Pastors Brian and Jacque Lother
Pastor Brian: Well, thank you everybody for all of your kindness and generosity. Pastor Robert is when he talks to Robinson and says, are you crazy? But every once in a while, the Lord blesses a pastor with a really, really great church, and that's what he's done for us. we are not crazy. We wouldn't want to do anything else but what the Lord has called us to do here. we are starting our 27th year here at Hope. we are just kind of on the verge of some wonderful things that are on the horizon. I just hope that I can live long enough to see most of it. You pray for that for me.
Sometimes Jacque and I look at each other and say how did we get here? How did we get here? Years and years ago, we had a prophetic word spoken over us at a conference we were at. I'm paraphrasing, but it was like, you are going to say, how did we get here?
Pastor Jacque: You are going to jump. They said, "You will jump from mountaintop to mountaintop to mountaintop. And then you are going to say, how did we get here?"
Pastor Brian: And then the answer course is the Lord did it. The Lord brought us. I'm so thankful to Jesus. I never get tired of talking about Christ. There's nothing else actually worth talking about than Christ. A part of my message today is just kind of another perspective of helping us understand just the importance of Jesus, the importance of Christ in our lives. I'd like to begin by looking at the first eight verses in the first chapter of Mark. Mark, sometimes, is kind of the forgotten gospel. You have the Book of John, which is entirely different than the synoptic gospels. Then you have Matthew who goes through the genealogies and the Sermon on the Mount and all of that. And then Luke, of course, Luke is like one of my favorite gospels because he was a physician in how he wrote and the Christmas story, and all of that's in Luke and all of that.
The Book of Mark is a kind of condensed version of some of the synoptic gospels. But the first eight verses in Mark chapter one really set an incredible stage for who Jesus is and why Christ is so important. Let's read the first eight verses of Mark chapter 1.
Pastor Jacque: And this is from the Passion Translation. This is the beginning of the wonderful news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. It starts with Isaiah the prophet who wrote, listen, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way. He's a thunderous voice of one who shouts in the wilderness. Prepare your hearts for the coming of the Lord Yahweh and clear a straight path inside your hearts for him.
Pastor Brian: What a great way to say that. What a great way to say that. And clear a straight path inside of our hearts for Christ.
Pastor Jacque: John the Baptizer was the messenger who appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the complete cancellation of sins.
Pastor Brian: Aren't you glad it's not a partial cancellation? It's a complete cancellation.
Pastor Jacque: A steady stream of people came to be dipped in the Jordan River as they publicly confessed their sins. They came from all over southern Israel, including nearly all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Pastor Brian: He had an impact. Wow.
Pastor Jacque: Nearly all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. John wore a rough garment made from camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and honey.
Pastor Brian: By the way, this term locust is not grasshoppers, okay? A locus is a kind of a, more of a newer term. The word locust, actually in Israel is like a carob plant, like a chocolate carob plant that grows on a tree. He had a sweet tooth. He ate chocolate and honey. I'd like to have that for a diet. I would like to have that for a diet. When we get this perspective of John the Baptist, like he was this crazy guy and drool coming out of his mouth and he's just screaming and he is this kook out in the wilderness-- If he had been in a fruitcake, nobody would've gone out to see him. You know what he had, he had an anointing and he spoke the truth, and he was preparing the way for the Lord.
People were convicted of their sins because of his incredible preaching and the message of the truth that he had. They weren't drawn to him because of his craziness or kookiness. They were drawn to him because their hearts wanted to be right before God. I actually believe that in the hearts of every person is a desire to really want to know God. Our problem as a church is we've just put too many stumbling blocks in front of people to come to the Lord throughout history. we are going to talk a little bit about that throughout this sermon. But John the Baptist was this voice crying out in the wilderness. The wilderness wasn't so much like the wilderness of Israel, but the wilderness in people's hearts. He was crying to these people, and they wanted to become right. They didn't want to be a wilderness in their hearts anymore.
They wanted to be a fertile ground. And so here he was preaching this incredible message of repentance. He baptized them, and they started for the first time to come into, if I can use this expression, a New Testament place of salvation. That's maybe a way for us to understand it. Where sins weren't just covered and a scapegoat was sent out into the wilderness with the sins on it, but all he had to do was take off the covering and the sins were still there. The whole concept of the New Testaments salvation is that the sins are gone. They're wiped away, they're cleansed, they're removed. Jesus used the term remittance, the of our sins for the remittance of our sins. This is what John was bringing people into. And so he kept this wonderful message going. Go on.
