Hebrews 4:1-11 (Rest- Jeff Kliewer)

So can we pray because I'm just all flustered of all the hectic things this morning so Lord we come before you we come before your presence

We invite you here to fill this place Do among us what you want and what you have according to your will we place our trust in you

Because you are the God of all creation you are greater and stronger than any

Anything you're higher than come before you this morning singing praises to your name

In Jesus name. Amen You're welcome to stand if you would like Shepherds amazed at the sky

Angels sang glory on high sing Oh Gloria Messiah has come to the earth the promise fulfilled from the curse

Emmanuel Praise the

Lord Higher than any other our

God is healer awesome power our God You turned into wine

Open the eyes of the blind Good the grave

Made all my sin and my shame. There's no one like you

Is Angels we have heard on high together

Angels we have heard on high sweetly singing

And the mountains in reply Echoing their joyous It's why this

Jubilee Come to Bethlehem and see him whose birth the

Angels Through the busyness of the season, you know if things get

Rougher and rougher they start to get speedy more speedy the things start going out of control. So this song prepare him room

We did a few years ago. We've been doing it every year just kind of puts our perspective back on where we need it to be

The lyrics of the third verse are huge Well, we're preparing our hearts

So we want to sing this song together prepare him room Today Profits were longing to see

His kingdom

As busy as Bethlehem Don't say there's no

God display We Took bread and When he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body

Which is for you? Do this in remembrance of me in the same way

He also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the

Lord's death until he comes today we come before the Lord at his table and As is the custom for us to do that once a month

We gather to proclaim his death until his until he comes that is to proclaim the death of Jesus on the cross

Crucified dead and buried and rose again on the third day for us for our salvation

So as I invite you this morning to take of the elements if you don't have one we could certainly

But this is our time to examine This is our time to look and and pray to God to ask him to reveal

What is the sin that so easily entangles me? what are the things that are preventing me from intimacy with Jesus and so take this time to pray to repent and If you're not a

Christian This is the time for you to repent of sin and trust in the finished work of Jesus on the cross see communion is given for the church the cup and the bread

But if you don't call yourself a Christian you can join in this cup and bread to Simply call upon the

Lord confess your sin and say to Jesus. I have fallen short of the glory of God I need a

Savior the wrath of God rests upon me I have no hope in myself in my works in my goodness

Because I have none the Bible says that your good works are like filthy rags

So if you're not a Christian, this is the time for you to repent of sin and trust in Jesus Put your faith in the

God man Jesus who lived a perfect righteous life and Lived a perfect death

To rescue us from our sin to rescue us from our hopelessness and our despair

So come to the cross With that expectation that he will meet with you and deliver you from your sin

Deliver you from your hopelessness and give you a hope that cannot disappoint a rest

That never goes away a rest that comes in Jesus as pastor Jeff will share in a moment come to the cross and find rest this morning

For you that is a Christian come to the cross and be reminded of what he did for you

He says do this in remembrance of me That's the the act that we engage in this morning as to remember what

Jesus did on the cross So a little instruction for you as you take of the cup make sure to lift the clear plastic off first Not the entire

Foil, otherwise, you will trap your bread into the plastic so lift the the thin plastic just like so and you'll you will receive the wafer

What I want to do is is pray and then I'm gonna invite you to take a moment to be still and To seek the

Lord and to ask him to search you the Bible says that if we confess our sins

He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness So go to him this morning with an expectation that he's going to cleanse you

I don't know what your struggle is today what you you come what burden you bear this morning

But if you when you come to the cross you can find rest You can find hope you can find freedom

So let's pray together and then we'll partake of the bread together and the cup

Let's pray Our father we are grateful that we can stand on The promises of your word that are yes and amen and as this at this moment

We offer our bodies to you a living sacrifice Which you say in your word is holy and acceptable in your sight

Not because of us but because of you Thank you Jesus that you have given us your very righteousness that we can stand before a holy

God not based on our works But based on what you have accomplished Jesus on the cross

So as we take a moment now to confess our sins to you Finding forgiveness and rest

Help us to draw near help us to enter into that rest this morning

Jesus name Just take a moment now to confess your sins and I'll close us in prayer and we'll take together.

