SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Family Church's Sermon of the Week.
SPEAKER_00: We're so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00: Each week we share a message from God's Word to encourage your heart, strengthen your faith, and help you grow in your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We hope this time blesses you and draws you closer to the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: We have been uh in lots of the Psalms all summer, and today we're gonna look at Psalm 19.
SPEAKER_01: And and uh um this this is a psalm that is used in in a lot of theology classes.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever taken a theology class?
SPEAKER_01: This psalm is used to demonstrate how God reveals himself to us.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, God reveals himself to us personally, he reveals himself to mankind, and this psalm is often used as a demonstration of that.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so it's kind of like men, married men out there, husbands.
SPEAKER_01: You know, there was a time when you know when you met your future wife, and you know, it started maybe like as a crush, but then it you know it became more than a crush, and finally you're just madly in love with her, and somehow you had to reveal your feelings and intentions to her.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: You had you had to reveal that to her.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe, maybe your your revelation to her was some grand gesture, like Heath Ledger in that movie, Ten Things I Hate About You.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, he gets the marching band involved, he pays off the sound guy in the stadium, and he grabs a microphone and he dances down the bleachers, singing that song by Frankie Valley.
SPEAKER_01: What was it called?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, come on, you've seen the movie.
SPEAKER_01: I love you, baby.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: I love you, baby.
SPEAKER_01: He sings that coming all the way down the bleachers and and Windsor Hart, I guess.
SPEAKER_01: I've only seen that clip, I've never seen the whole movie.
SPEAKER_01: You know, who wouldn't fall for that though?
SPEAKER_01: But you know, so maybe your maybe your revelation to your wife was a grand gesture like that, or probably it looked more like Napoleon Dynamite asking Deborah to the prom.
SPEAKER_01: You know, could have been something like that.
SPEAKER_01: But but either way, you you revealed to her, you intentionally revealed to her, this is how I feel, this is what this is my intention, and and and and that was your revelation of yourself to her.
SPEAKER_01: So God makes the same kind of revelation to us.
SPEAKER_01: All right, and and in theology classes, I'll give you a little theology lesson here.
SPEAKER_01: In theology classes, they tell you there are two kinds of revelation.
SPEAKER_01: First, there is general revelation, and then there is special revelation.
SPEAKER_01: So, general revelation is God's self-disclosure to all mankind.
SPEAKER_01: And special revelation is God's direct communication of specific information about himself and his truth.
SPEAKER_01: All right, so general revelation is made to all mankind, and general revelation would include like his creation and history.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you can see, you can see in his creation, you can see the power of God in creation if you're paying attention.
SPEAKER_01: In history, you can see, you can see the hand of God, you can see his sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at it through the lens of scripture, you can look at history and you can see the hand of God all through uh human history.
SPEAKER_01: And so, so uh special revelation includes like the the you know his direct communication to us, and that would include like the prophets, you know, him speaking he's him speaking to the prophets, or Old Testament appearances of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus showed up sometimes in the Old Testament, and and then also, and more importantly, the Bible is his special revelation to us.
SPEAKER_01: And special revelation is far more descriptive of who God is and much more personal.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in Psalm 19, verses 1 through 6 are an example of his general revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And I would love it if you would stand and read this with me.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, it's gonna be on the screen up there.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 119, verses 1 through 6.
SPEAKER_01: It says, The heavens proclaim the glory of God, the skies display his craftsmanship.
SPEAKER_01: Day after day they continue to speak, night after night they make him known.
SPEAKER_01: They speak without a sound or word, their voice is never heard, yet their message has gone out through all the earth, and their words to all the world.
SPEAKER_01: God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.
SPEAKER_01: It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding, it rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race.
SPEAKER_01: The sun rises at one end of the heavens, and it follows its course to the other end.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing can hide from its heat.
SPEAKER_01: So that is, thank you, you may be seated, that is the general, that describes the general revelation of God to all mankind.
SPEAKER_01: And so so just through something like the sun and the moon and the stars, God is revealing himself.
SPEAKER_01: And and I think I think that maybe we kind of take those for granted now when it comes to God revealing himself.
