Every Nation Rosebank Church Online - Sunday, 29 March 2020

[Music] welcome every nation family sanim on an easy snowball C&M Kayla every nation welcome every nation family what a joy it is together today together again online church we may be in different spaces in our families in our homes but we are very much connected and I really believe that God's presence is gonna increase in our homes that we're gonna in experience and awareness of God's presence in our home what an opportunity we've had people tuning in from all over the world from Germany from the UK from Swaziland and of course from Johannesburg so we want to encourage you to participate in the worship don't watch the worship be church we are the church sing with your hearts your minds your souls and sing applaud so your neighbors can hear let's receive the word journal and do the word this week and then loving the patient first that's right what was also give a special welcome to our students our campus students from UGA can get a move on the other side of the screen we love that you're part of this family and that even though campuses may be closed for a little while your faith in your worship has not shut absolutely we also know and your books as well so keep studying it's that we also know welcome those of you who are joining us across the world we noticed actually that in the past service that we had we had people tuning in from the UK like possible in the States and from Germany and what's been exciting for me at this time is that even and how difficult things have been globally the word has been spreading come on across the world and my encouragement I would have been feeling cross saying is that he'll never leave us nor forsake us so even though we're not gathering in the big auditoriums or in the lecture halls God is still there with come on listen is it to you do me so ladyship [Music] therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand and be both in the hope of the glory of God not only so but we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance perseverance character and character hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us [Music] [Music] all creation speaks glory angels declare you [Music] you spoke a word and v8 you stars you're updating praise starve you updated pray it we stand to know [Music] No [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you give light to the morning raise up see bountiful stretched out the heavens and set them in place one display [Music] [Music] here in your friends [Music] [Applause] [Music] we stand your present [Music] you we said no [Music] here we go [Music] No [Music] [Music] [Music] we stand [Music] we stand you hear any your presence [Music] we said [Music] we stand in our [Music] here in your prize you [Music] [Music] they are spirit this space breathe new life and new life in me I can sense it presents too change the atmosphere and the speed [Music] may your spirit [Music] yeah breathe new [Music] ooh [Music] I can't sir [Applause] [Music] ha [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] I [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] my gosh [Music] he's your [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] we are full set Oh [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] yeah [Music] yeah [Music] [Music] [Music] mighty warrior the Lord is with you have no fear child father here's you you're not for cotton [Music] the Lord members even in [Music] here's God as fires for you you're an army in his eyes some fried balls come too [Music] though the weakest of the few here part the Seas the farthest taking you home he's waking up you're seeking so the father's making you home waking up he's waking up you're sleeping so [Music] love your sleeping soul the father's making you home he's awaking love your sleeping soul the father's making your father's making the Father's Day Oh father [Music] home when I feel when I turned evil would he wina time T where [Music] boop-boop I see [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so dry balls come to earth though the weekend stop though we for you you apart the sea the farthest making you he's waking up your sleeping soul the father is making you home he's waking up you're sleeping so the father's making me home the father's making me home the father's making you fall the father spanking you [Music] [Music] in view of your brain mercy oh you've done I percent my life has living sacrifice in view of your brain mercy oh you've done Oh God with all my strength and heart this is my worship [Music] Oh [Music] you of your breakers [Music] [Music] right [Music] Oh [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] Oh [Music] no this is [Music] this is ours [Music] no this is this is ours [Music] this is oh this is [Music] this is how [Music] this is [Music] oh this is [Music] this is ours this is this is going to [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is [Music] [Music] [Music] Lord we thank you for your presence we thank you that as we spend and hurried time with you and worship you with our hearts with our minds with our souls with our bodies when we say let everything that has breath praise the Lord in every season that you come and you fill us up you fill us up with hope and with peace and with life and with freedom you know Church the Bible says that as we spend time with God we become like him we get changed and transformed into the image of God we start to see as he sees we start to hear as he hears we start to feel as he feels and I believe that the Lord during this time is raising up an army of lovers who will be