In the night of the world you step down into darkness
Open my eyes, let me see
You need that faith, this heart adores You
Oh, what a life between you
Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You're my God
We're all together laughing, all together running
All together wonderful to me
King of all days, oh so highly exalted
Glorious in glory, one of a kind
Finally You came to the earth of creation, all for the sake of became one
And here I am to worship, here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You're my God
We're all together laughing, all together running
It won't be too hard to follow and the verses will be on the screen up above me as we go, hopefully. That's kind of the plan.
Okay? And I had forgotten to turn my microphone on, but it is on now. Alright.
So the text for today is Psalm 78. If you'll look up on the screen, you see the beginning of it.
Okay? So if it says, listen, oh my people, to my instruction, who do you think is speaking?
Chris? If the Bible says, listen, oh my people, to my instruction, who do you think is talking?
Sunday School answer. The Bible says, listen to my teaching, who do you think might be talking?
It's God, that's correct. Okay? So a lot of times, the psalmist or the prophets will speak as if God is speaking.
Okay? And we get that in some of our songs that we sing. So you hear songs that are written from God's perspective.
Okay? And so this first part of this is written from God's perspective.
So if you'll look under the word parables, you'll see it says 78, 1 to 8. I bet you know what goes in that blank already.
Psalm is correct. Is it Psalm or Psalms? What do you think?
Okay, yeah. So we don't usually put an S on the end of it. Even though the book is full of Psalms, and oftentimes we call it the book of Psalms,
each one is a Psalm. And so when we talk about one, we say this is Psalm 78, 1 to 8.
Just like you might say chapter 78, but it's not chapters in the book of Psalms, really. Okay?
The book is Psalms, but each one is a Psalm. So you could put either way, but if you do, you better know what you mean.
All right? And then the next part you could probably guess as well, right under that.
Listen to God. Simple. All right? It said, listen, O my people, to my instruction, incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
So God is entreating God's people to listen to him. And is that not something that we should do?
Always. If God speaks, you listen. All right? And then you've got an arrow down and it goes through the megaphone.
And now as we go through these next verses, we're going to begin to see what's God's purpose, right?
But listen for why it's related to parables. So it says, listen, O my people, to my instruction, incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
Now verse two, I will open my mouth in a parable. Okay? That's what we've been studying.
Now, this is not the word parable, because it's in Hebrew. Okay? But it has basically identical meaning.
I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old. And you remember we said parables includes dark sayings.
And we studied that at length and concluded how we knew that includes the dark sayings. Okay?
Right now we're in verse three. Okay. Yep. Good. Awesome. Verse three says, which we have heard and known.
Notice that they could say that they have heard the stories, the parables and the dark sayings of old and that they knew them.
Okay? Would you say that about you? Have you heard the teachings of the Bible? Do you know the teachings of the Bible?
Okay. That's kind of the goal. Right? So you say this, which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us.
Verse four. So now we realize it's not God speaking anymore. Right? We switched over to the psalmist is speaking.
Now in verse four, it says, we will not conceal them from our children. We will not conceal them from our children,
but tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wondrous works. Okay?
So if you'll look right there, I know where it says verse four, this was verse four.
We will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wondrous works.
So what do you think those words are? P, S and W. Perfect. Well, wonders or works, either one.
Praises, strength and wonders or works. I think it's works because it's wondrous works.
But if you, what is a wondrous work? It's a wonder. So I think you'd be fine. Okay.
Praises, strength, works. Okay. Then now we're down to verse five.
For he established a testimony in Jacob. So you see the E.T. What does it mean to establish something?
In your own words, what does it mean to establish something? Have you ever established anything?
Yes, you have. So what does it mean to establish something?
Okay, kind of say it again. Say again. Yeah, that's generically to create it or to begin.
But there's something about it. Look at the middle of the word. S-T-A-B-L-E or S-T-A-B-L.
Well, if something is stable. Yeah, well, yeah, create it with a firm foundation or to continue.
Create it to continue. All right. So for example, if you just said hi, you don't really establish anything.
Now, if you said hi to somebody five or six times, then now you've established a trend of saying hi to them, greeting them like that.
If you say, hi, hey, I'm Dan. I just want to come over and meet you because I really appreciate what you did.
Now, you've established a rapport. You've talked to the person. You've begun to build a relationship.
Right. So there's a little bit more to it than just starting something out.
It's starting it out in a way that it is firm. And what did God do? He established a testimony in Jacob.
Jacob is called Israel, right, later in life. And so it's talking about in God's people.
For he established a testimony in Jacob and then appointed a law in Israel.
That's my quill pen there, my fancy old pen. Okay. And right next to you, you'll see where it starts with A.
That's appointed. Appointed has two P's. A-P-P-O-I-N-T-E-D. Appointed a law.
So he established a testimony and appointed a law. Notice those adjectives are those, I guess those are verbs, right?
Yeah, those verbs are specifically chosen. When you establish something, you start it out to make it solid, right?
When you appoint something, you choose it. You point it out, make it clear that that's the thing.
But why did, what about, did he establish the law? Did God establish the law?
Not really. The law is what's right. God made it words. He showed us the difference.
