SPEAKER_01: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Stand in this for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: You can tell where you've been by how you leave.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get in the habit of hurrying into and out of God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you just need to not take a shower and take a bath.
SPEAKER_00: Just sit down and light you some candles.
SPEAKER_00: Tell your husband, bring mama something.
SPEAKER_00: And sit here on the edge of the bathtub, leave me alone for three hours.
SPEAKER_00: You ever been to a good concert?
SPEAKER_00: You don't leave in a hurry.
SPEAKER_00: You notice that?
SPEAKER_00: You encore the band.
SPEAKER_00: And if they're good, they come back and they've got something, you know, that third encore, they just crush it.
SPEAKER_00: You can tell where you've been by how you leave.
SPEAKER_00: This just be in the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We don't come to church.
SPEAKER_00: We are the church.
SPEAKER_00: We we gather to worship God.
SPEAKER_00: And when we gather to worship God, something gets set off in here.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that.
SPEAKER_00: We voice a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We just don't want to hurry.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to take for granted your presence and the fact that we enjoy you and you enjoy us.
SPEAKER_00: So, Holy Spirit, increase our capacity to enjoy you today.
SPEAKER_00: From your word and by your spirit, we pray these things in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You could have a seed.
SPEAKER_00: If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to 1 John chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: First John chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, if you're our guest today, we're preaching through the book of 1 John.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we kicked off our service with a Father's Day video.
SPEAKER_00: It is our our our habit.
SPEAKER_00: We acknowledge the day, but we leave it up to you to celebrate your dad.
SPEAKER_00: But what that means in practical terms is I don't have a sermon on five steps to being an incredible father or any of that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I love being a father.
SPEAKER_00: I've got two daughters.
SPEAKER_00: I'm deeply proud of them.
SPEAKER_00: I love who they are and how they are.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and and neither one of them are here today.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so you raise them and they leave, and anyway, uh so no one don't smoke.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for asking.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I want to talk to you today about the power of knowing.
SPEAKER_00: The power of knowing, because when I say you can tell where you've been by how you leave, we're in the last little section of 1 John.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna finish the book of 1 John next week, but I don't want us to hurry out of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's five things in this last section that John says you can know, you can know, you can know.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Christianity ought to be characterized by this sense of certainty, not high-mindedness, not arrogance, not intolerant love, but just certainty that says, My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna trust anything else because I have this sense of certainty.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say to you from the top this morning that you as a Christian can have and experience and enjoy this deep and abiding sense of certainty.
SPEAKER_00: This is why John writes, that records the epistle of first John, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to talk to you about today about the power of knowing.
SPEAKER_00: There's five things we can know.
SPEAKER_00: We'll just cover two today because I don't want to hurry, because one of them's kind of thorny, and you're like, no, wait a minute, what do you mean by that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So let's just read the Bible and let it lead us into this.
SPEAKER_00: First John chapter 5, verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the confidence that we have toward him.
SPEAKER_00: For if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
SPEAKER_00: And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of him.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone sees his brother committing a sin, not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life to those who commit sins that do not lead to death.
SPEAKER_00: There is a sin that leads to death.
SPEAKER_00: I do not say that one should pray for that.
SPEAKER_00: All wrongdoing is sin, but there is a sin that does not lead to death.
SPEAKER_00: We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
SPEAKER_00: We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He is the true God and eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
SPEAKER_00: The power of knowing.
SPEAKER_00: The first two things that we can know.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, number one is simply this we can know that we have the life of eternity in us.
SPEAKER_00: We can know that we have the life of eternity in us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're visiting today, you may be thinking, shouldn't it just be eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have labored, and the epistle of first John has taught us that eternal life doesn't start when we get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It's the life of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: You can experience that here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: It's what Jesus talked about, not in fullness.
SPEAKER_00: Let me be clear.
SPEAKER_00: We don't, we don't do not want to have an over-realized eschatology.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says in the model prayer, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just living forever, it's living the life of forever in the now.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just quantity, it's quality.
SPEAKER_00: It's what God says to the apostle Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: He begins the whole thing by saying, Paul says, I Paul, an apostle by the will of God, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God says to Paul, you see the life you see being manifested and lived in Jesus, you're going to get to experience the supernatural measure of life here on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's like, I'm down for that.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is what Christianity is.
SPEAKER_00: It's not, we'll come, we'll end on this note.
SPEAKER_00: So Christianity is not just perpetual forgiveness, it's perpetual fullness.
SPEAKER_00: And the more you experience fullness, the less sin appeals to you.
SPEAKER_00: And so this sense of certainty, when I say we can know that we have the life of eternity in us, John records the gospel of John so that people might be saved.
SPEAKER_00: He records 1 John so that we who believe would live with this deep and abiding certainty.
SPEAKER_00: It means if you're a student, middle school, high school, college, single adult, your friends are like, hey, we're gonna get blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: You can just smile and go, you know what, that's not a part of my life.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't really interest me, but thanks for the offer.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you have this, the you have this sense of fullness inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: Um, one of the things that characterizes Christianity is certainty.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, however, this is not the experience for many Christians.
SPEAKER_00: And so back when we began first John, I told you there were three reasons for him recording this letter under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, these three reasons are also three realities that every Christian should experience.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll just tick them off here for you: joy, holiness, and certainty.
SPEAKER_00: Joy, he says in chapter one, we write these things.
SPEAKER_00: I write these things to make our joy complete.
SPEAKER_00: So this would be the experience of a Christian, not happiness, that's an emotion.
SPEAKER_00: Joy is a state of being.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that God has brought you into that you live in this sense of joy.
