Kasra
Now is the time to give no more
No more, just as you are
Good morning, good morning, good morning
So we are deep into the month of July
I think everybody is a little off their schedule
There are a lot going on
I'll remind you of just a couple of quick prayer requests
And then there is a team leader meeting today
We have some folks who are out deep in Tony's at work
Found out on Friday that he would be at work
And so possibly 10 or 11 o'clock tonight
And so he was not too happy about that
So pray for him, since he's out there drilling holes in the ground
And they go 200 feet deep sometimes
And it's a job
And so we lower the watch over him
And then we have others who have some illnesses going on
And we pray for him to be with them
What they're going through
And then if you can remember
Gina Hyre and her family were burnt out of their house
A few months back she was a client of the live station
And they are within two months
They're not being able to stay where they currently are
And be the place to live
And have a limited budget
And they also could go to live near her son, West Virginia
But they have a limited budget to get there
And get a place when they get there
And they don't have enough money to pay
That kind of affects them a lot in a hard place
So it's a reminder that sometimes we've got it really good
God is taking care of us
And remember that some folks are not as blessed as we are
In the crackings of life and that kind of thing
So if you remember Gina and her family
They're hurt, she's got two of those old children
And a 17 year old that are with her
And they're just kind of getting things up
She likes to come to New Heights
She's very concerned about what we do
And this is an interesting life kind of thing
But right now we're at work
And so we pray, possibly pray for them to not be great
That being said, we're just going to pray and let God be
Okay?
Lord in heaven, thank you for this moment together
We realize that in the midst of summer
Especially in Northwest Ohio
We're kind of like, by the end of winter
We're a seasonal affective disorder
Sets in for a lot of folks in Northwest Ohio
And we feel like just blah, worn out
And summer comes and the sun shines
The day stays shining long
And we are timed or clocked
We're messed up and it's hard to figure out
What we're supposed to be doing when and so on
And then plus there's folks who suffer from allergies
And science infections, we've got food
We have science infections, bad
And we just pray Lord, that you come to them
And Miss Chris has been off and on
Losing her voice over the last few weeks
And Pete and Tony have stuck at work
And people like Gina, and we know that her story
Prepeats a hundred times, a thousand times
Across the history of lost or faith to live
Or struggling with such physical health concerns
And psychological health concerns that they can't even function
And so Lord, we just pray we're young
We pray we're strange
We pray that in this day
Those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus
Would find you always ready
As we know you are always ready
To intervene in their situation
But lift them up to empower them to make them able
Cross over barriers and do the things that
Will need to be done
And we know that the things that will need to be done
Are to deny ourselves
Take up our thought, baby
And follow after you
And all the rest of it is just the stuff of life
Now we come together to worship
To remember that the stuff of life
Cannot interfere with what's really important
And that's our time with you
Time to let go of the group
Time serving
Time giving
Time learning to love
And we pray that you'll do that in us today
Foster some new strength, some new seed
Some new teaching, some new growth
Some new step forward
By the power of your Holy Spirit
By the presence of our God
Through our worship, through your ministry
In our worship, through your Word
We turn it all over to you
Whatever you want to do, whatever you want to use
For each one of us, and us and the classes
And even those who can't be with us
Who are watching online right now
Or who will watch later, who will listen to podcasts
We'll pray for all years to be open
To hear the channels through our hearts
That can be effective
We pray for these things in Jesus name
Amen
Alright, if you would stand and join us
There's some clapping that can be done in this song
And for dancing
I got a clap or two on our Not Bunch of Beads
If you're alone my strength
If you're alone my hope
If you're alone my strength
Alright, so it's back in the rhythm of things a little bit.
I know you may not necessarily be prepared, but I hope you are.
We had Vacation Bible School and at Vacation Bible School, the kids anyway, did study four
days in a row. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And I submit to you from what I saw, the leaders
teaching, I think they did study. They studied the material, they prepared, they did activities.
And I've said often that doing Bible study, you can tell you can Bible study when you're
writing things down, but I remind you sometimes it isn't about writing things down. It could
be an activity that you do. For example, during memorization, one of the youth was talking
about, I can't memorize this verse, you can't memorize this verse. And I suggest you write
it down, each word on a piece of paper, and then mix them all up and rearrange them to
do that verse over and over again and you'll get it. And they did. And I submit to you,
while that verse memorization, you can definitely see study in there. If you ever remember back
in high school learning or memorizing the periodic table, coming up with all kinds of
different ways to memorize the periodic table, that's study. Okay? So you can do it a variety
of different ways. You can record it and listen back. You can symbolize it by toys or by paintings
or pictures that you've drawn. It was all kinds of things that you can do to be doing
study while you're looking at the word. Okay? So really, it's biblical study, even as something
with the Bible, otherwise it's just study. You might study a book that you read or study
something through your science class or something like that. But it's biblical study, it's
based on the Bible, and you do something other than just read it, memorize it, and meditate
on it. Right? So not just intake or memorization or meditation, but something more that's
what has to study, something different. Okay? So maybe you've studied your Bible. I had
a peculiar instance over the last two weeks I'll share with you in studying my Bible.
But maybe you've studied your Bible and you saw something. Did anyone see it? You'd like
to share that point or something out of here.
I think that's an application of the weather. And it's saying that a lot of people in Canada
are having to evacuate from their homes and move away because of all the fires. It is
spreading faster than the firefighters can even live. And there has been, and it's getting
closer to the oil. Everybody is evacuating and it's fast to cause because of the fires
and hits the oil.
Okay, so why don't you tell us what you think John would say about that?
I would say that what God would say is for all the Christian athletes, they would be praying.
God would say, don't worry, I'll watch over you. It would be okay.
We can play a quarter on that if that was true.
I just before I just watched some of the Bible movies and I was in the second coffee
with me. It struck me that neither is about, if you guys have seen the Constitution, if
not then just go over it. But as the wrong man put law that may not have a bashful, he
figures out what he has to do and he doesn't and he saves life. And what struck me about
that is even in the biggest moments when we have something going on, like tomato, it was
the bomb. We still can figure out what we have to do before that big thing happens to
us. And he figures out what he has to do before the bomb and so on.
He could have just let the bomb blow up because everybody in the before was on an
immediate road trip. But he moved on along because he found out who was behind all the
stuff and he knew what he had to do and that just shows John that God took you to
every moment even when it's something that could bring you life.
Which of course generally is back to the Canadian course part. So this is the experience that
I had this week, really in the last 10 days, studying my Bible. For last Sunday's sermon,
I was writing the sermon and I got it mostly done and I felt the Lord lead me on a different
direction for this Sunday. And I thought, man, I got to study that. So I went and I
got to study and by the time I came in here last Sunday, my sermon for today was half
written, 50% done. I know when it's half written because that means I've got the text. I
basically understand what the text is about and I'm forming the points and then I went
to the points and I have some more work to do after that kind of prospect everything,
make sure it's all God's and I can say, I can make it to God and so on. So I was about
halfway done and while I was in here during worship last Sunday, one of the songs that
God spoke to me about what I was studying. And I've been thinking a lot ever since we
started this of how every spiritual discipline relates together. We're making a mistake
by emphasizing one discipline or another. Is there anybody in here that would not resonate
with the fact that we need to pray for people who are being put out of their homes by
force fires? We can all do that, right? We all agree we need to pray for those people.
