Untitled Sermon

Heavens pass away, all your scars will still remain, but you love me, but you love to say. Chapter 3, and we've been looking at the first five verses dealing with confidence in the Lord, so follow me, and let's look at these verses together. Paul says, Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you, and pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not everyone has faith, but the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the

Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance. Let me ask you a question this morning. What difference does today make? What difference does today make? Does today really make any difference at all? Is your heart, as we come this morning, is your heart stirred within you as we think about the

cross and as we think about the open tomb? There have been movies of late that depict the bloodiest ways you can die, and they're pretty horrendous, but this morning as you sit here, are your hearts stirred? Does that burn within you when you think about the cross and the suffering and the humiliation and the pain and the agony and the forsaking that our Lord went through? On the cross, does it stir your hearts? I was talking to Steve before the service about a song.

It's an old song. Just to think of the cross moves me now. The nails in his hands, his bloodied brow. Just to think of the cross, it moves me now. It should have been me. It should have been me, but now I am free. I am free. What difference does today make? Because there are some of you to whom it doesn't make any difference at all. You're just here. Or maybe you're here,

but the reality is that you're not. You're just here. You're just here. You're just here. You're not. The reality of what we celebrate today has just become commonplace. I have some favorite authors. One of my favorite authors is Johnny Hart, who writes the B.C. comic strip. One of my favorite texts that I love to read is B.C. I love to read, and a lot of it's because Johnny Hart is

so outspoken in his faith, and he has such an opportunity through the medium of the comic strip to communicate his faith in only four or five panels, except on Sunday mornings, they allow him a few more in such a powerful way. We have, of course, Tom Sundy's strip on the bulletin board out there, and it's so cool because he uses Wiley, the peg-legged guy that writes poetry all the time, and he wrote the neatest poem about Christ, about the coming of Christ to the cross. And then I don't know how many of you are connoisseurs and follow, you know, the comics or whatever, but this Friday, this past Friday, Good Friday, you open the comic strips, and there's all the other strips there, but B.C.

is just four panels. There's a white panel. It's all white, and then the second panel has, a little bit of shading in it, and the third panel is gray, and the fourth panel's all black, and underneath it, he just wrote Good Friday, and then today, so you got to get a paper today. I mean, if, for no other reason than to read B.C., you got to get a paper today. Okay, it is so cool.

B.C. is kneeling there, and he's praying, and he kind of looks out, and he says, faith is knowing that you're praying to more than a rock, and then it goes on, and he's praying, and he says, God, how can I know you're really there? How can I know you really hear me, that you really exist, and then as he's praying, you know, kind of off in the distance, he's praying right there at this rock, and then off in the distance is this little mountain, and all of a sudden, it explodes like in a volcano, and this rock that he's been kneeling in front of praying, it flips over, and a little daisy pops up, goes spring, you know, and all of a sudden, in the next panel, this wave, he's not

around water, but this wave washes over him and just tumbles him around, and then in the next panel, there's lightning bolts that flash across the sky, and they form the shape of a cross, and there's blood dripping off the base of that. The cross in the frame, and he's standing up, and in the next frame, there's an earthquake, and you see the tomb in the background, and the stones rolling away from the tomb, and up front, there's a bush that's burning, you know, the burning bush, and he says, okay, okay, every time I bring it up, there's always interruptions. You can learn a lot from a comic strip. What difference does today make? Does the reality of the resurrection impact your life? Does the reality

that Jesus rose again make a difference in your life? Is there a difference from B.C. in your life, before Christ came into your life? Is there an evidential difference, A.C., after the cross in your life? Is there a distinguishable impact that's been made that reflects the fact that there is a difference? I'm sorry, I just was impacted by cartoons this week, but they speak to me the plainest, you know? See, it's so easy,

