The Passionate Pursuit
Transcript Search
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning! How’s everyone doing today? Awesome! Let’s pray together.
Father, we thank You for being such a good, good God. We thank You for not abandoning us when we rebel against You, and for always pursuing us. We thank You for Your unending love for us that drove You to leave Your throne in heaven and take on human flesh and die in our place so that we could be forgiven of our sin against You, and be adopted as Your children to live with You forever. Father, we thank you for being here with us as we are scattered these next several weeks and we thank You for the technology that allows us to continue to worship You together.
Father, I pray for the people all over the world who are suffering because of this pandemic. I pray for comfort for those who have lost people dear to them from this virus. I pray for healing for those who are currently sick and for those who will contract the virus. I pray for relief for those who are suffering emotionally and financially from the devastating effects of this virus. I pray for protection for our healthcare workers who are putting their own lives and the lives of those they care about at risk in order to help those who do have it. I pray for wisdom for our leaders who have to make difficult decisions that will have unforeseen consequences. I pray for our church members that you will hedge in those who are most vulnerable and who would not survive contracting this virus. I pray that we will continue to do the work that You have called us to do, unhindered.
I pray that during this part of our service that you would soften our hearts to be receptive to Your word. Father, give us a clear understanding of Your word and the truth that You are trying to teach us. Help us to remember Your word and to know how to apply it to our lives so that we can live it out at home in front of our families, at work beside our co-workers, and in public wherever we go. Father You have been so good to us to give us Your word, I pray that we will always treasure it and memorize it for the rest of our lives. We love You Father, and we thank You for Your love for us. Amen.
A few weeks ago we started a new series on the Kingdom of God. We talked about how Jesus and the New Testament Church spent all of their time always talking about the kingdom of God. We as Americans in the 21st century live our entire lives with little to no exposure to kingdoms. Most of the biblical writers, on the other hand, lived their entire lives under a king, in a kingdom, and always at odds with other kings and kingdoms. And Jesus and the Apostles spent almost all of their time talking about the kingdom of God, and so we are going through the Scriptures looking at how this concept, the kingdom of God is weaved from beginning to end.
Five weeks ago we started this series by talking about how Jesus and the New Testament church went around preaching and teaching about the kingdom of God, and how the gospel itself was not separate from, but was in the context of the kingdom of God. Four weeks ago we looked at Genesis 1 and 2 and saw how God is the King, and the universe is His kingdom, and how He chose to give authority over to us to rule the earth. And three weeks ago we talked about how Satan has his own kingdom and is waging war against God’s kingdom and he desires to rule the earth.
So that brings us to this week. After the King of the universe gave rule and responsibility to us, and after we along with a third of the angels in heaven rebelled against Him, what did He do? Well I can promise you that if God were the mean, non caring, self focused god that many people believe He is, then he would have immediately wiped us all out and would have been done with us. But He didn’t. He never gave up on us. You see, God is a perfectly holy and just God. And being holy and just, He can not look at our sin and evil actions against Him and against each other and just ignore them and pretend like they never happened. If He did, then there would be no justice in the world. Imagine there are two brothers, Jeff and Jerry. Now do you believe that God loves Jeff? Absolutely He does! Does He love Jerry? Absolutely! Does God love Jeff and Jerry more than you can possibly imagine? Absolutely! Is God a perfect and good God? Absolutely!
Now imagine that Jeff kills Jerry because he’s jealous of him. Does God then say, I didn’t want Jeff to kill Jerry, but I love him so so much that I forgive him and I’m going to pretend like it never happened. Could you then pretend like it never happened? When you go over to Jerry’s house and he’s not there, would you go inside and sit at the table and pretend to talk to him. Would his little kids when they go to bed just pretend that their dad kissed them good night and not miss him. Of course not! Of course they would miss him. They would give anything to get another kiss goodnight. We can’t pretend like evil doesn’t happen, and we don’t want to pretend like evil doesn’t happen. We want to know that there is someone who has the power to restore what was lost, or punish those who commit evil, or both.
If God just swept all sin under the rug, would He be a just God? Not at all. Where would justice be? What would this world be like if God let everyone do all the evil things they want to do, and God just pretended like none of it actually happened, just because He loved them so much. So what about love? If God is just, and if God does punish evil, and He doesn’t pretend like it doesn’t happen, because He can’t. Does that mean that He doesn’t love people like Jeff who do evil things? Not at all. God still loves Jeff, just as much as He did before, but it doesn’t mean Jeff can’t make Him mad. If you’ve ever had kids, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You love your kids just as much today as you did when they were born. Does that mean that they’ve never made you mad? I’m glad we are meeting remotely today, because I’m afraid of what some of you would say. Of course your kids can, and have, made you mad, but that doesn’t mean you don’t love them. And you have punished your kids, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t love them.