SPEAKER_01: Because really, you know, we we look at the sun and the moon and all that, and we think, okay, what's the best day to get a tan?
SPEAKER_01: You know, do I need to wear sunscreen?
SPEAKER_01: You know, should I put a hat on for guys that are, you know, we're we're losing it up top?
SPEAKER_01: We put a hat on when I go outside.
SPEAKER_01: That's why, that's that's the only reason why we look at the sun, moon, and stars.
SPEAKER_01: You know, but back in David's day, when David walked the earth, they used the sun, moon, and stars every day for practical things.
SPEAKER_01: For instance, when David wanted to know what time it is, you know, when we want to know what time it is, we do this.
SPEAKER_01: Or we pull out our phone and we do this.
SPEAKER_01: When David wanted to know what time it was, he looked at the sun to see what time of day it was.
SPEAKER_01: If David wanted to know what month it was, he would look at the stars because they would follow the zodiac patterns and they'd know what month it was based on that.
SPEAKER_01: Or they would know it was the new month, new month, because there would be a new moon.
SPEAKER_01: So they looked at those things.
SPEAKER_01: They uh they they looked, we look at a GPS or a map to know where we're going.
SPEAKER_01: They look at the stars and they look at the moon and the sun to know which direction to go.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we look at the weather channel to know what the weather's gonna be like and if it's gonna rain.
SPEAKER_01: We look at a thermostat if we want more or less heat.
SPEAKER_01: So we don't depend on the sun, moon, and stars the way uh they did when David walked the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Even like my son, when we lived in Florida, we lived a mile from the beach, so my sons were surfers when we were there.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, they would they would plan their whole day around the tides.
SPEAKER_01: So we homeschooled them, so they'd they'd look the day before and they'd say, okay, we can do these subjects until 10 in the morning, and we get on our bike so the surfboards, and we ride to the beach, we surf for an hour, and then we come home and we do math and whatever.
SPEAKER_01: You know, so that they would plan their whole day around that, but they would look at a at the surf report online.
SPEAKER_01: They go online and look at the surf report.
SPEAKER_01: If David were a surfer, David would be looking, paying attention to the moon because it it controls the tides, and he'd be watching wind speeds and things like that.
SPEAKER_01: He would look to the heavens just for something as simple as, is today a good day to go surfing?
SPEAKER_01: You know, we don't do that anymore.
SPEAKER_01: We take all of that for granted because we don't depend on it, and they could depend on it because they followed predictable, unchanging patterns throughout the year.
SPEAKER_01: So they could depend on those things for accurate information.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: So by depending on them, by depending on them, they had they had to understand, you know, if you're if you're looking up and you're seeing all this and it's telling the time and the weather and the you know, and surf reports or whatever, you know, you have to think there's got to be something in control of this.
SPEAKER_01: You know, something that that precise and that pattern doesn't happen by accident.
SPEAKER_01: There's got to be something in control of this.
SPEAKER_01: So depending on your heart, you could look at the sun, moon, and stars, and you you could think, you could see, either see the majesty of God's creation, or you could you could take it somewhere else and turn your back on what God intended with that and think that it's something else and choose another way of thinking and living.
SPEAKER_01: But you can see the glory of God, the power and the majesty of God in the heavens, which is what verse 19 is telling us.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul talked about this in Romans 1, verses 19 and 20.
SPEAKER_01: He said, and he said it's exactly this.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it said that that you know that God revealed himself to us through the heavens.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious for them.
SPEAKER_01: For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky through everything God made.
SPEAKER_01: They can clearly see his invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature.
SPEAKER_01: So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says it.
SPEAKER_01: Even somebody who has completely turned their back on God, they are without excuse because you can see the hand of God in his creation, especially the sun, moon, and stars.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't realize this until I was studying this this week.
SPEAKER_01: Paul actually used that when he would preach or share the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: He would use that.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this in Acts 14, 15 to 17, he's he's uh preaching to a group of people, and he said, Friends, why are you doing this?
SPEAKER_01: Why why are merely human we are merely human beings just like you?
SPEAKER_01: We have come to bring you the good news that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God, who made the heaven and sea and earth and everything in them.