So he put it in words that people could understand. He clarified it, if you will.
Or in this case, you could say he appointed it. He chose it from others.
For example, in the ancient world, there were laws like Hammurabi's Code, which said an eye for an eye and so on.
If you stole, then Hammurabi's Code said you'd get your hand cut off.
If you took a candy bar to the grocery store, they'd take your hand off.
Right? That was, it's very, very harsh code. But that's not the code that God chose.
Okay? He appointed a law and laid it out for them.
Okay, now you're following the arrow to the left, to the pillar there.
Okay, and I'll go back up to the top of verse five.
For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers.
You can see that fits in there nicely. Which he commanded our fathers.
That they should teach them to their children.
And I wrote that part in there for you. Teach to the children.
Then follow the long arrow around to the left. Okay?
So the whole of verse five said, for he, that's God, established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children.
Now verse six.
That the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born.
Okay, so you've got F, G, K. What do you think Alex?
Future generations.
Yes, you're not Alex, but okay. Future generations.
What's the K now?
Nope, not kids.
No. Right, it's know and tell or teach. Either one. Right?
Future generations know and teach. They were supposed to deliver this down.
But remember, not the present generation. That's not the target or the goal.
Our parents were teaching us, if they were, and our spiritual parents, the people who teach us now,
like me, as I'm sharing with you today, right, are showing that so that the future generations can get it.
This Bible, hopefully will survive. It's pretty solid.
It's got a nice leather cover starting to come apart on the cover here.
My original preaching Bible that I used back in the early days is gray.
I still have it. You look in it and the words are pretty faded.
I wrote in it in a lot and pen and underlined a lot of stuff.
It wouldn't be super convenient to read it because it's got a lot of stuff in it.
Some Post-it notes in there and stuff like that. But it's still there.
But in three or four generations, these are not going to be great.
They're going to be yellowed or whatever. But the Word of God never dulls.
So God doesn't store the Word of God in books.
I know we think that in America, we've been trained that if you want to know about God,
you go to your Bible and read, right? That's what we've been trained.
But God is not contained in this book. And everything that is to be known about God is not contained in this book.
Now, that's almost heresy in certain circles.
I have a friend of mine who believes you can't know or hear anything about God unless you get it from the Word of God.
Is the Word of God complete? Yes. Does it point to and help?
And you're going to see this before we're done very clearly. So don't label me a heretic yet.
But does the Word of God point to everything that we need to know about God?
Yes. So it points to it, but it's not going to give you everything.
If it were true that the Word of God is giving you everything,
then why would we need to listen to God or to God's instruction?
You could argue and say, well, because He's what's going to explain the written Word of God to us.
But then that ties God to the written Word of God. And even though He inspired this, this is not Him.
He is a being, a person with far more depth and reality than can be contained in written Word.
So future generations are to know and teach it. And then the reason why is given.
So we're as far as verse 6, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born,
that they may arise and tell them to their children.
So it's generation after generation after generation. Parents are key to making sure their kids.
So now we've got this massive thing that's going on all over the world now,
where parents aren't teaching their kids anything spiritual.
They say, well, I'm going to let my kids make up their own mind.
And they either teach them a lot of different things and let them choose,
or they teach them nothing and let them encounter, both of which are wrong.
Parents are supposed to teach their children what's right.
And then those children are supposed to absorb it.
And as children, and I think we struggle with this a lot as teenagers,
because we think we start to know, right?
But as teenagers, you have a responsibility to digest even more of what your parents are handing down to you.
Now, if your parents are wrong, then you have to get it from God.
But you can't get it from the world, and the world is very ready to give it to you.
So it says that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born,
that they may arise and tell them to their children.
Then verse 7, that they should put their confidence in God.
Okay, so that, and the C is confidence and not forget.
Close.
I mean, you could put that there, but that's not exactly what the text says.
So we'll follow the text.
Okay, the works of God. That's right.
So they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God.
It's also why earlier when we said wondrous works, works, works better,
because what he's really talking about is the works.
Now, I ask you, are all of the works of God contained in this book?
No, they're not.
God does, now, there may be a narrative summary.
For example, Psalm 139.
Does anybody know what Psalm 139 says about people?
Without looking it up.
From memory, Psalm 139.
It's a great work of God.
It says that you were woven together in your mother's womb.
It does not say RJ, or Chris, but it does say that God did that work.
So there is a work summary, right?
So it says that God, it's a summary.
God wove everybody together in the womb of their mother.
Everybody, he did that for everybody.
He selected it.
In Acts 17, it says that God set all the boundaries of our habitation.
In other words, he created the place that you live, the way things work,
how far you'll go.
When you take a vacation, God determines where you're going to take that vacation
and what you're going to learn while you're there, right?
God has that all in plan to make you into the person he's trying to make you into.
That's Acts 17.
But does it say anything about Caleb went to Michigan or Natalie went to Indiana?
No, it doesn't say that.
So not all the works of God are contained in the book.
So then what do we really not want them to forget?
The works of God, right?
Not just what's contained in the book, although there's a lot here.
And you could spend a whole lifetime learning what's here.
And having learned some of it, you'll be a lot better off, right?
