Highlands Worship Service - September 19, 2021

[Music] hey good morning church it's great to be with you we invite you to stand up and join us as we sing to our great god worshiping for who he is and what he's done if you're watching at home online we invite you to sing along with us let's sing together here we go [Music] you're the reason [Music] [Music] a mighty river flowing from your heart [Music] your presence in this place [Music] you're the reason [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] we want [Music] my show us your glory show us show us your power show us [Music] show us show us [Music] shows [Music] [Music] my we want to see [Music] [Music] oh man we are so excited for what god is going to do this morning as we worship him together thanks for being here you can have a seat hey church we're glad you're here we want to tell you about some great things coming up at highlands as we love god love people and make disciples together next weekend september 24th and 25th is our feed my starving children mobile pack event we'll pack over 185 000 meals to feed 500 kids for an entire year we've asked everyone to sign up in groups this year so be sure your group is confirmed and ready to go but if you don't have a group you can still sign up as an individual or family and we'll get you placed in a packing group most shift times are almost full but we do have a need of volunteers on friday at 1 30 pm we've also been asking you to help us pay for the meals and church you did it you've already given enough to feed over 500 kids for an entire year thank you for your generosity you can still donate to be part of it anything given above and beyond the meals that we pack this year will go directly towards supporting feeding programs with our ministry partners around the world next weekend we'll be having baptisms on sunday morning between services and our outdoor amphitheater if you've put your faith and trust in jesus christ take your next step and be baptized making a public declaration of your faith sign up to let us know and we'll walk you through the process and finally we have a special class and open forum coming up on sunday october 10th as part of our viewpoint series we'll be discussing the rise of transgenderism in our culture and learn what the bible has to say about this issue we'll be welcoming special guest walt heyer who in his past lived a transgender lifestyle but after finding his identity in christ walt d transitioned he's now spent almost two decades ministering to people in the transgender community pointing them towards the hope of the gospel we'll have a morning class offered during both service times as well as an open forum later that night with time for q a details about all this and more are on our website at highlandschurch.org or in your pocket on our smartphone app if you're with us in person stop by infocentral in the lobby we would love to meet you [Music] good morning church how are y'all doing uh hey i want to introduce my friend that guy on the screen right there was not me and it was not jay branson that is a man named peter klein and peter klein is lee is leading our young adults minister that we just started this last year and yeah that's thank you for the one of you said woo peter is awesome awesome awesome he's been a member here at the church for quite a while and has a heart for the gospel and a heart for the lost and we've seen people coming to jesus already throughout that ministry and getting plugged in connected serving in the church excited for him and excited for all that god is doing through that ministry so if you see peter say hi to him get to know him he's an incredible incredible dude if it is your first time with us this morning we are really glad that you're here and if you're trying to take your next step or trying to connect with a local church i'd love to help you do that this morning there's a few different ways you can do that there should be a card in the seat back in front of you you can kind of drop your info on that card and and kind of indicate what information you're looking for something you're trying to do maybe take a next step join a group get discipled serve whatever that might be you can take that card then and drop it in one of the offering boxes on your way out of service this morning or better yet you can take it to infocentral drop it off there get to know somebody maybe even have some questions answered that you might have if none of those are good options for you this morning and and that's cool you can text us if you want to text us and talk to no one face to face you could do that if you'd like to do that just text highlands to 94 000 and we'll start a conversation that way but if you're looking to connect let me encourage you do that this morning before you leave so we can help you take your next step in following jesus church i don't know what your week looked like maybe your week was awesome maybe it was not so hot regardless of what your week looked like let me tell you we're glad you're here and you're in the right place maybe if your marriage relationship is the strongest that it's ever been we're so glad to hear that uh you're in the right place and we're glad that you're here maybe your relationship isn't so hot and you're struggling through some stuff let me tell you uh we're glad you're here and you're in the right place maybe your faith has never been stronger that's awesome we're glad you're here and you're in the right place maybe you're coming in this morning and you have some doubts you're not quite sure about following jesus anymore we're glad you're here and you're in the right place maybe your kids are doing great they're all walking with the lord and changing the world and changing culture like man that's that's incredible we're glad you're here and you're in the right place maybe your kids have actually kind of strayed away from their faith and this morning you come in just having