God wants those people to be safe. He wants those people to be in a right relationship
with Him. God's will to force fires to burn them out of their homes. It's happening,
but God puts up a little lot of stuff that happens until Jesus comes again, right?
And so we can all resonate with, well we ought to pray, but here's what happens. We say that
and then we go out about our day and we kind of never quite get back to praying for those people.
And we don't really know them by name, so we pray, Lord you will be done and that's good enough, right?
Or we pray right before we eat. Now Father, we love you please bless those who need you.
And that's good enough, right? Bless those who are sick and hurting right now. That's good enough, right?
But it's a pretty shallow discipline of prayer. So once in a while barely getting done,
sort of covering the bases, oh I forgot to pray for the person I promised. Prayer. That's what it is.
But if you add in study of the word into that and you think about it, so you get distance
and you're like, I'm studying my Bible and I crack open my Bible and then you can do this,
but I generally do it every morning. I crack open my Bible to wherever I feel like the Lord is leading.
Not randomly, it's not there, right? But wherever I feel like the Lord is leading,
I'll be cooking through and I'll see the names of the books and I'll say, you know what?
I feel like the Lord says, go right there right now and I just felt like the Lord says stop right here right now.
So Psalm 18, right? Psalm 18 to the end. I love the, oh Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. You couldn't make that up, right?
So now I think about out of that, so what does it mean to love God?
What would God be doing if he was in command? If he said, how can you say you love me?
Don't follow my commands, right? So you can follow God's commands.
So then I'm going to think about what are the commands of God that I would use.
Yeah, I said I would pray. God wants you to pray. I said I would pray. Who did I say I would pray for?
And it all ties back in. You do that with every spiritual discipline.
So by meditating about, I love the, oh Lord, my strength.
Meditate about that phrase and think about what that means, break it down into pieces,
ask myself questions. You can just do, who, what, why, when, where, who does what in that passage?
I do. What do I do? I love the Lord.
Who do I love? I love God. What do I mean when I say I love the Lord?
Okay, so why, why do I love the Lord? Let me count the reasons why I love God.
I love him of course because he first loved me. Otherwise I wouldn't know how to love anyone.
I know that because I remember what it was like to be a non-Christian. I didn't know how to love anyone.
And so that's meditating. And now the meditating, I'm writing something down. That's the same thing.
So if you say, you're going to pray, so if we say we're going to pray for the people in the forest fires,
shouldn't we ought to pray at a time? Or somehow? By the way, does anybody use reminders on your phone?
Okay, people have reminders on your phone. You got an event tomorrow at 11 o'clock.
Let's see, you got an event next Thursday at 11 o'clock. So it's a, it's a Canes, Slovenia.
Next Thursday at 11 o'clock. What time does the reminder start? 4.
It's 11 o'clock next Thursday, right? Earlier. How much earlier? Probably about 18.
Okay, so a day would be good, but then whatever goes off the one thing at night,
and then Thursday morning you forget. Two day and two hours.
All right, so mine's at the day and two hours. So I always set a reminder for plenty of time to get there early
and the day before. Why am I doing it? And how does study do that grow up?
I'm studying that passage of Scripture and I got halfway through it by last Sunday
and then I'm studying it through this weekend. Monday I studied it, and Tuesday I studied it,
and Wednesday I studied it, and by Wednesday, guess how far along I was on my swimming proof today?
50% zero progress. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday zero progress.
I had studied a lot more, but I hadn't made any progress toward completion.
And I thought, that's weird. That's why I'm praying to God. And I said, God,
is this passage of Scripture for the church? Am I supposed to preach this first Sunday?
And God said, no, I never said that. I led you to it, but I never told you to preach it.
And so then I said it aside and said, okay, lead me to the passage of Scripture for Sunday.
And I wound that back in Deuteronomy and God's continuing today in the passage of Scripture from Deuteronomy,
which is where I was going to be. So then I said to God, so what about that passage I studied
for 15 hours or something? I thought, well, you can have it. And He said, well, that was for you.
And now I know. So I went back and looked at the things that I had studied, and I found some things.
A couple of things which you tie into the sermon today. The text is not in there,
and the points are not in there, but it does tie in. It helps me to understand something.
And then Friday I had a rough day, a very rough day. Things were out of control.
I worked until 10 o'clock at night, away from home, couldn't go with my family to the T-Ball games,
and I was going to look at it and see if it was a rough day.
As I'm going through that and getting lost in the Scripture work, we're about to lose it.
I'm angry, I'm upset, I'm frankly caught up in something that a brother of mine
who had faced a lie to my face was doing. I felt betrayed, and I was ready to go after him about it
and do something that I was going to regret. And instead, I thought about that passage in Scripture,
but I hate to study. And God reminded me what it means to be free when circumstances in your life
would lead you to act another way. So I was angry, I was betrayed, I was hurt,
and I was going to go after him to say something and whatever.
Yet God reminded me, because the passage in Scripture is in John chapter 8 where he says,
come, you're going to be free. Come follow me, you're going to be free.
And I realized that I was free to go either way. I could go either way.
But I also realized that one way would be much more beneficial than the other.
And so I went the way, the more beneficial way.
So I encourage you to study your Bibles.
We're working through the book of Deuteronomy, we're in chapter 24, we've got eight.
Well, today we're reaching the 25. So we've got eight chapters left, 25 through 32, inclusive.
I would encourage you to come in here on Sunday, even if we are went up on a different path,
to have studied that passage, not just read it out loud yourself,
but to study what is likely to be next.
Because even if I don't pre-set passage on Sunday morning, you'll get something out of it.
A God's word is living, being essentially, and it will speak to you in so many ways.
All right, we're going to pray at this time.
We're having an offering called a song, going to the Word.
I'm excited about this.
You just heard the Deuteronomy and I am positive.
Absolutely one percent positive in the points, and in the text, and in the sight of the book.
Jason will turn the press off. I'm going to put it in my own seat.
I'm going to turn it out.
My brother Tim, if you pray and read it, we'll pray with you.
Thank you for all the help for us.
Thank you for taking us to the Newcastle.
Thank you for all the support.
Thank you for your grace, for us to read.
We are going to start with the prayer of the Spirit.
The leading time of this prayer is to recognize you, the Spirit, when you are in the Spirit.
We are going to pray for you.
We are going to see you.
We are going to pray with you.
The Holy Spirit is coming today.
I'm going to read it.
Yes.
Okay.