And applying all of it, you'd be, the more you apply, the better off you'll be.
But it really is, you have confidence and not forget the works of God,
which are considerably more than what's written here.
So people go like, oh man, I wish I could study my Bible.
You're coming super far short of the target.
If you're not even studying the Bible, you're missing the whole boatload.
It's like grabbing a burger from McDonald's when God's offering you a lifetime of steaks.
And you're going, I can't even bring myself to read the Bible.
I'm not memorizing it, knowing the stories or whatever.
I keep forgetting things.
And God's going, I've got something bigger for you.
You're the repository of my works.
So that future generations will receive it.
Okay?
Now if you'll see, next to the chest, there's a little two.
And so you're going to squirt all the way over to the page on the left,
where there's another little two.
So you're going from two over to two.
So after works of God, there's a little two.
And over on the left, before the butt, there's a two.
Excuse me. Yes, sir?
Is that knowing His command?
It's close. It is His commands.
It is keeping, yes. So between you and your dad, you got it.
All right? And so it says in verse 7,
that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God,
but keep His commands.
Now when you keep something, follow me.
Think about it for a second.
When you keep something, that's more than just honoring it or obeying it or following it.
You understand? We always say, keep God's commands.
He keeps the commands of my Father in heaven.
And we take that to mean just, we do what we're told.
Did you do in keeping with what your parents told you to do?
But it means more than that.
It means that you received and it's still there.
You still have it.
So dad says, I want you to go do this, and you go and do it.
I'll give you a perfect example.
Let's say you're going to do the grocery shopping for your family for the week.
Mom and dad give you $150.
And they give you a grocery list just for one week.
It's not a lot of money, but it's enough.
And they give you a grocery list.
And on the list, it's enough.
It's going to cost you about $140.
Now if you go to the store and you spend under the $150 and get everything that's on the list,
did you shop in keeping with the direction of your parents?
Yes, you did, right? That was right.
You did what they asked you to do.
You bought the stuff they asked you to do.
You got everything that was on the list.
Man, that's a win, right?
Now, if you take the grocery list and you throw it away,
and then the next week comes and your dad says to you,
hey, here's $150, go do the grocery shopping for the week.
And you're like, well, what do I get?
And he says, well, I already gave you a list.
And you're like, oh, I threw that list away.
That was last week's list.
And well, that last week's list is the same as this week's list.
You need that list.
I don't have another copy of that list.
I gave you my copy of that list.
So you're telling me you want me to go back and make another copy of the list and give it to you.
So now, did you do in keeping with what your dad asked you to do in the first place?
No.
Now, let's say you can remember 60% of what was on the list.
You sit down with a piece of paper and go, I'm sorry, dad, I didn't mean to throw that away.
You start writing it down and you get 60% of it.
Six out of 10 items you get on the list, about $100 worth.
And you don't know what to do with the rest of it.
And you go back to your dad and you say, dad, I don't know the rest.
It's all, there's this, this, and this.
Now you're at 90% of the list.
If you go to the store and you spend $125, not the $150, $145, whatever, the week before,
about $125, and you buy everything that's on the new list,
it's only now 90% of the total length, did you do in keeping with what your dad asked you to do?
Well, not completely, right?
Not totally because you lost the original list, you don't remember the original list,
you're not shopping according to the original list, and that's what he wanted you to do.
So that's where we are with God.
God wants you to keep His commandments.
So when God says, thou shalt not commit adultery,
and then Jesus helps us realize later that lusting after another person is the same as committing adultery,
you're supposed to remember that.
And then as you go about throughout your life and opportunities arise to commit adultery,
you're not supposed to do it because God told you that.
That's what it means in James when it says that he who hears the words but doesn't do them
is like a man who looks in the mirror and then forgets what he looks like.
Because you now have the direction that you've been given by God,
you're not only supposed to follow it but you're supposed to retain it.
In fact, based on what we're seeing here, which part is more important,
the following it or the retaining it, based on what we're reading today, which is more important,
keeping His commands in the fact that you keep them inside you or keeping His commands,
in fact, you do what you're told?
Which one's more important? Say again?
One is definitely based on these verses more important, which one is it?
How many lives will you live?
One.
How many lives will your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren, your great-great-grandchildren
and your great-great-great-grandchildren live?
Dozens at least. One each, right?
So how many lives are on the line in you retaining the Word of God
and delivering it to the next generation?
All of those.
He's saying we are a repository for His Word and we must deliver it.
Now, your kids will have a harder time following it if you just retain it and teach it to them,
but you're a hypocrite about it and you don't do it yourself.
That will be worse and that's how generational sin is created.
Generational sin, people always call that like it's an evil spirit, like a demon fostering generational sin.
But the truth is generational sin is when one generation forgets some portion of God's Word,
they either don't follow it or they don't teach it or both,
and then the next generation, in ignorance many times, does what they saw their parents do
or their grandparents or they don't have an example in a certain area
because their parents didn't encounter it and didn't teach it,
so then they do whatever they think they should do, right?
And then it happens again in the next generation until somebody goes back to the author of the Word,
looks at the actual works of God and says, okay, I'm going to retain the Word of God.
