SUNDAY GATHERING 2/26

♪ Bless your name, oh, be set in the same way inside ♪ ♪

Your glory, God, exists in all human bodies ♪ ♪

So with each breath our generation sings of all his years ♪ ♪

Oh, strong and high, tie your name with patience ♪ ♪

And words of wickedness will finally disappear ♪ ♪

Your power will proclaim till Christ descends ♪ ♪

And you will reign forever without end ♪ ♪

How great is the Lord and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪

How great is the Lord our God ♪

Good morning. Good morning. It's good to come to the house of the Lord and worship today, amen. That's a good song.

That's a good praise to God. Before we start our call to worship, pray for another local, there is a universal church that is gathered all over to pray specifically this morning for one of those churches.

It's actually a local one here, Christ Redeemer. It's a PCA church, it's a church plant that's been around for about six years,

I believe now seven. And I think, if I'm not mistaken, that they just recently brought on a new pastor.

And so I want us to pray for these brothers and sisters that God would work in their midst, that God would bless the ministry there with,

I believe, a new pastor and all that's going on. And would you join me, let's bow our heads, let's go to God and pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that we get to worship you. But God, we know that we're not alone.

We have brothers and sisters all over town. We have brothers and sisters all over the state, in this country, in this world.

Some that we know, some that we don't. But God, we are connected to them nonetheless.

And we're so thankful for that. And we just wanna lift up our brothers and sisters in Christ Redeemer this morning.

Lord, I know that they've had some difficulties with building the whole process of church planting.

But God, I just wanna lift them up to you. You are the one that said you will grow your church in the gates of hell and not prevail against it.

And so we trust in that providence for ourselves and for them. God, we pray that if that is true, if they do have a new pastor,

I pray you bless him, that you give him wisdom and discernment. Lord, I pray that he would be a blessing to the people.

I pray for the individuals that go there, that you would grow them in knowledge and fear of you.

God, I pray that they would be used mightily for kingdom purposes. Father, I pray that you would be glorified in their midst.

I pray that they would worship you in spirit and truth. I pray that the lost would come in and hear the truth.

I pray that they would go out and be salt of life. And Lord, bring about a revival, bring about awakening in their midst.

Use them for your kingdom purposes, we pray. Thank you, Father, in Christ's name, amen. We may be seated.

We have something exciting this morning. We have a new member recognition.

And so I would like to ask two gentlemen to come up here. I know you're gonna have to quit playing. So you're gonna have to come up here,

Adam. That just made it extra awkward. It got silent and then you had to walk up. Guys, thank y 'all for coming up here.

We do this often, praise God here, when we're bringing in new family members. We're bringing in people who grow into this family, to be a part of this family, to be able to bring their gifts and their abilities to benefit us.

And not only that, as we talk about new member classes, as we talk about in our interviews, we're telling them that we're bringing our gifts to them also.

This is a unified family. And so these two brothers have been coming, y 'all know their faces, you see them here, that they have prayerfully, thoughtfully, through counsel, through much talk and conversations, come to the conviction that this is where God is calling them to come and plant, to establish their lives in and to bring their gifts and abilities.

So first I would like to, I'm gonna do this in alphabetical order. Y 'all stood in the wrong order, but that's all right. Adam, Adam Hartnett, this is

Adam. Adam is the band director at Harrisburg and for the middle school and high school, right?

Like eighth grade, seventh grade to 12th, right? Okay, wow. So of course we threw him on the music team immediately.

And so Adam, me and him have known each other for a while. As a matter of fact, if you've been with us for very long, you probably recognize him.

He came and filled in and led music for us when we first moved into this building. There was probably, what, 25 of us at that point?

Maybe less, maybe less, yes. But God has been working in him and bringing him here.

And then the second guy here, all right? Now you're a student at the William Baptist and you're just doing

Christian ministry, which is super exciting. And this is Wesley, Wesley Watkins.

Wesley, you started coming here because you were evangelizing out front of Walmart and Adam came up and started bothering you, right?

He came up, yeah, all right. And Adam was just like, dude, you're a Christian.

You gotta come to 12 .5. And you did, you showed up. And he's been coming here.

And both of these men have gone through the new member class. As I said, we've had the interviews with them.

They have looked through the membership covenants. They've agreed to them. They've signed the membership covenants.

And so what I would like to do now is the final step of this process. If you're a member of 12 .5

and you affirm these two brothers to become part of this family, stand. Allie's gonna raise her hand because she's got a baby.

All right, all right, hey, praise God. And as I say as a joke every time y 'all probably get sick of it,

I think you're in, right? All right, praise God. So as we do every time, you guys are probably familiar with this process.

I think I got them in order. I've got Adam here, signed. These are ESV study

Bibles. And by the way, members, you can sit so that it doesn't seem awkward, all right.

These are ESV study Bibles. We find that these are one of the best study Bibles out there and this is not a gift, this is a commission.

So when you become part of us, we know you have Bibles, otherwise you wouldn't be joining 12 .5.