Pastor Jacque: This is a message he kept preaching. There is a man coming after me who is greater and a lot more powerful than I am. I'm not even worthy to bend down and untie the strap of his sandals. I've baptized you in water, but he will baptize you into the spirit of holiness.
Pastor Brian: Mark, in this, a portion of scripture is quoting from both the prophet Malachi and Isaiah, and he's talking about this prophet who is going to prepare the way for the Lord. Interestingly enough, the early Christians were called The Way. I find it interesting that this prophet is saying, preparing the way of the Lord. And so the early Christians that followed Jesus, they were called part of The Way. In this passage, there are two characters that are referenced here. The first, of course, is the prophet who speaks and is preparing the way for God to come. And then the second character that is referenced to here, is actually God himself. So there's the prophet, and there's God. Then Mark goes on to introduce these two characters as John the Baptist, and of course, who? Jesus. Now we jump forward to the Book of John. I want to read the first three verses in the book of John.
Pastor Jacque: The passion translation. In the beginning, the living expression was already there, and the living expression was with God, yet fully God. They were together face to face in the very beginning. Through his creative inspiration, the living expression made all things for nothing, has existence from him.
Pastor Brian: Now, I wanted to read out of this translation just because it helps give a different perspective than what we are accustomed to hearing. In case too soon, too many of you went too far, tilt in one direction. I'm going to pull it back and we'll read from the NIV here. Just the first verse of John 1.
Pastor Jacque: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
Pastor Brian: The message title of my message today is with and was. This opening statement, in the beginning was the word. In the beginning, the living expression was already there. This opening statement was meant to be reminiscent of Genesis chapter 1, which also says in the beginning, God created. In the beginning. And so the story of Jesus is really the story of God starting something brand new. That's what the story of Jesus is. It's like a creation 2.0 is what it really is.
John was convinced that Jesus was always much more than just a teacher. He was convinced he was much more than a prophet. He was convinced that he was much more than simply an enlightened master. John says that before Jesus was born, he was with God. Before he was born, he was with God. But not only was he with God, he also was God. He also was God-- with and was. Somehow, Jesus is in one sense of the word distinct from God because he was with God.
But on the other hand, he simultaneously is God. That's why John says he was God. He was with God, and yet he was God. This is where the concept of the Trinity becomes so important to all of us who are trying to be followers of Christ, followers of God, understanding what it really is like to be submitted to our creator. To say that God is triune, is to say that God's essence is not only personal, but his essence is also relational. Now, this is very important, which is why the scriptures say to us that God is what? God is love. God is love.
Love is relational energy, isn't it? Love is relational energy. Relationship is the sunu that connects people in order for love to move between them. You can't have love move between people if there's no relationship there, right? You can't have that. In order for love to move between relations or people, you have to have this relationship, this sunu that holds everything together. And while there certainly can exist, relationships without love, and we've all probably experienced those, haven't we? There's certainly the possibility of having a relationship without love. There can never be love without relationship. And so for the scriptures to say, God is love, God actually has to be in relationship in order for that to be true.
Now, if God was like, if I can use this expression, a single person, then God would have to actually create somebody else to express that love. Follow me? He couldn't say, I am love, because there's nothing there to love. This is why the essence of the Trinity is so important for us to understand-- Father, son, holy Spirit. There are three persons to the Trinity, and this was the biggest problem that the Jewish people had because the Old Testament says, the Lord, thy God is what one God. But they are all God. They're all together God. But in order for God to truly be love, he has to have other connecting personalities to be able to have that relationship with. And in the very beginning, before man was created, before the worlds were created, before anything was created, God was or is love, because he had this relationship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Jacque: Oh, you helped me one time really visualize this. Like God is written above. And then it's father, son, holy Spirit. Holy. This is God.
Pastor Brian: This is God. This is God. This is God. This is God. God could not be love without some form of relationship for that love to be expressed in. He couldn't be love. He could be loving if he created someone to love, but he couldn't be love if there was not some form of ability to express that love. If God were a singular monad, that's a term that I'll use here, he would have to create someone or something else in order to express that love. And even then, he could only describe himself as loving, not as love. There's a difference. There's a difference between someone who is simply loving and someone who the very DNA and essence of them is love. And so to say that God is love is to say that within his very being is the ongoing exchange of love, which is why God can't be a singular monad. He can't.
