09192021 The Work Begins Al Robertson

good morning church waiting on the lights to rise right jesus christ really is our living hope amen what a blessing for us to be together uh thank you ryan for what you said what a great follow-up to that story you can't you can't kill us we live on through christ amen what what a story there in juarez mexico welcome to the fellowship center as well that you guys are with us today also our live stream audience is always a blessing to have you tuning in from all around lisa's down there in alabama somewhere watching hey babe what a blessing to be together this morning kaylee bird would you come on up she's going to read our scriptures yeah how about a hand in advance [Applause] it says here that kaylee is 15 and in driver's ed so look out west monroe oh you finished it have you got your license yet are you ready to drive do you know how no that's not not quick enough not quick enough i know your buddies with carly and she's getting hurts as well so i'm just going to say a prayer for wes monroe no they're going to do great all right you can read a scripture [Music] but afternoon comes one who is more powerful than i whose sandals i am not worthy to carry he will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire thank you how about another round for kelly i still remember when her dad was half her size uh leading singing out at our little church out at luna what a blessing to be able to have generations of faith uh worshiping here today ephesians 1 paul said praise be to the god and the father of our lord jesus christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in christ for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight in love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through jesus christ paul said in galatians 4 when the set time had fully come god sent his son born of a woman born under law to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship john 1 says in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god he was with god in the beginning through him all things were made without him nothing was made that has been made in him was life and that life was the light of all mankind the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us we have seen his glory the glory of the one and only son who came from the father full of grace and truth so everything in all of human history before the creation of the universe led up to the moment that we're going to look at today in matthew 3 in matthew 4. we know that jesus had been miraculously conceived because of his divine nature and yet he was born as a baby boy he lived basically under 30 years of obscurity and anonymity we know hardly anything about his life on earth he was seen as the oldest son of a carpenter living in nazareth in galilee until this moment his time is now we're going to be in matthew chapter 3 chapter 4 today if you'd like to follow along when you have a magnanimous moment like the one we're about to witness today there are certain things that need to happen to really show you how great and awesome it really is so we begin by having what i call the announcer you know when you see movies about you know the old days of of monarchs and kingdoms and you remember whenever there was a great declaration that was coming from the king someone would say hey ye and then they would make that proclamation right it was an announcer someone usually dressed colorful to get your attention so that you would listen to the message that the king had for you we have such an announcer here in matthew chapter 3. it's a man who was born in the spirit of elijah one of the greatest prophets to ever live in fact the very last words of the last book of the old testament written over 400 years before matthew 3 said this see i will send the prophet elijah and he will come to you before that great and dreadful day of the lord coming he will turn the hearts of parents to their children in the hearts of children to their parents or else i will come and strike the land with total destruction which is exactly what happened in 80 70. all that history and everything that led up to that moment but everyone had 40 years of opportunity to listen to the announcement to change their destiny some did many didn't in john chapter 1 the priest and the levites they asked john the baptist they said are you elijah no are you the christ then no are you the prophet no well who are you they asked him and that brings us to matthew chapter 3. in these days john the baptist came preaching in the wilderness of judea and saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is near that was his message over and over this is he who was spoken of through the prophet isaiah a voice of one calling in the wilderness prepare the way for the lord make straight paths for him the forerunner the announcer what did john look like not much he'd fit in around here right it's our way john's clothes were made of camel's hair and he had a leather belt around his waist his food was locust and wild honey they weren't coming to him because he looked like a fancy preacher in fact they had to go and find him looking the way he did with that simple message and they came people went out to them from jerusalem and all judea and the whole region of the jordan confessing their sins they were baptized by him in the jordan river a season of change is coming repent the kingdom of heaven is close it's near and poopy began to say oh man it's finally messiah time is going to happen and lies were changing hearts were changing people were drawing close to god but this man who looked like he did with the message that he had was also unafraid to speak power to authority verse 7 when he saw many of the