Core Training | Theology 101 - The Doctrine of God Pt. 5

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. I hope throughout this series,

wherever it started 14 years ago with core training, that that

you've been well fed in this series called core training.

And for those listening online, we're so thankful for those of

you who've been able to do that. I get a lot of feedback from you

as well. And so thank you for that.

Listen, when here's we've studied for those who are new to

this session, we've studied primary doctrines.

We've zeroed in on key beliefs. So at the Bible about Jesus,

about the the rest of the whole Trinity.

We've also studied key issues and eschatology, spiritual

gifts, the problem of evil. By the way, that problem of evil

session is by far the most downloaded listen to lesson of

all that we've ever done. And that ought to tell you

something that what people are dealing with.

And so any of those things I recommend they're working on our

app and our website to categorize well and to make

these things easy to find. You can find all of these

recordings and I go, I pray you'll go back and listen to

those you need and also recommend them to your friends.

These past few sessions we've been concerning ourselves

specifically with the doctrine of God kind of leads us to our

final conversation. Next week is going to be

different than here. Next Wednesday we won't have a

podcast. We're going to have our fall

adult prayer service, and we do that once 1/4 on a Wednesday

night to where the host service will be prayer.

I hope that doesn't mean you won't come.

I hope that means that even more people will be here and we're

going to focus our prayer on a couple different areas, to be

honest with you. We're kind of curious to see

what happens this weekend as to what some of that focus will be.

But we're also kicking off our missions month in November with

this Global Missions Night on October 26th.

So there'll be some of that in there as well.

And so it'll be a very special time of guided prayer.

Some of you have been to these before.

We do this once 1/4. I hope you'll be here next

midweek for that. But but last time in our last

session, we talked about our actions against God,

specifically talking about our sins against the Holy Spirit.

And so this time I really wanted us to take a different turn.

And I really want us to think and have a spirit of

thankfulness, a spirit even of rejoicing to talk about God's

actions for us. What does God do for us and how

does he help us? And so the foundation of what we

would call praise is often based upon who God is.

We've talked about the attributes of God, and so we

would talk about the characteristics of God.

We praise you for being this or that thankfulness.

The foundation of thankfulness is based more upon what does God

do? And that's what we want to

really talk about. And so I want to break this down

for us in this kind of climactic finish of this section.

I promise you we will come back to more doctrinal studies down

the road. No problem.

In fact, in just a moment, I know of one we need to talk more

about anyway, but let's just break this down a little bit.

So let's talk first of all about what has God already done in the

past for us? And I really do want us to

carefully move through these words.

If you'll notice, every single word ends with ION to help you

remember some of them. And we're going to walk

basically through Scripture and we're going to even repeat a

couple of things on purpose. And I have a whole lot of

scripture for you tonight, some lengthy passages even.

You know, it's interesting. I was reading today, the

American Bible Society does a State of the Bible Research

Project every year. And they've been releasing some

of their latest data from the 2025 State of the Bible Research

Project. And let me give you a couple of

scary things. So 1/2 century ago, 50 years

ago, Americans generally trusted the Bible.

Today, those attitudes are much more complex.

Nearly 25, it's 24 point something. 24% think the Bible

is just another book of instruction written by man.

So 1/4 of citizens of the United States of America believe that

about the Bible. This one is scarier to me. 18%

of people in the United States of America think the Bible was

written to control and manipulate people.

And so it's really interesting. You're in the 30 percentile of

people who believe it's totally accurate, almost 40.

But so it's really interesting so that so nearly one in five

people in the Bible think the Bible was written to control or

manipulate. I want to show you tonight that

that's not true at all. I want to show you and walk us

through an incredible narrative that God has written for us to

show us how much He loves us, His grace, and what He does for

us. So I pray this is very

encouraging and also a reminder, but also something for you to

praise Him about later. So the very first thing we would

recognize what is one of the things God has done for us in

the past? Well, He's created us and we

don't want to overlook that creation.

This is one of those doctrines that will go back, I often teach

through the book of Genesis and do it that way as a book study.

But if not, we'll make sure we go back and talk a whole lot

more about creation because obviously there's a lot of of

apologetic oriented things about creation and debate about

creation. And some of you have already

expressed interest in that and I've actually even recommended

some books to some of you. But the doctrine of creation is

an important primary issue for us, even when we talk about

evangelism, which we'll talk be talking about very soon.

And so we'll come back and talk about that.

But for tonight, just recognize Genesis 11, you know it in the

beginning. And the word is Elohim.

And remember, Elohim is plural. So in the beginning they

created. In the beginning God created,

but it's a they, it's the Trinity created.

And if you read the rest of the Bible, you'll see Jesus is very

involved in creation. So in the beginning, God created

the heavens and the earth. Now here's what I want you to

think about. Because sometimes, especially

when we're dealing with the problems of evil, and this will

leak over into that discussion a little bit when we're frustrated

or we're angry or we don't understand things and we think

we deserve something else. Especially it's not right that

I'm going through this or I deserve better, or why do bad

things happen to good people? All those kinds of things we

talked about in the Problem of evil session, some of that is

still reflected here. Because even the possibility of

existence and a place to exist is a gift.

See, I think we think it's a right and life isn't a right

now. I believe in right to lie.

Don't miss and don't don't twist my words around right.

It's a different subject matter. But in other words, our

existence itself is a gift of grace.

He never had to do that. He never had to make you, you

never had to be. And so that's a choice that has

been made. So our ability to be that alone

is the result of a purposeful action of God.

And, and we can, we can take that for granted sometimes like

we made ourselves somehow. And we need to be really careful

because you couldn't create a heartbeat.

