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Worship Service for Sunday, March 27, 2022

3/27/2022

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  • Full Worship Service
  • With ASL & CC
  • Pastor's Notes
  • Transcript
  • Special Teaching Tool
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​Jesus Predicts His Death and Resurrection
Matthew 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:17-19
March 27, 2022
Introduction
Jesus came to die for our sins!
-He didn’t just teach good principles to live by
-He wasn’t just a good example of a human to follow
 
Jesus clearly explained his mission
-Matthew 9:15  he makes a passing reference
-Matt 10:38 A follower must be willing to take up his cross
-Jesus explains his plan to the disciples three times
 
Read Matthew 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:17-19
 
 
The combined details of Christ’s prediction
1. He will be killed and resurrected in Jerusalem
-16:21 and 20:17-19
 
 
2. He will be betrayed and be handed over
-betrayed=  17:22
-handed over=  20:18
 
 
3. The elders, chief priests and scribes will condemn him
-16:21 and 20:18
 
 
4. Gentiles will kill him by crucifixion
-killed= all three times
-Gentiles will crucify him=  20:19
 
 
5. He will be raised up on the third day
-all three times
 
 
Jesus demonstrated his
Supernatural Power
-specific predictions of future events
-his enemies fulfilled Old Testament prophecy
 
 
 
Sacrificial Purpose
-Jesus said “it was necessary”  16:21
-Jesus was undistracted from his purpose
-Jesus refused to let his disciples stop him
-Jesus carried this burden alone- disciples didn’t understand
-Romans 5:8  But God proves his own love for us in that while
   we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
 
 
 
Salvation Plan
-Jesus overcame the punishment of sin by rising from death
-God planned all along to save us from our sins
-Jesus became the final High Priest and Perfect Sacrifice for us
 
 
 
 
What now?
Trust Jesus to be right
-He correctly predicted his death and resurrection
-He will correctly lead us right now!
 
 
 
Trust Jesus to save us
-Romans 10:9-10
 
 
 
 
 
Matt 16:21
Matt 17:22-23
Matt 20:17-19

The Son of Man
The Son of Man
The Son of Man

He must go to Jerusalem
 
We are going to Jerusalem

Suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes
Be betrayed into the hands of men
Handed over to the chief priests and scribes

Be killed
They will kill him
They will condemn him to death

 
 
They will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, flogged, and crucified

And be raised the third day
On the third day he will be raised up
On the third day he will be raised

Peter rebukes Jesus
The disciples were filled with grief
A mother asks Jesus to give her sons special status in His kingdom

 
 
 
 
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Worship Service for Sunday, March 20, 2022

3/20/2022

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  • Full Worship Service
  • With ASL & CC
  • Pastor's Notes
  • Transcript
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​How to be Great
Matthew 18:1-5
March 20, 2022
What is the measure of greatness
The World has a standard
 
 
Jesus set the standard
 
 
Christians still struggle with Christ’s standard!
 
 
Matthew 18:1-5
We must “turn and become like children”
-repent of our human definitions of greatness
-become- choose a new lifestyle, attitude
-like children- fully dependent on God our Father
 
We must “humble” ourselves
-Matthew 23:12 The proud will be humbled, the humbled will be
    exalted
-James 4:6  God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble
 
 
The opposite of humility:  Matthew 18:6-7
Jesus warns abusers of divine judgment
-FWPD: Crimes against persons division
-Financial exploitation
-Racial discrimination
-Sexual harassment, abuse
 
Do whatever it takes to stop offending “little ones”!
-Great people will always care for the “little ones”
-“little ones” are the great people in this world!
 
 
 
 
How do we do this?
1.  Identify what you are trying to control
-people, situations, a project, a ministry responsibility
-something that affects how you feel about your self-worth
 
2.  Admit you don’t control anything!
-your successes depended on a Holy God who enabled you to succeed
-your personal worth is not determined by how successful you look to other people or even to yourself
-Admit that you are prideful and independent, and that you are opposing Almighty God.
-my story: pride = referring to how our church was before the pandemic. St Joe successes don’t define our worth, God does! Our focus on “the little children” now is what matters most!
 
3.  Surrender to Christ’s full control
-Depend on God like a little child depends on a parent
-Trust God to provide all you need to be great!
-Proverbs 3:5-6
 
John 15:5  I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in hi produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.
 
 
4. “Welcome” the least important people
-Matthew 25:40  serve the least of these = serving Jesus
     -hungry, thirsty, stranger, without clothes, sick, in prison
-Stand up for the oppressed, marginalized, discriminated
-Welcome people who have no voice in this world
 
 
 
 
 
 
​Welcome

Hello and welcome to St Joe Community Church online worship. We’re so glad that you joined us in the safety of your home. Maybe you’re checking out church for the first time and you’re checking out what we’re like. I hope that you will take out your bible, your notepad, you’ll remove all your other distractions, and you’ll listen, you’ll sing, you’ll read out loud. Whatever you’re doing, if you were in person doing it with us, that you would do that right where you are in your home. And while you’re watching, and after you’re watching, or whenever you can, I hope you will get in touch with us. Use our Facebook page. Go our website (www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org). Some how let us know that you’re watching. Like us, do a thumbs-up on the YouTube page. However you can do it, let us know, because we want to engage with you, and encourage you, pray for you, help you take your Next Right Step, send a resource to you, whatever you need so that we can start helping you find and build community around you for the future. God bless you, and we’ll talk to you at the very end of this with some more details.
 
Sermon 
Well, if you have your Bible, please turn to Matthew 18. If you have it on your smartphone or you have the physical copy. And for those of you who are interested, we do have Bibles to my left in the very back on the foyer on top of the piano back there, there are Bibles. And if you don't have one, you're welcome to take one with you. If you want a modern translation, the one we use and you don't have one of those, you're welcome to take that as well as they disappear, we buy more. That's just how that works. So if you want to borrow one today, you can put it back when you're done and that's fine as well. I mentioned how we'd love for you to be a greeter. I failed to mention that the best way to let us know is to either send us a note on our contact page on the website, or use a connection card and physically write your name and best phone number.
 
We have connection cards in the back as you walk out and you can actually grab it and put it in an offering box out in the great room, just stick it in there. Especially also for those of you who are new, welcome, and we would welcome you to do so. We'd love to thank you in person through a note in the mail. We won't come knock on your door, I promise, unless you want us to. We also have a gift for all our newcomers today, and I hope that you will grab that as you go out today. Thank you for coming and being with us today and worship.
 
Matthew 18, we are highlighting stories from the time that the crowds of Jesus were starting to peel away from Him because He was not fulfilling their expectations of what a Messiah king was supposed to be all the way he traveled down, and He's traveling down to the cross where He would be crucified and then three days later rise again from the dead. So we're basically between now and Easter Sunday, the next four weeks, and it's that quick. We are going to highlight stories in between this time period and we're using the gospel or the good news story that was inspired by the Holy Spirit that Matthew wrote down by the inspiration of Holy Spirit in Matthew's gospel. So we'll just keep staying in Matthew. And if you want to read ahead and look at what we're are doing ahead of time, or kind of soak it up beforehand or afterwards, Matthew 18 and following is pretty much where we're going to be from here on out.
 
Not only was He coming towards Jerusalem or heading towards Jerusalem, but it was actually in the geography of the land, it actually is going down. So yes, in literary terms, He was going down to His death, and in physical terms, He was physically traveling down to Jerusalem. Interesting note, maybe not important to your spiritual life, but I thought that to be an interesting fact. And we are coming off of the heels of a conversation where Peter's saying, "You're the Messiah. You're awesome. You're the one. You're the one true God." And then there's this argument here and there about who's the greatest in the kingdom or who's more important. And they're getting the idea that Jesus is claiming to be the king, and they believe in Him as the king. And now they're thinking who's going to be on His right and left. Who's going to be hanging out with Him? Who's going to be important in your administration? The closer people get to being electable, the more friends they seem to make. You're like, "I want to be around this guy. He's a winner. And when he's a winner, he's going to take me with him so I can be a winner." Greatness!
 
You see, the world has a measure of greatness. They have a measure of greatness, and we all are subject to that definition. Any of you back... I mean, some of us are old enough to remember when were allowed to play King of the Hill in the playground. Yeah, the biggest and the baddest got to the top and they just kept kicking them off, whatever they had to do, probably not allowed to play that anymore. We used to play that on the monkey bars. That was painful. Anybody here have a chip tooth from that, anybody? The world has a standard. Have you ever felt like the rung on somebody's success ladder? They were just climbing over you to get to the top and you were a pawn in their game of success.
 
There just seems to be the world has it all figured out what to be successful is. You have more money, more stuff, and you can just say what address you live in, in town and your eyebrows are, "Oh, you live in that part of the neighborhood. Oh, you live over there. Oh, you live over there." We do this. And maybe we do it naturally and we don't think about it, it's ingrained in us. Greatness has been defined for us and we've bought into it too many times. In no way am I denigrating worth based on someone is highly skilled or someone is smarter. I know a lot of people smarter than me, I will give honor to whom honor is due. Don't get me wrong. Somebody has a lot of power and they're able to lead well with that power, man, God bless them. You need to pray for leaders with responsibilities of leading and the accountability they have over lives in the decisions that they make. But ultimately, Jesus sets the standard for greatness, not us. We got to listen to Him.
 
I've been touring some art museums recently. I got to go out with my dad out to Virginia Beach and there was an art museum out there, and that was one thing you did and walked around. And some art you look at and you go, "Hmm." Anybody? And I'm not really a big [unclear06:32]. I'm not really a big, but hey, there's art, it's free and it's me, I'll go watch the art. So I went there and I'm like, "Hmm." And then you read the little caption next to it and the artist tells you what he or she depicted and you go, huh? And then sometimes you read it and you still go, "Hmm." But anyway, at the end of the day, the artist tells you what you're supposed to be looking at.
 
One time my dad... Robert Frost, anybody? Poet, right. He wrote some poems. And is it whose was is this - I think I know. Anybody? My dad used to quoted all the time. He's probably going to watch this online. Dad, thank you for ingraining this in my brain. He's an important person. And his professor said, "Well, I think that this means that" - and he had this big extrapolated reason for why he wrote "whose was is this". And so when he came to town, my dad asked him at the campus, college campus. He said, "So does this what you meant?" No, it's just a woods. His professor didn't care for that. But you let the artist tell you, you let the poet tell you, you let the king of the world tell you how to run the world. Let's not call the shots. Let's let the one who made this world tell us how it works best.
 
And last I checked, there's a lot of self-help books out there, marriage self-help books, how to gain your self-esteem, how to be a better you, better you tomorrow, better you in 10 days, a better you in - how about a whole lifetime? I don't know. Whatever it is, that wouldn't sell. And these self-help section is growing by leaps and bounds. I mean, there's been more trees sacrificed in the name of self-help for books that would've been better if they'd just been left trees so they could walk around in the woods instead of read the books. And all of these books have not really helped humanity get any better. Putin is still trying to take over Ukraine, last I checked. The self-help section has not showed him what greatness is. And the last I checked, the oppressed in our country are still being oppressed. And the little ones, the least of these, still don't have a voice in the machinery of government. And when it seems like even when government says they have a voice for them, it's really a ploy to abuse and use them. Not always, but it seems so often disappointing.
 
