Apologia Live - God Rules Over the Earth - Part 2

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Jeff continues his sermon on the Rule of God on earth.

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Calvinism Sermon: Unconditional Election (Part 3 in series)

Calvinism Sermon: Unconditional Election (Part 3 in series)

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Important sections, one of those, I mean it's like interesting, as you guys get there, when you do a sermon series on the
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Sermon on the Mount, it's kind of cool, it's almost like pop culture -ish, because you're always touching something that is probably something somebody's heard before, right?
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I mean, your chestnut favorite atheist verses are in the text,
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Matthew 7, check it out, 7 .1. Judge not, lest you be judged, right?
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You're constantly touching stuff that everybody knows about, because this is the most popular sermon in the history of the world.
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The urge, statements, that even people abuse and really have no idea what it really means, like go the second mile, right?
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There's even a church somewhere, I think in Gilbert, it's called Second Mile Church. Now, when you understand the background of what
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Jesus is talking about there, I don't know why anybody in the world would want to call their church the Second Mile Church. A Roman law of the
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Romans commandeering your luggage, or commandeering you for the purposes of carrying their stuff for one mile, and Jesus says, look, if there's a silly little
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Roman law of go one mile to carry their stuff, go with them too. Why somebody would want to name their church after that Roman law is beyond me, but they do, and so here's the point.
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There's always a point of contact with regular people in the Sermon on the Mount. You're always going to touch something that's something somebody's familiar with.
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They've read it. It's Jesus' most popular sermon, and so we're in a section now that is really, really popular, and I mentioned last week that I needed to break it into two because I needed to lay down some foundations for us so that we don't go to this text with some unbiblical presuppositions, load them into our reading of the text, and then run off with some kind of an interpretation.
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Breaking it into two was for the purposes of really explaining the entire story of the
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Bible, what God says about his creation, what God says about heaven, heaven one day, and what our purpose in the world is, and so let's go to the text, and then we're going to go to verse 19.
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Hear now the words of the living and true God. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
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For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
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If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
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You cannot serve God and money, some translations wealth, which I think is what it's really getting at.
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Now, real fast before we finish, let me continue to read verse 25, therefore,
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I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you'll put on.
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Thus far is the reading of God's holy word. Let's pray. Father, please bless now,
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God, your people. This, God, is your word, breathed out by you, given to the world by your grace, through the mouths and hands of your prophets and apostles,
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I pray, God, that by your spirit you would teach today. God, I pray that you would allow me to get out of the way and that you would communicate,
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God, through me to your people what they need to know, what is necessary for your church to be sanctified and conformed to the image of Jesus.
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Help me, God, to be faithful, cause me to decrease Christ to increase, God, bless your church in Jesus' name, amen.
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So quickly, I told you that I had already jumped ahead and done the verses 25 through 34 where Jesus talks about not being anxious and the emphasis there is in the sovereignty of God and trusting in your heavenly father and not being overly concerned with what happens later on tomorrow, but to be focused in upon the one who has the ability to care for all of your needs.
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Now, what's interesting here is the reason why I wanted to read it today with what we're unpacking today is just that word in verse 25, therefore, do not be anxious about your life.
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Whenever you see the word therefore, find out what it's there for, right?
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That's what Christians say, right? It's true, you should do that, by the way. Whenever you see the word therefore, there's the connection of the argument.
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So what we can't do in any text of the Bible is just rip a text out of its context, making it a proof text to simply try to prove something that's not connected to the whole entire biblical narrative or specifically the text you pull it from.
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Now, that matters a lot in two ways. One, in this very moment when
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Jesus says in verse 19, not to lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
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When Jesus says that, if we have a pagan view of the world and creation, if we actually believe what pagans have said about the world, if we have a dualistic perspective, an unbiblical dualistic perspective of the world, not simply
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God and creation dualism, but an unbiblical perspective of the disembodied existence is better and this is evil or dirty.
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If we think like that, we will walk into Jesus in this moment and disfigure completely what he just said.
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If we think that God isn't concerned with his good creation and what happens in the world, then a text like this can be used by people who think like pagans to actually distort
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God's good purpose. If you actually read this, you might be tempted to actually load that idea into the text to think that in some way
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Jesus isn't really concerned with his good creation. We're supposed to be concerned with the heavenly world, the disembodied existence.
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Now, if you do that, I think you distort the whole meaning of the text. That's the first problem. The second problem, hang with me now, hang with me.
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The second problem is if we miss the therefore, we miss the connecting argument that Jesus makes.
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So he says something, he makes an argument, and then he says, therefore, don't be anxious.
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Trust your heavenly father. God is sovereign. You can't change the color of your hair on your head.
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You can't add a single hour to your life by your worry, so trust your father. He feeds the sparrows, they don't sow, they don't reap, gather in the barns, but your heavenly father, he feeds them.
