WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.220 Okay, before we pray, I would like to introduce today's guest speaker. 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:12.380 We are very privileged to have a guest speaker with us today, Steve Murphy. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:18.339 And if you recognize the surname, we share the same surname, and that is because Steve 00:00:18.339 --> 00:00:19.400 happens to be my father. 00:00:20.839 --> 00:00:25.260 My dad is in town for business, and when I heard that he was coming through Hong Kong 00:00:25.260 --> 00:00:29.300 a few months ago, I said, we'd love to have you preach and open God's Word to us this 00:00:29.300 --> 00:00:29.620 morning. 00:00:30.300 --> 00:00:32.960 And so let me just tell you one or two things about my dad. 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:38.780 Where should I start? 00:00:41.780 --> 00:00:48.560 I think that the enduring memory or probably the thing that sticks in my mind the most about 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:54.740 my father is he is a man who, as long as I can remember, about 35 years or so, is someone 00:00:54.740 --> 00:00:57.040 who fears God and has loved His Word. 00:00:57.039 --> 00:01:01.399 From a very young age, I remember walking through the house in the early hours of the morning, 00:01:01.579 --> 00:01:04.719 and there was my dad on his knees before the scriptures in prayer. 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:07.039 He's a man that fears God and loves His Word. 00:01:07.719 --> 00:01:11.879 And my dad's also been an outstanding husband to my mom for almost 40 years. 00:01:11.879 --> 00:01:19.560 And in addition to that, has been the greatest father that you could ever imagine. 00:01:19.739 --> 00:01:20.640 And I don't just say that. 00:01:20.699 --> 00:01:21.640 I genuinely mean that. 00:01:21.879 --> 00:01:26.519 And in addition to that, my dad is probably one of my very best friends. 00:01:27.199 --> 00:01:32.780 And dad, I love you so much, and it's a pity that we get to live so far away from each other. 00:01:32.840 --> 00:01:37.539 My dad's living in Cape Town with my mom at the moment, but it's wonderful to have you 00:01:37.540 --> 00:01:38.060 in Hong Kong. 00:01:38.520 --> 00:01:41.540 But I think there's one other thing that would be good for us to know is my dad, in 00:01:41.540 --> 00:01:45.960 some ways, has been involved in church leadership for much of his adult life. 00:01:46.020 --> 00:01:50.340 He's been an elder in many churches in many parts of the world, pastored a church in Vietnam 00:01:50.340 --> 00:01:54.140 for seven years, but has also been a businessman his whole life. 00:01:54.280 --> 00:01:59.140 And currently he's the CEO of a big reinsurance and financial services company in Africa. 00:01:59.140 --> 00:02:04.799 And so has managed to balance this thing of having a vibrant faith and serving the community 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:11.580 and also a busy work life, which I know in Hong Kong is often very difficult for us, right? 00:02:11.920 --> 00:02:13.840 Work life in Hong Kong is very demanding. 00:02:14.379 --> 00:02:19.139 My dad is someone who's managed to manage that busy work life, serving in church, and 00:02:19.139 --> 00:02:21.639 also being a very faithful husband and father. 00:02:22.139 --> 00:02:25.560 And so dad, it really is a great privilege to have you sharing God's Word with us this morning. 00:02:25.620 --> 00:02:26.520 I'm looking forward to it. 00:02:26.520 --> 00:02:31.420 So on that note, let me pray for us, and then we're going to listen to the reading of God's 00:02:31.420 --> 00:02:33.380 Word, and then we will listen to the preaching. 00:02:33.580 --> 00:02:36.960 So let's, will you join me as we pray together this morning? 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:44.719 Heavenly Father, great and glorious God, we come before you this morning to adore you and 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:46.280 to praise your great name. 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:52.219 Father, it is in worshiping you and ascribing honor and glory to your name that we align our 00:02:52.219 --> 00:02:56.620 hearts with what is true, and that we discover what it means to be fully human. 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:00.120 And so it is our joy and our privilege to worship you today. 00:03:00.860 --> 00:03:05.740 Oh, great God, maker of heaven and earth, you who created the galaxies and the planets, 00:03:06.379 --> 00:03:12.020 stars and moons and further space, you who billions of years ago spoke into existence that 00:03:12.020 --> 00:03:13.840 which we have not even yet discovered. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:18.120 Father, we humble ourselves before you and we say that you are God and we are not. 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:23.759 You are glorious and worthy of worship, and we do that joyfully this morning. 00:03:23.980 --> 00:03:25.759 How majestic is your name, oh God. 00:03:25.819 --> 00:03:27.520 How glorious are your ways. 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:32.719 Father, this morning we acknowledge our brokenness to you and we confess our sin. 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:36.219 God, we get angry and we hold grudges. 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:38.199 We feel aggrieved when embarrassed. 00:03:38.199 --> 00:03:42.000 We feel sorry for ourselves when things don't go our way. 00:03:42.179 --> 00:03:45.919 And God, we are broken because we are sinners, and we confess this to you. 00:03:46.339 --> 00:03:49.060 We ask for your redeeming and your healing grace. 00:03:49.939 --> 00:03:55.259 Father, this morning we thank you that, Jesus, because of your cross, you have purchased our 00:03:55.259 --> 00:03:55.599 forgiveness. 00:03:56.579 --> 00:04:01.399 We ask, Father, that as we confess our sins to you, won't you apply that forgiveness to 00:04:01.399 --> 00:04:05.219 us, that we may walk in the freedom of renewed and joyful relationship with you. 00:04:05.219 --> 00:04:07.460 Father, cast our sin away from us. 00:04:07.560 --> 00:04:09.359 Wash us white as snow, we pray. 00:04:11.259 --> 00:04:12.580 God, this is our confidence. 00:04:12.759 --> 00:04:15.539 This is why we come before you, because of Jesus and his cross. 00:04:16.420 --> 00:04:18.360 Thank you, Jesus, for dying for us. 00:04:19.800 --> 00:04:23.800 Father, it's not just sinners out there, those people that need you. 00:04:23.860 --> 00:04:24.600 We need you. 00:04:25.319 --> 00:04:27.199 And we rejoice in that this morning. 00:04:30.060 --> 00:04:33.759 Father, this morning we also want to pray for the many parents in our congregation. 00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:37.680 We ask, God, that you come and you wash us with your love. 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:43.079 God, deliver us from finding our identity and our validation in our children and their 00:04:43.079 --> 00:04:43.560 successes. 00:04:44.599 --> 00:04:48.939 God, we do ask that you give us the wisdom to raise our children as you'd want us to. 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:52.519 Help us to shape and shepherd their hearts, not just their behavior. 00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:57.120 Lead us, God, to teach them the gospel, not just how to act Christianly. 00:04:57.759 --> 00:05:02.139 Give us, God, patience when parenting demands more of us than we feel we have to offer. 00:05:02.139 --> 00:05:05.599 Give us wisdom when we are out of our depth and don't know what to do. 00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:10.959 Give us peace, God, we pray, when we are overcome with worry and exceeding anxiety. 00:05:12.039 --> 00:05:14.139 And Father, we pray for the children of this community. 00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:16.839 Unborn children still in their mother's wombs. 00:05:17.139 --> 00:05:20.599 Infant children, young children, grown-up children, adult children. 00:05:21.079 --> 00:05:25.659 God, we ask that you work in the hearts of every child, of every family in this church, God. 00:05:25.660 --> 00:05:31.020 Whether such children know you and honor you or not, stir their hearts, God. 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:32.160 Draw them back to you. 00:05:32.320 --> 00:05:33.620 Pour your love into their hearts. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:37.840 Open the eyes of their hearts that they may know what is the hope to which you've called 00:05:37.840 --> 00:05:38.780 them, we pray, God. 00:05:39.460 --> 00:05:41.740 Father, pour out your spirit on our children, God. 00:05:41.820 --> 00:05:45.680 Turn the hearts of the children back to their parents and to you, O God. 00:05:46.460 --> 00:05:50.879 O Lord, we are desperate that our children know you and serve you and find their hope in 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:52.060 you and rest in you. 00:05:52.060 --> 00:05:56.060 Come and move in our city, God, and start with our families, we pray. 00:05:57.980 --> 00:05:59.160 Come and do this, God. 00:06:01.019 --> 00:06:04.519 Lord, we and our children need you, God, more than anything else. 00:06:04.680 --> 00:06:06.139 Come and move, we pray, God. 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:08.279 Hear our prayers, Lord. 00:06:08.379 --> 00:06:11.560 And finally, Father, we want to pray for our city. 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:16.860 And God, this morning, we want to bring Island ECC, the wonderful church, before you. 00:06:16.899 --> 00:06:22.000 God, we do pray that your God will move powerfully in that church, such that they will ever grow 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:25.139 in their love for your gospel and their confidence in your word. 00:06:26.060 --> 00:06:31.000 We pray, Jesus, that you will be exceedingly big in the hearts of every member and all 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:31.579 that they do. 00:06:32.879 --> 00:06:37.560 God, that the honor of Christ in your name will permeate every meeting and every agenda. 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:43.620 Lord, this morning, we pray for Brett and Shannon and Rick Bates and their families. 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:44.620 We pray for their team. 00:06:45.300 --> 00:06:46.899 Thank you for their passion for ministry. 00:06:46.899 --> 00:06:50.039 Thank you for their kindness towards all the churches in Hong Kong. 00:06:50.620 --> 00:06:55.500 We pray that they will continue to grow in the fear of the Lord, in love for your word, 00:06:55.939 --> 00:06:59.039 in confidence in the gospel, and in favor with God and man. 00:06:59.560 --> 00:07:03.259 We pray this in your forgiving, reassuring, and steadfast name. 00:07:03.919 --> 00:07:04.199 Amen. 00:07:04.839 --> 00:07:05.219 Amen. 