CHURCH: The Reason for the Church

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information in our church, please visit grandparkway.org.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Isaiah 45.

Isaiah 45.

And as Lance said earlier, we're beginning a cer a series this morning entitled The Church.

The church will talk about the different different aspects of the church, but this morning I want to talk to you about the reason for church.

The reason for church, if we polled everybody in this room, if uh kind of come up over your head like a little cartoon caption, why did you come to church this morning?

We'd get different reasons.

Some of you would say, Well, because that's what I do.

I go to church on Sundays, and that's that's a good reason.

Some of you would say to see my friends, and that's not a bad reason.

That's a good reason.

It's good to have people you look forward to seeing.

Some of you would say, Well, my kids come, so I want to bring my kids because I want to be a good role model.

I'm going to grow grow raise my kids in the church.

And that's a good reason.

But I want to talk to you this morning about the reason for church, why church, and I want to kind of frame it in I uh I have some friends and I have friends all across the spectrum, and I also have some redneck friends.

And I have redneck friends that don't know the rules when they go to church.

Like I have a redneck friend who duck hunts who lives in Arkansas, who is just he's great.

I mean, the brother still rocks a mullet, okay?

It's business up front and party in the back, all right?

And and it's permed.

Yeah, the mullet is permed.

Uh and it's just like, hey, dude, really?

It's like a Kentucky waterfall.

I'm like, what is that thing?

Uh and so when he comes to church, his wife is always like, okay, be on your best behavior.

Everybody wants to be there when Mike is there, and he's not disruptive.

He's just real bottom line.

So, for example, he's at church and they're sitting about six rows back, and he's got his wife and his three sons, and his sons, I mean, they're over there picking their fingernails with a buck knife, you know, they're like, how long is this gonna take, Dad?

We're gonna go shoot guns today.

He's like, hey, boy, put that knife up for our stick you with it.

And so they're sitting there, and the preacher gets up, and the preacher starts talking, and he's just plathering on because here's the here's my concern.

Uh, and then in America, we preacher types, we give a lot of advice, but we don't point people to God.

And then, matter of fact, if you want to hear people talk about God, probably the last place you would come is to the church.

We talk about our your family and your money and your kids and your marriage and all that kind of stuff, but rarely do we talk about God.

And what you're gonna see this morning is that the reason for church is God.

And my friend Mike, that everybody looks at and thinks, man, he's uncouth, and the dude's got a mullet.

He's right.

Because he's sitting in church and the preacher's gone and he says, Today I want to talk to you about your finances.

And he reads a verse out of context in the Bible, and then he goes into a big spiel about, you know, if you plan and about you can just see it.

Have you ever seen the shuttle take off?

They fire those engines and it kind of sets on that and Mike is kind of turning and twisting, and and his wife, you know how your wife rubs your leg men, kind of like, uh-uh, mm-mm, we're not doing this.

And pretty soon the shuttle lifted off.

He stood up in the middle of the 11 o'clock service at the first Baptist church in his town and said, Hey, buddy, can I get a timeout right now?

Don't you wish somebody would do that sometime?

Wouldn't that be great?

Can I get a timeout right now?

Are you his wife has buried her face in a hymnal and she's like, please, Jesus, come back right now?

His boys are going rock and roll, dad's off the chain.

He's like, right there.

Can I get a timeout?

Are you gonna tell us anything that matters?

Are you just gonna plather on for this next hour?

Because I shaved, okay?

I put on cologne for this, and I feel like so far I've wasted my time.

So just tell me, are you gonna give me something to think about or not?

Because if not, I'm leaving.

I wish I could see y'all's faces.

Y'all are like, wouldn't you?

I mean, your kids will be texting their friends, uh-oh, uh-oh.

But what Mike was saying was, hey, I didn't come to church for this.

I don't need you to balance my checkbook.

I need you to give me something I can hang my life on.

And my friend Mike is right.

Mullet and all.

That's the reason you come to church.

The reason for church is God, and the Bible demonstrates it in Isaiah chapter 45.

Isaiah 45 · chapter mention

And here's what I want to do.

I'm just gonna lay out all my cards.