And by the way, Christians are still struggling with this standard as well. If you know anything about the history of the United States church today, you know there is this thing called celebrity pastor, and they're put on a pedestal. And the greatest and coolest, and so many times some of these movements called a church are more interested in being hip than holy. I'm not throwing a rock at anyone I'm saying in particular, I just know this is a phenomenon that's going on.
 
Even in this church, we are going to fight the humanity of this church to fight against clique and fight against groupings, and fight against looking down and looking up, and having some kind of a pecking order in our mind based on social status or money. It's just something we're all going to fight till Jesus comes. So let's not say it's happening out there. Let's look in the mirror. I'm looking in the mirror. As I read these few verses, let this be reflecting back to us, are we doing this? Say, "Oh me, oh my, Oh God, help me."
 
Let's read together. I'm reading from the Christian Standard Bible version, Chapter 18:1, "At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, 'So who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?' He called a child and had him stand among them, 'Truly I tell you,' he said, 'unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child, this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one child like this in my name welcomes me.'"
 
What is he saying here? What is he saying in terms of what greatness is? What's the definition of greatness? How do you become great in this world? You turn and become like children. That word turn means to repent. You're going one direction and you're going to go a new direction. You're making about face. I'm going to make this... I'm heading towards - greatness is measured in status, social status, power, money, things, he who has the most gold makes the golden rule is, what? He who has the gold makes the rule, right? Okay, that's what it is. I want all the gold so I make all the rules. And God is saying, no, you need to stop trampling on the least of these to get where you're supposed to go, and you need to become like a little child. You need to turn from your way of thinking. Repent of our human definitions of greatness and choose a new lifestyle or a new attitude. We need to be like children, fully dependent on God the father.
 
I don't mean the bratty little kid, no tantrums in the room, please. That's not what we're saying here. Jesus is taking a child in a culture and time period where children worth zero value. They couldn't work, you had to feed them, you had to take care of them; they were like livestock until they became valuable and working. Let's just be honest, women bear children, take care of the house, men go out and work. As a division of labor and until you were good enough to be a laborer of either of those two, you weren't much good to society. They worth zero value. There was another time period where the children were coming up to Jesus, even after He said this, and the disciple's like, "Get away," like secret service. Here comes the celebrity Jesus, stay away children. Get away, get away. Bogie on nine o'clock, we got to get them out of here.
 
And Jesus is like, "Stop! Don't keep the children from coming to me, that's the kind of people that's in the kingdom of God, children. Children, the least of these, the unimportant, because they are important to God. The ones that understand and know that they're the neediest people in the world. When a baby cries, it needs to eat, it needs to sleep, it needs a diaper change. I think that one, what's that - away in the manger and no crying He makes; Jesus probably cried. He was a baby. If He didn't cry, they wouldn't have fed Him. That's just normal for children to do. It's normal for a child. They need help. They're needy. And that's how we need to be in front of God.
 
I need you God for every part of my life. I don't know, there's animals out there that are born in this world, they don't need nurturing. Humans need nurturing. And if you don't nurture them, they die. My wife is in business the rest of her career as a social worker, because parents don't know how to be parents. She'll never be out of a job; so sad, because children need parents. If the parents won't be parents, they need other parents. And we need families around families, around families. We need people. We need help. And here's the deal; you need help and I need help. I am a middle aged guy and I still need to be like a child in front of God saying, "God, help me. I need you." Yeah, I've learned a few things, I've read a few books, I've learned a thing or two, because I've seen a thing or two, you know that little commercial. So, how do you know this? Well, I put my hand on the burner once too. And it was hot and I burn my hand, so I'm just encouraging you not to do that. So learn from my mistakes.
 
We've all arrived at a spot where we're at, where we are better at things than we used to be. We are growing in our skills. I hope you are. I hope you're growing hope. You're better than you were five years ago, two years ago, maybe even six months ago. But we haven't arrived. We still need help. And the success that you did have, or you did gain, even if you didn't acknowledge God, came from God in the first place. We must humble ourselves. Matthew 23:12, "The proud is going to be humbled in the humble they will be exalted," Jesus said. And in James 4:6 it says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." What? Did you hear that? God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I don't know about you, but have you ever been resisted by somebody like opposed like a human being, that they've just opposed you at something you wanted to do? Or maybe in something that you should do that was the right thing to do and they just kept stiff arming you? If you're an athlete, maybe you're a defender and the receiver grabbed the ball and they stiff armed you and they knocked you out of the way to make a touchdown.
 
God will stiff arm you if you're proud. Heaven help us. I don't want God stiff arming me. I don't want God to resist me. I want him to give me grace. And the only way I receive the help, the unmerited favor that God wants to flow out into my life is if I humble myself and acknowledge that I need it. Jesus said I didn't come for the people who were well, I came for the sick. A doctor doesn't go to well people, he goes to sick people. If you don't realize you need Jesus, you won't look for Jesus and you won't get the help that He gives you. And the great physician will not heal your home, your life, your attitude, your addictions, your problems, because you're too proud to ask Him for that kind of help.
 
Now, as a little side note, but I want to get back to the ending of these first few verses, but I want to highlight real quickly the next few verses because since we're here, I want to talk about it. The opposite of humility Is Matthews 18:6-7, "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away, it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea." What? Whoa to the world, because of offenses, for offenses will inevitably come. That's just part of humanity, part of life, but woe to that person, by whom those offenses come. Jesus warns abusers of divine judgment.
 
I've had to walk with too many people who have a childhood memory that they should never have had because of an abuser. People who have been bullied because they were the weaker In the crowd, women because they were not as strong as the men in their lives were abused, thrown away. And God warns the abuser that it would be better if you not only drowned, but you were so drowned that you were at the bottom of the sea drowned with the heaviest stone you can think of wrapped around your neck. That would be better for you than to face God's divine judgment for abusing a little one.
 
I stumbled in one day, I do my rounds at the Fort Wayne Police Department and I came into the Division of crimes against persons. And I knew existed, and I talked to people, but I got to talk to the detectives. And this was a particular week when a couple of cases actually made the newspaper that they had had some major convictions and some major sentencing, some major confessions. And so, I don't know if you can celebrate that, but we're just grateful that those people could no longer harm anybody and that justice was being done to show the victims that they mattered. And I was just saying, thank you for what you do. You don't want to have to be in the witness room interrogating and trying to get out of somebody the kind of information you would never want to hear, ever. You can't unsee it, you can't unthink it. Jesus warns, abusers of divine judgment.
 
I think there's other abuse that we can think of - financial exploitation, racial discrimination, because in some way you have some kind of power over somebody because of your status as a person. Any kind of way in which the least of these that society has marginal and not given a voice to, and you're choosing to join the world and not giving them a voice or raising them up, you are part of the problem, not part of the solution. And churches do this too. We have a pretty stringent policy to protect children. We have a pretty high bar for protecting ourselves from the temptation of crossing the line in terms of relations as far as staff. I talk to Bra, our leader here and David and myself, and we just say, you know, and the elders and I, we have some kind of accountability rules for making sure that we're just lying on the up and up, and that we're holding each other to a higher standard of respect and accountability in terms of the way we handle our lives.
 
The three person rule for guy and gals is a very common rule. And society laughed at it a handful of years ago when one leader said that he would never be a woman alone. And I'm just telling you if I've ever been with anybody accidentally, or somehow we were somewhere, my wife knows right away. Not because like, oh, Greg's going to go do something crazy. Well, you know, I'm still a human being. And the pastor that has said that'll never happen to me is usually the one that falls. And so, we just have some ideas of rules for how we just keep hedges of protection around our lives. I would not in any way, want to give off the impression that I was trying to exploit any kind of person nor would I want this community to know that anybody in this church was ever trying to do the same, that we're trying to lift up people, not tear down people.
 
And we're trying to create safe space for our children so that families know their kids are safe. And we really aren't comfortable relating well to churches that are sloppy about that. It's an important thing. We must take care of little ones. We must take care of the little ones. You see, great people will always care for the little ones. And the little ones are really the great people in the world anyway. So Jesus goes real quickly to, this is how you humble yourself and this is the person that's not humbling themselves. So, how do we do this? What are some key things? I want to give you four thoughts before we leave today. Number one, let's identify What we're trying to control. Are we trying to control people, situations, a project at work or at our house? In the church, leaders, are we trying to control a ministry responsibility because somehow we think that our control over that is measuring our worth and value? Something that affects how you feel about your self-worth, is you're just trying to control this.
 
So many times when somebody is really trying to be a real bossy controlling person, they're usually out of control over here, or they're not in control over here because of a search circumstance, or maybe they have a background story that they were completely out of control of. And they said, that'll never happen to me. And they fight tooth and nail to be in control of that part of their lives only to turn around and destroy other people in the process and destroy relationships. Marriages struggle with that. If one spouse was abused or something bad happened in their past, and they're like, "You know, my dad spent all our money or my mom did this or that. And she did all this wrong and she had a secret gambling habit." And then there's this dead set fight for finances. Or a husband that says I'll never be this or that and because something happened in his past and instead of giving it over to God, they're trying to control this part of the world because if they can control that, then everything's fine. And I look better and I am better.
 
We need to identify what is that one thing that you're trying to control and not give God control of; you're not turning and becoming like a little child in that area, and admit that you don't control anything. Your successes - even when you didn't depend on God in your mind, was still dependent on God giving you that success. There is no self-made millionaire. God allowed that person to be a millionaire. God allowed that athlete to be successful even if they blasted Him every Sunday during the game. You didn't get there by yourself. And your personal worth is not determined by successful you look in other people's eyes or even in your own eyes. You are already valuable in God's eyes. He still loves you. His love never fails. It never gives up. It never runs out on you. Did we just sing that? There is nothing you can do to lower or raise your value in God's eyes. He loves you this much. He died for you. He gave his life for you. Admit that you don't control anything; that you are prideful independent, and that you're opposing almighty God, you, you, you, you. Pastor, what about you?
 
Yeah, I'll tell you what I got nailed between the eyes this week. I'm in a luncheon and we're talking about, oh, isn't it great to see everybody again? And we had a big CEO that was there talking to us and praying over us and encouraging us and saying, we're so glad you pastors are still in the game and in the hunt and going after it. And this is the great resignation season they say. There's a lot of pastors resigning and everything, and you guys are making it, go for it. And then they got to thinking about how we still aren't in control and how we felt so out of control before, but who were we in control before COVID? And then they started doing some gut checks and they said, "So what's your vocabulary like? How are you treating the future instead of the past?" And I got to realizing that whenever someone would ask about our church, I'd say, "Well, you know, before COVID we, blah, blah, blah, blah. Before COVID we were doing... and now we're kind of like, you know?" Do I need to fill in the blanks here?
 
My self-worth as a pastor was being based on what we used to be instead of where we're headed and instead of what God thinks in the meantime. And I had to put my pride on the altar and say, "God, forgive me for using past language." I'm looking in the rear view mirror instead of the front windshield of life. And there's so much more to see because it's a bigger window than the rear view mirror. I can't change the past, but I'm living right now. That's the best season to live in, by the way. Say what? I'm saying because you're alive and you're living in it, so get on it and trust God. You've never been in control. You never will be in control. Admit it, and let God be in control and surrender our full control to Christ. Surrender, I'm done, I raise the white flag. I surrender - old song on the radio. We need to depend on God like a little child, depends on a parent. I need to pretend - I need to have that visual picture that I'm walking across and I see parking lot, and I'm not very good on my feet and I need my heavenly father to hold my hand so I don't slip and fall. I need help and you need help and we need help to surrender to Christ full control.
 
