 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:14.160 Oh, there's something called the Logos. 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:25.120 What a beautiful idea! It's the mind of God, it brings order to the universe, and then John the apostle sits down and pins the word. 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:29.279 In the beginning was the logos, the word. 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:37.759 And then in verse 14, John says, John 1:14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. 00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:45.360 So John could write that word, that logos, and immediately there was already this context built in. 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:46.720 It was a trigger. 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:48.720 The Greek philosophers saw it. 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:54.320 Oh, oh, the loath, this beautiful idea, it's a person, it's this guy Jesus. 00:08:55.679 --> 00:08:57.360 So that was all cooking. 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:03.200 So we have the the Jewish sacrificial system, we have the Greek philosophers. 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:04.960 Guess what else we have? 00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:10.320 There was no, there was what language would it would the Messiah have come into? 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:12.480 Why didn't he come into the Hebrew language? 00:09:12.639 --> 00:09:16.399 Why didn't he come into uh not enough people spoke that language? 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:18.000 There was not a universal language. 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:32.000 You know what when he came, when there was a universal language of Koine Greek, he came during a time that the dock workers and the aristocrats and everybody was speaking Koine Greek. 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:36.240 And why were they speaking this language together where they could communicate? 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:45.279 This language that was so simple and that was so um universal and everybody could understand it, had no complexity in it. 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:51.360 It was just like just a everybody could could communicate on the same level in this in this language, Koine Greek. 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:52.720 Why would everyone speak that? 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:55.039 How did that spread so quickly? 00:09:55.360 --> 00:10:05.440 Well, there was this conqueror, this dread champion, full of ego and full of himself, and his name was Alexander the Great. 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:26.080 And he went about conquering all of these kingdoms and these places uh far and wide and spreading the Hellenistic Greek language, Koine Greek, and spreading that language to all of the places that he conquered, and so that by the time Jesus came, there was a common language that could receive it. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:32.159 And then, so now the Hebrew scriptures can be translated into the Koine Greek. 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:34.000 It was a translation, maybe you've heard of it. 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:35.840 It was called the Septuagint. 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:47.600 And uh so so now the Hebrew scriptures could be translated into Greek, and so Gentiles could learn about God. 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:57.440 It was possible for them to read this cryptic language that only the Hebrews had locked up all of these years, but now lots of people could read it. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:10:59.200 Lots of people could understand. 00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:03.679 And when they heard the Logos was made flesh, it meant something to them. 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:05.759 That's fine. 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:11.519 Okay, so we have the the sacrificial system, people could understand it, they could now read about it in their language. 00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:19.519 They could um there was a philosophy that kind of that kind of tied to this idea of the logos, but how would it go? 00:11:19.679 --> 00:11:21.679 How would it, how would it spread? 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:29.600 Well, there were the Romans, and the Romans were really good at building roads. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:38.879 They engineered roads and aqueducts, and they had roads all the way, the Pax Romana, it was called, the network of roads for your feet. 00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:40.320 Pax, I think, means feet. 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:49.919 Anyway, it was for uh it was roads all the way, stone highways stretching from Spain to Syria. 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:55.919 Huge, huge network of roads to carry the gospel. 00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:06.240 The Romans did not think they were building something to carry the gospel, they thought they were spreading the Roman Empire. 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:10.240 Alexander the Great did not think he was spreading the gospel. 