Full Service | Sunday, March 21, 2021

good morning everyone how are you all doing doing well well let's all head in if you're in the foyer make your way in let's worship the lord together the spirit of the living [Music] me [Music] god [Music] [Music] fresh on me [Music] [Music] me [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh me [Music] me [Music] in water there's no one like you [Music] there's [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] we rise [Music] is [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] be still my soul be still [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is guy [Applause] [Music] i won't be afraid i won't be afraid my god is [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] you gave me your eyes gave me your heart your spirit goes through my veins you gave me your eyes gave me your heart your spirit falls through my eyes face me your heart your spirit close to my face [Music] is the maker of heaven calls me [Music] all that i have is [Music] is [Music] he bled [Music] an empty [Music] [Music] he lives [Music] it's like your face [Music] no fear is gone [Music] because [Music] life [Music] [Applause] [Music] how sweet [Music] me [Music] [Applause] but greatest [Music] [Music] [Music] be [Music] [Music] [Applause] in is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] because [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] the passion of our savior mercy of our god [Music] across the least no question [Music] [Applause] is [Music] meets dead to death [Music] [Applause] [Music] guilty [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] to honor this [Music] [Music] forever [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] cd [Music] [Applause] [Music] father i just thank you for the power of the words in that song lord that you have came you have came and died on the cross for us so that we could be forgiven lord so powerful i just pray now that as we dive into your word and study your word together it'd just be a fruitful time we could learn more about you today in jesus name amen you guys can be seated we've got an announcement video to play hey the creakers pastor brett here and i'm not in the building today uh i i don't like missing church i'm almost never gone but uh i have taken the fam and we've gone off on vacation uh we'll be back next sunday but i've got a couple things that i wanted to be the one to announce uh i'm really excited about these two announcements announcement number one um we are no longer ticketing as of this this week uh the services just come one come all and uh the lord's just gonna bless that it's been a long haul going through this past year and we just feel we've sought the lord we feel like it's time just to lift all the ticketing so man we're looking forward to seeing everybody uh and uh one thing about that though we're a little concerned because anthony creek has grown in the last year a lot and we're a little concerned about how crazy it's going to be so uh service to avoid 10 o'clock that's the one that's probably going to be packed out and and really challenging uh if you're looking for another service to go to uh the best best ones are probably four o'clock on saturday afternoon or 12 o'clock on sunday those are the next more available services the other eight o'clock or six o'clock saturday night eight o'clock sunday those are those tend to be pretty full too so we'd love to have you join us at one of those services but we'll see what happens starting next week now there's something else the second announcement i have is about resurrection sunday which is not next week but the following and what we're going to do is we're going to add just for that sunday a special service uh at 6 00 a.m so we're gonna have six services uh for that weekend uh that six a.m service who is crazy enough to go to that service at six o'clock in the morning all the old school eighty creekers who know that we need to open up seats for people who might be at church on resurrection sunday that aren't normally at church like you'd be doing us a big favor and helping us to get people in church that maybe wouldn't normally be there and so uh man the hardcore families get up um there's no child care at that service i do need to say but it is going to be a service that is early sunrise service it'll be the same as the other services as far as content but um it'll be helping us open up seats so six services resurrection sunday that's six a.m for the bold for the brave for the early risers and you know what the bible says uh those who seek me early will find me so so we'd love to have you there hey i'll be back next week uh we'll be jumping into the book of ezekiel starting next week so can't wait for that may the lord bless you guys [Music] good morning athy creek you guys are the 10 o'clock service as pastor brett said you guys are the naughty service no no no just kidding um i'm gabe carter one of the pastors here on staff i oversee the pastoral team um so me and six other guys are the ones doing the weddings memorials counseling little teachings all over the place but i get the privilege of sharing the word with y'all this morning we're going to be spending most of the morning in the book of jude so if you want to grab your bibles and turn to the book of jude it's near the end of your bible right before the book of revelation you can easily miss it it's kind of a blip on the map it's a small but mighty book a little little epistle from jude but before we dive into the word let's approach it in prayer so lord we are so thankful that you have given us your word we're so thankful lord that you have not left us on our own as you've promised to be with us to never leave us nor forsake us you've given us your word and you've given us your spirit so today as we dive into your word we ask that you'd give us understanding and clarity he would instruct instruct our hearts and our minds and for you to open up our ears that you would give us ears to hear what your spirit would have for us so bless your congregation here in this room and those tuning in online we pray this in jesus name amen well last year about this time pastor brett was on vacation and we closed the church down coronavirus hit