In peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sailors reconcile.
Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies.
With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem.
Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king.
Christ by highest hath adored, Christ the everlasting Lord.
Late in time behold him come, from offspring of a virgin's womb.
Bell and flesh, the God has seen, hell and carn and deity.
Please, there's man with man to help, Jesus, sorry, Emmanuel.
Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king.
Hail the heaven for prince of peace, hail the son of righteousness.
To all he brings, with revealing in his wings,
his glory lie, for that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.
Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king.
Come, please, our nation's God, visit us by humble hope.
Rise, the moon on dream seat, present us the servant's head.
Add us likeness now and face, step by an image in its place.
Second, add up from above, we insist us in thy love.
Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king.
Good start to our singing this morning.
We want to go before the Lord and ask his blessing on the service.
So I've asked brother Fadokon's loss, if you would, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
and for the opportunity to lift up our voices to you in praise.
We also thank you, Lord, for bringing our brothers and sisters home safe from Jamaica.
We ask your Lord to please bless today's sermon and bless Pastor Anderson
and bless every aspect of the sermon.
So in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen, 427 is next.
Number 427, we three kings, him number 427.
We'll begin on that verse now.
We three kings of Orient, our bearing gifts, we traverse afar.
Number 427, lift your voice on that first now.
We three kings of Orient, our bearing gifts, we traverse afar.
Hill and mountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star.
Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright.
Westward, kneeling, stale, proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light.
Born a king, come back, let us play.
Go thy reign to crown him again.
King, forever, teasing, never over us, all to reign.
Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright.
Westward, kneeling, stale, proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light.
Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright.
Westward, kneeling, stale, proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light.
Mern is mine, it's bitter for few.
Greaves of life, of gathering blue.
Star is dying, cleaning, dying, stealing the stone cold tune.
Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright.
Westward, kneeling, stale, proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light.
Glorious, now behold him on rise.
King, and God, in sacrifice, alleluia, alleluia, beauty, earth, and sky, all.
Star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright.
Westward, kneeling, stale, proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light.
All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one on the inside.
We have our service time Sunday mornings at 10 30 is our preaching service Sunday
nights at six Wednesday nights at seven is our Bible study.
This week we will be in second Chronicles 29.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below as well as
salvation and baptisms.
The Jamaica missions trip was a huge success.
Big thank you to everyone who participated and who prayed and everything like that
because of course a lot went into this trip financially prayer planning.
So everyone who contributed as well as of course the people who were actually
out there in the field doing the work.
33 people went on this trip.
They had a total of 902 people saved total through a one on one soul winning
or at least like talking to a small enough group where you can interact with each person.
They had 902 people saved.
And then they also were able to preach in schools and through preaching in schools
they preach to an additional 4,900 people.
So in addition to the 902 salvation that they actually were able to verify
and check in dialogue with people you know we'll have to wait until we get to heaven to find out
how many of those 4,900 people got saved that heard the gospel in that way.
This time I want to have Brother Daniel Ryder come up.
He was on the trip.
He's going to talk a little bit about the trip right now.
Who's got the microphone?
He's got he's got it.
Come on up.
Talk a few minutes about the Montego Bay trip.
So this is our second time going to Jamaica as a church.
And I think it was much more successful.
There is 35 soul winners there are 33 soul winners.
There is 902 salvation.
And like I said we preached to about 4,900 students.
So that was really exciting.
One thing about this trip was very smooth.
Me and Raymond Ramon were very surprised.
It was very happy how smooth it was going.
It was very going very well.
There's sometimes usually issues on these trips like somebody comes late
or anything can happen or you get in trouble with maybe some local authorities or whatever.
But everything went smooth on this trip.
Everything went well.
And so this is probably my opinion my favorite place to go in the Caribbean.
Because it's the biggest English speaking country in the Caribbean to Central or South America.
And so another thing is also we want in the schools their native language is English.
So if you go to another country like you go to Philippines or Africa or places in Africa
or anywhere they English would be their second language or sometimes third.
So if you're preaching to kids you I mean you could preach in English is great
but as best to speak in their native tongue you'll get more people saved.
So I noticed that.
And yeah even this morning someone from steadfast called me like yeah I'll do the next one.
Who wasn't on the trip but who knew someone on the trip.
So she called me this morning like yeah I'll do the next one.
And she wants to do other trips like that.
So yeah it was logistically very easy there because it's also
more of a vacation part of Jamaica.
The southern Jamaica in Kingston is very dangerous compared to this part.
So and it's not it's a little bit the roads are a little bumpy or stuff like that.
So it was a great trip.
And and everyone had a great time.
Also a week before he went Brother Kenton he lives in Bahamas.
He went to Jamaica and he just asked all the schools.
Yeah or the many schools in there and he got about four schools
or for us to go into.
So that was wonderful.
And so all he did he just you know dressed up nicely
and he just said we said we're a group of we have a group of missionaries
international missionaries coming to your country and we just love to preach
and talk about the word of God.
And we just got in everyone we all get accepted.
So it was actually plain and easy.
Even I was with a crew that we stumbled upon at the high school
and we as me and Eric he's not hearing now but we want and we just want to
act to the talk to the principals they just let us right in
and we got a group and basically all the men wearing pants
and all the ladies were allowed to go in no shorts were allowed
because they have they all have school codes there
which I think they should have that America where they have dress codes.
But so and also another easy way to identify the students.
So but then we preach and we just went to the cafeteria
and during that time because in the middle of the day and we preach to all the
we preach to people like skipping class we found out later
when we just preach to them and this guy comes up to us and he says like
oh these students are all skipping class but he less is all finished preaching
and so it was awesome.