SPEAKER_00: And so, joy, secondly, holiness, he says in 1 John chapter 1, he says, we write these things to you so that you will not sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now, listen very carefully.
SPEAKER_00: We write these things so that you will not sin.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Sin no longer has power over you, talking to the believer, not the unbeliever.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he says, I write these things to you so that you will not sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now, don't hear sinless perfection, but do hear this sinning less.
SPEAKER_00: You hear the difference?
SPEAKER_00: Sinless perfection, sinning less.
SPEAKER_00: Like one of the questions you should ask yourself today or talk about at lunch is simply this hey, how is your relationship to sin changed the longer you've been a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: How is your relationship to sin changed the longer you've been a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: Because again, we get taught this false gospel, it's no gospel at all in the American church, and it's this basically.
SPEAKER_00: We use different language, but we make it sound like the best thing about God is he forgives you for whatever.
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_00: In that scenario, why not sin?
SPEAKER_00: See, we've been taught forgiveness is the fruit of the gospel, and I'm telling you, fullness is the fruit of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: This sense of being and living at a place of fullness, it's John 10, 10.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, I came so you could have life and have it to the full.
SPEAKER_00: There's a fullness of life that you only get from Jesus, and the more you experience that fullness, the less sin appeals to you.
SPEAKER_00: And so when he says, Hey, joy, holiness, and uncertainty, it's verse 13 right here, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: He says, These things, I write these things.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the entire epistle of 1 John.
SPEAKER_00: Everything in here.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're here and you like certainty about where you are with God, there's five chapters.
SPEAKER_00: You can read it in one setting, you can read one a day, Monday through Friday, and just kind of marinate and soak your soul in that.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the epistle of 1 John is intended to give the believer this deep sense of certainty.
SPEAKER_00: So then the question becomes you got to ask yourself, do I experience these realities?
SPEAKER_00: And if not, then why not?
SPEAKER_00: There's three common reasons why most believers don't have a sense of certainty.
SPEAKER_00: Number one is they have uncertainty or doubt about their conversion experience.
SPEAKER_00: They have uncertainty or doubt.
SPEAKER_00: I, as a pastor, I ask people all the time, hey, tell me when you began your relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And I hear the number one answer is, I've been a Christian my whole life.
SPEAKER_00: And the number one response for me is that's biblically impossible.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can't be judged by me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not judging you, I'm just saying, biblically speaking, coming from the perspective of the Bible, no one is a Christian their whole life.
SPEAKER_00: And then people go, Well, how do you know?
SPEAKER_00: Well, in the Bible, the Gospel of John, Jesus is talking to a very religious person.
SPEAKER_00: You know that religion will not save you, right?
SPEAKER_00: Hello, let's try that again.
SPEAKER_00: Religion will not save you.
SPEAKER_00: Be the religious person, go into church, that will not make that, that will not change your heart, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so when I say uncertainty, death, I say, hey, listen, Jesus talking to a guy in John chapter 3 in Nicodemus, he's a member of the Sanhedrin.
SPEAKER_00: As such, you have you have to have memorized the first five books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, number.
SPEAKER_00: Have you read Leviticus lately?
SPEAKER_00: Try memorizing that bad boy.
SPEAKER_00: You just hate yourself, you'll just quit.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, had it memorized, Numbers in Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_00: The Pentateuch, the first five books, memorize.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says to this cat, hey, listen, marvel not that I say to you, you got to be born again.
SPEAKER_00: And Nicodemus is thinking horizontally.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is talking vertically, and Nicodemus is like, dude, you want me to crawl up in my mom's womb a second time?
SPEAKER_00: That's just creepy.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is like, No, you religious moron, not at all.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is all Nicodemus could think about because he was locked in horizontally.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is talking about God so changing your life that it's like being born all over again.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed when a kid gets born, it's all good?
SPEAKER_00: No one shows up the hospital and looks at your little baby, swallowing that little thing, and man, that kid's gonna be fat one day.
SPEAKER_00: No, no one shows up and looks and goes, Man, I pray to God he doesn't look like his father.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's just it's all good.
SPEAKER_00: People send you flowers.
SPEAKER_00: I've never understood that.
SPEAKER_00: They're not gonna need flowers, they're gonna need cash because you cannot buy diapers with flowers.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, it's all good.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is inviting Nicodemus into the experience that it's all good, that it's so transformative that it's like starting your life all over again.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself today, has that ever happened for you?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the second reason that people uh do not experience certainty, this what I call ongoing baggage.
SPEAKER_00: Ongoing baggage.
SPEAKER_00: Don't turn there, but the Bible talks about it, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: It says this, he says, Yeah, uh, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles and run with endurance, the course marked out for us.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes on, but we'll just stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, talking about Hebrews 11, all these great men and women of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, because we're not alone, we're not the only people doing this, let us run uh uh with it, let's lay aside every encumbrance and the sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now I talk about baggage, ongoing baggage, it's not just bad things like sin, it's good things like an encumbrance.
SPEAKER_00: An encumbrance is a good thing that keeps you from the best thing.
SPEAKER_00: Like recently I talked to a lady and she said, Hey, I'm dating this guy and I want him to come to church, but I can't continue to get him to come.
SPEAKER_00: Pray that he'll come.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, How long have you been dating?
SPEAKER_00: She said, Seven months.
SPEAKER_00: I said, He won't come to church in seven months.
SPEAKER_00: I said, He's probably not a believer, not interested.
SPEAKER_00: He's interested in you.
SPEAKER_00: And if he came to church, he would just be placating you.
SPEAKER_00: You're on your way if you keep this relationship going, you're on your way to being a woman who comes to church with your kids while your husband's at the dear least.