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:14.799 He thought he was spreading his own power and glory and ego. 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:16.879 And God let him think that. 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:22.960 In fact, they did not even know God. 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:27.600 They were they were uh serving other false gods. 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:35.919 That guy, Philo, Philo, I don't know how to say that, of Alexandria, he lived in Egypt, in the Egyptian Alexandria is in Egypt. 00:12:36.159 --> 00:12:37.440 He didn't know God. 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:42.639 He actually lived at the same time as Jesus, and there is no record that he ever wrote of Jesus. 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:44.399 How ironic is that? 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:49.200 He was not in it for God, he was just a philosopher. 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:51.759 Heracletus? 00:12:52.720 --> 00:12:54.480 Just a philosopher. 00:12:55.039 --> 00:12:59.200 Thought he was spreading, you know what, but God gave him an idea. 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:04.799 It rains on the just and the unjust, y'all. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:13.200 And then that cold, dead religious system that God hadn't sent a prophet to the Jews in 400 years. 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:21.519 They had forsaken God, they had they had turned God into this legalistic system and they had written off any relationship with him. 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:28.240 But God still invaded all of those ways, and he was a puppet master almost. 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:41.279 He was he was pulling their strings and they didn't know it, and they were willingly building of their own accord, but with God's, see, they were building a structure for Jesus to come. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:51.759 And I look at this world today and I see a structure of politics, of language, of thought and culture. 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:59.039 People did not know that they're building that, but they're building it to support the second coming of Jesus. 00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:03.440 They're building it for that, they're building it for the Lord. 00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:04.799 We are helping. 00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:08.000 We are either helping or we are hindering. 00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:12.799 And God's gonna get it done either way, but I want to be a helper. 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:21.759 God used them. 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:27.360 Daniel 220. 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:39.600 You know, Daniel was also now, this is an Old Testament prophet who uh who lived at the time of the uh when the Jews were were kicked out of Israel. 00:14:39.679 --> 00:14:41.440 They were carried away captive. 00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:52.639 Um yet Daniel got to serve King Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar had had a dream, and Nebuchadnezzar looked to Daniel as a confidant, as a guide. 00:14:52.799 --> 00:14:54.559 How can I, oh, I had this terrible dream. 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:57.200 Oh, so how can I understand it? 00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:06.240 And Daniel got the interpretation for the king, and he answered in Daniel 2 20, he said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:11.840 He changes the times and the seasons, he removes kings and he raises up kings. 00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:15.679 He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:23.120 He reveals deep and secret things, and he knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with him. 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:26.080 I want that light. 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:28.240 I want that light. 00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:31.279 And I know that God is working through our system right now. 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:38.559 So there is a, you know, in many, many things, there's there are things in the word that we have to balance out. 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:48.639 And um the two, there's a continuum, like we talk about the word and the spirit, you know, people who have real heavy of the word, they need, you know, they need a balance. 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:52.000 They need the Holy Spirit to come and breathe life on that word that they know. 00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:54.879 Or if the people have all spirit, they need the word to anchor them. 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:59.600 Otherwise, they're just emotional and flighty, and so they need the word and the spirit. 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:06.799 It's the same thing with these two ideas of God's sovereignty and the believer's authority. 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:13.919 You have people in the in the Christian world that are very, very heavy on, oh, God is sovereign. 