to get drawn into complacency through the world it's so easy to let the world slyly and deceitfully get in there and pull us away from the importance of our faith so often and often it happens without us really being aware of it until god makes us aware of it this was a an editorial cartoon and it was in the paper this week it shows a picture of the easter bunny and he's got his arm around christ and they're walking along and this says easter bunny entity and this is christianity and easter bunny's saying to the lord so anyhow they ran me through a couple of focus groups and the general spin is that i'm a bit more well retail friendly shall we say you know none of

that morbid crucifixion resurrection biz to distract folks um or what was your name again see the world so often gets in there that we forget the lord and we forget the power of what he's done in our lives and often that happens at this particular time of year so what difference does today make you just another day just another easter you know how easter originated and you go well with the resurrection dummy no do you realize that for the first almost century of the church it wasn't an easter they worshipped passover they worshipped that passover they worshipped the resurrection in conjunction with passover because duh after all that's what it signified it was the completion

of god's promise on the mountain to moses that he would send a deliverer that there was one that was coming and before moses even got to the mountain he was going to send a deliverer and it was a promise that god showed him how he would do it back in egypt passover was celebrated by the church until 121 a.d now satan knows and we'll talk about this a little more in a minute satan knows that the reality of the cross and the reality of the resurrection are so viable are so true that he can't eliminate it so he does his best to distract us from the reality of it and so his first effort came not just in 70 a.d when titus and the roman army came in and destroyed

jerusalem and burned down the church but he also destroyed the church and he destroyed the church in the temple but in 121 a.d rome issued an edict called fiscus judaicus which was a tax that they issued on all the jews and on all gentiles who observed jewish traditions or jewish feasts or any element of judaism fiscus judaicus attacks from rome specifically on the jews satan hates the jews they're god's people it's through the jews that salvation comes paul says through christ and so satan still wants to destroy the jews and he's going to destroy the jews and he's going to destroy the jews that's his focus right now if he can destroy israel the literal israel not the

church but literal israel god's promises have to be fulfilled through literal israel not spiritual israel not the church but through his literal descendants from abraham or god's a liar and so satan's attack now is focusing more and more on the jews to destroy the jews that's what hitler was all about that's what the coming antichrist is going to be all about is to destroy the jews and so this tax this fiscus judaicus in in 121 a.d eventually all the churches except the asian churches gave up the celebration of the passover and that was followed by a period of time when when biblical christianity was becoming replaced with paganistic christianity in other words the

following of the exact scriptures was being replaced with elements of paganism that were filtering into the church then in 321 a.d church leaders under the emperor constantine declared anyone who observed the lord's death and resurrection on passover was to be excommunicated from the church and that was made a part of the articles of the council of nicaea in 325 and you can read that even today the church which had begun its celebration of the resurrection on passover now was literally forbidden to do so by law and due to this influx of paganistic worship under constantine they adopted this time of worshiping the resurrection in conjunction with

the paganistic worship of the resurrection of the resurrection of the resurrection of the resurrection of the of the fertility and the reincarnation or the rebirthing of all life under the paganistic goddess ishtar the goddess of fertility and thus the emphasis on the eggs became a part of the ishtar celebration and so the church reluctantly compromised and began this celebration of easter and in the 300s about 325 a.d could not be celebrated by law on the same day as the passover yet again it's ironic because on the very day the passover was celebrated on the same day as the passover was celebrated jesus was crucified on the very day that they were sacrificing about

600 000 lambs josephus says there were about three million people in jerusalem and they sacrificed one lamb for about every 20 people and the priests were killing those lambs left and right 24 hours a day they had built special troughs and a special duct system to remove the the blood from the sacrifices around the altar and channel it down into the springs around the city of israel and around the city of jerusalem and on that passover on passover when these lambs were being slaughtered the the troughs literally ran over they overflowed with blood the springs ran red with blood as jesus died you remember passover again as a time when in egypt god through moses called his children out

of bondage under pharaoh and and he's in the last of his plagues was that he was going to send his death angel the angel of death through the entire land killing the firstborn of everything every man every animal the only ones that would be spared god told moses were those who would take a lamb from their own flocks a young lamb without spot or blemish no flaws wasn't blind wasn't crippled had no flaws in its wool they would take it and they would offer it unto the lord and they would slit its throat and drain its blood and take that blood and they would go to their doorposts and they would mark the doorposts with the blood so that literally on every household you would have doorposts on