Pastor Jacque: God is the source,
Pastor Brian: And he is the source.
Pastor Jacque: Absolute source. The spring.
Pastor Brian: But the only reasonable explanation of God is this: He exists as a trinity. And that's why at the very beginning he said, "let us make man in our own image." Let us make McMahon. God wasn't talking to himself. I'll be out working in the garage. And I don't say to myself, well, Brian, let's do this.
Pastor Jacque: Let us do this.
Pastor Brian: What do I say? I think I will do this. Why? Because I'm a singular monad. But when God was going to create Adam and Eve, he father, son, holy Spirit, they had this, shall we say, conversation with each other. He wasn't talking to himself. He had a conversation within the essence of who he is. And he said, "Let us make man in our image and likeness." And so this essence is that God is love. That's his DNA.
Some years ago, you might have seen this billboard campaign. It's not the Richard Dawkins billboard campaign that I talked about just a few weeks ago. There was another billboard campaign. The whole purpose of the campaign was to remind people about God. It's a good idea, isn't it, for us to be reminded about God. Here's what some of these billboards said: What part of thou shalt not didn't you understand? Here's another one: Keep using my name in vain and I'll make the rush hour longer. Here's another one: You think it's hot where you are at. Another one: Have you read my number one bestseller? There's going to be a test. And the most popular of the bunch was this: Don't Make Me Come down there.
Now, a couple things stand out to me about this billboard campaign. Some of these models, shall I say, seem more than mildly threatening, don't they? And the last one, don't make me come down there, which was actually the most popular of the whole campaign, misses the whole point of Jesus. It misses the whole point of Jesus. God has already come down.
Pastor Jacque: Out of love, not anger.
Pastor Brian: And it wasn't as a threat. Yes.
Pastor Jacque: Out of love, not anger.
Pastor Brian: Out of love. It was the best thing that ever happened in human history: God came down here. The very best. And it wasn't a threat. It was never intended to be a threat. As a matter of fact, John even said that to Nicodemus when Nicodemus came at night to talk about what is this whole thing all about Jesus. And we see what he said in John 3:17.
Pastor Jacque: God did not send his son into the world to judge and condemn the world, but to be its savior and rescue it.
Pastor Brian: Wow. Read that again.
Pastor Jacque: God did not send his son into the world to judge and condemn the world.
Pastor Brian: Okay. How come we miss that? How come we miss that we need to change and clean the lens of which we are reading the scriptures with. We need to cleanse our eyes. We need to open up our brains and get the scrub brushes working and get all this old way of thinking out of our heads. Because God did not send Jesus into the world to judge or condemn the world, but
Pastor Jacque: To be its savior.
Pastor Brian: and
Pastor Jacque: Rescue it.
Pastor Brian: Rescue it. You are drowning. You've fallen overboard. You are going down for the last time and someone throws you a whatever them donuts are called.
Pastor Jacque: A life something.
Pastor Brian: A life something and some guy with goggles and a tank swims up to you and pushes you out of the water. Do you think he's there to judge you? Do you think he's there to condemn you? But that's where we were all at. we are all drowning going down for the last time. And the Navy seal comes out of nowhere and picks us up out of the water. That's Jesus. That's Jesus.
Jesus doesn't make any sense unless I view him as God. He doesn't make any sense unless we view him as God. That's the problem with so many people in the world. They like Jesus, they like the stories, they like how nice he was, but they don't really want to place him in that category of God. Because if you do, you need to recognize that he actually is more important than you and you need to bow your knee to him. And we don't want to do that. The only God we want in our lives is us.
God doesn't make any sense. Jesus doesn't make any sense unless I view him as God calling to each and every one of us to make our own choice, to accept his divine, embrace this divine embrace. And of course, once God comes to all of us, directly, religion is out of a job, isn't it? Once God comes to me directly, I don't need anybody else to help me get to God.
Now, it's not that we can't be encouragement to each other. We should be that. That's why a faith community is so important. That's why the Apostle Paul says, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. And I'm getting more and more concerned as our culture goes forward, our Christian culture goes forward. we are connecting less and less and less as a faith community, as faith communities, I should say. But it's not that we need someone to get us to God.
