MAY 19 2019 | Accelerate S1E8 | Living Between Two Worlds

Sea Change Church · Accelerate · "Living Between Two Worlds" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · May 19, 2019
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

I'm Noel, I'm an elder, and I help organize service projects for the high schoolers. And today's scripture reading is John 15, verses 18 through 27. If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you. A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my father as well. If I had not done among them the works, no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their law. They hated me without reason.

When the advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. The word of the Lord. Thanks, Noel. Like I said, Noel is one of our elders here. Does a great job. Stoked to have you. We are in the Accelerate series. We are finishing up this week and next. And then Pastor Harry will be speaking for two weeks on going from surviving to thriving out of Jeremiah.

And he's got a really profound series that I hope you're excited about as well. If you want to know what this series is about, it's about getting unstuck. It is about the basics of the Christian faith. And we're going to continue to go back to the basics. There's a few things that I know, and if I do them well, one of which would be caring for my wife, one of which is caring for my children, speaking to them. There's a few basic things that if you do them well, you don't spend more than you earn.

If you do these things, you're going to end up on a pretty straight path. The same is true for Scripture. The Bible is not rocket science. There is a lot of nuance. But the Bible is not rocket science. And if there are some basic things that you do to stay in connection with Christ, it's going to help you get out of ruts. And this whole passage, this whole series is about getting out of a rut. Now, here's the thing I spoke about last week with ruts.

The thing about ruts is that they tend to have a payoff. If you've been in a rut for a very long time, oftentimes it's because it has a payoff. Very few of us will stick our finger into an electrical socket and just leave it there. We will pull it out very quickly. But if you've been in a rut, a rut of addiction of some kind, a relational rut, a health rut, the reason that we stay in these ruts is because it has payoff.

And one of the things that we want to do, and what Christ is constantly calling us to do, is to not live compartmentally. He wants to be a part of every part of your life and to infuse into every area of your life. And I had a friend, you know, five, ten years back, and he had left his wife. We were friends. And he had left his wife. And he had lived with one woman for a while. And he's still married. And then broke up with her and moved in with another.

Another woman moved in with him. So this was his second quasi-girlfriend that was living with him. And we went out to breakfast. And he was telling me about how great the relationship was and the whole deal. And I'm listening. And then he made a left turn and started talking about this new Bible study, morning Bible study that he was going to. And he was like, man, I got to tell you, this Bible study, this guy speaks truth.

I feel the peace of God. I love, you know, yada, yada, yada. And for me, something's not working. I don't know about you, but for me, in the conversation, something's not working. And I said, you know, I asked you a question. How do you leave your wife, have your second woman move in? You're living with this woman now. You're totally cool with that. But then you're going to church, and you're telling me how awesome it is.

Like, how does that work? And he stopped, and he looked up, and he goes, he's honest. He said, compartmentally. And I said, and I thought, you know, and it's so true, right? If we are going to live with one foot in the world and one foot in Christ, you're going to have to live compartmentally. And here's the tension. Living in the world and not being of the world is a very difficult thing to do. And this is what this summer, a lot of this summer is all about.

How do we live according to Christ in the world in a way that makes, you're making a practical difference. You're seeing, you're a culture changer. They have these people on Instagram now. They're called influencers. And basically, it means they have a bunch of kids and people who watch them, and they do stuff, and they're supposedly influencing people and changing culture. And some of that it does. But the same question now for us as believers is, how do we influence a place that you live?

Now, everywhere you go, you're going to influence in one way or another. But in regard to your work, is your work different because you were there? Or do you have an inability to testify to what you know is true? Now, the scripture talks about testifying. And I'm not speaking about creating signs and going into your workplace and being an annoyance. You notice it says, if the world hates you, which means sometimes it won't.

Some of the hate that we get is because we have invited the hate. And, you know, you don't want to blind people with the truth. But how do we live in such a way that brings a different culture? That when you walk into work, people are happy that you showed up. That you are making a difference there. How often do people come to you and say, hey, I have an issue, and I've kind of noticed the way that you're living, and can I get some advice from you?

