Sunday Morning Live - October 3rd

praise him [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] bring your addictions come lay them down at the foot of the cross jesus is waiting god so loved the world [Music] we're gonna do a new song this morning i'm gonna teach it to you i stand on the chain [Music] powerful name of jesus on the chain prayer miracle powerful name of jesus [Music] saving the powerful name of jesus [Music] where we are here to stand on the name of jesus to know by it we are saved as we just saying that you love the world so that you give your only son and so we want to stand on the name of jesus we don't want to stand in the name of anything else we're not bound by earthly titles and earthly things that will let us down or we are a part of something so much bigger than what this world has to offer and so as we are distracted often that's where many things just distract us from you lord we want to stand on your name we want to declare that name we want to make it the focal point of the room [Music] [Applause] [Music] out of the wilderness into deliverance look where i'm standing now jesus look where i'm standing now look where i'm standing [Music] name of jesus [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] look where i'm [Music] look where i'm standing [Music] here we name go jesus christ [Music] jesus my savior rescued me hallelujah [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] of jesus [Music] jesus [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] about [Music] you were [Music] yes you deserve the glory [Music] [Music] you were [Music] oh god you deserved [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] all of the glory my lord [Music] and day [Music] is [Music] is [Music] things [Music] [Music] you have are [Music] [Music] oh you deserve glory [Music] god you deserve the glory [Music] so from you all all things to you are all things so i had a moment uh you can grab a seat since i mean it's half of you're already half way down there anyway let's complete the journey no so uh i have two stories actually as i was thinking about as we were singing these and they have to do with my children because i'm a parent and i love them and they consume so much my life and so i have a lot of stories about them and the first one is when my daughter was little i gave her some money for doing a chore or something like that and she went to the store with my wife and then she came back and she was very excited to tell me that she used the money that it gave her to buy groceries for the family she said i wanted to i was like so touched and then it was pop-tarts [Music] and i was like thank you lord like for for the gift of this child to buy me pop-tarts and she was just so excited to provide for the family and it was funny because i wasn't excited that oh think thank you lord that she spent the money on groceries otherwise how would we have gotten groceries right no i gave her that gift you know i gave her that gift to use how she sees fit and she decided to say you know what i love my family i'm going to use it to bless the family and you know god gives us gifts this isn't james that every good and perfect gift comes from the father of lights so he gives us gifts to use and he's not giving us those gifts going oh i hope they give them back to us i hope they give it back to me i really need it i can't really spare it but i really want to bless them no he does that to bless us and he's the giver of perfect gifts and so when we turn around and use that gift to glorify him it glorifies him because he knows it's blessing the family it's not just something you know god's instilled every every one of us was some kind of gift to give and uh whether it's singing like casey just sang that song beautifully or playing drums he just played that drum part loudly for god's glory you know it says in the in the scriptures to praise him with the banging of symbols and so praise god for you for being biblical my man uh it's a biblical instrument back there and i don't have a lear but i have an electric guitar so we're close enough but uh it's not it's it's not just extending to to to music you know it's like that's an avenue in which we worship him you know you can serve him in many different ways and whether it's financial whether it's through serving at church or serving others around you you know we want to come into this place and we want to not waste the time that god has given us here this is a good and perfect gift to be together with god's family this is a gift to us and so we don't want to just merely consume but we want to encourage one another with psalms hymns and spiritual songs amen we want to not take this time and be thinking about other things okay story number two i brought my son to work with me on friday he's been begging to come to work with me so i had to work for a few hours on friday so i brought him with me got here eight and we were doing some stuff at 8 45 you go oh i need a lunch break i hate to tell you bro but it's going to be like four hours and he's like no i need a lunch i'm working hard and stuff and so in in the in the interest of being here and and consuming and participating in this perfect gift that god has given us don't be thinking about your lunch break don't be thinking about what we're doing after this just live in this moment god has given this as a gift for us to not just worship him because it's worth it for us but to worship him because he's just saying he is so worthy of it amen and so i'm going to pray for us if you're watching online the same goes for you there you know there's a lot of different kinds of distractions when you're watching on your phone or watching on a screen the things that would want to arrest your attention maybe a notification pops up on the screen or something like that tune it out and just tune in to him enter in to worship with us as we as we sing this next song and so there's a link that'll pop up on the screen we're also going to facilitate giving and as i said he doesn't need it but he allows us to participate in it and so we don't want to give out of some kind of obligation it's like well he gave it to me i better buy some pop tarts you know for the family no i it has to be done out of a heart full of intention to say no i want to bless the family i want to bless the creator in this moment so let's pray and let's continue to sing we're thankful to be here i'm so grateful that you allow us to have this family the fact that we can meet together we can bear one another's burdens we can stir one another to good work so we can encourage one another with psalms hymns spiritual songs we can offer ourselves as living sacrifices but all these things we want to be done out of intention to see your glory increase in this place and so i pray for those that are here that are distracted thinking about what's beyond this room lord help us to focus on the throne room where you are always perfectly praying over us providing for us lord we want to just turn our attention toward you and say you're worthy of it all from you are all things and so to you are all things so let's just pour out everything that we are to worship you we love you we thank you in jesus name amen [Music] humble king [Music] me that your final breath we can't turn [Music] what we had lost forever [Music] in [Music] [Music] me forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] majesty [Music] there's never a heart beyond your victory [Music] yes [Music] [Music] forever foreign foreign hallelujah [Music] is [Music] he who comes in the name of the lord i'll join now and see my jesus is [Music] forever [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] forever [Music] hallelujah [Music] amen thank you worship team good morning calvary chapel how you guys doing whoo hey a little tired today but it's okay it's okay you'll wake up good morning welcome and i have some announcements to share with you guys and all of these announcements are coming from our bulletin so if you came in on any time during this day you've gotten one of these from our friendly greeters at the doors and also if you're watching online you got one emailed to you and if not you get signed up to do so uh but we'd love for you to look at that because there's so many announcements on it that i cannot cover and even the ones i will cover today are not fully in depth so i'd encourage you to take a look at your bulletin so you know what is going on on a thorough level but let me highlight three of them for you today number one is the harvest crusade is happening today at the angel stadium yes and we want to go down there um just so you guys know if you are going on your own uh the parking is ten dollars so just kind of be ready for be mentally prepared for that ten dollars i don't have to do that i'm a saver so i know to spend money like oh my gosh mentally prepare guys on the throne it's okay so i'd encourage you guys to do that if you need that uh but also we're going into church at three o'clock um we're car pulling over so we meet in the front parking lot and i want to really encourage you guys to think about even last minute to invite someone out to come and hear the good news there's so many stories of people giving their lives to the lord at the harvest crusade and yours on the road yeah how did you get saved it was at harvest so i want to encourage you to think about not only your friends and family who will know if phil wickham or or for keenan country because they're christians but maybe people who don't even know who they are don't know the lord even at all and encourage you to just invite them send them a text say hey come with me i'll buy you some some nachos or whatever so um yeah not just for the lord so i'd encourage you guys consider that that is today um also we have bless fest right around the corner uh is so close and i want to encourage you guys to look in your bulletin we have a little answer today of ways you can serve even before blasphemous begins and that is by helping us pack some hygiene kits we want to let everyone know uh how you can support not only at it but also before it and we want to give out these bags at blessings people who are in need so if you have the ability to go out to the store and maybe get some some hygiene goods we have a list right here of what you need to bring and i wanted to encourage you guys um to really consider giving your thanksgiving to this we have two shifts in the morning one in the earlier one a little bit later but it's all we'll all be done by by the noon about noontime and i want to encourage you guys to be a part of it or we also have if you have more time to give a tear down team or a setup team before that so we can't give you thanksgiving to do so but regardless the bible says in hosea that god does not desire burnt offerings or just songs like this he desires mercy he desires righteousness from us and mercy to give right to give to those who have not given to us and i for those of you who are parents or for those of you who have people who look up to you paul said imitate means that imitate christ and what better way to show the world the values of god how you value his mercy than to live it out by giving of your thanksgiving so i want to encourage you guys to consider truly giving your time on thanksgiving or the week of to further god's work through bless fest and finally we have the hallelujah party uh which is happening on the 31st of october and uh we just changed our whole parking lot to be like a little festival and our goal is to be like what the bible says to be that light shine let your light shine before men so they may see your good works and glorify god so i want to encourage you again another great event to invite those who don't know the lord uh also to invite your neighbors invite your people who do know the lord and we want to just bless people with a night not of darkness on that dark night but of with the light of the gospel and the life of god's love so uh we will have a bunch of festivals right with some not rides but some activities some like inflatable things we'll have um carnival games we'll have candy and in fact if you want to help prepare for that we'll have bins around the church you can donate candy and we have pastor jim who helps us lead this event he'll be in the courtyard to answer any questions you may have about getting involved after first service only so if you have any questions for him he'll be there for you and if you sign up for to get some tickets you get 20 off if you do it early then these tickets are used to get buy food and stuff like that so if you want to if you plan on going early bird you get some savings go sign up get some early bird savings and you get some tickets for a little bit of a better deal so that is all for my announcements now our senior pastor bob copeny so so what are you after you're a senior pastor i don't know you graduate i guess to heaven you ever feel like the bible just sometimes when you're reading it just jumps off the page you ever had that experience well i had a transition to a large print bible so it all does now for me we're in james chapter one if you'd open your bibles there that would be good james chapter one beginning in verse 16. james 1 16 do not error king james do not be deceived my beloved brethren every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above it comes down from the father of lights with whom there's no variation or shifting shadow in the exercise of his will he brought us forth it's a word that means to give birth he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures now this you know my beloved brethren but everyone must be quick to hear slow to speak and slow to anger for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of god father we want to start out this week in your presence so we've come to church a lot of us have brought our families or we're here on our own to say we believe in you we know that you love us we know that we need you lord we don't really know the half of how much we need you and we just want to come and ask that this morning you would feed your sheep lord that you would count us among them and that you would minister those words that we need to hear to correct our lives and to reflect you in our lives and so fill us with your spirit lord i pray that you would do that now that you would quicken our minds and give us eyes to see wonderful things from your word that you have words to speak to the churches and you have for two thousand years through james speak to our church your church here in east anaheim this morning we've come to worship by listening unto obedience so come and speak to us we ask it in jesus name amen you can be seated so the year was 1844 you remember that year right uh no may 24th 1844 there was a crowd that stood amazed in the supreme court chambers don't picture the one they're in now because it wasn't there back then it was in the capitol but they were in the supreme court chambers in washington dc and on that date was when they watched samuel morris demonstrate his telegraph for the first time by sending a message over a wire to baltimore which was 35 miles away and in morris code dots and dashes he tapped out just four words and maybe you know those words anybody know what those words were what hath god wrought what hath god wrought by the way that's not a question that's king james from numbers 23 23 actually a prophecy of balaam of all things those are the first four words to be telegraphed and in the context there in numbers balaam remember was hired by the king to curse the nation of israel as they were coming through the wilderness and every time he opened his mouth to curse them instead it came out a blessing and and balaam said hey i can't say except what god puts into my mouth i have to and what he was saying in that particular verses there is no divination against israel there's nothing you can say that's going to curse god's people because he has chosen to bless them and in the days to come what will be said about the nation of israel its existence and its blessing is they are what god hath wrought they're an example of the working of god the proof that there's a god in heaven disraeli once said it's the existence of the jewish people that they still exist and so not only is israel an evidence of what god has done miraculously but as we think about faith which is what the book of james is all about remember the theme of hebrews was jesus is better better than what you name it he's better than that and the theme of james is faith works faith works it it works to bring us to christ but then after we come to christ it changes who we are and it should be evidenced in our life so we continue with that study and i'm calling it the fruit of faith today and i hope and pray that you'll see yourself in the passage and say yes i can see that in me changing i can see that quality in me i want to be more like that but today we want to talk about the fruit of faith so if you're taking notes put in these words what and who the first fill in faith realizes what god does and who god is what god does and who god is verse 16 and 17 he says do not be deceived by the way whenever the bible says do not be deceived it's because that's an area we tend to get deceived in so interesting to me how often in the scriptures we have a warning or a you know paul will say i would not have you be ignorant brethren about something