And so there's all welcoming even in like a supermarket to get some water
and some groceries some guys like what I had the Bible in my hand is like
what's the word of God for today.
And even we had someone talk to and preach to them a little bit.
So they're very open the culture is very different there
and this stuff is very hard to do in America it's not impossible.
I would say but it's very hard to do at least in this scale
to do in America to go into schools and do that sort of thing.
So and if you know anything about so like if you if you go soul winning
I think this is the the best or one of the best forms of soul winning.
I would say if you've gone to these places I want every soul
winner to experience this to go into a school and to do this.
So that has been one of my favorite types of soul winning
and even there's different and in schools there's different types.
You can go to a classroom which we did a lot of that.
There's the general assembly which I think is kind of hard to get a lot of people saved
unless they give you a lot of time because you can't really grasp the attention as much.
But when you have a classroom of 30 or so you really can control the attention
and also one on one they let you go by.
So we preached at I believe it was a primary school.
I believe two high schools or maybe three high schools one boy one all boys one all girls.
So that was really cool.
And two of the high schools were general assembly one was classroom by classroom
and the primary school is also classroom by classroom.
So it was wonderful so everyone enjoyed it so I think it had a great time.
And actually so we preached over one percent of all students in the country.
So there's about four thousand four hundred fifty thousand students in the country
and there's about a thousand schools.
So in four days because we're four weekdays because we had rec today for one
another weekdays.
In four days of actual preaching at schools we're preaching to one one point two
percent of all the students the entire country.
And we weren't like doing the whole day just doing that.
We did that for the beginning part and for a few hours.
So that's how much you can make an effect.
And so Jamaica is the biggest English-speaking country in the Caribbean
or Central South America where they're at their tongue.
So I think it should be a really important place to go for doing future
racing trips and there's a lot of potential there.
So there's that.
And yeah Jamaica is very cool has interesting history is actually
two years after Christopher Columbus came there.
And a lot of famous story of him predicting the lunar eclipse was in Jamaica.
So it's quite interesting.
And so a lot of cool stuff.
And I like these trips.
And I think a lot of people had a great time.
So I'll be all.
Great work everyone with that.
Very exciting.
It's good to see missions going strong at Faith Ford Baptist Church.
After the missions conference we're putting things into practice
and getting people saved.
Very exciting.
And then I actually went on my own little miniature
mission trip this week because I am banned from Jamaica.
So I wasn't able to participate in that one.
But I went on my own mission trip where I went to a place called Turks and Caicos.
And I ended up getting like 23 people saved and ended up going there.
Same thing went to like a high school with my son Stephen.
And we were just so winning to the teenagers.
Because when we talked to a lot of the adults there was a little bit
of a language barrier because a lot of people spoke Haitian Creole.
It kind of surprised me but it is close to Haiti.
And so I had one funny soul winning experience though
where I was talking to these two teenage girls and they both spoke English
but they both like spoke broken English.
Like their English wasn't that great but they spoke pretty well.
But they needed a little help.
One of them spoke Spanish as a second language.
The other spoke French as a second language.
But the one who spoke French did not speak Spanish.
The one who spoke Spanish did not speak French.
So I was literally giving the gospel in English then like clarifying things in Spanish
and then like clarifying some stuff in French.
And I was doing like this trilingual thing.
And they ended up both getting saved after like 20, 30 minutes or whatever.
Probably more like 30.
But it was pretty funny.
So yeah, the Caribbean is a great place to go soul winning.
Especially the young people are really receptive.
And so I'm sure we'll be doing a lot more Caribbean missions
in 2025.
All right.
And then below that we've got the note about the bridal shower.
That is next Sunday at two o'clock in honor of Isabella Schneider.
And so please RSVP to Denise Furbey.
And the idea is to for all the ladies and girls to go
as far as like teenage girls.
But little kids better to be left home with dad
and but definitely bring the nurselings.
That's okay.
And then on the back, the Christmas caroling is coming up on December 19th.
So that's a Thursday night.
We'll meet here at 5.30.
We'll quickly get you organized into big groups.
So you're not going to be singing a solo.
We'll put you in a group of close to 30 people.
And then that way we'll make sure we have some strong singers in every group.
The other kind of singer can just fade to the back if they want.
And then we'll come back and have cookies and milk.
And it's the cookie part is a potluck.
So we want all the ladies to bake their best batch of cookies and bring it down.
And then below that, we've got a Christmas party for the ladies and teen girls.
And you know, it said it was a white elephant gift exchange.
Apparently there was a miscommunication.
Apparently it's not a white elephant gift exchange.
This is the real thing, folks.
This is not a drill.
So it's just a gift exchange.
All right.
And that is with a limit of $30.
Okay.
So somebody's going to bring that white elephant gift.
And hey, that's just it is what it is.
But everybody's going to have fun.
I'm sure that's Saturday, December 14th, 5 to 8, right here.
There will be light refreshments.
Please bring an appetizer or finger food to share.
That is about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and sing our next song.
Come lead us.
All right.
You should find the insert with the two songs.
We'll start with angels we have heard on high.
You don't have an answer.
You can raise your hand.
And we'll sing it on that first verse together.
Angels we have heard on high.
Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o'er the plains
And the mountains in reply
At going their joyous strains
In excelsis Deo
Gloria
In excelsis Deo
Shepherds why this juleling
Why your joyous strains prolong
What the glass of tidings be
Grinch inspire your every song
In excelsis Deo
Gloria
In excelsis Deo
Come to Bethlehem and see
Him whose birth the angels sing
Come adore on bended knee
Christ the Lord the newborn King
In excelsis Deo
Gloria
In excelsis Deo
See within an angel laid
Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth
Mary, Joseph, when you're raised
With the sing our Savior's birth
Gloria
In excelsis Deo
Gloria
In excelsis Deo
Man, good singing everybody.
