Full Service | Sunday, January 31, 2021

[Music] hey good morning the creek would you guys stand with us as we worship the lord let's bring it in from the foyer from the fellowship hall area find your seats in psalms chapter 33 verse 1 2 and 3 it says to worship the lord sing in loud with stringed instruments and symbols so check check and check man we're going to do that this morning we're going to worship the lord father we thank you for your new mercies we thank you for the light that is shining on us we thank you that you are here with us and we worship you [Music] [Music] we are the daughters we gather now to praise the king [Music] wash amen the blood of christ [Applause] [Music] we gather now to praise the kingdom [Music] [Music] no longer in the darkness seek come to the father's feet [Music] [Music] [Music] are the daughters [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is be still my soul be still [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] won't be afraid i won't be afraid i won't be afraid he will make you are a good [Music] you are [Music] is [Music] [Music] your your spirit falls [Music] cause i know who you are [Music] is you are [Music] you are a good we bless you created provider we bless you we bless you redeemer jesus we bless you by the means of grace and the hope of glory [Music] father we give you thanks for all your girls [Music] let's lift up that prayer today we praise you creators we praise lord jesus [Music] the father [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] me [Music] glory forever [Music] forever [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] me [Music] we give [Music] me [Music] [Music] we give you [Music] me [Music] almighty god [Music] we give you thanks [Music] for all your [Music] when goodness give you lord we give you things [Music] from the shadows of myself [Music] no matter where i am [Music] you will always take me back [Music] [Applause] you worthy [Music] me no matter where i am [Music] [Music] for the mercy [Applause] for you [Music] [Music] [Music] no matter where i am you will always take me back [Music] you are holding god almighty [Music] is oh is for you [Music] so [Music] my [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] my [Music] [Applause] in your [Music] in your lord our desire is to be a pleasure to you to bring a joy in your heart lord you tell us you inhabit the praises of your people and that you dwell in that place of praise i pray that we would have praise in our hearts not just in song but also as we study your word that it'd be an act of worship as we study scripture um lord your word is so clear and so true and right and it anchors us the the word is a lamp into our feet and light into our path and we find it lord to be that which builds our faith for faith comes by hearing and hearing by your word lord i pray that your word would be proclaimed not just here but all over the globe as churches cry out your name and worship i pray that your word would be clearly declared lord and people to have a hunger for your word to hear the truth lord i pray that you bless people that are in trouble the church that's persecuted around the world i pray that you just wrap your loving arms around people who are suffering and going through difficult times we find it such a blessing lord to be able to gather on a sunday morning worship your holy name and we just pray you continue to bless your people and we thank you lord not only for people here but also watching here online joining us i pray that that there'd be a sanctuary right in their own house or wherever they are lord just may your presence be perceived may your work be done in our hearts and lives we pray this we ask knowing you've heard our prayer in jesus name amen amen and good to see you have a seat make yourself comfortable and thanks you guys good job worship team and uh why don't you uh grab your bible and get it all ready to roll as we uh get ready to study scriptures don't forget that friday night we have the prophecy update uh the february installment uh we do once a month friday nights first friday of each month uh prophecy update and it's kind of fun to be able to do that because the days we're living i think we're going to talk a little bit about that perhaps even in our study today but this will be the last prophecy update we're going to do only online starting in march we're going to have people come and join me in the sanctuary again for those prophecy updates in real time real life so it's always good to have real people yes hey why don't you grab your bible turn with me to jeremiah chapter 39 for our jeremiah study one thing about the bible is that the characters of the bible god doesn't pull any punches um with those people uh that he talks about you know you think that the heroes of the bible would all be these stained glass pristine characters that are you know without sin but as it turns out david who's one of the heroes of the bible was an adulterer and a murderer and the bible actually tells us the gory details of his failures you know we see that in some of these bible characters there's only a few by the way that go down sort of unscathed even though they were sinners like us they didn't get record of that daniel was one who went fairly unscathed also joseph of the old testament was a guy that we don't really read about any of his sins but really other than that pretty much everybody else you see a record of their failure and shortcoming the reason that's important is is you know we live in a culture where we can learn from people in history but we're erasing people in history that bastion of academic perfection the saffron san francisco chronicle i'm glad that some of you laughed um others are you're making me nervous but um yeah the san francisco chronicles you see the article about what the schools are doing in san francisco while they're not instructing children in class they do have time to spend a lot of time renaming schools they had a school board meeting where they unanimously voted that all the names of 44 of their schools are going to be changed why because they had names like you know george washington abraham lincoln thomas jefferson and these are you know bad people in history so we're going to change the names of these schools the funny part for me is somewhat of a history buff and i'm not a rocket scientist but the san francisco chronicle said we really reject these names and these people and that's why the school board voted and it's because we are really into the the life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness and what they failed to see as that was thomas jefferson who wrote those words um they need to cancel themselves for being stupid um here's the thing no matter where you look in history there's failure sin stupid people and and instead of canceling them wouldn't it be great if we actually say let's learn from them let's let's actually learn from this history if there's one thing we've learned from history is that we've learned nothing from history and humanity just keeps spiraling mistakes the same things over and over again and i think current day present day is no different that's why the bible is so important and when we study these old stories you one might say well the times of jeremiah 586 bc who cares what happened in those days and those people and the babylonians the chaldeans and and jeremiah and zach you know these these um prophets and weirdos what does that have to do with me well that's what i love about the bible the bible is um for you and me it was written for us these stories are recorded for our learning our admonition our encouragement but also our correction and one of the things i want to take a little bit of a step back and and look at the panoramic view of jeremiah and maybe learn from some of the mistakes of the people of jeremiah's day that's what i want to do rather than canceling and say it's just a dark gloomy story have you ever heard of somebody say the old testament's just blood and guts i don't like the old testament because it's got a bunch of blood and guts and stories of death and nations conquering and uh you know ethnic cleansing and all this stuff and you'll hear people accuse the old testament of that stuff but god recorded these stories in his word for you and me and man i believe these are pertinent stories important important stories and uh hopefully will glean much uh so why don't you turn with me to jeremiah 39 where we will pick up where we left off