Big Trouble Ahead - Strong Foundation Required [Prepared for What's Ahead]

[Music] it's good to be with you again our topic in this session is big trouble ahead we're going to need a strong foundation i'm not being negative or pessimistic because i'm really not i have a very expectant sense of the future but biblically i believe there are challenges ahead of us the biblical word is tribulation and i know in christian circles that elicits a lot of alarms we have all sorts of workarounds or escapes or whatever but we'll talk about that in the lesson but but here's the simple language a year ago right now we were faced with a virus from china and it was enough of a threat that we were all secluded in our homes i believe the threats we face today are greater than the virus we faced last year so having a strong foundation in our faith knowing whom we trust for our future and what secures our lives and our families is mission critical we're going to open our bibles let's open our hearts maybe grab a notepad and together the lord will help us be prepared for what he's bringing to our lives our topic in this session is continuing a theme we have been unpacking a bit about big trouble ahead and strong foundations that are required to endure that season big trouble i'm really borrowing uh from a biblical phrase that you're probably more familiar with the tribulation how many of you have heard of the tribulation yeah it's the reason you don't want to read revelation it tells you there's going to be some big trouble ahead and and i believe it and i know we are survivors of the pandemic and all the disruptions that have come with that very gratefully so but i i honestly believe we're in a more fragile season today than we were a year ago right now a year ago we understood the challenges we faced they were predominantly biological we could evaluate them in a laboratory and the more data sets we got from a broader populations we could understand better how to respond and what to do we understood the nature of the adversary the threats are greater to us today and i believe the adversaries are less clear we need the direction and the help of the holy spirit but we are gaining some significant freedom from culvert concerns hallelujah it presents us with an opportunity to move closer to god there were some real barriers for us in recent months concerns about being in groups of people concerns about interacting with other people those were real barriers so let's take our new freedoms to move closer to god not further away it'll have to be intentional let's consolidate the lessons we've learned and gain some new strength we can gather with new freedoms now let's get busy strengthening ourselves and one another in my own life i understand that the intrusion of coven broke many habits and patterns that were in place and as we kind of rebuild in this new season you want to be intentional with what you're building and don't leave god out of that if you're out of the god habit it's time to build it again it's safe the preceding is a paid political announcement i do believe there's big trouble ahead you can call it the tribulation you know the responses in christians kind of fall in different buckets on that topic and we we pretty quickly run to the corner where we're most comfortable there's one group that you know just kind of refused to acknowledge it and they say you know christians have always talked about this stuff you know in the new testament they were talking about the end of the age and jesus soon returned and they missed by a couple thousand years so i'm just not going to pay any attention and there's another group whose primary objective it seems to me is just to avoid the trouble they don't deny it they just want to avoid it and typically their first response is one of compromise we we'll just see if we can't negotiate some way we don't want to agitate anybody or divide anybody or separate anybody so we will dial down our enthusiasm or our tenacity or our advocacy and maybe if we will be silent we can negotiate a truce i don't think that's effective in fact there's a lot of biblical evidence that that kind of capitulation will lead us into oppression in that same camp there's another group they do their compromise is really with theological structure they come up with a theology that says we just won't have to go through any trouble now that group is alive and well because if you talk to anybody very often if i talk about the book of revelation i'll answer a hundred questions after the service are you pre-trib or post pre-mid or post you know what i mean do you believe in the rapture before the tribulation before the trouble in the middle of the trouble or at the end of the trouble well huh well i have an opinion based on some perspectives from scripture and i will share it with you from time to time it's not the point this morning let me give you my short answer on that okay i'm i'm willing to be on the first load out okay and happy i will joyfully sit with all of those saying i told you so [Laughter] but i think it would be prudent to prepare as if you were going to be on the last load up and then we will sit and listen to those say i told you so you know don't imagine that the fact that you have formed an opinion based on your interpretation of scripture is not reason to be prepared for the truth because we don't know the timing of all of those things so i would counsel you towards the third perspective and this one's perhaps less frequently embraced there are those who will train to be ready for the trouble that's ahead so we're not caught off guard i'm not going to belabor that i talked a bit about it in our previous session there's some things i can tell you about that big trouble it's unpredictable that the timing of it and the precision of it no one knows and in fact there are many places in scripture that lead us to the notion that it's going to catch us by surprise the disciples are a great example of that they were with jesus for three years i think we could all agree he was a pretty good teacher and a better than average leader can we agree that with jesus and his closest friends he told them repeatedly what was going to happen when he got to jerusalem for that last trip he would be betrayed arrested he would suffer he would be crucified he would be bear he told them repeatedly but the magnitude of what happened to him and the speed at which it happened took them so off guard they were all completely unprepared so i think if culvert has taught us anything i