ecc job
Everybody up, shake it off a little bit, and put your hands.
We're going to focus on how great the Lord is.
Amen, amen.
He is great!
Praise the Lord, he is holy and just, by his power we trust his love.
Praise the Lord, he is faithful and true, by his love he gives growth to his own.
Praise the Lord, he is worthy of profit, praise the Lord, and worthy of praise.
Praise the Lord, now lift up your voice, now lift up your voice.
Praise the Lord.
Okay, I need the young people going to the front.
Good, alright, here we go, everybody.
Great and mighty is the Lord our God, great and mighty is he.
Lift up your banner, raise the anthem, sing praises to the King.
Great and mighty is the Lord our God, great and mighty is he.
Everyone needs compassion, love that's not a failure.
Let mercy fall on me.
Everyone needs forgiveness, kindness from the Savior.
The love of nations.
Say your hymns through the mountains, my God is running to save.
He is running to save the world.
Awesome of salvation, heroes in God's ever-giving.
He's the Father of all.
He's with me.
So take me as He finds me, all my fears and troubles.
In the middle of my life I am, making quite the world, everything I believe in.
Now I surrender.
The love of nations.
Say your hymns through the mountains, my God is running to save.
He is running to save the world.
You know I love you, and I love you, because the shadow of God.
You're a friend with all who says we have to meet.
You know I fall to the nail from the swords of the sun.
The world tells us that we know you are here, and that you know we are.
For I have been good and me, and if I have been good,
you know I will be good and me.
You know I fall to the nail from the swords of the sun.
The world tells us that we know you are here, and that you know we are.
I stand in the night that was for me, for the heart that hold's on.
That's why it's like we are not content.
And though we tend to struggle, we tend to have anger.
We tend to know you're here only because I will be with you.
For I have been good and me, and if I have been good,
you know I will be good and me.
All of you, more than enough for all of me, for every thousand, every day.
You say it's fine with me, with your love, not having you, you're letting go.
You are nice to my breath away, still my heart's not let go.
You are my heroine, you are faithful.
The trouble with moving barriers is what that says.
The trouble with moving barriers.
Before we begin, we're going to start, and we're going to use it a few times throughout
with a little object lesson on how to make this board flatten so it will be a little easier to see.
Okay?
So, we're going to break the board like this.
The first part, we're just dealing with the left side of the board over here.
I'm going to draw a little box with arms, little angels on top of it, like that.
Maybe you'll recognize what that might be.
That's a pretty kind of creepy little drawing.
Anybody want to take a guess what that might be?
The Ark of the Covenant, yep.
That's the two little angels at two angles on top, going towards the middle.
Okay, now I need a volunteer, and we can draw stick men at least.
Yes, I just did.
Okay, so, I'll go home.
All right, I need you to draw, in this side, I need you to draw ten stick men in this area.
Ten stick men, okay?
And they can be male or female, however you can draw them, you know, if you want to put skirts on them or whatever.
But all ten have to be unique in some way.
So, don't make any of the ten the same.
All right, you have plenty of time, go ahead and do that.
You guys can watch him do that while we go up here and look at the Bible.
Okay, so grab your Bibles, if you would.
Maybe get a little hooter holler in today as we go to Deuteronomy chapter 14.
All right, praise the Lord.
We've still got a long way to go in the book of Deuteronomy, and we're getting close to kind of our first break, as we do.
We're going to be looking at some Christmas stuff coming up here shortly.
But we have made it as far as chapter 14.
And we've pretty much done one chapter of the first sermon.
We will not quite finish 14 today, which means we'll be back at the end of 14 again next week.
Let me look at this again.
I might just do the whole thing.
Just throw it all in there.
Yep, we're just going to do the whole thing in one shot.
All right, here we go.
Deuteronomy 14, beginning in verse 1.
Here we go.
You are the sons of the Lord your God.
You shall not cut yourselves, nor shave your forehead for the sake of the dead.
Now, to us, that sounds like a little kind of weird command, doesn't it?
Don't cut yourself.
Don't shave your foreheads for the sake of the dead.
That's a little weird.
But that was a cultic thing that they did then, when someone would die in the hope that they would do well in the afterlife.
They would actually shave their eyebrows, or shave this area of their head, or shave their head back, make a big forehead.
You can still see that in some Occidental cults today.
Occidental is the Middle Eastern part of the world.
And he said, you know, we don't do that, basically.
And I read that and I thought in our family there are some things we talk about.
Like we did this, there's a moment today when we had a song and had a cuss word.
And I said, in advance, children just realized we don't say that.
And in our family there have always been some things that I didn't even realize we were doing.
I said, we don't do that.
And this is the chapter where God says to the Israelites, to the people, we don't do that.
Okay?
And one of the things he says is we don't cut ourselves, nor do we shave our foreheads for the sake of the dead.
We're going to go on.
Verse 2.
For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his own possession,
out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
And every time you read the word holy in your Bible, I want you to understand the word holy means different.
How we do it.
I think we will like to do that.
We will like to do that.
I like that guy in the middle with the really big head.
We can put little skirts on someone.
At least one.
We'll make it easy.
Some women in there.
Okay, we're doing alright.
Okay?
Holy means completely different.
And notice I told him to make ten completely different people.
Right?
So they have to be unique in the drawing.
Alright?
He says God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Verse 3.
You shall not eat any testable thing.
Don't get confused by the word testable.
It just means duck.
It would be the kind of thing you'd spit out of your mouth.
Except that what we're going to find on the list is that maybe there would be some things on the list that wouldn't necessarily be considered duck.
Alright?
These are the animals which you may eat.
The ox, sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.
And any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof split in two and chews the cut among the animals that you may eat.
In other words, if its hoof is split, they got hoofs on the bottom of their feet.
