Skip to content From Thorns to Thriving Apr 20 · 32 min ...more
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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 You are listening to Waters Church podcast. Waters Church is a multisite, multigeneration community of faith on the East Coast of America. Now for a message from our pastor.0:13 I wanna talk to you on the topic of from thorns to thriving. Galatians chapter 3. And I said to you that I would re preach, my Good Friday sermon in 5 minutes or less. I talked to you about the0:25 fact that Jesus bore the thorns on his head. The the soldiers of Rome wove together a crown of thorns. The bible says that they put it on his head to mock him,0:37 to ridicule and humiliate him, but little did they know that they were actually revealing him. Because thorns are a sign of the0:48 curse. We weren't meant to live with thorns. And I asked you on Good Friday, does anybody enjoy thorns? And no 1 said yes. And I told you that I grew up in the 19 eighties where we used to do1:00 something called go outside and play. How many remember the old school days? Yes. I went outside and I would get into thorn bushes and I would come running back in with all kinds of scars on my knees and my legs and my1:09 mother would spray me with Bactine and then I would scream. And I knew that there are some places you just don't go because of thorns. Thorns are the result of the curse. When Adam sins and his wife sins, they go1:21 and they hide from God. God shows up. He searches for them. By the way, God is still searching for sinners. He looks for them. Where are you? He finds them hiding in the bushes, sowing fig1:32 leaves together to cover their shame and their guilt. Then God has bad news. He says, because you ate of the tree I told you not to, good and evil shall be part of your life. There's gonna be good, there's gonna be evil,1:43 there's gonna be blessing, there's gonna be cursing, and here's some of the curse. And he says to the woman, because you did this, you will have pains in childbirth. And fast forward 6000 years later, we still have it,1:54 but God bless us. We've got epidurals. Come on somebody. And then he said to the woman, you're gonna have a fight with your husband almost every day all the time because you you 2 are going to fight for2:06 control. Your desire shall be for your husband. The word desire means a desire to control. But because he's stronger and bigger than you, he will always dominate and rule over you. And fast forward 6000 years later and2:17 we have the WNBA. And that's what's going on in our culture to this day, the struggle for who dominates who. And then God says to Adam, because you listen to the voice of your wife, cursed is the ground because of2:29 you. Thorns and thistles, it shall produce for you. It wasn't meant to be thorns, but thorns are here because sin entered the world. And so we have the thorns of the physical2:41 nature, but we also have the thorns of the spiritual and emotional. And every anxiety and anxious worry in every mind of a young person today is because of the curse of sin. And every hospital wing2:52 that has cancer patients from childhood until elderly is because of the curse of sin. And every war that's ever broken out in the world across this, world is because3:04 of sin. And every dominant control of another person and every manipulation and every lie is because of the curse of sin. And thorns are a picture of what happens when we turn3:16 aback from God, what we wrestle with as just being human. Just we're born into it. It is it is part of the problem that we all enter into. And I said there was 4 realities of3:26 thorns botanically that point to the curse of sin spiritually. Want you to write them down. Number 1, the curse makes us fruitless. I said that thorns are modified growth. They're actually supposed to be3:38 fruits. They're actually supposed to be branches off of the stem that produce fruit and flowers, but they are choked off from the nourishment of the stem, and so they become sharp pointed figures. And so wherever you see3:48 a thorn, you see missed opportunities. Think about that. Wherever you see a thorn, you see where there should have been fruit. That's our life. There's areas where we wanna grow and we wanna be a blessing and we wanna4:00 get ahead, but it just doesn't happen and we feel like we're we're hitting a ceiling or we're hitting a wall. We can't get further in life. Guess what that is? That's the curse of sin. It's stranglehold on our4:09 productivity. Number 2, the curse makes us defensive because we know that we aren't where we should be. We get defensive and we put on fronts and we put on