SPEAKER_00: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Make sufficient Jesus, God of the universe, the God who speaks of Himself in turns that call us upward and onward and wean us off of self-reliance.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we've come to confess that the story we tell that has us at the center of everything is too small.
SPEAKER_01: It's never going to be sufficient.
SPEAKER_01: It's always going to require some self-medicating behavior on our part because it's not enough.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have enough resources.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have enough revelation.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have deep inside of every one of us is this gnawing sense that I do not have what I need.
SPEAKER_01: And so this causes us to come to you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, not just independence, but because of relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Because we believe, God, what we're just saying is that we see in part, but not the whole.
SPEAKER_01: And there's nothing that you do not see.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see that in the text this morning.
SPEAKER_01: But you're not just the God of today and tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: You're not just the God of now, but then.
SPEAKER_01: You're not just the God of this, but you're the God of that, and even after that.
SPEAKER_01: And we're stuck in this right now, God, and this feels small.
SPEAKER_01: Like a like a t-shirt that we washed in hot water and dried.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of shrunk up on us.
SPEAKER_01: This is insufficient for that and especially for after that.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, pull back the curtain this morning and trust us and then trust us with not just this, but that and whatever comes after that.
SPEAKER_01: Because you already know it.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're not asking you to give us what we want.
SPEAKER_01: We're asking you to reveal to us today what you already know.
SPEAKER_01: Let us be a men and a women, a people, a place, a church that can be trusted with that.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're after today, God.
SPEAKER_01: Wean us off of this and whet our appetite for that and after that.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: What everyone said, Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_01: You could have a seat if you got a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I invite you to take it and open it up to uh Acts chapter six.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest today, we're preaching through the through the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: It's called Expository Preaching.
SPEAKER_01: And the good thing about this is you don't jump around from topic to topic, uh, like money and marriage and parenting.
SPEAKER_01: And we cover all those things in the context of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: But the beauty of that is that you have to, you have to, of expository preaching is you have to cover some things and confront some things that we by nature would avoid.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh and this morning is one of those examples.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you this morning about the beautiful, the beauty of gospel fluency.
SPEAKER_01: The beauty of gospel fluency.
SPEAKER_01: Last week, Blake started talking about uh about deacons, deacons with servants.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the church is not an organization, the church is an organism that requires some organization.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we saw last week.
SPEAKER_01: God needs some organization, some structure, some servants.
SPEAKER_01: So these guys over here, not everybody does the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: These guys are gonna serve and wait on tables and take care of the widows.
SPEAKER_01: These guys over here are gonna give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's been a progression.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and I don't know if you noticed behind me, but the picture has changed.
SPEAKER_01: Or it should have changed.
SPEAKER_01: That's the wrong picture.
SPEAKER_01: Uh the picture is never mind.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh, the the picture, the well, it'll be next week is resistance.
SPEAKER_01: Is now we're gonna start experiencing resistance in the church.
SPEAKER_01: And these guys, back in chapter four, they got scolded.
SPEAKER_01: Uh excuse me, chapter three, they got scolded.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter four, they got beat, and in this next two chapters, one of them gets killed.
SPEAKER_01: And so you start to experience resistance.
SPEAKER_01: And so I don't want to start reading.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read a long section, I'm gonna break it up because this whole thing is basically this guy named Stephen gets called in and they ask him one question.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm a guy that's prone to long answers, and so I love this part of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: They ask him one question, and that dude goes on for a chapter and a half.
SPEAKER_01: I mean just like, okay, all right, oh man.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but what you'll see is the gospel fluency, all right?
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm gonna start reading Acts chapter six, starting verse eight.
SPEAKER_01: And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.
SPEAKER_01: Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, and the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians and of those of Cilicia and Asia rose up and disputed with Stephen, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking.
SPEAKER_01: Then they secretly instigated men who said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.
SPEAKER_01: And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him out before the council.
SPEAKER_01: And they set up false witnesses who said, This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: This man never ceases uh to speak words against this holy place and the law.
SPEAKER_01: For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, talking about the temple and and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.
SPEAKER_01: This man will destroy this place and he'll move the Bible studies and the students from nine o'clock to 10:30.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Why, we do not like this man.
SPEAKER_01: And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
SPEAKER_01: And the high priest asked him, Are these things so?
SPEAKER_01: That's the question.
SPEAKER_01: One question, and here comes the long play, dance mixed answer to the question.
SPEAKER_01: Are these things so?
SPEAKER_01: And Stephen said, Brothers and fathers, hear me.
SPEAKER_01: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, Go out from your land, from your kindred, and go into the land that I will show you.
SPEAKER_01: Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran.
SPEAKER_01: And after this, his father died.
SPEAKER_01: God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.
SPEAKER_01: Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.
SPEAKER_01: And God spoke to this effect, that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, and they would enslave them and afflict them 400 years.