on wednesday night jeremiah 39 chapter 39 verse 1. and there it says in the ninth year of zedekiah king of judah in the tenth month came nebuchadnezzar king of babylon and all his army against jerusalem and they besieged it so that's the ninth year of zedekiah verse 2 and in the 11th year of zedekiah in the fourth month the ninth day of the month the city was broken up so pause just for a second what's going on well this is what jeremiah said was going to happen for 40 years jeremiah the prophet was walking through jerusalem through the temple and all these places saying you guys repent of your sins the first half of his ministry he said repent and the lord will protect you and you'll be saved but he said yeah whatever so his message started to change the closer it got to the day of doom and his message became okay you guys are toast and there's no hope for you don't even pray because it's over and that message was bleak and dark and the people hated jeremiah for it and so they punched him in the face and they threw him in prison and we learned on wednesday night in one of the five times poor jeremiah was imprisoned the last one that we read about where they lowered him with ropes down into this dungeon and as they lowered him his feet sank into the mud that was down at the bottom of this dungeon josephus the ancient historian we learned on wednesday night talks about how he sunk in the mud up to his neck and there he was just sitting in prison neck deep in mud that's a pretty rough day at the office if you ask me poor jeremiah but jeremiah was just speaking the truth they hated him for it and now chapter 39 is where we pick it up and we say wow isn't it something that the word of the lord came to pass how would they have felt let's read on and check this out and by the way you know the picture of the scene so in in the ninth year of zedekiah uh his reign they besieged jerusalem that has surrounded it and made them stuck there it was the 11th year uh and they give the month so it's just over two years the people of jerusalem were trapped in the city and we know what happened during that time they were starving they were walking skeletons in jerusalem so bad was it that they resorted to cannibalism in jerusalem it was a horrific terrible time but on this second verse here on the uh you know the the uh 11th year of zedekiah's reign the city breaks up that means the walls are broken down and now the babylonians are coming in what must that have been like check it out verse 3. so all the princes of the king of babylon came in and sat in the middle gate even near gal charizar and shamgar nevo sarshikim rab saris and near galshirizer rab mag and all the residue of the princes of the kings of babylon oh these these guys names they're hard enough to pronounce let alone picture what these dudes look like walking in their babylonian garments as they walk in and they own the town now and these jews that are walking skeletons seeing their city taken over i wonder if it was like that 9 11 moment remember what you were doing if you're old enough when we saw the planes fly into the twin towers in new york and a lot of you remember what you were doing when you saw that or heard that and it was a surreal moment come on is this did somebody make a fake video as we watch these jet liners plow into the buildings there in new york it was such a surreal moment could it be that you know jeremiah had been told telling these people for for 40 years this is going to happen now it's happening and these babylonians crushed jerusalem crushed the temple in jerusalem and these people know they're just toast and they're going to die what a surreal moment but then it says in verse 4 and it came to pass that when zedekiah the king of judah saw them and all the men of war when then they fled and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the king's garden by the gate betwixt the two walls and he zedekiah went out of the way into the plane but the chaldeans the army pursued after them and overtook zedekiah in the plains of jericho and when they had taken him they brought him to nebuchadnezzar king of babylon to ribla in the land of hamath where he gave judgment upon him then king the king of babylon slew the sons of zedekiah in ribla before his eyes also the king of babylon slew all the nobles of judah moreover he put out zedekiah's eyes and bound him with chains to carry him to babylon a dark day in jerusalem and man the gruesomeness of it zedekiah had been warned by jeremiah jeremiah told that man break off your sins repent no i'm not going to do that and zedekiah rebelled against jeremiah's word and jeremiah even said you're going to be hauled off to babylon and your eyes are going to get poked out and your sons are going to be killed yeah whatever now the moments come the last thing zedekiah sees with his perfectly healthy eyes is his sons being slaughtered brutally and then they poke out his eyes nice little bedtime story for your parents you can read your children as you're tucking them in at night no this is the one you probably didn't color in sunday school what's that red stuff coming out of that guy's eyes mommy that's where his eyes were poked out okay so i know it's a gruesome story i understand i get that but when you have a gruesome story in the bible it's there for a reason we should be horrified by this but it should make us think man what was it that brought the people to this moment of such horrific behavior and can we avoid that now some of you might say yeah but we're not living in jerusalem and we don't have babylon well can i just tell you that there's something even worse coming see the bible is this amazing book that shows old testament stories and pictures that teach us about new testament truths and there's always always some story or issue that's related and especially as it relates to bible prophecy and especially as it relates to god's wrath and judgment do you know that not just jeremiah but the bible has been telling us for millennia not 40 years but for millennia the bible's been telling us there's a day coming where god is going to judge this world and he's going to pour out his wrath upon a christ-rejecting sinful world that day is coming in the days of noah similarly the lord was speaking and said no i'm going to destroy the earth and all the people on earth and for a hundred years there was noah building this ark it took him a hundred years just 100 years of course that was the antediluvian world you know where people lived longer and but but for a hundred years they were like what are you doing i'm building a boat what's a boat it's a thing that floats on water uh rain comes down and it'll make it float what's rain see they didn't they were living in the desert they didn't have rain it wasn't it was a different deal but all that to say 100 years and finally noah gets on the ark and all these animals climb on the ark and they're like what's going on here and then drop drop i wonder what happened when those they felt the first raindrops noah's been talking about this friend what did he say was going to happen and then really hard rain and then water gushing from the earth and eventually they're they're starting to tread water and eventually they're going to drown that surreal moment that 9 11 moment when you realize it's happening that's what happened here with jeremiah that's what happened with noah's day and the bible says like the days of noah the end times will be just the same when the end of the world comes and that'll be the big one jeremiah's thing child's play even the noah flood is going to be uh not not anything like what the end of the world's going to be and so you say brad well this is encouraging i brought grandma today and you're suddenly this fire and brimstone preacher um thanks it's depressing can we go now oh but not before we actually say lord help us to not be like the people of jeremiah's day who just blew off god's word see when jeremiah was speaking the word like we learned last week it was the word of god remember they took the word and cut it up with a knife and threatened the fire the scroll that jeremiah had written down same thing people are doing today with the word i don't like that page of the bible as they throw it out and burn up remember we talked about that last week so so what is the condition of these people well the first problem really i think before we get into i've got some some things i want to hope hopefully we can learn from but i want to remind you about god's