A Nation Set Aside

all right welcome to bridge gospel this morning
it is good to see some of you guys so soon i could tell we're a little tired after yesterday
but i really think all who have came out for ron's celebration of life it was incredible
it was encouraging it was probably the most joyful celebration of life i think i've ever been to
and it was just i it was incredible and i gotta say for you know me being a new pastor
being my first celebration of life it was it was incredible and i was so honored to to be then i
could say my husband would say the same thing so i also like to welcome any first-time guests thank
you very much for coming we have a free gift in the lobby if you have even if you've been here
before and you haven't got it we really want to uh give you a free gift um and just kind of get to
know you and um and bless you and i also like to welcome all of you are who are joining us online
if you can't make it or you're too far away because you can't make it out here to arizona
thank you so much for watching and i hope this blesses you all right so we really don't have
any announcements so much however if um if you women if you are planning on going to the retreat
and you have not signed up please talk to sarah today okay we want to make sure anybody who wants
to go any woman any woman guys sorry stay home um we want you to go and if if finances are an issue
we will we will make that happen okay there's scholarships available we want to make sure that
if you're able to go we want to make sure you go because it's a blessing and there's a lot of growth
and i think a lot of bonding and i remember last year we just had a lot of good bonding and it was
it was a lot of fun it was a lot of fun so i'm just going to pray for the offering um you can either
give online uh we go through two rivers church that's our planting church we don't have our bank account
yet i don't know why we're still baby church and we have an offering box in the back so i'm just
going to pray for the offering oh dear heavenly father we just thank you for all the gifts that
you've given us the bonuses the wages everything because it comes from you lord and we just want
to give back to you and we're going to be sowing into the kingdom of god because we believe that when
we sow that you're going to bless that and we're going to reap a harvest and so we just give this to
you in your name amen all right so we are going to kind of continue what we started last week so
if you weren't here last week i highly recommend going on our youtube channel watch last week's sermon
this is part two we talked about the tower of babel which is a very fun story we hear about this as
kids but we're kind of digging in a little bit deeper we're talking about what it meant on the
spiritual side of things we're kind of looking at this a little more 360 and so so if you like i
said if you haven't watched it please go back and watch it because this message today is really going
to build on that so we left off with this people at babel who rebelled and god dispersed them and so
now let's let's dig into deeper more deeper what was really going on and so our passage today we're
going to be looking at deuteronomy which freaks some people out but deuteronomy is cool i promise
it's cool all right so verse 8 deuteronomy explains this it says when the most high gave the nations
their inheritance when he divided up humankind he set the boundaries of people according to the number
of the heavenly assembly who there's a lot to unpack there so what does this mean what does
deuteronomy 32 8 mean well it explains first off how god dispersed the nations at the tower of babel
and they did this because of their rebellion they refused to follow yahweh they refused that is god
and he refused to follow the king of kings the lord of lords and the most high god and so as a result
god disinherited them and let them follow these lesser gods these heavenly assembly
and you got to understand this is not just an old testament concept
who here remembers probably don't god barely remember it back in november i talked about i had
a whole series on conflict right and i talked about this passage roman one we're going to talk
about it again starting in verse 18 for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness because
what can be known about god is plain to them because god has made it plain to them for since
the creation of the world his invisible attributes his eternal power and divine nature can be clearly
seen because they are understood through what has been made so people are without excuse although they
knew god they did not glorify him as god or gave him thanks but they became futile in our thought in
their thoughts and in their senseless hearts were darkened although they claimed to be wise and
think about the tower of babel they claimed to be wise they became fools they exchanged the glory of
the immortal god for an image resembling mortal human beings for birds or four-footed animals or reptiles
think about the golden calf um at mount sinai you know all these different idols we see throughout
scripture therefore god gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity to dishonor
their bodies amongst themselves they exchanged the truth of god for a lie and worshiped and served
creation rather than the creator who is blessed forever amen you see in in romans paul is talking
about the nature of humanity you know that god will give humans over who do not worship god
he's saying if you don't want to worship me fine i'll let you go and worship whatever you want
and that gets continues to describe humanity today look at our world if you guys looked at the news
lately because here's the thing everybody worships something everybody worships something there is no
such thing as true atheism see atheism says there is no deity there is no god i worship nothing that is not
true you worship something whether it's your job whether it's your car whether it's your money you
worship something and either you worship god almighty or you are worshiping an idol that's how it is
that's how this world works and so let's talk about this heavenly assembly who who is this heavenly