God is a perfectly good and just and holy God, and He can not pretend like evil doesn’t happen, and we don’t want Him to. But He still loves everyone and desires to forgive them and spend eternity with them. So that puts Him in a very tight spot. If God loves you so much that He doesn’t want to punish you for your sin, but He’s a God of goodness and justice, which is the kind of God that we want, then what can He do? How can He forgive you of your evil without sweeping your evil under the rug and pretending like it never happened? That’s what we will look at today.
You see beginning with Adam and Eve we’ve all sinned against God, and therefore do not deserve to, nor should we be allowed to, spend eternity in the presence of a perfect and holy God. But immediately after we sinned against Him, He began pursuing us. Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to try and cover up their sin, but they were not sufficient. God didn’t take cotton from the field and show them how to make cotton blue jeans and shirts to cover themselves. He took a lambs or goats and slaughtered them, and gave them animal skins to cover themselves with. God has showed us from the very beginning that sin results in death, and not just the death of those who commit the sin, but also death for the innocent.
This took place in Genesis chapter 3. In the next chapter God says these words to Cain in Genesis 4:7.
7 If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
--------------------
God instructs us that we must resist sin. We must be holy just as he is holy. Then we read in Genesis 5:24 that
24 Enoch walked with God; then he was not there because God took him.
--------------------
You see God saved Enoch from death and gives us a glimpse that if we will walk with God, then we too can be saved. But what does it mean to walk with God? What does that look like? In the very next chapter we read this in Genesis 6:9
9 These are the family records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God.
--------------------
So God shows us what it means to walk with God. It means to live a righteous life. To walk with God means to live a holy life, always resisting temptation to do evil. And we see that God then floods the earth and starts over with the most blameless man on the earth at that time, Noah. But right after Noah and his family get off of the ark, God tells us that he got drunk and sinned. So God reminds us that even the most blameless and most righteous person on the planet still can not live a sinless life. We all have sinned, and we all will sin, therefore we need God to save us. Genesis 8:21 says:
21 When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.
--------------------
You see, our hearts are inclined toward sin. It doesn’t mean that the only thing we do is sin, but it does mean that we all will, without fail, sin. You don’t have to teach your kids to sin. You have to teach your kids NOT to sin. Their hearts are inclined to sin, as is yours and mine. So how then can we be saved? We see that Enoch walked with God, therefore we want to walk with God, but we’re not sure what that means at first. We then see How Noah walked with God, through righteous living. So we see that God wants us to walk with Him by living a holy life, free from sin, but we know that we can’t pull that off. We try, but we always fall short. So now what? Well that brings us to the next person we are introduced to in the Scriptures…Abraham.
God calls Abraham and promises to make a nation through him, although he and his wife are very old and don’t have any children. Now Abraham was between seventy-five and eighty-six years old when God promised to give him children. Sarah was ten years younger than Abraham. Just imagine you and your spouse being seventy and eighty years old and God shows up and promises to give you a child, not through adoption, but through natural childbirth. It would almost be impossible to believe. But this is what God tells us happened in the scriptures in Genesis 15:1-6:
1 After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great. 2 But Abram said, “Lord God, what can you give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram continued, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.” 4 Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
--------------------
Abraham believed God even when his flesh told him not to believe God. Abraham trusted God, even though his mind told him it was impossible. Abraham had faith in God, and God credited it to him as righteousness. Abraham was saved by faith. With Enoch we see that God will save those who walk with Him. With Noah we see that God will save those who walk with Him in righteousness. And with Abraham we see the full picture, that God will save those who walk with Him in righteousness THROUGH faith. God shows us that we must live holy lives but that our holiness will not be good enough. But he will honor our faith.
But that tells us what we must do. We must place our faith in Him and turn from sin, but it doesn’t answer the question about how God can forgive our sins and still be just. How can He wipe our sins away and not punish us, because of His love for us, but still be good and just. We all intuitively know that if you ignore evil and turn a blind eye, you are not good, you are corrupt. How can God turn a blind eye to our evil and not be corrupt? The answer is found just a few more chapters in.
