Is Your Belief Believable?
Lessons in Spiritual Growth From Zechariah
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good morning and Welcome to our 11 A.M service did I give anybody no my name is Gene if you're new here I serve here at C3 Church as your pastor now I heard that it has been said of getting married that it's kind of like boarding an airplane destined for Florida but when the plane lands and you arrive you get off the plane you notice that you've landed in the Swiss Alps you get involved initially thinking it's going to be all sunshine and rainbows only to find out it can be kind of cold now if you don't get cold feet and get back on the plane if you stick with it you may notice that skiing can be just as fun as surfing no sharks so today we'll be talking about relationship and that was my best attempt at breaking the ice for you I can ask my wife I could do this all day long I'm sorry I don't think you can who do I practice on uh all right so let's recap we find ourselves in the rest of the story where prophets continue to weave their way through the account if you're new here you may not have heard this you may not know this the Bible is not in chronological order you have to take profits and put them in the history sections we've arrived in Ezra and that's a historical book of the Bible and we see that haggai and Zechariah are mentioned by name there so we know that you can take those books and put them right there just like that with that noise and everything they are encouraging the people to rebuild the Temple that's where we started so let's just go back look at that again Ezra 5-1 at that time the prophet's haggai and Zechariah son of Ido prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem they prophesied in the name of the god of Israel who is over them it's a rubber Bell son of Shield teal and Joshua son of jehoshadak responded by starting again to rebuild the Temple of God in Jerusalem and the prophets of God were with them and helped them so you're going to kind of see this inward outward theme going on and if you read larger sections of the text you'll kind of notice this with the governors and the priests the prophets there's like this both sides of the coin theme that's what we're going to do today so there's a practical way of doing things and there's a spiritual way of doing things and we see that if you look at Ezra and Nehemiah right so this comes up now Zechariah again like haggai he's encouraging the people yes part of it is the temple it's kind of like a continuation there but he's really rekindling the spiritual stuff that's that's what he's talking more about so we're going to see more about jeshua the priest at this time the idea here right from the get-go is where to have a personal relationship with Jesus that then motivates us to the Practical stuff to doing the Deeds but if we're doing all these Works without Jesus it's just a show so we have to have the Purity the hearts that are cleansed to really be doing things the right way now haggai focused on the rebuilding of the temple Zechariah more relationships so there's encouragement to zorubbabel the the governor last week now Yeshua he is the priest so it's going to be more about him not that there's nothing on zerubbabel here practical and now spiritual last week we talked about serving the unshakable kingdom this week we're going to focus on serving the unshakable king so let's just take a look I think I showed this to you last week Zechariah 1 1 we start right at the top in November of the second year of King darius's Reign the lord gave this message to the prophet Zechariah son of barakaya and the grandson of Ido I the Lord was very angry with your ancestors therefore say to the people this is what the lord of Heaven's Army says return to me and I will return to you says the Lord of Heaven's Army so indeed we saw that they returned to the work this theme will carry on now return to me physically come to church then return to me spiritually so that's why there's a little bit of doing ahead of the spiritual part but we're going to straighten that order out today again Bible's not in chronological order so I make charts for you and not the cartoon of me I cannot draw like that but the layout here yes right it would have bigger biceps that's the joke so so I'm showing you about ish where it weaves through where these prophets would be so Zechariah you start out with uh eight Visions you start with these Visions here then you move back into Ezra they get like a formal permission to start rebuilding the temple then back to Zechariah Messianic prophecies I'll talk about what that means in a little bit it's really kind of more starting at nine but I'll show you a few things here and then finally if we go back to the history of this whole thing we see that the temple is finally finished it's done by my count it looks like 22 years that's me so it's around 20 years it takes to do this answer the phone it's okay just don't talk over my sermon not too easily distracted all right so let's overview what I want to do is overview Zechariah for you and then I want to point out a few things hear me I'm not saying that it's not all important it's all very important I'm not saying you shouldn't read it you should so I'm going to encourage you to go read it actually it sounds like a lot but you can do it all in one sitting because the chapters tend to be fairly short so it's a 14 chapter book but it's not a long book of the Bible really so I'll overview this and I'm going to give you the meanings so some people like to take notes and things like that so all these Visions they have a symbolism a meaning it means something so I'm just going to give you all of their meanings kind of go rapid