Question & Answer Services 2019 | Gary Hamrick & Andy Wagner

it's a little bit different today if you're new this is something we do on an annual basis and it's an opportunity for it to be a little bit more interactive how about we open up with a word of Prayer and II want to pray as we begin god we thank you for an opportunity to come into your house and the opportunity to worship you with our friends and family and the church body and now we just pray that we would hear from you we would learn from your word and that we would grow closer to you and have an opportunity to learn more today than we knew yesterday so we thank you for this opportunity pray that we would make the most of it in your name we pray amen amen by the way your questions may not always get answered in this service they might get answered in the next two services we'll try to string all these services together when we archive it so that you'll be able to see all the different questions that came in over the course of the three services so well I've been doing all this talking do you have any questions there you want to jump in and take all right one of the questions that we get a lot that is here on the screen what is the most effective way to witness at school or at work so the idea would be I guess for any of us we are a light and a dark world and so the question is how can I be a good witness in the environment that I'm that I'm in one thing I think about when I think about being a witness a lot of times we think about what should we say and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves I gotta say the right thing to my co-workers say the right thing to my classmates I've got to defend myself we feel like we have to have a doctorate in theology so that we can like defend our faith to the fullest I think one of the best ways to be a witness obviously is to follow Jesus you're gonna lose your witness really quick if you're not a follower of Jesus if you're not trying to live like him then no one's gonna consider you as a follower you should be distinct from your classmates from your co-workers and the way that you follow Jesus and then secondly as your witness I would just really encourage people to listen to ask questions to try to get a sense of where they're coming from what what is their faith what do they believe a lot of times again we put the pressure on ourselves to defend they listen and try to get a sense of where they're coming from usually there's a reason why people don't follow Jesus and if we can find out what that is I mean obviously you think about it were in this intellectual debate with someone trying to convince them to follow Jesus and convince them to study the scripture and they've made a decision when they were 10 years old to stop following Jesus because their mom died of cancer so unless we listen and find out what their story is and find out where they're coming from we probably won't be a very good witness so pray be a good listener ask questions and follow Jesus and I think usually that's the the best way to be a witness in your environment sometimes I'm gonna refer you to the teaching library if I know that I covered this rather than just restating some things but somebody asked a question about how where the books of the Bible chosen how can we have faith that the New Testament God's Word when there were so many human decisions involved in its conflict and it's I think a person meant compilation and translation this question is based on concerns expressed by a seeking friend so I want to just ask you to go you can go on our website of course on chapel net one of the tabs at the top is teaching so you go to the teaching library and then you can search for any particular teaching and when I was in someone 19 probably two years ago psalm 119 the longest chapter in the Bible right at the center of your Bible has a lot to say about the Word of God the law of the Lord and Scripture in general and I took a whole Sunday to just talk about how Scripture came to be how it was selected why we have certain books in the Bible that we do why Catholics have some different books in their Bibles than what we do and and so I probably would rather refer you there than to give a too long of an answer to this question so you can just archive on the teaching library psalm 119 and you can probably find a lot better answers than that I could answer in just a couple of minutes somebody else asked how can we as Christians best be a voice in politics in a way that comes across as the light of Christ and not just being perceived as against things and that's a good question unfortunately I think it's going to be somewhat unavoidable in in seeming that you are against things when in fact some things politically and culturally are trending in a direction that is contrary to God's Word and and and thus contrary to the values that we hold so when we start speaking about things because those things are contrary to God's Word or our values that are aligned with God's Word it will just naturally come across like we're just against everything that's going to be unavoidable I think you know one of the most important things is that you always come across in a spirit of meekness and with love you're not you're not trying to just quote win an argument you're trying to represent Christ and you have to always be mindful that even in political or cultural discussions with friends neighbors and co-workers you want to be sure that you're coming across in a way that is a good example of Christ you know don't blow your witness you know just for the sake of trying to get across truth I I taught several years ago you know in relation to same-sex marriage and one of the things I think the church has to be careful about and and I think this falls in the category of political things and cultural things is is maintaining what the Bible particularly the New Testament always speaks about in in twin terms grace and truth grace and truth you know when Paul wrote most of his epistles that it contained that twin terminology grace and truth grace in truth and it's always in that order you will not find ever in the Bible where it says truth and grace it always says grace and truth so grace has to lead in order for truth to ever really be received sometimes as Christians we want to we want to present truth and we want to make sure we know we have people know what we think is right and so truth takes the lead and then maybe we try to clean it up with grace but it's not supposed to be in that order they're supposed to come across graciously we're supposed to come across not argumentatively not abrasively but in the grace of Christ with the example of Christ and and then still you know speak truth but you have to wrap it in the love of the Lord it has to be preceded by grace otherwise people aren't really going to be interested in in your truth oh yeah I'm and II have a question about the Holy Spirit and so it's it's a good question I think it's something we should all be aware of the Holy Spirit when Jesus went to heaven he told his disciples I'm gonna leave with you the Holy Spirit so when we think about the Holy Spirit it's um it's what dwells the part of the Trinity that through Wells with us on earth and it's easier to understand who the Holy Spirit is by understanding his role so when you look through Scripture there's a lot of different roles that the Holy Spirit has in our life and so we the Bible wants us to rely on the Holy Spirit that lives within us the Holy Spirit guides us it leads us it teaches us it convicts us so when you think about I'm when I'm convicted of sin when I tell a lie or when I steal something I'm convicted that's the Holy Spirit convicting us but it's not just conviction the Bible says the Holy Spirit can encourage us it can assist us when we're weak it can remind us so think about things I remembered a a song that I used to sing when I was like eight ten years old the other day a Bible song and was singing that song and I just think the Holy Spirit can remind us of things of Bible verses that we forget songs worship songs that we've forgotten and so it can be that still small voice that just says no God is with you no God does love you God does care about you that can be the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives so a lot of times when you think about the Holy Spirit you think mysterious mystical but when you understand the role of the Holy Spirit makes a lot more sense someone who is with us to lead us teach us guide us assist us pray for us in convict us and remind us of those things that we've learned sometimes long ago so that's the role of the Holy Spirit in the life and it's available for believers that's the the role of the Holy Spirit for for you when you've made a decision I'm gonna follow Jesus he said I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit to help you while you're on this earth so I'll follow up with that question because there's another question about the gifts of the Spirit like healing are the gifts of the Spirit like healing and speaking in tongues still available to us today and so my answers gonna differ from what you might hear at other churches that would otherwise be known theologically as cessationists now when I say that there are some churches that are cessationist in doctrine which means that they believe that the gifts of the Spirit ceased at the end of the Apostolic age in other words when the last of the Apostles died those particular signs and wonder gifts ceased at the end of that of that era the Apostolic age we're not cessationist here at Cornerstone we still believe that gifts of the Spirit are available as God distributes those gifts not everybody has every gift and any specific gift that God chooses to give is God's determination there's not one particular gift that marks a person as having been filled with the spirit there's a reason in your Bibles that 1st Corinthians chapter 13 is sandwiched between 1st Corinthians 12 and 14 chapter 12 lists some of those signs and Wonder gifts of the Spirit and chapter 14 talks about its proper use and nestled right between those chapters is what the Bible what we refer to in the Bible as the love chapter because Paul writes in first Corinthians 13 if I you know speak in the tongues of men and of angels but I have not love I'm just a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal I'm just making noise first Corinthians 13 is really about love that is the real sign that someone has been baptized by the Holy Spirit but otherwise we believe yes the gifts are still available today now why is it some churches say there and why is that we say they are still available it really hinges on one verse in your Bible and sadly this debate has come down to one verse and it's 1st Corinthians chapter 13 and it is verse 10 and then says but when perfection comes the imperfect disappears so there in first Corinthians 13 is talking about different gifts of the Spirit and then it says but when perfection comes the imperfect disappears so cessationists believe that that verse refers to the completion of the Canon of Scripture that when the Bible was completed and the Apostolic age ended then the imperfect gifts pass away but if you look at the context of that passage you also see that Paul talks about how when I was a child I spoke like a child I thought like a child you know I acted like a child but when I became a man I put childish ways behind me and and he says now I know in part we have limited knowledge on earth but he says then I shall know fully as I am fully known so he speaks about a time when he's going to be in the presence of the Lord all believers will eventually be in the presence of the Lord and then he says and then when perfection comes in perfectly imperfect passes away in other words when we are in our perfected state in the presence of the Lord then the gifts of the Spirit are no longer necessary why do why do I need the gifts of healing when I'm standing in the presence of the healer you know why do I need interpretation when now I know in part but then I shall know fully viz I'm fully known when we're in the presence of the Lord in our perfected state there no need for the gift for the body of Christ to demonstrate the gifts of the Spirit because we are in the presence of the giver of all gifts and so at that point the imperfect gifts pass away so it depends if you believe that first Corinthians 13:10 refers to the completion of the Bible or the completion of the Saint in perfection in God's presence as to how you interpret whether the gifts are available today we here at Cornerstone believe that that verse in its context refers to the completed state the perfected state of the believer in the presence of the Lord thus until that day