that burden on your heart man we're glad you're here and you're in the right place regardless of what your week looked like we are glad you're here this morning and we truly believe that you're in the right right place maybe you have a bunch of burdens a bunch of baggage i hope you didn't check it at the door because that's not the point this morning we're laying that baggage down at the foot of jesus because we believe he is the person who can do something about it amen so this morning we're going to worship him why because he changes lives we're going to worship him because we know he can he can solve the problems that we face every single day we're going to worship him because he's the one who created us he's the one who sustained us he's the one who loves us he's the one who brought us into relationship with him he's the one who made us right with god so this morning we're going to worship jesus and we're going to worship him through prayer in a little bit we're going to pray together we're going to worship him through studying god's word in the book of romans we're going to worship him through giving out of the finances that he has blessed us with to further the mission and kingdom of god in scottsdale and we're also going to worship him of course through musical worship so i'd invite you now and stand as we continue on in our worship service [Music] he became sick that we might become his righteousness [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] well [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] manuel [Music] [Music] from [Music] jesus [Music] listen [Music] amen what a perfect song of the gospel he became sid who knew no sin that we might become his righteousness we're singing the gospel all morning long and even in a song that is new to us not a new song but new to us so tim you want to tell us about this next tune we're going to do yeah absolutely you know this song has been sung for ages actually for decades and super excited to bring it forth to our church body right this song was originally written in 1886 as a poem by a guy of the name of carl boberg it was originally written in sweden transferred over to germany to russia and we recognize that this song alone has blessed the church family for so long and it's been consistent all throughout recognizing the message of who jesus is and what he has done and it's actually a song by the name of how great thou art and i love this song because for myself i remember singing this as a little boy next to my parents and hearing my dad whale it out like he could and that was fantastic but i love that we can trace this back and recognize that it's been a blessing to the church family for a long time so would you join us this morning as we sing this song [Music] oh lord [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] the universe sing it out if you know it sings my soul [Music] [Music] how great they are [Music] that god is [Music] [Music] to take then it sings my soul [Music] [Music] great [Music] when christ shall come with shouts of acclimation [Music] shall fill my heart then i shall bow [Applause] [Music] my god [Music] this is [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is [Music] this is my soul my savior [Applause] [Music] my [Music] how great thou art how great [Music] [Music] so [Music] i love you lord for your mercy never fails me all my days [Music] of oh goodness of god [Music] i [Music] your voice [Music] i've known you [Music] [Music] oh [Music] of god [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] amen our god is good our god is faithful our god is great i love that combination of songs how great thou art the one who set the moon and the stars in the entire universe in place and yet we look and we say all my life you have been faithful is so unbelievably personal i met a dad once whose daughter was going through just a horrendous medical trial when she was very young and he told me he looked me and said the creator of the universe heard my prayer personal god creator of the universe we want to go to him in prayer in fact there are prayer requests up on the screen that you'll be able to see from our church family folks sitting right next to you in this room or maybe watching online who have sent in requests things that they're going to our creator of the universe for in prayer because they know they know that he's told us that he wants to hear from us that he's got us in the palm of his hand that he's caring for us that he's near to those who are broken-hearted to those who are crushed in spirit these are all things that his word promises whatever it is that folks are walking through whether it be something medical or relationships that are strained looking to god for wisdom guidance what is the next step looking to the lord for protection all of these things we can bring and as thomas said earlier lay at the foot of jesus because he says bring all your burdens because his burden is light we'd invite you to pray for these throughout the week as you feel led or check them out on our website during the week as you're praying we invite you to pray with our prayer team if you've got something heavy on your heart after the service they'll be down here they would love nothing better than to pray with you to go to our king of kings and lord lords on your behalf and pray together will you join me as we pray now our father in heaven god we are so in awe of who you are god you are great the word great doesn't even come close to describing it but all we can do is sing that word in awe and wonder of you as creator of the universe and not just creator but god savior you sent your son to pay the penalty for our sin to give us a way to be made right with you through his death and resurrection and that you would want to hear from us so god we do lift up all the things that we saw scrolling on the screens and also the things that are heavy on the hearts of the people in this room right now