Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 14, 2019 | Can I Help? - The Golden Age

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April 14, 2019 | Can I Help? - The Golden Age · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: How are you today?
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful day.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I um have mixed feelings.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's the last time we're gonna hear that sermon bumper, that video.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Last time you'll see that on this side of heaven.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've loved the Isaiah series, and I appreciate your joining me in that.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I offer congratulations if you uh took the Isaiah challenge.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you're visiting, we've read through the book of Isaiah, a lot of us together since January.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Congratulations.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Did you read through the book of Isaiah with me?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Give yourselves a hand.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I really appreciate it if some of you have uh done some of the devotions.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone do any of the devotions here, you know?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: You better have.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Took me a lot of time to do those.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, but thanks.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's been it's been great.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking, uh it just it's just been super.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been great hearing from you.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Repeatedly, some of you, different ones of you, have been writing me and telling me how much Isaiah has meant to you, how much you've appreciated this book, how much you've appreciated those devotions.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to still do those, those are still online.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh hope you'll enjoy those.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So uh the series is entitled, Can I Help You Look Like You Need It?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Words from the Mouth of God to Isaiah, to Israel, and to us.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Our title this morning is The Golden Age.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: I knew when I picked this series in Isaiah that I would run it right up to end, including Palm Sunday, because I knew that the book ended in the Golden Age, that age that uh Jesus previewed when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey that day.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: One day, knowing that he would ride into Jerusalem on a white horse to kick off the golden age.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: I call it that, it's the thousand years called the millennium in uh Latin word that comes from uh the thousand years mentioned six times in the book of Revelation.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: This age that's coming on the earth after the tribulation, in which the Lord Jesus Christ will reign from Jerusalem and all of his people will work basically in his government, uh, will serve him, and uh and it'll be a wonderful age of prosperity and so forth.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you can read more about that if you want to do uh those devotions.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I knew that this Sunday would uh uh Palm Sunday is uh is sort of a golden age Sunday, so I knew I was gonna make that my final.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm gonna go to the chapter to the chapters, the three chapters at the end of Isaiah, chapters 60, 61, and 62.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: My sermon will be drawn from those uh uh this morning, and uh my dream, my goal, my hope is that you really get this feeling of incredible anticipation and excitement for what is going to come to us.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor hath the mind conceived the delights that the Lord has for us in the future.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh, see if you guys can get this back.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I've hit a wrong button here.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so uh as oftentimes God arranges world events to perfectly fit into my sermons that are coming up.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: It just happens, and and that's what he did this last Monday night when he uh, with the help of the referees and some other people, you know, had the University of Virginia win the national championship in what's called March Madness, the NCAA tourney, whatever.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's a tournament that is held every March, and there are 64 teams, 68, but really 64 teams, and they are ranked, uh ranked number one, number two, and so forth.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And this year, uh you can Sports Illustrated cover this week is Redeemed.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is Tony Guy, most valuable player in the Final Four, rejoicing.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the players in white, players in red are Texas Tech.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I was rooting for them too, but you know, I was I was thinking Sermon would work better if Virginia got redemption after last year.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but uh as I told my uh my sons, you know, I'm gonna be in heaven.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be in heaven with both teams pretty much, because uh Texas Tech, after they'd won the semifinal, you know, the cameras followed them into the locker room, you know, then they all fell down to hold hands and pray together, and the cameras ran back out because you can't show anything that horrific and radical on television.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm thinking, you know, and one of the players uh gave a real shout out to the Lord uh when he got on TV.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm rooting for Texas Tech.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, but Virginia, you gotta really root for them because it really was a situation of redemption.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the subtitle of the Sports Illustrated article, How Virginia Turned Torment to Triumph in One Year.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think many of you know the story that one year ago, Virginia, not just a number one seeded team, one of those four, but the number one seeded team overall, the number one team in the land, the team that arguably was supposed to win the whole thing, uh, got into the first round against a team uh with the initials UMBC.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I still have no idea who they were, and nobody else does either.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: You probably do.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: But so they were supposed to easily, easily smack them around, and yet they lost by 20 points.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Tony Guy, the very guy here, you know, uh a few weeks later said, no one can understand the amount of pain and agony and ridicule that I face every day over this.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a scandal, it was a shame, it was a disgrace.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: They were absolutely humiliated.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: The assistant, Tony Bennett, the main coach, his assistant coach, his wife said, did not move for three whole days.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't shame, didn't even move inside his home for three days.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was so shocking.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was absolutely a horrifying loss.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, everybody who wasn't a coach in the country, all of the talking ahead, so of course know everything about sports, said it was their style of play that Tony Bennett, Virginia wouldn't could never win a national title.