Confronting Religion Pt 4: Exposing the Heart

Good morning. Would y'all stand with us?

I want to welcome all of you this morning to Calvary Chapel here in Ark City. Those of you online who are joining us, we welcome you. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to gather this morning to worship in song and to study your word, Lord. Father, I just want to ask for your blessing here at our little church this morning. We want to ask that you bless the children's church and those teachers who will

be teaching those youngsters, the nursery workers and the little ones in there and the little toddlers and all. Lord, just bless their time together. We ask for your blessing on the ushers as they are busy about ushering. We pray that as we gather now here, to worship in song, that we would just set aside this time that we may focus on worshiping you. As we worship you through the week, Lord, we know this is also another way in which we worship you

as we serve you, Lord, to corporately sing together and to study your word, Lord. We ask for your blessing on this time, and we just give you praise, Lord.

Oh, Father, we thank you. God in three persons, Father God, before the foundations of the world chose us. Precious Jesus planned salvation, actually deemed us, I should say. Father God laid it out there in the master plan. Jesus redeemed us. The Holy Spirit sealed us, Lord. Thank you, Lord Jesus. We appreciate all that you've done for us, Lord God. You're good to us,

Lord. We can thank you in so many ways and all the time, all that you do. Worthy of our praise this morning, Lord. May we just enjoy the time together, corporately, looking to you, Lord, the author and finisher of our faith, Lord. And lift them up. Mercy this earth.

We know that, Lord, deep down in our hearts, Lord, even though we want to be something sometime, noticed and all those kind of things. We know that without you, though, we are nothing, Lord. We just thank you for your love, Lord. Without you, we could do nothing in and of our own strength. Father, we just ask why your Holy Spirit, you just guide us, lead us, help us look to you,

Lord, to trust you, Lord, as we're faced with different things in life and things that happen there. But we don't expect, Lord. We thank you that nothing takes you by surprise. And so we just want to worship you and give you praise. You're worthy of all of our praise, Lord. When giants come calling mine, there's so much bills on riches are. There's so much be shed. His face scatters, cause they know the battle is done. He's over dead in death.

It's time. I lay too low. There's no time. There's no time. There's no time. There's no time. There's no fear that I. There's no point too strong. There is nothing for God that's impossible. There's no mountain too high. No valley too low. There's no fear that doesn't already know. There's no point too strong. There is nothing for God that's impossible. I speak to what is big.

And praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Mountain faces each of us at different times. I know they come. You're able to move that which is hindering us as we look to you, Lord, as we trust you. I just ask for your move on each of our hearts this morning that we could just trust you with whatever we're facing, whatever is going on in our hearts this morning. Lord, you're faithful and we thank you for that. You're worthy of our praise, Lord.

The matchless king. The saints adore. Angels sing. Sufferings. This passing time has made me whole. Praise the Son. Would you all stand?

Praise the Father. Praise the Son. Praise the Spirit. Three in one. Clothed in majesty and grace. At the name of Jesus.

It's on. Sing that again. What slave is he? Praise you, Lord. He sees. It's to come. And I sing praise to the King of Kings.

Adore. Flashes. Flashes of light. Lightning rolls of thunder.

And honor, strength, and glory and power.

Living cloth. Flashes of light. Lightning rolls of thunder.

And honor, strength, and glory. I sing praise to the King of Kings.

And I.

Your name is power.

Such a marvelous mister.

And your name is power.

Marvelous mister. And I. I sing praise to the King of Kings. Lord God is to come.

I sing praise to the King of Kings. You are and I will. Before you.

Expressing our praise to you, Lord. And thanking you for loving us. And taking us just as we are, Lord. And by your Holy Spirit. Changing, molding, and making us into the people you want us to be. Drawing us into your image, Lord. Knowing that all things work together for the good, for those who love God, and are the call according to his purpose, your purpose, Lord.

We thank you for that this morning, Lord. Strengthen us, Lord, this morning. In this world that seems chaotic, Lord, we know that you are still in control. And you're doing a work, Lord. Your ways aren't our ways. They're beyond our finding out. But they're always right, Lord. We give you praise and thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's have some fellowship, guys.

Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seat. Grab your bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements. Got really quiet all of a sudden. Handful of things to go over for announcements. The things on the left-hand side of your bulletin, we'll actually deal with those in just a minute. Because we're going to do something a little bit different here this morning.

But in the middle section of your bulletin, a few things to pay attention to. First of all, two big things that are coming up. Actually, three big things. One is that we have a wiffle ball game and potluck coming up. Seems to be a little confusion about this. Some are like, well, I don't want to play wiffle ball, so I'm not going to go. No. If you don't want to play wiffle ball, be an observer.

Still come to the potluck. Enjoy. Have some fun with us. It's going to be a great time. More than anything, we just want to get everybody together to fellowship with each other. So that's coming up October the 8th. From 5 p.m. to 5 p.m. From 5 p.m. to dark, bring a chair and a dish to share. The other thing that's coming up, fellas, we have a one-day men's conference coming up on Saturday, November the 5th.

Calvary of Wichita is going to be hosting this. It's going to be at the Wheat State Retreat Center, which is in Augusta, the same place we had it a couple of years ago. The cost is $20 because they are subsidizing some of that because they want as many guys to come as possible. Next week, I will have the website and everything for you to go on and get signed up.

And then probably as it gets a little bit closer, we'll try to get a carpool together for everybody that wants to drive up there. So take note of that, fellas. The other thing is that, believe it or not, Operation Christmas Child is ready to kick off. So while he's not wearing a box, he is carrying a box. So Ross Lumbert is going to come up and share with us about OCC.

Is that on? Yeah. Yeah, believe it or not, it's that time again. I can't believe it's been a year since we were here, right? For those of you who don't know what Operation Christmas Child is, we're going to have a short video. But before that, I wanted to get the glasses on. It's a ministry of Samaritan's Purse. Samaritan's Purse goes around the world. It started, I think, I don't know if Billy Graham started it or if it's just Franklin.

