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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 A church that changes people's lives. I wanna ask you a question before we get started. Why are you here? Why are you here? The most important question I could ask you really is, what0:25 brought you to church today? Maybe a friend invited you. Maybe you're here checking us out for the first time. Maybe you're here for the hundredth time. Wherever you are on the spectrum of coming to church, I'm hoping0:34 and praying that at the end of the day, in some way, God has changed your life. That God has moved upon your heart, spoken to you, brought you an understanding of who0:46 he is and what he wants your life to look like. And that's the title. That's the theme of this message. We have a bit of a problem in the modern church movement. The modern church movement. What is that?0:58 Modern church movement is where the pastor gets up in jeans and, you know, casual attire. Case in point right here. Okay? The modern church movement is where they have electric guitars, drums, keyboards, and all that1:08 kind of stuff and screams everywhere. They might use the video preaching like we're doing. The modern church movement is a it's a great movement. I love it. I'm part of it. I'm not I'm not shaming it. But in some cases,1:18 we get a little bit of crossover from doing church to just entertaining people. Just tickling ears. Paul warned about that. There would come a time when the people would want a preacher to tickle their ears, make1:30 them feel good, but never challenge them. And and that's in case that's a case in point for the modern church movement in some cases. I I've read some stories. I don't wanna report these to make fun of these churches or1:40 to, you know, poke at them, but I did a simple search of some crazy things that modern churches are doing to bring people into the doors. And particularly with regards to Christmas services this past Christmas,1:52 some mega, giga, massive churches. 1 in Dallas, Texas had Santa Claus on their Christmas Eve service. Santa Claus flying in his sleigh over the crowd, to some song. I don't know. Santa Claus is2:04 coming to town. Nothing against Santa, but this place is about Jesus. Amen, somebody. Another church had Santa Claus dunking a basketball on the head of the Grinch.2:17 And, again, love the Grinch. Thank god for his heart transformation. Yeah? Love Santa? Don't know why they're taking center stage where we should be talking about Jesus. Yeah?2:28 A church in Finland actually created this is kind of interesting. An entire service was produced out of AI, including a sermon from a, AI2:40 generated visual, the person of a pastor who had died in the 19 eighties. And they they reanimated him through AI, and and I was, like, grossed out until I2:51 thought, I wonder if we could do that for me. Maybe we could do and I'm long gone, and I'm still preaching the word. Amen. Just kinda weird where churches are going. A church in Bradford, United3:03 Kingdom hosts a professional wrestling match on stage to illustrate wrestling in the spirit. Now look, I'm all for doing things that garner people's attention because it's hard.3:15 It's an attention economy. That's really what it is. Everybody's vying for your attention. Ads and TikTok and Instagram and Facebook. Attention. Attention. I get it. But I don't know if3:27 it's healthy for the church to be all in on entertaining and not on engaging people in God's word. Ultimately, what good is a church if it doesn't change people's lives? Transformation3:40 is the name of the game. Amen, somebody? And this chapter in Nehemiah unpacks how lives are changed. I hope that your prayer is, I'm coming to church. I hope your desire is, I'm coming to church so that God speaks3:52 to me. You don't wanna hear my ideas. My ideas don't matter. My words don't matter. What matters is God's word. God's ideas, God's plans for your future. I think that4:04 people would be a lot less stressed if they knew a little bit more of the savior. Amen, somebody. I think people would be a lot less depressed if they knew the joy of the Lord. I believe that there would be a lot less4:14 anxiety in me people's hearts if they knew the promises of scripture. So we open the Bible, we we read it, and we get to business in what God has to say.4:26 To that end, let's talk about 4 points. We're done about churches that change lives. Write this down. Number 1 in your notes. A church that changes lives is committed to hearing God through the word, the scriptures.4:37 Committed to hearing God through the scriptures. I I come. I open the scriptures for you. I read the scriptures. I don't know if you've noticed. Some of you have come for