Latest / Simply Christ Podcast / Message from Ben Sargent - Friday Morning Session
Transcript
- 0:08Christ podcast. This episode was recorded at the
- 0:11Upper Midwest Fellowship Camp. Let's get right into it.
- 0:15All right. Thank you, my brother.
- 0:16I appreciate you inviting me out and I really appreciate those of
- 0:19you who've heard me preach before coming out.
- 0:23That's that's really special. You know, brother, I have to
- 0:28tell you, I've really enjoyed that music.
- 0:31One of the things that I say very often is that music was not
- 0:37created for us. Music was created for God.
- 0:41And so when I see, I see a family that is, that's grown up
- 0:47and ministering before God. And is when I say ministering, I
- 0:51mean, I mean that I don't mean entertaining, I mean ministry.
- 0:55I always, I always enjoy that brother.
- 0:57I appreciate your leadership and doing that sister, your
- 0:59leadership. That is, it's not lost on me.
- 1:04They're still, I was having a conversation just last night
- 1:06about how so much of Christian music has become entertainment
- 1:12and not 3 And, and I, I make this statement.
- 1:17If you Can't Sing that song to God with God sitting in your
- 1:21presence and you Can't Sing it from your heart, shut up and sit
- 1:27down. Just just don't bother.
- 1:30I, you know, I came in last night and and the front Pew was
- 1:35or set of chairs was open and I thought, is this a Baptist
- 1:38Church? That's not.
- 1:41Anyway, it's a great crowd and it's sure good to be here with
- 1:45you. And thank you so much for
- 1:46coming. Very, very much enjoyed the
- 1:49singing and you know, so much of the singing really truly can
- 1:55prepare our hearts to receive the word of God.
- 1:58And so I hope that I hope that you've done that today.
- 2:01I hope that while you've been singing, you've been worshiping
- 2:03God and enjoying his presence. I know I have when I when I know
- 2:08that I'm going to teach, I don't sing because I heard my voice a
- 2:12couple years ago and, and I just have to be careful of it.
- 2:16And so I would just encourage you young people that while you
- 2:20can sing and let her RIP, sing and let her RIP, Don't be shy.
- 2:26Sing out, sing out to the glory of God.
- 2:29Sing your hearts to God and worship him in spirit and truth.
- 2:33And you'll never regret that. You'll never regret that you
- 2:37raised your voice and worshiped God.
- 2:40So I'm going to turn my phone on here today so I can track myself
- 2:44so that when I look over, you know, I, I can go.
- 2:46Well, then you've been going a while and I would just say I
- 2:49never preached more than two hours.
- 2:53Kidding. I'm kidding.
- 2:54So I saw the young people in the back start looking for the door.
- 2:59So anyway, let me get the right thing here.
- 3:03Stopwatch starts. All right, there we go.
- 3:07So, so I wanted to, I wanted to start this morning with a
- 3:11message that, you know, and I've been been putting these together
- 3:15for a number of months. And so I've titled this first
- 3:20message Pea Soup for the Saints. And if you, if you're like me on
- 3:26a on a cold winter day, if you've been outside working, you
- 3:30love to come into a good hot bowl of soup.
- 3:32And my one of my favorite soups that my wife makes is it's my
- 3:37favorite is pea soup. She makes this great lobster
- 3:41chowder. She makes a great potato soup.
- 3:44She makes we caught, we call it garbage soup when she goes in
- 3:48the refrigerator and pulls out everything that's going to go
- 3:50bad, throws it in the pot, throws a little stock in there
- 3:53and some maybe some tomato juice that she split up.
- 3:56And we call that garbage soup. But my favorite is pea soup.
- 3:59And I think it's because when she makes pea soup, she also
- 4:03makes biscuits. And so I'm just all about the
- 4:06pea soup. Anyway.
- 4:07This is called pea soup for the Saints.
- 4:11Let's pray. Father, thank you for the word
- 4:12of God. Thank you, Lord, for this
- 4:15assembly here today. And Father, thank you, God, that
- 4:19your word is inexhaustible. Thank you that your spirit
- 4:23always agrees with your word. And so, Father, I pray that as
- 4:26we open the scriptures today, God that you'll be glorified,
- 4:31God that you'll change us, God make us more like your son.
- 4:35And Father, we'll thank you and praise you.