his hands who will be his voice and who will be speed and will really show Jesus to the world Ezekiel 37 says that the hand of the Lord was upon me and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and sent me down in the middle of the belly and it was full of dry burns and he said to me son of man can these bones live and I answered o Lord you know then he said to me prophesy over these dry bones and say to them Oh dry bones hear the word of the Lord that says the Lord God to these bones behold I will cause breath to enter you and you will live and I will say sinews upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you a skin and put birth in you and you will love and you will know that I am the Lord so just as the Elijah in 2 Kings when he was facing his enemies that Lord opened up his eyes and he saw the armies of the Lord he saw the chariots and the fire I believe that God is gonna do that in our homes as we worship Him as we spend time with him as we glorify Him in Jesus name Amen please support our ministry by either scanning our snap scan QR code or making an EFT payment to the bank account disclosed below your faithful giving ensures that our vision to seal our communities and society is transformed through discipleship and the word the presence and the power of God becomes a reality bless you as you give and remember to love God love people and love our city our bank details our every nation rose bank net Bank limited our branch code is one nine eight seven six five and our car numbers one nine six five three four five four six eight good morning every nation family and especially eating to those of you tuning in from all around the world it's such a an amazing privilege to come into your households this morning I'm just feeling so incredibly grateful for technology which allows us to still find a way to connect even during this time of of lockdown well encourage you to make the use that the best use of this time to pray together to find ways of connecting together with family and with the Lord that we come out of this space better stronger than what we were before this morning I want us to look at a portion of Scripture in the Book of Numbers chapter 16 and really just looking at a time in the life of Israel when Israel was a young nation still coming to grips and grappling with the political systems they live vertical systems even this socio-economic systems a lot of these were soul we're still sitting and we'll find ourselves in the scene where the entire congregation of the nation of Israel has come against the two brothers Moses and Aaron who are the God appointed leaders over the nation but as you find your way to the Book of Numbers chapter 16 I just want to address three questions that I've come across on social media regarding covert 19 that have been a little bit concerning for me first one is whether covert 19 is the wrath of God is God releasing his wrath and his judgment over us secondly is God releasing this disease over us so that we would slow down go into our homes and be able to hear him better because there'll be fewer distractions and thirdly is this mother nature culling the the numbers in order to ensure the survival of humanity and of nature now for address address the first question is this the wrath of God well since I would understand how you arrived at this position if you're only looking through the lens of the Old Testament God certainly does reveal himself in his nature in the Old Testament but if we're gonna understand the nature of God we really have to look through the lens of the entire Bible the real key that unlocks our understanding of God is Jesus and the work of Jesus on the cross in fact Jesus says of himself that if you have seen me you have seen the father he is the manifestation of the father and and we see the through the work of Jesus on the cross that that Jesus takes on himself all the pain all the sin all the shortcomings of the world and with it he attracts the wrath and the judgment of God so yes we see that there's instances in the Old Testament a lot of instances where God would release his anger or his judgment almost immediately sometimes but because of the work of Jesus that anger that wrath that judgment was poured out on Jesus so that you and I would not receive the judgment but would receive the love of God friends you and I are meant to be objects of the love of God not objects of his anger or his wrath Jesus took that on himself so don't you worry yourself about that whoever's telling you that this is the wrath of God being released over the world simply does not understand who the God of the Bible is and has not given themselves an opportunity to understand through the full lens of Scripture and to the second point whether whether this is something that God has released so that we would hear him again we would need to understand who God is through the lens of the entirety of Scripture you see God is not a God who buys into the end justifies the means kind of philosophy and we can see that throughout the Bible from the way that the earth was created the people the God called to serve him how he set up the worship system in the Tabernacles in the temples how Jesus came to be born in the world and appropriated our salvation over us all of these things speak of a meticulous God who cares about the process cares about the people as much as he cares about the outcome so know God is not orchestrating this process so that we would hear him better by the way God is always speaking to us Bible tells us that through through nature and through the created world the God is speaking to us and