SPEAKER_00: And that wasn't good news for a 26-year-old who's ready to be married.
SPEAKER_00: And there's worse things than being singles, ladies.
SPEAKER_00: What's worse than being single is being married and wondering if you made the right decision.
SPEAKER_00: Some of these women are like, I'm not even making eye contact, I'm staring straight ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: I said to her, I said, you are not created by God to be the spiritual leader of your family.
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't be dragging him to church.
SPEAKER_00: He should be telling you, Hey, listen, if you date me, we're gonna get, you're gonna get with this, we're gonna be in church.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, see, see, see, men, this is free.
SPEAKER_00: Little father say, free me here.
SPEAKER_00: Leadership is not just provision.
SPEAKER_00: Provision is like the bathroom in your house, and it's the smallest and most necessary room there.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be providing for your family.
SPEAKER_00: People say, Well, I provide for my family.
SPEAKER_00: If you are not leading your family spiritually, you're not providing, you're failing.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's just God made us to do.
SPEAKER_00: I I I I got kids, I provide, I work hard, all that good stuff.
SPEAKER_00: But but if I don't lead spiritually, and I try to help this lady understand it.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, What do you say?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I just think he he could he sound like he said, he he and she's like, Well, we'll just come out and say it.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Okay, I'll I'll I'll I'll just say it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it sounds like he's an encumbrance.
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's not that many good guys out there.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think you have one.
SPEAKER_00: Your dating relationship confirms what you just said.
SPEAKER_00: Well, is it not helpful?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna listen, you don't want to just the clock is not ticking, so you've got to be desperate.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times, ladies, the equation is how lonely can you be to the glory of God before you settle?
SPEAKER_00: Because when you're 15, you make a list at youth camp, he's gotta have this and gotta have this and gotta have this.
SPEAKER_00: You're 26, he's gotta have a pulse.
SPEAKER_00: That's the only thing on your list.
SPEAKER_00: A pulse, a job, a mortgage, and a vehicle.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we'll start with that.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's ongoing baggage.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another one.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the last one.
SPEAKER_00: It's basically just a lack of biblical knowledge slash experience.
SPEAKER_00: Not knowledge up here, but experience.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself, how often do I experience what I know the Bible teaches?
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: You should read the Bible absolutely, but here's one of the things I see a lot.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people now, there's two reasons that the Bible, two main reasons the Bible has given us to us to cause faith and to nourish faith.
SPEAKER_00: To cause faith, to bring you to faith.
SPEAKER_00: You should you can read the Bible and see enough in there to bring you to a faithful relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible also, in first John, that that's the gospel of John, first John the epistle is to nourish your faith.
SPEAKER_00: I see a lot of people who had a genuine conversion experience and stopped right there.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't, they don't go to a church where the Bible's taught, and so their faith doesn't get nourished.
SPEAKER_00: They don't feel equipped.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, they get to work and something happens and somebody says, Hey, Bob, what about that hurricane?
SPEAKER_00: Where's your loving God now?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you rescue all those people?
SPEAKER_00: And Bob is like, uh, uh, uh, uh.
SPEAKER_00: And Bob just backs out and says, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: This is kind of embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be embarrassed anymore, so I'm just gonna keep it on the down low.
SPEAKER_00: And what I would say to the Bobs of the world is you need to find a church that teaches you the Bible so you're equipped to experience and understand what the Bible says, but experience what it says to be who it is.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says you can be, but experience what the Bible says you can experience.
SPEAKER_00: And what John tells us is this is the life of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: This is this life that you get to experience in this life.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Bible's very clear.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that we can know is that we have the life of eternity inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just eternal life when I die, I go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm bringing heaven to bear on the earth right now in the way I live.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing we could know is that God answers our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14 says this, and this is the confidence that we have toward him.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself the simple practical question: do you feel confident towards God?
SPEAKER_00: Are you kind of like, oh, somebody else talked to him on my behalf?
SPEAKER_00: And this is the confidence we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
SPEAKER_00: And if we know that he hears us and whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of him.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone sees his brother committing a sin, and this is kind of, hey, here's the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's apply.
SPEAKER_00: That's the lecture, here's the lab, verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone sees his brother committing a sin, not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life to those who commit sins that do not lead to death.
SPEAKER_00: There is a sin that leads to death.
SPEAKER_00: I do not say that one should pray for that.
SPEAKER_00: All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the Bible says we can know that God answers our prayers, and this is the confidence that we have towards Him.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have this confidence?
SPEAKER_00: Now, three times I've taught you over the years, when you read the Bible, look and listen for what's repeated.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, three times in five chapters, John makes a big deal about this confidence thing.
SPEAKER_00: Confidence.
SPEAKER_00: He says we have confidence in regard to these three realities.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, we have confidence in regard to the second coming.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, number two, we have confidence in relation to judgment day.
SPEAKER_00: And then thirdly, we have confidence when it comes to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why do I make a big deal out of that?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's important that you understand what this reality means as it relates to these other realities: the second coming, judgment day, and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to get into a good conversation, talk about the second coming.
SPEAKER_00: Ask somebody, hey man, you ready for Jesus' comeback?
SPEAKER_00: They're like, oh, excuse me.
SPEAKER_00: Or judgment day.
SPEAKER_00: Hey man, you got any thoughts about judgment day?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, not really.
SPEAKER_00: Gotta go.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible says this.
SPEAKER_00: Now, listen to how practical the Bible is.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that you and I can have confidence in relation to all three of those things.
SPEAKER_00: And here it talks about prayer.