filters and we try to act better than we really are. And some of4:20 us are experts at pointing out the flaws in others because we know about the flaws in us. It's a lot easier to point out your flaws than to deal with mine. And then we get defensive and we4:32 dress ourselves a certain way and look our way a certain way, and we put on our face in front of other people, and we don't act how we really are. Why? Because we know that we aren't who we should be. And then number 3,4:43 the curse makes us limited. Thorns stop you from going certain places. Again, every 12 year old boy in the 19 eighties knew this very well. There were some bushes you just didn't walk through. There were some forests you4:53 just didn't enter because thorns would prick you and stick you and hurt you, and it is a picture of the curse of sin. There are some places you cannot go. There are some places that when you walk into it, you5:05 think you're going to a good time, but you're going into a miserable time. And the bible says the pleasures of sin are there for a season, but then the the afterbirth of sin is just pain and regret. And it is a5:17 picture of the curse of sin. And number 4, the curse makes us volatile. And here's where the rubber hits the road. There is a volatility index inside of all of us. We all know that there are buttons in our lives that if5:28 someone pushes them, we explode. Thorns ironically are very flammable because they're dried out potential branches, and it was an ancient form of kindling. To start a fire,5:40 you would use thorns. What a perfect picture of the human condition. But the good news of Jesus Christ, listen, he5:53 bore the thorns. He took your curse. Galatians 3 13. Again, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.6:05 For it is written by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, curses everyone who hangs on a tree is a quote from Deuteronomy. If you were executed on a tree, you were under the curse of God. Do you ever think about6:14 this, the amazing nature of the gospel message? Some of you need to get a hold of this today. Jesus became a curse so that you could have the6:26 curse reversed. The essence of the Christian gospel is not self improvement. It is6:37 substitution. He took your place. Now I don't know if you see what I see on this verse, verse 13. What comes after the quote, after the word tree? What is6:49 that? It's a hyphen. It's a dash. Nobody went to fifth grade English class, I guess. It's a it's a it's a hyphen. And that means keep reading. That means keep reading.7:01 Paul is not done with his argument, with his presentation of the gospel. Christ took the curse upon himself, and look at the next verse, 1 of my favorite verses in the bible, Galatians 37:12 14. Somebody say the new the first 2 words. So that. Oh, I love so that. When I when I teach you anybody here any amount of time, you know that I say this all the time.7:24 Look for the so that's in the New Testament. And in this verse, we get not 1. We get 2 so that's.7:37 Because most of the New Testament is, God did this so that you could get that. That's most of the New Testament. God did this so that you could get this.7:49 And that is the nature of substitution. He took your judgment and sin upon himself so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of8:01 Abraham. That's a big time blessing. Abraham was blessed. By the way, Abraham was wealthy. And we have the record of Abraham's blessing in Genesis8:13 chapter 12 when God speaks to Abram. He's not Abraham yet. He's Abram. Genesis chapter 12 verse 1, God says to Abram, leave your kindred and your family in your home and go to the land that I will show you, and8:25 I will make of you a great nation. This is the blessing of Abraham. And I will bless you and I will make your name great. That means I will give you a reputation that will be honored throughout the millennia8:37 and to this day, there are people named Abe or Abraham because of this man's faith. This man's blessing. And then God says, and I will bless those who bless8:48 you. You will be a blessing and I will curse those who curse you. In other words, I'm not just gonna bless you, I'm gonna I'm gonna take care of the people who curse you, and I got9:00 good news for anybody who's ever been cursed. Let God do the cursing back. He knows how to curse better than you do. God says, I'll take ownership of you. I have I will have my hand on9:12 you, and I will bless you. And listen to what Paul says back to Galatians 3 14. Because Christ took the curse, we get Abraham's blessing. This is9:24 your spiritual birthright. And then the second part, the second so that from verse 14, what does he