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was too boring.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was just bad.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: So they come into this year and Virginia a number one seed again, not maybe not number one in the land, and they find themselves down double-digit points against another really weak team in the first round, and everybody's thinking, is it gonna happen again?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: But they came back and won, and then they kept somehow winning.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Hindus would call it karma.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I called it God helping Jim with a sermon.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so the last three games they played in the tournament, they were down, uh they were behind in all three games with less than 13 seconds to go.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it looked impossible in a couple of those games.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: But again, with my prayers and the referee's help, and in a couple of cases, you know, they amazingly have pulled out those wins.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And some of the credit went afterwards to the way that Virginia had chosen to handle that loss, to the way Tony Bennett had told his team to handle that loss.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: He prayed a lot about it, he talked to his wife about it, and finally they made this radical decision that they would not run away from the defeat.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Their first practice, this team's first practice, instead of practicing, he brought them in and he said, I want to argue, I want to suggest to you that we do something with the most humiliating, shameful loss that any team in college basketball has ever had.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: I want to suggest to you that we own it.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: I want to suggest to you that we talk about it.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so the team bought into it.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And in the media day, Tony Guy, that very guy, he's decided he would talk about the loss last year.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Tony Bennett, coach himself, put as the uh on his cell phone as the background all year long a picture.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: A picture of him huddled on the floor weeping after that loss last year.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: They decided they would go back and stay at the very hotel they had stayed at when they lost, that they would not run away from it, but they would own their past and at the same time own their future.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And in a miracle, they are, as Tony Guy's girlfriend says, it was the ultimate redemption story.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I go, thank you for putting that word up there, because just before my text, Isaiah 60, the golden age, we are told, will come when our Redeemer comes to Zion, right?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we are told that we need to own our past and then rise and shine into our future.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the story of University of Virginia.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if Hunter Rue was still here, our associate pastor, he uh he would, I would make him preach this Sunday.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: He'd be, he'd be so happy.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I really appreciated how the players, you know, gave a shout out to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the future.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, uh, the headline in Fox News' report was University of Virginia coaches' first words after winning the school's first championship is I'm humbled, Lord.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: He when the buzzer went off and he was on the bench, he bowed his head, he said, Thank you, Lord, I'm humbled.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And listen to me, everything I'm going to say about the glory that is headed for us in the future should not change your understanding of the fact when you and I cross into that glorious kingdom, when the Lord brings you and I into a golden age, and we remember who we were and how little we deserve, and how amazing it is that the light of God, the glory of God, the beauty of God, and the joy of God are now going to be showered on us for every day for the rest of our lives and for eternity.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: You and I will be humbled because we'll know we don't deserve it.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we are going to enter into the greatest joy, a greater joy than we could ever imagine.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about that this morning.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we're in uh the last, very last section of Isaiah, Isaiah 40 through 66, divided into three uh groups of nine chapters each.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: The first nine predict the deliverance through Cyrus to the Israelites in Babylon 150 years into the future.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then comes prophecies 700 years into the future about Jesus, the suffering servant, who will die on the cross and rise from the dead.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is predictions made at 700 BC.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, we have predictions about the remote future, over 2,700 years in the future that haven't happened yet, but I believe are going to happen soon, of Jesus coming, the glorious King.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'm going to do is to start in chapter 60, cover 60 through 62, just pieces of them, but along the way, I'm going to stop to reveal to you one, two, three, four themes that are mind-blowing themes.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Say them with me out loud.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: The four themes are light, glory, beauty, joy.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: You won't forget those because I'm going to mention them so much.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to be coming out your ears.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Light, glory, beauty, and joy, the most common four themes in these three chapters.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: We jump right in in Isaiah chapter 60, verse 1.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Arise, shine.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: For your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: The prophet, speaking for the Lord, challenges Israel, who we are told is lying on the ground.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them are drunk.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about God's people here who are lying on the ground drunk, or who are lying down in their houses sleeping, or who are huddled in a mass, depressed.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah says a word from the Lord, from the inspired spirit.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, get up, shine, own your past, own your future, shine, because your light has come.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: The first theme starts right here.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is the theme of light, one of the great themes of Scripture.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the theme of verses one, two, and three here in chapter 60.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: For look, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness, the peoples.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thick darkness is a phrase that comes out of Exodus.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the plague of darkness?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: When Goshen, where God's people were, was all lit up, and the people of Egypt, the pagans were all in darkness, and it says the darkness was so thick they could feel it.