Flip that sheet over, we'll sing together within the crib my Savior laid.
There is a short pause in between each verse, but let's sing it out together.
In excelsis Deo
Gloria
In excelsis Deo
Come to Bethlehem and see
Him whose birth the angels sing
Come to Bethlehem and see
His birth the angels sing
Come to Bethlehem and see
His birth the angels sing
To ransom sinners crucified
His loving arms still open wide
All glory be to Jesus
In excelsis Deo
A victor's crown
My Savior won
His work of love
And mercy done
The Father's high
Ascend his Son
All glory be to Jesus
All right, this time we'll quickly pass our offering plates as the plates go around.
Let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter number four.
Hebrews chapter number four, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter beginning
in verse number one.
Let's go along silently with Brother Corbin Brock as he reads Hebrews chapter four
beginning in verse number one.
Hebrews chapter four, let us therefore fear lest a promise
being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should
seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel
preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them
not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have
believed do enter into rest as he said, as I have sworn in
my wrath that they shall enter into my rest, although the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain
place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day
from all his works, and in this place again if they shall enter into my
rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein,
and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief.
Again he limited a certain day saying in David, today
after so long a time as it is said, today if you will
hear his voice hearted not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them
rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another
day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he
that is entering into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works
as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that
rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the
word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit
and of the joints and marrow and is the discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart. Now there is there any creature that is not manifest in his
sight, but all things are naked and opened under the eyes of him with whom
we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great high priest
that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold
fast our profession. For we have not in high priests which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly under the
throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help
in time of need.
Thank you Father for the opportunity to hear your holy and precious word.
I ask you to fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit, open our hearts on our
ears to receive your word. I pray this in Jesus' holy name. Amen.
Amen. This morning I'm preaching on the subject of the humanity
of Jesus Christ, the Bible reads in verse number 14 there seeing
then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession
for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. And that's the main phrase
that I want to focus in on. We have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities
but was in all points tempted like as we are
yet without sin. So what the Bible is saying here is that
Jesus Christ can understand what it is like
to be a human being living on this earth because
he was a literal human being living on this
earth and he went through the experience of what
a person goes through. He was tempted in all points like as we are
yet he was without sin. So he left us an example
that we could follow by doing everything the right way. But the reason
I want to preach this sermon this morning is that I think that many people
sometimes don't think about the humanity of Christ. They're so focused on the deity
of Christ which is of course important that they sometimes don't really
think about or grasp the humanity of Christ. And sometimes people will just
kind of blow past this and just kind of like oh yeah well you know Jesus never
sinned of course he never sinned he's God. You know of course
he's perfect he's God. But what we need to understand is that Jesus Christ was
literally a human being going through all
today experiences and feeling and experiencing
everything that we go through as human beings. And you know
I don't want this to be taken the wrong way but I want to say this he's a normal
human being. Obviously there's nothing normal about God being made flesh but what I mean by that is
and this is my first point this morning. Number one is that Jesus
was not omnipotent while he was on this earth. He didn't go around with
superpowers like some kind of a superhero or something like that.
And I think this is what a lot of people misunderstand. They think it's just God
in a human body or something. No, no, no this is Jesus Christ
an actual literal human being living as a person born
as a baby growing up going through all the experiences
that a human being goes through. He wasn't just going through the motions of being
human or looking he was 100% God and 100% man
at the same time. Now let me prove this to you from the Bible. Go
through what you would in your Bible to Matthew chapter 8.
But the first thing that I want to point out is that Jesus did
his first miracle at around 30 years old.
So what I mean by that is that he lived the first 30 years of his life.
He's not just using superpowers to get through life.
He's going through life just like you went through life just like I went through life.
We all went through those teenage years
just like that. Jesus did not do his first miracle
until he's about 30 years old. John chapter 2 verse 11
when he turns the water into wine it says this beginning
of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested
forth his glory and his disciples believed on him. Then a little later it talks about
the second miracle that Jesus did showing that for the first
30 years of his life he's not using quote unquote
superpowers or something like that. Now I went through and I looked at
all of the miracles of Jesus and there are about
37 miracles that Jesus did while he was on this earth
and out of those more than two-thirds of the miracles
that Jesus did other people in the Bible did
specifically Moses, Elisha and the Apostles
did something similar to more than
two-thirds of the miracles listed by Jesus. So I'm not going to go through every miracle that Jesus did
but I kind of just grouped these into categories. First of all
turning the water into wine but remember Moses turned water into blood.
Healing the sick is something that Elisha did
cleansing lepers. Again Elisha raising a dead body
back to life. Again Elisha feeding the 5000
Elisha didn't feed 5000 but Elisha did multiply food
and feed a large group of people with a small amount of food in 2 Kings chapter 4
walking on water. Of course Peter
was also one who walked on water. Obviously Jesus
invited him to do so. Casting out devils is something that the
apostles were all empowered to do. Healing the
lame is something that the apostles did and then calming the storm
was one of Jesus' big miracles when he
had this wind in the seas obey him. Look at Matthew chapter 8 verse 26 where you are there
Matthew 26 he saith unto them, Why are you fearful oh ye
of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds in the sea
and there was a great calm but the men marveled saying
what manner of man is this that even the winds
and the sea obey him. This is a pretty amazing miracle but
again Moses parted the Red Sea and of course
there was a wind involved and the sea involved so it was in many ways a similar
miracle. Now if you want to turn to John chapter 11
and as you turn to John chapter 11 let's talk about some of the kind of unique miracles
that Jesus did that other people we don't see other people in the Bible do this
for example he curses the fig tree and it dries up. That was a unique thing that he
did. He reinstalled the servant's ear
in the Garden of Gethsemane that Peter chopped off.