assembly see at this point in the story after babel there is no there's no nation directly under god
under yahweh there's no he has nobody that he's ruling see at this point all humanity had been
divided up among these lesser gods of this heavenly assembly and and we know this from psalm 82 i think
my husband pastor tim had talked about this a few weeks earlier psalm 82 says i thought you are the
gods all of you are sons of the most high yet you will die like mortals you will fall like all the
other rulers rise up oh god and execute judgment on the earth for you own all the nations
some stuff going on here see this psalmist recognizes that there's these other little g gods
and they are subject to the most high and that is yahweh but i thought we only had one god right
so what are we going to do about that how are we going to explain that well we have these little gods
but i thought that the main christian doctrine is is monotheism we have one god and i know this passage
may seem uncomfortable because it seems to kind of jeopardize um our doctrine but let me explain this
first off scripture clearly states that god is the only true god let me give you a few examples
deuteronomy 6 4 here oh israel the lord is our god the lord is one or how about uh let's go to the new
testament first corinthians with regard then to eating food from sacrifice to idols we know that an idol in
this world is nothing and that there is no god but one or an isaiah i am the lord i have no peer there is
no god but me see the fact is we have one god in three persons father son holy spirit how does the
trinity work i don't know i'm not that smart okay my brain explodes when i think about it but that's just
how it is it is beyond our thinking it's beyond our little futile brains here maybe some of you are smarter
but what he's saying here is our god is the uncreated creator he is the one that created that heavenly
realm you remember back in romans 125 or one romans 1 verse 25 says they exchanged the truth for a lie
and worshiped and served the creation rather than the creator who is blessed forever see these beings
these these these little g gods were actually god's creation god created this heavenly assembly so are
they gods in the sense of our creator lord god yahweh absolutely not they are spiritual beings they are
part of this heavenly assembly and we see this all the way from genesis 1. genesis 126 says let us
and god's talking about when he says let us to his heavenly assembly right so let's talk about
these little g gods let's talk about who these spiritual beings are because i don't feel like we
talk a lot about this in church this is this is something that kind of gets glossed over
see what makes these little gods distinctly different is their mortality and their judgment
back to psalm 82 verse 7 it says yet you will die like mortals see our true god is not a mortal
he will not die he existed before and he will continue to exist psalm 90 says even before the
mountains came into existence you brought the world into being you are the eternal god or isaiah 40 do you
not know that or do you not hear the lord is an eternal god the creator of the whole earth he does not
get tired or weary there is no limit to his wisdom or revelation 22 i am the alpha the omega the
first and the last the beginning and the end and and folks we need to think about this we have a god
who is eternal he is the first and the last and this is why we need to think in an eternal mindset
we need to think in an eternal mindset and i know i talked about this last week but i cannot emphasize
this enough because there's not we don't think about this naturally we don't think about what it's like
before our life and after our life i remember we have a family that comes and they have a bunch
of little kids and their father just turned 40 and the little kids came up and they asked me my dad
my dad's really old he turned 40 which was like oh my gosh i just turned 40. um how old is god
and i'm sitting there thinking that's a pretty legitimate question
like i could see where you came up with 40 is pretty old okay okay all right and i had to tell
him god has no age he existed before time and he will exist after time cease and we can't think
of ourselves outside of time we are restricted to time we have boundaries let me let me give you an
example let me let me kind of tell you about my week i'm going to use this opportunity to tell you about
my week it was an interesting week it was a difficult week and you know how like you have
a situation happen if it just happened isolated by itself it's not a big deal but then like something
else happens and then something else happens and then something else happens and all of a sudden
you're just like you know and i had it was my week i and it wasn't anything here at bridge it was
just stuff outside of bridge and and it was just it was just piling up and piling up and finally on
wednesday things finally came to a head if you guys all know me i drive clunkers right i have
three cars and they're all clunkers and at any given time two of the three are running okay well i'm
down to one car because now one of my now two of my cars aren't running and i'm thinking well i gotta
run a bunch of errands on wednesday i gotta go to costco you know it's just okay gotta get it done got to
get done right and so my husband and i are driving around and i'm having my home and i'm about ready
to go through an intersection down baseline and i hit the gas and my engine my rpms go up but i don't
accelerate well that's not good do it again here i am coasting i'm like i hope that light's green when
i get there and finally i ended up in a parking bank parking lot with a non-running car now all
three of my cars aren't running fortunately i had some backup and they came over and helped me and
here here i am my husband is in the parking lot waiting for the tow truck here i am in my driveway
trying to wrench in my other car so i can make it to wednesday night prayer night and i just lost it
i just lost it i said god really really after all this week i have to deal with this now now
i was so caught up in my affairs i was so caught up in the moment that i forgot that we have a god