didn't see it coming i would have told you 15 months ago there was nothing that could happen that would cause us to close the church for six or seven weeks no natural disaster we'd stand on a trailer in the parking lot yada yada and we did so i've come to understand that our foresight has some limits even when it's informed by scripture so it's unpredictable secondly there's really going to be a minority response to the lord and i i talked about this in more detail earlier so i won't belabor it but you know the jesus words from matthew 7 where he said enter through the narrow gate and he gives the contrast he said there's a broad gate and many will travel that way but there's a narrow gate and only a few will find it and the the the council of scripture is the choice to honor the lord is a minority response so when i talk to you about standing and strength and courage so that we're clear i'm asking you to have the courage to stand apart from the crowd you'll have to decide whose approval you want the most in fact one way to evaluate your spiritual vitality in the life and the vibrancy of your relationship with the lord is to evaluate the people whose opinions you value and the people that you spend your discretionary time with if that group of people don't have an enthusiasm for the lord if you can't talk to them about the things that matter to you in your spiritual life you're in a precarious place and the third thing i can tell you about the big trouble is there's a lot of information given to us a lot of pr directions have been provided so that we're not alone or isolated now in seasons of turmoil and seasons of stress in any endeavor in business in athletics in the kitchen if there's a lot of people coming for lunch when you're under those moments of stress the fundamentals are the most important components athletes practice endlessly so that when they come to that pressure-filled moment when the outcome depends on a on a few well-coordinated muscle movements they want to have rehearsed it so often that it's automatic we do the same thing in business you practice so when there's extra pressure or extra stress you know where your your points of vulnerability on and they'll hold up under that stress well in christianity it's no different when there's greater spiritual stress when the conflict when the spiritual conflict intensifies your awareness of the fundamentals are more critical than ever we've learned that in the last year we used to imagine that going to church was just what could interrupt that we've learned that a virus from china can we've learned that a governor can we've learned that american we learned a lot of things can interrupt us going from church true and i promise you we haven't seen the whole list yet there's trouble ahead so the fundamentals we talked in a previous session about being connected to your bible not just a a momentary bible reading if you're not if you're not systematically reading your bible you're losing strength you want to start with that daily bible reading we've got a passage we'll help you can get it from the church app or the website we'll read it to you but that's just a beginning point i'm inviting you to something beyond that you want a connection with your bible you want it to become the primary filter through which you see and understand the world we live in and that'll take more than a week or two it'll take more than one trip through it say i've been in church all my life that's not what i'm talking about in church all your life and know very little about your bible you go to seminary and know very little about you you know all the reasons not to believe it you can know all the alternative there is you can be embarrassed of it you can be reluctant to say it's my rule of faith and practice you can be reluctant to say it's inspired you need a connection with your bible secondly you need a meaningful prayer life big topic beyond our scope this morning there are kinds and types of prayer in the same way there are kinds and types of fruit they're not all the same big difference between a watermelon and a tomato i like them both but they're different and there's difference in a prayer for salvation and a prayer for deliverance two different outcomes there's different ways to pray we pray formal prayers we're together in large groups there's prayers we pray privately there are prayers of worship there's a whole menu of that but i can tell you this in jesus life clearly from the gospels prayer was an essential component in his understanding of fulfilling his life ministry if jesus imagined if the incarnate perfect obedient son of god imagine that prayer was essential for his well-being might i suggest it would help us if jesus cultivated the habit of praying through the night if he would invite his friends to pray with him if he would pray and angels would minister to him and he would remain in tremendous anguish we've got to recalibrate again prayer doesn't always bring you to a happy place sometimes we pray through places of great stress even when the lord ministers to us and then the third fundamental and the one i'm going to focus on with the majority of our time has to do with the cross and when i say the cross i don't just mean that instrument of torture that the romans were so fond of they didn't originate it but they were proud of it the romans elevated crucifixion to an art form when the roman legions would arrive in a new community and they wanted to assert the authority of rome in that community they had a habit they would crucify the first 10 men they met no reason no trial no bother with accusation they wanted everybody to understand there was a new authority in town it was a brutal cruel horrific way to die so when i talk about the cross i'm not just talking about that tool of execution i'm talking about what jesus endured from his betrayal to his the false trial he walked through to his the beatings he suffered to his crucifixion his burial and his resurrection the redemptive work of jesus and i will occasionally just use the cross as a synonym for that it highlights some things the necessity of the cross is in place in scripture and i'm not going to develop all of these this morning because of the universal nature of sin every human being every descendant of adam has a sin problem if you grew up in the methodist church as i did even the methodists do most of us believe whatever group we grew up in we were pretty much okay but those other people and how you know if you're a southerner you think the