WEBVTT 00:00:00.420 --> 00:00:00.490 Good morning church. 00:00:02.100 --> 00:00:03.750 It's great to have you out this morning. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:05.560 Thank you for choosing to worship with us. 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:12.120 I just want to thank the worship team for some wonderful music that we could worship the Lord with this morning. 00:00:12.120 --> 00:00:12.950 Thank you so much. 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:20.580 I'm just so grateful for that, for the team and the countless hours they pour into ministering to us, and so we may 00:00:20.580 --> 00:00:22.150 be able to lift our voices to the Lord. 00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:26.100 For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jared Clark. 00:00:26.180 --> 00:00:28.880 I'm a member of the leadership team here at Alpine Bible Church. 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:36.040 Our senior pastor, Nathaniel Wall, he had a death in the family last week, and he and his family traveled back east to attend the 00:00:36.040 --> 00:00:43.480 funeral yesterday, so I just, if you would continue to pray along with me for God's comfort and 00:00:43.480 --> 00:00:48.360 peace to be upon them and traveling mercies as they return home this week. 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:50.200 I greatly appreciate that. 00:00:50.340 --> 00:00:55.360 The good news is, if you don't like my preaching this morning, next week, Lord-willing, Nathaniel will be back. 00:00:55.360 --> 00:00:56.500 All right? 00:00:56.500 --> 00:00:59.470 I just want to welcome you, the visitors that are here this morning. 00:00:59.480 --> 00:01:00.790 We're grateful that you're here. 00:01:00.980 --> 00:01:03.430 Hope that you got a green bag or a welcome packet. 00:01:04.040 --> 00:01:11.400 It tells you a little bit about our church and what we're all about, and if you have any questions, please feel free to flag me down or anyone at the front door there. 00:01:11.780 --> 00:01:13.800 We'd love to encourage you any way we can. 00:01:15.080 --> 00:01:19.650 Last week, we finished up the series in Daniel, so I'm thankful for that. 00:01:20.380 --> 00:01:22.870 I don't have to preach on Daniel, I'm very thankful for that. 00:01:24.220 --> 00:01:27.370 Instead I'm able to preach on something that's been on my heart lately. 00:01:29.240 --> 00:01:32.030 That's the importance of body unity. 00:01:32.860 --> 00:01:40.400 It's just so important that we all, as a body, understand the importance and what that means, and so 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:45.260 that's, as a member of the leadership team here at church, that's a constant prayer when we meet. 00:01:45.780 --> 00:01:52.860 We send up to God, that God would help us in being unified here at Alpine Bible and the message 00:01:52.880 --> 00:01:57.880 that we preach, to be unified to the lost and dark world around us. 00:01:58.820 --> 00:02:05.840 So that's always something that's on our hearts here at the leadership team, but also I'm a member of the missions team that 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:07.860 will be traveling to India here in a couple of weeks. 00:02:09.610 --> 00:02:12.160 Unity has obviously been on all of our minds. 00:02:12.260 --> 00:02:19.320 We have several different people from different backgrounds, different upbringings, right, all going to be traveling in very close quarters 00:02:19.320 --> 00:02:22.060 with one another, all working and laboring in a foreign land. 00:02:23.020 --> 00:02:26.900 Obviously the concern for unity is of utmost importance. 00:02:28.260 --> 00:02:35.980 This passage of scripture that we're going to be in today, the Apostle Paul really speaks on unity and hope, two 00:02:35.980 --> 00:02:43.020 key ingredients that we all need to keep our eyes on as a church body, and I hope that it's been just a blessing to me the 00:02:43.020 --> 00:02:50.200 last few weeks to just kind of camp out here and just mine the riches of 00:02:50.200 --> 00:02:53.610 what Paul is saying here, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 00:02:53.760 --> 00:02:57.280 If you have your bibles this morning, you can turn to Romans 15. 00:02:57.340 --> 00:03:02.040 We're going to be in the first 13 verse, and we'll get going here. 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:05.640 Romans 15. 00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:13.940 What really caught my eye at first when I really started just kind of meditating on this passage of scripture, this 00:03:13.940 --> 00:03:19.260 first, there's actually two prayers that Paul has here in the 15th chapter. 00:03:19.620 --> 00:03:23.960 Two prayers that he gives to God on behalf of the church at Rome. 00:03:24.620 --> 00:03:26.580 The first one's found in verses 5 through 6. 00:03:27.860 --> 00:03:35.480 The first one says, "Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement, grant you to be of the same mind with one another according 00:03:35.480 --> 00:03:42.620 to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and 00:03:42.620 --> 00:03:47.100 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." What a great prayer right? 00:03:47.160 --> 00:03:48.360 We can just end right now. 00:03:48.940 --> 00:03:49.620 How's that prayer right? 00:03:49.700 --> 00:03:50.910 No, there's a second one. 00:03:51.020 --> 00:03:58.400 "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy, and peace and believing," this is in verse 13, "So 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:05.860 that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." What wonderful prayers that 00:04:05.860 --> 00:04:13.160 we see here, so you can see that the importance of body unity, building unity within our body, 00:04:13.780 --> 00:04:16.110 was not only important to us but it was important to Paul. 00:04:17.959 --> 00:04:25.020 We just want to, before we get going here, we just want to make sure that we have the correct context and background in which Paul's 00:04:25.020 --> 00:04:28.130 writing this letter to the church of Rome, so we don't... 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:35.160 The danger is if we're kind of parachuting into the last half of this book, of this letter that was written and so we don't want to take anything out of context. 00:04:35.340 --> 00:04:36.680 We got to provide a little bit of background. 00:04:37.500 --> 00:04:41.480 A whole lot more would be best but we're short on time so I just want to provide you a little bit of background. 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:45.680 The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church at Rome. 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:48.090 Rome was obviously the center of the Roman empire. 00:04:50.080 --> 00:04:57.540 As, just as the influence of Rome began to spread throughout the world, as the Christian church began to 00:04:57.540 --> 00:05:04.400 spread, the influence and importance of the church at Rome began to increase as well. 00:05:04.760 --> 00:05:12.040 This church most scholars would agree, that it was started by people that had come down, Jews that had come down from 00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:18.990 Rome on the day of Pentecost, to Jerusalem to participate in what was called the Pentecost. 