say? He says you'll get the promised holy spirit just as it9:36 was given to Abram. Abram is his first name, but God actually changes his name in Genesis chapter 17. And I wanna bring you to that9:47 text because that text, when God shows up to change Abram's name from Abram to Abraham, it is an amazing act of of grace. Because if you read Genesis chapter 16,9:59 right before Genesis chapter 17, you read about a horrible incident in which Abram's wife Sarai comes to him and says, I'm not having babies. Why don't you sleep with my handmaiden and see if we can get God's10:11 blessing through that? Let's have Bill shown through her. And so what this happened this is a disaster for Abram. It's his greatest mistake potentially. And because he has a baby through Hagar,10:23 the Egyptian servant, we get Ishmael. And fast forward 6000 years later, and we get October seventh 20 23. This is 1 of his greatest failures.10:36 And on the heels of Genesis 16, we come to Genesis 17 that God is still going to bless Abram. How many know that God10:48 blesses you sometimes when you least deserve it? The reason why he does it is to prove to you his grace is greater than your sin. Now I'm a preacher and I've experienced this. So11:00 I know if I've experienced it, you will experience it. There are some weeks where I know I don't deserve it. And really it is every week I don't deserve it. There's just some weeks when I know I don't deserve it.11:12 Like yesterday was so unholy for me. I went to the mall for new pants. I said I need11:24 some Easter pants. I'm not even wearing them because after I got them home, they don't fit. The mirror in the dressing room lied to me. And,11:36 while I was trying to get into the mall, into the shopping area, I couldn't find a parking spot. And I don't know if it was the heat up here yesterday or not, but people were super aggressive in the parking lots. Like11:48 super aggressive. And I I don't know if anybody's like me, but I I I almost become unchristian when I'm looking for a parking spot. Because some people and if you're 1 of these12:00 people, I I need to have a conversation with you. When you go to your car after you're about to leave, when you go to leave and you get in your car12:12 and and you put your brake light on but not the reverse light on immediately, something is wrong with you. And I say to these people, what are you doing?12:24 Are you buckling? Buckle up after you're a mile down the street. You've got plenty of time. Are you on your phone? Text and drive. Somebody else will tell you not to.12:36 Get out of the parking spot. So I am getting constantly red light, no white light. Red light, no white light. And I'm just cursing life and I'm hating life and I'm I'm starting to feel like I I better call somebody12:48 else to preach for Easter Sunday. And God actually lays it on my heart. I really feel this. I I kid you not. I feel the holy spirit say, why don't you ask Jesus13:00 for a parking spot? And I said, holy spirit, you know I cannot talk to Jesus right now. I am not worthy. I've blown it today. Do you13:12 not see the stinking attitude that I am buying right now? But I said, it's worth a shot. And as I'm, you know, angrily13:23 circling 1 more aisle of cars, I say, okay, Lord Jesus. Let's see if this works. I want a good parking spot.13:35 I circle around, I kid you not, that aisle, pull up, and I see red light, white light, and the person backs up. And I'm talking about the13:47 first spot after the handicapped spots. Right in front of this is not a lie, not an exaggeration, right in front of the store that I wanted to go into.14:00 And Jesus said to me, gotcha. My grace is always better than your sin. And I know this is true for my life. It's gotta be true for your14:12 life that God blesses us when we least deserve it so that we can be constantly reminded that we are saved by grace and not from works. So God shows up on14:24 the heels of Abram's worst moment and says, I'm going to bless you even more. And I'm gonna change your name in chapter 17. No longer will you be14:35 called Abram. Now you're gonna be called Abraham. And the only way that you get from Abram to Abraham in Hebrew is you add 1 Hebrew consonant.14:47 The consonant is k, k, depending on your pronunciation of it. That's how you get from Abraham to Abraham. Don't say it. You'll spit on somebody. Now14:59 here's the amazing thing about that consonant. When you say it is every time you breathe, you say that consonant. In fact, it's at the end of15:12 the name that God calls himself in the Old Testament. Yahweh. Every time you breathe, you say the name of God. He's in the breath15:23 you breathe. But there's a breath