Full Service | Saturday, October 24, 2020

good evening athy creek it is six o'clock and we are live in the sanctuary we're so excited to have you join us um whether you are here with us live in person or whether you are at home in your living room we are so thankful to gather together to worship the lord i just want to encourage you no matter where you're at to lift a joyful noise to the lord tonight for he is good his mercies endure forever and he is so worthy of our praise so let's sing together tonight oh church prepare your hearts for the king of righteousness he is moving no he is [Music] we put our hope in the ones [Applause] [Music] we put our trust in you [Music] oh church prepare the way for the kingdom [Music] it is moving [Music] above [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] immanuel [Music] not for a second [Music] you're always on the roof [Music] jesus i need your presence oh lord my soul cries out fall on me spirit fall down breathe a new life in me [Music] spirit i need your wisdom guide my heart into your ways fill me with living water and i will not thirst again all of my days i will remain in you all of my days i will bring praise [Music] treasure of my heart [Music] treasures [Music] break all the chains [Music] that we can't contain all of my days i will bring praise [Music] heart is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] i have surrendered i will go lead me to the rock that is [Music] i will go [Music] lead [Music] i will go [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] is oh treasure of mine [Music] [Music] [Music] so all the angels have fallen on their faces at the foot of the highest of thrones of heaven is caught up in the moment full of worship our hearts overflow holy [Music] holy [Music] jesus it's only for you [Music] as we desperately surrender the darkness holy [Music] holy [Music] jesus is only for you [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] is [Music] holy [Music] jesus we'll never stop singing [Music] is [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] the wonder of the waves and the sea [Music] the power in your grace and your mercy [Music] cry out mountains and we will shout the king is here let every heart declare the truth oh the king is here [Music] let's sing together our comforter our [Music] strength [Music] new life for me [Music] and we [Music] is [Music] is here [Music] is [Music] oh we believe oh god you are in this place tonight [Music] we lift our voices we lift our eyes to you you are here oh lord we worship we lift our hands to you you are here yes you are we lift our voices [Music] the king is here [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh the king is here [Music] hello [Music] jesus tonight we're so thankful for that truth lord your word tells us where two or three are gathered in your name there you are among them we give you thanks for that truth lord we know that even if we don't feel like it even if it may not seem like it lord you are here in our midst you are with us you will never leave us or forsake us we thank you so much lord for the truth we found in your word in your scriptures and as we get ready to open them now lord may we just have ears to hear what your spirit would say to the church tonight lord have your way in this place have your way in our hearts we love you so much and it's in jesus name amen if you're in the building go ahead and have a seat and we'll get started all right well good evening everybody it's good to see you it's good to be here with you all on a nice evening for getting together in church and we're glad you're all here hey i got a bunch of announcements so just kind of bear with me and in a minute we'll get into the scriptures uh so kind of stay tuned for that but we have sunday night worship tomorrow night at 6 00 p.m and uh that's going to be online so you're able to uh get to the communion elements ready to roll at your house and join us as we all kind of take of the lord's uh supper uh on tomorrow evening so that'll be at 6 00 p.m worship and the in prayer and communion so gonna be great hey we have a couple of staff positions that have kind of been surfacing i want to let you all know um you know we try to as much as possible hire within the congregation because um we love people to be on staff that love being here at athy and so uh we're looking for everything uh from a maintenance position uh you know uh you know we've got a lot of work to do with the big building a lot of people come in and uh it's great it's a good problem to have but we uh we have a great crew that keeps this building up and running we need another maintenance crew member and also someone who's kind of a super high level web developer you know uh and i gotta say this isn't like if you know how to use microsoft publisher is anybody use that anymore uh i don't even know if that's a thing anymore but remember you used to make a web page when you're in high school uh we need something a little higher than that uh like you know our our uh website is is really cool and we've had a great team that have put that together we have you know thousands and thousands of teachings online available for people it's a giant database i think there's more than 3 000 teachings available on there and it's just a really cool functioning website but we need somebody who knows how to kind of operate and code and all that stuff as well as maybe have a smidge of you know artistic eye so if you're that person uh we have a wonderful uh well-paying position for that person because those people are hard to find honestly and so if you're if you're in that role uh let us know and uh that's gonna be awesome wednesday night we're going through the bible uh we started jeremiah last week and good news if you missed the first introduction to jeremiah wednesday you can you can go on the website and we'll just go right to or go to youtube look up at the creek and uh all the teachings are right there and usually jeremiah is right at the beginning if you click on athy creek youtube and subscribe there let you know when new teachings prophecy updates worship songs are coming out if you subscribe to athy creek's um youtube page uh it's great but if you didn't get wednesday go ahead and catch up on that between now and wednesday and then you'll be right up up to speed with us as we tackle uh chapter 2 and beyond uh in the coming weeks so that's kind of the plan well why don't you grab your bible and turn with me to jeremiah chapter 2 as we take our wednesday night uh through the bible study and we draw a small text from that upcoming wednesday study so we're going to look at uh jeremiah chapter two and this might be kind of considered a second part or part two of what we began last week uh and i'm gonna kind of loosely tie them together um you know last week we saw that the the people of israel had committed two evils they forsook the fountain of living water and they exchanged it for broken down old cisterns that didn't hold water and that was the imagery jeremiah used to say man you guys have left the fountain of living water and we saw that that is the lord himself jesus christ who said i am the living water and anybody that drinks of me will not thirst and we talked about how jesus satisfies the soul now i have to say that's a wonderful thing that we learned last week but it's an interesting perspective one of the things i think we might have to really watch out for in our culture today is being all about our own blessing our own comfort our own uh health and wealth and there's some