[0:00] Yeah. You know, get up there and just do what you feel.
[0:36] You know, show us your heart. And, you know, I'd love to see everybody up there. Diane's up there. Christy's up there. John's up there.
[0:47] You know, and, you know, you can feel the love that they have for the church. And I'd like to see some guys stand up, too.
[0:57] John has been up there and Mark and Bill and Rick. And they do such a wonderful job. And it would bless them to see their work being fulfilled through us.
[1:16] If we can't practice on our brothers and sisters, how do we practice in the world? You know? So the sign-up sheet has been moved with the clipboard onto the bulletin board to make more of the other things.
[1:33] So perhaps you've missed seeing it on the flat surface. It's now aiming on the bulletin board itself. There's also other sign-up things back there, right?
[1:44] They're gone. I think that had to do with your ministry. Yeah, we're about to have another sign-up sheet, too, for yard work. Yeah, that's what I was thinking of.
[1:55] Yeah, there's, you know, good. We're going to see if we can get some men. Mark was just talking to me earlier. See if we can get some men to sign up for once a month.
[2:05] You know, and maybe, you know, if we could get, you know, five or six guys to do it, you know, once a week kind of thing. So if one guy do it, you know, once a month, and, you know, we only have to do it two or three, maybe two times, you know, if we get enough guys.
[2:26] I know we've got every guy in here is capable. So, and we have electric lawn mowers. So that's coming.
[2:40] That will be out there eventually. That is coming. As soon as the sun shines. Anything else? Walk for Life stuff is coming.
[2:53] You will be informing us as that's developing? Yeah, the overstreets and I will be. Yeah, for those who don't know, Walk for Life is a little fundraiser for our local pregnancy centers.
[3:07] I know it's on a hot day, so it's not soon. June 3rd. It's the first Saturday in June, I believe, is normally what it is. It's normally like, yeah, June 5th, June 6th, something like that.
[3:18] So May will kind of be pro-life over here. June. A little about church. It's June 3rd. June 3rd. Thank you, Christy. Thank you, Zach. Speaking of call to worship, this is all it is.
[3:37] It's just simply taking the, leading everybody in to the reading of the Lord's Day worship. We call it call to worship.
[3:47] And it's a time that we now shift our focus onto the Lord and what the theme is right now. That's all this is about. So the sign-up is just saying that you'll lead this part and lead your brothers and sisters into it.
[4:02] That's all. And you just say a little prayer afterwards. So as we always like to start it, it's great to be in the house of the Lord. On the day of the Lord.
[4:14] With the people of the Lord. Because it's all about the Lord. Amen. Amen. So our call to worship is taken from 1 Corinthians 15, 20 to 25.
[4:29] And it's Christ has been raised from the dead. See, I'm going to mess up today so that I'll make everybody else feel comfortable. When you get up here, you'll say, well, if Mark blew it, I can blow it too.
[4:43] Right? All right. And so I will read the other print. The non-bold, you will read the bold print if you don't mind.
[4:55] But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. And the first fruits of those who have fallen this week. For as by a man came death.
[5:06] By a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die. So also in Christ shall all be able to die.
[5:19] But each in his own order. Christ, the first fruits. Then comes the end.
[5:30] When he delivers the kingdom to God the Father. After destroying every rule and every authority and power. For you must reign and reign and reign and reign and reign and reign and reign and reign.
[5:43] Let's pray. Father, as we just think about this passage of what's to come. And all because Christ has risen from the dead.
[5:56] Because he has conquered death. He has conquered the grave. And we just so much look forward to that. Especially when we see all the things that are happening around us.
[6:07] And this is just our blessed hope that we have. And we just can't wait for that. This morning as you've gathered us here today. And we thank you for that.
[6:18] To be with our brothers and sisters. May we just now turn our focus to you. And worship you. In worship of the songs.
[6:29] And worship of the word. And that we would just be attentive to you this morning. That all else would fall away. Any things that have already happened this morning that are distractions.
[6:43] That we would just. That those things would just be stripped away right now. And we would just focus on you. And we say this in our Savior's name. Jesus.
[6:54] Amen. Let's praise the Lord together. If you're able please stand. And we'll start with hymn 228.
