Peace Through Superior Lumberjacking Deuteronomy 20:10-20

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that's enough

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thank you foreign [Music]

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like my Jesus [Music]

I want to pray

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on my shelter

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let's see praise

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nothing [Music] you are crazy what a beautiful name it

is [Music]

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nothing compared to this what a beautiful name it is

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what a name

what a wonderful name it is

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depends on me foreign

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thank you we pray for

blessings we pray okay

come back

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we pray for your Mighty hand to ease

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healing constances

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thank you we pray for wisdom

your voice [Music]

cause if every promise from your word

it's not enough [Music]

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to know you're near [Music]

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when friends

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what if my greatest disappointments for the aching of this

life

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thank you all right

praise the Lord he's already been at work in our midst and I am grateful

all right simple mathematics Larry what's three minus three

go ahead what is it 3 minus three is what zero are you sure are you positive

Aaron what's 300 minus 300 are you sure yeah are you positive absolutely without

a doubt okay zero is not zero is like positive

and negative both right or something I don't know um so when we were kids we used to do in math

uh and they would give us sample problems and they would say well Johnny has seven apples

and you take away four apples and Johnny has three apples and then take away three more apples and how many apples

does Johnny have and the answer they were expecting was

zero apples three minus three take away three more apples to zero right they were expecting zero apples right

but how many apples does Johnny really have you say zero he has zero

Johnny if Johnny were real how many apples does Johnny really have left after he lost his seven apples

is it zero we're all adamant we all agree at zero is that your great Karina if Johnny had

seven apples and he lost seven apples how many apples does he have left zero okay so we all agree it's zero right

what if I told you that for most of existence that was not the correct

answer would you believe me grab your bibles if you would and go

with me maybe you'll say a little who to holler amen as we go to John chapter 20. amen this is God's word it is not my

John 20 · chapter mention

word I did not write this word praise God it was written a long time and inspired a long time before I was ever

born and if it had not been I probably would not be saved is the truth John chapter 20 will begin reading in

John 20 · chapter mention

verse 24. this is going to go by kind of quickly and all three points are

kind of dense they're powerful they they're packed so be with me and and let's

observe this and let's grow from it because it's really something okay so John 20 verse 24 you know already the

John 20:24

story to this point a little bit I hope Jesus has been resurrected and he appeared to his disciples on that day of

his resurrection that Sunday in verse 24 of John chapter 20 it says

John 20 · chapter mention

this but Thomas one of the twelve called didymus was not with them when Jesus

came so he missed out on the first appearance of Jesus to the group there behind closed doors in the upper room

the other disciples therefore were saying to him we have seen the Lord so the disciples those who were called by

Jesus to follow Jesus to learn from Jesus to see Jesus to Witnesses Miracles and to tell the entire world the

Disciples of Jesus were telling Thomas we have seen him a lot but Thomas was struggling to believe

that that was so verse 25 again the other disciples

therefore were saying to him we have seen the Lord but he said to them unless I shall see his hands the imprint of the

nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his

side I will not believe so this is a fairly radical bold

statement by Thomas now it's interesting we don't see a lot of Thomas talking throughout the gospels but there's one

other very significant place and time where we do see Thomas speaking up there's a couple of places where we see him talking there's one very significant

one where he does something similar to this it is upon the disciples hearing about the death of Lazarus who was their

friend and Jesus's friend and Jesus said okay now that we have heard the report that he has indeed dead we're going to

go there where he is and you know what remember anybody remember what Thomas said

he said no no they all were questioning that the disciples are questioning he may have said that but what he actually said in

response was this he said sure let's go there where he is so we

can all die with him that's what he's that's pretty bold statement isn't it see already at that

time Jesus was being hunted a little bit and to bring Lazarus back to life that

really set it on fire when Lazarus came back to life thousands and thousands of people believe that's an amazing Miracle

there is for sure life after death and Lazarus is alive and Jesus is The Miracle Worker and he has the power of

God in him no one can deny that and it was from that moment on as Thomas

predicted they began to truly in Earnest to kill Jesus and would have killed the disciples most likely given the

opportunity Thomas foresaw that and when he when Jesus said let's go there where Lazarus is Thomas said back to Jesus

sure let's go there where he is so we can die with him that's pretty bold right well now here is Thomas being bold

again if a little snarky and saying unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails and put my finger into the

place of the nails put my hand into his side I will not believe now remember that everyone in the room including

Thomas had the predictions about the death barrel and resurrection of Jesus they had been told even in the Book of