Can I sit with you? Can I talk to you? You're making a radical difference in their lives. This is basic Christianity, the ability to change your cultures. Three cultures we're talking about again this summer is your work, your play, and at home. How do you do that? Jesus says, and in the passage that comes, it's pericope is the word. It's one of my least favorite words, but I want to say it from seminary. Pericope, a portion of scripture that came before this passage we just read is the passage, Jim's smiling, you know that word.

It just happens to. The vine and the branches. Now, if you want to know what Jesus thinks about how intimate and close he wants to be with you, he talks about it like vine and branches. It's just this complete connectivity. As a matter of fact, one of the things he said, you know, in order to be close to me, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood, which was a very controversial statement. And people were like, what are you talking about?

You're a cannibal. And it caused a lot of stir in the time. But as you'll see in a moment, Jesus says that if we live according to the flesh, then what? The flesh leads to death. It says that in Romans. But Jesus, the flesh of Jesus was untainted by the world and is full of the spirit. And so Jesus was offering something. Matter of fact, you could actually say, and this is something the Catholics get really, really well, that if you can live according to the flesh, just not your flesh.

You can live according to the flesh of Christ, the word of God, the very, you know, the sustenance that comes from living on him. And so what it says in the scripture here, or excuse me, in the notes, in this passage, Jesus speaks about that tension of living in the world while not belonging to it. Jesus says in verse 19, I have chosen you out of the world. And the question really asked is, who do you belong to? And are you very good at being a spiritual chameleon?

That when you're in certain situations, you tend to act differently. Or when you are at church, you tend to act differently. Or is there very little difference between the person you are when you're alone and the person you are when you are with people? I was reading through my seminary papers this last week. I found out we moved. And so I found a box and I'm clearing stuff out. And I found all my grades and this thing.

And I found all these papers. This is, you know, right at, you know, when the internet was happening. And I was, I was studying, I was doing some sermons. I was in a preaching class and I got an A minus in the preaching class. I'm just still wish I would have gotten an A, but I got an A minus. He said, you could have been a little stronger on a expository. And I was like, okay, great. Phenomenal. And he wrote me a note.

This teacher who was really well-loved. I mean, and he was a great preacher. I mean, phenomenal. One of the problems with pastors is a lot of times people think if you can preach well, you can actually run a group of people. And it's not always true. People get enamored with being able to preach or any kind of talent. People are enamored with talent. That's, you know, why we go to the NBA. And we're just enamored with it.

It's fun to watch. And there was a note that said, hey, dear Adam, great job in the class. Keep preaching. I love your preaching, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to give you an A minus instead of an A because of blah, blah, blah. And I want you to press on for Christ. Keep your eye on the deal and this whole thing. Well, this guy ended up sleeping with his worship leader, I believe, at the church that he was at about three years later.

And it's one of a bunch of notes. I'll never say who it is. But I have three or four notes from either prominent or not prominent pastors who wrote me letters who ended up having major falls in their life. And so I just, you know, I'm not going to frame it. If I did, I would cross the name out. But I keep it because it reminds me how easy it is to go from celebrity whatever your position is. You could be a celebrity in your own little world.

You could be a celebrity at the dog park. I see that as well. You know, people looking for celebrity in all places. How easy it is just to fall when you live compartmentally. And how much allowance are you allowing for the flesh to come in? And do you have the ability to know when the spirit of truth is speaking and when the spirit of the world is speaking? Or have we numbed ourselves to the point where we don't know the difference?

One of the things I've become very aware of is, you know, things like violence on TV. And we have a culture that is having this huge debate about violence in the public arena. I mean, you see it. It's, you know, I don't even know why the flag is at half-staff half the time. We live in a half-staff nation. But then I go watch the commercials. And there was so much violence. I mean, graphic violence on TV. And I wonder why we get upset about the things that happen in our streets and at our schools and in our churches and in our synagogues.

But we have the, you know, the incredible ability to go watch it at night as entertainment. I watched two commercials yesterday during the NBA. I was watching the NBA thing and I didn't fast forward. I was putting stuff together. So I wasn't fast forwarding through the commercials, watching it live. And I saw two commercials where women were being physically abused by men in the commercial. But it's a movie. So it's a movie.