people watching online right now people seeking healing father would you provide healing people seeking restoration of relationship with friends or family god did you provide that restoration are people seeking your wisdom and guidance whether it be for a job or a move or whatever their next step is supposed to be maybe feeling so unbelievably lost right now father we pray that you would come right alongside and provide your wisdom and guidance through your word through faithful people that you place in their life around them and god as we turn to your word this morning we can look into it and what it says and see that it's just such a perfect description of what our world experiences and father take to take comfort in knowing that you have provided this little solution through your gospel through your son jesus christ god thank you for that gift open our hearts and our minds as we study your word now that we might not just know about in our head that we might feel it in our heart that we might walk out of here and share it with the people around us as we watch you transform lives for eternity god we give you thanks and praise for all that you're doing we pray all these things in the name of jesus christ and all god's people said amen amen you can have a seat i don't want to keep having these opportunities in my life where an opportunity comes up for me to share the gospel and then i start to but it's met with some resistance so i back pedal and say i don't know not sure what i'm going to say next i didn't prepare for that question i didn't have a great week and they know it i'm not the best example right now [Music] i thought our relationship was going in the right direction but now they're not responding well i don't want this relationship to end so i treat the gospel and the presentation level like it has something to do with me like if i don't say it right if i don't do it right if i'm not living right then it has no power but that's just not the case gospel doesn't need my help friends let's just be unashamed and unleash that power in our life let's pray for opportunities this week let's pray for opportunities to be faithful with the gospel god would you bring some people into my life and you know what's probably going to happen is you're going to realize just how many opportunities you have living the christian life isn't so much about constantly going out to find people but being faithful with the people that god actually brings to you pray for the opportunity look for the opportunity when it presents itself seize that opportunity and be faithful with [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] well good morning church if you have a bible once you open up to romans chapter 1 romans chapter 1 the passage we're actually going to be looking at this morning is going to present an attribute of god that some of you some people in particular but maybe even some of you won't like just thought i would kind of get that out in the open right now the fact that god exhibits something called wrath wrath is god's fair and righteous anger now be careful don't get confused when you hear that statement to to take wrath the wrath of god and put it up next to what like what human wrath is human wrath is is faulty it's full of pride and and you know we we easily get uh offended by things and and we have a sense of a temper about us that we we don't know exactly how far to go and how how not far to go our humanity is all through all of that and so you know it's not perfect but god has never had a moment that he's not perfect god is perfectly loving and perfectly angry at the same time wrath is a portion of god's judgment it's not the final judgment it's not what happens at the end of our lives wrath is something that can happen even now now if you're a believer in jesus christ let me give you some good news jesus's death actually satisfied the wrath of god romans 3 25 tells us that that he made propitiation for our sins by his shed blood that's good news for us the passage here will also present a side of us that god doesn't like he doesn't like it when we ignore him any more than you don't like it when people ignore you he doesn't like it when we suppress his truth we'll talk more about that in a moment and he ultimately doesn't like it when we worship anything other than him now even though chapter one here in romans is predominantly aimed at the gentiles here it is very um it's it's not hard for believers in jesus christ to resolve or go back sort of to following the same pattern that they see in the world around them and that's where you and i as believers need to be very careful and listen to what we're doing here the first three chapters of of romans are very clear that god holds us accountable chapter one is predominantly about the gentiles chapter two uh he holds the jews accountable and you get to chapter three basically tells us he heals everybody accountable because everybody falls short of the glory of god which means you and i cannot ignore him we cannot ignore his rules we cannot suppress his truth so if you have a bible turn to romans chapter one we're going to look at verses 18 through 23 in fact i'd ask you to follow along with me as i read this romans chapter 1 starting in verse 18 it says for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth for what can be known about god is plain to them because he has shown it to them for his invisible attributes namely his namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so that they are without excuse for although they knew god they did not honor him as god or give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things now the passage here i believe is going to answer three questions the first one starts off back in verse 18 the very first verse there and that is that why does god exhibit wrath now go back let me read 18 one more time for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness to suppress the truth