This is the body of Christ It's broken for you Proclaim the

Lord's death this way. Let's take a neat together You take the cup and peel off the foil there and this is the the new covenant in Jesus's blood

This is what this represents that the veil of the temple being torn from the top to the bottom

That we now have access to the Holy of Holies that we can find mercy and grace in our time of need

This is amazing grace that we can come to God through Jesus So let's rejoice in the new covenant in his blood drink and be refreshed in Jesus name

Amen. Amen.

Let's pray so father we thank you for this meal this bread and cup which reminds us of The great sacrifice that you made we thank you also for this next meal that we're about to eat, which is your word

We pray that it would nourish our souls that it would change us from the inside out Change the way we think

Speak through your word Lord God. We pray that it would be a feast to us in Jesus name.

Amen John Bunyan is Famous for writing the pilgrims progress some of you maybe have read that book

One of his lesser -known books is called grace abounding to the chief of sinners

Grace abounding was it's not as readable as pilgrims progress In fact, the first half of the book is kind of hard to read because it seems like just a constant roller coaster up and down it's the autobiography of Bunyan He struggled with many doubts.

He struggled to have faith and he also had a very sensitive conscience So he was constantly unsure of himself never was able to rest

Got to the point he tells a story in on page 116 of the book when it gotten so bad for him

He writes these words. I Sunk and fell in my spirit and was giving up all for lost

But as I was walking up and down in the house as a man in a most woeful state

This word of God took hold of my heart Ye are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Romans 3 24.

Oh What a difference it made to me then I was as one awakened out of some troublesome sleep and dream and Listening to this heavenly sentence

It was as if I heard it thus expounded to me in other words listened at what that verse meant to him

Romans 3 24 sinner You think that because of your sins and infirmities

I cannot save your soul but see my son is by me and I look upon him not upon you and I will deal with you according to how

I am pleased with him You see Romans 3 24 open

Bunyan's eyes to see that God is not looking at his righteousness Bunyan's righteousness, but he is looking at the

Son of God Whose work on the cross has been accomplished? Bunyan goes on to say at That I was greatly lightened in my mind and made to understand that God could justify a sinner at any time

It was only his looking upon Christ and imputing his benefits to us and The work was forthwith done

You see Bunyan came to rest in the finished work of Christ Bunyan stopped trying to work to earn salvation

He came to rest in what Christ had already done on the cross

It was Jesus who invited us saying come to me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest for my yoke is easy and my burden is light

Finally Bunyan came to that rest now. He would have some more struggles in his life That wasn't just one and done and he no longer struggled anymore

But whenever he would begin to doubt and those doubts would creep up in his mind He would find scripture to rest on whether it was

Hebrews 12 Which gave him great comfort or some other passage of scripture? He would be reminded that the work has been finished.

It was done in Christ So does that mean that Bunyan's work was done? No by coming to rest in Christ, he was now free to work and Motivated to work and in inspired to work and so he began to preach

He became a preacher of the gospel Until the government said you must not preach the gospel in this name

They tried to silence him and they said he could go home But if he kept on preaching he'd be in jail

John Bunyan chose 13 years in prison rather than to be silenced

He didn't listen to the edict But instead kept preaching Christ and as a result what he was in prison

And don't you know that those 13 years in prison are what gave us the Pilgrims progress?

You haven't read it for a while. It's something to go back and read from time to time. Just an amazing book Second only to the

Bible and number of book sales in history Which you're doing pretty good if the only one who's ahead of you is

God himself with the Bible So Bunyan's book has been used mightily

The main idea of my sermon today is that there is a rest That's available to you

When you hear that word rest doesn't that just make you feel good. In fact, I entitled the sermon rest Just rest and for those of you who have been busy and struggling the idea of rest sure sounds sweet, doesn't it?

There is a rest Available to us in Christ and we must help other people find that rest once we've entered into it

So this is what Hebrews 4 1 to 11 is about today Before I read it let me just remind you of the context here in the first chapter

Christ is compared to angels and He's shown to be greater the angels worship Jesus and right after that comparison.

