Genesis: Part 8

Genesis: Part 8

Genesis 12:1-3, 22:15-18

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

It's good to be with you. So glad that you're with us this morning. So excited about what God is doing here at Spring Valley Church and that it includes all of you. I also have to just continue to say that I'm very excited about Operation Christmas Child. Particularly for my daughter, Kinsley, to partake in packing a box. I remember when I did it when I was a kid and getting to write a note and just understanding that I'm sending this box across oceans and across to some other country to a kid I will never meet but to be able to connect in this special way. And so I'm excited for her to be able to do that and to help share that that person is going to open up that box, that kid is going to open up a box and get things which are also really, really fun. But to also hear the Word of God. They're going to get a gospel message when they receive that box and that is just as equally important if not more important. So it's amazing how something so simple can be a part of God's plan to reach the nations. We're just packing shoe boxes, which we all have a lot of shoe boxes. We just pack it full of stuff and we send it and something so simple God can use for His glory. And that's what God's all about, using ordinary people in ordinary moments. We have that on our wall in the everyday stuff of life. And from the very beginning of Scripture, I think that is the plan, that God wants to use ordinary people, nothing special necessarily about them, to partner with Him for His kingdom purposes.

Today I want us to look at just that, that God's plan for the nations, how from Genesis to Revelation His heart has always been for all people everywhere to know Him and experience His salvation. We're wrapping up our series in Genesis, which is focused on exploring patterns and introduced in Genesis that echo throughout the rest of the Bible. We've seen how humanity consistently chooses sin, chooses to compromise, chooses to corrupt what is good for their own selfish gain, thinking that they can live without God, and how these patterns reveal God's character in His work to redeem, restore and rescue His people. Just want to quickly recap, this has been eight weeks of Genesis, which is like the shortest series of Genesis you'll ever have because there's so much, there's 50 chapters. But week one we talked about God as Creator making order out of chaos, and we see Him do that over and over and over again in Scripture. We talked about Imago Dei being made in God's image with the purpose of reflecting that image to the rest of the world. We talked about humanity's rebellion, this pattern that humanity shows over and over again of rebelling against God, but God's constant response of grace. We've talked about God's promise of future redemption that He keeps over and over through Scripture. We'll see that He keeps pointing at future redemption, something great is to come. We've talked about God's call to people to live in covenant faithfulness, that throughout Scripture starting here in Genesis there is a call to live faithfully to God. We also talked about wrestling with God and the opportunity for inner transformation. We see it start here in Genesis, we see other characters in the Bible wrestle with God and how they're transformed to be more like Him afterwards. And then last week we talked about God's sovereignty in the midst of human suffering. We learned about God's ability and tendency to redeem difficult seasons for His purpose. We pray that you guys have been encouraged and blessed through this series, and really we're praying that your interaction with Scripture has new depth as you guys get to, when you dive in and you read, that you have new tools to see what God has put in here for us, that you have, you can see the threads in Scripture that run through the entire tapestry of God's truth. While there are so many more themes that we have not covered, we won't get to cover, we want to end our series with God's plan for the nations.

The idea here is this pattern that lifts our focus and eyes to heaven, a future reality that has already begun, which is to see people from all over the world worship God. I want to remind us that if you've read Genesis from beginning to end, and if you haven't yet I'll give you this spoiler, chapters 1 through 11 focus on God's interaction with all of humanity, the entire world, and then chapters 12 through 50, the story focuses in on one family. And a plan, it's the theme of God's plan woven throughout all of that, Genesis 1 through 11, 12 through 50, we talked about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and following this family that would become a nation. And woven through all of that is God's plan for the nations, a plan that reveals his love and compassion and desire for them to know and worship him. And even though it's just a story of a family, we still hear and we still see God working and having his heart for the nations. This family that turns into a nation is chosen to be a part of his work to reach the world. It's not that God's blessing is confined to one people, but rather he blesses his people to then go forward and bring other people to him so that they can be blessed too. And so we see this heart of God for the nations develop in Genesis, it continues in Exodus and Deuteronomy when he's giving instructions of how Israel is supposed to be a nation. We see it in a time of kings where God desires that people come to his temple to worship him as foreigners and not Israelites. We see it in the prophets as they mourn Israel's failure to be a light to the world, but how they're pointing forward to the light coming into the world. And we definitely see it most clearly from Jesus as his words, which we all know, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son." And that pattern in the Bible ends with a vision. We go all the way to the end in Revelation and we see a plan come to fruition where people from every tribe, nation, and tongue are praising God. So God's plan for the nations is a clear value of his kingdom. We know his heart is for all people and we see that pattern develop right here in Genesis at the very beginning of Scripture.

So if you guys have your Bibles, you can turn with me to Genesis 12. It'll be up on the screen as well. We have two passages this morning. First is Genesis 12, 1 through 3, which we've covered before in this series. This is when God is calling Abraham. This is that shift from Genesis 1 to 11 in all of humanity. Now chapter 12, it focuses in on one family and God is calling Abraham. So if you guys want to read along, it says, "The Lord had said to Abram, 'Go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you, and I will make your name great and you will be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse.'" And here's the important part for today, "And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." He promises Abraham three things, right? God will make Abraham into a great nation. God will make Abraham's name great, promises of renown and reputation, but also of material blessing. He's going to be a wealthy guy. And number three, God will bless all people through Abraham. It's in verse three that we see this, God's heart for the nations. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Abraham's blessing will be a blessing to all families. It speaks to the hope that God's kingdom will be universal one day, that one day the corruption that sin brings will cease to exist. All brought about through the nation and people of Israel throughout the Old Testament and then ultimately through Jesus in the New Testament. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you. So our theme has begun. This is the start of that thread and you can trace this thread all throughout the Bible.

Let's flip over to Genesis 22, verses 15. This is after Abraham has been tested. He's been found faithful and obedient in the eyes of God, being willing to obey God even to the point of sacrificing his son. Obviously as we know he didn't have to sacrifice his son. God intervenes and provides a ram. But because Abraham showed that he was faithful, God reiterates his blessing. So in verse 15 it says, "The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, 'I swear by myself,' declares the Lord, 'that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring," here we go, "all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me." Again, we see those three promises. God will make Abraham a father of many. God will give Abraham a land. These people will have a land. And God will bless all nations through Abraham's descendants. If you were to keep reading in Genesis after this, check out what God does. He promises these things in Genesis 22 and chapter 23, Abraham rightfully comes to own a part of the promised land. So you get some of that land. Chapter 24, Isaac, his son, finds a wife so the next generation is promised and secured. And then chapter 25 is Abraham's death. And while Isaac, his son, receives the full inheritance, Abraham is shown giving gifts to his other sons, which will become other nations in the world. And so it's a way of foreshadowing the greater blessing that will eventually come from Abraham's line blessing the entire world. So we see God's promise begin to take shape. Some of it is happening, but much more of it is to come. But it's that verse 18 that again we see God's heart, "through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me." So from these two passages, let's just name what we see.

First we see that God's plan for the nations is that they will be blessed by God's people. Israel is meant to be a vessel of God's covenant blessing to all the nations. And even through God's chooses to work through a specific people for a time in the Old Testament, his heart is that people from all nations would come to worship him. So God's plan for the nations is that they will be blessed by God's people. It's not that the rest of the world couldn't be blessed by God's, that they were meant to be experienced that through blessing through Israel's testimony. Secondly, we see that God's plan for the nations points us to Jesus. Ultimately we know that Israel struggles with this role that they are supposed to carry out. There's supposed to be a witness, there's supposed to be a testimony to God, but more often than not they're seduced by other nations and false gods, and they keep falling away from God, they rebel against God. And so it points us to Jesus, who is God and shares even more explicitly and lives out this plan to reach the nations. Jesus invites and commissions the 12 disciples and all those who follow him, including you and I today, to partner with him in spreading the gospel to all ends of the earth. We are invited to be a part of God's plan for reaching the nations.

Now today we hear, if I were to say we were reaching the nations for God, you probably think of modern day missions, which is good, that's what's happening, that's what missions is all about. And it also makes sense that our minds will be drawn to the words of Jesus in Matthew 28 in the Great Commission, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." But today I want us, just to connect some dots, I don't want us to believe that missions and God's heart for missions started at the Great Commission. God's heart for the world started all the way back in Genesis. And so I just want to take a moment, this is going to be rapid fire Bible nerd trivia right here, we're just going to go through all of scripture and name moments where we see God's heart for the nations. You guys okay with that, if I do that really quick? All right, good. I heard no yeses, but I'm going to do it anyways. God repeats this blessing through, so right in Genesis we see Abraham, we see the start of this thread, we'll write after to his son Isaac, God repeats that blessing and says again, "Through you I'm going to bless the entire world." He says it's to Jacob, Isaac's son, so we're getting it generation after generation, God is reinforcing, "Through you, through your people, I'm going to bless the entire world." Well then we get to Exodus and Deuteronomy and in those books of the Bible, God is really forming the nation of Israel. They've become a huge people and he's giving them governance, he's giving them structure, and in that structure of how to be a people, he tells them, "I have a heart for the world and you are going to be my mediator of my love to the rest of the world." He calls them a holy priesthood and the role of priests is to represent God to people. In Deuteronomy, it emphasizes Israel's obedience to God is meant to be a testimony to other nations as other people, as other nations see Israel living righteously according to God's way, that'll be a testimony to that God that they worship. In Deuteronomy 10, we also see that God commands Israel as a nation to take care of foreigners. It's a very practical way of saying, "Hey, I love the people that are outside of Israel." Later in the established kingdom in 1 Kings, we have a moment where this is when Israel is on the top of the world. They're wealthy, they have a solid king, and they're just powerful and fruitful, and it's the wisdom of the rulers and their status as a nation that drew people in. They say, "What is going on with that nation over there? They are succeeding. They are just doing so good, and they worship this God who's clearly blessing them. We got to know more about that." It draws people in. They come to Israel. They travel from across the world to see Israel and say, "How is this happening? How are you guys so amazing? Tell us about the God that you serve." Again, we see God's heart for the nations coming forward in that moment. We also know that Israel falls away. That time of being a kingdom that is on top of the world is so short, and then the kingdom splits, and it just goes downhill from there, and Israel goes into captivity. We come to the time of the prophets, and the prophets talk a lot about Israel's role of being a light to the rest of the world and God's heart for the nations. In Jeremiah, it describes restoration of the covenant blessing through Abraham, that the nations will come to know God, and that nations outside of Israel can be a part of God's family if they live and submit to Yahweh. There's open invitation of Israel. Other nations can come to know God. You were supposed to help them do that, but that's still going to happen. God still has a plan for them. In Ezekiel, it shows how God interacts with Israel. It helps other nations better learn who Yahweh is. Isaiah has a lot to say. 56, 42, 49, all these chapters talk about how foreigners who come to faith have a place in God's family. And again, Israel is meant to be a light to the world, not just a light that shines in the darkness for the sake of shining light into the darkness, but to bring people in the darkness into the light.

There is a purpose behind it. God wants his salvation to reach the ends of the earth. Micah 4 talks about a future vision where people from all over are coming to God to say, "How do we live like you? How do we live in this way of righteousness that you talk about?" Let me also have the wisdom literature, the wisdom portion of Scripture. In Psalm, it also talks about God's heart for the nations. Psalm 67 says, "May God bless us still so that all the ends of the earth will fear him." God blesses his people so that all nations on earth will recognize his power. And Psalm 72 talks about all nations will be blessed through God, and they will call him blessed. Clearly we see that throughout the Old Testament, God is putting before the people the priority that he has for the nations. It's a value to him, and he wanted them to embody it and live it out. But like we said, they struggle with it, and it points us to Jesus, who in the New Testament continues to communicate the heart of God. I already mentioned John 3.16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." Jesus talks about it in his teachings. Matthew 5 talks about being salt and light to the world. John 4, verses 7 through 42 talk about salvation being offered beyond Israel. We see Jesus live that out when he talks to the Samaritan woman, when he mentions these other nations that are going to be a part of his kingdom. Acts 1 talks about being a witness to the ends of the earth empowered by the Holy Spirit. Then like I mentioned, Revelation 7, 9 through 10 is the culmination of God's plan in heaven. This is the vision that John has about the future. And he says, "And there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. And they cried out in a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.’"

God's plan for the nations shows us that God intends to rescue and restore and redeem the lost all around the world. He's a loving, generous, gracious God, and his heart and plan for the nations started all the way at the beginning here in Genesis. Seen throughout the Old Testament, it's expounded upon in the New Testament, and it's a plan that is still in place today. God's plan for the nations is a plan that we have been invited, you and I in this room, have been invited to partake in. There's an invitation to you saying, "Hey, will you help me out with my plan to reach the world?" As Christians, as the big C church all over the world, we are called to reach people. For a few, that means picking up everything we have and going across the world and living there and spreading the gospel in a different place. I say for a few because that is a very specific calling that not many of us have. For most, that means right where you are in the everyday stuff of life to share Jesus with those that he has placed in your life. Pastor Chris framed this in our yearly celebrations just over a month ago when he shared his vision for our church as the 167. It's kind of our theme for this next year. There are 168 hours in the week. You spend about one hour of that week here at Spring Valley Church. So what are you going to do with the rest of your hours for Jesus? How are you going to worship him, partner with him in the 167 hours outside the church?

So my question today is with your 167 hours outside the church, how will you participate in God's mission to bring his blessing of salvation to the nations? How will you participate in God's mission to bring his blessing of salvation to the nations? Some of you may feel the Spirit's prompting to get involved with what he's doing around the world. A small way of doing that is Operation Christmas Child. That's a global thing that's happening. And if you're like, "Hey, I want to partner," that's a great way to do it. We have desires to grow our missions and our outreach here at Spring Valley, but this year, Operation Christmas Child. For others, your participation in God's mission to bring his salvation to the nations starts right where you are. We see it as our responsibility as partners with God to reach people here in Rockland, Roseville, Placer County, wherever you are. And you may be asking yourself, "But Andre, that's not the nations. That's not the nations. That's not the world." Well, let me say this. In the context of the world and world religions, I know that America is considered a Christian nation, but that doesn't mean that we check it off the box and say, "Complete, this nation does not need to be reached. We're good. Let's focus on other nations." No, we need to spread the gospel right here in America. They need to hear God's truth. They need to see it lived out. We have a responsibility to bring the gospel to the people around us. That's our job. So when you're asked, "How will you participate in God's mission to bring his salvation to the nations?" We can think of our neighbors. We can think of the families that we interact with at schools, our co-workers, our own family members, all those people, what God is talking about. God's plans for the nation is clearly a priority in scripture, and it should be a priority for us. I want to give a warning.

Let's not make the same mistake that Israel did, being consumed in our own desires and passions, getting distracted by all the things that are around us in this world, getting distracted or seduced by the world around us, and ultimately we turn away from God. We shirk our responsibilities. We say, "God, I've got a lot going on. I don't have time to do this thing that I know I want to partner with. I know I wanted to, but I just don't have any time." Israel failed in this. They had the invitation. They did it for a while. They did it for some time, but they always failed, and we don't want to be like that. We want to keep this at the forefront of our minds. My job, my utmost priority, is to partner with God, and how do I bring the gospel to the people around me? We want to be a conduit to show people Jesus through the way we live, both in our actions and in our inactions. Sometimes when we don't do anything, that speaks to the God that we serve. Same with our words. Sometimes it's what we say, and sometimes it's when we don't say anything. Through our love and compassion, kindness, when we have peace in the midst of chaos, when we trust God, when the rest of the world is living anxiously, all of that is a testimony to the God that we serve. May we point people to Jesus that we can be a witness for Him. So just one more time, how in this week can you be intentional going forward to partner with God and His plan to reach the world with His good news of salvation? Is there someone in your life that God's putting on your heart to share to have a conversation with? Is there someone at work that you know that when they talk and they get all angry and they get all frustrated, maybe you're supposed to respond not in kind, but in another way that shows God's love? Are you supposed to have an act of service, give a neighbor or someone a meal or do something out of kindness that can show that they are loved by God? We're going to be praying this week together as a church that we would feel the urgency, the priority that it needs to have in our lives to share the love of God with the people around us.

Let's go ahead and pray for that right now, if you guys could bow your heads. God thank you for your word and for this pattern that we see in scripture that you have a heart for everyone in this world, that you love them and that you want them to come into a relationship with you. And God I pray that we would feel as believers and followers of you, we would feel the responsibility that we have to partner with you and to do the work of your kingdom. So God I pray that as we live our lives day to day in the week that we would feel encouraged, we feel empowered, that you would give us the words to say or sometimes God that you would give us the restraints to not say anything, but in all that we do God may we be a conduit to show people the love of God. Help us God, give us what we need, meet us where we're at, may we depend on you for everything and I pray that you would use us greatly for your kingdom. We pray this in your name, Amen.

Genesis: Part 7

Genesis: Part 7

Genesis 50:15-21

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Happy to be with you guys today. We are in our Genesis series and we are walking through the different patterns or themes that we see throughout scripture but were originally found in Genesis. And it really just helps us to get a broader picture, a more cohesive picture of scripture, how things are repeated, how things happen over and over again as a way for us to see how the story of the Bible is just woven together really beautifully. So we are actually going to be talking today about God's sovereignty in suffering. And I think this is a big one for a lot of us, this is a hard one to wrestle with, but we all, I think at some point, have or will wrestle with this idea of suffering. And if we believe, we question a lot of times that, well if we believe in a God who is sovereign, and we do, then why does He allow suffering? Why does He allow us to suffer? Now first of all, caveat here, this is not the suffering Olympics. We are not trying to compete with who suffers more or who's experienced what suffering because the reality is we all have suffered in some shape or form. We have, even if we've suffered similar things or gone through similar situations, we're all individual and unique people and so we handle those things differently. We deal with them. The Lord processes things with us in different ways. And so it's not about comparing or competing. And the reality is there are people who have suffered more than we have or less than we have. But that is not what we're talking about today. And also as a second caveat, this is not about lessening our suffering. We want to talk about why we suffer today, but I never want that to be a reason for our us to lessen the fact that we do suffer. We're still acknowledging that. This isn't some sort of toxic positivity sermon that we're talking about here. It's acknowledging that we really do suffer. Bad things really do happen. But we're going to get into why we suffer and how God is with us in that.

So we are actually going to be in Genesis 50 today. We're going to be talking about the story of Joseph and we actually meet Joseph in Genesis 37, but we're going to pick up in chapter 50. So if you want to go ahead and turn there, it'll be on the screens, but if you have your Bible or your phone, you can turn to Genesis chapter 50. I'm going to give us a little backstory though on Joseph. So for those that don't know or need a little refresher, Joseph was the 11th of 12 sons of Jacob. You all met Jacob last week when Pastor Andre talked about him and how he wrestled with God and God changed his name from Jacob to Israel. So Joseph was his 11th son and he was his favorite son. So Jacob had multiple wives and Joseph was the oldest son of his favorite wife. So Joseph became his favorite. And in fact, he gave him a coat of many colors and this was a huge gift. It was an expensive gift. It was a, a obviously extravagant gift in that time. And his brothers were not happy about it. Joseph also had dreams. God gave him dreams that revealed that his family, his siblings and his parents would bow down to him. And he freely shared those dreams with his family and they were not big fans of that. And so his brothers became so angry that they wanted to kill him. They actually grabbed him and threw him in a pit and made plans to kill him. When one brother tried to save him by suggesting they don't kill him and they just sell him into slavery instead. Like that's somehow better. But they ended up going with that plan. They sold him to some travelers and told their father, Jacob, that he was killed by a wild animal. So he was led, their father was led to believe that he had died and he was very distraught by this. But Joseph was now a slave. He was headed to Egypt. He was away from his family, his culture, his traditions, his, his religion, his belief in God. He was away from everything. And that was just the beginning of his suffering. He became an employee in an Egyptian official's home and was doing quite well actually until the official's wife tempted him. And he, because he feared God, denied her and she got angry and accused him of the very thing she was tempting him of doing. And so he was put into prison where he continued to experience suffering. He was there for many years and he actually interpreted some dreams of some fellow prisoners. Those interpretations ended up becoming true. So again, several years later, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt had some dreams that he wanted interpreted. And Joseph was brought from prison to interpret those dreams. And Pharaoh was so impressed with him that he made him number two in all of Egypt. The dream was regarding seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine. And so Pharaoh put him in charge of taking care of the crops and gathering in excess so that they would survive when the famine came. And he did that. He became extremely powerful, saved Egypt and the surrounding nations from this famine. So much to the point that his brothers in the nearby nation had to come to Egypt to request food. Now, they didn't recognize Joseph at the time. He has been 13 years and he looked different. He sounded Egyptian. He looked Egyptian and he was much older now, but he knew them. He ended up testing them a little bit, see where their hearts were. He was able to convince them to bring their father, Jacob and his younger brother to Egypt as well so that he could see them after several years of being separated. And eventually he revealed who he was. And he did though, his brothers were terrified because not only did he know what they did, but now he was in a position of authority that he could punish or even kill them for what they did. But in a wild turn of events, Joseph forgave them and he moved his family to Egypt and was able to be reunited with them. And then eventually his father, Jacob died.