SPEAKER_01: In the past, he permitted all the nations to go their own ways, but he never left them without evidence of himself and his goodness.
SPEAKER_01: For instance, he sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts.
SPEAKER_01: He's when he's when he's sharing the gospel with the people of his day, he's saying, Look, he's the one who created all this.
SPEAKER_01: You know, they would make a God out of everyone.
SPEAKER_01: They'd have a moon god and a sun god and a star god and this and this and this and this.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Paul just said, he's the one who created it all.
SPEAKER_01: And you can see it in his handiwork.
SPEAKER_01: That is the general revelation of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the general revelation of God.
SPEAKER_01: So through the general revelation of God, you can see that God is uh omnipowerful, he's all powerful, he's all-present, he's omniscient, he knows everything, he's eternal, he's sovereign.
SPEAKER_01: You could definitely come to the conclusion by paying attention to his creation that yes, there is a God out there.
SPEAKER_01: There's a God out there.
SPEAKER_01: But to know God and to know his plan to save mankind, God revealed himself in a more intimate way.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: That is his special revelation, and it's all recorded in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: All recorded in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And you're not that it's total full disclosure that God gives you, complete full disclosure.
SPEAKER_01: And you're not gonna get that in any other relationship.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna get full disclosure in any other relationship.
SPEAKER_01: For example, men, husbands, when you're leaving here today, you get in the car, you get out of the parking lot, and then you say, Where do you want to go for lunch?
SPEAKER_01: Whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the married men in here, the men that have been married a while, they know whatever does not mean whatever.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're a young man that one day wants to get married, if if you learn this one lesson today, whatever never means whatever when you're talking to your wife, that's a good lesson to learn.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So you ask her, all right, what where where do you want to go to lunch?
SPEAKER_01: She says, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't it be nice to have a manual that is full disclosure that you can you can pick up and you can open and you can go, okay, lunch, lunch, lunch, lunch.
SPEAKER_01: There's lunch.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, uh, anything.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not hungry anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever means Italian.
SPEAKER_01: And you look at her and go, all right, we're going for Italian food, and she goes, How did you know?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's in the manual.
SPEAKER_01: That would be so wonderful if we had that kind of a manual.
SPEAKER_01: But we don't.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: There's some men are applauding out there.
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
SPEAKER_01: But uh we don't have that manual.
SPEAKER_01: So God is the only one that gives us a full disclosure manual, and that's his word.
SPEAKER_01: No other relationship gives you that advantage.
SPEAKER_01: God alone will give you full disclosure.
SPEAKER_01: And and the final verse, or the next few verses of Psalm 19, talk about here are the benefits of that full disclosure.
SPEAKER_01: Here are the benefits of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: Here's six things that your life can have if you just spend time in the word.
SPEAKER_01: If you just take advantage of the full disclosure of who God is and learn to know who he is.
SPEAKER_01: All right, six ways the Bible can change your life.
SPEAKER_01: First, your soul is restored.
SPEAKER_01: Your soul is restored.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's any any I don't I think everybody understands that that in our culture right now, we have a soul problem.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And it's epidemic.
SPEAKER_01: It's of epidemic proportions.
SPEAKER_01: We have a soul problem.
SPEAKER_01: The number of people receiving therapy and counseling has gone up by 50% over the last five years.
SPEAKER_01: 50%.
SPEAKER_01: Nearly one in four adults receive mental care, mental health care of some kind.
SPEAKER_01: One in four adults.
SPEAKER_01: The use of antidepressants has increased by 69% in the last decade.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not anti-therapy or anti-medication, if if if that's what you need, that's what you need.
SPEAKER_01: But the word of God has the ability to restore and heal your soul.
SPEAKER_01: There is the ability to restore and heal your soul.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to these statistics from the Center for Bible Engagement, which has surveyed more than 650,000 people worldwide, consistently found that people who engage in Bible reading four times a week, four or more times a week, report fewer emotional struggles, such as 30% less likely to struggle with loneliness from studying God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_01: 31% less likely to feel discouraged, 40% less likely to feel bitter, 32% less likely to think destructively about yourself or others, 31% less likely to have difficulty forgiving others, 26% less likely to have difficulty forgiving themselves, and 14% less likely to experience fear or anxiety from reading the Bible four times a week.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a bad deal.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: That's a pretty good prescription if you're struggling with any of those things.