both sides marked with blood you would have a doorpost on both sides marked with blood you would have a cross on each side of the household with the blood on it and the angel of death would pass over that house and not enter in and god told the children of israel that he wanted them to celebrate that feast annually every year at this time that they were to pass it on to their heritage so that their children and their children's children would never forget how god delivered them that it was through death and that through that death he passed over the houses that were marked with the blood that's what happened when jesus died he died on the very day that those lambs were being sacrificed so as we come today

as christians we come as believers in jesus christ we are in effect celebrating the fact that because we have believed that god gave the sacrifice of christ for us that he has painted our hearts our hearts have been covered with the blood of christ and as we have believed in his sacrificial death on the cross for us that the death angel in essence has passed over us and death for a christian now is just simply a step into the presence of god it's just a step through the door into the presence of god death has no more sting it has no more bondage on us death and hell have been overridden through the blood of christ and we celebrate that as we come on this resurrection

morning john chapter 5 verse 24 says that to all those that believe we have crossed over from death into life so again this morning what difference does it make what difference does it make to you what does it make in your life i mentioned earlier that satan will seek to to attack the importance of today and he does it two ways satan will attack the importance of today two ways first of all he'll seek to make it seem insignificant it make it make it something that really isn't relevant it's not that important anymore it's something that churchy people do but it's really not relevant to life it's something that we shouldn't get all upset over it's something that

we shouldn't argue over and yet 2 000 years after its event it still graces the front page of our major periodicals but even this i mean it's liberally slanted it's one of the most liberal newsweek is one of the most liberal magazines in the country and to believe every word of this is duh come on get a grip but it's interesting in this and it's a very long article written by the guy who exposed watergate i must have thought he was the investigative reporter of the year or something find out if the resurrection is real but one of the things that he wrote in here one of this he cites some statistics that i want to share he says most christians still believe in the risen jesus for fundamentalists the bible is as good as the gospel

good as its word whichever translation happens to be in use since the scriptures say jesus returned physically from the dead then what's happened but excuse me since the scriptures say that jesus returned physically from the dead then that's what happened but very few christians are literalists on this point now follow me and among christians there is a range of opinion on what the resurrection means for example a harris poll taken in 1994 found that 87 percent of americans believe that jesus was raised from the dead

but a survey conducted last month by the barna research group a conservative christian organization in glendale california which is very accurate very good does very good research finds that 30 percent of born again christians do not believe that jesus came back to physical life after he was crucified 87 percent of americans believe that jesus was raised from the dead but 30 percent of the church 30 percent of born again believers don't believe he really came back to physical life after he was crucified

that means on the average about a third of you sitting here in this congregation this morning don't believe that there's a third of the people statistically in this congregation who don't believe that jesus literally physically rose from the dead and you may be sitting there saying to yourself what difference does it make it's one of those things churchy people do it's one of those things it's not really relevant to the rest of life and that's one of the ways that satan seeks to attack it right here in river city a second way is he seeks to make it commonplace

so so the celebration of it just becomes ritualistic and mundane and something we do every year at this time everybody puts on a tie and goes to church ladies put on dresses of course you know what i mean commonplace something ritualistic something that we do that just doesn't really have any personal impact so today with paul in verse five i want to pray for us that the lord will direct our hearts into god's love and into christ's perseverance that the lord will direct our hearts into the the love of god and into christ's perseverance that as you leave here you'll have an understanding of the resurrection in a way maybe you have never had before and understand the importance of it and

the necessity of it in your life it's the foundation of christianity paul says if if there is no resurrection then we who have proclaimed that are the most miserable if in this life only we have hope then we are all men to be most pity it's the foundation of our faith and i'm going to pray that god will direct your hearts into his love and into his his perseverance the perseverance of christ and we'll go to three different places this morning actually four i want you to go back to the old testament back to first chronicles chapter 29 first chronicles chapter 29 it's in the old part that's probably still stuck together if you have a new bible you haven't been there for