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:08.859 Let's listen to the reading of God's word, and then we'll listen to the preaching. 00:07:08.860 --> 00:07:19.100 The scripture reading comes from Nehemiah chapter 1. 00:07:19.960 --> 00:07:23.139 Please follow along in your bulletins or on the screen. 00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:28.900 The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hecaliah. 00:07:28.899 --> 00:07:38.519 Now it happened in a month of cheese leaf, in the 20th year, as I was in Susa, the citadel, 00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:47.299 that Halani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah, and asked them concerning 00:07:47.299 --> 00:07:53.620 the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 00:07:53.620 --> 00:08:03.459 Now they said to me, the remnant there in the prophets who had survived the exile is in 00:08:03.459 --> 00:08:06.259 great trouble and shame. 00:08:07.259 --> 00:08:14.079 The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire. 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:25.560 As soon as I heard these words, I sat down, and wept, and mourned for days. 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:31.919 And I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:43.060 And I said, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast 00:08:43.060 --> 00:08:52.220 love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open 00:08:52.220 --> 00:08:59.139 to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people 00:08:59.139 --> 00:09:06.620 of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned 00:09:06.620 --> 00:09:07.519 against you. 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:12.340 Even I and my father's house have sinned. 00:09:13.240 --> 00:09:20.960 We have acted very corruptedly against you and have not kept commandments, the statutes, 00:09:21.379 --> 00:09:24.679 and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 00:09:24.679 --> 00:09:35.319 Remember the words that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will 00:09:35.319 --> 00:09:37.179 scatter you among the peoples. 00:09:38.259 --> 00:09:46.299 But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the 00:09:46.299 --> 00:09:52.359 utmost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have 00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:55.200 chosen to make my name through there. 00:09:56.700 --> 00:10:03.680 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by 00:10:03.680 --> 00:10:05.019 your strong hand. 00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:13.060 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants 00:10:13.060 --> 00:10:18.240 who delight to fear your name and give success to your servant today. 00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:23.060 And grant him mercy in the sight of this man. 00:10:24.460 --> 00:10:26.980 Now I was cut barrier to the king. 00:10:27.779 --> 00:10:29.340 This is the word of God. 00:10:37.480 --> 00:10:38.940 Well, good morning to you all. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:40.419 It's a delight to be with you. 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:45.419 Thanks, son, for those wonderful words. 00:10:45.419 --> 00:10:52.000 Jenny and I have a bittersweet kind of experience when we think of Watermark. 00:10:53.339 --> 00:10:58.439 Sweet because Kevin and Claire are here and because you have been so gracious in extending 00:10:58.439 --> 00:10:59.299 a call to them. 00:11:00.299 --> 00:11:02.860 Bitter because we went back to Cape Town to be with them. 00:11:05.059 --> 00:11:07.599 And as we had been there four weeks, then they came here. 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:12.540 So there's a kind of, we love Watermark. 00:11:12.659 --> 00:11:13.360 We pray for you. 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:14.639 We think of you muchly. 00:11:15.779 --> 00:11:18.360 But on the other hand, we wish they were back in Cape Town. 00:11:19.740 --> 00:11:25.920 But as we console ourselves, we find the satisfaction that we would rather our children be in the 00:11:25.920 --> 00:11:32.540 uttermost parts of the earth, serving the purposes of God, rather than be making us comfortable 00:11:32.539 --> 00:11:34.860 in our own home nest. 00:11:35.419 --> 00:11:43.480 And there is a much greater sense of security and delight and great confidence in knowing 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:50.360 that your children, wherever they are, are in God's purposes rather than having them close by 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:55.099 and maybe being missing the real heart of what God intends for them. 00:11:55.100 --> 00:11:59.440 You do have a wonderful couple in Kevin and Claire. 00:11:59.639 --> 00:12:02.120 I don't say that unbiasedly. 00:12:02.860 --> 00:12:09.340 But you have in Kevin and Claire people who love God, love his word, and who know how to 00:12:09.340 --> 00:12:09.560 pray. 00:12:11.659 --> 00:12:17.519 The Lord gave us three promises concerning our three sons and that which spoke of Kevin was 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:19.120 he was a man of prayer. 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:27.500 And so you have a pastor who prays and a pastor who believes in prayer and turns to God when 00:12:27.500 --> 00:12:30.240 he's uncertain on anything and everything. 00:12:30.560 --> 00:12:32.720 But you haven't come to hear me talk about my son. 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:44.539 In 586, when Nebuchadnezzar left Jerusalem, he left a once proud city that had been, as it 00:12:44.539 --> 00:12:46.379 were, the center of the known world. 00:12:46.379 --> 00:12:50.419 Until then, under King David, it had been the capital city of the region. 00:12:51.019 --> 00:12:56.620 And then under King Solomon, who had built his own palace and built the temple, had built 00:12:56.620 --> 00:13:03.439 two enormous structures that spoke of enormous wealth, of enormous ingenuity, and spoke of 00:13:03.439 --> 00:13:05.480 the favor of God upon that city. 00:13:05.899 --> 00:13:12.559 Nebuchadnezzar, in 586, when he left it, left it ransacked, broken, and in ruins. 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:18.139 The great walls, which had spoken of its stature, lay burnt and destroyed. 00:13:18.779 --> 00:13:22.439 The gates were no longer serving any purpose whatsoever. 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:25.599 And the temple itself had been ransacked. 00:13:25.819 --> 00:13:31.159 That magnificent building, into which so much wealth had been poured in its construction, 00:13:31.199 --> 00:13:35.759 was now just a collection of ruins. 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:44.019 And it's helpful to understand the situation, because, so we can see the context. 00:13:44.179 --> 00:13:49.439 And so, the kingdom under David, and then followed by Solomon, split after Solomon. 00:13:49.980 --> 00:13:54.819 When he died, the northern tribes, ten of the northern tribes, split into what was Israel, 00:13:55.360 --> 00:14:00.500 and Judah and Benjamin became, as it were, named after Judah, with the southern kingdom. 00:14:00.500 --> 00:14:08.539 And because they had neglected God, because they had kind of treasured their relationship 00:14:08.539 --> 00:14:15.000 socially and kind of religiously, but had lost the essence of what relationship with the 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:22.000 father was, and had drifted off into pagan worship and worshiping of idols, God sent the 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:24.620 nations and punished them, Israel first. 00:14:24.620 --> 00:14:33.240 And then some hundred years later, Nebuchadnezzar came and ransacked the city, and it was destroyed. 00:14:35.740 --> 00:14:40.360 And of course, what we must understand is that Israel came into being as a nation 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:45.279 when that enormous night in Egypt, the angel of death passed over every home, 00:14:45.639 --> 00:14:50.100 and that which carried the bloodstain of a cross upon the lintels of every door, 00:14:50.100 --> 00:14:57.279 the angel of death passed over, then some 600,000 men and women, plus men, plus women and children 00:14:57.279 --> 00:14:58.440 left Egypt. 00:14:58.600 --> 00:15:05.240 And then, in the 40 years that followed, God fashioned this disparate group of people into 00:15:05.240 --> 00:15:05.779 a nation. 00:15:06.379 --> 00:15:13.040 And he chose them as a nation so that through them, he could reveal himself as the God who 00:15:13.040 --> 00:15:15.740 wants to commune and engage with men and women. 00:15:15.740 --> 00:15:22.519 And the Jewish people, through the laws and the precepts and the principles and decrees 00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:29.080 of the father, became a distinct community, because God revealed his heart and his character, 00:15:29.700 --> 00:15:36.360 and they, assimilating those, they became distinctive. 00:15:37.480 --> 00:15:42.899 And in a sense, God chose them to show to the nations what he will do with the people who 00:15:42.899 --> 00:15:44.100 will honor and serve him. 00:15:44.100 --> 00:15:45.940 Of course, they didn't do that very well. 00:15:47.340 --> 00:15:53.920 And now here, and that word that's used here as we look at the prayer of Nehemiah, as he 00:15:53.920 --> 00:16:02.399 starts to say, O Lord God, the great and awesome God, that word Lord is the Hebrew word for 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:07.460 the God who rescues, the God who redeems, the God who takes out. 00:16:07.460 --> 00:16:14.560 And its root is found in that night in Egypt when God redeemed by the blood of the Lamb a 00:16:14.560 --> 00:16:15.960 people to himself. 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:23.820 And so Nehemiah, as he starts to pray this magnificent prayer, roots his approach to God 00:16:23.820 --> 00:16:32.080 in the character of the one who redeems, who heals, who takes what is broken, who takes 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:39.300 what's enslaved, who takes what is powerless to free themselves, and his address is, you 00:16:39.300 --> 00:16:45.360 who are the redeemer, you who are the rescuer, I am making my approach to you. 00:16:46.160 --> 00:16:52.860 And friends, this morning, we must never lose sight of the redemptive nature, the restorative 00:16:52.860 --> 00:16:57.200 nature of our God and what he has done through Jesus Christ. 00:16:57.200 --> 00:16:59.980 He is the one who redeems. 00:17:00.400 --> 00:17:02.000 He is the one who restores. 00:17:02.500 --> 00:17:06.640 He is the one that takes what's broken and makes it whole again. 00:17:07.380 --> 00:17:15.100 We are, and Nehemiah roots his prayer, O Lord God, you who have that night in Egypt taken 00:17:15.100 --> 00:17:17.680 a people out to make whole again. 