I want to read the whole chapter, which is gonna take about three and a half minutes.

But the beauty of reading a lot of the Bible is there's not much time left for me to talk.

Amen?

Yeah, I know how I heard y'all.

Isaiah chapter 45, verse 1.

Isaiah 45:1

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, and to loose the belt of kings, to open doors before him, that gates may not be closed.

I will go before you and level the exalted places.

I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.

I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

For your sake, O my servant Jacob, for the sake of uh of my servant Jacob, and Israel, my chosen, I call you by your name.

I name you, though you do not know me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other.

Besides me, there is no God.

I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides me.

I am the Lord and there is no other.

I form light and I create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity.

I am the Lord who does all these things.

Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness.

Let the earth open that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit.

Let the earth cause them both to sprout.

I, the Lord, have created it.

Woe to him who strives with him who formed him.

A pot among earthen pots.

Does the clay say to him who forms it, What are you making?

Or your work has no handles.

Woe to him who says to a father, What are you begetting?

Or to a woman, with what are you in labor?

Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him, ask me of things to come.

Will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?

I made the earth and created man on it.

It was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their hosts.

I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level.

He shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward, says the Lord of hosts.

Thus says the Lord, the wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush and the Sabaeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours.

They shall follow you and shall come over in chains and bow down to you.

They will plead with you, saying, Surely God is in you, and there is no other, no God besides him.

Truly you are a God who hides yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior.

All of them are put to shame and confounded.

The makers of idols go in confusion together, but Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation.

You shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.

For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, he is God.

He formed the earth and made it, he established it.

He did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited.

I am the Lord, and there is no other.

I do not speak in secret in a land of darkness.

I do not say to the offspring of Jacob, Seek me in vain.

I am the I the Lord, speak the truth.

I declare what is right.

Assemble yourselves and come.

Draw near together, you survivors of the nations.

You have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols and keep on praying to a God that cannot save.

Declare and present your case.

Let them take counsel together.

Who told this long ago?

Who declared it of old?

Was it not I, the Lord?

And there is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a savior.

There's none besides me.

Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other by myself I have sworn.

From my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return.

And here is that word, to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear allegiance.

Only in the Lord it shall be said of me, our righteousness and strength to him shall come and be ashamed.

All who were incensed against him in the Lord, all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.

Jonathan Edwards was right.

He was a preacher back in the 1700s and up in Massachusetts.

Jonathan Edwards said this that the thing that is missing and most needed in the church is this God-entranced view of all things.

And the thing that we need to set before you, that he's talking to preachers, you should set before your people a vision and an understanding and a view of God that is altogether lovely and compelling.

And he went on to say this trying to motivate your people with anything else is like trying to keep their heart aflame with leaves and twigs.

And so what I want to do is just put before you this morning just a just a God-informed view of God.

And there's six things that the text says, and I want to just kind of go through them and then and just say, this is this is why of church.

This is the reason for church.

And the first one is simply this that God uses people to accomplish his purposes.

That's the first four verses of Isaiah 45.

He says in verse 1, Thus says the Lord to his anointed to Cyrus.

Now stop right there.

He says that he refers to this man named Cyrus as his anointed.

God says, I've kind of put on him a special, unique blessing.

Cyrus was not a man that knew God.

If you don't know anything about Cyrus, let me give you a little history lesson.

Cyrus was a, he was known as Cyrus the Liberator.

God raised him up.

God told people years in advance, I'm going to raise up a man named Cyrus one day, and he's going to set the record straight.

He would liberate all these before Alexander the Great, uh, his kingdom was the greatest kingdom on the earth.

And he would liberate people, and he was known for being gracious.

He wouldn't go and kill everybody when he conquered a city.

He would say, I'll let your government stay in place, and I'll put some of my senior officials in place, and the Medes and the Persians, we'll get along together.

And people were like, oh, that's awesome.

So much so that when as his kingdom spread, when he would come into a city, the people that he was conquering would chant his name.

They were so excited they were being conquered by Cyrus.

The way he got that way was when he was a little boy.

His dad took homage to this reigning king, took some horses to pay tribute.