You can create a breath on your own.

That's grace. So the very fact that you're

even here, that you have a life to complain about, that's you,

you have the ability to gripe or to question, etcetera.

That's a gift. And don't ever overlook that.

Don't, don't make light of that. Don't, don't get past that.

In fact, later on in Genesis 1 it says, then God said, who let?

Who let us? Again, you see the Trinitarian

formula we talked about just a little while ago.

Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them

have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of

the heavens, and over the livestock and over the earth and

over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God who

created him, male and female. He created them.

And notice he created them, male and female, two options, and God

bless them. And God said to them, be

fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and

have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of

the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the

earth. So the very gift and stewardship

of life is something for which we should be grateful.

And I'm just not sure we celebrate that or not.

You know, we'll we'll fight abortion.

You know, often in conservative evangelical circles, we're

against abortion. Will, will, will, will we talk

about the right to life movement and which is a whole different

subject matter. But but it's often interesting.

I'm not sure that we appreciate our own very much.

You know, we need to stop and just appreciate the one we have

too, because it's actually all wrapped up in the same issue.

See, and so the very it's a gift of grace.

It's undeserved. It's unearned by you.

We'd never deserved to be, but he wanted us to be.

So he made us to be. And and don't get too deep in

that philosophy. Just accept it for the words

that that represents he, he made us to be each of us.

And, and you've got to put this even on an individual level.

That's a corporate concept, all of us.

But on an individual level, he also made you for a specific

purpose, for a specific time, for a specific reason.

And if anybody doesn't think they have value, if anybody

doesn't think they have purpose, if you don't think your wife is

worth much. And I've had a lot of

conversations with people over not just the the years, but even

in recent days who are struggling with such thoughts to

recognize that you wouldn't be here.

You have a reason and a purpose that he created for you.

The problem is that we're often trying to to force that

ourselves rather than to accept what he has created for us.

So our existence is not some haphazard accident of chance or

certain amino acids and proteins collided in a cesspool of, of

something struck by lightning or something.

You know, we're not some haphazard accident.

He made you and he made you for him.

He didn't make you for you. Now I need you to grab this.

He didn't just make you for you, He made you for him.

He made you so that you could know him for his mission.

So our baseline of existence is because of him.

And so if you think you have no purpose or no reason, no hope

for tomorrow, you need to remember this.

He has a design for you and he wants you to live that out.

So creation takes place. Well, if we're walking down a, a

sort of a timeline in the Old Testament, then we recognize

that redemption has to come into the plate pretty early.

So not only you have creation, you have redemption because a

plan had to begin pretty early to deal with sin because sin

came very early. We get creation in chapter 1 and

chapter 2 and by chapter 3 they're messing up already,

right? And we can sit there and shake

our fist at Adam and Eve or we can look in the mirror and say

IR 1/2 Genesis 315 though we already see the plan of

redemption in place after the sin, after the snake, after the

serpent is cursed. He God addresses Adam and Eve as

well as the serpent and and Genesis 315 and evangelism is

called the protoevangelium. It's the the very first mention

of evangelism. It's the very first mention of

the Messiah. It's the very first plan where

you see the prototype of Jesus coming into play already as

early as Genesis 3, where he says I will put enmity between

you and the woman He's talking to the serpent and between your

offspring and her offspring. Who is her offspring?

Jesus, He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his

heel. Later on, we see this prophecy

fulfilled in the life of Christ where he bruises the head of

Satan, right? And then later on in verse 24,

he drove out the man and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he

placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every

way to guard the way to the tree of life.

He had to kick them out. He had to exile them lest they

have access to eternity in their sinful state and there was no

hope for them. So there's a reason for all

that. One day we'll talk more about

that as we studied that. But but from the very early on,

his grand narrative then takes us through this incredible

timeline of redemption. So, so if you read the Old

Testament, you think about the flood and Noah, he could have

just wiped everybody out. Let's just start over.

This is a mess. This is too messy.

Let's just start all over again. But he, he, there's always a

remnant. There's, there's always

salvation, there's always redemption.

There's always somebody leftover that he's going to use for the

next step, right. So we see of Noah, you can think

of the Joseph story where Joseph is imprisoned and Joseph goes

through slavery. Joseph goes through so much, but

God uses him to actually save the nation of of Israel.

Obviously the story of the Exodus shows us redemption.

The whole purpose of the law and the Tabernacle are redemptive to

begin blood sacrifice on a ritualistic regular basis so

that we could cover our sin. And then you get into what I

call the cycle of the judges, which frankly, I think we're

still in I, I don't know if you understand the book of judges.

So they sin. God sends an oppressor.

They complain about that, tell him they're going to repent, act

like they're going to repent. God frees them until they sin

again. And it, it's just rinse and

repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.

And that really doesn't stop until the exile all the way

through the Old Testament. And to be honest with you, still

hadn't stopped. We just have the Holy Spirit

now. So we, we, we're even more to

blame. But what we see is, is we see

them moving through that. The temple, the prophets, the

exile, the return from the exile.

I love to preach through the book of Nehemiah.

That may be something we do together.

It's a great book about how God works and restores.

So you see sin, you see judgment, you see confession,

you see repentance, you see forgiveness.

And this redemption played out over and over again.

Not because man's doing something incredibly special.

For the most part, man's an idiot.

But you see God performing actions on our behalf even when

we are trapped in our idiocy and our sinfulness, right?

So part of what he wanted to have happened in the Old

Testament was he wanted to be known by the nation's.

They were supposed to be a light to the Gentiles.

They were supposed to be a testimony.