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: But the Lord, he says, will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's what an honor that the Lord will arise upon little Israel.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: The landmass of the world, something like 500 million square miles or something.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Israel.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Less than one half of one hundredth of one percent of the land mass of the world, and yet God, when he decided to reveal himself, I am that I am, he didn't come to America, Australia, Asia, mighty Africa, none of the seven continents.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: He came to that little, he's revealing himself now, I think.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um did you hear that?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's like he just took a step.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's coming closer.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: So he revealed himself to this little rope bridge, basically, between Asia and Africa, to tiny little Israel through the person of Moses.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: It just seems, why wouldn't he use a megaphone and go to a mighty continent?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: The answer is God did what he chose.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: He chose this little people, he chose to reveal himself to them, and now he says, the Lord's going to arise upon you, and his glory will be seen by you.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And verse 3, and here's the cool thing the nations are gonna come to your light, and the kings to your shining brightness.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: My first theme, the first theme used repeatedly in chapters 60 through 62, all about the golden age, is that one day night will turn into dawn, and you and I will shine.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna shine like the sun producing our own light.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna shine like the moon.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: We will reflect his light.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: We are going to radiate the brilliant light of God forever.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it will radiate to the world, and nations, tribes, tongues, and peoples will come from all over.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: They will be drawn by our light, but primarily, of course, by the original light, by the light of the Lord Himself, who will be there ruling in Jerusalem.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this theme of light, let's let's think about it for a second.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: I have, I've just been, you know, moved by how significant it is.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go back to um let's go back to the beginning of the Bible.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Genesis 1.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the first thing that God says in the Bible?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's all darkness, it's all chaos.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And God said, Let there be light.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because God's so powerful.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: The next line is, and there was light.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was last week I was talking about Einstein.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, forgive me, I I'm reading this thick book about the history of science.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And um one of the things that the Einstein Special Theory of Relativity did, shockingly, in 1905, was it revealed that light, somehow, for some reason, nobody ever suspected it before, is at the very heart of the structure of the universe.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can see it in the formula E, energy, equals mass.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's I have about 10 pounds too much of it at least.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Energy equals mass times times squared, c squared.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: C is for some reason, no, nobody knows why.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Einstein chose to make light c.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the amazing thing.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, all of the mass in the universe is pent-up energy.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the relationship between all the energy in the universe, the potential are real, and the mass in the universe, which will never be reduced or advanced, the relationship between them is of all things the square of light, the speed of light.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: No one ever thought.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's it was the invention of quantum, you know, physics and everything else.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Why would God do that?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask him, but all of a sudden it reveals that there's something more to all these verses on light than I ever thought.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: To Genesis 1, 3, and God said, let there be light.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't just say, let there be light, and it was just like flashlight, light.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: He made light the fundamental structure of the universe, okay?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: So light is really important, even in a secular sense, okay?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then you come to Exodus and you have, what was it, the ninth plague, and you have all of this darkness, and in the land of Goshen there is light.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when you come to Isaiah, you're gonna find that Isaiah builds up to this theme of light.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: He starts in chapter two and he he cries out to the rest of his countrymen, oh house of Jacob, come, let's walk in the light of the Lord.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's how I picture this, okay?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Indulge me for a minute as a reader of Tolkien's Hobbit and stuff like that.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I picture Isaiah, I picture all of the Israelites for years being lost in the forest of murkwood, and it's so thick, the darkness, that they can, you know, they can't see which way they're going, and it's so thick, and there's big spiders if you've read the story.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: But mostly there's hunger and there's thirst, and they trip over roots, and they get caught on thorns, and and they're and they're sick and they're thirsty and they're hungry, they're digging for berries and so forth.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a it's it's just torment for them.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: But in my imagination, Isaiah the prophet stumbles upon what he sees is like a really old path, an ancient path, not used for maybe hundreds of years, and he decides to follow the path, and he follows the path, and he follows the path, and all of a sudden, Sam, he finds himself out of this forest that they've been lost in for so long.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he finds himself out in the sunlight, and it's just such beautiful, warm sunlight, and there's a cool breeze, and then he looks, and as far as he can see in this vast field, it's it's just filled with beautiful daisies.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's just the most wonderful place.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so he turns back and he sees dimly all of the people he knows, all of his friends, all of the sons and daughters of Israel back in the forest, and they're and they're blind, they can't see anything.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he calls to them and he says, Oh, house of Jacob, come, let's walk in the light of the Lord.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that beautiful?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: I just love that picture because this is my heart for you.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is your heart for your children and for your loved ones.