0:00 [Music] And heavenly father, I pray that you will speak to us that the words we hear won't just be words of human beings or our own ideas, Lord, but 0:19 may it be your living word through your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your tremendous love for us, Lord. Open our ears. May we have ears to hear what the spirit is saying to the church. Open my mouth also to speak only what you would have me speak, 0:36 not my own ideas. Not any worldly wisdom, but the wisdom that is from above. You promised that to us, Lord, and we believe you will send that wisdom in our midst now in Jesus name. Amen. I'm often asked about our church and sometimes I 0:55 have conversations with others in the community or um I have an interest to see what is going on in churches uh in different circles and I have tremendous respect for any person who loves the Lord whatever their um 1:14 uh however that walk looks like and I'm tremendously blessed that even in this community in Lovelin in the loveland for Collins, Longmont area, and Denver and a number of really close friends outside of our church circles. That's very 1:28 important that we have that because God's body ex extends far beyond the boundaries of this family, but I'm also intrigued and interested by the preaching that goes on in other churches. Not to analyze it or crit criticize it or even have a judgmental 1:46 attitude towards anyone. I believe God has many God-fearing, godly people across the world who are sincerely seeking to follow him and serve him. We all may not have the same light as each other. Our circle of light is different. 2:03 And we must never ever, if God has shown us something in God's word and we believe it and practice it and teach it, we must never ever judge anybody that does not believe it, practice it, and teach it. We must stand for the truth. 2:20 If God has shown us the truth, we must stand for it exactly as he shows it in his shows us in his word. But it must never be with a critical attitude towards others who never saw it saw it that way. One of my favorite examples of 2:34 that was two godly men who lived hundreds of years ago, John Wesley and George Whitfield. John George Whitfield was a very strong Calvinist, believed Calvinist doctrine and um John Wesley believed quite differently. In fact, the Wesleyian 2:53 movement came from that speaking about the holiness and pursuing holiness as something that we must do by the power of God. And but they were very close. They were contemporaries and lived and got to be very close friends even though they were 3:10 today people go to war over those sorts of things. the difference between Calvinism and Armenianism or whatever they call it. And George Whitfield and John Wesley both very close brothers in Christ even though they led different 3:25 groups, church groups that had very different um beliefs. Now they both believed in Jesus Christ alone. The foundation that is in Jesus Christ. Uh and George Whitfield died before John Wesley. And somebody came to John Wesley 3:42 and he said, "Do you think George Whitfield you'll see him in heaven? You think you'll see George Whitfield in heaven?" And John Wesley said, "No, I won't see him in heaven. He'll be so far ahead of me. I won't be able to see 3:53 him there." This was a man who had tremendous respect for the Christ in his brother who believed very differently from him. It's very important that we have that mentality. True Christlikeness. It doesn't compromise the truth. Now, George John Wesley 4:08 continued to preach what he saw as God's truth and explained it uh and taught it that way, but it didn't cause him to look down. Is it Job 33? I think uh it says that God is on high and yet he despises no one. 4:26 God is on high. Let me see if I can find that verse. If you have a Bible, you can turn with me to it. 36. Yeah. 36:5. Job 36:5. Behold, God is mighty. And I think 4:43 another translation says is on high. He is the highest there is. He sees everything clearly. And our seeing things clearly is darkness compared to how clearly God sees it. That's what it means when it says he is mighty. 5:01 God is mighty. Job 36:5. but does not despise even one person. Does not despise anyone. If you saw everything clearly and you knew that you were absolutely right, not thinking that you're right, but you knew 5:19 it, would you despise somebody else who didn't see it the way you do? God doesn't even despise a sinful person. Can you look at a person living in sin and yes, not compromise it? Not compromise that sin is sin, not 5:39 compromise the holiness of God, but have compassion, speak truth to that person and yet not despise them. That's what it means to be like God. To partake of his divine nature is to as God gives us more light as he shows 5:57 us more things and we follow him and we don't compromise the truth at all that if we see others whether they're in Christendom or not even unconverted people we don't despise any. He is mighty in strength and of understanding. So um 6:15 that's that's very important. But I as I listen to a lot of the teaching that goes on in Christendom, I sometimes in my free time I put on a sermon from I just look around different churches whether it's from this area or elsewhere 6:30 somebody mentions a name or I hear the name of a pastor try to find what church they're part of and uh if I know that they're god-fearing if the church that and the things that they stand for are biblical things. I'm always curious to 6:43 hear what they teach and I'm blessed by many of them. I'll tell you honestly. Um, and one of the things though as I listen to uh some of the preaching that's out there um I find a a sadness. I'm not thinking of any particular 7:00 preacher or any particular church or denomination or anything like