from God. The scripture says that God's spirit hovered over the surface of the deep in Genesis chapter 1. And15:35 Hebrew scholars say that the sound that God made when it when he said, let there be light, the first sound out of his mouth was The very spirit of God that brought out of chaos15:47 creation enters now into Abram, and he becomes Abraham. And through Jesus, the true son of Abraham, you have access to the15:59 spirit of God. Just as the spirit entered into Abram's name, so the spirit enters into your body and you walk in newness of life.16:11 See, some people stop at Jesus died for my sins, and I that's half of it. That's half. He16:23 died for your sins, but he died for your sins so that you could be filled with his spirit. And the curse is reversed, and you've got the blessing of God's word, God's son, and16:35 God's spirit on your life. And I wanna talk to you in 4 points about that reality. Write these things down. Number 1, Jesus took the curse to bring us from fruitless to fruitful. So the frustration16:47 in Christ becomes fruitfulness in Christ. Because you know that God has not saved you to fail. If he saved you, he's16:59 got his hand on you. And he does not put his hand on you to crush you. He puts his hand on you to empower you, to fuel you,17:11 to bring you up and bless your life. This is your spiritual heritage. But some of you are not holding on to this and the reason why17:23 is because you let the thorns rule. Jesus talked about 4 soils in Matthew chapter 13 on which the seed of the word is sown. 4 soils. The soil of the path, the soil of the rocks, and then the third 1 he says17:34 is the soil among the thorns. And he says, that which was sown among the thorns, Matthew 13 22. These are the people who hear the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, money,17:46 and stress, and worry choke out the word and it proves what? Unfruitful. Look, you you you've got a choice. Either God rules or money rules. And if17:58 money rules, you have God's permission, my permission to be stressed and anxious and worried. But if God but if God rules, there's fruitfulness and and you stop worrying about what other people worry about because you18:10 know that God's hand is upon you, his blessing is for you, the Abrahamic blessing is your birthright, and now you know as Philippians 4 19 says that God will supply every need according18:21 to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. I'm so glad it says the riches, not just the just enough of Christ Jesus. No. The riches of his18:33 glory. We've got a generous God who is for us and wants to bless you. Put put him first financially. Trust him and honor him financially.18:45 And watch the blessing of Abraham is your birthright, and fruitfulness is your reality in Christ. John chapter18:57 15, Jesus says to the disciples, I chose you that you should go and bear fruit and your fruit should remain. That the curse has been reversed and so fruitlessness becomes fruitfulness in Christ Jesus. Number19:09 2, Jesus took the curse to bring us from defensiveness to open heartedness. The reason why we get put off by people, the reason why we get so defensive about people's opinions of us is because we're always19:21 trying to cover for the shame of sin. We're always trying to make up for our bad by looking better than we really are. This is the reason for every single Instagram filter.19:34 This is it. Let me look better than I really am. I need to prove myself. Here's the here's the reality of the gospel. Before God, you do not need to prove yourself19:46 because he knows you. He sees you and he understands where you fail and where you missed the mark, and he still chooses to love you.19:59 If you are moved by the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is a sign that God has already placed his love on your life. Do you understand this? And when that happens,20:12 when you know that you are truly loved you see you see that the the man and the woman that were supposed to be naked and unashamed. This is a picture. This is a picture of20:24 what we were supposed to live like. We were supposed to live vulnerably and openly and not shamefully, but sin shames and disgraces, and so we cover. And the fact that we are20:36 clothed today is part of the problem. Now I am not encouraging public nakedness. Please dress and continue to do so.20:48 But it is a picture of the internal reality that we need covering. Okay. Good news. When Adam sinned, God came in, killed some20:59 animals, and made them coverings. Here's what he's saying. I'm gonna cover you. My love and my grace and Jesus' blood covers you.21:11 It's covered. You are you no longer have to