Redemption Or Rebellion | Pastor Ernie Jaurique
God gives everyone a story, His story. He also gives us a choice to own His story or give it to the enemy. Redemption or rebellion. What are you doing about that?
ACTS 7: 30-43
30 “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’
35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
“‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,
during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship;
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
“‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,
during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship;
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
[AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION]
We are in the book of acts, and we're in chapter seven. And a lot of crazy stuff is going on in this chapter because Stephen is recounting this history. But I want to challenge you again to a thought that we've been challenging for the past few weeks. And that is that all history is his story. Amen. All of history is his story. It's Jesus's story. But my question to you is, can you see him in the story? And then can you see yourself with Jesus? Can you see him in the story and can you see yourself with him? That is a very important question for you. And that's that you can go home now. That's what I want you to take home. All right? Can you see him in the story and can you see yourself with him? Amen. So a young man, all right, in our text that were looking at today, a young man, Stephen, he was a volunteer in the grand opening of the church 2000 years ago. When the church first started, Stephen was a volunteer in the church helping to serve tables and whatnot. And then he comes into this position where he is challenging the leaders, the religious elite of his time with their history, their 2000 year history. Before that, you know, before. Before the grand opening of the church. So for us it would be 4000 years ago. And he was basically summing up the time of their nation's history from the time of its inception through a man of faith named Abraham, to this time, to Jesus, whom they crucified. Now, the guys that he was talking to, they loved being experts in the law, they loved being experts in this history and knowing the story, but they were not experts in submitting to the God of the story. You see, as Stephen was telling this old Testament history, Stephen was also telling the story of Jesus Christ. But they didn't see him in the story. And it was crazy because so many times, icc, you ever have people that they try to separate the Old Testament and the New Testament, they will tell you that the Old Testament is what really matters, all right? Is what matters. And then other people say, no, no, the New Testament is what matters now. It's what matters now is all you need is the New Testament. Well, here's why I'm here to tell you, and I would tell every one of them. Jesus is throughout the whole story, all right? The whole story is his story. It just is, right? And too many times people make you think that you gotta grind a bunch of gears just to bring Jesus from the Old Testament into the new. And I don't think you do, because the entire Bible, Old Testament and New Testament is totally Christ centered and Stephen is pointing that out. And again, the question is for you today is can you see him in the story as you read through the stories? Can you see Jesus in the story and then can you see yourself with Jesus? Stephen is pointing out that everything matters, the whole story matters because it's all Jesus's story. All history, past, present and future is his story. Even your story is his story. Did you know that your story was initiated by Jesus? Did you guys even know that? The scriptures even tell us that through him all things began and in him, Jesus, all things consist. Let me challenge you to a thought. When you were born, who breathed your first breath into your lungs? Come on, man, you gotta be. Who breathed that first breath? It wasn't anybody you can name on the terrain here, all right? Somebody went and you start screaming, right? You remember that? Or maybe you don't, right? That's what happened, you know, God breathes in or God breathes out and we breathe in. Amen. God began your story and God will finish it here on the planet here this story. God began your story and he'll finish it. How he finishes it depends on who you're letting write your story. Amen. We shared with you a couple of weeks ago and we're going to keep sharing this with you. Your story has been Jesus story all along. The question is, will you let it be your story? Your story has been Jesus story all along. Well, the question is, will you let it be your story? You know, he began all of our stories and so it is his story, but we take it away from them. So a good question, if you want to. A good way to answer this question is with another question. Is the story, is your story a story? Is the story of your life? Is it a story of redemption or is it a story of rebellion? It's a good question for you to challenge a self reflection. You see, because it's one or the other, right? This is one or the other. There's no other way. There's no in between. There isn't any in between, man. Either it's Jesus's story or it's not. And if it's not, it's the enemy story. It's not your story. You know, there is no other choice. People get this freaked out. There was a story, and I shared this with you years ago. There was a guy and he was just. He was just kind of leaning into to being with Jesus. But he didn't want to give up his old life and the devil saw him and started laughing at him and he said to the devil, I don't know what you're laughing at, dude. I'm on the fence on this, man. I'm thinking about Jesus and I'm not quite sure, you know, about you. And devil said, take your time, homie. I own the fence. There's no other story. It's just Jesus's story. Let me ask you another question. You ever find out the truth about something that you've been doing wrong and you decided to do it wrong anyways? You ever do that? You ever start just kind of threading in a bolt and realize immediately that you're cross threading it? So you just started to just, and you're like, oh, my goodness. And you start wrenching it anyways and you just mess everything up. All right? Or you're doing a math problem, right? And you're doing this math problem, man. And you're like, you know, I know I got it wrong, right? But I'm just going to keep on going. You ever find out the truth about something that you've been doing wrong and decided to do it wrong anyways? And you're like, no, that's just stupid. Right? Right. That's just stupid. You find out it's wrong, you're going to do it wrong anyways. That's just stupid. And we all agree on that. Just remind yourself about that when you're walking out of here later on today and you're trying to forget everything that God told you. Remind yourself, I have to remind myself all the time. So check it out, man. We're going to look into the story that we just heard that we just read together, all right? And it's going to be real easy to get caught up, and it always is when you're reading the scriptures to get caught up in the scenes of the story. And it's fun sometimes to get caught up in the scenes. We're movie watchers. We're storytellers. It's really easy to get caught up in the scenes. But I want to challenge you here. Don't just pay attention to the scenes, pay attention to the one whom the scenes surround. Can you see Jesus in the story? Yes. And then now can you see yourself with him? That's the question. And that's what I want to challenge us. So when you read the scriptures, first look for Jesus and then connect your story to his story. Amen. Let's go ahead and pray. And Father, we praise you, Lord God. And God, this is your word. It's your glory. I'm just the one with the biggest mouth, Lord God, so help me not get in the way, Father, of what you're trying to say, and we just trust you, and we're gonna praise you. And I pray that your holy spirit, Lord God, totally infiltrates and just permeates. Like, we just sang this whole room in our hearts and that we could be filled, Lord God, with your holy spirit. In Jesus name, amen. So in acts chapter seven, if you haven't been here with us for a little bit of in acts chapter seven, this weird, really tripped out account is taking place. We're in the book of acts. And so Christ had already been crucified. He's been resurrected and ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit into his church. The people who are followers of Jesus Christ, he spent his holy spirit empowering them to preach the gospel and all the things that God wants us to do, help the poor, the widows, the fatherless, and lead the world to Jesus. And it's happening right there in Jerusalem. And