Commands and Promises: Will you Soar?

It's your one. Spam. Spam text. So I just wanted

to tell you something. Shout your fame. Jesus,

I decide to live a life that shouts your fame.

I decide to live and live a life that shouts

your name. Good evening! It's time for Whacked

Out Simple Stuff. We're going to talk about something

kind of depressing for a moment. I apologize.

We're not going to talk about it from the sense

of being depressing, but we're going to talk

about something kind of depressing. We're going

to talk about the crucifixion for a moment. There's

a couple of key things that a lot of people might

miss in the crucifixion. So first of all, you

know what crucifixion is, right? It's where a

person is nailed to a cross. So Jesus was nailed

to a cross, and that's how he died. So we're

talking about three things, three things about

crucifixion. So the first one is the nails. Okay,

so the nails would be put in the hand, quote

-unquote hand and feet of the person being crucified.

So their feet would be crossed like that, and

it's usually a single nail. And a lot of times

they might be wrapped around with rope so they

couldn't accidentally pull off, but sometimes

not, just the nail. And then their hands would

be nailed to the cross piece of the cross like

that. Some crucifixions were done on a cross

that looks like an X, and some were done on a

cross piece with a pole. The majority were like

that during the day that Jesus was crucified,

but either way it could be possible. In Jesus'

case, we know that it was a cross piece with

a pole, and his hands were nailed to the pole

that goes across, and his feet were nailed to

the one behind it. Now, interestingly enough,

there is some debate as to where the nails were.

The Bible says they were in his hands, but the

reason people kind of debate whether the nail

was right here in the palm of his hand or whether

it was in his wrist more If you can imagine,

put a great big spike in the middle of the palm

of your hand. First of all, it's extremely painful

because there's a nerve that runs through there.

You'd be crushing that nerve, and it's a pain

like you'd never know at any other time in your

life. That being said, if you put it right there,

you can imagine your hands have a hard time holding

your body weight. And so if you had a big spike

already going through your hand, your hand's

pretty torn up, maybe the bones back here are

broken, or at least not broken, but pushed apart,

right? the weight pulling on that could release,

and you could come off the spike. But if you

put it through your wrist right here, then it

still pierces that same nerve, and it would hold

a lot more weight. So a lot of them were pierced

through the wrist right here. If you see a picture

of Jesus' hand, if you've seen the Evangicube,

you know what the Evangicube is? In the Evangicube,

they show Jesus' hand reaching out to help us

to be saved, and the hole is like right there.

Jewish terminology for hand included that spot,

includes all the way up to where the wrist stops

and you're going into the arm bones. So we don't

really know for sure exactly where it would have

been, but we have a pretty good idea that it

was from here down into the hand, the Jewish

word hand, okay? Also, you know that when Thomas

was doubting Jesus, Jesus showed him his hands

and he could see the... mark there from the spike.

So we know it was here, somewhere between here

and here. That's about what we know. So the spikes

are the first thing we talk about. The second

thing we talk about is water and blood. So after

Jesus was crucified, he hung on the cross and

he was suffering. People didn't usually bleed

out on the cross, even though they were whipped

really bad and their back was raw and their hands

and feet would be bleeding. They didn't usually

bleed out. They usually suffocated. Okay, and

so if you can imagine if your feet are spiked

to the cross and your hands, you're going to

sag down like this because you're exhausted,

right? Even standing up is hard enough, but when

you're standing on a spike that's driven through

your feet, you sag down like that and you can't

hardly stand up. But when you do that and your

arms are up like that, you can't exhale. If you're

stretched out completely like that, you can't

breathe out. It's even hard. If you put your

hands up in the air now and try to breathe out,

you'll realize you can't fully breathe out. You

can't get the air out of your lungs. And then

if you let yourself come up, you can breathe

the rest of the way out. Well, it would have

been impossible for him to fully breathe out.

If you can't breathe out, guess what you can't

do? You can't breathe in. You can't breathe out.

You can't breathe in. And so you push with your

feet to get up so that you can breathe out. Take

another breath. And then sag back down again

because you're exhausted and there's a nail through

your feet. And so they would do that up and down

motion, trying to get breath for a long time,

and eventually they wouldn't be able to do it

anymore, and they would suffocate. On the off

chance that they had not suffocated, a soldier

would come along and whack their legs with a

club or a heavy piece of wood and break their

legs so they could no longer push themselves

up, and they would suffocate. It's a terrible,

terrible way to die. It is the worst. In fact,

the pain of crucifixion, there was no pain like

it. And so they made a word called excruciating.

And so when you stub your toe and you say, oh,

that was excruciating, it's not actually, because

that word literally means the pain of crucifixion.

So nothing is excruciating except crucifixion,

because the word means pain of crucifixion. But

at the end with Jesus, he did die. He was dead

on the cross, and they came and they checked

him, and they found he was dead. The Roman soldier

that found that he was dead, First of all, they

were a little surprised that he died as quick

as he did, but his beating was severe, worse

probably, and then his treatment was worse than

what others normally experienced. And so the

soldier checked and said, yeah, he's dead, but

here's the thing. If he would come down off the

cross and survive by some way, then that soldier

would have sacrificed his life. The law said

if a Roman soldier who was in charge of a prisoner

lost his prisoner, his prisoner escaped, and

if he was charged with putting that person to

death and that person lived afterwards, then

that Roman soldier would have been put to death.

So he wasn't going to take any chances. So what

he did was he ran a spear up into Jesus' side,

under his ribs probably, and pierced his heart

to be 100%, maybe 110%, because he was pretty

sure already that Jesus was dead. Now when that

happened, blood and water flowed out of Jesus'

side. Now here's what's really neat. This is

really neat. In modern day medicine, only for

less than about 150 years, have we known of a

thing called, what's called a pleural effusion.

And when a person undergrows a great deal of

stress, they get water in a sack around their

heart. And it makes it hard for your heart to

beat. And so you can eventually have a heart

attack and die if you're under too much stress

because of that very thing. So Jesus obviously

had gone through a ton of stress, and almost

certainly he had a sack of water around his heart.

So when that spear ran in there and pierced his

heart, and they pulled it back out, the blood

came out, and the water came out. But they didn't

understand that. They're like, wow, that's weird.

Why would that happen? We don't see that. We

don't see blood and water flowing out when you

stab somebody. Where would the water come from?

We didn't stab him in the bladder, right? That's

weird. Why would that happen? But later... 1

,800 years later or whatever, medicine found

out, because we got x -rays and things like that,

found out that that's what happens when a person's

under a ton of stress to get water in a sack

around their heart. And then if their heart would

be pierced like Jesus's was, then blood and water

would flow. Now, what's really neat about that?

They didn't know that. They just observed what

they saw. They didn't know why it would be like

that. Modern medicine had not learned that yet

for 1 ,800 years or whatever it was. And so they

recorded the facts as they saw them. And now

we have that, and we can say, man, for 1 ,800

years, people knew that blood and water flowed.

They just didn't know why. And then somebody

finally discovered why. That's proof that the

story is true and accurate. Does that make sense?

