1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,042 2 00:00:01,167 --> 00:00:11,167 [music] 3 00:00:12,500 --> 00:00:16,000 What do you think about the church? 4 00:00:19,208 --> 00:00:21,917 Do you love the church? 5 00:00:29,542 --> 00:00:32,750 Do you serve the church? 6 00:00:39,750 --> 00:00:45,750 When you see the church, what do you see? 7 00:00:52,417 --> 00:00:55,750 Jesus loves his church. 8 00:01:13,667 --> 00:01:16,667 We can learn a lot about you just looking at your phone, 9 00:01:16,750 --> 00:01:20,167 seeing who you call, who you text, who you e-mail, 10 00:01:20,250 --> 00:01:22,083 who you follow online. 11 00:01:22,167 --> 00:01:26,500 Here's why: communication is a demonstration of affection. 12 00:01:26,583 --> 00:01:29,500 We tend to communicate with those people we have 13 00:01:29,583 --> 00:01:31,167 the most affection for. 14 00:01:31,250 --> 00:01:33,000 So, it probably doesn't shock you, 15 00:01:33,083 --> 00:01:35,667 but on my phone the vast majority of the correspondence 16 00:01:35,750 --> 00:01:39,250 is with my wife, Grace, most texts, e-mails, calls. 17 00:01:39,333 --> 00:01:41,583 For her, she calls me, talks to me. 18 00:01:41,625 --> 00:01:43,333 I call her, talk to her. 19 00:01:43,417 --> 00:01:45,667 We communicate because communication is a demonstration 20 00:01:45,750 --> 00:01:47,083 of affection. 21 00:01:47,125 --> 00:01:49,750 You know you love somebody when you want to talk 22 00:01:49,833 --> 00:01:51,917 and communicate; and you know somebody loves you when 23 00:01:51,958 --> 00:01:54,083 they make that effort to stay in touch, 24 00:01:54,167 --> 00:01:56,917 and to be in communication with you. 25 00:01:56,958 --> 00:02:01,167 And what's really interesting is our God is a God who has not 26 00:02:01,250 --> 00:02:04,167 only affection for us, but communicates with us. 27 00:02:04,250 --> 00:02:08,583 He's a God who wants us to know him, and he wants to know us, 28 00:02:08,667 --> 00:02:12,833 and he wants to speak to us, and he does through Scripture 29 00:02:12,917 --> 00:02:15,167 and through preaching and teaching. 30 00:02:15,250 --> 00:02:18,333 And then he wants to hear from us, and we call that prayer. 31 00:02:18,417 --> 00:02:21,667 And that's how we build that relationship with God. 32 00:02:21,750 --> 00:02:23,917 And so for us at Mars Hill Church 33 00:02:23,958 --> 00:02:26,750 we see communication from God 34 00:02:26,833 --> 00:02:30,458 as a demonstration of affection from God. 35 00:02:30,500 --> 00:02:34,083 And one of the ways we see that is in the Word of God, 36 00:02:34,167 --> 00:02:35,917 and in preaching the Word of God. 37 00:02:35,958 --> 00:02:38,583 So, today as we're in the "Jesus Loves His Church" series, 38 00:02:38,667 --> 00:02:40,917 we're going to deal with the fact that Jesus 39 00:02:40,958 --> 00:02:42,292 preached the gospel. 40 00:02:42,333 --> 00:02:44,333 And here's why we're doing this series, 41 00:02:44,417 --> 00:02:46,792 the church is in between seasons. 42 00:02:46,833 --> 00:02:51,583 Our real growth time tends to be September, October, November, 43 00:02:51,625 --> 00:02:53,667 January through Easter. 44 00:02:53,750 --> 00:02:56,292 And then in the summertime people are on holiday 45 00:02:56,333 --> 00:03:00,167 and vacation, and we're in the midst of reorganizing our team, 46 00:03:00,250 --> 00:03:02,500 and getting ready to launch new services, 47 00:03:02,583 --> 00:03:05,167 and possible locations and churches. 48 00:03:05,250 --> 00:03:08,167 And what we see every year is after Easter there's this 49 00:03:08,250 --> 00:03:11,417 massive influx of people that have come in over the course 50 00:03:11,458 --> 00:03:12,833 of a year. 51 00:03:12,917 --> 00:03:15,667 And we praise God for that because Jesus loves his church, 52 00:03:15,750 --> 00:03:17,792 and Jesus loves you, and Jesus loves us. 53 00:03:17,833 --> 00:03:21,417 And then what we want to do is we want to help those who are new, 54 00:03:21,458 --> 00:03:23,750 and perhaps even new to Christ, know the church, 55 00:03:23,833 --> 00:03:26,667 love the church, get connected, plugged in, Community Groups, 56 00:03:26,750 --> 00:03:28,792 leadership development, membership, 57 00:03:28,833 --> 00:03:31,667 so that you could be a part of God's family with us. 58 00:03:31,750 --> 00:03:35,583 But we don't assume that those who are coming in understand why 59 00:03:35,667 --> 00:03:37,917 we do some of the things that we do. 60 00:03:37,958 --> 00:03:40,792 And at Mars Hill Church we hold a particularly high value 61 00:03:40,833 --> 00:03:42,250 on preaching. 62 00:03:42,333 --> 00:03:44,000 I don't know if you've noticed this, 63 00:03:44,083 --> 00:03:46,000 the sermons tend to go very, very long. 64 00:03:46,083 --> 00:03:49,000 Like in some churches what they would call a month of sermons, 65 00:03:49,083 --> 00:03:50,792 we call an introduction to one sermon. 66 00:03:50,833 --> 00:03:52,792 So preaching here is a little different, 67 00:03:52,833 --> 00:03:55,583 and I thought I'd take an opportunity to explain to you, 68 00:03:55,625 --> 00:03:59,000 biblically and practically, how we view preaching, 69 00:03:59,042 --> 00:04:02,083 and why I have the great honor, along with other elders, 70 00:04:02,125 --> 00:04:03,750 of preaching the Bible here. 71 00:04:03,833 --> 00:04:06,750 And it really does start with the fact that the character 72 00:04:06,833 --> 00:04:09,250 of God is one in which God preaches. 73 00:04:09,333 --> 00:04:11,083 So that's where we'll start. 74 00:04:11,125 --> 00:04:14,000 And the view given by Scripture of God, 75 00:04:14,083 --> 00:04:18,083 God's own self-disclosure in Revelation, is really unique. 76 00:04:18,125 --> 00:04:22,667 There is no other religion that has a Trinitarian view of God. 77 00:04:22,750 --> 00:04:24,667 There's either one god, or multiple gods, 78 00:04:24,750 --> 00:04:27,292 but there's not one god in three persons. 79 00:04:27,333 --> 00:04:31,083 What that shows us is that our God is personal. 80 00:04:31,167 --> 00:04:33,833 That the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in eternity past, 81 00:04:33,917 --> 00:04:36,458 they communicated with one another. 82 00:04:36,500 --> 00:04:40,958 Now, you compare this to some of the correction in the Scriptures 83 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:43,917 where God speaks, and he will say that people are worshiping 84 00:04:43,958 --> 00:04:46,750 quote, unquote "mute idols." 85 00:04:46,833 --> 00:04:49,000 What he's saying is, "I'm a God who's alive. 86 00:04:49,083 --> 00:04:50,667 "I'm a God who's personal. 87 00:04:50,750 --> 00:04:54,000 "I'm a God who hears your prayers and communicates to you, 88 00:04:54,083 --> 00:04:55,583 "speaks to you. 89 00:04:55,667 --> 00:04:57,667 "Why would you go worship some mute idol, 90 00:04:57,750 --> 00:05:01,083 some false god that can't even talk to you?" 91 00:05:01,125 --> 00:05:05,083 See, some other religions would teach that God made us because 92 00:05:05,125 --> 00:05:07,583 God was lonely, and he wanted to have a relationship. 93 00:05:07,667 --> 00:05:09,250 God didn't lack anything. 94 00:05:09,333 --> 00:05:10,792 God didn't need anything. 95 00:05:10,833 --> 00:05:12,500 God wasn't deficient in any way. 96 00:05:12,583 --> 00:05:14,917 The Trinitarian God of the Bible, well the Father, 97 00:05:14,958 --> 00:05:17,292 Son, and Spirit, they loved each other, 98 00:05:17,333 --> 00:05:19,292 they lived in union and communion, 99 00:05:19,333 --> 00:05:23,083 and they communicated with one another from eternity past. 100 00:05:23,125 --> 00:05:27,500 And so, what we learn is that our God is by nature a God 101 00:05:27,583 --> 00:05:31,417 who speaks, he's by nature a God who communicates, 102 00:05:31,458 --> 00:05:35,583 who reveals himself, who knows others, and wants to be known. 103 00:05:35,667 --> 00:05:39,167 That's very, very, very unique in the whole history 104 00:05:39,250 --> 00:05:40,750 of the world. 105 00:05:40,833 --> 00:05:43,500 And so one of the first things we learn about God, 106 00:05:43,583 --> 00:05:46,500 very early on in the Bible, it's in Genesis 1 and 2, 107 00:05:46,583 --> 00:05:48,792 before sin enters the world, what's the first thing 108 00:05:48,833 --> 00:05:50,667 that God does? 109 00:05:50,750 --> 00:05:52,583 He speaks. 110 00:05:52,625 --> 00:05:54,000 He speaks. 111 00:05:54,083 --> 00:05:56,292 It says 10 times in Genesis 1 and 2 112 00:05:56,333 --> 00:06:00,292 "God said, God said, God said, God said, God said, God said, 113 00:06:00,333 --> 00:06:03,417 God said, God said, God said, God said." 114 00:06:03,458 --> 00:06:05,583 The first two chapters of Genesis, 115 00:06:05,667 --> 00:06:09,083 the record of human history as we know it, 116 00:06:09,167 --> 00:06:12,667 it's ten times God saying something, God speaking, 117 00:06:12,750 --> 00:06:16,000 God communicating, God sending forth his word. 118 00:06:16,083 --> 00:06:19,583 And then seven times it says, "And God saw." 119 00:06:19,625 --> 00:06:23,000 So God would say something and then he would see that exactly 120 00:06:23,083 --> 00:06:28,792 what he wanted happened because God's Word proceeds powerfully, 121 00:06:28,833 --> 00:06:32,667 and it does exactly what God sends it to accomplish. 122 00:06:32,750 --> 00:06:36,167 And so God's Word goes out and it creates life. 123 00:06:36,250 --> 00:06:38,750 God's Word is a life-giving word. 124 00:06:38,833 --> 00:06:42,833 It exposes darkness; it brings in light. 125 00:06:42,917 --> 00:06:47,167 It also divides; it divides people from animals, 126 00:06:47,250 --> 00:06:52,167 and sky from land, and water from the rest of creation. 127 00:06:52,250 --> 00:06:55,000 There are these separations and divisions that come in, 128 00:06:55,083 --> 00:06:58,167 and God's Word does all of those things. 129 00:06:58,250 --> 00:07:02,500 And when God speaks things happen, things change, 130 00:07:02,583 --> 00:07:04,958 and life comes into being. 131 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:08,083 And so the teaching of the Bible is in Hebrews 11, 132 00:07:08,167 --> 00:07:11,667 that God spoke creation into existence. 133 00:07:11,750 --> 00:07:14,917 That all that is comes from the very Word of God. 134 00:07:14,958 --> 00:07:18,083 And so first of all we learn in the Bible that God 135 00:07:18,167 --> 00:07:19,583 is a God who preaches. 136 00:07:19,625 --> 00:07:23,333 He sends forth his Word powerfully, and it affects change 137 00:07:23,417 --> 00:07:25,292 in his creation. 138 00:07:25,333 --> 00:07:27,667 As we move forward to Genesis 3, 139 00:07:27,750 --> 00:07:30,750 we also learn that Satan preaches. 140 00:07:30,833 --> 00:07:34,083 And very early on we read this, "Now the serpent was more crafty 141 00:07:34,167 --> 00:07:36,292 "than any other beast of the field 142 00:07:36,333 --> 00:07:38,000 "that the Lord God had made. 143 00:07:38,083 --> 00:07:41,458 And he said to the woman, 'Did God really say?'" 144 00:07:41,500 --> 00:07:45,667 So Genesis 1 and 2, 10 times God says something, Genesis 3, 145 00:07:45,750 --> 00:07:49,292 Satan comes along with his own sermon and he preaches it 146 00:07:49,333 --> 00:07:54,292 to our first parents, Adam and Eve, "Did God really say? 147 00:07:54,333 --> 00:07:57,000 "Is that really what God meant? 148 00:07:57,083 --> 00:07:58,458 "Couldn't it be like this? 149 00:07:58,500 --> 00:08:00,083 Couldn't it be like that?" 150 00:08:00,167 --> 00:08:02,667 And all of a sudden there's confusion. 151 00:08:02,750 --> 00:08:07,000 I believe it's a literal serpent, but it's also Satan. 152 00:08:07,083 --> 00:08:10,792 This evil spirit being that God made good, 153 00:08:10,833 --> 00:08:14,500 but he corrupted himself and became evil. 154 00:08:14,583 --> 00:08:16,417 And here there's confusion, 155 00:08:16,458 --> 00:08:19,083 and now there's two conflicting sermons. 156 00:08:19,167 --> 00:08:22,917 God said, "You can eat from any tree that is in the garden with 157 00:08:22,958 --> 00:08:26,292 the exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." 158 00:08:26,333 --> 00:08:30,583 Satan comes along and says, "Is that what God really said?" 159 00:08:30,625 --> 00:08:33,917 And then Satan actually contradicts the Word of God, 160 00:08:33,958 --> 00:08:37,167 and he says, "God is basically lying to you. 161 00:08:37,250 --> 00:08:40,083 "You shouldn't believe him; he's just trying to rob you 162 00:08:40,125 --> 00:08:41,833 "of all of your glory. 163 00:08:41,917 --> 00:08:44,792 You could be like God, knowing good and evil." 164 00:08:44,833 --> 00:08:49,792 I want you to see that there is this conflict between truth 165 00:08:49,833 --> 00:08:55,292 and lies, between good and evil, between light and darkness. 166 00:08:55,333 --> 00:08:59,167 And it's been this way since Genesis 3. 167 00:08:59,250 --> 00:09:03,000 So much so that here we see Satan showing up 168 00:09:03,083 --> 00:09:04,792 to our first father, Adam, 169 00:09:04,833 --> 00:09:07,667 in a garden and preaching a false sermon to him. 170 00:09:07,750 --> 00:09:10,500 Later comes Jesus, the last Adam, 171 00:09:10,583 --> 00:09:14,083 and Satan shows up to him in a wilderness, 172 00:09:14,125 --> 00:09:16,917 and he comes preaching to Jesus. 173 00:09:16,958 --> 00:09:19,167 Here's what we read in Matthew 4:3 and 4, 174 00:09:19,250 --> 00:09:21,667 "The Tempter," that's Satan, the serpent, the dragon, 175 00:09:21,750 --> 00:09:23,917 "came to him," that is Jesus, saying, 176 00:09:23,958 --> 00:09:25,917 "'If you are the Son of God, 177 00:09:25,958 --> 00:09:29,000 command these stones to become loaves of bread.'" 178 00:09:29,083 --> 00:09:31,917 In context, Jesus had been out in the wilderness 40 days, 179 00:09:31,958 --> 00:09:34,583 40 nights; he'd been fasting and praying, 180 00:09:34,667 --> 00:09:36,667 he's obviously hungry and tired. 181 00:09:36,750 --> 00:09:39,667 And Satan shows up and preaches a sermon. 