Come, just as you are before your God
Come, now is the time to worship
Come, now is the time to give your heart
Come, just as you are until the world
Come, now is the time to give your heart
Everyone needs a passion, love is everything
Love and mercy fall on me, everyone needs forgiveness
Find His love, save the heart, the whole foundation
Save the heart, He can't hold a weapon, like that is fighting to save
He is fighting to save, forever the Mother of salvation
He holds and fights on the grave, He has fought on the grave
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see
Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears of breathing
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first dreamed
My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has worked for me
And like a bird, it's gonna sing a song
An angel of amazing grace
The Lord has promised unto me His word my hope still holds
He will my shield and portion be
And the Lord has gone and ruled my chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has worked for me
And like a bird, it's gonna sing a song
An angel of amazing grace
My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has worked for me
And like a bird, it's gonna sing a song
An angel of amazing grace
The earth shall soon default, light is on
The sun for better shine
My God, who called me here
You will be forever mine
Will be forever mine
You are forever mine
Okay, so what I'm about to share with you
may or may not come to you as a great revelation.
I hope it does not, but it did to me at least in one major point.
And so I'm going to get there pretty fast.
The text that we're going to study today, we've already studied.
So a lot of times when I stand before you, I have to kind of teach through the text and explain
because we haven't done it in a while or we haven't looked at it.
And then I have to kind of come back and preach in the three points kind of method
and really bring it home what I think God wants to see for that day.
But this passage of Scripture, we have already studied it with this entire group.
We did it in part of a sermon earlier this month.
And then the main key verse, the first starting verse, I don't know if it's the main key verse,
but the starting verse we looked at last week as the kind of the starting point.
And then this is right picking on up from there.
And so we will not be teaching through this passage of Scripture today,
which means we will get to the points really fast.
And this message will go by fairly fast, I think.
I mean, it did when I practiced.
And so I think I'm asking you to really be in it with me
because we're going to and then it's going to be there all of a sudden.
And it hit me when it got to me.
It really hit me in the face.
And I realized that this is something that we have been dealing with,
not in my family and in our church and in really every church I've ever been in.
For since I became a Christian and even before I became a Christian, I can see it now.
I couldn't see it when I was a young Christian
and I hadn't really put my finger on it until this message right here.
OK, so that being said, I want to say if we don't get this thing
that is shown here in this passage, the very salvation that we claim
can maybe be kind of stolen from us.
We say it can never be stolen, but the truth is we may never actually have had it.
OK, there is a question about perseverance of the saints,
a question about never, you know, once saved, always saved.
And this, what we're going to look at here today, if you don't get it,
if we don't get it, there's a chance we never got it, this part of Jesus's message.
And then that's where maybe we say our salvation can't be stolen,
but maybe it kind of can be because we really missed this key thing
that Jesus was trying to show us by all that he did.
Now, I'm going to get it straight out of the scriptures,
so don't trust me in that, but you'll see it as it develops.
OK, so grab your Bibles and go with me, if you would, again,
one more time to Luke chapter two.
Amen. Thank you very much.
Praise the Lord. It is twenty twenty three.
And we begin reading in verse twenty one,
which is the verse that I was I kind of ended with as we read in Luke last week.
And it says in Luke two twenty one and when eight eight days were completed
before his circumcision, his name was then called Jesus,
the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
So he got his name Jesus because the angel gave it to Mary.
We hammered that kind of hard last week, then twenty two.
And when the days for their purification, according to the laws of Moses,
were completed, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord
as it is written in the law of the Lord.
Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord
and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord.
A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.
And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
And this man was righteous and devout looking for the consolation of Israel.
And the Holy Spirit was upon him.
So we're going to deal with kind of two people.
Obviously, got Mary and Joseph and Jesus all there,
but really talking about two people in the passage.
One is Simeon.
We kind of studied him before a little bit, but here we see he is a righteous man.
OK.
And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
And this man was righteous and devout looking for the consolation of Israel.
And the Holy Spirit was upon him, was upon Simeon.
And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death
before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And he came in the spirit into the temple.
And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to carry out for him the custom of the law,
then he took him, that's Jesus, he took him into his arms and blessed God and said,
this is verse 29, Now, Lord, thou dost let thy bond servant depart in peace according to thy word.
For my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples.
A light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.
So that was the prophecy, if you will, that he gave in the Holy Spirit as he held the baby Jesus.
Verse 33.
And his father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about him.
And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, behold, this child is appointed for the fall
and the rise of many in Israel and for a sign to be opposed.
And a sword will pierce even your own soul to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.
Verse 36.
And there was a prophetess, Anna, she's the second character, the daughter of Fenual,
of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years having lived with a husband seven years after her marriage
and then as a widow to the age of 84.
And she never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.
And at that very moment she came up and began given thanks to God and continued to speak of him,
the baby Jesus, to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
So first of all we see Simeon.
Simeon was looking to see the coming of the Christ, the Messiah, the appointed one.
In fact, God had told him through his Holy Spirit that that promise would be fulfilled in his sight
and that he would not die.
So the first thing in the text to realize that Simeon was looking to see the coming of the Messiah.
The coming of the Christ.
Expecting to see it before his death because there was a Holy Spirit imbued promise.
I submit to you that like Simeon we are looking for the coming of the Christ.
Without dwelling on that I submit to you that there are promises in the New Testament that we can live.
And if you will read those promises, and there are more than I'm going to list here,
but there are three in particular that tie right in with the way Simeon perceived life
and what he was expecting, what he was doing.
The first is that Jesus promised that he would be with us.
Of course that comes from Matthew 28.
Now it's an if.
Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them all things that I have commanded you.
And lo, I will be with you even unto the end of the age.
Now there's a lot of people who want to claim the promise that Jesus said
that he would be with us even unto the end of the age
without realizing its contingent in the command that Jesus gave.
He said, and I will be, meaning if you do that, and I will do this.
It's a quid pro quo of a sort.