But Franklin, I think, is the one who started it. But anyways, what is Operation Christmas Child? It's a very simple way to share God's love with children all around the world. We pack a shoebox with some gifts and toys and things, actually things that kids might want to use. Hopefully, you know, like toiletries, stuff like that. We'll get into more of that as we go.

By the way, there's a giant stack of boxes out there in the hall right now. And in each one, you will find this little pamphlet. This little pamphlet tells you how to pack a shoebox, tells you what to put in it. It also has a little envelope that you can put your $10 donation in. It was $9 for years. Now it's $10, and that pays for shipping. And you'll get to see more of that as we talk about that.

There's also a label on the back, so you can pick a boy or a girl, put them on the outside, age you appropriate for 2 to 4, 5 to 9, and 10 to 14. But what is this? The gifts are really just a tool, right? It's a tool for us to get the Word of God in front of children. All right. Last year, 10 million-plus boxes went out. And they know from talking to people who get to see the boxes that each box gets a chance to see 7 to 10 additional people.

So imagine this little shoebox can get the message to 7 to 10 people. Further, if you've never been on a mission trip, here's a way for you to go. You know, who gets to go to Haiti or who gets to go to some of these places? None of us get that opportunity. Most of us don't. A few of us do. But for those that don't, here you can put something in a child's hand that you can't do personally, but by packing the shoebox, you can get it there.

Another note is 75,000 pastors will be sharing the Word of God with children as a function of this box by giving it to children here in the future. What's in the box? We talked about. What do we need you to do? First of all, we'd like you to pray. We'd like you to pray about how you can be involved. And if anything, just pray. Pray for the boxes. Pray for the ministry and pray for the opportunity for this to touch lives and touch children and adults.

And if you can, if God leads you to fill a shoebox, like we say, they're out there in the aisle. And then the other thing you can do is pray about going with us on the distribution center trip where we go. I think we'll have 40. As Janet said, we'll have 40 openings. I think for us to go down there. So 40 of us from the church or from you can invite other folks, other churches to come along with us.

But we'll have 40 folks, 40 places. Last year we had 27 or so, something like that go down. It's a lot of fun to go down there. And what we do is we just open the boxes, make sure it has all the, there's some rules and things that can go and things that can't. We just go through and check those, make sure we get this little envelope out, and then your box goes on.

And if there's things that need to be prepared. If there's things that need to be put in it, you know, to make it a little better, to make a little more stuff in it. They have some, you know, toys to put in it. Most importantly, pray. Second most important thing is November 13th is the final day for you to turn this box in for this year. So if you pick up your box out there, you will find one of, well, we put a bunch of these in until Janet got us guys corrected.

These are last year's. So they have their own date on them, and they say $9. But the white ones, this one here, the one that's mainly white on the bottom, it is the new one which has the $10. It doesn't matter. If you put $9, $10, or no money in it, it doesn't matter. It's going to be taken care of. So like I said, most important thing is pray. Next is we'd like you to make sure you have your boxes here.

So with that, we'll show a short video. This is for a boy between 9 and 11. I'm in a place called Katakosh, just outside of Mosul. This is a church that was completely destroyed by ISIS. As we were coming through, one of our team discovered one of the Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. I don't know who gave it, who sent it, but it touched the life of a child at one point.

And, of course, we ask people when they pack a box to always pray. You never know where that box will go. Where are the lost? Where are the hardest-to-get-to people groups? Where has the Gospel of Jesus not been preached and proclaimed? In Acts 13, 47, For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

We live in a broken world, an evil world. Yet Jesus gave us orders. He said go into the world. And make disciples of all nations. And baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We have a job to do. When we talk about going to the ends of the earth, we're talking about shoebox gifts that are taking the Gospel to the hardest-to-reach areas of the world.

If you want to bring hope to a broken society, it's the Gospel. And Operation Christmas Child is not about passing out toys. It's about the Gospel. Each kid, when they receive that box, they're going to hear the presentation of the Gospel clearly. They make a decision for Christ. And then they're trained and equipped to go out and share their faith with others.

And many times in areas where it's an unreached people group. The Bible tells us the time is now.

We're in the South Pacific. I want to reach these islands for Christ. These are poor areas. People don't have any hope. People don't come here. There's no tourists here. But we're going to be here. I'm right outside of Mazlan, Mexico. About a six-hour drive up in the mountains with Operation Christmas Child. This is where people that are brave are taking Operation Christmas Child to the ends of the earth.

We need boxes that are packed by families, by churches and groups. But we also need boxes that are packed online. When you build a shoebox online, these are the boxes that give us access into hard-to-reach places of the world. We go at great lengths, great effort to take these boxes to children in the most remote parts of the world. It's an incredible journey.

You know, the mission of Operation Christmas Child never changes. Children are coming to Jesus. Children are coming to faith. Children are being discipled. And children are taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. So you can see that it touches a lot of children's lives. We'll see. So we'll get to see more about the numbers and how many people we know have been touched by these boxes.

And we really appreciate everything you do. So Ryan has got another story about Operation Christmas Child. He'll share. I shared with First Service that there was a group from First Baptist recently that went down to Guatemala over the summer. And one of the ladies came back and she actually went to the distribution center with us last year. And she said it was so neat.

We went into this home. And in this home that we went into in Guatemala, there sitting was a little tattered shoebox that said Operation Christmas Child on it. And she said you could tell it was one of the most well-loved things in the house. And so she sent me a picture of it. So I thought it's pretty cool to see how that, you know, God's word really is going to lots of different places

and how much families, especially kids, really appreciate that gift that comes to them. So now it's a little bit of a different morning this morning. First of all, we get to do one of my favorite things, which is a baby dedication. So if I could have the Henson family come up. Come on up, Gage and Corinne and little Leslie. In the book of First Samuel, we find that there was a mother named Hannah.

And Hannah actually was not a mother yet. She couldn't have any kids. And so because she couldn't have any kids, she would go to the temple every year and pray, Lord, all I want is a child. And one year she was at the temple praying. And the high priest came to her and said, what are you doing? What are you praying about? And she told him. You know what? God has answered your prayer.