182 00:09:39,750 --> 00:09:43,083 And Satan's sermon is, "Do what I want and I'll give you 183 00:09:43,167 --> 00:09:45,000 what you want." 184 00:09:45,083 --> 00:09:47,500 It's still the same sermon that he tends to preach. 185 00:09:47,583 --> 00:09:50,500 "I'll give you whatever you want, just do what I want." 186 00:09:50,583 --> 00:09:52,167 It's an issue of worship. 187 00:09:52,250 --> 00:09:56,083 It's an issue of obedience, and allegiance, and alliance. 188 00:09:56,125 --> 00:09:59,167 Well, unlike our first father, Adam, and his wife, Eve, 189 00:09:59,250 --> 00:10:03,417 who believed the false sermon of Satan and fell into sin, 190 00:10:03,458 --> 00:10:06,583 Jesus rejected Satan's sermon. 191 00:10:06,667 --> 00:10:09,958 He said no to the lies, he said yes to the truth, 192 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:12,667 and he repeatedly quotes from the book of Deuteronomy saying, 193 00:10:12,750 --> 00:10:15,000 "No, this is what the Word of God says." 194 00:10:15,083 --> 00:10:18,000 And he goes to war with Satan with the Word of God. 195 00:10:18,083 --> 00:10:20,500 That's why the Bible uses the imagery of the Scriptures 196 00:10:20,583 --> 00:10:22,417 in places like Hebrews and Ephesians 197 00:10:22,458 --> 00:10:24,333 that it's like a sword. 198 00:10:24,417 --> 00:10:26,958 So when Satan comes with lies, you need the truth. 199 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:30,167 When Satan comes to tempt you, you need to combat him 200 00:10:30,250 --> 00:10:32,583 with the truth of God's Word. 201 00:10:32,667 --> 00:10:37,917 And where Satan sadly convinced our first parents to believe 202 00:10:37,958 --> 00:10:42,083 his lies and to follow his false sermon, 203 00:10:42,125 --> 00:10:44,500 Jesus remains true to the Word of God. 204 00:10:44,583 --> 00:10:47,333 He does not sin, he quotes the Scriptures, 205 00:10:47,417 --> 00:10:50,417 and he fends off this demonic, satanic attack. 206 00:10:50,458 --> 00:10:53,167 Now here's why this is important: 207 00:10:53,250 --> 00:10:55,500 not all preaching is good. 208 00:10:55,583 --> 00:10:57,583 Not all preaching is biblical. 209 00:10:57,667 --> 00:11:00,917 Not all preaching honors God. 210 00:11:00,958 --> 00:11:06,417 The Bible goes on to talk about false teachers, false prophets, 211 00:11:06,458 --> 00:11:09,083 false apostles. 212 00:11:09,167 --> 00:11:12,958 People who say that they speak for God, and they don't. 213 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:16,792 In fact, Satan is using them to communicate lies. 214 00:11:16,833 --> 00:11:19,792 And I'm not talking about secondary issues. 215 00:11:19,833 --> 00:11:21,500 I'm not. 216 00:11:21,583 --> 00:11:24,667 We have male elders; some churches have women elders. 217 00:11:24,750 --> 00:11:28,083 We believe that all the spiritual gifts, 218 00:11:28,125 --> 00:11:30,083 like speaking in tongues, exist today; 219 00:11:30,167 --> 00:11:33,083 some churches have grave concern of that, 220 00:11:33,167 --> 00:11:35,583 or rejection regarding that. 221 00:11:35,625 --> 00:11:38,500 There are some things that we would disagree with other 222 00:11:38,583 --> 00:11:40,792 Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christians, 223 00:11:40,833 --> 00:11:44,458 but they're not necessarily false teachers, false apostles, 224 00:11:44,500 --> 00:11:46,167 they're not working for Satan. 225 00:11:46,250 --> 00:11:48,250 Those are secondary issues. 226 00:11:48,333 --> 00:11:50,958 We're talking primary issues. 227 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:53,500 Groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses who come knock on 228 00:11:53,583 --> 00:11:56,083 your door, and say, "You want to do a Bible study?" 229 00:11:56,167 --> 00:11:58,583 "Well, you have a different view of Jesus, the Bible, 230 00:11:58,667 --> 00:12:00,833 than we do." 231 00:12:00,917 --> 00:12:02,500 Mormons, same thing. 232 00:12:02,583 --> 00:12:04,583 And I tend not to be overtly political, 233 00:12:04,625 --> 00:12:06,583 and I don't mean to pick a fight, 234 00:12:06,625 --> 00:12:09,583 though I might have a hard time getting the toothpaste back in 235 00:12:09,625 --> 00:12:12,583 the tube after I say this, but we've even got a situation 236 00:12:12,625 --> 00:12:15,083 right now where, with the "I am Mormon" campaign, 237 00:12:15,125 --> 00:12:17,083 the Mormon Church is trying to present itself 238 00:12:17,125 --> 00:12:18,458 as another Christian denomination. 239 00:12:18,500 --> 00:12:20,000 It's not. 240 00:12:20,083 --> 00:12:21,958 It's a different religion. 241 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:24,000 Doesn't mean we don't love Mormons; we do. 242 00:12:24,083 --> 00:12:26,500 It doesn't mean we won't open the Scriptures with Mormons; 243 00:12:26,583 --> 00:12:27,917 we will. 244 00:12:27,958 --> 00:12:31,083 But it does mean that if you think that the same thing being 245 00:12:31,167 --> 00:12:33,833 taught in the Mormon Church is the same thing being taught 246 00:12:33,917 --> 00:12:35,667 in the Christian Church, you've been deceived. 247 00:12:35,750 --> 00:12:37,917 Because they have a totally different view of Jesus, 248 00:12:37,958 --> 00:12:40,417 and a totally different view of salvation. 249 00:12:40,458 --> 00:12:43,167 So we live in a day when you can't just say, 250 00:12:43,250 --> 00:12:45,583 "I want to be teachable and I want to learn." 251 00:12:45,667 --> 00:12:48,083 And some of you are new Christians, non-Christians. 252 00:12:48,167 --> 00:12:50,667 Some of you are very teachable, you're very eager, 253 00:12:50,750 --> 00:12:52,833 you want to learn, and I would say, "Great. 254 00:12:52,917 --> 00:12:54,292 Praise be to God." 255 00:12:54,333 --> 00:12:57,500 And since we live in a day when so much preaching and teaching 256 00:12:57,583 --> 00:13:00,583 is available, and so much of it is free on the Internet, 257 00:13:00,625 --> 00:13:02,917 it's a wonderful opportunity, but it's also a wonderful 258 00:13:02,958 --> 00:13:05,000 opportunity for false teaching. 259 00:13:05,083 --> 00:13:08,583 So be careful, and be discerning. 260 00:13:08,667 --> 00:13:11,583 Just like you tell kids, "Don't put everything in your mouth." 261 00:13:11,625 --> 00:13:12,958 Right? 262 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:15,917 Be a little discerning about what you receive for spiritual 263 00:13:15,958 --> 00:13:18,083 nourishment and sustenance. 264 00:13:18,167 --> 00:13:20,583 Because not only is it God who's preaching, 265 00:13:20,667 --> 00:13:22,583 Satan's also preaching. 266 00:13:22,667 --> 00:13:24,583 It's not only God who sends out preachers, 267 00:13:24,667 --> 00:13:29,000 it's Satan who sends out preachers as well. 268 00:13:29,083 --> 00:13:35,333 Now, God sends out a series of Old Testament preachers. 269 00:13:36,167 --> 00:13:39,500 So we start with God and Satan, and we're going to do a little 270 00:13:39,583 --> 00:13:41,458 biblical theology, and think through the storyline 271 00:13:41,500 --> 00:13:43,292 of the Bible. 272 00:13:43,333 --> 00:13:46,333 And God sends forth prophets, and prophets preach. 273 00:13:46,417 --> 00:13:48,333 You see this in the Old Testament. 274 00:13:48,417 --> 00:13:53,583 Over 200 times a prophet says, "Thus saith the Lord." 275 00:13:53,625 --> 00:13:56,583 So when a prophet speaks, they're saying, "God gave me a word, 276 00:13:56,667 --> 00:14:00,292 and I'm his instrument, I'm his vehicle, I'm his messenger." 277 00:14:00,333 --> 00:14:03,500 And they'll preach the Word of God, or write the Word of God, 278 00:14:03,583 --> 00:14:05,292 or both. 279 00:14:05,333 --> 00:14:08,417 And so there is this succession of Old Testament prophets. 280 00:14:08,458 --> 00:14:10,667 Many of the books of our Bible, prophets. 281 00:14:10,750 --> 00:14:12,792 Daniel, prophet. 282 00:14:12,833 --> 00:14:14,500 Isaiah, prophet. 283 00:14:14,583 --> 00:14:15,917 Jeremiah, prophet. 284 00:14:15,958 --> 00:14:17,917 Zechariah, prophet. 285 00:14:17,958 --> 00:14:20,167 Prophets throughout the Old Testament. 286 00:14:20,250 --> 00:14:25,333 And it culminates with the last, greatest Old Testament prophet, 287 00:14:25,417 --> 00:14:28,667 John the Baptizer. 288 00:14:28,750 --> 00:14:33,000 And we read about him in Matthew 3:1-3, 289 00:14:33,083 --> 00:14:36,250 "John the Baptist came," what? 290 00:14:36,333 --> 00:14:37,667 "Preaching." 291 00:14:37,750 --> 00:14:40,083 There's a lot of preaching in your Bible. 292 00:14:40,125 --> 00:14:42,583 It's really peculiar to me that there are certain groups 293 00:14:42,625 --> 00:14:48,333 or even networks of churches that are opposed to preaching. 294 00:14:48,417 --> 00:14:51,458 That they would jettison preaching. 295 00:14:51,500 --> 00:14:53,458 And sometimes what they're really struggling with is 296 00:14:53,500 --> 00:14:54,917 the authority of God's Word. 297 00:14:54,958 --> 00:14:57,667 They don't want anyone to open the Bible and say, 298 00:14:57,750 --> 00:14:59,042 "Here's what God says." 299 00:14:59,125 --> 00:15:02,750 Well, John the Baptist was a guy who was living in a day when there 300 00:15:02,792 --> 00:15:04,667 was a lot of religious, moral, spiritual people. 301 00:15:04,750 --> 00:15:07,917 Some people loved the Lord, but some people pretended they loved 302 00:15:07,958 --> 00:15:11,167 the Lord when really they didn't. 303 00:15:11,250 --> 00:15:13,958 And they had sin in their life that they were unwilling 304 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,000 to deal with and recognize. 305 00:15:16,083 --> 00:15:18,167 So, he came preaching. 306 00:15:18,250 --> 00:15:19,833 John's a preacher. 307 00:15:19,917 --> 00:15:21,250 He's an Old Testament preacher. 308 00:15:21,333 --> 00:15:23,583 He's preparing the way for the coming of Jesus. 309 00:15:23,667 --> 00:15:26,083 "John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 310 00:15:26,167 --> 00:15:27,500 'Repent.'" 311 00:15:27,583 --> 00:15:30,417 That's what preachers do. 312 00:15:30,458 --> 00:15:32,083 They preach what? 313 00:15:32,125 --> 00:15:33,667 Repentance. 314 00:15:33,750 --> 00:15:39,750 The Bible is not taught were repentance is not required. 315 00:15:39,833 --> 00:15:45,083 Because the assumption is that we're all sinners and that there 316 00:15:45,125 --> 00:15:49,167 is sin in our life that we need to bring to God so that it could 317 00:15:49,250 --> 00:15:53,417 be changed that we would not continue in the pattern of life 318 00:15:53,458 --> 00:15:55,833 that has been in rebellion. 319 00:15:55,917 --> 00:15:59,250 Now, here's what happens when repentance is preached, 320 00:15:59,333 --> 00:16:01,458 some people love it, some people hate it. 321 00:16:01,500 --> 00:16:03,583 You get very strong reactions. 322 00:16:03,667 --> 00:16:05,167 If you read the Old Testament, 323 00:16:05,250 --> 00:16:07,167 what tended to happen to the prophets? 324 00:16:07,250 --> 00:16:08,917 They got killed. 325 00:16:08,958 --> 00:16:13,958 The only way to silence them was to murder them. 326 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:16,333 And what happens when repentance is preached, 327 00:16:16,417 --> 00:16:21,458 you get very strong, sometimes violent emotional reactions. 328 00:16:21,500 --> 00:16:24,083 Because repentance is saying, "That's wrong. 329 00:16:24,167 --> 00:16:26,000 "What you believe, that's wrong. 330 00:16:26,083 --> 00:16:27,792 What you're doing, that's wrong." 331 00:16:27,833 --> 00:16:30,500 And you know what, 2,000 years later, it's still this way. 332 00:16:30,583 --> 00:16:32,083 Correct? 333 00:16:32,167 --> 00:16:34,750 I mean, you could say it nice, and loving, and gracious, 334 00:16:34,833 --> 00:16:37,667 with a smile, and put your pointed finger in your pocket 335 00:16:37,750 --> 00:16:40,000 so you're not even pointing at people, and say, 336 00:16:40,083 --> 00:16:43,083 "That's wrong, you're wrong." 337 00:16:43,167 --> 00:16:46,583 And they're still going to react angrily, violently, 338 00:16:46,667 --> 00:16:48,958 or humbly and repentantly. 339 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:50,667 The Puritans had an old line. 340 00:16:50,750 --> 00:16:53,167 They would say, "The same sun that melts the ice, 341 00:16:53,250 --> 00:16:55,250 hardens the clay." 342 00:16:55,333 --> 00:16:57,667 Some people are very tender toward the Lord, 343 00:16:57,750 --> 00:17:00,750 and when they hear about their sin and their need to repent 344 00:17:00,833 --> 00:17:02,583 and change, their heart melts. 345 00:17:02,667 --> 00:17:04,292 They're like, "Oh, you're right. 346 00:17:04,333 --> 00:17:06,292 "Oh, I feel terrible about that. 347 00:17:06,333 --> 00:17:07,792 "I need God to help me. 348 00:17:07,833 --> 00:17:09,292 I want that to change." 349 00:17:09,333 --> 00:17:10,667 They melt. 350 00:17:10,750 --> 00:17:12,417 Other people, they become very hardened. 351 00:17:12,458 --> 00:17:14,583 "How dare you? You have no right. 352 00:17:14,625 --> 00:17:16,458 "That's very unloving. 353 00:17:16,500 --> 00:17:19,000 "Let's talk about your life, not mine. 354 00:17:19,083 --> 00:17:23,083 "Let me grab my Internet access and share this with the world. 355 00:17:23,167 --> 00:17:26,000 I'm sure there's others who would agree with me." 356 00:17:26,083 --> 00:17:30,583 It can escalate very, very quickly. 357 00:17:30,667 --> 00:17:32,417 Well, John was that kind of guy: 358 00:17:32,458 --> 00:17:34,167 "Repent. 359 00:17:34,250 --> 00:17:35,792 Repent." 360 00:17:35,833 --> 00:17:40,583 Now let me say this, sadly repentance is not something 361 00:17:40,667 --> 00:17:44,083 that is very common, even in the church today. 362 00:17:44,125 --> 00:17:50,083 Instead, what has happened is therapy has overtaken theology. 