Full Service | Sunday, November 15, 2020

[Music] hey good morning nathan creek would you guys all stand with me it's great to be here with you on this nice uh sunday morning we get to worship the lord together so let's all sing spirit and its truth [Music] [Music] you are the life you are the fights that's in my soul [Music] my eyes [Music] you have overcome [Music] you are the power [Music] oh i will sing into the night christ is greater is [Music] lord through christ you have over is nothing is impossible every chain is breakable with you [Music] we are [Music] through christ you have overcome this world this life oh [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] your faithfulness stretches to the sky your righteousness [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] reaches to your faithfulness [Music] stretches yes [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and i will oh [Applause] [Music] reaches to [Music] it stretches to the sky [Music] all creatures of our god and king [Music] lift up your voice oh praise him [Music] hallelujah [Music] oh praising hallelujah [Music] [Music] oh [Music] hallelujah [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] yeah all things and worship him in humbleness oh praise him [Music] hallelujah [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] me [Music] you [Music] you ah there it is [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] glorious [Music] oh [Music] oh amen amen yeah good job you guys oh lord it's so good to sing praises to your name and just to be reminded of those spiritual truths lord you tell us in in the words of sing songs spiritual songs and hymns that we can speak to one another just truth about who you are and also give you the glory and the honor that's due and like we just saying lord it's true we need you more than we can even express for without you we can do nothing your word says but with you all things become possible so lord we just want to press in draw near we want to hear from you today by your word we pray your blessing on this time and we thank you for letting us draw near now in jesus name amen hey why don't you grab your bible and turn to the scriptures with me jeremiah we're studying the book of jeremiah and uh wednesday night like i said seven eight and nine why don't you turn to jeremiah chapter nine and we'll take a look at just a couple little verses in this chapter and we'll look at the whole chapter in context wednesday but i love this two-verse um section that really speaks volumes and and it really is important i think for the days we live um i i think of jeremiah the book's been pretty brutal if you've been with us in isaiah and jeremiah man verse by verse through the bible you get kind of this heavy you know you're going down basically because you've rebelled against the lord that's what jeremiah is saying to the people that's what isaiah was saying to the people and so you get kind of in jeremiah like come on bro let's get to some happier books as we uh go through the bible but i do find these things to be very important and helpful even last week do you remember um the lord said this thing is well the king james said wonderfully horrible remember that uh your new international said horribly uh shocking um to the lord there was something horribly shocking do you remember what it was well there were a couple things last week it's horribly shocking to the lord that number one the prophets were lying to the people number two the priests were doing their own thing and under their own you know motivations and reasons and didn't could care less about the lord and number three the people loved to have it that way and we we saw how important that is we live in a very similar day as jeremiah's day and we have the same problems that jeremiah's people had um so that was kind of heavy last week but i have something that's not the lord saying this is shocking shockingly horrible but today i want to talk to you about the things that the lord says these are the things that i delight in last week i'm shockingly horrified by what's happening and this lord is saying here's what i really delight and i think this is going to be good but before we see what he delights in there's sort of some warnings and some cautionary words that the prophet gives can i tell you the context of this is um we're in chapter 7 and through through ten some uh people delineate this section of scripture we finished chapter six on wednesday night but chapter seven begins what's called the the temple discourses and this is jeremiah standing outside of the temple as people were coming up to worship he'd be talking about really chapters 7 through 10 the temple discourses that's what it's called so these words that we're reading are things he was telling people as they were making their way up to go worship the lord there was a pseudo-revival during the reign of king josiah in chapters you know one through six uh a pseudo revival that was happening but then in chapters uh seven through ten it's delineated by a different king altogether his name jehoiakim so joseph josiah died joao kim's now the king and this is when the temple discourses took place where jeremiah is standing there on the temple steps crying out these words that's the context let's hear what he has to say it's jeremiah 9 23 thus saith the lord let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches but let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that i am the lord which exercise loving-kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these things i delight sayeth the lord here in jeremiah chapter 9 verse 23 and 24 we have these powerful sentences that tells us so much and i think it'd be good for us to break it down but but before we do that what's the main word being used here it's the word glory uh let not the wise man glory in his you know uh wisdom the mighty man glory what's this word glory some of your newer translations i believe puts the word boast in there and that's like that's a good way of putting it the word glory in the hebrew here it means to shine forth and it's used in different ways throughout the hebrew bible but in this case it's almost like you could picture a person shining the light on themselves it's all about me look at me and my glory uh it's it's a very prideful kind of thing so that's the word being used here shining the light on yourself um and don't let the person shine the light on the fact that they're wise or mighty or rich but if you're going to glory in something or boast of something now that's an interesting thing right there have you ever thought is it ever right to boast about something it cracks me up my my sweet mother if you knew my mom this will crack you up she's just so sweet and so sensitive to the things of the lord but um she's so proud of me her son and she's