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Look at the grass of the field, here today, gone tomorrow. Not even Solomon in all of his glory was clothed like this, and it's today here and tomorrow thrown into the fire, into the furnace.
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How much more do you think God's going to clothe you or feed you if he does this with these things? How much more value are you than they?
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Now, here's the point. If Jesus says, therefore, don't be anxious, then it has to connect to what he just said.
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There's the purpose. So let's go to it. Jesus says, do not store up for yourself, but lay up for yourself on this earth.
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Now first thing is that I think that I agree with some commentators here that it would be better rendered as stop storing up for yourselves.
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Stop. Stop doing this. You're doing something. You're involved in something. Stop doing this.
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Stop storing up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
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So this is a, you do this, okay? Stop doing it. Stop storing up for yourselves treasures on earth.
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Rather do this. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Now what
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I want to do here is just backtrack a second if you missed last week because I got to lay this down or the rest of it's not going to make sense if you're just visiting today.
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What's important for us to notice, and this is one of those big moments like in the
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Christian church, it's a big error. It's a wrong way of seeing things and it's a wrong way of seeing things that does damage.
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There are some things that we believe as Christians that we can disagree on that don't really cause a whole lot of damage.
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For example, some people say like, look, I don't want to smoke a cigar, period, okay? Some people might think it's sin to smoke a cigar.
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Other Christians might say, hey, well, the story of Charles Spurgeon, right? When people talk about cigars,
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Christians have to bring up Charles Spurgeon because it makes you look sin less for smoking cigars, okay? So that's the rule. If anyone ever questions your cigar smoking, bring up Spurgeon and you'll look stellar, okay?
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So Charles' famous thing about Charles Spurgeon and his life is he smoked cigars. He loved them.
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They even had cigars in cigar shops that they would be like, this is the cigar that Spurgeon smokes. And it was like a hot item and it would sell out, right?
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Because Spurgeon, maybe it'll make my theology better. I don't know, right? I'm trying everything, right?
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So Spurgeon was asked one time, brother, when will you actually think that that's a sin in Spurgeon's smoking his cigar?
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When will you call that sin? And he says, when I'm smoking two at a time, right?
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So, but here's the point. Christians can disagree on particular things that aren't going to have a lot of impact on the world or anybody else's life.
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You have just, okay. You're going to have disagreements, be gracious to each other, to your own master, you stand or you fall.
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If you fall, if it's not in the text, don't be oppressive. Don't be legalistic. Give each other grace and freedom.
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Certain things don't really matter a whole lot to your own master. You stand or you fall. That's how it goes.
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There are certain things, though, as Christians, if we're wrong, if we actually think that Jesus isn't reigning as king today and that it actually comes much later, if we actually think that our goal right now is to wait for escape, any moment, to get snatched out of our shoes so we leave behind our undergarments and pants, to fly off into a disembodied existence.
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If we think that that's our goal, the world goes to hell in a handbasket and we're waiting to get taken off this rock, if we think that, brothers and sisters, it leads to dramatic impact in the world.
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It does. Compare two different cultures and societies for a moment now, just to think about this for a moment, how it impacts us.
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Compare two cultures and societies. Compare the culture of the Christian Puritans, the pilgrims even, that came over ultimately from England and Geneva over to the
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Americas, the worldview that they had and the society that they built up and established to our society today.
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Does theology matter? Theology matters a great deal. What you believe about Christ, the world, his authority and kingship has a dramatic impact on the world.
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So watch. When the text says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, but rather lay them up in heaven, we need to understand something.
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To the first century Jews, heaven, the term heaven, was used synonymously with God.
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It was not simply, this is huge and it might shatter a lot of beliefs and understandings, but please let the text bear this out.
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Notice that in Matthew's gospel, he calls it the kingdom of what?
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Heaven. But elsewhere, it's referred to as the kingdom of what?
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God. So you have Matthew, because of Jewish sensitivities, very Jewish gospel being written here, using the phrase the kingdom of heaven and in other places, it's just used kingdom of God.
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They were very, in many ways, superstitious about the name of God, so heaven and God were interchangeable and synonymous.
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Kingdom of heaven is kingdom of God. Now why am I bringing this up? I'm bringing it up because we could see kingdom of heaven and think, oh, that's referring to a disembodied existence at the end of time somewhere that we go to that is far better than here.
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There's a possibility we can do that. Kingdom of heaven is a disembodied existence elsewhere, but that's not how first century
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Jewish people thought. They understood that the rule of the Messiah was heaven and earth meeting up again.
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In the garden, there was a split. The fall, the curse, there's a disruption. There is the presence of God departing in a sense.
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God and man separated from one another, heaven and earth splitting. And so there's an understanding in Jewish thought that when the
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Messiah comes into the world to bring his salvation, to bring his rule, his kingdom into the world, where he brings
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Abraham's descendants from the farthest corners of the earth, when all the families of the earth come to return to worship
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God, there's an understanding that this takes place in the space -time universe.