Yes.
single one of us now in outside the Lord in the kingdom of Satan that plays itself out in kind all kinds of bad behavior
Okay, we do all kinds of things that our father Satan wants us to do when we're outside the kingdom of God
But still fairly unique to us
We do them by our own thought process and arrive
It's okay for me to take this thing that doesn't belong to me because and we have our few reasons and
If you went and the same exact scenario with another person same in same prompting by Satan same prompting by
Evil spirits or the flesh and was and you looked at their reasons for doing it. They would not be the same as yours
Created unique in God we are then affected uniquely by an enemy which is I understand is more than one
It's Satan evil spirits the world and our fleshly desires and that last one really still stays pretty unique in a sense
Because your lust of the flesh is different than mine
Your lust of the eyes is different than mine your pride of life is different than mine
All right, so we're still tempted to judge a certain way or to think somebody else is going to respond the way we are
I'll use this last illustration. We're going to into the text
When I was at Pizza Hut, I took a class
as a manager as becoming a store manager as a training and
They said when you're hiring somebody have to be work be careful of the two most common mistakes that people make when they're hiring somebody
And the first one is to try to hire somebody that is in some way like them
So in other words if you're talking to a person and you're an early riser and
You talk to a candidate for the job and they say they're an early riser whether they are not doesn't matter, but they say they are
And you talk to another candidate the job that says they they tend to sleep late on weekends
And they don't really like mornings blah blah blah and you see an early riser in you
Then you're gonna sometimes be more likely to hire the person says they're an early riser because you you have a good self-esteem of yourself
You're doing the job you're working the job you want somebody's like you like that so you're gonna hire somebody like you
Or you may rebel from that say I don't want to hire somebody just like me because I want to round out my team
I want to do a good job of having a diverse team. It can do the things that I can't do and so on
So you go no, I'm not gonna hire the early riser because they're like me
I'm gonna hire the the late sleeper who's different than me both of those are huge mistakes in hiring
Even if you take your best trait and you say I am super organized. I take notes on everything
I've got my email box well sorted and you ask them and you say do you do this do you do this and they say no
I don't take notes on stuff. No, I'm not organized. No, I don't have my email box well sorted
I'm not hiring them because of those because I'm not having those good traits could still be a mistake
Those are not reasons to hire or not hire somebody the real reason to hire or not to hire somebody is that whether they can do the job
And do it well and move forward the business
Okay, that was the class as I was trained
I've since learned that there's a lot more to it than that and I understand what I'm getting at as you're walking around looking
Ron, I'll give you an example of this. Have you ever been at Myers and you walk around Myers and you walk past a couple of guys
Who are talking and the way they're talking the way they're acting you're pretty sure they're gamers
That ever happened to you that's happened to me a dozen times right now
I have no clue whether unless they were talking about games
I have no clue whether or not they're gamers or not but the way they're acting the way they're talking
I think they probably are and I could broach the topic with them and find out whether they are and then use that to bridge into talking about Jesus
I have not in except for in one case. I think I did but most times I have not
But if I would start talking about them, I might find out. No, they're not
We were in the airport on the way to I was in the airport on the way back from New Orleans
And I and there was a couple there and they had a young daughter who was out of control
She was they had to monitor every single second because she was obviously said some discipline issues
there might maybe had never been disciplined or whatever she was all over and
and I
Had a feeling to talk to them and I started talking to the one lady and then she broke off the conversation with me
I started talking to a 13 year old boy was sitting next to her because on her phone
She was playing Pokemon go and he or I don't know she was actually playing it
But she was managing it or whatever and the boy was doing the same thing and they want to talk about Pokemon go for the remaining
Hour that we sat in the airport
You can look at somebody and go I don't have anything in common with them
But I'm this is what I'm saying to you when you make that judgment you are wrong
You can look at them and say they are just like me
But you're wrong I
Want you to bear that in mind then and see how God in this text
Sets up society and we don't get everything but some some serious pieces of how he sets up society to
preserve
Personhood okay, so grab your Bibles if you would we're gonna read from Deuteronomy chapter 24
Let me give me an amen. Thank you brother Ron a couple others. Thank you so much. This is God's word
It's a lengthy passage of scripture, but the points are quick. I am not gonna break down everything good
I don't think we have to it's pretty straightforward
So I think everybody in this room will get it mostly anybody's got a question or I didn't explain something enough for you
Just feel free to raise your hand. It's okay
All right, and if you're on the internet and struggling email me and I'll give you the answer
Okay
Deuteronomy 24 6 no one shall take a handmill or an upper millstone in pledge
For he would be taking a life in pledge the handmill is for grinding grain or whatever into flour
right and an upper millstone is a
Bigger stone that runs on a lower stone and it does the same thing it grinds it into flour
And because that's how they would make their food. In fact the houses in that day were described as all having one
Like they all had one because they could get grain they could make bread right and so if you take their handmill or their upper millstone
You're taking their life
Because how are they gonna make bread?
Okay, so he says don't do that if a man has caught kidnapping any of his countrymen and that word could be just stealing stealing his countrymen of
The sons of Israel and he deals with him violently or sells him then that thief shall die
So you shall purge the evil from among you we already talked quite a bit about wiping out evil from among us as people of grace
And it says if that person takes captive or steals another member of the country another member of the grace family
Then they deserve death for us. That would be like casting them out right?
We would now they can't be part of our church if they're kidnappers. We just don't do that
Okay, verse 8 be careful against an infection of leprosy that you diligently observe and do according to all that the Levitical priests shall teach you
As I have commanded them so you shall be careful to do so they're gonna do everything they're told about
Leprosy 9 says remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way as he came out of Egypt
So this is a particular story. We're not gonna go there and read it Miriam. Who was Miriam? Does anybody know this?
She's somebody famous the sister
Going once
Miriam is
Moses's sister, okay, and they come out of Egypt. They're traveling together and there's a
But that would have worked too I suppose we don't technically know could have been yeah, okay, but anyway, yeah, probably true
At least she would have been Aaron's at least half sister if not full sister then okay because Aaron was Moses's brother and
Miriam starts talking bad about Moses
God settles over Miriam's tent when she comes out. She's leprous all over
Moses begs God and says forgive her and God says listen if her father just spat in her face
disgusted with her as a child wouldn't she be punished for at least a week and
Moses has say well, yeah, she would have and so then they for a week
She's leprous because she talked bad about Moses at the end of the week
She's healed their fine. They move on the whole camp stays there and does not move the whole time. She's leprous
Okay, so that's a story that they're reminded in dealing with leprosy anybody can get it
So don't go oh well, that's a poor man's disease
back in the day years ago we had a go-round with lice and
There's a big stigma with lice in
inner-city Toledo that says that the poor unbathed
Undisciplined people get lice. That's just not true
So anybody can get lice right anybody in fact the cleaner your scalp the more likely you are to get it
Not the other way around right dirty scalps. They can't get to the core. So they can't they don't take root, right?