and whatever he says i don't want you to be ignorant about that's what we tend to be ignorant about i would not have you be ignorant concerning spiritual gifts and yet there's so much division in the church about spiritual gifts i would not have you be ignorant about the fact that a partial blindness has happened to israel god's not done with israel it's partial and yet there are people who think god's done with israel the very things that god says don't be ignorant about well that's telling us that that's an area we tend to be ignorant about when he says don't be deceived actually the word in the original language for deceived or error in the king james is the word planao we get our word planet from it why because the planets although they didn't understand astronomy quite like we do in the ancient world they knew there were fixed lights those stars that every night had the same relationship to each other but then there were these other lights that seemed to defy all the others well that's because they were planets and they didn't move like the stars moved through the sky they were independent they wandered they were wandering stars in their estimation and that's why we use the word planet from for this greek word to wander don't get off track christian is what he's saying don't misunderstand what i'm about to say which means we tend to do that well what is it he wants to say every good thing given to you and every perfect gift well it's from above and it comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow so the question here is do we recognize god is the source really do we believe he is the source of those things that we count good put this down consider the source if it's good it's from god consider the source if it's good it's from god now let me just say that sometimes people make a mistake with this idea of goodness and they actually try to spell god with two o's thank goodness who is that exactly you know be good for goodness sake excuse me no no god is good but good is not god don't make that mistake here everything that god ever gives to you is good he's never giving you something to destroy you or to damage you like the doctor says i may have to hurt you but i will not injure you i'm doing something that you may not like or understand but you can trust me it is for your good it's all good even if you can't see how in fact it's easier to see when we're blessed with something a birth of a new baby the bible says children are a gift from the lord the fruit of the womb is his reward he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the lord some things are pretty obvious to us that's a good thing i got a new job i got a raise i got over coven whatever it is that you like it's easy to see those but it's not so easy when there doesn't appear to be anything redemptive about it at all now the bible does not say all things are good be careful with that one it doesn't say that but everything if you're a believer if you're a child of god in your life is good in the ultimate sense because it's all covered under god's umbrella policy you can jot it down but i think you know it it's romans 8 and verse 28 romans 8 28 spurgeon once put it this way he said romans 8 28 this is the best promise of this life all things work together for good we know god causes all things to work together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose if you are a child of god if you're born again i'm not saying if you call yourself a christian because i don't know what you mean by that but if you are a christian you've been saved you've been born again then this promise is yours and you need to claim it a lot all the time especially when you can't figure out what god is doing which is most of the time so spurgeon said this is the best promise of this life it's god's dark room in which negatives become positives his situation reversal machine where heartaches are changed into hallelujahs i've heard this description once of this promise that all things work together for good this passage says god only gives us good think about this when you were a kid and your mom was making a cake maybe you love cake or maybe you know how much most people like cakes this person wrote this before my mom would make a cake she'd lay out each one of the ingredients on the kitchen counter one day i conducted an experiment one by one i tasted each of the individual ingredients she set out to bake a cake the writer said have you ever tasted baking powder how about baking soda uncooked flour or even the taste of a raw egg they said almost everything that goes into a cake does not taste good all by itself but when my mom was finished working it all together and setting it into the right place for the right amount of time a metamorphosis occurred in the end it all became well good but if i would have judged the whole cake on the basis of the individual ingredients i would have never believed it could be good and maybe that's the situation you're in right now and by faith you say i don't see any good coming out of this each of these things that are happening i are not good the intent of the person that did them i even god i don't understand why he's allowed this to happen in my life but i have to decide do i believe romans 8 28 that hey the cake's still in the oven maybe that's what you got to say when somebody says how you doing the cake's in the oven man that's all i can tell you today but i know it's coming right i was with one of our dear families this last week their son who's in his 20s died suddenly and as any family would be their family has been plunged into grief all kinds of questions and concerns and heartache and as i prayed with that couple in their tears you know what the dad prayed he prayed he didn't know i was preaching on it he he prayed verse 16. god we know all good gifts are from you my son was a good gift we talked about what job said when he lost his children and all job could say in that moment of great heartache was the lord gave in other words i remember when when my babies were born lord the gift that they were they were gifts from you that day until this day till they died they were gifts from you so i'm gonna focus on the gift i'm gonna i don't know what you're doing i don't understand why you're doing it but i want to remember you're a giver of good gifts and lord you took away we talked about this that god has decided the end of our children's lives and ours it's in god's hands it's not a mistake it's not an accident ultimately god is sovereign over those things though he doesn't tell us because he no he knows we wouldn't do well if we knew the dates if it would help us he would tell us but psalm 139 says he's ordained the days for us when there were yet none of them and job could say you gave my kids to me they were born as gifts i'm remembering and focusing on that and every moment of their life was a gift and then god you decided this was their time and now i'm going to celebrate because i know they're in your presence and i wouldn't take that away from you or them that's why the bible says precious in the sight of the lord is the death of his godly ones that's when our kids that's when we get to be home for the first time in eternity god gets to see us we get to see him face to face we talked about the birth of a baby and how a mom longs for that moment when she finally will be able to see her baby for the first time and god says that's my moment the worst day in your life what seems like the worst day of your life is the moment it's going to become the best day in your life as you die and the best day in your children's life if they go before you because that's the day they get to see me and i get to see them face to face but that's a decision that job made by faith and that's the decision this family is making by faith consider the source if it's good it's from god and then put this down give credit where the credit is due james says be careful you don't err in this area get you get off track in what well i think part of it is the source of good things in other words our temptation just as human beings is to see the source of how we got the good things as somehow yeah it's not really from god but it's rather the result of something i've done something i've accomplished so you get a raise at work well you worked for it so i deserve it but do you see and give credit to god really for giving you the job giving you the ability that you now have demonstrated that got you there or do you somehow only see yourself that'd be like going in and seeing a masterpiece painting and being here's the artist standing there and you go in and you start praising the paintbrushes really i don't think the brush has independently painted the masterpiece but we make that mistake do you know the first flaw of man in romans one falling away from god is even though they know there's a god they refuse to acknowledge god the word in greek means to know god they refuse to know god they refused to honor him so that it said proverbs 3 5 and 6 remember don't trust in your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him the hebrew word means to know god same thing know god acknowledge him but in romans 1 the first falling away of man is he refuses though he knows there is a god he refuses to know god in a way that honors him or give thanks that's where man starts to move away i'm not going to thank god for the things that are good in my life i've achieved those and that is an error jot it down first corinthians 4 verse 7 listen to what paul says to this carnal church for who regards you as superior and what do you have that you did not receive but just logic here if you received it why do you boast as if you had not received it remember there in jeremiah 9 when god says let not the wise man boast in his wisdom you can celebrate that you graduated nothing wrong with that happy to be done and i've learned some things great but don't get all huffidy puffity about yourself you know the person who thinks they know something does not yet know as they ought to know because there's a ton more you don't know i don't care how much you know there's way more you don't know in fact there's so much you'll never know no offense it's not like i know it either people come to me i don't know why they think they covered something in seminary that they didn't or in bible college hey do you understand why uh this and that uh you know i'm happy to say i don't know about a lot of things first i want to be honest secondly the bible says there are things we can't know you know i'll share it with you some of you are new you haven't heard me say this when somebody asks you a question and at least as far as you know the bible doesn't cover that now if it doesn't cover that and you're not sure if it covers that make sure it doesn't but if you realize the bible doesn't tell us this hunger for knowing about everything that we don't need to know is actually a dangerous thing but the answer to a lot of questions people ask me because you know we are a bible teaching church so people kind of what about this or that i'm happy to share what i know about what there is to be known but a lot of times we come back to you know that's something we don't know no thanks you didn't really solve that well i can help you if you really want to know die then knowledge will be perfected but the answer to so many bible questions about those kinds of issues which people seem to have more interest in the things that matter is deuteronomy 29 29. that's my favorite verse deuteronomy 29 29 why it says the hidden things belong to god meaning what there are some things that are hidden first of all otherwise they wouldn't say that the hidden things belong to god but the things that have been revealed belong to us and our sons that we might obey him forever in other words god's revealed some things the important things why are you focusing on the stuff you can't know doesn't make any sense god would say well jeremiah says let not the wise man boast in his wisdom meant not the mighty man boasting his biceps in his strength let not the rich man boast in his bank book but let him who boasts boasts in this that he knows and understands me that he understands the kind of god i am in other words that he understands because he's drawing near to me and he's becoming more like me so we don't want to take credit to ourselves that doesn't mean we have to now some people are weird about this too it's like they can never say thank you if somebody comes up to him and says man you did a great job uh you know somebody gets up and sings a beautiful song and there's so almost a hyper spirituality to it somebody comes up and says man that you that was awesome oh it wasn't me it was the lord looked like you nope it was just the lord tell the lord he was off tune on the second verse but anyway uh just say thank you yes the glory goes to god but don't be weird about it the source is not us for anything that we do god's given us that ability and also for what it's worth for any of us that still are locked into this little tiny conformity it's something many years ago i think the first time i studied through this many years ago by the way james was the first book i taught through for this church we started in 1985 so it's been a while but the truth haven't changed please realize as a christian when things go well with you you are not a lucky duck you're a blessed sheep so when things go right don't say i thank my lucky stars is that thank the one who calls them all by name don't knock on wood thank the one that was nailed to the wood for your sins don't don't conform yourselves to the image of this world just taking on i'll be honest with you after i studied this the first time i could not say good luck again to somebody i know we're tempted to i know we're in the habit of it i you know if you have you know computers used to have like a personal dictionary on the word processing where you can add your words you know your names and certain words maybe for your trade you can add them to the dictionary you can delete delete look right out of your personal dictionary as a christian it doesn't belong there just to suggest that there's some chance thing that's determining what's happening in your life the bible says the lot is cast into the lap it's every decision is well it's from the lord so if there's something good don't give credit where credit is and do put this down thank god for his absolute consistency in verse 17 the good gifts come down from the father of lights what does that mean the father of lights well that's genesis god said let there be light and then god created the greater light the sun to rule the day and the lesser light the moon to rule the night and he created the stars also to give light at night this is what he's talking about he is the source of all light he's the father of lights but in this case different than the stars there is no variation or shifting shadow there are nights where the stars well even first corinthians 15 says even star differs from star in terms of brightness they're all different from each other but god is that light that is the only light who well you might say he has infinity watts and he's always on see you and i like the stars and like the sun and the moon that change we are variable we go up and we go down god doesn't and we can praise god for that he's faithful i'm flaky god's good i'm grumpy god is passionate in his love toward me and too often i'm apathetic toward him but it is his consistency that is not boring listen gravity isn't boring folks it's very reassuring if we didn't have it we need to know that we can count on god's character and it never changes his name was thomas chisholm you may have never heard of him he was born in 1866 in a log cabin in kentucky he got saved born again when he was 27 became a pastor at 36 but only after one year of serving in the ministry because of ill health he had to leave the ministry he moved to new jersey and he opened an insurance office in 1923 thomas chisholm read lamentations 3 verses 22 and 23 which if you don't know the context of lamentations by the way might not make sense to you lamentations written by jeremiah jeremiah the weeping prophet lamentations means a time of weeping frankly it's it's a funeral it's a mourning that's what it means to lament it's a poem of prophetic proportions lamenting the destruction of the utter destruction of jerusalem by the babylonians that jeremiah had predicted would happen had warned god's people what happened desperately did not want to see happen but absolutely did happen horrible horrible destruction we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people dead babies consumed sometimes by cannibalism during the siege it was beyond anything you've ever imagined and jeremiah writes about it and it's in that dark moment of history of israel's history that god has him write these words lamentations 3 22-23 it is of the lord's mercies that we're not consumed in other words that we even still exist because of his compassions which fail not they his mercies are new every morning great is thy faithfulness oh how god would have us in the midst of the worst moment of our lives i hope and pray yours has already happened but i don't know that and neither do you but like job like jeremiah to say in the worst moment of my life in terms of what i experienced that i would come away saying great is your faithfulness lord that i'm