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So capture this for a moment. What's the promise made to Abraham? You guys can help me with this today to make sure that we're all actually getting this.
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What's the promise made to Abraham? Very good. He's going to have descendants as numerous as the what?
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As the stars in the sky. It's like the sand on the seashore. He's going to have so many descendants.
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In you shall all the what of the earth be blessed? Nations. All the nations of the earth.
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And you get into it, that's Genesis 12 through 15. You get into Genesis 49, 10, you've got it once again stated,
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Shiloh is coming. And to him, this Messiah, shall be the obedience of the nations.
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Now, it's interesting that the promise in the Torah is who has a Jewish education of the day.
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That's the education that Paul gets, by the way, not anymore, Yale and Harvard, like back when it was started by Christians, Yale and Harvard, okay?
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Sorry, I make sure I really actually specify that, it's important, okay? When the Apostle Paul writes to us his gospel, so the gospel according to Paul, the book of Romans, that's a good way to call it, a good thing to call it.
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When he opens up his explanation, Romans 1, Romans 16 bookends, he says in Romans 1 and 16, he says that they are called to bring about the obedience of faith, or the obedience that comes from faith, among all the nations.
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16, chapter 16, same thing. The goal is to bring about the obedience that comes from faith among all the nations.
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Jewish rabbi, thinking about Mashiach, Genesis 49, 10, to him shall be the obedience of the nations.
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So you get the story now, right? This is a real world kind of thing. People are coming to God in the real world, and you start moving throughout the
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Bible and you see more explanation of the coming Messiah's kingdom. What's going to happen?
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Psalm 2, obey the son or you'll perish when his wrath is kindled.
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What's it say? It says to the son, the father says to him, ask of me,
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I'll give you the nations for your inheritance, the ends of the, what, for your possession. Come on now, what?
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The earth. I'll give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of heaven for your possession.
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What's he give him? The ends of the what? This is stuff taking place in real time and space.
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You got to capture this because it goes right to the text. You move further along, you see the most famous text in the entire
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Bible, Psalm 110 .1, the Lord said unto my Lord, God, the father says to Jesus, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
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And the apostle Paul quotes it, 1 Corinthians 15, he says, he says, Jesus must reign until he has made all of his enemies a footstool for his feet.
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That was first century. The apostle Paul puts Jesus on his throne, reigning, saying he's got to be there, reigning on his throne until every enemy is under God's feet.
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And after every enemy is defeated, then the last one is defeated and that's death. That's where history is going.
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Brothers and sisters, where does that take place? In heaven one day or on the earth?
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Come on now. It takes place on the earth. How does Jesus tell you and I to pray? Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on what?
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Earth, as it is in heaven, on earth. So what I want to get to us, make sure that we're hanging on to it, is that Jesus is certainly not teaching
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Christians to be divorced from the world and detached from the world.
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You've heard the statement, he's so heavenly minded, he's no what?
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Earthly good. I think that that's actually a pretty potent statement to make because actually it's true.
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Jesus says in John 17, in his high priestly prayer about his church, he says about you and me, something that I think rubs against the entire
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Left Behind series. Jesus says in his high priestly prayer, Father, I do not pray that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one.
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And what does he say to his followers? He says, you are to occupy until I come. See Christianity was the first and legit
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OG occupy movement. We were. Sorry liberals, we had you beat.
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Okay. Sorry, I got to throw that out there. Okay. That's my jab. All right. So here's the point.
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When Jesus says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, it's very important for us to recognize that God is not dissing the goodness of creation.
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He is not dissing in any way having homes, having transportation for their families, laying up an inheritance for their children's children.
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It would be an inappropriate way of handling this text to rip it out of its context to start now meeting out in the desert, creating a
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Christian commune where we make almond butter and we... Do you get it?
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Okay. We say, oh, it doesn't matter now because God's not concerned with the world. We want to get to the disembodied heavenly existence.
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Here's the point. Jesus is telling us very clearly to have a singular focus upon God, heavenly treasure, over and above and against the idea of actually investing in this world in treasures that will be destroyed.
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Meaningful treasure in heaven with God. Remember this. For first century
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Jews and Jewish Christians, heaven is not merely a place that you go to.
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So, for example, like a location. Here's what you don't want to think about in thinking about heaven.
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How do I get there? And someone giving you directions. Heaven is five billion light years south, southeast of Jupiter, right?
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And when you die, you get zapped away to that specific location in heaven. You have a
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Google Maps app where you will go to find exactly. You get the point? Heaven was more about the presence of God.
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Think about it not simply as a location, but a different dimension. You have the earthly realm, the heavenly realm, and so when you shed this tent, you immediately enter into God's presence.
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Not simply you got to take a trip to get to this place. First of all, God's omnipresence. So the idea of God hanging out in a single location, kind of difficult in Christian theology, right?