SPEAKER_01: But I will judge the nation that they serve, said God.
SPEAKER_01: And after they shall come out and come out and worshiping, and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.
SPEAKER_01: And he gave them the covenant of circumcision.
SPEAKER_01: And so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll stop right there for today.
SPEAKER_01: It's a long answer.
SPEAKER_01: It goes on in the next two Sundays, we'll unpack even more of it.
SPEAKER_01: But what you'll see that kind of happens is what I call the beauty of gospel fluency.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what do we see in the text?
SPEAKER_01: We see basically four or five things.
SPEAKER_01: Let me point to them.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, that Christianity is historical before it's personal.
SPEAKER_01: We say this a lot just in passing, but I can't say it enough.
SPEAKER_01: I want to beat this drum over and over and over.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity is historical before it's personal.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, Christianity didn't start on July 5th, 1982, about 9:30 at night, when I came to faith.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't start when you found a church that you liked and you entrusted your kids to.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity is historical.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the uh we believe this, and one of the ways we flesh out that we believe this, that is historical and personal, but before it's personal, it's historical.
SPEAKER_01: One of the ways that we demonstrate uh our understanding of this is that one of the core classes that we teach here is a class on Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_01: We have midweek classes that meet in the building over there, uh, not during the summer, they meet in the fall for 10 weeks and the spring for 10 weeks, because we want people to understand the story that God is telling.
SPEAKER_01: So we teach a core class called the Christian story.
SPEAKER_01: You have to ask yourself, how well do you know the story of God?
SPEAKER_01: My story is not the story of God.
SPEAKER_01: My story finds its place and makes sense only in the context of the story that God is telling.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in the in the class, the Christian story, this core class we teach uh like every third semester, because we want this understanding in the head and heart of our people.
SPEAKER_01: It's an overview of the story that God has been telling from the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: We teach this because we want people to not only know their story, but the story that God's telling, how it fits in.
SPEAKER_01: God's story is known as the gospel, the good news of Christianity, and it's in only in this story.
SPEAKER_01: The story that God is telling, the gospel is the only story big enough to live in.
SPEAKER_01: Now, one of the things that you'll see when you begin to understand, because a lot of you come to church, maybe you're new to church, you're kind of like, hey, if you knew what I was really like, what I'm struggling with, there's no way that you would want me to believe that I can be a part of God's story.
SPEAKER_01: I would just I would just put one word out there, one name out there, Rahab.
SPEAKER_01: Now, all the Sunday school vacation Bible school kids were like, Yeah, Rahab, Rahab.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new to church, you're like, I got nothing, bro.
SPEAKER_01: Rahab, that that sounds like a crazy name.
SPEAKER_01: Rahab was a harlot, which is the Bible word for.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, she liked to spread love all around.
SPEAKER_01: Keep hope alive, amen.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so in the story of God, in one of the genealogies of Jesus, Rahab is listed as one of the people that God used, that's involved in God's story.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm saying: none of you has excused yourself, none of you sinned so much that God's not gonna, God's kind of said, Hey, you're embarrassing.
SPEAKER_01: Go stand over there on the wall.
SPEAKER_01: We're no one's picking you, you just do your best.
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: The story that God is telling is so big, everyone's invited into it.
SPEAKER_01: And perhaps the greatest thing that you could do today is to put the pen down and stop trying to write a story that will always be too small for you.
SPEAKER_01: You see, one of the first things right off the bat, Christianity is historical before it's personal.
SPEAKER_01: And what you read here about this guy, Stephen, is a man that knew God's story.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, he gets asked, hey, is this true?
SPEAKER_01: Are you talking about the temple and you're sinning against the law?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you are, dude, you're that's blasphemy.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna get you for that.
SPEAKER_01: And his response is just crazy.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, brothers and bothers, hear me.
SPEAKER_01: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he's in Mesopotamia.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, What's this got to do with anything?
SPEAKER_01: It's gospel fluent, he's gospel fluent, and there's twofold beauty to gospel fluency, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Here's here's the twofold beauty of gospel fluency right off the top.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, questions get answered that were not being asked.
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, things begin to make sense that didn't before.
SPEAKER_01: That will happen in this room this morning while I'm preaching, not because of me, but because of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, questions will get answered that you weren't even asking to be like, oh, yeah, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: And then secondly, things will begin to make sense that didn't make sense before.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's a God of revelation, and this is the beauty of gospel fluency.
SPEAKER_01: We're we're reading uh a sermon, a speech that a man gave thousands of years ago, and yet it's applicable in 2023.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Christianity is historical before it's personal, all right?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the second thing we see in the text God is not a God of place.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: He says, The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran, and he said to him, Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the big charge against Stephen was twofold.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, I paused, I kind of pumped the brakes and said, Notice this.