word and what god knows it's isaiah chapter 46 verses 9 through 10. you can jot it down in your notes there where it says remember the former things of old for i am god there is none else i am god there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand i will do all my pleasure um do you see what isaiah the prophet saying of god god is different than any other false god what makes god different than buddha krishna muhammad allah what makes god different i'll tell you what's different god is the only one the true god jehovah the god of the bible the god of abraham isaac and jacob the difference is isaiah says he declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done this is what we would call prophecy god speaks in his word says here's what's going to come down most of the prophetic things that have been spoken of in the bible have already come to pass miraculously amazingly exactingly like you know um uh it's so funny uh i remember in college uh there was a guy who was quoting this ancient historian um i went to a secular school and uh my college professor was making this claim the book of daniel daniel is actually a forgery and we know that pophiri who is this ancient historian pophary says that daniel was actually written in 90 a.d rather than several hundred years before christ you know the book of daniel claims to have been written you know several hundred years before christ but it's actually 90 a.d and and profi uh notes that and he was he just but here's the funny thing i was fortunately um as a as a kid who loved the bible at 18 or whatever i was able to ask the question well wait a minute um profiery says the the book of daniel was written in 90 a.d and and i said do you know when was the septuagint written and this professor's well you know somewhere around 270 you know bc well question was the book of daniel in the septuagint uh yeah then how could it have been written in 90 a.d if it was in the septuagint and any uh you know academic scholar knows that the dating of the septuagint is not even in question we know that it's at least almost 300 years before christ came see the reason pophri and of other you know so-called scholars want to make daniel a forgery is here's what their claim is daniel speaks of future events and there's no way daniel could have known that that was going to go down so we have to postdate it we have to say it was much later in time and and here's the funny thing uh you know if you remember daniel chapter 2 god spoke through nebuchadnezzar's dream daniel interpreted it and he said after the babylonians will come the medes and the persians and after the medes of the persians will come alexander the great he didn't name alexander but he said you know uh this this um you know the alexander that the greeks would come and after the greeks would then come these two legs of a roman empire east and west rome and and all this stuff was exactly prophesied so the bible said it says there's no way daniel could have known that so it's a forgery see as we as bible believers we say well actually god knows the beginning from the end and he from ancient times he told us the things that have not yet been done god speaks the future in his word hello that's what he claims to do and and so it's funny because you can prove easily that the book of daniel's at least as old as the greek translation of the and by the way guess who quoted from the book of daniel jesus i love how jesus quoted from the most controversial old testament books the ones that all the scholars uh you know say well it's not a real book and it's a fake and and you know just a simple question i like to ask some of these people that claim well the book of daniel even so-called bible scholars say book of daniel's a forgery well jesus quoted from the book of daniel do you know more about the book of daniel than jesus and most so-called bible scholars won't say well i know more about daniel than jesus but that's what they're claiming now the reason i harp on this prophecy issue is because um when the bible claims that god knows the beginning or the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done the idea is he he's going to say what's going to happen in the future so jeremiah the whole book jeremiah for 40 years and here's what's coming down the pike the babylonians are going to crush the city you know and and he first half of his ministry preached repent of your sins and god will save you but the last half of his ministry turned from uh you're all toast and you need to surrender to the babylonians or you'll be dead your bones will be lying on the hills of jerusalem picked by the birds of the air like it was pretty you know powerful prophecies now with that in mind we then look at the people and why would they not listen to jeremiah we saw last week jeremiah punched the face lowered into dungeon we saw last week how jeremiah they made fun of him we saw how even at the very end as the babylonians are surrounding the city of jerusalem they're like yeah whatever we still don't want to listen to jeremiah what makes it so hard for a person to believe god's word in the same way that people of jeremiah's day just blew it off and got caught unready and ill-prepared for the babylonians the same way i'm concerned of the church today as we have the same condition the way these people were we do the same things so when a guy like me comes as well the bible says the end of the world is coming oh brett get yourself a sandwich board and join all the other people down there in portland and protest with your sign the end is near you'll fit right in but you know what's interesting is that's the attitude of jeremiah's will jeremiah you're a wacko stop telling us about what's going to happen in the future why is it that people resist not only the things the lord tells his people and warns us of but specifically the issues that relate to god's judgment so what's going to happen the bible tells us that at the end days of the world the lord is going to pour out his wrath upon a christ rejecting sinful world that time is still coming it's a seven year period specifically the day of the lord begins i believe with the rapture of the church and then the seven year period called the tribulation period and then after the tribulation christ returns the second coming of christ and that's where he rules and reigns and the world is going to be changed so much better at that point good news for that but this tribulation period it's something that's very real and there's going to come a day that's going to be that 9 11 moment that day when the babylonians mark march into jerusalem that day when the people of noah felt the first raindrop on their head that day is coming but it's going to be more cataclysmic than any of those other days when the the book of revelation starts coming to life the tribulation period why is it that people are unwilling to listen well there's there's six things i want to look at you can jot them down your notes but number one some people are just simply delusional brett are you trying to be insulting no i'm being honest this idea of delusional if you look up the word delusional in webster's it says characterized by holding incorrect beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument typically as a symptom of mental disorder brett are there early people that are holding incorrect beliefs that contradict reality well see here's the thing the reality is like i said most of bible prophecy has been fulfilled reality is wow god knows what he's talking about and i could go over hundreds and hundreds of prophecies that were fulfilled by the the bible's foreknowledge god's prophetic ability we could talk about how god said about the nation israel i'm going to scatter my people all over the world as a as a correction a punishment but then i'm going to in the last days in the latter times about says i'm going to regather my people and i'm going to reestablish the nation israel and i'm going to make of them a mighty nation may 14th 1948 when israel became a nation again after being scattered for a couple thousand years people just should have said okay we believe the bible who could have predicted that so perfectly and then not only that the bible says in the last days many nations will hate israel and they'll surround israel and they'll hate israel check check and check and then it's it talks about a war that's yet to happen ezekiel 38 the gog magog invasion that talks about these nations and we could get into all the nations