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Like he needs to take a trip to get somewhere else. So we need to think very clearly about heaven,
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God's presence with God. Is it true there's a difference between the earthly and the spiritual, the heavenly?
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Absolutely. But the point is, if we go to this text and we actually draw from it the conclusion that God is no longer concerned with his world, we're going to have a difficult time with passages in the book of Isaiah.
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When it says, watch, Isaiah 65, that God's going to judge the covenant breakers, give his people a new name, and then when he describes the kingdom of the
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Messiah and its results, people are dying in that kingdom. If that's the heavenly state,
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I want to know how people are dying there. What does it describe? The rule of the Messiah on earth, bringing blessings to the actual earth itself.
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Salvation impacts not only individual souls, you and me, for salvation and eternity. Salvation affects the world around us.
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Do you believe that? Do you believe it? Do you believe that God has the power to turn deserts into gardens?
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Yes, he does. And I do believe, if you look at the scriptures of the Old Testament, the more and more the gospel takes root in the world, the more and more nations come to Jesus, the more and more the world itself is impacted by that.
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It changes everything. It changes us. It changes the world. God is concerned with this world.
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But Jesus says, don't do this. Stop doing it. Stop storing up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth or rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
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For where your treasure is, and here's the key, there your heart will be also.
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It has to do with the singular devotion. The heart in Jewish thought, this is big, hey, you remember this?
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You remember when Jesus tells the famous story about the tax collector and the
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Pharisee? Weirdly confident, right? He even gives God a pass.
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He gives God a little bit of a nod, tips the hat at God. He says, God, I thank you. You did this.
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You did this in me. I thank you that I'm not like other men. See, people who are like Pelagian or semi -Pelagian, like to brag on their own righteousness and their good deeds, they're usually not so brazen as to not give
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God some credit. So, for example, like Mormonism, there's a religion right there, and you'll talk to him and say, it's all by grace through faith in Jesus.
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It's his work. It's nothing to do with us. You can't earn it. And what will Mormons say? They'll say, we don't believe that it's not without God's grace.
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Of course not. Neither did the Pharisee. The Pharisee also believed, God, thank you. I'm not like other men.
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He says, Lord, I fast, I tithe, I pray.
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I do all these things, God. Look at me. The tax collector's a ways off, and he won't even lift his eyes to God.
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He can't, because he recognizes his estate. He knows where he's at before a holy God. And what's he beating?
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What's he pounding on? His chest. He's pounding his chest.
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It's like he's trying to get at the very source of his passion, because in Jewish thought, your heart is the seat of your passions.
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What you're most in love with, what you're most committed to. That's the symbol of the heart.
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And so when this tax collector in Jesus' story is beating at his chest, it's like he's trying to tear at the very place that's the source of all of his sin against God.
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He wants to rip it out. Pounding it. And so Jesus now says the same thing about our mouths.
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What's he say about our mouth? What's he say? He says, whatever comes out of your mouth has its origin where?
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From within you, right? And so now Jesus says this. He says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
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And so here's the point. What are you singularly devoted to? What are you and I singularly passionate about?
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And you can tell the difference in how people live their lives.
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You see, it's not about Jesus saying, get rid of all your stuff and go live in the desert somewhere.
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Don't store up treasures for your grandchildren. By the way, if Jesus taught that, if he actually taught it's meaningless to lay up an inheritance for your great grandchildren, he would be violating the wisdom of God in the
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Proverbs. So he can't be saying that. But we can all tell the difference, can't we, between a person who lives their life even with wealth for the glory of God and for the purposes of Christ's kingdom.
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How do they spend their money and their wealth? They spend their treasure for eternal heavenly things.
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And we recognize the difference between that kind of person and the kind of person that only lives for the moment.
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They live for the next thing, the thing that will be corrupted and will go away quickly. What do you devote yourself to?
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What is your I singularly devoted to? Where's your passion rest?
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Is it in heavenly things, eternal things, eternal reward? Or is your passion set somewhere else?
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Is your passion and reward in the new toy? The new thing?
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Good. Amen. Okay? Is it really built in the next technology?
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Like, that's it. I will be happy if I just have this thing. If I get this car, this kind of car,
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I'll be happy. That's my reward. If I get this kind of computer, this kind of smartphone, you know what
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Jesus is saying instantly. Some of you guys are a little older. And you've probably made fortunes and lost fortunes, had money and lost money.
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You know that it comes and goes, it ebbs and flows. It's here one moment, it's gone the next.
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You know what I'm saying? You go through life and you're like, wow, this is the first time ever I've had this much money in my account.
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It feels kind of good. I feel like a responsible adult. Finally. And then all of a sudden, kids.
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And you all of a sudden, you go, wow. Jesus should have said in there, and maybe it's in an earlier manuscript, moth and rust and five -year -olds destroy and break in and steal, right?
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Maybe that's in an earlier manuscript. No, I'm just joking. We would know it. It's not there. Okay. Here's the point.