SPEAKER_01: The big charge against Stephen was twofold.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, he speaks against the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, he speaks against the law.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why this was the big thing.
SPEAKER_01: In their mind, the temple was where God lived.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like your teacher, you think when you're a little kid, you think your teacher lives at the school.
SPEAKER_01: Like every once in a while, I see some of you with little kids, if they see me out somewhere, they're like, Oh, Pastor Neil.
SPEAKER_01: Like this past week, I was having lunch with a friend at Kava in town center down there.
SPEAKER_01: It's Mediterranean.
SPEAKER_01: They have hummus.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I feel healthy, I'm sure it's not, but I enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01: And from behind me, I heard somebody go, Pastor Neil, and they had their daughter with them.
SPEAKER_01: And their daughter was like, What?
SPEAKER_01: Don't you live at the church?
SPEAKER_01: And so, because it was awkward, I like making it more awkward.
SPEAKER_01: I walked over and sat at their table, right beside their daughter, and she was like, And I'm like, Have you ever had lunch with a preacher?
SPEAKER_01: No, you want me to go back to my table?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: The parents were like, We're gonna beat you.
SPEAKER_01: You show respect to this man.
SPEAKER_01: I said, It's okay.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I don't live at the church.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Is it weird to see me out?
SPEAKER_01: And yeah.
SPEAKER_01: This is the way we feel that way because people back then felt that way.
SPEAKER_01: They believed, oh my gosh, like when Jesus said, You tear down this temple and I'll raise it back up in three days, he's talking about his body.
SPEAKER_01: They think he's talking about the building.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna tear down the house where God lives, where's God gonna live?
SPEAKER_01: And so this is the big thing.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just saying to you, God is not a God of place.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, because this shows how the people thought about God.
SPEAKER_01: He lived at the temple, so how dare you talk about destroying the place where God lives?
SPEAKER_01: Here's what's applicable to you and I.
SPEAKER_01: What Stephen is laboring for them to see is that God is not restricted to the temple.
SPEAKER_01: He speaks outside of the temple and outside of the confines of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: When we restrict ourselves to what I call temple thinking, then we set up categories for thinking and living that only apply to Sunday, but not to the rest of the week.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Temple thinking is this, oh, there's categories of living and being that they apply to Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Well, there are certain things we don't do on Sunday, and it's okay over here.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not careful, your life begins to sound like a Florida, Georgia lion song.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we cuss on them Mondays and we pray on them Sundays.
SPEAKER_01: That's temple thinking.
SPEAKER_01: I remember the first time I heard that on the radio, I just blurted out, Temple thinking.
SPEAKER_01: It's a good thing nobody was in my truck because that would have been kind of creepy.
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it's kind of like, hey, Sunday is where I go to do penance for the way I've lived all these other days.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way people in the Bible talk about the temple.
SPEAKER_01: So that's why they wanted to kill Stephen because they dude, you're talking about tearing down the place where God lives.
SPEAKER_01: Where's God going to live?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, by the way, the answer is right here.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Bible says, Don't you know that your body's the temple of God?
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the progression of God's residence.
SPEAKER_01: In the Old Testament, it's tabernacle, like a tent, that they move, God's presence is with us, then they build a temple, a building for God, and God lives there.
SPEAKER_01: But the New Testament is here is where God lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so, again, if you're here and you think, I'm not a good person, I struggle with addiction, I've got a foul mouth, I've got a horrible past.
SPEAKER_01: You said Rahab was a harlot, and I was like, mm-hmm, sign language, I got I relate to her.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: The God of the universe says, I will by my spirit come and live inside of you.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to clean the house up, he'll clean it up for you.
SPEAKER_01: He will.
SPEAKER_01: You I don't take a bath to take a shower.
SPEAKER_01: I don't.
SPEAKER_01: I I just I just get in and I'm dirty and I get out clean.
SPEAKER_01: When God by his spirit comes to live inside of you, he will displace everything in you that needs to go.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen.
SPEAKER_01: And so, see, the thing you gotta be careful of, look at verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on in six different times he mentions the the nation of Egypt before he lived in Haran.
SPEAKER_01: But basically, what he's trying to establish is that God is not restricted to Israel and the temple, he speaks in other places.
SPEAKER_01: One of the questions I want you to answer today at lunch is what is the weirdest place God's ever spoken to you?
SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of people struggle with Sundays.
SPEAKER_01: You leave Sundays kind of in a twist because you don't think about God uh uh like Monday through Saturday, the way you think about God on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: And so you come to church, you got all your eggs in this basket, and if I don't hit a home run, or whoever's preaching doesn't hit a home run, or scratch exactly where you're itching, you leave and you're like, I can't believe I shaved my legs for that.
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't any good.
SPEAKER_01: You that's temple thinking.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's speaking all during the week.
SPEAKER_01: So you should ask yourself, what's the weirdest place that God's ever spoken to you?
