Virtue Womens Conference - Day 2 (With Jackie Hill Perry)

[Music] but [Music] is [Music] is [Music] i'll testify by jesus christ the righteous i'm justified this is my testimony [Music] [Music] but with blood and washed with water [Music] we'll finish what he's done [Music] jesus christ this is greater things are still to come [Music] greater things are still to come come on in with us [Music] oh [Music] [Music] this is my testimony [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yay is my testimony this is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] come your sins come find his mercy come to the table he will satisfy the taste of his goodness find what you're looking for [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] is is [Music] praise him praise him for the wonders of his love praise god [Music] hey everybody greg laurie here i have a podcast where i teach the word of god talk about things that matter in our culture and interview some really interesting people like secretary of state mike pompeo alice cooper now gibson my focus is on what god has to say to us in his word so check out our podcast it's on all podcast platforms and i hope that you'll subscribe hi we're harvest kids did you know that we're on youtube each and every week we film a church online experience for kids every week we worship together we study the bible we play a game and we do a craft or a snack so we want to invite you and your family to join us each and every week the kids are going to learn a lot about the bible but so are the parents so we'll see you online community looks a little different these days doesn't it hi morning april hi ashley but community is as important if not more important than ever before in a small group you are noticed you know sometimes you can slip in and out of church unnoticed but in a harvest group people will know your name and welcome your participation [Music] in our homes on our phones with our families and with each other you're cared for you're appreciated and you're both wanted and needed in a harvest group so i want to personally encourage you as your pastor to be involved in a harvest group it's studying the bible more deeply in a community with other believers hey i'm so confident you're going to love the harvest groups you'll stick with it even after that first month but try it out i think you're really going to like it hey southern california greg laurie here you know there's nothing like gathering together in person to worship the lord and hear the word of god and i want to personally invite you to live worship at our church campuses there's two you can choose from our service times are nine in the morning and eleven in the morning so join us as we meet both inside and outside every sunday morning [Music] of his [Music] [Applause] today [Music] man's empty [Music] but you came along jesus [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] there's [Music] see i'm not afraid [Music] to show you my [Music] cause the god of the mountain [Music] won't find me again [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] come on again [Music] [Applause] yay [Applause] [Music] you're the only one [Applause] for there's nothing better than jesus there's nothing better [Music] is [Music] [Applause] you [Music] you turned into [Music] you turn crazy [Music] you're the only one [Music] hallelujah it's my soul no longer i grew [Music] foreign [Music] in is [Music] is [Music] foreign this is all of this for your glory [Music] all of this for your glory [Music] [Music] [Music] now jesus lives in me [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] city [Music] [Music] for is glory all right good morning you can be seated okay how many of you were here last night okay how amazing was christine's message and our worship i talked to one lady this morning as i was coming in and she said i couldn't sleep last night i just kept replaying the christine's message in my mind and i was like that's it before we started larry prayed that all that we hear this weekend will last that it will stick and that is our prayer so continue to make that our prayer this weekend uh also i want to i have the privilege of introducing to you this morning our speakers and our first speaker doesn't need much of an introduction as you know kathy laurie is going to be teaching our first session today i feel so honored to get to announce her i don't think i've had the privilege of doing this but kathy is pastor greg's wife and she's been pastoring here uh partnering with pastor greg and pastoring here for over 49 years and she is the founder of this women's ministry virtue she's a yes she's an amazing speaker and leader of women and she is a bible teacher and a prayer warrior and i have the privilege of working with kathy on the daily basis and let me tell you i have the most genuine love and respect for her in all areas of life not just this more formal ministry but in her role as a mom and a wife and a grandmother and a friend and a mentor and you are in for a real treat this morning our second speaker it's been a long time coming for us is jackie hill perry maybe you don't need much of an introduction either actually but jackie is a poet a bible teacher a hip-hop artist and since uh jackie's become a christian she has been using her gift of speaking to share the gospel really all over the world she's an author she's written a gay girl good god the story of who i was and who god has always been and those books and one book on the way her books are going to be out on the patio along with christine's this morning after service at home she is the wife the wife of preston and the mommy to eden autumn and sage and a baby boy on the way so and we feel very honored to have jackie come and speak on two extremely relevant and important topics this morning so give her your undivided attention she's going to be speaking from a biblical perspective on things that you are familiar with and that our culture has also a perspective on so as jackie and kathy come up i'm going to encourage you to love on them welcome them well as you do harvest and before we continue on in our worship we're going to add another element of worship to this morning and we are going to receive an offering this morning so um during this time of giving we recognize that that you paid to come to this conference this was a paid conference but if you would like to be a part of the work that god is doing in the lives of women in harvest and beyond and what he will do in the future now is the time to to give to that we have weekly small groups here which you're going to hear all about this morning and why it's important to join one local and abroad uh we are women here that are learning and studying god's word weekly we have mentoring programs we do events like this um online lesson lessons and messages and podcasts that are available for free to everyone and so your gift today will will help encourage the ministry of women all over so i'm going to ask the ushers to come forward and i'm going to ask you to bow your heads as we pray over this offering this morning oh lord we thank you we thank you for who you are we thank you for all that you have given us all that you have blessed us with lord we recognize you as our provider and lord you tell us in your word to give what we have decided in our hearts to give not with reluctancy but with joy and so that's what we want to do this morning lord we want to be cheerful joyful givers we want to give back to you what is already yours and so lord i pray that you would bless these offerings these gifts i pray that you would bless the giver and that you would use these gifts for the furtherance of your kingdom lord we love you we also pray that in this next moment of worship lord that you would be the guest of honor in this place that you would be glorified that your spirit would reign in this house this morning we love you and we thank you and we ask all of this in the powerful name of jesus [Music] amen you lead us take me there take me there if you're looking for an offering it's right here my life is here and i'll be a living sacrifice for you you're the fire the refined i wanna be become true i wanna be tried by if i am pure horrified you take whatever you do [Music] you take whatever if your glory wants [Music] set it up [Music] [Music] you take whatever [Music] you take whatever you desire [Music] [Music] is want to burn for you only for you and take my life as a sacrifice i want to burn for you all [Music] i want to [Music] i want to [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] i want to [Music] oh [Music] i wanna be [Music] you're [Music] [Music] it's right [Music] you take whatever you d we gotta sing that one more time to declare that in this place come on you sing it out [Music] [Music] one more time one more time [Music] hallelujah [Music] why don't you guys grab a seat let's pray wow jesus we sang words to a song that if we really mean what we were seeing we should be trembling in our shoes at the thought of what that might mean and what that might cost of us that is until we realize that your purpose in trying us by fire is to refine us as a as a goldsmith refines gold in the fire that we will not be burned up in the fire will only be more purified and able to shine for you jesus more beautiful more effective and lord we do pray that prayer with trembling lord we stand in the presence of a holy god and we thank you so much that that holy god condescended to meet us in the places where we are not to leave us there not to condemn us but to show us the way of salvation thank you lord for what you've done last night thank you for those who made a profession of faith coming to you last night we pray especially for them this morning that what they hear will be instructive and helpful and that all of us will hear your voice loud and clear this morning for we ask it in jesus name amen all right well okay so how many of you left kids at home left your children with somebody i hope [Laughter] i was over at the mission and those of you that are not from riverside the mission is a really special place this amazing hotel but i i used to frequent there when i was um first married and there's a little shop called tiggy winkles and that's been there forever some of you know it and at tiggy winkles i came across this cute little dish towel it said um we keep hearing it takes a village to raise a child we all heard that right would you do they just show up or like uh is there a phone number or a number to call my message this morning is titled it takes the church it takes the church and not just to raise a child but to be a christian it takes the church and i want to talk to you today a little bit about what that means okay so before i get started i want to ask how many of you out there are under 30 years old oh wow there's a whole whole slew of you right here and sprinkled out throughout the auditorium aren't you lucky 30 years old how many of you are over 30 there's a lot more of us how many of you are over 30 and wish you were younger or think you are younger yeah well before i begin what i was thinking about in my message today was asking myself as i announced this many times on my social media and that church that we really wanted to hit on and target some of the younger ones and i'm just i'm just smiling and almost tearful at the thought that my two granddaughters are sitting here in the front row yep riley and stella riley is 16 and stella is going to be 15 in just a few days and um so if i was going to talk to a younger kathy what would i say and um there's a picture of me i think i was about maybe 14 in that picture and what would i say to myself and i would say a number of things i want you to really pay attention get your paper and pen out i'm going to tell you something that's really really important okay number one wear sunscreen yep my mother told me to wear sunscreen i did not listen and you have the face to prove it baby oil not a good idea second of all now this is really important now i'm going to get serious now brush and floss your teeth every day those permanent teeth that you got when you were about five or six years old are going to last you a lifetime and root canals and crowns are not cheap so if you plan on not taking care of your teeth you better be rich okay or have really good dental insurance third of all think about that yearbook picture i don't know if we have a do we have a picture jenny we had we had an idea of showing up some of those crazy yearbook pictures how many of us have ever seen a yearbook picture of ourselves and just cringed and wished somebody would have talked to us about the hairstyle we had at that time do you remember the 80s with the big big giant bangs some of you remember that oh my goodness yes think about that yearbook picture but but let me come back to um a younger kathy um and like i said if i would have known what i know now what i would say to her and uh so there's there's another picture of me um yep that was me uh-huh at 13. um i was highly highly influenced by the counterculture of the day i had two older sisters one that was starting college another one that was in high school i was in junior high you could take that down do you love the magenta tights don't you love those stockings man i thought it was so cool but that's how i dress that way i would wear those kind of clothes all the time i carefully identified and liked to identify myself with that counterculture that was happening during the late 60s and early 70s i was raised in the church i was disillusioned by the church i wasn't interested any longer i didn't see the point of church i didn't see the impact of the church in people's lives i saw it you know we went to church every sunday religiously but i'd walk away from that and felt like what's the point why do i need to do this and um so i i came to a point in my life where i was dismissive dismissive of christianity and of church as i saw it being lived out um sunday morning duty added nothing to me oh goodness who knows what that was about um so uh yeah my i tried to put on my timer but i've got a clock up there i'm going to keep my eye on this because i don't want to keep you too long so i was dismissive of that seeking desperately needing to um i'm going to hand this to lindsay would you take care of this for me i have no idea what i did she takes care of me and i mess things up all the time she was going to try to help me with a timer but we're not going to worry about that now um i was very much disillusioned with church i didn't see the point of church i didn't know why i went to church and so i turned my back on what i saw in the church and i went searching along with thousands and thousands and thousands of other young people in the counterculture hippie movement and if you would have asked me at 14 i would have told you that i identified with being um anti-war pro-choice for those of you that don't know you know i thought the sexual revolution was a great idea that no one should tell me what to do with my body and how to live i was anti-authority i was pro-drugs and that's where my life was at and i thought that was pretty cool you know i i not a lot of people my age were doing that i was pretty young but i had older sisters who were definitely influencing my life and uh until one day one day i heard the gospel and i heard it from people that i could identify with they were young they were they looked like they were hippies i had no idea what they were coming up to my sisters and i to say um we were smoking pot on the lawn of long beach city college and these guys came up to us and stood and we thought oh they're just coming to share drugs with us that's what they were there for and they weren't they stood there and they said that they used to do what we were doing but they didn't do that anymore and i thought to myself well why not why not and