Here's how man walks with Jehovah.

Here's how man worships Yahweh. That was what's supposed to have

happened. They just didn't do a very good

job of it. And so they go through this

cycle. But he never gave up.

God was never surprised. God always has a purpose for a

people and for you as a person. And so then the next step quite

a few years later, right, is the incarnation.

And so this is a doctrine that I just don't think we pay enough

attention to. Nothing else works without the

incarnation. The crucifixion, the

Resurrection, the Ascension, Pinnacott, none of this other

stuff matters without the incarnation.

Don't ever make light. The doctrine of the Virgin birth

is worth hours of our study, and one day we'll do that because

it's crucial. It's crucial to our salvation to

understand it and so to recognize that in the

incarnation we see God become flesh.

So this ultimate God man, it couldn't just be a man who died

for us. That wouldn't work.

He had a sin nature. So if somebody without a sin

nature, a perfect person, a, a, a fully man, fully God person

was the only one qualified to pay the debt that had to be

paid. So John 11, we know this.

I used this in a few sessions back in the beginning was the

Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him.

This is talking about Jesus. We see this creation aspect

again and without him was not anything made that was made in

him was life and the life was the light of men.

So as I've shared in a previous session, you see the parallels

between John 1 and Genesis 1. You should and and it's and it's

meaningful. It's supposed to be there and

they were in the beginning. We see these things happen.

So you read Genesis 11, then go read John 11 and see the

parallels. And so we see in the beginning

there was life and there was light, right?

Same thing here, light and life. And Jesus brings it anew because

he's the creator God Incarnate. He's the same person that did it

back in Genesis 1, who's doing it now in a new way in John

John 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. And that's crucial for our

doctrine. The cross doesn't make sense

without that. And So what we recognize then in

verse 14 and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and

we've seen as glory glories of the only Son from the Father,

full of grace and truth. So in December, this coming

December, on Sunday mornings, I'm going to be preaching a

Christmas series with you. It's my first Christmas with

you. I will not dress up like Santa

Claus. So there are a few of us.

There are a few of us if we dare go to Walmart during December

and wear red. Children just stop you.

They start whispering desires into your ear of what they want

under the tree. So I always wear blue in

December, but in December I'm going to be preaching A sermon

series called the In the Fullness of time.

Think about that passage in Galatians where it says in the

fullness of time Christ came. So I'm, I'm fascinated by what

does that mean? Why then what was full about

that time? We're going to talk about that

in December. Why was that the fullness of

time, right? Why was the 1st century Middle

Eastern culture under the, the bondage of the Roman Empire, the

fullness of time. We're going to talk about that.

And what does that mean to us today?

So we'll be examining the perfection of God's actions

through the incarnation in December for sure.

So please never underestimate this.

And then, and then just to, to recognize that the, the earthly

side of the story, which John never presents.

So you, you have part of the Christmas story here, right?

Luke in Luke chapter 2. And Joseph also went up from

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city

of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was the

house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary his

betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the

time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her first

born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloth and laid him in

a Manger, because there was no place for them in the end.

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field,

keeping watch over their flock by night, and an Angel of the

Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shown around

them, and they were filled with great fear.

And the Angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you

good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who

is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you.

You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloth and lying in a

Manger. And suddenly there was with the

Angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and

saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace

among those with whom he is pleased.

Now at my house in December, if you're at my daughter's house,

it would start probably the week before Halloween.

At my house, we tend to wait a little bit into November.

If you go to Walmart right now, it's already Christmas.

But in my house, our entire house will get transformed into

nativity land. My dear wife, who is the least

materialistic human being I've ever known, likes nativity sets.

And because of my world travels, I have collected nativity sets

from all around the world. How many would you say now?

200 and what something, who knows, but over 200 nativity

sets will decorate our home. We use them to pray for the

nations. We'll you'll have to come see

and pray for the nations with us as we have little baby Jesus in

the Manger. And as appropriate that the, the

kings, the three wise men, they're, they're on all the way

on the other end of the table because they weren't really

there. So they're still on their way.

If I'm nothing if not a purist, the point of the passage that I

wanted you to get though right now is this.

The angels knew the heavenly host had no doubt who that was.

They knew who that was. This is Christ the Savior and

Lord, and they don't use that word Lord flippantly for us.

It kind of gets thrown around in English.

You didn't do that in Greek curiosity.

I'm going to talk about this Sunday morning in the sermon.

You don't use the word curios lightly in the Greek language.

It means the boss, it means the leader, it means the master, it

means the one in charge. And so when you talk about born

in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord, this is

God. That's what they're saying.

They know who this is. And so they knew what it meant

for God the Son to become man and what would be the result of

that. And I pray we do, I pray you do,

I pray you tell God thank you for coming to us.

Because there was no way we were ever going to make it to him.

We weren't going to get there. And so he had to meet us more,

far more than halfway. And so the ultimate God man came

to save us and who Jesus really is makes the rest of this stuff

work, as I've said. So what's the rest of this stuff

in this section? We're we're still in the past.

Well, we have the crucifixion that's already happened back

there. Something God's done for us.

Pretty big deal. So God acted to pay for our

problem. He acted to pray pay for our sin

debt because we couldn't make the deal by ourselves.

I I don't know if you know where this term comes from, but King

Richard of England was captured on his way home from the

Crusades in history and he was held for a huge ransom.

And so the people of England were taxed heavily and willingly

to pay the ransom. And many of the rich nobles of

England paid huge amounts of money so that their king might

be set free from his captors. And so the term a King's ransom

comes from that story, that true event.

