WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.400 Alright, well James 1.5, we read there at the end that says, 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:08.599 if anybody lacks wisdom, they should ask for it. 00:00:08.599 --> 00:00:09.599 Yep. 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:10.599 So let's do that. 00:00:10.599 --> 00:00:11.599 Good idea. 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:12.599 That's us. 00:00:12.599 --> 00:00:13.599 So let's pray. 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:17.800 Lord, we ask now that you would make this time useful to your people, to us. 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:19.039 Lord, give us wisdom. 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:20.039 We lack it. 00:00:20.039 --> 00:00:21.039 We know we do. 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:24.359 And so we ask for help, the help of the Holy Spirit as we do something a little different 00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:28.760 tonight and think about some of the questions that have come up from us as a church family. 00:00:28.760 --> 00:00:32.560 So bless us and be with us, we ask in Christ's name. 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:33.560 Amen. 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:40.160 Alright, so we do this a couple times a year and we try to do it because we want to take 00:00:40.160 --> 00:00:44.200 the things we've been talking about and worship on Wednesdays in city groups and give you 00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:50.120 an opportunity to put them out there and us to consider them in a public forum. 00:00:50.120 --> 00:00:54.320 So we do this a couple Sunday nights and here we are, question time. 00:00:54.320 --> 00:00:58.120 So we've got all the questions up on the screens for us and I've got them written as well right 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:01.159 here in case we have a malfunction of any sort. 00:01:01.159 --> 00:01:02.799 And so let's do it. 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:04.200 Let's think about it together. 00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:07.079 Okay, there were some good ones. 00:01:07.079 --> 00:01:08.200 The first one is a good one. 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:12.120 What is the biblical evidence that the Sabbath is now Sunday? 00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:14.359 Is it still God's command to observe the Sabbath? 00:01:14.359 --> 00:01:18.640 So some of the questions are going to be pretty theological and some of them are more just 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:19.799 kind of Christian life stuff. 00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:25.840 So I think one of the dangers here is that this question could take our whole time. 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:26.840 So I'm going to try. 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:30.320 So you might just stop me if you feel like you need to. 00:01:30.320 --> 00:01:34.520 So I'm going to start with this one and you can add if you want. 00:01:34.520 --> 00:01:36.240 Let me say this. 00:01:36.240 --> 00:01:43.359 Here at St. Columbus we are a Catholic Church, small C. So we're not Roman Catholic but we 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:44.359 are Catholic. 00:01:44.359 --> 00:01:51.439 We're part of the one holy apostolic church across all the globe and in that we have an 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:52.439 open table. 00:01:52.439 --> 00:01:56.000 Anybody that believes the gospel can come and eat from our table. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:58.280 And that extends into questions like this. 00:01:58.280 --> 00:02:03.799 So we would say that in the essentials that God is trying that Jesus Christ is God, that 00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:08.159 Jesus Christ walked out of the grave on the third day, we want unity. 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:15.240 So to be a member here, if you say those things, you're very welcome to join our church, to 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:17.120 eat at the Lord's table. 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:21.920 And in secondary things, we're okay with diversity. 00:02:21.920 --> 00:02:24.039 So we have a confession of faith. 00:02:24.039 --> 00:02:28.319 We have a certain view of the Sabbath but nobody, anybody can come to our church and 00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:32.479 disagree with us about the Sabbath and that's okay. 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:36.039 Just like I know some of you disagree with us about who gets to be baptized and all these 00:02:36.039 --> 00:02:39.120 sorts of things and that's fine. 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:43.919 But in the church tradition we come from, the Reformed Protestant tradition, Presbyterians 00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:50.840 as we are, we've believed for centuries now that the Sabbath command still holds. 00:02:50.840 --> 00:02:54.319 And that the Sabbath command that's given in the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:58.159 is a command for us as Christians today. 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:00.159 And that now the Sabbath is on Sunday. 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:03.800 And this is what the questioner is asking about. 00:03:03.800 --> 00:03:09.480 One of the reasons that you get to that idea, it's really important qualification and it's 00:03:09.480 --> 00:03:10.599 something like this. 00:03:10.599 --> 00:03:15.640 When you go to the New Testament, you don't see anywhere a command that says the Sabbath 00:03:15.640 --> 00:03:19.319 is still in force and you New Testament Christians need to observe it. 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:20.319 You don't see that anywhere. 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:24.799 But you also don't see anywhere in the New Testament there is no longer a Sabbath day 00:03:24.799 --> 00:03:27.959 to be viewed because Jesus is your Sabbath. 00:03:27.959 --> 00:03:32.239 So there's no explicit command in the New Testament either way. 00:03:32.239 --> 00:03:36.799 And that's really important actually to say because there's a couple different ways you 00:03:36.799 --> 00:03:39.000 can come to read the Bible. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:42.560 One of those ways to read the Bible is you can come and say, well look, I need chapter 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:45.240 and verse for everything. 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:50.719 It's kind of an authorization mentality where if the Bible hasn't said it explicitly in 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:53.719 the most plain language, I can't believe it. 00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:54.719 I can't do it. 00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:57.120 I can't say that that's a command from God. 00:03:57.120 --> 00:03:58.520 And then there's another way to read the Bible. 