they said because we found what we were looking for and i thought well i'm looking for something i was looking for something i was looking for a spiritual experience with god you know a beatles stuff you know and all those guys who were leading us down that pathway to telling us things that um that there was a deeper form of enlightenment and all of that and so i really wanted to hear what it is that they had found that they no longer needed drugs for and they told me that they found truth and meaning in a relationship with jesus christ and i i couldn't believe what i was hearing i was like you what in a relationship with jesus christ i mean i knew all about jesus christ i could recite the lord's prayer and the apostles creed and the act of contrition and i could say everything but i didn't know why and i didn't i felt god was maybe if he was real he was real to somebody once long long time ago but he wasn't real in my life and i didn't see him real in anyone else's life and so i thought what jesus and i actually for a moment began to laugh until something happened that i can only say the holy spirit convicted me of my sin and my eyes were open because honestly i had this thought for the first time and i'd never thought anything about god or about the reality of heaven or hell although i knew all about it was that i was on my way to hell i was on my way to hell and it in it sobered me right up and then i stopped laughing and then i said what do i need to do to find what it is that you say you found so i thought honestly that these three guys and me were the only true disciples of jesus alive in the world honest to god i did i honestly thought we were the only ones who knew this because i had never heard this before from anyone who talked about jesus like he really mattered in their life like he really was real and i was like wow okay so i went home that night and the next morning i woke up and i tell you the honest truth i felt god cared about everything about my life every detail i had never had that at all in my upbringing i thought church i remember my friends standing before crucifix and praying when we had done something bad and i thought to myself what are they doing this is nothing there's nothing here i was that hardened in my heart but the next morning i prayed about what i wanted to wear god cared what i put on my body to go to school he cared about every detail of who i was going to talk to and who i was going to tell because i felt like i had the secret that i had discovered that nobody else knew about i prayed about what i wanted to do that day everything everything seemed to matter to me and that it mattered to god and my life changed i wasn't doing the things that the bible told me were wrong anymore i didn't want to do them anymore i began to be respectful to my parents i didn't ditch school anymore i certainly stopped taking drugs and i felt clean completely clean and i was given a bible and i started reading my bible and the words were jumping off the pages and i was learning for the first time what the bible said although i'd been to church i'd never read my i'd never read a bible i'd never really owned a bible i had a big family bible at home but i never read it and it changed me but after a few months the high of that experience and all experiences have that emotional high honestly it began to wear off and i thought okay i need to just read more pray harder try to capture that emotion that i had that connection that i had and um i thought something was deeply wrong with me and i thought what is wrong with me that i'm not feeling feeling the same way i felt and then the old temptations started come back in my life and i was being tempted i was feeling dry and i was feeling weak in my faith and those guys that took us to church for the first time kind of vanished from the picture i mean this is the days before cell phones and before i had a car i couldn't drive i was in a school surrounded by mostly non-believing friends i didn't know of any other christians at school and i began to feel really dry and i i backslid you know i was struggling i began to question is was it just an emotional experience that i had where is jesus what had i done that had i felt like i was on my own again trying hard to keep rules but not experiencing that closeness that i once had so i started school and it was the summer time and i started back to school again and my old friends every day every day walking to school would say hey come on kathy let's go let's stitch school come on kathy let's go get high come on kathy let's do this no no no i'm not doing that anymore i'm not doing that anymore but they wore on me and i started skipping school again i started sneaking out of the house late at night you girls don't get that idea mom and dad sleep pretty soundly i climbed out the bedroom window to meet my boyfriend in the park and i started using drugs again lying to my parents guilt back the same thing guilt emptiness more sadness i didn't know i left my bible on my nightstand my mom had seen the change in my life when i first received christ but i didn't want her to think that i was doing the old stuff again so i left my bible on my on my nightstand i wasn't reading it anymore deeper unhappiness what happened here is the grown-up me telling the younger yous out there that i was trying to live the christian life without the community of the body of christ i cannot deny the experience i had that jesus was real that he showed me my sin that i that i felt clean and forgiven but i couldn't do it on my own i couldn't be strong enough on my own i was cut off from the primary source that god uses in our lives yes he uses the word of god but i was cut off from the church and that's why my message is called it takes the church it takes all of us out there the people of god those of us who are called out of the world and into something else and into something new first peter chapter 2 verse 9 tells us that we are called out of darkness into his wonderful or marvelous light we're not just called to stop doing certain things that's that's legalism that's hard we are called into something so beautiful and so amazing and that is the community of what we have in the body of christ the word in greek is ekklesia it means called out ones the word church didn't really exist if you were to translate the word church is better translated community the called out ones and that's what we are we are called out of the world to christ so i want you to turn in your bibles to ephesians chapter 2 verse 19. i'm going to read verse 19 to 22 those who don't have it i think we're going to put it up on the screen verse 19 says so now i'm reading from the new living translation so now you gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners you are citizens and i want you to underline citizens along with all of god's holy people you are members of god's family i want you to underline family together we are his house built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets and the cornerstone is jesus himself we are carefully joined together becoming a holy temple you can underline that a holy temple for the lord through him you gentiles that's all of us basically are made are also being made part of this dwelling where god lives by his spirit do you catch that it's not just about your personal relationship with jesus that matters he is telling us three things the holy spirit uses three metaphors for us first of all it tells us that we're citizens of a heavenly city and god is our king that is one amazing truth and relationship you're not you're not primarily an american or a canadian or whatever you are we are primarily as believers citizens of a heavenly country under the authority of a king and god is our king that that's important to know that makes us all of us citizens neighbors one with another like you would be in a country and a neighborhood you live side by side with one another then it goes on to say you are members of his household his family not only is god our king he is our father and we are his children which makes all of us that are part of the family of god what brothers and sisters in christ we are part of his family and then we are his holy temple now the the relationship builds in intensity and intimacy if you think about it a king may live in the same country with his subjects and he may have authority over their life that makes us neighbors side by side we live next door to one another we cross each other and do things in our neighborhoods together but then with the illustration of him being a father the relationship becomes even more intimate doesn't it when we have the same father in my family in our household we share the same dna we have the same family history we are brothers and sisters and that is way more personal right in our relationship with each other we are brothers and sisters in christ we have the same genetics same family history and this kind of relationship with the church is not just a place you go to and attend it is a family that you belong to and in the last metaphor it doesn't sound more intimate but it actually is you are a holy temple where god himself is dwelling he is speaking not as individuals we all say we are that we are the temple of the holy ghost our body is the temple of the holy ghost where god dwells but he is speaking of the entire church here we are the temple and now what do what are we we are living stones built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets and jesus is the cornerstone and we are cemented together that actually is more intimate than being brothers and sisters we are permanently bonded by jesus christ as part of his temple his church wherein he dwells i want you to take a moment and look around this room the people go ahead let your neck swivel a little bit look around this room most of these people you are you are to be cemented with you are to be connected with you are to be united not only to jesus himself as an individual but to one another now let me ask you do these three metaphors describe a person who just shows up at church and sits in a row and sings a few songs and gives somebody a hug and shakes hands and goes home and never has anything more to do with the body of christ other than that we are together let me tell you how vital that bond really should be in our lives your immediate family think about your household now or wherever it is that you live your household do you know that your immediate family knows all of your flaws and faults why they live with you they see you they know all your bad habits they know about your temper your sloppiness your disengagement you're lazy they know all about you your moodiness they know all about you sometimes better than you do why is that because sin and we're calling them flaws here sin is blinding it is blinding sin is also very deceitful because we can justify what we think we are but our family doesn't take it for a minute do they what do they do what do they do they confront us don't they when we haven't done our part when you're late and everybody else is on time and you're holding the whole family up you're going to hear about it when you're messy and you haven't done your job and everybody else is having to pick up the slack that you didn't take care of you're going to hear about they confront you i'll never forget when my um daughter-in-law and my son lived in the house with us they lived with us for almost seven years i remember a little alley who was i don't know maybe five years old at the time she wanted to be a preacher like papa so she got herself a little stool and she stood in her bedroom and she held her bible and she started preaching but do you know what she was preaching she was confessing all of her brothers and brother and sister's faults that's what she thought she saw all those laws she couldn't see her own flaws but she knew all about theirs what is the advantage of seeing ourselves as a household as being bonded and cemented eternally together what is the advantage of that it's not always easy is it when you're confronted with your flaws your sins when you live in close proximity and intimacy with the people around you it's not easy but it is redemptive it is redemptive because we cannot grow and we cannot confess the sin that we cannot see that is important that family of god is so important that we confess our sins one to another why so everybody knows all of our dirty little secrets no it says we confess our sins one to another in that intimate inner circle in order that we might be healed and we might be changed and we might be held accountable for the things we do and the choices we make and in the church family we have to get close enough to people in order to let them speak into our lives truthfully and the way we do that is not necessarily in a row on sunday morning we do that in the context of a bible-based small group community that small group is where you're going to develop the kind of trust and intimacy in relationships that's going to be allowing you to speak into others lives and them to speak into your life i love my small group i need my small group i need them and i believe they need me we all have a part to play in praying for each other and supporting each other in correcting each other when we need it tim keller said this he said a biblical community keeps you from pride and a biblical community keeps you from despair there are times when we need to be brought down a few notches we need to see things as they really are in our lives and true friend will do that and at the same time those moments when you're despairing when you're ready to give up when you feel weak you need a friend you need a person in your life that biblical community that will keep you from despair by the way this does not happen on social media this can't happen on social media because on social media we curate our own identities i think christine spoke to that last night we can create the best version of ourselves again sin can make you blind and we can present ourselves in a superficial way to the world around us and social media does not hold us accountable they aren't close enough in our lives for us to trust that is not community and in a real family you can't do that you can't curate a version of yourself because your brothers and sisters your mom and dad other members of the household see right through it in the early stages of our lives you young ones out there looking at stella and riley in the front row in the early stages of your life you are shaped largely by your mom and dad and your family but for the rest of the the rest of your life for the most part you're going to be shaped by the friends you choose and the choices you make you cannot live without real friendship we weren't designed to live without real friendship god himself models that in the trinity that there is a community of friendship within the trinity we are created in his image we need that kind of friendship and love and support we all have people in our lives and if you want to see your life is in concentric circles okay on that outer circle of your life or the people you walk by the people you you know their names you cross in the hallway you might even sit next to them in church or in a classroom those are people that you know and they know you to a certain degree but they're not part of our lives same thing with social media these people aren't part of your lives not for real then you have an inner circle beyond that and within that inner circle there are people that we know and people that we may trust and then there's the inner inner circle and you can't have very many people in that inner inner circle can you i mean the people that you really really open up to in that inner inner circle you have people that hear you that you bear your heart to that you listen to you give them access into your life and live transparently with them we