pharisees and sadducees coming to where he was baptizing and why were they coming to get baptized no to observe to decide whether this was okay to decide whether they would make a rule whether this couldn't happen or could happen and he said you brood of vipers there's a good opening line for a sermon a pit full of snakes who warns you to flee from the coming wrath produce fruit in keeping with repentance and do not think that you can say to yourselves we have abraham as our father which is exactly what they were going to say i tell you that out of these stones god can raise up children for abraham you're nothing but a dumb rock that's what he said man this was a suitcase sermon the ax is already at the root of the trees and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire and that means you was his message to them now that's a man who's not afraid to speak on behalf of the almighty that sort of boldness would wind up costing him his head later in matthew but that's what prophets do they speak the truth whether it's popular or it's not popular and they're not afraid to call those in authority what they are tyrants and that's what these people were he went on to say i baptize you with water for repentance but after me comes one who is more powerful than i who sandals i am not worthy to carry he will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire his winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor gathering weed into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire what an announcer all true for some jesus is great news as randall said for others it's fake news and they don't believe for them stands judgment that was the announcement look at verse 13 after the announcement we find out that there's an anointing and an affirmation jesus came from galilee verse 13 to the jordan to be baptized by john now this is our tell you something about the character of this man god who we follow he never sinned so he wasn't coming to be baptized for repentance from anything he was the son of god but he came and submitted himself anyway and that says something about our lord in fact it shocked john so much in verse 14 john tried to deter him saying i need to be baptized by you and you come to me and look up until this point he didn't know jesus was the messiah he just looked at his life and looked at his character and he said look you don't need to be here if anything he was saying john you need to be baptized at me jesus replied let it be so now for it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness and then john consented to fulfill all righteousness to do the right thing to have a moment of affirmation and a moment of anointing i find it interesting that jesus would pick this same sacrificial symbol the same one we still participate in today to recognize our submission to christ right to recognize our anointing of the holy spirit to recognize the authority that god in heaven has given to christ that now we bow the knee before baptism as soon as jesus was baptized he came up out of the water at that moment heaven was opened man would that have been something to see what if you'd got to be john the baptist in that moment i mean you come up out of the water into a cup and i mean i've seen some really cool stuff here for baptism never seen this he saw the spirit of god descending like a dove and the lighting on him so whatever that looked like he actually saw the spirit spirits are hard to see but in the moment he was allowed and then a voice from heaven and it wasn't a tommy human voice it's a deep powerful voice sorry emman i just want to make sure you're watching this is my son whom i love with him i am well pleased man what words of affirmation you see in this powerful moment for the first time ever in the history of all creation we see the sun as a human being we see the spirit of god coming to him to indwell him that would indwell us as well when he poured it out and made it available for us and then you see the authority of the almighty yahweh jehovah god who had been the voice throughout all of human history said this is the guy this is your guy listen to him wow that's powerful anointed affirmed and given all authority but here's something really interesting hebrews chapter 2 verse 17. the hebrew writer said he had to be made like us in every way and because he himself suffered when he was tempted he is able to help those who are being tempted jesus christ never succumbed to temptation that makes him different from all other men and women on the earth in the history of all people and all the time till he comes back but he understands temptation because he himself was tempted and it the bible says he suffered as a result of it so that's why we come to chapter 4 and we see the first thing out of the box for jesus now in this new anointing in this new ministry in this new kingdom is his adversary our old pal who's been around since the garden the devil look at verse one of chapter four jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil so he purposely was taken here he was led there by the holy spirit after fasting 40 days and 40 nights it's hard for me to fast 40 minutes he was hungry yes the tempter came to him now this tells you something about the character of our adversary he loves to make his move when you're at your lowest weakest terrible time whether that's something physical something spiritual something emotional something going on it just seems like one thing after the other and when's the other shoe going to drop and what's going to hap in that moment that's when he's going to approach you you know how i know this because if he was bold enough to approach the son of god why would he worry about al he coming