Skip to content The Good Shepherd - I AM, Part 5 Mar 15 · 47 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're listening to Waters Church podcast, where faith meets real life. Where 1 church, many locations, and 1 mission, to see lives changed by Jesus. No matter where you're listening from, you0:12 are a part of Waters Church family. Now let's dive into today's message from our pastor.0:20 Take out your notes. They look like this. I wanna talk to you on the subject of I am the good shepherd. Somebody say, ba. Yes. See how easy it was for you to do that? We're gonna talk about this0:32 in just a moment. We're gonna go to John's gospel. We've already gone there, actually, but we're gonna stay there, and, we will be back with oh, boy. Look at this cheat code on. We've gotta delete this. There we go.0:42 Okay. Oh, that that was whoosh. Okay. Here we go. John chapter 10. I wanna talk to you about a couple of animals that maybe you've never heard of. 1 is called Bobby the wonder dog. This is0:54 a picture of Bobby the wonder dog. In 19 23, Bobby was brought on vacation with his family from Oregon. They traveled 2000 miles away to Indiana. Why anybody would go to1:06 Indiana for vacation is beyond me, but they did. And they went and they brought their dog, and stray dogs chased Bobby down an alley, and he was gone. And they searched all vacation long. Where's1:18 Bobby? Couldn't find Bobby. They thought Bobby's gone, dead. Maybe somebody got him, killed him, took him, stole him. Who knows? So the family left Indiana, traveled 2000 miles back to their home in Oregon, and they1:29 thought time to get a new dog. Well, guess what? 6 months later, Bobby arrived back home in Oregon. Traveled 2000 miles through rivers1:41 and valleys and mountains and, roads and trains and avoided all the dangers. Came back, paws worn down, matted hair1:52 disheveled dirty. Bobby was home. This hit the newspapers, an enormous story of hope and wonder, the navigational compass of a dog to2:04 find his way back home 2000 miles away. Unbelievable. They actually did a silent movie in Bobby's honor called the Call of the West. This happened back in 192:16 23. Bobby the wonder dog. Maybe you never heard of Bobby the wonder dog. How about Holly the cat? Holly the cat2:27 was raised by a family in West Palm Beach, Florida. They went 200 miles north to Daytona Beach for vacation, brought their cat.2:40 Don't know why you would bring your cat on vacation, but they did. Don't know why you would have a cat, but they did.2:53 Well, same thing happened. Holly the cat got lost on vacation. They searched and searched, could not find her. They figured she's gone. That's the end. And after all, she's just a cat.3:07 I'm not making friends today. So they went back home to West Palm Beach, Florida, 200 miles south. They thought that's the end of Holly the cat. 2 months later, Holly the cat navigated through her internal compass,3:19 her homing, whatever biological device that God has implanted in her, and she came home to her family. Again, paws, worn down, matted, tired, disheveled, hadn't3:30 eaten for weeks. She found her way back home. What a beautiful story. Yeah? Beautiful story of hope to be a dog and to know how to get home, to be a cat and know how to get3:42 home. Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you that you are not dogs and cats. That the number 1 animal in scripture that God uses to refer to you3:54 is sheep. Somebody say, bye. See? So easy. You just did something absolutely foolish, and all I had to do was ask. And some of you are4:06 saying, I'm not a I'm not a sheep. It's March fifteenth, isn't it? March fifteenth, 6 years ago this week.4:19 They said, stay home to help us slow the spread. And America, a land built on freedom,4:32 on individuality, on my rights, said, meh. They said, well, actually, gonna be longer than4:44 2 weeks. It's gonna be a couple of months. And we all said, meh. And then they said, oh, and by the way, don't go out into the sun, stay home. You can go to the you can go to Target. You can go to Walmart. You can go to4:55 liquor store. Don't go to church. And the country said and then they said, oh, and by the way, now you need to wear a mask. And we all said and they said, actually, 2 masks.5:08 7 masks. Why not? And and then take the jab even though it will or will not stop transmission. Ouch.5:20 And and and take another 1 and take another 1. And still today, there are people still taking the job. People are People are sheep.5:33 And that should have told you everything that you need to know about the fact that we need a shepherd. It's not a question of if you will follow, it's a question of5:44 who you will follow. Psalm 95 says, for the Lord's people, that we are the sheep of his hand. Psalm 100 verse 3 says, we are the sheep of5:56 his pasture. Many years ago, 19 70, a shepherd, a literal shepherd, wrote a book about Psalm 