WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.159 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.359 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.759 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:19.519 Father, we ask that you would continue to gently but powerfully pour out the Holy Spirit upon us. 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:27.599 Father, pour out the Holy Spirit upon us so that we might have the Bible as you intended to be a mirror, 00:01:28.319 --> 00:01:35.519 so that we see and understand ourselves truly, and also that it might be to us a window into your great 00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:42.000 beauty and glory, your grace and your mercy. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:52.239 Savior. Amen. It's, if you hear me stuffed up, it's allergies still, not cold. I feel fine. Just a bit tired. 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:59.039 I had the great privilege and honour on Friday, well, I got invited on Wednesday if I would come and speak 00:01:59.039 --> 00:02:04.079 on Parliament Hill to some of the Christian staff workers on Friday, and I did that at lunchtime. 00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:08.639 There were, actually, it was a really full room, 25 plus, maybe up to 30. The room was really full. 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:15.439 Every seat was taken, and then some, and it was a great honour and privilege to be invited. And so I, 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:21.599 the rule is that if they ask me relatively at the last moment to speak to them, they get a early draft of my sermon. 00:02:22.079 --> 00:02:25.759 So I began my talk yesterday, or Friday, by saying, 00:02:26.959 --> 00:02:31.279 I'm sure none of you working on Parliament Hill have dysfunctional offices 00:02:32.399 --> 00:02:37.839 where anybody is trying to boss other people around. I'm sure all of you get along in peace and harmony 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:43.200 all of the time, no fighting. And I'm sure all of you as well, when it comes to your families, I mean, 00:02:43.200 --> 00:02:47.599 it's Thanksgiving weekend. I'm sure all of you have really, really, really well-functioning families 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:51.920 where everybody loves each other and cares for each other, and there's no fighting. So I said, 00:02:51.920 --> 00:02:57.120 for you people, nothing in this scripture text today is going to make any sense to you because of your 00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:03.280 context. But if you have, in fact, dysfunction, etc., etc., at home and in the office, then this text, 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:11.520 which on the surface is very shocking, actually has, once again, profound wisdom to us about why it is 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:18.800 that I could say that to a group, and everybody knows that in their offices there's some degree of 00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:22.719 that. And many of them, if they're in a season of not much of that, they know that it's 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:30.639 that it's very, very common. So if you turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 7, we're looking at the 00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:37.199 whole chapter. It's not really a Thanksgiving Day sermon. We don't really do Thanksgiving and Mother's 00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:44.639 Day and Father's Day here. I mean, I've ordered some of the application points at the end around 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:50.159 the idea of Thanksgiving, but we don't, we just, we don't really, I mean, we'll have prayers around it, 00:03:50.159 --> 00:03:54.400 but the sermon's not a Thanksgiving sermon, although it's actually something that we should really be 00:03:54.400 --> 00:04:00.479 the most thankful about at all. And I've sort of organized my talk, my sermon today into sort of 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:07.599 three sections or three headings. The first one is the shock of the story. The second one would be 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:12.960 nailing God. And the third one would be the best option. 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:22.319 Excuse me. And then I was, as I was driving into the Ottawa Little Theatre this morning, I realized 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:28.800 in some ways every sermon in Joshua could be divided under those three headings. The shocking story, 00:04:29.199 --> 00:04:35.439 nailing God, and then the best option. So let's look at that. The first part is the shocking 00:04:35.439 --> 00:04:41.839 nature of the story, the shock of the story. And so 7-1, I'll read it and I'll give you some of the 00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:50.240 context. And 7-1 goes like this. But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things. 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:58.720 For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the 00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:06.320 devoted things. And the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel. Now, if this was a, 00:05:06.320 --> 00:05:11.600 like a, you're turning this into a Netflix episode, if you decided, you know, you had the money and you're 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:18.720 going to do the book of Joshua as a Netflix series. Sometimes when you watch a series or an episode or 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:26.160 a movie, the movie opens with something quite dramatic or some type of big announcement. And you 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:32.320 realize that it's really talking about something that will be coming clear five minutes by the end. 00:05:32.960 --> 00:05:37.439 But it's sort of forming you about something that's happening that hears about the anger of the Lord 00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:44.160 against the entire nation of Israel. And that takes you in a sense looking over all the events until, 00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:52.080 like, verse 22 or 23. And then the story will continue. So that's, we the listeners know that 00:05:52.079 --> 00:05:58.719 this is a story about the anger of the Lord. But the characters in the story don't know that they're 00:05:58.719 --> 00:06:06.800 walking in a story about the anger of the Lord. And now that obviously brings a couple of questions up. 