a long time. You've noticed maybe this transit4:48 transition in in my ministry is I've just been going through books of the Bible on Sundays. Verse by verse, chapter by chapter. Have you noticed this? And and the reason why is I just think that it's just we gotta get4:59 back to knowing what the bible says. And what it does 2 things. Some of you will appreciate this. When a pastor is committed to preaching through a bible book, like, from the first chapter to the5:11 last chapter, it forces that preacher to talk about things he may not wanna talk about, to preach texts that may not be his favorite texts, but that you5:23 need. Listen. You don't want a preacher to pick what he wants to say. You want a preacher to say what God has already said. And so that's kinda like the theme that you've5:35 seen. We walked through the book of James last year at the end. We're walking through the book of Nehemiah now. We're gonna take a short break of this to talk about health in a couple of weeks, but moreover, we're we're5:45 gonna just go through the bible listening to what our father says. And so Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 1, let's look at we already read it, but look at it again. And all the people gathered as what? 1 man into the square5:57 before the Watergate. Okay. Watergate was not just a scandal of political proportions in the 19 seventies. The water gate was a door that led into the city of Jerusalem. It was where the water came into the city. Now6:09 here's why this is significant. Because water is a picture of the holy spirit in the book in the Bible. Jesus said, if you believe in me, that rivers of living water6:21 shall flow from your innermost being. So look at this. All the people gather as 1 man at the water gate, and they tell Ezra the scribe Ezra would have been like me in the ancient world, the pastor. And they tell6:33 the pastor, Ezra, bring the Bible, the book of the law. Those are the first 5 books of your Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The first 5 books of your Bible. That was their Bible. And he said that6:44 the people that bring the bible out and teach us what god says. My friends, nothing could please me more if you were phenomenally disappointed if I6:56 did not open the bible and teach you what god says when we show up here on Sunday. That the pastor, don't tell me what you say. Tell me what god says. Yeah. And and by the way, they were at7:08 the water gate. Friends, you came to Waters Church. Come on, somebody. Why are we named Waters Church? It's in the bible. That's why. Then verse7:20 2, it says this, and the priest brought the law before the assembly, men and women, and all who could, what? Understand. Understand what they heard. Now this is gonna cover something that maybe some of you have a7:32 question about. We're in the business of teaching people who can understand the teaching, which is why let me tread lightly here for a moment. Which is why we encourage you, put your kids in7:43 kids ministry and the adults come into the sanctuary. In fact, in our North Attleboro location, we don't even allow children under 10 to come into the sanctuary, and we've got a lot of flack from that, and I get it. And7:55 I understand that a lot of people want their whole family there. But we've seen it and we broadcast. Some of you have to understand. We broadcast through video, not just to other locations, but I'm on television in a lot8:05 of cities in this country. Some of you don't even know this. I was in Dallas last 2 weeks ago, and somebody walked up to me and said, I saw you on television 2 weeks ago in El Paso. I'm like, oh, nice to meet you. And so8:17 we're broadcasting everywhere. Kids, great, wonderful, love them, got a place for them. They come in here, they get a little antsy, little bored, and sometimes I'm talking about things they can't understand, and so they8:26 cause a little bit of a distraction. But we're doing things so that you can understand and hear the word, and then hear me parents. Moms and dads, listen. It's your job to help your kids understand8:37 God's word. If you can't understand it, how are you gonna teach it? And sometimes you get distracted because kids are going being kids, and I love kids. I have kids. I thank God for kids. I'm looking forward to8:48 grandkids. God's reward for not killing your own kids. Come on somebody. And and I thank God for all the children and I'm encouraging the church. I've been saying this. Let's outbreed the unbelievers. Let's outbreed the8:59 pagans. Have more kids. Praise God. But then let's teach them in our kids ministry. And can we just give a hand for our kids ministry people who are doing that right now? Amen.9:12 So all who could understand, and he and he taught them the word. Verse 3. Look at this. And he read from it facing the square before the water gate from and I love this passage. Early morning until9:23 midday in the presence of the men and women all could understand it, and they were all attentive. Now early morning in bible terms is about 6 AM. They got to church early. Now I know I'm talking9:35 to the second service. Don't feel bad about this. They but then this moment, they got to church and they got there at 6 AM, and midday is around 1 PM. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you9:47 a 7 hour long sermon in the bible. Praise god. That's a that's a dream of mine. Wow. Could you imagine? You guys get off easy.9:59 I preach for 50 minutes tops, and you're out the door. And some of you are like, man, it's going too long. Why does he preach so long? Do you know why I preach so long? Because this is the word of God and it could change10:09 your life. That's why. God could do something in somebody. Somebody could be coming in today and and listen, you don't get it. It's not always about what you need. Somebody here might need hope because they're on the10:21 verge of suicide. Somebody might be going through a divorce and they need to feel the love of God and the grace of God in the pit of despair. But through the preaching of the word, lives are changed, hearts10:33 are resurrected, minds are renewed, and people are born again into the family of the living God. Let us never let us never never10:44 decry the time spent in God's word. And then it says this in verse, 4, and Ezra describes stood on a wooden platform. So this is interesting. I'm on a, you know well, this is fake10:56 wood, but a wooden platform. They made it for the purpose. I'm above the people so that you can hear and see. The scripture says in verse 5, and Ezra opened the book inside of all in the sight of all the people. Now look11:08 at this. For he was above all the people, and as he opened it finish the phrase. As he opened the Bible, all the people11:20 said, pastor Tim, why do you guys always have a stand for the reading of God's word? It's right there. It's right there in the Bible. Here really is what the issue is. We wanna11:32 respect the word of God. Look, speaking of crazy things churches are doing to entertain people and not teach people is, the story of a church up in11:44 Cincinnati, Ohio where for the Super Bowl last year, a pastor and this was kinda like went viral on social media. I don't know if that was their intention. But to make some weird point about how we're cool,11:56 a pastor got up on stage and punt kicked the bible across the stage for Super Bowl Sunday to kinda, like I don't know what they were think I don't understand that. You know, in my house, and12:08 I pray that this is true in every Christian's house, this book does not touch the floor. You know that we do that with the flag. Right? Yes. By the way, I think that's a good thing that we respect12:20 the flag. Amen, somebody? Amen. The we got pastor Tom. He served in our military. Thank god for him. And, he was a ranger. Don't mess with him. But he'll tell you12:32 first thing, that flag must be respected. It does not touch the ground. Okay. I'm just throwing this out there. I love the flag, but this is more important. If the flag12:44 don't touch the ground, this don't touch the ground. That's how I see it. And and and in our home, look, this gets priority. This gets not not that we we don't worship the word. We12:56 thank God for the word because the word teaches us about who he is, but we honor it. We respect it. That's why we stand for the reading of God's word. And and then verse 6, look at13:08 this. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered. Amen. Yeah. That's your job. There you go. Now this is13:19 something that I love about our church, and I I encourage it that when you hear God's word spoken, you're not afraid to shout out a good amen. Pastors preaching the word13:31 amen. Now here is why we do it, because it's in the bible. It's okay to respond, amen. Now when we say amen, the word in Hebrew means13:43 so be it. So what we're saying is so be it, the word applied to my life. Here's what people are not doing when they say amen in our church, because some of you might be under the impression under the impression that this13:55 is the case. When someone says amen to the preaching, they're not saying, I've got that down. I do exactly what the pastor says. Sometimes, they're getting convicted and they're saying, oh,14:07 amen. I needed to hear that. So be it. God changed my heart in that area. So never be afraid, Waters Church. And even if I'm coming to you by video,14:19 never be afraid or ashamed to say a good amen to the