lockdowns happened let's just go you know just a just a small little uh snippet of what happened in the past year we had covid 19 spread we had lockdowns some of your businesses have since shuttered and closed we've had masks vaccinations don't forget the wild forest fires that drove us out of our homes for a little bit then we had crazy ice storms which brought about power outages lasting for a few weeks for some of you and some of you may not even still have power uh the rise you know of critical theory we've had riots and fights within our nation that are pretty insane and that's just here in portland that's that is wild that is a wild wild year but you know what that's the world you know jesus said in john 16 there's a promise you should make a t-shirt out of it put it on a plaque you will face there will be tribulation there is tribulation in the world so the expectation of the world there's going to be tribulation there's going to be difficulties there's going to be absolute trials but then jesus said but take heart i have overcome the world so honestly i don't have high expectations for the world in the world system for scripture tells us that satan is the god of this age he is the prince of the power of air of the air it says that he is the father of lies and that he lies kills and destroys and we've seen over this past year the lies we've seen the killing we've seen the destruction four we've been on the on the front row seat of what's going on but that's the world it should not should not this sort of division and this sort of fighting and this sort of destruction should never make its way within the people of god within the church and the division i'm talking about isn't the division that jesus even said that he would do you remember in the gospels where jesus said i came not to bring peace but he came to bring division he talked about the division that he would bring is true if you trust in jesus that he died on the cross and he rose from the grave and you are identified with him you are now inside jesus you're baptized into him you're placed inside of him you are now a new creature a new creation in christ you are different you are holy it means you're other and you are sanctified you are set apart if you're in christ you are divided from this world that's not the division i'm talking about the division i'm speaking of is the the lure of the world that can creep into our lives and that can creep into the church so how do we how do we deal with this you know many of you maybe um have come from other churches and are here now maybe your friends uh on the internet you know we've been watching your family interacting we've seen people maybe drift away from the solid teaching of scripture in this past year we've seen seen great churches drift into what's popular and things that maybe won't get you canceled we're seeing a poll away and this should not happen within within the church we should not be pulled away in fact jesus even told us that in acts chapter 20 actually the apostle paul told there the ephesian elders that there's going to be wolves coming into the church luring people away jude here is kind of on the same sort of track he's giving some of the same information and this division should not creep into the church so what do we do how do we handle divisive days what do we do in these divisive days well the book of jude gives us four things really four main things that we can do in divisive days but before we we get into those four things let me get you up to speed a little bit on the context of who wrote the letter who the letter was written to so if you look in verse 1 it says jude a servant of jesus christ and brother of james there you have it jude he wrote the letter okay well who's jude well he's a servant of jesus christ a bond servant a due loss he is his life he's given us life to jesus and the brother of james okay well james he was an apostle right in james he also wrote a book of the bible well while jude he was actually the brother of jesus the half brother of jesus the son of mary and joseph now scripture in in in the gospels names him judas his name is judas well the name judas kind of has a bad tone to it so he took his shorter name jude judas judas is scary now you know just like we don't have a lot of adolf hitler's running around the name's not very popular to be naming your kids adolf or hitler i hope hopefully that's the case there's not a lot of those you know same idea judas there's not a lot of judases running around jude changes his name or he takes on this the shorter name jude he is the brother of jesus now could you imagine if you were the brother of jesus you just picture it you know mary and joseph were out at dinner and here's jesus going you know what i think joseph would really love if i mowed the lawn so there's jesus out there mowing the lawn and he's like oh my mom she would really love me to do the dishes before she gets home she goes and does the dishes and his parents walk in and they go wow this is more than we could ever even think or even hope or ask for you you've mowed the lawn in a perfect perfect height and you've done the dishes it's amazing and there's jude like you know maybe they're in the backyard kicking a soccer ball around and jude breaks the window on the on the garage door garage window i've never done that by the way and he blames it on his brother jesus and they're like nah no way it's not jesus jude says he's this guy's servant you know the the perfect brother i am the bond servant the bond slave of jesus now i say that in jest but it is amazing that he would he would he would become a bond servant of jesus he would humbly come under that that charge of jesus christ and that kind of goes to part of the testimony of jesus's resurrection you know so jude and james um both and the other brothers of jesus unlike what you know catholic theology might teach jesus or excuse me mary did have other sons and daughters the scripture says and jude is one of them james is another son but here jude jude the servant of jesus christ jesus raising from the dead he didn't he didn't become a christian or trust in jesus until after jesus rose from the dead in fact it says in the gospels there when jesus was going to go up they