that is before time and is after time that anything that i'm dealing with right now all of the trauma
all of the problems that i'm getting i have to deal with even though they really weren't my fault
and now i got cars and now i have a transmission i got to rebuild and i'm like really god
if i just had a new car if i just had this it's so that's so um should i say this it's so everyday
affair it is the opposite of eternity thinking and yeah i know it kind of hurts in the moment but man
we forget that we have a greater god that all of this will pass away my cars will eventually go to
the trash they probably should have gone to the trash 10 years ago but they're still running and
so we're going to still work with it all of it will pass away and i was just thinking about my own comfort
and i was thinking about my own problems and sometimes we act like those are the most important
things so if you look back at psalm 82 verse 7 it says these other spiritual rulers these other
little g gods and then often your bibles will actually have them in quotations they will fall
just like the earthly rulers that they influence and these gods are no better than mere mortals you see
the difference right but then there's another part of this about these these heavenly assembly these
other little g gods is they are subjected to judgment just like we are and this folks is why eternity
matters is we will all face judgment we will all face judgment and in the same way that these little
g gods are going to be judged so will we let me give you guys an illustration here all right the average
lifespan is about 80 years right so imagine a rope just a rope as long as us 10. us 10 starts in
florida somewhere and then it ends in california that's a very long rope right imagine a piece
of tape a little tiny piece of tape on the end of that rope that little piece of tape that represents
your life boy it seems pretty insignificant doesn't it but here's the thing even that rope has limits
eternity does not you know and yesterday we just had a celebration of life it was an incredible time
it was a celebration it was probably the most rowdiest celebration of life i've ever been to
and we looked at looked at ron's life and it was it was the tape but what made that celebration of life
so incredible is we all knew that he was preparing for that rope and so what are we doing to prepare for
that rope and so when you have these of these people these people at babble these people even today who
are so caught up in their own life and they really aren't following god they're chasing after everything
but god they're not thinking about the rope james 4 says you do not know about tomorrow what is your
life like for you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time then vanishes they weren't thinking
about eternity but neither do the little gods that the people are worshiping there's an end for them too
so we all kind of clear about who these these little gods are that they are not our true god they are
not our god almighty they are these spiritual beings that were created and so babble rejected humanity
they rejected yahweh's rule so god allowed these nations to go follow who they wished
they went and followed these spiritual powers but there's good news god wasn't finished with
humanity because he chose a people for himself and that's israel and that's where he was going to
reveal himself and ultimately bring salvation so that was the introduction now i got to hurry up and do the
real message all right all right i think i think they're okay back there with the kids i think they're okay we
got two guys for one kid i think we're going to be okay i double teamed them up all right
so we're going to talk about the nation of israel we're going to talk about the result of this
okay god decided to make a nation for himself and this nation was going to have a very special purpose
they were going to be god's son figuratively speaking now remember the nation of israel didn't exist at
the time of babel okay we got to be very clear they did not exist at the time of babel and they
wouldn't until another about 300 or so years later it's debatable between 250 and 300 years
and to us 300 years seems like a long time that's nothing to god that's like a blink of an eye think
of that rope that's like three pieces of tape okay god had a plan and that plan was abraham
genesis 12 now the lord said to abram go out from your country your relatives and your father's
household to the land that i will show you that i will make you into a great nation i will bless you
and i will make your name great so that you will exemplify divine blessing i will bless those who bless
you but the one who treats you lightly i must curse so that all the families of the earth may receive
blessing through you now you notice the the difference here okay so babel was trying to
make a name for themselves right and now god is making a name for abraham or abram at this time
he was making a name he says i will make a name for you abram did not come up with this on his own
but there were three conditions that abram had to follow these three conditions were were
his he had to leave his country he had to leave his people and he had to leave his household why
why did he have to leave his country well first off abraham was in southern mesopotamia the same
region that babel was you guys realize that abram was in the land of babel he wasn't in the same exact
city but he was in the same region why did he have to leave his people well those same people were
still following those lesser gods those were the nations that yahweh dispersed and he had to leave
that but then why did he have to leave his household the reason abram had to leave his household is because
god was about to change his identity from his father's household that was tara to yahweh's household by
covenant he needed to change his identity so abram had to leave his family his way of life in his
land so god could build a new covenant for him because if he remained he would be remaining under those other
circumstances and isn't that amazing abram wasn't even worshiping god he didn't know about god he had no
idea who god was he was worshiping like we don't really know what god he was worshiping if i had to