allow them to influence us let me ask you where do you find strength when you're weak support when you're tempted joy when you're going through trials you find it in jesus and in his word absolutely but he uses the body of christ as part of that your friends when you're bummed out when you're having a great day don't you want to pick up your friend the phone and talk to your friend go visit your friend absolutely those that's your inner inner circle people you believe have your back that are going to be loyal to you that you will let them speak truth if they said something to you you would listen to them proverbs 13 20 says become wise by walking with the wise hang out with fools and watch your life fall in pieces i heard it said show me your friends and i'll show you your future i also heard it said you are the average of your five closest friends i want you to stop for a minute and think about who your five closest friends are right who are they you are pretty much the average of those five closest friends so if four or five of your friends you hang out with are stoned or getting high or doing that stuff chances are you are too and if your four or five closest friends are pursuing god with all their heart and loving jesus and wanting to serve and excited about knowing more and discovering more about god chances are you are too how are your friendships influencing you and can i ask you this how are you influencing your friends how are you influencing them when i was going through that time where i was weak i had a girlfriend in my life her name was jeannie and we had kind of come back to the lord and we were supporting each other and loving each other and speaking truth into each other's lives and it was my birthday and i decided under the pressure again i give my older sister the blame for this one she and her friend said let's ditch school let's go let's go hang out at dulce's house and and just hang out well i knew what that meant and i did it i was weak and i did it the next day i showed up at school and jeannie met me first period and she walked up to me and she said to me where were you last night or where were you yesterday how come you were in school and i told her i said i ditched school and she looked at me with i don't know how to describe it all i know was that i knew it was love and i knew it was incredible disappointment and she just looked at me and just shook her head and it absolutely pierced my heart she lovingly confronted me and the disappointment on her face said it all she was a true friend and i needed to be confronted she was close enough to me that i didn't feel judged and i didn't feel cast off i felt loved loved back in and forgiven proverbs 27 5-6 says open rebuke is better than secret love wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy wounds from a sincere friend greg's often said true friends stab you in the front right they do not because i want to kill you but because they need feel like you need it need a little sharp step up don't surround yourself with people that are going to agree with you all the time that flatter you transparency can be scary it can be vulnerable let me ask you how many friends do you really have that you are allowing to speak truth into your life be deliberate in choosing your people ephesian ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse 9 through 12 says this it's better to have a partner than to go it alone share the work share the wealth and if one falls down the other helps but if there's no one to help tough two and a bed warm each other alone you shiver all night by yourself you're unprotected with a friend you can face the worst can you round up a third a three stranded cord or rope is not easily snapped can i tell you what do your friendships look like what does that three-fold cord look like in your life can i tell you i hope they don't all look like you i hope they're different than you are i hope they're they're not little um images of yourself that you have hand chosen because they look like you they talk like you they dress like you they think like you i pray that you have some diversity in your friendships they're not the same age they're not the same ethnicity they're not the same class or culture as you are if you have a lot i hope you have somebody who doesn't have as much as you do so you can understand and if you don't have much i hope you see somebody who's generous and has more than you do and carries it lightly i've heard of churches and groups that are all made up of exactly the same kind of people and they pride themselves in that their identity is we're the biker church or we're the surfer church or we're the gen z church that's not what we see in the early church the church that jesus established was complex it was multifaceted it was multi-cultural and diverse in revelation chapter 7 verse 9 remember when we studied revelation this past year we saw a great multitude from every nation tribe people and language standing before the throne how rich and how beautiful and variegated like a rainbow is the body of christ jesus always always included people who were different lepers gentiles women who were these are people who were outcasts by the way not thought of as being very valuable or much but he honored them rich and poor alike were welcomed by him how beautiful was the social interaction of jesus life it would go out of his way to visit a woman at the well in samaria and to include her and bring her the message of life and welcome her and his disciples were so shocked why are you talking to that woman turn to second first corinthians chapter 12 verses 12 through 18 the human body has many parts but the many parts make up one whole body so it is with the body of christ some of us are jews some are gentiles some are slaves some are free but we've all been baptized into one body by the spirit and we all share the same spirit yes the body has many different parts not just one part if the foot says i'm not part of the body because i'm not a hand does that make it any less a part of the body if the ear says i'm not part of the body because i'm not an eye would that make it any less a part of the body if the whole body were an eye how would you hear if the whole body were an ear how would you smell anything but our bodies have many parts and i love this god has put each part where he wants it this is why diversity is so important because we need each other we need all the different gifts to be an a part of our community a part of our life and we need that desperately and to stop competing with one another and comparing ourselves i can't compare myself to christine kane i can't compare myself to jackie or to any of any of the rest of you i need to be the best version of kathy laurie i can possibly be and that is who god called me to be and change lord needs to change me i know that but i i think we need to realize that in the world we feel the pressure to be something that we are not god has made you unique each of the gifts that he has given you are unique your personality if you're outgoing or if you're shy if you're a talker or if you're a quiet one if you're an emoter or if you're an analyzer god needs you in a specific place in the body of christ stop comparing and competing with each other but let's build up the body of christ and let's engage it's the old 80 20 principle 80 stand on the sidelines and 20 are doing all the work the body of christ needs all of us to be fully engaged in a world where people are begging to be the leaders jesus came and he served right he came and he served not everybody can be an eye or a hand but let me tell you you can't live without a good thyroid you cannot live without your thyroid gland absolutely not you may not even see your thyroid gland or think about your thyroid gland until something goes wrong and can i tell you post-pandemic when people had to take a step back and isolate from one another and just be with their individual households we need people to step back into the work of the ministry into the church how are you going to find out what those gifts are what that unique calling is in your life if you're not part of a small group where you can first test it out a little test market find out what that gift is and it's not going to be fully developed when you first start using it you're not going to have it all together when you first step out but what is what is it that god has called you to do within that small group community you can develop in a safe place and if god lifts you up and raises you up to do something outside you're going to have had some experience in doing that you don't get called up onto a platform overnight you don't get called out to be a speaker or a book author or whatever overnight there are baby steps along the way and on that journey god wants you to be a part of a small group so you can discover that your role is vital wherever you are lean into that gift and be patient with yourself you compare yourself to somebody who's down the road from you and you say well i certainly am not that how do you know they weren't that when they started either they're just like you just beginning you have to begin somewhere and use that god-given gift and it doesn't happen by just reading a book or being told about it you need to experience the difference between going to church and being the church being the church what has puzzled historians over the years is how christianity in the early days spread so fast the group that jesus left behind were largely unimportant relatively ordinary people they weren't influential they weren't the movers and shakers nobody would have known their names but they changed the world not many wise not many noble as paul said to the corinthians christianity certainly didn't advance its cause through legislation and elections or taking up arms and fighting did you know that for the first 400 years the most vital parts of the early church they didn't even pick up a sword to defend themselves and yet they changed the world they changed the roman world how did they do it in small communities they lived authentically they used their spiritual gifts they fellowship they ate together they prayed with one another and they championed the values that even the world will celebrate the world celebrates generosity the world celebrates inclusion the world celebrates love the world celebrates looking out for the weak and the outsider and if the church was known for those things and lived so differently that what we're seeing the church doing in the world today we would attract multitudes multitudes if we just started living it and this once 13 year old girl found the counterculture she had been looking for all her life within the church let's champion those things as believers and let's gather in those small groups i'm going to cut to the chase and closing here i want to close with a a word of warning as a pastor's wife and what i've seen and what i've observed is happening in the church today at least in the church in america the beauty and the unity of the body of christ the big c church not our little local church but the big sea church is being divided by lesser things not by the essential things that really matter by the apostles doctrine we will never never waffle on those things we will fight for those things for the gospel but what i'm seeing is minor things are being majored upon your political party your stance on mask wearing your stance on vaccines your stance it is horrible to see how the body of christ has been sliced and diced and dissected and cut off i feel it in my heart so strongly this is this is a message i believe is from jesus we are cutting off parts of his body that should be united that should be working together and demonstrating to the world what the family of god should look like and what they are seeing is a culture war over non-essentials i want to go back to first corinthians chapter three the corinthians were an interesting group spiritual gifts abounding corinth was a amazing center in the roman world and there had been a church born in that very spot highly influential highly economically successful and this church was born in the midst of this culture where there was incredible immorality incredible idolatry and paul established that church and yet he had to write back and tell them those of you who say you're a paul and you're of apollos you're carnal that's wrong and he writes in chapter 3 verse 16 don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of god again speaking not of the individual person as a temple of god but the church is the temple of god that is the spiritual temple consisting of the believers of all ages joined together by an in christ and that the spirit of god lives in you and then he goes on to say this god will destroy anyone who destroys this temple for god's temple is holy and you are that temple what are you saying about your brothers and sisters in christ those of you who are at work dissecting and dividing over minor differences on social media you don't have the courtesy to have a face-to-face conversation but you will call somebody out on social media and know nothing about that person it is wrong and let me tell you there will be there will be a reckoning in your life god will not tolerate that he will not let that go because you know why the body of christ is precious to him you're talking about his bride you're talking about his bride jesus said they'll know we're christians by our loves galatians 5 14 and 15 the whole law can be summed up in one command love your neighbor as yourself but if you are always biting and devouring one another watch out beware of destroying one another so many are up in arms about what is going on in the world outside what they're going to do to the church are they going to come against us is this country going socialist are we going to be communist soon what this that and the other thing they're so worried let me ask you what is happening on the inside of the church is probably far more dangerous because the early church was able to thrive under the most oppressive government you could ever imagine that didn't stop them but what will stop the church is the dividing and the dissecting and the cutting off of other members that are vital that have voices that are part of our family it is more dangerous satan can come as an angel of light and inaccurately use the scriptures to his advantage and to great effect we're not only seeing cancer culture in the world we are seeing cancer culture in the church we have seen it and those of us that are in ministry pastors have had to deal with it and it has been very very hard very hard ladies it breaks my heart to see this and most importantly it breaks the heart of god it grieves the heart of god let's hold together let's build one another up let's not forget the words that jesus gave us in john 13 34 so now i'm giving you a new command love each other as i have loved you so you should love each other your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples that's about all i had to say i'm going to have the worship band come out and we're going to have a song and during this song i want you to think about three things and uh you can jot these three questions down i want you to really think about these three things number one who are your five closest friends can you name them think about their lives who are your five closest friends that inner circle that speaks to you that you allow into your life and influencing you are they bringing you closer to jesus or are they pulling you away who are the loudest voices in your life who are the loudest voices in your life and lastly how might your words or actions big or small be dividing the body of christ how can you help to build up the body of christ rather than destroy it lord we ask that you search our hearts today as we hear this next song that we would just shut out everything around