It Was A Good Fight (Larry Brey)

0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:03.760 You didn't just buy a ticket. You such something in 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.480 motion just by being here tonight. Some of you bought 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:09.440 somebody else a ticket tonight, and it's going to change 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:13.319 their life to know that God loves them and has 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.319 not forsaken them, and He is for you and not 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:37.320 against you. Hey, my name's Larry Bribe, but everybody calls 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.120 me LB, one of the pastors here at Elevation, and 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:42.080 I get the joy of opening up God's word with 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:44.839 you today here at Elevation Show. So welcome all of 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:50.720 our locations online. Family. My wife and I were one 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:52.959 of the original families that helped start this church over 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:55.680 sixteen years ago, and it's been the biggest joy of 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:58.000 our life to see what God has done through this ministry. 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:00.200 And I just want to show you just a little bit, 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:02.800 just a visual. It's really good to look back and 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:06.120 remember God's faithfulness because in a moment you're like, well, God, 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.080 what are you gonna do? Just look back. What he 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:09.720 did in your past is probably what He's gonna do 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:12.880 in your future. He's been good to you, and we 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:15.920 have so many new people here at Elevation, and I 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:17.760 just want to give you just a glimpse of maybe 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:19.600 some of the things that you might know about that 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:21.520 that God established in their past. So here at Valentine, 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:23.160 I'm gonna get everybody on the floor to help me. 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.720 Everybody else stays standing. All the locations stay standing by 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:31.280 everybody on the floor here, just take a seat. Elevation 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:33.720 began with eight families selling their homes and quitting their 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:36.720 jobs back in two thousand and five. My wife and 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:38.560 I were one of those original eight families. Just to 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:40.720 give you a point of reference, have the front row 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:44.400 stand up here, stand out and then one, two, three, four, five, 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:48.000 six you six stand up so right there. So February 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:52.320 tap on the shoulder. There you go. February two thousand 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.400 and five. This is the size of Elevation Church. Do 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:57.800 not despise the day of small beginnings. Look how good 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:06.360 our God is. A year later, a year later February 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:08.320 of two thousand and six, February fifth, we'd have our 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:12.240 very first worship experience at Elevation Church. Center section. It's 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.480 one hundred and twenty people stand up just the center 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:16.839 section right here now. We had one hundred and twenty 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:18.440 one that day, So jj I need you to stand 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.960 up as well. This was our very first church service 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:25.320 at Elevation Church. Look what God did one hundred and 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:32.560 twenty one people. So when I tell you we had 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:36.200 sixteen people, now we've got twenty physical locations at Elevation Church. 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:38.600 Isn't that crazy what God has done? When I show 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:40.800 you that one hundred and twenty one that first Sunday. 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.799 Now every weekend we have one hundred and forty nine 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:47.160 different countries logging into watch one of our worship services. 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:54.880 Isn't that amazing? Now? Take take the wide shot Balantine. 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.440 Everybody stand up on the floor. Now take the watch 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:00.720 up so everybody, what you see on the screens, this 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:04.119 represents the number of people that had been baptized this 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:09.800 year at Elevation Church. One thousand, five hundred and sixty 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:12.799 seven people. Come on once, you praise God for that. 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:22.080 That's amazing. Look at his son sixteen years. Maybe God's 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.120 been very good to our ministry. But also we wouldn't 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:27.360 be here today. We're not for our pastors, Pastor Stephen, 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:35.760 Pastor Holly Ferdick. And I've been following Pastor Stephen for 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:38.760 twenty years. I figured it out. I've listened to about 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:42.320 twenty five hundred different sermons or teachings. Or preachings over 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:45.120 that twenty years from Pastor Stephen, and he is annointed 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:47.800 on the stage here. There's not a better preacher on 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.560 the planet. He is a general in the army of God, 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:56.520 and he is speaking into this world. It's amazing. But 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:58.800 twenty years ago, when I was first getting to know him, 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:00.800 when my brother passed away from cancer, he was the 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.760 first one that called me. When I was getting ordained. 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:05.960 He was the one that came alongside me, put his 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:07.880 arm around and said, I see God's hand on your life. 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:11.680 When my wife and I went through miscarriage, he was 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:13.880 the first one that called and said, you're gonna be okay. 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.000 My dad passed away a couple of years ago, called 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:21.320 me every day just to check in on me. As 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:23.400 good as a preacher as he is, he's an even 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:27.159 better pastor. You're in a good house. You're in a 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:31.159 good place. Would you help me? Thank Pastor Stephen and Holly. 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:41.480 We love you, we honor you. I'm gonna give you 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:43.719 one versus scripture and then I'll let you sit down. 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:45.200 This is our verse for the day, and I pray 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.440 that God would use it in a mighty way. Two 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:52.080 Timothy Chapter four, Verse seven, it says I have fought 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:57.320 the good fight. I have finished the race. I have 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:03.000 kept the faith. The title for today's sermon it was, 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.320 it was, it was a good fight. Look at your neighbor. 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:09.200 Put your dukes up, say it was a good fight. 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:12.640 You could put some boxing gloves in the chat. You 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:15.600 guys can have a seat after you have threatened to 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:19.080 hurt somebody with violence. Thank you, Worship team. I love 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.279 a good fight. I'm a big MMA fan, you know 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.400 McGregor Diaz. I loved it one and two. I'm praying 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.440 for a trilogy. I would love the my generation. The 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:30.719 greatest boxing match of all time is hol of Field. 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:33.640 Evander Holafield and Mike Tyson won not two with the 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:37.560 ear thing. That wasn't so good. The best fight my 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:39.600 wife and I had, it was amazing. It was at 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:43.919 our one year anniversary. We'll celebrate twenty two years this year. Yeah, 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.599 my girl. At our one year anniversary, I made dinner, 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:50.599 I had music on. I am trying to score up 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:55.400 mortal merital points for marital blessings, and at dinner, I said, baby, 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:58.560 in a word, how would you describe our first year marriage? 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:03.200 She said, like flowers? It was like beautiful and before 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:04.719 I tell you and I said, please don't judge me. 