even still alive i will focus on what you've done well he read that and thomas chisholm wrote a poem he put it later to music and it was given that song to an unknown singer at the time a man by the name of george who was singing on broadcast in the uh at moody bible college that song that was broadcast by george was heard by another unknown young man named bill turns out george's george beverly shea and bill was billy graham billy graham was so impacted by this song written by thomas chisholm that he had george beverly shea sing it at crusades all over the world and this little unknown man who was only in the ministry for a year and really wasn't seeming to be used by god very much he wrote the song great is thy faithfulness it has these words in its summer and winter springtime and harvest sun moon and stars and their courses above join with all nature and manifold witness of thy great faithfulness mercy and love great is thy faithfulness great is thy faithfulness there is no shadow of turning that's right from our passage with thee thou changest not that compassions they fail not as thou has been thou forever will be jesus is the same yesterday today and forever he doesn't have to work up being compassionate with you he can be nothing else because he is the compassion of god amen for every single one of us when we don't deserve it he is still faithful though we are faithless i love that so faith realizes what god does which is every good gift and who god is he never changes put this down faith produces fruit that reflects the lord faith produces fruit that reflects the lord now i want you to see the thinking the reasoning of james he's talking about sources every good thing comes from god you can know it's from god because it's good remember jesus said if it's a good tree it produces good fruit if it's a bad tree it produces bad fruit it's just you could know about the tree the source now he moves from talking about things to you and me please don't this is not a change of subject it's rather an application of the subject so in verse 18 in the exercise of god's will he produced us he brought us forth by the word of truth we would say the gospel so that we would be kind of first fruits among his creation or his creatures put this down be born of god if you haven't been or if you are being born of god you become a good gift that's exactly the reasoning here if it's from god it's good my only question to you today would be where are you from have you been born of god remember jesus said this of his own ministry or john wrote it he jesus came to his own that's the jews his own received him not they rejected him as messiah but to as many because there were a few who received him he gave the authority the right to be called children of god and then it describes who the children of god are and if you're one these all have to apply to you they've received christ they believe on his name not just believe that he exists they have put their faith on him and are depending on him and they have been born not of the will of man but of god three different verbs i always want to talk to people are those true of you i'm not asking you if you go to church if you've been raised in church if you call yourself a christian because so many say well i'm not an atheist and i'm not hindu or buddhist i must be a christian it's kind of the default setting you know no actually the default setting ephesians 2 is dead in your sin you weren't born a christian you can only be born again a christian and you must be born again that's john 3 and i'm saying that not just to say it to many who know it but maybe you're here and you haven't been it's the most important message i could give you if i get one minute with you and i don't know you i'm going to tell you you need to be born again why because you need to be born again jesus said to a religious man you won't see heaven you're not getting into heaven you need a new birth it's not about being religious you can believe all the right things i did but i hadn't been born again and so the question here really is do you see yourself in the passage this you know my beloved brethren he's talking to christians to brethren we have been born of god you know there is in the book of genesis a tree there in the garden of course we study the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that led to the first sin but there was another tree it's the tree of life was there in the garden but after genesis 2 and man's sin the tree of life disappears from scripture anyway it seems to get transplanted because we discover it again in revelation 2 where those who have overcome by faith will partake of the tree of life in god's paradise in heaven the tree of life i want to suggest to you from genesis 2 the first book to revelation the last book there is one other place in the middle of the bible the tree of life shows up again and that's on a windswept hill outside of jerusalem i believe that the cross in fact is the tree of life jot it down first peter 2 and verse 24 he himself christ bore our sins in his body on the cross that we might die to sin and we might live to righteousness for by his wounds you were healed when a person comes to saving faith the holy spirit comes to dwell within him we begin to have the capacity to abide and when we do according to john 15 we bear fruit we are the branches he's the vine we stay connected to him his life comes into us and produces fruit and the fruit tells you what kind of tree it is galatians 5 22 and 23 list the fruit many of you are familiar with those wonderful characteristics that we so appreciate in anybody else and that they appreciated us love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control these are the characteristics by the way they're just christ-likeness christ bears his character in us because he lives within us and his spirit causes those fruit to be possible not automatic we need to abide in him in order to bear fruit just like a a branch needs to stay connected long enough for the fruit to ever be born but sin separates us from god and our tendency is to stay disconnected way too long rather than stay connected long enough for his character to come through us now jesus died according to scripture our tendency sometimes is to miss this because it doesn't well it doesn't focus on us so much but jesus died not just to save us jesus died listen to me to redeem the whole of creation he said what do you mean he died for planet earth well in a sense yes you see adam and eve's sin corrupted and affected the remotest particle in the universe the law of entropy the law of thermodynamics that everything is winding down expanding energy and decaying hasn't been affected that's where sin has affected the entire universe the animal world but the bible says in romans 8 all creation has been subjected to futility emptiness because of him who subjected it in hope that one day it would be redeemed what was i talking about that the work of the cross and the resurrection was to redeem man and the entire physical universe did you know that but you and i are the first evidence of redemption believers we get saved now our bodies that's coming that's later you know there's a verse that says in romans 8 29 we've been romans 8 28 and 29 we've been justified we've been called sanctified that's happening now and then it says we have been glorified now i always read that i think well okay that's kind of future i i think paul you meant we will be glorified and the lord would say no just read what i said bob past tense and i read and i'm thinking to myself well i kind of looked at myself this morning and uh the mirror didn't look much better than it did in fact things seem to be going the wrong way here i mean when did i get old man skin when did my hair start to go the wrong color and start to do weird stuff when did hair start growing in the wrong places my sons the other day said dad you have one going straight out of your ears it's about this i said it's not that long i didn't see it you know okay you get the point paul says in second corinthians we're in human bodies he calls them tents we're in these tents and while we're in these tents we groan longing to put out our dwelling from on high the older i get the older you get the more you're going man i'm so glad that i don't have to live in this body forever that my body is gonna be that work of the cross is gonna be applied to your body the work of the resurrection wasn't just for your soul and your spirit it's for your physical body as well god's gonna complete that work he calls it the adoption the final application of the work of the resurrection to our bodies that's first corinthians 15. it's going to be glorious but don't stop there wait there's still more he's going to apply that to the entire universe and the creation will be set free from the corruption and that's what he's talking about here we are just the first fruits we're the first evidence of what god's going to do for his entire creation now as i said earlier from psalm 127 children are a gift from the lord if your children are god's good gifts to you then do you think that you're being born again is anything but a good gift to god i think we have a hard time seeing ourselves as valuable to god we know what the bible says in psalm 139 that i've been fearfully and wonderfully made that's amazing he made me in my mother's womb now the fact is i came forth with a sin nature but my body an amazing amazing machine i hate to call it a machine really but if you think about it incredible man at his best my wife always likes to mention this the best art there is is only man trying to imitate what god has done whether it's a cr you know a sunrise man can never improve on what god has done same thing is true man keeps getting better and better at technology meds is so pompous though so arrogant i read an article this last week about those that are at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence you know and they're they're worried about it you know these these machines are getting these computers are getting so smart they're going to be they're becoming smarter than us and this guy said we have created god and i thought to myself that is artificial intelligence right there nailed it how prideful can you be because the best thing man can do is not to even come close to what god has made in making man he is incredible i'm not saying there aren't machines that can do things better than us i'm saying that nothing else has been created in the image of god in god's creation it's you with all your flaws with all the fact that we're falling apart remember when they said to jesus to trap him hey you know should we pay taxes to caesar they were trying to catch him they figured however he answered that he's in trouble they like to put him in situations like that woman caught in adultery moses said stoner what do you say either way we got you you know it's one of those catch-22 questions and so jesus said well you do you have a a coin give me a coin i said tell me everybody who's whose image is on the coin you know the story that's that's caesar we hate him you know i'm sure oh so this is caesar's he meant this i guess uh then you know what he just give to caesar that which is caesar's that was not the point of his message yes we should pay taxes that's not the point of the passage because then he said and give to god the things that are god's what well what has the image of god impressed on it you do give yourself forget it this tax issue is irrelevant compared to the most important issue have you given yourself to the one who made you fearfully and wonderfully made a gift from god to your family a gift of god especially in christ we become it's not outside of christ that i so much think many of us are gifts from god but here's what the bible says in ephesians 2 10 we believers are his workmanship his work his poem his work of art created in christ jesus on the good works in other words when you come to christ you become something you weren't before in fact if any man is in christ he's a new creation old things praise god are passed away all things have become new well put this down the apple doesn't fall far from the tree somebody hands me an apple i don't have to go i wonder what kind of a tree this came from i don't have to be sherlock holmes to figure that out i can know without ever seeing the tree listen god is invisible but the fruit the character of god is very visible and you and i have been born of god to bear fruit for god i want you to look at the text again with me beginning in verse 19. this you know my beloved brethren but everyone must be quick to hear slow to speak and slow to anger these qualities are not just things christians ought to be to be good people get along folks with each other it's not like kindergarten rules you know no pushing no pinching no yelling no no no no you got to see it in context he's saying if you've come forth from god if you have been born of god if you're a fruit of god and you are then these qualities which are god's qualities should be found in his children like father like son we have that expression by the way jesus uses it often he says to the jews who hated him you are of your father the yeah i wouldn't recommend you say that to your boss but the fact is if he's not saved it's true they thought they were god's children born from abraham c they were the most holy people on the planet and jesus you are of your father the devil well i think we you you have the devil you know they got mad at jesus and he was saying this you want to do the deeds of your father it's obviously you are spiritually genetically related to satan he's a liar you're lying about me i've only told you the truth this is john 8. if you want to murder me he was a murderer from the beginning do you see what jesus is saying the character of the children is evidenced by what they do it shows where they've come from which of you convicts me of sin jesus would say or they falsely accuse him later but there was nobody who could accuse him of anything he was of his father you see god this relationship of father son the son of god it's all about that and so we are children of god we are born of god and therefore as i say the apple doesn't fall from the from the tree our character is visible evidence of being born of god let me say it again your character that's why while i think it's supremely important somebody prays a prayer or gives their life to the lord and you say well where does it say we need to pray a prayer to receive christ well the bible says if we confess with our mouths jesus says lord whoever calls on the name of the lord shall be saved that's prayer so i do believe it's right to come to a point where you turn your life over the lord you can do that on your own you can do that in a church serve you can do it with greg laurie today if you need to you can it can happen a lot of different ways but there needs to be a point of repentance of confession and crying out to god to be saved that's true but just going through the motions of saying you want to be a christian does not automatically mean that you've been born again the evidence of how you live your life is supremely important why because jesus said that on that day referring to judgment day many i wish he had said hardly any but he said many will say to me lord lord in other words they know who i am they use the right word i am lord their theology's intact it's orthodox lord lord did we not and they'll talk about the things they did that were consistent with being a christian did we not prophesy in your name didn't we not cast down demons these are people in the ministry these are people that by the way don't forget judas heard all of jesus's sermons and went out with the seventy to minister but he was not saved and he'll say depart from me you workers of iniquity i never knew you be careful you don't deceive yourself at this point our lifestyle is not going to be perfect because we've come to christ we are not sinless in this life if you think you are that's just another sin you just lied about yourself john says no i'm not sinless but if i'm in christ i should and will sin less i will grow not perfectly not often enough but i will become more and more like christ from glory to glory transform from one image to another second corinthians 3 his spirit is working i don't want to stay the sinner that i am i hate o wretched man that i am i didn't used to feel that before i was a christian in fact some ways as a young man i celebrated how awful i was i was impressed with how i'm sorry i was i i wanted to impress my friends with leona well i'll watch me do this and watch me do that i don't do that anymore no one's impressed by the way if you think you're cool because you're doing stuff that you're just a fool you got the wrong it's not c-o-o-l you're not feeling anybody but the spirit of god inside a life of a believer makes them want to be honoring to god pleasing to god even though we're far from being just like him i want to be and someday i will be i have his word on it so here are some qualities that god wants us to take on first of all jot down first john 2 and verse 29 if you know he the father is righteous you know that everyone who practices righteousness is what was born it's like that kid who came to church for the first time mom didn't even know if if the little boy was listening and on the way home she said what did you think