Ezekiel | Week 3 | Bill Bush | Full Service

That's really what we're gonna see today as we we continue in Ezekiel, which if if you're new by by way, go back and listen to the other two messages. But Ezekiel was a guy that was trained to be a priest in Jerusalem, but it was during this time when the Babylonians had come and started to overtake Israel,

and they were sending people away in waves. They had sent them out into into captivity. They exiled them, and and Ezekiel was in that second wave. There was a third one that came in and finally destroyed Israel altogether. And God said he was allowing this to happen as to discipline

his people, but also just allow destruction on those that would not listen. For four hundred years, he had sent prophets Israel saying, you're not listening to me. You're not you say you're my people, but you're not. And finally, it's gonna happen. Well, this group that got exiled now is sitting there, and Ezekiel wanted to be a priest, but he got called to be a prophet. And what he was supposed to bring was a message that was opposite of what these false teachers are saying. All these false prophets say, hey, I know it stinks that we're out here, but don't worry. There is no way God would allow Jerusalem to be destroyed or his temple to be destroyed. We're the righteous holy people of God. And I know we're way out here, but we're not gonna be here very long. And and and Ezekiel was called to say, no. You don't understand what's going on.

God is gonna allow this to happen. And and and that's what it's kinda unpackaging these stories. Well, what's happening is the those who were in Jerusalem

still in the fight thought they were the righteous like this guy that came to this meeting. They were the ones that got to stay because they were the ones that were in the right.

And as we're gonna see in today's passage, the exiles felt like, I guess, we got shoved to the side and we're the ones that God's punishing. We're not home. We don't have the land. We don't have the temple. We don't have we're not there. We're the ones out there, and they had it backwards.

And the ones that were induced and were gonna be wiped out is because they just were so arrogantly thinking that they were okay and they weren't.

And so what's the lesson for us in that today that we're gonna look at in chapters eight through 11? I'm gonna go verse by verse through all those chapters. No. I'm just gonna summarize, then we're gonna look at a part in chapter 11.

And and and the big idea that I think we need to understand too in this whole story is simply this, the heart of the problem is a problem of the heart. Almost all of our struggles in life, all of our struggles, especially with our walk with God, trying to figure things out, we always think the problem is like where

am I at? Where do I live? What I'm at? My circumstances are always the problem. And really, the problem that we really have to deal with is a heart problem. When it comes to knowing God, following God, living life,

it's it's an issue of the heart that we're gonna see. So what's happening in chapters eight through 11? Let me just kind of give us a flyby, and then we're gonna land in chapter 11.

So in chapter eight starts off it's it's the beginning of the second vision that god gives Ezekiel. What he does is he answers the question. Ezekiel is like, but why?

Why is it why are you gonna let Jerusalem fall? Why are you gonna allow the destruction to happen? And so what he does, he takes them by a vision and actually transports them where he can see Jerusalem. He goes to the temple, and God shows him four examples

of how they say they're God's people, but they've brought in all this false worship, this idol worship right into the temple. It's almost if you come to church, you say you're a Christian,

but you're actually incorporating all of culture and stuff and going, well, I say I believe in God, but when it comes to this stuff, I'm gonna live this way and ignore the word of God. That's kinda what they're doing. They call it an actual worshiping another god. We don't necessarily say, I got these other religions,

but we do a lot of the same things. And and it's like letting that cultural and your own ideas. So there's four examples. And just to give you kind of the the fly by them, the first one is he takes them to the North Gate of the temple complex, and he shows them what's called the image of jealousy.

They believe that most scholars, and and I believe that that's an Asherah pole that was common. One of this this pole that they would worship around. It was a to the to the Canaanite goddess Asherah, and it usually involved a lot of the worship of these Canaanite gods. He involved a lot of sexual perversion.

It's like their other religion is let's just go crazy and and and and feed our lusts however we want, and they called it worship. They just they just said this is our act of worship and and a lot of child sacrifice. So you would kill a child for the sake of being blessed and and and and having your life be better.

Fortunately, in our culture, we don't run after sex and we don't kill babies. So that that's good. We don't do well, wait a minute. I guess we still have the same problem. We don't call it a religion, but we still do those things.

The second the vision, he takes them to the secret room in the complex. It's in the dark, and it shows 70 elders that are hiding in there, and they're worshiping these Egyptian gods, a painting on the wall. And it says that they're saying,

god's not here. He's kinda been it doesn't matter. This is the way we need to go now. Basically, they're acting like god's not around. He doesn't see, so we're gonna do this. This is this is the what we're gonna do since he's a bandit. Well, if you believe god's not there, then why are you doing it secretly in the dark?