And that is where we are picking up in chapter 50. That was just the real quick Reader's Digest version for you, but we're gonna pick up in chapter 50 verse 15. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?" So they sent word to Joseph saying, "Your father left these instructions before he died. This is what you are to say to Joseph. I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father." When their message came to him, Joseph wept. His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are your slaves," they said. But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children," and he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. So his brothers doubled down by lying, but that's a whole other sermon. We're not going to go into that today. But despite that, despite all that they did to him and then trying to deceive him once again, Joseph forgave them and he wanted them to see God's sovereignty in it all. That God was in control and that Joseph, along with God, forgave them for what they did. The reality is that Joseph suffered a lot. It was 13 years from the time he was sold into slavery to the time he was risen up in his official position in Egypt. 13 years, most of which was caused because of his brother's sin. And yet he forgave them. And he gave God glory for what happened to him and how God used that. That's a powerful testimony of allowing God to use your suffering.

Let's look at verse 21 again. So then don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. I have trouble speaking kindly when my feelings are hurt, let alone when I'm sold into slavery. Right? Like that's crazy to me. He reassured them. He cared for them. He said he would provide for them. That is only done by the grace of God. By the grace that Joseph experienced from God that he was then able to extend to his brothers. I think many of us, we don't think that we should suffer because we don't have a right view of our humanity, of our sinfulness. We think, why should we suffer? If we follow Jesus, if we're good people, why do we suffer? And it's because our view of who we actually are is skewed. We have to have a right view of ourselves and of God in order to have a good theology of suffering. Western theologian R.C. Sprout Jr. says, he addresses the question, why do bad things happen to good people? He says that only happened to one person and he volunteered. There is only one good person. The Bible says that there is no one righteous, not even one, only Jesus Christ. So as good as we think we are, as maybe society would tell us, maybe culturally speaking, we're a good person, we're nothing compared to Jesus. It was only by his grace. He volunteered to suffer for us and he was the only one who didn't deserve to suffer. Even as Christ's followers, Jesus promised that we would suffer. John 16:33 says, I have told you these things so that in me, you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. We are guaranteed suffering, but the beautiful thing is we are also promised that we will never be alone. He says he will never leave us or forsake us. So while we will have to walk through some fires, we won't walk through them alone. Jesus walks through it with us. More often than not, we aren't delivered out of suffering. We're not just pulled out of it and spared it. More often we are delivered through it. We still have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death sometimes, but he is with us. Isaiah 43:2-3 says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze for I am the Lord your God, the Holy one of Israel, your Savior.” We will all suffer, but we will never suffer alone. Even when we feel alone, he is with us. He walks through that with us. I want to look today at why we suffer. We see people throughout scripture who loved God and suffered. They served him. They were submitted to him. They were quote unquote good people, and yet they still experienced suffering.

So I want to look at why that is and how God in his sovereignty can use our suffering. So as we look at each reason, we're also going to look at a person from the Bible who exemplifies that as well. So why do we suffer? Well, for the first one, I believe is that it's for our sanctification. Sanctification is a word that it's kind of a Christian word that means becoming more like Jesus. We are being made more into his image. We are being sanctified or made holy. Our suffering produces holiness in our lives, and it sanctifies us as we navigate through that suffering. James 1:2-4 says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." We must experience suffering in order to persevere in our faith, and then we become more mature believers. Suffering and walking through that deepens our faith, and it makes us more mature followers of Christ. You will not meet a mature believer who has not experienced suffering. Romans 5, it's talking about being justified through our faith, but in verse 3, it says, "Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, character, and character hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." The suffering, it produces perseverance in our faith, and that perseverance produces character, and we have to have the character of Christ.

As we experience the suffering and we build up perseverance in our faith, and our faith deepens, we look more like Jesus. He suffered. If Jesus suffered, why do we think we shouldn't? It makes us more like Him. I think of the story of Job. I think Job is often referred to when we're talking about suffering, because he suffered greatly. He was a righteous man, even at the beginning of his story. He loved God, he was a righteous man, but he was wealthy, he had a family, he was well off, and he lost everything. His children, his wealth, his health, everything. But he never cursed God. Even when his friends and family told him he could or should, he never cursed God, despite being broken and made into nothing. He allowed his suffering to deepen his faith, and we see in Job 42, towards the end of his story, verse 2 says, "I know that you can do all things. No purpose of yours can be thwarted." Even in his suffering, he acknowledged God's sovereignty. He knew that God was in control, that he was still good, and that his purpose and his plan was the best option for him. Later we see in the same chapter that Job was restored. He got back his wealth into good standing, he had more children, and the Lord, it says, "The Lord blessed Job in the latter part of his life greater than in the former." His faith grew, his dependence on God deepened, he became more sanctified through his suffering. That character that only comes through suffering and perseverance was developed in him.

Another reason that we experience suffering is for the spread of the gospel. Revelation 12:11 says, "They triumphed over him, him being Satan, by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony." We triumph over our enemy, over our accuser, by the blood of Jesus and by our testimony. When we experience suffering, our faith is deepened and then we can go testify, we can tell our story of our suffering and God's goodness in that suffering and point people to Jesus. That we then endure this suffering by our own power and strength, it was only by God's goodness that he brought us through. Stephen is the one that comes to mind from the book of Acts. He was a follower of Jesus, a disciple, he preached the way of Jesus unashamedly and he became what the church recognizes as the first martyr, the first one to die for his faith. And his testimony and ultimately his death, which is the ultimate sacrifice and the ultimate form of suffering, spread the gospel far and wide because immediately after Stephen's death, the persecution of the early church became rampant and the disciples and the followers in the early church had to disperse. But Acts 8:4 says, "Those who had been scattered, preached the word wherever they went." The gospel spread out of suffering, out of persecution, out of the martyrdom. So not only was Stephen himself sharing the gospel and his testimony and death spread the gospel, but so did the other disciples who were persecuted and experienced suffering in their own lives. I understand that that is an extreme example of martyrdom, but God's sovereignty is on display and the same is true in our own lives. That when we experience suffering, we can point people to Jesus. It allows us to tell our story, to share our testimony of who God is so that more people can come into his kingdom. Without that persecution and suffering, I wonder how far or fast the gospel would have spread. But because they endured, because they persevered, the gospel spread quickly. Hearts were changed and more people turned to God. Our story, our testimony of our suffering, hopefully will turn others hearts to Jesus.

Lastly, I think we experienced suffering for the benefit of others. This is closely related to the spread of the gospel, but it's different in the sense that it's not only for their salvation, it's also for their edification, for building them up. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” As the body of Christ, we share in each other's sufferings. We carry each other's burdens. We take them to Jesus and put them at the foot of the cross through prayer and interceding for each other. We bring comfort to those who are suffering because we too have suffered. How many times has someone encouraged you in your time of need or your trouble and your suffering because they've experienced something similarly? Or maybe when was the last time you were able to do that for somebody else? That you could be there for them because of what you have experienced? I believe that in God's sovereignty, He uses our suffering for the benefit of others, to support and build each other up. Edification to edify the body, to build up the church. He uses our suffering for the good and the benefit of others. There's a pastor friend in our network of churches who lost his young life to cancer in May, and he recently wrote on his blog, "God is not wasting this pain. He is repurposing it to help others find joy, to give comfort, and to remind us that faith is not just for the mountain top, it is for the valley too." He's using his pain, he's allowing God to use his experience and his suffering to bring comfort and encouragement and faith to his congregation. He could quit. He could say, "I'm done." He could wallow in his suffering, and there's time for grief and mourning to be sure, but he also knows that God is bigger than an all, and he wants God to use that suffering to encourage and build up the body of Christ.

We mentioned earlier that Jesus walks with us through the fire, and the image that I like to have is that because of God's sovereignty, as we walk out of the fire, he allows us to carry buckets of water to take to other people who are walking through the fire themselves. We get to carry hope and encouragement and the gospel to other people who are experiencing suffering too. This reminds me of the apostle Paul. He did spread the gospel to be sure, so he could have been on the last point as well, but he experienced so much suffering during his ministry. He was shipwrecked, imprisoned, beaten, bitten by a snake. So many things that he dealt with and suffered through, but he turned so many people to Jesus. He wrote most of the New Testament. We are benefiting from him to this day and from the suffering that he endured. Philippians 1:7, which he wrote, says, "It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart, and whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me." Because he endured the change, because he went and defended the gospel to people who hated him for it, we all are experiencing God's grace and see that in our lives. 2 Thessalonians 1:4, again, Paul's words says, "Therefore, among God's churches, we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring." He was trying to encourage the believers at the church of Thessalonica because he knew what he had written that we read earlier in Romans, that their perseverance through the persecution would develop their faith and perseverance and character. He knew that that was true. And so he wanted to encourage them and build them up and say, "Y'all, I've been there. I've been persecuted too. I know what it's like, but God is good. He is sovereign and he will use it for your good and his glory.”

Paul wrote in Romans as well, Romans chapter 8, "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." We know that in all things, how many things? All of them, not some of them. In all things, God works for the good of those who love him. We don't always get to see the good that comes from our suffering. We don't always get to see how the Lord uses it, but he does and he promises that he will. There's several other instances in the Bible where we see suffering and God's sovereignty. Just a few that come to mind are the woman in Mark 5 who suffered the affliction of blood and Jesus healed her. She touched the hem of his robe and he healed her. And he could have just kept on walking and nobody would have known except her, but he stopped. And not only did he acknowledge her faith, but he allowed everyone else to know that she was healed as well. And so her suffering that she endured for 12 years and her ultimate healing was able to build up the other followers of Jesus, to encourage them, to point people to him and say, "That is the one, he is the Messiah." King David, he suffered a lot, usually at the hands of friends or family, but he endured a lot and he made his own mistakes to be sure, but he suffered a lot. But God acknowledged him and credited his faith to him and said that he was a man after God's own heart. Despite all the trouble and drama and suffering that he endured, he still worshiped God and gave him glory. Pretty much every prophet in the Old Testament experienced suffering on some level. And often it was because they were experiencing suffering along with the nation of Israel that came on them because of their own sin. So much of their suffering wasn't even their own fault. They were experiencing suffering, but God used that in a mighty way and he was able to use them to speak truth to the nation and draw the nation of Israel back to himself. We see this pattern over and over and over again. As I said, we don't always know why we suffer or the good that we're promised will come from it.

I think a lot of us, if we can manage, we'll have a lot of questions for God when we get there. We want to know why. We may not care once we get to heaven, but right now we want to know why. But as we've seen through these examples and through Joseph, his experience and his suffering, that while we will experience suffering, we can trust that God is good and he is sovereign through it all. Even the story of Joseph, I think exemplifies these three things really well. He grew in his sanctification over those 13 years from a cocky teenager to a man full of grace and forgiveness. Although the gospel didn't exist yet, the gospel of Jesus, because Jesus hadn't come to earth, but he still was pointing people to God and his redemption and his forgiveness. His obedience and his suffering allowed for the nation of Israel to grow, which led ultimately to God's redemption plan. And thirdly, his suffering led to the benefit of others. He literally saved millions of lives, both in Egypt and in surrounding nations and specifically his own family. It said he was going to care for them and provide for them. Friends, God wastes nothing, even our suffering. He will not waste anything and he is good, not only despite our suffering, but because of it. I know that it's hard to reconcile a good God with the suffering that we see or experience in this life. I know it is. I struggle with it myself, but we see over and over again how God uses our suffering to grow his kingdom, to make us more like Jesus, to spread the gospel around the world. And just to benefit and build up his body, the church.

So I want to leave us with this question. How has God used suffering in the past to sanctify you, spread the gospel and or benefit others? When we identify this answer and we can point to that, I believe it will help us in future suffering because we will remember that he was faithful. He was in control. He was sovereign. And again, we may not always see the good that comes from it, but when was a time that you did so that you can remember that God is still sovereign, he still provides comfort. He still walks with us through the dark, through the fire. So you can draw from that when you are experiencing any future suffering. We serve a good father who has good for us. And despite all the suffering and all the pain, both in our own lives and in the world, our King reigns. He is still on the throne. He is not surprised. And if nothing else, we can celebrate and find comfort in that truth today.

Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for your goodness, for your sovereignty. That while we will have troubles, we can have peace that comes from you. We can take heart because we know the end of the story. We know that you win. But even right here and right now, in our heart right now, there are still growth. There is sanctification. There's good. Use our heart. Use our suffering. Use our struggles, Lord, to bring glory to yourself and bring good to us and those around us. We thank you for your sovereignty in all of this. And when we cannot reconcile your good with the ugliness of the world, God, bring us comfort. Bring us your peace. We love you and praise you in your name. Amen.

Genesis: Part 6

Genesis: Part 6

Genesis 32:22-32

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are continuing today in our Genesis series. I am loving this series. I hope it's been a blessing and encouragement to you. We are in our series looking at different patterns and themes that are repeated throughout Scripture that find their start here in Genesis. So far we've looked at the power of God's words, bringing order out of chaos. We've looked at Amago Dei and being called to reflect God and His character in the world today. We've looked at the fall and sin entering the world and a human tendency to rebel against God. Last week, Pastor Chris spoke about the pattern of faithfulness in the Bible and God's faithfulness to His people and the call on our lives to be faithful to Him. And remember in Genesis, the first 11 chapters of Genesis kind of follow the world story of what God is doing through the whole world. And then in chapter 12 where Pastor Chris preached last week, we hone in on one family and he calls Abraham. And Abraham is the start of God's blessing over a certain family that will become a nation. And we follow then through the rest of Genesis, his descendants. And so Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob and Esau. And that's what we're going to pause today in our family tree and in Genesis, we're going to look at the life of Jacob.

We've noted in our series so far the theme of the snake. And if you've been with us since the garden message, the very first one, we know that in the garden, there was a snake who tempted Adam and Eve and to rebel against God. And so we kind of, if you study Genesis, you can kind of keep in mind like the theme of the snake, the one who is going to tempt someone or the one who is tempted to rebel against God. And we've had this theme of the snake, even people who are good people that I know that we often think of the heroes of the Bible. We think of these amazing men like Pastor Chris just talked about Abraham being the hero of faith in the Old Testament, living by faith. But he still had snake-like tendencies and had some poor moments where he chose to rebel against God. And so there are moments that everyone, even the heroes, take a moment to, they struggle, they are challenged and they choose sin over God's wisdom and they bring about consequences that they have to live with. The main characters of the Bible, especially here in Genesis, are really struggling. We see so clearly the moments of choosing between sin, selfishness and pride where they don't care who they hurt or step on. And that's what we're calling in our Genesis series the snake-like behavior, someone who is out there to rebel against God and hurt and bring pain and selfishness. So we're coming to Jacob in our series and Jacob, of all the characters so far, is going to be the worst. It's going to be the worst. I want to let you know now, if you love Jacob, that's okay, but he had a really rough start.

Bible projects, if you've heard of Bible projects, they have some great videos and podcasts about this and I encourage you to listen to them, but they say, "Jacob's story is painful, but it shows how stubborn, selfish and nearsighted humans can be." Dr. Tim Mackey says, "Jacob consistently acts more like the snake from the Garden of Eden than the righteous, chosen one from God. He lies his way into blessing that God had intended for him all along." If you're thinking of like, "But I think Jacob is, from what I remember of Jacob, it's all good." Well, let me give you a little recap of Jacob's life so far. It's not just when he's older that he struggles with this, it's from birth that he is kind of a tricky guy. So even before he is born, God comes to Rebekah, his mom, and says that the second-- so Rebekah is his mom and has twins in her womb and God says to her, "The second is the one that I'm going to choose. The second one that comes out will be the one that I give blessing to." Which that's a whole other pattern in Scripture that we won't get into today, but you'll see that repeat over and over again. And so God chooses Jacob. Jacob comes out and he's said that he's holding on to the heel of Esau. Esau comes out first and Jacob is right there, right after him. And so his name translates in Hebrew to "heel-grabber," which kind of means trickster. He's a little trickster. And it suits him because from the very beginning, Jacob is trying to usurp his brother. When they grow up a little bit older, Jacob has multiple attempts to take the blessing that is given to the firstborn, Esau, and he wants to give it. Even though God has already promised that I'm going to choose the second, Jacob's like, "I'm going to get it my way.”

So in Genesis 25, you don't have to turn there. I'll just summarize. Jacob buys Esau's birthright with a bowl of stew. It's a whole funny story that you should go read. But he takes advantage of a situation where Esau is very hungry. And I don't know if you've been to the point of hunger that you would do anything for food, but Esau is at that point. And Jacob says, he doesn't just feed his brother out of love, like, "Oh, you're so hungry." He's like, "Well, what can I get out of this situation right now?" And he gives, and there's a whole situation, a whole conversation, and Esau surrenders his right to the blessing to Jacob. So in Jacob's mind, step one of getting the promise that he wants, getting the blessing he wants, I got it from Esau. Step two would be to confirm that with Dad. I've got to confirm that with Isaac. I've got to get that blessing. And then in Genesis 27, Jacob does just that. He schemes with his mom, Rebekah, who really, she's the mastermind. And Rebekah, it's not a great story for her. In fact, after she does this and in a way rebels against God and tricks Isaac, she is never heard again in the Bible. Her name is not mentioned. Not good. But he has now deceived Esau, and he deceives Isaac. And Isaac, he dresses, it's the story of like getting all the hair, and Isaac blesses him, thinking that it's Esau. And so he has willed his way into receiving blessing, again, that God was already going to give him. Well, because of this, and Esau gets really mad at this, Jacob then is exiled. He exiles himself for 20 years, and he leaves his family. And he comes to work for a guy named Laban. Laban and Jacob take turns deceiving each other. In other words, they're kind of being snakes to each other. They trick each other, and it happens over and over again. But all this, and it's at this time that Jacob marries Rachel and Leah. And at the end of his 20 years, he has a family. He's got four wives, 12 children, many sheep, which is the world's way of back then measuring wealth. So he's very wealthy. And all this we can see is evidence of God's blessing. God has given him a family. He's given him wealth. Despite the chaos that Jacob has caused, God is still blessing him.

One of the most odd stories in the Bible, I think, of a man wrestling with God. And let's just dive in. I love this. So this theme here is building from the situation we got earlier in the garden. Who will humanity follow? Adam and Eve had this. We've seen Abraham face this. All of humanity is facing this decision. Who will I follow? Will I choose my own wisdom, humanity's wisdom, in their own way? Or will I choose God's way, in the way of righteousness and true wisdom? Will they submit to God or go their own direction? And this pattern here is leading to a new pattern, which is wrestling with God, to trust God, to be transformed by God, which ends in submitting to God. We start by seeing, and this is much of the background, that Jacob does not trust God. The control that Jacob must have over his life, the desire to know how everything is going to go. And if he doesn't know, he's going to figure it out. So he's going through the situation with Esau, and he's like, "I don't know how this is going to go, but I will figure this out. I'm going to determine. I'm going to create the ending here. I will make sure that I come out on top." He's going to make it happen for himself, with his own power and with his own wisdom. I like the way that Dr. Mackey says, he says, "ironically, the blessing that Jacob steals is one God destined for him all along. Jacob is either unaware of what God said about him, or he just can't believe it. So he spends his energy trying to scheme and seize the very things God has promised him. He does not trust God." We see in the life of Jacob that his motivation is sometimes selfish, sometimes it's out of fear, but whatever the motivation, it always equates. It comes back to this heart that just does not trust God. And that lack of trust has done so much damage in the life of Jacob. It's so seeds of discord in his family. It's brought anguish to his parents and to his brother and division between him and other people. Again, Jacob is the best picture of a snake that we have outside the garden so far in our Genesis story, and he just has this deep-seated distrust with God.