were his brothers were asking him to go up and to to declare himself uh there at the feast of booths there he was like go up jesus you know you need to you don't do these things in secret you need to make these things public make your make your ministry public and jesus said it's not my time it's not his hour he knew he had a timetable of how things were to work he knew that the jews were out to kill him and that wasn't the time and the place for him to be crucified yet and so he didn't go in that moment but it said there that um his brothers were encouraging to do that because they did not yet believe in him so they didn't believe in him and now a jew does believe in him because of the resurrection of jesus and that testifies honestly it's a great testimony to who jesus is that he is who he claimed he is to be that he is jesus christ that he is that he is immanuel god with us that he is the messiah so jude now who is the letter written to are we opening up someone else's mail have we pilfered someone's mailbox and now we're reading someone else's mail like well it's in the bible it's gotta be written to me well let's read here the the continuation of verse one says to those who are called beloved in god the father and kept for jesus christ you might be thinking that's not me this is not my i got someone else's mail someone who's loved beloved of god someone who's called someone who's kept for jesus that can't that can't be me well if you look at that it has nothing to do with with us it's everything to do with god those who are called god is the one that calls us the one that's loved by god god is the one that loves us and kept for jesus christ those that are kept jesus is the one that keeps us it could be um kept by or kept four it just depends on on how the translation there but kept by jesus is the one that keeps us it has everything to do with how good god is and nothing really to how great we are i'll get i'll get more into that in just a minute but this letter written by jude written to to us to the jews in that day excuse me the jewish christians this is probably one of your letters but to the to the christians early christians in the first century church and it extends all the way to us because we are called we are loved we are kept by jesus then in verse three it says beloved although i was very eager to write to you about our common salvation i found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once delivered to all the saints you've read to write a difficult email a difficult letter this is this is jude going i just wanted to talk about our common salvation now not common as like simple or everyday but the thing that we share in common the common salvation and here jude has to write this difficult letter now for you bible students we don't have time this morning to go through the entire book of jude but there are some amazing stories amazing things that jude brings up and some illusions back into the old testament and some great examples um that he uses you know korra dathan and byram kane and abel balaam he talks about you know even even michael the archangel contending for the body of moses and have all this don't have all this enough time this morning to get in all this but i say this to set the framework for this letter that's written to us written by a humble servant of jesus and it's written sort of strenuously because jude wanted to write a happier letter but it's coming a little more difficult to be honest um when i was studying for this and thinking through this and praying through this i had a totally different trajectory in mind something that was much lighter it's much easier because we've had a tough year we've gone through difficult things and i was like well we need a light message and the lord continued to press on me to teach this so here you go jude 17 how we deal we're going to start in verse 17 how we deal with difficult days what are the what are the five or four things to do in difficult days and before again we get into those things if we're going to give the we're going to be given the profile of the divider of the those who divide so in verse 17 it says but you must remember beloved the predictions of the apostles of our lord jesus christ they said to you in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions it is these who cause divisions worldly people devoid of the spirit but you must remember i'm so thankful that the scripture causes me to remember often we are given the same thing over and over again if you're like me i tend to forget what i did yesterday or you know what i said or what i the the scriptures are so often bringing things to our remembrance you know time and time and time again we there's this funny pull for us to want to do the things that are better or more exciting or look for the new thing but really to come back to the simplicity of what scripture is teaching to to stick to the simple basics of scripture the simple things that scripture teaches i mean there's there's something so good about that we gotta restrain and hold back from being pulled into the new pulled into what what it tickles our ears and and stick to the basics and a lot of what i'm going to talk about these these uh fi these four things are sort of basic you know oh yeah i know these things these are simple but you know before i was a pastor before i came on staff here at athy in my um days working i worked for a company where we had a a gentleman come in and you know talk to us sort of about entrepreneurship and he was a guy who started many businesses and he was out one day sitting at a golf course in the golf club you know eating his blt and drinking his tea and he was looking out and on the putting green there was jack nicholas practicing his putt now i don't know a thing really about golf i'm not a huge golfer i go off a little when i was younger with my grandfather i don't know a lot but here's jack nicholas out there practicing his three foot putt and so this gentleman he's eating his sandwich and he's sitting there with a business partner discussing what he keeps looking out and he keeps seeing jack nicholas for the hour and a half he was there just practicing the three foot putt three foot putt three foot putt over and over and over