us the things that are kind of crowding our minds and give your holy spirit a moment to convict us to bring certain things to light and to allow us to really deal with some of the things that we have heard today we ask it in jesus name [Music] [Music] i could just sit i could just sit and wait for all your goodness hope to feel your presence i could just stay i could just stay right where i am and hope to feel hope to feel something again [Music] me from the inside i could be safe i could be safe here in your arms and never leave never let these walls down but you have caught me [Music] [Music] me [Music] me from the [Music] you will call me deeper [Music] me [Music] my [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] you will go [Music] me [Music] me [Music] me [Music] [Music] i will be yours for all my [Music] i will be oh [Music] i will be yours for all my life so let your mercy in [Music] be jesus [Music] [Music] worthy of every song we could ever sing [Music] every forever we could ever breathe we'll live for you we live for [Music] jesus [Music] worthy of every breath we could ever breathe we live for you we live forever [Music] who you are [Music] me worthy of every song we could ever see worthy of every breath we could ever [Music] oh my breathe jesus [Music] jesus [Music] worthy of every breath we could ever [Music] breathe [Music] oh me who you are [Music] [Music] oh who you are [Music] please [Music] i will [Music] [Music] it is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] and [Applause] thanks guys how are you saints i heard about 26 of you i said how are you saints thank you so i i've started saying this in in large groups of light-skinned people so let me let me have a preamble if you mind i come from a country called black church and in that country when someone is teaching or speaking it is not a monologue it's a conversation all right so what that means is that you have the freedom to speak back you have the freedom to yell you have the freedom to say glory you even have the freedom to throw your shoe just don't hit me because i ain't all the way saved all right just wanted to release you in that way uh first of all thank you for having me this is this is fun and this is exciting even though it feels like hell outside i don't know what this is about it's like it's just hot it's just i walked outside and started sweating i didn't like it um context so my name is jackie i live in atlanta uh with my f my husband i am married to a x thug named preston perry we've been married almost i think seven years seven or eight years i forget we have three children my oldest is six my middle child is three my youngest is eight months and i am almost five months pregnant so you can calculate that right there that wasn't on purpose i wasn't on purpose uh so yeah we just out here just having babies all the time a lot a lot of active worship that's what i like to call it this is happening in our home it's a good word for it i think uh i've been commissioned to uh tell my story uh so that's that's what i plan to do um especially in a in a location like this i'm not ignorant to the fact that different regions have different idols and i think california has a unique idol i think california does have california seattle boston new york places like that having have an idol of autonomy wanting to embrace their own version of lordship and it's pretty dangerous and joyless and so i know i'm coming into a place where that is what you are primarily attacked with most is feeling as if you have the freedom and the right to do what you want but that's okay because the good news is that god knew that already and that's why he sent his son so let's pray lord i thank you for this time oh man i thank you for you thank you for your spirit and that um he is the one that reveals he is the one that convicts he is the one that illuminates he is the one that draws he is the one that seals and so i pray god that you would speak that you would renew minds that you would transform hearts even hardened ones ones that don't want to trust you because of all they would have to surrender but i pray god that they would see that that's how you actually get joy is by having god and god alone and so i just pray for this moment in jesus name amen when talking about sexuality i think it's unhelpful to begin a conversation about a created thing before addressing the one that created it um genesis 1 1 says that in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth i've always thought that it was really interesting that the bible the bible that tells us about god explains god to us that the first thing it wants us to understand about god is that he is a creator he doesn't say say that he's lord doesn't say that he's omnipotent doesn't say that he's omniscient says that he's creator and i wondered why why is that the first trait you give us and i think it's because if if god is the creator of all things then everything that he makes is automatically subject to him so before we even start a conversation about sex and sexuality in the body we are really having a conversation about does god have authority over us or not does does god have the right to define these terms or not god creates in the heaven the heavens and the earth creates the animals and the plants creates all this stuff and then he he wants to make a man in his own image and so from the dirt he makes a man breathes into his nostrils and the bible says that he becomes a living being but uh the man was actually alone which which wasn't a good thing god says and so god takes it upon himself to take out one of his ribs tells adam to go night night and out of the rib uh wasn't no sauce on it it was dry rub only and uh i'm not a fan of dry rub by the way i like the sauce it's just a thing um he makes eve and the bible says that the two became one flesh which is the establishment of marriage then god gives them some boundaries which i really enjoy seeing that in genesis because even before the fall even before sin entered into the world god had boundaries for his people he says hey do what you want enjoy yourselves have a lot of active worship do your thing hello they naked anyway so it's easier right um never said that before it just came to my mind i thought it was funny just came right there um enjoy yourselves so he offers freedom before he subjects them to a law he says enjoy yourselves but [Music] there's this one tree a tree of the knowledge of good and evil that tree don't eat that because the day you eat that you will surely die she knows the text genesis 3 then everything changes even somewhere minding her business probably cutting her her perfect toenails you know i'm sure they grew just because she's perfect doesn't mean like she's not human um i've been sitting there all day so i got all these jokes you know a snake shows up and and and the snake is in an embodied satan and satan is a ruler thing uh he doesn't answer her name he doesn't introduce himself either he just starts asking questions and he says uh did god really say that you can't eat from the fruit of the tree and eve probably naive i don't know she should have known something was wrong because the snake is talking to me um she starts to have a conversation with the serpent and she says uh yeah god said that but he also said that that we can't touch it which which was wrong because god never said she couldn't touch it he said that she couldn't eat it which tells us that she's already unclear about the word of god therefore deception is easier at that point um she said god said we can't eat it or touch it then he says uh god god don't know what he talked about what the truth is is that the day you eat of it you will actually be like god knowing good and evil and and this fascinating thing happens that eve begins to look at this tree and she sees nothing but good qualities in the thing god said would kill her she sees the tree and she says oh that looks good for food oh that's a delight to the eyes oh that's desire to make me wise what you see there is the beginning of mankind's propensity to judge goodness not on the basis of faith but affection where how you feel determines what you should do so what happened then is that she believed that god was the dishonest one and therefore by believing that god was the dishonest one she believed satan and her body was telling her the truth about what's right so she took of its fruit and ate and also gave some to her husband who was doing i don't know he ate and when they ate their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked and from that point now every single human being born after adam has inherited that same root of unbelief where how we feel determines what we should do so i was born in that lineage i was born to a single mother i always say that my mother loved me well and my father loved me sometimes early in life maybe five or six or seven i don't recall is when i started to experience same-sex attractions i didn't have a name for it at the time because again this is early 90s you know mtv was still playing videos at that time we had the box stuff like that nobody remembers the box where you have to pay 50 cent to watch a video it's weird um because of the lack of i guess gay identity representation in the media i didn't have the ease by which i could grab a name and identify myself by it if that makes sense the first time though that i learned what i was experienced experiencing and learned the term homosexuality was in church and my my issue wasn't even what they were talking about it wasn't even with the condemnation that was ascribed to it it was the way they talked about it it was the way the people in the pews laughed and postured themselves it was it was kind of this this moral arrogance like this that there was this other ring taking place where i figured huh christians don't like gay people therefore christians don't like me even as a seven-year-old i recognize that this is not a safe thing to confess so i kept it to myself uh growing up um i kind of went to church because i went to church with my aunt merle who she's if you heard me talk about merle before even her name is saved merle she's the most saved woman i know like when i say saved woman i've never seen her knees like every every every everything she wears is a dress that goes here like even on mondays it's a dress and on tuesdays ain't even no bible study and it's a dress and i'm just like man you don't got one pair of pants but that's unholy i guess so my aunt was my first introduction to what it looks like to be righteous and so i would go to church with merle and i would i would learn about god and i i guess the interesting thing about that is is that i would just go to sunday school you know i would go to children's church and they would they would give us lollipops and we would color the white jesus with a cream pencil never gave us brown never he was in israel he wasn't in america um he's not european i mean it's a thing anyway that's all another thing i want you to rebuke me now [Music] calls and division in the church i need to go home anywho we're in sunday school and it was really simple teaching it was that god loved the world so much that he sent his son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life and i must say that when i did convert to christianity it was what i learned in sunday school that did it it was those simple truths and i say that for parents i say that because sometimes you can forget all that you poured out but they haven't just because they're rejecting it doesn't mean they don't remember it growing up though i explored sin to its highest degree i just enjoyed sinning getting high you know used probably smoking joints i was smoking blunts you had papers i had reloads y'all probably don't know about that uh uh hated authority i started watching pornography as early as seven um and so i think imagine the doozy that does on a child's mind to be exposed to sexuality in that way that early when high school came it was when i really started to just kind of wild out and do my thing and my same-sex desires were starting to become hard to contain it started to feel like man i don't i don't i'm not i don't feel straight like this is a really hard thing to try to mimic all the time and so i made up my mind i said you know what i'm just i'm just gonna be gay i'm just i'm gonna just do what feels true to me and so i got on myspace don't know if you recall what that is it's before twitter kids and i interacted with this young lady and we ended up in a relationship and in that relationship is when i transitioned into what in the black lesbian community is called a stud you might know the term as butch which is the woman who presents a kind of hyper-masculine self and so i sagged my pants i wore boxers i wore sports ball bras to flatten my chest my voice is already a little heavy so i have to change that um i put it works for me now preaching i put my hair in a ponytail and all these things and what i was doing was simply wearing clothes that matched the identity that people told me i was let me explain i was never the super girly girl even now uh i wear purses just because my pockets is my pants too tight to put things in my pockets but even in ain't ain't ain't nothing in there it's just my charger and maybe one earring and they ain't even got an earring back it's just raggedy and so i just i didn't like pink you know i didn't use a lot of s's in my words my wrist wasn't limp enough it just i just wasn't i wasn't the typical girly girl and what happens when a girl isn't a girl girl girly girl what do they call tom boy imagine what you speak over people when you say that that because i didn't function in this hyper feminine kind of thing somehow now i'm acting like a man and we do the same thing to little boys when they seem to cry a little easy or or be a little tender what do we say you're acting like a a girl and when has humanity ever been a gendered thing when has emotions not just simply been a matter of being an image bearer right i have to point that out because we have to know that it's us kind of uh putting these non-biblical gender ideals on people that has caused the confusion that exists now it is that we have told women that they are not woman enough and we have told men that they are not manly enough and they have believed you they have believed you and therefore now they are identifying in the way that you've told them they should their entire lives and now we're scared now we're mad and so for me i just needed someone to teach me that your kind of woman is woman that that it is okay it is okay that you don't like dresses and don't know how to make cookies since it's that's all right but i didn't know that yet and so i did what felt right you know i let my my small bout of gender dysphoria manifest in that space and time though i did enjoy myself i did because sin is enjoyable we're lying if we say it's not just because why do we keep doing it if it didn't have a a a measure of pleasure attached to it but the crazy thing is is that though it was pleasurable it didn't last because sinful pleasures aren't eternal but not only that i didn't have joy because the really sucky but beautiful good news terrible thing about kind of being around christians and growing up in church is that the things you learn do something to your conscience and because it does something to your conscious when you got all this knowledge now it's hard to just sin without there being some level of guilt and so what we do then is we try to find all these ways to numb our conscience low-key trying to make ourselves reprobate trying to harden ourselves to the point that we don't feel the mercy of god pulling us towards truth it's interesting and so for me i didn't know what to do with that i was i was really tired of being convicted to be honest i was just like i just kind of wanna i just wanna get