churches you know that's all they ever talk about is your health and your wealth and your vic victorious living and it's all about you and i would watch out for ministries that kind of make everything all about you and you being victorious and you being you know it's funny because when you think about it um this victorious living that some of these guys are always talking about half the bible characters would have failed that test every single time you know a lot of those guys would have been considered wow they're not victorious as paul gets stoned to death dragged outside of the city left for dead that was a tough day at the office right there he wasn't dead so he came back in beaten and bloodied and started preaching again and paul was all used to that stuff i mean imprisoned over and over uh he was shipwrecked multiple times bit by a viper snake like you know the mission filled for paul was not an easy thing in fact jeremiah himself would be a guy that not one person would listen to a word he ever said in 42 years of ministry that's a tough gig right there but he just kept going kept plugging away we'll see that in our study but you know this idea of god being there for us like he's our little genie in a bottle and we just go okay i get my three wishes right lord but um what if what if you had faith in christ and nothing good ever happened to you would that derail your faithful i'm afraid there's some people that they almost get saved seemingly or you know if they even call it being saved you know just for their own blessing here and now we have to remind people that salvation that we're talking about when you hear the gospel message is about heaven and hell and what you want to be saved from is eternal death and hell and you might have a miserable horrible life on this earth but guess what if you're a believer in christ you have heaven eternal to look forward to and and see you know this prosperity gospel that we so easily believe and you know we think that it's all about us and living victorious and all this stuff um the problem is with that is there's a lot of people on this planet who are not living victoriously it's easy to to preach a prosperity gospel to people that are prosperous like people in the united states it's a little tougher to go out in the middle of the desert like i've been there in you know burkina faso africa right on the edge of the sahara desert there with millions of people living in you know uh you know wagodugu burkina fusso and uh that that is not a place that people are living victoriously it's 120 degrees at 5am when you wake up in the morning and it's just dry mud huts with roofs that are made out of like weeds and stuff and if the crops are bad people die uh in any given year and the disease is rampant and it's just a hard hard life but i love that the gospel is somehow purer in some ways there because they're not looking for salvation you know that they'll drive a you know fancy car and have a big fancy house and they'll you know be in great shape and their health and their vitamins will be off to speed and their financial checkbook will be balanced none of that's part of their lives but these are people who love jesus and they have the hope of heaven you see we in our prosperity it's all about us and we got to get away from that that's not really the gospel now if you happen to be blessed praise the lord for that you know every good and perfect gift comes from the lord and we can applaud the good things the grace that god has given us no question we should be thankful and we as americans should be deliriously thankful with all that the lord has done for us but but tonight i'm going to kind of continue talking what we talked about last time they the the people forsook the fountain of living water where they could have been refreshed but tonight's message is similar but it's from a different perspective and it's not about me see the other ones are kind of i'm thirsty i i'm trying all these things in life to satisfy my thirsty soul and if you drink of the fountain of living water you'll never thirst again i love that and that's an important teaching that we did last week but what about what about us not looking at ourselves at all what does jeremiah have to say to the people of israel and it's less about them and it's more about the father in heaven and i want to show you just in a single little verse something that kind of catches my eye uh and it's sort of the other side of the coin a single verse you might think brett why are you using this verse i'll show you as we get going and we'll look at this whole chapter on wednesday and see it all in context but it's chapter 2 of jeremiah verse 32 jeremiah 2 32. jeremiah speaking the word of the lord and sort of in a rhetorical sort of method he says this and jeremiah 232 can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me days without number again can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me days without number i love the bible you know the bible is so good because it gives us the whole story there's nothing that the bible lacks daniel webster said this if if we are able to abide by the principles taught in the bible our country will go on prospering and to prosper but if we and our prosperity neglect its instruction and authority no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury our glory and profound obscurity wow daniel webster i think he rolled over in his grave last week do you know why one of the senators you know that was quizzing for the supreme court justice um chided against the supreme court justice nominee by saying i can't believe you used the term sexual preferences and she just got on that you know the candidate just you know you can't believe you used the word twice sexual preference now what's interesting about that is um as it turns out um the word sacral sexual preference was used by joe biden it was used by the gay and lesbian men the most popular gay and lesbian magazine uh a week earlier like it's suddenly the senate senators making up this thing that saying it's a preference is actually a derogatory term and so you know the senator from hawaii kind of sanctimoniously scolded and it was a little painful well some people that were watching it in real time they thought what is sexual preference is it really derogatory so people started looking it up right then like in real time and as they were checking webster's online webster's dictionary had one definition that was not derogatory and then while the whole conversation was happening some little minion behind the internet was able to retype the definition for webster's dictionary and change it to be a derogatory term as it was happening in real time and they were caught red-handed changing the definition so as it turns out you can't trust webster's dictionary anymore for a definition um because they're just changing stuff as we go and making it fit their narrative and that's that's a little troubling i love the bible because nobody's going to change this this word is solid um by the way i think that's why we should stick with maybe paper uh and don't just go with your iphone on your bible uh i like a bible that stays the way it is it's not some little minion is not hiding behind changing my bible for me um but but all that to say uh man we're living in kind of corrupt times to say the least but i love what daniel webster i think that's why i'd be rolling over at his grave because this is exactly what what what the webster's dictionary is doing daniel webster said if we start doing that it's going to bury this