SPEAKER_01: Someone asked me a while back, hey, where were you when God called you to come be the pastor of Grand Parkway?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I can tell you right now, I was in my backyard.
SPEAKER_01: I built my kids a swing and a fort with a sandbox underneath it and a slide because I grew up on a farm and I like to use power tools.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and the committee had been talking to me, and I was kind of like, Man, I am not your guy, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Well, I said, Oh, I'm just not your guy.
SPEAKER_01: I just, I didn't, man, I traveled.
SPEAKER_01: I said, give me some, give me some time to think about.
SPEAKER_01: We'd met three two or three times.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, just give me two weeks to pray.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in the backyard, I'm pushing Sophie in a bucket swing.
SPEAKER_01: She's two.
SPEAKER_01: Massine's jumping on the trampoline.
SPEAKER_01: Now, up to that point, I'd been praying.
SPEAKER_01: My wife and I'd been praying.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, Are you hearing anything?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, no, it is the heavens are brass.
SPEAKER_01: It is shut up.
SPEAKER_01: That's a church phrase, by the way, which I got nothing.
SPEAKER_01: But I said, every once in a while when I pray, I see these like green exit signs I can see on the interstate.
SPEAKER_01: And my cookie wife just kind of quirked, she quipped and said, Maybe this is your exit off the road.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, You shut your filthy mouth, woman.
SPEAKER_01: Because up until time I started working here, I ate out and lived in hotels for a living.
SPEAKER_01: I was on the road 195 days a year.
SPEAKER_01: My wife had a part-time husband in full-time support.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you women are like, Oh, I'm envious.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm in the backyard, I wasn't even praying.
SPEAKER_01: I was cutting up with my kids, and clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit said, This is your exit off the road.
SPEAKER_01: Call them.
SPEAKER_01: So I reached into my shorts and pulled out a phone and said, Hey, this is Neil.
SPEAKER_01: I'm calling you to tell you that I'm in.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
SPEAKER_01: We need to talk.
SPEAKER_01: We need to talk about finances.
SPEAKER_01: The church is broke.
SPEAKER_01: Notice churches never lead with that.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, we're broke.
SPEAKER_01: Do you want to come be our pastor?
SPEAKER_01: But here's the beauty pay attention to your past because God redeems everything.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up broke, and so that didn't bother me at all.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Okay, well, I should have known they said, Let's go to dinner tomorrow night at Niners in Pagan Grove.
SPEAKER_01: That's we're gonna go close the deal right there.
SPEAKER_01: So I just thought I'm gonna stick it to the man.
SPEAKER_01: I had a double meat cheeseburger.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, what is the weirdest place God has ever spoken to you?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're not careful, you'll limit yourself to temple thinking, like, oh, just on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: See, God is not a God of place, then what is he?
SPEAKER_01: What is he a God of?
SPEAKER_01: He's a God of glory, and he's most glorified by our obedience to go to the places he tells us to go.
SPEAKER_01: This sermon begins with glory, he says the God of glory, and it ends with Stephen seeing into heaven and seeing the glory of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a third thing you see from the text that gospel fluency establishes is that God knows our future better than we do.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse four and five.
SPEAKER_01: God knows our future better than we do.
SPEAKER_01: Pay careful attention because I want what I'm fixing to say to change the way you pray for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: I want what I'm fixing to say to change the way that you pray for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Verse four and five, then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran.
SPEAKER_01: And after that his father died, and God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.
SPEAKER_01: Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length.
SPEAKER_01: Again, it's not about place.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't need a place, God's looking for a people, but promised it to give promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him.
SPEAKER_01: That sounds good, right?
SPEAKER_01: Read the next sentence, the next part of the sentence.
SPEAKER_01: Though he had no child.
SPEAKER_01: Memo, hello, God.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have any children.
SPEAKER_01: I am barren, okay?
SPEAKER_01: This is Abram, and I got a wife, Sarah.
SPEAKER_01: She is old, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm old.
SPEAKER_01: We don't do those kind of things anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And God comes along and says, Hey, by the way, I know your future better than you do.
SPEAKER_01: What is being said?
SPEAKER_01: God promised to give this land to his offspring, and yet he has no child.
SPEAKER_01: What does God know that he doesn't know?
SPEAKER_01: Everything.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why it should it should change your prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, my prayers, I used to pray because I was taught, you know, uh, you, you, you, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, little across when I first wrote it in the back of my Bible, went home, tried that for about three weeks.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, this doesn't, and so I would just ask, I would just ask.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then as I matured as a believer, uh, I stopped asking God to give me things I was praying for.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not saying don't ask, but things shifted for me when I stopped saying, God, I want this and God, I want that.
SPEAKER_01: When I and I started saying, God, would you reveal to me everything you have for me?
SPEAKER_01: Because see, here's the difference.