high and go to the club and get drunk and do all the things without being reminded that god is good and that god is more and that jesus died like i just i didn't want to do it but i think part of my resistance was also that when the gospel was preached to me or a version of the gospel was preached it was never about coming to a person it was about stop doing certain behaviors right and so it was like you got to stop listening to second music you got to stop dressing like a boy you got to start you know doing all these things and it's like what they misunderstood is that we are born in sin and therefore by nature our bent is sinfulness therefore there is no desire in me to just stop working to stop sinning unless you show me a better route which is a person the person of jesus christ and so i called my cousin amen i called my cousin keisha keisha is merle's daughter so she a little saved too but she she gen x and so she not she's not a boomer so gen x got a different kind of save all right they the fred hammond generation so let me find another example chris tomlin is that the gen x that's a i'm trying to connect and you no never mind golden girls no okay leave it to be no that's boomers forget it um i'm done um i called keisha and keisha was she's maybe 10 12 years older than me and i said keisha i feel like god is calling me i feel like he's calling me but i don't want him i want god like i just i'm i'm enjoying my life i love my girlfriend i love my friends i love what i do i'm fine and and she said god is going to show you how much you need them like what does that even mean just that just didn't even make any sense to me and she was like god is going to show you how much you need him and after i came to faith we had a conversation about that conversation and keisha said that when i had come come out to her that she felt guilty she felt like she didn't do enough that she didn't preach enough that she didn't take me to church enough that she didn't pray enough and i think that's the circumstance or the situation for a lot of people is that they blame themselves for others depravity that they they guilt-trip themselves for the fact that someone was born after adam we can never do enough because we're not god but she said that god told her this she she said god said give jackie to me and she was like how i have to do something i have to rescue her i have to help her i have to save her and she said god said i love jackie more than you do give her to me and it was that conversation with the lord i think that tempered kesha when she spoke to me because now when we spoke there was a arrest there wasn't this this anxiousness that made her just preach at me or this anxiousness that made her condemn me or this anxiousness that made her put all of these moral works on me she just simply said god is going to do it that's some faith to say that i don't have to say more than what i need to say for god to do his thing eventually god did do something my conscience never got hard enough for me to not recognize that god was real and that god was speaking when i was 19 which is about 12 years ago wow that's funny what's funny y'all should tell me what the joke is next after this i want to laugh too when i was 19 i was in my room watching mtv i think like making the band or something i don't know if y'all remember that it was like a it was a show where like p diddy puff daddy he made bands that actually never made it it's interesting so i wasn't watching beth moore or nobody you know i wasn't i wasn't watching like tbn or or none of them people i ain't even know none of people all i know was c.d jakes and donny mcclurky i wasn't doing none of that and so i was just in my room minding my business and i had this really strong thought that came to my head and the thought was she will be the death of you all right whoa i don't think i say that to myself i definitely don't think satan would say that so i sat up i'm like what's going on here and i i i started to think i wonder if this is god speaking so i started to have this this conversation with god because the interesting thing i don't i don't know if you have experienced the lord speaking it's not a voice it's a thought that interrupts all other thoughts and it does something to your heart all at the same time and it was like when i when that thought came to my mind it wasn't just lesbianism that i recognized was the issue it was as if when god said she will be the death of you it was as if i realized that there were multiple sins i was guilty of so i started to think about my life started to do a survey in my bed and i was like okay you love drunkenness sin you disobey your parents or parent all the time sin you hate authority sin you're a thief because i used to steal outfits at the mall so i could have the outfit but enough money for some weed it was it's like a real good hustle in the world but now it's just foolish because i was gonna go to hell over an outfit um you're a thief sid and i realized that everything that i loved and enjoyed had nothing to do with god and his glory i did not love god as seen in the way i lived my life and i think the ironic thing about that is that i think it's hard for people to realize that the primary sin for which we are all guilty is unbelief what we do is simply a symptom of what we believe and if i don't really believe that god is good and that god is wise and that god is sovereign and that god is lord and that god is king i won't live like he is because for me all i heard was the only sin you got to repent of is the fact that you gay but let's say i repented of that and not everything else would i actually be a christian no because i would have thought that there were only there was only one aspect of my life that needed saving and not the whole person god has god has no intention of saving a piece of you when he died for all of you that's not how he works he wants the whole person so i'm talking to god and i said god but i don't want to be straight though like i don't i don't like men you know their hands are always moist you know they got bumps on their neck when they don't shave correctly it's just a lot that goes with them and i don't want to be with them and you have to notice though that when god was calling me to himself my rebuttal was that i don't want to be straight and i wonder why i think it's because i've coined this phrase that i write about in my book called the heterosexual gospel and it is a gospel that is preached by very well-meaning christians that says if you come to jesus he will make you straight or if you come to jesus you will get married she felt that she felt it that was a tongue bubbling up but she didn't know if there was an interpreter in the room so she just restrained it she's living in order um the problem with the heterosexual gospel is this is that you you've promised somebody a fruit a regeneration that the scriptures don't promise you don't see in galatians 5 you don't see heterosexuality in the list of the fruit of the spirit you see love joy peace self-control patience kindness gentleness like you see self-control you don't see heterosexuality even in first corinthians 6 9-11 where paul says do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor the men who practice homosexuality will inherit the kingdom of god but such were some of you but you were washed you were sanctified and you were justified by the name of our lord jesus christ and by the spirit of our god no mention of being made straight there is mention of being cleansed though there is mention of being changed though there's mention of being made right with god this is the emphasis that we must preach to all of our neighbors because why do you want somebody to come to jesus for something other than jesus that's idolatry we we want people to come to god for god and we wonder why you have so many folk that have listened to the heterosexual gospel and have believed in it and and taken it to heart and so then when they come to god and they realize that their temptations are still there when their struggles are still there the conclusion they will then naturally make is i must not be a christian because you have told them that christianity is supposed to be without temptation that is in essence what the problem is that you will come to god and you will not struggle and that is nowhere in the bible for even jesus was tempted without sin tempted in all respects yet without sin therefore coming to jesus does not promise that you won't struggle coming to jesus promises that you will have power in your struggle there's a difference there's a difference i ain't know all that yet though and so i told god god i don't want to be straight and i felt god speak to my heart and say just come to me we'll work the rest out so i thought to myself man this is a big deal that god is is saying he wants me that god is calling me to do something and it is a scary thing to choose jesus when you got so much stuff that you know you got to let go that you love that that is that is a terrifying thing to to to say if i if i empty my hands are you big enough to fill it again if i if i jump over this cliff are you strong enough to catch me what what what do i have to prove that you will be as faithful as my friends have been or my girlfriend has been or pornography has been or money has been our weed has been addre how do i know that you will be as good as you say you are and the cross is the answer because he sent his son to die proving his love for us so i had two choices you continue to live the life that you want to live or you give your life to god this was the work of the holy spirit i hope you know this ain't nothing about jackie in second corinthians it says that the enemy has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the glory of god but it was god who said let there be light and who has shone in our hearts to give us this light what was happening is that the holy spirit was illuminating my mind to reality and allowing me to see the truth of who god has revealed himself to be in his son but also he was empowering me to trust faith is a gift and god granted it to me in that moment i was saved the next day i went to work used to work at wendy's and don't know the frosty recipe sorry um i went to work and my my clothes is still the same because my you know my my soul is regenerated but my closet ain't okay and so i still got on boxers i'm still i still look like me and uh a funny thing was one of my best friends myron who used to work with me he said you look different and i really think that he saw the veil had been removed i got behind the cash register because that was my job for today take people orders and this girl got in line and she was really attractive and typically probably three days before i would have tried to get her attention in some way to try to you know see if she was on that team and it was weird because for the first time in my life i was aware of god and it wasn't like i didn't know that god could see everything before that moment it was just for the first time in my life i cared about what he saw which shows us that the fruit of repentance is not the absence of temptation but the imputation of reverence it said i care that god could see the invisible workings of my heart and i asked god i said god i didn't know no scriptures i didn't know him i i jesus loved me this i know that's that's all i knew but i said god help me in that moment i was calling on the great high priest to do what he's promised which is to say man in your time of need come to my throne of grace for help and he did not take the temptation away he simply gave me the power to endure it just like his son a little bit after that uh i went to forever 21 with one of my friends because i figured probably should dress like a girl now and uh i need to start bringing pictures so y'all gonna see how i used to look uh my lips was black it was rough i was 50 pounds lighter though that was a good time um i went to forever 21 to get get some clothes and the way i've phrased it as it i simply felt like it was a kind of it was a kind of baptism baptism is the public declaration of your union with god and i felt like changing my clothes was simply a way to identify myself with the new creation that god had made me but it also i think understanding now is that clothing even though clothing is uh kind of restricted by culture there are certain certain cultural norms that exist in certain regions that we have to uh be fair with but in america in particular i i had to see that man god made me a woman and god cares that i am not hiding the body that he's given me as a gift or confusing people about the body that he's given me for glory so i started wearing real brawls and it was interesting to have some support even when i've worn dresses i said this is really convenient you know you could just kind of sit down you got to do nothing or whatever a lot of air on your knees but shortly after that i started writing poetry and i went to a christian poetry situation in la and i had did this poem called my life was a stud which is the poem that started my public ministry and this is probably five months into being a christian and so the lord kind of platformed me quickly which is a scary thing for anybody to go through i think but while there there was this uh group poem uh by this guy and this girl and it was the poem they did was called soul ties and they were talking about how you know they had slept with all of these people and and the connections and the damage and the trauma that that had left and one of the people doing the poem was this guy named preston and uh preston came up to me after the show and he said he liked my poem and all these things i was like that's cool i said but on your poem you was holding back and he was like dad say you liked it first which i think was a really early sign that i was his helper at that time though i had no intention of being with the boy again their hands are still clammy i didn't want it didn't want it i was okay i totally wanted to just be a christian that just was a christian i could be i could be single father i am i am because i who who wants to be with somebody they don't want to be with right like i just i just wanna i'm good like we can go to glory together you and me god and that didn't work though because god has his own thing and so like i started to feel these attractions for preston and i was confused i didn't know what it was i thought it might have been the devil so i talked to my discipler honestly truly truly i'm so serious i didn't know if he was trying to keep me from my purpose it's like i was i was bored it's like i'm just bored that's what this is so i talked to my discipler i said hey i feel like i'm starting to like preston i don't know what this is about this is weird um can you like i need some advice and she did what most you know mentors and disciplers do she just told me to pray about it said i need some advice and you you're telling me to pray so i prayed and we were friends for about three years around the third year it got harder to hide it and this is exact prayer i prayed i said god um i don't know what your will is for me and preston but if it's your will for us to be together put it on his heart to pursue me but if it's your will for us to be friends give me the self-control to treat him like a brother and not a crush i didn't know that at the same time he had been fasting about who his wife was and preston don't even fast now so that's that was a unique season i don't remember the last time this man fasted okay he ain't that spiritual so he was fasting and the lord showed him me and so when i had called him no when he called me we had already been talking to god probably privately on our own terms and he said jackie i gotta talk to you about something i said all right and he sounded nervous which made me nervous because preston is he from the