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:08.200 I was young, I didn't know what I was doing. 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:10.360 Jane said, well how about you, how would you describe 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:14.680 it in a word? I said hard, Like she was 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:18.120 all being married to me is hard. I'm like, yeah, no, no, no, 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:21.080 that's not what I've meant. That was a good fight. 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:25.760 But when we read this text, I have fought the 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:27.880 good fight, I have finished the race. I've kept the faith. 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:30.920 It's really important that you understand the context in which 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:32.800 that's written. Whenever you study the Word of God, to 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:35.520 always study it in context. It's one thing of a 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:37.159 sixteen year old looks at you when you're in a 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.640 really difficult season, and that sixteen year old looks at 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.680 you and says, I know it's hard, but stand strong, 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.479 you can do it. You're gonna make it okay. It's 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:46.920 like my sixteen year old comes home and says, it 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.800 was a really hard day, work day. I'm like, yeah, yeah, 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.800 it was really real hard. Now, when a sixty one 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:58.360 year old looks at you, who's a military veteran who 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.800 spent time in prison of war camp, who's got all 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:06.159 the scars, looks at you, and says, I know it's hard, 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:12.040 but stand strong. You can do it. You're gonna make it. 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:14.280 Cares a little bit of weight there, doesn't it. So 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:16.640 as we read these words out of Tewod Timothy, we 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:18.360 need to understand the person who wrote it is a 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:21.720 guy named Paul. Paul is a super possible. He wrote 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:24.080 thirteen books of the New Testament. It's funny. In the 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:26.400 New Testament there's twenty seven books. All the other people 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:28.960 who wrote books in the New Testament, the names of 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:32.640 the books are written by the person who wrote them. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.240 you know first and second Peter, but Paul's. They're all 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.240 identified by who'd receive them. Otherwise we'd be reading thirteenth 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.720 Paul today. He wrote that many books of the Bible. 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.040 And when he writes this book of the Bible, you 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:46.920 need to understand context is who wrote it, who'd they 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:48.520 write it to? And then why did they write it? 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.280 Paul writes this to Timothy as protege he'd left in 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:57.400 charge of ephesis. Paul is in prison, and prison is 0:07:57.440 --> 0:07:59.520 actually an understatement. He's in a dungeon at this point. 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:01.480 If you go to Rome, you could actually see the 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.000 place that's a hole in the ground that's sunken down there, 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:06.360 and it's a dungeon. That's where he's last spent the 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:08.960 last days of his life. So as he pens this 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.320 letter to his protege Timothy, he writes two books to him, 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:14.680 first Timothy, second to me. Second to me is the 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.320 last book he writes. And as he writes it, and 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:21.239 he writes these words, I have fought the good fight. 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:24.520 I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:28.800 He knows he's going to die. These are his last words, 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:32.280 and he writes his last letter to his favorite person. 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:34.000 And if you and I were at the end of 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:35.880 our life and we are coming to the last words 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.120 we would speak, who would we speak them to? What 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.720 would we tell them? There's something in the text that 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.440 speaks to us about the fight that you're facing today. 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:48.840 Because Paul wasn't just admonishing Timothy. He's speaking to us 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.439 in this moment today, and he's telling it was a 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.280 good fight. And Paul knew the difference between a good 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.640 fight and a bad fight. As he writes the Book 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:59.559 of Philippians, he writes that one in prison that's more 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:01.319 like an air. It wasn't a Dungeon. That was a 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.160 really nice place to be in prison. He writes that one, 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.880 and people are talking trash about him, and they're saying, well, 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:09.800 look at Paul. He's not annoying it. If he were, 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.800 he wouldn't be in prison. But they're preaching the right gospel. 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:16.160 Paul said, that's a bad fight. He said, false motives 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.280 are not in the gospels preached. I rejoice. I ain't 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.760 gonna fight that fight. But chapter three of Philippians, there's 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:23.960 some people that are judaizers that are telling all the 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:28.239 new Christians, hey, yes, follow Jesus, plus also get circumcised. 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.439 Paul comes on glooe. He calls them those evildoers, those mutilators, 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:35.560 those dogs. He says, that's a good fight. So we 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:37.800 need to understand the difference between in a good fight 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.040 and a bad fight, because if you don't know how 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.319 to differentiate, you fight everything, and some of you are 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:46.480 fighting everything, and you're fighting battles that God has never 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.600 told you to fight. So when he pens this letter 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:52.880 to Timothy, he says these words and Tewod Timothy two 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.240 twenty two. It's my probably one of my favorite verses. 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:59.439 Tewod Timothy two twenty two two two two two, He says, 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.200 flea the lustful desires of your youth. Some of you 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.600 are fighting the battle by continuing to go to your phone, 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.720 and you're getting defeated every time. And God is saying, 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:10.560 how about you just throw that thing away? Don't even 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.360 fight that one, stay away from that fight any worth it? 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:16.040 He then he says in verse twenty three, he says, 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:20.120 have nothing to do with foolish or stupid arguments, for 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:22.840 you know they lead to nothing but quarrels. Some of 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:25.280 you that needs to be your screensaver, some of you 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:27.480 that needs to be put on your computer. And the 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:29.400 next time you want to go to Facebook and you 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:31.160 want to post that because you know you're waiting for 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.120 a fight, and you know you're about to get into 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.520 an argument, May the word of God convict you? Bad fight? 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:41.839 Bad say bad fight? Why would you keep fighting that one? 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:43.559 So I love the way that Paula sets this up. 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:46.120 But the fight he's talking about here isn't people. It's 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:50.920 the fight of faith, because he says, I have kept 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:55.040 the faith, and the word he uses their fights fought 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:59.360 is It's in the original language. It says agonisomy. It's 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:04.160 not in the time restaurant Ago nees O Mine. There 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.240 was a TV show in the eighties, the ABC Wide 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.040 World of Sports. They would talk about the thrill of 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.680 victory and the agony. That's where we get a word 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.800 agony from Paul is giving you a lesson from the 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.120 battle he's facing that it's gonna have agony connected with it. 