preacher. That was your opportunity, Apollo Beach. Nope. Too late.14:31 Sorry. Wait for the next 1. What you see what you see in this text is you see a responsiveness and a respect and14:43 and an attitude of honor for the preaching and teaching of God's word. Because ladies and gentlemen, I can't change you, and you can't change you, but God can change you14:55 through his word. Oh, there you go. Now you're getting it. Number 2, write this down. A church that changes people's lives helps you understand the word. It makes no difference if I just get up here and read it. I gotta15:05 teach it. I gotta tell you how it applies to your life. In fact, that is my greatest joy. And if you ever wanna make me happy, send me an email telling me that how the15:17 word is changing your life, that it makes that I made it clear to you. And I I thank God for that. I've been getting good reports through this Nehemiah study of that. It's wonderful to see that happen.15:29 Here's how it goes down in verse 7 of chapter 8 of Nehemiah. And all these guys whose names I can't pronounce helped the people, what? Understand Understand a lot. This is the15:41 pastor's job. Why do we have pastors and leaders? So that they help us understand what the scripture says. By the way, this word understand, you can circle it in your notes there because it's all over chapter 8.15:53 All over chapter 8, if you look at your Bible, you'll see verse 2, all who could understand. Verse 3, all who could understand. Verse 8, the so that the people understood. Verse 9, the Levites taught. Now that word16:04 taught in verse 9 is the same word for understand in Hebrew. Verse 12, and they understood the words. They rejoiced because they understood. Look at verse 12. They rejoiced, great rejoicing,16:16 because they had understood the words that the scribes said about the bible. Friends, this is important. It's so important that you16:27 leave in in our services. You leave the church service rejoicing that God revealed something to you that empowered your16:39 life, that there's joy in that. Here's why. Let 3 3 letters under this point. Want you to write this down. The Bible can be confusing. The Bible can be strange. It's it's an old book.16:51 By the way, it was written in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. It wasn't written in English. And by the way, it wasn't even written to you. It was written to other people. And it was written in an ancient context 2500 years17:02 ago when to to to 3500 years ago by 40 different authors. Kings and paupers, priests, prophets, and shepherds wrote fishermen wrote17:13 this book. 1 central message, God saves sinners through the death of his son, Jesus. 66 books. I I don't know how17:25 many chapters and verses, 40 different authors written over 1500 years. That's the bible. That's why it can be so confusing. So you need a pastor that opens it and teaches it and examines17:37 it. And somebody say, pastor, what do you do all week? That's what I do. I examine the text. I look at it. I make sure that what I'm teaching you is true to what is in the text, both the ancient texts and the17:48 modern translations, and we make it clear and apply it to your life. And this is why it's so important because the Bible, letter b, can be contorted. I don't know if you've experienced this, but I have, where pastors18:00 will twist scripture. By the way, this is nothing new. On the very first page of scripture, Satan shows up as a snake in the Garden of Eden. What's what's the first thing he does?18:12 What's the first words of Satan in the Bible? Does anybody think about this? The first words are, has God really said? What is he doing? He's questioning the18:23 word of God. He's distorting it. He's twisting it. And pastors are known to do this. They're not true pastors. These are what what Jesus calls false, shepherds or18:35 false prophets, thieves that come in and disturb the faith of the people. Now some of you have come from a church where there has something called spiritual abuse. I don't know if you've ever experienced18:47 this, but I have. I came from a church where there was spiritual abuse because the pastor was all about legalism. Legalism is where it's all the dos and do nots. You must, you must not, you must, you must18:59 not. And you just leave the church every week, and this is what we do. We would just leave the church every week feeling like, I'm just terrible. I'll never get it right. I'm just terrible. I'll never get it right. And19:08 if you have a church like that, get out. Get out. They're not telling you the whole story. The whole story is, yeah, we don't get it right. But the good news is Jesus Christ came to forgive19:19 sinners who don't get it right. And if you