SPEAKER_00: We are going to be studying a passage of scripture today.
SPEAKER_00: That is another wild and crazy scripture.
SPEAKER_00: In which, if you are reading it for the first time, you might say, wait, what?
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: And we are going to go with verse, start with verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
SPEAKER_00: For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
SPEAKER_00: And if the righteous is scarely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will and trust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: And we thank you for the richness of your character and nature, how you exemplify mercy, but yet judgment.
SPEAKER_00: You emphasize love, but yet you speak to us with truth that speaks to our heart.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray today through these words and the passage of scripture that we've read that you'll speak to us about the fact that it is high time for judgment to begin at the house of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And we give you praise in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: So I uh was driving up to my parents who lived in Trenton, Ontario, and I decided to take uh the country roads, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Because driving on a highway, you get kind of bored, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: You're just like this.
SPEAKER_00: And as we were dri as I'm driving up, you ever you ever uh you're driving on a country road and you're behind about five people, and the head car is going so slow.
SPEAKER_00: At the time, I'm a young person, man.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta move, I gotta go, I got people to see, places to go.
SPEAKER_00: So I decided to pass all five or six cars in one shot.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm driving and I'm driving and I'm driving, and I got the I got the passing lanes, but right when I pulled over, it hit the double yellow, and I thought I made it, but in the grill of the car that I in the front, unmarked police car, if you can imagine.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So he pulls me over, and come to find out, either my insurance was not right or my registration was up, and the car was impounded in Mexico, New York, of all places.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh I had to go to the police station, they impounded the car, I had to call my my parents.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a young man, I'm an adult, and I had to call my parents to come and get me.
SPEAKER_00: And then um we had to go back for the court date.
SPEAKER_00: Many times God speaks to you as Captain Obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that true?
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sitting in the in the police station, and the Lord says to me, Now look what you've got yourself into.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Look what you've gotten yourself into.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't the devil, it was me.
SPEAKER_00: I was slack, I was undisciplined, I was lazy, and I was thinking I had life by the horns.
SPEAKER_00: But God sometimes speaks to us, speaks to us as Captain Obvious and says, boy, you gotta get your life in order because I want to use you for for my kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And you gotta make things right.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta live like in in godliness with the character and nature of God.
SPEAKER_00: So when God, when people look at your life, they see a life of order, they see a life that's disciplined, they see a life that's uh ready and willing to do what is right in in all things.
SPEAKER_00: So my parents came down, then I had to go back to the court and stand before the judge.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've ever been before a judge, you have that sense of impending doom, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And uh that's what I felt as they gave out the uh sentence, the fine, and uh I was able to get my car.
SPEAKER_00: But thank God in this passage of scripture, the Bible isn't speaking to Christians about impending doom.
SPEAKER_00: Those that don't know Jesus Christ, those that have uh suppressed the truth of God in their lives, though those that have raised their fist against God, they are going to face impending doom with a life that is totally separated from God.
SPEAKER_00: Totally separated from all his attributes, his character, and his nature.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that makes this world wonderful and fantastic and beautiful and awesome and amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Those that don't know Christ are going to be separated from God and everything that he has for us for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: That's impending doom, my friends.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is that we want to give this gospel to those that don't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So, the Bible says that judgment begins at the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: Before we get into judgment, let's get into the household of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is a beautiful illustration of the fact that we are brothers and sisters in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters in Christ, they they are at home in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: They are at home in hearing the truth of God, they are at home responding to the truth of God because that's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: We have the Spirit of Christ in us, the Spirit of truth.
SPEAKER_00: When we hear truth, we respond to truth.
SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when we hear truth, we don't respond to truth, and we suppress the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Peter is saying, don't do that because judgment needs to happen at the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: We are the household of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let's turn over to 1 Peter chapter 5, uh 1 Peter chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: And let's read, um, let's read from the first verse, 1 Peter chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: So put away all malice and all deceit, all hypocrisy, envy, and all slander.
SPEAKER_00: Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_00: As you come to him, a living stone, rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious.