It's proof that it's true and accurate. And then

the last thing about the crucifixion is the moment

of Jesus' death on the cross, which is probably

a bunch more of these that I could do. The moment

of Jesus' death on the cross, something happened.

Something incredible happened. Does anybody know

what it was? The moment he died, something happened.

What was it? The veil in the temple. Now this

is interesting because the veil was a four inch

thick. Go like this with your fingers. Measure

about four inches. It was a cloth four inches

thick. So if you have a cloth that's four inches

thick, you can imagine ripping that is virtually

impossible. It was a woven cloth, four inches

thick. And it was 40 inches. feet tall four inches

thick and 40 feet tall so to rip it you would

need oh i know big scissors a sharp knife a really

sharp knife you know a really sharp sword maybe

and then even then you'd be probably hacking

at it because it's four inches thick right except

guess what it tore from the top down So as if

somebody had gotten out a 40 -feet ladder and

crawled up to the top of the curtain and hacked

at it with a machete to get it started and then

really ripped at it for a while, because even

if you get it started, it's four inches thick.

It's not going to tear easily, right? You'd have

to put some serious muscle into it, serious weight

into it, and it tore from the top to the bottom.

And that, of course, is symbolic because that

curtain was the curtain that kept people from

God. It kept people who were in the outer temple

from being able to go into the inner temple where

God is. God's presence was what they call the

Holy of Holies. And so what God was showing us

is that in the death of Jesus, our coming to

God was paid for. And so we can, because of the

crucifixion, we can pray to God. We can walk

right into God's throne room with our prayers

and say, God, this is what I need help with.

God, this is what's on my heart today. God, this

is how I'm feeling today because of that. And

that's what God was showing us by the ripping

of the curtain. As I said, there's a lot more

there. So take time, get a Bible, and read the

story of the crucifixion. And then ask yourself,

that's a detail. That's interesting. I didn't

know that. What does that mean? What am I supposed

to know about that? What does God want to show

me about that? And if you find one and you don't

know what it is, you bring it next week and we'll

talk about it. If you say, why did that happen?

We'll get a little list and we'll talk about

those things and what God was showing us. Because

there was a lot going on right there. The crucifixion

was pointed to from the very beginning. God told

Eve that one of her offspring would crush the

head of the serpent in the garden. So from the

very beginning it was coming. And then we look

back on it now and we always will. As long as

the earth remains and human beings remain, the

crucifixion will not be forgotten. So that is

an important event. You can take a look at it

in your Bibles. Just wanted to share those few

interesting things with you. If your friends

say, well, how do you know it's real? We say,

well, if nothing else, we know because the people

who witnessed it recorded blood and water, and

medicine didn't even know about that until less

than 200 years ago, but they recorded it back

then, and that's proof above all other proofs,

or with all other proofs. So let's pray together.

We've got one more song, and then we'll release

the children to the classroom. Here we go. Father

in heaven, I praise you. That you had a plan

and you carried it out. I think about all the

times that I have had plans. I had ideas of what

I thought I would do. Some of them were pretty

extreme. Like I thought, I'm going to do that

if it kills me. And some of them happened and

some of them didn't. But you're not a God like

that. When you make a plan, it happens. When

you make a promise, it's fulfilled. When you

set out to do something, you never fail. As a

pastor said just right here in this room just

recently, you get your part right. And we are

grateful, Lord, that that's the kind of God that

we have. At the same time, we realize we've screwed

up. In our lives, we've lied or cheated or stolen.

We've done wrong things, the kind of things that

deserve justice or punishment or correction.

And because of that, you made a way. You sent

your son, Jesus, to take our sins on that cross

so that when we lied, The lie went on the cross.

When we stole, the theft went on the cross. When

we were angry at our brother, that sin of anger

at our brother went on the cross. Now, some people

know it. Some people realize it. Some people

believe it. And for them, it means eternal life.

It is ultimate forgiveness. I pray that everybody

in this room is like that, that we all realize

that Jesus paid the price so we could be forgiven

for the dumb things that we've done. Thank you,

Lord, for forgiving us through Jesus, your son.

Lord, we also know that because of what you've

done, and not just that, but creating everything,

creating us and taking care of everything, that

you have a right to be Lord. That means you tell

us what to do and we do it. And so, Lord, tell

us what to do and we'll do it. We know that we're

supposed to worship you. That's one of the things

you've told us to do, that our attention now

should be on worshiping you. That's what we're

going to do now with this song. And so, Lord,

help us do that. Help us put our attention on

worshiping you. You are awesome and you deserve

it all. We pray all this in Jesus' precious name.

Amen. I'm going to do it. I'm going to praise

him forever. You are my God. I will ever praise

you. promises. That's the series that we're working

through. We have, last week we fulfilled our

obligation to look into the command that comes

with a promise, the first such command that comes

with a promise. And today we're going to look

at three, their promises, but we're going to

see how they have some accompanying I think is

the way to say it. I'd say commands from the

Lord. Also, I just realized I did not bring my

bag of candy in here. I can't pelt people with

candy. Hey, Chris. Would you want to run to the

office and grab my bag of candy? It should be

on that table or it could be on my desk. I apologize.

Thank you, sir. How you doing, buddy? All right.

Okay, so we're going to get started. We'll make

sure that Chris gets caught up because I just

sent him on an errand to get the candy, and he'll

miss the first couple of blanks, okay? All right,

so it says soaring or not, and then you see a

pair of wings and the word you great big in the

middle of the pair of wings. The worksheet is

posted on Facebook, so those that want to can

find it on my profile. I don't know if it made

it on the New Heights profile or not, but it's

there. The reference we will first look at is

a classic reference. It is Matthew chapter 28,

Matthew 28:18–20

verses 18 through 20. So that's what goes in

those first blanks. Matthew 28, 18 to 20. These

verses will be affectionately called by many

the Great Commission. They are... In theory,

Jesus' last words on the earth to his disciples

before leaving to go to heaven. They are the

last words Matthew recorded, in any case. Okay?

So, Matthew 28, 18 through 20. Okay? So I'm going

to read the verses. You're going to look at your

paper, and then you're going to fill them in.

That's going to be the plan. So we'll see how

well this goes. It's going to follow the verses

really closely, so pay close attention and you

should get it. Verse 18 says, And Jesus came

up and spoke to them, saying, All authority in

heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go,

therefore, and make disciples of all nations.

baptizing them in the name of the Father, the

Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow

all that I commanded you, and behold, I am with

you always to the end of the age. Okay? So now,

I might be able to do that from memory. Some

days I can, some days I can't. Probably not today

because I've had like a long migraine that's

coming to an end, but maybe. The very first two

words then should be? Go. Don't get too far ahead.

Tell. That's right. Good job, Tim. So go tell.

Okay? Say again? Yes, deceivingly long blank.

