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Speaker 2Will you please stand up? I'm so thankful for another wonderful privilege to be here with you, and I wanna say welcome. Welcome to the church. Let's worship God with all our heart. Amen?
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Amen.
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Speaker 1Amen. Y'all can have a seat Welcome. I'm glad that you're here this morning. It sounds like we we kind of packed everybody in right at the last just like pretty much every week. Florine, thank you for filling in for Carl this morning.
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Carl is feeling a bit under the weather. Connect hour, as you all know, is in between services in the fellowship hall. I'm gonna give you a heads up today. There are tamales down there. So, yeah.
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That's a good reason to head down. Some of em are sweet tamales. I don't know everything that's down there but Felix in Guadalupe when they make the connect hour. I want to give you a good fair warning on that. So, there
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Speaker 2they
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Speaker 1are. Children's church is happening today but it will not be happening next week. We're we everybody, y'all know how it is around here. People heading out for Thanksgiving. We're not going to do children's church.
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They'll be welcoming the service certainly but we're not doing peak children's church next week. We are doing it today. There is no Awana tomorrow night for the same reason. So, we're not doing Awana tomorrow night here in this room like we usually do. Monday nights are still on though.
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We are doing Monday nights. So, that's happening and we'll have a kind of a pre Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. So, if you are looking forward to turkey dinners on Thursday but you want to have a taste of one on Monday, come tomorrow night, 06:00. This season, we've got this coming home ladies Christmas luncheon. The the theme this year is coming home.
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You are cordially invited ladies to an all community ladies Christmas luncheon. It's the December 7 from twelve noon until 2PM and it's in the Grand Ballroom up at Snow King. It's community wide. But if you would, Nancy, will you stand up for just a second? If you have not already, RSVP'd to Nancy and you'd like to go?
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December 1. Okay. So, it says, RSVP soon to Nancy. That's good. Thank you for that and speaking of coming home, this is our own native son, Eli Kaufman.
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Y'all know we sent him off with a blessing towards Georgia in August. He grew up. Whoo. Amen. He grew up in Wyoming.
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We sent him to Georgia in August and he went through almost the entire program. He dislocated his shoulder towards the end of his basic training and he has been given a medical discharge with honorable intentions and an option to go back in six months. So, if you start seeing Eli around here, just encourage and congratulate and continue to pray for him. He's awesome and you can see the big old smile on his face. It's good to see Eli up there.
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Thinner though. Did you notice? Basic training will do that to you. This is after the party the other night we had for wrapping all of the Operation Christmas Child boxes. There were a lot of em there.
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It was a 174 boxes total. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty cool. And so, I wanted to mention a few things I had on the announcements and a couple of prayer requests and praise.
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We have had a couple of things come across the prayer line this week that were kind of immediate. One of em was, if you don't get our little prayer updates, it said, please pray for Grace Brown. She's been diagnosed with cancer. That's tough and please do pray for Grace Brown because there's something going on but everybody starts praying two days later. We get a thing that says, those look more like precancer and treatment should resolve that.
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Keep praying for but it's nice to have that kind of a, well, it's not as bad as we thought. On these 174 boxes, a lot of boxes came in, a lot of stuff came in, and it's $7 a box to send these boxes. So we had more stuff than we had the funds to pay for them to get out of here. So, Tanya was figuring out, doing the accounting stuff, trying to figure up and said, well, it looks like we're lacking $500. This was right before an elders meeting the other night, right before board of trustees meeting and so she said, well, what are we going to do?
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He said, well, we'll just pray for it. I checked my box which I don't check very often. So, I checked my box and there's a a card in there that said, hey, Ray. Thank you and Nick's Darren took pictures of our renewal of vows ceremony last year for the wedding that y'all did up up at the Taggart Trailhead. We wanna do something nice for the church.
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Spend this however you need it. Here's $500 It is so cool. It's so neat just off random stuff like that has been kinda making it ever apparent. Keep on praying. Keep on praying.
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Keep on believing. It's neat to see those encouraging things and when I see em, I wanna pass em along to you. Chili Cook Off is coming up. The Buzzard Breath, Chili Cook Off. Caroling December 11.