John we have multiple cases where John tells us they had been told it was coming and yet in the face of that Thomas is having a hard time accepting

that the disciples the other disciples have seen Jesus alive that's significant

and then makes this very bold statement ending with I will not believe unless

those pre-qualifiers 26 says and after eight days again his disciples were

inside now this could be confusing in modern modern teaching or whatever we

might not understand it remember that in the Jewish day they count the first day you're counting and the last day you're

counting so if I said in four days I'm gonna count today then there's Monday and Tuesday and I

mean Wednesday so in his four days includes today because there's plenty of today left and you'd be discounting all

the rest of today if you didn't count it that way so when they say after eight days they mean the eighth day which is

the next Sunday right so we had a Sunday instance and another Sunday instant now this is very interesting because I

studied up on this to figure out make sure I understood what was going on and I found out that in the first century

during the time of Jesus resurrection and following that Jesus is people the

people in the church and especially one prominent writer but there were quite a few of them that began to believe a

Doctrine called The Eighth Day Doctrine now we've not picked that up and carried it 2 000 years forward but I'm going to

tell you what it is and you'll like the idea of it I guarantee you this is what it was it was that after the seven days

of creation on the seventh day the Sabbath God rested right that after that there comes another day

and it is essentially the day of the kingdom of God it is when God's Messiah will come and if you will save everyone

if you everyone that's willing to be saved and begin the kingdom of God okay and so the Eighth Day Doctrine said that

on Sunday the first day of the week the day that he was resurrected that that was essentially The Eighth Day

from creation extended forward to the eighth day and from that point on we are living now in the kingdom of God that's

pretty cool isn't it think about it that way right so the Sabbath was Saturday that was the day that God would rest it

originally and they're celebrating his rest and they rest because he told him to recognize and honor the Sabbath and

keep it holy right and then on the Eighth Day the rest if you will of the kingdom of God ended now that Doctrine

doesn't really play out in all of scripture but in fact it was the Eighth Day from Jewish point of view the Sunday

that and what happened then because of that what did we do because of that well

we changed the day of worship right and there are those who will resist that and say well no the Sabbath

should still be and I submit to you that the Sabbath was about resting and focusing on God and you should have a Sabbath that's a lesson for another day

but the Lord's Day The Day The Eighth Day which was Sunday is also the first day of the week is the Eighth Day which

was Sunday should be recognized as the day of worship because it was the day that Jesus was resurrected was the day that

he met with them and he institutes his church and then from that point on they always worship on the day that they

first saw Jesus even James the brother of Jesus who was a devout Jew had had always worshiped on Saturday even while

he was calling Jesus a nut for thinking he was the Messiah had always done their worship on Saturday but after Jesus came

back to life he began to worship on Sundays pretty neat meet Doctrine neat stuff but not the majority of the text

and after eight days after disciples were inside and Thomas with them Jesus

came the doors having been shut so boom he's there in fact the word there

can kind of like begin to be in their midst or begin to exist amongst them right so he was suddenly there you could

say peace be with you he said and we know that he says a lot more about his peace

being with us in other texts so that's not our primary focus never dismiss the fact that he said peace be with you as a greeting but that's not our primary

primary focus here 27 then he said to Thomas so he turns from the disciples who've all seen him alive before to

Thomas the one who had not the one who made the Bold statement the one who was saying I will never believe unless I

what did he say see in his hands the input of the nails

and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side so

unless that happens I will never believe he said but then Thomas is confronted by the

living risen Jesus and Jesus says reach here your finger and see my hands and reach here your hand and put it in my

side he says and be not unbelieving but believing now I'm a huge fan of this

translation there are a variety of ways that's translated I'll try to explain to you when we break it down later why it's

like that but in the it doesn't carry its full meaning into the English and that's why we get a

variety of translations into the English but this is what Jesus told me go ahead do what you said you needed to do in

order to believe put your hand in my side and be not unbelieving but be believing

in other words be transformed be changed from your current position into the position that I want you in verse 28

almost done with the text Thomas answered and said to him my Lord and my God now no record in the text

here or elsewhere where it's where it's also written that Thomas actually touched

Jesus's nail scarred hands or put his hand in his side he didn't actually have to do that he needed to see the Risen