363 00:17:50,125 --> 00:17:51,958 And I'm not opposed to all therapy, 364 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,958 and trying to help people, and trying to help people get off 365 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:57,167 drugs and alcohol, and all those addictions and compulsions. 366 00:17:57,250 --> 00:17:59,333 We love people; we want them to get help. 367 00:17:59,417 --> 00:18:01,583 There's a lot of truth through general revelation 368 00:18:01,625 --> 00:18:04,167 that can be found in the social sciences. 369 00:18:04,250 --> 00:18:06,250 And I'm not denigrating that at all. 370 00:18:06,333 --> 00:18:08,792 But a therapeutic model begins with this assumption: 371 00:18:08,833 --> 00:18:14,750 you're basically a good person, and what is holding you back 372 00:18:14,833 --> 00:18:17,958 are the sins of others, and the nature of the culture; 373 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:21,333 so what we need to do, we need to encourage you to love 374 00:18:21,417 --> 00:18:24,833 yourself, to esteem yourself, to embrace yourself, 375 00:18:24,917 --> 00:18:29,000 so that you could maximize your goodness. 376 00:18:29,083 --> 00:18:32,333 Now, the Bible says, "You're bad." 377 00:18:32,417 --> 00:18:34,667 Completely different assumption. 378 00:18:34,750 --> 00:18:37,000 And you don't need to just embrace yourself; 379 00:18:37,083 --> 00:18:39,500 you need to become a new self. 380 00:18:39,583 --> 00:18:41,792 You don't need to just accept who you are; 381 00:18:41,833 --> 00:18:44,458 you need to have God change who you are. 382 00:18:44,500 --> 00:18:47,417 And what you don't need is just to feel better; 383 00:18:47,458 --> 00:18:51,792 you need to be new. 384 00:18:51,833 --> 00:18:55,750 And so it's a very different set of assumptions that are working 385 00:18:55,833 --> 00:18:58,667 for how to deal with the human condition. 386 00:18:58,750 --> 00:19:01,083 And so a Christian will come along and say, 387 00:19:01,125 --> 00:19:02,458 "Let's talk about repentance." 388 00:19:02,500 --> 00:19:05,000 Whereas a non-Christian will come around and talk about 389 00:19:05,083 --> 00:19:07,458 something other than repentance. 390 00:19:07,500 --> 00:19:10,083 "Do you love yourself? Do you have a high self-esteem? 391 00:19:10,167 --> 00:19:12,167 "Do you feel good about yourself? 392 00:19:12,250 --> 00:19:14,750 "Are you actualizing your potential? 393 00:19:14,833 --> 00:19:17,792 "Do you know how wonderful you could be? 394 00:19:17,833 --> 00:19:20,292 Are you achieving your dreams?" 395 00:19:20,333 --> 00:19:23,292 And it's not centered on God as the standard of holiness 396 00:19:23,333 --> 00:19:25,167 and right and wrong. 397 00:19:25,250 --> 00:19:28,583 It's centered more on my feelings and my vision for my 398 00:19:28,625 --> 00:19:32,500 life, and whether or not I feel like I am getting the support 399 00:19:32,583 --> 00:19:35,917 that I need to become the person I desire. 400 00:19:35,958 --> 00:19:38,958 Conversely, the Christian message is, "Who is God? 401 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:43,167 "Who are we? What does God say we are? 402 00:19:43,250 --> 00:19:47,167 "What does God see we do? And where do we need to repent? 403 00:19:47,250 --> 00:19:49,792 "Where do we need to have a change of mind 404 00:19:49,833 --> 00:19:51,167 "to agree with God? 405 00:19:51,250 --> 00:19:53,667 "Where do we need to have a change of nature 406 00:19:53,750 --> 00:19:55,083 "to be connected to God? 407 00:19:55,167 --> 00:19:58,083 "Where do we need to have a change in desire so that 408 00:19:58,167 --> 00:19:59,750 we would desire to obey God?" 409 00:19:59,833 --> 00:20:01,292 You see the difference? 410 00:20:01,333 --> 00:20:03,792 Completely different. 411 00:20:03,833 --> 00:20:06,917 And so what you're not going to get apart from Christianity is 412 00:20:06,958 --> 00:20:09,458 a strong call to repentance. 413 00:20:09,500 --> 00:20:12,500 But when the Bible is open, and the preacher speaks, 414 00:20:12,583 --> 00:20:15,292 it should be repentance. 415 00:20:15,333 --> 00:20:18,250 And that's John the Baptizer following in the line of all 416 00:20:18,333 --> 00:20:20,750 of the Old Testament prophets. 417 00:20:20,833 --> 00:20:22,833 Repentance. 418 00:20:22,917 --> 00:20:25,458 "'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 419 00:20:25,500 --> 00:20:28,917 "For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he 420 00:20:28,958 --> 00:20:31,292 "said, 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 421 00:20:31,333 --> 00:20:34,333 "Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight."'" 422 00:20:34,417 --> 00:20:36,083 And so a prophecy was given 423 00:20:36,167 --> 00:20:39,417 by the prophet Isaiah, hundreds of years prior, 424 00:20:39,458 --> 00:20:41,500 that John the Baptizer would come, 425 00:20:41,583 --> 00:20:44,000 and he would prepare people for the coming of Jesus 426 00:20:44,083 --> 00:20:46,000 by preaching repentance. 427 00:20:46,083 --> 00:20:49,000 What this means is you can't understand Jesus 428 00:20:49,083 --> 00:20:51,083 apart from repentance. 429 00:20:51,125 --> 00:20:53,458 Jesus doesn't come along just to make us better; 430 00:20:53,500 --> 00:20:55,500 he comes along to make us new. 431 00:20:55,583 --> 00:20:58,500 Jesus doesn't come along to just make us feel better; 432 00:20:58,583 --> 00:21:03,167 he comes along to tell us the truth, and that he loves us. 433 00:21:03,250 --> 00:21:06,583 And we feel good about his love, but we feel good about his love 434 00:21:06,667 --> 00:21:10,292 after we feel bad about our sin. 435 00:21:10,333 --> 00:21:15,792 Not only does John the Baptizer preach, 436 00:21:15,833 --> 00:21:20,083 he receives a strong reaction. 437 00:21:20,167 --> 00:21:22,917 What do they ultimately do to John the Baptizer? 438 00:21:22,958 --> 00:21:25,583 They behead him. 439 00:21:25,667 --> 00:21:30,083 They behead him because they couldn't get him to stop 440 00:21:30,167 --> 00:21:32,792 preaching repentance of sin. 441 00:21:32,833 --> 00:21:36,917 And the only way to silence him was to behead him. 442 00:21:36,958 --> 00:21:39,917 Moving right along, we've looked at God preaching, 443 00:21:39,958 --> 00:21:41,667 Satan preaching, 444 00:21:41,750 --> 00:21:43,583 the Old Testament prophets preaching. 445 00:21:43,667 --> 00:21:45,083 What about the Lord Jesus? 446 00:21:45,167 --> 00:21:46,833 Well, the Lord Jesus is a preacher. 447 00:21:46,917 --> 00:21:48,500 Jesus preached. 448 00:21:48,583 --> 00:21:51,917 I'll give you two examples of where this happens in Scripture. 449 00:21:51,958 --> 00:21:55,500 But here's the big idea, very few people conceive of Jesus 450 00:21:55,583 --> 00:21:57,417 as a preacher. 451 00:21:57,458 --> 00:22:00,417 We think of him hanging out with children, and feeding people, 452 00:22:00,458 --> 00:22:03,167 and caring for people, and healing people, 453 00:22:03,250 --> 00:22:06,000 and doing miracles, all of which is true. 454 00:22:06,083 --> 00:22:09,958 But a lot of Jesus' time was preaching, was preaching. 455 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:13,083 Oftentimes in open air, sometimes in synagogues. 456 00:22:13,125 --> 00:22:16,167 We read of an occasion in Luke 4:16-18, Jesus 457 00:22:16,250 --> 00:22:18,167 "went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day," 458 00:22:18,250 --> 00:22:21,167 that was the Saturday, "and he stood up to read." 459 00:22:21,250 --> 00:22:24,083 So the synagogue was like the church. 460 00:22:24,167 --> 00:22:26,167 The people would get together on Saturday. 461 00:22:26,250 --> 00:22:29,500 We now gather on Sunday, the day of Jesus' resurrection. 462 00:22:29,583 --> 00:22:31,750 Someone would read Scripture. 463 00:22:31,833 --> 00:22:33,667 Someone would give a teaching. 464 00:22:33,750 --> 00:22:38,167 There would be prayers, perhaps singing, giving of the offering. 465 00:22:38,250 --> 00:22:43,083 The Old Testament synagogue system was a scattered set of 466 00:22:43,167 --> 00:22:47,000 places, houses of worship, that very much is like the church 467 00:22:47,083 --> 00:22:49,167 as we know it today. 468 00:22:49,250 --> 00:22:51,083 And Jesus stood up to read. 469 00:22:51,125 --> 00:22:54,167 "And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given him. 470 00:22:54,250 --> 00:22:56,250 "He unrolled the scroll 471 00:22:56,333 --> 00:22:58,250 "and found the place where it was written, 472 00:22:58,333 --> 00:23:00,292 "'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 473 00:23:00,333 --> 00:23:02,583 because he has anointed me to proclaim good news.'" 474 00:23:02,667 --> 00:23:04,958 Very early on 475 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:07,792 in Jesus' ministry, he opens up the scroll, 476 00:23:07,833 --> 00:23:10,292 so their version of the Bible, it's the same content. 477 00:23:10,333 --> 00:23:13,083 It was on one long scroll. 478 00:23:13,167 --> 00:23:15,583 And he goes all the way down to the point, 479 00:23:15,667 --> 00:23:17,583 I think if memory serves me correct, 480 00:23:17,667 --> 00:23:21,083 in Isaiah 61 where it says through Isaiah, 481 00:23:21,125 --> 00:23:26,083 some 700 years prior, it was prophesied that Jesus 482 00:23:26,125 --> 00:23:29,458 would come, and that the Holy Spirit would be upon 483 00:23:29,500 --> 00:23:32,417 him so that he could be a powerful preacher. 484 00:23:32,458 --> 00:23:35,583 And he could proclaim good news, that's the gospel. 485 00:23:35,625 --> 00:23:38,583 This is about his death, burial, resurrection, in our place, 486 00:23:38,625 --> 00:23:40,500 for our sins. 487 00:23:40,583 --> 00:23:45,083 And Isaiah prophesied this, Jesus comes, reads it, 488 00:23:45,167 --> 00:23:48,667 and then he says this, he says, "Today the Scripture has been 489 00:23:48,750 --> 00:23:50,750 fulfilled in your hearing." 490 00:23:50,833 --> 00:23:52,583 Jesus says, "That's me. 491 00:23:52,667 --> 00:23:54,750 "I'm the Spirit-anointed preacher. 492 00:23:54,833 --> 00:23:56,792 God among you." 493 00:23:56,833 --> 00:23:58,833 Here's what I want you to see. 494 00:23:58,917 --> 00:24:01,500 Jesus is a preacher. 495 00:24:01,583 --> 00:24:04,000 Jesus is a preacher. 496 00:24:04,083 --> 00:24:07,000 We get this, as well, I'll give you one other occasion 497 00:24:07,083 --> 00:24:09,750 in Scripture, in Matthew 4:17, 498 00:24:09,833 --> 00:24:12,167 "From that time on Jesus began to," what? 499 00:24:12,250 --> 00:24:17,292 "Preach, saying," what? 500 00:24:17,333 --> 00:24:19,750 "'Repent.'" 501 00:24:19,833 --> 00:24:21,958 So what did they do to Jesus? 502 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:25,333 They killed him as well. 503 00:24:25,417 --> 00:24:29,583 Now, here's what I want to say, Jesus fed people, 504 00:24:29,667 --> 00:24:32,167 but they didn't crucify him for that. 505 00:24:32,250 --> 00:24:36,167 Jesus healed people, but they didn't crucify him for that. 506 00:24:36,250 --> 00:24:39,250 Jesus cared for widows, orphans, the poor, the marginalized, 507 00:24:39,333 --> 00:24:43,333 the outcast, and the abused, and they didn't kill him for that. 508 00:24:43,417 --> 00:24:46,792 Jesus loved women who were despised even in their 509 00:24:46,833 --> 00:24:49,167 own community, and he befriended them. 510 00:24:49,250 --> 00:24:51,292 But they didn't kill him for that. 511 00:24:51,333 --> 00:24:54,000 Jesus loved his mother, and they didn't kill him for that. 512 00:24:54,083 --> 00:24:56,167 Why did they kill Jesus? 513 00:24:56,250 --> 00:24:58,333 Because of his preaching. 514 00:24:58,417 --> 00:25:02,167 Because he kept saying things like, "I'm God. 515 00:25:02,250 --> 00:25:04,917 "You're a sinner. I'm here to save you. 516 00:25:04,958 --> 00:25:06,917 Repent." 517 00:25:06,958 --> 00:25:08,792 And when they didn't, 518 00:25:08,833 --> 00:25:10,833 just like they treated the Old Testament prophets 519 00:25:10,917 --> 00:25:12,792 and John the Baptizer before him, 520 00:25:12,833 --> 00:25:16,583 they ascertain the only way to silence him was to kill him. 521 00:25:16,667 --> 00:25:18,292 And so they crucified Jesus. 522 00:25:18,333 --> 00:25:23,083 Of course he rose 3 days later to keep on preaching. 523 00:25:23,167 --> 00:25:25,583 What's your picture of Jesus? 524 00:25:25,625 --> 00:25:28,500 I would submit to you that the average person today, 525 00:25:28,583 --> 00:25:30,417 even the average evangelical Christian, 526 00:25:30,458 --> 00:25:33,667 sees Jesus more as a therapist than a preacher. 527 00:25:33,750 --> 00:25:36,583 Someone who listens a whole lot more than he talks. 528 00:25:36,667 --> 00:25:39,083 Someone who understands you a lot more than someone 529 00:25:39,167 --> 00:25:41,167 who makes demands of you. 530 00:25:41,250 --> 00:25:43,917 Someone who sympathizes with you far more than someone 531 00:25:43,958 --> 00:25:46,083 who rebukes you. 532 00:25:46,167 --> 00:25:49,583 On the scale of therapist to full-throated prophet, 533 00:25:49,667 --> 00:25:53,583 where is your primary view of Jesus? 534 00:25:53,667 --> 00:25:58,167 See, if Jesus is only therapist, he doesn't tell you what to do, 535 00:25:58,250 --> 00:26:00,167 he just listens. 536 00:26:00,250 --> 00:26:02,792 He doesn't judge you, he just tries to sympathize. 537 00:26:02,833 --> 00:26:05,292 He doesn't tell you you're wrong, 538 00:26:05,333 --> 00:26:09,667 he doesn't tell you to repent, he doesn't tell you to change. 539 00:26:09,750 --> 00:26:11,667 He's there to be a friend, 540 00:26:11,750 --> 00:26:14,917 a comforting presence, a kind ear, 541 00:26:14,958 --> 00:26:19,083 and a nice, gentle encourager. 542 00:26:19,167 --> 00:26:22,500 But the Jesus of the Bible, if he were not a preacher, 543 00:26:22,583 --> 00:26:25,250 he'd still be alive today. 544 00:26:25,333 --> 00:26:29,333 He would not have ever died. 545 00:26:29,417 --> 00:26:32,583 Of course we know Jesus is alive today, and he's exalted. 546 00:26:32,667 --> 00:26:35,792 He's back in heaven and he's ruling and reigning. 