They don't eat so the point is she was saying anybody can suffer
remember the suffering
That's what he was saying about Miriam also by the way
Moses never Moses who was the leader of them coming out of Egypt never saw the promised land because he offended God
God's discipline and punishment and judgment can be brought down on anybody. So before you go all well, they deserve it
They're getting what they deserve remember you deserve it, too
Okay, that's what he's saying ten when you make your neighbor a loan of any sort
You shall not enter his house to take his pledge
You shall remain outside and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you show the man some dignity
For crying out loud that he would bring out the pledge if he is a poor man
You shall not sleep with his pledge when the sun goes down
You shall surely return the pledge to him so you could take something in pledge from a poor man, but he gets it back at night
That he may sleep in his cloak and bless you and usually it would be his cloak that was taken as a pledge because he's poor
He doesn't have much and it will be righteousness for you before the Lord your God
You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy
Whether he is on one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns
So don't oppress the poor and needy you shall give him his wages on his day
Before the sun sets for his poor and sets his heart on it so that he may not cry against you to the Lord
And it becomes sin in you so pay him the day that he works because he's he may not have any money
You may not be able to eat. He's his heart is set on that money pay him the day that he works. That's interesting, isn't it?
16
Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers
Everyone shall be put to death for his own sin
Today we always want to punish the parents for the sins of their children
But once children are old enough to know they're old enough to know
17 you shall not pervert the justice do an alien or an orphaned nor take a widow's garment in pledge
But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there
Therefore I am commanding you to do this thing. So God was saying be respectful and don't
abuse if you will
Taking a widow's garment in pledge or
Fail to give justice to an alien who might not have legal standing or to an orphan who doesn't have parents to defend him right?
19 when you reap your harvest in your field and they've forgotten a sheaf that's when they bundle up the
The grain and it stands upright usually
Or they lay it in a pile on the ground that they're going to carry out. So you forgot one
You shall not go back to get it
It shall be for the alien for the orphan and for the widow in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands
When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again
It shall be for the alien for the orphan and for the widow. So
Before the right the olives are really ripe you beat the tree to get the olives to fall off and the olive oil that comes out of it
Is really sweet and you can wait until the olives are really ripe and take them off
You can pick them by hand or whatever or shake and a lot more will fall off
But then they're less sweet so you beat the tree while the olives are not really really ripe yet
Less will fall off. He's saying if you beat the tree while the olives are not really ripe yet
Or not all of them the ones that don't fall off. Those aren't yours
Those are for the orphan or for the widow
Even though that's their land their trees that God gave them right and he said no you don't you don't get that now
All the rest of that as they ripen up the orphans and the widows can pick that that'll be theirs
22 you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt
Therefore I am commanding you to do this thing. See they had nothing
God gave them the tree. God gave them the land. They had nothing now. They have everything
The poor still have nothing and they must remember the poor if the orphan the alien the widow 25 little further
If there is a dispute between men and they go to court and the judges decide their case and they justify the righteous and condemn
The wicked so the judge just picked the good guy. He's fine. He didn't do it. The other guy said you did it
Then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten
The judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes
According to his guilt
He may beat him 40 times, but no more
Lest he beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother be degraded in your eyes
Here's the thing about justice. I actually learned this from magic the gathering
This thing called power creep
Right, so what happens is this somebody does something wrong. They get a punishment
Then they do it wrong again. So what happens now?
They have to get a more severe punishment
Then they do it wrong again or their brother does it or a family member does it or a friend does it doesn't matter
It's still happening in our society and we're trying to abolish this crime, right?
So now you have to go more so now we're not beating them 40 times or we're beating them 60 because they 60 times people to get the point
But it's not the same person
even
Right and by the way 40 is a god number. It means all the corners of the earth and all the sides of the earth
That's why it rained for 40 days 40 is enough
Right, it was enough
Nobody wants to be whipped 40 times if a man would commit a crime and then be whipped 40 times for it
He commits it again. He's either insane or he's got a good reason
Right and so they were saying
Don't let that power creep don't let that punishment creep up to be like the other nations
That's also why dads would be punished for the crimes of their children or children will be punished for the crimes
Their dad because I see you don't care if you get punished. We'll see how you like it when I punish your kid or
Kid does something wrong. It's okay. You know, you're just a kid. We're gonna let you off. We're gonna punish your dad
Or it's a grown man 30 year old punishes father because that grown man 30 year old doesn't want to see his 60 year old dad get whipped
So he's gonna straighten up and not do it again. So his dad won't get whipped that kind of thing. It's all power creep
So that's the end of the text for today
That last one remember was about that brother being degraded in their eyes if that he was whipped more than the 40 times
All right, so the first thing in here. Let me talk to on the title first. It says it's just society
That doesn't mean it's it's just society
It means it's just
Society as in a society that has justice in it and God is telling us how to run a society that has justice in it
So in the kingdom of God, it should be like this because the kingdom of God is a just society
It means in the church
It should be like this because the church is the kingdom of God and therefore a just society
All right, so the first thing and maybe this like if this was all you get this is key
All right, and that is this to God
personhood is precious
What do I mean by that? Well your personhood is you it's your identity. It's the way you make decisions
It's the way you were programmed by the world and rebel sometimes programmed by the world and don't rebel sometimes
It's your processing your heart. You could say it's your soul. It's your personhood. It's who you are
That is precious. God does not want you to stop being who you are
He just wants to cut out the old dead man that's sinful
He wants to kick when you die the new you the resurrected you it's either a all new things or be all old things made new
Right the Bible does not say that when you get saved everything that you were stops. That's a mistake
That's a misinterpretation of second Corinthians 5. What it says that is that all old things pass away
all things become new
Anything that cannot serve you anything that cannot serve God and serve other people in the kingdom of God is meant to pass away
But anything that can serve you serve God and serve the kingdom of God will be made new
Right and so your personhood is not wiped out
But also I think we can realize as precious as it is to God it is not something for us to treasure
Your uniqueness is not meant to hold you back from following God
Your uniqueness is meant to show you that you can have a unique one-on-one
personal relationship with the with the God of the universe do his son Jesus Christ
People are going to do it ways that don't make any sense to you. This has happened to me a
Great deal and I'll be honest with you
I think God says this do this this way and then I think I look at you and you're doing it a different way
And I think
But God says do it this way
Now what's being done may not be a sin
Right, but to me God says do it this way. So I'm thinking it's not right
Right that person's personhood is messed up. It's flawed. It has an error in it
And I wish we could fix it. How are we gonna fix it? Well, they really need to repent and turn to Jesus. But wait a minute
What do we repent from in turn to Jesus? We repent from our old self and sin in turn you can't rep rep repent from your personhood
To God your personhood is precious. So that whole idea of like I'm a late riser or I'm an early riser now
Caution needs to be exercised because if you're a late riser when you should be an early riser
That is sin
If God would ordain that you get up early get in the words spend some time with him and then go to work
And you don't do that that sin
right
If you make a commitment to do something in the morning at 9 and you're not an early riser and you wake up
And it's 10 you just sin because you made a commitment to do something and you didn't do it
So there are issues that arise out of one type or another
But either way whatever you are that's your current personhood and God is not trying to abolish that indeed God is trying to set it free
Mind you in Christ, but set it free
When I was growing up my dad used to say poor people have poor ways
We'd be driving down the road and we'd see a car where the bumper was damaged and it was duct tape back on
Right by 30 rows of duct tape pulling the bumper on the road this was active that and he my dad had say
I'd say that's kind of weird dad. Why did they just get it fixed? He said well poor people have poor ways
Well my dad was off work from Dana because they had a very long strike and
The strike pay had run out and so they were not making any money whatsoever
And we began to eat very slim pickens
Certain foods that were cheap
Prepared and my mom began to save leftovers for the first time in the decade that I'd been alive and
I noticed the difference and I commented on it to my dad and my dad said well son
We're not getting paid money because I'm off work. We're past the strike pay
So there's no money coming in whatsoever and they're trying to raise some money to help people
But the bottom line is when our savings are gone. We're out of money and he said poor people have poor ways
But be careful and don't judge yourself as a poor person
But also don't judge a poor person for being poor
Senator from Ohio State Senate and I don't have her permission to use this illustration
So I'm not going to name her said to me the problem is that the people in the in the government have
Determined that this is a great land of opportunity and anybody who's poor is poor
For some reason that's their own fault
And so if they don't have enough money, they don't have enough resource that can't find enough food. They're poor
Because essentially they choose to be poor and so the government doesn't have to help them get un-poor
Now whether or not that's true. I think it's kind of a skeptical point of view
But the bottom line is the poor are not poor because they're poor the Bible says there will all the poor you will always have with you
Jesus's words
And so we'll always be able to find somebody who's poor. It's not going to happen now
Sometimes you're going to be poor and sometimes you're not going to be poor speaking financially
But in Christ you can always be wealthy if your personhood is found in Christ
Is liberated set free and protected in Christ?