Jesus and in seeing it the evidence of his presence the necessary

interpretation of Jesus being there brought him to the conclusion that Jesus was Lord had right to be in control of

his life and really the entire universe and God not just the Messiah or the anointed one

although there were texts that supported that the Messiah anointing one would be God In the Flesh but this is clear he

leaps To The Head of the Class if you will leaps to the right conclusion and said this is God in the flesh

my Lord and my God he said Jesus said to him because you have seen me have you

believed blessed are they who did not see and yet

believe now that last part there might be in a format that you're mildly familiar with if you've read your Bible at all or been under some sermons or

whatever you know what that's called when Jesus says a blessed are they who whatever what's that called does anybody

know he's called it beatitude that's right so this is another beatitude similar to

what Jesus preached on The Sermon on the Mount okay when he stood up on the kind of rise and preached to the thousands of

people who were gathered there in the bowl and his voice was projected and maybe by a miracle Maybe by this Acoustics of the place but he preached

all of them and they all heard him and he gave the Beatitudes one after another after another you want to read them you can go to Matthew 5 and read them one

right after another you know blessed are the poor blessed are the meek blessed are the

um peacekeepers and so on you know the Beatitudes and here is the another if

you will be attitude and I submit to you maybe the prime directive beatitude for the star Star Trek fans in the house

blessed are they who did not see and yet believed

all right because you have seen me have you believed blessed are they who did

not see and yet believe now there's three things I really want to point out to you here that really kind of now I

will say to you there were like eight okay and I would kept praying through them and studying on them and the Lord

helped me kind of Widow that down so we could get down to a more manageable number so you could spend a lot of time

studying this text more I think than just reading the story and and learning from what's written there if you want to

the first thing I want you to notice in the text that God really laid on my heart was that Jesus can see

and or hear the quote unquote needs of those who quote unquote need to believe

in him in other words Jesus is not closed to your condition Jesus knows if your parents were not

Christians Jesus knows that they said things that hurt you Jesus knows if you've been frustrated Jesus knows if

you've been through difficult times Jesus knows when you're alone I think about I was dating a girl when I was 19

years old and she was like 23 and she was supermodel beautiful whatever and the night I went in the bathroom and I

said Lord don't get me out of the situation just please get me through it be with me and I was praying because I

had moved the little charm on my necklace and I always thought of that as praying to some mysterious God somewhere but God miraculously got me through that

experience with her and she didn't corrupt me and she drank all the time but I didn't become I didn't become addicted to alcohol even though I did

drink and I could have become addictive she did drugs and I never got involved with the drugs she was supermodel hot

but I never had any form of intimate relationship with her right so God got me through that relationship as I prayed

because God could hear what I was there in the bathroom in the mirror moving a little charm on my necklace thinking

there might be a god out there somewhere God can hear and he can see your needs he can hear and see the evidence that

you need I posted a little reel on Facebook this this week of me speaking saying God is

not afraid of your challenges of him we've got this idea that the god of the

universe somehow man he's going to be cut to the quick he's going to be caught with his hand in the cookie jar God is

not going to be able to address my one reservation my one question or my one

concern whatever I've got the topper I know there's been billions of people that have lived but even though there

have been billions I know how it is that God cannot answer me

what this is the god of the universe notice that in the text Thomas is in the room

with the disciples and saying I will not believe unless this happens and then

Jesus suddenly appears and he doesn't say excuse me Thomas I didn't quite hear you none of the disciples go running to

Jesus say oh Jesus right before you got here Thomas said blah blah blah they don't have to do Jesus heard Thomas's

words in the room of the disciples before he appeared now you might want to gotta minimize that some you might say

well Jesus was probably there but they just couldn't see him he was like invisible but it doesn't matter you

minimize it all you want the fact is that God can see and hear the needs of

those who need to believe in him before they believe in him before you have

decided we have to remember that God the Father God the son God the Holy Spirit now that Jesus lived died and rose again

and it was true before he lived and it was true in some sense while he lived but the point is they are Eternal beings

not Eternal like they were never created and will never die right you're thinking of like Rip Van Winkle or something fell

asleep woke up was really old God's not like that God's been Eternal always and always will be so the moment you walk

into heaven if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior the moment you stand before God and are

potentially judged for what you decide to do with Jesus who was the Christ the moment you stand before God having not

accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior and are found to be still in your sin whatever that might be God is in a

sense already there God was there when you had questions God

was there when you were hurting God was there when the time was so dark you didn't feel like you could see him God

is there the god of Heaven can see and therefore Jesus who is God can see and hear the

needs of those who need to believe in him but here's the big butt

in the story it is absolutely a reasonable expectation of God for you to believe

because you were told because what you were told was true

he's watching a detective show on the Roku channel is one of those free channels we can they have different

episodes on there and I watched this show called The Mentalist I kind of liked it and there's no foul language and no nudity no sex scenes I'm like