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:12.879 Because generally speaking, the anger of God is something which Canadians don't like, 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:17.279 and they don't like it for lots of good reasons. Because generally when we meet human anger, 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:24.800 it's over the top. And probably every one of us knows somebody who's anger driven, or has had a 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:29.600 season in their life where they're very, very, very anger driven. So I'm not going to say very much 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:33.600 about this other than to say two things. Every time you see the anger of the Lord in the Bible, 00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:41.120 you need to remember two things. First of all, it's always an appropriate reaction to real evil and 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:47.600 injustice. It's always connected to that. It's not connected to him being petty, not getting his own 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:54.639 way, being self-centered or narcissistic. It's not a tool for him to keep people distant. All the ways 00:06:54.639 --> 00:07:02.160 we often experience anger. It's always an appropriate response to real evil or injustice. And the second 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:10.800 thing is, God is never overwhelmed by emotion. We can get overwhelmed by lust, by greed, by envy, 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:16.319 by anger. God is never overwhelmed by an emotion. So that's all I'm going to say about it. I might say 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:22.639 a little bit more about it in the next sermon. The second thing is that you're going to be maybe 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:28.319 a little bit confused about what's going on. Because if you look at verse one again, it says, 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:35.360 the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things. And actually, it's really 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:41.520 interesting, just a bit of an important aside. The words there broke faith. It's the language of adultery. 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:49.759 The implication is that Israel has committed adultery against her husband. It pictures God 00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:57.759 as, in a sense, the husband and redeemed humanity as the bride. And it's looking as if the redeemed 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:06.800 humanity is committing adultery. And that's sort of all the way through the story, right? That's 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:13.439 explaining the whole story. But the people of Israel broke faith. And then it says, Achan did something. 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:20.160 And then the anger of the Lord burns against his people. So that's going to cause lots of 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:24.000 difficulty for us as Canadians, and probably for many people throughout the world. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:28.560 And then the people of Israel are going to cause a lot of pain. And then the people of Israel are 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:33.120 doing something wrong. And if it's Achan doing something wrong, then why is God, 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:39.759 the Lord, mad at all of Israel? And if the Lord is mad at all of Israel, why is he picking on just 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:46.639 Achan? And so those questions are percolating in the back of our mind. I want to say one other thing 00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:50.799 about God not being... I should have said that there were three things about God's anger. 00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:56.159 You know, the first one is it's always appropriate response to real evil or injustice. The second thing 00:08:56.159 --> 00:09:03.120 is that he's never overcome by emotions. And the third thing is, if you want to... How you think 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:09.199 about God is really important. And the way that you should fundamentally understand God is not anger, 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:19.279 but that he's happy. God is happy. The Bible's described that when you are in the presence of God, 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:26.559 you are in the presence of a fullness of joy, that he has eternal pleasures at his right hand. 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:38.079 When we are in heaven face to face with God, that will be a place of unending happiness. A happiness 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:45.280 that if we were to have even the tiniest little taste of it on this side of the grave would break our heart. 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:53.840 Because it's so... There's so much happiness that it would unmake us. So that's the thing you have to 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:59.280 always remember with this, that the way that you fundamentally should understand God is he's happy. 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:06.399 That's his nature. It's joy. Anyway, what happens? So the story's going to begin. And I'm going to tell 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:11.120 parts of the story and then we're going to read parts of the story. Tell, read. So what happens next? 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:17.199 That was partially, mainly what Josiah read up now, just before that. What the context is, the people 00:10:17.199 --> 00:10:22.000 of Israel have come into the Promised Land. God has done a mighty miracle at the Jordan so that they could 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:28.240 come into the Promised Land. And just before this, there's been another mighty miracle where God has 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:35.679 caused the walls of the city of Jericho to come crumbling down. And Jericho has been defeated, 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:41.279 been destroyed. And Rahab and all who are with her, as God promised, because she cast herself on the 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:48.000 mercy of the Lord, she's been saved and delivered. And so Joshua decides he's going to go to the next 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:51.919 city, which is a small one. He thinks, I don't have to send a lot of people. He sends a few 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:58.959 people, relatively speaking. And then they're completely defeated. They run away with their 00:10:58.959 --> 00:11:04.799 tails between their legs. And the people go through the elders and Joshua are going through a period of 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:13.759 just bewilderment because now they're worried that the people of the Canaan will hear that they've 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:19.199 suffered a defeat against a very tiny little city state. They are going to gang up on Israel. Israel will 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:24.000 be destroyed. And Joshua is wondering, should we have gone back on the other side of the Jordan? 