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Well, this morning is going to give us a great opportunity as a church family. Um, all summer long as a church, we we kind of follow a little bit of a philosophy in the way we do things. Believe it or not, we’ve got a plan to the strategy of our ministry. Um, because Utah has so much snow. I keep track of this every year. I’d like to tell people back east, we got our last snowfall at the end of May. I think it was May 20th. Was it 26th? And this past year we got our first snowfall on September. I believe it was the 22nd or 23rd. So. So once the snow comes around, life in Utah to some degree slows down a little bit. And we don’t get a lot of people interaction as much as, say, the summertime. Um, during the summer months, though, people are out and about. You meet a lot of people in the park. And so as a church family, we do a lot of our evangelistic outreach into the community during the summer months. And and in so doing, what we find is by the end of the summer, as it begins to wind down, kids have three more weeks until school starts. Parents celebrate with, no, I’m just kidding. We have three more weeks until school starts. We have a lot of new people that begin to attend our church family, and it’s good for us as we get ready to gear up for into the into the Fall and our ministry start back up during the middle of the week to understand what our church philosophy is all about and how we focus our ministry here at Alpine Bible Church.
And so today, that’s what we’re going to be looking at together as a church family is understanding what God’s plan is for the church and how we work that into our lives here at Alpine Bible Church. So we’re going to go through a couple weeks of a sermon series, and the title of the sermon series is called focus. And it’s us as a church family, just focusing on what God desires for us to accomplish here in Utah. And with Alpine Bible Church, we want to start with some practical understanding or questions that we should ask as believers, regardless of where we are in our lives. And that is how do we win as Christians? I mean, is there a way for us as believers to qualify what a win looks like for us as Christians. I think as you read and study, especially in the Gospels, and you see the life of Christ as he came here to the earth to to establish his church, to die on the cross for our sins and bring people to him in a relationship with him. He was very focused in his agenda, agenda on what he desired to accomplish.
Matter of fact, as he was gathered with his disciples in Matthew chapter 16 and verse eight, he says, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I mean, Jesus had a pretty strategic plan in what he wanted to accomplish here on this earth. And if we as a as a church family miss that, and we just kind of attend church and we we miss our overall perspective and purpose that that God desires in our lives. And so it’s important for us to maintain a focus and be fixed on what Jesus wants to accomplish, not with just the universal church and then also with our local church family. When Jesus made that statement, the gates of hell will not prevail against it. He unleashed a movement that was powerful, one that he intended to be intense and one that by all perspectives he he meant to be unstoppable, which I believe still is. And Jesus made that statement. The gates of hell will not prevail against you. You’ve heard me say before in sermons as a church family, if you’ve been here often, that what what God created in our minds through that statement was, there is this fortress that is hell, and it’s got these gates that stand in front of it, that guard it. And and the church is always on the offensive, and the gates of hell cannot withstand the power that stands behind us as we stand for Jesus.
And we can literally storm down those gates. And Jesus said, his church will be built. We understand in Matthew 16 it was a is a future statement that Jesus made. He will build his church. It wasn’t something that was yet established, but we, as we read in the Bible, we see the coming of the Holy Spirit and which empowered the church to carry out the mission that that God had accomplished for them. How do we qualify the win? What does victory look like for Christians? The second thought I want to accomplish in the sermon today is, how do we begin to take those steps to accomplish that victory as as believers? If I were to just give you a blanket question as a group of believers and ask you what is the purpose of the church in your own mind? You don’t have to say it out loud, but in your own mind, what? What would you qualify as the purpose of the church? What would you say is the purpose of Alpine Bible Church? If I were to give you just a blank sheet of paper and have you begin to write the purpose of the church. Several answers might might come to your mind. Evangelism church is about evangelism reaching the lost. Church is about prayer. We just studied a lesson on prayer. Church is about helping others.
It’s about serving. It’s about singing. It’s about worship. It’s about taking communion. It’s about taking your money, right? It’s about getting really smart. It’s about fellowship. It’s about providing a a hangout spot for us to be cool together. Right? I mean, that’s what the church is all about. But if you were to read the book of acts in chapter two and beginning of verse 41. You see, the church began to gather very early on in verse 41 to 47. It describes the functioning activities in the church. And it says in verse 42, they continued steadfastly in the doctrine and fellowship and the breaking of bread and to prayer. We might qualify those as the purpose of the church. But whatever we define the purpose of the church, we’ll define it in just a moment. We’ve got to agree together that if we have a clear vision and understanding of what God wants us to accomplish, if we are focused on that as a church family, then together we’re going to be more equipped and powerful in reaching that win and accomplishing those steps that God desires for this church. So it’s significant as a family that we all get on the same page, and we’re focused in God’s desire for you and for all of us as we look at this together. One of the things we’ll find out as well is whether or not Alpine Bible Church is for you.