of the service and the sermon because it was long it's not like me it was a long sermon and uh the boy had been coloring most of the time so she didn't know if he even listened but he was listening he said well i do have a couple questions she said what's that she said tin didn't god say or didn't the pastor say god is is bigger than us she said of course his presence fills the universe he said well then god also say or didn't the pastor say that god lives in us she said yeah he did say that so so if god lives in us but he's bigger than us wouldn't he show mom knew he was listening maybe better than she was jesus said in john 15 when you bear fruit and you become bearing my character you prove to be my disciples you evidence the fact that you really are not only just my followers but my life is in you put this down be all ears be all ears the bible says in this text everyone believers now must be quick to hear the word quick in the greek is takas it's where we get our word tachometer by the way tacos speaks of something that's swift or speedy you've heard the expression god gave us two ears and one mouth as though maybe god was trying to tell us something if you think about it the lord is a great listener he's a great listener the bible says he searches the hearts and the reigns he knows what you're thinking about thoughts you've long forgotten about he cares about you he is watching over every aspect of your life and when you're talking to him he's listening when you're not talking to him he's listening to your thoughts one of god's names seldom by the way brought up because of whose name reflects it is the god who hears jot down genesis 16 11 the angel of the lord said to her and her is hagar the egyptian who's pregnant with abraham's son behold you are with child and you shall bear a son and here's god's command to her you will name him what is it ishmael because the lord has given heed your affliction you know what ishmael means god hears god's listening it's the nature of god god hears i think about thomas after the resurrection you know what he missed church just once just once i want you to know what jesus shows up remember he materializes in the room and well we're not down to 11 we're down to 10 now judas is gone but thomas we don't know where thomas was maybe playing golf maybe fixing his camel i don't know maybe he's homesick i don't know but jesus materializes and the disciples tell thomas afterwards you should have been there why jesus manifested himself and thomas says i don't believe it i don't care if you all say it i don't believe i will no i will not believe it unless i can put my hand inside and i can see the nail wounds myself so we call him downing thomas so jesus the next sunday shows up again by the way he seems to have a habit when his people come together i've noticed that i think he said where to or yep i think he even promised it anyway good reason to go to church but there jesus shows up manifests himself thomas is there and thomas i'm sure was well blown away and then jesus makes reference to things thomas said when jesus was not physically visible in other words guess who was listening tommy the whole time the lord is listening to your conversations when you're not in his presence when you're struggling with your faith he is a great listener he's always listening he hears things maybe we wish he didn't hear we want to become like him to the degree god's spirit gives you grace to work in this area i'm always working on this by the way i've got a long way to go but look people in the eye when they speak to you if you're busy especially look them right in the eye when you say hi how are you don't say it as you run by i'll never forget when i started being a police officer in the city of placentia i was with a training officer and his window was down we were driving down a kind of a bad area of town and some guy because you know people like to acknowledge cops sometimes and some guy said good morning how you doing and we were driving and he literally the cop that i was driving with he said good you i thought that's good two words you respond and ask two words good you now there are times that's fine but man suggests to you if you want to be like the lord give him your attention that woman with a flow of blood interrupted jesus heading out to heal somebody that was going to die in fact that person would die jairus daughter would die while he's talking to this woman with a hemorrhage but he gave that woman his full attention what emergency is keeping you from loving people by looking at them jot it down acts three verses three and four remember the story when this lame man at the temple sees peter and john about to go into the temple he began asking to receive alms give me some money and peter along with john fixed their gaze on him in fact they had to say to him look at us you think he'd be looking at them but he's just you know he's not blind he's lame but he's just used to being there but you know alms for the poor alms for the poor and peter says hey hello you know let's they're looking at him he's not used to anybody looking at him why because most people they're trying to get you to give money they realize you don't want to look at them at all you pretend they don't exist i don't hear you at my window trying to sell me flowers you know i know one of the most valuable gifts you can give to anyone that costs you nothing is your full attention put this down find the mute button we're to be quick to hear and slow to speak and thomas edison was invent invited to speak on his most latest invention the phonograph they said of him we now want edison to come speak to you about they said he is the inventor of the talking machine that's what they call the talking machine he got up and edison said i'm not the inventor of the talking machine i'm just the inventor of the first one you can turn off it's like that weatherman of the news channel was talking about his wife he said she speaks so fast and so much he said she speaks at about 80 words a minute with gusts up to 120 but the bible says in ecclesiastes there is a time to speak and a time to keep silent and if we're honest most of us would admit i am reversed that i speak when i shouldn't and i'm silent when i should speak up shot down job 2 and verse 13 these are job's friends when they heard about his loss of his children and all the other losses then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him for they saw that his pain was very great if there was a book on how to minister to people that are suffering this verse this chapter would be great unfortunately after chapter two they all find their mouths and later on he'll say miserable comforters are you all everything you had to say is just trying to blame me and blah blah blah blah go away all you're doing is adding to my suffering but they when they were silent because of the depth of the loss you know think of jesus going to lazarus's funeral knowing there are people many not just mary and martha who are saying why did you allow him to die i mean you could open the eyes of a blind man you kind of healed lazarus or whatever he had and they called you it wasn't like you didn't know they sent you the message they dialed 911 jesus and you didn't come jesus knew that error was hanging over the entire funeral he doesn't say i have a few words to express and explain why i didn't do it just wait hank don't leave the funeral early you'll be glad you stayed no he didn't say anything like that just says jesus wept he wept did he weep because lazarus had died i don't think so he wept because of the weeping in the morning of the people that were all around him he weeps with those who weep because of our own lack of faith to believe that god is doing something good that god's in charge that he didn't have to allow he allowed it because he has reasons he he he still grieves with us even in our immature faith godly silence speaks volumes on the character of god when it just says jesus wept that's the shortest verse in the bible you know i've often said it i wish i remembered it more often that i've never had to apologize for something i didn't say jot down proverbs 17 and verse 28 even a fool when he keeps silent is considered wise when he closes his lips he is counted as prudent it's been said it's better to keep your mouth shut let men think you're a fool then open it and remove all doubt and maybe that's one of your problems you say things you shouldn't you hurt people you gossip things get out of your mouth you know you shouldn't be saying them with jesus did not go around gossiping about people if we're to be fruit of being born of god we're to be like a good listeners slow to speak put this down learn to lower the heat because the last quality we're going to focus on today is slow to anger he says for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of god the word anger here in greek is or gay there's different words thumas and others the word here or gay speaks of wrath it speaks of coming to the boiling point we would say losing your temper like that mother with the little chatty little girl in the store who was just incessantly touching things and talking and pointing and pulling and somebody was watching this mom and this little girl and the mom said calm down susie relax susie enough susie and came up and said hey you're doing a good job with little susie she said i'm susie when god revealed himself to moses who wanted to know him better and he knew him better than anybody already he had met him at the burning bush he had seen him there on the mount of sinai i mean he had more of god's presence so much that he reflected the glory of god but he wanted more that's remember if you are close to god you want more not like i've had enough till i get to have no no you just want more it's an evidence you've been in his presence when god hid him in the cleft of the rock and he said i'll make all of my goodness pass by i'll declare who i am god declared his name he said the lord the lord god compassionate and gracious listen slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness it is the character of god that we are to reflect in our lives the bible says we should have self control i love the fact that the oldest man in the world according to the bible's record methuselah lived to be almost a thousand years old 969 years old there are those who believe and i think it's possible his name methuselah actually in hebrew means he dies and it is sent referring to the judgment of the flood the worldwide judgment god had said i'm going to judge the earth he had already decided and then this boy named methuselah prophetically when this baby is this baby was named methuselah from birth when he dies god says that's when it comes and god will make him the longest living person who's ever lived as though to say look at my patience look at my grace my i'm not slow about promises peter says god's not slow about sending jesus he's too busy with other worlds and doing other oh he's not slow about his promise to save he's patient toward you he's slow to anger judgment is called god's strange work because he does it so rarely he is slow to anger but he will get there because he is a just and holy god who must judge sin an atheist years ago in a park stood up in front of these christians that had gathered and he said oh you guys believe in god you're such fools he said there's no god i said i'll prove it right now he said i'll give god five minutes five minutes starting now to strike me dead do it god these believers were shocked anybody would say that challenging god they literally weren't sure what was going to happen and this haughty atheist was sure and sure enough they counted it down five minutes came one woman passed out she fainted she thought something might happen he said i just proved to you there is no god and someone said all you did is prove you couldn't exhaust the patience of god in five minutes that's all you did and may i say every single one of us here is proof that god is a patient god he's still waiting for some of us to come to christ how long are you going to wait he's waiting for you some of us we're believers but we're struggling with obeying the lord in some area and he's patient he knocks at the door that's always been a blowout to me in my mind that god would knock at the door of his own house laodicea i'm knocking on my house well i just knock it down it's your house huff and puff and blow it down as cops you know we get a warrant from a judge blow the door off the head just take them to jail no i will knock i'll keep knocking your opportunity it's up to you what do you want to do the god of the universe who created you and redeemed you and has every right literally to take you out because of your decisions patiently is waiting but there is an end date how shall we escape if we neglect so great of salvation god sends no one to hell people send themselves there by refusing his grace don't be one of them let's pray father we want to be living a life that demonstrates that we're born of god we want to be good gifts lord we are you've said we are we don't often feel like we are but thank you that as you describe your saints we are precious we are jewels we are redeemable and redeemed and valuable and precious we're the bride we're we're your bride we would have just been content to be servants in the kingdom of heaven but no you want to give us the same glory that you have the same honor that's yours that doesn't make sense but we receive it today we say thank you today lord would you make us good gifts to the people around us today help us to be slow to anger help us to be slow to speak god help me in that area help me to be quick to hear help me to be evidencing that i'm a child of god in jesus name amen let's all stand and sing together [Music] [Music] of jesus on the body [Music] name of jesus [Music] hallelujah hallelujah jesus hallelujah [Music] jesus [Music] if you're here and you're saying bob you lot you you lost me after you talked about being born again i i don't know what that means i know how people use it i don't know i know it's in the bible but i don't i've never experienced it please our prayer room this side of the room is for you maybe you're saying bob i'm a christian but man i am not slow to speak i got i need god to get a hold of my tongue i've got an anger problem and i i know it's a problem and stop excusing it and blaming and rationalizing it i want christ to have control of my tongue man don't wait till we study it in the book of james the tongue is a fire it'll destroy people including your reputation and your witness ask god to control it today he's willing to do that whatever your need come to the prayer room we'd be honored to pray for you three o'clock the group is leaving to harvest if you want to go and sit with our group be here a few minutes before so they can leave right on time hope you guys have a wonderful week god bless you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] there's no more come on find his mercy come to the table he will satisfy the taste of his goodness find what you're looking for [Music] is in him [Music] [Music] [Music] bring all your fears bring your addictions come lay them down at the foot of the crops jesus is waiting there with all [Applause] [Music] [Music] us is believes we'll live forever [Music] [Music] is praise god praise god from whom all blessings flow praise him praise him for the wonders of his love who praise god praise god [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] forever foreign [Music] [Music] of the cross jesus is waiting god so love the world [Music] we're going to do a new song here this morning so i want to teach it to you because it was like this i stand on the chain breaking miracle me powerful name of jesus on the body race prodigal saving powerful name of jesus [Music] [Applause] of jesus lord we believe that to be true that we want to stand on the name of jesus and this morning we want to make much of the name of jesus here this morning we want you to be the focal point of all that we're doing and so lord we know that as we're just saying that truth from your word that you loved the world so much that you would give your only son are you given so much and so we want to lay ourselves down as a living sacrifice we're to honor you and see you glorified in this place so take our worship receive him we love you in jesus name [Music] out of the wilderness [Music] into deliverance look where i'm standing [Music] look where i'm standing now [Music] of jesus from the body raised chronicles colorful name of jesus [Music] look [Music] look [Music] [Music] make jesus [Music] jesus my savior [Music] jesus my savior rescue me hallelujah [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] powerful name of jesus [Music] [Music] name of jesus [Music] jesus for jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] and all the elders cast [Music] you were the other [Music] foreign you deserve the glory [Music] [Music] cast [Music] you were [Music] [Music] oh god you deserved you were [Music] from [Music] it's yours it's yours it's yours all of the glory all of the glory it's yours it's yours it's yours is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] with [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] but you deserve the glory one more time from you for all things the glory amen [Music] he deserves it all it's from