southerners probably jesus loves us more you know well they need a bigger cross for yankees and whatever way you imagine yourself we're going to deconstruct that in a moment anyway but however you imagine yourself you tend to think well you know my group's pretty much it was not a heavy lift for us but those other people folks the the scripture teaches us that sin is universal a need of every person thus the cross is a requirement secondly there's an impossibility of redeeming ourselves you can't save yourself you can't be good enough or kind enough or generous enough or moral enough or sit through enough sermons we needed a redeemer and thirdly it leads to the uniqueness of jesus when jesus said no one comes to the father except through me it wasn't rhetoric the perfect sinless obedient son of god was a necessity the virgin birth was a necessity you see on the cross the scripture teaches us that a divinely ordered exchange took place where the perfect sinless obedient son of god took upon himself all of the judgment that was due by divine justice my rebellion and my godlessness and yours that in exchange for that you and i might receive all of the blessings that were due his perfect obedience he took the punishment that we might have the blessing therefore he had to be sin free or he couldn't take my punishment he had to suffer for his own the uniqueness of jesus cannot be easily explained away it's why jesus and his redemptive work is at the center of our faith it's why when there's an attempt to reconcile world religions islam judaism christianity the the discussion inevitably comes back to jesus and if christians would just let up on the jesus notion a little bit that's why the spirit of antichrist is the best way to understand the conflict that is raging in our world today antichrist carries two meanings it's in place of it wants the the authority the worship the allegiance that is due the true messiah and anti in the sense that it's against it it wants to diminish jesus take his name out of the public square he's not welcome in our schools or our courtrooms or our classrooms find the weaknesses in the hypocrisy in the christians and try to diminish jesus the uniqueness of jesus and the the fourth component is a necessity in the cross is the demonstration of god's power for his people you see through the cross jesus won a total complete irreversible victory over satan and his entire kingdom he did when jesus when jesus appears to john the apostle john in revelation chapter one john is near the end of his life he's in exile he says on the lord's day he was in the spirit and he hears a voice behind him and he turns and it's the lord can you imagine john said i fell at his feet like i was dead but jesus said to him i'm the living one i was alive and i was dead and i'm alive forevermore and i have the keys of death and hell now all of that comes to us through the cross we have to understand it it's the foundation of our relationship with the lord it's how we have access to almighty god and the more completely you understand it the more fully it becomes a foundational to your perspective on your faith and how you worship the lord it's more essential than the label of the church where we sit or the translation of the bible we read or your preference in worship styles or the location where you sit in the sanctuary the things we get talked about i bet almost everybody in here has missed an opportunity in a worship service at one point or another because you get to sit where you want to sit [Music] or somebody in the parking lot cut you off they didn't look at me the right way bless your heart folks our faith is founded on something more significant than the carnality of other christians it's centered in the cross first corinthians chapter 1 and verse 18 the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it's the power of god for it's written i'll destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent i will frustrate the cross is foolishness to those who won't accept it that idea is flourishing in contemporary american life where's the wise man where's the scholar where's the philosopher of this age they're all rhetorical question hasn't god made foolish the wisdom of this world for since in the wisdom of god the world through its wisdom didn't know him god was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe what you choose to believe is a difference maker jews demand miraculous signs and greeks look for wisdom but we preached christ crucified we know christ is the second half of jesus name many of us think christ was the family name there was the christ house down on the end of the block i'm not being disrespectful i i think it's that's not what it means at all christ is the the english equivalent of the greek word christos which is the equivalent of the hebrew word meshiach messiah so when we say jesus christ we're saying jesus the messiah so when paul is writing to the church at corinth and he said we preach a messiah crucified please understand that we preached the incarnate son of god was tortured to death by romans he says that's a stumbling block to the jews the jews can barely accept that the messiah would be tortured to death by their enemies they're looking for a messiah who's a political leader a military deliverer king david he's from the house and the line of david and if david didn't yield to goliath certainly the messiah wouldn't yield to a roman centurion so for the jewish people the crucified messiah was a stumbling block and to the gentiles gentile is a fancy word for everybody that's not jewish in the new testament to the non-jewish world it was just foolishness the son of god crucified by roman knights not makes no sense but to those whom god has called both jews and greeks christ the messiah is the power of god and the wisdom of god the cross of jesus christ the redemptive work of jesus is the demonstration of god's power for you and me it's the game changer it's what provides provision for forgiveness of our sins it's what can establish us as holy and righteous justified in the sight of god it's a gift we don't earn it or qualify for it but we spend our lives in response to it if you receive the gift and make no changes in your behavior you're disrespectful and ungrateful it was jesus essential mission in john chapter 12 i gave you a more lengthy passage but look at verse 27 this is jesus speaking he said my heart is troubled and what shall i say father save me from this hour he knows what's in front of him and he's struggling