00:03:58.520 --> 00:04:00.640 And this would be the way I think that we would want to approach it. 00:04:00.640 --> 00:04:05.520 And that's to read the Bible theologically to put it in one way. 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:06.680 One way you could say it is like that. 00:04:06.680 --> 00:04:11.120 And that's to say that we want to read every single passage of the Bible in the light of 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:13.760 every single other passage of the Bible. 00:04:13.759 --> 00:04:16.199 So Genesis interprets revelation. 00:04:16.199 --> 00:04:17.959 Revelation interprets Genesis. 00:04:17.959 --> 00:04:20.560 Jesus Christ interprets numbers and Leviticus. 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:23.560 And Leviticus helps us interpret Jesus Christ. 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:28.920 And when you do that, when you put together a big picture image, I would argue that the 00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:35.379 Bible actually suggests to us over and over again that the Sabbath still stands. 00:04:35.379 --> 00:04:37.120 Just like the Ten Commandments still stand. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:40.599 So there's really no Christian tradition out there that don't think the Ten Commandments 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:44.120 are still part of the Christian life, that they're still norms, right? 00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:47.480 And even a person who would say we no longer have the Sabbath day would still say, well, 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:49.320 yeah, the Ten Commandments stand. 00:04:49.320 --> 00:04:51.680 But it's just that Jesus has fulfilled the Sabbath. 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:53.820 And so Jesus is now our Sabbath. 00:04:53.820 --> 00:04:56.000 So we don't have a Sabbath day anymore. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:57.000 Good. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:00.920 Just explain what you mean by Jesus is our Sabbath. 00:05:00.920 --> 00:05:05.879 The day that Jesus walked out of the grave when the tomb rolled back, Jesus became our 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:07.040 rest. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:08.040 We rest in him now. 00:05:08.040 --> 00:05:12.960 So we don't have to have a specific day of rest any longer, like in the Old Testament. 00:05:12.960 --> 00:05:15.319 Now here's what I would challenge that. 00:05:15.319 --> 00:05:18.400 It's yes and no. 00:05:18.400 --> 00:05:22.080 Jesus is our Sabbath, but the Sabbath is now and not yet. 00:05:22.080 --> 00:05:25.879 You know, if you say, well, everything that the Sabbath was meant to be has already been 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:27.040 fulfilled in Jesus. 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:30.720 Well, a few days later, Stephen got stoned. 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:36.320 And a few years after that, Mark got dragged through the streets of Alexandria by horses. 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:42.599 And the Sabbath is the day that God comes down into this world and reestablishes the 00:05:42.599 --> 00:05:44.480 Garden of Eden on planet Earth. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:45.480 That's the Sabbath. 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:46.480 That's true rest. 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:50.240 It's God's holy condescension into the garden. 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:52.199 And so yes, Jesus is our Sabbath. 00:05:52.199 --> 00:05:55.360 And no, the Sabbath has not come yet. 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:56.360 We don't yet have it. 00:05:56.360 --> 00:05:57.680 We have it, but we don't have it. 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:00.000 We're living in the time of the now and not yet. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:07.199 So in Hebrews four, we have the phrase, because the rest remains for the people of God dot, 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:08.399 dot, dot. 00:06:08.399 --> 00:06:13.120 And there's a chapter in verse because rest Sabbath is yet to happen for the people of 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:14.120 God. 00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:15.120 We're pilgrims. 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:16.639 We haven't yet gotten there. 00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:20.839 And so the 10 commandments, including the Sabbath, I think are still a command for us. 00:06:20.839 --> 00:06:27.720 This is a gift and a mercy to us that God commands us to rest and to stop and to worship 00:06:27.720 --> 00:06:31.560 and to be with God's people and to do works of mercy and nothing else. 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:32.640 That's a mercy. 00:06:32.640 --> 00:06:35.760 And it stands from the Old Testament to the New Testament. 00:06:35.760 --> 00:06:36.760 Almost done. 00:06:36.760 --> 00:06:39.200 Why is it Sunday? 00:06:39.200 --> 00:06:44.200 Again, if you're looking for chapter and verse where it says, now the Sabbath is Sunday, 00:06:44.200 --> 00:06:45.920 you won't find it exactly like that. 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:49.600 But the early church understood that it was. 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:53.360 They practiced it from the time of the first century forward. 00:06:53.360 --> 00:06:54.880 The Sabbath has Sunday. 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:59.879 You can read early church fathers that say this very explicitly. 00:06:59.879 --> 00:07:02.120 But also Acts chapter two would be in one place. 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:05.759 People have said, well, the church was gathering every day of the week, not just Sunday. 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:07.920 So why is Sunday so special? 00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:12.240 But one of the things you see is that it says, no, on Sunday they practiced the breaking 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:14.800 of bread and the prayers. 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:16.319 And that's not the same. 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:20.240 So they gathered every day, but on Sunday it was the breaking of bread. 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:22.319 And that's the Lord's supper. 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:24.639 So it's showing there was something different about Sunday. 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:26.759 John calls it the Lord's day in Revelation. 00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:29.800 I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. 00:07:29.800 --> 00:07:33.599 Last thing I said last thing, but this is the last thing. 00:07:33.599 --> 00:07:34.599 Last thing. 00:07:34.599 --> 00:07:36.959 Last thing. 00:07:36.959 --> 00:07:38.800 The last thing is this in the book of John. 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:40.120 This is one of those ways of reading the Bible. 