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:22.960 And this wasn't just something Paul realized at the end 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.520 of his life as he's sitting in a dungeon. It 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.480 was something he knew what happened him thirty years earlier 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.840 when he started following Jesus. It wasn't he got to 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:33.839 the destination like, oh, I'm glad I kept the faith. 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.200 He said, no, No, there is a race from the 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:38.839 moment he came to a relationship with Jesus and he said, 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.240 this is the race. It is to testify. It is 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.880 about faith in Jesus. That's the race. That's the fight. 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:48.600 It's the fight of faith. In fact, in Acts chapter twenty, 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.080 Paul says this. In verses twenty two to twenty four, 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.640 he says, and now, compelled by the spirit, I'm going 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.439 to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:02.079 I only know than in every city. The Holy Spirit 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.720 warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:09.600 I consider my life worth nothing compared nothing to me. 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:11.960 My only aim is to finish the race and complete 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:15.600 the task the Lord Jesus has given me the task 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:20.840 of testifying to the good news of God's grace. You See, 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.839 a good fight does not need a good result, because 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:26.520 what he says there is I'm going to Jerusalem. I 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:28.439 don't know what's gonna happen to me there. It might 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:30.440 be good, it might be bad. But he goes, I 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.120 know what's gonna happen. I'm gonna face prison and hardships 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:36.480 in persecution along the way. So when Paul writes to Timothy, goes, 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:40.240 everybody who follows Jesus is going to suffer persecution. It's 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.960 going to happen. See, a good fight is about the 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:48.000 good news, because he says there the task of testifying 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.840 to the good news of God's grace. A good fight 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.480 is always connected to the good news. It's not about 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.640 a good outcome. But it begs us to ask the question, 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.520 what is your faith in? Is it in the good 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.959 news or is it in a good outcome? Because when 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:07.800 we start throwing around the word I got faith. Really, really, 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:09.800 what's your faith in? I got faith and my vikings 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:11.480 are gonna win the Super Bowl this year. I got 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:13.120 faith my knee is going to feel better, and I 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:15.040 got faith that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:20.720 Praise God, Heaven. And we we cheapen the word faith 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:26.679 by connecting it to infeariorr things. That's why I love Jesus, 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.200 he says. If anyone would follow me, he says, he 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.199 will hate his father and mother. He's not saying you'll 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:34.920 literally hate them. What he is saying, when you compare 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:36.680 the love you have for me, it will make everything 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:40.240 else look like hatred. May we make faith a top 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:45.080 shelf issue? Would you become so legalistic in your own 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.319 life that you would, really you would only let faith 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.520 be connected to Jesus Christ and the good news, not 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:55.240 a good outcome. Is my faith that God is with 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:56.680 me in the middle of it? Or is my faith 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.760 that I'll eventually get out of it? See? A good 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:01.920 is all about faith. What do you have faith in? 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:03.920 Let me ask it to you this way. If you 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:05.719 want to know what your faith is, look what you're 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:10.400 fighting for. If your faith is in your reputation, your 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.920 Lawy's been fighting for how you look. If your faith 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:16.280 is in your career, you'll fight by cutting corners to 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:20.360 get ahead. If your faith is in the political party, 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:24.920 well that's not good. Don't do that one. But what 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:27.360 I think Paul does, and I want to categorize there's 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:28.800 three fights I think that we can learn from the 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:30.920 life of Paul that I want to give you today 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.880 that are good fights. Say, good fight, You're going to 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.200 fight something in life. I want the Holy Spirit to 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.600 give you discernment. Is this a good fight? And so 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.480 the first fight is this is how you see Jesus. 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:46.720 Here's the fight is how can you go through a 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:48.840 bad situation and cling to the promise that God is 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:53.000 a good God. How can you go through something bad 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.240 and believe that He is still good? That's the fight 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:58.120 of faith. And some of you would get the gold 0:14:58.120 --> 0:14:59.760 star and a sticker because you've been to Bible camp. 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:05.080 Yay Jesus, you know. But is he a historical figure? 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:08.440 Is he a fairy tale? Is he a fictional character? 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:09.840 Is he a prophet? Is he a princh? Or is 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:11.840 he a savior? And Lord, I don't know. That's for 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:16.440 you to decide, how do you see Jesus. Here's the thing. 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:19.520 We were created in his image. In Bigo day he 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.800 made the male and female. He created us in his image. 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.000 But will shape God into the image of who we 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:30.840 think he should be? When you think about how you 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:34.640 see God? Does who God is shape the way you 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:38.040 see the world? Or does your experience with the world 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.640 shape how you see God? Because I'm talking about the lens. 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.400 This is the lens of faith. Here is Christ my lens. 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:47.560 That everything I see I see it through that lens. 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:49.600 Or is this the world? Then now I start to 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:51.080 put it on in Well, God, I guess you're not 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:53.960 good because this bad thing happened. That's the faith. That's 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.000 the fight of faith that's happening right now in your life. 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.280 And it's very insidious. You don't even know what's happening. 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:01.920 Because the word agonizoma I wasn't Paul talking about his 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:06.400 bad knees. It was the agony it was. But agonizem 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:12.120 I also suggests an antagonist, an adversary, an accuser that 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:14.840 wants to keep you from faith in God, because you 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.840 really don't have Rocky unless you got Ivan Drago, you 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.720 really don't have Rocky the hero unless you got somebody 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:25.280 who's a villain. And in the opening act of humanity, 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:28.240 the stage is set, Adam and Eve are in the 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:32.800 garden and the serpent steps into the scene. Question, can 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:34.800 you tell when the serpent steps into the scene of 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:41.840 your life? Are you aware when the advocate, the adversary, 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.960 the accuser steps into the scene of your life? And 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:47.640 this is the crazy part, because if you can't spot it, 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:52.440 you're setting yourself up to follow his script. Why didn't 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.920 Eve spot this serpent stepping into the scene Because God 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.960 created a bunch of snakes, and so if snake comes 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:03.440 along that he's crafty. We often think that he's like, uh, 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.359 he's shown up with a pitchfork and horns. No, he 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.760 doesn't show in up like that. He doesn't come in 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.480 kicking things over. He comes in asking questions, and he's 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.200 stepping into the scene of the story, and he's blending 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:17.399 in with the background of everything else. So before we 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.280 impugne the character of Eve, we need to realize we're 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:27.480 having conversations with snakes all the time, and he's crafty. 