We all understand that times of war require drastic measures during World War two a
And I would did not know this firsthand. So don't think I'm that old right?
There was a rationing system set up in the US you had stamps
So you're allowed to get X bread X
Milk right and you had to go and turn in your stamp to be allowed to buy with your own money
gas
Lean the list goes on and on bricks bricks became so expensive and so uncommon and rations
Ration bricks you don't eat bricks. You don't drive bricks. You don't sit on bricks bricks
My parents house was built it during World War two. It wasn't built on a foundation
Because the owner couldn't get the bricks
This is why the floors in their house go like this to this day and then they later had a foundation built under it and they were told
That they could jack it up and reset it but it didn't reset
So now it's stable and solid with a foundation but the floors are still
Like this right because bricks were rationed in times of war
Extreme actions may be taken
Are you taking extreme actions?
I submit to you that as Christians we have forgotten that we are living in a time of war
It's your personhood geared for a time of war or a time of recreation
Are you entertaining yourself comforting yourself?
and finding the parts of yourself that need a little stroking and given it a little stroke or are you remembering that at any given moment
Satan could come against you now
It's unlikely that any of us will ever meet him in our lifetime
But you realize that the devil himself could if he ever chose to come against you personally he could step in the room
I assume he could dress nicely and you probably wouldn't realize it was him
I
Probably wouldn't realize it was him and he could tempt you to revoke your decision to follow the Jesus Christ and would you be prepared?
Would you be afraid because you don't need to be afraid because he was in you as greater than he is in the world
But if you're busy stroking the parts of your personhood
That don't build up the parts of your personhood that can fight against the devil if he should ever choose you to show up against
Then when that time comes your personhood will retreat and what's left?
What's left?
We are living in a time of war
We must take care of one another and even protect each other's personhood as God sees it as precious
So must we be ready to make the necessary drastic measures that means you may have to be
Inconvenienced you may have to go out of your way and serve somebody and do something for them
Because they in their personhood made a decision that is not expressly sin and it affects you
And now you've got to carry the load or the burden so that other person can just be who they are in Christ and that's it
God sees personhood as precious and in a society run by God
God will not set it up so that you cannot be who you are
If someone refused to let you be who you are now who you are is sin and repent of that and turn back to God
But otherwise if someone refused to let you be who you are then they are not respecting your personhood as God does one final example
Have you seen the movie hunger games recently?
Ariana expressed a desire to see that movie and so we began watching it so we could help her decipher it because it is
Rated PG-13 she is nine and there are things in it that she cannot see so we fast forwarded through one scene so far
We missed fast forwarding through one other scene that we should have fast forwarded through
But we're doing okay
Very little foul language in it in that movie. There is a scene where president snow meets with I think his name is
Sluhtark, but anyway, it's the first designer of the first hunger game the 74th hunger games, right?
He meets with him and he says to me says have you ever been out there?
the district like 11 and 12
He said have you ever been out there?
He said there are a lot of underdogs out there a lot of people just trying to get by her up
Rides up from their circumstances a lot of underdogs. He said because he said you like an underdog and see everybody likes an underdog
So have you ever been out there? There's a lot of underdogs out there. This is also a lot of grain coal
Feed crops row crops of all kinds of things all kind of things that we need factories those things that we need and a lot of underdogs
He said if you had been out there and you had met them you wouldn't like them either
You know why?
Because the underdog personhood the one that is unleashed in God the one that is doing what it is that God wants them to do
In their way the way that God made them the way that God programmed them
But under God's auspices with God's power in it with God's Holy Spirit back in it with God's
Presence pushing it right if I go forward and I witness to somebody the way I would witness to somebody my personhood
Nothing can stop that
Which is why society is constantly trying to get people to conform
Be different come be like us
Right abandon the parts of your personhood that are unique and different
Come be like us listen to what we have to say right God creates a society that is the exact opposite of that
He said everybody in this society will be covered under grace they get to go into the promised land not because they're good
But because I said so and they are willing to receive it from me and follow me
And then we will go forward and we will use that unique you in a unique way to uniquely affect a unique society
set inside a unique world
That is lost and dying and going to hell
and
Satan doesn't like an underdog
personhood that's unleashed in Christ and
The fact is that members of the church and Christians all over the world. We're listening to him
We're listening to those evil spirits it says when you're a little weird
Don't be weird like that
Don't dress that way don't behave that way don't act that way don't talk that way
Don't be who you are no one can know who you are keep your mask on
Listen when you came to Jesus Christ your mask went in the fires of hell
Now be who you are in Christ
Let the things that are not supposed to be you the old things the simple things die away
Let your new personhood resurrected born again in Christ live
Yes, he'll if you get rid of your ability to walk the old way
You're gonna have to learn an ability to walk the new way you have to learn to walk again
That's what's called being born again
You have to learn to walk again if the old way of giving giving because it'll make you feel good make somebody else feel good because they
May give back because you have excess you don't want to feel guilty about your excess all that the old way of giving
That's got to go that died when you died in Christ
Where he died for us so all died so that died when you died in Christ the new way of giving giving without expecting anything back
Given because you recognize the need given because it will honor glorify God giving because
Giving is a thing we do and it's part of who we are giving for that reason
That'll be with you forever
But the enemy does not like
An underdog
Unleashed somebody who will live who they are different for Christ is the most dangerous thing and God recognizes that and he says so be that
Be who you are
Just be it in Christ and when you see sin cut it out
When you make mistakes
Get on with life people make mistakes
Confess them and move on
God's precious personhood must be allowed to exist within the kingdom of God and God's kingdom is everywhere that Christians are
Let us see precious personhood in everybody else we meet the next thing
Protections for the poor this text is largely about the poor being protected anybody as I said might be poor
It was there and there and there and there
Here's what happens the wealthy and the great those who get in top those are doing well
They become
devious
They emphasize the parts of their personality of their personhood that do not honor God
recently a popular
Star I'm gonna you know
I'm not even talk bad about her but she sings and she's well liked and especially amongst teenage girls and 20 somethings and
I read a post by a Southern Baptist pastor online and and somebody asked the question why do so many young people?
