Don't Go There

Hey, good morning, everybody. Let's all stand up together. We're going to sing and worship. You know, back in 2001, Chris Tomlin released this song called Forever. And I remember Mr. Rich remembers too. We were both in youth group at the time. But I remember like singing in Psalms 136, give thanks to the Lord for his love into us forever. And I remember being a young musician, worship leader and leading that song in youth group. And so I thought, let's just revisit those moments because the Lord has been so faithful. He's carried us all these years, season after season, year after year. And he's given me confidence. It hasn't always turned out like I thought, but it's better than it could have ever been. And it's given me confidence that his faithfulness throughout the ages is his faithfulness that will lead me on. Amen. So let's just lift our hands. Yahweh, we thank you for your faithfulness. We thank you that you are good. You never change and you're not going to start now. You bring to completion everything that you started. So the good work you began in us, whether it was yesterday or 40 years ago, we know that you're still perfecting us in the likeness of your son. We bless you for you are faithful and your love endures forever. Amen. Here we go. For he is good, he is above all things. His love endures forever. Sing praise. Sing praise. Sing praise. Sing. Let's sing with a mighty hand. With a mighty hand. Come on, you guys sing. Here we go. For the life. For the life that's been reborn, his love. Sing praise. Sing praise. We bless you Lord. Sing praise. Sing praise. Forever. Forever God is faithful. Forever God is strong. Forever God is with us. Forever. Let's sing it again. Forever. Forever God is faithful. Forever God is strong. Forever God is with us. Forever. Rising to a setting sun, his love endures forever.

By the grace of God, we will carry on. His love endures forever. Sing praise. Sing praise. Sing praise. Sing praise. Forever God is faithful. Forever God is strong. Forever God is with us. Forever. Forever God is faithful. Forever God is strong. Forever God is with us. Come on, let's just bless the Lord. Let's just bless the Lord. Forever God is faithful. ♪ God is strong, forever God is with us, forever ♪ ♪ Forever God is faithful, forever God is strong ♪ ♪ Forever God is with us, forever ♪ ♪ Forever God is faithful, forever God is strong, forever ♪ ♪ Sin has lost its power, death has lost its sting ♪ ♪ From the grave you've risen, come on let's sing it again, sin is lost ♪ ♪ Sin has lost its power, death has lost its sting ♪ ♪ From the grave you've risen, victoriously ♪ ♪ Into marvelous light I'll run, out of darkness, out of shame ♪ ♪ By the cross you are the truth, you are the light, let's sing it again ♪ ♪ Into marvelous light I'll run, out of darkness, out of shame ♪ ♪ By the cross you are the truth, you are the light, you are the faith ♪ ♪ I once was fatherless, a stranger with no hope ♪ ♪ Your kindness awakened me, awakened me from my sleep ♪ ♪ And your love, your love it beckons deeply, a call to come and die ♪ ♪ A call to come and die, by grace now I will come ♪ ♪ And take this life, take as sin has lost ♪ ♪ Sin has lost its power, death has lost its sting ♪ ♪ From the grave you've risen, victoriously ♪ ♪ Into marvelous light I'll run, out of darkness, out of shame ♪ ♪ By the cross you are the truth, you are the light, you are the faith ♪

♪ Into marvelous light I'll run, out of darkness, out of shame ♪ ♪ By the cross you are the truth, you are the light, you are the faith ♪ ♪ There's no one like you Jesus, you're the only one ♪ ♪ There's no one like you Jesus, you're the only one ♪ ♪ My dead heart now is beating, my deepest stains now clean ♪ ♪ Your breath fills up my, come on I'm free, I'm free ♪ Come on, let's sing it again. ♪ My dead heart now is beating, my deepest stains now clean ♪ Your breath. ♪ Your breath fills up my lungs, now I'm free, now I'm free ♪ ♪ Sin has lost its power, death has lost its sting ♪ ♪ From the grave you've risen victoriously ♪ ♪ In tomorrow's light I'll run, out of darkness, out of shame ♪ ♪ By the cross you are the truth, you are the light, you are the faith ♪ ♪ You are the light, you are the faith ♪ ♪ In tomorrow's light I'll run, out of darkness, out of shame ♪ ♪ By the cross you are the truth, you are the light, you are the faith ♪ ♪ You are the light, you are the faith ♪ ♪ Lift my hands and spin around ♪ ♪ See the light that I have found ♪ ♪ Oh, the marvelous light, marvelous light ♪ Come on, somebody, let's sing it again. Lift my hands, hey! ♪ Lift my hands and spin around ♪ ♪ See the light that I have found ♪ ♪ Oh, the marvelous light, marvelous light ♪ Let's sing it again. ♪ Lift my hands and spin around ♪ ♪ See the light that I have found ♪ ♪ Oh, the marvelous light, marvelous light ♪

♪ Lift my hands and spin around ♪ ♪ See the light that I have found ♪ Come on, one more time. One more time, lift my hands. ♪ Lift my hands and spin around ♪ ♪ See the light that I have found ♪ ♪ Oh, the marvelous light, marvelous light ♪ ♪ I found my pride at a darkness out of shade ♪ ♪ Right across, you are the truth, you are the light ♪ ♪ You are the way, the eternal marvelous light ♪ ♪ I found my pride at a darkness out of shade ♪ ♪ Right across, you are the truth, you are the light ♪ ♪ You are the way, the eternal marvelous light ♪ Oh, bless the Lord, He's faithful. ♪ Sing praise, sing praise ♪ ♪ Sing praise, sing praise ♪ ♪ Sing praise, sing praise ♪ ♪ Sing praise, sing praise ♪ Sing, come on, let's sing that again, sing praise. ♪ Sing praise, we bless your name ♪ ♪ Sing praise, sing praise ♪ ♪ Sing praise, sing praise ♪ ♪ Sing praise, sing praise ♪ ♪ Oh, sing praise, we bless your name ♪ ♪ Sing praise, sing praise ♪ Oh, forever, He's faithful. ♪ Sing praise, sing praise ♪ ♪ Forever God is faithful ♪ ♪ Forever God is strong ♪ ♪ Forever God is with us, forever and evermore ♪

♪ Forever God is faithful ♪ ♪ Forever God is strong ♪ ♪ Forever God is with us, forever and evermore ♪ Come on, lift up the shout of praise, hey! ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ It's my last Sunday, if you didn't know. I was gonna lead the next couple songs, but I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you so much for letting me lead you the last couple years. I feel like I've grown so much just watching how you know Jesus. So this first song I'm gonna sing is actually written by a former worship pastor of mine, and it was what I was listening to when I went into labor with my daughter. So it just felt like the right thing to sing for. ♪♪ In the landscape of my life You don't rush through any sea You always take your time A careful hand, a gentle guide You take what's dead away And you prune what's running wild Be the gardener of my heart Tend the soil of my soul Break up the fire ground Cut back the overgrown And I won't shy away I won't let the branches fall So what you want can stay And what you love can grow Through the winter I'm still alive What you've planted in the dirt Is never reaching to the light You prepare me for darkened times You'll sustain where you have started And you'll teach me to abide Be the gardener of my heart Tend the soil of my soul Break up the fire ground Cut back the overgrown

