Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] I would like to talk to you about the book of Leviticus, just for a couple more times. We're coming to the end of it. We've talked about the feasts and the festivals, and now we're coming to the end of the Book of Leviticus, and I'm looking forward to. We're going to tackle a New Testament passage coming up here in the near future. But as we bring this book to a close, I'm really compelled by the last few chapters of this book.
[00:00:31] Some of you may have known that I just celebrated my birthday. I won't tell you which one it is, but I loved celebrating my birthday this year because I didn't just get one day. I got a bunch of days. Like, I milked the living daylights out of my birthday this year.
[00:00:47] It was wonderful. I got treated like a king for my birthday this year. My girls all stopped their schedules, and they got on flights, and they flew home. And the ones that are home took time aside, and they spent time with me. We went out to Cooper's Hawk, a wonderful dinner at Cooper's Hawk. I got a wonderful surprise from one of the community groups in this church that showed up all on my front lawn and rang my doorbell and brought me a reel r e e l for fishing. It was beautiful. Everybody bent over backwards. I mean, I had, like. I had a bunch of people. I even got a shirt out of it. Like, somebody showed up at my house and brought me a shirt. It was like. I was like, is this. Am I dying? Like, this is a really good birthday.
[00:01:35] Everyone went over backwards, and I can't tell you how many times people sang to me this year. It was, like, over and over and over again. Everybody was singing to me. It was awesome. I got to milk my. Oh, and I even got a tomahawk steak. You know what a Tomahawk steak is? I got this big old tomahawk steak.
[00:01:54] I got to milk this moment. I got to milk it for an entire week. But once that moment is over, I know life goes back to normal. Nobody's gonna sing to me anymore. Nobody's gonna show up at my front doorstep with surprise things in their hands, gifts. There's no cake. There's no more candles. No one's gonna sing to me.
[00:02:15] And when I get home, there's not gonna be any surprises on the kitchen table. It was great while it lasted, but then afterwards, it's like, ah, back to life as usual.
[00:02:26] How would you like every day to be, like, your birthday? Would that be really cool?
[00:02:31] How would you like for it to last more than a week, how would you like for it to just last all the time? Do you think you get bored of it?
[00:02:38] Filled with surprises, filled with new songs? Not just happy birthday, but new songs, songs that you've never heard before. Like people making up words to songs. It's an opportunity to spend time with all those people that mean something to you, that are part of your family, but it's part of your extended family, the people that you love, your friends and your family, and they all make time out of their day to kind of want to be with you. And you get gifts. I mean, how would you like every day to be like your birthday?
[00:03:10] Have you ever thought that Sunday is kind of like that for Jesus Christ?
[00:03:17] Think about it. Every Sunday, we come in here and we sing songs. Not to one another. We're singing songs to Jesus, to the Lord, and we don't sing just the same song every time. Not happy birthday. That would get kind of boring. So we make up new songs, and we get new people, and we do new tunes. We set aside a day, so we all take our schedules and we block them off so that we can set this day aside to worship the Lord. We gather with those that love Jesus. I mean, it's like family and friends, people that are committed to Jesus Christ, and they come together all over the world to worship the Lord. We give gifts to him.
[00:03:58] There's all kinds of gifts. Food on that counter right over there. And we share them with one another, and we all celebrate. Like when I have a birthday cake, I don't get every piece. Everybody takes a piece of the cake. We share it. And that's exactly what we do on Sundays. And we use our gifts to bless one another. I was here this morning with a setup crew, and I'm amazed. They come in every Sunday morning starting at 07:00 a.m. and they put this all together. They use their gifts to bless the Lord, and we are recipients of that because we're invited to the party. As I started thinking about my birthday this week, I started thinking about, that's a lot like Sunday. That's a lot like what we do every single week on a regular basis.
[00:04:46] These feasts that we talked about, there's only. Do you remember how many feasts there are in the run of a year? Anybody remember seven feasts? There are seven feasts. There's great food at every feast. There are songs that are written just for those feasts, songs for the feast of weeks, songs for the feast of Passover, songs for the feast of Yom Kippur. There's songs for all of these different feasts, songs to the lord. The family is invited. They do tons of things together. They play games together. They do celebration together, worship the Lord together. They set time aside from their normal life to get together.