And so Jesus pays this ultimate ransom, not just for a king, but

as a king. And he did that for us.

In fact, Romans 5/8, remember says this.

I've been studying Romans in my personal quiet time did a

fascinating new study. It says, but God shows his love

for us and that while we are still sinners, Christ died for

us. No other word religion is going

to teach that. No other faith system teaches

that. No other belief system in the

world teaches that no other God dies for us.

They wouldn't, they wouldn't, they wouldn't lower themselves

to do that. That's grace, one of the key

differences of true Christianity.

In fact, in 2nd Corinthians 5 it says all this is from God, who

through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry

of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was

reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their

trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of

reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for

Christ, God making His appeal through us.

We implore you, or it means, beg you, we beg you on behalf of

Christ, be reconciled to God for our sake.

He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might

become the righteousness of God. Jesus literally takes her place.

Our sin was put upon Him, if you'll believe in him, he gave

himself that we might be saved. So God sees through the

sacrifice. He sees us through the blood, He

sees us through that filter once we've trusted in Christ.

Now then of course, you go to the next thing that God's done

for us, the resurrection. So not only creation,

redemption, crucifixion or incarnation crucifixion, but the

resurrection told you all these words end in IONI thought that

was more clever than you all seem to appreciate.

So God acted God acted not only to pay our sin debt, but he

dealt with our problem of the wages of sin also.

So not only do we have the sin itself that needed to be paid

for, but what sin leads to the wages of sin is what and death

had to be dealt with. And so the resurrection does

that First Corinthians 15 one of the greatest places to get a a

brief description of all of this is First Corinthians 15, the

Gospel, the resurrection First Corinthians 15 Always remember

that if you need a passage to go to that gives you a lot in one

place. First Corinthians 15 for I

deliver to you as of first importance what I also received

that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures

that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in

accordance with the Scriptures knows that redundancy.

This all fulfilling prophecy after prophecy after prophecy

after prophecy. This is all one big story

leading to Jesus. So now we have victory because

he overcame. So death is a doorway.

That doesn't mean we don't grieve when we lose someone.

We, we, I was talking to someone about that today.

We grieve, but we grieve with people who also have hope, but

we still grieve. We miss the fellowship.

We, we miss the, the, the immediate connection we have

with somebody here when they're when they go.

But if they're believers and we know they're believers and we're

a believer, we also have this incredible knowledge that one

day you're going to give me the Grand Tour and we'll be together

again. So death is a doorway.

Someone else said this and I've stolen it.

I don't know who said it the first time.

I'll be glad to give them credit if somebody can find it for me.

But death, it's just me concluding my human experience.

That's all death is. It's just a transition.

I fear a lot of things. That's not one of them.

I look forward to it, but I have work to do, so I can't.

I can't jump into it yet. So, so true.

Life is just beginning after I die.

CS Lewis made a great .1 time. I CS Lewis has a way.

And CS Lewis said, has this world been so kind to you that

you should leave it with a regret?

It's funny what we cling to. It's funny what we hang on to.

We hang on to dust because that's all it all is.

It's just dust. It's amazing what becomes so

important to us. So there are better things

ahead, and I'm going to talk about those a lot here in just a

minute. Way better things ahead.

But Jesus wasn't quite done yet. And we forget this doctrine,

which is significant. And I'm going to move on to

present and future, but I need you to understand that don't

forget the incarnation, but also don't forget the ascension.

The ascension is crucial and we often kind of browse through

that. We have Easter, we have the

resurrection, and we're on this, you know, something else.

But the ascension is huge because God the Son leaves and

returns to God the Father so that God the Spirit could come

and then dwell us and empower us.

And all this is absolutely necessary.

Jesus said it himself in John 16.

He says, but I've said these things to you that when that

their hour comes, you will remember that I told them to

you. I did not say these things to

you from the beginning because I was with you.

But now I'm going to him who sent me.

And none of you asked me, where are you going?

But because I've said these things, you're to you.

Sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the

truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.

Now listen to this. For if I do not go away, the

Helper will not come to you. The Holy Spirit would not come

until Jesus leaves, right? And so, but if I go, I will send

Him to you. And when He comes, He will

convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment

concerning sin because they do not believe in me Concerning

righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me

no longer concerning judgment because the ruler of the ruler

of this world, it's a word I can't say, ruler of this world

is judged. So it's fascinating.

And so because Jesus was Incarnate, he couldn't be

everywhere at once. So he had to leave so that the,

the, the Holy Spirit who can be everywhere at once, could come

and fill us all and unite us in a, in a unique way.

And so in Acts one, we know this passage well.

But you will receive power. You'll receive the dunamis of

the, of the hagiu pneumatose. This the Holy Spirit has when

he's come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and

in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

And when he has said these things, as they were looking on,

he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, 2 men

stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you

stand this? One of the dumbest questions in

the Bible. Why do you stand looking into

heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from

you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into

heaventheresneveradumbquestioninthebiblerememberseetaylor@inglewoodbaptist.com. By the way, he's back.

He's just ministering to a family right now.

So just remember how big a deal this is.

This is another doctrine demands more time.

If he had not gone away, the Holy Spirit, who we desperately

need would not be here. And so through all his past

actions, God developed this gospel pathway, a way to be with

him forever. We often will make that hard, or

are are we? We deal with people who don't

want to believe in this, which obviously is crazy that you

don't, but but this is the only way to be forgiven.

It's the only way for salvation, which for some of you is a past

event. See, for some of you it's not

and we'll talk to you in a minute.

So don't you go anywhere. But for some of us, it's a past

event. So maybe this is something in

the past that's already happened to you, but how often do you

really stop and thank God for that?

