A WOW Moment - June 25 2020

Are we? That's okay. Is this what you normally do? Give people a chance to join? You know,

I haven't been doing these live videos. I've been doing these pre -recorded pretty Andrew videos. Makes me look all,

I mean sound all smart and all that stuff. So, I'm not used to these. Alright.

Your phone have enough charge? Yeah, this phone has enough charge. Okay. You probably have good vision.

You can probably read what that says. I cannot read what that says. Alright, well I'm trying to...

Oh, here we go. There we go.

Pinky's here. Brother David. Alright.

Scott. Mom's here. The whole gang's here. We have a gaggle of people.

Have you done one of these with Rebecca yet? No. Can you hurry up? All my friends are here.

I don't know if Vicky's got her on the list. Well, Vicky needs to get to work and put Rebecca on the list.

Hey Tara. Okay, I've got the thing here so I can see who's with us. Those of you joining, if you want to go ahead and find a

Bible and go to Romans 15, I'll let you take the lead since I've just started telling people where to turn.

Shut up now. Tara and Aisha! Okay. So we're going to be in Romans 15, four through six.

For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the

Scriptures. Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement allow you to live in harmony with one another according to the command of Christ Jesus so that you may glorify the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with a united mind and voice. Excellent.

Alright. This passage was brought to us by Miss Vicky. She chose this one so that's what we're going to do.

Okay. Want me to start, Mercedes? Yeah. Four.

Alright, everybody. Listen to me for a minute. If you're just joining on, we're in Romans 15.

When you see the word four, anytime you see that word in Scripture, you need to make sure you know what was just said.

Because four tells you and gives a reason for what was just said.

So if you see the word four, it's explaining what was just said. So, verse four says, for whatever was written.

So what does verse three say? Hey, Johnny. Verse three says, for Christ to not please himself but as it is written.

Very important words in the New Testament. Whenever you see those words, the Old Testament is quoted. Let me just go on a tangent real quick.

Mercedes knows what I'm about to say. Hey, Julie. It is my opinion that if you have a

Bible, you should have a Bible that helps you note when the

New Testament is quoting the Old Testament. So, for example, Holman may put an Old Testament quote in bold.

Have you ever noticed that? If you go and look at a New Testament passage in the Holman Bible, it will have

Old Testament passages in bold. ESV may indent them, okay? Sometimes they'll do them in all caps.

Whatever. A footnote, something in the, what do you call these things? Columns? Yeah. Something in columns.

Something. Something to let you know the New Testament just quoted the Old Testament. But, anytime the words as it is written is used, it's telling you that.

So, as it is written, the insults or reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

For, whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of scriptures, we might have hope.

Alright, now this is cool for several reasons. Number one, Paul is writing to the church at Rome, okay?

This is towards the end of his letter, which by the way, Romans is probably the best letter ever written in the history of mankind.

And I'm being serious. I mean, it's awesome. And Paul quotes Psalm 69, which was written by David.

But note what he says in verse three. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

You see, Paul is noting that Jesus lived according to the law that David wrote a thousand years before Jesus was ever born.

And Paul is noting that Jesus followed what was written in the past. So, verse four, if Jesus did that, then whatever was written in former days was written for our, right now, our instruction.

You know, it's not simply, well, there's a lot of cool stories in the

Old Testament. They probably never really happened, but let's just take the best meaning out of them. It says they were written for our instruction.

Right? For our instruction, and through endurance and through encouragement of the

Scriptures, we might have hope. Okay. Let's take just a minute. Mercedes and I were talking about this.

Let's take a minute and let's show how the Bible defines the word

Scripture. How it defines what it is. So, Mercedes, can you go to 1

Timothy 3... 2 Timothy 3... 2 Timothy 3 .16 should be a familiar one to most of us.

And it's verbal. And I am going to go to 2 Peter. Alright, Mercedes, when you're ready, 2

Timothy 3 .16. All Scripture... What do you think it means by all Scripture? All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness.

Keep going. Okay. So that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

All Scripture is inspired by God. You know what's funny, Mercedes, that word in Greek is

Theos. Theos means God. Pneuma means breath or air.