him every you know we're gonna read about today every good and perfect gift comes from the father of lights and uh you know we can first service we were singing that song and i started to think of two stories and each story is from a different kid my kids and uh you know as a parent you get all the best illustrations from your kids and so i was thinking about when my daughter was little and i gave her like i don't know five or six bucks for doing a chore and so my wife takes her to the store and it's the grocery store and she's so excited when she comes home because she used the money that i gave her to buy groceries for the family instead of buying a toy isn't that sweet i was like thank you lord and then i realized it was pop tarts it's like raise a child in the way they should go when they're older they will not depart from it so that was a blessed day and and [Music] i i was overjoyed that she would do that not because i was like giving her the money and being like oh man i hope she buys groceries we really need groceries no i was delighted to give her that gift and i was even more delighted that she had a heart for the family that she had a heart for the household and she said you know it's not just me i know he my dad gave me this but i want to use it to bless the family and so that really was going through my mind as i was thinking you know from you are all things too you're all things and he doesn't give us these things and be like man i really hope they bring it back to me i mean he's delighted when we do that he gives it to us without reproach he's just like here take it and when we use it to glorify him and to say you know what we we know that you're the most important part of our lives and how could we not turn every gift that you've given and then back to you for your glory that blesses his heart and it's really hard to fathom that we could even bless the heart of the creator the person that's created the entire universe but he allows us to do that and so when we sing not only are we blessing his heart but we're encouraging the family we're blessing the family this is a very unique time in which we're together we can stir another one another to good works we can uh encourage one another's with psalms hymns and spiritual songs and so in a sense he's he's giving you a gift maybe it's not singing uh maybe it's something else maybe it's playing drums you know scott he's very biblical because it says to praise the lord with the crashing of symbols and so it's a very biblical man right here praising the lord in that way but um ultimately he wants you on the altar and so whatever it is that he's given you that you can bless the body with you have an opportunity to do that and so um second story is my son and he came to work with me on friday and he's been begging to go to work so i came on for like three hours let him work with me and we got here at eight and then we're doing some stuff and at 8 45 because oh i need a lunch break it's like 8 45. i was like bro you got like four more hours to go he's not cut out from for hard work and stuff and uh so he's coming to serve and stuff and that could be our mentality too sometimes you know god's given you this gift this time with these people right now it's an amazing gift that we're given to be able to stand with these with one another our family not an audience but a family and to worship him and to glorify him and so the last thing we want to be doing is like oh i need a lunch break you know what am i going to do after this what's coming next let's just set apart this time give it back to him take everything that would distract us out of our minds glorify him in this place because as we're just saying he deserves the glory amen he deserves it [Applause] so if you're watching online i i hope that's that's for you as well and i know there's the distractions are different right you don't maybe think about what you're going to do for lunch after this maybe there's just a notification that keeps popping up on your screen and distracting you or whatever else that could be distracting you right now but just enter into this time worship him glorify him where you are don't just worship him when it's worth it but worship him because he's always worthy of it amen and so there's going to be a link that pops up on the screen and again as i said he gives to us perfect gifts and he doesn't want us to then turn around and go i guess i should buy pop-tarts and you know it's like it's he wants our heart behind the action it's not just vain actions and so we want to give to him out of an abundance of gratitude and an abundance of intention to uh really glorify him above all things and so let's pray over it and then we'll continue to sing lord we're thankful to be here we're grateful that you would meet us here i'm i'm just so blessed by this family this body uh i look around and i just see people going through various seasons of life various seasons of trial and triumph and it encourages me to worship you and i pray that everyone in this room is encouraged to glorify you in this place because first and foremost you deserve it i look around this room and i see what you've done for such a wretch like me and those around me and i think what other god would deserve praise than our god who's conquered the grave and made a way for us to be here and so we want to glorify you we love you we thank you and praise in jesus name amen [Music] humble king you chose [Music] nothing was spared to prove your love for me [Music] what a misery that your final breath became eternity what we had lost [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] there's never a heart beyond your victory amen [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] smaller blessed is he [Music] who comes in the name of the lord is [Music] blessed is he blessed [Music] in the name of the lord oh [Music] forever [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] cowboy chapel how are you guys yeah you guys are awake you guys are awake first service when i said good morning i was like how are you guys like good so i'm glad you guys are good you guys are good welcome glad you guys are here whether in person or online thank you for joining us this morning today is our beloved announcement segment where we'll go over some things that are going on here at kyrie chapel east anaheim yeah i don't know why he's clapping for the announcements but praise god um we have a bulletin you should have gotten on your way in if you're watching it online there's online bulletins as well and i would encourage you to take a look at it because i don't have time to go through the entire bulletin and i'll only be highlighting three of the announcements in the bulletin and there's many announcements in this thing as well as an insight you'll need so just take a look at it but today i want to focus on three of them number one is the harvest crusade that's happening today at angel stadium and we are very excited about that it's a big night for us to celebrate the lord but also to bring people to the lord and i want to remind you guys that time and time again um even myself as a pastor i hear people telling me oh i got saved at the harvest crusade and they're still walking with the lord 20 years 30 years later and it's a it's a good thing to go and enjoy phil wickham and for king and country to bring people who know who they are but also to bring people who don't even know who filled with him is let alone the lord and to bring them to hear about jesus christ and the good news of the gospel and just so think about who you can bring it's happening today and we're meeting at the church at three o'clock in our parking lot so if you want to carpool with us you can do so at three o'clock in our parking lot and just for you guys who are driving yourself there i want you guys to know mentally prepare yourself it's ten dollars for parking i don't know about you guys i'm very tight with my money so when it's parking i need to mentally prepare it jesus is still on the throne he loves me he'll provide for me ten dollars here we go so prepare yourself ten dollars to go uh park at the angel stadium that's happening today all right number two is blast fest is right around the corner very excited for it it's our outreach on thanksgiving day where we reach out to the local homeless shelters and we bring people on buses to bless them with um we have legal advice we give them medical help we give them a thanksgiving meal we give them clothes the hold on yours it's a really incredible night and we want to encourage you all to be a part of that day but before it even comes there's a lot of ways you can be involved in setting up for it and tearing down for it so the week of the setup team a week and after those tear downs if you can't give your time on thanksgiving you can do that but also even right now we're making these things called backpacks and hygiene packs and we want to give these out at blast fest so if you want to go out to your 99-cent store to your target and buy some goodies we'll pack them in these backpacks and we'll give them out at blastfest and i just really believe is important for us as the body of christ to represent god accurately to this world and in hosea 6 god says i don't desire burnt offerings or just beautiful worship songs i desire mercy i desire righteousness and then paul will later say imitate me and imitate christ in other words the best way to lead someone is not just to tell them but to live it and therefore i want to encourage you guys if you have kids especially to incorporate them and not just telling them hey serve the lord but serving the lord on thanksgiving giving of your time being involved in one of our time slots even if we can't do it on the day of doing setup or tear down or even just going to the store and packing up bags for those who are in need and say it's not because they've did anything for us because what god has done for us and we want to do for them our mercy to live that example so i want to encourage you guys to really consider this is a great opportunity to give it's more blessed to give than to receive and to represent the lord to this world all right finally we have our hallelujah party happening on october 31st and we're having our parking lot transforms into a festival ground and we have carnival games we have inflatable slides and like all these crazy things going on and we will have food served as well so if you want to come out yourself i'd encourage you to buy some tickets now uh because those tickets will be 20 off if you buy now as opposed to on the day of so you get a little a little good deal there but most importantly our goal is to be the light of the world jesus says let your light shine before man so they may glorify god and when they see your good works so we want to shine on a dark night and not just do dress up we want to share the gospel we want to share the love of jesus and if you know if you know people who don't know the lord again another great night to just bring them here maybe they'll never come to a church service but they'll come to a church parking lot for a festival and that'll make our 1-2 step to get them to the lord so i want to encourage you to see your co-workers your neighbors and see them as potential people to invite to bring out to a hallelujah festival we do it every year really a great time so consider those things all right so that is all for my announcements now to our lead pastor bob company what happened to senior i'm not a senior anymore i'm just a lead hey listen a couple things on those announcements bless fest and hallelujah as josh has been going over ways to serve in the app they're both there and it's not that you will serve all day on thanksgiving there's two groups that come in so you'll do the either early group or the later group so it's not your and even if you do even if you were here all day it's not all day so we're all done by one o'clock so you can still do your family's thanksgiving so please sign up to be a part of it also for the hallelujah party there's one hour slots to serve that night we need a lot of help to work those booths and it's a lot of fun you get to know a lot of people so if you haven't signed up to help please take advantage of the opportunity to serve the night of i'd like you to open your bibles to james chapter 1. james chapter 1 beginning verse 16 as we continue our study through the bible james says do not be deceived king james says do not err my beloved brethren every good thing given every perfect gift is from above it comes down from the father of lights with whom there's no variation or shifting shadow in the exercise of god's will he brought us forth a word that means to be born by the word of the truth or we'd say the gospel so that we would be kind of first fruits among his creatures now this you know my beloved brethren but everyone must be quick to hear slow to speak and well slow to anger for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of god father we want to do more than go to church hear a sermon and go on with our life this week we want to have spent it in your presence we've already enjoyed worshiping you exalting you thank you for your reminder today through the worship that you are who you are what you've done for us is amazing and it it it causes us to feel it's so unworthy because well we are unworthy of everything you've done for us the lord your goal is to have us feel guilty your goal is that we might feel graced thank you that we do now lord as we've been humbled we ask that you would make our hearts tender to receive your word not just to understand it but to go beyond understanding to believing it and applying it to our lives we want to obey your word because we love you give us the ability to know how and the power of the holy spirit to live it out in jesus name we pray amen you can be seated so it was back in 1844 on may 24th a crowd gathered at the supreme court chambers in washington dc and they watched as samuel morris used a brand new invention called the telegraph to send a message by a wire 35 miles away to baltimore maryland in morris code dots and dashes he typed out what became the very first message transmitted four words anybody know what they were what hath god wrought what hath god wrought that's king james and by the way it sounds like a question uh it's actually not a question it's from numbers 23 23 that was taken directly from scripture what hath god wrought was what balaam the prophet not quite much of a prophet in the scheme of things but one who spoke the word of god at the time to king balak who had hired him to pronounce a judgment and a curse on god's people and balaam said hey i can only say what god tells me to say so you can tell me to curse him but i'll try but if what comes out of my mouth it's from the lord so and every time the three times he was supposed to curse him what happened he blessed them he spoke a blessing and in numbers 23 23 balaam says under the inspiration of the holy spirit there is no divination there's no omen that can be used against god's people you can't curse the people that god has blessed and he said in the time to come numbers 23 23 it'll be said of the nation of israel it's being saved out of slavery and becoming a nation look what god hath wrought they are what god hath wrought okay it's not a question it's a statement these people are evidence they're proof there's a god in heaven you see and by the way i start there because i want to talk today about the fruit of faith what does it look like we said be in the book of hebrews the book of hebrews the theme of the book is jesus is better better than what you name it he's better than that the entire old testament system jesus is superior now in james this practical book we've said the theme is faith works faith isn't just something you have that's precious to you faith needs to change the way you actually live if it's real this book is going to be all about the demonstration of faith do you have faith that really changes the way you live that's evidenced by the way you live so we're going to talk today about what i'm calling the fruit of faith that is what god hath wrought what god does in the life of a believer so if you're filling in your fillings put in the word what and who faith realizes what god does and who god is what and who and look at verse 16 and 17 again do not be deceived let me stop there whenever you read that in the scripture because it happens more than once don't be deceived bad company corrupts good morals here do not err do not be deceived the idea is hey listen up this is an area that christians tend to be deceived okay you got to remember that paul will say things like this in his writings i would not have you be ignorant brethren of and then he described something and it's interesting every time he says that you should listen up because these are areas where christians tend to be ignorant for instance he says i would not have you be ignorant concerning spiritual gifts and yet to this day the church is divided about the spiritual gifts what they mean how they're used whether they exist anymore very interesting how ignorant we are paul says i would not have you be ignorant in the book of romans concerning israel that a partial hardening has happened to him and the church disagrees about whether or not israel is still part of god's program now we don't but there are those who say god's done with