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00:00:01 [Applause] [Music] today's scripture reading is taken from matthew chapter 13 53 to chapter 14 verse 12 and john 1 verses 43 to 51 matthew chapter 13 verse 53 when jesus had finished these parables he moved on from there coming to his hometown he began teaching the people in their synagogue and they were amazed where did this man get this wisdom and this miraculous powers they asked isn't this the carpenter's son isn't his mother's name mary and her and his brothers james joseph simon and judas
00:00:50 aren't all his sisters with us where then did this man get all these things and he took offense at him but jesus said to them a prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home and he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith chapter 14 at the time herod tetra heard the reports about jesus and he said to his attendants this is john the baptist he has risen from the den that is why miraculous powers add at work in him now herron had arrested jon and bound him
00:01:32 and put him in prison because of heredius his brother's philips wife for john had been saying to him it is not lawful for you to have her herod wanted to kill jon but he was afraid of the people because they considered jon a prophet on harry's birthday the daughter of heredia's dance for the guests and pleased herod so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked prompted by her mother she said give me here on a platter the head of john the baptist the king was distressed but because of his oaths and his dinner
00:02:11 gas he ordered that her request be granted and had jon beheaded in the prison his hate was brought in on a platter and given to the girl who carried it to her mother jean's disciples came and took his body and buried it then they went and told jesus john chapter 1 verse 43. the next day jesus decided to leave for galilee finding philip he said to him follow me philip like andrew and peter was from the town of besider philip found nathaniel and told him we have found the one moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophets
00:02:56 also wrote jesus of nazareth the son of joseph nazareth can anything good come from there nathaniel asked come and see said phillip when jesus saw nathaniel approaching he said of him here truly is an israelite in whom there is no deceit how do you know me nathaniel asked jesus answered i saw you while you were still under the fig tree before philip called you then the tenure declared rabbi you are the son of god you are the king of israel jesus said you believe because i told you i saw you under the fig tree
00:03:41 you will see greater things than that he then added very truly i tell you you will see heaven open and the angels of god ascending and descending on the son of man this is the word of the lord good morning first baptist church good to be here in the house of the lord worshiping the lord together i pray and look forward to the time where we can actually be physically seated i think the team here has been practicing so one day we'll see all these pews filled with all of you who come and join us as well as those of you who can't
00:04:25 back in zoom today we're looking at the last part of matthew chapter 13 matthew chapter 13 is a journey through about six different parables about the kingdom of god if you look very carefully here we've got the parable of sower talking about great fruitfulness mustard seed explosive growth great value from the master from the pearl great joy finding treasure giving up the whole life and yet there is a other side where there is a pirated version of the gospel and there are weeds among the wheat
00:05:06 there is also judgment at the end times so today's sermon we're going to be looking at real life application of all these parables of the kingdom and unfortunately you thought that after all these parables matthew would arrange such that there would be great faith at the end but in the end we're actually looking today at two phases of unbelief and they basically pride and prejudice title i've stolen from jane austen so before we start let's have a word of prayer lord we ask this morning that your word
00:05:42 will filter through our sinfulness and touch our hearts to explore what real faithfulness and belief is and to give us a warning what pride and prejudice can do in fostering unbelief we pray at the end of this sermon that we will be led by your spirit to have even greater faith and trust in you if you ask for jesus sake amen it's very unusual to give a sermon much less a talk on unbelief but unbelief is extremely important to understand we've got famous christians joshua harris pastor of a mega church who wrote
00:06:24 this book about a kiss stating goodbye and years later on he not only divorced his wife but he also left the church and is no longer a christian more recently you've got marty sampson who is responsible for many of the songs from hill songs which has been sung all over the world he actually renounced the faith very sad if you look at there's a publication recently by ronald ingelheart which actually surveyed over a hundred countries containing 90 percent of the world's population from 1981 to 2020 this is the
00:07:03 largest base of empirical evidence ever assembled to analyze mass acceptance of or rejection of religion and if you look at the data the decline in the belief of god is in astronomical proportions for the last 10 years out of 49 countries only five have increased in belief in god in the last 10 years most have declining belief in god we live in very dark times you just look the state of the american church looking at barna's research they surveyed 96 000 adults from the year 2000 to 2020 and you can find that christians in the