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That seems like two odd things to pair together but it works and so Rinsey is in charge of that. We'll be caroling at 04:30 and then we'll do kind of a chili cook off to follow that. Any anything else about that, Rinsey? That's self explanatory. Very good.
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Kevin, would you like to stand up and do a little quick commercial?
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Speaker 3We pause for this commercial break. Good morning everybody. I'm Kevin Olson and I'm the guy that missed the Board of Trustees meeting and then they appointed me as a coordinator for the capital campaign. So I just wanted to give you a quick update on where we're at and spur you on to participate. Anybody familiar with the ski and snowboard clubs PPP, pull pedal paddle?
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How many of you have participated in that? Just a couple. Well I'm gonna give you guys something, a different kind of PPP that you can participate in actually with us. So at First Bee, we're doing this capital campaign to raise $250,000 for the remodel of our kitchen and our fellowship hall. And the PPP I'm gonna ask you to participate in is pray, participate, and pledge to join us in this effort.
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Midway through our campaign, we wanted to be at about $150,000 by the time we get through the Thanksgiving break. And thank God so far we are at $82,000 So do the math, we're running a little bit short. And so I wanna spur and encourage you guys to join us in this effort. There are pledge forms in the back as you leave today. Many of you have already pledged.
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We have an attendee base of over 400 people week in and week out between our three services and we'd really like to have as many people participate as possible and make this project happen. We'll wrap up the effort December 23. So, there is time for you to pray, think about how you can participate, and pledge And then finally, as you participate, you can write building fund on your check as you put it in the plate. There's some feedback here. Or as you pledge and make contributions towards your pledge, you can just simply put building fund pledge on the memo line in your check.
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So thank you guys very much. Participate in FBC's PPP.
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Speaker 1For for all of the other announcements, you can just check your bulletin as always. There's a lot of stuff in there and this time of year, it's going to start rolling here pretty soon. So, you'll probably need it written down. Stick it up on your refrigerator so you don't miss anything. Now, would you get up and greet one another?
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Hugs, high fives, and handshakes, fist bumps.
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Speaker 2Come, now is the time to worship. So good to be here. Amen. I wanna pray. Heavenly father, thank you so much for the privilege that we have together as a church to worship you.
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I'm thankful for my accent. I'm thankful for my terrible way of singing. I know that everything I do, it's in your name, and you are pleasing this morning. Would you please bless every single person that is here in this morning? I would like at the end of this service that when we go home to say, I went in God's house, and I felt God's presence over there.
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Please bless our heart and help us to understand more of you. Help us to stay focused on you and to to live with you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen.
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I think Blake is excited back there because he knows that he doesn't know what's going on the way I sing. So we practice some way, and we can end up singing different way. Bless the Lord, all my soul. Amen. What a beautiful song, isn't it?
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Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Amen. And you guys sing beautiful, honestly. No. This is my favorite song.
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Because it
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Speaker 1talks about Jesus.
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Speaker 2Amen.
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Speaker 1Y'all can have a seat. Gotta thank you for this morning. I thank you for the those who've assembled, gathered here in your name, and in the other churches and homes in this valley, lord, to worship and honor and praise you. I thank you for your capital C church, lord. Triumphant.
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Jesus. Lord, thank you that you are the one who is building this church. I thank you that you have chosen to use us as your instruments and so lord, we pray that you would you would take us to task, that you'd use us in that pursuit. So, lord, this morning as we come to the time of offering, putting in these plates our tithes and offerings and considering what you would have us do, lord. We are just saying we trust you.
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We trust you to build your church. We trust you to advance your gospel. Lord, would you do that? As we acknowledge, every good and perfect gift is from you. We put it back, putting our faith and our trust in you and keeping believing that you are the one that is gonna grow this thing.
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In Jesus name, Lord, would you bless and multiply this offering to do your kingdom's work here and to the ends of the earth. Amen. We are up to... Uh-oh. Here we go, Blake.
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It's one of those mornings. The Romans 14 passage, is that gonna come up? Like, there it is. Alright. So, we were up to...
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Last week, I was going through Romans 14 again and this is kind of kind of funny to me. I don't know if it will be to y'all but when I was on the way home last week with... Or on the way to lunch with Tanya and Pascal in the car, She says, are you gonna fuss at us again next week? I said, am I... Was I fussing?