That happens at times. Go tell. All right? And

then in parentheses, I put in parentheses because

it is, you'll notice that the command portion

of this, go therefore. There could have been

a, it could have been therefore. The T could

have been therefore, right? The command is to

go and tell, and then there is a therefore there,

and we know what the therefore is there for,

right? Whenever you see a therefore, you always

want to know what's it there for. That's the

first cue to me to go and look. And so in the

parentheses, you could figure out the therefore

because it was in the verse before it. And so

what do you got? All? Yep. Yes, in heaven and

on earth. Yes. Sorry. Just take this back. All

right. So that's the therefore. So this is missed

by a lot of people. OK, so we talk about like

the even Paul wrote about the ruler of this world.

And we usually say the ruler of this world. To

whom are we referring? Well, usually you hear

that phrase ruler of this world. The devil, right?

Most people are talking about the devil when

they say the ruler of this world. He is certainly

not the ruler of heaven. But notice that at the

time of Jesus' ascension, at the time when he

is leaving this earth, he tells the disciples

to go and tell. And the reason he tells them

to go and tell, or what reason he gives is, all

authority has been given me in heaven and on

earth. So if you think that there is a battle

taking place between Satan and Jesus and Jesus

is just barely pulling it out, that is not correct.

That's not the math of it. If you're struggling

on a day -to -day basis, you have the Holy Spirit

in you, the Holy Spirit's lifting you up, the

Holy Spirit's encouraging, the Holy Spirit's

helping you to overcome and that kind of thing,

but you also have lots of schemes of the devil

and there's evil spirits involved, you put thoughts

in your head and you're barely winning out, that's

not the math of it. That's not the way it's supposed

to be. We have total victory in Christ. It's

already won. The battle is already determined.

I heard a pastor say it this way. I don't know

if you're aware of this or not, but during the

Civil War, Tennessee seceded from the Union.

It became one of the Confederate states. When

Tennessee conceded from the Union, part of Tennessee

seceded from Tennessee and said they were going

to stick with the Union. And when that happened,

the part of Tennessee that was seceding beat

them down. They put them down fast and hard.

And so what happened was that part that was trying

to stay with the Union became the rebellion against

the rebellion. And then the part of Tennessee

that was seceding said, no, we're not going to

let you rebel against us. And they forced them

to become a Confederate state. So what I'm getting

at is sometimes it looks like there's this massive

conflict. But the truth is that the outcome is

already determined. Jesus said, all authority

has been given me in heaven and on earth. So

when you have trials and tribulations, do not

mistake it for a lack of power or authority on

behalf of Jesus. Jesus does not lack the ability

to heal miraculously, to overcome your trials

or your temptations or to stop storms or any

of that. He does not lack in power in any way,

shape or form. All authority. had been, at the

time that he's speaking here, given him in heaven

and on earth. That was done. Now, elsewhere,

we will hear that there will continue to be a

rebellion, right? In a sense, you think it's

like the rebellion against the rebellion. And

that's what he was telling the disciples to do.

Go put down the rebellion. It's been settled,

right? There's just people that don't accept

that it's been settled. There are evil spirits

that don't accept that it's been settled and

so on. So go put down the rebellion. That's what

he's saying, okay? All right, so we're going

to move on. So we have go tell, and then in the

parentheses, all authority has been given me

in heaven and on earth. And then, and? Make disciples

of all nations. Perfect. Make disciples of all

nations. So real quick, what is a disciple? That's

half of it. Someone who follows Jesus or follows

God, that's only half of it. What's the other

half? And tells people. That's right. So you

learn from your master, which in our case is

Jesus or God. We learn from the master and we

deliver the teachings to others. If you don't

get to the point where you can deliver the teachings,

then you're not a disciple. You might be a student.

But if you go to class, let's say you go to college,

and you take Psychology 101. I've seen this happen

100 times, by the way. Aaron, you took Psychology,

didn't you? Okay, so you took Psychology, and

as you were learning new things in Psychology,

what were you want to do? Apply it. Okay, apply

it. Do something about it, right? And you start

talking to me about it, talking to other people

about it, right? Because you were learning it.

Now, some of that is cross -checking. Is this

really true? Does this really play itself out

this way? Right. Can I really do something with

this? But the truth is, when you get filled with

useful knowledge, like if I told you that you

go on right now, if you go out right now on Stack

Social and you can get a coupon for $40 off gas

at Circle K right now, go on there right now

on your phone. I'll give you the code and you

get $40 off Circle K and you don't have to register.

You have to put your cell phone number in. You

don't have to give a credit card, nothing. And

they'll give you a code. They'll send you a code

40 bucks and they'll never text you after the

fact. Right? You'd be like, uh -huh, yeah, I'm

going to do that because I can stop and get gas

on the way home. I probably need enough gas.

I can do that. And then what would you do? You'd

be thinking, well, who else needs to know this

information to get free $40 of gas? Why wouldn't

I? There's no negative, right? So when you get

valuable information, when you get valuable information,

then you share that information. It's a natural

outflow. Otherwise, you're disparaging the information

and saying, well, that's not really worth it.

So a disciple is someone who follows. Follows

and learns from the master and then delivers

it. So this is what some of my friends have made

the mistake of doing. They think that they are

making disciples of themselves. You are not a

disciple of Pastor Dan. In fact, though I may

stand up here and teach or preach, you do not

learn from me. You learn from me in the sense

that I'm the one doing the actual biological

talking, right? But the truth is you're learning

from God. So that if I stand up here and I get

something wrong, if I teach something that God

would not have you to know, then you'll ignore

it. Or you'll question me on it so I don't get

it wrong. You'll be like, hey, Pastor Dan, you

said this, but that's not quite right, is it?

And I'm like, oh, crud, yeah, that's not quite

right. So we've got to fix that or whatever.

So this is the crucible in which we learn from

Jesus. The disciples were going on behalf of

Jesus. They were not trying to make disciples

of John, even though that did happen. And they

weren't trying to make disciples of Peter, even

though that did happen to some degree. They were

always trying to point back to Jesus. So a discipleship

program is a program that points to Jesus, that

teaches people to learn from Jesus and then to

share whatever they got. That's so important

because every single one of us is unique. Every

single one of us has a different level. So like,

for example, in this room, phenomenal with language.

He's the closest thing to a linguist that we

have, right? He's super good with language and

even can do some computer programming like that.

So Aaron is super good with technology and especially

like the POS technology stuff that he works with

and that kind of thing. And so Tim, not a linguist,

not super good with technology, but able to communicate

with people on an empathetic level and talk to

people that some of us might not even be able

to talk to. So we're all unique, and you have

to get it from Jesus. And so if I get it from

Jesus, but you don't, then you're not going to

be able to deliver it to the people that you're

supposed to deliver it to. And some people are

going to hear from you that would not hear from

me, and vice versa. And so the bottom line is,

we are disciples of Jesus, and then we are going

to take those teachings to all nations, as this

command says. We're actually after the promise,

by the way, not the command, so I don't want

to dwell too long. Probably already went too

long right there. The rest of this should be

obvious. The B is definitely baptize them in

the name of the Father. So you'll notice there

is a blank between of and Father. You need to

write in the word the. Yep. So write in the word

the. There is no line there. Okay. I left that

there for a reason. The reason I left it there

is now you'll notice once the the is in there

that it all sort of connects together. But previously,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit stood off by themselves.