I'm going to receive it from God and in my church, in my teaching and preaching and studies and prayer,
I'm going to get it and then I'm going to keep it, not just I'm going to say it to my kids,
but I'm going to live it myself and then I'm going to retain it in me.
Because remember the grocery list?
If your dad really wants you to shop the same the next week when you go back to him and say,
I threw the list away, if it's your human dad, he says, no problem, here's another copy, right?
Because he wants you to shop the list, he's going to give you the list and then you can shop it.
But if you do that to your kids and you say, I want you to don't commit adultery
and then like five years later, they're living their lives and getting close to committing adultery
or maybe they are committing adultery and you don't say anything about it,
you don't go back to the Word of God, you don't go back to what God taught you,
you just sweep it under the rug and ignore it, whatever, your grandkids are not going to get it.
Maybe they'll get it from you and your kids won't, but your great grandkids probably won't get it from you
because you'll either be too old or dead and gone with God, right?
So you've got to pass it on to the next generation. That's what your purpose is.
We follow, we keep his commands, not just in following them, but also in absorbing them
and then re-delivering them in teaching, okay?
Alright, so we're going straight down from there and you see the big bag and it says, don't be, alright?
So now this is the why all of this has to happen in the text, that's what it's talking about.
So verse 6 said that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born,
that they may arise and tell them to their children.
Verse 7 says that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments and we talked about the two, the broad reaching definition of keep in that case.
Verse 8, and not be like their fathers.
So you went over to the right, you'll see like their, so it's between the bag and the chest, like their fathers, right?
A stubborn and rebellious generation.
The S is stubborn, the R is rebellious.
As I said, we're getting through the worksheet pretty quick, so we've got an activity we're going to do that's going to take a minute.
Okay?
And then it says, a generation that did not, and I've written this out for you, but you have to fill in the blanks,
a generation that did not prepare its heart.
A generation that did not prepare its heart.
There's no apostrophe in its.
If you put an apostrophe in its, that's it is.
It's not it is heart, it's its heart.
So that it does not have an apostrophe.
I thought it was just like they are and they are there.
Nope.
A generation that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
Okay?
That's our verses for the day.
Now let me ask you this question.
What is it that we're supposed to remember?
What is it that is being put in us so that we can deliver it to the next generation and the next generation and so on so it can be passed down generation to generation?
What is it based on the first eight verses of Psalm 78?
What is it that we're supposed to be able to pass on?
Anybody got an answer for that?
Okay, you could do the stories.
What are the stories?
What do they tell us?
What do they teach us?
Here's an example.
Does anybody know the story of Nicodemus?
John chapter 3.
Jesus comes in the middle of the night to talk to Nicodemus.
Know this story?
It's one of my favorite chapters of the Bible.
I'll start the first verse and somebody finish the first verse.
Ready?
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named...
Keep going.
Why doesn't anybody know it?
Say it again.
You got part of it.
It reads, now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
That's the first verse.
Why doesn't anybody know the first verse word for word?
Does anybody know who Nicodemus was?
He was a ruler of the Jews.
Right?
So now you know it's in the first verse.
So you're going to do it now, probably in the future.
You probably never forget that again.
But the point is you have to be able to tell the story of Nicodemus.
Understand?
You have to be able to tell the story.
What happened?
What did Jesus do?
What did God do?
What was the work of God that Jesus was talking about?
A work of God that must happen in order for you to be saved.
By the way, what was the work of God that Jesus said must happen in order for you to be saved or see the Kingdom of God?
It is to be born again.
If you are not born again, you don't get to go to heaven.
You don't get to see the Kingdom of God on earth.
You don't get to be a Christian.
You're not invited into the family of God where you're invited.
But you're not accepting the invitation.
Right?
So you must be born again.
Nicodemus was a very holy guy.
And he thought he had it all together because he fasted two days a week.
He memorized whole books of the Bible.
And he was a renowned preacher, summoned all over the place for preaching.
Jesus said unless you're born again, you will not see the Kingdom of God.
So that's a work of God.
And we have to know that story so that when we're talking to somebody, we can explain to them they need that work of God.
Now there might be other places in the Bible that you could do that.
Alright?
So I'm going to...I've listed some examples here.
And if the Lord so leads, I might name another one.
I'm going to need you to be a little bit outspoken so we can get there.
And I have candy.
And we can do that.
But I need you to do it.
So somebody tell me.
This is in your own words.
Don't look it up right now.
Somebody tell me the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho.
Classic.
One of the most classic Bible stories there is.
Lots of people know it.
Go ahead, RJ.
That's the one we were trying to get to the promise line, right?
Yep.
They had to get in the promised land.
And then they were told not to invade the city until they marched around it for so many days.
Yep.
And then on the last day they weren't supposed to make a noise while they marched around.
And then they went out loud crying.
The walls fell.
Okay, good.
Alright, so now tell me.
Here's where it gets tough.
Tell me what are the works of God in that story?
Give me one.
The fact that the walls fell.
Okay, so God tore down the walls of Jericho.
That's super important because the walls of Jericho were huge.
Jericho was the biggest city in the region.
Basically, you couldn't conquer the region unless you conquered Jericho.