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Was I saying anything that wasn't there? And she goes, no. You weren't saying anything that wasn't there, but is Paul gonna fuss at us again next week? Well, it depends on how you see that. I I don't think that he's fussing at all, especially knowing the next verse after this.
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He says, I know that all y'all already know these things and that you're already working on doing them, but I don't see it as a fussing over it. I think that unity is hugely important, and I think it's not in our normal human tendency to be unified. I think that we tend to separate much better than we tend to come together. Do you agree? So if I'm fussing at y'all, I'm fussing at myself too.
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I don't mean for it to come across as fussing, but I can't apologize for what's there. It's just there. So I was looking at this last night trying to come up with a short little brief concise title, and I didn't find one. Towards unity and diversity, we're going to finish out the section from chapter 14 up through verse 23 and it'll be closing off. It'll say the same thing that we said for the last two weeks again.
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So, Paul basically goes through a cycle and says the same thing three times in a row during chapter 14 and then, he gives us kind of a grounding for that which is the self denying example of Christ. He gives a few Old Testament examples of that and how Christ and Messiah would bring together not just Jews but Gentiles also which is not what they were thinking at this time, right? That's not what the people were really thinking about in the first century. The Jews did not expect for Christ to come as a servant. They expected him to come as a conqueror and a king and so, Paul is saying the self denying example of Christ and then he goes into kind of a built in benediction on believing and that's where I wanna end today.
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So, that's where we'll work up through verse fifteen thirteen. The first memory verse that Paschal ever learned was this one. This is first Thessalonians and y'all know we have been going in order in the order that the New Testament books have were written. We've been going in order for quite some time, time now. We we started off with the life of Jesus in the book of John.
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Then, we went the life of the early church in the book of Acts but since then, we've been going forward kind of progressing in the order the books were written. James, first Thessalonians, one of the first of it was probably the first of Paul's letters that was written and of all the memory verses that we've learned in Awana, of all the memory verses that you've learned in your life, I would not have thought to start with this one but Paschal, when she was in a school, two years old, three years old, couple days a week, going for a couple hours a day, you know. Miss Meg, her first teacher, said, this is where we start. Encourage one another and build each other up and I thought, that's unusual. It's not the gospel necessarily.
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It's just encourage one another and build each other up and in a classroom setting, that's a great place to start and this kind of is a classroom setting right here. This Sunday morning in this book of Romans is kind of a classroom setting. He's given us all the theology for eight chapters. He's answered a few question for three chapters. He has now given us good, solid application points for the fourth chapter in a row.
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We're right. Up to today but I want you to think about this, the building one another up. Encourage one another and build each other up. Instead of discouraging one another and tearing each other down which we see a lot around. So, no more fussing.
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Encourage one another, build each other up. So then, we pursue the things which make for peace and for the building up of one another. That was the benediction from last week as I as y'all were heading out. This is what I read. So then, we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.
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For shalom, absence of distress, war, strife. Encourage one another and build each other up. Do not tear down for the work. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food and so I thought of a quick application point right here is this, since God has done the work of building us up together into one people. Remember, we did communion last week and I said, this is what binds us together.
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The life of Jesus, the death, the sacrificial death of Jesus. This is what brings all of us from desperate places and desperate backgrounds and brings us together. We gather at the cross and God has done this work that's required for pulling us together. It's the only thing that can really hold us together. So, if he's done that and since he has done that, let's don't allow our continuing conscientious differences to pull us apart.
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That's the whole message of Romans 14 right there in a nutshell. He goes on and says again, all things indeed are clean. He he mentioned this last week. All things indeed are clean. In 14, he said, I know and I am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is in itself unclean and I went on to say the medium is neutral.
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You know, I gave you these examples and a few others. Speech, music, print, radio, television, internet are the ones I gave last week. Those are neutral mediums but they can be used either for good or for evil. Food, holidays, music style, ceremony, carpet color. I've heard so many stories since I told my story of a church split last week.
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I've heard so many y'all this week. We split one time over the carpet color. Seating, whether it's going to be pews or chairs. That's a very real argument sometimes. Not a good one.
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Seating should be neutral, right? But if it's aggravating and continues to be aggravating, that's pretty tough. The medium is neutral. All things in themselves are clean. All things indeed are clean but they're evil for the man who eats and gives offense.