proud of her grandchildren you know bro brooke and joey and casey and and you know they she is always saying oh i'm just so proud but she always puts the little caveat the asterisk next to it when she says you know she says oh i'm just so proud of brook and joe and casey in the lord she always puts that in there you know it's in the lord that i'm right it's not i'm not proud of you guys or myself but in the lord i'm so proud of you guys and i understand what she's saying and it's it's so sweet but um is it ever okay to boast about something well as it turns out the lord here in jeremiah 9 23-24 tells us what we're supposed to boast about but before he tells us what we are to boast on he gives us three things not to boast on um let's break those things down number one he gives a warning to the wise uh are you considered a wise person think about that like when people think of you do you think they think wise or is there another word that might be describing you um you know there's a funny thing where the bible talks about those who are wise in their own conceits there's some people who think they're wise but they're kind of really not it's amazing the days that we live we're living in a day where the world we've become so wise in our own you know knowledge and our conceitedness about how we're the ones we're gonna solve that's a big world view difference too we were talking about the coronavirus um there's some of us that know that man the lord is the the one called jehovah rapha the god that heals our bodies we believe that and uh that's one of the reasons we don't walk in total fear uh because of disease or even death um but there's others say no it's all about science and it's funny to me how there's people that say we are into science you are not um now i'm going to step on some toes here but i'm not meaning to this but um i'm not even going to try to make a point about this but today when we talk about the coronavirus there's people that are pro-mask and there's people that are anti-mask and one side says the other side doesn't look at the science which side is not looking at the science well that depends on which side you're on if you're pro mask you're saying you guys are idiots come on you're covering your face and you're keeping germs going around the room and cover your face it's it's reasonable to wear a mask and you know cover and and you're saving lives and there's people that say look at the science of it and as it turns out there are scientists that say yes wearing masks saves lives and and that's the way to go but then you say well what about us brett if we're an anti-massacre well as it turns out they also have scientists saying the mass doesn't help you at all in fact some are arguing that actually makes things worse um they're scientists where are they they're out there i've looked up all this stuff there's legitimate scientists real people of science that are saying both sides of the of the coin which which kind of starts to make me as a christian think the bible has come to pass in prophecy when the bible says in the last days they will call it science but it'll be science falsely so-called there's people that claim they have the science now science means you have factual evidence studies that have been done that are factual so somebody's lying well brett i believe well i don't we don't care about which side you believe on but somebody's wrong on this one but there's a reason why a lot of our country's saying you're kind of not into the mass thing what if it saves lives what if it doesn't and the science doesn't agree it's interesting we have quite a few surgeons and doctors and you know physicians in our church and i've asked all the ones that i know you know is this legit the ma wearing a mask like what do you think none of them think that it's as you know right i was in the emergency room with a kidney stone and all the nurses and doctors were complaining about the masses so i thought what do you guys think about the mass thing ridiculous it's not it's not helpful uh this is what the emergency room doctors i'm just telling you what my little microcosm um now i've i've met a few nurses in our church that say no brett uh you know wearing masks is helpful and uh and there's certain medical people that have said yes it's good so what are you gonna do you know wear a mask or not well i know what most of you guys are uh thinking probably about this um and if you're wearing a mask in here man that's great and and i understand there's people who are saying you gotta wear it or else you're killing people and and stuff like that but see here's the problem this is what man's wisdom does for us man's wisdom doesn't really give us the answer man's wisdom causes more confusion oftentimes than answers and man we could talk about science falsely so-called today and there's great disparity in the world today and nobody really knows who to believe anymore is you know first we talked about global warming and then well it's not really global warming it's it's climate change um and then you look at evidence and stuff and you wonder well who are the scientists and they're you know one side's saying there's no scientists that believe uh that climate change uh is is not legitimate and then there's other scientists saying we're scientists and we've been studying this for years and climate change is not man-made and some even say it's not even you know there's cycles in the climate and and things change in the world now i'm a devout global warming believer i i believe that with all my heart global warming because the bible says the earth is going to melt with a fervent heat i just don't think it's going to take you know as aoc says 12 years i think it's gonna it's gonna take a few seconds poof and the earth will dissolve that's what read read second peter tells us that's what's gonna go down so it's a funny thing that everybody gets all up in a tizzy and and and we think we know stuff so what do you do well if you're on the right side of the mask or the left side of the mask man you start blogging it up and typing in your instagram and your social media and giving all the evidence and and everybody's just arguing over and over again and it's dizzying dizzying to see what people are arguing about what they think is true or false and you know it's gotten to the place where a lot of us where you even when you see stuff that's probably true you're kind of like i'm just tired of all this stuff just tired the warning to the wise let not the wise man boast in his wisdom what do we really know i've often found and this is just experimental experimentally in my own life i've seen it and i've i see the tendency of my own personality but i see it in humanity and that is where we oftentimes think we're the wisest we're actually the dumbest some of the people who have phds that i know