But now we have Bibles that we wanna gift you. These are, it's like a soldier going into battle, right?

What's our weapon? The sword. And we are commissioning a weapon for you because that's what we're about.

It's about God's word, which I think is why you wanna be here. And so praise God that he is bringing.

He's growing his church, right? And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And this is a glorious time, it's a time for praise.

Come after service, get to know these two men if you haven't. Celebrate with them, pray over them, love on them.

But right now, let's pray over them that God would bless their ministry here before we start our service. Dear Heavenly Father, God, I thank you for these two men.

I thank you for their love for you. And God, I pray that they would be used mightily for kingdom purposes.

God, I pray that they would be equipped here. Lord, that they would be prepared for the good work that you've called them to.

God, I pray that you would grow them, that you would allow them to bring their gifts and abilities to benefit us.

God, I pray that this church would be a great benefit to their soul spiritually, to constantly be a reminder to look to us not to self, not to our abilities.

God, that they would not become like a Martha that gets so busy with all the external work of ministry, that they would be like Mary who just wants to sit at the feet of Jesus and wait for him.

Father, I pray that you would grow these men. I pray that we as the people would stand and rally around them as family and come up beside them.

And we would grow from them, they would grow from us as iron sharpens iron. And that you would be honored in their lives.

We thank you for them in Christ's name, amen. Thank you guys, thank y 'all. All righty, let's start our service.

Let's officially start, amen. Let's stand, call to worship this morning. Comes from Exodus 15.

This is a portion of a couple of different verses here that we are gonna read and in response.

It says, we will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously.

This is our God and we will praise him. Our father's God and we will exalt him.

Who is like majestic holiness.

You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed. And all of God's people said amen.

And amen, let's pray a prayer of adoration to that great God this morning. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you once again and we are so thankful for you.

Father, we are so thankful that we get to play a part now as your children to come before you without fear, without reservation, but with a holy fear, a fear as a child with their father, knowing how altogether separate you are.

Becoming with boldness, how stand righteous because of your son.

You have redeemed us, Father. You have done so in love. You have done so before the foundations of the world and we're so overwhelmed by your glorious grace in our lives.

You are love, John says. Father, you have shown us love.

You have set your love upon us. And now you've given us the ability to love you.

We now have the ability to love you. Father, thank you. Let's not take that for granted.

Help us worship you this morning in spirit and in truth because of how you have purchased us.

You love, you say you love. You tell what you say to Him.

You're the answer for us,

Jesus. You're the answer to us,

Jesus. This we know, we will see the end of the world.

This we know, we will see the victory come.

Behold, what you ever made,

Jesus Christ. You are unfailing, we trust you with your ways.

We trust you, we trust you with your ways.

We will see the enemy run. This we know, we will see the victory come.

Behold, unto every promise you ever made,

Jesus, you are unfailing. Jesus, you are unfailing.

Our Savior is unfailing. Over the past couple of weeks, we have kind of skipped our reading through the

Psalms. But this morning, I'd like for us to start back. Today is week 60 in the

Psalms that, actually more, because we've had to double up on a few that are longer, haven't we? We've been reading through the

Psalms consecutively as a church. And today, we have come to Psalm 60. The psalmist says, oh

God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses, you have been angry.

Oh, restore us. You have made the land a quake, you have torn it open, opened its breaches for its totters.

You have made your people see hard things. You have given us wine to drink that made us stagger.

You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow.

That your beloved ones may be delivered. Give salvation by your right hand and answer us.

Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?

Have you not rejected us, oh God? You do not go forth, oh God, with our armies.

Oh, grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man. With God we shall do valiantly.

It is he who will tread down our foes. I find it interesting in the

Psalms, it always starts with desperation and hopelessness, doesn't it? It seems as though when you start to read the

Psalms, you're like, oh my goodness, we're destitute. But then the Psalmist always comes to a closure and acknowledges a great truth that God is for us.

Acknowledged, we may not see it, we may not experience it outwardly, but it doesn't change the fact of what he says, with God we shall do valiantly.

It is he who treads down our foes. He has not abandoned us. He's just at work in things that we don't see.

And so this morning, I want us as a people to go to the Lord now in a prayer of confession and assurance.

Confessing that we are short -sighted and sometimes faithless, but he is faithful.

He's faithful to hold us. So let's go to the Lord in prayer once again. Father, we come before you as your people and we acknowledge our sin, our propensity to doubt.

God, I acknowledge mine, mine, Nathan Hargrave's propensity to doubt.

Oh Father, forgive me. Forgive me for not being reminded of who you are so often.

Forgetting that you are the God that has delivered me time and time again. And ultimately you are the

God that has redeemed me by the blood of your son. And when I stand in assurance,

I don't have to fear condemnation because there is therefore now no condemnation in Christ for those that are in Christ Jesus.

And that is many of us in here today. I pray all of us. Those that are in Christ, God, we can confess our sin against you, not out of fear of judgment.