country in profound obscurity isn't that an interesting choice of words because in bible prophecy and i'm way off course right now of what i was going to share so um in bible prophecy the united states isn't even mentioned like all the other nations china russia turkey iran israel jordan egypt like they're all mentioned but for some reason except for maybe in ezekiel chapter 38 there's a light mention of the young lions that are linked to maybe england but it's a it's a reach to say the least and all they do the young lions sit there and say you shouldn't have done that and that's all they ever did uh there's nothing it makes me interested in maybe the future of our country and what we're sensing in 2020 as a nation and as we're seeing this election and the division um even threat i've seen and heard threats of things like civil war in this country people are talking about that can you imagine if that really happened if there was real civil war the reason i i you know sort of get a little bit troubled by that is i'm somewhat of a student of history and and i love studying about the civil war the american civil war was was horrifying but if people think it's going to be better because it's modern days i think they have another thing coming it's amazing how the memory of war is soon forgotten and people are quick to go back to it um but be that as it may i love studying the bible because we hear the word of the lord and and so as we saw last week those who had forsaken the fountain of living water that's them missing out on refreshment life eternal living water satisfaction that's them missing out on that today we look at it from the perspective of god enjoying us you see tonight we ask the question does god enjoy us well does what does god enjoying me have to do with anything did you know that the jews here in the in the jeremiah's day was they were called the wife of god and so this imagery of the the bride wearing her gown and her ornaments we'll talk about what those are in a second the imagery there is saying don't you remember that god is their husband you should try to look good for your husband that's the idea uh dress up you know take a shower uh you know put on something nice because he's god and we are to please god now in the new testament you and i while the jews are called the wife of god in the old testament you and i are called the church of jesus christ is called the bride of christ so we have a different relationship as gentiles in the modern day church we're called the bride of christ and so from time to time as a church we have to look and sit back and say are we dressed for the occasion are you now this is hard for some of us guys you know you know some of you girls you've been thinking about your wedding day since you were four years old some of you it's most of you guys you were thinking about your wedding day on that afternoon oh what should i wear uh oh we were supposed to get a tux oh my bad you know it's like it's like we don't really think about that as much so guys you gotta jump into say yes to the dress with me tonight just you got to kind of get in that mindset of weddings and beauty and stuff like that so help me out guys you can do this because congratulations guys you are called the bride of christ so when the bride doors are opened when christ sees his bride what does he see here comes the bride or is it nor better better is it in a minor key though here comes the bride song when we see you is this is this like this is the bride see see i love what jeremiah is doing last week he was saying you guys are missing out on the refreshing life of spring of living water but tonight at this section then chapter 2 he's saying you need to be thinking about are you pleasing to the lord it's not all about you it's about you pleasing lord by the way wise is the person that gets this the book of revelation chapter 4 tells us that you and i were created for one purpose and it wasn't for victorious living or being wealthy and healthy and wise the reason you exist you were created for his pleasure revelation chapter 4 verse 10 says that we exist we were created thou art worthy o lord for glory and honor and thou hast created all things were created you know by him and for him for his pleasure is what we're told there in the book of revelation so the big question uh the people why do i feel so unfulfilled in life it has to do with them not understanding what really fulfills one's life it's not being wealthy or having a great career or you know having a successful you know job or family or anything it's it's are you pleasing to god is your life pleasing to god now if you're living for yourself good luck that's the quickest way to depression that i can think of just live for yourself think about yourself focus on self and you'll be just uh really miserable that's a guaranteed road to depression but the christian wise is the christian that gets this i exist to please god so whatever it is that i'm supposed to be doing that is pleasing to god well that's that's the imagery jeremiah is trying to talk about he's talking about the bride in fact there's two words here that are kind of interesting in the hebrew text when it says here can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire the two hebrew words one for ornament one for attire one speaks of sort of the dress but the ornaments some people they watch jewelry in fact i think some of your modern translations even translated as jewelry it's it's it's something that you and i don't even really think of uh as much but the middle east they still have the same word and it has to do with a sash it's like a sash but it's a beautifully ornamented sash if you can almost picture like some of these you know exotic brides from the the middle east you know and picture in a white beautiful gown but then this very beautiful tapestry uh of some kind that was expensive like that was the most expensive part of the dress by the way the average bride spends 1500 on a dress today that's average 300 for hair and makeup and in addition and that's average it gets closer to 5 000 and 1 000 if you go to the upper end of that i looked it up today on google uh you said brad how do you know this stuff checked it out uh and and uh you know it's so funny how people get so into the dresses but but at the same time you know when you stand before god are you robed in white linen you see here's the thing this imagery guys this is where you and i can get past the the bridal stuff you know and that is it's an imagery it's an analogy of really something that's spiritual when you're dressed appropriate you'll be robed in in fine white linen and that's the imagery of the bible and white linen speaks of purity it speaks of righteousness are you dressed appropriately see this is the question that we're going to ask about how are you dressed do you look right as a christian it's not about you it's about you and your life pleasing god the father now um you know i probably shouldn't go into all this but i love the bible uh talks about itself in several analogies um in fact if you're a bible student you know the the word of god probably the most famous type of scripture is the sword of the spirit right you know the word of god is living and powerful sharper than any two-edged sword and several times in the bible the the word is is like into a sword that's a weapon of of you know offense uh when you're uh fighting against evil you've got the sword of the spirit another type in the bible if you recall is the water water is both the type of the holy spirit but it's