He caused them to get an abundance of fish where they threw the net in the water. He caused
all the fish to go in the net so that they could get an incredible amount of fish caught.
And then another big one that Jesus did a lot
that the Bible really emphasizes healing the blind including
a man who was born blind and healing the deaf. So we don't specifically
see other people in the Bible unless I missed something
healing the blind and deaf but perhaps that falls under
the apostles were healing all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases
and casting out devils. But here's the point okay even if you
consider all of the blind people and deaf people being healed as unique
you still have two thirds of the miracles of Jesus
arguably virtually all of them done by
other people. Now what is my point in bringing that up? The point
that I'm making here is that Jesus performed his miracles
by the power of the Holy Spirit and by praying to God the
Father not because he was just walking around with
superpowers right? So you know that's why for the first 30 years
there's no miracles right? But then when he's doing his ministry
he's carrying out the work of God by the will of God and he's being empowered
by the Holy Spirit and he's praying to God the Father just like
other human beings throughout the Bible also did miracles
and Moses isn't parting the Red Sea by his own power
it lies just not raising a dead body to life by his own power right?
That's through the power of again the Holy Spirit praying to God and so forth
look at John chapter 11 verse 41
then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid
and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said Father
this is when he's about to raise Lazarus one of his greatest miracles
and I knew that thou hears me always but because of the
people which stand by I said it that thou may believe
or excuse me that they may believe that thou has sent me
and when he thus had spoken he cried with a loud voice
Lazarus come forth and he that was dead came forth bound
hand and foot with grave clothes and his face was bound about with a napkin
Jesus saith unto them lose him and let him go so when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead
notice he had prayed and asked God
for this miracle to take place right and that's why he says Father
I thank thee that thou has heard me and he says you know I'm only saying this out loud
for other people's benefit and here's a key thing I want to point out though okay
that would separate Jesus from other human beings
who perform miracles he said thou
hearsed me always right he says I knew
thou hearsed me always now why is that well
if you think about it the thing that separates Jesus from other human
beings is obviously the fact that Jesus is totally without sin
okay Jesus Christ did not sin
and he said in John chapter 8 verse 29 I
do always those things that please him about God the Father
okay and what does the Bible say in 1 John 3 22
whatever we ask we receive of him because we do his commandments
and do those things that are pleasing in his sight so because we keep
God's commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight that allows
to get our prayers answered well obviously Jesus Christ being totally sinless
you know God's always hearing his prayers now here's the thing
I want to point out is that the fact that Jesus Christ is not walking around
omnipotent with superpowers does not take away from his deity
Jesus Christ was 100% God because
here's the thing Jesus divinity isn't wrapped up in
an ability that he has or doesn't have Jesus divinity is just who he is
he's just God he's just the Son of God he's just divine
because of who he is now you know some philosopher comes along and says well
you know God by definition is omnipotent and so if Jesus is not omnipotent
he's like oh he stopped being God
we don't want to be stupid and we don't care this is why theology is stupid
and we don't care we care what the Bible says what the Bible
teaches and here's the thing Jesus is God because Jesus
is God because God eternally exists
as the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost
and so that's just who he is so if Jesus Christ comes to this
earth as a literal human being not just going through
emotions or pretending to be human but literally being human
he doesn't stop being God because that's just who he is he can never stop
being God you know just like I can never stop being who I am
you can never stop being who you are that's just who he is he's just God
but you get these stupid ideas about you know Jesus laying aside his deity or divinity
that's heresy it's garbage okay or if you talk about
you know there's the God part of Jesus and there's a human part of Jesus
there's no God part and human part Jesus Christ
is God because that's his identity that's just who
he is okay but not only that Jesus Christ
is 100% human and when he lived on
this earth he was born as a baby he didn't come out of the womb just
talking and knowing everything he grew up
just like every other child grows up and so the first point
that I wanted to make here is that Jesus Christ was not
while on this earth all powerful omnipotent
having superhuman powers he performed miracles of course but so did the
apostles so did the prophets through the power of
God the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit and you know the Bible
says in John 3 34 for he whom God had sent and this is about Jesus
he whom God had sent speak at the words of God for God give
the Holy Spirit by measure unto him so Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit
to the max okay now look we can all be filled with the Holy Spirit
prophets are filled with the Holy Spirit the apostles are filled with the Holy Spirit
Jesus was filled with the Spirit to the max more than anyone
else before after obviously he's always doing
the things that please God so of course he's going to do the most miracles
the best miracles the coolest miracles but that does not
make him something different than being human he was made
a little lower than the angels the Bible says okay and so he lived as a
literal real human being on this earth so number one he was not
omnipotent and this kind of leads me to my second point number two he's not omniscient
while he's on this earth he did not know everything
while he was on this earth okay and here's the proof if you would flip over to
Mark 13 and while you're turning to Mark 13
I'll show you from Luke chapter 2 verse 52 this is about Jesus as a child
it says Jesus increased in wisdom
and stature and in favor with God
and man okay now let's stop and think about this first
Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man
what does an increase mean an increase means that you have something
and then later you have
more than what you had earlier and I know that seems simple
but I just want to make sure that we're talking about the same thing here okay so if
Jesus increased in wisdom that means Jesus had wisdom
time went by and he got more wisdom so what's he doing
he's learning he's getting smarter he's gaining wisdom
okay now look if you're already starting out knowing everything
you can't gain wisdom everybody understand what I'm saying
and look here's a specific example where Jesus talks about not