Confess it to a good and gracious Father. Not trying to hide from our

Father what we've done wrong, but to run to our Father knowing that there's grace and forgiveness and open arms because of the blood of his son,

Jesus Christ. So Father, let us rest in that. Father, let us as your people rest in the assurance of salvation this morning in Christ's name.

♪ Hear the

Savior sing, my strength ♪ ♪ All to his sons and stay before the light of day ♪ ♪

Hear the Savior sing, my strength ♪ ♪ Grace him, open arms and strain free me again with thee ♪ ♪

Grace God, Father, all blessings pour ♪ ♪

Grace him all creatures, here below me sing of love ♪

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we trust in Christ alone, and you are in good standing with an evangelical church. We welcome you as we see your word played out before us through these elements.

Guard our hearts, Lord. Search us. Reveal to us any unrepentant sin, and we can lay it before you.

But God, ultimately, this is not penance. This is for us to come to fruition, reminded of what our

Savior has done, in Christ's name. Paul, 1

Corinthians chapter 11, talks about what

Christ has commanded in the upper room with the disciples, this disordered church.

And in verse 23 he says, For I have received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the

Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took for unleavened bread.

Simple. Seems insignificant, doesn't it? But he takes this bread, and when he'd given thanks, he thanked

God for it, and he broke it, and he said, This is my body, which is free.

Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way, he took a cup.

And after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, to do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.

And Paul says, for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you reclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

We continue to do this until Christ returns to redeem us. And as I've said many times, this is but a taste.

That taste of bread and that small cup of wine that seems insignificant, points to the great sacrifice of our

Savior that allows us to come to work. Let's pray and sing once again.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you. I pray that you were honored in our worship and partake of the

Lord's Supper this morning. God, I pray that you would use this.

Use this mightily in our hearts and minds to be reminded of what your Son has done for us.

In Christ's name, we stand. In the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the

Father, and of the

Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, there we go, alright. Good morning, my name is

Josh Brown and it is truly my honor and privilege to see you all this morning.

I hope you all know how much you are loved, even from afar. I come as a representative, really, from Riverbank Community Church in Ormond Beach, and we love you all.

I hope you know that. And we rejoice with you to see what the

Lord is doing here. And, in fact, I've been rejoicing so much that I wanted to come see you myself.

And Pastor Nathan and Pastor Jeremiah were gracious enough to let me do so, and they gave me the great honor and privilege of being able to share with you the

Word of God this morning. But we love you from Ormond Beach. I hope you all know that.

As the slide behind me says, my role at Riverbend Church is the director of Young Family Ministries, and I love young families.

I love all families, but especially young families. I figured I would share a little bit about myself to you all so that you can know why we are going to certain texts today.

I think we have a picture for you. Maybe. This is my family.

My wife is on the left, Victoria, and I have two sons in the middle.

Wesley's the youngest, and he's still with us on earth. He's two and a half.

Grayson, next to me, is with Jesus. Normally, when

I introduce my family, I've been trying to become accustomed to how to introduce my family, but I've realized

I can say this. I have two sons. One is with us here, and one is with the

Lord. Grayson passed away on October 1st of this past year.

It's been a journey. When my wife and I found out we were with child in 2000,

I guess we found out in 2017. We were rejoicing. Grayson was four and a half, by the way.

We were rejoicing because it's our first child, and about halfway through the pregnancy, the doctors told us, hey, you know, we need some further testing because we can't see a certain part of his heart.

So we went for further testing, and it was found out he had a condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which just means your left ventricle never grows.

And so he had his first open -heart surgery at four days old. He had a second at four months old, and he had his third open -heart surgery when he was three to try to repair his heart.

Uniquely enough, my son Grayson was probably the most joyful person

I've ever met, and I don't know how with all that he went through.

But you know what I found very quickly is that there was one topic that he would always listen to, especially.

And you know what that topic was? He would listen when we talked about Jesus. He loved the song

In Christ Alone, if you know that song. We would sing it at night, and when we first began singing it, he would always ask me questions about what every verse meant.

And I thought initially he was just trying to procrastinate going to bed. You know how kids are.

If I keep asking dad questions, especially about God, they'll stay up and answer me. But I'm so glad I did, because as we talked about this, he began to become very familiar with the gospel, even in a seed form of where we would ask him, what's the gospel,

Grayson? And he would say something like this. Basically, in a very childlike way,

Jesus died so that we won't die. And he got it at such an early age.

We were very careful with our children to never solicit a sort of decision or manipulate them into believing.

But we noticed something about Grayson in that he would see us sometimes. He would see us take the

Lord's supper. And I would tell him, okay, this is for mom and dad. And he would ask me, why can't

I take it? And I would tell him, well, it's only for those who believe. And he would be frustrated at me, because he said, dad,

I believe. I believe. Now there, of course, is wisdom.

And we exercised wisdom. We wanted to see if the Lord would bear fruit out. But we really never had the chance to see that on full display.

But what I knew is, my son knew Jesus. What's interesting is, throughout these four and a half years with him, we would have various battles, various difficulties, various trials.