a long time it's back in the old part now there's a big section of samuel kings and chronicles and you if you can get to that big section back there which way do i go well samuel was the little boy who was the one that ended up in the middle of the world and he was the one that ended up in the up anointing Saul as king so Samuel came first and then the kings and then they wrote about it in the chronicles their daily newspaper at that time so go to first chronicles chapter 29 Samuel kings and chronicles first chronicles chapter 29 what in the world does this have to do with the resurrection hang with me David has he's towards the end of his life and he has such a desire to

serve the Lord God's brought him through the whole thing with Bathsheba and brought him through the things with his son and his desire with the son that that wanted to kill him and his his desire is just to love the Lord and and he he knows that he wants to build a house for God and God says no David you you're a man of war and so I your hands are too bloody you killed too many people and and I you know of course I sent you out there to do all those things but I your hands are too bloody to build me a house so I'm going to have your son build me a house and so in chapter 29 David said to the whole assembly my son Solomon the one whom God has chosen is young and inexperienced the task is great because this palatial structure is not for man but for the

Lord God with all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God gold for the gold work silver for the silver bronze for the bronze iron for the iron wood for the wood as well as onyx for the settings turquoise stones of various colors all kinds of stone and marble all of these in large quantities this is all that David himself gave and then he says verse 3 besides in my devotion to the temple of my God I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple three thousand talents of gold and of silver and of bronze and of iron and all for the craftsmen and then at the end of verse 5 he says now who is willing to

consecrate himself today to the Lord who is willing David says I just love the Lord so much this is I'm giving all of this to the Lord now who's willing to consecrate himself today to the Lord and then the leaders of the families verse 6 manders of thousands and commanders of hundreds and the officials in charge of the king's world gave willingly the king's work gave willingly and they gave toward the work on the temple of God all these talents of gold and of silver and of bronze and of iron and those who had precious stones verse 8 they gave them to the treasury of the temple of the Lord the custody of of the Gershonites verse 9 and the people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders for the

Lord had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord and David the king also rejoiced greatly and he praises God I mean all this is going on the people are consecrating themselves to the Lord they're worshiping God this is not a message on giving I'm not going to say now you need to dig down and give although many have been preached on this section David just loved the Lord so much he just he gave you know he wanted to build a temple God said I can't do that and David said I love you so much Lord what what can I do and God said your son's going to build a temple well what's he going to need well you know this is the dimensions and David said well here here's all the stuff I want

to give I love you so much Lord I want to give and help build this and and not only that I want to give more than that this is what you required but I'm going to give even more than that Lord because just in worship to the Lord and David said the people could see that David was excited and there was such a vibrancy in his worship and he just called out who of you will consecrate yourselves to the Lord today now he didn't say if you're gonna then give he just said that they could see in him the worship that was so wonderful and so joyful before the Lord that he said who of you will consecrate yourselves to the Lord and they just began to give and they gave and it was so they got caught up in it they were excited before the Lord and worshiping the

Lord and and just considering his magnificence and that God had chosen them and he was going to do this mighty work through them and David just he just began to praise the Lord verse 10 in the presence of the whole assembly saying praise be to you O Lord God of our father Israel from everlasting to everlasting yours O Lord is the greatness and the glory of your name and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor for everything in heaven and earth is yours yours O Lord is the kingdom you are exalted as head over all wealth and honor come from you you are the ruler of all things in your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to

all now our God we give you thanks and praise your glorious name but who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this everything comes from you and we have given only what comes from your hand we are aliens and strangers in your sight as as were our forefathers our days on earth are like a shadow without hope O Lord our God as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your holy names it comes from your hand and all of it belongs to you I know my God that you test the heart and are blessed with or pleased with the with integrity all these things have I given willingly and with honest intent

and now notice this and now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you now I pray O Lord God of our fathers Abraham Isaac and Israel keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever and keep their hearts loyal to you David has seen he's seen all of life and Solomon will come along and he'll see it all even more uh to the more extent even than he will and so in all these areas and their conclusion is the height of life is to love God and to keep his commandments and that's it everything else is is really insignificant if you're doing whatever you're doing without that at the forefront of it whatever you're doing is really insignificant be it a marriage relationship be it whatever job you're in if God isn't the