and over again so after he finishes his meeting he goes out there and says jack what are you doing like you're the best golfer in the world it's a three foot putt you get the fundamentals down the basics it's those basics those fundamentals where we tend to slip up we tend to mess up you know there's a quote um that is attributed to a navy seal an anonymous navy seal that says you know under pressure we don't rise to the occasion but we tend to sink to our level of training and so this this three foot putt the basics the fundamentals mastery over the fundamentals is so key and a lot of things a lot of areas of our lives you know you're going to reap what you sow that's a basic principle that the lord has placed within creation so fundamentals getting those those things down and so the remembrance he's calling to things remembering reminding us the things that we already know this isn't new this isn't rocket science you know we're not elon musk trying to get to get to mars no what we're doing is we're getting the mind and the heart of god who's going to be over and over again reminding us what he has written already on our hearts so the first attribute of the divider is that they will scoff and in the last times i must mention here in the last time that is in the greek where we get the word eschatology the study of end times and i do believe that we are living in the last times that these are the last times and we should be preparing so in fact much of what uh this this section where jude is bringing up these guys it's not so that we can go out and start a discernment ministry and start going well that guy is a false teacher and that guy's a false teacher it's to get us on our toes to be ready to know we are in a battle this is not a time to be laying sitting back relaxing it's not a time to be spending all of our days binge watching netflix or amazon or hulu or whatever this is a time to be ready we need to get ready we are in a spiritual battle and he's may and jude is reminding us that we are loved by god and that we are to cling to what has already been taught the predictions of the apostles of jesus about the lord jesus christ and then in these last times he says there will be scoffers now you might if you've been on in you know reading the bible for for a while been a christian for a while you might know the scripture in second peter chapter three where it says in the last days there will be scoffers who come scoffing saying where is the return where is the promise of his return and that could be what what jude is alluding to that he is saying hey jesus where you know or these scoffers are saying what jesus has been saying satan's gonna return for two thousand years he hasn't come back so where is he now where is jesus that could be part of it the other part of it is people are scoffing just because you are not falling into the world system you are not thinking the way that they think you're not doing what they think they're going to scoff and this isn't this is an allure to pull you into the world it's a lure to drag you in to say man i don't want to be left out no one wants to be left out of the group but as a christian jesus has separated you and the world is going to constantly bring in and there's going to be those that might come into your life to scoff and say nah that's not really what that says no you don't really have to follow the bible you know well you know sex before marriage yeah that's that's you know that's not really what the bible teaches you know uh homosexual marriage that's you know that's that's not really what paul meant in the scriptures you're gonna see this the lure to pull you out of what has already been taught and that scoffing is gonna come come you know because you're not part of the in crowd the scoffers are going to scoff and so part of my encouragement if you're a christian you're going to be scoffed at period you're going to be scoffed so be ready you're gonna be scoffed it's going to come you're going to be ridiculed you're going to be scoffed secondly it says there that these scoffers that these dividers are going to follow their own ungodly passions this describes the person who lives only by what he or she can get through his physical senses they're materialist the only thing you know it's the if it feels good do it you know how can it be wrong if it feels so good you know the book of judges there's a common theme that's used all throughout the book of judges uh you see the people sort of rebel against god then the god sends them they cry out to god for help god sends them a judge the judge judges the people the enemy is there and then god you know frees them they do really well for a while until they go back into sin but the common phrase you see over and over again is that the people they did what was right in their own site and i saw you know one pastor say that was a pretty good summation he said i think you there's a good way to determine you know what your world view is and how you view that phrase everyone did what was right in their own sight is that a good thing is that a bad thing for the world that's a good thing you do what's right you do you the world says you do you but that's not that's not the case we know that our hearts are sinful that are they're wicked above measure who could know it so the the second part of this divider they're going to allure you with the you do you mentality the man it's it's pragmatic if it works just do it just just just work it out just do it and that's that's not that should not be um part of what uh the christian is about thirdly they are worldly people that is they're finite they're natural this is the yolo life you only live once i don't know if the other kid's still saying that these days it's kind of aging me you only live once your life is finite so you eat drink and be married for tomorrow we die that is that mentality fill it up um third or excuse me fourth the last one here is that they are devoid of the spirit so to be reminded that those that are living in the world who are of the world those who are following their ungodly passions those that are scoffing they they don't have the spirit of god in them that's a good reminder they're not of the spirit the world is not of the spirit