Walking with God: Is Our Obedience the Cause of Grace or the Effect?

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
How many of you realize the importance of a frame?
[00:00:04] You know what I mean, what a frame is?
[00:00:05] I'll try to think of a real-world example.
[00:00:10] Here's a real-world example.
[00:00:14] Society has had, over the past few years, a frame about gender, right?
[00:00:20] There's been a frame about gender.
[00:00:21] For many, many years, there was a frame that biological sex also determined gender.
[00:00:27] There was two genders because there was two sexes, right?
[00:00:31] This was a pretty normal frame that society had.
[00:00:34] We've had this since civilization, as long as we could remember it in Western civilization.
[00:00:40] But that frame got disrupted and changed, and there was an argument over the frame.
[00:00:46] There was an argument over the frame where how many genders are there?
[00:00:48] We don't know, and people get to pick their gender because it's a social construct.
[00:00:52] And people like us were like, well, the Bible creates our frame.
[00:00:56] for how we understand those things.
[00:00:59] And some of us just see that as a social or political or an irrelevant issue, but that's because we don't recognize the importance of frames.
[00:01:07] We all passively receive frames.
[00:01:10] Here's what I mean.
[00:01:11] The rates of people who identify as transgender has gone up 50% within a span of a few years.
[00:01:20] It's gone up from 1%
[00:01:23] Two double digit percentages, right?
[00:01:27] Why is this elder?
[00:01:28] Because the frame changed.
[00:01:30] The frame changed and a new reality set in on how they view things and maybe there was kids that weren't even thinking about gender and then all of a sudden a new frame was introduced and now their entire reality is altered.
[00:01:46] Are you all understanding?
[00:01:48] Frames affect us.
[00:01:49] We live in a liberal democracy.
[00:01:52] We live in a world where individuality matters to a high degree, where we get to vote for our leaders, where we believe that our voice matters in government.
[00:02:03] That's a frame.
[00:02:05] It's not the frame of the Bible, but it's a frame.
[00:02:09] The Bible is quite different, actually.
[00:02:11] You don't get to vote on Jesus.
[00:02:14] You get to accept him or reject him.
[00:02:16] He doesn't have to be on the ballot every four years.
[00:02:20] He's the monarch.
[00:02:21] He's the king.
[00:02:22] So in order to understand yourself as his vassal, you have to change the frame.
[00:02:29] If you understand the kingdom of Christ as a liberal democracy, you'll opt in and out according to how you feel about it.
[00:02:36] We have liberal democratic churches everywhere.
[00:02:39] This part of the Bible they like.
[00:02:42] This part of the Bible they don't like.
[00:02:44] They can create doctrine that justifies anything that they want.
[00:02:49] The church votes on the matter and the kingdom becomes the democracy.
[00:02:55] That is not this church.
[00:02:57] What the king says is what goes.
[00:02:59] And it's our job to discover what the king says and how he wants us to live.
[00:03:05] I am not that interested in my freedom.
[00:03:10] I'm not interested in my freedom.
[00:03:12] I'm interested in my King.
[00:03:14] I'm interested in my King.
[00:03:15] I have wrestled with my freedom with God throughout my twenties.
[00:03:20] My thirties, I've buried it.
[00:03:21] I tell this story frequently.
[00:03:24] When Archbishop said I had to be a preacher, I said, no, no, no, no, sir.
[00:03:28] I don't want to do that.
[00:03:32] And I was so sincere in that because that was my frame.
[00:03:35] I lived in a country where they say, hey, discover what you love and pursue it and then get an education for it and go and make money and hopefully you can have your dreams.
[00:03:47] And so that was my frame.
[00:03:48] My frame was, no, sir, I can't be a preacher because I don't want to be.
[00:03:54] Resolved.
[00:03:55] Have a good day, right?
[00:03:56] And he said to me, he said, if you can point to one instance in the Bible where God approaches someone and says, what would you like to do with your life?
[00:04:05] Like, Moses, what do you want to do?
[00:04:09] What do you want to do, Moses?
[00:04:10] Because I'm here to support your dreams.
[00:04:14] That's not how it goes.
[00:04:16] And if it doesn't go that way for Moses, and if it doesn't go that way for God himself, and the Garden of Gethsemane, so inheriting the pressures of the kingdom that he's sweating blood,
[00:04:32] And he says, nevertheless, not my will be done, but thy will.
[00:04:39] The will of God.
[00:04:41] The will of the Father.
[00:04:43] The will of the ends well Holy Spirit that carried Christ.
[00:04:47] The will of the divine.
[00:04:49] The will of the divine is what takes precedence over everything in our life.
[00:04:53] And so our freedom takes a back seat, but we can't really think that way unless we have the right frame.
[00:04:59] Which means every day I have to wake up with a different frame than what this world teaches me.
[00:05:04] Does this make sense?
[00:05:06] Does this make sense?
[00:05:07] And I have two helpers with this frame.
[00:05:10] Three really.
[00:05:11] Three helpers, but it's really two.
[00:05:13] The third one is the church writ large.
[00:05:16] I have you guys to help me with my frame.
[00:05:19] But how are we all empowered to help each other with our frame?
[00:05:23] Hopefully through the Holy Spirit and through God's Word.
[00:05:28] Those are the two things that create our frame for the world.
[00:05:31] Nothing else matters outside of those frames.