Forefront of that if you're not doing it with all your heart is unto the Lord because that's what you know he's called you to do then it's really insignificant and it's going to be unfulfilling and you'll get to the end of wherever you're going and you're going to find and David knew that he knew that the vibrancy of his relationship with God was what was everything it's what was reality it's what was relevant and as the people entered into that worship with him they saw it they experienced that joy and David said oh Lord don't let this desire fade let the people keep this kind of a desire that's what they need keep them loyal to you Lord don't let them go running off after the things of the world that's the love of God that's what Satan wants to

distract that's what Satan wants to get us away from see that's that's what is relevant that's what's relevant about the cross and as you see that in your own life today that God loves you so much that he made a plan before the earth was ever formed and he knew you were going to be here and he wrote your name down and he said for that person son you got to go and die on a cross otherwise I got to kill them otherwise they got to spend eternity in hell and Jesus came and died for you that you might have life and as as that becomes a reality in your heart as you as you consider it as you see the love of God and you just consecrate yourself to the Lord you're giving yourself willingly to the Lord in that you enter into a relationship and a worship

that's unequaled and that's relevant that's the whole of life that's the sum total it doesn't make any difference whatever else you do you see it's not that career what's a career okay whatever you want to do great it's going to be insignificant apart from that relevant relationship and worship with the Lord if you have that it doesn't make any difference what are you and David found that and Solomon who did everything experienced everything in life that there was saw that and his conclusion was serve the Lord worship him all the days of your life there in this happiness that's where it's at period and David knew that David had entered into that love of God that worship of God and it was vibrant and it was the the only thing in life

that was relevant we prayed that desire would stay but we know it didn't because Satan attacks that Satan attacks it and says it's not relevant it's insignificant really doesn't make any difference or he seeks to make it commonplace he seeks to make it commonplace to where this is just another Sunday now as far as your relationship with the Lord is concerned your relationship with the Lord doesn't change because today we celebrate the resurrection but as far as that consecration of your heart to the Lord it should stir your heart every time we go to the Lord's table it should stir your heart every time we come to this day and realize that two thousand years ago roughly today Jesus rose from the dead literally bodily never to die again

for you and he's coming again for you that should stir us but it can get to be commonplace it can get to be just a ritual what difference does it make you just kind of do the Easter thing you just kind of come and maybe there's a big pageant or maybe there's special music what's the deal what's the difference and it just becomes kind of ritualistic go to Malachi now if you Malachi go to Matthew and then go backwards one book and you're at Malachi Malachi chapter one we shared this as a worship group last week devotional time Malachi chapter one commonplace commonplace ritualistic worship listen to me commonplace ritualistic worship kills it's what killed Jesus because the Pharisees were engaged

in commonplace ritualistic worship this is what we've done these are the traditions of our fathers why do you violate the traditions of the elders they asked Jesus it had become just a ritualistic commonplace thing and tradition and commonplace ritualistic tradition kills it we got that way in Israel and the people had come a long long way from David back here in chronicles and they'd been celebrating the Passover and they'd been consecrating themselves to God but they've been doing it for so long and it got to just be to become a ritual and so we come to Malachi and God is warning Israel through Malachi an oracle a prophecy a warning verse one the word

of the Lord to Israel through Malachi I have loved you says the Lord but you ask how have you loved us was not Esau Jacob and David the father of the one who loved them and the one who loved them and brother, the Lord says. Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to desert jackals. Edom may say, though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins. But this is what the Lord Almighty says. They may build,

but I will demolish. They will be called the wicked land and people always under the wrath of the Lord. You will see it with your own eyes and say, great is the Lord, even beyond the borders of Israel. Now you have to read this with some sarcasm in it because God is asking them. He makes a statement to them. I have loved you. And the people are saying back, how have you loved us?