but basically what's amazing is right now as we speak those nations are sitting right on the border of israel did you see just last week the israelis are beefing up their army on the northern golan heights they haven't had their armies up there for a long time why are they doing that well as it turns out the iranians continue to send troops up to syria and russia's there and others but um basically russia iran and other nations even turkey's getting into the game there in syria and stuff but what's amazing is in ezekiel 38 in the last days the nations the players that are listed there are all postured right up on the northern border of israel and it says in ezekiel 38 they'll be drawn down from the north like a with a hook in her jaw to bring russia particularly down into israel and they'll attack israel you can totally see how that stage is set that could happen tomorrow and it really wouldn't take a lot to to make that happen you know strategically militarily the reason the israelis have been defending the golan heights is because of the possibility of invasion and and these are bible prophecies that were given to us thousands of years ago and yet it gives us evidence that the reality is we're living in the last days and some people say well i don't want to i don't want to believe that reality even though what a coincidence that all these things the bible has said is coming to pass right before our eyes you can call that a coincidence i call it a god of wince god knew what was going to happen and he told us the beginning from the end things that have not yet happened it's prophecy so here's jeremiah saying you guys the babylonians are coming and they said yeah whatever well then the babylonians came and surrounded jerusalem and he said okay the babylonians are here and you guys are going down yeah whatever we don't believe you jeremiah now now they're delusional because everything jeremiah do you remember the earlier prophets that we read about earlier they said oh babylon's only going to be here for a while they're going to leave in two years we'll be at peace with babylon remember those prophets that were making that claim well those two years have come and gone the facts are on jeremiah's side and yet the people are delusional they're resisting what's happening right in front of their eyes because they just don't want to believe that jeremiah was right so jeremiah if you turn the page back to chapter 37 uh we were reminded of of how delusional they were look at jeremiah 37 verse 19. it says there in uh pardon me 37 17 it says then zedekiah the king sent and took jeremiah out of prison there and the king asked him secretly in his house now question why do you think zedek the king's asking jeremiah secretly secretively he doesn't want people to know that he actually cares about what jeremiah has to say he doesn't want to you know be out and as jeremiah has the lord got anything to say to us now he wants to ask that question but he wants to do it in secret so he secretly calls jeremiah and says is there any word from the lord and jeremiah said there is for said he thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of babylon bad news so so it says verse 18 moreover jeremiah said to the king zedekiah what have i offended against thee or against your servants or against this people that you have put me in prison where are now your prophets which prophesied unto you saying the king of babylon shall not come against you nor against this land do you see jeremiah he's saying zedekiah you know i've been telling you this for 40 years and then you threw me in prison now you want to know what the lord say you want to know what the lord is saying your toast why did you throw me in prison and where are those prophets that we're telling you all the oh it's going to be wonderful and you're going to live victoriously against those babylonians and see i got to tell you and i know i harp on this but this is a really bad situation the church of jesus christ is i think in modern days where it's really hip and popular right now to have a church and a pastor that only talks about victory it's all going to be great things are wonderful and things are getting better and awakening the giant within you and you're a good person and people like you um can i just say um there's some truth in that the lord is gracious and he is good and man i love talking about his mercy and i like talking about heaven and i love talking about when christ comes and rules and reigns on this earth because we will live in victory and and we live in victory because of the cross of jesus christ man i will preach that till the cows come home or to the rapture of the church but but i also have to teach the rest of the bible you see joel stein there in texas he only talks about nice things people like you and you're going to be victorious and you're going to be wealthy like me and everything's going to be amazing that's his message there's nothing about sin there's nothing about hell he leaves out huge chunks of the bible you will not hear joel stein teach the whole bible of jeremiah he'll pull a few verses out where jeremiah talks about how you know um i know the thoughts i have for your thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope he'll teach on that part but he won't talk about chapter 37 or 38 or 39 because it's about the doom and the wrath of god and judgment and the way the people got totally crushed that's not a good message for syria satellite network but see if you're an honest bible reader you're forced to deal with this issue of god's wrath it's something that's real and some people are delusional they just plug theirs i don't want to hear about that part i only wonder about the fun stuff that's the people of jeremiah's day in fact back up to chapter 37 verse 9. see what it says there in jeremiah 37 9 it says thus saith the lord this is jeremiah talking to people deceive not yourselves saying the chaldeans shall surely depart from us for they shall not depart remember the words of jeremiah is the word of the lord in this case this is like god's word you might even say it's like the bible because it became the bible so here's jeremiah saying don't tell yourselves don't deceive yourselves that's all going to be good we're going to be full of hope and have victory because that just wasn't true by the way when you hear these sermons from pastors it's all going to be rosy and good and you're going gonna be wealthy and healthy and all this stuff the reason i reject that teaching because there's still a lot of people in the world that will never happen in this lifetime i mean think about jesus was he living victoriously in the way that some of these pastors talk about it did he have lots of friends and were they faithful friends was he wealthy was he healthy was everything good or was he betrayed by everyone was he despised and rejected and did he have nails in his hands and feet and die on the cross for the sins of the world now the good news is he rose from the grave and did what he claimed he would do but you might argue that in this lifetime he didn't live a great victorious life paul the apostle beaten up many times left for dead a few times bitten by a deadly snipe viper and then also uh was shipwrecked many times and left to die several times paul was just always going through suffering was he living the joelstein christianity that is promised by you know prosperity gospel no in fact pretty much everyone in the bible ended up being kind of persecuted and jesus said man all who live godly in christ will suffer there's a promise of what the bible says but this is really getting depressing well the problem is some of us become delusional when we want to believe something that's just not true and for people to think that it's all good right now and everything's wonderful there's whole churches and denominations that have kind of gone this way and it's just not the truth the bible says the closer we get to the end the more crazy times will get and that's what we're seeing happen we're seeing the times get crazier and crazier and people that are delusional delusional you know it's interesting because this idea of delusional um i have to say it's it's something we've seen coming for a long time delusional you know it's it's um it's it's basically people think that somehow they're the exception and it's not going to happen the way the bible says but after people are delusional there's another warning number two not only some people are delusional