And the day they got there, that king was so maniacal and ruled with such an iron fist that one of his generals had failed to carry out his order exactly as he wanted.

And he assembled everybody.

And Cyrus, as a little boy, saw this.

He assembled everybody and he killed that general's son in front of everybody as an example to everybody else.

Later, that general and some other people conspired and betrayed that king.

And Cyrus realized, you know what?

That's not the way you need to treat people.

And the Bible says that God uses people.

He raised up Cyrus.

Cyrus is not a believer.

You say, well, what do you mean?

Matter of fact, if you look, uh, and God says, hey, I'll give you verse three, I'll give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes and secret places.

He says, I'll break down these doors of bronze and these iron gates.

He's saying, hey, I'm gonna take you by the hand, Cyrus, and I'm gonna use you to accomplish my will.

And look, look, look, look at verse four.

He says, excuse me, verse three, he says, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

For the sake of, verse four, for the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel, my chosen, I call you by name.

And notice this next sentence.

I name you, though you do not know me.

God says, I name you, Cyrus, but you don't know me.

You say, Well, what's that got to do with me?

Here's a simple application that I want to take away from this first point.

Is that God, people that you consider to be your greatest enemy may be God's messenger in your life right now.

The person that when their name comes up, you just think, ooh, oh man, I know I need to love that person, but I'm just not there yet.

There may be something God's using that person in your life to teach you that you can't learn from anybody else.

Like your ex-husband.

Some of y'all are like, not possible.

Keep going.

Are your ex-wife?

Now I'm not saying what they do is right or wrong.

I'm just saying the person that you in your mind are convinced that is your enemy.

See, God uses people to accomplish his purposes.

That's how the will of God gets carried out in the lives of people.

And God's, and by the way, the scope of God's purposes aren't just with Cyrus.

It starts in verse 3 with Cyrus, then verse 4 goes to Israel, then verse 6, it's to the nations.

God says, I want everybody to know what I'm like, and you'll see why in just a minute.

The second thing that the Bible tells us is that God uses people, number one.

But secondly, God is solitary.

Look, because he ends verse 4.

Look how he ends verse 4.

He ends by saying, Hey, I call you by your name.

I name you, though you do not know me.

In verse 5, God says, Let me introduce myself.

I am the Lord, and there is no other besides me.

There is no God.

I equip you though you do not know me.

What do you mean God is solitary?

He says, hey, let me introduce myself.

The fact that this is so consequential, and I think we've lost sight of this in the American church.

God wants it, this is so radically, has such radical implications that God says, I want everybody all over to know this.

That's why he says, from the rising of the sun to the west.

Now the sun rises in the and it sets in the and God says, everywhere, I want everybody everywhere to know that I am the Lord and there is no one besides me.

You say, well, what's the big deal?

Well, in our politically correct multicultural world in which we live, all roads lead to God.

Have you heard that before?

Well, and see, here's the payoff.

Don't just listen to what people say.

Look for the motive.

What they say is the fruit.

The motive is the root, it's where it comes from.

And here's the payoff of that.

If all roads lead to God, then nobody can be certain about the things of God.

If nobody can be certain, then nobody can tell you what's right or wrong or tell you what to do.

See, in a culture where there is no certainty, there can be no authority.

Now think just for a minute.

You're smart people.

In a culture where there's no certainty, where you can't say that's right and that's wrong.

If there's no certainty, there can be no authority.

And where there is no authority, people just get to do whatever they prefer.

You can't say it to anybody, but notice how often in Isaiah 45 and all through the Bible, but especially in here, over and over, God says this about Himself.

I am God and there is no other.

Now, if that is true, if what the Bible says is true, like in Deuteronomy chapter 6 about verse 4, what's called the Shema, it says that here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

The Lord our God is one God.

That means that everybody else that does not believe and adhere to what God says is wrong.

That sounds horribly offensive and are politically correct.

Hey, can't we all just get along?

Somebody's got to find the courage in this culture to be certain.

And by the way, to be certain is not excuse you from being compassionate.

I have dear friends that believe stuff that is fundamentally flawed and wrong.