Don't take your, don't take your salvation for granted.

Is being a Christian just so normal, so routine to you that

it has lost? It's all.

I want you to live in a new normal.

I want you to live in a new appreciation where you thank Him

for saving your sinful soul. So we don't want to ever take

this gift of grace flippantly. You did not do it to yourself.

You couldn't do it to yourself. God acted on your behalf, and

this ought to be a continual opportunity of Thanksgiving.

And then another one is sanctification then.

So if you've been saved for a while, you should be well on

your way to discipleship. The Holy Spirit guides you, the

Holy Spirit helps you to move forward in the right direction

to perform actions of obedience for Him.

So we're in dwelt, we're baptized, we're gifted, we're

called, we're placed it, we're saved, we're sealed, we're held

for eternity. And He's our guarantee.

And so sanctification is just a fancy word for those who are new

for discipleship. It's our growth.

We not only can't save ourselves, we really don't grow

ourselves very well by yourself. So I want you to listen to my

Sunday sermon on salvation from July 27th.

If you need more about all of that, especially the assurance

part, I talked heavily about assurance of salvation on July

27th. You can find it online and I'm

preaching, I am preaching about 7 essential aspects of this

sanctification journey every single Sunday morning.

I'm not real sure that they're connecting with everybody.

I don't feel like they are very well.

But we've got to lay these foundational blocks for what we

need to do next. So I pray that you'll be here

and that you'll listen. This Sunday morning.

I'm preaching on living evangelistically with boldness

and love, but to remember there's a reason for all this.

Ephesians 210 is a miraculous verse.

You know, think about it. It comes after Ephesians 289

that talks about how we're saved by grace through faith.

But then we also see, And so we're not, you know, our

salvation isn't the result of works, lest any man should

boast. But then you have verse 10 that

says, for we are his workmanship, we're his work,

we're his creation. One way to translate that is

personal poetry. We're God's personal poetry, His

sculpture. Dylan is taking pastor Dylan's

taking a PhD seminar this week and he's sitting right next to

my former grader and my, the my former grader, Walter Bowen,

who's also a PhD student, is a a phenomenal artist.

He's painted all the book covers for all of my books and he

sculpts. He can do free hands.

He does all the drawings and all the books that I write.

He can sculpt. He can make a pumpkin look just

like you. I mean, he's a phenomenal

artist. I mean, just incredible, all

that giftedness, all that talent, that's what we are.

We're God's really cool carved pumpkin.

There you go. How was that?

That was the theological way to put it.

Created in Christ Jesus. Why?

For good works. We're not saved by works we did.

He just said that to 2 verses before this, but now he's

coming. But listen, once you're saved in

your sanctification, in your discipleship, there are works

that you're supposed to do which God prepared beforehand.

He already knew what you were going to do.

He already knew where you were going to be tonight.

He knew you were going to be right here listening to me right

now. And whether you believe that or

not, whether you're saved or not doesn't matter.

He knew that and He knew that you just needed to walk in these

ways. So what are you doing because of

what God has done for you in the past in your life?

Well, what's God doing in the present for you?

So in our personal evangelism training, which is going to

begin in two weeks, and I'm counting how many of you are

here tonight, and I expect to see more of you in two weeks.

You will enjoy this. I promise.

It will help you. I promise I'll give you a money

back guarantee. So in two weeks, I'm going to

begin because I'm preaching this Sunday on the essential of

living evangelistically with boldness and love.

We're going to continue that theme on Wednesday nights.

And you can understand I'm going to be teaching details of the

seven essentials in different ways over the next year, not

necessarily every Wednesday night.

They'll be a lot of different ways we do this, but I need to

get you involved. And I'm going to share with you,

I'm actually teaching what I teach at seminary, but I'm going

to take out the just academic stuff you all don't need.

And we're going to talk about how do we actually share your

faith? I'm actually going to write a

book from what we teach, I teach to you over these next few

weeks. And it and and it's a way for

you to naturally, organically, authentically, relationally

share the Gospel with people that you know and love.

OK, this is not some weird, I got to memorize 32 points of

some gospel outline and recite it in front of somebody else.

We're not doing that. This is how do I develop

relationships with people? How do I pray for them?

How do I lead conversations to Jesus in a way that makes sense?

How do I share a personal testimony that's relevant?

And how do I actually get to a gospel where I can share a

gospel in my words, making sure we have the all the words we

need in a way that makes sense in a post postmodern, pre

Christian culture. This will be important.

You need to be here. All of you don't care who you

are, don't care if you don't think you know any lost people.

You do. You just don't know that.

So be here and we're going to go through a personal testimony

workshop. And one of the differences in my

personal testimony work with you is not going to be just how you

were saved. That's great.

And I mentioned to some of this to some of you before.

I want to talk about Jesus Christ makes a difference in my

life today because and, and, and what that means is you better

have spent some time with Jesus today because I'm going to talk

about what did you read in the Bible today?

What did you discover in your prayer time today?

What did you hear some preacher that you tolerate preached last

Sunday that really helped you today, Right.

Relevant, current. It's all It's wonderful what

happened to you when you were eight.

It's wonderful what happened to you when you were 18.

It's wonderful what happened to some of you when you were 28.

It's wonderful. And you'll tell that story.

It's important that you tell that story, but if it didn't

mean anything today, it's not going to mean anything to them

out there. Good for you.

I'm glad when you were a kid you did that at some camp, you know,

And I'm not making it small. It's huge for you.

I get it. It's when you were saved.

It's massive. But for them out there, they

don't care. It's not for me.

That's for you. That's your truth, not my truth.