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:28.640 We already have some land there. And maybe that's where we should go. And he's just also really 00:11:28.640 --> 00:11:34.000 concerned about the glory of God's name, his fame, as it looks like they're about to be defeated. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:38.160 And so then what does God say next? Well, what happens next is what he says. And he doesn't say, 00:11:38.160 --> 00:11:42.240 yeah, by the way, you guys, you suck. You're terrible. You should have prayed more. He should have done. 00:11:42.240 --> 00:11:45.200 And he doesn't say anything. In fact, a lot of times, pastors who talk about this text, 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:51.360 get it all wrong, about Joshua's not praying and all that other type of stuff, the text already tells 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:56.879 you why everything, what's going on is over them doing something about the devoted things, not about 00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:02.800 prayer. So what does God say? Well, verse 10 is what you hear a message from God that he gives to 00:12:02.800 --> 00:12:11.040 Joshua. The Lord said to Joshua, get up. Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned. They have 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:17.120 transgressed my covenant that I commanded them. Now you see covenant. That's like an image of almost 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:22.959 like a marriage relationship between Israel and the Lord and his people. That's what God desires. 00:12:23.839 --> 00:12:30.959 A type of belonging and intimacy and union. Then it continues, they have taken some of the devoted 00:12:30.959 --> 00:12:38.000 things. They have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. Therefore, the people of 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:45.120 Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies because they have 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:56.559 become devoted to destruction. I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from 00:12:56.559 --> 00:13:02.320 among you. I just sort of pause before I go any further. I talked a little bit about devoted for 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:10.879 destruction last week. The book of Joshua is like ground zero or the front lines of a lot of ex-evangelicals 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:18.160 or skeptics about why you shouldn't believe the Bible, why God's a moral monster. And I can't deal 00:13:18.160 --> 00:13:23.360 with all of them every week, so I sort of pick one or two every week to look at. And if you're curious, 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:27.360 you can listen to my previous sermon about that. And I'll talk about it a little bit more, I think, 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:33.279 one more time before we're done. But I won't explain that right now, but it's a very sobering thing. 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:40.320 And it continues in verse 13. Get up, consecrate the people and say, consecrate yourselves for 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:47.120 tomorrow. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, there are devoted things in your midst, 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:52.560 O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you. 00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:58.319 In the morning, therefore, you should be brought near by your tribes. And the tribe that the Lord 00:13:58.319 --> 00:14:04.319 takes by lot shall come near by clans. And the clan that the Lord has taken shall come near by 00:14:04.319 --> 00:14:10.399 households. And the household that comes near that the Lord takes shall come near man by man. 00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:19.839 And he who is taken with the devoted things shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:27.040 he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, because he has done an outrageous thing in Israel. 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:31.680 You can see why I said it's not really a Thanksgiving sermon text. 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:36.480 It's a very, very sobering text, and it should sober us. 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:44.480 It made me think, once again, of this fellow that I've been coming friends with, who's a 00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:51.920 Muslim, and who's told me he's now read the entire Bible. And he said to me about the Bible, he said, 00:14:51.920 --> 00:14:58.080 the first part is brutal, and the last part is beautiful. And I'm probably thinking of a text 00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:06.639 like this when he says the first part is brutal. So it doesn't sound, it sounds extreme. 00:15:07.680 --> 00:15:14.320 It doesn't sound like something Jesus would do or say. And it's still all very confusing about 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:18.480 why Israel and why that one person and what on earth is going on. 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:27.039 So that's why we're still in the shock of the story. So what happens next over the next eight verses is that 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:35.039 the lots, they consecrate themselves, the lots are done. Achan is revealed as being the one 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:41.759 who has done this act. It's revealed that he's stolen gold and silver and a beautiful robe. 00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:52.799 And he says that he's done it as well. And now we come to what the reaction is after he said that he's done it. 00:15:53.360 --> 00:15:58.639 Jump ahead to verse 24. And the text goes like this. 00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:04.720 And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:12.480 Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the cloak, and the bar of gold, and his sons and daughters, 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:20.639 and his oxen and donkeys, and sheep, and his tent, and all that he had. And they brought them up to the 00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:28.160 valley of Achor. And Joshua said, why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today. 