Um, I believe as a church we follow truth. I believe as a church we we fit our culture. We’re relative to the culture in which we lived in. And and we reach out to people, and we’re about discipling people here. I think we’re a very godly church, but I’m just going to and just throw this out on the table. Um. Lots of people come to church with a particular agenda that they desire for their church to do for them. And I’m just going to say, if that’s what you desire for this church, this church probably won’t be the place for you. Um, when people come in and try to force the agenda of what they desire for our church, then, um, I just encourage you to to go look at another church. If you don’t like the way that we are, uh, because we have thought through a lot about how we function here as a church family, we desire to see people grow in a relationship with Jesus, and that is our focus. And so when you come with your church agenda and church culture and you want it to fit in here and you want to try to force that agenda upon us, um, I’m going to paint the walls pink. I’ve told you before that. Right? We’re we’re going to paint the walls pink, and we’re going to make it where you really don’t like it. Okay. Um, because I understand.
And as we look at scriptures together here today, the church has a particular purpose. And that’s what I’m interested in fulfilling. Um, Paul, in Philippians chapter three and verse 13 had a very focused you don’t have to turn there in your Bible, but a very focused agenda. He said in Philippians 313, this one thing I do. Paul is very clear in his understanding of purpose and what he wanted to accomplish, and he simplified it to the book of Philippians. And he says this one thing I do. Hezekiah in the Old Testament, he’s in Second Kings chapter 18, beginning in verse three. It really talks about King Hezekiah. It says there was no king like him that had ever existed. There’s no king that has liked, like Hezekiah, that has existed at this point or will ever exist. Hezekiah was a special king, and this is what Hezekiah did. He desired for his people to follow after God. He had this one thing in his mind. And so King Hezekiah, as he set out to to rule and reign over the people. He began to tear down all the false gods that the nation of Israel worshiped. And so God made that statement about Hezekiah, making him a significant and special in the eyes of the people. It says in Hezekiah or Second Kings 18 and verse three. He did what was right in God’s eyes. Hezekiah was focused on the interests of God.
What is it that God desired for him to accomplish? What is it God desired for the nation of Israel to accomplish? As a church family, this is what I begin to understand as a church or as I’ve grown in my faith with the Lord. The church is. It’s not about a program. The church is. It’s not an institution. It’s it’s not a building. It’s not about a creed. It’s not about a doctrinal statement. The church is alive and growing because the church is made up of people, and we don’t add programs to this church to to make it look like we we have a lot going on. We have this particular focus in which God desires for our church to accomplish. And as we begin to accomplish that focus, that purpose that God has for us, then we begin to add ministries that reach out according to God’s plan. Let me give you a for instance. Humanitarian work is very popular across the world, and even Christians are engaged in different and various humanitarian work throughout the world. Um, here is a church family. I think part of God’s goal for us is to reach out for him. And so humanitarian work is only a means for us to have a platform to preach the gospel. I’m not interested as a church family to be involved in humanitarian work. If it doesn’t name that the meaning that the name of Christ be proclaimed and the glory of God be exalted.
That’s not what we’re about. There’s plenty of groups out there that can carry the the load of humanitarian work. What we are about is, is Jesus. And so the the focus of our church and the programs of our church and the ministry that we run for our church, all is is geared towards Christ. And and something I’ve learned about people and you’ll see in your notes today is that we are a really good visual learners and, you know, believe it or not, this illustration on your on your notes, if you have it with you this morning took a lot of thought and figuring out how we’re going to communicate this to you. And it’s kind of scary for us to communicate in the form of baseball to you today. That’s what that is. If you haven’t figured it out, it’s a baseball diamond. It’s very scary for us to communicate the philosophy of our church through a baseball diamond, because two weeks ago, our church played baseball. And if you ever had a reason to be embarrassed that you attended Alpine Bible Church, all you had to do was go to the baseball field and it becomes a it became a very scary place for us. But the focus of our church, I’m sorry for those who took offense to that is is to what I want to do this morning is create for us a simple process, a simple idea in our minds that we can walk away with and have an understanding.