that. One of the things that I find is lacking is or two things I want to that have come to my mind is and this is what I say when I recommend if somebody says what 7:16 what church would you recommend I don't necessarily recommend our church I say come and see I don't know if this particular church is the right church for a given person only God knows that and so I say come and see come and visit us and come for a 7:33 few weeks and come and come and visit us in our homes If you want see what Christ in us actually looks like, not sounds like cuz that I think anybody can do makes Christ sound good by the singing and the teaching. I'm more interested in 7:49 people say uh coming and spending time with us. Stay for lunch on a Sunday and hang out with us and and then come over to my house and see what it's like with my wife and my children. Is Christ powerful in my life more than just in my 8:03 words? then it's a real gospel. Otherwise, we're no different than all the other religions. All the other religions preach live a good life, go to heaven afterwards. And if Christianity is just that, then our Jesus is not risen from the 8:19 dead, right? The fact that Jesus is risen from the dead means he's overcome. But these two things I find, and if you were to choose a church to go to, I would say look for these two things especially. and that is a church that preaches against sin. 8:36 I find there's very little preaching against sin in a lot of Christian churches. It's very sad and I understand why because there have probably been bad examples of preaching against sin where it's like Bible thumpers and you beat 8:52 people over the head over their sin without compassion. But sadly, I think in the last 30 or 40 years, Christendom as a whole has has largely shifted to the other side where because maybe years ago the preaching against sin was so 9:09 strong and legalistic and heavy and condemning that now churches have moved often to a a a softer message that doesn't preach against sin at all. And yet I find in the New Testament or actually in the Bible completely, the 9:26 one who spoke against sin the most was Jesus himself. If you read the New Testament, you'll find that Jesus preached against sin the most. So there is a right way to preach against sin. Obviously, we don't throw out the baby with the bathwater as they 9:42 say. There is a right way to preach against sin. That's important. Choose a church that preaches against sin. This is the example I would give you. Choose a church that preaches against sin like you would choose a doctor who knows 9:57 about every kind of disease and is able to identify them and cure you from them. Choose a church that preaches against sin like you would choose a doctor who knows about all the diseases that exist and knows how to set you how to be point 10:14 you to how to be freed from them. Not a doctor. says, "Well, I'm only going to tell you about this and that and the other thing. I don't know about all the other things." And there is a a a uh hesitation to preach against sin 10:30 for many preachers because of fear of how it would be received or offending people who love their sin. And that would be a horrible, unrighteous doctor who was afraid to tell you about the cancer that you had because you might 10:48 not like him at the end of it. But are you going to choose a doctor by how nice he is to you and how friendly he is and how comfortable the the couch is in his l in his lobby? You want the doctor that is able to that has the best medication 11:04 that has the best instruments that has the best ability to find cancer that will kill you. Dear friends, dear family, sin will kill you. That's why we preach against sin. And the kind of teaching that just tells 11:22 you how to be a little nicer or how to be a little more polite or how to think about God more often and put into practice good general principles about good living, but doesn't show you your sin is doing you a disservice. I would 11:39 be doing you a disservice if I didn't preach against sin because sin is the one thing that'll matter. good habits, good discipline, getting up on time and working out and eating healthy and and being friendly to others and all that. 11:53 That's good. But that's not what will send you to hell. Sin will send you to hell. Why is sin serious? Sin is serious because the proof that sin is serious is the fact that Jesus the son of God had to die 12:12 in order to take away the penalty of sin. If it was just a matter of oh learn to be a little bit better, be a little bit more disciplined, give your money and and think of the poor people and and all that. Jesus didn't have to die for that. 12:27 If it was just a matter of you and I becoming a little bit better versions of I, Jesus wouldn't have had to die. And the fact that Jesus, the son of God, had to die and experience being separated from his father is something 12:44 that you and I could never fully fathom. That he had to experience that being forsaken by his father on the cross. The fact that that's what it took for my sin to be taken away shows me that sin is serious. If all God wanted from me is to just do 13:03 a little bit better, brother. Jesus didn't have to die. And that's why we speak against sin, we must take sin seriously, cuz that's what it took. It took Jesus dying. And a lot of people say, well, I want a church that's balanced truth and grace. You 13:21 know, Jesus says, it says about Jesus in John 1 verse 14 that he presented full of grace and truth. Yes, the truth about sin and the danger of sin must be told and it must be told with grace. But a lot of times when I hear people say, well, we want truth 13:40 with grace. What they mean is, yeah, speak about the truth, but just be soft about it. They think grace is some soft massage, like a back rub. Grace is not a back rub. A lot of people think truth is this harsh law like Moses, you 13:58 know, in Pilgrim's Progress. He's this law with a stern voice and then grace is, oh, it's okay. You'll get it. You'll figure it out. Just keep keep at it. It's all right. Go back to sleep. That's not grace. Grace is power. 