1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:14,760 Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church Henley and thanks so much for tuning 2 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:17,000 into our podcast. 3 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,680 Our prayer is that through this podcast you can have an encounter with Jesus that will 4 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:22,800 change your life. 5 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:26,400 And now get ready for an inspiring message from our preaching team. 6 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:36,880 I have a haunting memory from youth camp and that could go anyway. 7 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:44,360 So we were sitting around in a small group and one of the guys, he starts to, he begins 8 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:45,880 to weep and lament. 9 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:50,720 And he's weeping and lamenting because he's realised that he's never told his friend about 10 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:51,720 Jesus. 11 00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:55,840 He had opportunities and he never took it. 12 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:59,520 And tragically his friend had just had his life cut short. 13 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:05,120 And as far as this person knew, he didn't know Jesus. 14 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:10,120 And so life forever with Jesus was uncertain. 15 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:13,640 And whether or not he should have, this guy took full responsibility for that. 16 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:20,480 His sense of grief coupled with guilt was haunting to me. 17 00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:24,280 I hadn't lost anyone at that point in my life, especially no one my age. 18 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:29,600 I had no sense of the mortality of life at all. 19 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:33,480 Everyone would always be there and there would always be time. 20 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:37,400 But in that one conversation, much of that perspective I had came crumbling down. 21 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:43,200 Would I be weeping out of guilt and grief over a friend that I could have saved? 22 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:48,000 And I was severely overestimating my capacity to save other people. 23 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:51,760 But what I was, it was earnest. 24 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:55,640 And this was all wrapped up in my wider awakening to God as a teenager. 25 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:57,200 I wanted to tell my friends about Jesus. 26 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:01,560 I want to make sure that I had given them the opportunity to hear about Jesus and believe 27 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:05,000 in Him because there are no guarantees in life. 28 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:09,160 I wanted to take the chances while they were there. 29 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:15,440 And I didn't want to end up guilt grieving over what I didn't have the courage to do. 30 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:19,400 As you may remember from the Mission in Motion series, I wasn't very good at telling my friends 31 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:21,080 about Jesus. 32 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:23,040 But I cared. 33 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:25,720 I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to know and follow Jesus. 34 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:31,200 And I cared enough to do something about it, to step out and even be seen as weird in order 35 00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:33,640 that they might get that opportunity. 36 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:40,080 So you might think that in high school I went on an evangelism war path and I hit up everyone 37 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:45,960 on MSN because that's how old I am about the condition of their souls, but you would be 38 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:47,440 wrong. 39 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:53,080 In the two years of school that I was a public Christian, I took the opportunity to maybe 40 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:55,760 talk to a dozen people about Jesus. 41 00:02:55,760 --> 00:03:04,720 I cared enough to do something, but the actual doing of the thing was much, much harder. 42 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:10,200 I cared, but so much got in the way of putting that care into action. 43 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:14,560 With the third week of our series, Jesus over Everything, we were looking at how Jesus calls 44 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:16,600 us to live a different kind of way. 45 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:20,880 And today we're looking at zeal over apathy. 46 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:26,040 Zeal is often translated like a passionate commitment or an enthusiastic pursuit of a 47 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:27,080 cause. 48 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:30,520 And this is not always seen as noble. 49 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:34,800 If you are zealous, sometimes as I wall there, you need to settle down a little bit. 50 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:40,320 Zeal has some connotations of extremism, of going too far. 51 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:46,520 So zeal over apathy and apathy is indifference. 52 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:48,800 It's being indifferent to something. 53 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:53,120 So zeal either apathy is either like you're all into a crazy degree or you don't give 54 00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:54,800 a stuff. 55 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:58,560 You either care enough to put something right or you don't care at all. 56 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,840 This is kind of a false dichotomy, isn't it? 57 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:06,320 Most of us aren't crazy zealous and most of us aren't completely indifferent. 58 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:09,840 Most of us are somewhere in the middle. 59 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:14,920 We care enough to do something to be actual doing of the thing, putting the thing to right 60 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,120 is harder. 61 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:21,680 We care, but so much gets in the way of putting that care into action and actually doing something 62 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:23,160 about it. 63 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:27,440 We believe something is really important like inviting our friends to come and meet Jesus. 