00:05:19.540 --> 00:05:26.530 It's this celebration, a week of the harvest, or a festival of the harvest or a festival of the weeks is what it's called. 00:05:26.940 --> 00:05:33.940 They would all come from all throughout the known world, the Jews would come down and they would meet there and gather there and celebrate and do this festival, participate in 00:05:33.940 --> 00:05:34.640 it. 00:05:36.320 --> 00:05:43.420 This is where in, if we look to Acts 2, it says where Peter, right, stood up in the midst of all these people from all throughout 00:05:43.420 --> 00:05:46.030 the known world and preached this just amazing sermon. 00:05:46.300 --> 00:05:53.420 The Holy Spirit came down, right, and many were saved and believed and were converted and were called out 00:05:53.420 --> 00:05:55.860 of the world and into Christ's body. 00:05:56.120 --> 00:05:58.930 The church was begun on that day. 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:02.430 The Greek word for church is ecclesia. 00:06:02.680 --> 00:06:09.740 It's the called out ones, and so we see that, as the message of the gospel was preached, those who hear 00:06:09.740 --> 00:06:17.200 and understand and turn and abandon their previous ways and turn to the gospel of Jesus, are adopted 00:06:17.200 --> 00:06:22.120 in and called out of the world and into this body, Christ's body, which is the church. 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:25.900 It's an amazing thing that happened there. 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:33.800 Then those people went back to Rome, and so most scholars would agree that those people that were saved there, at Pentecost, went back to 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:35.290 Rome and established this church. 00:06:36.660 --> 00:06:40.820 We see Paul here, writing this letter to the church at Rome. 00:06:40.820 --> 00:06:42.160 So Paul didn't start this church. 00:06:42.220 --> 00:06:49.520 It was started kind of from the ground up and he had a, as you read the letter, just a 00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:55.660 really great desire to want to go and visit this church and be with them. 00:06:56.260 --> 00:06:58.960 It seems as if there was no apostolic teaching going on there. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:06.840 They all went back and they were a church and they were claiming the name of Jesus and they were walking in the name of Jesus but there was really no apostolic 00:07:06.840 --> 00:07:08.600 teaching that was going on. 00:07:08.740 --> 00:07:11.100 Paul was hindered. 00:07:11.140 --> 00:07:11.920 He couldn't get there. 00:07:12.640 --> 00:07:15.550 He's writing all this and explaining this in this letter to the Romans. 00:07:16.340 --> 00:07:18.360 So what he decides to do is instead write this letter. 00:07:18.420 --> 00:07:20.630 I'm just so grateful for this letter. 00:07:21.620 --> 00:07:28.660 This, what we call the book of Romans, is just a superb, systematic 00:07:28.660 --> 00:07:30.060 presentation of the gospel. 00:07:31.300 --> 00:07:38.920 So here's this church, trying and striving after Jesus, and Paul's concern is, hey we got to make sure that 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:46.300 all these people who are coming in to Rome where the world was meeting in the center, the Jews and Gentiles, they were, 00:07:46.420 --> 00:07:51.240 the gospel was going out and people were getting saved, we got to make sure the gospel message doesn't get watered down. 00:07:52.520 --> 00:07:59.660 It doesn't get changed, and so Paul systematically lays out in the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans what the 00:07:59.660 --> 00:08:01.140 gospel of Jesus Christ is. 00:08:02.500 --> 00:08:09.500 His thesis statement, Romans 1:16, he says, when he's starting off the letter, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, 00:08:10.280 --> 00:08:18.600 for it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentiles." We 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:25.620 see here, as we open up in verse 1, of 15, "Now we who are strong, ought to 00:08:25.620 --> 00:08:32.960 bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not just please ourselves." See what is 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:40.000 evident as you read the book of Romans is those Jews that went back and they established the church, but as the gospel message began to call out, people were 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:44.200 beginning to believe and they began to join this church at Rome, right? 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:46.320 That these would be not only Jews but Gentiles. 00:08:47.300 --> 00:08:54.120 These people were coming from all different nations and different cultures and different backgrounds and different upbringings. 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:55.400 They're all coming under one roof. 00:08:55.920 --> 00:08:59.560 You could see the potential for things to get a little messy, right? 00:08:59.560 --> 00:09:07.400 So Paul is demonstrating here that it's for both Jew and Gentile, and most of the first 00:09:07.400 --> 00:09:09.210 11 chapters of Romans. 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:17.140 He's claiming here in verse 1, "Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not just please ourselves." He's building off of what he 00:09:17.140 --> 00:09:19.080 was teaching in chapter 14. 00:09:20.340 --> 00:09:27.380 You can just imagine all these different people coming in under the church and all having things that they're still grasping onto and 00:09:27.380 --> 00:09:30.860 not quite understanding the full message of the gospel. 00:09:30.860 --> 00:09:35.040 There's some that are really strong in the faith, but there are some that are weak, right? 00:09:35.040 --> 00:09:38.000 So Paul addresses this in chapter 14. 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:45.120 I got to be careful because that's a whole other sermon in itself, but I do want to provide you the background of why Paul writes this in verse 1 of 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:45.600 15. 00:09:46.700 --> 00:09:46.900 Right? 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:52.440 There's strong Christians, and so Paul refers to strong and weak at this church at Rome. 00:09:54.100 --> 00:09:56.380 There's two options. 00:09:56.380 --> 00:10:03.580 The weak could have been Jews who were always following the Mosaic law and keeping all 00:10:03.580 --> 00:10:10.580 the ordinances as far as what foods they could or could not eat, celebrating the festivals when they were supposed to, trying to be as, living 00:10:10.580 --> 00:10:14.500 out their Jewish traditions as best as they can, to please their God. 00:10:15.060 --> 00:10:22.200 Then they encounter this message of Jesus as the only way, as the messiah, as the only means of salvation and 00:10:22.280 --> 00:10:25.880 it's not of works, but it is of what he's done on their account. 