00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:45.399 In the book of John, there's a movement across the book of John, the gospel of John, where 00:07:45.399 --> 00:07:48.959 there are seven days talked about across the gospel of John. 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:52.680 The gospel of John, actually you can map out John says the next day, the next day. 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:55.959 He says it seven times across his gospel. 00:07:55.959 --> 00:08:00.840 John, in a three year ministry of Christ, is actually mapping Christ's ministry onto 00:08:00.840 --> 00:08:03.560 the seven creation days. 00:08:03.560 --> 00:08:06.160 And the New Testament scholars are really clear about that. 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:12.040 The Sunday morning that Jesus rose from the dead, it's the eighth day. 00:08:12.040 --> 00:08:17.240 Meaning that Sunday started a new era of history. 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:18.840 And that era, it's the eighth day era. 00:08:18.840 --> 00:08:22.639 It's the day that the Sabbath moved from Saturday to Sunday. 00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:25.639 So that would be some things we could say. 00:08:25.639 --> 00:08:26.639 That's decent. 00:08:26.639 --> 00:08:28.639 Covered quite a lot there. 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:33.799 No, yeah, obviously that's a really helpful summary. 00:08:33.799 --> 00:08:41.039 And all I would say added to that is the desire to be together on a day that he's encouraged 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:50.159 us so to do for perspective and for anticipation and for encouragement. 00:08:50.159 --> 00:08:55.319 Because he's given us that day together for these things. 00:08:55.319 --> 00:08:58.039 And for rest, physical as well, spiritual. 00:08:58.039 --> 00:08:59.039 So yeah, good. 00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:00.039 Don't say anything else. 00:09:00.039 --> 00:09:02.480 Let's go to question two then. 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:05.240 This is a combination of three different people's questions. 00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:10.279 And we put them all together because we think the answer is largely similar for all three, 00:09:10.279 --> 00:09:12.879 even though they'll look a little different. 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:13.879 So here it is. 00:09:13.879 --> 00:09:17.399 Christians are called to find contentment in all circumstances and in any hard time. 00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:21.439 But isn't it right to be discontent as well? 00:09:21.439 --> 00:09:22.679 That's what they're asking. 00:09:22.679 --> 00:09:25.559 Discontent with isolation, discontent with our suffering. 00:09:25.559 --> 00:09:30.159 If not, how do we get to true contentment? 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:34.079 How does that work when the Bible also calls us at the same time to lament? 00:09:34.079 --> 00:09:38.959 So the questioner here is saying we're called, we're told that we should seek contentment 00:09:38.959 --> 00:09:43.879 in all things, but at the same time the Bible tons of times says, but also lament, also be 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:46.079 sad. 00:09:46.079 --> 00:09:47.079 So how does that work? 00:09:47.080 --> 00:09:51.800 This is the second part to this, I think, Maddie, thanks. 00:09:51.800 --> 00:09:53.400 This doesn't seem related, but it is. 00:09:53.400 --> 00:09:54.960 What is God consciousness? 00:09:54.960 --> 00:09:56.360 That's a quote from a recent sermon. 00:09:56.360 --> 00:09:57.360 That's why it's being asked. 00:09:57.360 --> 00:10:01.080 What is God consciousness and how does that matter for the Christian life? 00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:02.879 Is that all for question two? 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:05.280 Yeah, okay. 00:10:05.280 --> 00:10:08.800 So I think the person that asked the first part of this question was asking it in the 00:10:08.800 --> 00:10:16.240 context, especially of the struggle for desiring to be married and being single. 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:20.600 And so there's a certain call in your life maybe to both discontentment and contentment 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:23.039 at the same time. 00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:24.680 And how do we think about that? 00:10:24.680 --> 00:10:25.680 That's the question. 00:10:25.680 --> 00:10:31.120 Well, you can answer that, but, and then I'm going to answer the bit about that came up 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:32.120 after that. 00:10:32.120 --> 00:10:33.120 Okay. 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:34.120 Okay. 00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:35.120 So I mean, to start or you start? 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:36.120 Yeah, you start. 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:37.120 Okay. 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:44.919 I think that the big thing to think about here is that the reason the Bible can call 00:10:44.919 --> 00:10:52.679 us to be content and also sad, content and also full of lamentation is because there is 00:10:52.679 --> 00:11:00.199 a difference in spiritual satisfaction and earthly satisfaction or circumstantial satisfaction. 00:11:00.199 --> 00:11:07.879 So what the Bible is doing is saying always seek and desire spiritual satisfaction while 00:11:07.879 --> 00:11:13.559 you're in the midst of personal circumstances that are not satisfying at all. 00:11:13.559 --> 00:11:18.759 So you can lament, you can be completely discontent with your circumstance. 00:11:18.759 --> 00:11:22.479 You can look at evil that's happened to you that's happening in your life and say, I'm 00:11:22.479 --> 00:11:23.559 not happy with this. 00:11:23.559 --> 00:11:25.399 I'm discontent with this. 00:11:25.399 --> 00:11:26.639 And that's okay. 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:28.959 That's exactly what the Psalms do all the time. 00:11:28.959 --> 00:11:34.679 But at the same time seek spiritual contentment, spiritual satisfaction that takes you beyond 00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:36.479 that earthly circumstance. 00:11:36.479 --> 00:11:41.759 And that's what Philippians four means when it says it's possible by the spirit to find 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:44.480 a peace that surpasses understanding. 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:48.319 The reason that peace surpasses understanding is because it is a piece that does not make 00:11:48.319 --> 00:11:52.439 sense because you shouldn't have peace. 00:11:52.439 --> 00:11:53.439 So that's the idea. 00:11:53.439 --> 00:11:58.519 Now maybe if I'll bring it home real quick and then you can go. 00:11:58.519 --> 00:12:02.519 I would say particularly because the questioner, by the way, all these are anonymous. 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:07.480 So we have no idea who wrote them except for when people tell us who it is, one or two 00:12:07.480 --> 00:12:08.480 did that. 