the church started to grow, and it started to get really big. And the needs of the people were too much for the apostles. The Jews were just walking real tight homies to Jesus. They were walking real close. They were getting too much. And so they picked out some guys and they said, man, let's get some guys to take care of this work so we could focus on preaching the word and praying. And they picked some guys, and one of them was a young dude named Stephen. And he said, they said the criteria was they had to be full of faith, full of wisdom, full of faith, you know, good reputation. And Stephen was one of these guys. And they started getting to work. No problem. I'll serve tables, right? I'll volunteer. Heck yeah, man. That's how the church. That's why we're still here. Praise the Lord for the volunteers. Amen. And Stephen, he started sounding more and more like Jesus. And it started getting the people who had Jesus killed angry, right? It was getting people angry. And so they tried to twist them all up, and they couldn't do it, man, because his holy is filled with the Holy Spirit. Every time they asked him a question, God would answer it, and how are you going to contend with that, right? And so that's what was happening. And so they started spreading some lies about the dude, how he was talking smack about the temple and craziness and all that. And so you have in acts chapter seven, verse one, the high priest and the council are all around. I don't know why I lifted my leg like that. That was kind of weird. And the council was all around, all right, the high priest. And they said, and the high priest came to him and said, are these things so? See, what's the matter with you guys, man? Bad influences, all of you, man. See what I'm talking about? All right. I'm just kidding, man. You guys are probably the best influences around, all right? So the high priest said, are these things? So. And Stephen said to the high priest and to the council that jammed up Jesus, now jamming up him, he says, brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. And he started telling them the history of their nation from all the way, so far, we're in the middle now, so far, in the acts, chapter seven, up to this point, through Moses, he started telling them how Abraham was the father of their faith, and Joseph basically was like a pattern of Jesus, because he lived a life of suffering and still brought redemption for the nation of Israel. And how they moved to Egypt just because there was a famine, and how they were doing really great there, but they started to multiply. And a new king of Egypt said, man, we can't have these guys just kind of running around like they own the place. Let's make them all slaves. And for 400 years, they were slaves. And then came, he started telling the story about Moses, who was another pattern of Jesus Christ, basically a pattern of Christ. And you see patterns, promises, and you see where Christ is present in the Old Testament. It's pretty wild. It's all Jesus story. Of course you would. And Moses thinking that, okay, God's using him to save the Israelites, goes out and he's going to try to kill these Egyptians one by one. So he kills one, buries him in the sand, and realizes that's not what God wanted him to do. He got ahead of God, and then he took off. And now, Stephen, in this, in our text today, he's pointing directly to Jesus through Moses. It's amazing. And again, man, I want you to look for Jesus in the story, and then look for your story and see. Are you with Jesus? Can you see Jesus in the story? And can you see yourself with Jesus? That's our question. So we're all the way up in acts chapter seven, verse 30. And now it says, now when 40 years had passed, angel appeared to him. Another 40 years, see, 1st 40, Moses came out and he did that thing to the Egyptian. Then he bolted, scared, and he's just been out in the boonie somewhere for another 40 years. Started a family, had a couple of kids. And it said, now, when 40 more years, basically, he could say had passed, angel appeared. Pay attention. That word appeared. Hold on to that. An angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a flame and a fire. A fire in a bush. You've heard about the burning bushes, maybe you haven't, where Moses was just tending the flock, and he saw this bush, and it wasn't burning up. It was on fire, but it wasn't burning down on the ground. And he went to go check it out. It says that Moses was amazed at the sight as he drew near to look. And there came the voice of the Lord. Okay, I'm gonna freak you out a little bit, dude. This is Jesus, all right? This is the Christ. This is the son of God. This is the appearance of God. This is the angel of the Lord. Appeared. Christ is present. And you're like, no way. Check this out. In Exodus, chapter 33, verse 20, he says, but he said, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. And though Moses is going to turn his face here in a minute, he saw him and he saw him, and he. And he started talking with him, and it got crazy. And Jesus himself said, no one has ever seen God. Look at the way he says this. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the father's side has made him known. What do you think he's talking about? Himself. No one has ever seen God, but the only God who is at God's side. All right, again, we're talking about the Trinity. Some people are trying to, you know, act like that ain't something, and they just need to go read their bibles and pray some more, maybe, you know? Yeah. See, what we know about this is God turns your head towards Jesus. John 644. No one can come. Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the father draws him to me. God will turn your head towards Jesus. And now here we see that Jesus makes God known to you. And that's what Jesus was doing right here with Moses on that mountain. The question is, what Jesus are you trying to see? What Jesus are you trying to see? I was talking to my homegirl this last week, and she was telling me about a time where she was back in the day. She was like. She was redeemed. She belonged to Jesus. But she started living all crazy again. And one of her coworkers came up and said to her, asked her, are you a christian. And she's like, jesus is my homeboy. And then she kind of thought, you know, no, he's not. He can't be my homeboy. See, Jesus doesn't want to be your homeboy, right? He's your savior. He bought back your story. That's what redemption means. He gave your story to live. You gave your story to the enemy, all right? Because, again, there's only two possible owners of your story. Jesus bought back the story by paying the price that you owed for that portrait, all right? It's called sin, all right? And the question is, will you rob redemption or rebellion? What's it gonna be? There's only two things, man. Life is pretty darn simple, ain't it? We freak out and get it all complicated. What's wrong with us? I don't know. Anyways, you know, what do you want? We want redemption. What's it gonna be? Or rebellion. And you say redemption, which we all say, cool, man. But can people tell by looking at your story that you're living a story of redemption? Do those around you, all right, know that though you live around them that you breathe the same air, that you laugh and cry and have a life, that you're living a different story. You see, Stephen's audience, we're not connecting the dots here. When they're. They knew this history. Stephen is telling them and repeating this to them. They knew the history, but they didn't connect the dots. And that was just crazy. But here's what I know about you. You're kind of crazy, but you're not that kind of crazy. And we're not here to connect the dots. Amen. We're here to connect our story. Amen. To Jesus. Stephen goes on with their history of Moses when he confronts the bush. And the voice of God says, I am the God of your fathers. Verse 32. Check this out. The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob and Moses trembled, and he didn't dare look. And we know this is Jesus because Jesus himself said to the same group of guys that Stephen is talking to, the same group of guys Stephen's talking to, who just earlier, a few months earlier, crucified. And just a few months earlier, one of the reasons they crucified him is Jesus was talking to them, all right? And they were trying to get him. And he says, you know, Jesus told them, your father, Abraham, he rejoiced that he would see my day, John 856 through 58. And he says, and so the Jews said to him, wait a second. You're not even 50 years old Hebrew, where you at? We were talking about this a couple of weeks ago. You guys already know. Don't tell him nothing. I'm gonna talk about this right now, all right? And so Jews said to him, you're not only even 50 years old, and yet you've