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:16.240 Everything happens for a reason. 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:18.720 Every I this sickness that I have is from God. 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:19.440 He gave it to me. 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:21.519 He's sovereign, he rules over all. 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:30.480 He and and so when we look at a message like this, we say, oh, you know, see, uh, God's using uh He's using the EU, he's using George Soros. 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:34.320 He's using uh, you know, he might be, but it's against his will. 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:47.759 But you know, um there is that idea God is sovereign, but to me, there the other on the other side of the coin, there is the believer's authority. 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:54.399 People need to have a, they need to understand that we speak a thing, we decree a thing, and it comes to pass. 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:56.960 We have our word, you know. 00:16:57.200 --> 00:17:10.640 Um uh Ed Dufrain, our sweet friend, now in heaven, always said, Brother Ed, uh, God's sovereignty is in your mouth. 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:16.240 So God does, he works these things, but he uses us. 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:23.839 He uses somebody when Jesus came, there were Simeon and Anna who were waiting for the consolation of Israel. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:25.920 They were helping to pray it in. 00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:28.799 Would God have done it if they wouldn't have prayed? 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:29.519 I don't know. 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:31.680 But he put them in place to do their job. 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:33.440 We are in place to do our job. 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:44.079 We have a part to play and to pray in God's redemption, both the big, big redemption of the whole wide world, but also of the redemption of the things in your life. 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:45.759 We've got to pray those things in. 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:47.680 We've got to cooperate with those things. 00:17:47.839 --> 00:17:50.880 Um, I want to encourage you out of Ephesians 1:7. 00:17:52.559 --> 00:18:04.160 In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times. 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:13.039 Everybody say fullness of time, he might gather in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him. 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:14.559 So this is the second coming. 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:24.240 In him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:27.440 He works all things according to the counsel of his will. 00:18:27.599 --> 00:18:29.839 That's the Goddess sovereign camp. 00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:35.680 Those the people, the Goddess Sovereign Camp will quote the scripture and they will say it's the only scripture in the Bible. 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:40.000 He works all things according to the counsel of the of his own of his will. 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:48.880 And then the people in the other on the other side will say, you know, but um, you'll say unto this mountain, be moved and cast into the sea. 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:50.640 And we believe that. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:58.000 We say those things, but we when we say them, they have to be in line with God's will. 00:18:58.160 --> 00:19:00.000 That's how his sovereignty works. 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:01.599 It is already written. 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:02.880 It is written here. 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:07.200 When we speak in line with his will, then it comes to pass. 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:10.559 Then, then it comes to pass. 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:15.759 And um, and so we work together, we work together with God. 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:24.720 How awesome is that! And it comes from again when Galatians 4, when the fullness of time has come, what what would he do? 00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:36.720 He made us instead of now, instead of slaves and and and tutors and children under the law, where we're just learning and we're just children, and the law is teaching us a lesson. 00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:42.799 Now, the fullness of time, Jesus came, he redeemed us, and now we're not slaves and children anymore. 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:47.200 We're grown up and we're heirs, and we're we can be a partner with God. 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:50.960 We have a partnership with him and his redemptive power in the earth. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:52.000 Hallelujah. 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:53.519 That's awesome. 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:59.279 So, okay, so what five things can we do to cooperate with God? 