when we're all before the Lord the gifts of the spear are still available today now again I would refer you to the teaching library on Acts chapter 2 when when I taught about Pentecost and the gifts of the Spirit or first Corinthians twelve thirteen or fourteen because there's proper uses of the gifts and improper uses the you know the reason for certain gifts and and their function so I don't want to take time to go into all of that but in terms of their availability they are still available today and I'll take one more question to give you the more time if you want to look up something Andy but somebody asked are the Jews still God's chosen people after rejecting the Christ I would refer you to Romans 11:25 and 26 on that because in Romans 11:25 Paul says that Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles have come in and then next verse Romans 11:26 and then all Israel will be saved what Paul tells us there is that yes the majority of Jews have rejected Jesus that does not mean that they are no longer God's chosen people in the sense that God still has a redemptive purpose for them he did in the past by bringing Jesus through the Jewish race and he has a plan in the future for the Jewish people because Romans 11:26 says and thus all Israel will be saved in other words there will come a time when Christ returns and the Jews who have survived the Tribulation Period Zechariah chapter 14 talks about how they will look on the one that they appears and they will weep like that like those weeping at Rama and in other words they will then be convicted that the Messiah that they had rejected for all these years is actually the Messiah and that they will put their faith and trust in Jesus so there will come a day when when all Israel will be saved it doesn't mean every single Jew it just means at that time when Christ returns those who the remnant of the Jewish people who look upon the one that they pierced I mean in a sense we've all pierced Jesus and they will then put their faith and trust in him so God's not done with the Jewish people there are thousands of Jews who are still coming to faith in in jeez Christ you know the the touring company that we use when we go to Israel is sorrel Tours shmulik as Sammy shmaaya who's father started the company planted 70 messianic congregations throughout Israel why because many Jews are coming to faith in Jesus Christ and that is a wonderful thing that is happening but just because they have in the past and presently most Jews reject Christ does not mean that God has rejected them they've only experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles come in God is giving a window to the to the Gentiles for us to be able to get saved then he deals again with Israel and brings them to a place of saving knowledge so he's not done with them we got a couple questions on healing and just the idea of if I'm sick does that suggest that I don't have enough faith so we would teach that even Christians get sick sometimes so the idea would be there isn't any formula in Scripture that talks about if you do this this and this you'll never get sick or you won't have ever have any disease or physically God will take care of you so we don't believe that you have to have enough faith or there's a formula when Jesus would heal people he would often use different methods we actually believe that was intentional so that we wouldn't just follow a certain method every time there's a story in the Gospels where Jesus uses mud to heal a blind man some of you remember that story if that's the way jesus healed everyone in the New Testament you realize how expensive mud would be we would all be looking for that healing mud where do I get that healing mud is it come out of the Jordan River what is that that's that special healing mud that can heal me of all my sicknesses so the idea is we have to be very careful that we have faith that God can heal us because he can he can do anything but we don't have faith that he necessarily will because we can't necessarily determine what God does and doesn't do sometimes he heals sometimes he doesn't even in the New Testament when we go to to Israel we go to the Pool of Bethesda a very large pool the size of an Olympic swimming pool Jesus goes the story tells us and he goes and he heals one man well when you read that scripture the Pool of Bethesda had hundreds maybe even thousands of sick people around that pool but he decided to heal one why did he decide to heal one we don't really know Jobe when his family was killed Jobe asked God five times why why did this happen why do I have why did this why am i suffering why is this going on God didn't answer him the biggest question for job was can you still trust me even when things don't go your way and so we realized as Christians we rarely grow when we're comfortable so a lot of times sickness things that are happened in our lives that cause suffering also draws us closer to God and I think God allows that in our lives sometimes for an actual purpose to actually bring us closer to him jesus said in this world you will have trouble but take heart I have overcome the world it would be very difficult for scripture to have any purpose for encouraging Christians to persevere through suffering if Christians were never to suffer so we don't believe that you can have if you have a certain level of faith you will never suffer in this world and so you need to be careful with that mentality or that thinking that I'm sick or I have this chronic illness maybe it's because I don't have enough faith we wouldn't believe that at all and don't believe that the scripture teaches that one one other quick question that we got in and this is a this is a common question as well we have online services most of you realize that you could have stayed home and watched online in your pajamas or if you go on vacation or you travel online we have teachings online and you can watch live or you can download our teaching and you can watch any service usually download the services downloaded by the next day that's a wonderful opportunity for people who aren't here to be able to listen to God's Word and and to hear his teaching the question that came in just said hey we live in Leesburg what do you think about us just staying home and and watching the service as tempting as they that maybe we would encourage anyone who lives in the Loudoun County area to come to Cornerstone we think there are so many benefits and in in the book of Hebrews it says don't stop meeting together the assumption is there's something when the body of Christ comes together there's there's encouragement there's opportunities for prayer with other believers you meet other new Christians you meet other believers and and there's something that happens when we are together with other believers that you're not going to be able to get from your couch obviously that opportunity is available and we don't want you to feel guilty if you use that opportunity when you're sick or when you're traveling or when you're on vacation but we would encourage everyone if you're in the area come come to Cornerstone opportunities to serve opportunities to to greet others opportunities to be a part of the body of Christ and and God talks about how important that is and doesn't doesn't want us to stop meeting until we're not able to do so and so that would be the barometer if I'm not able to come in I get the advantage of watching from home if I'm able to I should come in so that I can be in fellowship with other believers so somebody writes a question in from Genesis it seems impossible for Noah to get a pair of every animal on the ark how can you believe that these stories are true aren't they just moral lessons I would encourage you to check out a book that you could probably still get on Amazon it might be out of print now but it's called the beginning of the world by dr. Henry Morris and it's a scientific look at the first 10 chapters of Genesis and it is it is believed that at the time of the flood there were only an estimated 18,000 species of animals in the world at the time and if you took a pair of 36,000 you could get 36,000 animals on 1/3 of the ark so look it just becomes a matter of what do you believe there are there are things in the creation story that obviously take faith to believe but that is true about anything that is a scientific theory you know I've quoted this often just to given an example of how when when people believe that evolutionary theory is more believable than the creation story quoting dr. Francis Crick who was one of the co discoverers of the double helical shape of the DNA and dr. Krick who's not a believer in an attempt to answer the question that has constantly confused scientists and the question is what is the origin of life how do you explain the origin of life dr. Francis Crick said quote we should concede that the earth was seeded with spores from aliens and quote now that's a Nobel prize-winning scientist who said my explanation for the origin of life is that it was seeded by aliens okay so in other words you're gonna have to just decide what do you believe you believe that I mean that that's ludicrous to me or do you believe the Genesis account of creation and so I don't think that the flood and Noah and all of that was just good moral lessons I think that the these are things that actually happened but because none of us was there we accept things by faith all the time and so that's a story that that is a story that you just simply would accept by faith just like you would accept a lot of other things that scientists are expecting you to accept by faith too that you know we're all here because we we crawled out of the pond and then we sprouted legs and then we ended up walking hunched back for millions of years until finally we straightened up got a briefcase and got a job I mean when I was a kid when I was a kid you know you know the progressive you know that that pictorial thing about the origin of life and then man and and you know he went from just this little amoeba and then crawled out and then looks like a little tadpole in Sprott legs and then you know and then it's a chimpanzee and and then they get less hairy and and stand more upright and then the last guy was walking for the brief remember that I mean I'm old enough to remember that whole picture scheme and and I just remember sitting there in school thinking how do you go from crawling out of a pond to getting a job with a briefcase I don't know how that works that takes a lot of faith to believe well so word you want exercise faith the Bible account is also something that you need to exercise faith to believe and I'll answer one more question how can the separation of church and state versus voting with your faith go hand in hand so I have mentioned this on many occasions but this maybe somebody is new to the church so I'm gonna say this again there is no statement in the Constitution Declaration of Independence or Bill of Rights that talks about the separation of church and state that phrase is simply not in any of the founding documents of our nation we have been told to believe that even though it's not in any of our founding documents it was found one time in a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to some Baptists in Danbury Connecticut and they had a question about how we as Christians should influence the political world as Christians and how we should be involved and Jefferson wrote about using that phrase of separation of church and state to actually encourage the Baptist's to recognize that the wall of separation was to keep the government out of the church but not so that the church would stay out of government and we've just gotten it completely backwards and people believe that that separation separation of church and state phrase is somewhere in our founding documents it's not it was an an offhanded comment that Jefferson made to bapt into the Baptist Convention Danbury Connecticut and but it's become like this foundational truth in our culture that has been embraced and it just simply is not a part of our foundational documents and so the separation of church and state is is really something that is contrived the First Amendment protects the church from the invasion of government into the church but we've turned it upside down and we think it really means that the church should not be involved in government what happened to muzzle the church was something in 1954 I believe was the date the Johnson amendment when then-senator LBJ the Senator Johnson before became president introduced legislation in the Senate that got passed the Johnson amendment that muzzled pastors from endorsing candidates from the pulpit but that that is an unconstitutional law it's never been tried