feel the shame of sin. Jesus bore your shame on the cross. You no longer have to feel the guilt of sin. Jesus took your21:23 guilt on the cross. You no longer have to pretend to be better than you are because you have a father in heaven who knows you're actually far worse than you21:35 think, but you're loved more than you'll ever know. And that's the center of the gospel. When this happens,21:48 hostility dissipates. As Paul says in Ephesians 2 14, he himself is our peace because he brought us peace with God. If we have peace with God, we can have peace with others.22:00 And he demolishes. He breaks down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. Now that hostility that Paul's talking about in Ephesians chapter 2 is the hostility between Jew and Gentile. That ancient hostility that22:09 still lives in the land of Israel to this day. And the reason why they have that hostility is because they have not Christ. The answer to the hostility between Gaza and Israel is not22:20 politics. The answer is Christ's gospel. God, the gospel separates all destroys all the things that separate us. Therefore, in Christ22:32 Jesus, Paul will say this in Galatians chapter 3, there is neither male nor female, slave nor free, rich nor poor, Jew or Gentile, for all are 1 in Christ Jesus. The gospel makes enemies friends22:44 because he has shed his love upon our hearts. We no longer have to fight and fuss for our own importance because Christ has healed22:56 us of that inward hostility. As Timothy is told in second Timothy 1 7, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power, sound mind, and self control.23:08 Notice we like the power in that passage, but don't miss the love in that passage. The way we love is because we know he first loved us. Number 3, Jesus took the curse23:20 to bring us from limited to well able. This again is your spiritual birthright in Christ. You're not limited. You only think you are. Some people say,23:32 I'm short and I'm limited. I'm poor and I'm limited. I'm this and I'm limited. Not in Christ because in Christ, even the limitations are opportunities for God's unlimited power to23:43 be real reality. Paul says in second Corinthians 12, he says, I went to heaven and I came back and because of that exceeding revelation to keep me from becoming conceited, God limited me. How did God limit him? Notice23:55 the words that he says. He gave me a what? A thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan. This limitation. And I prayed, take it away. It's limiting me. Take it away. It's limiting me. And God said 3 times,24:07 my grace is sufficient for my power is made perfect where? In weakness. In other words, layman's terms, even my limitations are opportunities for God's unlimited power to create24:19 realities that I cannot. Isn't that a beautiful promise? Because some of you let how you look, how you feel, where you live, what your job is be the limitation of24:31 your life, your parents, your spouse, your children, your responsibilities, your lack of children, your lack of spouse, these are not limitations, friends. These are opportunities for God's grace to be made manifest in24:43 perfect strength for you to do all things through Christ who gives you strength. Paul emphasizes in that passage that we are24:54 unlimited ultimately in Christ Jesus. Moreover, we have unlimited access to the throne of grace. Hebrews chapter 9 10 verse 19 says, we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. We can25:06 come into God's presence at any time because why? The blood was shed and now the way has been opened. Matthew 27 says that when Jesus died, the curtain in the temple that separated the holy of holies from the holy place,25:18 The place where no 1 could go because the ark of the covenant was there, and the 1 priest 1 day a year could go in there, and everybody else was excluded. Oh, the old testament was exclusion. The old testament was you25:28 don't belong. The old testament was you can't come into the presence of God. But through the blood of the new covenant in Christ blood, that curtain was torn from top to bottom, symbolizing that God himself opened the25:39 door through the flesh of his son Jesus so that you could go into the presence of God at any time for any need. That is our heritage. We are not limited. We are well able.25:51 Jesus said the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy in John 10, but I have come to give you life. And we always focus on the life abundantly, but just back up and look at life again. In other words, without26:03 Christ, you have no life. Life begins the moment you surrender to Jesus. And number 4, Jesus took the curse to bring us