14:13 If truth tells you about sin, grace sets you free from sin. So truth and grace is not just something that puts me back into into my bed spiritually that sends me back to sleep. Truth is like the alarm clock that wakes me up. And grace 14:30 is the power that gets me out of bed to do what I need to do. And if you find, dear friend, that the teaching you're listening to wakes you up every now and then, but then sends you back to sleep, that's not truth and grace. That's truth 14:43 and some other false comfort that wakes you up every now and then, like an alarm clock, and then you just hit snooze and say, "All right, pastor, preach me this again in about 6 months. I'd like to hear it, but not something 14:55 that's constantly preached." And our preaching in this church must be like the alarm clock that if you snooze it, it's going to come back on about 5 minutes later and say you haven't gotten out of bed. You haven't taken sin seriously, that's 15:14 preaching that will ultimately set us free. But the alarm clock that wakes you up and then snoozes for another 24 hours is not a good alarm clock. And the preaching that every once every six months or once a year tells you about 15:25 sin but then leaves you and doesn't point you to the grace of God that will set you free from sin is not gospel at all. There's a verse we read this week in our Bible reading in the book of Hosea. I don't know if you missed it. In case you 15:42 did, I'd like to point you to it. Hosea is the first book of the minor prophets. So it comes after the book of Daniel. Hosea chapter 4. This verse brought me some level of grief 16:00 and warning I will say about my own life. Hosea 4, it says in verse 7, the more they multiplied, the more they sinned against me. It it it struck me to the core. It pierced my heart. And I wondered about my own life. First 16:19 of all, in my marriage, my home and this church and I wondered about church at Christendom in general in the world today. As God looks down, as Jesus Christ looks down at his bride, the church, you know, I I I I I somebody 16:35 quoted a stat to me recently that there's a growing hunger in the world today for Christianity. And maybe true. I praise the Lord for that if it's genuine. But I wondered if this verse may be true that the more they multiplied, the more that they grew, 16:51 more that our church grew, let's say, or the longer I was a Christian, let's say, or the longer I was married or whatever, the more my circle grew in whatever way, the more they sinned against me. It said that grieved God's heart. And I believe 17:08 it still does today. God is not impressed by the number of people sitting in church buildings today. That doesn't impress him at all. If all of a sudden now every single church building in the town of Loveland is packed and overflowing, that doesn't 17:23 impress God. If what he sees is that the more people are sitting there, but the sin is now multiplied. And it the way I applied it to our church, as you know, we've grown over the years that I've been here. I've seen the Lord bring 17:37 growth and then bring pruning and then more growth through it. I praise the Lord. It's his doing, not ours. But my fear was, L, Lord, let it never be that if our church grows in a particular way that it's also grown in sin. 17:55 That this verse would never be true about us. that as we're growing, there must be a growth in holiness and purity. May it never be uh so about us. And the verse I wanted to show you about grace, this is the mark that we really have 18:11 grace. In Romans chapter 6, we read in verse 14, Romans 6:14, the proof that you have God's grace in your life. Grace is a very misunderstood word. It's a very misunderstood word. Um um 18:31 one definition that became popular many years ago was this definition that grace is God's unmmerited favor. That's not true. I want to tell you if you've heard that definition of grace, that's wrong. Because God's unmmerited favor is on the 18:45 ungodly. The richest man in the world today, whoever he is, has God's unmmerited favor in his work. in the fact that he's the richest. It's he didn't do anything to deserve it and God is the one that allowed him to to have all the wealth 19:01 that he did. Yes, he might have worked hard. He or she, but God's the one that allowed him to do it. You don't uh God's unmmerited favor causes the sun to rise on the righteous and the unrighteous. So to receive God's unmmerited blessing, 19:18 you don't you have to be either righteous or unrighteous. One of those two. God's unmmerited favor is on everybody. So what is grace then? And the reason it's important that we understand what grace is because the devil will feed us 19:33 a lie or a counterfeit, a counterfeit check that says $100 on it or a million dollars on it. You realize this is fake. And he's fed many Christians a false grace, thinking that, "Oh, God, I have your grace because I'm healthy today and I 19:51 have enough money in the bank account or you've healed me of this or my children are doing well." What is true grace? We're told in Romans 6:14, the proof that you're under grace, that means grace is over your life, God's 20:07 grace is in your life, is this. Sin has no power over you. Let me read it. Sin shall not be master over you because you're not under law, but under grace. If sin has power over you, you lose your temper, you get irritable and you're not bothered by it 20:26 and you lust with your eyes and