The truth is Jesus promised via the Holy Spirit,
you can go in Matthew 28 and read it.
I guarantee you if you go read the end of Matthew 28,
chapter 28, and there it says, and lo, I will be with you even in the end of the world.
If you are a Christian and you are here,
and you are following the Lord Jesus Christ as a Christian,
that's the kind of people we say we are.
The church is that.
If we are that, then that testimony will be there for you.
You will feel the Holy Spirit inside you.
You say, God, God, are you with me?
And the Holy Spirit will say, yes, I am here.
And I may say it quietly because you may have been doing
a number of things that have offended the Holy Spirit,
or even kind of squashed His testimony in you.
But the truth is we have the Holy Spirit testimony,
not separately or alone, but through Matthew 28 testifying,
lo, I will be with you even under the end of the age.
Notice how that is very similar to the situation of Simeon,
because the Holy Spirit was, doesn't say in him, but upon him.
God's Holy Spirit presence was upon Simeon.
Simeon had the promise that he would see the Christ.
Now we don't have a promise, there's nowhere in Scripture
they have a promise that you will see the Christ
before you die on earth.
There is no promise of that.
There is a promise that at salvation,
He will come and take a president in you,
and He does that in the form of His Holy Spirit.
But there is no promise that Jesus will come again before we die.
However, we have a Holy Spirit promise,
God given through His word, that Jesus will be with us
if we are about His business.
Secondly, we have a promise which Paul wrote out,
a Holy Spirit promise, that God will turn all things,
He will work all things together for our good.
So we have a Holy Spirit promise that He will work all things
together for our good, if indeed we love the Lord
and are called according to His purpose.
Again, it's a quid pro quo.
This is the kind of people we are.
We love the Lord. I love God.
And I'll talk a little bit more about why that is,
but I love God pretty much with all that I am.
I often think that I love my wife more than money,
more than food, more than time, more than recreation,
more than anything that I do.
I love my wife probably more than any human being
on the face of the earth.
I love my children.
And I don't want to tell you, I love you less than your mother.
I'm not doing that, but I'm saying I love my wife
more than anyone.
But I love God more than my wife.
And then it says, if you love Him and are called
according to His purpose.
In other words, if you'll be what?
Matthew 28, right?
That go ye therefore.
Jesus gave us the great commission.
And love one another.
The basic things that God wants to do,
then God will work all things together for your good.
Notice that is similar to Simeon's situation,
because Simeon had been promised that he would see
the Christ before he died.
That meant whatever he was going through,
if a Mack truck grew through the side of the temple
right into Simeon's bedroom and ran over his bed,
Simeon would have survived because he was going to see
the Christ before he died.
If Simeon wound up in a wheelchair or coughed horribly
for the remainder of his life and couldn't see out one eye
or was blind or deaf or whatever,
he could know because God had told him that he would see
the Christ before he died.
Whatever that is, it's all going to turn out this way.
I'm going to see the Christ before I die.
Because he had a Holy Spirit promise that we have
a similar protection, if you will,
that God will turn everything out for your good.
It may be tough at times,
but he will make everything out for your good
if you love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.
And if you go there in Romans 8,
you read that verse, you can feel the Holy Spirit say to you,
look, He's going to do it.
It's going to work out.
In the worst of times, it's going to work out.
And then third, we have a promise that he's coming again.
Maybe the greatest promise of all,
this is especially good because of the nature of Simeon's promise.
But we know that Jesus come again.
He said, if I go to prepare a place for you,
I will come again that you may be there with me also.
He is the way to the Father and He is making it ready for us.
Arianna said, why is it taking him so long to build me my mansion?
I said, it's not, honey.
I said, that mansion is going to be based on
all that you have lived in life.
It's going to be all taken into account.
Everything I say, right now, what's your favorite color?
She said pink.
I said, in 50 years, your favorite color might be green.
So you might have green rugs or green panes or green walls
or a green mansion or a green, you know, whatever.
It might be more green because by the bottom line is,
we don't know what that's exactly like.
But your mansion is under construction because you are under construction.
It's not taking him forever.
He's taken into account everything that you are living through
and everything that you are doing.
He is coming again and will take us to be there with Him for an eternity.
Notice the similarity between that and Simeon's promise.
Simeon had the Holy Spirit on him, upon him,
and the Holy Spirit had told him,
you will see the Christ before you die.
Now, we don't have that exact kind of promise,
but we know that Jesus is coming again.
And if He comes again before we die,
we will see it and we will know it.
And it will not be a surprise to us,
even though it will be a surprise in timing or surprise in the way
it happens a little bit, but it will not be a surprise to us.
We will be summoned, meet with Him.
The Bible says we will meet with Him in the air.
First Thessalonians, I think it is four.
We will meet with Him in the air.
He is coming again.
Now, as I said, there are others,
but these three promises we can claim every day.
You can see how they can get you through,
essentially everything you're going through,
if you just trust in those promises of the Lord.
Notice that there is an if in every one.
I didn't mess with the if of coming again.
He's coming again.
But the question is, what's it going to be like for you
when He comes again?
If He comes again and you have not trusted in Him
and you're not following Him,
or you've built on the foundation of Christ
things that are not good,
then it ain't going to be pleasant when He comes.
So it will be great when He comes if indeed we are following Him.
So there are Holy Spirit promises for us,
and they will be fulfilled,
just as they were for Simeon.
The second thing in here is to say,
the truth about Jesus is amazing.
Notice that Mary and Joseph were going,
whoa, whoa, what does that mean?
They were taken aback, aghast, baffled, amazed, confused
by everything that was being said about the baby Jesus.
Despite the story of the singing angels
that they just heard eight days before, right?
Despite the shepherds that came
and the craziness of the night of His birth
and how it went down,
they were amazed at the prophecy
that's now being spoke about Him.
And let me just say to you,
the truth about Jesus is amazing.
It's amazing grace, but it's not just amazing grace.
Everything about Jesus is amazing.
They were hearing that He would be salvation.