knowing something he says in Mark 13 32 but of that day
an hour talking about the second coming of Christ but of that day in that hour
know with no man know not the angels which are
in heaven neither the son but the father
so in Mark chapter 13 verse 32 the Bible clearly says
that Jesus himself did not know
the day of the second coming he says nobody knows the day of the hour the angels in heaven
don't know the son of God doesn't know now again if Jesus
walking on this earth knew everything then how could he say well the son doesn't
know he would he would have to know because by definition
that's what it would be to be omniscient so Jesus Christ again
he's walking down the street as a human being he's not using a bunch
of superpowers to get through junior high and high school and his young adult life
he didn't do a single miracle till he's 30 approximately
probably a little more than 30 probably more like 31 okay
and then here's the thing about that is that he's also not walking around
like I don't know some kind of like with a space helmet or something just give him a little print out about
like he just looks at every person just like fidel you know and just give me all the data
on fidel or something he's just look he just knows everything about every
no he's going through life he's living life as a human being
we can't read minds as human beings
right and he wasn't reading minds either okay now
some people will mistakenly get the idea that Jesus was
reading minds or omniscient because of verses
like for example in Matthew chapter 9 flip over to Matthew chapter 9
and we could look at several examples of this
there are several examples but they're all kind of the same but
Matthew chapter 9 is one of them while you're turning there I'll read for you from Luke 6 it came to pass
also on another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught and there was a man
whose right hand was withered and the scribes and Pharisees
watched him whether he would heal on the Sabbath day
that they might find an accusation against him but he knew their thoughts
and said to the man which had the withered hand rise up and stand
forth in the midst and of course he heals the man now when the Bible here says Jesus knew
their thoughts it's not saying well he just reads everybody's minds it just knows everybody's
thoughts all the time what it's saying is that obviously Jesus
is smart enough to know what's going through their head this guy comes
in withered hand it's the Sabbath day Jesus has been
healing people they're kind of perking up looking like oh what's he going to do and he knows
what they're thinking and how many times have we said in our lives hey I know what you're thinking
right now and we were right because you can just tell
what people are thinking by their face or whatever look at Matthew
chapter nine similar story verse two behold they brought him a man sick of
the palsy lying on a bed and Jesus seeing their faith said it in a
sick of the palsy son be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven
thee and behold certain of the scribes said within themselves so they're not
saying this out loud but they're saying it in themselves this man blasphemeth
and Jesus knowing their thoughts said wherefore think he evil in your hearts
so he looks at them and sees the look on their face he can tell what they're thinking
he doesn't need anybody to testify on to him of man
because he knew what was in man in general the Bible
tells in John chapter two that's what that's basically saying and so the idea
here is that when we can look at another example in Luke 11
same thing they say to him you know they say that Jesus casting out
devils by the prince of the devils and it says but he
knowing their thoughts said of them you know every kingdom divided
against itself is brought to desolation and so the idea here is
that yet Jesus knew people's thoughts because he just knows human nature he sees
the look on their face he's smart enough to figure out what they're thinking but even if you say
no pastor Anderson I think that he supernaturally knew their thoughts
okay but here's the thing again we can find examples of that in the Old Testament where a
prophet is given knowledge by the spirit of God to know
that he would normally have no way of knowing like for example second king's chapter
one where the king's son is sick and he sends his wife to
go check with the prophet and she dresses up like someone else and then
the blind prophet who's literally blind and can't see says oh hey come on
in you know I know exactly who you are and how did he know that because God
had revealed that to him now you say what's the
what's the point pastor Anderson like why are you emphasizing these things
because again we don't want to take away from the
realness of Jesus experience as a human being
right Jesus did not live the human life on cheat mode
right he didn't have a cheat code entered
where he's got 30 lives where he's got unlimited power-ups
he's got unlimited XP or something no no Jesus Christ
was born as a baby just like you and I were
he went through life he grew up he was tempted and tested
at all points like as we are yet without said he didn't just go through
the motions or pretend like he experienced it he really did get
the true real experience and yeah of course
Jesus Christ was the ultimate and none of us could ever be
as great as Jesus no one before Jesus was ever as great no one after
Jesus ever is great but here's the thing about that Jesus said the works
I do shall ye do and greater works
because I go to my father so Jesus is flat out telling his
father's followers you can do greater works
than me okay now obviously we're not talking about greater in quality
but greater in quantity because of the fact that there are more of
us Jesus is one person he's telling 12 disciples
you're gonna do greater works because they're gonna have more time and there's more people
to do them they're gonna do even more but he said the works that I do shall you
do how can we follow in Jesus steps we don't have superpowers
how can we follow in Jesus steps we're not a mind reader how do we follow in Jesus
steps we're not omniscient guess what you don't have to be because when Jesus was on this earth
he was a human being and he was tempted at all points like as we are
and yet without sin and he was not omnipotent
omniscient and you know it kind of goes without saying that he wasn't omnipresent
so physically his body is obviously in one place at a time
throughout the four gospels that's pretty clear as we read them
and so this actually causes us to have a greater it doesn't take away from the
deity of Christ at all but it causes us to have a greater
appreciation for Christ's life and his human
experience yes Jesus Christ is eternally pre-existent
he's a creator of the world Jesus is
actually the creator of the world he didn't come into existence in Bethlehem's
manger he's the creator of the world he makes appearances throughout the
Old Testament right he was in the beginning with God and he was God
but when he was born approximately
2000 years ago he was a human
being in every sense of the word and he was
not just pretending or going through the motions but not only that
and I wanted a great detail on turn if you would to Acts chapter 2 I wanted a great detail on this