And I just begin to ask myself this question. You know, all of a sudden, why is this happening? And the spirit of God began to speak to me. And I believe there was a nuance in the conversation where the spirit of truth said, What you allow, what you accept will be played out in your life, in your streets, and in your culture. And as a church, we, look, as people, just as an individual, we need to be very aware of what we accept.

What we accept watching in regard to sexuality, you know, or whatever we allow in. And allow that spirit of truth. Now here's the deal. As you do this vine and the branches thing that Jesus speaks about previously to this passage, you will begin to know the language of the spirit. And the language of the spirit, the more time you spend with God in the basics. Now you just go listen to this sermon, the Accelerate Sermon.

Spending time in God's word reading. Spending time in worship. Sitting alone with God in meditation. Praying. Worshiping. Doing thanksgiving. As you do these basic things, God will begin to speak to you. And you will begin to learn the language of the spirit, which we'll see in a moment here, is sent from the very throne of God the Father. God the Father, it says in this passage we read, has a message for you that he sends from the throne of God to you.

And he will testify to you as to what is truth and what is not truth. And do you have the ability in a culture that is more and more exceedingly able to deny what is absolutely true and to see the truth or the nuance of the truth? We live in a culture now where two plus two no longer equals four. And do you have the ability to see behind the lies in this? Jesus says in verse 19, I have chosen you out of the world. I put that we are polar opposites.

The world lives according to the flesh. And the flesh means sin. The spirit of sin. It means that our flesh is tainted with sin because of the fall. And because of the fall, we were tainted and our sin, our flesh needed to be redeemed. And this is why Jesus was beaten, crucified, his blood. His flesh, which was perfect, which didn't have the stain of sin, was a perfect sacrifice for us. That's why Jesus died on the cross and talks about the flesh.

It says the world lives according to the flesh or according to sin, whatever it wants. And one thing I have learned in the church and just working with people is people are going to do what people want to do. That's just what I've learned. If people want to do something, they're going to do it. And that's why a lot of times I don't try to spend time convincing people of things. I want to let people be adults and I realize that people are going to do what they are going to do.

Here's a few things that Jesus says as we look at the polar opposites. One pole being the spirit of truth that speaks to you the truth of God's love for you. The father. And you'll see in this passage, you can find it in there, that it uses the word father, which is really important. One, this spirit of truth that comes to you always comes from a father. That's why we are so adamant. The entire biblical narrative, God chose to base it on the true metaphor of him being a father.

This is why we believe and we affirm, I mean obviously you have single parent families and things like that. But we affirm that the best model, that God's true model is having a mother and a father in a home. And we believe that every kid needs a father. We believe that every kid needs a mother. They need to be together when all possible. We always realize that the world is an imperfect place. There's a lot of theological systematic reasons I can show you this.

But we live in a world and one of the lies of the world is you don't need a dad anymore. That it doesn't matter who is together. As long as there is love, then pretty much you can do whatever you want. Now this is another subtle lie. Another subtle lie, and I've said this before. The world will tell you this. That if you have love, you can basically do whatever you want. Well here's the deal with God. God is love, but love is not God.

Meaning love does not supersede the laws, the rules, and the best made plans of God for a reason. But it is an attractive argument, right? Because don't we all just want to let people live the way they want? I currently have a group of friends. There's three of them living under the same home, and they're all doing this quasi-co-parenting. Three people, you know, moms, dads, all together doing this thing. Why is there any reason without the scripture as a true north telling us that that's wrong?

There is no reason. Matter of fact, if I look over, why not? And the question is, how far do we go? Now this is especially important in regard to children. If you're not aware of the sexual curriculum that's coming out, I'm going to try to have it next week for you guys. That's coming out. They're teaching it in schools now. I've actually allowed my daughter to go to it. My 11-year-old is going to be going into it. Because we want to do a podcast afterwards.