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:12.399 So I don't know who wrote this, but it's something that many people feel the weight 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:18.120 of and that's, it was in the context of discontentment with singleness, wanting to be married and 00:12:18.120 --> 00:12:22.279 yet trying to find contentment in Christ at the same time. 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:30.680 Maybe one thing I could say is this, that spiritual contentment, spiritual satisfaction 00:12:30.680 --> 00:12:37.440 starts in some ways by realizing that the it that you're looking for and getting marriage 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:41.360 is not going to be the it you think. 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:46.440 Put it in it, now that's what Heather says about me, not me about her by the way, that 00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:48.080 it wasn't the it she was looking for. 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:50.880 It is for me. 00:12:50.880 --> 00:12:52.200 Okay. 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:56.360 No, the point is this, all of you, nobody needs to learn this. 00:12:56.360 --> 00:13:01.600 Just look at celebrity culture, it's the great epitome, right? 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:05.160 People get married and then they want to do it again and they want to find somebody else 00:13:05.160 --> 00:13:06.440 and it happens all the time. 00:13:06.440 --> 00:13:10.600 People get the job and they need something different. 00:13:10.600 --> 00:13:14.480 People get the career, the wealth status and they don't care anymore and they realize 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:17.040 they're actually pretty bored. 00:13:17.040 --> 00:13:23.160 And Lewis says it like this, if you're always looking for a contentment and a satisfaction 00:13:23.160 --> 00:13:26.400 that you haven't yet to find in all your accomplishments, then it means you were made 00:13:26.400 --> 00:13:28.760 for something bigger than that. 00:13:28.760 --> 00:13:31.360 And that's the type of thing that's being talked about here. 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:39.759 Yeah, I think there's definitely an ultimacy with these things, that none of these things 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:45.480 can bring you ultimate satisfaction and they're always going to be temporary, always. 00:13:45.480 --> 00:13:48.919 And I think it's important to recognize that. 00:13:48.919 --> 00:13:57.399 I think it's also, contentment can come by laying it down in a sense at the feet of Jesus 00:13:57.399 --> 00:14:03.679 is that you're taking it to Him in prayer, it's not that you're, it's not a kind of careless 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:07.159 contentment, well, I don't really care what happens, but rather you're taking what are 00:14:07.159 --> 00:14:14.360 real burdens and real difficult situations and you find a contentment by leaving them 00:14:14.360 --> 00:14:23.159 at the source of all knowledge and all truth and entrusting it to Him where we don't know 00:14:23.159 --> 00:14:24.279 or we don't have the answers. 00:14:24.279 --> 00:14:28.319 That's really where faith comes in, I think, into our lives. 00:14:28.319 --> 00:14:33.799 And knowing that ultimacy helps us to see things slightly differently. 00:14:33.799 --> 00:14:40.039 I think sometimes as we do that, we begin to see that there may be things that we can 00:14:40.039 --> 00:14:45.720 learn from it or there's things that we can do to change the situation. 00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:46.720 Sometimes there's nothing we can do. 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:51.319 And Corey tonight prayed about, oh, it's a you and actually prayed tonight about Ukraine 00:14:51.319 --> 00:14:52.319 and about Sudan. 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:55.040 And we pray about these things, we're discontent, we hate these things. 00:14:55.040 --> 00:14:58.760 There's nothing we can do about them, really. 00:14:58.760 --> 00:15:04.360 Maybe the odd individual can, but we can find a contentment and leaving them at the feet 00:15:04.360 --> 00:15:10.400 of the one before whom all justice will be played out one day, however difficult that 00:15:10.400 --> 00:15:12.600 is for us. 00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:13.960 So I think that's part of it. 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:19.520 One of the other sections there is about rejoicing always, how can we do that when the Bible 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:23.399 calls us to lament and to be sad so much of the time? 00:15:23.399 --> 00:15:28.039 And I think that's just simply, I shouldn't say simply, simply is not the right word. 00:15:28.039 --> 00:15:32.319 But it's the reality of the paradox of the Christian life, isn't it? 00:15:32.319 --> 00:15:41.079 That these same psalms of lament, they often come to a conclusion of praise and adoration. 00:15:41.079 --> 00:15:46.799 And Paul himself, we've talked about Paul, that he was able to be sorrowful yet rejoicing, 00:15:46.799 --> 00:15:49.879 a strange paradoxical thing to say in all his heart. 00:15:49.879 --> 00:15:50.879 It wasn't like he had a... 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:53.719 Paul was naive and he wasn't simplistic. 00:15:53.719 --> 00:15:59.199 He had an incredibly hard life and yet he'd learned to be content in his circumstance. 00:15:59.199 --> 00:16:01.240 It was something that didn't come easily. 00:16:01.240 --> 00:16:06.639 He learned it and learned that there was a sovereign over his life who loved him, however 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:09.879 difficult that was in his circumstances. 00:16:09.879 --> 00:16:17.759 But for us to realize that our suffering and difficulties are not pointless and they're 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:22.559 not random and they are not ultimate. 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:27.000 And that what Corey was teaching the kids tonight, that the victory has already been 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:28.000 won. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:33.399 There is an end, there is victory and we are not alone through it. 00:16:33.399 --> 00:16:39.879 It's a kind of change of perspective which allows us that paradoxical ability to rejoice 00:16:39.879 --> 00:16:42.759 even though we're sorrowful. 00:16:42.759 --> 00:16:43.759 But it can never... 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:44.759 It should never... 00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:50.000 I always say it should never be slapstick or kind of insensitive at all. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:56.159 Hate that kind of idea of Christians that are come across as insensitive or careless 00:16:56.159 --> 00:16:57.879 about suffering and difficulty. 00:16:57.879 --> 00:17:00.679 As if, well, it doesn't matter, God will get me through it. 00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:05.559 It's not like that at all for us and it should never be. 00:17:05.559 --> 00:17:16.839 But it should, I think, it should make itself obvious in an inner strength and a balanced 00:17:16.839 --> 00:17:26.480 ability to come through suffering that recognizes that we are under the governance and care of 00:17:26.480 --> 00:17:31.000 a higher, loving, saving God. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:32.000 Good. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:33.000 All right. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:36.120 We didn't say anything about God consciousness, I guess. 00:17:36.120 --> 00:17:37.319 Yeah, yeah, see a little bit of that. 00:17:37.319 --> 00:17:38.319 I think that's just... 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:41.680 That was something that came from a sermon recently. 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:43.799 All that we mean by that is the same thing. 00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:46.279 All that we mean by that is consciousness of God. 00:17:46.279 --> 00:17:53.079 So meaning that at all times in your life, especially in suffering or when you're typing 00:17:53.079 --> 00:18:00.079 out email or washing dishes that we were called in the Bible multiple times to have an awareness 00:18:00.079 --> 00:18:02.919 of God's existence and presence. 00:18:02.919 --> 00:18:04.919 That's God consciousness or consciousness of God. 00:18:04.919 --> 00:18:10.319 So being aware that God is with me right now, God is for me, so it's growing in that sort 00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:11.319 of mindset. 00:18:11.319 --> 00:18:12.319 It's a mindset. 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:15.720 Yeah, and I just let a different thought of that when we were thinking about God consciousness, 00:18:15.720 --> 00:18:22.559 I was thinking of someone asking, well, how do I know that God's in my life or how can 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:24.039 I have that consciousness of God in my life? 00:18:24.039 --> 00:18:31.279 And I just thought of a couple of things that are not particularly theological, but I think 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:35.119 when you have an awareness that you don't want to do the things that you know God hates, 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:39.279 but maybe you love, is an awareness that there's someone working in your heart, the living 00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:40.480 God's working in your heart. 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:45.679 You've got a kind of tension in a battle to do the right things, even though maybe your 00:18:45.679 --> 00:18:48.720 heart sometimes is attracted to the wrong things. 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:55.360 I think one other really important point is in terms of God consciousness is you stop 00:18:55.360 --> 00:19:01.720 looking at your life as much in relation to other people, and you stop comparing yourself 00:19:01.720 --> 00:19:06.920 to other people, and you stop wanting everyone else to change to be more like you, and you 00:19:06.920 --> 00:19:13.960 start seeing the need for your own heart to be changed in every circumstance. 00:19:13.960 --> 00:19:17.039 Rather than saying, I wish God would teach someone else something from this. 00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:20.399 Rather saying, what is God teaching me from this? 00:19:20.399 --> 00:19:22.000 What do I need to see changed in my heart? 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:26.319 Instead of being wronged all the time by other people's behavior, we start saying, well, 00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:29.960 what is it that I've done that God, even if I haven't done anything wrong, what is it 00:19:29.960 --> 00:19:31.599 that I can learn in terms of patience? 00:19:31.599 --> 00:19:35.879 And I think that's a big thing about God consciousness in terms of being aware that 00:19:35.879 --> 00:19:40.039 God is working in your life, because it's counterintuitive, and it's countercultural 00:19:40.039 --> 00:19:41.039 to think like that. 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:46.399 And it's countercultural to lay down your life before other people. 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:50.680 These kind of things, I think, help sometimes to encourage us that God's working in our 00:19:50.680 --> 00:19:51.680 hearts. 00:19:51.680 --> 00:20:00.120 Yeah, that God consciousness phrase is kind of a 19th century phrase you would see with 00:20:00.120 --> 00:20:01.120 the Alleges. 00:20:01.120 --> 00:20:05.360 It's kind of a, probably for us modern people, so it kind of sounds a little weird, maybe. 00:20:05.360 --> 00:20:06.360 Maybe not. 00:20:06.360 --> 00:20:07.360 I was around in the 1960s. 00:20:07.360 --> 00:20:08.360 Yeah, yeah, that's true. 00:20:08.360 --> 00:20:09.360 That's right. 00:20:09.360 --> 00:20:11.360 Well, fair enough. 00:20:11.360 --> 00:20:12.360 Okay. 00:20:12.360 --> 00:20:13.360 All right. 00:20:13.360 --> 00:20:14.360 I said it. 00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:19.919 I say that saying, I said the phrase, so I'm not admitting that. 00:20:19.919 --> 00:20:22.519 Question three, does God wipe away, wiping away every tear? 00:20:22.519 --> 00:20:23.919 This is Isaiah 25. 00:20:23.919 --> 00:20:28.879 Mean that if God makes all sadness untrue, that we will forget our sorrows from this 00:20:28.879 --> 00:20:34.119 life when we are in the next life, and if so, doesn't that make the heavenly life shallow? 00:20:34.119 --> 00:20:37.199 Do you just start on me? 00:20:37.199 --> 00:20:38.199 No, you can start. 00:20:38.199 --> 00:20:39.199 Yeah. 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:44.960 Does God wiping away every tear mean that God, that we will forget our sorrows in the 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:48.160 next life, the heavenly life or the life of the new creation? 00:20:48.160 --> 00:20:49.160 I don't think so. 00:20:49.160 --> 00:20:50.160 Not at all. 00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:56.920 I think that we will remember what has taken place in this life, and that God, for that 00:20:56.920 --> 00:20:59.799 very reason, will come and wipe away our tears. 00:20:59.799 --> 00:21:04.319 Now, the questioner in the original question asked, is that literal or metaphorical? 00:21:04.319 --> 00:21:08.319 And I think the answer is yes. 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:12.480 So to what degree will Jesus wipe away my tears? 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:14.720 Will I see Jesus in embodiment? 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:16.319 Yes. 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:20.559 Will Jesus come and be before me physically? 00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:22.159 Absolutely, he will. 00:21:22.159 --> 00:21:28.960 Mary gave the resurrected Christ a big hug, and I think you will too. 00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:30.960 And so yeah, why not? 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:33.799 Jesus will wipe away your tears. 00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:37.639 What that means metaphorically is that Jesus will dismiss all your grief and give you the 00:21:37.640 --> 00:21:39.720 fullness of joy, right? 00:21:39.720 --> 00:21:42.200 And that's what it means. 