with it do you understand that jesus was not excited about the path god put in front of him this is not a subtle thing jesus in more than one place goes you know i'm not really no rather not it's going to be awkward it's not going to be good i'd rather be celebrated than rejected i'd rather have a party than a beating but nevertheless he said whatever you want me to do do you understand his closest friends didn't miss that lesson when you read the book of acts you understand they embraced that notion we will be advocates for him we'll be ambassadors for him we'll be representatives for him even if there's not a parade in every town where we go even if there's a riot and it's because of the message we brought we're going to deliver the message anyway if you put us in prison we'll tell the jailer i tell you that because the 21st century version of the church that speaks english does not live with that mindset well pastor i thought maybe god had asked me to do that but i tried it and i just didn't enjoy it oh we signed up for the enjoyable discipleship plan i'm sorry we signed up for the ease of use discipleship plan it just isn't biblical we have to serve the lord even when it's uncomfortable you have to be an advocate for jesus even when everybody doesn't say hooray you don't have to be intentionally obnoxious we're obnoxious enough without trying because if you believe there is truth and truth can be known it makes you intractable in some ways and that's a problem in the world that opposes the lordship of jesus my heart is troubled jesus said what shall i say father save me from this hour no it was for this very reason i came to this hour father glorify your name you hear jesus internal struggle and you're going to have similar struggles so do i it's not easier for someone else to stand up at one point i don't remember it was friday night one of the sessions last weekend people responded to something general boykin said about courage and standing up in the midst of watching the applause i think i said it i said you know it's inappropriate to cheer for his courage if you're not going to go away here and from here and stand yourself we don't need to find someone else to be courageous we have to decide we're going to be it's not easy watch what happens next verse 28 father glorify your name then a voice came from heaven i have glorified it and i'll glorify it again the crowd was there and heard it some said it thundered and others said an angel had spoken to him and jesus said the voice was for your benefit i talked to my dad a lot but he just gave you a boost i have glorified my name and i'll glorify it again folks god has glorified his name in the earth but he's going to glorify it again will you give yourself to that there's another component of the cross that's an equal part of that exchange and i want to take a moment with it in galatians chapter 3 and verse 26 it says you're all sons of god through faith in christ jesus through jesus the messiah again for all of you who were baptized into christ have clothed yourselves with christ there's neither jew nor greek in the new testament there's two people groups and there's really only two there's the jewish people the people who have a covenant that's extended from abraham isaac and jacob and everybody else and it's a very harsh divide in the new testament it says now in christ there's neither jew or greek slave nor free male nor female for you're all one in christ jesus if you belong to christ then you're abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise through the redemptive work of the cross through that divine exchange the covenant that was established with abraham came to all people so all of those dividing lines that we erect to separate ourselves are eliminated at the cross it isn't about our accent or our nationality or our gender or the color of our skin or the length of our nose or how long our feet are our iq or our social status or the schools we graduated from it's our affiliation with jesus of nazareth and choosing him as lord of our lives now that's the message that the church has and it's a message of healing it's not a subtle theme romans chapter 3 and verse 22 this righteousness from god comes through faith in jesus christ to all who believe a very important sentence you know what righteousness is it's a big religious word righteousness is the ability to stand in the presence of god and understand this everybody will the bible says we all have two appointments death and after that judgment you will stand before almighty god to give an account for your life righteousness is the ability to stand before god without guilt without shame and without fear if you've got the appointment i would submit to you it's in your best interest to know how to stand there guilt-free how do you do that well tell me which church to sit and how often do i have to go how much money do i have to give i'll cut a check i mean tell me you can't earn it it's free this righteousness from god comes through faith in jesus the messiah to all who believe look at the next phrase there is no difference it doesn't matter if you're tall or short skinny you're fat if you sound like a hillbilly or you came from boston there is no difference for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god there's that universal problem i talked about a moment ago folks we're all sinners i said well i'm not as bad as center as that one the standard isn't on a sliding scale it's either absolute perfection or you're out serious so it comes through faith in jesus we are justified freely by his grace grace by definition has no attachment to merit if it's grace it can't be earned it comes by his grace through the redemption that came by christ jesus first corinthians 12 and verse 12 the body is a unit and though it's made up of many parts and though all the parts are many they form one body the parts of your body look different my thumb looks different than my little finger and they function differently my ear in my eye occupy different roles in my person but they're both essential but they look different i would look weird with my ear stuck in the front of my face and if i had to turn sideways to see you it would be awkward but it doesn't diminish the parts and they're using the analogy of our physical body with the body of christ there's an important lesson the body is a unit it's made up of many parts and though the though it all of its parts are many they form one body so it is with christ we were all baptized by one spirit into