- 4:36And God, thank you for this time in Jesus name, Amen.
- 4:40So, so I named it the peace suit for the Saints because I'm my
- 4:44outline has three PS to it. It's the pursuit of God, the
- 4:48power of God and the person of God.
- 4:50And so if you would take your Bibles and turn to the book of
- 4:52Jeremiah, chapter 29, we'll start there talking about the
- 4:58pursuit of God. When when God first saved me, I
- 5:02was sitting under fell by the name of Mike Perot you many of
- 5:08you probably know him and and I also worked in this barn and so
- 5:13while we were working together, he was constantly teaching me,
- 5:15which was wonderful. I was drinking from a fire hose
- 5:18and I grew up Roman Catholic. I grew up in a foreign country,
- 5:22a place called New Jersey. And you'll get that in a minute.
- 5:28And I, I'm always thankful that, that when God liberated me from
- 5:35that place and, and, and I, I know that there are a lot of
- 5:39people back there that are lost. I also know there are people
- 5:41back there that are saved. But I am thankful that, that
- 5:46when, that, when God saved me, he put me with a man who loved
- 5:50the word of God. And I think that if Mike could
- 5:52have unscrewed the top of my head and poured something down
- 5:55in there and then screwed the top back on, it would be this.
- 5:58The Bible is the word of God. It is the word of God.
- 6:02That's I when I say the Bible, I'm speaking to you English
- 6:05speaking people. I'm talking about the King James
- 6:06Bible. I, I hope I get a lot of head
- 6:09nods and amens right there. And if not, you can run me out
- 6:11of town, town on a rail. But I do love the word of God
- 6:16and and Mike taught me very early to pursue the Lord, to
- 6:20seek the Lord. And so beginning the Jeremiah
- 6:23chapter 29 and verse 13. The word of God says this and
- 6:27you shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me
- 6:31with all your heart. There's so many things nowadays,
- 6:36so many distractions that that the enemy would have us to pay
- 6:41attention to and and moms, let me tell you this right now.
- 6:45If your kids squalling, I don't care.
- 6:48It's fine. It's music to me, a church that
- 6:51doesn't have a fuss and baby and it's a dead 1.
- 6:54And, and I, I teach the college and career class.
- 6:57I'm sorry, that was 20 years ago.
- 6:59I teach the young married class at our church and the ladies
- 7:05tend to bring their infants with them.
- 7:07And so I have a lot of practice teaching over them.
- 7:09And, and so, so if your little one fusses, it doesn't bother
- 7:13me. I want you to know that.
- 7:15So anyway, so we're talking about pursuing the Lord and, and
- 7:18God wants us to seek him early and he wants us to pursue him
- 7:21with our whole heart, not part of our heart, not most of our
- 7:25heart, but our whole heart. He also says in Deuteronomy
- 7:28chapter 4, verse 29. But if from thence thou shalt
- 7:32seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him if thou shalt, if
- 7:36thou seek him with the with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
- 7:42God doesn't want part of us, He wants all of us.
- 7:45And I, I guess maybe that's an understatement, or maybe that's
- 7:49one of those duh moments if you're young people.
- 7:52But but the reality is, is that so much of what is being thrown
- 7:57at us nowadays are things that are made to distract us.
- 8:01Things that are designed to take our minds and our hearts off of
- 8:06what God would have us to have our hearts and our minds on,
- 8:10which is the word of God, the things of God.
- 8:13And so I was, Larry and I were talking earlier this morning
- 8:18about how that the Spirit of God never disagrees with the Word of
- 8:21God, the word of God's, the final authority.
- 8:24And he said if we seek him with our whole heart and if we seek
- 8:27him early, we'll find him. I know that God seeks those lost
- 8:35sheep and I understand that God pursues us, but I want to be
- 8:39that guy that pursues God just much as God's pursuing me.
- 8:43And we ought to do that. We ought to pursue him with our
- 8:44whole heart. He says in Isaiah 55, six, seek
- 8:47ye the Lord while he may be found, call you upon him while
- 8:51he's near. So he wants us in our pursuit to
- 8:55do it with our whole heart and he wants to do it.