these things bear witness of his presence of his power and of his sovereignty he does not need to introduce a disease so that we would hear him his law is written on our hearts and our conscience bears witness of the fact and the first thing is mother nature angry with us and releasing her fury so that some of us would survive and a few would be sacrificed again this does not speak into the God of the Bible in fact what it does is is a betrays a particular standpoint of people who believe in a in a distant God or even no God at all a rather a distant God who has left humanity to his own defenses to his own words and could care less about the ongoings of man and the universe this is not the God of the Bible and by the way this kind of a thinking is dangerous and we see it prevalent in many movies and the arts of late don't we the problem with it is that the few who are sacrificed for the many is even even in the arts are the have-nots those who are vulnerable those who have less than this is simply not the God of the Bible the God of the Bible is for the disenfranchised he's for the foreigner he's for the poor he's for those who don't have a voice and he would not subscribe to a philosophy the sacrifices them for the sake of the many all right I hope that's giving you an opportunity to find your way to the Book of Numbers chapter 16 as mentioned remember we are at the place where the the congregation of Israel is gathered again the two brothers Aaron and Moses Moses the leader of the nation of Israel God appointed and Aaron the high priest over the nation of Israel God appointed and here we have these people who have come against them because their accusation is this you you've killed God's chosen people and when they say this they're referring to the leaders of some of the tribes who the previous day literally the previous day had led or tried at least to lead a coup and a rebellion against the authority of Moses God saw this as an attack against his own authority and acted to reinstate his authority to ensure that any any person who witnessed what was going on would be under no doubt as to who God is his sovereignty and who he has chosen in fact what he did was he allowed the open that the earth to swallow are to open up and to swallow those of the rebellion those who were leading the rebellion and everybody who saw this was freaked out they were in fear but they got the point God is sovereign God is in control and he is not to be questioned or we think they've got the point because the very next day we find them in verse 41 of number 16 saying since this on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron saying you have killed the people of the Lord imagine those who had come against God's chosen those who were rebelling against Authority are now being called the people of the Lord verse 42 says now it happened when the congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron that they turned toward the tabernacle of meeting and suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared then Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting and the Lord spoke to Moses saying get away from among this congregation that I'm like I may consume them in a moment and they fell on their faces so Aaron take a censer and put fire in it from the altar put incense on it and take it quickly to the congregation and make a tournament for them for the wrath has gone out from the Lord the plague has begun then Aaron took it as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the assembly and already the plague had begun among the people so he put in the incense and made atonement for the people and he stood between the dead and the living so the plague was stopped now those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred besides those who died in the Korah incident so Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting for the plague had stopped saying what I want to cover in the time that we have lived is really three principles that help us to know what to do in this time of crisis people that were called to be in times of crisis through the lens of the actions of Moses and his brother Aaron we're called to be activists were called to be priests and were called to be Shepherds called to be activists priests and shepherds when this congregation of people were gathered against Moses and Aaron they didn't shrink back they didn't resign they didn't wash their hands of these people they appealed to God God who had given them the authority to fulfill the functions that they were now busy fulfilling and God appears and once again he reestablishes the lines of authority and when these brothers recognized that a the death and a plague was hitting the people again they did not wash their hands of the people they did not sit and debate about the best way forward in fact what they could have done is to wait awhile for the plague to do some really heavy damage not the 14,000 people is not heavy damage they could have waited for the the the plague to take our half of the people because then they'd have half of the problem to deal with but no this was not their hearts they immediately jumped to action and Aaron runs into the midst of the people with his priestly garb on with his censer and he stands in the face of death he challenges death and he represents the people before God by making atonement to them for them using the sensor coals that were taken from the altar and in the incense that was burnt on the coals so as to make a smoke that rose up to heaven and it was the smoke that would come up before God as a sweet-smelling offering and would cause him