but some people are also in denial and for those of you that were public school denial is not a river in egypt denial yeah they're denying that what jeremiah was gonna say is gonna happen uh why do they be in denial we'll flip back to jeremiah chapter five let's review we did a whole sermon on this a few months ago if you recall but this is just a refresher uh jeremiah chapter 5 verse 30. and there in jeremiah 5 30 it says a wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land remember we talked about this it means not wonderful like oh wonderful it's great like it's full of wonder how horrible this is that's the idea what the king james is saying there so a horrible thing has happened verse 31 the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so and what will you do in the end thereof when when this all comes down what are you going to do that's what jeremiah says and and what's going on the people love to hear things that are false they don't want to hear what's true they like it that way that's what it says here see some people are in denial of jeremiah's words just because they love to hear positive messaging oh just be pos don't be so negative be a positive thinker i honestly have not been great at that i think it was my upbringing maybe my life experience but i tend to think in sometimes negative terms because i like to be a problem solver i tend to be sort of a realist i tend to be more of a logical person and so i like to logically think of how what's going to happen next and how we're going to make it through this and the bible gives us all of that that you need some people don't like that like when i tell the story of my basketball team in high school when i was a freshman and sophomore some of you know this um we were a famous team we we were we were so famous our basketball team we made the front page of usa today at the time that was a newspaper they used to have these things called papers and anyway but i was on the front page with my team and the reason why is we were the losingest team in the nation we hadn't won a basketball game for three years it was a horrible thing so can you imagine how my coaches must have felt as we're in the locker room before game okay you guys don't go out there and you're gonna win because we're also uh no we're not you could be positive to your blue in the face but we are not going to win this game uh brett that's why you were such losers nope we were realists um you know it's a funny thing uh because um all that to say um one of the things we need to say is this world we've got work to do we can be christians and we can look for good things and be rejoiced in the good things but we have to understand where this world is going according to the bible and we can sit around and say no brett don't say that we're going to save the environment no you're not read second peter it says the environment's gonna melt with a firm fervent heat and this world ultimately will be destroyed bro you sound like you're into global warming i am it's gonna melt like this poof it's going to be gone you environmentalists you know instead of hugging a tree do trees really like being hugged that's a question i would ask you can be hugged by a stinky hippie or what's the real solution for trees you know the bible says about trees it says when christ returns in the millennial kingdom all the trees of the field shall clap their hands no more stinky hippies hugging me but god is here and he's going to bring see the world is in a fallen state and it's getting worse and worse and that's what the bible says now should we just trash our planet because of that no the bible says we're supposed to be good stewards of our planet so i'm pro that but we have to also understand where things are headed but brett i don't like that i don't want to hear that the world is going to be destroyed doesn't matter what you like you're in denial you're saying that the bible's wrong and that we can somehow save the earth but the bible says no interesting some people are in just plain and simple denial you know this happened in recent years we've seen in the last few decades it's become more common for people to simultaneously believe in two opposite ideas as being equally true it's called relativism we're into that well if it's true for you great but it may not be true for me have you heard people say stuff like that and it's gotten us into this sort of strange world you know um we've redefined the word truth truth doesn't mean truth anymore truth is just what's true to you it might not be true to you but it's true to me and and all this stuff um and so it's really been tricky and i think we're creating ourselves for ourselves uh all kinds of problems in the future so today um is it true are you a boy or a girl well it depends on your truth but biologically you're a boy no no no no i'm a girl because i think i'm a girl and so we've accepted that we've embraced this even though logically biologically scientifically we say no no no you're you were born with with um biological male you know dna it's who you are nope i like to think of myself as a girl so as people have embraced that now we've got the issue did you see one of the executive orders that was signed just even a week or so ago where now you know it's opening up even more so men can compete biological men can compete in women's athletics and it's so tragic because you know they showed on the news this one lady who holds the world record in the 100 meters an amazingly talented woman who should be esteemed and celebrated she's an amazing woman the problem now that boys can compete well that her world record has been beaten by over 200 high school boys so what's going to happen in this day of relativism is we're going to cancel women altogether do women understand what's going on here i hope women understand what's going on we're canceling women because that record doesn't mean anything anymore because we're going to have men's biological who think they're girls competing with girls and and the confusion start everything starts getting foggy and muddied up and we're wondering well what do we do about that and we wonder why we're in such peril we have denied the truth but what does the bible say about transgenderism as it turns out the bible does say a lot about this both god in the book of genesis and jesus in the gospel of mark said god created them male and female male and female did he create them and and some might say well brett there are some biological people that have happened in history that uh you know have different biological makeup that's even well listen that's such a tiny tiny fraction it's always funny how people try to make a case for something huge that is a tiny example of genetic mutation that actually is also a result of the falling condition of the world but all that to say some people just say i don't want to hear it we're in denial we're going to do it the way we want it miriam webster's dictionary definition defines truth as the state of being the case that is the case or that is not the case in other words if something's true then it cannot also be false at the same time and vice versa which agrees with scripture by the way the scriptures tell us god is truth jesus said i am the way the truth and the life so truth it's amazing that god says i'm truth jesus says i'm truth and then in second timothy 2 13 it says and god cannot deny himself the truth the laws of physics the laws of mathematics and logic that all stems from truth and without which the world becomes crazy and makes no sense so truth is it's inherently exclusive and see that's the problem the people of jeremiah's day they had the truth right in front of them where the babylonians were finally coming and jeremiah's truth had come to pass but they were still saying it's not going to happen it's not going to happen no way we don't believe this so you got some people are delusional in jeremiah's day same with our day some people are in denial number three some people think it's delayed they might say well we we believe the babylonians might be coming and but it's way off in the future why worry about it today when we can worry about it tomorrow let's procrastinate today so that we can procrastinate tomorrow like it's a funny thing where some people are just more delay you know um the bible says when jesus was asked about the end of the world he was talking about at the end of matthew 24 he said the wicked servant just kind of says oh the lord's delaying is coming the lord