23. Psalm 23, for those of you who knew the Bible, this is where we get, the lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.6:09 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. Yeah? We like that? Well, an actual shepherd wrote a book about that. This is a shepherd from the Middle East. His name was6:20 Philip Keller. Became an international bestseller, still out in publication to this day. We actually went through that book as a church, I think about 7 years ago. And the facts about sheep6:32 that he talks about in that book are kind of hilarious. Number 1, sheep, they get frightened very easily. They get frightened very easily. And6:44 1 sound can send a whole herd of sheep galloping over a cliff to their death. Sheep can also get really sucked in to roaring waters. Some some sheep will drift6:56 to the wrong water source, and they'll find a river that's got flowing streams, and the splashes of the water as they sink their head down to drink will splash up over their wool and weigh down their head, and before7:07 they know it, they're sucked into the water, and down the river they go. That's you when you doomscroll on your phone. That's what it is right there. You've just gotten sucked into anybody know what I'm talking7:18 about? Sheep can get cast. Cast means that they roll into this soft little, you know, inset in the pasture, and they end up upside down, and7:30 they just kick and because they can't they can't swing themselves back. They can get back on their back, and before you know it, they're stuck there. And if they don't have a shepherd, they'll just starve to death or be7:42 eaten by wild animals. This is what god this is the animal that god has chosen to refer to you. Don't you feel good about yourself?7:54 And there are 2 sheep facts that I wanna share from you for with you, and I want you to write these down because this is pertinent to our discussion about Jesus from Philip Keller's a shepherd looks at Psalm 23. Write8:04 this down. Number 1, sheep wander off frequently. They are prone to wander. We have a hymn in the church. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the8:16 God I love. If you know what that is about, just give me a good amen. Amen. This is what we do. We are sheep. Number 2, sheep cannot find their way back. When they wander, they're lost. This is8:27 why Jesus is the good shepherd. He says, I I'm the 1 who leaves the 99 to go after the 1 who was lost. And when he said that, everybody who was listening, knowing what sheep were all about, said, yeah, I feel that. I8:39 know exactly what you're talking about. My sheep wander off constantly. I have to go look for them because they cannot, unlike Bobby the wonder dog and Holly the cat, they cannot find their way home, and neither can you.8:52 Which brings me to the big idea today. Write this down. I need a shepherd. I need a shepherd. By the way, God has been seeking us out9:04 from the moment sin entered the world. Genesis chapter 3, pretty dark chapter. They listened to the devil, the serpent. They followed the serpent into sin. The woman eats, hands it to that9:15 man. The man eats. God comes looking. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. Hey. Avoiding God is as old9:27 as the Garden of Eden. And the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? Hey. Quick question. Did God know where they were?9:39 Why the question? For our sake. So that we never get our frame of reference wrong about who God is. God is the 1 who seeks us out.9:52 He's asking someone here or someone at all of our locations, where are you? Where have you been? I've been looking for you. Isn't that good?10:05 Then there's chapter after chapter in the bible, story after story in the scriptures that God has been sending shepherds as a picture of himself throughout all of redemptive10:17 history. Abraham was a shepherd. Isaac, his son, a shepherd. Jacob, a shepherd. Joseph, a shepherd. When they go to the land of Egypt, Joseph has to ask for pastures because all of his10:29 family are shepherds. They get sucked into the worldliness of Egypt, 400 years of enslavement, a picture of us lost in the world. And God decides to deliver his people,10:41 Israel, out of Egypt. And who does he send? A guy named Moses. But he doesn't send Moses from the palace of pharaoh. Though he was born into the palace of pharaoh or or adopted into the palace of pharaoh,10:53 god doesn't send pharaoh Moses to go and get Israel out. No. No. No. God has to exile Moses to the backside of the wilderness. For 40 years, he's in the11:04 wilderness. And the scripture says in Exodus 3 that he was keeping the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro. For 40 years, he had learned to be what? A And11:17 after 40 years, God says, school's out. Now you're gonna go and shepherd my people through the same wilderness where you've been keeping the flocks of your father-in-law.11:29 