00:10:25.940 --> 00:10:29.790 So they abandon that, but there are some that are still holding on. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:35.860 They think by celebrating a festival, they might worship Jesus in a better way. 00:10:36.260 --> 00:10:39.200 They want to pay tribute to him in that way, all right. 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:43.460 Or they refrain from eating meat out of their love for Jesus. 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:44.840 Right? 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:46.200 Then there's some who say, no. 00:10:46.840 --> 00:10:48.020 It's not about the law anymore. 00:10:48.020 --> 00:10:53.120 It's about what Jesus has done, and so I know that I don't, I can eat whatever I want. 00:10:53.460 --> 00:10:55.800 Everything is clean in the eyes of the Lord now. 00:10:56.420 --> 00:10:59.040 We see these different perspectives going on here. 00:10:59.100 --> 00:11:02.340 It also could be, the second option could be the Gentiles who are saved. 00:11:02.900 --> 00:11:08.520 They proceed out of a pagan culture who worshiped idols and made meat sacrifices to idols. 00:11:09.540 --> 00:11:16.920 So if you were steeped in that and you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and you turned from that and you embraced the God of the scriptures, and 00:11:16.920 --> 00:11:24.220 you went to church and someone sat down a slab of meat that they bought at a cheaper rate because it was a sacrifice to an 00:11:24.220 --> 00:11:26.840 idol, right? 00:11:26.860 --> 00:11:28.240 Would that tug at your heart? 00:11:28.420 --> 00:11:29.820 I don't want to participate in that. 00:11:30.420 --> 00:11:32.280 I used to worship that god or that idol. 00:11:33.700 --> 00:11:36.060 I don't want to touch it, so it could be two of those things. 00:11:36.100 --> 00:11:38.200 It could be one option or both options. 00:11:38.680 --> 00:11:42.250 Don't really know, but Paul is referring to strong and weak. 00:11:42.620 --> 00:11:46.100 We're all, it's under the basic understanding that we're all coming from different perspectives. 00:11:47.160 --> 00:11:53.260 We all have different hangups, and what Paul's saying in Romans 14 is you shouldn't be judging each other. 00:11:53.920 --> 00:11:58.880 You shouldn't be having cliques over here and cliques over there, those who abstain from meat, those who partake of meat. 00:11:59.320 --> 00:11:59.440 Right? 00:12:00.020 --> 00:12:01.280 The goal is to be unified. 00:12:03.060 --> 00:12:04.160 You shouldn't judge one another. 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:11.420 Paul's laying out and we can know that whatever is going on, it wasn't an essential of the faith. 00:12:12.580 --> 00:12:19.920 These are what we call non-essentials, and we know that because in other letters, like the letters Paul wrote to Galatia or the Colossian 00:12:19.920 --> 00:12:27.100 church or the Corinthian church, if there were things that their church were doing that were outside the essentials of the Christian faith, he was sure 00:12:27.100 --> 00:12:31.850 to address them and he would call them out on it, and say this is a false gospel. 00:12:32.160 --> 00:12:34.300 This is not why Christ has come. 00:12:34.360 --> 00:12:41.450 You can read those letters and you can see that very clearly, so we know whatever's going on here, at the church of Rome isn't that essential doctrine. 00:12:41.540 --> 00:12:47.150 It's some non-essential stuff that was going on, and Paul says don't be judging each other over it. 00:12:47.640 --> 00:12:48.490 Work to be unified. 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:51.380 That's what he, where we come into verse 1. 00:12:51.380 --> 00:13:04.700 "Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not just please ourselves." 00:13:04.700 --> 00:13:09.120 Paul's talking about not just putting up with someone who doesn't believe the same way. 00:13:10.140 --> 00:13:17.420 He's not saying, look don't judge them, but at the same time he's not saying, and don't ever talk to them or interact with them, 00:13:17.720 --> 00:13:17.840 right? 00:13:17.980 --> 00:13:19.720 What he's calling us to is something higher. 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:23.130 He's saying we ought to bear the weaknesses. 00:13:23.260 --> 00:13:26.700 Bear means to pick up by a weighty thing that needs to be picked up. 00:13:27.980 --> 00:13:35.180 We need to come alongside those that are weak, those that have those hangups and not just not judge them or keep them isolated but 00:13:35.180 --> 00:13:42.300 what he's calling us to is a life to serve them and to walk alongside of them and to bear their burden 00:13:42.300 --> 00:13:43.520 and to disciple them. 00:13:45.740 --> 00:13:53.820 It goes on in verse 2, "Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification." That's 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:57.160 the difference that a Christian should manifest, right? 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:04.800 Out of our love for Jesus, we're seeking to serve those around us, not to be, have higher favor 00:14:04.800 --> 00:14:09.280 with God but because of what God has done for us, and Paul touches on that here in this text. 00:14:10.420 --> 00:14:13.300 It's about our neighbor, for building our neighbor up. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:21.140 Even the person that might have offended you, or even the person that you just can't stand being around, those are the people that God's asking 00:14:21.140 --> 00:14:24.580 us to go to, and not just put up with them but walk alongside them. 00:14:25.380 --> 00:14:27.380 Bear their weaknesses with them. 00:14:28.500 --> 00:14:29.710 It's not about pleasing ourselves. 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:38.780 He goes on verse 3, "For even Christ did not please himself." That's the heart motivation that 00:14:38.780 --> 00:14:41.880 we all need to grasp onto here. 00:14:43.040 --> 00:14:46.200 We can't serve others and do all these things. 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:52.980 We can't go home, going I just need to work harder and try to better a job at being friendly or connecting in the church. 00:14:53.200 --> 00:14:53.690 I need to... 00:14:54.480 --> 00:15:01.780 What Paul's saying here is first we need to understand our motivation for it, and what is the motivation he provides for us, for even Christ 00:15:01.780 --> 00:15:03.460 did not please himself. 00:15:04.900 --> 00:15:11.900 Christ, according to Philippians 2 and numerous other passages in the New Testament, stepped into his creation and became in the form of 00:15:11.900 --> 00:15:19.060 a servant and he went on to live the perfect life, to live the law out completely so that he might be the spotless lamb 00:15:19.060 --> 00:15:23.940 of God who would go to the cross and take on our sin. 00:15:25.160 --> 00:15:29.080 That the wrath of God would be poured out on him on that day, instead of us. 00:15:31.900 --> 00:15:32.980 Christ wasn't about himself. 