fire here pretty quick so you'll notice first the man and the horses among the Myrtle trees this is all about God showing Mercy again to Jerusalem that's what that's about the four horns and four Craftsmen so if you remember if you've been here for a while we saw lots of different Visions like especially in Daniel with these horns these beasts with the horns and the horns would represent Kings or kingdoms and things like that so now these are the four horns they're the horns that uh the Nations that gave Israel and Judah trouble but now these blacksmiths are going to hammer them out that's like the idea here so that's what that resembles the man and the measuring line key verse in that chapter is that God will be a protective wall of fire around you uh cleansing of Jesuits garments this is an interesting one uh it's one you want to read really carefully uh theme God's Redemptive work for his people that's the big thing but there's some cool stuff in there and if you know about some of the other prophets you can kind of put it together so it says specifically that jeshua is a symbol of this future Branch they call it so really you got to pay close attention when you're reading that because it'll tie back in later I'll show you where then you see a Golden Lamb stand and the olive trees and you see like these all these Wicks the seven Wicks it kind of sounds just like Revelation and the seven churches so you see a similarity there when you're reading that the point here is that God will Empower his people through the Holy Spirit there's a flying scroll that's weird it's about the curse that comes with dishonesty essentially the woman in the basket weird too it represents sin the woman represents sin and it goes back back to Babylon and so where it'll be like set up on an altar worshiped right so the cleansing removal of the sin the four chariots they're Heavenly beings that will execute judgment on the earth so we get through all these different visions that he's seeing here now this is where I kind of start the Messianic prophecies most people start them around chapter nine but I'll show you why if you don't know what that means the Messiah is the anointed one in this context the Christ kind of same type of word and it's the Christ that's going to come it's a manual the promised God with us so we can look at this text um like you know hindsight's 2020. we can look at this text knowing who the Messiah is but you would have to understand there's a little bit of difficulty if you had no idea uh so the original readers are not seeing it the same way we would but I'm going to show you if we look at it in specific texts and languages it becomes really clear it's it's pretty amazing so the early church they could see it a lot better than the Jewish people could see it and I'll explain to you why so these are all things pointing to Jesus that's it everything here is just pointing to Jesus and so we have the symbolic crowning of jeshua and so this is a pre-figure of Jesus as both the high priest and the king so they come together that's usually not the case so it's usually like a high priest at the time and then you have a governor right so it's a robot Bill and Joshua or a king so now I'm a king right now because they're you know they've got taken over right so Cyrus is just letting him do this these things Darius is just letting him do these things but in the past you'd always have a king and then you'd have a priest now both and so it's kind of weird that Yeshua would be elevated to this position so if we look at all these together so I'm going to show you how these things are fulfilled in the New Testament so you're going to see them all at once now they're not worded exactly the same and that's not the point because sometimes it's just a reference there's something else that happens here a lot of times an author will a tribute a saying to one Prophet but it's in two different prophets so he might just list the major prophet like they have major and minor prophets like for example in the beginning of Mark he's doing Isaiah and Malachi so Isaiah 43 Malachi 3 1 they're kind of a mashup of the two things but Mark does says as it says in Isaiah and he leaves out Malachi so just if you see the wording a little different or it says a different prophet's name there's no problem with that the idea was not to get this exact so if we put him up Zechariah 6 13 yes he will build the Temple of the Lord then you will receive Royal honor and will rule as king from his throne he will also serve as a priest from his throne and there will be perfect harmony between his two roles as his prophecy talking about Yeshua but if you look at Hebrews so then since we have a great high priest who has entered Heaven Jesus the son of God let us hold firmly to what we believe Revelation there's some context there I threw that in there together the Beast and the Ten Kings they will go to war against the lamb that is Jesus but the lamb will defeat them because he is Lord of all Lords and king of all Kings both and his called and chosen and faithful ones will be with him both high priest and thy King together so that's looking forward at Jesus so just to go over the next couple chapters again they're important but I want to keep the Messianic prophecies in mind uh seven obedience is better than fasting uh there's a promise of the future a promise hope in the future uh chapter eight then this is all going to start talking about the reception and the rejection of the Messiah that's what's at Play Here Again Joshua is a pre-figure he's a symbol of Jesus the Messiah so here are some key verses it's pretty amazing if you think about it it's written I'm just using round numbers about 500 years before Jesus so the Zechariah