- 8:58He wants us to do it early. He also wants us to it to be a
- 9:02daily pursuit, a daily pursuit. Psalm 27, verse four, he says
- 9:07one thing of I desire to the Lord that I that I will seek
- 9:11after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days
- 9:14of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in
- 9:19his temple. See God wants us to to come to
- 9:22him on a daily basis and an everyday basis.
- 9:26And I also understand that we, most of us work for a living.
- 9:29And if you're a mom with a bunch of young kids and you're running
- 9:35around wiping noses and changing brown diapers and doing all
- 9:39those glorious things that your husband so much appreciates not
- 9:43having to do himself, and you're fixing meals and boy, life can't
- 9:50get busy, can it? But God still wants us to daily
- 9:55pursue him and he wants us to do it early.
- 10:00And so let's make sure that we always have a time where we seek
- 10:03the Lord. Fellas, let me say this to you.
- 10:06You know, I, I'm a morning guy. Tristan and I were up at 5:00
- 10:12and we hung out and we pretty much solved every problem except
- 10:16the common cold and we had a great conversation.
- 10:20I'm a morning person. I love to seek the Lord in the
- 10:22morning. I love to read the scriptures in
- 10:23the morning. That's my time where I can not
- 10:26have anything thrown at me that I can pursue the Lord that way.
- 10:30Maybe you're not that guy. Maybe you're a guy who you're
- 10:33like my wife. You get up and around 10:00
- 10:36you're human. I've been married for 42 years
- 10:42and I'm a slow learner. I bet that.
- 10:44Not a bright guy, but I've learned that when my wife gets
- 10:48up, when she talks to me, I'll talk to her, not before.
- 10:54So if you're one of those grumpy old guys that you get up and
- 10:56you're slow, you know, not saying my wife's grumpy, but if
- 11:00you're one of those people that you're not a morning person,
- 11:03maybe the time for you to seek the Lord isn't the first thing
- 11:06in the morning. Maybe to be more beneficial
- 11:08later in the day, but every day is the day to seek the Lord.
- 11:14So it's a daily pursuit. Psalm 63 verse 8 He said My soul
- 11:19fall with heart after thee, Thy right hand upholdeth me.
- 11:22Psalm 42 one as the heart panteth after the water brooks,
- 11:27so panteth my soul after Thee. O Lord, you know David just we
- 11:33all know that he was a man after God's own heart.
- 11:35We know that that's the only person God ever said that about.
- 11:40But that doesn't mean that he couldn't say it about us or that
- 11:45he shouldn't say it about us. God wants us to seek Him with a
- 11:50whole heart, but He also wants that to be a daily pursuit and
- 11:54that pursuit should bring us near to God.
- 11:57He says in James chapter 4 verse 8, draw nigh to God and he will
- 12:01draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners,
- 12:03and purify your hearts. You double minded.
- 12:05When I was a young Bible student, I used to look at that
- 12:09curiously and I couldn't understand how God could tell me
- 12:14to draw near to God and you draw near to me, when in fact I was
- 12:18in Christ. I understood that I was in
- 12:20Christ. But being in Christ is is a it's
- 12:25a state, but being near to God is about a relationship.
- 12:32I think a lot of the gospel, particularly the blood
- 12:35atonement, has gotten weeded out of our gospel preaching and it
- 12:39certainly needs to be there and it's been replaced by a
- 12:42conversation that goes something well, you know, it's about a
- 12:45relationship. Well, it's certainly it is about
- 12:47a relationship and our pursuit of God is about a relationship
- 12:52that's based on the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
- 12:56And so once we've been washed in the blood, and yes, I've been
- 13:01washed in the blood, then we should have a relationship that
- 13:06causes us in our pursuit to draw near to God.
- 13:11So I've been married for 42 years.
- 13:14My wife has changed in those 42 years and so has her husband.
- 13:20And so I continue to seek her because as she's changing, I
- 13:23want to know what's going on, what's what's different today
- 13:28than it was five years ago, 10 years ago?
- 13:30Am I better husband now, my worst husband now?
- 13:33Don't answer that, dear. You know so so that pursuit of
- 13:38that relationship should be something that's drawing us near
- 13:43to God. He said, but seek your first,
- 13:46the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
- 13:48things shall be added unto you. That's a Matthew 633 in Proverbs
- 13:52817. He said, I love them that love
- 13:55me, and those that seek me early shall find me.