There is a warning Chapter 2 verse 1 to 4 is a warning that you better pay closer attention to what has been spoken lest you drift and then the comparison is made between Jesus and Moses and again,

Jesus is greater than Moses like the builder of a house is greater than the house he built Following that comparison there is once again another warning chapter 3 verse 6

Is the comparison then verse 7 there's a quote from Psalm 95 You must be careful that your heart not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin

Take care verse 12 lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart and then verse 19

So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief So here in the third chapter, there's a warning that if you don't pay close attention if you drift and fall away

You could end up like the Israelites They all fell dead in the desert

They were promised rest and yet they never entered it they came short of it.

It's a it's a very dire warning But now we get the flip side of it. So listen up as we read through 4 1 through 11

Here we have the good news and you'll see the word good news make note of it in the Bible The good news is there are those who enter that rest and that rest is offered to those who believe

So let's read it and then we'll expose it therefore while the promise of Entering his rest still stands

Let us fear Lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it so that there is summarizing what we talked about last week, right?

That's the warning Be careful that that you don't miss this Now we're talking good news verse 2 and following for good news came

To us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listen for we who have believed

Enter that rest as he has said as I swore in my wrath. They shall not enter my rest

Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world for he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way and God rested on the seventh day from all his works and Again in this passage.

He said they shall not enter my rest Since therefore it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience

Again he appoints a certain day today Saying through David so long afterward in the words already quoted today if you hear his voice

Do not harden your hearts For if Joshua had given them rest

God would not have spoken of another day later on So then there remains a

Sabbath rest for the people of God for whoever has entered God's rest Has also rested from his works as God did from his

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience

Now all God's people said amen Trouble is many of God's people are not quite sure what they just read

Right. I see some nods like yeah, I got that but probably there's many that are thinking

Okay, how did that all fit together? I didn't quite follow the train and thought train of thought Hebrews is one of the more complex books in terms of the train of thought this author is brilliant But sometimes brilliance is hard to follow

Right. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna try to follow just piece by piece Following the train of thought and see what the author is doing here.

So as I said in verse 1 The promise of entering his rest still stands and We should fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

The first point that's being made here in verses 1 & 2 is that what

God said way back when Applies to us as we sit here at Cornerstone Church right now

Now that's actually a big statement because remember the Old Covenant applies to Israel So what does that have to say to us?

It was them that fell dead in the wilderness Why is that a warning to us but notice in verse 1 let us fear

Now before going any farther. I want you to notice a change that happens in the second half of verse 1

It says let us fear Lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it

You notice the change? it's from the first person plural to the second person plural and Now all the kids are groaning like oh, no, we're back in school.

What is first person plural? That's the we or the us Let us fear lest any of you.

So when the author says we first person plural kids. This means he's including Himself, right?

But then he goes on to say lest any of you does that include the author? No, you guys are tracking.

All right So the author's concern here is that there would be any among them even one

Any of you should seem to have failed to reach it He's preaching to the church

But he's aware that whenever the church gathers there are likely some who are yet unconverted

Some who have not yet come into that rest yet. The author knows about himself that he is saved he has entered into rest and So there's a change there in the pronoun.

He knows he saved but he's concerned not just for his own salvation

Bunyan knew when he entered that rest But he spent the rest of his life laboring to make sure his family his loved ones his city

Everyone he meets would come to know and that's how we read the pilgrims progress Because he was striving for others in verse 2 for good news came to us

Just as to them Okay. Well, when did a message come to them?

This could be referring to the whole Old Covenant the Mosaic law that they got from Sinai and all of the

Torah But I think more likely this is referring To numbers 13 and 14

Kadesh Barnea when they're offered the promised land and they don't listen.

Do you remember the story? When they wouldn't listen Caleb and Joshua Preached one of the greatest sermons of all time.

One of the things I can never match In a biblical sermon is the economy of words

Try as I may I Always preach way too long. I'm trying believe me.

I am trying to say things as succinctly as I can But there's so much depth. There's so much richness.