They need to understand how this is affecting the way you live

right now. We're going to talk about that.

We'll do. It'll be fun.

We do some interactive things together.

You'll laugh at me. So anyway, so then what?

We'll do, because we really need this relevancy and meaning for

daily Christianity, because this lost world needs to see that

difference. So is the presence of Christ

real enough in your life today for other people to see it?

That's what we're talking about. These 7 essentials.

All this stuff ties together, if you'll ever believe me.

So our world doesn't really need more church.

People who claim the name but don't live the life.

Amen. There's not going to tolerate it

anymore. They've seen enough of that.

In fact, study after study that I've been a part of would say

that that's their biggest objection.

Their biggest objection is not what we really believe.

The biggest objection is we say we believe this stuff and then

we don't live like we believe this stuff.

That's the objection. So, so we need this present

awareness. So let's talk about what, what

are some present things? We'll see how far we go.

What are some present things. So we got to come back to

salvation again because for some of you, and if you're a pastor

and here, get ready. For some of you, this has not

been a part of your past experience.

I'm pretty confident that somebody in this room right now

is not saved. Very confident that somebody

listening to me sometime online somewhere, somehow.

Maybe you're at the gym, maybe you're walking around the corner

right now, maybe you're driving to work.

You're not saved. And so this might be something

you need to do right now. And so I do not believe anyone

here would be upset. I do not believe anyone up here

in here would object if you decided to be saved right now.

I think they would be very supportive of that, recognizing

that God has to do that. So in all seriousness, no games

attached. If you are here and you would

like to talk to a pastor right now about being saved, I want

you to raise your hand and I want our pastors to stand.

We've got one or two in here. Pastor Jordan's over there.

Pastor Jean's handy over here. And you just wave at them.

I'm going to keep going. Just wave at them and discreetly

make your way to where they can have a conversation with you.

Don't don't be nobody going to be don't be embarrassed.

This this crowd's cheering for you.

So, but it makes no sense for us to talk about this and for you

need to need this, and to walk out of here without this makes

no sense. Be saved.

All right? Seriously.

So they're going to be there looking at you for a minute,

staring at you. If you twitch your hand, they're

going to think you're bidding on something.

So then we also have sanctification again, because

for a lot of us, sanctification is still something we're working

on, right? And so even if you're already

saved and know it, but you're maybe you're not growing like

you know, know you should or you, you, you know that you have

a long way to go still as a disciple right now.

You, you need to listen to the Sunday sermons more, but we also

need to trust in Christ to who, who, who says to us, I need a

full blown commitment from you. You have to choose to be a part

of this. You have to choose to grow.

And I know I'm a broken record, but there's an old truth in

church life that really does go when you're about tired of

talking about it. They're just about beginning to

listen. So you've got to engage in the

seven essentials. You need to be in a connect

group. You need to make everything

available to you, all the resources that we offer here at

the headquarters of training to in your in your world to help

you to grow. Because Ephesians 41 says this,

I therefore a prisoner for the Lord because that's where he

was. I urge you to walk in a manner

worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

And so I urge you also, we need to choose to do this.

We bear responsibility to walk this way.

Nobody going to do that to you. Nobody going to make you do

that. You got to do it.

And so we want this church to be the headquarters for training

and sending disciples who make disciples, who make disciples

who make disciples. And I'll stop dot, dot, dot.

And so he's keeping us saved and He deserves our life.

So let's talk about a few other specific actions that God

performs for us right now. We'll just throw a few out here

very quickly. Direction.

That's one of the blessings of being a believer with the Holy

Spirit living inside of us. He helps us with direction,

decisions, wisdom, paths to choose, focus.

God helps us if we depend upon Him.

His word and His will guide us. Prayer helps us.

James, 15, says if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God,

who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be

given Him. This is like my life first.

This is what I need to tattoo on the inside of my eyelids.

This is a daily prayer for me. I need wisdom because I ain't so

smart and I need help. Protection is one of them.

And this is one of those things that sometimes we ask for, but

I'm telling you, it's happening to you and you don't even know

it too. God is doing so much for you

right now. You don't even know what he's

doing. Can you breathe air?

There you go, you got gravity. There you go.

All kinds of stuff. And, and, and in the spiritual

realm, you have no idea what warfare is going on around you,

right? So he's still our great

shepherd. He's our rock, our fortress, our

refuge and we and, and, and we need him to watch over us in

this evil world. We don't have the strength to

stand alone. There's a famous quote that has

always meant a lot to me by William Butler Yates.

And he was talking about World War One in Europe.

And and listen closely to this. You vets will like this

especially. But this is a powerful quote

talking about humanity against humanity.

But he says the best. Like all conviction, we'll start

over. The best, like all conviction,

while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

And so we've got to be careful because I promise you our enemy

has passionate intensity in his schemes, in his stratagem and

his Methodia, right? And we will fail without God.

He's working on our behalf, preserving, protecting,

shielding and blessing. And the enemy's forces are very

passionate. And if I'm afraid, too many of

us lack conviction, too many of us are complacent, too many of

us are passive and apathetic and our enemy is not.

Look at the world around you. If you're, if you're old enough

to where you actually say to people, I don't know what's

going on in our world, our world's gone downhill.

And you and you've watched that and you're like, why do you

think that is? If the church had done its job,

Psalm 18 two says the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my

deliverer, my God, my rock, and whom I take refuge, my shield in

the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

See, the Bible says don't let Satan have a stronghold.

We already should have a stronghold.

It's God, Holy Spirit living in US.

And then we even get to correction.