SPEAKER_01: What God has in store for me is always bigger than what I have in store for myself.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what I mean when it should change the way you pray.
SPEAKER_01: When I just start saying, God, would you reveal?
SPEAKER_01: Because I left to myself, I will settle.
SPEAKER_01: I will just settle.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just be like, Oh, this is good.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I want a girlfriend, and God, I want a wife, and God, I want, you know, you know, and just instead, just and again, I'm not saying it's wrong.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says ask, seek, and knock, don't, but but but but maybe add to that, maybe step, step it up just a little bit and say, God, would you reveal to me because you know my future better than I do?
SPEAKER_01: You see, if you're in high school right now, you shouldn't be asking for a boyfriend or a girlfriend.
SPEAKER_01: You should be saying, God, get me ready for my husband or my wife.
SPEAKER_01: Because one of those is bigger and better and beyond.
SPEAKER_01: I went to a grad party yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: And as we're leaving, I said to the graduate, Hey, by the way, your future's out in front of you, it's not around you.
SPEAKER_01: And the only thing that would have made it better was all her friends would have been in the room.
SPEAKER_01: I looked at every one of them and said, All these people right here are not your future.
SPEAKER_01: Enjoy them, but get ready to launch and get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: But I didn't, I just said, and this one lady was standing there and she went, that's good.
SPEAKER_01: And I walked out.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that God knows your future?
SPEAKER_01: God knows our future better than we do.
SPEAKER_01: And if so, ask yourself this question: what would change in the way you relate to God if you really believe that?
SPEAKER_01: What would change in the way you relate to God if you really believe that?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the fourth thing we see in the text.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna take it down to the next, we're gonna get down to the next level, get nitty-gritty.
SPEAKER_01: God knows your children's future better than you do.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse six and seven.
SPEAKER_01: God knows your children's future.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a question that will start a fight at lunch.
SPEAKER_01: You want to start a fight at lunch?
SPEAKER_01: Ask your kids this question, mom and dad.
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever feel managed by me?
SPEAKER_01: Boom, boom.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, do you ever feel managed by me?
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think we do it on purpose, but unconsciously, you say, Where do you get this?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse six and seven.
SPEAKER_01: And God spoke to this effect that his offspring would not would be sojourners in a land belonging to others who would enslave them and afflict them for 400 years.
SPEAKER_01: But I will judge the nation that they serve, said God.
SPEAKER_01: And after that, Circle those two words after that.
SPEAKER_01: After that, they shall come out and worship me in this place.
SPEAKER_01: Now, just ask yourself, when I say God knows our children's future better than we do, God just said, here's what's going to happen to your offspring.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think this informed and affected the way Abraham parented his kids?
SPEAKER_01: Now let me say this.
SPEAKER_01: Parents who don't prepare your kids for the future have to prepare a future for your kids.
SPEAKER_01: And this happens, you get kind of stuck and a lot of pressure on you, Dad, like, hey, I got some passive revenue streams, I got some investments, I got this.
SPEAKER_01: What happens is if you raise your kids to trust you and your family and your stuff more than they trust God, you're always going to have to support them and supplement them to some degree.
SPEAKER_01: Because you unconsciously have said to your kids, don't depend on anything but me and your mom.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, do we need to provide?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: That is our privilege as men and women and as parents.
SPEAKER_01: But your greatest task is to teach your children to trust God more than they trust you, not out of abandonment, but because of understanding.
SPEAKER_01: Do you hear the difference in that?
SPEAKER_01: I ask people in counseling consistently this question, and it's so revealing.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the simple question.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember the age at which you looked around and thought, I cannot trust the adults in my life?
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to trust me.
SPEAKER_01: And people that I sense that had this issue, they're all like, it's not drawn, it's like, oh yeah, I was 12.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you're seeing a memory in your mind's eye.
SPEAKER_01: Can you tell me about it?
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I came back from a little league baseball game, and my dad and all his friends were hammered drunk in the backyard, sitting around in lawn chairs, and I was humiliated and embarrassed, and I didn't want to tell that man about my baseball game.
SPEAKER_01: So I went inside in my room and I took a bath and I went and got in bed and I decided right in that moment I'm not gonna trust him.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to trust him, and I never trusted him.
SPEAKER_01: Now that man to this day is ruthless because he doesn't trust anybody, he doesn't trust his own wife.
SPEAKER_01: He's got a tracker on her car.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, hey, bro.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, I don't trust anybody.
SPEAKER_01: I said, anybody?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, I ain't trust you.
SPEAKER_01: I said, well, it sounds like I got a lot of good company.
SPEAKER_01: This is what happens.
SPEAKER_01: Now, now, an essential component of spiritual formation for your kids is to teach them that while we can only see this, that God sees that and after that.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_01: An essential part of spiritual formation for our kids is to teach them, hey, God sees this, whatever you're going through, God sees it, he's aware of it, but he also sees that.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the better part.