Because she finally came to a place where she said, Lord, if you give me a child, I will dedicate that child to you. And so at Calvary Chapel, we don't believe in infant baptism. We believe that's a decision somebody has to make on their own. But we do believe in dedicating our kids and their families to the Lord. And so that's what Gage and Corinne have decided to do.

They want to dedicate Leslie to the Lord that she would grow in the fear and the knowledge of God. And so I'm going to take her. If she'll let me. Will she let me hold her? Come here, tiny person. We'll see. It's nap time. I will either put you right to sleep or I'll make you poop, one or the other. I have those effects on tiny people. Shh. We'll see if praying will.

Yeah, there it is. I put people to sleep all the time. Well, Father, we come before you and I just lift up Leslie to you right now. And Lord, I just thank you for the little lady that she is, the life that she has, the lungs that you've blessed her with. And Lord, I just want to lift this little child to you. Father, I thank you that it's their desire to raise her to know you.

And so, Lord, I pray that you would just, Lord, begin now to work by the power of your Holy Spirit in her life. And Lord, I lift up these two parents to you. Lord, it's so their desire to see her grow up to know you. And so, Lord, I pray that you would fill them with your Holy Spirit, Lord, to be able to raise her to fear you. To love you and to know you. And Lord, may we as the body of Christ come alongside them to not only hold them accountable, Lord, but to be a comfort and an encouragement to them as they seek to raise this tiny one in you.

So we pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, I'll give you back. Oh, now you're going to smile at me. Now you're going to act all happy, aren't you? Yes. You know you're going back to mom. All right, Lord. Amen. God bless you. God bless you guys. And then, Gage, this is for you.

Okay. Now, as I... I don't know what was going on there. As I mentioned last week, this is... We've dubbed this Small Group Sunday, because it's our desire to see the folks that come here not only just come here on a Sunday morning, which is a wonderful thing. I love having everybody here on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night. But we want to see you get plugged in throughout the week.

because it's not just our goal to build a church. It's our goal to make disciples. So what I've done is I've asked all of those who lead any kind of a small group or any kind of a Bible study here at Calvary Chapel to come up and share something about it now that it's fall and some people are getting back from vacations and some of the groups are getting started back up. I've asked them to come up and share a little bit about what their group is, what it's about, and then they will be available in the back afterwards to help get you plugged into that group. So we also are adding a couple of groups to our weekly rotation. It was kind of funny.

I always say, hey, these are the things going on the left-hand side of your bulletin. Find a spot to get plugged into. Well, I put all of these small group leaders into a group text and messaged them kind of the details and stuff. And one of them said, I didn't know we had all of these small groups at our church. And I said, well, I think that's the problem with everybody is a lot of

people don't know. What all actually goes on here at the church. They're like, I didn't realize we had that many. I'm like, yeah, we've actually got quite a few. So I'm going to invite them up and we're going to kind of work our way through the week of all the things that are going on. So first I would like to invite up Alan Carter and Caleb Hartman who lead our marriage and family study.

Okay. Good morning. So we lead the marriage and family study and I'm going to talk a little bit about who it's for and kind of our format. And then Alan will talk about what our plan is, what we're going to do. And then I'm going to talk a little bit about who it's for and kind of we're going to be going over this semester. So when I think about who it's for, I don't want to

put an age group or an age limit on that. We focus mainly on the strengthening of our marriages and the strengthening of our families and raising kids in today's culture. And so we spend a lot of time talking about those things and studying those things. And so we don't necessarily, we don't want to exclude anyone. And so if you feel led to join our group because of what we're going

to be talking about, we're going to be talking about the marriage and family study. And so we're going to be talking about this semester. We would love to have you. Typically we have families that have kids at home right now and that are raising their kids. But we've had all ages join us and your experiences are always welcome and helpful to us. So typically we meet the second

and last Sunday of the month. We are going to change our meet time to 530 this year. We're going to be talking about child care. So we eat dinner for the first 30 minutes together with our families and try to enjoy that time to get to know each other. And then we have the kids go with child care and then we'll have our study for about the next hour. So we try to be done by 7 o'clock.

So our time will be 530 to 7. If you are also looking for another way to help out or you feel led to help with some of these small groups, we are always looking for more help with child care. We typically have quite a few kids. That will need to be watched. And ironically we've lost a few of our helpers to marriage. They've gotten married and they've moved on with their life. And so we're always looking for help

that way. We will actually start tonight. Tonight will be our first night. And then we plan to go about six sessions which will get us to the middle of December. We like to quit before we get into Christmas time. So that's kind of our plan moving forward. Normally we'll pick a book. And we'll kind of go through that. But this year we're actually not doing a book. So there's no

reading requirement for the meeting this year. We're going to go in a little bit different direction. We've done a lot of family stuff the last couple years. This year we're going to focus on marriage. We feel like it's time to get back and focus on that a little bit. And specifically the idea of marriage on mission. And we'll be listening to a couple messages online together.

And then we'll be back. And then we'll be back. And then we'll be back. And then we'll be back. And then we'll be back. And then we'll be back. And then we'll be back. And then we'll be back. And then we'll be back. And then we'll be back. And then we'll be back. And then we'll be back. And then we'll be back. And then we'll be back. We'll be discussing those things. They're going to cover Priscilla and Aquila.

The example that they set for us in the New Testament as well as some stuff out of Ephesians. But marriage on mission, what we really mean by that is sort of taking a pause and thinking about how we can mutually aim each other toward the person that we want each other to become in Christ. And we're talking about our spouse. I've been married 16 years. Kayla's been married 14 years.

That might seem like a long time for some of you in here. That might seem like a really short time to others. But, you know, what tends to happen is life gets to moving, right? And you turn around and five years has gone by or 10 years has gone by. And maybe you don't take the time that you could to look at where are you headed as a marriage? Have you pushed your spouse to become the person that God would want them to be?

