SPEAKER_00: So we've been talking about God's family, and this morning we're going to be talking about family reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Family reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: We've been making our way through our series called God's Family.
SPEAKER_00: And over the next few weeks, we're actually going to be starting to close out this series.
SPEAKER_00: And as we've gone through this series, we see that God has created family and has designed the family unit.
SPEAKER_00: He's designed this family unit from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: You can read this in Genesis chapter 1 and 2, how he created Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_00: He told them to be fruitful and multiply.
SPEAKER_00: So a family unit is something that was created by God.
SPEAKER_00: And we learned that in Genesis chapter 1, when God creates, when he made everything, he made it perfect.
SPEAKER_00: He said it was good.
SPEAKER_00: So when God moves, like we said, he moves and it's perfect.
SPEAKER_00: It is good.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that this morning?
SPEAKER_00: So when God moves in your life, it's perfect.
SPEAKER_00: It's the perfect timing.
SPEAKER_00: It's the perfect door that you should walk through.
SPEAKER_00: It's the perfect door that you shouldn't walk through.
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't re if you didn't have uh, if you don't maybe you didn't receive a healing or a miracle in your life, that doesn't mean God is not in control.
SPEAKER_00: That means timing is not right.
SPEAKER_00: Or there's something perfect about that situation that you might not even realize.
SPEAKER_00: How many remember that God is still in control?
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean you give up when something doesn't happen that you want in your life?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: You keep praying, you keep praying until the Lord gives you direction and you follow where he wants you to go.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we say when doors open, we walk through those doors that he opens.
SPEAKER_00: When he closes doors, we do we say that's it.
SPEAKER_00: That's his will.
SPEAKER_00: That's where he wants, that's where he's leading us.
SPEAKER_00: And something else will open up.
SPEAKER_00: But never lose heart just because the Lord has closed the door in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: That means he has something great for you in store.
SPEAKER_00: That means you can't even imagine what he might have for you.
SPEAKER_00: You might be thinking, oh, this is gonna be great.
SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I see, I I think the Lord is leading me through this door and it's shut.
SPEAKER_00: So what do you do at that moment?
SPEAKER_00: Do you give up?
SPEAKER_00: Never.
SPEAKER_00: No, you don't give up.
SPEAKER_00: You just expect something else to happen in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And you give him all the glory.
SPEAKER_00: You just stay focused on him and not focus on those problems.
SPEAKER_00: So when God moves, it is perfect, it is powerful.
SPEAKER_00: We also have been learning that our assignment is for families, whether it be your family outside of this church or this your family unit outside at home with your relationship, with your relations, with your or with your church family.
SPEAKER_00: Our goal is to work together.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, this is very important.
SPEAKER_00: Our goal as a as individuals, family, and as a church collectively, as one body, is to use our gifts and talents to encourage one another, to help one another, to love one another, and ultimately work together to reach the loss.
SPEAKER_00: That is our goal.
SPEAKER_00: That is why the Lord has brought you into this place because we all, He all has given us a goal.
SPEAKER_00: And the ultimate goal that we all have in place in front of us is to reach the loss.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's through just a small conversation with somebody that you might not know, or maybe it's someone that you have a relationship and you're building a relationship with them, and you're using that opportunity to preach the gospel to them.
SPEAKER_00: Or it could just be a quick thing at the store, and the Lord's coming, the Lord tells you, listen, I want you to go talk to that person.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you never see them again, but you don't know what the Lord is going to do in the life because you planted that seed in their life.
SPEAKER_00: So the important thing is that you're obedient to the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: You're obedient.
SPEAKER_00: When he tells you to do something, you just do it.
SPEAKER_00: So, how many know that we make up the body of Christ together as one family?
SPEAKER_00: See, the church is the body of Christ, and Christ is the head of the church.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, all of you together are Christ's body, and each of you is part of it.
SPEAKER_00: So each one of us is part of it.
SPEAKER_00: No one is left out.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone here, everyone in church that is a true believer of Christ, is part of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So the primary goal of the church is to glorify God, which means becoming more like him and spreading the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We've covered the beginnings of God's family and some of the obstacles that families had to work through because of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Because sin entered into the world.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: We see Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_00: They sinned against the Lord, they were disobedient.