00:07:49 united states have declined by 50 percent in the last decade up to 2020. and if you look very carefully non-practicing christians the ones the stony ground the ones who the seed has been stifled by the thorns increased by 30 non-christians increase by 60 percent see unbelief is important and we're going to look at two phases of unbelief today and very three simple questions i want to pose to this particular passage both in 13 and 14 is what causes unbelief what are the consequences of unbelief and how do we overcome
00:08:36 unbelief first of all what causes unbelief and when jesus had finished these parables he went away from there and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished and said where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works so here's jesus returning to his hometown and his hometown is in nazareth which is up in the galilee region as you can see in the map it's a small town they say about 300 people live there some scholars say 3 000 but that's controversial but it's a real
00:09:14 backwater town you can see some historical sites if you go back to visit the holy land this is a bit of a gal and this is a carpenter and jesus worked with his father as a comforter in nazareth and this is one of the synagogues and it's inside here where jesus actually came renowned all over for the miracles and work that he'd been uh ministering and then he started to preach and the response from the audience there was astonishment wisdom and they acknowledged he had mighty works which means he had seen his
00:09:50 miracles elsewhere they've heard about him this is an honest appraisal of who jesus was but in verse 55 he says is this not the carpenter's son is not his mother called mary are not his brothers james and joseph and simon and judas are not all his sisters with us where then did this man get these things so here we actually have jesus christ coming back and with his works and with his preaching exposition scripture that's genuine appreciation and yet on the other hand there's something else working there's
00:10:30 prejudice this is the carpenter's son you know i saw his shop you know isn't it down the corner lot he'd been there with his father for years his mother mary remember her didn't she have an illegitimate child in bethlehem then she moved over here and are these not his brothers and his sisters with us and here you've got them weighing two bits of evidence what he has preached and what he has done and on the other hand there's prejudice there's skepticism cynicism and he ended there's outrage because in
00:11:06 matthew chapter 13 verse 57 he said and they took offense at him from astonishment he moves to cynicism and then it moves to offense the word offense to the greek is scandalously which means they were scandalized they were brought to a downfall or caused to sin when you actually reject jesus you're caused to sin and jesus conclusion in 57 he says and they took offense at him and jesus said to them a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and his own household this very sad isn't returning
00:11:39 to his hometown instead of having a hero's welcome he's roundly rejected and what is the reason for that well psychologists tell us that this phenomenon of motivated reasoning where emotions and basic physiological traits that we actually have as human beings influence rational thought in fact there was a study by uh kevin campbell and aaron k uh in 19 2014 that showed political ideology also ins it influences the way we actually think rationally republicans in america skepticism towards climate change is linked to the
00:12:21 beliefs about policy solutions so if you're driving a big car you uses a lot of petrol you're more like or less likely to believe in climate change you're less likely to change in fact they wrote in any issue that people's cherished beliefs and identities are in play you're probably going to see some amount of solution aversion is this not the carpenter's son so he's just like us isn't it isn't his mother called mary are not his brothers james and joseph and simon so how different is he from us
00:12:54 that's the whole issue with them there were prejudice he can't be better than us he's he's like a tall puppy and we're going to cut him down in fact troy campbell actually wrote in this study we alter our view of reality to be as flattering as possible right so jesus can't be better than us because he's come from the same hometown as and this is prejudice in about 1954-55 was a group of believers called the seekers who actually were waiting for gods to come back to take them and these gods were aliens
00:13:30 and they were waiting at 4 pm december 17 they would be coming with spacecraft to take them up and they waited and waited 4pm came nothing happened they waited the next day nothing happened they waited the next day and nothing happened in the end you know what they said they said that the aliens had thought that they were so faithful in waiting that they decided to give the world another chance and these people persisted in their crazy ideology this is not just limited to this particular sect if you a
00:14:02 couple of weeks ago in dallas texas two three hundred people gathered you know what they were gathering they were gathering to wait for the resurrection of jfk it happens why does it happen well leon festinger who is a stanford psychologist actually was embedded with the seekers in 1954-55 and he wrote this a man with a conviction is hard man to change tell him you disagree he turns away show him facts and figures and he questions your sources appeal to logic and he fails to see a point isn't this
00:14:38 like the anti-vexes in our current pandemic whatever evidence you show that they will show you something else all the anti-vaxxers will believe it anything else other than vaccine i'd rather's either mectim or hydroxychloroquine and the same debate goes on and on in fact it's hardwired into our brain there was a chap called kevin dunbar in 2003 and he did a study and he repeated galileo's famous study on gravity galileo took two balls one heavy and one very light and he dropped it down and and how many of you think