SPEAKER_00: So because the Bible says this is what we can have, we need to understand what we mean by confidence.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Greek word potassea, potasia, and it means this.
SPEAKER_00: It means now you may be thinking, why do you reference Greek?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible was originally written in Greek.
SPEAKER_00: And look at me, it's translated into English, and nothing was lost along the way.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't change some things and leave some stuff out.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but this is what what what the English word confidence means in the Greek: freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech, a free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, boldness, assurance.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself what would change about your prayer life if you had this towards God.
SPEAKER_00: What would change?
SPEAKER_00: Because, see, here's my concern.
SPEAKER_00: Most people uh learn to pray by listening to other people pray in church.
SPEAKER_00: I did not become a Christian until I was 18, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And when I became a Christian, and I and I went to the first Baptist church, I went a little small East Texas town.
SPEAKER_00: Good people, good people, but everybody kind of prayed the same prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And it was off-putting to me because I would just tell God how I really felt.
SPEAKER_00: And so I would go to church and they'd say things like, Lord, bless the gift and the giver, hide the pastor behind the cross, be with the sick and the infirmed and the shut-ins in Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: The first time I went to Sunday school, this is a true story.
SPEAKER_00: They said, You got any prayer requests?
SPEAKER_00: And just me and a bunch of high school guys that I partied with, played football with, let it get him prayer requests.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Yeah, pray I don't smoke pot.
SPEAKER_00: I miss smoking pot.
SPEAKER_00: And the Sunday school teacher said, Neil, uh staff for class, I'll help you with that.
SPEAKER_00: I thought, great.
SPEAKER_00: This guy's got some insight.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's overcome this.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you right now are thinking we're supposed to pray not to smoke pot.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, you are.
SPEAKER_00: That's a whole nother sermon.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, uh, the man keeps me after class and basically just shames me into silence.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Uh, we don't say things like that in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, and he said, uh, I said, What do I do?
SPEAKER_00: Because I didn't know the rules.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know anything.
SPEAKER_00: I was just like, What do I do?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, you raise your hand and you say, I have an unspoken prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you've been to that church too, huh?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, basically, let's keep up the facade that we've all got it together.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: If you're jacked up, broken, and screwed up, I want to be your pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to tell me anything because I'm going to change my mind about you.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, How are they supposed to know?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Well, God knows, and you know, and that's enough.
SPEAKER_00: People don't need to know your business.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just thinking of my mind because I couldn't party anymore.
SPEAKER_00: So I would go to work and go home.
SPEAKER_00: I would eat supper in front of the TV with my mom watching MASH, and I'd go to my room and read the Bible for hours while I went to bed.
SPEAKER_00: Fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: The Jesus that I found in the Bible was not the Jesus they talked about at church.
SPEAKER_00: Was very off-putting to me.
SPEAKER_00: And people talk like this take the Bible, take your Bibles and open to the book of John.
SPEAKER_00: That's one, if you're Hispanic.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd be like, What?
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: It was lonely.
SPEAKER_00: And so the guy says, You just, you just, so we don't need to say things like that ever again.
SPEAKER_00: Don't put your business down the street.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, they all know I smoked weed before I got saved.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, How do they know?
SPEAKER_00: I said, they all smoke weed.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think I hang out with these rich kids?
SPEAKER_00: They got better weed than I do.
SPEAKER_00: These private school pot smokers right here.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you feel that?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, don't make fun of the private school.
SPEAKER_00: Them homeschoolers, they grow their own.
SPEAKER_00: It's even better than private school.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my raised elevated beds.
SPEAKER_00: But look at me.
SPEAKER_00: There is no reel you back in here.
SPEAKER_00: Come back.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like, no, that happened.
SPEAKER_00: I went to big church.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I call big church.
SPEAKER_00: I just sat there numb.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I thought.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever gone to church, this is not true.
SPEAKER_00: But it descended, it hung over me like a dark cloud.
SPEAKER_00: I sat in church just thinking, I am an idiot wrapped in a moron.
SPEAKER_00: I could never come back to this church ever again.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the only person here that struggled because I miss smoking weed.
SPEAKER_00: And you said, Do you still miss it?
SPEAKER_00: Only in elder meetings.
SPEAKER_00: I want to stick in his Steve Miller band Book of Dreams eight-track and just get blazed up.
SPEAKER_00: That's a joke.
SPEAKER_00: Now, somebody after the last service came to me and said, When's the last time you spoke marijuana?
SPEAKER_00: 1982.
SPEAKER_00: July 2nd, 1982.
SPEAKER_00: Three days before I was converted.
SPEAKER_00: And when I first got converted, when you I wasn't addicted, I just enjoyed.
SPEAKER_00: You kind of have a craving.
SPEAKER_00: If you know what I mean, say amen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna fall for that trick.
SPEAKER_00: So I went to church.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I went to church with confidence before God.
SPEAKER_00: God knows this, God knows it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, eh, oh Jesus, I can only watch mash with my mom so much.
SPEAKER_00: I got an unspoken prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: So I sat in church and felt like the only dirty sinner in the room.
SPEAKER_00: And I did not enjoy church.
SPEAKER_00: But the more I read the Bible and understood who God was, I began to really enjoy God.
SPEAKER_00: And I love the churches, they're good people.
SPEAKER_00: I was just like, again, freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech, a free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, boldness, assurance.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God wants you to have when you talk to Him, which is what prayer is.
SPEAKER_00: My fear is that we believe the lie for so long, and you you and here's the lie.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, God just tolerates you and He answers your prayers in spite of you.
SPEAKER_00: I would just ask this question: what if God really enjoyed you and answered your prayers because of you?