SPEAKER_00: So sin has entered the world, and now sin has separated us from the Lord, has separated them from the Lord, and we come to the story of Cain and Abel.
SPEAKER_00: We know the story there.
SPEAKER_00: Cain kills his brother Abel because of jealousy and because of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Then we go through and we get to the story of Noah and how everyone was so wicked at that time that every thought that they have was evil continually, the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: Except for Noah, the Bible says he was the only righteous person.
SPEAKER_00: So the flood happens, they leave the ark, and then civilization begins to grow.
SPEAKER_00: And then we get to the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_00: We see mankind again because of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Trying, and this is so this is so symbolic of what's happening now that we see man trying again to remove God out and try to replace God with themselves.
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: You can see the same thing in man in all of human of all of mankind throughout history.
SPEAKER_00: We see the same thing happening over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: We see people trying to remove God out of the culture.
SPEAKER_00: It's happening now.
SPEAKER_00: So God said, enough of that, the Tower of Babel, he confused their languages.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone was confused, like, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't understand each other, so they stop what they're doing and they they spread out through the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And we go all the way to the till we give it to Abraham, and then we get to the family line.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where God starts to put things together.
SPEAKER_00: And Abraham marks a turning point in history of God's family.
SPEAKER_00: A chosen family, again, symbolic of how we should be.
SPEAKER_00: A chosen family, a chosen tribe, a chosen people, will be marked as God's very own people.
SPEAKER_00: And we see through the life of Abraham the symbolism and example of what it means to be called out of the world.
SPEAKER_00: He told Abraham, I'm calling you out, come out of your father's house, I will be your God, I will be your shield.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the same thing that he has done to us.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be consecrated to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be set apart to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be different than everyone else.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the same thing we were calling Abraham to do, is to be different than everyone else.
SPEAKER_00: Their identity would need to be renewed in order to restore the community, the family relationship that was once in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: So we see Abraham, we see Isaac, we see Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, be blessed because they followed the commands of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then we looked at the life of Joseph, who through so many trials and so many tribulations still remained faithful and God blessed him.
SPEAKER_00: And why did God bless him?
SPEAKER_00: Because every step of the way, every step that Joseph took, Joseph still trusted and obeyed God.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great example to us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And we see because of this, when Joseph was sold into slavery into Potiphar's house, we see the favor of the Lord was upon him, and he began running the whole place for Potiphar.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, and I love this, that Potiphar didn't even have to worry about one thing.
SPEAKER_00: All to see Potiphar worried about was what he was going to eat that day.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Scripture says.
SPEAKER_00: What a great life that must have been.
SPEAKER_00: And then when Joseph was thrown into jail, the favor of the Lord was all upon him again.
SPEAKER_00: And he began to run the prison for the warden.
SPEAKER_00: Just imagine that, a prisoner running the prison.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: No, but only God could do something like that.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And then we see Joseph being brought before Pharaoh and interpreting a dream.
SPEAKER_00: And because his his because the Lord gave him the interpretation of the dream, we see that Joseph is now placed in second in command of the entire Egyptian Empire, only answering to Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: Again, something only God can do.
SPEAKER_00: And I love this.
SPEAKER_00: This is so this scripture, this this verse says in the Bible, whatever Joseph did, whatever he put his hand to do, the Lord made it prosper.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord made it prosper.
SPEAKER_00: How could this happen?
SPEAKER_00: We said it before, because he was obedient to the Lord and he placed his trust in God.
SPEAKER_00: See, when you do this, God moves.
SPEAKER_00: And when he makes a way when there seems to be no way, it is going to be perfect for your life.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that this morning?
SPEAKER_00: When God moves in your life, it is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: When he makes a way when there seems to be no way, it is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you put your trust in obedience and in him.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: And that is my prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That is my prayer in my life, that I'm obedient and I put my trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: And that the favor of the Lord would be all over me, would be all over my family, would it be all over this church family, every ministry that we have, from the adults all the way down to the kids, our school, our building program, our our our church in Putnam.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what we do, it would prosper because the favor of the Lord is upon it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So as the Israelites march out of Egypt, after they were enslaved there for so many years, under the leadership of Moses, they enter into a whole new season.