And I won't shy away I won't let the branches fall So what you want can stay And what you love can grow Grow I'll remain in you You'll remain in me And I will trust your timing I'll remain in you You'll remain in me From the starting till the ending I'll remain in you You'll remain in me And I will trust your timing I'll remain in you You'll remain in me From the starting till the ending I'll remain in you You'll remain in me And I will trust your timing I'll remain in you You'll remain in me From the starting till the ending Be the gardener of my heart Tend the soil of my soul Break up the fire ground And I won't shy away So what you want can stay And what you love can grow Grow Oh, what you love can grow I'll remain in you, you'll remain in me And I will trust your time I'll remain in you, you'll remain in me From the start until the ending I'll remain in you, you'll remain in me And I will trust your time I'll remain in you, you'll remain in me From the start until the ending So be the gardener of my heart, tend the soil of my soul Break up the foul ground, cut back the overgrown And I won't shy away, I will let the branches fall

So what you want can stay, and what you love can grow I'll remain in you, you'll remain in me And I will trust your time I'll remain in you, you'll remain in me Piano music For the joy set before him, he endured the cross Knowing from the beginning it would be worth the cost Fix your eyes, oh my soul On the one who gave it all Consider him the author and the finisher Lift your head and look to him, the son of man My weariness is swallowed in the kindness of our covenant Consider this, consider him, he is everything, he is everything Piano music For the joy set before us, we will lay aside Every weight, every burden to behold our prize Turn from all other things Set our gaze on the king Consider him the author and the finisher Lift your head and look to him, the son of man My weariness is swallowed in the kindness of our covenant Consider this ♪ Consider Him, He is everything, He is everything ♪ ♪ We will run this race, focused on Your face ♪ ♪ You won't let us grow weary, we're not made to sprint, it's a pilgrimage ♪ ♪ You won't let us lose heart, we will run this race, focused on Your face ♪ ♪ You won't let us grow weary, we're not made to sprint, it's a pilgrimage ♪ ♪ You won't let us lose heart, we will run this race, focused on Your face ♪ ♪ You won't let us grow weary, we're not made to sprint, it's a pilgrimage ♪ ♪ You won't let us lose heart, we will run this race, focused on Your face ♪

♪ You won't let us grow weary, we're not made to sprint, it's a pilgrimage ♪ ♪ You won't let us lose heart, we will run this race, focused on Your face ♪ ♪ You won't let us grow weary, we're not made to sprint, it's a pilgrimage ♪ ♪ You won't let us lose heart, we will run this race, focused on Your face ♪ ♪ You won't let us grow weary, we're not made to sprint, it's a pilgrimage ♪ ♪ You won't let us lose heart, consider Him, the author and the finisher ♪ ♪ Hold it to Him, give love to Him, the Son and Man ♪ ♪ My weariness is swallowed up, the kindness of our covenant ♪ ♪ Consider this, consider Him, He is everything, He is everything ♪ ♪ He is everything, He is everything, He is everything ♪ ♪ We will run this race, focused on Your face, You won't let us grow weary, we're not made to sprint, it's a pilgrimage ♪ ♪ You won't let us lose heart, focused on Your face, You won't let us grow weary, we're not made to sprint, it's a pilgrimage ♪ ♪ You won't let us lose heart, You won't let us lose heart ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ The precious fountain from Calvary's mountain ♪ ♪ Flowing down to you and I ♪ ♪ It washes us clean, oh what a mystery ♪ ♪ That red blood makes me white is a mystery ♪ ♪ Isn't it wild, doesn't it make you wonder ♪ ♪ How something so profound could be so simple ♪ ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood, oh the wonderful blood ♪ ♪ Your love, your love, your love, oh the marvelous love ♪ ♪ Let the redeemed sing a song, praises belong to the Son ♪ ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood, oh the wonderful blood ♪ ♪ My precious Jesus, oh I'm so thankful ♪ ♪ For the day you saved my life ♪ ♪ As I remember, my heart grows tender ♪ ♪ Tears begin to fill my eyes ♪ ♪ Isn't it wild, doesn't it make you wonder ♪ ♪ How something so profound could be so simple ♪

♪ And isn't it wild, doesn't it make you wonder ♪ ♪ How something so divine could be so simple ♪ ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood, oh the wonderful blood ♪ ♪ Your love, your love, your love, oh the marvelous love ♪ ♪ Let the redeemed sing a song, praises belong to the Son ♪ ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood, oh the wonderful blood ♪ ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood, oh the wonderful blood ♪ ♪ Your love, your love, your love, oh the marvelous love ♪ ♪ Let the redeemed sing a song, praises belong to the Son ♪ ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood, oh the wonderful blood, oh ♪ ♪ Thank you for your blood ♪ ♪ Oh we cry out with thankfulness, with gratefulness ♪ ♪ Oh we thank you for your sacrifice, oh ♪ ♪ The work you did is finished, the work you did is finished ♪ ♪ The work you did is finished, all of our sins forgiven ♪ ♪ And now we get to living, the wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The cross was your decision, but death was not the ending ♪ ♪ You rose and now we're risen, the wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The work you did is finished, all of our sins forgiven ♪ ♪ And now we get to living, the wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The cross was your decision, but death was not the ending ♪ ♪ You rose and now we're risen, the wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The wonder of the working blood, the wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The wonder of the working blood, the wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The wonder of the working blood, the wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The wonder of the working blood, the wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ Sing a song, praises belong to the Son ♪ ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood of the one ♪ ♪ The work you did, the work you did is finished ♪ ♪ All of our sins forgiven and now we get to living ♪

♪ The wonder of the working blood, the cross was born ♪ ♪ Your decision for death was not the ending ♪ ♪ You rose and now we're risen ♪ ♪ The wonder of the working blood, the wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The wonder of the working blood, the wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The wonder of the working blood, the wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The wonder of the working blood, the wonder of the working blood ♪ Oh, precious. ♪ And all precious is the flow that makes me one with you ♪ ♪ White as snow, no love found, I know ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ And all precious is the flow that makes me one with you ♪ ♪ Oh, no other bounds I know ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ And all precious is the flow that makes me one with you ♪ ♪ Oh, no other bounds I know ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood, oh, the wonderful blood ♪ ♪ Your love, your love, your love, oh, the marvelous love ♪ ♪ Let the redeemed sing a song, praises belong to the song ♪ ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood, oh, the wonderful blood ♪ One more time, you guys sing it. ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood, oh, the wonderful blood ♪ ♪ Your love, your love, your love, oh, the marvelous love ♪ ♪ Let the redeemed sing a song, praises belong to the song ♪ ♪ Praises belong to the song ♪

♪ The blood, the blood, the blood, oh, the wonderful blood ♪ Thank you, Jesus, for the blood. Thank you, Jesus, for your wonderful blood. That red blood could cleanse me, a sinner. Thank you, Jesus. I just hear that old chorus, if you'll sing it with me. And... Oh, precious is the bloom that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the light of a tree. Sing it again, sing oh. Oh, precious is the bloom that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but his blood, nothing but his blood. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. What Buddha couldn't do, what Muhammad couldn't do, what the millions of gods and Hinduism couldn't do, you did. Yahweh, you sent your son Jesus to die a spotless lamb to forgive sinners like us. Thank you, Yahweh, for sending your son to pay the price that we could never pay. We could never pay. Our works could never measure up. Nothing but the blood of Jesus, the greatest payment of all. Well, if you're thankful this morning, can you shout amen? Can you tell them thank you, Jesus? Thank you, Jesus, for your blood. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. Can we give the worship team a round of applause, say thank you, guys.