00:17:17.819 --> 00:17:21.779 I'm coming before you this time in Susa. 00:17:21.880 --> 00:17:24.440 I've heard of the destruction of my city. 00:17:24.539 --> 00:17:26.620 I've heard of its vulnerability. 00:17:26.619 --> 00:17:32.839 I've heard of its desperate state, both physically, socially, politically, spiritually. 00:17:32.839 --> 00:17:41.839 And my appeal is to you, on the basis of what you've done in history, God come and restore. 00:17:42.479 --> 00:17:47.819 Friends, this morning, we must be reminded that we serve and know a God who has revealed 00:17:47.819 --> 00:17:53.959 himself through Jesus as the one who restores, as the one who makes whole. 00:17:53.960 --> 00:18:01.420 Paul wrote so powerfully, it's one of my favorite verses, that he's not ashamed of the gospel. 00:18:02.380 --> 00:18:02.680 Why? 00:18:02.980 --> 00:18:05.779 Because it's the power of God unto salvation. 00:18:06.420 --> 00:18:11.500 Now, of course, when we think of that, we can think of it in very small terms of, you 00:18:11.500 --> 00:18:15.120 know, it's the kind of salvation we put our hand up and God saves us. 00:18:15.779 --> 00:18:18.900 Paul's not talking about a decision and a hand in a meeting. 00:18:18.900 --> 00:18:24.720 Paul's talking about the salvation which is able to take a man or a woman or a family or 00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:26.360 situation in desperate need. 00:18:26.780 --> 00:18:32.540 And God, through the power of the good news of Jesus, is able to redeem and to change and 00:18:32.540 --> 00:18:36.460 to transform and save and restore and make whole. 00:18:37.660 --> 00:18:39.220 That's the story of the gospel. 00:18:40.080 --> 00:18:41.400 That's why he wasn't ashamed. 00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:48.660 And friends, the glory of the gospel, the glory of the person of Jesus, is there is no situation. 00:18:49.400 --> 00:18:55.200 There is nothing that's so desperate that the love of God through Christ Jesus and the dunamis, 00:18:55.360 --> 00:18:59.780 the power of the gospel, isn't able to change and to transform. 00:18:59.779 --> 00:19:07.740 These are not intellectual theological doctrines only, though they are. 00:19:08.339 --> 00:19:13.160 But this should be the kind of living energy that guides and drives us. 00:19:13.420 --> 00:19:21.440 That I'm living under the reign and the authority of one whose power is able to destroy the work of the evil one. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:28.259 That all the chains he might put upon me, the gospel, is able to do things differently. 00:19:28.259 --> 00:19:34.819 So in looking at Nehemiah, we're looking at how God was concerned for his people. 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:43.759 And of course, Nehemiah represents probably one of the greatest illustrations of building in Scripture. 00:19:44.879 --> 00:19:48.920 He goes to a city that's distraught, that's broken, that's destitute. 00:19:49.379 --> 00:19:57.759 And in 52 days, he restores its walls, he hangs its gates, and something of the security of the city is returned. 00:19:58.259 --> 00:20:06.480 But of course, Nehemiah is not just a great builder of a city and restoring a Jerusalem that had been ransacked. 00:20:06.819 --> 00:20:10.920 He is a prototype of a much greater builder who was still to come. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:13.079 He is a prototype. 00:20:13.359 --> 00:20:20.240 He's a prefigurement of the one who would walk through not the broken walls of bricks and stones and gates hanging limp, 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:28.740 but would walk through the broken walls of individual men and women's lives whose gates and whose heads hang down with shame and guilt and inadequacy 00:20:28.740 --> 00:20:38.279 and touch them and begin to restore them and build a living temple out of burnt and disused stones that this world says are not sufficient. 00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:45.480 And Christ is able to restore the glory of himself and his person in our own hearts and in our own lives. 00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:50.900 This is what we really must look for when we're looking at Nehemiah. 00:20:51.099 --> 00:20:55.740 Now, there are three things I just want to highlight out of this magnificent passage. 00:20:58.059 --> 00:21:01.900 I want us to see that there is the first thing about his prayer. 00:21:02.019 --> 00:21:09.980 O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love. 00:21:09.980 --> 00:21:17.640 God, the one that we serve, is consistently preserver of what he said he would do. 00:21:17.740 --> 00:21:21.819 The words of David as he was passing on, leaving the words to his son Solomon, 00:21:21.940 --> 00:21:27.740 he said that all that the Lord has spoken he has fulfilled with his hands. 00:21:28.440 --> 00:21:30.480 We have a God who doesn't just speak. 00:21:30.819 --> 00:21:35.200 We have a God who delivers and performs that which he said he would do. 00:21:35.860 --> 00:21:38.299 Friends, are we possessed with this conviction? 00:21:38.299 --> 00:21:45.220 Do we understand that this church and serving God and loving him isn't a kind of religious exercise? 00:21:45.460 --> 00:21:47.859 It's an experience with the divine. 00:21:48.659 --> 00:21:53.139 That he who speaks a word into our hearts is the one who fulfills it. 00:21:53.879 --> 00:21:58.700 I remember years ago when I was in business, I'd heard a sermon of a man who preached and he said, 00:21:58.700 --> 00:22:03.799 The problem with us as Christians is we trust God for such small things. 00:22:03.799 --> 00:22:10.720 He said we trust him for houses, for promotion, for big cars and bigger jobs. 00:22:11.240 --> 00:22:15.039 He said these things are so small because God in the Psalms promised us, 00:22:15.159 --> 00:22:18.019 Ask and call unto me and I'll give you the nations. 00:22:19.539 --> 00:22:23.779 Now, let me ask you, how big is your dream? 00:22:24.460 --> 00:22:25.819 How big are you trusting God? 00:22:25.819 --> 00:22:26.480 How big are you trusting God? 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:29.200 And I remember this kind of echoed in my mind, in my mind. 00:22:30.259 --> 00:22:31.579 And I was at lunchtime. 00:22:31.659 --> 00:22:32.619 I can still see myself. 00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:35.859 I got down next to the couch in my office and I said, 00:22:35.919 --> 00:22:40.879 God, I want you to send me to a nation where our church movement is not part of. 00:22:41.240 --> 00:22:42.279 We've never been there. 00:22:42.539 --> 00:22:44.879 And give me the chance to do something for you there. 00:22:46.179 --> 00:22:49.240 Fifteen years later, fifteen years later, I'd forgotten the prayer. 00:22:49.240 --> 00:22:52.579 And we were pastoring a church in Vietnam. 00:22:53.779 --> 00:23:00.299 A funny, unqualified man from South Africa in a communist nation leading a church. 00:23:01.420 --> 00:23:05.220 God fulfills with his words, with his hands, what he promises with his mouth. 00:23:08.339 --> 00:23:10.839 And so Nehemiah approaches God with this wonderful, 00:23:11.620 --> 00:23:15.640 Oh Lord God, the one who redeems, the one who saves, the one who sets free. 00:23:15.640 --> 00:23:20.720 And he knew there's a sense, there's a language of conviction, 00:23:20.940 --> 00:23:23.920 there's a language of intent, there's a language of expectation. 00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:26.540 This is not poetry. 00:23:27.140 --> 00:23:30.820 This is the burning urge and sense and conviction from his heart. 00:23:30.920 --> 00:23:33.680 Oh Lord God, the great and awesome God. 00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:39.259 He knew and understood that he was coming into the presence of one who was almighty. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:43.360 The awesome God, the one who inspires all. 00:23:43.780 --> 00:23:45.300 A sense of wonder. 00:23:45.640 --> 00:23:51.800 You see, Nehemiah rooted his appeal for all that was to follow in the sovereign authority, 00:23:51.980 --> 00:23:53.960 the omnipresent, where God is always. 00:23:54.380 --> 00:23:57.520 The omniscience, or the all-knowing God. 00:23:59.080 --> 00:24:02.980 And the omnipotence, the all-powerful God. 00:24:03.140 --> 00:24:05.880 He understood something of whom God was. 00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:11.860 Jehoshaphat, when he was faced with the armies of the Moabites and the Ammonites, 00:24:11.859 --> 00:24:16.039 roots his appeal for help in the character of God when he says this. 00:24:16.039 --> 00:24:36.539 Friends, when we come to pray, do we come with the sense of assurance? 00:24:36.539 --> 00:24:38.299 Are you not God? 00:24:38.539 --> 00:24:40.139 Are you not in heaven? 00:24:40.539 --> 00:24:45.000 And no one, no one can withstand your power. 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:52.039 Do we understand the great privilege that we have as believers to come before him and to seek after him? 00:24:52.579 --> 00:24:56.940 And much in modern preaching has, in a sense, diluted who God is. 00:24:58.119 --> 00:25:06.880 And when we pray, we must always keep this transcendent understanding that God is God from infinity in the beginning to infinity in the end. 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:09.480 That's a contradiction in terms, I understand that. 00:25:09.540 --> 00:25:15.160 But I'm trying to just say, he is God over everything, everywhere, over all things. 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:18.480 You know, we sometimes think, well, no one will see it. 00:25:18.600 --> 00:25:19.260 God's seen it. 00:25:19.300 --> 00:25:24.860 He even knew our hearts before we began to enact that which was wrong or that which was good. 00:25:25.100 --> 00:25:27.520 He sees and knows everything. 00:25:29.500 --> 00:25:32.220 And what an awesome privilege. 00:25:32.220 --> 00:25:36.660 And this is the conviction that gripped Nehemiah when he comes before the Father. 00:25:37.860 --> 00:25:38.540 Are you not? 00:25:41.540 --> 00:25:55.080 You see, when we dilute who God is, we've kind of, much in modern Christianity is focusing on the love of God, the goodness of God, which is absolutely wonderful and absolutely correct. 00:25:55.880 --> 00:25:58.280 But we need to keep these things in tension. 00:25:58.280 --> 00:26:06.660 God is gracious and merciful and profound and patient beyond anything we ever understood and can understand. 00:26:06.880 --> 00:26:13.940 God is also the awesome, holy, authoritative force person that governs the universe. 00:26:14.860 --> 00:26:21.860 And we need to understand that the love of God and the sovereignty of God and the authority of God are in holy tension. 00:26:21.859 --> 00:26:24.619 And it's not one or the other. 00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:27.639 God is God completely. 00:26:28.099 --> 00:26:29.639 And we need to revere him. 00:26:29.979 --> 00:26:32.299 And the manifestation of that was in Calvary. 