Which is also an interesting thing we do. We often live our life like God doesn't really know. We hide, but we're hiding. Why are we hiding it if we think it's fine? Why do we instinctively know that this is probably not the way to be living, but I'm gonna do it anyways?

And that's the elders, the ones that are supposed to be leading. The third is takes it to Northgate again. There's a group of women worshiping this god, which was the god of the harvest, basically.

And that was the only thing they would do. Like, you gotta worship this god because this god's gonna make sure you got a good crop and you don't starve, which in their day and age, that's equivalent

to, like, that's what you lived on. It's like having a job and having money. So they're like, we gotta make sure we can survive and we can live and we can pay our bills and we can do that. So we have to worship. We have to ignore God and we have to go after the money. We don't do that. Do we? Do we

yeah. I think we still do sometimes. We struggle with that. But then the fourth, the exclamation point, the final one was he shows them these 25 priests that are in the inner courtyard and

they're bowing down and worshiping the sun god. And that's a common god in the whole Middle East area. That was for many of the the nations. They have this sun god. But here's what that means. They're priests. They're supposed to leave leave people into worshiping the one god, true god,

and to worship to the facing the east means they not only figuratively, but literally have their back to the temple. They've turned completely away from God. So what he's saying is I can't allow this to be thought of as the way to know me. So yes, I'm gonna allow the destruction to happen.

And that's really what happens in chapter nine. It describes the destruction of Jerusalem by God,

but even in there, here's what I want you to see today, we're gonna see the hope. There's hope all through this. We always focus on the destruction and the bad part. The truth is we should understand that even the New Testament says we are all heading to destruction. We're all dead unless God rescues us.

We're not good. People aren't basically good. We are sinners. We are rebellious towards God. We naturally will run after idols. We'll naturally run after our own thing, and everyone is destined for destruction unless God rescues you. And that's the story here. They're all heading for destruction. God's like, okay. I'm is it really God's like, I'm out to kill you?

Or is it at some point he says, alright. I'm not gonna protect you anymore. Stepping out of the way. And that's kind of what's happening because he describes how he sends these men in, but it's really Babylon that brings the destruction. And he describes

in a vision, it's his vision of these six guys he calls forward, they all have deadly weapons. They're gonna go wipe out. But there's symbolic nature to this because numbers have a symbolic meaning. Six is a number that means incomplete. It's the number of man, since we are sinners incomplete. So he's saying the six represents man, man destroying man. God's kinda saying, alright. I'm gonna let you have what you you're gonna just get wiped out because it's gonna end badly for you.

But he says, but they're in there, there's no because there's a seventh man dressed all in linen. Linen was the priestly garments. It meant the righteousness of God. What he's describing is he's seeing a pre incarnate Christ by what he does. He's holy and righteous, and he leads the way. Before the destruction,

he's sent in and he goes and he has basically a a marker, like an ink horn, and it and he and he he said that God says he goes and he puts a mark on the heads of every person in Jerusalem who actually is mournful and cognizant and weeping over the sin.

They actually do give it. They do believe they're sinners. They do believe this is wrong, that they're not honoring God. And he marks them and he says they won't die. So even in Jerusalem where he says he's going wipe it out, there's a remnant there that survives all of that. They go through all of it, but they live.

And then the destruction happens. And that's what night and so then chapter ten and eleven then picks up in in this idea of it. Thou describes God's glory. He sees this vision of this weird this picture of God's glory, and it leaves the temple. Like, it's now left.

The temple really wasn't special because it was a temple. The building is not what they they turned it into an idol and they would worship other idols there. What made it special was God said, I'm gonna channel my presence there. So now he's like, I'm moving out.

But there's even hope. You gotta see the hope here. If you go back and read these chapters, it moves in stages.

It moves and it gets to the Eastern gate and it says it pauses. And it moves out over and it pauses. It's as if even though God says, I'm getting out of the way. This is gonna happen because you will not trust me. He's patient. He's loving. It's almost he stops

knowing what's gonna happen, but still it's as if he stops as he's leaving and turns and looks back. He just says, come on. If you only knew. And in chapter 11, the very end part, I'm gonna read before this end part, it describes it ultimately moves out and then it stops over the Mount Of Olives. That's very

significant prophetic wise too in how God loves because the Mount Of Olives is higher than than where the Temple Mount is. So you look down on it. I've been on the Mount Of Olives. Anybody else been to the Mount Of Olives? There's something cool about symbolic hell. That's where the glory stops.