from volatile to peaceful.26:15 To bring healing to that inward animosity and anger. Some of you will say to me, I am my worst enemy, and I26:27 agree. You'll get no argument from me because I know that my flesh is my worst enemy. And he wants to rise up all the time, but I come back to the26:38 cross and I see the peace that is mine in Christ. Scripture says in Isaiah 53, he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our26:50 iniquities, and the chastisement that brought us what peace was placed upon him by his wounds were healed. Paul says in Romans 8 verse 1, there is no condemnation. The27:02 word condemnation means judgment. Some someone someone needs to hear this today. If you're in Christ Jesus, you are not ever to be judged for your sins. That's27:14 hard to believe, but it's the grace of God. He took your punishment so that you could have peace with27:26 God. In other words, write this down. I've been saying it repeatedly. The curse has been reversed, and your spiritual heritage is27:37 fruitfulness and ableness and open heartedness and peacefulness in Jesus. Now I wanna tell you how all this comes together through the life of27:49 Abraham. Fast forward 10 chapters and 25 years actually, 40 years after his first call. Genesis chapter 22, Abraham's greatest test.28:01 What does God say? Abraham. Genesis chapter 22. And Abraham says, here I am. And I bet the next moment, he immediately regretted saying, here I am. Take28:12 your son, your only son, listen to the language, whom you love, and go to the land that I will show you in Mount in Moriah and offer him, your son, whom you love, your only son, as a burnt offering to me.28:26 The bible says in the next verse that Abraham woke up early in the morning. I don't know about you, but if I was Abraham, I'd have slept in that day. Wakes up early in the morning, settles his donkey, sets out with his28:35 servants and his son. Comes to the place where the Lord shows him, Mount Moriah. By the way, Mount Moriah is still considered the temple mount where the is the Jews have their temple still or the remains of Solomon's28:46 temple still to this day. He climbs up that mountain. The Bible says in verse 6, he laid the wood on his only beloved son, and28:58 his son climbed the mountain with the wood on his back. Gets to the place of sacrifice and he lays his son on that wood. Are you seeing a picture here?29:11 This is in Genesis 22. We're still in the first book of the Bible. The gospel has been being preached through Abraham's son. And we29:23 know the story. You know, Abraham and Isaac get to the place of sacrifice, and Isaac's got questions. The fire is here? The wood's here? The knife's here? Where's the29:34 sacrifice? Where's the lamb? And Abraham says in verse 8, the Lord himself will provide a lamb as a burnt offering my son. And they went on together. And they get to the place and he lays Isaac on the wood. Isaac29:46 understands now at this point. Now think about this. Abraham's an old man. Isaac could have run away. Isaac could have fought his old man and gotten off of that altar. But the son willingly lays down his life.29:58 Abraham takes the knife, raises it up, the angel stops him. Now I know you fear God more than anything, and your son is not to be30:10 killed. And what Abraham was spared of doing on Mount Moriah, God the father did do on that same mountain thousands30:22 of years later. Now after he is stopped by the angel, the bible says, and Abraham, verse 13, lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him was a30:33 ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And the word for thicket in the Hebrew here can also be translated a bushel of thorns.30:47 The thorns were on the head of that ram. And thousands of years later, the thorns were on the head, not of a ram, but on a lamb,30:59 the son of God who was slain for the sins of the world. I'm trying to get you to understand something. This whole thing has been talked31:11 about since Genesis chapter 3. From write this down. From Genesis to Jesus, scripture comes together to offer you31:23 the blessing of God in exchange for the curse of your sin. Here's the greatest question you will ever be asked. Will you receive it?31:35 Bow your heads and close your eyes. We're gonna give you a chance to say yes to it right now. And father, I pray for every person who needs Jesus that they will receive Jesus at31:47 every location in Jesus' name.31:53 Thank you for listening to this message from Waters Church. For more information or to visit 1 of our local assemblies, please visit waters church dot org. God bless, and have a great day.
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