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:34.780 He was about us. 00:15:35.760 --> 00:15:42.880 Paul's asking us, as he's asking us to bear the weaknesses, we have to remember what the motivation 00:15:42.880 --> 00:15:45.660 is, what Christ has done on our behalf. 00:15:47.240 --> 00:15:54.660 He goes on in this verse to quote Psalm 69:9, "The reproaches of those who reproached 00:15:54.660 --> 00:15:58.090 you fell on me." This is a messianic psalm. 00:15:59.300 --> 00:16:06.580 The Psalms were written about 1000 BC, before Christ was even born, and Paul is demonstrated the Jesus the 00:16:06.580 --> 00:16:12.700 Christ, the messiah has come and he has fulfilled this prophesy, this messianic psalm. 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:16.560 Paul's doing something else. 00:16:16.620 --> 00:16:19.520 He's beginning to build an argument here. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:27.140 It's an argument that he uses to springboard into the demonstration as to why us as believers, the church at Rome and 00:16:27.140 --> 00:16:32.700 even us today, can all unite around the object of our hope. 00:16:34.280 --> 00:16:41.440 So he goes on here in verse 4, "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:49.760 perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope." He 00:16:49.760 --> 00:16:57.020 used psalm 69 as evidence that Jesus fulfilled this messianic psalm and he's beginning to instruct 00:16:57.020 --> 00:17:00.300 to us as believers why we can have hope. 00:17:01.640 --> 00:17:09.200 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for first our instruction and that as we look and peer into God's redemption story, 00:17:09.280 --> 00:17:14.160 that is laid out in scripture, we can have perseverance in those hard times. 00:17:15.859 --> 00:17:23.079 We can have encouragement as we look how God is fulfilling what 00:17:23.079 --> 00:17:28.380 he's promised to do throughout human history and they can provide us hope as we do that. 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:31.340 I'm so grateful for the scriptures. 00:17:33.600 --> 00:17:41.940 I spent my early adulthood, just living for me, trying to satisfy 00:17:41.940 --> 00:17:43.610 my desires. 00:17:44.340 --> 00:17:50.340 Anything that the world would give me, not wanting anything to do with God, but just pleasing me. 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:58.740 As I began to get older and into my teens and as I left high school and had that identity crisis of who am I, what am 00:17:58.740 --> 00:18:05.860 I here for, what is the purpose of life, all those things that I had tried, were just vain and hollow. 00:18:08.060 --> 00:18:15.240 I went to college and tried to buy into their evolutionary theory and God doesn't exist and God is dead, 00:18:15.420 --> 00:18:18.740 and how silly people are to think that way. 00:18:19.180 --> 00:18:26.280 This world can be demonstrated in science, and I tried to buy into it as best I can, but thankfully, I had 00:18:26.280 --> 00:18:27.500 the opportunity to go... 00:18:29.040 --> 00:18:36.180 I was a river guide in high school and college and rafted, white-water rafted all over the west, and had an opportunity 00:18:36.180 --> 00:18:38.870 to go on a 21 day trip down the Grand Canyon. 00:18:40.180 --> 00:18:47.070 It was the most, just, early 20s, it was just a splendid time to be down there. 00:18:48.770 --> 00:18:53.030 That's where God began to reveal himself to me. 00:18:53.500 --> 00:18:57.080 He revealed himself to me in his general revelation it's called. 00:18:57.720 --> 00:19:04.720 Psalm 19:1 says, "The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands." I was down there, in 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:05.680 the bottom of that crack. 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:07.620 I didn't have any distractions. 00:19:07.620 --> 00:19:10.490 I couldn't just flip on my smartphone and start watching YouTube. 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:11.960 I couldn't turn on a TV. 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:16.240 I couldn't go to town and have dinner at the restaurant, and fill my belly, right? 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:22.030 I was just down in the bottom of this crack in the earth, forced to look at this just marvelous creation. 00:19:23.460 --> 00:19:25.790 At night, it was like a kaleidoscope. 00:19:26.380 --> 00:19:33.460 The stars would, because of the narrow walls of the canyon, the stars would appear on one side and disappear on the 00:19:33.460 --> 00:19:35.990 other, and all night long, stars just rotating. 00:19:36.920 --> 00:19:39.980 My mind would go how many stars are up there? 00:19:40.940 --> 00:19:42.040 This happened by chance? 00:19:43.320 --> 00:19:50.320 I would see just the perfect order in nature and how everything, the ecosystem was designed, and I'd say 00:19:50.320 --> 00:19:54.420 this is certainly designed by something or somebody. 00:19:55.340 --> 00:19:56.400 This didn't just happen by chance. 00:19:58.120 --> 00:20:01.180 Paul even mentions general revelation in Romans 1:20. 00:20:01.760 --> 00:20:08.800 He says, "For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, 00:20:10.300 --> 00:20:17.580 being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." I 00:20:17.580 --> 00:20:24.500 had 21 days to observe that, and I floated out of that Grand Canyon into Lake Mead with no excuse. 00:20:25.520 --> 00:20:26.420 There was a creator. 00:20:28.520 --> 00:20:33.820 I had to come to that conclusion and that's what his general revelation points to. 00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:37.470 All people are without excuse in that regard. 00:20:38.200 --> 00:20:45.300 The problem comes as God's general revelation doesn't tell me who he is or how I have relationship with him 00:20:45.380 --> 00:20:49.320 or how I can be reconciled to him, if that's what needs to happen. 00:20:49.320 --> 00:20:52.680 Those things don't appear in general revelation. 00:20:52.840 --> 00:20:54.440 It began a journey. 00:20:55.340 --> 00:21:02.500 I floated out there, purposed to have a relationship, or find this God, and I thought it 00:21:02.500 --> 00:21:09.600 would be in a works based religion, and so I went and devoted my entire being to trying to do this list of things 00:21:09.600 --> 00:21:16.500 that I had to do in order to be accepted by this creator and this God, only to always fall short. 00:21:17.940 --> 00:21:25.020 Only to, I just remember those mornings, just walking in, putting on my tie, knowing the 00:21:25.020 --> 00:21:32.060 ugliness that was going on inside of me and having to pretend like everything's good on the outside, that I had some type of 00:21:32.060 --> 00:21:33.580 worth to offer this God. 00:21:35.220 --> 00:21:39.290 It just became overwhelming, and I just had to abandon that. 00:21:39.820 --> 00:21:46.500 I desired to have relationship with him, but if it depended on me and what I had done, then I just couldn't do it. 00:21:46.840 --> 00:21:48.510 I could be a lot of things but I can't be a hypocrite. 