Oftentimes when I send out a little note to graduates or resend them a graduation congratulations, we'll write in there Proverbs 3:5-6. It was in one of my graduation cards when I graduated from high school. It says trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding, in all your ways know Him or acknowledge Him (King James) and He will make your or path straight. And then it goes on to say, don't be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones. I needed that in high school. I needed that in college. I need that as a middle aged guy. I can't trust in my own understanding. Sometimes I have the worst thoughts in the world about how to solve a problem. And then sometimes God gives them to me and it's like, yay. And if it matches with what this says and pretty much what the body of Christ and godly people are saying, let's go for it. Let's see what's going on. But I don't trust in myself. We should trust completely in Christ. What did he say in John 15:5? "I am the vine. You are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit because you can do nothing without me." You can do nothing without me. The double negative packs a punch.
 
Finally, if we're really do this right, if we've identified what we're trying to control and we admit, and we admit that we can't control it and we've surrendered to Christ's full control, then the result is going to be that we will welcome the least important people in our lives. That's going to be the test. Have you done it? "Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child, this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven," verse five, "And whoever welcomes one child like this in my name welcomes me." Later He describes the least of these in Matthew 25, He says, that's the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the person without clothes, the sick, the one in prison. God calls us to stand up for the oppressed, the marginalized, the discriminated against. We need to welcome people who have no voice in this world and be voices for those people in this world.
 
I close with one particular project that has been brought to our attention in the last few weeks. I had a meeting downtown and had several email requests. We are officially a partner of the Fort Wayne Rescue mission. Not because we give the largest amount of money to the Rescue Mission or that we send the most amount of volunteers to the Rescue Mission, but because they've identified something that you all have continued to do over the past three to four years, kind of slowed down during COVID, but it's starting to ramp back up again, that you have become a bridge to help men and women walk forward beyond the Rescue Mission into the family of God.
 
And one of the ways in which they're asking for us to pray about, and I'm praying about, we talked about it. We had a little prayer meeting here on Wednesday nights is that we're praying for a team to advocate on behalf of St. Joe Community Church for the Rescue Mission at our church, that they're a bridge team, that through them, we would send qualified volunteers. We would learn from them what the needs are for volunteering. And ultimately, not just to go and pour soup in a bowl for somebody, but build relationships that would lead to discipleship and growing them spiritually. And as these clients walk in and they start getting on some meds because 60 to 70 to 80% of them have mental disease, and they start walking through recovery programs to get out of their addictions of choice and they start stabilizing in ways that they may not have been given opportunity to in past environments. They're going to step out of the Rescue Mission and they're going to step into somewhere else. And they're praying that churches like ours would be that stepping block that they would say, "Look, there's homeless people that came from the 05." Well, they're going to go back to the 05, 46805.
 
So, why don't we be the choice church that's trusting that receives them? And not when they get here, but while they're still down there, and down there being the Rescue Mission, and we bring them in. I'm just praying that we will continue to be a safe harbor for the least of these, that particular part of our city being case in point. We're going to sing this last song. This is a song of blessing over us, but I pray that as God blesses us, that we will leak and that our blessing from Him will spill out into other people's lives. It might be that you need to put on that connection card, show me how to get involved on this new Rescue Mission team. I just need to keep coming. I would like to know more information about X, Y or Z. Let us know how to partner with you and encourage you and resource you and pray for you as you take your next step forward in the name of Jesus. Turning from the world's definition and our own worldly definition of what greatness is, to become great in the way that God wants us to be as we continue to lift others up who are very great in God's eyes. God, help us to be obedient to whatever you call us to do in this moment in Jesus name. Amen.
 
Conclusion

Thanks again for worshipping with us online. I hope that you will contact us. Go to our Facebook page, our website (www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org). Put a comment at the bottom of this video. However you can do that. Just let us know that you’re out there. We want to be able to pray for you, resource you, encourage you, answer any questions you might have. For those of you who have been giving online, thank you very much. We continue to have needs and continue to do things like this online worship experience, and other ministry needs and practical ways, and if you don’t know how to do that, just go to our website and there are instructions there. (www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org) so that you can also participate in our ministries and partner with us. Again, I’m Pastor Greg Byman, and on behalf of St Joe Community Church, God bless you, and we’ll see you next time. 
 
Thank you for joining us today. For more information about the St Joe ministry, visit www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org or call (260) 471-4704 or email StJoeCommunity@gmail.com. If you are looking for a church home, St Joe meets for worship and fellowship each Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. St Joe is committed to your well-being and safety. For the latest policies regarding the Covid 19 pandemic, please visit the Covid section of the St Joe website. Thanks again for joining us and we’ll see you next week.
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Worship Service for Sunday, March 13, 2022

3/13/2022

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  • Full Worship Service
  • With ASL & CC
  • Pastor's Notes
  • Transcript
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​All or Nothing
Matthew 16:24-26
What Is Worth Dying For?
 
 
 
 
Jesus declares He is worth dying for
 
 
 
Matthew 16:24    If anyone wants to follow me…
1.  Deny yourself
-free will, voluntarily submitting to Jesus
-renounce everything that might personally hinder our loyalty
 To Jesus Christ, or keep us from being more like Him
-NOT self-abuse or lack of self-worth
  -A child of God should be the most secure in self-worth!
  -Jesus came to die for us, redeem us, adopt us
 
 
2.  Take up your cross
-echoes Matthew 10:38
-opposite of what Peter thought- Matthew 16:21-23
-willing to suffer the shame and rejection by this world
-willing to pay the ultimate price if necessary
 
 
 
3.  Follow Jesus
-energetic and active decision, not passive
-we follow Jesus in the way he already lived
   -Hebrews 4:15-16  He knows our struggles!
 
 
 
 
 
 
What do we have to lose?
Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. 
-Does your object of worship promise eternal life?  
   -Are you experiencing true meaning and purpose?
   -Does what you worship truly satisfy your soul?
 -Jesus invites us to trust in Him to find real life and purpose!  
 
 
For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life?
-Everyone sells out to something!  (we all worship)
   -We must measure the cost with an eye on eternity!
-Worship this world and you will only get what this world offers
 
Psalm 49:6-9  They trust in their wealth and boast of their abundant riches. Yet these cannot redeem a person or pay his ransom to God—since the price of redeeming him is too costly, one should forever stop trying—so that he may forever live and not see the Pit.
 
Stop trying to redeem your life
     and trust in the One who already did!
 
How do we follow Jesus?
Believe in Jesus    John 3:16
 
Trust Jesus completely   John 14:6
 
Keep following Jesus      John 15:4-5
-Bible study- what did Jesus do, say, command?
-Prayer
-Godly People- what is their advice, encouragement, warning?
-Circumstances- what can you do right now
 
-Connection Card, Email, Facebook Message
Welcome

Hello and welcome to St Joe Community Church online worship. We’re so glad that you joined us in the safety of your home. Maybe you’re checking out church for the first time and you’re checking out what we’re like. I hope that you will take out your bible, your notepad, you’ll remove all your other distractions, and you’ll listen, you’ll sing, you’ll read out loud. Whatever you’re doing, if you were in person doing it with us, that you would do that right where you are in your home. And while you’re watching, and after you’re watching, or whenever you can, I hope you will get in touch with us. Use our Facebook page. Go our website (
www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org). Some how let us know that you’re watching. Like us, do a thumbs-up on the YouTube page. However you can do it, let us know, because we want to engage with you, and encourage you, pray for you, help you take your Next Right Step, send a resource to you, whatever you need so that we can start helping you find and build community around you for the future. God bless you, and we’ll talk to you at the very end of this with some more details. 

Sermon

Well, if you'll turn to Matthew 16, we will be there. We're going to travel through Matthew, all the way to the cross and all the way into Easter to the resurrection. For the next several weeks, we're going to be in Matthew. We've been in Matthew already. I told you when we took to Matthew 13, what a big chapter it was with several stories - parables, and we're going to continue on through that now. And if you want, if you're one of those that likes to look ahead, I encourage you to read chapter 16 and following and kind of get a feel for the entire context of what we're going to be talking about, because we're not going to be able to highlight in the short few weeks that we'll be together before Easter; we are not going to be highlight every single story in the rest of Matthew's Gospel.
 
Matthew was a disciple of Jesus Christ, the tax collector that Jesus said follow me. He left his post as a tax collector for the Roman government and he began to follow Jesus Christ. And he indeed was... it is rumored tradition that he was murdered for his faith in Jesus Christ. He writes this story to us of the life and times of Jesus Christ that we might believe in Jesus Christ. In the context of this particular passage that we are going to discuss this morning in chapter 16 is right after the moment in which Peter uttered his famous words about who Jesus was. Jesus said, "But who, who do you say that I am?" And Peter would say in verse 16, as it's recorded in Matthew's Gospel, you are the Messiah, the son of the living God, and Jesus said, "That's the right thing. You got it. Bing, ding, ding, ding, ding, winner, winner, chicken dinner. You got it."
 
And then he begins to talk about the church and how Peter's faith was the kind of faith that the church will be built on, and the rock. All of this imagery that we see here, and then Peter, just like you and I - don't we like, yay, victory. We win. And then we do something really silly. Dare I say the curse word stupid. Hi Cindy, let's give it up for Cindy, she's here today. I can't believe I didn't see her, man! You can't know a person that tries harder to get to church than that lady right there. I'm just telling you right. So anyway, I'm glad you're here. Good stuff.
 
So Peter he's like puts his foot in his mouth immediately because Jesus says, "Oh, by the way, this Messiah that you've just proclaimed, me, the Messiah, I'm going to die and rise again. I'm going to suffer at the hands of the Jews. We're going down to Jerusalem. And this was the moment literally that they're kind of on this upper area of kind of north or they're above Jerusalem. And literally, in the topography of the land, they were actually higher than Jerusalem. And Jesus is walking down towards Jerusalem and He would be going down, down, down, down, down, down, down to His death. It was at this moment that more and more people were scattering. They didn't want to be around Him because He was saying things that they didn't like. They were there to get, get, get, get and Jesus was giving it. He was feeding them. He was healing them. But He began to say the hard things that were causing them to go, wait a minute, I thought He was the revolutionary that would overthrow this government that was oppressing us.
 
And when He began to say things that didn't mix with what they thought He should be saying, they began to leave Him. So this is the moment in life, where we are with the life of Jesus Christ. It's going down, down, down eventually to the cross and more and more people are appealing off of Him in His public ministry. And Peter's like, "There's no way that's going to happen. God forbid that this would happen. There's no way that was going to happen that you're going to die." And Jesus turned to Peter, the one who he had just said, "Boy, you got it right." And he said, "Get behind me, Satan." Have you ever kind a by Satan? I mean, that person is a representation of evil. Get away from me. What you just said, I don't want anything to do with. That's a very serious statement. Jesus didn't say anything flippantly; everything he said was perfect.
 