Not our funnest thing necessarily to talk about, but

we need God and we need one another to hold us accountable.

Part of the church, which is one of the reason people, some

people don't like the church. They don't want to be a part of

the church. I'm getting ready to go see a

quote UN quote church member who doesn't want to be here, doesn't

want to be in connect groups, doesn't want anybody reaching

out to him, doesn't want any part of the church.

Well, guess what? I'm going to go ask him.

I'm going to take a Deacon with me for a witness.

Why in the world would you even call yourself a church member?

What are you a member of? We got to have conversations of

reality and authenticity. And so you don't get to be a

church member. Just do whatever you want.

Life's hard. This is called a pause.

So in other words, we recognize that God wants us to do certain

things. Second, Timothy 3 says all

scriptures are breathed by out by God and profitable for

teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and

righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped

for every good work. It's there for reproof and

correction. So welcome it, submit to it.

Tim Looper sitting right here. He's our chairman of deacons.

We were talking about personnel evaluations.

I don't know if this is shocking to you, but I told him that the

Deacon council would be evaluating me, that I demand

that, that I expected. Is that not true to him that

that, that I want that to happen.

I need to be held accountable. I need to be evaluated.

We'll do it all the way down the flow chart for everybody who

works here and walk through our evaluations together.

We need that in one another. It's not a negative thing.

It's a wonderful thing to help us be the best we can be, right?

But also think about communion. I don't mean the Lord's Supper.

I mean deep intimacy with God because we simply don't want a

relationship. Although this is where some

people stop in Christianity. They stop at the fire insurance

savior Mark. They don't get to the Lord part,

and that's not how it works. That word faith includes both.

But but we don't just want a relationship with God.

We desire deep fellowship with God.

So you abide in him and allow him to abide in you, and His

Word to abide in you, which is why Jesus said what he said in

John 15. I am divine.

You are the branches, whoever abides in me, and I am Him.

He it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do

nothing. And if anyone does not abide in

me, He's thrown away like a branch and Withers, and the

branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you

wish, and it will be done for you.

By this My Father's glorified that you bear much fruit and so

prove to be My disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I

have loved you. Abide in My love.

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I

have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His

love. These things I've spoken to you,

that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

And don't miss the last part. This is the most joyful place

you can be. See, with His correction, with

his communion, with his accountability, that's the best

place, the best life you could ever live.

You want to talk about I'm living my best life now?

It better be in an abiding relationship with Jesus Christ.

So what are you going to do because of what God is doing for

you right now? Well, I wanted to end with a

little bit of a climactic push here.

What will God do for us in the future?

Well, first of all, all the above.

Everything we've already talked about, he'll continue to do.

But then some special things are going to happen toward the end.

Let's talk about some of the toward the ends.

This will give you hope, hopefully give you

encouragement. One of the things that will

happen is glorification. He, he's going to be glorified

and that's the ultimate goal. But it's also amazing what

happens to us. 1st Corinthians 15 Again, what is what a

chapter, It's an important chapter.

You ought to know. First Corinthians 15, he says, I

tell you this brother's flesh and blood cannot inherit the

Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the

imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a

moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised

imperishable, and we shall be changed.

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and

this mortal body must put on immortality.

And when the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal

puts on the immortality, then she'll come to pass.

The saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in

victory. Oh, death, where is your

victory? Oh death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord

Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers,

be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

But don't forget that last part. We got work to do.

We got a lot to look forward to, but we got work to do.

Y'all need to sign up to serve, you all need to be involved.

You'd help us in Tarboro. You need to help us with these

projects coming up. We're going to give you all

kinds of ministry and missions projects and you connect groups.

But in the meantime, in this end time, he's going to transform

us. New bodies, new minds.

I was speaking at the youth retreat Saturday night and I was

talking to him about about worship and, and new and some of

these things. And I was sharing with him.

I've broken at least 15 bones in my body over the years.

Most of those doing things I should not be doing or should

not have been doing. And so it's always remarkable to

me, you know, how you can break a little finger or you can break

a toe or you can break a rib, you can break some little low

thing. And I promise you, you hurt and

you hurt all over. All right.

And I look forward to the day when I can't tell it's going to

rain. Three weeks before it rains and

my knees don't creak. Now remember when we get there,

you all Remember Me when we get there, you know, try to.

I know you all won't care once you're there, but you are all

going to be there worshiping God together.

And I just sniff the air and smell the smoke because I'm

going to be that guy in the back with those smoky clothes and I

got the silver encrusted mop bucket working the streets of

gold in the back of the room. But you all this, every now and

then wave at me. I'll be there, maybe barely, but

we'll be even more like him. And more importantly, we will be

with Him, but there's also going to be this, and there is this.

There's condemnation at the end too.

And we see you mean us. Well, it depends on your

relationship with God. I'm going to go back to what I

said earlier about raising your hand and waving at a pastor.

So God has to judge sin. God has to judge the lost.

God has to judge the unsaved. He would not be God if he did

not have to do this. It would be against his nature.

He cannot contradict his own nature.

So we will see his hand of perfect holiness.

We'll see his hand of justice at the end.

We live in a world of sin. We live in a world of evil where

God is forgotten. We live in an arrogant, pleasure

mad world with anti Christian philosophies and cultures.

A place that demands judgement by God.

And sometimes we don't see it right now.

Sometimes we wish it would. Some of it would happen right

now. Where are you?

God in troubled times? But I promise you, he must

punish sin. And many just don't believe how

serious sin is, that it's a stench in the nostrils of God.

And as a perfect judge, he must deal with it or he would not be

a good judge. He can't simply dismiss it.