00:21:42.200 --> 00:21:51.080 And so there's a notion out there that's in a lot of the evangelical world that when 00:21:51.080 --> 00:21:54.800 you get to heaven, you don't remember your previous life. 00:21:54.800 --> 00:21:59.880 And I'm not sure how that happened or where that came from. 00:21:59.880 --> 00:22:04.320 There's a couple of verses in the Bible that may lend you that way a little bit, but when 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:07.759 you read them in context, you know that that's not what it's saying. 00:22:07.759 --> 00:22:12.720 So Derek and I were talking about this earlier, and we both mentioned that just to be fast. 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:17.879 The best example that I think to give that we know that this is not the case is that 00:22:17.879 --> 00:22:24.759 Jesus Christ carried his scars and his wounds into the heavenly life. 00:22:24.759 --> 00:22:27.879 And I think he wants us to see them when we finally meet him. 00:22:27.879 --> 00:22:31.399 He wants us to see the scars and he wants us to remember. 00:22:31.400 --> 00:22:35.880 And it'll be the memory of the cross that will help us so much, the memory of the hell 00:22:35.880 --> 00:22:41.280 of the cross that will help us to understand to what degree our tears have been wiped away. 00:22:41.280 --> 00:22:42.280 Yeah, absolutely. 00:22:42.280 --> 00:22:49.440 I think, you know, even Jesus telling the story of Lazarus and the rich man would suggest 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:53.560 the rich man where he was, it wasn't in heaven certainly and his tears weren't being wiped 00:22:53.560 --> 00:22:57.920 away, but he remembered a past life. 00:22:57.920 --> 00:23:06.560 And I think it would, I mean, the question says that does that make God, does it make 00:23:06.560 --> 00:23:08.759 God make all sadness untrue? 00:23:08.759 --> 00:23:14.000 Certainly doesn't make sadness untrue, but I think we will, it's like all things. 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:18.400 The new heavens and the earth will be so remarkable to us, and it'll be such a transformation 00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:23.920 that it's unthinkable that we can have a memory that's redeemed in such a way that enables 00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:27.720 us not to weep anymore about things. 00:23:27.720 --> 00:23:31.079 And yet I think that's what we will be able to do. 00:23:31.079 --> 00:23:34.480 What caused our tears, we will be able to see them differently because we'll see them 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:37.120 from God's perspective. 00:23:37.120 --> 00:23:41.720 And the wiping away of tears is also, there's a finality about it because he's saying that 00:23:41.720 --> 00:23:44.440 well, the things that cause your tears will never happen here. 00:23:44.440 --> 00:23:46.799 It's just not going to happen here. 00:23:46.799 --> 00:23:48.960 And it's the end of tears at that level. 00:23:48.960 --> 00:24:01.000 So I think there is definitely a reimagining, a re-understanding of our past, but also the 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:03.799 comfort of the nearer presence of Jesus. 00:24:03.799 --> 00:24:04.799 Yeah, that's good. 00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:10.600 We've got a few more and we'll have to be a little more brief, but no, no, I think it's 00:24:10.600 --> 00:24:11.600 the first question. 00:24:11.600 --> 00:24:15.079 I think that was the problem, my problem. 00:24:15.079 --> 00:24:16.759 Number four is Q&A. 00:24:16.759 --> 00:24:18.559 This is our favorite tonight. 00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:22.000 It's Q&A on Sunday night of valid church service. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:24.480 Or is it a valid element in a worship service? 00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:25.480 I added that. 00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:28.440 Could we do this every week and it be okay? 00:24:28.440 --> 00:24:32.559 Well, we should have that question. 00:24:32.559 --> 00:24:35.039 First we could have finished at six o'clock. 00:24:35.039 --> 00:24:36.039 Yeah. 00:24:36.039 --> 00:24:38.079 So I think this is a great question. 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:42.759 The person who asked the question qualified it and said, I'm not saying this as a critique. 00:24:42.759 --> 00:24:46.919 It's more of an opportunity to ask, what do we do in worship and why? 00:24:46.920 --> 00:24:51.000 And they also noted that they enjoy these things, but I think it's a totally legitimate 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:52.000 question. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:53.480 So a couple of things. 00:24:53.480 --> 00:25:02.039 One is that I would say, I don't have the most clear answer to this, by the way, but 00:25:02.039 --> 00:25:04.880 one is that this is our second service of worship today. 00:25:04.880 --> 00:25:09.120 So if we only had one service of worship, we wouldn't do this. 00:25:09.120 --> 00:25:10.680 We've preached the gospel. 00:25:10.680 --> 00:25:13.000 We've opened God's Word and preached the gospel this morning. 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:14.000 We've prayed. 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:15.320 We've sung. 00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:19.159 The gospel has been spoken this evening multiple times. 00:25:19.159 --> 00:25:27.119 And so we think that in that, we're obeying the principle that our church sets out to 00:25:27.119 --> 00:25:30.639 obey, which is what we call the regulative principle of worship. 00:25:30.639 --> 00:25:35.000 So there are kind of two ways to think about worship and what you do in worship. 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:37.439 There's many more than that, but there's kind of two broad brush. 00:25:37.439 --> 00:25:38.799 One is called the regulative principle. 00:25:38.799 --> 00:25:40.599 One is called the normative principle. 00:25:40.599 --> 00:25:45.679 The regulative principle says that you only do in worship what the Bible commands you 00:25:45.679 --> 00:25:47.579 to do in worship. 00:25:47.579 --> 00:25:55.119 So things like pray, sing, read scripture, preach, proclaim the gospel. 00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:58.759 The normative principle says, on the other hand, that you can do anything in worship 00:25:58.759 --> 00:26:00.419 that's wise. 00:26:00.419 --> 00:26:04.119 So anything in worship that you think is for the benefit of getting the gospel out there 00:26:04.119 --> 00:26:06.000 to people, whatever it might be. 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:11.220 So in the regulative principle, you wouldn't have like a drama, a play or something in 00:26:11.220 --> 00:26:12.220 worship. 00:26:12.220 --> 00:26:13.839 In the normative principle, it would say, that's fine. 00:26:13.839 --> 00:26:14.839 You can have a drama. 00:26:14.839 --> 00:26:17.680 You can have a play at worship, something like that. 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:18.680 So that's the difference. 00:26:18.680 --> 00:26:22.880 We are a regulative principle church in tradition. 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:29.359 Q and A is a little bit of a gray area to be maybe, but it is an extension of reflection 00:26:29.359 --> 00:26:33.920 on the word of God and something that I think a couple of times a year is okay as long as 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:39.279 it's couched in a Sunday where the word of God has been preached. 