Are they pushing you to become the person that God would want them to be? And it's just really easy to get caught up in life and not to think about those kinds of questions. So we want to slow down and ask those questions and dig in. We have a really great group. We love the people that come and meet with us. They encourage us. They push us. They sharpen us.

We really love them. We're not perfect parents. We don't have perfect. We don't have perfect marriages. We're not perfect families. But we try and we're aiming toward what Christ would want us to be. So if that sounds like something that you would like to be a part of, then come join us. If you can't make it tonight because it's short notice, then join us in a couple weeks and you can just fit right in.

So thanks for your time.

But Caleb does have perfect hair. All right. Next, I would like to invite up Teresa Moore, who's going to come share with us about women's study. Women's study was established here at Calvary Chapel in 1999. We do not go by semesters. We just continue throughout the year. We study different books of the Bible through Joyful Life Bible Studies from California.

Our basis of our Bible study is from Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 and 25. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Not forsaking our own assemblies together, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near. We know that our time is short here on this earth. And yet, as women, we need to be in the word individually.

And that's what this study does. We meet on, yes, we're doing Ephesians. We're doing Colossians. This is on the board. And we meet twice a week. It's the same study. On Monday night from 7. We try to get up by 8.30, but usually it's quarter to 9. And then on Thursday afternoon from 1 to 3. And it involves prayer. It involves studying the word. But you do have homework.

But it's also blessing. It doesn't matter how efficient you are in the word. If you're a new believer, it fits you. If you've been with Christ for a long time, it fits you. It's just a tool that you can be in the word yourself. And then we get together and we discuss it and share. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. And then Robbie Nichols is going to come up and share about men's study.

Okay. Morning. I lead the men's Bible study on Monday evenings. It's from 7 to 8.30. And we, as you know, Ryan, now isn't that interesting? I said we, and then you know Ryan. I'm confusing some words. However, Ryan, you know on Monday and Wednesdays, does monologue. You're sitting there and you listen, right? With our small groups, we tend to have dialogue.

And so as we lead them, we're sharing the scripture. We're pointing out the things that God has shown us as we've studied. And we encourage. We encourage those in the group to share the things that they have learned as they've studied. And we have question and time, answer time. Just good fellowship time. We basically, as I said, we begin at 7 o'clock. And we'll chat a bit and take prayer requests and have our prayer time.

And then spend our time in the word. And we, as I said, go from 7 to 8.30. We're currently in the book of Philippians. We're working our way through the prison epistles. Right now. And so we'll begin a little review. But we'll be starting around verse 27 of chapter 1 tomorrow evening. So you men, you're welcome. You know. And I know that life is busy. But those times that we can get together as men is important.

Because, and as the women get together as well. Because there are those times that there are men things that we like to discuss. And the women have the women things they need to discuss. And we keep it there together. And we just want to invite you just to join us. In fellowship. God bless.

Thank you. Okay. And then our home fellowships. Alan Brooke is going to come up and share about the home fellowship that he does.

Good day. Hopefully you're having a good one. We do a study on Tuesday evenings. And the study is open to anybody who wants to come. I'm going to say the majority of the time it's a... It's a group that's probably in their late 30s up to wherever we are. And, but we invite anyone. I mean, it's just what you feel comfortable with. The study is, right now, we track through the Bible.

And the plan is to do roughly a chapter a night. So, as you can tell, we... It takes a while. We are, right now, in 2 Kings. The study is, basically, we dig into the Word. And then we share. Share what the Lord is touching us with. Asking questions. Things like that. It's just a fun time of fellowship. And a growing time. The... One of the things that... One of the things that we do, for those who aren't able to actually make it,

forgot to mention this on the first service, we do a Zoom meeting. So, we have Zoom running at the same time. So, we've got folks that will join us online. And it's kind of hard to see everybody. But you can hear everybody, for the most part. But it's really open to everybody. And at the end, we kind of go over prayer requests and what's going on in our lives.

But it's really about just drawing closer to God. Drawing closer to each other. So, we would love to have you join us. Ask questions. And have a good one.

Thanks, sir. Okay. Brian Davis is going to be starting one of our new small groups. So, I'll have him come up and share. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. When Pastor Ryan asked me to consider doing this, I thought, how in the world am I going to fit this into my schedule? But I told my kids we should always be obedient to the Lord. So, I decided to say yes.

And then he told me what I was going to be doing. So, we're going to start Tuesday evenings every other week. We're not going to start until the 18th of October. Try and get five in before Christmas. And we're going to focus on... And following the sermons. So, we like to get together as a family after Sunday service and have lunch. And oftentimes, we'll go over the sermon and have a little discussion.

And how many times will it be? No offense, Ryan, but what was the sermon on today? I can't recall. So, what we're going to do is we're going to follow along in the sermon. And Ryan actually may suggest some topics to me that we're going to discuss. So, Sunday we have service. And then on the following Tuesday, we'll rehash the sermon review and have some good discussions.

And I really hope some good fellowship. Been coming here for a while. And unfortunately, I know a lot of faces, but I don't really know people well. So, I hope to have some good fellowship. So, we'll be starting on the 18th of October through the 13th of December, 7 to 8.30. Yeah. And we live on the north side of Winfield. So, for anybody... Anybody who finds that helpful to be in that area.

Thank you, sir. Okay. And then I'd like to invite Gary Moore to come up and share with us. Gary also is going to be starting one of the new studies.

Good morning. Good morning. If you've been coming here very long or long enough, Tristan, I've been coming here, I think, 40 years, 39, something like that. You see me in my highs of highs and my lows of lows. But by the grace... By the grace of God, I'm standing here today. Tristan and I will be beginning a new study on Thursdays. We'll begin this week from Thursday, the 6th.

We'll be meeting at Jerry and Joy Fry's house. That's at 315 North Summit from 7 to 8 p.m. We'll be looking at the book of 1 Timothy, but we won't begin right there. Here I am. I'm trying to do two things at once, which I don't do. Prayer and study of the Word are vital to Christians. We know that. I mean, that goes without saying. Prayer and study of the Word.