Now, you calling someone Satan, I'm not. I don't know if that was perfect or not. But Jesus, He was absolutely spot on when He said, "Peter, what you're saying is Satanic. I must suffer and die for the sins of the world." What do we just sing? We just sang it. They said His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished. We just sang that. We know on this side of Calvary, this side of the cross, that it was His death that brings us life. But Peter didn't see that yet. He didn't know the end of the story. The end of the story hadn't yet been lived nor written about. And so, Peter just get had it all mixed up and Jesus says that is Satanic, get away from me.
 
So this is the context that we're in the middle of, and so Peter's like, what? You can imagine the disciples are like, you know, Jesus is saying all these things and we don't really think about what were the expressions of the disciples. Like, "Whoa, he just called Peter what?" And Jesus explained himself. Jesus said to His disciples, verse 24, "If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life, or what will anyone give in exchange for his?" I have a question to ask this morning, what is worth dying for? What is worth dying for? Freedom? We live in the land of the free because somebody decided - quite a few people decided that they were going to fight the tyranny of England and break free to be what would we now have called the United States of America. And people died in wars to fight for the freedom of our nation.
 
When you see a soldier, when you see somebody who's signed on the dotted line, they'll pay the ultimate price. I just say, thank you, I'm grateful for what you've done. I'm glad that you didn't have to pay the ultimate price, but you were willing because you believed it was worth fighting for. Ukraine, you know, that whole nation could have said, "All right, Putin, you can have it. We're out of here." Now you can't move that many people as fast as what Putin is coming across them, such an evil thing that's going on. But there are people that are moving, they're doubling back into the country. Young people that are saying, I can't stay over here in Poland, I got to go back over there and fight for my country because to them, it is worth dying for the cause of the independence and the sovereignty of the nation of Ukraine. Standing up against evil; we know that police officers and others, keepers of the peace, they choose to put themselves in harm's way because it's worth the dying for the innocent lives that would be lost if somebody didn't stand to protect them.
 
And then most recently there was the story, you may have read about it, when the massive tornado came through, which is unusual for this time of the year in Oklahoma. I believe it was Oklahoma where a husband paid the ultimate sacrifice because he laid on top of his wife to save her from the storm; he died and she lived. He believed that his wife was worth it. What's worth dying for? We all have our limits, we all have our answers, and we're not looking for courage in the room today for those issues that I just talked about. We're not even here to vote on what I just said. I just want you all to know that we all have a line. We all think about that. Some people believe in the right to carry arms and bear arms - concealed weapons. Around here, it's a don't ask don't tell. People are protecting us in this room, usually every Sunday, somewhere; we don't know who they are. I might know, but you don't know and it doesn't matter. And they believe that it's worth making sure that if some deranged or very clearly minded evil person comes in here to do harm as has been done in some houses of worship, they're willing to do what it takes to stop that person. And then other people would not necessarily make that decision.
 
All I'm saying to you is we all have an answer to that. And I'm telling you that Jesus proclaimed that He is worth dying for. He said in this passage, he said, "I am worth dying more. If you want to follow me, you need to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me." And I want to unpack what He was asking of His followers in those three things. First of all, He said we need to deny ourselves. This is a free will voluntary submission to Jesus Christ. We're renouncing everything that might personally hinder our loyalty to Jesus Christ or keep us from being more like him. We're saying following Jesus is more important than satisfying my flesh. Following Jesus is more important than any other loyalty that I might have to this world system.
 
Now, this denying yourself is not saying I'm self-abased, I'm just a worthless worm. Some theologians call it worm theology. I'm just a worm. I'm just nothing. You know Christian ought to have the most highest self-worth feelings of any person in the world, because we know that the creator of the world looked down on where we were and saw what we were doing and said we were worth more than the behavior we were exhibiting in our lives and chose to come down, crawl up on a cross and die in our place that we might not have to pay the eternal punishment for what we did wrong. We were valuable. We were worth that much. You all clap for a sign. Can we clap for the fact that Jesus loves us? We're worth it. And if there's anyone here that says, “I don't mean anything, I'm not valuable" - you're listening to a lie. Get behind me, Satan. That's not true. You are valuable. You are loved. And He loved you this much. And he loves you this much where He invites anyone who might come. No matter where you are, no matter where you came from, no matter how far you feel, you are from God, He calls you out and wants you to be with himself.
 
He wants to free you from the tyranny of sin and death and suffering. He wants to free you from addiction. He wants to pull you from the things which you know are not satisfying and you need help escaping. This is not self-abuse or a lack of self-worth when you deny yourself. It's the same denial that a soldier says when he or she puts their name on the line that says, "I will suffer as a person, I will renounce the privileges of normal citizenship in our nation in order... I'll give up my rights in order to serve a higher cause. I'll deny myself."
 
It's the same conversation, right or wrong, like or not like it. When that man decided that he would not go into the school when there was a shooting going on and he hid, right or wrong, I don't know the whole story, but he was vilified. Why? Because he had put his name on the line that he was willing to sacrifice himself, and he put the uniform to say that he would, and he didn't, and he was ridiculed for what he did because he didn't do what he said he would do. I will deny my personal safety in order to protect the safety of other people. That's what military people do. That's what police officers do. That's what firefighters do. It's a normal thing. And Jesus is just saying in that same way that you would renounce yourself in normal circumstances, I'm telling you, deny yourself for the sake of me that others might find and know me, that your family might know me personally as savior and Lord, that your children and your children's children, and that all that you influence in the world would know that I'm more important than your personal gratification.
 
Deny yourself and take up your cross. Echoing Matthew 10:38, where He had said it earlier in His ministry, you must take up your cross and follow me. Luke adds that Jesus said, during this moment; take up your cross daily. This is a daily dying to self - the opposite of what Peter was saying, "No, Jesus, you're not supposed to die." If you follow Jesus, he died, if we follow Jesus we might possibly die. Now, this is not saying that everybody's going to. John the apostle did not die a martyr's death; he died of old age. Many, many, many, many, many Christians will never die a suffering death because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Praise God! This is not like a death wish. I don't want to die for Jesus, but I am I willing, right? Will I if I had to pay the ultimate price? If you're in the Columbine High School and that young lady said, do you believe in Jesus? And she said yes and he kills her. Would you have stood that test if you were asked by the gunman? I hope none of us have to answer that question. But Jesus is saying, when you sign up to follow me, the answer is, yes, I'm willing to do that. God help me if I ever have to.
 
Take up your cross, willing to suffer the shame and the rejection of the world. You know what a cross is. This was very common. This was something, this is not a, you know, my daily cross is my cancer. Cancer's horrible, but that's not a cross. My cross is the abuse I suffered at the hands of somebody who should never have done that to me. That's horrible. That's a scar. That's not the cross Jesus is talking about. Bear with me, somebody said, wait a minute, come on. Now I'm telling you, you got to read the Bible according to the context of the people listening to it for the first time, none of them would've ever put those things inserted into Jesus conversation. What they immediately went to were all the crosses were lined up along the public road of non-Roman citizens that were guilty and sentenced to capital crime, to capital death, and they were executed on these crosses. They were beaten half to death, stripped naked, nailed to the cross and made to rot there and die a horrific several days death.
 
And if they were dead enough acting, maybe the birds would start picking at their flesh while they could do nothing about it until they finally succumbed to death. And it was the most humiliating, most horrific, most excruciatingly and painful death known to man. And if you're a Roman citizen, you weren't allowed to die that way; they'd cut your head off. If you were sentenced to death, they'd cut your head off. That was mercy killing. But if you were not a Roman citizen, they'd strap you up on that horrible thing. And the Romans, they pretty much... they almost relished in this. It was a fear factor. Don't do what that guy did. Don't do what that girl did. Don't do what that guy did. If you do that, that's what happens to you. That's called deterrence to an nth degree. Get in line or suffer that. And when Jesus said, if you follow me, you need to be willing that even if it comes to that, get on a cross and die for me. And that the whole world might laugh at you, ridicule you, humiliate you in your suffering.
 
And Jesus says, it's all or nothing. It's not, "I'm a Christian now, I'm going to get a bunch of crosses and put them on my chain. I'm going to get a little sticker on the back of my car." A lot of people don't get bumper stickers anymore, but they put these little fish on there, they do little things here and they put little sayings. And once in a while, you post a nice little saying on Facebook because you're a Christian now, you do these things. And you get a little devotional book and you put here and there, and you get a little Jesus something for your work. And that's my cross. No, your cross is to die to self. Your cross is to follow Jesus no matter the cost. It's a whole different thing than this beautiful little thing that we have up here on the wall or we have behind the screen when we have the baptismal open.
 
It's an ugly reminder that when you are friends with Jesus, you're an enemy of the world system. We live in the world system, I pay my taxes, I pray for our governmental authorities, I pray for, I support, I do things, people we serve. Just because you become a Christian, you don't stop serving in the military. I mean, we move through this world, but we're not of this world. We're of a world to come that's eternal. And Jesus says, if in the midst of this world, it takes you suffering for me, that's what I'm asking you to do if you're following me.
 
And he says follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. The wording in the Greek indicates an energetic and active decision. Not some passive decision. "Well, I'll think about it. I'll kind of follow Jesus today. I got something else doing this weekend, maybe I won't get the people of God. You know, I'm going to read my Bible. I'm just so - there's so many pages. I mean, there's not even pictures in mind." I mean, we have all these excuses of what we do and we say, I just don't know if that's really going to... No, following him says I'm actively participating in what God's up to in this world. End of discussion.
 
By the way, you're not measuring up to my standard, you're measuring up to His, because I'm at times, and even this week, sometimes a miserable example of the standard. Do you hear me here? I'm preaching to myself this morning. There ought to be a mirror on the back wall so I can see myself while I'm talking. I'm still working on this. I'm still what we call ourselves hypocrites in recovery. I'm not there. And last night as I was praying through this and this morning as I prayed through, I thought how much of a failure I am. And you might not see it on the outside, but on the inside, you know, have you ever been openly accepting of what's going on around you, but inwardly rebellious in your attitude? Have you ever done something but you didn't feel like doing it, but you did it anyway because your boss made you? How about kids? Have we ever obeyed our parents but we didn't have the right heart attitude? I mean, both hands in the air. I mean, we've done this. I mean, this is normal, sadly, unless they were really wrong about what they were making me do.
 
But when it comes to Jesus and He makes you do something, we should be going, "Yeah, I don't want to, but I need to, help me want to. Help my attitude." Forgive your enemies. Yeah, I just stepped on a toe, didn't I? I mean, that's hard to do, and Jesus says do it, energetically, enthusiastically, that's what I'm calling you to, follow me. And by the way, we follow a Jesus who already lived this way. Jesus, the one who it is said about in Hebrews 4:15, "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are yet without sin. Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need." This Jesus that says follow me was to tempted in the same way you were tempted, but he never sinned.
 
If any of you have ever tried to get over something you know is wrong in your life, it's called an addiction. It could be addiction to overeating, it could be addiction to a substance, it could be addiction to lust and sex, it could be an addiction, to you name it; it's just pure and simple rebellion. We do what we want to do and we know it's wrong but we want to do it anyway. But you stop doing it for a while - there's a word for that. We have a craving. Our flesh is still saying, feed me, feed me. What's the movie, Feed Me Seymour. Yeah, a little shop of horse. I'm a product of the eighties. And it grows. And the longer you don't do it, your body's saying, "You haven't taken care of me lately. Come on!" Jesus never gave in to the cravings.
 