this is it and you get a police drama with Mysteries no nudity no foul language no sex scenes and I'm like I

was on cloud nine I loved it it was great the only bad thing I had maybe occasionally not look at dead bodies but

they really didn't do a lot of gross stuff with that which a lot of shows do but anyway so watching it and he sits

down they're sitting they're having this very meaningful conversation the mean the um main character and another

character who are pretty much a main character and he says that this is the truth and the other guy says to him

why should I believe so why should I believe you you've lied to me you've deceived me and tricked me in the past it's clear that you could be

playing why should I believe you and he says because

it's the truth there's no other reason not based on my character now you can believe God based

on his holy honorable and perfect character he always keeps his promises

but even though you can believe God based on his holy and honorable character he always keeps his promises

you're not being asked to believe God when one of the disciples or somebody who's a follower of Jesus tells you and

that's where it was Thomas was being told by the disciples who were humans who might lie

they might have an agenda right so but he was being asked to believe and it was

completely reasonable the expectation that he would believe their testimony because why because

their testimony was true why is it we have so much trouble believing the truth because we're so

indoctrinated with lies because constantly throughout our lives all the time there are things that are

it's you'll be so happy if you go buy this 25 000 car and you'll jump up and kick your heels together

right and then you go buy a 25 000 car or maybe not quite so expensive because that's a lot of money or or maybe more

expensive you think you really need to go over whatever and you're not happy you'll be healthy if you eat or drink or

don't eat or drink this it'll it's every it solved my problem I lost 100 pounds in a year

and then you try it very Faithfully that doesn't have the same effect for you after you spent

hundreds and hundreds of dollars on it it's ongoing the world is full of lies in fact the world is a kingdom of Lies

Who's chief liar is Satan himself and he has taught all of his children

how to lie read about it in Scripture rely because that's the works of your

father he is the master deceiver he is the liar and the world is full of it and where do

we live we live in the world and so it's all around us all the time and so you've got built into you

the ability to detect and to resist a lie in fact

you're so good at detecting and resisting a lie that your first response to something that seems a little bit not what you

expected is to assume it's a lie as a people that's a Human Condition

it's what we are it's what Adam and Eve assumed God was covering up the fact

that they could be like him if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil they assumed he was covering it up

God it's The Human Condition and so we're real good at accepting that things are

lies but the bottom line is it is completely a reasonable expectation

for anybody that if they tell you the truth you will believe them no matter

how bizarre that truth might be and if you don't then it's on you it's not even on them

and so while Jesus can see and hear the needs of those who need to believe in

him it is a completely reasonable expectation that those people who need

to believe in him will believe when they are told about Jesus because frankly it's true

which is one of the reasons why we have this guaranteed insurance policy if you will that you can go out and tell anybody about Jesus because if they

choose not to believe that's on them I don't know what you're waiting for I don't know what the church is waiting for I don't know what we're waiting for

to tell anybody and everybody about Jesus it's like we're waiting for you know I got to get this polished argument

that people won't believe what I'm saying I have to be prepared to answer all of their challenges that they might

come up with if you tell somebody the truth about Jesus and they don't believe and they come back with 17 challenges

you know how many of those challenges you're responsible to answer where do we start

zero none you're not responsible to answer the challenges to the truth

because the truth is the truth if you go to somebody and say don't jump off that Cliff you will fall and die and they go

or they jump off the cliff and they fall and die it's not your fault you told them not to do it

and you expect that in everything else but in Salvation in the truth of the Gospel we go oh they asked me not to

talk about it oh I don't have the answers to all of their questions and we make excuses the bottom line is the

disciples are called to deliver this truth and all they are called to do is to deliver this truth and it's delivered

the question will you believe and in believing people gain get life

let me finish this point and that's essentially the next one it is extremely rare

but not unheard of for people to get saved through miraculous intervention you know what I

mean by that most people get saved because somebody told them

about Jesus and asked them if they believed maybe ask them to believe you can

believe this based on my character frankly in Christ I'm a pretty good guy

I don't lie and if I catch myself saying something is wrong like a lie of ignorance I try to fix it

right so you could pretty much believe what I say because that's who I've become but that's in contrast who I was before so you also have to believe in

Jesus and his changing power in order for him to get me from who I was before to who I am now is a guy I went to high

school with back in the day a game with back in the play games with back in the day and he come to New Heights and he said I had to come to new house because

I know who you were when you were in high school and I had to see that God had changed you he was a Christian back

then when I wasn't and he said I had to see the change that God had done in you for

with my own eyes and that's what we're living we say seeing is believing you

ever hear that before seeing is believing when I was a young kid maybe like eight nine years old I

brought my grade card home from school and it was in my bag or backpack or whatever I had and I told my mom I said

