Participants: Chris Holland
Series Code: IIWC
Program Code: IIWC201612A
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00:00 IIW---STAR WARS #2 - HOPE RISES
00:04 IIW---STAR WARS #2 - HOPE RISES 00:10 IIW---STAR WARS #2 - HOPE RISES 00:15 IIW---STAR WARS #2 - HOPE RISES 00:20 IIW---STAR WARS #2 - HOPE RISES 00:25 IIW---STAR WARS #2 - HOPE RISES 00:30 IIW---STAR WARS #2 - HOPE RISES 00:34 IIW---STAR WARS #2 - HOPE RISES 00:39 IIW---STAR WARS #2 - HOPE RISES 00:44 IIW---STAR WARS #2 - HOPE RISES 00:48 IIW---STAR WARS #2 - HOPE RISES 01:31 >>Announcer: It has stood the test of time. 01:35 God's book, The Bible 01:38 Still relevant in today's complex world. 01:45 It Is Written. 01:46 Sharing messages of hope around the world. 02:05 The story begins sometime in the ancient past. We don't know exactly when - the Bible doesn't 02:11 tell us exactly when - but in the ancient past, the ancient near past, the Bible, in Genesis 02:19 chapter 1, tells the story, tells the event of God creating the heavens and the earth. And 02:28 He created this earth in six day and rested on the seventh day. But during those six days He 02:36 made a beautiful place where there was perfect harmony. No death, no dying, no pain, no 02:43 sorrow. Perfect harmony between everything. And on the earth He created a garden. The garden was 02:51 a special dwelling place for the first human beings that He created, Adam and Eve. And He 02:58 looked around, and Adam names all the animals, and as Adam names the lion, He says, "You 03:10 know, I made this lion just for you, Adam." When Adam names the great egret, He said, "You know, 03:18 this great egret, I made this just for you, Adam." And when he walked next to the roses, He 03:28 said, "Eve, I made these flowers just for you. Everything in the garden is for you. But there's 03:38 one tree., Adam and Eve, I need to be secure in knowing that you will obey Me no matter what the 03:46 circumstances..So, there's one tree. Don't eat from it." One day, Eve found herself 04:00 wandering, and she ended up by that tree that God said, "Don't eat from it." And there at that 04:07 tree, Satan who had been cast out of heaven. disguised himself as a serpent and began speaking 04:14 to Eve. "You're going to reach a plane higher than you've ever reached if you eat from this 04:25 tree. If you eat from this tree, you will become like God Himself." And in a moment of 04:34 weakness, Eve takes from the tree and she eats of it. And then she brings it to Adam. And 04:43 Adam faced with a choice..to either trust God, that God would come up with a plan, or he could 04:54 manoeuvre and make his own way. And so instead of trusting God, Adam, not deceived by the 05:05 serpent, makes his own choice, to partake of the fruit in a demonstration of his lack of 05:13 trust in God. And in that moment, the dominoes began to fall. I can imagine for just a 05:23 moment - and I'm speculating just a bit - but I can imagine for just a moment when Adam 05:29 partook, all of a sudden, everything changed. They knew it had changed because the Bible 05:37 says that they realized that they were naked. Their eyes had been opened. And in that very 05:43 moment, everything changed. The lion would no longer lay with the lamb. The leopard would no 05:51 longer be friends with the fawn. Everything changed. Right in that moment, the flowers began 05:58 to wilt. The ferns began to wilt. The trees began to die. In that moment, everything changed. 06:09 Adam and Eve made for themselves coverings. It is a demonstration, by the way, of 06:16 the crisis that we face. Adam and Eve made a choice to cover themselves because they want to 06:22 try to cover up what they've done. Isn't that how we all work today? We try to fix it and 06:30 cover it up. Adam and Eve tried to fix their own problem and cover themselves. When God 06:40 arrived on the scene, He began looking for Adam and Eve; God, Who communed with Adam and Eve 06:48 one on one comes, can't find them. "Where are you? Where are you?" And Adam says, "But we 07:02 were afraid. We heard You walking and we were afraid." Why would they be afraid of God? You 07:13 see, because that's what Satan wants to do. Because as soon as we sin, we make a choice to not 07:21 do what God wants us to do. Satan brings guilt into our life. And as soon as we 07:27 experience guilt, we experience fear, anxiety, pain; and this is what Adam and Eve experience. 