seen Abraham like 2000 years ago, like 50 years is gonna make a difference. And Jesus said to them, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. You see that bush? He just said, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham. Later on in that same conversation, Abraham's gonna say, who do I say? Sent me. When I go over there and do what you want me to do, he says, tell him I am sent you. This was a big statement. Jesus is saying, I am. I am forever. I have been and I will always be. I am eternally and consistently God. And before history, past and beyond history, future, I am and am, all right? No matter when or where, Jesus is always there. Amen. See, the fact that Jesus rose, now, this is huge. You say, those are some big statements. Those are some big statements for a guy to make, right? Those are some big statements to say that, you know, that he's claiming to be God. And that's. A lot of people have problem with that. I don't. All right? Because the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, that authenticates everything he said and everything he did. The fact, the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, it authenticates everything he said and everything he did. Sometimes people will say, well, what about all these other religions? What about all these other faith leaders? What about them? I'll put it to you like this, man. If I'm walking down a road, right, and that road splits into two different roads, and there's a dude laying at each of those roads right at the beginning, all right, one's alive, one's dead. I'm going to ask the one who's alive for directions. Amen. Not the dead guy. And then the Lord said to Moses, acts 733, take off your sandals. Oh. Here's where it gets crazy. All right? Can you see Jesus in the story? And can you see yourself with Jesus? All right, can you see Jesus in the story? Can you see yourself with Jesus? Because we all got some crazy stories. The Lord said to him, take off your sandals. Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you're standing is holy ground. It was holy ground because God was on it. Amen. Not because it was a special mountain or a special place. Or it has some really cool sand. But God is holy, and he's the one who makes and declares places or people holy. He is, and we have. If you have given your life to Jesus Christ, we have his holy spirit. So shouldn't we be treating everywhere we step as holy ground? Because if we have the spirit of the living God in us, then. Then isn't everywhere we are at? Aren't we bringing holy ground to, can you see Jesus in the story? Can you see yourself with Jesus? If Jesus was right here, you'd be like, yeah, man, holy ground. If his Holy Spirit just appeared to you and said, here I am, holy ground. But if we are men and women who have given our life to Jesus Christ and are like, we just sang filled with the Holy Spirit, shouldn't we be bringing that holiness into every person, every conversation, every situation, and every place we go? Amen, man. I saw. Yeah, praise the Lord. I saw christians walking around the car show yesterday, and I thought, holy ground, bro, right here. Here it comes. Here comes. Pay attention. Here comes the holy ground coming. You guys need to be paying attention. Amen. Praise the Lord. It's holy ground everywhere. Or if we diminish the holiness of his presence because we're back and forth between redemption and rebellion, then he goes on in verse 34, I've surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I've come down to deliver them. Come, and I will send you to Egypt. And this Moses, now Stephen is telling the story of what God said to Moses. And now he's stepping and telling them that this Moses, whom they rejected, who made you a ruler and a judge, is what they said about him. This man God sent as both ruler and redeemer. Oh, here we go. Here's Jesus again by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. By the hand of Jesus. Now, some of you are going like, dude, don't you think you're stretching this a little bit? It says angel, right? Didn't say Jesus. Well, his name wasn't Jesus. He told Mary, name him Jesus. All right, before that, we know him as the son of God, the second person of God's, of the Trinity. But it says angel. And if you need further proof, Jude chapter. Well, Jude verse has only got one chapter. Verse five says, now, I want to remind you, although once you fully knew that Jesus, who saved the people out of the land of Egypt, Jude called him Jesus. And that's in the Bible. So, I mean, that's one of the scriptures. That's, you know, and that's, the Holy Spirit says that. So afterward destroyed those who did not believe. Okay, it's Jesus's story. Can you see Jesus in the story? Can you see yourself with Jesus? Or are we constantly trying to say, no, that's just angel? I ain't got to pay as much attention to angels than I do Jesus, you know, are we seeing Jesus as he's kind of speaking into your life, as he's moving into your family, as he's at your workplace? Are you seeing Jesus on your way here and on your way home? It's his story. He used Moses. He led Moses, but it was his might, it was his power, and it was his glory. And then Stephen telling them about Moses again, giving a history lesson to the guys who are supposed to be experts in it, he says, this man led them out performing wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for 40 years. And then we see different signs of Christ. We see a pattern of Jesus, and a pattern is just, again, it's something that makes up. It helps you see Jesus in a different way. Before Jesus was incarnate in the New Testament, as we're looking in the Old Testament, we've seen the Passover. Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't. But Israel was slaves for 400 years. Moses came and tried to get it started. He messed it up for 40 years. That's after being 40. And then he had to go in the wilderness for another 40 years. God sent him back through signs and wonders before pharaoh and Egypt, and it kept hardening the heart of pharaoh. And he did all these amazing signs, hail and fire, frogs everywhere, which is kind of crazy, and then flies and kind of craziness and all kinds of stuff and boils and a bunch of weird stuff happening. And then finally it was the firstborn son. He said, but if you would take a lamb, sacrifice a lambda, and paint the blood of the lamb on the side of the door, the top of the door on the other side, he says, that angel of death will pass over that house. And as the angel of death creeped through Egypt that night, it would pass a lamb's blood painted door. And Jesus is called what? The lamb of God. And if the blood of the lamb is present on your life, then the enemy, he has to pass over you. There's a pattern of Jesus. Can you see Jesus in the story? And then can you see yourself with him? Man, dude, won't you love if jesus stand right? Won't you love? I'm with him. Dude, where are we going? Jesus. You know I'm with him. Won't you just love that? And then he tells his audience again, Stephen tells him this. Moses, who, this is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God raised up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. Okay, this is. Now we see a promise of Jesus. We've seen patterns of Jesus, we've seen the presence of Jesus, and now we see a pattern about a promise of Jesus. And the question is, are we with him or nothing? And God. And we see this promise of Jesus. God's going to raise himself up. And we see in Luke, chapter two, verse 40, that God said that the child grew and became strong and was filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him. God raised up this child, Jesus. And then he raised them up from the dead. Amen. He said, God will raise up a prophet like me from your brothers. Moses was a leader. He was a deliverer. And Moses even acted even more than a leader and deliverer, because when he brought Egypt, I mean, Israel out of Egypt, he acted as a king, taking them to their land that God has set for them. And Jesus would become the prophet of all prophets. He would be the leader of all leaders. He was the deliverer and redeemer of all of mankind. And he is the king of all kings. Amen. He says, this is the. Stephen is trying to say, you can't see Jesus here. Of course you can't see Jesus because you don't want to see yourself with Jesus. This is basically the message. He said this and he goes further. Look at verse 38. This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel, again, Jesus, who spoke to him. Not all angels in the Old Testament are Jesus. I want to clarify that. You have to take a look and just read your bibles. It is awesome. It is so fun, and it is so amazing to hear God speak. All right, but the angel Jesus, who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, we clarified that already. And with our fathers, he received living oracles to give us. Basically, he brought them out to this place. He brought them from Egypt. He brought them to this place of worship before they were going to go to the promised land. All right, that's a whole nother story. Brought them out to this place of worship. He went up on the mountain where they were kicking it down here to go get instructions, further instructions from God. And then he was going to bring them back. You can read about this again. You want to read your bibles. Exodus, chapter 19 through 32. Check it out. You'll see the story where he brings them to that mountain. He goes up, and he gets all these killer instructions from God. And then he goes back down and he gets crazy. All right. While he was there, God said to him that as they moved forward, one of the things that God told him, he said, pay attention. In Exodus, chapter 23, verses 20 through 22, he said, behold, I'm going to send angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him. Check this out. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. What do you think he's talking about? Well, let me check. Let's go a little further. But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, it's another one of those things. Like Jesus says, no one has seen God, but the only God who is beside God. He said, but if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. And then Stephen goes on back in acts, chapter seven, verse 39, but our fathers, they refused to obey him, and he thrust them aside, and they turned their hearts towards Egypt. They refused to give up their story to the author and originator of their story, desiring to return to be slaves in Egypt. I can't tell how many people. I can't tell you how many people that I've seen come to Jesus and not long roll after, just roll out. I mean, we've all seen that somebody. Yeah. You know what I mean? And they're like, all about Christ. Next thing you know, they're like, where you at, huh? Like ghost. I'll challenge you. This right here, man. It's not how high you jump when you. When you connect your story to Jesus story, but how intentional. You keep your story connected. You're like, wait a second. I don't know. Look, it. It's not how high you jump, because we get excited. Yeah. And we can all jump real high, but how intentional. Are you gonna walk alongside Christ, or are you going to be in and then out? In and out? What is it? Paul? He speaks to this in one corinthians, chapter 15, one and two. He says, now, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel of Jesus Christ that I preached to you, which you received. Did you receive it? Three people? You said, yes. What you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved. All right. If, if, big if you hold fast, if you walk intentionally, or if you hold fast to the word I preached you, unless you believed in vain. There's two verses you might want to spend a little time with. Basically, Paul's saying, you need to get close and you need to. Yeah. If you don't, things are going to get real lame. They're just going to get lame. Look at how lame it gets with these guys. Stephen's telling the story again, excuse me. And saying about God and Moses, and then saying to Aaron, the people where they thrust Moses out, they didn't want to do what they were doing. And now they're telling Aaron, make for us gods who will go before us. As for the Moses who led us out from the land to this place, we don't even know where he's at. We don't know what happened to him. And so they made a little cow, all right? And they made a calf in those days, and then they offered sacrifice to something they made. That sounds real stupid, doesn't it? Oh, but I've done that. I've built motorcycles before and thought, oh, my gosh, this thing is so awesome. Oh, you know what I mean? Come on, man. I'm just trying to be honest. What the heck, bro? And they offered sacrifices to the idol and rejoicing in the works of their hands. Pastor Justin shared, I think it was him. He shared a quote by this cat. You know when a guy has two initials? 1st, 1st name. You got a lesson. All right. This is GK Beal. He said, we become the thing we worshIp, either for ruin or for restoration. Now, you gotta be careful. We become the thing we worship either for ruin or for restoration. Restoration. And they became like this CALf, stiff necked. And we're going to see, stephen's going to call him a bunch of stiff neck knuckleheads. But God turned away and he gave them over to the host of heaven, as is written in the book of prophets. Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrificed during the 40 years in the wilderness, o house of IsRAEL? Now, you took up the tent of moloch, the star of RAPHAan, and the images that you made to worship. And I'm going to send you into exile beyond Babylon. God's not going to force you to worship him. But, man, you got to be careful what story you're choosing. It doesn't just happen. We have to be intentional about our story. What would we do about that? Last week I was hanging out with the youth group back here on Tuesday night, and they had a question because they were here the Sunday before and they said, how do we connect our story to God's story? That's a good question. And then some of you say the same thing. How do we connect our story to God's story? How do we make it a story of redemption and not rebellion? Well, let me ask you a question that might help with that question. Why are you a Christian? You need to answer that. I was driving my grandson to school this last week, and were just pulling up right here, and I just asked him, I said, hey, man, why are you a Christian, dude? And without missing a beat, man, he said, well, because Jesus people have the best snacks. I'm just kidding. No, he didn't say that. Just seeing if you guys are listening. All right, apparently you are. I asked him, seriously, I'm pulling up right here in front of the truck in the church. Yeah. Thank you. And I said, why are you a Christian, man? He said, well, because Jesus died for my sins and he rose from the grave and he's alive, dude, right there in the middle of the road, I stopped the truck and got out and said, yeah, people are honking at me. I'm like, nah, man, you need to hear that. No, I'm just kidding. I was just, I felt like that. I was just like, yes. So what do you do with that? How do you connect to that story? Hebrews chapter twelve, verse one. Let's end with this verse. I want you to take this with you. Hebrews chapter twelve. All this is great. Hebrews chapter twelve, verse one and two. He says this, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, all this history, that is his story. All these Moses stories, Joseph's stories, you know, Abraham's stories and all these other stories. Since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight of sin. Every weight and sin. Every weight and sin. Things that are keeping you back and distracting you and things that are just plain sin. He says, let's just lay aside every weight which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, man, let's. He said, bam. The writer of Hebrews, he's writing to christianse. He's not saying, hey, you guys need to be christians and stop sinning. Oh, you know, you need to start. You need to be christians and stop sitting. He's not saying that. He's telling christians, man. Lay aside these sins. Lay aside these weights connect your story and run it out with endurance, looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy was that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand, the throne of God. Amen. Come on, man, connect your story. Look for Jesus in the story and connect your story. See if you can see yourself with Jesus. Amen. Where's he? Brad, you're hearing me say amen. Oh, we heard that, didn't we? Yeah. Praise the Lord. Amen. So check this out. We're gonna. Right now, if you need prayer, we're going to be right here to pray. Heber, they're going to be right in the back to pray. Over here. We're going to be in the front with you to pray. And if, and if you need to connect, all right? And you want to just write your prayer down and write it and put it in the fence over here. Heber, your fence is going to where you guys go. There you are. Your fence is going to be to the right. You know what I'm talking about? Write the prayer. We're praying about your prayers. And we're praying about all your prayers during the week. They don't go unprayed for several people actually are praying for you guys. And I love seeing the answers to these prayers. But if you need prayer, come on up or head on back. Let me pray for us. Father, we give you the praise. We give you the honor, and we give you all the glory. Thank you for your word, Lord God, in Jesus mighty name, we praise you. Amen. Praise the Lord.