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What are you singularly devoted to? Where is your treasure? Is it in God? Is it in a heavenly reward?
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Or is it in the stuff that just dissipates, disappears, goes away?
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You know how fast you lose this stuff. And then notice something. Watch. The connection, by the way, the connection between the therefore, don't be anxious, did you catch it?
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Jesus says, look, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. There will be your passions. There will be your source of joy.
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So where is it? So Jesus is saying, watch, don't be devoted to dedicating yourself to the stuff that rusts, rots, destroys, thieves break in, they can take away.
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He says, don't be devoted to that. And so he's telling people, like, look, don't make that your focus. Make it heaven.
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Make it God. Make God be your passion, heavenly reward with God.
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So you would think, well, Jesus, you're taking away from me what most people are obsessed with.
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Think about your atheist or agnostic brother -in -law, sister -in -law, mother -in -law, father -in -law, father, mother, brother, sister, neighbor, teacher, boss, co -worker.
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What are they living for? For them, this is it, earth and its existence, and ours in it is it.
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And so everything that I live for now and develop now needs to last because this is it.
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This is all I got. It's all I have to build up. It's my only reward. And so I got to start collecting and purchasing and having because this is all there is to it.
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And so Jesus points directly at that and says, well, that's not really where it's at. You need to live for God, live for his reward, live for heavenly reward and not earthly reward.
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And so you think, Jesus, you just took away from me what other people have as their primary motivation. And so then
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Jesus tells them, once he takes it away from them, from us, he says this, therefore I'm telling you not to worry.
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You can't serve two masters. You're going to be love the one, hate the other, singularly devoted to one, despise the other.
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You can't serve God in wealth. You can't do it. And so now Jesus takes your legs out from underneath you to be focused in upon temporary earthly only things.
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And now he tells you, therefore, I'm saying to you, do not be anxious about tomorrow. Don't. If your focus is upon God and heavenly things and heavenly rewards,
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God will provide for you all that you need. Why are you worried about your stuff? Why are you worried about your food?
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Why are you worried about your clothing? Don't you see what God does to birds and to Solomon and to grass, don't you see?
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Won't he clothe you, feed you? Don't you see who loves you, who you belong to?
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Jesus actually has this little statement here. He says this. He says, the eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
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But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light is in you as darkness, how great is the darkness.
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Lots of things in the gospel. We are children of light. God is light.
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There is no darkness in him at all. There is always a contrast between darkness and sin, light and righteousness, and in this moment
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Jesus actually focuses it to an eye, to an eye.
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The commentators on this text go across the spectrum. What does he mean here? What's he mean?
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I think it's very, very clear, no matter what you want to draw from the text, Jesus talks the next day, is it marred?
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Is it bad? Where's your singular devotion? Where's your eye?
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What is it focused on? What is it set on? That's the point of the passage. Where's your passion?
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Where's your heart sit? Because wherever your treasure is, that's where your heart is also.
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What's your eye set on? Where's your treasure? Who's your master? Jesus said it.
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We can't get away from it. And I want to say something. Listen, here's the deal. There's the door.
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Right there. That's the door. Okay? And Jesus, I'm going to invite everybody to respond.
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Jesus says, you're either with me or against me. You can't have two masters.
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If you don't have me, you don't have the life. If you have me, you have the life. If you don't have me, the wrath of God abides in you.
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And he says to people that are following him, lots of people who probably said, you're a Mashiach, you're the
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Messiah, and they're getting fed by him. He says to them, when he turns to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate father, mother, sister, brother, wife, names them all, says, even your own life, he says, you're not worthy to be my disciple, and he turns them away.
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Here's the deal. There's the door. Jesus said it. You either come to me to die or don't come. You either see me as Lord of all or not
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Lord at all. That's my summary of Jesus' statements, right? Jesus tells people, it's all of me or none of me.
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Singular devotion to Jesus. And so when Jesus talks about wealth, he's talking about ultimately what always nails every one of us, and that's our idolatry of the moment and the stuff we see and the stuff we can touch.
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And Jesus says, you have your mind, your heart set on heaven, on God, because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
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Who's your master? Oh, this is big, and I hope it gets you. Who gets to tell you what to do with your stuff?
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Every Christian goes, Jesus, Jesus. God gets to tell me what to do with my stuff.
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I'm a Christian. God gets to tell me. Well, let me remind you of an interesting story, because Jesus is talking about wealth here, and it's not the first time he did it.
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He has a story about a rich man and Lazarus. You know the story, right?
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Where does the rich man end up? Hades, ultimately hell, and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, ready for paradise, right?
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And so do you think it's an accident that Jesus actually parallels in his day, or should I say contrasts in his day, a rich man and Lazarus?
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He could have picked anybody, and he says, a rich man and Lazarus, because we know what they're focused in upon in that culture and society.