64 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:30,160 Inviting others for what we have found in Jesus. 65 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:33,840 We care about it, but things get in the way. 66 00:04:33,840 --> 00:04:37,200 We're worried about how they'll think of us and so we don't. 67 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:40,600 When we do it, we're like, well, I should do this more often because that went a lot 68 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:43,520 better than I thought it was going to go. 69 00:04:43,520 --> 00:04:45,840 But then do we do it again? 70 00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:47,680 Sometimes. 71 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:49,040 We believe prayer is so important. 72 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:52,080 We believe that it bends reality to God's will. 73 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:58,360 We care about it so much that we run around 24 hour prayer day yesterday, which was amazing, 74 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:00,440 24 hours back to back to back. 75 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:01,440 We care about it. 76 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:04,200 We really need to do that kind of stuff. 77 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:11,960 But then the not pray days, we're busy with work. 78 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:13,080 We get easily distracted. 79 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:16,640 We go to pray, but then we end up putting on like 12 loads of washing. 80 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:19,120 We're doom scrolling socials. 81 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:21,880 Whenever we pray, we're like, whenever we get in the prayer room, it's like, I should do 82 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:23,280 this more often. 83 00:05:23,280 --> 00:05:24,280 This is amazing. 84 00:05:24,280 --> 00:05:27,320 But then do we? 85 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:30,760 We believe reading the Bible is so important that it renews our mind as a source of its 86 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:34,640 strength and encouragement that God actually speaks to us when we read it. 87 00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:36,640 And we care about doing it. 88 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:44,720 But it's much easier to read the news, scroll the socials or this other book that I'm reading 89 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:45,840 is a bit more interesting. 90 00:05:45,840 --> 00:05:50,200 But whenever we crack this thing open and we do something like Word Week, which starts 91 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:57,200 today, which you should sign up for, or you'll make Josh sad. 92 00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:00,840 Whenever we do stuff like that, we're like, I should do this more. 93 00:06:00,840 --> 00:06:03,480 But then do we? 94 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:07,360 We believe that helping the poor is so important that when we do that, when we show kindness 95 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:15,160 and we help the poor and the ostracize and the downtrodden, we're not just doing it for 96 00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:17,840 them, we're doing it for Jesus as well. 97 00:06:17,840 --> 00:06:22,200 We believe that we are blessed to be a blessing and we care about people. 98 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:23,480 But when do we see the poor? 99 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:25,920 Do we cross the other side of the road? 100 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:28,280 Do we prioritize our busy time schedule? 101 00:06:28,280 --> 00:06:32,600 The next thing rather than being present to them in their need. 102 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:35,920 Whenever we take the time to serve them, to buy them a meal, we're like, I should do this 103 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:36,920 more. 104 00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:39,080 But then do we? 105 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:44,200 I've been a pastor for nine years now in various places. 106 00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:48,240 And as I've journeyed with other Christians and as I've journeyed with myself, I've come 107 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:54,200 to see that this dynamic right here, this is the biggest barrier to the life of faith, 108 00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:56,920 impact and spiritual power we all desire. 109 00:06:56,920 --> 00:06:58,240 We care. 110 00:06:58,240 --> 00:06:59,240 We really care. 111 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:00,240 Christians really care. 112 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:04,200 We want to see God's kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven. 113 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:08,760 And we want to see God's kingdom come here in handling as it is in heaven and in grange. 114 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:11,680 We believe God wants to do that too. 115 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:14,480 But our care doesn't always translate into action. 116 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:19,080 It's not that we're apathetic, indifferent to God or to following Him. 117 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:22,280 We don't take the path of apathy. 118 00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:28,520 But and I speak for myself here, I wonder if people can see from my actions that I'm 119 00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:29,520 not indifferent. 120 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:37,520 I wonder if people know that I care when I so often don't put that care into action. 121 00:07:37,520 --> 00:07:41,640 Every time I see a poor person or a homeless person on my street, I say to myself, I should 122 00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:45,080 do something to put that right. 123 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:48,720 But eight out of 10 times, I don't. 124 00:07:48,720 --> 00:07:50,800 I say, I don't have time today. 125 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:52,680 I've got the kids with me. 126 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:54,560 How hopeful can I really be to this person? 127 00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:57,320 I make all these excuses. 128 00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:02,040 But I have taken the time to sit down and buy someone lunch, hear their story. 129 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:06,400 I say to myself, I should do this more. 130 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:11,400 So how do we become the kinds of people whose behavior matches their beliefs? 131 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:18,000 Eight, nine times out of 10 rather than two, three times out of 10. 