So this time will be that. It will be a dedicated time of prayer and study of God's Word. We'll be in 1 Timothy. We will begin with the first week will be on prayer. We'll talk about what the Bible talks about prayer. The second week will be... The first week will be about the life of Paul, because Paul is the author of this epistle. The third week will be about Timothy, because he is the recipient of this epistle.

And then we will actually get into the text of 1 Timothy. My life's verse for years has been, Be diligent to present yourself to God as approved, 2 Timothy 2.15. Be diligent to present yourself approved. To God as a workman, who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. I think that's vital for each of us, to be able to handle the Bible, to know what it says, and to know how to find things.

There are phones that make it easier now than it used to be. But also, I would like this Bible study to be an open study to people with questions. Many times I've said in Bible studies and had a question and kept my mouth shut, much to my detriment. Or not understood things and kept my mouth shut when I shouldn't have, when I should have asked. I would like for this Bible study to be an open Bible study for questions, for doubts, for questions.

If you're questioning your Christianity, the reality of it, this is the place to come. If you're not saved, if you're not a Christian, this is the place to come. This will be a place of openness and acceptance for different points of view, different ideas, different questions. Another area of Scripture over the last few years that has meant a lot to me comes out of 1 Corinthians 2.

Chapter 6. I know, I need you to hold it here or hold it here, one or the other. He's back there shaking his head.

1 Corinthians, the last part of Chapter 6, or the middle of Chapter 6. Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Well, I don't know about y'all, but I fit a lot of those categories. I can say yes to some and no to others, but nonetheless, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Verse 11. And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. Some of those things can be anchors to the past.

Some of those things can cripple us. I know they have me. So I would like for this time, this hour, this 7 to 8 o'clock on Thursday evenings during George Fry's house, to be a time of openness, of sharing, of building one another up in Christ.

Thank you. Thanks, sir. Okay, Tristan Rich is going to come up and share about youth.

Good morning. I'm Tristan, as Ryan said. My wife, Rachel, also helps with youth group. We meet Wednesday nights at 7 o'clock. It says in your bulletin, cornerstone room, but we actually moved recently to the agape room due to needing more space. So we have a lot of kids, and in fact, if you go to the youth group, can you raise your hand? As you see, there are a lot of hands.

And we're severely outnumbered. So we're always looking for help. So if you are willing to help with crowd control, great. Come talk to me. We'll get you set up, maybe on a schedule or something. It doesn't have to be every week, just every once in a while. We've been recently going through a lot of topics. But the topics all focus around knowing why we're Christians,

as well as understanding the who, what, when, where, and why of when you're reading a verse and how to decipher it. And apply it to our lives now. Because for a lot of the kids, you can read a verse, and even myself read a verse, and you're like, what did that even just say? And so breaking that down and making it consumable on our level. So we have a lot of that going on, as well as talking about the history of what's led us to where we are now

and future events, the third coming of the temple and Antichrist and things of that nature. We've got all that going on, Wednesdays at 7. We also have the Great Pumpkin Chase coming up on October 14th at 6 or 7 p.m. We haven't said it yet. We need help with that. We need drivers and we need sitters. So if you are willing to be around 5 to 6, high school to middle school kids,

please come talk to me. We'll get you set up. Just to give you a range, it's 6th grade to seniors in high school. So if you feel that. If you feel that God's calling your heart to help out with those kids and to pour into a budding relationship with Christ, please come talk to me and we'll get you going. Thank you. Thanks, man. Okay, Rick Hawkins is going to come up and share.

And while Rick's on his way up, I just want us all to know, I don't see him here today, but we have to dethrone Nick Calm this year from being the winner of the Pumpkin Chase every single year. Okay, good. We have an anti-Nick Calm rule because I'm tired of him making new T-shirts. They say, oh, look, I've won it six times in a row now, so.

All right. We have prophecy classes on the first Thursday and the third Thursday of each month. The first Thursday of each month, we meet at 7 o'clock in the Agape room at 7, and we just go through the scriptures and look at what the scriptures have to teach about Bible prophecy. We've gone through Isaiah chapter 17 and Ezekiel 38 and 39 so far this year. And starting on October 6, we're going to start going through.

There's five Old Testament covenants that relate to Israel. And parts of these covenants have been fulfilled. Parts of them won't be fulfilled until the thousand-year reign of Christ. So we're going to look at those and see where we're at right now and see the progression of where Israel is moving. Then on the third Thursday, which will be October 20th, we look at what's going on in the news that relates to Bible prophecy.

And so we look at month by month what's been happening that past month. And usually I have an outline of notes that are about six to eight pages long. And that. At least I have the references to them. And I usually have a PowerPoint presentation so you can look at maps and look at the people that we're referring to and kind of get familiar with things. And usually the study lasts.

Both studies usually last about an hour. But usually people hang out till about 830 or quarter till nine. And after this session's over.

After we're done here, we'll all be in the back. But I'll have a. If you're wanting a reminder for Wednesdays. And these things are I'll have a sign up sheet where you can sign up if you want a reminder, text or a phone call or email or something. I'll send out reminders to you so you can know when they're taking place. If you want to come and join us now, it's open to anybody who wants to come.

And even though I'm doing most of the talking, if you ever come, you'll know that people just jump right in and say whatever they want to say and ask questions and stuff. It's kind of like a combining dialogue to monologue kind of thing. So. But anybody wants to. Comes can join.

Oh, yeah. There are also refreshments there.

OK. Yeah. Yeah. We're not on Zoom, but occasionally on the scripture teaching one on the first of each month. If Steve's up to it, he's been videoing it and it's showing up someplace. I don't know if it's on the website or if it's just on on the Internet someplace. I have no idea. On Facebook. John, the church's Web page. On Facebook. So. So you might check on it.

So.

OK. All right. And then last, but certainly not least, Lewis George. I've gone and saved the best for last for the young adult ministry.

