Latest / HBCWestminster / 1.31.24 Foundations Week 3 Pastor Sam Porges

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1.31.24 Foundations Week 3 Pastor Sam Porges · HBCWestminster

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  We began two weeks ago by saying that there's a lot that you can cover within theology,
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  but at the center of theology is the character and nature of God himself.
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  And so we began by studying God's attributes, as well as his Trinitarian nature.
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  And in our last study, last week, and then what we will do for the next handful of studies,
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  is we're branching out from theology proper, right?
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  The study of God, and now we're branching into other areas of theology.
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  And so last week, can someone remind me what we studied last week?
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  Okay, so we studied the structure of the Bible.
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  How is the Bible organized, right?
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  Really good.
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  That was a big part of last week's study.
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  And then what else did we study?
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  Not only the structure of the Bible, but the nature of the Bible, right?
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  Right.
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  That the Bible is this divine and human book.
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  That we can't say it's only divine, we can't say it's only human, because it really is both.
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  And so both two weeks ago and last week, there's this phrase I've said that I want us to memorize.
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  We have to walk away from this study with this phrase, because if we don't, we are missing everything.
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  And that phrase is, theology is for doxology.
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  Theology is for doxology.
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  You and I can learn all the theology in the world.
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  We can think we have all of our theology correct.
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  And yet if our theology does not result in praise and worship of God, you and I have missed it.
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  We are not seen clearly.
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  Jesus, in the Gospels, would heal someone and then commission them to be a missionary,
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  and all that they had was their testimony, and Jesus, in that moment, seemed to think that that was enough.
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  Why?
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  Why?
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  Because they were filled with doxology.
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  Now, obviously, I think that there are some things we should learn more than just what Jesus has done for us personally,
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  theological things, but doxology is necessary.
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  Man, I think it's 2 Chronicles, the end of 2 Chronicles, or maybe 1 Chronicles,
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  it says that the eyes of God roam to and fro in the earth, and he's looking for people who worship him.
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  He's not just looking for seminarians,
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  Christians, Bible school students, those things are good, but what is he really looking for?
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  He's looking for worshipers.
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  This is the whole point in John chapter 4, Jesus at the well, right?
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  It's why he talks about worship, because it's all important.
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  And so, last week, we studied the structure and nature of the Bible,
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  and now, tonight, we're going to take a look at the story of the Bible.
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  Well, when I was growing up,
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  I don't remember speaking of the Bible very often as a story.
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  I would be told Bible stories.
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  All of us were told Bible stories.
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  But I don't remember thinking of this entire book as a story.
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  It just wasn't part of my go-to thinking as it pertains to,
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  you know, the scriptures.
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  Now, I think in my experience, it seems that there have been a lot of Christians who have felt this same way,
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  and that we don't often speak of the Bible as story.
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  And I think that this might be because maybe our culture isn't a story-telling culture,
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  or maybe because we often associate the word story with fiction,
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  or maybe even because the Bible contains so many small stories that we forget that the Bible is one big story.
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  And what we need to remember is that the Bible, as we read it, is one big story.
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  realize is that although the Bible is true, it is a story. It is a true story. It contains all
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  the elements of a story. Like what? What are some of the elements of a story? Plot. Yep. Climax.
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  What was it? Scene. Yep. Setting. Yep. History. Conflict. Yep. Characters. Right? You guys pretty
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  much got all of them. A resolution. Right? All of these elements of any good story are in the Bible.
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  Now, let me ask you this question, and I do want some answers from you, but as you consider all of
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  the smaller stories that are contained in this book, if you were going to tell someone who knew
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  nothing about the Bible the story of the Bible, what smaller stories would you include?
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  Okay. Resurrection. That's a good one. Right? Okay. Maybe what parts of history? Because that's
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  good. I'm with you on that. Creation. That's really good. That's necessary. Right? Start at
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  the beginning. The beginning of the book is important. Creation. What else? What other parts
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  would you include? Exodus. Okay. Good. The fall. I heard that. Resurrection. Yep. The cross. Yes.
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  Good. What else? Yeah. God's revelation to mankind. Certainly.
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  Right? And certainly in the scriptural story, that takes, it's the brightest in the incarnation
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  of Jesus. We're going to talk about Jesus. Right? Okay. Now, on the flip side, let me ask you this.
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  All of those stories that you just thought of, that you thought, no, I'm not going to include that,
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  why did you not include them? Okay. If someone's coming to the Bible for the first time, you're
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  not like, let's read the first nine chapters of Chronicles. You're not like, let's read the first
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  nine chapters of Chronicles. Genealogy. Like, you're not going to go there. Because it's not
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  helpful. Right? Good. So, some of the genealogy parts, right? What was it? Why not suffering?