also a type of the word um you know like it says there in john 15 jesus said now you are clean by the word that i have spoken unto you you know paul the apostle told the church of ephesus there in ephesians 5 25 he said you know the christ washes his bride in the water of the word and you've got this imagery of water but did you know that the word is also pictured there's another one that's that people don't know as much about but it's talked about almost equally as much as the sword and the and the water and that is the mirror the word of god is a mirror um now let's reflect on mirrors for a second sorry um mirrors do not make images they reflect them you know if you don't like what you see in a mirror you don't need to shatter the glass you need to change yourself can we agree with that uh something you're like no i just smashed the mirror and i think i look great um if you do that you're a little deluded you need to understand that you know so so by by looking into the mirror of the word um how do i know that well listen to james chapter 1 verses 22 23 and 25 it says this anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like but the man who looks intently into the perfect law that is the word that gives freedom and continues to do this not forgetting what he has heard but doing it he will be blessed in what he does you know so you go look in the mirror and you just had a big hamburger and you're just look in the mirror and then suddenly he writes oh man i got musk i got you know mustard on my mustache and nobody told you there you are walking around a big chunk of mustard that's embarrassing but what would you say to the person oh man that's that's unfortunate and there's just turned away and walked away and left the mustard on his face you'd say well that's stupid you got to clean the mustard off well that's what the the you know the book of james is telling you and me when you hear the word and you see the mustard on your face sin uh then you want to get rid of it but the person who sees the word of god and here's what it says but doesn't do anything about it is like the dumb guy that didn't get the mustard off his face you see that's one of the analogies of the mirror being the word of god and man we could go on and on by the way do you remember the brass laver there in the wilderness wanderings that they had in the temple or the tabernacle does anybody remember what did they make that out of anybody mirrors where'd they get the mirrors anybody egypt remember when they left egypt all the egyptian women said here take our stuff just get out of here and they took gold and silver but they also took the brass mirror egypt was famous for making these brass mirrors that were polished up and they could actually see themselves in their reflection because they didn't have modern day mirrors like we have so they made them out of brass and polished them up so when it came time to make the brass laver it says the women took the mirrors that they'd received from the women of egypt and they put it all in there and they fashioned this brass laver and there's kind of this interesting uh sort of type or even picture there as they would look into the what did the laver hold water what is water a type of the word and also the mirrors that was made in the labor and no doubt the priest as he would come and wash he would see his own reflection in the laver and it's just such a beautiful picture of what the word of god actually does as it washes us and we see the reflection of ourself man all this stuff ties so perfectly together and i wish we had more time we could do the whole thing just on that alone but but the idea of of this this um the the bible being the mirror it's used several times so the reason i say all this is because i want us to take them the time to realize that we we need to look and see how we're dressed in fact there's three things i want to look at tonight number one what are you wearing number two what does your face look like and number three this one's a tough one how do you smell do you stink because you know a bride that stinks whoo i mean she might be decked to the nines coming down the aisle then all of a sudden she gets close to the it's like that'd be really embarrassing you know she really stink so we're going to talk about that as well because i think that's a problem for some of us i'll tell you why so number one what are you wearing see again you got to remember we're not just talking about your clothes right now it's funny how churches get all obsessed about the clothes people wear at church and i've talked about this a million times but i need to just say it if you're new here and you're wondering why or why is everybody not dressed nicely because it's a saturday night service no no just kidding no no because if you came tomorrow morning you probably see most people dressed see i love the liberty we have at sea creek to dress kind of normally and the liberty we have is not just us going against the bible some of you are raised that you have to dress up for church and i understand that the problem is that's not really biblical you can if you want to and i even think if you want to just do it as an act of saying i just like to honor the lord with what i wear on sunday morning that's great but don't make a biblical case out of that or make other people do that the early church didn't have extra clothes and suits and ties and the bible actually teaches kind of the opposite that man looks at the outward appearance but god is the one who looks at the heart of each individual so when we're talking about what are you wearing we're talking figuratively uh spiritually what you're wearing because the bible talks about that all the time now we just got through isaiah and isaiah 61 talks about how when you become a christian you know your best works before you were saved your best works were like filthy rags but good news the person who accepts jesus as their savior and is forgiven of their sins the lord says i will robe you in righteousness man that's the that's the garments we need by the way the church is seen when christ returns the second coming of christ and ten thousands of his saints are coming with them and what are they wearing fine white linen that's the church of jesus christ so get that's the beautiful picture you and i man when we're sinners and we've been messed up and dirtied up good news man we've been robed in righteousness and we're getting ourselves ready to be married to the bridegroom jesus christ there's a spiritual washing and cleansing that happens and robbing in righteousness in fact there's even a practical side of this uh very practical uh would you keep your finger here and go with me to romans chapter 13. it's in the new testament acts and then romans right after the book of acts matthew mark luke john acts and then romans and i'd like to show you this this interesting description of clothing uh it's actually romans 13 where paul the apostle is telling the romans hey you've got to be careful what you're wearing and this is a spiritual conversation it's romans 13 verse 11. and there it says and that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed the night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantedness not in strife and envy but put ye on the lord jesus christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof put off your night clothes it says and put on the clothes the armor of light the light the day day clothes you know some some christians i'm afraid are still walking around trying to live their victorious life but