SPEAKER_00: And again, we see what God's family started to shape now.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of just a family, now it's a whole nation leaving Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And God is beginning to show what the family is supposed to look like.
SPEAKER_00: So God comes down to rescue them, and now he's leading them, he's guiding them, he's feeding them, and even and even dwelling amongst them.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus 29, 45 through 46 says, And I will dwell among the sons of Israel and be their God, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, so that I might dwell among them.
SPEAKER_00: I am the Lord their God.
SPEAKER_00: So we see God putting the Israelite family together, this nation.
SPEAKER_00: So while they're in the wilderness, God gives them the Ten Commandments and the law and how they're supposed to live.
SPEAKER_00: And again we see God showing his people how they should live, setting them apart from everyone else.
SPEAKER_00: So he tells them, You are my people, you don't do what everybody else is doing.
SPEAKER_00: Hello.
SPEAKER_00: So he's teaching them how to operate as a family and as a nation together.
SPEAKER_00: And if you read through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, you'll find that it's almost impossible to follow all those fallen, all those, all those, um, excuse me, all those laws and rules.
SPEAKER_00: Not only do they have the Ten Commandments, but these are things that God has set up that they need to follow because God is so holy.
SPEAKER_00: See, remember that Christ didn't come and he didn't die for everyone's sins yet.
SPEAKER_00: So there's still sin there in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: So if you read through these, it's like it's it's impossible to follow all this.
SPEAKER_00: See, there is rules from dwelling for God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: It was designed to perfection, the way the tabernacle was supposed to be built, the way the Holy of Holies, the altar, the ark of the covenant, all these, it gives all the dimensions of everything very, very, very detailed in those books.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever got a chance to read them, I know everyone tries sometimes they skip over those.
SPEAKER_00: Don't skip over those because there's a lot of good things in there.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of symbolism, too, and how um what it's what it means, what's happening in heaven now, and everything pointing to who Christ is.
SPEAKER_00: So they have all these things how the altar is supposed to be designed.
SPEAKER_00: They have specific outfits that the the that the priests need to wear, because if they don't do this, they don't consecrate themselves, if they enter into the presence of God, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: They get killed immediately.
SPEAKER_00: Could you imagine being a priest back then?
SPEAKER_00: Back then.
SPEAKER_00: It would be what a tough assignment.
SPEAKER_00: You really gotta make sure because if you don't, if if if you don't do exactly what you're supposed to do, wearing the right dress, wearing the right clothing, wearing the epha, making sure that you've washed, actually physically washed, and you go into the presence of the Lord and he sees something that he doesn't like, you're a dead man.
SPEAKER_00: Could you imagine if God worked that way now?
SPEAKER_00: None of us would be here.
SPEAKER_00: But thank the Lord for his mercy and grace.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So as you as you read through these laws, you can see there's sacrifice upon sacrifice, blood upon blood, death upon death, and every time something or someone even slipped out of line, there was some type of consequence would need to be administered.
SPEAKER_00: And it just shows you how what sin is, what sin is about, and how it how God cannot be near sin.
SPEAKER_00: And a great example of this, and I always this this story always made me feel sad when I when I heard this story, it was about the poor about a man named Uzzah.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody, you anybody know the story of the man named Uzzah?
SPEAKER_00: So King David was um had conquered Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He's setting Jerusalem up as the capital of Israel, and he's bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the city.
SPEAKER_00: This is the same story where David danced before the Lord, and he danced and danced, and he didn't care what he looked like, clothing was falling off him, his wife was embarrassed, but he didn't care because the presence of the Lord was now in that place.
SPEAKER_00: But this story is um in this this story about Uzzah is the same story.
SPEAKER_00: And as they were bringing the Ark of the Covenant down, the ark began to fall over.
SPEAKER_00: Now, naturally, what would any one of us do if we were next to the Ark?
SPEAKER_00: We would what?
SPEAKER_00: Stop it from falling over.