That's exactly right. So it literally says, it's the only time that word is used in the whole Bible. It literally says, all

Scripture is God breathed. In fact, some of your Bibles will translate it that way. I want you to think about this for a minute.

If you hold your hand in front of your mouth, you can feel your breath coming out. When we say that all

Scripture is God breathed, when the Bible says that all Scripture is God breathed, what it's saying is though it was written down by the pens of men, it is

God's words being breathed out into the Scriptures. This right here are

God's words breathed out into ink and paper. Similarly, 2

Peter, if you ever need to study Scripture, like, excuse me, to study the

Bible, to see what the Bible has to say about the Bible, 2 Peter. It's only three chapters, and it has a couple good passages.

Let me just give you a couple, and we'll go back to Romans eventually, right? Yeah, okay.

2 Peter, towards the back of y 'all's Bibles, chapter 1, verse 20.

I'll do this one. Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

Holy Spirit, as they were moved, as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. We can go back.

I'll reference this in a minute. Okay, so here's what's amazing about that, guys. I'm going back to Romans now. Peter just said, as he's writing

Scripture, that no Scripture comes from the interpretation of men.

Instead, men spoke from God as they were moved, carried along by the

Holy Spirit. You know what we say when we call this the Word of God? What we're saying is we recognize that it was written by 40 -something different people over 1 ,500 years in cities and countries thousands of miles apart.

And though it has 40 writers, it has one author, and that's the Holy Spirit. Isn't that what Peter's saying? Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

Holy Spirit. Later on in 2 Peter chapter 3, he calls Paul's writings

Scripture. So, we've already seen how they quote from the Old Testament, but now

Peter is quoting from Paul, who would have still been alive at the time, saying what he wrote in the

New Testament was Scripture. One more on this. And the reason why we're focused on this so much is because Romans 15 says that our endurance and our encouragement comes from the

Scriptures, so we should know what those are, right? Well, finally, last one, hey Wesley, write this one down for later.

Mercedes is going to read it for us in a second. It's Matthew 22, 31. That's Matthew chapter 22, 31.

Let me give you the background of Matthew 22. In Matthew 22, Jesus is talking and the

Pharisees and Sadducees and the rest of the religious leaders, we'll call them, are trying to trick

Jesus. And they're asking trick questions. For example, hey, if a woman gets married and her husband dies, and then she gets remarried and her husband dies again, and so on and so forth, when we get to Heaven, or at the resurrection, who will she be married to?

Well, Jesus said, in Heaven, we'll be like the angels, there is no marriage, because we're all the bride of Christ.

But then he says, as for the resurrection, Matthew 22, 31. Let's hear what Jesus said.

Not concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven't you read what was spoken to you by God? Have you not read what was spoken?

Think about that just for a minute. I want to just pause and chew on that for a minute. Have you not read what was spoken by God?

You see, again, just like Peter said, just like Paul said, now what

Jesus is saying is, even though these are written down for our benefit, they've been spoken by God. Have you not read what was spoken to you by God?

Now, Mercedes noted before we started, verse 31 is a quote from the Old Testament, right? It's a quote from the books of Moses.

Check it if I'm wrong. I think it's Deuteronomy, but tell me if I'm wrong. Verse 31, that is.

I love you, Vicki. Hey, wifey. Now, I want you to think about this.

Jesus is looking at a group of people in, let's just say, 30 A .D., to round it up.

And he is holding them accountable to something written by Moses 1 ,500 years earlier.

You ever find out what book it was? Yeah, I think it was Exodus. Exodus. That's one of Moses' books. I was close. I said books of Moses, right?

You did. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Look, y 'all, think about this for a minute. Jesus is holding them accountable, and he said, have you not read?

What's cute is they had memorized that. They memorized the first five books of the

Bible. And Jesus says, have you never read what God spoke to you?

Now, what it says is what God spoke to you. So even though it was written down by Moses 1 ,500 years earlier, he's holding them accountable and saying that was

God speaking to you. And just like the book of Romans may have been written a little less than 2 ,000 years ago, it's

God speaking to us. How do I know that? Romans 15, 4 says whatever was written in former days was written down for our instruction, not just theirs.