SPEAKER_01: To just say, you know what, I'm gonna start, I'm gonna start incorporating God's word daily into my life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's gonna help.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says it will help.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this is what uh David said in Psalm 119, and these are not on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: It says, My soul weeps because of grief.
SPEAKER_01: Strengthen me according to your word.
SPEAKER_01: This is my comfort in my affliction that your word has revived me.
SPEAKER_01: May your loving kindness comfort me according to your word.
SPEAKER_01: My soul languishes for your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: I wait for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Or excuse me, I wait for your word.
SPEAKER_01: Trouble and anguish have come upon me, yet your commandments are my delight.
SPEAKER_01: And and uh Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Every verse, there's 150 or something verses in there, every verse talks about the word of God, and most of them say something like that.
SPEAKER_01: This is what God's word does for me.
SPEAKER_01: This is how God's word changes my life.
SPEAKER_01: So if your soul needs a makeover, if you're struggling with any of these things, start there.
SPEAKER_01: Start there.
SPEAKER_01: Get in the habit of spending time in the word daily, even if it's just five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: If you're thinking, man, my schedule is so crazy, there's no way I can sit down for any length of time.
SPEAKER_01: God can change your heart and your mind and your life in five minutes of Bible reading as easy as he can with you reading for an hour.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's God, he can do that.
SPEAKER_01: But start making God's word a regular, everyday part of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Next, when you read the why read the Bible, you become wise.
SPEAKER_01: You become wise.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Um the first part of verse 7 says, The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
SPEAKER_01: And I love this verse also in Psalm 119, starting in verse 98.
SPEAKER_01: Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are my constant guide.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I have more insight than my teachers.
SPEAKER_01: Kids, you start in school this week.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think you're gonna be smarter than your teachers, but man, you can you can be wiser than your teachers by reading God's word.
SPEAKER_01: Make me give me more insight for my teachers, for I'm always thinking of your laws.
SPEAKER_01: I'm even wiser than my elders, for I've kept your commandments.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Number three, you experience joy.
SPEAKER_01: When you read God's word, you experience joy.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, first half of uh verse eight says, The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart.
SPEAKER_01: You want joy?
SPEAKER_01: Spend more time in the Word.
SPEAKER_01: If your life is lacking joy, you're gonna look for joy in so many different places, you're gonna look for it in relationships or substances or something you think that's gonna be the solution for joy.
SPEAKER_01: God's word is the solution for joy.
SPEAKER_01: You get strength from God's word, the Bible says, the joy of the Lord is my strength.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So if you want, if you need joy, get in the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the last three of the six, I'm gonna lump together.
SPEAKER_01: Uh look at the second half of verse eight through and and verse nine.
SPEAKER_01: It says, The commandments of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.
SPEAKER_01: Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever.
SPEAKER_01: The laws of the Lord are true, each one is fair.
SPEAKER_01: These three are very closely related.
SPEAKER_01: They're very closely related, so we're gonna put them all together.
SPEAKER_01: Um, first, when you when you regularly read God's word, when God's word is part of every day, you have insight for living.
SPEAKER_01: You have insight for living.
SPEAKER_01: You know, ever every day you make 35,000 decisions.
SPEAKER_01: Some of those are inconsequential, others are life-changing.
SPEAKER_01: You know, wouldn't it be nice to just have that insight naturally because you've spent time in the word?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes what we do, instead of, instead of, you know, we're instead of we have those answers because we've been in the word, we think, okay, I've got this decision to make.
SPEAKER_01: What does God's word say?
SPEAKER_01: You know, and that's the first time we've been in God's word in two months and we've got a life-changing decision to make, and we're thinking that we're gonna find an answer that says, yes, take that job.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, date that girl.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you're looking for answers like that.
SPEAKER_01: But if you're in the word every day, every day, those answers are just gonna come because it's insight.
SPEAKER_01: It's not answers, it's insight.