are not the sharpest knife in the drawer i'm just saying and then some of the people that didn't even graduate high school are pretty smart what do we really know and so the warning to the wise let not the wise man boast or glory in his own wisdom because you might just realize your wisdom is flawed it reminds me of that you know airplane that was flying through the air just four passengers the pilot two teenagers and a pastor and the pilot suddenly leaves the cockpit and runs to the back to the for the the three other passengers and says we're out of fuel the plane's going down and he grabs a parachute and says sorry there's only three parachutes i got to take one i'm an important pilot and i have a family pure and he jumps out and then one of the teenagers grabs a pack and and says i'm the smartest teenager in the world i'm probably going to solve the future problems of the world like cancer i'm important and i got to go pure and he jumps out well there's the pastor and the remaining teenager and the pastor looks at he says i've lived a full life it's okay you take the last parachute it's all right well the teenager with a real calm and chill look he said chill preach no problem the smartest teenager in the world just took my backpack thank you thank you very much [Laughter] you know i i i worry that sometimes we think we're so smart and we boast about all of our wisdom and we're just grabbing somebody's backpack meanwhile the christian who's chilling and saying hey it's all good we have the lord the lord is our parachute the lord is the one we put our trust in not in man's wisdom if you're gonna boast in something for sure don't boast that you're wise because that often time leads to real embarrassment man's wisdom will fail you every single time well that brings us to point number two that the warning not only the warning to the wise but then secondly the warning to the strong the warning to the strong um neither let the mighty man glory in his might it says there interesting wisdom and strength are put together here by jeremiah because if you're somewhat of a philosopher there's been entire lines of thought and philosophy among the greeks and others throughout the ages which is better wisdom or or strength or power you know you could talk about the wisdom of the uh you know philosophers of the greeks you know you got plato and uh aristotle and you know socrates and all these thinkers which one's better wisdom like that is that the way you get ahead in this life is that the way you survive is that how you become great or is it just sheer might and power you know think of you know the barbarians like till of the hun or or maybe genghis khan and uh and and as he went with his mongols and they people thought they were just these barbaric people but they were strong and they wiped out very classy civilizations people who thought they were wise and strong but they got slaughtered by the mighty and and so philosophically there's been debate you know which is better the mighty or the wise and uh and some would say you kind of have to have a combo of both or or whatever but people debate that it's interesting to me the lord kind of says don't boast about your wisdom but also don't boast about your strength strength could it be that both are perhaps very flawed to be a super strong person some of you may not be exceedingly wise but you might be the extreme exceedingly stable you know you might be the strong person the emotionally immovable person and you have a certain strength and people like man that's a strong person nothing moves them and you might even boast in that i i'm i'm monotone when it comes to emotions you're not a roller coaster where you're you know up and down on your emotions you're just strong maybe you're a physically strong person bring it on what are you going to do some of you're not afraid of anything or anyone and there's people that sort of boast that that's just kind of who i am i'm not afraid of anyone or anything but there's a warning to the strong because oftentimes it's when you think you're strong that's about when you're going to fall the bible talks about that and warns you know if you think you're standing beware lest you you know fall the lord's kind of saying that can happen in fact you know the proverbs warns us something let's see if you guys know it um it says you know that pride goeth before wrong pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall i happen to know the scriptures better than you and i'm uh and i'm i'm telling you about pride that's that's a slippery thing isn't it um pride goeth before destruction and a holy spirit before a fall and if you're strong and you're prideful saying look at me i'm the stable one here i've got it dialed in boy it's amazing how things can just topple the powerful many strong people throughout the ages have been bested by a stronger person many strong people have been taken out by stuff that was small in fact one of the things you'll find in this life is your strength might just be your downfall ask moses remember there in numbers chapter 20. one of the things about moses that the holy spirit made him write about himself now this just totally cracks me up and this is my weird sense of humor but picture moses writing the pentateuch by the holy spirit okay write this he's writing right here and then the holy spirit says now moses i want you to write this that moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth moses writing i'm the meekest man like that's like me saying i'm so humble i remind myself of moses it's a little bit that irony of me saying pride goes before destruction as i was saying it pridefully that's what moses is doing i am meek and lowly and he writes it down for all the world to see but the reason we give him a pass is because he was inspired by the holy spirit the spirit made him write that the reason that's important is because we know that moses must have been the meekest man on the face of the earth according to the holy spirit so moses in his meekness now first of all what is meekness it's not weakness that's something we mistake nobody wants to be meek i'm meek but isn't it interesting that jesus said this about himself jesus said autobiographically he said i am meek and lowly of heart that's what jesus said about himself so meekness is not weakness meekness is this it's strength under control i think of a little girl riding on a horse a horse could kill a full-grown man easily powerful animal the horse but how is it that a little girl can ride a horse this powerful beast the the picture there is meekness strength under control the horse is powerful but under control that's meekness not employing your full power to destroy everything around you um you know instead it's using your power in a controlled manner and that's what moses was he was a powerful guy and a great