132 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:23,240 The answer, I think, can be found in the biblical tradition of steel and how Jesus transforms 133 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:24,240 it. 134 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:25,240 So we're going to look at today. 135 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:30,520 Zeal isn't just like a generic, radical kind of passion and enthusiasm for something 136 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:33,120 as imposed to an indifference about something. 137 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:35,240 Zeal is a thing in the Bible. 138 00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:36,240 It's a tradition. 139 00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:37,240 It's a movement. 140 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:38,240 Zeal is a thing. 141 00:08:38,240 --> 00:08:43,200 And in our teaching texts, Zeal, who is most commonly known by his Greek name Paul, it's 142 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:44,200 not a different name. 143 00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:45,200 He doesn't get a different name. 144 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:46,320 It's the same name. 145 00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:51,240 If you really want to know more about this, Ashley would love to talk to you about it. 146 00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:54,000 Put up your hand, Ashley. 147 00:08:54,000 --> 00:09:00,920 She'll fire you on this one. 148 00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:05,200 Paul is storming his way down the road to Damascus. 149 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:09,960 Paul is, believe it or not, storming in the biblical tradition of zeal. 150 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:14,240 Paul saw something that shouldn't be any care enough to put it put it right. 151 00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:18,360 A young disciple named Stephen, which we read earlier in Acts, has been stoned for declaring 152 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:21,680 that Jesus is the Son of God right in front of the high priest. 153 00:09:21,680 --> 00:09:24,920 And Paul sees this, this young man being stoned. 154 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:29,920 And he says, yeah, they deserve to die. 155 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:33,160 Stone a lot of them. 156 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:36,440 What does Paul think the Christians deserve to die? 157 00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:40,720 Well, because for a Jew, it's blasphemy to say that a man could be equal with God. 158 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:42,440 And that's what the Christians are teaching. 159 00:09:42,440 --> 00:09:43,960 Jesus is the Son of God. 160 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:45,600 It's not just blasphemy. 161 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:46,600 It's idolatry. 162 00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:49,400 It's worshiping another God, Jesus. 163 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:52,120 And that breaks God's law handed down to Moses. 164 00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:56,800 You have to understand that this point in Christianity, it's purely a Jewish renewal 165 00:09:56,800 --> 00:09:57,800 movement. 166 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:00,480 Almost all of the Christians are Jews. 167 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:02,280 And Paul is a Pharisee. 168 00:10:02,280 --> 00:10:05,760 He comes from a tradition that believes that God's kingdom will only come when all of Israel 169 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:09,040 can obey God's law for one day. 170 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:14,040 And here is this Jesus movement, causing all these Jews in Paul's mind to abandon Moses 171 00:10:14,040 --> 00:10:15,960 and the law of God and go on and follow Jesus. 172 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:19,040 And this is unacceptable. 173 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:20,640 The kingdom of God is at stake here. 174 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:23,680 And Paul cares enough to do something. 175 00:10:23,680 --> 00:10:28,040 So he gets approval to go and round up any Christians in Damascus and throw them into 176 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:29,040 jail. 177 00:10:29,040 --> 00:10:30,800 And he sets off. 178 00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:32,680 He's storming with zeal. 179 00:10:32,680 --> 00:10:35,320 And the walk to Damascus is not a short walk. 180 00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:39,600 So it's quite an effort to storm with zeal for two weeks. 181 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:42,160 He's really, really angry. 182 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:48,840 I like short walk tends to calm the zeal in me, but not Paul. 183 00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:49,840 Two weeks. 184 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:54,040 He writes this in Galatians 1, 13 to 14. 185 00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:55,200 You know what I was like. 186 00:10:55,200 --> 00:10:58,440 You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion. 187 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:01,200 Now violently I persecuted God's church. 188 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:03,600 I did my best to destroy it. 189 00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:09,600 I was far ahead of my fellow Jews in my zeal for the traditions of my ancestors. 190 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:16,160 This is what zeal looks like for Paul, destroying the church of Jesus. 191 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:19,160 Zeal is a strong tradition in Judaism. 192 00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:23,640 It begins with Phineas, who was a contemporary of Moses. 193 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:26,160 Psalm 116 gives us an overview. 194 00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:30,200 Now ancestors join in the worship of Baal at Pior. 195 00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:33,280 Now Baal is a word for Lord or good. 196 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:35,680 So it's the God of Pior. 197 00:11:35,680 --> 00:11:39,040 They even ate sacrifices offered to the dead. 198 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:40,640 They angered the Lord with all these things. 199 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:42,560 So a plague broke out among them. 200 00:11:42,560 --> 00:11:46,120 But Phineas had the courage to intervene and the plague was stopped. 201 00:11:46,120 --> 00:11:49,040 And he has been regarded as a righteous man ever since that time. 202 00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:53,560 Now this story comes up in Numbers 25 and it gives us a bit more context. 203 00:11:53,560 --> 00:11:59,000 Most people bring a great plague upon them because of their worship of Baal Pior. 204 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:02,600 24,000 people had died from this plague. 