they're they're still wrapped up in sin and there's no real repentance of sin so they're still wearing their pajamas and they haven't really been regenerated or saved but they think they're saved because they're trying to live that victorious christian life that oprah and joel osteen and others are trying to you know promote it's just not really the gospel message you've got to repent of your sins confess your sinfulness and then say lord would you please forgive me and and then acknowledge that jesus died on the cross for your sins that he rose up from the grave and when you acknowledge that and confess that guess what that's the miraculous saving work of christ when he died on the cross he he then you know robes you in his righteousness he declares you righteous you didn't deserve it you didn't earn it it's what he does and it's such a glorious thing we're saved by his grace through faith not of our works it says so once you're saved the problem is you and i we tend to go back to those works of darkness and i i sort of sense paul saying man this is kind of a daily thing so practically positionally in christ we're saved by his grace he's robed us in righteousness but practically for real in real life we touch sin every single day you sort of see that likened in when peter suddenly realized jesus was washing the disciples stinky feet and all the disciples were sitting around yeah could you get between the big toe yeah thank you you know jesus nobody finally he gets to peter and peter's like lord what are you doing you know i should be washing your feet stop it and jesus said peter unless you know you unless you allow me to wash your feet you can have no part with me well then wash my whole head and my hands also be like a total shower lord poor peter he's always just saying stupid stuff and she said no peter you only need to have your feet washed because your feet are dirty your head and your hands are not dirty there's a picture there see because i believe when you're saved you're positionally in christ saved for all eternity jesus died once for all your sins thank the lord for that but practically you and i are walking through this life and daily we find ourselves touching this earth doing sinful things and our feet get dirty if you would and that's the daily cleansing you know by the way that's one thing the water of the word does the water of the word doesn't save you from hell it's not that kind of washing the water of the word is that daily cleansing that you and i need that's why you should be in the word often to let the water of the word do its work jesus his blood is what washed us once and for all so that we can go to heaven are you seeing the difference there there's sort of an eternal washing and cleansing that's salvation but there's also sort of a practical daily washing that we need to be cognitive of and that's why we we need to continually kind of confess our sins when you when you make a sin and you realize oh i did something i shouldn't have you know done you could say oh lord 1st john chapter 1 verse 9 says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness so you know to become the bride of christ you got to be saved positionally in christ that's the key but you should be aware of what kind of bride you are are you are you daily putting on jesus christ that's what paul says here put ye on the lord jesus christ to not fulfill the lust of the flesh now this is an important thing because some of you have you ever noticed there's some people that have such uh kind of a i'm gonna call it a pseudo integrity and i call it a pseudo integrity because i don't have a better name for it but it's the people that say well i don't know if i like this breadth that you're you know it says put on jesus christ what if i don't really feel like being happy today what if i what if in my heart of hearts i just feel grouchy i'm not gonna walk around with a fake smile on my face that's not honest and that's not integrity pseudo integrity i'm totally lame bible teaches against that you know you know some of you might say well brett if what are you saying if you're grouchy you're supposed to fake it fake it yep pretty much uh you're just being a put on yep let's put ye on the lord jesus christ exactly what the bible says put it put on um see it's funny because uh we all do it to a degree have you ever noticed that sometimes you just gotta put on a happy face if you're going to work uh you know and you're supposed to be nice uh you can't just say sorry i'm in a really bad mood so i'm gonna be a total grouch today uh tough bananas good luck well they might say well you're also out of a job today you know especially if you're working touch bros man you got to be on fire all the time it's like you got to really really be on you know tiring watching those kids but but you know what's important is for you and me to realize that man that's kind of what we're supposed to do it's you know now by the way there's there's some interesting things about this put e on the lord jesus christ because it's a decision that you and i make and it's one that i hope that you guys are willing to make um you see uh the idea of being a put on put you on jesus christ it has to do with what you're wearing but it also has to do with how your face looks and that's point number two number one what are you wearing hopefully you're robed in righteousness hopefully you're saved first and foremost robed in righteousness but then on a daily level as christians we need to be aware am i putting on the lord jesus christ or am i mostly just letting my own real face happen see this is this is where we go to the face what does your face look like um as you read the bible as it turns out a vibrant shining happy face is the mark of one who's been in god's presence did you know that people that spend time with the lord in his word worshiping him in spirit and in truth there's a remnant on their face that tends to shine through and i've seen this and you have too there's people that just have radiant faces um do you remember the story after speaking to god there on the mountain moses his face glowed so but brightly that he had to cover his face with a veil now this is a great story by the way the old testament remember he got he came down from the mountain he was glowing totally glowing and we were like oh moses is glowing so moses puts a bag over his face now in the old testament he puts this bag over his face and and the old testament sort of leaves you to think that well moses just didn't want to offend everybody without faith how his face was just so on fire and bright and beautiful so i'm going to just cover it up so you're not all offended by my beauty that's kind of the way it sort of comes out in the old testament but in second corinthians as it turns out the bible tells us the other side of that story it was actually that moses didn't want people to see that his face was starting to diminish in its glow so do you remember what he'd do to get it to glow to get recharged he'd go back into the tabernacle of the lord and get recharged and come out [Music] glowing oh i'm bright i'll put on a bag just out of respect for you all you know that's what he did the new testament says uh no um in fact if you don't believe all that stuff i just said it's exodus chapter 38 uh that tells us in verse eight you know pardon me um oh that's not it well you can look it up no it's exodus 34. that's what it is exodus 34 verses 33-35 talks about moses's face uh glowing and and then and then it's funny because uh uh you know the new testament section