notice the first nine words there for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven you know you would think when you take a word like wrath you would think well that must be associated with hell right and yet the passage tells us it comes from heaven why well it's because one of god's attributes is he's holy the attribute wise god is gracious and he's merciful and he's loving he's just he's faithful he's good he's all-knowing he's all-powerful all of those attributes that you and i love so much but one of his attributes is also is that he is holy because he's holy he will judge unholiness verse 18 tells us that it says the wrath of god is revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness now by the way notice here who it's not revealed against it's not revealed against the godly or the righteous we talked about that earlier what god you know did for us you know by giving his son as as a propitiation for our sins it's not against the innocent it's against the ungodly and the unrighteous now inevitably somebody will come up to me and ask the question yeah but what about that person that's on some deserted island out in the middle of nowhere you know is god going to hold them responsible well the answer is if they are truly innocent they have absolutely nothing to fear the problem is is that romans chapter 3 says no one's innocent that's because the passenger will tell us that the very same truth is laid out for them by god whether you're on a deserted island in the middle of the jungle in the middle of a big city you know it doesn't really matter at all all of us have to respond to the revelation that god has given us verse 18 tells us that god's wrath comes because of the people who will suppress that truth they won't do it so what's that mean to suppress the truth suppressing the truth is is picking and choosing what we like or we think is okay and ignoring the rest it's a very common thing to do in the world the world will look at the church and decide hey i like this about the church and i like this about the church i like when they give all their money away i like it when they feed the poor but i don't like that when they talk about morality because i don't want anybody telling me i'm right or wrong incredibly common i mean it's like in every conversation but it shouldn't be true of us as christians and yet at times it is for example let me give an example how how we might do this most most of the time christians would say well when it comes to forgiveness i i know that i'm supposed to forgive people just use this as an example because the bible tells me that colossians chapter 3 verse 13 says the lord has forgiven you you must also forgive jesus in matthew chapter chapter 6 verse 15 says if you do not forgive your trespasses neither will your father forgive you so what if you go not going to do it i don't want to they hurt my feelings and i'm not going to forgive as if there's some special set of rules just for you that you don't have to you know to do what god tells you to do verse 18 calls that the suppression of the truth now i'm not talking about a one-time shot i mean you know all of us make mistakes at times all of us do something that you know well i wish i would have done that differently and i'll probably go back to them and ask for forgiveness i'm sorry i shouldn't have done that i'm talking about something that we do as a general lifestyle paul in romans chapter 12 verse 2 told us that we're not to be conformed to the image of the world what he's really talking about there is don't fall into the world's patterns don't take the same pattern as everybody else in life everybody in your class everybody on your block everybody at work now the second question that he answers here is in verses 19 and 20 and that is why are we without excuse look what he says in verse 19 he says for what can be known about god is plain to them because god has shown it to them for his invisible attributes navally as eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so that they are without excuse now verse 19 is very clear here that the wrath of god comes ultimately because what can be known about god is plain it's evident and verse 20 says that his attributes are clearly perceived in other words god gives all people the knowledge of something greater than them that's there people should be able to look and see that there's something there where did that something come from you know it's one thing to start with you know a mass a big lump of stuff of matter you know like a company can do and say well i'm going to take this wood and i'll turn it into this or i'll take this iron and i'll turn it into this i'll make something but god took nothing he created ex nihilo out of absolutely nothing and created everything and he created it with design and order according to verse 19 the evidence of god's existence is plain he has shown it to us what paul paul's talking about here is something that we typical we tend to call general revelation general revelation is where god reveals enough truth about himself in the universe to make his power and his presence and his intellect and design obvious to all whether you again are in a third world country or whether you're you know in the us now what's really important to understand is this that general revelation is not something that is um i'm going to use a good theological word for you it's not salvific every once in a while just have to use a word like that to prove to you that i went to seminary okay salvific means it won't lead to salvation what are you saying here you're saying that god gives enough truth about him in the universe that i know that he's there but just the knowledge that truth is not enough to save me no it's enough to hold you responsible but that knowledge right there is not enough to save you see that knowledge reveals that there is an all-powerful all-knowing god and that he exists in fact keep your finger here