205 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:07,080 And so to deal with it, God tells Moses that anyone who has yoked themselves to Baal, 206 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:11,800 that has committed themselves to Baal, that has worshiped Baal, 207 00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:17,120 and attached themselves to Baal, had to be put to death and hung up outside the community, 208 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:19,480 to purify the community. 209 00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:20,840 And this is a horrid thing. 210 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:23,520 And the people are weeping at the side of this. 211 00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:27,680 And as they're mourning, a man takes a Midianite woman, 212 00:12:27,680 --> 00:12:33,520 who is the one who's worshiping the God of Pior, 213 00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:38,440 into his tent and begins to worship with her. 214 00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:41,000 If you catch my drift. 215 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:44,160 Phineas, do you need me to spell it out, Tex? 216 00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:45,400 Okay. 217 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:49,640 So Phineas, the priest, sees this and he's filled with zeal. 218 00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:53,480 He grabs a spear, he leaves the community and he goes and he drives it through the Israel 219 00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:56,400 light man, through the man and through the woman's stomach. 220 00:12:56,400 --> 00:13:00,960 He drives the spear down and they die, obviously. 221 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:02,920 And the plague is stopped. 222 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:09,400 And God says this to Moses, Phineas, son of Eliza and grandson of Aaron, the priest, 223 00:13:09,400 --> 00:13:14,640 has turned my anger away from the Israelites by being as zealous among them as I was. 224 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:19,240 So I stopped destroying all Israel as I intended to do in my zealous anger. 225 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:23,200 Now tell him that I'm making my special covenant of peace with him. 226 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:26,840 In this covenant, I give him in a descendants of permanent right to the priesthood. 227 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:33,360 For in his zeal for me, his God, he purified the people of Israel, making them right with 228 00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:34,360 me. 229 00:13:34,360 --> 00:13:37,200 Phineas forges the path of zeal. 230 00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:42,680 He cares enough to put this right and he makes it to him for the sins of the people. 231 00:13:42,680 --> 00:13:47,160 God honors him for showing that he cares as much as God does about putting this situation 232 00:13:47,160 --> 00:13:48,760 right. 233 00:13:48,760 --> 00:13:50,920 This is the beginning of the tradition of zeal. 234 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:56,640 Elijah shows the same zeal when he has all the prophets of Baal brought to kitchen and 235 00:13:56,640 --> 00:13:59,640 slaughtered after he beats them and his wet cow zeal. 236 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:03,360 If you remember the story of Elijah. 237 00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:06,800 Simon the zealot, one of Jesus apostles is a part of a religious movement called the 238 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:12,240 zealots who in the tradition of Phineas seek to rid the land of the Roman occupiers and 239 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:15,320 idolaters by violence and force. 240 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:19,160 And Jesus, when he goes to the temple, calls and finds people selling animals and exchanging 241 00:14:19,160 --> 00:14:23,680 money and using God's temple to turn a prophet, Jesus cares enough to do something. 242 00:14:23,680 --> 00:14:31,800 He drives them out with a whip and turns over the tables and it says in the scripture, his 243 00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:36,680 disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. 244 00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:39,560 The Hebrew tradition of zeal is violence. 245 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,880 You put what needs to be put right by any means necessary. 246 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:47,240 You sacrifice the one who violates God's law for the good of God's people. 247 00:14:47,240 --> 00:14:50,080 The zeal does not stay this way. 248 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:54,840 Paul is on his long walk to Damascus ready to do whatever it takes for the good of God's 249 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:55,840 people. 250 00:14:55,840 --> 00:15:00,560 And as we heard, he was approaching Damascus and a light shines from heaven. 251 00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:06,560 He falls to the ground and hears a voice saying, Saul, why are you persecuting me? 252 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:07,560 Who are you Lord Saul? 253 00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:11,920 And the voice replies, I am Jesus, the one you were persecuting. 254 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:13,640 Get up and go. 255 00:15:13,640 --> 00:15:20,000 Paul has had an encounter with Jesus and the zeal he has for the traditions of his ancestors 256 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:26,760 is utterly transformed and it's transformed because Jesus himself had transformed zeal. 257 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:31,360 The Jews believed that a Messiah would come to free the people from foreign oppression, 258 00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:34,840 that the Messiah would set them free by military force. 259 00:15:34,840 --> 00:15:40,040 They thought that they were getting a warrior king Messiah who in the traditions of zeal 260 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:44,200 would purify and atone for the community through violence. 261 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:46,520 But Jesus was a very different Messiah. 262 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:51,680 He doesn't enter Jerusalem on a war horse like a conquering king's triumph and entry. 263 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:53,720 He enters on a donkey. 264 00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:55,880 He doesn't instigate violence against his people's enemies. 265 00:15:55,880 --> 00:16:00,960 He willingly receives violence to save his people's enemies. 266 00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:05,520 He's crowned king of the Jews, not in a palace, but on a cross. 267 00:16:05,520 --> 00:16:08,640 Not with a crown of jewels, but a crown of thorns. 268 00:16:08,640 --> 00:16:14,200 Rather than being clothed in splendor, he has his clothes ripped from him and gambled away. 269 00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:16,000 He doesn't put the foreign oppressors to death. 