I mean, things have gotten bad. Circumstances are overwhelming. And God says, I have loved you. And the people are going, how? Tell me how. And God says, okay, because I chose Jacob. Esau was the firstborn. Esau had the right of inheritance, but I love Jacob and I chose him and I blessed him. And I gave him the promises. And he became a great nation that you are. Esau became the nation of Edom and Edom rose up

against Israel, but God crushed Edom. He put him down and Edom says, well, I'm going to raise up again against Israel, but God continues to put them down. And God says, I demonstrated my love to you. One of the main ways is I love Jacob, the heel snatcher, the turncoat, the traitor. I loved him and I chose him and I made him mine. And the enemy, his enemy, his enemy, his enemy, his enemy,

I put him down. And every time his enemy tries to raise up and come against him, I'll put him down. And in that, I've demonstrated my love. And eventually the land, he says, around the Gentiles are going to say, great is the Lord for this work. God's declaring to them, they've forgotten how much he loved them. They've forgotten how he demonstrated that love. Today, God says, I have loved you.

You're sitting out here this morning and God's saying, I have loved you. And you're sitting there saying, how have you loved me? Look at my circumstances. I've lost this or that. My car won't run though. Washer quit. I've lost my house. I've had to get another job. I've lost my marriage. I've lost a child. I've lost a loved one. How have you loved me? And God says, I chose you. You're a heel

snatcher. You're a cheat. You're a thief. You're a liar. You're a murderer. But I chose you and I loved you. And I poured my love out on you. And I gave my son for you. And the enemy rose up against you. But I hung my son on a cross for you. And I crushed the enemy for you. And every time the enemy tries to raise up and thinks he's going to come against you, I'll put him down. We've

forgotten the love that God has for us. God says, a son honors his father. Verse six. And a servant is master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says the Lord Almighty. It is you, O priest, who show contempt for my name. But you ask, how have we shown contempt for your name? You place defiled food on my altar, the Lord said.

But you ask, how have we defiled you? And the Lord says, by saying that the Lord's table is contemptible. When you bring in blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you, says the Lord Almighty? God says, if I am your father,

I'm due honor and respect that comes from a son to the father. If I'm your Lord and master, then shouldn't I be honored as you're the servant? But you haven't done that, says the Lord. And they say, how? How have we not done it? How have we not honored you? We're bringing sacrifices in, just like he said. He says, no, they're contemptible. They're contemptible.

Because you're bringing in the blind and the lame and the insignificant sacrifices. You're bringing them to my altar. He says, the priests are to blame. What's, what's, okay, relate that, okay? God says, I have loved you. And you say, how have you loved us? And he says, I've given you my son, who's died for you. And I've made you my children. To those who believe, he said in John chapter one,

he has made us heirs. He has made us children of God. Romans eight, we are heirs of the father. With Christ, he has made us children. If he then is our father, shouldn't he receive honor from us? Shouldn't we be giving him honor? If he is our Lord and master, should we not be serving him? Jesus said, you call me Lord and rightfully so, for so I am. Shouldn't we be serving him?

Shouldn't that importance be there in our lives that we're honoring the Lord? God says, but you continually bring me these defectives. You're making my table contemptible. And, and you say, how are we making it contemptible? And he says, it's the sacrifices that you're bringing. And you say, well, we don't bring sacrifices anymore. You know, we don't have to bring lambs and all that

stuff in. The idea is that it got to be so routine and so mundane and so commonplace with them that they began holding back the best of their stuff for themselves and bringing God the leftovers, bringing God the crippled stuff and offering it unto him. It became contemptible because their coming before God didn't mean anything to him anymore. It no longer was like it was back in Chronicles with David. It wasn't the vibrancy of the relationship anymore. It was just a mundane