She's going to take notes, and we're going to do a little podcast and talk about all the different things that are true, what are not true, and talk through it from a biblical perspective. And I think next year I'm going to do that for parents as well. You really need to go and look at this for yourself. As a matter of fact, I give this to the congregation last service. Here's a couple homework assignments. One, go to the San Diego Unified School District, download the curriculum, just read it, and just highlight things that are interesting to you.

The other is, I want you to go to Bookstar. Is it by UTC? Is it Bookstar that's still there? Go to the young adult section and look at the topics and the titles. I'm not even going to tell you what they are. Just go look, it's a vast array, and then go to the witchcraft section and the spirituality and check that out. And see if what is being shown there for entertainment or just, you know, for kids to get involved in, doesn't model what you see happening in our streets.

Doesn't model what you see happening with our kids. Whatever you allow. And how are you going to speak truth? You know, a lot of parents are not allowing their children to be a part of the thing, and that's a family decision. And we didn't allow our first daughter, but that was years ago, and I feel like I've matured in understanding this. And there's really no conversation. I don't, it depends on the kid. But with my daughter, I feel like there's no conversation that we can't have.

And we had some really powerful conversations this week. But how do you know the difference between truth, what is true and what is not true in society? I'll give you another example of just being able to discern, as we'll go through this in a second, discerning the spirit. Because the spirit, it says, the spirit of God testifies with what? Your mind? No, it says it testifies, it will testify to your mind. But in the scripture, it says it testifies to your spirit.

Now, we do have the mind of the spirit as well. So I want to keep that balanced. But it testifies. My daughter went over to a friend's house this week, last week. Came home, and she goes, I said, how'd it go? A new friend. She goes, you know, I walked in, it was a little, little, little, it just felt kind of weird. I said, really? She goes, yeah, it felt kind of weird. And she goes, and I went into my friend's room, and she has all these little tokens by her bed, and one of them's called Slender Man.

If you're not aware of what Slender Man is, it's a really creepy, like, scary thing. It's like from a horror movie. She has them by her bed, and she says, these five things watch over me at night. They're like little spirits that watch over me at night. My daughter's like, yeah, okay, right. And then she says, you know, and at night, there's this big, tall, dark figure. Now, this is a kid. This is a true story. I'm not making this up.

She said, there's this big, tall, dark figure that comes at night, and then there's a little, short one over there. And they come, and they watch over me and keep me safe at night. We had a conversation about that. The thing is, is how do we raise children, and not just children, adults, you? Because I believe that the enemy is somewhat more subtle with adults. With children, he's just giving them this stuff. Just go to the bookstore and show you.

But how do we raise kids that can understand the language of the spirit? Now, when you spend time with God, and hopefully your kids and yourself as a family, and you're leading that in your home, moms and dads, you're leading that in your home. They begin to know God by spending time with God. And then you begin to know the nuance. Now, have you ever learned a language? I speak hotel Spanish, okay? So, I mean, Pesina.

I can get to the pool, right? Comida. I'm hungry. I'm not going to die. I can get to the restaurant, you know? Bano. I can make it there, you know? Do all the things I need for hotel Spanish. But I know... I got Chris back there laughing. I got just enough to get me around. You take me to any club med in the world in Latin America, and I am going to do well. My Spanish is okay. But I've known when I've spent time at the orphanages, and I start listening to people have real conversations, I begin to start...

I begin to miss the nuance. Everyone will laugh, and I'll just kind of sit there. Everyone will look around, and I'll just kind of look, and I'll realize that I missed it because I haven't spent enough time in the language. I want to say that the Spirit of God, as you spend time with God, will begin to speak to you, not just in black and whites, but in nuance. In the truth of nuance. Look at Michelangelo, you know? He would hack away the marble, but then he would spend so much time fine sanding.

You know, very few believers get to the work of doing the fine, intricate sanding in their spiritual life. I'm talking about where, like, you're not just living on, hey, I know that's wrong. I'm not murdering anybody. I'm not lying. I'm trying not to do, you know, whatever. I don't look at porn, whatever it is. And so, you know, you can do that. That's just basics. I was talking to Pastor Harry. I feel like, you know, there's so many Christians I know, myself included, and him, he said the same thing.

