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Weimar University

The Great Reset: The Love Factor

Don Mackintosh

01 The Great Reset: The Love Factor

All right, well, with that, let's just pray, and then we'll get into our message tonight.

Father in Heaven, Lord, we're thankful today that we can come to an end of another week, but a beginning of another Sabbath.

And We ask your blessing on our time together.

As we consider your word, we come in Christ's name.

So as I was thinking about what to talk about following up this series, I thought about the, 1 of the last great things that God is trying to do is really great reset that he's trying to be involved in is to rearticulate his love for mankind, and in so doing, hopefully stir love in their hearts for 1 another.

The last revelation to a dying world will be a revelation of God's character of love.

And so that's what I want to talk about this weekend.

I'll talk about that tonight, by way of introduction, and then looking at that more fully during the Sabbath school time here in Haskell for our new believers and for others who come as well.

And then at our 1130 time as well, looking at this, You know, there's a lot of texts in the Bible that talk about love as it relates to God's law that are very, very clear and easy to understand, but there are also many texts where people get confused.

So we're going to look at some of those texts over the next couple of weeks as well.

So I think it'll be a fruitful time together.

And part 3, the final victory of God's love.

That's going to be this weekend as we look at these things together.

Now Harvard did a study not so long ago talking about love.

And they basically said love is all that matters.

1 is love, and the other is finding a way of coping with life that does not push love away.

Conclusion of the study, not in a medical but psychological sense, for those of you who look at things through the lens of psychology.

I heard several of these people today in my Daniel class.

They did an excellent job in their presentations.

I won't point them out, but I was blessed.

Conclusion of the study, not in a medical or psychological sense, is that connection is the whole shooting match.

Happiness is only the cart, but love is the horse.

So this idea of connection is related to love.

And if you don't feel connected, then there's a problem.

And people, especially over the last few months, are feeling less and less connected, more and more isolated as a result of whether it be a fear of disease or the diseased or fear of violence.

Homicides are up the highest they've been on record in this last year in America.

So people are not only feeling disconnected, they are disconnecting others and themselves from life itself.

There are 330 million Americans yet were lonely and getting lonelier.

A recent study, 61% of those surveyed were lonely.

And this was like a sample in America of over 10, 000 people.

So a fairly large sample, it wasn't like 3 people.

It was 10, 000 people and 66% of the people you meet, 6 out of 10, almost 7 out of 10 are lonely, lonely.

A report led by the health insurer Cigna found nearly a 13% rise in loneliness since 2018 when the survey was first conducted.

You say, I know why They're lonely, at least the men I know.

But loneliness appeared to be more common among men.

The survey found 63% of men to be lonely compared with 58% of women.

And surprisingly, what age group do you suppose is most lonely?

Gen Z, people who are 18 to 22 years old when surveyed, had the highest average of loneliness.

Much more lonely than people my age or Bill Crick's age.

Much more lonely than even people my dad's age.

So people in your demographic, how many of you are between 18 and 22?

Let's look at that person next to you and say, Are you lonely?

Maybe here it is completely different because you have such a tight-knit community and so you don't have any of these problems, but you know I've had actually people talk with me here and tell me even though I'm in the dorm surrounded by people, I'm lonely.

Even though I come to church, I'm lonely.

So where are people turning in the midst of their loneliness?

Well, some are turning to drugs, alcohol, other things to self-medicate.

And that sense of reward or euphoria that comes they're searching for.

So marijuana increases their dopamine by 175%, 175% that makes them feel pretty good for a few moments.

And alcohol 200%, Usually they do those 2 together.

But that's only once usually because They burn out their brain cells when they do that, and they never can have that feeling again.

They never can get that feeling back again.

Of course, people also are turning to their cell phones and social media, but what they found interestingly enough is 73% of very heavy social media users are considered lonely as compared with 52% of white users.

So the more you're using your cell phone, like for instance, if you're actually using your cell phone during this message, looking at your social media, you're lonely.

And you're bored with what's happening here and you're reaching out to someone that probably doesn't care that much about you.

They might give you a like here and there, because they also are looking for dopamine as well.

So you can text me if you think what I said was offensive.

And I actually will monitor now on my own social media what's happening here.

So I thought that was a very interesting statistic, though.

The more people are on Instagram, the more lonely they are.

Of course, you know, there's a controversy between hate and love, and this is between Christ and of course Satan.

And Satan comes not but to hurt, kill, and destroy.

He wants us to not experience love, not experience connectedness.

He wants us to experience hate, hurt, and destruction.

But Christ said, I have come that they might have life and might have it more abundantly.