one body and here's the way we would divide ourselves we're jews or we're greeks were slaves that were free but it says no we're all given one spirit to drink and he goes on to say i can't say to the hand i don't need you and the head can't say to the feet i don't need you we are one body and where we're different we're not less significant or are stronger or less important in fact it says that the weakest part of the body is the part that gets the most special attention looks there is a spirit that is dividing us that does not come from the spirit of god and the church has a message that's important we're not better than one another we are united through the redemptive work of jesus the cross of jesus christ that gives us access to god's kingdom is the greatest single defining characteristic of your person there is no other aspect of your person or your personality that's more significant than your relationship to jesus of nazareth and anyone or anything that tries to elevate some other part of your person your wealth your education anything to elevate you above other people that is centered in something other than your relationship to jesus is destructive it won't bring peace it will not bring unity colossians chapter 3 a renewal in which there is no distinction between greek and jew circumcised and uncircumcised barbarian scythian slave and free men christ is all and in all the church needs to remember this foundational principle the message is important in our world look it's not an accident i believe that our cities are embroiled in violence that we've lost our moral balance thousands of churches have been shuttered voices that we've been accustomed to hearing have been silent and before we were silenced far too many of us were asleep there is a tremendous need in this moment for the voice of the church of jesus christ i don't mean more preachers i mean you and me taking our biblical world view into the places where god has given us influence we've got to have the strength and the courage to stand up now this is not an easy lesson it wasn't easy for peter and james and it wasn't easy for the people that were closest to jesus and i'm not naive i'm thinking that if you got to spend three years with jesus you've got a grade a training session and i can demonstrate that just quickly in galatians chapter 2 paul is writing he's writing to the galatian church because the galatian church has veered off course at the opening verses of galatians the letter to this church it's in a region he says who has bewitched you you've come under a spirit of witchcraft you're being controlled and manipulated by a spirit other than the holy spirit he said you were running a really good race but you you've lost all of your momentum what's happened to you you know you can lose the momentum in your spiritual life so he's writing to them and he's using an example from his own life experience he's giving a portion of his testimony and he's using a name that they will all know he says when peter came to antioch yes that's peter the fisherman that jesus recruited when he came to the region where you are i opposed him to his face can you imagine taking peter on you'd have to be pretty confident in your little bible study wouldn't you dude walked on water i mean he was on the mount of transfiguration jesus said to him i'm going to build my church with your help so i'm thinking to call peter out in a public session there's a hebrew word hutzpah trust me paul had his share when peter came to antioch i opposed him to his face what had he done because he was clearly in the wrong before certain men came from james james at this point is the leader of the church in jerusalem and the jerusalem church is most heavily influenced by jewish customs rabbinic traditions so when the jewish believers came from jerusalem peter used to eat with the gentiles but when they arrived he began to draw back and separate himself from the gentiles he was afraid of those who belong to the circumcision group you see according to rabbinic judaism in the first century a good observant jewish person couldn't even sit at the table and share food with a non-jew it made you unclean now the thing about religious rules that's helpful to remember is your rules make sense and everybody else's rules are stupid so i don't want to go into the customs to unpack that but that's the problem that's here so when when there's nobody from jerusalem around peter's eating with the non-jews he understands that the redemptive work of jesus is the foundation of his faith but when the jews come to town and they're believers in jesus the pressure of tradition causes peter to flinch and paul was having none of it because he's fighting for the lives of the non-jews that are looking at all these people trying to help them sort it out you see your advocacy for jesus makes a difference your silence is destructive well i didn't want to bring division did you want to bring ungodliness did you want to open the floodgates to immorality exactly what was the goal a personal preservation when i saw what he was doing he said he was afraid of those who belong the other jews joined him in his hypocrisy so that by their hypocrisy even barnabas was led astray other people followed him then he goes on to give us the solution he said i've been crucified with christ and i no longer live but christ lives in me the life i live in the body i live by faith in the son of god who loved him and gave himself for me what gives us an open door with the creator of all things that jesus gave himself for me and i've made him lord of my life it's not the building where i'm at on sunday morning or the translation i read or my my wardrobe choice for the day it's my relationship to jesus please don't allow other points of distinction to in any way separate you from the primary characteristic of your life and understand that whatever you think is to your advantage it is not an advantage compared to knowing christ jesus paul said for whom i have lost all things but understand that that is a real struggle it's been a struggle in the church from the beginning until today humble yourself excuse me there's a third component of the cross that is important to understand it's foundational if we don't keep the foundation pieces in right right you can't stand under the stress of the wind and the waves and the things that will challenge you the cross delivered us the redemptive work of jesus delivered us from a life of futility your life apart from jesus is futile in the sense that it's