Thank y'all. So good. But we're sure going to miss having the materials around. It's wonderful, thank you. Lots of hearts. If you can, find a seat this morning. We're going to continue our worship this morning. And I want to read you guys a story out of Mark chapter 12. A little kid in the lobby this morning, he said, what are those strings in your Bible? And I said, oh, those are my bookmarks to see where I'm reading. He's like, how does that work? And I said, well, the red ones I reserve for the New Testament because I got red letters speaking about Jesus. And I said, and the black one I consider for the Old Testament. So I want to read you some red letters this morning, is that okay? Mark chapter 12, starting in verse 41, it says, Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put, and he watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. How many of you guys know that Jesus cares what you give to him? It says that he watched what they put in the temple treasury. Jesus stood and he watched everyone's offering placed into the offering. And it says, many rich people threw in large amounts. Great. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents. Some translations would say it was worth about one penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, red letters, truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty put in everything, all she had to live on. And I read that story and I am like, man, and I have heard that story since I was a little kid. But it still marks me today that Jesus would one, watch the offering. He cares about what we do with what he entrusts us with. Do you hear me? He really cares about what you do with what he entrusts you with.

So your earnings from your job, your business, your offering each week. He cares about it, okay. He really cares what you do with it. But then we see in this story that not is he judging the offering by the amount but by the cost. And I have a tendency to want to say, you know, Yahweh cares about sacrifice. But actually we see in the Bible that Yahweh cares about obedience. He says over and over through his prophets in the Old Testament, he says, I desire obedience, not sacrifice. And so I want to challenge us this morning to give out of a place of obedience to Yahweh. What has he told you to give? What has he instructed you to give in his word? What has he been asking you and your spouse to give? What has he been asking your business to place into his hands? What has he been asking you to entrust him with? Because we see here that the widow, although she gave two mites, it was everything that she had. And Jesus saw it and said that was the greatest gift. Why? Because it was obedience. And I have a feeling that in the temple that day when they were worshiping, that before the offering was called, I have a feeling that she heard from the Lord, could you give everything? Could you give the two coins in your pocket? I know that's what you need to buy bread today. That's probably all she could afford with it. But I have a feeling that she heard from the Lord in prayer to give those two coins because how else could you give everything to the Lord if not for obedience? And the beautiful thing is that he gives us the example of how to lay down everything, how to give everything. And so I wanna ask us this morning, if you'll join and stand with me this morning

as we prepare for the offering. And I wanna challenge you to give out of a place of obedience, not out of a place of tradition, not out of a place of guilt, but out of a place of obedience. What is Yahweh calling you to give this morning into the offering? We'll be receiving our regular tithes and offerings. We have a slide with the different ways that you can give. If you're new here, there's three ways. You can scan the QR code and go straight to the link. We have a mobile app called the Altar Fellowship, or you can use the envelopes in your seat back pocket. And we'll receive that up here in a minute, but I wanna pray for it. And so if you're giving this morning, just raise your offering to the Lord as a place of sacrifice and to turn it over to Him. And we say, Yahweh, thank you for placing finances in my hands. Thank you for entrusting me with what you paid me this week. Thank you for entrusting my family with the wealth that you've given us. And we give it all back to you, Lord. We receive it with open hands and we turn it back to you with open hands. Holy Spirit, I ask that you would speak to your children this morning, instruction for the offering. And I pray that you would give us hearts of obedience, not of sacrifice, but hearts of obedience,

that we would hear your word and we would respond to it and say, here am I, send me. Yes, Lord, in Jesus' holy name. And all God's people said? Amen. Well, we'll be receiving it up here in the front. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Can you hear me? Is it on? Is it on? Yeah. Thank you, Pastor Zach. Yeah, you guys can sit down. Feels like the first day of the semester and I wasn't nervous till like three seconds ago. Those of you who know me know that, doctor, why Dr. Rich? Because I have a PhD in chemistry, that's why. So I taught chemistry for a long time and I was driving in this morning and so there's a verse that says,

be ready in season and out of season to give an account of the hope that is in you. And if you look at my phone from yesterday at 1.48, I got a text from Pastor Matty. Like, any of y'all got a word? And I think that he's given us the admonition as his staff. So not only am I an elder in the church along with Paul Collins and Anthony Cook and Clint Ledford and Kashif Khan, but I'm also on staff. I am the facilities guy. So when you see me on my phone, it's because I'm checking the temperature or changing the temperature. So right now it's 66 and cooling inside the building and no, I'm not gonna turn it off. But to be ready in season and out of season, and I think we as a staff over the years have taken that admonition to heart because I don't just maintain the building. I serve Pastor Matty and his vision for this house and I think it's crucial for all of you to know the relationship that we have with Pastor Matty and why he is able to trust us with you, his flock. Because yes, you belong to God, but you are Pastor Matty's sheep and I am someone who wants to care for you as his sheep. And so just to give you a little bit of background about my relationship to Pastor Matty, if you would turn to 2 Samuel,

excuse me, 1 Samuel chapter 14, the guys up in the booth don't apparently have New American Standard, which is just mind boggling. So they're gonna put up whatever version they like, probably New King James, but I'm going to read out of the New American Standard, which is the version of the first Bible I ever got. And it may look like this is the first Bible I ever got, but I've got this in college, so I've had it for a few years. But in 1987, I think I got it in 1980. I'm 60, all right, I got it in 1987. It's been around. There's a couple of guys in the church like, dude, I want your Bible. I'm like, I still use it, you can't have it. And I don't want a new one. All right, so it is what it is. All right, 1 Samuel chapter 14. That's why I'm in 15, that doesn't make sense. 1 Samuel chapter 14, verse six and seven. This is not the message. This is just to give you an idea of my relationship. And I believe Pastor Matty's relationship with all of the elders specifically. So the... Paul is the king, Jonathan is his son, and they are fighting against the Philistines. And verse six,

Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. Perhaps the Lord will work for us, for the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few. And his armor bearer said to him, do all that is in your heart, turn yourself, and here I am with you according to your desire. Pastor Matty has my yes. All the time, Pastor David, Pastor Zach, all the pastors here know that as a man, as an elder, as a person on his staff, my job, my desire is to facilitate the work that God has called you to do. Whatever that is, whatever that looks like. So you need to know that I will fight tooth and nail for Pastor Matty's honor. I will stand between you and him when you come against him. I will encourage you to honor Pastor Matty with every fiber of your being. And you might say, Rich, you're an old guy and Pastor Matty's young. I got saved at 13 in 1979. So yes, my salvation is much older than Pastor Matty, but it doesn't matter because over the years, and that's partly what I'm gonna talk about today, is I've learned to understand how God works and how he establishes authority and how he delegates his authority and his desire for us to not only recognize that authority

but to honor and obey it. And so for me, it's an easy thing to submit and give my yes to Pastor Matty. I didn't come here because of the altar. I came here because of Tennessee, and God blessed us with this position at the altar. But I also want, as we're speaking today, as we're having a conversation, I want you to think about what it is that brought you here. Why are you here at the altar? And we've talked about this a little bit in my class on Wednesdays on spiritual authority, and we spent a little bit of time talking about ambition. What is it that motivates you? What is it that drives you? Why do you get up in the morning? What is it that gives you purpose in your life? And I think the conclusion that I came to and the conclusion that I hope all of us will come to is when Paul said, it's the love of Christ that controls us or constraineth us. Christ loves me, and that puts a box around me, a good box, and it influences the way I live, it influences the thing I say, it influences the things that I do, it influences my motivations for what I say and do. And I'll be honest with you, I haven't always been that way. And so let me share a little bit about my history

before we get into actually what's gonna happen today. So I got saved at 1979 at 13 years old, and man, wholehearted for Jesus, got filled with the Holy Spirit shortly thereafter. Speaking of which, just as an aside, you know that I usually stand there and worship, and often I will just worship in tongues, and one of the young girls said, are you speaking a foreign language? I think it's crucial for you all to know that this is a full gospel church, and we are charismatic, and your kids should know what speaking in tongues sounds like, so I'm gonna encourage you to speak in tongues more around your kids and help them understand what that heavenly language is and how you can pray in the Spirit, sing in the Spirit, and you maybe don't know what you're saying, but Yahweh does, and so encourage your kids, that's an aside, that's a freebie. But so I got saved, fell in love with Jesus, loved the Word, I was a pretty good kid, I loved science, didn't really get into any kind of trouble, had two amazing Christian friends who I'm still close with to this day, and just an amazing life. I had a good home life, my parents were, they were fine, they provided for me. We went to an Assemblies of God church,

all kinds of things, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, youth group was, I think, Friday or Saturday, I don't remember, but the doors were open, we were there, or I was there at least, because my mom made us go for a lot of that stuff. But anyways, eventually I grew up, went away to college, and then came back home, met my lovely wife at that same church, got married, and yeah, thank you, God, for Sheila. And settled into life, I mean, I taught for a while, then I got restless and went to graduate school, but all the while we were still going to the same church, the whole, the same church, and that church was the church I grew up in, it had lots of friends and relatives, it wasn't very big, but everybody kind of knew each other, it was substantially smaller than this, maybe like these two middle roles might have been a big packed Sunday morning. But at some point, I guess, I taught Sunday school, and at some point it came time to be an elder, and if you know anything about the Assemblies of God, and many churches, elders are voted on by the congregation, and for me, that was kind of an ego stroke, to be nominated to be an elder, I mean, I was only 20. five maybe? I don't know. But I realized quickly that my understanding of what an eldership is and what the biblical meaning of an eldership is were completely wrong. And that's not because I didn't love Jesus, it's not

because I didn't read the Word, it's just because, I don't know, if I can put my finger on what it was, maybe it was that I didn't read the Word intently with the idea of understanding or obeying it, which, I mean, many of us do. But at some point I realized that I was doing just rubber-stamping the stuff that the pastor... we'd come to a board meeting and he'd present a bunch of stuff and he just basically wanted a yes-man. And I'm like, I got frustrated. I was really annoyed, and not just me, a couple of the other elders who... one was my uncle and one was another guy, and it's like, yeah, nepotism is a bad thing by the way. But anyways, I was frustrated. Frustrated to the point where I said some things, I thought some things, and we actually even met and had coffee once and thought, you know, we're gonna do something about this because this is just not the direction we feel the church should be going. And I didn't realize at the time how rebellious I was being. I thought, man, I care about the church. I want these things to happen. I want this to move smoothly and go forward. And I felt like we weren't growing because we weren't addressing these needs. And all this stuff was in my mind, right? Not necessarily in my heart. And I think Pastor Gerdes, bless his heart, he recognized that there was some problems and he said, guys, can we just like meet once a week and pray? And so we started meeting weekly as the board. I remember on my way to probably to the lab, I was in grad school at the time, I remember driving on my way to the lab and just stopping at church on Wednesday, praying for an hour, and it was great. But I also noticed at that time in my life that I stood a lot and I had some terrible back pain that started. I couldn't stand for more than like 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes before I had to sit down. And of course, it has a diagnosis. I mean, I had an MRI and they're like, well, Rich, your spine is narrow, you've got stenosis, and you've got some irritation between L4 and L5. So there was a diagnosis for what it was and I'd get a cortisone shot and it would sometimes help and it wouldn't. But as we continued to pray, the Holy Spirit made it clear to me, and I wish I could remember exactly the day it happened, I don't. I remember the result, but it became obvious to me that I was in

complete and utter rebellion. At some point, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes and said, Rich, the role of an elder is to support the pastor, to lift up his arms, to follow alongside, it's not to tell him what to do. And as soon as I realized that, I'm like, oh my god, I'm in rebellion. And so I said, hey, Pastor Gerdes, can I say something from the pulpit one Sunday? And he's like, sure, absolutely. And I flat-out apologized in front of the whole congregation. I'm like, guys, I am so sorry for what I've been doing and the wrong thinking and feeling that I've initiated in terms of Pastor Gerdes. I apologize, ask for his forgiveness right there. And immediately my back pain disappeared. It was like, alright, God is good and I understand now that my opinion of myself was really a problem. And I think that that struck me and it stuck with me for a long time to help me understand that as we go through our class on honor and spiritual authority, we spent a whole time talking about humility and the reason for humility and the example of humility that we have in Christ. And so what I want to share with you guys today is something that kind of comes from that class, but it also comes from some conversations that some of us as elders have had with Pastor Matty, and it's pertaining to 2nd Corinthians. What we're going to do with 2nd Corinthians and we're also going to do some Old Testament stuff, but if you want to turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. What time is it? 1017. I honestly don't have any idea what service time normally ends up. Second service starts at 1130. You need a little bit of time to park. We'll go for it. If you know me, you know that I don't have a problem. I mean, believe it or not, I'm an introvert. I really don't like being around people or in front of people. I like to be by myself in the lab or I like to be by myself in the shop or the garage. Yesterday, Jadius and I were taking apart microwave ovens. It was amazing. You know that there's...yeah, never mind. Here's another thing that I thought about on the road this morning. This is actually a good aside. I was driving in my nice old Dodge truck this morning and I was just thinking about the sermon and what I was going to say and about teaching in general, and I guess it flashed through my mind that point I'm like...