guess this is just my opinion he was probably worshiping the moon god's sin which was very typical
of that region we don't know just is my hunch yet the grace of god was so strong that even though that
abram was worshiping another god he still called him
and we will find out that his name will be reflected because now once yahweh answered the
once abram answered that call and said yes i'm gonna follow you god changes his name from abram to
abraham to reflect that new identity and abraham becomes that seed of israel and becomes god's chosen
people and that's huge abram didn't deserve it abram wasn't seeking this god went out and sought him
he went out and found him and he said i will make a name for you even you you did nothing to reach out
to me that's how gracious of a god we have and because of that because of abram and because his of his yes
we are able to be here and have a direct relationship with god because that promise didn't just stop with
abraham abraham had a son named isaac and isaac had a son named jacob and later the god changes jacob's
name to israel because he fought with god and he wrestled with god and from israel came the 12 sons
and the 12 tribes of israel that yahweh was going to build his church upon
and because of that this whole nation of israel was formed and it just started with one man
one man that belonged to another people that belonged to another god that god called out of that place
deuteronomy 32 shows this it says for the lord's allotment of his people jacob is his special
possession
so now we have all these nations divided up among the gods but now yahweh has a people for himself
and israel belonged directly to yahweh and israel was very different you know they were they were
very strange nation and if you read if you read a lot of um ancient history which i absolutely love
i love geeking out on ancient history israel was weird okay they they didn't follow other gods
because typically with other nations if you go from city to city you would go and worship at their
temples you would go worship whatever god was a deity was in that city israel wouldn't do that monotheism
was strange and israel represented one god and everybody knew it they knew if you were an israelite if
you were a hebrew you were a child you were the people of yahweh so now we have this nation and the
rest of the old testament is really just a story about israel versus the nations that are disinherited
yahweh god versus that those corrupt lesser gods and israel's purpose see god did not chose israel
because they were powerful or numerous in fact they were they were kind of hillbillies if you
think about it they were quite short people as we've kind of figured they were not numerous
they were not known for their military prowess i mean they were not that strong they they always needed
yahweh's help if you look at all the times they had to go into battle if they did it on their own
they didn't do very good they always needed god's help they were a very small population they didn't
have very advanced civilizations there are other civilizations that were much more advanced that
had banking systems that had plumbing systems they didn't have anything they're very they're almost
semi-nomadic but yet they only worshipped one god and yet god shows them the one of the weaker nations
that the world would get to know who god was and so this is the promise to abraham in genesis 12 it says all
the families of the earth may receive blessing through you and so from this very beginning god's plan was not
just israel it was the whole world and so folks god calls us out of these places we all started in these
places we all started in these these these nations like babel all of us and so for those of you who have
been following following following jesus for a long time sometimes we forget what it was like before that
what it was like to to live in a world where jesus wasn't your center of your life jesus wasn't an
important part of your life where you were just following your own desires you were following your own
idols and so when we see others who are who are struggling with this who who don't understand the
importance of jesus who don't understand what eternity is like who think well if i'm just a
good person if i just do some good stuff i will go to heaven that's what it's like it's our own merits
that is not what it's like you need to have eternity in mind and sadly there are christians or people who
call themselves christians who don't have eternity in mind they just identify it it sounds good it makes me look
good i don't really church isn't a really big part of what they do they don't really care about
studying and get to know jesus and having a personal relationship where they come to church on sunday and
everything's great but the rest of the week they are foul they are just like the world because they
are so focused on their own affairs they forget about eternity and if you think about this the rope
illustration if you think about that we are just that piece of tape on the end of that rope
and that's all we have that's our only shot before we walk and stand before god on judgment day if
that's our only shot wouldn't you live your life with everything you have i mean i had to have that
moment myself i called myself a christian but man i it was after i i came to jesus my right life got rocky
and if anybody knows my testimony it's it's interesting i was pretty straight-laced until i became a christian
and it's just the opposite you think oh your life got better no it didn't but there was a moment where
i realized that if i keep living the life that i'm living and if i don't stop doing what i am doing
i'm missing eternity and as a result i left a very lucrative business i left the marketplace
and i had to make some really tough decisions and i'm so glad i did and looking back what i what i
went through this last week and as trivial as it is looking back i would go through it again if that
means that i'm going to live my life for jesus every day and i have to suffer and i have to keep driving
my clunkers every day because in the end it doesn't matter it doesn't matter because i want to live for the
rope because none of us none of us are able to share fellowship on our own none of us are and so