Okay, this is God’s direction for our church and this is what God desires. So let me get back to the original question. How do we qualify a win as Christians? What does that victory look like? If we were to look at the baseball field, you’ll see that at the very bottom of your page is what we call home plate. Here’s the way you win in baseball. Whatever team gets to home plate the most wins, right? You start at home plate. You run around the bases, and the team that crosses that home plate the most becomes victorious. I mean, there’s all kinds of things that are involved in, in baseball that you want to have good defense, you want to have a good pitcher. But at the end of the game, the way that we decide who won is who crosses home plate the most. And so what does it mean for us as Christians to cross that home plate? I believe Jesus answered that question for us in Matthew chapter 28 and verse 19 and the NIV translation. He simply said this therefore go and make disciples of all nations. So in the blank at the bottom of your page, you see a spot there and the qualifying goal. The way that we qualify a win as Christians, as a church family is are we making disciples? You can put that there.
Make disciples. That is our goal. God’s desire for us is to make disciples. We’ve looked at Matthew 2819 as a church family together just in recent weeks. But Jesus here in Matthew chapter 28 is is about to ascend into heaven. He’s spending his last moments with his disciples. And these are like famous last words. But what is Jesus going to tell us as he gets ready to depart and all the disciples gathered near Christ to listen to what he has to say, and he and he shares with them, go into all the world and make disciples. Baptize in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Jesus promises his church as they’re going to make disciples, that he’s always going to be there. But the focus of the church, the purpose of the church, is to make disciples a disciple. If you need to break it down simply as as a follower, it’s someone who’s committed to follow after Christ. This church, our goal, the way that we decide whether or not we win or not as believers here at Alpine Bible Church is if we’re making genuine followers, followers of Jesus Christ. This just isn’t our goal. This is called in the Bible, the Great Commission.
This is the commissioning of the universal church. God’s goal for his entire church body throughout the entire world is to make disciples. And that doesn’t just rest on the shoulders of a pastor or a youth leader. It rests on the shoulders of everybody. So it’s significant for you to grow in your relationship with God, and you need to grow in your relationship with God, because God’s calling on you as an individual is to go into this world and share Christ with other people, to see disciples or followers come to Jesus. God’s goal of every member within the body of Christ is to make disciples. Jesus clearly articulated the purpose for us, and figuratively he demonstrated to us what home plate should be. Practically, the way that a church chooses to make these disciples really can be up to the body of Christ. I mean, God we’ve looked at, we studied last week. We pray. Prayer is always important. Paul prayed for the lost. Paul prayed for believers to grow. We looked at the significance and the power of God’s Word. If we want to learn about God, the best thing to do is read His Word. Because God’s Word communicates to us his truth and reveals to us who he is, and that is what begins to shape us and mold us. But what we’re after together is making disciples. So the question is if, if, if God’s goal for us is and the winning scenario for us is to make disciples, then what is the process for us as a church family, to run those bases and get the home plate to celebrate together, that we are living in that victory of doing what God has called us to do.
I think Jesus clarified that for us as well. If we look just for a moment, you see, in the very center of your page, there is the place. This is probably new to some of you guys have seen the way we play baseball, but right in the middle of this map, that’s called the pitcher, right? The pitcher’s job is to throw the ball. When I was a young guy and played baseball in my early teenage years and a little bit younger, started with tee ball at particular points, I would oftentimes pitch. And this is what I found out as I, as I would begin to pitch, was I wasn’t very good at pitching. I mean, I struck a lot of people out. We tend to win more games with me pitching than not with me pitching. But here’s what I mean by being a bad pitcher. I didn’t have a whole lot of pitches. I pretty much had one pitch and it wasn’t very fast. So this is what I do. Being a young guy, knowing that pitching was so important, it really dictated a lot of the game. I would make faces at the batters like, I’m going to beat you up kind of faces.
And my goal was to scare the life out of them, because at that age, they’re still kids young enough to where they’re afraid to hit the ball. And so I would like, make them believe that my ball was coming for their head. And coincidentally, that would work and we would win. One pitch, one pitch is all that I had. And we’re going to find out is Jesus really is the pitcher of life? I mean, he dictates the tempo of everything that goes on. And a lot like Jesus. Jesus, though he doesn’t make faces at us, really only has one pitch. He’s got one pitch to the church. He’s got one pitch to this world. And for us to get on his agenda, we’ve got to connect with that ball. And Jesus gave it in Mark chapter 12 and verse 29. It comes in other parts of the Gospels as well, and Luke and Matthew. But in this passage of Scripture, Jesus declares to his people what that pitch is that God is interested in. And mark chapter 12, we have these religious leaders coming to Jesus, both the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The religious leaders of the time are gathered around Christ, and they’re trying to trick him in some questions. And the Sadducees asked a question first about marriage. Um, and try to trick Jesus because they didn’t believe in a resurrection.