You know, if Pastor Matty had asked me to teach a class on chemistry, bam, that would have been the best thing in the world because after 30 years of teaching chemistry, you pick a topic and I can give you an hour or two lecture on it, can go through some problems. I love science and I love chemistry. And I felt convicted because I got saved at 13. I didn't really become a chemist officially, a PhD chemist until 2000. And so I've known Jesus and the word of God much longer than I've known chemistry. I kind of felt convicted that, do I love the word of God as much as I love science? I mean, you guys who know me well, you know that I always want to talk about science. But do I love the word of God as much as I love science and his creation? And I felt convicted about that. And I felt like, really, I mean, I do want to love the word more and I do want to spend time in the word more. And I'm thankful that I have time because I'm retired. But man, it's just the things that go through our minds and yet, God is good, as we sang this morning. God is good. And those songs we sang, amazing, bring back lots of memories. So 2 Corinthians 11, 2 Corinthians 11, verse three.

Just verse three. But I'm afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. And I looked at a bunch of translations of this verse. And if you look in the Greek, and I won't make you look in the Greek because I don't have the ability to put my phone up there right now. But the actual, if you read it in the Greek, it says, essentially, that your minds be corrupted from simplicity, my translation says simplicity and purity. The New King James leaves it out. But in the Greek, those words are both there, simplicity and purity. And it doesn't say, that is in devotion to Christ, which my translation says, and most of them do. That's not all there. It just says, in Christ. The simplicity and purity that is in Christ, or the simplicity and purity of Christ. And I think about that, and I'm compelled. Now, let me explain to you why this verse has come up. And it's because, no surprise, Pastor Matty has to deal with y'all. And, well, we all have problems, right? And we do and say things that cause problems. And then, as elders, I mean, Pastor Matty doesn't rat on you guys, but sometimes he's like, you know what, I don't know what to do

about this particular thing. And so, we share thoughts, we comment, we pray together about stuff. But I feel like this verse is heavy on Pastor Matty's heart because if you've been around for a while, more than, let's say, a week, you've heard him preach very, very excellent sermons out of the Word of God, straight from the Word of God, giving us instruction on how to live, how to handle problems, how to grow up, how to be a man, how to be a woman. I mean, I can look through my notes, or Anthony Cook's notes, who takes the best, I mentioned this on Wednesday, Anthony Cook takes the best notes. If you ever miss a sermon, you're like, you miss a point, ask Anthony Cook. I've got notes, but sometimes I struggle to read my notes. Yeah, it's one of those things. But my heart for Pastor Matty is that this body will come to understand the gravity of his role as a leader in this house. That I understand that Jesus is the head of the church, but he appoints people to lead particular churches. In this case, it's Pastor Matty, and his wife, Mama Candice, they are the spiritual heads of this household. And I feel like, as we grow, and as things change, that it causes waves of unsettlement in the congregation. Because people don't like change.

I don't like change. I've learned to deal with it, but if you go out to eat with me, you know that I pretty much always get whatever I get at a particular restaurant. Taco Bell, $7 Lux box, always the same. Always never change. They got this, no, I don't wanna change. I like the things that I like. But things change, and I'll share one of the things that concern me. So when we were at the old building, it was small, it was intimate, worship was really exciting, and you had to work your way up to the front to get to the pit, to the mosh pit. You remember the old building? And the excitement that was in that place? And I'll be honest with you, when Pastor Matty said, we're gonna buy this new building, and I saw it, I'm like, oh, that building's big. We're never gonna fill that building. It's gonna be, I didn't say this, but I thought it in my heart. I thought, we're gonna lose something by being. in that space, right? And I feel like that that is something that happens regularly in our lives. We're faced with change, or we're faced with things that rock our boat a little bit,

and how we respond is really crucial to the health of our own spiritual well-being, the health of our family's spiritual well-being, and importantly, the health of this body as a being, okay? So when Pastor Matty threw this verse out to us as elders, and he said, you know, I feel like this has been going on, where I have been, and you can read more on, it talks about before that, I betrothed you to one bride. Paul is talking to the Corinthians, and he's frustrated because there's some complexities going on, and they're making bad decisions, and they're doing things that he wouldn't expect them to do. And then I'm reminded of Galatians, in Galatians chapter three, Sheila knows I love this verse, it's you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified, he's dealing with issues in the body that he shouldn't have to deal with because of all the examples he's laid out, all the words he's preached, and yet there's still stuff happening, all right? And I'll be honest with you, we as elders, we see stuff, and we carry the weight with him, but I wanna go through this verse a little bit in terms of helping you understand what's in you, all right, what's inside you as a person. And I'm preaching to myself as well as, hopefully preaching to y'all, you can take it as preaching or teaching or whatever you want, but if you think about this verse,

I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. What strikes me first is this verse here that says, your minds. The serpent, actually I should back up a minute even before that, the serpent deceived Eve. He didn't deceive Adam, he deceived Eve, right? That's an interesting point. The second thing is he's concerned that their minds would be led astray, what happens in your mind? Reasoning happens in your mind, you think in your mind, you plan in your mind, you look at stuff and you analyze it in your thinking, all right? From the simplicity that is in Christ, the simplicity and purity, and I'm thinking, what is the simplicity and purity that is in Christ? And you can come with all kinds of things, but I think probably for me, what strikes me is what we think about Christ and what we think about his life. If you turn with me to Philippians chapter two, I'll give you a little bit of an insight in terms of what I think about when I think about that. Philippians chapter two. All right. Philippians chapter two, verse five. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Jesus, in Christ Jesus.

Okay, so there it is, in Christ. Have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking on the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. The rest of the verse just talks about him being exalted. When I think about the previous verse in Corinthians, where it says, your minds be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, or the simplicity and purity that is in Christ, and then I read this second passage in Philippians, I begin to get an idea, maybe, of what Paul was trying to communicate. Jesus was God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit got together to formulate a plan for salvation. The word tells us that Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. So that plan was formulated a long time ago. The three of them were in agreement of what was gonna happen, and Jesus willingly subjected himself to becoming human like us. He humbled himself. Pastor Matty has talked about the condescension of God recently, in recent weeks, about during communion, we remember how God humbled himself and became like us,

the condescension of God. So he became like one of us, and then the part about being obedient. And this is the part, I think, that sticks with me the most, because as I'm teaching a class on spiritual authority, we took some time to find. to define what authority means. And last week we talked a little bit about the fact that because God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were all active in creation, that everything we see, whether thrones or dominions, visible or invisible in Colossians 1, all of that stuff was created by him and for him. That means he's the final authority because he made everything. And so we don't have any problem with that. I don't think most of us have an issue accepting the authority that God has. I think the problem comes in when God gives that authority to somebody and then we have to obey that authority or not obey that authority. And this is, I think, the sticky point that we often encounter because we feel like, yes, I'm gonna obey God, but I don't like the person that you're using to bring that authority to place in my life. And so there's a problem and it comes about in your thinking and also in your reasoning and in your heart.

But I wanna caution you that even though that might come up, it doesn't have to stay there. So let's go to the part in Genesis where this story actually takes place. And we're gonna get to this in my class very soon here because part of authority is certainly authority in the home and Genesis chapter three talks about the authority that eventually happens in the home. But before we do Genesis chapter three, let's look at Genesis chapter two where God creates Adam. My Bible, these first couple pages are a little bit hard to pull apart. Genesis chapter one, I believe, is where it said. Do, do, do, look at my notes here. There it is, Genesis chapter two, verse 16. All right. And the Lord commanded the man saying, from any tree of the garden, you may eat freely. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die. So here's something interesting. If you wanna go there, you don't necessarily have to, but I... Eve wasn't around yet. God created man, everybody's, all the animals, he's naming the animals, and that's how he finds out he doesn't find a suitable helpmate. But he tells Adam, don't touch this tree, don't eat it.

