good morning. Refuge Church family. It is so great to see you again this
morning. Thank you so much for worshiping with us. Listen, we're starting a
brand new series today, and I cannot wait to see what God is going to do in
our lives over the next few weeks together. Remember if you need me, if you
need our team for anything, do not hesitate to reach out. You can call the
church office. You can fill out a care form on our website. We love you. And
we want to minister to you and walk with you through your good times. And
through the challenging times in your life, let's pray together and then jump
into God's word, father. We love you so much. We thank you for your word. We
thank you, God, that it is alive, that it is powerful and father, we thank
you that you want to speak to us. You want to have relationship with us, God
and father. I pray today for every person that's watching and listening. God
that you would speak to them in a powerful way, father, that you would search
our hearts, Oh God, that you would call us father to be everything that you
have called and created us to be. And God, today, as we are, God, just learn
more about worship father. I pray that we would be people that worship you in
spirit and in truth, understanding God that because your spirit is
it within us. God, we are connected to you. We are close to you, father. We
love you. And we thank you in advance for what you're going to do in our
midst today. What you're going to do in our homes today, what you're going to
do at our workplaces today, wherever we're at God, we just submit to you. We
love you, Jesus. It's in your name. We pray amen. And more than ever before,
I've since the desire for our church family to get closer to God, maybe it's
all that we've been through over the past year. Maybe it's very personal
struggles that you've encountered in your life. Regardless. There is a spark
in people to know God more. Now over the past few weeks, I've been getting
email after email and phone call after phone call with people asking
questions like Jason, can you help me study the Bible more? Jason, can you
help me understand? Can you help me know how God wants me to pray? And I want
you to know. I think this is incredible. So what we want to do over the next
four weeks is I want to give you a firm foundation. I want to give you some
building blocks to help you grow in your, a relationship with God. Hey, at
our house we love. Lego's just not stepping on him. But all of our kids,
myself included, we love putting Legos together. All of these individual
blocks,
they come together in a bag and you pour them out and you get off the
instructions and you put them together to make something fun, to make
something complete, to make something you can use, you can be creative. And
what I want us to do is I want us to have some building blocks in our faith
that you can put together in your life so that you can be more complete so
that you can be used by God to make a difference. Romans eight 28 says, and
we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who
love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Then maybe you're
watching today and you want to grow closer to God and you want to grow closer
to his purposes, but you're just unsure where to start. You. Maybe, you know,
you already have a relationship with God, but maybe you feel stuck. Maybe you
feel like you're in this spiritual funk, this spiritual rut, you are not
watching accident today because we want to do teach you how to grow in your
relationship with God. By learning, building blocks of personal devotion. My
favorite verses in scripture is Jeremiah 2013. You will seek me and find me
when you search for me with all of your heart. So here's the main idea. This
month, the condition of our heart dictates the direction of our lives. It all
starts with our
heart. Did you know that everything, everything in your life starts in your
heart, not your physical heart, but your will, who you are, who God created
you to be B, but this is difficult because we always judge a book by its
cover. Don't we, but not God. Hello this in first Samuel 16, seven. But the
Lord said to Samuel don't judge by his appearance or height for I've rejected
him. The Lord, doesn't see though things the way you see them. People judge
by outward appearance. But the Lord looks at the heart. Many of us, we're not
sure we can do what God has called us to do or be what God has called us to
be, be because of the way that we look or because of things that we've done.
But listen, God, doesn't look at that. God looks at the heart and your heart.
Your will is so important. Proverbs four 23 says, guard your heart above all
else for it determines the course of your life. So the question then is
Jason, how in the world do I guard my heart? Well, guarding your heart starts
with what you worship. Guarding your heart starts with what you worship. Now.
What was the first thing you thought of? When I said worship, probably music,
right? Maybe even the music we sang today as a church family online or on TV.
But whatever you think of when you worship, I want to challenge you
today to expand your view of what worship is. And we're going to be in Psalm
50. This morning, 50 starts with God's showing up to make one of the grandest
statements in all of history. God tells us that he is about to speak. And
just in case there is any confusion about which God, this is God, the God of
all gods, this is caps lock God, because there's no other God in the Bible
where it's all capitalized. L O R D the Lord. You've seen it in your Bible.
God himself shows up the one who started. Everything is about to open his
mouth as a judge and speak. And here's what he says, midway through the Psalm
in Psalm 50, starting in verse seven. Oh my people listen. As I speak, here
are my charges against you. Okay? Israel. I am God, your God. I have no idea
complaint about your sacrifices or the burnt offerings. Yeah. You constantly
offer. And so what does here is that he starts off with some very good news.
He doesn't find fault with their sacrifices. Now, if you are new to this
whole church thing and have never heard the language of sacrifices, don't
worry. It is not as weird as it sounds. You see the Israel lights, God's
people, they were sinful and they hadn't messed up just like we all do as
humans. And they're going to keep on sinning and they're in desperate need of
God to purify them and them from that sin. And they needed a system of some
kind that could help them do that. And so real quickly, I want you to
understand the purpose of sacrifices and burnt offerings. Sacrifices were
meant to turn the people away from their sin, provide the proper payment for
the debt that they owe God, because they had sinned against him. They were
there to provide a way to clean and purify the community from the infectious
nature of sin. And they were to ensure that God maintained his presence among
the people you see, if sin messes up God's world with death and pain, God has
every right to make people face the consequences. Thankfully though, God
loves his creation. God loves people. God loves you. And he didn't want to
kill people. And so an animal's life would be symbolically offered as a
payment that would cover their sin. The word cover is the literal meaning of
the Hebrew word kept poor, which is later translated as a tone mint. The
sacrifices were the way that God would deal with the Israelite sin. And as,
as the same time, provide a system so that they can have a right relationship
with God when they did sin against him. Yeah, but now, now Jesus, Jesus, the
ultimate fulfillment of this system for us, we no longer have to have a
system of sacrifices and burnt offerings to be right before God Jesus did
that on the cross loss for us. Now let's go back to the Psalm for a moment.