We also see though, that he is reshaped after wrestling with God. Jacob's MO is to wrestle with people until he gets his way, figuratively or in real life with Esau. He is going to make sure that he ends up on top. He wrestled with Esau to get his birthright and paternal blessing, and now Jacob is wrestling with God in order to gain God's blessing. But after wrestling with God, he never walks the same again. To be candid, I want to say this, in the Hebrew, in the English, we get this very nice, "When the man saw that you could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched." So we get this very like, "Oh, this man, I don't know if you've ever wrestled. I was not a wrestler, but I've seen some wrestling, and it is very like, you know, those guys, they're pretzels. They're just all over each other, trying to twist each other, to tap out." And we think of it maybe as like, God just touched the hip, like this hand just like, boop, and everything happened. In the Hebrew, this may change your... In the Hebrew, it means that he punched him so hard in the groin. That's the real Hebrew picture right there, that God... Now, is this a cheap shot by God? No. This is... It's symbolic. I want to... This is a symbolic moment. I want to unpack just this for a second. In the Hebrew, if you were to read this, you would hear this as like, "All right, so the angel punched him in the groin." And why in the groin? Well, it's symbolic, because that's the physical area that Jacob was able to make his own blessing. He was making his own blessing, making descendants, having the wealth and large family. By doing... He was... Again, here's God's way, here's Jacob's way, and God's saying, "No more of your way." Punched him to get his attention to say to Jacob, "I am blessing you, Jacob. You can't do this by yourself. I am blessing you." He's hit some so hard that it knocks his hip out of place. They didn't have chiropractors back then, so maybe this was for the rest of his life. His hip is out of place.

This whole story, again, will make you think twice about wrestling with God. Jacob walks with a limb for the rest of his life, and he gets a name change. Name changes are common in the Bible to signify an inner transformation. You can think of... We've covered Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah. You have Jacob now, Jacob to Israel. If you go to the New Testament, you think of Simon, and then when he meets Jesus, he becomes Peter. Or Saul, when he meets Jesus, he becomes Paul. And all of it is to give testimony to what's happening on the inside. So we know that after this moment, despite this rough relationship between him and God and the distrust, this changes him. This moment with God, wrestling at night, changes Jacob. And now he becomes Isaac. In Genesis 32, 28, it says, "He will no longer be Jacob, but Israel." Oh, sorry, not Isaac. "Israel, because you have struggled with God with humans and have overcome." And Israel means wounded one or chosen one. And if your minds are connecting dots right now of who a wounded one and a chosen one is, yes, we're foreshadowing what God is going to bring through Jacob's descendants, bringing us to Jesus, who is the wounded one and the chosen one who would bring salvation to the world. So Jacob's heart in this moment, becoming Israel, is transformed. And now he comes to have a new trust and faith in God.

And so we see at the very end that Jacob accepts God's blessing, begins a new relationship with God. This face-to-face struggle with God changes him forever. And it's not to say that Jacob from here on out is perfect and he's no longer a snake. He has some more snake moments. But more often than not, he is choosing God's wisdom, and he is choosing the path of righteousness. He learns better how to surrender and to submit to God's will. Jacob realizes that he wrestled with God, and that meant that he should have died. The scripture tells us that no one can see the face of God and live. It's like staring... I don't know if you've ever done this. You've tried staring into the sun. It's not good. You're not supposed to do it. Because the sun's so powerful and you will blind you. And that's just the same with God. We cannot look at God in the face. It's too powerful and we cannot handle it. And so Jacob knows this and he says, "My life was spared. I should have died.”

And there's something about a near-death experience that makes you grateful for life. I don't know if any of you have had a near-death experience. I'll share my near-death experience. And it's not really death. I would have got seriously hurt. So in college, I longboarded a lot. Not in the water, on land. I longboard like a skateboard. And I was here in Roseville and I was going down a very steep hill. And there was a pack of like ten of us. And I was like, "I'm going to be first." And so I got into a very fast position, aerodynamically. And I was going down this hill very fast. And I don't recommend this to anyone in the room who... Yeah. Looking at the younger ones. The older ones were like, "You're already an idiot. Don't do this." But I was going through stop signs. I was just like blazing through. And this lady did not see me. And so I was going through and I saw the car come... I mean, I had like an inch between me and this car. And we just kind of... I steered away. And I slid like 30 feet on someone's driveway or on their front lawn. And I came out without a scratch. But I remember that lady pulled over. It was all the guys that were longboarding with me were like, "How did that just happen?" And I look back and... Again, not near death, but I do think that if I got hit, my legs would not be here today. And I look back and I was like, "God, you protected me. You seriously... That was... I'm so thankful for you." And I came out more grateful. I came out more humble. And I can only imagine people who have truly more like near-death experiences. They have this moment that they were saved for something. That God was looking after them. And I think Jacob has that feeling right here that, "God, I should have died in your presence because of you. I should have died. But you have me for something." And there's a humility that Jacob has now. There's an understanding that his life is not his, but it belongs to God. And he needs to give more of his life to God. Again, his life is not perfect, but we see now that he lives with this humility and understanding that he is to give more of himself to him, to God.

So we come to the end of our passage and we see this transformation of Jacob. And I want us to think of what that means for us in wrestling with God. And I know, church, that many of us are wrestling with God in different areas of our life. And so I want to pick up on three things that I want you, all of us, to reflect on. Because I'm wrestling with God in different areas of life too. So the first one is this. Wrestling with God may mean a lack of trust in God. Are we like Jacob, and do we have to control everything in our lives? And if it comes to this point where we are wrestling with God, we may need to have an honest look at our hearts and assess, are we not trusting God in a certain area? Is the reason why we're wrestling because we want to do it one way, and we don't feel like God is leading us that way, but we don't necessarily know where he is leading. And so we're wrestling with God. We're saying, "God, I want to do this. Why can't I do this?" Maybe it's with your finances. Maybe it's with your role at work, or with the plan that you have for your life, with family, with the relationship that you have. Whatever it is, are you wrestling with God? And are you, if you were to really take a true assessment and reflect in your heart, is it because maybe you don't trust God with where he says you should be going? What area of your life are you wrestling with God? And is that an area where you're having a hard time surrendering and giving to him this thing that it is? Whatever it is, maybe it's a person, a situation. It may mean a lack of trust in God.

The second thing is, wrestling with God means an opportunity to be reshaped and transformed. Jacob, again, was forever transformed, both physically and in his character. He walked with a limp for the rest of his life, but he also came to trust God. And the snake-like tendencies that he had gave way to a heart that trusted and was transformed and reshaped. And the same is true for us. While we may not walk with a limp for the rest of our life because we're wrestling with God, we will hopefully see evidence of a changed heart inside. As we wrestle with him and then we surrender and we submit, and as time goes on, we can look back and say, "Man, I used to live like this. I used to have a heart that leaned this way, that was prone to do this. But now, now I choose God. Now it's easier for me to say yes to God, to give it over to him." We want to be reshaped and transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit within us. The more that we obey, submit, and surrender, the more our heart is formed to be like Jesus. And the last thing, wrestling with God ends best when we submit to him. In other ways, coming to a place of trusting him. We should not think too highly of ourselves. This is not the law of two immovable forces, which states an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. We are not that powerful.

We need to submit to God in the end. We can have it out. We can say a lot to God. He can take it. We can say, "God, I'm really frustrated. God, I'm really upset. I don't get this. I don't understand. God, I'm angry. I'm hurt. I don't know why you're not--" We can say all of that as long as we come back around to submit to him and to yield to him. If you look at the Psalms, David is often just verbal processing or writing it down. And he says a lot of things that he's got to get out. He's venting. He's questioning. He's wandering. There's a lot of emotions. God created us with those emotions, though. And so I don't want to say like, "Hey, you just have to be a robot and say whatever God says, you got to do it. You can't feel anything." That's not how God created us. We can feel some things, but we have to give God those emotions. Say, "God, I'm really having a hard time. God, I'm angry right now. I'm bitter. I'm this." But just like Jesus teaches us to pray, we have to--at the end of saying all that, we have to come to this place of surrender where we say, "God, not my will but yours be done. God, help me get to a place where I'm no longer feeling these things and I understand what you're doing. At least understand enough where I'm at peace and I can go forward with this plan that you have." We're allowed to say, "God, I don't understand," but we should also follow that with, "But God, what are you doing? I want to know what you're doing. I want to know what you're up to." That line at the end of the Lord's Prayer, it says, "Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And heaven is the place where God's will is perfectly done all the time. And so when we say that, we're inviting God to say, "Let your will be done here in my life.”

This pattern that we see in Genesis here, again, our point of the series is to see how it repeats throughout Scripture. And so while we don't see anyone else physically wrestle with God in this way--this is a one-off, which is really cool--we do see other people figuratively wrestle with God in this pattern of wrestling with God figuratively and then being transformed or involved in his blessing. And either receiving God's blessing or carrying out his blessing in some way develops. I think of Moses as one, not wanting to be a leader and having conversations with God, wrestling with God, saying, "God, I don't want to do this. I'm not your guy. I'm not the person. Go find someone else." But then Moses being the exact leader that God wanted, God using him, transforming him, and he submits and surrenders and is greatly used by God to carry out God's plan in making Israel, the nation of Israel, a blessing. I think of the New Testament. I think of Peter in the New Testament, who was Simon, becomes Peter, so we see the name change there. But he wrestles with God in a different way. He denies Jesus three times before realizing what he's done. But he, Jesus uses him as the cornerstone of his church in the early church time. Peter is huge and he's a key leader. I think of Saul, who becomes Paul, who is persecuting the early church. Talk about snake-like tendencies, right? The epitome of a snake in the New Testament, Paul is out there, or Saul was out there to end the early church, and then Jesus confronts him and blinds him, and there's scales on his eyes. Do we think that the biblical authors were doing something there by saying scales, referring to the snake? And he gives Saul a new name saying Paul, and he becomes one of the most influential writers of the New Testament and one of the key voices in the early church. And I think in a different way, we see Jesus, not that he was a snake, far from it, he was the perfect lamb, but on the night that he was betrayed, I think he wrestles a bit with God, having that conversation in the garden, saying, "God, is there any other way?" And yet, he exemplifies to us in perfect submission, knowing, "No, there is not, and I have to do what I need to do." And he shows us how to be obedient to God, even to the point of death. So we see this pattern throughout Scripture of wrestling with God can lead to blessing and personal transformation.

So I want to close with this. Are you wrestling with God? Will you submit and surrender to him and allow yourself to be transformed, reshaped by the Holy Spirit as you do so? Like I said, I'll be honest with you, I've been preaching this to myself for the last six months, going through different seasons of wrestling with God. I've been wrestling with God a lot. And sometimes I can feel the pull of, "I'll just do this myself, God. I don't know. You're not giving me answers. I'm not satisfied with what you're saying, so I'm just going to do it. I'm going to go until you stop me." And that's the snake-like tendency in me to say, "God, you're not going by my timeline, so I'm just going to go." I can feel that pull within me, and I also can feel the pull of the Holy Spirit within me saying, "No, you need to submit. You need to surrender." And that can be daily. That can be a daily choice, where the last day you were in a good place and you had peace, and then you wake up the next day and you're wrestling all over again, and you're dealing with the discontentment, and you're saying, "God, why? I know we dealt with it yesterday, but can you remind me again? What is going on? Why are you doing this?" But I promise you that if you come to this place of surrender, if you get into the habit of submitting to God, of yielding, of obeying Him, you will see the transformation in your heart. You will see yourself and be able to understand within you that you are choosing God more quickly, that God is blessing you, maybe not with the exact thing that you want, but He's blessing you, and He's looking over you, looking after you and watching you, and He's going to bless you6

Genesis: Part 5

Genesis: Part 5

Genesis 12:1-9; 15:1-6

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are going to be continuing in our Genesis series this morning, so if you want to flip over or maybe pull up an app on your phone, tap over. We're going to start in Genesis chapter 12, and this is a little bit of a jump. If you remember last week, Andrei was nowhere near chapter 12. And so this is going to kind of jump a few chapters, and we're going to jump in and talk about Abraham this morning. And the big picture in this series is within Genesis, we wanted to kind of connect the dots. That sometimes we can read this book of Genesis, which is crazy. I think we were doing some research this week. Genesis covers like 800 and something years, which is absolutely crazy. Just like one book, and I think I butchered that number just now. But one book's covering hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, and it's just like the beginning of the Bible. And then you have all the rest of this. It's absolutely crazy. And so what our heart in this Genesis series was to do was to connect dots, to see kind of how God moves and his character in Genesis doesn't just stay in Genesis, right? But to see how he connects to the whole scripture, and ultimately how even Genesis directly connects into the New Testament and the Gospels with Jesus. And we're going to touch on that this morning in talking about the covenantal faithfulness in the life of Abraham. And so if you wanted to jot down some thoughts this morning or to take some notes this morning, here's where I want to go today. I want to remind us to live by faith. To remind us to live by faith and to emulate Abraham's actions, even in the midst of unknown, uncertainty, delay, society chaos, the world around us. Does that sound familiar to these last few weeks? Of the chaos that is happening around us that even in the midst of all of this, we can rest in the faithfulness of God. Amen?

And so knowing that these promises that we're going to read about here, even in Genesis, a couple thousand years before a man by the name of Jesus who comes to earth, God is fulfilling those and that Jesus Christ is the yes to all of Abraham's questions. And we're blessed because we get to have kind of this backward perspective to see all throughout history, to see the life of Jesus, and then to make the connect to Abraham. Abraham didn't have that. Abraham just had what was in front of him and what God was calling him to, and he was called to be faithful. So we're going to jump in Genesis chapter 12 verse 1, and we're going to have it on the screen, but I really want us to pay attention to what's happening right here. And it says this, it says, "The Lord had said to Abram," okay, time out real quick. I have already said Abraham, right? Right? So a little context here for you. Abraham is his original name, okay? And it isn't, I believe, until chapter 17 or 18 in Genesis, does Abraham, or actually God, change Abraham's name to Abraham. Okay, so this morning, we just said it, Abram and Abraham, we're just going to use those interchangeable, okay? We understand kind of where it's going, where it's headed, and so I may say Abraham, and I might say Abram, but we're just going to keep tracking with me here with this, okay?

So the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you, Abram, will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse. And all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you." So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he set out for Haraan. He took his wife Sarai, whose name also will be changed later to Sarah, Sarai, his nephew Lot, so we know the relationship, uncle, nephew, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired from Haraan, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. Abram traveled throughout the land as far as the site of the great tree of Morah at Shechem, and at the time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give you this land." So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he went through the east hills of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. Then Abram set out and continued toward Negev.

So right here at the beginning of this, we kind of, just a few short verses, we come on scene and Abraham, he's hanging out, 75 years old, and he's just living life in Haraan. Life's great, business is great, he's making wealth, his fucks are booming. He couldn't be happier where he's at. Life is fabulous. But then in the midst of all this, he receives this divine summons from heaven. God comes down to him and says, "Hey, I want you to pick up, I want you to go from your country, your people, your father's household, where he had been, so Abram is actually the tenth great-grandson from Shem, who was the son from Noah. So Abraham is actually a direct descendant of Noah himself, who after the flood, you guys, if you know some of your Bible, the flood waters receded and then it was Noah and his family and their wives, and then they were in charge of repopulating the earth. And so it's probably understood that Haraan was where the family settled, and then generation after generation after generation after generation, they're building up their big family and they create cities and communities and homes, and here we come to Abram. And so he's living nine generations deep in this just beautiful world that is just going great financially, but spiritually is in the tank. We know that we read from Joshua 24, too, that the sins of the people had started to grow again. And that was kind of the problem that began with the flood, that the people had grown so wicked apart from Noah and his family that God said, "I've got to hit the reset button here." And so God hits the reset button and then we go through the Tower of Babel and all these other bad things that are happening in Sodom and Gomorrah and all these things. And so we kind of find ourselves in the same place and God's like, "I need to get my guy Abram out of this land because I want to take him to what's going to be understood that we hear about later through Exodus and Joshua and all that into the promised land." So God is kind of setting this thing up and he calls out Abram and he says, "Hey, I need you to leave." And we kind of just in a one short verse we read and it says, "And Abraham went." But what we forget is like the divine nature of this and the steps of faith that Abraham had to take to just pick up roots of his whole life that he knew in this land of Haraan. But what happened here, we're going to see this pattern of back and forth. God moves and God begins to provide a sovereign initiative.

There is something bigger that God is doing in this moment that we just read in one tiny little sentence of what God is trying to set up for the future. And God in here in this divine invitation, he layers in some pretty extravagant promises. Did you guys catch those? He said he's going to forge Abram into a great nation. He's going to bless and magnify his name. He's going to curse those who curse him. But most profoundly, he's going to channel blessing through him to all the people of the earth. That's pretty amazing. And if you guys were ever in Sunday school growing up, Father Abraham had many sons and many sons had Father Abraham. The problem is right now, Abram and Sarai, they don't have no sons. All they have is Lot, his nephew, which probably at this point would be assumed that that's his son. Abraham sees his nephew Lot as his son because he doesn't have any biological children. So even at this moment, Abram has an immediate and worshipful response even though there's still so much unknown. There's still so much that Abram's like, "Okay, I don't know how you're going to do this, God, but you know what? I'm going to be faithful." And there's an immediate worshipful response. And so Abraham packs everything up and starts a 400-mile trek over to this land that God is calling to. The problem is that where he is and where Canaan is, there's a giant desert in the middle. And so Abraham actually has to go up and over all around the desert because there ain't no way that he can just shoot straight through. They would die in the desert. So 400 miles they start traveling. And then they arrive. They show up at Shechem. It says, "Beneath the sacred oak." I don't know where that is. It sounds like it would be a pretty cool place to be. And so 400 miles, I don't know how long the journey would have taken, years, they finally arrive and they see this massive oak tree and God just pours out onto Abraham and says, "You have arrived." And so what is the first thing that Abraham does? He builds an altar and he worships God. Immediate worship. And then he does it again or he travels on to Bethel and does the exact same thing in verse 6 through 9. These are heartfelt markers of a life oriented towards God. And in this we see a couple things.

The first thing we see, we see obedience is the hallmark of faith. Obedience is the hallmark of faith. See, this early testament move from Abraham is actually the same thing that Jesus calls us to today, right? What does it say? It says in Matthew 16:24, "Whoever wants to be my disciple, they must deny themselves to take up the cross and follow me." True faithfulness thrives not in safety but in surrender. Abraham had the safety in Haraan. He was set. He was probably going to be set for many generations after him. But he knew that God was calling him to something greater than that. And we have to, in ourselves, in our lives, we need to prioritize God's voice over cultural ties or personal security. Sometimes God's going to call us to step out. And we need to be obedient in that to step out, not to delay, not to go, "Hey God, I need to know a little bit more detail. I need to know what my net worth is going to be when I get over to the land of Canaan, God. I need to have some hard numbers in front of me. I need a spreadsheet. I need to see that ROI really going up to the right before I'm going to make any move here, big guy." But that's not what Abraham did, right? He was obedient immediately and stepped out. And then too, in that, we see that worship is the fruit of responsive trust. These altars that Abraham built, they integrated faith into the very fabric of Abraham's life. And that every time that he would go back, he would pass those altars, he goes, "I remember what God did there." And the generations that would come after Abraham, we'd pass by those altars and go, "Remember when grandpa came through here with all of his people? God was here. God was in this space. God showed up." The reminders that we worship where God meets us, even in the midst of the unknown.

So then we go into the next chapter, and I'll kind of give you a synopsis here, that basically it comes to the land of Canaan and his nephew Lot and Abram. They start having their own herds and their wealth and all this start growing, and there's not enough land. And so Abraham tells Lot, "Hey, I don't want to get into more conflict than where we're at. You choose whatever land you want around here, and I'll go the opposite. You go your way, I'll go my way. I don't want to fight with you anymore. It's getting too hard. Family, right? Come on." And so he goes out. They go out to a hillside, and Abram goes, "Where do you want to go, Lot?" Lot sees this really beautiful green land right near the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, and he goes, "I want to go towards the green." And Abram goes, "Okay, you go that way. I'll go this way." And so they kind of split ways for a little bit, and what starts to happen is Lot starts going and hanging out in Sodom and Gomorrah. Maybe one weekend a month, and then a couple weekends, and then he's staying there for like a whole week, and things are not good in Sodom and Gomorrah. And what happens is this military power rises up and actually comes in and captures Lot and takes all of his wealth and all of his hurt and all this stuff, and then Abraham hears about his nephew and goes on a rescue mission. Good old Uncle Abraham coming in hot and captures back Lot, takes back all of his wealth that he had passed on to Lot, and they capture everything, and he brings Lot and all of his family back to where he is. And so at this point, there's a little bit of anxiousness that's happened in Abraham, right? He kind of has this reality check of who he thought was going to be his heir because, again, still no children. And in Lot, he realized the fragility of life, that at any moment, his heir, his future could be taken from him. And so he kind of starts to get anxious, and he has this hard reality check that he remembers previously that God had promised to him that he was going to be a great nation, that he was going to bless all the peoples of the earth through him, that he was going to have all this extra stuff, but he's going, "God, how is that going to work? I have nobody." And what I love about this is that even in the midst of Abraham wrestling with this, God's not forgotten about Abraham.