I have friends that pray to a God that is no God at all, and they believe and they're sincere.

But beloved, listen to me.

Sincerity doesn't cause something to be true.

We can't fall for that.

And it's not like going out and being obnoxious and being rude.

But God is solitary because if God is not solitary, if what God says is not true, if God says of himself, I am God and there is no other.

Well, see, that he is God.

It puts a great emphasis on his word.

Third thing, he tells us about himself.

Here's why the reason, why is the reason for church God?

Well, because he uses people.

Secondly, he's solitary.

Thirdly, God is autonomous.

See, we read in verse 5 and 6 that uh that, oh man, this the I am the Lord and there is no other.

Besides me, there is no God.

He says that people, verse 6, may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, there is none besides me.

I am the Lord and there is no other.

We're down with that.

We're like, oh man, keep going.

And then, uh-oh, verse 7.

I form light and create darkness.

I make well-being and I create calamity.

I am the Lord who does all these things.

Just stop for a minute.

Can we just think for just a minute?

I know that so often in the American church it's so entertaining and fun, and the ceiling lights up, or smoke comes out of the smoke machine, and the lights swirl around, and we've raised a generation of people who cannot represent God in the break room at work when people speak up and say things that aren't true.

One of the things we've got to do is let's just stop trying to preserve God from the problem that he's created for himself by being himself.

You say, Well, I didn't get that.

Let me say it again.

Let's stop trying to rescue God from the problem that he's created for himself by being God.

You say, What do you mean?

This past week a man in New York took out a 45-caliber pistol and shot a co-worker in front of the Empire State Building and then turned and started just shooting in the crowd.

You see that on the news?

Now, people that I hang out with could have been go, hey Neil, what's up with that?

You're religious.

I'm not religious, I'm a Christian.

There's a difference.

Uh well, I mean, what do you think about that?

Where was God?

You can't blame God for that.

That's if anything, that redounds to the fact that man is not inherently good.

But here's the thing: here's the problem God has created for himself by being God, and he doesn't need you and I to rescue him.

He's okay.

Look at me, stay with me.

Could God have stopped that?

Absolutely.

He's God.

Why didn't he?

That's the thing you don't want to live with.

You don't know.

And I don't know.

Because you can't say, I am the Lord, and there is no other.

If something else, some other force is at work in the world and it transcends the authority of God.

Does that make sense?

Just think a little bit.

It's hey, this isn't like a word problem in algebra.

You know, a river flows 400 feet a minute.

If you throw no.

You say, well, what now, does that mean that every calamity you can point to and go, oh, look what God did?

No, man's responsible for his his lack of moral turpitude, his lack of being able to do the right thing.

However, let me say this.

You see, because when God says in verse 7, I make well-being, I create calamity, there's a hurricane brewing.

Or as my father-in-law says, a hurricane is brewing in the Gulf.

My father-in-law also tell you that it's gonna bypass Miami.

You can't tell him it's Miami.

He's not gonna, I've known him for 22 years.

It's Miama.

And by the way, you get prostrate cancer.

And you can't tell him.

I just like, hey, hey, really?

Hey, man, it's prostate.

It's not prostrate.

No, it's Miami.

And people in Miami got prostrate cancer.

All right, whatever.

At his funeral, I'm gonna laugh because that's just who he is.

I love who he is.

There's a hurricane coming.

And somebody stopped me this morning.

My friend Brad said, Hey, are your in laws ready for the hurricane?

They live in Pensacola, Florida.

They've been through tons of hurricanes.

Or hurricanes, as I say.

And this one may hit them.

And I may have to take a couple days of vacation and go help them get their house together.

If it damages it, that'd be great.

You say, Well, what do you mean?

If you got your Bible open, you're in Isaiah 45, turn to the left to Psalm 135.

I want you to see this and mark it in your Bible so you'll have something to think about.

Psalm 135.

Now we're talking about that.

God is autonomous.

You say, what does that mean?

It means that he's self-governed.

It means that God is not governed or regulated by your prayers or by your thoughts or by your fears.

He's not created by you.

Psalm 135, verse 1.

Psalms 135:1

Praise the Lord.

Praise the name of the Lord.