00:15:15 the heavier ball will land first put your hands up i can see that in resume right how many of you think the both balls will fall at the same time put your hands up yes i can see ye then very wise band well the fact is the fact is because of gravity acceleration both balls whether heavy or light will fall at the same rate and land the exact same time but instinctively we think the heavier ball will fall faster isn't it and so therefore what kevin denbar actually did was did functional mris and the part in
00:15:54 orange is the anterior cingulate cortex this is the area that detects error and whenever the people saw somebody else said that they will fall at the same rate this actually lit up which means we are hardwired for what error because we think it's more logical for the heavier ball to fall down and and paul and paul tells us for although they knew god they did not honor him or as god or give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened what you have is two conflicting pieces of
00:16:34 evidence and we want coherence in our belief and and the koreans in our belief we always side the darkness where there's unbelief in fact we approach the gospel not as scientists who actually weigh up evidence we actually approach it as lawyers you know what lawyers do give you any position they can have an argument to support any position and we do that because we already have settled ideas and we just produce the arguments whether it's for vaccine or without vaccine but not willing to be objective
00:17:07 all right familiarity breeds contempt they took offense to jesus that jesus said a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and his own uh household all right so basically we can actually have contempt because of familiarity remember this uh uh aesop's fables that you read as a young child the story of the fox when they first saw the lion he quickly ran as fast as he could second time he saw the lion he actually appeared at the lion behind the tree he wasn't quite so scared the third time
00:17:38 you saw the king of the forest he actually came up there and said hey hello mate see familiarity breeds contempt and we're coming to a situation where there's a loss of sickness in the way we worship our lord sometimes the music sometimes the way we arrange our chairs sometimes because of online service where you could sit there in your pajamas or your underwear and your god is one click away isn't it right and then somehow it diminishes its glory on the other hand you can have a high church worship where you've got a
00:18:13 huge gold-stained altar and you've got everything there and all the priests in the garbs but that only localizes god's presence and you forget that when jesus died the curtain was torn down and holy spirit resides in every single one of us we need to have the faith our faith needs the nurturing mindfulness that god is with us in our hearts every moment of every day in every situation of our lives now let's look at the second phase of unbelief it's pride there are five herods in the new testament
00:18:48 and uh the herod the great is the big grand daddy of all he built up caesarea if you look here a beautiful city you can see all the ruins one of the greatest cities of the mediterranean at that time he built up his the temple he built up various palaces where you can see one of his palaces even that masada fought very famous builder and he had four children and the one in question today is herod antipas who basically married the daughter of the king of ritas and then what happened was he run past his brother's
00:19:25 wife called herodius or half brother called philip and that was the problem and john the baptist had a big problem with that john the baptist was brave enough to come forward and basically call it out on that and i think i'll tell you that is very very very rare even today where people are bold enough and god's servant he was bold enough in that particular climate where herod was the ruler to come up and call him out on this adultery adulterous relationship that he actually had and for that for that
00:19:59 herodias exacted her at revenge in a dance by the daughter so pleased the king that he foolishly offered her whatever she wanted and because of her mother the daughter wanted the head of john the baptist and this is how john the baptist was killed and verse 14 of chapter 14 verse 1 2 at that time herod tetra heard about the fame of jesus this is suffered john the baptist died and he said to his servants this is john the baptist he'd been raised from the dead that's why this miraculous powers are at work in him
00:20:37 now this is what we call a guilty conscience working right he killed john the baptist even though he didn't want to kill him but because of pride he killed him and now that this jesus has come this must be john the baptist driven by emotion actions driven by pride he wasn't open to who jesus was he's all he's fixated on is that john the baptist come back to haunt me right we fast forward to luke 23 8. now jesus is brought before herod years later on and he was very glad for your long desire to see him
00:21:12 probably very glad that this wasn't john the baptist come back to haunt him bro because he had heard about him and he was hoping to see some sign done by him he questioned him at some length but he made no answer you see what he wanted jesus to do was do another miracle get another one so i can see maybe i can believe but you know what jesus didn't even answer him at all why didn't he answer herod was he biased against herod if you look very carefully this is what mark writes as it is written in isaiah behold the