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:30.480 He's blending in because the Bible says and he's like 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:33.880 a roaring lion, raw it's easy to spot. Iful lion 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:43.080 rolls in. Sometimes the enemy the accuser, Hey, babe, hey, 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:45.840 that's how Sometimes they enter the scene of your life. 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:48.640 Sometimes it's it's just a dm that says what you're doing, 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:55.520 because they don't come in kicking stuff over. They come 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:59.680 in asking questions. Because if you can't spot the devils 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:01.840 step into your scene, there's a good chance you'll start 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:06.359 operating according to his script. Because he steps in and 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.320 he asks a question, did God really say? All he's 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:12.879 trying to do is to get a conversation going, and 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:14.920 what he's trying to do is to control the script. 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:19.600 He's trying to control the narrative. Did God really say, Oh, 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.720 come on, Eve, you won't certainly die. It goes from 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:26.160 asking a question to making a statement you won't die. 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.600 Then it goes down into making an indictment. All sin 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:31.720 casts a shadow of doubt on the character of God, 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:35.639 because what the enemy is trying to do is to 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:39.800 start at a very subtle shade of doubt that just 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:45.480 slowly gets you creeping into compromising your view of God. 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:50.240 And then you eat the apple. Can you identify with 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:54.600 the devil sneaking in and say, did God really say, oh, 0:18:54.600 --> 0:19:00.399 come on, she's nice. Oh it's not that bad. No 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:05.520 one will ever know everybody else is doing it. And 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:10.199 then when you do it, you dirty dog. We see 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:14.440 the script of the Evil One. Can you identify where 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:18.080 the devil has stepped into the scene and he's tried 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:21.119 to get you to operate according to his script. But 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:25.439 what Eve failed to do. Jesus redeemed because as he 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:28.720 is out in the desert forty days of fasting, the 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.200 Evil One comes to him. He slithers into the scene 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:34.320 and he comes up to Jesus, who is hungry. He says, hey, 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:37.120 if you really got turn those rocks into bread, because 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:40.800 I know you're hungry, And Jesus says, it is written, 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:43.600 man does not live by bread alone, but every word 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:45.720 that comes from the mouth of God. Then he tempts 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:47.879 him again, if you really got to step off, and 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:49.960 he goes, no, no, it is written, don't put the 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:52.520 Lord your God to the tests. And it refuses him 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.840 each time, not by having a conversation, but by speaking truth. 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:01.040 That's the difference. So when Paul he writes to Timothy, 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.199 he says this to him earlier and two Timothy he 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:06.680 says to me, he says Timothy. How you have known 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.240 the scriptures from infancy, which you are able to make 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:14.840 you wise for salvation through faith in Christ. Jesus, he 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:18.000 says to him. He says, all scripture is God breathed, 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:24.320 profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. All 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:26.680 scripture is God breathed. So when God wanted to make man, 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:28.840 he took dirt and he he breathed into it. When 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:30.199 he wanted to make the Word, he took it and 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.359 he he breathed into it. And this is different than 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:35.400 every other book you read, every other book you read. 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:37.240 This is the only book that reads you. It is 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:43.119 the living word of God. And he tells Timothy, Timothy, 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:46.600 I need your life immersed in this because when persecution 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:49.120 comes and the devil comes along, he's going to try 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.320 to get you operating according to his script or you 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:59.280 can operate according to the scriptures. So yes, it's easy 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:00.879 to get the gold star. Say yeah, I know who 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:07.879 Jesus is. It is written this persecution is relentless. It 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:10.119 is the seas on the shore of your life, the 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:12.679 relentless attack of the evil one who's always beating against 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.639 your boat, trying to sink you, but you can anchor 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:17.879 yourself in the word of God. Say no, it is 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:24.040 written all scripture is God Breathe profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:26.639 and training in righteousness. And that's what God wants to 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:34.439 do today. Did God really say? Because when persecution comes, 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.480 it's your faith that will sustain you. Because whatever your 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:41.679 faith is in, that's what you'll be fighting for. And 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.800 God will use persecution to refine your faith, or the 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:47.600 animal will use that same persecution to get you to 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:52.679 forfeit your faith. Persecution is not optional. The great pugilist 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:55.320 and theologian Mike Tyson said, everybody's got a plan until 0:21:55.320 --> 0:22:01.080 they get punched in the mouth. Fight number two is 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:06.680 how Jesus sees you. How Jesus sees you. The first 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:10.320 fight is how you see Jesus now. The second one 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:12.359 is how Jesus sees you. And I want to rewind 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:13.840 a little bit to Paul, and I want to show 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:18.160 you the first time he suffers persecution as he's following Jesus, 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:20.640 because he had this radical encounter some thirty years earlier. 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:24.720 And I want to rewind to that his first missionary 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.879 trip in actually chapter fourteen and In actual chapter fourteen, 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:30.679 he's going on his very first missionary trip, and you're 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:32.960 about to read it about the very first miracle that 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:35.480 ever happens through the ministry of Paul. There's a lot 0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:37.240 of firsts there, and some of you know what it's 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:38.920 like to be first, first in your family to come 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:41.480 to faith, or first to graduate high school. It's always 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.440 hard being first, isn't it, Because you come up against resistance, 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:46.680 and some of us quit because the resistance was more 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:48.440 than what we thought. And what I want to see 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:50.800 you is Paul have a perseverance to push through, because 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:52.359 if he doesn't push through, he doesn't get to the 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:54.040 end of the race. And I'm telling you, there's the 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:55.879 race that God has marked out for you, and he 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:58.840 wants you to run it. But the adversary is trying 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:04.080 to stop you from that race. So Paul starts on 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:07.120 his very first of four missionary trips. In actual chapter 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:08.879 fourteen he can read about. He goes to Antioch and 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:10.840 he gets kicked out because they're preaching Jesus. They don't 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:13.199 like him. Then they go to Iconium. They kick him 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:15.359 out there because he's preaching Jesus there. So he shows 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:18.320 up in ash fourteen, Verse eight says in Leestra, there 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:21.159 said a man who was lame, who had been that 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:23.080 way from birth, and he had never walked. He listened 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:25.720 to Paul as he was speaking, and Paul looked directly 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:28.000 at him and saw that he had the faith to 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:31.240 be healed, and he called up, stand up on your feet. 