Give praise, those servants of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord in the courts of the house of our God.

Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good.

Sing to his name, for it is pleasant.

For the Lord Himself has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession.

He says, Hey, praise God.

Sing to God.

I loved earlier when Clyde said, Hey, let's start off clapping.

Let's just clap.

By the way, some of you need to practice clapping, okay?

You have no rhythm.

You're like, Teach me how to dug it.

Can you teach me how to just do something, okay?

Don't do that.

And have you noticed?

The more you clap, the softer the singing got.

Hallelujah.

Yeah, I can't do things at once.

But God says, hey, come into my presence.

Here's what God says.

I'm awesome, so come and sing to me and tell me how great I am.

Isn't that great?

Let's just see how great it is.

Verse 5, for I know the Lord is great, and the Lord is above all gods.

Whatever the Lord pleases, He does in heaven and on the earth, in the seas and all deeps.

Only the Bible can call it deeps and get away with it.

In all deeps.

Verse 7, he it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.

He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both a man and a beast.

God killed, look at me, God killed their kids and their cows.

And not because God's a jerk and he's like, hey, watch this.

I got power.

Watch me destroy some stuff.

You say, How do you know?

Look at the next verse, verse 9.

Who in your midst, O Egypt, sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants.

The plagues ring a bell?

Hello?

How many plagues were there?

Say it again.

I hear seven.

Is there another number?

Ten.

Thank you.

Hold your calls.

We have a winner.

Ten chances.

How many chances you got to give?

It's not like God's in heaven kind of going, look, I've got lightning.

Go, go deep.

He doesn't get up and go, let's kill some cows.

One of my fantasies, by the way, you can go to South Texas and get in a helicopter and hunt wild hogs.

Oh! That's a men's retreat right there.

Let's just get beef jerking, go shoot wild, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Wouldn't that be good?

Take your shirt off and just smear yourself with bear grease and just shoot stuff.

You say, why do you want to do that?

Because I feel like God.

Hey, let's kill some stuff.

That's not God.

He says, hey, I did all these wonders in your midst.

I sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants.

And what did they say?

They said, no, thank you.

Matter of fact, Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey him?

I do not know God, and I will not do what he says.

And look at me, beloved, some of you here are the same way.

You're just cock strong and stiff-necked.

And God keeps sending signs and sending and saying, Hey, you don't want to pick a fight with me.

Verse 10, who struck down many nations and killed mighty kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Ah, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan and gave their land as a heritage and a heritage to his people Israel.

Your name, verse 13, O Lord, endures forever.

Your renown, O Lord, through all generations.

It's that word renown in verse 13.

Your renown.

It's this indelible impression that never, ever, ever goes away.

To see how close we are to losing God's renown, to taking off of our souls this indelible impression about God that never goes away.

Ask yourself, why is teaching like this so unsettling in the American church?

Why is it so unnerving to say what Isaiah 45, 7 says, of God that I make well-being and I create calamity?

What that means is that a category one hurricane is headed towards my in-laws.

That means that God has a storehouse big enough that he can put a hurricane in and bring it out to accomplish his purposes anytime he wants.

And if you're thinking people and you're smart people, don't check out on me.

You say, What?

Man, oh, he's autonomous.

What do you mean?

See, God being autonomous, self-governed, makes worship possible.

You have a God that is worthy of worship.

Because by the way, if he's self-governed, if nothing keeps him from doing whatever he wants, why are you still living?

Because he wants you to.

That's why you're breathing.

That's why you're gonna eat food.

That's why you have a big box in your kitchen.

It keeps your food cold.

You should never run out of motivation to worship.

We shouldn't have to come every Sunday.

Hey, kids, we're gonna pump you up.

Okay, me and the Jubilee singers, here we go.

Are you kidding me?

Every once in a while I fantasize about bringing a BB gun to church.

Not to harm anybody, but when the preacher just gets up there and prattles on, hey, gift money, we're behind.

Let's all pray and give money.

You just one those one cockle just boom.

Oh, what was that?

Now, some of you are like, I got an idea now.

Lance will be preaching next week.