00:21:45 prophet the prophet behold i send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way the voice of the one crying wilderness prepare the way of the lord make his path straight and that's exactly the prophecy about john the baptist john the baptist was the one that was sent to make paths straight and that's what he did he but he called out herod and you know what tara did herod had his head chopped off you think you want to answer the guy who chopped off your prophet's head so therefore he didn't
00:22:16 deserve an answer so we come to miracle services and all sorts of things in order to elicit faith that's not how it's done miracles are in response to faith not to produce it we want god on our terms not his which is the problem with herod i was looking through cnn on this discussion on on anti-vexes and sanjay gupta actually interviewed a nurse who was actually willing to give up her profession because she didn't want any vaccine and you know not just not that she didn't believe in any vaccine you know
00:22:49 what her reason was her reason was is freedom of choice i have to be given my choice it is my terms and not any god's terms or authorities terms or anybody else's terms and that's the same kind of underlying stubbornness and unbelief as eve had for god knows that when that's what a serpent say when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like god knowing good and even knowing and not just knowing it's being in a position to decide for yourself the choice what is right and what is wrong and deeply ingrained
00:23:27 in our sinful self is that desire for autonomy that we and we alone get to make the decision whether it's the right decision a wrong decision it doesn't really matter as long as i get to make my decision now these are two phases of unbelief stemming from pride and prejudice what are the consequences unbelief well matthew 13 58 for the nazarenes he didn't do many mighty works there because of the unbelief and for herod was for chapter 14 verse 12 disciples came and took the body and buried it they went and told jesus and
00:24:09 when jesus heard it he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself so jesus just walked away and that's what happens when you have the consequences of unbelief is that god doesn't force you to believe he withdraws you know if you want to impress god you don't have to go and do many things hebrews 11 says without faith it is impossible to please him whoever for whoever will draw near to god must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek what really impresses god faith
00:24:46 mark chapter 6 gives us a little insight of the same episode here chapter 6 verse 6 and he marveled at their unbelief in the gospels there are two times when jesus marvels i mean it's really blown apart you know he marvels at the extent of unbelief matthew chapter 8 because of the faith as a centurion jesus heard this he marveled and said to those truly i tell you no one in israel had found such faith it takes very a lot to basically have jesus marvel and jesus marvels at faith this is a picture of
00:25:22 the promised land from the vantage point of mount nebo before you actually enter and i take you back to numbers chapter 14 where just before chapter 14 you actually have the spies sent into the promised land to suss out the place do reconnaissance see whether they can actually uh conquer the people there right and what the spies did the 12 spies came back and told wow great place wonderful lots of grapes and honey and land of milk and honey but we have giants there they're so huge they make us look like
00:26:01 grasshoppers if we go there they'll kill us they'll have us for that's literally what they say they have us for lunch and so everybody was frightened the people started crying and they started to blame moses and god and say you know you take us all the way from egypt long way you know to come here to be killed and eaten for lunch in the land of giants and this was basically unbelief and god was really upset because if you go whatever impresses god is faith this is the opposite of faith it's unbelief
00:26:33 and what he did was he was going to destroy them moses intervened and because of moses intervention god relented and this is what he said in number 14 then the lord said i have pardoned according to your word so god forgives them but truly as i live as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of god none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that i did in egypt and the wilderness and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice shall see the land that i swore
00:27:08 to give to the fathers and none of those who despise me shall seed there are consequences to their unbelief but i want you to focus on verse 21 as i live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of god see all the miracles which god had done in the ten plagues and and and and fostering his people through the wilderness is to for his glory miracles are done for his glory the purpose of miracles is to glorify god only faith brings glory to god miracles in the absence of faith serves to glorify god which is we look
00:27:46 at the matthew chapter 3 you've got this temptation of jesus christ and twice the devil comes up challenges to make bread challenges to throw himself from the high pinnacle so that you know angels will catch him and the taunt is if you are the son of god twice if so therefore miracles here are not for the glory of god miracles is to validate jesus that's not the role of miracle miracles are in response to faith god acting in your life is in response to faith if you look historically in nazareth today do
00:28:20 you know it's actually a muslim city very sad the unbelief and god leaves them to the unbelief lastly how do we actually overcome unbelief that's the most important question and for that we're going to go into john chapter one but before that i was very intrigued to watch the world summit on climate change get a bit worried about that if you look at news all over the world you can see global warming the cop 26 actually was a failure world leaders can't really get along to decide how to save the