547 00:26:35,833 --> 00:26:40,833 But much of his ministry life on the earth was about what? 548 00:26:40,917 --> 00:26:42,667 Preaching. 549 00:26:42,750 --> 00:26:45,458 Sometimes it was small groups, sometimes it was large groups. 550 00:26:45,500 --> 00:26:48,667 Sometimes Jesus, quite frankly, assembled a megachurch, 551 00:26:48,750 --> 00:26:51,583 thousands, thousands. 552 00:26:51,667 --> 00:26:55,083 It says on certain occasions that people would walk for hours 553 00:26:55,125 --> 00:26:59,167 across rugged terrain to listen to him preach. 554 00:26:59,250 --> 00:27:01,917 Sometimes it was thousands of men, plus the women, 555 00:27:01,958 --> 00:27:03,458 plus the children. 556 00:27:03,500 --> 00:27:05,667 You're looking at large crowds of people 557 00:27:05,750 --> 00:27:07,750 coming to hear Jesus what? 558 00:27:07,833 --> 00:27:09,458 Preach. 559 00:27:09,500 --> 00:27:13,000 Now, we don't have the full transcripts of Jesus' sermons, 560 00:27:13,083 --> 00:27:14,917 things like the Sermon on the Mount, 561 00:27:14,958 --> 00:27:17,833 it's a summary of a long sermon. 562 00:27:17,917 --> 00:27:19,917 How do we know the sermons were long? 563 00:27:19,958 --> 00:27:22,292 Well, sometimes it says everybody got really, really hungry. 564 00:27:22,333 --> 00:27:25,083 They'd been there a long time. 565 00:27:25,167 --> 00:27:28,583 And so we don't have the full sermon transcripts, 566 00:27:28,667 --> 00:27:32,792 but what we do hear is Jesus was a preacher, 567 00:27:32,833 --> 00:27:35,167 and he preached repentance of sin, 568 00:27:35,250 --> 00:27:37,167 and the coming of the kingdom of heaven. 569 00:27:37,250 --> 00:27:40,417 What he had was a sense of urgency, "Now is the time. 570 00:27:40,458 --> 00:27:46,500 Sin is a problem, and time is of the essence." 571 00:27:46,583 --> 00:27:49,833 So at Mars Hill Church what we believe is that preaching 572 00:27:49,917 --> 00:27:52,917 is incredibly important. 573 00:27:52,958 --> 00:27:56,833 And so Jesus hands off this prophetic ministry of preaching 574 00:27:56,917 --> 00:27:59,083 after his death, burial, and resurrection, 575 00:27:59,167 --> 00:28:01,917 he hands it off to his apostles. 576 00:28:01,958 --> 00:28:05,083 And I want you to see that in the history of the world, 577 00:28:05,125 --> 00:28:07,333 from creation all the way to the end, 578 00:28:07,417 --> 00:28:10,917 God always has preaching going on. 579 00:28:10,958 --> 00:28:14,667 Here's what we read of the apostles and their preaching, 580 00:28:14,750 --> 00:28:17,792 at the end of Mark's Gospel Jesus says this, 581 00:28:17,833 --> 00:28:20,667 "He said to them, 'Go into all the world and proclaim,'" 582 00:28:20,750 --> 00:28:23,792 that's preach, some of your translations will say, "preach." 583 00:28:23,833 --> 00:28:25,667 "The gospel," that's the good news 584 00:28:25,750 --> 00:28:27,667 about Jesus' death, burial, resurrection 585 00:28:27,750 --> 00:28:29,667 in our place, for our sins. 586 00:28:29,750 --> 00:28:31,583 Our God came on a rescue mission. 587 00:28:31,625 --> 00:28:32,958 He did it. 588 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:34,417 He fulfilled all the Scriptures. 589 00:28:34,458 --> 00:28:36,000 Everything he said was true. 590 00:28:36,083 --> 00:28:37,583 Our God conquered sin. 591 00:28:37,625 --> 00:28:39,083 Our God conquered death. 592 00:28:39,167 --> 00:28:40,500 Our God is alive. 593 00:28:40,583 --> 00:28:42,292 Our God loves us. 594 00:28:42,333 --> 00:28:44,292 Go tell people. 595 00:28:44,333 --> 00:28:46,583 "Proclaim the gospel to the whole creation." 596 00:28:46,625 --> 00:28:48,083 Tell the whole planet. 597 00:28:48,125 --> 00:28:50,500 "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, 598 00:28:50,583 --> 00:28:54,000 but whoever does not believe will be condemned." 599 00:28:54,083 --> 00:28:57,167 Do you see the strong reaction again? 600 00:28:57,250 --> 00:28:59,500 Jesus says, "Some people are going to love you. 601 00:28:59,542 --> 00:29:02,167 "Some people are going to hate you. 602 00:29:02,250 --> 00:29:04,167 "Some people are going to go to heaven. 603 00:29:04,250 --> 00:29:06,167 "Some people are going to go to hell. 604 00:29:06,250 --> 00:29:08,958 "Some people are going to open their hearts to the Lord. 605 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:11,667 Some people are going to close their hearts to the Lord." 606 00:29:11,750 --> 00:29:13,667 And it's going to come through preaching. 607 00:29:13,750 --> 00:29:17,417 It's going to come through preaching. 608 00:29:17,458 --> 00:29:19,833 This is going to be a hard job, right? 609 00:29:19,917 --> 00:29:23,417 So what do they do to the apostles? 610 00:29:23,458 --> 00:29:28,000 They kill them too, all but John the Beloved, 611 00:29:28,083 --> 00:29:29,583 the youngest disciple. 612 00:29:29,667 --> 00:29:31,792 In so far as we can tell from history, 613 00:29:31,833 --> 00:29:33,583 they all died a martyr's death. 614 00:29:33,667 --> 00:29:36,792 How many of you guys coming in here, if I were to say, 615 00:29:36,833 --> 00:29:39,292 "Do you want to be a preacher?" You'd say, "Yeah." 616 00:29:39,333 --> 00:29:41,292 "Do you want to be hated and killed?" 617 00:29:41,333 --> 00:29:42,667 Hand goes down. "No." 618 00:29:42,750 --> 00:29:45,167 But when you raise your hand to be a preacher, 619 00:29:45,250 --> 00:29:47,000 you're raising your hand to be hated. 620 00:29:47,083 --> 00:29:48,750 You're raising your hand to be opposed. 621 00:29:48,833 --> 00:29:50,583 You're raising your hand to be despised 622 00:29:50,667 --> 00:29:52,000 if you preach repentance. 623 00:29:52,083 --> 00:29:55,292 Because again, the same sun that melts the ice hardens the clay. 624 00:29:55,333 --> 00:29:57,583 Some people love the preaching of God's Word, 625 00:29:57,667 --> 00:29:59,000 some people hate it. 626 00:29:59,083 --> 00:30:00,917 Some people love to repent of their sin. 627 00:30:00,958 --> 00:30:07,292 Some people hate to be reminded that they even are a sinner. 628 00:30:07,333 --> 00:30:10,583 And so the church is birthed with a sermon. 629 00:30:10,667 --> 00:30:15,417 Act 2:14, we see Peter, he's the leader of the disciples, 630 00:30:15,458 --> 00:30:19,292 first among equals, his name is always listed first. 631 00:30:19,333 --> 00:30:23,792 They're all gathered together and Peter stands up, 632 00:30:23,833 --> 00:30:25,958 and the New Testament church is birthed, 633 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:29,000 and the Holy Spirit descends on the church to anoint, 634 00:30:29,083 --> 00:30:32,000 and appoint the church, to continue the ministry of Jesus 635 00:30:32,083 --> 00:30:34,250 after he's ascended back into heaven. 636 00:30:34,333 --> 00:30:36,583 We read, "Peter, standing with the eleven," 637 00:30:36,667 --> 00:30:38,583 so he's with the rest of the apostles. 638 00:30:38,625 --> 00:30:40,917 "Lifted up his voice and addressed them." 639 00:30:40,958 --> 00:30:42,792 And then he preaches a sermon. 640 00:30:42,833 --> 00:30:45,500 The New Testament, New Covenant church is birthed 641 00:30:45,583 --> 00:30:47,500 through the preaching of a sermon. 642 00:30:47,583 --> 00:30:51,917 A Spirit-anointed, -appointed sermon about Jesus. 643 00:30:51,958 --> 00:30:55,167 Now, if you read the rest of the book of Acts from there, 644 00:30:55,250 --> 00:31:00,083 almost every single chapter of the entire book of Acts 645 00:31:00,167 --> 00:31:02,583 has a sermon in it. 646 00:31:02,625 --> 00:31:05,583 The book of Acts, for those of you who are perhaps new 647 00:31:05,625 --> 00:31:08,167 to Christianity, it's like our early history book. 648 00:31:08,250 --> 00:31:13,167 It's a chronological telling of how the early church got started 649 00:31:13,250 --> 00:31:15,167 after the resurrection of Jesus. 650 00:31:15,250 --> 00:31:18,000 And how Christianity spread from those who are Jewish, 651 00:31:18,083 --> 00:31:21,417 to those who are non-Jewish. 652 00:31:21,458 --> 00:31:24,083 There are other places in the New Testament you can learn 653 00:31:24,167 --> 00:31:26,292 about the early church, but it's really packed in 654 00:31:26,333 --> 00:31:28,250 historical fashion in the book of Acts. 655 00:31:28,333 --> 00:31:30,292 This would be something interesting for you. 656 00:31:30,333 --> 00:31:33,792 Just read the book of Acts, you will see almost every single 657 00:31:33,833 --> 00:31:37,667 chapter has preachers preaching in sermons. 658 00:31:37,750 --> 00:31:41,000 Roughly the only exceptions are when a preacher has preached 659 00:31:41,083 --> 00:31:45,000 here and he's traveling to here, and that chapter is about his 660 00:31:45,083 --> 00:31:47,417 traveling to go preach somewhere else. 661 00:31:47,458 --> 00:31:50,667 Or, it records that they took the preacher and put him in jail 662 00:31:50,750 --> 00:31:52,250 so he couldn't preach anymore. 663 00:31:52,333 --> 00:31:54,458 And then even sometimes he converts people in jail, 664 00:31:54,500 --> 00:31:57,000 and he preaches to the jailers. 665 00:31:57,083 --> 00:31:59,625 So the book of Acts is a lot of preaching. 666 00:31:59,667 --> 00:32:02,417 And here's what you'll find, every single sermon 667 00:32:02,458 --> 00:32:04,792 in the books of Acts— and I've gone through 668 00:32:04,833 --> 00:32:06,667 and I've investigated every single one— 669 00:32:06,750 --> 00:32:08,667 talks about the resurrection 670 00:32:08,750 --> 00:32:10,750 of Jesus Christ from death. 671 00:32:10,833 --> 00:32:13,083 That's the essence of Christian preaching. 672 00:32:13,167 --> 00:32:18,458 Jesus lived, Jesus died, Jesus was buried, Jesus rose, 673 00:32:18,500 --> 00:32:22,083 Jesus is alive, everything he said about being God, 674 00:32:22,167 --> 00:32:25,083 forgiving sin, it's all true. 675 00:32:25,167 --> 00:32:29,292 And his resurrection proves he's not just a good man, 676 00:32:29,333 --> 00:32:31,583 he's the God-man. 677 00:32:31,625 --> 00:32:33,500 He's in a category unto himself. 678 00:32:33,583 --> 00:32:37,417 He's not like any other religious leader or teacher. 679 00:32:37,458 --> 00:32:40,292 We also see in the book of Acts the apostles preaching. 680 00:32:40,333 --> 00:32:42,167 Some of their sermons are really long. 681 00:32:42,250 --> 00:32:43,750 Way longer than mine. 682 00:32:43,833 --> 00:32:45,417 You're welcome. 683 00:32:45,458 --> 00:32:46,917 Some of them are super long. 684 00:32:46,958 --> 00:32:48,917 There's an occasion in Acts 20, 685 00:32:48,958 --> 00:32:52,000 it says basically that Paul preached until midnight. 686 00:32:52,083 --> 00:32:55,583 And one kid named Eutychus, probably in the youth group, 687 00:32:55,667 --> 00:33:00,292 he got so tired he fell asleep, fell out a window, and died. 688 00:33:00,333 --> 00:33:03,292 That's a sermon right there. 689 00:33:03,333 --> 00:33:05,917 And Paul came out and healed him, 690 00:33:05,958 --> 00:33:11,000 and made him go back and listen to more preaching, I'd assume. 691 00:33:11,083 --> 00:33:13,583 But some of the sermons are really long. 692 00:33:13,667 --> 00:33:17,583 And again in the book of Acts we have summaries of what was said. 693 00:33:17,625 --> 00:33:20,292 We don't have the full transcript of what was said. 694 00:33:20,333 --> 00:33:23,750 But some of the sermons were indeed very, very long. 695 00:33:23,833 --> 00:33:27,083 So God preaches, Satan preaches, prophets preach, 696 00:33:27,167 --> 00:33:29,083 all the way up to John the Baptizer, 697 00:33:29,167 --> 00:33:31,167 the last Old Covenant prophet, preaches. 698 00:33:31,250 --> 00:33:33,000 Jesus comes preaching. 699 00:33:33,083 --> 00:33:36,000 He sends out apostles to do preaching. 700 00:33:36,083 --> 00:33:40,500 And this leads to our day, in which pastors preach. 701 00:33:40,583 --> 00:33:43,167 Titus 1:9, "He," speaking of an elder, 702 00:33:43,250 --> 00:33:47,000 the word here is also referencing what we would call 703 00:33:47,083 --> 00:33:49,083 a pastor. 704 00:33:49,167 --> 00:33:51,583 These various words like "pastor" and "elder," 705 00:33:51,667 --> 00:33:55,417 they're synonymous in places like 1 Peter 5 and Acts 20. 706 00:33:55,458 --> 00:33:57,500 "Elder" tends to be more of the office, 707 00:33:57,583 --> 00:33:59,292 "pastor" tends to be the job description 708 00:33:59,333 --> 00:34:01,417 of loving the people. 709 00:34:01,458 --> 00:34:04,583 The Bible talks about the fact that Jesus is our good shepherd 710 00:34:04,667 --> 00:34:07,667 and the people in the church are like sheep that Jesus loves, 711 00:34:07,750 --> 00:34:09,417 and part of his flock. 712 00:34:09,458 --> 00:34:11,792 And that there are wolves out there, false teachers, 713 00:34:11,833 --> 00:34:14,667 sent by Satan with false sermons to lead people astray. 714 00:34:14,750 --> 00:34:18,583 So God raises up shepherds to care for the flock and to serve 715 00:34:18,667 --> 00:34:22,083 under Jesus, the chief shepherd. 716 00:34:22,167 --> 00:34:26,917 Here, "He" an elder, so that's this pastor/elder, 717 00:34:26,958 --> 00:34:29,917 "must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught." 718 00:34:29,958 --> 00:34:32,583 So to be a pastor or an elder in the church, 719 00:34:32,667 --> 00:34:34,958 you need to have sound doctrine, know the Bible, 720 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:36,750 believe the truth. 721 00:34:36,833 --> 00:34:39,500 "So that he may be able to," do two things, 722 00:34:39,583 --> 00:34:41,917 "give instruction in sound doctrine and to rebuke those 723 00:34:41,958 --> 00:34:43,583 who contradict it." 724 00:34:43,667 --> 00:34:46,000 So a pastor is supposed to do two things, 725 00:34:46,083 --> 00:34:48,083 teach what the Bible teaches, 726 00:34:48,167 --> 00:34:51,000 and correct errors with the Bible. 727 00:34:51,083 --> 00:34:54,083 Because again, Satan's going to send in false teachers, 728 00:34:54,125 --> 00:34:59,000 false apostles, false prophets, false preachers, false doctrine. 