kind of something to do. And that's what it can degenere. It can get to the point where you and I with God, we give him the leftovers. Oh, I know I should spend time with you, Lord. I know as I come in this morning, my heart should be on you, but my heart's on these other things. It's been disloyal to you and on these other gods. And I'm so consumed with all this other stuff that I'll give you leftovers. I'll give you some time, Lord,

tonight, tonight at the end of the day, I'll come in and I'll spend some time with you. And you get to the end of the day and you're so tired. And, oh God, you know, I just say, I want to go to bed and I just can't make it. And I don't want to spend any time with you. And then the next day comes and, well, I got things to do and places to go, God, you know, we'll see you later. And I'm

off running and I'm bringing him leftovers, just like the blind and the lame and the crippled animals. And God says, you treat my table with contempt. You're making it contemptible. It's become mundane and old and insignificant to you. You've lost the vibrancy of that relationship with me. What difference does today make with you? Are you stirred in your heart? Are you here to offer

God yourself, to consecrate yourself to the Lord and say, God, take me. And fill me. And don't let this desire ever leave my heart. And I want to be loyal to you. I don't want to go off after the gods of this world. I'm not going to bring you contemptible sacrifices. I'm not going to bring you the leftovers anymore. You are the relevant part of my life. And I'm

going to give you first fruits instead of trailings and lame. You see, it got so commonplace. And God says, verse nine, implore God to be gracious to us with such offerings from your hands. He will accept you, says the Lord Almighty. Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors so that you would not light useless fires on my altar. Useless fires. A third, possibly, of the congregation here

doesn't even believe that Jesus really, literally, bodily rose from the dead. Why are you here? What significance? I mean, it's a useless fire before God. Not going to gain points with the Lord. I was in church every Easter from the time I was born until the time I died. Useless fire means nothing. God wants that vital relationship. Satan wants to take the reality of that relationship founded

in the resurrection and make it.

It's either insignificant, it doesn't relate to me, or commonplace. That's how we do this every year. God says, I have loved you. You know that. Now God, Paul, says that he's going to ask God to bring us into that. God direct our hearts into the love of God. But, there's also a responsibility on our part. Go to Jude, quickly. We only have two more verses, or two more such as scriptures. Go to Revelation and go backwards one book. You're at Jude. Revelation, the end of the book. Go back one book. You're at Jude. It's only one chapter long, maybe two pages in your Bible, maybe one depending on the size of your print, so you might turn right by it. So, go to Revelation and go backwards one book. You're at Jude. Revelation, the end of the book. Go back one book. You're at Jude. It's only one chapter long, maybe two pages in your Bible, maybe one depending on the size of your print, so you

Just go to Revelation and go back one. Last days. Jude, verse 17. But dear friends, Jude writes, the half-brother of Jesus, who didn't believe Jesus was who he said he was until after the resurrection. And then Jude gave his life for his Lord. And Jude says, But dear friends, remember that what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you,

In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires. These are men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up on your most holy faith. He tells us three things as believers we are to do. Number one, to build ourselves up on our most holy faith. How do we do that?

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You have to be in the Word. Last days, there's scoffers coming. There's going to be this heightened intent by Satan to minimize the power of the truth of the gospel, to make insignificant the truth of the resurrection, to make it so commonplace that it does not have any impact on your life. And so Jude says,

Build yourselves up. Be building yourselves up in your most holy faith. Stay in the Word and pray in the Holy Spirit. If you have the gift of tongues, pray in it. I don't think that's specifically what he's talking about here. I have a prayer language. I use my prayer language. I praise God for the gift of tongues. But you have the Holy Spirit if you are a believer

and you pray as the Holy Spirit directs. When you sit down to pray, don't just sit there and say the same grace that you say every day. Go before the Lord and really communicate with Him. God, thank You. Thank You. Thank You for this. And Lord, I'm troubled with that. And God, I lay this before Your feet and let the Spirit lead Your heart. He will if You let Him.

Pray in the Spirit. God, open Your Word. That's what the context is dealing with. Praying in the Spirit that God opens His Word to your heart and that you would then, verse 21, keep yourselves in God's love. That's something Paul's saying, God, direct them. And now Jude's saying, You do it. Which one's right? They both are. God does it and you have to do it.