00:29:03 environment and this is greta tonberg that precocious young adolescent who is a champion for climate change uh to mitigate changes to mitigate climate change and she just mentioned in the climate in an interview before the cop26 he said you know these leaders they talk about buildback better green economy climate neutral net zero you know what she had to say about that blah blah blah and she was right all they did in cop26 was blah blah blah nothing really happens we can't change ourselves we can't save this world
00:29:44 in fact on the coldest part of this world up in the north pole they have really done something to save this world you know what they've done they put a bank there and this bank doesn't have gold doesn't have silver doesn't have us dollars it has seeds all they have bothered to do is to bank seeds because they know that whatever happens to the world it is the seed that has the explosive power that will re-green the whole world and save everyone's life and i tell you what they're right because the only thing that will say
00:30:28 this world spiritually is what you do with the seed which is the aim of the parable of the sowers if you look in john chapter one we've got nathaniel philip found nathaniel he said to we found him whom the moses in the law and all the prophets wrote jesus of nazareth the son of joseph nathaniel said to him you know can anything good come out of nazareth philip said come and see come and see so here nathanael's prejudice he says can anything come out of nazareth it's like coming saying oh who's this world-class
00:31:06 specialist where does he come from no he comes from greek not from kuala lumpur so nothing good can come from greek right so there's actually innate projects there's also innate prejudice simply because cana and nazareth are two competing villagers right so nathaniel is obviously prejudiced because how can someone from the same kind of village that he comes from the competing village be something special so it's full of prejudice but the invitation by philip was come and see come and see what this man has to offer
00:31:47 jesus saw nathaniel coming towards him in verse 47 he said of him behold an israelite indeed in whom there's no deceit now you have to understand that the word israelite here we don't understand is actually the only time in the gospel that jesus uses this word israelite is not a good word because if you look where you get the term from israelite is actually from jacob jacob was a guy you don't want to be your neighbor he's going to con you out of your lunch he is a swindler and what he's saying is
00:32:23 that an honest israelite is actually a contradiction of terms here you actually have an israelite in whom there's no deceit so basically now is jesus looking down on him too as if he's looking down on jesus so he's playing it back and here what's happening is that nathaniel is willing to come and jesus is saying that he's a guy who's willing to be honest he's willing is it that's what matthew chapter three five verse three says blessed are those who are poor in spirit for theirs is the king of heaven only when you empty yourself and
00:32:55 are open to what god puts in are you willing to be honest when belief and faith comes in you've got the parable of the sower and you've got the first seed that falls on the ground here you have the man who recognized the beauty of god's word the spiritual truth but he doesn't really act on it it's not very nice very interesting but he does nothing with it and the seed however precious it is and how powerful the dna is able to fill the entire earth nothing can be done because you don't take it in
00:33:28 then you've got the seed that falls on the stony ground and here you actually have the seed penetrating to a certain extent it penetrates it's the word of god coming to our lives and it penetrates to the extent it works for me not because it's the truth but because it works for me what works for me that's the way in the world it doesn't really alter our dna if god's word and god's plan aligns with what i want in life then we're okay but when it becomes more difficult we part ways that's when the word of god the seed
00:34:02 doesn't come into the ground and change your entire dna that's in stony ground when you hold god at a distance in an arm's length and then you've got the seed that falls on tawny ground where there's competing loyalties when you're distracted and that doesn't bear much fruit in the last seed falls on good soil and that changes the soil changes the dna and the whole thing grows 64 100 fold that's the picture what faith is and even if you believe the problem is we forget to remember hosea chapter 13 verse 6
00:34:44 when they had graced they became full they were filled and their hearts were lifted up and therefore they forgot me why there the last decade in the american church 50 declined in christians why simply because they became full they were filled their hearts were lifted up and they forgot god the whole idea is that in the center of our being the center of dna instead of god being there and the word of god being there it is actually self that's why the israelites had so many important memorials they've had the
00:35:23 passover they've got stones erected to basically memorialize the time when they cross the river jordan the promised land they've got the tabernacles feasts are tabernacles even when they wear their clothing their tassels to remind them of god's word you remember that prostitute who came to jesus luke chapter 7 who poured out the alabaster jar of perfume and washed jesus feet with her tears and wiped it with the perfume that cost a year's pay luke 747 therefore i tell you her sins which were many were forgiven for she loved