[00:05:34] There's a lot of things I'm interested in, but they're not my frame.
[00:05:39] There's a lot of things that I care about, but they aren't determinative in how I act in life.
[00:05:44] This is my frame.
[00:05:45] The Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
[00:05:47] And they always work together.
[00:05:49] What the Holy Spirit does is takes the text and brings it to my today.
[00:05:56] He brings it to my today.
[00:05:58] What the text does is help me to check my today against the yesterday of my fathers.
[00:06:05] You see what I'm saying?
[00:06:06] Because the same God that is helping me today was helping them live a kingdom life then.
[00:06:12] and so this is my frame this is the way that I operate this is how I have to understand the world around me and so it's important that we as a church one have the Holy Spirit right when you accept Christ you have the Holy Spirit and you have a helper to help you understand what God wants you to do and this is the most preeminent thing we had a situation
[00:06:35] Well, I'll just put it like this.
[00:06:37] We have situations where Christians don't operate according to the Spirit of God.
[00:06:42] This is not infrequent.
[00:06:45] This is scriptural for me to say this.
[00:06:48] You say, well, how if they're a Christian are they not operating by the Spirit of God?
[00:06:52] Because Paul warns us not to quench the Spirit.
[00:06:59] That means don't let your flesh override God who's creating a frame for your life.
[00:07:07] Don't let, Brad, your desires create a frame outside of what God intends for you to do with your life.
[00:07:17] Brad's frame dies.
[00:07:19] Pick up your cross and follow me.
[00:07:21] That's a real thing.
[00:07:23] My frame dies.
[00:07:24] My understanding of the world dies.
[00:07:27] My questions are subsumed by the will of the Holy Spirit and the text that He inspired.
[00:07:33] So every day,
[00:07:35] I have to submit myself to the will of the Holy Spirit.
[00:07:39] This is why a life of prayer is so important.
[00:07:42] A life of reflection, a life of study.
[00:07:44] These things matter, not just for preachers, but for everybody who calls themselves a Christian, because it's the way that you have to live.
[00:07:53] And here's what never happens.
[00:07:55] I'm never led by the Holy Spirit to do something that the Bible doesn't explain.
[00:08:00] I'm never led by the Holy Spirit to do something that does not line up with the text.
[00:08:07] It might not be immediately obvious, but it's there.
[00:08:11] It might look different, but it's there.
[00:08:15] And so the Holy Spirit is always leading us, and so it's my job as a pastor to say, okay, the frame is kingdom.
[00:08:23] And when I say kingdom, I don't just mean it in a generic way.
[00:08:27] I mean it in a monarchical way.
[00:08:30] I mean it in a real kingdom sense.
[00:08:34] There is a king and you're subject to that king and that's the bottom line.
[00:08:37] And you have to understand that because it affects everything in your life.
[00:08:42] It affects how you live.
[00:08:44] It affects what you do with your life.
[00:08:46] It affects your politics.
[00:08:47] It affects your relationships.
[00:08:49] It affects everything around you.
[00:08:51] It helps explain why Jesus can say things like, Who is my brother?
[00:08:55] Who is my mother?
[00:08:56] None but who do the will of my Father.
[00:08:59] Who can I relate to outside of the kingdom?
[00:09:07] You know how much I have to think about those kind of things in my relationships?
[00:09:11] How do I coordinate my relationships?
[00:09:13] I have people that I'd love to be friends with, but I'm kin in the kingdom.
[00:09:18] That determines my relationships.
[00:09:20] So the driving force of my relationships are determined by people's responsiveness to the will of God.
[00:09:26] People come and go.
[00:09:28] People come and go, but people who God cultivates relationships with with us are people who persist in the will of God because they are citizens of the kingdom.
[00:09:37] Does this make sense?
[00:09:39] I say all this to say that we're going to go through and try to understand the text in a way that helps us to recreate the frame that we live by.
[00:09:50] I want all of you to end up, when we say Christ is King, to understand that in a new
[00:09:57] and Meaningful Way.
[00:09:59] This is His world.
[00:10:01] This is His reality.
[00:10:02] He has the final say.
[00:10:04] I don't care what's going on outside of these doors.
[00:10:08] I don't care what's going on outside of this text.
[00:10:10] And I don't care what's going on outside of the movings of the Holy Spirit.
[00:10:14] Because those things determine what reality is.
[00:10:17] God determines what reality is reality might look desolate but God says hope so there's hope reality might look like it's about to end but God says I have a tomorrow for you so there's a tomorrow for you reality might look like generational poverty but God says I have a plan for you so he has a plan for you reality might look like stage four cancer but God says I'm a God that heals and I'm not done with you so guess what you have healing coming your way reality might say desolation
[00:10:47] My reality might say desolation and relationships.
[00:10:49] It might say barrenness.
[00:10:51] But God says, fruitfulness, love.
[00:10:54] I'm going to draw these things to you.
[00:10:56] And you have to press into His reality because His reality takes precedence over reality because He is the King.
[00:11:04] He's the King.
[00:11:06] So I want to do what the King says.
[00:11:09] I want to live according to the King's decrees.
[00:11:12] And what we're going to see today is what happens when people don't.
[00:11:16] We're in Genesis, and so we've worked through the garden narrative.
[00:11:21] Now we're getting to Noah.
[00:11:23] And this is a story we're all familiar with, right?