south side of chicago the boys from the shout out to chicago they're only nervous when the police are around they don't get nervous for no other reason except if it's the po-po and so i'm like what why you sound like this and so he was like i i believe that god has put it on my heart to pursue you and he said y'all are so [Music] rom-com oh man and he said i don't even know if you like me because i have a great poker face play with pay with me in spades i promise you'll win he said i don't even know if you'll you like me do you like me and i said yes i like you i don't know how to be vulnerable yeah oh it was such a tough time the hard part the hard part of that whole situation though is that in our courtship and even in the early stages and even now in our marriage to certain degrees it began such a difficult path because i think the assumption was what i gathered from disney movies is that honestly i think they indoctrinate us to have a false sense of romanticism and love where i thought you know i would have all of these butterflies and that there would not be any pain or that it wouldn't be hard that i would just fall in love but the truth was my companionship and the the the the intimacy that was trying to happen between me and preston was exposing my traumas and it was exposing my fears and so there was a defensiveness and there was a there was just i was just terrified of the possibility that he might be like the people that abused me and i had to trust even god in that and say god you have called me to be with this man forever and so we got married and now we almost got four kids so i guess it's working kinda god looks good [Applause] with that said that's a part of my story and marriage is to be held in high esteem uh but i want to caution you in thinking that that's actually the best part of the story because the best part of the story was not when i was married to preston it's when i was married to god marriage is a kind of glory ephesians 5 says that it is a mystery that refers to christ's love for his church so it it is a a beautiful metaphor that the that the world can look at and imagine what it looks like for god to love us but even though it is a kind of glory it is not the highest glory and so whether you deal with same-sex attractions or whether you are ministering to those with same-sex attraction i never want us to position or prop up marriage as the goal of our repentance but rather i want us to make sure that we are holding god and the highest esteem so that when we are giving people a gospel it is truly the real one it is it is a gospel that says that in the beginning god did create the heavens and the earth and he made these two people but these people decided to trust their affections and trust the serpent over trusting in god and because of this they they sinned against god and there was a separation between man and god and all that have come after adam have inherited the same sin and for that reason all who are alive have fallen short of the glory of god and therefore they deserve his just judgment because he is a holy and a righteous and a pure god so he must deal with sin but the good news is that he dealt with it in his son for all who put their faith in him jesus who was god came down from heaven wrapped himself in human human flesh and lived for 33 years perfectly and it doesn't mean that he wasn't tempted doesn't mean that he didn't have his struggles but he resisted the entire time and eventually he found himself on the cross where he put all of the sins of every human being on himself and he was judged on that cross by being judged on the cross there was an exchange where your sin was paid for in christ now you get forgiveness on his behalf but not only that then he died and rose from the grave meaning that there is life and that was power over death for all who trust in the lord jesus christ that's the real gospel don't know if you ever heard it but if you if you believe it [Applause] honestly if you believe it you'll have life i'll be back sorry band okay i'll talk some more and want to come out i don't want that to be awkward this is the day this is a day that the lord has made that the lord have made i will rejoice i will rejoice and be glad in [Music] you're killing it though come on in stand to your feet let's worship god what a powerful testimony what a powerful testimony i saw satan fall in line i saw darkness run forever [Music] still the miracle that i just can't get over my name is registered in heaven i believe [Music] [Music] this is my testimony [Music] this is my testimony this is my testimony come together [Music] he started this is jesus christ [Music] the power to change and rewrite every story in this place god we respect and we honor you and we lift you up if i'm not dead he's not done greater things are still to come greater things are still to come greater things are still to come [Music] [Music] i'll testify by jesus [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] and this is the day this is the day i guess not but it is today you bet going with your hot lot of shoes larry now you can sit down time to teach um this is going to be deep i just want to prepare you i have a book coming out called holier than dao about amen about the holiness of god and venturing into a study about the nature of god is heavy there's a lot and so i've tried to consolidate some main ideas into a sermon it's one of the longest i've ever did but if you could sit through christine for 65 minutes you can sit through me that ain't shade i'm saying it was long um i love chris i do um what comes into our minds when we think about god is the most important thing about us a.w tozer said that once and it's it's true sometimes we judge importance by what we have other times about what people have told us about ourselves but honestly it is the ideas frameworks and definitions about god that we've stored in our minds that matter most why because what you believe is true about god will determine how you treat him how you treat him will then determine what kind of life you live now what kind of eternity you'll have then so this morning afternoon my goal is simple we will learn what the bible has to say about who god is and if you've ever even done a shallow reading of the bible it wouldn't take you long to learn and find out that what is true about god is that he is holy let's pray god um i'm just thinking about exodus 19 when you descended on the mountain in fire and the mountain began to shake and there was smoke and the people began to tremble and that you had warned all the people not to come too close and so even as we enter into prayer i want to be sensitive to the fact that you are an unapproachable light that you are distinct you are unique you are high and lifted up that you are transcendent that you are set apart that you are all knowing that you are completely different than us god meet us here help us to understand you help us to to to to get and grasp what it is that you reveal but even give us the power to believe it to not just know it to not just learn it but let it do something to our hearts let it let it transform the way we live in jesus name amen you can turn in your bibles to isaiah chapter 6. starting at verse 1. it reads in the year that king uzziah died i saw the lord sitting upon the throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple above him stood the seraphim each had six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one called to another and said holy holy holy is the lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke and i said what was me for i am lost for i am a man of unclean lips and i dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king the lord of hosts and one of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongues from the tongues from the altar and he touched my mouth and said behold this has touched your lips your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for amen the prophet isaiah saw the lord on the throne and he heard the seraphim singing something doctrinal about the nature of god to one another they praised god by saying what is true about him to one another they said holy holy holy is the lord of hosts if the seraphim were somehow replaced by people within our current cultural context the lyrics to their song might be different i have a feeling that if we gave somebody the supernatural chance to leave earth into heaven stand near the throne and and told them to sing an attribute of god that they open their up their mouths and out of it would come love love love is the lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and if they did they wouldn't be lying surely god is love he said so himself but the question that one should ask themselves is would god be loved if he wasn't holy i mean with a unalterable righteousness permeating his entire being setting him apart from all that is arrogant all that is abusive all that is self-centered all that is self-protecting all that is self-serving if there was no moral purity no righteousness no holiness in god would he be able to love at all it is because god is holy that he is also kind it is because god is holy that he is also honest it is because that god is holy that he is also just aka loving you can see then why when the seraphim have the chance to say and sing something about god is that he's holy but notice they don't say it once and they don't say it twice they say it three times holy holy holy is the lord of hosts in hebrew literature repetition is used to emphasize something such as when jesus wanted to infil emphasize the truthfulness of what he was about to say he would say truly truly we do the same in english when we add an exclamation mark to the end of a sentence or put all caps in a text message to our husband we want to make sure that they got the right groceries we want we want to emphasize that whoever is reading our words knows that what we're saying is important black people do the same thing when we want somebody to remember we'll say girl i saw david she'll say david who will say girl david david we we we think the repetition adds emphasis the crucial thing to understand about the seraphim saying holy thrice is that there are not other instances in scripture when an attribute of god is spoken three times to say that god is holy holy holy implies that the seraphim recognize that god is not merely holy but he is most holy totally holy utterly holy completely holy supremely holy but what does holy even mean the way my early church experience was set up holiness meant a few things it meant you ain't go nowhere with your legs out like i said earlier ankle lift dresses were mandatory unless you had a pair of white stockings then maybe then you can get a skirt that stopped right above the knee holiness also meant no secular music ever i don't care if it's happy birthday luther vandross or the temptations only the devil would sing songs about sin it also meant you couldn't play cards i still don't know why i don't get it i guess it was too close to gambling but either way it was no uno one no spades with no gym rummy unless you want to go straight to hell it doesn't seem like holy people they talk about hell all the time you you could laugh at the wrong joke and they'll be like all right you're gonna laugh your way straight to hell and why i got like why i got to go straight there ain't no left turns ain't no cul-de-sacs i just got to go so in my mind holiness was only about rule keeping and wrath and i think that if you grew up in the church most of us at one point or another have had a narrow or most likely negative framework of the term holy and i want you to know that if that is the case then it has affected how you view and interact with god because if by holy we only mean restriction and not freedom wrath and never mercy then when you hear that god is holy holy holy you will be pessimistic and guarded towards him to the point that it will make it harder for you to believe that he is as good and as safe as he says he is the root word of the term holy means to cut or to separate overall it it conveys the idea of separateness we see it used the first time in genesis 2 when god blessed the sabbath day and made it holy or sanctified it depending on your translation meaning that god set the sabbath day apart he separated it from all other days making it unique making it special and one of a kind another example i'd like to give is one that i'm borrowing from tony evans he talked about how in every house there's two types of dishes you have the dishes that you use all the time you might have gotten them from target or walmart whichever is your thing but they're just regular one day you might eat chicken alfredo on them the next day you might eat dry cereal i don't know i'm not gonna judge you but then but then there's another set of dishes these dishes don't come out every day they are reserved for only certain occasions you you got these plates from granny or you got them from williams and sonoma somewhere pottery barn these ain't no hobby lobby place you ain't get these from far below in ross these plates even though marshalls really does have good plates these plates these plates are special even the way they're treated is different even after people are done eating their dressing and eating their turkey and eating their sweet potatoes and mac and cheese my god you don't even put these plates in the same place as the regular ones they they don't deserve that kind of treatment the older saints they have what you call a china cabinet and a whole other room for the sole purpose of these plates you know why because these dishes are different these dishes are unique these dishes are set apart metaphorically speaking these dishes are holy so in saying that god is holy holy holy the seraphim are not singing about rules or singing about wrath they are making a hymn around the basic idea that god is totally set apart with a sabbath it was a day set apart from all other days with with celebratory dishes they are set apart from all other dishes but if god is holy who or what is he set apart from the answer is everything everything god is set apart unique and different from everything that has and will ever exist to say it another way god is in a class all by himself there are two distinct categories in which god's nature and being sets him apart from everything they are his transcendence and his moral purity transcendence and moral purity when something transcends something it goes above and beyond it in the same way god is transcendent because he is above and beyond everything and not necessarily in terms of distance but quality of being he exists differently than us his ways are higher than our ways transcendence his thoughts are higher than our thoughts transcendence uh i'll explain more in a second but that's a basic definition god is also morally pure meaning he is completely righteous totally honorable supremely clean spotless eternally without blemish he is pure in every sense of the word and we're going to observe both god's transcendence and god's moral purity in isaiah's vision of him in isaiah chapter 6. let's start at the beginning verse 1. in the year that king uzziah died i saw the lord sitting upon the throne it's crazy ain't nobody say hallelujah nothing right there and it might be because you don't understand what happened some explain king uzziah became the king of judah at the age of 16 after his father amaziah died from there he reigned 52 whole years that's a long time and a lot can happen in 52 years it's 2021 and 52 years ago from today was 1969. that year neil armstrong landed on the moon there was woodstock in the stonewall riots nixon was president and my mama was a whole 15 years old it's hard to imagine it actually since then we have had 10 presidents the woodstock generation is retired and my mama has a whole 32 year old daughter with three kids and