The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
Numbers 21:4-9the bronze snake on the pole, used as the Old Testament type that Jesus draws on when speaking to Nicodemus
4 They traveled from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom The soul of the people was very discouraged because of the journey.
5 The people spoke against God, and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loathes this disgusting bread.”
6 Yahweh sent venomous snakes among the people, and they bit the people. Many people of Israel died.
7 The people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against Yahweh, and against you. Pray to Yahweh, that he take away the serpents from us.” Moses prayed for the people.
8 Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen, that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
9 Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of brass, he lived.
mentioned as the chapter where conflict with religious leaders begins, and where the man at the Pool of Bethesda is healed
1 After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches.
3 In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water;
4 for an angel went down at certain times into the pool, and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.
5 A certain man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.”
9 Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
10 So the Jews said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry the mat.”
11 He answered them, “He who made me well, the same said to me, ‘Take up your mat, and walk.’”
12 Then they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your mat, and walk’?”
13 But he who was healed didn’t know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a crowd being in the place.
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “Behold, you are made well. Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
15 The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 For this cause the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”
18 For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus therefore answered them, “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.
20 For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires.
22 For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son,
23 that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.
24 “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
25 Most certainly, I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God’s voice; and those who hear will live.
26 For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself.
27 He also gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man.
28 Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes, in which all that are in the tombs will hear his voice,
29 and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
30 I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous; because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me.
31 “If I testify about myself, my witness is not valid.
32 It is another who testifies about me. I know that the testimony which he testifies about me is true.
33 You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth.
34 But the testimony which I receive is not from man. However, I say these things that you may be saved.
35 He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
36 But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John, for the works which the Father gave me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about me, that the Father has sent me.
37 The Father himself, who sent me, has testified about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form.
38 You don’t have his word living in you; because you don’t believe him whom he sent.
39 “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
40 Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life.
41 I don’t receive glory from men.
42 But I know you, that you don’t have God’s love in yourselves.
43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
44 How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?
45 “Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.
47 But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
referenced briefly as where Jesus says 'I am the way, the truth, and the life'
1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.
2 In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.
4 Where I go, you know, and you know the way.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him, and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
12 Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father.
13 Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it.
15 If you love me, keep my commandments.
16 I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,—
17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also.
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
21 One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.
24 He who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word which you hear isn’t mine, but the Father’s who sent me.
25 I have said these things to you, while still living with you.
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.
27 Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, give I to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.
28 You heard how I told you, ‘I go away, and I come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I said ‘I am going to my Father;’ for the Father is greater than I.
29 Now I have told you before it happens so that, when it happens, you may believe.
30 I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world comes, and he has nothing in me.
31 But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father commanded me, even so I do. Arise, let us go from here.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Philip walked the congregation through steps six and seven of the twelve steps, connecting the idea of humility and rebirth directly to a passage from Numbers 21 and then to Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. The sermon asked a simple but serious question: are you entirely ready to let God remove what is broken in you? The answer, he argued, is found not in self-effort but in looking to the way God has already made.
What was said
The sermon picked up where the previous weeks had left off in a series on the twelve steps. Steps one through five had covered admitting powerlessness, believing a higher power could restore, deciding to surrender, taking a fearless moral inventory, and confessing what that inventory revealed. Step six is the question that follows all of that work: are you entirely ready to have God remove those defects of character? Philip noted that readiness is harder than it sounds, especially when a particular sin has become part of how a person sees themselves.
Step seven is the ask. We humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings. Philip acknowledged that some people have criticized the twelve steps for not naming Jesus explicitly, but he pushed back gently on that. If you follow steps two and three honestly, he said, and you genuinely turn your will over to God and ask him to show you the way, God is going to show you Jesus. Humility and rebirth belong together.
That brought the sermon to Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night in John 3. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a serious student of scripture, and he came willing to ask. Jesus told him he had to be born again. Nicodemus could not make sense of it. Rather than explaining the metaphor directly, Jesus pointed Nicodemus back to a story from Numbers 21 that both of them already knew.
The Numbers 21 story is strange on its face. The Israelites in the wilderness complained against God and against Moses, detesting the manna God was providing them daily. God sent venomous snakes among them, people were bitten and died, and then the people came to Moses and confessed their sin. Moses prayed for them. God's answer was not medicine or a change in circumstances. He told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole, and anyone who looked at it would live.
Philip organized what happens in that story around three words: sin, sorrow, and salvation. The people sinned by speaking against God and against Moses. Sorrow followed immediately in the form of death among them. But God made a way. It was a strange way, and it required nothing more than looking at the thing God had provided. Anyone who looked, lived.