07:36 And in that moment, God had to teach Adam and Eve. God wasn't caught by surprise.in the 07:47 ancient past,God knew that this might happen. Jesus, the Son, made a decision that He would 07:59 come and die in our place because sin demands death. And so God pointed forward to that 08:17 even, so Adam and Eve, could know." Out of great disappointment, hope would rise. 08:31 Jesus is described as the Lamb 27 times in the book of Revelation. Revelation 13:8, 08:42 Right in the centre of that is the most important verse of the entire chapter. It speaks of 08:53 Jesus as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This is what differentiates the 09:03 religion of the Bible from other pagan practices, those gods demanded a sacrifice. The pagan 09:14 gods demanded life. Here's the difference, the God of the Bible, Jesus, made the ultimate 09:24 sacrifice because He didn't demand someone else's life; He gave His own life. Jesus gave 09:31 His life. But here's the question that many people ask, why did Jesus have to die? Why 09:43 did He have to give him life? Romans 6:23 makes it clear: 10:06 The demand of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life. Hebrews 9:22 tells us without 10:14 the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. In the garden hope rose and was 10:23 demonstrated to Adam and Eve, blood is what covers and makes clean. What a beautiful 10:32 illustration. Why blood? Leviticus says: Leviticus 17:11 10:40 Blood is multifaceted in its work. When our blood is healthy, when we have good circulation, 10:50 it delivers oxygen to all of our cells. It carries nutrients to where they need to go. And then 10:56 it takes out the waste and removes it out of the body. And so God uses this illustration 11:02 that blood cleanses, which doesn't seem very logical, because when you cut yourself 11:09 and your blood runs and you get it on your white shirt, it stains. But the Bible says an 11:16 amazing thing, that: Isaiah 1:18 11:24 How is this possible? Because blood cleanses. During the time of the Old Testament, God had 11:31 put in place a sacrificial system that symbolically pointed forward to Jesus as the Lamb of 11:37 God who would take away the sins of the world. Leviticus 5:5-6 recounts the essence of that 11:46 system. 12:08 Symbolically, in that moment, you would be cleansed of your sin. The lamb became the 12:17 sacrifice. But here's the thing, here is the critical piece we miss. The innocent animals were 12:25 to demonstrate to us and were a foreshadowing of the arrival of Jesus. If all of these animals 12:34 pointed forward to the sacrifice of Jesus, it wasn't the sacrifice of the animal itself 12:40 that was important, but it was looking forward to the Son of God coming and dying for our 12:46 sins. Every lamb or sacrifice pointed forward to the Lamb of God. This is why John the 12:54 Baptist, when he saw Jesus for the first time, cried out, John 1:29 13:04 You see, Jesus came. He came to this earth for one purpose and with one person in mind, and 13:12 that was you and that was me. Here's what the devil wants: the devil want you to experience 13:18 guilt in your life, because if you experience guilt it's going to bring you fear, anxiety, 13:23 distress, and sickness. And if he can keep you in fear and anxiety and distress and 13:29 sickness, it will prevent us from doing the one thing that will take all of those things 13:37 away. Jesus invites us to pray and come to Him and accept the sacrifice that He has made on 13:47 our behalf. Jesus can bear my burdens." Jesus can handle my guilt." The Lion of the tribe 14:00 of Judah, the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world is the one who brings hope into 14:12 our lives. Jesus is "The alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end," He sustains all 14:21 things. We need to come to realize that the Christ of Revelation is the all-powerful 14:36 Saviour. The Bible tells us that Jesus wins and Satan loses Jesus came 2000 years ago, and 14:46 when He came 2000 years ago, He came as a suffering servant to die for our sins. We live in a 14:55 world that does not like the word sin. We don't like to talk about sin. Because we live in a 15:02 time where people say, "Hey what's good for you is good for you, what's good for me is good 15:07 for me - hey - and that's how we'll live." But we live in a society that is ever-increasing 15:11 and dispelling the issue of personal accountability. We have all kinds of excuses for 15:17 why we do what we do, some us will say "Well you know it's just my genes," "my genes. I 15:22 can't help myself." Or sometimes we'll talk about the environment that we live in and we say, 15:28 "Well, but that's the way I was brought up." But friends, when we talk about this in the 15:31 context of Jesus' sacrifice, we have to understand, excuses won't do. Excuses won't save us. 15:37 We also live in a world where we want to do things to make up for our sins. We want to try and do 15:43 enough good things to outweigh the bad things. But good works won't help us. There is only one 15:51 thing that will save us, only one hope for humanity and that is Jesus Christ. How can you 16:02 receive the hope that has risen in these days? First, Jeremiah 31:3 says: 16:20 One of the hardest things for most people to accept is to accept the reality that God 16:26 loves you. Some have grown up in a home where there was a father that was abusive or a mother 16:32 that was abusive or a mother and a father that abandoned them. Maybe there's someone watching 16:38 today who doesn't even know who their mom or dad is. God says, "I loved you with an everlasting 16:45 love," which means God knew you before you were even born, which means He loves you and He loves 16:51 you just the way you are. God says, "Come to Me tonight as you are because I have loved you 17:02 with an everlasting love." Second, friend, we must recognize that we can't save 17:11 ourselves. Romans 3:23 says: 17:18 All of us have sinned. There's not one of us that can say, "Oh, I have walked a perfect life. I 17:23 have not sinned." You see, we need to come to the place where we realize we cannot save 17:28 ourselves. Third, believe that Jesus can and will save you. John 3:16, it says: 17:51 Whoever includes you and thankfully it includes me. Too often we can't believe this, but 17:59 the Bible says that God sent Jesus, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have 18:07 everlasting life. And the verse after this says: 18:18 Isn't that beautiful? The Bible is quite clear. God's not out to get you; God wants to save you. 18:25 Fourth, confess your sins to Jesus and believe you are forgiven. First John 1:9 makes 18:34 this promise: 18:47 Isn't that a beautiful thing? Forgiveness means that we are released or God has released us 18:52 from the penalty that we are to receive. But He goes beyond that; the Bible says that He 19:00 cleanses us as well. God doesn't just want to forgive you; He wants to cleanse you. Fifth, 19:07 claim His gift of eternal life and decide to serve Him forever. Romans 10:9 simply says this: 19:28 Jesus is calling you today and He says to you, "I want you to receive eternal life." He had 19:35 just one thing on His mind when He came to this earth and that was you. Second Corinthians 5:21 19:43 says: 19:56 When Jesus died on the cross, He did not die of the agony of pain, although there was plenty 20:03 of it. As the sins of the world were poured upon Jesus that Thursday night in the Garden of 20:10 Gethsemane, something began to happen. All the sins throughout history were packaged up in one 20:17 bundle and laid on Jesus. Imagine the guilt, the anguish, the anxiety, and the stress of 20:23 every single person who's lived throughout all of history being placed on Jesus at once. Jesus 20:32 didn't die because of His physical pain; Jesus died because of a broken heart. He 20:38 bore the guilt of humanity. 