Jesus Changed Everything | Making A Difference | Guest Robby Dawkins | Sojourn Church

what a privilege to be here i'm so glad that you guys are here you know sojourn only goes after the best and they asked the greatest preacher if he would come and preach this morning but he said no so they thought well let's get the best looking preacher but he said no so they said let's get the most holy ghost fiery filled power-packed preacher but he said no so they called me terry moore had already said no three times so i had to say yes it's just i just had to do it it was like just couldn't leave this church hanging anymore uh it is a privilege to be here it's been over a year and a half since i spoke to you i'm just saying that to say it took a while for me to finagle my way back here but it's a great joy and i'm so privileged we're so privileged to count sojourn as our home church and to be here to be a part of you and uh god is doing some incredible incredible things i'm so i'm happy that uh chris is my pastor i i really i love this man i love his heart i love uh all this all the pastoral staff here it's been kevin it's great and the the moors of course are just legends and uh it's just good to be a part of that and good to have that good to have our our family planted here and so it's a it's a great job i'm going to share with you we have a a resource table back there that's uh for you i'm just going to highlight a couple of things if i could do this really quick i won't try not to make this sound like an infomercial my first book titled do what jesus did somebody should do like a sermon series on this with like blue bands that say do what jesus did i i've had a vision for that for a long time but uh do what jesus did the premise of the book is jesus didn't come to show you what he could do he came to show us what we could do all the signs and wonders and the miracles that he did was to come and to show us what we could do philippians chapter 2 says he came as a normal human being who was the source of his power holy spirit the same holy spirit that you and i have and so if you have jesus living in you if you have the holy spirit you have all the ingredients living in you to do the same stuff jesus did what are we waiting on nothing he's waiting on us to activate that power and that authority that he's given us just step out and just activate it we also did a field guide which is a workbook that goes along with it this is like going to school man this will equip you in prophecy and evangelism and healing and operating and signs and wonders it's crucial for us uh to do it's a 10-week course if you're interested in that and then also i did a i did a teaching a nine part series on with tbn called breaking darkness releasing the piece a lot of people say that's a scary picture that's my face that is a picture of me i have four grandchildren now they don't see that as a scary picture that is papa and papa means fun gigi angie my wife now now gigi means provision food cleanliness papa is fun it's not scary to them and then also we have all of our video teachings on a usb drive and all the audio teachings whenever you get one of these three of them go to the middle east uh to be able to equip and and this is about a third of the cost of what's there and it's all the stuff back there on the tables on that and so if you're interested in that thank you so much i just want to encourage you to visit that if you would and all the proceeds of all that goes to support our missions uh throughout the world throughout the middle east uh where we have we're starting schools um that are going to be uh in armenia uh we're we're gonna start one in afghanistan um i'll be returning uh soon to central asia to that area just was last week in armenia where it was if you're not aware armenia has been in a war azerbaijan uh has attacked and taken over uh part of the land while we were there iranian russian and turkish troops were in armenia i mean we were literally we were staying in the town square there were there were troops all over and it was a bit white knuckle uh throughout the trip but uh we were there to encourage the armenian uh the armenians there where we're planting a school and working with and have brought over several iranians over uh that we're uh working and equipping with so be praying for us on that and on that mission because i'm telling you right now the key to seeing peace and transformation come to the middle east is jesus christ and the gospel of jesus christ and uh if you don't know i've i've been to to iran and to afghanistan multiple times training the underground church to evangelize in the streets equipping them and that's part of our school a lot of my friends are starting schools here and i'm like we should do this where it really is going to count where it's the most dangerous and it's the most risky to do and as a matter of fact if i could just show you a quick video i asked pastor chris if i could do this just show you a quick video to give you kind of a snapshot of what our vision is for that and then we'll get into this morning's message okay so if we could roll that would we be willing to spend two three years in prison to see an entire nation come to jesus [Music] will we be willing to lose one of our loved ones to see a nation change will we be willing to give that to see a thousand people change what about 500 what about 200 what about even one this is the question these brothers and sisters are wrestling with every single day it may be this one that may cost me my life this one may cost me a prison sentence of five years just venturing out for that one the price is so high and yet that one person they could be the key to the entire nation the keys to seeing peace come to the middle east it's not