leader but he was meek more than any other person on the earth what was his biggest point of failure where he lacked meekness isn't that something do you remember their numbers 20 the people are like moses you brought us up to die again in the wilderness we're thirsty and we want water this has happened many times already and the people said you brought us out here to die moses and moses was he was ticked and the lord says moses here's that rock the same rock that you struck with the rod years earlier remember and water came out well i want you to go to that same rock and i want you to speak to the rock and say come forth and water will gush forth and the people will drink so moses stomps out there and he's mad and the people like no he says we hate you and moses says you morons now some of you like brett the king james says rebels yeah but the latin translation says morons that's what he called him he says you morons must we fetch water for you and he takes his rod and whacks strikes the rock the lord told him to speak to the rock so he's mad and he's yelling calling them names and he smacks the rock and by the grace of god water comes rushing forth and the people drink now in my mind's eye and i'm not sure this is exactly how it went down but i picture moses standing off the side going lord why are you giving these jerks water they deserve to die uh i wonder if moses had his arms crossed and his feet foot was tapping a bunch of morons but while that was happening the lord did in fact come up to moses and say moses you have not sanctified me among the people in other words the word sanctified means set apart it's it's a little bit of a way saying moses you have misrepresented my heart toward these people i'm not mad at them you're mad at them i told you to speak to the rock you struck the rock and because of this thing that you did moses guess what you're not going to go into the promised land you can lead them right to the border but you're not going in i remember as a kid reading that story thinking what a bummer he blew his temper one time so what the people were like they deserved a little bit of yelling come on lord don't be so brutal to poor mo he he was just a little upset for a bit but then i realized what what what a couple things first of all when god put someone in leadership he holds them to a higher standard secondly one of the worst things you and i can do is misrepresent the lord to the people that are hearing and the lord was being gracious to the people moses was being brutal to the people and so moses was excluded now i can't leave that story without reminding you this is one of my favorite parts of that story moses didn't get to go in and he went to he died and went to heaven but years later in matthew chapter 17 you know peter james and john went to high mountain point there probably their the highest point in israel they have snowboarding in israel at this mountain and uh they were up there and suddenly jesus started to glow before peter james and john jesus is glowing and then moses and elijah appeared with jesus they're in the promised land there's moses standing with the messiah and i love that because the lord sort of snuck moses in he said you will not go into the promised land with the people of israel and they didn't but then the lord snuck moses into the promised land with the messiah that's even better moses got the better end of the deal and the reason i like that is guess what that's how you're going to get to heaven you and i we don't deserve to cross over into the promised land if you would uh we don't deserve to go to heaven but the lord's going to sneak you and me in by his grace he's just gracious and he's merciful and he forgives us for our sins and he gets us in that's what the lord does but i i find it interesting that moses fell in sin in his area of greatest strength there's a question i'd like you to think with me about is and when does your strength and think about what your strengths are for a second when does your strength become a detriment or a weakness there's this really razor thin line i've noticed that where my strengths can be my strengths until they're not and they become my great weakness there's a poem that was written that i i find uh it's kind of interesting because it does sort of nail down this this notion i'll just read it to you and you'll kind of get it as we go here the poem is called strong a person who calls himself frank and candid can very easily find himself becoming tactless and cruel a person who prides himself on being tactful can find eventually that he has become evasive and deceitful a person with firm convictions can become pig-headed a person who is inclined to be temperate and judicious can sometimes turn into someone with weak convictions and banked fires of resolution loyalty can lead to fanaticism caution can become timidity k brown sorry shouldn't have said that forgive me sorry freedom can become license confidence can become arrogance humility can become servility all these are ways in which strength can become weakness isn't it something how these very areas of greatness and strength can become so ugly so fast and that's something we have to watch out for there's a warning to the strong and what is your strength let not the mighty man glory and his strength because our even our strengths become ugliness if we're not careful so a warning to the strong lastly as far as the warnings then we'll get to the word to the wise but the last one is a warning to the rich let not the rich man glory in his riches you know it's interesting because some people don't in the world don't even know how to deal with us or talk about this rich is a relative term but if anybody's rich in this world i'd say we're we're pretty much that in in the world as far as wealth and one of the things nationally we've become really good at is is um entitlement and thinking we deserve this or that or the other thing because of our wealth you know and and we we look at our health care as just something we deserve and and a paycheck is what we deserve and we deserve this and that and we've become very entitled but it's interesting because a lot of places in the world there's nothing even close to that there's places you can live in the world that's just nothing but poverty total poverty and i wonder if jeremiah and the people of that day were kind of like us where they sort of had everything they needed why do you need the lord when you have wealth you know when you get sick you and i we just go to the doctor go to the hospital take meds go get a prescription i'll never forget as a young man my first trip to africa i was in burkina faso and i went to this hospital that's out in the bush and um this is like the closest city was wakaduka and that was like a four-hour drive on a moped through the tundra through the bush on a