SPEAKER_01: You have a better understanding.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible has lots to say about money management, relationships, raising children, work ethic, you know, the things that you are doing every day, if you want insight on those things, the answers are in the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: The answers are in the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible has a lot to say about all of that.
SPEAKER_01: So if your questions about money, family, work, or whatever, you know, if you turn to turn to God, you know, just don't God didn't God didn't just reveal himself to you so that so that you could be saved or just to let you know how powerful he is or how much he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: He revealed himself to you because he wants to be involved in your everyday life.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to be there when you're making the 35,000 decisions that you make every day.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he revealed himself to you.
SPEAKER_01: Because he wants to be there for you.
SPEAKER_01: Number five, if you spend time in the word every day, you can have freedom from sin.
SPEAKER_01: You can have freedom from sin.
SPEAKER_01: If you're faced with a decision that is potentially sinful, well, you know the right choice to make because you've been in the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: You've been in the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And and and you know, maybe, maybe it's a uh uh uh something that is it is not inherently a biblical choice, like kids that have chosen to go to college or who you chose to marry, they're not inherently biblical choices, but there are biblical principles that can influence those choices.
SPEAKER_01: And you're not gonna know those unless you're in the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna have that insight unless you're in the word of God, and you're gonna have that freedom from sin.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have freedom from sin when you make those choices.
SPEAKER_01: If it's if it's the choice between something sinful and not, you're gonna know the right choice to make.
SPEAKER_01: You can have freedom from sin because of God's word and because Christ is living within you.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're here today and you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, you cannot have complete freedom from sin.
SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe you know, I've never accepted Jesus, but you know, I've read the word and I don't do this and I don't do that, so I don't, I'm not a bondage to those, I'm not in bondage to those things.
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't accept Christ as your savior, you're never completely free from the bondage of sin because you're not free from the penalty of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 6 23 says, the wages of sin is death, spiritual, eternal death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And 10.13 says, if we confess our sins, or excuse me, if if we confess with our mouth that he is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we can be saved.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And then look at this verse in Romans 6.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read this one to you.
SPEAKER_01: It's not in your notes, it's not on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: Says this talking to believers, he said, We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: We are no longer slaves to sin, for when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Only if you are saved are you set free from the power of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I still needed that page.
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad I picked it up.
SPEAKER_01: Only if you're set free, only if you're saved are you set free from the power of sin in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So in a minute we're gonna talk about that.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna talk about what it means to be set free from sin, from the penalty of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Final thing, you can have peace of mind.
SPEAKER_01: If you read your Bible every day, you can have peace of mind because God's word is just and fair.
SPEAKER_01: God's word is just and fair.
SPEAKER_01: I have a bit of a lead foot.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have a complete disregard for the law.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just easily distracted and I have a tendency to go as fast as the guy in front of me.
SPEAKER_01: So, because of that, I have my share of speeding tickets.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm not I'm not like looking for cops over my shoulder and gunning it, but it just happens.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I'm when I'm doing 75 without thinking and I'm doing 75 and I know the speed limit's 55, and then I see the blue lights in my rearview mirror, you know, I I you know I'm like, oh, I can't believe that happened.
SPEAKER_01: But I have peace of mind because I know the law, and I know that I broke the law, and that I am I am given the punishment that comes with that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there there was one time when I know that I wasn't speeding, and there was a helicopter or plane or something overhead that had a radar gun, and when I got down uh at the the exit, there was a cop waiting for me, and he said, The airplane caught you speeding, and I said, I was not speeding, because I was following this really slow truck on this entire road for 20 miles, following this truck, and and he go, and he said, Well, our man in the sky said you were speeding, so we're gonna write you the ticket.
SPEAKER_01: So I contested it in court, and and the the reason I knew it wasn't me is because they said it was a blue minivan, and I drove a purple minivan.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't pick that color, that's what was given to us, but I drove a purple minivan, so I went to court and I contested and I said, It says it was a blue minivan, my van is purple.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, Can you prove it?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, you can see it right there out that window.
SPEAKER_01: There's my van, it's purple.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't care.
SPEAKER_01: The judge didn't care.