And it says this, chapter 15, it says, "After this, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision, 'Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your very great reward.' But Abram said, 'Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless? And the one who will inherit my state is Eliezer of Damascus.' And Abraham said, 'You have given me no children, so a servant in my household will be my heir.' Then the word of the Lord came to him, 'This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.' He took him outside and said, 'Look up at the sky and count the stars. Indeed, you can count them if you can count them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' Abraham believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”

It's pretty amazing what we see in this. Is that even in the midst of everything that's happening to him right now in this moment, that God's faithful reassurances come to him. And God meets him where he's at, that decades have passed in this, that the promise with no error in sight, and the flesh of perils of rescuing Lot just recently, that these fears begin to surface, and yet, God invades him in the night with a vision. "Do not be afraid, Abraham. I am your shield, your very great reward." God addresses Abraham's real, raw lament. Everyone's like, "Dude, I got nobody. You keep saying I got somebody, but I don't have anybody." And God goes, "I'm not done yet. I'm not done yet. In fact, let's go outside. Go outside. Take a look at the stars." You guys ever been camping and looked up at the stars? Get away from city light, like pitch black darkness, and look up at the stars? It's like holy buckets. And God kind of jokingly, I feel like, he's like, "Abraham, go ahead and count them, bud. Like, go ahead. I'm waiting. I have all of eternity. Go ahead." And God's like, "This is what I'm doing." And I think about how many times post this, even before, spoiler alert, he gets a son. Okay, sorry. Season two, a little early. But how many times would Abraham, when he's feel discouraged, I could see him going out, laying down at night, just staring up at the stars, and falling asleep in the peace of God? What a blessing. What a blessing that God's faithful reassurances don't go away. That this cosmic illustration counters our human limitation with his divine vastness. Because I guarantee you, there ain't no counting those stars. We have telescopes today that Abraham never had, and we can't even keep counting the stars. You hear about scientists discovering new stars, millions and millions of light years away. Each day it feels like. That God's still working. And what's Abraham's response? He has a vulnerable, yet victorious belief.

Here's how he responds. It says, "Abraham believed the Lord and accredited him as righteousness." There's this word in here, pistis, which is an idea of faith. But a faith that is active, as relational, that is not just a passive nod, but a defiant hope. As we read that in Romans 4:18, it says, "Against all hope." Abraham believes. Abraham believes at a depth I don't know that he's ever believed before. And probably deeper than any of us have ever had to have a faith in our lives here and now. That despite barren wombs and advancing years for both him and his wife Sarai, he continues to have faith. And this enduring faith, even amid delay and doubt, Abraham holds strong. Paul, the Apostle Paul in the New Testament in the book of Romans writes about the faith of Abraham. And he said, "It did not weaken his faith, but it grew strong through what he believed." See, I think the greatest acts of faith in God come in the midst of the waiting, not in the receiving. The greatest thing that we can receive in our faith, the gift of God, is received in the waiting, not in the receiving. And that this idea of righteousness is a gift of trust, not effort. Righteousness is something that we can only receive when we have trust in God. And it's really a prototype for us and the Jews and the Gentiles in the early church that Abraham reveals Jesus' justification. That faith alone activates God's accounting of righteousness as seen in Galatians chapter 3. And it's faith, not works. A truth that is essential to the gospel. Nothing that we have done. At this point, Abraham has done nothing except be obedient to go.

And there's a portion after this in chapter 15 of Genesis where God has a covenant before Abraham. And traditionally in that culture, what they would do when two people would have a covenant, there's a couple different versions of them, but one of them would be done with animals. And each party would bring an animal to the covenant and they would literally, it starts getting a little gross, they would cut the animals in half and they would lay them out in front of them with space between the two animals, with each having their own personal sacrifice in this commitment. And the two of them would walk through the animals together signifying that we both have committed to this, we both have sacrificed into this, and we both play a part in this. This isn't just a one-sided deal. These are both parties coming together in a full commitment till death. And so God has Abraham bring in a calf, a ram, an ox, I think there's birds involved, a lamb. And all these animals are sacrificed. And do you know who walks through that? God. God as a pillar of smoke and a fire representative walks through that path of the animals. And this is powerful because for the first time on earth, a covenant is being made by one party. And God is signifying to Abraham that I am the one that sustained this, I am the one that will fulfill this, that I am the one of this covenant. And this is so powerful. God, we could do like an eight-week series on covenants. It's pretty amazing. I know this one's a little gory, but it is a beautiful picture that God is giving Abraham that I alone am the one that will fulfill this, sustain this, and I will redeem you. I will keep my word. And so in this we see that God is moving in powerful ways. And that God actually has this inviting covenant and calling on Abraham's heart.

And so when we see this, we read about this covenant and we see this calling that's echoed throughout Scripture as God's eternal love, not based on foreseen merit, but sheer grace. And so what is our response? Our response, just like Abraham, is to have an urgent and personal calling. See, God breaks into the ordinary of Abraham and he calls him out. He says, "Go, I will make, I will bless." God is wooing him, drawing him from the earth's pagan altars into a destiny of divine partnership. Abraham hasn't done anything yet. And yet God is giving him this promise. God is calling him and inviting him to co-labor in the redemption on a grand narrative. And even amidst vulnerability and not understanding, God calls Abraham deeper. He says, "Fear not, look towards heaven. Look up to the scars. Look up, look up. See what I have promised to you." And he makes a vow. He says, "I, God, am a God of my word. I don't break covenants. I don't break promises." God is the one that will faithfully sustain this bond. And so God sees and has a key demonstration for us to be invited into his protection, into his blessing, into his safety, into his love. And just like a shepherd caring and calling his flock, God woos his shielding presence and overflowing bounty, drawing out of our fears to replace them with awe-inspiring trust in who God is. See, a covenant was not broken. That covenant that God made with Abraham was fulfilled.

Because when we look at the bigger picture from Genesis down the line, we see Abraham, he gets his new name Abraham. He has a son Isaac, and then comes Jacob. And then all the way down we come to King David. And then from King David we come down, and this is like in Matthew chapter 1, all of the names that we read through, it might take us like an hour to get through all these names. We go literally person by person, point by point, connect the dots, all the way to a man who shows up out of Nazareth by the name of Jesus. That even at this time of Abraham calling, or God calling Abraham out to take him to the land of Canaan, to the promised land, would then fulfill and start a trek towards the redemption of the true, fulfilling covenant in Jesus Christ. That this new covenant as seen in Hebrews chapter 8 is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic call. And God declares, He says, "I will put My laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be My people." No longer is there just this unknown of what's going to happen. God lays it out with Abraham. And He says, "I am beginning the redemption party." And it's going to start with Abraham. And I'm going to redeem him and his family in this moment as well. And we ultimately know that in the end, the old law is fulfilled in Jesus, and that from one man's obedience becomes a multitude's adoption into God's family. That even while Abraham is childless, God already has the redemption plan with a giant party for eternity in heaven ready to go. And that all who believe, and they said in Galatians chapter 3, that all who believe are called the sons and daughters and the heirs of the most high God.

o where does this leave us? Well, it leads us to a place of we ourselves as followers of Christ get to share in Abraham's inheritance through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. And that we not inherit just promises, but a calling to mirror Abraham's trust in responsiveness, in worship, and endurance. And as we bask in this new covenant superiority where Jesus' blood seals what Abraham alters had foreshadows, a practical exhortation of our daily living is played out. That was a big, real large word sentence to say we live it every day. And part of our vision and mission to be making disciples in the everyday stuff of life. You and I are called to be faithful followers of Jesus in the everyday things that we do. That in our mowing of the lawn, we are faithful to God. In our taking our kids to school, we are faithful to God. In our shopping, we are faithful to God. In our errands, we are faithful to God. In our work, every single day, the hours we put in, we are faithful to God. We are faithful to God in our retirement that we, every day, God doesn't have the calling of the workplace, but he has a calling probably for a family life, right? To love our spouse, we are to be faithful to God. To how we parent our children, we are to be faithful to God. How we take care of our bodies, we are to be faithful to God. Abraham stepped out in bold faith. He had to leave the life behind where he was living to step into the calling of the new life that God had for him. And this models the same response of obedience that we have and the submission of even that Jesus had to God to willingly go to the cross for our sins. And that Abraham's faithful steps foreshadow the ultimate covenant being fulfilled in Jesus Christ, which then trickles into the calling that Jesus gave us before he went back to heaven to go and make disciples. Turning this abstract covenant fulfillment into a practical daily living of missional obedience. We have to nurture belief even in the seasons of delay. Abraham had to wait years before God gave him that son.

I think sometimes, Andrei and I, we were looking at, we have this book in our office that has like the timeline of people in the Bible. And sometimes there were hundreds of years that passed before God answered a prayer. We get frustrated if it doesn't happen in the next 24 hours, right? 200 plus years, God still fulfills his promises. And that all of God's promises are answered as a yes in Jesus Christ. Abraham shows us in the New Testament of firms in Hebrews 11:6, that without faith it is impossible to please God. Just this. It's only by faith. And then we see Abraham's response when he arrives in the land of worship by building altars to remember what God has done, remembering how he moved, remembering his fulfillment. A journey that long, there was no guarantee that you would arrive at your destination. So I think even arriving in the land that God said I'm going to give you was a blessing and an answer to prayer by itself. And this is a call for us to build altars of praise in our lives. Maybe this is done in personal worship. Maybe this is done corporately together. That's why we gather every single week. We are making an altar to God to remember his faithfulness and his promises and his covenant. To celebrate God's drawing, wooing faithfulness, which sustains us against a culture of provisional vows. So God's faithfulness, or faithfulness in itself, equals bold, obedient steps, steadfast belief, and enduring worship. Christian, live by faith. If you call yourself a believer in Jesus, you're a disciple of him, be encouraged today. Live by faith. Maybe you've been praying for something for a really long time and you don't know if God's going to come through. God will come through. I promise you that. Live by faith, but don't live by a passive faith. Live a faith that is active, that is enduring, that isn't just sitting and waiting, but that is still on mission for Jesus. Where you live, where you learn, where you work, where you play and have fun. Worship God.

I've got three questions for us to ponder as we close out this morning. I want us to think about how does Abraham's immediate obedience challenge areas in my life where I'm hesitant to follow God's call? Where's God currently calling me to step out or maybe wooing me out of my comfort into a deeper dependence in him? Maybe you think about how can I respond with Abraham's openness that when God says, "Go," Abraham says, "Yes, I will go." Second question. In your waiting seasons, how can I practice Abraham's active faith? What intentional steps can I take? Even when we're tempted to doubt, which we all are, right? We're all fallible. We're sinful. We freak out. We try to take control. We try to do it ourselves. We try to fix it, right? Even when we're tempted to doubt, what does choosing belief over despair look like for you? And then finally, in what ways can I build an altar this week to remind me of God's faithfulness? What can you do this week? Maybe you need to take some time intentionally and block out on your schedule and go on a prayer walk. Maybe go find a quiet place in a park. Maybe take a drive out into the nature. I don't know, maybe you're driving up to Lake Tahoe this week. Just to sit along the shore, bask in his glory, and to take a moment and be very intentional in a worship to him. Building an altar. Maybe you need to start a prayer journal and you just call it "my altar." And every day you're going to write something down in that. And you can go back when times are hard. You can go, "God, I remembered when you did this." How can we build altars of worship in our journey, deepening our trust during uncertainty? Abraham is an amazing man of faith. Called him, I think, called the father of faith. Even in the midst of everything that was coming against him, he stood strong, he stood bold, and he worshiped.

Let's pray. Jesus, I thank you for the man who Abraham was. And Jesus, we know that right now in eternity, he's there worshiping you. That even in the midst of everything that came up against him, he was still faithful to you. And God, that you divinely invaded his life with an audacious call to go to the promised land where God was going to establish his people through the lineage of Abraham. And that even while he was having no child, there was failed attempt after failed attempt after failed attempt with him and Sarai. God, you gave him the promise of your covenant with him. So God, as we sit where we sit in our life today, where we feel like you might be so far away, where you're not listening to us, or you're not hearing our cries, God, I pray that we would continue to cry out to you, that we would continue to worship you in our waiting, that even in the midst of that, God, we may take time to even tonight go outside and look up at the stars and begin to count them to know that you gave that starry promise to Abraham. God, that you have a promise to us to fulfill our eternity. That through the lineage of Abraham would come David, who would come Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. And that in receiving Jesus Christ, we receive in the same covenantal inheritance promised to Abraham thousands of years ago. So Jesus, I pray that we would continue to trust, we would continue to endure, we would continue to have the faith, the father of faith, Abraham, and that we would worship where our feet are in front of us. We thank you, Jesus. We love you. Amen.

Genesis: Part 4

Genesis: Part 4

Genesis 3:15

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We’re excited to be continuing in a series. We just finished up our "We Are The Church" series. If you've been around for the last few weeks, you've heard that three-part series. "We Are The Church," if you've missed it at all or any part of it, we would really encourage you to go back and listen to those. It really helps unite us in our mission and vision here at Spring Valley Church to hear each week of those different aspects of church life. Again, we encourage you to go back on YouTube or podcasts, however you listen to sermons, and catch up on those. But we're going to jump back into a series that we started before "We Are The Church," which is our Genesis series, where we're looking at different patterns and themes that are repeated throughout Scripture that find their origin here in Genesis. And so far, we've looked at the themes of the power of God's Word, where he brings order out of chaos and creation. We've talked about Imago Dei being made in the image of God, and how we are called today to reflect that image to the world around us. We've also talked about the Fall, where sin entered the world, and then the human tendency that we see throughout Scripture, where humans rebel against God and choose their own way. You may be wondering, "Well, if I remember correctly, we only got through Genesis 3. Are we going to cover all of Genesis?" No, we're not. We're not going verse by verse in this series. We could be here forever, and I would love that. But this series, we're just highlighting some of these main themes. And again, the work that the biblical authors did in writing Scripture the way that they did was extremely intentional, as they weave these themes into the fabric of the text that we can notice them. And so that as we read more and more of Scripture, we're going to see these themes play out. And so that's part of our goal, is to help equip you with the tools that as you read the Bible on your own, as you study the Bible on your own, you're going to notice some of these patterns, like, "Oh, I've seen that before. I've seen this motif, or this theme, or I kind of know what happens here. This is a good thing." Or, "Maybe this is a bad thing that happens." There are so many, yeah, we won't have time to go into all of the reoccurring patterns, but the big ones happen here at the beginning of Genesis, and so that's what we're highlighting in our series.

Now that we're all caught up, jogging your memory of our series, I want to ask you a few questions as we begin our morning. First one is this. Can you think of the first time, do you remember the first time that you heard the gospel? So you think of that time, were you a child? Was it when you were an adult? A student? Where were you when you heard the first gospel message presented to you? Who did you hear it from? Was it a parent, a friend, a co-worker, a pastor? All right, you got that memory up in your mind. Follow-up question, can you think of the first time you knew that you had sinned? A little bit different. Can you think of the first time you remember feeling guilty over something? The first time that you recognized that I am responsible for the wrong that just happened? The last question, did these two experiences, the first time you remember hearing the gospel, the first time that you knew you had sinned, did those two experiences coincide with each other? I would say probably not. Maybe they did. Maybe the first time you sinned someone was like, "By the way, let me share Jesus with you right now." That would have been really cool. I think oftentimes we know that something's off and something's wrong and we're doing something we don't want to do. I think that comes along usually first, and then at some point someone brings about Jesus and the gospel. Everyone's experiences are a bit different, but again, you've probably had that moment. You can remember where I remember doing this in my life or this pattern in my life, and it just wasn't good. And then hopefully you can also remember the first time that you heard the gospel address that problem of sin in your life. Today we're going to revisit a passage that we've covered a couple weeks ago in our Genesis series. We're going to take a deeper look at a moment where sin entered the world for the first time and the first gospel message of hope was given, all in one.

So we're going to be in Genesis 3. If you have your Bibles, you can turn there now, Genesis 3. It'll be on the screen for you in a second. But just to give some context of what's happening in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve are in the garden, the snake is there, he tempts Adam and Eve and they sin. They take the fruit from the tree, and this is what is known as the fall. And sin is introduced into the world. Adam and Eve rebelled against God, thinking that they could live life without God. They didn't need God, we're going to do this on our own. And so now, because of that, all of humanity since then deals with the problem of sin. And we learn from that moment what sin did in the garden. On a human level, it's us thinking that we have the wisdom to run our own lives without God. But all that leads to is selfishness, pain, murder, abuse, slavery, failure, and the list goes on and on and on. It does not end in anything good. It's where we act out of our own selfish desires and urges that compel us to act for our own benefit at the expense of others. Sin always affects us, affects us with God, and it affects us with others. Between God and humanity, sin put a distance where there was no distance. There was, it was relationship, God was walking in the garden with Adam and Eve, and it was great, but now sin put a distance between humanity and God. Paul writes that humanity became slaves to sin. We can't help it. Sin is this failure to be the humans who fully love God and others like God intended. And it's this inability to judge whether we are succeeding or failing. It's a deep and selfish impulse that drives much of our behavior. And this problem of sin, it's a problem that humanity cannot address on our own. We cannot save ourselves from sin and the consequences of sin. But something must be done. If humanity is to be with God and dwell with God forever in heaven as God desires, then something has to happen. And thankfully, just as we find out in Scripture that we have a sin problem, we also find out that God is going to intervene and do something about that sin problem. After the fall, after that moment, God and Adam and Eve and Satan, they have a conversation. And he tells Adam and Eve that life is going to be different. He talks about the pain and toil, that working and childbearing and the death that they will have to face. And so their reality is flipped upside down overnight, banished from the perfect garden of Eden to enter into the world marred by sin. And then to Satan, he says this in Genesis 3:15, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”

It's one of the most important verses in the Bible. Because in the midst of judgment, this is a very heavy scene where God is handing out the judgment of sin. In the midst of that, God promises that one day someone will come, a descendant who will do what Adam and Eve should have done, just crush the serpent and destroy him. And this promise that we get from God right here cuts through the darkness of death and sin and gives a glimmer of light, a little bit of hope in this moment. It's a promise of redemption. The first gospel message, the first glimmer of hope that would be found in Christ is here in Genesis 3, 15. So today, we're going to be focusing on redemption, redemption that is promised here in Genesis 3 that comes later and is woven throughout all of Scripture. We're going to talk about that today. I want to answer this question, what does it mean to be redeemed? Because understanding this will really truly affect so much of the story found throughout the Bible. Redemption comes up over and over and over and over again. So we want to make sure we understand what does biblical redemption mean. We don't often use the word redeem in our everyday language. I think most often we're talking about coupons. When we say the word redeem today, I have a coupon, I'm going to redeem it for a free burger or 20% off. Things aren't really free anymore, so it's like percentage off. You get to redeem a code, right? That's pretty much what we use, but that doesn't, if we were to just take that and put that over the Bible's definition of redemption, that's not the full picture. That's not the whole thing of what's happening. In the Bible, it describes something being transferred back to its rightful owner. So when you have something, when you own something, it belongs to you. And somewhere along the line, someone else ends up possessing that thing that was yours, whether they stole it, took it, whatever, however that happens, but they have something, someone else has something that was yours. So that's why already the way we use redeem does not really work fully with the Bible definition of redemption. We never had the burger, then gave it back to the restaurant, and then we're going to redeem that burger. No, it doesn't work like that, right? So in the Bible things, it once belonged to someone, someone else ends up with it. How do they get it back? Well, they can show proof of ownership, say, "Hey, this is mine. I have proof that that belongs to me. Can I have it back, please?" You can purchase it back. "Hey, you have that. What is it worth to you? I'm going to pay you. I want to get that back." Or you can take it back by demanding it. "That's mine. Better give it back to me right now." However it happens, the transferring of that thing back to you, to the rightful owner, is what the Bible calls redemption.