So the wage had to be paid, the debt had to be covered, sin had

to be had to be dealt with. And he wouldn't be just if he

didn't balance the scales according to the truth.

And so we want to thank Jesus for paying the wage.

And one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess

that about him. For some it'll be too late

because my friends, I don't know how else to say it, but if you

have not been saved by Jesus Christ, I promise you, you will

face His justice and judgment. Listen to Revelation 19.

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great

multitude in heaven crying out Hallelujah.

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for His

judgments are true and just, For He has judged the great

prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality and

has avenged on her the blood of his servants.

So I want you to hear the hallelujahs of heaven.

But with it is this recognition of justice, this recognition of

the balancing of the scales, this recognition of the truth

has come. There's rejoicing in heaven

because it at that time all opposition to God is going to be

removed. I want you to see the

culmination that that reaches for the culmination of earthly

history is going to come. There will be no more.

We do not have forever here, but you will live forever.

All of you will live forever. The problem or the question is

simply where and with who. Just listen to what some of it

will be like. Revelation 19.

Six. Then I heard what seemed to be

the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters,

and like the sound of the mighty pills of Thunder crying out.

Hallelujah for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exalt, and give Him the glory.

For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made

herself ready. It was granted to her to clothe

ourselves with fine linen, Bride and pure.

For the fine lemon is the righteous deeds of the Saints.

And the Angel said to me, Write this, Blessed are to those who

are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And he said to me, These are the true words of God.

Then I feel down at his feet to worship him.

But he said to me, You must not do that.

I'm a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to

the testimony of Jesus, worship God.

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Then I saw heaven open to behold a White Horse.

The one sitting on it is called faithful and true.

And in righteousness he judges and makes war.

His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many

diadems. And he has his name written that

no one knows but himself. He's clothed in a robe dipped in

blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God.

And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen and white

and pure, were following him on his White Horse.

And from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down

the nation's. And he will rule them with a rod

of iron. He will tread the winepress of

the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty on his robe and on his

thigh. He has a name written, King of

Kings and Lord of Lords. We see Jesus as conqueror, a

royal commander. You know, Jewish people had

dreams and myths and legends about a warrior Messiah.

They had that from early on about how they believed the

Messiah would come, which is one of the reasons they had a hard

time believing this about Jesus. They had this Davidic warrior in

mind and they were right. They just had the wrong time.

And then finally we will see restoration.

We're almost at the end of the book now, aren't we?

Revelation 21. Then I saw a new heaven and a

new earth. Got to be better than this one,

for the 1st heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the

sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New

Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a

bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from

the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with

man. He will dwell with them, and

they will be His people, and God himself will be with them as

their God. He will wipe away every tear

from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for

the former things that passed away.

And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making

all things new Also, He said, write this down, for these words

are trustworthy. Trustworthy and true.

In a way, God restores Eden in a better way.

In a new way, in a better way, He also restores perfect Shalom.

If you remember that part of our study weeks ago, perfect peace.

Then finally you see the conclusion.

The final scenes will vary for those who know Christ and those

who don't, Revelation 20 verse 10 says.

Revelation 20:10

And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of

fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophets were.

And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

I'm going to read that verse again because I like it so much.

And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of

fire and sulfur, where the beast and the prophets were, and they

will be tormented day, night, forever and ever.

Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it.

From his presence earth and sky fled away.

No place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and

small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.

Then another book was open, which is the Book of life.

And the dead were judged by what was written in the books

according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who

were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them.

And they were judged, each one of them, according to what they

had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown

into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the

lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not

found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the

lake of fire. Now for those of us who are his

disciples, who've been saved, who trust in Jesus, we have a

different story. Revelation 22 Before we close,

no longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God

and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship

him. They will see his face, and his

name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more.

They won't need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be

their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

And he said to me, These words are trustworthy and true, and

the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his

Angel to show his servants what soon must take place.

And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the

words of the prophecy of this book.

God has, God is, and God will. But your journey with him must

begin with salvation. Don't leave here tonight without

beginning the journey. And then it continues in

sanctification. You know, every year in the lamb

industry, especially in the old days when sheep would give birth

during lambing time, there would be obviously be ewes or or Mamas

and lambs, the babies that didn't make it.

So inevitably, on one side of the field is a you, a Mama, a

Mama whose lamb had died. She's full of milk, but she

won't nourish any lamb she doesn't recognize as her own.

Inevitably, on the other side of the field, there'll be a lamb

whose Mama has died and is not doing well because no one will

feed it. So what the shepherd will do in

the old days is they'll take the dead lamb that belong to the

mother, and they'll slit his throat, and they'll pour the

blood of that lamb all over the orphaned lamb.

And the mother lamb will recognize the blood and accept

and nourish that living lamb through the gift of the blood of

the lamb that has died. The living Lamb is recognized,

accepted, nourished, and saved because he's covered.

Father, thank you for the blood of the Lamb.

Sometimes that becomes a churchy cliche, I guess, but it's a full

of meaning. Thank you, Father, for sending

the perfect sacrifice to make the perfect sacrifice, the only

sacrifice that would be perfect to pay for our sin.

Thank you for all the things that you have done for us.

Thank you for all the things that you are doing for us right

now. And thank you, Father, for what

you're going to continue to do for us.

Father, never let us take you for granted.

Please forgive us, Father, when we're so swept up in the

temporary, so swept up in the dust that we forget the blood.

Bless us, Father, thank you in Christ's name, Amen.

God bless you all. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for listening today.

And I also hope that you'll go to

[email protected] as well as our app and find many

other resources that will bless you and your families.

Thank you once again.