And I knew that God was just crushing my wife and I's heart, and crashing us as waves crash against rocks.

He was using these trials to crash us against the Savior, just constantly battering us so that we would run to him.

So much so that I became so burdened, so overwhelmed with just grief, even while he was here, because of so many difficulties and trials we were having with him.

So many health issues that I felt terrible for him for. On August 24th of 2022,

I preached a sermon called, Jesus the Great Healer. And in that service, for some reason, the

Lord had put it on my heart to say this, if my son, if my son lives to be five years of age, but knows

Jesus, then it is more valuable than living 90 years on earth without knowing

Jesus. And it was just a way of trying to encourage myself, and in turn it encouraged others.

And it was five weeks after this sermon that Grayson would go to the hospital for the last time.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, just from an average sickness, we were in the hospital and a large blood clot had formed, and there was nothing that could be done.

In fact, there's a second picture just to show you of our family. This is the last family picture we got kind of all together.

It was, we were visiting their little cousin, and I love this picture because his face is exactly how he was all the time.

You might think with all the surgeries, all the difficulties, that he would be frustrated, and he just wasn't.

He just wasn't. That was his face all the time. And that was our last picture, really a good picture together, a couple days before he would go to the hospital.

At his funeral, you know, it's interesting when I went to seminary, they train you that you're going to be preaching funerals, right?

What they don't train you for is that, they didn't train me for, was the first funeral I ever preached was my own son's.

And in that sermon that I mentioned in August, I wanted to highlight Jesus because in Jesus there is hope, right?

And at his funeral, at Grayson's funeral, we highlighted, yes, the sweet story of Grayson, but we highlighted

Jesus because in Jesus there is hope and comfort for those who are broken.

And now, should be no surprise to you, we're going to talk about Jesus.

And it's my goal this morning to show you this truth, that knowing and living for Jesus Christ is all that matters.

It's the only thing that matters, to know

Jesus and to live for him. And I hope to do that by showing you in the life of three men today.

So we're going to move quickly, as best as we can, to be faithful to the text, but to show you through the lives of Abel, John the

Baptist, and Stephen, how these men saw it. They saw that to know

Jesus Christ was worth more than anything else on this earth. And they all lived at different times.

The reason these men came to mind is because when Grayson passed away, I often was wrestling with this idea of the things that Grayson would not experience when he died young.

And I started to be a little bit frustrated with that because I was wondering, you know, man, Grayson will not be able to, you know, grow up, see what he likes, dislikes, be married, have kids, a posterity, a job, a family.

And I was just wrestling with this, and God reminded me, as I thought of these men, if you know

Jesus, you have everything. So that's what we hope to do today, and it's my goal that you would be in a greater awe of Jesus today, leaving this place, than when you first began.

And that you will want to live for him. And I see that in this church, and I want to affirm and encourage you in that, to keep doing that.

And these men also had their lives quote -unquote cut short in the world's eyes, but you will see they saw this truth.

So let's pray real briefly before we turn to our first text this morning. Dearly Father, we need you.

Please remove from our minds the distractions of this world, the worries that so consume our attention, that make us earthly minded instead of heavenly minded.

We need to be singular in our focus, and that is you.

To know you, to live for you, will transform every area of our life, and it will be so worth it in the end.

So help us, Lord. Thank you for loving us first. We would not have loved you without that.

So we pray that you would help us this morning to see you as beautiful and be in awe of you.

Pray this in your name. Amen. Our first passage is in Genesis 4, so turn there.

You all may be familiar with this story, but I hope it is uniquely comforting to you as we consider this.

Genesis 4 verses 1 through 16 says this, and I apologize if I have a different translation than you, but hopefully you can follow along.

So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Cain told

Abel, his brother, and it came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.

Then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother? And he said, I do not know.

Am I my brother's keeper? He said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.

Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you. You will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.

Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is too great to bear. Behold, you have driven me this day from the face of the ground, and from your face

I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.

So the Lord said to him, therefore, who ever finds Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.

And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the

Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. That's where we will stop for the moment.

There's a lot of details in this story we won't have the time to get through, but suffice it to say it can be summarized like this.

Cain worked the ground, and Abel was a keeper of the flocks. In verse 3 it mentions that it came about in the course of time.

We're not told how long that was, how many years that stretched, but it certainly seems before they were married, they were relatively young still at this point it seems, at least in light of how long they lived on the earth.

And we're not told if God told them how to bring an offering forth or not.

But what we do know is that when they brought an offering, one was accepted and one was not.

It's pretty clear in the text that Abel's was accepted, and the text doesn't really say why it was accepted.

We'll get to that in a moment. But Cain's was not, so I believe there was at least some way that they would have known how to offer an acceptable sacrifice.

Abel obeyed, Cain did not. And God speaks to Cain, and he's basically saying, why are you upset?

If you offer an offering in the way that I have said, you should not be frustrated. But if you reject me, if you disobey, you should expect that sin is crouching at the door, its desire is for you, but you must master it.

God graciously warns Cain. And this is an aspect of the story that I haven't noticed before, really.