you use your tongue carelessly and you love money and your mind is always on the things of this earth and all those things. If sin is master over you, you're not under grace. So, there should be a cry within my 20:43 heart as I look back on this last week. You and I ought to know immediately whether we're under grace or not. Whether we've really experienced grace or not by was sin did was I controlled by sin or controlled by grace. So this is true grace. So I said that 20:59 the one thing that I I find increasingly lacking in a lot of preaching today is preaching against sin. The other thing is really what I wanted to speak on and I'll spend a few more minutes speaking on that is reverence for God. 21:13 true reverence for God. And I find that because there's a preach there, we've come to see God in the new covenant as a father, as one who has relationship with us, not somebody who keeps me at a distance distance, not somebody who is 21:30 about to whack me over the head as a result of that because God has become a father who invites me freely into his presence, which is true. The the consequence of that is I believe the church has lost a lot of the reverence for God that we used to have 21:48 maybe hundred years ago in this country and times past. I thought I thought about John. You know, one of the last pictures we see of John interacting with Jesus before Jesus went up to heaven was John leaning his head on Jesus' shoulder. That's true. 22:08 But you know what I see about John? When he sees the resurrected Jesus with his eyes flashing fire and his eyes of his hair of wool, he falls down on his face as if dead. And the secret to Christianity to finding this balance between an intimate 22:25 relationship with the God I rever, it's how I would describe it. an intimate, close, loving relationship with a God for whom I have reverence for. Now, you take away the if you have only the reverence without the intimacy, you 22:42 have legalism. A God that you're afraid of and you're always afraid that he's going to do something. So, you stand with a false reverence. That's not false. That's not reverence. That's a fear of God, being afraid of him. 22:55 And again, the devil has confused a lot of people into thinking that reverence for God means being afraid of him. And so you get preaching that says, "Hey, God's not somebody you have to be afraid of. Come, he welcomes you. You're the 23:05 prodical son. He's put the robe on your on your shoulders. He's put the sandals on your feet. He's put the ring on his finger. So come in." And while that is true, it is never at the expense of a reverence for God that we must have. 23:23 So look for a church that teaches you reverence for God. something even as simple as you know like I was saying when we started the meeting before we sang our conversation on the way to the church meeting this morning was is there a difference when 23:36 we're here versus when we're at school or doing something else in a sense no but in a sense yes there's something special because you read in 1 Corinthians 14 for example the verse that says God is here in our midst that 23:52 visitors will come in an unconverted person or an unbeliever or an ungifted person will come in and recognize that in the meeting God was here. How there was a sense of reverence there that they come in and recognize, wow, this is this 24:07 is not just some place where the strobe lights are flashing and everybody's dancing around and there's a sort of a carefree attitude that yes there that's a false joy in the Lord. There's a a joy in heaven that still keeps me reverent 24:19 for him. And what do you picture heaven like? Is it like a big wave party? Like it is in some churches today. Looks like a rave party and they're singing to Jesus. It's another Jesus. But heaven is full of joy and yet there's a reverence and all of a sudden 24:35 something happens where they suddenly shut their mouth and there's a half hour of silence. You read about and then they come back to singing. And I I wonder I we don't really know all of it, but as I read the book of Revelation, I tell you the one word that 24:48 I get out of two words I get out of reading the book of Revelation is joy and reverence. And if anything, reverence more than joy. But the presence of the Lord is fullness of joy as it is also a reverence for him. And our our burden in this church 25:06 is that we have that. You saw the children having a good time singing. But I believe dear brothers and sisters and children the children aren't here um that there's a reverence there that must that is there even when we dance and 25:19 sing nothing wrong with that expressing clapping raising your hands do that but inside reverence is a thing on the inside it has nothing to do maybe we kneel sometimes maybe we bow our head and say Lord you're God but it's a it's 25:32 a it's an attitude of the heart that I could be singing and laughing and dancing and clapping and smiling or playing a football game or doing my work or driving the car or watching a good movie and all of that, but my heart is 25:44 reverent. And the proof of that is that the moment a flicker of sin tries to come in, I immediately shrink back. If I thought that movie was good, but all of a sudden a scene flashes there, I jump to turn it off and say, "I cannot be reverent and 26:01 continue to watch that." That's what reverence does. It puts a healthy sense of the presence of God that this could never be playing in heaven. I've had that happen sometimes. It looked like a children's movie. We don't even watch anything 26:16 beyond PG-13. These days, I won't even watch those sometimes. It's so I just want to watch. I don't know. You know, it's just it's amazing how the standards have just gotten lower and lower and lower. What they're