[7:07] NINGNINGNING Rejoice in things and sing and triumph evermore Lift up your heart, lift up your voice Rejoice again, I say rejoice The Lord our Savior reigns, O God of truth and love When He had perched those things, He took His seal above Lift up your heart, lift up your voice Rejoice again, I say rejoice His kingdom cannot fail, He rules the earth and heaven
[8:11] The keys of death and hell are to our Jesus' give Lift up your voice, lift up your voice Rejoice again, I say rejoice Rejoice in glorious hope, our Lord the Judge shall come And take His servants up to their eternal home Lift up your heart, lift up your voice Rejoice again, I say rejoice Rejoice To Jesus shall reign with the Son
[9:15] Does His successive journeys run His kingdom spread from shore to shore Till moon shall wax and wane no more To Him shall endless bread be made And endless praises come His day His name like sweet perfume shall rise With every morning sacrifice People and realms of every time Well on His love with sweetest song And infant voices shall proclaim
[10:17] Their holy blessings on His name Let every creature rise and bring His grateful honors to our King Angels descend with songs again And earth repeat the loud amen As we get ready for this next song though Please follow what's on the screen And not what's in the bulletin Because things got changed up just a little bit There's a place where mercy rains
[11:21] And never dies There's a place where streams of grace So deep and wide Where all the love I've ever found Thorns like a flood come flowing down At the cross, at the cross At the cross, at the cross I surrender my life I'm in awe of you I'm in awe of you Where your love ran bright And my sin washed white I owe all to you I owe all to you Jesus There's a place where sin and shame
[12:28] Are powerless Where my heart has peace with God And forgiveness Where all the love I've ever found Where all the love I've ever found Comes like a flood comes flowing down At the cross, at the cross I surrender my life I'm in awe of you I'm in awe of you I'm in awe of you Where your love ran red And my sin washed white I owe all to you I owe all to you Here my hope is found Here on holy ground
[13:30] Here I bow down Here I bow down Here I bow down Here I bow down Here your arms open wide Here you save my life Here I bow down Here I bow down Here I bow down Here I bow down At the cross, at the cross At the cross, at the cross At the cross, at the cross At the cross, at the cross At the cross, at the cross At the cross, at the cross At the cross, at the cross At the cross, at the cross At the cross, at the cross At surrender my life At the cross, at the cross At the cross, at the cross Where your love ran bad and my sin washed white, I hold you, I hold you, Jesus.
[14:24] Jesus. Jesus. Please be seated.
[14:35] Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.
[14:46] Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Good morning. Excuse me for my lack of being prepared. I was not prepared this morning.
[15:00] I know. Why? Because it's a last week. No. I should have known. So if you would, let's all turn to Ephesians 4.
[15:13] The reason why I chose this is because this is where the mission of our church comes from. And you will be able to, to look at our mission statement.
[15:28] It's in the bulletin. And it's very important to me anyway. It's very important to know that our mission is gospel oriented.
[15:42] It's, you know, we get, we get what, what we do here is what we learn to go out into the world to, to, to become fishers, to, to fish for men.
[15:58] And it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a blessing to, to Bill and to Mark and to, to Rick that, that they, that they do know that, you know, what they're doing here is, is creating, is, is giving men and women that ability to go out into the world.
[16:20] And, and I'm not saying to, to preach or to, but to, it's in your actions, it's in your thoughts, it's in your deeds, you know, all that reflects upon the statement of this church, you know, you know, how people look at us, how people, how people would like to be like us and why are we the way we are.
[16:44] And that's when, that's when, that's when we get to really get to them and, and, and bring them to the Lord. I know that it's the Lord that does that part.
[16:56] He's got to, he's got to open their hearts and open their minds to, to, to come to him. But, you know, he wants us to serve him.
[17:06] And, and, and that's how he uses us to get to the lost, to the people who, who are right there on the fence, who, who look at us and want to be like us or, or want to, you know, why is he going through all these hard things?
[17:26] And yet he's able to smile and he's able to, you know, or, or, and he's worried about other people. You know, it's just, it's, it's, it's, it's a God thing.
[17:37] It's how God works through us. And if we don't give him that opportunity to work through us, then we're just idle. And God does not want us to be idle. He wants us to go out.
[17:48] He wants us to fish. Jesus said, follow me and I will make you fishers. You know, have we done any fishing lately? So, so our mission, I want, I want to read chapter four, one through 16.
[18:07] If you'd like to follow along. I didn't, I don't know where it is in the pew Bible. I'm sorry. Huh?
[18:19] 977 in the pew Bible. Thank you, Rick. Therefore, I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling in which you have been called.
[18:33] With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. Eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
[18:46] There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. The Lord, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.
[18:59] One God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
[19:11] Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions, the earth.