[00:11:26] It's a story we know well.
[00:11:29] Right?
[00:11:30] Everybody in here can tell you the story of Noah.
[00:11:33] It's not like there's going to be... Today isn't one of those days where it's like a secret aha goldie.
[00:11:37] Where you're like, whoa, that's new.
[00:11:39] The flood actually represented the breath of God.
[00:11:41] You know, that's not happening.
[00:11:43] It's not one of those days.
[00:11:44] It's very basic.
[00:11:44] It's exactly what you think it is.
[00:11:46] The world sinned.
[00:11:47] It required judgment and there was a flood.
[00:11:50] But what do we do with that?
[00:11:54] What do we do with that information?
[00:11:55] And what does it mean with us?
[00:11:56] And what does it say about the character of God and how He interacts with the world around us?
[00:12:01] As much as we're familiar with the story of Noah, it's unpopular to project it onto reality.
[00:12:10] You know how I know this elder?
[00:12:13] Because my first thing that I think of when I see fires
[00:12:17] In Los Angeles, when I see fires raging through Los Angeles, my mind doesn't go first thing to, who's the arsonist?
[00:12:27] It's not where my mind goes.
[00:12:29] My mind doesn't go, well, where's the arsonist and what are the conditions?
[00:12:33] My mind goes to, is this demonic or is this judgment?
[00:12:37] Or is it both?
[00:12:39] Because usually, if something's demonic, there can be judgment.
[00:12:43] What does God say when he judges?
[00:12:44] I remove my hand.
[00:12:48] I remove my hand and there's an enemy that's seeking to attack you so when he removes his hand you become accessible.
[00:12:55] How was Job protected from Satan?
[00:12:57] A hedge of protection.
[00:13:00] It has to be taken down.
[00:13:02] This is why I say the only guarantee you have in life
[00:13:06] is serving God's purpose.
[00:13:09] Serving God's purpose.
[00:13:10] I wanna live a good life, I can run a mile a day, I can eat fruits and vegetables, I can do a bunch of things, but I have one guarantee.
[00:13:16] I can sneak that Twinkie in, Goldie, but I'm betting on longevity because I'm in God's purpose.
[00:13:23] I have a hedge of protection around me.
[00:13:26] And so, my first, the first place I go, and here's how I know it's not a popular perspective, because you can't say it publicly.
[00:13:33] Anything you can't say publicly reveals your frame.
[00:13:38] Any Christian who says, is the judgment of God at work?
[00:13:43] Well, you're a religious fundamentalist.
[00:13:46] I am a religious fundamentalist.
[00:13:48] I fundamentally believe what the Bible tells me.
[00:13:50] I believe it is true, and there's something to the judgment of God interacting with this earth.
[00:13:55] I am a person, and this is an honest to God statement, if lightning strikes too close to my home, I've had it happen like two or three times, middle of the storm, lightning in my wall shake, I go, Lord, I repent of whatever this is, whatever I have done, and this is not coincidence because you are the God that controls the weather.
[00:14:17] What do I think God just takes off when there's a rainy day?
[00:14:21] I have a primitive mindset.
[00:14:24] I almost said something else but it would have been arrogant sounding I'm a bright guy with a very primitive mindset and I want to retain that primitive mindset I want to think in the way that my fathers thought that when there was a flood that covered the entire world they didn't study it for meteorological sakes they studied it for the perspective of theology and said what is God trying to do and God tells us so if lightning strikes close to my home you can laugh at me when I hit my knees but I'm gonna survive the lightning strike
[00:14:55] Y'all with me?
[00:14:55] I want you to be primitive.
[00:14:59] I don't want you to be so sophisticated that you out-thank God.
[00:15:04] Okay?
[00:15:06] You can be intelligent and primitive.
[00:15:10] You can be smart, educated, doctorate, masters, read a lot, multiple languages.
[00:15:17] You can do all that, but you better be primitive.
[00:15:20] You better not let this world take you away from how the text makes you think.
[00:15:26] Does this make sense?
[00:15:28] Am I losing somebody in the back?
[00:15:30] Are we good?
[00:15:31] Okay.
[00:15:33] Sounds weird, but it's true.
[00:15:34] Okay.
[00:15:38] Let's see where we're at.
[00:15:39] So what we have, and here's evidence of that within the text itself.
[00:15:44] Here's how we can apply intelligence with primitivity, right?
[00:15:48] Here's how we can be both intelligent and faithful to the text.
[00:15:55] This flood story is an explanation of events that happened before it was written down.
[00:16:02] What we call Genesis 1 through 11 is a primeval history.
[00:16:06] We call it a primeval history.
[00:16:08] What this means is that there was a group of shared stories that all these cultures had in common.
[00:16:14] This is why there are so many flood stories throughout the world.
[00:16:18] Every culture has a flood story.
[00:16:21] Every single culture has a flood story.
[00:16:23] This is because there was a flood.
[00:16:26] There was some flood, whether that flood, how big it was, what people argue about, but it was big enough to encompass the world as it was known in the day.
[00:16:35] It covered the whole world.
[00:16:38] And so here's the reality.
[00:16:39] People are talking, when they're talking about the stories, about their interpretation of those events.
[00:16:46] And our story interprets it in a specific theology.
[00:16:51] The reason that I'm telling you this is because this did not happen in real time.