270 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:21,160 He allows himself to be put to death by the foreign oppressors. 271 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:26,040 Jesus goes to the cross and it is at the cross that we see the zeal of Jesus, a new kind of zeal. 272 00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:27,880 Zeal transformed. 273 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:32,480 Jesus makes atonement not by violence against God's enemies, but it's sacrifice on behalf 274 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:34,840 of God's enemies. 275 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:39,040 Jesus cares enough to do something and put it right whatever it takes and it takes his 276 00:16:39,040 --> 00:16:40,040 life. 277 00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:43,160 It's not the political issues that Jesus puts right. 278 00:16:43,160 --> 00:16:46,840 It's not the fact that Rome invaded their country. 279 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:50,840 It's the issues of the human heart that Jesus puts right. 280 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:55,560 And he wins a decisive victory, not over the Romans, but over the eternal enemies of the 281 00:16:55,560 --> 00:16:57,760 soul, sin and death. 282 00:16:57,760 --> 00:17:02,960 Then the root problem that will cause a man to choose lust in a time of lament. 283 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:06,640 The corruption at the heart of humanity that estranges us from God. 284 00:17:06,640 --> 00:17:09,200 And this corruption hasn't just estranged us from God. 285 00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:12,480 It's cut off all creation from its source of life. 286 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,480 And Jesus cares enough to put it right. 287 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:20,160 Phineas puts to death a couple worshiping a false God to save God's people. 288 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:24,160 And Jesus allows himself to be put to death to save all people. 289 00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:29,400 Instead of hanging up the sinners in the sun before the Lord to purify the Israelite community, 290 00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:34,800 Jesus allows himself to be hung up and impaled in the sun to purify the community from sin. 291 00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:39,400 Instead of taking a spear in his hands to slay those who'd violated the covenant, Jesus 292 00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:44,080 and his zeal takes a spear in his own side to make a new covenant between us and God 293 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:45,880 in his blood. 294 00:17:45,880 --> 00:17:52,480 Jesus' zeal makes atonement, not in violence towards the sinner, but in suffering on behalf 295 00:17:52,480 --> 00:17:54,000 of the sinner. 296 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:58,840 This is a zeal of Jesus, to die for the life of the world, to suffer on behalf of the 297 00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:05,000 unworthy, not to justify by making a sacrifice, but to justify through becoming a sacrifice. 298 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:09,000 Can you see how Jesus has totally subverted zeal? 299 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:13,840 And is this zeal in the way of Jesus that transforms and redirects Paul's zeal? 300 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:18,800 Instead of making the heathen Jewish Jesus' movement suffer, Paul becomes someone who 301 00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:24,120 suffers so that those who are outside the community could come to know Jesus. 302 00:18:24,120 --> 00:18:29,520 We call Acts 9 Paul's conversion or Saul's conversion, but it's not a conversion. 303 00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:32,040 Paul is still zealous for the God of his ancestors. 304 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:35,920 He's just been looking through a fogged up window and now he can see clearly, he can 305 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:39,720 see that the God of his ancestors, the Lord on the throne, looks like Jesus. 306 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:41,680 It is Jesus. 307 00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:45,400 And this sense of Jesus redirecting Paul's zeal can be seen in what the Lord says to 308 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:50,160 the man and an eye, task with healing Paul's eyes and restoring his vision. 309 00:18:50,160 --> 00:18:51,160 Go! 310 00:18:51,160 --> 00:18:56,000 For Paul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to the kings 311 00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:57,440 as well as to the people of Israel. 312 00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:02,400 And I'll show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. 313 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:04,440 And he does. 314 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:08,680 He spends his life for the sake of Christ and the Gentiles. 315 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:13,680 That's what Paul does every day he has after this moment on the road to Damascus. 316 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:18,440 This is what he says in 1 Corinthians 15, but whatever I am now, it's all because God 317 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:21,960 poured out his special favor on me and not without results. 318 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:24,800 For I've worked harder than any of the other apostles. 319 00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:29,680 Yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace. 320 00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:33,960 Jesus filled with zeal, laying down his life on that cross is the beginning of God's global 321 00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:36,040 project to put the world right. 322 00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:39,800 To deal with the sin and corruption that lives at the heart of the human person. 323 00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:45,600 To renew the world and to once again bring together heaven and earth in a recreated world. 324 00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:47,200 This is what God is doing through Jesus. 325 00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:50,880 And that's what God's doing through his church, through our church partnering together to 326 00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:53,360 accomplish God's will. 327 00:19:53,360 --> 00:19:55,360 And this is what God does through Paul. 328 00:19:55,360 --> 00:19:57,240 He pours out his life. 329 00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:02,280 He spends it, he gives it away, pulled us to partner with Jesus to see that the Gentiles, 330 00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:04,080 the non-Jewish people can encounter Jesus. 331 00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:10,720 And at the end of his life he writes this in 2 Timothy 4, as for me, my life has already 332 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:13,040 been poured out as an offering to God. 333 00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:16,960 The time of my death is near, I fought the good fight, I finished the race and I remain 334 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:18,520 faithful. 