The Bible Project says this quote, I think it's really helpful, it says, "The story of the Bible begins with the idea that all creation, and especially humanity, belongs to God. But tragically, humans have been corrupted and enslaved by death. God wants humanity back. And the story of the Bible is about how God transfers us back into his possession. He redeems us." You may have heard those Christian phrases before, maybe in songs, but something like, "Purchased by the blood of the Lamb," or "Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb." This is referring to exactly that quote right there, where God is getting what was his back. What sin and death and Satan took, he's getting it back and it belongs to him. So we're talking about humanity being redeemed. This is about God taking humans back from evil and sin, redeeming us out of that into the life that he created us for.

Being redeemed by God is our only hope. The salvation that he gives is the only hope to the problem of sin. There is no other way. The world around us says that there's a lot of ways to deal with the pain and sin, and there is only one, and it's through Jesus Christ. And while we don't get all of that here, that huge definition of redemption and Jesus Christ, we don't get all of it per se in Genesis 3:15, we get the first building block of God's plan of redemption. We have the fortune of knowing the rest of the story. We can look back on this verse and understand that all that God is saying and implying in Genesis 3.15. But what's said right here is just a glimmer of faint hope. "He will crush your head and you will strike his heel." And if you know the Bible, you're putting together already, when you hear that, you know. We're talking about Jesus, we're talking about Satan, and we're talking about the death on the cross. So God is already saying, "I know what just happened here and how unfortunate this is, how devastating this is. I've got a plan. I've got a plan." Well, as we've also been doing in our series, I want to take time this morning to show how this theme shows up throughout the rest of Scripture. And just again, highlighting things, this is kind of just an overview, because each of these things I'm about to bring up could be its own sermon series in a way. But I want to show us how redemption is woven throughout Scripture. And it's a slow reveal. More and more of the plan becomes known over time. But what do we know right now? God tells the snake, despite this apparent victory in the garden, it's destined for defeat. The snake will be crushed. But the snake will deliver a lethal strike to the crusher. And so we have this mysterious future victory, but it gives us a clue to God's rescue plan.

He's got a plan to take what's His back. And the next part where we get more is Genesis 12, 15, and 17. You see, Genesis is divided up kind of into two sections. Genesis 1 through 11 is God interacting with the entire world. Genesis 12 through the end of Genesis is God interacting with one family, Abraham, and his plan to redeem, this plan of redemption being put in place through Abraham and his family. And so in Genesis 12, it kicks off with a covenant made to Abraham for a people, a land, and a blessing. It says in Genesis 12, 2 through 3, "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." So again, if we put on our lens of knowing the whole story, we look back at this and we say, "We know that God is talking about Jesus right here." And then in Genesis 15 and 17, he expounds more on that promise to Abraham. But God is saying, "Through your family, Abraham, I will bring a Savior that will be a blessing to the entire world." So now our picture of God's redemptive plan is filling out some more.

Now are you ready for even more? I got a lot of information. If you're a note taker, I'll let you know when to write something down. But I want to show some specifics here. So the first thing, this is God unveils this redemptive plan and there's a lot of different aspects. I don't know if you guys have ever played like Cranium or is it... Is it that game that you have little pie pieces and whoever gets the... It's like a trivia game? Anyways, this is Trivial Pursuit. Thank you. And if you ever played Trivial Pursuit, there's different categories. And if you get it and you fill out your little pie, that's kind of what's happening here. Don't... a little bit. So we're giving all these different pictures and pieces of God's redemption and how it works in the Bible. So the first one is this. First specific of redemption plan is redemption from enslavement. If you've read your Bible, you know that pretty soon after Abraham and his family gets going, they're in Egypt and they become enslaved. Exodus 6, Deuteronomy, God establishes a pattern of redemption by rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and bringing them back into his family. This is the part of the framework of redemption. It's not his entire plan, but he's letting the people know, he's letting us know more about him, about God, and his plan is he reveals this piece that, "Hey, when you get in trouble, when you are in some stage of consequence of sin, which is slavery, I have the power to redeem you and bring you out of that." So the redemption from enslavement.

We also have the redemption of the firstborn. Another part, Exodus 13 and Numbers 3, after the tenth plague, so where Israel is in Egypt and Moses has been sent and he says, "Hey, you got to get my people," and Pharaoh's like, "No," and so then the plagues happen. That's God saying, "Hey, I have the power to bring my people. Will you let them go?" And he sends the plagues and the tenth plague brings death of the firstborn of Egypt and Israel. Israel was not exempt. It wasn't just the Egyptians' firstborn. It was everyone in that land. All their firstborns were going to die, and God instructs Israel to redeem their firstborns by sacrificing a perfect lamb, painting that blood over the doorpost, and when the Holy Spirit would come through, he would let the firstborns live. If those people who show that they believe in God and trust in God, this is where Passover comes from. So he knew who to let live, and this is the redemption of the firstborn. This is another sign of where certain death is there. God is saying, "I have the power to redeem you from that situation and bring you back into life.”

The next one is redemption of land and enslaved relatives. It's found a lot in Leviticus, and this is where this happens because Israel experienced God's rescue and redemption from slavery. So now we're fast-forwarding in our story. Again, if you haven't noticed, we're just working our way through the Bible here in order. And God has brought them out of Egypt, and he's giving them instructions about how to be a nation. This is why I want you, Israel. This is how I want you to run as a people. Because of their past experience and being redeemed from slavery, God calls Israel to do likewise by redeeming family land and relatives sold as slaves due to poverty. So what would happen is they had a seven-year cycle. I'm just going to give you a little history and context here. And if your business was going so bad or your crops were going bad, you'd have to go to someone and say, "Hey, I need to borrow some money. It's not going well." And if that happened so much, you would give of yourself. You'd offer yourself into slavery and say, "I'm just going to work for you." But God said that's not going to be forever. We saw that happen in Egypt. We saw how bad that was and how the selfishness of humanity would take over and just run that slave into the ground and just use them and abuse them. And so he says, "We're going to have what's referred to as the year of Jubilee." Every seven years, the land was restored. Slaves were set free. Debts were forgiven. It's this amazing system that God created. And he said, "Look, we're going to put a cap on these unfortunate situations and give back." If you had to give up your land to make it, you get that land back at the end of seven years. If you had a debt that was racking up and you're working, it's just not working out, well, that debt is forgiven at the end of seven years. And so there's a redemption of land and enslaved relatives that's built into God's plan and God's people. The Israelites receive these commands from God. Again, they likely had that fresh and painful memories of the brutalities related to their experience in Egypt. And so God calls them to never perpetuate that kind of oppression again. Instead, they are to live according to his own pattern of redemption, refusing to let any Israelite stay trapped in poverty or bondage forever. Beautiful. Again, another piece in our pie puzzle of what redemption looks like and God's plan of redemption playing out in the people and in the Bible.

The next one is the redemption of blood. This is found in Numbers 35. And the Hebrew Bible describes not only the redemption of land and people, but also the redemption of blood in the wake of a murder. So what God instituted were these cities of refuge. Where if someone accidentally killed someone, accidentally killed someone, they could go to this city and be safe until they stood trial before the assembly. And these regulations about the redemption of blood are about preventing the spiral of violence. That people, when even if it's an accident, people get angry. And they might want to act out and say, "I don't care if it was an accident. I want to get back at you. I want to take your life." And God says, "We're going to have moments where we have opportunities for people to escape that, go to have a safe place to be until they stand trial, and we'll see what happens then." But it's about preventing the spiral of violence and upholding the supreme value that God puts on human life. So another piece of our puzzle. God continues to reveal more about his plan of redemption.

And we see it next in the Bible in Boaz's redemption of Naomi and restoration of Ruth. If you've heard of these people, you know the story. If you haven't yet, these are Israelites except for Ruth. And you should read the book of Ruth. It's really short. But it's all foreshadowing what God is doing in this bigger picture of redemption. Boaz acts as a kinsman redeemer for his relative Naomi, buying her land and restoring her widowed daughter-in-law Ruth back to the family through marriage. And so we see again, this is all the... In the book of Ruth, they follow the laws that God had instituted. And it creates this beautiful scenario. And it also foreshadows what Christ will do through his sacrifice. Redeeming us back into his family.

We next have the redemption from distress or death. The Hebrew Bible describes many situations where people are redeemed from situations of distress or death. That first Samuel passage is a passage in the Old Testament where Jonathan, who's the son of the first king of Israel, King Saul. Jonathan is his son. And he goes against his father's words. And the punishment for going against the king's words was death. If you disobey the king, you die. But he's saved from that outcome because of his character. And he follows God and all the men vouch for him. And he was not put to death. And again, this just foreshadows. This is a moment of redemption where he was bound. He should have died. But God has the power to do something about people who should die. That's foreshadowing the power that God displays through Jesus on the cross. And the eternal punishment we should face for our sin but that God saves us from.

Continuing on, if you know the story of Israel and through the Bible after the kings, the kings were not a good thing for Israel. And they get into exile. And other nations come and they take Israel. And so then we have this theme of the redemption from exile. And a lot of the prophets talk about this, but specifically Isaiah 43.1 says, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you." So God is telling the people through the prophets, "I have a plan. I will bring you back." God promises to redeem the Israelites from Babylonian exile, just as he earlier redeemed them from slavery in Egypt. And when God redeems his people, he not only frees them, but also forgives their sins that led to their exile in the first place. God says their wrongdoing will be removed like a heavy mist that vanishes. That's Isaiah 44 and 22. And as he redeems them from exile, God is also inviting them back into loving relationship with him. I love this picture, how loving God is in the prophets. When you read it, it's very dark, it's very heavy. It's a sad message because Israel's reality is so broken. But on God's side, it's such a picture of love. He's saying, "I forgive you, come back to me, and I love you." We know, having been in life where people have wronged us, how hard that is, we know we often want to say, "Sure, we can come back." But there's going to be some stipulations now. And we got some distance now, we got to build some trust again. But God in his infinite love says, "I forgive you, come back into my family. I love you just the same." I hope that we're getting the picture. All these pieces and the parts of redemption that God is playing out. All that sin has distorted and the pains and tragic realities that sin has caused for humanity, God has the power and his redemption redeems all of it. In the end, at the end, God will redeem all that sin has touched. Sin touched everything in the world, from the earth that we work with, to our lives, to the death that we face. That's all the cause of sin. And God is going to redeem all of it. God is doing work to redeem his people.

Then we get, at the end of the prophets, now in our Bibles, we're in the New Testament. And so we have redemption anticipated through Jesus. And this is going to be through his ministry, through his life and ministry. Israel awaited the fulfillment of the prophetic promise of redemption for centuries. But Jesus' way of fulfilling that promise surprises everyone. We've talked about this in many series. At this part in Israel's time, they're expecting a certain king. A king that would free them from the political landscape, that would bring them up to be a kingdom, an earthly kingdom, where they could rule over the other kingdoms in the world. But the way that Jesus fulfills the promise of redemption is so different than what the people were expecting. I want us to hear this today. We need to hear this today. Jesus is trying to tell the world at the time that the people's real enemies are not Romans, or other flesh and blood people, but the cosmic powers of sin and death. And Jesus redeems people from those powers so that he might restore them to life with God. That's what Jesus' mission was. I want to read this again. This is so important that we hear this, and I want to let you apply this in our context today. Jesus is trying to tell the world at the time that the people's real enemies are not the Romans, or other flesh and blood people. The enemy is the cosmic power of sin and death. And Jesus redeems people from those powers so that he might restore them to life with God. Church, we need to understand who our enemy is today. The word enemy is thrown around a lot, and we need to remember the words of Jesus and who he says our enemy is, who his enemy is, and therefore as Christians who our enemy is. And it's Satan, it's the enemy. It's the enemy. And the way that his sin and the power of death works in life, that's what we are fighting against. He did not speak into and affirm the people's desires to have an earthly king, to see their earthly enemies, who they thought were enemies, destroyed or killed. He doesn't do any of that. He doesn't speak to that. He redirects them to the real enemy, the cosmic power of sin and death, Satan. And we too need to be reminded that the flesh and blood people in our world are the ones that we need to love, that we need to reach with the gospel. Your enemy today is still Satan. Jesus is the only one who can redeem from those powers and restore us to life with God. If you are a Christian and you believe and you are in the family of God, then you too have the same enemy as him.

In the New Testament, we anticipate the redemption at the end of the gospels, the redemption is accomplished through Christ. And that's the final piece of our puzzle here, as we filled out what redemption looks like through scripture, we come to redemption accomplished through Jesus. Jesus redeems people from the corruption of sin and death. And there are so many passages, I only listed three here. I want to read Romans 3, it says, "The righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are all justified freely by his grace through redemption that came by Christ Jesus." God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith. All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. After the gospels in the New Testament, every letter, every book in the New Testament talks about the redemption found in Christ. 1 Peter says, "Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, so your faith and hope are in God." There's just so many more. But it talks about the accomplished work of Jesus. So by teaching us to relate rightly with God and neighbor, Jesus restored us to the kind of people God made humanity to be. He repossesses, he redeems us back into God's family. So we have a slide of everything listed up here. This is all the full picture of redemption throughout the scriptures. And all of it helps us understand the power of God, who he is, different aspects of how we see redemption. Even today, we can see some of these happening. All of these fill out God's redemptive rescue plan. They all show a different facet of God's redemptive work in the world and in our lives. There's another quote I want to share with you. It says this. I think we have a slide. Maybe we don't. "God's redemption aims for his people to be restored to his family, living as his children. Ultimately, God's redemption aims at healing people, making them whole and setting them free to be truly human so that they can live in ways that bring life for themselves, for others and for creation." He's bringing you back to the garden and say, "This is what I meant you to do. Do this now. I'll bring you back to the purpose that I created humanity for." Healing people, making them whole, setting them free to be truly human in the ways to bring life to others, for ourselves and for creation. All that sin touched, the ground that Adam had to work, the death that Adam and Eve and humanity faced, the pain, perversion, the slavery, the stealing, all the sin, God's plan of redemption rescues it all. So hearing all that with the context of all this in the Bible, we read Genesis 3.15, and it means so much more. "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers, and he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”

We understand that God had an incredible rescue plan from the beginning. I just want to have some very brief exhortations for us today in light of our message. The first is this, trust in God's redemptive plan, even when it unfolds over time. This book covers thousands of years, and the moment that hope entered is in the first few pages, and we don't get the fulfillment of that redemption until way over here. Trust in God's redemptive plan, even when it takes a long time. It can be hard to wait. It's so hard to be in the waiting, to not have everything restored and rescued right away, when we know that God has the power to do it right away. Some of us want to be perfect, we want to be better. And so we're like, "God, just make me, like, do the work quickly. Can you just microwave this whole process and, like, make me perfect?" But the work of the Spirit is a slow one, and it takes time. And it goes on for our entire lives. And so how does this affect your day-to-day faith with God? God's redemptive plan taking place over time? Where in your life do you need to rely on God, even in the waiting, and trust in his redemptive plan and work? Whether for you or for someone else in your life, how can you trust in God's redemptive plan?

Next is, remember God's redemption plan covers everything. Nothing and no one is beyond God's redemptive plan and power. We may not understand how that's possible. We may see someone and be like, "There's no way that God can save them. They are way out there." But God has outlined in his Word that his plan of redemption reaches everything that sin has touched, including the person that we don't know how they're going to get to God, but God has a way to get to them. How does that affect the way we view others? How does that affect the way we view the tragedies and chaos of the world? Remember the power of Christ's sacrifice in his heart to see everyone come to be restored into his family. And that leads us to the last one. Desire God's redemptive work in the lives of others. Pastor Chris, last week at our celebration Sunday, introduced the new vision for this next year, which was the 167. We have 168 hours in our week. One of them is spent here at church every week, hopefully at Sunday here in Spring Valley. And so what are you going to do with the other 167 hours to be intentional in partnering with God in his redemptive work in the world today? Who in your life would you love to see God's redemptive work take place in? Are you a part of God's redemptive plan for that person then? If you're like, "Hey, I know that I would love to see this person come to Jesus." Are you partaking with God and pushing that along in that plan that's taking place? Who do you need to talk to about Jesus or invite to church?

We need to be people who desire to see God's redemptive work in the lives of others, to take joy in it, to be eager to partner with God and say, "God, put me in." Is this the conversation you want? Spirit, are you prompting me right now? God, I'm going to keep praying. There's no conversation. I'm just going to keep praying for this person. Trust in God's redemptive plan. Remember his plan that covers everything and desire God's redemptive plan in the work of others. I hope that this pattern of redemption in scripture is more visible to you now, that when you read scripture, you go to your Bible, you see this plan of redemption more clearly, and that you can rejoice in the work that God is doing.

We Are The Church: Part 3

We Are The Church: Part 3

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, we are on our last week of our series for We Are The Church, and I'm really excited for what we're gonna talk about today but before we dive into that, I just wanna give you guys a reminder that at the beginning of this series, we talked about the Church Pulse Assessment that has been sent out to you through our email list and I believe there's even a text going out this afternoon as another reminder, but we would just really appreciate if all of you would take probably 10, 15 minutes to just go through that assessment. It'll help us as a leadership team to know where we can grow, what areas of weakness and strengths that we have, what you are looking for in your church body, but this is just something that we are going to have you go through, have everyone go through so that it will help us as we focus in on this next year. So if you would take some time to do that, we would really appreciate our goal is to get everyone to do that, so we would love for you to help us out with that.

We as a leadership team have a desire to see Spring Valley Church, really the global church, but specifically for us here at Spring Valley, for it to be your third place. Now, what is the third place? Well, in our culture, we often have three places. We have our home, we have our work, and then we have a third place, wherever you spend a lot of time. So for some people, maybe it's a coffee shop. I actually think Starbucks is the one who coined this term, who started this idea of a third place 'cause they wanted you to come be at their stores. But maybe it's a coffee shop or a bookstore. Maybe it is the library. Perhaps it's a really close friend's house or the home that you grew up in that your parents still live in. Wherever it is that if you're not at home or work or school, you are at this third place. And we just, we kind of have this dream or this vision that we would be your third place. Now, even if it's not the church building itself, although we have a lot of events and things here, obviously we hold our church services here, even if it's not here specifically, that the body, the people, our SVC family, wherever you may be gathering would be your third place. We hope that it's a place that when service is over, you stay and you talk, you linger. That's why we got the picnic tables outside. That's why we try to have an all-church meal regularly so we can stay after and fellowship and be with each other. Maybe it's this idea of when the check has been paid, maybe you've gone out to lunch after service or you meet up with some church friends on a Friday night, that after the check has been paid, you don't rush off, but you stay. And you continue to be together. We want it to be a place where we are in each other's business, we're in each other's lives regularly. That is our hope. And honestly, that's what a big part of what we're celebrating today, is the fact that people have chosen to make Spring Valley their church family or their third place. And we are so excited about what God is doing here. So we're gonna look more into that, about what that means for us individually and corporately as a church body.

There was a Harvard study done that said that one in three people believe the following. It says that, they said, "You have needs in your life "and no one to meet them. "You have hurts to share and no one to listen to them. "You have love to give and no one to receive it." So one of the 36 of Americans are enduring ongoing feelings of loneliness, isolation and longing to be loved and to love. 36%. Honestly, I would imagine that's actually kind of low, to some degree. 'Cause it's not God's design or His intention for His kids. That's not how He made us, to be enduring feelings of loneliness, isolation and wanting to love and be loved. We're actually on a pause from our Genesis series for this We Are the Church series, but I'm actually gonna take us to Genesis again. 'Cause I think it's a really good reminder of why we are built for community. So in Genesis one, God, we see creation. God made order out of chaos and He created the world. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and He said, "It is good." Let there be light, light was good. Stars, planets, fish, plants, birds, animals. All of it, He said, was good. But then God said something wasn't good. After He made man, made Adam, and He saw that Adam had no one to do life with, had no one to laugh with or cry with or spend time with or share experiences with, He said, "This isn't good." Genesis 2:18 says, "The Lord God said, 'It is not good "'for the man to be alone. "'I will make a helper suitable for him.’"

And then moving on to 22, "Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib "He had taken out of the man "and He brought her to the man. "The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones "'and flesh of my flesh. "'She shall be called woman "'for she was taken out of the man.'" It wasn't good for him to be alone. God designed them to be together, to be in community. We know this because of what we've also talked about in our Genesis series of what came before man was made. What did God say before He made humans? Genesis 1:26, "Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness. "Let us make them in our image." That's plural language. So we see that the Trinity exists in community. We have Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. There's this perfect community that exists, distinct persons, but united as one. Now, God didn't create us because He was lonely. We see that because He was in community. He wasn't lonely and God doesn't need anything. So He didn't create us because He was lonely. He created us because He is love. Love isn't what God did, it's who He is. And He wanted to make us, to be in relationship with us. That's where we get the greatest commandment. Matthew 22, Jesus says, "The greatest commandment "is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, "and love your neighbor as yourself." So out of His love, He created us and then He gave us each other so that we can love Him and love each other. We were made for community.