15, 4. That through endurance and through the encouragement of the

Scriptures we might have hope. You are welcome,

Vicki. I love you. You know what's amazing is the passage they just quoted on first look is not very encouraging, is it?

Verse 3 of Romans 15. The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.

No, not really. See, David was noting that he was being persecuted for following God.

Those who insulted God were not insulting him because he was following God. And Christ lived that example out.

But those things have been written down for our encouragement. So we can see, you know what?

God hasn't changed his plan. Hey, Miss Robin. The same plan he had for David, same plan he had for Moses, same plan he had for Abraham, for Sarah, for Ruth, for Rahab, for David.

I think I already said him. Same plan he has for us. Those things were written for our instruction.

And through endurance. Endurance. What does endurance mean?

Well, it doesn't mean trying at one time and give up, right? Endurance means keep fighting the fight.

And that's why Paul speaks of us running a race. We know it's not a sprint, it's a marathon.

We've got to get in spiritual shape. We do that through the scriptures. Through endurance and through the encouragement of scriptures we might have hope.

Mercedes wisely pointed out before we started that line right there about having hope.

Ephesians chapter 2 says that every one of us prior to our salvation were without hope and without God in this world.

Without hope. Our hope comes, it says, the endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

So our hope comes from the scriptures. But wait, verse 5. May the God of endurance and encouragement. So I'm confused.

Does endurance and encouragement come from the scriptures or come from God? Both. Both. Both. Why? Because all scriptures

God breathed. Guys, get this through your head. When you read this, it is

God speaking to you right now. That's what we just read. It's God speaking to you now.

Just like he quoted Moses and told the Pharisees, that's God speaking to you. Just like Peter says when you read

Paul, that's God speaking to you. Just like when we read Paul, he's saying that's God speaking to us. This is God speaking to you right now.

Right now. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Jesus Christ.

So how do we live in harmony with one another? In accord with Jesus Christ. My favorite analogy for this is the triangle.

You remember geometry class in high school? Yeah, barely. You barely remember it? Barely squeaked by in that class.

Because you barely remembered it? Because I slept a lot. Also, it's math and geometry. Alright, think of a triangle, the base, then the bottom right.

I know what a triangle is. You know what? You can't sit there and say... I said I almost failed geometry, I just said

I didn't know my shape. Half of geometry is like making triangles as complicated as possible for like five months.

Right. The base of the triangle, the bottom part, okay? Mercedes is going to get offended if I say base.

The base of the triangle. Alright, I want you to think about this. Mercedes and I.

Now, I love Mercedes. Mercedes is my friend. You see, if I want to get closer to Mercedes, Mercedes wants to get closer to me, and we try to do this, right?

Well, as we move towards the middle, we're both staying on the same level.

We're moving closer to each other, but neither of us are going up. But if we both have the same goal, and that goal is

Jesus, and it's centered right there, just like a triangle. As we both climb up, and we both get closer and closer to God, we naturally come closer and closer together.

What I'm trying to say is this. Team sports are a perfect analogy.

You can take a group of people who otherwise may have nothing to do with each other, but when they have a common goal to achieve, they work together perfectly.

The more practice they have, and the more repetition, the more often they do it. They go closer and closer together, not because they're trying to become friends with each other, but because they have one common goal, they're both going to do the same things to achieve that goal.

By trying to achieve that goal, we end up coming closer together. So it is in Christian walk.

We can be of the same mind and voice with our brothers and sisters in Christ, because we all have the same goal in mind.

Our eyes are fixed on Jesus. That's the idea behind it. Hey, Hannah. Hey, Pastor.

So, verse 5, Romans 15, may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that, verse 6, together you may with one voice, one voice in mind, right, glorify your

Father, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, welcome one another as Christ welcomed you for the glory of God.

Let's talk about two things real quick, and I think we can call it good, unless Mercedes has something to add at the end.

First off, therefore, verse 7, welcome one another as Christ welcomed you.