God had just said that he doesn't find fault with their burnt offerings or
sacrifices, but then he begins to ask a question in verse nine. It says, but
I do not need the bulls from your barns or the goats from your pins for all
the animals of the forest or month. And I own cattle on a thousand Hills. I
know every bird on the mountains and all the animals of the field are mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you for all the world is mine and
everything in it. Do I eat the meat of bulls? Do I drink the blood of God?
God begins to ask these questions and he asked, why should I want these
animals? He knocked create the bulls and the goats that we think he's hungry
or thirsty. God can ask rhetorical questions too. And then suddenly after
asking these rhetorical questions, he makes a defining statement for our
understanding of praise in verse 14. And he says, make thankfulness your
sacrifice to God and keep the vows you have made to the most high. Then call
on me when you're in trouble and I will rescue you and you will give me
glory. You see the God of the universe. Wasn't looking for bulls or goats. He
was looking for thankfulness. God wants more than a ritual. He wants a
thankful heart, a life of obedience and a living trust in him. Who, what if
God had said this today is something like, I don't find fault with your
singing of songs on Sunday, but do you really think that I need music? Do you
think that's all that I want? Do you think that it's too quiet where I am
right now that I'm not creating music itself? Do you think I need to hear
these songs that are a result of my breathing, everything into existence in
the first place. Nice. Don't misunderstand me. The good news it says is that
God doesn't find fault with our songs. Not only is there nothing wrong with
them, singing God is an incredible expression of love, but my fear is too
often. It can just become ritual songs or important. But worship is more than
the songs that we sing. Worship is a thankful heart. Living out your whole
life as praise to God. It's as if God is leaning in and whispering, make me
the center of your world, make me the center of your attention. And all of
our life shouts in agreement. Worship is making God the center and the focus
of everything that we do knew the difference between me wanting to be the
center of attention and gods statement is that God speaks the facts. God,
isn't begging to be the center of attention. He is the center. He is the
center of everything that
we do. Remember what we said earlier about the heart let's look at and a
couple of verses together, John four verses 23 and 24, but the time is
coming, indeed. It's here. Now when true worshipers will worship the father
in spirit and in truth, the father is looking for those who will worship him
that way for God is spirit. So those who worship him must worship in spirit
and in truth. Notice what God is not looking for. God is not looking for the
best looking people. He is not looking for the most stylish people. He is not
looking for the most talented people. He is not looking for people with the
most Instagram followers. And while he wants to use our gifts and talents to
serve others without an attitude of thankfulness, without a posture of
worship, even these things can become real and meaningless Matthew 15, eight.
These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship is a farce. We don't want that to be said about us. I don't
want that to be said about me. Remember our main thought from earlier, the
condition of our heart dictates the direction of our lives. And if the
condition of our heart dictates the direction of our lives, that we need to
put our heart in a posture of worship. The how can we do that? Jason? How can
I do that? When it seems like things are
falling apart, listen, there are three building blocks of worship that I want
you to understand this morning. Number one, if you're taking notes, start
with Jesus. Start with Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of everything, no
longer bulls and goats, but one sacrifice for once and for all on the Mount
of transfiguration. When Jesus, Jesus was showing his disciples, his glory,
Moses, and a lodger were there. The Bible says, but even as he spoke a bright
cloud, overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said, this is my dearly
loved son who brings me great joy. Listen to him. There are a lot of voices
that want to speak into your life. There are a lot of voices that want to
tell you what to do and who you should be and what you should believe.
Everybody has a plan for you your life, but God is most important. And God is
clear. Jesus is the beloved son. Listen to him. Stop. Listen to what people
say about you. Stop listening to what the culture says that you should be
stopped. Listening to what a political party says that you should believe in.
Listened to Jesus. We start with him. If we are going to have a posture of
worship, if we are going to guard our heart in 2021, Jesus has to be first.
Jesus has to be the priority in our lives. Start with Jesus. Number two, we
have to surrender our desires. We
have to surrender our desires. Jesus told his disciples. If anyone would come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for
whoever would save. His life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my
sake will find it. I don't know about you, but many of us we're just control
freaks. Aren't we that's why this past year has been so difficult because so
much has been beyond our control, but taking control doesn't often work
because control was never ours to take and worshiping God through surrender
means giving him full control of the outcome, giving him full control of our
life in 2021. If you want to worship God fully stop trying to control
everything and just let God be in control. A lot of times we get confused.
Yeah. And we say things like God, won't give you more than you can handle.
That's just not the truth. God will give you more than you can handle so you
can turn it back over to him, him and let him handle it. Sometimes we have to
give up our desires and our wants and our goals and dreams. And we lay them
down at the feet of God. And we say, God, we believe that what you have for
us is better. And I'm going to surrender my desires for your desires. I'm
going to surrender my will for your will. And my heartbeat is truly going to
be God, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And number three,
I've got to learn to think like a God. I have to learn to think like God,
Romans 12, two says do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God's will is his good pleasing and perfect will you see many
times we want God to orbit around us, but we need to orbit around him his
way, these work, but we have to move with him. We have to get our lives in a
light with God. The condition of your heart dictates the direction of your
life. You don't want, you have to be stuck. You don't have to be in a
spiritual rut. You don't have to be in a spiritual funk this year. You don't
have to feel distant from God. You can decide today to worship God with so
much more than just your words. You can choose to worship him with your life.