it's in it's the anti-spirit so to speak it's against the law it's against the lord it's totally and ultimately um against the lord there's evidence that they are devoid of the spirit and again i think the reason we're given these four things describing these dividers and there's there's more description in the previous few verses of jude so i'd encourage you to read it but i think the main reason one of the main reasons is not so that we go out again and are pointing fingers looking for now there's a time and a place to call things out paul calls out demons there's times to call people out don't get me wrong but the reason one of the reasons is here to remind us man our own the world and its system is going to try to work its way in and try to pull you out it's the divide and conquer mentality satan wants to come in and divide you and pull you away and separate and create great division amongst god's people it should not be so we are fit together as a body you don't want to start clipping you know bone and marrow those things are knit together by god um so the draw the allure the pull away so what do we do the four things to do right here in these divisive days but you beloved building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the holy spirit keep yourselves in the love of god waiting for the mercy of our lord jesus christ that leads to eternal life so the first thing there is build yourselves up or build up the church build up the church and when we read build yourselves up i think we can easily think yeah i need to build myself up i'm good enough i'm smart enough people like me i'm awesome is that building up no not at all it doesn't say flatter yourself flattery in scripture is actually not a good thing uh as the proverbs tell us that the enemy is the one that multiplies kisses that is the enemy's one that comes in to flatter you to butter you up to get something out of you i don't know why you'd want to flatter yourself to get what out of yourself doesn't make any sense building yourselves up is not building up your self-esteem in fact there's nothing in there that says that you are amazing it's building yourselves up in your most holy faith how do you build up your faith how does one build up in their faith how does faith grow faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of god we are built up in our most holy faith our most holy trust if you want to look at that that way trusting in the lord by the word of god itself now this isn't just yourselves singular yourself we tend to do this when we read scripture i do this myself now there's a an internal side of things where we should kind of go through and read scripture and and weigh it out within our own hearts how are we doing sort of a personal inventory but more often than not when the word you is used or yourselves you see here is plural if you go back to verse 17 where it says but you must remember it's you know if you had the southern translation be but but y'all must remember it's plural most of the use in the new testament are indeed plural so there's a couple aspects of this one is you yourself built up you must you should be in the word of god built up by the word of god that's what strengthens you that's what helps you to stand in these days that are dividing you must be built up in the word of god the second aspect of that is to build others up build yourselves build up the church how well how do i do that again you just encourage them and say man you're the best best friend i've ever had you're amazing is that that the idea well that's encouragement you can encourage someone with those things but to build each other up is to do what i'm doing here reading the scriptures is to do what you could do with each other talk the scriptures encourage each other with the word ephesians 4 29 says let no corrupting talk come from your mouths but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that it might give grace to those who hear building up speak the word of god but did you catch that it says as fits the occasion i think at times we could be we can show up you know to with the wrong tool on the job site you know we we show up and we're you know using an impact drill to to to put in screws in the drywall we're blowing right through the drywall we need to show up as fits the occasion you remember the story you know when jesus there he's praying in the garden of gethsemane before he's crucified there the judas and the romans come and take him and there's jesus and here pops out peter you know strong peter mighty peter whips out his sword and you know zorro and then cuts off malcus the high priest servant's ear and right there jesus picks up the ear and pops it on like mr potato head i mean sorry potato head he pops it on on there and um sorry probably shouldn't have gone there uh but he puts the ear back on there are peter's misusing the sword the the sword in the scriptures in ephesians chapter six is the word of god excuse me the word of god is the sword of the spirit the sword of the spirit and so here's peter whipping out a sword chopping off ears we need to bring the right intensity the right tone the right word at the right time we need to be skillful you know as second timothy 2 15 paul exhorts or encourages timothy and he says do your best to present yourself to god as one approved a worker who has no need to be ashamed rightly handling the word of truth who want to be those that rightly handle the word of truth if you ever again show up to that place um somewhere and you were totally unprepared kind of like me this this morning no just kidding but you know you show up somewhere and you're like totally unprepared but you knew you should have been prepared i think of eighth grade eighth grade science class i was a kid um when i was a kid and probably up until not very long ago extremely shy i did not want to be called on in class you know i was the kid that i didn't want to raise my hand if i knew the answer because i would probably choke and figure i'm like i don't know what to say i'd turn bright red in fact i remember one of my teachers in my yearbook you know saying we're going to miss your your bright red face in class i was like that's not encouraging but you know what it helped me