it's never been tested I have some attorneys in our church who want me to keep pushing the envelope because they want to take it to the Supreme Court and get it overturned and and I'm just not what really wanting to be a guinea pig for the Supreme Court but at the same time I'm not gonna hold back from what was the original intent of our founding fathers freedom of speech the church being protected from the invasion of government not the other way around so you know listen don't believe the lie just continue to share your values and make your faith something that governs your life in all aspects of your life and you know me if you've been here long enough you know just really take advantage of the freedom that we have and in our great Republican and let your your values and your voices be heard so be involved right we got a question what advice would you give to a new Christian so the idea of being a new Christian someone who's made a decision I'm gonna follow Jesus I'm gonna repent confess acknowledge my sin ask God to forgive me of my sin and I'm gonna make a decision to follow him and the question is what advice would you give that person I think it's it's the same advice that I would give to all Christians so it's the gospel the good news of Jesus Christ regardless if you're new in your faith in the first few months or you've been a Christian for 30 years the gospel is still the same and still is important so when we think about new Christians we look back in Acts chapter two when there were new believers that were converted the Bible says they devoted themselves to the teaching of God's Word they devoted themselves to fellowship with other believers and they devoted themselves to prayer so those are the type of things that are important for a new believer and would be important for someone who's again been a Christian for thirty years of their life you have to study God's Word and the reason we do that here at Cornerstone is because we need to know who God is what is his character he's not necessarily familiar to us he doesn't necessarily make sense to us his grace his forgiveness his love for us doesn't necessarily make sense we have to study it we have to learn it we have to understand it so that we can believe it in this world and then they devoted themselves to prayer that just that idea that I'm connecting with God that God wants a personal relationship with me I can talk to them just like you would have a relationship when you talk to your friends and then that sense that the Christians need to be connected to other people we shouldn't be isolated we need to connect with others we need to share with others when we connect with others we realize that we're not alone we realize that our sin is not our only our sin Satan wants to isolate us and make us believe we're the only ones that struggle were the only ones that doubt were the only ones that get tempted and then when we connect with others like they did in the early church they found out we're not alone we deal with the similar things we can walk through this with with one another that's why we encourage everyone in the church to get involved in a small group or a care group so that you can get together with other people and go through life kind of journey through life with other people so advice to new Christians would be the same advice to every Christian study God's Word pray and and connect with with other believers all right we have time probably for just I'll hit two more and then we'll be done this is probably a follow-up to the other question about Israel why do we support Israel if they are so unjustly violent against their adversaries I don't want anybody to think that we support everything Israel does any more than I support everything America does right I mean there are plenty of laws in America that I'm opposed to there are plenty of things that we do as a country ourselves that I'm uncomfortable with and opposed to there are plenty of things that Israel does that I would disagree with I'm speaking in broader terms that God has not forsaken the Jewish people as a race of people as a as a nation in general I'm sure there are plenty of things that God is bothered about concerning Israel like he's bothered about concerning America and every country so this is not some carte blanche like everything Israel does is fine because they're God's chosen people and they could just do whatever they want there's blood on their hands there's blood on our hands there are different things that have happened in the course of time in history that are egregious but I'm speaking in general terms about God's ultimate purpose still for the Jewish people and for the nation of Israel that he that he loves and and that doesn't mean that that God accepts or or that we accept everything that Israel is done in terms of their actions against certain adversaries so the last question I'll try to tackle real quickly here because we're out of time is there's this we are a military family we have served in every war since the founding of our beloved homeland of America we have a great deal of blood on our hands will we still be welcomed home in heaven having taken many lives in mortal hand-to-hand combat so there is a obvious commandment in the Bible it's commandment number six you shall not murder murder is different biblically than killing it's not it's not semantics they're actually different words in the Bible for murder and for killing and in Romans chapter 13 where it talks about how God has established government as a means of authority it says in Romans 13 he says for rulers hold no terror for those who do right but for those who do wrong do you want to be free from the fear of the one in authority then do what is right and he will commend you for he meaning those in authority the government free is God's servant to do you good but if you do wrong be afraid for he does not he does not bear the sword for nothing he is God's servant an agent of wrath to bring punishment on on the wrongdoers so I've had this conversation with many people who serve the military who serve in law enforcement who in the line of duty in serving their country or serving their community in military or law enforcement have had to kill that's different from murder and so you know all death is regrettable but in terms of what is sinful and what is wrong murder is wrong murder is sinful killing in the line of duty or on behalf of government that you are serving again you know no war is pleasant all death is terrible in that sense but that is not a sin when it is done in in the context of serving your country or performing a duty in the line of duty the the government bears the sword this is what Romans 13 is talking about and for that reason in the line of duty Orange or in military sometimes the regrettable thing happens in terms of killing but that is different for murder so I don't want this person to feel like you know having served the country and hand combat now they won't be welcome to heaven if you know Christ is your Savior that's how you get welcome to heaven if you are serving your country that's not an unpardonable sin I might obviously leave you know there's PTSD there's regret there's remorse there's all that kind of stuff you might have to deal with but it is not a mortal sin when you're doing it in the line of duty or serving your country I got a question just as simple as why pray and so I like this question because I've had to struggle with this question personally just a sense of if if God already knows what's in my heart if he already knows the future then really what what is prayer all about and so it I think it's important for us all to realize prayer isn't just for me to ask for things it's just this sense of when I need something I pray when I'm in trouble I pray there is a sense of that God does ask us to come to him just like children come to a parent but there's a sense in scripture that talks about how prayer brings us closer to the Lord it builds our relationship with God Jesus obviously prayed and yet he knew all those things as well so he was modeling for us just this sense of we pray to humble ourselves because we realize we don't have all the answers so it's a humbling thing to pray we pray to build our relationship with God and we also pray important part of prayer is the aspect of listening when you're when you're quiet before the Lord so sometimes when we think of prayer we just think of talking prayer can also be that time when we're quiet before the Lord and we're allowing God to talk to us as well so there's a lot of different reasons to pray but I like the question and I think we should be we should consider that because if we only think of prayer in just terms of when I need something it will really limit the amount of time that we actually spend quiet before the Lord so we look at it as a way just to actually build our faith humble ourselves before him and and grow and then listen to them because he's actually the one that has the answers okay why don't we just jump right into the battle here because we're getting a lot of questions about President Trump and impeachment and a biblical response to all that and so here's a question do you agree with Christianity today that President Trump should be impeached I'm gonna be familiar with the article of Christianity today ran okay I heard that they ran the story and so I quickly read through it I did you know just kind of scanned it you know Christianity today is something that Billy Graham founded and his son Franklin has come out denouncing the magazine and this article so let me start by giving a little biblical perspective to government and to in particular a person that we have as our president in the Bible I'm amazed at the different people that God used God used some pretty righteous people and God used some pretty unrighteous people to accomplish his purposes someone that I think is a parallel that I actually fought before he was elected or right around the time that that President Trump got elected in the Bible is King Cyrus now if you're not familiar with King Cyrus he was a a pagan Persian king he rose at the time of the medo-persian Empire after they defeated the Babylonians remember King Nebuchadnezzar was a Babylonian king whom God used he also was a pagan man that it seems maybe at the end of the book of Daniel of the middle of Book of Daniel that we might seem that the kid Narron have happen it seems that Nebuchadnezzar has a conversion experience not sure well only time will tell and when we get to heaven and if not the cogniser is there but a couple of kings later his Cyrus Cyrus was not a believer did not worship God but God used this man to accomplish God's purposes and he caused King Cyrus to be favorably disposed to the Jewish people such that Cyrus ish use this edict to allow the Jews to return to their homeland after they had been kept in captivity in Babylon for 70 years and the thing about Cyrus is that here he's a man who was not close to the Lord but a man that God used as a tool to bring a benefit and a blessing to the Jewish people so using that as like an historical parallel I see Trump in a similar light you know I don't I know some people who know him pretty closely I was at a dinner about a week before Christmas with Terry and about a dozen people who were part of the presidential evangelical advisory people I don't normally hang out with people whose theology I don't even agree with Paula White was at the next table Jenson Franklin was at the next table and after the dinner was over terry and i and tony perkins and his wife were taken by The Secret Service to have a private meeting I can't even tell you who but it was one of the top cabinet members in president Trump's cabinet and at a time of about a half an hour to 45 minutes of just prayer and meeting and private discussion so I I know enough of people who are close to know that this president is the most favorably disposed to Christians and the evangelical community than any president in my lifetime I just know that as a fact now that doesn't justify all of his behavior that doesn't justify some of these reckless tweets that doesn't justify some of his I think it's pretty well documented you know behavior in the past and some moral issues that I that I would have issue with okay but so so it is with Cyrus in the sense that God can use human vessels to accomplish God's purposes through imperfect people who don't even necessarily claim a relationship with him that God causes to be favorably disposed to God's people for the Advancement of God's purposes you see how that works so when people so when Christianity today comes out about the impeachment and other people are you know like Trump haters and like you know why isn't evangelical community