Parts 500 years prior to the Matthew part check it out Zechariah 9 9 Rejoice O Temple of Zion literally Daughter of Zion shout and Triumph o people of Jerusalem look your king is coming to you he is righteous and Victorious yet he's humble riding on a donkey riding on a donkey's cult and that's what happens at the triumphal entry when Jesus enters into Jerusalem this took place to fulfill the prophecy that said tell the people of Jerusalem again Daughter of Zion look your king is coming to you he is humble riding on a donkey riding on a donkey's call and Jesus fulfills that Jesus is betrayed by Judas for 30 pieces of silver it's gonna be a little confusing I'm not going to go too deep if you have questions about it you can ask me a Bible study but the meaning here is clear when you know what's going on Zechariah 11 12 and I said to them if you like give me my wages whatever I'm worth but only if you want to so they counted out for my wages 30 pieces of silver Matthew 26 14 then Judas Iscariot one of the 12 disciples went to the leading priest and asked how much will you pay me to betray Jesus to and they gave him 30 pieces of silver that silver was used to buy a field Zechariah 11 13 and the Lord said to me throw it to the Potter This Magnificent Psalm at which they valued me so I took the 30 coins and threw them to the Potter in the temple of the Lord might not make so much sense when you read it in Zechariah but then when you see what happens this fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah I would add anzechariah that says they took the 30 pieces of silver the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel and purchased the Potter's field as the Lord directed the piercing of the messiah's body in here too Zechariah 12 10 then I will pour out a spirit of Grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem they will look on me whom they have pierced and mourned for him as an only son they will grieve bitterly for him as a firstborn son who has died John 19 36 then the things happened in fulfillment of the scriptures that say not one of his bones will be broken that's Exodus they're talking about the Passover Lamb don't break the bones and they will look on the one they pierced that's Zechariah so we're just going to take two minutes and nerd out completely so hang in there I want to show you something really cool so I'm going to go to a more technical translation uh of the Bible but first I want to just explain something to you and again if you want to know more you can ask me about the Trinity we serve a Triune God so this is like not Orthodox meeting that denomination but correct belief that is the correct Christian belief right the Father the Son holy spirit all one all at the same time three persons but not separated from one self to the Trinity really kind of easy to see in the New Testament again if we go back to Mark Jesus is baptized and you see father right son is getting baptized Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove pretty clear harder to see in the Old Testament more difficult but if you read the Old Testament a lot in short periods of time you see it you realize it's all over the place so from the first chapter all right so you have God then the second verse the spirit hovering over the waters keep reading a little bit further I think verse 26 let us make man in our image there's a plurality to God so you're seeing it right there I heard the sound of him walking in the garden that's Jesus right so he's a person who can walk in the garden with Adam and Eve and you start seeing it more like Abraham I think it's Genesis 18 the three men right so that come to me see symbols of it all over the place it is said that right here in Zechariah 12 10 we'll put it up you can see very rare picture of the Trinity just in this one verse now it's debated so I'm not saying it definitely is or definitely isn't and I will say this is just an interesting nerd moment uh if you went to Bible College or you studied a lot they probably told you perhaps the nasb was the most technical translation in the world it's the best here's an example where it's not they actually force a lot of things into the text that just don't belong there they need to let God's word just speak for itself and then if it's there it's there if it's not don't cry about it or change the translation so I'm giving you a better translation this is the Leb LED you can't get a hard cover but it's in like the Bible apps it's fantastic it's really really good because they're not looking at it from a churchy perspective they're just looking at the text and just translating exactly what it says it's really good especially the New Testament so here you see it's interesting just look for it uh Zechariah 12 10 I so this is in God's voice God is speaking here I will pour on the House of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit now this is where nasb forces it they'll make it a capital S instead of a the correct article they're put the spirit that's an incorrect translation of Grace and supplication oh by the way the 2020 nesb acknowledges it with a little asterisk or a spirit right correcting themselves but we don't want you to notice we did that and so think about it right so God's talking just do see a spirit okay I'll give you that and they will look on me whom they pierced and they shall mourn for him as one who wails over an only child and then we'll grieve bitterly over him as one Grieves over a firstborn that's interesting that weird and different personages he's speaking of himself as because God the father is talking about Jesus here really interesting the word firstborn now you get to the Greek Old Testament that's the lingua Franc of the day that is what the