Howdy. So, yeah, we're our goal is to minister to the young adults from ages 18 to 20 somethings. So I'm going to let you guys do the math on that. If you feel like you're going to be able to do that, I'm going to let you do the math on that. If you feel like you're a young adult, show up. But if, you know, the Holy Spirit has showed you that you're not, please don't.

So our goal is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. There's a lot of young adults. There's a whole lost generation that has been being taught evolution, which teaches basically there is no meaning to life. But there is. To love God and to serve him is the ultimate goal that you can achieve. You can have in the best purpose that you can ever have.

And so our goal is to go through the word of God and let him show us our purpose. And so my prayer, my goal is that God would begin to reveal each young man and woman's God given purpose for their life. I found mine and or God showed me mine rather. And then. And so that's the. That's the prayer. That's the goal. Right now, we're in the book of Genesis and we're about to finish, hopefully before December.

Probably not. And then we're going to go to the book of John. But, yeah, like I said, 18 to 20s, Friday nights at seven. And there's a specific reason why I chose Friday nights, if I'm being honest. If I was 18 years old, the last place you'd see me on a Friday night was a Bible study. Right. I'd be off doing my thing, getting loose and not at a boring Bible study.

But this is why. And and I believe it's a. You know, you get to choose who you want to serve that day. And so, yes, that's it. Bye bye.

OK. If you have any other questions, all of those guys will be in the back after the service. So, OK, I've got like 20 minutes. So hang with me. We're going to do a quick responsive reading. Psalm one. We'll be looking at the new American standard just so we all sound the same. If you need one, there should be one in your row. As you turn to Psalm one, if you would stand for God's word and because you've been sitting for a long time.

I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm one. Let some people get turned there. I see pages turning still. Someone. How blessed is the man who does? Not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates day and night.

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. And in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff, which the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Father, we come before you and we do just want to immerse ourselves in your word, Lord, so that we can become like those trees planted by the rivers of water that produce much fruit. And so, Lord, as we spend just our last few minutes in your word together, I pray that you would bless by the power of your Holy Spirit. Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 23, I promise it'll be an abbreviated message.

I'll have you out just after kickoff, I think. So I think kickoffs at noon. I'll have you out me like five minutes after that. Okay, you'll you'll only miss the first quarter. So we have been covering a series here in the last week of Jesus's life prior to his crucifixion. We've been looking at Jesus confronting religions. As a matter of fact, this is part four of confronting religion.

And as we move into chapter 23, Jesus has done several things as he's confronted religion. He first of all has revealed dead religion. He illustrated dead religion. He answered their questions. But as we get into chapter 23, he gets very pointed towards these religious leaders. As a matter of fact, I would really sum up chapter 23 in two ways. The exposition.

The closing of the heart. And the pronouncement of condemnation. And so that's what he does. Or should I say pronouncement of judgment. And that's what he does with these religious leaders. And so as we ended chapter 22, they had come at him with three different questions, which Jesus answered masterfully and silenced his critics. And then he asked them a question that they were unable to answer.

And after he asked them a question that they were unable to answer, it ended with, and no one dared to ask him a question again. And so at that point in time, we segue directly. Into chapter 23, where Jesus takes this as a moment to address the crowds and the disciples about the issues with the Pharisees. And so we pick up in verse one, chapter 23, and this is what it says.

Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples saying, The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. Therefore, all that they tell you do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds. For they say things and do not. Do them. They tie heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.

They do their good deeds to be noticed by men for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. And they love the place of honor at banquets and chief seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by men. But do not be called rabbi, for one is your teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father, he who is in heaven.

And do not be called leaders, for one is your leader, and that is Christ. But the greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. And so as he begins to expose this, the heart of this dead religion, he does two different things in this section. Number one, we're going to see him talk about the heart of the religious leaders.

But then number two, as Jesus is always so good at doing, he doesn't just tell them what they've done wrong. He shows them how to be right. Because after he tells us about the heart of the religious leaders, he then tells us about the heart of the disciple. And so the first thing he does is he deals with the principal issue. He speaks to the crowds and to his disciples as he warns them and exposes what's going on.

He says, You know that the Pharisees and the scribes have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. The chair of Moses would have been a seat, a stone seat at the very front of the synagogue, where those who were the teachers would go and sit. Basically what he says is, You know that the Pharisees and the scribes have taken upon themselves an authority that's not necessarily a God-given authority or even a man-given authority, but because of their knowledge of the word, they have taken upon themselves to be the experts in the law, of Moses. He says, Now, as he makes that statement, we must understand that when he says that, he means make sure you do what they say when it lines up with what God's word says, not when it is some sort of a command of man.

Because actually, as we move on in chapter 23, we'll find that Jesus says one of the woes that he pronounces is that, they teach as doctrines the commands of men instead of the commands of God. And so he says, Do what they do or do what they say when it has to do with the things of God's word. He says, But don't follow their example. Don't do the things that they do.

The reason why he tells them that is because they say things and do not do them. In other words, they're all talk and no action. Let me put a good biblical word on that, that I think best describes what Jesus points out about the heart of these religious leaders. They are hypocrites. They know all the right words to say, but their lives don't at all match up with their preaching.

You know as well as I do that that's what most of the world doesn't like about Christians. Therefore, he says, Don't be like them. Listen to what they say when they teach you the truth, but don't follow their example because they're hypocrites. That is the true heart that Jesus continually, and has been exposing about the religious leaders. He goes on to explain what he means by this,

and he does so with three things. First of all, he says they bind heavy burdens and then don't do anything about it. Notice what it says in verse four. They tie up heavy burdens. They lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. What's the heavy burden that they tie on them? Well, the heavy burden that they're tying on people is a burden that I would,

I would call legalism. In other words, getting outside of the bounds of what God's word says and giving extra commands to people. Legalism is what they've been known for because they thought if a little bit of holiness is good, then we'll just make the rules even harder because it'll make us look even better. Do you know the same can be true of us today? I actually think that there's two ways that we can actually lay legalistic burdens on ourselves.