Notice the terms. Moses keeps the flocks of his father-in-law for 40 years to train him to guide the flock of his heavenly11:41 father for 40 years. Fast forward to the time of the monarchy when Israel says, we want a king, even though God was their king. We want a king like all the other kings around all the other nations around11:53 us. God relents. God says, okay. Choose yourself a king. And they see Saul, tall Saul, handsome Saul, ruddy Saul. They say, behold the king, and they they follow Saul, but Saul12:05 is a selfish king. He's a ideological king. He's a man he's a man after his own heart, and he abuses the people, and he12:16 uses his authority to push them down and to harass them. And the scripture says that God rejected Saul as king, and he sought out a man to lead his people, a man after his12:28 own heart. God sends the prophet Samuel to Jesse's house. Says, your son's gonna be the next king. Jesse says, that's fantastic. Here's my oldest. God says, not him. Here's my second oldest. Not him.12:40 Third oldest, 7 sons paraded before the prophet Samuel. Jesse gives them all an opportunity, and God says to Samuel, those aren't the ones. Samuel says, is there another son? What does it say? Jesse12:52 says, they're still the youngest, but he's out with the sheep in the pasture. Go out and get them. That's the 1 the Lord has anointed to be shepherd over the13:04 people of Israel. Are you following a trend here? And not only is David a shepherd, but the prophets of old Amos. Amos chapter 1 introduces himself, 1 of the prophets, the prophet13:16 that Martin Luther King quoted in the I have a dream speech. He was among the shepherds of Tekoa. And most notably, 2 great prophets of the old testament, Ezekiel and Jeremiah,13:28 castigate the leaders of Israel. You see, a nation is defined by its leaders, and the people of Israel are a case point of bad leadership. They're a case study in13:39 terrible, arrogant leadership. And 1 of the terms that God uses to refer to leaders of a nation is shepherds. And Israel was so corrupt because of their leaders, he sent prophets13:51 named Ezekiel and Jeremiah to call out the shepherds of his people. 1 of the great chapters in the Bible, Exodus I mean, Ezekiel chapter 34, when God says, ah, shepherds of14:03 Israel who have been feeding yourselves, Should you not flee feed the sheep, the weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed. And God says,14:15 for thus says the Lord, verse 11, I myself will come down and search out for my sheep. I will seek them out. In verse 23, I will set up over them 1 shepherd,14:27 David, my servant, and he shall feed them. Now when Ezekiel writes those words, David's been dead for 400 years. What does this mean? It means there's gonna be a true son of David who will arise on the scene14:38 someday. And all Israel has put their hopes in this. Who will be the son of David who will become the true shepherd of the sheep? And 2000 years later 2000 years ago or 800 years after Ezekiel,14:50 Jesus shows up in a pasture field in Israel in John chapter 10 and says, I am the good shepherd. I'm the fulfillment of those promises.15:02 I've come down to do what your leaders, what your religious system has failed to do, feed and care for God's sheep.15:14 Now I I I don't know why you're here today, but I I am here to tell you 2 things. Number 1, you're a sheep, and number 2, you need a shepherd. And I'm a I'm a sheepdog. That's all I am. I mean, I know I'm a pastor, and15:25 the term is shepherd in the scriptures, but he's the true shepherd. Can I get a good amen? All I'm here is to that's why I'm so loud sometimes. I'm just barking because15:37 I'm just trying to keep you away from the wolves and point you to the shepherd. Jesus says in John chapter 10, he who does not enter by the door but comes another way, that man is a thief and a15:49 robber. And then look look what he says in verse 12. There's a hired hand that's not a shepherd, and he does not own the sheep, and he sees the wolf coming. Can I tell you, Waters Church, in 2016:00 26, the wolves are coming? Oh, you might not wanna hear this, but the wolves are already here. And our leaders have abandoned their responsibility16:12 over this country. They have welcomed the wolves into the doors. And the reason why is because they don't they don't they don't have a conscience before God. It's already16:24 here. New York City is a test case for the rest of the country. I am flabbergasted that we were attacked by radical Islam in 2001, and 25 years16:36 later, we've got Islamic prayers being held in the mayor's office of New York City. Oh, some of you don't want me to talk about this, but we need to talk about this. You need to see what's happening. You16:48 need to see how it's been propagated upon you. We've had 4 presidents since 2001. 