actually calls that wickedness when you say ah it's not going to happen in our day um i love it when people come up to me and say pastor brett you know you're into bible prophecy but you know what i've been around you've been preaching about the end times for the last 25 years you've been doing your prophecy updates for 25 years here at athy creek and i say yeah i'm just getting started jeremiah gave his prophecy updates for 40 years and they said oh jeremiah where are the babylonians and and so when people go and say brett where's the rapture of the church where's the end i don't see it coming i rejoice and you want to know why i rejoice because i say to them you know what you're fulfilling bible prophecy as we speak when you scoff and mock those that say the lord could come back soon why am i fulfilling bible prophecy well ii peter chapter three verses three through seven you guys know this passage many of you where it says this know this ii peter 3 3 that first thou shall come in the last days scoffers walking in their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep or died you know all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation nothing's changed for this they are willingly ignorant of that by the word of god the heavens were of old the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that was then being overflowed with water the people perished what's what's peter saying it's just like the days of noah people say where is the promise of his coming and he says like today's where's the flood and the noah's weird he's been drinking his bath water what a goofy guy building a big ship stupid that mocking that comes in the last days guess what lord says that's that is the last days when more and more men mock but the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word they're kept in store reserved for fire to the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men again a scripture you'll never hear joel osteen talk about i'm not just trying to pick on joelstein he's just one of the biggest pastors in america that has this this feel-good message that's really not the gospel it's just more of a pep talk or a motivational speech or something like that but it's it's not really the the full counsel of god and here peter's giving us the whole thing but some people say oh brett where is the promise it's not going to happen but that's what they said as the babylonians marched into their city crushed their temple and killed their family members in their very front of their very eyes they thought he was going to it was going to be delayed some of you might say brad i'll get my act together spiritually i've been hearing you and i've been you know following christianity but i'm going to wait and kind of see and but i believe that's a dangerous position to take because when you think not the bible says it's an hour when you think not that's when the lord is going to come and it's going to be like to some people a thief coming in the nighttime when you least expect it that's the language of the bible so some people think it's delayed number four on our list some people are distracted we're too busy to worry about the last days man i got a career to worry about i can't worry about the rapture of the church the second coming of christ and judgment being poured out across christ rejecting sinful world but there's too much to worry about the problem is so many times we're distracted that we're not really ready for what's actually coming they were distracted in in jeremiah's day it's an interesting thing because it really reminds me of what jesus was talking about the way that jeremiah's people remember remember the slave issue that we studied uh in jeremiah where the people they the lord said you need to set your slaves free and so they the babylonians surrounded jerusalem they said okay okay we're gonna surrender our slaves they let them go and then the babylonians got distracted because they got attacked by pharaoh neko this guy down from egypt and so the babylonians left jerusalem and went to battle with pharaoh neko so the people said hey get our jews the jew said let's get our slaves back so they got their slaves back and said yeah whatever jeremiah he caused us to be afraid for 10 seconds and then as soon as pharaoh neco that battle's over guess what the babylonians recapture jerusalem and this is the one that's going to end up destroying them the people were distracted with their their stuff and their lives and and so much so that they were just doing sinful stuff that they could care less with god think oh god doesn't want us to have slaves whatever we're gonna have slaves and we're gonna work our farms we're gonna do our careers and we're gonna live in prosperity at other people's peril but who cares that was they were distracted by the cares of this world and that's what jesus talked about remember the parable of the sower of the seed that jesus told about in mark 4 of the four conditions of soil remember the sower is jesus giving us his word the seed and the seed falls on the soil and the soil is men's hearts and what kind of soil do you have in your heart you know there's the stony soil or the the shallow soil or the the birds of the air plucking up but one of those conditions was there were thorns sewn with the other good seed so thorn bushes and good seed growing up together and jesus interpreted and said here's what that means mark 4 18. he said these are the seeds which were sown among thorns such as hear the word of god but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things entering in choke the word and it becomes unfruitful how does the word of god become unfruitful in your life by you letting the word be choked out um by the cares of this world our jobs our careers what we're doing how busy how shockingly busy we find ourselves and before too long we're all only into our thing in our life and our career and meanwhile the lord saying prepare be ready watch wait be the servant that's not distracted but watching for the lord and i believe that much of the church we've become very distracted by other things prosperity our own happiness and our wealth that's not what we should be up for hey if god's blessed you with wealth great but don't let that wealth choke out the truth of the word of god some people were just plain old distracted and because they weren't willing to let go of their interests they found themselves crushed and they were shocked when it happened in africa there's these little monkeys that they like to harvest and they're really hard to catch i guess they're really fast quick smart but they figured out a way to easily catch these monkeys and the way they do it is they take a coconut and they cut it carefully in half and then they empty out all the insides and they cut a little hole in the end of the coconut and then they kind of glue it all back together with a rope tied to this coconut and then they tie the coconut and the rope to a tree in the coconut however they put this fresh little orange and they'd poke the orange so that the fragrance of the orange was very you know powerful and so this little orange inside the coconut rope in a tree that's all they need why because the unsuspecting little monkey the sweet fragrance of an orange and the little monkey runs up to the coconut and sticks his little paw or whatever hand in this little hole and grabs the orange and tries to pull it out but with its hand around the orange it can't reach it can't pull it out of the hole then the hunter walks up to the monkey and the monkey's so determined not to let go of the orange he's as good as tide and the hunter comes and takes and brings the monkey to everlasting destruction um brett that's a horrible story we like monkeys are you smarter than a monkey am i smarter than a monkey because i think some of us are clinging to our little thing our wealth and our careers and our portfolio financially and all the stuff and meanwhile the lord's saying man don't set your affections on things of this earth but on things above half of the heavenly mindset some people are just plain old distracted so they don't care what's going down around them and because of that they're caught unaware number five some people are just plain old defiant uh it reminds me of jeremiah 36 23 do you remember that thing i referred to earlier where it says came to pass when jehuty who jehuty when jihudi read the three of four leaves which was the bible the scroll that jeremiah and baruch had written remember