Jesus told Nicodemus that just as Moses lifted up that snake in the wilderness, the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. The provision God made in the desert was temporary. What Jesus was pointing to goes further. Philip argued that every person in the room has some besetting sin that only God's salvation can bring them through, and that the way God has made is still strange to a twenty-first century mind, but it is still the way. The sermon closed with a reading from a letter by Alan Levi to a young person going off to college, which described the cross plainly and without argument, and the congregation then shared in communion together.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Ray talked about throwing his daughter's toy cow out the window and lying awake that night wishing he were more patient. When have you recognized a fault in yourself that you knew God wanted to change, and what did that moment feel like?
The sermon described step six as asking whether you are 'entirely ready' to have God remove a defect, and noted that sometimes we resist change because a flaw has become part of how we see ourselves. Is there anything in your life like that, something you know is wrong but that you are not quite ready to let go of?
Yeah. That's correct. That's good. That makes sense.
Okay.
Fantastic. Okay.
Fantastic. That's good.
Yes, sir.
Thank you very
much. I will. Hey. How are you? Good.
Doing great.
Doing great. You were listening.
Where are y'all from? Okay.
I was I was hearing the accent, but not enough of good enough. Germany. Fantastic. Welcome. Glad to hear.
How are y'all? I know where you're from. Yeah. That accent stands out. She is doing very, very well.
Yeah. She went to her first SEC football game yesterday, so that was culturally sweet. She
met up with some friends. Tanya one of Tanya's best friends from
high school there. They're been. So yeah. High school also met some other. She said, I wonder how long it was
gonna take for me to talk to somebody who who kinda we had a connection. You know? And so there's this guy. He's a
couple of different instances.
He's in a class, which I met him outside of her class, and they're talking about something. And
Carry on. All is well. Good. Back corner. Yeah.
Holding it up.
Good deal. Here we are.
Good. Thank you. Hey there. Hey. Hey, everybody.
How are you? Doing alright.
Good to see you. I'm glad you all are here. We spent last evening, the band, first piece band, spent last evening in Bondurant at the Hootenanny at Dan and Nancy Toalson's place. It's going on still today into into the night. We've got a few folks that I know are down there.
Y'all are welcome to come on down and join. It was fantastic yesterday. With us, we have Danny and Reyna Ortley. So they were down playing last night, and we asked them if they'd come up and play with us this morning. So they're here.
You need to know them. We have several folks visiting. It's pretty nice to see us all gathered in God's name. Would you stand up together? And we're gonna kinda follow after the leader here singing how great is our
God or how great thou art actually. How great thou art, Blake. They'll catch up with us. How great thou art.
And when I think that God is Son not sparing, send him to die, When Christ shall come, we'll shout
Amen. Thank you, Danny. Y'all can have
a seat for a second. We have a few announcements and I'm gonna invite Amy up. She's got something she wants to say about children's church and all kinds of goodness. You wanna actually, Blake's coming with a microphone. How about I see what's next on these little slides?
Old bills. Y'all know what that is? Anybody? Everybody? Old bills is sort of a way of amplifying giving to charitable causes in Teton County.
And so we are in that time frame before the old bills fun run, but donations are amplified. Usually, a dollar in is about a dollar and 0.5 out. So if you want to give to something like the Good Samaritan Mission or Compass Women's Care or First B's Benevolence Fund, you can give through old bills and it amplifies your giving. The giving season is right now. If you wanna do that, you're welcome to.
There's an Awana Leader Meeting, but I'm gonna turn to Amy who has a microphone in her hand. Hi. Should be soon. Yes.
Okay. Now is it okay. Okay. First, if you don't mind, can Philip pray over teachers and students? I know our schools in Teton Valley started last week, but I know a lot of schools really officially start this week from homeschool to Jackson schools and everywhere.
I just wanna pray over all the teachers, all the parents, all the students. So if you are a student, will you stand so we can just put our hands on you and just pray over you? And if you're going to school, I appreciate it.
Father, we come to you today, and we just wanna pray for the kids that are going back to school, that you would put a hedge of protection around them and help them to have a good year. And also as we get back to Sunday school here at the church that you would speak through all of the volunteers and all of the leaders and just guide these children's hearts. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Thank you.
Okay. With that said, children's church is in full swing starting actually next week. We're gonna start back with lower elementary has been going, and that's kindergarten through second. And then our upper elementary is gonna start back, and that's our third through fifth graders. We kinda take a break over the summer with that group.
And then middle school with miss Judy and mister Tim, they faithfully serve down in the library with the middle school and high school kids, and they go through the book of John. It is phenomenal. And I know a lot of our middle school and high schoolers love to sit in here, but if you would just take one Sunday to go down there and hear what they're preaching, it is great. You do an awesome job too. I'm just encouraging them also.
Sorry. Either way, I want my middle schoolers and high schoolers to also join downstairs if you can. Okay. So nursery is always open year round, six months old to six months to two years old. If you notice, there's a little gap.