dusty trail so i'm like i'm way out there in the middle of nowhere and i go to this hospital they wanted to show me their hospital and when i went to the hospital i was waiting to see a building or something but there wasn't a building there are a few trees and there were people sitting under the trees and um there were several people that had their um their feet stuck in in a log and this is hard to explain but they were like there was like a log big log and they'd hewed out a little hole that they could squish their foot through and then they drove a stake through the log right next to the person's ankle so that it sort of trapped their foot in the log and they said okay we're at the hospital i'm like what are you talking about well as it turns out that was their hospital where's the doctors oh we don't have any doctors where's your medicine oh we don't have any medicine we have some mud and some water and um and that's it and they literally called that their hospitals where the sick people went well what was the thing i'm like well what what are these people with their feet and logs oh that's our um that's that's our mental ward the people that had lost their minds and were lighting people's huts on fire running around doing crazy stuff they didn't have a padded room or they didn't have you know antidepressants or whatever they just stuck their foot in a log and stuck a stake through there and said now they can't light people's house on fire and they call this their hospital and and to me the the ridiculous idea of this was as a young guy i remember first seeing this thing and this is ridiculous but the lord said yeah but this is all they have and literally they they would try to put mud on wounds and they would put people's feet in logs but the pastors would show up once a week and they would pray for all the people and that's what they did they just prayed for the sick prayed for the demon possessed prayed for the people with feet stuck in logs and it made me realize how crazily spoiled i was to have access to hospitals and doctors and medicine and all this stuff a warning to the rich you know we can think we're pretty amazing we're americans we have our rights and we stand up and we say this stuff boldly and arrogantly and and we glory and this and that and the other but here's the lord saying don't don't boast in any of that stuff i wonder if sometimes our greatest strength is going to be our greatest downfall and one of our greatest strengths is to be rich we're all stinking rich compared to most people in the world even if you're the poorest person in this room compared to a lot of the world you're among the richest uh that's just the truth so these are words of warning a warning to the to the wise a warning to the mighty a warning to the rich but that then transitions to the lord saying okay you can't boast in those three things but here's the things that i want you to boast in a word to the wise but let him that glory glory in this what is it what is it the lord wants us to glory in well it's it's an interesting thing he says he says that that he might understand and know me that i am the lord which exercises loving kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these things i delight saith the lord a word to the wise is don't glory in your might wisdom your wealth but you glory in this that you know and understand the lord would you mark those two words know and understand is the jeremiah just being redundant saying it knowing and understanding it's the same thing well it's not understanding and knowledge are two separate things and when you look at the hebrew words that are used to to translate into these words knowledge and understanding it's kind of interesting the word let's go with no first or knowledge the hebrew word used by jeremiah is an interesting word it's the word yada in the hebrew you know yada yada that's that's kind of where that word comes from knowledge uh no no no but there's something about the word yada that many people don't know about and that is there's an intimacy implied it's not just to know about something it's to know that that person with an intimacy um it's the same word used in genesis chapter three part of genesis chapter four verse 1. do you remember where it says that adam knew his wife eve and they conceived and bear a child um how does how do you conceive and bear a child did adam know his wife hello i'm adam nice to meet you i'm eve nice to meet you and suddenly she's pregnant is that how that works no the word yadda is used to say adam knew yada his wife with an intimacy so that she became pregnant but that's kind of weird talking about like romantic love between a husband and wife that's this word yada there's an implication of intimate knowledge and relationship that's important so the lord says if you're going to boast boast in this that you know me yadah with an intimacy is it important for you to know the lord personally any good christian who's been around the church long enough you'd say yeah of course we're supposed to know the lord personally but it's a funny thing i've noticed that people claim to have a personal relationship with the lord but my question is when exactly does your relationship get personal i see some christian relationships with the lord sort of like some marriages i see have you ever seen the marriage god forbid i'm sure none of the marriages in this room are like this but have you ever seen the marriage where the husband and wife have somehow become just roommates there's no intimacy there's no romance they've been married for two years and now the the love is sort of gone and they're just kind of technically married and they're sort of roommates and they don't even really know what's going on in the other person's life like sadly i see this from time to time where where they just kind of grow apart and they have separate checking accounts and separate you know finances and separate everything to hobbies they go on separate vacations and they go separate separate separate and and it's just most people say that's not the marriage that i would ever want that's pathetic isn't it interesting the lord says about your relationship with him he compares both israel and us in the church to a marriage that's what the lord says he says to the church you're the bride of christ and so when i ask do you have a personal relationship with the lord you have to ask yourself when exactly does my relationship with god become personal or are you like satan brett come on now you're really offending me what do you mean by saying well did you know that satan knows the lord did you know that satan believes in the lord um and so you say well brett does that mean he's saved because the bible says whosoever believeth in him will not perish and have everlasting life well there's a difference one is a belief uh i