00:26:32.299 --> 00:26:50.399 The great love of God being poured out and at the same time the great judgment being poured out and despicably and scandalously and tragically experienced by his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:26:50.400 --> 00:26:56.060 We've lost the wonder and the majesty of him who's spoken to the darkness and light came. 00:26:56.180 --> 00:26:59.420 Who's spoken to that which was dead and life emerged. 00:26:59.620 --> 00:27:02.940 We've spoken to the confusion and order began to unfold. 00:27:03.420 --> 00:27:08.780 We've forgotten the glory of the one who created all things. 00:27:08.779 --> 00:27:18.039 And so I want to suggest his conviction was rooted in an understanding of the awesomeness of the Lord. 00:27:18.879 --> 00:27:21.539 The awesomeness of our God. 00:27:21.920 --> 00:27:26.099 Who is able to make lots, everything out of nothing. 00:27:26.759 --> 00:27:30.480 Before whom the nations are counted as dust upon the scales. 00:27:31.299 --> 00:27:35.759 Whose value and significance is but a drop in the bucket. 00:27:35.759 --> 00:27:41.079 Who gives life to the dead and calls into things that do not exist as though they did. 00:27:42.220 --> 00:27:45.000 He puts to death and he brings to life. 00:27:45.660 --> 00:27:47.759 He wounds and he heals. 00:27:48.460 --> 00:27:56.079 He calls the stars by name and the vastness of the universe with stars beyond anything modern telescopes have even begun to consider. 00:27:56.799 --> 00:27:57.640 He knows them all. 00:27:58.279 --> 00:28:02.920 He supervises and plots the connectivity of every single cell. 00:28:03.519 --> 00:28:05.440 Billions of them in the human embryo. 00:28:05.759 --> 00:28:10.500 As it's getting ready to birth a new child, male or female. 00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:16.019 And whose steadfast love and affection endure forever and forever. 00:28:16.460 --> 00:28:20.559 Who hears the faintest cry and who responds. 00:28:21.319 --> 00:28:24.980 And who responds to the meekest approach at repentance. 00:28:25.660 --> 00:28:33.180 This is the awesome God whom Nehemiah came before and of whom we must never lose sight. 00:28:33.180 --> 00:28:33.799 He is God. 00:28:33.799 --> 00:28:34.880 He is God. 00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:37.200 The great almighty God. 00:28:38.580 --> 00:28:42.100 As the Lord said, I am the Lord and there is no other. 00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:47.700 And how dare we presume that there be any other. 00:28:48.420 --> 00:28:51.299 As Isaiah said, he is the potter and we are the clay. 00:28:51.299 --> 00:28:55.099 He takes Peter, the man who denies him. 00:28:56.319 --> 00:28:57.379 Three times. 00:28:57.639 --> 00:28:59.740 And then what does he use Peter to do? 00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:05.599 He uses Peter to write an epistle and he uses these magnificent words. 00:29:05.759 --> 00:29:07.599 Peter writes to the church and he says, 00:29:07.599 --> 00:29:16.559 Think about it. 00:29:16.559 --> 00:29:30.079 The person who denied him is the instrument and the very one Jesus through the Holy Spirit uses to pen forever and ever encouragement to the church. 00:29:31.460 --> 00:29:36.740 To be ready to give a hope for the reason for the hope that is within you. 00:29:36.740 --> 00:29:40.720 That had been me, I would say, you're the last person to qualify. 00:29:41.460 --> 00:29:42.420 You denied me. 00:29:42.539 --> 00:29:43.700 No, I can't use you again. 00:29:44.480 --> 00:29:48.319 But God in his grace takes the one who failed and he uses him. 00:29:48.859 --> 00:29:52.420 You know that James and John, the sons of thunder. 00:29:53.380 --> 00:29:55.220 Now go read John's epistles. 00:29:56.240 --> 00:29:56.700 Letters. 00:29:58.200 --> 00:29:59.559 Full of the love of God. 00:30:00.420 --> 00:30:01.779 The patience of God. 00:30:03.160 --> 00:30:05.240 He is the one who restores. 00:30:05.240 --> 00:30:07.940 He is the one who redeems. 00:30:08.440 --> 00:30:10.680 He is the one who sets free. 00:30:11.700 --> 00:30:15.039 He is the one who means that we needn't be defined by what we were. 00:30:15.160 --> 00:30:18.420 We can be defined by what the gospel will make us. 00:30:20.960 --> 00:30:26.200 Friends, have we lost sight of the awesomeness of the one before whom we come to pray? 00:30:27.019 --> 00:30:29.460 Have we lost perspective of whom it is? 00:30:30.440 --> 00:30:35.220 The heavens declare the glory of God and the earth reminds us. 00:30:35.240 --> 00:30:37.539 Show us his handiwork, who he is. 00:30:37.940 --> 00:30:43.480 We need to sometimes pause and just look at what God has done and created and placed around us 00:30:43.480 --> 00:30:50.240 to begin again to remind ourselves of the one before whom we come to worship. 00:30:50.240 --> 00:30:56.920 We're so caught up with our technology, so caught up with the images of videos and TVs and movies 00:30:56.920 --> 00:31:02.539 that we've lost the movie that really speaks life into our hearts and into our souls. 00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:05.620 The movie of the heavens and the wonder of creation. 00:31:05.619 --> 00:31:11.679 Let me ask you, how is your prayer time? 00:31:12.679 --> 00:31:13.599 Is it boring? 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:14.719 Is it routine? 00:31:15.619 --> 00:31:17.879 Is it an exercise I've just got to get through? 00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:29.599 Clem Sunter was a leading senior person in the mining industry in South Africa. 00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:35.899 In the late 1980s, early 90s, there was a dreadful mining accident, 00:31:35.899 --> 00:31:40.659 which really was a result of negligence and shortcuts in the mines, 00:31:41.099 --> 00:31:44.179 which 189 miners were killed. 00:31:45.399 --> 00:31:46.459 And it shook him. 00:31:46.599 --> 00:31:49.579 He was actually chief executive at that stage. 00:31:49.980 --> 00:31:53.599 It shook him so much that he actually asked to be relieved of that position, 00:31:53.599 --> 00:31:55.119 and he worked elsewhere in the group. 00:31:55.119 --> 00:31:59.079 And he developed a skill in scenario planning. 00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:00.459 It's not strategic planning. 00:32:00.559 --> 00:32:03.299 It's kind of trying to look at the scenarios in the future, 00:32:03.299 --> 00:32:06.039 and if this scenario works out, what do we do? 00:32:06.119 --> 00:32:09.000 And if this scenario works out, it's a different discipline, 00:32:09.719 --> 00:32:12.419 and it's kind of trying to see what happens in the future. 00:32:13.099 --> 00:32:14.659 And he became very good at it. 00:32:15.699 --> 00:32:17.279 And I was listening to him last year. 00:32:17.339 --> 00:32:19.099 He was talking at a conference I was at, 00:32:19.519 --> 00:32:21.119 and he shared a moment. 00:32:21.239 --> 00:32:23.979 He said one of the highlights of his life was in the last five years, 00:32:23.980 --> 00:32:27.980 as he had been invited by the Chinese Politburo to address them 00:32:27.980 --> 00:32:29.539 on scenario planning in Beijing. 00:32:31.500 --> 00:32:34.059 And he talks of how he was ushered into the Great Hall, 00:32:34.120 --> 00:32:34.980 and there they all were. 00:32:35.940 --> 00:32:40.279 And he was spending three days with them on scenario planning, 00:32:40.720 --> 00:32:43.480 economic and political possibilities, 00:32:43.880 --> 00:32:45.480 over the next five to ten years. 00:32:46.960 --> 00:32:49.200 And as I thought about it over the next two days, 00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:52.000 I thought, sure, isn't this amazing privilege 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:58.000 to be able to address powerful men and women and government 00:32:58.000 --> 00:32:59.859 and the leading nations of the earth 00:32:59.859 --> 00:33:02.119 to speak about the future. 00:33:04.200 --> 00:33:05.640 And as I was reflecting on it, 00:33:05.680 --> 00:33:07.660 I just felt God just kind of say, 00:33:07.779 --> 00:33:08.119 Stephen, 00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:12.559 you get a greater privilege every morning 00:33:12.559 --> 00:33:14.700 when you come before me in prayer. 00:33:14.700 --> 00:33:18.759 You get the privilege to speak to the creator 00:33:18.759 --> 00:33:21.000 of all the universe, 00:33:21.380 --> 00:33:22.960 the one who is God, 00:33:23.460 --> 00:33:25.559 who works and no one can prohibit it, 00:33:26.120 --> 00:33:27.400 who says, and that's it. 00:33:28.200 --> 00:33:30.519 You get the opportunity through my son 00:33:30.519 --> 00:33:32.640 and with the help of the Holy Spirit 00:33:32.640 --> 00:33:35.240 to come and beseech and to speak to me, 00:33:35.480 --> 00:33:37.600 not to consider scenarios, 00:33:37.819 --> 00:33:39.860 but to make appeals before me 00:33:39.860 --> 00:33:42.080 on things that need to be changed. 00:33:42.079 --> 00:33:44.679 in you and your communities 00:33:44.679 --> 00:33:46.039 and in the earth. 00:33:48.379 --> 00:33:48.899 Friends, 00:33:49.659 --> 00:33:51.939 there is nothing that shapes you, 00:33:52.639 --> 00:33:53.579 your life, 00:33:53.939 --> 00:33:55.419 more than anything 00:33:55.419 --> 00:33:56.679 like prayer. 00:33:57.740 --> 00:34:00.019 You might have been taught it's your education, 00:34:00.279 --> 00:34:01.859 you might be taught it's your bank balance, 00:34:01.980 --> 00:34:03.000 you might have been encouraged, 00:34:03.139 --> 00:34:04.519 it's a thousand other things, 00:34:05.019 --> 00:34:07.500 but that which most shapes your life, 00:34:08.380 --> 00:34:11.000 that which will most shape it for the future, 00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:14.079 is the way you engage and trust God 00:34:14.079 --> 00:34:15.340 and spend time with Him 00:34:15.340 --> 00:34:16.280 on your knees 00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:17.300 and seeking after Him. 00:34:17.619 --> 00:34:18.920 Nothing will shape you 00:34:18.920 --> 00:34:21.159 more than your time in prayer. 00:34:21.480 --> 00:34:22.880 Nothing will shape you for good 00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:23.639 and for righteousness 00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:25.699 more than your time in prayer. 00:34:26.219 --> 00:34:27.059 And that's the thing 00:34:27.059 --> 00:34:27.880 that we probably 00:34:27.880 --> 00:34:29.780 give the least attention to. 00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:31.480 And we are the ones 00:34:31.480 --> 00:34:32.500 who are most bereft 00:34:32.500 --> 00:34:34.900 and suffer most 00:34:34.900 --> 00:34:36.119 because of it. 00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:38.000 James says, 00:34:38.000 --> 00:34:44.239 Do you understand that? 00:34:45.320 --> 00:34:46.619 He was drawing his parallel, 00:34:47.119 --> 00:34:50.119 the prophet Elijah, 00:34:50.280 --> 00:34:51.579 and how he prayed 00:34:51.579 --> 00:34:52.460 and it didn't rain. 00:34:53.599 --> 00:34:54.420 Three and a half years 00:34:54.420 --> 00:34:55.079 and then he prayed 00:34:55.079 --> 00:34:55.800 and it started again. 