Actually, he just says, don't eat it. He doesn't say, don't touch it. He just says, don't eat from it. And he gave that command to Adam. There's no record of God giving that command to Eve. There's only a record of God giving that command to Adam. So here we have an establishment, the earliest establishment of the hierarchy of the order of God. God creates everything, and he gives a command. And again, when we were talking about authority in the class, I wanna say, authority in its brutal, simplest form is the authority of someone in your life to give you a command and expect you to obey it. That's what authority is. Authority has the ability to give you a command and expect your obedience. And you can expand that and make it more subtle. You can talk about moral authority. You can talk about governmental authority. And be honest, I had the class titled spiritual authority, but to be honest with you, all authority is spiritual authority. Then we go to chapter three, and we find that the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord had made. And he said to the woman, stop there for a second. He said to the woman, why do you suppose he didn't go to Adam? Why did he go to the woman instead of Adam?

I mean, you could speculate on a whole bunch of reasons. He didn't. And again, I'm not trying to cast shade on men or women. I think what's important for you to understand here is that God gave a command to Adam. And by giving that command to Adam, he established some authority in Adam. And Eve came from Adam, and I believe as his wife, there was a degree of subjection in a good way, in a good, loving, kind way. There was some subjection between the husband and the wife. And Satan knew that Adam wasn't gonna do it because he had that verse directly from God. He was in communion with his authority. He figured I'll play an angle. He said to the woman, indeed, as God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden. And the woman said, all right, again, look at the way he says that, the phrasing he uses, the surreptitiousness of his speaking, instead of saying, did God really say you couldn't eat from this one tree? He's like, he said you can't eat from any of these trees. He's twisting the words. That's why it's important to know the word of God so that you aren't deceived when someone comes at you, Satan or otherwise. And the woman said to the serpent, from the fruit of the tree of the garden, the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat,

but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat from it or touch it lest you die. Interesting. I find it intriguing how she replied to him. She didn't say, well, my husband told me not to eat of it. She said, God told me not to eat of it. That's one thing that troubles me just a little bit. And the other thing is that she changed the wording a little bit, right? Because God said, don't eat from it. She said, well, don't eat from it and don't touch it. I find that this little thing, this little, how do I say this? Chain of command, you understand what I'm saying? God spoke to Adam, Adam spoke to Eve, but when the serpent spoke to Eve, she didn't think about her husband. She kind of did an end run around her husband and went right to God. And you might say in your mind, of course, that's great. We all have access to God. We all have the ability to interpret the scriptures and think what we want and say what we want because, well, that's our prerogative, right? Maybe. Let's look at what she did. So part of what we're gonna talk about in my class is the areas where we have to understand obedience.

And I think obedience has kind of three phases. I guess obedience or disobedience has three phases. So where you can start is generally in your mind. You think about something. And then you can speak about something and then you can take an action. Let's look at what Eve did. She thought about it, right? She started to think about it in verse four. And the serpent said to the woman, you shall surely not die for God knows in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate and she gave to her husband with her and he ate and their eyes were opened and they both knew they were naked and you know the rest of the story. She looked at it, she listened and she looked at the thing and she thought about, hmm, this is good. And this is where my problem comes about. And that is, if the word of God says something and you think differently about what the word of God says, what are you gonna do, right? And you all face this every day. I face this every day.

The word of God says something and maybe it's my upbringing, maybe it's my lack of upbringing, but I think in my mind differently when what the word of God says and so I have a choice to make. I can look at the word of God and say, no, this is what the word of God says because it's in plain English. I've got 10 different translations. I can read it in the Greek. I can read it in the Hebrew. This is what it says. But if I begin to think about it and I begin to reason about it in my mind, I can find a way, almost always, to not do what the word of God says. And this is kind of what Eve did. She thought about it and she looked at it and you're like, yeah, you're actually, you're right. It's a pretty tree. And I mean, yeah, I'd like to be wise. And man, I'm hungry. Let's give it a shot. And she did. She ate it and she gave her husband and that's a whole nother story. I don't wanna get into it. I don't wanna spend too much time talking about what happened there.

What I wanna focus on is the fact that there was a command and there was disobedience, right? What leads you into taking the command and not obeying that command, right? And unfortunately, we're all the same stuff as Eve, right? We are all entirely the same stuff as Eve. Um, what did I write here? Because I'm a human, I am the same stuff. Ah, Sheila will like this, my favorite words. This gives me, or this same propensity, this same proclivity, she knew it was coming, I like that word. This same propensity, this same proclivity lives in me. I will stand here before you and tell you that as a human, I wanna do my own thing. Every single minute of every single day, I wanna do what I wanna do. Sometimes, sometimes in my rational thinking, what the word of God tells me to do and what I wanna do overlap. And then it's easy to obey the word of God. But more often than not, the word of God says something and my inner man begins to rise up and say, well, I don't like that, I don't wanna do that. For whatever reason, I could come up with a million reasons, the reasoning is up here in my brain. It's thinking in my brain and I have to choose what to do with that thing when it comes at me. All right? Why is this important?

Why do I feel like this message is important? I touched on it a little bit. As a church, you probably have noticed that things have changed if you've been here more than two or three years. If you've been here for like a couple weeks, you might not notice it. But if you've been here for a couple of years, at least since we've been in this building, you've seen some changes, have you not? Changes in office staff, changes in the way the service is run. All right, remember when we had two services? We had an evening service and a morning service, all right? Changes in eldership. We didn't always have a council of elders. There was not always a council of elders. And so things change and sometimes you used to be able to find a parking spot. Then it got hard to find a parking spot. And we went to two services on Sunday morning and a lot of different things have changing. And I feel like, and I'll be the first to say this, when things change, they kind of ruffle me. I mean, I like to be settled. I like things to be consistent. I'm not a big fan of change. I'm thankful that Pastor Matty, if he tries something and it doesn't work, he cuts it off. That makes me happy because why would we keep doing

something if it doesn't work? That's what happened with Sunday nights. If you're familiar, we started Sunday nights several years ago and they were great for a while. And then the attendance just started going down and down and down and down. Eventually one Sunday night, Pastor Matty said, but that's the last one we're doing. We're not doing any more. We never got a heads up in staff and it was great. I was like, bam, it's done, let's go. And so I appreciate that about him, that he doesn't continue to do things that don't work, but it can also be unsettling to you and ruffling to you as a person, someone who calls this place home. You might be like, well, man, I really liked that. And now they got rid of it and I'm not happy about that. Or, I mean, I could touch on some other things, like. Why do we only have men's prayer and not ladies' prayer? Because Pastor Matty only wants men's prayer. That's why. Is there a reason for it? If there is, he hasn't shared it with me specifically, but I understand that, all right, I understand the gravity of the men of a house getting together to pray. And I understand what it does for the entire body and all the ladies who are not invited to men's prayer. I know what it does for you and your homes