SPEAKER_00: Now, we read some really thorny things in the text.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just kind of get to the some common questions about the text.
SPEAKER_00: Here's one.
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean, because it says right there in verse 14, this is the confidence we have toward him.
SPEAKER_00: If we ask anything and according to his will, he hears us.
SPEAKER_00: And if we know he hears us in whatever we ask, we know we have the request we have asked as him.
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean we get whatever we want?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: It means that when you pray according to his will, so we hear anything and ask anything, we do not hear in accordance with his will.
SPEAKER_00: What it does mean is that when you ask according to his will, that he hears you, and when you receive that request, and sometimes it takes a while, you can trust that to be God's will for your life.
SPEAKER_00: Can God tell you no, and that still be God's will?
SPEAKER_00: Because here's here's my concern.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us at our core, we want to create a world where our will carries the day.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't want to live in that world.
SPEAKER_00: You want to live in the world where God's will carries the day.
SPEAKER_00: You say, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a note taker, write this down.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer doesn't create God's will.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is where we submit to God's will.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer doesn't create God.
SPEAKER_00: You don't tell God what to do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, all right, here's your marching orders.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be God in my life, you better hop to it.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is where you submit to God's will.
SPEAKER_00: You think Jesus in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, regardless of what I think, feel, and need, your will, not my will, be done.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I mean when I say prayer doesn't create God's will.
SPEAKER_00: Prayers where you submit to God's will.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another question: why does it take so long?
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, it's because God has to work in us to get us ready to receive the request.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, God has to work in us to get us ready to receive the request.
SPEAKER_00: It's why I was 28 when I got married.
SPEAKER_00: People in my own family were like, hey, dude, are you okay?
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong with me?
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you have a girlfriend?
SPEAKER_00: I just hadn't anybody I'm really interested in.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the reality.
SPEAKER_00: God had to work in me so I was ready to receive my wife.
SPEAKER_00: If I would have met her at 25, she would not have enjoyed me.
SPEAKER_00: You say, How do you know?
SPEAKER_00: She told me.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think God did a deep work in you because if not, I don't think I would have been drawn to you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks, honey.
SPEAKER_00: I'm encouraged by that.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the reality: absolutely, she's right.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, not about me, but about God.
SPEAKER_00: God, sometimes it takes a while for our prayers to get answered.
SPEAKER_00: Not because God doesn't hear us, He hears everything you say, but He's got to prepare you to get ready to receive the answer to your prayers because you think you can handle it, but you can't.
SPEAKER_00: And not because it's bad.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: It's so good, it would flatten you if you got it right now.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another question.
SPEAKER_00: This is the question I get asked all the time.
SPEAKER_00: All the time.
SPEAKER_00: Airplanes, airports, restaurants, walking down the aisle, some store.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another question from the text.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16, 17.
SPEAKER_00: What is the sin and the death?
SPEAKER_00: I went and spoke at a Christmas conference after the holidays one year in Nashville.
SPEAKER_00: And we we had our girls were little, so we'd go to Pensacola, my in-laws for the crib for holidays, and I would just fly and go speaking something.
SPEAKER_00: I'd fly back into Pensacola.
SPEAKER_00: I'm flying back.
SPEAKER_00: The guy next to me smelled like the night before.
SPEAKER_00: Have you been there?
SPEAKER_00: Say amen.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you just you brush your teeth, it's kind of like did I lick ashtrays last night?
SPEAKER_00: What happened here?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I mean it's just I might, but it's not that.
SPEAKER_00: It is whiskey.
SPEAKER_00: Whiskey has a smell about it.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, it oozes out of your pores.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, he sat down and he goes, uh, I brushed my teeth this morning, and I said, It's coming out of your pores.
SPEAKER_00: Don't strike a match, you're gonna blow us up.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I partied hard last night.
SPEAKER_00: I was in New York City, and I'm like, oh well, awesome.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm gonna sleep.
SPEAKER_00: You cool, bro?
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm not your bro, but I'm cool.
SPEAKER_00: And so he has the aisle, I'm jammed in the window.
SPEAKER_00: He falls asleep.
SPEAKER_00: There's an hour into the flight.
SPEAKER_00: I went out of a Bible and start just kind of reading because I enjoy reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: He sets up from a dead sleep, reeking of whiskey, and says, Hey man, uh, what's the sin under death?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, What'd you do last night?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, No, seriously.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Are you worried?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Sometimes I get worried because here's what people kind of think.
SPEAKER_00: Because preachers don't take the time to tell you what the Bible actually says.
SPEAKER_00: They use the Bible to kind of cram their agenda down your throat.
SPEAKER_00: God's not that way.
SPEAKER_00: God says, You'll know the truth, the truth will set you free.
SPEAKER_00: I said to the guy, I said, You know, you think that like the sin and the death is like there's a thermometer and you get up to a certain level, ding, God's gonna kill you.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, I know I'm not gonna live a long life.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Really?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: Because I sin a lot.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the Bible says the wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_00: I said, You die spiritually before you die physically.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_00: Great conversation.
SPEAKER_00: People that are hungover can have great conversations.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, seriously.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been hung over before?
SPEAKER_00: Say amen.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, some of you are like, I ain't going for that.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to rescue you from being so self-righteous.
SPEAKER_00: Hung over.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that is, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I have to call one of my friends and ask him.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you're hung over, you're at this point, you're kind of like, oh, do I want to keep living this way?
SPEAKER_00: That's where he was.
SPEAKER_00: We had a great conversation.
SPEAKER_00: He said, What's a sin under death?
SPEAKER_00: And I kind of explained it.