If the hoof is split in two pieces or more, then that is included.
And if they chew the cut, they chew their food and then they regurgitate it in their mouth, they chew it really good, put it down in one stomach, bring it back up, put it in another, like that.
That's chewing the cut.
That's the cows' food.
Chew the grass, put it down in their stomach, spit it back up in their mouth, chew it again.
By the time they're done, they've chewed it a lot.
So if these animals are like that, you can eat them.
Otherwise, you're going to say no.
Verse 7.
You shall not eat of these among those which chew the cut or among those that divide the hoof in two.
The camel, the rabbit, the rock badger.
For though they chew the cut, they do not divide the hoof.
They are unclean for you.
In other words, they chew the cut, spit it, chew it, spit it, chew it, they do that, but they don't have a divided hoof.
They have one but not the other.
Can't eat the pig because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cut.
And it is unclean for you.
You shall not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses.
And notice now not only can they not eat the pig, but they also can't touch its dead body.
So they're being told basically if they have two traits, they can eat them or have to do with them.
And if they have one of the two traits, that doesn't qualify, they can't eat them and they can't have to do with them when they're dead.
They can't touch their dead bodies.
That's where they're at.
You're going to be like, this doesn't even apply to us today.
Oh yeah, it does.
We'll get there.
Verse 9.
These you may eat of all that are in water, anything that has fins and scales you may eat.
But anything that does not have fins and scales you shall not eat because it is unclean for you.
You may eat any clean bird, but these are the ones which you shall not eat.
The eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, and the red kite, the falcon, the kite in their kinds, and every raven in its kind,
and the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, and the hawk in their kinds.
The little owl, the great owl, the white owl, the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, the snork, the heron in their kinds, the hoopie, and the bat.
And all the teeming life, which now is to talk about insects, with wings are unclean to you.
They shall not be eaten.
You may eat any clean bird.
Now we're in verse 21.
You shall not eat anything which dies of itself.
So now, even if it's a clean animal, if it dies on its own, it falls down on its own.
Can you get 10?
Okay.
You shall not eat anything which dies of itself.
If it falls down on the road dead or gets hit by a carriage or something, you can't eat it.
It doesn't matter if it was a clean animal to live or not.
Well, listen to this.
He says, you may give that animal the diet of itself.
You may give it to the alien who is in your town so that he may eat it.
Or you may sell it to a foreigner.
You can do that.
For you are a holy people to the Lord your God.
Now, you can't have it, but you can sell it or you can give it to an alien or a foreigner or sell it.
Those are opposite.
You can't eat it.
You have to be different.
He says, you shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
Well, a kid is a baby goat.
And there is a kind of cultural way, especially over there sometimes and especially in certain circles,
where they would cook the baby of the baby goat before they eat them.
The meat of the baby goat would cook it in its mother's milk and then eat it.
Sounds totally gross to me.
But that was the thing they did.
They said, you can't do that.
You shall surely tithe all the produce from what you sow.
There's everything you grow, everything you put in the ground that comes up.
You're going to tithe it.
Pretend you're going to grow it in the offing place.
It comes out of the field every year.
And you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place where he chooses to establish his name,
the tithes of your grain, your wine, your oil, your firstborn of your herd and your flock,
in order that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.
In other words, you're going to plant, you're going to grow crops, you're going to have flocks, et cetera.
And out of that, the first 10 percent is always going to go back to when you go there,
the festival, the youth, the worship, and you can eat while you're there and all that kind of thing.
It's all for the glory of God's people, tithes, if you will, 24.
And if the distance is so great that you're not able to bring the tithes,
otherwise you can't bring that first sheep of 10 and like that,
where the Lord your God chooses to set his name is too far away from you.
When the Lord your God blesses you, then you shall exchange it for money
and bind the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses.
In other words, if you can't bring one sheep out of 10,
and can't bring one wagon load of grain out of 10 or whatever,
can't bring one ton of wine, a big task of wine out of 10
because it's too much haul all the way up to where the Lord puts his name,
then sell it all and put the money and says, bind it in your hand.
In other words, don't risk spending it, don't have a chance to move or anything out
and take it right up there and then says,
and then you may spend the money for whatever your heart desires,
for oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink or whatever your heart desires.
And there you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice you and your household.
And if you get up there, then you can use it for the glory of God in the presence of God's people,
and you shall not neglect the Levite who is in your town
who has no portion of inheritance among you.
In other words, you have to take care of people that are,
the Levites didn't get land, they can't grow crops, they didn't get land,
and they can't, don't have sheep, they can't raise sheep, they don't get land.
God is their portion, but now you have to take care of them.
3.8, at the end of every third year, you shall bring out all the tithes of your produce
in that year and shall deposit it in your town.
Now, people have studied this passage, it's written real heavily,
you got the first one, the tithe for the festival that would take place in God's presence,
you got the tithe for the Levites, and then you got the tithe now every third year,
so now we've got all the Israelite people giving 23 and a third percent of everything they get.
Ten percent for one, ten percent for another, and ten percent every third year for another.
We kind of make a big deal out of tithes in the first ten percent,
they were giving 23 and a third percent of everything.
And it's been studied into to find out, well, could you do the Levite part out of the festival part,
no you can't do that, could you do the festival part out of the every third year part,
no, there's three different things.
And then 29, and the Levite, because he has no portion of the inheritance among you,
and the alien, the orphan, the widow, so these are all the people that would be amongst them
that are not Israelites, aliens, could be orphans, could be Israelites or not,
widows, could be Israelites or not, that are in your town,
they shall come and eat and be satisfied in the words of the Lord,
that God may bless you and all the work of your hands which you do.
Alright, so what we've got here are some rules about how we're going to handle food,
meat, worship, and money.