the tempter said to him if you are the son of god in other words i've been hearing things you're the messiah and i remember the bible tells us satan doesn't really know why god has come to earth he didn't know the plan you know he's got to be hatching a lot of stuff because the evil one is very devious and he's very good at schemes and setting traps but he doesn't know why he's here what is it could he be possibly doing becoming one of these creatures if you are the son of god and you're hungry tell these stones to become bread i mean show us something all the miracles that were asked for all the signs of authority that were asked throughout this book of matthew and all the gospels and the very first sign asked for is by whom the evil one show me something you see he appealed to jesus's humanity a moment we can all understand being hungry happens to me every day it's as human as breathing air you get hungry you put some fuel in your body right so he appeals to him at a base level eat but jesus said it is written man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of god you know what he's saying if you just took that and changed a little bit you don't have to be controlled by your flesh you see we believe the fake news lie that we only can be driven by our fleshly desire if i really want something if i desire it if my body is telling me i need it then i have to have it jesus says no you don't the spirit is stronger than the flesh the word of god is stronger than your flesh you don't have to do anything you see our soul and spirit makes us different than an animal that just reacts on pure instinct and exactly what's in front of it that's not us we have a choice we have a conscience if we hadn't seared it that says you don't have to make that choice and jesus shows us the way out appeal to the word of god it's greater it's changing there are so many people that have been trapped for so long in some addiction or something else and then once they finally figure it out and the word of god is now ruling in their life they realize they don't have to be driven by the flesh and jesus shows us that first but if you try to do it on your own well i'll just come up with my own plan for this thing that's what takes us to verse 5. so the devil fails in the first attempt the devil took him to the holy city we're going to jerusalem he had him stand on the highest point of the temple i mean he's way up there on the at the most holy place in all of israel he picked that place for a reason if you are the son of god throw yourself down for it is written the devil's fixing a quote scripture are you kidding me he knows the bible yep he knows it well apparently he quotes psalm 91 he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone not only did he know psalm 91 he knew it was a prophetic text about jesus her enemy is pretty sharp but he's not as smart as he thinks he is jesus says it is also written i got a verse for your verse devil do not put the lord your god to the test you see the first attempt was at his humanity but this one is literally to his divinity he recognizes he's from god he's known it through the whole time israel may have missed it but the devil didn't miss it and so now he's saying why wait i don't know what you got planned but just jump off of here now nothing's going to happen to you everybody's going to know my plan can be better than your plan jesus said nope because the will of god is always greater than our will the plans of god are always greater than our plans how many times have you just known that you were doing the right thing only to find out later it was not the right thing and you forgot that one simple start god do you want me to do this i've started working on sermons before and just beating my head against the table and i can't get this thing going oh wait i didn't ask the holy spirit to be in charge of the planting and then it becomes much easier so that's failure number two verse eight the devil took him up to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor man that must have been something all those fire lights and sparkling things out there all this the evil one said i will give you as if it was his to give if you will bow down and worship me you know i understand that going after the humanity i understand the divinity even to a certain extent this one is a low blow because you know what he's appealing to now jesus's love for you and me he knew that instinctively that's why i said you want all these people which is exactly why jesus came here was for all those kingdoms and all those people he loves every single person so much that he wants every single one to find salvation and the devil is not trying to use this against him because he says look we'll work together on this deal i mean this is the art of the deal i'll do my thing you do your thing we rule this world together jesus said and finally this is the final because he says away from me satan i'm done with the temptation for it is written third time is used scripture worship the lord your god and serve him only that tells me there are no deals with the devil there's no halfway in halfway out there's no we're going to hold hands and walk with the devil for a while to make good and have good things happen will not work you serve god or you don't there's no middle ground there's no shortcut to salvation the devil leaves him and the angels come and they attend him and that's such a beautiful scene you know what that man they had some food some water so you think would i want the devil to be replaced by angels in my life wouldn't it be great to feel like you were being attended by angels that somehow people some being somewhere outside was lifting you up that you feel that