4 presidents have bent 3 of them have bent over backwards to accommodate the radical16:59 demonic ideology of Islam in the name of tolerance and understanding. And we are gonna tolerate ourselves into oblivion if we don't wake up. And there's 1 president who's willing17:11 to take the shots and call it out, and our nation decides to call him the racist and the xenophobe. Wake up to what's happening because this is coming now. By the way, the silence of the separation17:23 of church and state people is astounding. I thought that we had a problem when religion got into the halls of power. But Mamdani is in New York City17:35 having religious prayers, Islamic prayers in the mayor's office, celebrating Ramadan, broadcasting it on social media, and the whole world is clapping for this. And it's time for us to17:46 wake up to the reality that the problem was never the separation of church and state. The problem was Christianity because Christianity is the truth, and Jesus is the 1 who threatens the powerful people on this planet.18:01 It's always been about Christianity. Don't you understand? It's always been about Christianity. Because Jesus says men love darkness rather than the light. And I'm just18:12 amazed. Where are all the angry atheists? Where are you frauds? Where are they? Seriously. I know they're probably not here. They're in congress. They're they're in congress.18:24 They're where where'd they go? All all these bold, brave atheists. Oh, we are for the separation of religion. Religion has no place in the public square. Absolute18:36 silence because they're on the same side. It's a spiritual battle that's happening, friend. Don't be deceived. The18:48 same devil who wants people to not believe in God is happy to get the people to believe in the false God. And unlike the Catholic church, I'm here to tell you, we do not worship the19:00 same God as the Muslims. Not in any way, shape, or form. We worship the true God. The 1 God who sent his son Jesus,19:12 God the son, to die for us on a cross, and he rose again on the third day, and in a couple weeks, we're gonna get into this house, and we're gonna celebrate the fact that he's still alive, and he rules and reigns over19:23 the whole earth. Now listen, I'm fired up today because I'm concerned about the wolves and I'm concerned about the sheep, and now is not the time. Let me just say, now is not the19:35 time to kinda be casual about your faith. It's coming now, and the true sheep under the true shepherd will19:47 stand. But the ones under the hirelings that flee and let the wolf snatch the sheep and scatter them, we need to call these people out. Jesus is19:58 the good shepherd who stands between us and the enemy. And I wanna give you 4 things the shepherd does, the good shepherd does. Write this down. Number 1, Jesus sacrifices himself for me. He20:10 sacrifices. He's he he just got done in John chapter 10 verse 10 saying, I'm the door. And remember I talked about this, that out in the open open20:21 countryside, a shepherd would guide his sheep through the pasture, let them feed all day, and at night find them a place to sleep in the enclosed area. It looks like a cave with a with a20:33 stone wall around it, but an opening, no gate. So the the function of the shepherd was to get all the sheep in the pen, and then he would lay down at the gate. He would become the functional door. This is a picture of20:44 what Jesus has done for you. He puts you in the house of God, and then he stands between you and the forces of hell that are coming after you. I got good news for somebody who feels like hell is coming after them. Hell20:55 might be coming after you. It's not gonna get to you. Not not if we have the good shepherd. He either he's a liar or he or we trust him and know that he stands at the door, and he is protecting21:07 you from the forces of evil that are coming for you. And some parents, you need to understand this. Your your children, the devil's coming for them. You've got to partner with your good shepherd and stand at the21:19 door and say, not in this house. Not coming after my kid. My kids are his kids. By the way, Jesus is the son of David appropriately because he's the 1 who wasn't afraid of the21:31 enemy. He went after the enemy to save the sheep. When David is interviewed by Saul about his qualifications for fighting Goliath in first Samuel chapter 17, what does he say? Your servant has kept the sheep for his21:42 father. It's a picture of Christ. Your servant has kept the sheep for his father. And when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him. I struck him. Oh, I'm so glad that we've got a savior21:54 who's gonna go after the lions. I got a savior who's gonna go after the wolves. I got a savior who's gonna go after the bears, and he's gonna defeat my enemy for me. Come on, somebody. And I22:06 rescued them from their mouth, and I killed them. 2000 years ago, Jesus killed the power of Satan over your life, and you are free in