- 14:03There have been times where I would say that I perceive the
- 14:08Spirit of God in a greater sense than of others.
- 14:11And in 42 years that's going to happen if you live that long.
- 14:16And sometimes we go through things, through difficulties,
- 14:19and we wonder, Lord, where are you?
- 14:22But what is the deal? Why is this happening?
- 14:25Why is my economic situation like this?
- 14:29Why are my relationships the way they are?
- 14:32Why are my teenagers the way that they are?
- 14:35Well, the right thing to do is go to God and pray.
- 14:41The right thing to do is to seek the Lord.
- 14:43Because if we seek the Lord, a lot of times God will give us
- 14:47the right questions to ask. When I was raising my kids,
- 14:51finding the answer wasn't usually the hardest part.
- 14:56That's raising my kids. Sometimes asking the right
- 14:59questions was the hardest part. And a lot of times teens go
- 15:03through, young people go through things and they want to explain
- 15:06it to us. Yeah, but they can't.
- 15:10And so, Mom, dad, that's the time to be a great listener.
- 15:16Sometimes you won't even get to the place you want to get to in
- 15:19that conversation. But if we're good listeners and
- 15:24we pursue our our children, our young people, we pursue our
- 15:28spouse or husband or wife, then we get to listen.
- 15:34And when we're pursuing God, sometimes the best thing we
- 15:38could do is listen. You know, when we're reading and
- 15:41studying the scriptures, it's God speaking to us.
- 15:44It is his words and they're speaking to us if we're
- 15:48listening. But if we're just kind of eyes
- 15:51over the page, chapter block, read my 3 chapters, I'm good to
- 15:55go. Yeah, that's not pursuing God.
- 15:57That's called a waste of time. That's what that is.
- 16:02So let's pursue God with her whole heart.
- 16:04Let's do it on a daily basis and let's draw nigh to God.
- 16:07So that's the first P, the pursuit of God.
- 16:09The second one is the power of God, the power of God's dynamic.
- 16:14It is something that not only changes, ebbs and flows in, and
- 16:19that's how he, I would use the word dynamic, but it's also
- 16:22dynamic in its demonstration. Here's an example.
- 16:27When God spoke, the world's were formed.
- 16:31When God spoke, the heaven was formed.
- 16:35Try to take your mind back someplace where there was no
- 16:39universe, where there is just God and God spoke and it was
- 16:44existing. And so so God's words are
- 16:48dynamic. There's something that cause
- 16:50immediate change, and sometimes that immediate change is over
- 16:56the period of time. But when God created the heaven
- 17:00and the earth, it was instant, it didn't take time and there
- 17:03was no evolution. If you've if you've ever studied
- 17:09evolution, you could just make joke after joke after joke if
- 17:13you wanted to. It's just such foolishness.
- 17:16The power of God is dynamic. Psalm 147 verse five, He says
- 17:21great is our Lord and have great power.
- 17:24His understanding is infinite. God's power is related to his
- 17:30understanding and it's infinite. God's power is dynamic.
- 17:34He also says in Jeremiah 3217, Ah, Lord God, behold, thou has
- 17:39made the heaven and the earth by thy great power, and stretch
- 17:42that arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee.
- 17:48So mom, dad, maybe you are raising teenagers and you wonder
- 17:52if that's true. Is there anything too hard for
- 17:55you? God?
- 17:55I don't know why they think the way they do.
- 17:57I don't know why they speak the way they do.
- 18:00I don't know why they do the things they do.
- 18:03Mom and Dad, sometimes you don't need to.
- 18:05No, you need to trust the Lord. I had a man say to me when I was
- 18:12a young Christian that he had learned in his old age that it
- 18:17did more good to talk to God about man than it did to talk to
- 18:22man about God. And I don't know if that's
- 18:24completely true, but I know that when I was raising my teenagers,
- 18:28sometimes the best thing for me to do is to be praying about
- 18:31whatever was coming up. And I, and I don't mean this to
- 18:35sound like I had a bad time raising my teenagers.
- 18:39I loved raising my teenagers. My kids are and my wife.
- 18:44They're my favorite people on the planet.
- 18:46And to see, excuse me, the people that my kids have become,
- 18:52and having walked through those teen years with them, why
- 18:55wouldn't I wouldn't trade that for anything.