[19:29] He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to equip the saints, that's us, for a work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
[19:50] Until we attain to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
[20:13] Rather, speaking in truth, in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. From whom the body joined and held together by every joint in which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
[20:39] Let's pray. Father God, you are our Father. Your words are so important to us, Father, and we come to you right today through your glorious Son, Christ Jesus.
[20:54] We know that your power and the word that you speak to us, Father God, with a word you create, with a word you destroy. You are our Father in heaven, and there is no other God besides you, Father.
[21:10] Father, we give you, we call on you to take us as a living sacrifice for you, Father.
[21:21] And that is something that is so precious to our hearts that you would use us to glorify you, Father. Help us to walk in a worthy manner, Father God, and send the Holy Spirit to open our minds, open our eyes, open our hearts, that we may absorb your word and that we may apply it to everything that we do, Father, that we may be able to wake up in the morning and put on the full armor of God and walk into this crazy mixed up world in which we live in, Father God, and be lights, be lights in the darkness, be salt in this tasteless generation, Father God.
[22:09] Help us to be, help us to be your, your fishing poles, Father God. Help us to fish for men. Help us to fish and, and, and see that, see that fish come in, Father God.
[22:28] And, oh, Father, I, I don't, I, I'm at a loss for words right now, Father God, but I thank you so much.
[22:41] Thank you so much for, for bringing us all to be your fishermen, Father God. And, and, and I pray, Father, for those who can't be with us today.
[22:51] I, I pray that, that you would bring them healing or protect them in their travels and, and, and guide them in their, in their, guide their feet in the past that they should go, Father God.
[23:04] And I, I pray for, I pray for the lost, Father God, especially our family members who, who, Father, they, they need you so bad.
[23:14] They need your, they need their eyes to be opened. They need their hearts to be softened, Father God. And please, Father, I, I beg you, Father God, to draw them to yourself.
[23:27] Father God, there are so many of us that are going through surgeries and, and, and, uh, I, I pray that you would guide the doctor's hands, Father God, and, and bring healing to those who, who need your healing, Father.
[23:43] And through all this, Father God, let your will be done and let you be glorified through it, Father. Father God, we, we thank you for the good times.
[23:56] We thank you for the bad times. For they are all meant for our good, Father. And I thank you. And Father God, I pray that you, that you put the Holy Spirit upon us today, Father.
[24:10] Father, as we listen to the gospel message that, that Bill is bringing before us. May he, may he preach with boldness and clarity and, and let, may we have understanding and application.
[24:25] I thank you, Father. In Christ Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. My hope is in the Lord, who gave Him stuff for me, and paid the price of all my sin, but Calvary.
[25:02] For me he died, for me he lives, and everlasting life and light he freely gives.
[25:16] No merit of my own is anger to suppress, my only hope is found in Jesus' righteousness.
[25:29] For me he died, for me he lives, and everlasting life and light he freely gives.
[25:43] And now for me he stands before the Father's throne, he shows his wounded hands and names me as his own.
[25:56] For me he died, for me he lives, and everlasting life and light he freely gives.
[26:10] His grace has planned it all, tis mine but to believe, and recognize his word of love and Christ receive.
[26:25] For me he died, for me he lives, and everlasting life and light he freely gives.
[26:42] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[26:53] Thank you. Thank you. Good morning.
[27:13] Good morning. Take out your Bibles with me, please, and turn to 2 Kings chapter 21.
[27:25] You'll find 2 Kings right after 1 Kings. You'll find 1 Kings right after 2 Samuel, and 2 Samuel after 1 Samuel, and 1 Samuel after Judges, and Joshua, and...
[27:42] All right. All right. You don't know, look it up. All right. All right. All right. You don't know, look it up. 2 Kings. We have been trying to make some sense of the Old Testament.
[27:59] It is a big document. It has a lot of information in it. It is often confusing. We know a lot of the stories of the Old Testament, but we don't necessarily know the flow of the Old Testament.
[28:17] So, it's been our hope during this time to kind of put it into some readable, sensible sections so we can kind of see how it flows.
[28:31] And we've broken it into eight acts. This is an unfolding drama. God's plan of redemption, His plan of salvation is an unfolding drama.
[28:43] And so, we've put it into acts. Genesis is act one. Exodus is act two. Numbers is acts three. Act four is Joshua.
[28:55] Then we come to David, and then we come to Solomon, and now we come today to wrath. Wrath. So, God has been patient with His people.
[29:09] For 800 years, He has borne with them through the desert of the Sinai, into the Promised Land, through many ups and downs.
