12.09.2018 Advent 2 Clarify

I was a great rendition. I don't know if I've heard that one before but I I really appreciate it that I'm going to pray and then we're going to let God kenoly Daiso father God you said that wherever two or more are here that you're right here with us. And so we just want to acknowledge your presence. We want to try to push it away these distractions that we have that I have in that we could just be here with you got a shared at the $9. I'm struggling over these these topics and this is one of those that I I need your spirit just move in to speak. I believe that you're working all of these things out for all of our good and ultimately your glory and so I pray that your glory you would receive Glory today throughout the service got it for all of this in your name. Amen. The first the gift I got in the way in Anthony Smith. I think he's a burgeoning missionary Minister. I don't exactly know what preacher he's done all around the the gamut with me and he had it in a handmade box. He took the same box that this was made out of and he made it until it was closed down if you saw it on the way in but I'm f****** his parents like and then he opened it up and it look just like a tomb and he open the box up and there he gave us to me and they didn't I don't understand if he told me why he did it, but he usually the spirit uses him in a very specific way. And so I'm going to just let you see this for a second because I think it's part of the message today. I don't exactly know what that's going to do with it. But maybe I think he wants us to focus on the cost of what we're talking about. So, where are you in the second week of Advent and this week the word was refine. It didn't like it. So I use the word clarify and what we're trying to do is clarifier. What is the Kingdom of Heaven last week? We were talking about standing for the kingdom of heaven and I challenged you to not just do something but stand there that there's specifics to the kingdom and then this week but we're going to look for is is can we refine that what is it that God is specifically talking about and how do we know when we're in the kingdom? And how do we know when we're advancing the kingdom in? What is it even look like that's what we're going to try to look at. Are we to begins with this question for Malachi that Tim was reading who can stand when he appears and that there's this idea of Justice a purification and refining or clarification that comes when Jesus is here. It's personal to my story when I accepted him into my heart my life changed. I started to become different from the inside out. I wasn't so worried about my outside of behavior as much as what was coming out of me and I think this is kind of what we're looking at so Luke 3 1 through 6 or just small 6 mod versus Lots in it and lots of interesting language song. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea Herod tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip Tech track of security and draconis and licentious tetrick of Albany during the high priesthood of an Ascend Safari Caiaphas. The word of God came from John son of Zachariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the Forgiveness of sins. And it was as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet. A voice of one calling in the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord make straight paths for him every Valley shall be filled in every mountain and Hill made low. The Crooked roads will become straight and the rough ways smooth and then all people will see God's salvation all people will see God's salvation. So the first thing I want you to think about is that real time to real people God brought a message in real time to real people if you're old like me that used to account for time in this this way and it wasn't until the last 20 years where they started changing it up. But this is where Heaven enters Earth and it splits time in half. And it's been my experience that even today. We do not give enough Justice or enough emphasis to what Jesus has done for Humanity. I'm at the cross. So you go the cross means so much more to us than what we can even hope or imagine or what we can possibly realize.

God brought a message after 400 years of Silence. To his people real people in real time. I think if you haven't heard from your boss in 400 years, it's easy to kind of get off track. I think it is. I get off track when I haven't heard from Andrea and 40 minutes. Okay, and most of you know, that's not too far from the truth. The people that God chooses to bring this message to you are not the people in power. He didn't go through Pontius Pilate or the governor or the high priest. He didn't go there. He went to one voice one man, John the Baptist in the wilderness.

And I think that's also a very specific part of this message is for you and for me. And the people in power are way too busy and way too full of themselves to be stuck in a line in a drugstore to see somebody who's in trouble and who has need.

we might have a John the Baptist in front of us, but

without the ability to see Jesus's body. This is again. So we see a real body and real-time a real birth, but we don't see his body after his death. So without people being able to go to bed an actuary. It's the box that the bones were held in and pull out his bones. Okay. People say well Jesus really wasn't born. Although historically, there's all this evidence to book to prove Jesus Christ. Jesus. Christ came in real time in a real place. I'm sorry the second thing again, John.

I think there was a belief that when you come to Faith or when you're being used by God things work out well.

Cheap thank you for laughing. It didn't work out so well for John the Baptist.

He continued to talk about repentance. He continued to challenge the people in power. And he did so to the cost of his own life. In the back up a little bit last week. I use the story of a woman who had a gun to her head and and refused to comply with the demands and then she was killed instantly because of that and I was sharing the 9 car and it and we've talked about it over the last couple weeks. There was another two women that that did chose not to to die. And I said if those women were in our community, I would tell him that they were forgiven instantly that standing your ground isn't determination of whether you get to happen or not. And as I think we're talking the 9-hour we were talking about how the Holy Spirit speaks to us as individuals. And for this one woman Jamie she felt the spirit of God rise up in her and she stood her ground in that way and it was a story that inspired me inspired some others and challenged in Anger the others and yet I believe God's at work in all of those things. So John the Baptist students ground just like Jamie did and it cost him his life. And some people not all people are going to be called to a life like that.