[00:16:57] This wasn't written in real time.
[00:17:00] Which means that there was a tradition of saying, hey you remember that flood?
[00:17:05] That flood back in the day?
[00:17:07] Well here's the story that God told us about that flood.
[00:17:10] which means that they had the ability to interpret events that happened outside of their time through a theological context.
[00:17:18] We're supposed to do the same thing.
[00:17:21] When I study World War II, the most fascinating thing about it is the theological implications of it.
[00:17:28] So we are constantly applying a different frame than the world around us to events that happen to us and to events that precede us, to events that will happen tomorrow.
[00:17:38] Are you all with me?
[00:17:39] So here's how God explained this flood to our people.
[00:17:47] And it happened, this is chapter 6 of Genesis.
[00:17:50] And it happened as humankind began to multiply over the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of man were comely, and they took themselves wives, however they chose.
[00:18:02] And the Lord said, My breath shall not abide in the human forever, for he is but flesh.
[00:18:07] Let his days be 120 years.
[00:18:10] I point this out because
[00:18:15] We see previously in the text, in the garden, that there is, in the presence of God, an extension of life.
[00:18:23] And the further you get away from His presence in the garden, the less access to life that you have.
[00:18:30] God says, my breath, my spirit, shall not abide in the human forever.
[00:18:36] I'm not gonna give him the breath of life forever.
[00:18:39] Because now they are contaminated with will.
[00:18:43] They are contaminated.
[00:18:44] What was the sin?
[00:18:45] The knowledge of good and evil.
[00:18:46] They are contaminated with will.
[00:18:48] I can't trust them to live according to my will for extended periods of time.
[00:18:54] They're gonna derail.
[00:18:56] They're gonna derail.
[00:18:57] And the further you get away from will, the further you get away from life.
[00:19:02] Y'all with me?
[00:19:03] Alright, the Nephilim were then on the earth and afterwards as well the sons of God having to come to bed with the daughters of man who bore them children.
[00:19:10] They are heroes of your
[00:19:12] Men of Renown.
[00:19:14] And the Lord saw that the evil of the human creature was great on the earth and that every scheme of his heart's devising was only perpetually evil.
[00:19:25] I'm reading a Robert Alter translation today instead of the King James.
[00:19:29] And the Lord regretted having made the human on earth and was grieved to the heart.
[00:19:36] The Lord said, I will wipe out the human race I created from the face of the earth.
[00:19:42] From human to cattle to crawling thing to the fowl of heavens for I regret that I have made them.
[00:19:50] My primitive brain is fascinated by this.
[00:19:53] My God expresses regret.
[00:19:56] I take it for what it says.
[00:19:59] If this says that God regretted us, I don't think this is some literary technique invented by man.
[00:20:05] When God is telling us the story, He said, by the way, I really regretted making y'all for a moment.
[00:20:11] There was a moment in time that I said, I can't take what I have made.
[00:20:18] Have you ever had kids and they're doing something and you go, that's not me.
[00:20:25] Where did you get that from?
[00:20:27] And that it just flashes in your head, was this worth it?
[00:20:33] God has those same feelings.
[00:20:35] God looks at us and goes, that is not me.
[00:20:38] Who is your father?
[00:20:39] Where did you come from?
[00:20:41] As Jesus would say, you're the sons of Satan and you're making people three times worse than you are.
[00:20:48] God says, you're not my kid.
[00:20:50] What is this behavior?
[00:20:52] I love you but I don't recognize you and right now I'm regretting having you.
[00:20:58] Oh God, don't let that happen to me.
[00:21:01] But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
[00:21:04] This is the lineage of Noah.
[00:21:05] Noah was a righteous man.
[00:21:07] He was blameless in his time.
[00:21:08] Now I'm gonna come back to that specific clause there because it's interesting in light of how the Bible describes everybody else.
[00:21:16] And there's an argument over it.
[00:21:18] Most people say that Noah was just righteous.
[00:21:22] He was just a righteous, good, godly man.
[00:21:26] But we see him do some unrighteous things, right?
[00:21:29] We see him kinda act up.
[00:21:31] And this is the one place in the Bible where there's a qualifier.
[00:21:36] There's a qualifier here.
[00:21:37] It says, Noah was a righteous man.
[00:21:40] He was blameless in his time.
[00:21:44] In his time.
[00:21:45] And so there are some people that have said,
[00:21:48] Noah's not quite the guy we think he was.
[00:21:51] That's evidenced by what we see in his actions later, and that's interesting that the Bible places a qualifier in the text.
[00:21:59] He was righteous in his time.
[00:22:00] I like this interpretation for a couple reasons, and we'll revisit that.
[00:22:06] But one of them is that God is always measuring things through history.
[00:22:10] He's always measuring things through context.
[00:22:14] He's always looking.
