From Rebellion to Renewal: Trusting God's Unchanging Truth

All right. All right. All right. All right. Hey, I encourage you again, if you got a pen and paper, I encourage you to write. I got a lot of verses tonight. I did get them all in the TV this time, so you'll be able to look over there if you can see it. But I always encourage you to write it down and go look at it for yourself. Go read it for yourself. Find it for yourself. Please don't ever just take my word for it. I promise you I do all of my very very best to keep all of my opinions and all of my thoughts out of it and just deliver the word to the best of my ability and the best of my understanding of it. , but I always encourage you go back and look at it. Look at these verses for yourself. Get familiar with your Bible. Take a highlighter, highlight scriptures, read the before and after, put it in context, and let God speak to you when you do that. I said it, I think last week, man. A lot of people say, "Well, I don't know how to get in the word or what to do." man, just write down every reference that you hear tonight and then go read those this week. That's a great way to be in the word. Read one or two of them every day and let God speak to you. But I got a lot of scriptures and and u I'm going to do my best to get through them to really highlight a point and it and I and I intend to let this be the beginning. We're going to be doing baptisms next week. and then we'll have one more service here and then in November we'll go over to the landing for our our winter spring venue. And we'll stay at five o'clock of course, but we'll be at the landing. and and I want to talk more about the covenant names of God. And I want you to know because the B listen, how do you trust somebody you don't know? And so when people if anybody's ever told you, well, you just need to trust God. Well, it's hard to trust somebody you don't know. And so when God gave us his names, he gave us his character. He gave us who he is. The credibility of his word is in the character of who he is and in the name of who he is. And and I want to begin to just open that door a little bit tonight and make a point, but I have to I have to build off of the last few weeks. That's what I to do. And I to set it up. And so just a quick context of review. These are very important fundamental principles that matter before we ever get into this. And I hope it sets up what I want to accomplish tonight. But number one is this and it's very very simple. Okay. the the first thing I want to tell you is that either God created us or we created God. And that's that these are these are so simple but so powerful and you have to process them and you have to acknowledge them and you have to think for a minute and and recognize where your heart is on this. If God created us then he his way is right and his way is true. If we created God then we got a whole lot of opinions and a whole lot of different gods and there's really no right or wrong and then now we're back to this chaos and confusion and everybody gets to make up their own rules. Okay, it's a very simple fundamental truth that we have to acknowledge either God created us or we created God. And if we created God, then we get to be in charge. And that's why we that. We want to formulize God. We want to dictate how God operates. We want to make up the rules. And when things don't happen the way that we want them to happen or how we thought they should have happened, then we can say, "Well, I told you and this is who God is." And we can make it up. You can write this down in your notes if you want to write it down. But we do not build the doctrine of our life. That's the foundation, the truth, the word. We do not build the doctrine of our life based on life experiences. We build the doctrine of our life and what we what we build our life on is the doctrine of his word and what it says and his truth. That's it. Your experiences are not the doctrine of our lives. Man, everybody's had different experiences and things that weren't your fault and things that have happened to you and we can go through all of our experiences and then we interpret and make up our truth based on our experiences. And you cannot do that. It's going to be inaccurate. It's going to be false. We build the doctrine of our life on the truth of who God is. God was there in the beginning. God created us. God's word is true. That's the center line and that's the bottom line and that's what we anchor our soul to. That's what we come back to. The second thing I want you to recognize is that God creates and the devil corrupts. The devil cannot create anything new that doesn't already exist. He takes what God has created and he wants to corrupt it. He wants to manipulate it. He wants to pervert it. He wants to twist it. God creates love and then and then the devil corrupts it and and makes up rules and love is love and you can just do it how you want to do it and whatever. No, no, no. God has a way. He has a boundary. He has a structure and his way is better. When we do things God's way, it's going to have God results. The Bible says when we sow to the flesh, we reap from the flesh. In other words, that's the the first part of John 10:10. We're going to experience a lack of satisfaction and fulfillment. We're going to be stolen, robbed, destroyed. In John 10:10, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But when we sow to the spirit, what that means is when I act according to the Holy Spirit, when I act according to the leadership of the spirit of God in me, I'm going to reap God results. I'm going to reap the the