believe on him, you are forgiven of all your sins once and for all. The bible's been contorted over the centuries and especially in this country and especially19:31 with, you know, churches that are just kind of random random churches in in our country. In the 19 seventies, there was a guy by the name of Jim Jones. Some Some of you might know this guy. The pastor of, the People's19:42 Temple in South in San Francisco, California. Do you know that Jim Jones started out good? His church would feed the poor, clothe the naked. They ran a homeless shelter. They ran a child day care center.19:54 They actually had a medical supply center feeding, helping, serving people. It was a it was a wonderful church. Jim Jones was a wonderful preacher, powerful Jim Jones sat on the stage with Billy20:06 Graham at 1 of his crusades. But then he turned, and he decided to make the church about himself. Started preaching only about himself. Then started controlling and abusing the people, eventually leading to public20:17 shaming of people in the church body. They would bring them up, have them confess their sins, and even beat them and hit them. You know, think at this point, you you said, run for your life, but many people didn't. They20:27 were under the spell, the spiritual abuse. And then and then finally, he decided to take that church of 800 some odd people and move to the jungles of Guyana and build this utopian kind of20:38 socialistic, know, city, and he named it anybody know? Jonestown. Listen. Pro tip. If your pastor ever asks you to20:50 move to a place and calls it after his name, run. Run for your life. If I ever tell you, we're gonna go build Hatchville down in Brazil. Like, no.21:02 Sorry, pastor. Checking out. See you later. The bible has been contorted. By the way, the phrase, don't drink the Kool Aid comes from that moment because he had cyanide laced Kool21:14 Aid, and they all drank it wasn't Kool Aid. Was another fruity drink, and they all drank it and committed mass suicide. Horrible tragedy. It started because somebody took the Bible and used it to weaponize their21:24 authority over people. Do you need pastors? This is what I say. Letter c. Write this down. The pastor can be life the the Bible can be life changing. The Bible, it can be confusing. It can be contorted, but it can also21:35 be life changing if it's properly preached and and exposited or taught to the people. And this is why God gives the church, and this is important. This is why Jesus gives the church pastors. Look at21:47 Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11. The the he here is Jesus. And Jesus gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, another word for pastors,21:59 and teachers. A pastor I don't know if you ever thought about this, but a pastor is a gift from Jesus to the church.22:11 Pastor, are you calling yourself God's gift? Yes. I am. It's in the bible. Amen. Just kidding. No. It is a gift of Jesus to the church to do this for the church, to equip the22:22 saints for the work of the ministry. Now, some of you have come from churches where the pastor is supposed to do all the work in the ministry. No. No. No. That's not actually in the Bible. The Bible says that the pastor22:34 empowers the church for everyone to minister. What does minister mean? It means serve. It means serve someone else. Look after 1 another. Love your neighbor as you what?22:45 It's the second greatest commandment, to serve 1 another. How do we do that? We get equipped. The word equip here in Greek is the same word that we get, mend from. In fact, when the22:57 when the fishermen, Peter and, James and John and Andrew are mending their nets when Jesus calls them in Matthew chapter 4, they're meant they're equipping their nets to catch more fish. I want you to think about this23:09 beautiful picture that the word that Paul chose to use that I I'm here to equip you, pastor Tom. Here to equip you so that we catch more fish so that Apollo Beach is changed through the gospel of23:21 Jesus Christ. Amen. Because you can live in paradise and still be depressed. You can you can live in Massachusetts, a a beacon of education and understanding, and has spread education around this country and still23:32 have no clue how to live. We need pastors who equip us to minister to other people. And then it says, for the building up of the body and then verse 13, until we attain unity in the faith, knowledge of the son23:44 of God, mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be what? This is what God wants. He wants you to grow in your faith. Take another step forward in your faith23:56 and get more mature. Now do you know what the what the working definition of maturity is? I'm I'm gonna tell you what the working