729 00:34:59,042 --> 00:35:01,083 Sometimes this is people in the church. 730 00:35:01,167 --> 00:35:04,083 Acts 20 speaks of this, "Men will arise from your own number, 731 00:35:04,167 --> 00:35:06,792 distort the truth, and lead many astray." 732 00:35:06,833 --> 00:35:09,292 Let me say that the greatest threat to the health 733 00:35:09,333 --> 00:35:11,000 and well-being of any church, including ours, 734 00:35:11,083 --> 00:35:15,167 is not all those people out there, it's us. 735 00:35:15,250 --> 00:35:17,292 When you're relationally connected to someone, 736 00:35:17,333 --> 00:35:19,583 when you know someone, when you love someone, 737 00:35:19,667 --> 00:35:23,792 and they start to go astray, it's hard to say, 738 00:35:23,833 --> 00:35:26,500 "You're starting to smell like a wolf. 739 00:35:26,583 --> 00:35:29,292 "What you're teaching isn't biblical. 740 00:35:29,333 --> 00:35:32,583 "Where you're going isn't godly. 741 00:35:32,667 --> 00:35:35,958 "You're trying to divide people and bring them in your direction 742 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,083 "to start your own church, or ministry, or cult, 743 00:35:39,167 --> 00:35:41,667 "or cause suspicion about other leaders. 744 00:35:41,750 --> 00:35:44,000 You're being divisive." 745 00:35:44,083 --> 00:35:46,500 Sometimes it's for the money. 746 00:35:46,583 --> 00:35:48,417 Sometimes it's for the power. 747 00:35:48,458 --> 00:35:53,792 Oftentimes behind such sin is sexual sin and really dark 748 00:35:53,833 --> 00:35:57,583 agendas for the abuse of others. 749 00:35:57,667 --> 00:36:01,583 So what a pastor is to do is two things: Teach the truth, 750 00:36:01,667 --> 00:36:04,250 be a good shepherd, look after the sheep; 751 00:36:04,333 --> 00:36:06,583 and deal with the wolves, and the false teaching, 752 00:36:06,667 --> 00:36:09,917 and the false doctrine, to keep the church healthy. 753 00:36:09,958 --> 00:36:13,000 When Paul admonishes in the New Testament sound doctrine, 754 00:36:13,083 --> 00:36:15,167 it's the Greek word for "healthy." 755 00:36:15,250 --> 00:36:17,917 We just don't want to have a church where, you know, 756 00:36:17,958 --> 00:36:19,667 our theology is like a crossword puzzle, 757 00:36:19,750 --> 00:36:21,917 and we all got all the blanks filled in. 758 00:36:21,958 --> 00:36:26,583 We want to have robust, healthy, biblical teaching about Jesus so 759 00:36:26,625 --> 00:36:30,750 that, like a well-balanced diet, you can be healthy, repent, 760 00:36:30,833 --> 00:36:36,083 grow, love Jesus, mature, help others. 761 00:36:36,167 --> 00:36:40,292 That's what sound doctrine is, it's healthy. 762 00:36:40,333 --> 00:36:43,083 Pray for your church, would you? 763 00:36:43,125 --> 00:36:45,167 Pray for your leaders. 764 00:36:45,250 --> 00:36:47,500 Not just your elders, deacons, Community Group leaders, 765 00:36:47,583 --> 00:36:49,917 Redemption Group leaders. 766 00:36:49,958 --> 00:36:52,792 As we spread now, and we're a church in 14 locations 767 00:36:52,833 --> 00:36:55,833 across 4 states, and growing, 768 00:36:55,917 --> 00:36:59,667 can you imagine the complexity of the weird teaching 769 00:36:59,750 --> 00:37:02,667 that comes in the door? 770 00:37:02,750 --> 00:37:05,667 And everywhere it's different. 771 00:37:05,750 --> 00:37:07,667 The closer you get to the urban centers, 772 00:37:07,750 --> 00:37:10,583 it's all about sexual identity. 773 00:37:10,625 --> 00:37:13,083 Sometimes you get out into the suburbs and its people 774 00:37:13,167 --> 00:37:15,083 who got bored with Christian evangelicalism and started 775 00:37:15,125 --> 00:37:18,583 drifting off into weird, tangential doctrines. 776 00:37:18,667 --> 00:37:21,583 You go down to New Mexico and it's trying to take Jesus 777 00:37:21,625 --> 00:37:24,750 and co-mingle him with demonism, and superstition, 778 00:37:24,833 --> 00:37:27,083 and native religions. 779 00:37:27,125 --> 00:37:29,792 You go down into Portland and Jesus is just a hippie, 780 00:37:29,833 --> 00:37:33,500 that's all he is, just a guy walking around homeless, 781 00:37:33,583 --> 00:37:36,292 growing his own food, but he's not Lord, God, Savior, 782 00:37:36,333 --> 00:37:38,167 King, and Christ. 783 00:37:38,250 --> 00:37:42,083 He's got a hackie sack, but no throne. 784 00:37:42,167 --> 00:37:43,583 And we've had certain occasions too, 785 00:37:43,625 --> 00:37:45,917 where— here's how it works historically, 786 00:37:45,958 --> 00:37:47,667 when a bunch of people become Christians, 787 00:37:47,750 --> 00:37:50,583 cults come right in behind that. 788 00:37:50,667 --> 00:37:53,833 They like to pick off all the new Christians who don't 789 00:37:53,917 --> 00:37:56,167 know the difference yet. 790 00:37:56,250 --> 00:37:59,042 We have so many new Christians at Mars Hill. 791 00:37:59,125 --> 00:38:01,833 We want to make sure, that yeah, they're growing in love. 792 00:38:01,917 --> 00:38:05,333 We also want to make sure that they know what true and false 793 00:38:05,417 --> 00:38:07,583 doctrine is so that they can grow in godliness 794 00:38:07,667 --> 00:38:10,458 and love for Jesus, and not get off track. 795 00:38:10,500 --> 00:38:14,583 We've actually had certain religions send in their leaders 796 00:38:14,667 --> 00:38:17,250 with their name tags on, into the foyers of our churches 797 00:38:17,333 --> 00:38:19,167 on Sunday. 798 00:38:19,250 --> 00:38:23,167 Met a couple of guys wearing name badges that said "elder." 799 00:38:23,250 --> 00:38:25,250 Won't tell you what team they were on, 800 00:38:25,333 --> 00:38:27,917 but they rode their bikes to church. 801 00:38:27,958 --> 00:38:31,792 And anyways, they're walking around with name badges "elder" 802 00:38:31,833 --> 00:38:36,417 and I'm in the foyer, I'm like, "I don't know Pete and Repeat. 803 00:38:36,458 --> 00:38:38,792 I don't know who those two guys are." 804 00:38:38,833 --> 00:38:41,792 I walk up, I was like, "Hey, welcome, are you guys elders?" 805 00:38:41,833 --> 00:38:43,292 They're like, "Yes, we are." 806 00:38:43,333 --> 00:38:44,792 I was like, "In what church? 807 00:38:44,833 --> 00:38:46,958 "Not this one, because I would know. 808 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:49,083 Probably." 809 00:38:49,167 --> 00:38:51,583 We do have a lot of elders. 810 00:38:51,667 --> 00:38:55,417 And they said, "Oh, we're from this, you know, other religion." 811 00:38:55,458 --> 00:38:59,167 I said, "Well, if you want to stay, take the name badge off 812 00:38:59,208 --> 00:39:01,583 that says 'elder.'" 813 00:39:01,625 --> 00:39:03,750 I said, "Why would you wear the name badge 814 00:39:03,833 --> 00:39:05,167 that says 'elder?'" 815 00:39:05,250 --> 00:39:07,667 "Well, in case anybody needs prayer or wants to talk." 816 00:39:07,750 --> 00:39:10,417 "Oh, you're going to need prayer, and we're going to talk. 817 00:39:10,458 --> 00:39:12,333 You know?" 818 00:39:12,417 --> 00:39:16,167 But other religions showing up pretending to be our own leaders 819 00:39:16,250 --> 00:39:18,792 in our foyer on a Sunday. 820 00:39:18,833 --> 00:39:21,917 Sometimes you will hear, "Oh, you know, sometimes the elders, 821 00:39:21,958 --> 00:39:23,667 boy, they were pretty stern with that." 822 00:39:23,750 --> 00:39:25,292 Or, "They were pretty serious." 823 00:39:25,333 --> 00:39:27,000 Or, "Boy, that kind of got complicated." 824 00:39:27,083 --> 00:39:29,500 Well, sometimes it's this, we don't want to just teach 825 00:39:29,583 --> 00:39:32,250 sound doctrine, we also have to correct and refute the stuff 826 00:39:32,333 --> 00:39:35,500 that's not just secondary issues, Christians who love the Bible 827 00:39:35,583 --> 00:39:38,792 and Jesus disagree, and it's an internal family debate. 828 00:39:38,833 --> 00:39:42,000 We're talking about big issues that cross the boundary 829 00:39:42,083 --> 00:39:44,083 into false teaching. 830 00:39:44,167 --> 00:39:46,083 So pastors are supposed to preach, 831 00:39:46,167 --> 00:39:47,958 and they're supposed to teach. 832 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:51,333 At Mars Hill this means elders and pastors will do one-on-one, 833 00:39:51,417 --> 00:39:55,292 small groups, classes, Sunday services. 834 00:39:55,333 --> 00:39:58,000 I tend to preach live a lot. 835 00:39:58,083 --> 00:40:00,000 When I'm out we have live preaching 836 00:40:00,083 --> 00:40:02,083 at all of the different Mars Hill churches. 837 00:40:02,125 --> 00:40:04,000 We have Re:Train, 838 00:40:04,083 --> 00:40:06,667 which is a school that I think half a dozen seminaries 839 00:40:06,750 --> 00:40:10,083 have received the credit from now for a degree program, 840 00:40:10,167 --> 00:40:13,167 under the leadership of Pastor Dave Bruskas 841 00:40:13,250 --> 00:40:14,917 and Pastor Justin Holcomb. 842 00:40:14,958 --> 00:40:16,667 We have something called Q School, 843 00:40:16,750 --> 00:40:19,792 it's a qualifying school, elders who want to preach have to go 844 00:40:19,833 --> 00:40:22,667 through preparation, and testing, and training, 845 00:40:22,750 --> 00:40:25,792 and then we send them actually through an approval process, 846 00:40:25,833 --> 00:40:29,167 kind of like "American Idol" without as much pain. 847 00:40:29,250 --> 00:40:32,500 So that they can get up and preach and we can evaluate them, 848 00:40:32,583 --> 00:40:33,917 and give them feedback. 849 00:40:33,958 --> 00:40:35,583 So there's a whole mechanism in place. 850 00:40:35,667 --> 00:40:37,333 And if you're here and you're saying, 851 00:40:37,417 --> 00:40:38,750 "I feel called to preach." 852 00:40:38,833 --> 00:40:41,167 We would say, "Then qualify first as an elder." 853 00:40:41,250 --> 00:40:43,500 'Cause only pastors preach. 854 00:40:43,583 --> 00:40:45,250 I'll show you were we get that. 855 00:40:45,333 --> 00:40:47,667 It's in this handy dandy book I found. 856 00:40:47,750 --> 00:40:52,750 Right here in 1 Timothy 5:17-19, "Let the elders," the pastors, 857 00:40:52,833 --> 00:40:55,583 "who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, 858 00:40:55,667 --> 00:40:58,292 especially those who labor in preaching and teaching." 859 00:40:58,333 --> 00:41:01,417 He says, "Honor all your elders, and those who preach and teach, 860 00:41:01,458 --> 00:41:03,792 make sure you honor them." 861 00:41:03,833 --> 00:41:06,792 "Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence 862 00:41:06,833 --> 00:41:08,167 of two or three witnesses." 863 00:41:08,250 --> 00:41:10,583 So, those who are preaching and teaching 864 00:41:10,625 --> 00:41:12,167 are supposed to be the who? 865 00:41:12,250 --> 00:41:13,667 The elders. 866 00:41:13,750 --> 00:41:16,792 We go back in 1 Timothy 3, just a few chapters previously, 867 00:41:16,833 --> 00:41:19,000 it gives the qualifications of an elder. 868 00:41:19,083 --> 00:41:21,667 So 1 Timothy 3, it says, "Here's what an elder is." 869 00:41:21,750 --> 00:41:24,458 And then 1 Timothy 5 says, "Here's what an elder does, 870 00:41:24,500 --> 00:41:25,833 preaching and teaching." 871 00:41:25,917 --> 00:41:27,667 If you feel called to preach, men, 872 00:41:27,750 --> 00:41:31,583 do first qualify as an elder. 873 00:41:31,667 --> 00:41:34,792 Only the elders preach, and not all the elders preach on Sunday. 874 00:41:34,833 --> 00:41:36,750 They'll teach in other situations. 875 00:41:36,833 --> 00:41:40,083 And some elders preach on Sunday depending upon their gifting. 876 00:41:40,167 --> 00:41:41,667 Some are better one on one. 877 00:41:41,750 --> 00:41:43,083 Some are better in class. 878 00:41:43,167 --> 00:41:44,667 Some are better in dialogue. 879 00:41:44,750 --> 00:41:48,167 Some are better in smaller groups, medium-sized groups. 880 00:41:48,250 --> 00:41:50,667 Some work better in larger services. 881 00:41:50,750 --> 00:41:53,500 It's everybody using their gift wherever it works best, 882 00:41:53,583 --> 00:41:55,917 and wherever God has appointed them. 883 00:41:55,958 --> 00:42:00,667 And I would say this, honor preachers. 884 00:42:00,750 --> 00:42:02,667 Okay, this is not me. 885 00:42:02,750 --> 00:42:05,417 You guys do honor me, you love me, I appreciate it. 886 00:42:05,458 --> 00:42:08,417 I'm very honored to preach at Mars Hill Church, 887 00:42:08,458 --> 00:42:11,083 and I feel very free to preach the Word of God, 888 00:42:11,167 --> 00:42:12,667 and I'm very grateful for that. 889 00:42:12,750 --> 00:42:15,833 But here's what I would ask you, be careful not to speak ill 890 00:42:15,917 --> 00:42:17,833 of other preachers. 891 00:42:17,917 --> 00:42:20,792 If they say something heretical, 892 00:42:20,833 --> 00:42:23,167 or they're leading people astray, 893 00:42:23,250 --> 00:42:26,500 then, yeah, other leaders need to come along for the well-being of 894 00:42:26,583 --> 00:42:29,458 the flock and say, "Well, let's not listen to that because 895 00:42:29,500 --> 00:42:30,958 "that's really not right. 896 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:33,292 And hopefully they straighten that out." 897 00:42:33,333 --> 00:42:35,583 But what can happen is, 898 00:42:35,625 --> 00:42:39,083 especially in an age of sound bites, and edits, 899 00:42:39,125 --> 00:42:42,500 and misquotes, there is some very godly people 900 00:42:42,583 --> 00:42:46,833 that endure some very ungodly gossip. 901 00:42:46,917 --> 00:42:51,083 Anywhere that the preacher loves Jesus and teaches the Bible, 902 00:42:51,167 --> 00:42:52,792 we're for it. 903 00:42:52,833 --> 00:42:54,292 Amen? 904 00:42:54,333 --> 00:42:55,667 We're just for it. 905 00:42:55,750 --> 00:42:58,167 Some of you say, "I wouldn't do it that way." 906 00:42:58,250 --> 00:43:00,083 Well, that's fine. 907 00:43:00,167 --> 00:43:03,583 But if they love Jesus, and they're teaching the Bible, 908 00:43:03,667 --> 00:43:05,792 they may do it different than we do, 909 00:43:05,833 --> 00:43:09,000 they may do it different than I do, it may not be our style, 910 00:43:09,083 --> 00:43:11,167 may not be the way we go about it. 911 00:43:11,250 --> 00:43:15,292 But you know what, we're not Jesus. 