It is amazing to think that the God of the universe
would send His own Son to die for me
or come in the flesh,
if you can understand the doctrine of the Trinity,
as we do, to die for me, to pay for.
That means when I lied for that lie I told,
or lies I told back in the day,
I would have gone to hell for eternity,
separated from God forever,
but Jesus wasn't having that,
so He died on the cross to pay for my lies.
The stuff I stole when I was a kid
and never told anybody about
and even as a teenager,
and got away with,
and what are, Jesus died on the cross
to pay for that for me.
This is an amazing truth about Jesus,
that Jesus would be the salvation,
but not just the salvation for the Jews or the Gentiles,
but the salvation for all people at all time.
God prepared this salvation
in the presence of all people.
Literally everybody on the face of the earth,
blind as they may be, confused as they may be,
everybody on the face of the earth
can figure out that they have sin,
and that that sin would be a problem
if they bumped into a holy God.
There were bullies in my neighborhood
when I was growing up.
There was one kid in particular
who had become a bully
and he was just about 20% faster than me,
20% stronger than me,
and he was really smart.
And so whenever he would come and play,
there was this kind of nagging thing
in the back of my head.
We played kickball,
we used to play tron,
where we'd throw frisbees at each other,
we did all these things in my side yard.
There was this kind of thing in the back of my head
that I had to kind of be on my best behavior
because he was faster and stronger than me.
When he didn't come play,
I was the fastest, strongest kid playing.
And even if I wasn't the fastest, strongest,
I was always the craftiest and most manipulative.
And so there was one kid
who was maybe stronger than me,
but he wasn't faster than me,
and there was a kid who was faster than me,
but he wasn't stronger than me,
and none of the kids were as crafty and manipulated as I was.
So I could basically run the show.
I picked the teams,
I told them this is the game,
we're not done playing that game,
now I want to play this game.
And everybody did what I told them to do
for several years.
But then when he would come,
I had to kind of be,
and by the time we were done playing,
we'd butt heads,
next thing you know,
it's a fight.
And I already told you,
he was faster than me and stronger than me,
and he was at least as crafty and manipulative as I was.
So you know how those fights went.
Right?
So I learned too much of,
this is when I learned the lesson,
too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
So we'd play for a while,
we just kind of like,
let's play this,
let's talk it out.
And him and I would do most of the side,
and we'd do it in four,
six, eight hours,
we'd go by,
and then I'd say,
you know what,
I think I better go in.
No fight had happened,
no real arguments,
I think I better go in.
I'm going to call it,
I'm going to call it a day,
I'm going to go in.
Yeah, I'd have to go in.
And they'd be like,
you don't have to go in,
your mom's not calling you,
you don't have to go in,
you already ate dinner,
you don't have to go in.
They wouldn't fool us like that.
That won't go in on the future
because we might not be there
when things don't do their way.
before him, even though you didn't when you were a kid and a teenager and a young adult,
but you start following out, you stand before him, as long as you do more good than bad,
then you'll just have to flip a coin, maybe you'll make it in.
That's the third most major religion in the world.
That's basically how it works.
And there's millions of people all over the earth that want to believe that because they
know when they stand before a holy God, they're going to answer for what they've done.
There are more people in the world that have figured out that you've done bad, and you're
going to answer for the bad that you do when you stand before God, than there are that
have not figured that out.
The ones that haven't figured out are few and far between.
But there's a lot of big effort to go, no, no, no, no, not me, no, no, I'm fine, I'm
good, I'm better, haven't I always done a good job, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?
Because this salvation is in the presence of everyone.
It's amazing that God could do that.
Not that he could do it because he has the capability, but he baffles my mind how awesome
and powerful he is that he could in one event save anybody who's willing to be saved, and
that everyone, everywhere could figure it out.
There are people who have come to saving faith in Jesus Christ without anyone telling them
how to do it.
Because it's done in the presence of everybody.
It's amazing.
The teaching, the truth about Jesus is amazing.
He would be a light of revelation to the Gentiles.
See, the Jews kind of already had salvation.
What they were told to do in the Old Testament is basically trust in the way that God would
make.
So it was accessible to them.
If they would just trust in the way that God would make, they would be saved.
That was it.
That was their very simple gospel from the Old Testament all the way up to Jesus' birth.
The problem was when Jesus came, which was the way that God would make, they didn't want
to trust in the way that God would make.
Well, that's another problem.
The Gentiles didn't have any of that.
They didn't necessarily understand who God was for sure or how many gods there were or
whether it was just the God of the Jews and he would never save them.
They were distant.
But at a moment in time, through the crucifixion, through the gospel, the spreading of the church
and God's Holy Spirit to do so, empowering witness, everyone could figure out now that
this salvation was not just for the Jews.
It was going to be for the Gentiles too.
Guess who already knew that?
The Jews.
They already knew.
They already knew that the salvation was going to be for everybody, but the Gentiles didn't.
The Jews were supposed to be taking it to everybody, but they weren't.
Some of them were.
But not nearly enough and not effectively or efficiently enough to get the job done.
God prepared this salvation in the presence of all people and Jesus would be a light of
revelation to the Gentiles so they could be saved like the Jews.
He would be the glory of God's people and that was referring to the Jews first and then
the Gentiles and the church at large.
Jesus is our glory.
The light of revelation that is Jesus has shined on God's people and you can go and
talk to somebody.
I've had a couple of different conversations.
People sharing the gospel with somebody, not nearly enough.
I'll tell you, I stand before you today ashamed of how little I have shared the gospel.
So don't go, well that's Pastor Danny talking to everybody about Jesus.
I am consistently ashamed of how little I share the gospel with people.
But I will tell you that almost half the time that I've shared the gospel with somebody,
that person was going, I wish somebody would come and tell me how to get saved.
They didn't say it necessarily.
One time I actually had somebody walk in the front door of the life station and go, I heard
this is a Christian operation.
I said yeah and he said, will you tell me what I have to do to be saved?