The early church that we see in the book of Acts is really embraced this idea. They understood it. They knew that they needed each other. If you'll turn with me to Acts 2 in your Bibles or your phones, we'll also have it up on the screen. Acts 2:46-47, we see this picture of the early church embracing their community. It says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching "and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, "and to prayer. "Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs "performed by the apostles. "All the believers were together "and had everything in common. "They sold property and possessions to give "to anyone who had need." Verse 46, "Every day they continued to meet together "in the temple courts. "They broke bread in their homes and ate together "with glad and sincere hearts, praising God "and enjoying the favor of all the people. "And the Lord added to their number daily "those who were being saved." Every day they were together. They met together, they spent time together, they made food together, they ate and did life, they took care of each other. It was more than just physical proximity, although that was very important, but it created a spiritual intimacy and an emotional unity.

Why did they gather so often? Well, they needed each other and they knew they needed each other. They were aware of it, so they did something about it. Many believers, all believers, need that community too, but I think, especially in our modern day, we've forgotten it. We have forgotten how much we need each other. Maybe we have our immediate family, maybe we have our best friend or our spouse, but then beyond that, we forget that we need other people. A lot of us have embraced this, an isolating existence, maybe not even intentionally, but with the way of technology and advancement in conveniences, we work and shop and play online. We have social media that's not actually that social. We think it is, we pretend it is. And don't get me wrong, you can make real, I have made friendships with people online, but it's different, it's different when you are in person. We watch sermons, we listen to podcasts, we listen to audiobooks, all online. We think we don't need anything else, we don't need to go out or be with people. These are not bad things, please hear me on that. I do all of those things myself, these are not bad things. But I think we've lost the thread when it comes to truly living in community with other people, of seeing others and being seen by them. You can't do that when you're alone, you can't do that when you're just behind a screen, you can't do that when you're choosing to live in isolation. The reality is that as we all know, relationships can be messy. It can be scary to be vulnerable, to open ourselves up to people, to risk being hurt, 'cause we're all imperfect, we're all gonna mess up. And honestly, I think sometimes it's just inconvenient. We have work, we have our homes, we have our families, we have things we've gotta do, and so to put those on pause, to go be with other people can be really inconvenient, or even to invite people into that can be really inconvenient. So we don't, or we limit it. But see, being with each other is so good for us. It's good for our mental health, as science shows. It is good for the joy of our lives, it adds so much joy. It provides opportunity for encouragement and accountability. It helps breathe spiritual growth like nothing else does. You need each other, we need each other. Acts says that they met together daily, in person, in their homes, they went to each other's houses. They were all up in each other's business. They saw each other parenting, they saw their marriages, they saw what happens when they were stressed. And the thing with those kinds of relationships and that kind of community, it doesn't stay at surface level for very long, it can't. When you see who someone is when they are stressed out, you know who they are. I mean, if you think about what do we do when we have a loved one or someone we care about that suffers a tragedy or a loss? Maybe we send a text, hey, thinking about you, praying for you, let me know how I can help. Maybe we send flowers or drop off a meal on their porch. These are all good things, don't stop those things, do those things. But may I encourage you to pick up the phone. I think I'm probably more talking to my generation and younger, we have like an allergy to phone calls. Right, pick up the phone, let them hear your voice. Or, and hang with me here, go to them. Go be with them. Show up on their porch with a hot pizza and a hug and you are just ready to practice the ministry of presence. You are just there for them. You're a hand to hold, a shoulder to cry in, you don't have to say anything.

Sometimes people just wanna know that they are seen and they are known and they're not alone. I think sometimes we don't feel like we've maybe built up the relational equity needed to do that, needed to step into someone's space or to invite them into ours. But do you know where that relational equity is built? In regular, intentional community. When we are intentional about being with each other, it builds that relational equity so that we can show up for each other. Having Christian community, being the church, having this be your third place will not happen by accident. It has to be done intentionally. But when it is, it's what combats the loneliness. It's what fights against the things we talked about earlier from the Harvard study. It says, it's gonna provide someone who can help you meet your needs. It's going to give you someone whom you can share your hurt with, who will listen to you and pray for you. It's gonna give you someone to love and who will love you. When we commit to being in relationship with others, it combats the loneliness, it pushes it back in our own lives, but also in the lives of others. When we are committing to Christian community, we're creating the opportunity for ourselves to be in community, but also for others. What if, at least to some extent, God is asking you to live in Christian community, not for yourself, but for someone else? Maybe you're one of the two out of three that isn't struggling with loneliness or isolation right now. You still need community because other people need you. Someone else may need you to be there, to show up. And I promise you, one day, you're gonna be on the receiving end of that, but you have to be engaged consistently and intentionally in the body of Christ.

Our leadership team here has worked really hard to try to create some of these spaces and places for you to come and be a part of that. Our monthly men's and women's events, the guys just had an awesome time at ax throwing on Friday night. Yeah, I heard it was so much fun. Ladies, should we go ax throwing, maybe? No, okay. I'm just saying, the guys had so much fun. Well, we have our men's and women's events, we have our weekly Bible studies, we have youth on Monday nights for our students, family fun night we got coming up on Friday, and we want to create more. We're working to gather more opportunities for us to come together in addition to our Sunday morning. But we do this because like the early church, we know that we need each other. But here's where I might step on some toes. We can provide the place, but you have to choose it. You have to prioritize it. Just like we often choose things that cause us to live in isolation, sometimes we choose things that prevent us from engaging in that Christian community, from being there when we know we should be. And sometimes it's as simple as we over schedule. We say yes to too many things, not necessarily bad things, but we just say yes to too many things. Maybe we have all the kids' extracurricular activities or sports, maybe we take all the overtime shifts that we can. Maybe we just are hiding. Instead of opening ourselves up to other people, we would rather hide. We'd rather stay isolated. We'd rather protect ourselves. We don't want to be inconvenienced. 'Cause it is, it can be inconvenient. But it is so vital to our Christian life, to our spiritual growth and to our walk with Christ to do so alongside other believers. That is why we gather. The early church knew that and we can model our life after that. So what do we want our Christian community to be like? Well, I think there's many things, but we're gonna look at four things that we want our Christian community here at Spring Valley Church, your third place to be.

Number one, we want it to be full of grace. Acts 20:32, Paul is talking to the believers in the church and he says, "Now I commit you to God "and to the word of His grace, which can build you up "and give you an inheritance among all those "who are sanctified." We are given God's grace for the purpose of our sanctification, which means we are just being more, made more and more like Jesus. But because we have been given His grace, we can extend that grace to other people. So when someone walks in, it is not a place of judgment. Everyone is welcome. Come as you are. Jesus called people to Him. He didn't say, "Go clean yourself up first." He said, "Come follow me." So just like we have been given so much grace, we live in that grace and we extend that grace to other people. So we want our community to be a place that is full of grace. And all of these things require your participation. I can say these things all day long, but all of us have to embrace these practices so that we are all participating in this community, in this way. So we gotta be full of grace.

Number two, we want our community to be a place of healing. I read a pastor's quote this week. He says, "Confess to God for forgiveness. "Confess to people for healing." Now, we can be healed. God is the one who does the healing. But there is something supernatural that happens when we confess to someone else. James 5:16 says, "Therefore, confess your sins "to each other and pray for each other "so that you may be healed. "The prayer of a righteous person "is powerful and effective." I've said it before and I'll say it again, revival will not happen without confession and repentance. We cannot have revival in our own hearts or in our church until we confess and repent and turn away from what breaks the heart of God. Now, confessing often just means confessing your sin, admitting the sin you've had. You take it to God and you ask for forgiveness. But when I talk about confessing to other people, I'm talking about sharing that with someone, expressing that struggle to them so they can pray for you, so they can hold you accountable, so that they can be there for you. But it can also mean confessing something else that you are going through. Maybe it is a struggle, maybe it is a past hurt or trauma that you've never shared with anyone and you can't experience healing because it is keeping you in bondage 'cause you've never told anyone. When we practice confession with other people, when we surround ourselves with people that will pray for us and will intercede for us on our behalf, we experience freedom from bondage. Chains are broken, supernatural and spiritual healing comes through confession. So we wanna be a place of healing.

Number three, we wanna be unified in our mission. We wanna be on the same page when it comes to what we are called to as a body. Acts 2, again, 46 through 47 says, "Every day they continue to meet together "in the temple courts. "They broke bread in their homes "and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, "praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people "and all the Lord added to their number daily, "those who were being saved." Our mission is to spread the gospel. That's our number one goal, is to point people to Jesus and make heaven crowded. We want to see our community saturated with the glory of God. That's our mission, is to be filled up here and then go out and overflow to the world. When we are operating in community regularly, we become more unified in that mission. Are we adding to our number daily, those who are being saved? No, but we are growing. And again, that's something we're gonna celebrate this afternoon. That we are seeing numbers being added to us daily. And we don't celebrate them just for the sake of bigger numbers and seeing those numbers grow. We are celebrating souls that were lost that have now been found. Lives that have been surrendered to Christ. People that have joined our Christian community and chosen to be part of our Spring Valley family. That is what we are celebrating. But again, it's because we meet together regularly that we build up the body, that we become clear in our mission. That we're in it together, that we're stronger together and that it builds our faith and it builds our relationships so that we can be more effective for His kingdom.

Number four, it is where we become battle ready. Our time and community makes us ready for the spiritual battles that we face every day. In the church in America, I think we really downplay the spirit realm, spiritual warfare. And I think part of it is we're afraid of sounding a little crazy or even of running the risk of over spiritualizing things. But at the risk of over spiritualizing it, I'm gonna tell you there is a spiritual battle. We all face those battles. And so when we come together, it is an equipping of the saints. It is getting us battle ready for when we go out and we face those spiritual battles. The Bible says we don't fight against flesh and blood, but against powers and authorities and principalities of the dark world. We're not gonna be very good at fighting spiritual battles if we have not become ready, if we have not armored up and been prepared. So we come together and we're equipped through worship, through the teaching of God's word, through fellowship. Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron, "so one person sharpens another." You can't sharpen something without contact. It has to come into contact in order to be sharpened. But when it's sharp, we become dangerous to the enemy. Through community, we are given the tools we need to combat, to combat the enemy, to combat in spiritual warfare, and we are just stronger in numbers.

Paul talks about this in Ephesians when he tells us to put on the full armor of God. When he's writing this, he's referring to the Roman soldier's armor. And he talks about the shield of faith, that that is the main form of protection. And the Roman soldiers would have a giant shield that would, basically big enough to hide behind. But when the enemy was sending flaming arrows arcing over into their territory, they would circle up and lift up their shields to create a shell. So not only was it protecting them, it was protecting their fellow soldier. So when we become battle ready, not only is it going to help us and prepare us to fight a spiritual battle, it's gonna protect our brothers and sisters. We have a couple guys in our church who are ex-military, and they have tattoos that say I-G-Y-6 And I asked them about it. I said, "What does I-G-Y -6 stand for?" And they said, "I got your six." Meaning, I've got your back. Paul talks a lot about soldiers and being ready and armoring up and military language. So just like our men and women in uniform, we as the body of believers, we have each other's backs. We can say that because we are operating in community, I got your six, I've got your back. But we can't do that if we don't know each other, if we aren't spending time together, if we aren't with each other.

When we live life together and have real conversations, when we open ourselves up to vulnerability, when we get equipped, we're gonna be more prepared to defend against the devil schemes. Friends, there's a lot of darkness in this world. We are not ignorant to that. We've seen that time and time again. More school shootings than I'd like to count. Oh, immigrant woman being brutally murdered on public transportation. Charlie Kirk being assassinated over and over. There are stories of terrible things. Evil is rampant in our world. But I'm here to tell you that the church of Jesus Christ is alive and well. But we have to get ready. When we are full of grace, when we are a place of confession that leads to healing, when we are unified in our mission, in our battle ready, we will together be able to push back that darkness. We'll be able to stand firm with clarity and courage against the lies of the enemy. We can push back against tribalism and division. Then we get to offer peace to the world, the peace of Christ. We get to be the peace bearers that go out and point people to Jesus. Our loneliness will be our downfall. Our isolation from each other will be our downfall. But Matthew 18:20 says, for where two or three gather in the name of the Lord, He will be there with us. So maybe loneliness and isolation will be our downfall, but victory through Jesus will happen and be found in community. So we are the church. Who's ready to commit to being a part of the body of Christ, to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Sign me up for that. Sign me up for that.

Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you that you made us for community, that you made us for relationships, that you put us together so that we can make each other better, so that we could sharpen each other, so that we wouldn't be lonely or trying to do this life in isolation. God, thank you for our church family. Thank you for this place that we can call our church home, that we can come together and fellowship with each other, that we can be with each other in the lows and celebrate in the highs. We praise you for designing us this way, for knowing that we would need each other. Help us to lean into that. Help us to be vulnerable. Help us to be open. Help us to be committed to where you have placed us in the body of Christ. We praise you. We thank you. We love you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

We Are The Church: Part 2

We Are The Church: Part 2

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, my name is Andrei, I'm one of the pastors here and we're glad that we're all together this Sunday. We are taking a break, as was said, from our Genesis series. We're doing the We Are The Church series. I want to remind you that we sent out an assessment, a church assessment via text, via email this past week and many of you have taken it, we really appreciate that. If you haven't yet, don't you worry, you're getting another text and another email and another opportunity to take that church assessment. And again, it's all to help us as a church and our leadership to understand where we're at and to move forward with the best steps possible. So if you could take some time this week, if you haven't yet, to take that church assessment, we would really appreciate that.

Last week, Pastor Chris started off our series, We Are The Church, and he had three mindsets for us, to be more devoted, to be more generous, and to share the love of Jesus, which we're going to talk about more today. But he ended with the encouragement to change the object of our devotion by taking one step. And he said maybe that is to begin tithing or to increase your tithing, to begin volunteering at church, to pray daily, and whatever that step was for you, I pray that God has been stirring within you clarity over what the step is to take and that you guys are taking those steps every day and these weeks ahead. So we are excited about what this series is going to mean for us individually and us as a church.

Today we're going to be talking about a question, why are we the church? Why are we the church? And while the verbiage may be different from every church that you go to generally, there are two things that are hidden in every kind of mission statement or vision statement for a church, and that is to bring glory to God and to bring people to Jesus. So those two things, to bring glory to God, to bring people to Jesus, this is why the church exists. We say it, it's on our wall here at Spring Valley, to see our community saturated with the glory of God through making disciples in the everyday stuff of life. So you can see in there we're trying to bring glory to God, and we're also trying to bring people to Jesus. Sometimes that can go from the forefront of our minds to the back, and we tend to forget why we are the church, why we're Christians and what our purpose is and why we gather together, even when it is a huge font on the side of our sanctuary. Sometimes we forget.

This reminds me of a story. When I was a pastor at a former church at East Parkway, there was a group. As I was pastoring, the group started coming to church, and it was eight to ten people, and they all came in this big van, this big 12-passenger van, and they were people who were in recovery or homeless, and they all came from a shelter up the road. They came from a long ways away, men and women, all dealing with, again, some point in their recovery, and they would drive over an hour to be here because someone, the person who was bringing them, had gone through recovery and seen the importance of church. They had a family member that went to that church, and so he was like, "Hey, I'm going to church now, and I think all these other people should also go to church." In order to be on time, I can give you the setting here, they would get there really early because they were driving far away, and so they'd often just be there in the parking lot for more than a half hour just chilling. For those who didn't know their story, it kind of looked a little odd. There's a group of 10 or 11 people, eight to ten, whatever, people sitting in the parking lot, smoking a lot of cigarettes, and not looking maybe like everyone else at the church. They were dressed in their best, but sometimes you go to a certain church setting, and there's just like, "Oh, well, we all look like this, and these people don't look like that." And again, it was a little off-putting for those who didn't know the story of why is there a group loitering in the parking lot and just smoking away, and then they come and they take all our brownies and cookies in the morning, and they keep drinking all the coffee. But for those who did know, it always put a smile on our faces to see that they were there. Why? Because we knew that this is why the church existed, to bring glory to God and to bring people to Jesus, and the person driving those people was bringing people to the house of God to go to church on Sundays. And as their story kind of came out over Sundays after Sundays, and people were asking, "Who are they? Who are they?" And then eventually the whole church knew, and the whole church, even if they didn't at first understand and see, but they were coming as they were, just love them as they were, and so the church had to learn to do the same.

And today we're going to be in a passage in Scripture where Jesus accepts someone just as they are, and the example that it is to us of why the church is the church. And so we're going to be in Mark 2. If you have your Bibles, you can follow along on the screen or on your phone. So we're going to be in Mark 2, and just to give a little background, Jesus has returned to home base, Capernaum, and he's teaching in a home, and there's no room left. As you can imagine, Jesus has quite the following, and when he comes into town, people want to hear, and so he comes to this house, and it is packed. It's like if Jesus showed up to one of your life groups, and you'd just be texting, like, "Hey, he's here, and you should get here," and your house was full. And this group at this house has got some pretty important people. You got everyone from the next-door neighbors to religious leaders who showed up to hear Jesus talk. From our passage, I want us to see the types of people that we see in this story and remind us that it's the very same types of people that we see in church today. So I'm going to pray, and then we're going to read. If you guys could bow your heads one more time with me. God, thank you for the chance to gather. We do not ever want to take this for granted. We can gather on a Sunday freely and worship you and hear your truth be preached. God, we pray for this message that you have prepared. I pray that it would reach our hearts, that it would draw us closer to you, that it would encourage us to give you everything we have and to live for you every moment of every day. And God, I pray that as we have a deeper understanding of who you are, we would have a deeper understanding of who we are and why we as a church exist. So be with us this morning. We give this time to you. We pray this in your name. Amen. All right. Let me go ahead and read our passage, starting in verse 1, Mark 2. A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier, to say to this paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat, and walk?' But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." So he said to the man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home." He got up, took his mat, walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this.”

Another pastor, Pastor Greg Crochell, has some helpful insights into this passage, and I want to share some of those this morning. So we are going to look at five different types of people. In every church, you see five different types of people. The first is, you walk into a church, every church, you see someone in need. In our passage, it's the paralytic, in need of healing. Obviously, he has his friends there, but he needs something. He is living a life where he is not whole physically. And for that culture at that time, someone who was paralyzed, it was often associated with a generational sin. His parents must have done something, that he is now living a life like this. We won't get into all that right now, but this man is in need of physical healing. Today that could be in our church, someone battling depression, dealing with financial struggles, a single parent, someone feeling alone and hopeless, fighting anxiety. You come to church, and you are in need. There are people in our church today who are in need, in this room, who are in need. Sometimes that's us. We walk in, and we just need Jesus, and we need those other Christians in our lives. Other times, you go to church, and you're in a good place, you're experiencing a good season, God's blessing you, and you're able to think outside of yourselves, and you're aware of the needs around you, and that brings up our second person.

In every church, you will find someone who cares. In our passage, we see the four friends of this paralyzed man, who took it upon themselves to bring the man before Jesus. And they don't just stop once the house is filled. They didn't take him there like, "Hey, look, we couldn't get through. So sorry. Maybe we can meet Jesus next time, next week, at the Life Group, at this house." They care, they cared enough to keep going, determined to find a way to bring their friend to Jesus. Come back to that in a second. Today, in our church, there are people who care deeply for others, who have the capacity to care deeply. They are mindful of the lives that we are living, and people in need, and they want to do something about it. And maybe that's as simple as connecting with a person, sending them a text, "Hey, I know I was talking to this person on Sunday. I know they're going through a hard time. I'm going to reach out this week and just let them know that they're not alone. I'm thinking of them. I'm praying for them." Maybe that's meeting up for coffee and saying, "Hey, I know that they have a hard time getting out of the house. I'm going to go invite them to coffee. We're going to spend some time together." Maybe it's providing meals. Someone who's, "Hey, meal prepping is the thing that is very difficult right now. We're going to provide some meals for that person." Or maybe it's someone that we all cringe at, helping someone move. A classic, classic church help. And it's still good. We should all do it. We should help people move. It's a tough one. Maybe it's giving some money to someone who is in need and say, "Hey, I'm having a hard time this month. I'm doing my best, but it's just things aren't there." And there's someone who has the means to provide help. Whatever the need is, there are people in church who care. And I know, and I know that you guys know, I want to encourage us, there are people at Spring Valley who care, who have the capacity to care.