Mom Straight A's and she said I'll believe it when I see

it and we got the great card out of my backpack and sure enough Straight A's

and then she was happy but she wasn't happy when I told her I got straight A's she was happy when she saw it but the

very truth of Jesus is this not seeing is believing but wait for it

believing is seeing that's the truth of Jesus believing is

seeing I sat in the basement of East Toledo Baptist Church after Vacation Bible School with teenagers there was a

young man there who was a professor Muslim his parents were professing Muslims he came from a Muslim family and they were

devout his family was devout he would not so much he was at vacation bible school at the church building but they didn't know where he was at and I didn't

know they didn't know where he was at I don't know that I would have done anything if I did know that but he was at Vacation Bible School and afterwards

he says I have just one thing I hear what you're saying about Jesus and he said and quote I want to believe unquote

however our family is Muslims we are Islamic and my parents

are devout and if I make this decision I will be walking away from that I'll have to hide in my own house and eventually

I'll probably be found out because I'll have to learn about Jesus and so on and they'll kick me out of the family and

maybe even I'll be killed and he said so can you tell me why if

that's true I should believe and you know what I said

you do by now I said well you should believe because it's true

I know it's true it happened to me the girl that invited me to Vacation Bible School said I said ask her is it true

yes it's true so what evidence do you need he said well I need God to move in my heart and God to do something in me

God changed me in some way I said well he will as soon as you believe

that's how it works he has a com and I didn't say it this way but I now understand this language he has a

completely reasonable expectation of you to believe because it's true God does

not have to do a miracle for you so that you can believe God does a miracle for you when you believe

until then you're essentially putting your hand up and saying God no thank you no miracles for me today

but if you insist and do one anyway I'll believe that you're there and let it

affect who I am what do you see the logic it's like the logic

of the world with the target constantly moving our my heart is the target God hit it go

ahead that's what we're doing is completely reasonable for God to

expect us to believe when someone tells us because true

and believing is seeing not the other way around if you were alive when Jesus walked the

Earth heard him heard him testify get this you'll love this if you were alive when Jesus walked the Earth and you

heard him testify about how he would die and be buried and rose again wait for it

you wouldn't believe it until you saw it

even though Jesus is teaching believing

is seeing he's calling us to Faith your faith

literally opens up the channel between you and God your faith in Jesus Christ busts a hole in the barrier that your

sin creates between you and God and the salvation of Jesus by grace of God flows through it that's what Ephesians 2 is

talking about when it says by grace through faith think of a giant straw that's your faith going to God and

you're taking a tiny sip of Grace that saves your whole soul and your whole life and everybody in it

it's a completely reasonable expectation for you to believe and G and Peter says as much then in uh First Peter chapter

one where he basically says you are believing and in your believing earning the Salvation that God has for you not

earning us that's the wrong word there but you're receiving the Salvation that God has for in the grace that he has delivered so Jesus can see and hear the

needs of those who need to believe in him but it is completely a reasonable expectation of God that they would

believe simply because it's true when told what is right and true

this belief then is life it is life

it is openness and acceptance and Trust directed toward God in Jesus Christ

oh but wait in the modern world usually when we say belief we mean

I think it's true I'm fairly sure yep I'm going to carry this thought

around with me I'm not going to just let it go just because somebody throws up a roadblock or something I kind of believe

it's true I hold on to this like like I hold on to my family or like I

hold on to my wife or like I'm cautious about some guy trying to sell me something right so that's what we mean

when we say believe and that is not at all what we're called to by Jesus rather we're called to an openness and

acceptance and Trust directed toward God in Jesus the truth is that the events of

Jesus Christ Life Death burial Resurrection the events of the kingdom of God the events of what God has done

in his church over the the Millennia require a decision you have to decide

what do they mean and what am I going to do about it but people don't want to decide what do

they mean because then that's going to con concern what they're supposed to do about it it's going to affect what I'm supposed to do about it so we're going

to Blind our own eyes we're going to look at anything else we're going to focus on entertainment or

whatever but if you would do it right then you will say to God okay God this event means something I can see that

it's important now let me think about what I'm supposed to do okay now I'm going to do what it

is that I'm supposed to do and if you read a beatitude blessed are

they who did not see and yet believed you could start at the the end of it and work backwards and get what it is that

you want you want to be blessed right okay I want to be blessed so what do I do I believe even though I have not seen