And so I did because I recognized that verse from Paul's life, right?
It happened to him.
The jailer said, what must I do to be saved?
So I did.
But many times I've been sharing the gospel and I run into people and basically I run
into people who don't want to hear it at all because they know if they were in God's presence
they would answer.
I run into people that are kind of in the middle.
If you overcome some of their objections, tell them how available it is.
Like there are people who say, well yeah I want to believe but I'm so wicked or I have
so many sins or whatever, I can't possibly be saved.
Those people really want to hear it.
And then I've heard people, about half the people that I've talked to, who were waiting
for somebody to tell them.
Listen, I tell you right now, if we all left here today and told three people by next Sunday
the truth, the actual biblical truth about Jesus and the simplest of terms, we would
all come back in here with stories of 20 people getting saved.
You're like, but I don't have anybody to tell.
Yeah you do.
You have people all over your life that you can tell.
And it's already done in the presence and the light of revelation is not you or your
words it's Jesus.
It's already there.
We just need to go and tell them.
It's available to anyone or as Arianna's devotional said last night, we're reading it at 1230,
which we never read it that late.
As we read it, it said, salvation is for everyone.
For everyone.
So look, Jesus is appointed for the rise and the fall.
He would be a sign.
Look a sword would hit Mary's soul.
Hit Mary's, strike Mary's soul.
And thoughts from many hearts might be revealed.
We are living in the day of looking.
This is what it's like.
Sometimes being a Christian, I'm going to be completely playing with you right now.
Sometimes being a Christian sucks.
Okay, finish up what you're doing for one second and then put that away.
This is not the time.
Okay?
Thank you.
All right.
Sometimes being a Christian sucks.
It's hard work.
Study to show yourself approved.
A workman who needs not be ashamed means it's hard work.
Be diligent.
Study.
Work.
Do the work.
And working sometimes tires you out.
It hurts.
It's painful.
It causes sweat.
It causes pain.
Sometimes you have to be willing to divorce yourself.
You have to put your phone down.
Stop doing whatever you're doing.
Stop your distractions.
It's not about just passing the time.
It's about the work that needs to be done as a Christian.
We are looking for something and we are working towards it and it's tough.
Mary's soul would be struck with a sword.
A sign would be given.
And thoughts of many hearts would be revealed.
It's not going to be easy all the time.
This lady was 84 years old and she was serving.
I thought about Judy who didn't live to be 84 years old.
But Judy with a trach in her throat.
Pain a little every day.
Not a lot of pain but a little every day.
Hardly able to talk.
Her glasses prescription could not keep up.
She was getting glasses every four months.
Unless you go like, oh it's almost time of year from now I've got to get my glasses
again.
She was getting glasses again every four months.
She had all these medications she had to take.
This big medication divider.
All her medications stepped out and had to take every day.
She had to have a machine at night to make sure her oxygen stayed up while she was sleeping.
Because otherwise she could just randomly die.
She was on radiate or on chemo.
She couldn't take radiation.
She was on chemo.
And she was volunteering at the church building or at the life station and talking about Jesus
three to four days a week.
Can you lift 20 pounds?
She couldn't.
Can you get up without immense pain?
She couldn't.
Now when she got up she was fine.
She would walk around my house and play bouncing the ball back and forth with Ariana for an
hour.
Ariana was two or three years old.
When's the last time you spent an hour or two or three making a small child feel good
about themselves?
See when you start to run out and it really hurts and it really sucks and it really gets
difficult you're going to go, man I wish when I was younger, stronger, whatever I had all
that going on that I had done more.
And then you'll push by and then you'll overcome the pain, you'll overcome the difficulty,
you'll really do the hard work of recognizing the truth about Jesus is truly amazing.
But right now while we're still young and strong and do all these things we'd rather
play, we'd rather watch TV, we'd rather work on our personal stuff or our projects or our
health or our finances or our whatever.
You don't have time.
The truth about Jesus is amazing.
They were looking for the redemption of the Jews and the salvation that would be for all
people and she was fasting and serving daily in the temple, fasting, praying and serving
daily in the temple at 84 years old.
Before I go on to my final point and then my conclusion I want to ask you to think about
this question for a moment.
Why do people pray and fast?
Fasting and fasting has essentially just a few purposes.
It seems like you could do it for a lot of things but it isn't.
Biblical fasting has these three purposes.
Number one, to seek God.
In other words, I want to draw closer to God.
Bible says you draw close to God, He'll draw close to you.
So I want to draw close to God.
So I fast to give up food.
By the way, the original fasting was to give up all food and all water for a period of
time.
There's a few different ways you can fast.
You can fast because you only eat fruits and vegetables, don't drink anything that's not
made of a fruit or a vegetable, don't eat anything that's not made of a fruit or a vegetable,
you can't use salt because that's a mineral, not a fruit or a vegetable.
All those, that's Daniel fasting.
You fast, one of the main reasons is to seek God or draw close to God.
So she's seeking God.
Another reason is to entreat God, to beg God to do something you want God to do.
So God, please give me this request.
You can do that as a form of intercession for other people.
You're going to look at the book of Esther, where Esther had to go in front of the king
and she might have been going to die because you walk in front of the king under your own
volition and if he doesn't tip the scepter toward you, you're dead.
He doesn't have to say a word, but if he doesn't tip the scepter, they take you out and kill
you right then.
That was the law.
So she and her uncle and all her women that were with her and all his friends, they all
fasted for three days before she went for the king and then he tipped his scepter toward
her and she was not put to death and that was all because they entreated God to intervene.
So it's about entreating God.
And then lastly, it's about taming self.
It's about getting yourself under control because the truth is we're so wrapped up in
the things that we like to do in this life that we can't put ourselves completely on
the line for the things that are right.
In the moment we might, I'd love to be able to sacrifice my life for somebody if that's
what God requires me to do, but I might do it.
But if I tame myself and I know I'm completely under control, then I can know that I will
do what's right.