[29:22] And there comes a time when the Lord said, enough. God's scary. Enough. But we can only understand God's wrath in the context of what led to it.
[29:37] God is slow to anger. Okay? So, when we read about His anger and His wrath, we need to understand the flow of the narrative, the flow of history that led to this.
[29:54] God is slow to anger. Okay? So, with that in mind, turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 21.
[30:07] Did I tell you that? 21? 2 Kings 21. We're going to read verses 1 through 15 to set the scene. All right. If you're able, please stand.
[30:18] So, read from 2 Kings 21.NINGNINGNING in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah, something like that. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the despicable practices of the nations, whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah, his father, had destroyed. He erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab, king of Israel, had done, and worshiped all the hosts of heaven and served them.
[31:17] And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, in Jerusalem, I will put my name. And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune telling and omens and dealt with mediums and necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. And the carved image of Asherah that he had made, he set in the house of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon, his son, in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land that I gave to their fathers.
[32:20] If only they will be careful to do according to all that I've commanded them and according to all the law of my servant Moses commanded them, but they did not listen. And Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.
[32:48] And the Lord said by his servants, the prophets, because Manasseh, king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all the Amorites did who were before him and has made Judah also to sin with his idols. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.
[33:27] And I will stretch over Jerusalem, the measuring line of Samaria and the plumb line of the house of Ahab. And I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
[33:45] And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies.
[33:56] And they shall become prey and a spoil to all their enemies because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt even to this day.
[34:22] So reads the word. Let us pray. Father, help us to grasp the significance of this, these moments of history when things had gotten so bad, when God had forbear, when you, Lord, had forbear with them centuries. And now it had declined and degraded to such apostasy that you determined to cast them out of your sight. Help us here that you are still the same God that you have never changed. You are a God of mercy and forgiveness and compassion.
[35:20] You are slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. But you are also a holy and righteous God who will not allow the guilty to go without calling to account.
[35:39] Help us here who you are and help us to respond in the right way. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Please be seated.
[35:49] Amen. So, do you tend to avoid the Old Testament?
[36:00] Except for maybe Psalms, Proverbs? Especially the history of the Old Testament? I mean, maybe you grew up thinking, you know, I like some of the stories of the Old Testament, but so much of it is violent.
[36:17] So much of it is negative. Right? There's killing. There's anger. There's wrath. God's wrath. It seems so threatening.
[36:29] Well, it is. Is the God of the Old Testament different than the God of the New Testament? No. He is not.
[36:40] It is common to know, I've said this before, it's common to know the stories of the Bible and yet miss the story of the Bible.
[36:54] We know about Noah. We know about Abraham. We know about Joseph and his multicolored coat. We've heard about Moses and Abraham and David and Solomon and Jonah and the fish.
[37:08] But what does it all mean? What's the point of it all? What is the Bible story? What is it that God is doing from Genesis to Revelation?
[37:22] From Genesis to Malachi? What is his purpose? What is his unfolding revelation? He begins in Genesis with some revelation.
[37:34] Abraham doesn't know even where he's going. He just is told to go. And God will reveal to him more as he gets there. So what is this unfolding revelation?
[37:48] We tend to miss it. And you know what? We're not alone. Jesus' disciples missed it. Remember what he said to them in the upper room after his resurrection?
[37:59] Oh foolish ones. And slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And beginning with Moses.
[38:12] Which is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Beginning with Moses. And all the prophets going from Joshua's considered in Jewish sense a historical prophet.
[38:25] Judges all the way through Malachi. Jesus took them all the way through the Old Testament book. What we call the Old Testament. They just called it the scriptures.
[38:38] And showed them himself. How did they miss it? How do we miss it? Is Jesus in the Old Testament? I hope you've seen bits of him through this teaching.
[38:56] Here's the other thing I want you to think about. After Christ's resurrection. Okay. When the church started in A.D. 30. You've got Pentecost. The church starts going out.
[39:07] They're preaching. Right. The churches are founded. Many are saved. What were they teaching and preaching from in those days? What were they preaching from?
[39:19] The Old Testament. Do you know that the earliest document of the New Testament was not written until perhaps 50 A.D.?! So some of Paul's early letters like Thessalonica.
[39:30] A gospel marked the first gospel wasn't written until about 64 A.D. So if Jesus died in 30 A.D.
[39:42] The church started in 30 A.D. You go all the way to 60 A.D. How many years you got without a gospel? 30. At least 30. You got a couple of letters of Paul maybe after 20 years.
[39:55] But for 20 to 30 years the church only...