SPEAKER_00: You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: You are living stones and are being built up to be a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We are bound together because we are the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever my mind tells my body to do, every part has to fall in line.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Nothing happens that I don't want it to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: My body is in total control at all times.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Bible is speaking about.
SPEAKER_00: As brothers and sisters in Christ, we operate with the sense that we have an accountability to each other to live our lives for the glory of God because we don't want to have another brother or sister stumble.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says if you make a brother or sister stumble, tie a millstone around your neck and jump in the lake.
SPEAKER_00: That's how bad it is.
SPEAKER_00: So we have to understand how we live our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Are you living your life for the glory and honor of God?
SPEAKER_00: So that people in the household of faith, the household of God, this spiritual house that God is building, when they look at your life, can they give glory to God for your words, for your actions, what you post on Facebook, right?
SPEAKER_00: The concerts that you go to, the things that you drink and the things that you watch and the things that you talk about.
SPEAKER_00: Is it glorifying God?
SPEAKER_00: Judgment begins at the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: This judgment.
SPEAKER_00: This judgment is not judgment that condemns, but it's judgment, it's discipline, it's a purifying sense of the Holy Spirit that brings us in line with the character and the nature of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: For the believer, judgment is purification, sanctification, refinement, it's discipline.
SPEAKER_00: When God brings his presence down on your on your heart and in your life, he is a holy God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And when the holiness of God comes upon us, we like Isaiah says, woe is me.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: But because of the death of Jesus Christ, he has brought us and into the very fellowship of God Almighty, our heavenly Father, we've gained access into the very throne room of God because of what Christ has done.
SPEAKER_00: Holy God, sinful man, Jesus has brought us in.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad for that?
SPEAKER_00: That's why we sing, that's why we clap our hands.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we uh we look at fiery trials, those things that life brings upon us, where we say, God, what in the world are you doing, man?
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing to me with this fiery trial?
SPEAKER_00: Judgment begins with God's own people.
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean that Christians are under God's condemnation?
SPEAKER_00: Diane Dollard is shaking her head no, and that is the correct answer.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: Let's flip over there, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8, and this is a beautiful passage of scripture for us today.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8, very, very significant passage of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture that we probably know, scripture that we take for granted.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.
SPEAKER_00: He condemns sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank God that God takes away my self-righteousness, my pride, my arrogance, and I fall on my knees and say, God, you are the righteous one.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive me of my sins, cleanse me, wash me.
SPEAKER_00: And you have this sense of the wonderful declared righteousness of God that gives you the confidence to walk boldly into the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: It says in the word, for we confidently and boldly come to the throne of grace where we receive mercy, find grace for our time of need.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a uh this is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
SPEAKER_00: There is no condemnation for your life.
SPEAKER_00: You are not condemned, you are saved, you are redeemed, you are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: But what you are is you are under the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of truth to purify you, to change you, to refine you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about fiery trials, and we talked about the blacksmith that throws the metal into the fire and turns up the heat, and the fire brings the dross to the surface.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And when the dross comes up in the surface of your life, do you feel guilty?
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel condemned?
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't.
SPEAKER_00: You should say, God, thank you for washing me, for cleansing me, for making me holy, for taking the dross of my sinful flesh, the remnants of my filthiness of my flesh away and making me pure, right?
SPEAKER_00: Making me holy, making me righteous.
SPEAKER_00: And when God does that work in your life, he is pleased that when he looks into your life, he sees the image of his son.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Praise God, amen.
SPEAKER_00: For you and for me today, the greatest element in our life, the greatest thing that we live for, is that we live our life to the pleasure of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: To feel that we are pleasing him, to feel that we have the favor and the blessing of God in our hearts, in our lives, because we accept the judgment of God in our lives for what he says we are, and we respond with confession and repentance and faith, and God renews us, he restores us, he transforms us, and he changes us from the inside.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an amen?
SPEAKER_00: Can I get another amen?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad that George Garley is not what he used to be?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: He's transformed and he's redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: Mike Jameson seconds that, brother.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, the transforming power, the nature of God, that he never gets sick of working on us.
SPEAKER_00: He never gets sick of ministering to us.
SPEAKER_00: He never gets sick and tired of showing us truth after truth after truth because he wants to mold us and shape us into Christ in a beautiful way.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, fiery trials.