20:42 The beauty of the scriptures is that it pictures Jesus as the Lamb of God that taketh away the 20:47 sins of the world. This entire book has one storyline: Jesus wins, Satan loses. If you want 21:00 to summarize the story of this Book, all 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New 21:07 Testament, all 1200 chapters of this Book have one testimony: Jesus wins and Satan loses. So 21:17 be on Jesus' side. I'll never forget, I was teaching young people, ages seven to nine, and 21:28 we were having kind of a Vacation Bible School situation, and we had them all day long and 21:33 one of the things we did is we went to the pool. And I had a bunch of teenagers that were 21:41 helping me in the pool. The pool had a rubberized brick that would sink to the bottom of the 21:49 pool so you could go and retrieve it. The teenagers began dropping and retrieving the 21:55 brick in the deep end of the pool. Now the seven- to nine-year-olds see this, and of 22:03 course, guess what? They want to do it too. So we took these young people, many of these 22:08 children, we took them to a shallower side, and that worked. And then they weren't satisfied 22:14 and they wanted to go to the deep end, so we went to the deep end. And here's the fascinating 22:20 thing: what many of them would do, they would dive down no problem, they would pick up the 22:26 brick, they'd get it, and they'd push themselves off the bottom of the pool. And they'd be 22:32 kicking their little feet as fast as they could, and several of them would get almost to the 22:40 top. They'd be about half a metre from the top, and their feet are kicking as fast as they 22:46 can kick and they are not moving. They're levitating in the water. And we would let 22:56 that go on for a moment or two and then grab them and pull them up out of the water. And in each 23:00 and every case I would ask them the same question, "Why didn't you let go of the brick?" And 23:09 they would answer "But I just wanted to get to the top." You see, they could not come to the 23:16 conclusion that they could not do it, and they were unwilling to let it go. All they would 23:26 have had to do was let it go and they would have come right to the top. Today Jesus calls upon 23:34 you to let go.to let go and collapse in His arms and say, "Lord, give me the gift of 23:44 salvation. I come with an open heart. I come to the cross, I come believing that Jesus is my 23:51 Lamb. I kneel before the cross, I confess my sin. He invites us to encounter Him in a special 24:00 way, to come to Him with all our guilt and shame and say, "Save me Jesus." 24:15 I regret the hours I have wasted 24:21 and the pleasures I have tasted 24:25 that you were never in. 24:32 And I confess that though your love is in me, 24:38 it doesn't always win me 24:42 when competing with my sin. 24:48 And I repent, making no excuses. 24:57 I repent no one else to blame. 25:05 And I return to fall in love with Jesus. 25:14 I bow down on my knees and I repent. 25:31 I lament the idols I've accepted, 25:37 the commandments I've rejected 25:41 to pursue my selfish end. 25:47 And I confess I need you to revive me, 25:53 put selfishness behind me 25:57 and take up my cross agian. 26:03 And I repent, making no excuses. 26:13 I repent no one else to blame. 26:22 And I return to fall in love with Jesus. 26:30 I bow down on my knees... 26:36 And I return to fall in love with Jesus. 26:50 I bow down on my knees and I repent. 27:18 >>Chris: Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for the gift of hope in Jesus Christ. Today we give 27:24 our lives to Him. Give us encouragement. We confess our sins to You. Please, forgive us 27:33 of our sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We are so thankful for this promise. We 27:38 pray in Jesus' name, amen. 28:01 My dear friends, the rising of hope in this star wars battle between good and evil is the 28:09 rise of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world. He wants to be in 28:15 a relationship with you. I want to offer to you today The Passion of the Messiah. This 28:20 gripping book talks about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Here's the information 28:27 you need to receive today's offer. 29:26 >>Chris: My dear friends, the story of the Scriptures is simple: Jesus wins, Satan loses. 29:33 If you'd like to know more about that story, I encourage you to go to our website, 29:37 itiswrittencanada.ca. You'll find resources for your spiritual life and archives of 29:42 our program. I hope you enjoyed today's program. Please join us again next week. Until then, 29:47 remember, it is written: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds 29:55 from the mouth of God." |
Revised 2017-01-11