00:36:05 much but he who is forgiven little loves little and he said to her your sins are forgiven you see true faith goes into your dna changes the way you look at yourself and where do you think her tears came from the tears were not contrived the tears comes when the dna of the seed goes in and convicts you of your utter helplessness and hopelessness and that's where tears come from and that's where genuine glove and gratitude springs from unless you allow the word of god to sink into your heart there is no feeling
00:36:42 charles darwin that famous chap who introduced evolution was a christian let me read to you what happened to him i gradually came to disbelieve in christianity as a divine revelation this belief crept over me at a very slow rate but at last it was complete the rate was so slow that i felt no distress and i've never since doubted even for a single second that my conclusion was correct you see unbelief comes in very slow just like the israelites when they ate with a fool full of self-belief that science overcomes god
00:37:25 c.s lewis actually said if you examine a hundred people who had lost their faith in christianity i wonder how many of them were turned out to be to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument do not most people simply just drift away see unbelief allows you just to simply drift away oscinis the famous christian philosopher writes these words which are so true today faith is not a thing which one loses you don't just lose your faith we merely cease to to shape our lives by it if the word of god is to see that god doesn't come and
00:38:04 change your dna if you don't allow the seed to shape your life you will lose your faith there are two choices you see unbelief either for the nazarenes or herod it's not neutral ground you know you either believe in our lord jesus christ and take in the word and you've got compounding joy and transformation or there's diminishing return when you are addicted to the things of the world john says this do not love the world or the things of the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in
00:38:44 the world the desires of flesh the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the father but it's from the world get this and the world is passing away along with its desires but whoever does the will of god abides forever and this is sad isn't it i was watching some videos of people who have 50 testimony who have reached 100 years of age you know what every single one says i'm so happy you know what i have at 100 years old i have my memories you have all they have after 100 years is their memories
00:39:21 is that all you have one stroke and there's no more memories one alzheimer and there's no more memories we can't live like this we need to live for something else this is some data that came up by pew research done recently just last year impact of the coronavirus pandemic on faith and if you look very carefully 35 percent of united states christians actually found that their faith was stronger during the pandemic and if you look at another survey done over a huge uh period of time 20 years you can find the number of people who
00:39:57 have been reading their bible sever in the last seven days 20 years ago 35 today 35 same so what keeps you alive the word of god now as you come and see daniel said nathaniel said to him how do you know me jesus answered him before philip called you when you were under the fig tree i saw you wow nathaniel was blown apart nintendo answered him rabbi you are the son of god you are the king of israel see when you respond in an open mind and you are willing to believe god then responds to you jesus then said to him because you
00:40:47 i said to you i saw you under fig tree do you believe you will see greater things than these he said to him truly truly i say to you you will see heaven open and the angels of god ascending and descending right and so therefore jesus rewards faith with even more revelation as we interact with him and if you look at the last reference of nathanael in john chapter 21 when jesus was actually resurrected after this jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the sea of tiberias he revealed himself in this way simon
00:41:26 peter thomas called the twin and nathaniel of cana in galilee that small town boy called nathaniel he's right there why because he's willing to give it a go he was willing to believe see brothers and sisters we need to grow we need to be willing to take the word of god seriously the heart and let it change our dna change the way we feel matthew 13 44 talks about a man who found great treasure and then he goes and in his jaw he sells everything that he has to buy that field why do you think paul writes in second corinthians that
00:42:08 when you actually give tithing to the lord god loves a cheerful giver because the cheerful giver is the one that's got the holy spirit put the seed in him so that his dna is changed so when he's actually giving money away smiling how many of you give money away smiling most of you have a pain expression in your face right the only way you can have a smile when you give your money away is that your dna has changed you actually have joy giving it away and that's the only condition where god wants you to give when you've got
00:42:38 bt 76 don't people do it yourself my god give me 36 how many cents are my miners is it before tax or after tax or no tax oh we could do that right if you do that brother and sister don't give take your app and throw it away god doesn't want your money god wants your life when your life belongs to him and you can actually take bt 76 and gleefully say i can't wait until sunday i had to press the bt76 that's when the dna has been changed that's when true faith comes in let me read to you some psalms