the strength and character and fortitude that that comes with knowing God and being alive into God. But I have to sew to that. And that is the part that we are in in charge of. Okay. Third thing that's very fundamental is that God is a God who's either one of two things. Once we acknowledge that he is he created us, okay, and we recognize that he creates everything and the devil corrupts it. Now, God is either a god who sends people to hell or God is a god who rescues people from hell. And when I say the word hell to you, I'm talking about a separation from God. There are three kinds of death that we're going to experience until Jesus returns and it's all restored in full. Number one, there's a physical death. Number two, there's a spiritual death. And number three, there is an eternal death. The physical death, if somebody dies, Nah's going to be going to her uncle's funeral, who just passed away this week. There's a physical separation. The body is gone. He is no longer with us. There's no more Thanksgivings with Uncle Tony. Uncle Tony's not going to be there this year. There's a physical separation. There's a spiritual separation. When you're separated from God, Adam and Eve experienced that. When they ate of the tree, the knowledge of good and evil, they didn't drop dead physically. They separated themselves from God. So God says, "Where are you?" There was a breach. That's why Jesus is a big deal because God came in the flesh and he was the repairer of the breach. He fixed it. He He became the bridge to be in right standing with God. And so we have to understand that. And then third, there is a day coming. There is a day coming and there will be there will we will stand before God, the one true living God. We'll stand before God and we will be accountable. And you will either be in right standing with God and alive unto God or we will have an eternal separation from God. That is going to be a hell. And we live separate from God. And so we have this invitation, the gospel, the good news that says, "No, no, no, no. You don't have to live apart from God anymore. You get to live unto God. You get to live the blessing of God. You get to live the truth of God. You get to live the truth in your life now. You get to live unto God that's available to us now. And it erases all fear of the future because there's judgment tied with fear. And we don't fear judgment. Why? Because we're right with God. The Bible verse this week, and we we've talked on it here already for the academy kids was Romans 5:1. And it says that since we have been made right with God. That's past tense. We have been made right with God. Listen, in his sight, when God looks at you and sees you, you are righteous. Woo. You're in right standing. He He doesn't look at you and go, "God, these goofy kids, right? These goofy humans, these goo." No, no, no. You have been made right in God's sight. Listen, by faith, that's it. Not in your achievements, not anything you've done. That's why Ephesians 2 says this says that that it's that it's a salvation is a gift from God. It's nothing you can work for. It's nothing you can boast in. It's a free gift of God's grace to you. That's what we just sang about this grace. Okay? But we have to understand that you have been made right with God. And then it says this. So we have that's present tense peace with God. That's a big deal. That's a huge deal. You have peace with the eternal all powerful God who there should be some degree of reverence and fear for. There should be some degree. , we've experienced fires and tornadoes and and and and seen havoc wreaked on this planet in small little portions and we recognize how powerful it is. And that's in one little location while the rest of the place is the rest of the country's at peace, right? There's a hurricane in Florida and we're all at the river hanging out. So, it's , man, but when the tornado's here, we're all in the bunker hanging out, right? We've seen the power of how big God is. And there should be a reverence for who he is in our life. And so to have peace with God, that's a big deal. And you get to say, I have peace with God right now by faith because of what Jesus has done. So these are fundamental things that I want you to think about. Everything is spiritual. Everything. And we've talked about it. It's either of the Holy Spirit or it's not. It's of a different spirit. And we talked about God who is almighty God, big G, right? And this is what I want to begin to now develop and build out for you tonight. Is is God almighty? And then there's the God of this world. And we talked about that, right? It's either of the Holy Spirit or it's not. There's no in between. John chapter 4, God is spirit. Okay? God almighty, God the creator, he's the one true living God. He created us. He formed us. He came down. We're going to talk about this in a minute. And he said, "I want to be your God and you're going to be my people." Okay? But we see that that that God wanted to be personal. He he rescued us. And then he came in the likeness of his creation so that we could have a relationship with him. There is only one God and he gave us his name. In Genesis chapter 1, it says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." That term used for God is a is a Hebrew term called Elohim and it's plural for the word L and it means plural. It's plural. It's multiple. So, it's God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. And you go, "Well, that's hard to understand." I know. So is God is a spirit. Okay? we believe that God is. That's what our faith is. And that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. We