Alright, I submit to you that there is a net, this points out to us a trouble that arises
when we make distinctions or draw barriers.
Okay, and I'll show you real quick in the text and then I'm going to come back on it in a second.
First of all, realize these are rules that apply to who?
Who's being told these things? God's people, the Israelites, right?
Settled in the New Land, they're being told these rules.
Do these rules apply to the strangers in their midst?
No, not in the same way anyway, right?
So if a stranger wants to be like the Israelites,
say well I want to be a part of your people, I want to be a part of the people of God,
I want to be part of the people that God has chosen for himself,
then they can come and follow the same rule. They can do that if they want.
But notice for example where it says you can't eat an animal that falls down on the side of the road
even if it was a clean animal, an allowable animal, if it falls down on the side of the road and dies,
you can't eat it.
But you can let the alien eat it, you can let the stranger eat it,
you can sell it or you can give it away.
So if an animal falls down on the side of the road and it's my ox,
and I'm allowed to eat this ox, an ox of inedible food,
and it dies, has a heart attack while it's pulling my carriage or whatever,
then I now can't have this ox.
I can't eat this ox. I was thinking, you know,
next couple of years the ox is getting old, we're going to kill it off, we're going to eat it,
we're going to have a big fuse or whatever, and now all of a sudden it died, I can't eat it.
But I can sell it or I can give it to an alien and they can eat it.
And by the way, while I'm not eating that ox,
and I'm not getting as much money out of it because it fell down on the side of the road dead,
by the way, when you sell something that fell down on the side of the road dead, you're not going to be able to eat it for food.
It's not going to do as much as it would have been otherwise.
I'm thinking to myself, it's not all that good to be in Israelite.
Because there's an ox I could eat. It's my ox.
I bought it, I fed it all these years, I kept it safe,
I've used it all this time and now it died on the side of the road.
It's not that good thing to do. It's not good to be in Israelite.
I have this ox that God blessed me with and I didn't kill it.
I never did anything wrong with it, make it die.
And now all of a sudden here's a clean animal, it died on the side of the road.
And I'm in Israelite and I can't eat the Israelite.
Ox. It's my ox. And I can't eat it.
And you might say, well, based on that then, the dismay that God has made for us, it's not good.
I don't really want to eat it.
I don't want to have all these rules.
I'd rather be over here.
Right?
This is the people who can't eat the ox.
Oh, man, just ask. The last guy, the one on the right.
That's just the old guy over here. I don't know.
Okay, yeah, I got it. I can see it here.
This guy's eating, he's got bags.
That's a wheelchair.
What's that?
That's a wheelchair.
Oh, is it a wheelchair?
Oh, I see it now.
Okay, alright. What's this here?
What's he got? Put something in his hand.
We got one fat arm and one thin arm.
That's a cast.
Oh, he's got a cast. Oh, alright.
Alright, cool. Thank you.
Okay, so I want to be this guy out here.
And there's lots of guys out there, right?
I want to be this guy here.
Or this guy here.
I hit an oxbell on the side of the road, and he picked it up, and they had one heck of a feast.
You know what I'm saying?
Or even if this guy's got a cast, or lost an arm, whatever,
but at least he gets to eat the ox when it falls on the side of the road.
I want to be that guy.
Right?
It's tough when there are rules and laws.
When my girls were growing up, Alicia had a tendency to say,
I can't about just about everything.
I can't get my seatbelt on. I can't do this. I can't clean up my room. I can't. I can't. I can't.
And so we made a rule.
In our household, we don't say can't.
And to this day, that's pretty much the rule in our household.
We don't say can't.
Now, it may pass, and we don't make a big deal out of it,
if somebody says it, and what they really mean is they need help like that.
But generally speaking, if it's ours to do, we don't quit.
If it's yours to do, you don't quit until either you're dead or it's done.
Why? Because it was yours to do.
Now you can ask me, you can call on somebody else, whatever.
Somebody lives down the road. Alicia gets in the car. She's five years old.
She's going to go to the store with her.
She says, I can't put my seatbelt on.
Alicia says, around here, we don't say can't. You can do it.
And I'll help you if you need it, but you're not allowed to say can't.
That's not really true.
That girl's not a stevenson. She's not part of this house.
She doesn't live with us. It's not really true.
So then I can say, well, Alicia, that's not necessarily really true for everybody.
Now Alicia's thinking, huh, I think I don't want to be a stevenson.
It's kind of hard being a stevenson because you can't say can't.
I want to be the little girl that lives down the street.
See, when there are lines and barriers drawn, then it starts to get hard for anybody that's included.
When Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will follow the Lord, Joshua's kids who were there that day went, oh, what daddy just said.
They didn't just go, yeah, I want to follow my dad. I love my dad.
I go on him. He was my standard. I want to live like my dad.
They didn't just do that. They said, man, what daddy just said.
I don't know exactly what all that means, but it shakes me a little bit to think I got to be like that.
And as for when he says, as for me and his house, he means me.
Now, I got to be like that. So sometimes when there's a barrier comes up, it gets to be tough for those who are inside the barrier.
And I submit to you that that's exactly what God's saying.
Now, I ask you why? Why is that saying?
Well, he says over and over again in the passage of scripture, he says, because you are a holy people.
You are a holy people. And what did I say is the first thing you need to remember when everything is holy and all?
What's the word? Different. Different.
God is different from all his creation. And he made so much variety and everything is incredible.
Don't get me wrong. But God, the God of heaven is different from all of his grace and his chief.
Great. Is he omnipresent? Yes. Great. He's everywhere he wants to be.
Is he omniscient? Does he know everything he wants to know?
Does he know he has access to all knowledge? Yes. That's awesome.