Jesus' name. And Jesus says, for this reason, verse 17,22:19 he keeps repeating this phrase over and over again in this chapter. For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No 1 takes it from me. Hey. Get a hold of this. The22:30 Romans did not take Jesus' life. They were just the means by which he offered his life. On the cross, Jesus was in complete22:42 control. The sovereignty of God was on display as the religious powers of Israel and the political civil powers of22:53 Rome cooperated together to crucify the Lord Jesus, but the entire event was under the sovereign control of God. And the Lord Jesus who23:05 said, at any moment, I could call on my father and he would send 12 legions of angels and rescue me. I have laid down my life willingly. No 1 takes it. I lay it down on my own23:17 accord. I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it again. This charge I received from my father. He gave himself for you. Your biggest problem23:29 is not the people in your life, it's the spiritual powers against your life. And if you do not have the Lord Jesus as your good shepherd, you are susceptible to the lies and the23:41 deceptions of the enemy. But the moment you come into the flock of God, he stands at the door, and he becomes the shield. The the he he becomes the stalwart defense for your for23:53 your heart. Some of you are anxious and worried, and you're stressed, and you're waking up in the middle of the night, and I've got I've got something for you you need to hear. You've got to connect with your shepherd24:05 when you're stressed. Stress should be a tell. It should be a sign. It should it should send up a red flag in your brain. You need to draw close to Jesus here. That's what it's for.24:18 That's what it's for. To remind you, he's he's got control over what seems to be controlling you. And if he's willing to die for you, there's nothing he won't give to you.24:30 Number 2, Jesus seeks intimate relationship with me. Intimate relationship is his desire for his church, for his flock, for you. There's a difference between knowing about someone and knowing24:42 someone. Let me take you to verse 14 in our text today. I am the good shepherd I know. Circle word circle the word know. I know my own, and my own know24:54 me. And notice the comparison here. Just as the father knows me and I know the father. Hey. Jesus and the father,25:05 pretty close. No. No. No. Like, seriously close. They have an intimacy. This is the intimacy that Jesus wants to have with you. Now now married people might know25:17 this a little bit more. There is an intimacy that occurs, and it really it only occurs through 2 things, time and proximity.25:29 I knew things about my wife before I married her. Like, I knew she was beautiful, and I knew what she looked like, and I knew she was in church, and I knew, you know, her height, so to25:41 speak, and her weight, or I had an estimate, and so on and so forth. I knew her hair color, her eye color. But having been close to her for 27 years now, there's25:53 an intimacy. I can I can read her mind sometimes? Sometimes. Most times, I I'm off, but sometimes.26:05 I can how many married people you know? You know that you can have a fight without anybody hearing either of you say a word.26:16 It's just shifts of the eyebrows and shifts of the eyes, and there's, oh, I did something wrong. Maybe I need to stop. Dial it back. Dial it back. You know what I'm talking about?26:29 My wife and I there's a game on Netflix. Forget the movies on Netflix. There's games on Netflix. And I wanna encourage you if you have a Netflix subscription to do this. Play the Pictionary game with your family. Really26:41 fun. We did this the other night. Our whole family was there. We were playing Pictionary, and there was a really fun moment where it was me and Cheryl against the kids. And it was funny because oh, I got a whiteboard. I26:52 can demonstrate this. And, you know, it was my turn, and I would just be like she'd be, clown, and it was right. And the kids were like, what? How do you27:04 what's going on? And she would do the same thing back to me. And it was like, you know why? Because that's called what is that called? That's called intimacy. Let me ask you. Do you know about God, or do you know God?27:17 To the effect that you know God, you will not stress about everything outside of him. That there's an intimacy that God wants that is more important than religion.27:29 Hosea chapter 6, the prophet calls out the false empty religious practices of Israel. Though they were religious on the outside, their hearts were far27:41 from God on the inside. And, man, that might be American Christianity right there. All kinds of religion, but no knowledge of God. In Hosea chapter 6 verse 6, God says,27:53 I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice. I want you to know me rather than to offer me all kinds of offerings. Like, religious