[00:22:15] And I do think that there is a possibility that Noah, who ends up getting drunk and acting a fool and probably is surrounded with iniquity and the time before the ark,
[00:22:27] potentially adopted some of those concepts but not fully depraved right he was blameless in his time relatively so Noah walked with God that's important and Noah begot three sons Shem Ham and Japheth and the earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with outrage and God saw the earth and looked it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted its ways on the earth
[00:22:53] God said to Noah the end of all flesh has come before me for the earth is filled with outrage by them and now i'm about to destroy them with the earth make yourself an ark of cypress wood with the cells you shall make the ark and caulk it inside and out with pitch this is how you should make it 300 cubits the arc's lengths 50 cubits its widths 30 cubits its height make a skylight in the ark within a cubit
[00:23:18] of the top you shall finish it and put an interest in the ark on one side with lower and middle upper decks you shall make it as for me i'm about to bring the flood water upon the earth to destroy all flesh that has within it the breath of life from under the heavens everything on the earth shall perish now just want to pause here to say this when i'm reading this text normally i can get frustrated because i don't care about the details of the ark
[00:23:44] But then as a pastor, when I'm thinking about the lobby of my church, I'm thankful they're in the Bible.
[00:23:50] Meaning that God won't have me do things that are important to him without giving me the instructions.
[00:23:56] And so I can trust that when I'm praying to say, God, how do you want us to redesign the lobby?
[00:24:02] That He's just not going to say flip open a book and pick the first thing you see.
[00:24:07] He's going to download instructions to us.
[00:24:10] And so whenever God wants you to do something, you don't have to be afraid that He won't give you the instructions to do it.
[00:24:18] Alright?
[00:24:20] As for me I'm about to bring the flood water upon the earth destroy all flesh everything on the earth shall perish I will set up my covenant with you and you shall enter the ark and your sons and your wife and the wives of your sons with you and from all that lives from all flesh two of each thing you shall bring to the ark to keep alive with you male and female there shall be this needs to be updated minister greg it says male and female they shall be it shall be male female zay them z zetter
[00:24:49] I'm just kidding, y'all.
[00:24:50] Let me have fun.
[00:24:52] From the fowl of each kind and from the cattle of each kind and from all that crawls on the earth of each kind, two of each thing shall come to you and be kept alive.
[00:25:00] As for you, take you from every food that is eaten and stored by you to serve for you and for them as food.
[00:25:07] God is a God of instruction.
[00:25:08] God is a God of provision.
[00:25:10] He will instruct you.
[00:25:11] He will provide for you.
[00:25:13] This Noah did all that God commanded him, so he did.
[00:25:16] The Lord said to Noah, come into the ark, you and your household, for it is you that I've seen righteous before me in this generation.
[00:25:23] Always a little qualifier.
[00:25:25] Always a little extra there in this generation.
[00:25:28] Of every clean animal take your seven pairs, each with it.
[00:25:32] Each with its mate and of every animal that is not clean one pair each with his mate of the fowl of the heavens as well of the seven pairs male and female to keep seed all over the earth for in seven days time I will make it rain on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights and I will wipe them out from the face of the earth all existing things that I have made and Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
[00:25:52] Noah was 600 years old when the flood came.
[00:25:55] Water over the earth.
[00:25:56] And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives.
[00:26:02] Sometimes it's just good to be on the periphery of people who are obeying God.
[00:26:06] Right?
[00:26:07] I can name countless instances where Rachel or I's prophetic obedience has a trickle effect.
[00:26:15] You're just married into it somehow.
[00:26:17] will do things that end up having an effect on the sons' wives.
[00:26:22] You see what I'm saying?
[00:26:23] When you obey God, it doesn't just rest with you, but it has a magnifying principle that when you obey the will of God, it will extend to your kids, your kids' wives, and maybe that nephew, maybe that cousin.
[00:26:37] God is not afraid.
[00:26:38] He doesn't run out of grace and blessing.
[00:26:41] Y'all with me?
[00:26:43] And why would God do that?
[00:26:45] Why would God let people who aren't themselves obedient or responsive to his word?
[00:26:50] It doesn't say that all of these people were righteous.
[00:26:52] It says that Noah was righteous.
[00:26:54] And he gives Noah the instruction.
[00:26:55] So why does God let these other on the ark?
[00:26:58] There's two reasons.
[00:26:59] One, God cares about what you care about.
[00:27:03] He cares about what you care about.
[00:27:06] I don't believe I'm going to serve in ministry.
[00:27:10] I do know my kids will have to walk out their own faith.
[00:27:13] They'll have to have their own journey.
[00:27:14] There might be hard times in it.
[00:27:16] I know that they're going to experience what we all experience in life.
[00:27:20] But I don't believe that God says, no, no, no, no, Brad, that's your obedience and it has no effect on your kids.
[00:27:27] I don't think that's how it works.
[00:27:29] I think God says, I gave you something to care about and I'm going to care about what you care about.
[00:27:36] The second thing that it does is it points them back to the righteous.
[00:27:43] So when you're blessed and the people around you are blessed and it has this trickle effect on the people around you, they should have sense to look at what you did.
[00:27:53] With that praying mama, I used to make fun of my mama for putting anointing oil in my shoes.
[00:27:58] I'm 40 years old, or 39, I'll be 40 this year, and now I think if that woman
[00:28:04] Did not obey God and do the things that I thought she was crazy for doing.
[00:28:09] I would be dead.
[00:28:11] My kids wouldn't exist.
[00:28:12] There would be a whole lineage of destruction because she was the only one doing it.
[00:28:17] She was the only one responding to God.
[00:28:20] So now I look at her and she establishes a pattern of obedience.
[00:28:24] I have to be like that that's how I need to be that and my kids I'm constantly reinforcing you get the blessing of God in your life out of obedience right now it's your parents one day it has to be yours so they look to us I look to my mom this is how generational blessing works right so God will bless the people attached to you so that they can look to you
[00:28:52] Not as God, but as obeyers of God.