912 00:43:15,333 --> 00:43:17,917 And the church belongs to Jesus. 913 00:43:17,958 --> 00:43:23,000 And Jesus can judge whether or not certain methods or styles 914 00:43:23,083 --> 00:43:26,792 are acceptable or unacceptable to him. 915 00:43:26,833 --> 00:43:32,583 Early on, one of my sins was being jealous of great preachers 916 00:43:32,625 --> 00:43:36,750 because they were so gifted, and they were so successful, 917 00:43:36,833 --> 00:43:39,250 and some of them were so famous. 918 00:43:39,333 --> 00:43:41,917 That rather than being humble, and listening, and learning, 919 00:43:41,958 --> 00:43:44,750 and asking, "How could I grow to do a better job?" 920 00:43:44,833 --> 00:43:48,292 I got jealous, and I get critical. 921 00:43:48,333 --> 00:43:50,417 "Oh, I could do that better than them. 922 00:43:50,458 --> 00:43:51,917 "They don't read very well. 923 00:43:51,958 --> 00:43:53,292 "They missed that point. 924 00:43:53,333 --> 00:43:56,292 "I agree with all of that but they missed this one thing." 925 00:43:56,333 --> 00:43:58,500 I always love it when people introduce a preacher 926 00:43:58,583 --> 00:44:01,083 and they're like, "I don't agree with everything he says" 927 00:44:01,125 --> 00:44:02,458 like, who does? 928 00:44:02,500 --> 00:44:05,167 I'll tell you what, I don't agree with everything I've said. 929 00:44:05,250 --> 00:44:06,583 Right? 930 00:44:06,625 --> 00:44:10,917 I look back and I'm like, "Oh, wow, sorry." 931 00:44:10,958 --> 00:44:12,292 I preach an inerrant Word; 932 00:44:12,333 --> 00:44:15,667 I don't proclaim to be an inerrant word. 933 00:44:15,750 --> 00:44:19,333 Be gracious when you're hearing preachers. 934 00:44:19,417 --> 00:44:21,292 If it's pastors from other churches, 935 00:44:21,333 --> 00:44:23,333 you go to visit a friend's church, 936 00:44:23,417 --> 00:44:26,667 come with a gracious ear, pray for the preacher, 937 00:44:26,750 --> 00:44:28,792 honor the preacher, be teachable, 938 00:44:28,833 --> 00:44:31,250 see what you can learn. 939 00:44:31,333 --> 00:44:34,292 As other pastors teach at Mars Hill 940 00:44:34,333 --> 00:44:37,792 would you please come with a gracious ear of honoring. 941 00:44:37,833 --> 00:44:39,667 Like, "I want to pray for them. 942 00:44:39,750 --> 00:44:41,167 "I want to encourage them. 943 00:44:41,250 --> 00:44:43,000 "I want to have ears to hear. 944 00:44:43,083 --> 00:44:44,750 "I want to learn what I can. 945 00:44:44,833 --> 00:44:47,500 I want to receive whatever God has for me through them." 946 00:44:47,583 --> 00:44:49,917 And if there's false doctrine, yeah, we'll deal with it. 947 00:44:49,958 --> 00:44:52,792 In the grace of God, there's not. 948 00:44:52,833 --> 00:44:55,500 But this issue of honor, think about it today. 949 00:44:55,583 --> 00:44:58,583 There's so little honor that's shown anybody, 950 00:44:58,667 --> 00:45:01,000 let alone preachers. 951 00:45:01,083 --> 00:45:04,000 We live in a day where for free you can download 952 00:45:04,083 --> 00:45:05,667 amazing Bible teachers. 953 00:45:05,750 --> 00:45:07,833 And I would encourage, redeem your commute, 954 00:45:07,917 --> 00:45:10,417 listen to Bible preachers, praise God for them, 955 00:45:10,458 --> 00:45:13,167 pray for them, support their ministries if you want to send 956 00:45:13,250 --> 00:45:16,292 them a gift for all the goodness you've received. 957 00:45:16,333 --> 00:45:21,292 But let's be a people who honor preaching, who honor preachers, 958 00:45:21,333 --> 00:45:25,583 because they have enough opposition from Satan. 959 00:45:25,667 --> 00:45:28,792 They have enough problems fighting wolves. 960 00:45:28,833 --> 00:45:31,958 And they're just regular men who are struggling 961 00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:35,792 in the grace of God to do the best they can. 962 00:45:35,833 --> 00:45:38,292 And one of the ways we honor preachers is this, 963 00:45:38,333 --> 00:45:41,292 "Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence 964 00:45:41,333 --> 00:45:42,792 of two or three witnesses." 965 00:45:42,833 --> 00:45:48,750 Now, in the age of the Internet, it's amazing. 966 00:45:48,833 --> 00:45:51,750 Something gets said that's not true, 967 00:45:51,833 --> 00:45:55,000 and then it gets commented upon, and then it becomes a big deal 968 00:45:55,083 --> 00:45:56,667 about something that never happened. 969 00:45:56,750 --> 00:45:59,083 Or something gets taken out of context. 970 00:45:59,167 --> 00:46:02,583 And again I'm not talking about me, 971 00:46:02,667 --> 00:46:05,583 I don't feel dishonored in Mars Hill. 972 00:46:05,625 --> 00:46:08,333 But I do want to establish a culture at Mars Hill, 973 00:46:08,417 --> 00:46:11,583 and I want us to be a people that we give Bible teachers 974 00:46:11,625 --> 00:46:13,917 the benefit of the doubt. 975 00:46:13,958 --> 00:46:15,500 That they're innocent until proven guilty. 976 00:46:15,583 --> 00:46:17,583 And guilty is not necessarily determined by 977 00:46:17,625 --> 00:46:20,833 a Facebook discussion group. 978 00:46:24,583 --> 00:46:27,417 And there's a difference between a charge and a criticism. 979 00:46:27,458 --> 00:46:29,167 Do you know what the difference is? 980 00:46:29,250 --> 00:46:32,583 A charge is an actual allegation of actual wrongdoing. 981 00:46:32,667 --> 00:46:38,417 Like committed adultery, taught false doctrine, stole money. 982 00:46:38,458 --> 00:46:40,333 A criticism is, "I don't like them. 983 00:46:40,417 --> 00:46:41,917 "I don't agree. 984 00:46:41,958 --> 00:46:45,167 I wouldn't have said it like that." 985 00:46:45,250 --> 00:46:50,667 Be careful to only bring a charge and not to treat 986 00:46:50,750 --> 00:46:54,250 a criticism as a charge. 987 00:46:54,333 --> 00:47:00,167 And, man, I don't think I should say this, but I will anyway, 988 00:47:01,625 --> 00:47:06,750 my theological convictions lean more toward what is known as 989 00:47:06,833 --> 00:47:10,292 Reformed theology. 990 00:47:10,333 --> 00:47:13,667 John Calvin, Martin Luther, people like that are 991 00:47:13,750 --> 00:47:17,958 very influential to me, and I appreciate them very much. 992 00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:23,292 But what I find with some who hold the same convictions I do, 993 00:47:23,333 --> 00:47:27,667 they start to treat preaching like wine tasting. 994 00:47:27,750 --> 00:47:30,417 My friend James MacDonald uses this analogy, 995 00:47:30,458 --> 00:47:35,417 "Oh, hints of Calvin with tannins of Luther. 996 00:47:35,458 --> 00:47:39,583 "Mmm, that's very Lloyd Jonesesque 997 00:47:39,625 --> 00:47:43,250 with a sweet Spurgeon aftertaste." 998 00:47:48,167 --> 00:47:53,583 And all of sudden they start criticizing, and disrespecting, 999 00:47:53,625 --> 00:47:57,583 and dishonoring faithful Bible teachers. 1000 00:47:57,667 --> 00:48:01,167 I had a guy recently say, "Well, he's an Arminian." 1001 00:48:01,250 --> 00:48:03,500 I was like, "He's an Arminian Christian Bible teacher 1002 00:48:03,583 --> 00:48:09,417 "who's nice, so I like him more than you 1003 00:48:12,000 --> 00:48:16,958 because you're not nice." 1004 00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:26,000 I want us to be a people who pray for preachers, 1005 00:48:26,083 --> 00:48:30,667 who honor preachers, who hold preachers to a high standard. 1006 00:48:30,750 --> 00:48:33,833 And if there's a charge, it needs to be investigated. 1007 00:48:33,917 --> 00:48:36,417 But there's a difference between a criticism and a charge. 1008 00:48:36,458 --> 00:48:38,458 And while you're at it pray for me. 1009 00:48:38,500 --> 00:48:41,458 James 3:1 says, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers 1010 00:48:41,500 --> 00:48:43,792 because teachers are going to be judged more strictly." 1011 00:48:43,833 --> 00:48:45,167 I get that. 1012 00:48:45,250 --> 00:48:46,583 I feel that. 1013 00:48:46,667 --> 00:48:49,083 I honestly feel the weight of the burden of responsibility 1014 00:48:49,167 --> 00:48:53,583 of the task that the Lord has called me to. 1015 00:48:53,625 --> 00:48:56,292 But, man, when we have preachers come to Mars Hill, 1016 00:48:56,333 --> 00:49:01,667 or our conferences, or events, or other elders are teaching, 1017 00:49:01,750 --> 00:49:05,583 please honor them, don't dishonor them. 1018 00:49:05,667 --> 00:49:10,917 Please don't make it your task to criticize them. 1019 00:49:10,958 --> 00:49:13,083 And don't think that just because they're different than 1020 00:49:13,125 --> 00:49:17,917 what you like, that they're disobedient to the Lord. 1021 00:49:17,958 --> 00:49:23,083 So, that being said, I love this verse, 1022 00:49:23,125 --> 00:49:27,667 this is the Tweet-able verse on preaching in all of Scripture. 1023 00:49:27,750 --> 00:49:29,583 "Preach the," what? 1024 00:49:29,625 --> 00:49:31,583 "Preach the Word." 2 Timothy 4:2. 1025 00:49:31,625 --> 00:49:33,000 He just says it. 1026 00:49:33,083 --> 00:49:34,417 "Preach the Word." 1027 00:49:34,458 --> 00:49:35,917 This is the Word of God. 1028 00:49:35,958 --> 00:49:37,667 This is where preaching is so important. 1029 00:49:37,750 --> 00:49:39,500 Preaching says that the Bible is true, 1030 00:49:39,583 --> 00:49:43,917 and through the Word of God, God speaks. 1031 00:49:43,958 --> 00:49:48,500 So the preacher is to open the book and to teach the people. 1032 00:49:48,583 --> 00:49:52,292 Now, there are lots of books that are words about God. 1033 00:49:52,333 --> 00:49:54,333 People's opinions about God. 1034 00:49:54,417 --> 00:49:56,167 This is the Word of God. 1035 00:49:56,250 --> 00:49:57,917 This is the Word from God. 1036 00:49:57,958 --> 00:50:01,792 This is the only perfect thing on the Earth, right? 1037 00:50:01,833 --> 00:50:03,667 We believe the Bible, okay? 1038 00:50:03,750 --> 00:50:05,500 I've done this many times, 1039 00:50:05,583 --> 00:50:07,958 but I guess I'll do it again right now. 1040 00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:10,292 There are really only two views of the Bible. 1041 00:50:10,333 --> 00:50:13,917 This is one view of the Bible, okay? 1042 00:50:13,958 --> 00:50:16,500 I interpret it, I'm in authority over it, 1043 00:50:16,583 --> 00:50:18,792 if I don't like it I can ignore it, 1044 00:50:18,833 --> 00:50:21,417 if I don't believe it I get to change it, 1045 00:50:21,458 --> 00:50:25,083 if I find it inconvenient I can alter it, I can explain it away, 1046 00:50:25,167 --> 00:50:29,250 I can say no, I can edit it as I please. 1047 00:50:29,333 --> 00:50:31,792 I'm in authority over the Scriptures. 1048 00:50:31,833 --> 00:50:34,833 That's treating it like it was a word about God. 1049 00:50:34,917 --> 00:50:36,792 Just another book by some other people 1050 00:50:36,833 --> 00:50:38,917 giving their opinions too. 1051 00:50:38,958 --> 00:50:41,583 Friends, that's not our view of the Scriptures. 1052 00:50:41,667 --> 00:50:45,458 Our view of the Scriptures is this: It's the Word of God. 1053 00:50:45,500 --> 00:50:49,792 It's not something under us, it's something over us. 1054 00:50:49,833 --> 00:50:52,417 It's not something that we have authority over; 1055 00:50:52,458 --> 00:50:55,333 it's something that we're under the authority of. 1056 00:50:55,417 --> 00:50:57,792 It's not something that we can edit and change 1057 00:50:57,833 --> 00:51:00,083 because this is what God says. 1058 00:51:00,125 --> 00:51:01,583 You hear this all the time, 1059 00:51:01,667 --> 00:51:03,417 "Well, can't you just change that?" 1060 00:51:03,458 --> 00:51:06,292 Edit God? Uh, no. 1061 00:51:06,333 --> 00:51:09,292 I don't feel free to edit God with my 3-pound, 1062 00:51:09,333 --> 00:51:11,458 fallen brain that went to public school. 1063 00:51:11,500 --> 00:51:14,792 I don't feel I have the right to edit God. 1064 00:51:14,833 --> 00:51:17,000 I'm not smart, but I'm smart enough to know 1065 00:51:17,083 --> 00:51:19,000 I'm not that smart. 1066 00:51:19,083 --> 00:51:22,167 And so our view is, "No, we come under the Word of God." 1067 00:51:22,250 --> 00:51:24,958 And preaching is where the Word of God is opened up, 1068 00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:27,667 and the people of God sit under the Word of God. 1069 00:51:27,750 --> 00:51:31,833 So let me tell you what you're doing right now, worshiping. 1070 00:51:31,917 --> 00:51:37,917 Sitting, listening to the Word of God is an act of worship. 1071 00:51:39,500 --> 00:51:42,417 It's saying, "I'm under authority of the Word of God 1072 00:51:42,458 --> 00:51:46,292 and leaders." It's saying, "I want to learn something, 1073 00:51:46,333 --> 00:51:48,833 I don't know it all." 1074 00:51:48,917 --> 00:51:51,417 It's saying, "I know there's sin in my life, 1075 00:51:51,458 --> 00:51:54,583 "and by the grace of God, if the preacher through the Holy Spirit 1076 00:51:54,667 --> 00:51:58,000 "and the Word of God can help me find it and deal with it, 1077 00:51:58,083 --> 00:51:59,375 I welcome that." 1078 00:51:59,458 --> 00:52:02,583 It's sitting with the people of God, as an act of worship, 1079 00:52:02,625 --> 00:52:04,083 saying, "And we're in this together, 1080 00:52:04,125 --> 00:52:07,167 "and we all belong to Jesus, and we're here to obey, and apply, 1081 00:52:07,250 --> 00:52:10,458 and explore the Word of God together." 1082 00:52:10,500 --> 00:52:13,667 You're not just sitting there, you're worshiping God 1083 00:52:13,750 --> 00:52:16,250 by being teachable. 1084 00:52:16,333 --> 00:52:17,792 Thank you. 1085 00:52:17,833 --> 00:52:19,167 By listening. 1086 00:52:19,250 --> 00:52:21,000 Thank you. 1087 00:52:21,083 --> 00:52:24,083 By being willing to consider what the Scriptures have to say. 1088 00:52:24,125 --> 00:52:27,292 And I'm not saying that I'm always right, 1089 00:52:27,333 --> 00:52:29,667 and when I'm wrong I'm open to correction, 1090 00:52:29,750 --> 00:52:32,917 and I want to do the best job I can. 1091 00:52:32,958 --> 00:52:35,458 Couple of things in closing about preaching. 