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: You call to them in your heart, you say, Would you come?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's walk in the light of the Lord.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: You have no idea how wonderful it is to walk in the light of the Lord.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the cry with which Isaiah starts his book.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let's walk in the light.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: And in chapter five, he explains why the world is so dark and why it's getting darker today.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil who put darkness for light and light for darkness.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason the world is dark and getting darker is that all of the people, or many of the people who wield the levers of power in our universities and in our media, look at what God calls good and they go, ugh, that's evil.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's mean, that's narrow, that's provincial.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: And those things that God in his word calls light, they call evil.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what God calls evil or darkness, they go, we need more of that.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's really, that's really good stuff.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: And everything gets turned around.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to watch a movie over at uh Cinema 14 right now called Unplanned.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Unplanned.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's a revelation of a woman who ran an abortion center for Planned Parenthood and then saw an abortion.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it's rated R, and perhaps it should be, you will watch the abortion.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And um and yet it's worth seeing, and yet somehow this is being told us is a good thing.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: And God says some things are good, you call them evil, some things are evil, you call them good.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you will what?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: The people that tell you that, woe to them, they're my enemies.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna bring them down one day.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that's setting up the darkness side of the equation.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, three chapters later, in Isaiah 8, we're told that the word of God is that is the key to discerning what's light and darkness.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Look to God's instructions and teachings.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: People who contradict his word are completely in the dark.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: The word shines a light that will just help you distinguish between darkness and light.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: The next chapter tells us that the light embodied, came embodied as a person in 4 BC in the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: The people who walk in darkness, speaking in context of the people up in Galilee, who've been trampled on by the Assyrians, and then the Babylonians, and then the Persians, and then the Romans, the people who walk in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of the shadow of death.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: A light has dawned.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: He dawned, born in Bethlehem.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Grew up in Galilee.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this idea that Jesus, the Messiah, is the light in, you know, in person continues in a chapter we studied several weeks ago, Isaiah 49, 6.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus came, remember, to save his people, the Jews, from their sins, but they did not receive him, right?
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: He came to his own, but his own received him not.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: So depressed, the Lord Jesus, we read, talked to his father early one morning and said, I've been a failure.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And God said back to him, You may have failed to save your people, but I've given you too small a job.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm going to also make you a light, there it is, for the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he turns to us, does the suffering servant, and says, Hey, I've been sent again with a bigger mission to be a light for the entire world.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: So here's where we are: light versus darkness.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus Christ is light embodied.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to show us the way out of the darkness.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the sad thing.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: We get ten chapters later in Isaiah, and we find out that even God's people have walked out of the light and back into the darkness.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah cries out, Justice is far from us.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: We hope for light and behold darkness for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: We grope for the wall like the blind.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: We grope like those who have no eyes.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you've seen Christians, I know this may not fit your theology, but you've seen people who you know are Christians, and they're no better than pagans.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: They're walking in the dark.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: They have chosen darkness behavior.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's this huge frustration with this, and God comes along and he says, you know what?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: I know, you're unable.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Even the best of you aren't able to, we call it, live the Christian life.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Am I right about that?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: You try your hardest and you fail.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Only Christ can live the Christian life.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: So God says, I'm going to have to do it for you.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so he says in chapter 60, verse 1, get up off the ground and shine, because your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm coming.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to bring this golden age.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to start with you who are believers.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm bringing it back.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's certain two levels here.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's a level, a smaller level, a basement level that applies right now to the fact that He has shined upon you and me, and He shines in your heart, and He does want you to get up.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because darkness covers the world even now in thick darkness, but the Lord will arise upon you.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, the main fulfillment here is in that golden age in the future.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I'm going to say something politically incorrect here.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: You see this?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Nations will come to your light and kings to your shining brightness.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the most important question that we could ever ask, besides does God exist?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, assuming you you come to the conclusion God exists, is who is he?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Who's the real God?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there are lots of options, right?