SPEAKER_00: You may be thinking the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Well, before you get to that, because he says in verse 16, if anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life.
SPEAKER_00: To those who commit sins that do not lead to death, there is a sin that leads to death.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, This crazy statement, I do not say that one should pray for that.
SPEAKER_00: What is so terrible that the Bible says, don't pray for that?
SPEAKER_00: Hold on to that.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get to that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: First, he says there's sin not leading to death.
SPEAKER_00: This is the sin that any Christian commits.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it says, if anyone sees a brother, if anyone sees a brother, because we have the life of eternity inside of us, you cannot continue to live in sin and you cannot die spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: This is not physical death.
SPEAKER_00: That's another thing.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about spiritual death here.
SPEAKER_00: When you see a brother or sister sinning, you don't go talk about them with somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: You go to them because you want to restore them gently.
SPEAKER_00: It's Galatians 6, 1 and 2 that says this, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.
SPEAKER_00: Keep watch on yourselves lest you too be tempted.
SPEAKER_00: Bear one of those burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now, a couple things.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, brothers, he's talking not male to male, he's talking about Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, sometimes good people do bad things.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not winking at that, say it's no big deal, but don't be surprised, like, oh my gosh, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, draw your attention to those two little words.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone, any transgression?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone, is it do you have anybody in your life that you just you don't love properly that you just think, yeah, you got what you deserved?
SPEAKER_00: Is there anybody that you just put beyond the pale of the grace of God?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone, anyone, anyone?
SPEAKER_00: And then this any transgression.
SPEAKER_00: Are there any sins that you're just like, well, ask yourself this question before you go to bed tonight.
SPEAKER_00: What sins bring out your self-righteousness?
SPEAKER_00: I would never do that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's Pride Month.
SPEAKER_00: Look at these LGBTQ people.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you what, I would never do that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the reason I asked that question is because that's where you should practice Christianity the most.
SPEAKER_00: You should be one of the most loving people.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean you go, oh, uh, this is not sin.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: You remember certainty.
SPEAKER_00: You hold on to things, but that doesn't make you a mean-spirited person.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, This restore him.
SPEAKER_00: You should restore him in the spirit of gentleness.
SPEAKER_00: Keep watch on yourself lest you two be tempted.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the last word I'll point to in Galatians 6 bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Bear means to carry off or to put your hands on.
SPEAKER_00: I got a call, uh, I got an email this past week from somebody that lives in Jacksonville, Florida.
SPEAKER_00: And God said, Hey, could you basically, I need some help?
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I don't recognize this name.
SPEAKER_00: And Kim, our admin said, Yeah, you got this thing.
SPEAKER_00: She forward me the email.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, nah, I'll call him, call the guy.
SPEAKER_00: And we're talking for 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking in my mind, you ever somebody's talking to you like they know you?
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, uh, uh, and he goes, Hey, you're probably wondering how we know each other.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, I don't fake it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, I'm 52 now, and when I was 24, I heard you speak of a youth camp.
SPEAKER_00: I was a youth worker, and I've listened to your podcast ever since.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_00: And basically he just said, Hey, I need a little bit of help.
SPEAKER_00: And then at one point we talked for an hour.
SPEAKER_00: It was great.
SPEAKER_00: At one point he said, Hey, I just feel bad.
SPEAKER_00: I said, What do you don't feel bad?
SPEAKER_00: This is what Christians do.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I walk by you and a wall fell on you.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm praying for you, bro.
SPEAKER_00: That looks uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm gonna get over here and get my hands on and go, and if it's too heavy for me, I'm gonna be like, hey, hey, I need some help.
SPEAKER_00: It's the people you see on the side of the road when the car is flipped over, total strangers pull over and run down the interstate and lift the car up and get the baby and the woman out.
SPEAKER_00: Why is the world more compassionate than Christians?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you see anyone, if anyone, any transgression, they don't need a sermon, they need somebody gonna let me get my hands on this burden, and I want to lift it up off of you.
SPEAKER_00: And look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you're gonna lift it up off of them, and they're gonna get better, and they're gonna go right out and commit that same sin again.
SPEAKER_00: That's called parenting.
SPEAKER_00: Happy Father's Day.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: So, so first of all, there's a sin that doesn't lead to death, and he said there's a sin that leads to death.
SPEAKER_00: And how do we think about this phrase?
SPEAKER_00: Here's two biblical hermeneutical rules.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, you let the context speak first, and then secondly, you let the biblical record speak second.
SPEAKER_00: The immediate context is 1 John 5.
SPEAKER_00: That speaks first.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a reference to physical death because we're all susceptible to that.
SPEAKER_00: What John has in mind here is spiritual death.
SPEAKER_00: This the failure to experience the life of eternity, uh, which is which is it's just life.
SPEAKER_00: It's not death.
SPEAKER_00: This is the privilege of those who believe in the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: You have the life of eternity, eternal life in you, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so the context here, John is referring to these, they're called the secessionists.
SPEAKER_00: These people that were a part of this faith community, they pulled away that it's an early form of Gnosticism.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis?
SPEAKER_00: They're like, oh, we're enlightened.
SPEAKER_00: They even said we have these spiritual experiences.
SPEAKER_00: No one can evaluate us because the Holy Spirit tells us things he tells nobody else.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of God never tells the people of God to do anything that violates the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Ever.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody tells you that they're a liar, you should mark them with red paint and avoid them.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not the red paint, but anyway.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, here John is talking about these secessionists who pulled away.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they deny that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh, and they deny the significance of his atoning death.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: They deny that Jesus has come in the flesh because flesh is evil, spirit is good, and they deny the significance of him dying on the cross in their place and for their sins.