We can live a pretty good Christian life without trying at this point. We've been doing it long. Many of you can. Not going to fail on the majors, but sometimes I can go months without getting into the deep nuance where God's like, hey, I just want to take that edge off a little bit. Let's look at this. You ever seen how intricate God is? If you're a scientist, you know how intricate God is. But some of us are so fearful to ask God a question like, hey, what is it that offends you?

Or what can I change? Or how can you change my language? Where you start working on the fine crafting of your life. You get beyond just trying to make it, and you start to thrive. I think Harry's going to be talking about this. The Spirit of God speaks this truth. Now, here's a couple of verses. 1 John 2.16, for everything of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life comes not from the Father, but from the world.

I love that it doesn't say God. It says Father. Father. The primary metaphor of the Bible is God is a Father. Why did he choose to do that? I don't know. God has limited himself so that we can understand him as a Father. God is much more than a Father. God is not limited by Father. He is completely eternal. But he chose, for some reason, he chose that this is the way that I am going to show myself. Now, I fully believe that if God wanted to come and say that he, you know, as the mother God, as the primary source of the Bible, he could have done that equally as well.

God has an innumerable amount of ways where he could have presented himself, but this is what he chose. And the way that he speaks about a Father is someone who loves you. Someone who cares for you. That speaks truth to you. And the factory for truth, for changing the world, has to start on the first corner in your life, which is the corner of your heart. You've got to begin to believe that God loves you. You've got to begin to believe that sin, while it can separate us from him, is always able to be put under the blood of Christ, that he can welcome you home, that he wants to rest with you, that he wants to care for you.

This is the truth. And if we don't slow down, we miss it. And we never get to the nuance. We never get to the fine crafting of our life. You know what? I actually would love the Holy Spirit, who is a master craftsman, to begin to craft me in a different way than always having to use the machete. You know what I'm saying? I just feel like saying, oh, you know. The Bible actually says that the Holy Spirit will correct you.

The Proverbs says that God will put a bit in your mouth if he has to. You'd rather just make right decisions, the Scripture says, than have to be led around. God disciplines, the Scripture says, in order to correct us. But what if you got to the place where God didn't really need to use discipline on you, to correct you? What if you got to the place where God just began to say, hey, we can get to the work of fine craftsmanship, of taking that tongue of yours that used to be used for this, and begin to make it a tongue that gives life and that blesses people.

And I'm going to give it straight to you from the spirit of truth, because when you sit with God, when you sit in the Word of God, when you sit in worship and stake a claim in the geography of your life that this is off limits to anybody else, me and God will meet here, that the spirit of truth from the throne of heaven will be hurled at you like an oncoming train that will explode in the catalytic work of the spirit meeting your spirit, and change your life forever, and change your heart, the spirit of truth.

Do you want it? Last week, it was about two weeks ago, it was about the door in heaven, and I said, go behind the door. What does it look like to go behind the door, and when you find the throne of God, which is encircled by a rainbow, we talked about that. But are you living compartmentally? Because if you want to mess this whole thing up, if you want to just not have that, if you just want to constantly live in black and whites, and machete Christianity, where God is just hacking stuff off, you can do that.

But if you say, I want more, and I'm willing to give up the benefits of my rut to make a change, then God wants to get to the fine work of crafting your heart and your soul and your life. Romans 8.5, those who live according to the flesh have their minds, what? There's the mind, set on what the flesh desires. Who's running your life in that point? The flesh. You know, emotions can be of the flesh. Just emotions can be of the flesh.

Emotions are given to us by God, but sometimes we can just live in bondage to our emotions, in bondage to the flesh. Your mind becomes enslaved to your own opinions. A lot of times at prayer meeting, it's very evident when people begin to pray, where they're getting their catalyst for their living from. The things that they pray about. Is it just what you see on the news headlines? Or do they get beyond that to some of the nuance?