And that decision friends, that decision will change everything thing, but
maybe you're watching. You need to surrender your life for the first time.
You need to choose to follow Jesus for the first time. Maybe there's never
been a moment in your life where you've placed your faith, placed your trust
in what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross. Listen, God
loves you more than you could ever imagine. And even while we were still
sinners, God sent his son Jesus Christ to live a perfect life, to be the
perfect sacrifice, to die on a cross for us, they placed his body in a
borrowed tomb, but Jesus did not stay dead. And three days later, he Rose
from the grave in victory, over sin and victory over the devil and victory
over death. And because of what Jesus did, we can have life and we can have
abundant while we're on this earth. And the Bible says that one day when we
die, we can have eternal life in heaven with God. But it's a choice that only
you can make a choice to surrender and say, Jesus, I'm going to lay down what
I want with my life. And instead, I'm going to follow what you want for my
life is placing your trust and your faith and what he did on that cross. And
I want to give you that opportunity today. If that's you, and you would say,
Jason, I want to give my life to Jesus. I'm going to pray a prayer. And if
this prayer reflects what Jesus is doing in your life, I invite you to pray
it with me and you can pray it out loud. You can pray it to yourself. I
believe that God can hear you either way, but pray. Something like this. God,
I've been going my own
direction with my life. I've been doing things my own way. And in this
moment, God, I realize I'm a sinner, separated from you. And I need a savior.
God, I believe you sent your son Jesus to die on a cross for me because you
love me that much. You sent Jesus to save me, to rescue me and God today. I
choose to follow Jesus with my life. Jesus, you are my Lord. And I want to do
what you have created me to do. Jesus. I love you. And it's in your name. I
pray. Amen. If that was you, I want to congratulate you. That is the greatest
decision that you can make with your life. But listen, your faith. Doesn't
stop today. Your faith starts today and I want you to know, we want to walk
alongside you. We want to help you become everything that God has created you
to be. And we want to help you overcome your past past hurts, past bad habits
past hang ups in your life. We want you to live with purpose. So I want to
ask you before you change the channel or before you turn off this video, if
you would do me the honor and fill out our digital connect card at our
website, or if you're online, it's in the post above or the comments below,
give us a name and email address. Just some way to reach out to you this
week. I
want to be praying for you by name and I want to send you resources to help
you grow. At the end of every service, we dedicate time to prayer because I
know, I know you have things going on in your life. I know there've been
distractions. I know that there's been tough stuff that you've come up
against. And I want you to know that Jesus loves you and he is for you and we
love you. And we are for you. And if there is any way we can pray for you,
please don't hesitate to let us know. You can send in the prayer and care
corridor. You can post your prayer requests below if you would like, but I
want you to know that there are people right now that are ready. They were on
standby to call out your name to Jesus. So what I want us to do is I want us
to take a moment and let's worship through song. Let's worship through
prayer. And if we can intercede on your behalf, please, please let us know
how we can pray for Jesus. We love you. We worship you and we adore you. And
we say, thank you, God, thank you. May our lives be a constant and continual
act of worship. God, would we show you how grateful that we are? How thankful
we are for what you did for us on that cross father, I pray that we would
yield
God, that we would yield to you, yield to your will yield to your desires,
God, so that we can become more complete so that we can become everything you
called and created to be so that we can live with abundant life, with
blessing and with purpose and God, I pray for each and every person that's
watching. God, I know that there are people that are going through tough
situations and circumstances. Father, I ask you in Jesus' name, would you
meet people right where they're at God and do what only you can do in their
lives. Father. I pray that you would garden and protect their hearts. Father.
I pray that you would just fill with power and you would comfort them with
your presence. Jesus, we love you in Jesus. It's in your strong name that we
pray. Amen. Thank you again for worshiping with us today. I love it. Phew.
And I cannot wait to see you again next week.
people, and that's going to be, you'll have more information next Sunday
morning. Hey, I'm excited about week two of our series building blocks. As we
learn more about personal devotion and how to get closer to God in 2021. But
before we jump into God's word, let's pray together and invite his power and
presence into our homes and our hearts. Jesus, thank you again for this time
together, you for the opportunity to worship you, whether it's in person at
our campuses, God, whether it's in our homes at work wherever we're at God,
thank you that we can connect with you through the power of your Holy spirit
and father. I pray God, your Holy spirit is our counselor. He is our helper.
He gives us wisdom and knowledge. And so father, as we dig into your word
today, God, I pray that the Holy spirit would just reveal something to us, a
fresh and a new God that you would speak to our spirit in a powerful way in
Jesus. I ask you just to move me out of the way. God may. The words that come
from my mouth come directly from you this morning because you can change
people's lives. God, Lord, we love you. We dedicate this time to you and it's
in Jesus' name. We pray it. Everybody said a men. Hey, last week we started
this brand new series called building blocks. And we learned that if you want
to have
a deeper relationship with God, that if you want to get closer to God, that
the way you do that is through your heart. Your will remember Jeremiah 29 13
says you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your
heart. And if you'll remember, the main idea for this entire series is that
the condition of our heart dictates the direction of our lives. And what
we're doing is we're talking about the building blocks of personal devotion,
essential oils that help us guard our hearts so that we can become everything
that God created us to be. In last week, we started off by talking about
worship and we said that worship is more about making God the center of our
lives than anything else. Worship is about making sure we want the comforter
more than our own comforts. And so today we're going to walk through
together. The second building block that has the capacity to change our
hearts, to transform us, to grow us closer to God in the process. And that is
Bible study. I told you last week, one of the questions I'm getting more than
any other over the past few weeks is Jason, how do I study the Bible better?