If you look in verse 8, right after God says that, it says this little sentence,

Cain told Abel his brother. I've never saw that before, but there was some sort of conversation

Cain had with Abel before he struck his brother down. Told him what?

I would imagine he probably told him what God said to him. Maybe there was some sort of discussion.

Maybe Abel was trying to encourage Cain and say, Cain, if you just offer it this way,

God will not be frustrated with you. Can you not see? Offer a sacrifice like I did, and you will please

God. And maybe in this conversation, this stirred up rage in Cain.

We don't know if Cain came into that conversation with an intent to kill Abel or not, but we know what the result was.

It says immediately after that, it came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.

And after this fit of rage, Abel, lying on the ground, bleeding, lifeless, dead.

His sacrifice was righteous, and he dies. Cain, disobedient, wayward, murderer, lives.

And as Abel's body lied there, the temptation would be to think that nobody saw. And God says in verse 9,

I see. I see everything. And he confronts

Cain, and Cain, of course, pretends to hide like his parents before him in the garden, as if God did not see.

He acts like he doesn't know where his brother is, and God tells him, the blood is crying out to me.

And God curses Cain, but allows him to live. He sends him away. And we're going to come back to Cain in just a moment.

But thinking of Abel for a moment, what a tragic end. You offer a right sacrifice, you do what is right, you're young, you have the future ahead of you, and he dies.

Oftentimes, if you do a devotion plan where you read from Genesis to Revelation, you come to the story very quickly.

And many times, you read this story and you walk away with these two things. You're frustrated at Cain, and you're sad for Abel.

You read this story, you can't help but be frustrated at Cain, and you feel pity or sorrow for Abel.

But uniquely enough, there's much more to Abel than meets the eye of this story. And consider this,

Abel didn't live a particularly noteworthy life. In the world's eyes, he didn't have much.

He didn't marry or have children that we know of. He didn't live long enough to do many mighty things. He didn't make a big name for himself.

But he did have one thing, and it was the only thing that mattered.

He had faith in God. And you might say, well, where is that from this passage?

How in the world would you arrive at that? Well, thankfully, we have Revelation in the

New Testament, Hebrews 11 .4. Let me read you this passage. It says this,

By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he was attested to be righteous,

God testifying about his gifts. And through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.

That's cool. That's pretty cool. Though he is dead, he still speaks.

First John mentions that Cain killed Abel because his deeds were unrighteous, and Abel's were righteous.

Abel's faith produced good work and obedience. That's what we see here. But Cain lacked faith and therefore did not please

God. And uniquely enough, in two verses later in Hebrews, Hebrews 11 .6 says this,

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

But now we have a problem. Because after reading that, we have to reconcile this in our minds.

If Abel had faith and God rewards those who seek him, why did

Abel die? We see tension. We say, that doesn't sound like a reward.

But brother and sister, I would say this, you are thinking merely from an earthly perspective.

Consider this. What does it say in Scripture when it says to be absent from the body is to be present with the

Lord. Abel, when he died, was with the Lord. Have you thought about this before?

Abel is the longest -tenured saint with God. He has been the tour guide of heaven from the very beginning.

He spent the most time with God. Would we not say that's a reward?

But when you look at it from an earthly perspective, you feel pity and sorrow. But now we should look at Abel and we should say, amen, he's with the

Lord. What a reward. And Cain, we get frustrated with this story because it seems like God doesn't fully curse

Cain the way that we want him to. He lets him live. It seems that evil triumphs.

There's no consequences, it seems. But let me ask you this, what good is it to wander the earth if you don't know

God? Look at what Cain's punishment was and you tell me if this was this was too light.

Verse 14 says, behold, you have driven me this day from the face of the ground and from your face

I will be hidden. That, my friends, is a curse.

To be hidden from God is the greatest curse you could ever imagine. You could live a million years on this earth if you don't know

God. It is the worst curse. And Genesis 4 16, look at what it says just two verses later.

Cain went out from what? The presence of the

Lord. And he settled somewhere else. To be away from the presence of the

Lord is a curse. Sometimes when we read this story we only think from an earthly perspective, but we need to be reminded that Abel saw what mattered.

To know Jesus is to have everything. He didn't miss out on one thing because he knew

God through faith. And though Abel didn't accomplish much in this life, he knew what mattered and he clung to Christ.

John the Baptist's turn. Let's turn to Matthew 14. It's a common theme with these men.

And by the way, I know you know this, but it's always worth reminding. We only mention these men because they are great examples of faith in God.

God is the hero. Abel is not the hero. John the

Baptist is not the hero. Stephen is not the hero. You and I are not the hero in God's great story of redemption.

So we worship God and we follow the example of men who do the same, men and women.

Matthew 14. We'll come there in a moment. You may know a lot about John the Baptist. I hope you do.

His ministry was excellent. He had an amazing birth. In Luke 1 .7

it speaks of how Elizabeth, his mother, was barren. And God opens her womb.

And Luke 1 .37 says, this is when the phrase says, for nothing will be impossible with God.