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  Okay. Maybe that's something we get to a little bit down the line. But if you're just explaining
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  the story of the Bible, you might not talk about personal suffering. Maybe, maybe not. Conflict.
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  Would you guys include the story of Balaam and his donkey the first time you explained the Bible?
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  To somebody. Like, dude, I know the hook, line, and sinker that'll really get him into this book.
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  Talking donkey. Right? You're not going to include that. Here's my point. What these questions reveal
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  is that while the Bible contains many stories, some of them remain more vital to the Bible's
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  central storyline, while others are more peripheral. Would you agree with that?
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  Certainly. Right? What we're going to do tonight is we're going to take two progressively
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  wide looks at the Bible, and then I'm going to give you a simple tool for sharing the story of
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  the Bible with people who may not know it. And so, in your notes, the first thing we're going to do
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  is we're going to take a wider perspective. We're going to look at a wider perspective.
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  There are many ways to organize the biblical narrative, but when we zoom out of individual
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  stories within the Bible, we can imagine the big story of the Bible, like the
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  mountains. When I moved here from California eight and a half years ago, I was astounded at
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  the mountains that are here. We're from a place that has some hills, and to their shame, there
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  have been people from the Antelope Valley in California who have visited here, and they're
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  like, yeah, it's just like Palmdale. And I'm like, how dare you? How dare you? It is nothing. It's so
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  much better. Right? Because it is. Okay? There ain't 14ers out in Palmdale, California. All right?
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  Shame on them. But I was just astounded because they're just gigantic. And the one that obviously
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  catches most people's attention is Longs Peak. When you're on the front range and you're looking
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  at this, all these mountains with names and elevations, but Longs Peak stands out above
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  the rest because it is the tallest from this vantage point. When we look at the mountains
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  there are peaks and valleys. And just like within the biblical story, there are a number of
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  sections, each of which has a defining characteristic. Right? So when you look at the
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  mountains, you kind of, you layer them, right? The closest, you go a little bit further back from
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  that, there's different mountains, and then you work your way back, right? Well, within the biblical
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  story, there are these sections, and if we were to think of the smaller stories, individual
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  stories, we would think of the smaller stories, the smaller stories, the smaller stories, the
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  stories, or maybe even chapters within the Bible as episodes or even scenes within episodes. These
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  bigger sections we could call seasons, right? You guys ever watch a TV show and maybe the TV show
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  has multiple seasons? Well, this is a way in which we can think of the biblical story. And so if we
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  recognize these seasons of the biblical story and we order them correctly, it can help us take a
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  wider perspective on the biblical story. And so if we recognize these seasons of the biblical story,
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  that'll help us understand what that story is. And so I'm going to put up some of these so-called
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  seasons, 14 seasons in the biblical story. I'm not saying these 14 are right and wrong,
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  they're just 14, okay? If you guys were to order these so that you can get through the entire Bible,
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  which one would be number one? What season starts off the whole thing? Okay, good. Number one,
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  we've got creation, right? After creation, what would we have? Yep, the fall, Genesis 3. Then after
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  that, what would we have? Okay, the flood, right? Good. So this is Genesis 6, Noah, right? After the
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  flood, what comes next? Yes, the patriarch. So patriarchs, you're talking Genesis 12 to Genesis 50.
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  It's God's beginning of his,
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  his election of his people, his formation of his chosen nation through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
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  and then Joseph is the story of how they get to Egypt, right? But Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
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  those are the patriarchs. So that's the book of Genesis. And so what must come next? Exodus,
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  good. God's redemption of his people from bondage and slavery, leading them out, right? Making a
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  covenant with them. What comes after Exodus?
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  Yeah, good. Wilderness. This is the story of numbers, right? The people wandering on
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  their way to the promised land. What comes after wilderness? Promised land, yep, kind of gave
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  it away there. Promised land, yep, good. So Joshua judges the beginnings of the people of
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  God, taking the land that God has promised them and settling in it, okay? After promised land,
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  what comes next? Yes, judges. And so this is before Israel has,
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  as a government, there are these local rulers called judges, which are helping
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  free God's people from their oppressors. They fall into sin, a nation comes and oppresses them,
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  they cry out to God, God raises up a judge, and then that judge delivers them, they come back
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  into worship with God, okay? After judges, what do we have? After the, or I'm sorry, after the
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  promised land and judges comes government. And so this is where we're going to get into 1 and 2 Samuel,
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  1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. It's the story of the stabilization of the nation through a
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  centralized government. So the people want a king, so God says, okay, I'll give you a king. He raises
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  up who? Saul, right? But he's not a good king, so God anoints David, David comes in, Solomon,
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  and then 1 and 2 Chronicles is the chronicling, if you were, of the decline of the nation through
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  its wicked kings. So that's the government, and then what do we have?