335 00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:23,960 Paul gives his life away to partner with God in putting the world right. 336 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:30,600 This is zeal in the way of Jesus, becoming a living sacrifice for the life of the world. 337 00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:36,120 And Paul, the great writer that he is, captures this beautifully in Romans 12. 338 00:20:36,120 --> 00:20:41,240 So dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God for all, because 339 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:43,000 of all he has done for you. 340 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:47,920 Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable. 341 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:50,560 This is truly the way to worship him. 342 00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:53,840 How do you become a living sacrifice? 343 00:20:53,840 --> 00:21:00,280 A sacrifice by its nature is dead, slaughtered, surrendered, given up. 344 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:02,040 So here's a rub. 345 00:21:02,040 --> 00:21:04,280 We believe that things are important. 346 00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:06,360 We believe telling people about Jesus is important. 347 00:21:06,360 --> 00:21:08,960 We care about people's eternal destinies. 348 00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:13,880 We believe that prayer works and that we hear God's voice as we read the Scriptures and 349 00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:16,400 we have a mandate to care for the poor. 350 00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:21,640 We care and sometimes we even care enough to do something about it. 351 00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:26,480 But we can't fully align our behavior with our belief until we take up the zeal of Jesus 352 00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:28,840 and become a living sacrifice. 353 00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:32,040 We count or we won't until we die. 354 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:38,560 Die to ourselves, die to our way, die to our preferences, die to our comforts, die to our 355 00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:41,280 distractions to truly live. 356 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:44,040 Jesus says we have to die. 357 00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:48,280 There's a reason why when we're baptized as new believers we go down under the water to 358 00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:50,160 show that we have died. 359 00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:51,760 The old is gone. 360 00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:53,120 We have died with Christ. 361 00:21:53,120 --> 00:21:58,080 We are dead to death and we are dead to sin and we are pulled out of the water to show 362 00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:00,760 that we've been raised to life with Christ. 363 00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:04,400 We are a new person, a new creation. 364 00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:10,280 To follow Jesus, to really follow him is to follow him to the cross. 365 00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:13,160 To follow him not just in words but in belief and in action. 366 00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:16,640 To live we have to die. 367 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:24,640 Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who resisted Hitler and died for it, once said. 368 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:28,120 The cross is laid on every Christian. 369 00:22:28,120 --> 00:22:32,600 The first Christ suffering which every man or woman must experience is the call to abandon 370 00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,000 the attachments of this world. 371 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:41,280 It is that dying of the old person which is the result of his encounter with Christ. 372 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:46,000 As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death. 373 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:48,320 We give over our lives to death. 374 00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:49,640 Thus it begins. 375 00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:54,320 The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise God-fearing and happy life but it meets us 376 00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:57,520 at the beginning of our communion with Christ. 377 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:02,680 When Christ calls a man he bids him come and die. 378 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:06,240 There may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to 379 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:10,440 follow him or it may be a death like Luther's who had to leave the monastery and go out 380 00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:11,440 into the world. 381 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:14,000 But it's the same death every time. 382 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:18,760 Death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man or the old woman as it's called. 383 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:22,520 The old life in us has to die. 384 00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:24,520 Christ called us to die. 385 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:27,600 It's in our death that we are free to partner with God. 386 00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:34,760 How can God use a life persistent in living for self and living for itself? 387 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:39,600 Choosing its way, its preferences, its desires, its limits. 388 00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:44,240 What used to God is a life that demands to follow its own way. 389 00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:48,880 Where it's going to live, what it's going to drive, the career it's going to take, 390 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:50,760 what it's going to do with its money, its body. 391 00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:58,560 That kind of living sacrifice keeps taking itself off the altar at every whim. 392 00:23:58,560 --> 00:23:59,560 Not today Jesus. 393 00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:02,120 I'll get back on tomorrow. 394 00:24:02,120 --> 00:24:07,440 But God can use a life that is laid down that chooses to stay on the altar, that chooses 395 00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:10,480 to align its will with his will. 396 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:11,480 John says this in John. 397 00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:16,720 I tell you the truth unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies it remains 398 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:21,560 alone, but its death will produce many new kernels. 