SPEAKER_00: What this means is they put themselves outside the sphere of forgiveness, and their sins produce spiritual death.
SPEAKER_00: And so when he says here in 1 John, because I've heard Christians take, when I was in college, it was terrible.
SPEAKER_00: I went to a private Christian school, good school, some of the people there were just mean-spirited.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, for the believers, sin unto death, I'd be careful going out to the baseball team, was the hell against at my college.
SPEAKER_00: They were the guys that didn't get D1 scholarships and they came there.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean the preacher boys just I just feasted on them.
SPEAKER_00: Hey man, be careful, sin unto death.
SPEAKER_00: Today may be your last day.
SPEAKER_00: You want to pray the prayer?
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Leave them alone.
SPEAKER_00: That's not even what the Bible means when it says that.
SPEAKER_00: The sin unto death, and the reason John says don't pray for them, listen very carefully, okay?
SPEAKER_00: The reason John says don't pray for them is because God's not going to change his mind about salvation.
SPEAKER_00: God's not going to say, he's not saying, hey, don't pray that God opens the eyes of their heart, that God revealed the Holy Spirit reveals the truth to them.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, because a lot of people are like, well, you know, my friends, Buddhists or my friends is a Muslim, and you know, they're sincere and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: God is not going to change how people come to faith.
SPEAKER_00: And what John is saying is, hey, don't even pray that what those people believe is going to come true one day.
SPEAKER_00: It never is.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at me.
SPEAKER_00: That should not increase the volume with which you talk to those people.
SPEAKER_00: It should increase the compassion you have for them and how intentional you are towards them.
SPEAKER_00: It is the will of God that the only way of salvation is through his son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Can I show you something we're going to get into next week?
SPEAKER_00: You got time for that?
SPEAKER_00: Say yes.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I just said it's the will of God that the only way of salvation is through his son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20, and we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true.
SPEAKER_00: And we are in him who is true.
SPEAKER_00: That is a reference to God.
SPEAKER_00: We are in him who is true, in his son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The only way you get to God is in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That is the testimony of the Bible, time and time and time again, over and over and over.
SPEAKER_00: God cannot and will not change his mind about how a person is saved, how they come to faith, about salvation, whatever word you want to use.
SPEAKER_00: It's all through the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: John 14, 6, Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: No one comes to the Father except through me.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 4, verse 12, and there is salvation in no one else, for there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
SPEAKER_00: When you have a friend that deconstructs their faith and then mocks yours, what they're saying is, hey, salvation's in my name.
SPEAKER_00: Agree with me.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is very clear there's no name given under heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Whereby which men we always want to go to, well, this religious leader or that religious leader.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: It's your pot-smoking best friend.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, you know, I mean, Christianity is so narrow-minded and such a so so bigoted.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just chill out, man.
SPEAKER_00: Just relax.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what that person's really saying with a lot of hipster language is hey, you can be saved in my name.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you think about it in those terms, let that inform the way you relate to those people.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Timothy chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: For there's one God, and there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
SPEAKER_00: There's one God, and there's one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Just one.
SPEAKER_00: No one else.
SPEAKER_00: And so what John is saying in 1 John 5 is hey, don't even pray.
SPEAKER_00: There's a sin and a death.
SPEAKER_00: And when you separate from yourself, when you refuse to believe things that are true about the only means of life, what other option do you have besides death?
SPEAKER_00: It's not like God's mean spirited, like, oh, I'm giving up those people.
SPEAKER_00: No, those people have removed themselves from the only means of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And that why, that's why John says, Hey, don't even pray for that.
SPEAKER_00: There's a sin under death.
SPEAKER_00: These cats have committed it, and don't even pray for that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what you you can pray for other things, but don't pray God's going to change his mind.
SPEAKER_00: He is not.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is spiritual death.
SPEAKER_00: And spiritual death always precedes physical death.
SPEAKER_00: However, I would be remiss if I didn't tell you in the Bible, there's also episodes where sin leads to physical death.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you two and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_00: Numbers chapter 25, don't turn there.
SPEAKER_00: Numbers chapter 25, God told his people, the men, hello, Father's Day, pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, he told the men, don't intermarry, don't hang out with those Moabite women.
SPEAKER_00: They're more skanky broads, they'll jack you up.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: The biblical language was they'll turn your heart away from me, they'll have you bowing down to other gods.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, oh no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: They're just different.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we got to be inclusive.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm a global citizen, I'm not a nationalist.
SPEAKER_00: Whoop-type.
SPEAKER_00: And so they disregarded what God said.
SPEAKER_00: They began to hang out with these Moabite women, and pretty soon they're bowing down to their idols.
SPEAKER_00: And look at me, where you don't have conviction, God will bring consequence.
SPEAKER_00: And so God sends a plague and begins to kill his own people for their sin.
SPEAKER_00: Numbers chapter 25.
SPEAKER_00: Ladies, if you're if you think about having kids and you don't have a name picked out, Phineas is a great name for a boy.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's this cat Phineas in Numbers chapter 25.
SPEAKER_00: The people of Israel are at the door of their tent.
SPEAKER_00: They're crying out to God, what is going on?
SPEAKER_00: What why is this happening?
SPEAKER_00: And along comes some guy with his Moabite girlfriend, just prancing down the street.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why does God bring physical death for sin?
SPEAKER_00: Two reasons.
SPEAKER_00: One of them is high-minded disregard for the laws of God.
SPEAKER_00: And this guy, guys, he's like, Yeah, y'all keep crying.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go in here in the tent for a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be out.