So, we all have the same foundation of truth. If you're a believer, your foundation of truth should be the

Word of God. That is God speaking to you in 2020. Next year will be God speaking to you in 2021, because His Word doesn't pass away.

It doesn't change, it doesn't adapt to the culture, and as Christians, our truth shouldn't.

It's rock solid. It's right here. We don't need something new. We don't need a new revelation.

We don't need a new program. We need to follow this. Look, this is big enough.

I have a lot I have to read and follow. I don't need anything added to it, right? By the way, that's called legalism.

When you make something the law of God that is not the law of God, legal ism. That's what it's called.

With one voice, glorify the God and Father. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.

So if we all have the same baseline, if someone is my brother or sister in Christ, I am to welcome them as Christ welcomed me.

Let's just back that up for a minute. How did Christ welcome you? We used the example yesterday, just as the

Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. Just as.

What does just as mean? Just as the Lord has forgiven you, you must also forgive.

Ladies and gentlemen, look at yourselves for a minute. Did Jesus wait for you to say you were sorry before he died for you?

Did he vent his frustration or did he store it up for 10 years or did he need to take some time?

Or did he just forgive? And while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

So then he turns around in his Bible and says, and just as I forgave you, so you must also forgive each other.

And just as Christ welcomed us into his family, so we must also welcome each other.

Thanks for setting the standard real high. And lastly, with one voice that we may glorify

God the Father. Hey Reagan. Alright, let's finish this up with what that means right there, glorify.

We talked about this last night too. I'm going to say it online. Do you want me to say it?

No, you're not throwing me under the bus. Okay, I won't throw you under the bus. Hey Christina.

Okay. What is glory? Let me just spend a few minutes on this. Mercedes, stop me if I start talking too much.

Oh good. Go. If you get this right, I'm going to end it.

I'll be so happy. Go ahead. What is glory? It's all of his attributes all at once.

How about a C? Will you take a C? That's fine. Alright. When we say

God is holy, what we mean he is set apart from everything and all other things. His holiness are the attributes that make him

God. That's who he is. His glory is the outward manifestation of that holiness.

In other words, him showing that he's God. Okay? That's all it is. Him showing he's

God. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. When we speak of us glorifying

God, that's us showing the world who God is. So when

God glorifies himself, he makes known to the entire universe that he's

God. His holiness, his attributes, right? When we glorify God, it's the outward expression and manifestation.

We make known to the world how awesome and big our God is. So just like Matthew 5, let your light so shine among men that they see your good works and glorify the

Father which is in heaven. Because our light is shining so brightly, others know who God is and glorify him.

Alright, Mercedes, what's our analogy? What's our analogy for our light shining brightest?

Starts with an M. Rhymes with moon. Oh, moon, yeah. Okay, moon, yeah. Alright, guys.

On its own, the moon doesn't have a light, right? Where's its light come from? The sun. So the glory of the moon in reality is the light from the sun.

So that light shines off the moon and from our vantage point, a full moon can light up the night pretty decently.

But in reality, the moon has no light. So just like that, we have no light on our own.

That light has been put in us by God. Just like the light of the moon has been given to it by the sun, our job is to shine so brightly that others can see us and not glorify us, but glorify the source of that light, being

God. Okay. To sum it up, let's read a reading.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through encouragement of the

Scriptures, we might have hope. Guys, the Bible was written for our instruction. I don't care how long ago it was written. I don't care where it was written.

We've already shown through Matthew 22, 2 Peter 1, 2 Timothy 3, that everything in this is

God breathed out and is meant for our instruction today, even though it was written 1 ,500 years ago.

We recognize that the other authors knew, like Peter, knew that Paul was writing

Scripture. May the God of endurance and encouragement, see the

God of the Scriptures is the God of our endurance and encouragement. The Bible says that endurance and encouragement comes from Scripture, and then it says it comes from God, because God wrote the

Scriptures. Grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Jesus Christ.

So our job, me and Mercedes' job, and all believers out there, is to walk so hand in hand, not because we're trying to please each other, but because we both have the same goal in mind, and by proxy, if we both have the same goal in mind, we grow closer and closer together.