saying children are okay to 26:31 watch. But sometimes we'll think, well, it's a little cartoon. Nothing wrong with it. And then you realize there's a spirit there in that cartoon that could never find a place in heaven. And if I want the reverence of God, if I 26:43 want the reverence of heaven here, I got to shut it off and say, "I'm sorry, children. I know it was good up to this point, and you're excited to find out what happened, but I don't care to find out what happened if I'm going to lose a 26:53 reverence for God." You'll see it on on the side of of your browser. They'll put the little images and the advertisements that pop up. What are you going to do with your eyes, brother, sister? If you have a reverence for the Lord, 27:07 you'll you'll be willing to give up everything to keep your eyes pure. In Malachi, Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. This the last prophet after this. There's 400 years of silence or so 27:26 before John the Baptist comes. That's the period between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Read Malachi chapter 1. Here's the reason God. Now, there's a little bit of a gap between the previous prophet, Hagi, Zachchariah, and then 27:42 Malachi. A little bit of a gap. And it's as if God was giving them one last prophetic warning before the new covenant would come. And the last word of the old covenant is the word curse. lest I come and smite the land with a 27:57 curse. That's the ending of the Old Testament. And Malachi is the last prophet sending this warning. Says, "If you don't turn, I'm going to have to come and smite the land with a curse. I don't want to." And then he sends Jesus 28:09 to be our curse. Praise the Lord for that. But that doesn't lighten sin. is the fact that Jesus took my sin away makes me treat sin more lightly. I have a false understanding of Jesus. It's another Jesus. When you really fix your 28:27 eyes on Jesus and you behold him whom they have pierced, like it says in the book of Zechariah, when you behold him whom you have pierced and you see your sin on him, it will cause you to hate sin even more. Not less. Not saying, 28:42 "Oh, Jesus took my sins so I can continue to live in sin." It will bring a reverence. It will bring a hatred for sin. Lord, I caused that. You who deserve no suffering at all, you who deserve no pain and deserve not to have 28:55 anything to do with sin, took my sin, help me to take sin seriously. Now in Malachi 1, we read here in verse 7 um about a people who are bringing sacrifices to God. He says, "How have we 29:14 despised your name? You are presenting defiled food upon my altar. But you say, "How have we defiled you?" In that you say the table of the Lord is so to be despised. When you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the 29:30 lame and sick, is it not evil? In other words, they were bringing, they were coming to the meetings, they were giving an offering. Today, I would say they were singing, they were listening, they were putting money in the offering box. 29:45 They were doing those things, but there wasn't a reverence for it. And the proof of that was they were giving the leftovers, something that didn't cost them something. The blind. Oh, God wants a lamb. Sure, that one. the blind one. Let 29:59 me give it I I met the the requirements, right? I'm supposed to go to church on Sunday. So, yeah, let me just do this and run away as fast as I can because I got to do the meet the requirements for what God will be happy with me. A lack 30:13 of reverence. I mean, I remember sitting in churches in this in this building and there were I would sometimes look over and see people that on their phones the whole time, Facebook or what whatever. Thankfully, they're not here. I don't 30:26 know. I don't I shouldn't say that. Thankfully, but it it grieved my heart. Yeah, nobody else can see that you're on your phone doing whatever you're doing, checking the score of the football game or whatever, but do you believe God is 30:37 here? Is there a reverence for him in our gatherings that say, "I don't care if nobody else sees me. God is here." And look at what he goes on to say after that. Would you offer this to your governor? If the president of the United States 30:52 was here or the president of your company was here and he was speaking, would you spend your time on your phone distracted with all the other thoughts of what's going on? If there's somebody you really revered, respected, let's say 31:04 there's a field, maybe if it's sports for you. Here's somebody who's an expert in his field now talking about it. Would you be hanging on his every word? I'm not talking about my words. Please understand. I'm talking about the Holy 31:13 Spirit, Jesus Christ, who is speaking in his church. Are you here to hang on every word that he wants to speak to you? That's reverence like you would on a soccer player or a a businessman who's successful. You know, you go to these conferences and you get 31:30 the rich people, the the successful businessmen, the CEO, they've got what's called keynotes and that's the most pack the heavily attended meeting. Everybody packed standing room only because the CEO is going to give the keynote and 31:43 they're listening to every word and and they don't have time to look at their phones and the football game may be going on. I don't care about that. there's somebody who's going to tell me something about how to make a little bit 31:51 more money perhaps. And that reverence ought to be for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords alone. And yet in churches today, we have sadly a lack of reverence and it's people checking the box, showing up in meetings. 