And nobody could conquer Jericho because the walls were so big and so large that wagons could drive and pass opposite each other on the top of the wall.
You couldn't knock it down with a siege engine.
You couldn't take it down with a trebuchet, which they didn't have, or a catapult, which they could have had, or a screw, which is like a big carved wooden thing that you ram into the wall.
You couldn't take it down with that.
You couldn't burrow under it and cause them to fall down.
You couldn't burn them.
There's no way to take those walls down.
That city doesn't get captured.
No way.
Even though they outnumbered them by a huge amount, possibly, they still couldn't capture it.
And so God took the walls down.
The work is to God.
So what does that tell you about God?
He can do some pretty cool things.
Okay, say it again, Josh.
God can remove barriers.
The thing that you think you cannot overcome, God can overcome.
God can take you through.
Right?
You remember Sunday's sermon.
We start thinking to ourselves, I can't live without this.
I have to have this.
Right?
But God, when you go, I can't live without this, God can take you through that moment in time at which you can't live without that.
And you will live on the other side of it.
Yes, sir?
I have a question.
Yes?
At the top of the paper, is that?
That's the very last thing that we'll do by the time we're done.
So we haven't done it yet.
Okay?
All right.
So Walls of Jericho.
All right.
Somebody give me Samson and Delilah.
Can somebody tell the story briefly?
Not the whole story of Samson, although that is good too, but Samson and Delilah.
Yes, ma'am?
Samson was told while growing up to never cut his hair that it would cause him to lose his strength.
He told Delilah and trusted her with that story.
She betrayed him and cut his hair.
Yep.
And then he wound up captured and they put his eyes out.
Pretty terrible.
Yeah, they put his eyes out.
That's pretty terrible.
He does eventually his hair starts to grow back and then he gets his power back.
But the interesting thing about that story is that it's not the hair, is it?
People don't get super strength because they have long hair.
Because they work out.
People do not get that kind of strength because they work out.
Not even on growth hormone, right?
There's no way to get that kind of strength without a miracle basically.
But he was inhumanly strong.
Yes, he was inhumanly strong.
He killed, what was that, a thousand in one day himself?
He took out a building.
And then ultimately he pushes the pillars of that down and destroys all the lords and ladies of that evil society.
So anyway, she told the story.
The work of God in that story initially is what?
What did God do for Samson?
He made him strong.
And then Samson betrayed God by giving away the quote unquote secret.
And then what did God do?
Tipped away the strength.
And then fallen into the hands of his enemies.
Now, the part of the story that's not Samson and Delilah specifically, but a little bit later as it gets close to him,
he says, God give me my strength.
He repents and he says he's sorry to God.
He says, God give me my strength one more time.
And his hair starts to grow back.
And God does give him his strength one more time.
So then Samson repented.
And then what did God do?
He gave him his strength back.
Which produced a great victory for God.
Right?
So does anybody know in Judges chapter 16, the first verse or the last verse?
Can you quote any verse in there at all?
Judges chapter 16.
Any verse in the story of Samson and Delilah at all from memory?
But now, if you didn't know it before, now you know the story.
Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't memorize scripture.
That is a discipline that we should do.
We should commit God's word to our heart.
And that makes us strong to follow his path.
So we should do that.
But that being said, you have to be able to tell the stories.
You have to be able to tell the parables.
You have to be...what was the purpose of a parable?
What do people do when they hear a parable?
There's two things.
Both start with ours.
Nope, that actually isn't one of them, although that could be the end result.
Respond is one and request more information is the other.
So people respond and they request.
And ultimately then, when they get the information they're looking for,
they can, as you said, repent and turn to God.
Now, if they're smart, because they're God's parables, they'll turn to God.
When I was not saved, I had not heard the story of Jericho.
But I think about my life back then and how I ran into barriers and barriers and barriers.
And boy, I sure would have liked to have heard that story.
And it might have led me to God a lot sooner.
So that story is a parable not in the sense that it's symbolic or an analogy or anything like that,
but it is the kind of thing that then invokes people's curiosity,
gets them thinking about their circumstances and so on.
If you can't do that, you're going to have a hard time leading anybody to Christ or whatever.
Now, if they say to you, well, what does Acts 6-4 say?
Then you get your Bible out, you look up the reference and you read Acts 6-4,
unless you happen to have it memorized.
But if they say to you, I've got something going on in my life, you should have a story to tell.
How about the story of Jonah? Give us a shot.
Jonah was supposed to be delivering a message to Nineveh.
And he tested the tape under his chin.
And a bat swam high up into the air.
And Jonah swam in the thermal reward and then a big fish came
and swallowed Jonah up.
Then Jonah repented once and then went and sent the message.
Yes. And ultimately, did God destroy Nineveh?
No. Why not?
Because they all repented.
Okay. So that's a very good telling of the four chapters.
That's four chapters of the Bible they just told.
Now, is there a lot of little details in there that you could add and you could polish it up a little bit?
Sure. You could go read it again and go, oh, I forgot about that.
Because Jonah repents while he's inside the fish.
In fact, I think it's the whole second chapter is about him saying that even though I'm in this fish
and he basically says, and I'm all sticky yucky and being digested, even though that's true,
I realize that everybody who doesn't know the Lord is worse off than me.