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:10.720 And um, this is not gonna be a surprise, but uh, number one, uh, we want to major on relationship with God through the word and the spirit. 00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:13.200 We want to major on a relationship with God. 00:20:13.359 --> 00:20:37.599 There is a move in the church, I see this, and that the whole book of Galatians was written to a people who were being tempted to leave their salvation by grace through faith alone and go back to the legal system where they would be circumcised and they would follow the law and they would they would they were being dragged back. 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:43.680 And that's why Paul told them later in Galatians, he said, don't get dragged back there. 00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:51.200 Um stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:58.880 Then he says, Um, uh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, who has given you another gospel that you should believe? 00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:01.680 This other gospel, this other Jesus. 00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:05.279 No, Jesus, he paid all of the price for the sin. 00:21:05.440 --> 00:21:07.599 Do not be trying to go back to dead works. 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:11.759 So um, so major on relationship and not religion. 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:20.559 Um, for Galatians 4 9, so later in the passage he says, but now you have known God, or rather are known by God. 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:30.400 How is it that you can turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage? 00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:33.200 Religion is a weak and beggarly element. 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:36.880 Man's philosophy is a weak and beggarly element. 00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:49.519 It pales in comparison to the true relationship we can have with the real Jesus, where we can have koinonia back and forth, relationship with him, time with him, know his heart. 00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:53.759 He says, You observe days and months and seasons and years. 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:56.480 I am afraid for you lest I have labored in vain. 00:21:56.640 --> 00:21:59.759 Paul's saying, Don't, I don't want you to be a waste of my time. 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:01.200 I love y'all. 00:22:01.279 --> 00:22:03.039 I don't do this. 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:05.519 Don't go back into this religion. 00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:06.880 Don't don't do it. 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:08.400 We've had people in the past leave the church. 00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:14.000 I remember somebody left the church because they became Seventh-day Adventists so they could keep the Sabbath. 00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:16.480 That's the wrong way. 00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:18.079 That's a religion. 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:19.119 That's a system. 00:22:19.279 --> 00:22:21.920 That's a just major on relationship. 00:22:22.160 --> 00:22:22.799 Amen. 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:29.599 And then don't major, and then not so major on relationship, not on philosophy of man. 00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:34.079 So yes, God used philosophers, but they are not the answer. 00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:40.079 That same philosopher did not know Jesus when he came into the world and did not even recognize him. 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:50.319 That same philosopher, yes, he inspired, maybe inspired the Gospel of John to say, John the revelator, to say, hey, the logos is Jesus. 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:51.359 That's awesome. 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:56.960 But that same guy also inspired Frederick Nietzsche, who then inspired Hitler. 00:22:57.119 --> 00:22:58.559 So, like there, you know what I'm saying? 00:22:58.640 --> 00:23:02.720 Like, there were other, the philosophy itself is never the answer. 00:23:02.799 --> 00:23:09.279 We measure, it's not what the people are saying, it's who are we, who is in are we in relationship with? 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:13.119 And it should be Jesus, and uh, and we should be listening to him. 00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:19.359 Beware, Colossians 2.8, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit. 00:23:19.599 --> 00:23:22.559 And see, that's what I see on my phone, a lot of that. 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:27.759 There is a lot of philosophy and empty deceit that we can scroll through here. 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:33.519 And there's some good stuff, but then there's don't beware, just beware, have your guard up. 00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:52.720 Uh, because here's what it looks like according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of this world, in other words, the beggarly elements again, and not according to Christ, for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power. 