Because if you read in the New Testament, when Jesus finally does his final ride in Jerusalem when he knows he's gonna go die on the cross and sacrifice, he starts that ride, guess where? On the Mount Of Olives. And it says he looks out over Jerusalem

and says, oh, Jerusalem, if you only knew what would really give you peace. He's starting where the glory of God stopped and stayed. He goes down, he dies, he resurrects, and then when he's meeting with his his disciples and followers, the remnant,

that's called forth and he gives them the great commission to go, you know, make disciples before he ascends bodily in in in the heaven and sends the holy spirit, guess where that moment happens? Mount Of Olives. So the hope is there. The gospel is there. And what we're gonna see through this whole thing is

the heart of the problem. It's a problem in our hearts. And they didn't see that because one side said we are fine because we still have Jerusalem. We still have the temple. All the riffraff God took away in exile, we are the good ones. No. You have a problem in your heart. You think you are right, but you are not.

And you're very, very wrong, and you're heading towards destruction. How about you? Do you come in here to church and bring all your idol worship week after week after week and act like you're self righteous and think you're fine? Where's your heart at when it comes to the love of God and the trust of him?

Because here's what's happened. Now we get to chapter 11,

and starting in verse 13, he says this. Ezekiel's finishing up his vision. He says, while I was still prophesying, Pelletiah, son of Benaniah, suddenly died. So someone he knew, this leader, he's like, he dies, and it just kind of he he he

he's seeing what's happening. He saw this vision of the destruction, and he gets a little bit discouraged and he he says to God, then I fell face down on the ground and cried out, o sovereign Lord, are you going to kill everyone in Israel? Are we done? Is this it? It's weighing heavy, and sometimes life gets hard for us.

And we get this wrong idea that says, it's not a matter of the heart. It's matter of where I'm at. And I thought if I follow God and I trust God, life should be easy.

And then when it's not easy and you're going through tough stuff and and and you get scattered like they're scattered, it's it's it's easy to start doubting, and he's he's doubting. And one of the things he has is this the end for Israel because one of the things he's probably influenced by in his culture, he knows there's one true God, but in this time and culture,

gods kind of had home field advantage. Like there was gods of they were territorial. That means they were stronger. In their homeland, they were stronger. They had home field advantage. So basically, they're the opposite of the cardinals, sadly. They need to win today at home.

And and and and so that's why you always wanted to pay homage to the local gods because your god wasn't as strong in this land.

But he knows that's not true, but he still feels like, wait. Wait. Wait. If you let Israel get completely wiped out and Jerusalem wiped out, you've lost your home. There's no home. Does that mean it's not only in for all of us? Is that the end of our faith altogether? He's confused

because he already feels like we're the outcast. We don't even get to stay. How could you let the actual remnant fall is basically what he's saying? Because he believes this idea. So here's what God says to him.

He says in verse 14, then this message came to me from the Lord. He says, son of man, the people still left in Jerusalem are talking about you and your relatives and all the people of Israel who are in exile. They're saying those people are far away from the Lord, so now he has given their land to us. See their attitude?

They thought that the ones that got exiled were the problem. They weren't faithful. They didn't know God, but we're the special ones. We're the chosen ones. We still have land. And so then what what are they talking about? Instead of thinking spiritually, they think, and now we can have their houses and their land too.

They wanna be they want the stuff. And he goes, they're talking smack about you. They think you're the and they probably and he's like, yeah. We kind of believe that. And he says, therefore, tell the exiles, this is what the sovereign lord says. Although I have scattered you in the countries of the world,

I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile. Now if you read the whole testament, you understand that why they were in the seventy years of exile?

They were told they were getting told, we're gonna go back soon. Don't get comfortable. And God said in some of the other prophets like like Jeremiah and them says, no. Make a home there. I am with you there too, and I will take care of you. God blessed them so much that after the seventy years when they were allowed to go back to Jerusalem, they were allowed to go back, only about 50,000

ever actually went back. The rest had established families, and God made them so successful there and blessed them in this far off land where they thought they were cursed that they're like, we're good here. We'll worship God and stay here.

If you feel like your life's been scattered and you're in exile and it and it's like, how am I possibly gonna live this way? You ever thought about maybe God's allowed you to be there and he says, trust me and I will take care of you?

You gotta trust him. He says tell him it's okay. I will take care of you in your time in exile. But then he says, but I, the sovereign Lord, will also gather you back from the nations where you've been scattered. And I will give you the land of Israel once again.

And when the people return to their homeland, they will remove every trace of their vile images and detestable idols. And I will give them singleness of heart. He says, I'm gonna gather my remnant. And I will give them a singleness of heart, they're gonna know their purpose, and put a new spirit within them.

I will take away their stony stubborn heart and give them a tender responsive heart. So basically, he says, I'm gonna give you a new spirit and I'm gonna give you a new heart. And he goes, that's what that's gonna allow you to do. It says, though they will obey my decrees and regulations,

then they will truly be my people, and I will be their god. But as for those who long for vile image and detestable idols, I will repeat them fully for their sins. I, the sovereign lord, have spoken.