That's pretty significant prayer. And I paraphrased, obviously.
And then he doesn't want to go to Nineveh and tell the story, tell them that they're going to be destroyed
because he's afraid that they'll repent and he wants them to be destroyed.
So what are the works of God in that story? We're going to go a little faster here.
Obviously, God gave Nineveh an opportunity to repent.
God dispatched Jonah, gave him something to do.
God does that for people today. He tells people what they should do and they should go and do it.
When Jonah ran from God and didn't do what he was supposed to do, God punished him.
But he didn't destroy him. He got him to repent and sent him back to do what he was supposed to do.
So if you're not doing what God wants you to do, repent now because there's still a chance
that maybe God will turn you and put you back where you're supposed to be and get you to do what you're supposed to do.
The ultimate outcome of Nineveh, does anybody know what happened to Nineveh ultimately?
It was destroyed. A little over 150, 153 years later, they had drifted back into their evil again
and the entire city was destroyed. That society does not exist and history is almost blanked it from the record books,
which is what God said that he pretty much would do.
So you can't go visit Nineveh or the ruins of Nineveh now, even though it was a huge city,
three days walk across to walk across it or around it.
Across it, I'm pretty sure. Anyway, you can read it in the book and you'll know exactly.
But the point is, it was a huge city and then we know now some of the works of God that are in there.
How about the birth of Samuel? This is a toughie.
Not Samuel hearing God's voice or Samuel anointing David. All of those are really important things.
But the birth of Samuel. All right, Caleb, give it a try. I'll be surprised if you get this.
I'll be amazed, in fact. I'll give you a bag of cotton candy if you get this.
Is it the one where he gets thrown down the river?
No, that's nowhere. Moses. I did it. Moses. That's Moses.
I'm wondering if my mother's name is like...
It's okay. So he had a mother.
His mother was barren, I think.
Okay.
I'm wondering if she's barren.
Not barren of land, but unable to have children.
She prayed to the temple and asked God if she had a kid.
She said she had a kid for God.
Then she had a kid.
He anointed all the kings.
So that is a summary of that story.
One kind of key point that I would add in there, I think you want to add in there,
if you're telling that story, especially to an unbeliever,
is that there was a high priest in the temple who saw her praying.
And what did he think of her? Does anyone remember that part of it?
He thought she was drunk. She was praying brokenhearted because she couldn't have children.
She was being treated really well. In fact, her husband gave her twice the portion he gave his other wife who had had children.
So she was being treated really well. But she was brokenhearted that she couldn't bear a child.
And she was praying, kind of slobbering probably. You know how you get when things are really going bad.
And the priest came and thought she was drunk.
And she said, oh no, I'm not drunk.
And then she explained it. And he said, okay, well, it's going to be as you've asked God. God's going to do it. You watch.
And then he did. And then Samuel has a long and incredible story.
There might be value in that piece where he thinks she's drunk because sometimes the Christians,
I'm making air quotes if you're not looking, the Christians will look at you trying to do,
trying to petition God or do what God wants you to do.
And they'll say, oh, well, you don't look right or you're not trying hard or you're trying too hard, right, or whatever.
And they'll misjudge you. And they don't mean anything by it.
They're just expecting you to look like what the rest of the world looks like when actually you're pursuing Jesus or pursuing God the way you're supposed to.
All right. So I'm going to get now we're going to reverse it and we're almost done.
OK, so I've got three examples here and I want you to tell me a story.
You don't have to tell me the whole story. You can tell me just tell me a brief summary, like a half a sentence or a sentence of the story.
And you can tell me a little bit more if you want to tell me how or why it makes sense that you would use.
When you're talking with somebody who has one of these problems.
So the first one that I've listed is somebody who says that they do not have enough to give.
So think of a story in the Bible. Can I get you a second, Caleb? Somebody else got it?
Caleb and RJ, anybody else want to give it a shot?
There's a person who thinks they do not have enough to give. There could be several.
Think of a story in the Bible, somebody that would refute that or that would help them in that circumstance.
All right. Let's see if you guys have the same two stories. Go ahead, Caleb.
There's this one girl and she gave. There's some people who were giving like a lot of money. She gave all she had to the temple.
How much was that? Is this the same story, RJ?
Two pennies.
Yes, what we'd call two pennies. Two mites actually is what it was.
They didn't have pennies because that's a British coin originally. It was a lot of pence actually.
But yeah, so she gave two tiny coins and they gave a ton of money. And what did Jesus say about what she gave?
This is the important part. If you really want to help this person, it feels like they don't have enough to give, right?
He said that she gave more than all the rest of them combined because she gave out of her necessity.
Or she gave out of, she gave everything she had, which you did say that, that she gave everything she had.
All right. So now if somebody says, well, I, you know, I got a quarter. What's a quarter going to do?
Or I got a few minutes. What's a few minutes going to do?
Well, never forget the woman who gave two mites. Jesus saw they were all given chests of stuff, rattling the trumpets, dumping in the coins.
And Jesus said that she gave just the two mites out of faith, out of sacrifice. It was all that she had.
And she gave more than all of them together. That's awesome. Okay, RJ, how about you? You got one?