SPEAKER_01: He also sees after that.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, I had you circle it?
SPEAKER_01: Look right there, verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: God says, But I will judge the nation that they serve, said God.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, hey, hey, uh He already told him, hey, to this effect, his offspring that he doesn't have, he has no children.
SPEAKER_01: And God is blowing his mind.
SPEAKER_01: Your offspring will be sojourners in a land belonging to others who will enslave them and afflict them for 400 years, but I will judge the nation that does this to them, said God, and after that.
SPEAKER_01: See, God doesn't have a plan just for now, he has a plan for next.
SPEAKER_01: Or just have a plan for this or for that.
SPEAKER_01: He has a plan for after that.
SPEAKER_01: And so one of the things we have to do is teach our children not to get addicted to this and not even get hung up with that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like this or that, this or that.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody?
SPEAKER_01: 1990s?
SPEAKER_01: Engine, engine number nine, no?
SPEAKER_01: White people.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, you can get with this or you can get with that.
SPEAKER_01: It's a hip hop song.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, I just listen for the beat.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know the words.
SPEAKER_01: Up in the club.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, are we out of tango ray?
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he says this, and it's not that.
SPEAKER_01: See, the relationship, you gotta understand the relationship between this, that, and after that.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you keep having, here's how you know that you're just fixated on this.
SPEAKER_01: You keep having the same kind of relationships and friendships because you're just holding on to this, because you just think this is all there is, this is all there could be.
SPEAKER_01: And God's over here kind of going, hey, there's this, there's that, and then there's after that.
SPEAKER_01: I see all of this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm the God of after that.
SPEAKER_01: And if you can't believe me and meet me there, then you're gonna have to learn to make this look satisfying.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, here's how you you know you've parented well, Mama Dad.
SPEAKER_01: Your kids can be sojourners, that means strangers, afflicted and enslaved, and they can come out worshiping God.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and some of you in this room are like, I'm not worried about my kids.
SPEAKER_01: What about me?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you can be a stranger, you can be afflicted, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You can be enslaved.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a slave, it's called addiction.
SPEAKER_01: You can be enslaved, like there's no way I can't live without that.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you can.
SPEAKER_01: All you're thinking about is this, and God is not just the God of this, he's the God of that, and then even more so after that.
SPEAKER_01: This is not as good as it can be.
SPEAKER_01: They come out worshiping God.
SPEAKER_01: They're not entitled, they're not bitter, they're worshiping the God who is sovereign over it all.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last thing that happens with gospel fluency.
SPEAKER_01: God is always, we see that God has always wanted the people more than a place.
SPEAKER_01: God has always wanted the people more than a place.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 8, and he gave the covenant of circumcision.
SPEAKER_01: So Abraham became the father of Isaac and he circumcised him on the eighth day.
SPEAKER_01: And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the 12 patriarchs.
SPEAKER_01: Patriarchs is a word you didn't use today.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this week.
SPEAKER_01: Patriarchs is like one of them Bible words.
SPEAKER_01: It's a big word.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, it simply refers to the men God used to establish the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: When I say the nation of Israel, don't think boundaries and land, think people.
SPEAKER_01: The people that God said, I am going to make a covenant with you.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get to that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: God says, I'm gonna, I'm gonna yoke myself to you, and and I'm I want you to live in such a way that people are reminded that I'm real.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like, oh, these people are better than anybody else.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: God says, hey, if you want to see what I'm like, watch how these people live.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a Christian, you are a descendant of these people.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about just religious preference or or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: It's about this posture of relationship.
SPEAKER_01: God has always wanted a people more than a place.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the patriarchs, he's talking about men like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their sons going forward, who would be the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Again, God wants people more than place.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, it's always been this way.
SPEAKER_01: It's always been this way.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read, this is a passage from Isaiah chapter 66, way back in the Old Testament, okay?
SPEAKER_01: This is what this is before the New Testament Acts.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah chapter 66, look what God says.
SPEAKER_01: This is verse 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01: Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.
SPEAKER_01: Where is the house that you will build for me?
SPEAKER_01: And what is the place of my rest?
SPEAKER_01: All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But this is the one.
SPEAKER_01: Now stop right there before we get to the other part.
SPEAKER_01: All these things, my hand is made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's like men, next Sunday is Father's Day, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's like your kid going out in the garage and getting some of your tools and stuff you made and bringing it to you for Father's Day and saying, here's a gift.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, I made that.
SPEAKER_01: Pardon me if I'm not impressed.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way God feels.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, you religious monkeys built a big old building and you think I'm impressed with this?
SPEAKER_01: You think this can contain me?
SPEAKER_01: Clearly, you you don't think right of me.
SPEAKER_01: Temple thinking.