push through some of that stuff so with eighth grade i'm in class and this teacher he had expectations for us to do really well and to show up prepared for class usually when a teacher asks a question they probably want an answer usually i just figured just not from me so everyone else brings the answer so i show up to class and he wanted everybody he had said hey if you don't raise your hand i'm going to call on you so what did i do i deserve determined to not get called on so one day in class the teacher asked a question and you know instinctively boom my hand goes up because i don't want to get called up and what happens the teacher calls on me and what do i say i just rose my hand because i didn't want you to call on me and he you know graciously just went to the next kid and uh but you know showing up unprepared you want to be prepared and ready so part of this this call in jude's letter here to us is to be ready to have the word of god we should be skilled in the word skilled in the word of god building up ourselves and building up each other we should be those that throughout the week encourage each other with the word of god all week long from our devos in the morning sharing with our kids sharing with our wives sharing with our with our family and our friends i was just reading this like just encouraging words to build up particularly the church in these days to keep us from drifting from being pulled into this these dividers coming in it keeps us solid and it keeps us grounded the second thing we have here so this battle we have this against these this division sticking in in the word of god the second part of that it says praying in the holy spirit so we're in the word and then praying in the holy spirit you know as ephesians 6 as i referenced earlier you know it reminds us that this battle is not flesh and blood the battle that we fight isn't going to be fought with with carnal or you know weapons that we can manufacture these weapons are spiritual so we must pray in the holy spirit this doesn't just mean speaking in a prayer language in tongues if you want more information on that read first corinthians chapter 14 or download pastor brett's teaching on that the idea here is praying in line with the holy spirit praying in in line with in his will in his in the desire that he wants to accomplish here on earth in his will so we need to you know we shouldn't just treat prayer like it is a genie like we're asking god now don't get me wrong jesus does tell us to ask to seek and to knock james reminds us that we don't have because we don't ask but then he says but when we do ask we ask a miss because you want to spend the pleasures of our own flesh but being in the word gives us an idea of who god is and desires he he wants for us from that we now go to prayer and trust the holy spirit so let let me um just break this out for a second you do know that the bible and prayer are not magical right they're spiritual there's a difference there magical is fairy tale hope you guys know that like it's not real something that's magical is not real in the the magic of our you know on earth so to speak is sleight of hand or deceit or manipulation that's not what we're doing we are not manipulating we're not trying to deceive god everything is open and naked before him hebrews reminds us we can't we're not deceiving god that's not the idea instead that which is spiritual is true and its source is god what we want to have happen is what god's will is that's why jesus even taught his disciples that being us how to pray he says you know thy will be done in jesus name you know it's not just a tagline that we throw on the end of a prayer it's not just something that we put on there and go okay now we got it all now it's all good together now lord i said it's in your name now you can translate it i get the address correct it's going right to you that's not the idea it's in his nature it's in who he is praying in the spirit is in line with the lord well you might go well i don't know how to pray perfectly in line with god there's good news you know romans 8 verse 26 tells us likewise the spirit helps us in our weaknesses for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit makes intercession for us it's such good news that even though we might not know exactly what to pray the spirit makes intercession for us prayer is not so much us necessarily moving the hand of god but it's his his conforming our wills to his we want his will to be done when we pray we want it to be effective we want it to occur we want these things because we want it to be in line with god's heart god's will and when we don't know what to pray we can trust that the lord that this holy spirit will intercede in our behalf that thy will be done this is in line with with first uh john chapter 5 it says this and this is the confidence that we have toward him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us and if we know that he hears us and whatever we ask we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him because it's in his will we realize that we're in line with god we're in line with his will and he hears us so you might be saying well how do i know again if i'm in his will how does this how does this all work out you know or you might be thinking you know what prayer yeah i just don't have time for that it is interesting how prayer always kind of gets pushed off to the margins of our day um and and don't get me wrong i think we should be praying at all times as paul says as the scriptures declare that we should be praying always at all times all types of prayer and prayer is just simply communicating with god but i love this story in exodus 17 i think pastor referenced it uh maybe last week into the week before um they're they're on in refereedium refedeem they're on the hill moses her and aaron are up on the hill and then there's um joshua and the guys fighting the battle and as moses has his hands raised in the posture of prayer there they are fighting back amalek but as his hands drop and the malachites come back and start to to take over but the hands go back up and then they prop a rock under moses which is such a beautiful picture of jesus christ propping us up in prayer praying and then there they