to retract and pull back his judgement over the people were called Saints to roll up our sleeves and get involved certainly let us let us be active on social media let us put our our opinions out there let's put information let's educate as many people as possible but that's not all we're called to do were also called to find ways of running into the midst of the congregation of standing between the plague and the people of representing the people before God were called to be activists second thing we see by looking at Scripture is that Aaron acted as a priest in that moment putting himself aside he had his priestly garments on which would represent representative of his priestly function he acted as a priest and he represented people before God the other thing we need to realize with the function and the representation of Aaron was that the the the robes his priestly robes which we don't have time to get into in terms of their description right now but the priestly robes were representative of the or what we would call a type and a shadow of the Christ who would come many generations later his his censer that he carried and he wielded he used it to minister in the presence of God and he used it as a weapon of warfare during this time of plague was a agent of purification and holiness it was representative of the holy spirit who empowers us to be priests before God and to represent the people of God before him and so Aaron fulfills this function well he is the priest who ministers deep before God he's the priest who goes between the people and stands between them and death he is also a type and a shadow of the Christ who would come who is our ultimate high priest who who intercedes for us before the father it is his sacrifice the sacrifice of Jesus that now rises up as that smoke before the Father and is that sweet-smelling fragrance that is pleasing to God that is why we know are no longer recipients of the anger the wrath of the judgment of God because the high priest our ultimate high priest Jesus Christ has made the sacrifice has mingled in the incense and the smoke rises up before the father and it is sweet and it is pleasing to him it's good for us to also recognize in this space that Aaron was insufficient in and of himself now you'll notice that nobody else ran to the aid of the people not even Moses the leader of the whole nation ran to fulfill this function in fact Moses gave Aaron the instruction to go and do this this was not an act of cowardice from Moses as part by the way this was Moses understanding that it could only be Aaron who was called to fulfill this function why well because Aaron was chosen by God to be a priest so it couldn't have been Moses or any other of the tribal leaders who would run to the aid of the people it had to be the man who was chosen by God for that particular function and so Aaron had to be chosen Aaron also through the the fulfilling of the priestly role and the and through represented through the the the priestly gob represented royalty he was the high priest his royal and so not only was he chosen by God bore the mark of being chosen by God for this particular function but he also bore the marks of being a being royal being a royal priesthood before God and thirdly Aaron didn't go empty-handed before before God he didn't go empty-handed into the midst of the congregation know he had the censor with him he had taken the calls from the altar and he had put them into the center and he had taken incense and scattered it on the coals to make the smoke that would rise up before God and so he wasn't empty-handed that sensor but rich represents purification and holiness and also just represents the Holy Spirit who empowers us for our ministry so there's three elements here that we need to recognize that really empowered Aaron for this particular work the fact that he was chosen the fact that he was royal a royal priesthood and the fact that he was holy now many generations later after the time of Aaron after Jesus had come and he had died on the cross Peter would put it to us this way in the book of first Peter chapter 2 verse 9 that we are a Chosen People a royal priesthood and a holy nation God's special position that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light Saints Aaron carried that identity that he was he was chosen he was royal and he was holy and that is an identity that enabled him to minister Jesus carried this identity and it was an identity that enabled him to minister we today carry this identity that we are chosen that we are royal that we are holy it is an identity that enables us to minister to be part of the solution and to run into the midst of the congregation with the solutions that God has given us the blueprints of heaven third thing is that we are called to be shepherds so we're called to be activists were called to be priests and were called to be shepherds Jesus in the scriptures will call himself the Good Shepherd he says the Good Shepherd is a shepherd who is willing to die for his flock the heiling the servant when he's looking after the Sheep and he sees a wolf come into the fold does not fight the wolf he jumps over the over the fence and runs away to preserve his own life why well because there are not his sheep if one or two of them die he still gets paid but the lover of the Sheep the owner of the Sheep feels the loss of every single sheep and so that the Good Shepherd will fight off the wolf would kill the wolf for the prison preservation of the Sheep you and I Saints are called to be good Shepherds to the people that God has called us to look after than the people within our