believe that God is the creator of everything. And that's what begins to introduce us to the the veil coming off our eyes. When we see in Colossians that Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God, that's when the veil comes down, right? And so it's very important to recognize, I'm just giving you context before we get in the word here, that he introduced himself to us. So when he came to Abraham, he said, 'I' going to make you the father of many nations. Now listen, people have all this issue. You say, "Well, what loving God would ask a father to kill his son?" Because Abraham was asked to kill Isaac. Okay, real quick, I'm bouncing around. Stay with me. In Matthew chapter 1, we see the genealogy that starts with Abraham, which could go back to Adam, and it comes all the way to Jesus. Jesus was in the lineage of Abraham. So that when we say the the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that's because that's where God came and he made a covenant relationship, a covenant, blood covenant relationship with Abraham. And he said this. He said, "I want you to get all of your stuff." This is Genesis 12, verse 1, 2, and three. Go read it for yourself. He says, "I want you to move away to a land that I will show you and I'm going to bless you and I'm going to make you great and and and and and you're great is going to be your descendants." Okay? And he says, "I God says, I will make you into to a great nation. I will make you the father of of of many nations." Okay? Now listen, that was because this in that time, if you're going to conquer lands or take ground, then my family, my Abraham family is going to defeat your family and I'm going to take that ground and I'm building my empire. But God said, "No, no, no. We're going to do it my way. I'm going to move away and I'm going to make you great. You're not going to have to go defeat that family or take that land. You come away to a land I have for you and I'm going to bless you and I'm going to make you great." And the Bible says that Abraham believed him and God counted it to him as righteousness. That's faith. That's how we're saved, by faith. So when we believe that the finished work of Jesus is done, that's our righteousness. We're in right standing with God. And I'm going to start piecing this together. I'm just giving you a lot of verses, a lot of context. Okay? And so then part of God's people, the descendants of Abraham, Moses is one of them. Now, there's been a few generations. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, all of them. Judah, all all of them. And now they're in captive in in in u what's that place called? Egypt, right? They're in Egypt. And and and Moses is out in the wilderness. And here comes God in a burning bush. And you're saying, "What? Where are you going with this, Jeremy?" It's the same God who was in Genesis 1 who said, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Elohim comes and he says, "Hey, Moses, look at this. It's on the screen. He says, "Moses, I want you to go and rescue my people." Look at Exodus chapter 3 over there, Regina. When the people saw No. Nope, that's not it. Exodus chapter 3. Did I put it in there at the bottom? Yes. But Moses protested. It's not in my notes, so I had to use the TV. But Moses protested. If I go to the people of Israel and tell them the God of your ancestors, that's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has sent me to you, they will ask me, "What is his name?" Please, please make note of this verbiage. What is his name? We sing so many songs about your name is higher, your name is greater, right? His name. Everything about his character is in his name. And God gave us his name. Every other god that we could ever create, we ascribe an authority to it. We ascribe a name to it and that's putting us back in the driver's seat. We created that God. We gave it an attribute and then we give it an authority in our life and we dance around with it and play all these stupid games with it. And we're going to break it down in a minute. He says, "What will I say is his name? What should I tell them?" Next verse. God replied to Moses, "I am who I am." Dude, that is so great. , when God drops something in your heart, when he speaks to you, he can say one word and it will be a story book in your heart. God is answering. He's saying, "Look, I'm everything, Jack. I'm the one that's always been. I'm the alpha and the omega. I'm everything. Everything exists because of me. I am who I am. I'm the great I am. That's me." Okay? You tell them that. And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel. I am has sent me to you." Now, look at the next verse. God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. Listen, I'm building. Please be patient with me." God says, he says, "My name is Jehovah. I am who I am. My name is Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The God who was there in the beginning. The God who made the promise to Abraham. The God who is now coming to you Moses. Who is going to be your God and the people are going to be my people. I have come down to walk and be with you. And then we go through the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant, all that stuff. Man, God came to establish his people, rescue his people, and God's desire is to be your God and we be his people. Okay. Now, I want to jump forward. Jump to John chapter 8. I'm going to get ahead of myself and I'm going to come back to the middle. John chapter 8, look what it says. They're questioning Jesus and Jesus is saying, "Hey, listen. Abraham looked forward to me