So that's the controversy that surrounds each 1 of us every day, all day, and those that we know, some of which we might not even know are experiencing great feelings of loneliness and desperation.

So I thought we'd look at this psalm tonight.

You said that and you want to come up and read it for us then.

So I thought we'd look at a key psalm, which may or may not be familiar to you, but this psalm is kind of like a go-to psalm that I share with people that I sense don't understand the love of God.

And this psalm is Psalm 139, verse 13 through 16.

We'll start with Psalm 139, but let's start with verse 13 through 16.

And why don't you read it with me on the screen?

For you formed my inward parts, You covered me in my mother's womb.

I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed and in your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them." What is this talking about?

Even before you were born, when you were being formed, who knew about you?

02 The Great Reset: The Love Factor

Father in Heaven, Lord, bless us today as we study, as part of this little follow-up series of our great Reset series with It Is Written and Pastor Peppers, in Christ's name, Amen.

Okay, so how many of you were here last night or watched last night, anybody?

Not a really big showing, But we looked last night at the power of God's love through the lens of Psalm 139.

Today we're going to look at God's law and His love, and then a final victory of God's love at our 1130 service.

So you know, there's this controversy between love and hate.

Satan comes, the thief comes not but to hurt, kill, and destroy.

But I have come that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly." So There's always this controversy between these 2, and that text John 10, 10 summarizes it nicely, hate versus love.

I put it in easy text for you so you could read the opposite way you normally read and exercise yourself.

Now how many of you today could help me by summarizing last night's message?

What were the points of last night's message?

A teacher knows exactly how well they did by such questions as this, and I feel as though maybe I should look for a different profession.

In the lowest parts of the earth, my eyes saw your substance being yet unformed.

The days fashioned for you, when as yet there was none of them." Right?

And by the way, the verses are not inspired in the Bible.

So if you get that wrong, you just have to say things like Jesus said, it's written in the scroll.

How many think that would be much easier on your Bible exam?

Fadidis would go for that, but that's being unbiblical, just tell him that.

So God fully formed you, verse 13 to 15, and then verse 1 through 6, what's it say?

Oh Lord, you have searched me and know me.

You know my rising up and my sitting down.

You know my thoughts afar off and are acquainted with all my ways and in your book they're all written.

So he not only fully formed you, he fully what?

He also fully...verse 7 through 12, where can I go from your presence?

And where can I flee from your Spirit if I make my bed in the grave?

He follows you closer than people on social media.

And with this, what does he think of you?

Oh God, how great is the sum of them, if I could count them, they'd be more in number than the sand." So we saw that there's 6000000000000 grains of sand, they think, on the beaches of the world, but that's not all the sand in the world.

And that's how many thoughts he has about you.

You know, the average person has 60 to 70, 000 thoughts a day, and the problem is 90% of them are repetitive and 80% negative.

God has thoughts about us every single day and He does not leave you.

So this psalm was really showing the love of God.

And then, in gratitude, what do we do next?

Try me, know my anxieties, and see if there's any wicked way in me and do what?

So, is it easier to follow someone you love or someone you hate?

Some people make their life after following people they hate, so I don't know if that's a good question.

But In the long run, it's easier to follow someone you love.

So what do you suppose causes those anxieties?

The little word there is thoughts, but they must be anxious thoughts.

See if there, know if there's any wicked way in me, right?

So the wicked things are probably causing the anxieties.

Great peace have they which love thy law, nothing shall offend them, and in literally nothing they shall offend.

So probably the wickedness is related somehow to the anxiety.

And how would we know if something is wicked or not?

In our psalm it told us, they speak evil against you Wickedly, your enemies take your what?

So you know something's wicked if God's name is being taken in vain.

We have a very aggressive person answering all the questions here.

I'm not going to let her do every single question, although we appreciate it.

03 The Great Reset: The Love Factor

For being with us during this series with Pastor Peppers and now being with us today as we're having this little follow-up series dealing with some questions that are related to resetting our lives according to your law.

So last night we began our little mini-series looking at the power of God's love.

If you were not here last night, I encourage you to watch that.

It was a review of God's love as seen through the lens of Psalm 139.

And then this morning at 10 o'clock in our church study time here in Haskell Hall, we looked at God's law and his love.

We took a closer look at how God's law is not burdensome, it's an expression of his love, and it's just holy, good, and we looked at what that means in terms of resetting our lives.

And today, during this time, we'll look at the final victory of God's love and really how to live a new covenant lifestyle because God's law is a big drag if you don't have a new covenant experience.

It's a letter that kills and all the texts that we could look at that relate to that.