What do they see in this person and another pastor post well, I'll tell you what happened with my daughter
She had a stuffed animal and it was named after this pop star and
And just recently she changed his name and so I asked her I said why did she change his name and she said well
This pop star in her most recent music video for her most recent release song
She's dressed up as the devil and the song is singing about how you don't need to forgive
You don't need to be a person of forgiveness. You don't need to forgive anybody
That's a trick of society. They're trying to force you to come forgive and you don't have to do that
You can hold a grudge and it's okay, and she said and I know that's not what God says so now I'm done with her a
Child she said now I'm done with her and Jesus said unless you come like a little child in the kingdom of God
You have no part with me
Are you willing to go here is somebody who's pushing on my person?
It's something that is disrespectful something that is ungodly and I'm not having to do with it
There's all over Facebook the the anniversary parade in Brazil where they had a guy dressed up as the devil
Beating all the way down the street with blood and scars and whips and everything else
And he and his little evil spirits around beating Jesus all the way down the street and everywhere they passed they applauded
See God sees your personhood as precious, but in the kingdom of God unleashed for him
But there are people who just don't know they're in a tough spot. They're they're wrong
It would be so easy for us as wealthy kingdom members
And it is already so easy for people who are wealthy in some way in the world to dismiss or dispose of
Anybody that's poor and go they've got a problem. I don't got to do nothing about it. When's the last time you paid somebody else's rent
When's the last time you willingly loan money to somebody who had a need?
right
Bible says that's the kind of people we are
I'm I struggle with this myself because I
Need a break so I'm thinking vacation
But I also see people who are in need so as Christians we have to decide and
Here is where the line is drawn the poor is protected
Loans are ordered don't go and take their pledge out of their house. Let them bring it out to protect their dignity, right?
But do loan to them
for a cloak
Loan 100 gold if necessary that cloaks probably worth five gold loan whatever you need to
Take the pledge but give it back at night so we can sleep in it. See they're protected
You can't go into society thinking I'm gonna win people to Jesus
You can't do that the Bible says Jesus speaking which will read it in the conclusion. We're almost there already
Jesus said
No man come with unto the father except to be called
Do you understand that you do not have the ability to win people to Jesus?
You just don't it's not in you
It's not some kind of spiritual gift like the evangelist is a gift to the church and he can do it
And he's better at winning people to Jesus than anybody else. That's true
But we don't have this gift in us that we can win people to Jesus the gift that wins people to Jesus is Jesus
So you go out in society you look at somebody go that person doesn't want to hear about Jesus
But you tell them anyway
There will be dozens of people in heaven
From my life and from your life and whatever that we said they don't want to hear about Jesus anyway
Looking at them. They don't want to hear about the way they're acting. They don't want to hear about it. I
Shouldn't bring it into this conversation because we're talking about something has nothing to do that
And I'll look like a Bible thumper or I'll I'll be hurting their feelings with her. Yes
Precious personhood respect them offer to talk about it with them if they decline. It's fine
You could share the entire gospel. They say they don't want to be saved. It's fine. That's their choice
It doesn't make any sense, but there are people who don't have and don't want to have
There is a whole subculture in the United States of America of people that go from pantry to pantry or community meal to community meal
They live on the street or they live poor. They search couch to couch
Whatever and they don't want to have a job and they don't want to have a permanent property or a permanent roof and that's fine
There's nothing that says they can't be saved or go to heaven when they die
But they don't want a job that they have to report for work and if they don't what's it to you? You got a problem with that?
That's their personhood. That's what they've chosen. So you're not going to share Jesus with them or
You're not going to give to them. You're not going to take care of them
God sees personhood as precious and he puts in place protections for the poor
We have to recognize that the poor have personhood
They are created in the image of the God of the universe
Yes, they are now if they don't know Christ they're exhibiting a fallen image
I have more often talked to people who profess to know Jesus and can quote scripture and talk about what they meditated on
Meditated on yesterday talk about what they read in their Bibles yesterday talk about what they studied this week talk about what I talked about
In my sermon last Sunday
From out there amongst the poor who have almost nothing that I had from inside our own church
My own family I'll preach the sermon and then talk about something I talked about in the sermon and I get blank gazes
And I'm not trying to judge or be accusatory what I'm saying is there is a greater need for it and they're pursuing it
They know what they need and they're pursuing it and what that is is faith. They're they're going I need to go to heaven when I die
Do I need a job? Yeah, kind of
Do I need a place to live? Yeah, kind of do I need food to eat? Yeah, kind of but what I really need is to go to heaven
When I die what I really need is to be prepared that when evil spirits come against me while I'm in my struggles
I have some defense
And our families and everybody that I see we're all pretty taken care of by God and
If we're pretty taken care of by God then we understand that God has protections for the poor
There will be in the United States of America today a
thousand children
That die of starvation or malnutrition it shouldn't be we live in a first world country. It's available food's available a
Thousand children in America today will die and I'm not prophesying that I just believe it's true of
Malnutrition or starvation today and there's no one in this room that does not have access to something to eat
God has protections for the poor if they die today a thousand children die of starvation day if they're before the age of
Innocence they'll go straight to heaven and if they're after and they accept Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior they will go straight to heaven
Also watching Hunger Games
Capital
Division one is the capital and in there which is looking at the wealthy and this is what the wealthy do they have unnecessary
Surgery's
They color their skin they color their hair right in the United States of America
They change their gender
They change their name
They die their hair paint their nails and it just goes on and on they do everything
They want to themselves because they have access to money and time listen. I'm taking right now
In the poorest parts of the United States of America where people are literally struggling to put food on their table or in the world
Where there are they don't have anything to eat. I don't know where they're gonna eat
They're not worried about whether they're a boy or a girl. They're worried about what are they gonna eat?
in those countries where poverty and hunger is the greatest need
There's no transgenders none
Check your statistics
There's nobody going gosh
I think God meant for the reason I can't find any food to eat is because God meant for me to be a boy instead of a girl
It's not happening
In times of war get drastic
There will be those who they're not in times it's alright everything is good
I'm okay, and so now I'm gonna look at what am I gonna fix about myself? What am I gonna do?