SPEAKER_01: See, temple thinking shrinks God down to a place where you can manage him.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Hey, you guys are bringing Kool-Aid to a gin party.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: All this stuff, my hand is made, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at the watch the pivot here from place to people.
SPEAKER_01: But this is the one to whom I look.
SPEAKER_01: He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
SPEAKER_01: This is the person I look to.
SPEAKER_01: She who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
SPEAKER_01: God has never been impressed with place, he's always been desirous of people.
SPEAKER_01: He pivots from place to people.
SPEAKER_01: And so Stephen ends this section of his speech by reminding us that God is about a people, not a place, with these words right here in verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: And he gave him the covenant of circumcision.
SPEAKER_01: There is the gift that no man wants.
SPEAKER_01: And stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: We don't talk about circumcision enough in the church.
SPEAKER_01: And kind of like, are we really gonna talk about it?
SPEAKER_01: Uh oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: You know, what's he talking about?
SPEAKER_01: And he says he gave him talking about Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: Again, gospel fluency.
SPEAKER_01: This guy, Stephen, he knows the story of God.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy says, Hey, you you're talking bad about the temple and the law.
SPEAKER_01: God lives in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: We live in the context of the law, you're in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: And he gets on the mic and starts just spitting rhymes and like goes back to way back to Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And next Sunday, he's gonna talk about Joseph and then Moses.
SPEAKER_01: And it's basically a panoramic overview of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Stephen's doing.
SPEAKER_01: Stephen's not defending himself.
SPEAKER_01: He is but basically saying to these people, hey, these men and women live this way so back then, so I could live this way right now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not afraid of y'all.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all can kill me if you want to, I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: And they are blown away by this.
SPEAKER_01: So he talks about the covenant of circumcision.
SPEAKER_01: What's he talking about?
SPEAKER_01: He's referring to what happened in Genesis 17, verses 1 to 11.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read it to you this morning and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me say amen.
SPEAKER_01: Uh look at what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: This is the covenant of circumcision, okay?
SPEAKER_01: When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: That I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly.
SPEAKER_01: Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
SPEAKER_01: No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham, for I've made you the father of a multitude of nations.
SPEAKER_01: I will make you exceedingly fruitful.
SPEAKER_01: I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you, and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
SPEAKER_01: And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.
SPEAKER_01: And God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout the generations.
SPEAKER_01: Mark verse 9 in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: God says, I'm gonna do all this.
SPEAKER_01: What do you have to do right here?
SPEAKER_01: You shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.
SPEAKER_01: You want to know the blessing of a covenant relationship?
SPEAKER_01: Just keep the covenant.
SPEAKER_01: God's gonna do everything else.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you, and your offspring after you.
SPEAKER_01: Every male among you shall be circumcised, you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just say it like this, amen.
SPEAKER_01: God has marked his people, he's marked men.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the places that gives men the most trouble, and it's a reminder that hey, you you're in a covenant relationship with me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a covenant-making God, and you have to be a covenant-keeping people.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what what I want you to see, and what we done this morning, is that long before there was a holy place, there was a holy people to whom God oath himself.
SPEAKER_01: Long before there was a holy place, there was a holy people, and God oathed himself to those people.
SPEAKER_01: So you're not in it alone.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here today and you're like, man, I'm not a Christian because I don't think I could ever do that.
SPEAKER_01: You couldn't.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm in a covenant relationship.
SPEAKER_01: I'm that wild branch that was grasped in, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not religious by nature.
SPEAKER_01: So when I came to faith, when God revealed himself to me and I came to faith, God came to live inside of me by his spirit, and he began to do uh the big Bible word is sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: He began to change things in here, and guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Things begin to change out here and how I live.
SPEAKER_01: This is not just germane to me.
SPEAKER_01: This is what happens to everybody that comes to faith.
SPEAKER_01: Because God gave his people a long time ago the covenant of circumcision and said, Hey, it doesn't all depend on you.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, I'm the God that sees this and that, and even after that.
SPEAKER_01: And now the question becomes this if this is true, and it is, what could you not trust this God with?
SPEAKER_01: That's the question that comes out of the text.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, we'd like to teach the Bible and just give you some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: So I'll I'll voice a prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Some questions come up on the screen for you to consider, and then uh we'll we'll just kind of meditate for just a minute and then we'll get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you for the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that it's thought-provoking.
SPEAKER_01: It it kind of reminds us that you're you're beyond us, and yet you're you you accommodate to us, you condescend, you come down and say, Hey, I'm not trying to blow your mind, I'm not trying to overwhelm you.
SPEAKER_01: And so I pray, God, for anybody that's going through an overwhelming, overwhelming situation today, that right now is thinking we don't know what we're going to do.
SPEAKER_01: That you'll just say, Hey, I'm I'm not just the God of this, I'm the God of that, and I'm so big and so powerful, I'm the God of after that.