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:37.360 And all Israel stoned him with stones. And they burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones. 00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:44.079 And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remained to this day. Then the Lord turned from 00:16:44.079 --> 00:16:49.759 his broken, his burning anchor. Therefore to this day the name of that place is called the Valley of 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:57.360 Achor. So that leads to the second section. If the first section is a shocking story, 00:16:57.360 --> 00:17:04.480 like the whole family, right? I mean, it's, it goes to the next section, which is called Nailing God. 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:12.960 We want to nail God for this. We want to indict him for what he's said in this text. 00:17:14.079 --> 00:17:23.279 And, because it just seems so extreme. So first of all, we actually, like, why is the punishment so 00:17:23.279 --> 00:17:29.119 extreme? And, and all, well, this isn't going to satisfy all of your questions. But we do need to 00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:35.119 take a step back and realize that on one level, we aren't as upset with this as we think we are. 00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:39.759 We're, maybe that we're not being quite as consistent as we, as we really should be. 00:17:39.759 --> 00:17:49.359 Imagine that you heard in, on the news or something. I mean, I know, I know only like 10% of you actually 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:54.480 listen to the news anymore. So some type of others feed where you get your news. And imagine there's 00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:59.359 a story about there's a place that's very, very beautiful. The water is always looking very, 00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:04.559 very still. But underneath the very still water is a current that always takes people, even the 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:11.519 strongest swimmer will go to their death. And so there's a big sign in several languages that says, 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:20.720 don't go in the water, you will die. Don't go in the water, you will die. And there's a news story 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:26.399 about somebody who comes up, looks at the sign, takes their outer garments on, so they're just down to 00:18:26.399 --> 00:18:31.759 their bathing suit, and then goes into the water and dies. Now, a news story like that would be 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:37.920 filled with, like, what is he thinking? They might nominate him as a candidate for the next Darwin 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:43.920 Award, you know, somebody whose death helps to improve the human race so his bad genes aren't 00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:49.039 carried on, or whatever. But you could say, what on earth would he do after seeing that sign like that 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:54.640 and still go ahead in the water? Well, that's a little bit what's going on here. If you turn back with 00:18:54.640 --> 00:19:05.520 me to Joshua 6, verse 18. Joshua 6, verse 18. And as I tried to explain last week, in terms of the 00:19:05.520 --> 00:19:12.240 whole story, these verses 17, 18, 19 are very, very important to understanding a lot of things in the 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:19.280 text, because there's this dramatic pause between the shouting of the Lord and the walls coming down. 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:26.399 And this is told to everybody, so Achan would have known about it. But you keep yourselves from the 00:19:26.399 --> 00:19:33.680 things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them, you take any of the devoted things 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:40.460 and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. So if you take one of the 00:19:40.460 --> 00:19:47.700 things, you will make all of Israel into a thing of destruction. That's what God says. And it's even more 00:19:47.700 --> 00:19:54.420 dramatic in the context, because the way to understand the entire book of Joshua is you 00:19:54.420 --> 00:20:01.220 always have to remember the crossing of the Jordan River and the walls in Jericho. They're dramatic, 00:20:01.220 --> 00:20:07.940 dramatic, dramatic public miracles, not private little visions, but public miracles. The water stopping, 00:20:08.580 --> 00:20:13.779 the ground getting dry, the people of Israel crossing, looking at the water stopped miraculously. 00:20:13.779 --> 00:20:19.859 And now the story of the walls of Jericho, the mighty fortress come tumbling down at the shout of the 00:20:19.859 --> 00:20:25.619 Lord. Two remarkable miracles. And in the context of that, God says, don't do this. And Achan says, 00:20:25.619 --> 00:20:33.619 yeah, whatever. Or WTF. I'm going to do whatever I want. You know, what the fire truck, like whatever you, 00:20:33.619 --> 00:20:40.819 you, you, you, you, he just, that's what he just says to God. He doesn't say, wow, like the Lord really 00:20:40.819 --> 00:20:45.699 does exist. Like the Lord really is almighty. Like the Lord is all-powerful. Like the Lord is serious. 00:20:45.699 --> 00:20:49.779 It's just like a casual aspect of complete and utter dismissal. I want to do what I want. 00:20:50.339 --> 00:20:53.459 I don't care what you say. I don't care what you do. I want to do what I want. 00:20:53.460 --> 00:21:03.460 And that is what's going on here inside this, this, this story. And it's also, if you think about it in 00:21:03.460 --> 00:21:10.660 the context of that what God desires with his people is an intimate relationship. Even if you 00:21:10.660 --> 00:21:16.980 don't think, think about it in those terms, you realize that a small thing is sometimes not a small 00:21:16.980 --> 00:21:26.579 thing, but an indicator of a very serious thing. So for instance, if, if, if one of the Sunday school 00:21:26.579 --> 00:21:33.299 teachers was watching a brand new teacher deal with the kids, and they noticed the way that one time, 00:21:33.299 --> 00:21:38.740 they noticed maybe the first and the second time that there's a touching of the teacher with the 00:21:38.740 --> 00:21:46.259 student and a smile of the, of the teacher towards the student. And the, the other teachers have this 00:21:46.259 --> 00:21:51.220 sense that sometimes a smile is more than a smile and a touch is more than a touch. 