believe you exist another is to believe in what he says who he is what he's all about satan knows god god exists even jesus pointed out satan knows i exist even the devils and the demons believe but the question is do you have a a yadah a relationship with the lord where you know the lord personally how important is it one of the scariest verses in all the bible is one that you and i should perhaps be concerned about it's matthew chapter seven let me read it to you verse 21 it says not every one that saith jesus said this is red letters not everyone that saith unto me lord lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven many will say in that day lord lord haven't we prophesied in your name haven't we in thy name cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then will i profess unto them i never knew you depart from me you that work iniquity i can't think of a worst thing in the world than to to stand before the lord someday and the lord say who are you i don't know you the lord is interested in having a personal relationship with you where you know him and he knows you and you have to ask do you have that kind of intimacy with the lord we'll talk about how to do that in a second but the second word is understanding um so the word knowledge is yada in the hebrew and it means an intimacy but the word uh knowledge it's the word shakal and i don't get that glitteral thing from the throat very well like the jewish people do in hebrew but it comes from down here what's that word it means insight having insight god wanted his people to be intimately acquainted with who he is not just to know about him but to know him intimately but also have insight about him the only way you and i can have insight is to have the holy spirit teach us who he is to know his nature and his character and his love and his kindness if you don't have that if you don't have the holy spirit doing that in your life you're only going to know about god from a distance you can often tell a person who has that insight by how they talk about god and uh there's a maturity that comes from a person who has insight where he can boast and say i understand and i know the lord how could we understand the lord brett who could really get their brain around god well as it turns out that's what the bible's for you and i have the word of god that gives us insight by the holy spirit of who god is his nature his character and that's important that's why what you're doing right now going into the scriptures and learning about the lord more and more we start to have insight about who god is and that's important so he that understandeth and knoweth me but there's three more things about this that are part of the deal the lord nails down three parts of his nature in his character that he says these are the big ones and on these three things he says i delight in these things number one loving kindness he says he says that you know and understand me that i am the lord which exercises loving-kindness judgment and righteousness so loving-kindness brett that's two words well the bible uses it as one word to describe someone who's loving and kind i don't think god is loving why does he destroy people groups in the old testament this is what you'll hear the atheist professor in colleges say the bible is full of weirdness is god supposed to be loved when he wipes out entire people groups of the old testament have you heard that argument if you follow any atheist blog that's the first thing say yeah you guys you christians follow a god that kills people good luck with that and that's kind of their attitude but that's a really short short-sighted view who did god kill or have the jews wipe out you might even say ethnic cleansing who did that actually happen to well let's just take one group for example the malachites those poor amalekites god wiped them out men women children the whole group extinct there are no more amalekites on the earth because of god and if he's love how could he do such a thing i'll tell you it's because he's love he wiped out the amalekites see this is insight that you need to have when you study the scripture let me tell you about the malachites the malachites had 450 years god gave them to repent of their wicked doings how wicked were they as a people well these are typical things that they would do for example they build their houses out of the rock and the mortar but they would they would take one of their children because they worshiped certain gods and goddesses they would take one of their children and when they build their house they would embed one of their live children's in the children in the walls of their house and put mortar over them and they would suffocate and die there and their bones would remain in the wall of their house and they believed that the gods would bless their home with happiness and fertility and wealth because they did that that's just one example i could give you others we talk about kimash or moloch the god that the malachites worshipped where they would take their babies on these iron gods with these iron hands they'd heat the hands to these huge god hands with incandescent heat and then they would lay their babies on the sizzling hands of the god kimash or moloch and sacrifice their babies if that's not bad enough what did the amalekites think of the jews well they hated the jews and they wanted to exterminate the jews they thought the jews were the the worst thing that ever happened to the world and they wanted to wipe out the jews so they're always going to war against the jews you say well big deal one culture against another but it just turns out that god says the jews my those are my children god says these are my people the jews are the only people on the planet that were called the children of god when the malachites were on the earth and the amalekites said we hate your children and we're going to kill them so kill all the jews and god said you know what as a parent i'm not going to allow that to happen and because god is loving he said the amalekites are toast they've been given 450 years to repent they're doing horrible wicked deeds with to their own people let alone horrible wicked deeds to my people what of you parents would say well you're a mom and uh you know so people want to come and kill your children and you just gotta go well i don't want to be mean so go ahead kill my children that's not loving the loving mother would say i will be the mother bear and i will protect my children at all costs that's what god did when it came to the amalekites you see while some people don't like that which who cares god is god and you're not you start to see god's righteousness and his loving kindness even the most dark horrible things of the old testament that people can't get around if you really take an honest look you actually start to see it's one of the