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:35.040 At this the man jumped up and he began to walk. 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:38.280 That's the first miracle through Paul's ministry. When the crowd 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:40.600 saw that Paul of what Paul had done, they shouted 0:23:40.600 --> 0:23:43.560 into the Laconian language, the gods have come down to 0:23:43.720 --> 0:23:47.600 us in human form. Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:50.600 they called Hermes because he was the chief spreaker. The speaker, 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:53.760 the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, 0:23:53.840 --> 0:23:56.240 brought bulls and reason the city gates because he and 0:23:56.280 --> 0:23:59.400 the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. You see, 0:23:59.880 --> 0:24:03.360 the people in Lystra had an image of what they 0:24:03.400 --> 0:24:08.400 thought God was, So when Paul and Barnabas show up, 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:11.119 they look at them through their lens of who they 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:14.359 think God is, and they try to form the God 0:24:14.480 --> 0:24:17.960 into what their image of them was. We do that 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:21.360 all the time. It's so insidious. We do that everything 0:24:21.640 --> 0:24:23.800 God doesn't do that. People don't know who they think 0:24:23.840 --> 0:24:26.040 they are. We will always use our definition of what 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:28.080 we think is right to conform everybody else into the 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:32.080 image of it. We were created in his image, not 0:24:32.200 --> 0:24:35.440 to conform him into our image, and that's what they're 0:24:35.440 --> 0:24:37.480 trying to do in this point. So how does Paul 0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:40.840 respond to this? Is funny, he says. But when Paul 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:44.080 and Barnabas heard this, heard this, they tore their clothes 0:24:44.119 --> 0:24:46.200 and they rushed out to the crowd, shouting, friends, why 0:24:46.240 --> 0:24:49.040 are you doing this? We two are only humans like you. 0:24:49.080 --> 0:24:55.879 We're bringing you good news. This whole fight that Paul 0:24:55.920 --> 0:24:58.560 has been running for thirty years. Before we get to Tewod, 0:24:58.600 --> 0:25:02.280 Timothy is all about the good news. Everywhere he went 0:25:02.359 --> 0:25:05.199 it was spreading the good news. A good fight is 0:25:05.200 --> 0:25:08.800 always connected to the good news. That was funny. This 0:25:08.880 --> 0:25:11.960 crowd flips really quickly on Paul. If you jumped down 0:25:11.960 --> 0:25:15.359 to verse nineteen. Then some Jews came from Antioch and 0:25:15.560 --> 0:25:19.240 Iconium and they won the crowd over. Remember the towns 0:25:19.280 --> 0:25:20.760 he just came out of, and they kicked him out. 0:25:20.920 --> 0:25:23.800 They showed up on the scene and they stoned Paul 0:25:24.560 --> 0:25:26.640 and dragged him outside the city thinking he was dead. 0:25:27.320 --> 0:25:29.760 And that's not the modern recreational version of stoning. This 0:25:29.800 --> 0:25:33.879 is Old Testament version of stoning. This is where they 0:25:33.960 --> 0:25:37.719 drag him outside the city, and stoning in that point 0:25:38.040 --> 0:25:40.600 it really served two purposes. They take him outside the 0:25:40.600 --> 0:25:42.840 city because you are stirring up and you're trying to 0:25:42.840 --> 0:25:44.679 create a God that's different than our God, and we 0:25:44.720 --> 0:25:46.159 don't like that. We want to conform you to the 0:25:46.200 --> 0:25:47.840 image of what we think God's supposed to be. So 0:25:47.880 --> 0:25:49.920 they drag him outside the city. And now they start 0:25:50.000 --> 0:25:54.119 grabbing rocks and they start throwing out at him, and 0:25:54.160 --> 0:25:55.760 the rocks are meant to kill him, but then this 0:25:55.880 --> 0:25:58.160 also meant to bury him. There's two purposes in those rocks. 0:25:58.760 --> 0:26:00.240 You want to get him outside the city because you 0:26:00.240 --> 0:26:01.640 don't want to file the city by having a dead 0:26:01.680 --> 0:26:03.879 body in the city, so you'd take him outside the city. 0:26:04.040 --> 0:26:06.440 And now they start throwing rocks at him. And imagine 0:26:06.480 --> 0:26:10.359 Paul getting hid by every one of these rocks. And 0:26:10.400 --> 0:26:12.800 I wonder if he had a thought, but God, I'm 0:26:12.800 --> 0:26:16.080 serving you. God, you told me. They're like, I'm gonna 0:26:16.080 --> 0:26:17.960 spread the good news. Why is this happening to me? 0:26:18.160 --> 0:26:20.679 I'm a good person. Why is this all happening? And 0:26:20.720 --> 0:26:22.320 we all know what it's like to have things thrown 0:26:22.320 --> 0:26:24.400 at us that we feel like should never have been thrown. 0:26:24.560 --> 0:26:27.400 And Paul, imagine the weight of the stones that are 0:26:27.440 --> 0:26:30.400 now starting to lay on top of him, on top 0:26:30.440 --> 0:26:32.800 of him, on top of him. And I wonder if 0:26:32.800 --> 0:26:38.159 at any point the devil snuck onto the scene said hey, Paul, 0:26:39.200 --> 0:26:44.560 where's your God? Now Paul gets a choice there, he 0:26:44.600 --> 0:26:45.920 gets his choice to say, how am I going to 0:26:45.960 --> 0:26:50.439 respond in this situation. That's the first time Paul is stoned. 0:26:50.440 --> 0:26:52.359 In the scriptures, he would beaten, he would be flawed, 0:26:52.359 --> 0:26:56.000 But that's the first time he faced major persecution. But 0:26:56.080 --> 0:26:57.840 it was not the first time he had an experience 0:26:57.880 --> 0:27:00.960 with stoning, because it was not the first time we 0:27:01.040 --> 0:27:04.199 read of Paul in the scriptures. The first time we 0:27:04.240 --> 0:27:09.000 read of Paul is in Acts chapter seven. And I 0:27:09.160 --> 0:27:12.240 want to show you a glimpse of Paul's past because 0:27:12.280 --> 0:27:14.639 I think as the weight of the rocks is starting 0:27:14.680 --> 0:27:17.840 to accumulate on top of Paul, I think he has 0:27:17.840 --> 0:27:22.480 a flashback and he starts to make the connection between Wow, 0:27:23.520 --> 0:27:26.960 I'm being stoned. But I remember a point that I 0:27:27.040 --> 0:27:33.280 did this to somebody else, because the devil will always 0:27:33.280 --> 0:27:38.359 try to use your past to disqualify your future. And 0:27:38.400 --> 0:27:41.080 then think Paul's having a flashback. So if we jump 0:27:41.119 --> 0:27:45.480 back to Acts chapter seven, you're gonna get a scene 0:27:45.520 --> 0:27:48.840 of a man named Stephen, because at this point, a 0:27:48.840 --> 0:27:51.879 couple of years earlier, Jesus had been crucified. He was killed, 0:27:52.000 --> 0:27:55.359 and the Jewish leaders thought, that's the end of this Christianity. Yes, 0:27:55.520 --> 0:27:59.280 we win, you're dead, let's move forward. But like a fire, 0:27:59.320 --> 0:28:01.359 they tried to stop out, and the ember started to 0:28:01.359 --> 0:28:03.879 spread other places. And now you got little fires and 0:28:03.920 --> 0:28:06.159 little fires and little fires of faith that are burning 0:28:06.320 --> 0:28:08.960 inside the walls of Jerusalem. And you got this man 0:28:09.040 --> 0:28:11.320 named Stephen that is filled with the spirit, and now 0:28:11.320 --> 0:28:14.680 he's going he is performing miracles and signs and wonders. 0:28:14.840 --> 0:28:17.080 And the religious leaders like, oh, I thought we ended 0:28:17.080 --> 0:28:21.320 this thing when we killed Jesus. So Paul, Stephen in 0:28:21.400 --> 0:28:24.480 here too, because we need to end this thing. Because again, 0:28:24.720 --> 0:28:27.600 the Jewish leaders, like the Laconian people, had an image 0:28:27.600 --> 0:28:30.960 of how they saw God. And if you don't fit 0:28:31.119 --> 0:28:35.400 my image, we will kill you because you we will 0:28:35.440 --> 0:28:38.719 either conform you, or we will break you. So Stephen 0:28:38.760 --> 0:28:42.080 gets hauled in and in verse eight of chapter six 0:28:42.120 --> 0:28:46.240 is where I want to start. Well, I'm sorry, I apologize. 0:28:47.720 --> 0:28:50.320 Chapter seven, verse fifty one, Paul is in front of 0:28:50.320 --> 0:28:52.960 the Jewish leaders, the same ones that had sentenced Jesus 0:28:52.960 --> 0:28:56.560 to death, the Sanhedrin, and he's standing in front of them, 0:28:56.600 --> 0:28:59.480 filled with the spirit, and he's about to fight, to fight. 0:28:59.640 --> 0:29:01.960 This is good news. It's not going to have a 0:29:01.960 --> 0:29:04.880 good outcome, because a good fight is connected to the 0:29:04.880 --> 0:29:08.480 good news, not a good outcome. And he says, you 0:29:08.520 --> 0:29:13.200 stiff necked people. Good way to start a conversation, easy 0:29:13.200 --> 0:29:16.840 way to win him over. Just start with that one. 0:29:17.040 --> 0:29:19.680 Your hearts and your ears are still uncircumcised, just like 0:29:19.720 --> 0:29:22.520 your ancestors. You resist the Holy Spirit. Was there ever 0:29:22.560 --> 0:29:25.680 a prophet? Your ancestors did not persecute. They even killed 0:29:25.680 --> 0:29:28.920 the predicted, those who predicted the coming of the righteous One. 0:29:28.920 --> 0:29:34.240 That's Jesus. Now you have betrayed and murdered him. You 0:29:34.280 --> 0:29:36.640 have received the law that was given through the angels, 0:29:36.640 --> 0:29:39.640 but did not obey it. Verse fifty four. When the 0:29:39.640 --> 0:29:43.560 members of this Anahedron heard this, they were furious. They 0:29:43.560 --> 0:29:46.840 gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the 0:29:46.840 --> 0:29:49.400 Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory 0:29:49.400 --> 0:29:52.800 of God in Jesus standing by the right hand of God. Look, 0:29:52.840 --> 0:29:55.440 he said, I've seen heaven opened, and the son of 0:29:55.520 --> 0:29:57.640 Man standing at the right hand of God. At this, 0:29:57.760 --> 0:29:59.680 they covered their ears and started and yelled at the 0:29:59.720 --> 0:30:02.160 top of their voices, and they washed him, dragging him 0:30:02.200 --> 0:30:05.320 outside the city. We've seen this fo heavenly dragged him 0:30:05.320 --> 0:30:08.200 outside the city, and they began to stone him. Meanwhile, 0:30:08.240 --> 0:30:11.200 some of the witnesses laid their coats at the feet 0:30:11.240 --> 0:30:15.280 of a young man named Saw. So Paul that we 0:30:15.320 --> 0:30:18.480 just read about started as Saw. And now you have 0:30:18.560 --> 0:30:22.280 these people that are stoning Stephen, that all take their 0:30:22.280 --> 0:30:24.920 coats and they take them over and they throw them 0:30:24.920 --> 0:30:29.800 at the feet of Saw. Two purposes. In taking off 0:30:29.800 --> 0:30:32.960 the coat, physically, I get much better range of motion 0:30:33.040 --> 0:30:36.560 to throw a rock. It's a big thick coat. It's 0:30:36.560 --> 0:30:38.880 a practical reason. I'm going to work up a lot 0:30:38.880 --> 0:30:40.960 of sweat here. I need to have a better range 0:30:40.960 --> 0:30:43.080 of motion so I can throw this thing at maximum velocity. 