more outraged about this or about that you know my feeling in general is that if if God is using a human vessel to advance God's purposes and causing causing him to be favorably disposed to Christians and values that are important to Christians I I see God's hand in that and so I'm not one to just quickly dismiss now the impeachment thing you know that's that's up we have a we have a tool for this there's a process to go through the house gets to accuse the Senate gets to either acquit or or condemn unfortunately right now if anybody were to ask about where real obstruction of justice is I think it's what Nancy Pelosi is doing by not handing the impeachment to the Senate let him make a decision why isn't she handing it to the Senate so I don't you know I don't know all I mean I watched a lot of the hearings like maybe some of you did I find it troubling that you know this is the third president to be impeached in our history and this is the only time that's been split down party lines you always had at least people from both parties who saw the illegalities or the or the alleged illegalities and you don't you don't have that this time so people can make decisions on that and and I just think the process should go forward we have we have a process for you know for these kind of things let it go to the Senate let it let a decision be made you know Christianity today can say what they want it to me it comes down to who's the person God is using for such a time as this to accomplish his purposes and he can use righteous people you can use unrighteous people i god advances his causes in different ways so that's my two cents on the whole thing all right so back to something how about like prayer or you know we had a question asking from parents about their product which I'll show the idea of their adult child is not following the Lord and they want to know how to help them there is a parable of the prodigal that I think can be really helpful in Scripture and most remember the story of the son who wanted his father's inheritance basically saying data I wish that you weren't here anymore so that I could just have your inheritance and spend it any way I wanted to the dad said well here you go he released his son into the world son went into the world came to his senses came back and the father greeted him with open arms welcomed him back into the family and so it's a great story and I think there's a lot for us to learn about that that situation never once when anyone reads that story does anyone assume that the parents or the father in this story was responsible for his son's attitude or behavior okay so obviously as parents a lot of times when our children when they grow up they're not following the Lord we take personal responsibility they're obviously there may be a lot of things that parents have done wrong and we have a lot of regrets about things and mistakes that we have made and we would we should ask forgiveness for those repent of those mistakes but in this story is a great reminder of the son has a free will walks away from the Lord thankfully comes to his senses and the father welcomes him home the father didn't chase after him the father didn't make it easy for the son the son had to hit rock bottom but just for for parents if you have a child who's not walking with the Lord pray for them release them remind yourself that God loves them more than you do which is sometimes hard to remember almost remit you might need to remind yourself of that on a regular basis God loves my son or daughter more than even I do and so I'm gonna continually just release my son or daughter to the Lord praying for them and preparing my heart for them maybe to forgive them or to welcome them back someday because as a parent your job is to train them up and in other words make it as difficult as possible for them to stray that's that's the job as parents train them up in the way they should go it's basically put them on the right track and get them going so fast that they can't turn and they can't look back but realizing they do have a free will they can turn to the right or to the left and when they do release them to the Lord pray for them and pray for that day when you can welcome them back like the prodigal son when he came back to the Father who continued to love and his children and welcomed the back with open arms so we have a lot of questions about homosexuality about same-sex marriage I'm gonna read several the questions that are similar and then try to answer all of this in one and one answer question I'm a Christian who believes homosexuality is wrong my sibling is a homosexual and has invited me to their wedding should I go to support my homosexual sibling or should I not go to maintain my belief that homosexuality is wrong here's another question in this day and age homosexuality is so accepted and prevalent in our culture how does the Bible guide us and teaching our children the balance between what is the truth and still showing God's grace and love it's especially hard to explain that balance to young children here's a question would you attend a same-sex marriage what is the best way to come to combat LGBTQ acceptance which has become popular amongst young people there's a lot of questions along these lines okay so let me start with the the wedding question first of all for those of you might be new you know what is cornerstones position on homosexuality you know despite the fact that now across our country same-sex marriage has been legalized the higher authority for every believer should always be the Bible sometimes the authority of government or the legislature or in this case the Supreme Court the judiciary does not line up with the Bible and so we always have to defer to scripture and in both the Old Testament and the New Testament a homosexual behavior is condemned it is something that that God calls in Romans chapter 1 unnatural and indecent and perverted in in Leviticus 18 detestable and an abomination so you have both Old Testament and New Testament now for those of you who right now are bristling because you feel offended by it please don't be offended I'm just telling you that there are there's a certain standard that God outlines about every moral behavior and so it is our objective as Christians first to honor God's moral code and secondly to be loving towards those who don't necessarily agree right and there therein is the challenge so we have to have a baseline first the baseline that I'm speaking from is that homosexuality is seen and regarded by God as a sin and it is not my objective to to disagree with God is just simply my objective to always defer to the higher authority of God's Word and so some parts of the Bible are easier to accept than others for some of you the whole topic of homosexuality and God calling it a sin it's really hard for you because you know sexuality is obviously something that is rooted in in our very beings that God created us as sexual beings but what he says to us is that there is a there is a way a place there is a a boundary regarding the sanctity of sex in which it should be enjoyed and outside of that boundary it should not be enjoyed and so the place where it should be enjoyed is between a heterosexual couple a husband and a wife in marriage that's what God says now people can disagree all day long oh I think that's antiquated I disagree with it okay you can disagree with it all day long I I just am telling you that this is the way that God outlines it and God knows best and if you think you know best test that for a while and see how it goes for you because it'll be miserable for you in the long run the Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard whenever you think you know more than God and you go ahead and try to decide to live your life the way you want to live it gotta let you for a while but it's gonna be miserable in the long run in the long run in the short term not always but in the long run it always is when we defy what God's best is for us and God once it's best for us now that said marriage is a very sacred thing so you know if you attend a wedding don't see it as I'm just part of the audience when you attend a wedding you were there as a witness sanctioning this union okay weddings have become more of a cultural thing that's not that's not the way wedding should be viewed wedding should be viewed as you bearing witness to sanctioning you're condoning you're supporting this Union so I personally could never first of all I would never perform a same-sex marriage and as a pastor but I could never attend a same-sex wedding now I had a couple of my church like a year or two ago struggle with the same thing and I thought they had a good solution to it they got an invitation to a same-sex wedding for their own Christian value reasons and biblical reasons they were not comfortable in going which I think was the right decision but here's what they did they but they were quick to say to them we're not going to go to your wedding as Christians we don't feel comfortable but we want to take you and your partner out for dinner you know and another few weeks and we just want to sit and talk with you and and share with you you know and and and they were receptive and they did so there are ways to build bridges there's ways to communicate truth wrapped with grace you see but it doesn't have to be that you just go along with things because it's culturally expected of you there are other ways that you can still show love build bridges and and try to share truth that is preceded by grace to you know grace and truth in Scripture is always in that order in the New Testament sometimes as Christians I said this in the last service sometimes those Christians we want to always put truth forward truth forward truth forward and sometimes in the presentation of truth we've a lien ated a lot of people because we've been abrasive with our truth we've wanted to be right at all costs and so we've never really shared the truth in a loving way the Bible always talks about grace and truth in that order so we have to be gracious with people in order for them to really ever be receptive to the truth but you don't compromise your own values even though the values of our culture have continued to conflict with the values of the Bible you you stand for what is right but you do it in a loving way and so you know I don't think you should go to a same-sex wedding and you know in terms of like you know how do you present it to children and it's it's very complicated I'm telling you you're living now in a world that is very complicated you as parents are having to deal with things and raising your children that Terry and I never had to deal with we had a Dean or different set of stuff and so you know how do you communicate these kinds of things I think you just need to always honor God you have to always like accept Scripture as truth do your best to live out that truth and as you teach your children what is true just always remind them that there will be people who don't agree with us there will be people who sieve things very differently you're still supposed to love them you're still supposed to be kind to them to be decent to them but we don't compromise truth for the sake of just being nice and and that unfortunately it is what has happened often truth has been sacrificed on the altar of love that people are just like I just want to be loving and so therefore I'm gonna abandon truth in order to just be super loving and that might be Noble but that doesn't do anybody any benefit one of the highest forms of respect you can show someone is truth now there's a way again the truth can be presented in in a decent way or an obnoxious way and so we have to be careful that we're decent loving a presenting truth but the highest form of respect you can show someone is truth and when you are not truthful with them it's actually disrespect dishonesty is a sign of disrespect you don't respect someone or love someone enough to be truthful with them but the task at hand for Christians is how do we present this in a loving way because now that government has gotten involved and said this is okay we sanctioned this this is fine and then Christians are like now it's not really fine at least you know Christians should be that way there's a lot of churches now that are you know putting out the rainbow flag and embracing the whole thing and doing a disservice to to the homosexual community in my opinion in just embracing it without sharing the truth but but now we're living in a day when just by virtue of saying this is what I believe because is what I believe the Bible to be true you're gonna be labeled a hater you're gonna be labeled a bigot and even if you do your best to be as loving as possible people will