most loving and kind things that god could have ever done was to wipe out the amalekites not only loving-kindness that's who god is thankfully but justice some of your bibles like mine says judgment the newer translation said justice and the reason why is the the the word there is probably you know judgment had a little different meaning in old english 1611 king james but the word just justice or judgment the greek party the hebrew word is misput and that word it just means a broad term that means justly governing governing justly boy that's what we need right now kate brown sorry should have said it did it again my bad we need governing that's just and right and you know what uh i believe god is the perfect judge i look forward to the day where ultimately god comes and rules and reigns on this earth but you know what the lord he says i delight in this loving kindness but also good judgment justice you know the lord says i will be the one to govern justly and and even vindicate the innocent and punish the guilty you have to understand these are the things the lord delights in and uh you know that's what's important are you question this is an important question are you guilty or are you innocent because the lord says about justice he's gonna carry out justice in the world and that's important for you to understand if you're not saved if you're not a christian you are still in the guilty category and god is going to come and execute just justice on the earth for all that are guilty that's why we as christians are saved not because we deserved it or earned it but god says i want to forgive you of your sins and i'll put you in the not guilty category if you let me take your sin upon you from you and so jesus came died on the cross for your sins and anybody who confesses with their mouth and believes in the lord jesus christ and says i accept the work of the cross then your sins were put from you excuse me on to jesus who died on the cross for our sins excuse me it's that coronavirus kicking in excuse me just spraying it to all you unmasked people um yeah so so the lord says i want to have justice but i want you to be forgiven and be saved i hope you're saved i hope you're in the not so guilty category uh because uh that's comes only to the believer loving kindness judgment and then linked to that justice is righteousness righteousness these are the things the lord exercises these are the things god delights in righteousness the the hebrew word for that is which means that which is right the idea of conforming to a standard or what is the norm and god says here's my standard here's my norm and the world says no here's my standard and here's my norm but the lord doesn't delight in the world standard the lord delights in his standard that's important in a day where the standards of the world are very much in conflict with the standards of god if you want to be a person who can boast in something don't boast in your wisdom your wealth your power boast in that you know the lord and that you know him in these three areas that he's kind and loving that he's just and that he requires righteousness boast that you know this that the lord is good and that he's going to make wrongs right and he's going to carry out justice in the world know this and if there's one thing you can be proud of it's that now some of you say brett okay so in these things i delight saith the lord of hosts this is what the lord says i wonder if you and i delight in the same things you know we we can delight in our wealth or our power or our wisdom but that's faltering that's failing but if you delight in the lord man i wonder if some of us need to take some of our delight off of social media or the news i wonder if some of us need to take our delight off of even some of the good things like our hobbies and things that we focus on and say you know what as for me i'm going to choose to boast that guess what i have an intimate knowledge of the lord i know him personally and i and i know that he's given to loving-kindness and justice and righteousness and i'm going to live with that delight as well the things that delight the lord that's going to delight me have you ever seen a good couple a good married couple one of the things that happens if you see a really good marriage is the couple starts acting like one another you could almost say they're like a brother and sister in some ways because they start to live life and think the way they do think like the other and and they're they they're synced up and they're in lockstep that's the good marriage and in the same way you and i need to be that way the lord says i delight in this and you can boast that you know and understand me intimacy and insight you know the lord so it leaves the final question how do you have a personal relationship with the lord first you got to be saved you've got to repent of your sins and confess your need to be forgiven and accept and say lord i accept the cross jesus christ that he died on the cross for my sins second as you're saved and you're headed for heaven praise the lord by his grace you're saved not by your works but works will follow them that believe so once you become a christian you'll start to draw near to the lord and make sure that you develop and further your relationship to know the lord intimately you can do that through prayer through reading of the word you can have that with fellowship with other christians and that that draws you nearer to the lord it's called koinonia in the greek it's a word that means that we're fellowshipping around christ but prayer the word worship in song giving of service of time and our energies and our efforts and our resources these are ways to just invest in the lord but did you know there's one single act that is the greatest and most intimate act a christian can have with the lord and it's not um singing a worship song it's funny how the narrative today is the most intimate you see these young people at these big worship events and i'm not saying they're bad not all of them but some of these are just very passionate and a lot of these worship songs they sound like you're singing to your girlfriend or your boyfriend and you're like are we singing the lord are we singing to my girlfriend which one i kind of forgot um because they're very passionate very intimate um and i get what people are trying to do there but the bible doesn't even really ask us to do that as it turns out but this intimacy that we need with the lord doesn't come through a passionate worship song about the what's that one line um a sloppy wet kiss remember that worship song that's out there i'm not on board with that one yeah um that's not that's not a good line whoever wrote that i think a lot of churches change it to a passionate kiss or something something like that but no that's not the most intimate thing you can