See the symbolism? Previously, Father, Son, and

Holy Spirit stood off by themselves. But now,

because of Jesus, because of the crucifixion,

because of his call to us, we are part of the

team. We have a job to do. You could say a purpose,

although we wouldn't want to run on ahead. So

then not only are we going to baptize them in

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

but on top of that we're going to, starts with

a T. Very good. Teach them to observe all that

I have commanded you. So again, they're getting

their directions from Jesus. They're delivering

the directions to the world. So as much as we

say it's really not going to be great to tell

somebody not to lie if they're lost because they're

just going to do it anyway. and they're probably

going to feel guilty from that point on or whatever.

Jesus did tell us, to be honest. There are a

lot of commands of Jesus that aren't necessarily

going to be worth something to the world. They're

not necessarily going to follow those commands.

But in delivering the truth about Jesus, they

may discover that they need him, and that's what

we're really after. Then you see a lo there.

What does lo mean? L -O. It's in the Bible a

whole bunch of times. Lo, L -O. Yep, behold,

look here. The word there means behold, look

here, pay attention. Okay, so in other words,

he gave them what they're going to be doing now.

And then he said, now pay attention. Watch this.

Look here. Here's your emphasis. And we already

read it. He said, I am with you always, even

to the end of the age. Okay, so with you always

is pretty straightforward, isn't it? He's going

to be with you. And even to the end of the age,

a little less so. We'll come back to that one

in a second. Notice this all goes together. It's

very clearly all goes together. It is what we

call the Great Commission. So if you want him

to be with you always, even to the end of the

age, what do you need to do? Say it again. Yep.

But more specifically. Go. Tell, make disciples

of all nations, baptize them in the name of the

Father, teach them to observe all things I have

commanded you. Lo, and lo, pay attention, look

here, I will be with you always, even unto the

end of the age. See, the problem is we've got

a lot of people who are claiming the I will be

with you always, even to the end of the age,

without doing the first part. That's the problem.

Okay? And it is all together. It was not separate.

His command to them was not separate from his

promise to them in this case. This is a command

that comes with a promise, or really a command

that arises out of the promise. Now, what does

even to the end of the age mean? You want to

take a stab at that? There are maybe some theories

about this. Go ahead, Tony Tate, tell us what

you think. End of age, well, that's true. So

there's the end of a possible... Correct. Correct.

Good. Okay, so good. So what he said was the

end of the time in which we are now living is

going to be when Jesus comes again. Okay? So

to see that very clearly, and that is the way

Bible scholars read it, theologians read it,

pretty much nobody disagrees. You might call

it the church age. You might hear somebody say

that. But this is what Jesus said. I'm going

to read from Matthew 13, 39. If you look, it

goes up the right -hand side of the page. You

see a guy there. The end of the age is the harvest.

Matthew 13, 39 says as follows. I'll go back

to 37 so we get a run up at it. And he said,

So what did Jesus say? The promise that he's

going to be with us, that's awesome, is it not?

I mean, I love that Jesus is with me. I'm okay

with the fact that it's tied to my being obedient

to his command. But if you love that Jesus is

with you, you realize there's going to be a moment

in time coming in the future. Like right now,

it's good that he's with me when I'm sick. It's

good that he's with me when I'm working. It's

good that he's with me when I'm going through

struggles or have a migraine, or it's good that

he's with me through all of that. But there's

going to come a moment in time at which it's

going to be super, super important that Jesus

is with me. And if he's not, I am screwed. And

that time is the end of the age. And so Jesus,

people always take it to say, well, he's going

to be with us for the whole time that we're living,

or the whole time that the earth is here, or

whatever like that. And that isn't even necessarily

true. Jesus could come again before we die of

old age, or we could die, and then sometime later

Jesus comes again before the next generation

dies, and so on. So the point is, We need Jesus

to be with us on a daily basis, but we really,

really need him to be with us at the moment of

the harvest. You do not want to be gathered up

as tares and burned. You want to be gathered

as wheat and taken into the storehouse, right?

And so this promise is more important that he's

going to be with us even to the harvest than

it is that he's going to be with us today, unless

the harvest is today. And people always leave

that off and don't really care very much that

he's going to be there. He's going to be with

us in the moment that the people are being sorted.

That's huge. All right, so we're going to go

down left now, going leftward across the kind

of comical display of people moving across the

page in the middle there. You'll notice that

there's a doorway on the far left that says exit,

and everybody's walking away from the exit, and

then they're going through the ups and downs.

even crawling on ropes some, and so on. Okay?

And we're going to look now at, if it starts

with a J, Jason, it's probably what book? New

Testament. Starts with a J, New Testament. John

is correct. Okay? So it's the book of John, and

it's 14, 26 to 27. I gave you the chapter and

verse. Okay? Also classic verses. that we're

drilling down on now. Jesus has just finished

saying, these things I have spoken to you while

remaining with you. So he said, this is what

I've been telling you is important, right? And

now he goes on to say in 26, but the helper,

the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in

my name, he will teach you all things and remind

you of all that I said to you. Peace, I leave

you. My peace I give you, not as the world gives

do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled

nor fearful. Okay? So starting from the top right

under the reference, we're talking about a helper,

which is the Holy Spirit. Okay? You'll see the

Holy Spirit referenced as a he. Why do we say

that the Holy Spirit is a he when he almost certainly

does not have genitalia? Because what? Okay,

well, Jesus was clearly a he, and they are all

one in the sense the Trinity is all one. We say

he is a he because the Bible says he is a he.

The Bible always uses a masculine pronoun to

reference the Holy Spirit. There's no it. There's

no neuter to it. You could make a wide variety

of philosophical arguments as to why that is.

But we have God the Father, God the Son, God

the Holy Spirit. At the very least, both a son

and a father are masculine gender. Whether or

not the Holy Spirit has gender in the sense that

we think of gender is debatable. He is a spirit,

but he is referred to as a he, not an it. So

if somebody says, I have the Holy Spirit, I love

it, or the Holy Spirit, it works in me, that

is incorrect. In fact, if you say it, there's

a substantial possibility you're talking about

an evil spirit. So you have to be kind of careful

of that. The Bible always refers to the Holy

Spirit as a he. So a helper, the Holy Spirit.

The Father will send in Jesus' name. Why is it

significant that the Holy Spirit would be sent

in Jesus' name? Why does that have to be mentioned?

Okay, so that's kind of using the word to define

the word, but yeah. So if it wasn't in Jesus'

name, then it wouldn't be Jesus. There is no

other name given on earth among men by which

we must be saved. Therefore, if you do not appeal

to God through Jesus to be saved, you will not

be saved. And when does the Holy Spirit come

into a person? At the moment of salvation. So

it is in the name of Jesus. Also notice, all

authority has been given me. in heaven and on

earth, as we read in the previous verses. It

is by Jesus and Jesus alone. So if people have

an alternative method, it's not going to work.

And there is no holiness, no amount of holiness

that will ever achieve the Holy Spirit coming

and taking up residence in a person. It must

be done in Jesus' name. All right, and we're

going to go on. Now we're talking a little bit

about what the Holy Spirit does. And so it says

he will. Teach us. And I understand my U looks

a little bit like a Y there, so I apologize.