Number one is to have somebody else lay that burden upon us. And unfortunately, there are many Bible teachers out there, there are many spiritual leaders out there who will lay legalistic burdens on people, whether it be, this is what you have to wear if you're going to attend church, whether it be, this is the Bible you have to use if you're going to attend church. This is the music that you have to listen to. These are the things that you can and cannot do.

And they don't necessarily line up with what scripture says, but they're burdens that people lay on each other. And you know that they're a burden because there's no joy in fulfilling it. It's simply a burden on your heart. But do you know, there's another aspect of legalism that we can have laid upon us. And that's the rules that we lay upon ourselves. Do you know that sometimes I can put a legalistic burden on me?

I can act like a Pharisee in my own life. And I can think if I want to be a real Christian, this is what I need to do. If I want to be a good husband, this is what I need to do. If I want to be a good father, this is what I need to do. If I want to be a good mother, this is what it looks like. And unfortunately, all the things that we do, all the things that we've laid upon ourselves aren't from God's word.

They're my own idea of what I think holiness looks like in those areas, but they're absolutely not what God has to say because they are in addition to everything that scripture has to say. We can sometimes lay those burdens on ourselves or allow other people to lay them on us. And that's what these Pharisees were doing. He says, don't do what they do because they're hypocrites.

They're hypocrites. And we see it because of the legalistic burdens that they lay on people. And then you know what? They always require more of other people than they require of themselves because they lay those heavy burdens on others, but they're not willing to do it themselves. Well, then he goes on to name a second thing. Notice what it says in verse six.

It says they love the place of, Oh, excuse me, verse five, but they do all of their deeds to be noticed by men for they, they broaden their phylacteries and they lengthen the tassels of their garment. The second thing that he says that they do that points out their hypocrisy is that they do their good deeds to be seen by men. They do their good deeds to be seen by men. The way that they did that is they used these things at this point in time in scripture called phylacteries.

Now, most of us don't know what a phylactery is because I've never even thought of using one. But in the book of Deuteronomy, it says that they were to bind God's word as frontlets on their heads and on their hands so that they would remember what God's word has to say. Well, the Jewish people at that point in time began to take it very seriously and they made these little leather pouches that they would strap to their foreheads. Can you imagine seeing a guy come walking at you with a leather pouch strapped to his forehead?

I would be like, what's going on? But in that day it meant he's super holy because in it was rolled up all of the scriptures that they were keeping and if they really wanted to appear holy, they would get that much, bigger of a phylactery. And then the thing with the tassels on their garments, you see the priesthood was to put tassels on the corners of their garments so that it would remind them of God's word. And so the longer the tassel you had, the more holy you looked different culture, right?

Tassels mean something different now, but that's not the point. And so, so that's what they would do. They would do all of these outward things so that everybody around them would say, look how holy they are, man. I wish I could be as good as they are. I wish I knew as much scripture is they knew. I wish, I could be like them. And they did everything that they could so that everybody in the world would

say things like that about them. But you know what they forgot? They forgot in Matthew chapter six, verse one, what did Jesus say? He said, beware of doing your good deeds to be seen by men because you already have your reward. There will be no reward with your father in heaven. Now listen, this is something we all struggle with, right? I want people to notice when I do good things in a minute.

We're going to talk about servanthood. And I want people to notice when I've served them. I want people to pay attention, but unfortunately that's not what we're called to do. We're called to be aware of that sort of thing. And because of that, there's hypocrisy because you see, if I only do good things to be seen by people, they call that being a hypocrite because it's not who I really am.

It's just the me I want you to see. Well, then there's a third thing he says. He says, they live for the praise of men, which now takes us to verse six. They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings and the marketplaces and being called rabbi by men. They love the chief seats in the synagogue. In other words,

the closer you could get to that seat of teaching, that closer you could get to that seat of authority, the better it was. And everybody went, Oh, look how close they are. Oh, look, look at them sitting up there in the front. What a beautiful thing. And they loved greetings in the marketplaces. Rabbi, so good to see you this morning. Right? Your eminence, your holiness,

reverent, right? That's what they love to hear from people because they love the praise of people. They loved hearing how good of a person they were. And because of that, there was great hypocrisy. You know, sometimes we as believers can struggle with that same thing. Am I right? I like to hear how good of a person I am. I like to hear how great I am at the things that I do,

but I have to be reminded of something. If I'm serving, for the pleasure of people that I'm serving for the wrong reason. If I'm serving for the praise of people that I'm serving for the wrong reason. And I think that there's a question we should all continually ask ourselves is what I'm doing because I care about the things of the Lord and because I care about people or is what I'm doing because I want people to see me.

I shared with first service. It's a question I have to ask myself constantly as a pastor. Would I still teach if there was only one person? And I was, I was just having a conversation or do I only want to do the teaching when I get to stand up in front of people? It's a searching question. I always have to ask myself because I know me and I know my tendency and I know my flesh and my flesh has a tendency to like the praise of men to like the praise of people.

And so I have to guard myself against it. And so as he says that he then goes on to say, and beware of titles, beware of titles that give excess, excess, of spiritual honor and authority like father or rabbi or teacher or leader. He says, beware of those kinds of titles. I bet many of us have never referred to someone as a rabbi, right? I don't think I ever have,

but perhaps you've used another title. You've used the title reverend or your eminent reverence or you name the title. A lot of us see that. It's not used in today's culture, don't we? I've always said there's only two people in the world I've ever allowed to call me reverend. And that's it. Just those two people. And it's just because I love them and respect them so much that I don't want to correct them as Glenora Reed and Jackie Dodson.

And that's just because when they say it, I'm like, okay, that's all right. Anybody else I correct, I'm like, no, don't, don't call me reverend. I would like to be called pastor. I prefer you just call me Ryan because I feel, I feel like I'm the guy in charge when I'm the pastor. And I really try not to be, the guy in charge. He says, beware of those kinds of titles because they mess with our flesh.