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And the famous text is about a rich young ruler. And I want to read you the story, because I think it's getting at the heart of what
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Jesus is talking about when he says, treasure in heaven and not on earth. Verse 16 of Matthew 19, and behold, a man came up to him saying,
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Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? And he said to him, why do you ask me about what is good?
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There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments, he said to him, which ones?
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And Jesus said, you should not murder, you should not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you should not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.
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The young man said to him, all these. That's hilarious.
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But he thought, the guy says, what do I still, come follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
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When he comes to Jesus, Jesus goes right after what he knew about the man.
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By the way, when he says this, why do you call me good? There's only one good, God. A lot of times people not thinking, who are trying to say that Jesus isn't
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God, like they'll go to the text. Well, why does Jesus actually say to the guy, there's only one good who is
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God? If he's God, ask the person, Mormons like to bring this up a lot, or Muslims, is
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Jesus good? I love this guy.
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And what will they say? They'll say, yes. Then you have your answer. What is
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Jesus pointing out to the rich young ruler? That he's God. Why do you call me good?
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There's only one good who's God. Is Jesus good? Yes, he is. So who is
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Jesus? God. How do you like them apples? Okay, that's a big one. So next one is
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Jesus knows what the man, the rich young ruler, will not give up. He's got all this stuff, and he says,
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I want eternal life. What do I got to do? And what's the thing that he ultimately has to do that he wasn't willing to do, ultimately?
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Give up all that he had to come to Jesus to follow him. Jesus knew what was truly
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God in this man's life, his stuff. And so Jesus here is saying, give up your stuff, give it to the poor, and then there's a lot more behind it in terms of what the man did in the law.
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But he says, give up your stuff, give it to the poor, come follow me. It's what he wouldn't do.
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He loved the God of his wealth more than he loved the God that truly was. He wouldn't give it up.
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And Jesus knew where his idol was, and so Jesus goes right for your juggler every time.
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He says, give up your family, give up your life, give up your stuff, rich young ruler, give up that. I don't even want the money.
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I love it. By the way, I know I've said it before. I got to make sure I highlight it. I don't ever want to do this text without saying this.
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I love that Jesus doesn't do what Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagan, and all these other charlatans on television would do.
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They say what? Send in your seed, right?
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Jesus says what to the man? They're a broke ministry. He could have funded the ministry completely with this rich man's stuff.
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He says, sell everything you own and give it to who? The poor. He doesn't say give it to the ministry. He says, give it to the poor, and then you come follow me naked, without your stuff, and washed.
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The encounter afterwards is important. Watch. When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions, and Jesus said to his disciples, truly
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I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
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See? Synonymous? Synonymous? When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, who then can be saved?
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But Jesus looked at them and said, with man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.
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So watch. Only God, it doesn't watch. Please don't do to the text what so many have done to that text, and said somehow, well,
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God doesn't want you to be wealthy if you're going to be a Christian. That is an abuse. It's an abuse of the text.
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Wealthy people can't make it into God's kingdom, clearly, they can't make it in. Here's the point, oftentimes people who are in love with their wealth, in love with their earthly treasure, will not give it up for God to know
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Him, to come to Him, to be a part of His kingdom. And Jesus tells you, be singularly devoted.
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Either you're going to be devoted to God, or you're going to be devoted to your wealth. Which one is your God? What does
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God say in His first commandment? Come on now, tell me we can at least do this. You shall have no other gods, what?
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Before me. Now again, I want to say this, God is not saying, you shall have no other gods before me, like let me be first in line and let them come after, like not before me, let me come.
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No other gods before me means no other gods in my sight. God of the
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Old Testament is the God of the New Testament, when God touched the earth, put on flesh, and walked among us, He expected singular devotion to Him.
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Of your goals and aspirations, Jesus says, come to me with all of you, and you get all of Him.
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Amen? So, real fast, I want to touch this before I leave you today.
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There's a danger in going to this text. The danger is,
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I think, again, if we load up into the text, we could think
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Jesus is teaching us somehow to have an escape, absolutely. There's also a danger that you could think that God's not concerned with you being a responsible person, and caring for your family, or even your future, is what we believe.
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So, a couple of examples that we probably already know, let's see how God, and get your Bibles ready, let's see how
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God talks about wealth, and an obsession of money, making money in Israel. Go to Ecclesiastes 5 .10.
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Ecclesiastes 5 .10. This book, my wife is weird, she loves
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Ecclesiastes, I love it too, don't get me wrong, but my wife's favorite books in the
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Bible are like the ones that like, those are so complicated, you're amazing.
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Like, she picks like Job, she's like, Job's my favorite book in the Bible, I'm like, that's one of the hardest, most complex, deep books in the whole
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Bible, and Ecclesiastes, it's amazing. Ecclesiastes 5 .10.
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He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income.
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This is also, this also is vanity. He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income.
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Always going to eat away at you. Stay there in Ecclesiastes, and go to Ecclesiastes 7 .12.