What am I gonna buy right most expensive cars are bought for the way they look and how they drive
Why else you buy a car you don't buy an expensive car to get from point A to point B
You buy it for how it looks and how it drives
right
For $15,000 you buy a car that for the next ten years will pretty much not fail you and get you from point A to point B
$15,000 if you spent $100,000 on that same thing you'd be wasting $85,000
That's a fact
But when you have $100,000 or credit or enough to bake the payments you can spend $100,000 on a car and
Just drive it to nowhere
Not from point A to B, but just for fun just cuz
Meanwhile a thousand children die of starvation and a man can't get alone to get back on his feet
People can't get their rent paid or their utilities paid or their house burned down and they lost everything
But now they got nowhere to live
No, it's living on somebody's couch
God has protections for the poor and of all those protections
We are one
Because we are supposed to be sharing the gospel
So if I had a lady call me to the life-station she said I got nothing
I don't know what to do. I'm ready to just kill myself
I was sitting in my office upstairs back on this back in the day when my office is on the top end of the building
I said tell me what's going on. She said I'm living a hotel
Three days over doing our rent. We got no money. We got no food. My kids are crying all the time
So I put all my stuff in a storage unit and then it all it all got lost
Because we couldn't pay for the storage unit. So they sold it all off
Sold $5,000 of stuff to pay my $60 bill that I couldn't pay or $100 bill that I couldn't pay whatever it was
It's got nothing. I don't know what to do
So talk to her about we could get her food talk to her about what help we get off or where she could look for other help
And then I talked to her about Jesus
I shared the gospel
I told her the basic facts of what it takes to be saved and over the phone. She prayed except Christ. She tears
Had to been streaming down her face or she's balling like a baby as she's accepting Jesus
You're like listen if what you're worried about is putting food on the table
If you're about to kill yourself because you got no food
You got no place to live and everything and it's falling apart. You don't want to hear about Jesus then right?
Because what is Jesus even going to do about that?
It's exactly when you need to hear about Jesus or when you're going through anything else at all
So I shared Jesus Christ with her simple. I didn't know what to do God prompted me. I just did it
We prayed over the phone. She accepted Jesus Christ as we got off the phone. She was praising God
She said God is going to take care of me
I just absolutely know it if so grateful for the help that you're offering and the leads he gave me on other
Help because I know God's gonna be with us that's gonna be fine
And even if it doesn't work out. We're going to heaven. We don't tell my kids and try to win them to Jesus right now. I
Got off the phone the woman who was sitting in the room
I don't have her permission to share her name looked at me and she said I've never seen that before
I said, what do you mean? She said well the previous director that worked here you get calls like that all the time and
The and the gospel was never shared it was always about how we can help you and so on so on like that
She said why did you tell her about Jesus? That's not what she really needed and you could have heard a pin drop in the room. I
Said I'm sorry
But that's just not true and it never will be
Because what Jesus
Will Jesus always be what they really need yes
Someday if they survive hunger, they'll die and go to heaven or hell based on what they did with Jesus
Stop thinking that they can't accept Jesus and realize you need to talk to everyone who will listen
And the truth is she said I come to preach the gospel to poor because the poor just might be more ready to listen
Lastly it's property provided
All through the text you can see this is how you handle the property right alone it don't do this
Don't do that is how they handle the vineyard is how you handle the grain you wrap it up yourself
And then you forget it feel like oh, I forgot one you don't go back for it that goes to the poor
You beat the tree to take off the sweet olives
Collect them all up take them to market to sell a few weeks later
There's a lot of sweet olives there, but you don't touch them because that's for the poor
For the alien for the widow for the orphan so there's all things about here and how to handle property
But the key point is this all that they had they were given by grace
You don't deserve your house you don't deserve your relationships
You don't deserve your money you didn't get it because you're a good person who talks nice to people and they gave it to you
You don't get you didn't get it because you worked hard and earned it none of that is true
How do I know because there's a lot of people who worked hard and earned it and died before they got it?
car accidents hard attacks
The list just goes on and on COVID right there's a lot of people who if anybody deserved it
They deserved it and they died save the million dollars for retirement and died before they retired
You don't get it because you deserved it now
Is there a correlation between work and the resource that God puts in your hands so that you can manage them?
Yes, there is a correlation between that in fact God expects you to work and says if you don't work you shouldn't eat
That's not me. That's Bible
So there is a correlation between working and eating there is
a correlation between work and the resource that God puts in your hands so that you can manage it
But you don't get to eat because you work
Right you get to eat because of the grace of God
It is the grace of God that maintains the world to this point. He is not slow
In keeping his promises as some men count slowness
But rather he is patient that all men might come to repentance the lost person in your life is the reason
Not me
Not the pope or some guy who says he knows Jesus
That's not why we're still here because if it was for people who know Jesus we'd go straight to heaven because gonna all be better than
Jesus would come again. We're still here for the lost people
The property that we have the blessings that we have the wealth that we have all of these things
We are to administer as weapons and tools of God's grace
The poor are poor for reasons of God's knowing
Don't get into that which is above your station
The wealthy are wealthy for reasons that God explains you're given your wealth so that you can do good with it
This property that was given them they came out of Egypt and what did they have the clothes on their backs
Whatever they could drag through that hundreds of miles hike across the Red Sea
Few animals very little just they mostly probably ate them along the way
Until they got into the desert and got the manna they didn't have they needed to eat right so whatever food they had whatever
scarce provisions and the gold and the silver which there was nobody to buy anything from but the gold and the silver
That they brought out of Egypt with them which they eventually turned into a calf that they worshiped right that was a mess
What was the wealth for
The poor are poor for God's reasons he decides
The wealthy are wealthy for reasons that he tells us if you are what if you don't think you're wealthy then I suggest you check yourself
Because at the very least you're getting a wealth of teaching the very least
And it is to share with others if you have Jesus Christ you don't get to look at somebody and say I don't think they want to hear
That is a sin against God
Do you know if they want to hear you do not do you know if they need to hear you do
We have the wealth at least of the gospel given to us by grace and we are to share it with every person so that their
Personhood which we ought to respect at every step along the way can be set free for God and
Realize that God will protect the poor God will decide who hears and who doesn't God will decide whose position he elevates and whom he
declines that brings us to our conclusion I
Told you I have judged wrongly I
submit to you
You might be surprised if you would just say
from now on
every person
everywhere
That I can get into any kind of conversation with talking about sports talking about clothing talking about weather whatever
I'm going to try to say something about spiritual beliefs and see where it goes and
You will be surprised at how many people
drug addicts give their life to Christ
Liars and thieves poor people bikers
At one point time in northern Ohio between Cleveland and Toledo we had seven
Count them seven previous drug dealers who had given themselves to Christ
preaching the gospel planting churches seven
And two guys come through the life station both of which were former drug dealers
One of it should already given his life to Christ and one of which gave his life to Christ through the ministry of the life station
He's like I can't share the gospel with a drug dealer if you don't how will they ever stop dealing drugs?
I can't share the gospel with the drug addict if you don't how will they ever stop doing drugs?
I can't share the gospel with a poor man who has who needs so much that I can't possibly help him
if you don't and
Everybody makes the same decision
They will not accept Jesus Christ's Lord and Savior Paul wrote in Romans
How will they believe if they don't hear and how will they hear if someone doesn't go you might be surprised?