Fourthly, see, thirdly, God's autonomous.

Fourthly, God is transcendent.

Look at verse 9 of Isaiah 45.

Are you still with me?

Look at verse 9.

Because see, God knew we would take offense to verse 7.

We'd say, I don't like a God who forms light and creates darkness.

I don't like a I want light and well-being.

I don't want any darkness.

I don't want any calamity.

God says in verse 9, Woe to him who strives with him who formed him.

A pot among earthen pots.

Does a clay say to him who forms it, What are you making?

Or your work has no handles.

Hey, beloved, look at me.

I love you.

And I'd be lying to you, and I would deserve to get fired if I didn't love you enough to tell you this.

There are going to be things in your life that happen that don't have handles on it.

You can't get your head around it.

It's like trying to pick up a wall.

You're like, are you kidding me?

And God's still good.

He's still good.

He said, Who says to me?

Hey, your work has no handles.

Verse 10, woe to him who says to a father, What are you begetting?

Or to a woman, with what are you in labor?

Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him, ask me of things to come.

Will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?

God goes, Robert De Niro on him.

You're talking to me?

Woo, me?

You talking to me?

You that's what he says to you.

If you're sitting here and you're stiff-necked and you're like, I don't care, I'm gonna do what I want.

God says, You, you, you, you, you, you're talking to me?

Clearly you've forgotten who I am because look what he says.

He says, Hey, will the verse 11 ask me of things to come.

Will you command me concerning my children, the work of my hands?

Verse 12, let me remind you of something.

I made the earth, and I created man on it.

It was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.

You say, Well, I don't quite get what that means.

See, God's transcendent.

It means he exists apart from, he's not subject to the limitations of the material universe.

What applies to you and me does not apply to God.

It's a mysterium tremendium, it's a tremendous mystery.

And he reveals himself, and the highest expression of his revelation is his word.

No one can say, I know what God was like.

Read the Bible.

Find a church that still preaches the Bible and not themselves.

It makes the hugest difference.

Say, well, what do you mean?

See, where we should, here's my fear of this whole God is transcendent, where we should have awe and wonder, we have contempt.

And we're raising a generation of God-questioning, contemptuous cynics who only believe what they can grasp with their little minds or agree with in their lifestyle.

So they're short on awe and in desperate need of motivation.

Every Sunday has got to be a home run, or they don't feel like it was worth their time.

And beloved, it ought not be this way.

And I just point you to the latter part of verse 12.

And I he says, I stretched out the heavens and I commanded all their hosts.

Have you an idea when he says I commanded all their hosts, what he's talking about?

I held little James up here a minute ago.

That little milk nugget.

You see those little thighs on that little boy, just whoa.

My kids were the same way.

We had fat babies.

I mean, just all I was like, what's that kid?

Like a chipmunk, got nothing, we got got pecans in there.

Just put that.

Just and we'd go places, we'd go to like a Walmart and stuff, and strangers will come up and pinch our baby's thighs.

Hey, back up, dude, okay.

Boy, that's a healthy little baby.

By the way, that's a way of people telling you your kid's fat.

Yeah.

And God says, Hey, I commanded, I stretched out the heavens.

See, he's the baby maker and he's the heaven creator.

Y'all don't get what I'm saying, do you?

Some of you do.

Let me let me I brought a little example.

Let me show you something up here.

See, when he stretched out the heavens and says he talks about their starry host.

I got it wrong in the first two services.

I love that my church has people in it that are smarter than me.

I told the first two services, this is a picture, it really is a picture from the Hubble Telescope, and I told the people in the first two services, this is a this these are the stars that are available that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

And one of our folks that is brilliant, he works at Floor Daniel.

I don't know what the guy does, but he's like in some bunker or somewhere coming up with ways to get oil.

I'm like, can you bring the price of gas down, okay?

How about that?

But anyway, he came up and he said, Hey, I need to correct you, Neil.

I was like, awesome.

He said, those aren't stars, those are galaxies.

Oh yes.

He says, actually, every one of those has 100 million stars in it.

And it's and that's a very narrow field of reference.

If you took that picture and you put it out a mile from you, and then you expanded that and panoramic, and you were surrounded by that, that's what the heavens are like.