have with the lord you want to know what it is it's communion jesus told us that we are to do this often in remembrance of him and that is to go to the table of the lord and to eat of the bread and to drink of the cup now the catholics they say when you have the bread as it goes into your mouth it becomes god's literally jesus's body transubstantiation is what it's called and then when you drink the wine it becomes literally the blood of christ and that's what they believe the protestants well we've kind of dumbed the whole thing down oh it's just a symbol we do it rituals ritualistically and okay brad cup got it we're good to go i think both are wrong i can't argue biblically that when you take the bread it becomes his body that's just something somebody made up in the catholic church history but i also can't defend chilling it down to where it's just some ritual that's meaningless communion is this intimate act where you draw near to the lord and what you're doing is when you take the bread you're saying lord this bread represents your body and the body of christ is powerful the stripes that were whipped on his back by his stripes what we are healed there's healing power as we eat of this bread it's not just some meaningless ritual there's power as we eat of christ when we drink the cup is it literally becoming the blood of christ no but the blood of christ literally was shed for you and as we drink this we're acknowledging the power of the blood of jesus that it's the power to save and the power to forgive and wash you from your sins what we're about to do as a church in communion is powerful and so i want you to prepare your heart right now i'm going to ask joey to come up and lead us in a song and um and we're going to get our little communion coronavirus free packs out right now get these out if you would if you don't have one by the way the some of the leadership is going to come down the aisle here and they'll get you all set up if you need something just let them know give them a wave and they'll they'll get you set up but let's prepare our hearts because this is a time where you can meet the lord intimately and do what he asked us to do he said do this often in remembrance of me and this is between you and the lord this is a time where you can draw near to him so we'll all eat and drink together in just a minute let's go enjoy i want you to start us out a little bit when my heart is torn asunder and my world just falls apart lord you put me back together there is hope beyond the suffering joy beyond the tears peace in every tragedy love that conquers fears i have found redemption in the blood of christ my body might be dying but always if you would just uh you peel the first layer the clear layer back on your little thing here and remove the piece of bread and i want to tell you that this little bread reminds us of what jesus did the nails went through his hand the nails went through his feet the nails should have been through ours when you think about it we're the ones that deserve the punishment the penalty of our sins but jesus said i'll substitutionarily take your place so when we take this bread this is just reminding us of jesus his body that was brutally beaten but it also is a reminder of his power the power over sin the power to help us through things you know we were talking about intimacy with christ this is us saying lord we want you in us in our lives and so this this outward sign of eating is sort of an inward symbol of something that's true that it's christ in you that's your hope of glory so we can we can say lord fill us up today and know that our sins are forgiven and that his body took the pit for us and so lord i thank you so much for this bread as we remember what you did on the cross dying being bruised and beaten lord beaten beyond recognition as it says there we thank you for taking our hit and the penalty so we eat this with thanksgiving fill our lives as we eat this bread fill us up you're the bread of life you're what we need and we eat and thankfully eat of you lord in jesus name let's eat of the lord and together have turned morning to dancing [Music] you have covered me with the grace here will last a moment but life with you will last cause always is hope beyond the suffering joy beyond the tears peace in every tragedy and love that conquers [Music] [Music] it's true our body's dying because of sin it's just the truth but we have eternal life through jesus christ our lord i love that big old fisherman peter who knew jesus personally intimately but of the things that he saw most precious it's interesting that he said this i'll read to you and we talked about our wealth and our you know what value it has check this out it says peter says for as much as you know that you were redeemed that means bought back with not corruptable things like silver or gold from your vain conversation received by traditions of your fathers but with the precious blood of christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot it's it's the blood of christ that was that which washes away our sin and that's why peter says it's the precious blood of christ lord i thank you for this cup that we are about to drink knowing that our sins are washed away that each one of us can get up out of this chair and this room and know that that we've spent intimate time with you acknowledging what you've done for us and being thankful as we drink this cup wash away our sins lord give us a new hunger and a thirst after righteousness and bless your congregation lord as we do this in jesus name we pray and let's drink of the lord together and this world has been reborn oh i'll be there or beside my savior [Music] let's all stand and sing that chorus out there is hope beyond the suffering joy beyonce [Music] and i have found redemption in the blood of christ and my body might be die but always [Music] go cause there is hope beyond the suffering join me on the tears peace in every tragic love that conquers me i have found redemption in the blood of christ my [Music] [Music] always be alive well that's true we thank you for the grace that you've shown the grace that you freely give that that did come as a price but coming to your table this is such a free thing that we're blessed by father so as we go our way now we just have that joy on our on our lips in the forefront of our mind not fear not a people of fear but people of love and of grace as we've been given may we be giving grace to other people too we love you father and in jesus name we pray all god's people said amen hey see you guys in a few weeks you guys are dismissed [Music] you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 1,890

Rating: 5 out of 5

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

Id: uL7LIf4ed0I

Length: 74min 33sec (4473 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 17 2020