definition of maturity is. It's it's so good.24:08 It's what used to bother me doesn't bother me anymore. That's basic maturity. That's maturity 1 0 1. When you were a baby, if24:20 mom didn't stick a bottle in your mouth at certain times, you would flip out. I'm not judging. I used to do it too. Right? But then you mature and you learn how to24:32 go without for a little longer. Right? And then your mom and dad can finally get a good night's sleep. Amen? Amen, somebody. Right? And then and then when you're a young person and you're in middle school, you get really24:44 bothered when somebody says something about your clothing or or they don't like you and your it ruins your week. But then you grow up and you realize it doesn't matter what they think. I don't care. I'm not here to24:56 please them. You know what that's called? It's called maturity. And then by the way, it works throughout life. I pray that as you hear God speak to you, the things that25:07 bothered you last year don't bother you this year. Why? Because you've grown in Christ and he's elevated your maturity level and you're stronger in him. And not everything bothers25:19 you. That's what Paul says here, that you're not tossed to and fro by the waves. And look at this, carried about by every wind of doctrine. There's a lot of doctrines, there's a lot of teachings out there that are25:28 strange, that are weird, that are not biblical. And you know the truth because you have a pastor who teaches you, opens the bible, and teaches it to you. And then it says, and by human cunning and the craftiness in25:37 deceitful schemes. I didn't share this in the other services, but I feel like I should share it now. I'm I'm dad moment. Do you have time for a proud dad moment? I have 3 children, 2 sons and and25:49 a a daughter. And I was on the beach with my my youngest, Jake, and, this was an amazing moment. We're walk walking along the beach and the waves are pushing the shells up onto the onto the26:01 beach and words that you just love hearing from your child. Here's what he said. Here's how the conversation started. He said, dad, ever since I started reading the bible And I'm like, woah.26:13 That's enough. You could just stop right there. I'm so thankful. He said, ever since I started reading the bible, God has been showing me ways to illustrate it. He's 13 years old. And he26:25 said, like these shells. See how the waves are pushing them wherever the waves go? If you learn what God says, you're not pushed by the waves of the world. Oh, wow. Oh26:37 my god. Yeah. You better appreciate it because he's your future pastor. Just letting you know. Oh, maybe not. I don't know. But26:49 even a child can receive the word, and it can start to speak to them and show them how to live. Amen, somebody? Number 3, a church that changes people's lives27:01 responds to the word according to the word. There's a biblical response to God's word, and then there's a non biblical response. Here's the non biblical here's the non biblical response to the word. That made27:12 me feel good. Feelings are irrelevant. Feelings are transitory. You feel 1 way in the morning. By the afternoon, you feel a totally different way. And usually,27:24 it's just because you had something to eat. Amen? Don't trust your feelings. Here's a proper response to the word. Verse 9, it says, Nehemiah, who is the governor and Ezra the priest, the27:36 scribe, and the Levites who talked to people said to all the people, this day is holy to the Lord your God. What does he say to them? Do not, what, mourn or weep, for all the people wept as they heard the law.27:49 Now now here's an outline for how we should respond. When the word was taught in Nehemiah's day, the people were cut. They were they were sorrowful.28:01 They were saddened. Here's the word. They were convicted because their lives did not match up to God's word. So I wanna write a couple points down underneath this. God's word28:13 has an effect when there is a conviction of sin in our lives. James says in James chapter 4 that the word of God is like a mirror. It's a mirror. Now28:25 what does a mirror do? A mirror reflects. A mirror reveals what you look like. Now how many of you looked at the mirror this morning? Not many hands go up, but I'm assuming28:37 everybody because you look somewhat decent this morning. But you didn't wake up that way. Yeah? If you did, tell us your secret. Right? But you looked at the mirror and you saw, oh, I gotta fix that. I gotta28:49 put this on. I gotta do this. I gotta do that. And you shaped yourself up. That's what the word is. Now here's the proper use of a mirror. Are you ready? The proper use of a mirror is to look at it for yourself.29:01 Here's what I see a lot of Christians