SPEAKER_00: But remember we talked about being clean and unclean, Uzzah wasn't wasn't ceremonial clean.
SPEAKER_00: So as soon as he touched the ark, anybody know what happened?
SPEAKER_00: He died.
SPEAKER_00: Poor Uzzah.
SPEAKER_00: What a sad I was always sad about poor Uzzah.
SPEAKER_00: The poor guy was just trying to help out.
SPEAKER_00: But it shows you how powerful sin can be to God when there's when there's not restitution there.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not that God enjoys punishing people or putting people to death, not at all.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that God is still a loving God.
SPEAKER_00: He's a life-giving God, he's a life-sustaining God.
SPEAKER_00: Look what it says in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter 3 9.
SPEAKER_00: It says, The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but he is patient towards you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: All to come to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing sin cannot even come close to God's holiness.
SPEAKER_00: He hates sin.
SPEAKER_00: And we've heard that phrase before.
SPEAKER_00: He hates sin.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't hate the sinner, but he hates sin.
SPEAKER_00: Look what Habakkuk says, your eyes are too pure to look on evil.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah says, our sin has separated us from God.
SPEAKER_00: So sin separates you from God.
SPEAKER_00: So the law is unfulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: It left humanity unfulfilled, and that is exactly what we see as the Israelites begin to wander through the wilderness and as they step into the promised land and set up the kingdom through their God-given territory.
SPEAKER_00: Not only was it impossible for God's family to operate as a family with a fallen humanity, but there's another issue with the family.
SPEAKER_00: And the first one was how impossible it was to follow all those laws.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing is when the Israelites marched out of Egypt and into the promised land, God's family only included a select group of people, the Israelite nation.
SPEAKER_00: How many know that that wasn't God's intention from the beginning of creation?
SPEAKER_00: He had a desire to commune with all of his creation.
SPEAKER_00: And as Pastor Stephen pointed out the last couple of weeks, there were others who were able to step under the Israelite blessing, the adopted sons and daughters of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about the mixed multitude there, the Gibeonites.
SPEAKER_00: Rahab was the lady who hid the spies in Jericho, and her family was spared.
SPEAKER_00: We see Naomi, uh Naomi's daughter-in-law, Ruth, and others on the receiving end of God's favor.
SPEAKER_00: So you see, those are perfect examples of how God just didn't want the Jewish or the Israelite nation.
SPEAKER_00: He wants all.
SPEAKER_00: We're learning about that today.
SPEAKER_00: But as the Israelites get comfortable in the land, we watch kings rise and we watch kings fall.
SPEAKER_00: You can read that all through the Old Testament in 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, all the way 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2, all the way through.
SPEAKER_00: And you see how they loved the Lord, then they walked away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They loved the Lord and then they walked away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Generation upon generation upon generation, over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: They loved the Lord and then they didn't love the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And there were consequences for that.
SPEAKER_00: That happened.
SPEAKER_00: And there was uh Samuel who was I'm sorry, not Samuel, there was Saul who was the first king, then David came as king, then Solomon came as king, and after Solomon the kingdom split up, and we've talked about this before.
SPEAKER_00: And then it was just chaos after that.
SPEAKER_00: There was there was incorporation of the Hebrew religion, incorporation of the pagan religion, how God said, don't do that, but they did it anyways.
SPEAKER_00: And the result of all that was a result of all that mixing of religion and how they were supposed to be separate, and they weren't, we see that the Israelite nation and Judah they began to fall.
SPEAKER_00: And because the Israelites began to turn away from God, they were conquered by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans.
SPEAKER_00: And they weren't even a nation until again, until 1948.
SPEAKER_00: So you see, from the time of the Assyrians, how many thousands of years that was, to 1948, they weren't even a nation anymore because of their disobedience to God.
SPEAKER_00: And although many are deceived and confused, there are some, even though what the majority was doing was against God, there were still some who still followed the things of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You have the prophets like Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: You had people like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refusing to bow down to idols.
SPEAKER_00: There was a remnant of people who refused to step out of God's favor, refused to step out of God's blessings, and refuse to step out of God's protection.