apostles are reading and quoting not the Hebrew they're quoting the Greek and that's why this stuff gets to be clear that firstborn like think prototype is the same exact word used for Abel's firstborn sheep used to describe Jesus as the firstborn over all creation in Colossians 1 15. so it's very clear when you're looking at the Greek Old Testament you go whoa you know it all kind of comes together at least that's what I do you know so anyway you also have the wounding of the shepherd and scattering of the sheep Zechariah 13 7 awake oh sword against my shepherd the man who is my partner says the Lord of Heaven's armies strike down the shepherd and the Sheep will be scattered and will turn against the Lambs Matthew 26 31 there's a good example of not having the whole phrase in here Jesus just mentions it on the way Jesus told them tonight all of you will desert me for the scriptures say God will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered well different but he's just this is the point right he's giving you the quick summary now again just a small note on the Greek and this is kind of interesting I'll show you something cool not only is jeshua that is the high priest during Ezra Zechariah here not only is he a pre-figure of the Messiah if we look at this again and the word is in that the apostles would be looking at in the Greek it becomes incredibly obvious so I'm just going to show you something if you look at the word for Jesus that's what it looks like in Greek that's exactly what it says for jeshua Jesus so every time you'd be reading that you'll be reading Jesus knowing it's not the literal Jesus but it would be telling you Jesus Jesus Jesus so here is what it looks like in the original so this is both Zechariah and Hebrews put together and below it the third and fourth one but I underline Jesus that's what it looks like both in the Old Testament and the New Testament so it'd be kind obvious what he's pointing at now if you've been here for a while this is not the first time we've seen this Joshua Jesus they're all pre-figures so that's what's happening here so in the Greek it'll say Jesus for Joshua so the author of Hebrews capitalizes on that and you can't see it unless you're reading original languages that's why I have such a passion for doing that reading the Greek New Testament I'm a little better at that the Old Testament is very difficult but I'm trying I'm working on it but I have a real passion for it because it's so eye-opening with these prophecies you realize this thing is just amazing it's bulletproof it's just crazy so to give you some context with Hebrews you have the Jewish now Christians the first Christians were Jewish people right so that was the argument in Acts 10 like what do we do here oh no Peter gets division three times ah it goes out to the Gentiles they weren't really aware of that right away but the Hebrew Christians they're being persecuted it's a sect the sect of the nazarenes for being Christians and so the Temptations to say yeah let's just go back fields to be Jews again and that's it none of this Jesus stuff because it's getting us beat up and stuff our things are being taken away that's addressed we looked at that Hebrews 10 you accepted it with joy because you noticed yeah you knew that better things were waiting in heaven for you so that's the whole context when you're reading it you need to keep thinking of that and so what the author is doing there is saying Jesus is superior to everything in the Old Testament he just keeps naming all these things pretty rapid fire Jesus the superior to the prophets the Angels he's the superior son chapter two he's a superior son chapter three he's Superior to Moses four he's Superior to the other Jesus that's what he's saying and it makes it more interesting and Superior to Joshua but it says the same name and so you have to kind of know what he's talking about here but he grabs it but he says if Joshua had succeeded in getting the people to the promised land now if you don't know what I'm talking about you might know right redeemed from Egypt you might know that part of the story they wander around for 40 years right because they're disobedient they won't go take the land when they're supposed to so it's a year for each day that they wanted to land just Joshua and Caleb are the only ones getting in right so you're going to wander around but you're not going to get the promised land just these two because they wanted to go fight they want to go do what God Said so they wander around Moses and Aaron die hey look at the promised land Moses you're dead so that's what happens to him but Joshua succeeds him and he goes and they do capture a lot of the land but not all of it they don't do the whole thing so Joshua did not succeed in giving them this rest so God spoke about another day of rest to come it'll say Hebrews 4 14 so then since we have a great high priest who has entered Heaven Jesus the son of God let us hold firmly to what we believe this high priest of ours understands our weaknesses for he faced all of the same testings we do yet he did not sin now as for that sin our sin we see this Hebrews 7 26 he is the kind of high priest we need because he is Holy and blameless on stained by sin he has been set apart from Sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven unlike those other high priests he does not need to offer sacrifices every day he did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people that high priest like jeshua but this Jesus did it once and for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people's sins Jesus is both the sacrifice and the high priest the once and for all sacrifice so this is how it comes full circle the whole thing so Jesus