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Now, underline the gives offense there because it's the same word as we used last week. Oh, for stumbling block. For for someone who eats and lays a stumbling block for his brother. Now, that sounds like, what does he care if I eat? What does that matter?
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Well, we've gone over for two straight weeks. If your conscience says that you can eat, you can eat but if you do it in front of him and just aggravate him with it, when his conscience does not tell him the same thing, you have, last week, we said, become unloving. If you lay that stumbling block out there for your brother, you're not considering him. That's what it said last week. If you determine this, set your mind on this not to ever put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a in a brother's way.
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So don't intentionally lay that out there. I I hesitate to use specific examples because mine always go towards alcohol. That's I grew up Southern Baptist. That's the way that that one always tends to go but I don't want to alien that alienate that. It could be movies.
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If one of you has I won't go see anything above a PG 13 movie and that's my line and then somebody says, oh but this R rated one is so good. Come go with me. Come go with me. Come go with me. If he set his standard and you're urging them to cross their own standard, you're urging towards sin and that in itself is laying a stumbling block for him.
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Does that make sense? Okay. So, we're getting to the getting to the end of this section here. 21, it says, it is good not to eat meat or to drink wine which he has already said is fine. Multiple times in our study here to four, we've hit it in first Thessalonians.
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We've hit it in first Corinthians. We've hit it in Corinthians. We've hit it in different places that it is fine to eat meat and to drink wine. It's good not to though, he says here, or to do anything else by which your brother stumbles. It requires knowing them, doesn't it?
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It requires knowing where their scruples lay. It it it requires knowing somebody and understanding when you are given offense. It requires relationship. God has brought us together into a relationship and he's told us to aggressively receive one another just as Christ has received us. So, it's good not to eat meat, to abstain from something for the benefit of your brother is a good thing.
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I think of first Corinthians here where he says, all things are lawful but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful but not all things edify or build up. We get back to that idea of building one another up. That's the new American standard. The the Holman Christian Standard says, everything is permissible but not everything is helpful.
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Everything is permissible but not everything builds up. The ESV says, all things are lawful but not all things are helpful. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Does that make sense to you? All things are lawful but not all things build up.
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If we're seeking to build up, then we want to be conscientious about how we are affecting those around us. Do anything by which your brother stumbles. The fates which you have have as your own conviction before God. Now, this to me goes back to fourteen five where it says, every person must be fully convinced in your own mind. You can't just go along and not consider the issues.
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You need to be considering the issues, study to show yourself approved, have biblical understanding, background for what it is that you believe, and how you live out your practice of the Christian life. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind and that faith which you have, you have is your own conviction before God. Now, these two things for for me are not a hard subject really for me. It it makes perfect sense. If God's wired us differently, if he's made us into different spiritual gifted categories, if he's he's has some of us to be evangelists, some of us as pastors, teachers, some of us otherwise, it makes sense that we would have slightly different convictions about what we need to do.
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How we need to live out the Christian life. The faith which you have have is your own conviction before God. So, if we're looking at it though, some people get really uncomfortable right there because it seems a whole lot like and it was the time of the judges when each man did what was right in his own eyes. Do you, are you with me? If it's all in your head, it's you're fully convinced in your own mind and it's your conviction before God, then, that can lead to a certain pride that I can do whatever I want to.
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It's all just between my ears and I can go that direction. If it's in my mind and it's my own conviction, you can't tell me what to do. Well, when pride sneaks in there, that's a bad situation. It can be bad but the very next verse keeps it from being dangerous. There's a limiter and that limiter is this, happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.
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So, it is possible to go too far. It is possible to get outside in your Christian liberty. It's possible to step outside and begin to sin. Now, what we've been talking about for the past two weeks is neutral matters or disputable matters but not necessarily sin. This is saying it's possible for those disputable matters to become sinful.
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Are you with me? Alright. So, we're up to verse 22. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. I want to be aggressively receiving and I want for us as a church to be aggressively receiving but there are some things that we cannot approve.
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Do you agree with it? This text does not hit it specifically but as a society, as a, as the rule of the law right now, we have said as the American people through our Supreme Court and everything else that homosexuality is completely fine. Homosexual marriage is legal in The United States right now. Now, I cannot approve that. As a pastor who marries people all the time, I don't know, y'all know how many marriages I do.