and your families, right? It's another one. Why don't we have a ladies' ministry? Because we don't. There's your answer. I don't know. But I joke about these things, but I feel like in our hearts, we carry stuff because I mean, I grew up in somebody's God. There was a ladies' ministry, there was a men's ministry, there was kids, all these ministries. And everybody had something they could do and be busy, and you come here and you're like, oh, we don't have that. Well, I want that. Those things, they rise up in you, right? And so change, and it can cause you, it can cause you to feel things or think. things. And it can cause you to say things or do things. And I want to bring an admonition because I know what's in me. I know what's in me. When things don't always go the way I think they should, and I've learned a long time ago that I'm not in charge. Even when I'm in charge, I'm not in charge. And it's so much better to be in that place, to be in that place to trust the leadership that's over you, that their intention is for your good even if they are imperfect humans. And I think that that is the place that I want all of you to come to. If you call this place your home, if you call Pastor Maddie and Mama Candice the heads of this house, which they are. I mean, you can call them anything you want. That's not going to change the fact that they are that. But if you come to that realization in your mind, it becomes easier to know that they love you and the decisions they make are based on what they feel the Lord has in the best mind for this place. Where we're going to go eventually in the class on spiritual authority, and this is kind of, I guess, a sneak peek, I don't know, is Numbers chapter 12. This is an interesting

story, and this is actually where I really wanted to get to today. I told Ms. Kim I wasn't going to drink the water, but I am. She asked me if I wanted Mountain Dew. And the only reason I said no is because the caffeine and being in front of you will make me have to pee, and I can't leave in the middle of a sermon and go to the bathroom. In Numbers chapter 12, we read a story, and it's a story that many people gloss over because it's just a blip in the radar of the history of the children of Israel. But this story speaks volumes to me, and I hope that it speaks to you because there's a whole bunch of stuff going on at this exact point. There's three characters in this story, Moses, his older sister Miriam, and his older brother Aaron. You remember Moses was born at a time when Pharaoh said, if you are like a Hebrew and you have a baby boy, you are to cast that kid into the Nile. You can have a girl, great, you can keep them, but if it's a boy into the Nile, they must go. And I find it interesting that his parents hid him because he was beautiful. You can read the story in Exodus. And then eventually they threw him in the Nile, but they threw him in the Nile in a reed boat covered with pitch, right? So I guess that's kind of intriguing to me. I never really thought about the fact they were obedient. They didn't say you couldn't put them in a boat, but they followed the law. And this is interesting because at times, Romans tells us that all authority is established by God and that we must be obedient to authority. And yet there is a degree of disobedience that sometimes we just got to take the consequences because, like Paul said to the high priests, you decide should we honor God or should we honor men? There are times, very few, but there are times. But anyways, Miriam, his sister, was there when the boat was pushed in. Pharaoh's daughter comes down to bathe with her maids and she hears the crying, she opens it up, she's like, it's one of the Hebrew kids, he's so cute. And I guess Moses was a beautiful child, that's what the scriptures say. And then Miriam comes up to Pharaoh's daughter and says, hey, if you want to keep him, I know a lady who can nurse this kid. Right? Think about this. Miriam and Aaron, they're slaves. And it turns out, it looks like Miriam was somehow related to Pharaoh's daughter, maybe she was one of her maids-in-waiting, I don't know. But she came alongside and she convinced her to keep this kid and then she took him home and nursed him and brought him back and eventually Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses as her son and he became the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He was a Hebrew, but he was adopted into the ruling

family. So now you can immediately begin to think about some stuff that could happen if you were in that dynamic. Dude, I got you this job and now you're the prince of Egypt, if you will, and I'm still a slave. Right? So stuff is going on. We don't really hear much about Aaron in the earlier days, other than later on in the scriptures it tells us that when Moses went before Pharaoh, he was 80. and his brother Aaron was 88, I think. So we understand from that passage that Aaron was a little bit older than Moses. We don't know how old Miriam was, but in any case, they leave, they cross the Red Sea. Miriam sings her amazing song, "'The Horse and the Ryder Thrown into the Sea." That song is credited to Miriam, who sang that. But here we are, we've been wandering in the wilderness for a while. People are unhappy, right, in Numbers 11, they were like, we want meat, and God said, ah, you want meat, I'll give you meat. And they had like two feet of quail, and as soon as they started eating it, the plague struck them. And so, be careful what you ask for. But what happens in Numbers 12 is really telling, and this is the thing that I absolutely, positively, daily need to guard my heart about it, and I implore you all to guard your hearts in the same fashion. Look at what happened. Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married,

for he had married a Cushite woman, right? And we could delve into the depths of what it means that he married a Cushite woman, it doesn't matter. What matters is that they were annoyed that Moses, the leader, who was called by God, who was their younger brother, right? They were set up by God, by the way. God calls the youngster to lead the olders, and they had no choice in the matter. But they saw something that he did, and they were displeased by it, okay? Now, you might say they had every right to be displeased because she was a Cushite, whatever that means. Ethiopian is one of the translations. And you could speculate that Moses was a Hebrew, and Ethiopian, maybe she was black, and it was interracial, whatever. They were upset, and they talked about it between themselves. Gets worse, gets very much worse. Verse two, this is the part, I think this is the progression where we proceed from being on the edge to jumping into the abyss. This is where I want you to think about your lives and the things you say and the things you do before you say and do them, because the abyss is really dangerous. Look at how it progresses in the next verse, in verse two.

And they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us as well? And the Lord heard it. This is a really dangerous place to be. And I want you, even as I exist, I want you to examine my own heart. Do I, have I crossed this threshold? Where I've gone from looking at something that's annoying and bothersome to then crossing over the threshold and entering the place where I question the authority that God has placed on them by saying, well, are they the only ones that can hear from God? No, certainly you can hear from God, but look at the intention of their heart. What were they doing? They were undermining the authority that God had placed in their brother, Moses. It started because they didn't like who he married. Whatever. Probably, I went through that with Sheila. My family did not like the fact that I married Sheila. And they didn't mince words about it. I was their baby brother. She was the only girl I ever dated. She dated other guys. She's a hussy, rich. You can't marry this.

I think they probably said that, did they not? They might have. Yeah, whatever. Yeah, exactly. Every one of us does stupid stuff like this. We do. It's within us, right? Proverbs tells us that the foolishness of man ruins his way and then his heart rages against the Lord. You and I are this, right? Jeremiah, I think it is. It says, the heart is desperately sick and wicked above all else. Who can know it? You have to know that you have this tendency within you. Even though you are redeemed, you still have a tendency within you to say and do evil things. You do. You need to be regenerated. You need to take that thought captive. But I warn you to not think you don't have that chance. Yeah, that's not me. I would never do that. I went there and it happened. But what's important is they thought they were just talking to each other. Like, yeah, man, this. He's just like, ah, can't stand it. I'm the one that got him that gig in Pharaoh's office there.