fulfills the role of jeshua in Zechariah so this brings us to a personal application I talked about it earlier the governors and the prophets these practical and spiritual roles here um we're gonna pick this up and we'll look at both sides of the coin now we talked about doing so you need to understand the think of it like a coin a lot of people want one or the other they can't see both sides at the same time so if I took a quarter I put it down I put it on heads you know a lot of uh Christians would behave this way about it if they're behaving like their theology they take one side of the coin and you say okay this is a court yes close your eyes and close your eyes flip the quarter over open your eyes is it same quarter no foreign okay so this is the correct way to think about it we are saved by grace through our faith in Jesus Christ period end of story that is correct but you need to keep reading so Ephesians 2 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed and you can't take credit for this it is a gift from God salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done so none of us can boast about it true true but there's a little more for we are God's Masterpiece he has created us Anew in Christ Jesus why so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago a lot of people just like leave that out right why did he save us Isaac why so we can do the works because what it says in the Greek the good works so that we can do work that he what planned for us you need to think about it that way that's correct theology right so two of the camps have to come together a little bit sometimes and realize that it's not all this or that it's not so black and white right very important so first we must think about what Jesus did in being that great high priest and the sacrifice we need to think about that we need to meditate on that Jesus God would you get crucified for anybody thank you so think about it that's crazy so the Salvation that's the gift and if we are in him it is because of that that we're in now right relationship with God no fancy words I'm trying to avoid that right so that's what makes us righteous right and Justified we're we're there we're in right relationship because of what Jesus did nothing we did got it but there needs to be a response there's that verse 10. if there is no response in that relationship then our belief isn't believable within that there we need to develop we need to be cultivating that relationship like all relationships talk about marriage for a reason right you need to cultivate it we developed that relationship and as I said before then it's not just a simple outward anyone can do good stuff right but if Jesus motivates it then it's correct it's not about us right so I always pick on the people who take selfies you can take selfies my daughter takes selfies it's fine but when is it wrong when we're patronizing people and we're saying look you know what I mean like I'm awesome wrong motive what you need to trust is that Jesus will see it and that like right like the lamp you don't hide a lamp under a basket correct yeah anyone who needs to see it is going to see it most of all God sees it because then Jesus continues right we've got to keep reading chapter six don't be like the Hypocrites when they give to the poor the needy they need to blow a trumpet right they need to tell everyone what they're doing so we have to check the motivation are we doing what we're doing because we're in right relationship with Jesus because he told us and that maybe he's going to be the only one who sees it well done good and faithful slave that's it that's all I want out of this is my only point of selfishness is to please the master that's it so when we're in right relationship that relationship will both encourage us and convict Us in the moment where the holy spirit will tell us you know what I mean like put the phone down and just do this because Jesus told you to do it things like that so these faith in works must go hand in hand it's very very important one side is not more important than the other you just you must the key to this is developing that relationship and that's where a lot of people get stuck I mean a lot of people they're like I get coming I get doing good stuff I get all this stuff but it's not moving from here to here right so there's a disconnect because they're not cultivating the relationship and so I want to look at some just simple fine points for you today just really really simple because I think what happens is as we get churchy people we get into church a lot and we take certain things for granted you know and like how we got how did you get there you know and we become a pastor right you become even more disconnected and you start saying things and people are like what you know I don't understand we go from a to like you know wherever it is f in over here there's like a b and a c there are some simple steps here so I just want to encourage you guys with some stuff and equip you with some tools because also a part of that doing stuff is letting people know about Jesus and so I want to just kind of encourage you with one thing you're going to be confronted with so first thing let's just go all the way back simple like the absolute basics first we must have faith in the first place saved by God's grace through what our faith well how do you have faith well you know it's true correct so we can't really believe in something unless we know what that something is and that it's real correct yeah so Romans Paul addresses this pretty smart guy Holy Spirit inspires him to write this Romans 10 13 for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved but how can they call on him to save unless they believe in him and how