0:30:44.720 --> 0:30:46.280 So if I don't throw that a maximum velocity, I'm 0:30:46.280 --> 0:30:50.400 not gonna inflict maximum pain. So they leave their coats 0:30:51.240 --> 0:30:53.800 at the feet of Jesus. And now they started to 0:30:53.960 --> 0:30:59.480 stone Stephen, this man filled with the Holy Spirit. And 0:30:59.560 --> 0:31:05.280 picture Paul Saul standing there just watching this scene go down. 0:31:06.880 --> 0:31:12.400 He's just watching it. And now fast forwards to Paul 0:31:12.520 --> 0:31:15.640 underneath the weight of all the rocks. I wonder if 0:31:15.640 --> 0:31:19.160 he remembered that moment where he heard Steven's voice, forgive them, 0:31:19.160 --> 0:31:22.400 for they know not what they do. And I wonder 0:31:22.440 --> 0:31:24.360 if there's a moment between those things that Paul is 0:31:24.400 --> 0:31:27.560 like flashing back to go, like when he's underneath the 0:31:27.560 --> 0:31:29.920 weight of his own sin because he was being persecuted 0:31:29.960 --> 0:31:32.200 in Acts fifteen. I wonder if he's over here going 0:31:32.240 --> 0:31:36.400 I deserve it. I deserve it. I did it all. 0:31:37.000 --> 0:31:40.240 I persecuted all the speeple. But what's amazing in this 0:31:40.400 --> 0:31:45.640 story is Paul, the poster child for persecuting Christians, would 0:31:45.680 --> 0:31:48.479 be the become the one the primary voice to deliver 0:31:48.560 --> 0:31:52.880 Christianity to new people. Paul would flip from Saul the 0:31:52.920 --> 0:31:56.760 persecutor to Paul the preacher. And he was in these 0:31:56.760 --> 0:32:00.560 moments going back and put forth between these two where 0:32:00.560 --> 0:32:02.560 I started to see something. But something stuck out to 0:32:02.560 --> 0:32:05.960 me as I was reading this while they were stoning him. 0:32:06.400 --> 0:32:11.040 Verse fifty nine. Stephen prayed, and he says, and Saul 0:32:11.080 --> 0:32:14.200 approved of their killing of him. First Chapter eight, Verse 0:32:14.240 --> 0:32:17.240 one says, on that day a great persecution broke out 0:32:17.240 --> 0:32:21.000 against the Church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles 0:32:21.000 --> 0:32:26.400 were scattered throughout Judea as Samaria. So what happened on 0:32:26.440 --> 0:32:29.840 that day is the Gospel needed to go beyond the 0:32:29.880 --> 0:32:33.560 walls of Jerusalem. God had given a promise. Jesus had 0:32:33.560 --> 0:32:37.320 given a promise earlier in Acts one to eight. He says, 0:32:37.440 --> 0:32:39.880 when I leave, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, 0:32:39.920 --> 0:32:42.600 and you will receive power, and you will be my 0:32:42.640 --> 0:32:45.520 witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samri and to the ends of 0:32:45.560 --> 0:32:48.640 the earth. Up until that point of Acts chapter eight, 0:32:48.680 --> 0:32:50.840 the first seven chapters of the Book of Acts, the 0:32:50.920 --> 0:32:53.720 Christians were content to keep the Christianity inside the walls 0:32:53.720 --> 0:32:57.040 of Jerusalem, because the reality is most of us will 0:32:57.120 --> 0:32:59.320 keep it to ourselves unless something forced us to get 0:32:59.360 --> 0:33:02.120 it beyond ourselves. And so God comes along and he 0:33:02.240 --> 0:33:06.040 uses a great persecution. And one famous theologian said, persecution 0:33:06.160 --> 0:33:08.280 is the wind that God uses to scatter the seed. 0:33:10.000 --> 0:33:12.560 So in Acts eight one, it's a fulfillment of Acts 0:33:12.600 --> 0:33:15.400 one to eight. Acts one eight says you will receive 0:33:15.400 --> 0:33:17.680 power and you'll be my witnesses. For the first seven 0:33:17.760 --> 0:33:20.600 chapters they kept inside the walls of Jerusalem, Acts eight one. 0:33:20.760 --> 0:33:23.520 But now he takes it beyond the walls of Jerusalem, 0:33:23.600 --> 0:33:26.280 and he takes it to Judea and Samaria. And what 0:33:26.360 --> 0:33:29.320 I want to tell you, persecution always serves a purpose. 0:33:30.560 --> 0:33:32.600 Why did that thing happen to you? Why did you 0:33:32.680 --> 0:33:35.360 end up in that other city? I don't know, but 0:33:35.440 --> 0:33:37.240 I know that God needed to get the good news 0:33:37.240 --> 0:33:40.400 to that place over there. What happened to Stephen was 0:33:40.920 --> 0:33:46.280 not good, but what God did with it was good. 0:33:46.320 --> 0:33:49.000 He works all things for the good of those who 0:33:49.040 --> 0:33:51.880 are called according to his purposes. That's what he does. 0:33:51.960 --> 0:33:57.400 He uses all things. But when I think of Stephen 0:33:58.080 --> 0:34:01.480 being stoned, flash forward to now Paul is underneath the 0:34:01.520 --> 0:34:04.400 weight of the stones in actually chapter fifteen. Have you 0:34:04.440 --> 0:34:06.240 ever been in a space where the weight of your 0:34:06.280 --> 0:34:09.960 shame almost collapsed you, It almost killed you. Picture him 0:34:10.040 --> 0:34:12.840 underneath the weight of all these stones. Picture him lying 0:34:12.880 --> 0:34:15.120 there in just this weight on him, and he's having 0:34:15.120 --> 0:34:17.560 these flashbacks that I called Stephen to die, and I 0:34:17.600 --> 0:34:19.719 would cause many other Christians to die, and I was 0:34:19.719 --> 0:34:21.920 to post a child for persecution. And I bet he's 0:34:21.960 --> 0:34:23.880 in that place to feel like I deserve it, and 0:34:23.920 --> 0:34:26.160 I get it, and this is what I should deserve, 0:34:26.200 --> 0:34:27.640 and this is what you should have brought me God, 0:34:27.680 --> 0:34:30.360 And I did it all. And Paul had this amazing 0:34:30.400 --> 0:34:32.600 ability to take it to the bottom of something. Have 0:34:32.680 --> 0:34:34.440 you ever been in a place where you felt like 0:34:34.520 --> 0:34:37.799 you forfeited everything because of your past? He ever been 0:34:37.840 --> 0:34:39.400 in a place where the weight of something was so 0:34:39.480 --> 0:34:42.120 immense you to feel like you could get back up. 0:34:42.880 --> 0:34:44.880 That's where Paul's a what gave him the ability to 0:34:44.920 --> 0:34:47.960 do this. Paul had this ability in First Timothy, and 0:34:48.000 --> 0:34:50.279 this is where he writes to Timothy these two letters. 0:34:50.320 --> 0:34:53.440 In First Timothy, Paul had a realization of who he 0:34:53.560 --> 0:34:55.799 was in Christ, and he was able to take this 0:34:55.840 --> 0:34:57.280 thing to the bottom of it. In f one Timothy 0:34:57.280 --> 0:34:59.840 one fifteen, it says here is a trustworthy saying that 0:34:59.840 --> 0:35:03.920 the deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world 0:35:04.000 --> 0:35:08.680 to save sinners, of which I am the worst. But 0:35:08.719 --> 0:35:11.239 for this very reason I was shown mercy, so that 0:35:11.840 --> 0:35:14.680 in me the worst of sinners. Christ Jesus might display 0:35:14.680 --> 0:35:17.959 his immense patience as an example for those who would 0:35:17.960 --> 0:35:22.960 believe in him and receive eternal life. Paul has this 0:35:23.040 --> 0:35:25.759 amazing ability to say, I'm not actually a good person, 0:35:25.840 --> 0:35:29.560 I'm the worst of them all. Because here's the power 0:35:29.640 --> 0:35:33.640 of what if. The devil will always get you to 0:35:33.719 --> 0:35:36.319 live in a place to cover something of because of 0:35:36.400 --> 0:35:40.600 what if? What if they knew about you? What God 0:35:40.640 --> 0:35:44.560 knows about you? What if they were to find out 0:35:44.640 --> 0:35:47.160 that you did that? What if they were to find 0:35:47.200 --> 0:35:50.280 out that you actually said those things, did those things? 0:35:50.480 --> 0:35:53.520 And the fear of what if is paralyzing. And I 0:35:53.520 --> 0:35:55.880 think in this story I see Paul living underneath the 0:35:55.880 --> 0:35:58.760 weight of what if? What if? What if? My favorite 0:35:58.760 --> 0:36:01.759 sermon for Pastor Steven was twenty twelve. He preached a 0:36:01.760 --> 0:36:06.040 sermon called Fear's Greatest Hits and he said you always 0:36:06.080 --> 0:36:08.960 have to take it to the bottom. Paul said, I'll 0:36:08.960 --> 0:36:10.520 take it to the bottom because I'm just the worst 0:36:10.520 --> 0:36:13.600 of all sinners. Now what you've got, devil, Now what 0:36:13.680 --> 0:36:16.160 you got. Paul also would say this, He would say, 0:36:16.160 --> 0:36:19.239 I will boast about my weaknesses, for in my weaknesses 0:36:19.280 --> 0:36:21.600 he has made strong. Paul said, I'm just going to 0:36:21.640 --> 0:36:23.839 boast about it because the fear of what if is dissipated. 0:36:23.960 --> 0:36:27.000 I'm just going to bring it out here. Pastor preached 0:36:27.000 --> 0:36:30.000 a sermon he said, take it to the bottom. It's 0:36:30.040 --> 0:36:36.640 three steps. First step is what if what if that happened? 0:36:40.320 --> 0:36:42.320 What if the report came back and said it's cancer? 0:36:44.280 --> 0:36:50.760 What if you lose your job? Step two? That would 0:36:52.400 --> 0:36:56.600 that would be hard, that would be horrible. The third 0:36:56.600 --> 0:37:02.000 step that's when he preached last week. But God, but God, 0:37:02.040 --> 0:37:10.520 see but God, what if that would? But God, when 0:37:10.600 --> 0:37:13.719 we started this ministry sixteen years ago, I would have 0:37:13.800 --> 0:37:17.400 such anxiety attacks backstage that it wouldn't I wouldn't want 0:37:17.400 --> 0:37:19.799 to walk out on stage and talk like this because 0:37:19.840 --> 0:37:22.600 the weight of the rocks of your past weigh you 0:37:22.680 --> 0:37:24.080 down to the point that you feel like you don't 0:37:24.080 --> 0:37:28.080 have a future. I didn't grow up around church. Sometimes 0:37:28.080 --> 0:37:29.839 when you look at somebody in ministry, oh look at them, 0:37:29.840 --> 0:37:32.960 they got it all together. No, we don't. People say like, hey, 0:37:32.960 --> 0:37:34.960 you've got everybody's got skeletons in their closet. I got 0:37:34.960 --> 0:37:41.120 cemeteries in my closet like Everett, and so I didn't 0:37:41.120 --> 0:37:42.880 grow up around church. I grew up with a lot 0:37:42.920 --> 0:37:45.960 of alcohol and bad choices and all those things, And 0:37:46.000 --> 0:37:47.640 at five years old, I remember going to a wedding 0:37:47.719 --> 0:37:49.439 dance and pulling glasses off the top of the table 0:37:49.480 --> 0:37:51.880 and drinking them, and every thought, oh, it's really funny. 