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For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
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In other words, your money cannot protect you. What should you pursue as protection, wisdom or money?
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So what are you seeking for your protection? What are you building up? Next, because of time.
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Let's go to what God says about money elsewhere in the positive. Go to Proverbs 13 .11,
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Proverbs 13 .11, to the left, to the left. Proverbs 13 .11,
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wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.
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There's a positive step towards how to properly make money. Some translations talk about that wealth there gained hastily.
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That is ultimately in an unrighteous way, in an unjust kind of way, hastily.
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It'll dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. Next, go to Deuteronomy 28.
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Actually, sorry, we're already in Proverbs. Let's stay there. Proverbs 13 .22.
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This is a big one. Proverbs 13 .22, men, highlight, circle, star.
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Proverbs 13 .22, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous.
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A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children. So, brothers and sisters, how do you lay up an inheritance for your children's children?
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Does it take planning? Does it take hard work? Does it take an investment of yourself?
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Yes. It is not unrighteous, ungodly, unspiritual to be the kind of person, the kind of Christian that actually works for a living, that builds and develops, who works hard to establish something great for God that brings glory to God.
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Christians shouldn't be the kinds of people who are so short -sighted. We only think about ourselves and not the generation after us.
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A good person will develop a business, will invest in the world in such a way that they actually leave an inheritance for, watch, their grandkids?
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All the way down, their children's children. Do you see where it goes? How do you think?
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Do you think that far ahead as a Christian, or do you think about just the moment? Do you think about just the next paycheck?
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Do you think in such a way that you're actually going, how could I leave my grandchildren something?
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That's a godly way to think. Next, go to 1 Timothy 6, 17 through 19.
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1 Timothy 6, 17 through 19. Here's God speaking to the rich.
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He says, as for the rich in this present age, their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
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They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.
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Thus, here we go, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
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He doesn't tell the rich people, hey, you're in sin. Repent of your richness.
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What does he tell rich people to do? To be faithful with their money, to actually focus upon heavenly reward with their earthly treasure.
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God isn't in any way dissing rich people, telling them, you can't make it to heaven.
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What you're doing is bad. What does he tell rich people to do? Store up money.
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I want to say this. It is most certainly a balance. It is most certainly having a clear vision of what
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God actually says about us and about the world and about heaven. It's recognizing that wealth is good when used for the glory of God.
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It's recognizing that our treasure is supposed to be in God.
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The Bible actually teaches us, right? When God tells us in the text there, don't be anxious.
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Actually, go to the text. I want to make sure I'm not just saying it without actually handing it to you. Watch what it says.
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Chapter 6 of Matthew, go back there again. In verse 32, after he tells you not to be anxious, he says,
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For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
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But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
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Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
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This is massive. How you view money, wealth as a
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Christian is very, very important. I told you guys that my pastor many, many years ago got me.
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He got right through my facade of spirituality. All my knowledge of theology and apologetics, and I did not give to fraud.
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I was in sin. Go out, hit the streets, tell people about Jesus, but couldn't give to the mission of the kingdom to save my life.
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And he said, You want to show me how spiritual you are, I'll tell you how you find out how spiritual you are.
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Show me your checkbook, and it will show how spiritual you truly are, because it will show where your treasure is.
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And it nailed me. All the talk about theology in the world can't give you the weight of the display of where you spend your money.
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I had a pastor in Bible college say to me, I'll never forget it, I was in his office one day, he was giving me mentoring, he was taking me under his wing, and he said,
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Jeff, I'll tell you what, you need to listen closely to this, and don't ever forget it.
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And I never have. He said, There are two things that you better get right before God, before you ever think about serving him in ministry.
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And he wasn't saying it because he thought something, he was just saying, these are two things that you must get right. He said,
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Number one, women. And number two, money.
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He says if you don't get those two things in the right place before God, as a minister, he says you will destroy yourself, you will destroy
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God's people, you will destroy the name of Christ on the earth. If you don't get those two things right.
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And here's the thing, watch this. He was absolutely right, and the amazing thing is, is that's precisely the sorts of things that Jesus talked about in the word of God.
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When he talks about sexual immorality, when he talks about adultery, and when he talks about money. And so my question is to all of us today, this is to me too, is where is our treasure at?
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Because wherever it is, that is where our passion is. Jesus says,
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You seek first God's kingdom, and all this will be added to you. So what's your priority? Daily.
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Some of you guys want to open businesses for the glory of Jesus. Praise God, please start tomorrow.
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Okay? But even as you plan opening your own businesses and doing something for the glory of Jesus, and inheritance to give to your children, even as you do that, the question is this, why are you doing what you're doing?
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Why are you building that thing? Why are you putting that on the earth? Is it for heavenly reward?
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Is it for the glory of God? Are you opening the business so that you can accumulate more stuff on the earth, get a bigger
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TV, a nicer couch, a nicer car, a bigger house, or are you trying to accumulate ultimately for heavenly things?