can they believe in him if they've never heard about him and how can they hear about him unless someone tells them and how will anyone go and tell them without being sent that is why the scriptures say how beautiful are the feet of The Messengers who bring the good news but not everyone welcomes the good news for Isaiah the prophet said Lord who has believed our message so faith comes from hearing that is hearing the good news about Christ so we need to hear the gospel we need to know what that is and we need to know that Jesus is very real in order to have a real relationship with him you need to know this and today I've said this in a lot of long time Christians they don't see the need for this and it's extremely sad but we are not living in the judeo-christian world of 50 years ago right Jesus loves me this I know because the Bible tells me so that I don't read so you just believe it because your parents believe it I'll get there because your parents believe somebody else believe you just I don't know and maybe you don't believe it at all I don't know but it's just what we do right we get up on Sunday we get dressed we go to church and that's just what we do and so I've had older folks I start getting into and I'm just staying away from fancy words just explaining like the history of this and they're like ah why are you gonna do that why are you going to show Greek you know what we know you know it's like because here's what's happening in this world the world's gone mad so we had a brief period this is what people don't understand read the context of Romans again it was nuts it was just as crazy as it is today that the same issues same stuff is the same it's crazy but we went through this like lucky period right in our country where we were doing financially better we'll never see that again where you can buy a house and it's worth unless you bought it here in Naples like 10 years ago you're gonna buy a house and it's going to be worth like you know a hundred times more you know than years to come where your salary will go up my dad started working for like 7 000 years and seven thousand dollars a year sorry he's not that old seven thousand dollars right he ended up retie his retirement pension was 72 000. what my wife is still working for the same amount she did like 20 years ago right so it's this brief period where everything was like it's totally great the sunshine and the rainbows now it's not and people are freaking out but they're not making the adjustment that's what needs to happen right so if you're in that age but I'm right at the end of it so I get it I get it right at the end of that age bracket but you need to adjust if you care about the young people whom Jesus died for then you need to adjust you need to adjust because we talked about it so Tony told you about it I told you somewhere around 67 dropout rate from the use group of your generation did it work nope so what do you do well let's just keep doing it the same way Gene you know we need a youth group be the same way we got the program we're doing Promise Keepers it didn't work that's it 60s it didn't work so you need to change you need to look at that child and say what's going on why so here's what's going on they're going to college and they're being told that Jesus wasn't real that's the bottom line and so they don't believe that they're like this is a fairy tale book so I just want to take a couple minutes right we got food afterwards from noon Zios it's really good yes I can juggle those two concepts Italian food in the Bible so anyway yeah so just it's okay right it's okay I shouldn't even pre-apologize for going a little bit over I'm going to give you just a little elevator speech information here that you can share with young people so this is like years and years and years and years I study this a lot of study just down into one small thing how do you deal with that Now by arguing not by insulting their Professor you know it's like just okay and I'll give you a short thing I do this on Easter I do this when I have a lot of non-christians around uh because it's true I've had people say that I'll do it their kids will look and be like Pastor Jean was right it's like yeah he doesn't lie all the time imagine so so this is what it is you ask that person in college you say Do you believe in Alexander the Great they're going to say yes why because it's in the history books of course he's real Okay cool so let's look at that for a second and you might not get the names right it doesn't matter you can go back and watch this Alexander Great you know when he died they won't right because they don't know 323 BC June or July give or take a day or two so that's when he died like 300 years before Jesus but the only stuff we have in our possession now about him historically comes 300 years and 400 years later the best being life of Alexander by Plutarch 400 years later that sounds like the accusation your professor told you about the Bible right it was written hundreds of years later so we can't trust it it's not in the witness period ain't wrong wrong the New Testament of the Bible I call them 27 Witnesses they're not just two books like Alexander has they're 27 books these are witness accounts written by Witnesses and if they didn't know Jesus directly it was just one short generation after that Luke he's hanging out with Paul he's basically interviewing all the witnesses it's called a primary document in history it's gold First Corinthians 15 I go there on Easter because it talks about the resurrection Paul is a witness Paul witnessed the resurrected Jesus he's pointing to other Witnesses it's crazy even secular Scholars will say that First Corinthians was written just 25 years after the crucifixion of Jesus