SPEAKER_01: So she she said, sorry,$250 fine.
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, when I that was 20 years ago, and I think back on that, and like it still fries my cookies a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: You know, still bugs me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have peace of mind about that.
SPEAKER_01: Because it wasn't fair.
SPEAKER_01: But when you know God's law, when you understand this is the law of God, this is this is the expectation that God has for the for the behavior of a believer, and then you break that and then you're punished, you can go, well, that was just.
SPEAKER_01: I shouldn't have done that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I talked I talked to a woman years ago, and uh um she came to me and just distraught, and she started telling me her stories, just she's crying, and and and so I said, Well, you know, tell me, tell me what you're going through.
SPEAKER_01: So she started recounting her whole life and she grew up in church, grew up in a Christian family, and was raised, went to youth group, went to camps, did all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: So she knew she got saved as a kid, she knew what the Bible said about behavior.
SPEAKER_01: She had sex before she was married, had a son.
SPEAKER_01: She married a man who was not saved.
SPEAKER_01: That man later, ten years later, had an affair with another woman, left, left the Christian girl to live with this other woman.
SPEAKER_01: So the Christian woman did not divorce him.
SPEAKER_01: She stayed married to him, and ten years later, she at the pressure of her son, divorced him.
SPEAKER_01: And her son, her son didn't talk to her for most of those ten years.
SPEAKER_01: But when he finally came back into her life, he was like, You have to divorce him.
SPEAKER_01: So she finally divorced him.
SPEAKER_01: So she divorced him the whole time.
SPEAKER_01: That the the ex-husband was, or the husband, ex-husband was living with the woman he had the affair with.
SPEAKER_01: So she divorced him.
SPEAKER_01: When she divorced him, the woman that he was having the affair with left him.
SPEAKER_01: So then she went back and said, Well, I'll move back in with him.
SPEAKER_01: She moved back in with her ex-husband without being married.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, she's and she's just sobbing, and and she goes, she goes, I just don't understand why God would do this to me.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I feel this way?
SPEAKER_01: It's not fair.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe this makes me a terrible pastor.
SPEAKER_01: But I looked at her and I said, Well, what did you think would happen?
SPEAKER_01: You know, what why would you think it would be any different?
SPEAKER_01: When when you make choices, whether it's about relationships or money or or whatever, when you make choices that are obviously sinful and obviously go against the truth of God's word, you're going to be miserable.
SPEAKER_01: In the long run, you're going to be miserable.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you might be you might be happy for a little while when it all first starts.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the Bible says we enjoy the sin for a season, but in the end it is the way of death.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you might be happy for a little while, but it's not going to last, and you are going to be a miserable person because you've made all those wrong choices when you knew the right thing to do.
SPEAKER_01: You knew the right thing to do.
SPEAKER_01: But if you make the right choices, you make the right choices and you make God's word a priority in your life, and and and you you obey it, you love God's word, you crave God's word, you know, God's gonna He's gonna make you wise, He's gonna free you from sin, He's gonna give you insight for living, He's gonna give you joy, He's gonna give you all those things.
SPEAKER_01: So you can't expect those things apart from God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the mistake that many believers make.
SPEAKER_01: They think, why why can't I, you know, why doesn't God give me a little more wisdom?
SPEAKER_01: Why doesn't He give me a little more joy?
SPEAKER_01: Why doesn't He give me a little more insight?
SPEAKER_01: Why doesn't He give me a little more of this, a little more that?
SPEAKER_01: But we do that apart from God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: We expect that apart from God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: God's Word said, You want you want joy, you want all those things?
SPEAKER_01: Find him in God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: Let me have every head bowed and every eye closed for just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I said a minute ago that that we talk about, you know, you can be free from sin.
SPEAKER_01: You can be freed from the penalty of sin.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's very clear, you know, it it says that to be absent from the body, to a believer, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But to an unbeliever, we know that to be absent from the body means to spend an eternity in hell.
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people don't like to hear that.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of pastors don't like to talk about it, but that's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: And and you may think, what a horrible thing to say.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'd rather say a horrible thing than to let you die without Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here today and you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, just just remember that it doesn't demand anything from you.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to do anything.