They make us put ourselves in a place where only God belongs. Well, as he has told us what to beware of with the heart of these religious leaders, he now is going to tell us about the heart of a disciple. Notice what it says in verses 11 and 12. It says, but the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled. And whoever humbles himself,

shall be exalted. Two things that it means to have the heart of a disciple. Number one, be a servant. That word servant means one who executes the commands of another. Now that's an important word there because it takes me out of being in charge of anything. And it makes me at the disposal of everybody else around me. But you know what? I was been praying about this this week and,

and I've been thinking about the fact that really we have a servanthood hierarchy in our lives. We should have a servanthood hierarchy. We should have a servanthood hierarchy in our lives. And I want to explain what I mean by that. You must first be a servant of God. Because ultimately, if you are not a servant of God, you will never be able to be a servant of people.

If you are first a servant of people, something will always happen to you. And this is what will happen to you. People aren't fun. Do you know that? I'm not fun. I'm a difficult person to serve. We all are. You know why? Because we're all opinionated. We're all made of flesh. And if I am only a servant of people, then eventually what's going to happen is as a servant of people,

I will eventually, get irritated with you. I will find that my feelings get hurt and I will have all kinds of issues. I'll probably burn out if I'm a servant of people. You see, I must first be a servant of God. Because if I am a servant of God, then I first am serving a higher calling than just serving you. Because if I show up every day and say, Lord, what do you want me to do today?

How do you want me to serve people today? And then he goes and says, go and serve them. Go and do this for them. Then if I show up and I serve you and you don't like the way I serve you, all I can say is talk to my boss because I'm not serving you. I'm serving God. And that takes all of the pressure off of you. And it takes all of the pressure off of me. Because now when somebody complains about the way that I serve,

or when somebody complains about the way that you serve, it's God's problem, not yours. And so if we are to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and be servants, we are first of all, a servant of God. But then as servants of God, we become servants of people. And as we become servants of people doing what God calls for us to do, then we're the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And listen, that doesn't mean everybody knows my name because being the greatest in the kingdom of heaven is being the lowest in the kingdom of heaven. Because that brings us to the second thing that he says, he says, and humble yourselves. I can't think of any better statement to be made to our culture right now. In general, than to humble ourselves because the pride in our culture right now, not the least of which is in our governing authorities.

And I don't care which side of the political aisle you sit on the pride in our culture right now, drips off of everything that we say and do. And I think one of the greatest things that all of us can do is to humble ourselves. Jesus says, he who exalts, himself shall be humbled. That word exalted means to be lifted up. In other words, he who lifts himself up will be humbled,

made low. It's interesting to watch this happen in, in culture outside of like the things of God in general. Have you ever seen somebody that feels pretty good about themselves and you can tell that there's just a lot of pride in the way that they walk. And then all of a sudden somebody put a curb in their way. Have you ever seen that happen?

Right. And you're like, Oh, they exalted them. And now they've been humbled. Well, you know what? God's pretty good at doing that with us as believers as well, because when we exalt ourselves, we'll be humbled. But then he says this, but whoever humbles himself, whoever makes himself low will be exalted. Why? Because God will be the one doing it. God will be the one at work in our lives.

Do you know that Jesus's disciples took this idea and really ran with it? The most shocking, the most shocking of all was his disciple named Peter. Peter, the guy that always stuck his foot in his mouth. Peter, the guy who loved Jesus more than anyone else. Peter really took this and ran with it. And I want to wrap up with this verse. I want to close up with this.

Go over to first Peter chapter five, towards the end of the new Testament. After Hebrews, after James,

I want you to look down at verse six.

He says, therefore, first Peter chapter five, verse six, humble yourselves. Humble yourselves. Under the mighty, the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all of your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Peter had learned a very important lesson with the ups and downs that he'd been through in his walk with Jesus Christ. And one of the most important lessons that he had learned was this,

that you should humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. And then when God's ready, he will exalt you. But in that process, do you notice something? Do you notice that there's only a comma between verses six and verse seven? There's a reason for that. It's because it's one continuous flow of thought because he says, therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at proper time,

casting all of your anxiety upon him because he cares for you. You know why that's one continuous flow of thought of thought? Because the most difficult thing that we will ever do in our lives is humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Because you aren't humbling yourself. Under the mighty hand of God looks like in real life. It means humbling yourselves with your fellow man.

Because remember, who are we a servant of first? God, who are we a servant of second man? Therefore, if I humble myself under the mighty hand of God, then I humble myself with my brothers and sisters. Sometimes that's going to cause a great deal of anxiety because kind of like Gary shared about his Bible study, sometimes being really open with people is a humbling experience and it's a hard thing to do, but it's the most important.

It's the most important thing that we can do and it will cause you anxiety. Therefore, cast all of your anxiety upon him because he cares for you. Brothers and sisters, God has a desire for each of us if we're to be true disciples of Jesus Christ, which, as I said this morning, is what I want us to be because it's what God wants us to be. But if we're going to be disciples of Jesus Christ, we must first of all learn to be servants.

And we must second of all humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Amen. Let's all stand as the worship team heads up here to sing the last song. I'll remind you that all these small group leaders are going to be in the very back in the agape room after the service. If you have questions, want to get plugged into one of those, go visit with them and they can give you a little bit more details.

So would you bow with me? Father, we come before you and thank you for the time that we've had here this morning. Lord, I thank you for the opportunities that we have to grow in you, Lord, for the word that ministers so much to our hearts and Lord, I lift up each of those small groups that's that's going in our church throughout the week or that those would be places where disciples are made and where people are drawn close to you. Father, we thank you and praise you for who you are.

Pray that you would be with us as we go about this week in Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.

Lord of heaven,

do not deserve the grace that you have given. Wonder at the sacrifice you made. Mercy beyond measure. My debt you freely set in the sky.

Jesus, your love is your love is your love. Jesus, Lord of heaven,

the grace that you have given. I stand at the sacrifice. You may mercy beyond measure my debt you beyond the stars in the sky is your love is your love. Lord bless you and give you a blessed week. Be encouraged in God's word as you study and be built up in the faith. Lord bless you. Have a great week.