But chiefly, he is different. By the way, it's different to be omnipresent or to be omniscient.
Right. That's different. Chiefly, before everything else, he's different.
He will always be different for me. No matter how much I become like him, he will always be different.
God is different. And then so God says, well, each of you is unique.
One is in a wheelchair. One has got a cast. Right.
What one is tall, one is short, one is a headset, one is thin, one is that dark hair, one is that light hair, one is created with art.
If he is not, and everybody, if he took a full sheet of everybody's traits, it would be completely unique.
There's no two people in all creation ever, even though you have your mom and dad's DNA.
We joke about this in my house, because like in our house, it's kind of like you can see who follows certain DNA.
Right. And people like look at art from behind and mistake it for me fairly frequently because he gets stuck with my DNA.
And with regards to like his hair and body shape and stuff.
But the bottom line is it's real. DNA makes you more like your parents.
But even the scientists know that we get right down to it.
You're 100 percent accurate in DNA. That's only one person.
And then from that build something. And it happens to be a little like what something else is, but it's not the same.
It'll never be the same. Every person is unique. So how is it right?
Can you tell me how close together do people have to be to be allowed to be a sneak or a man or a take?
Right. How close together do people have to be?
Well, guess what? Because a marriage not that close. Right.
Maybe 60, 80 percent match, 90 percent match. I don't know where the line is drawn.
But but now let's apply that same standard to Christians or to God's people.
How much like God do you have to be to be allowed to be part of God's family?
We were created in God's image, but that doesn't mean we were created to look like him or even necessarily to have all the abilities and capabilities he has.
It actually means that we were created to represent him when it says he created his image.
It's like an idol, like the Star Wars figurine represents Luke Skywalker. It's like that.
You're created to represent God. So we represent him again in our generation.
That's what we do. And we were created to do that. But how much like God do you have to be to be allowed to go to heaven when the time comes?
How much like God you have to be to be part of his family? How much can you get away with and still get in?
The answer to that question is, don't you? You can't get away with anything. Nothing.
The Bible says one smallest sin you could possibly commit would be enough.
And you will commit that sin without fail.
Every human being is born with the tendency to our sin. As soon as you're able, you will do it.
Everyone does it. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
So if you get to go in, if all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, who gets to go in?
Who gets to live on God's side?
The people who can't eat the ox that fell on the side of the road. These are the people that God calls holy.
And who put this fence here?
Well, he said, you are his people that he chose. God put the fence there.
Now, it's a double fence because this is where you get a certain amount of correctness.
Because the outside fence, the outside part of the fence is actually owned by the people out here, isn't it?
If you have a fence in your yard, let's say your neighbor puts up on the right on their property line,
they put up a privacy fence, got a big dog and so on. And he's got to run around the yard.
So he puts up a privacy fence. You don't see his dog or his daughter when she sunbathing or him when he's out growing underwear and whatever.
He puts up a privacy fence, right?
And every time he goes out and grows in his underwear, you're so grateful for that privacy fence.
You know what I'm saying? Because you don't really want to see that.
Every time you go out in your yard, he's got dogs in the inside fence. He doesn't know you're there.
So he's not barking up the storm. You're like, man, I like that. That's a good fence.
And that's the way it gets to be. Here's the problem with barriers.
They essentially feel like they're owned by the people of both sides.
Now, the people on the outside over here, people that are over here, they need that ox.
In fact, so, you know, if you're walking along the road, you have the mast, the mast pack falls down, whoop, 200 gold walking.
But now it's only worth 50 because it falls down. Plus it's laying on the side of the road.
And by the way, to move a 1500 pound ox off the side of the road is almost impossible.
You got to move it with big animals and winches or bunches of man.
We don't realize they weigh what cars weigh. They weigh like a car does walking down the road.
So you come walking down, you're walking down the road, like, yeah, you got that ox on the side of the road that fell.
You're an Israelite, aren't you? Oh, yes, yes, I am.
Oh, well, I'll buy that ox off you for 20 gold and I'll make sure it gets off the side of the road. I'll take care of everything.
So this day I'm going, yay me!
I got me an ox that fell on the side of the road, 20 gold. Me and my friends are going to party for a month on the meat from that bad boy.
Plus I'm going to put some back in salt and have it for next spring.
And it's, I am now wealthy because the Israelites are too stupid to eat the ox that falls on the side of the road.
Now, you do it. I like that.
It's a good fence. You just keep right on being an Israelite.
I'm just keep right on paying 20 bucks, 20 gold for 1500 pounds of meat. Sounds good.
I'll do that all day long.
And by the way, this is the same thing that's happening in the church.
If this was the church over here, this is God's presence, people in the world are going, well, they got rules that I don't want to hear nothing about.
I don't want to do what they do.
I don't want to make sure I get a good night's sleep on Saturday night or Sunday so I can work with God on Sunday morning.
I don't want to sit quietly and listen to some guy talk about the Bible.
I don't want to sing praise songs when I don't feel like it.
I don't want to give 10 percent of my money on top plus some more as an offering.
I don't want to do that.
I don't want to come out on my day off and serve God's church building or work in a festival or go try to show people the love of Christ.
I see they're doing all that. That's a lot of work.
It's too much work to be a people of God. I'm kind of glad I live out here on this side of the fence.
See, the problem with barriers is kind of threefold.
First of all, someone owns the property on which the barrier is built.
In other words, this land right here is owned by somebody.
But it's contested, isn't it?
It's owned by the person who put up the fence, which we said was God.
We began here on 14. That's God who put up that fence.
But these people out here feel kind of like it's their property.
They're getting the advantage of it and so on.
But you know what they're missing?
They can't go over your ear if they want to.
They can't become an Israelite. They can't be with God.
They can't walk with God. They can't talk with God.