that's what you do if you believe in though you have not seen then you're blessed and what does blessed mean it means that God will speak good into your

life not just that you'll be happy that's a horrible translation by the way it means blessed it means God speaks

good into your life which will make you happy but to say that they're happy is to fall

short the word of the disciples would go out to many that is what Jesus was authoring

that is the kingdom of God the our word our teaching the truth of God through us going out to many and many would believe

this way understand that the 12 people in that room they got it first and then somewhere a little ways down

the line you and I got it or maybe today

right the word of the disciples would go out to many and many would believe this way that is to say that they would see the

events they would see the interpretation of the events and they would respond to them

this beatitude undermines the seemingly greatest

argument against the truth of the Gospel people say I'll believe if I see

right so let's take math and apply it to that same thing seeing is believing does anybody

remember math class when you see is what mathematical sign do you substitute for the word is

equal sign so is is gone seeing equals believing now if seeing equals believing

what's the funny thing about equations you can always flip them so now if the world argues

seeing equals believing as long as it's an equal sign both sides are equal then

you can flip it and you can say believing equals c so all the world is arguing seeing equals believing and wait

a minute guess what they're actually right they're just choosing to do the seeing without the believing they're used

they're saying C equals believing believing equals seeing okay I get that but I choose not to see because I choose

not to believe that's exactly what Thomas was doing and it's completely a reasonable

expectation of God that we would then believe based on the

interpretation of the events and the response that is required of us which is to believe

the world can say seeing is believing but in so doing they're actually saying believing is seeing which is the same thing that Jesus was saying and really

what they need to do is believe now I I feel like sometimes

I got to run the short track you know what I mean by that the lane on the inside when you're

racing the lane on the inside is because by the time you go all the way around the track is considerably shorter than

the lane on the outside that's why if you watch the Olympics they stagger where the runners start so that they can end at the Finish Line

where everybody's watching because if you run on the inside track it's shorter you're on the outside track it's longer

so that that person on the outside track they get to start seems like they're starting way ahead of the person on the

inside track right and I feel like I kind of got the inside track since I became a Christian at least because I

was present the day that the electrician came to this building and we thought well we're not going to use the building because we can't get power 26 000

estimate and we gotta buy a miracle miracle that's what it was and miracles Ron ran

into an electrician the old one that he used to know and the guy said well if you need anything give me a call and he gave his number and I said Ron do you

have to you have to know this guy's numbers like yeah I just ran him to the grocery store last night so we called him he came out he said yeah we can do it we can do it for a lot less and get

the price down we can get businessmen to donate we can get some donated materials we'll get the price down and then he said we're gonna need a stretcher

machine that pulls the cable out of the ground because you've got conduit running all the way out the street 126

feet or whatever it was and he said we're gonna need this fancy machine it usually costs thousands of dollars to rent one but I might be able to get it

donate they said well I wasn't able to get it donated was it we'll have to rent one he said come over here the week

before we're gonna pull it out of the ground and replace the electrical wire and he walked over to the box and he said well let's just see if there's any

slack or what happens and he pulled it out of the box and it came out a few feet and he said well that's neat and he pulled it out it

came out like five feet and he turned around he put it under his line and under his arm and he started walking and he walked that 126 foot cable that's

this big around first of all that's heavy if nothing else but it was supposed to be bound together with the other cables even bound together by wire

or or melted together because that's what they do when they're in the ground together for so long they literally melt together and he pulled that cable out by

hand himself walked the whole thing on the ground and he came back and you know what he said to me he said well I'll tell you

one thing I know for sure and this guy's not a Christian he said one thing I can tell you for sure God is with you

because that can't happen what I just did right there and event after event after event like

that took place in the birth of this church building to be our place of meeting so it's part of how we know and

those of you who are involved at that time or you saw something you saw God do something miraculous and amazing or God

healed your relationship or it could go all the way back to God saved your soul and came and took up residency his holy

spirit began to live in you and you went man God has done something you know what that is that's the inside track now you

said I believe now you see and now you believe in believing becomes like second nature but then the world is constantly

battering you trying to get you to quit but life is in the believing that's how it comes

we believe we have faith and Grace is delivered to us we don't earn it with

our faith right God Abraham kind of did that right he believed and God said I see your faith I count it to you as righteousness

but life is in God and life is in Jesus and Grace is delivered to us when we believe so it goes like this this is the

thing and then we're in the conclusion it goes like this first of all Jesus can see and hear the needs of those who need

to believe in him but it is completely reasonable expectation of God

that you should believe that they should believe because you were told and because it's right if it was right and