He will teach us. I extended that to us because

this is written to the church. And a little more

tricky wording. You got it? What else will he

do? It's really a two -part ministry here listed.

Say it again. Yes, he will bring and bring to

remembrance. So why is, what does that mean,

bring to remembrance? What's he going to bring

to remembrance again? Let's be clear about that.

Everything. Everything that Jesus taught us.

So this is a huge piece of what the Holy Spirit

does for believers. You sit under teaching. Does

anybody remember what we taught the first four

weeks of last year on Tuesday night or Sunday?

I mean, the blessing is in our church, you can

go on the podcast and listen or on the live until

May. We have to download all the pack. Starting

in May, they're only going to have the last 30

days worth of live videos on our Facebook page.

We have to download all that so we can save it.

But our podcast has that. Right now, the Facebook

page has it all the way back. But even then,

you'd go back and go, oh, yeah, yeah, I remember

that now. But whatever is imbued in you, whatever

is coming from Jesus, the Holy Spirit serves

to bring up what you need when you need it. As

long as you don't quench that voice, right? As

long as you're willing to listen to the Holy

Spirit, then he'll bring it up, right? Now, that

means you do have to read your Bible. You meditate,

memorize. These are all things that are commanded.

So if they're commanded and we don't do them,

then we're taking away the fuel that the Holy

Spirit will use to bring up. We won't be able

to come up with what Jesus commanded us because

we never heard it. We don't know what Jesus said

on this topic. But if we know what he said and

we commit it to memory, commit it in our hearts,

that kind of thing, then he can bring it up.

And that's a big part of what he does. He brings

to remembrance all the things that Jesus taught

us. Okay? Jesus, the next word is Jesus, gives

peace. Very good. You're right on it. Gives peace.

And then there's a key phrase that's describing

that. Not as the world gives. Okay? Now, theologians

do a lot of debating about what not as the world

gives exactly means. How does the world give?

And some of it's cultural. So they kind of interpret

it on a cultural level. Like here in America,

we buy gifts and wrap them and give, or we give

quality time to people that we care about or

like that. Where in different parts of the world,

they think of giving differently. And so there's

a lot of different debates that follow not as

the world gives, but for sure we know what. What

can we know for sure about the way that Jesus

gives? It's like no other, right? So in other

words, you can't get it anywhere else. So in

other words, even if it was available in some

way, it still would not be the quality. So if

you could buy the same thing that somebody bought

you for Christmas, you could buy that same thing

on AliExpress for a tenth of the money, it's

probably not going to be as good because most

stuff comes on a slow basis. boat from China

has poor quality. Okay? And that's just the reality

of it. So it's not going to be any other place,

any other availability. So that's true. What

else? Jesus gives. What do we know about Jesus

that makes him a good giver? He knows our heart.

He knows you inside and out. So when I go to

buy a gift for somebody at Christmas time, birthdays,

something like that, I'm going to buy them a

gift. I want to buy a gift that fits, fits their

personality, something they mentioned a month

ago that they would like to have or something

I know. Oh, you know what? They had this problem.

I know they had the problem. They got a solution.

But here's a good lasting solution for their

problem. So I'm looking for something that's

really what they need, really what they want.

But they're going to go, oh, I didn't even know

I needed that. But now that I have it, wow, that

was the perfect gift. That's what I'm looking

for. And Jesus is the perfect gift giver, which

means he can give you the peace that you need

for exactly what you're going through. So the

world can't do that. The world doesn't know you.

Even if you tried to tell the world about you,

the world doesn't know you. It's hard for anybody

else in the church to even know you. And that's

if you took a lot of time, laid it out. They

read your journal for the last three years, everything

you wrote. You've described everything you've

ever been through. If you went to a counselor

for 40 years, they wouldn't know you. If you

told them everything, they wouldn't know you.

They'll never get close to knowing you like Jesus

knows. There you go. And there's another example.

We're talking about Jesus knows us. He also knows

the world, the need. He can define what peace

is, right? And has in some sense. All right.

So there's a lot there. that we can know for

sure. So when people get into a debate saying

it gives like the world doesn't give that way

or whatever, I wouldn't worry about the debate.

I would go with what you know, is what I'm saying.

Okay? All right. This is a trick one, so be careful.

So we have a command in here, and I gave you

a DT, and I busted the language for grammar to

do this. So it's don't this. Instead of do this,

commands are usually do this or prohibitions

are usually don't do this. So this is don't this.

So put don't and then this. And it is let your

heart be troubled or be fearful, right? Don't

let your heart be troubled or be fearful. Now

that sounds good. But we kind of have a problem

in that, first of all, what's our heart? So let's

get a biblical definition of the heart for a

moment. What is a heart? What's a heart of a

person? Okay, not too bad. Say it again. Okay,

it is an organ, but it's something more than

that. Okay, now you're getting somewhere, something

that makes you you. So when the Bible talks about

your heart, it is that place inside you where

your most crucial identity decisions are made.

So if you have a thought, I think I'll walk.

And then you go, no, I think I'll ride. Walking

is too much work. And then there's something

deep inside you, but walking is healthy. You

really should walk. Okay, fine, I'll walk. And

then you go, oh, but wait. I'm going to have

to carry back some heavy bags and stuff like

that, or I've got to get back by a certain time,

and that would be disrespectful to a promise

that I made because I said I'd be back by a certain

time or something like that. And something inside

you, deep inside you, says, no, I'm going to

have to ride today. But then when I get back

after everything's done, I'm going to have to

walk because that is healthy for me. So decision

-making goes deeper, deeper, deeper. Your convictions

are in your heart. Your beliefs, your thoughts

like that, they're up here. They're somewhere.

That's why they always say if it doesn't move

from your head to your heart, it doesn't make

a whole hill of beans. Because if you can think

it now, you can think something different later.

So your heart is like the internal part of you

that makes your decisions. RJ used the word soul.

The only reason I kind of get a sticking point

is because we have a verse that names heart and

soul. And it's not meant to be the same thing.

It's not your heart, which is also your soul.

It's your heart and your soul, which are named

as two different parts. But your soul regenerated

and your heart regenerated working inside. You

can do basically all the decision making, all

the... Responding to conviction, the deep beliefs,

etc. So, if that's what our heart is, and we

are commanded not to let our heart be troubled

or fearful, how do we do that? This is a command.

It's a command that you have to follow. How does

a person make it so that their heart is not troubled?

If that's your center, your core, decision -making,

how would you do that? Go ahead. Take a stab

at it. I was going to say, I say more reliance

on the Lord because our hearts can easily be

troubled or fearful. So we need to turn it to

God. I agree with you completely. Go ahead. And

I think that those two things mesh beautifully.

Okay? So in the Bible, we see the word believe

a lot. In modern day, ever since the Enlightenment,

there's been the thought that you can believe

something and it doesn't change who you are.

In the Enlightenment, they started thinking,

well, I think, therefore I am, rather than I

am, therefore this is the way I think. So they

started, that was, I can't remember, philosopher's

name who actually said that. Now it might be

Descartes, but anyway, he said, I think, therefore

I am, as a definition of how you can know that

you exist. How do I know I exist? Because I think.