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  Yes, good. So after that, we've got prophets. And so this is the big section of the second half
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  of your Old Testament, right? God, through his, we talked last week, right? Prophets, his mouthpieces,
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  speaking to his people to come back into covenant faithfulness because they have been rejecting him,
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  and he told them what would happen in Deuteronomy if they rejected his commands and disobeyed,
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  they would reap the consequences of that.
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  And they did. What Deuteronomy foretold is exactly what happened in Assyrian and Babylonian
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  captivities, right? And so the prophets foretell this, eventually they come back, but then after
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  the prophets, we have this interesting period, which is which one? Silence. This period of
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  silence where there aren't prophets for 400 years between Malachi and the coming of John the Baptist
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  and the incarnation of Jesus. A period of silence, and then that silence, and then the
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  silence is dramatically broken with good Jesus. Jesus, the telling of the story of God himself
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  taking on flesh and coming as his people's redeemer and Messiah in order to save them
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  by his own sacrifice, right? So last two are really easy. After Jesus, we have church, yep,
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  which we're studying right now in the book of Acts. It's the
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  emblem of Jesus, the gathering, ecclesia of Jesus, their beginning and how it's spread. And then we
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  end with judgment and eternity. And so again, if you follow these almost as seasons of a show,
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  you start with creation where everything is good. God is in full relationship with Adam and Eve,
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  with his creation. The world didn't arise out of conflict. It arose out of
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  conflict. It arose out of conflict. It arose out of conflict. It arose out of conflict. It arose out
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  out of peace and goodness. But then after that comes the fall where everything gets broken. But
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  God doesn't leave broken creation to itself and just say, you messed it up. I'm done. You had
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  your shot and you blew it. So I'm out because I'm holy. No, he's gracious and he's kind. And so he
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  pursues. Then we've got the flood where God says, okay, I'm going to reset this a little bit,
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  right? I'm not going to abandon it, just reset. Patriarchs all the way through the Old Testament
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  into the New Testament. We are currently in number 13.
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  So the show's not even done yet. We're in season 13 as the church, but we've been foretold
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  about what will happen at the end in season 14 with the final judgment and then eternity where
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  every person will either spend eternity with God or eternity apart from God.
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  In this story, if we were to think about the front range picture again, right? With all those
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  mountains, Long's Peak would be the climax of the end of the world. So we're in season 13,
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  the beginning of the front range, different mountains, and then boom, 14,255 feet or whatever
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  it is, right? In this story, what would the Long's Peak or the climax be? Yeah, it has to be Jesus
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  because all of these seasons are, it's like every season is just a cliffhanger. Like the guy hasn't
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  shown up yet. The Redeemer hasn't come yet, but we're waiting for it again and again and again.
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  It's not until we get to season 12 where that Redeemer,
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  shows up and then he just does things that we didn't quite expect. He saves us in ways we didn't
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  anticipate. He shocks us with his grace and his kindness and his wisdom and his humility, right?
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  But certainly season 12, Jesus would be the climax of the story. Now, this grand narrative is
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  punctuated by five covenants, five covenants. Now, I want to talk about this really quick because this
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  is an important part of the story. It's an important part of the story. It's an important part of the
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  story. It's an important part of our story. A covenant is a way in which God relates to man
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  and is specifically an unchangeable, divinely imposed legal agreement between God and man
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  that stipulates the condition, the conditions of their relationship. That's taken from Wayne
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  Grudem and systematic theology. When we think about these five covenants in the biblical story
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  that punctuate those seasons, we're going to talk about the five covenants that punctuate the
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  seasons. What are those five covenants? Okay, so that is, the Abrahamic covenant is number two
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  in our list. What would number one be? Okay, good. The Noahic covenant, right? Where God promises to
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  not judge the earth by water, not going to flood the earth again, right? And then, Liz got it, we
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  have the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 12. And do you guys remember this covenant? When Abraham
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  goes with God outside the tent and he's going to go to the tent and he's going to go to the tent and he's going to go to the tent and he's going to go to the tent.