SPEAKER_00: The fire we endure now purifies us.
SPEAKER_00: The fire the ungodly will endure will punish them.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll always remember that there is never any punishment from God for us in our suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Only purification.
SPEAKER_00: Only to bring a sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Only to refine you and make you complete, make you mature, make you steadfast, make you to persevere, make you to be mature in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We drink the milk of the word when we are passionate and growing, but eventually we dive into the meat of the word.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Where we take in the meat of the word and it changes us as we respond to the truth of God.
SPEAKER_00: For the Christian, the issue of punishment was settled once long time ago.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ died on the cross for us.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, It is finished, it is paid for.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The debt of sin for your life is gone.
SPEAKER_00: It's over, it's cast as far away from the east as to the west.
SPEAKER_00: It's gone.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: It's gone.
SPEAKER_00: And we walk in this no condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: And we walk in this ever-revealing truth of God in our hearts and in our lives, where we want our hearts to be pure before God.
SPEAKER_00: We want God to open up the eyes of our hearts so that when we receive the revelation of who Jesus is, and we walk in that glory, we walk in that power.
SPEAKER_00: We have this sense of the love and the grace of God, even in our sin and our weakness, and our insufficiencies and our inadequacies.
SPEAKER_00: And how many have all of it?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You are weak, you are insufficient, you are inadequate.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the word of God says, is the all-sufficient one to supply you with everything that you need, and God looks at you and sees the all-sufficiency of Jesus and says, You are righteous.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Righteous.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for his wonderful grace.
SPEAKER_00: If God lovingly purifies his own children now, how much more certain and severe will his final judgment be upon those who reject the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: The judgment of God begins at the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: God lovingly purifies his people now, before he righteously judges the world because of their sin.
SPEAKER_00: Four truths today, okay?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of judgment is Peter talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Judgment for the believer, as we said, is this refinement, is this no condemnation, but this sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit to change us.
SPEAKER_00: The house of God.
SPEAKER_00: Community of believers.
SPEAKER_00: The word judgment here is not the judgment of a criminal before a judge, it is the judgment of a loving father over his family.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Man.
SPEAKER_00: When I get together with the old senior citizens, and they are old, I am old as well.
SPEAKER_00: We're senior citizens.
SPEAKER_00: We get together at Tim Hortons or something.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about the old life.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about how back in the day there was no CPS.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody watched out for our us kids.
SPEAKER_00: We got beat with a belt, broom, anything.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: As you grow up and you look back, you're like, probably 99.9% of those beatings and that discipline I needed.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: I needed.
SPEAKER_00: Because I was mischievous and I was slack and I was undisciplined.
SPEAKER_00: And discipline brings you back into the boundaries of where God can speak to you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Where God's nature and character is revealed to you.
SPEAKER_00: Discipline is so very important.
SPEAKER_00: And our Father God disciplines us.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes when we go through discipline, we go through discipline like I did because of my own stupid error and my own undisciplined life.
SPEAKER_00: But yet we still, because of that, raise our fist to God and say, God, you're not righteous, you're not good.
SPEAKER_00: You, me, we're the ones that put ourselves in this position.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: The enemy does attack.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy wants to destroy you.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy wants to steal from you.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy wants to kill you.
SPEAKER_00: We know that for sure.
SPEAKER_00: So we need to be ever mindful of girding up our minds, right?
SPEAKER_00: Being prepared to fight the mindsets that the enemy brings against us.
SPEAKER_00: Our loving Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: Let's turn over to Hebrews chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll read from the first verse, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad for the word of God today?
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, this is just speaking about chapter 11, where all these men and women of God responded to God in faith, yet not knowing the Messiah, but believing that the Messiah would come one day, and they did all of their works.
SPEAKER_00: They died for the faith in God.
SPEAKER_00: And then Hebrews chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Ah, what does that do for you, that phrase?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The founder and perfecter, the author and the finisher, the great champion of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_00: Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted.
SPEAKER_00: In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
SPEAKER_00: And have you forgotten the exhortation that addressed you as sons?
SPEAKER_00: My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.