And he answered the question so well. So? So the Pharisees began to follow up with a with another question because they said, Jesus answered with incredible wisdom. It’s not known whether or not the Pharisees, in asking this question, were really trying to trick Jesus or not. But they asked him, Jesus, out of all the commandments we can obey and all the rules that are written in the Old Testament. What? What is the most important for us? And to the Jewish mind, this was a a significant question. This question had been debated for years. The Jews went through it at one period in point in history. They went through and read the Ten Commandments and counted every letter that was within the Ten Commandments, and noted that there were 613 letters, individual letters that made up the the Ten Commandments. And so in counting the 613 letters, the Jews then decided to read through the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, and find 613 commandments for the nation of Israel to obey. They were broken into categories. There were the positive commandments, and there were the negative commandments 248 positive commandments, 368 negative commandments of do not do and do do these things. And they would debate back and forth what was the most significant commandment that all of us could could obey? What was the one rule if God really wanted us to do? What rule would that be? And so Jesus gave him an answer.
His answer came from the great Shema, which devout Jews will say to themselves twice a day, early in the morning and late in the evening. It came from Deuteronomy chapter six, and verse four is where it began to start. And he says, Jesus answered, the foremost is hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. So Jesus began to simplify the process for us in understanding what making disciples is all about. Making disciples is all about relationships. See, in the very center of the blank on your page where the pitcher’s mound is, there is a spot to write relationships. You notice just below that there’s a little quote that signifies what Mark chapter 12 is all about. It’s about loving God and loving others. Jesus simplifies for us. We’re we’re to make disciples. And the way that we begin to make those disciples is relationships. And the first relationship he he tries to pitch at us is the relationship with him. Jesus throws one ball to those of you who aren’t baseball players and have one ball just like me.
Jesus throws one ball and it signifies or focuses all about our relationship with him. The nation of Israel to this point understood that the relationship with God is is about obeying rules or or life or religion, or what we’re here for is just about obeying the 613 commandments to please God. And Jesus fires back at them that no, the purpose of of life is about loving God, connecting with him in that relationship. There’s all kinds of questions. We can raise this and we’ll get to some of those in just a moment. But Jesus is interested in your relationship with him as a church family. I hope we begin to capture that picture. We have this this idea in our minds. Jesus is interested in a relationship with you. If you were to read any of our literature that we publish as a as a church to get out in the hands of people, all of it focuses on this first part of the commandment of God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. God is interested in a relationship with you. If you get on our new website, our new websites up, you can think, Russ, we’re working really hard on that this week. You can go check it out. You read the bottom of the page. It’s all focused on a relationship with God because this is where the ballgame starts. Jesus doesn’t force you to love.
You love him. Love can’t be demanded like that. Love gives itself away. It’s about surrendering. And Jesus wants you to love him, and the pitch he threw to you is all about a relationship with him. The Bible tells us in Mark chapter 11 how how animated and interested God became in a relationship with people. He goes in Mark 11. This is just a previous chapter. You can look in your Bibles. In verse 15, Jesus enters Jerusalem, what should be for the last time. And he goes into the temple and it says. On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and he would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, is it not written? My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. But you have made it a den of robbers. What happened in the nation of Israel? God had built this temple, and there was the court for the men, and there was the outer court for the women, and there was the court outside of that. And that was for Gentile people who, who, who hadn’t converted to Judaism yet. But there was a place in the temple for everyone to worship. And what happened in the nation with the nation of Israel, is that they got so lax in their worship to God, and growing in that relationship with God, that they turned the place of the Gentiles and a place for for selling and money changing.
And Jesus goes into this temple, and he begins to rip it to pieces, and he kicks everyone out of the court of the Gentiles. And not only were they kicking out of the court of the Gentiles, but it says in verse 16 that people were cutting through the temple. If you’ve ever seen a picture of of the Temple in Jerusalem, it is enormous. And if you lived on one side of the temple and you needed to get to the other side, what God desired for you to do was walk around. But what’s happening in verse 16 is that people are interrupting the worship of others and cutting through the temple as a shortcut. And Jesus refocuses the nation of Israel here. And he says, listen, everyone out of the temple. Unless you’re here to worship everyone out of this temple. My house is a place for all nations, for everyone to come to me. And so Jesus began to focus the people’s attention as he taught him in verse 17. The Bible goes on to share, and there’s ample verses throughout the Bible that that talk about this. Luke chapter ten. It starts dealing with the parable of the lost sheep. Um, but Jesus throws the first pitch, and here’s that first pitch.
He came to this world for you. God created man in the Garden of Eden and enjoyed a relationship with him. And man sinned, and God gave man a promise in Genesis chapter three and verse 15 that he would come and die for their sins, that their relationship might be reconciled through him. God threw that pitch to you about a relationship with him, and it’s your choice on whether or not you want to connect with that pitch. God said in John 17 three, this is eternal life, that you may know him all of eternity, according to this verse, is about knowing him. Relationship. Hebrews 13 five tells us Jesus is saying to believers, I will never leave you. And he goes on to say, nor forsake you. Matthew 28 and 20 promised the church right after the Great Commission, I am with you always. And Second Peter chapter three and verse nine, it reminds us that not everyone is going to spend eternity with God. But this is what God says. He is not willing that any should perish, but all come to repentance. See, God gives you a choice. Repentance isn’t about feeling bad over sin that you’ve done though. Though sin isn’t good, right? Sin is not a good thing. It’s contrary to the nature of God, contrary to having that relationship with God. But what repentance is, is a 180 degree turn.
It’s saying, this is the sin that I’ve lived in, and now I’m turning to God and my relationship with him. I’m rejecting everything that I stood for, opposed to God. And now I want to be everything that Jesus wants to be in me. Jesus gives you a choice. You know, connecting with God is done experientially. When I was a young guy and I began to grow in Christ, the way that Jesus was taught to me was more like a book than a relationship. So I grew up in a type of thinking that we needed to be all about religion and and study doctrine. And we do need to study doctrine because doctrine dictates our understanding of God. And that creates for us the idea of of who God is and our worship to him. What Jesus, in the end, is really interested in is whether that teaching of him connects with my heart and relationally, I connect with him. The Bible tells us in Romans 829 that God’s desire for you is to conform you into Christ. In Second Corinthians 318 it says, as we gaze upon the face of God, we are changed from glory to glory. So as you’re connected with him in that relationship, God is doing a work in your heart and in your life to conform you to his image. Remember, our goal is to get back to home plate and the way that that looks is if we are a disciple and follower of Christ, and the most significant thing that we can do is to begin to love God.
You know, it’s possible to know about God but not know God. The Bible shares that in a few passages of Scripture of people who know about him, but never connected with him personally. They maybe even understood the Word of God, but never connected with him. It says in Matthew chapter seven and verse 22 and verse 23, um, Jesus is saying to the disciples that many people will go into this world and say that they knew me, but in that day I will say, depart from me, I never knew you. In James chapter two, a lot of people like to use this as we earn our salvation. But in James chapter two, when James was writing, he was writing to a group of believers that thought that everything that we believed, the only thing that matters is if we understood it mentally. Our body and our spirit were separated so we could live in whatever sin we wanted to with our body. But. But as long as we understood God intellectually, that was spiritually connected to him. So it was okay to live in sin as long as you understood truth. And so in James, in the book of James, he said, Faith, remember this passage faith without works is dead. And so what he’s saying to these people, it’s not enough just to mentally know about God, but he’s got to connect with your heart, and it’s going to change your living because God is dwelling within you.
Faith without works is dead. The evidence of whether or not you truly depend on Jesus and have trusted in him, is going to be seen in the way that you live. That’s why he said in previous verses in James, in the book of James, in chapter two, in verse 19, it tells us even the demons believe and tremble. The demons knew God. They knew about him, but they weren’t interested in following after him in a relationship. And so that’s literally how one third of the angels fell. It’s not enough to know about him. You’ve got to be relationally connected to him. Some people continue to strive all around this world. There are religions built on working their way to God. The Bible makes it abundantly clear to us that it’s not us working to God, but it’s God working to us. See, Jesus threw that pitch from the mound to connect with you. We’ve done nothing to connect with him. Bible says in Romans chapter five and verse eight, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for you while you were yet ungodly. Jesus died for you while you did everything opposed to who God is. Jesus connected relationally to you just under at the very bottom of your notes.
You should have under the picture. The very ending of the picture notes ways in which the scriptures declare to us that we don’t work our way to God, but we just simply accept him. And that’s what brings us to first base. The most important relationship on your blank. At first base, you can just put loving God at first base is the hardest base to get to because as Christians, here’s how we do it. Um, or even as unbelievers. This is how we do it. Surrendered to Christ. So there’s something within the idea of man that he desires to work his way to God. But the scriptures declare to us that it is impossible for man to do that. Isaiah 59 and verse two. Your righteous deeds are filthy rags, 64 and verse six, there is a barrier between you and God. Ephesians chapter two and verse one you are dead and your position with God. For us to get to first base. It starts with surrender. God never makes you love him. He simply states that life is all about a relationship with him. Man was given the freewill opportunity to choose whether or not they wanted to accept Christ. You notice in the Scripture all it says is for us as believers is that we are to love God. Love God with everything that you are. It says, love the Lord your God with all, with all that you are, you connect to him and you can’t love with everything you are.