I want to be more effective with my time. I want to learn more about God. And
I want to learn about who he is and who he be rated me to be. And this
is the condition of our hearts matters. And it's probably what God said this
to the prophet. Jeremiah in Jeremiah 17, nine, the heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? Let me ask you a
question. Have you ever had a moment where you doubted even your own
intentions, you see sin helps you see the best in yourself and the worst and
others. Proverbs 14 says there is a path before each person that seems right,
but it leads to death so we can get confused and we can get off track, but
God never does. That's why he says in Isaiah 55, my thoughts are nothing like
your thoughts says the Lord. My ways are far beyond anything you could ever
imagine. So the question is Jason, how do we know God's thoughts? How do we
know? God's ways? That's an easy answer we know through the Bible because we
call it God's word because God has spoken to us through the scriptures. Verse
four 12 says the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the
sharpest two edge sword cutting between soul and spirit between joint and
marrow. It exposes our inner most thoughts and desires. According to the
Bible itself, it's more than just words on a page. Scripture is alive and
scripture is powerful. It has the ability just to expose our heart, but to
change and transform. He see, Hmm, we read the Bible
with our mind, but the Bible changes our art and it's the condition of our
heart. That determines how we're going to live. It determines our behavior.
It determines our very direction. If you want to get closer to God this year,
then we have to read his word. We have to read the Bible. If you want your
relationship with God to grow, then you have to expose your heart to the
scriptures. You see Jesus. When he was praying for his disciples, he said,
make them Holy by your truth. Teach them your word, which is truth. Just as
you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world and I give
myself as a Holy sacrifice for them so that they can be made Holy by your
truth. It is the truth of the Bible. It is the truth of God's word that
changes us. It's what sets us apart. Have you ever done something that you
instantly regretted made a decision that you wish you didn't, but you learned
from it, remember insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but
expecting different results. That's the power of hindsight. When you look
back, you say hindsight is 2020, right? That we can perfectly see what was
really going on. But listen, this is crucial. Hindsight is 2020, but so is
God's word. And the Bible doesn't make you wait until after you've made a
mistake to learn the life lesson, our
hearts are deceitful, but the best experience is someone else's we feel may
not be real. And your Bible is a compass to make wise decisions, to avoid
future mistakes and to grow closer to God than you ever thought possible. But
the problem is for many of us, is that even though we already get, we get it,
the Bible is true. I get it. Jason, the Bible matters to my life. I, I get
it. It will help me make wiser decisions. But for some reason, we still found
the Bible to be hard to read. So I want to answer the question today. How do
we study the Bible? I want to give you some building blocks and Bible study
that will help make it easier for you, help you understand it better. So the
Bible can work in your life and transform you and draw your closer to God.
But before we do anything else, I want to address some myths. You see the
Bible is not a book. The Bible is a library. The Bible is a collection of 66.
Different literary works by at least 40 different authors over the span of
about 1500 years. And that doesn't make it any less impressive or any less of
God's work. It makes it even more impressive because only God could have kept
the message perfectly consistent and perfectly tied together over that much.
But that does affect how we read it because the Bible is
written inspired by Holy spirit, by real people, living in real cultures
across various times and locations. And we have to think about what was the
author's intended, meaning as we read it, some parts of the Bible are poetry.
Others are history. Others are parable into. I read them as something other
than they really are intended would be to read them wrong. So here are a few
rules here, a few guidelines as you start walking through what it will look
like to read the Bible each day, these are just basics of Bible study. Number
one, if you're taking notes, interpret scripture with scripture, interpret
scripture with scripture because the Bible is a collection of divinely
inspired writings written by a number of authors, living in different
geographical areas, in some cases and written over a span of history because
all the different voices of scripture make-up, God's unified revelation to
us. We want to let scripture interpret scripture. That means looking at what
the Bible has to say on a topic as a whole, rather than just cherry picking
verses here and there to come to a conclusion that we already want. Scripture
often interprets itself. The new living translation of Luke 14, 26. It's a
great translation. It says, if you want to be my disciple, you must by
comparison. Hate everyone else. Your father and mother wife and children,
brothers and sisters. Yes. Even your own life. Otherwise you cannot be my
disciple, but
even if you aren't reading out of that same Bible translation and yours Leafs
out by comparison. We know that Jesus doesn't want us to literally hate our
parents because the Bible repeats over and over that we are to honor our
parents, even Jesus repeats this commandment. So we know that this verse must
be a hyperbole, a way of Jesus saying we are to love him so much that the
love that we have for others seems like hate in comparison to how much we
love. Yeah. You see when a scripture seems to contradict himself, it doesn't
study. Bible will go a long way in helping us understand these passages. So
first you scripture to interpret other scripture. Number two, if you're
taking notes, interpret unclear passages with clear passages, interpret
unclear passages with clear passages. When your Bible says something that you
don't quite understand, it often explains itself. If you keep seeking to
understand you look at John one, one in John, one, one re we read that in the
beginning of the word already existed. The word was with God. And the word
was God, he existed in the beginning with God, God created everything through
him and nothing was created except except through him. And while that sounds
a little bit confusing, if we will just keep reading a little bit later in
John, one 14, it says the word became human and made his home among us. He
was full of unfailing,
love and faithfulness. We have seen his glory, the glory of the father's one
and only son. You see, if we keep going in the scripture, it shows us that
the word that John was talking about earlier in the verses was God's son,
Jesus Christ. We interpret unclear passages with clear ones. Number three, we
need to ask ourselves if the passage is descriptive or prescriptive, is it
the scriptive or prescriptive? Descriptive means that it was describing what
was happening. It was telling you some facts about what was going on.