00:34:55.880 --> 00:34:57.619 The fervent, effectual prayer 00:34:57.619 --> 00:34:59.599 of men and women 00:34:59.599 --> 00:35:01.420 who trust and seek after Him 00:35:01.420 --> 00:35:04.119 can change the city of Hong Kong. 00:35:04.219 --> 00:35:05.579 If that can change nations, 00:35:05.579 --> 00:35:07.659 God through a community of people 00:35:07.659 --> 00:35:08.880 who will trust Him 00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:10.219 can bring more 00:35:10.219 --> 00:35:11.840 than we ever dreamt possible. 00:35:13.299 --> 00:35:14.420 Do we come before Him 00:35:14.420 --> 00:35:15.920 as the great and mighty, 00:35:16.159 --> 00:35:17.119 awesome God? 00:35:17.699 --> 00:35:18.400 Do we address Him 00:35:18.400 --> 00:35:19.420 as the one who is able 00:35:19.420 --> 00:35:20.980 to redeem and to restore? 00:35:22.019 --> 00:35:23.599 Or do we see it as a duty 00:35:23.599 --> 00:35:25.440 that we must get by and finish? 00:35:25.440 --> 00:35:28.179 And so, 00:35:29.119 --> 00:35:33.240 I was listening 00:35:33.240 --> 00:35:35.300 two or three weeks ago 00:35:35.300 --> 00:35:36.940 to a man talking about 00:35:36.940 --> 00:35:39.119 attending a prayer meeting 00:35:39.119 --> 00:35:40.880 in our African, 00:35:42.559 --> 00:35:43.639 I guess townships 00:35:43.639 --> 00:35:45.059 is the way still to describe them, 00:35:45.159 --> 00:35:46.159 that they're poorer areas 00:35:46.159 --> 00:35:48.599 where under the old apartheid system, 00:35:49.240 --> 00:35:51.720 African people were confined to live. 00:35:51.800 --> 00:35:54.420 And you don't just undo those things. 00:35:54.420 --> 00:35:56.940 There's still many communities like that. 00:35:58.059 --> 00:35:59.860 And this European white pastor 00:35:59.860 --> 00:36:02.519 was asking his counterpart, 00:36:02.860 --> 00:36:04.280 pastor from that area, 00:36:04.360 --> 00:36:05.180 an African man, 00:36:05.579 --> 00:36:05.880 saying, 00:36:06.019 --> 00:36:09.680 when I come to your prayer meetings 00:36:09.680 --> 00:36:10.420 in the townships, 00:36:11.300 --> 00:36:12.180 I'm always struck 00:36:12.180 --> 00:36:14.340 by this profound sense of energy 00:36:14.340 --> 00:36:16.680 and enthusiasm and conviction. 00:36:17.579 --> 00:36:17.820 He said, 00:36:17.880 --> 00:36:20.599 even in the most fervent white prayer meetings, 00:36:20.599 --> 00:36:22.440 there's nothing that approximates 00:36:22.440 --> 00:36:23.759 what you focus, 00:36:24.319 --> 00:36:26.039 what I sense and experience 00:36:26.039 --> 00:36:27.799 amongst your people. 00:36:27.880 --> 00:36:29.579 Have you got any explanation for it? 00:36:30.519 --> 00:36:33.259 The answer was tragically profound. 00:36:34.159 --> 00:36:34.559 He said, 00:36:34.659 --> 00:36:35.960 in the white communities, 00:36:36.179 --> 00:36:36.519 he says, 00:36:36.579 --> 00:36:37.679 you have so much 00:36:37.679 --> 00:36:39.079 that you, 00:36:39.239 --> 00:36:40.059 when you pray, 00:36:40.239 --> 00:36:41.339 you're praying to God 00:36:41.339 --> 00:36:42.679 as your last resort. 00:36:42.679 --> 00:36:45.500 But for us, 00:36:45.679 --> 00:36:46.799 in the townships, 00:36:47.319 --> 00:36:48.079 we have nothing. 00:36:49.239 --> 00:36:50.699 And so we turn to God 00:36:50.699 --> 00:36:51.579 for everything 00:36:51.579 --> 00:36:53.279 and anything that happens 00:36:53.279 --> 00:36:54.000 or goes wrong 00:36:54.000 --> 00:36:54.639 or might happen 00:36:54.639 --> 00:36:56.159 because we are solely 00:36:56.159 --> 00:36:58.299 and completely dependent upon him 00:36:58.299 --> 00:36:59.879 and we have a history of him 00:36:59.879 --> 00:37:01.319 answering our prayers 00:37:01.319 --> 00:37:02.279 and working in us 00:37:02.279 --> 00:37:03.719 that we come with a sense 00:37:03.719 --> 00:37:05.099 of profound conviction. 00:37:05.099 --> 00:37:08.360 And Jesus said, 00:37:08.519 --> 00:37:09.239 how hard it is 00:37:09.239 --> 00:37:10.259 for a rich man 00:37:10.259 --> 00:37:11.159 to enter the kingdom 00:37:11.159 --> 00:37:12.079 and I think he was 00:37:12.079 --> 00:37:13.679 not just meaning it 00:37:13.679 --> 00:37:15.480 from a salvation perspective 00:37:15.480 --> 00:37:17.039 but he was also 00:37:17.039 --> 00:37:18.279 meaning it 00:37:18.279 --> 00:37:18.960 because 00:37:18.960 --> 00:37:20.239 we don't feel 00:37:20.239 --> 00:37:21.199 the need of him. 00:37:21.559 --> 00:37:22.400 The second thing is, 00:37:22.460 --> 00:37:23.400 so he approaches God 00:37:23.400 --> 00:37:24.460 with a sense of conviction 00:37:24.460 --> 00:37:25.219 and awesomeness 00:37:25.219 --> 00:37:26.019 and power. 00:37:26.460 --> 00:37:27.739 The second thing he deals with, 00:37:27.779 --> 00:37:28.719 he deals with his sin. 00:37:30.099 --> 00:37:31.799 He's very emphatic about it. 00:37:33.799 --> 00:37:34.960 Sin is an unpopular 00:37:34.960 --> 00:37:35.880 word nowadays. 00:37:36.599 --> 00:37:37.760 Has been for a long time. 00:37:38.480 --> 00:37:39.720 But what we fail to grasp 00:37:39.720 --> 00:37:40.500 is that sin, 00:37:40.980 --> 00:37:41.539 all sin 00:37:41.539 --> 00:37:42.840 and foremost 00:37:42.840 --> 00:37:44.320 is sin against God. 00:37:45.240 --> 00:37:46.340 Before we sin 00:37:46.340 --> 00:37:47.880 on the horizontal levels 00:37:47.880 --> 00:37:48.659 with one another, 00:37:48.780 --> 00:37:50.260 before we disappoint each other, 00:37:50.360 --> 00:37:52.159 before we failed each other, 00:37:52.340 --> 00:37:54.179 we have already sinned 00:37:54.179 --> 00:37:55.360 on the vertical level. 00:37:57.400 --> 00:37:58.420 Sin by definition, 00:37:58.579 --> 00:37:59.559 the word hamate, 00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:01.340 is not wrongdoing 00:38:01.340 --> 00:38:02.460 another person 00:38:02.460 --> 00:38:03.840 so much as it is 00:38:03.840 --> 00:38:04.679 assaulting 00:38:04.679 --> 00:38:06.119 the glory of God. 00:38:08.119 --> 00:38:09.139 Sin is primarily 00:38:09.139 --> 00:38:10.079 an assault 00:38:10.079 --> 00:38:11.799 on our vertical relationship 00:38:11.799 --> 00:38:12.679 and refusing 00:38:12.679 --> 00:38:13.759 to honor him 00:38:13.759 --> 00:38:15.659 for whom we were made 00:38:15.659 --> 00:38:17.399 and for whose glory 00:38:17.399 --> 00:38:18.179 we, 00:38:18.259 --> 00:38:18.919 and whose glory 00:38:18.919 --> 00:38:19.899 we should be reflecting. 00:38:21.039 --> 00:38:21.500 See, 00:38:21.559 --> 00:38:22.399 all relationships 00:38:22.399 --> 00:38:24.119 on the horizontal 00:38:24.119 --> 00:38:25.299 are the consequences 00:38:25.299 --> 00:38:25.960 of sin 00:38:25.960 --> 00:38:27.239 on the vertical. 00:38:27.239 --> 00:38:30.819 and all man's solutions 00:38:30.819 --> 00:38:32.419 at trying to fix 00:38:32.419 --> 00:38:33.219 the horizontal, 00:38:34.219 --> 00:38:35.019 if they ignore 00:38:35.019 --> 00:38:35.799 the vertical, 00:38:36.679 --> 00:38:37.579 are doomed to failure. 00:38:39.159 --> 00:38:39.719 You know, 00:38:39.799 --> 00:38:41.859 we find all 00:38:41.859 --> 00:38:42.699 sound explanations 00:38:42.699 --> 00:38:43.279 if we had 00:38:43.279 --> 00:38:44.799 better economic situations, 00:38:44.799 --> 00:38:45.559 if people were 00:38:45.559 --> 00:38:46.399 better educated, 00:38:46.619 --> 00:38:47.539 if people were 00:38:47.539 --> 00:38:48.099 better trained, 00:38:48.159 --> 00:38:48.639 if people had 00:38:48.639 --> 00:38:49.099 better this, 00:38:49.199 --> 00:38:49.579 better that. 00:38:49.819 --> 00:38:50.439 And those things 00:38:50.439 --> 00:38:50.939 are not wrong. 00:38:52.179 --> 00:38:53.000 Don't get me wrong. 00:38:53.099 --> 00:38:53.959 Those are good. 00:38:54.019 --> 00:38:54.819 We should pursue them. 00:38:54.820 --> 00:38:56.840 But if we pursue them 00:38:56.840 --> 00:38:58.740 exclusively 00:38:58.740 --> 00:39:00.580 forgetting that 00:39:00.580 --> 00:39:01.559 our hearts 00:39:01.559 --> 00:39:02.140 are broken, 00:39:02.280 --> 00:39:03.000 that our lives 00:39:03.000 --> 00:39:03.500 are broken, 00:39:03.680 --> 00:39:04.660 that the relationship 00:39:04.660 --> 00:39:05.460 with the Father 00:39:05.460 --> 00:39:06.340 has been broken, 00:39:07.019 --> 00:39:07.900 then these things 00:39:07.900 --> 00:39:09.100 in and of themselves 00:39:09.100 --> 00:39:10.500 will never be successful. 00:39:11.340 --> 00:39:12.420 And especially 00:39:12.420 --> 00:39:13.140 for nations 00:39:13.140 --> 00:39:14.480 that put so much weight 00:39:14.480 --> 00:39:15.480 around the issue 00:39:15.480 --> 00:39:16.260 of education 00:39:16.260 --> 00:39:16.980 and training, 00:39:17.380 --> 00:39:18.400 let me remind you 00:39:18.400 --> 00:39:18.980 that Germany 00:39:18.980 --> 00:39:20.240 was the most educated 00:39:20.240 --> 00:39:21.480 nation in Europe 00:39:21.480 --> 00:39:22.920 in 1938. 00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:29.380 Just made them 00:39:29.380 --> 00:39:30.579 a very well educated 00:39:30.579 --> 00:39:31.920 army in 1939. 00:39:34.260 --> 00:39:34.880 You see, 00:39:34.980 --> 00:39:35.519 the head 00:39:35.519 --> 00:39:36.440 full of knowledge 00:39:36.440 --> 00:39:37.400 doesn't transform 00:39:37.400 --> 00:39:38.099 the heart 00:39:38.099 --> 00:39:39.820 which has a tendency 00:39:39.820 --> 00:39:40.400 and bias 00:39:40.400 --> 00:39:41.099 towards sin. 00:39:42.579 --> 00:39:43.559 What we need 00:39:43.559 --> 00:39:44.699 is both the head 00:39:44.699 --> 00:39:45.380 and the heart 00:39:45.380 --> 00:39:46.460 to be transformed 00:39:46.460 --> 00:39:47.900 and changed 00:39:47.900 --> 00:39:48.780 altogether. 00:39:48.780 --> 00:39:50.920 The most effective 00:39:50.920 --> 00:39:52.140 antidote to sin 00:39:52.140 --> 00:39:52.860 is to see 00:39:52.860 --> 00:39:53.600 the glory 00:39:53.600 --> 00:39:54.580 and the awesomeness 00:39:54.580 --> 00:39:55.160 of God. 00:39:55.620 --> 00:39:56.240 Because when we've 00:39:56.240 --> 00:39:56.800 seen that, 00:39:57.120 --> 00:39:57.740 then we cry out 00:39:57.740 --> 00:39:58.780 with Isaiah, 00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:00.620 I am a man 00:40:00.620 --> 00:40:01.420 of unclean lips. 00:40:01.580 --> 00:40:01.940 Holy, 00:40:02.360 --> 00:40:02.700 holy, 00:40:03.260 --> 00:40:03.519 holy. 00:40:05.080 --> 00:40:05.800 Sin is really 00:40:05.800 --> 00:40:06.740 setting aside 00:40:06.740 --> 00:40:08.040 the awesome authority 00:40:08.040 --> 00:40:08.640 of God 00:40:08.640 --> 00:40:09.380 and his power 00:40:09.380 --> 00:40:10.180 and his ways 00:40:10.180 --> 00:40:11.060 and his precepts 00:40:11.060 --> 00:40:11.440 to say, 00:40:11.960 --> 00:40:12.519 I choose 00:40:12.519 --> 00:40:13.380 another way, 00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:14.660 a more convenient 00:40:14.659 --> 00:40:15.940 and easier, 00:40:16.819 --> 00:40:18.359 a less humiliating, 00:40:18.659 --> 00:40:19.460 a more comfortable 00:40:19.460 --> 00:40:20.579 way 00:40:20.579 --> 00:40:21.559 or just avoiding 00:40:21.559 --> 00:40:22.879 things altogether. 