last week he cut it with the pen knife and cast it in the fire that was on the hearth until all the role was consumed some people plain old to say the bible yeah we hate it we're going to reject it and we're defiant against what the bible teaches god forbid there's anybody here today who's lived a defiant life against god well brett i just happen to not believe in god yes you do no i don't yes you do the bible tells us something and again if you don't believe the bible you can disagree with me and disagree with the bible if you want to be wrong but the bible says that no one's going to have an excuse well i didn't know god really existed no you were defiant against the evidence of god and in romans chapter one i'll just read it really quickly to you because we're running out of time but in romans chapter 1 verses 18 through 23 let's listen as i read listen closely it says for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth that's the same thing we've been talking about all morning pushing down the truth so nobody can hear it for what can be known of god is plain to them because god has shown it to them for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so they are without excuse for although they knew god they did not honor him as god nor give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things paul lays it out as clear as it can be there's no such thing as a person who doesn't believe in god i don't believe in atheists because the bible says that you know in your heart and and and it says that even the invisible things of god are clearly seen how are they clearly seen the creation well brad i just don't believe that i don't believe in creation i believe in evolution see this is where it gets really crazy to me which one takes more faith to believe in evolution versus creation brett are you kidding me you believe that god created the heavens of the earth he spoke the sun into himself let there be light the sun pops out there is that what you believe yep and you believe god created them in six days and on the seventh day rested like the bible says yep i believe that well that takes faith it does but which one takes more faith does it take more faith to believe that there's a god who pre-existed and was always in existence that's what we believe that's what the bible says he always was so we start with god in all existence well brad i don't even know how that works well of course if he's god he lives outside of our brain power and our ability to understand the physics around god i'm okay with that but god who pre-existed created the heavens and the earth that does take faith but does it take more faith to believe that something created something and made it beautiful versus nothing became something and became beautiful you you if you're evolution you believe nothing was there well brad there were gasses that collided and then those gasses they collided and it created this big boom this explosion question where did the gases come were there these two giant space cows that had flatulence and suddenly you know is that what happened like that takes faith you'd have crazy faith to believe that there were just accidental and then and then not only the accidents with the explosion but then there was this little puddle of goo prebiotic soup and in that prebiotic soup there was a strike of lightning that breathed life into a living cell and it became something that grew legs it took billions and billions of years you see i would say not in a billion years from goo to you that's a leap of faith i'm not will some of you may be a little easier to believe but from good to you i i just don't have that kind of faith that's crazy crazy crazy faith no bread it's science no it's called the theory of evolution because it's only a theory and by the way if you really are astute you'll notice science is jumping ship science real scientists not christian people these are excited to say you know what this evolutionary theory if we're going to be really honest the math doesn't work out even if you give it billions of years so they're exploring other origins and options and stuff like that there's there's some real work being done on this because they know that it doesn't hold water but see that's why you know evolution versus creating that's that's ground zero when it comes to your faith because romans says the one thing that you cannot deny is the creation that's out there that speaks of the glory of god and if you're one said i don't want to believe that you're one of these defiant ones and the problem with being defiant is that when you're speaking about the truth and god you're defying the true and living god and the future of that is pictured in this old testament story which is horrible the destruction of jerusalem the slaughtering of these people and that's where defiance gets us well brett this is really depressing and i'm i this just confirms why i don't like god and i don't like the bible and i don't like god's people because of all this doom and gloom and blood and guts and judgment and wrath and christ rejecting sinful world and god i don't like all that stuff well you know there's some people and this will be my final point of the day some people they're not just defiant but they're they're delighted some people are delighted who's delighted well if you read the book of jeremiah sprinkled throughout this horrific book of destruction and doom sprinkled throughout have you noticed that jeremiah would say stuff like but if you repent of your sins i will forgive you of all your sins and i will cleanse you from unrighteousness and i will rem and he goes on and says and i i i have not have thoughts for you that are thoughts of evil but thoughts of peace to bring you to you an expected end a future and a hope is one of the translations saying see jeremiah was saying that if you repent of your sin and turn to god and do what the lord wants you to do then the lord will forgive you of your sins and you'll be saved from the certain doom you see jeremiah is not just all blood and guts it was a message that he preached but most everyone in fact everyone they rejected jeremiah they were either delusional or they were in denial or they were saying it was going to delay or some were just merely defiant we will not believe the word of god and so they all ended up crushed and all that horrible stuff came to pass but the thing is had they repented and said okay we'll follow god's plan and god's way god was quick he's quick in the bible to forgive our sins and so so some people even if they would just look at what jeremiah really was teaching there was a delightful part and that is man the lord loves people and wants to save them you know in that second peter that i read earlier was talking about the destruction of the world one of those passages right after what i just read says and the lord he would the reason he's not he's not slack or lazy concerning the promise of his coming as some people count laziness or slackness but he's long suffering to us word not willing that any of us should perish but that we should all come to repentance the bible says yeah god's going to judge this christ-rejecting sinful world the tribulation period is coming it's going to be horrific the bible says jesus said in matthew 24 that all the bad things that have happened in times past are nothing compared to what's going to happen in the tribulation period even this horrible story of jeremiah it's going to be like child's play but the lord loves you so much that he provided the way the truth the life of the plan of salvation and for the person who knows that we're going to heaven that we're forgiven of our sins we delight in these stories we delight in the word of god rather than hearing the word of god and going man i'm totally toast instead we say man i'm totally forgiven and i have the hope of heaven and things are only getting better this time in this life is the worst it's going to get but we have the glory of all eternity to be with the lord and so it delights us some of us we those of us that believe we say man i'm so glad i'm saved by the grace of god and the forgiveness all the wrath and all that judgment stuff that i've been talking about that's the black backdrop that makes the beauty of the gospel message sparkle that much more and i hope that all of you can say i know the lord and i'm a forgiven sinner saved by the grace of god how are you saved do i have to carry a bible and go to church every sunday and give money to the church no none