They're excluded from being God's people.
No matter what they look like, if they look just the same as God's people or not,
no, or pretty much like God's people,
or not, they can't go past the fence.
So in the case before Deuteronomy 14, in the case of God's people,
the fence is owned by God. He erected the fence.
He did it to collect these people.
And it's both inclusive, including God's people,
and exclusive, excluding those who are not God's people.
The property the fence is on is owned by the person who built the fence.
And to this moment in time, right here in Deuteronomy 14,
the fence and that property is owned by God.
He has roped in the Israelites and made them His people.
The second problem is, if you go to move that fence,
you're going to have an issue, aren't you?
You got this guy right here.
What if God said, because we do realize God owns both sides technically, right?
He owns it all.
What if He said He wanted to move the fence back here and move this guy now?
The people that are inside are going to go, no, but wait a minute,
He doesn't have Israelite blood.
He's not been worshipped at the Ark of the Covenant, whatever.
I don't want to deal with him. He's a Gentile.
And he's going to go, well, now I got to follow the rules?
What? It's like the mouse who said, who moved the cheese?
Suddenly you go where the cheese used to be and it's not there anymore.
Fact is that trained mice who know right where the cheese is
get lost when someone moves the cheese.
God doesn't want to keep moving that fence around,
so He laid it out in His law what it looks like.
This is what it looks like to be a people of God.
He said, you will be different, and this is how you will be different.
And that's part of what's in here.
Notice that those on the other side of the fence
can really only see the fence and the stragglers of the fence.
So we've got this guy sitting on the fence here.
He was born an Israelite, but he's living like the world.
Before you say that can't possibly be true,
but he's got a lot of enthusiasm,
so here's the smartest thing you can ever do.
Live with one foot in the world and one foot in the people of God.
That way you get the greatest blessing of both.
Later he said, oh, that was the stupidest thing I ever thought.
He said, I tried it, and it about ripped me in two.
I said, I'll never try that again.
He said, here's what you really need to do.
Jump fully in the people of God and live there
and let God sort out all the rest of it.
Put your feet both firmly in the people of God
and let God sort out all the rest of it.
Why? Because partly that ox that falls on the road,
there's good reasons why not to eat the ox that falls on the road.
But the chiefest of all good reasons is the people for whom you belong,
is where you're going, what your destination is like.
You might go, you know, I lost 380 gold pieces of value
when my ox fell on the road,
and that kind of makes it sucky to be an Israelite.
But when you get to heaven, the food there is going to make you forget
what it was like to eat ox meat,
even when you cooked it the best you possibly could.
The wealth and riches of heaven are going to make you forget
what that 380 gold piece loss felt like that one day.
You can have everything then.
Truly have everything. You can't have everything.
It's not even possible.
But you can literally have everything then.
And if you're a people that has everything then,
God is saying it should affect who you are now.
There are some rules. There are some guidelines.
But it's not exactly what you think.
It's not difficult, burdensome, troublesome,
because actually, the fence is alive.
But notice that there are still people in the picture
that are far from God. They think the fence is there.
There are people in the picture that are close to God.
They think the fence is there.
Jesus came to prove the fence is alive.
God loves you. God loves me.
He wants to draw all people unto Himself.
The sacrifice of Jesus was as real as if it had already happened
thousands of years before it ever happened.
What went on near the Ark of the Covenant?
So we've got these guys.
We see them walking over here now right by the Ark of the Covenant.
They're like priests and servants in the temple.
Right?
What did they do?
They put on sacrifices.
Now we know that no sacrifice has ever been suitable
to completely wash away the sins of men.
But why aren't they doing it?
Doing it is an act of worship and understanding.
It's what God told them to do.
Now if they really understand what God is doing
and understand what God ordered them to do,
then they understand that it is a picture of a coming sacrifice
that will once and for all be perfect. Right?
Easy enough for us to see that because we're on this side of the cross.
We're on this side of that perfect sacrifice.
Because of that truth, because of this sacrifice
that went on here in God's presence,
was pointing for all of these people that there would ultimately be a sacrifice
that would be sufficient to pay for the sins of all people.
Because of that, the fence is alive.
And people can go, well, whether this guy lets the one eternal sacrifice stand for him or not
is really what determines whether he's in or not.
So that would be true for this guy and this guy as well.
Wherever you're asked, the question is whether or not you will accept
the one true permanent eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Now unfortunately, because of some of the choices that the Israelites had made,
they missed out on the opportunity to understand what I'm describing to you.
I'm going to read how Luke wrote it in the book of Acts.
It's going to be following along in the Bible. Flip with me to Acts chapter 28.
Now he's actually quoting Isaiah, but I chose this passage to read
because now this is after the sacrifice of Jesus, after the coming of the Holy Spirit,
after they have seen it, most of them with their own eyes,
or they've talked to people who have seen it.
So it's a fact they know that Jesus was sacrificed.
They know that he lived after he died.
And this is what it says. I'm going to start in verse 24 of chapter 28.
Actually, I'll go 23. It says,
And when they had set a day for him, they came to him at his lodging,
so they were coming to ask him questions.
Okay, he came to him at his lodging,
and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the Kingdom of God
and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses
and from the prophets from the morning until evening.
I submit to you, you know, it doesn't say it right there,
that what he's actually trying to persuade them about is that the fence is alive.
Okay, I'll demonstrate how I know that in a minute.
24. And some were being persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe.
So all these people are coming, they're hearing about Jesus, his eternal sacrifice,
salvation, how it's now available, God having won people a new Kingdom,
a Kingdom of God reigned over by God, and some were being persuaded by the things spoken,
but others would not believe.
And when they did not agree with one another,
they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting word.
And this is what he said,
The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying,
Go to this people and say,
You will keep on hearing, but will not understand,
and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive.