when you see family members when you see friends who who have a really false understanding of who god is
of oh yeah god is great but not really for me or god is great i'll go to heaven but i don't need to go
to church you know i'm not that kind of person we need to understand we need to teach them what
eternity is and we don't have much time our life is just a blade of grass that comes and goes we
don't have much time we need to act with more urgency we need to act with more urgency we don't have
much time because i can't imagine what it would have been like what that celebration of life would
have been like if i knew that rod wasn't preparing for the rope it wouldn't have been what
it was it would have been very difficult and we need to think about that and in church i'm gonna
i'm gonna challenge you this week if there's somebody that god is putting on your heart that
you know that is not living for an living for eternity that's not living for the rope that we
start a conversation with them that we start going in fellowship with them we start praying for them
first of all we need to start praying for them this prayer works prayer works we need to start
bringing the the idea of eternity to a people who don't understand and that includes people who call
themselves christians because there's so many christians who who i just you've got to understand
you can't just live life the way you want and just have be a christian on sunday
because what it's a narrow path to heaven very few will enter i had a professor once that told me
something we're in a class and he said when you go to heaven you're going to be very surprised who
will be in heaven and who's not going to be in heaven but most of all you're going to be surprised
that you made it in and i was just like whoa hello and i was like is that heresy and i'm sitting
thinking but you know i know i know ephesians eight i'm like you know eight nine two eight nine i'm
like i i mean i i believe in my heart and i confess with my mouth and i'm thinking but am i really
living for the rope and we know by our changed hearts and we know by our changed minds and and i'm
not saying that we're going to be perfect we're not going to be perfect i mean come on hang out with
me for a day okay seriously trust me i may have lost my sanctification a little bit on that wednesday
with the cars i i'm not going to repeat some of the words i said but there's grace there's grace
i could still live for eternity i can still move forward and so can you and we need to start
bringing eternity to the people that's what jesus represents and that's why we need jesus because jesus
represents that bridge to eternity
and so i'm gonna i'm gonna have why don't you guys bring up the music boys i want to just take
a moment we have a couple minutes left and i just want all of us just kind of close our eyes i want
to just check our hearts right now if you call yourself a christian if you call yourself a believer in
god i want you to just think what am i doing for living for eternity and i know sometimes we're
in situations that are difficult maybe we have some physical ailments we have some mental ailments
maybe we are just our hearts are broken we're dealing with situations we're dealing with with health
issues but despite that how are we living for eternity it's not about the things we do but it's the condition
of our hearts and i want you to be honest with yourself is christianity a sunday thing or is it a lifestyle
is it something that you live day after day after day is it something that when people see you they
notice that there's something different about you that they can't explain they don't understand why
but they know that you're different
80 years is nothing in the face of eternity
it's nothing
and i challenge you what are we doing to live life with everything we got
what we can we do to really sow into the kingdom what prayers are we praying
that person we saw at the grocery store you saw that single mom with that child
what are we doing to stop and pray over them to stop and give them a word of encouragement
to give them a word from the lord are we scared are we embarrassed who cares eternity is at stake
eternity is at stake if if they say no i don't want prayer oh well we move on
but i guarantee they'll probably take it
because eternity is at stake and that one word may be the thing that leads them to jesus
it could be that one thing and if you know someone
and you you have a friend you have a family member that you
know that is just not living for eternity that is not living for jesus lord let's let's just kind
of pray that out in our hearts right now i'm just going to pray over them lord anyone who is who is
on the hearts of of the people here in this room lord that they get to know you that they get to know you
through a word through a a moment in time that eternity will be impressed on their hearts that
they will realize that they don't have all the time in the world lord
and lord let us understand the gravity of what eternity is
that because of the nation of israel because of these people that from this nation you had a plan for us
that out of babel out of a land of sin lord you called one man to create a nation and from that nation
came jesus and jesus was the was the perfect sacrifice he was the perfect bridge to to bring us back into
a relationship with you lord and lord we are so thankful that we can come to you at any time and
and have that personal relationship with you that jesus is with us that we lord we can talk to you
directly because of the son that died on the cross and lord i just want to pray over everyone today who is
who's going through tough times and i know a lot of your stories a lot of you guys are going through it
lord we just ask that you lift that burden so that we are no longer focusing on our
affairs that we're keeping our eyes fixed upon you lord
and jesus we love you we worship you because you are the one and true god and lord let us live our lives
every day like we don't have tomorrow because eternity is the thing that is coming
and lord bless everyone who leaves today protect them anoint them and keep them safe
and in jesus name we all pray
Amen