You can tell in a prayer meeting where people are taking their cues from. It's very easy. Other people sometimes come in, and we all go back and forth with this, but other times when I come in, I'm really trying to focus on something beyond the headlines. Something unique where God's saying, I want to lead you in this direction today. But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

Do we even know what the Spirit desires? I mean, other than the machete Christian life, that's not a bad name for a book. I just like saying machete because I watch Nacho Libre. Machete is such a hot word. I love it. Serious. Is it just hacking stuff away? Look, most of us here, I mean, a large majority of us can be really good Christians without trying. I mean, you really can. You're going to fool a lot of people. But you're never going to take territory beyond your front door.

God wants to go deeper than that. A major component, as you'll see in your notes, of Christ falling is learning to discern what belongs to the Father and what belongs to the world. And do you know the difference? Do you know the difference? What belongs to the Father and what belongs to the world? Living in the nuance of the voice of God saying, no, that is incorrect. In this, we live in a culture that's going to be more and more difficult to begin to speak and to testify.

And you'll see at the end of this passage, it says, when the advocate comes, in verse 26, I believe, when the advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth goes out from where? The Father. And what's his job? To testify. I love it. Testify. To speak truth. And you, what? Should? Must. Must. A commandment. You must testify. We must testify no matter what anybody thinks. The word bigot to me in this society means nothing anymore.

It means you don't agree with me. I know what it looks like. I was raised in 1969. I mean, I get, I know what the real word means, but I don't think it means what you think it means. That's from another movie. You know? I find that in order to live, we're going to have to learn to testify and care about people, but not care what people think. And to do it in a way that's attractive like Jesus did. And when people don't want the gospel, let them walk.

Jesus was very good at that. He didn't, he didn't do a, sometimes he would go seek people out that were hungry, but he didn't do a lot of chasing of sinners. He just didn't. He, he, he went and said, follow me. He was very interesting. But the question is, are you willing to testify? Are you so petrified that somebody might think something about you? Not realizing that there's a whole nother group of people out there that are dying for you to show up.

That are waiting for you to give them a word of life. That are thinking about taking their lives. And I've said this multiple times. I've had three times where people have come to church and said, I came to church today. I was, I was planning on thinking about taking my own life last night, but I came to church three times. That has happened. And because of church today, I'm not going to, I believe that every time we come on Sunday, it is a life and death these days.

I really do. I believe that with, you won't even see it coming. Maybe you're in that situation right now, but every time you have the ability, we are living in a really, I'm not going to say it's the worst times of all times. You don't know your history. If you, if you say it's the worst of all, everybody's always this catastrophic thinking. Oh, it's never been so bad. Yeah. Rome first century, do your homework. You know, it's not, it's not hard to figure out, but we're living in a very difficult age where people are waiting for you to testify the lie of the enemy.

And if you listen to the spirit, he'll tell you, this is a lie that no one wants to hear you, that these bass kids over there, they don't want the church. They don't want to hear. They're so burned out by the church. If you bring up the church, they're going to hate you. They're going to get, no, there's a whole bunch of them that are, that God is preparing that he has called out of the world. You realize that he has called them out of the world and you are the avenue.

And he's saying, I want to get an alignment with you that you can make a difference in the world. It's not all about you to make a difference, to testify. We want to be a testifying church. I want to say one day I will stand before God and so will you. And it'll be a one-on-one meeting, FYI. And I'm not going to bend the theology of the Bible or the word of God in order to tickle this culture's ears because they're crowdsourcing their morality, by the way.

There is no anchor to today's morality. It's crowdsourced. And it'll change and it'll continue to go to the lowest common denominator. And what is acceptable and seen as anathema today by that culture will soon accept it in the future. And one day I'm going to have a one-on-one meeting with God. And he is going to say, like he said to the churches in Revelations that we read about a few weeks ago, he says, you know, did you accept the teachings of the Nicolaitans, I think is what it was called.

Did you accept these teachings? And there's a bunch of teachings now that I'm seeing churches accept. And I thought to myself, one day I got a one-on-one meeting and I just want to be able to testify to God, no, I did not accept those. And I spoke truth in the face of opposition. No, you know, Christians have been killed for speaking the truth. And we're concerned someone's going to put a Facebook post up against us.

Might come to our work and say something about us. Take it all. Take the house. Take the work. Give me prison. Give me death. That's Christianity. That is the forefathers and mothers that have gone before us. That is the calling. That is the high calling of Christ. That's what we've been called to. It's not all comfy. And so this, look, this is what Christ has called to us. But once again, I want to bring it right back to a father.