in my Sermon on Jonah chapter 2
but also Jesus relied on God the Father
to raise him from the dead right Jesus Christ died on the cross
he literally died and again that was not a facade or a
sham either he literally died on the cross
his body was buried in the tomb his soul went down to health for three days and three nights
three days later he rose again from the dead but the Bible
is crystal clear that it was God the Father who raised Jesus from the
dead he relied upon God the Father to not leave his soul
in hell for example the Bible says in Luke 23
46 when Jesus had cried with a loud voice he said father
into thy hands I commend my spirit
and having said thus he gave up the ghost now what does command mean
command is to entrust something to someone for safekeeping
right and so Jesus is entrusting
his spirit over to the Father for safekeeping he's dying on the cross
he says into thy hands I commend my spirit
look at Acts chapter 2 verse 23 it says him being delivered by the determinant
counsel and for knowledge of God you have taken
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain
God hath raised up notice God hath raised up
having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holding of it
for David speaketh concerning and my foresaw the Lord always before
my face for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved
therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad moreover
also my flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell neither will thou suffer thy holy one to seek corruption
don't miss this ok Jesus is relying on
God the Father he's trusting him to not leave his soul
in hell ok and so he says
I have hope I've set the Lord always at my right hand I'm not going to be moved
because I know that he will not leave my soul in hell he will not
suffer his holy one to seek corruption now here's the thing about this is that this is
originally penned by the psalmist David
now this does not literally apply to David
because obviously first of all David did not
go to hell David also was not resurrected
yet he will be someday right but remember in Acts chapter 2
Peter points out well David sepulchres with us to this day we can go look at his
bones if you want he's still there Jesus is resurrected
so when David said this
it did not literally apply to him because it's literally
about Jesus Christ but here's the thing about that though
that psalm was still penned by
David about situations that he's going
through just like Jonah is in the belly of the fish and out of the belly of hell
cried out he's not literally crying out of the belly of hell but he's in the belly of the fish
and it's like his own personal hell in a sense it's a metaphor
okay and so here's the point that I'm trying to make is that in the book
of Psalms we have these statements about
that will not leave my soul in hell neither will it suffer the holy one to seek corruption
and God's people are singing these songs for centuries
Psalms is a song book okay and even if they don't
necessarily realize that it's about Jesus you know some people are going to understand that
some people are not going to understand that the point is it's also personally
acceptable because we in our lives we always want to keep the Lord
before us and we want to have him at our right
so that we're not moved and whatever situations we're going through
we can have hope that God is not going to leave
us high and dry in whatever situation we're in
the whole point of this statement being included in the book of
Psalms which is a book you know of encouragement where you're reading the book of Psalms
and it's talking about you know all the bad things that are happening in our lives
and why isn't God helping me you know my God my God why is
that forsaken me and everything obviously these things are pointing us to
literal events in the life of Jesus but at the same time they're also relatable
to us as we read the book of Psalms right
of course we could read the book of Psalms and just be like Jesus Jesus Jesus
and that's the right way to read it amen but you know what we could also read it
and say oh yeah I'm going through something like this oh I've been through oh this is what
I know a guy who's going through something like this I'm going to text him these verses because he's going
through this thing right now and this can encourage him right now you say
well it's about Jesus yeah but it's also relatable for us
because just like Job went through this extreme
suffering then when we go through suffering we can say okay if Job can do it so can I
well guess what we can also look at Jesus and say
if Jesus can do it so can I as far as if Jesus was tempted
and yet he was without sin then that means that you know what I need to resist
temptation I need to follow in his steps okay
and if Jesus is trusting in the Lord
to deliver him well then you know what that's how we should go through life
always with the Lord in front of us always with God at our right hand so that we're
not moved and always having hope and trusting
keeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning
and so that is what the Bible is teaching here with these Psalms
and so we need to understand that Jesus Christ
actually going through literal hell for us right
this is a picture of when we go through things in our life you know we would
metaphorically call hell right we you know we're going through our own
quote unquote living hell or personal hell or whatever obviously
we're maybe exaggerating we're for sure exaggerating
because it's never quite that bad but yet
we can still look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith
who for the joy that was said before him endured the cross
and we can endure whatever cross
we've been called to bear right that's why the Bible use that kind of language like if we're going to follow
Christ we have to take up our cross and follow Jesus right
we're not literally being crucified but we're taking up our cross
right we're going through something like that it's funny I really like
language and words and things like that I kind of geek out on these things
and it's interesting the word excruciating you know people will talk about
going through something and they'll say the pain was excruciating
right but if you look at that word excruciate
look what's in there cruise those who speak Spanish this is
obvious to you right away La Cruz right Santa Cruz
right you went to the beach boardwalk there one time the point is
that excruciating pain you know it's basically
talking about how painful the cross is
to be understand like that that's like an example or a
paradigm of extreme pain or extreme suffering is
the cross right and this is why people will even use terms like
excruciating or talk about something being hellish or something like that
they're using these things from the Bible as just kind of
points of reference and the idea here is that if Jesus Christ
had hope through his ultimate ordeal
and he went through something worse than any of us will ever go through
well then we can get through our ordeal can't we if he can go through it
so can we if Job can do it so can we if Jesus can do it
so can we well but yeah but Jesus is superhuman with superpowers
no he wasn't he was filled with the spirit we can be filled