no one ever told you you could claim ignorance but if it's right and you were told you're responsible to believe it

just makes sense and in believing is the life God is life

Jesus's life Jesus died on the cross to pay for sins believing in him his life it's how you get saved

and then that brings us essentially to the conclusion

we've got to get on with it we've got to get on with it when it

comes to believing you need to get on with it every new thing that comes into your life that challenges your belief

what you should do is believe Thomas believed while Jesus was alive he

was at the the last supper and said oh I don't I'll never betray you Lord he said he sided with Peter and said I'll die if

necessary but I'll never betray you right and he didn't he fled but he didn't betray him

he didn't say he wasn't a follower of Jesus he just got away right

which is what Jesus essentially told them to do now he needs to get on with it Jesus is

Alive and he needs to believe that Jesus is alive he's told by the disciples has a responsibility to believe because he's told the truth and he refuses to believe

saying I will not until I see Jesus shows up and says you say you wouldn't until you see now you've seen you

believe but greater blessing for those who believe though they had not seen

we need to get on with it there's a phrase that is in this text that I mentioned to you is hard to translate it

doesn't translate super well into the English and there's a reason why it doesn't translate super well into the English

because our verbs don't do very well what the Greek verbs do in certain cases and it is where he says

and be not unbelieving but be believing okay be not unbelieving but believe me

now if you're looking at a different translation you're going to see something a little different when Jason said his um

Bible verse this morning uh or sorry Caleb said his Bible verse this morning he says no longer

disbelieve but believe okay so there are differences but

there's it's always about the difference between unbelief or disbelief and believing so I dug into the language and

here's what I found these words are in what in the Greek and what's called the perfect present tense which means

start believing and never stop proceed forward believing continue believing

right so if we substituted uh the word continue to do so in words continue to

do so and the text it would say something like this and be not continuing toward unbelieving but rather

be continuing believing see it doesn't sound very good does it that's not how we speak in English

we don't talk like that but you could but you know when you're translating a book into English you want to make it so

that people don't get bogged down or struggle with it or whatever and and so it's not poorly translated be not

unbelieving so in other words you're continuing to not believe don't be like

that so it does say the right thing it does say what's there but we wouldn't necessarily know that without going into

the background a little bit but rather be continuing in your belief

right be believing so that does make sense it says exactly what it says in the Greek but we're not

thinking of it that way when we read it in the English so in other words what Jesus was asking you to do is stop

trending toward disbelief and instead always Trend toward belief

so when you hear the truth believe it when the Bible says that you should do X believe it

what don't lie Ty sir love how about that one right

love in other words care about other people when it says have this mind in you which

was in Christ Jesus right care more about what is happening to

other people than about what's happening to you if you're truly on the way to heaven and others are on the way to hell

that should bother you pretty much more than anything more than whether your bills get paid more than you get fed

right because if they go to hell they will spend eternity in hell you will spend eternity in heaven so how

much ever suffering you may endure during this life as bad as it might seem you're eventually going to get a final

reward that blows it all away and so are they but for you it's a

positive final reward for them it's a negative one that matters that's huge so

what do we do we testify and tell the truth and ask them to believe if they choose not to that's on them

if we're waiting for some kind of big moment it already came It's Already Done Jesus rose from the

dead and made salvation available to anyone who would receive him just go ask them to believe and if they

choose not to that's on them and they may a week later a month later or six years later decide to believe what you

told them way back then but if you never ask them the question is how can you care so

little about the fact that you are going for the gravy Glory vacation guaranteed you've already won the lottery of all of

creation and they're going for eternity in hell and you're doing literally nothing about it

but we're all afraid of what someone might think or we're all say well they can't see God so they're not going to

believe seeing is believing which means also believing is seeing and they can't believe how will they believe unless

someone goes and tells them Roman says so we tell them we've got to get on with that the reason

we're not telling them is because wait for it we're struggling to continue in

belief and Jesus would say this to you knock it off I've done everything necessary I saw all

your questions and I answered them and I gave you my Holy Spirit to be with you forever who Longs he's with you always

longing for nothing more than for other people to come into the right relationship with me

we've got to tell and to ask we have to it doesn't matter

what you look like what you feel like what happens to you because of it because you're going to heaven for an eternity so at that point you've got to

tell the truth is

when you get on with it eventually the thing that you built you're getting on with it on

becomes so well known to you so common that it's just the answer in

other words you believed open the channel of Faith to God grace delivered you're saved and when you get on with it

when you're believing it then everything that you encounter it will be your natural reaction you go I believe I believe God's got a plan this is going

to work out something's gonna happen maybe a miracle what are we waiting for let's pray let's get right on that let's pray about it right now not I'll pray

with you if I think about it but let's get on it right now and pray because God might do a miracle God is with us God Is Watching Over Us God cares about us