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I I cannot do that and I'm happy with that decision now if it ever came down to going to jail for that. I'd be glad to go to jail for that specific thing because happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. If the Bible condemns it, we must condemn it. I know that that's an that's a shock to the system of the society but at the same time, it's something that I wanted to give a specific example. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.
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I love a lot of people who struggle with same sex attraction and I will continue to love him and I'll continue to talk to him. I'll continue to be their friend and close confidant but at the same time, I'm not gonna approve a marriage that God does not approve. So, Oh, black screen. That's just what I want after that. The ending of this fourteenth chapter is this, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats.
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He who doubts about whether he should or he shouldn't is condemned if he eats because his eating is not from faith and whatever is not from faith is sin. That's one of the toughest verses in the Bible. It's a great definition of sin. Whatever is not from faith is sin. So, if you feel like you just been kinda going along, you're like, I won't answer that question right now.
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I might, this time, might not next time. No. You actually do have to answer the questions for how you'll live your life. Now, specifically, in the moment, God leads. I understand that but whatever is not from faith is sin.
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I found myself in a situation in Costa Rica one time. I grew up Southern Baptist like I said. I have I don't drink and I was asked by a guy. He was a mechanic. He lived four down, four doors down from us.
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I had a car that needed a mechanic all the time. He's a really, really good friend and he asked me, Ramon, it was five minutes to midnight. We have 40 people at our house for a for a New Year's Eve party and he came. He said, Ramon, come right now. Come right now.
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Come right now. Five minutes to midnight. He comes and he says, Tanya too. So, Tanya came five minutes to midnight. We had 40 people at our house.
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We come down. He had about 50 people at his house and he wanted for me to bless the New Year. As okay, that's an interesting one. I've told a couple of y'all this story before and as I was standing up there, he's introducing me, standing behind me. Everybody, this is Ramon.
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He's my friend. He's down here studying Spanish. He's missionary in Mexico and he's learning all this stuff and I've asked him if he'd come in here tonight and that he would say a blessing for all of y'all for the New Year and as I was standing there kind of going, oh my goodness, lord. A Spanish blessing, all of a sudden, we had a house full of people that were speaking English over there and now, I'm being asked to bless this whole gathering party, New Year and just as I start to say the blessing, he hands me a highball glass of scotch. And I said, lord bless this drink we're about to receive and the rest of the New Year, I felt like it would be absolutely insulting in that context to do anything else and I and I normally would not do that and I was able to tell him that afterwards and all that stuff but it was in that moment something that I was like, I felt deeply convicted that I must go here and then, prayed the gospel and hung out for the rest of the evening.
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Those folks at our house left eventually. I stayed down there and we got to talk to people. I never would have gotten to talk to because they were gathered in that guy's house that evening and he saw something in us that drew us in. He wanted to bless the year. So, that was uncomfortable for me but at the same time, I feel like it was what God was leading.
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Now, don't go out and drink scotch this afternoon because I said it was okay. I'm not saying it's okay. You have to live by your conviction and be ready for what God has for you in front of you. Therefore, to the one who knows the right thing to do and does it not, to him, it is sin. That keeps coming up.
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That's back from James. Whatever is not from faith is sin. If you consider that, I get people calling sometimes that will say, is it sin if I do this? The answer is probably yes. If you're doubting, if you're doubting and you're feeling like that and you're saying, is it sin if I do this?
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It probably is. It probably is for you. Now, I'm I'm there are a lot of things in scripture that are clearly defined. This is sin. This is sin.
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This is sin. By all means, you don't need those redefined. But if there's something that's a disputable matter and you're questioning it, if you're if you're doubting, keep on struggling with it before the Lord until he gives you clear direction before you go forward. Alright. So, be fully convinced in your own mind.
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The fates which you have have is your own conviction before God. Your scruples sometimes or your disputable matters where you've come down on it is not a point to divide with people on their theology. It's not that place and so be fully convinced in your own mind and have that conviction before God. This next section, I think, is against hopelessness. It's the beginning of the fifteenth chapter it starts like this.