SPEAKER_00: And Phineas is so incensed, he grabs a spear, follows him in the tent, and the Bible says he stuck it through Phineas, through the woman stuck it, stomach, and pinned them to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: Means they were on top of each other.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, God said, You know what?
SPEAKER_00: No more people are gonna die because Phineas was as jealous for my name as I am.
SPEAKER_00: He will have a perpetual priesthood before me, he and his descendants the rest of his life, and the plague stopped, but God had already killed 24,000 people.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Where you don't have conviction, God will bring consequence.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because God didn't just establish a relationship with you to forgive you, he established a relationship with you so you could live in a place of fullness.
SPEAKER_00: And when you and I live at fullness, sin doesn't have the power over us that it once did.
SPEAKER_00: Now you may be thinking, well, that's in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 5 is another instance.
SPEAKER_00: These two, this man and woman, Ananias and Sapphira, they sold some land.
SPEAKER_00: The church was growing, the church was exploding, people were sacrificing.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted everybody to think, hey, look at us, we're sacrificing.
SPEAKER_00: So they brought the money, put it to feed the apostles, and they said, Is it what you sold the land for?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, that's what we got.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Why'd you lie to the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, God doesn't care what you give, but don't lie and act like you're more generous than you really are.
SPEAKER_00: You're lying to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And God struck that man dead.
SPEAKER_00: How do you like to be at that church service?
SPEAKER_00: I reckon old Billy Bob had some unfinished business because he got whacked.
SPEAKER_00: A couple hours later, his wife walks in.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Hey, is this what you sold the land for?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, it is.
SPEAKER_00: Why have you agreed to lie to the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: The feet of the men that carried your husband out the door, and they're gonna carry your dead carcass out as soon as you die.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean die?
SPEAKER_00: Boom.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not being flippant, I'm just trying to hurry because I'm already too long.
SPEAKER_00: But I I again, you can tell where you've been by how you leave.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to run out of this, and I don't want you to live in fear.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, if I do some sin, God's gonna kill me.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: That's talking about these secessionists.
SPEAKER_00: But there is a physical consequence for sin.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Look at me, and we're done.
SPEAKER_00: Because God didn't come just to forgive you.
unknown: He
SPEAKER_00: Came to fill you up.
SPEAKER_00: So you live in such a place of fullness.
SPEAKER_00: People see in you this life that God promised to his followers, and they want what you have.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guests, just relax.
SPEAKER_00: We like to teach the Bible, and then we give you some soul space to think about it.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'll voice a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Some questions come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: These are for your consideration and contemplation.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_00: God thanks for the truth of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks that it's it gets into places we don't normally think about.
SPEAKER_00: And today is one of those days, but we welcome that Holy Spirit because we don't want to just keep coming for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to use you, God.
SPEAKER_00: We want to enjoy you.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't want to just keep asking for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: We're forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: But we're not full.
SPEAKER_00: We want to live with this place of fullness today.
SPEAKER_00: So, Holy Spirit, just brood over us now for such a time as this.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for the grace that is ours because of Jesus, in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let this grace foster trust in us.
SPEAKER_00: This is our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Make it our experience.
SPEAKER_00: We ask in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for your presence today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guest, I want you to know you're always welcome.
SPEAKER_00: There's a number that'll come up on the screen that you can tell you can text.
SPEAKER_00: Usually we have today an announcement video, but I don't want to show it.
SPEAKER_00: We've been here long enough.
SPEAKER_00: I went a little long today because I wanted to unpack what the Bible actually means.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to live in fear that I'm going to commit some sin and God's going to kill me.
SPEAKER_00: That's not who God is.
SPEAKER_00: Now, God is a God of justice, he's a God of mercy and love and forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: But he's also a God of fullness.
SPEAKER_00: You hear the difference in those two things.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just spend your whole life asking God for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy the fullness that is yours in Christ because of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's when it gets good.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to leave with that taste in your mouth, okay?
SPEAKER_00: There's the number if you're our guest today.
SPEAKER_00: And so also, I haven't said this in a while.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's like, hey, you don't remind us about offerings.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody at the news said, Hey, where do you take up an offering?
SPEAKER_00: If today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity, we take care of that.
SPEAKER_00: There's wooden boxes by the doors.
SPEAKER_00: Now, because somebody said to me, Hey, did you get my note?
SPEAKER_00: I put a note in there, and I said, I have nothing to do with the money, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who gives what.
SPEAKER_00: That's on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to know.
SPEAKER_00: That way everybody gets treated the same.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So if you write me a note, and I hope you will, just walk up and give it to me.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you stick it in the box, I'll never see it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: How about that for full disclosure?
SPEAKER_00: Let's finish with this taste in our mouth.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_00: I got a text from Travis who's at Youth Camp.
SPEAKER_00: Our students are coming back today.
SPEAKER_00: We got over 100 of them that are out at camp.
SPEAKER_00: And uh Ian, our new student pastor, who'll be here in the middle of July, who is a former Pine Cove staffer, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Hush, you sister kissers.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Travis emailed me because Ian in the church he's at now, they were at the same camp.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Ian interacted with our students.
SPEAKER_00: They're so excited about him coming.
SPEAKER_00: So be praying.
SPEAKER_00: That's going to be a beautiful collision when he gets here.
SPEAKER_00: We'd like to conclude our service with spoken blessings.
SPEAKER_00: So hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_00: Your father is so good, so loving, compassionate, and kind.
SPEAKER_00: He does not want you to live in fear.
SPEAKER_00: He does not want you to depend on forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to enjoy fullness.
SPEAKER_00: So depart now and live in the fullness that is yours.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Christ came for.
SPEAKER_00: It's what he wants you to have.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.