And until you do that, until you tame yourself, you can't know in the moment if you'll do
what's right because you might be in the middle of one of your fits.
Or you might be in the middle of one of your health struggles.
Or you might be in the middle of distraction by one of your friends or family members or
pastimes.
So you don't even know if you'll be paying attention, let alone doing the right thing.
So she was fasting, which means she was seeking God and treating God and taming self and probably
all three of those things.
And then she was praying.
She was talking to God, listening and interceding.
There's really only three things in prayer.
You can do it a lot of different ways.
But basically you talk to God, you listen to God, and you intercede for other people.
So you're talking for them, you're listening for them, right?
Or you're talking or listening for yourself.
That's basically what it comes down to.
And so this lady at 84 years old who's fasting and praying, I want you to see what her response
is and then we're going to go to the final point.
After being a person at 84 years old that does nothing but fast and pray and serve in
the temple every day, all day, every night, all night, it's all she does, she runs into
Jesus and what does she do?
She is speaking of Jesus to all who are looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
So her response after encountering Jesus, after all her praying and fasting and service,
all her seeking God and treating God and taming herself, all her talking to God and listening
to God and interceding for others, all of that, her response is she is telling everyone
about Jesus.
And we go to the third point.
And so I accept things aren't right.
Have you noticed that things aren't right?
That there are people in the world who are, in this world, in this country even, who are
literally starving while in food banks 200 pallets of cereal stacked, filled in an entire
warehouse a block away or three blocks away is somebody who hasn't eaten in three days.
This is the country that we live in.
But that's just hunger.
There's a guy who was living at the, just very briefly, he and his wife were having
a disagreement, he was living at the Mission downtown, I think it's on Madison, it's like
you rent, you pay to stay there, not the church remission and it's across the street from
there, across the street from Kitty Corner from the Y and he came outside one night to
walk to the carry out and two young men, one 15 and one 17, beat him to death.
They attacked him.
They didn't know him from Adam, never met him before.
They attacked him, threw him down in the parking lot and kicked him until he was dead.
They did it as an initiation into a gang because the gang told them if they would kill somebody
they could be part of the gang.
Now they're both in jail, probably for life because they were tried as adults.
He's dead.
He would have probably reconciled with his wife and gotten back together but for the
time they were separated but they were planning on getting back together.
Now his children were raised fatherless.
Have you noticed something is actually wrong in this world?
While we have the most important truth that we can possibly have and God is speaking to
us, we are distracted by the things of this world.
Something is wrong.
So all the while that we have Holy Spirit promises that are going to be fulfilled, Holy
Spirit promises that we can trust him because God never makes a promise and doesn't keep,
doesn't keep that promise, right?
He doesn't fail to fulfill his promises and the truth about Jesus is the most amazing
thing.
While all of that is going on, the church at large, 80 to 90 percent is failing to tell
anyone about Jesus.
And people are sitting in church, not in our church, praise God, because what we teach
here is the Bible, right?
But people are sitting in churches filled with 200, 300, 500, 2000, 3000 people that
ask them and they can't tell you two of the Ten Commandments.
They might tell you something like what Miss Chris showed us in that video, that Jesus
was an angel or just a human being.
Now they'll sit in the church building every week on Sunday, Saturday night, whatever their
meeting time is and they'll sit there and they don't have doctrine.
Now you won't be able to persist in this church not understanding the basic truths about Jesus
because if you're sitting here in this room, you're getting what the Bible says and what
we know to be true out of what the Bible says.
But in other churches all over the world, that's not necessarily true.
And as you'll notice, we don't have 2000 people.
I submit to you, if we'll take the gospel out and start to preach something a little
more friendly, a little less cut to the quick, a little less demanding, we could get ourselves
a few hundred people.
There are places in the world where you can get paid to go to temple.
There's a guy that was quoted publicly, you can probably Google it, and he said that he
was really struggling financially and started going to temple and they pay him to go to
temple and he goes five days a week and now because of that, that combined with money,
he's fine, he's economically solid because they pay him to go to temple every week.
She wasn't getting paid to be there.
You're not getting paid to be here.
The bottom line is, things are not right in this world and while you are living in this
world, this is what's going to happen to you.
You're going to regularly run into things that are not right.
It's going to happen literally every day, all the time.
Now your chief tool for dealing with that is sharing the gospel.
If you run into somebody that's addicted to drugs, share Jesus with them, you can't get
them unaddicted.
You can't stay with them 24 hours a day and get them off, it's not going to happen.
You run into somebody who's truly bankrupt, financially hurting, share Jesus with them
because you can't financially make them stable.
You're not going to get them a job, pay their bills, pay their utilities, buy them a house,
pay all their medical stuff, get them on their feet.
You can't do it.
You're not physically able.
You might be able to do it with one person over the space of 10 years, but Jesus has
made these promises.
I will be with them, I will turn all things out for their good, and I am coming again
to take them where I am for an eternity.
Those are things you can't do, but Jesus can.
So the first thing you do before you do anything else to help someone is make sure they're
saved.
Now if they don't want to hear it, doesn't mean you can't be compassionate or loving
toward them, that's fine.
But the bottom line is, things are not right in this world.
Lately, now I'm coming into my conclusion right now, there is this phenomenon that has
occurred.
In fact, it happened to me last night.
I watch movies with my wife.
She likes dramas with just maybe a hint of comedy or a hint of action, good writing,
good characterization.
I like good writing, good characterization.
And we'll get to the height of the movie, we'll come to a moment in time, happened last night.
Has anyone ever seen the show Madam Secretary?
Raise your hand.
Okay, we've got one person in the entire room.
Two?
Anybody else?
Three?
Okay, so not a lot.
If you want to watch it, it's on Netflix, you can watch for free if you have Netflix.
You probably can find episodes on YouTube and that kind of thing.
I don't even know that it's a good show, I'm not recommending the show, but I'm going
to tell you that there is a scene in the show where Madam Secretary has become Madam President.
And Madam President has been getting impeached.
They've been trying to impeach her, they have an impeachment hearing, trying to kick her
out.
And it gets to the end of that time and it's been a turmoil and she's exhausted and she
finally sleeps in one day.
And while she's sleeping in one day, her husband comes to wake her up, and actually he doesn't
wake her up, he's sitting in the room but he doesn't wake her up, and she hears this
noise and she wakes up and says, what is going on?
What is that?
And he says, come and look.
And look outside and a huge protest has broke out all over the United States and it started
with a 10 year old girl who asked her mom to drive her to Washington D.C. and put up
a sign that says, she's my president.
And people picked up on social media, whatever, and people all over the country come out for
the she's my president movement.
After all the hard work that she's been doing, she's physically exhausted, she finally gets
a day of sleep and the morning sleeps in a little bit and then millions of people come
out protesting saying she's my president and they voted not to impeach and it all blows
over and I'm watching the show and I have to take my glasses off.
You know why?
Because tears are streaming down my face.
It's just a show.
It's not even real.
I don't get worked up when a dinosaur eats half a person.
I don't watch those shows because I just don't want to see it but it doesn't bother me.
I don't get worked up when a villain shoots a cop in the head or somebody gets tortured
on TV.
I don't watch that stuff because I don't want to see it but it wouldn't really bother me
to see that.
But tears are streaming down my face.
And I'm asking myself, I'm saying why.
Why can I watch a show and it comes to a moment of human triumph and I'm crying like a baby.
Not a sobbing but I can produce about like probably a pint of water out of my face in
a moment like that.
Why?
I'll tell you why.
Because every day, all day, I'm living in a world that's not right.
Things are wrong.
You're suffering.
Darkness.
Wickedness even.
You can call it that.
People do what it is that they want to do rather than doing what's right.
And I see it all the time.
And all the time I'm vexed.
All the time I'm irritated.
All the time I'm sad.
And then in that moment of human triumph, I think about it.
I'm feeling, I'm sensing God saying, see, I love you.
I'm saving you.
I have promised you eternity with me.
And this little moment is just like a hint or an inkling of what that's going to be like.
Human triumph is finding Jesus Christ in salvation and living in eternity with God.
That's human triumph.
That's how you get beyond.
So, the guy backs out of his driver and T-bones your van.
That sucks.
Right?
But we have promises.
And we are looking for the fulfillment of those promises.
And it aches.
It's like a thirst.
And Jesus said, come and have living water.
Right?
And so, this is the mistake that people have made.
Well, if you will become a Christian and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be alright.
Everything will be great.
Even quoting God will work everything out for your good and Jesus will always be with
you and all that kind of...
It's going to be great.
You're not going to encounter difficulties that you can't handle.
God...
Misquoted Bible.
God will never give you more than you can handle.
If you can show me that in the scripture, and I've searched thoroughly, I would be amazed
because it ain't there.
Okay?
The closest you'll get is about temptation.
And with temptation, He always makes a way out.
Right?
That's the closest you'll get.
There's nothing else that's even remotely close to God won't give you more than you
can handle.
But that's the gospel that's being taught.
And this is what's happening.
People are believing that when you start to be a Christian, everything will now be perfect.
Everything will be okay and you won't be affected by this world.
That is not the gospel that Jesus taught.
Right?
He actually said, when they hate you, don't be surprised because they hated me first.
And now I'm paraphrasing, but when you struggle, see the difficulties, face all the challenges,
don't be surprised.
The student is not greater than the master.
And well, what did they do to Him?
They crucified Him for crying out loud.
The gospel is not us sailing through life and everything is okay.
I preached a sermon recently about holy discontent and discontent.
And I said this, I said, if it's holy discontent, if it comes from the Lord, you're meant to
do something about it.
We broke down those steps.
Right?
But if it's discontent that has nothing to do with God, if it's not holy discontent,
then most of the time, you're just supposed to let it go.
You don't have time to stop and be vexed by everything that you're seeing, experiencing,
what you don't think is right.
You don't have time to stop and try to fix every little injustice in the world.
You're busy doing something.
The looking, the waiting, the watching God do what God is doing, that's where our eyes
need to be.
Christianity is this statement.
I still haven't found what I'm looking for.
The Bible says this in Revelation 22.
I'm going to flip there and read it.
You can flip along if you want.
Revelation 22, way to the end.
It's going to be the very end of your Bible, which kind of is good because that means it's
sort of the end that settles the matter, if you will.
Revelation 22, 16 and 17.
Jesus is speaking in 16, 22, 16.
He says, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.
17 says, and the spirit and the bride say, come, so not Jesus speaking, but the Holy
Spirit of God and the bride.
Who's that, by the way?
That's the church.
The bride is the church, right?
So and the spirit and the bride say, come, and let the one who hears say, come, and let
the one who is thirsty come, let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.
See, if you're not living that vexation, if you have not experienced that trouble, if
you cannot figure out that the world is not right and that where we are going, it will
be, but right now it's never going to be exactly right.
If you cannot be thirsty, if you cannot be aching for the people around, if you cannot
be caring about things that you can't do anything about and go like, man, I've got a list of
things and this is not justice, I've got to fix this, and I've got to do that, except
realizing in Christ, no, what I really have to do is be still and know that he is God
and trust that he will fulfill his promises, and I'm looking for when he will fulfill his
promises, not when I can get everything fixed that's bothering me.
In case you haven't figured out this already, if you could manage to get, say, six months
off work and not have to work and not have to cook and not have to clean and not have
to do laundry, not have to pay any bills and spend that entire six months fixing all the
things about life that bother you, it would be a drop in a hat because by the time you
got to the end of the sixth month, it would be 60 times as much stuff as there was at
the beginning because you'd have been spending that time not only trying to fix everything
but also discovering everything that's truly wrong.
You can't do it.
What you can do is recognize that it's real and receive that pledge, down payment promise.
Jesus has filled you up with the Holy Spirit if you've become a Christian, sealed you for
eternity, and the Bible says that that is a down payment, a pledge.
Look at Ephesians 1.
This is the last verses that we'll read for the day.
Ephesians 1.
Ephesians 1, verses 13 and 14.
It says, In him, you also, after listening to the message of the gospel of the truth,
the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the
Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge, or you'll find a little sub note there
because it could be translated down payment, a pledge or a down payment, given as a pledge
of our inheritance with a view that means you're looking to the redemption of God's
own possession to the praise of His glory.
You were thirsty, so you came to Christ, and He gave you His Holy Spirit, which is living
water and will not run out, but will fuel you until He fulfills His promise, at which
time you will receive in total the presence of God.
Adam and Eve walked in the Garden of Eden with God in the coolness of the day, but never
had God's Holy Spirit living in them.
They were innocent and without shame.
Then they sinned against God, and they lost fellowship with Him and every generation since.
But if you've been born again as a Christian, if you've become a follower of God through
Jesus Christ, then that fellowship with God has been restored, and His Holy Spirit comes
and lives in you.
That's the living water, John 4.
And it's always available.
It never runs out, but you're living in a world where things are not right, looking
for a world where things will be right.
That's what salvation is.
It's as if I came to say to you, I'm going to give you a mansion one day.
When you're 90, if you live that long, I'm going to give you the best house you've ever
lived in.
I'm building it now.
It's in sunny California or fruit country Florida or whatever.
It's going to be three, four stories, and I'm going to move in all your family.
I'm going to give you several cars with it, whatever.
And you go like, I don't believe you.
I don't believe you're going to do that.
That's so much.
You're just one person.
I mean, yeah, but I've got God on my side.
He's pouring in the resource.
You go, ah, no, I still don't believe you.
And I say, all right, you know what?
You don't believe me?
Here's what I'll do.
I'll give you $100 million right now.
You're going to be like, you didn't got $100 million.
I'm saying, watch me.
Here's the check.
You look at the check.
I don't believe in the check.
This is stupid.
It's a check.
It's cashier's check.
What is it?
Cashier's check for $100 million?
That's something.
You put $100 million in your bank account, the next day you go to McDonald's and use
your debit card.
And you check in.
It says you have $999 million left.
Or whatever.
$99 million, $999,000 left.
You're like, that really was $100 million.
Maybe he's really going to build me that mansion because now he actually did give me the $100
million.
It's amazing what Jesus can do.
He said, when I go back to heaven, I will send you God's Holy Spirit as a down payment
for what I'm going to do.
You don't have to trust me and nothing happens.
He trusts me and I'll send you the Holy Spirit and He'll be in you and then you'll know,
beyond a shadow of a doubt, that one day, for my eternal, everlasting, unstopping glory,
I'm going to bring you to be with me forever.
You're like, oh, that's great.
But I'm supposed to believe that, down the road, that God's going to do that.
I'm going to go to heaven.
It's going to be great.
I have to believe that.
He sends His Holy Spirit as a down payment to testify with your spirit.
Now you know that you're saved.
You know where you're going when you die.
So when you look around and you should and see all of this that's not right, everything
that you see that's not right is a reminder of how right that's going to be.
And if you can't look around, if you're a coward, I was, so I get this.
You look around and go, I don't want to look at it.
I don't want to recognize the problems of the world because then I might have to do something
about them or God might use me.
If I pray that God will send workers into the harvest like the disciples did, then maybe
God will send me into the harvest, right?
Like He did with the disciples.
If you recognize the problems and start doing something about them, which would start with
the gospel, of course, it's going to be work.
It's going to be hard.
The world is not right.
It's messed up.
And we are, for the meantime, until Jesus comes again, meant to be the solution to the
problem, not the problem.
To say that our lives are not about arrival is not quite accurate.
Our lives and everything we experience is exactly about navigating from the moment of
our salvation to the moment of the once and for all resolution of that salvation.
It is learning to wait on God, to look to God, to trust His promises, and to know that
there is no greater calling than to be called sons and daughters of God while we work and
serve our way through this life to its conclusion.
The hand that clutches us is bloodied and yet strong.
Resolute to hold on to us against tangible, jagged assaults on its total sovereignty.
Meanwhile, the chief two assaults, the main things, are a misunderstanding of the nature
of this walk, which is literally waiting, looking, and faithfulness.
If you could get good at waiting on God, get good at looking for God to do what God is
going to do, and get good at faithfulness, you'd have mastered the game of life.
We have a misunderstanding of the nature of this walk, and that's the main attack against
God holding on to us.
And an understanding of the readiness of the enemy to use that misunderstanding against
us.
He wants you to think it should be easy.
He wants you to think others should do what you want, or you should be able to deal justice,
or you should be able to fix this problem.
The enemy wants you to think that because then when it doesn't happen, it becomes your
greatest doubt, your greatest fear, your greatest question.
You walk out of the great thing that God is intending for you because it looks like it's
going to be hard, because it looks like it's going to be too much, because it doesn't seem
wise, because it will cost you a lot.
And you go, well, when I got saved, God said He was going to be with me always and turn
everything out for my good, and I can't see how this could possibly be a good thing.
So even though I feel like God is what God wants me to do, I'm not going to do it.
Indeed, I have seen the enemy.
And if we do not understand this very thing that we're talking about, then I have found
that the enemy, He, is us.
Because we will undermine everything that God is trying to do in us if we do not accept
and realize that your view of the world is always going to be of a world that is not
right because it's simply not right.
That is an open-eyed view.
Every time a lost person who refuses to recognize that they're lost has a windfall in their
eyes, they experience great joy, great happiness.
Oh yes, my ship finally has come in.
She finally did what I wanted her to do.
He finally did what I wanted Him to do.
Finally got the car that I was waiting for.
Heaven on earth, baby!
No.
No success that you ever have, even in serving God, will by any stretch or imagination compare.
And there's always another bump in the road waiting.
This life is about looking for, living toward the moment in time at which our salvation
will be complete.