00:40:23.739 --> 00:40:25.019 The world sees sin 00:40:25.019 --> 00:40:25.819 in a much more 00:40:25.819 --> 00:40:26.940 diluted fashion. 00:40:27.799 --> 00:40:28.460 Sin is a kind 00:40:28.460 --> 00:40:29.599 of behavioral issue, 00:40:29.819 --> 00:40:30.159 you know. 00:40:30.619 --> 00:40:31.359 You hurt me 00:40:31.359 --> 00:40:32.000 and you shouldn't 00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:32.420 do that. 00:40:32.480 --> 00:40:33.099 It's not right. 00:40:33.179 --> 00:40:33.739 It's not good. 00:40:34.899 --> 00:40:35.799 And sin is far, 00:40:35.980 --> 00:40:36.799 far more serious 00:40:36.799 --> 00:40:37.339 than that. 00:40:38.199 --> 00:40:39.339 It's an assault 00:40:39.339 --> 00:40:40.119 upon what God 00:40:40.119 --> 00:40:40.599 has said 00:40:40.599 --> 00:40:41.139 and what God 00:40:41.139 --> 00:40:41.799 requires 00:40:41.799 --> 00:40:42.920 of us 00:40:42.920 --> 00:40:44.480 and his people. 00:40:45.659 --> 00:40:46.179 To injure 00:40:46.179 --> 00:40:46.839 our fellow men 00:40:46.839 --> 00:40:47.399 is sin. 00:40:48.099 --> 00:40:48.920 Not because 00:40:48.920 --> 00:40:49.759 it hurts them 00:40:49.759 --> 00:40:50.599 but because 00:40:50.599 --> 00:40:51.819 it's violating 00:40:51.819 --> 00:40:52.779 the love of God 00:40:52.779 --> 00:40:54.079 has for all people. 00:40:56.119 --> 00:40:56.440 You see, 00:40:57.920 --> 00:40:58.420 in Isaiah, 00:40:58.659 --> 00:40:59.779 in Psalm 51, 00:41:00.199 --> 00:41:01.500 David's great 00:41:01.500 --> 00:41:02.599 prayer of repentance 00:41:02.599 --> 00:41:03.559 where he cries out, 00:41:04.519 --> 00:41:05.460 I'm a man, 00:41:05.940 --> 00:41:06.480 creating me 00:41:06.480 --> 00:41:07.159 a clean heart 00:41:07.159 --> 00:41:07.619 and renew 00:41:07.619 --> 00:41:08.279 a right spirit 00:41:08.279 --> 00:41:08.879 within me. 00:41:09.480 --> 00:41:10.480 He makes this 00:41:10.480 --> 00:41:11.500 statement in verse 4. 00:41:11.619 --> 00:41:11.859 He says, 00:41:12.019 --> 00:41:12.619 Against thee, 00:41:12.639 --> 00:41:13.259 and this is his 00:41:13.259 --> 00:41:14.159 prayer of confession 00:41:14.159 --> 00:41:15.440 concerning Bathsheba 00:41:15.440 --> 00:41:16.839 and Uriah. 00:41:17.299 --> 00:41:18.199 Bathsheba is committed 00:41:18.199 --> 00:41:19.399 adultery with Uriah. 00:41:19.519 --> 00:41:20.319 He had murdered 00:41:20.319 --> 00:41:22.219 and he says, 00:41:22.659 --> 00:41:23.539 Against thee 00:41:23.539 --> 00:41:24.739 and only thee 00:41:24.739 --> 00:41:25.719 have I done 00:41:25.719 --> 00:41:27.000 what is evil. 00:41:27.619 --> 00:41:28.099 Didn't mean 00:41:28.099 --> 00:41:28.819 that it didn't matter 00:41:28.819 --> 00:41:29.239 what he did 00:41:29.239 --> 00:41:29.799 to Bathsheba 00:41:29.799 --> 00:41:30.259 or Uriah. 00:41:30.339 --> 00:41:30.899 He goes on 00:41:30.899 --> 00:41:31.779 to confess that 00:41:31.779 --> 00:41:33.839 but he recognizes 00:41:33.839 --> 00:41:35.440 that the primary sin 00:41:35.440 --> 00:41:36.219 was that he sinned 00:41:36.219 --> 00:41:37.019 against God 00:41:37.019 --> 00:41:38.920 and his failing 00:41:38.920 --> 00:41:39.759 to trust God 00:41:39.759 --> 00:41:40.719 to honor purity, 00:41:40.719 --> 00:41:41.459 his failing 00:41:41.459 --> 00:41:41.919 to try 00:41:41.919 --> 00:41:43.239 to manipulate 00:41:43.239 --> 00:41:43.919 and preserve 00:41:43.919 --> 00:41:44.659 his own name 00:41:44.659 --> 00:41:45.379 from being found 00:41:45.379 --> 00:41:46.399 out against God 00:41:46.399 --> 00:41:47.480 is what resulted 00:41:47.480 --> 00:41:48.199 in the murder 00:41:48.199 --> 00:41:49.199 and the adultery 00:41:49.199 --> 00:41:50.019 with Bathsheba. 00:41:52.699 --> 00:41:53.859 And Nathan's 00:41:53.859 --> 00:41:54.639 challenge to him 00:41:54.639 --> 00:41:54.799 was, 00:41:55.279 --> 00:41:56.179 Why have you 00:41:56.179 --> 00:41:57.219 despised 00:41:57.219 --> 00:41:58.119 the word 00:41:58.119 --> 00:41:59.319 of the Lord? 00:42:00.459 --> 00:42:00.699 See, 00:42:00.759 --> 00:42:01.159 all sin 00:42:01.159 --> 00:42:01.939 comes from 00:42:01.939 --> 00:42:02.299 when we 00:42:02.299 --> 00:42:03.000 originally 00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:04.439 despised God's word, 00:42:04.599 --> 00:42:05.339 his precepts 00:42:05.339 --> 00:42:06.179 or his statutes 00:42:06.179 --> 00:42:07.299 or his rules 00:42:07.299 --> 00:42:08.099 or his ordinances 00:42:08.099 --> 00:42:10.399 because sometimes 00:42:10.399 --> 00:42:11.259 they're inconvenient, 00:42:11.480 --> 00:42:12.719 sometimes they're humiliating, 00:42:12.839 --> 00:42:13.799 sometimes they're awkward, 00:42:14.019 --> 00:42:15.379 sometimes they make us 00:42:15.379 --> 00:42:16.879 feel vulnerable. 00:42:17.899 --> 00:42:19.119 But in that 00:42:19.119 --> 00:42:20.940 is where our security lies 00:42:20.940 --> 00:42:23.099 because God honors us 00:42:23.099 --> 00:42:24.759 when we respond to him 00:42:24.759 --> 00:42:25.799 and when we do things 00:42:25.799 --> 00:42:26.719 his way. 00:42:28.619 --> 00:42:29.639 Let me say this, 00:42:29.699 --> 00:42:30.500 if you will not face 00:42:30.500 --> 00:42:31.699 your sin before God 00:42:31.699 --> 00:42:32.399 and deal with it 00:42:32.399 --> 00:42:33.599 at the cross of Christ, 00:42:34.619 --> 00:42:34.980 you cannot, 00:42:34.980 --> 00:42:35.920 and if we cannot make 00:42:35.920 --> 00:42:37.179 confession before him, 00:42:37.639 --> 00:42:38.760 you will never make 00:42:38.760 --> 00:42:40.119 confession before people. 00:42:42.740 --> 00:42:43.900 If we cannot face 00:42:43.900 --> 00:42:44.539 our weaknesses 00:42:44.539 --> 00:42:45.760 and our inadequacies 00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:46.679 before Calvary, 00:42:47.559 --> 00:42:49.000 you'll never face sin 00:42:49.000 --> 00:42:50.300 anywhere else 00:42:50.300 --> 00:42:51.780 and cope with it. 00:42:52.500 --> 00:42:53.280 It will always 00:42:53.280 --> 00:42:53.840 hound you, 00:42:54.219 --> 00:42:54.740 it will always 00:42:54.740 --> 00:42:55.599 intimidate you 00:42:55.599 --> 00:42:56.539 and ultimately 00:42:56.539 --> 00:42:57.579 it will always, 00:42:57.840 --> 00:42:59.559 always pay its wages 00:42:59.559 --> 00:43:01.559 which is death. 00:43:02.199 --> 00:43:03.300 Death of relationship, 00:43:03.579 --> 00:43:04.440 death of reputation, 00:43:04.440 --> 00:43:05.579 death of standing, 00:43:06.179 --> 00:43:07.159 death of honor, 00:43:07.320 --> 00:43:08.280 death of all the things 00:43:08.280 --> 00:43:09.039 that we pursued, 00:43:09.659 --> 00:43:11.380 sin comes and pays 00:43:11.380 --> 00:43:12.700 its wages. 00:43:13.659 --> 00:43:14.740 Sin also 00:43:14.740 --> 00:43:15.860 always results 00:43:15.860 --> 00:43:16.579 in scattering 00:43:16.579 --> 00:43:17.980 because this, 00:43:18.880 --> 00:43:19.720 Nehemiah prays, 00:43:19.760 --> 00:43:20.099 he says, 00:43:20.579 --> 00:43:21.599 he reminds God 00:43:21.599 --> 00:43:22.220 of the promise 00:43:22.220 --> 00:43:23.119 that he gave to Moses. 00:43:23.280 --> 00:43:23.539 He said, 00:43:23.639 --> 00:43:25.179 if we didn't obey you, 00:43:25.280 --> 00:43:26.700 he promised to scatter us. 00:43:27.240 --> 00:43:27.780 Let me say this, 00:43:27.860 --> 00:43:28.139 skin, 00:43:28.320 --> 00:43:29.840 sin always scatters. 00:43:29.840 --> 00:43:32.559 It always creates division. 00:43:32.840 --> 00:43:34.780 It always creates separation. 00:43:35.180 --> 00:43:36.640 It always destroys. 00:43:37.280 --> 00:43:38.519 Sin never builds up. 00:43:38.900 --> 00:43:39.940 It never unites. 00:43:40.380 --> 00:43:42.019 It never gathers together. 00:43:42.440 --> 00:43:43.640 It never creates. 00:43:44.039 --> 00:43:45.640 It always breaks down 00:43:45.640 --> 00:43:46.100 and destroys. 00:43:46.240 --> 00:43:46.620 And you, 00:43:46.820 --> 00:43:47.860 we might be deluded 00:43:47.860 --> 00:43:48.680 at times to think, 00:43:48.980 --> 00:43:49.079 oh, 00:43:49.120 --> 00:43:49.920 we can just get away. 00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:50.800 We'll paper it over. 00:43:51.000 --> 00:43:52.579 Sin will always expose 00:43:52.579 --> 00:43:53.140 the cracks 00:43:53.140 --> 00:43:55.200 at an inconvenient time later. 00:43:55.199 --> 00:43:56.139 The evil one 00:43:56.139 --> 00:43:56.859 is intent 00:43:56.859 --> 00:43:57.980 on destroying 00:43:57.980 --> 00:43:58.919 and devouring 00:43:58.919 --> 00:44:00.199 and breaking down. 00:44:00.399 --> 00:44:01.799 That is his intention. 00:44:05.500 --> 00:44:06.480 Right from Eden, 00:44:06.639 --> 00:44:07.359 when Adam and Eve 00:44:07.359 --> 00:44:07.980 were expelled, 00:44:08.319 --> 00:44:08.659 the garden, 00:44:08.819 --> 00:44:09.960 sin has been scattering 00:44:09.960 --> 00:44:10.879 and separating 00:44:10.879 --> 00:44:12.000 and dividing 00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:13.719 all the time. 00:44:14.500 --> 00:44:15.519 And the antidote 00:44:15.519 --> 00:44:16.059 is to come 00:44:16.059 --> 00:44:17.799 and face our sin 00:44:17.799 --> 00:44:19.359 at the cross of Christ 00:44:19.359 --> 00:44:20.460 and allow him 00:44:20.460 --> 00:44:21.299 to deal with it 00:44:21.299 --> 00:44:22.019 and allow him 00:44:22.019 --> 00:44:22.719 to forgive us. 00:44:23.159 --> 00:44:24.199 Then we find energy 00:44:24.199 --> 00:44:24.759 and strength 00:44:24.760 --> 00:44:25.380 to face 00:44:25.380 --> 00:44:26.500 is practical 00:44:26.500 --> 00:44:27.100 outworking 00:44:27.100 --> 00:44:28.520 in the ordinary 00:44:28.520 --> 00:44:30.060 events of life. 00:44:30.740 --> 00:44:31.680 And as I wrap up, 00:44:32.060 --> 00:44:32.620 the third point 00:44:32.620 --> 00:44:33.180 he comes to, 00:44:33.260 --> 00:44:33.600 he says, 00:44:34.300 --> 00:44:35.220 if you return, 00:44:35.700 --> 00:44:36.520 if you return. 00:44:37.180 --> 00:44:37.980 Remember the word 00:44:37.980 --> 00:44:38.540 you commanded 00:44:38.540 --> 00:44:40.160 your servant Moses 00:44:40.160 --> 00:44:40.580 saying, 00:44:41.120 --> 00:44:42.020 and then he talks about, 00:44:42.900 --> 00:44:45.500 but if you return 00:44:45.500 --> 00:44:45.860 to me 00:44:45.860 --> 00:44:46.920 and keep my commandments, 00:44:47.720 --> 00:44:48.800 if you return, 00:44:49.740 --> 00:44:50.780 if you return. 00:44:51.380 --> 00:44:52.100 This is not 00:44:52.100 --> 00:44:52.720 the language 00:44:52.720 --> 00:44:53.480 of effort 00:44:53.480 --> 00:44:54.560 or legalism. 00:44:55.760 --> 00:44:57.240 This is like 00:44:57.240 --> 00:44:57.840 preserving 00:44:57.840 --> 00:44:58.540 and keeping, 00:44:58.800 --> 00:44:59.220 treasuring. 00:44:59.420 --> 00:45:00.680 If you treasure, 00:45:00.820 --> 00:45:01.460 if you keep, 00:45:02.240 --> 00:45:03.380 there are notes 00:45:03.380 --> 00:45:04.220 like all of us 00:45:04.220 --> 00:45:05.080 have from our children 00:45:05.080 --> 00:45:05.820 when they were young. 