One where the lady, they were in the crowd, Jesus was talking and I think it was a lady that came up and said, if I could only get to his cloak.
Okay. Yeah. So if I could just touch his robe, I know I could be healed. And she did. And she was healed.
And he realized it. He turned on her, started talking to her. Okay. So how does that affect somebody who says they don't have enough to give?
There's always something.
Okay. Something you can do. There's always something.
Okay, good. And I would say it's really enough when Jesus is the center of it.
Because all she did was touch his robe and she was healed. She didn't kneel before him.
She didn't beg him. She didn't pay him. She didn't explain her problems to him in an essay form.
She just said, if I could just touch his robe, I know I'll be healed. So you can always just touch his robe.
So you just show up in church, learn what you can, pray, seek God in some small way, whatever the smallest way is that you can do.
And you can probably do a lot more than that. That's good. That's a good job.
All right. How about a simple story to tell people that God can provide?
Okay. Anybody else want to try it? Come on. You need to be able to do these things.
Shawn, give me a simple story in the Bible that shows that God can provide.
Can you do it? I know you know a lot of Bible stories. You're just quiet.
Can you think of one?
Fruits.
Say it again.
Fruits.
Fruits? Okay. What fruits? Help me out.
He's trying to get his polling the audience here.
He's trying to think.
All right. Alex, can you do it?
Haley, can you give me a story in the Bible that would help people to know that God can provide? I bet you can.
Okay. How so? Tell me how that helps.
Okay. Good. So not only did he tell them to build the ark and know it was obedient,
but then why did the animals come to know it would be in the ark? Because God sent them all. Right? Good.
Now the wheels are turning. See what I'm doing here?
You've got to think. Are there maybe about 50?
Why do we struggle to come up with two?
Just one where you come up with several problems for everyone.
Everyone where God provides.
Yeah. And you might have to do that with somebody.
Years ago I was standing on the front porch with a guy and trying to lead him to Christ and the street light went out.
And this is before backlit cell phones.
And so I was trying to share the Bible with him and all of a sudden I kind of couldn't do it because I didn't have the verses to read.
So I just had to use the Iwana verses that I had memorized and I quoted the verse and we talked about what it meant, whatever.
And then he still wasn't quite ready and I started talking about things we know that God has done and like that.
And I think I used maybe seven or ten examples. Right? Yes sir.
Okay. Let's hear it.
Perfect. Perfect. And that's the one I had on my paper. That's very good.
Yep. And all they did was bring that little bit to him and he multiplied it over and over.
And if you know the story and drill down on the story a little bit, how did he multiply the fish?
Did he put it in a grinder? What did he do to it?
He broke it. Yeah. He broke it and...
The basket just never ended. Yep. That's true. It just never ran out.
He broke it and blessed it. He submitted it to God.
So if you submit your little to God, then God can turn your little into enough. Right?
And as Alicia pointed out, the baskets weren't at the end.
By the way, there are two feedings. One's 5,000 people, one's 4,000 people.
And they are two different feedings. Right?
That he did this twice. And when he fed 4,000, there were seven baskets left over at the end.
Which means they ate leftover bread for days.
And when he fed 5,000 people, there were 12 baskets left over at the end.
Now think about what that might mean. What does that mean?
It's not God can't just provide. What?
Yeah. He keeps it going. It doesn't stop there. He provides what you need.
And then there's more. And think about...
We just studied one passage of Scripture just recently.
Where it was when David took Bathsheba.
And what did God say to David? Through Nathan.
He said, if you needed something more, did I not make you a king, give you all these victories,
protect you throughout the times of Saul?
And if you needed something more, I would have given you that too.
I would have given you everything. And you went and took this woman.
And murdered this man.
Alright? And so God can provide.
Last one we'll do today.
And then we'll just kind of like have...let you all make one up and then we'll be done.
Okay? A non-Christian believes he is holy.
Now this one should be...at least one example of this should be pretty easy.
Because we talked about it already today.
Non-Christian believes he is holy.
Okay. Are you referring to Zacchaeus?
That was his...
Okay. You're mixing Nicodemus and Zacchaeus.
But yeah. So...and then Jesus does.
He says, come down, I'm going to go to your house today.
And then he goes and explains the kingdom of God to Zacchaeus and all the people gathering at his house.
And all Zacchaeus had was a desire to know what Jesus would tell him.
Nicodemus, John chapter 3, is the one I was talking about.
He said, you must be born again.
You don't have to be holy to be saved.
You get born again, then you get holy.
Is there any other one you can think of a non-Christian believes he is holy?
A couple have popped to mind right now.
Who built the temple?
In the Old Testament, who built the temple?
Solomon. Why Solomon?
David's the one who did all the work.
David even got all his stuff together, right?
Why didn't he do it?
Yeah. His hands were covered in blood because he was a man of war.
So we do what we do.
And then, was he a man after God's own heart?
He was. Did he repent? He did.
Was God for him? Was he the king?
And God even said to him, you'll have a king on the throne for eternity.
Because he was talking about Jesus in the line of David, right?
So you'll have a king on the throne for eternity, but you'll not build my temple.
Because you're not holy.