00:26:39.279 --> 00:26:45.279 So that would lead us also into asking about worship on Sunday nights even, I think. 00:26:45.279 --> 00:26:48.759 But probably don't want to do that. 00:26:48.759 --> 00:26:49.759 Okay. 00:26:49.759 --> 00:26:55.360 I would argue as well, preaching and teaching is a legitimate part of, obviously, preaching, 00:26:55.360 --> 00:26:57.960 legitimate part of the regulative principle. 00:26:57.960 --> 00:27:03.960 It's part of orderly worship as it's laid out in the New Testament when Corinthians 14 00:27:03.960 --> 00:27:05.880 talks about a word of instruction. 00:27:05.880 --> 00:27:12.759 And I think answering questions biblically would come under that word of instruction. 00:27:12.759 --> 00:27:18.600 I think sometimes we're a little bit narrow in our understanding of preaching as it's 00:27:18.600 --> 00:27:25.440 got to be a 28 to 35 minute monologue from the front, which isn't necessarily the only 00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:32.680 form and you'll see lots and lots of evidences of Jesus asking questions and also answering 00:27:32.680 --> 00:27:33.680 questions. 00:27:33.680 --> 00:27:37.400 And even from a young age, he would go into a synagogue and ask a lot of questions. 00:27:37.400 --> 00:27:41.320 And also they were amazed at his answers so he could do both. 00:27:41.320 --> 00:27:46.160 So I know you're not amazed at our answers, but we're good at asking them anyway. 00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:49.039 Well, you're very good at asking them. 00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:54.519 And spirit and truth, the whole kind of broader concept of worship being in spirit and truth. 00:27:54.519 --> 00:27:57.599 So we're guided by that recognition as well. 00:27:57.599 --> 00:27:58.599 Yeah. 00:27:58.599 --> 00:28:01.119 Last thing I'll say quickly is just a regulative principle. 00:28:01.119 --> 00:28:05.240 You can be really strict about it or you can be a little more porous about it. 00:28:05.240 --> 00:28:09.400 And we would definitely be the little more porous culture about it here. 00:28:09.400 --> 00:28:12.680 But the problem is being really strict about it, saying I'll never do anything in the worship 00:28:12.680 --> 00:28:13.680 service. 00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:18.200 There's not a direct command or I'll always do what's directly commanded is that nobody 00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:19.799 does everything that's commanded. 00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:28.119 So 11 times in the Psalms we're told, lift holy hands when you pray. 00:28:28.119 --> 00:28:33.799 First Timothy 2, when the men pray and worship, they should hold their hands in the air. 00:28:33.799 --> 00:28:34.799 We don't do that. 00:28:34.799 --> 00:28:35.799 Indeed. 00:28:35.799 --> 00:28:39.240 And there's reasons to say that. 00:28:39.240 --> 00:28:42.200 There's a lot of cultural questions going on there, right? 00:28:42.200 --> 00:28:43.799 But it doesn't work like that. 00:28:43.799 --> 00:28:46.960 You can't just say every passage is so clear cut. 00:28:46.960 --> 00:28:48.440 It has to be interpreted. 00:28:48.440 --> 00:28:53.920 And so we would have that heart about something like questions and answers, I think. 00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:54.920 Okay. 00:28:54.920 --> 00:28:58.360 I think two more. 00:28:58.360 --> 00:29:06.480 What are some of the current theological controversies or discussions that are happening? 00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:08.880 Just quickly, there's all sorts. 00:29:08.880 --> 00:29:10.960 There's so many answers you could give to this. 00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:14.400 One of the important things to say is that this depends on where you live. 00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:17.000 This depends on what country you're in. 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:22.279 So the controversies that are happening in Scotland are different than parts of Africa, 00:29:22.279 --> 00:29:26.960 parts of East Asia, parts of... Because all controversies rise up when people come 00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:32.960 and ask questions or give challenges or teaching that may be not in accord with what we think 00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:34.440 the Bible teaches. 00:29:34.440 --> 00:29:37.599 And so that always depends on where you are. 00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:43.640 But maybe I'll just mention three that are in our context. 00:29:43.640 --> 00:29:51.960 And I say our context, meaning pretty broad, western evangelical sort of context. 00:29:51.960 --> 00:30:00.759 One that comes to my mind would be the questions about sexuality and questions about God's 00:30:00.759 --> 00:30:05.720 law and ethics as it pertains to human sexuality in general and how the church should relate 00:30:05.720 --> 00:30:06.960 to those questions. 00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:15.519 So one of the biggest that I see is what do we do with sexual desire in particular? 00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:23.840 So are all sexual desires that aren't in accord with God's word illicit? 00:30:23.840 --> 00:30:29.759 So the controversy would just be over how to categorize sexual desire, when is it sin, 00:30:29.759 --> 00:30:31.559 when is it not sin? 00:30:31.559 --> 00:30:32.840 So that's one of the major ones. 00:30:32.840 --> 00:30:36.720 By the way, we're not trying to answer these or deal with them. 00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:40.319 I'm just trying to mention what they are. 00:30:40.319 --> 00:30:45.880 The second one I think that comes to my mind is on following on from that questions about 00:30:45.880 --> 00:30:47.559 gender. 00:30:47.559 --> 00:30:52.720 So there's a lot of theological controversy right now about gender, as many of you well 00:30:52.720 --> 00:31:00.799 know, and maybe to bring it down into just one thing, it would be something like has 00:31:00.799 --> 00:31:08.240 the complementary and egalitarian discussions of the last 50 years really accurately understood 00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:10.879 the Bible on gender, on a theology of gender. 00:31:10.879 --> 00:31:12.440 That's kind of the big question. 00:31:12.440 --> 00:31:18.159 And it all comes down, I think, to largely what you think about Genesis 3.16. 00:31:18.159 --> 00:31:22.799 So there's been interpretations of Genesis 3.16 that have tried to go back to the early 00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:27.000 church and I think that's really changed the discussion in some ways about a theology of 00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:28.000 gender. 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:29.000 Really important. 