Like, where are those three and four year olds going? So the nursery is open. We always have volunteers. We have two volunteers down there, but now we're starting something new, and we're gonna have a preschool class downstairs. The nursery kinda has a wall between it, and we're putting nursery on one side.
And these preschoolers are now gonna have a Sunday school class from ages three to four year olds. And I'll be teaching it this fall, and maybe we'll have some extra teachers. But I'm super excited about it. We're gonna have music, and they can come in at nine. And they'll have music, and they'll have snacks.
And then around 09:30, we'll start their lesson. So we're super excited about that. And those veterans that have been joining the lower elementary, I just wanna make sure that y'all understand that if there's a four year old that still to go into the lower elementary class, they are more than happy to. But now we have two options. So we really wanna keep that lower elementary as a kindergarten through second grade.
So that's why we're opening up this preschool Sunday school class. So last but not least, in order for all of this to run smoothly and just like in Awana's or Vacation Bible School and all the things we do, we need volunteers. And it's not that we need them as much as the kids need y'all in there. Just speaking truth to them, everything is provided. It is super amazing to watch the kids read the word, learn about God's word, and as they bow their heads and they're praying.
It's a thirty minute from 09:30 to ten. And if you just grab your phone and take a picture of this, it'll send you to my phone number, and you can just text me and say, hey. I'm interested. And there are so many opportunities by just sitting and listening or by teaching because we always ask that there's two volunteers in every single room in every class. So if you just wanna be a listener or an extra pair of hands or you wanna teach, even just one Sunday a year would be awesome.
So if you wanna take a picture of that or see me or Philip or Ray or Carl, anybody, and especially with the Awana's coming up, that is the best place to volunteer. It is pretty amazing. The kids are learning God's scripture, and I don't know how they learn it so quickly. I'm still working on it. So thank you so much.
Thank you for my time.
That's Amy Jordan. Philip and Amy together are the children's coordinators here at First Bee. This is a new one. New first slide, think we've done this. There's a small group, Jamboreepaloosa, that's happening.
Equipping and encouraging in the fellowship hall will be September 22 between services. If you are considering hosting, leading, attending, or you are just somewhat interested in being plugged into a small group, please join us down the hall in between services, small group Jamboree Paloosa. That's happening. September 22 for small groups. There is a Ment's Lunch study that is going on Thursdays.
We're in second Peter right now. It is fantastic. 11:55 in the Fellowship Hall. Do not think that we are gonna provide lunch. We are not gonna provide lunch.
It's just called a lunch study because the time that it happens, come and go as needed, but it's usually 11:55 to one, and it's a good time to pray for one another and study the Bible together. I love that time right there. And I think that's it. Did I forget anything? I've got one more.
Berkeley, come on up, man. Ask Amy for the microphone.
I can I'll just shout.
Okay. Just shout. Hello, church.
This Wednesday morning is the Men's Alliance Breakfast. So it's the first Wednesday morning of every month, 06:30 in the Fellowship Hall. We'd love to see you men there. It's a great time for men of our churches to get together. Be encouraged by a testimony.
Just have some time in fellowship.
Men's Alliance, 06:30AM, Wednesday morning for the people on the Internet.
Thank you for the on the Internet. Also, shout out for the small group Jamboree Palooza.
Small group Jamboree Palooza. Yes.
I would ask you guys to be interested. Small group at this church for me and my wife has Jackson. It's really really powerful to be a tight community with a small group of people. So Ray said, if you're interested, I would ask you
to be Please be interested. Awesome. That's good. Pique your interest. Alright.
And now, would you stand and let's sing. This is Amazing Grace.
Of world. Boy. All that you've done for me. Jesus, I thank for all that you've
done for me.
Worthy as the
Man, good singing first thing morning.
All throughout my history, your faithfulness has walked beside me. The winter storms made way for spring. In every season from where I'm standing,
Help me remember when I'm weak. The fear will come, but fear will lead.
You lead my heart
to victory.
You are my strength, and you always well there. I
See the cross, the empty grave.
The evidence is endless. All my sin
rolled away because of you, oh Jesus. See the cross, the empty grave, the evidence
is endless. All my sin rolled
away because
you.
All my days I've been held in your hand. From the moment that I wake up I love your voice. You have led me through the fire in darkest nights. You are close like in the goodness of God all I will see of the goodness of God
Now, let's praise God for his goodness today. You guys can have a seat. I'm gonna do a song for you guys. Get this guitar back in tune. It smells like a campfire, this guitar does.
It didn't last.
And that's that's a good thing. I'm gonna invite the ushers to come forward for the worship through giving time and would y'all pray with me while he's tuning up? Lord God almighty, I pray that you would tune our hearts to sing your grace. I pray that you would use us, lord, as an instrument, that you would play us, lord, that you would use us as an instrument, that we would be tuned in to what's going on, that we would, Lord, see and understand with your eyes and with your mind, the mind of Christ. May we be ready to do your will, Lord, in your way.