doing with their mirror. This is you should change. You should change. What's wrong with you? Shame on you. Shame on them. Like, this is not the way you use a mirror. The mirror is29:13 so that you can examine you. Amen, somebody. And the bible says, through the law comes a knowledge of sin. Romans 3 20. When we hear God's word, our hearts are29:24 convicted by what we're not doing that we should be doing or what we did that we should've done. Now that's not where God leaves us. This is the second part of29:36 understanding or hearing the word. The word has an effect letter b when there is a clear, write this down, a clear view of Jesus. Let me let me show you this from the word itself. Because29:48 Paul says about the law, the rules of the bible, Galatians 3 24, he says, so then the law was our guardian until Christ29:59 came that we should be justified by faith. Let me un let me unpack. This is the the the value. This is the purpose of the law. The law shows you where you30:11 fail so that you don't look at the law and beat yourself up over your failures, but you look to Jesus who didn't fail for you. See, Martin30:23 Luther said it like this. The law crushes us so that the gospel can raise us. It's it's like if you go to the doctor and you have30:34 cancer, and the doctor doesn't do a thorough examination. He just looks at you and says, well, you look fine. Here's an aspirin. Feel better. Did he deal with30:46 the problem? No. Can I tell you a lot of preachers are out there saying, here's an aspirin? Feel better. A pastor must examine and teach and cut through the teaching of30:58 God's word so that it gets to the root of the problem. Sin is my problem. Sin is your problem, and none of us have not sinned. There's 1 who has not sinned. His name was31:10 Jesus, and he died for our sins. He took our punishment so that we could be free and forgiven of all our sins. And friends, if you've never heard it, now you've heard it.31:21 That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. He died for me. I should have been on that cross. He died for me, and he forgives me. And31:33 and and so we see Jesus. This is what Paul the apostle writes about in Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7, Paul has this wrestling match with himself. He says, I do the things I don't wanna do, and I don't do the things31:45 that I should do. And this is Paul writing the bible. If you've ever felt like a failure, but Paul felt that way too. But feelings come and go. So here's how he ends that chapter. Romans chapter 7 verse 24.31:56 Wretched man that I am. I've looked at me and I can see I'm not good in so many areas. I fail my wife. I fail my children. I fail myself. Wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? What is he32:08 talking about? He's talking about the flesh, that person that's still with you, that does all the things that you can't stand yourself doing. And he says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.32:19 Amen. He will deliver me from this body of death. 1 day, this body will go into the ground, and the holy the the spirit will go up to be with God, and I will dwell with him forever. And then when he comes back, my32:31 body will be reunited with my spirit with no sin, and I will rule and reign with him on this earth forever. That's the hope of every child of God. So a clear view of of Jesus. Let her see,32:43 courage. When you hear the scriptures, there should be courage. You should have faith. You should be built up and strengthened and emboldened. Here's how it says here's what it says in Nehemiah chapter 8. Then he said to32:55 them, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet wine, send portions to anyone who has nothing ready for this day is holy to the Lord our God, and do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength. But to know33:06 that I'm forgiven gives me confidence to face the day. To know that my sins are not held against me gives me confidence to know. In fact, the bible says in the book of Hebrews that we come boldly33:17 into the throne of grace to find mercy and to receive grace to help us in our time of need. Listen, you don't come to God with your head down and bowed and saying, I'm just so terrible. In33:29 fact, some of you, that's how you treat yourself all the time, and you need to stop. This is what you do. Christians, I'm talking to Christians. You talk about yourself like this. I'm a loser. I'm terrible. I'm a33:38 failure. I'm no good. God can't possibly love me. I don't know what I'm doing. I can't I can't fix look. Yeah. I get that. That's the start. But then you come to Jesus. You set your eyes on him, and he freely forgives33:49 you and washes you, and he makes you a child of the