So he basically says, don't worry about it. You guys are the ones that are okay. You're part of the remnant. Matter of fact, they don't even realize it now, but not everybody even in Jerusalem. Some of them are the remnant. God says, I'm still gonna rescue some of them. And you know what? I'm gonna give them a new heart and and a new spirit. And because of the new heart and the new spirit I gave them, then they can follow me. It's what I've been saying the whole time. Don't hear what I didn't say last week when I said, hey, need to repent. We need to be as Christians. We need Jesus to be saved. We also need Jesus to live the life that we're supposed to live. And

repent means we turn not just away from the bad, but turn towards the mission. But some of y'all heard said, so if I don't do that, then God's gonna destroy me and send me to hell. No. If you're truly a believer, there is now no more condemnation, it says in the New Testament.

But it says if you're truly a believer, why would you constantly say, I'm not gonna do what you want me to do, God? The question is, if you constantly wanna say, I want Jesus to save me, but I constantly refuse to listen to him,

you might not actually be a believer in Jesus because what he just described here is actually the gospel.

That God's the one that saved. Who gives the new heart? You don't change your heart and then now God loves you. You don't follow God then get the new heart. He says, I'm giving you a new spirit,

which we now know in the New Testament is the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit draws us, we confess, we turn to Christ, the first act of repentance, put our faith in him, and now we have a new heart and we have the Holy Spirit. We now have the ability to actually repent, turn, and go towards God.

But it's because he saved us. He called us. He changed us. All I have to do is be willing to say yes to that. And then when I'm confronted with going the wrong way, I do as first John said last week. I repent, which means I turn and go the other way because now empowered by the holy spirit in my new heart, I can do that.

I still battle culture. I still battle that shadow of the old self, but if I'm a believer, that's not who I am anymore. And so what he's saying is the gospel. But he still says, I think this still happens. God still works this way in our life. If you notice there was three things he said that was gonna happen.

He scattered them, he gathered, and he gave. Scatter, gather, give. I think God still works that way

in how he grows us because the same things happen to all the people in Israel. Babylon came in. They went through the same horror and the same terrible thing, but there was two different groups of people here. There are those that were gonna be destroyed by it and those that were gonna be disciplined by it. If you're a believer, God will allow your life to get scattered. He'll allow these things to happen, but the intent there is being destroyed is punishment for you're just you're not gonna turn you're just gonna go your own way and be destroyed.

And that's concerned with your past and your present behavior. Discipline is not about punishment for the past or the present. Discipline is about the future. As a good parent, you discipline your child. You don't punish them.

Punish is usually about you. You're mad. You wanna get back at them. Discipline says, I gotta put something in your life that helps focus you towards the right direction so you'll be self disciplined and you'll grow. God disciplines us. Go read Hebrews.

It talks about if God didn't discipline us, he's not a good God. He's not a good father. So he's telling them you got scattered, but that's a discipline for you. For those who don't trust me and won't follow me and fight me, it's destruction for them.

In other words, when God scatters, I'm not just talking about physically. I'm talking about some of he lets stuff in our lives that just seems to scatter our life all to pieces. I mean, I don't know if you remember us. A lot of us has blocked out a couple of years there.

But our whole culture, we went through something that scattered us from normal all over the place. It really rocked what we thought of as normal. The couple years of COVID and just and with all of that, all the political turmoil, all this stuff, everyone is just freaking out.

God will often allow and cause allow these things to happen to allow our normal, our status quo just get rocked. It's like he shakes it up to wake us up to kinda say, who are we focused on? What are we doing? And I gotta be honest, I led through that and I was shocked. And I'll be honest, a lot of us, a lot of people even in this church shocked me because, man, you guys lost your

during that two years. I'm like, where is your faith? You were arguing about politics, ripping on each other, now he's like, are you getting all mad at everything and we just some of y'all just decided I'm mad no matter what we do.

We make one decision, that makes me mad because you politically thought it was bad. We do the opposite decision because we didn't make political decisions around here. When we made decisions, we said what's the smartest thing we should do to go forward trusting God and reaching people for Jesus in this moment? Every decision, that's what the leaders of this church did.

And sometimes and some people go, oh, you're being all liberal because you did this. Oh, you're being ultra conservative. You did this. Now we weren't doing either of those.

And then some people got mad at either way. You think, okay, you got mad at this decision, this one seems like we did the opposite, you think you'd be happy now? Nope, you're mad at that one too. And I think it's because you got so freaked out, we were all just angry all the time. And as Christians,

I think God allowed that to reveal where are you really at? Where's your faith? So what's in you? And a lot of you discovered not much, or at least I discovered it watching you.