I think, therefore I am. And that reversed the

concept of I am, therefore I think a certain

way. Our emotions now in America, people's emotions

drive them. I'm mad, so I act grumpy. I didn't

get what I want, so I'm going to act stubborn

or be mean to people or something like that.

My wife said something I didn't like, so now

I'm fuming. And we think that what we experience

drives our emotions. But biblically speaking,

your heart, your core drives your emotions. So

you can decide to be, and I learned this, and

I'm not saying I'm great at it or anything, but

you can decide to be happy in the stupidest of

circumstances. At a time where no one would be

happy, you can be happy. You're going to heaven.

You've got the Holy Spirit. You've got spiritual

gifts that you couldn't buy with money. Not any

amount of money or any amount of effort. You're

blessed beyond measure. The truth is, if you're

here tonight, you are blessed beyond measure.

There are people in the world right now not knowing

where four ounces of clean water is going to

come tomorrow to be able to cook or drink. And

if we needed it, we'd just order a bottle of

water. Or we'd go to the store and grab whatever

we need. We are blessed beyond measure. So for

us to respond to something that happens to us

and let that affect our emotions, that's a mistake.

Tony Tate and Alicia were putting together, right?

Relying on the Lord, believing in the Lord then

should drive your actions. So if we get that

idea right in our heads, then we see Jesus say

in John 14, 1, he says, do not let your heart

be troubled. Oh, wait a minute. We just heard

that, didn't we? Do not let your heart be troubled.

Semicolon. So Josh, when there's a semicolon,

a sentence, what does the next part usually mean?

And it follows logically, right, the first sentence.

It could be sometimes, not always, it could be

a restatement of the first sentence. Some people

do that. It could be that it may stand alone

as a sentence by itself, but it's contingent

upon the first part. All of those things are

possible. That being said, he says this, do not

let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe

also in me. And I submit to you, this is a two

-part action plan by which you can not let your

heart be troubled, not let your heart be fearful.

As the psalmist said many times, Proverbs says

in a couple places, when you go into trouble,

what do you do? Trust in the Lord. So we have

to realize that Jesus said, all authority has

been given me in heaven and on earth. And so

now I'm going into a period of time where I'm

going through some stuff that I don't want to

go through. My life sucks right now by my own

decision -making process. But we have to realize

somebody is making the decisions that is a lot

smarter than we are. And whatever worst eventuality

you're possibly going through right now, you

definitely could be kept from something worse,

even if that something worse is hell for an eternity.

God is concerned about your eternity, not your

current comfort. All right, now God does want

you to be comfortable. He wants you to be happy.

He wants to take care of you. He loves you. He's

providing for you. He's doing a lot of things.

Purpose, provision, protection, and so on. Power,

right? That's all part of being a Christian.

But he says, do not let your heart be troubled.

And then he says, believe in God. Believe also

in me. I submit to you, this is what's happening.

When our hearts are troubled or fearful, it is

because either A, we are not believing in God.

And I'm not saying getting unsaved, right? We're

not placing our faith in God. that he knows what

he's doing, trusting him with wisdom, trusting

the circumstances, trusting his power, right?

Or we are not putting our faith in Jesus, one

or the other. I'm not talking about being unsaved.

At the moment you were saved, you trusted in

God, trusted in Jesus, the channel of faith was

open, grace came in, you were saved. Now, why

would you actively, day by day, not believe in

God and believe in Jesus? Well, because God didn't

do a miracle that I prayed for. I prayed and

I said, God, heal me, and God didn't heal me.

God didn't provide money or God didn't take away

my pain or God, you know, whatever. God knows

better than we do. When you face that moment

in time, there is a two -step action plan that

you need to do. And that is believe in God and

believe in Jesus. And I submit to you when life

gets really bad, there is a two -step action

plan to existing. It gets down to that. Get down

to just this. I could die in a second. Believe

in God. Believe in Jesus. I don't know. I can't

pay my bills. I could lose my house. Believe

in God. Believe in Jesus. I'm struggling emotionally

with the people in my life. Believe in God. Believe

in Jesus. When it gets so bad that you can't

do anything to fix the situation, that he's not

leading you to step in and make it better, just

believe in God. Believe in Jesus. And you see

that with martyrs. right, when they're on the

cross or when they're being burned, whatever,

what are they doing? Preaching the gospel, right?

No, not really. I mean, they're preaching it

without words. They're living it, but they're

believing in God and believing in Jesus. And

if you get wrapped up in a whole bunch of other

action, learning more, getting outside the word

to learn, becoming a psychologist or a counselor

or a doctor or all these other action plans that

make your life better, situation better, whatever.

ultimately is still going to have to come down

to believe in God, believe in Jesus. And I would

tie it together this way. He said, I am with

you even unto the end of the age. At the moment

of the harvest, will you be harvesting? No, you'll

be getting harvested. And when you're getting

harvested, will you be winning people to Jesus?

No. Will you be trying to live right? No. You'll

be getting harvested. That's the only thing that'll

be happening at that time. You'll be getting

harvested. And when you're getting harvested,

what is your two -step action plan that will

get you through to where you want to go? Believe

in God and believe in Jesus. Anything that jeopardizes

that two -step action plan should actually go

out of your life. If you're watching things,

seeing things, doing things, involved in relationships,

whatever, that are jeopardizing your ability

to believe in God, believe in Jesus on a daily

basis, then you should start weeding those things

out. Because sometime you're going to have just

that. That's all you have. You're going to get

down to, that's all I've got left. I just need

to believe in God and believe in Jesus. And you

need to do that. And you cannot allow anything

between now and then to make it more difficult

for you to do that. Last one. Over on the right

-hand side. This one is a classic verse. Romans

8 .28. Another verse that people often quote

without the... or the necessity. Romans 8 .28.

Does anybody have this memorized? I kind of do.

But there's a few words at the beginning that

I tend to leave off. For we know God can work

all things together for the good, for him who

loves the Lord. Yep. Well, now you do. All right.

I can't get to the Bible on the right spot. There

it is. So this is what we've got going on here.

26 says, Now in the same way the Spirit also

helps our weakness, for we do not know what to

pray for as we should. But the Spirit himself

intercedes for us with groanings too deep for

words. And he who searches the hearts knows what

the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes

for the saints according to the will of God.

Then 28, here it comes. And we know that God

causes all things to work together for good to

those who love God and to those who are called

according to his purpose. And it's very simple.

So the first one is, We know. Next part. Okay.

God causes. I put can on my paper, but I like

causes better actually. All things to work together

for good. Did it say for the good? No. For good.

That's interesting, isn't it? Because the good

implies it's good for us. And that's how we usually

quote the verse. Okay. But realize that what's

good overall is also good for you. Even though

you may go, oh, this is not so good for me. You

might take a bullet for a friend and you survive

it or don't go straight to heaven, whatever.

You'd be like, well, that wasn't good. Right?

That's what we'd think. Well, I took a bullet.