32:11 The mark of Christ's presence in the church is that through the Holy Spirit, there's a conviction of sin. that verse let me show it to you actually that I mentioned earlier um 1 Corinthians 14 this is talking about the meetings yes 32:27 we have reverence for God all the time but there must be a deeper there there is a deeper experience when we all come together when there's a congregation if you will a a body coming together so that it's not just me lone ranger but coming 32:42 together in unity there's something special that happens your family. I know you know that you I know you see that you sense that in our meetings that there's a reverence whether it's uh this Sunday or the Wednesday meeting Bible 32:54 studies our prayer meetings that we have our daily prayer meetings that we check in midday with each other and those meetings there's a reverence there praise the Lord for that so there's something special that happens in the 33:07 meetings in the gatherings of his people and um you know Jesus said when he spoke about the Holy Spirit John 16 I think it's verse 8 that the Holy Spirit will bring conviction of sin. The mark of the Holy Spirit's presence 33:21 in your life. Keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 14. I'll show you that verse so you see it in John 16. You know that the Holy Spirit is working in your life because he does this. John 16 verse 8. And he that is the Holy Spirit when he 33:39 comes will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. That is a conviction of sin. In other words, yesterday I didn't even think that the way I spoke to my wife was sin necessarily. I just I was like, "Yeah, 33:57 that's how I always spoke." Today the Holy Spirit has worked a little bit more in my life that I look back on the way and the tone and the attitude with which I spoke to her yesterday and I say, "Wow, that's sin." Now, if your definition of sin is only 34:11 murder and adultery and those sorts of things, then I don't know what to say. But if your definition of sin is anything that is uncristlike, if Christ wouldn't speak that way, that's sin. Now, you may not get there overnight. It's a journey. We get there. 34:29 We're trying to become more and more like Christ, more and more freed from sin. But if that standard of sin is not been raised, then I'm not growing to become more like Christ. And that's the proof that the Holy Spirit is working in 34:44 us and and in the gatherings you see in 1 Corinthians 14 in the meetings. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 25 verse 24. If all prophesy and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all by the Holy Spirit in them, convicted of that sin, he all 35:02 of a sudden as he's listening to the message or listening to a prayer or watching the reverence, observing the reverence in the meeting, it pokes his conscience or her conscience and they recognize, well, these are these are 35:15 people that really take God seriously. God is here and they know it and he knows it, too. You see how the reverence for God in our gatherings, in the way we sit even, I mean, I remember some years ago, we used to have a coffee uh machine 35:30 in the back. We decided, you know what, there's too many people congregating there during the meetings. We said that needs to go downstairs. We need as few distractions as possible so that we can preserve a reverence for God while we're 35:42 here. So that when somebody comes in who doesn't know about the reverence for God comes in, he doesn't think, "Oh, the music sounds good today. Oh man, that guy's a good preacher." or the chairs are comfortable. He says, "God is here." 35:54 That's our passion. That's our burden that anyone who watches us online or comes in here says, "God is here." They're not impressed with anything else or even the the show that the ch the presentation that the children are going 36:06 to do. God is here. That's up to us family because let's read that verse. When he's convicted by all, he's called account to all. the secrets of his heart, this is verse 25, are disclosed and he'll fall on his face and worship God declaring 36:24 that God is certainly among you that reverence comes into his heart as well or her heart as well. And I pray that for people who say, I'm curious, what is RLCF all about? I pray, I don't know if that's true, but I pray that 36:40 when they see us, they see this little church, small church, not very big, or they watch us online, there's a spirit of reverence that they recognize is a church that treats God as holy. It's very important. Book of Ecclesiastes, I'm turning to some books 36:58 you may never read very often. Hopefully, you know where they are in your Bible. The book of Ecclesiastes comes after Psalms, Proverbs, and then Ecclesiastes before Song of Solomon. Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter 5. 37:15 I wonder what it was like, family, when you came in and you started singing. When we sang, what was that like? Maybe you sang some new songs. You're like, "Okay, let me learn this new one." Or if it was a familiar song, you sang along 37:28 and you thought, "How do I sound?" or you're looking around at others and your thoughts going through your mind. Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 1. I hope that from next Sunday onwards at least we'll think about this verse 37:41 before we come to our meetings. Guard your steps as you go to the house of God. Has anybody ever preached a sermon to you says before you go to church everybody says come to church, come to church, come to church. Have you heard anyone 37:58 say, "Watch your steps before you come to church." Sometimes we have to do that when it's icy outside. And maybe we should put a sign out front. Ecclesiastes 5:1. Before you come in, guard your steps. It's Bible. It's not 38:12 me. Reading right from God's word. Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools. There is a sacrifice that fools are offering as well according to this 38:26 verse. Don't offer that kind of sacrifice. There are all kinds of people singing Christian songs today in church meetings and reading from the Bible and preaching from the Bible. Some of them are fools. I don't know who they are. I 38:39 want to make sure I'm not one because the Bible warns me about it. Draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools for they do not know what they are doing. that don't know that they're doing evil off. Can 38:54 offering a sacrifice be be evil? Now, that's a whole sermon in itself. If Ecclesiastes 5:1, continue verse two. Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. Don't be hasty to sing that song. Don't 39:12 be hasty to say that word or don't be hasty to do this or to do that. Why? God is in heaven and you are on the earth. Therefore, let your words be few. This is reverence. Well, you don't have to teach somebody to be quiet. They 39:28 recognize God is in heaven. I'm here on earth. I must be reverent. Reverence comes not even you can say, "Yes, I'm a sinner, so I should be reverent." That's true about all of us. But there is a reverence, the true reverence of God comes from simply 39:45 recognizing that God is in heaven. I'm here on this earth. I must be reverent. Here's the proof of that. Jesus was reverent. You don't need to have sinned to be reverent. We're all sinners, so we better be reverent. All the more reason 39:59 for us to be reverent. Jesus was reverent. Let me show you this verse in Hebrews chapter 5. Did it's too confusing for us to think about even sometimes. Jesus was here perfect, never sinned. He was God. He's always been God. Never 40:17 ceased to be God. While he was here on this earth as God, as the son of God, he was reverent to his father. And today we have Christians that say, "Well, it's just Christian that he's a happy golucky life. is just go on and 40:33 sing your songs and dance and and play your music and go about your life and continue to love money and continue to cheat on your wife and continue to commit adultery and continue to um be uh unkind to others and have no care for 40:45 the lost. This is not the Jesus I read about in the Bible. In Hebrews 5:7, it says, "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up both prayers and supplications, and the reverence was so strong in him that it was a loud crying and tears." Now, I 41:03 know I'm speaking a little bit excitedly, but I'm not anywhere close to having loud crying and tears. Someday when I see Jesus, I'm going to know a little bit of what his loud crying and tears sounded like. 41:20 Picture Jesus, the perfect, the only perfect man that ever walked on this earth as God in the flesh, fully God, fully man, crying out. Why? He had reverence. And it says he was heard because of his 41:39 reverence, his godly fear, his piety. Today we say, 'Lord, I'm just going to pray and I'm going to believe, name it and claim it. I believe you're my prayers heard and answered. And yet for Jesus, his claiming, you know, every 41:53 prayer of Jesus was answered. He says in John 12, uh, John 11, I know that you always hear me. Why was it that Jesus was always heard by his father? Is it simply because well just believe it brother just claim it that's the gospel we're hearing today 42:10 it's not gospel that's what's being preached today and yet we are told that Jesus was heard because of his reverence you know you could do more in a twominut prayer of reverence than a two-day fasting and prayer without it 42:27 if you have true reverence you could play pray for 2 minutes now I pray for as long as you need to pray until something happens like we say pu SH pray until something happens. Pray until God moves, gives you an answer. So sure, 42:41 pray for two days, pray for two weeks, whatever it might be, but pray with reverence and then sometimes you might even just pray one word. Do you know that there are some prayers of Jesus were one word prayers? It's when he cast 42:54 out demons. One word, go gone. Today we have a Christian that says, "Oh, you need to uh you know what is it? um exorcise days and weeks and all night and and all this stuff. Exorcism. Jesus didn't come 43:11 to practice exorcism. He had authority over the demons. And that's why he and he had reverence for the father. And the devil knew he had reverence for the father. And the demons knew he had reverence for the father. So when he 43:22 said go, they went. And this is the prayer of reverence that God wants us to have as well. Family, prayer of reverence. Hebrews goes on to tell us. I'm almost done. A few chapters later. Hebrews chapter 12. Sometime if you have time, I I want to 43:43 recommend Hebrews chapter 12. It's right after Hebrews 11. As you know, Hebrews 11 talks about the men and women of faith in the Old Testament. And then we're told about the life of faith in the New Covenant, beginning with Jesus, 43:55 the author and perfector of our faith. So Hebrews 11 is old covenant faith. Hebrews 12 is New Covenant faith. Very simply, it really should be one. It's two sides. You know, you have the Old Testament in your Bible and the New Testament. 