If anybody knows how to get over anything, He does. Well, He never had to get over anything because He never started anything. If anyone knows how to be completely victorious, He does. And if anybody knows what it feels like to want to do something and not do it, He does. If there's someone to follow, I want to follow winners. Don't you? I want to follow someone who wins and is victorious. I sometimes am a bandwagon fan. I just want you to know that. Team starts winning a lot, I go, "Yeah, I'm going to root for that guy in the super bowl," because they're winning. I want to know how to win. I like being around winners. How many of you like to be around losers? I mean, I don't know, I don't think. We like winners. Jesus is the ultimate winner. If you're following Him, you're following a winner.
 
I don't know about this death thing, this suffering thing, but okay, He walked through the cross to the victory of resurrection Sunday. I want to find resurrection Sunday, but it does come through. It could possibly come through and it does come through denial, cross and follow. And that's what Jesus is saying here. And the question is, what do we have to lose? What do we have to lose? We have everything to lose. What does it say? "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it." And that next verse, "For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life, or what will anyone give in exchange for his life?"
 
I have a question as we it closer to the end here this morning. Does your object of worship promise you eternal life? You said what do you mean my object of worship? I mean that which you cherish the most, other than Jesus Christ. How much time do you spend on something that is apart from your worship of God? I'm not talking about that I love taking nature walks and it's God's nature and I'm enjoying what God gave me. I'm talking about you worship that thing more than you worship God. Like if it was like, be a part of what God's up to or be a part of this over here; I like that more. What do you spend your money on? Do you spend money on God honoring entertainment or do you spend your money on things that are very much against God in entertainment? I'm not saying that all secular entertainment is ungodly. I'm just saying, are you investing in things that are leading you away from God, more than leading you towards God?
 
Some people worship their children more than they worship God. If it's all about the children, more important than God, himself, modeling for their children that they are God. And that is a very sad moment because no child should ever be put the pressure on to perform like God performs. What do you invest your money in? I'm not talking about boosting the money for the building fund and all I'm talking about. How do you spend your money? Do you spend it in a way that God is telling you, you can spend it, you do whatever you want and you kind of have this, well, I'm supposed to give God percent and the rest I do whatever I want with? Or have you really come to the realization that God owns it all and you manage all of it of which a portion of it, He does ask us to trust him in tithing and offerings? But He owns all of it, which means I answer to Him how I spend my money on my house, how I spend my money in entertainment, how I spend my money on cars and things and food. I answer to Him for all of that, not just the part I give to the church.
 
In other words, what are you investing in? Are you investing in now? You're going to get what now gives you. Or are you investing in eternity, and eternity gives you forever? You see, everyone sells out to something. We all worship something, and we've got to measure the cost with eternity in mind. Worship this world and you'll get what only this world offers. You worship God, and as you're doing what you do, you're investing in what lasts forever. You're not going to preserve your life by investing in anything that this world is saying that you need to invest in. Yeah, I'm trying to save up enough money so that when I get old and feeble I don't move in with my children, unless they want me to and then I'm okay with that. No, she said no. I'm praying for one lawyer, doctor or somebody.
 
That's not the... you know, but I'm not living for retirement. I'm living for Jesus, even when I'm retired. Zero sum. I'm okay with that too. The last check is for what it costs to bury me, that's it. I wouldn't mind passing some onto my kids; I think that's a valuable noble thing, but my money's not going to buy them happiness. What they do with it and how they view it to the glory of God, that's where happiness comes from. What I'm saying is, Psalm 49, and maybe Jesus was alluding to this. When he was saying these things where it says in verse 6-9, "They trust in their wealth and boast of their abundant riches, yet these cannot redeem a person or pay his ransom to God. Since the price of redeeming him is too costly, one should forever stop trying so that he may forever live and not see the pit." Don't try to ransom your life with stuff. Jesus already redeemed your life. His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished. I have been to the cemetery, and rich and poor alike, the answer is, have they trusted in Jesus? Some are in some wonderful caskets, beautiful crips, [musilums30:47], some are in cardboard boxes that are made to look a little bit nicer than cardboard. They're all dead. And they're all answering to almighty God for how they invested themselves eternally.
 
While I wouldn't give up somebody to have a beautiful casket; that's not the point here. I don't care which, I go for it. That's kind of cool looking. I'm kind of mesmerized by some of the awesome statues and things in the cemeteries. I'm not here knocking any of that - I'm just saying. And I'm not here knocking going to an entertainment venue. I'm not here knocking going to the 10 Caps. I'm not here, no, I'm just saying that when you're done, sort of like at Christmas time, I love getting Christmas gifts. I get a Christmas gift or I get a birthday gift or I get something; the anticipation of getting it is more fun than a minute after I open it. You get home from vacation, you almost got to recover from vacation for a day, right? I mean, my son just went out west. He has all these awesome pictures of this landscape I've never seen with my own eyes and I'm sure his camera could not capture. And he is home now, he's back in Muncy. Nothing like where he was at. I mean, it's a nice place. My wife's from there, so I got to be careful. She's listening maybe.
 
But seriously, it's going to wear off pretty quick, because he's not there anymore. He's back in class on Monday. What's rewarding is beyond the experience, and that's the abiding experience of walking and being with Jesus while you're on vacation, while you're at home, while you're in entertainment, while you're doing the hard labor of work. When you've accomplished something at work and after you've accomplished something at work, because what you know is that what you've accomplished will fade, will have to be rebuilt, refixed, revived, renovated, remodeled, no matter what. Whatever you do is going to last for a season, but how you do it and who you do it for lasts forever. That's the bottom line.
 
Stop trying to redeem your life by what you're doing or what you're investing and trust in the one who already redeemed it. So how do we follow Jesus as we close? John 3:16 says we need to, whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We had to believe in Jesus that he's the one true savior of the world, that He died for our sins and came back to life three days later. Believe in Him. We've got to trust Him completely. Trust in Jesus. He said, "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the father except through me." We believe in Jesus. But more than belief, we got to really trust Him. Like, He's not one option of many. He's every option. He's the option. He's the only option. We trust him alone to save us.
 
We don't hedge our bets on other things and other religions and other practices; we say He's the one. Jesus said that, not me. You want to follow me? Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me, no other. And finally this morning, we need to keep following Him. For those of us that have put our trust in Jesus, let's keep following Him. Let's not just say "I followed Him, I got my baptism certificate. That's it. I'm done. I went to membership class. I'm in, yay." Oh, it's a continual process. Take up your cross daily and follow me, Luke explains Jesus to have said. You keep following Jesus through our Bible study time. How do I know how to follow him? Well, he said a lot of things in here about what to do, how to follow and what to do the right things.
 
His example, the example of other believers in the Bible, the letters that were inspired by the Holy Spirit to the churches. This Bible is the textbook for right and wrong. It's the template upon which we put everything else we do in life. If it squares with this, we got it. But then you say, "Yeah, but there's things that the Bible doesn't exactly talk about, you know, like how much should I put in retirement? Or how much should I do to this or that? Or should I go to this or that venue or situation." To that I would say we pray about it. We talk to other people that are following God. We get godly counsel. If a bunch of people are saying, you probably ought not do that. Some of us, we have to make financial commitments; buy a house, buy a car, this or that. And you're like, "I'm not really sure if God's in this or not." Go ask some people that are godly that know how to handle money. And if they all say, maybe not, then don't. I mean, you can, if you want, but it might be wise not to.
 
Ultimately, prayer, Bible study, ask some godly people, and finally the circumstances. Of the best doors that were closed for me, it just closed before I had a chance to go through them. Some of the worst girls I could have ever married just never said yes, or I was too scared to ask them. And that was a good thing. Me being a bashful kid early on, kept me for the God wanted me to be with for the rest of my life. That's my story. I'm sticking to it. Yeah, there you go. Thank God she said yes.
 
But all aside, keep following Him. It's a process. This thing doesn't happen overnight. It's not a one-time event. It's an ongoing life choice, one decision at a time. This morning I want ask you to make that decision, to put your faith in Him for the very first time if you've never done so. Don't let me tell you to do it. If the Holy Spirit is convicting you and you know this is exactly what you must do, then make the decision today. Follow Him. Put it on a connection card say, "I am putting my faith in Jesus Christ. I want to be baptized. I want to tell the world I'm a Christian."
 
Maybe some of you have been baptized, but you've never joined our church officially and it's time for you to get serious about becoming a family member of the church. We got our class today; we still got a few spots available. I'll give you my ham sandwich if there's too many people there. I'll figure it out. But no, we'd love to hang out with you a little bit and tell you what it means to belong to our church family. We'll have some other classes, but there's one today. Sign up for the next one if you can't make it today. I don't know what God's telling you to do, but I pray that you'll do it before you leave this room. Make good on it, make it public. Tell the world, tell me, tell somebody so we can pray for you to take your next step forward. Let's stand. Let's get ready to sing. God help us to act on what you've called us to do, and I pray this in Jesus name, amen. Take that time, maybe on your phone you need to put an email to us or go to the contact page on our website. I don't know what you need to do, but let's just all worship God with either our voices or our action, one way or the other, let's do so.

Conclusion

​​Thanks again for worshipping with us online. I hope that you will contact us. Go to our Facebook page, our website (www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org). Put a comment at the bottom of this video. However you can do that. Just let us know that you’re out there. We want to be able to pray for you, resource you, encourage you, answer any questions you might have. For those of you who have been giving online, thank you very much. We continue to have needs and continue to do things like this online worship experience, and other ministry needs and practical ways, and if you don’t know how to do that, just go to our website and there are instructions there. (www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org) so that you can also participate in our ministries and partner with us. Again, I’m Pastor Greg Byman, and on behalf of St Joe Community Church, God bless you, and we’ll see you next time. 
 
Thank you for joining us today. For more information about the St Joe ministry, visit www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org or call (260) 471-4704 or email StJoeCommunity@gmail.com. If you are looking for a church home, St Joe meets for worship and fellowship each Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. St Joe is committed to your well-being and safety. For the latest policies regarding the Covid 19 pandemic, please visit the Covid section of the St Joe website. Thanks again for joining us and we’ll see you next week.
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Worship Service for Sunday, March 6, 2022

3/6/2022

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  • Full Worship Service
  • With ASL & CC
  • Notes
  • Transcript
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Welcome
​Speaker: Nick Scott
Title: Gospel Fluency
Date and time: March 6, 2022, 10:30 am

Hello and welcome to St Joe Community Church online worship. We’re so glad that you joined us in the safety of your home. Maybe you’re checking out church for the first time and you’re checking out what we’re like. I hope that you will take out your bible, your notepad, you’ll remove all your other distractions, and you’ll listen, you’ll sing, you’ll read out loud. Whatever you’re doing, if you were in person doing it with us, that you would do that right where you are in your home. And while you’re watching, and after you’re watching, or whenever you can, I hope you will get in touch with us. Use our Facebook page. Go our website (www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org). Some how let us know that you’re watching. Like us, do a thumbs-up on the YouTube page. However you can do it, let us know, because we want to engage with you, and encourage you, pray for you, help you take your Next Right Step, send a resource to you, whatever you need so that we can start helping you find and build community around you for the future. God bless you, and we’ll talk to you at the very end of this with some more details. 
Transcript
It's my privilege to be able to share with you. And like Greg has said we have been waiting a while to get to the point to where we have a date that we can get on a plane. We are so enthusiastic this morning, so if you see a smiling a little bit more, we're happy to be here, but we're also happy to have a plane ticket as well. So, we have been in the process of applying with the IMB for about three years now, so we have had our patience educated even more than we thought that we needed it to be. We've learned contentment in a way that we didn't really care to learn it, but the Lord saw fit to teach us that way because we needed to. And we have just grown to love so many more churches that we've been able to connect with over the last year that we weren't expecting to be able to connect with. Yours is one of them, and so far it's been such a pleasant experience to be here and to know you and to learn more about your church, more about what you're engaged in, in this community. And so, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be able to share with you.
 