with the spirit too he's always doing things that please the Father we can do things that please the
Father too he was getting prayers answered we can get prayers answered too
okay now you say oh you're trying to make it out he's just like us well here's the
thing he was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death he
was the son of man he was a human being obviously
he is God in the flesh no question about that but at the same time
he had a real human experience
and I think a big part of that that's highlighted by that
is the fact that he's relying on the Father to raise him from the dead and I feel like a lot of people
have forgotten that fact that he's relying on God the Father to raise
him from the dead saying you know I have hope that you're not going to leave
my soul in hell you don't typically hear
that verse in most churches it seems like these verses are forgotten
the modern versions change these and things like that so you miss out on
some of this sometimes it says in verse 32
this Jesus are you there in Acts 2 look at verse 32
this Jesus has God raised up
whereof we all are witnesses
unto you first God having raised up his son Jesus
send him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities and notice
just in this one little passage from Acts 2 23 to
or did I read the wrong verse to you I jumped ahead
sorry this Jesus God raised up whereof we all
are witnesses verse 32 I jumped to chapter 3 sorry chapter
3 verse 26 if you want to go there it says unto you first
having raised up God having raised up his son Jesus
send him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities
so in chapter 2 we saw several times the idea that God raised up Jesus from the dead
chapter 3 26 same thing chapter 5 verse 30
if you want to just flip right over there since you're in the neighborhood anyway
it says the God of our fathers raised up Jesus
whom ye slew and hanged on a tree
chapter 10 verse 40 him God raised up the third day
openly acts 1333 God
had fulfilled the same unto us their children and that he had raised up
Jesus again as it is also written in the second Psalm
thou art my son this day have I begotten thee and then you don't have to
turn to these but first Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14 God had both
raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own
power you know so again you say I don't know if you should be comparing us to
Jesus but that's what the Bible is constantly doing God raised up Jesus
and he's also going to raise up us oh how dare you make that comparison
you know what's funny is that people will people will sometimes ridicule
preachers for comparing themselves to Jesus
what in the world like this is what the Bible is doing it's not about being a
preacher or a pastor every Christian should be looking at
Jesus as the example and saying well if God raised
up God's going to raise me up looking at Jesus and saying
well if he had hope if he set Jesus if he set the Lord at his
right hand if he was not going to be moved if he trusted in the Lord that he
would deliver him if he trusted that he would not be left in hell
then you know what I can trust him too oh how dare you compare
yourself to Jesus yet the whole Bible is written for our admonition
upon whom the ends of the world are come we're supposed to be comparing ourselves to everyone in the Bible
right I mean the Bible literally says
take my brother in the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example
of suffering affliction of patience take them for an example
you've heard of the patience of Job Elisha as an example
Moses as an example Job as an example and Jesus is the ultimate example
and so of course we're going to compare ourselves we're not saying we're God
we're not saying we're sinless we're not saying we're perfect but what we are saying
is that the same God who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead
is the same God that's going to raise me up from the dead and raise you up from the dead
it's going to raise up all believers from the dead
because whosoever Jesus said he that liveth in me though he were
dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die
he said that if you believe in him you'll be raised up
will be bodily resurrected someday in the future at the second coming of Christ
will be resurrected the way Jesus was bodily resurrected
how dare you compare yourself to Job look I'm just wondering like
if you're a Christian you've never compared yourself to Job have you ever even
been a Christian have you ever even been to church
have you ever even been to church in your entire life have you ever even spent five minutes
thinking about the Bible in your life to say oh how dare you compare yourself to
I'm pretty sure every Christian has compared themselves to Job oh you must think you're the greatest
on the planet because Job was the greatest human on the planet
no that's not the point the point is if the greatest human on the
planet could go through that level of suffering then we're not the greatest
human so whatever level of suffering we're going through we could say okay
God's not giving me something unfairly
he's not treating me worse than he treated other people because here's a guy who's better than me going through
worse stuff than me so if I'm a good guy going through bad stuff
okay so guess what comparing yourself to Job is something that
literally every Christian does unless you just don't even care or think about
the things of God at all or maybe you're five or six years old or something
maybe you're eleven and you haven't compared yourself to Job yet
but I'm pretty sure that if I ask for a raise of hands hey who has ever thought of your
situation and looked to the book of Job and compared your situation to
Job's situation and thought about your life in
with Job anybody who knows the story of Job has thought about that
and talked about that but it's unbelievable the
stupidity that some people come up with but of course we're going to compare ourselves
to Moses Aaron Joshua we're not saying that we're
Jesus when we compare ourselves to Jesus here's what we're saying hey Jesus
is the example all the prophets are the example
the apostles are the example and in order for Jesus
to be a real example he has to actually be human
and this is what I think a lot of people forget
and lose sight of the humanity of Jesus how important it is for understanding
Christ as our example it's very practical implication
understanding the humanity of Jesus and let me just finish
reading these last few verses because I don't think I finished these
God has both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by His own power
first Corinthians 15 15 it says we have testified
of God that He raised up Christ first Peter
121 who by Him do believe in God that raised
Him up from the dead and gave Him glory
that your faith and hope might be in God
so again there's this verse after verse after verse about how God the Father
is the one who raised up Jesus and how Jesus is trusting
Him relying on Him to do that and again I'm not going to spend
a ton of time on that because I spent a big part of my Jonah chapter 2 sermon I believe
I hope that's the right sermon where I went into this in great detail and I proved it beyond a
I debunked all of the arguments against it and so forth