As believers here today, unless you are totally surrendered to what God wants to accomplish in you, unless you’ve surrendered your life to Christ and what Jesus has done for you on the cross, Unless you accept that free gift that God has given to you, you cannot surrender and begin to accept all that Jesus has done. You notice, as we read in this verse that we’re to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. What we see is as we begin to study in Scripture, what heart, soul, and mind and strength are. That every time we talk about man apart from God dealing with your heart or your soul, your strength, man always messes it up. But as you study the Scripture and you see heart, soul, and strength played out in the life of God as someone surrenders that area of their life to God when they give it all to God, Jesus takes that broken heart and heals it, and Jesus takes that soul and he restores it. And Jesus takes that weakness, and that should be strength, and he elevates it. Jesus is the only one that has the power to bring you into a relationship with him. As we’ve looked. Further on, we see that the Bible breaks down this passage into particular categories. Let me just tell you, as we begin to look at these categories together, if you are not in a church that’s interested in learning to love God the way that this passage of Scripture talks about, um, then you’re not in a healthy church.
Now, granted, if we were to live this exactly the way that this verse describes loving the Lord your God with all that we are, we would be in a perfect church. And so we’d probably have to start losing people because, um, not everybody’s perfect, right? Actually nobody’s perfect. It would really be just a church of one. That would be Jesus. But as we begin to study this together, I just want you to know if you’re ever involved in a church that doesn’t meet these these particular categories or doesn’t strive towards these things, you’re not in a healthy church, particularly in America. Let me just say there’s a there’s a movement to go away from the mind. God gave you a mind for a reason, right? And that’s to study his truth. And if you’re involved in a church that’s not interested in studying the truth, but only coming to make you feel the heart part, to only get happy with your relationship with God but never address the sin, never addresses the doctrine, never creates in your mind through Scripture. What God, who God truly is. You are in an unhealthy church and don’t settle for that, okay? It’s as important to connect with God relationally, with all your heart as it is with all of your mind.
And for us to settle for anything less is to settle for less than what God wants in our lives. And so God begins to share. Jesus shares with the disciples he shares with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, that we are to love the Lord your God with all your heart. And we break these down into Scripture. No theologian knows exactly how these break down. A lot of times they interlock with one another. Specifically when we see the heart and the soul or the spirit of the soul. Theological theologians have wrestled for years and and trying to understand how these break apart in the Bible. But when you when you do a word study in just the heart, here’s what you come up with. An understanding that the heart of man really deals with the emotional core of who man is. This is the emotional side of us. It says in Proverbs chapter 27 and verse 11, make my heart glad. Emotionally, from the wellsprings of our heart, sometimes we experience gladness. In Isaiah 15 five, my heart shall cry. Acts 226 therefore did my heart rejoice, and we see the expression of the heart. You guys, we’re all familiar with heart in our culture. If we were to read in the Hebrew text, it would literally say the bowels. And since the bowels are discussing us, we changed it to heart.
But from the the very inner being of a man, we emotionally experience and can connect to God relationally. And that is a great thing. Here’s the danger of it if we’re emotionally connecting to God in our relationship with him, but we don’t have truth. You are a lot of emotion going in a really quick wrong direction. And so it’s important that we don’t just look at one of these aspects, but we examine all of these things and understanding what it means to love the Lord your God. Relationship with God is necessary for the changing of the heart. And it says, but it says in Proverbs chapter 28 and verse 26, he that trusts in his own heart is a fool. See, anytime man gets to deal with his heart apart from God, it deals with foolish things regarding man. Any aspect that we’re going to look at today deals with foolish things regarding man. If it’s apart from God. Jeremiah 17 nine says, the heart is deceitful above all things, meaning this you can’t trust your heart. You’ve got to back it up with God’s truth and understanding of God, who God is. When you understand God and His truth, and you then begin to emotionally connect with that. What happens here on Sunday morning is that we really celebrate what God is doing in our lives. If I were to break down categorically what our church is all about, I would say our Sunday morning service is focused in dealing with first base.