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  And God says, look up. I will make your descendants, Abraham, who had no kids, I will make your
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  descendants as numerous as the stars. Count them. And if you can count them, then you'll be able to
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  count your descendants, right? And here we are. It's pretty cool, okay? So the Abrahamic covenant
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  is second. What would the third one be? Yes, good. Okay, the Mosaic covenant. This is in Exodus,
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  right? Where God sets up his,
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  his law with his people. And this wasn't to put the people down or to lay some heavy load on the
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  people. No, God, as a husband, really, was saying, this is how we're going to live in relationship
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  with one another. And if you do this, not only will you be blessed, the other nations are going
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  to be blessed because they're going to see you. You're at the crossroads of the earth where all
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  the nations are going to have to pass through you and they're going to see a nation of light
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  if you obey. And so this is the
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  Mosaic covenant in Exodus and Leviticus. What would the next one be?
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  Davidic covenant, right? Second Samuel chapter seven. And God promised David,
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  you will always have a descendant on the throne. I'm going to build you a house and that house
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  isn't going to be a physical house. It's going to be much better. It's going to be a house of people,
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  house of people. You're going to have a descendant on the throne. And then the last covenant,
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  what would that be? Yeah, the new covenant in Jeremiah chapter 31.
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  Man, in our young adults group, which is meeting tomorrow night, we are studying Hebrews chapter
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  eight, where the author just implores the people to remember how good they have it in Jesus by
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  comparing the new covenant with the old covenant. It's astounding. But in the new covenant in
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  Jeremiah 31, God says, listen, in these last days, I'm going to make a covenant with my people,
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  with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that was before with their
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  fathers, which they disobeyed. I'm going to make a new covenant where
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  I'm going to put my law, instead of writing it on tablets of stone, I'm going to write my law
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  on human hearts. And everyone will have a personal knowledge of me because I'm going to forgive
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  everyone of their sin. Everyone who enters into this covenant with me, he says, I will remember
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  their sin no more. So these five covenants are another way that we can think of the story and,
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  but specifically God's relationship with his people.
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  Right. And if you remember, we, uh, we said this statement last week in our story of the
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  scriptures, our study of the scriptures, we said that there's a key to understanding the
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  scriptures. If this was like a treasure chest and we want to open it to really see what's inside,
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  we need the key. And what is that key? It's Christ. It has to be right. He, he,
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  it's like he puts it in color. We see everything brand new through the lens of Jesus. Well,
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  in the same way, if we really understand, want to understand the significance of these
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  covenants, we not only need to study them in their original context and see how God interacted
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  with his people when he made them, but also we need to look at them through the lens of Jesus.
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  Since the beginning, God's relationship with humanity has included specific promises
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  and specific requirements. And sometimes God imposes those requirements on himself,
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  such as in the Abrahamic covenant. Uh, and sometimes he imposes them on his people,
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  like the Mosaic covenant.
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  But when we think about Jesus, his installment of the new covenant is the pinnacle of all of
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  the covenants. I mean, think about this, the Abrahamic covenant, there's going to be,
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  he's, God says, all nations are going to be blessed through your descendant.
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  Who is the descendant who has, who has and is blessing all nations. It is Jesus, the son of
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  Abraham. And not just the son of Abraham, but the son of Jesus. And not just the son of Abraham,
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  not only that, when we think about the Mosaic covenant and the giving of the law,
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  who is the one who perfectly followed Torah and who fulfilled the law? It's Jesus. And then the
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  Davidic covenant. I'm going to set one of your descendants on your throne forever. Who is right
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  now seated on the throne at the right hand of the father? Jesus. And then we, when we celebrate
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  communion, Jesus says, this is the new covenant in my blood.
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  He says, my body is broken for you. My blood is spilled for you. It's the fulfillment of
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  everything you've been longing for and more. And so observing again, God's relationship with
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  humankind through the covenants is just another way we can track the story of the biblical
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  narrative. And so we've taken a little bit of a wider perspective and said, okay, if we were
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  going to split this up into 14 seasons, what would that story look like? And then what would we do?
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  What would those covenants do in that story? What would their significance be? But now I want to
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  take an even wider perspective. And so we're going to zoom out even further and we're going to look
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  at the metanarrative of the Bible. What is a metanarrative? Metanarrative. I'll give you a
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  definition here. A metanarrative is an overarching narrative which sits above all the smaller ones
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  and binds them together, giving them meaning. An overarching narrative which sits above all the
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  others and binds them together and gives them meaning. The metanarrative is the story that's
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  behind or above or beyond all the others. Now I'm going to give you some examples.