And John the Baptist was set apart for a specific purpose when an angel told his father he will be filled with the

Holy Spirit even from his womb. He will turn many sons of Israel back to God.

He will be a forerunner and go forward in the spirit and power of Elijah so as to prepare the way of the

Lord. In Luke 1 .80 we are told a little bit about his public appearance. He lived in the desert and he wore camel's hair and he had a diet that consisted of locusts and he wore a leather belt.

I'm glad we don't have locusts today for the Koinonia feast. But he didn't care.

He ate of locusts and wild honey. He wasn't a civilized or greatly educated man.

Luke 3 .2 tells us that in the wilderness this happened. The Word of God came to John in the wilderness.

And in Luke 3 .3 it says, he came preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

He would say something like this, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He exhorted them to bear fruit in keeping with this repentance.

So he was such a great speaker that some wondered if he was the Christ. To which he gladly responded, as for me

I baptize you with water. But one is coming who is mightier than I.

And I am not fit to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with Holy Spirit and with fire.

John the Baptist baptizes Jesus himself and we hear this great voice from heaven say, this you are my beloved son with who

I am well pleased. And in John, the Gospel of John, we read that John the

Baptist calls himself merely the friend of the bridegroom. And he says this phrase, he must increase,

I must decrease. John was no stranger to having his message rejected.

In Matthew 11 it speaks of how many who heard John's message said, there's a demon within him.

This is ungodly. And his message was rejected in such a specific instance that in Luke 3 we are told he was thrown into prison for confronting

Herod in his unlawful relationship with his brother's wife.

He had his brother's wife and John called him out on it and it landed him in prison.

And this is the context that leads us up to Matthew 14. Okay, so let's look at Matthew 14 verses 3 through 12.

For when Herod had John arrested, he bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother

Philip. For John had been saying to him, it is not lawful for you to have her.

And although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd because they regarded John as a prophet.

But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.

Having been prompted by her mother, she said, give me here on a platter the head of John the

Baptist. Although he was grieved, the king commanded it to be given because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests.

He sent and had John beheaded in the prison and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl and she brought it to her mother.

His disciples came and took away the body and buried it and they went and reported to Jesus.

There's a lot of details not included here, but you can see Herod made a foolish oath that resulted in him carrying through with killing

John the Baptist. And I want us to use a little bit of understanding this story.

Maybe think of this scene. Sometimes we're tempted to not think of the scene. This is a historical account.

This really happened. When John the Baptist was in prison, I wonder what he was thinking.

Maybe, I mean he's a fiery guy, maybe he's thinking as soon as I get out of here I'm gonna go preach the gospel even more.

I'm gonna go preach to more people. I can't wait till I'm released. I want to see what Jesus is doing.

I want to see Jesus again. I want to see the saints. I can't wait to get out of this. And all of a sudden, in the evening, guards open his cell.

And when they opened his cell, he may have stood up, may have asked, hey what's going on?

Did Herod say something? Am I being let free? And the guards would have probably delivered the message.

John, Herod has said, we've come for your head.

We've come for your head. We're not leaving without it. Don't make this hard for us,

John. Kneel down right here. This is a tragic death.

It is a terrible death. It is an unjust death. And sometimes, again, we read this story and we're tempted to pity

John. But we must remember that John saw what mattered.

He saw the worth of Christ, so much so that he gladly lived for him and he would gladly die for him.

You know why? Because he knew Jesus would have victory. He was so focused on the mission and he saw the worth of Jesus is greater than anything.

He did not care what he looked like. He didn't care if man agreed with him or not. He didn't care if he upset kings.

He didn't care if he lived a long life. He didn't care about the things of this world because he's laser -focused on the kingdom.

And he knew that as soon as his head would be lopped off, he would enter into glory.

He loved Jesus more than man, more than his authority, and more than his kinsmen. And instead of reading this account in pity,

I would say we should read this account with joy and say, well done. Because he saw it.

He got it. He knew that living for Jesus was worth more than anything. And I don't know what

John the Baptist said at the end, but I could imagine him saying something like this. Take my head.

You can't take my Jesus. Take it. Take any limb you want.

You cannot take my Jesus. And if I know Jesus, I have it all.

Third individual, Stephen. Turn over to Acts 7. We'll start in verse 51 in just a moment.

We will read through chapter 8, verse 1. Before we do, though,

Stephen doesn't get a lot of words written about him in the Scriptures. But his story, nonetheless, matters.

It has impacted many. It's a great example of someone who saw the worth of Christ. We're first introduced to Stephen, actually, one chapter earlier in Acts 6.

When the apostles are appointing men because they don't have the manpower to serve everybody, they appoint kind of your first form of deacons.

Stephen is one of those men. Acts 6, 5 says that Stephen was a man full of faith in the

Holy Spirit. A couple verses later, it says he was full of grace and power and was performing signs and wonders.

But, as often is the case, and maybe you've seen it in your own personal life, faith -induced kingdom work often meets opposition.

Right? Normally, you know you're on kind of a right track when you start to meet opposition.