[00:28:56] All right, we'll get through this.
[00:28:58] It happened seven days, the waters of the flood, 600 year of Noah life, all the well springs of the great deep burst, the casements of the heavens were open, and the rain was over the earth 40 days and 40 nights.
[00:29:10] That very day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, Noah's wives and three wives of his sons together with them, came into the ark, they as well as the beasts of each kind and cattle of each kind, each kind crawling thing that crawls on the earth, and each kind of bird and winged thing.
[00:29:24] They came to the ark two by two of all flesh that has the breath of life within it, and those that came in, male and female, of all flesh they came as God commanded them, and the Lord shut them in.
[00:29:35] And the flood was forty days over the earth,
[00:29:37] and the waters multiplied and bore the ark upward and it rose above the earth and the water surged and multiplied mightily over the earth and the ark went on the surface of the water and the water surged most mightily over the earth and all the high mountains under the heavens were covered 15 cubits of them the water surged as the mountains were covered and all flesh that stirs upon the earth perished the fowl and the cattle and the beast and all swarming things that swarmed upon the earth and all humankind
[00:30:06] all that had the quickening breath of life in its nostrils of all that was on dry land died and he wiped out all existing things from the face of the earth from humans to cattle to crawling things to the fowl of heavens they were wiped out from the earth and Noah alone remained and those with him in the ark and the water surged over the earth 150 days
[00:30:30] Noah is in the ark out of obedience for God.
[00:30:34] When I describe this church, sometimes I'll describe it as an ark, and I mean that in two sense.
[00:30:41] That it's a refuge from the world outside, and it's also a container of sacred things.
[00:30:48] The ark was a place where you survived from what happened outside.
[00:30:52] The ark was also a place where the commandments and Aaron's rod and the manna were contained.
[00:31:01] And so I say, God, make us an ark in both senses of the word.
[00:31:04] Make us a place where we carry sacred things and make us a place where people can be sheltered from the storm.
[00:31:11] But the reason and the emphasis of this today is two things.
[00:31:17] Number one,
[00:31:20] God has to respond to unrighteousness.
[00:31:23] This is a complicated thing in the post-Christ era because mercy was paid for at such a high price, but it's available so cheap to us.
[00:31:37] Mercy, nobody paid a higher price.
[00:31:40] It was the most expensive thing ever attained because it was attained by Christ on the cross.
[00:31:46] God had to die.
[00:31:48] God had to die in order to attain mercy for us.
[00:31:52] But it's so cheap for us, in a way, because Rachel, all I have to do is come up here and say, Jesus, I accept you.
[00:32:00] I don't have to pay for it.
[00:32:01] As a matter of fact, I'm not allowed to pay for it, right?
[00:32:05] I'm not Simon, you know what I mean by that?
[00:32:07] You can't pay for it, you can't negotiate for it, you just receive it freely.
[00:32:14] You receive it freely.
[00:32:15] And so it's a hard thing when we're looking at this.
[00:32:19] When mercy is so accessible to us, when it's so cheap for us, so to speak, it's hard for us to understand these things.
[00:32:27] But even in today's day and age, when mercy is so accessible to anyone who seeks it, it's so available, God still must judge.
[00:32:36] And the reason that he judges are not because of his personal feelings.
[00:32:39] He says, I regret making you.
[00:32:42] But the reason that he judges, when you look at how he judges in the Bible, it's when the numbers get too great.
[00:32:49] When the numbers get too great, God's judgment comes about.
[00:32:53] What does Abraham argue with God?
[00:32:54] If I can just find a handful of righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah and God says go for it.
[00:33:00] What does it get down to?
[00:33:01] Ten?
[00:33:03] He says if I can just find this many righteous and God says go for it and there's none left.
[00:33:08] We look at Sodom and Gomorrah and we say their actions
[00:33:12] caused their destruction.
[00:33:13] That's partially true, Goldie.
[00:33:16] It's partially true, but it's because their actions overwhelmed the geography.
[00:33:21] There was none left to cry out to God.
[00:33:24] There was none left to pray for their community.
[00:33:27] There was none left to say, God, hold off on judgment.
[00:33:31] There was nobody left.
[00:33:33] And when there's nobody left, all that's left is the seed of evil.
[00:33:37] The gospel can't recover from that.
[00:33:40] And so the only thing left is judgment.
[00:33:43] There was none left in the world aside from Noah and we're not even sure how good he was.
[00:33:49] God says, I can work with him because he walks with me.
[00:33:52] He's not perfect and we know he's not perfect because we see his imperfections in the text.
[00:33:58] Just read a little bit ahead after the flood.
[00:34:00] We see his imperfections in the text.
[00:34:02] We know he's not perfect.
[00:34:04] We know his family's not perfect because of how they respond to those imperfections.
[00:34:08] And yet, God says, I can work with him because he walks with me.
[00:34:13] All I need is somebody who's willing to walk with me.
[00:34:16] If you're willing to walk with me, I can work with you.
[00:34:20] But if you're not willing to walk with me, there's nothing I can do for you and the only thing left is judgment.
[00:34:28] I'm watching LA burn and I know it hasn't burned to the ground because there's some local pastor whose name I do not know who's in that city saying God I know what's around me but hold off
[00:34:43] Give us mercy.