israel he's now working with the church he's finished no no you're wrong well the fact is ignorance in the very area that paul would say don't be ignorant well when god says don't be deceived what you need to realize is this is an area where you're going to be tempted to be deceived actually the underlying word the original language is the word planao and it should sound familiar because we get our word planet from it to air to be deceived what well in the mind of the ancients the stars at night were all in fixed patterns in the sky but then there were these lights they didn't know what they were they looked like stars they called them wandering stars but they were not stars at all they were planets because they didn't go with the stars they moved around you see in their orbits so they were considered wanderers and the idea is don't wander don't get off track brothers and sisters don't lose sight of what god says is true about some things in terms of what god does and who god is so put this down consider the source this is really what it's talking about if it's good it is from god i appreciated what raymond was sharing about this passage verse 16. we have good gifts just like his daughter who bought the pop-tarts for the family god has given us gifts he wants us to give them to the family that's first peter 4 10. if i was preaching on first peter 4 10 i talk all about that you've got a gift he wants you to give it this passage isn't primarily about the purpose of the gifts this passage is about the source of the gifts look at it again verse 17 every good thing given every perfect gift is from above it comes down from the father of lights so we realize lord if there's something good in my life it's from you and by the way not only is every good gift from god by the way when it says every perfect gift it doesn't mean that uh let's say your husband or wife that god chose for you is perfect they may think they are sometimes but they're perfect for you there's only been one perfect woman and one perfect man and they mess that up since then there haven't been any perfect but god says he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the lord your children aren't perfect and you remind them they're not or they remind you they're not but the bible says in psalm 127 children are a gift from the lord you see fruit of the womb is his reward so we need to consider the source if it is good it's from god now make no mistakes god is good but good is not god there are people sometimes were attempted to spell god with two o's oh thank goodness who's that i don't know but be good for goodness sakes no god is good always good even when you don't know what he's doing even when you don't like what he's doing he's still good and everything that happens in the life of a true believer is all covered under god's umbrella policy that you're familiar with jot it down romans 8 28 let's remember it we know i i hope you can say this now we hope we know that god causes all things to work together for what good but it's only for those who love god and to those who are called according to his purpose so it's not for the entire world this is a promise for believers to claim charles haddon spurgeon said this about that verse he said this is the best promise of this life it's god's dark room in which negatives become positives his situation reversal machine where heartaches are changed into hallelujahs the promise of god someone once described it this way they said when i was a child my mom used to bake great cakes before she made a cake she would lay out each of the ingredients on the table counter he said one day i conducted an experiment one by one i tasted each of the individual ingredients she set out to bake the cake and then the person said have you ever tasted baking powder how about baking soda how about uncooked flour or the taste of a raw egg they said almost everything that goes into a cake does not taste good all by itself but when my mom was finished working it all together and setting it into the right place for the right amount of time a metamorphosis occurred in the end it all became good but if i would have judged the whole cake on the basis of the individual ingredients i would have never believed it could be good maybe you're in a situation right now and you know the bible says god is working all things together for good but you don't see any good at all somebody's gonna say how you doing you can just say cakes in the oven i'm waiting i don't know when but i pray that i'll see it it was tragedy that happened this week a family and our church lost their 25 year old son suddenly horribly unexpectedly and they were grieving and my son and i went over just to spend some time in prayer with them and then the father and mother were weeping and we were praying together i had been talking to them about job and i said you know when job lost his children his his res what he said his reaction to that was the lord gave and i just said you know what he was saying by that was i don't know why god's taken my kids away or allowed them to be taken away but i do know god gave them my children were gifts from god he was talking about the day they were born by the way he was saying the day those kids were the lord gave them to me they were god-given gifts and i'm going to focus on that right now yes they died i didn't expect them to die yes i'm grieving that they died but i'm going to celebrate the fact that god gave me them for any length of time and then job said and the lord has taken away that's a reference to the fact that god's sovereign over our life doesn't come to a surprise to god when someone dies psalm 139 he's ordained the days for us when as yet there were none of them so god decided that's how long they're going to live and i also know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord and so job is saying i know that they're back with the lord even david understood that when his baby died he can't come to me he said but i will go to him in other words my children are in the presence of god i wouldn't rob that experience for them for all the world even though i'm grieving the lord gave and the lord has taken away because he's sovereign he's good and they're at a good place and i i understand that that's where our focus needs to be we were talking about how hard it is and and it's not a simple thing you can read the book of job doesn't make you feel any different about your loss so we were there to grieve with them and and during our prayer though the husband the father didn't know i was going to preach on verse 16 today that was the core of his prayer he quoted verse 16. god we know you only give good gifts we don't know what to do with this but we thank you we trust you folks that's the fruit of faith when your faith says in the midst of something you don't understand you don't want you don't like you change if you could god you're still good i know you're good it's from you put this down then also a lesson for us is to give credit where the credit is due he says don't be in ignorance don't air don't be deceived know that good gifts come down from god now there's lots of ways to get off track here even for us as believers one of the mistakes we can make is thinking when something good happens well yeah maybe god had something to do with it but i did too and that's not untrue you get a raise and you worked hard and so you celebrate there's nothing wrong with that but if you only see yourself as the source that's wrong what is there that's good in your life that god didn't have something to do with it my grandson this morning wanted me to make him cinnamon toast so i did and i said hey before you eat it jeffrey let's pray and give thanks to the lord because that's what we do and at the end of the prayer he said how did jesus give me the cinnamon toast because he had watched me go over and make it i go that is a really good question i go but you know god gave the ingredients of that bread for the farmer to grow and he made bread it was god's idea that that could even exist i said and then he gave us the ability to have money to buy that bread and a toaster to cook it just right i might add and then and then to give it to you and he gave you grandparents who love you in other words god was behind every aspect of that gift if it wasn't for the goodness of god you wouldn't have gotten it you need to see the relationship sometimes it's harder to see jot down first corinthians 4 7 listen to what paul says to this carnal church for who regards you corinthians as superior and what do you have that you did not receive but if you did not or if you did receive it in other words you didn't have it originally why do you boast as if you did not receive it this is exactly what god's saying in jeremiah 9 23 when god says let not the wise man boast in his wisdom it's great that you got the degree it's great that you're ahead in your profession but don't get too huffy and puffy about yourself knowledge tends to puff up let not the wise man boast in his wisdom let not the mighty man boast in his biceps let not the rich man boast in his riches but let him who boasts boasts in this that he knows and understands me you see this is exactly where man goes off in romans 1 the first turn away from god is even though man knows there's a god it's evidenced by the creation it's pretty obvious and his spirit makes it evident within them they suppress that truth and unrighteousness because they don't want to change their lifestyle it's unrighteousness that makes them push that down i don't want to deal with the reality of who god is and then it says they refuse to acknowledge god they refuse to even mention there's a god or give him thanks they don't thank god they'll thank themselves they'll thank everything but god but the bible says what do you have that you did not receive even christians paul's talking to the church of corinth even christians can think they're the source of their blessings or even worse like the world can start to think that it's just by chance can i just tell you something i think you already know it you are not a lucky duck you're a blessed sheep if something has happened to you your cup runs over because of your shepherd so may i say please don't thank your lucky stars for something that's good thank the one who calls them all by name don't knock on wood thank the one who was nailed to the wood for your sins get it right this is important i'll be honest with you with the first time i studied through this as a young christian i realized the expression good luck needed to be deleted from my personal dictionary and i'm not saying my salvation or yours is based on it but may i suggest you talk like a christian don't let the world or superstition determine the way you see the source of where things have come if god has blessed you praise the lord give him glory for it now when i say that can i say one other thing don't be weird about it either what do you what do you mean sometimes christians get hyper spiritual about stuff you know somebody gets up and they sing a beautiful song in front of the congregation on easter and somebody comes up and says man that was awesome that really ministered to me and go oh it wasn't me it looked like you no it was it wasn't me it was the lord it's like well tell him he was flat on the second stanza i just uh just say thank you you don't have to be hyper weird about that give glory to god but don't be weird about it put this down number three thank god for his absolute consistency in verse 17 he says every good gifts comes down from above from the father of lights when you read the father of lights what's it talking about that's genesis god said he looked at the darkness let there be light and he made then after that the greater light the sun to rule of the day the lesser light the moon to rule the night the stars he made also these lights that god made listen to me now they do vary read first corinthians 15 one star differs in intensity from another star all those lights do change you you the moon looks different in the daytime than it does at night but he is the father of lights but in his case he's the light there is no variation or shifting shadow and god is different than every other light source there is god is light and in him there is no darkness the bible says he has infinity watts and he's always on see here's what it's really saying because we're also called the light of the world but we're different than jesus we are absolutely variable we go up and down god doesn't he's always faithful i'm often flaky he's always good i'm sometimes grumpy he's passionate always toward me sometimes i'm apathetic toward him though we are faithless he remains faithful because he can't deny himself thomas chisholm probably few of you have ever heard his name he was born in 1866 in a log cabin in kentucky he got saved born again when he was 27. he became a pastor at 36 but he only was in the ministry for a year and then due to poor health he had to leave the ministry he never went back to it he moved to new jersey and he opened up an insurance office in 1923 he happened to read lamentations chapter 3. now just really briefly in case there's anyone that doesn't know the book of lamentations sometimes called the saddest book in the bible lamentations is a funeral dirge it's actually a prophetic poem about the destruction of jerusalem jeremiah the weeping prophet he's called had this passion to call israel to repent before the babylonians in 586 destroyed jerusalem utterly destroyed the temple and carried away basically the southern kingdom into captivity it was the horrific day that god had warned his people if they wouldn't repent what happened and jeremiah was told even though you preach and faithfully carry the message they're not going to repent gee thanks i'd love to have that kind of ministry you do everything you're supposed to do and they won't anyway will you do it okay and he did so he watched and he saw the destruction and i'm talking about the things that have been written about that destruction in jerusalem probably only parallel to the destruction of jerusalem under titus the roman in 70 a.d we're talking about cannibalism breaking out as they laid siege mothers eating their own babies i mean it was horrific and he watched that and it's a sad book about what happens when you turn away from god and in the midst of this very dark very depressing book are these words in the midst of it lamentations 3 22-23 says it is of the lord's mercies were not consumed what's he saying it's only the mercy of god any of us are even left we should have all been killed but there's some of us still alive because his compassions fail not they are new every morning great is thy faithfulness and he read that this guy that had been a pastor for a year and now it's an insurance salesman he wrote a poem it was later put to music that poem that he wrote was given to some unknown singer named george who was on the radio at moody bible college doing a broadcast that song that was then sung by george was heard by another unknown young man named bill but bill was billy graham and george was george beverly shea and that song the song that you actually know great is thy faithfulness written by chisholm would be sung all over the world at crusades everywhere this guy who could only be in the ministry for a year and then thought that's it my time is cut short to minister would have a an opportunity to minister the whole world of believers what an incredible thing summer and winter these are the lyrics summer and winter spring time and harvest sun moon and stars and their courses above they join with all nature and manifold witness of thy great faithfulness mercy and love and then of course great is thy faithfulness great is thy faithfulness there's no shadow right from our verse of turning with thee now change us not thy compassions they fail not as thou has been jesus is the same yesterday today and forever as thou hast been thou for ever will be put this down letter be faith produces fruit that reflects the lord now in verses 18 through 20 i want you to see the relationship of what's happened in verse 17. in verse 17 we're looking at the source of good things and perfect gifts then he goes from things in our life circumstances and things to us and he's still on the same theme of good things in the exercise of his will god's will he birthed us he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures or his creation put this down be born of god and you become a good gift you need to make this logical connection he said every good gift comes from god listen if your children are born to you are good gifts from god do you think being born of his spirit makes you any less of a good gift of course when we are born again we become good gifts you see if it's from god it's good so my only question to everybody is where are you from where are you from have you been born from god there in the gospel of john we read these words of jesus he came to his own talking about the jews but his own received him not they rejected him as the messiah but to as many because there were a few who received him he gave the authority or the right to be called children of god so if you claim to be a child of god then you are claiming to have received him when did that happen by the way i think a lot of people claim to be his children claim to be christians who've never received him i was one of those