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Around the world, there are lots of religions.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the question is, how can we know who the true God is and how can we come to meet him?
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, years ago, perhaps you said boldly, well, John 14, 6 says, I am the way, says Jesus.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: I am the truth, I am the life.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: No one comes to the Father but by me.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter said there's no salvation in any other.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: You used to say that boldly, but times have changed.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's no city in America that doesn't now include people from all sorts of religions.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: So folks have always told us, listen, there are many paths to God.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: All religions lead to the same place, if you're sincere and so forth, but all of a sudden now we have social interaction.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: We work with Hindus.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: We work with Buddhists, we work with Muslims, we work with rank atheists, we work with mystics, and they become our friends.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Partly because I didn't mean to spit on you, sorry about that.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Partly because we find out that some of them are nicer and more honest than some of the Christians we know.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, this question, the greatest question in the entire universe, is as great as as high above us as the stars, as deep as the ocean, this great question, who is the true God?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: How can I come to know him?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: This amazing question, to which we should apply all of our energy and all of our intellect, becomes a question we answer with a two-inch deep social friendship answer, which is I like them.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: They're nice people.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we are tempted to adopt what is called religious pluralism.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: That there are many paths that lead to God.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: All religions lead to God.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: All of these people, if they're sincere, that's the only humble, loving thing to believe, isn't it?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're told.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, if you listen to religious pluralists, you know it's not intellectual, it's social, it's shallow, it's non-thinking.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: The idea that all religions are the same won't even stand 10 minutes of casual scrutiny.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: They are not the same.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then you come to Isaiah chapter 60.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you're tempted to believe this, can I show you something that's shocking?
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: One day, light is going to come to Jerusalem.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: It will radiate from Jerusalem, both from the Lord Himself and from you and me, for we will reflect his light.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: The nations will see it, and they will say, Wow, my God is not the true God.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: I've never seen like that before.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: I've been hungering and thirsting for a real God.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: My experience has always been insufficient.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: And they themselves will rise and they will stream to the light.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Not because you and I are cool or better looking or smarter, not because the Jews or Israel in that day somehow is more compassionate or more just.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's because God is there and his light will radiate from there, and so the nations, the world, every tribe, tongue, people, and nation will stream to Jerusalem.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you dare even think in that day of saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, stay, stay where you are.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Your religion is just fine.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Many ways lead to God.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because they'll say, my way never led to God.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know where God is, He's in Jerusalem.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Get out of my way.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Nations will come to your light, and kings to your shining brightness.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the theme of light, and it continues on throughout the Bible, and it continues on throughout the Bible in a way that says that you and I can go ahead and start radiating a little bit of that light now, ahead of time, like a preview.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: For Zion's sake, I'm not going to keep silent, he says two chapters later, until her righteousness shines like a bright light.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: The nations will see your righteousness.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: People should see our righteousness now.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: It will attract them to God.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: One day we will radiate his righteousness perfectly.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why not start early?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: For after all, isn't that what we sing about?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: What Jesus told us to do?
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: We've sung, Lord, the light of your love is shining even now in the midst of the darkness, shining.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, light of the world, shine upon us.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Set us free by the truth you now bring us.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Shine on me, shine on me, shine, Jesus, shine.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Fill this land with the Father's glory.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: How?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Through you, through me, right now.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Don't come to me during the Christmas project, at the end of the Christmas project, please, this next year.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: And don't say, you know what?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: I really like the half of the Christmas project that's right here in Topeka.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't have much sympathy, don't care much about, you know, helping those people in Haiti.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: We ought to keep it all here at home.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because God's really concerned about lighting up the entire world.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not naming anybody, but you know, this is a tendency we have, and it's no wonder that folks say this to me every year.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: But one day, God, who cares so much about the world, will tell us this is Revelation 21, that city of Jerusalem will have no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God will give it light, and its lamp is the lamb.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this God is the light thing will make the sun and the moon absolutely extraneous in eternity, in the eternal state.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: For night will be no more.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Last chapter of the Bible says that people won't need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's Revelation 22, 5.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the theme of light.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: I love this theme.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Grasp this theme, realize that light is coming, and you're going to radiate this light yourself.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: The second theme is like unto it.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's tied into it.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's sort of brother and sister in this passage.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the theme of glory, that God's glory is finally going to be recognized.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be seen, and we too will be glorious, reflecting his glory in that day.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: Did you notice it?