00:21:54.500 --> 00:21:57.940 That maybe this is the beginning of a grooming for sexual abuse. 00:22:00.259 --> 00:22:04.579 And they would tell me about it and we'd have to do an inquiry into it to see whether in fact 00:22:04.579 --> 00:22:09.859 in that particular case, the smile was more than a smile and the touch was more than a touch. 00:22:09.859 --> 00:22:18.339 What's going on here is that as it's revealed in the story, it's not just about the fact that God's out 00:22:18.899 --> 00:22:25.219 a little bit of gold and a little bit of silver and a robe. But the action is more than just an action. 00:22:25.779 --> 00:22:33.779 It reveals something far more deep-seated in Achan and how he understands himself. 00:22:33.779 --> 00:22:39.619 But some of you might say, well, George, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. But I mean, gosh, George, 00:22:39.619 --> 00:22:44.980 you've got to nail God for one for all. Like, why on earth is it that just because Achan does this, 00:22:44.980 --> 00:22:51.619 like why is, is his family implicated? Why is all of Israel implicated? In terms of the family, 00:22:51.619 --> 00:22:55.940 it's very simple. You have to take it within the context that the family was complicit. 00:22:55.940 --> 00:23:02.180 It says sons and daughters, not babies, and that they all worked together to hide it. They all knew 00:23:02.180 --> 00:23:09.220 about it and they were complicit in it. But Achan's the one first responsible for it. But why is it that 00:23:09.220 --> 00:23:13.460 all these people suffer because of one person's thing? That doesn't make any sense. 00:23:14.660 --> 00:23:21.460 So once again, I was at Parliament on Friday talking to Parliament Hill staffers who are Christians or 00:23:22.100 --> 00:23:26.819 curious about Christianity, I said, out of all the people in Canada, you are the ones who should 00:23:26.819 --> 00:23:32.900 understand this the best. And I think some of them were a bit surprised. I said, why? Because we all know 00:23:32.900 --> 00:23:38.019 how important sometimes the leader is. If Trudeau had not resigned, 00:23:38.660 --> 00:23:41.140 Polly Eve would be the Prime Minister of Canada today. 00:23:41.140 --> 00:23:56.259 And I said, you all work for MPs. And if it comes out next week that your MP was a serial sexual abuser of 00:23:56.259 --> 00:24:01.860 children, the MP would be kicked out of the party and you would all be without a job. 00:24:04.740 --> 00:24:09.300 And nobody would be surprised at that consequence, because sometimes the act of one 00:24:09.299 --> 00:24:12.099 is something that has an act for the rest of them. 00:24:14.339 --> 00:24:19.139 So, but you might say, okay, well, I sort of, yeah, yeah, I sort of understand that, George. But, 00:24:19.139 --> 00:24:24.980 you know, it, why is it that God doesn't just take action? Why is it that Israel has to be the ones 00:24:24.980 --> 00:24:30.019 that stone him? And don't you still think that stoning is like really brutal and like way over 00:24:30.019 --> 00:24:36.339 the top and too extreme? And why do they have to do that? Well, once again, we all actually understand 00:24:36.339 --> 00:24:40.259 this and agree with it, believe it or not, maybe not the extreme bit, which I'm still going to get to, 00:24:40.259 --> 00:24:46.099 but we all understand it. And here's what we would understand. If it came out in the news, 00:24:46.099 --> 00:24:52.099 I discover in the news that somebody in our church has sexually abused one of our children. 00:24:53.539 --> 00:24:57.299 Everybody in the city would say, look at that church of the Messiah. They're all terrible. 00:24:57.299 --> 00:25:07.539 What would have to happen is that if we don't judge and punish the person, it would show that in a 00:25:07.539 --> 00:25:13.779 sense we are complicit in it. Why is it that there's so much anger at certain churches and other types 00:25:13.779 --> 00:25:20.579 of institutions that something like sexual abuse or some other thing happens? And why is there anger 00:25:20.579 --> 00:25:26.500 towards it? At first it's just because the person, but the real anger comes if it turns out that the 00:25:26.500 --> 00:25:32.819 higher ups and the body knew about it and did nothing about it. And when they do nothing about it, 00:25:32.819 --> 00:25:40.099 then they've done it. It means they agree. If it comes out that, you know, somebody on the liberal 00:25:40.099 --> 00:25:47.059 party has been posting or conservative party has been posting anti-semitic stuff or something like that, 00:25:47.059 --> 00:25:52.579 and it comes out and the party does nothing about it, then it means the party is anti-semitic. 00:25:52.579 --> 00:26:00.980 That's what it means. If they post something racist and nothing's done about it, it means the party is 00:26:00.980 --> 00:26:09.460 racist. So we understand this, and that's why Israel had to show that no, they weren't wanting to commit 00:26:10.019 --> 00:26:16.259 spiritual adultery with the Lord. They wanted to be the Lord's. They needed to act on it. We can understand 00:26:16.259 --> 00:26:25.700 that at a very, very deep level. But we're a little bit confused, George. Okay, George, uh, okay, 00:26:25.700 --> 00:26:32.180 but I'm a little bit confused about the fact that aren't you all about second chances? And aren't you all about 00:26:32.180 --> 00:26:38.579 the fact that, you know, you can cast yourself on the mercy of the Lord and he's gonna give you forgiveness? 00:26:38.579 --> 00:26:43.539 And doesn't Aiken actually, you didn't read the bit, but doesn't Aiken acknowledge that he's done all of those things? 00:26:45.379 --> 00:26:49.539 Well, he does, but here's where an old Irish saying is very helpful. 00:26:51.059 --> 00:26:55.859 And the Irish saying is when somebody says something, like maybe they say, I'm a raging alcoholic, or, 00:26:56.419 --> 00:27:01.779 you know, some other type of thing. And the Irish saying is, are you bragging or confessing? 00:27:01.779 --> 00:27:13.700 Are you bragging or confessing? You see, everything in the book of Joshua, and especially after chapter 6, 00:27:13.700 --> 00:27:18.819 is downstream from what happened to the, to Rahab. And we're going to see this several other times in 00:27:18.819 --> 00:27:25.460 the weeks to come. But Rahab understands that the Lord has done this mighty miracle, and her response 00:27:26.099 --> 00:27:31.700 is to cast herself upon the mercy of the Lord, so that she has spared judgment and she becomes 00:27:31.779 --> 00:27:37.460 his because she realizes that he's the true and living God, and she wants to be his, and she has 00:27:37.460 --> 00:27:42.660 nothing that she can really offer, and she casts herself on the mercy of the Lord. And Aiken said, 00:27:42.660 --> 00:27:48.899 yes, I did those things. And Joshua, could you intercede with the Lord for me that he might have mercy 00:27:48.899 --> 00:27:58.579 on even one like me? But his cry for mercy is not there at all. His confession is bragging. 