And I just I just thought, yes, thank you, God.

You say, why?

Here's why.

Because he says, it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their hosts.

The Bible says, of all that, that God created all of them, and wait for it, those hundred million stars, they're in each one of those galaxies.

He calls them each by name.

That's why he's transcendent.

That's why he's autonomous.

That's why he the question echoes through all those galaxies.

To whom will you compare me?

Or who is my equal?

And one day they're gonna put a microphone out there and they're gonna hear that just resonating through all those galaxies, that each one are a hundred million stars.

Now, why are you telling us that?

Here's why.

We're just about done.

You still with me?

Think about the biggest problem you face right now.

You may be sitting next to him, ladies.

Think about the thing that when your mind goes into neutral, that it just drifts towards that.

Here's why.

Listen to me.

You don't think the God that names all those hundred million stars and those millions of galaxies doesn't know what he's gonna do about that?

Are you kidding me?

You wanna pick a fight with him?

You want to stand before him and go, yeah, well, why'd my grandmother die?

Because her time on earth was over.

And I'm gonna die one day.

Hope it's not soon.

And God's gonna be good.

He doesn't owe me tomorrow.

Never promised me that.

But think about whatever it is.

In reference to that, and just kind of take a panorama and just surround yourself with all of that and think, oh my gosh.

That's why I come to church because I know the galaxy making God, and we're gonna sing the church's one foundation is Jesus Christ the Lord.

Whoa! You should take your shirts off, men and sling them over your heads.

Maybe not you visitors.

If this is true, and it is, how can God be anything else other than transcendent?

Above and beyond, self-governed.

Who's gonna govern that?

Fifthly, he's truth.

He's truth.

Verse 15, we're just about done.

You still awake?

He says, verse 15, just look at verse 15, and we'll skip down to verse 19.

See, the person speaks and says, Truly, you are a God who hides yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior.

And God hates being misrepresented.

He does not like it when you go to lunch with your coworkers and they just blaspheme the nature of God, not because they want to blaspheme, not not, not that they mar his character.

They don't know anything.

They just know what Oprah told them.

And God can't stand it when you just sit there and eat your sandwich and go, Well, who am I to judge?

You're not judging, you're telling the truth, and the truth is what sets people free.

God hates being misrepresented.

Truly, you are a God who hides yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior, just because you say it nice doesn't mean it's true.

And God responds in verse 19.

I did not speak in secret in a land of darkness.

I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, Seek me in vain.

I, the Lord, speak the truth.

I declare what is right.

I don't, I don't, I'm not hiding.

And then he says this.

Look at verse 20.

Assemble yourselves and and and come.

Draw near together, you survivors of the nations that have no knowledge, who carry about their wooden idols and keep on praying to a God that cannot save.

You say, now what do you mean?

He says, he refers to them as the survivors of the nations.

These are people that God raised up Cyrus and to liberate all these countries that he conquered, and he said, Hey, I don't want to oppress you.

I don't want to make you slaves.

Go home to your wife and kids and raise your families, okay?

I just, I'm gonna do right by you.

And they said, Hey, God raised him up.

What kind of God does this?

Oh my gosh.

And then God says, Oh, by the way, can you imagine?

Have you ever heard of anybody that was in a concentration camp or in Auschwitz?

Just they have this, you know, God, are you kidding me?

I mean, all this, this whole time.

These are the survivors of the nation.

This is a gathering of people who've been done wrong for years.

And God says, Don't waste any more time.

Don't waste any more time believing the wrong thing.

That's what he's talking about when he says, Hey, they have no knowledge you carry about their wooden idols and keep on praying to a God that cannot save.

He says, Don't waste your time praying to these idols, pray into dead people, go into some empty religious ritual that has no bearing on your life.

God's saying you should be like Neil's redneck friend Mike with a mullet and stand up and go, Can I get a timeout?

Because you should come to church where they teach you the Bible.

And if it burns and jolts you every once in a while, you've got to go, man, I gotta go think about that.

And that'd be a great thing.

Instead of going, that was really good, Pastor.

Thank you.