still hate you why because they hated Jesus before you and and truth by itself is exclusive and truth by itself is confrontational and it challenges people and people don't like the challenge and so people will inevitably see you as bigoted and hateful even though you're you're not supposed to be that way and hopefully you're not coming across that way so teacher kids the Bible live according to Scripture do the right thing be loving and doing the right thing and don't compromise truth for the sake of just being liked or for the sake of being culturally relevant alright Andy what you have got a question got something a prayer no just how do I explain to someone why they are experiencing suffering so a lot of times when there is suffering in our lives the first question that comes up is why job one of the first stories that we have in scripture one of the oldest stories job asked God why five different times in the book of Job why is all this happening to me so when there is suffering a lot of times that question is why so this person is asking how do I explain it and the answers probably just stop trying a lot of times we just have to stop trying to explain away suffering and just accept it realize that fairness ended in the Garden of Eden and this sense of it things will not always be fair and we can't always explain the suffering but but to accept it and look throughout Scripture realize that Joseph suffered Jobe suffered Paul suffered Moses suffered we realize okay it didn't matter it wasn't the fact that job was a righteous man other righteous men suffered were put in prison John the Baptist was put in prison and beheaded he was a Christian he didn't do anything wrong he didn't caused his suffering so we can't really enough always explain it but we have to accept it as part of the Christian life and a lot of the New Testament is written to Christians encouragement for how to deal with suffering in this lifetime jesus said in this lifetime you will experience trial and suffering and so you read first Peter read James there's a lot of scripture that talks about how to continue to be patient and how to persevere through difficult times and probably it's going to start when we stop trying to explain the suffering away well quick question to somebody else asked how do I honor my parents as an adult when they're not very honorable so great question that the idea is love is easy when someone's lovable honor is easy when someone's honorable respect is easy when someone is respectable jesus said even the pagans to that do that that was the phrase that he used even the pagans can love someone who loves them back so this is a great question I love the heart here I want to honor my parents but they're not very honorable a lot of times when there is the absence of good just make sure there's the absence of the negative as well so in other words I may find it difficult to to love to honor to show respect there may not be an a lot of opportunities for me to do the positive but just make sure I'm not doing the negative as well that would mean make sure I've forgiven them make sure I'm not saying bad things about them make sure I'm not criticizing them make sure I'm not being hurtful to them make sure I'm not doing a lot of things negative to them they're maybe they're not giving me a lot of opportunities to commend them but that doesn't mean that I can be hurtful to them as well there's ways to support your parents there's ways to be respectful to them you don't necessarily have to listen to them as as an adult necessarily not to obey them as an adult with with older parents but you can still be respectful towards them even if they're not respectable if you find that difficult Scripture gives a lot of opportunities where he says hey we rely on the love and that God has for us to love one another to respect one another even when it's difficult and so that would be a matter for prayer to say I want to make sure I'm not doing anything negative to worsen the relationship and then when there are opportunities let me show love acceptance forgiveness to my parents as well and honor them even if they're not even if they're not honorable so there's questions on alcohol position on drinking alcohol can you discuss the biblical position of drinking alcohol I know in proverbs 31 it mentions give strong drink to him who was perishing and wind to him whose life is bitter let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his trouble no more yeah but then you wake up and it's still there and they quote they but they say but proverbs also says wine is a mocker and beer is a brawler which is true there are actually 11 references to alcohol in the book of Proverbs alone 9 out of 11 are warnings against it the one that they quoted is actually 1 in favor of it but it says give strong drink to him who is perishing so if you're dying drink up you know you're halfway there you might as well take it out the rest of the way so the sin really is drunkenness so Ephesians chapter 5 18 it says do not get drunk on wine wherein is excess which leads to debauchery but instead be filled with the Holy Spirit so if you want to be filled with something really look for the spirits capital s the spirit the Holy Spirit but there's warnings against drunkenness that's really the sin then the question becomes you know this is always like this is always the big debate well at what point am I really drunk when debye crossed over from just a little buzzed to being passed out drunk where is the sin in there you know and then the legal limit for you know blood alcohol content is different from country to country so what might be illegal in the United States in certain terms of blood alcohol level it's fine in France I mean there's smashed half of the day you know so that but but so you get this big debate well you know when is it legally or technically drunkenness and and whenever people are are asking those kind of technical questions to meet you're already too close to the line so here's the thing there are on average a hundred thousand alcohol-related deaths per year in the United States and I don't know if you know this but there are more twice as many alcohol-related deaths in the United States every year twice as many alcohol-related deaths and those who die from AIDS it's a problem I've said this many times and I'll always use this statement whenever we talk about this subject I've had many people come to my office over the course of my years in pastoral ministry and tell me how alcohol has affected either the breakup of a marriage the demise of a business the loss of a job the death of someone I've never had anybody make an appointment come into my office and tell me all the wonderful things that have been proved in their lives because of alcohol okay there's very serious ramifications because of alcohol so what I would say to you biblically just trying to be biblically balanced is that the Bible does not prohibit the drinking of alcohol the Bible condemns drunkenness now you you have to have enough wisdom to know how close you're getting to that line and we have to be careful first the first reference to alcohol in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 9 when Noah gets drunk and gets naked and then bad things happened all right which you know a lot of times where alcohol is involved people get naked so it's just like that's one of the things you see in Genesis 9 and then the last time which isn't you know it could be an awful thing to see but then the last time out crawl is mentioned the Bible is revelation 17 and 18 when it talks about the the woman who rides the Beast and the nations have drunk the the maddening wine of her adulteries first time it's mentioned in the last times mentioned the Bible it's in bad light and so there's a lot of warnings about it again it there's not a prohibition against it in the Bible but there are some really serious warnings about it and and and to that and I think that you ought to take the subject very seriously people have a you know there are there can be addictive tendencies with this and and I'm telling you lives have been ruined there's some people in our congregation who who would give testimony to say you know my life praise God God has redeemed my life and and restored my life but I lost a lot of things because of an addiction to alcohol and so it's something there serious that that you would be wise to give careful thought to in your life there's a question on healthy dating relationships the question and talks about there's just not a lot in scripture about dating and so when you think about dating the idea would be when I look in Scripture I see a lot of verses of Scripture that talk about how to treat one another and so I would just apply all of those verses to dating just the idea of love one another honor one another accept one another forgive one another the idea is in dating it's a time of evaluation it's also a time of growth to where you're trying to become less selfish and more mature so you're focused more on others than you are yourself and that would be what you're looking for in a spouse as well someone who is unselfish the Bible wants us to communicate with other people in mind the Bible wants us to be kind with other people in mind so this the sense of maturity and unselfishness are good traits and that's that's the time of dating should be focused on I'm learning to love one another more than myself I'm learning to accept I'm learning to forgive I'm learning to care for other people and and not just myself and the other question we got on on dating just simply says is premarital sex a sin the the answer would be yes and the reason is along with dating is the idea that God wants us to have an intimate relationship in marriage and he knows the way to do that is through purity we want the intimacy but we want to skip the purity part and so dating and and even in marriage is a time for us to be pure to be too in dating to be pure sexually and then in marriage to be focused just on on your spouse and so to have that intimate relationship God knew that that was the path and so people think about why is premarital sex such a big deal or if I love the person or what why is it such a focus well the reality is it's because God wants us to be pure and he knows that through purity we can have those intimate relationships that that we were created for that that we desire and those intimate relationships are best when we're unselfish when we're mature when we can focus on the other person and when we can be pure of our hearts and our minds and our bodies and so that's that's important and I I would say rather than look for specific scripture on on dating look for scripture on how we're to treat one another your brothers and sisters in Christ and you'll get a lot of answers that way and I'll just follow up on that with a scripture verse for those of you you know the question about teens and and sex 1st Thessalonians 4 verse 3 says it is God's will that you should be sanctified that you should avoid sexual immorality that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God and and so you know scripture is pretty plain like there are certain things that God specifically says this is my will for you this is my will for you and one of the things he says is he wants sex to be enjoyed as a gift that he gave us within the context of marriage between a man and a woman outside of that it is not to be expressed and so that that that goes along the lines of what what Andy was saying and then I'll just close out with a couple of questions here because their time has already escaped us somebody says as a Catholic for 52 of my 53 years when you were 1 you finally got converted there to Catholicism but as a Catholic for 52 of my 53 years it has been standard to make the sign of the Cross before and after praying also standard has been my been starting my prayers by saying the Our Father Hail Mary and glory be is it acceptable for me to continue this when I pray it and at Cornerstone Chapel and elsewhere is it okay to pray just without doing these things so I've met a lot over the years I've met a lot of you who have Catholic backgrounds and I and I'm just estimating just from my interactions with people probably 1/3 of our congregation is made up of people with Catholic backgrounds one of the wonderful things about when people start to come to Cornerstone and they have a Catholic background as they begin to realize that some of the things they were doing they were doing out of tradition and not really because the Bible teaches it and so there are a lot of traditional things in Catholicism that don't have really a biblical basis and for that reason I would say to you you're free and you don't have to assign yourself and you don't