That whole thing always comes from a father. And when you begin to experience the love of a father, the way in which you share with the world will change in a way which will give you so much more conviction. I was reading about the abolition of slavery this week. And I was reading about these men and women who were abolishing slavery and the conviction that they had, the willingness to have their houses burned, to be torn down, the conviction that they had and the strength and the power to have the power to change something like that against all the forces of hell that wants to keep man in bondage, that wants to keep people in bondage, took something greater than we can just harvest by not spending time with God.

It took a deep conviction rooted and anchored in the word and in time with God. And this is what it is. I want to give a final. If you turn your notes over, I think it's on the back page. I did a translation and Chris stole my point. I believe that the best translation of the Bible is you. You are the best translation of the Bible. The Bible will not be in heaven, FYI. Because you won't need a Bible. It says that God, Jesus is what?

The Logos. He's the word. He is the entirety of the Bible. And so the Bible won't be in heaven. We love the Bible. We want to worship the God of the Bible. We don't worship the Bible. Be careful not to be a Bible worshiper. Because you start worshiping the Bible and then our, what happens is our, and it is a great source of truth, but we begin to get our interpretation of it and we begin to love our interpretation of it and sometimes we get led astray by that.

God, so I love the word of God. I hope if you come to this church, you know this, but the best translation of the Bible, which is eternal, is you. And can you take the spirit of God? And if you didn't have a Bible, which many believers didn't have until we had the printing press, most of us had to be the translation of the Bible. You know that. This is a luxury. The fact that I have so many Bibles in my bookshelf is a luxury.

How's your translation going? And is God giving you new ways to translate in the same way that he spoke to John. Here's what I wrote for taking it home. Oh, sorry. Practical translation on the first page at the bottom. Practical translation. God is your father. God is your father. And he has sent you his spirit of truth. I should have wrote from the very throne of God. Who will speak truth to your spirit. To your spirit.

You'll know it in your spirit. So that you might know what is true and what is false. And once again, I just want to say the factory for the beginning of that is your own heart. To getting and realizing everything's going to be okay. When David would talk about this, when anxiety would come on, when panic would come on, he would get quiet. He would begin to write the Psalms. And all of a sudden, the perspective would come.

And all of a sudden, he was going to be okay. And if you've had to battle through loneliness, if you've had to battle through depression, if you've had to battle through anxiety and these things, and you've actually employed those tools, sometimes they take a while to take effect. But if you've employed those tools, you know that they are an incredible weapon to bring peace and perspective to your life. We want to be spirit-led people at this church.

I want you to be spirit-led people and to make a difference in the world. Amen? Amen. Let's stand. Have our band coming up. I want to bless you. If you need prayer, my mom's going to be up front for prayer. And some, I think, Noel and some others as well are going to be up at the front. And our prayer team come up. I want to bless you. One of the things I want to do is send you out with a blessing. Blessings actually are real.

And we believe we have the ability in the name of Jesus to bless you. And then the band will close us out on the way out. We have donuts today. And, yeah, that. If you extend your hands, Lord Jesus, in a world full of curses, I want to bless these people, God, with a word of the spirit that you would send the spirit from the very throne of heaven, God, and meet at the intersection of their lives and their spirit, Lord God.

That you would bless them with hope, with encouragement, with wisdom, with the fruit of the spirit, with the grace of the spirit, with the gifts of the spirit. And if you need more gifts, ask God for gifts. He can give you more. That you would get two or three extra gifts of the spirit, maybe discernment, maybe administration, things that's miraculous changes in your life. If you need healing, we pray for healing, Lord God.

We pray for safety, protection, sleep, rest, grace, hope, joy upon these people. And we send them out now to be a catalytic change in the world to make a dramatic difference, God, in those that are out there waiting who are called but don't know. And the scripture says, how will we know, how will they know if we have not spoken? That they would be able to testify and testify of your truth. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Have a great week. If you need some prayer, come forward. We love you. We'll see you soon.