[00:34:45] Spare us yet again.
[00:34:46] Give me another chance in this city.
[00:34:49] Push it back.
[00:34:50] Push back this fire.
[00:34:52] Push back this judgment.
[00:34:54] God, just hear our cry.
[00:34:56] There's a praying mom on her knees.
[00:34:58] There's a collection of people that are saying, God, I know there's only 10 of us, but you'll hold out for 10.
[00:35:05] You'll hold your hand for 10, and I'm willing to walk with you.
[00:35:13] Every time I see a city spared, it might get touched, it might get messed around, it might get...
[00:35:20] But I know that it's not going away because there's somebody obeying God in that city.
[00:35:24] There's somebody willing to walk with God in that city.
[00:35:27] I know that there can be a lot of crazy things that happen in Orlando, but we who are willing to walk with God will save this city from destruction.
[00:35:36] And so it's important.
[00:35:37] that we're willing to walk with God and God will send people to locations that they should not be in order to spare them from destruction but when those voices go silent when there's nobody left when there's nobody left to obey God when there's no one there to say God I'll walk with you the only thing God can do is respond with judgment it's the only thing he can do is respond with judgment
[00:36:08] I believe this applies to the world and I believe it applies to us.
[00:36:13] I believe it applies to us.
[00:36:15] I'm big on bloodlines.
[00:36:18] I'm big on deliverance.
[00:36:21] I'm big on obedience.
[00:36:24] I cannot tell you that I'm perfect.
[00:36:31] I'm better than I've ever been in life.
[00:36:34] Better than I've ever been.
[00:36:36] I randomly will be doing something and I'll think about something I did in my teens or my twenties.
[00:36:42] And I'll repent for it.
[00:36:43] And God's forgiven me.
[00:36:45] God's forgiven me.
[00:36:46] But it's just, I slept with some girl and I didn't care about her at all.
[00:36:51] I just, you know, who cares?
[00:36:53] I treated people differently than I do now.
[00:36:57] Right?
[00:36:58] I operated differently than I do now.
[00:37:01] And I'll think back on it and I'll say, I don't know that guy now.
[00:37:04] and I'm sorry I was that guy.
[00:37:06] Said I don't feel, it doesn't feel good.
[00:37:09] But here's the thing, I'm not perfect.
[00:37:12] I'm still walking with God and that elder is the key.
[00:37:17] This is what's great about the mercies of God in your life.
[00:37:20] He doesn't need you to be perfect.
[00:37:21] Listen, I talk to enough of you privately, I can't point to one person in here who's perfect.
[00:37:29] When y'all are honest with me, there's not a single person in here I can point to who's perfect.
[00:37:34] Everybody in this building is walking something out.
[00:37:39] Everybody in this building is, everybody watching online, everybody is walking something out.
[00:37:46] There's something, there's some thorn in your flesh that you are walking out.
[00:37:52] But you know what?
[00:37:53] You know what's the difference between you and the world?
[00:37:57] You're willing to walk with God.
[00:37:59] you're willing to walk it out and God says as long as you're willing to walk with me I've got an ark for you and your family I've got provision for you and your family I've got direction for your life I've got instruction for your life I'm going to bless you as long as you're going to walk with me and walking with me isn't religion it's God I'm here for whatever you need me to do I'm yours God I might stumble and I might fall but I'm going to
[00:38:27] Get up and I'm going to walk with you.
[00:38:28] I'm going to make sure, God, that I place you at the center of my life.
[00:38:33] God, I might not be the perfect citizen, but I'm willing to be a citizen in your kingdom.
[00:38:39] I'm willing to pursue you above all else.
[00:38:43] And God can work with that.
[00:38:44] Because I tell you, there's nothing you can do for your own life outside of walking with God.
[00:38:49] That's the only thing you can do.
[00:38:51] You want to do something for your family?
[00:38:52] I'm glad you're smart.
[00:38:53] I'm glad you're rich.
[00:38:54] I'm glad you're educated.
[00:38:55] Walk with God.
[00:38:57] Walk with God.
[00:38:58] I'm glad that you've got it all together and you're intelligent and you haven't faced that flood yet.
[00:39:04] It's a matter of time if you ain't walking with God.
[00:39:08] You want to do what can't be done by the arm of the flesh?
[00:39:13] Then respond to God's will for your life, whatever that may be.
[00:39:18] Connect to where His will manifests.
[00:39:22] Surround yourself with people who care more about His will than anything else.
[00:39:26] You know the difference?
[00:39:27] You know the difference between religious churches and Spirit-filled churches?
[00:39:33] There's a difference in conversation.
[00:39:35] Religious churches rely on checklists.
[00:39:38] They rely on checklists.
[00:39:40] Look at the diversity in this church.
[00:39:42] Look at the different people in this church.
[00:39:44] We're all different.
[00:39:47] You know why?
[00:39:48] Because Goldie, I don't have a checklist that says, alright, she's wearing those shoes, her skirt is this, what is she doing, who did she talk to on her cell phone, this is my measure of righteousness.
[00:40:02] This is my measure of righteousness, and because I don't walk with the Lord, I have to use a checklist to measure your righteousness.
[00:40:11] You know what this church is?
[00:40:12] There's a difference in tone.