a lot better than 400. see a little meet them where they are and just give them some facts you know what they're going to do they're going to fact check you they're on their phone but it'll be like a little nugget oh Pastor Gene was right what else should I listen to the so that was just really quick but that's where Faith starts and today let's go back to the text you just need to think about don't just take this for granted people if you've been in charge for a long time you're talking about the Bible and I'm gonna go get lunch it's just digest this literally in your mind at what we saw today 500 years before it's happening Jesus Yeshua put all this together like what Jesus he'll ride into Jerusalem on a donkey he'll be betrayed for exactly 30 pieces of silver he'll be pierced and he'll be the great king and high priest these are Faith Builders at least they should be so now that we've been given every reason to believe that Jesus is real if you want more just email me come talk to me I talk about this all day he's very real I gotta wind it down now we need to get in a real relationship with him so I just want to talk about some simple keys in building relationships they work for our interpersonal relationships and they work with Jesus so now you know faith has come through hearing you've heard it facts you need love his love is amazing think about it literally had passion for Zechariah 12 10 it's talking about God pre-predicting that he would be pierced for the people that's love that's what Jesus says about love that you would die for someone if I'm being honest it would be hard to die for someone I didn't love or didn't love me back be easy to die for my wife or my child right but Jesus died while we were still sinners for us that's love that's amazing and you know John 3 16 but it's not the only place it says that type of thing first John 4 9 this is how God showed his love Among Us he sent his one and only son his firstborn son into the world that we might live through him what is our response to that we should love him in return another essential element is Trust we need to have trust in him because of who he is and what he's done he's fulfilled all this he's faithful some people don't recognize it but there are a lot of little sayings in the New Testament just things they would repeat so they could memorize the truth one of them's in second Timothy 2 11. this is a trustworthy saying if we die with him we'll also live with him if we endure hardship we'll reign with him if we deny him he will deny us if we are Unfaithful he remains faithful for he could not deny who he is he is faithful he Faithfully fulfilled all of those scriptures and more he's faithful these are promises and just as I close today I want to share with you a story I think this is a good faith Builder and and they help I think if we're being honest we need to spend time with him we need to spend time how do we do that prayer we need to pray you need to be speaking with him he needs to be walking with you or vice versa you with him and it's just amazing when you look at the statistics it's scary but I know it's true and it doesn't surprise me Christians really aren't praying it's like when they're pulled or whatever and ask this question in secret and they're being honest they're like no I don't really pray a lot what's sad and this is the surprising part a lot of pastors aren't praying three minutes a day a minute a day pastors that's your job it's the most important part of your job that's it you know there's a funny story about a couple of famous people two famous evangelists back in the day and very famous and one of them won't take a call from the other it says why not I'm talking to God he's a lot more important than you are okay that's where you ought to be as a pastor no someone else can do that I'm in the middle of a conversation right now you need to be in that conversation our actions need to be guided by the spirit so here's where the story comes in we at C3 we make all of our decisions in prayer all of them like this there's little things right like Jesus says like if you see your sheep in a pit you know on the Sabbath are you going to get it out yes there's some things I don't have to think about right so someone you know some I don't even know like something really simple so when you get served the food someone's not going to say like can I have a big ziti you know Zeos it's good so they donated big city like hey can I have that big CD let me pray about it that's not going to happen so and that means no in christianese I found that out like way too late finally Pastor I'll pray about it I'm like that means no you know I'll pray about it right now it's going to be a thing take too long so there's things we know we got to do but there's some we don't and so I'll share this story I share it with a couple uh last week and I realized it's been a long time since I told the story but it's a really cool Faith Builder and it's just worth it for you to hear so let it strengthen your faith and it'll give you an idea if you're new about how we roll here we lead with God so what happened when we first moved in this building and yes it's five years I think it's five years I think my math is correct on that that's crazy it just went by like that been here for about five years we moved in and apparently according to some the grass literally wasn't green enough yeah the the admin Council knows the grass wasn't green enough here and you see the key to filling this place up is to get green grass because literally people will go where the grass is greener it was that ridiculous like you know it just okay and that was all the time putting it on the memo line of the check you know what I mean like do the