It was no different for Stephen. His work in the gospel was met with heavy opposition, such that is different than we experience.

Believing his message to be a threat, these religious leaders argued with Stephen, they lied about Stephen, they put forth those who would bear false witness about Stephen, and they incited a riot against him and dragged him before their counsel.

And it was here that Stephen would make his defense in the form of a sermon. And beginning with Abraham, Stephen laid out the many things that God had done for the nation of Israel.

He spoke of God's amazing promises, how they were countlessly, or how often they were rebellious, and yet God would give them and show them mercy time and time again.

And despite God's goodness, they kept rejecting him. And this is the context of which we pick up right in Acts.

Acts 7, verse 51. He's finishing this sermon. This is a scathing rebuke to these people who are against the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they are doing it in the name of religion.

Verse 51 of Acts 7, You men who are stiff -necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the

Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did.

Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the

Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. You who received the law as ordained by angels and yet did not keep it.

They were mad at this. This didn't go over very well. He's calling these

Jews, even though they're circumcised on the outside, they're uncircumcised in God's eyes.

They weren't circumcised in what matters the heart. They were stiff -necked, resisting the Holy Spirit, killing

God's prophets. They even killed the Messiah. And they received the law which they so boasted in, but they don't even keep it.

This infuriated them. Look at verse 54. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick.

That, by the way, cut to the quick, just so you get an idea of how quickly this rage was incited.

That phrase, cut to the quick, is the same phrase that is used of if you were to stick something sharp right underneath a fingernail.

Yeah, that would produce some angry reactions, right? That is where that phrase comes from.

As soon as they heard this, they were furious. They began gnashing their teeth at him.

But notice, Stephen is not concerned about their anger at him. Verse 55, but being full of the

Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

I kind of picture the scene, you know how this happens in movies where there's a lot of action going on, but then the movie like slows down in slow motion and all the sound is cut out.

And it makes you just kind of captured in the moment. That's what I think was happening with Stephen.

Though everybody's angry around him, he has this moment where he looks into heaven and he sees the glory of God and he sees

Jesus. And being in awe of this, I think verse 56 is just him being in awe of what he's seeing.

He naturally just says, behold, I see the heavens opened up and the

Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. He's lost in this moment and he tells them,

I see him. I see God, the

Son of Man. And how did they react? They reacted like children.

Verse 57, but they cried out with a loud voice and they covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse.

You've seen this before in children where if they don't like what you're saying, just cover their ears and just start talking so that you'll never hear what you're saying.

They're drowning out the truth. They cried out with a loud voice, they covered their ears, they rushed at him with one impulse.

And verse 58 says, they wanted nothing to do with him anymore. They drove him out of the city, they began stoning him.

And the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named

Saul, who we know later becomes Paul. And he actually remembers this moment.

He says, I gave my hearty approval when this was happening.

He didn't like Stephen either. And verse 59 says, they went on stoning

Stephen as he called on the Lord. And he said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

And having said this, he fell asleep. Like Abel and like John the

Baptist before him, Stephen was a man of faith who saw the worth of following Christ.

He saw Christ as worthy of everything and he was willing to die for him. He would not fear these men because he knew where he was going.

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And once again, we're tempted to read

Stephen's life from an earthly perspective and say, man, he was just getting started. He just got appointed to be a deacon of the early church.

He's preaching this awesome sermon and he dies. But though his ministry was just getting started and his life seems to be cut short, he didn't lack a thing.

In fact, if you know how Acts progresses, God uses Stephen's death to bring about persecution in the church.

And when persecution happens in the church, everybody scatters. And when everybody scatters, the gospel goes forth.

That's pretty cool. All these three men had something very interesting in common.

They died, quote unquote, before their time. Their life was cut short. Unjust deaths.

But they saw the worth of Christ. They had this same perspective that we read in Philippians 3, 18 through 19.

And I pray that you can say this is true for you. This is Paul, the guy who we just read about, heartily agreeing with the killing of Stephen, who later sees

Jesus. God radically saves him. And this is his response in Philippians 3, 18 through 19.

You might be thinking this morning, this is great to know, but how does this help me in my day -to -day life?

Well, believer, there's an interesting formula that the Scripture lays out. If you know

Jesus, truly know him, you love him. And when you love him, you subsequently also see his worth.

When you love Christ and you see his worth, guess what happens? It's a natural side effect.

You want to obey. Right? And so you may ask, how does this affect our day -to -day life?

I would argue there's not a part of your day -to -day life that would not be improved by having a greater love for Jesus Christ.

If you would like a better marriage in this room, know and love Jesus Christ first.

And this will lead you to obey God and serve one another. If you want to be a better parent, you know and love

Jesus. And you shepherd your children with this desperate urgency of the gospel.

You want to be a better employee, love Jesus. A better friend, you love

Jesus. You want to be a faithful church member, you love Jesus, and that will produce love for others.

And I trust the Holy Spirit will make the application you need in your life right now. But the final thing

I want to mention and kind of ask you, this is a rhetorical question, I want you to deeply consider this in your heart.