God will scatter us. He'll scatter your life. If you know him, it's a discipline. If you don't, it's a warning that you are about to be destroyed. You're in the same scenario, but God means something very different by it.

It's kinda like this old statement, like like when it comes to the heart, it reveals your heart. Where are you really at? I've heard this phrase like the sun. You go out in the sun, the baking sun, especially Arizona, get it. Nice hot sun. The sun will melt wax but harden cement.

So if you have a stony heart, a heart made of cement, he turns the heat on, it gets even harder. You go towards destruction. If you have that new heart, the heart of wax, it softens. It's moldable. It's pliable. It trusts.

But if you get this weird idea of how God works and it's all about I do the good things, come to church, I try to honor just so my life never has the heat. You've missed the whole point. You've missed the whole point. He scatters but then he gathers, pulls us together.

That's the other side I saw. I saw during this whole time, I saw a lot of churches like just they fell apart, they didn't but this church, know, everyone came back. It's like in the end, I was proud of the people in this church.

People are like, how did you guys come back and have as many people? How are you growing? How are you I go, because I think we have people that really do just know the Lord and give a rip and they care about it. We gathered back stronger. That's his intent,

to gather the remnant, to get you to focus again, get back on purpose, and let your heart be soft because that's what he wants to do. When he gathers us, he gives. He says he gave. What does he give? He gives us the spirit and a new heart. We always gotta let him soften our heart.

But that original thing of what he's talking about is a prophetic utterance towards the gospel. He's talking about the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy is in Jesus. He gave himself as a sacrifice

so we can be saved, so we can have the new heart, so we can be a new creation, so we can have the power of the holy spirit, so we can actually follow him. Not for his love, not for blessing, but from his love.

And so all I keep asking you to say, you've been coming to church all the time, don't just assume you're a Christian because you show up and you say, yeah, believe in Jesus. They would show up at the temple and say, yeah, we believe in the God of Israel.

But then they'd live their life very different. They wouldn't repent.

So if you say you believe in Jesus, you show up, but you don't actually wanna follow him. And when you're when you're confronted with biblical truth on this is a sin, turn and go this way. And this sin is maybe you need to do the right thing, not just avoid the wrong thing. And when you're confronted with that consistently, and if you consistently don't do it, you are either so trapped in a lie

or you're not even a Christian. That's what this is supposed to reveal to us. What heart do you have? Because it doesn't matter how much heat, how much warmth, how much whatever, if you got a heart of stone, water's not penetrating it, the heat's not softening it,

there's nothing you can do to fix that. You need a new heart and it only comes from God. The heart of the problem is a problem of the heart. It's not where you're at. Your problem, my problem is right now the thing you say your problem is not our politics. The government is not our problem right now.

Your marriage is not your biggest problem right now.

Your job, your lack of money is not your problem right now. It's a concern, it's an issue, but that's not really the problem. We keep thinking our problem is, God, you need to give me here, you need to move me here, you need to give me this, you need to do that. We keep thinking it's about where my address is and it's really more about where my attitude is.

And it's really all of those just reveal how you handle those struggles is where is your heart. It's a heart problem. And God will give us these heart attacks to help us realize we have a heart problem. And then are we gonna receive the transplant?

And that's what he's saying here. And you know what? This is the gospel. Here, I wanna turn the rest of the time. I wanna look at a story in the New Testament because it ties directly in. These prophets, they saw dimly. They looked forward in faith just like we look back. We thought that they lived in the meantime of God. No. It's still the same principles. The old testament, they lived by faith. It says that Abraham lived by faith. The it was about faith. Faith. Faith. It's about trusting him, living by faith, having this new heart. What does that mean? How do you get this new heart? How does it even work? I wanna look at a story in John chapter three. There's a famous verse in the middle of this story, John three sixteen. But what's happening in John three?

It's a guy that's like the people in Jerusalem. They thought they knew better. He's Nicodemus. He's a Pharisee. He's a teacher of the law. He's an expert on the test Old Testament, the word of God at the time. He knows it inside out. They would memorize whole books of the bible.

So he is this expert on the law. And and and and so what's happening is his group that saw Jesus as a threat, even though they're supposed to be the most righteous, they followed all the laws, the most religious, the Pharisees were the most religious, studious, knew the bible, and Jesus comes along and they're like, yeah, he's a threat to our power.

And some of us are like that. When you hear God's word, you're like, woah, woah, wait, wait, now God himself is a threat to my happiness. When God says I should live my life this way, I should honor him with my time, my money, my stuff, it's like, no. No. No. No. No. No. I just want him to give me stuff.