SPEAKER_00: Like we're supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: Refusing to step out of what God has for us.
SPEAKER_00: Out of the new covenant that He has for us, we need to refuse to step out of that.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Kings chapter 19, verse 18, it says, Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.
SPEAKER_00: There was a remnant there.
SPEAKER_00: But for the rest of them, it seems that they were just floundering around.
SPEAKER_00: But God doesn't give up on families.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: God has a plan of restoration, hallelujah, a plan of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: A transition would begin to take place, redefining families once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to read, and we have some scriptures here.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 33.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant, talking about the new covenant of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand and bring them out of the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declared the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I will put my law within them and write it on their heart, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
SPEAKER_00: And I like what it says there.
SPEAKER_00: On the day I took them out by the hand out of the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of a parent or a grandparent or an adult holding a child's hand and leading them.
SPEAKER_00: I remember doing this with my kids many a times.
SPEAKER_00: I do it with my all my nieces and nephews or whoever's kid is I find next to me somehow.
SPEAKER_00: I just find children around me somewhat.
SPEAKER_00: And I gotta bring them back there or wherever they're supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: And it reminds me of one of a few times when my wife and I we would go to the store and we had our kids with us when they were younger, and we would go into a clothing store and they would see the mannequins, and they were a little leery of the mannequins, and I would warn them if they didn't behave, that's what happens to all the kids that didn't behave.
SPEAKER_00: They get they go in the back and they turned into mannequins.
SPEAKER_00: So they were like this, and then about five minutes later they forgot and they were running around.
SPEAKER_00: But the funniest, the funniest time is we went into the store, I forgot what store it was, and none of the mannequins had heads.
SPEAKER_00: We had we had to pray with our children afterwards before they went to sleep that night that it was.
SPEAKER_00: didn't really happen, and Daddy was lying to them.
SPEAKER_00: So we see in Jeremiah, we see this new covenant, just as this new covenant wouldn't just be for the Israelites, but it would be for all people to join themselves to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The next scripture I want to prove this point is Isaiah chapter 56, verses 6 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: It says, I will also bless the foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord, which would be the Gentiles, which would be us, who serve Him and love His name, who worship Him and do not desecrate the Sabbath day of rest, who hold fast to my covenant.
SPEAKER_00: I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem, and I will fill them with joy in my house of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifice, because my temple will be called a house of prayer for what?
SPEAKER_00: For all nations, for all people.
SPEAKER_00: So we see a gathering of all people, an open door for all sinners, for all of mankind to come back home and experience what?
SPEAKER_00: That they were intended to experience, that we are intended to experience through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But how could this be possible?
SPEAKER_00: How could a restoration take place?
SPEAKER_00: Look at Galatians chapter 3, verses 26 through 29.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For you are all sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Read that again with me.
SPEAKER_00: For you are all sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all what?
SPEAKER_00: One in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at another scripture here.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8, verses 1 through 4.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 8, chapter 8, verses 1 through 4.
SPEAKER_00: And many of you know this verse.
SPEAKER_00: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus had made had hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: For what the law could not do, that law that we are talking about in the Old Testament, what it could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a man, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after what?
SPEAKER_00: So who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: And pause there for one second.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone, some translations, so whoever believes in him.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter what background you might have.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what you've done in your life in the past.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ loves you.
SPEAKER_00: He died for you.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to take care of you.
SPEAKER_00: All you have to do is surrender your life to him.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we see Christ making a way where there seemed to be no way.
SPEAKER_00: And that Christ in that way was Christ and it was perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17 for God did not send his son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through him.
SPEAKER_00: The one who believes in him is not judged.
SPEAKER_00: The one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: So his love is not for a select group of people.
SPEAKER_00: But his love has always been for the entire world.
SPEAKER_00: But a way needed to be laid out for all of humanity to understand.
SPEAKER_00: It's a need for a savior.
SPEAKER_00: A savior who would be the perfect, would be the spotless Lamb of God that could shed his blood and take on death so that the world didn't have to.
SPEAKER_00: He became a substitute for us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: What an awesome thing.