But my experience that end of the world that seems to be going off the rails.

When people men and women are willing to stand their ground for the king in the Kingdom. They tend to make a difference. And certainly in the Dark World those lights Brian blind, excuse me shine brightly. Way off my TalkBack. I'm sorry.

We're talking about raising up the valleys and lowering down the hills in the mountains for talking about straightening. What's crooked smoothing out what's been made rough. The idea is Justice. There's a kingdom of heaven comes and it comes with Justice purification. So begins on the inside and then for those of us that receive this there's this call or implication that we're supposed to do something. We're supposed to make it easy not only for ourselves and receiving the message of Jesus the new spirit that comes within us. We're supposed to stop doing those things which degrade Austin others were also supposed to make it easier for other people to receive Christ. We're supposed to be champions of things like justice and mercy.

in nature There is no justice. You can't look at the Kingdom but the animal kingdom and show me Justice. It doesn't exist and is also my experience that people without Christ or without the kingdom without the spirit cannot produce just results Kim Possible. You can't And so with the coming of the king with the cross and his resurrection, we then have this forgiveness of sins and a kingdom that is available to us to bring to others. And where to cultivate it where to farm it where to mine it with Pat was using about working out your salvation. We're to to do the work so that from the inside out more of that deposit more of that Spirit begins to pour out of us and we're to do things less that get us distracted or off course, that's the thing but in our country in our community even in this small community, we're to be Justice Bringers and to not make it difficult make it easy for people to come to Christ. And I want you to think about those things and I'd like to be talking about that this week some Micah 6:8. This is a property says no old people the Lord has told you what is good. And this is what he requires of you to do. What is right to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God to do what is right to do justice. Sometimes I try to do some art like I'll see a great picture and then I'll try to drive it on a few guys ever do that and it looks nothing like what it was the kids were watching this the show called nailed it have you ever seen that they have these great pieces of Art and then the people try to recreate these these dishes and that's where the phrase nailed it comes from. You have to watch it. Anyway, we are to do justice supposed to Champion Justice. We are to empower in Naval enact Justice. The word is Mich pot in the Hebrew Justice and it's joined with humility and mercy we talked about truth like a a club while you can have Justice like a club or you just going to beat the snot out of somebody for not being just he wants us to do it humbly from underneath from from underneath people. We lift them up. We don't Lord it over. Justice in humility to focus on the Widow the Immigrant the orphan and the poor and the kingdom of God has always focused on these. The Widow the Immigrant the orphan in the poor and this is how people who followed after Jesus came to be known little Christ. No, Jesus Friend of Sinners did all these wonderful things did some healings the people who followed after Jesus in the first century were the ones when the epidemic was killing people in the streets. They were the ones to go out and help. I think of Martin Luther King think about William Wilberforce. These are Christians who did Justice they stood their ground and represented the Kingdom of Heaven as they understood it. This is the the community that we're in and this is the people that we are. Again, Pat uses the phrase People Like Us do things like this and that's how you know, we are Christians. Zacarias, 7:10 says do not oppress the Widow the fatherless or the Sojourner or the poor and let none of you devise evil schemes schemes against another in your heart. It's not just to again Lower the mountains and Rise The Valleys in our hearts. It's not just our hearts, but it's in the real world and it's not just in the real world. It's also in our hearts. It's both and There's a way for us. I again one of the discussions I want to have this week is on the the Caravan coming from the south. And I think that it's confusing at best for Christians. What is the best way how do we represent the king and the kingdom? How does that fit in within a culture in America? Our community is divided. I'm sure it's divided here. I'm divided right here. You don't have to go very far. But I believe that the spirit is speaking to us in teaching us. There is a right way where God is glorified and we all receive a benefit. It's a promise. So having me ramble on I've got a video that's going to speak a little bit about this and then I'm going to close with a prayer. So can I get the justice video?

Wherever you see Justice being carried out. It's it's the Kingdom of Heaven coming in and it's not Justice the way the law like the lawn the land necessarily but it's just us the way God's word says it's to be And when I see that man, you know pulling the other person up image. It's exhausting. It seems like there's just no way to do that much work. And I'm confessing that it's just wildly confusing. But I think in the context of of Advent. The places we can start our rate in here. That I know in my heart when I see certain things. I'm already starting to judge someone and that's probably my first flag. The second part is that there are things that I can do on ways that I can behave which will help not make it difficult for others or myself. And I think that's the second thing. So what I'd like us to do I'm going to put up the Our father and I'd like us to sing that or say that together just kind of their clothes and then we're going to go into our last time so it goes like this Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation. But Deliver Us from Evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever amen going to last song.