Landscaping do the Landscaping do the landscape and it's like all we ever heard about it drove me crazy so I said you know what I'll pray about it I know what that means if I say that well pray about it but we literally did and what I felt God was saying to and if you know the scriptures really well you know that God can be kind of funny a little bit sarcastic so it's true it's really funny and so here's kind of what he said to me it's a test that was it no no here's what you're going to do you're going to help the widows and the orphans you're going to help the needy and just leave it the way it is Sandy and all whatever with the little turtles make their nests in there no it's a test and sure enough like I blew it off and I just instead went to the council they do the money I do not do money they do that I just get permission keep away from the money but when people come they need stuff and it's not green or grass it's real needs right so so I'm trying to meet those real needs and just I'm ignoring these people and I'm thinking you know what find a country club and go do that on Sundays right so Country Club Christians leave here they do not stay here you want greener grass go somewhere else they'll be happy to provide it for you I'm going to keep providing for the widows and the orphans right so that that's what I'm doing what the Bible tells me not worried about the grass they leave a few months later a guy comes in he says hey we're putting up a building right nearby you and we need parking now if you know anything about Naples the parking lot zoning people are like the gods of Naples they're in charge of everything if you don't have enough parking you can't do any business right so if you're running business here you're like oh it's good you got to be really nice to those people should be nice to everybody right but especially especially then bring them a cup of coffee from here keep them happy so he needs parking you guys seem like you have a lot of parking we've been looking nine to five Monday through Friday you're not doing too much here at church correct we have like a few cars here just some meetings can we use your parking lot I'm like I guess let me go back and ask the council so I go back and ask it's a no-brainer I've already prayed about it so my idea is to say let's ask them to redo the parking lot why not so we go back and we had some potholes they go back and say yeah you can use our parking lot you have to redo it then go back to their people they come back and talk they're like sure we'll redo the parking lot great new parking lot that's kind of cool but you know what because of the zoning Gods it came with all new Landscaping they had to completely redo the landscaping and it was all on them we're talking about that parking lot and all the Landscaping hundreds of thousands of dollars if you know anything about a parking lot that big a lot like our whole budget for the year would have been in that parking lot all glory to God so that's a practical power of Prayer do not especially if you're in leadership but even people people are always going to push you to do things before God wants you to do it calm down like there's stuff that's immediate right but not everything is and God wants his glory to be revealed in it and so I say all glory to God it's not simple like a parking lot but he's he's speaking to us he's showing us something right one last thing are we reading his love letter to us that's what this is it's like a love letter and I'll just draw it a very simple and personal I said this before what if your spouse marriage would be going to wind on it marriage what if your spouse or your loved one Whatever It Is they wrote you a love letter and you just kept it sealed up you didn't read it like what would that say about your relationship I think it would speak volumes pun intended about your relationship it's much the same with this what's the difference so I'll tell you something very quick I get a special letter once a year from my wife that's not on Valentine's Day we just love each other the other 364 days a year and so once a year I look forward to it it comes in an envelope and has a coin in it there's a little hint there is what that might be annual you'll hear her story in a few weeks it's special to me I look forward to getting it because I love her it helps bolster my faith in the relationship I like it feels good to be reminded of all those things but what if I just kept it on the Shelf she gave it to me I was like and then what if she reminded me hey I wrote you that letter I wrote that letter and every day she looked and dust was gathering on it what would that say about a relationship now what happens when you have this Gathering dust and Pastor comes in from God and says reminds you hey you gotta read this you got to read this but you don't that's a question you're going to have to answer in your heart it's important when Jesus is tempted with the food tempted with food right turn that stone in a loaf of bread if you're the Son of God man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God this is how we're nurtured Jesus said so that note I want to pray for you from the scriptures First Peter 1 8 you love him even though you've never seen him though you do not see him now you trust him and you rejoice with the Glorious and expressible joy the reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls Lord I pray that these people would return to you if they need to return to you that they will draw closer to you in prayer will stop the world and the noise for a little while and just draw nearer to you that they'll be brought into Joy love peace patience kindness self-control and understanding and compassion for those for whom Jesus died