00:21:50.080 --> 00:21:54.730 I just moved on and I began to, again, got a good job and had lots of money. 00:21:54.840 --> 00:22:00.480 I was just trying to put everything into this big void in my heart that this world had to offer. 00:22:02.060 --> 00:22:06.200 It led to nothing but despair and emptiness. 00:22:07.180 --> 00:22:11.040 Those late nights, looking at myself in the mirror going, you have no purpose. 00:22:11.760 --> 00:22:12.680 You have no meaning. 00:22:16.420 --> 00:22:24.070 That is, until I told the group this morning in the first service, my 00:22:24.070 --> 00:22:28.290 10 year old said, "You're going to do good today Daddy," this morning at breakfast. 00:22:28.290 --> 00:22:29.060 I'm like thank you honey. 00:22:29.550 --> 00:22:33.910 She goes, "Just don't cry." So I'm being strong for her. 00:22:33.950 --> 00:22:34.860 I'm going to be strong for you. 00:22:37.550 --> 00:22:44.610 A Baptist preacher who had a heart to plant a church in Cedar City Utah moved in 00:22:44.610 --> 00:22:51.770 across the street from me and he began to share the gospel, the good news that is found in 00:22:51.770 --> 00:22:54.770 scripture, God's special revelation. 00:22:55.610 --> 00:23:01.560 It had the answers of who I am, what I was made for, what my purpose in life was for. 00:23:01.670 --> 00:23:05.370 It also had the answers of this chaos, that what's going on in this world... 00:23:05.470 --> 00:23:10.350 It was right after September 11th, and you remember how the country was just shaken to its core. 00:23:11.050 --> 00:23:16.310 In that moment, I was there, and this book entered my life. 00:23:17.190 --> 00:23:24.290 This message of a redeeming gospel and who this creator was began to be shared with 00:23:24.290 --> 00:23:24.630 me. 00:23:26.410 --> 00:23:29.980 Not only who I am and what I was but what was going on in my heart. 00:23:31.830 --> 00:23:36.630 According to Romans chapter 3, I can't do enough good. 00:23:37.150 --> 00:23:40.630 I have no righteousness that can make me pleasing in the eyes of God. 00:23:40.990 --> 00:23:44.750 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, according to Paul in Romans chapter 3. 00:23:46.510 --> 00:23:53.690 But the good news, there is good news, Jesus Christ came to pay that penalty for you 00:23:53.690 --> 00:23:54.570 and for me. 00:23:55.490 --> 00:23:59.690 The good news of Jesus Christ, God's redemption story is found in the scriptures. 00:24:00.870 --> 00:24:07.930 All we have to do, thankfully, all we have to do is turn from our way of 00:24:07.930 --> 00:24:14.930 doing things, abandon our hope and what we placed it in, and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and his accomplished work on the cross, and 00:24:14.930 --> 00:24:16.130 believe and trust in him. 00:24:16.810 --> 00:24:18.650 That's the message, the good news of the gospel. 00:24:19.750 --> 00:24:26.910 The bible, Nathaniel said it last week, is a collection of 66 books written by 40 different authors on three different continents 00:24:26.910 --> 00:24:33.950 in three different languages, over a period of 1500 years, yet it is one consistent and unified 00:24:33.950 --> 00:24:34.190 story. 00:24:35.910 --> 00:24:42.970 So thankful for the scriptures, that I can know who God is and I can know how I can have relationship with 00:24:42.970 --> 00:24:45.510 him, through the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:24:48.560 --> 00:24:52.310 Look, it's even more, according to verse 4. 00:24:53.570 --> 00:24:54.520 It was written for our instruction. 00:24:56.410 --> 00:25:04.030 You want a roadmap to get through life, to navigate through the difficulties and the sin and muck and the mire of this world, turn 00:25:04.030 --> 00:25:11.550 to the scriptures, and as we do so, Paul says here, it provides us perseverance, patience and encouragement, 00:25:12.290 --> 00:25:13.850 in the most difficult times of life. 00:25:15.110 --> 00:25:22.150 I know many of you are going through many struggles in your life right now, and God's given us a means in which we can 00:25:22.150 --> 00:25:29.350 connect with him, and I hope that you can see what a great gift the scriptures are, that we can turn 00:25:29.350 --> 00:25:36.910 to him, and as we see what God is doing in scripture, we can have hope because what he's doing is he promises, like in Psalm 00:25:36.910 --> 00:25:41.830 69:9, he promises a messiah, and then he fulfills his promise. 00:25:43.090 --> 00:25:47.270 We can have hope and we can trust in him because of his faithfulness. 00:25:49.610 --> 00:25:54.630 We go on here and we come to our first prayer that Paul gives in verse 5 and 6. 00:25:56.190 --> 00:25:59.470 It's my first prayer for you and for us this morning. 00:26:01.450 --> 00:26:08.710 It says, "Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind, with one another 00:26:08.710 --> 00:26:16.230 according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord, you may with one voice glorify the God and 00:26:16.230 --> 00:26:22.390 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." This is Paul's prayer for unity for the church. 00:26:23.810 --> 00:26:31.090 How important it is as a church body, as a group of called out ones to be unified in 00:26:31.090 --> 00:26:32.730 the message of the gospel. 00:26:36.430 --> 00:26:37.560 Paul goes on in Ephesians. 00:26:37.730 --> 00:26:45.350 He writes to the church at Ephesus and he repeats this same desire of his struggle in 00:26:45.350 --> 00:26:47.350 wanting the church to be unified. 00:26:47.350 --> 00:26:54.470 He says in verse 2, "With all humility and gentleness and patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve 00:26:54.470 --> 00:27:00.650 the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace." Why is it so important for us to be unified? 00:27:04.570 --> 00:27:11.470 I went to bible college at a later age, in my late 30s. 00:27:11.590 --> 00:27:18.730 Family, extended family thought I was crazy, pulling my kids out of school and taking them down to California and 00:27:18.730 --> 00:27:19.730 going to bible college. 00:27:21.040 --> 00:27:27.710 I'm pretty sure they thought it was a mid-life crisis, whatever, but we went down there and it was just a great time. 00:27:28.530 --> 00:27:29.200 Did a lot of healing. 00:27:29.970 --> 00:27:31.370 Did a lot of learning in bible college. 00:27:33.150 --> 00:27:39.010 The one part that was just kind of a burr in my saddle was the general education requirements. 00:27:39.150 --> 00:27:43.330 They have the requirements for, I was doing biblical studies and biblical counseling, so I was taking those classes. 00:27:43.450 --> 00:27:44.950 Was loving it, right? 00:27:44.950 --> 00:27:52.230 Getting in God's word and mining out its truths and all that stuff, but they had these general education requirements, these classes that 00:27:52.230 --> 00:27:57.940 you had to take, the [inaudible 00:27:53] stuff that made you a more well rounded person or individual. 00:27:59.500 --> 00:28:06.630 I put those off, I did some of them in my younger years, but I put the ones I really disdained the most off to the very end. 00:28:07.370 --> 00:28:10.420 I had to take those while I was in bible college, and one was math. 00:28:11.390 --> 00:28:13.600 Then the second one was music appreciation. 