1092 00:52:35,500 --> 00:52:38,000 So how do we preach the Word? 1093 00:52:38,083 --> 00:52:39,750 There's three different ways. 1094 00:52:39,833 --> 00:52:42,792 There's expository preaching, where we go right through books 1095 00:52:42,833 --> 00:52:44,500 of the Bible. 1096 00:52:44,583 --> 00:52:46,458 At Mars Hill Church, that's been, generally speaking, 1097 00:52:46,500 --> 00:52:47,958 our bread and butter. 1098 00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:50,667 I don't know how many books of the Bible I've taught, 1099 00:52:50,750 --> 00:52:52,083 a lot of them. 1100 00:52:52,167 --> 00:52:54,583 We just finished Luke, we spent 2 years in Luke. 1101 00:52:54,667 --> 00:52:57,083 They always tell you, "You want to grow your church, 1102 00:52:57,167 --> 00:52:59,083 do a short series with short sermons." 1103 00:52:59,167 --> 00:53:02,417 So we did an hour in Luke for 2 years, and it worked. 1104 00:53:02,458 --> 00:53:05,792 So, you know, it's a great book, and we find that people 1105 00:53:05,833 --> 00:53:07,292 like the Bible. 1106 00:53:07,333 --> 00:53:10,292 And some people say, "You can't go all the way through books 1107 00:53:10,333 --> 00:53:11,667 of the Bible." 1108 00:53:11,750 --> 00:53:13,083 You can. 1109 00:53:13,167 --> 00:53:16,292 And what it does, it forces you to deal with stuff you wouldn't 1110 00:53:16,333 --> 00:53:17,667 otherwise deal with. 1111 00:53:17,750 --> 00:53:20,667 And it helps people learn how to study the Bible in context 1112 00:53:20,750 --> 00:53:22,083 for themselves. 1113 00:53:22,167 --> 00:53:25,083 And I think it also makes sure that you're not just following 1114 00:53:25,167 --> 00:53:26,583 whatever the preacher's wanting to say. 1115 00:53:26,667 --> 00:53:28,792 You're following whatever's in the book of the Bible 1116 00:53:28,833 --> 00:53:31,333 that you're in, by the grace of God. 1117 00:53:31,417 --> 00:53:34,167 So, here's what's coming up for us as far as expository 1118 00:53:34,250 --> 00:53:37,667 teaching: In the fall we're going to do the book of Esther. 1119 00:53:37,750 --> 00:53:39,917 Yeah, okay, so one person's fired up. 1120 00:53:39,958 --> 00:53:41,583 Great, okay. 1121 00:53:41,667 --> 00:53:43,667 Now we're up to two, you and me. 1122 00:53:43,750 --> 00:53:45,000 We're up to two. 1123 00:53:45,083 --> 00:53:47,083 We're doubled, awesome. 1124 00:53:47,125 --> 00:53:49,667 We get two more, we're up to four, double again, okay. 1125 00:53:49,750 --> 00:53:52,583 So, the book of Esther we're going to start this fall in 1126 00:53:52,667 --> 00:53:55,292 September, crazy book. 1127 00:53:55,333 --> 00:53:56,833 Like nobody preaches it. 1128 00:53:56,917 --> 00:53:58,250 Nobody. 1129 00:53:58,333 --> 00:54:00,583 The Reformers, they treated it like Superman did kryptonite. 1130 00:54:00,625 --> 00:54:02,667 "We just kind of keep some distance from that. 1131 00:54:02,750 --> 00:54:04,083 That's just a strange book." 1132 00:54:04,167 --> 00:54:06,500 Young, beautiful girl sleeps with the king 1133 00:54:06,583 --> 00:54:07,917 to the glory of God— 1134 00:54:07,958 --> 00:54:09,292 huh? 1135 00:54:09,333 --> 00:54:12,292 So we're going to unpack Esther, okay. 1136 00:54:12,333 --> 00:54:13,833 We're going to unpack Esther. 1137 00:54:13,917 --> 00:54:16,083 And then after Esther we're going to do Ephesians, 1138 00:54:16,125 --> 00:54:17,458 starting in January. 1139 00:54:17,500 --> 00:54:20,167 We're going to spend 16 weeks, go all the way through 1140 00:54:20,250 --> 00:54:21,583 the book of Ephesians. 1141 00:54:21,667 --> 00:54:24,583 I've got a book coming out, and we're just going to go 1142 00:54:24,667 --> 00:54:26,583 all the way through the book of Ephesians. 1143 00:54:26,667 --> 00:54:28,292 The second form of preaching is textual. 1144 00:54:28,333 --> 00:54:31,292 This is where you don't take a whole book of the Bible, 1145 00:54:31,333 --> 00:54:32,667 but you take a section. 1146 00:54:32,750 --> 00:54:34,667 So when we did "The Seven" series recently, 1147 00:54:34,750 --> 00:54:36,667 we looked at Revelation 1, 2, and 3, 1148 00:54:36,750 --> 00:54:38,083 that was textual preaching. 1149 00:54:38,167 --> 00:54:40,833 It's looking at a chunk of Scripture, not the whole book. 1150 00:54:40,917 --> 00:54:43,083 We're going to have that coming up as well. 1151 00:54:43,125 --> 00:54:45,250 Next summer we're going to do the Ten Commandments, 1152 00:54:45,333 --> 00:54:46,667 Lord willing. 1153 00:54:46,750 --> 00:54:48,833 So we'll just be looking at a chunk of Scripture. 1154 00:54:48,917 --> 00:54:51,083 And the third is topical, which I'm doing today 1155 00:54:51,125 --> 00:54:53,083 in the "Jesus Loves His Church" series. 1156 00:54:53,125 --> 00:54:56,083 This is where you take big ideas and themes through the Bible, 1157 00:54:56,125 --> 00:54:58,083 and you put them together into unified concepts. 1158 00:54:58,125 --> 00:54:59,500 What's baptism? What's Communion? 1159 00:54:59,583 --> 00:55:01,000 What's preaching? 1160 00:55:01,083 --> 00:55:02,750 Looking across the storyline of the Bible, 1161 00:55:02,833 --> 00:55:05,167 looking at the threads and the big ideas 1162 00:55:05,250 --> 00:55:06,958 that weave certain concepts together. 1163 00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:09,667 So at Mars Hill the bread and butter is expository, books 1164 00:55:09,750 --> 00:55:11,083 of the Bible. 1165 00:55:11,167 --> 00:55:13,167 We do some textual series, looking at chunks 1166 00:55:13,250 --> 00:55:14,667 of certain books of the Bible. 1167 00:55:14,750 --> 00:55:17,958 And sometimes we do topical series, looking at big ideas in 1168 00:55:18,000 --> 00:55:21,583 the Bible, pulling sections of Scripture together. 1169 00:55:21,667 --> 00:55:25,500 Now, let me give you a few things in closing at Mars Hill. 1170 00:55:25,583 --> 00:55:27,958 Number one, we preach Jesus. 1171 00:55:28,000 --> 00:55:29,917 We preach Jesus. 1172 00:55:29,958 --> 00:55:35,292 Our belief is that the whole Bible is ultimately about Jesus. 1173 00:55:35,333 --> 00:55:38,667 That he is the God who made the heavens and the earth. 1174 00:55:38,750 --> 00:55:41,167 That he's the one we've rebelled and sinned against. 1175 00:55:41,250 --> 00:55:44,667 That he's the one who's come in human flesh on a rescue mission, 1176 00:55:44,750 --> 00:55:47,292 to save us from Satan, sin, death, hell, 1177 00:55:47,333 --> 00:55:49,167 and the wrath of God. 1178 00:55:49,250 --> 00:55:52,167 That he has lived the sinless life that we have not lived. 1179 00:55:52,250 --> 00:55:54,333 That he died a substitutionary death on the cross 1180 00:55:54,417 --> 00:55:55,750 that we should die. 1181 00:55:55,833 --> 00:55:58,250 That he was buried and 3 days later he rose. 1182 00:55:58,333 --> 00:56:00,833 That for 40 days he evidenced his resurrection from death 1183 00:56:00,917 --> 00:56:03,083 to crowds large and small. 1184 00:56:03,167 --> 00:56:04,958 He then ascended into heaven. 1185 00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:07,667 He commissioned the church, by the power of the Holy Spirit, 1186 00:56:07,750 --> 00:56:10,083 to continue getting his message out to the world, 1187 00:56:10,167 --> 00:56:12,958 until he comes again to judge the living and the dead, 1188 00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:14,833 and establish a kingdom that never ends. 1189 00:56:14,917 --> 00:56:16,500 That's our Jesus. 1190 00:56:16,583 --> 00:56:18,667 We believe the whole Bible from beginning to end 1191 00:56:18,750 --> 00:56:20,792 is ultimately about Jesus. 1192 00:56:20,833 --> 00:56:23,667 There are other things in there, but that's the big idea. 1193 00:56:23,750 --> 00:56:26,083 Jesus taught this at the end of Luke's Gospel. 1194 00:56:26,167 --> 00:56:28,083 He opened the Law and the Prophets 1195 00:56:28,125 --> 00:56:30,583 and he explained to them how everything 1196 00:56:30,667 --> 00:56:32,792 in the Old Testament was about him. 1197 00:56:32,833 --> 00:56:36,917 Jesus said, "Not one dot or crossing of a t 1198 00:56:36,958 --> 00:56:38,500 "will go unfulfilled. 1199 00:56:38,583 --> 00:56:41,000 I will fulfill everything in the Scriptures." 1200 00:56:41,083 --> 00:56:44,292 In John 5 Jesus was arguing with religious people and he said, 1201 00:56:44,333 --> 00:56:47,083 "You diligently study the Scriptures thinking that in them 1202 00:56:47,167 --> 00:56:48,750 "you'll find eternal life. 1203 00:56:48,833 --> 00:56:51,917 "Yet you've failed to realize the Scriptures reveal me, 1204 00:56:51,958 --> 00:56:53,917 and you don't come to me for life." 1205 00:56:53,958 --> 00:56:56,750 Jesus said, "The whole point of the Bible is me." 1206 00:56:56,833 --> 00:56:59,375 That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:22, 1207 00:56:59,458 --> 00:57:03,083 "We preach Christ and him crucified." 1208 00:57:03,167 --> 00:57:05,500 Ultimately it's about Jesus. 1209 00:57:05,583 --> 00:57:08,000 So it doesn't matter what we're talking about, marriage, 1210 00:57:08,083 --> 00:57:10,417 Communion, baptism, friendship, whatever, 1211 00:57:10,458 --> 00:57:12,917 we always talk about Jesus. 1212 00:57:12,958 --> 00:57:16,500 And that's my promise to you, and my prayer request of you, 1213 00:57:16,583 --> 00:57:19,667 please pray that we would always do a good job 1214 00:57:19,750 --> 00:57:21,750 talking about Jesus. 1215 00:57:21,833 --> 00:57:24,083 I don't know if you know this, he's alive. 1216 00:57:24,125 --> 00:57:26,000 He's wonderful. He loves you. 1217 00:57:26,083 --> 00:57:28,667 He'll forgive your sin. 1218 00:57:28,750 --> 00:57:31,583 Number two, we follow the pulpit. 1219 00:57:31,625 --> 00:57:34,958 We believe that preaching leads and other things follow. 1220 00:57:35,000 --> 00:57:36,750 So we hook up our Community Groups 1221 00:57:36,833 --> 00:57:38,583 to the sermon series. 1222 00:57:38,625 --> 00:57:40,667 So if you're not in a Community Group, 1223 00:57:40,750 --> 00:57:42,083 get in a Community Group. 1224 00:57:42,167 --> 00:57:45,292 What we talk about on Sunday is what they unpack and apply for 1225 00:57:45,333 --> 00:57:47,250 mission, and life change, and friendship, 1226 00:57:47,333 --> 00:57:49,083 and community during the week. 1227 00:57:49,167 --> 00:57:51,792 There's now over 600 groups, with over 8,000 people, 1228 00:57:51,833 --> 00:57:53,833 meeting weekly. 1229 00:57:53,917 --> 00:57:56,833 And so the preaching leads, and then the Community Groups 1230 00:57:56,917 --> 00:58:00,083 follow up on the subject of the sermon. 1231 00:58:00,125 --> 00:58:05,083 Number three, we love technology because technology 1232 00:58:05,167 --> 00:58:07,417 provides an opportunity. 1233 00:58:07,458 --> 00:58:10,792 From sound systems, to cameras, to vodcast, to podcast, 1234 00:58:10,833 --> 00:58:14,667 we praise God for the age of technology in which we live. 1235 00:58:14,750 --> 00:58:16,833 I praise God. 1236 00:58:16,917 --> 00:58:19,958 I got a degree in communications from one of the top programs 1237 00:58:20,000 --> 00:58:22,083 in the country before something called the Internet 1238 00:58:22,167 --> 00:58:23,792 came into existence. 1239 00:58:23,833 --> 00:58:26,000 That's how old I am. 1240 00:58:26,083 --> 00:58:28,750 And then we start Mars Hill, in the providence of God, 1241 00:58:28,833 --> 00:58:31,417 at about the same time, almost 16 years ago, 1242 00:58:31,458 --> 00:58:34,917 that the Internet goes public in the Puget Sound, 1243 00:58:34,958 --> 00:58:38,667 with a bunch of guys, in a little company called Microsoft. 1244 00:58:38,750 --> 00:58:41,417 And we have been riding the wave of the opportunity 1245 00:58:41,458 --> 00:58:44,083 of the Internet for almost 16 years. 1246 00:58:44,167 --> 00:58:46,292 We don't have a PR firm behind us, 1247 00:58:46,333 --> 00:58:47,667 we don't have a denomination. 1248 00:58:47,750 --> 00:58:49,167 It's just us. 1249 00:58:49,250 --> 00:58:52,292 But since the mid to late '90s we've been taking sermons 1250 00:58:52,333 --> 00:58:54,792 and giving them away for free on the Internet. 1251 00:58:54,833 --> 00:58:57,833 And God multiples that and he blesses that. 1252 00:58:57,917 --> 00:59:00,750 This last year, the last 12 months, 1253 00:59:00,833 --> 00:59:04,417 between the audio downloads, the video downloads, all of it, 1254 00:59:04,458 --> 00:59:08,792 it's about 15 million downloads of just the preaching 1255 00:59:08,833 --> 00:59:11,083 and teaching of the Word of God. 1256 00:59:11,167 --> 00:59:14,500 We also have 36 services across 4 states. 1257 00:59:14,583 --> 00:59:17,167 We have subtitles for those who are hearing impaired. 1258 00:59:17,250 --> 00:59:19,500 We have Spanish translations for those who are 1259 00:59:19,583 --> 00:59:22,000 non-primary English speakers. 1260 00:59:22,083 --> 00:59:25,583 And I praise God for all the technology that we get to use. 1261 00:59:25,667 --> 00:59:29,833 We don't apologize for it; we use it in the grace of God. 1262 00:59:29,917 --> 00:59:32,000 And number four, we believe preaching is not 1263 00:59:32,083 --> 00:59:34,792 just for information but transformation. 1264 00:59:34,833 --> 00:59:36,792 Jesus' own brother James says it this way, 1265 00:59:36,833 --> 00:59:39,583 "Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. 1266 00:59:39,667 --> 00:59:41,167 Do what it says." 1267 00:59:41,250 --> 00:59:43,292 You can hear a lot preaching and teaching, 1268 00:59:43,333 --> 00:59:46,958 but if you don't obey it, you're not benefiting from it. 1269 00:59:47,000 --> 00:59:50,500 It's like watching vitamins you've never eaten. 1270 00:59:50,583 --> 00:59:54,000 Close, but not the same effect. 