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  In Star Wars, the metanarrative of Star Wars would be the Jedi versus the Sith and the promised
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  chosen one who would bring balance to the force. And so a lot of other things are happening, but
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  above all of that, there's this promise, this prophecy, this hope for the chosen one. They're
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  just ripping it straight from the Bible, George Lucas. In the Marvel movies, if you're a Marvel
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  fan, the Marvel movies that were good, because they're not anymore, but the metanarrative of
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  the Marvel movies would be the looming threat of this big evil guy,
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  Thanos, who only shows up at the very end of the movies for like a split second. But in all the
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  movies, there's this bad guy who's gaining power somewhere out there and he wants to destroy half
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  of the universe, right? And so there's a lot of things happening. It's like 20-something movies,
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  right? But at the end, in the climax, it's this bad guy versus the good guys. In the Lord of the
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  Rings, the metanarrative would be the quest to destroy the One Ring. So a lot of things happen
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  in the Lord of the Rings. And if you've watched the movies and you've seen the movie, you've seen the
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  movie, and you don't like them, you're like, I know, because they're all like four hours, right?
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  Man, it's a gift. It's a gift. But do you guys see what I'm saying? All of these smaller stories
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  are happening underneath this metanarrative. It's the story that's beyond. And so if we zoom out
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  from the seasons, from the actual stories themselves, creation, fall, flood, that whole
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  thing, if we zoom out even further from that, we see the metanarrative of the Bible displayed
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  in four major themes. Four major themes. We could think of these almost as four acts of a play.
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  Four acts of a play. And those four acts are creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.
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  Creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. These four themes encompass all of the
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  smaller stories, and they get to what God is doing in the world. They get at what God is doing
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  in the world. And so let us make no mistake, Hyland, the scriptures tell us about God.
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  He is the main character. It's not Abraham. It's not Moses. It's not Israel. It's not the church.
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  It is God. As it has been said, history is his story. History is his story. This holy, just,
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  and loving God, it says,
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  The Bible tells us what went wrong. Why, when we look out at the world, things are not
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  as they're supposed to be. The Bible tells us why the world is broken, and it tells us what God is
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  doing in response to that brokenness. From the beginning, God promised that one would come who
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  would right all the wrongs in the world and who would lead humanity back into paradise with him.
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  And after thousands of years of just whispers, whispers in the law, whispers in the kings,
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  whispers in the prophets, after thousands of years of whispers, those whispers of redemption
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  were clearly spoken in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus,
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  who was God, very God, in the flesh. Jesus was the substance of all the Old Testament shadows,
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  and by his perfect life, his sacrificial death, his powerful resurrection, and his glorious
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  ascension, Jesus accomplished redemption for God's chosen people, the Jews, and also for the
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  entire world. And so, as we look at this, we see that Jesus was the one who was the one who
• 27:48
  was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who
• 27:50
  and now, what we see for us looking backward toward the cross, but looking forward toward
• 27:57
  his return, what we see is that God is picking up these little broken pieces, and he's putting
• 28:02
  the whole thing back together. Colossians chapter 1, God is reconciling all things
• 28:06
  in heaven and on earth to himself, making peace by the blood of Jesus's cross,
• 28:13
  until one day when Christ returns in the end to make all things right. And so,
• 28:20
  this pattern, this pattern here of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, these are the big
• 28:32
  themes, the four acts of the play. This is what God is doing in the world. We're in the redemption
• 28:38
  phase, but what's so interesting about this too is that even on a micro scale, you can see these
• 28:43
  small things happening. So if you look for this pattern as you're reading the Bible, you'll be
• 28:47
  able to see it, but then on the macro level, God is doing this. And so you can see how each of these
• 28:55
  four acts of the play contain massive theological truths that we have to include in our gospel
• 29:01
  presentation if we want to be faithful to the gospel. If we want to tell someone about what
• 29:06
  the Bible says or about how to be saved, we have to tell them that there is a God.
• 29:10
  And we have to tell them that he has created the world to be in a relationship with him.
• 29:16
  He wants
• 29:16
  us to be in a relationship with him.
• 29:17
  He wants us to be in a relationship with him. He wants us to be in a relationship with him.
• 29:17
  He wants us to be in a relationship with him because he loves us. But we have fallen.
• 29:24
  And the brokenness of the world is not just, it's not, I'm born good and the environment is what
• 29:30
  corrupts me, right? The Bible doesn't paint that picture. It says, no, within every one of us,
• 29:36
  our hearts are concave. We're inclined toward ourselves. We want to look out for number one,
• 29:43
  and that manifests in either small,
• 29:46
  small, little evil ways or massive, atrocious evil ways. But all of us have hearts that are bent
• 29:55
  inward. But then in Jesus, we find redemption where now God says, the person that I want you
• 30:01
  to be, how I designed you to be, can be accomplished through Jesus and through the indwelling of my
• 30:08
  Holy Spirit. So now our hearts, instead of being inwardly bent, become open and generous, just like
• 30:15
  Jesus.
• 30:16
  And we can start living like people who actually have a king and who are actually part of a
• 30:21
  kingdom. And then one day, we're looking forward to the restoration, where it's not just that we're
• 30:26
  going to be floating in some heavenly, ethereal reality, but God is making the world itself new.
• 30:33
  Creation. I don't know what the trees are going to look like in the new heavens and the new earth,
• 30:37
  but I bet it's going to be sweet. This is what God is doing. And so if we want to
• 30:46
  be happy, we can start living like people who actually have a king and who are actually part of a
• 30:46
  kingdom. And so if we want to be faithful to telling the story, we have to include these
• 30:51
  things. And every one of us, if we are a believer, we have been given the ministry and the responsibility
• 30:58
  of storytelling, of talking about the things that we've been talking about tonight. We call that
• 31:05
  storytelling evangelism. It's the telling of the good news of Jesus. It's gospelizing. It's
• 31:12
  witnessing to the truth. And we want to ensure that we're not just telling the story, but we're
• 31:16
  that when we tell the gospel, we communicate it clearly and include all the key parts. And so to
• 31:23
  encourage you to do this, you guys who have been around here for a bit, you know this acronym,
• 31:27
  but it's the gospel acronym, where every letter of gospel stands for a word, but then there's also a
• 31:37
  longer sentence attached to it as well. Starting with G, God created us to be with him, but then
• 31:46
  O, our sins separate us from God. S, sins cannot be removed by good deeds. P, paying the price for
• 31:55
  sin, Jesus died and rose again. E, everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. And then L,
• 32:04
  life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever. Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever.
• 32:13
  When you share the gospel,
• 32:17
  I would encourage you, if you don't have a good tool for sharing the gospel, if you're looking for
• 32:21
  one, I would encourage you to use this because it's really concise. It gets the main points across.
• 32:27
  And it, I don't know, to me, it's easier to remember than maybe some others, but it's just
• 32:33
  God, our sins, paying everyone life. The people in our world are looking for answers. We're looking,
• 32:44
  like we've been talking about in Acts, we're looking for
• 32:47
  white fields that are ready for harvest. We don't necessarily know where everyone is at.
• 32:55
  We just need to be faithful to communicating the gospel clearly and accurately, to tell people that
• 33:03
  God created them to be with him, to not start with their brokenness, but to say there is a God who
• 33:08
  loves you. And then to say, but you and I are on the same, we're the same. I mean, our sins have
• 33:15
  separated us from God. And you can't separate your sin by doing the same thing. You can't separate your sin
• 33:19
  by doing good stuff. You can't. Jesus is the one who paid for our sin. He died in our place and then
• 33:26
  he rose again. And everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. Jesus is not a way. He is
• 33:33
  the way. And life with Jesus doesn't start after you die. It's not like I'm going to be a Christian
• 33:38
  and I'm really not going to do anything for God until I die. And then I'm just going to inherit
• 33:42
  this great promise. That's not what the Bible is calling us to. No, it's much bigger than that.
• 33:49
  Life with Jesus starts today. That transformation begins right now. Today is the day of salvation.
• 33:55
  Right? We just talked about this in Acts chapter 2. And so you may need to explain some of these
• 34:04
  sentences or ideas more deeply, such as what is sin or why did Jesus need to die and rise again?
• 34:09
  But I find this explanation to be an effective way to share the gospel. And I don't know about you,
• 34:18
  when it comes to not just the scriptures, but the message of the gospel that we
• 34:22
  share with other people. I want to be able to talk about the gospel for hours.
• 34:30
  I want to have contemplated it so much that when I talk about it, it's like you've punctured a hole
• 34:38
  in a water balloon. It just keeps coming out. I think about this. I'm consumed with it. I love
• 34:45
  the gospel. But also, I want to be able to present the gospel in 30 seconds. Because we don't always
• 34:50
  have multiple hours. You guys know this. We don't always have multiple hours. We don't always have
• 34:52
  multiple hours to share it. And so this can help us in 30 seconds just say, here's what the gospel
• 34:57
  is. And then if the Lord opens the door for further conversation, we can walk through that door.
• 35:03
  And I would encourage you, as you evangelize, remember what the true goal of sharing this story
• 35:10
  is. It's not to have people like, you identified as homosexual and now you don't. You identified
• 35:20
  as trans and now you don't. That is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to share the gospel.