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Now, we who are strong, those of us who know that we do have liberty in Christ, we know that we are not bound by this religious regulation set of rules, the old covenant. Those of us who are strong ought to bear with the weaknesses of those who are without strength and not just please ourselves. We should not just do whatever we want to do because we know that we can do it. Not all things are profitable, Paul says. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his neighbor's good.
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We are to please his neighbor for his neighbor's good to his upbuilding or edification. The self denying example of Jesus is the next thing that we have and I know that over the years, we've got a lot of different splits that have happened over the years in the the history of the church and one of those things was in the beginning of the nineteen hundreds, late eighteen hundreds, beginning of the nineteen hundreds. There was a split over the priority of proclamation versus the social gospel. What came to be known as a social gospel and when I start to mention something like the self denying example of Jesus in a place where I know that Baptist fundamental conservative Baptist typically has gone the priority is proclamation of the gospel and I believe that but the social gospel where we're actually doing good things, holistic ministry, we're actually doing good things, humanitarian things for people in need is also necessary. The argument was, we don't need an example.
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We need a savior. We do need a savior and since we have a savior, we need his example. We need to marry these things back together so that is a whole that we don't separate off just the word and not the deed. Does that make sense? Self denying example of Jesus for even Christ did not please himself.
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He left the glories of heaven to come down, to walk. 83 miles from Galilee down to Jerusalem. He left the glories of heaven. He left that. He emptied himself of his all of his divine rights to come down.
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The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. This is a quote from Psalm 69. Because zeal for your house has eaten me up and the reproaches of those who reproach you, God, have fallen on me. David wrote that but it's a messianic Psalm too. It was listed a couple different times in the gospels.
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For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction. Now, Paul is leaning right here back towards the Old Testament. He's been speaking to Jews, Jewish flavored Christians, and Gentile flavored Christians and he's going back and forth and talking about these themes of liberty and abstaining for your brother's good and he says, whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction. That's for the Jewish flavored Christians. They knew all these stories and Gentile flavored ones were understanding them.
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He's saying it's for our, all of us, mutual instruction so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. Hope. Hope is not just like I hope things go well in the Bible. Hope is an absolute certainty of good things to come. It will come to pass.
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But if you pay attention to your current circumstances, it's very easy to get your eyes off of that incorruptible hope in the future. The perseverance and encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. When we look back to the Old Testament and we see Job and we see Joseph and we see a lot of those guys who went through it in big big ways and we know that they were faithful to the end. So that through perseverance and encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. Five and six says, now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement.
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He gave us the Bible. He is the God who gives perseverance and encouragement. May he grant you to be what? What do you think he would say right there? Happy?
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Of the same mind. Unity in the prayer in the garden what Jesus prayed for for us as a church that he's building. He prayed for unity. 1717. May they be one just like we're one.
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Would you sanctify him by your truth? He's pointing back to the Old Testament scriptures in the Bible. Would you grant for them to be of the same mind With one another according to Christ Jesus, according to Messiah because he is the one who draws us and brings us together. He is the great equalizer that brings us all in. So that, in order, that with one accord and one, with one voice, they may glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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What's the chief end of man? Presbyterians? Glorify God and enjoy him forever. Yeah. So, that with one accord and one voice, not all these desperate voices but one accord and one voice may we may glorify God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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The same man with one another according to Christ Jesus. There is no other way. Therefore, accept one another. It's again, restating what we have stated at the beginning of chapter 14, aggressively be receiving one another just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. That's a high standard.
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He accepted us and we should be accepting others the same way that he accepted us. For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of truth of God to confirm the promises given to the father. So, he's saying to the Jews, this is what Jesus came. This is how he was a servant for you on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises that were given to your fathers. And for the Gentiles to glorify God for his mercy because they were outside of that chosen people, right?
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They were not the ones that were chosen. According to the Old Testament, we've got this truth that God is going to send a Messiah and so Christ has become a servant and to the Jews, he has he is that truth and he confirms all of those promises to the Gentiles. He glorifies God for his mercy and they might not have been thinking that the Gentiles were actually supposed to be included. He had been telling them from the beginning. When we finish the whole New Testament, I wanna go back and show the gospel in the Old Testament.