So make yourself about looking in the right direction, about waiting on God to do as He
promised.
And by the way, eliminate the weight busters, the things that you do to just fill the time,
because it's not about getting by while time passes.
Waiting on God is not just person, just kind of like existing through it, still surviving.
That's a humanistic life.
Waiting on God is about being faithful to God and doing the things that God wants you
to do.
So put the weight busters aside, get off the phone, stop playing too many video games or
watching too much TV, and think about what does God want me to be doing with my time?
How can I be bettering myself to be able to serve God better?
How can I serve God better?
Be found faithful.
Literally be looking for every opportunity to serve God you can find, and then do those
things.
These services, the things that you do for God, they become your lifeline, your tether,
so that when you think you could actually fall out of the carriage, you instead recall
He has you right where you are supposed to be.
When you see that you have not found what you are looking for, you will remember that
that is the way it was meant to be.
Video.
This is the last thing we are going to do.
There was a band called U2.
Literally, this is what I know about U2.
There was a band called U2.
That was it.
That's the summation.
However, they wrote a song, and it's called, I've Not Found What I'm Looking For.
Neat thing is they were trying to write a gospel song, even though they were not a gospel
band.
They were, oh, I just realized I know more about U2 than I thought I did.
They are three guys who profess to be Christians who wrote this song.
They come out of Ireland.
In fact, the one guy said, I rode my bike to school one day, and because I rode my bike
to school, I got to school early, and if I had walked to school like I always did, I
would have died like thousands of other people died in three bus bombings in town that day.
They lived through the greatest persecutions of Christian warfare, basically, that took
place in Ireland, and they survived it.
The day before they made it great, if you want to call becoming a very popular band,
making it great, they went to their manager and said, we have to stop doing this.
We're not going to play music anymore.
We've got to get busy serving Jesus.
He said, I want you to go back and pray to your God.
He was not a Christian.
I want you to go back and pray to your God and ask him, what do we do then with all the
concert dates I just signed up for you for the next year?
Do we just cancel all our commitments?
They agreed to go back and pray to God, and they said, God said, keep your commitments,
and they became U2.
One of the albums they produced, they wanted to write a gospel song.
Gospels considered a genre if you're not saved, right?
So they wanted to write a gospel song.
This is the song that they wrote, but this is a video of what happened when they went
to go sing that gospel song with an actual gospel choir.
Go.
Well, we wrote the song as the one I'm looking for, which is a gospel song pretty much.
I mean, it doesn't sound much like a gospel song the way we do it.
If you look at the lyric and the basic music, that's exactly what it is.
And we got a cassette from a friend of ours and I and great words of the gospel choir
covering the song.
And it sounded like, it sounded totally different, but it sounded really exciting to you.
So we traveled down to Harlem, visited this church in the middle of Harlem, this choir,
and we were going through a rehearsal.
And we played with them, got the idea to do a combination of it.
Yeah,
Oh
All I have to be with you
I am a, I am a
I'll stay with you, this and it won't
This and it won't
All I have to be with you
But I still have to
What I'm looking for
All I feel, all I know
What I'm looking for
I have kids, all I have to do
Is to be a man, a man, a man
I'm a man, I'm a man
I'll be buried with desire
I am a woman, on your way to hell
I am hell, hell on the floor
I'm a woman, I'm a man
I'm a woman, on your way to hell
All I've got to do is feel
What I'm looking for
What I feel
What I'm looking for
What I feel
What I'm looking for
For I'm still looking for, for I'm looking for
I've been there, in the deep dark night, all my troubles leading to you
I didn't even know, where, for I'm still, running down
For I'm looking for, for I'm still running down
For I'm looking for
That statement, and I still haven't found what I'm looking for, is literally true of every single human being.
The lyrics in the song say, I believe in the kingdom come, but I still haven't found what I'm looking for.
Hear me now, no one has.
The difference is, we have a down payment, and promises from God, that we will.
If you become a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you've turned your life over to God, and you're following the Lord,
you receive the Holy Spirit to seal you up for that day at which he will fulfill his promises.
You still haven't found what you're looking for? Join the human club.
Every human being still breathing hasn't found what they're looking for.
The problem is, we know what we're looking for, and we know we will one day find it.
Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, but live this way.
Understanding, it will always look out here problematic. It's always going to be wrong.
But that day, in his presence, tears wiped away, healed, an eternity with God, that day you will find what you're looking for.
I ask the praise team to come forward at this time and lead us in a closing hymn.
This is our opportunity to make a decision, to let people know what we have decided.
You say, I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Okay.
That's the way it should be. But we trust God.
The truth about him is amazing.
He is restarting. You'll start fresh today, regardless of anything you've ever done.
You'll start fresh today, and you'll probably still make mistakes, but his salvation is able to handle it.
We accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and live looking for that day.
Found faithful. Stay with me as we sing this song.
God is calling you to respond in some way, then you come to be repenting of a specific sin,
turning to Jesus again today, or turning to Jesus for the first time ever.
Or I need to be baptized, or I need a home church, or I know the ministry that God wants me to do.
Whatever it might be, you come and make that public today. Don't say no.
He loves you. It's amazing.
This is the hour of the rain.
This is the hour of the dream.
Your holy presence
living in me.
This is my daily bread.
Your fiery word
so gallant to be seen.
And I
I'm blessing for you.
If you have felt the leading to join New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of East Toledo,
but you're listening to this podcast from somewhere else in the world,
you should know that we have what are called non-resident members.
So we have members that believe that God is leading them to be a member of the church,
but they have geographical or otherwise barriers that preclude them from doing so.
You can read about membership on our website or in our app,
and there's more there about becoming a non-resident member.
If you just need information, talk to somebody on the phone,
you can call the Life Station Call Center,
419-242-3340,
and talk to Ms. Chris, Sister Chris,
who is a member of New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church and works for the Life Station,
and she'll happily explain all of these things to you and get your questions answered.
May God bless you as you serve Him right where you are and reach New Heights in Jesus.