You got us out at 1215 like you're supposed to.

What do you what do you what do you mean?

Last thing.

I guess it'll be number six, and we really are done.

God is salvation.

And say, what do you mean?

Look at me.

Say, just think for a minute.

You're smart people.

If you had all the power in the world, if you were transcendent, self-governed, nobody could thwart you.

You could do whatever you want, you create calamity and goodness, darkness and light.

You do whatever you want.

If you had all the power in the world, what would you do with it?

You ever notice in the movies that the bad guy wants power, he's gonna destroy the world?

Give me a hundred million dollars, I'm gonna blow up Los Angeles and New York and Chicago.

I'm glad they never say sugar land.

I'm always at the movie kind of going, go ahead.

I don't know anybody there.

No, I'm always struck.

No one says, hey, give me a hundred million dollars because I'm gonna find a cure for it's always, I'm gonna blow up something.

If you had, just think, if you had all this power, what would you do with it?

Look at what God does.

Look at verse 22.

This God with this unchecked raw energy and sovereign capacity and divine resources.

Here's what he says: he does all this to say verse 22.

Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.

What kind of God has that kind of power?

And then all he says is just turn to me and be saved.

Because you can't be saved by religion, you can't be saved by your anger, you can't be saved with your bad experience of the church, you can't be saved by complaining the rest of your life to all your friends at Starbucks.

You can't be saved anywhere else.

It's why the Bible says in the New Testament in Acts 4 12 that there's no name given under heaven whereby which men should be saved except the name of Jesus.

God says, turn to me.

Now turning to God means you're turning away from something else.

So ask yourself what you're trusting in.

Some of you are trusting in an empty religion that you were raised in to save you.

You're sitting in this room right now, and you're thinking, this is great.

Maybe it's your wife's idea or your husband's idea or your kid's idea, and you feel kind of awkward because when people read the Bible, you don't know anything about the Bible.

You you grew up in some kind of a religious system that never taught you the Bible, and yet you want to fight about that and defend that.

Hey, it's not our fault, it's not my fault.

You did that somebody didn't teach you the Bible?

Don't take that out on us.

And God says, hey, turn to me.

Turn away from religion.

One of the biggest idols in America is religion.

God says, turn to me.

If you're gonna turn to God, you're gonna turn away from something and be saved.

You say, What do you mean?

Here's the thing: if you hear anything, hear this.

You cannot deny this, you can't argue this away.

At the heart of God is a desire for relationship with every one of you.

He doesn't say, turn to me and give me money.

He doesn't need our money.

We need the dependence that comes from living stewardship, but that's a whole other sermon.

He says, Turn to me and be saved.

Oh, by the way, for I am God and there is no other.

Some of you, you've never done that.

You've never turned to God and said, you know what, I don't want to be religious.

I want to have a relationship.

And maybe today's your day.

Maybe at the end of our service, when we're dismissed here in a minute, you could just, we'll be standing here, myself and some of the pastors and elders, and you can say, you know what?

I I I I've never turned to God.

I've turned everything.

Some of you have turned to alcohol.

You think you're free, but you're in bondage.

You started off choosing it, now it chooses you.

There's hardly a night goes by that you don't top off your day with a couple glasses or a few cans or bottles of something.

And God is saying, turn to me, turn to me and be saved.

Some of you are already Christians.

You turn to God and you were saved a long time ago.

Things get hard, you turn away from God and you turn to work and money and determination and all this other stuff.

Some of you, parents, you've turned to your kids to fill your life with purpose.

They are the idol in your life today.

You just need to turn away from that and turn back to God and say, all of my self-worth comes from you.

I love my kids, but they can't fill the void in my life.

Turn to me.

A God who has all the power to do anything, and this is what he does.

Turn to me and be saved.

Stand to your feet if you would.

Hold your hands out.

Your God created the earth, the heavens and the earth, and he could have left them empty.

But he didn't.

He made you to inhabit it all.

To enjoy it, to rule over it, to subdue it, to taste and see that the Lord is good.

He made you because you have a relationship with him.

That's why he says, Turn to me and be saved.

Turn today.

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you, you're dismissed.