00:43:15 psalm 17 15 as for me i shall behold your face in righteousness when i awake i shall be satisfied with your likeness how many of us could actually say that psalm 22 he will trust in the lord let him deliver him let me rescue him for he delights in him what do you delight and do we delight in spending time with him and just reading his word having it mesmerize you are you just delighted netflix or korean drama that's the one that gets you going faith transforms how you feel faith transforms your tastes
00:43:57 faith transforms you see the whole trouble is is that our view of god our view of god is too narrow and you find that faith is a dynamic process it changes and if you if you're in a process of growing with god it will be a process where god reveals himself to you and changes you you look at sarah when she was told that she could have a son genesis 17 to 12. so sarah laughed to herself after i'm worn out my lord is all can i have pleasure during this process of having a child verse 13 the lord said to abraham why
00:44:32 did sarah laugh and say shall i indeed bear a child now that i'm old is anything too hard for the lord see god is going to test your view of him your views of him are too small and that's why faith is being stifled and that god comes in and he breaks those barriers and he causes us to grow the man was a leprosy mark chapter 1 he comes to god he comes to jesus and he says to jesus mark chapter 1 verse 40 if you are willing you can make me clean so this man believed that jesus our power but he didn't believe that jesus had the love
00:45:13 because he says if you are willing you can make me clean if you are willing there was another man whose son was demon-possessed mark chapter 9 he comes in the opposite he comes to jesus and says if you can do anything take pity on us and help us which means here he knows jesus has the love but no power was the leprosy guy thought jesus had the power but no love in either situation our views of god are too small and what does god do god intervenes in their lives and to the leper he shows him not only power but
00:45:53 love the father the son he shows you not only love but he shows him power and he burst through our small views of god marty sampson writes why does he go away why does he become a non-christian this is soapbox moment so here i go how many preachers fall many no one talks about it how many miracles happen not many no one talks about it why is the bible full of contradictions no one talks about it how can god so beloved yet send four billion people to a place all costs they don't believe no one talks about it christians can be
00:46:31 the most judgmental people on the planet they can also be some of the most beautiful and loving people but that's not for me anymore you see what he's doing he's like a husband and wife on the right or not on the verge of getting divorced right you just pick all the bad things and then use that as an excuse stuff that should have been sorted out before he became a christian and it brings all this up again as a reason why this hillsong songwriter now does not believe in jesus christ there's no growth it's allowed the small
00:47:00 views of god to stifle and destroy his faith let me end with two lives two men who lived about the same time one was lord anthony ashley cooper a member of parliament in the british parliament and the other one is the irish poet called george bernard shaw both of them were transformed by what they saw on the streets of london george bernard shaw saw misery crying and pain on the streets of london when he's walking through one day and he decided how can he be a god if he allows such misery pain destitution in the world
00:47:46 and he decided that he would never believe in god lord anthony ashley cooper one day was walking on the london streets not the same street but thereabouts and he saw some group of irreverent men carrying a casket of a poor man they were laughing joking they dropped the poor man his casket on the floor the poor fella fell out and lord anthony ashley cooper was grieved in his heart but he believed there was a god and he said this is misery and i'm going to do something about it you know what he did in 1842
00:48:22 he acted to pass the coal miners act which prohibited women and children from working in coal mines in 1847 he started he passed the lunacy act which secured humane treatment of mentally ill people he passed other he worked to pass other legislation limiting the number of hours you could work in a factory limiting overcrowding in hotels helping chimney sweeps flower girls orphan prostitutes prisoners handicapped people and even crippled children throughout his career you see why did he do that he said that because
00:48:58 there's no real remedy for all this mass of misery but in only one remedy the return of our lord jesus christ you see two men living at roughly the same time same city a praise the same problem the evil in the streets arrive at two different conclusions the opinions are not formed from the london streets but from something inside their hearts along with the fool george bernard shaw said there is no god lord ashley cooper said on your hand made up his mind that god existed and he decided it was his christian
00:49:36 responsibility to act in god's name to do something about the suffering in this world two different lives today the challenge is to all of you at home if you do not know jesus christ is lord i don't know why you may not know him as lord and savior maybe it's because you think you're self-sufficient is either pride or prejudice i will put the challenge to you as philip said to nathaniel come and see and nathaniel's life was changed upside down and if you've been a christian for many many years and you're at home
00:50:18 and you're struggling with online service getting depressed allow the seed to come into your life come and see and the more you allow him to come into your life the more he will respond and reveal himself to you so that you in the end will be counted with him when he comes again may god add a blessing to his word