going to be done through governments but it is going to be done through us as the church of jesus christ demonstrating the reality that jesus is here what will win the muslim world is not arguing over theology but what will change them is when they have an encounter healing is an act of war as you give a prophetic word as you give a word of knowledge those are weapons of war you're fighting with weapons of war that's how we break the back of the enemy it's by stepping out and doing the things that jesus did and what we are doing is equipping people the underground church to have a demonstration of power to go out to activate the authority that lives inside of them the vision is to bring them out for a month do a month intensive where every day we are sending them to the streets to put into practice and to activate what they've learned in healing prophetic deliverance but what we want to do is we want to take it a step further by teaching and training them how to step out in the streets how to approach strangers how to do a gospel presentation outside of a safe place but in a place where they can feel the ability to take a risk and to see those signs and wonders happen it's so much more effective for us to train up the indigenous leaders and to see them raised up they know the culture they know the people far better than just us sending tons of missionaries over there or sending tons of books and pamphlets or information that relates to our western culture but not to theirs this is not something that's cheap it's a great expense we're probably looking at anywhere between 750 to 800 000 a year but i know god has that for us my friends we want to see the church not being burdened trying to figure out how they're going to come and do it but that we can make the way for them i want to encourage you see the value of the price they pay and join them and being willing to do that for you and i it may be money you and i it could be prayer for you and i it may just be time this is our opportunity to arm them with the weapons of war of healing of salvation now is our window to see the kingdom come in the most dangerous parts of the world amen it's been a privilege to put myself in harm's way and put my life on the line in many many situations last two times that i was in afghanistan i was arrested both by the police and by the afghan military and the entire time i had an incredible peace uh of just knowing that what you're there for knowing what you're there to advance and what you're there to bring transformation for and my vision is is for us to see ishmael being brought to christ and sending them back to win isaac to jesus and to send them back and to see all of the israeli people coming to a knowledge of jesus christ as isa al-masih as jesus the messiah and as yeshua and so um you know it's incredible time of year there how many this is the weirdest year of all history anybody agree with me this is the strangest time of all history and one of the things that i think is so crucial during this time is that we understand the gift uh that we've been given that we understand what this this season is really about and the giving of the gift that christ has given to us and so many of us don't understand what our identity even is and and understand that this is such a crucial time you know as pastor chris has been on this series and keeps repeating over and over uh go out and and be the church to the young church i mean what an incredible motto and we need to embrace that we need to live that this thing that we call faith let me tell you something if you just see your time of christianity as a little bit of a few minutes of devotional time and coming in and putting time in prayer and just coming into a service once a week if you see that as your relationship with christ my friends let me stir you to think differently it's way more than that you paul said we are ambassadors of christ we are in ba we are the representatives of almighty god on this earth we cannot take that lightly we cannot take that as something insignificant and i really want to punch this home with sharing some things with you today but let me start with a little bit of a lighter note walt disney's daughter wrote a biography a few years back and in there she but this goes to understand her not understanding her identity and she started to tell the story that when she was six years old she had no idea really who her father was and one day in class she was talking to a girl and and the girl asked her said what's your dad's name and she said walt and she goes well your last name is disney is in walt disney and she goes yeah and she goes do you know who your father is and she goes where is my dad and she goes but do you know what he does and she goes right he goes to work every day he does she goes no you don't understand you know mick do you know mickey mouse and she goes of course i know mickey mouse she goes you know do you know the magic kingdom do you know all the cartoons do you understand and she looks and she goes that is your father and so walt's daughter came home and she looked at her dad and she said dad how come you never told me you were walt disney she had no idea of who what her identity was of who her father was this is a crucial time with what with everything that is happening in our world today that we have an identity with who christ is this is a time that we understand in history that that the significance of what he came to bring and what he came to release and who he made us to be there was a woman historian from the history channel that was being interviewed on cnn i want you to hear her take on who jesus was she said jesus was a miserable failure because he never became the king of israel as he intended yet why do most of us recognize