And I wanna talk about some of those texts in our midweek service and start to go through some of those that sometimes cause confusion.

We talk about the law being perfect, holy, just, righteous, spiritual.

It's written on the hearts, ordained in life.

It's the truth that converts or restores the soul.

It's to be fulfilled in the life of Spirit-filled believers.

It's the power of sin that brings condemnation.

You must die in order to have a relationship with Jesus.

What do all those texts mean and is there confusion?

And so we'll be looking at those beginning Wednesday night.

And there's absolutely no confusion but hopefully today we'll get a good start on seeing what really the problem might be.

So as we mentioned last night and then this morning you know there's a great controversy in the world between hate and love, between Christ and Satan.

The thief comes not but to hurt, kill, and destroy.

So Satan is always trying to hurt, to kill, to destroy, to take away our peace, to take away our joy.

I have come that they might have life, they might have it more abundantly, John 10.10 says.

So we have this great controversy, you might say, always going on in our own hearts and our own minds and everybody we meet where the devil's attempt is to steal their joy and Christ is trying to bring them a fullness of joy.

I remind you here of the psalm in its original language so that you can read it in its pure form.

And let's just by way of review what were the points that we made last night to see if anybody knows what were the points we made based on Psalm 139 God fully for us He fully follows us, fully loves us.

And because of that, he also, it says, does not leave us.

And because of that, what do we want to do?

And then also in gratitude, what do we ask him to do?

Search me, O God, know my heart, try me, know my anxieties, and see if there's any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

And that's what we talked about, because his way is found in the sanctuary, we're told in Psalm 77.

But the sanctuary's culmination, the sanctuary was a summary of the Exodus, reminding them of how they were brought out of Egypt, but it led to the most holy place where he had ensconced his law and he wanted to put it not just in granite but ingrained on their hearts and minds.

And that was the whole purpose of the Exodus experience.

So what is it that defines God's everlasting way?

We found not only the sanctuary but the law of God and we studied that more fully this morning.

So if you weren't here, please review that tape.

It was a very interesting and I think fruitful study.

In fact, I had some people text me in between services for the notes on that.

So I encourage you to go back and watch that if you are unable to be there.

So the largest quotation from the Old Testament to New is this quotation where God wants to write his law on our hearts and minds.

Jeremiah 31, 29 through 34, it should say, is then repeated in Hebrews chapter 8, verse 10 through 12, and then repeated again in Hebrews 10, 16, and 17.

And in Hebrews 10, 16, and 17, or Hebrews 10, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, all say the same thing.

I want to write my law in your hearts and in your minds.

And this is after the Christ event, after Christ had died on the cross.

This is the large objective of God to put his law in our hearts and minds because it's a definition like we learned in our last hour of love.

As we saw also in our last hour, some people, in fact the devil himself, and others maybe unwittingly joining him, they don't like God's law because it kind of goes across to what they're doing, what they believe or what they want to do in life.

And so, instead of saying, Lord, change me, they say I will change the Lord, I will change his law.

In fact, in this nation even, The law is viciously under attack by the judicial system of this very nation.

I won't get into that, but I would just say some of the most recent actions by the Supreme Court have been directly in opposition to 5 of the 10 commandments.

So we live in a time when God's law, definition of love, is being attacked and people are attempting to change times and laws.

Just as we saw in history in Daniel 7, we had those kingdoms that were mentioned and then that little horn power, the papacy power, that for 1260 years was known for its attempt to think and change times and laws.

So instead of following God's law, would boldly say, I'm not following it, in fact, I have changed it.

And we'll continue looking at that as we go forward in subsequent times together.

So that's problem number 1, just trying to change something you don't like or you don't want to be bothered with.

Or Problem number 2, equally a devastating problem, is this.

It's well-intentioned but faulty nonetheless.

God says, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, but they broke his covenant.

And so they were having an old covenant experience.

That's why even in the Old Testament it talked about the need for a new covenant experience.

New covenant examples in the New Testament are all Old Testament characters.

So we can't say something changed because of history.

The largest examples of living like God wants us to live are taken from the Old Testament and actually talked about in the New Testament.

Who's 1 of the largest persons talked about in the New Testament as an example of living the right way?

It's not a historical issue, it's an experiential issue.

There was Cain, that was an old covenant experience.

There was Abel, that was a new covenant experience.

It's not historical, it's experiential and you can instantly have either an old covenant or a new covenant experience.

So what does it mean to have an old covenant experience?

Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, tell the children of Israel, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine." I was talking to someone this last week who said, you know, I'm very interested in all the conditions in the Bible.

Because if I don't meet the conditions, then somehow I'm not accepted.

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