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Rise shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: And in the next verse, chapter 60, verse 2, we read, The Lord will arise on you, and his glory will be seen on you.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this is probably the single main theme of the Bible, if you had to choose one.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the fact that you and I and the whole world and the universe were created for one reason and one reason only.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: And what is that?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's to give God glory.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: And on that day, his glory will be seen, and we will be glorious 23 times more than in any other three chapters consecutively in the Bible, 23 times here.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're told that the golden age will be the fulfillment time for the glory of God to be realized.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: After asking the question, who is God and how can I know him?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the next natural question is, why was I created?
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I here?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah answers that question, chapter 43, verse 7.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Bring my sons from afar, my daughters from the end of the earth.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone called by my name, whom I created for my glory.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: You were not created so that you could live a fulfilled or prosperous life, though God loves you and wants you to have a fulfilled and prosperous life.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: You are not created for anything that circles around you.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: You are a simply a sort of flashlight meant to show God's glory and reflect it to the world.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that's Isaiah 43.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's a big theme here.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to talk more about it, but my time is running low, and glory and light definitely go together.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus picked up on the glory-light combination when he said, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul said, whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: We could talk about this all day because it's one of the great themes of the Bible, which is why I'm not going to talk about it all day, but just say that this is a major theme of the future kingdom.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'll just end with a quote from John Piper.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: God created you.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he did it with a high and noble purpose in mind.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: That your utterly unique personality and even your body might reflect some feature of God's glory that no other person can.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Did you see that?
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're utterly unique.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's some part of your personality or even your body that he wants to reflect some feature of his glory like no other person can.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, and the reason you exist is to walk in the light of God's glory in such a way that its rays and colors will reflect off of you and cause others to admire God.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Amen?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: Read that with me right now.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Read that with me.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, you may want to nudge the person next to you, say, this is for you.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason you exist is to walk in the light of God's glory in such a way that its rays and colors will reflect off of you and cause others to admire God.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's the theme of God's glory in Isaiah 60 to 62.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to show you one more thing before we get to the other two themes of beauty and joy.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's continue on in Isaiah 60.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want to show you how surprised Israel is when this starts happening.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 65, then you, meaning Israel, are gonna see and you're gonna be radiant, and your heart's gonna thrill and exult.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: All these nations are coming, right?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: All these nations are coming to the glory of the Lord, to the brightness, to the beauty.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, and the wealth of the nations is coming to you.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you gotta understand, you gotta understand the Jews in Israel have been the butt of the world, they've been the scapegoat of the world, they've been the whipping boy of the world for forever.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: Am I right about that?
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: They have been trampled down by the Assyrians, then by the Babylonians, then by the Persians, then by the Romans, and even since the time of Jesus, let's jump to a thousand AD.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of the crusades went in and just slaughtered the Jews, Christians killing Jews, right?
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then you come into Europe and England, England persecutes the Jews, kills some of the Jews, and then bans them from the country.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: And after England came uh France, slaughtered hundreds of Jews, and then kicked them out of the country, banned, banned in Spain, banned in Portugal.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: Spanish Inquisition killed thousands of Jews.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you come, let's move up to the 19th century in Russia.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: You've seen uh Fiddler on the Roof.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: They have what's called pogroms.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Over a hundred villages in Russia, villages of Jews completely destroyed.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Jews are used to being the whipping boy of the world, being hated, nations mocking them.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: You come into the 20th century, and what do you find?