I don't want to to leave something on the table But in just three verses in numbers 14

Joshua and Caleb They hear the people grumbling saying let's go back to Egypt and Joshua and Caleb say if God delights in us

Then he will give the land for flowing with milk and honey in that first sentence

What they do is they turn the issue away from what they can see with their eyes to God. It's a

God -centered sermon God gives the land God will give it to us then he says do not disobey

So he presses on the people the importance of obeying the Word of God And then finally he offers encouragement to them building them up With these powerful words saying if God is with us

These people are like bread Now you remember how they saw themselves we're like grasshoppers in our own eyes

They're gonna trample us. There's giants in the land. We're gonna get stomped But Joshua and Caleb said these people are like bread.

We'll eat them He says they have no protection who are their gods our God is Yahweh We will take the land and it was like a

Braveheart moment like yes Joshua and Caleb this amazing sermon you can read it.

It's numbers 14. Just 7 to 9 read it later And how did the people respond all the people turn to those two guys who just preached the greatest sermon you could imagine

Stone them Kill them let's find some leaders that will take us back to Egypt a

Complete rejection rejection. So when I see in verse 2, they were not united by faith with those who listened

They didn't believe it. They didn't listen Here are these people preaching the true Word of God and they don't want to listen

Now there were some who listened that were united in faith and that was the children The children listened

We were told in numbers 14 that all of the adults who saw what God did coming out of Egypt They would fall in the wilderness except for Caleb and Joshua but the children very often children have childlike faith and We as adults need to be willing to hear the

Word of God. Listen, so this is applying What God said way back then to us?

We don't have time to really get into the New Covenant Jeremiah 31

But we're told that God will write on the hearts of the people of Israel in their minds his law

He will be their God and they will be his people. He'll change them from the inside But that promise was made to Judah and the house of Israel the north and the south

So How does that apply to the church? well in Ephesians 3 We learned that there's a mystery that God is including the

Gentiles in the promises made to Israel of the New Covenant Jeremiah 31 all that to say the mystery is revealed to us as we sit here now that what

God said To them has application to our lives

That's what's being said in verses 1 & 2 That promise that they could enter the rest is a promise to us as well

That there is a rest for us now look at verses 3 to 5 The big idea here is actually not that complicated.

It's that God has his own rest That he's able to grant

It's shareable That's the kind of rest that we need it's a kind of rest you can get no other way

You can't get to this rest on your own. Let's read it for we who have believed enter that rest as He has said as I swore in my wrath.

They shall not enter Keywords here my rest Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world

For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way and God Rested on the seventh day from all his works now when it says he has somewhere spoken

It doesn't mean that he doesn't know that's Genesis to Rest No, it's because they didn't have numbers that wasn't written into the

Bible until like the 1600s when the Bible was translated and Chapter verses were added to it.

So the author knows where to find it so he just points to the story here God rested on the seventh day from all his works and Again in this passage.

He said they shall not enter my rest operative words my rest God has a rest

That only he can grant to people that rest is shareable with others now

Men and women cannot offer this kind of rest Men and women can offer agitation

They can stir other people up They can get people into a state of hatred.

It makes me think of what happened in st Louis you guys are familiar when people were just worked up into a fit of rage

And they go to a house that had nothing to do with with anything they were mad about and they tore down the gates and They trampled through and they began to encroach upon this property heading in With fire ready to burn a house down that kind of hatred man can inspire and The crazy thing about our culture is that the

McCloskey family came out to protect themselves on their own front porch and Now they're the ones charging charged with felonies for holding guns out on their own porch

That's insane and there's been no charges issued to the people who broke down the gates and attacked them really insane

Mankind is very good at agitating and stirring up grievance

Getting people to hate one another man can never grant peace with God God has a piece of his own on the seventh day.

He rested. This is what's called Sabbath God can grant this rest the

Sabbath rest to whom he will now does that mean everybody enters it look at verse 6 since therefore it remains for some to enter and Those who formally receive the good news failed to enter because of disobedience in numbers 14

God is pronouncing judgment on the people After Kadesh Barnea They're offered

God's rest his promised land a land flowing with milk and honey We're told in numbers 14 verses 23 to 24.