in romans and turn over to the left and go to psalm chapter 19. psalm 19. psalm 19 is written by david david was not only the second king of israel but he was also a prophet psalm 19 says this verse one he says the heavens declare the glory of god the skies above proclaim his handiwork verse two day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge in other words i can look up and i can see all these stars i can see all the things out there and i have to ask a really important question who made that where did that come from how does it all fit together work together why are we on the only planet that sustains life this isn't a hard concept to get everything had to come from somewhere i mean matter doesn't suddenly create itself order and design don't spring up out of you know disorder where did it come from where did the complexity come from the truth is creation requires a designer to take all of the pieces and put them together exactly the right way you know if i took my my watch apart i'm fairly certain that i could probably break this down if i had the right tools or just even a big hammer i could probably you know take it apart and get it down to at least 100 different pieces you know in this watch but let's just say for a second i broke it down just into 10 pieces just 10 pieces if i took those 10 pieces and i placed them in a little shoe box and for the next million years you know you shake it and you keep it warm and protected and you water it a little bit and and you do all those things that watch is never going to come together and never work as it should have worked because it's a complexity issue it requires a clock maker it's like an automobile and an automobile requires a a mechanic and our planet our our our earth it required a planet maker and us as people as human beings when you consider the fact of the dna and the way god has put it together our cell structure or the central nervous system our capacity to reason and to forgive and to communicate thought and feeling it it speaks of design someone made me what romans 1 is telling us is that people should be able to look at the world and see the design see the complexity and come to the knowledge that someone is greater than them created all of this paul says that ability is within every human heart to know that and it's the suppression of that truth of that knowledge that causes god to exhibit his anger tim keller who's one of my favorite authors likened it to something called plagiarism you know most of us when we think of plagiarism we would define that as intellectual property theft for example if you were to write you know uh a book and and someone took that book and they took the same chapters and maybe slightly altered a word here or there and and and they put it all out and they printed it out and they make a profit from it that's plagiarism or let's say that you know you you got your guitar out you heard a song on the radio and you really liked the melody and the chord you know things you got and the whole bit and so you wrote your own little song with the exact same melody and you put almost all the same words in there and you put that out that's plagiarism or if someone comes up with a thought or an idea or a concept and you take that thought or idea or concept without their permission and you make a profit on it that's plagiarism plagiarism is more than just theft it's not giving the glory and the honor to the one who wrote it or said it or thought it up plagiarism is claiming that you came up with the idea yourself you're you're sufficient for only yourself you don't need anybody else you're not dependent on another it's the refusal to give thanks to the one who birthed it by lying and saying you didn't need another's idea what paul is saying here in romans chapter 1 is when we take what god has made and we live like we made it ourselves that is plagiarism on the eternal scale because we are not acknowledging god's power and god's ownership that is suppressing the truth because all the honor and all the glory should go to god alone and it doesn't and the result is verse 20 says they are without excuse which basically means they are defenseless on the judgment day now let me answer a question here that would probably come up what if they do acknowledge it i mean what if there's somebody that again is on one of those islands out in the middle of nowhere what if they do acknowledge wow i look and i see the stars and that cannot happen by itself where did it come from the scriptures are incredibly clear here that god always provides there's a story in acts chapter 8 about a a member of the ethiopian royal you know cabinet and in effect he's the chief financial author he's the cfo uh you know of ethiopia and somewhere along the line he picks up a prophet a a copy of the prophet isaiah and and somehow god moves him to you know to read this and his heart starts beating and god instantly provides a guy named philip there to explain the gospel to him because god provides acts chapter 16 god gives a gives paul a vision of a man in macedonia crying out to know him and so god sends paul historically if you know anything about church history you'll know that that one of the apo i mean yeah one of the apostles thomas not the slager but the apostle okay in this case god sends him to asia in fact i even think that i think he's sort of the apostle of of india if i remember right went there shared the gospel you know started churches now many of those churches you know died off because of repression and because you know the persecution that they went through but the power of god sent people there to bring the gospel grant and adrian and walsh are missionaries in thailand trust me if you talk to grant they never had a desire to go to southeast asia but then they send surrendered their lives to christ and they made themselves available to go where god wanted them to go and god sent them to india and then after he came home