We want to come on Sunday morning. Whether you’re a believer or unbeliever, whatever, we want you to understand what it means to begin to connect with God in a relationship with him, to grow in an understanding of and knowing that God desires to connect with you. And so our Sunday morning deals primarily with growing in that relationship with God. And it goes on in the Bible tells even in other passages that though we recognize when man apart from God can can mess up in the area of his heart and is messed up in the area of his heart. God desires to fix that heart. And it says in Psalm 51 and verse ten, create in me a clean heart. So in order for us to get to first base, it’s not about us hitting a ball and running to first base. It’s about standing at home plate, surrendering to God, and letting him carry us to first base himself. It’s not about us doing the work to create our own clean heart, but God creating a clean heart in us. It works the same way in the soul of man. So we examine the soul of man. This is dealing with the spiritual side of man. Hebrews 1038 says, now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
Saying this, God wants to fix your soul. But if you pull your soul away from God, there’s going to be some some negative things that happen in that relationship with God, some sinful things that happen through through that. And so saying God has no pleasure when God when man pulls his soul away from him. But in Psalm 107 and verse nine, for he satisfies the longing of our soul. Again, God meets that need. It’s kind of like, uh, I was really good at this, too, in baseball. Um, when you make faces at kids, when you’re pitching to them, to make them think that you don’t like them and that you’re going to hit them when you get up to bat, they hit you and you become their target. I remember one time as a kid, I got beamed by one kid four times in a game. He he, uh, he didn’t like me. So for the rest of the year, we weren’t allowed to pitch against each other. Um, but a relationship with God, if I can make a crude illustration to that, as Jesus pitches to you a relationship with him, all you’ve got to do is stand there and surrender and take it. And Jesus is throwing that one pitch down home plate, and you’ve just got to let it come your way. Surrender to what Christ wants to accomplish in your lives.
Surrender to what Jesus has done on the cross for you. And you know what always happened. Every time I got hit with that ball, the umpire immediately just said, take your base. I didn’t have to swing the bat anymore to try to get on. I wasn’t a very good batter, and I had to swing the bat anymore to try to get on base. It was just free. I could just walk right up to it. And Jesus is delivering that pitch to us and he’s saying, here, take it, take it. I’ll cleanse your heart and I’ll cleanse your soul. I just want that relationship with you. I’ve died on the cross for all your sins. Everything that separates you from me. I’ve died for that. And so here it comes. I’m loving you with everything that I have. By coming all the way to the point of the cross. I’m giving you the greatest gift I could ever possibly give you by dying for you. You think the most expensive thing that could ever be purchased in this world. It was you. Because Christ, God came in the flesh and he died for your sins. The God of this world became a man in a sinful world that rejected him to die for you. He threw that pitch right down your plate, and all you’ve got to do is just accept it. And Jesus is going to cleanse your heart.
He’s going to cleanse your soul. The Bible tells us he’s going to cleanse your mind. He’s going to make it pure. It says in Ephesians chapter four and verse 23, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind. God wants to renew that spirit. It tells you in Second Corinthians chapter three and chapter four. But our minds were hardened, and in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers. So there’s people in this world that think that they’re coming up to bat to bat against God, and they’re trying to do all that they can, and they think that they’re doing everything correctly. But it tells us in Corinthians four that Satan has blinded their mind, and they’re absent from the truth that God desires for them to know. But in Ephesians, God renews your mind. The mind is not the ends of the means, but you know, the mind is so important. There’s a lot of people that go around this world, and they’re looking for the spiritual feeling to connect with God, and they’re interested in the heart aspect, but they a lot of times will throw their mind, you know, when I share with people the Bible, when I go up to an unbeliever and I’m just sharing the gospel, I’m talking about the Lord with him. You know, a lot of times what will happen is some sometimes people or excuse me, sometimes people will come to me and say, you know, you’re such a mind person.
You just get get rid of the mind part and just let your spirit worship. But according to what Jesus says in this passage in Mark chapter 12 is that we are to worship God with all, with all of our mind. So the way I begin to worship God with all of my mind is I. As I pick up God’s Word and I begin to examine who God is in light of who I am, and begin to understand the way that God desires man to know him when he when he came to the woman at the well in John chapter four, he said to her, he who worships me must worship me in spirit and in truth. The cool thing about Christians is we get to connect with God spiritually, but we also get to connect with God truthfully. When our midweek services start back up with, one of the first things we’re going to examine are the the major doctrines of the Christian faith. How do we know that the Bible is trustworthy and true? Well, when you see the facts and understanding whether or not the Scripture and the Bible has been preserved and true. It’s so overwhelming. The only choice is whether or not you want to accept it or not. I mean, the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, right? When you study the doctrine of Jesus, whether or not Jesus lived, whether or not Jesus claimed to be God, if people in the early century understood Jesus to be God and worshiped him as such, when you see that evidence, the choice just really comes down to you.