one on the way the scope of 52 years is long because so much can happen during that time but even then everything must come to an end including kings 52 years into king uzziah's reign his heart stopped and he breathed his last and isaiah says that that that is the year when king uzziah died and in that same year it is when isaiah sees another king sitting on the throne alive and what does this have to do with holiness well god isn't holy just because he's alive because if that were the case everything and everybody with breath would be considered holy too the difference between god and everything else is that he has always been alive before uziah and his daddy before david and moses before abraham and noah before cain and abel before adam and eve before animals and plants before oceans and mountains before the earth before the moon before the sun before light even before time god was alive i'm sure i ain't got much time now i'm sure at least five of you have had a child look at you in your face and ask you sincerely mommy did god create the world and you respond yes then they say god he created me too and you nod in the affirmative and then they hit you with the wringer so who created god which is an incredibly intelligent question if you think about it because the child is taking a survey of everything he or she knows and they recognize that everything including them has a beginning that everything is made that everything is created but when we get to god he is the only one that requires a different answer point to anything in the world and best believe that it is a derivative of something else it is contingent meaning something else had to be alive for it to exist we're getting deep your mama and your daddy had to be here more steve jobs had to be here for apple and iphones to be made food and farms must be available for meals to be created a writer needs a pen a thinker needs a brain an artist needs pain a musician needs an instrument everything is dependent on something else to exist because we are created then we don't like this we are inherently dependent paul says that it is in god that we live and move and have our being what does that mean it means that without god you would not be without god you would not be alive or have life without god you wouldn't even be able to move but unlike us god does not need anyone to live god does not need anyone to move god does not need anyone to be all god needs to be alive is himself that's crazy god has power he doesn't have to borrow wisdom he never had to learn strength he didn't have to work for forbearance or foresight that he didn't have to be revealed a child may not understand it and an adult might not either but if someone asks you who created god the only answer we can give is nobody god exists because god exists that's what he meant by i am that i am are you starting to understand how different god is from you there is nobody like him isaiah says in the year that king uzziah died who did he see he saw the lord just as being alive is only unique and therefore holy when we explain that god has always been alive unlike everything else in the world the same is true when we think of the title of lord there are instances in scripture when someone is called lord lowercase l but it doesn't mean that the person that got that description is also holy one example of this is in genesis 18 12 after sarah overhears the the visitors that are angels tell abraham that in her lol age she was going to have a baby sarah laughed she got rebuked for that and says to herself this is what she says after i'm worn out and my lord is old shall i have pleasure abraham is not being called lord because sarah considers him a god nor is he designated the title because he uh is considered morally superior than everyone else in her inward dialogue sarah uses a word that speaks to the authority and or rights abraham has as her husband this is covenantal talk she is his and he is hers but before somebody uh takes that and runs with it into a misogynistic land that god ain't in what makes the lord what makes the lord as isaiah sees him different from that of abraham is that as sarah's husband abraham could never claim sovereign authority over his wife treating her as if he she existed because of him or that her life was ultimately dependent on him the lord that isaiah sees doesn't merely have limited authority over something he has ultimate authority over everything why because in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth and all things were made through him and for him and without him was not anything made that was made and for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things hold together if everything that was made was made by god and if everything that was made is sustained by god then who do you suppose has ultimate authority over everything that is made god i know our world our culture our society and our hearts don't want us to either believe this or enjoy it it wants us to believe that we can be a better lord than god himself because that's what's happening when we refuse to submit to god's standard you know is that we are reenacting the situation in the garden the snake has actually approached us now and told us that if we take the fruit that god said we can't have that we'll be better off that we'll have a better life that we'll be free that if we do whatever it is that we want to do we will be like god because here is the appeal of the lie this is why we believe satan is not that we want to be like god in terms of righteousness is that we want to be like god in terms of rights we want his lordship we want to have ultimate authority over our bodies our gender our sexuality our money our marriages our clothing choices our mouths our relationships but i'm sorry to tell you when isaiah had a vision of the lord high and lifted up he didn't see you there uh you weren't there i'm sorry um if you are explicitly or implicitly because church people are implicitly usually disobeying god because they do all the outwardly right things that there's rebellion within if you are implicitly fighting for a seat on god's throne you're in a battle you'll never win the old saints used to say your arms are too short to box with god but not only that you're fighting against your own joy i remember when i wasn't a christian i told y'all i was a glutton for pleasure weed alcohol same-sex sex pornography all the things whatever my body wanted i gave it and when i would hear the call to submit to god's grant of my sin and lay down my rights one of the predominant reasons i refuse is because i really believed that to submit to jesus was to relinquish the possibility of joy and even in christ when god calls us to a higher standard of righteousness however that might look for you we quietly refuse his lordship because we're afraid we we we don't believe that we could be holy and happy we know that if our eye causes us to sin that gould and get out with hurt so we we'd rather stay blind with both eyes than see god with one but guess what what will happen to the saint that that lets the eye go for the sake of the high and lifted up lord they will go through life with a clean conscience and a fruitful walk and one day when they have breathed their last they will see god and have no regrets jesus said blessed which means happy happy are the pure in heart for they shall see god just like isaiah when isaiah sees the lord he observes something about how god is seated he says that god is seated on his throne high and lifted up you might think that the mention of this is about altitude and it is in one way but it's not simply that of geographical position but of preeminence the height of god's throne speaks to god's supremacy so when god sees or what isaiah sees is the excellency of god's being simply put god is high and lifted up because god is superior overall scripture tells us that god's ways are high and higher than ours because he is he is the most high as in he is exalted above everything because everything that is might be good but it will never be god everything wonderful that you have ever known love food sex laughter friends parents children sleep work money lattes none of it can compete with the supreme value of god as this high enlifted of god is seated with his robe stretching throughout the temple isaiah observes these heavenly creatures around the throne he calls them seraphim which means burning ones it's possible that these creatures look like flames with wings interesting he describes them by saying that each of them had six wings and with two they covered their face and with two they covered their feet and with two they flew which if we are honest with ourselves if we saw one in person we'd be terrified but i think the strangeness of these creatures tells you something about the otherness of god as the seraphim flew they sang this is a hymn that is happening they sang to one another about the holiness of god and as this happened the temple began to shake which typically happens to creation when god is around remember mount sinai when god descended on it to speak with his people moses commented that the mountain trembled along with the people of god when god shows up things move including you there was also smoke which was present on mount sinai too when god descended on it in fire the trembling mountain was wrapped in spoke now in the temple with the high and lifted up lord see that the entire temple trembles the room fills with smoke and the burning ones sing holy holy holy is the lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and isaiah doesn't even add to their praise he doesn't lift up his hands in worship he doesn't open up his mouth and give god glory it's as if by impulse while the burning ones testify to the holy nature of god while in his presence surrounded by smoke and a shaking temple beholding the awesome glory of god the only thing that isaiah can do is confess he says what was me for i am lost for i am a man of unclean lips why woe instead of worship because god is not only transcendent but god is also morally pure it is truly hard to imagine a being can only be good do right speak honestly think righteously at all times with god there is no darkness no evil within him no blemished heart or unclean hands imagine if you can a being with motive satan cannot influence a being whose behavior will never require atonement a being that is too good to be true but truly he is that good our god is holy before we dig into why instead of worship i want us to understand more of god's moral law told you we going deep one way to understand this aspect of god's holiness is to briefly observe or no to understand god's moral purity we're going to look at god's law exodus 19 is when god gives his law to his people in israel in the law you'll find what we know as the 10 commandments some of y'all got it hanging up in your bathroom over the toilet awesome way to witness odd but also they are you shouldn't have no gods over god you can't make no idols you shall not take the lord's name in vain keep the sabbath day holy honor your parents don't murder don't commit adultery don't steal don't covet uh don't lie okay jesus summarized the law by saying uh if you love the lord your god with all your heart mind and soul and strength and if you love your neighbor as yourself you are obeying these commands which makes sense because when you consider the first four commandments which are let me scroll back up you shouldn't have no gods before god can't make no idols don't take the lord's your name in vain and keep the sabbath day holy when you identify those you see that what god is legislating is the honoring of his name they position you to treat him as the supremely valuable god that he is which is the lord love the lord your god with all your heart mind and soul the second set of commands which is don't murder don't steal don't cheat don't covet don't lie this is legislating the honoring of god's creation namely people therefore loving your neighbor as yourself no matter how we might feel about god's law romans 7 says that is holy and it's good why because the giver of it is god has given us his law so that we can behave according to his nature god's command or when god commands us to have no other gods because there are no other gods he is telling the truth every idol was a delusion therefore god is legislating reality the commands alone wouldn't exist if god wanted to lie to you he knows that there is no one like him he knows that there's none that can compare to him he knows that he is the alpha and omega he knows that he is the beginning in the end the first four commands lay out a pathway for everyone alive to recognize what god already knows is true which is that he is the only one deserving of our worship but do we ever wonder what would happen if god commanded the opposite if god commanded something other than the treasuring of his name what would that say about what he thought about himself stephen charnock a dead guy who writes about god said can he ever abrogate which means cancel can he ever cancel the command of love to himself without showing some contempt of his own excellence and being before he can make a creature not love him he must make himself unworthy of love and worthy of hatred my god this would be the highest unrighteousness to order us to hate that which is only worthy of our highest affections the first part of the moral law reveals god's purity because it was given by a god that refuses to command us to do anything that is not rooted in the truth and in so doing he gives us commands that if obeyed it guarantees that he is treated as the high and lifted of lord that he is and always will be the second set of commands reveals the moral purity in god and that he he legislates the honoring of people and relationships love is not god but god is love therefore he is active in how he shows it murder theft adultery dishonesty and covetousness are a set of behaviors that don't exist in god and god this doesn't exist in god not merely because he's love but because he's holiness holiness makes real love possible be being morally perfect means that god literally cannot sin against the people he's created so let's say hypothetically speaking again if god were to have commanded opposite of what he commands if he were to have said you know what don't honor your parents don't do that i don't want that please cheat on your spouse commit adultery steal everything you can see murder all the people you want please covet be jealous envious everything you're doing on instagram please keep it going you like if god commanded that kind of behavior he would be a tyrant he will be a hater of all that he's made and one who is resolute of stripping and destroying all humans of their dignity the superficial love that we model easily would be the ultimate ideal because there would not be a moral law beckoning us higher if god commanded us not to love our neighbors he would be legislating hatred and if obeyed earth as we know it would be hell as it's always been but the crazy thing is who i've described sounds more like satan than god but who do you suppose we are imaging god as when his holiness is disregarded in our definitions of him everything that god has commanded us to do is an extension of his own righteousness so whenever you're struggling to believe that god is as righteous as he says he is just look at the commandments and remember that what god has told us to do corresponds to who he is he is a god that is without fault he is a god who is without blemish he is a god that is without wrinkle habek says his eyes are too pure to look on sin peter says that when jesus is on the earth there he committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth first john says that in him is no sin but there was sin in isaiah he was born after adam after all therefore he had a nature that was not holy but sinful we're