So you see, in church, you see someone in need, you see someone who cares, you also see someone who is preoccupied. In our passage, there's a whole house full of people, wall to wall, so full that four people could not get through. They had to dig a hole in the roof. I want to show, do we have the picture? There's a picture of a house. Can we put that up there? This is what they would have, something like this would have been what they were working with. So there's a kind of a courtyard, that was all full, just imagine that whole place packed with people. And the roof was made of some wooden beams, some straw and clay manure mixture, and then when it rained or if there was water put on top, that clay would kind of seal and harden. And so when it said they had to dig through the roof, they literally had to dig through some very hard materials to get through. And there was also like grass up there and people would work up there and just relax up there maybe after, I don't know. But there's, you could walk up on that roof, it was very strong. And so it was not a small thing to say, hey, we're just going to like put apart some straw. It was no, it was a whole material that they had to dig through. That's how committed these friends were, to get through all of that. And the friends could not get through that house. It was so packed. Even with, I imagine they were whispering, hey, we have someone here who needs to see Jesus. They're not just like, hey, we just want to go to the front. There's like, hey, we got something going on. Can we get through? And no one will let them through. They were all preoccupied. They had their backs turned to the person in need. I like how Pastor Craig says it in regards to how it can look today. It says there can be Christian circles that love Jesus. They have their Christian bumper stickers. They have their Christian language. They say, praise the Lord, hallelujah. They listen to KLOVE radio. They have their favorite podcast. And without knowing it, and without meaning it, just because they were preoccupied, their body language, their posture essentially says to people around them, you can go to hell as far as we're concerned, because we're doing our Jesus thing. They didn't mean to, but they can just have their little Christian thing going on, and it's a good thing. They all liked each other, but they didn't realize they were preoccupied and had their backs turned to someone who was in need. Are we too preoccupied that we don't see people in need? We all have our own needs. We're not denying that. But there's also, we need to be aware of the people that are sitting around us in this room that we encounter outside these walls in our lives that are needing Jesus. And even something good, like our own personal walk with God, should not deter us from lifting up our heads and saying, "Who's around me right now that may be needing Jesus? And can I participate in them seeing Jesus, meeting Jesus, hearing Jesus?" Those four friends, they didn't give up. They didn't let those circumstances stop them from getting their friend to Jesus. That's the kind of attitude and heart and action that we need to have as a church, willing to do anything short of sin to reach people who don't know Christ. Pastor Craig says to reach people no one is reaching, we'll have to do things no one is doing. Let's sink in for a second.

To reach people that no one is reaching, we might have to do some things that no one else is doing, to have the conversations that no one else is having, to go take the time and sacrifice our time to go spend it when no one else is doing it. The friends of the paralytic do that. They say, "You know what? We can dig a hole through the roof. No bad ideas. We are determined to get this man to Jesus. How are we going to do it? We're going to go up to the roof, we're going to dig a hole, we're going to lower our friend down to Jesus." Imagine the scene inside. You're sitting there, probably standing there, standing room only, shoulder to shoulder, trying to hear Jesus. All of a sudden, some dirt starts falling down from the roof. What is going on up there? And then a man, this gaping hole opens up, and there's a man being lowered down in front of Jesus. And I imagine Jesus with the biggest smile on his face as he sees what's happening. I think we know that Mark 2:5, it says, "When Jesus saw their faith," saw their faith. For those friends, faith wasn't just an internal belief. It was a strong enough belief that it led them to action. You ever know someone that had such a strong faith you could see it in their lives? I know I have. I've said this to people. I can see their faith in the way they serve. I can see their faith in the way they pray. I can see their faith in the way they love people who are really hard to love. I can see that person's faith in the way they give. I can see a person's faith in the way they have compassion with people. I can see a person's faith in the way they love, in the way they talk to their children as a parent. I can see a person's faith when they're talking with people who they disagree with, and they are loving them like Jesus. People can see the way, they can see our faith in the way that we live. And in moments throughout life when we are choosing to be like Jesus, those four friends had a faith that you could see. And Jesus says, "When I saw their faith, something amazing happened." I imagine the paralyzed man through all of this hoping and praying for physical healing. That's why he's there. His friends, that's why they're bringing him there for physical healing. I no longer want to be paralyzed. I want to walk. I want to be whole. And yet Jesus didn't just give him healing. In fact, he does something else first. Even though the man brought the paralytic to be healed, Jesus sees a need that is more important because Jesus can do that. He can see what we want but knows exactly what we need. Pastor Craig says it this way, "Sometimes God gives us what we need before he gives us what we want." The man is lowered down. It's probably clear what the situation is that he cannot walk. And before healing him, the first thing that Jesus says to him, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Sometimes God gives us what we need before he gives us what we want. The man wanted his body to be healed, but Jesus knew that his heart needed to be forgiven. Praise God that he can see what we truly need, not just what we want. And it's at this point though, there were some people in the house have issue with what's happening. And maybe it started with they got dirt in their face and they're a little upset by that. But definitely the healing of someone and claiming to be God, forgiving sins, is where some people got really upset.

And that brings us to the fourth type of person that we see in every church. It's the uncomfortable one. Brace yourselves. Someone who is critical. I don't mean like vitally important. I mean someone who is always critiquing what is happening in the church. Verses 6 through 7 say, "Now some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, 'Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?'" They're saying, "Jesus, you can't do this. That's not how this is going to happen. It's not how this is done." In churches today, there can be...that is present. There can be a lot of that. Someone who is critical, someone who is unhappy with things in church that aren't aligned with their preferences. They might not call them preferences. People who never seem to say anything positive, only negative, and complain and choose to see things through a critical lens. People who choose to ignore the work of Jesus that is happening in a church and instead make it about themselves and how they think, "This is not how I would do it," which means this is not how it should be done. But Jesus doesn't stop for the critics. Verse 10 says, "But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the man, 'I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home.'" Take up your mat and go. You don't need it anymore. Jesus continues his work. And he might be saying today, "Maybe not take up your mat, but hey, leave your struggles here. Leave that financial struggle behind. Leave that anxiety here. Let go of your bad habits. Leave behind the shame. Go and follow me in your day-to-day life." That's what the paralytic did. Who's no longer a paralytic, a healed man. He gets up, healed by the power of Jesus, walks out in full view of all of them, and everyone's amazed. They've never seen anything like it before. This man's life was changed when he encountered Jesus, both internally and outwardly. And his physical, his body was healed, but his heart was forgiven. His sins were forgiven.

So, we'll see. In every church, someone in need, someone who cares, we have them all listed up here, someone who is preoccupied, and someone who is critical. Which one are you? Take a moment here. Look at that list. Assess your heart, where you're at in life. Maybe you're more than one. That's possible too. Maybe you go through different seasons, and so at one season you were this, but now you're in a season where, hey, now I'm this person. You might be someone in need. And if that's you, if you've said, hey, I'm the person in need, then this is the perfect place to be. You're exactly where you need to be, because in every church is someone who cares about your need. You are around people who care about what you're going through. Unfortunately, there are also those of us who are preoccupied. I've been there before. We put our heads down. We go to church. We say, hi, hey, hey, nice to see you, great, great. We go on with our day. We go on with our week. Yeah, I've got to go to church. And we're just going through the motions. We're in a rut. We're not bringing people to Jesus. We're kind of doing our own thing. We might have our backs turned to the people in our lives who need Jesus. And we may need Jesus to help us a bit more, to enable us to be considerate and caring to the people around us. Maybe there are those of us who are critical. Maybe we woke up on the wrong side of the bed one Sunday. Or maybe we need a good look at our heart, at what's going on inside of us. We need to ask Jesus, why am I thinking these things? Why am I saying these things? Which one are you? Someone in need, someone who cares, someone who's preoccupied, or someone who is critical? There's actually one more type. I said five types of people in every church. The last one is this. We in every church, we are all someone who can be changed. We are all someone who can be changed by the grace of God. All of us, every single one of us in this room, changed by the grace of Jesus. When you walk into a church, whether this church or you've been visiting other churches, you've been to other churches, when you walk into a church, who do you see all around you? But people who can be changed by God. Scripture tells us that if anyone, it doesn't matter who or what you've done, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old is gone and everything is being made new. If you are in Christ, you have freedom. Says he who the Son sets free is free indeed. We don't come here as perfect people. We don't come here as a social event. We don't come here to top off our spiritual tanks and be like, "I was just missing a little and now I'm back to being perfect again. I'm good to go out throughout my week." It's not how this works. We come here, whether you've known Jesus all your life or you just accepted him yesterday, we are all in need of Jesus and the life that he gives us and the grace that he bestows on us. We are all someone who can be changed by Jesus.

Now let me shift gears here. Who do we not see at church and who do we not see in this passage? Sounds tricky, but it's really simple, I promise. We don't see the people who aren't there. Gotcha. See, you see what I did there? We don't see the people who aren't there. Maybe in today's circumstances, maybe it's the woman who almost went but was too afraid because she had so much going on in her life and she was afraid that if anyone were to find out anything, that shame would keep her from making connections and being a part of that church. Maybe it's the guy who was interested but didn't want to miss the Sunday morning football games. I was just like, "Hey, no one's really invited me. I kind of thought about it, but I don't want to go." Maybe it's someone who before COVID was interested in going to church and then COVID happened and afterwards they never re-sparked that interest of going to church and no one's talked to them about going back to church. The list goes on and on and on about people and why they're not here. But what's needed is people who care, people who will invite them to church or invite them to have a conversation about Jesus. People who will care about not just what that person wants but what that person truly needs. I think of that group at my old church. They were only there because someone cared and because that person took action, they had a faith that led to action, said, "I'm going to get a van. I'm going to load all you up. I'm going to take you there every Sunday." This is why the church exists, to bring glory to God and to bring people to Jesus.

You guys should have got a card on your seat today. I want to pull that card out right now. It says, "I'm praying for an opportunity to share Jesus with someone." There's space for you to write a name down or a few names down. Just take a moment and think about who in your life needs to hear about Jesus. Write those names down, there's pens in the seats in front of you. I'll give you a moment to think about that. Who in your life needs to hear about Jesus? Family member, friends, neighbors, co-workers? Hopefully by now you've thought of someone, someone's come to mind. You guys should do me a favor. If you know someone who has not yet given their life to Jesus, who does not yet believe, would you guys mind raising your hand? If that's you, if you know someone who does not yet know, take a look around. Almost everyone in this room knows someone who needs to hear about Jesus. Every single one of us has someone in our lives who doesn't know him yet. We are called to be the church, to partner with Jesus in His kingdom work. We are the people that can share Jesus with others. You may be sitting there saying to yourself, "Yeah, but I don't know what to say. I don't have all the answers. What if they ask these really hard questions? And what am I supposed to say to that?" Well, I want to say this. It's okay, I'm giving you permission to say, "I don't know." That's a great question. I don't know. That's a really, I see what you're saying there. It's a really hard question you're asking and I'm not sure. I'll let you in on a, it's not a secret. I have a Bible minor, a Masters in Divinity, I'm ordained in the church. I don't know all the questions about the Bible. I put years and hours and I don't know. And I still say I don't know when I come to certain people and I have certain questions and I say, "That's a great, I don't know." And I lead them to what I do know. And this is the encouragement to you. You lead them to what you do know. So you have experience. If you are a believer in Jesus, if you've been following him in your life, then you have experience with Jesus and you share your experience. I don't know that answer that question, but what I do know is I've seen God work in my life. I've seen him provide for me. I've seen him work a miracle. I've seen him heal. I've seen him answer my prayers. I've seen him and how he loves me and I think he wants to love you. I know he wants to love you too. That right there, that's all you say, that is sharing Jesus with other people. And they may come back with, "But why did this happen?" I don't know. I have no idea. But I know that he loves you and he wants a relationship with you. That is sharing the gospel. It's what we're called to do. So the band comes back up for worship.

Hopefully you have someone on your card. And so, yeah, a couple of things. You have that card. You take that with you this week and put it somewhere where you're going to see it. You're going to be praying for that person, where it's going to be in front of you to say, "Hey, I'm praying for an opportunity." And maybe you're as bold as to walk right up and be like, "Hey, we haven't had a conversation yet. I need to talk to you about something." Or maybe you're just praying and you're waiting for the right opportune moment. And then maybe this week, it may be months from now where you have a chance to share. You may also be sitting there thinking, "This person's pretty hopeless and I've tried and I don't know if I'm going to be able to reach them." I want to say this. Sometimes those who look farthest from God are actually the closest because God is doing a work inside of them that we can't see. And sometimes it's at the lowest of lows where they're most open to hearing about Jesus. Even when people we'd love to see come to Jesus seem far away, we need to have hope and believe that God is the God who can do anything. And so you have those names. So I exhort you to look for an opportunity to share what you know, your experience of God with them. And we do this because we are the church. We exist here at Spring Valley to bring glory to God, to bring people to Jesus, to see our community saturated with the glory of God through making disciples in the everyday stuff of life. Do not forget your purpose. Don't leave these doors and this sanctuary thinking, "I just go back and I leave church behind me." No. You go into your life. You go into the people, your neighborhoods, your family, and you carry with you the burden and the desire and the urgency to say, "When I get the chance, when God opens that door, I'm going to share the truth. What's so important to me and what I want someone else to value too." We are all someone in need and we can all be someone who cares about someone by sharing Jesus with them. We're going to head into a time of prayer. We've done this once a month now and Pastor Lauren's going to be on this side. I'll be on this side. And in this next song, we want to invite you to do a couple of things. If you want to respond to what you've heard today in singing, we invite you to stand and sing and praise God. You have those names on those cards. If you want to just pray for those people and take this moment to pray for them and that opportunity to share them, I encourage you to do that. We're going to be on the sides here. If you want to bring those people up and we can pray with you about reaching those people. And if you just have stuff going on in life and you're like, "Look, I barely got here today. I got a lot of questions about what's going on in the world today and I would love some prayer." And please join us up here and we'd love to pray for you.

We Are The Church: Part 1

We Are The Church: Part 1

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

This morning we are doing a first part in a series called We Are The Church and I'm going to get to the sticker on your seat there in a moment for this series, but I want to give you a little peek behind the curtain, okay? Can I do that? As a pastor, let you guys understand a little bit here. There are times when being a pastor is a real struggle. And there are times when I first started studying to be a pastor in college and I moved across the United States. I grew up here in Northern California, Carmichael. I packed up a truck and I moved all the way to Indiana, thousands of miles away from anybody that I knew. At the time, my lovely girlfriend came with me, my now wife. She was there. I had a buddy from high school. He was there. So I had some people, Lauren, she had family in the area, but no family that I knew or that she knew. And it was kind of a struggle. And when we started, when we got to college, we both made a promise to each other that we were going to find a church and we were going to plug into a church and we were going to get connected. And this began probably, I don't know how many months of going and attending a church and then going out to lunch afterwards and going, "Okay, what did we think?" Because honestly, the reality was that we both grew up in really awesome churches and the bar was set so high for us that we found it a struggle to find a church. And as we went around to different churches and we got to know a lot of really cool people, I'm not saying these churches were horrible, it just, it was hard. Midwest church versus West Coast church is a lot different. Way different. And so we would go to a church and we'd go out to lunch and we'd be like, "Okay, we love this about this." We're like, "This is like, oh, that one, that one, that. Not too sure about that. Could we go there?" We kept going. We eventually found a church and we said, "We're not going to just attend until things got weird.”

Because here's the reality. When you go to attend a church, the church isn't batting a thousand every single Sunday. Like, let's be honest. Church isn't perfect every Sunday. The church isn't perfect. So newsflash, if you're searching for a perfect church, welcome, we're not perfect. But as we started attending a church, we said, "Okay, we're committed. This is where we're going to go." And so we started serving. I started serving on the worship team. My wife started serving in youth ministry. And we said, "We're committed to this church." And as we went through college and as I studied the Bible, I felt this hypertension because I realized when I read about scripture and the church and the Bible, the modern church of today didn't look the same. There were some big differences. And as a pastor, we spend a lot of time, I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, okay? As a pastor, Pastor Andrei, myself, Pastor Lauren, we spend a lot of time during the week preparing for a weekend service. And we spend a lot of intention and thought and we try to do our best to think through all the details and we figure out the right songs. Andre spends every year, at the beginning of the year, he spends a good amount of time looking through, reading scripture, helping direct and plan our series for the year. We sit down together. We talk through these series of what each week is going to be like, what part of the scripture we focus on. What is the theme here? What do we want you guys to walk away from after you come to church? And I sit here and I still continue to look at the scriptures and I see, I go, "This church is different than what I see at the church and the Bible." And I think we do what I would hope, I think, a really good job here at Spring Valley, working to teach truth and teach theology and to teach the Word of God.

But when I look at, maybe, let's say outside of the church, I'm going to say Big C Church. You guys mean when I say Big C Church? I mean just the church in general. Let's say just the church in North America. I see churches that are sometimes playing it safe. Churches maybe that are disconnected. Some have slipped, maybe I dare say, into being boring. And I look at the calling of Jesus and the life that He lived. And as Christ followers, meaning we are to emulate Christ in our lives, there is nothing safe about Jesus, right? He touched lepers. He hung out with prostitutes. He called tax collectors to be on His team. There's nothing safe or comfortable about Jesus. And yet when I look at the church, sometimes I see comfortable. I see safe. I see not the picture of what the church was at the beginning. The church that Jesus established, that the Holy Spirit led, that brought down onto the disciples who became the apostles, who became the first pastors in the beginning when Jesus left and went back into heaven. I see a difference there. I see Jesus who was radical. He loved those who hated Him. He blessed those who persecuted Him. Jesus welcomed those who religion of the day had rejected. And this is where I struggle as a pastor sometimes. But not only as a pastor, but also as a disciple of Jesus as I read the Bible and I look at the church today, it pales in comparison to what once was. Jesus didn't come to condemn, it says, but He came to save the world. He came to bring life. And not just simple life, barely getting by life, but life that is full. Life that is vibrant. Life that is attractional to the outside world. And today, the next two weeks after, we're going to take three Sundays and we're going to seek to begin to please God as His church. Because here's the reality, it's not my church. It's not your church. Pastor Andre's church. Not the pastor who founded this church way back in the day. It's not their church. It's God's church. His church. And I want to look at specifically the beginning version of the church in Acts chapter 2 and to give us three mindset shifts. Mindset shifts. Easy for me to say, I speak for a living. For us to think about and walk away today and begin to really think through as we seek God and His church today.

I want to pray real quick. Jesus, we thank you for another wonderful Sunday. God, we thank you for today. God, a day to worship you, to give you praise, the honor and glory. Couldn't think of a better day of the week than right now, God, to gather together to worship you, to give you the praise. And everybody said? Amen.

Well, it says this, Acts chapter 2, if you want to flip there, it's going to be on the screens. You've got a Bible in front of you, a lot of people on your phone. That's awesome. But Acts chapter 2, we're going to start in verse 41, and it says this, "Those who accepted His message were baptized," being those that believed what people said were baptized. And they added to the church that day about 3,000 in all. Peter gathers together a giant group of people, and he begins to preach who Jesus was to these people. And 3,000 people that day say yes to Jesus. Whoa. I wouldn't even know what to do. Let's be honest. You have a program management pastor problem day one as a church. Don't get caught in that. Sorry, side note. "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions and gave to anyone who had need." Every day, every day, they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes, ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. The Lord added to their number weekly, monthly, yearly.

What was it? Shout it out. Let's go daily those who were being saved. Maybe I could just stop the sermon right here. A little bit different than today, right? A little bit different than Peter saying, "Hey, guys, we're going to meet temple courts Sunday 1030. Get your kids there at 1015. We'll check them into the side yard. We'll get them taken care of. And then service is over. You want to hang out. We're going to have some food. You can bring something to share. But we're going to be at Mary's house on Wednesday for a Bible study if you want to be over there." No, they met together daily. That's pretty awesome. Daily they're hanging out. And then they're Sabbath-ing together. They're having meals together. They're encouraging one another. Someone comes to them and says, "Hey, I need some help. I got it. What do you need? I'm here. Titus over here, he wants to hook you up. He'll take care of you. Just go see Titus." There's just this beautiful picture of this community in Acts chapter two.

