A Review of ‘Sunday Service’ by Jack Hibbs

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[00:00:00] Open up the Bibles that you have or look to the screens to Romans chapter 15 verses 30 to 33 and we are in what should be, I pray, our last study in chapter 15 and you say, yeah, but there's still chapter 16 and how many years will that be?
[00:00:23] Chapter 16 is going to go really quick, I promise. I'll read verse 30 if you pick it up nice and loud in verse 31.
[00:00:32] and so on paul says now i beg you brethren through the lord jesus christ and through the love of the

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[00:00:38] spirit that you strive together with me in prayers to god for me that i may be delivered from those

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[00:00:54] that i may come to you with joy by the will of god and may be refreshed together with you Father we come before you today and Lord we're asking you to not only hear our
[00:01:12] prayer that you might be very present in our learning of the Word of God but in this day and age father when so much is being said and not much is true I pray that you'd give us that great gift to all of us the spirit of discernment to
[00:01:31] know what is true, what is not true. And in this age where deception is so perfected, and yet it's going to become more perfected every day. Lord, down deep inside, lead us and guide us into all
[00:01:45] truth, just as you said the Holy Spirit would do in the last days. But not only that, Lord, collectively as a church right now, we pray. We pray right now, Lord, for all of our military
[00:01:57] personnel that are dispatched to various parts of the world and predominantly right now the middle east many of our children are there god we pray that you would give this nation guidance from above lord we've got our problems and we've got our issues but father we're asking you to be
[00:02:17] merciful and not only merciful to us but god very few people recognize that what is gathered together in the middle east right now is all happening right now because of a world view by a handful
[00:02:38] of leaders in iran that they believe that a world on fire will bring in the islamic messiah i don't know if our government realizes that or not but that makes it a spiritual issue you. And God, we know that Persia or Elam in the book of Jeremiah, your word says that
[00:03:04] you will set up someday a spiritual throne there. That's shocking to us to hear. Somehow you are going to rule and reign in the land of Elam. Well, Lord, we pray right now that the tens of millions of Persians, many of them, Lord, have already sacrificed their
[00:03:23] lives in the last few weeks for freedom and liberty. We pray, Lord God, that there'd be an outpouring of your Holy Spirit happening now, that there'd be so many Iranians, so many Persians coming to faith in Jesus, that we would see Islam, Lord, collapse in Iran. Lord, that it would just
[00:03:39] completely implode because there's no salvation, there's no hope, there's no forgiveness, there's no redemption, only tyranny. And this is, as we stand here today, we are living in a very prophetic moment in time. So God, we pray that in the days ahead that you'd give our nation's leaders wisdom
[00:04:00] and father, that you would bring down a death cult that has even seen fit in this last several weeks to kill over 50,000 of their own people. This is an amazing time. May we walk before you
[00:04:19] in the spirit, worshiping you in truth and giving you all the glory with our lives. We pray in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. Thank you for that prayer, everybody. You may be seated.
[00:04:33] And so we're looking at today in the closing, as you saw last week, will you please come with me?
[00:04:38] The apostle Paul is saying farewell to not only the believers in Corinth, because that's where the book of Romans has been written and concluding from, but he's saying to them, will you come with me? Because you remember the announcement is that I'm going to come to see you in Rome pretty soon.
[00:04:57] but I'm going to be leaving Corinth and I'm going to be going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints there. But he issues to us a very precious invitation. And we got onto it last week and
[00:05:08] we didn't finish it, but we will today. And that is he's inviting us. And listen, there's no time gap over these last 2000 years because the spirit of God is at work in the earth. He, listen, he has
[00:05:21] been, he's been using the church for these last 2000 years all around the world. For those of you are christians god has somehow used the church to reach you with the gospel of jesus christ
[00:05:35] some in some way shape or form uh i was staying at a hotel this week as as was many of the team and that particular hotel chain which you know the marriott hotel chain uh owns this particular
[00:05:50] resort and you know in every marriott hotel they have the book of mormon in it you know you know that but they have a bible and then i also have a qr code that i take with me everywhere i go
[00:06:01] and it's the gospel and you can't tell it's just a it's just an unmarked qr code and so i make it a point uh to put those in the book of mormon and in the bible and in bathrooms
[00:06:17] by the way it's unmarked it works really well if i'm ever trafficking some reason through vegas if you put an unmarked qr code in the men's bathroom they think it's something else and when they scan it boy do they get a surprise and it's all about the gospel repent and believe in
[00:06:37] the lord jesus christ and it just gives them the romans road and it's and again it's great but here's the thing the gospel how did you get the gospel how did it come to you
[00:06:48] when you first heard the word of god and you responded and it's a beautiful thing because for the last two thousand years god has been inviting his people to come with him in spiritual outreaches wherever that might be it could be just sitting down reading the bible with somebody else
[00:07:06] it could be preaching the gospel on the mission field it could be at work you know what has happened in your own life that god has been reaching people through you and you yourself you were reached by someone else as i and that will continue on until christ catches the church
[00:07:24] up listen up he'll catch the church up and then we know from the book of revelation he is going to then turn and use the born-again jewish believers to reach the earth in his name
[00:07:38] he's used the church first and is going to use the believing remnant last and that's thrilling to realize and so as we looked last time together very quickly we saw this with that beautiful request will you come along with me we saw in verse 30 that it happens this way as we
[00:07:57] continue on together that what you and I do we do together and we saw three things about that or really we saw two and we ended at the third one and that is that we're to be confident enough
[00:08:08] to be transparent. In verse 30, Paul is very vulnerable. And I love that. He is just saying to them, listen, I need you. I want you to come with me. And I love that part of confidence. And
[00:08:22] yet he's transparent. He knows what he's called to do. He knows he's going to be leaving Corinth to preach the gospel, not only in Rome, but he told us a few weeks ago that he's heading
[00:08:33] in this chapter, he says to Spain. But in that confidence, he's transparent because he's saying, I need you to come with me in prayer, in spirit. And then we saw in verse 30 also at the latter
[00:08:47] end that he was secure, secure enough to be loved. Meaning this, that Paul had no problem calling them brethren and looking forward to being with them and asking of them, will you help me help
[00:09:03] the church in Jerusalem, which you remember, had gotten into without God's request. They did it on their own, probably very good intentions, but they adopted socialism, honestly. Let's have all things in common. Let's sell everything we have, put it all in the pot, and you can pull from it and
[00:09:21] everybody will be happy. And the church in Jerusalem went bankrupt, which by the way, socialism. What did Margaret Thatcher say? It's fantastic. She said, socialism works great until you run out of other people's money. All of your college kids, you know, hope you feel
[00:09:40] good about this. You're paying tens of thousands, if not more, hundreds of thousands to send your kid to college. And you know, that's what they're learning. You say, not my kid. My kid's there learning engineering my kids they're my kids gonna be a doctor yeah yet on the
[00:09:57] side the school's teaching them socialism and don't worry about it you're paying for it and I got a dirty letter I mentioned this a few weeks ago and I basically said the same thing I'm saying now and somebody wrote me a
[00:10:11] whopper I said you know a socialist socialistic professors love getting paid 300 000 a year by all the capitalists who send their kids to school and uh that was so true that it struck somebody right right between the eyes and uh they didn't appreciate that uh i had to
[00:10:32] laugh when i read it it didn't work in the church either and so the church in jerusalem was hurting and so paul was going to go there with an offering of love and support for them
[00:10:45] and then also this and this is where he picked it up church we'll dive into it it's that still that latter end of verse 30 will you please come with me and that is when we
[00:10:54] continue on together eager enough to change the world eager enough to change the world this isn't listen please you know me I'm not saying this to be some sort of a motivational speaker but when we have the gospel operational within
[00:11:12] our hearts we can open up our mouth and share the gospel with a child with with somebody it doesn't matter maybe somebody in passing and God has he not over the millennia of time have proven that one person sharing the gospel with another person literally affects the
[00:11:31] world one man got saved by the name of Paul the apostle and he's changed the world what about people like Billy Graham one person led Billy Graham to Christ and how did that go our small
[00:11:48] groups are going to be taught by Dr. Ed Heinsohn, who told us when he was alive from this pulpit that his parents, to get rid of him, sent him to VBS during the summer so they could have a week
[00:12:02] off and he would be at VBS. And little did they know in a non-believing home that their son would get saved and become one of the greatest modern day communicators of the gospel. And of course,
[00:12:14] you know the president and dean of Liberty University remarkable the high honor of traveling to several countries in the world and to speak with him and he was such a humble man but God called him out of humble beginnings to bring
[00:12:32] him into an illustrious world of very highly educated people I forget how many doctorates that man had earned all because he went to one VBS as a kid and got saved. Yeah, that's good news. By the way, don't ever underestimate the power of a vacation
[00:12:52] Bible school. My goodness. By the way, we were praying hard. We've been praying hard this weekend.
[00:12:57] How many of you have teenagers or grandkids up on the mountain right now? Raise your hand. Your kids up there? One of you? Two of us. Okay. Third service. They're all going to come to third
[00:13:10] service. That's when they're going to pick the kids up. The kids are coming down the mountain covered in snow. I don't know if you saw the videos, but she's beautiful. But here's what we've been praying. Oh God in heaven, get a hold of these kids on the mountain. Your teen,
[00:13:25] our grandchildren. God, reach them. Cause them to have a faith crisis. Do whatever you need to do to bring them into a saving relationship with Jesus. Why? Because one of them can change the world. What about five of them? What about 12 of them? You know where I'm going. There's enough
[00:13:42] people in this first service today honestly to change the entire complexion of California itself think about it if we just decided I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna conduct myself under the power of the Holy Spirit I'm gonna be loving and
[00:14:02] winsome but I am NOT gonna sacrifice the truth and I'm gonna speak and I'm going to do and all the areas of my life from work to the home to the civic square itself it's amazing
[00:14:20] and so we learned this in verse 30 down at the latter end he says that you strive together with me in prayers to god for me i love that here comes that transparency again will you pray for me
[00:14:34] but look at the word strive it's a powerful word to come along with me that's where we get the title of this message, this little two-week mini-series, to endure with me, together, doing and to do
[00:14:47] all that can be done.
[00:14:50] It will be done together.
[00:14:53] Nobody does this on their own.
[00:14:57] Come with me, strive with me to do that.
[00:15:00] Listen, church, can I announce this?
[00:15:03] I should announce this, that I've recently found out this last week, talking to some people who are monitoring and what's going on in the young world of so-called converts.
[00:15:17] You know, we're all reading about how many, so many thousands of young men and young women are going to church these days.
[00:15:25] And it turns out, it turns out, they are predominantly becoming very spiritual, but they're going to churches not for the word of God.
[00:15:36] Yeah.
[00:15:37] You know, I think we kind of saw this coming.
[00:15:39] They're going to places that have structure.
[00:15:42] When asked by, I think it was the Barna group, why are you now going to church?
[00:15:48] Their answer was, I want structure in my life.
[00:15:52] That was their answer.
[00:15:54] They didn't say anything about having their sins forgiven.
[00:15:57] They didn't say anything about Jesus and the cross and the empty tomb and God's atonement for our sinful world, but they want structure.
[00:16:09] they listen next thing was we want morality look morality is great but you can't go to heaven with morality that said look i'm glad people are being more dedicated to a morality and structure but if
[00:16:27] that is something that is standing in the way of the true gospel that's a problem folks well i go to church now on Sundays whereas I didn't before so thus I must be good with God is not an answer the life has to be changed and Paul is saying strive
[00:16:49] with me in prayer so he's asking other believers to come alongside him and this word prayers I think you know what this means by the way the word prayer here and worship very close can to service is rooted in the word proskuneo which
[00:17:04] means to kiss or lick, actually means to lick the hand. You say, I don't really like the way that sounds. I understand that. Come, come to worship and lick the hand. The word, the word
[00:17:16] means to, to lick the hand that as a dog licks its master's hands. Now that's a little sweet, right? That's sweet. Cause you know, your dog, he just, just loves, loves you. And you can go
[00:17:31] the mailbox and come back he thinks you've been gone for a thousand years he greets you like you've been gone forever and yet that's the word that describes how the believer should be about jesus we want to be near his hand we want to be that word worship service prayer speaks of nearness
[00:17:52] to worship by way of prayer in dialogue with another to kiss the hand of a sovereign with with devotional love.
[00:18:00] Paul says, pray for me.
[00:18:01] Will you come along with me in the journey to reach others for Christ and together as we do this together in the spirit, we will unite in our devotion to God, which speaks of this intimate devotional life with him.
[00:18:19] It's very beautiful.
[00:18:20] And then of course, God, that you might strive together with me in prayers to God.
[00:18:26] And this is the very generic word, theos, of course, but God, this is important, a title of what is the object of being worshiped or meaning God.
[00:18:39] A lot of people have gods, all kinds of gods.
[00:18:41] But I should say not a lot of people.
[00:18:44] In my old age, I've concluded everyone has a god, maybe several.
[00:18:50] It's the thing you worship.
[00:18:51] It could be made out of metal.
[00:18:55] It could be some deities.
[00:18:58] And there's all kinds of religions in the world that boasts their deity or deities.
[00:19:06] Satan doesn't care as long as you don't get on the right track.
[00:19:10] So you stay off the right track because the right track will tell you who God is.
[00:19:16] And he is Yahweh the Lord.
[00:19:20] In Psalm chapter eight, verse one, and this is the English standard version.
[00:19:24] Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
[00:19:29] You have set your glory above the heavens.
[00:19:32] Folks, you ought to write that down because there's only one God that has claimed to ever do such a thing and that is the God of the Bible.
[00:19:38] The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is how he addresses himself.
[00:19:43] What about this?
[00:19:44] What about Isaiah 45, verse 18?
[00:19:47] Are you guys okay?
[00:19:49] For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited.
[00:20:02] I am the Lord and there is no other.
[00:20:05] And the word Lord is Yah, Yahweh.
[00:20:08] You guys know this now.
[00:20:09] Remember, every time you see that Lord in capital letters, that's his name.
[00:20:15] If you're reading the Hebrew Bible, you see his name and it's Yah.
[00:20:20] That's his name.
[00:20:22] Yah is our God.
[00:20:24] He's the Lord.
[00:20:26] And this is a great, great unifier of what we do for the Lord Jesus Christ in our prayers to God.
[00:20:33] This is the God that we're praying to.
[00:20:35] When we pray, listen, when we pray, we're not beggars.
[00:20:41] How do I say this without being, I don't know, too blunt, but we somehow, and I get it, we are to revere God, but we tiptoe as though he doesn't wanna hear from us, and we kinda talk to him and then get out of his way.
[00:21:01] He's not like that.
[00:21:02] The Bible says, by the blood of Christ, a broad or big door is opened up for you and I to enter into his presence.
[00:21:10] How about that, folks?
[00:21:11] That God is waiting to hear from you.
[00:21:13] Listen, sometimes I think that God allows us to step on a Lego in the middle of the night so that we would call out to God.
[00:21:23] I bet he's saying, oh, it's so good to hear from you again.
[00:21:26] We need to go to him more often.
[00:21:29] We need to go to him consistently.
[00:21:31] Open up that door, think about it.
[00:21:33] Open up that door of communication and never shut it.
[00:21:36] Well, when should I pray, Pastor Jack?
[00:21:40] Thank you, Lee, all the time, all the time.
[00:21:45] Why shut the door?
[00:21:46] If the door's open, keep it open.
[00:21:51] Keep running to him at all times.
[00:21:56] It's a beautiful thing to realize that only in the realm of the spirit can the Christian in his life, the life that he's living.
[00:22:03] I'll read it to you.
[00:22:04] In the realm of the spirit where the Christian lives is the statement of reality.
[00:22:09] The aged apostle writes to the believers in Rome and he invites them to join with him the journey and that happens through prayer one for another the Bible tells us and it's not in my notes Galatians chapter 5 tells us that we need to bear
[00:22:25] the load of our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus Colossians chapter 2 verse 5 this is precious I snuck this in I'll be very very honest with you this wasn't in my notes until earlier this morning.
[00:22:42] I was texting someone in Jerusalem and they text back and they said, "'Listen, I want you to know that I'm so far "'from the church here in Chino Hills, "'but I'm with you guys in spirit.'"
[00:22:57] And I immediately text this verse back saying amen to that.
[00:23:03] But you don't have to be in Jerusalem or Chino Hills for this verse to be true.
[00:23:06] Listen to this.
[00:23:08] This is awesome.
[00:23:10] The question is, is it true in your life?
[00:23:13] I hope so.
[00:23:15] For though I am absent in the flesh, this is Paul speaking to the church at Colossae, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
[00:23:28] Isn't that beautiful?
[00:23:31] The church of Jesus Christ is one, but we are divided up physically throughout the entire world and yet by spirit we're together.
[00:23:40] And Paul is saying, pray for me, strive in prayers for me as you pray to God, because we're in this together, united.
[00:23:50] There's no difference.
[00:23:50] There's no space.
[00:23:53] The Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter six, verse 18, he does it again, speaking to the Ephesian believers.
[00:23:59] He's, you know, the preceding verses starting at verse 10, he gives all these great, great weaponry and warfare implements that the Christian's supposed to wear.
[00:24:10] but the bottom line is this how do we keep all of that stuff on the the helmet of salvation and so on here it is praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit that is
[00:24:24] the holy spirit that means listen everybody praying in the spirit is something that every believer is supposed to do every believer praying in the spirit you see pastor jack what does that mean? Listen, some people have confused the gift of tongues with praying in the Spirit. That's not
[00:24:44] the same. There's the gift of tongues that God has given to the church, but the gift of tongues is to always be operated when someone else has the gift of interpretation, so that all might be blessed by
[00:24:57] what is said. But to pray in the Spirit is totally different. Every one of us, and I know that this message is being translated in various languages. That's another thing we found. I didn't even know
[00:25:12] this this week. Somebody came up to me and said, Pastor Jack, we want to take a picture. We are your voice in, I think it's Arabic. I'm not sure if it was Arabic, but certainly in Ukraine.
[00:25:28] And I was shocked. I don't speak Ukrainian. I don't, look, I don't even speak English. I speak American. But here's the thing. It doesn't matter what language you speak, and it doesn't matter what country you're in. Are you a believer? You can pray in your language, and then you can go
[00:25:47] alone and get alone with God, and you can pray in the Spirit. It's a completely different experience.
[00:25:53] If you've never done it, go do it. It's not tongues. It is not tongues. It's prayer language that God has given to us. It's referred to in 1 Corinthians chapters 12, 13, and 14, read it in context, but you can pray and it's alone. It's always alone because it requires
[00:26:14] no interpreter or translation. The gift of tongues, that's completely different. That said, watch this, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. So we just prayed for the
[00:26:35] the saints in iran and for me paul says that utterance may be given to me that i may open my mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel i'm going to ask you wouldn't
[00:26:50] that be your prayer request that's my prayer request god open my mouth with your power so that people might know the mysteries of the gospel the truth of the gospel how fun is that to be possessed by the spirit of god in fact i want to give you this what a beautiful
[00:27:12] humble man paul was wise enough to say i need prayer i need support i need your covering i need air support which is prayer itself coming down upon him at all times as i make my way to and
[00:27:27] through an unbelieving world tomorrow morning you're going to get up and you're going to go to work into an unbelieving world or you're going to go home to an unbelieving husband or wife listen for some of you who don't know there's people here seated around you this is their
[00:27:44] relief they come here they get refueled and then they got to go home after service is over to either a husband or a wife or a family that mocks and ridicules every week they go to church oh here
[00:27:58] Here you come, what'd you learn today about God?
[00:28:04] How would you fend in that environment like that?
[00:28:08] And yet a lot of people suffer with that, unbelieving person in their life.
[00:28:13] That's a rough road.
[00:28:14] Listen, any young people in here, the Bible tells you to marry a believer.
[00:28:20] Did you know that?
[00:28:21] Look, when believers get married, that's what God says to do.
[00:28:27] How can you be unequally yoked?
[00:28:29] You say, what does that mean?
[00:28:31] Well, I'll tell you, listen, it means that when two believers get married, that they have a way of settling their problems.
[00:28:40] To me, that's a very important thing.
[00:28:42] It doesn't mean that two Christians come together and because they get married, everything is just rosy.
[00:28:49] No troubles.
[00:28:50] You'll never have any communication problems, finances, not a problem, health, no, are you kidding me?
[00:29:00] Listen, if two Christians come together, I think number one, their target gets illuminated in hell.
[00:29:09] But the other thing is this, God blesses that union because that's the will of God.
[00:29:13] But listen, that couple moves forward to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ in their life.
[00:29:18] I'm not a big fan of couples who serve the Lord or I should say individuals who serve the Lord and then they get married and then they roll off the horizon of Christian ministry.
[00:29:29] I think God brought them together to double up the influence, not take it away.
[00:29:35] But boy, I tell you, when two people come together in Christ, everything's different because there's a victory.
[00:29:42] Is there warfare? Yes.
[00:29:46] But there's victory.
[00:29:48] And it's a great thing.
[00:29:51] Before we go into this next part, verse 31, I want you to see this quote by Pastor Ray Stedman, who's long gone.
[00:30:00] Wish he were back.
[00:30:02] Wonderful man of God.
[00:30:04] Prayer is born of the spirit of God within us, awakening the desire to help, a sense of the need to love and to show compassion.
[00:30:14] We pray to honor the Lord Jesus Christ, Edmund says.
[00:30:19] This is what will stir people to pray more than anything else.
[00:30:24] I love that.
[00:30:24] Why do we pray?
[00:30:26] Ultimately, to honor the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:30:28] Is that not true?
[00:30:29] Think about it.
[00:30:30] Do we pray to get a bigger house or more money or a faster car? No. We are to pray in such a way that it brings Christ honor and glory, a life yielded. It doesn't, listen, if you have all those things, that's not a problem,
[00:30:52] as long as your life is giving Christ glory and honor. Amen? Amazing. Number two to this is in verse 31, and that is to be humble, humble enough to need others. It says in verse 31 here,
[00:31:08] As he says, that I may be delivered from.
[00:31:12] I'm going to stop right at that.
[00:31:13] That I might be delivered from.
[00:31:14] He's going to describe to us what that means.
[00:31:17] So we're looking at this, number two, as we press on in this fight.
[00:31:21] As believers, we are in a fight.
[00:31:24] Any one of us, all of us, listen.
[00:31:25] If you're going to stand up for what is right, you are going to enter into a fight.
[00:31:29] You're going to enter into a war.
[00:31:30] Please, I'm telling you this to encourage you.
[00:31:34] In my opinion, time's up.
[00:31:36] time has expired for any one of us as christians to play it safe it's over look around the world it's over it's time for us to not only be united and to do the work of god together
[00:31:47] by the power of the holy spirit to be praying for one another but we must also recognize that it is a fight and we must keep this in mind that we must be humble it is important humble as we go
[00:32:02] into the fight now I know that if any of you and many of you this is a church that has a lot of veterans and or active military personnel I know that your commanders and your officers will tell you to you know who yelling and I get
[00:32:28] all that. But I'd rather be more like David or Joshua who knew that not one of their arrows could have landed anywhere, or in David's case, arrows and a stone could land anywhere, but with the power of God land in the right spot. We're at war and I'll prove it to you.
[00:32:52] Remember we just talked about prayer a moment ago. If you determine today, I'm going to pray tonight at eight o'clock you pick a time that's it i've been exhorted today at church i'm gonna do it i'm gonna go up against the kingdom of hell and i'm gonna pray at eight
[00:33:09] o'clock tonight i promise you at about 7 55 your grandmother will call your mother-in-law will call the kids down the hallway will call every and any kind of disruption will call will happen because you have determined to get into the battle you say well why would i do that then because
[00:33:35] you're going to get in the battle never works to play it safe i made a post this week and i had to do it because i saw the news i was away at the time when this broke on the news maybe you saw it
[00:33:53] but there's a new law coming to new york city i mean there's a lot of new laws coming to new york city all of a sudden and one of them is a dog tax you can have a cat all you want but a dog must
[00:34:14] be taxed in new york city why because dogs are unclean in islam i'm sorry i had to i had to make a post and i just said well done all of you in new york city who didn't vote oh the christians
[00:34:44] stayed home because they didn't want to get dirty by voting and there's an estimated eight or five million jews in new york city you know new york city i think it's 13 million people total
[00:35:03] five million jews and guess what they did in this last election they didn't vote so guess who did vote all the imams told the muslims to go out and vote and they didn't by the way they didn't have an option and they voted and now they have a muslim mayor and now you can
[00:35:20] You can go to Times Square in the evening and you can, they shut it all down and pray and Arabic and the prayer call is broadcast all over Times Square.
[00:35:32] But you can't take your dog there.
[00:35:35] A dog tax.
[00:35:37] And I just had to say, well done, New Yorkers.
[00:35:43] Idleness, apathy.
[00:35:48] Listen, when we're apathetic, we don't get engaged in praying for our children.
[00:35:53] Then we wonder why our kids turn out to be like animals.
[00:35:57] We need to intercede.
[00:35:58] we need to fight spiritually speaking I say spiritually speaking but my goodness um maybe this is for something on the podcast but there's a lot of things there's a lot of things coming out that in our own life in our own life the
[00:36:19] intelligence community is warning us there's a lot of great and terrible threats that have happened since these four years or eight years of four years of open borders and that the cells and the numbers of these people that are
[00:36:34] armed and equipped in our own neighborhoods waiting waiting some believe there's some CIA retired analysts that are telling us the moment if if Trump gives the go-ahead on Iran that that is their announcement to hit
[00:36:57] the streets what if it's true we pray it's not true but let me ask you this we We have to be people of prayer, to pray, and to be humble enough to bow our knee to Almighty
[00:37:16] God.
[00:37:18] The Bible tells us in Colossians 2, verse 13, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, listen to this everybody, he has made alive together with him, that's Jesus, having forgiven you all your trespasses.
[00:37:34] Can someone say amen?
[00:37:35] Amen.
[00:37:36] God, through Christ Jesus, has forgiven you of your trespasses.
[00:37:40] Trespasses.
[00:37:41] Somebody might say, what is that, trespass?
[00:37:43] The word trespass is actually a word that means worse than sin.
[00:37:48] Sinning is to miss the mark.
[00:37:52] Trespass is to see the mark and know it and to step over it intentionally.
[00:38:00] Those things in our old life when we said, well, I know God says not to do this, but I'm going to do it anyway because, after all, isn't it all about me?
[00:38:07] That's trespass.
[00:38:10] And the Bible says Christ died for not only our sins, but our trespasses.
[00:38:15] Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, hallelujah, which was contrary to us, he has taken it out of the way.
[00:38:22] Having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed, here it is, principalities and powers.
[00:38:28] Jesus Christ has disarmed demonic powers.
[00:38:31] When they show up in your life and they go, boo, you need to say, boo, back in the name of Jesus Christ. You have no authority here. You have no power over my children, over my life.
[00:38:43] This home belongs to God. You're simply but a liar. You're a manifestation of the father of lies, which is Satan. And this home has been bought by the blood of Christ. And I have prayed
[00:38:53] the blood of Jesus over my home and over my children and my grandchildren and the church.
[00:38:59] What if we rose up and prayed? God, take your blood and spread it over the state of California.
[00:39:09] God knows, listen, we all know, we should know by now, politics is not the answer.
[00:39:13] It doesn't mean we leave that area open, we fight and we get engaged, but we know this, the answer comes from above.
[00:39:20] The answer comes from God.
[00:39:22] It's not gonna come from the White House or the State House.
[00:39:26] It's gonna come from this house.
[00:39:28] When we pray, God will move.
[00:39:32] Very important.
[00:39:34] And we need to remember that, that God gave us that gospel we read a moment ago to wash away sins, to remove it.
[00:39:42] And I wrote this down to myself.
[00:39:43] If it doesn't matter to you, that's okay.
[00:39:45] But I said, let's remember why there even is a gospel.
[00:39:50] The gospel of Jesus Christ answers the shame question.
[00:39:54] Christian, you no longer need to live in shame.
[00:40:01] Shake that off today in the name of Jesus.
[00:40:03] The enemy's just playing with you.
[00:40:07] The gospel of Jesus Christ answers the sin question, obviously.
[00:40:12] It answers the guilt question.
[00:40:15] Guilt removed.
[00:40:16] it answers it certainly answers the death question this week like any a church this size we get texts and phone calls so-and-so just had a baby yay next phone call so-and-so just died now watch if we went as a church so-and-so just had a baby and so-and-so just died
[00:40:43] oh no you know what we're supposed to do as a church so-and-so just had a baby okay No, that's great.
[00:40:54] That's one, no, I'm kidding.
[00:40:55] That's wonderful.
[00:40:57] Hey, so-and-so just died.
[00:40:59] Hey, praise the Lord.
[00:41:02] Really?
[00:41:03] Oh, no, they died.
[00:41:04] Really?
[00:41:05] They've been plugged into a machine and getting poked and needled for the last six years and emaciated away down to 50 pounds and you're bummed that they went to glory?
[00:41:15] We got that all wrong, man.
[00:41:18] It's better where we're going than it's ever been here.
[00:41:25] And of course, it goes without saying that the gospel answers the hell question.
[00:41:30] Oh, I read this morning.
[00:41:31] Someone sent me this this morning.
[00:41:32] Maybe it was somebody in here sent me this, that a little girl was in her public classroom and the teacher said, anybody in here a Christian?
[00:41:42] And the little girl says, I'm a Christian.
[00:41:44] Oh, you are, huh?
[00:41:45] Well, do you believe that a big fish swallowed Jonah?
[00:41:50] And the little girl said, I do believe that a big fish swallowed Jonah because God can do that.
[00:41:55] He can do anything he wants.
[00:41:56] oh yeah well everybody knows that no fish there's no fish mouth that that's big that can swallow a person the little girl I don't know how big fish are but Jonah got swallowed by a great fish and the teachers making fun of this little
[00:42:11] girl and then the teacher said well what if Joan is in hell I know and the little girl goes well you know what I'll ask Jesus in heaven about the fish and how big it was and you can ask Jonah and and and the teacher asked her no more
[00:42:37] questions for the rest of the year that great that's the wisdom of God coming out of the mouth of babes but when we talk about this and the power we we want to be humble enough and lean upon others and to know others the body of Christ
[00:42:57] works that way and paul is doing that by great example here um it's reminiscent of this beautiful fact and it kind of stings everybody if you listen carefully in proverbs chapter 26 verse 20 the
[00:43:11] bible says where there is no wood the fire goes out we all get that right you get that where there's no wood the fire goes out and where there is no tailbearer strife ceases that should be on every
[00:43:25] internet at the top of the page think about that for a moment a tail bearer you know what a tail bearer is a person that runs around yes they use gossip a person that runs around telling other
[00:43:42] people about other people's business they repeat a matter the bible says they repeat a matter we talk about these things that paul is speaking of the power and the spirit and god moving and God using us and being at war but like pastor Chuck Smith used to say we need
[00:44:03] to keep ourselves usable that is that we need to make sure that in our lives we've washed away those things that have kept us back and we set a course those young people who want structure I understand where they're coming from but
[00:44:20] there's something that is beyond structure by choice and that is structure by love when the love of God arrest your heart there's a beautiful surrender you want structure God will give you structure and I don't know how
[00:44:40] he does it but it's like he's holding you in velvet let God be the one that tells you now is the time to pray now is the time to do this now is the time to
[00:44:53] do other but listen what I'm saying is not popular because people listen you don't need faith if you're going to be told what to do. Let's be honest. If we had, welcome to church. These are our 10 rules for you every day. You know, people love that because they're
[00:45:11] involved and they're checking off the boxes and there's no intimate relationship to that. But if God says, I'm here, talk to me. Now it's a choice of your own volition to engage with God or not.
[00:45:27] A.W. Tozer called that intercourse with God, when you pray and speak to him in spirit.
[00:45:34] And it's choice. It's not routine. Well, it's five o'clock. Choice. Prayer. Relationship.
[00:45:45] 1 Timothy 5, verse 13 says, and besides, they learn to be idle. He's talking about those that are wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not.
[00:46:00] The Bible is announcing to us that this kind of division destroys the power of God and the life or the community of believers.
[00:46:08] Very important.
[00:46:09] And then look at verse 31.
[00:46:11] We're called, Paul is called, we're called enough to run the risk.
[00:46:16] To run the risk means, he says in verse 31, that my service for Jerusalem and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints.
[00:46:27] And we don't need to spend time on this.
[00:46:28] You guys already know, we studied it last week, that he's taking to Jerusalem money to deliver them from the poverty that engulfed them because of their well-intended socialism and having all things in common, the church went bankrupt and they were hurting.
[00:46:47] And Paul was saying they must be ministered to, but that the gift would be accepted.
[00:46:53] And I touched on this last week, but I'll move on from it in a second.
[00:46:57] Why in the world would the saints in Jerusalem not accept this offering?
[00:47:02] Why is Paul concerned about that?
[00:47:03] They were in need and he was bringing to them actual money so that they might be able to live.
[00:47:10] And do you guys remember what the answer was?
[00:47:11] It's only one word answer.
[00:47:14] It's pride.
[00:47:18] Pride.
[00:47:19] And I mentioned last week that one of the things that, if you and I struggle with receiving a gift, it's pride.
[00:47:27] Look, let me take that back.
[00:47:29] I'm throwing myself under the bus.
[00:47:31] I have a hard time accepting a gift.
[00:47:33] Most gifts I give back.
[00:47:36] That's okay.
[00:47:36] No, I'm sorry.
[00:47:37] Nope.
[00:47:42] It's pride.
[00:47:45] Here's what's in my head.

[00:47:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:47:47] If I accept the gift, what am I going to give them?
[00:47:54] Are you hearing what I'm saying?
[00:47:59] If I accept the gift, now I'm obligated.

[00:48:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:48:09] Clearly, I'm the only one who thinks this way by the response.
[00:48:15] But you know, that's pride.
[00:48:16] because have you ever given something to somebody just out of sheer love for them because you don't care if you get anything back?
[00:48:25] Oh, we get to do it, but we can't receive it.
[00:48:29] That's pride.
[00:48:33] Think of that for a moment.
[00:48:34] Paul is about to show up to the church in Jerusalem with a bunch of money that the other churches had given to help them out.
[00:48:41] And then you say, well, no, that's okay.
[00:48:43] Thank you, Paul.
[00:48:43] Tell them thank you for us, but that's okay.
[00:48:46] As the kids are tugging on dad's robe.
[00:48:48] Are you nuts?
[00:48:50] We're hungry here.
[00:48:52] and then third and finally it's verses 32 to 33 and we'll make it it's this will you come along with me as we move on by faith i'm not going to pull any punches with this one friends as we wrap
[00:49:08] this up faith don't answer out loud how do you know you have faith how do you know how do you know you have faith in god and faith in his word how do you know that you have faith that god will
[00:49:19] will do what he said how do you know in verse 32 he says here that i may come to you with joy by the will of god that's the key by the will of god question what is the will of god answer
[00:49:39] it's revealed in the bible okay so what make it your pursuit make what the will of god doesn't matter how young or old you are every single one of us make the will of god your
[00:49:54] pursuit we would say god what is your will for my life and you know what it's going to be for mine it's going to be different for yours different for yours different for yours that's how the
[00:50:07] church works you know we're all supposed to be different you know with differing gifts and differing involvements but faith a verb it's in action and he says to us it's it's joy he says that i might come to you with joy um i love this you guys can you imagine when paul was like 10
[00:50:30] miles out you know there's people reporting this is very common throughout the ancient world he's 10 miles away paul is coming and word would get to the city they'd get all excited and they would
[00:50:42] well paul is thinking in his mind i'm 10 miles closer i'm five miles closer he's getting so joyful we should be like that by the way when we're coming to church we should be like yeah
[00:50:54] oh I can't wait to go to sleep it's Saturday night tomorrow's church can you imagine I hope so hope it's like that joy joy is amazing there were joy here in the Greek language you know already but it's delight rejoicing the
[00:51:13] expectation of seeing someone being with them Jesus said I leave my joy with you not the joy the world gives because of the joy the world gives evaporates it's not even joy Jesus said our joy cannot be taken from us did you know that death
[00:51:31] cancer accidents whatever joy to do the will of God to walk with him in joy we as Christians in this day and age I believe and I think that you are shining brighter against the dark background than ever right now this is a great time
[00:52:01] people this is a great time people are scared people are nervous Joel Rosenberg, I think it was Joel Rosenberg, is reporting that since the Iranians have been gunned down by their own military, many of them Christians, what do you think would be the result?
[00:52:29] That people would stop being Christians? That in light of that event, there's been a huge explosion of converts to Christ in Iran. Wow. Think of that for a moment. That's amazing. That's awesome.
[00:52:50] Unity. Verse 32. Enough to want to be together. Unity. Unity is a fun thing. He says, and I may be refreshed together with you. Unity is fun this way because unity has to be worked at.
[00:53:07] You have to work at that. It shouldn't shock anybody. No, no, you just wave some pixie dust and we'll all be unified. Nope, doesn't work that way. There's only unity around truth.
[00:53:17] and we have to listen we have to strive and maintain and abide in christ john 15 as we walk in the truth and what's beautiful about a family of god and i know many of you are involved in
[00:53:31] ministry and our small groups is that you're accountable to each other in a beautiful way to where hey i was just thinking about this and your friend who knows the word more than you would say yeah that's that's crazy here's the reason why it's crazy it's this right here you
[00:53:45] not to do that i didn't know that thank you that's actual unity it's so practical in the bible it's not like do you feel it i feel it aren't you feeling it i'm not denying feelings but they
[00:54:02] can't be your guide the truth says this and we go on together in it and he says to be refreshed together that word refreshed is awesome it means to lie down or to rest it means to be renewed in
[00:54:21] body and soul and spirit. That sounds nice. Oh, you know, you can go on a vacation and you can't wait to get home to get some rest. You ever done that before? That's a disaster. You know, listen,
[00:54:35] we're moving ahead. We're talking to the Israeli government, but in a few weeks, 500 of us are leaving to Israel. And if God doesn't want us to go, then he'll shut down the airspace, but we're going. But here's the deal. You're going to go to Israel. You're going to be
[00:54:54] almost 12 hour time zone upside down when your body says it's time to go to sleep the schedule says it's time to wake up and everything is upside down but here you are with a group of people i
[00:55:09] don't want to be with a group of people i understand that but i don't know how god does this but this is my i think 23rd trip coming up tour and i'm telling you how does how does a bus there's a lot
[00:55:20] of buses but it doesn't matter because you're only on one bus so that's the only bus that matters honestly but there's 10 buses listen nine of them don't care it's only your bus it doesn't matter
[00:55:36] if there's a thousand buses you're only on your bus and it works beautifully but here's the thing how is it that you're in an opposite time zone on the other side of the world and you're eating
[00:55:51] different foods and you're doing all these things and you're not on exactly vacation because it's a working thing and yet at the end of the tour you are somehow radically refreshed because it's all about God I can't explain it I've never been able to explain it yes we we sense and feel we'll never
[00:56:14] make it I could never sign up or I could never do this and that or the other thing cheer up none of us can he gives us that strength to do that so united enough that we work together like that
[00:56:27] God will do that in our lives.
[00:56:29] Of course, I cannot leave this until we give you this verse.
[00:56:32] Isaiah 40, verses 30 to 33.
[00:56:35] I remember the first time I ever bought the most expensive pair of shoes I'd ever seen in my life.
[00:56:42] Nobody had ever heard about this company before.
[00:56:44] I'm not joking.
[00:56:45] Nobody had ever heard about it.
[00:56:47] I think they were like 25 bucks, which was like 25 bucks for a pair of tennis shoes.
[00:56:52] What kind of a fool am I?
[00:56:55] And it was a company called Reebok.
[00:56:57] you ever heard of that company and nobody had heard of them and nobody was buying their junk and and so i but i like the way they look they even if i wasn't running fast i'm talking like
[00:57:09] 18 19 years old even if i wasn't running fast i looked like i was running fast and i remember taking a a marker pen and i put this on those shoes even then the youth shall faint and be
[00:57:21] weary and the young men shall utterly fall but those who wait on the lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint that's the promise of the lord to you and i as we serve him and love
[00:57:38] on one another and then finally it is this peace now the god of peace be with you all he says amen Peace.
[00:57:57] The word peace in Greek is Irene.
[00:58:02] If your name, by the way, is Irene, it's the same meaning.
[00:58:07] It's beautiful.
[00:58:10] To welfare or to farewell.
[00:58:12] That's what it means.
[00:58:13] Not bye-bye, but to be well.
[00:58:18] Be well, he says.
[00:58:20] To be undisturbed.
[00:58:21] Isn't that beautiful?
[00:58:22] Unshaken.
[00:58:24] Unshakable.

[00:58:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:58:27] Wow.