Prescriptive means that it is something for us to obey. It is something for
us to follow. For example, the Bible says in first Kings 11, now King Solomon
loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh's daughter. He married women from
Moab, Ammon, Edam side-on. And from among the Hittites, you understand that
this was descriptive. It was describing what was going on in Solomon's life.
It wasn't prescriptive God. Wasn't telling us to marry a bunch of different
women, because it says in Deuteronomy 17, the King must not take on many
wives for themselves because they will turn his heart away from the Lord. It
was describing something it wasn't telling us to do in the same way. Jesus
said the most important commandment is this. Listen, O Israel, the Lord, our
God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord, your God with all
your heart, all your soul, all your
mind and all your strength. The second is equally as important. Love your
neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these. This
passage is prescriptive for our life. It is repeated and echoed through other
places in the Bible. God is telling us then in their lives, we're supposed to
love God more than anything else, but whatever you do, don't get overwhelmed.
The impact important thing is, is that you decide to start reading, reading
scripture, to start studying your Bible. No, you won't be perfect at getting
everything right? You may not understand that all yet. The Bible is alive and
powerful. And finally, number four, the fourth building block of studying
your Bible is read the whole Bible. Read the whole Bible. Devotions are
great. We'll have scriptures that speak to us from time to time, but we
cannot get the whole picture of God's word without reading. Whole thing.
Second, Timothy three 16 says all scripture is inspired by God and is useful
to teach us what is true. And to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.
It corrects us when we're wrong and teaches us to do what is right. Simply
reading God's word will literally permeate your heart and begin to change you
from the inside out. Remember when Satan tempted Jesus, it was scripture that
Jesus quoted back to him. It was scripture that helped him resist temptation.
And because the condition of your heart dictates the direction
of your life. If you begin to read the Bible study, God's word before long,
you'll be doing the same thing. You'll be resisting temptation. You'll be on
the right path because you were allowing God's word to change your heart. And
in turn, your heart will change. You're alive. But if you truly want your
heart to change friends, that all starts with Jesus. The Bible is clear that
God created the world and it was perfect until Adam and Eve decided to go
their own way. And sin entered the world and it corrupted everything
including us. And from that point forward in history, we were all born
separated from God, wanting to do our own thing, wanting to be our own boss,
wanting to be the God of our own life because of that separation. We can not
be in the presence of a Holy God. And so we're destined for a very real place
called hell. But the Bible is clear that God loved you so much that he sent
his one and only son, Jesus Christ to live a perfect life. Jesus never did
anything wrong so that Jesus could be the perfect lamb of God. The sacrifice,
the substitute for you and for me and the Bible is clear. If we place our
faith in Jesus, that if we choose to follow him with our lives, we will be
forgiven. We will be set free. We won't be destined for hell. No. We will
have a home in heaven with God when we die. And even more than that, he will
send his spirit to live inside of us, to lead us and guide us and direct us
each and every day, we can have a truly abundant and blessed life. It all
starts with choosing Jesus. And today I want to give you that opportunity.
And so if you're watching and you say, Jason, that's me, I know that I need
to follow Jesus with my life. I want to invite you to pray a prayer with me.
If this is what God is doing in your life today, you can just pray. God, I
love you. And I'm sorry, I've been going my own direction with my life. God,
I'm a sinner. I've been separated from you. I've been trying to be my own
God. But today I realized I need to be rescued from my sin. I need a savior.
And that saviors your son, Jesus Christ. God. I believe you sent your son to
die on a cross for me and to resurrect himself from the grave so that I could
have a full and abundant life today. I place my faith in your son. Jesus and
Jesus. I have decided that you are my Lord and I'm going to follow you for
the rest of my life. Jesus, it's in your name. I pray amen. As you listen,
please don't change the channel. Don't turn off this video without
letting me know. I want to reach out to you this week and let you know that
I'm praying for you by name. And I want to send you resources that will help
you grow in your faith. That will help you learn more about who God is and
will help you have a stronger relationship with him. I want you to be
everything God created you to be. I want you to live life on purpose. You can
go to our website and fill out the digital connect card. Or if you're online,
you can fill out the connect card that's in the post above or in the comments
below. I want you to know there is a church family here that loves you. That
is praying for you and we want God God's best for your life. Now at the end
of every service, we dedicate Tom to worship and prayer. And so in just a
moment, we're going to worship together one last time as a church family
today. And as we're singing to God, as we're worshiping on invite you just to
place your heart in a posture, prayer in his week, pray to God. If there's
anything in your life that you need prayer for, I invite you. You can submit
a prayer card online. You can post your prayer requests. If they're public in
the comments below, and we have people that are ready to pray for you and
intercede to God on your
behalf, let's worship. And if you need prayer, let us know father again.