I pray that you would take what's placed in these plates, the financial resources that go in Lord are one thing. I pray that you'd take those and you'd you'd do your kingdom's work. You'd multiply them to do whatever it is that you want done. But Lord, I also pray that you'd take every conversation, every bit of time that we hand over, Lord, knowingly to you consciously saying, we don't know what to do, Lord, but I feel like I ought to do this. Are you leading me in that way, Lord?
I'm willing. Would you take all of our willingness, Lord, and would you turn that into a blessing for those around us? In Jesus' name, we ask that you'd give us your eyes, your mind, your heart, and you would allow us, Lord, by your spirit to walk it out like our joint air, Jesus. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Rayna and I just dropped our youngest daughter off at college a week ago. And so we were, gonna be empty nesters, but our middle son moved back home the same week, so it didn't work out like we want anything. But as we were leaving, leaving Maggie at the curb at college, I couldn't help but flashback. And I remember a morning that all three kids, I'm not sure where Reina was, and I was driving them to school. And, we were late because we're always late.
And, the kids are eating their cheese tortillas. We're driving and we're making it through these lights. And and Maggie, she was just in her car seat right behind me. And she had little cow, and when we squeezed it, its eyes would light up, and it would say, it was terrible, straight from the pit of darkness. And she kept reaching around and shining it in my eyes.
And I'm like, Maggie, we're late. Please stop. Please stop. Please stop. We gotta go.
So we make it through this light, and she does it one more time. And I just grabbed it. I'm impatient. I'm feeling stressed. And the window was open, and I made a poor decision.
I I took the cow, and I threw it out the window. And I thought it was a strong moment of parenting. It was not. They, they all started to cry and and why did you throw it's Maggie's favorite cow. Why'd you throw it out the window?
And so we get to school and, they all slink off and I'm driving away thinking you're 40 years old and you're throwing cows out the window. Picked her up, apologized to her, and wasn't that big a deal. But that night, I'm trying to go to sleep, and I'm just laying there. Everybody's asleep in the house. And and I'm like, lord, I'm impatient.
I'm selfish, and I wish I wasn't like this. I should be getting better as I get older. I snuck down to this piano that we have at our house, and I don't play very well. But I started to kinda play a song and write a song. And it hit me that that I you know, I if I had one prayer in this world is that my kids know who God is.
That my my kids are raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord. So I was writing this song never thinking I would play it for anybody, and ended up playing it a lot through the years. So I don't know what your life is like, the things that you're facing, but this is a song, about trusting in God with the things in your life and knowing that you don't have all the answers. And I thought this would be a good song a week after we drop Nikki off from college and our son Jack moves back into our basement. So here we go.
Can I tell you the truth?
It's the middle of the
night and I can't fall asleep. There's something on my mind. You've given me your grace. Can I ask for something more? It's all I really want.
Won't hide it anymore. So let me say as humbly as I can.
I know I don't deserve your every blessing, And yet I've asked a thousand things of you. But if I had
only one prayer you could answer,
I pray my children grow to walk in truth. Given my mistakes, I made more than a few. I haven't always been a reflection of you. So I'm asking for your grace and praying for your love to fill in all the holes and mercy from above. So let me say this humbly as I can.
I know I don't deserve your every blessing. And yet I've asked a thousand
things of you.
But if I had only one prayer you could answer,
I pray my children grow to walk in truth.
And I know my spirit helps me in my weakness.
And you
groan for me and help me make it through.
So can you teach me
how to pray from the cradle to the grave
And help my children grow to walk in truth. And help me not to throw the things that move.
Thank you. Thank you. That's fantastic. Oh my goodness. Come on down.
Come on down to the hootenanny tonight. It's time now for nursery k through second high school and middle schools. That leaves out third and fifth graders for this week, but it'll be back on for next week. So it's time for children's church downstairs. And so we have been going through for the last few weeks while I've been preaching, we've been going through the 12 steps.
And so in the process of going through this, I believe repetition is the key to learning. Some of y'all are coming to see these steps for the first time and some of you have seen have seen them about eight or nine times now. And so you should be pretty familiar with them. So step one is when we admitted that we were powerless over our problem. Whatever that problem is.
An Alcoholic Anonymous said, so we admitted we were powerless over alcohol. Right? That our lives had become unmanageable. This first step is what the early a a literature calls deflation at depth. It's realizing that I have a problem that I am incapable of handling by myself.
So are you with me so far? Step one? Okay. Step one, please don't stay deflated at depth for long before you get to step two. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity, restore us to wholeness.
Being saying, hail and whole is the goal and that second one is a willingness, belief, comma, and seeking. Okay? Willingness, belief that there is a higher power who could restore me to sanity. So it's not only I can't, but there is a higher power God who can. And then the third step is we made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.