399 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:24,560 A new plentiful harvest of new lives. 400 00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:27,520 Those who love their life in this world will lose it. 401 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:31,560 Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. 402 00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:35,320 Anyone who wants to serve me must follow me because my servants must be where I am and 403 00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:37,840 the Father will honor anyone who serves me. 404 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:42,520 I don't know about you, but I want to become the kind of person that God can use in powerful 405 00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:43,520 ways. 406 00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:47,640 I want to become the kind of person God can trust with his people and his kingdom. 407 00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:50,800 I want to partner with God in putting the world right. 408 00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:51,800 I want to be fruitful. 409 00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:54,920 I want to experience all that God has for me. 410 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:58,600 And I guess that for most of you you probably would too. 411 00:24:58,600 --> 00:24:59,600 All of you maybe. 412 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:06,320 But for God to do that in my life I have to care enough to get myself out of the way, 413 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:10,320 to leave my own way behind and let it die. 414 00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:15,760 And choosing to die to yourself is the path of zeal. 415 00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:21,200 Caring enough to do something requires us to put our own cares aside. 416 00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:27,920 But we won't or we can't if we do it out of obligation and not out of love. 417 00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:30,280 See Jesus didn't go to the cross because he had to. 418 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:31,880 He gave up his life. 419 00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:33,960 He spent it because he wanted to. 420 00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:34,960 He did it for love. 421 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:39,280 He said there's no greater love than to lay down one's life for his friends. 422 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:41,120 He said it and then he did it. 423 00:25:41,120 --> 00:25:44,760 He laid down his life for his friends, the one he loves. 424 00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:45,920 And that includes us. 425 00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:50,840 A life that cares enough to do something is a life of love. 426 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:55,680 When you become a parent you care enough to do all manner of unpleasant things to keep 427 00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:57,480 that kid alive. 428 00:25:57,480 --> 00:25:58,480 You have to. 429 00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:05,000 And in a sense and in reality you have to lay down your life. 430 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:10,080 Your preferences, your plans, your way in order for your kids to flourish. 431 00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:12,840 There is a cost to being a parent. 432 00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:17,360 And you willingly pay that cost as the parent because if you don't, if you neglect your 433 00:26:17,360 --> 00:26:22,520 kid they will pay a cost far greater than your sleepless nights and soiled clothing. 434 00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:24,920 And so you do it. 435 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:26,680 You do it for love. 436 00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:30,800 And you do it before the kid has done anything worth and value. 437 00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:33,920 There's no promise of bargaining some kind of return payment. 438 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:38,800 I'll do these 20 years, you make sure you put me in a good home. 439 00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:40,960 You do it because you love them. 440 00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:41,960 You do it for love. 441 00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:47,080 You care enough to spend your life, yourself, to give your life away. 442 00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:50,600 You care enough to die out of love. 443 00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:52,280 Jesus cared enough. 444 00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:56,040 Loved us enough to reconcile us to God, whatever it costs. 445 00:26:56,040 --> 00:27:00,720 Before we had done anything to make us worthy or valuable to save with no possibility of 446 00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:03,640 ever repaying what was done. 447 00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:04,640 Jesus did it anyway. 448 00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:07,480 He did it for love. 449 00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:11,560 Jesus demonstrated his love for us on the cross in his zeal and his death. 450 00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:16,120 We were cut off from God, lost, wandering, broken, ravaged by sin and death and he cared 451 00:27:16,120 --> 00:27:18,040 enough to do something. 452 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:20,640 He cared enough to bring us home to God. 453 00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:25,080 When we understand in our heart that Jesus did that for each and every one of us, personally, 454 00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:30,960 before we ever did a thing, good or bad, we begin to be transformed as Paul was. 455 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:34,000 We have been loved with this kind of love. 456 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:39,760 God was not indifferent to us and so we can give up our away, die to ourselves and live 457 00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:41,360 with zeal. 458 00:27:41,360 --> 00:27:44,960 Love propels us to care enough to do something. 459 00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:51,120 A life of love is a life that resists indifference, resists apathy. 460 00:27:51,120 --> 00:27:52,120 You might serve the poor. 461 00:27:52,120 --> 00:27:53,120 You might pray regularly. 462 00:27:53,120 --> 00:27:55,700 You might be crushing Word Week on day one. 463 00:27:55,700 --> 00:27:59,760 You might share Jesus with your friends relentlessly. 464 00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:02,600 Maybe you're indifferent to something else. 465 00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,560 Maybe apathy has its hold on you elsewhere. 