SPEAKER_01: Because there is nothing you could do to earn your way to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing you could ever do to deserve a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And because the Bible says that the wages of sin is death, somebody had to die as payment for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus chose to die in your place.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus chose to die on the cross and be buried and rise again in three days so that you can have eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here today and you've never accepted Christ, it's very simple.
SPEAKER_01: It's just a matter of telling Jesus, I trust in all of that.
SPEAKER_01: I trust in what you did on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: I trust in your death, burial, and resurrection, I trust in your shed blood for the forgiveness of my sin.
SPEAKER_01: And you can talk to him and tell him that any way that you like.
SPEAKER_01: If you struggle putting that into words, whatever's going on in your heart and mind, you want to help you need help putting that into words, you can just pray something like this and say, Dear God, thank you for sending Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that he paid the price for my sin because I could never pay it.
SPEAKER_01: The price was too high.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that he was crucified, buried, and rose again so that I can have eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that his blood was shed so that I can have forgiveness of my sin.
SPEAKER_01: And so today I accept you as my Savior.
SPEAKER_01: I confess my sin to you and trust in you.
SPEAKER_01: And if you just prayed that, God's word says that you've just entered into a covenant with God that is unchanging, nothing can change it, and it guarantees that you have an eternal home in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: So that you have crossed from death unto life.
SPEAKER_01: Your name is written in the Lamb's book of life.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here today, I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here today and you just prayed that, just lift your hand real fast.
SPEAKER_01: Just lift your hand real fast if you prayed that.
SPEAKER_01: All right, God, thank you for for everyone in here who has accepted Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray that you would just bless all of us.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to grow to be more and more like your son every day.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help us to be in your word.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to be, help us to fall in love with your word.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help us to to to if we go a day without without being in your word, Lord, we know it.
SPEAKER_01: We know it.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, help us to fall in love with your word and be in it every day.
SPEAKER_01: Still with heads bowed and eyes closed.
SPEAKER_01: And you just need me to pray for you, John.
SPEAKER_01: I need to be more serious about time in the word.
SPEAKER_01: I need to be, I need to get a routine going, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Lift your hand.
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray for you that that you you need to be more diligent about being in the word.
SPEAKER_01: Hands going up everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: My hand too, man.
SPEAKER_01: It's so easy to not do it.
SPEAKER_01: There's so many excuses to not be in the word every day.
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you so much for these people that were honest enough to say, John, I need, I need help.
SPEAKER_01: I need I need prayer that I be in the word every day.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, I pray that you would bless those people.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, when they wake up first thing in the morning, I pray that'd be the first thing on their mind.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, instead of instead of coffee or whatever, whatever they think of first, Lord, I pray that your word would be the first thing on their mind.
SPEAKER_01: And that you would just give them that diligence.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we you we know when they make that commitment, Satan's gonna give every excuse in the world why they can't.
SPEAKER_01: You know, their alarms are gonna go off late, their breakfast is gonna burn, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But God, give them that determination to do it, to get in your word, no matter what happens, Lord, because we know it's life-changing.
SPEAKER_01: We know it's what you want us to do.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, we we love you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for sending family church or for being part of family church, and Lord, that we can be be here every Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, pray for our church as we continue to move uh in a direction that will take us to being an independent church.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, continue to send us the people, the right people to help help that happen.
SPEAKER_01: And God, we just trust you for amazing things.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help us to the day that we announce we are independent.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help us to look back and see, wow, look what God did.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way this could happen without the power of God.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, we love you.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for loving us.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for sending Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's in his name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Teachers, administrators of the schools, we have a gift for you on the way out.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, stop at the table, grab that gift.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a man teacher, administrator, they have white tissue paper.
SPEAKER_01: Ladies, has not white tissue paper, colored tissue paper.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you guys so much.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: Have an awesome week, and we'll see you next week.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Family Church's Sermon of the Week.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message encouraged you and helped you grow in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: If it blessed you, share it with a friend and follow us so you never miss a new episode.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more about Family Church at myfamilychurch.com.
SPEAKER_00: If you are in the area, tweet us on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: We can meet at F3 High School at 10504.