1271 00:59:54,083 --> 00:59:56,833 You can be aware of a lot of preaching and teaching, 1272 00:59:56,917 --> 00:59:59,333 but if you don't obey it, you'll have information 1273 00:59:59,417 --> 01:00:01,458 but not transformation. 1274 01:00:01,500 --> 01:00:04,167 So as you listen, I want you to be good listeners. 1275 01:00:04,250 --> 01:00:06,583 Whether it's me, other leaders in the church, 1276 01:00:06,667 --> 01:00:10,167 or other podcasts and vodcasts that you listen to. 1277 01:00:10,250 --> 01:00:11,583 Always be asking, 1278 01:00:11,667 --> 01:00:13,500 "Holy Spirit what's in this for me? 1279 01:00:13,583 --> 01:00:16,417 "What do I need to do? Where do I need to repent? 1280 01:00:16,458 --> 01:00:18,500 "How do I need to think differently? 1281 01:00:18,583 --> 01:00:20,667 "Act differently? Where do I need to apologize? 1282 01:00:20,750 --> 01:00:23,833 "What's your word for me? What do you want me to know? 1283 01:00:23,917 --> 01:00:26,917 How do you want me to respond?" 1284 01:00:26,958 --> 01:00:31,667 And this is why we even organize our series of events on Sunday 1285 01:00:31,750 --> 01:00:34,583 or Saturday depending upon your church, around the sermon. 1286 01:00:34,667 --> 01:00:37,792 Have you noticed that the sermon is in the middle of the service 1287 01:00:37,833 --> 01:00:39,167 at Mars Hill? 1288 01:00:39,250 --> 01:00:40,583 You ever wondered why? 1289 01:00:40,667 --> 01:00:43,792 Because we believe that you need respond to the Word of God. 1290 01:00:43,833 --> 01:00:47,000 So after the preaching we take Communion. 1291 01:00:47,083 --> 01:00:49,583 After the preaching you have time to repent. 1292 01:00:49,625 --> 01:00:51,083 After the preaching you have time 1293 01:00:51,167 --> 01:00:52,667 to give your life to Christ. 1294 01:00:52,750 --> 01:00:54,833 After the preaching we give our tithes and offerings. 1295 01:00:54,917 --> 01:00:57,083 After the preaching, if we have baptism that day, 1296 01:00:57,125 --> 01:00:58,458 we do baptisms. 1297 01:00:58,500 --> 01:01:01,667 After the preaching we do a lot of our singing to give you 1298 01:01:01,750 --> 01:01:03,917 an opportunity to repent of sin, remember Jesus, 1299 01:01:03,958 --> 01:01:06,167 partake of Communion, his body and blood, to repent, 1300 01:01:06,250 --> 01:01:08,417 to be forgiven, to reconcile with others, 1301 01:01:08,458 --> 01:01:10,667 and then to rejoice in God. 1302 01:01:10,750 --> 01:01:13,458 So we don't want you to leave right after the sermon. 1303 01:01:13,500 --> 01:01:15,667 It's God speaking to you, and then you responding. 1304 01:01:15,750 --> 01:01:17,500 And that's why we put the sermon 1305 01:01:17,583 --> 01:01:20,083 right in the middle of the service. 1306 01:01:20,125 --> 01:01:24,792 Lastly, here's the question I get fairly often 1307 01:01:24,833 --> 01:01:27,458 because I'm the primary preaching pastor, 1308 01:01:27,500 --> 01:01:29,292 and I love being your preaching pastor. 1309 01:01:29,333 --> 01:01:32,000 I really do, I love my job. 1310 01:01:32,083 --> 01:01:35,292 People ask, "What happens if something happens to you?" 1311 01:01:35,333 --> 01:01:38,292 It's always the, "What happens if you get hit by a bus?" 1312 01:01:38,333 --> 01:01:41,667 I never get hit by a car; I always get hit by a bus 1313 01:01:41,750 --> 01:01:43,083 in the question. 1314 01:01:43,167 --> 01:01:45,833 I guess I'm thick enough, maybe I could handle a car. 1315 01:01:45,917 --> 01:01:49,083 But the question is always, "What if you get hit by a bus?" 1316 01:01:49,125 --> 01:01:51,167 And let me say a few things, number one, 1317 01:01:51,250 --> 01:01:53,667 I have no intention of going anywhere, okay? 1318 01:01:53,750 --> 01:01:57,333 I love Mars Hill and I'll preach at any Mars Hill, 1319 01:01:57,417 --> 01:01:59,625 and I'm committed to Mars Hill, 1320 01:01:59,667 --> 01:02:01,500 and my hope, prayer, goal 1321 01:02:01,583 --> 01:02:03,417 is the same that it's always been. 1322 01:02:03,458 --> 01:02:06,792 I would like to be the member of one church my whole life, 1323 01:02:06,833 --> 01:02:08,417 Mars Hill Church. Okay. 1324 01:02:08,458 --> 01:02:11,083 I'm 41, I still got some tread on the tires, 1325 01:02:11,167 --> 01:02:12,958 we're not done yet. 1326 01:02:13,000 --> 01:02:15,167 So don't worry about me, I'm not going anywhere. 1327 01:02:15,250 --> 01:02:18,083 I love our lead pastors. I love what I get to do. 1328 01:02:18,167 --> 01:02:19,917 I love the way things are organized. 1329 01:02:19,958 --> 01:02:22,583 It's not the same pressure on me that it once was. 1330 01:02:22,667 --> 01:02:25,500 I love my executive elders with Pastor Sutton and Pastor Dave. 1331 01:02:25,583 --> 01:02:28,083 Like, I'm really happy, I'm really encouraged, 1332 01:02:28,125 --> 01:02:31,583 I feel very honored, I love you, I love Jesus, I love the church, 1333 01:02:31,667 --> 01:02:33,292 I love what I do. 1334 01:02:33,333 --> 01:02:35,417 So I don't plan on going anywhere. 1335 01:02:35,458 --> 01:02:40,000 Certain people are like, "I'm leaving my pastorate to go be 1336 01:02:40,083 --> 01:02:43,000 a consultant, or conference speaker, or to do..." 1337 01:02:43,083 --> 01:02:44,958 And I'm just like, "Really?" 1338 01:02:45,000 --> 01:02:47,583 That's like a guy who says, "I quit eating, 1339 01:02:47,667 --> 01:02:49,167 and now I'm eating lawn mowers." 1340 01:02:49,250 --> 01:02:50,917 Like, "Why would you do that? 1341 01:02:50,958 --> 01:02:52,583 "That doesn't even make sense to me. 1342 01:02:52,667 --> 01:02:55,333 "You had this wonderful thing that you traded in for this 1343 01:02:55,417 --> 01:02:57,083 other thing that's not nearly as wonderful." 1344 01:02:57,167 --> 01:02:58,958 I love the church. 1345 01:02:59,000 --> 01:03:01,333 I love you. I love us. 1346 01:03:01,417 --> 01:03:05,917 I love him. I love what he does in us. 1347 01:03:05,958 --> 01:03:08,083 I'm not going anywhere. 1348 01:03:08,125 --> 01:03:10,917 Everything else to me would be an absolute downgrade 1349 01:03:10,958 --> 01:03:13,750 in wonderfulness. 1350 01:03:13,833 --> 01:03:15,417 I just made up a word. 1351 01:03:15,458 --> 01:03:19,458 And number two, I don't intend on dying. 1352 01:03:19,500 --> 01:03:22,833 You know, it's like, a guy asked me recently, "What if you get hit by a bus?" 1353 01:03:22,917 --> 01:03:25,000 It's like, I'm looking for a bus. You know? 1354 01:03:25,083 --> 01:03:28,667 I keep getting this question. Is there a bus around? 1355 01:03:28,750 --> 01:03:34,792 I mean, I expect to live a long time in the grace of God. 1356 01:03:34,833 --> 01:03:40,000 My aunt, my family, I mean, they eat bad, drink hard, 1357 01:03:40,083 --> 01:03:45,750 work laborers' jobs to 100. 1358 01:03:45,833 --> 01:03:47,792 Yeah, we're Irish. 1359 01:03:47,833 --> 01:03:53,500 I mean, we don't, we run rough, but we run for a long time. 1360 01:03:53,583 --> 01:03:55,958 That's how we do it. 1361 01:03:56,000 --> 01:03:58,000 And I expect to have a long life. 1362 01:03:58,083 --> 01:04:00,250 I'm in good health. I got a great doctor. 1363 01:04:00,333 --> 01:04:02,750 I plan on being here for a really long time. 1364 01:04:02,833 --> 01:04:07,750 So let's say I don't die, okay, can we just make that plan too? 1365 01:04:07,833 --> 01:04:10,250 Wouldn't that be weird, if your kids looked at you, 1366 01:04:10,333 --> 01:04:12,083 they're like, "What happens if you die?" 1367 01:04:12,167 --> 01:04:14,292 And you're like, "Look, man, how about I don't? 1368 01:04:14,333 --> 01:04:17,167 Can we also plan for that?" 1369 01:04:17,250 --> 01:04:18,958 Okay. 1370 01:04:19,000 --> 01:04:22,083 If something happens to me, I get sick, or something happens, 1371 01:04:22,167 --> 01:04:24,083 the lead pastors at all the churches, 1372 01:04:24,167 --> 01:04:26,292 as well as a number of our other elders, 1373 01:04:26,333 --> 01:04:27,792 they can preach and are preaching, 1374 01:04:27,833 --> 01:04:29,292 and they could assume the pulpit. 1375 01:04:29,333 --> 01:04:32,667 So we could do a couple things, we could have one of our current 1376 01:04:32,750 --> 01:04:35,167 elders, we have 50-some with 60 more in process, 1377 01:04:35,250 --> 01:04:38,000 we could have one of those elders, 1378 01:04:38,083 --> 01:04:40,667 or a team of them cover the preaching via video. 1379 01:04:40,750 --> 01:04:43,583 Number two, we could bring in somebody else from the outside. 1380 01:04:43,667 --> 01:04:47,833 Number three, we could turn the 14 churches over to various 1381 01:04:47,917 --> 01:04:51,000 local elder teams with a different live preacher at every 1382 01:04:51,083 --> 01:04:53,917 single one of the churches, making sure that we distribute 1383 01:04:53,958 --> 01:04:56,417 the best preachers into the best spots because we have 1384 01:04:56,458 --> 01:04:57,792 a lot of good preachers. 1385 01:04:57,833 --> 01:04:59,583 So we got three options. 1386 01:04:59,667 --> 01:05:02,833 And there is a pencil plan in place for that. 1387 01:05:02,917 --> 01:05:08,417 But hear me in this, in 15 years, every single day, Jesus has loved 1388 01:05:08,458 --> 01:05:10,458 Mars Hill Church. 1389 01:05:10,500 --> 01:05:12,667 He's been so good to her. 1390 01:05:12,750 --> 01:05:16,167 She's just a total miracle. 1391 01:05:16,250 --> 01:05:19,083 And I just love her with all my heart. 1392 01:05:19,167 --> 01:05:22,667 And I hope, and trust, and pray that God gives me many, many, 1393 01:05:22,750 --> 01:05:25,167 many more years to preach and teach. 1394 01:05:25,250 --> 01:05:29,500 And I know that Jesus will continue to love his bride, 1395 01:05:29,583 --> 01:05:32,833 Mars Hill Church, no matter what, and take care of her. 1396 01:05:32,917 --> 01:05:37,333 But hear me on this, let's make a plan that I live into my 80s. 1397 01:05:37,417 --> 01:05:40,000 Let's make a plan that the first 15 years were just 1398 01:05:40,083 --> 01:05:42,583 the firstfruits, and a good start. 1399 01:05:42,667 --> 01:05:46,583 Because this last year we saw more people baptized, 1400 01:05:46,625 --> 01:05:49,583 more people meet Jesus, more lives get changed, 1401 01:05:49,625 --> 01:05:51,583 more people in Community Groups, more people attend 1402 01:05:51,625 --> 01:05:55,583 Sunday service, than any year in the history of the church. 1403 01:05:55,667 --> 01:05:57,917 It was our best year ever. 1404 01:05:57,958 --> 01:06:00,958 The year before that was previously the best year ever. 1405 01:06:01,000 --> 01:06:03,833 The year before that was previously the best year ever. 1406 01:06:03,917 --> 01:06:06,667 And the year before that was previously the best year ever. 1407 01:06:06,750 --> 01:06:09,250 You know what, it's getting better every year. 1408 01:06:09,333 --> 01:06:13,292 More leaders, more salvations, more marriages, more children, 1409 01:06:13,333 --> 01:06:18,833 more churches, more plants, more services, more people growing, 1410 01:06:18,917 --> 01:06:22,917 more lives changing, by Jesus because he really does 1411 01:06:22,958 --> 01:06:24,917 love this church. 1412 01:06:24,958 --> 01:06:27,917 And so how about we make a plan that you and I, 1413 01:06:27,958 --> 01:06:29,417 we just love what Jesus loves. 1414 01:06:29,458 --> 01:06:32,083 We love this church and we see what the future 1415 01:06:32,125 --> 01:06:33,583 holds for us together. 1416 01:06:33,667 --> 01:06:35,167 And I give you my word, 1417 01:06:35,250 --> 01:06:37,417 I'm the most excited I've ever been. 1418 01:06:37,458 --> 01:06:39,500 I love preaching and teaching here. 1419 01:06:39,583 --> 01:06:43,833 And you are a wonderful people that I praise God for. 1420 01:06:43,917 --> 01:06:47,000 And I wouldn't trade you for any group I've ever seen 1421 01:06:47,083 --> 01:06:48,458 on the Earth. 1422 01:06:48,500 --> 01:06:51,417 And I'm honored to teach you every single Sunday. 1423 01:06:51,458 --> 01:06:53,583 Thank you for letting me do so. 1424 01:06:53,667 --> 01:06:57,250 I'm very, very, very excited. 1425 01:06:57,333 --> 01:07:02,250 Thank you. 1426 01:07:04,167 --> 01:07:05,792 So here's what we're going to do, 1427 01:07:05,833 --> 01:07:08,000 we're going to give you a chance to respond. 1428 01:07:08,083 --> 01:07:09,417 I'll pray. 1429 01:07:09,458 --> 01:07:12,000 You've heard, "God speaks, we respond," that's what we believe. 1430 01:07:12,083 --> 01:07:14,792 Father God, thank you for the Scriptures 1431 01:07:14,833 --> 01:07:18,292 that we don't have to speculate who you are, 1432 01:07:18,333 --> 01:07:20,667 what we've done, what we need, 1433 01:07:20,750 --> 01:07:22,667 what you say, what you've done. 1434 01:07:22,750 --> 01:07:24,583 You tell us. 1435 01:07:24,625 --> 01:07:26,417 Thank you. 1436 01:07:26,458 --> 01:07:28,833 Open our ears to hear. 1437 01:07:28,917 --> 01:07:30,792 Open our minds to understand. 1438 01:07:30,833 --> 01:07:34,083 Open our hearts to obey. 1439 01:07:34,167 --> 01:07:36,958 God, I pray for all who would teach at Mars Hill. 1440 01:07:37,000 --> 01:07:39,167 Those teaching in the kids' ministry, 1441 01:07:39,250 --> 01:07:41,167 those teaching in Community Group, 1442 01:07:41,250 --> 01:07:43,417 Redemption Groups, serving group, 1443 01:07:43,458 --> 01:07:45,458 those who are mentoring, counseling, 1444 01:07:45,500 --> 01:07:48,333 those are formally teaching, informally teaching, 1445 01:07:48,417 --> 01:07:50,167 those who are teaching classes, 1446 01:07:50,250 --> 01:07:52,500 those who are preaching services. 1447 01:07:52,583 --> 01:07:55,292 Whatever it is, wherever it is. 1448 01:07:55,333 --> 01:07:59,458 Lord Jesus, I pray that they be filled with the Holy Spirit, 1449 01:07:59,500 --> 01:08:01,583 that they would teach the truth, 1450 01:08:01,667 --> 01:08:03,833 that they would call people to repentance with love 1451 01:08:03,917 --> 01:08:05,750 in their heart. 1452 01:08:05,833 --> 01:08:08,583 And that people would respond by honoring the Scriptures 1453 01:08:08,667 --> 01:08:11,750 and the Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen.