Good morning, good morning, good morning.
Good morning.
As you can read as well as I can, that other board up there says the anniversary celebration,
May 21st, just around the corner.
We're going to do a rock party and we're doing the rooftop candy drop.
There you go, rooftop candy drop.
I'm going to do all the words.
You can give them lined up in my head for some reason.
That doesn't go wrong with a person later, does it?
Anyway, a rooftop candy drop will be that night as well.
We'll obviously be promoting that and get an opportunity for the community to come out
and enjoy with us and we'll celebrate our anniversary.
Our anniversary is actually on the 22nd, but it's the 21st.
What day of the week is that?
That's Monday.
That's Tuesday.
So the 21st is Tuesday.
So we'll be doing that instead of our regular Bible study time that evening,
which is to serve the community, work together and celebrate our anniversary, May 21st.
And then also just kind of things on the horizon.
So coming in June is the National Convention.
Our messengers, I think, most of all of our messengers will be going to the National Convention.
And the two days right before that is the pastors conference.
And so some of our men will be going to the pastors conference.
That runs 9, 10, 11, 12 June.
Further out still, a little further out still, we have Camp You Can.
We have a number of our men who've committed to go and shepherd on board for Camp You Can this year.
And that's boys ages 9 through 15.
They can go to that and they can go for free.
There's no charge for them to go to camp.
And so last year we took, I forget, 17, 15, something like that.
We did a bunch.
17.
Yeah, 17.
And they came from like 12 different neighborhoods all over the city.
And so what a great blessing that was.
And it's cool because they have professional sports stars and coaches that come and talk to the boys about.
And it really is all focused around boys growing into being men of integrity, which of course includes Christ.
So it's very, very good time.
And there's more.
There's lots of good stuff going on.
But here's what I want you to hear.
The most important thing is that these activities are not for action.
They're not for fun.
They're not for excitement.
Even though they generate all those things, they are all for the glory of God.
We'll talk more about that in more announcements and more time to pray together during the membership meeting, which is after service today.
So this is our agenda.
We will serve the Lord in praise and worship and give our times and offerings and go to the word and learn from him today.
We'll do all that immediately following service.
We'll have our membership meeting, which should be fairly brief because as a right now, is there any motions?
There's going to be we think there's going to be at least one motion.
If you have a motion, you can get to Amalia or myself prior to the beginning of the meeting.
We don't do open floor during the meeting.
That way we kind of know what you're getting into.
We approve the agenda in advance.
The motion on the agenda before it starts.
And then after that, we'll be celebrating in the cafeteria.
Today is Hannah's birthday.
She's older today.
Well, not really.
She's just older today.
Praise the Lord.
And so we have cake in the cafeteria and the kids will be getting a healthy lunch style snack in the classroom.
So that's kind of cool.
In anticipation of so we don't just keep them cake and send them home to their parents all wiring and stuff.
All right. So that's the plan.
It's going to be fun, but it's really going to be for God.
And hopefully we'll reach the United States.
Want to throw something out there?
Yeah, just real quick.
So real quick.
On June 7th at seven o'clock, I'm doing a youth gym.
It's going to be music, dancing, whatever.
There is going to be a gospel message in the middle of it.
But I'm inviting any teenager basically from 13 to 17 to come.
And it's going to be all it's all Christian music.
It's going to be rap, hip hop.
There's some rock in there.
It's just a variety of music to just have fun.
My vision of this is just basically a giant worship party where we all sing songs and worship God.
But most importantly, I want people the whole goal of this is I want people to see, especially teenagers,
I want them to see that you can be a Christian and still have a lot of fun doing things.
That's Friday night, right?
That's Friday night.
Friday night in the center.
OK.
We'll talk a little bit more about that at the meeting when we go to announcements there.
Let's pray together now and give God the glory for the day.
Father in heaven, you are God.
We know that.
We are not.
Despite the fact that we were created in your image and then from the image from the beginning, sin really was introduced,
really was chosen even over a relationship with you, over representing you the way that man kind of should have.
And that that could not stand.
It would not stand.
It did not allow it to stand in that you came in the form of Jesus Christ, God the Son, and you died for the sins of mankind.
Rose again on the third day, who there is life after death.
Lord, you have delivered blessings to your people.
You created for yourself a new people from the people that were not your people.
That is the church.
We are the eternal Israel along with with Israel.
Lord, we will get into all kinds of doctoral medicine, theology there.
It just means that we have been wrapped in and we are grateful that that ultimate price, what it takes would be possible for us to be part of the kingdom of God.
Thank you, Lord, for the lessons we've had this last three weeks.
Got one more on Tuesday about the kingdom of God.
And so just kind of tie it all up.
We hope and will understand the best possible can and live it out the best we can.
Father, as we sing these praises to you now there for your glory, for your honor and for your praise, you deserve it all because you alone are God.
As we sing praises of Jesus and what Jesus has done and Jesus our Lord and Jesus our Savior, Jesus master of our daily living.
We pray that will mean what we say, what we say.
And for those who do not sing, Lord, we pray that will find the meaning nonetheless.
We want to honor you in every possible way today as we've gathered together in this room, which you have provided in these bodies, which you provided in light of the finances that you provided, the strength you provided, the miracles that you've done.
In our lifetime that we have seen and the miracles you've done in our lifetime that would not seem.
We honor you and glorify you for it all, beginning with and ending with the fact that you alone are God.
We praise you today in Jesus name.
All righty. All right.
So two things we got to take care of real quick.
The first thing is today's sermon is largely for believers.
That happens sometimes in the scripture.
Sometimes when you go to the Bible, it's really simply put appealing to you to come to Christ, right?
Calling you out of wherever you are and to Jesus.
But sometimes when you go to the Bible, certain verses, certain scripture will be speaking to you as a believer.
Now, there's still conviction and it's all useful for that, right?
Review, conviction, that kind of thing, correction for people who realize, okay, I'm not a believer, but I see how this could speak to a believer.
But so then when a pastor preaches a message that is largely for believers, I think about that.
I think, well, if you know, there could be a believer in the room and this message could be hard, a non-believer.
I mean, in the room, this message could be hard, but then this while they don't have a hard time understanding or whatever.
And so a lot of times I try to build into the sermon, kind of like these little subtexts, I'll explain, I'll say, well, kind of means that, kind of means this, kind of means this, kind of means that kind of thing.
Well, today, as I was preparing the sermon and getting ready to preach today, the Lord led me not to do that.
Instead, he led me to do this, okay, which is to give you a very simple, straightforward explanation of Christianity.
Okay, and so this is for you kids. This is for you as well. This is for all of us to understand.
The bottom line is this, all people who have ever lived have sinned against God.
You can't blame and hang it all on Adam because he did it first, right? You can't do that.
All people have sinned against God. All of you mistakes are done things.
The truth is we made some pretty intentional decisions that did not honor God. If you think about it, if you lied because it was in your best interest, you thought you'd get something out of it.
That's a sin, right? If you stole, took something that you wanted, even though it belonged to somebody else, that's a sin.
So all people have sinned in some way. If you want or desire after something and you're not a Christian, you don't put it into proper perspective with God,
that God is first, foremost, you want and desire after that thing, that's a sin, right?
So it's very easy because of our flesh nature for us. God says through Paul, through the book of Romans, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Now the outcome of that, there is an outcome of that. Because you've sinned and fall short of the glory of God, the outcome of that is, the Bible says, is death.
Wages like you would earn from a job. If you go to work, they give you a paycheck, hopefully, at least they're supposed to.
So because we have sinned, the outcome of that is death. And death means separation from God, right? We were created to be in a right relationship with God.
All human beings, out of need, were created to be in a right relationship with God. That's the way it's supposed to be.
It's everything that God wants to make happen, that's why He sent His Son to die for us, right?
So that being said, we're supposed to be in a right relationship with Him, but we have sinned and we're not. That's, the Bible calls it, death.
So the wages of sin is death. But, in the same verse in Romans 6, what I read, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ His Son.
So Jesus came to defeat death, to make it possible for us to go on beyond what looks like death, or human death.
If your body stops working, humans continue to exist, they just don't exist as a body anymore, and their soul goes either to heaven or to hell.
Immediately, seconds later, right? The Bible doesn't teach something like soul sleep, so you go to sleep, wake up later.
And by the way, if that were even true, I don't know how you'd even know the difference. You go to sleep and you're completely non-existent,
and then you wake up in heaven and it'd still be instantaneously you're there, from your perspective, right?
So you die, and you either go to heaven, or you go to hell. Either way, there is no purgatory. The Bible does not teach purgatory.
You can't even stretch the New Testament and teach purgatory. That's a place where if you sinned and didn't accept Jesus,
you can go there and get burnt for a while and then get to go to heaven after that, that doesn't exist.
Nothing like that. It's heaven or hell, immediately after death. That's it. Right? And it's settled.
Okay. But the gift of God, the eternal life through Jesus Christ, His Son, means that even though we sin against God,
and God, by all rights would have every reason to keep us away from Himself, right?
He sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay for sins, so that now He can pull us to Himself. Okay?
God will not get dirty. God is not a sinner. No sin can ever affect Him or touch Him. He is perfectly holy. Right?
But He loves you so much that even as messy as you are, and mistakes that you've made, He wants to draw you to Him. Okay?
From the moment that we believe in the sacrifice of Jesus, that opens a channel between us and God.
Believing does not save people. There are lots of people who believe. Even demons believe and tremble. Right?
Believing does not save people. It opens a channel between us and God. We say, God is real. Jesus really died for me. I can get that.
So, God, now, because that's true, I want you to do whatever you want to do.
I will tell you what God wants to do. He wants to save us. Right? That's His whole point. That's His whole plan.
Us in perfect relationship with Him. So, we believe and we open the channel, then He sends grace.
That's why it says we are saved by grace, through faith. Without faith, if you don't believe it exists,
there's nothing He can really do for you because you're not willing. Right?
But if you believe that He exists, you know that there is something there for you, you say, okay, God, whatever you want,
do right because He is God. Okay? You say, God, whatever you want, and what does God want to do?
He wants to save you. And by His grace, He saved us. He forgives the sin that we did. He lives in us.
The Bible says His Holy Spirit comes and takes residence in us and lives in us from that day forward.
And we are immediately transformed and continually transformed by the renewing of our mind.
So, you're not perfect just because you accepted Jesus. You may be done, complete. There's no salvation needed.
Right? Nothing more is needed to save you. You may go to heaven. That's done. That's settled.
But you're still growing, positive. And that's why we repent. That's why we turn back to God when we make mistakes.
And God is able to handle us. So, if you're in this room today,
whether you're going to the children's class or whether you're going to the sermon, you can be here with me or whatever,
you need to be sure. You need to settle the matter. A very wise young lady who was in my youth group on the back of East Plea
latched on to a saying. She didn't create it. She latched on to it. She brought it to our youth group,
and then she brought it to a concert at Clay High School that she put on as her senior project brought in, St. Fitzgerald, the Christian band.
And she got up and explained to her, if you're 99% sure that you're saved, you're 99% saved, you're 100% lost.
But look at what we just looked at. What do you need to do to be 100% sure you're saved based on the promises of God?
You need to believe in God, believe in what He said He would do, believe in who He says He is, and receive from God the grace.
You cannot buy the grace. You don't even have to ask for it. You literally could say nothing and just sit there and go,
I'm not going to let anybody know right now that I'm becoming a Christian, but I'm really becoming a Christian for the first time ever right now.
And you could just say nothing right now and just receive the grace. There is no verbal component requiring you to do that.
However, once you've done that, remember, we are growing, renewing, pressing in, desiring to be with God, desiring to represent God,
and the Bible says that if you deny Him before men, He will deny you before His Father in heaven.
Jesus said, if you deny me before men, and we'll read that verse as part of our text today, if you deny me before men,
then I will deny you before my Father in heaven. In Revelation it says, I will not erase their name out of the book of life,
those who will not deny me before men. Which implies that if you don't deny Him before men,
your name may not wind up in that book, and only those who are in that book go to heaven. And only those who are in that book are Christians.
That's what the Bible says. So that's the Gospel in a simple form. It is this, do you believe in God?
Are you willing to receive from God the salvation that He has promised? You are.
Here comes the grace. Just receive it. Then from that point on, we're living for God.
From that point on, there is growth to be done. That's why we come to church on Sunday, either A, because we don't know God and we desire to,
or B, because we do know God and we desire to know Him more, walk with Him more, be His people.
And that's what reaching new heights in Jesus is all about. So if you're here today and you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
we're going to say a brief prayer. And I would ask you then, pray in your heart or out loud along with me, and just say to Jesus what needs to be said.
Alright, so we're all praying together. If you're not accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you're just praying to those who might be right now.
Here we go. Father God, I recognize you created everything. And you sent your Son Jesus to die on the cross to pay for sins.
I realize I have not honored you with my life. I have not done the things I should have done.
Or I did things I shouldn't have done. And I'm coming to you today to surrender whatever is left of me and say, God, you be my God.
Jesus, you be my Lord. Forgive me for what I've done that I shouldn't have. Forgive me for what I failed to do.
Come live in me. And they be able to live for you from this day forward. Whatever that means. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Now if you're here today and you prayed that prayer for the very first time, I'm not going to ask you to walk in the crowd.
We're not going to have an invitation. But if you're here today and for the first time you meant it, you intend for this moment forward to live for Jesus.
Even if you've said it before, even if you've been doing it but didn't really say it to anybody, even if you didn't really understand it, you thought you did but you didn't really understand it.
But now you do. Right? Before you said, why I said the words, the prayer, but nothing happened. I wasn't changing. I feel like I've been changed. I feel like I'm being affected.
I'm going to ask you with every head up and everybody looking around for your first time ever to raise your hand and say that's me I'm moving for Jesus starting today.
That's you. Anybody else? Amen. Amen. Anybody else? Don't be afraid. We can't do anything. God's already done something. Amen.
Thank you Jesus. Anybody else? Alright. Now, amen. Amen. Anyone else? Amen. Now, pray. Amen. Amen. Now, those who just raised your hand, we are, I am, we are praying for you to live out what you now know to be true.
You'll never be the same as you were five minutes ago. That's what it means. Life is changed. Your decision processes will be forever affected. I understand it's a journey.
I'm plagued by what I did when I was younger. I made mistakes or things I've done. Whatever. I understand there's a journey, a process. But you've begun the process.
That's what it means to be a Christian. To be little Christ. We walk as you walk. Listen, you're not an itinerary preacher around Judea. That's not going to be you.
You're not going to be some barefooted guy with long hair, olive skin, whatever, walking around telling people, turning water into wine. That's not going to be you.
But your life, your situation, what you're going through, that's for you to affect the Lord. And now you can. In ways that you never could before.
The Bible teaches that you will be gifted spiritually. There will be things that you can do that you couldn't do previously. And you can figure out what that is. That's part of the journey.
It teaches that you'll be part of a local church body working together with the church to serve the instrument to be Jesus to everyone else on the earth that hasn't met yet.
And then what we'll really be doing is introducing them to the real Jesus. Right? Yes, ma'am.
I'm going to say it's not my first time because I have been saved and sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. It's not my first time.
Okay, praise the Lord. Do you recommit your life to the Lord? Amen. Very good. Very good. That's alright.
And so we will live for him. Alright, so that's that needed to be done because the message today is aimed at y'all believers. Right?
So now if you're here today and say, well, I'm still covered up. I'm still a defendant. Then do your business with God as we sing worship, as we praise, as we listen and speak. Do your business with God and say, Lord, I surrender my life to you.
Okay? And let him lead and let him lead you well. Let him lead you. Alright?
And for those little ones, leaders, if you didn't see who the hands are raising, make sure to confirm some things today and get that settled. Okay?
Because you're excited. They're excited. And they need to be given the opportunity to live for the Lord.
Okay, second thing real quick. This is inspirational moment time. This is the moment in time at which if the Lord's been whispering in your ear, this is your opportunity to shout loud.
Realize that if you shout out here, something that wasn't whispering in your ear, what was that text today as well?
If you shout out the things the Lord's been whispering in your ear today, it goes pretty far. Why?
We podcast our services. Assuming the quality is there, that goes out and over.
And I looked yesterday and there are more people in the United States of America than ever before listening to our podcast. And then last month, the podcast was heard in 12 countries.
But it was heard in like 70 locations all across the U.S., 70 different cities. That's impressive. That's God doing that, right?
And we get things, we make it seem wrong. We don't tell people we're perfect or everything is exactly right.
We stick with the scriptures. We stick with what the Bible says and how to preach and teach that.
So that being said, if you've heard from the Lord this week, I'm going to give you a just like, it's got to be short because we've got to move in like 30, 60 seconds.
You just tell us and it's not just. And then someone will come and find you and ask more if they need you.
What has God been saying to you this week?
So I'm a big woman and I'm going to give you. Anyway, so just to be quick, let's just think about my kids.
And my kids, you know, they love me. And I'll tell you what I mean. If I give them a bunch of stuff, yeah, they love that stuff.
But that's not what they really want. They want me. They want my words. They want my encouragement. They want they want my wisdom.
They want my teachers. They want my direction. They don't want to be disciplined, but at the same time, they want to know that I'll protect them.
I'm stern with them. I love them. I care about them. I'm actually engaging with them.
But take my phone and put it away and I actually spend time with them. I'm showing them I actually am divided.
I want full attention with you. That's what they want.
And then finally, at the end, when you know, when we go to bed at night or with my kids, they like to cuddle with their dad because they want me.
They want himself. And when I think of God's presence, it's not just presence like his presence is here, but he's present.
He wants us. He wants to give of himself. He wants us to learn. He wants us to grow.
But at the same time, he also wants to be with us in everything that we do. He wants to be the just like his alma mater.
He's the true dad. So just something to think about is he wants us to be what's up to himself to us.
That's very good. Amen.
Be there. God wants to be there for us. Be there for each other. Be there for your family. Be there for your friends.
Realize it comes with complications, but be there.
Anybody else?
Call it.
Yes, I got to call this meeting from Dillon and Donnelly in Ohio.
I'm going to try to get to Alan Correctional down there in this room.
And they invited me down for a breakfast later this month.
See if we can get back in there and do some work.
We'll pray that turns out. And even so, you've already had a call of the witness on the church and Christ wanting to do that.
That's good stuff. Wonderful.
All right. Anyone else?
Okay, we're going to pray together briefly. We're going to worship a little bit more.
A couple of us will worship the Lord in a new way and possibly in a brand new way.
And watch this. Watch what God is going to do.
It's going to be good. God is good.
All right. Brother Ron Mack, if you'll be his son this firm, we'll pray along with you.
Lord Father in heaven, we thank you for allowing us to be here today.
For giving us the opportunity to listen to your word and to be surrounded by other believers.
And Lord, to find faith just to speak words in our heart and our mind that will receive your grace.
Lord, thank you for the powerful message that your son gave us and then ultimately paying for our sins on the cross with his own life.
Suffering your wrath that was aimed towards us, but Jesus said, no, take it upon myself.
God, I pray that we can live every moment from this moment on for you, that we give our life to you continuously in a new way every day.
Father, I pray for the people in this community that they would be transformed by your power and your strength, your spirit.
I pray for the tithes and offerings, Lord, that whatever is given today, that it's honoring to you and that we can use it how you see fit.
Bless the rest of this day and the rest of the worship music. I pray that it's music to your ears, Lord.
I pray for the message that you have spoken with boldness and conviction that it touches all the hearts of this world.
Thank you, Jesus. Amen.
Here we go.
Right.
Okay, before we sing this next song, I want to share something with you.
So, why do we worship? Just yell it out. Give me a reason.
Yep. So what are some ways that we worship?
Singing, clapping, playing instruments, art, drawing.
Then it always has to be music.
So, the offering that we pass is also worship. Meaning God's word we can use as worship.
The songs that we sing, we sing to worship Him, to show Him praise, to show our love for Him.
Music and worship songs can also teach us God's word.
So I want to share with you a couple of verses that I found, and I want you to see if they sound familiar.
A time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in heaven and truth.
For such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers, God His Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Coming from John chapter 4. We sang that song this morning.
I have a list of a lot of you verses that the worship songs that we sing,
not only are we singing praises to God and worship to God, but we're also singing His word,
which helps us to remember that His word is what we need to get through life.
So this one, Matthew chapter 5 says,
You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill, cannot be hidden.
Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand it gives light to all who are in the house.
Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
So you may or may not be aware, but there is a very real struggle to be a pastor and a preacher in 2024.
It has been for me anyway for the last several decades.
And I'm going to let you in on one of those struggles right now.
There is one thing that the enemy has used more frequently to come after me, I think, than any other tactic in the last three decades.
And it has been this, that believers that I have known in our church and otherwise, less so in our church,
but in our church and otherwise everywhere that I have known believers, that they stay the course until they don't.
The reality is that people profess the name of Christ and then they begin to live on fire.
So it would appear for the Lord they're doing everything that they think they know that God wants them to do, whatever.
And they do that for years, sometimes decades. And then at some point in time, something gets a hold of them,
something distracts them, something tempts them, something leads them away.
And they start what appears at first maybe to be a slow decline. And then at some point in time, they just bail out.
They jump out the plane, pull the rip cord and walk away from everything that they profess.
Sometimes their profession was ours, seeing young men who have given their life to the Lord and that very same day,
abandoned what they said and went back to being what they were before, really no change.
Sometimes it is days or weeks or months or years or decades.
And for me, as I look at Scripture, so I am troubled by the notion that a man might earnestly give his life to God
and then might walk away from the faith at some point in time down the road, regardless of age, circumstance or whatever.
What I see in Scripture is that it is clear that if a person has truly become a Christian,
that they will stay the course to the very end and live for the Lord.
Now, not to get into predestination or deep topic like that, and we may even address that on an upcoming Tuesday night,
but not to get deep into the theology of it, but the bottom line is that Jesus says that anyone who is in his hand, no one can take it.
No one can take that person away. And that he would not lose anyone who has become his while he is still alive.
And the disciples were so adamant in their faith that they literally were persecuted unto death all but one.
And we see that kind of devotion in our world to cults, to hobbies, to entertainment distractions.
What do I mean? So people that are so sold out on certain cults that are in the world that they will literally strap on a bomb
and blow themselves up in a coffee shop to take out just 12 innocent bystanders and to accomplish nothing more than that.
Because they believe that that will translate them into an eternity of glory.
There are people who will give literally everything they own. They'll sell their house, sell their cars, quit their job,
all their money and their savings and everything, and give it over into the corporate pot of a cult and go live in Central America
or somewhere in a compound and just get up every day and serve and give of themselves,
and then commit suicide at the end of that because the time has drawn nigh and they'll drink the Kool-Aid.
That's where that saying comes from. They'll literally drink the Kool-Aid that kills them.
Yet Christianity, where we have Jesus who literally actually died for us and rose again to prove that there is eternal life
and that there is an abundant life in Christ, who literally actually paid for our sins,
people's devotion to Christ seems to be more like this, that they stay the course until they don't.
Now, one of the messages was for Christians because as a Christian, if you're sitting here,
you should probably resonate with my feelings there and go like, yeah, that doesn't make any sense. It shouldn't be like that.
But at the same time, there's a part of you, the Holy Spirit is comforting you saying, it really isn't like that.
So how is it that that's what we see with our eyes, that's what we experience in life,
or it seems to be so when in reality it's not actually like that?
So today's sermon, having done so do so, speaks to that very topic.
And not from my words per se, but from Jesus' words.
So if you'll grab your Bibles and maybe you'll give me a little hoot holler, amen, something as we go to Matthew chapter 10.
This is God's word. And from the moment that we begin reading it, when I read the word,
unless I just completely read the wrong words, which would be very unlikely, then this word of God that we're about to read,
and if I did do that, by the way, it would be your responsibility to catch it.
So you should try to read along if you can or know the words so that you can catch it if there's a mistake.
But I don't intend to make a mistake, but here we go. So, okay, Matthew 10, beginning of verse 24.
Jesus is speaking, and you'll notice that everything that I'm going to read today, if you have that kind of a Bible, is in the red print.
These are all words of Jesus as quoted by the disciple Matthew as he wrote the book of Matthew,
which we know was written primarily to Jewish folks who were embracing Christianity or questioning Christianity.
It was kind of a polemic at the time. He was arguing for the truth of Christ.
And so what we read argues on the topic that we are looking at.
It says, a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.
And without going any deeper, talking about what he's pointing at there, that just makes sense, right?
So you have somebody who is your teacher, who's in charge of you, they're your master, they own you, right?
You're not greater than them. And even if you should become free, that would not make you greater than them, right?
You're not greater than the teacher who teaches you what you need to know.
Rather, you receive the teachings from the teacher and disseminate them to others.
A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. 25.
It is enough for the disciple that he become as his teacher and the slave as his master.
So in other words, if this is what we want to do, is be a disciple of Jesus, speaking specifically of Jesus,
you can be a disciple of a lot of things, right?
But to be specifically a disciple of Jesus, if that's what you want to do,
it's enough for you that you would become as he is and that you would be the slave of Jesus.
That's enough, right? It won't make you wealthy, per se.
It's not going to fix all your problems, per se, but it would be enough to become as he is,
to receive the same results that he received.
Now let's be real clear about the results that Jesus received as following his father.
He did exactly what he saw his father doing. Well, Jesus was crucified.
He was crucified for all the world, lost and un-lost.
It doesn't matter if people were believing him or not. He was crucified for everybody.
But not everybody accepts the crucifixion as the payment for their sins.
But he was crucified for everybody. So it's enough.
Let's put this in very simple terms. It would be enough for you if you should follow him until you are crucified.
That's very plainly put.
If you should follow him until you are whipped within an inch of your life
and then nailed to a rugged cross to bleed out or suffocate.
That would be enough for you.
That does not seem like the Christianity that most people are living.
Let's be completely transparent, shall we?
Because most people are living, yeah, I'm living for Jesus, but need a new car.
Yeah, I'm living for Jesus, but need my bills paid. Yeah, I'm living for Jesus, but I've got to do this, that and the other.
And all of the this, that and the other is woven into a carpet that they'll buy.
But if the this, that and the other weren't in there and it was just the getting crucified tomorrow.
So in other words, if I came in and I preached the gospel today, just like I did at the inspirational moment,
and I said to you, beware, the government has already declared and they've dispatched army units
to crucify everyone who accepts Jesus Christ here today, tomorrow.
Tomorrow they're coming and they're going to crucify us all if they determine us to be truly followers of Jesus.
How many of you would accept Jesus then?
Because according to what Jesus said, that would be enough.
You understand that if you accept Jesus today and are crucified tomorrow as your master was crucified,
you go immediately to heaven for eternity.
So if you're living for the things of this lifetime and you'd be unwilling to accept Jesus under the circumstances,
knowing with almost certainty that you'd be burnt at the stake or whipped within an inch of your life
or crucified or some combination of the three, drawn and quartered, whatever,
and therefore would not accept Jesus, then I submit to you, if under those circumstances you would not accept Jesus,
then you have not accepted Jesus under the circumstances that Jesus himself made qualification for your salvation.
He said you will deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow after him.
And to take up your cross is not to bear Millie's bad cooking or put up with the man in the government who wants to tax you.
That's not to bear your cross.
To bear your cross is to be willing to pick up that cross piece minimum when you're at your weakest, worst moment,
to be whipped within an inch of your life, and then pick up that cross piece and go out there and be nailed to the cross as he was.
That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Jesus said so.
If you would be my disciple, then deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow after me.
That's what it means. And here he reminds us or says it very simply,
it is enough for the disciple that he become as his teacher and the slave as his master.
Now the beauty of this is, while that did happen to Jesus,
the beauty of it is it does not have to happen to every one of us in the physical.
We do not have to be crucified to go to heaven because that's already been taken care of.
We do not have to die for our sins physically speaking because that's already been taken care of.
In fact, you cannot die for your sins. That's not possible because you're a sinner.
And so you cannot pay for the sin that separated you from God that will still put you in hell for eternity.
But Jesus could pay because he was not a sinner.
He was a man, died a sinner's death and paid the atonement for all.
So we don't have to be crucified. So I'm not preaching a message
that you have to be crucified with me tomorrow if you want to go to heaven.
Or that you will eventually have to be strapping on a bomb to go to heaven.
Or that you will eventually have to sell everything you have and put it in the coffers to go to heaven.
That's not the message. But suddenly because that's not the message,
now we think we can be greater than Jesus. And so Jesus cautioned us with no uncertainty.
It is enough for the disciple that he become as his teacher and the slave as his master.
And then he goes on to give a specific example of that.
He says, if they called the head of the house Beelzebub, let's be very clear.
If you weren't there for it, three weeks ago we very clearly ascertained who the king of the kingdom is.
Who the head of the house is. On Tuesday night we went through scriptures appointed to it.
We couldn't do them all because there's so many.
Jesus is the head of the house. And they called him repeatedly, said he was possessed by Beelzebub.
That he was doing what he was doing only by the power of Beelzebub.
Now Beelzebub is actually the name of a false god from back a long time before that.
But by this point in time he had been equated with Satan himself.
And so they called Jesus Satan. They said he was being occupied by the king, the prince of the demons.
And that's how he was doing what he was doing.
And he says, if they called the head of the house Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household.
In other words, they're going to attribute all kinds of bad things to you as you follow me.
And that ought to be enough for you.
I'm not sure that that is the kind of Christianity that we see coming out of most Christians.
We're not okay with taking the hits. Right?
So when you know there's somebody that does not like Jesus, does not like God, does not want to hear it.
Rather than living boldly in front of them or quoting scripture or saying how blessed you are.
Just mentioning the name of Jesus. You kind of downplay it because you just don't want to deal with them today.
And that's what people tend to do.
But we need to realize it's enough for the disciple to become as his teacher and the slave as his master.
And if they called him Beelzebub, then how much more us.
Therefore do not fear them, he says.
Even though the therefore there means God did that.
He allowed that to happen to me. If he's going to allow it to happen to me, it's enough that you be like me.
And therefore don't have a problem with it when it happens to you.
Do not fear them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known.
In other words, Jesus is going to show it all eventually.
And to some extent he already has.
But there is more to be seen in the end.
The fulfillment of it all. The very clear exposure of it all is yet coming.
And so we should not fear when people come against us or if they would even call what we do the work of Satan.
Or call it hate when actually it's love.
Or call it evil when actually it's good.
Which is becoming that much more common in the world to call it evil good and good evil.
But it shouldn't be like that.
Because all things will be revealed, we can have no fear.
And be okay with our being like Jesus, 27.
What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light.
And what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.
So when you're sitting at home and you're reading your Bible and you go, oh, see, that's cool.
That's right.
Or, oh, convicted, man, I did that yesterday.
I've got to stop that, repent, turn to God.
Those things that you discover on your own in the silence of your own prayer time and your quiet time,
you're supposed to, let me read the exact phrase, proclaim upon the housetops.
Which may not be you're actually supposed to go to the top of your house and stand there later and yell loudly what you did in your devotional.
But you understand the symbolism.
What he's saying is you're supposed to declare it everywhere all the time.
This does not appear to be the Christianity that we are largely living on a daily basis.
When is the last time you were doing your devotional on a Wednesday morning?
And by Thursday bedtime, you had told everybody in your circle and everybody around what God said to you on Wednesday morning.
But this is exactly what Jesus told the disciples to do.
It's what he is clarifying.
It says a disciple is not above his teacher.
In other words, we are to do what it is that he has shown us to do.
We walk as he walked.
As God whispers in our ear, we proclaim upon the housetops.
Verse 28.
He says, and do not fear those who kill the body, but are able to kill the soul.
In other words, if the world should come against you, if everything should go wrong, don't worry about it.
Because even if they take you out, you shouldn't fear them.
Then he says, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
There is one being in the known universe that you should fear.
Man comes against you with a knife, you shouldn't fear him.
You might, right, because that's a natural physical human reaction.
Man comes against you with a gun, man breaks into your house, you shouldn't fear him.
In fact, fear is the antithesis of action.
So once you fear, there is a good likelihood you're going to make the wrong mistake.
Most people who were shot in most aptitude shooter situations, you know what they were doing when they were shot?
Nothing.
Cringing in a hiding place, ducking under a desk, nothing.
They weren't praying, they weren't talking to God, they weren't running.
You know, if you at least run, there's a chance he'll miss, right?
They weren't fighting back, they weren't swinging, they didn't go down fighting.
They just stood there or knelt there or hid there in fear, and the shooter found them and put a bullet in them while they were doing, you got it, nothing.
Because fear is the antithesis of action.
And Jesus says, we ought not fear the one who can kill the soul or kill the body, but rather the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Your life is not your own, it belongs to God, and if he wants you to lose it, let it be so.
But not just stand there and do nothing, be found doing that which it is all the while until that moment that you're supposed to be doing.
Verse 29 says, are not two sparrows sold for a cent, and yet none of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.
So there's this tiny little coin that they had, it was a sixteenth of a denarius, and you could go to the marketplace,
you could buy two sparrows typically in a cage or a box or something for that tiny little coin.
It was like an hour's wage. If you worked for an hour, you'd get paid that tiny little coin, like minimum wage back then, sort of.
And the poor would eat sparrows because they couldn't get nothing else, and it was a meat that they could get.
And he says, aren't they sold for a cent? But none, not one of them, none of them falls to the ground apart from your father, God, and it was known.
It's biblical. They accepted, the Jewish people accepted that the sparrow was watched over by the Lord.
No sparrow dies except God specifically allows it. That's what they knew to be true.
And he says, is that not so? Not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Do not fear, therefore, therefore do not fear, you are of more value than many sparrows.
God has you well in hand. If you're here today and you're not a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, he's still got your life in his hand,
and he's going to do whatever the heck he wants with it. You can't change that. People don't believe in God, can't change what God's going to do.
If anybody can change what God's going to do, it's those of us who do believe in our following him and can entreat him and can have an effect on the world through prayer
and doing the miracles out of Holy Spirit and so on and so on.
He says, therefore, do not fear, you are of more value than many sparrows.
So I submit to you that by this point in time, as we've gone through 24 to 31, we see that it is fear largely that Jesus attributes to the inaction of disciples.
And that's wrong. He says, do not fear. Rather do what it is that you are supposed to do.
It is enough for a slave or for a disciple to be as his teacher or his master. Do not fear.
32, everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven.
So in this he builds up to the fear and then he says, because you should not fear, because it should be enough for you to be like me,
because that is true, if you confess me before men, I will confess you before my Father who is in heaven.
But whoever shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.
So if you say no, not a follower of Jesus, or if your actions, right, doesn't have to be words, does it?
Does it have to be words? Can you not deny something is true with your actions?
I submit to you that when people commit suicide, they deny the value of life.
When people overeat regularly, they deny the value of proper nutrition.
And even they may not ever say a word about it. They're doing it.
When a father abandons his children, he's denying his fatherly responsibilities, even though he never comes out and says,
well, dads aren't important, right?
So your actions deny just as much as your words. And he's saying, if you shall deny me before men, I will also deny you,
or if he shall deny me, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.
Take your stand.
34. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
That is probably one of the least preached and most challenging verses in all of the New Testament.
Because is he not Prince of Peace? He sure is.
Is he not the sacrificial lamb to bring peace between us and God? He sure is.
Did the angels not sing, peace on earth, goodwill to men? They sure did.
Jesus himself said, do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
And then he goes on to quote an Old Testament scripture, which is a prophecy about the Kingdom of God,
about the existence of Jesus in us. And he says in verse 35,
For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against his mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
Listen to this, and a man's enemies will be the members of his household. Ouch.
Now our church has a core value of family. Brothers and sisters in Christ, all children of God,
but also husbands and wives and mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters in the household,
and your aunts and your uncles and your cousins, and you have a responsibility to them, familial responsibilities.
But here Jesus says that a man's enemies will be the members of his household.
And as I was pondering, sorting through how people stay the course until they don't,
I realized that a lot of times I could trace the people who did not stay the course
to the situation of relationships between them and their family.
The man who told me, I can't do this because my wife's doing that, I can't do this because my husband's doing that, she said,
my wife did this and it's a stumbling block to me and now there's that, and my dad was never good to me,
and so now there's that problem that I'm trying to overcome.
And it's like all of these human stumbling blocks, and Jesus said this,
here you go Christian, pay attention disciple, Jesus you're following, then understand this.
Jesus said it was true. A man's enemies will be the members of his own household.
I know you want your wife, your mother, your brother, your sister, your son, your cousin, your nephew, your uncle.
You want them all to come to Christ and we all want to be together, we all want to be united,
and we all want to stay the course, and we're going to stay the course until the very end.
What we have done, we're going to do.
Except you can't control what they have done, they're going to do.
You can only control what you have done, you're going to do.
And you said you would be a follower of Jesus, and you can guarantee beyond a shadow of a doubt
that in the church and in your family connections, your blood,
there will be those who bring stumbling blocks, there will be those who will stand in the way,
those who will literally draw the sword against you and your faith.
I have seen it time and again.
He goes on to make it very abundantly clear as he says this,
he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
If you have put your family before God according to Jesus in any way, shape, or form,
you are not worthy of Jesus.
I didn't say it, Jesus said it.
And so now from the beginning of this in 24 through now,
we've seen that it almost looks like the odds are against us.
It's almost impossible for us to stay the course because who is our greatest support network?
Who is the people who will lift us up and allow us to follow Jesus?
Is it my family? It's not. It's not your family.
They are your enemies, Jesus says.
Now I'm not saying they're your enemies like you should punch them in the face.
I'm not saying they're your enemies like you should steal their money.
I'm not saying they're enemies like you should not loan them your car.
I'm not saying they're your enemies like you should not love them.
In fact, Jesus says love your enemies, and he was talking about your enemy enemies that you don't even know.
So I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about undercutting or subverting your ability to stay the course as was Jesus.
Jesus says love me more than your family.
And a man must stand with God when no one will stand with him.
And a woman must stand with God when no one will stand with her.
And a child must stand with God when no one will stand with him or her.
38. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.
He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake shall find it.
Jesus is giving us a simple reversal.
We think if we can scrap it all together, we can figure it all out, we find the pattern, the recipe, do the right things, everything will be good.
And if that would happen, I submit to you, Jesus has just told you, you will lose your life.
That is not the way it's done.
He began by saying, it is enough for the disciple that he become as his teacher and the slave as his master.
You start by figuring out, by realizing that it is enough and you put your life in the hands of Jesus to do with as he pleases.
It happens that time passes and things go well. People get jobs, promotions, rewards, raises.
If you're tithing, you've seen a blessing in your finances.
If you're serving, you've seen Jesus protect your strength, your energy, your ability, your creativity.
If you're practicing your spiritual gift, you've seen Jesus give you that pat on the back and a more explosive impact of his Holy Spirit presence.
If you're submitting to conviction and repentance, then you realize that you're growing as a Christian, a renewing of your mind.
And you're advancing and reaching new heights in Jesus a little bit more.
And so all these things begin to happen. Good things are happening.
And we start thinking, I've found my life. I've found my life living for Jesus and it's all good.
I'll be in church every Sunday. I'll be dressed nice. I'll be working the plan. I'll be paying the bills.
I've just got it. It's all come together.
And beware, if Jesus says, if you find your life, if that's good enough for you, you will lose it.
Because it isn't.
Being a disciple of Jesus is what's at stake and nothing is better than that.
That concludes our text for the day.
And I'm going to try to break down a few of these points that really were convicting to me.
You may find other things because there's a lot in there, but these are the things that really the Lord led me to.
So here we go.
The first thing that Jesus was saying to his disciples, and it is in being a disciple, is deliver the messages.
Deliver the truth.
The softest is made out to be the loudest.
If God says something to you, then you shout it from the rooftops.
That's what he said. Deliver the message.
And then repeat.
And if at the moment you have no message from God, then get one.
Get in the Word. Pray. Meditate. Ask God, what do you mean by this?
When the pastor said that, what did you mean, God?
Right now you should be getting filled up with his Word, with conviction over your choices and your future choices.
And you can take that message, whatever it looks like for you, it's translated into everybody's existence.
Because it will sound different to you in a different language, using different verbiage, using different adjectives,
using different levels of excitement, using different levels of conviction.
Whatever, you're going to take that message and you're going to repeat it to everyone you possibly can.
Whether you like it or not, doesn't matter.
That's what Jesus said. That's what it means to be a disciple.
You learn from Jesus and you teach what you've learned from Jesus to anyone and everyone.
I did not say anyone or everyone that will listen. I did not say anyone or everyone that likes it, but anyone and everyone.
To that end, I have been convicted to start preparing essentially excerpts when I study the Bible, when I read, things like that.
Little snippets. You can text 155 characters, something that you then can take and display,
that you can use. Tony Tate likes to put them on t-shirts. I like to put them on t-shirts.
You can take it from there and you can put it out to everybody.
You can't make a t-shirt fast enough to put out what God just told you,
but you can then use that thing that God just told you over and over and over again.
You memorize a verse and you use that verse.
Memorize it by Wednesday and use it through Sunday, then take the sermon through Wednesday,
and then take another verse on Wednesday. Just get something.
God's got something for you to say if you ain't saying nothing.
Then you ain't following Jesus.
So I've been convicted myself to start preparing excerpts.
Excerpts from the sermon, excerpts from the lesson, excerpts from my own devotional time,
and putting those things out there. What did Jesus say?
Whatever I have given you, shout it from the rooftops.
In fact, He's saying, haven't done so, do so.
If you're here today and you're a Christian, you heard enough of that message that I shared earlier today
at some point in time in your life, and it may have come to you differently.
It may have come in different phrases, different words, because whoever delivers it to you delivered it their way,
whatever, and it doesn't matter.
But the bottom line is you turned your life over to the Lord.
And if you turned your life over to the Lord and you let Jesus be leader, you did so.
You accepted the facts at that time. You believed and grace poured in.
You were saved. And from that moment on, do so. Do likewise.
Go and share the message. And if you've got no other message,
you ought to have the message that you received when you got saved.
For me, when I got saved, it was, I don't know what this is going to mean exactly,
but the one thing I know for sure is it's going to change everything.
That was the message. And it's in my book Think Again.
And so it's been all over the world and back again.
And I have shared that same gospel at a lot of opportunities, but not near enough.
I stand before you today a man repentant, because we should be shouting the truths that we know about God
to everyone anytime. I don't mean walking to a tea shop or just sitting there teetotaling, whatever,
and it's all real quiet and going, hey everybody, let me tell you about Jesus.
And you're disrupting the peace, messing with, and the police come and throw you in jail.
Like if you've got to do it that way, then there's a problem.
But you could go up there and say, hey, can I talk to you about Jesus?
Can I talk to you about Jesus? Can I talk to you about Jesus?
I've messed this up more times than I've got it right.
The bottom line is Jesus said, deliver the messages.
And in the delivering of the message, which will be a lifelong pursuit,
he said, fear not. Do not fear.
Hear this. God only, God alone, has the authority to do something that could possibly make you afraid.
You hear me? God alone has the authority to end your life.
God alone has the authority to cause you true physical harm.
God alone has the authority to mess up your soul or to put you in hell for eternity.
God alone. Satan may come, right?
But if God says no, he can't touch you.
Demons may come. People inhabited with demons may come.
But if you tell them to stop in the name of the Lord and God backs up what you say,
and if you're walking in the Lord, he will, they can't touch you.
If you're doing what it is that God would have you to do,
being what it is that God would have you to be, delivering the message that God would have you to give,
he literally said every hair on your head is numbered.
Fear not. God only, he alone has the authority to do something that could make a disciple fear ramifications.
In the 80s, there was a song that came out that said, can't touch this.
Except it wasn't about that at all. It wasn't a Christian song.
He was saying, nobody can be as big and as bad and as good as me.
Well, listen to me. As a follower of Jesus, nobody can be as big or as good or as powerful as you.
Now, you're limited in the pathways of your life. You're not president of the United States.
You're not the governor. You're not a police officer.
Most of us, I don't think there's no police officers here. So you're not a police officer, right?
You're limited by your resources, what God pours into you.
That's the prayer of Jabez. Lord, expand my tent so that I may expand your influence.
And it took this by storm back in the late 90s or whatever.
People started praying it, telling stories about how God was doing it.
You realize that if you're living for the Lord and you're putting all the resources on the table that God has given you,
there's no reason for God not to magnify those resources unless it's that magnifying those resources
or multiplying them will result in a stumbling block for you that actually draws you further away from him.
And don't think that doesn't happen because it does.
You could literally say to demons and evil spirits, can't touch this.
According to Isaiah, the highway of holiness, they're not allowed on the highway of holiness.
So you walk in the highway of holiness delivering the messages of God, loudly or at least clearly presented often,
then you have no fear because they can't touch you.
A more modern day rapper sung the song, Can't Stop Me. Great song.
Perhaps not about that. Guess what it's about?
It's about the one person, other than God of course, the one person that could actually possibly stop you
from doing what it is that you're supposed to do for God.
And by the end of the song you find out that that one person is, who knows the song?
It's yourself. And at the end of the song he's fighting with himself.
So who's stopping you? Who's stopping you from fearing not and delivering the messages?
Jesus says only you. If anybody, only you.
Turbulent Skies, the song by Lauren Daigle that I like a lot.
That's my phone moving out. There we go. Hopefully they won't call back.
Here, just in case they call back. Keep it silent, if you would.
Okay. This song is by Lauren Daigle and she basically says, okay, we're going into Turbulent Skies.
Things are going to get rough. And she says, but it's okay as long as I'm with you.
And that is about what we're talking about. Listen, having done so, do so.
When I was entreated to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, in that moment, now I've been in two knife bites.
I've been stabbed once and I had a broken rib once from a fist bite.
I've been thrown from high heights and fallen on my own from high heights.
I've crashed my bike, crashed my motorcycle, been in half a dozen car accidents, whatever.
And none of that fear, some of which was before I was a Christian, some of which was after,
equated with the fear of me having to walk forward to the front of the room and stand in front of that room and say,
I am now living for Jesus. And from this day forward, I will live for Jesus.
None of those other incidents, there have been since then, I've had people shouting in my faces, threatening violence,
slamming their fists on the table, getting up in my nose, you can smell their breath.
I've had all of those things happen. And nothing after that, the funny thing is I kind of don't feel fear.
I just make stupid decisions like, well, I'm not going to bother or, oh, it's too much work or like that.
But none of those circumstances was as scary as me having to say, I'm living for Jesus.
And yet I did. So now having done so, I should do so.
Do you remember a little fear, giving your life over to the Lord?
If not, you might want to think about the fact that it's entirely possible you could be crucified tomorrow,
or that somebody could put a bullet in your head, or that your very family might undercut your faith
and become an enemy to you. Not that you will treat them like an enemy, but they will make it difficult for you to follow the Lord.
Those are painful experiences that we're setting ourselves up for, folks, or rather that God is saying are sufficient for us.
And so if you didn't fear giving your life over to the Lord, then you didn't fully understand what you were signing up for.
And I can understand that maybe having done so, you might sometimes stop doing so.
But if you did understand it in the moment that you gave your life to the Lord, then having done so, do so.
Boldly profess, do not deny Christ under the coming duress. That's exactly what Jesus was calling us to.
I submit to you that if you have never in your life been truly persecuted for talking about Jesus, living for Jesus, or whatever, it's coming.
If they will call Him Beelzebub, if they will crucify Him, if they would hate Him, if they would chase Him down and try to kill Him,
but they couldn't yet because it wasn't His time yet, then they will do the same for you if you boldly live for Christ to the end of your days.
At some point in time, you're going to face significant persecution.
And if you're going to run from it then, why are you bothering to follow Him now?
Because you're just making this story up, that you're actually a disciple of Jesus. You're just pretending. You're not actually a disciple.
Is it because you're still trying to align all the things in your life and get them to all work out so you can get a grasp on everything?
Because this is more fun than that. It's more fun to do this. It provides more. God takes care of His own.
I think it's all going to work out. I'm hurting now. I need some comfort.
It's all about that. What? You're putting together all these puzzle pieces to get a picture of what you want?
Because if you manage to put all the puzzle pieces together to get a picture of what you want, you know what will happen?
You will have lost your life. Not my words, Jesus' words.
Is that what you're looking for? Because that is not what Jesus is offering.
Jesus is offering nothing less than for you to be a son or a daughter of God.
He is offering nothing less than translating your residency into an eternal kingdom which will last forever, may result in suffering today.
In fact, I'm going to say to you, surely will result in suffering today in some way, shape, or form.
You will have to discipline yourself. Self-discipline is called for in Scripture.
And self-discipline is the highest form of self-love, despite the fact that everybody wants to think otherwise.
Not taking for yourself what you want when you know it's not good for you is the highest form of self-love there is.
You will have to discipline others in your life the same way. And loving them requires that.
Now, I'm not talking about you can punish them. I'm not talking about you can scold them with your voice, be all nasty, or cuss them out, or anything like that.
Godly discipline, godly love. And discipline is the highest and most sincerest form of love.
Jesus was asking that we not deny Christ under the coming duress, whatever the form of that duress might be.
Having done so, at the moment you accepted Jesus Christ, he now says, do so.
We'd be forewarned of our enemies. We will have enemies, that was clear.
Not only that, but some of our most prominent enemies will be in our own family.
Christians who say that they're living for the Lord, but they're okay with, insert X, they're okay with tons of times invested in things that are ungodly.
They're okay with watching the ungodly and not focusing on the pure.
They're okay with foul language, okay with pronouncing curses, talking about how stupid they are, how stupid somebody else in the family is.
Those are curses. Anything like that. They're okay with that kind of thing.
Those people are literally living the opposite of what Jesus said our faith is.
So now you need to ask yourself right away, if you are one of those, then you need to repent, turn to the Lord, and do it his way.
And if you are not one of those, then this you can expect, that in your family, in your closest circle, you will find them.
Doesn't mean you get to dismiss them, right? You still have a familiar responsibility, a responsibility to the Lord.
And while they're professing the gospel, if you will, of Satan, you can be professing the gospel of Christ.
So they talk about shows they've watched, things they've seen, things they've done. They talk to you in a negative way. They pronounce curses.
And you say, praise the Lord, hallelujah, Jesus Christ is here. He owns me. He owns this house.
I pronounce the name of Jesus over our family. And we're not going to do this.
And you say, but, and they say, but I hate you. Why are you like this? That's not what Christ is like.
It could be coming. And you say, but I love you. I hate you because you don't like what I do.
You're mean to me. Or you don't accept it. Or whatever. You say, but I love you.
How could I let you go on and keep doing these things if I have any control over it when I know they're not good for you?
Because discipline is the highest form of love.
In one's own family, danger that is closer to home than we would ever like it to be, Jesus forewarned us of enemies.
These enemies may not come with guns or baseball bats. They may come with tools like temptation, reluctance, scoffing, polite asking, passive resistance.
Saying, oh yeah, I'll do it. But today I'm sick. Oh yeah, I'll do it. But today I'm tired. Oh yeah, I'll do it. But I can't right now.
Oh, I'll get around to that. Oh yes, we definitely should read our Bibles more. And every time you mention we're going to read our Bibles together.
Like, yeah, we should do that. Yeah, we should do that. But then a week later, it hasn't been done. Why?
Because you're the only one pushing it in the relationship.
Except now, a Jesus let a week go by and you didn't push it at all. Why? Because their reluctance, their passive resistance led you to stumble.
If you meant what you said, and if you didn't really mean it, then you're the one possibly bringing in these tools and you need to repent and turn unto the Lord.
Passive resistance is maybe like the worst.
But there is an open opportunity, a truth that the Bible makes very clear to us where people we love, people who profess the name of God, will literally come to us and ask us to make a priority out of things that God says cannot be.
And Deuteronomy chapter 13 verse 6 I'm reading from, it's short, so I'll just read it real quick. It says, If your brother, your mother's son, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, whom neither you nor your fathers have known, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you, or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him.
Your family members may come to you and they may say, Well, let's make this that important.
Whatever it could be, there are a lot of other gods, right? Sports, entertainment, money, sex, drugs.
Let's make that that important in our lives, that it takes the place of God in some small way.
But we won't let it be as important as God, but it'll just be like another, right? It'll just be like another one.
And you say no. You say only God. And you see how they respond. Why are you being like that?
Why are you being so harsh? Why are you saying we can't watch or partake of this thing?
Everybody in the world does it. All kinds of Christians. If Christians all boycotted the rated-hour movies that are coming out this week,
the movie industry would sink. It would go under. But they're not boycotting the rated-hour movies.
They're not boycotting the companies that are pushing anti-biblical teachings on our children.
They're not doing that. It's perfectly fine. We still give them money. We still keep them in our homes.
We still watch. We still got their books on our shelves. Whatever. It's perfectly fine that we don't do that.
Because if you do that, somebody's going to get upset. Your enemies are going to get upset.
And they may be your wife, your kids, your brother, your sister, whatever.
And God says, Don't pity them. Call them out for what they are doing.
The truth is, and we're coming to the conclusion now, but it's a doozy, we are still ordinary men and women.
We're still alive, still living on the earth, still walking the ground, still eating the food.
Now what ground you walk on and what food you eat, that's within your realm to choose. You get to choose your free will.
What you take part of, what you focus on, it says focus on the pure, what you focus on, that's within your ability to choose.
That's focus, I says, free will to choose. And it even says, Scripture says all things are permissible, but not all things are profitable.
And Paul meant for you to choose all things that are profitable and not choose things that are just permissible. Right?
That was the context of those verses. But people always say, well, it's all permissible now. I'm fine. I'll be, everything will be fine.
James wrote it this way in the book of James.
And it's in chapter five, verse 16 to 18. He said this.
Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so you may be healed.
The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
And we'll go on, 17. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Anybody want to be Elijah? Wouldn't it be cool?
God, America's in sin. This is what's wrong. We need a three year drought.
God says, okay, no rain for three and a half years or until they repent.
And then you get on TV and you say, I personally have prayed for no rain in America.
And for the first few months, everybody just laugh at you, mock you, probably kill you. They probably wouldn't even survive it, most likely.
Right? Six months later, we go, maybe that guy was serious. We haven't had rain in six months in the entire country. Wouldn't that be cool?
And then like a year later, we like, there's no rain. It's been a year. It's not rain for a year.
And then like three years later, they'd be like, where is that guy? We need to get him to pray and ask God to make it rain.
Wouldn't it be cool to be Elijah? Well, this is what James wrote. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.
And he prayed earnestly that it might not rain. And it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.
And he prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.
Now, I'm not saying God's going to do the miracle of no rain. That's up to him. If he wants to do something like that in our day.
What I am saying this is that he was very clear that you and I and Elijah are no different.
We are people, still people, still walking the earth, still making our choices.
And God wants to work through us. Now, God does not need to work through us.
God does not need to work through you and he does not need to work through me. His arm is not short.
If there were no professing Christians on the earth, he could pick somebody. They'd figure it out. They profess God.
They say, okay, God, whatever way you make. And then he'd lead them to a Bible and they'd figure out it was Jesus.
And then there would be Christians on the earth again. So we screw it up so bad that everybody's gone.
He could still do it. His arm is not short that he cannot save. He can save under any circumstances.
There are stories of people who received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, who had never heard the name Jesus,
who had never heard anything but rumors about the Christian God.
And yet they accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and they're saved and preached the gospel.
And I submit to you, probably will preach the gospel until the end.
God does not desire like humans desire. I mean, seriously, do I need you to bring me food?
Am I looking for sacrifices from you, like the false gods all supposedly are?
No. Do I need you to pay me to do what I do? No, God doesn't need that.
God does not desire like humans desire. But it's right this way.
It's right that mankind would come into a relationship with God, that his relationship with God would be right,
that man would become a disciple of God, that he would learn from God and deliver that message to everybody in his circle,
that man, yes, even would be undercut by the enemies that come into his life, sometimes out of his own family,
often out of his own family. And the word did not say often, by the way.
The word said that enemies will arise out of your own family.
Adam and Eve make a great illustration that it's right.
Do you understand that before Adam and Eve sending its God, before they went after knowledge tree,
by the way, what did this serpent say to them that made them want to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
There's one kind of primary argument. Is that what it was?
Yeah, I said God was lying, but that's not that wouldn't be enough by itself.
They questioned that they would be like God. That's it.
Right. See, God knows that in the day that you eat it, you will be like him.
Here's what's the ironic, powerful point that you need to discover in the story of Adam and Eve.
They were like God. Do you understand that?
Before they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which they were told would make them like God,
they were already like God. They were created to be in his image.
They were created to represent him over the whole earth. They were given the gift of service.
And by the way, the greatest amongst you should be your servant because God himself is a servant.
He chooses to be a servant. They were given innocence.
They never had sin. Only God never had sin. They never had sin to that point.
They did not have a sin nature. They were made in the image of God.
They had a right relationship with God as God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, as he has with himself.
They had a right relationship with God. They were created to be like God.
And the serpent made them think that they were not like God in some small way.
And they went after that little bit to be like God. But they were given the ability to create.
They were going to procreate to fill the entire planet and master it, right?
And they were given free will. And they took those things and they went after one teaching that said,
you can be like God. You can be in control. You can have this.
And they went after that and they gave up being like God in order to have the one thing they thought they couldn't have.
Which ironically was being like God.
1 Corinthians 5 verse 9 to 13 says, I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people.
I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world or with the covetous and swindlers or with idolaters.
For then you would have to go out of the world.
But actually I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person or covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or a swindler.
Not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders?
Do you not judge those who are within the church?
But those who are outside, God judges, remove the wicked man from among yourselves.
There is a certain kind of person that we're supposed to be in following Jesus Christ.
And if you claim to be following Jesus Christ and you are not that kind of person,
you need to repent and turn to God and do everything in your power to be that kind of person.
And when you have family members or when you have friends or you have business associates
and they claim to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ and yet they are not that kind of person,
you can actually say to them, okay, at this point in time what you say Jesus is,
that he says it's okay for you to live like that, be like that, do those things,
and he says it's okay, you've just become an enemy to me, you're just a stumbling block to me,
you're just trying to pull me away from the Jesus that I know, so now I'm done.
Leave me alone. I don't want to hear that it's okay that I can be a follower of Jesus and also be homosexual because that's a flat out lie.
You cannot practice a homosexual relationship as a devout follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So somebody wants to teach me that, that I can say to them, you go and live your version of Jesus,
I'll live my version of Jesus into eternity and I'm sad I won't see you pass the throne of judgment.
Let's be realistic. Discipline and truth and living what we know to be true,
these are examples of the love that Jesus shared in his lifetime and we are to walk as he walked.
If you love people, you stand up for what you know is right and yes, it's going to equate to a fight.
You cannot control them, you should not browbeat them, you don't flourish them,
but you diligently present before them what it means to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is why those who have done do not do, because we don't want to do what I just said we must do.
And because they don't want to do what Jesus said they must do.
1 John 3, 9-10 says this, no one who is born of God practices sins,
that means continuing on in sin and getting good at it, because his seed abides in him, God's seed.
And he cannot sin because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious.
Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
So if you're dealing with somebody who says they're a Christian and they're not practicing righteousness,
if they say they're a Christian and they do not love his brother and they're full of hate or venom or spit or whatever,
then you need to understand that person is not who they say they are.
And you do not have to give them access to your life.
Could be your wife, could be your son, could be your brother or your husband.
And you do not have to give access to your life which is now hidden in God.
The games are many and Jesus and John and Paul have said it very clearly that we are to be a certain kind of people as we follow Jesus.
And in not being that we understand that we are denying Jesus.
And if you deny Jesus, what did it say? He'll deny you before his father.
John 15, 21 says this, but all these things they will do to you for my name's sake because they do not know the one who has sent me.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sinned.
But now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my father also.
If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sinned.
But now they have both seen and hated me and my father as well.
But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in the law.
They hated me without cause.
Having done, do so.
Jesus was just simply saying that you need to take that moment at which you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ and stretch it over the whole rest of your life.
That's all he was saying.
And in our power, I get that that's impossible.
We're going to face temptations that I get in our own strength would be impossible to overcome.
But frankly, I'm tired, exhausted even, of listening to people professing Christ who do not stay the course in the long run.
And so it requires an unadulterated gospel.
What we hear in private we must deliver publicly and openly to anyone, to anyone.
Not to anyone who will listen, but to anyone.
I submit to you that if you bring the true gospel and explain to somebody they have to repent and follow the Lord and the Lord alone,
and that tearing with all these things in the world and trying to get their life under control and fix all the problems and make it just the way they want it,
that that's not Christianity at all, pretty soon it'll be pretty obvious who your enemies are.
There was a man that I was witnessing to this last week. In fact, he was in the Fatherhood Watchmen group.
I sent out a men's text and he came back at me pretty upset because my encouraging text to him was an assault on him.
I was accusing him, which I didn't see anything in there that was like that.
Just to be 100% sure, I sent out a follow-up text in the same group of people just to make 100% sure and explain.
Also at the same time, re-hammered home, this is what it says, this is what it means, this is who we are supposed to be in Christ, and so on.
A few days later, that person who professed to be a brother in Christ texted me, really nasty text, really mean, I don't say nasty, but mean, strong language,
and said, I don't want to ever hear from you again, don't talk to me ever again, don't send me anything ever again,
which he'd already unsubscribed from that group and he was very aggressive toward me.
I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what is this all about? I said, we've always been kind to you, I've always shown you love,
but I'm going to preach the Word the way it's written, I don't know what it is, so are you trying to find fault with me?
He came back, but no, I see that I'm doing that and I'm really sorry, whatever, and I said, you want to get together,
he doesn't come to our church, and I said, you want to get together and have a conversation in person about this and let me help you work through this and let's figure this out?
And he said, well, I've got to work through some things first, but I'll let you know.
In the two days choices that I told him we could get together have now passed, I don't know if we'll ever get together or not, but listen to me.
Just because somebody claims the name of Jesus, just because they say they're following Jesus,
and I'm not suggesting that you go around judging people, that's not your job.
I don't want you to judge who's saved and who's not, I'm not suggesting that.
I am suggesting that you live out your faith so large that if there's a demon in the house, that he's mad at you.
That if there's an evil spirit that somebody toed it in, they're feeling uncomfortable about it,
the evil spirit's going like, I'm going to get back at him somehow, right?
Preach the truths, tell it like it is, let's deliver Jesus' messages.
And yes, not meanly, but let us offend because the gospel is offensive.
Let us stand up for what we believe in.
And when your family member that loves you scoffs at you because you're standing a little too high,
and you're putting yourself up on a pedestal trying to live for Jesus like that, or something like that,
you say, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not my purpose at all.
You've got to live for Jesus your way, I've got to live for Jesus my way.
I'm sure this was my wife yesterday, we were out walking in Pearson Park,
and she and I, when we got married, we were not Christians.
In fact, we lived together before we were married, our first child was born out of wedlock,
and we kind of didn't even know that what we were doing was wrong, had no idea really.
But then when we got saved, our marriage became a Christian marriage.
And we had to ask ourselves, what is marriage in Christ?
And this was one of the first determining factors that we came up with.
The first thing is that she has to be fully free to follow Jesus the way she believes she's supposed to follow Jesus,
and I have to be fully free to follow Jesus the way I'm supposed to.
And this is why it works, because as she's following Jesus, and I'm following Jesus,
guess where we wind up? Together, at the same time, in unity, in oneness.
And we come home, and I say, dear, I've got to tell you something, it's exciting, I think God just spoke to me,
and this is what he said, and she's like, well that's amazing, God just spoke to me too.
I'm like, okay, so who's going to go first?
She said, well you go first this time, and I share, and what she shares is the same as what I share.
That's how God makes people one.
If you're sugarcoating it with your spouse or your significant other,
and you're not living full out for Jesus because you're afraid you're going to upset them,
then you need to understand that you're doing your marriage no favors.
If you're doing that with your parents, I don't want my dad, I don't want to obey your parents,
I don't want to bring it up because it's going to be mad at me, whatever.
If you're doing that, you understand you're not honoring your father by letting your father go to hell.
That's no honor whatsoever. You bleed, you die if necessary, you take all the hits if necessary
for the people that you love in human ways to get through to the gospel, to God, to give them faith.
You can't save them, but you can become that same stumbling block in their family.
You can become their enemy as you don't represent your Lord the way you're supposed to.
And what did Jesus say? It's enough. It's enough for you to be like Him.
Whatever the cost, it's enough.
I understand sometimes in faith it's hard to see that because we haven't seen heaven yet,
but if you'd seen heaven for just one day, just one minute, just one hour, just a few seconds,
if you could see your arrival in heaven for just a few seconds, it would transform your thinking.
You'd be like, oh, okay, wait a minute, I'll never choose that extra doughnut when God says no again.
I'll never watch when God says look away again. I'll never talk anyway, but the way God says again,
is you don't know what that first minute in heaven is going to be like.
And that's not faith. Faith is when you know what the first minute in heaven is going to be so good
that it affects who you are now even though you haven't seen it yet.
Tuesday night we talked about, and this is my final illustration, Tuesday night we talked about
the fact that the kingdom of God is proleptic. That means it works in reverse.
So that moment of you coming into heaven with God needs to affect everything that has happened to you now.
All this time I've been saying, haven't done, do so.
And we all thought, because I made it so, that we were talking about having professed Christ in that first moment,
having lived for Christ, continue to do so. That's what we thought.
But that wasn't what I was talking about at all.
What I was talking about is having claimed the promise of God, having walked into heaven,
having arrived there, saved, and lived there for an eternity.
You realize that God is already there welcoming you in now if you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's already there. He's already seen it.
But he also knows if you're just playing games and you have not accepted Jesus Christ, in reality or not.
I don't. No one else does. But he does and you do.
And if you've been deceived to think that you're not, which you are, then this is a wake-up call.
And maybe he's saying to you right now, I've been deceiving myself and I need to follow Jesus the way I said I would.
It's that that's been done. That is sealed.
That moment of coming into heaven is done. It's sealed if you're a follower of Jesus.
And knowing that, you could be crucified. Knowing that, you could take the bullet.
Knowing that, you could be bad-mouthing, persecuted.
Knowing that, you could cross over the stumbling blocks without stumbling.
Because you know where you're going and in some sense you know what it'll be like when you get there.
And that, you can choose over your husband, you can choose over your wife, you can choose over your kids,
you can choose over your boss, you can choose over your money, you can choose over your peace in this lifetime.
Because that is what it's all about.
If you're here today and you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you need to do so.
Not in a moment when we sing, but right now.
Don't let the enemy steal back free as they've seen it fall on the pathway and never got to pay group.
So I get it, I do, I want to live for Jesus, I want this to be mine.
And believe in God and just say, okay God, I'm just open to you doing what you want to do with His grace and deliverance.
But according to the inspirational moment time, everybody that's in this room is professing to be a Christian.
Or you're so wrestling that you haven't gotten there yet and that's okay too.
But if you're professing to be a Christian, then now it's about what kind of person you're going to be.
Who are you going to choose Jesus over?
When you can choose Jesus over anyone or anything or any experience or any result, then you're following Jesus the way He called you to.
And then my brother, my sister, you are a disciple.
And there is no difference between being a disciple and being a Christian.
There is no difference. You're either, if you're one, you're the other.
And you say, well I'm a Christian, but I'm not a disciple. I don't learn from Jesus. And I'm going to tell others what He told me.
Really what you're saying is you're not a Christian.
So be one. Join us. I've already told you this, I repent of not declaring the simple truth as often as I should have.
And I hope I'll do it better. The truth is, I'm still just a man.
We get out of bed in the morning and we do what we believe God wants us to do.
And we teach everyone everything we know.
The best we can. And some people won't want to listen.
And if they say they're following the Lord Jesus Christ and they're living in a way that doesn't honor God, then you can dismiss them.
You can say, I don't have to deal with that.
Now if it's your spouse or your kid or something, you're going to have to keep trying.
Because you have another obligation.
I would pray for you to come forward and lead us in our closing hymn.
So this is what we have on our agenda. This is our closing hymn for our service.
We're dealing with our business with God. We're not saying no to God. We're saying, okay God.
And if you're here today and you say, I need to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and I want to just tell everybody,
so he'll confess before his Father in heaven and I'll confess before men, this is your opportunity to do that.
And you can say, I know what God wants me to do, a thing that God wants me to do.
And I want to say I'm going to do that. And I want it publicly known so people can support me in that.
And people can pray for me in that. And people can tell me I'm capable of that.
And this drop can't do that.
And if you're baptized and you're a father of the Son of the Holy Spirit, this is your opportunity to say that.
Join the church. I can't say that. You can wait until after the membership meeting, but you need to be 100% sure
because when you put off decisions sometimes the enemy feels it.
Whatever it might be, as we sing this song, you respond.
We should watch the lyrics.
The sun is close to you. Never let me down. I'm making all of that room.