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: You find the Holocaust, you find six million Jews being slaughtered, being burned in gas ovens, and the world, much of the world, turning a blind eye for a year, two years, three years.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even today, even today, everybody acknowledges that Europe is now as anti-Semitic, more anti-Semitic than it's been in 50 years since the World War II is over.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone admits, large universities in America from top to bottom agree that anti-Semitic incidents have multiplied just in the last five years.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: Drawings, leaflets, pamphlets, anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic stuff.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's uh, you know, I and by the way, people in the media, people who are influenced in our society know there's certain things that you cannot say.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you reveal your inner inner racist, racist or sexist prejudices by something you tweet, you're gonna lose your job.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: Exception?
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Anti-Semitic.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Two months ago, a first-term congressperson tweets, not her first, but you know, one in a series, very racist anti-Semitic comments.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately, you know, the Grand Duke of the Ku Klux Klan tweets out finally, it took a Muslim Congresswoman to finally tell us what everybody really knows to be true about the Jews.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: Proof that the far left and the far right join hands when it comes to anti-Semitism.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: Admittedly, some members of her party immediately called for her to resign, but she didn't, and now those calls have been reversed.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's an evidence that the Jews who have not, Jews have been the ones who've been quiet because they're used to this.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: They've been the butt of the world's mockery and derision and punishment, persecution for thousands of years.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know what they're gonna be surprised at?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be surprised that one day, one day, all the nations are gonna be coming with all of this money and with all of this love and saying, Oh, we're coming to Jerusalem.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it says they're going to be shocked in chapters 60 and 61.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: Israel cannot believe what's happening.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it will be an incredible reversal.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: For you and I, it'll be a reversal in a smaller way.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get into that kingdom and we'll go, wow, how in the world did I, what is going on?
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: How am I here?
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's Isaiah chapter 60, verse 5.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then in um verse 6, and all of the nations are gonna bring, they're gonna bring two things.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna come to the light of the Lord, and they're gonna bring two things.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Well, then they're gonna bring the lost sons and daughters of Israel, the ones that have been lost, and they're gonna bring them with them, and they're also gonna bring all this money, all this gold, all this loot.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna bring gold and frankincense.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: Notice not myrrh.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: The wise men were the first people from far away to come to the light, remember?
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sort of a foretaste, and they brought gold for the king, frankincense for the high priest, and myrrh for the dying savior.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: But since he's already died, no myrrh is gonna be brought in the future.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: Just gold and frankincense.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty cool, isn't it?
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I will, he says, beautify, God speaking, I will beautify my beautiful house.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the third word.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: We've had light, we've had glory, and now we come to beauty, which is one of the main words of all things in these three chapters.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: The glory of Lebanon, he continues, three verses later, four verses will come to you to beautify the place of my sanctuary.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make the place of my feet glorious.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: He keeps talking about beauty uh throughout chapters 60 through 62.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: He says in chapter, in chapter 60, verse 13, the glory of Lebanon will come to you to beautify the I've already said that.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: See if we can advance this.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh verse 19, the Lord will be your everlasting light.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: Get this, and your God will be your, your version may say glory, but it's the same Hebrew word.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: The God's gonna be your beauty.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: The most beautiful person in the entire universe is God.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: You and I may look like we should finish last in a beauty pageant, but God is beautiful.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: He is so holy, is so in the beauty of his holiness, he is so amazingly kind and gracious and beautiful that one day when he comes and we begin to radiate his appearance, we're all going to be beauty pageant winners.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Isaiah is so full of all of our efforts to try to look beautiful and strong and noble.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a fail every time in Isaiah.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're never able to do it apart from God.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: But one day it's gonna happen.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the day when he's going to bestow on us a crown of beauty instead of ashes of mourning.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be look, we're gonna be strong.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I know, I know why it doesn't say pines.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: I bought this huge, I you know, I'm a I'm I'm something else with a uh with a uh chainsaw.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry about that.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I know it's scary, but I got this, I got this really expensive huge chainsaw last fall.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: I got a hundred freestanding trees around the place.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I got a I don't even need, however, all I have to do is show the pine trees the chainsaw and they fall down or run away.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because pine trees are so soft, you just shh and you're done, just like that.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oak trees are something else entirely.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: I pulled that baby out and tried to cut down a couple of stumps this last week, and you know you have you have shut-off things on a chainsaw if it gets too hot.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: I never got more than an inch or two deep in any of these babies because they fight back.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: They're so strong, they're so dense.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oak trees are so majestic, and they're not gonna let you cut them down.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: How dare you even think so?