He would have been nothing without me. And here he is telling us what to do. And why does God talk with him all the time? And we hear from God too. And they're just, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Going to each other, going to each other. And if they had social media, it'd be all over the social media on their Facebook page or on their Instachat or Instagram? Snapchat, Instagram, that. You could tell that I use Marketplace and that's it. Now, the man Moses was very humble more than any man who was on the face of the earth. I said this in class. I mean, Moses wrote numbers. So he had to have written that. I think it's pretty, whatever. I mean, it's there. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and to Miriam, you three come out of the tent of meeting. So they came out. So God calls each of them by name. Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent and he called Aaron and Miriam. So Aaron and Miriam come out and they're like, dude, yeah, we got an audience with Yahweh. This is gonna be great. He's gonna spank Moses for the Kushite woman.

He's gonna let him know. And then God calls those two forward and they're like, yeah, this is it. God's gonna vindicate us because we called it. And God says, hear now my words. If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord shall make myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Like Michael Turley, visions and dreams. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my household. When I speak with him mouth to mouth, even openly and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the words, he beholds the form of the Lord, why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? Why weren't you afraid to speak? What does he say about the Kushite woman? Nothing. God doesn't care about the Kushite woman. It's none of your business, basically is what God's saying to them. He's like, weren't you, why weren't you afraid? He doesn't say, why were you afraid to speak against your brother? He says, why were you not afraid to speak against the servant, my servant Moses? And I think it's crucial for all of us as we grow in grace and truth and membership of this body, of this family, that we pay attention,

pay attention to what we're saying and doing. So the anger of the Lord burned against them, and he departed, but when the cloud departed, when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow, and Aaron turned to Miriam, behold, she was leprous. So first off, he's probably like, whoa, dodged a bullet there. And he begs Moses, oh Lord, oh my Lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us in which we have acted foolishly and we have sinned. So he repents immediately, he realizes, oh my God, what have I done? Of course, he didn't realize the gravity of what he'd done until his sister was covered with leprosy, which was a death sentence in that day. Do not let her be like one of the dead whose flesh is half eaten when she comes from the womb. And Moses cried out to the Lord saying, oh God, heal her, I pray. That's amazing, Moses didn't, he wasn't offended at all. He was immediately able to intercede and say, Lord, please forgive her and heal her. And God's reply is, if her dad had butt spit in her face, she would be unclean for seven days, let her sit outside the camp for seven days. And she did. But what's interesting, and we're closing in on being done, so what's interesting is that while she was outside the camp for seven days, they could not move.

The camp could not move, it was stationary. And you read shortly after that, the spies went out to spy out the land. So we think, well, what I think, what I say, what I do doesn't really matter, it does, God hears it. We also think that it doesn't impact the people around us. That is also wrong. The whole congregation, the million people were stuck in that spot while she sat outside the camp for seven days because she spoke against her brother and she didn't think it was a big deal, right? She's just kind of like, a little bit picky kind of stuff. And I think, I think the term that's used in the Old Testament is murmuring. And we don't use that term a lot much anymore because we don't, I don't know, Old Testament-y, we don't murmur. We post our comments on Facebook, on social media. We like to give our opinion, there it is, give our opinions. I wanna encourage you, as I encourage myself, that if you feel the need to be right, if you feel the need to be heard and seen, and it's causing you to say and do things that are distracting and destructive to others, you need to stop. I just can't say it any other way. If something wells up in you when things happen that are out of your control that you have no control over, and specifically I'm referring to the body of Christ,

because in your family, I mean, it parallels every aspect of your life, but if things happen that you don't have control over, but you feel like you should have control over, and you use your thoughts and your words and your actions to make your voice known, you are like Miriam stepping into the abyss. And I promise the same thing will happen in your life. It may not happen immediately, but God's word is true, as true as it was for Miriam, as it is for me, as it is for you, that you can't take lightly what happens when you speak a word. You can't take lightly what happens when you write something on social media. You can't take lightly what happens when you talk maybe just with a friend or with your spouse, but that talking that you're doing is not encouraging or uplifting, all right? How do you fight that? The scriptures give us a clue. In Philippians 2.8, I believe it is, Paul tells the Philippians, or is it Ephesians 2.8? Give me a second here. It is, I didn't write it down. Take every thought captive. I think it's Philippians. Take every thought captive to the knowledge of Christ. You need to spend time in the word. You need to spend time in prayer.

And you need to think about what it means to take your thoughts captive. When things come into your mind, you don't have to think those things. You can replace those with the word of God. You can replace those. And if you find something coming within you, you gotta deal with it. And the way to deal with it is not to talk to someone else or post about it on social media. And again, I don't look at social media, so I don't really care. But I want you to prosper. I want you to thrive. And I want you to be able to come into this place and enter into worship. I want you to be able to look at Pastor Matty and say, that is a man that I can serve. That is a man whose vision I can serve. That is someone whose leadership I can come under. And when he delegates that leadership to someone else, I can deal with that, right? Like for instance, those of you who are in the media, you may have a new boss coming up pretty soon here. Whoever Pastor Matty hires for that position will be someone he hires for that position. And those of you who work on media, you have no choice. If you're on media, you will have to do what that person tells you to do

because Pastor Matty has given his authority to that person. It may be they're like Luke. It may be they're not like Luke, right? But you on that team have a choice to make like all of us do on a daily basis. So I personally just want to encourage you to take your walk with Jesus to the next level in terms of the way you relate to the people around you, the things you say, the words that you use. Try to be more encouraging rather than discouraging. Try to be building up rather than tearing down. The word tells us to treat others better than we treat ourselves, right? To think more highly of them than you think of yourself. There's all sorts of admonitions in the scripture about how to carry these things out. And I want the best for you. I really do. I want you guys to thrive. I want your families to be whole and healthy and happy. But more than I want you to be happy, I want to honor Pastor Matty. And I want to see his vision for the Altar Fellowship thrive. Whatever that is, whatever he comes in next week and says, this is what we're doing. I want to be happy about it and I want to see it thrive. Amen? All right, it's 1102. I think that's probably time to stop.

Yahweh, thank you, thank you for this amazing body, Lord. I am, every time I come into this house, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for the little kids, Lord God, who are happy and joyful and running and shouting, Lord. I'm thankful for everyone who serves, from hospitality to parking to coffee, Lord God, for those who pick up after the kids, Lord God, those who empty the trash, Lord, everyone who looks at something and does it, Lord. And I pray that as we think about what you're saying to us today, Lord God, I pray that the message of Miriam and Aaron wouldn't escape us, Lord God, that we wouldn't even be close to that, Lord God. When we look at others and we think, oh, they married a Kushite woman, no, no, no, no, no, Lord, I pray that you would just stifle that. Just stop us in our tracks when we even begin to think and say stuff like that. We wouldn't be like Eve. We wouldn't be able to be deceived by the serpent's craftiness because our hearts would be grounded, our minds would be stayed on you, Yahweh. So thank you for this day. I pray that you would be exalted. Bless Pastor Matty and Mama Candice. Pray that they would experience the fullness and the goodness of your Holy Spirit today, in Jesus' name, amen.

Yeah, Wednesday night at 6.30 is class and youth, and next Sunday at seven is men's prayer. If you see the Maderoses, put some Hondos in their pocket because they're gonna need them, hallelujah. All right, love you guys. See you next week. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!