So I thought it might be fun. Maybe look at the Big C church today and do today's translation or a modern-day version. This is me. I wrote this. Okay, I'm not saying. I'm not putting this in the Bible. But what if we wrote this about today? It may be something like this. Today's church, it says, "They devoted to their comfort, their happiness, their personal goals, their dream, their bucket list. No one really noticed the Christians because they were focused on themselves. Very few of the believers were together. And when we were, they fought over stupid things. If they sold anything, they used the money to buy something better for themselves. They claimed to love God, but they didn't even love each other. So they felt empty, alone, depressed. As a result, most people disliked them and very few lives were changed.”

Obviously, this isn't the picture that God has for His church. He wants something better for what the Scripture calls His bride, His love. And I think for us, there's been a lot of awesome, great churches and pastors. I don't want to discredit any of that. Okay? I'm here to just like, "Oh, church is so bad." But there has been a lot of things where we've gone astray in the church, right? And the only way that we can become better and to recognize where we can grow is to be honest with where we are at. If we want a different result, we have to have a different mindset. We have to change the way that we think, the way that we do church, the way that we live our lives because the reality is, as your sticker says, we don't just go to church, but we are the church. Say that with me. Say it. We are the church. The church isn't a building. The church isn't a campus on the corner of Sunset and Fairway or wherever in 123 America Boulevard USA. That's not where the church is. We are the church. They didn't have a building. I mean, they had 3,000 people and they didn't have a building. And yet what? God added daily those who are meeting Jesus and His saving grace for the very first time. So for us to become the best version of ourselves as the church, I see three things in this scripture about how the church operated, who they were, their priorities, and what they did. We will have to have three things changed in us to become more like the perfect version of the church from Acts chapter two.

The first thing we will have to be is we will have to be devoted. I just said we don't go to church. We are the church. There you go. You guys are catching. I'm proud of that. We will be devoted. We just don't go to church. We are the church. Oh yes. I love it. I love it. Acts 2:42, it says this, "They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, the teaching of Jesus and to fellowship, to community, to relationships, to breaking of bread, to food, to caring for one another, to loving each other, to prayer, to practically praying over each other by the power of the Holy Spirit, lifting one another up, going before God." And what the big fancy word would be, "intercession," which just means you're praying for somebody else so that God hears you praying for somebody else and that you love one another in the way that you care by taking time to think about them to say, "Hey God, I want to think about this person right now and what they're going through in their life." This is what the early church did. And when we look at this, I want us to focus in on that word, "devoted." I practiced this Greek word last night. My daughter came out. She's getting ready for bed and I'm literally online playing this Greek word to try to learn how to say it. So I'm about to butcher it real bad for you. But the Greek word for devoted means proskartereō. Yeah, see, you guys don't even know the difference. I love this. Proskartereō. And this word means devoted. It means to live in a constant state of relentless pursuit to be persistent, ongoing, obstinate, devotion. It's an imperfect tense. Ongoing action means it was and it is and it will be. Any English teachers in the room? I think I said that right. English was not my strength. But here's what this is. They were devoted. They were striving every single day to become more and more and more and more like Jesus. To be devoted to something is to strive to keep working at something. Consistency, repetition, habits, one after another after another becoming better and better and better even if it's an incy-binsy teensy-winsy little bit.

This weekend is the start of the NFL season. Okay, you knew I was coming here. You were waiting for it. And so for the past eight weeks, teams have been gathered together in what they call training camp. It's this ramp up period before the season actually starts. We started last Thursday night. And for the last eight weeks, players have done everything that they could to prepare for the season for one goal. One goal. To win a championship. And so for the past eight weeks, they have been obsessed, devoted, persistent with learning a playbook, developing their own personal strength, sharpening their skills, growing themselves hopefully to one time in February, I believe it is, to raise the Vince Lombardi trophy in victory with no other team standing. That's their obsession. And every day, they are persistent with their reps, repetitions. One rep after another after another. Because each rep builds on itself. Because then that begins a habit. And a habit develops a skill. And a skill will eventually show itself on the field when bullets are flying. They talk about some of these players who are just obsessed to a level that is probably unhealthy. Rep after rep after rep. Mental reps, not just physical reps, not just on the practice field or a preseason game or against a scrimmage against another team in a joint practice. But mental reps, too. On the field, off the field, in the classroom, with their coaches, in the weight room, at home, working out, studying their playbook on their own, watching videos of practice. Watching videos of practice. You guys realize that? They film all their practices and they go back and watch their practices again. Obsession. Each day. Because the most devoted, the most persistent are usually the players that are the best players. And they're the ones that can step up when their team is down, the game is on the line, and have ice in their veins and just go. But the players that settle never last long in the NFL. They just don't. Just don't make it. They might have all the skill in the world. I've seen some amazing football players come out of college that have all the skill in the world. But they're not devoted to the game.

And I think for us, it's easy to sit and to point at them and go, "Oh, look at them." But it's easy to settle, right? No, it's just a me thing? I think it's all of us in this room, if we were honest, deep down inside. We settle. But we don't think about settling. We think of just being too easily satisfied. We get to a point and go like, "Okay, I'm good. Life's good. Jobs, nah, not too bad. It's been worse. I'm doing okay. House is good. My marriage is fine. My finances are good. Life's good. I'm set. I don't need to think about anything." We get to a point where we're okay with just living life as it is in front of us, right? Here's the thing. We often settle for too little of God. We're good with a little bit of change of God in our life. And we're thankful for God's grace. Don't get me wrong there. We're thankful for God's grace, His love, and His mercy. Yet we become spiritually satisfied long before the grace of God has completed its work in us. See, I'll tell you today, right now in this moment, there are people in this room that have met Jesus very recently. And there's people in this room that have been following Jesus for a very long time. The truth about both of those people is God's not satisfied with where they are. He's not. And when I look at the early church and I see the apostles and those who follow Jesus and their devotion, their obsession with God and everything that God had for them, it wasn't like they had this big moment. Peter had this big Billy Graham crusade and prayed and 3,000 people came to know Jesus and he just gave them a high five and said, "Go with God." No, it didn't end there. That was just the beginning. And that's the same for us. That when we think about whether it was yesterday or a lot of yesterdays, the moment that we accepted Jesus in our heart, in our lives, we brought His salvation upon us, that was just the beginning. That was just day one of eternity. See the fact that God loves us so much that yes, He sent His Son to die for us on the cross, to give Himself for us so that we would have our sins forgiven. But God also loves us so much that He won't leave us as He found us. God is in the business of transformation, sanctification, and redemption. Now, I'm not talking about earning our salvation by the way that we live our lives and we have to do good and it outweighs. No, no, no, I'm talking about that. Your debt has been paid for eternity. But God's still got work to do in us. And when I look at the early church and I see this and their devotion and their commitment and their striving every single day as they met together in the temple courts, praising God and sharing everything that they had, breaking bread, loving one another, praying for each other, being with each other. I see a "proskartereō" see I said differently their time. I should have done that. Their whole selves in the early church was dissatisfied that they were looking and relentless pursuit for God to have more for them. This should be us too. This should be us. Church, I want to encourage you today, don't quit on the grace of God. It is not complete in you yet. Has God saved you, set your eternity in stone forever? Yes, your name is written in the book of life. You're good. But if you're still here, there's still work that God has for us. And I want us to be grateful for this. This isn't a discouragement thing. I want you to see that. It's just a mindset shift. It's not that we've done something horrible. It's a mindset shift for us to think about as we go forward that God is still working on His grace in our lives. And we are thankful that the Savior through the Holy Spirit continues to work even when we don't necessarily want the work. Okay, I'm done there. I'm done there.

The other thing we have to change is our mindset is that we will be generous. We will be generous. We are not spiritual contributors. We are spiritual contributors. We are not spiritual consumers. Acts 2:44-45 says, "All the believers were together and they had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need." It then says a couple chapters later, further on in the development of the early church. This wasn't just a moment in time right at the beginning. But it says, "And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all," okay, "continuing to work in them powerfully that there were no needy persons among them. From time to time those who owned land or houses sold them and brought money from the sales." See during this time in the Roman Empire, there were no government programs. There were no food stamps. There was no healthcare. There was no Section 8 housing. There were none of these things, which I think are good things. But those things that actually are now today actually originated in the church. They started in the church. Think about that. Could you imagine today that if the church came to the point where they stepped up, that they actually got rid of all of the welfare programs and all those things because they weren't needed anymore because the church was meeting all those needs? Whoa. That's why the church shined so bright. Because the reality was if you didn't have those things, you were probably homeless on the street and you probably died. That was the reality. Maybe you got sick. Maybe you never got any food. You're begging for your life. And the church shows up and says, "We got you." Everybody contributed. Big, small. And I want to be careful here because we think, "Oh, he's just talking about money.”

No, I'm talking about everything. I'm talking about our all. Yes, I'm talking about money. Let's just call it what it is. Talking about money. I'm also talking about time. You know, these early apostles and people in the church helped other people. Maybe it was fixing something in their home. Maybe it was going out to their farm. But they took time to do that. Maybe it was a skill, a talent that I believe the Holy Spirit gives each and every one of us. He's created us in a unique way to give back in that way. And together they all contributed in a way. They contributed with their money. They contributed with their time. They contributed with their gifts. And when I look at the church today, I don't know if we're all doing that. I don't know if we're all into that point because this idea at this time was completely countercultural. You think life is hard today. Think about life back then. Roman Empire was dog-eat-dog. It was kill the person next to you so you can take whatever they have so you can scrape by. It was ruthless. And the church comes along and says, "We got a better plan for that. The Holy Spirit, Jesus, has a better life for us to live together in community." To the point that no one ever had a need that went unmet. But I want you to catch some things here in these Scriptures. It wasn't that just a few of them had some resources in common. It was everyone. All the believers. Yes, it says in Acts 4 that some had their stuff. They had houses and land that they sold to give. That's great. But all the believers contributed in some meaningful way. Money, clothes, food. This is what it means to be a church. And that also means that all the believers went with less. Because this stuff just doesn't pop out of thin air, right? The extra clothes, the extra food. I don't know. It says they sold houses and land. Was that a second home? A vacation home? Was that development property that they inherited? I don't know. Maybe it was their only thing. And they said, "The gospel is more important than my property." Did I just say that? And because of that, they were able to provide tangible needs to the point that nobody was needy among them. Can I ask you a question today? I'm going to ask it anyway. If someone looked at the way that you spent your money, would they know that you're a Christian? Would they know that you're just a steward of what God has blessed you with? Would they see how you spend or give away or contribute? Would they go, "Yep, that person's a Christian. I can tell." How they spend their money shows their heart. But Chris, you don't get it. You've seen the cost of things lately. Inflation, the housing market. Have you seen everything going on? Yeah, I have. I'm living here too, guys. Did you see the economy and the world and the cost of things in the Roman Empire? The taxes? You think taxes are bad here. Taxes, like Roman Empire robbery, aka like... But they still had generosity. This past year as a church, we had some real financial struggles. I think you guys follow along in the program. But at the bottom on the back, we talk about our finances. And we want to be honest with you. We have budget presentations. We talk about how we spend all of our stuff.

And this last year, unfortunately, we were not able to contribute to certain things in ways that we had previously. Times where there were new churches starting that we knew about and they were planting. We wanted to contribute, but we weren't able to. They were contributing to education of future pastors and church leaders, and we weren't able to. There were times with missions. You guys remember Vivek from India. He came. We've had Shane and Sarah who are doing gathering of nomads. We wanted to contribute to them, but because financially, things were too tight. Here, we did not have enough. We weren't able to contribute to those. And I wrestle with this because I think, okay, it doesn't matter. We still need to contribute, right? We still need to give. Things are tight. Who cares? God's got it all. He's going to take care of it. But it's an us thing. And I will tell you, we have some incredibly generous people in this church. Gosh, guys, I am blown away. I don't know all the details of everything, but I know that there are people who give so much. They give the way the early church did. They go with less so that the church can have more, and they give, and they give, and they give. And it blows my mind. It's amazing. But all of us have a role to play. All of us have a peace to contribute. All of us probably are spending money, myself included, on ourselves in a month that should probably go towards the work of God in His kingdom rather than the work of Chris's kingdom. Relentless devotion. It's hard. I know it is, guys. I get it. But I also get on the other side of eternity, a lot of stuff that we're chasing after just doesn't matter. And the kingdom of God matters. God's work matters.

Final thought for us today as we close is that we will share the love of Jesus. We will be devoted. We will be generous. And we will share the love of Jesus. We are the church, and we exist for ourselves. No, we are the church, and we exist for the world. Acts 2:46-47 says, "Every day they continue to meet together in the temple courts." They're having Bible studies all day long. "They broke bread in their homes. They ate together, glad and sincere hearts. They praising God and enjoying the favor of all God's people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." See, here's the reality of Spring Valley Church. Spring Valley Church exists here for now, for this moment, for today, and for tomorrow, and for any other day that God continues to allow this church to be here on earth. But you think, "Oh, the big church right over there, big one. They got all the money. They got all the resources. Have you seen how many campuses that church has?" They're the ones that's going to be here. They're the ones that's going to reach everybody. No. There's people in your life that only you can reach. There's people that God has placed next door, the next cubicle, in that staff meeting, at that restaurant you love going to, a coffee shop, your family. Your best friend. God has placed them in your life for you to share Jesus with them. And you are the only person that can do that. You are plan A and there is no plan B. So when we think about why we exist, no one else is you. It is our desire to see our community saturated with the glory of God. But here's the thing about saturation. See, that was a very critical word we put in there. Saturated. Water. You guys remember probably back in the day, it's been a while, I might do the sponge sermon again. Let me bring that one back. But I had a sponge up here and I had this bucket of water and I splashed the sponge and I still got the water spots in my Bible from it. But I had this sponge and I took this sponge out and I squeezed it and all this water ran out. I said, God has given us for us to absorb who He is into us, so as we go through life we leave a little wet mark of Jesus with everybody that we meet. But here's the reality. That bottle of water that I poured over that sponge, I have to open that bottle to get the water out to saturate the sponge. Some of us are bottling up Jesus in our life and we're keeping Him on the shelf and He's great. We go see Him, we hang out with Him, we maybe drink a little bit, put the cap back on, send Him back on the shelf. God wants to rip that bottle off the top and dump it out in your life. Dump it out in the lives of your family, dump it out in your friends. He wants to flood their lives with His love to where things they have no idea are coming for Him. He wants to knock them down like a wave of the ocean with a kid not paying attention. That's what He wants to do to them. He wants to just all over them with His love. And you're the only person in their life to share that Jesus with them, to saturate them with His love and His glory.

Heard this quote this week from Paul David Tripp. He says, "This is your mission and every relationship in your life to make the grace of the invisible king visible." Spring Valley Church, we are going to be a faith-filled, big thinking, bet the farm risk takers we will never insult God with small thinking or safe living. Are we a small church? Absolutely. Are we the average in America? Absolutely. Does God have more for us than that? Absolutely. God is moving in this church in powerful ways, but it's gonna have to take all of us. It's gonna have to take all of our devotion. It's gonna have to take all of our generosity. And it's gonna have to take all of us sharing the love of Jesus with our worlds. We got a pretty cool group of pastors here. Can't do it all. God has that calling on your heart and your life. So what do you want me to do about it, Chris?

Here's the final closer here. I want to give an open invitation for each and every one of you to change the object of your devotion with one step. Change the object of your devotion with one step towards Jesus. What does that look like? Well, for you, it may be reading God's Word. You're gonna say, "Pastor Chris, I'm gonna commit. Every single day I'm gonna start reading God's Word." If you haven't, okay. No shame, no guilt, no nothing. Change. Do it. Go forward. But I want to give you a warning. You gotta be careful. Because the Word of God, as it says, is alive and is active and is living. It's gonna begin to change who you are. So be careful.

Maybe you need to start stepping up and serving in church. We just launched three classes today. It's awesome. We got three classrooms rocking. We have an amazing team back there, but we still don't have enough volunteers. We got other slots where we got holes and we're kind of putting things together. We're trying to make things happen because God's doing some amazing things here. And we don't want to just sit and wait for everything to fall into place perfect and then step forward. We got to step forward in faith. But I want to warn you, if you start serving in church, it's addictive. You start loving on people. You start loving on them. Start loving on people. Start helping kids. Start talking to people on a Sunday morning saying, "Hello, you want to talk to more people? You want to see how they're doing? You want to serve in a tangible way?" It'll be addictive.

Maybe some of us need to start tithing. When you start with our finances and our time and the talents that we've been given, we need to start tithing into God's church. But we got to be careful because your heart follows where you give. You start giving, you might want to start giving more and more. And you might hear about this need over here and go, "God, I want to take care of that." You might hear about this need. You might see this person in your life. "I want to do that. I want to do that. I want to do that." We gather up the ties and the offerings every week. We have the envelopes. You guys put your stuff in there. There's a guy in church he writes down, he says, "For God's work." Every week. And I love it. For God's work. Sometimes you think about, "Oh, the church just wants my money for the church to have my money." It's for God's work. It's for other churches to start, for more people to find Jesus. It's for more pastors to have the call, to be developed, to go out and to do more churches and to lead churches better. It's for God's work around the world and missions and missionaries putting their lives on the line in some of these places where they can't even talk about where they are. One of those is Vivek. We don't know where exactly he is. He can't tell us. Because he's had police show up on a Sunday morning and shut their church down. It's happening around the world, guys. What if together with our generosity we could change the world for God? That's something that's worth investing in, right?

Maybe you need to start praying daily. You go, "God, sometimes I just come to you when I need something. I need to come to you when I went just to be in your presence. I want to lift up my brothers and sisters in this family who are going through some really tough times right now." But I want to warn you, God, be careful. Because you're going to start seeing miracles and you're going to start praying more. And you're going to start seeing more miracles and more miracles and more things. You're going to see God moving in his church and in his family in powerful ways. You see lives transformed. Maybe you've seen some scary spiritual stuff happen in this realm. Maybe you start praying more. One thing I want to ask of you is the saffron of the Bible.

One thing I want to ask of you is this afternoon you're going to get a text from the church. And it's going to be an invite to answer some questions. And this is going to be what we call our church pulse assessment. And what it's going to do, it's going to take about eight to ten minutes of your time, maybe a little bit more. But it's going to ask you some questions about your personal focus with Christ. But it's also going to ask you about the church health. And this is going to be a critical tool for us as a team to be able to help lead and guide this church into the next seasons. And it's going to measure across seven dimensions. Not like weird matrix dimensions, but just like seven different ways. That makes sense. Seven different perspectives. We'll say perspectives instead of dimensions. But you're going to get this text. I'm going to ask of you. And the expectation is here. And this is what we want. We want each and every person in the church to answer this 100%. Honestly, there is no right or wrong answer. There isn't. But for us to be able to become forward and grow and to become the church that God, that He wants us to be, we have to address where we are and how we become better and areas of growth that we see in ourselves. And so you're going to get this text. You'll probably get a couple of these texts. We're going to bombard you over the next three weeks. I don't know about all apologize right now, but I'm not really apologetic. I want you to fill out this survey. So that we can help become the best church that God wants us to be.

The church is not a place to go. It is who we are. We're here to proclaim the good news that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. And I want to be honest. Come with your doubts. Chris will never go there. We'll never be there. Okay. God's a little bit bigger than that. But bring God your doubts. Bring Him your fears. Bring Him your anxiousness. Bring Him your brokenness. Bring Him your sin. Bring Him whatever. He's not too scared of it. He's not going to be pushed away by it. I want people to come to this church and when they come that they see Jesus. That's what I want. And I read the early church was the church that came and saw Jesus. I think we're doing a good job. But I know we can do better. I know we'll become better. I know we have places to grow.

Close with this scripture. Love the scripture. Ephesians 3:20. I'm just going to close out Pastor Andre if that's okay. We're just I'm just going to close this out. And I want us to just really look at this scripture. Can we put that on screens? Ephesians 3:20. And this is my prayer for this whole series, this whole time, for all of us that we're doing right here. And if you want to receive this as a benediction and just kind of a blessing as you go today, do that. You want to see receive this as encouragement. You want to receive this as like, let's go. I'm ready to go. I'm pumped. Get me out there, coach. I want to do this thing. Read it as that. But it says this, actually, let's read this. Just read this all together. Okay, here we go. “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is work within us. To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

Amen. Amen. Go with God today. Excited to see you back next week, part two. Answer that assessment with the text later this afternoon, sometime this week. I love you guys. Go with Jesus. Amen. Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week.