0:37:51.880 --> 0:37:54.840 Look at tipsy five year old. Oh it made me 0:37:54.880 --> 0:37:58.440 connect alcohol and laughter and people's approval. Great. So it's 0:37:58.440 --> 0:38:00.680 set a stage in life. And now I'm eleven having 0:38:00.719 --> 0:38:04.520 a keg party. I'd pay for college one red solo 0:38:04.520 --> 0:38:07.320 cup at a time, I was really good at leading 0:38:07.320 --> 0:38:11.040 people a direction. But with that lifestyle comes all the 0:38:11.080 --> 0:38:13.839 choices that come with it. And there times I'd wake 0:38:13.920 --> 0:38:15.440 up and I'd be like, I don't know where I'm at, 0:38:16.520 --> 0:38:18.799 I don't know how I got here, and I don't 0:38:18.840 --> 0:38:22.200 even know who's next to me. And the anxiety I 0:38:22.200 --> 0:38:25.480 would have is what if what if you knew about me? 0:38:25.520 --> 0:38:29.400 What God knows about me? So the anxiety attack I 0:38:29.400 --> 0:38:31.440 would have backstage for the weight of all of the 0:38:31.480 --> 0:38:33.960 shame that was saying on top of me was what 0:38:34.080 --> 0:38:37.320 if one of those women from one of those knights 0:38:37.360 --> 0:38:40.399 is sitting on the third row. And I would stay 0:38:40.440 --> 0:38:42.160 backstage and I would have a panic attackers like I 0:38:42.160 --> 0:38:45.600 can't even go out there because what if? And Pastor 0:38:45.600 --> 0:38:49.160 Stephen preaches a sermon Fear's great ast its what if, 0:38:50.440 --> 0:38:51.759 I guess I would go up and say, I'm sorry, 0:38:51.760 --> 0:38:54.600 Would you please forgive me? I've given my life to 0:38:54.640 --> 0:38:56.839 a man named Jesus, and I'd love to tell you 0:38:56.880 --> 0:39:01.680 about him. What if that would? But what if that would? 0:39:01.760 --> 0:39:05.000 But God? What if that would? But God, what if 0:39:05.000 --> 0:39:09.920 that would? But God? So at the end of the story, 0:39:10.239 --> 0:39:13.160 asks chapter fourteen, Verse twenty, and this is the verse 0:39:13.160 --> 0:39:15.440 I want to give you the story. That's the pivot 0:39:15.440 --> 0:39:19.000 point in Paul's journey. He's on this race to finish 0:39:19.080 --> 0:39:22.080 the faith, but now he gets persecuted for the very 0:39:22.120 --> 0:39:24.680 first time. And the lynchpin in the story is verse twenty. 0:39:25.000 --> 0:39:26.759 And this is the verse. I want to speak over 0:39:26.840 --> 0:39:29.320 you because some of you are living buried underneath the 0:39:29.320 --> 0:39:31.440 weight of your past. Some of you are living in 0:39:31.440 --> 0:39:33.319 this place and you're like, God, I know you don't 0:39:33.360 --> 0:39:35.560 love me. I know you don't even see me. But 0:39:35.760 --> 0:39:39.000 Paul says, in this moment, but for these things, God 0:39:39.080 --> 0:39:41.799 used me to show his grace. How does God see you? 0:39:41.840 --> 0:39:44.120 In that moment? He sees you he loves you, He 0:39:44.200 --> 0:39:46.560 forgives you. And if he can use Paul, the one 0:39:46.600 --> 0:39:49.880 who's standing giving approval for killing all of these Christians, 0:39:50.280 --> 0:39:59.440 he can use you. He could use you asks fourteen, 0:39:59.520 --> 0:40:03.200 Verse twenty. But after the disciples said, gathered around hi. 0:40:03.200 --> 0:40:05.799 Remember they left him for dead. Remember they said, you're dead, 0:40:05.840 --> 0:40:08.880 You're dead, You're dead. Verse twenty. But after the disciples 0:40:08.880 --> 0:40:11.439 said gathered around him, he got up and he went back. 0:40:11.480 --> 0:40:12.960 And that's the verse I want to speak over you 0:40:13.000 --> 0:40:15.640 today because there is a situation in your past that 0:40:15.680 --> 0:40:18.120 has left you buried. And what God is saying is 0:40:18.160 --> 0:40:20.960 to get up and go back. I needs you to 0:40:21.000 --> 0:40:23.040 go back and get your blessing. I need you to 0:40:23.080 --> 0:40:25.840 go back and see how God sees you in that moment, 0:40:26.719 --> 0:40:31.040 because Paul, I did it. How do you see me 0:40:31.160 --> 0:40:34.200 God in this moment. It's one thing if somebody does 0:40:34.239 --> 0:40:36.040 something to me for me to say, yep, God still 0:40:36.080 --> 0:40:39.759 loves me. It's totally different from me when I do 0:40:39.800 --> 0:40:42.759 it myself, and I know I did it. Now God, 0:40:42.800 --> 0:40:47.040 how do you see me now? The first fight? How 0:40:47.120 --> 0:40:51.520 you see Jesus? The second fight? How Jesus sees you? 0:40:52.640 --> 0:40:54.600 And here's the challenge. I want to give you is 0:40:54.640 --> 0:40:57.799 to go back to that place where it's buried, because 0:40:57.880 --> 0:41:02.399 the devil's script is, hey, just forget about it. It's 0:41:02.400 --> 0:41:06.080 over and done with. And every time that memory comes back, 0:41:06.120 --> 0:41:09.200 it hunts you and the fear of what if? What if? 0:41:09.520 --> 0:41:11.880 What if? And some of you are destroying your present 0:41:12.280 --> 0:41:15.319 because of the uncertainty of the past. And what I 0:41:15.360 --> 0:41:17.240 want to challenge you to do is to go back 0:41:17.880 --> 0:41:21.040 to this place and say, God, here's the fight. How 0:41:21.040 --> 0:41:26.040 did you see me? How did Paul in the moment 0:41:26.080 --> 0:41:29.080 that you are giving approval? How did Jesus seize you? 0:41:29.280 --> 0:41:31.640 He says, I'm going to use that what made me 0:41:31.680 --> 0:41:34.040 really good at at leading keg parties makes me great 0:41:34.040 --> 0:41:45.560 as a pastor. Get up and go back, Get up 0:41:46.440 --> 0:41:49.600 and go back, Get up and go back. It happened 0:41:49.640 --> 0:41:52.640 thirty years ago. Get up and go back, Get up 0:41:52.760 --> 0:41:55.000 and go back. You gotta go back and fight. This 0:41:55.080 --> 0:41:57.000 is the fight to say, I'm gonna go back. It's 0:41:57.080 --> 0:41:59.719 just enough fair and tales and unicorns and Jesus loves me. 0:42:00.480 --> 0:42:03.680 Go back to the moment that hope nobody sees, and say, God, 0:42:03.800 --> 0:42:09.719 how did you see me in this moment? Paul ends 0:42:09.719 --> 0:42:13.399 his first missionary trip, and he starts his second one 0:42:13.480 --> 0:42:18.959 in Acts chapter sixteen. What does he do? He goes 0:42:19.000 --> 0:42:22.799 back Act sixteen when Paul came to Derby and then 0:42:22.920 --> 0:42:27.720 Lestra where he met a disciple, where a disciple named 0:42:27.760 --> 0:42:33.800 Timothy lived. What's amazing about this. The place of Paul's 0:42:33.840 --> 0:42:37.080 greatest persecution would be the place of his greatest provision, 0:42:38.360 --> 0:42:41.840 His greatest resource would become the place come out of 0:42:41.840 --> 0:42:45.040 the place of his greatest pain. I am telling you 0:42:45.080 --> 0:42:47.960 there are blessings waiting for you. They're not all in 0:42:48.000 --> 0:42:50.120 the future. It is you gotta go to your past. 0:42:50.120 --> 0:42:52.160 You gotta get up, and you gotta go back and 0:42:52.200 --> 0:42:54.360 get it. Paul had to go back to Derby, He 0:42:54.400 --> 0:42:56.160 had to go back to Lestra. Anywhar when he rolls 0:42:56.160 --> 0:42:58.440 into the cities, those same people that had tried to 0:42:58.520 --> 0:43:00.799 stone him were all there. How did he walk through? 0:43:00.800 --> 0:43:02.680 I don't know if he was hiding his editor He's like, oh, so, 0:43:02.920 --> 0:43:06.279 not what you got. But he got up and he 0:43:06.360 --> 0:43:12.239 went back and he found Timothy, his greatest resource, the 0:43:12.280 --> 0:43:16.120 one he would write his last letter to that guy. 0:43:16.880 --> 0:43:19.440 And so when he writes these letters to Timothy, he 0:43:19.440 --> 0:43:22.400 had left Timothy in charge of the church in Ephesus, 0:43:22.800 --> 0:43:24.799 Paul is going to go on and continue the missionary journey. 0:43:24.880 --> 0:43:27.760 And if you're Timothy, you've been following You've been following 0:43:27.800 --> 0:43:31.600 Paul for fifteen years. You At the time we see 0:43:31.640 --> 0:43:34.799 Paul take Timothy underneath his wing, he's about sixteen years old. 0:43:35.680 --> 0:43:39.040 He's a teenager, and he's been following Paul his whole life. 0:43:39.120 --> 0:43:41.520 And in First Timothy, he's it's a letter that's all 0:43:41.560 --> 0:43:44.839 about fighting, and he writes First Timothy says, Timothy, my son, 0:43:45.320 --> 0:43:48.000 I'm giving you this command and keeping with the prophecies 0:43:48.600 --> 0:43:50.640 once made about you step by recalling to him, he 0:43:50.680 --> 0:43:54.040 may fight the battle. Well. So he starts on Timothy like, 0:43:54.200 --> 0:43:56.160 it's a fight. You gotta remember where you've been. You 0:43:56.160 --> 0:43:58.760 got to remember what you come from. It's a fight. 0:43:58.880 --> 0:44:02.000 Then in First Timothy, chapter six, he writes this, he says, 0:44:02.040 --> 0:44:04.680 fight the good fight of Faith. Chapter six is a 0:44:04.719 --> 0:44:07.920 fighting letter. It is all about fighting. What is the 0:44:07.960 --> 0:44:11.239 thing that Timothy needs to fight. It's the third fight. 0:44:11.480 --> 0:44:17.040 It's how you see you, that's the third fight, how 0:44:17.120 --> 0:44:22.000 you see you. Without being sacrilegious, it doesn't matter what 0:44:22.040 --> 0:44:26.800 God says unless you believe it. Unless you believe it 0:44:27.200 --> 0:44:30.279 the powers in the application. What was Timothy's struggle. I 0:44:30.280 --> 0:44:33.520 think Timothy's struggle was how he saw himself. One of 0:44:33.560 --> 0:44:36.760 the famous verses out of First Timothy as one Timothy 0:44:36.760 --> 0:44:39.759 four to twelve. It's this. Every youth group, every youth 0:44:39.800 --> 0:44:43.040 ministry in the world has this as their mantra. He says, 0:44:43.040 --> 0:44:45.360 do not let anyone look down on you because you're young, 0:44:45.840 --> 0:44:48.839 but set an example in believers in speech, don't let 0:44:48.920 --> 0:44:51.680 anyone look down on you because you're young. Timothy is 0:44:51.760 --> 0:44:54.520 a grown man, thirty two years old with a beard. 0:44:56.160 --> 0:44:58.960 The problem was not his chronological age, it was his 0:44:59.080 --> 0:45:05.520 identity age. It was how he saw himself. How you 0:45:05.560 --> 0:45:08.319 see yourself determines what you become. What you believe is 0:45:08.320 --> 0:45:12.000 what you become. Some of you are have such an 0:45:12.080 --> 0:45:14.839 inferior view of who God says you are. So when 0:45:14.880 --> 0:45:17.680 Paul writes two Timothy the last letter, he's gonna write 0:45:17.760 --> 0:45:20.640 his most important words, his last words, and he's going 0:45:20.680 --> 0:45:24.680 to admonish his protege, his man he found fifteen years 0:45:24.719 --> 0:45:27.479 earlier that he would follow and he'd leave in charge 0:45:27.480 --> 0:45:29.120 of the city in Ephesus. And he says, if I 0:45:29.160 --> 0:45:31.080 want to reach the city of Ephesus. I've got to 0:45:31.120 --> 0:45:34.399 reach how Timothy sees himself. If I want to reach 0:45:34.440 --> 0:45:35.960 the home, I need to reach the dad, because how 0:45:35.960 --> 0:45:38.200 the dad sees himself determine what's the home to becomes. 0:45:39.080 --> 0:45:40.839 If I want to reach a people group, I need 0:45:40.880 --> 0:45:43.120 to reach the leader. And I'm speaking to every one 0:45:43.160 --> 0:45:46.640 of you, because when you believe that about yourself, you 0:45:46.680 --> 0:45:51.880 punish the people that are following you. Stop it, Stop it, Timothy. 0:45:52.040 --> 0:45:54.919 Quit thinking small of yourself. This is the battle. How 0:45:54.960 --> 0:45:58.000 you see you. It's one thing how you see Jesus. 