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The the proto Euangelion, the the before gospel. Because he had been telling they were supposed to be a light to the Gentiles since the very, very beginning. Paul's gonna give a few Old Testament unity and diversity as God's original plan and here they are. Nine B says, just as it is written, therefore, I will give praise to you among the Gentiles and I will sing to your name. That is from second Samuel, David.
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Again, Psalm eighteen forty nine restates it. Again, he says, rejoice, oh Gentiles, with his people. He's drawing them together into one people. Quoting Deuteronomy thirty two forty three. That's a long ways back, right?
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And again, praise the Lord all you Gentiles and let all the peoples praise him. That's quoting Psalm one seventeen. He's saying, people, this is the way that it was intended to be from the beginning that all peoples would praise God together and again, Isaiah says, there shall come the root of Jesse and he who arises to rule over the Gentiles. In him, shall the Gentiles hope. In him, Jesus Christ, shall the Gentiles hope and that's quoting from Isaiah eleven ten.
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All of that brings us forward to this last benediction. Now, may the God of hope, this is the secure promise that will happen to all those who believe. Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. When I see believing there, I think of the whole statement of the whole book of Romans. The theme is this, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
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To the Jew first and also to the Greek. Belief matters. What you believe matters. What you do follows what you believe and not the other way around. It's not a fake it till you make it situation.
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You can't just start doing and then you will be believing. What you do follows what you believe. Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. In believing what? I'm a leave y'all talk amongst yourselves for just a second.
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Seriously? In believing what? I'm a run get something off the copier. Thank you. Thank you for that dramatic interlude.
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Yes. In believing what? Whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction so that through perseverance and encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. That's good. Believe what it is that you know.
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Believe what is secure. Believe what has been written. The Bible. In believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. So that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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That little benediction is an amazing, just amazing teaching. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. All of that can be stymied if you quit believing. Does that, do you see what I'm saying? That's the in the believing part is really, really important.
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If you shy away from the scriptures, if you start to have your faith in the word of God eroded by the society around you, if you're believing drops off, your hope drops off. If you're feeling hopeless, draw close in to God and his word. This is the most dated song. It is terrible but if you want to see it on YouTube, this is it, okay? It's from the early nineties.
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I used to sing with a Christian ensemble group and we sang this song and it was just as bad then, I'm sure. If if if there's ever any video that surfaces, please don't bring it. But the words are fantastic. So I'm gonna say the words to you if you know it. When troubles rise and catch you unaware, the day to day of living seems unfair.
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So you try again all your dreams and plans, but they end up in defeat. The fancy frills that once brought thrills now leave you incomplete. And you wonder where your life's gone wrong and why you can't find peace. Your hope's not gone. It's just been too long since you had to believe.
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Keep believing in what you know is true. Keep believing. You know the Lord will see you through. When troubles arise in your life and you don't know what to do, you'll be fine if you just keep believing. The enemy can only bring defeat if he can somehow shake what we believe.
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So our faith cannot be based upon all... Only what we see or feel, and the circumstance cannot change what our hearts know to be real. So when doubts arise and cloud your mind, my friend, don't be deceived. For with the knowledge of the word of God in our hearts, we can believe. You can take God at his word.
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He is faithful, kind, and true. Not a prayer will go unanswered in his time, he'll see you through. Keep believing in what you know is true. Keep believing. You know the Lord will see you through.
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When troubles rise in your life and you don't know what to do, keep believing. Amen. I think. Lori, you want to come back up here? We'll play one more song.
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I I feel like a lot of us who grew up in church our whole life have had some of our beliefs questioned to the point that we've started to let them erode a bit. And I believe that some of us who have come to Christ as adults have almost been forced to feel a little embarrassed that we believe something so silly. I've heard this a couple times this week. I disagree totally. I think that the solid foundation of the word is what we need to keep on believing.
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And all of the talk of unity, all of the talk of unity in the world and peace on earth is not possible outside of Jesus. It's been proven over and over and over and over again, and that drawing together of people, the sacrificial death, that great example of a life has... Is the only thing that works for peace. I believe it is that exclusive. I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.
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Would you sing with us? This is my desire. Would you stand with us?
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Speaker 2Tongue works perfect with the sermon. I'm away. Now
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Speaker 1may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
