Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: First Peter 4 says, as stewards of the manifold grace of God, use the spiritual gift that you've been given to build up the body of Christ.

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled Heroes. Let's listen in as JP gives us part two of Moses.

JP Jones: Here is what I really believe we've lost in our modern experience of Christianity. We talk so much about a personal relationship with God that we think of God as our peer. Being in a personal relationship with God does not mean that God is your peer. It's not like you and God are buddies.

The other day, about a week ago, we had been at the beach as a family. We had a great time. We came back and where we live in our community, there is an association pool. We went over to the pool after the beach and it had just become dark. There was a gal in our neighborhood, a teenage girl who was having a party and there were about eight girls that were all about 16 years old.

Three guys had come to crash the party. They weren't invited, but they were there because they wanted to hang out with the chicks. We come as a family, and there are eight teenage girls and these three teenage guys posturing like teenage boys want to do. We go over and we are sitting in the Jacuzzi and it's packed because all these girls are in there and then our family is there.

This guy, the alpha male of the three guys, comes running and does a cannonball in the middle of the Jacuzzi. Boom! Water just splashes everybody in the face, goes over on people's cell phones, and is all over the towels. The girls right away were like, "Ah!" and I go, "Dude, can't you see there's people in here?" He does one of these: "I don't see anybody."

Let me just give you a confession. I told my wife this later. One of the things that will take me to Defcon 4 is when some teenage boy is very rude and disrespectful to me. So I said, "Dude, man, there's people here." He said, "I don't see anybody." I go about this far away, "I'm here and I'm an adult." All of a sudden, it was like you could cut the atmosphere with a knife.

Everybody is thinking, "What are you going to do?" I wanted to give him a holy slap, but I didn't. Now, let me tell you, I love my kids, I love my kids' friends, and I love the kids here at church. I've been teaching college kids at Biola. I get along great with kids and I joke with them, but I'm not their peer. I'm an adult, and I want to be treated like an adult.

God is not our peer. We're not buddies. "We're tight, the old man upstairs. He and I have a thing going on. He understands me, I understand him." No, he is holy. God is holy. When Moses saw the burning bush and he came and God spoke to him, Moses hid himself. Then God said, "Take your sandals off; you are on holy ground."

We need to restore in our church, in our lives, and in our families the holiness of God. When we really see God as holy, we fear the Lord. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. When we just see God as our buddy, who wants to worship a God like that?

Who wants to surrender your life to a God like that? Who wants to meet the holy demands of discipleship to a God like that? He's just our buddy. God is holy. We can have fellowship with him and we can be in a personal relationship with him when we're cleansed from our sin, when we take off our sandals because we know we're on holy ground.

Here is a third observation. God has a plan of redemption and he wants to use us to accomplish it. Therefore, be available for God's assignments. God says, "Moses, I have heard the cries of my people. I know what's going on. I see how the Egyptians are like slave drivers to them. I have compassion on what's going on, and I want to rescue them. So I'm sending you to Pharaoh to let my people go."

This was not an afterthought to God. It wasn't like they were complaining and complaining, and finally he said, "Okay, enough!" Last week, we talked about Abraham. God made a covenant with Abraham. Was that a temporary covenant or an eternal, everlasting covenant? An eternal, everlasting covenant. God has a plan for his people Israel.

God has a plan for the descendants of Abraham, the spiritual descendants of Abraham. God knew what was going on with his people and God, in the fullness of time, chose to reveal himself to Moses and make Moses a part of that eternal plan. In the fullness of God's plan, God chose to send his son, Jesus Christ, to die as an atonement for our sin.

Right now, in the fullness of God's plan, God has a Great Commission ministry and he wants to use his church. He wants to use this church. He wants to use us to accomplish it. God has a plan of redemption, he uses people to accomplish it, and he wants to use us. So we need to be available for God's assignments because we've been called to mission.

The call of Jesus Christ is a call to mission. Not every disciple knows that and not every Christian is living that, but it is a fact. Jesus said, "Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. If you follow me, I will make you fishers of men. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age."

We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Every believer has been called on mission. Every believer has been given spiritual gifts to be useful in building up the body of Christ and to accomplish that kingdom mission.

First Peter 4 says, as stewards of the manifold grace of God, use the spiritual gift that you've been given to build up the body of Christ. If anyone speaks, let him speak as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let him serve with all the power that God provides so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ himself. Amen.

We have been called and we've been equipped. But what about those special assignments? God has those too, for me, for you, for this church. How do we discover them? It's like a train on the tracks. You go down here and Amtrak runs not too far away. As long as that train is on the track, it's going to be in position to get the next signal.

Maybe it's to switch onto another track, maybe it's to stop, or maybe it's to yield. Because it's moving down the tracks, the tracks provide the framework to get the next assignment. The tracks in the Christian life consist of the path of obedience that Christ has called us to. Living daily in fellowship with God and being committed to the things you already know to be true for you are the tracks.