I want to give you a little bit of a snapshot of our journey to this point without dominating the time for this message. But if you do have a Bible, let me give you a heads up; we're going to be in Romans 1, so you can be finding your way to Romans 1:16-20 today. So about us, like we said, my name is Nick. That's Melissa, our daughter Elianna, she's at home with my parents in Evansville, Indiana where we're both from that's our hometown. She is almost four years old and a ton of fun, a ton of energy as well. But, she's soaking up some last minute time with grandparents before we get on that plane. I served on staff with my dad as an associate pastor at Oak Hill Baptist Church in Evansville, Indiana until December, 2020. So I was there for about five years, and in my third year there, God really impressed on my heart that I needed to be looking and searching for something else. Not because something was wrong, not because I needed to run from something or anything like that, but because he was calling us to do something different than we were doing.
 
I didn't exactly know what that meant at that point, and so I began to search and pray and talk with mentors and seek out wisdom. And one thing led to another and ultimately, God, I believe has called us to pursue international missions. And so, we knew that the international mission board of the Southern Baptist convention is who we wanted to be sent through at all possible. So we applied with them and we had been praying about where it was that God would have us serve. And the more we prayed and the more we thought about that, we wanted to take a trip to Japan, to Tokyo, Japan to see what ministry would be like there. I've always had an interest in Japan as a country and a culture just growing up. And the more I wanted to explore and know more about that country, the more I was burdened for it. Because when you look at the spiritual statistics of that country it becomes very clear that there's a huge need for the gospel to be preached there. Out of 127 million people in Japan, less than half of 1% know him as Savior and Lord.
 
So if you do the math, you can do it. I'm not going to do the math right now, but that is a very small portion of that. That's still a lot of people, but out of that quantity of people in that nation, that is such a small amount of people knowing and calling Jesus, Lord. So because of that reason primarily, we are excited to go and take the message of the gospel to learn Japanese and to hopefully be used by the Lord in a way to impact the Japanese population there with the gospel of Christ, and so we're excited to go. And let me just say before I start, thank you because like Pastor Greg said your church supports us. It's because of churches like yours and the rest of the Southern Baptist Convention, that we are able to go without having to raise funds of any kind. Your faithfulness and your generosity to giving to this local church is what enables us to go, and so thank you. We don't take that for granted, we don't take that lightly, and it was because of people like you, that we were able to go and tell people about Christ in Japan and like other missionaries all around the world with the IMB. So, I just want to say, thank you.
 
Romans 1 - this message is going to be about gospel fluency. And so, as I was thinking out our language learning journey, I thought about like, there's a lot of parallels between the stress that I'm experiencing right now in learning Japanese and the importance of knowing Japanese and going as a missionary, knowing the heart language of the people that will be serving around and knowing the gospel as a follower of Christ. There's a lot of parallels there. And the importance of knowing Japanese is paramount to our success as missionaries in Japan. Because if we go there and expect to just be able to have a translator follow us around everywhere and just speak on every behalf or whatnot, it's going to be much less effective. And I would say not faithful to the fullest extent of what God is calling for us to do, than rather if we were to take on ourselves, the task of learning that language. Because you know, just as well as anybody else fluency is so important in daily life.
 
I would venture to say that most people in this room, and I don't know many people in this room very well, but we're probably fluent in English. Now, fluent doesn't mean perfect, right? Who speaks perfect English in this room every single time they speak? Very few people would say that and very few people would probably be accurate in assessing that. But we know what fluency means. It means just because you don't speak perfect English, you're able to be understood. You're able to communicate clearly what you're talking about and be understood by the other person that you're communicating to, right. And that's what we're talking about with gospel fluency as well. Whenever we know the gospel, we ought to know it ourselves because it is so good for us first. Aren't you glad that the gospel has taken root in your heart? If you're here this morning and you're a follower of Christ, that should animate you each day. Getting you out to bed, giving you a joy, giving you a hope, giving you a purpose that, you know Jesus Christ, that He has given you life and hope and purpose, and you don't have to be the measure of success in your life. The measure of how much matters that we contribute. The only thing that matters about our lives when we submit to Christ is He Himself, Christ, His gospel what God is calling for to do.
 
Gospel fluency is so important for us as believers, that we know the gospel, know how to communicate the gospel to people around us, because it's the most important news that we could tell somebody. It's the most important thing that we've been commissioned to do as followers of Jesus. It's not just something that missionaries or pastors or church leaders are responsible for, but it's something that we as disciples of Jesus, as Christ followers are all called to be a part of in telling people about the gospel, the good news. So, just an examination first, you can go ahead and advance the slide if you would like, what is gospel fluency?
 
Well, first fluency is defined as readiness and smoothness of utterance, able to express oneself readily and effortlessly. We've kind of discussed that already in the sense that we know what fluency is. We value it, even though we don't necessarily think about it every single day. But a person... a pastor named Jeff Vanderstelt defined fluency as the following; he says, "A person is gospel fluent when the gospel becomes their mother tongue. They see the world through that filter. They hear the world through that filter. They know how to speak the truths of the gospel, the truths of Jesus into the everyday stuff of life." So we're not talking about memorizing a script, memorizing, a presentation of words to say to people or anything like that. It's simply, being able to relay how the message of the gospel has changed your life, your testimony, and how it can change the life of the person that you're talking to as well, because the truths of the gospel never change. They always remain the same.
 
Aren't you happy for that? Aren't you happy that the message of Jesus Christ is constant in a world that changes day to day, second to second it seems like; that stays the same. The salvation that you have received stays the same day to day. And so, we have that as our ability, as our foundation, that we can stand on and have that commission to go and help people understand that the gospel offers transformation, and peace, and hope and happiness and joy in a life where there seems to be a lack of that more often than not. In the same way that no one naturally knows how to speak another language, and I wish that was the case. I wish I could just load a Japanese like program into my brain, and then it's just there, but that's not going to happen.
 
In the same way that that's not going to happen, gospel fluency is not something that just happened automatically. It's something that takes work. It takes effort. It takes dedication. It requires you to get uncomfortable. It requires you to evaluate the priorities in your life. And so, all of these things matter immensely as we think about the importance of the gospel in our own lives as Christ followers and how we are supposed to steward the gospel. We're not supposed to keep it to ourselves. The gospel is never meant to be hoarded by the Christian, but it was meant to be given away freely. Like Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 4, we have this treasure in jars of clay, this immeasurable worth of the God. And it's not ours to just keep and hoard, but it's to give away. One pastor I heard said one time, he said the gospel came to you because it was going to someone else. I liked that.
 
Because while it is important for us to cling to the truths of the gospel, it's important for us to also recognize it's not just ours, but it's for anyone, like the scripture referenced that we read earlier, for anyone who would believe, for everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. So, we ought to tell people about the best news that we can hear. And I would suggest that in Romans1, like this morning's text says that Apostle Paul is helping us understand aspects of the gospel that I think would help motivate us to aspire for greater gospel fluency in our lives. Let's look at that passage, Romans 1:16, and we'll read all the way to verse 20, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel; for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them, for His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse."
 
Let's pray together and ask for God to help illuminate our minds as we think about His word and seek to act on it. Let's pray. Father God, we need you. We need your spirit to help us this morning, to help us comprehend your word, but not just to comprehend it and read it, but to Lord, act on it. Because it is not in our own effort that we seek to accomplish the things that we'll talk about this morning, but it's by your power. It's by your Spirit's and dwelling in us, your Spirit's power that animates us single day to do what you've called for us to do. Would you do this in our lives? We pray these things in your name, amen.
 
So the first thing that I want to examine about this passage is like I said, I don't want to give a comprehensive exhaustive picture of the gospel. We'd be here way too long if we tried to do. But some just pulling out some themes that Paul is getting at in these verses that help us understand the gospel to a point to where it helps us want to be fluent in the gospel. So first, the gospel is the power of God for salvation. The gospel is the power of God for salvation. The gospel is powerful because it is the very power of God. Many times we think of the gospel as maybe just really good news, good advice, please just listen to me, listen to this, but there's power behind the words of the gospel. There's power because God has given it that power.
 
Listen to this quote from Leon Morris, "The gospel is not advice to people suggesting that they lift themselves. It is power itself. It lifts them up." Paul does not say that the gospel brings power, but that it is power and God's power at that. So the good news of Jesus Christ is that He lived a perfect life. He died our substitutionary death and rose eternally from the grave. And whoever believes in him and trusts in that sacrifice can be saved from the power of sin and live eternally with Him forever more. That is great news. That is awesome news. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So Paul reveals multiple ways that the God exhibits his power through the gospel, first, starting in verse 16, confidence replaces shame. One of the very first words of that verse in 16, it says "For I am not ashamed of the gospel."
 
Paul was not ashamed of the gospel. No social pressure, or cultural stigma, or personal anxiety was going to keep Paul quiet about the gospel. Why? Because he knew that the gospel was so good he couldn't keep quiet about it. It was so powerful that he couldn't keep it to himself. It needs to be shared. It needs to be given away freely, so confidence replaces shame. The next thing that the power of the gospel does is salvation replaces condemnation. So verse 16, again, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for what?” Salvation. We're no longer condemned when we are in Christ. Aren't you happy for that? Romans 8:1 is one of my favorite verses in all the Bible it says, "For there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Oh, those are so good.
 
Those words are so freeing, so liberating each day that I don't have to feel the weight of condemnation anymore, but God has set me free. He has saved me. And for Paul, he knew that nothing else could provide this, no amount of law keeping, no religious deeds or amount of personal piety. It's only by the power of God that anyone can experience salvation - only by His power, and the gospel is God's power to save. The last thing Paul references in verse 16 is, inclusion replaces alienation. We're no longer alienated, but we are included into the family of God. That's such a precious thing, isn't it, to have brothers and sisters in Christ that you can rely on, that you can pray with, that you can bear burdens with together? I shared in the previous service; I had the privilege of getting to be with some of your members last night at the house across the parking lot.
 
We had dinner together, and I've never met any of them, the people that were there, but there was such a sweet spirit because we shared an inclusion together of being united in the family of God. We were brothers and sisters in Christ. And that unified us; that gave us a foundation to share with one another such good truths that were so encouraging. The gospel is the great unifier across all of history. All ethnicities nationalities, cultures can be unified together by the power of the gospel. When so many other things fail so often to unify people, the gospel can do that. We are united together from all backgrounds. And isn't that a great picture of where we're ultimately going in Revelation 7:9, where people from all tribes, all tongues, all nations are around the throne of God, worshiping, giving glory to God, singing praises to Him for all that he has done.
 