- 18:58I'm so grateful. And now I see them raising their
- 19:00teenagers. And sometimes I say, ha, ha, you
- 19:06reap what you sow. But I'll tell you what, I can't
- 19:12imagine having tried to raise teenagers without the power of
- 19:16God in my life and in theirs. It's the power of God that keeps
- 19:22them look at another couple verses about this.
- 19:25But but I and I've often Karen and I have said many times, what
- 19:32do people do in life when life hits them upside the head and
- 19:37they can't go to God. And for the context here, I'll
- 19:41say access the power of God where they can't do that.
- 19:46I don't know how they do it. I know that, you know, through
- 19:50my life there been enough desperate times where you know
- 19:53where I would go to God and God would do great things, but I
- 19:56can't imagine not having been able to go to him.
- 20:00The power of God is infinite. It's dynamic.
- 20:04Psalm 6211, he says God. I've spoken once, twice.
- 20:07Have I heard this? That power belongeth to God.
- 20:12Now we've got a bunch of people in our country who think that
- 20:14they're powerful, and that tickles me.
- 20:18Imagine the president's one. He's called the most powerful
- 20:21man in the world. We have senators and congressmen
- 20:25who think that they're powerful. I've said under pastors who
- 20:28thought that they were powerful. But power belongeth to God.
- 20:34It's dynamic, but it belongs to God.
- 20:38It doesn't belong to me. I know that inside of me lives
- 20:42the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is not the junior
- 20:47varsity. The Spirit of God's a person.
- 20:51The Spirit of God living inside each of us who've been born
- 20:54again is a complete part of the Godhead.
- 21:00So it's not like, you know, God the Father's Son or God the
- 21:03Father's here, God the Son's here, and God the Holy Ghost is
- 21:05here. No, they're three in one and
- 21:08they're Co equal in their power and in their authority.
- 21:11And the God that lives in you, the God that has the infinite
- 21:14power of the universe wants us to access that power for his
- 21:21glory. But always remember that power
- 21:25belongs to God. Just like music was created by
- 21:30God for God, God's power that lives inside of us is to be
- 21:36exercised for God. It was.
- 21:39I think God's power is infinite. It is dynamic.
- 21:42He says the First Chronicles, chapter 29, verse 11.
- 21:45Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and
- 21:49the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heaven and
- 21:52the earth is thine. Thine is the Kingdom, O Lord,
- 21:55and thou art exalted his head above all.
- 21:58It's interesting to me that right there in that verse, it's
- 22:00kind of buried. The power of God is in there.
- 22:04Let me read that again. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness
- 22:07and the power. It's God's power and it is
- 22:14dynamic. He created the world's.
- 22:17He created you and me by his power, by the word of his
- 22:22authority. He speaks and His power is
- 22:26exercised. It is dynamic and I I'm in awe
- 22:30of God's power. And you can look out and see
- 22:33that the heavens declare the glory of God.
- 22:38God's glory is a result of His power and it's dynamic.
- 22:42It's also directive. Let me read from Daniel chapter
- 22:474, verse 17. This matter is by the decree of
- 22:50the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones to the
- 22:55intent that the living may know that the most high ruleth in the
- 23:00Kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever you will, and setteth
- 23:05up over it the basest of men, that is the lowest of men.
- 23:11And so this was talking about old Nebuchadnezzar.
- 23:16He looking out over his vast Kingdom, he got himself a bigger
- 23:19head than he already had. And he decided, wow, I'm pretty
- 23:23awesome. I'm all that in a bag of chips
- 23:26and God goes, yeah, no, I don't think so.
- 23:29That's I'll tell you what. I want you for seven years to go
- 23:31out there. I want you to walk around on
- 23:34your hands and your feet. I want you to eat grass, what
- 23:38they do with heaven to fall on you.
- 23:42And he ate grass like an ox for seven years.
- 23:46You know what an ox is, right? It's a castrated bowl.
- 23:49Thank you. No, I don't want to be that.
- 23:53And so he had the idea that he was powerful, and God had the
- 23:57idea that no, he's not. And so I don't ever want to
- 24:01approach the thing that is the power of God.
- 24:05Like like carelessly or foolishly, but the power of God
- 24:12is in fact over mankind. The power of God is over
- 24:16nations. The power of God is over the
- 24:18individual who read the a verse about the nations and he changes
- 24:22the times and seasons. This Daniel 221.