coming." And they said, "How how do Abraham? You're not even 50 years old." And Jesus answered, he said, "I tell you the truth, before Abraham even was, I am." What Jesus was doing was dropping the mic. What Jesus was doing was letting them know, I'm the one true living God. There is no other God. And you say, "Man, people have these arguments about all these other gods and they say, 'Well, I think there's a lot of gods and there's a lot of ways to God and I don't think it really matters." Let me tell you something. That is freaking hogwash. Because let me tell you something. If there is, if there number one, I'm going to blow your mind here in a minute. There are multiple gods. I'm not going to argue that. But there can only be one truth. Listen to me. There are multiple gods, but there can only be one truth. And you say, "What do you mean there's multiple gods?" Help me out. What's the first commandment? Shout it out. Somebody that knows it. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. See, there are other forces, other spiritual dynamics because everything is spiritual. Everything is spiritual. You are a spiritual being. When you die, your carcass is in a little basket or whatever it is, and your life, the spirit, your life is gone. It's over. And it's a the Bible says it's appointed under every man to die once. Your body is going to number your days. You need to be aware of it. Okay? But the life in you, it it's it's it's either alive under God or it's not. And I want you to hear this and write this down if you haven't yet. I said this last week. There is a very distinct difference, very distinct difference between being a disciple of Christ and practicing the disciplines of following Jesus and us messing up on a pretty regular basis versus having my heart closed off in rebellion to the one true living God. There is a massive difference there. If my heart is open to God and I recognize Jesus as God and my hope is in the finished work of Jesus, my heart is submitted to him. I am now committed to following him and I am practicing the disciplines of being a disciple. I am practicing the disciplines of Christ and I am not perfect at it yet. I am getting better every day. The first time you picked up a basketball, you didn't know how to dribble. Now you guys are rock stars in playing basketball, right? But the first time you didn't know what to do with it. It's the same thing. You gave your life to Jesus and now we're learning the disciplines of following Jesus. That is different than living with a middle finger to God, a stiff arm to God, and a rebellion that says, "I don't believe in you, God, and I think there's all these other ways." No, no, no. Listen to me. There is one God, one God almighty, one true God who is the God of every other god. Jesus who is the king of every other king. Jesus who is the Lord of every other Lord. There is one sovereign authority and it is God Almighty, Yahweh, Jehovah, Jesus. But look how easy it is for us, now I'm gonna get personal, get in your kitchen a little bit, how personal, how easy it is for us to create idols that we give our heart and attention to. Even as believers, we don't mean to, but it's very, very, very simple. And this is my little personal working definition of it. Anything that you give your natural desire to seek comfort to first as a priority or give priority to more than God is is a form of idolatry in our life. Man, it's listen, the corruption that the devil brings is all selfishness. The devil was selfish. That's why he got kicked out of heaven. It's all about us. I said this a couple weeks ago. And so now the corruption is it's all about us. And so what happens is we start looking for how it's going to affect me and what's in it for me. And so that's why we'd rather create our own gods because I can manipulate this God to do what I wanted to do. And all of us in here have been frustrated with God Almighty because he didn't do it your way in your timeline and what you wanted and so you start making up your own rules and building your own doctrine. We can't do that. God never changes. The Bible says there's no shifting shadows in him. The Bible says he doesn't change. The Bible says let God's word be the truth and every man be a liar. Everybody in here has opinions. Ain't nobody care. Those are your opinions. You can have all the opinions you want to have. That's just your little finite mind and having an opinion. Your opinion does not dictate the power of the truth prevailing and going forward. You can either get on board and say, "I embrace the truth." Or you can sit back and try to interpret and and and make up your own rules and have an opinion about it and then build your doctrine based on it. Let me show you something in Exodus chapter 32. Exodus chapter 32. Let me give you some context in case you're new to the Bible. Okay. God comes to Moses. Moses goes in there and he says, "Pharaoh, let my people go." And then and Pharaoh's , "Yeah, right, man. There's no way I'm getting rid of all this free labor. We're building pyramids and we're building an empire and it's all about me and I'm the Pharaoh and you can kiss my grits because I'm not letting them go." Okay. And Moses says, "Hey, the God of Jehovah, the great I am, has sent me." He said, "I don't care who sent you. It ain't happening." See, that's what he told Pharaoh. He told God's people, "The God of your ancestors, Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Why? Because those slaves in Egypt knew that. God's people knew who Yahweh was. He said, "You tell Pharaoh Jehovah's here. You tell Pharaoh the God of all creation is here, and he don't want to mess with me." But the pharaoh, who is a god- figure, thinks he's a big deal, wants to take God head on. So what happens? 