[00:05:25] They even for the festival of tabernacles that we talked about, the feast of tabernacles. They even give up living in their own homes so that they can sleep in tents in the backyard. I mean, it's a festival. It's a feast, but it's only seven times a year.
[00:05:44] The danger is, after these monumental events in the Hebrews lives, they'll be on this climactic mountain monstrosity moment.
[00:05:56] And then they come down from the mountain back to life as usual.
[00:06:01] And they forget about God, and they forget about how important he is, and they forget to put him first and foremost. And God does not want that to happen.
[00:06:10] There's something valuable in gathering to praise God together. There's something valuable spending time apart from daily life to honor God together.
[00:06:21] There's something valuable in doing this as friends and family of God.
[00:06:27] So Leviticus finishes the last two chapters with nine very interesting verses.
[00:06:37] So I'm going to read these to you. We're going to play a little game, and I'm going to ask you to find a key word in the first nine verses. You see if you can find the key word. All right, I've given you a hint with the long introduction. Now let's see if you can find the word. Leviticus 24 one.
[00:06:54] The Lord spoke to Moses saying, command the people of Israel to bring pure oil from beaten olives for the lamps, that a light may be kept burning regularly outside the veil of the testimony. In the tent of the meeting. Aaron shall arrange it from evening to morning before the Lord regularly. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. He shall arrange the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold before the Lord regularly. Now, did you catch the word? What's the word? I know I cheated a little bit for you. Did you see? I highlighted it for you. I would be a great teacher in school, wouldn't I? Yeah. Let me give you the answer, all right? I.
[00:07:37] This word regularly is a Hebrew. It's.
[00:07:40] And what it means is to do something without interruption, to continually do something without stopping, without interruption.
[00:07:51] This is the same word the psalmist uses in Psalm 34 one where he says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall regularly. The word is continually be in my mouth. This is a huge switch from feasts where lots of animals are killed. Big party time. This is a little switch from that to an everyday kind of. Here's what you should do on a regular basis.
[00:08:24] Godly habits, godly rituals are meant to be regular. Not just going to the tabernacle, not just leaving your tent and going to the tabernacle. God is saying, these kinds of rituals, these kind of righteous actions, these kind of attitudes that you have during the feast should be on a regular basis. And here's how you do it. Keep the lamp burning. There's a couple other things that are going to come up, but all of these things are meant to be done so that these guys would understand. Faith is meant to penetrate their daily lives.
[00:08:56] Spirituality is not in the big moments.
[00:08:59] Spirituality is in the everyday moments.
[00:09:04] Even in the beaten olives. I don't know if you remember reading that, but the beaten olives, you could read over that and think to yourself, beat a couple of olives. No, no, no. The oil that you usually get for your lamp is boiled from olives. It's the easiest way to do it. The harder thing to do is to beat the olives so that you have pure oil, not watered down.
[00:09:31] And so the Hebrews are instructed to keep the lamp burning. Take every measure that you can. Don't boil the olive oil and get it out of that watered down olive oil. Make sure you use the best olive oil so that that lamp burns regularly.
[00:09:49] It's to be a regular visual.
[00:09:54] A visual, visual, visual. What do you call it? A visual?
[00:09:57] Yeah. Reminder to them that God is in their midst and their spirituality is meant to be. Every day, their lives were starting to be rearranged to focus, keeping on God at the center of every personal agenda. So here it is, regular in the New Testament, taken from the Old Testament, regular in the New Testament is the word walk.
[00:10:19] It's how we walk.
[00:10:22] In John 812, it says, I am the light of the world. Jesus is saying, whoever follows me will not. What?
[00:10:30] Walk in darkness. In other words, their lives will not regularly be impacted by the darkness around them. They will not walk in the darkness, but they will have the light of life.
[00:10:42] In the New Testament, this word regular, how spirituality is meant to impact our lives, is meant to be regular on a regular basis. And so walk is used all over the place. Listen to these. See if these sound familiar. Walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
[00:10:57] Watch how you walk in the world. The Bible says. The Bible says that we should walk in love, we should walk in faith and in Ephesians. Five, eight. It says that we should walk as children of light.
[00:11:11] And this one, in Ephesians four one, we are told to. In fact, the writer says, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called walk in the New Testament. And for us is the idea of being regular in our spirituality.