[00:40:13] When you go to churches, there's the checklist churches where they say, oh, that's why they all look alike, they all talk alike, they all seem the exact same way, because they're all following a checklist for their righteousness.
[00:40:26] A Spirit-filled church says, you walk in with God.
[00:40:29] Are you, how you doing in your prayer life?
[00:40:33] Where you at in your walk with God?
[00:40:35] Is your heart one towards repentance?
[00:40:37] The language, the orientation is different.
[00:40:40] I am looking for where your heart is.
[00:40:43] Where's your heart, Goldie?
[00:40:44] And where's my heart?
[00:40:45] I know our heart, we might have different things in our life.
[00:40:49] We care about different things, but I know one, what connects us is that our heart is towards the will of God.
[00:40:55] And watch as God produces wonders in our life.
[00:41:00] Come pray, Rachel.
[00:41:01] I'm gonna pray too.
[00:41:06] I know this is random, but I'm just gonna pray a prayer for the apostolic.
[00:41:10] I'm shifting gears real quick, and I'm just gonna pray a prayer for the apostolic, so I'm gonna close out this message with a prayer, and then I'm gonna pray for the apostolic in your life, and I'll explain that.
[00:41:21] God, I just thank you that you are a merciful God who is going to spare us from judgment.
[00:41:29] and God that which is attached to us you will spare from judgment.
[00:41:34] I thank you God that our presence in this city, our presence in this country, our presence in our bloodline, our presence in our families, our presence in work, God that they keep your hand at bay.
[00:41:48] I thank you that they keep the judgments of the Lord at bay and I thank you God that in their place we will have provision.
[00:41:55] God, I ask that those who obey God, that they will be seen for who they are.
[00:41:59] Those who walk with you, those who pursue you, God, that they will be seen by their loved ones as being the source of righteousness for their bloodline.
[00:42:12] God, that when my kids look at me and they look at their Abra, God, they won't just see a grandmother and a father.
[00:42:20] When they look at Rachel, they won't just see a mother, but they'll see parents who walked with God.
[00:42:26] And their focus will be on that aspect of our life.
[00:42:31] They won't look at all the toys that they have and think, oh, daddy bought me that.
[00:42:35] They'll think daddy walked with God.
[00:42:37] They won't see the fruit manifest in their life and think daddy did that.
[00:42:42] They'll think daddy walked with God.
[00:42:45] God, let the focus of those around us, God, when they see us, turn towards you.
[00:42:53] And let them have a hunger to have what we have.
[00:42:55] and Relationship with You.
[00:42:58] Lord, I pray that You continue to change our frames so that we can see the world through the appropriate lens.
[00:43:06] God, that we take seriously the events of the day, that we understand them and that we seek Your will in the midst of them.
[00:43:15] God, that we be led by Your Spirit to read the news the right way, to read the events that happened around us in the right way,
[00:43:25] Help us, God, to understand what you are doing and how you are operating through history in our lifetime.
[00:43:32] In Jesus' mighty name.
[00:43:35] Now, I'm just gonna pray for a second thing today.
[00:43:39] And that's, I'm gonna pray for the apostolic to pour out in this church.
[00:43:51] I'm gonna pray
[00:43:54] And this ties into the text, and I didn't even think it would.
[00:43:58] But just as Noah's loved ones saw righteousness through his works and were the beneficiaries of his works, so will you have that impact on those around you.
[00:44:12] God, I just ask right now that there would be an abundance of miracles, not just from us to the congregants, but God, from the congregants to the world.
[00:44:24] Lord, one of the seals of your Spirit was the outpouring of miracles.
[00:44:30] And God, as I was praying last night and through this morning, Lord, I could see people taking miracles outside of this house and reaching others with it.
[00:44:43] So God, I ask for the seal of the apostolic, the same thing that you gave the apostles
[00:44:52] When they laid on hands, God, so I ask that you pour out on this house.
[00:44:58] So God, that we can walk out of this house today and pray for people and see them healed.
[00:45:03] That we can see cancers dried up.
[00:45:06] That there can be a boldness that God, even when our shadow touches the infirm, God, they become healed.
[00:45:13] that they might look and see your wondrous works and proclaim our Lord, proclaim that Christ is King.
[00:45:21] God, let us overtake this city and this nation with the miraculous.
[00:45:28] Inspire people to this day in this room and online, God, to pray for people this week, to be bold in their prayers.
[00:45:38] To just walk up and lay hands on people and see them healed, see them delivered, see salvation manifest.
[00:45:47] I thank you God for the outpouring that you are doing in this church and among this people.
[00:45:53] God, I ask that it not just reside in this place on a Sunday, but that it manifest every day of the week.
[00:46:03] Lord, I call forth the testimonies
[00:46:06] I thank you that there are testimonies even over the next weeks, God, that from this prayer people will come back and say, I prayed for so-and-so and this happened.
[00:46:17] I saw this thing happen.
[00:46:18] I was bold in my prayers and a miracle manifested.
[00:46:24] I went and prayed for somebody and they received the Lord.
[00:46:29] God, let those testimonies come in and let them build this house and your community in this city, God.
[00:46:37] We love you and we thank you.
[00:46:40] Give us a boldness.
[00:46:42] Give us a strength.
[00:46:43] Give us the courage to walk with you.
[00:46:46] In Jesus' mighty name.
[00:46:48] Amen.
[00:46:48] Would you like to pray, Rach?