- 24:25He removeth kings and setteth up kings.
- 24:27He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that no
- 24:31understanding. So there's not a ruler that God
- 24:36didn't set up or take down. I I've heard it said many times
- 24:41that America gets the government she deserves.
- 24:44And that is a frightening thought to me.
- 24:47I've lived long enough to where I've seen Joe Biden be the head
- 24:54of our country. I saw Barack Obama be the head
- 24:58of our country. I saw Bill Clinton be the head
- 25:04of our country. Not going to say all that I want
- 25:06to there. I saw Jimmy Carter be the head
- 25:11of our country, and it was God who is responsible for that.
- 25:17And if you read the kings of Israel and of Judah, you
- 25:21understand they got the government they deserved as
- 25:23well. And so it's frightening to me at
- 25:26times when I see the people who God picks up and puts down to
- 25:31lead our country. But know this, that it's done by
- 25:35the power of God. And so whether I like it or not,
- 25:39God's doing it. And oh, by the way, God can
- 25:43pretty much do what he wants. He's sovereign, he is powerful.
- 25:49All power belongs to God. So it's directive.
- 25:53So let me, let me make this a, a personal point.
- 25:58How is God directing his power in your life and in mine?
- 26:06So I've been, I've been unemployed now for going on, I
- 26:11guess 14 months and the God has supplied her every need and
- 26:16wonderfully so, marvellously so, incredibly so.
- 26:20And, And, but I, I am a guy who likes to work.
- 26:23So I have a farm and I'm farming and, and, but I don't, haven't
- 26:26made a whole lot of income. If you can imagine starting a
- 26:32farm, it's kind of kind of difficult to start it.
- 26:36And yet God has in his power supplied her every need.
- 26:41I'm a guy who likes to get up and go to work in the morning.
- 26:43I like that purpose. I like that place.
- 26:47You know, I like to go out and accomplish great things.
- 26:50And so the fact that I haven't done that for going on 14 months
- 26:53is it's a little bit embarrassing to be honest with
- 26:57you, but I know that it's not because God lacks power or that
- 27:02God has lacked the ability to provide me an another job or
- 27:06income. He's just doing what he wants.
- 27:08And I'm trying to listen and pay attention to what it is.
- 27:12But I know that individually, each one of us, God's power is
- 27:17directive in our lives. And it's important that we
- 27:21recognize that if we want God to do great things in our lives, if
- 27:26we won't recognize His power in our lives.
- 27:29I think God can just. Sit on his hands and wait.
- 27:32He's very patient, that. Way in my experience and so also
- 27:36the power of God isn't his deliverance that you think about
- 27:40your own personal experience the day God saved you and I just was
- 27:45sharing my testimony with Leon a little bit ago and his and my
- 27:50salvation experience from a an emotional level was like 180 out
- 27:56completely different. He just matter of fact, he
- 28:00believed the gospel and I was on my face bone, you know, like the
- 28:04sniveling maggot that I was. And I was right down on the
- 28:08floor with the dirt and the cockroaches and the crickets.
- 28:13And that's where I. Belonged.
- 28:14That's who I was. But God's.
- 28:19Power was deliverance in my life.
- 28:22Psalm verse 18, verse two, he says the Lord is my rock and my
- 28:25fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will
- 28:28trust my buckler and the horn of my salvation in my high tower.
- 28:33That sounds pretty powerful to me.
- 28:36And if I went and and looked up every one of those different
- 28:40things, rock fortress, deliver strength, my buckler, horn of my
- 28:46salvation, high tower, if I look them up all, every time they're
- 28:49using the Scriptures, every one of them could give you a
- 28:51message, could give you a blessing.
- 28:53But that's the result of the power of God.
- 28:56It is God's deliverance for the Saints.
- 29:01Daniel 3. 17 He says. I love this story.
- 29:04It would be so. Our God, whom we serve, is able
- 29:07to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will
- 29:11deliver us out of thine hand, O King.
- 29:14And then right after that they say, Oh, but if not.
- 29:20Where I'm still not. Worshiping your God.
- 29:22And I'm not going to bow down before that image.
- 29:27It was God's. Deliverance they were counting
- 29:29on. But those boys love God so much
- 29:32that they said, yeah, and if God's not going to do it, we're
- 29:34not bowing down to that image anyway.