There was a former religious leader who gave up everything to follow Christ. And he wrote something very interesting in one Timothy chapter 2, verse 5. We know this former religious leader as the Apostle Paul,
Pastor Jacque: For God is one. And there is one mediator between God and the sons of men, the true men, Jesus, the anointed one.
Pastor Brian: If I was the high priest and my job was to once a year take the sins of the nation and lay them on a goat and then lead that goat unto the wilderness so that all the people of the nation could be forgiven. And then I heard this verse: for there's one God, or for God is one. And there is one mediator between God and the sons of man, and that man is Jesus the anointed man. If I heard that, my vocation would be threatened. My vocation would be threatened.
A priest in Israel, a high priest in Israel, the priests, the scribes, the whole system of obedience to the Torah of coming onto compliance with all the jot and tittles of all the laws, all of that would be done away with if Paul the Apostle is right, that for God is one father, son, holy Spirit, there one, and there is one mediator between God and the sons of men. And who would that mediator be? Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us.
Paul concluded after he had this incredible encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus because Paul at one time had been part of that system. He had been what he describes as a Pharisee of Pharisees. Paul concluded that his religious system of Torah observance and temple sacrifice was no longer the way to connect with God.
It concerns me when I hear of people who have known the Lord and then have wanted to go back into Judaism as a way to get to God. It bothers me because as Paul wrote to the Galatians, as Robert and I were talking about earlier before the service today where Paul says, "who bewitched you? You started so good. Now, why are you going back to those old elemental things that don't bring life? Only Jesus brings life."
God had come to us directly in the person of Jesus, and there was no longer a need for Torah observance, temple sacrifice, buying doves, lambs, goats, bulls, whatever. There was no more need for that because Jesus was the ultimate lamb. I can guarantee you, if we would have been at that old— if we would have been in the temple with all of that sacrificing going on, I can guarantee you there wasn't one animal that went to the altar willingly. Not one. But Jesus did. Jesus did. So when we did not want God, God wanted us. When we would not come to God, what did God do? Say it again.
Pastor Jacque: He came to us.
Pastor Brian: God came to us. When we resisted him, you know what He did? He, he plotted not to punish us, not to judge us, not to twist our arms and cry uncle. What's that Christmas story about the BB gun?
Pastor Jacque: The Christmas story?
Pastor Brian: Yeah. Say uncle. Uncle. Right? That's not how he came. When we resisted him, his plot was to win our hearts. His plot wasn't, how can I get them right? His plot was, what do I gotta do to win their hearts?
Pastor Jacque: It's the goodness of God that brings us to repentance.
Pastor Brian: That's right. The goodness of God. Not the fear of ill, not the fear of punishment. We've gotten the wrong message out there. When we could not cross this chasm, which I agree, there was this chasm that separates creation from deity, shall we say, God decided to cross that chasm and become one of us. That's what he decided to do. And the implications of this are cosmic, if I can use that expression.
Pastor Jacque: That's a great expression.
Pastor Brian: The implications of this are cosmic, that God crossed the cosmos to come to us. The implications are this: all striving for salvation can cease. All of our striving for salvation can cease. We don't need to find the right combination of religious rituals and moral behavior to please God enough to enter heaven when you die. I'm not saying that our moral behavior doesn't matter because it matters. It matters to my wife if I'm faithful to her, doesn't it?
Pastor Jacque: Yes, it does.
Pastor Brian: That was a serious look she just gave me.
Pastor Jacque: Vice versa.
Pastor Brian: Yeah. Our behavior does matter because it will affect our relationships with one another, but we don't have to have this list of moral achievements in order for us to somehow be acceptable or good enough for God to accept us into heaven. Our eternal life began or begins now because God has come.
Even to this very day, he continues to pursue us. He didn't just pursue us 2000 years ago. Every day he pursues us. We don't need religion as our way to God because God has come to us. He has come to us; he's walked among us. He has experienced the pain and the hurt that we've all experienced.
He has experienced the heartache of what it truly means to be a human being, all the while working to draw us to him, all the while trying to draw us.
Pastor Jacque: That just translates so into how much every person matters. Every one of us matters 100% to God.
Pastor Brian: And that's why people need to matter to us. When you look at someone who, we might use the expression, is down on their luck, and maybe they made a lot of bad choices, and maybe they've lived a life of self-centeredness and sin, and now they're reeling under the consequences of that, it's so easy for us who've had a different journey in our life to look at them and judge them for where they're at, rather than seeing that person as someone who has been made in the image of God, someone who has been made in the very likeness of God, who God has a beating heart for, who is plotting to try to get to their hearts, but there are so many things in life that are blocking the view.