Thank you. Thank you for your word. God, thank you that it is alive. That it
is powerful. Thank you that the Bible can change our hearts and change our
lives. God, I pray for my friends and my family, that you would just put a
passion, a hunger for God's word inside of us. Father. I pray that you had
through the power of your Holy spirit, revealed to us things in our life that
needed to change God that you would teach us how you want us to live so that
we truly could experience the abundant life that you have for us. Lord God,
for those who were watching and listening, that are just going through tough
times, God, people that are in need of peace, people that are in need of joy,
people that are in need of healing and provision father. I pray God, you are
a strong God and you are a faithful God. And I ask you to meet people where
they're at and their situation. God, I know that you are aware of what's
going on in their lives. And I pray that they would just cast their cares and
anxieties upon you. Father. Do what only you can do in their lives. Would you
show up and show off and show out it is in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Thank
you again for spending a little bit
of time with us, but more importantly, spending a little bit of time with God
today. We would love to hear from you. So please let us know if you have any
questions about the message or have any prayer requests. Did you decide to
give your life to Christ today? If so, we want to congratulate you. It's
truly the best and most important decision you will ever make. The Bible says
you are reborn when you acknowledge Jesus as your personal Lord and savior,
and we would love to help guide you through what that means and your next
steps as a new believer. But we can only do that if you let us know. So
please fill out the digital connect card. We have some awesome resources. We
want to send your way. If you love worshiping with us week after week and are
interested in connecting on a deeper level, we have a new live zoom class
called starting point and starting point. We tell you a little bit more about
the mission and vision God has given us. We also give you a spiritual gifts
quiz to see how God has gifted you specifically, and you have an opportunity
to join the church and become an official part of our family. Check out our
Facebook page or send an email to online@findrefugehere.com for more details.
If you are already a member of the refuge church, family, and would like to
support the mission God has
given us. There are three easy ways to give online by text or by a check in
the mail to the church office refuge church. We love you and we hope to see
you next time, but until then have a great week.
found I hear that. go home. there was a battle. the tree, the lamb of God
Cruz. He took back every key. hello, everyone. I'm Tina. We are so excited
that you chose to worship with us today. And I pray that God uses this
message to speak specifically into your life and minister to your heart. This
is your first time worshiping with us. Please let us know by taking a moment
to fill out our digital connect card. It is so important to us to be able to
connect with you. We want to pray for you and care for you as best we can. If
you're a returning guest, welcome back. We want to get to know you, and
there's a couple of different ways we can do that. Start a conversation with
us online. Join an online small group or take part in starting point a new
live zoom class that gives you a quick intro to refuge church, and an
opportunity to join the refuge family. For more details on ways to connect.
Please send an email to online@findrefugehere.com. God loves you. And we love
you too. Now let's tune into pastor Jason as he brings the message. Hey,
refuge, family. Good morning. It is so great to see you. I'm pastor Jason,
and I've been praying for you all week long, asking God to incorporate these
building blocks of personal devotion into our lives so that we can be more
like Jesus so that
we can guard our hearts and be God has called and created us to be. I want to
thank everyone who helped us yesterday at our large scale food distribution
at Athens high school. Thank you for helping us bless the community. If you
gave, if you serve, if you prayed, listen, you are a part of what God is
doing, and we are so thankful for you. Let's pray together and dig into week
three of building blocks. Jesus, we love you so much. We thank you. We exalt
you. We love you. And we glorify you father, thank you for what you've done
in the life of our church. Thank you for what you're doing through our
people. And God, thank you that through the power of the Holy spirit, you're
going to speak to our hearts and lives today. God moved me out of the way. I
pray that the words that come from my mouth come from you and father in our
homes this morning. Lord, would you speak to us in a way that only you can.
We love you. It's in Jesus' name. We pray. Amen. Hey everyone. It is week
three of our series of building blocks. And over the past two weeks, we've
talked about worship. We've talked about Bible study and what we've been
doing is looking to see how these building blocks of personal devotion can
help bring us closer to God. I don't know about you, but I know
in my life, I need to be closer to God each and every day. And thankfully God
has given us some tools, given us some disciplines that we can incorporate
into our lives to become more like his son, Jesus. In week one, we talked
about worship and how worship is placing God at the center of our lives. And
then last week we talked about the importance of studying God's word and how
we may read the Bible with our minds, but it changes and transforms our
heart. And if you'll remember, we've been using this verse from Jeremiah as
our key verse, our heart verse, over the past few weeks, Jeremiah 29 13, you
will seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your heart. Now,
remember our heart. Isn't the beating organ in our chest. That's not what the
Bible is talking about. It's talking about our will. It's talking about the
essence of who you are, your personality, your character. God is saying that
if we will seek him with everything that we are, we will find him. And our
main idea for the last few weeks is that the condition of our heart dictates
the direction of our lives. So we need to guard our heart. We need to place a
priority on that because what is in our heart, what we allow in will
determine the direction that we go. And I know if you're like me, there's
always
been times in my life where I've gone the wrong direction, because I made the
wrong decision because I believe the wrong thing. And I want you to believe
God's word. I want you to lean in to God's goodness and his wisdom. And I
want you to be on the right path in your life. Now, today, we're going to
look at another essential building block that can change our heart and grow
us to be more like God. And that building block is the block of community.