00:27:58.579 --> 00:28:06.019 Not confession. Not confession. And another, the words of his lip are a symbol of bragging, 00:28:06.579 --> 00:28:10.819 not confession. He doesn't cast himself upon the mercy of the Lord. 00:28:12.659 --> 00:28:19.059 Okay, George, well, you've dealt with a lot of stuff, but why is it still so extreme? I mean, gosh, 00:28:19.699 --> 00:28:25.539 it's just some gold, a little bit of silver. I don't know, some Hugo Boss and Armani clothing. 00:28:25.539 --> 00:28:37.059 I mean, like, it's not a really big deal. Do you agree with it being so, so, so extreme? 00:28:38.899 --> 00:28:42.980 Well, several things you need to understand about this story, because at the end of the day, I agree 00:28:42.980 --> 00:28:49.139 with it. I agree with it ultimately because it's the Bible, but there's, there's reasons for it. The 00:28:49.140 --> 00:28:55.300 first thing is that if you read Joshua and you read Judges and you read the rest of the Bible, 00:28:55.860 --> 00:29:02.100 one of the things that you see is that, first of all, the so-called conquest of the promised land is 00:29:02.100 --> 00:29:09.940 not really so much a conquest as it is a punishment upon the sin of Canaan. And it's not a sign that God 00:29:09.940 --> 00:29:16.740 is quick-tempered, because if you go back and read Genesis and read the first, like Genesis 12 to 15, 00:29:16.740 --> 00:29:23.220 16, and you'll see that when God promises Abraham this land, he says, I'm not going to give it to you 00:29:23.220 --> 00:29:27.859 yet because the sins of the Canaanites have not reached that level that it's so offensive to me 00:29:27.859 --> 00:29:34.740 that they need to be judged. Fast forward 600 years. That's not an example, that's not an example of God 00:29:34.740 --> 00:29:42.500 being impatient. 600 years later, the punishment comes. So in many ways, it is on one level, the people 00:29:42.500 --> 00:29:48.259 of Israel coming into the promised land that God has called them, but it is also just as important, 00:29:49.140 --> 00:29:56.019 a punishment, God's punishment about deep-rooted sin in that whole country which is imbued in their 00:29:56.019 --> 00:30:03.059 culture, their worship, their politics, their attitudes, their stories, their imagination. It 00:30:03.859 --> 00:30:11.220 suffuses and infuses everything. The second thing is that the entire conquest is a story of once and done. 00:30:12.180 --> 00:30:17.460 It's not a story setting a pattern for the future. It's very, very limited. It's connected to the 00:30:17.460 --> 00:30:22.259 judgment of the Canaanites, and it's a once and done story, as you see if you read the rest of the 00:30:22.259 --> 00:30:30.740 New Testament. And so, and the other thing, and the final thing is this, and this is connected to it being 00:30:30.740 --> 00:30:38.339 a once and done story. You know, we say in the Creed that we believe that God is going to judge the living 00:30:38.339 --> 00:30:43.299 in the dead. And Christians understand that judging the living and the dead will mean that there is a 00:30:43.299 --> 00:30:49.299 thing called judgment which leads to something like hell, and it stays very abstract. 00:30:49.299 --> 00:31:00.659 It's a story that this story makes it real. The story is a foretaste of the final judgment 00:31:00.660 --> 00:31:08.420 judgment. Where those who have lived in rebellion against God, or basically just given God the finger, 00:31:09.060 --> 00:31:17.779 or said WTF to God their entire lives, they appear before Him face to face, and there is a judgment. 00:31:17.779 --> 00:31:22.740 And they will die. 00:31:22.740 --> 00:31:26.819 They will be punished. 00:31:29.539 --> 00:31:34.819 And that's part of the reason we don't like this story, is because it is a picture 00:31:34.819 --> 00:31:40.819 of the destiny of all human beings to appear before a holy God. 00:31:45.139 --> 00:31:49.299 So now some might say, George, okay, you've explained a lot of those things, but you know what, 00:31:49.299 --> 00:31:54.899 I could never worship a God. Everything like that, everything about this God is just completely and 00:31:54.899 --> 00:32:01.619 utterly wrong. I don't think He exists. I think He can't exist. Even if He does exist, I would refuse to 00:32:01.619 --> 00:32:06.099 worship Him. Every person should turn their back on a God like that. They should want to have nothing 00:32:06.099 --> 00:32:11.939 to do with a God that's so bloodthirsty and so hard, and everything like that. And if for some 00:32:11.939 --> 00:32:18.179 reason this came up at your workplace because somebody had come across just Joshua chapter 7 and 00:32:18.179 --> 00:32:23.219 asked you as Christian what you think about and agree with it, if they were to say that in front of 00:32:24.019 --> 00:32:29.059 a group of five or six of your co-workers, or if your families aren't followers of Christ, 00:32:29.059 --> 00:32:34.179 five or six people who are family members who are outside of Christ, and even if a couple of the 00:32:34.179 --> 00:32:38.099 people there are Christians, they would have their heads down and their eyes down because they wouldn't 00:32:38.099 --> 00:32:42.740 quite know what to say. When that person says, everything about this story is wrong, a God like 00:32:42.740 --> 00:32:47.220 that shouldn't exist. Even if He does exist, I'd have nothing to do with Him. And George, if you still 00:32:47.220 --> 00:32:51.539 defend Him, I will think vastly less of you, and I don't even know if I would want to have anything to do with 00:32:51.539 --> 00:32:58.659 you. And if that happened to you, you would probably have a period of silence as you look down because 00:32:58.659 --> 00:33:03.299 you probably wouldn't know what to say. But here's what you should say. 00:33:07.139 --> 00:33:12.180 Why is it all right for you to banish God into eternal non-existence, 00:33:12.180 --> 00:33:19.299 to shame Him and punish Him and accuse Him of wrongdoing, and He can't do that to you? 00:33:19.299 --> 00:33:24.980 Why is it you can do that to Him and He can't do that to you? 00:33:27.060 --> 00:33:28.740 Who died and made you God? 00:33:32.580 --> 00:33:33.940 Who died and made you God? 00:33:33.940 --> 00:33:35.140 Who died and made you God? 00:33:36.740 --> 00:33:40.660 And now we start to see why there is often so much dysfunction. 