communities the other hallmark of the Good Shepherd is that he stands alone Aaron when he ran into the midst of the congregation didn't have a group that ran with him he stood alone and it was right that he should stand alone in fact the Good Shepherd our ultimate High Priest Jesus stands alone in being the savior of all mankind nobody else helps him in fact nobody else can help him in the same way that it had to be Aaron and only Aaron who could make atonement for the people so that God would forgive them Jesus is the only one who could stand before God who could stand between us and death and make us and make a tournament so that God would forgive us and come into a relationship with us and reconcile us and repurpose us for his glory it had to be Jesus pictured if you will Jesus wielding his censer in it or the coals from the altar of his suffering and and he paused the incense onto these coals and the incense is his works it is his tears it is his prayers it is as interesting it rises up it burns the smoke rises up to the Father and it is pleasing before him he does not mingle the his incense with our incense he does not mingle his offering without offering because it would taint the pure and perfect offering that Jesus offers offers before the father Saints you and I have nothing of worth to bring before God we have nothing that we could bring to him that will cause him to that would make a tournament or that will cause him to forgive us we appeal fully and wholeheartedly to the person of Jesus and to the work of Jesus on the cross it is only through that offering that we receive the forgiveness of sins and so even as Jesus is the one who stands between us and and death and stares death down our role is is is to run to Jesus under his covering and so we are faced with a decision some of us have made this decision some of you are yet to make this decision of where what we will choose will we choose to receive the work of Jesus our high priest our Shepherd and our activist who stands between us and death will we receive that work and and and be beneficiaries of it or do we want to rather appeal to our own works our own sacrifices do we have our own censor that we want to bring before the Lord if we if we take a few steps back in fact one or two chapters before the chapter 16 we read that there were 250 of the elders of the tribes of Israel from the Levitical lines who had brought their own senses before the tabernacle because their understanding was well Aaron if you can do this so can we so they had brought their own senses and they were intending to minister as Aaron ministers before God problem was that only Aaron was called to fulfill this function and recognized by God what was the result well if you go and read in the scriptures you'll see that this is something that angered God incredibly scripted tells us that fire came out from the presence of God and soon all of them all 250 of them consumed them with their senses and yet we see that Aaron performs the exact same function different results for the 250 it was based on selfish ambition their own works and not being appointed by God and it resulted in destruction for Aaron it was based on being chosen being royal being holy the motivation was love for the people that he was called to minister to and to lead the result was the preservation and salvation of the people and so the question is laid before us what kind of people are we going to be during this time are we going to cower are we going to be afraid are we going to run for the hills are we going to support and spew erroneous views of who God is and why this is happening or are we going to be activists and priests and Shepherds to the people that God has called us to minister to thank you for tuning in amen friends family guests thank you for joining us today we've just had an amazing word from Pastor Lee Rico challenging us to choose life and not death challenging us to see God who loved us so much who has called all of us into a relationship with him it is our choice today whether we're going to take that relationship that he has that he wants to have with us as a good shepherd on a read for you Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 19 I have set before you life and death blessings and curses choose life God is saying choose life despite what we're facing right now he is the giver of life he's always always wanting to give life the Bible says Jesus is the way the truth and the life if you want this life if you want this true life the best thing you can ever do is to accept Jesus as savior of your life there is a number on your screen that you can send a whatsapp message or you can send a text message if you want to make the decision today to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life our counselors will give you a call and pray with you and we can journey with you as we take a step to follow Jesus we will also want to encourage you to find people that you can pray with that can help you on this journey and we're making ourselves available for that thank you for joining us today we look forward to our next service that will be on Good Friday on the 10th of April at 10 a.m. we believe that this is a current temporary situation where we are at our homes and having Church online the time is coming when we together as an ecclesiology will have an assembly where we fellowship together where we worship together god bless you and have a great Sunday [Music]

Channel: Every Nation Rosebank

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Length: 54min 4sec (3244 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 29 2020