SPEAKER_00: He admonishes, he rebukes, he reprimands.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: But for many of us, we have a very low self-esteem, and when God does that, we say to God, How dare you?
SPEAKER_00: You're making me feel bad.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's exactly what God wants you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Feel bad.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Feel unrighteous, feel not worthy.
SPEAKER_00: Because then we respond to him by faith as the all-sufficient one, and he comes in and he changes us.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he wants to make you feel bad.
SPEAKER_00: When you're bad, he makes you feel bad.
SPEAKER_00: And when you accept it and when you repent of your sin, he makes you feel really, really good.
SPEAKER_00: Because the good God changes you and transforms you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And this is the beauty of discipline in our hearts and in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, God judges his own first because we know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Christians claim to know God.
SPEAKER_00: They have access to his word.
SPEAKER_00: They represent him to the world.
SPEAKER_00: God holds them responsible for how they live.
SPEAKER_00: The principle is that those who have been given much light and truth are expected to live according to that truth and to the light of God that He has given you.
SPEAKER_00: God judges us according to the measure of light we have received.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told the Jews of His day, with all the scriptures that they knew, with all their religiosity, with all their knowledge of Scripture, Jesus told them, the Jews of His day, that their judgment would be much more severe than that of Sodom and Gomorrah, because they had received a much greater revelation of the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I want to speak to you today that when God speaks to you truth, you need to look at this as life and death.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: When you suppress the truth, the Bible says that our minds become futile and our understanding becomes darkened because God is a gentleman.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going to put a USB thing in your brain and try and change you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: He invites himself into your life and he invites you to respond to the truth of God that you know.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And if there's truth of God that you know today, that you are deliberately refusing to hear or accept.
SPEAKER_00: The only two options is that you reject the truth of God or you accept the truth of God.
SPEAKER_00: And when you reject the truth of God, you rescind the blessing of God over your heart and in your life.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be a church that says yes to the truth of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And how God speaks to each of us individually, but know for sure that we are the body of Christ and how we respond to God affects our brothers and our sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: God judges us first by the truth that we know.
SPEAKER_00: And then God, thirdly, God's fire reveals what we're building in our heart, what we're building in our life.
SPEAKER_00: If we flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: And let's read from verse 10 to 16.
SPEAKER_00: I love Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was a good dude, wasn't he?
SPEAKER_00: Saved out of a life of self-righteousness and religiosity.
SPEAKER_00: When he got saved and kicked off his horse, and God, Christ said to him, Paul, what in the world do you think you're doing trying to fight against me?
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Paul took several years to get all that self-righteousness out of him, to get all that religiosity out of him, to get the letter of the law out of him.
SPEAKER_00: And he had to learn how to respond to the spirit of life.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: The grace of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And it says here in verse 10 according to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it.
SPEAKER_00: Let each one take care how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid.
SPEAKER_00: And what is the foundation, friends?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, these are striking words.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Striking words.
SPEAKER_00: If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a work a reward.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone works is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
SPEAKER_00: Do you not know that you're that you are God's temple, that God's Spirit dwells in you?
SPEAKER_00: If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: This is a striking, striking passage of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: The same fire that consumes straw purifies gold.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And the way we build on the foundation of Jesus Christ is we check our motivation in serving and in worshiping and in loving.
SPEAKER_00: And we check who's on the throne of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: Is it Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you self-governing yourself?
SPEAKER_00: Everything that we do in God's work in serving Him must be for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing how we know that we're doing work for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: That when we serve the Lord in the church or in the community, and we have this sense that we uh we're doing okay.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get a little bit of accolades for this.
SPEAKER_00: People will say, I'm great.
SPEAKER_00: People will say, man, that guy really loves the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And as you're serving the Lord, sometimes you'll come across your attitude that you need some accolades.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be thanked.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be appreciated, which we should all appreciate each other.
SPEAKER_00: But when you're serving and those thoughts come to your mind, realize that God is molding you and shaping you to form you into the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And the motivation is to serve him.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Not out of our pride or out of our arrogance, but to serve him and make sure that we're building on the foundation that is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you serve in this church?
SPEAKER_00: You serve because you want to give God all the glory.