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:54.480 You are complete in him. 00:23:54.880 --> 00:24:03.440 Uh so uh it's fine to study some things, to study to show yourself approved unto God. 00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:09.599 Uh, but beware, your study is secondary to your relationship with the Lord. 00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:24.160 And uh one thing I know my dad has been kind of like we all have such respect for Charlie Kirk and what he has brought to this to this movement, to the world right now, where people are now they're studying Western civilization. 00:24:24.319 --> 00:24:28.160 They know about these philosophers, they're reading stuff that they've never read before. 00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:30.160 That's good, but it can't be number one. 00:24:30.319 --> 00:24:35.680 Number one has to be your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ because that's who you're complete in. 00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:37.839 You're complete already in him. 00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:44.880 And if your brain can learn a few things on the side uh that might help you talk somebody off a ledge, that's great. 00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:46.000 But uh, you know what? 00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:48.079 The Holy Ghost knows all the stuff already. 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:52.240 If we can tap into him, he'll help us look smart when we need to. 00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:52.880 Amen. 00:24:53.039 --> 00:24:55.839 He'll help us win with signs, wonders, and miracles. 00:24:56.640 --> 00:24:57.519 That's the best way. 00:24:57.680 --> 00:24:58.240 Amen. 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:00.960 All right, number two, reject counterfeits. 00:25:01.359 --> 00:25:07.200 Um let me just say that everything God does, He everything God does. 00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:10.400 The devil wishes he could copy. 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:15.759 And he there is a counterfeit to everything God does. 00:25:16.079 --> 00:25:23.759 Um the children of Israel had the Philistines always fighting against them. 00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:25.920 The Philistines had a holy land. 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:27.039 Guess where that was? 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:28.799 The Gaza Strip. 00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:32.079 Guess who the Philistines are now today? 00:25:32.319 --> 00:25:33.279 The Palestinians. 00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:34.400 It's the same, it's the same. 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:35.920 Guess what they were good at? 00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:43.680 Uh uh projectiles, projectiles. 00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:46.640 They were arrows, bows and arrows. 00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:49.839 That was that was the Philistines were really good archers. 00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:52.079 And um, guess what the Philistines used? 00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:54.400 Rocks and missiles and bows and arrows. 00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:55.599 Modern day. 00:25:55.920 --> 00:26:03.200 And uh you could just there are a lot of, there are just counter, there's a counter, there's God's people and there's counterfeit. 00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:06.319 There's God's plan and there's a counterfeit in your own life. 00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:12.240 You know, there's God's best, and then there's something that God sends to look like God's best. 00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:14.319 And so we have to be patient. 00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:17.279 We have to pray to know God's plan, which brings me to the next one. 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:19.359 Pray to recognize God's work. 00:26:19.839 --> 00:26:31.279 I honestly, I think if I were living in the first century, I, you know, you wouldn't have looked at Alexander the Great and said, He's conquering people and teaching them Greek so that God can use that. 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:33.119 I mean, I don't think you would have seen that coming. 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:37.039 I don't think you would have seen that coming that God used President Trump either. 00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:39.519 Who would have thought that it saw that coming? 00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:41.599 That God would use it 20 years ago. 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:44.880 If you knew Donald Trump, he was kind of a playboy kind of a guy. 00:26:45.039 --> 00:26:46.880 He was just uh an entertainer. 00:26:47.039 --> 00:26:49.759 Nobody would have thought, but I think God's used him. 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:51.119 It's clear. 00:26:51.279 --> 00:26:52.799 It's clear that he is. 00:26:54.880 --> 00:27:01.920 You know, one of the things the Romans did when they built those roads, um, before they built their roads, there were pirates. 