00:45:05.940 --> 00:45:06.540 We have ours 00:45:06.540 --> 00:45:07.140 from Simon 00:45:07.140 --> 00:45:07.700 and Kevin 00:45:07.700 --> 00:45:08.180 and Drew, 00:45:08.780 --> 00:45:09.820 the little scribbled 00:45:09.820 --> 00:45:10.620 notes that they wrote, 00:45:10.720 --> 00:45:11.520 their first attempts 00:45:11.520 --> 00:45:11.980 at writing. 00:45:12.420 --> 00:45:13.400 We've kept those things. 00:45:13.560 --> 00:45:14.360 We've treasured them. 00:45:14.560 --> 00:45:15.740 They're valuable to us. 00:45:16.160 --> 00:45:17.080 They remind us of 00:45:17.080 --> 00:45:18.560 years long ago 00:45:18.560 --> 00:45:19.140 of innocence. 00:45:20.380 --> 00:45:21.420 They are valuable. 00:45:21.920 --> 00:45:22.539 And in a sense, 00:45:22.680 --> 00:45:23.320 Nehemiah, 00:45:23.400 --> 00:45:24.019 that's what God 00:45:24.019 --> 00:45:24.440 is saying. 00:45:24.559 --> 00:45:25.180 If you keep, 00:45:25.420 --> 00:45:26.139 if you treasure, 00:45:26.340 --> 00:45:27.220 if you long for, 00:45:27.300 --> 00:45:28.260 if you hold on to 00:45:28.260 --> 00:45:29.800 me and my precepts 00:45:29.800 --> 00:45:30.320 and my ways, 00:45:30.360 --> 00:45:31.220 if you do that, 00:45:31.880 --> 00:45:32.780 wherever you have 00:45:32.780 --> 00:45:33.460 been scattered, 00:45:33.619 --> 00:45:34.539 wherever you have 00:45:34.539 --> 00:45:34.740 gone, 00:45:34.860 --> 00:45:35.800 even as if to the 00:45:35.800 --> 00:45:37.320 uttermost part of heaven, 00:45:37.760 --> 00:45:38.820 from there I will 00:45:38.820 --> 00:45:39.500 gather you, 00:45:39.579 --> 00:45:40.460 I will draw you. 00:45:40.800 --> 00:45:41.480 And it's the same 00:45:41.480 --> 00:45:42.180 words Jesus, 00:45:42.440 --> 00:45:43.539 in a sense, 00:45:43.619 --> 00:45:44.000 repeated, 00:45:44.099 --> 00:45:44.920 the same motion, 00:45:45.320 --> 00:45:46.139 the same conviction. 00:45:46.139 --> 00:45:47.659 Oh Jerusalem, 00:45:47.819 --> 00:45:48.279 Jerusalem, 00:45:48.460 --> 00:45:49.799 how I long to have 00:45:49.799 --> 00:45:51.079 gathered you as a hen 00:45:51.079 --> 00:45:52.619 gathers her chicks. 00:45:53.079 --> 00:45:54.159 This is the language 00:45:54.159 --> 00:45:55.859 of passion and compassion. 00:45:56.059 --> 00:45:56.839 This is the language 00:45:56.839 --> 00:45:57.559 of restoration. 00:45:58.239 --> 00:45:59.039 This is the language 00:45:59.039 --> 00:46:00.599 of longing for being 00:46:00.599 --> 00:46:01.940 reunited and drawn 00:46:01.940 --> 00:46:02.500 together. 00:46:04.819 --> 00:46:06.579 How I long to 00:46:06.579 --> 00:46:07.599 restore you. 00:46:10.059 --> 00:46:11.239 It's the language 00:46:11.239 --> 00:46:12.599 of extravagance. 00:46:13.000 --> 00:46:13.759 It's the language 00:46:13.759 --> 00:46:14.639 of abundance. 00:46:14.639 --> 00:46:16.239 It's the language 00:46:16.239 --> 00:46:17.799 of unmitigated 00:46:17.799 --> 00:46:19.179 mercy and grace. 00:46:20.099 --> 00:46:21.119 Wherever you are, 00:46:21.579 --> 00:46:22.859 if you want to 00:46:22.859 --> 00:46:23.359 return, 00:46:23.759 --> 00:46:24.599 I'm going to be 00:46:24.599 --> 00:46:25.719 there to draw you 00:46:25.719 --> 00:46:26.299 much more. 00:46:26.579 --> 00:46:27.139 You don't have to 00:46:27.139 --> 00:46:28.019 get back on your 00:46:28.019 --> 00:46:28.739 own terms. 00:46:29.000 --> 00:46:29.480 You don't have to 00:46:29.480 --> 00:46:30.599 fight your way back. 00:46:30.960 --> 00:46:32.199 Just indicate you 00:46:32.199 --> 00:46:33.119 want to come back 00:46:33.119 --> 00:46:34.319 and I will draw, 00:46:34.519 --> 00:46:35.279 I will gather. 00:46:36.440 --> 00:46:37.239 All God wants 00:46:37.239 --> 00:46:38.019 is the cry of a 00:46:38.019 --> 00:46:38.420 heart, 00:46:39.199 --> 00:46:40.019 God be merciful. 00:46:40.659 --> 00:46:41.480 And he does the 00:46:41.480 --> 00:46:42.579 rest of drawing us 00:46:42.579 --> 00:46:43.619 to him spells, 00:46:43.619 --> 00:46:44.940 to himself. 00:46:45.839 --> 00:46:46.480 Irrespective of 00:46:46.480 --> 00:46:47.199 where you are, 00:46:47.559 --> 00:46:48.259 to where you have 00:46:48.259 --> 00:46:48.759 been gathered, 00:46:48.880 --> 00:46:49.400 to where you have 00:46:49.400 --> 00:46:50.000 been scattered, 00:46:50.420 --> 00:46:51.460 irrespective of what 00:46:51.460 --> 00:46:52.719 sin might have done 00:46:52.719 --> 00:46:54.039 in the lives past, 00:46:54.420 --> 00:46:55.539 God is able through 00:46:55.539 --> 00:46:56.759 Christ Jesus to do 00:46:56.759 --> 00:46:58.219 significantly and 00:46:58.219 --> 00:46:59.579 abundantly more. 00:46:59.980 --> 00:47:00.739 Paul captured it 00:47:00.739 --> 00:47:01.539 beautifully, didn't he, 00:47:01.559 --> 00:47:02.339 in his letter to the 00:47:02.339 --> 00:47:03.480 Romans, that where 00:47:03.480 --> 00:47:04.299 sin has abounded, 00:47:04.519 --> 00:47:05.579 grace has much, 00:47:05.759 --> 00:47:06.659 much more 00:47:06.659 --> 00:47:07.579 abounded. 00:47:07.579 --> 00:47:10.079 I just want to say 00:47:10.079 --> 00:47:10.799 there is not a 00:47:10.799 --> 00:47:11.860 desperate situation 00:47:11.860 --> 00:47:12.860 in this community 00:47:12.860 --> 00:47:14.119 or in any community 00:47:14.119 --> 00:47:14.860 in Hong Kong 00:47:14.860 --> 00:47:15.900 that the gospel 00:47:15.900 --> 00:47:16.699 is not able 00:47:16.699 --> 00:47:17.699 to deal with. 00:47:20.980 --> 00:47:22.000 There's not a 00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:22.900 single situation 00:47:22.900 --> 00:47:23.759 that the cross 00:47:23.759 --> 00:47:25.079 is not able 00:47:25.079 --> 00:47:25.860 to overcome. 00:47:27.019 --> 00:47:27.980 Sometimes things 00:47:27.980 --> 00:47:28.619 do go wrong, 00:47:28.759 --> 00:47:29.440 sometimes we are 00:47:29.440 --> 00:47:30.380 perplexed, 00:47:31.380 --> 00:47:32.599 sometimes we are 00:47:32.599 --> 00:47:33.259 devastated, 00:47:33.639 --> 00:47:34.159 sometimes we don't 00:47:34.159 --> 00:47:34.779 understand, 00:47:35.719 --> 00:47:37.219 but the cross 00:47:37.219 --> 00:47:38.719 always allows us 00:47:38.719 --> 00:47:39.379 to triumph 00:47:39.379 --> 00:47:42.759 because God is 00:47:42.759 --> 00:47:45.159 sovereign and he 00:47:45.159 --> 00:47:45.759 knows everything. 00:47:47.379 --> 00:47:48.639 The earth has no 00:47:48.639 --> 00:47:49.960 song that heaven 00:47:49.960 --> 00:47:50.779 cannot heal. 00:47:50.859 --> 00:47:51.699 We sang those words 00:47:51.699 --> 00:47:52.399 beautifully this 00:47:52.399 --> 00:47:52.739 morning. 00:47:54.019 --> 00:47:55.119 The earth has no 00:47:55.119 --> 00:47:57.420 sorrow that heaven 00:47:57.420 --> 00:47:58.199 cannot heal. 00:47:59.639 --> 00:48:00.339 And folks, 00:48:00.779 --> 00:48:01.299 let me just 00:48:01.299 --> 00:48:01.899 encourage you. 00:48:02.940 --> 00:48:03.379 It shouldn't just 00:48:03.379 --> 00:48:04.139 be the words of a 00:48:04.139 --> 00:48:04.659 song that should 00:48:04.659 --> 00:48:05.219 be the deep, 00:48:05.379 --> 00:48:07.279 deep drive 00:48:07.279 --> 00:48:08.500 that governs 00:48:08.500 --> 00:48:09.059 our behavior, 00:48:09.219 --> 00:48:09.839 our going out 00:48:09.839 --> 00:48:10.359 and our coming 00:48:10.359 --> 00:48:10.599 in. 00:48:10.980 --> 00:48:11.739 There's no sorrow, 00:48:11.879 --> 00:48:12.779 there's no awkwardness, 00:48:12.819 --> 00:48:13.460 there's nothing, 00:48:13.619 --> 00:48:14.599 no news that I can 00:48:14.599 --> 00:48:15.900 hear today that 00:48:15.900 --> 00:48:17.279 heaven cannot heal. 00:48:17.940 --> 00:48:18.759 Yes, we will feel 00:48:18.759 --> 00:48:19.619 pain, yes, we may 00:48:19.619 --> 00:48:20.299 feel confusion, 00:48:20.440 --> 00:48:21.000 yes, we may be 00:48:21.000 --> 00:48:21.799 terrified, may we 00:48:21.799 --> 00:48:22.699 be fearful, but God, 00:48:22.779 --> 00:48:24.379 I know this, that 00:48:24.379 --> 00:48:25.299 irrespective of what 00:48:25.299 --> 00:48:26.299 my emotions are doing 00:48:26.299 --> 00:48:27.319 to me, I know that 00:48:27.319 --> 00:48:28.299 the song of heaven 00:48:28.299 --> 00:48:29.359 is able to heal 00:48:29.359 --> 00:48:30.799 the pain that 00:48:30.799 --> 00:48:32.019 earth might 00:48:32.019 --> 00:48:32.500 deliver. 00:48:32.500 --> 00:48:34.420 And that is why 00:48:34.420 --> 00:48:35.380 we're not ashamed 00:48:35.380 --> 00:48:36.380 of the gospel. 00:48:37.559 --> 00:48:38.460 It's the power 00:48:38.460 --> 00:48:39.099 of God. 00:48:40.239 --> 00:48:41.059 Nehemiah's prayer 00:48:41.059 --> 00:48:41.980 is about reminding 00:48:41.980 --> 00:48:43.539 God of 00:48:43.539 --> 00:48:46.420 God's word 00:48:46.420 --> 00:48:47.179 and praying it 00:48:47.179 --> 00:48:47.659 back to him, 00:48:47.760 --> 00:48:48.380 God's promises. 00:48:49.079 --> 00:48:49.900 The promises that 00:48:49.900 --> 00:48:50.500 he would, and 00:48:50.500 --> 00:48:51.639 now listen to this, 00:48:51.840 --> 00:48:52.980 the promise was 00:48:52.980 --> 00:48:55.260 that if you repent, 00:48:55.539 --> 00:48:56.559 I will gather you 00:48:56.559 --> 00:48:57.539 to the place where 00:48:57.539 --> 00:48:58.679 I've made my name 00:48:58.679 --> 00:48:59.000 dwell. 00:49:01.559 --> 00:49:03.019 At the risk of 00:49:03.019 --> 00:49:03.619 being a little bit 00:49:03.619 --> 00:49:05.219 irreverent, think 00:49:05.219 --> 00:49:05.759 about it. 00:49:06.219 --> 00:49:07.179 You're scattered to 00:49:07.179 --> 00:49:08.539 all parts of the 00:49:08.539 --> 00:49:09.639 earth, you've been 00:49:09.639 --> 00:49:10.679 destitute, you've been 00:49:10.679 --> 00:49:11.419 robbed of everything 00:49:11.419 --> 00:49:13.299 you have, you're 00:49:13.299 --> 00:49:14.159 beggars, you're 00:49:14.159 --> 00:49:15.039 forlorn, you've got 00:49:15.039 --> 00:49:15.440 nothing. 00:49:16.179 --> 00:49:17.359 And the promises, if 00:49:17.359 --> 00:49:18.159 you repent, I'll bring 00:49:18.159 --> 00:49:19.139 you back to the place 00:49:19.139 --> 00:49:20.099 where my name dwells. 00:49:20.139 --> 00:49:21.480 Well, if you're a 00:49:21.480 --> 00:49:22.219 cynic, you say, what 00:49:22.219 --> 00:49:23.039 good is that? 00:49:23.039 --> 00:49:27.539 But actually, all of 00:49:27.539 --> 00:49:29.500 life, and all of our 00:49:29.500 --> 00:49:30.519 humanity, and all of 00:49:30.519 --> 00:49:33.980 our personhood, finds 00:49:33.980 --> 00:49:35.320 its significance, and 00:49:35.320 --> 00:49:36.480 finds its life, and 00:49:36.480 --> 00:49:38.360 finds its beginning at 00:49:38.360 --> 00:49:39.559 the centrality of the 00:49:39.559 --> 00:49:40.420 cross, and at the 00:49:40.420 --> 00:49:41.420 beginning of the name 00:49:41.420 --> 00:49:42.139 of the Lord Jesus 00:49:42.139 --> 00:49:42.599 Christ. 00:49:43.960 --> 00:49:45.259 God gathers us to 00:49:45.259 --> 00:49:47.420 himself, because in 00:49:47.420 --> 00:49:48.779 himself is where we 00:49:48.779 --> 00:49:49.860 find life, and where 00:49:49.860 --> 00:49:51.320 we find meaning, and 00:49:51.320 --> 00:49:51.920 where we find 00:49:51.920 --> 00:49:52.699 encouragement, and 00:49:52.699 --> 00:49:53.179 where we find 00:49:53.179 --> 00:49:53.639 strength. 