44:08 Hebrews 11 is old covenant faith. Hebrews 12 is new covenant faith because we're told at the end of Hebrews 11 that God has something better for us in the New Covenant. And we're told about true faith in Jesus, the author and perfector 44:22 of our faith. And then he goes on to say, speaking about faith here, talks about Sinai versus Zion. Beginning in verse 18, Si was this scary mountain where fire and God said, "Even if a beast touches the mountain, they will 44:39 die." And they dare not look. And they said, "Moses, you go up there. I don't want to go anywhere near this God that's full of flashing fire and thunder and lightning and scary thundering voice and trump and all that. Moses, you go. Maybe 44:52 you will die, but I don't want to die." That was the attitude of the old covenant people. And then God says verse 25, "Please, these are serious words. Please take them to heart." Hebrews 12:25, "See to it, now that we're in the new covenant and Jesus is, 45:08 we're not afraid of this God anymore and he's taken our curse and he's hung on that tree and I I come boldly to the throne of grace." We read earlier in Hebrews chapter 4, but having said that you can come boldly to the throne of 45:19 grace, he says in Hebrews 12:25, see to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth from Sinai with the thunder and the lightning, much less will we who have 45:38 been given grace escape, who turn away from him who warns from heaven. And his voice shook the earth then. Now then it was just the earth that shook. Now he has promised saying yet once more 45:53 I will shake not only earth and heaven. This is the new covenant. In the old covenant he just shook the earth. In the new covenant he shakes the earth and heaven. Which is greater? This God whom I love, who's my father, whom I'm not 46:09 afraid of, is shaking heaven and earth. Let's have reverence for him. Verse 27. This expression yet once more denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken as of created things so that those things which cannot be 46:23 shaken may remain. And I spoke on this a few weeks ago. I hope you remember that that I when I see that he's shaking everything. I say thank you Lord because what you're doing is you're rooting out of me everything that's shakable. If you 46:35 see in me something that's shakable, you're taking it out. That's why you're shaking. You're shaking the cup so that all that bitter stuff will spill out and he'll preserve what's good in it. That's why I welcome shaking in my life. Now, 46:48 if the Lord go allows me to go through a trial or a shaking experience, you say, "Lord, you're doing it. You're shaking heaven and earth and you're shaking my life. You're pulling out the rug under underneath me for what? So that 46:58 everything that's left is unshakable gold, an unshakable foundation." So verse 28, therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, what shall we do? Ah, let's just put up our feet, flip on the 47:17 TV, and let's watch the football game. Is that what your Bible says? Since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. Let's start by saying, "Thank you, Lord, that you're not a God I have to be afraid of." 47:34 But it doesn't stop there. Let's offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and all. Let's start by saying thank you Lord, but then let's be reverent. Say, Lord, you're you actually the new covenant, you've manifested your 47:51 power even greater. You're not only just shaking earth, you're shaking heaven as well. So I say thank you Lord that you're including that through this shaking when you shake heaven and earth you're going to bring me forth wonderfully pure unshakable. 48:05 Praise you for that. But let me be reverent. Let it not result in me taking sin more lightly and more carelessly. Let's show reverence and awe because our God, it's a new covenant verse, is a consuming fire. I'll close with one more verse. Turn 48:23 back to Hebrews 11. Noah got a glimpse of this. Hebrews 11 verse 7. By faith, Noah, you've been warned today, family, brothers, sisters, children, visitors, those of you watching online. I believe God's given you a warning today. Not a warning like 48:40 I'm against you, but a warning that there's a time coming when you won't be able to turn anymore. In the same way, Noah, it says verse 7, Hebrews 11:7, was warned by God about things not yet seen. The things we spoke about today are not 48:59 yet seen. And God has warned us about it. And then it goes on to say, "Becoming reverence, he prepared an ark." When Noah got the warning, the result of it was there was a reverence that came upon him. He said, "Lord, you're going to destroy the whole 49:16 earth and you you're saving me and you're asking me to build an ark and you want me to bring as many people as I can into that ark. Let me do so with reverence." Thank you. Gratitude. We heard about that. What was Moses? What 49:29 was Noah's response when God told him, "I'm going to send a flood and the whole earth's going to be destroyed, but Noah, I'm going to save you." What? Thank you, Lord. Me. What did I do to deserve this? You You saved me. Gratitude. 49:43 But then he became reverent and he said, "I better make sure I build this ark." And I try to drag as many people as I can into it. And even if it's just my wife and my three children and their wives, that's it. That's fine. I got to 49:56 be in the ark. I got to take it seriously. I can't just take it lightly. And if all my friends say, "No, Noah, you're kidding. What do you mean this doom and gloom message and all that? God loves us, man. He's not going to send a 50:07 flood." Moses Noah had reverence. Let's have gratitude and let's have reverence. Amen. Heavenly Father, I pray that the words that you wanted to speak to us beyond my words, Lord. We'll penetrate into our hearts, find a 50:25 root there, that we'll become a people that takes sin seriously and is reverent before you at all times and especially in our meetings together. Thank you, Lord. You'll do it. Pour out your spirit of the fear of the Lord, the spirit of 50:40 reverence in us that we leave this place even as we now hear from the children that there will be a reverence about it. We'll recognize that you're here and as we leave this place later, there will be reverence about us. Thank you in Jesus 50:54 name. Amen. Amen. [Music]