Step three is to say, I can't. God can. I'm gonna let him. I'm gonna allow that. I'm turning over my decisions to his will for my life over to the care of God.
This is a decision to surrender and we tend to be pretty headstrong. In that, this is a protestant church. Right? And we're protestants who were raised in America, so we're like double protestants. We can't wait to argue with somebody.
It's just an individualistic sort of nation. We made a decision to surrender. That's not an easy decision for an American to make. A decision to surrender to the care of God as we understood him. This is a statement of humility.
This is saying, I don't know everything that there is to know about God. For those of us who were raised in church, protestants, Americans, we tend to answer all the questions in our theology and we say, no, this is right. It's gotta be a pre trib rapture. It's gotta be. If it's not, die heretic.
Move away from me. As we understood him, opens up the possibility that God might be a little different than we have a preconceived notion of him being. So we made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him. Step four, we made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Now, it's collective.
All these are we's. They're collective. It works best practice in community, small groups better than larger groups, Berkeley. Small group helps. It really does.
We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves, but that where it does happen best in community, it really is an individual thing to look at your life in the light of God's word. That's how he expresses his will. It's one of the ways he expresses his will. So step four is self examination. And I have talked to a lot of people who have walked through the program for a long time, the 12 step program, and they say, step four, man, it's tough.
It's really, really tough. I can only take a little bit of that at a time. Fearless and searching is hard. I see something that I don't like and then there's this list. This list is becoming famous.
This is a list of all of the vice lists in the New Testament. It's just the ones in the New Testament, not the ones in the old. We could add at least 613 more from the Old Testament. Right? But they start off sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, and it just keeps going.
And if you think, I'm doing alright. Look at this list. Examine it fearlessly and searching it for moral inventory and see what is it that God has already told me is an issue. Quenching the spirit, despising the words of the prophets, being self indulgent, double tongue. They're all on there.
Conceited, hearty, boastful, inventing new ways to do evil. Oh, the scams. The internet scams. The email scams. The phishing scams.
Inventors of new ways to do evil. Foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Oh, gracious. That list is pretty all encompassing. If you're doing a fearless and searching moral inventory in a humble manner, you'll find something that God wants to transform in your life.
And that's what we've been talking about here lately. Step five. After self examination, we admitted it to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs. It's being specific, recognizing it, acknowledging it for ourselves, but also admitting it to God. And admitting it to God is what he's asking for.
Not just admitting it to God, but agreeing with God maybe would be an even better way to say it. But it helps to have somebody with skin on them. Small group helps. It really does. If you've got a good close friend that you can say, man, I'm struggling with this, that or the other thing, it really helps.
And that confession to God is the step five. Step six, I mentioned this last week. We were entirely ready to have God remove all of these defects of care. What we character. What we find in step four, what we've admitted to God and to ourselves and to another person in step five, are you sure you're ready for him to remove it?
And I talked about last week, if it's a part of our identity, if that's the way that we see ourselves, oh, I'm just a big eater. Well, I'm just a you know, I'm happy guy. I'm the I'm the life of the party. It'd be completely different if I quit whatever it was. Know?
Are you entirely ready or do you want to hold on to that? The entire readiness is important to contemplate, think about, and then that is a conviction that this is indeed wrong and I'm ready to see it change. Now last week, the scripture was from John five where the guy that had been lying by the well by the Pool Of Bethesda for thirty eight years and Jesus asked him, are you ready to get well? Are you do you want to be made well? That's an important step.
Conviction conviction, readiness to change. And then step seven is we humbly ask him to remove our shortcomings. This is the new this is the new form. Okay? Of this one.
Step seven, over the years has changed a bit because of probably because of bad history or bad experiences in church or with church folk, people have associated a certain judgmental attitude with Christ. And that's to our shame, honestly, the church. Step seven, we humbly ask him to remove our shortcomings. I'm gonna get to that. Step seven is about humility and rebirth.
Now the early literature from AA and the early literature from a lot of these types of recovery programs, humility is always mentioned. It's still mentioned regularly that I don't know it all. I'm humbling myself recognizing that I don't and I can't know it all. But rebirth tends to fall by the wayside sometimes. If you ask a Christian, what's what's the problem with twelve step?
They said just that they don't say Jesus. They never say Jesus. They never say anything about being born again. Well, alright. Calm down.
Let's all calm down. It's in there to say in step three, I don't know the way. I do believe there is a way. God show me what it is and I'll turn over my life to you. God's gonna show you Jesus.
If he doesn't show you Jesus, you've missed a step somewhere. Humility and rebirth. Being born again. Actually, that's where we're gonna take a leap today. We're gonna go into scripture from there.
And of course, if I'm mentioning rebirth or being born again, John three. How many of you all knew that's where I would go if I mentioned being born again? Everybody knows that. Like, this is you gotta get here. This is the interview at night with Nicodemus.