SPEAKER_00: You serve Him because He stepped off His throne in glory, the majesty and splendor of glory, became a suffering servant, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, misrepresented, misunderstood.
SPEAKER_00: He had to deal with ten fools for three years, and then was denied and betrayed, died a cruel death, naked on the cross, humiliated, embarrassed.
SPEAKER_00: But what did he say?
SPEAKER_00: Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do.
SPEAKER_00: That's the God that we serve.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And that's the same attitude that we need to have when we minister and when we serve, when we treat people with respect.
SPEAKER_00: If you're working at the coffee bar, it's not about coffee, it's about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And when you're working at the coffee bar, you treat each other with love and grace as you serve that coffee because we're serving that coffee with a mission, and that is that money is being raised to give to Path people against trafficking humans, and people are being saved and redeemed and bought out of a life of shame, guilt, and condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we serve coffee.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And because I like it as well.
SPEAKER_00: But that's why we do coffee.
SPEAKER_00: It's because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And that means that everybody that comes in working in coffee, their attitude is I'm serving Jesus, the God who died for me.
SPEAKER_00: I will treat each other with respect, love, courteousness, and kindness because I'm showing the favor and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The same with A V, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Back there now is Deborah doing the video, and my son Zachy Boy doing audio.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: They do that not because they like video, they do that because they want to serve Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We have greeters.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: We have greeters at the door.
SPEAKER_00: They are greeting you because Jesus, once in time, greeted them with love and grace.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how they greet you when they walk in, because they have found the favor and the blessing of God.
SPEAKER_00: They want to welcome you, amen, as you walk in the door.
SPEAKER_00: Make you feel welcome.
SPEAKER_00: Assimilate you into the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Back in the other room, we have kids' ministry workers.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for them.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: How many are glad that you're out here and they're back there?
SPEAKER_00: There's a saying.
SPEAKER_00: Better them than us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: They serve because they love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, the greatest thing in the world is that you see a young person experience the presence of God and live their lives for the glory of God at a young age.
SPEAKER_00: God saves, and you know what?
SPEAKER_00: God keeps.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And when they come to Christ at a young age, God can keep them from the sin and the shame and the condemnation that happens to our young people throughout the world because they don't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We have a worship team that serves, comes early every Sunday, and they serve willingly.
SPEAKER_00: Not because they want accolades, but because they know that they're leading us, the congregation, the church, into the very presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: It is a holy, holy thing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: When we praise the Lord, the presence of the Lord is here.
SPEAKER_00: The holiness of God is here.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is ministering to our hearts individually, but yet corporately, as He moves and as we allow Him to speak to us corporately, there'll be words of encouragement, there'll be prophetic utterances, there'll be the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: But we do this because we want to worship the Lord with the fruit of our lips, giving praise to God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So we serve.
SPEAKER_00: We serve because we want to give glory to God in all things.
SPEAKER_00: And when we serve with the idea that we're building on the foundation of Jesus Christ, he's going to build a wonderful building that's steady, that's sure, that's stable.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what we need for our church.
SPEAKER_00: Stay a stable foundation who is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then if God, fourthly, if God purifies his children, what awaits those who reject him?
SPEAKER_00: Let's turn over to John chapter 3, verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read from verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: He who comes from above is above all.
SPEAKER_00: He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way.
SPEAKER_00: He who comes from heaven is above all.
SPEAKER_00: He bears witness to what he has said, seen, and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this that God is true.
SPEAKER_00: For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.
SPEAKER_00: Ho ho! Aren't you glad for that, friends?
SPEAKER_00: The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we preach the gospel, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Because we want others to come to know Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the question for you: Do you believe in the Word of God today that when the Lord speaks about hell, that it is a place of separation from God forever?
SPEAKER_00: Just as I said before, we still believe that there is a hell where folks will go because they do not want to come to Christ, repent of their sins, and claim him as Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: There is a hell.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the Bible, it is spoken of.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know Jesus Christ, the Bible says you are condemned already.
SPEAKER_00: But aren't you glad that Jesus says, whoa, I got the answer.