You see, even though we drive on overcrowded roads and fly and overbooked
planes and have an over abundance of friends and followers on our social
media networks, I believe we are more lonely than ever. We are the most
technologically connected society in the history of the world, but I believe
we are the most relationally anemic. And after everything we've seen and
experienced over the past year, we know how social isolation is prevalent in
our world. And that's sad. And it concerns me because the Bible says, this is
my commandment, each other in the same way that I've loved you. There's no
greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. You see Jesus
tells us that community is important. Jesus tells us that it is important to
love and to be loved, but the problem is many of us have never experienced
this kind of love in our community. God knows us intimately, but
for some of you watching today, we know a lot of people, but we are known by
few of them. We exist in this vast sea of humanity, but have no real meaning,
full community and friendships in our lives. We wake up, we go to work. We
come home, we binge watch a show. We eat dinner. We go to bed. We rinse,
recycle and repeat. And that is our love over and over again. Even adults
that see friends on the weekend, don't often connect more than just watching
a show or going out to eat. We live a life around many people, but we've
experienced life deeply with none. And even though our world is connected, no
wonder, we feel so alone and so isolated from others. And especially after
everything we've walked through in 2020, some of us have gotten killed and
that isolation, but listen to this story, the story of creation, because God
puts this problem into words in his only this oldest story in scripture, it
comes from Genesis one verses one through eight. In the beginning, God
created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty and
darkness covered the deep waters and the spirit of God was hovering over the
surface of the waters. Then God said, let there be light. And there was
light. And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from
darkness. He called the light day and the darkness
night and evening passed and morning came marking the first day. Then God
said, let us be, uh, that there'd be a space between the waters to separate
the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth. And that's what's
happened. God made this space to separate waters of the earth from the waters
of the heaven. And God called the space sky and evening passed and morning
came marking the second day. You see with little effort and divine
creativity, God begins creating the heavens and the earth and everything in
it. And God said that it is good, but for time's sake, I want to jump ahead
to verse 26, because God said, let us make human beings in our image to be
like us. Have you ever asked yourself? Who is the us? That's in this passage?
It's the Trinity God, the father, God, the son and God, the Holy spirit. He
is three persons in one co-equal co-eternal one in substance. Don't let that
over load. You will get back to it in a bit, but he's talking about the
Trinity verse 26, talking about humans that says they will reign over the
fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on
the earth and all the small animals that scurry along the ground. So God
created human beings in his own image. In the image of God, he created them,
male and female. He created them.
Then God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and
governant reign over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and all the
animals that scurry along the ground, verse 31. Then God looked over all he
had made and saw that it was very good. He said, God created everything and
said that it was good. But when he created humans, he said that it was very
good. But then the Bible says, we go from good to, very good to not so good.
Now, if you've gone to church for a while and know what you're thinking, I
remember that he must be talking about the fall. He must be talking about
Adam and Eve. They ate from the tree and they sinned. And that definitely
wasn't good. But did you know the first time that God says that something is
not good was before the fall, before sin came into the world, we see it in
Genesis two 18. Then the Lord, God said it is not good for man to be alone.
You see it. This point in history, there is no sin. There is no disobedience.
There is perfect intimacy with God. The man was known, loved, accepted
sinless and perfect in fellowship with God himself. And yet the word God
chose to describe man in this moment was alone. The same God who has always
existed within the community of the Trinity. Once to experience community
and experienced belonging ourselves, you were creative did to have community
with and other people. There is no substitute for community. There is no
substitute for being a part of a spiritual family, but you know, the rest of
the story sin came into the world, the fall of humankind. And now we have
this propensity towards isolation, especially in this year, in this time. And
this season that we're facing. Now, I want to dispel a few myths about
community. If you're taking notes, myth, number one, my faith is private.
That's a myth. In other words, you think that your faith is just about me and
God. It's actually the exact opposite. We see it in acts two 42, all the
believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and
to sharing and mills, including the Lord's supper and to prayer. You see real
faith takes place in the context of real community. And Jesus gives us
community through his spiritual family, the local church. And if you're
watching and you have never been a part of a spiritual family, I believe that
this church is a church that you can you belong to, but don't take my word
for it. You can take your next step. You can attend starting point either in
person or online. We are actually unveiling small groups today in person and
online that you can be a part of taking the next step, become a part of our
church. Family
become a part of a small group. I believe this is a place that you can
belong. And I don't think you'll regret it. Our faith is meant to be a part
of a community because in community we grow in community. Our hurts are
healed in community. We can take care of each other. We want you to be a part
of family. Now myth number two is that I don't choose to be lonely. It maybe
you've even thought that yourself, well, I don't want to be lonely. I don't
want to be alone. That's not my choice. Or maybe you've even thought to
yourself, well, I'm an introvert. I'm just like this. This is how God made
me. Now. God may have made you to have an introverted personality. But what
that means is that you gain energy by being alone. He never meant for you to
do life alone. You may gain energy by being alone, but he still wants you to
be a part of campus immunity. You see Roman five 12 says when Adam sin, sin
entered the world, Adam's sin brought death. So death spread to everyone,
everyone sin, Adam and Eve chose loneliness and isolation. And unfortunately
we still choose it today. We become willing participants and being isolated.
We avoid the people in places that confront us with the reality of our pain
or past, but we don't have to. We can choose to chart a new path and be a
part of authentic spiritual family. We can belong. You can belong here. Now
you may be watching and you haven't been back to in-person services since
March and you want to you're ready, but you're nervous. You're, you're afraid
of what people may say. You're afraid of what people may think. Well, I
wonder where they've been. They must be backsliding. Listen, you will not
find that here you, we greeted with we Jews and you'll be greeted with, I
love you's and you'll be greeted with welcome home. We love you are. Maybe
you're watching. You're not ready to come back yet. Maybe you say Jason, I'm
going to come back in person when I get vaccinated. That's okay. We still
love you. You are still a part of our church, family. I am still your pastor
and we want to do everything we can to help you have community. Even right
now, even right where you're at. We want our online campus to become more
engaging. We want to have virtual small groups. You see some of those today,
where you can connect with others through zoom. You can still have community.
We want you to be a part of that. You don't have to do life alone in myth.
Number three is the church. This is a place that I go. The church is a place
that I go Psalm 68, six says, God, places the lonely in families, he sets
prisoners free and gives them joy.