[00:58:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:58:30] Right now I'm working on a book called Manhunt.
[00:58:32] it's not going to be released for a while but it's manhunt what every what every man should be and what every woman wants in a man manhunt and part of the book has got the story of louis
[00:58:46] zamparini anybody remember louis zamparini unshakable that man stood there in that world war ii prison camp you'll have to buy the book to read it but remarkable only in christ jesus are we able to be unshakable look that's the meaning of course in the greek but you know the
[00:59:12] hebrew word for peace is shalom and look at the meaning of that you combine these two together completeness soundness to be at ease well-being shalom or pastor bruce would say something like shaloah or something right in hawaii you say something like that
[00:59:32] i like that better actually sounds pretty cool but the bible says listen you're going to want to write this down if you don't have the notes it's isaiah 26 verses 3 and 4. you will keep him
[00:59:48] that is god will keep you in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you the lord because he trusts you trust in the lord forever for in yah the lord is everlasting strength isn't that beautiful isn't
[01:00:03] that awesome so for whatever this is worth as as we end this here it doesn't mean you leave I know people want to it's like I gotta leave you don't have to leave if you had
[01:00:20] a chance would you hang out with Paul today if Paul was around I want to be I want to be able to say I would I I hope I would have the smarts enough to say
[01:00:29] I'm going with it he's going with Jesus I'm going with him right but have you realized in life you're going someone's influencing you in this life someone's influencing you and in what direction number two for what reasons and the third thing is how does
[01:00:53] this all end if i listen to you who are influencing me and i allow that to happen and i go with you how does it end jesus said did he not say come and follow me will you come along with me you know
[01:01:16] church when jesus came up to matthew's roman toll station toll office along that roadway there in Galilee you know Jesus didn't say hey Matthew come and follow me and then put him in a headlock twist his ear poke his eyes out he didn't he just simply said
[01:01:36] come and follow me it almost feels like he didn't even slow down when you read it he's just coming through honey you know I mean I'm sure Jesus paid the toll tax maybe he didn't I don't know but maybe he went like this inflicted and
[01:01:49] landed in the bag but whatever it was because you know he kept the rules Matthew got up and left his lucrative career to follow Jesus Paul abandoned his high office in Judaism to follow Jesus it's amazing that God reached down
[01:02:19] and he woke you up and he pulled you up and said follow me and he makes that call to you today and I'm wondering if you're listening to him I can say in my life i thought i was living young stupid selfish but i thought i was living and then jesus simply
[01:02:53] with the most organic words follow me and all of a sudden it starts shaking all of those well i mean it feels like an empire but it's actually a house of cards you know they start wobbling and how he
[01:03:12] says what he says is so attractive come and follow me and all along the way you know hold your hand sometimes it doesn't feel like he's holding your hand and in those moments that's when you the word
[01:03:35] says to you i said i will never leave you or forsake you we don't always feel his presence or his hand but by faith in him and him alone we have the peace of god that passes all understanding
[01:03:55] let's all stand I want to leave you with this picture this uh you know two weeks ago it was summer and then we're freezing and then it was springtime for about three days and then the snow came to the mountains and it's just that time
[01:04:22] of the year it's always doing that here at this time of the year but I tell you what there were two you guys know what a red-tailed hawk looks like California red-tailed hawks are are larger they can be the female can be as large as a bald
[01:04:44] eagle they're huge when you see when you're gonna know it it's not a hot not not the little Hawks that you see around but the red-tailed hawk you'll think it's an eagle and so we have trees at our house and they like they like our
[01:05:05] trees so I walked out in the backyard I've never heard this but when when it's When it's springtime, they make this screeching sound that's quite awesome.
[01:05:17] I mean, you've heard it in all kinds of movies.
[01:05:19] They actually use that sound.
[01:05:20] Like when Kevin Costner's walking across the Yellowstone, you'll hear this screech.
[01:05:25] It's usually a, that's fake.
[01:05:27] They usually put in that soundtrack.
[01:05:30] An eagle doesn't even sound that awesome.
[01:05:32] But this one's going .
[01:05:36] And then the other one goes .
[01:05:38] I'm going, wow, that's amazing, what's going on?
[01:05:41] So I'm standing in the backyard, And it's obvious it's springtime.
[01:05:53] They're making little red-tailed hawks.
[01:05:57] Felt very privileged that that was happening in my yard, but it was awesome because as they flew away, they flew like this.
[01:06:11] Well, from an over-the-head view, they flew like this, and up, up.
[01:06:19] Maybe some of you have seen this.
[01:06:20] If not, be watching for it.
[01:06:22] They'll soar really high, And then they come screaming down together, locked in their talons with each other, screaming as they fall.
[01:06:35] And they're mating.
[01:06:36] See, the first part in our tree was, hey, I think you're cute.
[01:06:40] What's your number?
[01:06:42] You know, are you available?
[01:06:46] And at some point they got married.
[01:06:48] They said, God, this.
[01:06:51] And then they went up there and then they locked talons and fell screaming.
[01:06:59] as they were making little eagles or little hawks.
[01:07:06] And how many of you thought in life, man, I wish I could fly like that.
[01:07:09] I have dreams about flying.
[01:07:16] Saddest thing in the world is to see a bird that can soar, that walks on the ground, that it can't, it won't fly.
[01:07:24] Christian, whenever you pray and serve the Lord and call out to him and love on him, you're flying.
[01:07:32] When we don't, we're walking.
[01:07:35] we were designed for the heavens the more we represent his kingdom here the more hope we give people who come in contact with us father god you are awesome and all together lovely great are your works oh lord and worthy is your name who among all the gods of the earth are like
[01:08:02] you. For you alone are God. The heavens declare your glory and we praise you. We thank you that your word tells us that you sent us your only glorified son, that whosoever would believe on
[01:08:20] him would not perish, but have everlasting life. That if we would repent of our sins, bring you our sins, you would forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness and that you would impart to
[01:08:35] us eternal life. Hallelujah, Lord, we thank you and praise you. We pray it in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, amen. God bless you, church.