is second corinthians 3 13 through 16 tells us that his face started to diminish and that's why he put the bag on but the point of the story is moses was a guy who loved to be in the presence of god and because of that his face would glow and the further away of time that he was away from god that glow would start to diminish i think we can learn something about that i think there's a reason why god wants his people to gather like this where we go to church and worship jesus with song and and with the word of god and fellowship one with another there's something about it that a person who's been in god's presence with his church not just alone you can do it alone too but there's something about being gathering together in a gathering where you're actually being a part of something like this the lord tends to brighten you up your face starts to glow spiritually um remember stephen stephen there as he was preaching that powerful sermon in acts chapter 7 they they began to gnash their teeth against them and be angry it's like a portlander you know that yells at you for being a christian or someone who's anti-abortion you know these people scream at you now and it's just ah that's what they were doing to to poor stephen but what happened as he just sat there as they were throwing rocks at him to kill him his face the bible said started to grow glow as bright as could be and it's not even like he acknowledged the rocks that were hitting him in pain he just glowed brighter and brighter as they martyred the first christian martyr of the christian church stephen an amazing story there in acts chapter 7. but god is in the business listen to this of changing your face he wants to to uh to change the way your face shines you know our goal is not to make our faces radiant um not even jesus did that by the way um jesus was like everybody else remember uh they had to say uh how do we know which one's jesus well he's the one that's glowing that's not what they said that's judas look for the most glowy guy in the room you know he's the one you're looking for but instead he says no i've got to identify him with a betrayal of a kiss remember that so even jesus didn't make himself glow but matthew says jesus appears was changed not jesus changed his appearance not but um and moses by the way didn't even know his face was shining at first i love that that he had to come down the mountain and people like oh he's like what he didn't even know i love that that's a person who's just been in god's presence so our goal is not to have the fake frozen welcome to anthony creek ding in a little sparkle of teeth you know like that's not that's not what i'm talking about this fake christian sort of you know poser smile thing people see through that um you know that that's not cool but there's something about the person who just truly does seek the lord in prayer and in worship and in his word and in fellowship you find your face you know sort of washed he wipes away the tears he mops away the you know uh the uh you know perspiration off your forehead he softens our furrowed brow when we spend time in his presence you just start to sense a piece and your face starts to show it um charles hadn't spurgeon you hear me quite a lot because he was a colorful powerful preacher of the gospel but he he put it this way he said wash your face every morning in a bath of praise he acknowledged that by just praising the lord there was sort of a washing of your face that was acknowledged um what does the bible say about this you know this idea of your face there's some scriptures you can jot them down if you're kind of quick number one uh second corinthians 3 18. listen to this it says but we all with an unveiled face beholding in a mirror the glory of the lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the spirit of the lord same thing we're talking about uh beholding our face in the mirror the glory of the lord being transformed i love that uh proverbs 15 13 says a merry heart makes a cheerful countenance i love that first peter 3 34 says this do not let your adornment be merely outward the arranging of your hair the wearing of gold or putting on fine apparel but rather let it be the hidden person of the heart which with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is very precious in the sight of god what is very precious in the sight of god a person who's adorned their heart more than their body externally see that's the problem you know people get dressed to the nines and go to church but i wonder how much time they spent washing their spiritual face and wearing their spiritual garments and making sure they looked presentable spiritually because that's what the lord looks at the world looks at the outward business appearance god looks at the at the heart um adonair uh judson was a missionary to burma back in the late 1700s early 1800s and he's kind of an interesting missionary he's got quite a story if you look him up his name is adonrium judson but he he was so burning with the desire to preach the gospel before he even learned the language of the uh the people in burma he um he would just walk up and people would just run up to him and embrace him and uh they never knew he never really knew why they were just these these burmese people as a missionary just walk up and they would hug him and by the way any white man he was from massachusetts but any white man they were very suspicious of because the british and there was a war there but that's a long story but they were normally suspicious of a white guy but these people just go up and hug this guy and they loved him and as it turns out the man one of the men later said that they thought he was an angel they all thought he was an angel when he first came to burma and the the reason why is because they said his face sort of shined and he saw a brightness that made them want whatever he had they wanted for themselves they wanted to have the same glow as this missionary before he even knew the language people were wanting what he had to offer and that was jesus by the way that's how my dad became a christian my mom became a christian by just reading the bible nobody led her to christ she just read the scriptures and was in a place of her life of real darkness uh even suicidal and after reading the scriptures she accepted christ just by reading you know romans where it says you know confess with your mouth believe in your heart the lord jesus you'll be saved and my mom wanted that so she accepts the lord and my dad comes home from work and starts to notice that she is glowing it took him 30 days every night he'd come home from work and she was just glowing brighter and brighter and brighter and finally he just said to my mom whatever you have i've got to have the same thing and my mom said well i have jesus and my dad accepted the lord became a believer and anybody that knows my mom she still glows like that today like she has a very glowy if you see pic pictures of her before she's she was like a looked like a model like a movie star um but she kind of had a little bit of a darkness like on her face that was not there but then you see the pictures after she was saved she just started to just glow there's some people that have that i love that not just there's sometimes the spiritual glow starts to show on the outside now some of you are like fred i ain't never gonna go i just don't have a glow face um but we're not talking as much literally i think sometimes even the most hardcore grouchy looking dude can kind of start to have a glow if he spends enough time with christ but you got to be aware of your face by the way did you know they had a nickname for that missionary judson that i told you about they called him mr glory face that's what they called him because he shined so brightly um but you say brett i don't know about all this putting on jesus and how does this all work out well as it turns out there's actually some physiological truth here that's just scientific you know when you smile science has proven your brain releases just by the muscular movement of smiling your your brain releases tiny molecules called uh neuropeptides and uh as it turns out neuropeptides help fight off stress and other neurotransmitters like dopamine serotonin and endorphins come into play too when you smile the endorphins act as a mild pain reliever uh and the serotonin is works as some somewhat of an antidepressant so science says when you just choose to smile when you're feeling grouchy sad and pain just smile and there's going to be physiological stuff going on i believe the lord not only made it physiological scientifically but also there's a spiritual thing about when a person says i'm going to put on jesus christ even though it seems like a put on that even though it seems fake so the answer is fake it till you make it when you're feeling bummed and blue one of the things you really should do is start smiling and being cheerful like choosing to be cheerful because there's scientifically things that are going to kick into gear but there's also spiritually things that happen to the person that lets their face start to radiate the joy of the lord some people might say well that's just a bunch of mumbo jumbo well you're going to be a grouch the rest of your life good luck with that so uh the idea is uh what is you what are you wearing you got to put on the lord jesus christ put off the night clothes and put on the armor of light and put ye on the lord jesus christ romans 13. what does your face look like i hope it's vibrant shining and be aware of your face look in the biblical mirror and say lord is my face grouchy and let the spirit talk to you through the word of god that you not have this fake frozen life unbehind your face you want a real vibrant jesus face that's the goal for everyone but the most sensitive topic here is how do you smell do you stink i remember working at a job site with my dad i think i mentioned this a few years ago and it was kind of interesting because i had never heard of such a thing i was like a junior hire you know and my dad said today brett i'm going to have a tough conversation with a guy i said well what is it what's it about he said well the problem is this guy is one of my best workers he uh you know is a builder framer works really good the problem is you can smell him like a hundred yards away like this guy just just really stinks and my dad said you know and he taught me about you know faithful are the wounds of a friend and my dad was going to help this guy and he was going to have a hard talk with him so sure enough at the end of the day uh you know everybody clocked out and was wrapping up their you know power cords and and putting away the skill saws and all this stuff and we were all wrapping it up and my dad just pulled the guy over and um and i i saw my dad just talking i didn't hear what he said but i knew what it was about i was watching the guy's face and i could see his whole you know posture just sort of droop and sort of look like i could tell he was it was like a wound to this guy and um and on the way home i said dad how'd your conversation go he said we'll see and the next day i'm not kidding that dude came into came into work smelling like petunias like i don't know what my dad told him but it totally works man the guy took a shower i'm sure he figured out like you know how to you know put on deodorant something that i don't think that anybody ever talked to him about but um nobody wanted to work next to him nobody wanted to even talk to the guy but man once once he started kind of caring about his personal hygiene we all were like man he smells better than anybody else out here like it was really ah here comes i won't say his name but uh yeah did you know there's spiritually people like this there's people that never got the memo that that you can spiritually stink and what is it that makes you think sin did you know that sin stinks it really does you know uh the interesting thing about you know this idea of sin you know stinking and what have you is um is you know oftentimes the person who stinks doesn't really know that he stinks um and it's an interesting thing or another thing about smelling um is a lot of times people they smell everybody else but they don't realize that it's the you're the one who actually stinks have you ever walked around with someone and talked about the world oh i can't believe donald trump or i can't believe joseph bud oh this world stinks and this is a steak stink stink and and you're kind of like no kind of you stink there's an old saying the whole world stinks when you have limb burger cheese on your mustache for those of you that have mustaches you know that's true if you've got something on your mustache that stinks the whole world it stinks in here what is that it's your mustache there's a lot of christians walking around everything stinks it stinks but sin stinks and one of the things you got to do if you want to get rid of the sin and the stink is you got to do go back to the first things we talked about is be washed you got to take a bath spiritually and you do that by the the cleansing blood of our savior jesus christ and as you become more and more of a sinner then guess what you can go to the cross and repent of your sin and the lord will forgive you and wash you first he washes you in his blood to save you for all eternity but daily he washes you in the word of god to to keep you clean like like he did with peter there that day when he washed the disciples feet you know it's an interesting thing about smell and stuff like that but i love the story you know in john chapter 12 where the disciples were in that house and this woman comes up and she breaks this box of a costly ointment and she pours it on jesus's feet and then wipes his feet with her hair well judas iscariot he said oh and he said this to himself like he was just thinking it boy we could have sold that you know because that cost the ointment as it turns out it was kind of like her dowry this is what these women would have and they'd save it up for for when they would be married and this particular ointment would cost about a year's salary so it was very expensive whatever a year's salary is today it'd be the equivalent back then so this woman takes a year's salary and breaks it and pours it on jesus's feet and that's why judas said we could have sold that and given it to the poor she wasted it well jesus this is what the bible says knowing that he was a thief he was like the disciple treasurer but he liked to skim some money and he was really thinking about his i could have skimmed some money off of that for myself knowing he was a thief he said leave her alone interesting how um who who is it that criticizes worship some people might say well you guys spend too much time singing songs to jesus i'm more into teaching don't be criticizing worship that's a judas iscariot kind of move i wouldn't want to do that but but what i love about that story is the worshiper this woman she wipes his feet with her and the bible says there in john chapter 12 the whole house was filled with the fragrance who spelled the best