The truth is, God does not turn a blind eye, and He does in fact follow through with the punishment that we deserve. Let’s look at what happens in chapter 22. Abraham was one-hundred years old and Sarah was ninety years old when they had their son Isaac, and then something very unexpected happened. Genesis 22:1-2 says this
1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered. 2 “Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
--------------------
God told Abraham to kill his only son that he had in his old age that he had waited for his entire life. Now, if God really did want Abraham to sacrifice his son, then God would be the type of god that many today accuse him of being…heartless, cold, mean, unloving, but as we know, God never actually wanted Abraham to sacrifice his son, he only wanted to show him, and us, the sacrifice that He Himself would have to make for us. This is what the Scripture says in Genesis 22:6-14:
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. In his hand he took the fire and the knife, and the two of them walked on together. 7 Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.” And he replied, “Here I am, my son.” Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together. 9 When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He replied, “Here I am.” 12 Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.” 13 Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said: “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.”
--------------------
Abraham was a prophet of God. Notice what He said in verse 8, speaking by the Holy Spirit.
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together.
--------------------
and then in verse 14
14 And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said: “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.”
--------------------
You see God was showing us what HE was going to do about our sin. He, Himself would provide the sacrifice for us. That sacrifice would be sufficient to cover our sins, unlike our own attempts to cover our own sins. You see God has always existed in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God loves us so much that He does not want to punish us for our sins, but He can’t compromise His goodness either. So Jesus, chose to take our punishment for us. That way God would not have to compromise his justice, because He would not just turn a blind eye to our sin, nor would he just excuse our sin without punishment, but He, as the Son, would take our punishment in our place. God therefore maintains His goodness and at the same time is able to forgive us and allow us to live with Him forever. And why would He do all of this for us? Why would he take our punishment in our place. Because He loves us so much. He told us so in John 3:16
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
--------------------
And Romans 5:8
8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
--------------------
And so we see that God’s love for us is so great that He would rather die than to live without us, because that is exactly the decision He made. He could have chosen to live without us and not die in our place, but He didn’t. He knew that the only way that we could live with Him forever was if He died, and that’s what He did. God would rather die than to live without you, but He will not make you follow Him. That is a decision you personally have to make. You know how much God loves you. And now you see the great lengths He’s gone through in order to forgive you.
[INVITATION]
Do you love Him? Are you ready to surrender to Him as your King? Are you ready to follow Him? His forgiveness is not automatic. Everyone who has ever lived and died does not automatically get forgiven. The only thing that is keeping you from spending eternity with God is your sin. God has not decided to punish people in hell forever because they are born into a certain race. You are not separated from God because of the economic status you were born into. He doesn’t punish people because of the time period they were born in. The only thing separating you from God is your sin. That’s it. And your sin is the only thing that can’t be swept under the rug or just ignored. So God has asked you to repent. Which simply means to turn from sinning and to walk with God, day by day, in holy living, resisting temptation and fleeing from sin. He knows that you won’t be perfect, which is why He had to die for you, so he will forgive you when you fall short. But walking with God, and falling short, is completely different than not walking with God at all.
Are you ready to turn from sin and walk daily with God. Are you ready to place all of your trust in Him to save you on the day of judgement? If so, then I want you to look under the video right now and you will see a button that says Request Prayer. I want you to click on that button and I want you to fill in your name and your email address, and I want you to write me a message that says that you want to turn from sin and place your trust in Jesus to save you. I want you to tell me a little about yourself and tell me where you live, and I will email you back personally and help you know what to do next, because God has called you to follow Him for the rest of Your life, not to just make a one time decision and go back to your old life. He has called you to a whole new life, and He has a mission for you to take part in, and I want to help you know exactly what He wants you to do, and I want to help you find a local church where you can grow as His disciple and where you can help make more disciples of Jesus.
I love you and I care about you, but I don’t hold a candle to how much God loves you and cares about you. So don’t be afraid. Click that button and let me know that you have decided that you want to follow Him for the rest of your life.
And for those who didn’t make a decision to follow Christ today, but you need prayer for a certain situation or person, I encourage you to click that button and share with us what you need prayer for, and we will pray for you and follow up with you as long as you need prayer. Prayer is often the last thing many of us do, when we’ve run out of options of trying to fix things ourselves, but God can do far more than we can, and far better. Prayer should be the first thing we do, not the last. I may not be able to change your circumstances or give you what you need, but I know someone who can, and I know he hears our prayers, and so we would love to pray with you.
I love you church, and I pray that you will stay well and have an awesome week. Let’s pray together.
Father I love You, and Father I thank you for your love for all of us. I ask that you will grow your kingdom this week. I pray that through this time of fear and uncertainty that untold numbers will surrender their lives to You. You told us that this life would be filled with trouble but that you have a new life in store for us with no more trouble for those who place their faith in your Son and follow Him. Father, draw close to us this week, comfort us, encourage us, and fill us with your Spirit. We love You Father, In Jesus’ holy and precious and eternal name we pray. Amen.