0:45:58.200 --> 0:46:00.279 It's another thing how Jesus sees you. But how you 0:46:00.360 --> 0:46:04.520 see you matters. And Paul gives these final words in 0:46:04.640 --> 0:46:10.719 tewod Timothy two Timothy, Chapter two, verses one, Chapter two, 0:46:10.760 --> 0:46:13.400 verse one. He says, you, then, my son, be strong. 0:46:13.440 --> 0:46:15.760 That is the grace is in you in Christ Jesus. 0:46:16.520 --> 0:46:19.399 Seven times in first and second Timothy, Paul would call 0:46:19.480 --> 0:46:23.320 him son, my true son, my spiritual son. He is 0:46:23.440 --> 0:46:26.080 validating the relationship before he ever gives him any instruction. 0:46:26.880 --> 0:46:29.279 There's something for some of you. God has given you 0:46:29.320 --> 0:46:31.319 too much experience that you're wasting and you're not being 0:46:31.320 --> 0:46:34.480 appalled to another Timothy. I'm calling on those of you 0:46:34.520 --> 0:46:36.279 that got some experience out there to put sitting on 0:46:36.320 --> 0:46:38.360 the sidelines and to start getting into the game and 0:46:38.520 --> 0:46:41.399 use the experiences of your life to bless Timothy. Every 0:46:41.400 --> 0:46:44.080 one of you need a Timothy in your life. Now, 0:46:44.120 --> 0:46:45.840 every one of you need a Paul in your life. 0:46:46.280 --> 0:46:48.040 And when you got a Paul on this side and 0:46:48.040 --> 0:46:49.879 a Timothy on this side, you've got somebody to help 0:46:49.920 --> 0:46:51.840 you get up and go back. It's hard for you 0:46:51.880 --> 0:46:53.480 to get up and go back by yourself. I need 0:46:53.520 --> 0:46:55.000 a Paul, and I need a Timothy to help me 0:46:55.040 --> 0:46:57.279 get up and go back. You, then, may my son 0:46:57.360 --> 0:47:00.880 be strong. The grace said is in you, in Christ Jesus. 0:47:00.920 --> 0:47:02.640 And what Paul is gonna give me. The next few 0:47:02.719 --> 0:47:06.240 verses is ways Paul needs to Timothy needs to see himself. 0:47:07.520 --> 0:47:11.040 Verse three, he says, join me with join me with suffering, 0:47:11.160 --> 0:47:14.000 like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving 0:47:14.040 --> 0:47:16.359 as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather 0:47:16.440 --> 0:47:20.640 tries to please as committing officer. Think of a soldier. So, Timothy, 0:47:20.760 --> 0:47:23.120 when you when you're gonna lead the church in Ephesus 0:47:23.320 --> 0:47:26.080 and you're tempted to run from the battle, lines. No, no, no. 0:47:26.120 --> 0:47:28.560 How you see yourself matters here, Timothy. And if you 0:47:28.560 --> 0:47:31.520 see yourself as a kid, as a teenager, you'll always retreat. 0:47:31.719 --> 0:47:33.600 But if you see yourself as a soldier, you'll go 0:47:33.680 --> 0:47:36.280 towards the battle lines. That's when I need you to do, Timothy. 0:47:36.440 --> 0:47:38.880 You can't see yourself as small. You're not a kid anymore. 0:47:39.840 --> 0:47:43.520 See yourself as a soldier. How do you see yourself? 0:47:44.440 --> 0:47:46.400 Draw a picture and start labeling with the real words, 0:47:46.400 --> 0:47:50.920 how you see yourself? No one serving as a soldier 0:47:50.920 --> 0:47:54.239 gets entangled in civilian affairs. Verse five. He says, similarly, 0:47:54.280 --> 0:47:57.480 anyone serving or who competes as an athlete does not 0:47:57.520 --> 0:48:00.680 receive the victor's crown except by compete eating according to 0:48:00.719 --> 0:48:03.640 the rules. And what Paul was telling link Timothy, this 0:48:03.680 --> 0:48:06.520 is not a recreational league where everybody gets a participation trophy. 0:48:08.400 --> 0:48:09.960 This is an athlete. I need to see yourself as 0:48:09.960 --> 0:48:12.399 an elite, hardworking athlete. And then the third analogy says 0:48:12.400 --> 0:48:14.920 the hardworking farmer should be the first one to receive 0:48:14.960 --> 0:48:17.560 his share of the crops. He says, I need you 0:48:17.600 --> 0:48:20.440 to see yourself as a farmer. How do you see yourself? 0:48:21.320 --> 0:48:24.879 It's just a kid as a teenager. You're a grown man. 0:48:25.480 --> 0:48:29.880 You're leading your family. How you see you matters. I 0:48:29.920 --> 0:48:32.640 remember a couple of years ago and I preached. I 0:48:32.719 --> 0:48:37.520 preached the Saturday night. This was BC before COVID, and 0:48:38.560 --> 0:48:40.279 I get done preaching on the Saturday night, I go 0:48:40.320 --> 0:48:43.000 back to my green room and I'm getting messages from 0:48:43.000 --> 0:48:46.239 around the country saying that was a good sermon. But 0:48:46.239 --> 0:48:49.560 there's only one message I wanted from Pastor Stephen that 0:48:49.640 --> 0:48:54.680 never came. I preached the Sunday morning, the nine thirty 0:48:55.280 --> 0:48:57.160 cand of be honest. I need to tell the full story. 0:48:57.480 --> 0:48:58.919 I go home Saturday night, I don't sleep the whole 0:48:58.960 --> 0:49:01.160 night because I stay up the who night reworking my sermon. 0:49:02.080 --> 0:49:05.319 So he didn't text me, so it means he hated it. 0:49:06.440 --> 0:49:11.879 So I preached nine thirty crickets nothing, preach eleven thirty nothing. 0:49:12.400 --> 0:49:14.000 By the time I got to the office Monday morning, 0:49:14.000 --> 0:49:16.440 I expect my keyfob not to work because I've been fired, 0:49:19.040 --> 0:49:22.320 and like I've been fired, like I've and it was 0:49:22.480 --> 0:49:24.160 it was so bad. In my head. I'm like, I'm 0:49:24.200 --> 0:49:26.120 such a failure, i am such an idiot, I am 0:49:26.160 --> 0:49:28.120 such a dork. I'm such I'm never gonna get this 0:49:28.160 --> 0:49:31.120 opportunity again. Finally, Pastor Stephen text me on Wednesday. He says, 0:49:31.120 --> 0:49:32.919 thank you forgiving me a gift. No one else could 0:49:32.920 --> 0:49:34.920 have given me a weekend off in more than a 0:49:34.960 --> 0:49:36.520 decad where I didn't have to preach or take care 0:49:36.520 --> 0:49:39.080 of a guest. And I just watched your sermon. You 0:49:39.080 --> 0:49:48.040 crush it. I'm proud of you. I'm like, oh God, okay, 0:49:49.320 --> 0:49:54.600 I am blank. It's called filling the blank. I failed 0:49:55.400 --> 0:50:00.720 to silence test. I am blank in that space I insecured, 0:50:00.880 --> 0:50:05.319 inserted my insecurity, my doubt, all of my past, and 0:50:05.360 --> 0:50:07.880 I put it into that space that says I am blank. 0:50:08.160 --> 0:50:10.120 What you put in that blank determines who you become. 0:50:12.160 --> 0:50:13.880 When I didn't get the message from Pastor, I'm like, 0:50:13.920 --> 0:50:16.520 I am an idiot. I am horrible. No, no no, no. 0:50:16.840 --> 0:50:19.000 I didn't know how to interpret the silence as approval. 0:50:19.040 --> 0:50:20.640 I didn't know how to interpret the silence as his 0:50:20.680 --> 0:50:24.640 greatest compliment to me. Who are you? I am blank? 0:50:25.360 --> 0:50:27.360 And the only reason I can say I am forgiven 0:50:27.440 --> 0:50:29.520 is because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. The 0:50:29.560 --> 0:50:31.279 only way that I can say I am whole is 0:50:31.320 --> 0:50:33.399 because of what Jesus did on the cross. And when 0:50:33.480 --> 0:50:35.359 Jesus was on the earth, he said, I am I 0:50:35.400 --> 0:50:37.520 am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I am 0:50:37.600 --> 0:50:40.200 the bread of life, I am the Gate. I am 0:50:40.280 --> 0:50:44.360 the good Shepherd. And so Jesus, as he comes to 0:50:44.400 --> 0:50:48.280 the earth, he establishes the greatest fight of all time. 0:50:49.400 --> 0:50:53.000 There was a gap between us and God. And the 0:50:53.000 --> 0:50:55.040 gap was so great we could have never filled it 0:50:55.080 --> 0:50:57.160 in our own action and her own behavior. Once you 0:50:57.200 --> 0:51:01.480 stand your feet of all of our locations. And the 0:51:01.520 --> 0:51:03.919 fight was this. We were separated from God because of sin. 0:51:04.840 --> 0:51:08.360 And Jesus came to the earth and he said, I 0:51:08.360 --> 0:51:11.399 will fight. I will fight for you. I will fight 0:51:11.440 --> 0:51:13.479 for your forgiveness. I will fight to make you whole. 0:51:14.520 --> 0:51:19.400 And the three fights we identified today. How you see Jesus, 0:51:19.800 --> 0:51:22.799 Who is he? To you? Who is he? Is he 0:51:22.920 --> 0:51:25.400 just the historical figure? Is he your savior? And for 0:51:25.440 --> 0:51:27.040 some of you have never trusted him as your lord 0:51:27.080 --> 0:51:30.799 and savior. You've never been forgiven of your sins, You've 0:51:30.840 --> 0:51:34.479 never been made new. The race that's marked out before 0:51:34.480 --> 0:51:39.480 you that Paul talked about begins with Jesus Christ. It's 0:51:39.520 --> 0:51:41.960 about the good news. It's about following him. As you 0:51:42.000 --> 0:51:45.640 go through life, people are always going to throw stones 0:51:45.680 --> 0:51:48.080 at you, trying to pile them on you to get 0:51:48.120 --> 0:51:53.000 you to die underneath that shame. Some of you need 0:51:53.040 --> 0:51:56.200 to get up and you need to go back, Go 0:51:56.280 --> 0:51:57.960 back to that moment, Say God, who did you say that? 0:51:58.040 --> 0:52:01.439 I was right now in the stillness of this moment, 0:52:01.440 --> 0:52:03.239 without anybody moving. Then you should buy your heads and 0:52:03.239 --> 0:52:06.239 close your eyes. And if you have never placed your 0:52:06.239 --> 0:52:07.880 faith in Jesus, this is the moment that God has 0:52:07.880 --> 0:52:11.120 set aside for you. He didn't bring you here by 0:52:11.200 --> 0:52:17.000 mistake or by accident. It's by divine appointment because there's 0:52:17.040 --> 0:52:19.720 something that He needs you to hear in this moment. 0:52:19.719 --> 0:52:22.520 It's that you're forgiven that you're his son, that you're 0:52:22.560 --> 0:52:25.759 his daughter, that he loves you even though you did that, 0:52:27.640 --> 0:52:32.359 He's got a plan for you. I need everybody saying 0:52:32.360 --> 0:52:33.960 this prayer out loud with me for the benefit of 0:52:33.960 --> 0:52:37.840 somebody who's about to begin this relationship with Jesus. I 0:52:37.880 --> 0:52:43.120 believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God who 0:52:43.160 --> 0:52:47.160 died on the cross and rose from the grave to 0:52:47.239 --> 0:52:51.240 forgive me of my sin. I give you my life, 0:52:51.640 --> 0:52:54.479 I give you my sin, I give you my shame. 0:52:55.560 --> 0:53:00.960 Forgive me, and I'll spend my life following you with 0:53:01.000 --> 0:53:02.680 your head still bouting, your eyes still close. If you 0:53:02.719 --> 0:53:05.160 just place your faith in Jesus or you're coming back 0:53:05.200 --> 0:53:07.600 to him, I'm going to count to three when I 0:53:07.640 --> 0:53:10.080 get there, without hesitation, I want you to boldly shoot 0:53:10.120 --> 0:53:14.560 your hand into the air. One, two, three, should your 0:53:14.560 --> 0:53:17.520 hand up? Come on all across our locations. Come on, 0:53:17.800 --> 0:53:23.080 there we go. Come on, suit that hand up well. 0:53:23.120 --> 0:53:25.560 If you enjoy today's podcast, there are a couple things 0:53:25.600 --> 0:53:28.879 I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, 0:53:29.200 --> 0:53:32.200 and review this podcast. You can also help us reach 0:53:32.239 --> 0:53:35.720 others by investing today at Elevation Church dot org, slash 0:53:35.880 --> 0:53:38.640 give and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation 0:53:38.760 --> 0:53:39.320 Podcast