they defeat the amalekites you're like well okay that's in the bible and you trust that but right now things are hard the world looks crazy how is everything going to change well one christ could return we are to pray that he would return he would come quickly but if you've done any study on revivals over the last two thousand years it's been amazing to see and the idea of revival is not necessarily just those new people coming in and being saved but those who may have drifted away back in line with the lord if you've ever read anything on the great welsh revival of 1904 it began in prayer there a young guy evan roberts there in wales he's studying he's an old coal miner he's studying in the ministry and he goes uh he's there praying and he feel he he has this sense the lord's saying you need to go back and talk to your church so he goes to his pastor and says hey can i i need to preach and the pastor's like um yeah come back after the prayer teaching or the prayer prayer night so he comes back he comes after the prayer night he just tells the people to repent to turn to the lord to trust in him and to follow him and everyone there was it just was a radical change and from that time for five straight months the churches were just people were piling in to the church that so much so it had a massive radical change on the entire cultural climate of that area the most of the people were coal miners this is an amazing story most were coal miners and all these guys getting saved taught their donkeys and horses and ox who are pulling out all the coal out of these mines the whole coal industry came down to a screeching halt it slowed down in production because these coal miners got saved well they had trained all these horses and donkeys using cuss words and they're like oh man let no un unwholesome talk come from my mouth and so they had to retrain these these horses and these donkeys to pull the carts out of these mines and so it slowed down the the police officers literally had nothing to do they formed barbershop where they formed quartets to go to go sing in the church and then just just to gather the crowds to make sure the crowds were orderly at the churches it was massive 100 000 people piled into the churches in those years and that was all done by prayer that was the lord's will praying in the spirit third keep yourselves in the love of god so we build up our faith um we are to pray in the spirit build up the church pray in the spirit and keep yourselves in the love of god notice that it doesn't say make yourself more lovable to god or keep keep yourself as lovable no this isn't keeping this is keeping in step with god his nothing can separate us from god's love but we can live in a place be in a place where we don't experience the love of god that's different his love is always for us it's i've heard it described as like living on the dark side of the moon the sun is always shining but if we live on the dark side of the moon we do not experience this light or its warmth so he's saying keep yourself in the love of god if we're praying in the spirit if we're in the word man we're keeping ourselves in the love of god i've heard it also described you know it's the fount where the blessings come out god's love is is always constant and always going but we tend to be the ones like nah i like it over i'm going to go over here my drift here drift there but if we're in the word if we're in prayer with the lord we're in that place of blessing i'm not just talking spiritual or excuse me um blessings on this earth but the blessing of knowing who god is knowing his will walking day after day in great faith and confidence that he's leading you that you know that you know as the fourth point is here that you are waiting for his return all these things are linked together the last one there is that we are waiting for the mercy of our lord jesus christ waiting for the mercy of our lord jesus christ that leads to eternal life we are waiting for his return we live in this place of patience of waiting first corinthians 13 reminds us the love is patient as we wait on the lord we are we are flexing the the muscle if you will of love to the lord saying lord we are waiting for your return this is how the christians this is how we are to live to be waiting on the lord james chapter 5 verses 7 through 8 say be patient therefore brothers until the coming of the lord jesus see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth being patient about it until it receives the early and the late reigns you also be patient establish your hearts for the coming of the lord is at hand the lord is coming back it's a promise it is solid and we are to wait we are to live with the expectation of his return so if we're in the in the word building up our faith speaking out the word building up each other's faith if we're in prayer walking with the lord we are in his love and if that's the case we want him to come back we're living in a place that says lord come back i want to see you face to face there's nothing that that would solve our problems better than the lord coming back for the christian for the unbeliever if you read the book of jude you read some pretty harsh and difficult things god's judgment and wrath eternal fire being mentioned there regarding sodom and gomorrah there's an eternal flame there is a wrath and a punishment for those outside of christ for those who say i want to trust in my own works i am good enough i don't need the lord i'm awesome that is the wrong attitude that is not true you are not awesome can i say that you are not but nor am i i'm not awesome i'm not saying that from a place of pride i'm saying that from a place of scripture there's one that is awesome and that is god there's one that is good and that is god and you are not him you're not him so there is judgment coming for those who don't believe but for the christian we live with the anticipation of his return if you're not a christian if you have never believed trusted in the lord it's a simple thing it is really simple because jesus did all the work for you romans 10 9-10 tells us that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that christ died that he rose from the grave it tells us there that you are saved you are