You said, community sets us free so that we can help set others free. And
according to Jesus, our oneness, our community, our spiritual family. This is
that how the world will know that his message is real. John 17, 21 and 23. I
pray that they will all be one just as you and I are one, as you were in may
father and I am in you and may they be in us? So the world will believe that
you sent me. I've given them the glory you gave me so that they may be one as
we're one. I am in them. And you are in me. May they experience such perfect
unity that their world will know that you sit in me and that you love them as
much as you love me. You see the church has never about me. It's never about
you. It's about we. It's about us together. The church is not a place that
you go to. It is a family that you belong to. Now, maybe you're watching and
community is important, but even more important is your relationship with
Jesus. Maybe there's never been a time in your life where you've given your
heart. You've trusted Jesus with your life. Because then I want you to know
that yes, Adam and Eve sinned in that garden, they were disobedient and did
what God told them not to. And because of that, sin entered the world. And
all of our
relationship with God is broken. Every one of us, we're all born sinners. I
have some good news for you. God loved you so much that he sent his son Jesus
Christ to live a perfect life, to die on a cross, to be your substitute so
that you could be forgiven and set free, but Jesus didn't stay dead. They put
his body in a borrowed tomb. And three days later, he was resurrected. He
Rose again from the dead to prove to everyone that he was exactly who he
said. He was the son of God in the flesh, the one with the power to forgive
the one with the power to set free. And the Bible says that if you will trust
Jesus, if you will place your faith in what he did for you on the cross, that
he will save you, that he will rescue you from him, that you will be fully
and completely forgiven. And one day when you die, you wait to experience a
home in heaven with him. But right now, while you're on this earth, his
spirit will come and live inside of you and lead and guide you each and every
day. And if that's you and you say, Jason, I need to give my life to Jesus
today. I invite you. I invite you to pray this prayer with me. God, I've been
going my own direction with my life. I've been trying to be the boss. I've
been trying to be the God of my own kingdom and God today. I realize that
that is not your best life for me. I believe that you sent your son Jesus
Christ to donut across for me to raise again from the dead so that I could be
forgiven so that I could be set free so that I could be transformed. And so
that I could have a brand new life in him. Jesus, today, I'm making the
decision to make you the Lord over my life. I love you. And I want to follow
you for the rest of eternity. That was you. If you made that decisions,
congratulations is the greatest decision you can ever make with your life.
But please do not change the channel. Do not turn this video off without
letting us know. You can go to the website. If you're watching on TV, you can
look in the post above or the comments below if you're watching online, but
please fill out our digital connect card. Give me a name and email address a
phone number some way to reach out, because I want to pray for you by name.
And I want to give you resources to help you grow in your faith. I want you
to be everything that God created you to be. Maybe you're watching for the
first time. And you say, yeah, Jason, I want to be a part of community. Reach
out, fill out that digital
connect card. Let us know. We would love to connect you. We would love for
you to be a part of our spiritual family here. Now at the end of every
service, we dedicate time to worship and prayer. Maybe you're watching, maybe
you're listening and you're just going through a tough time. Maybe you're
seeking God, maybe you're seeking answers. Maybe you need God to move in an
area of your life. I want you to know that Jesus is for you and Jesus loves
you. And we love you. And we're for you too. And if you have a prayer request
and it's public, you are welcome to post them in the comments below. And we
have a team that will be praying for you. Or you can fill that out rare form
online. We would love just to lift up your name to Jesus let's worship. And
if you need prayer, just let us Jesus. We love you so much. I thank you for
each and every person who's watching and listening. God, anyone that can hear
the sound of my voice, got a thank you for them. And I ask you Lord, just to
bless them, to give them joy, to give them peace, Lord Jesus, uh, to give
them the self-control that they need to give them wisdom and father, I pray
if they are lonely, Lord Jesus, that you would just open their heart God, to
the idea of being a part of community
father, that they don't need to isolate themselves, but they need people.
Whether it's in person, whether it's it's online, whatever that looks like
for them, God, they need to do life with others. And can father, I pray that
you would allow us father to be a part of that in their life. Lord, those who
need a touch from you got to ask you in Jesus' name to move in their lives in
only a way that you can and do it in a way that only you can get glory.
Jesus, we worship you and it's in your name. We pray. Amen. Thank you again
for spending a little bit of time with us, but more importantly, spending a
little bit of time with God today. We would love to hear from you. So please
let us know if you have any questions about the message or have any prayer
requests. Did you decide to give your life to Christ today? If so, we want to
congratulate you. It's truly the best and most important decision you will
ever make. The Bible says you are reborn when you acknowledge Jesus as your
personal Lord and savior, and we would love to help guide you through what
that means and your next steps as a new believer. But we can only do that if
you let us know. So please fill out the digital connect card. We have some
awesome resources. We want to send your way. If
you love worshiping with us week after week and are interested in connecting
on a deeper level, we have a new live zoom class called starting point and
starting point. We tell you a little bit more about the mission and vision
God has given us. We also give you a spiritual gifts quiz to see how God has
gifted you specifically, and you have an opportunity to join the church and
become an official part of our family. Check out our Facebook page or send an
email to online@findrefugehere.com for more details. If you are already a
member of the refuge church, family, and would like to support the mission
God has given us. There are three easy ways to give online by text or by a
check in the mail to the church office refuge church. We love you and we hope
to see you next time, but until then have a great week.
Welcome to our new series, Building Blocks! This month, I want you to begin to put the building blocks together in your life so you too can be complete, so you can be used by God to make a difference!