- 29:36We just love our God too much. Hey, that's, that's the power of
- 29:40deliverance. There will be times in our
- 29:43lives, brothers and sisters, where we get to make a choice.
- 29:46We get to stand for God. And God will.
- 29:50Certainly is able to give us the power to do that.
- 29:53The question is, would we exercise that power?
- 29:56There's going to be times if we live long enough in this
- 29:59country. Where we may have to.
- 30:02Stand for our lives and we may have to give our lives.
- 30:07We should make up our. Minds right now that we're not
- 30:10going to bow to the image of Baal, we're not going to bow to
- 30:14any man's image. We're going to trust the power
- 30:17of God for our deliverance and truly.
- 30:21If if in. Our earthly worst case scenario
- 30:24came and we were martyred for for Jesus Christ.
- 30:29Why? You just get to heaven.
- 30:31That can't be too bad. So you know my mind as a young
- 30:35Christian man that I was going to stand for God, and I'm
- 30:40thankful that I had mentors in my life to encourage me and to
- 30:44challenge me that way. One more verse about.
- 30:48Deliverance. The horse is prepared against
- 30:50the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord.
- 30:53It is God's power that has given us safety.
- 30:58Everyone of you that drove in yesterday, today, this morning
- 31:02maybe. Do you know the enemy?
- 31:05Wanted you dead, he. Didn't want you to get.
- 31:08Here today, He didn't want you to hear about the pursuit of
- 31:11God. He didn't want you to hear about
- 31:13the power of God. He doesn't want you to know
- 31:16about the person of God. And if he had his way, every one
- 31:21of us would be splattered on the side of the road.
- 31:23Power of God is what gave us the safety to get here.
- 31:28It's not the rules of the road, it's the power of God.
- 31:32The power of God is. Deliverance.
- 31:35And then the third. P is the person of God and a
- 31:39man. I love this verse.
- 31:43He says who? Psalm 113, verses 5 and 6.
- 31:46He said, Who is like the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high,
- 31:52who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven
- 31:57and in the earth. When we read the Scriptures,
- 32:00brother and sisters, what God wants us to do is know who He
- 32:04is, the person that He is. He invites us to seek Him.
- 32:08He invites us He. He wants us to experience His
- 32:12power, but He wants us to know who He is as a person.
- 32:17And he wants that. Relationship with us.
- 32:21That was. I'll direct this.
- 32:22To you, because you and I can be most guilty most quickly.
- 32:27If you married your. Wife.
- 32:29And then you stopped pursuing her.
- 32:33How'd that go? Would you start getting?
- 32:37Burnt offerings for your meals. Would you?
- 32:43Would you enjoy her presence? Would you enjoy her spirit?
- 32:47You would not. And yet I'm afraid that so often
- 32:52I see that people don't want to know who the person of the Lord
- 32:57Jesus is. We ought to ask this.
- 33:00Question Who is like the Lord our God?
- 33:05Well, he's. Holy if you if God were nothing
- 33:09else, he would be holy. Isaiah 6 verses one through
- 33:13three. He says in the year that King
- 33:16Uzziah died, I also saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and
- 33:22lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
- 33:26Can you imagine that picture? Isaiah, he's a prophet.
- 33:31He has been. He has been prophesying while
- 33:34he's in the land that the destruction of the nation is
- 33:38coming. And yet God.
- 33:41Gives him this picture and in the year the Uzziah died and he
- 33:46saw the Lord sitting on his throne.
- 33:51Put yourself there. You just stand in there and you
- 33:56see God high and lifted up sitting on his throne.
- 34:01That to me is an amazing thought.
- 34:04It's a marvellous thought, but it's a fearful thought.
- 34:06One day I'm actually going to see that above it stood the
- 34:09Seraphins. Each one had wings, with 20
- 34:12covered his face, with 20 covered his feet, and with 20 to
- 34:16fly. And one cried unto another, and
- 34:18said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
- 34:25Is Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
- 34:27glory. What a picture.
- 34:31And you and I are going to get to actually physically see that
- 34:38that's the person that is the person's that stepped out of
- 34:44heaven. Roved himself with.
- 34:48Flesh. And was standing there.
- 34:53When I spit in his face. And he was standing there.