Nicodemus, the Pharisee. The Pharisee who starts off the conversation with, we know that you're from God. This is early. It's early. Right?
The conflict and confrontation all starts in chapter five where we were last week. But this is two chapters before that. This is before the Samaritan woman at the well, after his first disciples came to believe in him at the wedding at Canaan chapter two. John the Baptist witness of him has gone is going forward. It'll finish out chapter three actually.
Nicodemus comes to him at night and he goes, I just we know that you're from God. You've got to be from God because nobody could do what it is that you do if they were not from God. But I need for you to show me how it works. And Jesus says, well, you got to be born again. And that's what he says.
Okay. You got to be born again. And Nicodemus says, don't get it. I don't understand how that is. I don't understand that.
Can I go into my mother's womb again and be born for a second time? That doesn't make any sense. Jesus, obviously, it's a metaphor. So this is what you might expect this sermon to be about. Sorry.
Nicodemus coming at night, John three, the concept of being born again. Yeah. Yeah. We've heard it. It's a Baptist church.
I expected that when it came through the Nicodemus struggling with that issue. He's a Pharisee. He knows about righteousness of the law. Right? He knows that and has practiced it for a long time, attempted it, and he's more open than most because he came to interview Jesus.
He's struggling with that issue of being born again. And then we'll get to John three sixteen. I'll do a big fat whosoever. Everybody comes forward and accepts Jesus. That's the way.
Right? That's the way I grew up. That's the church I grew up in. John three, we know what that's about. Then the hymn of invitation, just as I am, everybody comes forward.
We give them the right hand of fellowship. Welcome into the church. Okay. I wanna examine John three again. Just before Jesus gets to John three sixteen, he takes him in what we might think is a weird direction.
Now, I have been in church my whole life. I have known lots of scriptures from very early on. And I think I was probably in college before I went for the chain reference about what Jesus was referring to in this next passage. So this is an OT callback. Jesus mentions a very specific story from Numbers 21 of all places.
It's just a few verses. It's a specific event that happens in the history of Israel's wilderness wandering. So they're wandering around. By the time of this story, Aaron is already dead. By the time of this story, it is apparent that they're waiting for a generation of people that did not believe to die off.
What's happening before the promised land? When we get rid of all these fogies that didn't believe, we can go in. Even Moses didn't get to go in. Right? So this is where we are, and this is it.
Numbers twenty one four says this, and they travel from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea to go around Edom. Good idea. They're always fighting with Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way. Doesn't that sound just like people?
Why are we taking the long way around?
And they spoke against God and against Moses and they said, why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There's no bread, there's no water, and we detest this miserable food. You know what that miserable food was? Manna from heaven, miraculously provided every day. You didn't even have to lug it around with you.
It's there the next day. If you did lug it, it would rot. It's no sense in camping and keeping it. Right? We detest this miserable food complaining about manna from heaven.
Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them. Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. They bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and they said, we sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.
So Moses prayed for the people. I'll read it and I'll
go back and preach it. Alright?
The Lord said to Moses, make a snake. Put it up on a pole. Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. So Moses made a bronze snake. Is that a graven image?
Looks a lot like a graven image to me. God is the one who said do it. Made a bronze snake, put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. So there are a lot of artists that have taken this on.
And see Moses there? He's pointing up to that snake and there's a guy trying to get a snake off of his back, literally. And he's not looking towards the snake. And Moses is going, it's right there. Just look at it.
I don't know why it works. I just know that it works. This is what God has said. And there are folks who are looking away, and there are folks who are looking towards. And the ones who are looking away are in anguish, and the ones who are looking towards are looking like they're being restored.
Then when anyone was bitten by a snake, looked at the brown snake, they lived. So what's this story about? That is the weirdest story to me. And the the made all the weirder, but I don't think I'd ever read it or taken it seriously until maybe college, maybe later than college. I was looking and I thought, what is Jesus talking about?
He said, when when Nicodemus said, I don't understand how can it be? I don't understand how you can be born again. He said, listen, Nicodemus. It's just like when Moses lift up the tank. Now he's an old testament scholar.
He knows this story. He's not like me. He knows this story. He knows the Hebrew on it. He knows everything about it.
And I'm sure he studied it and thought, was kind of weird. But Jesus said, just like that, I'm going to be lifted up. God made a way for those folks who were snake bit to survive. God is making a way for people to be born again. I'm that way.
I'm that truth. I'm that life. He'll say that in John 14. But what's the story about? I'm gonna say this morning since we're on step six and step seven, I'm gonna say it's about three s's.
Isn't that terrible? Oh, I'm not I'm not so preacherly that I have to use alliteration every time, but this one was tempting. So the first s is for sin. Okay? And then the story, they spoke against God and against Moses.