We are in the book of acts, and we're in chapter seven. And a lot of crazy stuff is going on in this chapter because Stephen is recounting this history. But I want to challenge you again to a thought that we've been challenging for the past few weeks. And that is that all history is his story. Amen. All of history is his story. It's Jesus's story. But my question to you is, can you see him in the story? And then can you see yourself with Jesus? Can you see him in the story and can you see yourself with him? That is a very important question for you. And that's that you can go home now. That's what I want you to take home. All right? Can you see him in the story and can you see yourself with him? Amen. So a young man, all right, in our text that were looking at today, a young man, Stephen, he was a volunteer in the grand opening of the church 2000 years ago. When the church first started, Stephen was a volunteer in the church helping to serve tables and whatnot. And then he comes into this position where he is challenging the leaders, the religious elite of his time with their history, their 2000 year history. Before that, you know, before. Before the grand opening of the church. So for us it would be 4000 years ago. And he was basically summing up the time of their nation's history from the time of its inception through a man of faith named Abraham, to this time, to Jesus, whom they crucified. Now, the guys that he was talking to, they loved being experts in the law, they loved being experts in this history and knowing the story, but they were not experts in submitting to the God of the story. You see, as Stephen was telling this old Testament history, Stephen was also telling the story of Jesus Christ. But they didn't see him in the story. And it was crazy because so many times, icc, you ever have people that they try to separate the Old Testament and the New Testament, they will tell you that the Old Testament is what really matters, all right? Is what matters. And then other people say, no, no, the New Testament is what matters now. It's what matters now is all you need is the New Testament. Well, here's why I'm here to tell you, and I would tell every one of them. Jesus is throughout the whole story, all right? The whole story is his story. It just is, right? And too many times people make you think that you gotta grind a bunch of gears just to bring Jesus from the Old Testament into the new. And I don't think you do, because the entire Bible, Old Testament and New Testament is totally Christ centered and Stephen is pointing that out. And again, the question is for you today is can you see him in the story as you read through the stories? Can you see Jesus in the story and then can you see yourself with Jesus? Stephen is pointing out that everything matters, the whole story matters because it's all Jesus's story. All history, past, present and future is his story. Even your story is his story. Did you know that your story was initiated by Jesus? Did you guys even know that? The scriptures even tell us that through him all things began and in him, Jesus, all things consist. Let me challenge you to a thought. When you were born, who breathed your first breath into your lungs? Come on, man, you gotta be. Who breathed that first breath? It wasn't anybody you can name on the terrain here, all right? Somebody went and you start screaming, right? You remember that? Or maybe you don't, right? That's what happened, you know, God breathes in or God breathes out and we breathe in. Amen. God began your story and God will finish it here on the planet here this story. God began your story and he'll finish it. How he finishes it depends on who you're letting write your story. Amen. We shared with you a couple of weeks ago and we're going to keep sharing this with you. Your story has been Jesus story all along. The question is, will you let it be your story? Your story has been Jesus story all along. Well, the question is, will you let it be your story? You know, he began all of our stories and so it is his story, but we take it away from them. So a good question, if you want to. A good way to answer this question is with another question. Is the story, is your story a story? Is the story of your life? Is it a story of redemption or is it a story of rebellion? It's a good question for you to challenge a self reflection. You see, because it's one or the other, right? This is one or the other. There's no other way. There's no in between. There isn't any in between, man. Either it's Jesus's story or it's not. And if it's not, it's the enemy story. It's not your story. You know, there is no other choice. People get this freaked out. There was a story, and I shared this with you years ago. There was a guy and he was just. He was just kind of leaning into to being with Jesus. But he didn't want to give up his old life and the devil saw him and started laughing at him and he said to the devil, I don't know what you're laughing at, dude. I'm on the fence on this, man. I'm thinking about Jesus and I'm not quite sure, you know, about you. And devil said, take your time, homie. I own the fence. There's no other story. It's just Jesus's story. Let me ask you another question. You ever find out the truth about something that you've been doing wrong and you decided to do it wrong anyways? You ever do that? You ever start just kind of threading in a bolt and realize immediately that you're cross threading it? So you just started to just, and you're like, oh, my goodness. And you start wrenching it anyways and you just mess everything up. All right? Or you're doing a math problem, right? And you're doing this math problem, man. And you're like, you know, I know I got it wrong, right? But I'm just going to keep on going. You ever find out the truth about something that you've been doing wrong and decided to do it wrong anyways? And you're like, no, that's just stupid. Right? Right. That's just stupid. You find out it's wrong, you're going to do it wrong anyways. That's just stupid. And we all agree on that. Just remind yourself about that when you're walking out of here later on today and you're trying to forget everything that God told you. Remind yourself, I have to remind myself all the time. So check it out, man. We're going to look into the story that we just heard that we just read together, all right? And it's going to be real easy to get caught up, and it always is when you're reading the scriptures to get caught up in the scenes of the story. And it's fun sometimes to get caught up in the scenes. We're movie watchers. We're storytellers. It's really easy to get caught up in the scenes. But I want to challenge you here. Don't just pay attention to the scenes, pay attention to the one whom the scenes surround. Can you see Jesus in the story? Yes. And then now can you see yourself with him? That's the question. And that's what I want to challenge us. So when you read the scriptures, first look for Jesus and then connect your story to his story. Amen. Let's go ahead and pray. And Father, we praise you, Lord God. And God, this is your word. It's your glory. I'm just the one with the biggest mouth, Lord God, so help me not get in the way, Father, of what you're trying to say, and we just trust you, and we're gonna praise you. And I pray that your holy spirit, Lord God, totally infiltrates and just permeates. Like, we just sang this whole room in our hearts and that we could be filled, Lord God, with your holy spirit. In Jesus name, amen. So in acts chapter seven, if you haven't been here with us for a little bit of in acts chapter seven, this weird, really tripped out account is taking place. We're in the book of acts. And so Christ had already been crucified. He's been resurrected and ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit into his church. The people who are followers of Jesus Christ, he spent his holy spirit empowering them to preach the gospel and all the things that God wants us to do, help the poor, the widows, the fatherless, and lead the world to Jesus. And it's happening right there in Jerusalem. And the church started to grow, and it started to get really big. And the needs of the people were too much for the apostles. The Jews were just walking real tight homies to Jesus. They were walking real close. They were getting too much. And so they picked out some guys and they said, man, let's get some guys to take care of this work so we could focus on preaching the word and praying. And they picked some guys, and one of them was a young dude named Stephen. And he said, they said the criteria was they had to be full of faith, full of wisdom, full of faith, you know, good reputation. And Stephen was one of these guys. And they started getting to work. No problem. I'll serve