00:27:02.079 --> 00:27:11.599 If you did try to travel, you would get beat up, like the like the parable of the of the good Samaritan, um, you know, who was beat up while he was traveling and all his money was stolen from him. 00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:12.799 That was very, very common. 00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:14.079 There were pirates. 00:27:14.559 --> 00:27:16.880 Um, we have that in certain areas today. 00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:20.240 But the Romans cleaned all of that up while they were building the roads. 00:27:20.319 --> 00:27:27.279 They were also fighting and conquering and making it clear that they were there to take the money, not the pirates. 00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:30.720 They were gonna seize it in your taxes. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:37.599 But um it's interesting to see what God, what is God using today? 00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:43.519 I don't pretend to know all the answers, but I can't I tell you one thing, 1 Corinthians 2 9. 00:27:45.039 --> 00:27:54.799 I has not seen nor ear heard now, nor has it even entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for you, his saints, his people. 00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:01.680 But God has revealed it to us by his spirit. 00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:07.680 You didn't think of it, it didn't even enter your mind. 00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:12.640 All the good, there's goodness, and you can't, it's more than you can imagine, Ephesians 3.20. 00:28:12.720 --> 00:28:21.119 It's it's beyond what you could ask or think, above and beyond abundantly, above and beyond everything you could ask or think is so big. 00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:22.400 Oh, you can't know. 00:28:22.480 --> 00:28:23.599 No, you can know it. 00:28:23.839 --> 00:28:25.359 God has revealed it. 00:28:25.680 --> 00:28:28.559 2 Corinthians 2.10, but God has revealed it. 00:28:28.720 --> 00:28:31.440 But God, everybody say, but God has revealed it. 00:28:31.680 --> 00:28:33.599 But God has revealed it. 00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:39.920 So pray, pray that you'll know the things, so you'll know your part in them, and you'll it matters. 00:28:40.079 --> 00:28:48.160 Look, God worked through politics, then he worked through Alexander the Great, was a conqueror, was a warmonger, was a probably a tyrant. 00:28:48.319 --> 00:28:50.880 I would not have wanted to be conquered by him. 00:28:52.559 --> 00:28:58.079 Throughout the Bible, okay, Rahab. 00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:07.119 If you rewind, way back to the time of uh just when the Jews were starting to enter the promised land, and the fourth book of the Bible, Joshua. 00:29:09.839 --> 00:29:12.240 Oh, sorry, sixth book of the Bible. 00:29:12.559 --> 00:29:13.839 I can count. 00:29:15.599 --> 00:29:21.920 There was a at first she is is identified as Rahab the harlot. 00:29:23.119 --> 00:29:25.440 So she didn't have a good reputation. 00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:28.480 She was, she needed redemption. 00:29:28.799 --> 00:29:31.920 She was one of the people that were marked for destruction. 00:29:32.079 --> 00:29:59.359 She happened to be born and live in the town of Jericho, which was in God's, it was in the Israelites' promised land, and the Jericho people, the Canaanites, they had a detestable, awful religion that um that was not pro-family, it was not pro-children, it was a terrible civilization, and God had deemed that it was the fullness of time for that for that people had come and that they were marked for destruction. 00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:03.359 What was it about Rahab that was different? 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:21.759 Well, she recognized she was a she was a harlot, she was a temple um harlot, but she received the the the the Israelites into her home and she took care of the spies and she worked for the right side. 00:30:21.920 --> 00:30:26.160 She ended up working for God's side and not the devil's side. 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:29.200 So pick the right side and pick the right side. 00:30:29.440 --> 00:30:46.480 And so she was redeemed by that one act, and then her and all of her family and all of her stuff, everything else in Jericho, her town, was completely destroyed, and people were dragged off and killed, and it was it was Mahem. 00:30:47.119 --> 00:30:51.759 But her family was redeemed, her family was chosen and set apart. 00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:56.960 And not only that, from then on, she's not referred to a harlot anymore. 00:30:57.200 --> 00:31:12.079 She actually ends up marrying one of the Jewish uh, they were then the conquerors, so she marries a Hebrew man, and now she becomes the grandmother of David the king. 00:31:14.400 --> 00:31:20.720 I believe she um she she marries uh Salmon and then she begets Boaz. 00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:34.000 Boaz begets Obed, Obed begets Jesse, Jesse begot David, and David begot Solomon, and Solomon blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah begot Jesus. 00:31:36.160 --> 00:31:39.200 Don't tell me God can't redeem anything. 00:31:40.079 --> 00:31:42.400 Oh, but Claire, I'm a single mom. 00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:44.720 You can't change your past. 00:31:45.680 --> 00:31:49.920 You should do everything you can to cooperate right now going forward. 