have to pray you know prescriptive prayers you you now can come into a relationship with Jesus in a way that some of those traditional things just have no biblical basis so you don't need to practice those things you know you don't need to do those things you don't you know there's there's and there's a whole new sense of freedom because one of the things that is common to my Catholic friends is they're always feeling guilty about something and you know I've had people who accidentally call me Father you know they come in that's a clue they're Catholic and they come up to me and and they're like father yeah I just I feel even guilty for being here father can you pray for me for even being here I'm not at the Catholic Church I said first of all don't call me father only my kids call me father and and then second of all no no no guilt no shame you know just walk in newness of life and fellowship with Jesus and so no you don't have to worry about doing those things here and then I guess the last question I'll just answer real quickly is what do you think is the biggest issue facing the church as we enter 2020 and I I saw this question and I and I thought you know there's probably a few things that I could say but I think this has been basically not just a theme in my heart for 2020 but for the last I'd say I don't know five or ten years and it's and it's what I'll call cultural creep it is the tendency of the culture to just slowly creep into our hearts and lives and families and church and before we know it we've been transformed by the culture rather than us having a transforming effect upon the culture and I think that's the biggest threat we have to be salt and light to the world the world needs something that we have and if we just basically allow the the culture to shape us and transform us rather than the other way around we're not fulfilling our biblical mandate and cultural creep has concerned me because I see tendencies within families and within just you know individual belief sets of this acceptance of things and this this tolerance of stuff that has only been accepted and tolerated because enough people have said you should and it's like you know we're we're have people gone in regards to their convictions and standards and values and it's challenging in our world today we're living in a very challenging times but at the same time I am seeing and I have seen over the past few years people coming to church here and I'm sure this happens in other churches but I'm just saying for my personal experience here where there is a hunger you know people have said to me how come your church is growing and despite the fact that you can be strong on these issues and you know you don't hold back when it comes to some of the and and here's my answer because at the same time that our culture is going in a wayward direction there are a lot of people who are realizing the answer is not in what the world offers and so people have been coming here with a hunger and a thirst for just tell me the truth I may disagree with you but tell me the truth because I know I'm not getting it out there so somebody please tell me the truth and I've seen people actually have a hunger and appetite for you know tell me what the Bible says give me some truth tell me who God is tell me what this means because it's it's a hunger now that is infectious among people who realize the answers are not in the world the answer is not in our culture so as weird as the culture gets I've also seen the / of that where people are now seeking and hungry for something and you know it's evident by you know just look at hundreds of people came to faith over Christmas Eve people are looking for an answer a real genuine answer that this world does not offer that's why we continue to present Jesus he is our only hope Jesus is our hope in this world [Applause] [Music] how do I know God's calling and will for my life when I think about people asking about God's will my first thought goes to Emerson egg riches who was here maybe two years ago and he taught on a sermon from a book that he recently wrote the four wills of God that sound right yeah Emerson egg riches wills of God if you can want to read that book but basically his take was very simplified there are script there are scriptures that talk about God's will for your life so the questions we usually think about is it God's will for me to take this job is it God's will for me to move to Seattle is it God's will for me to marry this person those are all important questions but what we start with is what what do we know we know that it's God's will for us to follow him we know that it's God's will for us to give thanks in all circumstances as it says in 1st Thessalonians we know it's God's will for us to remain pure and so there are things that that we know that are God's will so when we start with those things the other things it's not that they don't matter as much but they're easier for us because it's like I'm following God's will I'm submitting to Authority I'm following him I'm giving thanks I'm remaining pure so I can do that whether in Portland OR Seattle I can do that whether I go to James Madison or whether I go to George Mason so some of those some of those what's God's will for me to get easily answer to get simplified when we stick with what we do know then God leads us and can bless us in in ways regardless of what job we take regardless of whether we live in Ashburn or Leesburg God can bless us we can be in the center of his will because we're doing what we know and what we know from his word is true so someone asked about the Sabbath day how should we spend the Sabbath is it a day or rest or service scripture says it's a day to rest but Jesus served on the Sabbath so the Sabbath day and keeping it holy is the fourth commandment among the ten commandments it says remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God on it you shall not do any work neither you nor your son or daughter nor your manservant or maidservant nor your animals nor the alien within your gates for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them but he rested on the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy and so God calls us to honor the Sabbath but what we need to always do is look at Scripture at how scripture expounds upon Scripture the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible and when you get to the New Testament in Colossians chapter 2 verse 16 it says therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day these are a shadow of the things that were to come the reality however is found in Christ in other words Christ came he said not to abolish the law but that the law might be fulfilled through me so now the ultimate fulfillment of all the the sum total of the law is fulfilled in Christ in other words our ultimate rest is found in Jesus so the Sabbath day is in terms of an important day of rest a matter of principle but not a legalistic thing you know technically Sabbath is still Saturday you know that part hasn't changed Saturday has has been the Sabbath from the beginning of time and still remain so that's why the Jews recognize the Sabbath sundown Friday to sundown Saturday the reason why we gather on Sundays is because the resurrection of Christ occurred on a Sunday and the early church through the book of Acts you can begin to see that they gathered together again on the Lord's Day the day that he rose from the dead to continually commemorate the resurrected Lord and so we worship on Sundays but we should still have here's the main point that God is trying to make with the whole idea of the Sabbath day we should still have a one out of seven that we have is a time when we're off a time when we rest so it doesn't necessarily technically have to be Saturday it can be a pratik day of the week that you 1 out of 7 carve out so that you can at least have some time off a time to rest look it doesn't just honor God because he labored for six days in the creation of the earth and then rested on the seventh in that sense we're honoring God but in the sense of God knows the way that he wired us and that if we keep you know I've said this before to quote the Prophet Billy Joel if you if you keep working working working working you're gonna have a heart attack a kak-kak-kak-kak you know you should have known by now so that's what's gonna happen god knows if you don't take time to rest you're gonna end up burning out you know there's a reason why on hairdryers and you know small kitchen appliances if you don't turn the thing off there's an overheat mechanism that will turn it off for you and that's what happens with you and me it's called either a heart attack or a stroke or something and and then we're turned off so so the deal is God put within the hour schedule a day of rest for our benefit that we might have some time to just relax and a time to just be down and so it's important that you carve out some time one out of seven and honor the Lord with some type of Sabbath rest and it does good for ourselves physically emotionally and spiritually as well but it you know don't get hung up on it's got to be a particulars 2:16 tells us it's ultimately all fulfilled in Christ couple different questions about waiting on the Lord a somebody called it a season of waiting how long do I have to wait on the Lord I'm waiting I don't feel like he's hearing me or speaking to me the comfort that we can get if we're in a season of waiting in our lives where it doesn't feel like God is speaking to us or there's no answer from him or we're trying to be patient there's many examples of scripture of waiting I mean David wrote in the Psalms many different times about about it I mean think about David's life he was anointed to be king but then he had to wait over ten years for that to take place so he's familiar with waiting and so when you read and on 13 he says how long O Lord will you forget me forever how long will you hide your face from me how long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart but I trust in your own family love my heart rejoices in your salvation I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me and then in Psalm 27 he says wait for the Lord be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord David had to understand the principle God's plan it's not always immediate it's not always obvious it's not always convenient so there are times when we will have to wait for God's plan to take place sometimes when we read scripture we can turn the page and see that the ant the the prayer has been answered Isaac and Rebecca prayed to have a baby we turned the page and they had a baby but between the time when they prayed and when they had the baby it took 20 years but we don't think about those things when we just simply turned the page we just look oh God answered the prayer what what a wonderful thing I wish God would answer my prayer in a day or in a week but sometimes it does take years sometimes there are seasons of waiting and so it's a time for us to be still it's a time for us to learn to be content Paul was in prison and he wrote I've learned the secret to be content in every situation and and he wrote that verse in Philippians I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me he wasn't sometimes we use that verse like Nike or just do it like I can leap a building or I can throw a touchdown pass or I can do these great thing Paul is basically saying I can be in prison and yet I can be content in Christ I can have peace in my heart even though all my plans aren't the way I want things to happen is it hasn't taken place yet I can wait on the Lord and still be content and he called it a secret because it's difficult it's it's not easily found and so he had to learn to rest in the Lord and so I would just encourage anyone in here who feels like I'm in a season of waiting God's not speaking to me I'm trying to be patient nothing's happening just continue a lot of times when things get foggy a lot of times our tendency our human nature is to speed up when reality we need to slow down just slow down and wait on the Lord be content in the situation that you're in find rest in that find peace in that and and wait for him to come through someone asks advice on keeping faith throughout college when you're surrounded by those who don't believe or look down on those who do so a few years ago for our high school group I devote summer camp and I said something to them that I will say an answer to this question because it applies to high school college or really at any point in life where you feel that you're pretty much alone and and you don't have a very strong Network or a support group of people who share your faith you know but before I share that principle when you go up to