so in conclusion back to where
we started Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15 it says we have
not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities
so it's not that God just intellectually knows what we're going through
it's that He knows from experience what we're going through because He went through
similar stuff obviously everybody's life
is different nobody's going through the exact same problems or the exact same
things but Jesus went through every category
of thing that we would potentially go through
so that even if Jesus didn't do the exact thing we did
something similar something comparable and yet was without sin
He was tempted by Satan of course in the famous
episode with him asking him to turn the stones
into bread and worship Him and throw himself off the temple and all that
He was tempted He was hungry He was thirsty
He was tired He was angry He was sad Jesus
wept and here's what the Bible says in Isaiah 53
but it says He's despised and rejected of men
that's something that we sometimes go through a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from
Him He was despised and we esteemed Him not
look He's not just going through life just like stone cold
nothing affects Him no emotion and you know we've all
known people that are kind of seemingly stone cold
in their demeanor very stoic in their expression right
but you know you don't really know what's going on inside of that person
either but at the end of the day Jesus Christ
is not just robotically just because He's just so perfect
being divine that He's just not feeling anything now He's going through
emotions the Bible talks about Him groaning within Himself Jesus
wept and He's not just like you know execute weeping sequence
now I mean He's like He's actually weeping because He's feeling it
I mean when He's screaming out on the cross
my God my God why is that forsaking me He's not just
oh it's time for me to say that now
He's feeling it He's groaning the Bible says He groaned
within Himself He's moved with compassion on the multitudes
right Jesus wept
in different times that it mentions Him weeping actually the famous time is
at the Lazarus funeral
but He was despised we esteemed Him out surely He had born
our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem Him stricken
smitten of God and afflicted but He was wounded for our transgressions
He was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon Him
and with His stripes we are healed
His great sheep have gone astray we've turned everyone to His own way
and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all
and so He was mocked by His brothers
you remember in John chapter 7 His half brothers we should say
are making fun of Him mocking Him not believing Him
and in fact they're even you could say trying to get Him killed
because they know that they're seeking to kill Him and Jerusalem
why don't you go up to Jerusalem buddy huh they're trying to get Him killed
saying oh why are you hiding Jesus why don't you you know you're trying to be famous
and I'm paraphrasing but He said oh you want to be famous
then why don't you go show yourself to the world why don't you go down to Jerusalem
because they know there's a warrant that He'll be put to death
and Jesus says well my time's not yet come but your time's always
He said the world can't hate you yet you guys are so smug of course
the warrant for your arrest the world doesn't hate you because you're of the world
they weren't saved He said the world hates me because
I testify thereof that the works thereof are evil I'm not going up to you
go to the feast I'm not going yet and then He goes down secretly
because it wasn't time for Him to be killed yet but His brethren are arguably trying to get Him killed
they're making fun of Him for sure and they don't believe in Him for sure
and so here's the thing you might go through a situation where you have family members
mocking you, ridiculing you, attacking you, fighting you
Jesus has been there you went through it
He was betrayed by a close friend and of good
we have all kinds of psalms about that and look yeah the psalms about being betrayed by a close friend
yeah those are about Jesus yeah they're about Judas
but you know what they're also about everybody who gets betrayed by a friend because those songs exist for centuries
to comfort God's people who are going through their own betrayals
and going through their own ordeals He was arrested
He was beaten, He was spat upon, He was crucified
and the Bible says in 1 Peter 221 for even here unto where you called
because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example
that we should follow in His steps
who did no sin now that was Gal found in His mouth
we can follow Christ's example and so
the goal of closing thoughts is that we should love Him more
we should love Jesus more realizing that He is a real person
and by that I mean really human
and when we read the scripture if we see Him as
human and going through a real legitimate
bonafide human experience we'll have a greater appreciation
when we read the four gospels and we're actually going to get more
out of it and be more touched and moved by it when we think
of Jesus as being human and again
He's both human and divine and if we overemphasize the one over the other
or forget one or the other we're making a mistake
always remember that Christ is both 100% God and 100% man
Father we thank you so much for your word Lord and we thank you so much
for the example of Christ and Lord God help us
we're looking unto Jesus in our lives and realizing that
He is a great example for us and realizing that He really did
live that perfect life that none of us can live
but that we can all aspire to and strive for and we definitely
all have the tools to do whatever Jesus did and to live as
Jesus lived Lord God help us to live to our fullest potential
and help us to be filled with the spirit help us to do those things which please
us to do so that we can be greatly used by you in our lives and in Jesus name we pray amen
Amen
Alright ladies and gentlemen take your hymnals please if you would go to hymn 422
hymn number 422
Thou did sleeve thy throne hymn number 422
Sing it out together unto the Lord this morning
hymn number 422
Thou did sleeve thy throne and thy kingly
crown when Thou gave us to earth
for me
but in Bethlehem's home was there found no room
for thy holy nativity
O come to my heart
Lord Jesus there is room
in my heart for thee
Heaven's arches ring when the angels sing
proclaiming thy royal
degree
O come to earth and
in great humility
O come to my heart
Lord Jesus there is room
in my heart for thee
the foxes found rest and the birds there nest
in the shade of the forest
tree
but thy couch was the sod of God
in the deserts of Galilee
O come to my heart
Lord Jesus there is room
in my heart for thee
Thou came as the Lord
with the living word
that shall send thy people free
but with haughty score
and with crown of thorn
to Galilee
O come to my heart
Lord Jesus there is room
in my heart for thee
on the last
when the heaven shall ring
and the angels sing
at thy coming to victory
but thy voice call me home
saying death there is room
death there is room
there is room at my side for thee
my heart shall rejoice
for Jesus
when Thou come
and all is for thee
Amen