in their last visit and were here then god sent them to thailand you may have noticed during our prayer request that it it popped up there some people that are in afghanistan you know what that's about that's about our sister church down in yuma who about three couples from their church heard god speaking to them saying i want you to go and take the gospel to afghanistan and so those couples have gone and they're involved in church planting and sharing the gospel and you know what they're still there they need your prayer they need our protection and god wants the gospel to go out he provides people he moves in people's hearts to go and do that now the third question here is what comes from not honoring god look at verses 21-23 it says for although they knew god they did not honor him as god or give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise he became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things what you get here is you get five results here of not honoring god between verses 18 and 23 the first one of course comes to verse 18 and that is the wrath of god god's fair and righteous anger the second though we've already dealt with that one the second one though comes from verse 21 and that is the they become futile in their thinking in other words they have faulty language or logic feudal means it doesn't work it's full of silly speculations you know so many people today outside of the church will say things like well you know you christians just need to learn to be rational and what they mean by that is you just need to get rid of the the divine the miraculous the supernatural and start living just good solid wholesome lives and yet the bible calls for man's reason to be subject to his revelation you see what does that mean that means god's miraculous intervention into humanity changed everything when god let his son take on human flesh to be born in a major to come to live among us to provide a life and a model for us and then to go to a cross and die for us and then come out of the grave that changed everything everything as a christian i believe god makes the calls in life not me the third result of not honoring god is that their motives are wrong verse 21 says that they have fool their foolish hearts are darkened to say someone has a a dark heart is to say that their motives are bad motive wise you're talking about a group of people according to the passage here that are not going to honor god they won't submit to god they won't obey another one's rules please lord do not let that be us the fourth result of of not honoring god is delusional thinking verse 22 says they claimed to be wise but they became fools delusional means that they're telling themselves what simply isn't true like god's not going to judge my choices morally you're lying to yourself now why would somebody do that well probably because the thought that you and i would have to go and to go onto our knees and before the lord and admit that we were wrong and call his son our savior and our lord doesn't philippians 2 says that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that jesus is lord some people don't want to do that some people don't want to change their lifestyle some people don't want to face the fact that they are just simply sinners verse 22 tells us that they claim at this point to think they are wise but the truth is they're fools now why would seeing god wrong and denying him through the scriptures saying make us a fool because we know according to verse 19 that he's there he's shown to him in his plane it is plain that he is above all that he's created all he sustains all and ultimately he will judge all and we know it in our hearts that it's true so for someone to think well i don't have to answer to anybody that's foolish there's a fifth result of not honoring god and that is worthless worship verse 23 tells us they exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things now what i want you to see here out of this is really important here verse 23 tells us that worship still actually takes place everybody in the world is is is doing this they don't stop worshiping they simply exchange the worship instead of god getting the glory some other thing does because we are created to become worshipers the problem is when i worship anything other than the god of the heavens i become an idol worshiper i actually take the first two of the ten commandments and i'm guilty of those things i'll have a god before our god and i'll make a graven image wrong thinking according to verse 23 leads me away from worshiping the creator to worshiping the creation you see how this could happen how we fail to honor god people's thoughts and feelings and emotions they're all wrong you know normally when we think of idolatry we think of two things and one of the one would be classic idolatry that would be is that maybe you take a piece of wood and you know you've got a really sharp knife and you begin to carve it and you carve out something or other and you that you use at it to sort of you be your deity children of israel did right they took gold and they made a cow a golden calf that became their deity then there's metaphorical you know uh idolatry too like the idol is wealth position fame money things but there's a third description of idolatry which we don't think about a lot but i think the passage here in romans 1 sort of leads us down that way which is way more dangerous spiritually and that is idolatry that comes from suppressing the truth see what do you what are you saying it's idolatry that refuses to accept the revealed god for who he is and so instead what i do is i don't really like the revealed god for who he is so what i do is i begin to fashion and shape god the way i want him to be i call this god shaping i mean think about what an artist does an artist will go and take something and they'll begin to go cut and shape little places too so it's just exactly the way they want it