temporary futile effort is effort that's expended that only achieves a modest outcome it's just futile and you don't want to spend your life in things that receive a modest or diminishing or temporary outcome agreed thank you for that enthusiastic response first corinthians chapter 1 verse 26 brothers think of what you were when you were called so let's do that from who were you when you were called how would you have defined yourself before jesus by the region of the country by your race by your sex by your education by your status who were you when you were called it's a rhetorical question but you can process it for yourself it might be worth a little thought afterwards maybe a list maybe the circumstances of your family maybe the injustices you've suffered maybe you're a survivor of divorce or maybe there was a death of a parent who were you when you were called and then he gets into our business not many of you were wise by human standards not many were influential not many were of noble birth but god chose or even know god chose you before you chose god god chose you don't get too puffed up god chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and god chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong and he chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one can boast before him if you're boasting in your life if your self-evaluation is propped up by something more than your affiliation with jesus you're on a very shaky foundation see the circumstances of our birth are made irrelevant by the cross whether they were wonderful or modest whether they were celebrated or in suffering they're irrelevant there's a new power a new authority at work on our behalf a lack of influence that came with your circumstances it's not a problem now we're connected to the king if you have little strength you're exactly who god is looking for in fact if you have a legacy of foolishness and some of us do you're perfect for the position you see jesus transforms our place in the world bringing significance and purpose to all who will accept him this is foundational to our narrative it's why we're advocates for him we're not moralist or ethicist we're trying to raise the value of every human being by connecting them to the creator of all things everyone is welcome at the cross the price was paid for all who will receive it look at first peter 1 18 you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from an empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers but with the precious blood of christ a lamb without blemish or defect redeemed has kind of a technical meaning to redeem something is to buy it back i'm sure none of you ever have but if you pawned something at a pawn shop just theoretically you'd get a ticket that if you showed up with the appropriate amount of money you could get back whatever you had pawned for cash you could redeem it so there's really a legal transaction he says you were redeemed you were bought out of a place that you couldn't deliver yourself from but he said you weren't redeemed with silver or gold so it's foolish to think that any resources we could accumulate could buy our way in but we were redeemed with the precious blood of jesus and why is his blood more precious than mine because he was the sinless obedient one amongst us and through him life came to all of us it's why everybody is welcome at the cross now i want to take the moments we've got left and i've just got a few but this is the perhaps the most important piece of this i've given you at least in broad strokes the the theory the substance behind the redemptive work of jesus but it's the applied truth that changes our lives folks we've got to move beyond theoretical bible studies how many times do you have to do a bible study before you're going to decide to do something with the truth that you know we are educated way beyond our levels of obedience and and the season has changed if we're going to flourish through the trouble we're going to have to give application to the truth that we know there's a line that i learned is not original to me by any means but truth divorced from experience must always dwell in the realm of a doubt it's experience with the truth that you know that makes it powerful it's why your testimony your god story is irrefutable people can say i don't believe that you don't have to believe it it's my story my mom was given six months to live 50 plus years ago she's still here i believe in healing i mean people say you know i don't believe that okay have you met my mom i'm not interested in the argument but you've got to build reality into the truth that you hold so we talk about applied truth i'm going to invite you into three specific areas i'm going to tell you before i read the scriptures because i'm going to move through these quickly one has to do with personal rejection of sin you need personal experience with this saying that part of my life i recognize it as being ungodly dishonoring to god from a biblical place of authority it's not acceptable in my life and i'm not going to participated in it any longer secondly no unnecessary baggage i will not i will not willingly allow things in my life that diminish my effectiveness as a christ follower i may be entitled to them i may be able to justify them i may be able to defend them but i will not give i will not willingly diminish my effectiveness for personal selfish indulgence and the third thing is to make the choices in your life that put you on a pathway for purity for holiness and for integrity before god i mean is a personal aspiration now let me give you the scriptures first peter chapter one it says now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth how do we bring purity to our lives by obeying the truth start with the truth that you know be intolerant of willingly being disobedient to the truth that you know and i'm not championing ignorance but don't worry well i don't know about this rapture stuff okay start with what you do know start with your current portfolio with the truth that you do know and watch if you will to make a determination that you're going to honor the lord in the place that you stand the spirit of god will open the treasures of the kingdom of god to you but if you deny the truth that you know if you don't have the courage to stand for the truth that you know if you're not obedient to the truth that you know why do you imagine that the creator of heaven and earth would unveil further insight to you you gain strength by being obedient to the truth that you know james chapter 4 and verse 4 you adulterous people don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards god and it's put in the form of a question so the answer would be no we really don't remember that we thought we were on an evangelistic mission we were covert christians we were flying kind of below the radar we were going to win some of them what you're really doing is demonstrating a friendship with ungodliness anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of god that's sobering to me and then we're given the resolution submit yourselves then to god resist the devil and he'll flee from you most of us recognize that from time to time we're kind of in a demonic attack a devilish assault and we're ready to resist the devil but you've got no foundation to resist the devil if you're a friend of the world you're standing in the midst of his territory acting like one of those under his authority in titus chapter 2 the grace of god that brings salvation has appeared to all men what a marvelous sentence the grace of god that brings salvation has appeared to all people that is such good news but that it has an impact in our lives it teaches us to say no to ungodliness into worldly passions you can have an encounter with the grace of god you could have an encounter with the person of jesus and still have a very real in fact you will have a very real struggle with worldly passions we've got to learn to say no to them it doesn't mean your salvation is illegitimate it doesn't mean that the blood of jesus didn't you didn't get a full dose you need a second shot the bible teaches us that we have to take that old carnal selfish part of us and execute it say you will not be the authority in my life any longer you've reigned supreme for however long but jesus is lord now in my heart in my life in my emotions in my planning i'm saying no to you teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in this present age now while we wait for the blessed hope the glorious appearing of our great god and savior and we've got a lot of information what's going to happen before he appears we've alluded to that already but between here and there what is our assignment to say no to ungodliness before you say to somebody else you got to say it to yourself one of the reasons the church has so little moral authority in our culture is we have accommodated so much sin within ourselves smile all of us i want to give you a couple examples and i'm done this is this is much closer to us than we've imagined and it's much more subtle than we've imagined i pulled a couple of biblical passages i think they're probably familiar to you one is in acts five the the church is just getting its sea legs jesus hasn't been gone long they're trying to sort out authority and how to feed the people that need fed and how to process all of that and it says that some of the people were selling property and bringing the money and giving it to the apostles because there was resource needs it's not just a 21st century thing preachers didn't dream that up the tithe was not a preacher's idea or it would have never stuck at ten percent if we'd put that in place we'd have jack that rascal up by now two thousand we'd be at least 85. there's a problem in jerusalem so a couple has sold some property and they bring the proceeds to peter and they say we have sold this property and we want to give you all the proceeds it's ananias and sapphira many of you know the story listen to what peter says ananias how is it that satan has so filled your heart that you've lied to the holy spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received from the land what are you doing ananias peter has a word of wisdom he understands that what ananias is presenting is not the full purchase price why are you doing this then he asked the obvious didn't it belong to you before it was sold and after it was sold wasn't the money at your disposal you could have done anything you want you could bought a new house you could about upgraded your car you could have gone on a mediterranean cruise what are you thinking what made you think of doing such a thing you haven't lied to men but to god and when and i has heard this he fell down dead now i don't believe the lesson is the story of the story is that everybody lies that church dies or we would have church at our outdoor sanctuary every service because nobody'd be coming in the building i don't believe that's the lesson at all in fact without really unpacking the judgment side what i would call your attention to is the temptation we face and how real it is how close to us that is it was your property you could have sold it or built condos on it i don't care you could have sold it and given a dollar and kept 99 and 9 10 percent for yourself that was okay too but what you wanted was the affirmation that came with a sacrifice you didn't want to make you came with a motive that was so wrapped in selfish ambition that it's destructive now he's got my attention because that's real in all of us how am i perceived what will people think about me how will they understand me i can't do that or i can't go there i can't pray that prayer what would they think if they saw me with my hands in the ear let me give you a better question what would god think if i was in any of those if you're processing it in terms of what would somebody else think exchange that what would god think and if god smiles get on with it and if it's going to cause him to ball his fist stop because ananias 1.0 gets duplicated later in the day with 2.0 when his wife comes in with the same scam but it's not unique to that it's not unique to money in acts chapter 8 the crew is on another ministry trip and simon there in antioch saw that the spirit was given at the laying on the apostles hands so he offered them money they're laying hands praying for the people they're being filled with the spirit and this observer he's a spiritual man in the community he's a spiritual leader before the spirit of christ rolls in and he's watching what happens and he understand that these new visitors these interlopers have an authority that he doesn't have so when simon saw it he offered them money he said i'll pay you to teach me to do that how much does that seminar cost is there a training manual can i buy some tapes can i download it is there a master class give me also this ability so that everyone on whom i lay my hands may receive the holy spirit watch peter's answer looks like to me he's got a new recruit we're