[00:11:30] Think of how you are going to get out of this room.
[00:11:34] You are going to have to do something to get out of this room. You are going to have to get off of your chair and you are going to have to what?
[00:11:42] Walk or run, depending on how the message goes. But you are going to have to walk. Walk out of this room. You have to put 1ft in front of the other and you have to walk. You have to make a decision where that foot goes, where the next foot goes, until you get to your car. And then you'll drive and then you'll walk. After that, we walk. It leads us. It's an every. It's a regular kind of movement that we have as children of light.
[00:12:08] Our faith is not just walking with Jesus on Sundays or holidays. Our faith penetrates our entire lives. It guides where we put the next step in our life. It guarantees that our sins have been forgiven.
[00:12:25] How we walk.
[00:12:27] Listen to this verse in one john one seven. Again, we have it. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship. With who, church? We have fellowship where?
[00:12:39] That's us. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. That's each other. And number two, the blood of Jesus Christ. What does it do?
[00:12:53] Cleanses us from all sins. Listen, church, if you walk in the light regularly, you have two promises. You will be able to fellowship with one another and you will have certainty that your sins have been forgiven. How would you like to put your head on your pillow tonight, knowing that every sin, past, present and future, will never be held against you?
[00:13:20] If you die in your sleep tonight and you appear before God and you walk in front of him and you go, oh, I didn't know I was going to see you. I still have that sin in my life. I should have confessed it before I got here. His response to you would be, I have no idea what you're talking about.
[00:13:37] Because when God forgives our sins, they are gone.
[00:13:41] They are in the deepest sea. The psalmist says, they are cast as far as the east is from the west. What happens when you walk north? Do you eventually start walking south? Yeah. If you walk north far enough, you will eventually start going south. Right. What happens if you walk east? Will you eventually start going west?
[00:13:59] No, he doesn't cast our sins as far as the north is from the south church. He casts them as far as the east is from the west. That means they can never be found again.
[00:14:08] If we walk regularly in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship, one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
[00:14:22] Regular faith in Christ will naturally drive us to regular worship of Christ.
[00:14:30] Listen to this verse. He goes on to talk about it in verse five, Leviticus 24. You shall take fine flour and bake twelve loaves from it. Two tenths of an ephesus shall be from each loaf, in each loaf. And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile on the pile of pure gold before the Lord. And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion, as a food offering to the Lord. Again, you could skip over this and just kind of go boring Leviticus. But let's look at what's being said here, because what's being said here is you need to take these loaves.
[00:15:06] You need to take twelve loaves, six up and six below. That represents the twelve tribes of Israel. Why? Because God is in their presence day and night.
[00:15:16] You need to put them up there, and every seven days you need to replace them. Why? What happens to bread after seven days?
[00:15:23] Yeah, it goes bad. So he replaces them.
[00:15:27] Arrange the bread rows for the tribes, light the oil, make sure it never goes out. Make sure the bread is fresh. Use frankincense. Why frankincense? Because it is an appeal scent. It is one of the most expensive oils that you can buy for your little dippy oil thing that you smell in. What are those called? Essential oils? Yes. Check it out.
[00:15:50] Those invited to the party each week were invited to this party because they were to bring things with them. Where do you think the bread came from? It just appeared. Who cooked the bread? I don't know, but somebody did.
[00:16:05] Who beat the. Who beat the olive oils, the olives down? I don't know, but somebody did. And it wasn't the priests. It was somebody in the camp. Like Martha in camp in 10th. 132. Martha, it's your turn to bring in the bread. And Johnny, it's your turn to your 10th. 29. Go stamp out the oil. You guys gotta do your jobs. And then you bring them in and you share them with. Can you see this as like a birthday party?
[00:16:31] And you bring them in. Somebody had to find the frankincense somebody. And then the priests laid it out. Everybody had a job to do to make sure that spirituality was being done, not just on the big occasions, not just Christmas and not just Easter.
[00:16:47] But they did this so that they could remember Christ was in their presence always, seven days a week.
[00:16:56] And this was in addition to their regular sacrifices. Sin offerings, burnt offerings, incense offerings. They were doing all of these things in addition to that. But this was the regular part of their spirituality.
[00:17:09] Verse eight. Every Sabbath day, Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly. It is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever.