00:28:14.790 --> 00:28:15.970 I am from the sticks. 00:28:15.990 --> 00:28:18.790 Give me a good country song, right, we're good. 00:28:19.310 --> 00:28:19.950 That's music. 00:28:20.930 --> 00:28:23.330 Not this Beethoven, Bach stuff. 00:28:24.970 --> 00:28:32.130 So I had to sit through this class and learn all the instrumentality of the whatevers, orchestra this, and 00:28:32.130 --> 00:28:39.430 part of the requirement was that I had to go and listen to a symphony and then write a paper describing my experience 00:28:39.430 --> 00:28:42.470 and how the sounds and did this and that. 00:28:43.870 --> 00:28:50.930 I put it off til the very last minute and finally, out of desperation, I started Googling and I found the LA Philharmonic was going 00:28:50.930 --> 00:28:55.610 to be playing Beethoven there in downtown LA. 00:28:56.550 --> 00:29:02.890 I also heard from a fellow student that if you go and show your student ID that you'll get like a $5 ticket. 00:29:03.670 --> 00:29:04.050 I'm like, sweet. 00:29:05.010 --> 00:29:05.870 Won't cost me much. 00:29:05.890 --> 00:29:07.720 I'll just get in there, get the cheap seats. 00:29:08.150 --> 00:29:08.750 It will be good. 00:29:09.210 --> 00:29:10.140 I even did my due diligence. 00:29:10.350 --> 00:29:11.930 I went online and I said what do I need to wear? 00:29:11.930 --> 00:29:13.390 Do I need to wear like a tie or tux? 00:29:14.010 --> 00:29:15.330 It says just come as you are. 00:29:15.870 --> 00:29:17.970 So I came with slacks and a collared shirt. 00:29:18.010 --> 00:29:18.910 Well, someone messed up. 00:29:18.910 --> 00:29:26.270 Either the person that gave me the ticket or the computer, they gave me like up front, middle seat, like in 00:29:26.270 --> 00:29:33.750 the midst of all these Hollywood elite people, all dressed out, decked out, full tuxes, full everything, and here I am walking in with collared 00:29:33.750 --> 00:29:34.170 shirt. 00:29:34.210 --> 00:29:35.660 They're looking at me and I'm like I'm a college student. 00:29:35.890 --> 00:29:38.490 Yeah, 38 years old college student. 00:29:38.990 --> 00:29:39.670 Trust me. 00:29:40.730 --> 00:29:43.500 So I just felt completely out of place. 00:29:44.210 --> 00:29:51.490 So I sit down and everyone, there's a mumble of the crowd and all of a sudden the orchestra comes out and they seat and it starts to quiet down a little bit. 00:29:51.770 --> 00:29:58.850 Then the conductor comes out and it becomes very quiet and he stands up to the podium and he, I was supposed to Google whatever that little wand 00:29:58.850 --> 00:29:59.910 was, in between services. 00:30:00.710 --> 00:30:07.150 He grabs the wand, right, and everyone's quiet. 00:30:07.170 --> 00:30:14.590 I'm observing all this and I can see, because I'm in the front that all these people are from different nations and different 00:30:14.590 --> 00:30:17.250 cultures and obviously different upbringings. 00:30:17.250 --> 00:30:23.330 I could deduce, and that all, they were all there, right, to play Beethoven. 00:30:25.090 --> 00:30:32.370 The conductor began, and as they began to play, all these different instruments, ranging, 00:30:32.610 --> 00:30:34.930 you guys know all the different instruments that are in an orchestra. 00:30:35.030 --> 00:30:42.370 They're crazy but they're all different but they all began to play this one harmonious, beautiful composition 00:30:42.370 --> 00:30:42.990 by Beethoven. 00:30:44.390 --> 00:30:46.470 It blew me away. 00:30:47.530 --> 00:30:54.530 Here's this redneck from the sticks, and I am like captivated by this message that Beethoven 00:30:54.530 --> 00:31:01.990 has written and these people that have come together with diversity of cultures and backgrounds and stuff and of all, 00:31:03.250 --> 00:31:07.970 in one harmonious movement began to play this just beautiful song. 00:31:09.730 --> 00:31:10.250 It was amazing. 00:31:11.390 --> 00:31:12.610 I was blown away. 00:31:14.170 --> 00:31:15.470 Just a caveat to this. 00:31:16.810 --> 00:31:22.470 Did you guys know that composers, they write like pauses, like for dramatic effect in the middle of measures. 00:31:23.910 --> 00:31:26.670 You're not supposed to clap during those pauses, just so you know. 00:31:27.630 --> 00:31:29.290 I was so carried away. 00:31:29.290 --> 00:31:31.250 There's this pause I'm like, what, yeah! 00:31:31.290 --> 00:31:36.150 Just started, and all of a sudden all this hissing and stuff, they're all staring me down. 00:31:36.190 --> 00:31:37.690 I'm like sorry I'm going back to the sticks shortly. 00:31:38.850 --> 00:31:39.510 Yeah. 00:31:39.770 --> 00:31:44.210 Just wait til everyone else starts clapping, those that are sophisticated and know these things. 00:31:45.650 --> 00:31:45.790 All right. 00:31:46.390 --> 00:31:46.850 Yeah. 00:31:47.390 --> 00:31:53.950 Yeah, I'm that guy, so I'm sure everyone that's going to India with me are like really confident of my abilities by now. 00:31:54.030 --> 00:31:56.620 So anyway, but it was beautiful. 00:31:56.930 --> 00:32:04.290 Now imagine for a second if that, the first chair violinist decided that he didn't want to play the same tempo as the 00:32:04.290 --> 00:32:06.430 conductor wanted the orchestra to do. 00:32:06.430 --> 00:32:11.810 Just in their own desire, they just started playing a different tempo. 00:32:12.510 --> 00:32:19.530 And say the french horn section, you know what, they've been talking about it for weeks, that they are sick and tired of being upstaged by the violinists and the stringed 00:32:19.530 --> 00:32:26.550 instruments, so when they hear the first violinists going, they're like now's our time, and so they all run and they run around and they 00:32:26.550 --> 00:32:30.810 put their chairs in front of the first string violinists and they start doing their thing. 00:32:31.010 --> 00:32:33.730 Right, so they can have their 15 seconds of fame and say look at me! 00:32:34.990 --> 00:32:36.910 Then the flutist, flutist, is that right? 00:32:37.210 --> 00:32:37.590 Probably not. 00:32:37.750 --> 00:32:38.790 I was supposed to Google that too. 00:32:39.010 --> 00:32:44.410 Whoever plays the flute, she's sick of tired of never being heard, or he, of never being heard. 00:32:44.450 --> 00:32:48.410 I've never heard of a flute when they, I can't hear it but I guess you can hear it if you have the ear. 00:32:49.030 --> 00:32:56.090 But she gets sick and tired of not being heard so she gets up and she takes somebody's trumpet or something and she starts 00:32:56.090 --> 00:32:57.990 playing because she wants to. 00:32:58.110 --> 00:33:05.390 In the meantime, the majority of the symphony are just trying to follow the conductor and do what the conductor's 00:33:05.390 --> 00:33:06.170 asking them to do. 00:33:06.630 --> 00:33:09.160 Do you think that beautiful message is going to get a little muddied? 00:33:11.590 --> 00:33:18.730 People are still looking on the outside and they're seeing a very confused message now because they're no longer 00:33:18.730 --> 00:33:19.310 in unity. 00:33:20.890 --> 00:33:22.510 I think it's the same for us, church. 