• 35:24
  The ultimate goal is to have people see Jesus. To have them come to the Rocky Mountains and say,
• 35:31
  that mountain, Longs Peak, that's the one I want. I want to hike that because it's the biggest. They
• 35:36
  see it, right? I want to see Jesus. I want to savor Jesus. And then the life transformation,
• 35:44
  the Lord will work through that, through the scriptures, through the church, through the
• 35:48
  indwelling Holy Spirit. God will do that, right? And we will help in that. But we want them to see
• 35:53
  Jesus.
• 35:54
  Both for the increase of Jesus' fame and for the glory of God.
• 35:59
  This is what we want. And so I'm going to conclude with a few things here
• 36:09
  about this story. The Bible's story of the good news of Jesus is for all people
• 36:17
  all over the world. And this conviction is, in fact, what makes us evangelicals.
• 36:22
  We are evangelicals because of the good news of Jesus.
• 36:24
  Because we are committed to the gospel story, to sharing it, and to using our resources to
• 36:30
  advance it. This is why we call ourselves evangelicals. And for hundreds of years,
• 36:37
  evangelicals have made great sacrifices in order to make the gospel known.
• 36:43
  Time keeps me from telling of William Carey, the father of modern missions who spent his life
• 36:49
  serving in India, or of Hudson Taylor,
• 36:55
  who was one of the first to assimilate into the Chinese culture he was trying to reach.
• 36:59
  And so rather than going to China and saying, you basically need to become
• 37:02
  Western in your culture, he became one of them, shared the gospel. Or of Roger Yowterain,
• 37:12
  Peter, or Pete Fleming, Jim Elliott, Nate Saint, Ed McCauley, who were all speared to death
• 37:18
  in their attempts to reach the Alca people of Ecuador. Or of Cameron Townsend, who founded
• 37:26
  Wycliffe Bible Church in the United States. And so rather than going to China and saying,
• 37:27
  in an attempt to translate the Bible into the languages of unreached people groups so that
• 37:33
  they could hear and read the gospel, that Bible, a Seneca Bible, is a product of this.
• 37:42
  Or what about Peter Milne, the one-way missionary who traveled to the South Pacific from England
• 37:49
  in order to reach a head-hunting tribe there who had martyred every missionary prior to his arrival?
• 38:00
  He packed all his belongings in a coffin because he knew there was no turning back.
• 38:08
  And he lived among that tribe for decades. And when he died,
• 38:12
  the tribe's people inscribed his tombstone with these words,
• 38:16
  When he came, there was no light. When he left, there was no darkness.
• 38:26
  James Calvert set sail for the unreached indigenous peoples of Fiji. And when the ships
• 38:32
  captain warned him to turn back, saying,
• 38:34
  You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.
• 38:40
  Calvert purportedly replied, We died before we came here.
• 38:45
  These people truly believed Galatians 2.20. And not just these men, but the wives of these men.
• 38:55
  After they were speared to death in trying to reach the people, the wives went back
• 39:01
  to share the gospel.
• 39:03
  And the tribe ended up getting saved.
• 39:06
  So I don't know what kind of strength it would take you to go evangelize the people who just
• 39:11
  speared your spouse to death. Only God's strength, I suppose. But they believed Galatians 2.20.
• 39:22
  I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but it's Christ who lives in me.
• 39:31
  And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God,
• 39:36
  who loved me, who loved me, and who loved me.
• 39:38
  And gave himself for me.
• 39:40
  And so I just want to ask, how far are you willing to go to share the story of the gospel with those who don't know?
• 39:49
  We just took a trip to the Philippines.
• 39:51
  And I've had some conversations with people on the team since getting back
• 40:00
  where people are really considering going to the mission field full time.
• 40:06
  And they have good jobs here, stable jobs here.
• 40:09
  Life is good in America.
• 40:11
  But they just see the need.
• 40:14
  They see the need and they're going,
• 40:17
  like,
• 40:19
  Lord, the Lord, right? Isaiah chapter 6.
• 40:21
  Who shall I send? Who will go for us?
• 40:23
  And they're just like, here am I, Lord. Send me. I'll do it.
• 40:26
  I'm talking to students in the youth group who are considering things like this.
• 40:31
  Everything in American culture would say take vacations there.
• 40:35
  You don't go live there.
• 40:36
  Don't give your life just to sharing the gospel.
• 40:41
  Have it good here. The good life is found here.
• 40:43
  And they just say, no, I've seen where the good life is found and it's in Jesus.
• 40:47
  And so wherever he calls me to go, I will go.
• 40:49
  I would encourage you.
• 40:50
  It's not just students who have their whole lives ahead of them
• 40:53
  and they're not established with a career and a family yet, all that stuff.