I don't wanna actually give anything. And they were kinda seeing Jesus a threat. He would hang out with sinners. You know, he wouldn't mind having a youth ministry that broke couches and stuff like that. And

so they were kinda going after Jesus, but there was something about Dickinson, he was drawn. There's a few stories where he kinda half defends Jesus. He says, well, if he's not from God, why do we have to go after him? He'll just go away eventually like all the other fakes. And if he is truly from God,

we probably shouldn't get in his way. So you know there's these moments that he's he's drawn, so he wants to talk to Jesus but he goes at night, which tells you it's embarrassing. He doesn't want anyone to know. So it says in verse one, there was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee.

After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. Rabbi, he said, we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you. So he's saying, believe there's something go going on here. And Jesus replies, I tell you the truth.

Unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. So this guy knows the old He's religious. He's faithful. He says I know you're from God. He goes, know, unless you're born again, this doesn't mean nothing.

And maybe you're like Nicodemus. You're one of those people that takes everything very literal. If you are, some of my stupid stories confuse you because I is he serious? You know, I tell a dad joke and you're like, is that real? No.

He takes it serious. Look what he says. He goes, what do you mean? Exclaimed Nicodemus. How can an old man get back into his mother's womb and be born again? I think the unabridged Jesus would say, first of all, gross. Second of all, you're overthinking this. And

he says, Jesus replied, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the holy spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don't be surprised when I say you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it wants just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the spirit. So what he's saying is there's this mysterious aspect. It is God's spirit that moves in you.

Every one of us that says I found Jesus, from your perspective, you think you found Jesus. You didn't. Jesus found you. He found you and called you forth by the power of the spirit, and you said yes.

And and that's and he says, and you're never gonna truly understand how that works. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna do the common core math explanation of this is what he's telling me. He says, it's just the holy spirit works how the holy spirit works.

And he says, and and so then Nicodemus says, how are these things possible? And look what Jesus says. Jesus replied, you are a respected Jewish teacher,

and yet you don't understand these things. This is why the old testament actually is saying the same thing as the new testament. They just don't have the whole story. Because he says, you're respected. You know the whole test testament, and you don't get what I'm saying? In other words,

I've already hinted that. The whole old testament already points to this, and you haven't figured that out, and you're the one teaching people the word of God? He goes, I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won't believe our testimony.

But you don't believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ever gone to heaven in return but the son of man. He's talking about himself. The son of man has come down from heaven.

And as Moses lifted up the broke bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

Now we get to the famous part. For this is how God loved the world. He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. This is the part where I said, God wants to save us and rescue us, but if you don't turn to him, you're already destroyed. So don't be shocked by the destruction of the old testament because that's where everyone is heading

if you're not saved. He says, but anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged, meaning you're already dead. God doesn't really kill us. We're never alive without Jesus.

And the judgment is based on on if if you don't believe in his one and only son, there's only one way to God, through Jesus. And the judgment is based on this fact. God's light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it, or for fear of their sins will be exposed.

But those who do what is right come to the light, so that others can see that what they're doing what God wants. Come to the light. That's why we need to confess we're sinners. That's why we need to to repent. That's why we need to turn the light on, bring the brokenness into the open, and let God forgive us and bring us back.

Don't hide it. And so he's telling this guy who's a teacher, he knows the whole testament, he's missing it. You know what's crazy? Is everyone reads John three sixteen and you read that whole passage? The power of that moment is verse fourteen and fifteen

because he points out why he should know this. He says, just as Moses lifted the serpent up on a snake, so must the son of man be lifted up. He's trying to say this is why you should already know this. The gospel was already in the old testament. What he's referring to is a story that happened when the people of God were, you know, left slavery and God's been leading them. They're whining and complaining about everything. You know, should go back. When are we gonna get there? It's the ultimately, when are we gonna get there? We should go back. At least we had onions.

How whiny do have to be that you're complaining that at least you had onions when you were a slave? And and and and and and finally, that god just allows consequence to happen,

and it's gonna bring destruction to those who won't turn, and it's gonna bring discipline to those who will. They end up an area where there's poisonous snakes. The snakes start biting people. They start getting snake bit, and they start dying.

They freak out. What do we do, Moses? What do do? And he goes to the lord, and the lord says, here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna make an image of, the snakes

in bronze. You're gonna put it on this this stick. You're gonna raise it up. It's gonna be hanging up, and you're gonna put up high, which is where they would always put the tabernacle, the traveling temple up in the highest spot of the land. You're gonna put it up there so everyone can see from wherever and it's always in the middle of the camp. So wherever you're at, wherever you're at, if you get bit snake bit, he goes, tell the people to just look at that. Look up to that serpent, and they'll be healed.