practice is great so long as it's rooted28:05 in love for God. Jesus actually describes eternal life in chapter 17 of John verse 3. He says, this is eternal life that they might know you. What is eternal life? Going to heaven? No. It's28:17 knowing the father now. Knowing Christ now. I know the Lord. And because I know him, everything else around me starts to make sense, falls into place.28:29 Empty religion can't do it. In fact, Paul the apostle, probably no more religious person on the planet than Paul, or who was called Saul, named for the first king of Israel. And he under and he unpacks28:41 his religious resume in Philippians chapter 3, I was a Pharisee of Pharisees, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, sacrificed on eighth day As to the law, perfect in righteousness, legalistic, persecuted the church. I mean,28:53 I was as religious as they get. And then he says in verse 8, but I count everything a loss to compare it compared to the surpassing worth of what? Knowing Christ29:04 Jesus, my Lord. There is an opening of the heart that occurs when you truly know the Lord. And when you truly know the Lord, nothing else in the world is as important29:16 as knowing the Lord. And if you know what I'm talking about, just say amen. Amen. There's a there's a there's a transaction that happens in your there's a transformation that hap internally, and nothing is29:28 as important as that. He surpasses what Paul says. He surpasses every other knowledge in my life.29:40 Daniel, powerful man of God. Well, he prophesies for the last 6 chapters of his book. And in 1 of the chapters, verse 11, he talks about this world leader that comes on the scene, and he's gonna deceive, and he's gonna29:52 flatter, and he's gonna seduce the world. By the way, this would happen about 200 years after Daniel with a guy named Antiochus Epiphanes, this Greek leader that imposed Greek30:04 worship on the Jews at around 170, hundred and 80 BC. Most of the Jews fell for it. Daniel prophesied, but those who know their God shall stand30:16 firm and take action. What what's gonna preserve the world I'm sorry. What's gonna preserve the church in the last day of the30:28 antichrist? Those who know their god. Friends, what I just said, this is not the time to be lackadaisical about your relationship to30:39 God. This is not the time to have a cursory relationship with church. This is not the time to go when you feel like it. Go when30:51 nothing else is going on. Gotta let's get to church. What are you talk you're already handing your life over to the enemy who's come the wolves are coming. Now is the time to get as close to the savior, as close to the31:03 shepherd as you possibly can, and to grow deeper in your knowledge of him so that you can stand firm and you can take action when the whole world loses its mind.31:15 So that when they tell you again, just stay home for a couple weeks, you don't say, bah, you say baloney. Jesus says in verse31:27 27, my sheep know my voice. They hear my voice. I know them. The fact that you're here today is a sign already that God has been drawing you through his voice back to31:38 himself, which brings me to number 3. Jesus draws others into the fold with me. Let's take a look at how Jesus pivots in verse31:50 16 of this chapter, and this is very important. He says, and I have other sheep that are not of this fold. What's that fold? Israel. I have other sheep32:02 that are not of this fold. And notice the phrase, I must bring them also. Hear the heart of the shepherd who came after32:13 you, the Gentiles. I'm sure there's some Jews here as well, but the Gentiles today. You were not in covenant relationship with God as32:25 Old Testament unpacked. You were an outsider. You were a stranger. You were an alien, and Jesus had his eyes on you way back in John chapter 10. And he says, and they will listen to my voice, and there will be, look32:37 at this line, 1 flock, 1 shepherd, 1 flock. Okay. Let's talk about a political hot button right now, political hot potato,32:49 that not many of you are gonna resonate with this, but some of you are gonna need this. What is the church's relationship to Israel? Big topic right now, especially for the conservative commentators.33:01 So I wanna draw the lines, and I wanna show you how both sides are wrong. Because we don't go with political commentators, we go with scripture. So over here on the far right is a guy by the name of Ted33:13 Cruz who thinks that, basically, the bible comes down to 1 thing, bless Israel. This is called blind allegiance to the nation state of Israel. They can do no wrong.33:25 We support them no matter what, and what they say goes. It's wrong. I'm gonna tell you why it's wrong. Because the bay the greatest critic in33:37 history of the nation state of Israel is God himself. All the prophets of the Old Testament, John the Baptist, prophet of the New Testament