Man, if that doesn't get you excited, if that doesn't give you just a smile on your face, I don't know what will. But that's such a good day coming, and we get a fore taste of it here together as brothers and sisters, as we celebrate these truths together. So the next point, verse 17, helps us see that the gospel also is the power of God for salvation, but it also reveals the righteousness of God. Now, the righteous of God is such a huge topic. We're not going to exhaust it either because we'd be here all day and we'd be here all - like we could do sermon series on the righteousness of God. But a quote by John Stott, I think helps us understand what Paul is getting at in this passage. He says, "Thus, the righteousness of God can be thought of as first a divine attribute, our God is a righteous God. Or an activity, He comes to our rescue. Or an achievement, He bestows on us a righteous status."
 
Now, let me help break that down. First, he's describing righteous as a characteristic. God is what? He's righteous. That's a characteristic of who He is. He can't stop being righteous. That's who God is. He's righteousness in person, so that's who God is. Next description is that it's an activity; He's righteous and therefore acts on His righteousness. He does righteous things. And then the last one just blows my mind and it should blow yours too, is that He chooses to give his righteousness to me and you, when we trust in the gospel, when we trust in Jesus Christ for the salvation of our sins. That is crazy that we would be considered righteous.
 
I can't speak about you, you all are probably just really good people, but I know myself. I know myself well enough to know that righteousness is not an accurate description in my own effort of who I am. Because I know not just my outward actions and thoughts and speech, but also the internal stuff that no one else sees, but God sees that even more. And He looks at me through Jesus Christ and He says, "righteous." That's crazy. That's amazing. Amazing grace, right? Righteousness comes from God. Verse 17 says, "For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith." Righteousness comes from God. We do not have righteousness on our own, and I think that's something we need to understand and believe because we err in thinking, I think that we're good people, right? We're nice people. We're good, right? We do a lot of nice things and good things, but the Bible paints a different picture of who we are.
 
I think many times we of ourselves as like maybe a glass or a cup. And it's full of like what righteousness would be if it were like a liquid or something. And God just comes along and He takes this picture of extra righteousness and just kind of pours it off, and then we finally fill the cup up. We're there. That's not at all what the Bible says about our righteousness. In fact, if that analogy holds true; we're the glass that's shattered on the ground. It has nothing in it. It's of no worth. It’s of no use. The Bible says our righteousness is good as filthy rags. But what it is, is when God comes and picks those pieces up and puts them back together and fills us with His righteousness. That's who He makes into. He makes us a new creation. He gives us a new purpose in life.
 
It comes from God. We didn't earn it. On our own we are unrighteous and God is so good to give us His righteousness. The next thing in this verse, righteousness is received by faith. It says here in verse 17, "For the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith." We receive it by faith. It's not earned. It's not bought. It's not extorted by those who have the power to keep the righteousness for themselves and dispel it whenever somebody earns it. But God gives it away freely to those who would just trust in Him, who would believe in Him. That's amazing.
 
And through our faith in Him, what he freely offers to anyone who would believe we can be made righteous in the sight of God. It doesn't matter where you've come from; your background, your history, whether you've been a really moral person your entire life, or whether you've just done everything under the sun; God has the power and the desire to pour out his righteousness in your life through Jesus Christ. And the last thing in this verse about righteousness is that faith in God becomes a lifestyle. After we receive that righteousness, it changes us. It changes our affections. It changes our thoughts. It changes our actions. We want to do things differently. We want to live differently because God has changed us. We don't always feel that way though. Do we? We sin. We struggle. We fight against the power of the enemy as he attacks us and tempts us, but we live by faith when we follow Christ
 
It doesn't mean you're always perfect. It doesn't mean you're always making just headlong progress up the slope of sanctification, but it means that you're always going forward. It means that at the end of your life, the measure of faithfulness is that you kept going forward, you kept moving forward in faith for God. A Christian's life is not marked by just perfection. If it is, we're all in trouble, right? But it's marked by faithfulness to God. Now that's all really good news, right? That's all awesome stuff that we've talked about, now we're turning a corner in this passage in verse 18. We kind of talked about the good news, the good stuff, but the good news is only good news if there's of bad news that it's in response to. And here's where we focus on this in verse 18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men."
 
We see in this passage, God rescues us from the wrath of God. The gospel rescues us from the wrath of God. The first fact of this passage is that God must punish sin. If He's a righteous God, if He's just in his entirety, then He would stop being righteous and stop being just if He were to turn a blind eye to sin and just allow it to go unaddressed. And so, He must hold us accountable for our sin, and in Christ, He's taken our place. He's our substitute. But for those who are not in Christ and have not trusted in Him, they are held responsible and accountable for their rebellion against God. And that is all of us apart from Christ.
 
The next fact of this passage is that all humanity is sinful. All humanity. Romans, in other parts of its letter talks about this very clearly, Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Romans 5:12, "Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." And Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death." Every one, apart from God's grace will face the same fate. And the last part we see in verse 20, no one is without excuse or has an excuse. So because of that, our neighbors, our friends, our coworkers, people who live in places where the gospel is readily available, and people who live in places where the gospel is not readily available, will all face judgment without Christ. What do we do with that information? What do we do with those facts? Some people they'll hear that and churches will choose to just say, "Well, this is what the Bible says, but it really doesn't say that - it really means this."
 
We don't have the authority to do that. We don't have the authority to be God's editor with His word. We can't change it. We can't revise it. We ought to believe it. And if we're going to believe these things, and if we are going to believe that God's word is absolutely trustworthy and everything that it says, these verses should move us to action. Not just to heartbreak, even though that's the correct response, that a lost and dying world around us is without hope apart from Christ, but it should move us, because guess what? We have the gospel; we've been given the stewardship of the gospel. We have the good news that the world needs to hear and needs to believe.
 
Does that mean they'll automatically believe? Of course not. Did you automatically believe when you heard the gospel? No. It's a very miracle of God when any person chooses to believe in Jesus Christ. It is God who has the power for salvation. But it is us who have been given the stewardship of giving the gospel away freely. It's not in your power, in your strength and your persuasiveness that people choose to follow Jesus. It's because of the power of God in the gospel. So brothers and sisters; nothing is more urgent in this life. Nothing is more important because people are dying in every single day. We ought to move on these things.
 
Now, messages like this can be really heavy, right? And they can feel really discouraging because maybe people are sitting in here and being like, "Man, I'm just not doing that right now. Like, maybe I just don't care enough right now. Or maybe I haven't been sharing my faith or it's just really hard to think about sharing my faith. I don't have what I need. I don't feel like I have all the answers. What if they say this? Or what if this happens? What if I look like a fool, right? These are all things that we've thought, but this is why I want to encourage us to aspire for what I've called gospel fluency. Because in knowing the gospel more and loving God more through knowing the gospel; I think he would make us more effective communicators and stewards of the gospel. So, this next point in the sermon kind of turns more to the application of what do we do with this information now that we've looked and seen the gospel. So, how fluent are you with the gospel? How fluent are you with the gospel? You can answer this question yourself. How confident are you in your ability to communicate the truths of the gospel to someone? Does it come naturally to you? Some people it does, and I love that.
 
That's awesome that God has gifted you that way. Other people like me, it's harder. It's more challenging to try to remain confident in my ability to communicate the gospel. But what I have to always remind myself of is it's not my power. It's not me. I'm not asking people to believe in me. I'm asking people to believe in the savior of the universe - the God who's created all things and the God who has all power to save this person in front of me from the blindness that they have, from the sin in their life and be made new. That is my responsibility, to communicate, not to save. So, what things are holding us back from coming gospel fluent? There's a few things on the screen. Maybe you resonate with some of them like fear or embarrassment, apathy, busyness, disordered priorities. Maybe it's a mix of those things. But I think the first thing we have to do in aspiring to be better communicators of the gospel, more fluent in it, is recognize what's holding us back.
 
What are those that are keeping me from aspiring for more fluency in the gospel? So after identifying those things and thinking about that, we turn the corner to the next question, how can you improve your gospel fluency? How can you improve? Well, as I was thinking about our language learning journey with Japanese, I kind of drew some parallels with some of the tools and resources that we were utilizing in learning Japanese and how I think those same principles are helpful for us as we think about how to improve and grow in our gospel fluency as stewards of the gospel. The first one I will just reference is motivation. And I think it's really the primary one, because if you don't have a good motivation for doing something, you just won't do it. You'll just give up very quickly, right? So in language learning especially, if you don't have a motivation to learn Japanese, you're not going to, I guarantee you. You're just going to look at the alphabet systems and you're going to look at all the things that you have to do, the grammar and all of that, and you're just going to say, "Nope, not for me. I'm good with English." But if you have a motivation, that's helping you understand why you are pressing forward even when it's hard, especially when it's hard.
 
Our motivation is because less than half of 1% of the population knows Christ. And there are very few communicators of the gospel who speak Japanese. Very few Christian resources that are written in Japanese, and so there's need there. There's motivation there. And in the same regard for all of us sitting here in this room, there is a motivation for why we need to be more fluent in the gospel. And it's everything that we've just talked about in this passage, that God has invested His power in the gospel to save, that He gives us our righteousness and He rescues us from wrath when we trust in Him, because apart from that work, everyone faces judgment and accountability. But in Christ, they're set free. They're welcomed into a family. They're not judged according to their own actions, but according to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So our motivation also is thankfulness, gratitude. Aren't you happy to be a Christian? Aren't you? What's the alternative? It's judgment. It's wrath. It's a joyful thing to be a follow of Christ.
 
Now, sometimes you wouldn't notice - if you talked to some Christians who walk around like they just have a thing of lemon heads in their pocket all the time, but we are called to be people of joy. Of all the people in the world who should be the most joyful? Those who know the gospel, those who have that hope, right? And this isn't manufactured happiness, but it's motivated by thank you, Jesus. Thank you God, because you've done something for me that I never could have done for myself. And I didn't deserve it, but you chose to give it to me by grace. That's so good, and that motivates us.
 
Next thing - immersion. Now, up until this point, Melissa and I have had very limited immersion in terms of Japanese study. We've had opportunity to meet five or six Japanese families in Evansville, and that's been awesome to get to know them. There's a Toyota plant, about 30 minutes north of us in Princeton, Indiana. And they've come over from Japan and they're there for a couple years. And so, we've had an opportunity... you know how good the Lord is, here's how we met them. Two houses down from where my parents live, one family moved in. The next door on the other side of my parents' house, another family moved in from Japan. I mean, and that's where we were staying at that point. If that's not God's providence in putting people in our path, I don't know what is. But it's through those actions and through those opportunities that we have had the ability to immerse ourselves into a language learning environment in a limited capacity. But how much more in a Christian way of thinking about gospel fluency, do we need immersion, things like what we're doing right now? Sunday morning service, gathering together with brothers and sisters in Christ, celebrating God's word, reading God's word, knowing it, singing it - loving it.
 
And then things like small group Bible study or discipleship groups or our own personal time with the Lord. Those are times where we can immerse ourselves into the content of God's word and know it and learn it and love it. Because if we do not love it, if we do not know it, why in the world would we think that someone else outside of us would want that too? You can tell when somebody really loves something, can't you, when they're talking about it and they're passionate about it. You can read it in their actions and their expressions, right? They're talking about it; it's the best thing they've ever talked about. You know, especially food, right? You find a new restaurant. You're just like, this is the best place, you need to go.
 