God's our King God's in charge of everything and it becomes common place that's the answer every time let's

believe remember I mentioned zero to you at the beginning and everybody in this

room everybody here accepted that zero is the answer to 3 minus three now but

somebody went oh he's got something up his sleeve something's not right he's obviously up to something

so zero as we know it did not become commonplace in society

until sometime between 300 BC and 30 BC

which means at this point in time where we are and you can this is another discussion we ended debating but I but

I'm a firm believer that the Earth has been here maybe about six thousand years now you can believe whatever you want to believe but the Bible calculates out to

that amount of time and the best studies and everything line up with that the astronomical charts that

they do can line up with that all of that right so that being said if that's true that means that four wait for it

four thousand of those years zero was not the answer to three minus

three does anybody know in Roman numerals what the symbol for zero is

there isn't one in the Greek number system previous to

the Hellenistic period which is the time that we're talking about they calculated all their numbers negative or positive didn't matter they calculated all of

their numbers with a different set of numbers so in other words the ones column had a whole different set of

numbers for the ones column than had for the tens column then had for the the hundreds column yeah then half of the

hundreds column right a different set of numbers not one two three four five six seven eight nine for the ones column and one two three four five seven eight nine

for the defense column and so on they didn't do that they had a different set of numbers then when you got back into

the thousands that's ones of thousands and you would use the number for ones and you'd repeat and you can do big

numbers out to a billion or whatever but you had three different sets of numbers that you had to know you see math has

not always been what you think it is but somewhere along the line somebody came up with the idea and there's a couple people credited with it a guy in India

supposedly brought it to our society and that not until much later

620 8 right so now we're talking about we have so accepted zero as a concept

except that three minus three equals zero we can all unify on that point even though it's only been around for

fourteen hundred years in our society in English European Society brought over by uh Indian man

not American Indian but from India all right and he gets the credit for it but we have so accepted that concept that we

would all agree on zero the correct answer by the way is 3 minus three is nothing not zero zero is a symbol of

nothing if you have three apples and you lose all your apples what do you have you have nothing you have your clothes yourself whatever there's no apples

there's no reason to even think you have zero Apples because all the apples are gone that we're here they're gone and if

somebody comes and looks at you and says how many apples you have to say well none why would you even ask me how many

apples you have she doesn't have any Apples because a minute ago he had apples and they took them away from him and now he has zero apples no he doesn't

he just has no apples there's no I don't see any apples why are you talking about apples there's no apples here

right but we've accepted the concept of zero and when you accept the concept of

believing like that which is what Jesus called Thomas to and the disciples too and the church too then martyrdom is on

the table and miraculous healings are on the table and belief in the crazy things that God can and does do on a daily

basis they're all back on the table are you trending toward believing are

you trending toward disbelieving I submit to you that in American society if you are an American citizen the

tendency is going to be to Trend toward disbelieving because you're assailed all the time by stop that wants you to

believe that doesn't make any sense and you know it's not right you're being told all the time which is why we have to not be conformed

to the world but transformed by the renewing of our mind to spend time in the word you need to pray to be in church the senator preaching and

teaching you need to serve you give you act out the kingdom values

because in Kingdom values you will find in yourself the ability to go on for the

rest of your life believing and Desiring nothing more than to believe and wait for it when you believe

you will see get on with it

and when you get on with it long enough it'll become like habit it'll become like zero

God's the one who said it God original listen we still see stars in the sky

and he started that the very beginning it still rains and he started that in

Noah's day whether or not God made zero we can debate that

but this is what's true God is asking you and he's asking me to

get on with believing to begin and to never end and to never

lean back and to never Trend away from and to make believing part of our everyday existence all the time

so that when the Antichrist or demon or an evil teaching or something comes in

your life you should readily go ugh that's not me believing

that's not me leaning into believing I recognize it right away and I want nothing to do with

it because I am a person getting on with believing

not for one and committing myself to that I was present I may have the inside track I have seen people miraculously

healed I've also seen it when I prayed and people were not miraculously I've seen demons cast out

I seen dark spaces in people's eyes so dark they look in there and it's like outer space was in their head

and then demons cast out not able to say the name of Jesus and then they can and

a half dozen or tanned situations I've seen people and some of them are in this room

transformed completely from the inside out by the presence of God

that's the inside track you want to see it believe

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