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:55.039 You should do everything you can do to cooperate with the plan of God. 00:31:55.359 --> 00:31:56.559 Everything. 00:31:56.960 --> 00:31:58.960 Because this book is life. 00:31:59.200 --> 00:32:00.880 And you didn't know back then. 00:32:01.039 --> 00:32:05.119 You didn't know what you didn't know, and so you made mistakes, and now you're where you are. 00:32:05.359 --> 00:32:06.799 God is a redeemer. 00:32:07.119 --> 00:32:13.279 He is taking all of that and he's rolling it up and he's making something beautiful out of it. 00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:17.839 You didn't know back then, but he was building a road, you were building a road for him. 00:32:18.079 --> 00:32:23.920 You didn't know, but you were changing the language, you didn't know, but there was a new philosophy and mindset. 00:32:24.079 --> 00:32:31.440 You didn't know, but he was building a relationship with you, and he was laying the way, and he was coming, and he's gonna right now in the fullness of time, there's a time. 00:32:32.640 --> 00:32:35.680 And he's coming and he's gonna redeem all of that. 00:32:37.680 --> 00:32:40.000 So from this day forward, that's my point number four. 00:32:40.160 --> 00:32:43.680 Do everything you can to cooperate with that. 00:32:44.079 --> 00:32:48.480 Everything you can to do this right here, and put the past behind you. 00:32:48.640 --> 00:32:50.880 You didn't know back then, but you know now. 00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:55.519 And so do what you know to do, and God will bless you. 00:32:55.759 --> 00:33:01.519 If you did it wrong, if you got it, if you get it wrong in the future, repent and go the other way. 00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:05.519 And then help other people not do the same mistakes you did. 00:33:05.920 --> 00:33:06.559 It's hard. 00:33:06.640 --> 00:33:08.640 The truth is, it's hard to be a single mom. 00:33:08.799 --> 00:33:12.559 It's much easier to pick the person the right time, the first time, and pick them. 00:33:12.640 --> 00:33:13.839 It's better to do that. 00:33:14.079 --> 00:33:17.200 It's better even when marriage is hard, it's better to make it work. 00:33:17.359 --> 00:33:21.440 It's better rather than uh nursing a grievance. 00:33:21.759 --> 00:33:24.799 It's better to forgive that person even when it's hard. 00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:33.279 It's better to look at yourself and and try to find the thing you did wrong instead of focusing on the thing the other person did wrong. 00:33:33.440 --> 00:33:34.640 It's better to save it. 00:33:34.799 --> 00:33:40.000 When you can save it, it's better, it's better, it's always better, but God He still redeems. 00:33:40.240 --> 00:33:43.519 I don't know how He used it, I don't know how He's gonna do it. 00:33:44.559 --> 00:33:47.119 But He's a redeemer and He makes something beautiful. 00:33:47.279 --> 00:33:49.200 He takes the pieces and turns them to praises. 00:33:49.359 --> 00:33:53.039 That's one of our favorite uh lyrics of song lyrics around here. 00:33:53.839 --> 00:33:59.039 He takes it and he makes it something good, but but cooperate with Him and do the word that you know. 00:33:59.279 --> 00:34:00.720 And then finally, don't give up. 00:34:00.799 --> 00:34:02.240 Never, never, never, never give up. 00:34:02.480 --> 00:34:05.039 Number five, never, never, never, never give up. 00:34:05.200 --> 00:34:15.360 Galatians six, if we if we go down to Galatians all the way to the to the last chapter, it says, let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season. 00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:21.679 You shall reap if you do not lose heart. 00:34:21.840 --> 00:34:22.800 In due season. 00:34:22.960 --> 00:34:24.400 When is due season? 00:34:24.719 --> 00:34:25.920 I don't know. 00:34:28.719 --> 00:34:30.480 But you gotta know it's coming. 00:34:30.639 --> 00:34:31.440 You gotta know. 00:34:31.519 --> 00:34:33.199 You gotta have faith that it is coming. 00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:34.719 It is your due season. 00:34:34.880 --> 00:34:37.519 You have sown your seed and you shall reap a harvest. 00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:39.119 There is due season. 00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:42.400 Don't be weary, keep doing the good. 00:34:44.400 --> 00:34:45.840 Is it hard sometimes? 00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:47.920 Yeah, it's hard. 00:34:53.360 --> 00:34:54.880 Habakkuk 2.2. 00:35:00.239 --> 00:35:11.119 Then the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. 00:35:12.239 --> 00:35:23.599 There is an encouragement every day that can come if you write that thing that God showed you, that thing that you're believing God to be, to do for him. 00:35:25.519 --> 00:35:28.079 What is he making out of your life? 00:35:28.800 --> 00:35:32.880 Take time to pray about it, get a vision and write it somewhere. 00:35:33.039 --> 00:35:34.880 Make it plain and then run. 00:35:35.039 --> 00:35:36.000 Run to go do it. 00:35:36.159 --> 00:35:39.119 Run to let him let him inspire you. 00:35:39.920 --> 00:35:43.360 For the verse three, for the vision is yet for an appointed time. 00:35:43.519 --> 00:35:45.199 Everybody say an appointed time. 00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:48.239 That word is a Hebrew word, Moed. 00:35:48.960 --> 00:35:51.760 And it is an appointment. 