[00:17:19] Everybody participated. Everybody had a job to do. This was regular worship.
[00:17:27] We have ways intended to build righteousness into our lives.
[00:17:31] And so my spirituality isn't just meant to be on Sunday, and it's not just meant to be on Christmas and easter. My spirituality is meant to impact my life on a regular basis. I am supposed to inject effort into it by walking.
[00:17:47] And God would do his effort, and he would inject his part into it by making sure I know that I'm forgiven. I know that my life is right with him. It's a weekly, daily, and hourly practice of walking with Jesus.
[00:18:03] If I say that I'm a person of faith, my faith must permeate every part of my life. After we read about the fruit of the spirit, you know, the fruit of the spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, gentleness, self control. These are the fruit of the spirit. After you read about that, you come to Galatians 525, and here's what it says. If we live by the spirit, let us also. What does it say? Church?
[00:18:28] Keep in step with the spirit. You get the idea of walking. I use the illustration of a three legged race. Do you know what a three legged race is? Three legged races are very difficult because you have literally four legs, but you tie two of them together, so it ends up being three legs. And whoever the person you're tied to, if they're not in step with you or you're not in step with them, you're going to end up on your nose. So you have to. And not only that, but you're in competition to beat the person next to you. So you want to walk fast, you want to walk in sync, you want to make sure. So you do it for me. When I do it, I'm kind of competitive. I go, 121212. And so there's the step, 121212, and you talk all the way down, and you get there as fast as you can.
[00:19:15] In step means every step we take in life, we are tied to the Holy Spirit, who gives us the confidence and the ability and the wisdom to know what God's will is for our lives.
[00:19:31] How would you like to know what God's will is for your life today?
[00:19:34] How would you like, beyond any shadow of a doubt, to know what it is tomorrow? How about the next day? How would you like for it to be written down when you go home tonight so that you don't make any mistakes?
[00:19:45] You have that ability, the Holy Spirit, if you tie yourself to him so that you do a three legged race with him. The Bible promises us, if we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. It's like a three legged race. And it's not just a reference to coming to church on Sunday.
[00:20:04] This is a reference to every step we take.
[00:20:07] We walk with the power and the promise of the Holy Spirit leading us by the word. The word Christian comes from this idea. Do you know what Christian means?
[00:20:20] It means little Christ.
[00:20:23] Christian was not always a word. It became a word first in the city of Antioch, where the people of God started living for the Lord in ways that couldn't be ignored by the people around them. And they looked at them and they said, hey, your spirituality is not just on Sundays. It's not just on the holidays. It's not just during the feast. You, like, look like Jesus every day.
[00:20:47] And so they coined it. It's a nickname. It's not even a word, really. It was made into a word because what it means is, you remind me of Jesus.
[00:20:59] Christian is little Christ.
[00:21:02] We call it a Christ follower.
[00:21:05] There was a great revival in Antioch. Many people started acting and living like Jesus, and their faith became their own identity.
[00:21:15] Then we have an illustration. What do we do when it comes to the hard parts?
[00:21:21] In Leviticus 24 ten, there's a very difficult situation.
[00:21:26] I'll read it for you. It starts at verse ten. Now, an israelite woman's son, whose father was an egyptian, went out among the people of Israel. And the israelite woman's son and the man of Israel and a man of Israel fought in the camp. And the israelite woman's son blasphemed the name and cursed. So they brought him to Moses.
[00:21:46] This is a young man. We don't know how old he is, but he is half jewish and half egyptian, probably.
[00:21:55] In Egypt, an egyptian person, man and an israelite woman, started a relationship, and they had a child, and this was the child when the Exodus happened and they went to the wilderness and they go to Sinai. We know there are Egyptians there, and we know there are Israelites there. But what we haven't found out till now is that there's even children who are half egyptian and half israelite.
[00:22:27] This kid did not like being an Israelite.
[00:22:32] He liked being an Egyptian. So he gets into a fight with a full blooded Israelite. Kidde, however old they were, I don't know. They get into a fight. As they're fighting, the half egyptian, half israelite kid starts blaspheming, not the kid, not the other kid, not the Israelite, but the Israelites. God.
[00:22:56] And starts blaspheming the name of God. This is a break of the Ten Commandments, verse twelve. And they put him in custody until the will of the Lord should be clear. To them, this was an everyday problem that they didn't know how to handle. It happened every day as they were walking with God. Oh, we've hit a problem.