10 plagues happen. The 10 plague being the death of the firstborn. And that's where the Passover comes. And the blood of a lamb was put over the doorpost. And when the death angel came by, man, wherever that blood was, it passed by that doorpost. That was all God's people. So here they all come. They get delivered. And then they come to the Red Sea. Moses touches the water. The water splits. It's amazing. They saw things that you and I could only imagine in those moments. They saw the the power of God. They they knew that it was the God of their ancestors. They that Pharaoh re everybody heard it. Everybody saw it. They crossed the Red Sea. They get over there. Listen to this. Moses is on a mountain having a conversation with God, which was very unique to anyone to be able to have a conversation with God the way Moses did. But he's on a mountain and look what happens in Exodus chapter 32. You want to talk about how fickle we are as humans? The Bible says in Jeremiah, stay here on this verse. The Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 17, it says that nobody knows the heart is deceitfully wicked. Who could know it? Man, there's so much stuff in your heart, so much junk in your heart, so many manipulations, so many twists, so many false teachings, so many broken doctrines. Man, one minute we're committed, the next minute we're not. We're fickle. Our heart is deceitfully wicked. Who could know it? That's why when we turn our life to God, he gives us a new heart. He gives us a new spirit and there's a simplicity and a truth and a purpose that we get to live our life with. Exodus chapter 32, when the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. So, they're getting Listen, God Moses, they just crossed the Red Sea. They've seen the 10 plagues. They've seen the power of God. Moses takes a little break to go meet with God, which is pretty valuable for a leader of a million people. And they're tired of waiting on him. They got impatient. And look at what they said. They go to Aaron. They say, "Aaron, come on. Make us some gods who can lead us. Make us some gods who can lead us. We don't know what happened to this fellow Moses." That's funny to me, right? We all know Moses. We read the Bible it's not 1400 years written by 40 different authors over three different languages. You have We read the Bible it happened in 30 minutes. Okay? There's a million people here. They don't all know who Moses is. And they're , "Hey, this fellow Moses has left us out here. M make us some gods so that we can start worshiping and stuff." That's what they do to Aaron. So Aaron being a dilad does this. We don't verse two. Aaron said, "Take the gold rings from your ears and the wives and your sons and your daughters and bring them to me." Verse three, all of the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a created being, a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, look at this. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, "Oh Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt." Look how fast they gave up on God. Look how fast just because it wasn't on their timeline, they were getting tired of waiting in the wilderness because they didn't understand what was going on. They had had an encounter with God. They had had an encounter, an experience with God. And yet that quickly they said, "Then make us a calf and we're going to worship God." And then they gave him the character or the the the value, the the the reward of delivering us out of Egypt. That's how that's how fickle. Listen, I'm not accusing us of that. I'm saying warning you, man. Beware of what's in your heart. How quickly we can just put our hope in somebody else and go, "Well, it wasn't God. It was this." Man, I'm telling you, this is what they did right here. Verse five, Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Aaron's , "Oh, the people are loving it, man. I'm the man." Now he's getting caught up and excited. Then he announced, "Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord." The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan realry. The Lord told Moses, while he's up on the mountain, he says, "Quick, go down the mountain, your people, Moses, whom you brought from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves." Your people, Moses, who just experienced my presence and my power. Your people, Moses, that I've commanded you to lead out, the ones that you're responsible for, they have lost their minds, and they have fall prey to the corruption of the world. And they have started to create their own gods, and they are attributing my power and my my sovereignty to some golden calf that they made. And he says in verse eight, how quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live. Let's jump to the New Testament. Colossians chapter 3. I'm going hard and fast so I can get you out here to decent time. Chapter 3 and Colossians. Now we're on the other side of Jesus. We're going to come back to Jesus in a minute. Verse one or verse five. Colossians 3 five and six. So put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you. That word lurking is fun to me. This the sinful things lurking within you have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Watch. Don't be greedy. For a greedy person is an idoltor. Worshiping the things of this world because these sins because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. And we go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. The anger of God is coming." See, I told you God's waiting to strike me. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You need to you need to understand something real clear. God is a God of justice and God is a God of wrath. He has to be. Otherwise, we can't worship him. We can't serve him. There has to be a penalty for sin. And there has to be a penalty and payment for it. And because God is just and God is God has a wrath to him, God has an anger. God does not have an anger toward the people. He has an anger towards the evil in our hearts. Listen to me. He sent Jesus to rescue the people from the evil in their hearts. So when we say God's anger is coming, this is in the New Testament. There's a day coming where there's going to be an accountability and there's going to be a consequence for your rebellion to the things of God if you haven't surrendered your heart to God. It's very important. And the greediness is selfishness is idolatry to say I don't need God. I'm good on my own. And I'm just here to tell you something. God is a God of of merc of of wrath. God is a God of justice and he's a God of mercy at the same time. All at the same time because he's God. See, Jesus on the cross is God's wrath and God's penalty and God's punishment. And it's also God's love and God's mercy at the same time. There had to be a penalty for sin. So, he puts it on himself, not on you. He He puts the penalty for his justice and his wrath and his anger on himself, which is love and mercy toward you. Find me a better gospel. Find me a better message than that. It doesn't exist. But to say that God is angry, what do you mean he's angry? He's not waiting to strike you with lightning. He's not waiting to send you to hell. He has sent Jesus to rescue you and invite you to the life of God. He has given you the opportunity for eternal life forever with him. That's what we have. He has given you the invitation to have a sense of purpose and fulfillment in your life tonight because you're alive under God. You don't have to walk through confused and and upset anymore. >> Who do you who look at Romans chapter 1. And I want to read the whole thing, but I'm not going to for time. Drop down to verse 21. I put the whole thing. No, I'm going to read it all. You ready for this? >> Yeah. Just Sorry. Here we go. Verse 208. But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Now, see, you could take that verse and go, "Wait a minute. God showing his anger against all the people." Listen, it's the same Jesus, the same God who is there to rescue people. But when people listen, you're going to see it. When people live in rebellion to God, defiance to God, that's who Goliath was. Goliath said, "I defy the God of your armies." David said, "You come at me with sword and shield. I come at you in the name of the Lord of the most high God." See, he said, "I defy you." When we live in defiance and rebellion, God has to abandon himself from us because he can't do anything with us. Listen, when you're practicing the disciplines, God is there with you. He's helping you. When you fall down, he helps you get up. When you live with your middle finger to the sky in rebellion, he has to take his hands off. He can't do anything with you because you don't want anything to do with him. That's why the Bible says when you draw near to him, he draws near to you, man. If you open your heart to him, he's going to come in. But you have to recognize that he will not tolerate evil and sin in his presence. He's a holy God. And so when we say, "God, I give my life to you. I put my faith in Jesus." Guess what? You become holy. That's why you're he can live in your heart. That's why God lives in you. That's why the the veil comes down. You're , "Oh, I can see." There's a clarity because now you're a holy people. He's a holy God and he has saved you. And his spirit, which is holy, the only one that's holy lives in you. It's a very, very, very cool deal. Verse 19, they know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. Everybody listen to these words. These are so good. This is so simple. Verse 20. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities, his eternal power, and his divine nature. So, they have no excuse for not knowing God. Verse 21, yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. Do you see that? Look what it says. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God. That's how that works. How many people do that say, "Oh, yeah. I believe in God. Oh, yeah. I'm cool with Jesus. Oh, yeah. I go to church." See, they have a recognition. I I I know of the God of the Bible. I got a Bible. I'm cool with that. But there's no surrender. They didn't worship him as the one true living God. They didn't acknowledge him as the truth. They didn't acknowledge him as the way. And so, there's a there's a breach there. verse 22. And they 21. And they began, listen, verse 21, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they begin, listen, to think up foolish ideas of what God was . This is what we're talking about. They begin to make it up themselves. They begin to think up foolish ideas of what God was . As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Verse 22, claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. See, that's what happens. See, when people don't acknowledge God for who God is, and they go out and they have an awesome hallucination out in the woods, and so they have an encounter with a higher power, and they're all enlightened, now we're the idiots. Now, we're the narrow-minded ones because we're not, , in tune with the greater, , being of whatever. And it's , whoa, you have been duped, dog, by an angel of light. There is one God Almighty who is holy and pure and true. And you have to recognize it. And so we get all enlightened. We've had this encounter, this experience. And so now we know better. And so we think ourselves wise, but we look utter fools because we're not living in truth. We're out there making it up. We're dark and depraved in our mind. Let me keep reading. Verse 23. And instead of worshiping the glorious everliving God, they worshiped idols made to look mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. That's where it is where God abandoned them. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. Look at that line. They traded the truth about God for a lie. I've said it many times over. Everything comes down to a simple belief. Everything comes down to a simple belief. Either God made us or we made God. That's a simple one, right? And so God abandoned them to do whatever sinful things. As a result, they and they verse 25, they traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the creator himself who is worthy of eternal praise. Amen. See, it's a very very big deal when we just all of a sudden take all the things that are around us. We take money, we take houses, we take cars, we take the woods, we take the vacations, we take the whatever the scenic of everything and we put an elevation to it and put our hope in it to find the peace, to find the tranquility, to find it's , whoa, whoa. The Bible says the Holy Spirit's the comforter. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1:3 that the God of all comfort as he comforts us will comfort other people. But when we start seeking comfort from everything else the world has to offer, we have created an idolatry and now we are worshiping the things that are created instead of the one who created them all. And there is no truth and there is no center line in those things. Your value is not set by how much money is in your account. Your value is not set by how approved you are by friends and how popular you are. Your value is set because God the Almighty picked you, formed you, knew you, knew you in your mother's womb, knew the number of hairs on your head, and knows the thoughts and intents of your heart. I'm going to y'all go read the rest of Romans 1 there. I got to move forward. Psalm 135:13. Your name, there it is again, God's name, he gave us his name. Your name, O Lord, endures forever. Your fame, O Lord, is known to every generation. Man, we're preaching the same God that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had. We're preaching the same God that Moses experienced. We're preaching the same God that David killed Goliath in. We're preaching the same God that Jesus was in the flesh with us. Verse 14, for the Lord will give justice to his people and have compassion on his servants. The idols of the nations are merely things of silver and gold shaped by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak and eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear and mouths but cannot breathe. Look at verse 18. And those who make idols are just them as are all who trust in them. They have ears but cannot hear. They have eyes but cannot see. They have mouths but cannot breathe. There's no functionality to them. They're just it's just an empty shell. There's no power in it. And anybody that puts their trust in it, there is no power in it. It's empty. We've all tasted this before, man. When you thought when you got that new job promotion, when you got in that new house, when you got in that new truck, when you got that new girlfriend, when you got that new boyfriend, you thought everything was going to be cool then and it ended up being empty again. There was still a need for more. Why? Because only God can satisfy. John 10:10, Jesus came to give you a rich and satisfying life. Jesus being God. Here we go. A couple quick verses. John chapter 14 verse 6. Here comes Jesus on the scene. Jesus told him, this is after John or before, yeah, after John chapter 8, Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the father except through me. John chapter 1, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God. The word was God. The word became flesh. Jesus was the flesh. Jesus was the word. Jesus was God. Jesus was Yahweh. Jesus was Jehovah. Jesus is Elohim. Jesus was there in the beginning because he was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. Jesus was all of it. And he's saying, "I'm the way. I'm the truth. And I'm the life. There are no other gods before me. And if you want to be in right standing with the Almighty God, it's through me." We'll go back to the look at Acts chapter 4:12. This is Luke writing. I don't he's writing, but I don't know who's talking here. There is salvation in no one else. God has given no other name under heaven by which by which we must be saved. That's Acts chapter 4:12. Go back to Isaiah 556 and 7. Isaiah 556 and 7. Listen, I want you to see God's heart right here. Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. What does that mean? That means there's a day coming when you're not going to have that opportunity. That means there's a day coming when there's going to be an eternal separation from God. And on your worst day in this life you have, you have never been fully separated from God's presence. And there is a day coming when there will be an eternal separation from God. Eter an eternal breach, eternal break. And you will not be able to call out to God again. That's why we plead with you. That's why we beg with you. That's why I hoop and holler and scream and do whatever we can do. Why? Because I got to get this message to you. Why does it matter that you grow in the disciplehip and the knowledge of God's word? Because the world is counting on us to get this message out. Not everybody's going to receive it. But by God, we're going to get as many of them as we can. Because what else do we have? What else do you have to offer them? You want to feed them a meal, then they're going to be hungry again. You want to pay their rent, they're going to have to rent next month. What else can you offer them that's going to save their soul? What other message do you have to give people? What else do we have? This is all that we have. Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him while he is near. Verse seven, let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. In other words, banish the rebellion. Banish the defiance. Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them. Yes. Turn to our God for he will forgive generously. If you will simply acknowledge the fact that you don't qualify, that you're not holy, then God will receive. That's a humility. Then God will receive you having absorbed the penalty for that and he gives you his forgiveness generously and you're in right with God. It's that simple. That's what he wants. Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them. God is longing to have mercy on you. God is longing to forgive you generously. He is inviting you to a life with him. But if we want to live in defiance and make up our own rules and believe there's all these and and live by all these other gods and let them have a say in our life, then we're going to live dark and confused. Here's my last verse and I'm done. Romans 12. And then we're going to sing a song. Romans 12:1. And so, dear brothers and sisters, listen. I'm pleading with you. I'm pleading with you. I've done everything I can do, the reason I saved this verse for last. I've done everything I can do to establish the one true living God. I've done everything I can do to show you a little bit of context to the Bible that points to Jesus. Everything about protecting the lineage of Jesus from Abraham to Jesus. And now we're here in Romans and Paul says this, "Brothers and sisters, covenant church, I'm pleading with you. Give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. He created you. He rescued you out of your bondage in Egypt. He sent Jesus to deliver you and save you. He has given you the hope of eternal life because of everything God has done. I plead with you to give your bodies to him. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Jesus said this. There's a day when you will worship me in spirit and truth. We're about to sing a song. Listen to me. That's not worship. That's music. And you have the opportunity to open your vocal cords and verbally give praise and and what we'll call worship. Verbally worshiping him. But we worship him in spirit and truth. In other words, the way that you worship him is how you live the truth now. The way you live your life worships God. You're a living sacrifice. I don't talk that way anymore. I don't go to that way anymore. I don't do that stuff anymore. Why? Because I now live the truth. I worship him in spirit and truth. And so it says this is truly the way to worship him. Look at verse two. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world. Who's the god of this world? The devil. Is there other gods? Yes. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. So what that means is I'm not looking to pattern my life after the customs and culture of the world. If I am, I cannot. The Bible says in first John, I cannot love the world and love God. I cannot prioritize the things of the world and prioritize God. I can't do it. Jesus said, you can't serve both God and mammon. It's impossible. So don't copy the behavior and customs of this world. But listen, let God transform you. Let Yahweh transform you. Let Jehovah transform you. Let Jesus transform you. Let the love of the creator transform you because he's the only one that can. Every other god is empty, vague, and and and vain. But Jesus, God will heal your heart. Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. that you now have the privilege to think God, to talk God, to live God, to live with God, to live with a confident expectation about the future. And then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. You learn to think God because I have chosen not to copy the patterns of this world. I have def I am defying the god of this world and I'm opening my heart to God Almighty and I'm learning to think and renew my mind to that that I may live what he wants for me. What does he want for me? Good, perfect, and pleasing. Everybody wants to know their purpose in life. Everybody wants to know God's will for their life. Let me tell you what it is. Good, perfect, and pleasing. Man, you can live in Tulsa. You can live in Van Beern. Good, perfect, and pleasing. Man, you can be old. You can be young. Good, perfect, and pleasing. You can be a man. You can be a woman. good, perfect, and pleasing. You can be black, you can be white, you can be Chinese. Good, perfect, and pleasing. Why? Because God's the same God. And listen, he's the same God he always has been all the way back to Abraham. Who do we serve? We serve Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The great great great great granddaddy of Jesus. The God who came in the likeness and put flesh on and gave of himself put the wrath of our sin on himself. That's a good God, people. That's a great