- 34:56When I jammed the crown of thorns down his head.
- 35:02He's standing. There when I whipped him with a
- 35:05cat of nine tails. That God.
- 35:11That holy God. Was the one that took.
- 35:15My beating and. He picked up his.
- 35:18Cross. And he climbed up Calvary's
- 35:19Hill, and he laid down on that cross.
- 35:22He laid, He gave his life, and I nailed him to it.
- 35:27And I picked it up. And put it in that hole.
- 35:32That holy. God.
- 35:36Is the person. That loved me.
- 35:40After I did all. That that's what he said.
- 35:48I. Love.
- 35:49You, the Person of God, is holy, and I greatly, greatly love and
- 35:57appreciate His Holiness. Who is like unto?
- 36:04Thee, O Lord among the gods, who is like thee, glorious in
- 36:09holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders, was it a wonder
- 36:14that God saved you Do. You remember what that?
- 36:18Was like, do you remember the wonder of that?
- 36:22Because we'll never. Lose it, but never lose the
- 36:26understanding of His Holiness. God's person is holy.
- 36:33And I'm so thankful. That he is.
- 36:35If he weren't, he couldn't have paid the price for me if he
- 36:38wanted to. But he's holy and.
- 36:43He's eternal. Before the mountains were
- 36:45brought forth, wherever thou hast formed the earth and the
- 36:47world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
- 36:53He said I am alpha. And Omega, the beginning and the
- 36:56ending, Which is the which was and which is to come?
- 37:01The Almighty, He's eternal. And have you thought of this if
- 37:08he weren't eternal? Your salvation wouldn't.
- 37:12Be worth much. If he weren't eternal, he could
- 37:17just save you one minute and you could be lost the next.
- 37:24The person of God is. Holy, and the person of God is
- 37:26eternal, and the person of God is faithful.
- 37:29He says in Lamentations 322 and 23.
- 37:32It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his
- 37:37compassion is found not there. New every morning.
- 37:40Great is thy faithfulness. What if God weren't?
- 37:44Faithful What if God just decided to change his mind?
- 37:49He never does that. Second Timothy 2. 3/2/13 He says
- 37:53this, if we believe not yet he abideth faithful, He cannot deny
- 37:59himself. And that ought to comfort.
- 38:02US. That ought to comfort us.
- 38:05About our eternal security. Because God.
- 38:09Cannot deny himself and I'm in him.
- 38:13I'm secure. I'm there forever.
- 38:17And so the three the pea soup for the Saints.
- 38:23It's the pursuit of. God.
- 38:26And it's the power. Of God.
- 38:29And it's the person. Of God, and we ought to
- 38:32experience all three all the time for God's sake.
- 38:38Let me remind you of this as I close God is sovereign.
- 38:43God can do what He wants, when he wants, how He wants, where He
- 38:46wants, however He wants. And whatever difficulty.
- 38:51You might go through and I might go through in our life.
- 38:55If it's good for. God, it's good for us, you say,
- 39:00Well, I don't know how you know, this difficulty that I'm going
- 39:03through could be good for God. Maybe you're not asking the.
- 39:08Right question. Maybe the question ought to.
- 39:11Be God, How can you use me to make this situation good for
- 39:17you? So it'll end up being.
- 39:19Good for me and my family. Brothers and sisters, let's.
- 39:25Be aware that God wants us to pursue Him, that God wants us to
- 39:29experience His power, and God wants us to know His person, and
- 39:34He wants that all the time for us because that's good for us.
- 39:38Whatever is good for. God is good for us.
- 39:42Let's pray. Father, thank you for the word
- 39:44of God. Thank you this morning for Peace
- 39:48Soup for the Saints. God cause us to.
- 39:53Pursue you. With our whole heart.
- 39:56Every day, all the way, God help us to understand your power.
- 40:03And be in awe of. It.
- 40:05And be aware of it. And God help us to know the
- 40:09person that you are more every day.
- 40:12God, help us to seek you and to know you.
- 40:16You're a great God, You're a great Father.
- 40:18And Lord, we love you this morning.
- 40:20We worship you. We thank you for sending Jesus
- 40:23to bleed to death in our place. God bless your name.
- 40:29In Jesus name, Amen. All right.
- 40:33Well, thank you. For not falling asleep and you
- 40:37want to.