466 00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:08,280 Maybe you're indifferent to what you do with your body. 467 00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:11,840 Maybe you're indifferent to what God calls you to do with your money. 468 00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:14,400 Maybe you're indifferent to your family. 469 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:18,080 Maybe you're indifferent to your marriage if you have one. 470 00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:21,760 Apathy is like a cancer that spreads itself through the whole body. 471 00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:24,480 You begin being indifferent about something small. 472 00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:28,720 You say, well, it doesn't really matter if I do or don't do this. 473 00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:33,400 And then the indifference grows and starts to spread and takes hold of other bigger areas 474 00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:34,400 of your life. 475 00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:37,840 And suddenly your life just looks like everyone else's. 476 00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:41,360 Suddenly living your own way for yourself. 477 00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:45,360 Suddenly you may lose your job, your flunky degree, your marriage breaks down. 478 00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:48,720 Suddenly you are a lukewarm Christian. 479 00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:52,440 But a life of love cares enough to do something. 480 00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:54,160 Love is not indifferent. 481 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:55,960 Love resists indifference. 482 00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:59,120 Do you want to be, do marvelous things for God? 483 00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:00,640 Do you want to be used by God? 484 00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,800 Do you want to experience the fullness of his presence? 485 00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:04,800 See his face? 486 00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:08,400 Walk the path of zeal over the path of apathy. 487 00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:13,720 Choose to care enough to spend your life for love because Jesus in love cared enough to 488 00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:17,440 spend his life for you. 489 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:22,800 Some weeks at Henley we have everyone's favorite sermon segment, which is Henley Homework. 490 00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:26,680 One way to put the word into action this week. 491 00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:28,920 Here's the homework. 492 00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:32,880 Do one thing to resist indifference this week. 493 00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:35,360 There are lots of things you could do. 494 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:39,600 If you resist indifference in the small things, you'll be able to resist indifference in the 495 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:41,480 big things. 496 00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:44,160 Care enough to pick up that trash. 497 00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:48,680 Put a load of washing on before you leave the house. 498 00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:51,920 Make sure you subvert that apathy in your marriage. 499 00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:53,800 Consider your grammar. 500 00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:54,800 Finish Word Week. 501 00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:55,960 Don't just start it. 502 00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:57,240 Finish it. 503 00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:00,600 Start tithing or start giving 1% more. 504 00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:05,400 Carry on snacks so you can give them to anyone who asks you for food. 505 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:07,160 Start taking care of what you put into your body. 506 00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:09,840 Don't walk past stuff. 507 00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:12,360 Don't let hurtful comments go unchallenged. 508 00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:13,760 Tell you plus one about Jesus. 509 00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:15,600 Pray for five minutes each day. 510 00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:17,120 There's so many different things you could do. 511 00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:18,480 Pick one. 512 00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:21,880 Do one thing to resist indifference this week. 513 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:23,360 Pick the scariest one thing. 514 00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:27,080 That's probably the thing you need to do the most. 515 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:31,880 Jesus cared enough about us to resist indifference to us. 516 00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:37,840 And my prayer is that we would go and do the same. 517 00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:42,680 We did our 24 hour pray day yesterday. 518 00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:48,880 One of the big things that I really felt strongly from God was that our ambition as 519 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:53,120 a church, we want to see God move in power. 520 00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:58,440 We want to see this community of Henley be where God's kingdom is. 521 00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:02,600 And that the people who live here, ingrained in Henley, would come to know Jesus. 522 00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:04,000 We want to see people healed. 523 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,000 We want to see God's miracles. 524 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:09,400 That's our holy ambition as a church. 525 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:15,160 But what I really felt strongly in the prayer room is that the way to get there is through 526 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,160 consecration, through setting ourselves apart. 527 00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:24,200 Through purifying ourselves and dealing with our sin. 528 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:27,120 Thanks so much for tuning into this week's message. 529 00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:33,400 If you felt challenged or need prayer, would love to hear from you on Instagram at EncounterHenley. 530 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:41,760 Or if you're interested in how you can support this ministry, please go to our website EncounterAdelaide.com.au. 531 00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:43,160 Thanks again for listening. 532 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:44,160 God bless you. 533 00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:48,160 God bless you.