Well, what about the Calvinism-Armenianism thing? Well, they're right. Together. We're Calvinians. God is sovereign and He does, absolutely, but He calls on us to choose and we do. And it's something that's combined. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves and yet faith without works is dead, being alone. They're combined. God directs your hearts into His love

but you have to keep your hearts in the love of God. Keep yourself there. How do I do that? I'm glad you asked. Go back to John chapter 15. John chapter 15. John chapter 15. Parents, what kind of an example are we setting for our kids? How are we communicating? The power of the resurrection? What significance this day is? I mean, that scripture of Malachi was directed at the priests, the leaders.

Not just the priests within the church, but the leaders. You are a priest of your home, parent. You're a leader in your home. Is the sacrifice of Christ become contemptible in your home? Is it something that you do Sundays only? And so you're teaching your kids that it's a routine, mundane kind of thing or it's insignificant? You have to keep yourself in God's love.

How do I do that? John chapter 15. The whole thing's talking about abiding in the vine. Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. Verse 9. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now Jesus says, now remain in my love. Okay, Lord, how do I do that? Verse 10. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. Just as I have obeyed my Father's commands

and remain in His love. Jesus' perseverance. He obeyed the word of God. He obeyed His Father. He was obedient and laid down His robes in glory. Philippians chapter 2. And was found in the fact, the passion of a man and gave Himself in obedience to become a servant. A servant even unto death. Even unto the death of the cross. And Philippians 2 tells us we're to have the same mind in us

that was in Christ. He was obedient. And in that, He saw that vibrant relationship with His Father. Were there tough times? Sure. He was hungry. He was starving at times. He was thirsty at times. He was forsaken at times. But He had that vibrant relationship that David praised God for in 1 Chronicles. And He knew that was the whole point of His existence. He says,

I've remained in my Father's love. Now you remain in mine. Obey my commands. Back in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. That verse 4 is right before verse 5. And that's what He says. I have confidence in God that you are doing and will continue to be obedient to the things that we've commanded you. That you'll continue to obey the word of God. Keeping yourselves in the love of God.

May God direct you to that. May you see that it's found in His word and in being obedient to Him. What difference does that make? What difference does today make to you? It's the difference between life and death. It's that simple. It's the difference between life and death. God this morning calls us to consecrate ourselves to Him. And I'm going to ask us to do that

just as David did his people. This is the first Sunday of the month and it's when we celebrate our communion. It's when we go to the tables or pass it. We're going to the tables this morning. How we do it here as you do this is it's up to you. We'll darken the sanctuary. They're going to bring the kids in in a minute. And you can go as a family and you can get the elements.

You can come back to your pew or step off to the side and just have some prayer together. Just go before the Lord and ask Him to search your heart. What difference does today make to me, Lord? Have I been running off after the gods of this world or am I vibrant in a relationship with you? And if I'm not, if that's not the key, then God I'm being deceived. I'm being lulled to sleep by the enemy.

I don't want to be so, Lord. I don't want it to be insignificant. It is the most important thing in my life. I don't want it to be commonplace. Spend some time in prayer after you pray. Partake. There should be a wastebasket out in the hall. You can just drop your cups in as you go. You can take as long as you want. Just spend some time with the Lord. Choose this day when you're going to serve.

If Baal be God or if the world, if you're all caught up in the things of the world, then go. If the Lord be God, if Jesus be God, then follow Him. Father, help us. Help us this morning to see the difference that the cross makes, the difference that the empty tomb makes. Help us to realize that everything else, everything else is related to that, that relationship with you.

God, direct our hearts into your love and into Christ's perseverance. Let us have that flame of wondrous worship with you that David and his people experienced. Keep us loyal to you, Lord, I pray. Help us to keep ourselves in your love. Help us to build ourselves up in the most holy faith. Help us to pray in the Holy Spirit. To seek your face, God, I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Spend some time.