00:33:41.940 --> 00:33:47.140 Because in a sense, if this was me in the room, and I could say, who died and made you God? 00:33:48.259 --> 00:33:51.860 Who died and made you God? Because you all agree with the statement, who died and made you God? 00:33:52.420 --> 00:33:57.539 Who died and made you God? And because in my heart I understand the sting of the statement, 00:33:57.539 --> 00:33:59.380 I could say, who died and made me God? 00:33:59.380 --> 00:34:05.940 You see, if you have a marriage where both people think they're gods, little gods, 00:34:06.420 --> 00:34:11.380 that marriage is going to constantly have conflict. In fact, if you have a marriage where one of the 00:34:11.380 --> 00:34:15.780 two people think they're gods, that marriage is going to constantly have conflict. 00:34:18.660 --> 00:34:20.579 It's inherently unstable. 00:34:24.900 --> 00:34:26.260 That's why you have discord. 00:34:26.260 --> 00:34:30.020 And it's only an act of grace when there isn't. 00:34:30.820 --> 00:34:32.260 Part of God's common grace. 00:34:34.660 --> 00:34:37.780 Now we come to that part of the sermon where we talk about the best option. 00:34:37.780 --> 00:34:41.380 Because many people might say, well, George, okay, that caught me by surprise. 00:34:42.100 --> 00:34:44.340 And I'm not quite sure what to say about that. 00:34:45.460 --> 00:34:48.180 But I think you just think you're better than other people. 00:34:49.220 --> 00:34:54.100 I think you think that somehow or another God won't judge you, or if He does judge you, 00:34:54.099 --> 00:34:58.579 somehow you're going to have such a good score that nothing happens to you. 00:34:59.619 --> 00:35:03.219 And often if a person outside the Christian faith says that about a Christian, 00:35:03.940 --> 00:35:05.699 often, unfortunately, it's true. 00:35:05.940 --> 00:35:10.500 Because one of the things is that Christians, despite the Bible, do believe they're better than other people. 00:35:10.659 --> 00:35:12.900 And if you're one of those, we should repent of it. 00:35:13.460 --> 00:35:16.179 Something for you to repent of before you receive communion. 00:35:16.179 --> 00:35:19.779 What I would say is several things. 00:35:19.779 --> 00:35:24.659 The first thing about this is the way to read and understand this story in the book of Joshua isn't, 00:35:25.139 --> 00:35:27.940 what are the principles I could learn to be like Joshua? 00:35:30.500 --> 00:35:35.859 You could maybe even have a pastor who sort of just plays around and ignores those little nasty bits, 00:35:35.859 --> 00:35:41.460 but says, you know, if you want to be like Joshua, what you need to do, you want to be a guy who understands, 00:35:41.460 --> 00:35:47.699 who hears from God, and is a man of prayer, and is able to be prophetic with people around them. 00:35:47.699 --> 00:35:51.780 Well, you need to practice this prayer, and you need to do this, and you need to breathe in through your nose, 00:35:51.780 --> 00:35:53.539 not through your mouth, and you need to... 00:35:53.539 --> 00:35:56.420 The point of the story isn't how to become like Joshua. 00:35:57.059 --> 00:36:00.340 The point of the story is, George, you're Achan. 00:36:03.539 --> 00:36:04.980 That's the point of the story. 00:36:08.900 --> 00:36:09.619 You're Achan. 00:36:11.460 --> 00:36:19.460 And now it's where we get the hope of this part of the story that sometimes the sin 00:36:20.179 --> 00:36:23.300 or the virtue of one person can carry over to the many. 00:36:24.260 --> 00:36:30.099 This thing that we all understand that, amongst other things, one of the reasons the Liberals are 00:36:30.099 --> 00:36:36.340 in power today is because Trudeau resigned and Carney became the head of the Liberal Party. 00:36:36.340 --> 00:36:43.059 Sometimes, in a sense, what one person does can carry on for the rest. And some of you have heard this 00:36:43.059 --> 00:36:48.180 example before. I still think it's the most brilliant example, and it's well worth remembering. 00:36:48.180 --> 00:36:54.019 But here's what the Christian hope is. And it's connected to if in 2019, a couple of years before 00:36:54.019 --> 00:36:58.420 she died, a couple of years before COVID, when she was probably one of the most popular people in the 00:36:58.420 --> 00:37:05.619 world, the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth. And if there was a soccer match or a tennis match at 00:37:05.619 --> 00:37:10.099 Wembley Stadium, and there's 110,000 people in it, and then it's just like a scene out of one of those 00:37:10.099 --> 00:37:16.900 movies where the terrorists are able to infiltrate, take over the command booth. They're able to put 00:37:16.900 --> 00:37:21.139 bombs and chains on all the doors. They station snipers at strategic places. 00:37:21.139 --> 00:37:27.699 And they reveal that the stage for the halftime show that's in the center of the stage actually 00:37:27.699 --> 00:37:33.219 contains a small nuclear device. And they say that unless you meet all of my demands, we're going to 00:37:33.219 --> 00:37:40.420 blow up the stadium, and you're all going to die. And if in that case, Victor or Frank or my wife, 00:37:40.420 --> 00:37:44.659 Louise, one of them was to call up the terrorists and say, listen, why didn't you let everybody go and 00:37:44.659 --> 00:37:49.779 all sit on the bomb instead? And nothing personal to my wife, Louise, or Victor or Frank. They would just 00:37:49.780 --> 00:37:55.140 laugh at you because you guys are nobodies. I offered they'd laugh because I'm a nobody. 00:37:56.900 --> 00:38:03.860 But if the Queen of England called up and said, I will sit on that nuclear device if you let everybody 00:38:03.860 --> 00:38:12.660 go, they would rub their hands in glee and accept that in a moment. They have the Queen of England 00:38:12.659 --> 00:38:23.139 on that bomb. They have all of England, all of the UK, all of the Commonwealth, all of the First World, 00:38:23.139 --> 00:38:27.219 and even large parts of Russia and China would be gripped by it. 00:38:30.019 --> 00:38:35.539 They have billions when they have the Queen sitting on the bomb. 00:38:35.539 --> 00:38:42.500 And the good news is that God, the Son of God, who better than God, the Son of God, 00:38:43.779 --> 00:38:50.259 Jesus, the second Adam, to represent billions and billions and billions and billions of people. 00:38:51.619 --> 00:38:56.579 And the Christian hope is not that I can figure out how to not be as bad as Achan. 00:38:56.579 --> 00:39:04.099 The Christian hope is that Jesus was condemned in my place and died the death I deserve. 00:39:06.099 --> 00:39:14.259 And he can truly represent me. And so when he dies on the cross, he is dying in my place. 