tables, right? I'll volunteer. Heck yeah, man. That's how the church. That's why we're still here. Praise the Lord for the volunteers. Amen. And Stephen, he started sounding more and more like Jesus. And it started getting the people who had Jesus killed angry, right? It was getting people angry. And so they tried to twist them all up, and they couldn't do it, man, because his holy is filled with the Holy Spirit. Every time they asked him a question, God would answer it, and how are you going to contend with that, right? And so that's what was happening. And so they started spreading some lies about the dude, how he was talking smack about the temple and craziness and all that. And so you have in acts chapter seven, verse one, the high priest and the council are all around. I don't know why I lifted my leg like that. That was kind of weird. And the council was all around, all right, the high priest. And they said, and the high priest came to him and said, are these things so? See, what's the matter with you guys, man? Bad influences, all of you, man. See what I'm talking about? All right. I'm just kidding, man. You guys are probably the best influences around, all right? So the high priest said, are these things? So. And Stephen said to the high priest and to the council that jammed up Jesus, now jamming up him, he says, brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. And he started telling them the history of their nation from all the way, so far, we're in the middle now, so far, in the acts, chapter seven, up to this point, through Moses, he started telling them how Abraham was the father of their faith, and Joseph basically was like a pattern of Jesus, because he lived a life of suffering and still brought redemption for the nation of Israel. And how they moved to Egypt just because there was a famine, and how they were doing really great there, but they started to multiply. And a new king of Egypt said, man, we can't have these guys just kind of running around like they own the place. Let's make them all slaves. And for 400 years, they were slaves. And then came, he started telling the story about Moses, who was another pattern of Jesus Christ, basically a pattern of Christ. And you see patterns, promises, and you see where Christ is present in the Old Testament. It's pretty wild. It's all Jesus story. Of course you would. And Moses thinking that, okay, God's using him to save the Israelites, goes out and he's going to try to kill these Egyptians one by one. So he kills one, buries him in the sand, and realizes that's not what God wanted him to do. He got ahead of God, and then he took off. And now, Stephen, in this, in our text today, he's pointing directly to Jesus through Moses. It's amazing. And again, man, I want you to look for Jesus in the story, and then look for your story and see. Are you with Jesus? Can you see Jesus in the story? And can you see yourself with Jesus? That's our question. So we're all the way up in acts chapter seven, verse 30. And now it says, now when 40 years had passed, angel appeared to him. Another 40 years, see, 1st 40, Moses came out and he did that thing to the Egyptian. Then he bolted, scared, and he's just been out in the boonie somewhere for another 40 years. Started a family, had a couple of kids. And it said, now, when 40 more years, basically, he could say had passed, angel appeared. Pay attention. That word appeared. Hold on to that. An angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a flame and a fire. A fire in a bush. You've heard about the burning bushes, maybe you haven't, where Moses was just tending the flock, and he saw this bush, and it wasn't burning up. It was on fire, but it wasn't burning down on the ground. And he went to go check it out. It says that Moses was amazed at the sight as he drew near to look. And there came the voice of the Lord. Okay, I'm gonna freak you out a little bit, dude. This is Jesus, all right? This is the Christ. This is the son of God. This is the appearance of God. This is the angel of the Lord. Appeared. Christ is present. And you're like, no way. Check this out. In Exodus, chapter 33, verse 20, he says, but he said, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. And though Moses is going to turn his face here in a minute, he saw him and he saw him, and he. And he started talking with him, and it got crazy. And Jesus himself said, no one has ever seen God. Look at the way he says this. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the father's side has made him known. What do you think he's talking about? Himself. No one has ever seen God, but the only God who is at God's side. All right, again, we're talking about the Trinity. Some people are trying to, you know, act like that ain't something, and they just need to go read their bibles and pray some more, maybe, you know? Yeah. See, what we know about this is God turns your head towards Jesus. John 644. No one can come. Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the father draws him to me. God will turn your head towards Jesus. And now here we see that Jesus makes God known to you. And that's what Jesus was doing right here with Moses on that mountain. The question is, what Jesus are you trying to see? What Jesus are you trying to see? I was talking to my homegirl this last week, and she was telling me about a time where she was back in the day. She was like. She was redeemed. She belonged to Jesus. But she started living all crazy again. And one of her coworkers came up and said to her, asked her, are you a christian. And she's like, jesus is my homeboy. And then she kind of thought, you know, no, he's not. He can't be my homeboy. See, Jesus doesn't want to be your homeboy, right? He's your savior. He bought back your story. That's what redemption means. He gave your story to live. You gave your story to the enemy, all right? Because, again, there's only two possible owners of your story. Jesus bought back the story by paying the price that you owed for that portrait, all right? It's called sin, all right? And the question is, will you rob redemption or rebellion? What's it gonna be? There's only two things, man. Life is pretty darn simple, ain't it? We freak out and get it all complicated. What's wrong with us? I don't know. Anyways, you know, what do you want? We want redemption. What's it gonna be? Or rebellion. And you say redemption, which we all say, cool, man. But can people tell by looking at your story that you're living a story of redemption? Do those around you, all right, know that though you live around them that you breathe the same air, that you laugh and cry and have a life, that you're living a different story. You see, Stephen's audience, we're not connecting the dots here. When they're. They knew this history. Stephen is telling them and repeating this to them. They knew the history, but they didn't connect the dots. And that was just crazy. But here's what I know about you. You're kind of crazy, but you're not that kind of crazy. And we're not here to connect the dots. Amen. We're here to connect our story. Amen. To Jesus. Stephen goes on with their history of Moses when he confronts the bush. And the voice of God says, I am the God of your fathers. Verse 32. Check this out. The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob and Moses trembled, and he didn't dare look. And we know this is Jesus because Jesus himself said to the same group of guys that Stephen is talking to, the same group of guys Stephen's talking to, who just earlier, a few months earlier, crucified. And just a few months earlier, one of the reasons they crucified him is Jesus was talking to them, all right? And they were trying to get him. And he says, you know, Jesus told them, your father, Abraham, he rejoiced that he would see my day, John 856 through 58. And he says, and so the Jews said to him, wait a second. You're not even 50 years old Hebrew, where you at? We were talking about this a couple of weeks ago. You guys already know. Don't tell him nothing. I'm gonna talk about this right now, all right? And so Jews said to him, you're not only even 50 years old, and yet you've seen Abraham like 2000 years ago, like 50 years is gonna make a difference. And Jesus said to them, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. You see that bush? He just said, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham. Later on in that same conversation, Abraham's gonna say, who do I say? Sent me. When I go over there and do what you want me to do, he says, tell him I am sent you. This was a big statement. Jesus is saying, I am. I am forever. I have been and I will always be. I am eternally and consistently God. And before history, past and beyond history, future, I am and am, all right? No matter