00:33:24.010 --> 00:33:31.130 We should strive to be unified, as Paul says in verse 6, "So that with one accord, you 00:33:31.130 --> 00:33:38.630 may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." It's 00:33:38.630 --> 00:33:43.470 about his glory, and if we don't pursue unity, our message becomes muddied. 00:33:45.290 --> 00:33:46.170 It's not with one voice. 00:33:49.030 --> 00:33:56.810 We should all strive to glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so Paul ends 00:33:56.810 --> 00:33:59.250 his prayer and he goes on for instruction here in verse 7. 00:33:59.850 --> 00:34:07.530 He says, "Therefore," so it's a concluding statement here, because of this, "Therefore accept one another." We 00:34:07.530 --> 00:34:13.850 see here how Paul has first identified the source in which we can change, right, in this prayer. 00:34:15.670 --> 00:34:22.690 Now the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another, according to Christ Jesus, but we also see in verse 7 00:34:22.690 --> 00:34:25.550 that it's not about just letting go and letting God and being passive about it. 00:34:26.770 --> 00:34:33.790 We, as we understand that the God, the Spirit who enables the heart or indwells the heart of the believer can enable us to do these 00:34:33.790 --> 00:34:38.510 things, Paul's then asking us to step out and actively pursue it. 00:34:39.469 --> 00:34:41.810 Therefore, accept one another. 00:34:43.570 --> 00:34:44.670 That's the hard part, right? 00:34:46.110 --> 00:34:50.670 Someone's just completely destroyed you or hurt your feelings. 00:34:50.850 --> 00:34:52.469 You don't want to have to ever talk to them again. 00:34:53.310 --> 00:35:01.550 Someone's, maybe you need to apologize but you just can't find it in your heart to ever bring, admit 00:35:01.550 --> 00:35:02.550 that you were wrong. 00:35:03.210 --> 00:35:07.850 All these things, this is where Paul is saying, hey, yes God will enable you. 00:35:07.930 --> 00:35:12.110 God will grant you the power to do this, but you must step out. 00:35:13.210 --> 00:35:14.210 You must do your part. 00:35:14.410 --> 00:35:17.210 It's a cooperative heart with the Holy Spirit. 00:35:17.830 --> 00:35:19.090 Therefore accept one another. 00:35:19.090 --> 00:35:23.810 Again, he reminds us, and this is so important church, of our motivation for doing so. 00:35:25.110 --> 00:35:29.030 Just as Christ also accepted us, to the glory of God. 00:35:30.790 --> 00:35:31.550 Why should we do it? 00:35:33.530 --> 00:35:40.990 Well as I mentioned earlier, I'm so glad that as the message of the bible, this unified message began to be shown 00:35:40.990 --> 00:35:48.270 to me, I remember the moment I accepted Jesus in that small Baptist church in Cedar City, 00:35:48.270 --> 00:35:50.870 Utah, where I was new. 00:35:50.870 --> 00:35:52.430 I was under conviction of my sin. 00:35:52.550 --> 00:36:00.330 I'd always had that, and I knew I had to do something, right, to get that reconciled and get that all 00:36:00.510 --> 00:36:01.870 worked out with God. 00:36:02.670 --> 00:36:06.850 I remember thinking, well I'm in a Baptist church so I must begin thinking about getting baptized, right? 00:36:06.850 --> 00:36:14.430 So my mind automatically started going to these things that I'm going to have to do to earn God's merit and favor, but 00:36:14.430 --> 00:36:17.250 the good news is Jesus will meet you right where you're at. 00:36:18.530 --> 00:36:23.130 You don't have to do all these things to have this relationship with you. 00:36:23.170 --> 00:36:24.010 He died for you. 00:36:24.010 --> 00:36:28.880 He took that payment for you, so that you don't have to earn it. 00:36:29.190 --> 00:36:32.570 You can't earn it, according to Romans chapter 3. 00:36:32.590 --> 00:36:33.970 Jesus did it for you. 00:36:34.730 --> 00:36:41.810 All you have to do is believe and trust in that good news, that gospel message and follow 00:36:41.810 --> 00:36:42.290 Jesus. 00:36:43.250 --> 00:36:47.030 Turn away from the things we used to do and turn to the living God. 00:36:47.410 --> 00:36:54.550 Turn away from the idols that we place in our life, that we lean towards and just turn to seek and please the living God who 00:36:54.550 --> 00:37:00.530 has died for us and paid the immense and eternal punishment on our behalf. 00:37:02.350 --> 00:37:08.780 As we accept that, as we understand that, Christ met us where we're at. 00:37:09.410 --> 00:37:16.650 Paul's saying here, as you turn to accept one another, don't put stipulations on them, before you give them acceptance. 00:37:18.150 --> 00:37:21.850 Just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God, we didn't do anything to deserve it. 00:37:23.210 --> 00:37:24.690 We didn't merit anything. 00:37:24.690 --> 00:37:25.530 He did it for us. 00:37:26.650 --> 00:37:30.130 Paul's saying just as Christ did this for you, now accept one another. 00:37:30.810 --> 00:37:37.990 Don't give them a laundry list of things they must do before they're accepted into the brethren or whatever. 00:37:40.350 --> 00:37:47.990 We got to just make sure that our motivation is that, what Christ has done for us, and 00:37:47.990 --> 00:37:51.930 then in turn, we turn and walk alongside one another. 00:37:52.490 --> 00:37:59.670 We, with God's strength, begin to accept one another and bear one another's burdens and walk along 00:37:59.670 --> 00:38:00.230 with them. 00:38:01.150 --> 00:38:04.790 As we do that, we do it for the glory of God. 00:38:06.050 --> 00:38:12.070 We become unified in doing so, with one accord and with one voice, for God's glory. 00:38:13.050 --> 00:38:20.110 Verse 8, as we go one, "For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given 00:38:20.110 --> 00:38:24.470 to the fathers and for the Gentiles to glorify God for his mercy. 00:38:25.610 --> 00:38:32.630 As it is written, therefore I will give praise to you among the Gentiles, and I will sing to your name." Paul is again referencing the 00:38:32.630 --> 00:38:33.390 Old Testament. 00:38:34.050 --> 00:38:38.370 Again we're imagining an audience that is both Jew and Gentile alike. 00:38:38.490 --> 00:38:44.300 It looks like there might be some schism there and some cliques going on, and so Paul is trying to say no, wait a minute. 00:38:44.370 --> 00:38:50.150 This gospel is always not about, not just about the Jews, but has always been about the Gentiles, for the world. 00:38:51.330 --> 00:38:54.590 It's always been God's aim and God's measure. 00:38:56.530 --> 00:38:58.810 He uses the Old Testament to reference that. 00:38:59.950 --> 00:39:07.190 He points them back to an Old Testament passage of the Gentiles, and he goes on to offer more textual proof in the Old Testament 00:39:07.190 --> 00:39:08.070 in verse 10. 00:39:09.730 --> 00:39:15.090 It says, again he says, "Rejoice O Gentiles with this people." That's in Deuteronomy 32. 00:39:15.870 --> 00:39:23.070 Verse 11, he quotes the book of Psalms, Psalm 117, "Praise the Lord all 00:39:23.070 --> 00:39:30.390 you Gentiles and let all the peoples praise him." In verse 12, he pulls from Isaiah, "There shall come 00:39:30.390 --> 00:39:37.710 the root of Jesse and he who arises to rule over the Gentiles, in him so the Gentiles hope." 00:39:39.810 --> 00:39:47.510 So like a skilled lawyer Paul is pointing back to this specific revelation that God has 00:39:47.510 --> 00:39:54.790 allowed to be recorded throughout human history, as a means of proof that, number one it's 00:39:54.870 --> 00:39:56.170 both Jew and Gentile. 