I've heard this story preached before a couple of times since I've heard about it, and it was always when the pastor was in hot water. As far as I know, I'm not in hot water. Speak however you want to about me, but don't speak against God and what he's doing. Speak against speaking against God and against the leader that he had for them, reluctant leader that he had for them. They spoke against God and against Moses.
I already mentioned no bread, no water. We're in the desert, but we are waiting for a generation to die off. We detest the manna that you provided miraculously for us. The second s is for sorrow. Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among the people.
They bit the people and many Israelites died. That is a sorrowful statement if you're one of the family members for the people who got bit and died. If you're of this people, that brings on great sorrow. As I stand up here and look out, I know that you all know each other and you all all know somebody who has lost a family member maybe recently, and I know the loss associated with it and it seems so it is so final and sometimes it seems so senseless, senseless. And it's not always a result of someone's immediate sin.
This story breaks it down to where it's sin, sorrow is immediately thereafter. But man, to think about that, I I really didn't mean to giggle, but the Lord sending venomous snakes among them. He was speeding up the process of this generation dying off, this unbelieving generation. This resistant religious, maybe, generation. They bit the people, many Israelites died.
So that is sorrow. Knowing that you're snake bit. Okay? Snake bit in the South, they use that everywhere. When they say that boy is just snake bit.
Nothing he does ever goes right. He's just snake bit. They use it in NASCAR. They use it in a lot of different contexts. But snake bit means you've got something going on that you can't do anything about.
You're just snake bit. My wife actually got snake bit on a mission trip one time. Did I mention that? Yeah. In between the time you get snake bit and you get antivenom, that's a very uncomfortable time of life.
Knowing that your snake bit is a sorrowful time. Dying from it or having people around you know that that's what did it. Oh, it's just awful. The third s though is for salvation. So make a snake, God says to Moses.
I I love this too. They spoke against God and against Moses and Moses didn't say, see what you get? You shouldn't have said a word about me. Don't lay your hand on God's anointed. He didn't say that.
It says, would you please pray for us? And Moses prayed for the people because Moses took his charge very seriously. So Moses prayed for the people and the Lord said to Moses, make a snake and put it on a pole. Wait a second, God. I was thinking we had that list of the 10.
Those are the biggies. Right? The ones you with your finger carved onto the stone, you said, don't make any graven images. Is this is this an exception? Can I do that?
He didn't. If if he argued back, he didn't argue back where we read about it. Make a snake, put it on the pole. Anyone who's bitten can look at it and live. What?
So there's seriously no tourniquets, no antivenom, no medicine, but it says Moses made a bronze snake. He put it up on a pole. When anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at it, they lived. Anyone that looked, lived. That's the program.
Right? That's the program that God ordained for this to happen. It's a tempting here. The program works if you work it. They say that all the time in 12 step programs.
You got to work it though. Anyone that looked lived. God made a way, But it is weird. A weird way. In fact, you might be thinking it's still a weird way for me to think that a Jewish man lived two thousand years ago and yeah, he was a good guy, good teacher, whatever.
Why should that have anything to do with me? That's still sort of a weird way, but it is the way. It is the way that God has established. So this is something wonderful. Back to Nicodemus in John three.
14 says this, so just as Moses lifted up that snake in the wilderness, so or in exactly that same way, the son of man must be lifted up That everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. So it's going beyond just temporarily being saved. It's going beyond that. It is to eternally being saved. Salvation is provided.
Sin, sorrow, and salvation are still our issues. And I could go back to that slide of all of the different ones and it could be any of those that trips you up. It could be a lot of those that trip you up. It could be very specific, but all of us, every single one of us have some besetting sin that only the salvation provided by God can get us over, can bring us to victory in Christ. That's the only way that he has made sin.
Sorrow for your sin. If I were to look at it, sin is, oh, I recognize this. No. I see there's something I can't do anything about. And then again with the fearless and searching moral inventory, sin, sorrow is in there too.
That humble confession, I realized that this is wrong and it hurts me. I'm ready for you to remove these defects from my life. God help me humbly. I'm asking to be born anew and that's the salvation. It's in Christ.
It's in Christ. I'm gonna let Alan Levi finish this. He's a good singer songwriter. Do you know him by any chance? Y'all are only 12 states apart, you know.
He's a good guy. When we go to the next slide, it'll come up. He's one of our friends. He's one of Tanya's family's close friends. When we went down to Mexico for our first visit together, his family was there on a mission trip as a family reunion.
He's written a couple of books. I've handed out to several of y'all over the years. He's a good friend and he's writing a letter to a cousin or a nephew as the nephew goes off to college. And I just think it's beautiful. I want it to land and then we're gonna prepare our hearts for this time of communion.
Danny will come up and play after Alan kinda talks about the gospel for a minute.