snatched if you read the rest of this chapter out of the pit of fire you're you're snatched from that so there's a couple people i'm speaking to today if you're not a christian right now you can trust in the lord it's that simple just trust in him believe in him put your trust and say i believe that you died on the cross you rose from the grave and you're saved if you are a christian maybe you've drifted maybe you have felt a pull maybe you've let these dividing thoughts this divisiveness creep into your own heart but today we get to do something awesome we get to take communion together as a church so i'm gonna invite peter to come up and uh to lead us through a worship song here in just just a minute and if you don't have the communion elements you just raise your hand and a few of the guys will come out and pass them out but if you are a christian i encourage you this is such a a treat to be able to take communion together that we get to sit together and and commune one with another and ultimately the lord so if you've walked away if you have been pulled into and drifted about this is where you can turn your dials back set the dials to zero communion looks to the cross jesus that he died on the cross why for our sin he came because he loved us and he came and he died on that cross for us and so communion is that looking back to the cross but not just looking back it's looking forward to his coming his soon return jesus said that he would not drink of this cup again until he comes into his kingdom and guess who gets to be with him we do so this is both a look back and a look forward so if you would you can peel back the top layer revealing the bread jesus said that this is my body take and eat when you look at the body this body was broken for us it was beaten for us jesus so loved us that he came and he gave up everything for us he gave his life for you and for me and in taking this bread we are recognizing man it was our sin that put him up on the cross yet he gave me his life while we were yet sinners the bible says christ died for me there's nothing good in me that the lord saw that he wanted it was everything he did it all he is so so good to us he loves us so very much that he gave his life for us and we get such a great opportunity to eat this bread together in remembrance of what he's done so let's do that now and peeling back the next layer revealing the juice which is a representation of his blood the old testament often said that there's life in the blood there's life in the blood there is no remission of sin the scripture says about the shedding of blood it's the precious blood of jesus christ peter tells us that washes away and cleanses us of our sin the lord doesn't just die for us and then make us servants or smash us down and lowly he brings us into his family he cleanses us of all our sin first john 1 verse 9 you know the scripture says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to to forgive us our sins and then to cleanse us from all unrighteousness we are in a right standing before god because of what he's done and because of his blood that was shed for us and that now we are in him we are part of his family we're adopted in maybe you don't feel worthy and that's okay none of us are worthy maybe you feel like you've slipped up this week this month this year you haven't been in the word you haven't been in prayer you've been following the way of the world well now is the time to seek the lord and he will wash and cleanse i love the ending of jude it says now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only god our savior through jesus christ our lord be glory and majesty and dominion and authority before all time now and forever amen so let's drink together father how thankful we are that you would send your son for us how thankful lord that you will keep us as your word says here we're thankful that you've given us your word you've given us your spirit and that you've given us one another to encourage each other to love into good works i pray that you would bless this church that you would bless all those here in this room bless those tuning in online that they would know you help us to stand firm in these days to be about your word i wanted to ask that as we enter into the word throughout the week as we spend time seeking you that this church in particular would have just a deep relationship with you for those who may have drifted i pray that you would reignite within them a deep desire and love for you that you would remind them just like you remind you instructed their the church of ephesus to go back to their first love that they'd come back to you knowing that you love them that you gave everything for them so bless your church bless these your people we ask in jesus name amen would you stand with me as we sing one last song to the lord in jesus you entered my pain and saving you for all my shame and all because of your love maker of the universe and broken for the sins of the earth all because of your love draw because of your love because of your cross my death is paid because of your blood my sins are washed away now all of my life i freely give [Music] an innocent and holy king you died to set the captives free door because of your the love you gave your life for me so i will live my life for you all [Music] it's because because of your love because of your cross my death is of your blood my sins are washed away now all of my life because of your love because of your love live you did it for me you did it for love it's your victory jesus you are enough did it for me you did it for love it's your victory jesus you are of your cross my death is fake because of your blood my sins are washed away now all of my life because of your love because of your love because of your cross my debt is made because of your blood my sins are washed away now all of my life i freely give because of your love because of your love [Music] dear lord to just pray you'd go before us as we leave today that it was just saying you you let us live how you want us to live lord let us be in the word be in prayer this week as we go in jesus name amen you guys are dismissed [Music] you

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Published: Sun Mar 21 2021