If you just said, "Hey, I went to lunch. That place, yeah, it was good. It was all right. It is kind of, you know?" You going to go there? Probably not. It's not a very convincing presentation. But if you're passionate about it and you're loving it, you can tell. And of all people, we need to be passionate about the gospel, about Christ, about what He's done in our lives. I get it, we get busy, we have different priorities. We get disordered in what we should be prioritizing the most in our lives, but this is why this environment is so important. We reorient ourselves every single Sunday. We come back to God's word and we hear what he has to say. We need it, because we so quickly forget.
 
The next thing vocabulary - now, if I just memorize a bunch of sounds in Japanese, and I just hear somebody saying something, I'm like, okay, I'll repeat that sound. And I just take it to somebody else without ever knowing what it means. Is that effective communication? No, it's terrible. Because I have no idea what I'm saying to someone else. I know the sound, but I have no idea what I just said. That's not effective communication. And in the same way, as we study scripture, we ought to know what scripture teaches and what it means when it says certain things. So words like we've referenced this morning, like gospel, God, salvation, faith, righteousness, wrath, sin, all of those terms are essential for any talk about the gospel - you have to. So when someone tells you or asks you, what is the gospel? Someone comes up to you and you're getting into a gospel conversation, what is the gospel? You know, who is God? What's the big deal with salvation? What does that even mean?
 
Faith, righteousness, why do I need that? Wrath - that sounds scary, I don't want anything to do with that. Sin - that's judgey. How do we define these things? How do we talk about these things? It's important, right? It's not just Pastor Greg's responsibility to know how to define those words. It's all of our responsibility to know Christ, to know the word of God so that we can be fluent in the gospel. Next thing, survival phrases. Now, we're a little bit farther along than I anticipated in language to go to Japan at this point, because it's been about over a year since we set out to originally get there. But, whenever we were first planning on getting their survival phrases were a huge thing, right? You have to know how to say certain things in order to survive. You got to know how to say, where can I buy food? Or where is the bathroom? That's a very important phrase to know. Those are things that I don't know the grammar behind them, I don't know, ultimately, like why the words sound the way they do, but I know how to say those things, and they're meaningful. They're very important.
 
In the same way with the God gospel, there are tools that are all over the place. I mean, so many tools have been made over the years that help us understand how to present the gospel. Some are listed on the screen; three circles: two ways to live, Romans road, four, spiritual laws. Pastor Greg referenced earlier in the last service that in the new members class, there's a way that he uses to present the gospel. So, there's all kinds of ways to understand how to present the gospel. And ultimately, those things are not the gospel, but they help us talk about it.
 
They help us talk about what does it mean to follow Jesus? What does it mean to give your life to him? And we ought to know those things, because if you're like me, I get into a conversation; if I don't know kind of the roadmap of where I'm trying to go, it's intimidating. Because you're like, what if we chase this rabbit trailer or this just kind of gets diverted back here or whatnot? Knowing a tool, knowing kind of the roadmap of where you want to go in a conversation about the gospel helps us. It reorients us back to what's the most important things that we need to talk about in this. So, survival phrases are important.
 
Next thing, practice with tutors. There's all kinds of Japanese textbooks I could be studying and devote my time to, but unless I actually compare it to what a native speaker sounds like, I'm really not being helped in any measure. Because I can think I'm doing really good, right? I'm like, "Yeah, man, I've done like four textbooks and did all the exercises in them, I know all the words." And then I start talking to somebody in Japanese and they're like, "What are you saying?" You know, if you're anything like... we've actually talked with the families that we've met and they're learning English here. And they've had their English textbooks and they bring them to us and they say, "Do you say this?" It's like, "No, we never say that." It's in the textbook and that's proper English, but we never say that. Same thing happens in Japanese, right? We never say, you know all of these things that are written in the textbooks, but practice with tutors is so important because it helps correct error. It helps give tips. It helps learn from experience. It helps us compare against what maybe mistakes somebody has made in the past and help guard against pitfalls in the future.
 
And the same way the gospel; we need practice with tutors with the gospel as well. People who have lived life longer, who followed Christ longer, who know how to maybe have a more prepared gospel conversation with somebody, who is helping you grow in your gospel fluency. And that's not a measure of age necessarily; it's a matter of spiritual maturity. Who is investing in you? And then the other question is who are you investing in? Who are you being invested in by? And then who are you seeking to invest your life in? Because we're all called to do that to some extent; maybe it's your family, maybe it's your children. That's such an important thing. We need to make sure that as families, we're raising our kids and investing in our kids the truths of the gospel.
 
But maybe you're an empty nester. Maybe you're further along in life. Find somebody else to choose to give your time to, to invest in, to have spiritual conversations. And it's amazing how you will see benefit in your own spiritual walk with the Lord in doing that as well. We all need practice and growth and gospel fluency. And the last thing I'll give as way as application is communicating. I can learn all the Japanese I want, but if, unless I actually open my mouth and start saying it, what uses that? All I'll be able to do is understand what people are saying and I'll just be able to critique it in my mind. And nobody really likes just a critic who's never going to offer any kind of constructive anything. But in the gospel, it's the same way. Why would we think that we can train ourselves and learn about the gospel and know it in and out, read theology books and all of these things, unless it actually motivates us to open our mouths and tell people about Jesus, tell people about the gospel, getting out into the community and practice what you know? Take a friend along.
 
One of the biggest ways I'm helped in evangelism is not doing it alone - doing it with someone else, going out with someone else and doing it together. So, maybe don't try to feel like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders, but go out with somebody else. Invite somebody to your house, have an evangelistic party or something like that. It's amazing how you can just have so many opportunities if you think creatively. Or ask somebody else, "Hey, how have you tried to reach your neighbors? How have you tried to intentionally build relationships with people outside the church?" Some examples of what Melissa's done is like story time at the library is an awesome time to meet people. If you have kids also, what is the other thing that you've done recently? Christmas gift exchange is an awesome opportunity to have people and talk about the meaning of Christmas.
 
I mean, in that, she's had opportunities to meet people from Saudi Arabia, from China, from Korea, all kinds of people that you never would've had an opportunity to talk to otherwise. But if you just take a little bit of time and place yourself in somewhere, where you're not surrounded by Christians all the time; it's amazing what kind of opportunities God will give you. If you will just pray and ask, "God, help me, give me the words to say, give me the people to speak to." He'll put them in your path. He'll give you opportunities, which just leads us to our last point. Who are you trying to share with? Who are you planning to share with? Who is it? I would encourage you, before the day's done to just select one person or one family that you're at least going to intentionally pray for. You're going to pray something like, "God, give me opportunities to share with this person. Lord, would you please help this person right now to see that they need help? They need the gospel. They need Jesus Christ to change their life. I can't do that God, but I know that you can, so please use me in that process."
 
If you will pray something like that, it's amazing what God will do. That doesn't guarantee that somebody will trust in it, but it does guarantee that you will have opportunities. I promise you, if you will place yourself in those areas to do that, God will work. One of the most staggering statistics I've learned since being a part of the IMB is that statistic that's right under that title on that screen, over 155,000 people on average die every single day not knowing Jesus as their Lord and Savior. 155,000 people on average. That's a staggering amount. I don't know the total population of Fort Wayne, but I imagine in a couple days, if that amount of people were ticked off, that would not last very long. So, time is urgent. The task ahead of us is not something that can just be pushed off day after day after day, but it's something that is pressing now because people today will spend an eternity away from Christ, away from fellowship with God.
 
Gospel fluency matters because the gospel needs to invade people's lives all around us. So, who are you praying for and who are you actively planning to share the gospel with? I think Pastor Greg is invited people to, even on the response card, just talk, about writing a name down a family down so that your church can pray together collectively. So that that is taken before God as an intentional measure, to see that you are investing in that person's life so that the gospel can be known by them - can be trusted.
 
We can't just do this on our own. We can't just think about living the life that God has called us to on our own in isolation. We need one another as a church family in this task. And isn't it great that we get to be together in this, that we don't have to do this alone, that we have one another in this task we've been given. So, that's what I have to share today. I pray that it is encouraging to you. I do not mean for this to be burdensome in any way, but it's encouraging because God has given us something to do. And He's promised not only that He's given us the power, but He will be with us always until the end of the age while we are doing this. So while we do this together, know that God is with you and He will never call you to do something that He will not always be there with you beside you while you're doing it.
 
Let's pray. Father God, thank you so much for the opportunity today, to look at your word and to see what it has for us to know that you are so desiring for people to come and trust in you, to believe in you, to not, not trust in their own efforts, but to deny themselves and trust in Christ. We pray that you would help us as we in this room as followers of Christ Lord, that you would help us to take seriously the call to make disciples. Not thinking that we are, are sufficient for that task, but knowing that you have resourced us, you have given us your spirit. You've given us your power and your presence with us wherever you send us to go. God, I pray for those in this room who may not know you, Lord, who are not following after you right now.
 
I pray that if there's anyone today here in this room, Lord, that they would seek out someone before they leave this building to ask, how can I follow Jesus? How can I know Jesus Christ as my savior and my Lord, because it's the most important decision that they'll ever make. God, I pray that you would help them. I pray you would help us to pray intentionally for people around us, knowing that you can do all things, you can work any kind of miracle. We pray these things in your power and in your son's name, amen. Just one thing real quick. We will be out afterwards, after the service by a table in the lobby. We'd love to talk with you. We'd love to meet you if we haven't met you already. So please, feel free to stop by and pick up one of our prayer cards or any other things. We'd just love to talk to you and get to meet you. Thank you.
Close
Thanks again for worshipping with us online. I hope that you will contact us. Go to our Facebook page, our website (www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org). Put a comment at the bottom of this video. However you can do that. Just let us know that you’re out there. We want to be able to pray for you, resource you, encourage you, answer any questions you might have. For those of you who have been giving online, thank you very much. We continue to have needs and continue to do things like this online worship experience, and other ministry needs and practical ways, and if you don’t know how to do that, just go to our website and there are instructions there. (www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org) so that you can also participate in our ministries and partner with us. Again, I’m Pastor Greg Byman, and on behalf of St Joe Community Church, God bless you, and we’ll see you next time. 
 
Thank you for joining us today. For more information about the St Joe ministry, visit www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org or call (260) 471-4704 or email StJoeCommunity@gmail.com. If you are looking for a church home, St Joe meets for worship and fellowship each Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. St Joe is committed to your well-being and safety. For the latest policies regarding the Covid 19 pandemic, please visit the Covid section of the St Joe website. Thanks again for joining us and we’ll see you next week.
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    B58 Hebrews
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    B58 Hebrews 10
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    B58 Hebrews 13
    B59 James
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    B60 1 Peter
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    B61 2 Peter
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    B62 01 John
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    B66 Revelation 20
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About
​> About Our Beliefs and Values
> About Our Member Covenant
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> About Ministries
2900 North Anthony Blvd.
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46805
(260) 471-4704 www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org
Sunday Worship: 8:30 AM & 10:30 AM (Live cast at 10:30 am)
Sunday Kids Connection Classes (infants-5th grade):  10:30 AM

Wednesday Prayer & Bible Study:  6:30 PM
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