• 40:56
  I would encourage you tonight, as we're studying the book of Acts,
• 41:00
  as we study things like the gospel,
• 41:02
  and as we look back to brothers and sisters who have paid the ultimate price for the sharing of the gospel,
• 41:10
  I pray that you and I would really consider, like, honestly ask yourself,
• 41:15
  God, would you have me go?
• 41:18
  Would you have me leave things here in order to go?
• 41:23
  And to sit before the Lord in honesty, because that's a scary place.
• 41:28
  And just to say, Lord, what would you have me do?
• 41:30
  And then if he calls, to then take that step of faith.
• 41:35
  William Carey so famously said this,
• 41:39
  Expect great things from God.
• 41:41
  God, attempt great things for God.
• 41:45
  I don't just want to be someone who sits back and says,
• 41:48
  God, I'm going to pray and I'm going to expect all this stuff,
• 41:51
  and I'm never going to attempt anything.
• 41:54
  I don't want to be like that.
• 41:55
  I want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and so many who have come after him.
• 42:00
  Jesus, who, man, talk about missionary, right?
• 42:05
  I want to follow in their footsteps and I would say,
• 42:07
  God, I want to go wherever you tell me to go.
• 42:11
  So I'm going to end by reading.
• 42:12
  I'm going to end by reading this hymn.
• 42:15
  This hymn is called, I Love to Tell the Story.
• 42:17
  It was written in 1866.
• 42:20
  But look at these lyrics here.
• 42:24
  I love to tell the story of unseen things above,
• 42:28
  of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love.
• 42:32
  I love to tell the story because I know tis true,
• 42:35
  it satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.
• 42:39
  I love to tell the story, more wonderful it seems
• 42:42
  than all the golden fountains,
• 42:44
  the fancies of all my golden dreams.
• 42:46
  I love to tell the story, it did so much for me,
• 42:49
  and that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.
• 42:53
  I love to tell the story, tis pleasant to repeat
• 42:56
  what seems each time I tell it more wonderfully sweet.
• 43:00
  I love to tell the story for some have never heard
• 43:03
  the message of salvation from God's own holy word.
• 43:08
  I love to tell the story for those who know it best,
• 43:11
  seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest,
• 43:14
  and when in scenes of glory I sing the new new song,
• 43:17
  t'will be the old old story that I have loved so long.
• 43:22
  And here's the chorus.
• 43:23
  I love to tell the story, t'will be my theme in glory,
• 43:27
  to tell the old old story of Jesus and his love.
• 43:34
  Father, we are humbled tonight as we consider
• 43:37
  the call of Jesus, not just to believe, but to follow.
• 43:51
  Father, I pray.
• 43:54
  now that as we are studying
• 43:56
  the book of Acts this year
• 43:57
  that you would raise up
• 43:58
  from our church missionaries
• 44:00
  who are willing to go
• 44:01
  cross-culturally
• 44:03
  to learn new languages,
• 44:05
  to sacrifice
• 44:08
  in order to reach people
• 44:09
  who have never heard.
• 44:11
  I pray that in the youth group
• 44:12
  right now,
• 44:13
  you would be stirring
• 44:14
  within students' hearts
• 44:17
  to learn as much as they can
• 44:19
  to grow in the knowledge of Jesus
• 44:22
  so that they can take that knowledge
• 44:24
  to those who haven't heard.
• 44:27
  I pray for the men and women in here.
• 44:30
  Father, that there would be
• 44:31
  some tonight
• 44:31
  who would really consider it.
• 44:33
  That they wouldn't keep this from you.
• 44:38
  That they would submit it fully
• 44:39
  to your authority,
• 44:41
  to your leading.
• 44:44
  God, we thank you
• 44:45
  for the people in the room
• 44:48
  who are missionaries,
• 44:49
  who have gone short and long-term.
• 44:53
  People like the Kirks
• 44:54
  who serve so faithfully.
• 44:58
  But God, I do pray
• 44:59
  that you would bless this year
• 45:00
  in our study of Acts
• 45:01
  that it would go
• 45:02
  from Jerusalem to Judea
• 45:04
  to Samaria
• 45:06
  to Westminster
• 45:07
  and to the ends of the earth.
• 45:11
  We love the gospel, Father,
• 45:13
  because it tells us about you
• 45:14
  and about Jesus
• 45:15
  and how you've saved us.
• 45:16
  And so go before us.
• 45:17
  Be our light
• 45:18
  and our salvation, we pray.
• 45:20
  In Jesus' name.
• 45:21
  Amen.