That wasn't good. Right? But your friend survives,

goes on, does amazing things for God. It was

in God's plan, whatever. Maybe you survived.

You have a great testimony and all that. So the

overall, the good. Okay? not our good, not for

the good of us, but the good overall. Okay? And

he says to work together for good. Okay? And

then he goes on to say, let me find my spot again,

to those who are called according to his purpose.

Okay? So then this is a command to what? Be this.

Two things. What? What are the two things? He

does this for those who what? Love God. Be called

according to his purpose. So now what I've given

you is some examples on the bottom of the box

there of things that people will generally say

are what might be being called according to God's

purpose. So are we called to love? Sure we are,

right? You can say that. That's God's purpose.

Love God is love and so on. Are we called to

witness? Evangelism. That means to spread the

good news. Do good. Faithfulness. All your blanks

are filled out, but there's a little bit left,

so don't give up on me. Okay? Faithfulness. Serve.

Believe. Deny self. Jesus said, who would be

my disciple? Deny yourself daily, right? Take

up your cross. Yeah, that fits in there. All

things that we do, do as if we do them for him.

That makes sense. Fear not. Overcome. So here's

what I want you to do. On that list, I would

like you to circle three, not more than three,

just three things on that list that you feel

like God has called you to do. Take the top three.

Any of them could be, right? You could just circle

the whole box. But if you did, you still wouldn't

have the whole answer. I could have given 40

more examples, couldn't I? So pick three of those

things that you think God has called you personally

to do. And then we're going to look at, if you'll

notice up there on the right -hand side, you've

got some little doodles and some verses. The

first one is 1 Peter 2 .9. I've written it in

there for you. We are in the very ends of it

here. Almost there. Go. 1 Peter 2 .9 says as

follows. Wrong page. Here we go. But you are

a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

a people for God's own possession, so that you

may proclaim the excellencies of him who has

called you out of darkness into his marvelous

light. He has called you out of darkness into

his marvelous light. So if God has called us

out of darkness into his marvelous light, then

what should we do based on that? What is the

calling of God? He called you to leave the darkness,

come into the light, and so now what? Live in

the light, right? Abide in the light. Abide where

he has called you to be. He called you out of

the darkness to live in the light. So you do

that in community with other believers. You do

that by speaking out about what you know. You

do that by living as a godly man or woman, right?

Which would include a lot of those other things

that are on that list. But it's just living in

the light. He called you out of the darkness

into the light. Now in the Bible, a lot of times

darkness represents ignorance and light represents

knowledge, right? So you didn't know and now

you're called to live knowing. Does that make

sense? You didn't know. He called you out of

not knowing into living knowing. So that's one

possibility. Sometimes in the Bible, darkness

represents evil or wickedness. And he called

you out of evil or wickedness into light represents

goodness, cleanness, holiness. And so now you're

not supposed to live like you did over here in

wickedness or evil. You live like you are over

here in goodness or holiness. So basically, it's

just simply this. And it will look different

for every person. If the calling of God was to

leave this people and become part of this people,

then you will live as part of this people. And

if you answer that call and live as part of this

people, what? God can work all things together

for good. But if you will dilly -dally, or cross

the line or live straddling, so you're part over

here in the darkness, part over here in the good,

there is no promise that God can work all things

together for the good. In fact, you're going

to be doing certain things that really stand

in his way. Just like when Jesus went through

Galilee and there were people that didn't believe

in him and he was only able to do a few miracles

of healing. So in your life, he's not going to

go do the things that he wants to turn those

bad situations out for good. Sometimes it'll

be straight up your good, and sometimes it's

good of all mankind, good of the gospel, good

of the kingdom, like that, right? And sometimes

that'll look bad for you. That's what martyrdom

is. Otherwise, because how did God turn martyrs'

deaths out for good? They died. So if it was

just stuck in this lifetime, they didn't get

good. They got filleted or drawn in quarter or

burnt or crucified. That's not good. So did God

fail to turn that out for good? No, he didn't

fail. Actually, what you find is that typically

right after a martyrdom like that, the gospel

spreads like wildfire, and tons of people saw

them living for Jesus at their death, and they

got saved. And that's been like that every time

that ever happens, somebody's martyred. And it

even happens when somebody's martyred not for

the cross, that people tend to pay attention

to them. They think, wow, that person really

had strong convictions, and so on. So the point

is, it's not simply that it will be good for

you or what you think is good. It will be that

it will be good, and it is promised at first

because we respond to the calling, which is us

called out of darkness to live in the light.

The second thing then comes from Ephesians 3

.10. Number two is Ephesians 3 .10. Just so the

teenagers know, there are a couple of questions

out of what I'm talking about right now, because

I've already got questions written on the back

of my paper. Ephesians 3 .10. It says this, so

that the multifaceted wisdom of God, or the amazing

manifest wisdom of God, or there's a variety

of different words translated there, but the

multifaceted wisdom of God might now be made

known through the church, oh, that's us, to the

rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realm.

So based on that, what has God called us to do?

What was God's purpose in calling us out? Say

it again. By who? By your family? By your boss?

By your friends? By the angels. See, the mystery

of the gospel of what Jesus would do was kept

secret until it happened, until Jesus' crucifixion.

That was the reveal, right? Crucifixion and resurrection

was the reveal. From then has been the turn and

the reveal known. We talked about that seven

weeks ago on Sunday, right? And it is our job

to make sure that those who are in the heavenly

realms get the message. So when you witness and

share the gospel, somebody asked them to be saved.

They don't get saved. That was a failure, right?

Wrong. Because it wasn't even about them. This

is what you got to get through your head. When

you're talking to somebody about Jesus, If they

are being called by God, if God is calling them

out of the darkness into the light, they will

be interested and possibly get saved. And that

would be great. But if you share with them and

they are not interested and don't get saved,

you still did what God commanded you. Your belief

meets the commands of God. You're still living

in the light. You're doing everything that God.

And so, first of all, we know God can work that

for the good. And secondly, we know that the

angels, evil spirits, demons, powers that be

in the otherly realms will be able to witness

that and they will know the truth of it. They

will learn over and over again how supreme God

is, how awesome God is, how capable God is, how

much God's plan actually worked. So you share

the truth, live the truth, live in the light

as God has called you so that the angels can

see. Now you can't see the angels so that the

demons and evil spirits can see. You can't see

the demons and evil spirits, at least usually

not. You might see some effect of them, right?

But in living this way, you are testifying to

the host of heavenly realms about the truth about

God, and they can figure it out, okay? And then

the last one, 1 Corinthians 1, 9. And this is

our last verse of the day, and we're done, and

then we got questions. That's it. 1 Corinthians

1, 9. Here we go. It says, God is faithful through

whom you were called into fellowship with his

son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And so if we were

called into fellowship with his son, what should

we do? It's not complicated. Fellowship with

his son. You spend time in prayer. You spend

time in the Word. You spend time in the church.