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: And your saw gets so hot it starts burning you, and then it just shuts off.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: It says, I'm not going there again.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going there.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, I'm gonna hire somebody.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: Why did I get this stupid chain stuff?
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: But the point is, the point is that one day we'll no longer be pines blown hither and yawn by every wind of doctrine, by trying to constantly please people.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna be like frail reeds that, you know, the slightest little comment somebody makes, and all of a sudden we give up what we believe.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: No, we're going to be oaks.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be strong, we're gonna be majestic, we're gonna be oaks of righteousness, beautiful oaks one day.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Pinoak, I don't like that name, Pinoak, even though that's mainly what I've got.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: Burr oak is a little better, sounds more masculine.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, sorry.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then verse 10 I rejoice greatly in the Lord.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's clothed me with garments of salvation, wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a group wears a turban, and as a bride beautifies, adorns herself with her jewels.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be that beautiful.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: I deliberately picked this beauty verse because it moves into a wedding picture.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to move there.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: The last verse about beauty you shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: You and I will be beautiful on that day.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be light.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Will be glory, will be beauty, and we will be joy.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because God is going to rejoice over us as his bride on that day in the golden age and the honeymoon will never end.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: Will never end.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's going to bestow on us the oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: Notice the emphasis on joy.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says in verse 7, in place of disgrace, I think of Virginia right here, in place of shame and disgrace, they will rejoice.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: And eternal joy will be theirs.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now get this, get this.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: As a groom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: How long will he rejoice over us as a groom rejoices over his bride?
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: How long will this last?
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: Eternally.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: Remember those friends of yours that got married?
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: And they went off for their honeymoon and they were just so in love and it was so cute, you know?
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then they came back from the honeymoon and they couldn't stop touching each other, and they were always kissing each other, and you know, and I mean, even sitting beside them in church and they're always intertwined and so forth, it was disgusting, you know.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not really.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: No, I mean it's cute, but I mean, they just loved each other.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: They were still in their honeymoon.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then a year later, or maybe a week later, you're having coffee with her.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or you're having coffee with them.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: How's your marriage going, you say?
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, What did she say?
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know what she says.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: She says, the honeymoon's over.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: She said, the honeymoon's over, right?
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: You never heard that before?
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: The honeymoon is over.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: That happens because we're human, we're finite, we can't keep it going, we're fickle.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's something in our hearts, there's something in who we are, we just can't keep the honeymoon going throughout all of life.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, listen to me really carefully.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: God is not finite.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: God is not fickle, God is not human.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: God is saying here that he will rejoice over you and me as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, and he will do it forever.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: You think heaven's gonna eventually get boring when you're waking up every morning, assuming you fall asleep, but sleep is kind of fun.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: Wake up every morning to another honeymoon day with God.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can you believe that God is going to feel toward you when you enter his presence, not at ever, not at all anymore, like a judge going, oh, I gotta show you mercy.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: But man, I'm looking at this list of the things you did.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is kind of disgusting.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's not gonna be like that at all.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: No, instead, God's gonna be a bridegroom, you're gonna walk in, you're his bride, and the honeymoon's still going, and he's going to embrace you, he's gonna be so happy over you, so loving over you.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I put up here Zephaniah as my last slide, just because I think Zephaniah pictures so well the way God is going to respond to us forever and ever.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: Where Zephaniah says, the Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save, he'll take great delight in you forever, he'll quiet you with his love, he'll rejoice over you with singing.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is that incredible?
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: In the golden age, every day, in the eternal state, every day, forever and ever, you will be in a honeymoon with God.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be radiating his light and his glory.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be showing forth his very beauty, and you'll be sharing his joy.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: What he asks of you now is since that's coming, would you shine your light a little bit now?
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's given you a little of his glory now.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's given you a little bit of his beauty now, he's given you a little bit of his joy now.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why not shine that for the world as a preview of coming attractions and start drawing every tongue and tribe and people and nation to the light of the Lord now?
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: Rise, shine, rise and shine, just like your mommy used to say.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: Rise and shine, give God the glory and draw people to the light of the Lord.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we so appreciate this amazing picture of the golden age that is coming, filled with things that mind can't, our mind can't conceive, that you have prepared for us.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: Especially all of this light, this glory, this beauty, and the joy of an eternal honeymoon with you.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because of your son, in whose name we pray.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.