And then we come along as the church and we say, well, if you think it's hot here, just wait. The answer that we have for the world as representatives of Christ is such a beautiful answer, but we've distorted it. Paul says it so good in Second Corinthians chapter 5, verses 19 through 21, where he says, this is a description of Christ.
Pastor Jacque: For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.
Pastor Brian: Just meditate on that for a second. God was in Christ, Jesus was with God, but he was God. God was in Christ. God was there in Christ.
Pastor Jacque: Reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them.
Pastor Brian: How many of us hold sins against people? I still remember years ago, we had a friend in our church, and I remember this lady saying to me once, "I remember everything anybody has ever done wrong against me." And I thought to myself, why do you want to carry that? How can you even walk? No longer counting people's sins against them.
I know this can be somewhat controversial in some Christian circles when I say this, and I'm not trying to be controversial, but it doesn't say no longer counting people sins against them once they repented. See, this verse is talking about the attitude that God has towards mankind. I'm not saying that everybody's in a relationship with God. I'm not saying that everybody that's ever been born is going to be saved. I'm not saying any of that. But what I am saying is that God's attitude towards us is this: He no longer is counting people's sins against them. Why? Because of what Christ did for us, reconciling the world to him. Go on and read it.
Pastor Jacque: And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
Pastor Brian: That is the message that we are supposed to be giving to people. That, you know what? It doesn't matter what you've done, your sins have been taken care of.
Pastor Jacque: I love that prophetic word that we always would play in our encounters. And it's God speaking, "I love you because I love you because I love you. I won't love you more if you do more. I won't love you less if you--"
Pastor Brian: Don't measure up.
Pastor Jacque: No, I love you 100% all the time.
Pastor Brian: There's nothing you can do to make me love you anymore than I do right now. And there's nothing you can do that will make me love you any less than I love you right now because I love you.
Pastor Jacque: Because I love you.
Pastor Brian: Because I love you.
Pastor Jacque: Because I love you.
Pastor Brian: Because I love you
Pastor Jacque: Because I love you.
Pastor Brian: Because God is love. Because God is love. And so he has given us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So it goes on to say, we--
Pastor Jacque: So we are Christ's ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us.
Pastor Brian: Just get this picture for a second. God is making his appeal on who he is and how he feels about the world to the world through us. Now, when we say, "Are you going to make me come down there?" with that perspective or some of the other models that I read, some of the other things that the church has done historically, do you think we are really representing God? Not at all. We are to speak for Christ. When we simply plead and say what?
Pastor Jacque: We speak for Christ, when we plead, come back to God.
Pastor Brian: Come back to God. Yes. Come back to God. Everybody, come back to God. Most people don't want to have anything to do with God. You know why? Because of their wrong perspective of how he is, their whole image is distorted, and the view that they have of God is not God at all. And then we, the church, have reinforced that distorted view because we ourselves lack healing. We ourselves actually lack forgiveness. Yes. We ourselves have not come into the full grace that God has for us. For God made Christ--
Pastor Jacque: For God made Christ who never sinned to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Pastor Brian: Wow.
Pastor Jacque: Brian, we do need to scrub our brains out. We need the Holy Spirit to scrub our brains out. And we need to stop listening to the whispers of Satan because he is the one who is spreading this too.
Pastor Brian: He is.
Pastor Jacque: He's constantly changing how we see God. The other day, we were reading something in the Bible and I said, "God sounds really mad when he says that." We say God's so loving, but that he-- Was it a portion of quoting Jesus?
Pastor Brian: No, it was the Old Testament. But then I read it differently.
Pastor Jacque: Oh, I'm going to finish the story.
Pastor Brian: Sorry.
Pastor Jacque: And so I said, "God was really mad when he said that." And Brian said, "Listen to this." And he read it in this most loving, precious kind voice. And it changed the whole meaning. It was amazing. It was how I was reading it, the voice in my head, God's voice in my head.
Pastor Brian: Yes. You came across a thing I want you to read about-- because in our culture today, when someone says, "I'm a Christian," that is like throwing gasoline on a fire to most people. And the reason it is because of how we have painted a picture of what being a Christian is. But I want Jacque to read this, because when I say I'm a Christian, this is what I mean. Read it.