Once upon a time, only once for a short while in the history of the world, God who had created all things, became one of us. Born a baby to a common woman, grown a child in a common town, employed at common labor and spending his life with common people. He took a name, Jesus, and walked among us inviting, welcoming, at times pleading with us to return to God and to love the right things in the right way. Few of us listened, and eventually, as you know, we killed him. We whipped him almost to death, drove nails through his hands and made him hang on a wooden cross until he died, all because he was guilty of calling us to love God and to love one another.
Maybe you wonder, what's with the cross? Why is that such a big deal to the followers of Christ? Why can't we just be nice to each other, sing songs on Sunday, feed the poor, and skip all that part about Jesus dying on the cross? I'll be honest with you. It is rather difficult, especially for our twenty first century minds, to grasp the necessity of Jesus' death.
After all, I suppose that God could have waved a wand or issued a blanket pardon to humanity, but that's not what he did. Instead, from the very start, when we defied God and ate the forbidden fruit, you know, the Adam and Eve story, God said that there must be justice, a payment of a penalty. Now, it might seem cruel to us, and it is cruel, but sacrifice was the means of rescue that God established from the outset. For thousands of years, the people brought animals to God, bulls, goats, lambs, doves, But none of those was ever fully acceptable to make things right. They were just a symbolic and temporary remedy of sorts until an adequate payment could be made for our sin.
What the animal offerings really did was point to Jesus, who would one day come as the one and only sacrifice that God would accept once and for all. In short, it's through the cross that Jesus rescues the world. Well, maybe you say, I still don't get it. Maybe we're not supposed to get it. Maybe the cross is something that we merely accept by faith, whether we fully understand it or approve of it or not.
The cross is not a place for argument with God, but rather a place of surrender and humility for us. We have to simply confess that Jesus' death was my fault, that it was made necessary by my sin, that it had to happen because nothing else could fix the fall, not education, morality, government, therapy. If we're to be forgiven and accepted by God, it will be on his terms. And his terms quite simply, take it or leave it, are that we trust him and receive his means of salvation, Jesus on the cross. It is a pure gift.
And in a very real sense, Aaron, when Jesus died, every one of us was there.
Man, I'm gonna invite the ushers, the elders and ushers up for the coming to the table communion. Asked Danny if he'll play something pretty. I have a prayer beforehand. God, would you help us to let go of having to understand it all and to just say, I trust the way that you have made. I thank you Lord that some of us have had that explained so many times in our life.
We still wanna kinda pick it apart. But God, I I I'm thankful that that moment can happen and does happen in the twinkling of an eye. In less than a second, we can go from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light simply by placing our trust in the way that you have made. For those folks with the snakes, they just look up and that was all it took. Lord, looking up, knowing the way and resisting it for a long long time, but then in a twinkling of an eye, I accept.
That's all it takes. If you are here today and you have done that, this is an open table. I don't care your denominational background. We have a little cracker that represents the body of Christ. We have a little plastic cup of grape juice.
If you get one that has g f on top of it, that's gluten free. It has both, but they're representative of the body and blood of Jesus. Lord, as we distribute this, we ask a blessing on every soul present and every family they represent. Would you, Lord, spread the circle of those who know Jesus through those who are here present with us this morning? We pray that you would accept us and that you would cleanse us.
Amen. On the evening that he was betrayed, Jesus had invited all his disciples together there, those 12 and Judas was gone. He said to him, this is my body which is given for you, broken for you. Take this and eat of it and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Thank you, Jesus, for living that life that was lived out in submission to the spirit and in humility without grandstanding.
Lord, you walked it out perfectly. Though tempted in every way just as we're tempted, you were without sin, had innocent blood that could be shed and was voluntarily shed on behalf of anyone who would ever put their faith in you before, during, after. In Jesus name, Lord, we celebrate as we distribute this little plastic cup of grape juice representative of your blood, Lord. We recognize the effectiveness of the way that God has made, the only way that God has made. In Jesus name, might we be receiving that representative and living in that way by your spirit.
In Jesus name, amen. In the same manner that he had taken the bread, he also took the cup. It was after he blessed the bread, after he blessed it, he said to his disciples there and his voice still rings out in his word. He says to them, he says to us, this is the new covenant in my blood, the new covenant where it's on me. God has made a way on that way.
Jesus said, this is the new covenant in my blood, take this and drink of it. Do this as often as you will in remembrance of me. And Paul says, as often as we do this, we proclaim the efficacy of his death until he comes again. Would you stand with us? We're gonna sing one more song.
Alright. Holy forever. Let's sing this. We've got him here. Let's keep him here.
Sing the song of ages to the lamb. And all who've gone before us and all who will believe to sing the And
if you've been forgiven, and
if you've been redeemed, sing the song forever to the land.
And you walk in freedom. And if you
bear his name, we'll sing the song forever to the land. We'll sing the song forever and amen. Always be. Holy, holy, Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest.
Your name stands above all thrones. All thrones
And that's a benediction today from Romans fifteen thirteen. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen and amen.