of mouse probably jesus because that very expensive ointment was put on his feet but who who spelled second best in that house what wasn't judas it was the woman who had wiped his feet with her hair in an act of worship you see i believe that one of the best ways to take on the fragrance of christ is to be a worshiper of jesus christ and and when you're a sinner you're going to take on real stink and that's why you and i need to be washed we need to make ourselves available to the washing of the word to the water of the word now you are clean by the word i've spoken to you he washes his bride in the water of the word let's be washed so that we don't stink but as we worship christ guess what we take on his fragrance it's a great story and i think that the worshiper oftentimes has a fragrance about them i've never met a person who loves to worship jesus that i didn't like there's just a fragrance spiritually around a person who's a jesus lover and i i need to make myself be that i i it doesn't come naturally to just want to be a worshiper somebody say well bro you're you like to do worship you you do music you like worship it's not my natural proclivity is to be a worshiper i like music but to worship christ sometimes that's work for me but i've found that it's the most well paying the best payoff of anything you can do is we'll be a worshiper of jesus and you'll start to take on his fragrance what are you wearing what does your face look like how do you smell these are just a few questions you should ask yourself because guess what you're the bride of christ and someday you will stand before the lord as the bride jeremiah his words here is you've forgotten to wear a dress and you're not wearing any ornaments you're just look you know you're there you are eating your cherry bonbons with your hair up in colors and you're still wearing your your onesie fuzzy pj thing what do they call that though it's like whatever you're there you are and curlers and you're just like okay lord whatever you want to come but my people have forgotten me days without number that's what the indictment was against the jews they had forgotten the lord so now we can look however we want we don't care how we look or how we smell or what our faces look like by the way the face thing that's something jeremiah talked about twice in chapter one and the lord said to jeremiah don't be afraid of their faces why because their faces had forgotten the lord and their faces were ugly mean-spirited hateful faces and jeremiah was told don't be afraid of their faces that's one of the good reasons we as believers should be concerned about our face can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me days without number remember the lord every day remember to look good for jesus if you would that your heart is right that you're robed in his righteousness and that you take a bath spiritually once in a while so that you might be pleasing that's why you exist to please the father would you bow your heads please with me i'm gonna have joey come up and just leave us in one final song and brooke but i'd love for you to um close this service out and just just consider your own spiritual walk and what you're wearing how does your face look have you forgotten that you're supposed to look good spiritually for the lord daily and the the evil of the people of israel during jeremiah's time as they had forgotten the lord to look good for him days without end and maybe it's been a long time since you even thought about prayer or worship or reading your bible or confession of sin that you might be washed but maybe all you got to do tonight is just confess that fault and the lord is faithful and just to cleanse you and forgive you and robe you and you can start brand new right now and be that pleasing bride of christ right this minute by just you doing the work right now to say lord forgive me wash me would you help me to take on your fragrance and not the fragrance of my sin the lord wants to do that tonight if you're not a christian if you never accepted christ the gospel message is this you're a sinner and you deserve death and hell we all are there we've all done that but the good news is that the lord says i will forgive you of your sins that's why god sent his only begotten son jesus that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life that comes through jesus the way you're saved is the the work that he did nothing you can do to earn it but the way of salvation is to confess with your mouth and believe what jesus did on the cross repent of your sins say lord i'm a sinner i do deserve death in hell but i pray you'd forgive me and i believe just say this you and the lord i believe that jesus died on the cross for my sins that he rose up from the grave and then i'm forgiven and if you do that from your heart romans 10 9-10 says you're saved brett is it really that simple remember grace is free but it came at a massive cost and jesus did all that he did all the work that you might have salvation through christ lord how i pray that people would just come to you first if they're not saved at all that they be cleansed and washed saved robed in your righteousness lord repenting of sins [Music] but i also pray for your church lord that we wouldn't just be all about ourselves and how we're feeling and what we're thinking lord what are you thinking about us are we a pleasing bride before your sight do we look good the way you want us to or have we been dabbling in sinful things and sinful attitudes maybe for a long time and haven't even really confessed our sins and we still don't even realize that we look bad and we stink but i pray that you'd wash your church lord and that we'd be a beautiful bride ready for when you return lord would you wash us like ephesians 5 says so may this word go into our hearts lord not just be like the person who looks in the mirror and forgets what they look like but i pray that we do work whatever we see from your word tonight that we'd work on those things that are needed that you'd help us to be doers of your word so bless each one of us lord tonight thank you for meeting us we bless you in jesus name amen let's all stand together you give life you are love you bring light to the darkness you give hope you restore every heart that is great [Music] us [Music] you bring [Music] every heart that is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] slowly [Music] [Applause] [Music] we pour out our praises all the earth will shout your praise all the earth will shout your praise our hearts will cry these bones will sing [Music] [Music] your praise our hearts will cry these bones [Music] our hearts will cry these bones will think grace [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so we pour out [Applause] [Music] so we pour our praise to you hate our you lord are you lord jesus tonight we're so thankful for salvation lord we're thankful for your mercy and for your grace so lord we leave this place and our prayer is that we don't forget what we've talked about what we've studied tonight but we would go out into the world and we would just know lord that you have saved us from our sin you have rescued us lord we're so thankful for that truth we love you so much go before us now in jesus name amen amen thank you so much for joining us tonight you are dismissed [Music] you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 2,185

Rating: 4.8367348 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: 7ygWLnFs0_Q

Length: 84min 58sec (5098 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 25 2020