For the heart of this people has become dull,
and with their ears they scarcely hear,
and they have closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,
and return, and I should heal them.
Verse 28, Let it be known to you therefore,
that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles,
and they will also listen.
And when they have spoken these words, they are part of having a great dispute among themselves,
and the story goes on.
So in other words, they came to him,
our advanced Lord in time,
and Paul was over here,
there's Paul,
the head of the key for Paul,
and he's explaining to them what they now know,
that the fence is a lie.
Some of them believe this guy up here,
and this guy over here,
and all these, this girl, and this guy that was by the Ark of the Covenant,
not this guy, that guy in the wheelchair believed,
and this guy didn't.
And then there were some other people that Paul called Gentiles,
oh wait, so this guy believes, and that guy believes,
and this person over here believes, but this one didn't.
And there's some stranger down here, who just waters in, just at that right moment he hears the story,
and then there's a stranger here, who will make her a girl,
do I have enough girls in the picture?
What's a comfortable girl look like? Let's see, let's do that.
And she believes, she's in, and of course Paul believes,
but this guy here doesn't believe,
and then the background here, the Ark of the Covenant is in,
and it goes like that.
The fence is a lie,
but the line between God's Kingdom and not, is not a lie.
It's real, but it's not founded or based on geography,
or rules, or stricture.
It's based on one thing and one thing alone.
It's based on believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
When you have faith in God and the way that God provided, which is Jesus Christ,
then that opens up a channel of grace where God can name you as his people.
And so then this place inside there is Kingdom of God.
But notice, when you move a barrier, you have issues,
because someone owns the property on which the barrier is built.
Well, who owns the property on which the barrier is built?
God does.
People outside the barrier...
Better to be outside.
Don't want those rules, don't want to have to live right,
don't want to have to read the Bible or pray or do any of those things.
Better to be outside.
And then of course we get the Great Commission,
which says that the task of everybody on the inside is to go to everybody on the outside
and explain to them that the fence is a lie.
The question is this, is God an inclusive God?
Does God want literally everybody inside the fence?
Yes.
But based on this passage of Scripture and so many others like it, is God a holy God?
Yes, he is.
And does God expect the people inside to be holy because they are inside?
Yes, he does.
Hold on a minute, because the fence is a lie,
does God expect the people who are outside to be holy?
Yes, he does.
The fence is a lie.
They think they own the fence.
They think they own the property on which the fence sets.
They think they are choosing not to be a follower of God.
They think that they are choosing to have free will.
They're choosing to stand away from God.
But the truth is this territory out here is owned by somebody who is, you could say, is occupied,
maybe a better way of saying it, by somebody who made that mistake in the first place, which is the devil.
And if you're outside the fence, outside the barrier, if you're not part of the people of God,
if you've got a way to say it, then you are a slave to the one who owns the area outside.
And that fence, the fence around his kingdom, is not a lie.
And he owns the property on which it sits.
And given the opportunity, he will lock you in.
He will trap you in.
That's why it says he stalks around like a lion, roaring lions, seeking to see who he may devour.
By the way, a lion never roars when devouring.
He just threatens and makes you think that you're close to being devoured.
Lions typically stalk and sneak and jump on their prey.
He's looking for you to be on the outside edge, away, as far to the edge as possible,
except the edge is not a circle.
It's not like a yard. It's a square that's got a fence around it.
It is defined as those people who are in the kingdom of God.
The distinction is a man, not a barrier.
A couple of times in the history of our church, we wanted to do something.
We decided as a church that something was the right thing to do.
And we elected someone to do it.
So someone said, yeah, I think it's right that I'll do it, and we chose that person to do it.
Knowing that we were choosing somebody's self-will, we were choosing somebody's ability,
we were choosing their creativity, we were choosing their strength,
we were choosing by their faithfulness.
In the early church, when the disciples were having trouble taking care of the widows,
they said, well, we shouldn't be doing this.
We should be praying, seeking God, teaching people like that.
Let's raise up some men. And they called up deacons.
They chose them by the fact that they were following God, doing what God would have them to do.
They were in the kingdom of God.
Clearly, they were thrown into the spirit by everyone's assertion, and so on.
The fence is a lie.
The distinction is a man, not a believer.
He is the gate.
He is the shepherd.
He is the door.
He is the bread of life.
And unless you take him wholly and completely as your Lord and Savior,
you are outside the kingdom.
There is nobody inside the kingdom who is partly inside the kingdom.
There is no such thing as a guy in there, yes, oh yeah, I'm in, but one toe is sleeping out.
No such thing.
Right?
Or there is a guy who is out here and says, yeah, I'm not saved, but he's got one foot in.
One really big foot.
That's what happens when a foot sticks in the kingdom of God.
You're in or you're out.
You believe or you don't.
Do you believe?
If you believe, then you realize our God is a holy God and he's taking us to a holy place.
He's holy, first of all different, and he's taking us to a different place.
We talk, we say things like the food there will taste so much better than the food here.
Well, what the heck does that even mean?
What does it mean, the food there?
When your body is spiritualized and resurrected and you have a perfect brand new body,
a perfect age, perfect strength, perfect appearance, perfect everything,
you can think about being in one place and appear there, and you have a body like Jesus had,
what does it mean to say, well, the food will taste so good?
It's outside fully our knowledge, but here's what is not outside our knowledge.
You're in or you're out.
You've got to stop playing games with it.
You're in or you're out.
When God says, when we're in, this is what we do, we should be going, oh, well, you know, man, that's so tough.
That's not my personality.
I don't like to do that.
I get butterflies in my stomach.
God doesn't care about your butterflies in your stomach.
He cares about whether you're in or you're out.