You stay on those tracks and God will give you the next assignment. Every day, we need to wake up with a sense of being surrendered to God. "Lord, if you have a special assignment for me today, I'm available to that." Moses heard the voice of God and received the assignment that God had for him. Here is the good part.

The assignment that God had for Moses was a personal assignment for Moses, but it fit into the eternal plan of God. Each one of us has a personal assignment and it has kingdom significance because it fits into the eternal plan of God. That's why Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.

We look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen because the things that are seen are just temporary. But the things that are not seen are eternal. We get to be part of something that matters for eternity by obeying today the assignment that God has for us. God has a plan of redemption and he wants to use us to accomplish it. So be available for God's assignments.

One last observation. God makes promises to us so that he might bless us and show us his glory. Therefore, claim God's promises and obey them in faith. What's great about scripture is that you can read a passage of scripture over and over again and every time get something fresh and new for your life. There is a timeless truth and an historical truth in every passage of scripture, but it speaks fresh to every believer in every generation.

I've read this passage I don't know how many times. Yet in going over this passage, something just jumped out at me that I'd never seen before. In Exodus chapter 3, it says, "But Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?'" God said, "I will be with you and this will be the sign to you."

All of a sudden, that just stood out to me. "I'm going to be with you and what's the confirmation? This is going to be the sign: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain." When Moses first heard that, that was yet to be a reality. That's the way promises are.

A promise is something that has yet to become true. If we will respond to the conditions of the promise, God says it's going to be a reality. God says, "You go and bring the people of Israel out and this is going to be the sign: You're going to come right back to this spot and worship me." You know what? They did.

That is the way it is with all of God's promises. When we claim them in faith and obey them, we experience the reward of the promise. This book is filled with promises that God has given to his people. This book is filled with promises that God has given to this church. This book is filled with promises that God has given to every one of us here.

Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, there is a promise from God for you. You may be here this morning and you're thinking, "This is so out of my paradigm. This is so new. I don't know anything about what it means to be in a relationship with God." You know what God says to you? "Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

All you have to do is call on the name of the Lord and God will save you. There are promises in here about your relationship with him, your marriage, your family, your finances, and your holiness. There are promises in here about the fruit of the spirit in your life and how God wants to use you to be a world changer. There are promises in here about how God wants to speak life into you.

In 2 Peter 1:3-4, it says that by God's divine power, he has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these, he has given to us his very great and precious promises so that through them, we may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world because of lust.

By God's promises, we can experience the divine nature, the very life of God, and be freed from the world's lusts that would squeeze us into its mold. The promises of God are there for us to believe and to lay hold of by faith. On the other hand, if we don't believe them, if we don't claim them in faith, or if we don't obey them, they're not promises of life. They're promises of death, cursing, and conviction.

Hebrews chapter 4 says, "Therefore, since a promise remains of entering into God's rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel has been preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard didn't profit them because they didn't mix it with faith when they heard it. It is we who believe who enter into the rest."

God's promises are active, powerful, and life-changing when we believe them and act upon them in faith. A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with a guy at the gym in the old Jacuzzi ministry. I was sitting on the bench outside in the pool area and he had been swimming laps. He was a young guy, looked like a college kid. He was then treading in the water, which is an exercise that people who play water polo do.

I sat there after my workout and asked, "Are you a water polo player?" He said, "Yeah, I go to University of Santa Barbara and I play water polo there." I asked what he was studying and he said he was a philosophy major. I said, "A philosopher water polo player. That's an interesting combination." We were joking a little bit and then I told him that I teach at Biola University.

He asked what I teach and I said, "I teach theology part-time, and I actually teach a course in philosophy of religion." He said, "That's my specialty. That's what I really enjoy. That's what I'm focusing in on. In fact, I just wrote a paper on this philosopher named David Hume." I know a little bit about Hume. I said, "Well, you know the problem with Hume's argument."

Hume was an atheist and made a claim that there are no such things as miracles. I said, "The problem with Hume's argument is he just proves what he already believes in the first place because he defines a miracle in a certain way that there's no way it could ever happen. By virtue of its definition, he excludes its possibility." He said, "Wow, I never really thought about it that way."

I told him that everybody has a worldview. Hume has a worldview, you have a worldview, and I have a worldview. The issue is what is the basis for our worldview? Every worldview has certain presuppositions. We were talking all about philosophy presuppositions and this kind of stuff. He started asking, "Biola is a Christian school, right?" and then he started asking me about my faith.

We were dialoguing a little bit about the gospel and he was about ready to leave when he said, "I have one more question." Up to this point, it had just been this peripheral God talk. He said, "You know what I've never understood?" as he was drying himself off. I asked what and he said, "I've never understood how Christians could make the claim that Jesus is the only way."