Now think about how crazy that sounds. Even though we have more advanced medical science, I'm pretty sure even back then they knew that if I'm bit by a poisonous snake that's gonna kill me, looking up at a bronze snake on a stick probably isn't gonna do anything medically. The whole point was what I need you to do

is trust me. I'm the one that saves you. And what he said to him was like, you should have known this because what I'm telling you is the son of man must have that happen. See, that story in the old testament was a prophetic pre utterance of what Jesus was gonna do. It says Jesus took our sins. It says he became sin.

Basically, he became the thing that was killing us and then hung on a cross up on a tree, raised up. And when they when the Romans would publicly kill you in a brutal way, it was always at a high point because they wanted maximum amount of people to see it. Don't mess with us. So he is saying that story was a

prophetic utterance of how you get this new heart, how you're saved.

There's nothing you can do except for stop looking at the sin. Stop dealing with the snake itself. Stop trying to fight the snake and heal it yourself. The only way you can be saved from being snake bit is to look up at this symbol, this this snake that's on a tree,

which by the way, if you've ever seen the sign, the medical symbol, it's a serpent wrapped around a stick. That's not some evil wizardry sorcerer pit from hell. That's come straight from this old testament passage. That's why they use that as the symbol. Just a little side note. Do that in for free.

So he's basically saying you should know this. You should know this. And you know what? Just like that would seem ridiculous to get saved from from from a snake bite, many of us think, so the way I'm actually made right with god is I just look to Jesus on the cross? Yeah. He's the snake. He took the sin, and you look to him,

and God saves you. And God gives you his spirit, and he gives you a new heart. And then you live from that. You need Jesus because the heart of the problem is a problem in our heart. We need a new heart. And we can only get that from Christ. And what's crazy about this story with Nicodemus is we know what happens later on.

When Jesus actually is crucified, his actual disciples scatter in fear like they're next. And after he dies, two men actually agree to go bury him. Guess who one of them is? Nicodemus. He went at night, Nick at night, and now he goes full on prime time.

He was willing to walk out there in front of all of his groups that said we wanted this guy dead and touch a dead body, which would make him ceremony unclean, and bury him. That was a direct declaration that he figured it out. And you know what I believe really happened that really, really solidified it for him?

Is he had had to be thinking about what Jesus said that night to him. When he said as Moses raised the serpent up and everyone had to look up to that to be saved. So must the son of man. Because for Nicodemus to go get him off the cross, he would have been at the bottom of a hill

looking up and seeing Jesus hanging there dead. And in that moment he had to put two and two together. The Holy Spirit just boom. He's like, woah. That's what he meant. That's what he meant. How about you?

Do you look to Jesus for your salvation in your new heart? And then do you trust his spirit to keep that soft heart pliable and repentful and turn and walk towards life?

Because here's what's crazy. In the book of Ezekiel, 50 times it says in the new living translation, it says, I, the sovereign Lord, That's a phrase for saying, I am the lord god almighty. 50 times, he's basically saying, I'm god in a very exclamation point way. I'm god and you're not.

I am the lord god. There is one God and I am he. In a land filled with territorial gods, he is saying there is no other god but me. And almost as many times, and even the book ends with, and I was there. I am here. He says I am here. I was there. A bunch of times he says, and you will know I was there.

And so he says, I am the lord god almighty. That's a reoccurring theme to this. I am the lord god almighty, and you will know I was there.

Now here's what's crazy. When you hear those words, it could either mean the most comforting thing you've ever heard or the most disturbing, terrifying you've ever heard depending on which side of the fence you're on. You ever thought about that?

You ever thought about which side of the fence? Like, that will determine. When you hear God say, I'm God. I am God of all. I've created all. I know all. I am all. And you need to trust me, and I am here.

How does that make you feel? When I was a kid, about seven years old, we had a burglar break into a couple of our neighbor's houses, and it freaked me out

because I was, like, seven. I was like, burglar's gonna come. And I wouldn't go to bed at night. I wanted to stay with my parents, and they took me a while to figure out, but then my mom finally freaked out because I kept asking questions.

I I was like, well, will a burglar come here? What happens if a burglar comes in? Will will we get burgled? And I'm like, what if the burglar comes and we get burgled? I go, will I get burgled? And my mom first says, burglar's not a word. Stop saying that. I go, but I don't wanna be burgled.

And she realized that's why I was freaking out. She goes, I was so worried about being burgled. I made up a word. I was so worried about it. And she goes, you're not gonna get burgled. And I go, how do you know? Because what if the burglar comes? I go, you don't have to worry about that. Why?