00:35:53.039 --> 00:35:58.480 If you have an appointment, you don't, if, if, if you have an appointment. 00:35:58.719 --> 00:36:00.239 Hey, I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. 00:36:00.320 --> 00:36:02.559 I'm gonna be at my doctor's office. 00:36:02.719 --> 00:36:05.440 I'm gonna be at the nail, the nail lady's gonna be doing my nail. 00:36:05.519 --> 00:36:06.639 I have an appointment. 00:36:06.880 --> 00:36:10.000 I am not just a walk in, maybe I'll go. 00:36:10.079 --> 00:36:10.639 I might be. 00:36:10.719 --> 00:36:13.199 No, if you have an appointment, you're like, I'm gonna be there. 00:36:13.440 --> 00:36:14.480 I'm gonna be there. 00:36:14.639 --> 00:36:17.840 And there's an appointed time, and God said, I'm gonna be there. 00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:20.000 The stars already are aligned. 00:36:20.079 --> 00:36:22.639 I mean, like he literally he laid them out. 00:36:22.880 --> 00:36:26.079 When Jesus came, have y'all ever, that's a whole other thing. 00:36:26.239 --> 00:36:31.280 I I can't even preach on that tonight, but there was an entire constellations. 00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:43.280 Uh the king star overlaid the the virgin star and the virgin constellation, and and it's over the the it all of this stuff came together. 00:36:45.760 --> 00:36:47.440 It was in the fullness of time. 00:36:47.679 --> 00:36:51.440 God set the universe in motion back in Genesis chapter one. 00:36:51.920 --> 00:37:02.480 We didn't know how he did it, and we don't know if he sped everything up or if he slows it down or how did he coordinate with exactly when all the but it happened. 00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:09.280 Some people think, and I I've come to think um that Jesus was actually not born in December. 00:37:09.679 --> 00:37:11.280 He was born on Passover. 00:37:12.559 --> 00:37:13.760 When else would he be born? 00:37:13.920 --> 00:37:14.880 That was a it was a feast. 00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:16.000 That was he was fulfilled. 00:37:16.079 --> 00:37:16.880 There were appointed times. 00:37:17.119 --> 00:37:20.559 Moed, that time, Moad, that that was an appointment God had with his people. 00:37:20.719 --> 00:37:22.239 There were seven feasts in Israel. 00:37:22.320 --> 00:37:31.599 We will not do a whole teaching on the seven feasts, but everything God did, he did on a feast day, on a Jewish feast day, feast of tabernacles, feast of Passover. 00:37:33.119 --> 00:37:42.719 Uh there were feasts and there were appointed times, there were Moads that God fulfilled and Jesus, Jesus fulfilled. 00:37:44.239 --> 00:37:50.320 He fulfilled them in his life and birth and ministry, and then he will fulfill them in his second coming. 00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:54.079 The Feast of Trumpets, the rapture. 00:38:05.840 --> 00:38:08.400 You have an appointment, it's just like Christmas. 00:38:08.480 --> 00:38:09.519 It's coming. 00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:11.599 It's coming. 00:38:13.280 --> 00:38:16.320 At the end, it will speak and it will not lie. 00:38:16.559 --> 00:38:20.559 Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come. 00:38:22.159 --> 00:38:22.880 Will it tarry? 00:38:23.039 --> 00:38:23.599 It won't tarry. 00:38:23.679 --> 00:38:25.599 I don't can't tell from the scripture. 00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:30.800 Whatever it is, I know it's on a schedule, and I'm gonna be patient. 00:38:30.880 --> 00:38:32.159 I'm gonna keep doing good. 00:38:32.320 --> 00:38:38.960 I'm not gonna be weary in my doing good because there is due season, it's coming, and I'm gonna I'm gonna reap. 00:38:39.760 --> 00:38:43.199 And my my Moa and my my Christmas is coming. 00:38:43.840 --> 00:38:45.760 Jesus is coming. 00:38:46.480 --> 00:38:48.880 And he is a redeemer of all things. 00:38:49.119 --> 00:38:49.760 Amen. 00:38:49.920 --> 00:38:51.679 I hope that encouraged you tonight. 00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:53.760 He's redeeming things. 00:38:54.079 --> 00:38:55.280 It's a wonderful time. 00:38:55.360 --> 00:38:58.880 The set time, the time to favor her has come. 00:39:03.760 --> 00:39:08.800 Joseph was a slave in Egypt until in the in the in this fet in fetters and iron. 00:39:08.880 --> 00:39:13.519 God laid his soul in irons until the time of his word came to pass, Psalm 105. 00:39:13.679 --> 00:39:17.039 Until the time, until the time, until the time, until the time, until the time. 00:39:17.199 --> 00:39:18.480 Have you suffered tonight? 00:39:19.760 --> 00:39:21.119 Have you been in darkness? 00:39:21.280 --> 00:39:24.960 Have you not, you haven't, you haven't seen the full plan of God come together? 00:39:25.119 --> 00:39:25.760 Please hold on. 00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:27.599 Please don't be weary in well-doing. 00:39:27.760 --> 00:39:30.079 Please keep doing as much as you can of the word. 00:39:30.320 --> 00:39:33.199 It has that person disrespected you, love them anyway. 00:39:33.360 --> 00:39:34.239 Keep doing this word. 00:39:34.559 --> 00:39:36.159 It will be for an appointed time. 00:39:36.320 --> 00:39:39.920 And God is working something good through you. 00:39:40.079 --> 00:39:41.599 Please rise above it. 00:39:41.840 --> 00:39:44.960 Please don't give up. 00:39:45.280 --> 00:39:47.199 God has an appointed time and He's redeeming it. 00:39:47.280 --> 00:39:49.920 He's redeeming it to Himself and He's redeeming all of us. 00:39:50.079 --> 00:39:51.360 And soon He is coming. 00:39:51.599 --> 00:39:52.239 Amen.