most high God. Now you say about yourself, I'm a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ. I'm born again by the Holy34:01 Spirit. God is for me, not against me. These are promises from the scriptures, kids. These are promises from the scriptures, people, that God loves you with an everlasting love and he never leaves you and he never34:12 forsakes you and that should bring courage and confidence to your life. Number 4, God's word has has an effect when there's celebration in your life. You're you're happy. You walk out of here, you're34:24 rejoicing. As it says in verse 11, do not be grieved. And the people went their way, verse 12, to eat drinks and portions and to make great rejoicing because they heard God's word. Listen. Write this down so I know34:36 you're getting it. When you wallow in sorrow, you let sin win. When you sit there and you beat yourself up, beat yourself down, you let your sin you let sin have its way. There's no 1 who doesn't34:48 fail. There's no 1 who doesn't sin, but there's no 1 who is too far gone from the grace of God. Where sin increased, Paul says, grace increases35:00 all the more. So this is why the psalmist said, I rejoice at your word, Psalm 1 19, like 1 who finds great soil. Let me spoil. Let me finish off with number 4. A church that changes people's lives empowers them to35:12 reach the next or a new level in life. A new level. What level are you at? God wants to level you up. How? Through his word. Through his word. There are skills35:24 that you can develop. Personal skills, relational skills, I believe even industrial school skills that you can have supercharged and develop through obedience to God's word. There are35:35 ways to deal with your children that could be supercharged through knowing God's word. Ways to deal or not deal. Don't wanna say this. But to relate to your spouse that will35:46 supercharge your way forward in God's word. Like, look, it's some of you that your marriage is like, you're just at each other, hating each other,35:58 wondering why do we ever get married. And many of us have all been there, and that's just the enemy coming in and sin's nature doing its thing and rearing its ugly head. And look, you can either wrestle with it in your36:09 own strength, or you can come to the word of God and ask him, help me to do what I can't. Amen. Empower me to love them the way that they should be loved.36:21 And help me how about this 1? To see them the way that God sees them. Level up. So the Bible says in, chapter 8,36:33 on the second day, the heads of the father's houses of the people with the priests and Levites came together to Ezra the scribe in order to what? Study. Circle the word study. To study the words of the law. I love this36:44 because they took their engagement with God's word from hearing it. I've heard it. Now I'm gonna read it on my own, and I'm gonna study it. And it says the heads of the father's houses. Would to God that every36:56 man of every house at Waters Church, you men would be a studier of God's word and lead your family and your children.37:08 And then in verse 14, it says, and they found in the law of the Lord that there was this festival. It's called the feast of booths and that Israel should dwell in those booths during the feast of the seventh month. And37:18 they should proclaim it and publish it in all their towns and tell people, go out to the hills and bring branches and olives and myrtle and palm and other leafy trees and make booths. So what this is talking37:30 about is Israel, ancient Israel had 3, what we call pilgrimage feasts. Pilgrimage meaning that they would travel from wherever they were in Israel, would travel to Jerusalem and they would celebrate together 3 times a37:41 year. Passover, Pentecost, and booths. Passover, Pentecost, and booths. And at the feast of booths, it was basically like a nationwide camp camp camping trip. Nationwide camping trip. Everybody would set up a little37:52 tent, live in the tent for a week, and just kinda like hang out with God and with each other. Could be kinda cool to do that. And, here's what it says though in the text, verse 8 verse 16. So the people went out and38:04 brought them and made booths for themselves. Where did they make them? Each on his what? Now this is what the Lord gave me in this moment. They just went to another level. They went to the roof. I want I want38:16 your faith to go through the roof in your home. How about that? Wherever you are, that God would bring you to a better,38:27 higher place. Because here's what I experience on a regular basis being a very frequent flyer. I drive into the city or through the city to get to the airport. And whenShow more
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