And if you're in the butterflies in your stomach, that's the stupid part of you that doesn't realize how awesome it is to be in.
Part of you that doesn't want to give up the money or give up your time.
That's the stupid part of you that doesn't realize how awesome it is to be in.
Wait for it.
The part of you that throws a fit when things are going wrong,
you get mad or angry or frustrated.
That's the part of you that doesn't realize how awesome it is to be in.
It's that awesome to be in.
Then no matter what we go through in this life, as long as we count it as for him, it's awesome.
That's why James would write, honey, pure joy when you face all manner of trials and tribulations.
Did Jesus face trials and tribulations?
I mean, he's the son of God in the flesh.
Did he face trials and tribulations?
He was whipped within an inch of his life and then hung to take the rest of it.
Did he face trials and tribulations?
Have you faced anything like he ever faced?
He went 40 days without food, which most of us could not even physically do.
We weren't sustained by a miracle of God.
We couldn't go 40 days without food.
We would die before then.
He went 40 days without food, at the end of which the enemy came and said to him,
you hungry?
Turn these rocks into bread.
Was that within his power to do so?
Absolutely. He could turn rocks into bread.
And he said, no, I won't do it.
Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word he proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
What is he saying?
He's saying, listen to me.
I know you think it's better to be on your side of the fence.
I know you think it's better to be free willed away from God.
I know you hate God.
You're angry at God.
You want to bring down any prophet or any person who stand up for God.
I know you want them all to go your way.
And you'd like to see man whose God's crowning achievement of creation come over to your way of thinking.
And that you've won many before me, but you will not win me because I live in the kingdom of God.
Yes, I have the power to turn stones into bread because I am God in the flesh.
And I don't know that Satan knew that at that time.
And Jesus didn't say that.
He just simply said, no, it is better to understand this,
that man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
That's it.
And that is the definition of what it means to be a person in the kingdom of God.
To understand that you answer to God.
You are owned by God.
You are for God.
You walk by the strength of God.
You do things in the creativity that God has given you.
Your free will is a gift from God if you have it.
And if you don't have God, you don't have it.
Jesus is the way.
He's not a guardian to the way.
He's not at the door.
Jesus didn't come to condemn.
He's not like standing here right here on this little plot and saying,
hey, you can't get in unless you say 17 Hail Mary's.
Or you can't get in unless you're awkwardly big enough.
Like a little guardsman there standing there with a sword and a shield saying, no way.
You can't get in.
Now, that's not our Jesus.
Our Jesus is the guy who died on the cross saying,
everybody come, everybody come, come on.
Is he inclusive?
Yes.
But to be inclusive will always be to be exclusive.
There is this which defines us.
That we are a follower of the Lord God and his son, Jesus Christ.
And if you are that, you are saved.
And if you are saved, then act like it.
Start saying no to the things that don't belong in the kingdom of God.
Start putting your foot down as if God were putting his foot down
to exercise his authority in your life.
He is the way, not a guardian to keep people out.
People are kept at bay in the kingdom of God by their unwillingness to repent.
They see the fence is electrified.
They know they don't want to go there.
They want what they want.
And they don't want to cross the line.
And they don't want anybody to look at them.
They want anybody to think about them.
They want to get away with whatever they want to get away with.
And as long as I can get away with that, I'm fine.
But you're not fine.
If you're outside the kingdom of God, you're not fine.
Oh, you're different.
But you're not any different than anybody that's outside the kingdom of God.
Because you're united in this choice out there.
While you are a unique personality out there,
you are the same as everybody else that does not choose God.
In here when we choose God, we are even more unique.
Because the Holy Spirit looks up to the payers,
the unique creation of God in the kingdom of God,
and He gives them exactly what gift they need to build up the kingdom.
I'm going to read one last passage of Scripture, and then I'll be through.
Verse 65, I said 66.
It's 65, I apologize.
And it says this, beginning of verse 24,
He says, It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer.
That's how you get in the kingdom of God.
God has already answered you before you call.
Say, Lord, save me.
He's already said yes.
If you're in this room and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
you're distracted by something else.
If you're pulled away by what you think is your free will,
which is actually submitted to Satan, whatever.
If that's what's happening to you, you say, God, save me through your son Jesus Christ.
And He has already answered.
He will save you.
It says, It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer.
He answered 2,000 years ago.
He settled the matter on the cross.
And while they are still speaking, I will hear.
Verse 25 says this, listen.
It says, The wolf and the lamb, the wolf, that's the predator, and the lamb, that's the prey,
shall graze together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
You know why the lion will eat straw?
And the wolf and the lamb can graze together because God is going to put even death to an end.
He's essentially already done it on the cross.
But once it's all over, there will be no more death.
The wages of sin is death, and it will be done.
If He puts death to an end, it will be because He's taken care of sin.
The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
And the dust, wait for it, shall be the serpent's food.
The dust shall be the serpent's food.
And the wolf and the lion and the serpent, He says, they shall do no evil or harm in all My holy mountains, says the Lord.
This is how it will be settled.
The serpent will eat dust for food.
I wouldn't think it's happening there.
I mean, he's eating here, he's taking himself, and they will have dust for food.
And if you choose to be out here, outside the line, outside God's people,
then you too will have dust for food.
I don't know what that's going to be like, but it doesn't sound good.
But this I do know, all of us that are inside the line,
not a line that God draws to try to keep people out,
the way is Jesus.
People who will not accept Jesus, people who will not believe in God,
through Jesus Christ, His Son, will be outside that line,
and those people will eat dust with the serpent.
But those who are inside the line will be Satan.
That's what it says.
It says, they, meaning the lion, the wolf, the serpent,
all images used to represent demons, evil spirits, Satan,
they shall do no evil or harm in all My holy mountains, says the Lord.