The church is the body of Christ. You spend time

with God's people and participating. You work

together as brothers and sisters in Christ. We

fellowship. And our fellowship is with God the

Father and His Son Jesus Christ. The second half

of 1 John 1 .3, which is our key verse. We are

New Heights Fellowship. So we live in fellowship

with Christ always. This prohibits certain actions

that would be considered wicked. Jesus will not

go with you while you sleep with your girlfriend

or your boyfriend. He will not go with you while

you post nudie pictures online or look at nudie

pictures online. He is not going to be a part

of that type of activity. Now, he's not going

to abandon you. If you're a follower of Christ,

he's not going to cause you to be lost and go

to hell, right? But at the same time, he is not

going to be in fellowship with you while you

engage in actions that are directly contrary

to what the Father wants. Jesus said, I only

do what I see the Father doing. That's what he

said while he was alive. And that type of action

has... has not changed now. So if we are called

to fellowship with him and we fellowship with

him, then he can work all things together for

good. But if we do not fellowship with him, or

if we step in and out of the darkness, or if

we do not live in the light, do not live by his

his commands, his teachings, etc., then he may

not work everything for the good. Don't you want

to know that if you sacrifice, your sacrifice

is worth something? Don't you want to know that

when things go wrong and you have to endure it,

that something positive is coming out of it,

even if it's not something that you would say

is positive for yourself? That's what Romans

8 .28 is actually about. When you suffer, the

bad things you went through, it all comes down

to, are you going to have them be good? Are you

going to make them into a good thing? And the

way to do that is to, as we talked about, those

things with God, with Christ, in community, and

so on, and then God can turn them into something

good. Otherwise, you may suffer for no good reason,

no good outcome, let's say. All right, so we've

got some questions. First of all, does anybody

have any questions about anything I just said

before I ask my questions? All right, so these

are promises and commands. Next week, RJ will

be teaching. and no idea what he's going to teach

about. It could be promises and commands. It

could be something else that the Lord leads him

to. And then I also want to make it, if you are

willing to teach a lesson on one or more promises

or commands from Scripture in the next few months,

I need to know your name. And what we're going

to do is we're going to lay out a long list of

promises and commands that we're going to go

through, and then you'll have one assigned to

you, and then on Tuesday night you will come

up here and teach that lesson. And we'll all

sit and take notes and fill out the worksheet.

If you need help making the worksheet, I will

help you make the worksheet. You can do this.

It's not that complicated. Haley, we're happy

to draw it for you, won't you? Won't you? Won't

you? But Hannah would draw it. Natalie's not

in here. She'd probably draw it too. Haley, Hannah.

Yep, you guys would draw it. If you need somebody

to draw it. All right? And then what we're going

to do is, like I said, we have three people who

are ready to teach on a given Tuesday night.

Then when we come in, we won't know who's going

to teach. We're going to randomize who's going

to teach that night. So literally, when somebody

steps up to teach that Tuesday night, we'll roll

a dice, spin a spinner, whatever. And whoever's

ready, so if there's three people ready, one

of those three people will teach. And then once

that person teaches, they'll come out of the

mix. And if we have two people ready the next

night, then one of those two will teach. But

then probably by the next one, the first one

will be ready again, or somebody else will be

ready. That's how we're going to do it. Okay?

So I'm excited about it. If you want to be able

to try, let me know. We'll put you on the list.

Okay. Based on today's scripture, this is teenagers

only at the moment, so I can throw candy at them

because I just get joy out of that. Okay. Based

on today's scripture, who is commanded to go?

Jason was the first hand I saw. Us. Look at that.

Right on target. I'm getting good at this. All

right. Ready? Based on today's scripture, who

is commanded to teach? Haley? Us is correct.

Why is that important? Not the pastor, not the

preacher, not the Sunday school teacher. It didn't

say that. It said go and teach them, and it was

directed at Christians. We are commanded to teach.

Now, in Ephesians 4, it says there are teachers

given in the church, and who do those teachers

who are given in the church teach? Us. So the

teachers that are given to the church teach in

the church. Then when you get outside the church,

or when the church goes into the world, it would

be a better way of saying that, who teaches?

everybody, including the teachers that would

teach in here. So I teach in here, for example,

and I go out there and I also teach and Tony

teaches and Alicia teaches and Tim teaches, Brady,

man, got to get with it. You're supposed to be

teaching. We all got to go out there and teach

because that's what we're commanded to do. And

when we do that, he will be with us even unto

the end of the age, which is super important

because the harvest will come and it comes, you're

going to want him with you. Okay? All right.

If we are his and follow The commands of Matthew

28, 18 through 20. How long will Jesus remain

with us, Hannah? Even unto the end of the age.

That hits you in the head, and it was a very

enjoyable moment for me. One of them could have

been caught, but she didn't know which one to

catch, I think. Okay. So, according to Matthew

28, 20, what is it that we are supposed to teach

the disciples? Haley? Say it again. No. Jason?

Going once? No. Close. Go ahead. Let me see if

maybe he was quoting the exact words. Oh, I apologize,

Jason. You quoted the exact words. I didn't have

that in my answer. So you are correct. And Brady's

correct as well. All right, here we go. I'm going

to ask you. I'm going to ask you. That was just

extra special fun right there. Okay. According

to John 14 .1, what is the two -part tactic?

Go ahead. I'm listening. I'm ready for you. Hannah's

going to answer. Yep, say it. Okay, that's one.

Okay, good enough. Trust in God and Jesus, or

believe in God and Jesus. That's correct. And

it is what all things come down to. Okay. Okay.

This is the reason Jesus said we were being commanded

to go, tell, teach, baptize disciples, etc. What

was the reason he said we were being commanded

to do that? Jason? That is correct. Good job,

sir. One bad throw. My apologies. Make sure he

gets his candy. No scamming the candy. Okay.

According to one of the verses I read in the

final section, we were called out of this. What?

Chris? Darkness. That's right. Okay. Adults are

in here. Let's put them to shame. Are you ready?

Okay. One of the purposes was to reveal. Finish

the sentence. We're called to reveal. It's not

on the sheet. The blank's not there. I warned

you there were questions from that section. What

are we revealing and to whom? Okay, I'll give

you the what. God's manifold wisdom and to whom?

The angels. Entities in the heavenly realms.

You're just a victim now. Okay. Going on this

entire page, there is one time where it says

that Jesus gives us something. What does it say

he gives us, Haley? Peace. Peace, that's correct.

Good job, good job. She's quick with the uphand

thing. She caught one of them. Okay. This is

worded a little bit differently, but you should

get it if you pay attention. Because Jesus was

going back to heaven, he would pray the Father,

and the Father would do this. Jason? That is

correct. When Jesus was telling them that he

gave peace, he said that he would not do it a

certain way. What way was that? The way the world

does, right, and which theologians have argued

about what that means exactly. Okay. Brady saved,

and that last one was going to hit, too. All

right. We're going to pray together, and we'll

be out of here. I was close enough. You got a

bit. You can catch it. All right. Aaron, do you

want to pray us out? We're praying along with

Aaron. Here we go. Lord, thank you for this day.

Thank you for weather. Thank you for spring.

Thank you for us being able to gather here and

worship you and learn about you and fellowship

with your children, Lord. Pray to be with us

as we go out into the world and help us teach

those around us what you've taught us here today,

Lord.