[00:23:18] What will we do? And their first response was, they need to go to the Lord.
[00:23:24] God's solution, however, was to stone the kid for blasphemy.
[00:23:30] It's a rough situation.
[00:23:33] This became a law for the Israelites. Those fully Hebrews, those half Hebrews, and even those visiting among the people were not allowed to blaspheme the name of God.
[00:23:46] It became a major test for them. Would they regularly apply God's laws and his value to their everyday lives? Or would they lean on their own reason?
[00:23:56] Would they judge every situation, including this one, according to their own ideas? Or would they walk with God and seek his wisdom, even in the difficult situations?
[00:24:11] Verse ten, we have this. Or verse 19, we go down and have a familiar verse that comes up here. God continues to deal with this situation and gives some laws here. And he says, if anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done, it shall be done to him.
[00:24:26] Fracture for fracture, eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. Does that sound familiar?
[00:24:31] Whatever injury he has given a person, it shall be given to him. God is inserting himself even in their legal system, so that whenever they hit a problem in their daily walk with God, they could consult him, and he would give them an answer. They didn't have to rely on their own reason. Even in those situations, they had to rely on him. Their spirituality, their faith impacted every part of their lives. His values were their values. His rules were their rules. His mission was their mission. God's heart was their heart. And Jesus picks up this same theme when he comes as God incarnate.
[00:25:13] He picks up the same theme, and he teaches that God's DNA is meant to be injected into every situation that we find ourselves in. You don't know how to handle a situation. Seek God's heart. You don't know what the truth is. In a situation, seek God's heart. Jesus comes to us, and he says, using the same passage, here's how you deal with everyday life. Matthew 538. You've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Sound familiar?
[00:25:47] You've heard this before. You know the story from Leviticus 24. You know this. And then Jesus says, but I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil.
[00:26:00] But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. I can't imagine how this must have been to hear this, because I have to tell you, I have to pay taxes every year, and it ticks me off every year. I don't get. I don't get a say in how much I pay the government. They just say what they want. And if I don't give it to them, they're kind of like the mob. That way.
[00:26:28] Sometimes I don't get treated fair. There's all kinds of situations in my life that happens, and I'm going, that's not fair. That's not fair. That's not fair. How do I deal with those situations?
[00:26:42] Jesus comes to us and he says, your faith should direct every situation that you are in.
[00:26:51] These people were under the rule of Rome. Rome was a terrible taskmaster. Rome was not a nice nation.
[00:26:59] Rome taxed these guys beyond belief. And if they couldn't pay, they took everything from them.
[00:27:06] They weren't getting justice in any way.
[00:27:09] They were frustrated. They were angry. They were being abused by those in charge.
[00:27:15] So Jesus shows up, and he reminds them, listen, people, you are supposed to walk by faith in every situation, even when you are treated unfairly.
[00:27:31] This is where this passage gets very difficult. It's where it got difficult for the people in Leviticus, and it's where it gets difficult for us today.
[00:27:41] Because we want justice. We want to be treated correctly. We don't want to be abused by people around us that take advantage of us. But our faith overcomes our right to be right.
[00:27:57] This is why we do good to those who despitefully use us.
[00:28:02] This is why we pray for those who persecute us.
[00:28:05] This is why we love our.
[00:28:08] What church?
[00:28:10] This is why we love our enemies.
[00:28:13] Because my faith and my walk with Jesus is bigger than anything else. And it, it doesn't just happen seven times a year. It happens every single day.
[00:28:28] Even my right to justice. Verse 41. Jesus uses this illustration. If anyone forces you to go 1 mile, you go with him 2 miles. Give to the one who begs from you. Don't refuse the one who wants to borrow from you. Let me tell you what that means.
[00:28:43] There was a law in the roman books that if a military roman soldier saw a jewish person or anyone in roman territory on his way home from the battlefield, he could require that citizen of Rome who didn't want to be a citizen of Rome, by the way, but because Rome owned them, he could require them to carry his bags for 1 mile.
[00:29:07] But only one.