Are you saying you won't come? I go, no. What even if he does come, you don't have to worry. And I go, why? He goes, because your dad's here. That's very wise, mother. And she says, if your dad's here and a burglar came in and tried to burgle you and your dad walks in the room, what do you think is gonna happen?

And I realize that's what he's saying here. When you hear I am God and I am there, depending on where you're at, that's either the most encouraging statement you've ever heard or the most terrifying statement you ever heard. Because if a burglar breaks in and threatens my my me or my mom or my sister and my father is there, great day for me, worst day for the burglar.

Might even be his last day. And if you've been in this church for long, you know my father had the capabilities to to anti burglar. He can unlive somebody if he wanted to. Let's put it that way. He is the father.

He is it's his house. And what do you think he would do if someone came in into his house, disrespected his family, disrespected his place, and disrespected him in that moment? Ain't gonna happen. He's gonna be destroyed. But if you're his family, if you're his child, you are so thankful that he is the dad. He's there.

So I ask you, when you hear these things that says God says, I want you to trust me. I want you to follow me. If Jesus was to be here right now, which, spoiler alert, he actually is, but we don't live that way sometimes. We forget that he actually is here. But if he showed up physically in the bod, like,

beamed down Scotty, walked up to you right now and says, hey, let's go to Rock Point Coffee Company. I wanna buy you a throat punch and have a little talk with you. Imagine that happened right now.

How many of if you really imagine Jesus saying that to you, how many of you are excited about that, but be honest with yourself? How many just got a little nervous? Now you know. If you're honest with yourself, imagine Jesus says, let's talk. And if you're not really excited about it,

you got some stuff to deal with in your heart.

And it doesn't matter how many times you sit in here, you need to deal with it.

Because you know what's crazy? Is that story I told in the beginning? The guy that pastor George said, please God don't kill this man as he looks for another church. There was another meeting later that day. A guy named Homer. Homer Henderson. He's about 70 years old, a retired firefighter

that also wanted to meet to talk about actually, there I was working in the 6th and seventh graders. And he was frustrated with some things. Same thing. Came with some frustrations. And he walked in and he started to say, hey, I'm a little frustrated.

I don't know what to do about it. I don't know. And he just starts talking. And Lynn, my mentor, was in the room and he started to get excited because he was confident what happened earlier in the day. He's like, yeah. And he goes, maybe I'll get to do the don't kill this man prayer and walk him out.

And then after about twenty minutes, pastor George stopped and says, you know what, Homer, you're right. You know what I think you should do? You should volunteer and start working in the the Middles because I think you can help solve this issue. I think you could really do that.

And he said, you know what? You're right. I really would like to do that. Thank you. And he prayed a very different prayer, and he left. Homer ended up being one of my best leaders working with six and seven the sixth and seventh graders and he was 70 years old because he had heart.

Came with this problem. Both problems. So my friend Lynn looked at George and says, what's the deal? I don't get it. We just had these two meetings. One guy, you said, god, don't kill him and walked him out of the church. Next guy comes in with a problem, and you actually invited him to get involved and and change. What do you and and and George looked at Lynn, and I and it taught me the same lesson. He goes, but did you see their heart?

Didn't matter what their issue was. They had two very different hearts. One was a stone heart that didn't really trust or believe. The other one was a wax heart that really did care. You can guide that one. The other one, bye.

Which heart do you have?

Because the heart of the problem is not the problems you see out there. The heart of your problems is a problem in your heart. So let's pray. And here's what I wanna do. If you know the Lord and you know you know Jesus,

I want you to just start talking about the thing that made you nervous if Jesus said, let's go drink a throat punch and have a conversation. Go ahead and start praying.

But there's some of you in this room and some of you online that maybe have been showing up at church, you've come here, you might have been in church a long time, but you have never looked to him on the cross and surrendered your life, confessed your sin, and become born again.

You've never listened to that spirit's call to do that, and I wanna give you a chance to do that right now, to enter into the family of God, to be the son, not a burglar, to be a son, not someone that's coming into God's house, disrespecting God, and you just wanna take something from here,

but to actually be a part of the family. And if that's you, just pray with me, but make it your words between you and God. It's not a magic incantation. Just pray something like this. God, I am sorry. I am sorry that I've tried to do things my own way. I've even tried to come here and and manipulate

and and and get things, but in the end, I really have been about my own idols, and it's sin. And so right now in the best way I know how, I want to confess that. I want to turn from that. I want to look to you on the cross and put my faith in that what you did for me, dying and resurrecting,

your love in that is the only way I can be made right.

So I turn to you as my Lord and my savior. I thank you for forgiving me. I thank you for giving me the Holy Spirit and a new heart. Help me to go forth from this moment and learn how to live from that love with this heart empowered by your spirit. Thank you. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on rockpoint.io for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.