You have this in your notes None of those who despise me shall see it but my servant

Caleb because he has a different spirit and Has followed me fully

I will bring into the land in which he went and his descendants shall Possess it

Caleb had a different spirit than what the others had Caleb and Joshua went into the promised land

But the others fell dead their bodies dropping dead in the desert over a period of 40 years

Not all people enter this rest. There's two different Destinies It remains for some to enter it

Others who hear the good news fail to enter because of disobedience

Then it says in verses 7 and 8 that there's an urgency then that you today would hear this and enter

Again, he appoints a certain day today Saying through David so long afterward in the words already quoted

Today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts This is where a lot of people get lost.

What does Joshua have to do for if Joshua had given them rest? God would not have spoken of another day later on Who brought the people of Israel into the promised land?

Joshua if that's the only rest that God had in mind then why is it that 400 years later?

David writes psalm 95 and applies that word to the people of Israel. That's the idea here

David spoke because this promise still stands Today if you hear his voice and now the author of Hebrews has written this for us as we sit here today

God is still speaking. He's saying look Joshua didn't settle the matter David said something about it 400 years later.

Here we are today. You better listen. This is urgent There was an urgency to this call so that others would be brought in Caleb Just 45 years after giving that big speech when they said stone him.

Remember that they didn't want anything to do with it 45 years later he was an 85 year old man and He went to Joshua when they crossed over the

Jordan and he said Joshua Remember when we spied out the land and Moses said

God will give it to you Caleb and your descendants will live there

Caleb said to Joshua look at me. I'm 85 years old and I'm as strong right now as I was back then

Now I kind of doubt that might have been physically the case many of us are kind of like Younger in our own minds than we really are especially me on the basketball court.

I still think I can do things that I can't Maybe some of you are the same way, but Caleb at least in his mind

Saw himself as just as strong as a 40 year old man. Maybe he was maybe supernaturally.

He was just as strong I don't know, but the point is he says to Joshua give me that hill

Let me go take it and he goes with that kind of urgency

Why? He wanted his descendants to live in that land

He was willing to fight for that there is an urgency communicated in the word today as we hear this word today, it is urgent that all of us hear and Believe believe what well look at verses 9 and 10.

Now. This is what I'll call pure gospel This is pure gospel.

So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God For whoever has entered

God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his at the heart of the gospel is this idea

That we must come to an end of ourselves We must stop working to earn something from God The good news of the gospel is that with empty hands

We can come to a holy God bringing nothing to the table and Be found acceptable

No work No goodness, no righteousness of our own Clothed in filthy rags we can bring that to God and he will take off the filthy rags

Clothes clothes us clothes us in his righteousness Give us the gift of faith.

I've often described the gospel as five major ideas all of them essential number one the person of Christ You're gonna preach the good news to somebody you need to tell them who

Christ is. He is the Messiah the Son of God God in flesh number two the work of Christ To preach the good news of the gospel.

You must tell people that Jesus died on the cross Was buried and on the third day he rose from the dead and that he did this to atone for sins

As a substitute to turn the wrath of God away from the sinner. That's what he did third you need to tell people that this is according to the scripture that God has spoken through the prophets and All these things are fulfilled

This is God's gospel Fourth the good news to us is that he's giving us forgiveness of sin and eternal life

That's what's so good about it You get your sins washed away and you're given the gift of eternal life and you will live forever.

Isn't that good news? but the fifth point is one we often miss and Very often we assume people who utterly deny this

We assume they're fine The fifth point is sola fide faith alone

You see the gospel here we are taught very clearly is for those who have entered rest

What is this rest the word rest here corresponds to salvation? Being saved one must be born again be made new a new creation and This is described as a rest no longer working

You See all the religions of the world prescribe work for a person to do for them to earn righteousness from God It might be the sacraments of a church or the

Mormon temple rites Or the Ten Commandments for Jewish people who are trying to obey those in order to be justified

It might be the eightfold path of Buddhism It could be the five pillars of Islam or any other man -made system that involves working to earn salvation but what makes

Christianity the true gospel the true gospel different from all the rest is that God has done the work and We must enter rest