So you can ask that person and say, okay, have you ever done anything wrong?
And if they say no, they've never done anything wrong, they probably don't understand.
Then you show them Romans 3.23, where it says,
for all that sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
And then they say, okay, now have you ever done anything wrong?
Or you go through the Ten Commandments.
Did you ever lie? Did you ever steal?
Did you ever do any of that?
Did Jesus do any of the interactions with the Pharisees?
Yes. Who all thought they were holy.
Pharisees and Sadducees.
And said, woe unto you hypocrites.
Be careful. How holy are you really compared to God?
And then you can look at any of the texts where it says, holy, holy, holy is our God.
Read that little bit in Revelation.
Where the angels have to cover their feet while they're in front of God.
Because the angels have to cover their feet because God is so holy.
Yes. That's awesome.
So now you've got, if you can begin to do this.
All right, Alan and I were talking about this earlier today.
Not in this context, but in another context.
We've got things out of order.
The Word is supposed to be in us.
And we're supposed to be delivering it.
The works of God.
And so yes, we want to memorize Scripture.
Yes, we want to meditate on it. Yes, study it.
But the real goal of all of that is to put it in here.
So that when you meet somebody who needs it, you have something to,
you bring something out of your storehouse.
You bring something that is treasures. Right?
Okay. All right, last one.
Now you give me a case, or give me a story that you know from the Bible.
And then tell me something that you could teach from.
Something that hasn't given me one yet.
You have to know one, everybody's got to know one story at least.
Natalie, give me one story.
Any story from the Bible that you know.
Doesn't have to be a parable.
Don't help her. Let her pick one of her own.
Any one you can think of. Any story that you want.
What's your favorite one?
A different Tuesday, a different Sunday.
I love this.
That's Natalie.
Come on, Natalie.
What do you got? Any story from the Bible?
I'll help you do the other part. Just give me any story that you're familiar with.
It's fine.
Don't give her your story because she may not know it well.
Let her pick her own story.
What's the first story in the Bible?
What's the most important story in the New Testament?
Will you stop talking to her please so she can think? Thank you.
Got it.
You're okay.
Say it again.
You're not okay. I put you on the spot and you're not okay.
Okay. So tell me about three crosses.
What do you know about three crosses from the New Testament?
Are they in here?
There's three crosses up there.
There's one up there.
They're in there.
Yeah.
What happened on the three crosses?
Don't let them distract you. You can do this.
What happened on three crosses?
Okay. Who was in the middle?
Yep. Do you know who the two people were on the outside?
Not really. They're bad guys, right?
Why was it important that Jesus was crucified?
What happened that day? Why did God do that?
For us, for our sins. Exactly.
We know that we're supposed to share the gospel.
You run into somebody that's not saved.
Being able to tell them the story of the death, burial, resurrection, crucifixion, that's 1 Corinthians 15.
You're supposed to be able to do that. You're supposed to be able to tell that story.
Then you've got the Romans Road and everybody's starting to memorize the Romans Road.
We've got to do it this way. We've got to share these exact verses.
I'm going to tell you right now, of all the people that have led to Christ out there in the world at restaurants or whatever,
which is not a huge number, probably like, in all the time I've been a Christian, it might be 15 or 20.
Every single one of them was basically ready.
The only reason we're not leading them to Christ is because nobody's talking to them about Jesus.
Nobody's telling them the stories in the Bible.
Most of the time, they're coming back to the table as quick as they can so they can hear a little bit more about what I'm talking about.
The one lady I said, is it okay if we pray with you? I know you've got other tables.
She says, I don't care. They can wait.
She wanted to tell us a story of how she was in a car accident and stuff,
and how she felt like God brought her out of that.
But ever since then, she's been wondering, what does God want to do with her life?
What is the point? Why is she still alive?
And I'm proposing the answer, telling stories from the Bible.
So if you just start telling the stories, and then people will...
Each one of those stories might have 15 lessons.
So start building up your repertoire of stories that you can tell and you're ready to witness.
You don't have to know the exact words or what's in each verse.
Alright, we're going to close in prayer. Thank you very much.
So I brought mini ice cream.
RJ and me and all the kids are talking and not paying attention to anything either.
How do you think you feel? You think so?
Okay, so when the grace ends up here singing, how do you think they feel?
Because they can see you.
You guys listening too. It's not just for them.
Also, who here has made a profession of faith and then baptized a fellow of yours?
Me.
Okay, so what do you think Jesus would want you to do when his people are gathered together and worshiped?
Worship.
And if you don't want to sing, which you guys probably do, but some of you may not want to sing, right?
It's okay. Everybody worships different, which can't be...
I was very tired when...
Miss Zoe, shh.
Stooping off and talking like that and laughing because that's distracting the people that are trying to worship.
I know you guys are teenagers and when you get together you don't see each other all the time and you have a fight.
I taught you for a long time. Here's what I can tell you.
If you really, really, really have something you need to say, you carry a notebook and write it down.
If you hand a note to each other or show each other a notebook, I don't care as long as you're not distracting people about it.
I'm asking you that because I love you, I want you to be kind, I want you to worship, I really do.
But if you don't, I'll love you even if you don't.