SPEAKER_01: So we may feel like we're just walking in a circle, we're sojourners, we're strangers.
SPEAKER_01: We may feel like we're enslaved, we just cannot kick the habit.
SPEAKER_01: But you're the God that says, Hey, I'm I'm powerful enough to set you free, to bring you into a place where you belong.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, brood over your people now and have the 700 conversations in this room, they're all you can have.
SPEAKER_01: Father, our confession today is that left to ourselves, we would make an idol out of this.
SPEAKER_01: Because we'll make an idol out of anything, and and we make an idol out of it, we worship it, we give it power it doesn't have, because that way we we think by doing that it won't get us.
SPEAKER_01: It won't.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have the capacity that we extend to it.
SPEAKER_01: So we just say today that uh you're the God of this, that, and after that.
SPEAKER_01: That you've got more goodness, more revelation.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to just come to you for what we want, we want to be trusted with what only you can give.
SPEAKER_01: This Lord, we don't want to be be a people that ask you to give, we want to be a people that ask you to reveal.
SPEAKER_01: We think there's so much more that out there that has our name on it.
SPEAKER_01: We want to experience it, we want to steward it.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, lead us to understand these truths so they inform the way we relate to you.
SPEAKER_01: God, you're a God of covenant.
SPEAKER_01: You make the covenant, we keep the covenant.
SPEAKER_01: It's not hard.
SPEAKER_01: You've always been that way, and so you're always calling people into relationships.
SPEAKER_01: So I pray for anybody that's in this room right now, anybody that's watching on the internet, God, that they don't have a relationship, that they just hear the God of the universe saying, Ollie alley and free, come out, come out wherever you are.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to hide from you.
SPEAKER_01: You created us for you.
SPEAKER_01: So when we come to you, it's like we're coming home.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, thank you that you're that way.
SPEAKER_01: We're humbled by that and we're grateful.
SPEAKER_01: So we say thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest today, thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_01: Please know you're always welcome.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about anything you saw or heard, some of our pastors will be available down front.
SPEAKER_01: We would love to help you process and answer any questions or pray with you if you got some things you're going through.
SPEAKER_01: We'd love to do that, okay?
SPEAKER_01: If today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity when it comes to giving, there's boxes by the doors you can take care of that, or you can do like a lot of people and you can take care of it online, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We have some things coming up in the life of our church.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to be aware of.
SPEAKER_01: So let's check out our video announcements today.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what's happening at Ground Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_02: If you're new, text welcome to 281-626-5707.
SPEAKER_02: This way we can know you're here and get you connected with the church.
SPEAKER_02: Missions is being intentional with how you live, where you communicate, and who you obey while letting others watch.
SPEAKER_02: It involves going, praying, and sending so everyone has a part to play in the story God is telling, and all are invited to use their lives to demonstrate God's plan for the world.
SPEAKER_02: With that being said, our national mission partner is Parkslope Community Church in Brooklyn, New York.
SPEAKER_02: Our global partners are Costa Rica, France, Romania, and South Asia.
SPEAKER_02: For more information, email missions at GroundParkway.org.
SPEAKER_02: Men's Breakfast is Tuesday, June 27th in the student building.
SPEAKER_02: Come and enjoy breakfast, fellowship, and a message for Pastor Neil McClendon.
SPEAKER_02: Chat and Chow is June 21st, so drop by the fellowship hall for some good food and conversation.
SPEAKER_02: Finally, summer is the perfect time to linger with friends.
SPEAKER_02: So grab one and join us for our women's big summer fellowship on July 30th.
SPEAKER_02: There will be an easy craft, axe throwing, and an ice cream bar.
SPEAKER_02: If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why we have an axe throwing in a women's event, but hey.
SPEAKER_01: Apparently y'all's work has got y'all all stirred up on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta exert yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Dessert and axe throwing.
SPEAKER_01: There you go, ladies.
SPEAKER_01: Enjoy yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Uh equality abounds.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm not saying a lot of things right now, and that's for your good.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we'd like to conclude our service with smoking blessings or stand at your feet.
SPEAKER_01: Now, look at before I bless you, let me tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to look around and see somebody you don't know and introduce yourself to them on the way out.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: Our friend Ben's right over here.
SPEAKER_01: He got a new haircut.
SPEAKER_01: You need to meet Ben.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Immigrate you in.
SPEAKER_01: Ben's humiliated right now.
SPEAKER_01: Ben's like, I'm running for the car.
SPEAKER_01: Shut up, alright?
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: All you can see is this.
SPEAKER_01: And that's enough.
SPEAKER_01: Because you either are or you could be in relationship with a God who sees that and after that.
SPEAKER_01: And you can trust you.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to trust you with it.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't have to, but he wants to.
SPEAKER_01: Come part now and live your lives in such a way you can be trusted with all the goodness God has in store for you.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.