00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:32.960 I'll probably talk about it in detail sometime, but I'm not going to right now. 00:31:32.960 --> 00:31:41.240 And then thirdly, I think the last one I'll mention is that in an age where there's no 00:31:41.240 --> 00:31:47.400 longer moral consensus in our nations, there's no longer moral consensus across the Western 00:31:47.400 --> 00:31:50.480 world as there once was. 00:31:50.480 --> 00:31:58.319 There's a lot of people struggling and debating about the church and the Christians' relationship 00:31:58.319 --> 00:32:05.559 to the state, to the government, to the political domain, and to what degree we should speak 00:32:05.559 --> 00:32:10.879 into it and questions about what is our actual goal. 00:32:10.879 --> 00:32:15.799 So if we were to get everything we wanted in the city of Edinburgh, what would that 00:32:15.799 --> 00:32:18.079 actually be? 00:32:18.079 --> 00:32:24.039 Would it be that the church gets re-established as a part of the state, for example? 00:32:24.039 --> 00:32:30.319 What would revival to its greatest in prior to Christ coming back really be for us if 00:32:30.319 --> 00:32:33.200 we could map it out ourselves? 00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:35.399 That's really the heart of the question. 00:32:35.399 --> 00:32:39.879 So this is all to do with what we call our political theology. 00:32:39.879 --> 00:32:41.879 So those are a few of the big things. 00:32:41.879 --> 00:32:42.879 Yeah? 00:32:42.879 --> 00:32:48.359 Yeah, some of that might come out, or that last one, in the coronation next week. 00:32:48.359 --> 00:32:49.359 Yeah, yeah. 00:32:49.359 --> 00:32:51.559 Some of the things that are being said. 00:32:51.559 --> 00:32:54.839 In our denomination, the free church has a couple committees that's dealing with some 00:32:54.839 --> 00:32:55.839 of these things. 00:32:55.839 --> 00:33:00.240 One of our own elders is in charge of this question about the church's relationship to 00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:01.240 the political. 00:33:01.240 --> 00:33:02.240 So, yeah. 00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:03.240 All right. 00:33:03.240 --> 00:33:06.200 I think we'll just have one more. 00:33:06.200 --> 00:33:09.399 Does prayer cause a change in God? 00:33:09.399 --> 00:33:12.919 If not, how does it work? 00:33:12.919 --> 00:33:16.440 Well, that's a good question. 00:33:16.440 --> 00:33:24.279 But our understanding of God is that He doesn't change. 00:33:24.279 --> 00:33:30.160 But in His sovereignty and with a degree of mystery, we also recognise that He chooses 00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:37.240 to work through the prayers of His people, which is an incredible reality. 00:33:37.240 --> 00:33:44.000 That the sovereign God chooses to work through the prayers of His people. 00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:47.599 I should think I need to say much more than that. 00:33:47.599 --> 00:33:48.599 Yeah. 00:33:48.599 --> 00:33:55.640 Yeah, there's not a lot to say in terms of trying to work out the mystery. 00:33:55.640 --> 00:34:02.119 But I think it's important to say what you said, and that's that. 00:34:02.119 --> 00:34:09.519 It's kind of maybe, it's absurd to think that I can change God. 00:34:09.519 --> 00:34:15.719 If I could change God, He wouldn't be God. 00:34:15.719 --> 00:34:20.719 Actually our great hope and strength and refuge is the fact that God doesn't change. 00:34:20.719 --> 00:34:21.719 He can't be swayed. 00:34:21.719 --> 00:34:23.599 He can't be tricked. 00:34:23.599 --> 00:34:26.800 He's not capricious. 00:34:26.800 --> 00:34:32.119 So it's so important to say God doesn't change, and yet as you put it in some grand mystery, 00:34:32.119 --> 00:34:36.880 God in His providential knowing of all things from beginning to end has decided that our 00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:41.119 prayers will be powerful and will work to make things happen in the world. 00:34:41.119 --> 00:34:43.840 For Him to truly respond at the same time. 00:34:43.840 --> 00:34:45.599 So yeah, I said the same thing you said. 00:34:45.599 --> 00:34:48.320 I think that that's kind of... 00:34:48.320 --> 00:34:49.320 Yeah. 00:34:49.320 --> 00:34:52.440 A couple of books on that. 00:34:52.440 --> 00:34:56.599 If you want more on that, that that question is just not, that answers are just not satisfying 00:34:56.599 --> 00:34:58.800 at all to you. 00:34:58.800 --> 00:34:59.800 J.I. 00:34:59.800 --> 00:35:03.200 Packer's evangelism and the sovereignty of God treats this question because it's the 00:35:03.199 --> 00:35:07.919 same question as what actually happens in preaching, what actually happens in evangelism, what 00:35:07.919 --> 00:35:12.000 actually happens anytime we do things and we want God to act. 00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:13.000 How does that work? 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:14.000 Well, J.I. 00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:18.960 Packer, in very short little book deals with prayer, evangelism, preaching, whatever it 00:35:18.960 --> 00:35:19.960 may be. 00:35:19.960 --> 00:35:20.960 D.I. 00:35:20.960 --> 00:35:26.279 Carson wrote a book with someone else, I can't remember his name, called something like 00:35:26.279 --> 00:35:30.359 When We Call Upon the Lord, and they called upon the Lord or something like that. 00:35:30.360 --> 00:35:35.640 That's from the first moment we see prayer explicitly mentioned in the Bible, Genesis 00:35:35.640 --> 00:35:43.200 4, where it says that Cain murdered Abel and then Adam and Eve called upon the name of 00:35:43.200 --> 00:35:46.440 the Lord because they no longer had their son. 00:35:46.440 --> 00:35:48.519 They saw the Lord's help. 00:35:48.519 --> 00:35:52.800 So it's a book and they deal with this question really, really in detail. 00:35:52.800 --> 00:35:56.039 So those are a couple of good resources. 00:35:56.039 --> 00:35:57.039 That's us. 00:35:57.039 --> 00:35:58.039 Okay. 00:35:58.039 --> 00:36:00.239 Well, we hope that that was helpful. 00:36:00.239 --> 00:36:05.119 We only do this a couple of times a year and so you can give us some feedback maybe in 00:36:05.119 --> 00:36:12.519 time about what you think, whether this is a valid element of worship or not. 00:36:12.519 --> 00:36:14.440 But for now, let me pray. 00:36:14.440 --> 00:36:23.400 Lord, we thank you for the fact that you call us to seek wisdom and to put away our foolishness. 00:36:23.400 --> 00:36:28.720 So we just ask, Lord, that you would give us all, every single person in this room, 00:36:28.720 --> 00:36:34.599 the wisdom of Christ, the mind of Christ, redeemed reason and all these difficulties. 00:36:34.599 --> 00:36:39.800 We recognize that ethics is so complicated that enacting the Christian life and wisdom 00:36:39.800 --> 00:36:42.800 is so difficult. 00:36:42.800 --> 00:36:44.039 And you've given us the Bible. 00:36:44.039 --> 00:36:49.680 You've given us stories from which we have to think well about our own lives and the 00:36:49.680 --> 00:36:51.760 deep questions. 00:36:51.760 --> 00:36:56.000 So we ask for help, we ask for your presence, we ask that you would help us as a people 00:36:56.000 --> 00:37:00.400 in a church to do well by you and forgive us when we get it wrong, forgive Derek and 00:37:00.400 --> 00:37:03.440 I for things that we've gotten wrong tonight. 00:37:03.440 --> 00:37:06.000 And so we pray that prayer, Lord, we seek your wisdom. 00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:07.000 In Christ's name we pray. 00:37:07.000 --> 00:37:25.000 Amen.