He said, "Do you believe if someone like myself, a good person who believes that there is a God, doesn't believe in Jesus, that I'm going to hell?" I was sitting on a bench and I had a very short window of responding before it would seem weird. My mind was racing at all the different things that I could say. I said, "That's a very important question that you're asking me and I want to answer it."

I told him I wanted to give him the backstory to my answer and then just gave him the answer: "Yes, that is what I believe." He said, "Wow." I gave him the backstory. If Jesus was just a prophet, just a religious leader, or just a philosopher, it would be pretty arrogant for Christianity or Christians to claim that he's the only way to salvation, wouldn't it?

He said, "Yeah." I said, "In fact, since you study philosophy of religion, you know there's a guy at Claremont." He said he wanted to go to Claremont to get his PhD. I told him about a professor there named John Hick. He has written a book called The Myth of God Incarnate. I asked if he knew what incarnate means and he said, "No."

I explained that the incarnation is the doctrine that God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. John Hick understands that if God really became a man in Jesus, then Jesus would be the only way. Then Jesus would have absolute authority and everything he taught would be more important and more true than any other religious leader or philosopher.

He wrote a book trying to debunk that idea called The Myth of God Incarnate. I told the young man that is what he needs to understand. When you talk to someone like myself who believes that Jesus is the only way, you need to realize we're not trying to be arrogant, narrow, or judgmental. We are understanding what Jesus meant when he said, "I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me."

It's because Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead and said it is only through his death and resurrection that you can have a relationship with God. I said all this in about a minute and a half. He was just listening while drying himself off. Then he said, "Wow, I've never heard that. That's clear. I understand it. I'm not sure if I believe it, but I get it."

I said, "Be careful." He asked what I meant and I explained that the medieval theologians and philosophers had a term in Latin, "assensus." Assensus just means intellectual acceptance. It's not the same thing as the term "fiducia," which is belief. When the Bible talks about belief, it means far more than just hearing something and intellectually accepting it.

I've used the illustration here in church with the chair, but I was sitting on the bench. I asked how much he weighed and he said about 200 pounds. I said, "I weigh 190 pounds and as you can tell, it's sinewy steel and sex appeal. The body men fear and women adore." I said that and he laughed. He mocked me, actually.

I got up off the bench and said, "Let's say that this bench has been manufactured and tested scientifically to hold the weight of a 300-pound person. It's made out of the finest formed plastic and been molded and tested over and over again in a laboratory. It's been proven to bear the weight of a 300-pound person. Let's say I explain that to you and that you trusted me as a credible representation of those facts."

He said, "Okay." I asked, "Do you believe it?" He's standing over there and he said, "Yeah, I believe that." I stood there for a while and said, "No, you don't." He asked what I meant and I said, "I just told you that this would bear your weight if you sit on it. I asked you if you believed it and you said yes, but you're still standing there. How would you show me if you really believed it?"

He said, "I'd sit on the bench." I said, "Exactly! And that's what you have to do with Jesus Christ. You can't just intellectualize him; you have to personally commit your life to him. That's what it means to be a Christian." He said, "Wow, I'd never heard that." I said, "Well, there you go. You just got your sermon for today." I shook his hand and he left.

That is not only true with the promise that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; that is true for every other promise in the Bible to those of us who are followers of Christ. We can't just intellectually hear it. We've got to sit on the bench. We have to commit ourselves to those promises.

When we, in faith and obedience, act on those promises, then God gives us the sign like Moses coming back and worshipping on the mountain. It really happened. Whatever the promise is will really happen in your life when you claim it in faith and obedience. This passage is full of life-changing application.

Wherever you are in your spiritual journey this morning, don't just hear it. Allow the truth to change your life. Abide in the truth and commit yourself to the truth. If you need to call on the Lord, do it today and be saved. If you need to trust God with your marriage, do it today and allow him to save it. If you need to experience salvation in some other area of your life, turn, seek, find. Hear the voice of God and let God change your life.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date and we'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or give us a call at 949-916-0250.

For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com.

We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment. But before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. In Exodus chapter 3, we're looking at the story of Moses. Moses saw God, Moses experienced God, and Moses heard the voice of God. Because of that, his life was changed and God used him to be a hero for his generation. If we want to be used by God, we need to have an experience with him. We need to see God for who he really is and we need to hear the voice of God.

We need to hear God revealing himself to us. It is in that revelation that our lives are changed. If you want God to change your life, then would you ask him to reveal himself to you as he did to Moses? Let's ask him that right now in prayer. God, we want to be heroes for our generation.

We want you to change us and use us for your kingdom purposes, but we need to see you and hear from you. So we ask you, God, to speak to us and we ask you, God, to show us your glory. We pray that we would be changed to become more and more like our savior, Jesus Christ. We pray in his name, amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.