Whether or not you want to choose to worship Him as God. Because it is abundantly clear through history that Jesus is God in the flesh. If you don’t throw away your mind. But the danger for us is not to just become a people of of our head, because God gave us his truth to affect our hearts. Bible College is a lot like that. I went there for four years. You sit underneath this fire hydrant of this huge stream that just shoots you in the face, and you try to absorb as much as possible when God’s truth and you really have no time to connect it with your heart. And so after after you’re out of school, you got to spend some time taking God’s Word and just bringing it into your heart because you’ve got so much that you’ve consumed, you don’t really know what all to do with the information. Some of us are the exact opposite. We’re so interested in connecting God with our heart, but we just throw our mind away. And when it comes to sharing people, sharing with people our faith and making disciples of Jesus, and getting to run across home plate, but bringing other people into that baseball game with us to come across home plate and be disciples.
We we don’t even know where to start to share God’s truth because we haven’t loved God with all our mind. The last thing that God shares to love him with is with all your strength. We accomplish the love of God and the heart and the soul and the mind and the strength by surrendering. You know, I looked at as I as I did a word study on strength throughout the Bible this week. Um, strength isn’t so much about my strength as it is about God’s strength. The Bible says greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. And so if you have Christ in your lives, you are powerful. You are a powerful weapon for what God wants to accomplish in this world. Strength isn’t so much about working. Excuse me. Let me rephrase. The strength is not about working to God. Your strength really is about not is about not working against God. See, when you surrender all your strength to God, you stop working against him and you stop trying to earn favor towards him. When you do a study on the word strength in the Bible, what you find in the lives of other believers is that they have surrendered their strength, and now they’re seeing the strength of God working in them.
Philippians 413 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Romans chapter 12 and verse one reminds you, I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you surrender your bodies as a living sacrifice. Meaning this stop fighting what God wants to accomplish in your world. Stop using your strength to work against him, but just surrender to what he wants for your lives. Listen to this. I love this verse in the Bible. Romans five six for when we were yet without strength. Meaning when we had no power to connect to God in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. When you talk about a relationship with God, what this verse is saying is you bring nothing to the table, no strength is no strength, and you’ve seen it before. You ever try to lift up about 2 or £3000? You feel like a guy with no strength, right? And the Romans five six says this. You have nothing to bring to the table. You have no strength, but in no strength. Jesus provides the opportunity to give that strength through him. Second Corinthians chapter 12 Paul said, his strength is made perfect in my weakness. Loving God with all I have means I’m not pursuing or living in sin. It’s. It’s meaning. I’m surrendering everything to Christ. In the eyes of God, sin is not okay in the eyes of God. The way to destruct, mess up your relationship with him is sin.
But the way to pursue a relationship with him is to love him with all that you have. Our Sunday service. I hope you feel that way when you leave here as a church family is for you to just to connect with God. It’s for you to come and gather together, for all of us to encourage one another, to engage our our whole heart to everything that God is our our soul, to everything that God offers to us, our mind and learning and understanding what God wants for us as a family and for you individually, and just to surrender our strength so that he can work his will within us. Getting to first base I think in in what God desires in our lives is the most difficult because letting go of everything that we want as people is a hard thing to do. But Jesus wants to relationship wants a relationship with you to connect by you, surrendering to him. Does everyone have a clear picture of what we are to accomplish as a church family? God’s desire for us is to be a disciple or follower of him, and God’s desires for us to do that in a relationship to him. In America today, it’s considered the third largest mission field now in the world, meaning everything that we were and found and being founded upon Christ has really since gone away.
And we’ve really become a skeptical people. You know, I found in my relationship with God, and because of the skepticism that most people live under, and being duped in a lot of ways in life is that for us to really communicate to them what God is, is like, and what God is all about is, is seen in the idea of relationships. So the more that you grow in your relationship with Christ, the more you’re going to begin to trust Christ in all areas of your life. It’s a growing process and it works like that for the rest of the world, too. That’s why it’s important for us as a church family to be focused on what God wants to accomplish in us by connecting with him in a relationship. Let’s pray. God, I just want to thank you for our time together. I thank you that you keep building your church family here. God, I thank you that you love us, that God you didn’t leave us in our sin. But Lord, you provided a way of escape through coming to this earth and dying on the cross for our sins. Jesus, I thank you that you cared enough to do that and that God in your love you desire just to grow close to us. And so I pray as a people that we become people of surrender with everything that we are. God, we just desire to grow in that relationship with you. God, thank you for this morning. Bless us throughout this week. May we just continue to shine for you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.