college I mean you know most colleges have some kind of of Christian you know parachurch ministry FCA Campus Crusade for Christ Cru something that you could probably find on college campus so that you can you know make sure you maintain a network of some you know Christian friends that you can you know encourage one another you get out in the real world in your college years and your faith is going to be tested in in a big way that it probably hasn't been tested up to this point because you obviously have some more liberties than you've had when you were living at home and so when your way at school now you have to really man up if you're a guy or a woman up if you're a lady and and decide I'm going to live out my faith even even though now you know I'm not under the the watching eye of mom or dad I'm I'm under the watching eye of the Lord and I want to please him and so the thing that I said to the heart our high school group that I'll say you know to college students is if you're a Christian and you really want to live for the Lord but you feel this sense of like wow I don't have a ton of support you know and I don't here's the phrase you're gonna have to learn to embrace the loneliness one of the biggest factors as to why people decide to you know bail on their faith and to go the way of the world is because they just don't want to be alone and they don't want to be odd man out and so they don't want to feel we and so they start to run with a crowd and there are going to be times in your life and this goes for all of us at some stage or place in life you will have to learn to embrace loneliness that there are lonely seasons in life in general and as a Christian you will find there are times when you just feel like you're all alone Isaiah 7 verse 9 says if you do not stand firm in your faith you will not stand at all we have to learn to stand for what we believe is right and if that means sometimes we're the only person or at least we feel like we're the only person because we're not the only person but we feel like it because maybe we haven't developed the kind of friendships that we would like for that support network you have to be willing to say okay you know in this season of my life when I'm when I'm really feeling alone I'm gonna press into the Lord I'm gonna seek the Lord I'm gonna stay in the word I'm gonna draw near to him but you have to be willing to stand alone and embrace the loneliness there read in 1st Samuel chapter 30 go home and read verse sandwhich chapter 30 David had his fighting men off fighting as men do when they go to war and they left their wives and their kids back in the town where they were which is called Ziklag while they were out at war fighting the Amalekites came to Ziklag and burned it to the ground and kidnapped the wives and the children and when the when David and his army came back and found their City their town was destroyed by the Amalekites and their wives and their children were missing it tells us in first a sandwich after 30 they they talked about stoning David to death they were so mad at him you're our leader you took us to war we came back now our wives and her kids are gone and it says in in 1st Samuel 30 verse 6 that David was greatly distressed obviously right you're you're you know all you're you're fighting buddies are now wanting to kill you and it says this in 1st Samuel 30 verse 6 but David encouraged himself in the Lord like there was no else who is going to come alongside of David and say it's gonna be okay and I'm with you and we can do this and there will be times in your life as a Christian that that in a particular season somebody may not be there to come alongside and say it's gonna be okay we can do this you can stay you know strong in your faith that you have to encourage yourself in the Lord and that you will not necessarily have a network of people that you can fall back on so know that the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you embrace the loneliness stand for what is right and sometimes you just have to encourage yourself in the Lord because nobody else is going to do that for you so that would be my encouragement to you at whatever season you're in but particularly in this context for those in college just you know stay strong in your faith but you better be willing at times but that means there's gonna be some loneliness because otherwise you're just going to get sucked right into the culture of the college scene or whatever scene is around you we had a few questions about forgiveness and specifically forgiveness of family members and so just want to always point out forgiveness is a principle that God gave us and and that it's basically saying if you follow Jesus then you will learn to forgive it's it's a command forgiveness is not an option it's not something that you well maybe I'll forgive ten years from now maybe out maybe someday I'll someday I'll forgive forgiveness is basically something Jesus is telling us we read about it in Matthew if you don't forgive those who have sinned against you my heavenly father won't forgive you it's it's this principle it's like if you're not forgiving as a follower of Jesus you probably don't understand God's forgiveness for you so that's the principle God forgives us and wants us to forgive others and okay and if we don't forgive others we probably don't understand God's forgiveness for us now the difference is that God doesn't command reconciliation so we have to understand the difference we get about this a lot it's like yes you you're to forgive but he can't command reconciliation because he he can't command you to do anything that takes two people okay so you may want to forgive your dad but you can't reconcile with your daddy and gods not commanding it he may want you to be open to reconciliation but reconciliation takes two people it takes a rebuilding of trust it takes healing it takes time so we have to learn to separate forgiveness and reconciliation forgiveness is an act it's it's something that God commands because it shows that we understand how much God has forgiven us yes I forgive you do I trust you no all we reconciled no are we gonna have dinner together no but I forgive you okay so it's a sense of I'm gonna give up my right to get you back for what you did to me but reconciliation takes may take weeks may take months may take years it takes two people it takes the rebuilding of trust you just can't talk your way out of something that you acted your way into so just by someone saying I'm sorry I won't do that again if Trust is broken and the bigger the trust is broken maybe the longer it will take God understands that reconciliation takes time some people feel guilty because I still don't trust or I have trouble healing or I have trouble reconciling God understands that and we we have several questions here about marriage and and remarriage and divorce God understands when there's a spouse that commits adultery reconciliation may not be possible be open to it it doesn't command that you divorce but the reality is God understands the how difficult it is to get over a broken trust and so yes forgive so those are the questions anybody asking do I need to forgive the answer's yes do I need to reconcile the answer would be maybe hopefully that would be the goal God would want us to reconcile but he's not gonna force that upon you he can only ask you to do what you can control and that's and you can forgive you can't reconcile by yourself so someone asked is the God of the Bible the same god of the Quran and how do I talk to Muslim acquaintances as to this topic so you know I'll just answer it directly and then I'll come back and and give you some advice on the latter part of the question the God of the Bible is not the same as the god of the Quran a lot of people are under the misunderstanding that they are the same they are not Islam started in the 7th century AD and Islam started because Mohammed was basically a a rebel against what was the popular polytheistic religion of the time among Arab tribes so there were more than 300 gods that Arab tribes were worshipping Mohammed being somewhat of when I use the word rebel in the sense that he went counter to his own day when he said no no there are not three hundred plus gods there's only one and he turned the Arab tribal religious system from polytheistic to a strict monotheistic religion but what he did was he chose one of those three hundred-plus gods as the supreme god which in arabic is just Allah Allah just means the supreme God so even even Christian Arabs will pray to God in their Arab tongue as Allah because they're just praying to the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob using an Arab word for supreme God but on the lips of an Arab Christian Allah means something different than on the lips of a Muslim who says Allah because Allah to Muslims is historically at least based on the fact that Muhammad chose one of those three hundred-plus gods and said no this one is the supreme god this one is Allah and the God that he chose was the moon God the moon God have you ever wondered why one of the symbols of Islam is the crescent moon it's because Muhammad chose the moon God to be the Supreme God not the same as the God of the Bible that God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God of the Bible kind of created the moon okay so they are two different gods as to how do you begin to you know bridge that gap and share with Muslims about you know who God is in the Bible I would start with Jesus because here's the thing even though and this is this is what I'm about to say is highly offensive to Muslims even though I believe that the Quran is corrupt and they would say the Bible is corrupt they would say the Quran is the only true truth okay you can still persuade about Jesus from the Quran and here's what I mean in the Quran it says that jesus is alive and Muhammad is dead so you can ask a Muslim why do you worship the one who was dead surah 355 says behold Allah said oh Jesus I will take thee and raise the to myself to rise from the dead and clear thee of the falsehoods of those who blaspheme thee in the Quran that says Jesus was born of a virgin Sura 347 Jesus is sinless Sura 685 Jesus is the Messiah Sura 3:45 Jesus performed miracles Sura 3:49 Jesus ascended into heaven in bodily form sura 355 so since Muhammad did none of those things you can ask them why then how can we Hamid be called the greatest of the prophets when he did none of those things that Jesus did and you can start to at least help them to begin to see oh maybe maybe there's more to Jesus than I know because even the Quran speaks about some truthful things about Jesus even though the god of Quran is different from the God of the Bible and I would just say you know pray for your Muslim friends and you know live your life you know look there are more non-arab Muslims than there are Arab Muslims so to say you know Arab people it's that's a misnomer there non-arab Muslims so whatever culture you're in if if somebody is Muslim they are generally speaking you know very open and cordial and you know Daniel Messiah if you've been here when I've had Daniel here Daniel was born Mohammad Kemal he was born an Egyptian Muslim and then he converted to Christianity and so you know I've had him here a few times and he has shared his faith but he's the one that said to me Gary you know invite yourself to a Muslim home they will they will never turn you down they're very hospitable they will bring you in and then he just what's the worst that can happen they kill you you go to heaven but it's all a joke he's like then they will not kill you they will be very hospitable so if you want to really start to just engage the conversation even though it's it's it's a very weird Western mindset to over invite yourself over to somebody's house Muslims generally will will welcome that and you can start to you know build the bridge and have some dialogue and and share your faith but it it it you know should be something that you obviously pray about and just ask the Lord to help you as you as you want to present the truth and love that they are not the same they're not the same gods you know years ago when our church was very young and we didn't even have a church building some of you who were here from the early days remember that over at the Holiday Inn used to be called Karen hall at the time we used to have these I would call them discovery dinners like once a month on a Sunday night and we'd have you know the church is only like 200 people and so we would have people come over the ballroom there and we have a dinner and then I do a teaching that we throw a discovery like some you know theological or doctrinal thing so the banquet manager at the time was Muslim and we're