almost done almost dark blemished and in the presence of this holy holy god there was nowhere for his heart to hide it is so interesting to me that god is so pure that when anything unclear unclean is near him it becomes obvious that they are unlike him and it ain't even like god did anything for isaiah to be so terrified god didn't even tell isaiah he was holy he overheard the seraphim say it god didn't even move he didn't even stand up or sit down he simply sat and that was enough for isaiah to see his own wickedness this is because as the morally pure god he is also light first john says that god is light and in him is no darkness at all light is often used as a metaphor for righteousness so when considering why isaiah chose woe over worship we have to think about the activity of light what it does when you're in the dark room and you can't see what it is what do you do you turn on the light when you drop something underneath the car seat what do you do you turn on the flashlight on your phone so you can see it where you might have dropped your stuff when you got bags under your eyes what do you do you get some concealer because it's light hard stuff i ran out of concealer i need to go to sephora when i get home light illuminates it exposes whatever is in the dark and makes it obvious and anyone that loves evil hates the light because of this the bible says it forever everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his work should be exposed the the contemporary woman keeps her bible closed in an attempt to quench the light others manufacture half truths about god or refuse orthodoxy as a way to keep the sun out isaiah didn't neither and i don't think he could even if he tried when by the throne of god the supreme virtue of his very being forced everything in isaiah that did not look like god to come out of hiding for some of us this illuminating effect causes us to be defensive unteachable even now some of you are mad truly even manipulative and it is all because light exposes your sin and therefore your weaknesses and instead of opting for the vulnerability of humility we prefer to maintain the false false view that we have constructed of ourselves and so by doing that we may be protecting our image but we have resisted god's hand in the process notice that in the presence of the holy god isaiah was honest about himself and why shouldn't he be god knows everything he he knew that isaiah is a man of unclean lips and now isaiah did too and by seeing god he saw himself and that's my problem with most of these christian books they think we can understand god by understanding ourself and that's backwards if isaiah would like most of us oh no by confessing the uncleanness of his lips isaiah actually acknowledges the uncleanness of his heart because it is out of the abundance of the that the mouth he recognizes that he is totally guilty he also acknowledges the guilt of his community he says that i am a man of unclean lips and i dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips if isaiah were like most of us including me he wouldn't imagine his sin at all jesus would have kept quiet about that it would have been god it's good to see you i promise i'm a little ratchet but then people down there they are a mess woe to them jesus but he doesn't because self-righteousness is only possible when you compare your behavior with others but when and if the comparison is between you and god the one in whose mouth there is no deceit whose perfections are unreachable whose standard is impossible for us to reach apart from jesus the only real response you can have is humility but isaiah is in a predicament now he has seen the holy holy god and for that reason he's also seen himself he he has seen that god is both supreme and morally superior he has seen that god is eternal and righteous he has seen that god is lord and king and if god is all of that and more he is also judged this is why when isaiah pronounced woe on himself which is an expression of grief and despairs he follows it up by saying woe is me for i am lost which really doesn't capture the thrust of the hebrew by loss he means ruined by by loss he actually means destroyed in other words isaiah not only confesses his sin but he also acknowledges what they deserve judgment i have to go here what does god's holiness have to do with god's justice everything if god is holy he must be just and in so doing he must he must punish sinners and god's self-revelation he has made it known that he will by no means clear the guilty because when god sees sin he does not see himself he being most beautiful and it confuses us i get it it confuses us that the same god that is praised for his kindness can seem so cruel but as he is transcended and thus different his wrath is nothing like the anger that we know by experience wrath is not a response to god's ego being bruised because he doesn't have one john murray said the wrath of god is the holy revolution of god's being against that which is a contradiction to his holiness god cannot be indifferent towards sin because he is too holy to do so if he were to overlook the guilty like our current judicial system often does no matter how small the offense might be he would be unjust but we cannot righteously protest god the just judge will always do what is right our society tends to accuse god of injustice whenever his gavel falls too hard for our liking and it is because we have a low view of sin and an equally mediocre grasp of the holiness of god do you understand i'm talking about a real person who's without spot who's without blemish sin is different it is offensive to him abominable demonic unrighteous lawless and out of god's purity he has delivered a law to us that if obeyed people would be just as beautiful as he is but we don't want it so then god must do what is right he must judge he must lift his sword and bring it down on the guilty but the question that should be asked but rarely is is if god is holy if god must judge why am i still alive aren't i a woman aren't we women of unclean lips check your twitter feed do not live around people with unclean lips isn't my community blemished am i any different from adam have not eaten several fruits that god told me i couldn't have haven't i sinned and fallen short of the glory of god since birth not just you and me but everyone alive has sinned against this beautiful high and lifted up lord but here we are at a conference with breath in our lungs and clothes on our back a mercy the truth is we are so used to the patience of god that we are more stunned by his judgments than we are by his forbearance we're so used to his kindness that when we lift his hand we get mad for every story in the scriptures where there is wrath there are even more with mercy consider adam who after he ate from the tree an animal was slaughtered to cover him and his wife shame the first evidence of sacrifice consider israel and egypt at the same time that egypt was judged israel was rescued only because god took pleasure and telling them how to be delivered the blood on the doorpost wasn't israel's idea but gods consider lot who was snatched out of sodom not on the basis of his raptured righteousness but on the basis of god's mercy consider isaiah who didn't even ask god for forgiveness look at verse six if you think i'm lying then one of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar and he touched my mouth and said behold this has touched your lips your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for right after isaiah confessed his sin to the lord one of the heavenly creatures stopped singing grabbed some burning coal from the altar and placed it on isaiah's mouth sanctifying it for holy use but did isaiah even ask for this because i don't see it in the text do you get what i'm saying he didn't even ask for atonement did isaiah even do anything to deserve it and what could he have done god's standard is too high but the seraphim came anyway and took away his guilt what happened in the throne room is what has happened to everyone whose sins have been atoned for it is that god initiated mercy and paid your debt before you even asked him to how [Music] how i want you to write john 12 41 in your bibles or your phones or your notebooks whatever writing thing you have and read it later i'm not going to read it now in it while talking about jesus this is my favorite part john says that isaiah saw his glory let me repeat that again in john 12 41 while talking about jesus john says that isaiah saw his glory and spoke of him spoke of who the father no the spirit no isaiah saw jesus's glory so what i'm saying is is that in the year that king uzziah died the lord seated on the throne high and lifted up with his robe filling the temple being called holy holy holy is the lord jesus christ pre-incarnate the band can come out i just remember i should have wrote it in my notes let's use our sanctified imagination don't we that's fun right imagine that you and me are the seraphim we are the burning ones and since we were created all we've done is worship around the throne and it's not even that we were given a script it's just that every time we see god we can't help but take one set of wings and cover our eyes because his his glory is too brilliant to behold and we we take another set of wings and and cover our feet because the ground on which his throne stands is just too holy and if we could use the last set of wings to worship we would but we need them to fly all day and night all we do is sing and the song is is simple i don't even remember which one of us came up with it but we sing it because it's true i mean look at him when he made the heavens he was holy when he made the earth he was holy when he made man he was holy all that he does is holy holy holy and as we fly around this throne what better song is there than one that one that tells god what he already knows about himself one day though everything changed we saw one of the lord's feet move and then the other one and then his hand started to pull on the train that was filling the temple and we didn't understand what was happening so we just watched a little longer until we realized the king was getting up and we all started to fly to one another to see if anybody could tell us why and where the lord was going and if he just might need our help so we asked when the seraphs that's cool with michael the archangel because michael knows all the stuff and we said what is the lord doing why is he getting up from his throne and the seraph said the father is sending him somewhere we were like oh he must be going to the other side of heaven to switch out this road because they've been on the floor for a minute it's a little dirty the sheriff said no the father is sending him to earth to become a man we were like a man how he's god and do you remember how confused we were we're talking about the lord of hosts the the alpha and omega the the creator of heaven and earth the most hiding the ancient of days why in the world is he becoming one of them those humans who love everybody else but him those people that ignore him when he calls resist him when he convicts deny him when confronted sin against him just because they're bored we didn't understand why the lord would give up give up his seat to live among men and the seraph looked at us and said the lord loves them so he must become like them he will still be god but he will also be man but don't worry he'll be back 2000 years ago the transcendent eternal valuable worthy supreme righteous just good god got up from his seat to come down among us [Applause] and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on the cross therefore god has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that the name of jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that that we are not lord that our politicians are not lord that our gender is not lord that our sexuality is not lord but that jesus is lord isaiah might not imagine that one day the holy god will pronounce woe on himself being ruined being destroyed so that we would be made righteous becoming lost so that we may be found rising again to sit in his rightful place i know it's a lot of people that want us to think that everyone else is more worthy of our worship than god but i can't there's nobody like him there is nobody like him there is nobody like him [Applause] there is nobody that can compare to him there is no one who is better i don't know about you but in a world where everyone is deconstructing their faith i don't i don't have an option but to hold on to mine some of you want to leave but where are you going to go where are you going to go who else has the words of eternal life who else has the power to deliver who else has the power to save who else has the power to heal who else has the power to comfort who else has the power to be you with you in your room when nobody will answer your phone calls who else can meet you where you are who else can save you from your sin and resurrect you from yourself nobody but god holiness makes you vulnerable there is only one lord there is only one lord and his name is jesus [Music] and i want you to know that whatever comes into your mind when you think about jesus that is the most important thing about you let's pray father you are worthy help us to love you help us to serve you help us to believe you there are so many liars in the world and they sound like they're telling the truth help us to discern help us to endure help us to have convictions and maintain them help us to love you more than we love people's opinions help us to love you more than we love our pleasure help us to love you more than we love our goals help us to love you more than we love our kids some of us are turning over our convictions so we can make our children happy keep us god you said now to him who was able to keep us from stumbling and to present us faultless and blameless before his glorious presence with great joy to the only god our savior through jesus christ our lord be dominion be glory and power forever and ever amen [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] god our song shall rise [Music] god [Music] [Music] holy holy [Music] holy [Music] you see [Music] falling down [Music] ever [Music] [Music] holy holy [Music] [Music] god [Music] is [Music] that that hymn was a um a musical version of the book of revelation chapter 4 a vision of the throne of god what was going on in heaven in that chapter which is pretty amazing i just want to say something about jackie i feel the lord is lifting her up he is using her mightily she has got a voice that's an important voice for all of us to hear [Applause] there are those who would like to silence her voice to cancel her voice and we need to support her and to pray for her and ask god's protection and blessing over her life because what she had to say today what the message the lord has given her is so important so powerful so needed in the church today we're so grateful that she was able to come pregnant as she is with three babies at home and a very very full life to come and speak to us today we're grateful that she made the time but don't forget to pray for her i really mean that [Music] [Music] waiting for a change [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] i [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] she [Music] [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] jesus is coming soon [Music] jesus is coming soon like a bride waiting for her [Music] [Music] lord jesus [Applause] [Music] faithful and true [Music] jesus [Music]

Channel: Pastor Greg Laurie

Views: 14,105

Rating: 4.8387909 out of 5

Keywords: cathe laurie, cathe laurie devotional, cathe laurie virtue, Womens Conference, bible study for women, Jackie Hill Perry, Christine Caine

Id: jLTAofu3QrQ

Length: 214min 43sec (12883 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 31 2021