These men saw the worth of God, right? They saw the worth of Jesus Christ.

Do you? Do you see him as Paul spoke of him in Philippians 3, that he counted everything as loss?

You would trade everything in your life if it meant you could keep knowing Jesus. Do you live this way?

Do you teach your children this way? And I will say this, parents, so often it's easy to get bogged down in where my child falls on the, are they in the 1 % or the 99 %?

What are they going to be? What are they going to do? Are they going to get married? How many children are they going to have? Those are all worth considering, but the primary thing must be, they must know

Jesus. And that transforms every aspect in the home.

You see, as a Christian, you may not live a long life on this earth, but if you know

Jesus, it means you will have eternal life. You may never be someone famous or notable in the world's eyes, but guess what?

You are known and loved specifically by God. He knows your name.

He died for you. You may never accumulate great things on this earth, but to know

Jesus means you have the most valuable treasure, the treasures of heaven, which Matthew speaks of, where no moth or rust can destroy or decay, where no thieves or robbers can break in or steal.

You may live the rest of your life without a dime to your name, but if you know

Christ, you are rich. You may not have a perfect family on this earth.

Maybe a spouse has left, or children have abandoned you, or maybe children you've been abandoned by parents.

You may not be able to have children, or you may have people in your family that hate you, but let me tell you this, maybe some of those things were brought about by your sin.

There's forgiveness in Christ. And secondly, if you suffer some of those because of your love for Christ, know this, that God sees your suffering for the sake of righteousness.

And when you are in glory, it is a perfect family. Your nation may fall, and your freedom may be lost, but if you know

Jesus, you are freed from sin and death. You may never live a life of ease.

You may be filled with constant anxieties and frustrations, but if you know Jesus, there's a day coming where you will worry about nothing anymore.

You may cry, this resonates with me, you may cry the rest of your days so that when your final day comes, you are so wearied by tears, but if you know

Jesus, he wipes them all away. You may experience trial after trial and terrible loss after terrible loss, and you might think that God is against you, but you would do well to remember what 2

Corinthians 4 17 says, for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

Your body may fail and fight against you with sickness. Your organs may shut down and cause you great pain and lead you to death, but if you know

Christ, though you die, you live. And you may be persecuted relentlessly for your faith, and you may die for your faith, but when you die, you live.

You say, well how do we know? John 11 25 through 26 says, Jesus said to her,

I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this is what Jesus asks? And I love this verse, and it ministers to me when

I think of my son, Grayson, because notice what he does not say. He does not say that the one who believes in me with a mature understanding of everything in the

Bible. He does not say, if you believe with never doubting.

He says, if you believe you can be sure of this, you won't die.

You live. And one day you will see Jesus, not dimly through faith, you will see him face -to -face.

1 John 3 2 says, when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is.

1 Corinthians 13 12 says this, for we see in a mirror dimly, but then face -to -face.

Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I have been fully known. And Paul knew this, and this is why he said, it's far better to die and be with Jesus than anything else.

You may have heard this phrase before, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

And here's the great thing, I know you all are going through Ephesians, so you'll appreciate this. All of the benefits we've just mentioned are yours in Christ Jesus.

He set his affection upon you from eternity past before anything was created. His choosing you was based on nothing you ever did, but solely because he said this,

I love fill -in -the -blank with your name. He sent his son to die a terrible death on the cross for your sins, and he rose from the grave three days later to show that he crushed death.

And he called you to himself through the gospel message, made you alive so that you might believe.

And now you, having faith in Jesus, receive forgiveness. And not only forgiveness, you get

God's righteousness. And not only that, as if the story can get any better, he gives you an inheritance that is prepared for you.

It's unfading, it's undefiled, it's kept in heaven for you that no one can take away.

But he doesn't leave us on this earth alone, he sends his spirit to dwell in us and to keep us to the very end.

And when the end comes, it's just the beginning of a perfect eternity with God.

The fullness of God's redemption planned all around us. People living in perfect harmony, worshiping the

Almighty. So don't ever doubt his love for you. Fall on your knees and worship him and may this worship lead you to live for him every moment of every day.

Because knowing and living for Jesus is all that matters. Let's pray.

Lord, we need you desperately. Help us when we are discouraged or in despair to be reminded of your great love for us.

Help us to have a singular focus that leads us to make daily decisions to be transformed in every aspect of our life because we love you.

Thank you for giving us hope. Thank you for not leaving us without hope. Please be with 12 .5

Church, Lord, as these worshipers of you grow. May this love for you be so evident in this area that it just spills onto everyone around them.

Bless this church, Lord. They've been such an encouragement to so many, but bless them as they follow you.

Keep their eyes on you with that singular focus. Pray this in your name.

Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, Brother Josh. If you have Jesus, you have everything.

Amen. All right. If you would, please stand as we sing the doxology together like we do every week.

Our benediction comes from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 23. Now may the

God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and your soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ. And all God's people said? Amen. All right. We're about to enter our time.