We cannot come with boasting No haughtiness

There must be an utter Humbling of the sinful man Who then comes to God and says

I have nothing Save me rescue me. Forgive me the sinner the beating of the chest

There has to come that point of humility in order to be born again

This is the rest of God notice in verse 11 so that no one may fall

I'm sorry verse 10 He jumped ahead there and then we have one more verse Whoever has entered

God's rest Has also rested from his works that is an essential point of the gospel when you're teaching this gospel to your children and to the world

Please help them understand Titus 3 5 he saved us not because of works done in righteousness

But by his mercy Romans 327 it's so that no one may boast

If I quote Ephesians 2 8 9, I'm sure many of you can follow along. Don't say it out loud.

They'll be distracting but for by grace You are saved through faith sola fide not through works not

I Kind of lost it there. Let me just read it that way. I'm not twisting it For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God Not a result of works so that no one may boast

This is the point. That's what this passage is about It's entering rest

Where you stop striving and you trust in the finished work of Jesus his completed work

Lastly verse 11 let us therefore strive to enter that rest get it

Now this is what threw me because I didn't get it When I first read it

I said strive rest You have to strive to rest

That's a paradox And I thought well maybe this is just paradoxical language to help us to understand resting better I was confused anybody else here confused

You know what unlocked it for me Seeing that note that we made earlier. Remember chapter 4 verse 1.

I Think there's a parallel here with that idea. I told you to make note of this So if you weren't listening, this is why you're lost right now

Pay careful attention chapter 4 verse 1. What does it say? Let us fear lest any of you

Should seem to have failed to reach it us the church all of us here should fear lest any even one of You the church should fail to reach it now look back at verse 11.

Let us Therefore strive I'm like the author of Hebrews right now in that I am at rest.

I Know that I'm saved. I don't have to strive for this rest. I'm at rest

And many of you know what that rest is like But what are we to strive for we are to strive to enter that rest

So that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience Same sort of disobedience as what as the people who fell in the wilderness

When Caleb preached He knew God He knew his God already those were the powerful words of a saved man and so he was

Striving with the people. Did you know in numbers 14 when he preached that sermon? He ripped his clothes

Everybody would pay attention if I rip my shirt collar right now, wouldn't you? You guys be like, whoa.

Okay. What what are you saying? I'll pay attention now You see what he was doing.

He was striving with the people He knew God he knew the rest but they didn't know it they would they would miss it and we are in danger

Let me tear my clothes. We are in danger that there's someone here who has not yet entered that rest

Have you been born again? Have you experienced a new birth?

Have you coming in to the end of yourself and called out God have mercy on me the sinner I'm striving for you right now

Brothers and sisters you need to strive for one another Don't assume Salvation, but encourage one another as long as it is called today exhort preach the gospel

Write notes to people in this church Exhort one another with the gospel.

So in closing, that's where we are It's a good promise of entering his rest

You can be at rest with God through faith in Christ if you've never put your trust in Christ Right now in the quietness of your your own heart nobody sees your heart, but you know it

Confess how wretched you are Confess your sin to him Open your hands and say

I have nothing Save me the sinner. He will save you but you have to come to that end of your working stop trusting in righteousness

You say well, I don't do the Buddhist eightfold path or the Ten Commandments or the five pillars. No But you still think you're fine.

You still think you're a good person The Bible says your Good deeds.

That means the best things you do for your family when you cook them a meal The good things you do are filthy rags in his sight

Imagine every rebellious Disobedience in the course of your life Bottom line is you need a

Savior. You need to look to Jesus to take your sin away Enter that rest through faith in Christ alone.

You've never prayed to receive him do that today Lastly and this is really fun.

This is an announcement as a saved person You should have the heart of a lion

Caleb was a descendant from Judah the lion of the tribe of Judah Genesis 49 10 is

Christ We should have a Caleb like spirit to take the hill for the king

And we have a Caleb in our midst Ben. Come on up here. We have an announcement to tell you

This is really exciting The Lord at our last board retreat

This is in March of this year Eric and the other elders and I and the deacons all prayed together and we came out of that retreat

Believing that God was calling us to plant a church by 2024 sometimes

God's plans are Even faster than the best we can imagine Caleb's this is your 2020, right in the year 2020

Most people in the world are falling back In fact, sadly many churches have decided just to cower and fall back

But Caleb said let's take a hill How about we in the year 2020 decide to move forward in the midst of adversity?