of that makes you a christian a christian is someone who acknowledges their sin before god and says i'm a sinner and i have failed the lord and his word it convicts me of my sin i know that i'm a sinner but then you confess you're a sinner and then say lord i believe the work that you did see god became a man jesus lived among this sinless life died on the cross for the sins of the world instead of you paying the penalty like these people had to do in jeremiah his day you and i the penalty would be paid by jesus on the cross so that while we were yet sinners jesus christ died for us in our place substitutionarily so that it says in romans chapter 10 verse 9 and 10 if anyone will confess with their mouth and believe in their heart the lord jesus christ the god raised him over the dead you will be saved so you might even just be one of those hardcore atheists who's been denying even though you sense that tap on your shoulder by the holy spirit that says god is true god does exist and you're just trying to say that he doesn't because all this stuff in the bible makes you uncomfortable and you can either react to that and plug your ears and be in denial and even see the evidence of god and the prophecies being fulfilled all around us globally and just be in denial and even in some delusional behavior that we see in people or you can just simply admit say i see it i believe in god and i'm gonna have faith to believe in something that's pretty believable everything that the lord says and by that faith the bible says you're saved by his grace through faith not of your works not of yourselves it's it's it's a gift of god that's what the lord says so it's a gift you can accept it or not it's up to you brett you're still like you're trying to twist my arm i'm trying to lovingly nudge you to give up your defiance and your denial and your delusions and just believe in a true and living god for those of you that are christians let's not get all caught up in the things of this world let's do what jesus taught us to set our affections on things above and not on things of this earth would you bow your heads please as we kind of close with an attitude of worship and prayer and if you're a christian maybe you could be in prayer right now this is an important part of the service because i'd like to invite anyone who's either with us in building here or those online watching with us um that man that you all can say beyond the shout out about i'm a christian i'm saved by god's grace through faith that you can walk away from this time and know that the wrath that's going to be poured out upon this world will not be for you i love what it says in first thessalonians chapter 5 it says but we are not appointed unto wrath but to obtain salvation through jesus christ our lord that's for anyone who will accept so if that's you and you're saying brett i want to become a christian okay i've been not a believer long enough and the evidence is there and i do believe and maybe it's even a sense that the truth from the word that we're talking about is undeniable don't have a stubborn heart just say okay lord i'm gonna accept christ i'm gonna i'm gonna be a christian and saved and forgiven like i said romans 10 verse 9 10 confess with your mouth believe in your heart jesus that he died that he bit was buried and that he rose from the grave and it says you will be saved if that's you i'm not gonna call you out in front of people i was asked last service by a nice lady who said brett why are you say that you're not going to call people out aren't people boldly supposed to proclaim their faith and make a public declaration and and um i think that you will be required to do that at some point in your existence even if it's the day of god standing before his throne you will be required to do that but never does it say you're supposed to do that when you accept christ right out of the gate the greatest fear of humanity is to stand in front of a crowd of people and and i that's not really required there was a lot of people that got saved in the bible that didn't walk in front of a billy graham crusade some people just quietly in their house like the philippian jailer got saved and he and his children found a river and they went and got baptized and it was quite secret but then later on their faith was bold don't don't try to put heavy things on people and weird things some churches say you got to do this you got to do that you got to sign up for our membership and go to church every time no if there was more to do don't you think they would have added those lists of things to romans chapter 10 verse 9 10. confess with your mouth believe in your heart run three laps around the church building and give your tithe and offerings every sunday no it doesn't say anything about that about salvation it's a gift it's it's a gift of god it's there for the taking so if that's you i am not going to embarrass you make you stand up in front of everybody but with everybody's heads bowed right now if that's you would you just acknowledge between you me and god and say yep i'm going to accept christ i'm going to confess right now my faith in jesus and if you're here just raise your hand up so i can see you i'm going to look around for a second awesome you guys there i see it good good good you over there good if you're online and you're watching um you're proud i want to raise my hand but you can't see me well the lord sees you that's the good news and you can sort of let me know if you want to there's a little number on the bottom of the screen if you text that we won't keep that or you know your number or anything but i'll know you're out there just saying text new believer and i'll know wow there's somebody out there who's accepting christ in that group and what i'd like to do is pray the prayer of confession of faith and i'm gonna ask the whole church if you're a christian let's pray this out loud with these several people today and just confess our faith with them it's so cool to stand with these new believers and let's let's just confess christ dear father in heaven i believe in your son jesus christ i believe that he died on the cross for my sins and that he rose up from the grave and i'm forgiven help me to walk with you thank you for saving me in the name of jesus christ lord what a joy it is to see people who just recognize their need as we so many of us have lord just to have our sins forgiven would you wrap your arms around each one of these people who've just confessed their faith and may they sense the power of your forgiveness and that your mercy is good and true and that your grace is sufficient may they know that they're forgiven past present even the sins they've yet to do lord none of us are perfect but we're so thankful that you tell us you died once for all sin on the cross now help them lord i pray that you'd lead them to good solid believers who can encourage their their faith and their walk with you lord i pray that they'd be plugged into a good solid church that would encourage their faith and teach the bible bless them lord i pray and for all of us give us just a renewed desire to know the truth help us not to be sucked into the world's opinion of what the truth is because lord we see we so so much that's not true and calling good evil and evil being called good and and lord we just pray that we wouldn't get sucked into that so bless your church give us faith help us to walk with you with a greater zeal and a joy in our hearts lord in jesus name amen let's all stand together and let's just rejoice with one more song and then we'll close it up take these sands i know they're empty but with you they can't be used for beauty in your perfect [Music] you use the humble so please use me oil i am is yours [Music] i give you [Music] is [Music] set it on fire shining in the [Music] is [Music] is is is [Music] [Music] no longer [Music] is [Music] is yours lord help us to delight in you may we not be a church that is full of doubt may we not be deceived by the things of this world may we be just filled up with you filled with your spirit as we go our ways this week we bless you father we love you and help us to walk with you in jesus name in jesus name amen amen hey you guys have a great rest of your week and you all are dismissed you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 4,296

Rating: 4.9101124 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: myxHmTCpqng

Length: 91min 9sec (5469 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021