until the day my entire life changed and i received christ but it goes on to describe those who have received christ in john 1 11 and 12 this way who believe on his name not just who believe he exists or believe that he came and died in history and rose again oh no who put their full weight down on who he is that's what it also means to be a child of god you have received him and now you are putting the full weight of your life on him and then it says who are born not of the will of the flesh or of man but of god a child of god all three of those verbs i believe on him i have received him i have been born of god i pray you could tell us a testimony of when that happened and the difference that it made in your life and so it's describing this person who's been born of god and now has become a good gift you know a good tree jesus said produces good fruit that's how you can know it's a good uh tree if the fruit is good he's talking about false prophets and how you can know that uh what they're doing is not of god there's the tree of life in the gospel or in genesis chapter two we read about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that adam and eve sinned with but there's another tree only one other that's mentioned the tree of life now what's interesting is after adam and eve sinned man was barred from the tree of life in the garden couldn't get back to it and the tree of life disappears off the pages of scripture but it pops up again in revelation chapter 2 where the church who overcomes is told you will be able to eat of the tree of life in paradise it's in our future which god has given for the healing of the nations i want to suggest to you the tree of life that originally god gave in paradise but paradise was lost is regained of course in the kingdom but the tree of life in my opinion actually shows up in between genesis and revelation in the gospels i believe with all of my heart that the tree of life is exactly what the cross is jot it down first peter 2 and verse 24 he himself peter said bore our sins in his body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness or by his wounds you are healed it is the cross of christ literally that becomes the tree of life to those who know him have you been born again have you tasted of that tree of life and come into eternal life when a person comes to saving faith the bible says the holy spirit regenerates them and then comes to dwell within them then the bible says in john 15 as we abide in christ we bear fruit jesus said bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples the fruit of the spirit you know this galatians 5 2 and 23 is christ-likeness the fruit of the spirit is love agape joy peace patience kindness goodness gentleness faithful and self-control against such there's no law these qualities are exactly who christ is in other words christ-like character is born in the life of a believer who abides in christ or we might say who is spirit filled and the bible teaches we not only begin to bear fruit as christians but we become the first fruits of his creation what's that talking about let me suggest to you what that's talking about when jesus died on the cross he died for man's sin and its effects on the creation when adam and eve sinned it didn't just affect adam and eve and cain and abel and everybody else that's not the only effects of sin the remotest particle in this universe that we've never even seen with the hubble or any other telescope and won't see has been affected by the laws of entropy and second law of thermodynamics everything's winding down everything is decaying adam and eve sin affected the whole of creation the bible says in romans 8 that the creation all of it was subjected to futility because of man's sin and it's waiting it's almost like it's it's it's it's alive and it's waiting to be set free from its corruption jesus paid to set the entire creation free from the effects of sin you and i are the first fruits the first evidence of the work by the way our bodies not yet that's coming in the future even for us but he started with your soul he started with your spirit you've been justified and regenerated and you're becoming more like christ it's already at work but the creation has to wait even our bodies have to wait you know there's a verse in romans 8 29 paul says we have been justified or who he justified and he called he's sanctified and we we know that that's going on in our lives right now moment i was saved i was born again 1971. god said not guilty in fact you're innocent you have the righteousness of christ praise the lord my spirit came alive then the spirit of god started working in me sanctifying me making me more like christ sometimes it's two step forward and three steps backwards but i'm still being changed from glory to glory for the rest of my life but then the bible says that the work of christ on the cross of the resurrection will be applied to my mortal body when does that happen at the rapture or when christ comes back for me a dead or alive he's going to take me to heaven he's going to give me a new body glorified body well what's interesting is you read romans 8 28 29 as he says i already have been glorified past tense and i kind of want to argue with paul paul you made a mistake i've been justified and i've been called and i i've been sanctified i'm being sanctified but glorified not yet i looked at the mirror this morning in fact the older that i get the worse it looks you know i look down when did i get these old man arms you know i mean like my skin's getting thinner all the time the bible says while we're in these bodies we groan longing to be to get our dwelling from heaven you see this mortality must put on immortality this corruptible body must put on increments that will come about the same death of swallowed up in victory oh death where is your victory oh grave where is your sting you see i i'm longing for my body but the bible says it's already happened why in god's mind as far as he's concerned it's a done deal he's the author and the perfecter he who began it will complete it you can take it to the bank you're going to be glorified because he began it but you are the first fruits of all of his creation you know the bible says that jesus was asked a question it was a big question in his day politically and was asked to be able to accuse him should we pay taxes to caesar now that was a hot potato it was it was a loaded question anyway he answers it he's in trouble and so he said well show me a coin remember this show me a coin so he says so this is the coin you're wondering about having to pay he said remember well whose image is on it that's caesar's i'm sure that was their opinion of caesar and he says wow if this is caesar's image he minted this that give to caesar what's caesar's folks a lot of people stop right there like that's the whole meeting of the passage that is not the heart of what jesus was trying to say although we're to pay taxes he goes on to say as you should give what has the image of caesar to caesar you give to god he said what has the image of god in other words that's you the real important thing is you can recognize it's right to give it to caesar what's his he made it he minted it he should have it but you're created in the image of god out of all of his creation he's made you in the image of god you are precious in his sight and so the bible teaches us that in christ we take on a value that we could have never had except christ redeemed us we are his workmanship his poema his work of art his masterpiece ephesians 2 10. you see god in christ has made you something far more precious than you could ever be outside of christ put this down then the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in verse 18 it says we're first fruits and then it goes on in verses 19 and 20 to describe what that should look like if we are born of god if we're fruit from god how should that affect the way we live this is the idea it's the fruit of faith or the fruit of the holy spirit this you know my beloved brethren and then he says three things everyone who are saved should be quick to hear slow to speak and slow to anger if somebody shows me an apple i don't have to wonder wonder what kind of tree it came from you don't have to be sherlock holmes to figure that out you have to know where the tree is or that it you don't ever have to see it you know it's an apple tree people can't see the invisible god but they can see your fruit this is the idea he brought us forth so that we might be the first fruit that people could taste and see that the lord is good the invisible god is being revealed through the character of his saved people that's the idea shot down first john 2 and verse 29 john says if you know that he is righteous you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is what born of him do you see what it's saying this idea of father son like father like son is taught all through scripture jesus in john 8 says to the jewish leaders you are of your father the devil i wouldn't recommend you say that to your boss but hey the shoe fits i'm not saying you should say it but my please understand why jesus that offended them they saw themselves as religious saved god's best people on the earth we're jews we're sons of abraham what do you mean he says he's talking about this idea of of being the son of somebody reflecting their character he says you're you are of your father the devil he the devil was a murderer from the beginning and you are trying to kill me a man who told you the truth he is a liar there's he's the prince of the father of lies you are of your father the devil you're just like him you're revealing your character by your behavior and so the lord says to us we reveal our character by our behavior now listen i do believe in being born again coming to a place in your life where you ask god to forgive your sins when you're willing to repent and say lord i've been in charge of my life and i've made a mess of it please forgive me i want to receive you i want to put my faith in you and i want to be born of god i believe that some people will say where does it say in the bible you need to pray a prayer well it actually says whoever calls on the name of the lord will be saved if you'll confess with your mouth jesus says lord and believe in your heart god raise him from the dead you'll be saved these are promises of god so i believe in that door of coming to christ responding to his invitation and saying i want that have you done that because you can do that today if you've not done it there's no more important thing you could do today than to be born again jesus said to nicodemus a high religious ruler that everybody like he's a nice guy you must be born again you won't see you won't enter the kingdom of heaven so may i say to you the same thing is true you must be born again i don't care how religious how good you are you're not good enough to get into heaven but christ's righteousness can be yours by faith and here while i believe you must pray a prayer you must come to that point of dependence on god we want to be careful about that some people won't say well if somebody prayed a prayer it really doesn't matter how they live the rest of their life because we're saved by faith not by works be careful right there it's true we're not saved by works but if we're saved the faith that saves works the book of james is all about this hence when jesus says some of the words that troubled many christians he said many i wish he didn't say many i wish he said hardly any but he said many will say to me on that day on what day the day of judgment lord lord they call jesus lord their orthodoxy is right on they know he's the lord they confess with their mouth jesus is lord they had the right doctrine lord lord did we not and they point to things they had done in their life did we not prophesy in your name did we not cast out demons and do many great works what how could those people not be saved because you know what the rest of what he says depart from me you workers of iniquity i never knew you but wait a minute they were doing stuff that i think only believers are supposed to do can i remind you judas heard all of jesus sermons judas went out ministering to the sick to preaching the gospel but he was not saved so be careful about this doctrine that says well one saved always saved the bible teaches the perseverance of the saints no question about that but it doesn't teach you get your fire insurance and it doesn't really matter how you live oh how you live really does matter not because it earns salvation but because it should evidence salvation you want to make your calling in election sure read second peter 1. it doesn't say go back forward at an altar call it says live out your christian life let it change the way you're living that's the evidence to you and to others that it's real you see and so the scriptures are very clear faith works here in our text there are three different areas that he says it should reveal itself you know i remember being about a a woman who took her son to church for the first time just the two of them and you know kids when their first time at church they don't a lot of times it's hard for them to focus and becky brought my grandkids this morning and i said are you going to take him to sunday school after the worship she said no they all want to stay okay all right you know uh we'll go for it it's funny because i think i've told you before my grandson has told me just recently that he used to want to be a pastor but he doesn't want to be a pastor anymore and i said oh why not he said you talked too long i said yeah that'd be you though no talk too long today he he he was he was actually quite pleased with himself at the end it was like hey i made it right to the end persevered right anyway um she's getting a little older but uh this this characteristic of a child in church sometimes they need to be distracted so mom had given her son something you know to draw on and crayons or something and she wasn't sure he was really listening to anything but on the way home she said did did you listen to the sermon he said i did said oh really she he said yes but i have a couple questions for you it's like oh so what's that little boy said well didn't didn't the preacher say that god is in us if we're christians and she said yeah he said that i'm surprised even heard that he said well didn't he also say that god's not only in us but he's bigger than us yeah he said that too and he said well if god's in us and god's bigger than us wouldn't he show yeah i guess he was listening pretty good huh put this down if you would be all ears be all ears we are to be quick to hear the word quick is the word tacus in greek it's where you get the word tachometer by the way and the idea means speedy you know it's been said god gave us two ears and one mouth maybe he's trying to tell us something the lord is a great listener what i want you to see in these qualities are these aren't just things we ought to be these are things he is like father like son like father like daughter we are brought forth to bear fruit we are to reflect him these are him and he's saying if you're born of me well then resemble me be quick to hear the lord is an incredible listener you know i tell people we need two-way conversation with the lord the bible god speaks to us and he speaks to us personally you know i used to say it was another generation probably but when you open your bible and read it you should hear you've got mail you know god's wanting to give you a personal word and i still believe that it's not that god can't speak to you in your prayer time but as you pray and talk to the lord you know most of the time he's silent but you need to realize he's listening to you do you know one of god's names not usually one that's ever pointed out in the names of i know our women are sending the names of god this won't be one of them because it's not one that's usually remembered like the jehovah shalom and the sid canoe and the el elyon those are all great names so there's a name of god that is often overlooked in the list and it's found in genesis 16 11. you can jot it down the angel of the lord said to her and her is hagar the egyptian behold you are with child she was pregnant she's running away from her master and her mistress sarah and you shall bear a son and his name will be what ishmael now we don't all have great feelings of faith for ishmael we know he's born in the flesh but here's why god gave him that name it was given by god not hagar because the lord has given heed your affliction ishmael means the god who hears my god el roy he's the god who sees jehovah jireh he's the god who will see to it but he is the god who hears it's one of his attributes he's always listening to us i think of thomas you remember after the resurrection he hadn't seen the risen lord but he didn't go to church one sunday when jesus showed up we're just told that the other disciples were there and thomas wasn't there we're not to where was thomas you know i don't know he's out golfing or repairing his donkey or i don't know sick we're not sure thomas did not make it to church that sunday but on that sunday jesus manifested himself to the disciples and they told thomas afterwards should have been here you know and uh thomas said well i don't really believe that happened even though they all said it the other 10 remember judas is out thomas wasn't