It's settled.
The only question is, are you settled?
Am I settled?
Are we willing to decide that we are a holy and different people?
When someone moves the barrier, the problems are,
someone owns the property on which the barrier is built.
Listen to me.
God owns it all.
But those who are outside the enemy, they are convinced
that that fence gives them some value.
That fence practically protects them from what God is trying to do,
that kind of thing.
And it just isn't so.
When the fence was moved, people got confused.
Notice that there were people that were worshipping God,
and they wound up outside of the fence.
They're not even human God.
There were Levites and Israelites and priests,
and there have been pastors and deacons and Sunday school teachers
who wound up outside and will not see the King of God on this earth or in heaven.
Also notice that those who are on the outside can only see the straddlers,
the hypocrites, those who are not really living.
And so understand that if you are not living for the Lord,
but you're claiming to be the King of God, you're doing a lot of damage
because there are a lot of people that are looking at you,
thinking you're a Christian, and you're leading them in the wrong way
to be like you instead of being like Jesus, and you're not being like Jesus.
Get off the fence, because nobody on the fence winds up in the kingdom.
They all wind up outside.
And if you're here in this room and you're following somebody who professes to be a Christian,
but you know that they're not living like a Christian,
then you decide who you are in Christ.
You decide to follow Jesus with all that you are, not follow your friend,
your brother, your sister, your cousin, your mom or your dad.
There are no grandchildren of God.
Every time anyone enters the kingdom, it is God asking them,
will you come to me through my son Jesus?
And if you will come, then you say, please Jesus,
and know that he has already answered you.
He has already paid.
Whether I make it in or not, you want to make it in.
And you will make it in by Jesus or not at all.
The fence was a lie.
The whole purpose of the Israelites was to bring the rest of the world close to God.
So they would be different.
So people would look at them and go, hey, they're different.
And God acted on their behalf and did amazing things.
And then people would want to come and become like the Israelites and close to God.
That was the whole purpose. And they didn't do it.
And then God erased the fence and said, it's not about being an Israelite.
It's about this decision about what you'll do with my son Jesus Christ.
What is the work of a father to believe in the one who he has sent?
Will you believe in Jesus and what Jesus has done?
And now the church is here.
And in some cases, the church is not doing what the church is supposed to be doing.
And there will be people, God forbid, but there may be people sitting in this room right now,
who will be in hell for an eternity because they refuse to follow Jesus with all that they are.
The fence is a lie.
You just have to decide.
Do you believe in God through Jesus Christ his son?
Do you believe in what God has done through Jesus?
Will you be saved and will you follow him with all that you are?
I'm not talking about following him with your strength. That would be good.
Or following him with your intellect. You may be smart. That would be good.
I'm talking about following him with all that you are and letting him be Lord of your life.
And that's what it takes to be saved.
No one else is standard but the Bible and God himself.
We're going to have a hymn of invitation at this time, meaning as we sing this song,
you're going to have the opportunity to let it know what you're deciding today in response to God.
You have to decide, are you willing to cross the line by the way that Jesus is made, by the way that Jesus is?
And if you are, then as we sing, you will respond.
I'm living for Jesus from this moment on.
Whatever I said before, whoever I thought I was, I'm letting all that go.
I'm living for Jesus from this moment on.
I know some of us in this room have a long time to live. Yeah, we think we do.
If you're a follower of Jesus, you get a lot longer than that.
A hundred years of misery and suffering, God forbid, would still be worth it for an eternity in heaven for God.
But that's not what you get.
Jesus came and you have life and life more abundantly.
And even if you're in trouble, have great joy, that's what you get.
Asking you, would you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and then live for him for the rest of your days?
And yes, you will be asked to be different.
So will you be different? Are you afraid to be different?
Don't be, because there's a lot at stake.
Let yourself be different as a follower of Jesus.
Just stand with me and sing this song, let the Lord speak into your heart and you respond.
We fall down, lay on our crowns, at the feet of Jesus.
We pray this song of mercy and love at the feet of Jesus.
This is Pastor Daniel Stevenson of New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of East Toledo.
You've been listening to our podcast from October 16th.
We sure do appreciate you joining us.
If the Lord might be leading you to become a member of New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church,
even though there may be some glaringly obvious barrier to keep you from doing that,
perhaps you live in another state far away or whatever it might be, financially you have a barrier, transportation you have a barrier, whatever,
you should be aware that God has moved in our hearts to set up a program called non-resident membership.
Basically, if you can testify saying that you believe that God is expecting you to be a member of New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church,
then regardless of where you may live, you may apply to be a non-resident member,
regardless of what your financial situation might be, or you could be in jail listening to this podcast, or whatever it might be.
If God is calling you to be a member of this church, then we want to open the way for that to be possible,
and we believe that there are people out there that are like that.
So, go to our website on the membership page.
It says, what does it take to be a member of New Heights?
And look at the non-resident member requirements if you're sure that there are things standing in the way for you coming to become an active member in the church.
And then we'll talk about it. We'll figure it out.
So, God bless you as you search out the church home in which you belong, and I pray that there is one near you geographically
that you'll easily be able to participate with, and that God will get all the glory if you're joining together in that community.
And in the meantime, if the Lord is leading you to become a member of New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church,
regardless of whatever barriers may exist, you must be a professing Christian.
If you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, do that now.
And then whatever barriers may exist between where you're at now and becoming a member of the church, those can be dealt with.
We can pray that God miraculously will work it out, and we know that He is that kind of God.
Thank you so much. Reach out to us via communication on our website or in our app if you need other services of New Heights that we are able to provide.
And we'll be praying for all the listeners all the time.
And you pray for us as we continue to serve the Lord and reach New Heights in Jesus.
Thanks and God bless.