00:39:14.819 --> 00:39:20.739 And what he offers me is the life that he deserves that I do not. And that is what is offered in that 00:39:20.739 --> 00:39:30.179 sacrifice and that exchange. And that is the Christian hope. In my place condemned, he stood. 00:39:30.179 --> 00:39:34.339 If you could put up the first point, Claire, it would be that exactly. That 00:39:37.139 --> 00:39:45.219 be thankful that in my place condemned, he stood. Just a couple of things in closing from this about 00:39:45.219 --> 00:39:51.459 what that means in terms of our daily lives. If the first thing is to be thankful that in my place 00:39:51.459 --> 00:39:57.219 condemned, he stood. The second thing is that God calls us to never make a treaty with sin. 00:39:59.139 --> 00:40:04.339 But he's not telling us to have a type of legalism whereby we always look outwardly like we're 00:40:04.339 --> 00:40:09.139 righteous, but inwardly we go ahead and do things that are bad or secretly we do things that are bad. 00:40:10.179 --> 00:40:14.579 He calls us to never make a treaty with sin. In other words, what he says is this, George, 00:40:14.579 --> 00:40:21.460 you can't be like, okay, I know you used to be like 10 feet deep anti-Semitic. Now you can be like 00:40:21.460 --> 00:40:26.579 six inches deep. Like that's a sort of a manageable amount of anti-Semitism that you can live with. Or 00:40:26.579 --> 00:40:31.860 George used to be 10 feet deep of racist. Well, you need to just, you know, that's really hard to 00:40:31.860 --> 00:40:36.819 manage because you're your friends or, you know, you're anti- like anti-Semitic friends or racist friends. So 00:40:36.819 --> 00:40:43.860 just be six inches deep of not of racist and and not all of that. You make a treaty with that. Like with 00:40:43.860 --> 00:40:49.380 greed, with, with, you know, with pornography, with any type of sin. Just, just make a treaty with the 00:40:49.380 --> 00:40:55.620 George, just six inches deep. Not know the Bible. Jesus is always going to be pushing against that. 00:40:55.620 --> 00:41:00.579 The Holy Spirit is going to be pushing against that. Going to be pushing you to never make a treaty with 00:41:00.579 --> 00:41:05.940 sin. Never make a treaty with sin. If you could put up the second point, that would be very helpful. 00:41:05.940 --> 00:41:12.659 What does it be thankful that in Jesus, the Father always offers true repentance in the Holy Spirit? 00:41:13.780 --> 00:41:19.380 God calls us not to make a treaty with sin, but he calls us for a long repentance in the same direction 00:41:20.099 --> 00:41:28.340 that emerges out of mercy and grace, is carried by mercy and grace, and will end with mercy and grace. 00:41:28.340 --> 00:41:34.340 But he calls us to a true repentance, a long repentance in the same direction. 00:41:35.539 --> 00:41:42.019 And if you slip into an anti-Semitic thought, or a racist thought, or an adulterous thought, or a greedy 00:41:42.019 --> 00:41:47.460 thought, or an angry thought, or anything like that, and if you do that 20 times a day, then at the end 00:41:47.460 --> 00:41:55.059 of the day you repent 20 times and say, Lord, grant me true repentance in your Holy Spirit that I might 00:41:55.059 --> 00:42:00.900 amend my life according to your word. Make the gospel more real to my heart, that it is your gospel that 00:42:00.900 --> 00:42:07.779 drives me to a willingness to repent, because repentance is always the best option. That's the 00:42:07.779 --> 00:42:15.380 whole section I forgot to say that this third thing is the best option. And then just a final thing, 00:42:15.380 --> 00:42:21.059 as I've gone just a few seconds over my time, if you could put up the final point. You know, I hope what 00:42:21.059 --> 00:42:25.940 you see with this is that when you take parts of the Bible that seem most offensive to Canadians, 00:42:25.940 --> 00:42:31.219 and you press in with them, and trust that God is the author of Scripture, just remember this. Don't 00:42:31.219 --> 00:42:36.579 ask, what would Jesus do? Although that's obviously a good question to ask. Just remember that when Jesus 00:42:36.579 --> 00:42:41.619 died on the cross and rose from the dead, and he did that because he loves you, he did that because 00:42:41.619 --> 00:42:46.980 he wants you to come to him, that he can save you, that he can bring you into intimacy with God, 00:42:46.980 --> 00:42:52.980 a covenant with God, to belong to God, to be in union with God. That's what he wants for you. And Jesus 00:42:52.980 --> 00:43:00.980 says that ultimately everything in the Old Testament is all about him. And so don't look at the text, and 00:43:00.980 --> 00:43:07.219 and so the invitation is, if you put up the third point, is to be thankful that the Bible is a mirror 00:43:07.219 --> 00:43:13.699 and a window and a window, and to treat it that way. So to say, what is this text revealing about me? 00:43:18.579 --> 00:43:23.939 The real me. And the other thing is, what is this text? That's the mirror. The window is, 00:43:23.939 --> 00:43:32.419 how is this text revealing the importance and the glory and the beauty of Jesus, and what my destiny is in 00:43:32.420 --> 00:43:42.180 him, and how I walk with him. Be thankful that the Bible is a mirror and a window, and read it. Read it 00:43:42.180 --> 00:43:50.019 by yourself. Read it with others. Read it and pray. Read it with the church fathers. Read it with wise 00:43:50.019 --> 00:43:56.420 people like C.S. Lewis. But read it and pray, knowing that it's a window, a mirror, and a window. 00:43:56.420 --> 00:44:06.180 Invite you to stand. Bow our heads in prayer. 00:44:14.500 --> 00:44:16.420 Father, we give you thanks and praise that 00:44:19.220 --> 00:44:24.420 you do not weigh our merits, but you pardon our offenses. We give you thanks and praise. We confess 00:44:24.420 --> 00:44:29.539 before you the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, 00:44:29.539 --> 00:44:35.619 our Lord. And we ask, Father, that you would make the Gospel ever more real to our hearts. And also, 00:44:35.619 --> 00:44:42.340 Father, make your judgment known and real to us, that we might have a deeper desire to bear witness 00:44:42.980 --> 00:44:47.700 of Jesus and the beauty of the Gospel to those of our friends who are outside the Christian faith, 00:44:47.700 --> 00:44:53.860 that we might have a deeper heart and burden to pray that people will come to a saving faith in the 00:44:53.860 --> 00:45:00.340 Lord Jesus Christ, because your judgment is real and your salvation is what you desire for people to have. 00:45:01.140 --> 00:45:07.539 So bring these truths home to us and make us people of prayer and people willing to bear witness to Jesus 00:45:07.539 --> 00:45:12.740 in the hope that they will come to a saving faith. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and 00:45:12.740 --> 00:45:14.740 our Savior. Amen. 00:45:23.860 --> 00:45:25.860 Amen. 00:45:25.860 --> 00:45:25.860