only hearing a short-term assignment this guy wants to learn see me after service i'll help you maybe he's going to invest we need some new gear peter said may your money perish with you you thought you could buy the gift of god with money and you have no part or share in this ministry because your heart isn't right before god do we understand that the condition of our heart is more significant than the perception of our ministry or our outward expressions of what we're doing to understand how close that selfish ambition is there to the right thing how easily diverted it was he's recognizing an authority in peter and those with him that he himself doesn't have he's he there's an expression of humility in that he said you know you understand something i don't understand i want that the medium of exchange he understood was money peter said no your heart's in such a bad place please don't think about somebody else in the condition of their heart ask the spirit of god to help you this is the application of the truth folks we need a foundation that is stronger than the one we had 18 months ago we need outcomes in the season ahead that are unlike any we've ever experienced together and it's not somebody else i'm not concerned about the depravity of the wicked or the the condition of the immoral i'm concerned about the church this is us i want to close with an invitation i'm going to close there's hope i want you to stand with me if you're conscious as we walk through this this morning that you have tolerated some things either as a sin or as a baggage and there could be a difference and you're willing to say today lord i want to lay it down i'm just going to ask you to slip out of where you are and come forward if you're whichever sanctuary you're in if you're outdoors you come forward out there if you're joining us online you can stand up where you are and just type in i'm all in on this you understand the invitation you've tolerated something that you don't want to tolerate any longer it's a flaw in the foundation and through the blood of jesus we're going to pray in just a moment i'm not going to take long if that's you you won't come quickly church is a safe place to say i need help all right you come all the way down it's okay if there's too many of us we'll come up on stage we're free hallelujah so it doesn't make any difference if i do it at church i can do that in the privacy of my home i believe private prayers matter but i believe there are freedoms that come with public acknowledgements that are unique and significant and so if you have that prompt i would encourage you to come ahead i'm not going to interview you you're not going to confess on mike next week if you're in one of the other sanctuaries there's pastors in those rooms as you come forward they're going to stand with you i'm going to pray we're all going to pray together we'll get halfway home go i wish i'd have done that it may be something that we've treated as insignificant it's just we've just had so much selfish ambition we want to get to the head of the jesus line folks i'm willing to be a doorkeeper in the house of the lord i want to do what he wants for me we need a church with more strength and more stability if you've hidden your faith if we've been quiet in places and times when you know you could have said i'm one of them it'd be a good day to say to the lord i'm sorry [Music] it'd be a good day for a new beginning another half a minute we're going to pray and we're not coming because of our goodness we're not earning anything we're simply presenting ourselves to the lord as a living sacrifice we're going to say lord i'm sorry i want you to have your way in my life i want your best give me a revelation of jesus that changes how i understand the world let's all pray together okay you stayed in your seat you pray with me for these folks lord i thank you for your church i thank you for your people lord they're precious to you and there's nothing hidden from you lord there's no circumstance in our life you're unaware of or no choice that you're not conscious of we come this morning to acknowledge our need for mercy and grace forgive us of our sins forgive us when we've made choices that are in opposition to you that have taken us away from you lord we weren't caught up in a moment or swept away with emotion we made a purposeful intentional choice away from you and we come this morning to say we're sorry to choose a new path to walk a new direction and i thank you for it lord i pray where there are places that we have tolerated attitudes and encumbrances and we've made room for things lord we've provided excuses for ourselves and they have limited us we've been quiet and we could have had a voice we have we have been friends with the world when we could have been better friends with you we wanted to be perceived as unencumbered by religious rules whatever it may be lord we want to lay it down today if we've held unforgiveness or resentment or bitterness or hatred or judgment if we've imagined ourselves better because of an education or an address or a resource forgive us lord we don't want to carry that baggage any further and i thank you that through the blood of jesus we have been delivered and i thank you today for a new beginning holy spirit we ask you to help us if there's anything that limits or hinders or or in any way reserves what you've called us to maybe we'd be set free today may the power of god be demonstrated in our behalf to bring new liberty a new life and new outcomes we praise you for it that we will leave this place differently than we can in jesus name amen hallelujah let's give the lord a hand huh come on god bless you hey this is pastor allen thank you for watching this video if you enjoyed it like it and most importantly share it with your friends if you want to be notified when there's new content when we post new material if you'll just subscribe to my channel and hit the bell you'll get the notification most of all i pray god blesses you as you continue on your spiritual journey and open your heart to the lord god bless [Music] you

Channel: Allen Jackson Ministries

Views: 12,698

Keywords: Pastor Allen Jackson, allen jackson ministries, world outreach church, alan jackson, sermons, preachers, how to be saved, Finding Jesus, pastor allen jackson sermons, BIg Trouble Ahead, Strong Foundation Required, Prepared for What's Ahead, tribulation, final days, end times, prophesy, prophetic

Id: u34f9GnPxao

Length: 58min 24sec (3504 seconds)

Published: Sun May 30 2021