You might be the next
Billy Graham in your lifetime not preaching in huge tent revivals, but winning people to Christ wherever you go
Arayana is nine in
School in third grade she became known as the one who will tell a Bible story and so they will come up to her and they say
What's doing Arayana? I'm doing this right now. Okay. Will you tell me a story from the Bible?
Kids that don't know Jesus don't know the Bible and don't know God or that do go to church, but they're not getting enough there
They would come to her and say will you tell me a story from the Bible?
Why isn't that every one of us? Do your co-workers know that you're a Christian?
You can protect their personhood. You could say just in case I just want to put this out there. I am a Bible believing
Follower of the Lord Jesus Christ member of the kingdom of God if at any point time anybody wants to talk about God
I'm willing. I'm not gonna push it on you. I'm not gonna bring it up a bunch of times
I'm not gonna push you past what you're comfortable with. I respect your personhood. You say I'm an atheist
I don't believe in God. That's fine. But when you want to talk about atheism and how untenable that position is
I'll be willing to talk about that whatever, but if you believe it, and you think it's firm and you're solid
It's fine. I'm not gonna break you down. I'm not gonna beat you up
But I am here and willing to talk about Jesus and periodically make a simple statement
Remember I am always willing to talk about Jesus somebody says I'm really struggling going through depression
I have trouble with this employee. I'm in trouble with this
Uh situation of my household. Whatever you say remember I'm always here to talk about Jesus if you want to talk about Jesus
I'm always willing. I'm not gonna push it on you, but I'm always willing and somebody is gonna say hey
I remember you said what would God say about this?
And then as long as you've been praying studying meditating and doing the things you're supposed to do you're gonna have an answer
I had no problem
Asking Caleb what would God say about the forest fires? I felt completely confident
He was gonna come up with this answer was his answer perfect was it doctrine was it theology?
Was it something a professor from a college might say no, but did he have an answer?
Yes, because he professed the name of Jesus Christ and
Christians have answers
So I submit to you yes think of their personhood as precious
Let God protect the poor you don't have to do that and use all that God has blessed you with to bring it
I'm gonna this is my conclusion. I'm gonna read these verses. I'm
Reading from John chapter 6 it is a relatively well-known passage
But there is some subtle nuance there that you need to hear from John chapter 6 beginning in verse 44. It says this
I'll read verse 43 because I don't want to miss Jesus answered and said to them do not grumble amongst yourselves
No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day
It is written in the prophets and they shall all be taught of God
Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me. That's Jesus ain't comes to me
Not that any man has seen the father except the one who is from God
He has seen the father truly truly. I say to you he who believes has eternal life. I
Am the bread of life your father's ate the manna in the wilderness and they died
This is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that one may eat of it and not die
I am the living bread that came down out of heaven if anyone eats of this bread
He shall live forever and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is my
Flesh now watch what happens. Jesus said the the bread that I will give that is the life of the world is my flesh
52 the Jews therefore began to argue with one another saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Jesus therefore said to them truly truly
I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood and have no life in your you have no life in
Yourselves he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day
For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I and him as the living father sent me and I live because of the father
So he eats me he also I'm sorry he who eats me he also shall live because of me
This is the bread which came down down out of heaven not as the father's ate and died
He who eats this bread shall live forever
And from that moment on
Many of them left him
Some of them wouldn't hear it
some of them
Walked away because it was it was just too much
In verse 63 he says it is the spirit who gives life the flesh profits nothing the words that I have spoken to you our spirit and life
But there are some of you who do not believe
Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who it was that would betray him and
In 65 he says
For this reason I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the father
As a result of this many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore
Jesus said therefore to the 12. Do you want to go away?
also
Do you
Simon Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go you have words of eternal life?
We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God
Jesus answered them that I myself not choose you the 12 and yet one of you is a devil
You understand as he's preaching all of this talking about all of this one of them right there in their midst was Judas
Who would betray Jesus?
And he meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot or he one of the 12 was going to betray him
Listen to me. God sees personhood as precious
Doesn't matter how messed up or goofy a person looks they need Jesus
So their personhood can be unleashed a person says can I be a Christian and have tattoos?
Well, I sure you can if God needs you to have tattoos have to tattoos whatever the question is not do you have tattoos?
The question is will you be led by Jesus saw video online where a transgender man said well
I go to hell because I'm transgender and the speaker said no
And he said he went what?
He said no you won't go to hell because you're transgender
You wouldn't go to hell because you're a homosexual you wouldn't go to hell because you're a thief you wouldn't go to hell because you're a
Murderer if you go to hell it'll be because of what you've done with Jesus Christ the son of God
What have you done with Jesus Christ the son of God? Well, I don't believe okay for that you would go to hell
Stop thinking a transgender won't hear it stop thinking almost sexual won't hear stop thinking a poor man won't hear stop thinking a wealthy man
Won't hear it stop thinking a biker won't hear it or a gang member or a guy spewing cuss words in the middle of somebody says cuss words and
Uses the f-word seven times. That's where you say just real quick
I just want to throw in a comment here if I may I can see you're very upset
I'm gonna try to help you, but I want to throw in a comment. I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ a
Studier of his word and I live the best I possibly can
By the way Jesus leads me and I'm offering if ever you should need it if ever you should want it to talk about Jesus
And then wait and see what happens
And that man who just used the f-word seven times
He's gonna lose his evil spirit because you use the name of Jesus and we lose his evil spirit
He may still be just as angry and keep doing the same things he was doing or
He may wonder what happened and asked to be saved
The precious person hood the protections for the poor and the property given by God
They are the mandates of a just society
The kind of society I want to be a part of
How about you
Or maybe we've forgotten that we are living in a time of war and
Drastic steps must be taken
If we are to be considered faithful
followers of our God who makes war daily on our enemy
Then we should live like it's a time of war
And bring to application the weapons that he has given us. I'm asking you to do that
I'm asking you to stop judging and thinking certain people won't believe
I'm asking you to stop judging and saying well in my personhood
I'm just not the person to bring up Jesus in a conversation
If you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ you are and yeah, they may walk away from you
But it is ours to witness and ours to make disciples
We must share the gospel
Maybe somebody's here today and they have said, you know, I thought I would have to stop being who I am to be a follower
Lord Jesus and you need Jesus
You know, I'm sorry being who you are the old stuff's gonna die off. It's bad. It's nasty stuff
The new stuff that Jesus brings will be awesome. But really what he wants to do is unleash your personhood the unique you on
the world
Maybe you're here today and you'd say I have done this I have judged
That there are people who don't need to hear
And I am willing to stop doing that put myself out there and at least offer and say
I'm here if you're interested. Will you do that?
We got a close with a hem of invitation opportunity to make a decision today whether you're joining us online
Listen to this in the podcast and ask yourself and you practice God's
Precious personhood
You'll be alive God to protect the board
And realize that the property that you have all came provided by God
And ask you to do so going forward
Make yourself today
Got a question
And
That's praise team come forward as we sing this song anyone will make any decision if the Lord is laid on their heart wherever they might be here