there so there's 10 apostles and they're telling him he was here he was really here and he said well i will not believe that he's risen except i can put my hand right into his side and i see the nail wounds in his hands and his feet and you know the story doubting thomas that's why we call him that jesus next sunday thomas decides i think i should go to church and uh jesus shows up now what i want you to realize is that jesus talks to thomas and says hey thomas you want to put your hand in my side i want you to believe blessed are those who believe who have not seen but you know what i want you to believe so come look now what i want you to see is this jesus is referring to something that was said by thomas when he didn't think jesus was listening at all couldn't see him jesus was listening to everything he's always listening constantly listening the bible says he searches the hearts and the reins the god that we have to deal with he knows everything that we're thinking about so on a practical level let me encourage you to do something that maybe you already do but need to be reminded or you don't do and can learn to do with regard to listening look people in the eye when they speak to you look people in the eye when they speak to you i know we get busy i'm certainly guilty of that i'll never forget the day i started as a police officer in placenta i was with a training officer we were driving down this alley and you know people like to acknowledge cops or at least some ways acknowledge cops and we were in this bad area town and the windows were down we were cruising around and uh and somebody saw the the officers well they saw me and the other officer and they were on his side of the car and they said hey officer how you doing today and i'll never forget he said two words as we were driving we're driving by we're not stopped he said good you i thought wow that's that's pretty handy two words and you've acknowledged what they asked and you've even asked them how they're doing well i could take that one to the bank you know when you're busy that's a great one good you some of you're gonna that's why you said it to me jesus when he was on a 911 call to go help jairus daughter who was so sick they thought she might die in fact she did before they ever got there has a woman who's had an issue of blood for years 12 years and thinks she can just touch him get healed and leave and she did touch him and she did get healed and he won't let her leave without testifying without admitting so he could say your faith has made you well and it's interesting in the midst of something that couldn't have been more busy couldn't have been more urgent jesus takes time to deal with her as an individual because he loved her listen it'll cost you nothing but it's one of the most valuable gifts you can give somebody is simply to give your full attention to them jot down acts 3 verses 3 and 4 i see this as peter and john are going up to the temple that was always the place that beggars would beg because one of the things jews believed is that if you gave alms he gave you credit against your sins and when he this lame man saw peter and john about to go into the temple he began asking to receive alms or money and peter along with john fixed his gaze upon him and said look at us why would they say look at us because he wasn't looking at him he just he's not blind he's lame but like so many people they you know they just want to get the message out there it's like a lot of us we don't want to look at people that are asking to give you're on the freeway off ramp and they're right at your window no cash you take credit you know you don't want to even engage and peter and john said look look right here here's the guy he's not even looking at him but they're looking right at him silver and gold have i none well put this down find the mute button we need to be quick to hear but slow to speak put in the word mute thomas edison was called to speak after he invented the phonograph he was introduced to this big group of people as the inventor of the talking machine he said i am not the inventor of the talking machine i'm just the inventor of the first one that could be turned off like that weatherman that worked for the news network who used to say his wife talked a lot he said she talks at about 80 words a minute with gusts up to 120. it says in ecclesiastes there's a time for everything there is a time to speak and there is a time to keep silent i don't know about you but often i realize i know that but i get him completely backwards and i talk when i shouldn't this is peter up on the mount of transfiguration cloud overshadowed him and lord politely said pipe down peter listen to him doing too much of this and you should be doing this um i talk when i shouldn't and i'm silent when god would want me to speak up there's a time to keep silent and it's a lot more often than we think jot down job 2 and verse 13 after the news of job's losses of all of his children all of his wealth and his health got out to his friends they came from a long way they gathered together uh on purpose to go to him and here's what it says then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him for they saw that his pain was very great i've often said if there were a book to be written about how to comfort somebody else is going through a hard time a tragedy it's the book of job but only up to chapter 2 verse 13. because the rest of the book these guys all found their voice and they took it off mute and they had plenty to say mostly that you deserve it you did something wrong god's not punishing you and you're innocent and they just went on and on and flowery speech after a flowery speech until job said oh miserable comforters are you all i just wish you'd go away or stay in chapter two godly silence speaks volumes the shortest verse in the english bible is jesus wept you know jesus was called to the bedside of healing lazarus while he was sick he ignored it and then he showed up at his funeral it wasn't just mary and martha who felt if he had been here our brother wouldn't have died it's everybody at the whole funeral the guy that could give the blind their sight and heal the lame this was your friend you were so what were you so busy doing nobody said it but they were all thinking it why jesus could have gone and said i have a word to speak to all of you just just trust me don't leave early to the funeral you'll you'll be sorry you stayed or you'd be sorry you left you there's good things at the end no he didn't say anything like that he just wept didn't say anything to the crowd really he just wept he'd weep because lazarus had died by the way he he can i say it he wanted lazarus to be dead because he was going to raise him back to life he had a bigger gift to give no i believe he was weeping because they were weeping the bible says weep with those who weep the lord enters into our grief even if it's an unbelief that we have it he still grieves with us he saves our tears in a bottle that's who he is but we need to find the time when it's time to not say anything it said that uh rockefeller wealthiest man on the planet had a plaque of a fish that he had uh on his mantel in his office and when he would call they would call an employee or a management person up to his office who he needed to talk to that person would be put up in his office waiting for him to come in and if they got up and they looked at the plaque on that plaque it said this i wouldn't be here either if i had kept my mouth closed and i've said it before but you know it's true i've never had to apologize for something i didn't say jot down proverbs 17 and verse 28 even a fool when he keeps silent is considered wise when he closes his lips he is counted as prudence someone said it this way better to keep your mouth shut and let men think you're a fool then open it and remove all doubt so we're to be all ears and we're to know when to be quiet then thirdly learn to lower the heat there in verse 19 it says we're to be slow to anger for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of god this word in greek means to anger to the point of boiling over there's a point where you just lose it a mom with her little toddler went to the store and the little girl was chattering and touching things and running away and uh mom said calm down susie relax susie it'll be okay susie and somebody came up said you're doing a great job mom you're doing a really good job susie and she said susie that's that's not susie i'm susie i'm i'm talking to me yeah some people i think they they dismiss their anger it's like oh it's not that big a deal yeah i get really mad but it's over you know in just a short amount of time yeah that's true with a shotgun too it's over real quick but the destruction is huge we got to see this is one of god's own qualities when moses who had seen god at the burning bush saw god alone up on mount sinai came back glowing wanted to see more of god because that's what a person who has seen god wants they want more of god we've talked about that he says lord i just want to see your face i want to know more of you god says i'll place you here remember in the cleft of the rock you can't see my face and live but i'll show you my glory my reflected glory and the bible says that god revealed himself with a pronouncement the lord the lord god compassionate and gracious slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness it is the character of god who is slow to anger what does it mean it's slow to judge listen god is slow to anger he he will eventually get there but he's slow getting there god said he was grieved with man because he was continuously in sin in the book of genesis he's going to destroy the world then a son is born and it's the child is named methuselah methuselah is named by a father who's a prophet methuselah means he dies and it is sent it is believed that that child that baby was born knowing that gods are going to judge the world soon but the prophecy was when this baby dies that's the day and if you read in the genealogies you'll discover the methuselah died the year of the flood came to pass but it is said and interesting methuselah has this one characteristic that we all know about him he's the oldest man who ever lived 969 years it's as though god is saying listen i'm in no worry to judge i don't want to judge you why will you die oh israel i take no pleasure in the death of the wicked turn god's still waiting he's still patient his arms are still outstretched to a disobedient and stiff-necked people i can't believe that i read in my bible that jesus stands at the door of his own church and knocks how to get outside is my first question how long you've been standing there is my second question and how long will you stand there and why don't you say as the lord who created us and redeemed us and has every right to judge us i'm going to huff and i'm going to puff i'm going to blow you away but you don't you just keep knocking the martyrs in heaven you think that they wouldn't be challenging god with his justice i hope we aren't doing that they said how long holy and true does thou fail to avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth judge them already god says just be it be patient peter says god isn't slow about his promise to come back as some count slowness he's patient toward you the reason he has a judge is you're not ready there are people that need to get saved and there's some people that knew are saved or need to get right with god but he's slow to anger and i'm really glad for that i was a preacher over in a park grew a crowd sharing the gospel robert ingersoll walked up famous atheist he said you guys are all fools to believe in god why do you believe in a god what evidence is there of a god i tell you what i'll prove right now there is no god that's like really he said yeah i give god five minutes to strike me dead right now if there's a god in heaven let him prove it to you and once for all strike me dead they literally watched on their watches some of them were freaking out thinking what is going to happen one woman fainted thinking i don't know what's going to happen five minutes came and then he said see that's proof there's no god and somebody said really mr ingersoll all you did is prove that you can't exhaust the patience of god in five minutes that's all you proved today god is slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness now the bible says the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of god can i tell you something that i know all too well personally we are never more tempted to do wrong listen to me than when we've been wronged and to think that that's righteous anger look out james and john see that they're closing their ends for jesus and his crowd because they're going to jerusalem this is in samaritan towns they don't believe in going to jerusalem so they put out the no vacancy sign and so james and john come to jesus they said lord do you want us to call down fire on the samaritans and burn them out the way elijah did it has biblical precedence and he said you know not what spirit you're of that is not the holy spirit that's not why i came you think that's righteous indignation that's disgusting what they're doing i'm mad at them the same way god is in god says ah no if you want to write one word across those last 12 words of genesis or james 1 20. that the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of god just write the name moses just write moses moses was the meekest man on the earth and moses got angry at god's people thinking that god must be mad at them too by now they're accusing god and me of bringing him out here in the wilderness to die of thirst and god said you know what moses you just speak to that rock you smote it last time that was last and this time you just speak to the rock water will come forth you want me right water comes out and god says you know that trip to the holy land we just canceled at moses you're not going in because you did not treat me as holy what's he saying you didn't reflect me at all i'm not up in heaven going you're not reflecting me at all i am slow to anger and i'm not mad at my people they need to drink and not only that you ruin the type because the rock the rock is only smitten once not twice let's pray father i ask you now by your holy spirit would you just put your hand your finger in love lord some of us well i'm guilty talk too much we do lord we want our mouths to be muzzled we want your holy spirit to help us to be better listeners than talkers some of us lord have to confess we've been talking about things we should not be talking about and we ask you to forgive us lord would you take luck directly out of our vocabulary and instead to admit and magnify the source of all good gifts would you help us to believe that you've made us a good gift by your grace lord if we have a problem with our anger and we do if we have anger we have a problem with it to believe that you can change us if you can turn a james and john and make them into the loving servants that we read about later in the bible by the power of the holy spirit do it again do it here do it for that man for that woman do that in our lives so that we can be a reflection we would be good fruit that shows that we came from a good tree that the tree of our savior and the tree of salvation has changed us from the inside out lord make us evidence of your life inside of us in jesus name i pray amen let's all stand and sing together [Music] bye [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] hallelujah [Music] hey man listen i want to encourage you if you feel like well what do i do i mean i'm a christian i believe or maybe you're hearing you're saying bob i'm not even sure i've i've been born of god i don't even know how come to the prayer room or way over there on that side of the room just come and get prayer if you want to get some issue result how about you feel like i've got a bad temper i i don't know how to deal with i'm embarrassed and ashamed listen the lord can change you uh i don't know how many of you used to have a bad temper the lord has helped change you there's a lot of evidence in this room some of you raise your hands your wives are pulling listen she's still got to work on anyway fact is we are living proof we're still in progress but god can radically change this area of your life and i know it but you need to commit it to the lord maybe you just want to have a problem we didn't talk about today given to the lord come and get prayer that's what they're there for and by the way i hope you can join the church boy out at three o'clock be praying for greg be praying for phil and the king and country but maybe there's somebody that god even now wants you to think about inviting maybe they won't come but they'll know that you love them so take advantage of that and take them to harvest crusade and see what god will do guys friday morning 6 30 bible study with bob gaskin who taught up at our retreat we'd love you to come hope that every man in this church would take advantage of the men's bible studies and ministries because we want to know you we want to grow together god bless you guys [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Calvary Chapel East Anaheim

Views: 919

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: dhi0Q8Jowe8

Length: 215min 40sec (12940 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021