last prophet of the Old Testament, really, and33:49 Jesus Christ, all were critics of the nation state of Israel. Now don't get me wrong. The nation state of Israel is far34:01 better than the Islamic regimes that surround them. So I can get on board with supporting them because they hold to a lot of what this book is about. But I've been to Israel, and I can tell34:12 you firsthand that there's 1 thing that the Jews do not like, and that is evangelical Christians. I hate to tell you. We can love them all we want, but they don't like us. Now, on the34:24 other side of the political spectrum is a guy by the name of Tucker Carlson, who is propagating something called the replacement theory, that the church has replaced34:36 Israel. And so all the promises to Israel are null and void to the nation state, and they only apply to the spiritual church, which is now true Israel. And I wanna tell you something else about that. That's also34:48 wrong. The scripture's very clear. It's very simple. You don't go to what commentators say. You go to what scripture says. In Romans chapter 11, Paul says, I ask then,35:00 has God rejected his people? His people here are Israel. By no means. For I am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. In other words, there's still a35:11 faithful remnant of Israel in the world. Now scripture paints this picture for us again and again and again so that we get it. Abraham had how35:23 many sons? 2. He had 2 sons. The first 1 born by fleshly means named Ishmael. By the way, the Muslims believe they come from him as the chosen son. The second son born of the35:35 promise to Sarah named Isaac. 1 is the son of covenantal promise. By the power of the spirit, the other is the son of the flesh. And the son of the flesh35:47 hated the son of the spirit. Got it? Isaac has 2 sons. Their names are Esau and Jacob. And Jacob35:59 becomes the son of the promise, and Esau, the son of the flesh, who sells his birthright for a bowl of stew. That's how fleshly oriented he was. And God rejects Esau and chooses Jacob, the younger son. And in that36:11 family, there is a true son and a false son. Got it? Joseph has how many sons? 12 sons. And in that family, there's 1 faithful son named Joseph, and the36:23 11 hate on Joseph and sell him into slavery. And down the corridors of history is this testimony that God has in Israel faithful sons36:35 and rejected sons. In fact, Paul references that here in chapter 11. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Verse 2, do you not know what scripture says of Elijah?36:47 How he appeared, how he appeals to God against Israel. Lord, they have killed your prophets. Who killed their prophets? Israel killed the prophets unto them. They've demolished your altars. Who demolished their altars?36:58 Israel. And I alone am left, and they seek my life. But God says what? I have kept 7000 men who have not bowed the knee. I've got faithful sons in the house of Israel.37:09 And down the quarters of time, how was the church first established? Jesus calls Jewish men to follow him. Hands them the grains to the church.37:21 You have now the keys of of of of the door. You're you're you're gonna bind and loose, and whatever you bind shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you lose, loose on earth. Authority is given to Peter, Jewish men who37:32 established a church. And who attacks them? Jewish nonbelievers. For the first 10 chapters of of Acts, it's the Jews attacking believing Jews. And down37:44 the corridors of human history, there's always been a true spiritual son of Israel and false nonbelieving sons of Israel. Got it? So what happens?37:56 What does that how does that apply to us? Paul tells us in Romans chapter 11 verse 11. He says, so I ask that they stumble in order that they might fall by no means, rather their trespass38:08 through their trespasses come salvation to the Gentiles as to make Israel jealous. And then he goes on down in verse 17. But if some of the branches, branches of Israel, were broken off, why?38:20 Because of unbelief. And you, although a wild olive shoot and how many how many know you were a little bit wilder than the rest of us? Come on. You were a wild olive shoot. You were38:32 grafted in. You were what? Graft you were that means you were joined to what already existed. Are you hearing this? You38:44 didn't replace anything. You didn't replace it, nor did you join blindly a political discourse in Tel Aviv. You were grafted38:55 in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the and who is the root? Jesus. In fact, the bible says, check39:07 this verse out, in Revelation Revelation chapter 22 verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root39:19 and descendant of David. How can he be the root of David and the descendant of David? Because he is God the son, who notShow more
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