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Because you see, I'll tell you what you can do. You can earn a whole bunch of money now. Be a Christian billionaire, have a billion dollars, and use every last cent of that for heavenly reward and the glory of God.
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You see, God isn't opposed to wealth. He's opposed to wealth that is
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God. So how will you spend your money? How will you invest in the world?
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Because I'm going to just give you, and we're actually ending early today. I really mean it, okay? Watch. This is important.
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My hope, I just want to be transparent with you, my hope is that as a church, we would be transformed individually, our families would be transformed, and I hope that Apologia Church starts actually sending out into the world people that invest in the world, in businesses, and in stuff that lasts forever for the glory of God.
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I hope that as a church, we actually build things in Tempe and in Phoenix that bring glory to Jesus Christ, that serve
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His purposes, and that are actually in the real world. I hope that as a church, when we all go to be with Jesus, what we've left behind is eternal treasure, but it's eternal treasure, watch, that's connected to the earth.
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Do you get what I'm saying? It actually has real stuff happening here in the world around us.
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Like, there's actual tangible stuff and ideas and places and things that our heavenly reward has impacted, because it's the stuff that really matters.
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If you invest your life in heavenly reward, it blesses earth, right?
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But if you invest your life in only earthly reward, moth and rust, baby, thieves breaking in and stealing, it's gone, and it's gone tomorrow.
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Where's your heart? Where's your treasure? That's what counts.
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I hope with all of my heart that we as Christians start thinking consistently, meaningfully, and eternally about our lives.
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What is God calling you to do? If you're wealthy, how does God want you to spend it?
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If you have been divorced from the world and you are so heavenly minded you're no earthly good,
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I hope that this study over the last two weeks has displayed to you from the text of God's Word that God does actually care about what happens here in the world.
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And so the question is, how are you going to change as a result of what you have heard? I've already got a chance to talk to one couple in our church.
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As a result of thinking about these things, they're ready to start planning and praying about doing a business that would allow them to not only take care of their family, but would actually allow them to serve
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God in ministry as they do their business. So how is God talking to you?
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Let me ask you that. How is God talking to you through this? Because I don't want to be a motivational speaker.
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You have speeches. You're a speecher. I don't want to be a motivational speaker. I don't.
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I don't want to come in on Sunday and give you a moment of excitement and send you out the door.
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I'm not into that. I really am not as a minister of the gospel. I want to see God change people's minds and lives in such a way that it actually brings glory to God and changes you in a way that it's changing you and shaping you so that your course is different from your perspective.
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You're going a different direction. You're doing different things. For the glory of Jesus Christ. Going to Moscow, Idaho is pretty awesome for me.
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Doug Wilson's a friend and he shares. We share it. We're like two Puritans.
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I'm Baptist. He's Presbyterian. The difference is we're better. It's just a little thing. Okay. But we share so much in common in terms of what we believe about the world and kingdom of Jesus.
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And I got to go to Moscow to see what 30 years of what we talk about from the scriptures does to a city.
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And so going to Moscow is like going to Christian Co. It's like going to a city that's so impacted by Christians that they're in every area of life bringing glory to God.
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The whole main street is businesses owned by Christians in the church. And the ones that are owned by the
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Christians in the church are the only ones that are full of people because they're amazing. The rest are empty because they do everything for the glory of God.
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It's beautiful. The culture is different. The city is different. The people are different. You can sense it when you go there.
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It's a place where you see that Christians have their reward in the right place but you see what it does to the world when they do.
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And it's truly a blessing. So my heart desires that God would change our community in such a way that we have heavenly reward with a singular focus on what matters but that that changes everything.
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For the glory of Jesus. And if you're in this room today and you don't know Jesus, I want to tell you that you're a sinner.
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God is holy. You're unrighteous. He's righteous. You deserve it. You need to turn to the one who is righteous, died for sinners, and rose from the dead.
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Jesus says repent and believe the gospel. Trust in him and him alone for salvation and for forgiveness and do it before you move a muscle.
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Jesus says the wrath of God abides in those who don't know him. That's what the Bible teaches. If you're in here today and you don't know
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Jesus, everything I said is meaningless to you because if you don't know him and you die where you're at, he will be under his judgment for all eternity.
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So the path to peace is Christ. Repent and believe the gospel. Come to Christ for life.
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Let's pray. God, I pray that you would please bless what went out today. God, I don't have the ability,
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Father, to change anybody's mind and heart. I just want to ask
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God that what was true from your word would connect very deeply into our hearts and minds and it would affect us for good for the exaltation of Jesus.
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And Lord Jesus, I pray that anyone in here that doesn't know you as Savior, as Lord, would be brought under the weight right now of their own brokenness before you, would be challenged by your spirit,
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God, and be drawn by you, Father, to salvation.
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Please, God, grant repentance and faith today to your people. In Jesus' name, amen.