00:49:54.159 --> 00:49:54.739 If we're going to 00:49:54.739 --> 00:49:55.399 try and find it 00:49:55.399 --> 00:49:56.179 anywhere else, we 00:49:56.179 --> 00:49:57.599 will ultimately always 00:49:57.599 --> 00:49:58.739 be disillusioned. 00:49:59.379 --> 00:50:00.279 We will always be 00:50:00.279 --> 00:50:00.819 disappointed. 00:50:01.299 --> 00:50:02.259 We may be excited 00:50:02.259 --> 00:50:03.839 for a season, but 00:50:03.839 --> 00:50:05.119 sure, as eggs are 00:50:05.119 --> 00:50:06.480 eggs, as time passes 00:50:06.480 --> 00:50:08.559 by, we will begin to 00:50:08.559 --> 00:50:09.799 become disillusioned. 00:50:10.119 --> 00:50:11.899 But when we find our 00:50:11.899 --> 00:50:14.139 life in him, when we 00:50:14.139 --> 00:50:15.460 find our meaning in 00:50:15.460 --> 00:50:16.659 him, when we find our 00:50:16.659 --> 00:50:17.799 purposes in him, when 00:50:17.799 --> 00:50:18.839 we find our direction 00:50:18.839 --> 00:50:21.980 in him, then we have 00:50:21.980 --> 00:50:22.980 that which sustains 00:50:22.980 --> 00:50:24.480 us through all of 00:50:24.480 --> 00:50:24.840 life. 00:50:27.039 --> 00:50:28.360 See, until we start 00:50:28.360 --> 00:50:29.659 where it went wrong, 00:50:29.840 --> 00:50:30.440 which is in our 00:50:30.440 --> 00:50:32.000 hearts, it will never 00:50:32.000 --> 00:50:33.639 really ever come 00:50:33.639 --> 00:50:33.980 right. 00:50:34.800 --> 00:50:35.659 You may see 00:50:35.659 --> 00:50:36.880 improvements and 00:50:36.880 --> 00:50:37.400 changes. 00:50:38.300 --> 00:50:39.380 You may recognize 00:50:39.380 --> 00:50:40.219 that you are better 00:50:40.219 --> 00:50:41.240 now than you were 00:50:41.240 --> 00:50:42.099 five years ago. 00:50:42.740 --> 00:50:44.119 But never mistake 00:50:44.119 --> 00:50:45.139 that the gospel is 00:50:45.139 --> 00:50:46.139 not about giving you 00:50:46.139 --> 00:50:47.260 a reconditioned, 00:50:47.260 --> 00:50:48.400 panel-beaten heart. 00:50:48.400 --> 00:50:50.519 The gospel in Jesus 00:50:50.519 --> 00:50:51.780 Christ is about a new 00:50:51.780 --> 00:50:53.220 heart and a new 00:50:53.220 --> 00:50:54.780 disposition and new 00:50:54.780 --> 00:50:56.300 leanings altogether. 00:50:57.160 --> 00:50:58.559 The gospel is able to 00:50:58.559 --> 00:50:59.559 sustain us and to 00:50:59.559 --> 00:51:00.500 strengthen us and to 00:51:00.500 --> 00:51:01.880 tie us and to draw us 00:51:01.880 --> 00:51:03.059 to himself and to make 00:51:03.059 --> 00:51:04.200 us all together new. 00:51:06.139 --> 00:51:07.780 Ravi Zacharias tells a 00:51:07.780 --> 00:51:11.220 wonderful story of an 00:51:11.220 --> 00:51:11.980 interpreter who 00:51:11.980 --> 00:51:13.539 trained, interpreted to 00:51:13.539 --> 00:51:15.700 him in the Vietnam War 00:51:15.699 --> 00:51:16.839 in the 1970s. 00:51:17.599 --> 00:51:18.500 And then, of course, 00:51:18.739 --> 00:51:19.759 after the Americans 00:51:19.759 --> 00:51:22.239 fled, these men were 00:51:22.239 --> 00:51:24.059 rounded up, went for 00:51:24.059 --> 00:51:26.279 indoctrination and 00:51:26.279 --> 00:51:27.519 training to try and 00:51:27.519 --> 00:51:29.819 correct them, change 00:51:29.819 --> 00:51:30.579 their thinking and 00:51:30.579 --> 00:51:31.139 their views. 00:51:31.779 --> 00:51:32.819 And this interpreter, 00:51:33.119 --> 00:51:34.239 this young interpreter, 00:51:35.039 --> 00:51:36.599 was at the point of 00:51:36.599 --> 00:51:37.399 being broken. 00:51:37.759 --> 00:51:38.980 His interrogators 00:51:38.980 --> 00:51:40.319 wanted to turn him 00:51:40.319 --> 00:51:42.059 from his gospel-centered 00:51:42.059 --> 00:51:44.039 convictions to 00:51:44.039 --> 00:51:46.320 acknowledging communism 00:51:46.320 --> 00:51:47.179 as the answer. 00:51:48.000 --> 00:51:48.779 And it went on for 00:51:48.779 --> 00:51:49.480 years and he was 00:51:49.480 --> 00:51:50.579 beginning to lose hope. 00:51:50.679 --> 00:51:51.599 He had no gospel, he 00:51:51.599 --> 00:51:52.679 had no material to 00:51:52.679 --> 00:51:55.019 read, and in a state of 00:51:55.019 --> 00:51:56.320 kind of desperation, he 00:51:56.320 --> 00:51:57.699 felt himself slipping and 00:51:57.699 --> 00:51:59.259 beginning to lose hope 00:51:59.259 --> 00:52:00.019 and lose faith. 00:52:01.119 --> 00:52:02.279 And the pressure was 00:52:02.279 --> 00:52:03.039 mounting and he 00:52:03.039 --> 00:52:04.079 realized they were 00:52:04.079 --> 00:52:04.719 putting him under 00:52:04.719 --> 00:52:05.380 pressure for a 00:52:05.380 --> 00:52:05.779 decision. 00:52:06.980 --> 00:52:08.139 And in a frail 00:52:08.139 --> 00:52:08.820 prayer, he said, 00:52:08.880 --> 00:52:09.820 Lord, if you're still 00:52:09.820 --> 00:52:11.119 there, if you are real, 00:52:11.119 --> 00:52:13.579 I need you to show 00:52:13.579 --> 00:52:15.579 yourself to me in the 00:52:15.579 --> 00:52:17.539 next 48, 72 hours. 00:52:18.420 --> 00:52:20.539 That morning, the 00:52:20.539 --> 00:52:21.500 cells are opened and 00:52:21.500 --> 00:52:22.599 his chosen said, you 00:52:22.599 --> 00:52:23.400 are going to do the 00:52:23.400 --> 00:52:24.839 latrine duties, which 00:52:24.839 --> 00:52:25.699 was to clean out the 00:52:25.699 --> 00:52:26.940 buckets of the 00:52:26.940 --> 00:52:28.279 latrines of the 00:52:28.279 --> 00:52:29.699 seniors in the prison 00:52:29.699 --> 00:52:31.039 area. 00:52:31.639 --> 00:52:32.819 The dirtiest and most 00:52:32.819 --> 00:52:34.380 unappreciated job in the 00:52:34.380 --> 00:52:35.079 whole camp. 00:52:36.420 --> 00:52:37.299 And as he's cleaning 00:52:37.299 --> 00:52:38.359 the latrines out, he 00:52:38.359 --> 00:52:39.440 comes to one bucket 00:52:39.440 --> 00:52:40.519 and he sees some 00:52:40.519 --> 00:52:41.780 writing on the paper 00:52:41.780 --> 00:52:43.179 and it's English. 00:52:46.659 --> 00:52:47.679 Hadn't seen that. 00:52:48.780 --> 00:52:49.539 And so he looks a bit 00:52:49.539 --> 00:52:52.000 more carefully and he 00:52:52.000 --> 00:52:53.280 recognizes that it's 00:52:53.280 --> 00:52:53.760 scripture. 00:52:54.960 --> 00:52:56.500 One of the army leaders 00:52:56.500 --> 00:52:58.019 is using scripture as 00:52:58.019 --> 00:52:58.780 toilet paper. 00:53:02.200 --> 00:53:03.599 And the words that he 00:53:03.599 --> 00:53:07.260 reads that first day are 00:53:07.260 --> 00:53:09.720 this, no, in all these 00:53:09.720 --> 00:53:11.520 things we are more than 00:53:11.520 --> 00:53:13.100 conquerors through him 00:53:13.100 --> 00:53:13.800 who loved us. 00:53:14.600 --> 00:53:15.640 For I am sure that 00:53:15.640 --> 00:53:16.880 neither death nor life, 00:53:17.480 --> 00:53:18.560 nor angels nor rulers, 00:53:19.180 --> 00:53:20.000 nor things past or 00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:21.080 present are able to 00:53:21.080 --> 00:53:22.980 separate us from the 00:53:22.980 --> 00:53:23.560 love of God. 00:53:25.020 --> 00:53:26.060 He put his hand up. 00:53:26.120 --> 00:53:26.840 He said, I want to do 00:53:26.840 --> 00:53:28.880 latrine duty every day. 00:53:28.880 --> 00:53:31.460 And every day he would 00:53:31.460 --> 00:53:33.579 take that torn paper and 00:53:33.579 --> 00:53:35.220 he would wash it, clean 00:53:35.220 --> 00:53:35.539 it. 00:53:36.039 --> 00:53:38.440 And he fed himself on 00:53:38.440 --> 00:53:39.340 what was for another 00:53:39.340 --> 00:53:40.619 person nothing more than 00:53:40.619 --> 00:53:41.880 toilet paper but for him 00:53:41.880 --> 00:53:44.360 the words of life that 00:53:44.360 --> 00:53:45.900 reignited his soul and his 00:53:45.900 --> 00:53:47.240 faith in the Father. 00:53:47.400 --> 00:53:48.640 Folk, where's your 00:53:48.640 --> 00:53:49.059 conviction? 00:53:50.019 --> 00:53:51.079 Is it in yourself? 00:53:51.800 --> 00:53:52.460 Or have you seen 00:53:52.460 --> 00:53:53.280 something of the 00:53:53.280 --> 00:53:54.579 awesomeness of the one 00:53:54.579 --> 00:53:55.539 who redeems and 00:53:55.539 --> 00:53:56.099 restores? 00:53:56.099 --> 00:53:57.360 Will we come with 00:53:57.360 --> 00:53:59.179 prayers that are full of 00:53:59.179 --> 00:54:00.799 conviction not in how 00:54:00.799 --> 00:54:02.019 well we pray but in who 00:54:02.019 --> 00:54:02.779 we pray to? 00:54:03.679 --> 00:54:04.519 And will we understand 00:54:04.519 --> 00:54:06.360 that as we just say the 00:54:06.360 --> 00:54:07.519 most fleeting of 00:54:07.519 --> 00:54:09.460 redemptive pleas, be 00:54:09.460 --> 00:54:10.339 merciful to me. 00:54:10.880 --> 00:54:12.059 He comes in ways to 00:54:12.059 --> 00:54:13.219 restore that we could 00:54:13.219 --> 00:54:14.819 never ever have 00:54:14.819 --> 00:54:15.239 imagined. 00:54:15.980 --> 00:54:16.199 Amen. 00:54:16.400 --> 00:54:17.860 Let's stand as I close 00:54:17.860 --> 00:54:18.779 in prayer and then 00:54:18.779 --> 00:54:20.759 worship team will come 00:54:20.759 --> 00:54:20.980 up. 00:54:26.099 --> 00:54:35.159 Great and awesome God, 00:54:35.239 --> 00:54:36.460 we come with bowed 00:54:36.460 --> 00:54:38.679 hearts and bent heads 00:54:38.679 --> 00:54:40.779 before you this morning 00:54:40.779 --> 00:54:43.659 and we say that there is 00:54:43.659 --> 00:54:44.519 no one like you. 00:54:45.860 --> 00:54:46.900 You are God. 00:54:48.440 --> 00:54:50.019 Forgive us of the way we 00:54:50.019 --> 00:54:52.739 trivialize you, the way we 00:54:52.739 --> 00:54:55.239 make you so small, the way 00:54:55.239 --> 00:54:56.159 we reduce you. 00:54:57.639 --> 00:54:58.479 And Lord, into our 00:54:58.479 --> 00:54:59.559 hearts and into our 00:54:59.559 --> 00:55:01.239 minds explode something 00:55:01.239 --> 00:55:02.739 of your awesomeness and 00:55:02.739 --> 00:55:04.459 your magnificence, your 00:55:04.459 --> 00:55:05.419 bigness and your 00:55:05.419 --> 00:55:08.000 hugeness towards us and 00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:09.399 change us and transform 00:55:09.399 --> 00:55:09.859 us. 00:55:10.619 --> 00:55:12.299 That these vessels of 00:55:12.299 --> 00:55:14.379 clay might become 00:55:14.379 --> 00:55:15.699 instruments which sing 00:55:15.699 --> 00:55:16.919 the songs of Zion, 00:55:17.759 --> 00:55:19.279 which shine and reflect 00:55:19.279 --> 00:55:20.299 the glory of the 00:55:20.299 --> 00:55:22.079 greatest Savior, the 00:55:22.079 --> 00:55:23.119 Lord Jesus Christ. 00:55:24.099 --> 00:55:24.799 And may our lives, 00:55:24.800 --> 00:55:27.019 Lord, be reflective of 00:55:27.019 --> 00:55:29.000 something that builds 00:55:29.000 --> 00:55:30.800 more than just brick and 00:55:30.800 --> 00:55:32.700 stone, but is used to 00:55:32.700 --> 00:55:34.539 extend your kingdom and 00:55:34.539 --> 00:55:36.220 build broken lives once 00:55:36.220 --> 00:55:38.600 again that might house 00:55:38.600 --> 00:55:39.820 the praises of Zion. 00:55:40.560 --> 00:55:41.500 Father, these are the 00:55:41.500 --> 00:55:42.840 things for which we ask 00:55:42.840 --> 00:55:45.240 in Jesus' precious name. 00:55:46.039 --> 00:55:46.320 Amen. 00:55:46.740 --> 00:55:47.460 God bless you all.