SPEAKER_00: God loves us so much that he became a substitute of sin and died in our place for us.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus breathed his last breath on the cross, the ocean, the canyon that separated us from him was now brought together.
SPEAKER_00: It was bridged together through Christ in the sacrifice that he made on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And now we can stand not guilty before God because we are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That is family reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: That is family.
SPEAKER_00: We can see how God, through Scripture, from the Old Testament all the way into the New Testament, into the new covenant that He's made, how it how He was wanting to know everybody, making a way for everybody to come back to Him.
SPEAKER_00: But steps had to be taken.
SPEAKER_00: And right now we live in an age where you no matter who you are, you can always come back to Him.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't care if you've been a Christian for one year, for one day, for a hundred years, many of you are close to a hundred years, not pointing any fingers.
SPEAKER_00: God is always there and He's always leading and guiding you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: And there's that promise that we have in Scripture to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So whether if we, like Paul says, whether if I live on this earth, it's for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord takes me, takes me home, it's all for his glory, because now I'm in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: And we said this before.
SPEAKER_00: I was just talking with this with my wife.
SPEAKER_00: We're in a in a win-win situation if you are a believer of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So God's family can be restored, God's family can be joined together again.
SPEAKER_00: God's family can have the Holy Spirit operating within them, a communion between God and man, like it was intended to be from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is that's what God had intended, to have a relationship with you.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to realize this.
SPEAKER_00: It was sin that caused separation, it was sin that scattered the people.
SPEAKER_00: It was sin that built up walls and excluded others from taking part or the favor of God.
SPEAKER_00: It was all because of sin.
SPEAKER_00: But thank God he is in control and he had a plan from the very beginning: a plan of restoration, a plan of love, a plan of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: That plan was the Messiah, the Son of God, the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: The Alpha and the Omega, the bright and morning star.
SPEAKER_00: And at the very mention of his name, demons flee.
SPEAKER_00: The sick are healed, the dead are raised, the blind are made to see.
SPEAKER_00: And when he comes back, all knees will bow, confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody give him praise this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to begin to close if the worship team wants to come on up.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to read another scripture as they come up.
SPEAKER_00: It's from Ephesians chapter 2, verses 11 through 16.
SPEAKER_00: 11 through 16, it says, Do not forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders.
SPEAKER_00: You were called uncircumcised heathens by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And if you pause there for one second, he's talking about the hearts.
SPEAKER_00: That's what really matters to God.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that with King David.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't look on the outward, but he looks on the inward.
SPEAKER_00: He looks at the heart of the person.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12, it says, In those days you were living apart from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You were excluded from the citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them.
SPEAKER_00: You lived in the world without God and without hope.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, there's that conjunction.
SPEAKER_00: But now you have been united with Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For Christ himself has brought peace to us.
SPEAKER_00: He united Jews and Gentiles into one people.
SPEAKER_00: When his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separates us.
SPEAKER_00: He did this by ending the system of the law with his commandments and regulations.
SPEAKER_00: He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from two groups, the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Only God could do something like that.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Through Christ, what was once considered two different people, God's people and everybody else was now made into one new person, one body to God through the cross.
SPEAKER_00: No more separation, no more being scattered, no more walls.
SPEAKER_00: God's family is reunited through their belief in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We're all once outsiders because of Christ, but because of Christ, we are important parts of God's family.
SPEAKER_00: But we still live in a world that continues to try to separate us from God, continues to scatter, continues to build up walls, continues to remove God out of the culture.
SPEAKER_00: And if we are not careful, we can operate in that same mindset, walking in our own lane, doing everything by ourselves, keeping to ourselves, unintentionally excluding people, even excluding ourselves from what God has put together and ultimately living in our own sin.
SPEAKER_00: See, it wasn't God's intention for everybody to be driving in their own lane.
SPEAKER_00: We were created to be part of one body, one family, all working together, like we mentioned earlier, to accomplish the assignment that God has for each one of us.
SPEAKER_00: We are neither Jew, we are neither Greek, we are neither slave nor free, we are neither male nor female, but we are all one in Christ Jesus and heirs to the promise of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.