[00:29:09] Then that person could say, that's a mile. Drop it off. Go. I don't like you Romans anyway. Here, take your stuff and walk away. Jesus says, if anyone takes advantage of you and forces you to walk 1 mile, you go with them. How many miles, church? How many miles is that to walk back? By the way, that's 4 miles. Two and two regular means denying myself for the sake of my faith. Jesus. Mark 834. Jesus said it this way. The crowd called to him with his disciples, and he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him first. What does it say, church?
[00:29:51] That is the hardest thing in the world to do.
[00:29:54] Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever will save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel will save it. We can fight for justice, we can pray for justice, but we can know that we will never fully get justice. But let me give you this one promise. There is a day when justice will come. God will bring justice once and for all.
[00:30:24] And nothing will knock me off of my daily walk with Jesus, because that is a regular part of my life. Church. The point is this. Faith in God is all consuming, covers every part of life.
[00:30:39] We seek clarity in the gray areas, but we walk in obedience, despite how difficult it is. This is the whole purpose of the Holy Spirit who lives within us. If we know Christ is our savior. The good news is we have the ability to do this in ourselves. It's hard, but we have the power of the Holy Spirit who comforts us, leads us, guides us, walks, even leads the way we walk.
[00:31:09] And we can trust him to do what's best.
[00:31:13] In fact, Philippians 413 says this, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
[00:31:24] So what? Number one, my faith in God is all consuming.
[00:31:28] My default is always my faith.
[00:31:32] How I treat others, how I view justice, how I offer forgiveness, how I choose a job, how I choose a life partner, how I plan for my children's future. Everything is surrounded, everything is impacted by my faith in God because he directs a the way I walk.
[00:31:53] My love for Jesus and my faith leads me in everything else. In fact, Jesus said the same thing in Matthew 1037. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Ouch.
[00:32:07] And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Ouch. Double ouch.
[00:32:15] And whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Goes to the death for your faith. Ouch.
[00:32:23] Because whoever finds his life will lose it again. And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Listen, Jesus doesn't need more fans. He needs followers, people who put him first in every situation. It doesn't mean you need to hate your family, for goodness sakes. But what it means is, compared to how you trust and I walk with Jesus, your love for him overshadows every other love in your life, every other desire.
[00:32:55] Number two, consistency is what I'm striving for.
[00:33:00] Remember, seven feasts, great food, special songs, lots of family, tons of time together, even seven days in a tent in your backyard.
[00:33:12] But the danger is, after these monumental events, life goes on as normal.
[00:33:19] My faith is the constant in my life. James calls it perseverance or steadfastness. James? One, two. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds in your walking, for you know that in the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Full effect means a faith that is steadfast looks a whole lot different than a faith that has only lived on Sunday or the special occasions out of the year.
[00:33:58] Faith that perseveres through life, through everyday life, is a faith that gives God gifts regularly. It's a faith that sings songs to God regularly. It's a faith that serves God's family and sets time apart for him in the run of a day, regularly.
[00:34:19] It means setting my schedule aside so that I can put him first regularly. This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It is all consuming.
[00:34:30] I read a story this past week about a house in Nantucket that a guy bought for $2 million, and he just sold it this past week. He built it for 2 million in the late eighties, and he just sold it this past week for $200,000. You want to know why? He built it too close to the ocean, and the ocean has eroded the foundation because it was built on sand.
[00:35:05] You ever wonder how many people's lives are built the same way?
[00:35:10] How would you like for your life to be built so that it withstands life 40 years into the future, even into eternity?
[00:35:21] What would life look like for us if we stopped looking to the sand filled advice of friends or facebook and first looked for the truth of God found in his word? James one four let me remind you, let steadfastness of your faith have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. You want a firm foundation. You want to build a house that lasts.
[00:35:48] Build it on faith in Jesus Christ, and your steps will be guided by him.
[00:35:58] So my question to you is, are you regular?
[00:36:02] Is your faith regular? Or is it just in the crazy moments, or the scary moments, or Sunday moments, or Christmas and Easter moments? Does faith permeate every part of your life?
[00:36:20] Or is it only there when you need it?
[00:36:24] Because a faith that is not foundational, not built on a rock, is built on sand, and it is a faith that will let you down.
[00:36:35] I'm praying that our church has a faith that makes sense, not just to the world around us. It never will. But it makes sense because it is built on a firm foundation of Jesus Christ.
[00:36:49] We finish every Sunday by going to communion.