May the God of encouragement and endurance grant you to live in such harmony and accord in Christ Jesus, that together you may, with one voice in mind, glorify the

God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what's the whole purpose of us being together? It's to glorify our

Father in heaven. Our purpose is that together we can make a light so bright that gives

God the most glory possible, more than we could on our own. Okay? That is our job.

And that's what Romans 15 4 -6 is about. It's about reading the Scriptures for our instruction, using that instruction to live in accord with one another, and by living in accord with one another, we shine brightest to glorify

God. That's what it's about. Yep. What else we got?

I ain't got nothing. I mean, that's what we got there. That's what the whole thing's about.

And just notice the transition progression. Progression. Don't say anything. Progression.

Starts with the Scriptures. Starts with each individual reading the Scriptures, becoming encouraged and having endurance.

We live in harmony with one another because we have one goal, and that equals more and more glory to God. And that's what yep, someone just put it.

Whoever went and met at the church, whoever signed in is that right now. That is the purpose of a church. The purpose of a church is not to make you feel better.

The purpose of a church is not to give you something to do on Sunday mornings. The purpose of a church is not so you can follow the traditions of whatever you did when you were a kid.

The purpose of a church isn't to raise your children. The purpose of a church is to bring together a local group of believers.

All the believers in whatever proxy you have, bring them together.

I am uninterested in what color they are. I'm uninterested in how old.

I'm interested in all believers in that area. All believers coming together and with one voice learning and sharpening as iron sharpens iron.

And yes, that involves friction sometimes. Mercedes has to get on to me all the time.

It involves us becoming so close together, not because we want to just hang out.

It's because we love each other because we all love God. And the more we love God, the more we love each other. That brings us together closer and closer together because we have one goal in mind.

And the closer we are together, the more in tune, one mind, one voice we are, the more we glorify our

Father in Heaven. The reason why you can't do that at home is because as iron sharpens iron.

If you have ever sharpened a knife or another weapon, you know there's a lot of friction that happens there. Okay? That can't happen by yourself.

Your walk with Christ... I love how people always say, well, you know, I handle my walk with Christ by myself.

That's no one else's business. The problem is, your relationship with God is based on this book.

And this book says in Hebrews 10, Do not. Do not. And what does do not mean?

Guess what it means in Greek? Forsake the assembling of ourselves together as is the habit of some.

I mean, he calls them out. That's the habit of some of you. But instead, encourage each other and exhort one another into love and good works all the more as you see the day draw near.

Now, if it says promote love and good works and encourage one another, and it says to do that as we're gathered together, that implies that you cannot encourage, exhort, promote love and good works as well by yourself as you could around your other brothers and sisters in Christ.

Lastly, it's kind of amazing. I've heard people say, kids to parents, wives to husbands, church members to pastors.

It doesn't matter. Anytime when there is where you have to humble yourself under somebody.

I love hearing people say something like this. Well, I don't have a problem submitting to God. I just have a problem submitting to this person.

Interesting. Who told you to submit to that person? God. So you, when you say you don't have a problem submitting to God, it actually sounds like you do because He's the one who told you to do that.

So when people say, my relationship with God is between me and Him, well that's interesting because He said it's between you and the other believers.

Well, He also says go to make disciples. Exactly. So it's just, it's just like, look, and this is really important.

Jesus said if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Well, if Jesus commanded you to be united with other believers, then by His command, your walk is not just between you and Him.

It's between you and Him and His other children because He commanded that. Okay.

I think we're good there. I love you, Vicki. What else we got?

Anything else? I think that's it. Can we pray? Yeah. Father God, thank you for all you've given us.

God, whoever hears this, I don't know, 10 or 10 ,000, I pray if there's anything in any heart, if anyone hears these words, and anything in that heart that's not of you,

I pray you get rid of it. Search me and everyone else. Help us. Help us to love you more tomorrow than we did today.

Help every day for you to increase and us decrease a little bit more every day. Day by day, we kill the flesh and we live more for you.

Forgive us for every fail, God. We're just your humble servants. We're nothing fancy. We just want to love you more and more.

Pray for those that are sick. Thank you for the blessing of a church family. Amen. Bye, guys.