SPEAKER_00: I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: No man comes to God the Father but through me.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I've come, that you have accept me as Christ, as Christ and as Lord and as Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read something else.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, 3 to 12.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, 3 to 12.
SPEAKER_00: We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as it is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.
SPEAKER_00: Is that our church, friends?
SPEAKER_00: Is that your heart and in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring, a love for God and a love for each other.
SPEAKER_00: This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering, since indeed God considered it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Is that crystal clear enough for you, friends?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.
SPEAKER_00: To this end we pray always for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling, may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, judgment in the house of the Lord has begun.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And aren't you glad for that?
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to be judged by the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Tested by the Lord, disciplined by the Lord, refined by the Lord, purified by the Lord, made complete by the Lord, made mature by the Lord, amen?
SPEAKER_00: Made secured, confirmed, and established by the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for the judgment of God to begin?
SPEAKER_00: We respond to the truth of God because we know, as Jesus said, the truth of God.
SPEAKER_00: You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: God judges his own first because they have received and know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I want to exhort you, I want to rebuke you, I want to admonish you, I want to speak to my own heart today.
SPEAKER_00: The truth of God that you know, do it today, respond and accept it and walk in it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: If God's been dealing about some sin or some weakness in your heart and in your life, and you've been putting off the truth of God, remember that there's only two things that you can do to the truth of God accept it or reject it.
SPEAKER_00: And when you reject it, you rescind the work of God in your heart and in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And then you wonder, why is God so far from me?
SPEAKER_00: No, it's because you have not responded to the truth of God that you know.
SPEAKER_00: And when you respond to the truth of God that you know, fall on your knees.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
SPEAKER_00: The truth bearer, the spirit of truth, comes to you and says, You are accepted and you are loved, and I've got this wonderful life of transformation for you from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: From the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, his refining fire reveals the quality of our lives and what we've built.
SPEAKER_00: We understand that people that are used by God are sometimes crushed by God because they've learned to rely on who God is, his character and nature, to get them through the tough times, to get them through the fiery trials.
SPEAKER_00: And when God squeezes you, what comes out?
SPEAKER_00: But this greater revelation of the fact that you want to live your life for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter the fiery trial.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter the tribulation, it doesn't matter the temptation.
SPEAKER_00: It matters that I bow my knee and I say, Lord, you are God, and I know everything that you do for me now is for my good and for your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And what a God we serve, friends.
SPEAKER_00: All things work together for good to those that are called according to his purpose and are called to love God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Your good is being worked out.
SPEAKER_00: You might be in the tunnel of darkness, but one day, when you see the light, amen, and you know that you're gonna see it through, and God will meet you where you are, and God has always been with you to see you through.
SPEAKER_00: His refining fire reveals the quality of our lives and what we have built.
SPEAKER_00: Are you building your life on the foundation?
SPEAKER_00: Who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: In your home, in your family, how you speak, how you act, how you prefer one another better than yourselves, amen.
SPEAKER_00: When you give everybody that uh treats you wrong the benefit of the doubt that, hey, that person might be having a bad day.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Fourthly, if God purifies his children, what awaits those who reject him?
SPEAKER_00: My heart's cry is that I have a greater hunger and realization that there are loved ones, there are neighbors, there are people that are going to hell without Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing about it?
SPEAKER_00: What am I doing about it?
SPEAKER_00: To preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Greatest heart's desire.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that the angels rejoice, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Every time a sinner comes to know Christ as Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for your family, pray for your friends, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: That as God speaks to you, He'll change you and transform you by the power of His grace and His love.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Worship team, come on up.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you today for your great love.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Lord, for your word, for there is no other truth in this world but given by the Spirit of truth.
SPEAKER_00: And we thank you, Lord, you reveal to us our heart issues.
SPEAKER_00: And you reveal to us how we are.
SPEAKER_00: We might be failing you, we might be weak.
SPEAKER_00: But we know, Lord, that it's not a judgment of condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: It's a fatherly discipline to bring us back on track to receive all the blessings of our great God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you today.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for everything that you brought us through.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Lord, how you're speaking to us now.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Lord, for this church.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for brothers and sisters in this church, and we'd have a greater revelation who you are and what you've done.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' wonderful name.