00:39:56.230 --> 00:40:01.700 He's always had the Gentiles in mind, and number two, God always fulfills what he has promised in the past. 00:40:02.350 --> 00:40:06.510 The Torah was committed to writing around 1300 BC. 00:40:07.330 --> 00:40:09.850 The book of Psalms was written around 1000 BC. 00:40:10.090 --> 00:40:15.630 The book of Isaiah was written in 700 BC, yet they all point to this one messiah figure who would come. 00:40:17.490 --> 00:40:23.080 Paul uses the three main subdivisions of the Tanach, of the Jewish Old Testament. 00:40:23.630 --> 00:40:28.650 Those are the law of Moses is the one major subdivision. 00:40:29.110 --> 00:40:33.990 There's the writings, right, which are the psalms and proverbs and certain things like that. 00:40:33.990 --> 00:40:35.110 Then there's the prophets. 00:40:35.230 --> 00:40:41.650 Paul uses each one of those major subdivisions that a Jew would know, and saying see, it's never been all about the Jew. 00:40:42.530 --> 00:40:44.070 It's been about the Gentile as well. 00:40:45.270 --> 00:40:49.950 In him, shall the Gentiles hope. 00:40:51.230 --> 00:40:57.010 We can find hope and encouragement in knowing that God is faithful in what he has promised. 00:40:58.370 --> 00:40:58.790 God is faithful. 00:41:01.090 --> 00:41:06.650 Because of that we can have hope, as we put our trust in him, and in his promises. 00:41:07.910 --> 00:41:09.890 Let me move on here to Paul's second prayer this morning. 00:41:11.050 --> 00:41:11.850 Verse 13. 00:41:13.090 --> 00:41:17.190 Again it's my second prayer for us as well, church. 00:41:18.870 --> 00:41:25.950 "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of 00:41:25.950 --> 00:41:29.010 the Holy Spirit." What an amazing prayer. 00:41:30.670 --> 00:41:33.600 What a reminder to know it's not about my doing. 00:41:34.430 --> 00:41:35.680 It's not about my strength. 00:41:35.770 --> 00:41:38.310 It's not about me picking myself up by my own bootstraps. 00:41:39.430 --> 00:41:47.270 It's about the power of the Holy Spirit doing a work inside of me, from my 00:41:47.270 --> 00:41:54.430 ugliness to the transformation that happens from the inside out, of becoming more and more like Christ as I have looked to him and leaned 00:41:54.430 --> 00:41:59.770 to him and learned from him and communed with him in scripture and in prayer. 00:42:01.650 --> 00:42:08.870 It's not about how strong we are or how faithful we are, but it's about how strong and faithful our God 00:42:08.870 --> 00:42:09.070 is. 00:42:10.910 --> 00:42:16.290 We can have hope in him because he who has promised is faithful. 00:42:17.970 --> 00:42:18.850 We can trust in him. 00:42:20.710 --> 00:42:24.430 So, as we wrap up this morning, I just want to do something a little different. 00:42:25.450 --> 00:42:30.120 James talks, the book of James talks about being hearers of the word and not doers. 00:42:30.530 --> 00:42:37.850 So I just want to provide us an opportunity as we go to prayer, that each of you might, just have some quiet time that you can have some 00:42:37.850 --> 00:42:40.330 time for your prayer for unity. 00:42:41.110 --> 00:42:48.110 That you would ask God to grant you the perseverance and encouragement and strength to 00:42:48.110 --> 00:42:55.730 pursue unity in this church body or in your connection group or the missions team because 00:42:55.730 --> 00:42:56.950 we know it comes from him. 00:42:59.630 --> 00:43:04.990 The second prayer that you might do this morning is your prayer for hope. 00:43:06.750 --> 00:43:15.070 I got to admit, I've been walking with the Lord 14 years now, and it seems like I'm doing fine, and then all of a sudden I just find 00:43:15.070 --> 00:43:22.170 myself full of anxiety and fear and in my flesh and just working really hard and being 00:43:22.170 --> 00:43:29.350 exhausted mentally and spiritually and I just come and find myself not having my hope 00:43:30.070 --> 00:43:32.530 in what I need to be, in my Lord. 00:43:34.150 --> 00:43:41.310 Not gaining or garnering or pursuing the enabling grace that he can give me as 00:43:41.310 --> 00:43:46.050 I look to the power of the Holy Spirit to do that with inside of me. 00:43:48.190 --> 00:43:52.320 My daughters, their grandpa, Teri's dad is, he's an old cowboy. 00:43:53.130 --> 00:43:56.530 I guess he did this with Teri and her sisters too. 00:43:57.190 --> 00:44:04.330 He's got an old bench seat truck and he'll be driving down the road and he'll just, with big strong hands, he'll reach down and grab their, 00:44:04.490 --> 00:44:11.550 just above their knee and he'll just start squeezing and he won't stop until the girls say big girl, big girl, big girl, and then 00:44:11.550 --> 00:44:12.890 he'll stop. 00:44:14.830 --> 00:44:21.910 I just think as believers, that's kind of what we have to do on a consistent basis, where we 00:44:21.910 --> 00:44:29.250 are just fighting and struggling in our strength and our own power, and God has to bring us to the end of ourselves, where 00:44:29.250 --> 00:44:29.850 we just say... 00:44:30.830 --> 00:44:32.630 Well I guess big girl won't work for me. 00:44:32.650 --> 00:44:32.990 Uncle. 00:44:34.530 --> 00:44:34.830 Uncle. 00:44:34.870 --> 00:44:35.230 I give. 00:44:35.770 --> 00:44:36.710 Lord I can't do it. 00:44:37.170 --> 00:44:39.140 I can't do it on my own strength and power anymore. 00:44:40.190 --> 00:44:42.940 I know all this, but here I am, in my own strength and power. 00:44:43.110 --> 00:44:43.670 I give. 00:44:44.130 --> 00:44:44.610 Uncle. 00:44:45.930 --> 00:44:46.530 Help me Lord. 00:44:48.250 --> 00:44:54.850 So my prayer, as we have the band come up this morning, is your prayer for unity. 00:44:55.550 --> 00:44:59.030 Just spend some time with the Lord, asking for his enabling power in that. 00:45:00.190 --> 00:45:07.270 Asking him for the joy and peace as you believe and trust in his promises that's promised 00:45:07.270 --> 00:45:14.510 there in verse 13, and that we might abound, right, abound in hope because 00:45:14.510 --> 00:45:17.560 of who God is and what he has promised. 00:45:19.490 --> 00:45:26.490 I just want to say, if you're here this morning and you've never had that saving interaction with Jesus where 00:45:26.490 --> 00:45:34.210 you've abandoned what you thought was good or thought was right, whether that's works based religion or just being good or 00:45:34.210 --> 00:45:41.850 whatever, and you hear this message and the Spirit of God is convicting you of its truth, the 00:45:41.850 --> 00:45:45.990 good news is you don't have to do anything other than turn to him. 00:45:46.990 --> 00:45:48.730 He will meet you where you're at. 00:45:50.550 --> 00:45:51.450 He's a loving God. 00:45:52.370 --> 00:45:59.510 He's given us this precious gift of salvation and all you have to do is swallow your pride and turn 00:45:59.510 --> 00:46:01.310 to him, and he will save you. 00:46:02.610 --> 00:46:05.530 That's his promise to us, and I testify of its truth.