I Believe God is calling Ben to this so I'm gonna call on Ben here to share with us What's been happening?

It's exciting. So put on your seatbelt I wanted to read a prayer request that I put in our family prayer journal.

It's from October 13th 2017 so just about three years ago.

It says location of new church Question mark and then it says

New Covenant Presbyterian 240 Creek Road. I say that because over the last

Few months at least we've been talking to Jeff and I have been talking to this church

Right around the corner for me in the woods Rancocas woods. You may be familiar with off of Creek Road They asked me end of September and said could you come and preach and I said, okay

Let me check with my pastors like Jeff said sure go for it So I go I preach and I joke to Jeff and say, you know, we should take over Let's just tell him we're gonna take over and I we laughed it was you know, and and it's as it turns out we talked afterward they had mentioned that their pastor had resigned and that they were extremely open to another church coming in to help them to Take over and I was floored

Because I had no expectation that they were gonna set in little did I know that they didn't have a pastor at the time

So we began the conversation further and said, okay Well, I'll preach the last

Sunday of every month great. And then they said well How about if we had you as full -time pulpit supply?

I said, okay, let's talk. Let's pray Let's figure out what we need to do and then we determined then the

Lord Brought the Spirit in full unity and agreement said no let's plant a church in the church building and so January 10th of next year.

We will start the rock Church in the woods off of Creek Road and April's gonna put up the logo that we put together for you.

There it is. So the reason I bring this to you is Because we are the the child being sent out from our our parent which is cornerstone

We're not in competition, but we're just like a child that a child needs support You would not send your son or daughter out into the world without caring for them without supporting them and so our plea our call is to Invite you to ask you to how is

God may be calling you to help and to serve to pray to give? Next Sunday, we're gonna have an interest meeting.

So after church after the 1030 around 1145 We're going to meet and talk about what is this mission and vision?

What does this look like a church plant inside another church over in the woods

So if you have any interest at all Just come to that interest meeting and hear more about what we're doing in a very short time

January 10th is really really close to come So that's the big announcement very excited that this is happening.

The Lord has done it It's God that's opened the door. It's not of our doing not of any man's doing

Certainly, no one would have thought that you would go and plant a church in this crazy time and God said

I don't care We're going so here we are and I just want to invite you. Yeah. Yeah So praise

God Let me call on any elders that are here and also Tim Robinson to come to the front.

We're gonna pray for Ben guys So you call the rock right and we're cornerstone.

So that means you're a chip off the old block Yeah So, um, we're gonna pray for Ben.

I wanted Tim to come up here because Guys, this is again the providence of God It's been two years probably since it was it was

Easter because the same day Timmy got baptized It was Easter of 2018 that you came here and Ben has then started mentoring

Tim in the youth ministry So we have a guy for hopefully a seamless handoff of the youth ministry big shoes to fill

Tim Do you have any words to say to Ben or an encouragement? You can say it right here come speak into the mic

Yeah, um, really? I'm just really happy for Ben if you know Ben, you know that Planting a church has really been a really strong desire from the

Lord that he's had for a while So if you know him, you really can't help but be really happy for him and He's been really really faithful to the rock and the living stones and it doesn't really surprise me that the

Lord is I think Giving him something more to be faithful over and I'm just really happy for him.

I love this guy All right, we're gonna we're gonna pray for Ben and we're gonna pray for this church plant because think about it when we're adding disciples

Right, that's addition people getting saved coming to the church. But when you plant a church, that's multiplication

It's like planting a whole new lampstand To shine light into the world So we're gonna pray that this thing takes off that the

Lord will put his hand of Blessing on it and that God's favor would rest on Ben Eric. Would you mind praying?

All right worship team come on up and guys, let's stand up and we'll close in a song

Oh Yes, I know from Satan's We You shall come to Desire He Shall come to Power of the