presence i've talked to so many people that said you know in this moment i just i felt prayer and i felt strength and it was almost just like there were angels there holding me up in the moment it happened for jesus i sure would rather the devil leave and that happened for me wouldn't you so how does that happen well i'm going to have to quit being led by my facially desire i can't follow those desires and find jesus i'm just going to find more trouble i can't live my life by my own will and my own plan will not work i can't take shortcuts i can't cut deals i can't submit my will to anybody except my lord and savior jesus christ that's what i learned from this and also that the word of god is always the answer to the evil one always i get notes from all people all around the country listen to our podcast and they say you know i just don't y'all know the word and man it's just it's so good it's encouraging but i just i just don't know anything and then usually some point later they say and i'm just struggling so bad yeah those two go together because if you don't know how to respond to the evil one and what to say and what god has given you through your holy spirit and also through the spirit's word that he wrote down yeah you're going to stay in a vicious cycle of struggle the word of god is the perfect answer well we get to verse 12 through 25 of chapter 4 because now jesus has been announced he's been affirmed in power in authority he's been anointed by the holy spirit to now carry on this ministry for all of us he's faced the adversary and won and he will win again on the cross and coming out of that tomb so now there is what i call the advance and there's three things that happen the rest of this chapter and we'll leave it there in verse 16 of matthew chapter four it says it was as a quote the people living in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned from that time on jesus began to preach just like his announcer repent for the kingdom of heaven is near oh it's getting close and he's going to unlock those gates to it and it's going to change everything not just for the first century but for us you see he shined his light in verse 19 he found began to found 12 people that were going to be his disciples they were going to have a lot more disciples beyond that and he said come follow me and he told the first ones because they were fishermen i will make you fishers of men all mankind you see he was building a future with faithful followers and we're still doing that to this very day i mentioned that get a third generation young lady up here reading scripture today that's how you pay this forward generation generation generation and you think well that's pretty easy to do no it's not if you want to know how not easy it is to do just take a good look at our culture for about a week and you see how quickly people forget to teach their children and their children's children it can happen to us if we're not vigilant to build faithful followers and then verse 23 jesus went throughout galilee teaching in the synagogues proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people the last thing jesus did was to fulfill his destiny he had the authority and the power of god he could do great miraculous things but it wasn't the miracles it was him that's what saved people people got well but guess what they're going to get sick again it's called living and then die you need jesus to be able to conquer both and that's what he showed us last sunday i was near shanksville pennsylvania just a few miles away from where uh aircraft united flight 93 crashed in some woods and then some of those rolling hills there's a huge memorial there now there were 40 people that woke up just like they did every day some were going to work some were flying to go on a vacation some were just doing their job flight attendant pilot and four men of course changed everyone's destiny that day because they realized in a moment that they were being used as a weapon against our nation against those things that we hold dear and institutions and so they had a decision to make in just a few short minutes now i've been on a lot of airplanes i've experienced some scary things but i haven't been sitting there knowing that we're about to be used as a weapon to kill a bunch of other americans and so in that moment people are crying people are upset they're making phone calls to family telling them goodbye and four men led by one man of god todd beamer decided that their destiny today would not be to be a weapon but to take out evil and confront it head on a man of god said the final words that we were using as a rally point last sunday let's roll let's roll jesus began this ministry to change hearts and lives he's changed mine i was 18 when i finally submitted when i finally succumbed to jesus and said let's roll are you there today has even used the fleshly desires to just get in your way your destiny is more than just to fly along and run into a building your destiny is to confront evil with the power of god and know that you will live eternally and you can do that every single one of us has that capacity jesus began this ministry for us if you have a need today whether it's prayer requests whether it's to commit your life to christ whether it's to be baptized and same symbol say we are anointed and affirmed and we're going to go forward today's your day why don't you do that while we come and while we sing

Channel: Whites Ferry Road Church

Views: 1,190

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Whites Ferry Road, WFR, WFR CHURCH, Church of Christ, Duck Dynasty Church

Id: XB_l98AeKdw

Length: 31min 43sec (1903 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 21 2021