Pastor Jacque: I saw this, a friend posted it on Facebook, which is such a good use of Facebook. When I say that I'm a Christian, I'm not shouting out that I am clean living. I'm whispering I was lost, but now I'm found and forgiven.
Pastor Brian: Just to ponder that for a second. When I say that I'm a Christian, I'm not saying I'm living a clean life. Not that I shouldn't want to try and live as clean a life as I can, but when I say I'm a Christian, what I'm really saying is this: I was lost, but now I've been found and I'm forgiven. I was blind, but now I see. That's what I'm saying.
Pastor Jacque: When I say that I'm a Christian, I don't speak of this with pride. I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.
Pastor Brian: Isn't that good? When I say that I'm a Christian, I'm confessing that I stumble, I fall, I fail.
Pastor Jacque: I'm human.
Pastor Brian: I'm human. I have a fallen nature. I need more of Jesus in me. I need more sanctification in me, and I need Christ to be my guide. That's what I mean when I say I am a Christian. Go on.
Pastor Jacque: When I say that I'm a Christian, I'm not trying to be strong. I'm professing that I'm weak and need his strength to carry on.
Pastor Brian: Isn't that good? When I say I'm a Christian, what I'm saying is that, you know what? Left to myself, I am going to fail. Left to myself, I will sin, but I'm professing that I'm weak and I need his strength in my life to help me carry on.
Pastor Jacque: When I say that I'm a Christian, I'm not bragging of success. I'm admitting I've failed and I need God to clean my mess.
Pastor Brian: Wow. What a great line. I'm not bragging. When I say I'm a Christian, I'm not bragging about anything. What I'm actually saying is I'm admitting that I've failed and I need God to help me clean up the messes I've made in my life.
Pastor Jacque: When I say that I'm a Christian, I'm not claiming to be perfect. My flaws are far too visible, but God believes I'm worth it.
Pastor Brian: He does believe you are worth it. The scriptures say that what is a prophet of man if he gain the whole world and lose what? His soul. In the eyes of God, the value connection is that the soul of one person is worth more than the cumulative wealth of the whole world, the soul of one person. And so from the eternal perspective, we can give our life to trying to acquire more and more and more and more money, or we can give our lives to trying to bring one more person into the kingdom. In God's eternal perspective, he says, "This one soul is worth more than the cumulative wealth to the whole world." So just think about that as we navigate going forward in our lives.
Pastor Jacque: When I say that I'm a Christian, I still feel the sting of pain. I have my share of heartaches, and I call upon his name.
Pastor Brian: Paul says, we don't sorrow as those who have no hope. We sorrow-- Sometimes, I think as Christians, we sorrow more deeply because we know how to love more deeply. At least we should know how to love more deeply as Christians. And because we can love more deeply, we have this greater depth of heartache when we have loss. But at the same time, when I say that I'm a Christian, I truly feel the sting of my pain. And I have my share of heartaches. So what do we do? We call on his name. We call on his name so that the comforter will come.
Pastor Jacque: When I say that I'm a Christian, I'm not holier than thou. I'm just a simple sinner who received God's grace somehow.
Pastor Brian: Nobody likes to be around someone who gives off the aura of being more holier than thou.
Pastor Jacque: I think the closer we get to Jesus, the less we are shocked by sin.
Pastor Brian: The closer we get to Jesus, the less we are shocked by sin. But our hearts break for people who sin because we know God has such a better way for them, a much better way, a better plan, a better purpose for them. We go back to the verse that's on our cornerstone of the church. I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans to give you a future and a hope, plans to bless you, not to curse you. This is the heart of God.
When we who have been given this incredible privilege to be the representatives, the ambassadors, whatever term you want to use for Christ. Let's make sure we are representing him as he is not some religious system that's full of death and, but true freedom that Jesus brings and offers to us today. We are Christ's ambassadors and he is making his appeal to the world through us, through us.
So let's make sure that what we are appealing people towards-- I'm not even sure that's the right way to say it, but what we are trying to attract people to is really, really the Jesus who was God and who was with God. In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Jesus, part of the Trinity, father, son, holy Spirit, he left heaven. If I can kind of use this expression, the Trinity was incomplete, in a sense, when Jesus came to the earth.
That was a sacrifice. God is an eternal being. Yes. He has always existed, which is incomprehensible to most of us, if not all of us. And when Jesus came, there was a separation of that essence in heaven, in that spiritual realm. And God made that sacrifice for us. God chose to cross that chasm. God did choose to come down here, but not in the threatening way, not to judge us, not to condemn us, but to make the way. And as the scripture says that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.