sitting I'm sitting opposite is tailing I'm negotiating the price for the dinner like you know what should what she would you charge us and he looks at me he goes you know something your God is my god he was he was Muslim he looks me good your God my God I give you a good deal and inside I'm like your God is not my God but if it's worth a good deal all right like I want to hear it right now isn't that terrible I'm just admitting to you that I didn't even speak up I just was like if it's worth a good deal on a meal you order god this my god I didn't have to say it I let him say it anyway go ahead Andy clean that up for me good it's shameful it's a shameful yeah hey there's therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ all right go ahead we don't have enough time that literally hundreds of questions and there's questions about depression questions about anger questions about doubt and so rather than try to answer each one of those I'm just going to group them together and just make sure everybody understands emotions like like sadness grief anger or doubt they don't prove our faith they prove our humanists okay so when when you feel those emotions as a follower of Jesus I don't want anyone to to doubt their faith to say well if I was a better Christian I wouldn't feel sad or if I was a better Christian I would I wouldn't doubt that God's faithfulness or if I was a better Christian I wouldn't have this anger that I'm that I'm feeling those it's almost like someone kicks you in the shin you hurt it because you're human okay so Christians still going to say ow so I always want people to understand we have emotions that we're gonna feel regardless if we're Christians or not so by following Jesus you will still feel a doubt and anger and and sadness what's important is that you don't use those emotions as an excuse or something that gets in the way of you following Jesus okay so you don't want your anger to be an excuse for your bad behavior you don't want your doubt to get in the way of you sharing your faith okay you don't want your sadness to get in the way of you coming to church do you understand the difference our if we're said we may not want to come to church that day but we know God I know you want me to be with other believers I know you want me to be in the house of God I know what you want me to serve and a fellowship and so I'm gonna go despite my sadness well that's success that's obedience that you're showing faith God I trust you to do this or I'm feeling angry and I want to say something mean but but I'm gonna hold my tongue well there's an example like we don't let our anger just decide that now I can say whatever I want I can I can because that because I've and then we use it as an excuse so our emotions shouldn't be used to prove our faith but they all shouldn't be used as an excuse or something that gets in the way of us serving God obeying God or following him so the idea that I have doubts what does that mean about my faith well that that means that you're human and we live in a fallen world and it's tough sometimes to trust God but that doesn't it doesn't mean that your faith is weak or that or that you you're not a Christian okay because you doubt that just means that that you're human but don't use that doubt to get in the way of you serving and obeying God the way that he would want you to John the Baptist had doubt okay doubting Thomas was a disciple that shared his faith throughout India and and and many came to know the Lord because of Thomas he didn't let his doubt get in the way of his service to the Lord and we shouldn't either so when you think about these emotions or when you have these human emotions I don't want it to discourage us and make us think that it's something wrong with our faith but also don't use it as an excuse or something that gets in the way of you doing what you know God would want you to do did you answer the question about dating a non-christian it was a different question okay but it is it is interesting a lot of questions about dating relationships what a healthy relationships look like what a healthy marriages look like and do you want to yeah I mean you know the go-to verse that people who want the freedom for Christians to date non-christians don't like is second Corinthians 6:14 which says do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers what Fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness the answer the question is I I don't believe that biblically Christians should be dating non-christians you can have them as friends you can have them as work associates you can have them as you know business associates but when you and and let me clarify even with business associates you better make sure that if you own a business you retain the majority of your business because if you do a 50/50 with an unbeliever you're unequally yoked there as well now I've had to arbitrate in in cases where a Christian got into a business transaction with a non-christian and it became disastrous and the same can happen in relationships it's it's not it's not that there's this sense of like you know we're too good to date non-christians it's the sense that you're on two different pages and if you really want to honor the Lord with your life a non-believer just isn't on the same page with you and so the problem is not it's it's it's we're dating ultimately leads you see because a marriage where you go into a marriage where one person is a believer and one person is not which which we won't marry here at Cornerstone you can get married about justice of the peace but but we want to make sure that two people are going to stand before the Lord because they want their marriage to be under the lordship of Jesus and if one is like now I'm not into that it's gonna be an unequal marriage you you know the idea being yoked is obviously harnessing too you know like oxen together and it you're supposed to be plowing in the same direction and if one person has values that go this way and and you as a Christian have values that go this way you're going to be in constant friction and and the person might be a you know super nice person and yeah and you're attracted to him or her and all the other things but you know do not live your life by the motto of flirt to convert it does not work out well often there are some exceptions you know it people will say well you know worked out for us okay but it's it's not God's best for you and so I would just encourage you you know scripturally speaking you need to find someone who is on the same page with you about the things of the Lord otherwise you're going to get into decisions and and principles and standards and values even in your dating relationship that can be compromised if you're not on the same page with all of that wanted to we have probably time for one or two more did you want to answer the one about as a father how do I show love and encourage I was going to take that if you want it go ahead okay so somebody says as a father how do I love and encourage my daughter to follow the Lord and then the follow-up is there a book I know that's an innocent question but the book is right here this is the book right here I would I would say this you know our kids are part of our lives they're grown now they're married but if you were to ask any of our kids and you're free to do this don't don't believe it just because I'm saying it you know Austin who gave the announcements is one of our one of our sons one of our kids you're free to ask any of them we're mom and dad different at church than they were at home we're certainly not perfect there were certainly times when you know there were some things that in every home maybe you raise your voice too much or maybe you you know regret that decision or should have done this differently raising your kids for sure but I think one of the most important things is for you to live a consistent life yourself to be the best encouragement to your daughter to your son to your kids hypocrisy is just the worst turnoff to a kid who wants to learn what it means to to grow up in the ways of the Lord so make sure you are doing the best you can and this is this person says as a father so dad as the spiritual leader of your home make sure that your walk is consistent make sure that your relationship with Jesus is strong she'll see it sometimes the best lessons are caught not taught and and likewise some of the worst lessons are caught not taught she'll catch it when she sees you doing the best you can to love Jesus and to live as a godly man in your home and then yeah I mean just obviously you know read the Bible with her and that's that that would be my best advice to you in terms of a book and and your encouragement to her live your life in such a way that it's attractive to her what you have with the Lord that she wants that Andy I'll let you take the last question and we'll pray okay we talked to dads now we can speak to husband's as well a question about how how should husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church so sometimes that trips guys up there trying to figure out okay I'm not perfect I'm not Jesus how do I love the way that Jesus did but when I think about that verse I think okay most of the time when I think about how did Jesus interact with the church he was sacrificial so for husbands or those who view who young men who want to be married be thinking about this am i mature enough to be sacrificial to be unselfish enough because Jesus died for the church Jesus protected the church he blessed the church he served the church he loved the church so when you think about well how did how do i do how do I love like Jesus loved the church well just think about all the things that Jesus did for the church that just he took care of them he sacrificed for them so that when I think of that love when it when Paul and when there's scripture in the gospel that just talks about husbands love your wives it's just that sense that's sacrificial it's that I have your best interest in mind it's I'm gonna make this decision with your best interest in mind I'm gonna communicate with your best interest in mind I'm gonna serve with your best interest in mind and that's that's the goal that's the challenge now we host men in here would say that's one of the most difficult you sit there talking about that like it's so easy it's one of the most difficult things to do is to love sacrificially we're so selfish our human nature is selfish so we need him the but the Bible tells us literally rely on God's love rely on him to be able to do that if you're gonna serve if you're gonna love if you're gonna protect if you're gonna do those things do those things in the strength that God provides don't try to do it in your own strength so husband's be on your knees asking God I need your help help me to love my wife sacrificially help me to love my family sacrificially like Pastor Gary was saying to your family help me love my children sacrificially and be an example that it's a difficult it's a difficult challenge but he's never going to ask us to do something that he's not going to give us the strength to do so we ask him for the strength to do it and somehow somehow we can do it as best as best as we can but in his strength with the help of the holy spirit thank you for your questions everybody all three services we answer different questions so will our cry we will archive these services all back to back in one long video if you are inclined to watch the whole thing but otherwise thank you for submitting your questions our apologies for not being able to get through everybody's questions but let's pray Lord we just look to you always we know that we have a lot of questions you have all the answers and we just thank you for your word that gives us guidance and we pray Lord over this coming year that you will bless the new year that you will watch over us take care of us guide us and direct us we thank you for your many blessings over this past year go before us into a new year and we give you the glory in Jesus name and everybody said amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 349,212

Rating: 4.4977794 out of 5

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Cornerstone Chapel Leesburg Va, Bible, Sermons, Teaching, Faith, Christian, Jesus, God, Holy Spirit, Gary, Hamrick, Calvary, Chapel, Biblical sermons, salvation, evangelism, Pastor Gary Hamrick, Cornerstone Connection, radio, hamrick gary, Question and Answer, Q&A, Bible Q&A, bible question and answer, does the bible have the answers, honest answers about the bible, answering difficult questions about the bible, biblical question and answer

Id: G_P-fYR-pvY

Length: 111min 53sec (6713 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 31 2019