when or where, Jesus is always there. Amen. See, the fact that Jesus rose, now, this is huge. You say, those are some big statements. Those are some big statements for a guy to make, right? Those are some big statements to say that, you know, that he's claiming to be God. And that's. A lot of people have problem with that. I don't. All right? Because the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, that authenticates everything he said and everything he did. The fact, the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, it authenticates everything he said and everything he did. Sometimes people will say, well, what about all these other religions? What about all these other faith leaders? What about them? I'll put it to you like this, man. If I'm walking down a road, right, and that road splits into two different roads, and there's a dude laying at each of those roads right at the beginning, all right, one's alive, one's dead. I'm going to ask the one who's alive for directions. Amen. Not the dead guy. And then the Lord said to Moses, acts 733, take off your sandals. Oh. Here's where it gets crazy. All right? Can you see Jesus in the story? And can you see yourself with Jesus? All right, can you see Jesus in the story? Can you see yourself with Jesus? Because we all got some crazy stories. The Lord said to him, take off your sandals. Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you're standing is holy ground. It was holy ground because God was on it. Amen. Not because it was a special mountain or a special place. Or it has some really cool sand. But God is holy, and he's the one who makes and declares places or people holy. He is, and we have. If you have given your life to Jesus Christ, we have his holy spirit. So shouldn't we be treating everywhere we step as holy ground? Because if we have the spirit of the living God in us, then. Then isn't everywhere we are at? Aren't we bringing holy ground to, can you see Jesus in the story? Can you see yourself with Jesus? If Jesus was right here, you'd be like, yeah, man, holy ground. If his Holy Spirit just appeared to you and said, here I am, holy ground. But if we are men and women who have given our life to Jesus Christ and are like, we just sang filled with the Holy Spirit, shouldn't we be bringing that holiness into every person, every conversation, every situation, and every place we go? Amen, man. I saw. Yeah, praise the Lord. I saw christians walking around the car show yesterday, and I thought, holy ground, bro, right here. Here it comes. Here comes. Pay attention. Here comes the holy ground coming. You guys need to be paying attention. Amen. Praise the Lord. It's holy ground everywhere. Or if we diminish the holiness of his presence because we're back and forth between redemption and rebellion, then he goes on in verse 34, I've surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I've come down to deliver them. Come, and I will send you to Egypt. And this Moses, now Stephen is telling the story of what God said to Moses. And now he's stepping and telling them that this Moses, whom they rejected, who made you a ruler and a judge, is what they said about him. This man God sent as both ruler and redeemer. Oh, here we go. Here's Jesus again by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. By the hand of Jesus. Now, some of you are going like, dude, don't you think you're stretching this a little bit? It says angel, right? Didn't say Jesus. Well, his name wasn't Jesus. He told Mary, name him Jesus. All right, before that, we know him as the son of God, the second person of God's, of the Trinity. But it says angel. And if you need further proof, Jude chapter. Well, Jude verse has only got one chapter. Verse five says, now, I want to remind you, although once you fully knew that Jesus, who saved the people out of the land of Egypt, Jude called him Jesus. And that's in the Bible. So, I mean, that's one of the scriptures. That's, you know, and that's, the Holy Spirit says that. So afterward destroyed those who did not believe. Okay, it's Jesus's story. Can you see Jesus in the story? Can you see yourself with Jesus? Or are we constantly trying to say, no, that's just angel? I ain't got to pay as much attention to angels than I do Jesus, you know, are we seeing Jesus as he's kind of speaking into your life, as he's moving into your family, as he's at your workplace? Are you seeing Jesus on your way here and on your way home? It's his story. He used Moses. He led Moses, but it was his might, it was his power, and it was his glory. And then Stephen telling them about Moses again, giving a history lesson to the guys who are supposed to be experts in it, he says, this man led them out performing wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for 40 years. And then we see different signs of Christ. We see a pattern of Jesus, and a pattern is just, again, it's something that makes up. It helps you see Jesus in a different way. Before Jesus was incarnate in the New Testament, as we're looking in the Old Testament, we've seen the Passover. Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't. But Israel was slaves for 400 years. Moses came and tried to get it started. He messed it up for 40 years. That's after being 40. And then he had to go in the wilderness for another 40 years. God sent him back through signs and wonders before pharaoh and Egypt, and it kept hardening the heart of pharaoh. And he did all these amazing signs, hail and fire, frogs everywhere, which is kind of crazy, and then flies and kind of craziness and all kinds of stuff and boils and a bunch of weird stuff happening. And then finally it was the firstborn son. He said, but if you would take a lamb, sacrifice a lambda, and paint the blood of the lamb on the side of the door, the top of the door on the other side, he says, that angel of death will pass over that house. And as the angel of death creeped through Egypt that night, it would pass a lamb's blood painted door. And Jesus is called what? The lamb of God. And if the blood of the lamb is present on your life, then the enemy, he has to pass over you. There's a pattern of Jesus. Can you see Jesus in the story? And then can you see yourself with him? Man, dude, won't you love if jesus stand right? Won't you love? I'm with him. Dude, where are we going? Jesus. You know I'm with him. Won't you just love that? And then he tells his audience again, Stephen tells him this. Moses, who, this is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God raised up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. Okay, this is. Now we see a promise of Jesus. We've seen patterns of Jesus, we've seen the presence of Jesus, and now we see a pattern about a promise of Jesus. And the question is, are we with him or nothing? And God. And we see this promise of Jesus. God's going to raise himself up. And we see in Luke, chapter two, verse 40, that God said that the child grew and became strong and was filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him. God raised up this child, Jesus. And then he raised them up from the dead. Amen. He said, God will raise up a prophet like me from your brothers. Moses was a leader. He was a deliverer. And Moses even acted even more than a leader and deliverer, because when he brought Egypt, I mean, Israel out of Egypt, he acted as a king, taking them to their land that God has set for them. And Jesus would become the prophet of all prophets. He would be the leader of all leaders. He was the deliverer and redeemer of all of mankind. And he is the king of all kings. Amen. He says, this is the. Stephen is trying to say, you can't see Jesus here. Of course you can't see Jesus because you don't want to see yourself with Jesus. This is basically the message. He said this and he goes further. Look at verse 38. This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel, again, Jesus, who spoke to him. Not all angels in the Old Testament are Jesus. I want to clarify that. You have to take a look and just read your bibles. It is awesome. It is so fun, and it is so amazing to hear God speak. All right, but the angel Jesus, who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, we clarified that already. And with our fathers, he received living oracles to give us. Basically, he brought them out to this place. He brought them from Egypt. He brought them to this place of worship before they were going to go to the promised land. All right, that's a whole nother story. Brought them out to this place of worship. He went up on the mountain where they were kicking it down here to go get instructions, further instructions from God. And then he was going to bring them back. You can read about this again. You want to read your bibles. Exodus, chapter 19 through 32. Check it out. You'll see the story where he brings them to that mountain. He goes up, and he gets all these killer instructions from God. And then he goes back down and he gets crazy. All right. While he was there, God said to him that as they moved forward, one of the things that God told him, he said, pay attention. In Exodus, chapter 23, verses 20 through 22, he said, behold, I'm going to send angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him. Check this out. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. What do you think he's talking about? Well, let me check. Let's go a little further. But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, it's another one of those things. Like Jesus says, no one has seen God, but the only God who is beside God. He said, but if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. And then Stephen goes on back in acts, chapter seven, verse 39, but our fathers, they refused to obey him, and he thrust them aside, and they turned their hearts towards Egypt. They refused to give up their story to the author and originator of their story, desiring to return to be slaves in Egypt. I can't tell how many people. I can't tell you how many people that I've seen come to Jesus and not long roll after, just roll out. I mean, we've all seen that somebody. Yeah. You know what I mean? And they're like, all about Christ. Next thing you know, they're like, where you at, huh? Like ghost. I'll challenge you. This right here, man. It's not how high you jump when you. When you connect your story to Jesus story, but how intentional. You keep your story connected. You're like, wait a second. I don't know. Look, it. It's not how high you jump, because we get excited. Yeah. And we can all jump real high, but how intentional. Are you gonna walk alongside Christ, or are you going to be in and then out? In and out? What is it? Paul? He speaks to this in one corinthians, chapter 15, one and two. He says, now, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel of Jesus Christ that I preached to you, which you received. Did you receive it? Three people? You said, yes. What you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved. All right. If, if, big if you hold fast, if you walk intentionally, or if you hold fast to the word I preached you, unless you believed in vain. There's two verses you might want to spend a little time with. Basically, Paul's saying, you need to get close and you need to. Yeah. If you don't, things are going to get real lame. They're just going to get lame. Look at how lame it gets with these guys. Stephen's telling the story again, excuse me. And saying about God and Moses, and then saying to Aaron, the people where they thrust Moses out, they didn't want to do what they were doing. And now they're telling Aaron, make for us gods who will go before us. As for the Moses who led us out from the land to this place, we don't even know where he's at. We don't know what happened to him. And so they made a little cow, all right? And they made a calf in those days, and then they offered sacrifice to something they made. That sounds real stupid, doesn't it? Oh, but I've done that. I've built motorcycles before and thought, oh, my gosh, this thing is so awesome. Oh, you know what I mean? Come on, man. I'm just trying to be honest. What the heck, bro? And they offered sacrifices to the idol and rejoicing in the works of their hands. Pastor Justin shared, I think it was him. He shared a quote by this cat. You know when a guy has two initials? 1st, 1st name. You got a lesson. All right. This is GK Beal. He said, we become the thing we worshIp, either for ruin or for restoration. Now, you gotta be careful. We become the thing we worship either for ruin or for restoration. Restoration. And they became like this CALf, stiff necked. And we're going to see, stephen's going to call him a bunch of stiff neck knuckleheads. But God turned away and he gave them over to the host of heaven, as is written in the book of prophets. Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrificed during the 40 years in the wilderness, o house of IsRAEL? Now, you took up the tent of moloch, the star of RAPHAan, and the images that you made to worship. And I'm going to send you into exile beyond Babylon. God's not going to force you to worship him. But, man, you got to be careful what story you're choosing. It doesn't just happen. We have to be intentional about our story. What would we do about that? Last week I was hanging out with the youth group back here on Tuesday night, and they had a question because they were here the Sunday before and they said, how do we connect our story to God's story? That's a good question. And then some of you say the same thing. How do we connect our story to God's story? How do we make it a story of redemption and not rebellion? Well, let me ask you a question that might help with that question. Why are you a Christian? You need to answer that. I was driving my grandson to school this last week, and were just pulling up right here, and I just asked him, I said, hey, man, why are you a Christian, dude? And without missing a beat, man, he said, well, because Jesus people have the best snacks. I'm just kidding. No, he didn't say that. Just seeing if you guys are listening. All right, apparently you are. I asked him, seriously, I'm pulling up right here in front of the truck in the church. Yeah. Thank you. And I said, why are you a Christian, man? He said, well, because Jesus died for my sins and he rose from the grave and he's alive, dude, right there in the middle of the road, I stopped the truck and got out and said, yeah, people are honking at me. I'm like, nah, man, you need to hear that. No, I'm just kidding. I was just, I felt like that. I was just like, yes. So what do you do with that? How do you connect to that story? Hebrews chapter twelve, verse one. Let's end with this verse. I want you to take this with you. Hebrews chapter twelve. All this is great. Hebrews chapter twelve, verse one and two. He says this, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, all this history, that is his story. All these Moses stories, Joseph's stories, you know, Abraham's stories and all these other stories. Since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight of sin. Every weight and sin. Every weight and sin. Things that are keeping you back and distracting you and things that are just plain sin. He says, let's just lay aside every weight which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, man, let's. He said, bam. The writer of Hebrews, he's writing to christianse. He's not saying, hey, you guys need to be christians and stop sinning. Oh, you know, you need to start. You need to be christians and stop sitting. He's not saying that. He's telling christians, man. Lay aside these sins. Lay aside these weights connect your story and run it out with endurance, looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy was that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand, the throne of God. Amen. Come on, man, connect your story. Look for Jesus in the story and connect your story. See if you can see yourself with Jesus. Amen. Where's he? Brad, you're hearing me say amen. Oh, we heard that, didn't we? Yeah. Praise the Lord. Amen. So check this out. We're gonna. Right now, if you need prayer, we're going to be right here to pray. Heber, they're going to be right in the back to pray. Over here. We're going to be in the front with you to pray. And if, and if you need to connect, all right? And you want to just write your prayer down and write it and put it in the fence over here. Heber, your fence is going to where you guys go. There you are. Your fence is going to be to the right. You know what I'm talking about? Write the prayer. We're praying about your prayers. And we're praying about all your prayers during the week. They don't go unprayed for several people actually are praying for you guys. And I love seeing the answers to these prayers. But if you need prayer, come on up or head on back. Let me pray for us. Father, we give you the praise. We give you the honor, and we give you all the glory. Thank you for your word, Lord God, in Jesus mighty name, we praise you. Amen. Praise the Lord.
Posted in Sermon
Posted in moses, stephen, acts 7, old testament, jesus, redemption, rebellion, egypt, abraham, crucifiction, holy spirit, burning bush, angel of the lord, trinity, mount sinai, passover, israel, sin, salvation, gospel
Posted in moses, stephen, acts 7, old testament, jesus, redemption, rebellion, egypt, abraham, crucifiction, holy spirit, burning bush, angel of the lord, trinity, mount sinai, passover, israel, sin, salvation, gospel
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