Pastor Jacque: And then Jesus said, I must go so the Holy Spirit can come. It seems like there needs to be two up there at all times. I must go, so the Holy Spirit can come and bein all of us..
Pastor Brian: Yes. And he sent this gift. And so now the spirit of God dwells within us richly. That same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in all of us as well. This is a good message. This is not a message of threat and punishment and these kinds of things. This is a wonderful message. When we say to somebody, I'm a believer, I'm a follower of Christ, I'm a Christian, one of the things we have to be aware of is all of the garbage we are going to have to take out of their heads in order for them to even get to listen to us. That's why loving them is the gateway to their hearts. Let's pray.
Thank you, Jesus, for your love. You did not send Jesus, father, into the world, to judge and condemn the world, but to be its savior, to be the one who comes to rescue it. And so we pray, God, that you'll help our hearts and our minds get renewed with a new way of thinking, a new way of thinking. That Jesus, you were that mediator between God and men. You were the one that came and built the bridge across that chasm, and that bridge was built with your cross.
And so I pray today that Lord, we as your representatives would truly have a message of reconciliation to bring to the world, where God no longer is counting people's sins against them. Holy Spirit, you are good at convicting of sin. We are bad at convicting people of sin. We bring judgment; we bring condemnation. But when you bring conviction, you bring the answer. That's why people flocked to John the Baptist. They wanted their sins forgiven. They wanted to feel that weight lifted off their hearts and minds. And that's what you offer: the weight of the world being born away by the Savior, Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to throw out all of this bad stuff and just keep focused on so much of the good that you have. Pastor Robert, would you come?
Pastor Robert: Praise Jesus. Wow. Were you guys really sick last week or did you just want extra time to give before the Father? I don't know. I've got some questions. What a wonderful message. Praise God. As I was listening to it, I was partnering in my heart. This one question, do we know him? Do we know him? I have a prophetic thing we need to do by way of prayer, but it also he sent me to the book of Colossians, starting in chapter 15. I want to read that. And this goes to the question of, do you know him?
It says, Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created in a supreme over all creation. For through him, God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning supreme over all who rise from the dead.
So he is first in everything, for God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ. And through him, God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything on heaven and earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. And this is my favorite part: This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ and his physical body.
As a result, he has brought you into his own presence. And you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don't drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the good news. The good news has been preached all over the world and I, Paul, have been appointed as God's servant to proclaim it. Do you know him?
I'd like for us to just stand for a minute, if you will either place your hand over your, your head or your heart. And I want to come before the Father and ask him to do something for us through the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we ask that you remove every lie, every false teaching, every deception, every misunderstanding that keeps us from receiving the true revelation of Jesus Christ. Lord, we ask you also to forgive those who have taught us an error. And forgive us Lord, for an error, receiving what was not true.
We pray, Lord, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you will continue to bring us into all truth, especially as it concerns Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him. So, Lord, as if it was my first time, I receive Jesus today. I ask you Jesus to come into my life to reveal who you are to me, so that I can fully serve you with all of my heart. Yes, Jesus. With all of my mind, with all of my soul and that I would be the true expression of your love here on earth. So as people see me, they will see Christ in me. And as they see Christ in me, they see God.
So thank you Lord for tabernacling with us, for being Emmanuel, God with us. Thank you that you did come down. Thank you that you reside in me and I reside in you. Thank you that there's no partition, there's nothing that gets in the way of me coming to you. And Lord, there was nothing that prevented you from coming to us. We love you, Lord. And we ask that we continue to grow in you in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.
Pastor Jacque: So excited to enter into the holiday season, the Christmas season, with this depth of thinking. I'm just going to meditate on it because the opportunity we have to share this beautiful good news with people at the Christmas season when it's just natural to say Jesus was born. This is beautiful preparation.
Pastor Brian: Pastor Robert will be serving communion after the service today. We'll also have people to pray for you if you have any prayer needs. Thank you so much for being here today. Do you receive this word today? God bless you. Good. Let's raise our hands. And those of you who are at home, just let us bless you here as well.
Now may the Lord bless you, and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face towards you so that you can see his smile. This we pray in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Thank you for being here today. We look forward to seeing you again real soon.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 10-29-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.