you know of course they'll stand back and maybe they have other people that will look at it and try to see the beauty of the way they want certain things that may be fine for art but that's not who we're supposed to be with god god shaping is creating an image of god that we're most comfortable with but it may not be the image of god as it's revealed here that caused you know the wrath of god to come let me give you an example of how god shaping might look you might say well i believe god is loving and would never judge anyone i'm here to tell you that's the suppression of the truth you are god shaping you want to know why because the last two chapters of the bible revelation chapter 20 and revelation chapter 21 both talk about the fact that one day we will stand before god and give an account so for me to hold that position is just basically saying i don't care i don't like it i'm god shaping what about if i come along and i say well i believe god is accepting of all religions equally he lets them all in because they've all made an effort god shaping you're suppressing the truth i mean think about jesus's own words in john 14 chapter 6 i am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me you may not like that but god shaping it's idolatry could never believe in a god who would send someone to eternal punishment that is god shaping it's idolatry it's common in the world today but the scary part is it's potentially common even in a believer's life you know i'm going to ask the worship team if they'll come back and join me while they're doing that um thomas jefferson was a brilliant politician primary author of the declaration of independence but he clearly was not perfect or sinless um some people believe he was a follower of christ i don't believe he was he was acclaimed to be a theist a theist means i believe that someone higher than me created everything that's what a theist is that doesn't mean that he was a christ follower as he got older one of the things that jefferson did was he took his bible and he actually cut out all references to prayer and all references to anything that was miraculous and that jesus did or virgin birth or anything like that cut it all out of his bible in fact would you show that picture of the jefferson bible you can see here where he's cut things out and they've been removed you can buy a copy of the jefferson bible what the jefferson bible is all about is you living a life that is morally sound a lot of people have come to his defense and they're saying you know all jefferson was trying to do is simplify the bible into a list of do's and don'ts so that he could give it to the native americans they were there and they would know how they should live their life that they would follow this model of jesus being sort of the teacher of morality the problem is the same problem that the pastors in that day had as the pastors of today even have is that would never lead anybody to salvation morality without christ is simply a list of do's and don'ts [Music] it wasn't sufficient that's not how the bible says that we're saved by simply doing the right thing i mean if all of us did the right thing you know if we were all at peace and educated god's heart would still be broken because we're sinners and lost [Music] the bible tells us that we're saved by grace alone through faith alone in jesus alone the god is the creator of all things the sustainer of all things he is the lord he is the savior he is the king he rules the universe and at the same time he is also personal in the fact that god would send his son to the earth and give us his scriptures so that we might know him anything less than seeing him and recognize him and worshiping him for who he is is god shaping and it reveals idolatry because i'm making god into who i want him to be not who he actually is listen we all worship something we were created to worship the question is is your worship true or have you exchanged the truth of god for something that makes you feel more comfortable would you pray with me it's very possible that when you look at your life maybe you never even meant to do it but you have been guilty of god shaping you have so longed and to have god just love everybody and let everything sort of slide and pass that you have let everything in i want to encourage you stop repent tell the the creator the sustainer the ruler of all things that you'll love him and follow him only father i pray that you would move in a very powerful way in our hearts help us to trust in you help us to turn anything that's um short of your glory anything that has caused us to to worship our own thoughts and ideas help us to turn away from those things and to trust in you lord in jesus name amen amen thanks bob you stand and join us as we respond by singing a song of worship about the one true god our only true anchor for this world let's sing together [Music] as an anchor for my soul [Music] you [Music] all my fears [Music] i will trust you there is hope in the promise of the cross you gave everything to save the world and this hope is [Music] and this [Music] there is hope in the you gave everything to save the world [Music] [Music] i want to give him all our worship all our praise he's the only one that's unchanging creator of the universe and person will you sing us out with us [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] folks romans 1 tells us that you and i were created to worship here's my encouragement to you don't exchange the truth of god for a lie and worship anything other than our creator don't let it happen because the world around you is doing it don't let it happen because it sounds like it's so open-minded you worship god god bless you have a great week i love you [Music] [Music] [Music] coming

Channel: Highlands Church

Views: 137

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: Oo2hhuuGI6k

Length: 72min 2sec (4322 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021