him as the dominant historical figure of all time this christmas as we look at him we look at him as the son of god we look at him as the prince of peace we look at him as the savior of the world but what if we took her perspective and diminished everything of who he was and everything of what he said what if we did like clarence the angel and it's a wonderful life how many of you love that movie all-time favorite best you know of christmas movies and if you look and see what clarence did with george bailey and removed what his life would look like what was the impact if we removed him that's what i want to do with you this morning let's go through and see if we took jesus out what would happen the historian from cnn went on to say jesus wasn't even a political figure he had no connections with herod who was the king or to the sanhedrin or to rome its occupier except at his execution he led no military action he never graduated from any prestigious schools in the eyes of many he was no more than an uneducated kid to poor parents conceived out of wedlock from the wrong side of the tracks even his followers were relatively uneducated and ridiculously unimportant i quote and yet two thousand to twenty years later here we are it's hard to imagine the impact of this world without him it's hard to imagine where we would be and what would happen without him as the centerpiece why is there a liberal movement currently moving by the way don't take anything i'm saying and attribute it to management here attribute it to me and if i offend you good [Music] why would why would a liberal movement claiming with a with a foe movement to say that they care about a particular race of people be wanting to strip down statues because of their saying that they have too much of a european look or have too much why why would they want to do that is that simply remember i said foe movement with a marxist agenda why would that be why would that be an attempt to happen in this day and time is it really care out of people or is it an attempt to remove christ from our society is it an attempt to strip the church of its message to strip the church of the picture of who god has called us to be let me tell you something there's a far more demonic attempt than there is any natural attempt that is going on right now in this nation and around the world and it is something that is that is evil and it is something that is it's crucial and if that was allowed to happen so let's go along with that let's look at that let's let's from that perspective let's see what if we could just strip jesus out of all of history what would that look like the cross of calvary raising from the dead the first thing that jesus did after that was he started the church it was the launch of the church pentecost was the birthday of the church so can we imagine the world with no church no john the baptist no peter no paul no timothy no francis of assisi no mother teresa no wesley brothers no dietrich bonhoeffer no martin luther king jr no billy graham no john wimber no hospitals no public education no institutions that provide relief that are relief agencies no underground church in china and iran and afghanistan what would this world look like without jesus what would it look like if we just stripped it all away paul says this about the church in colossians 3 11-15 in this new life it doesn't matter if you're a jew or a gentile circumcised or uncircumcised barbarian uncivilized slave or free christ is all that matters and that he lives in all of us that's what matters that's what matters you know as a it's it i i grew up mostly in atlanta georgia and on a street called bolton road off i-20 it it it was for the most part the hood there was uh there was a lot of of tension there it was on the borderline of an all-black community and all as we would say in that part of the country white trash community yes that's that's where i lived and we were right on the line my parents were always reaching out we were always reaching out into into the uh into the projects areas we were always inviting people you have to realize in 1970 71 i know it's shock that i am that old but i am that old as we would reach out i remember begging my dad to go and i remember getting jumped and beaten and we were we were trying to reach out to people we were trying to reach out we were trying to show love we were trying to show compassion and trying to say come to our youth group come you didn't do that in the southeast in 1970. you know what i mean but my parents were cr people were like how did you get so crazy going to all these crazy places in the world my mom and dad they modeled it we had molotov cocktails thrown into the church from both sides of the street i'm serious but listen to what he what he goes on to say because let me tell you something let me ask you this what race and what nationality will you be in heaven it's about the kingdom of god my friends it's about eternal life since god chose you to be holy people he loves you must clothe yourself with tenderhearted mercy kindness humility gentleness and patience make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you remember the lord gave you so so you must forgive others above all clothe yourself with love which binds us all together in perfect harmony and let the peace that comes from christ rule in your hearts for as members of one body you are called to live in peace we're called to that this is something that he calls us to before the jesus movement started called the church was there a movement actively that sought to include every single human being regardless of nationality ethnicity status wealth gender moral background morals or background education to be included to be loved to be transformed was there one no there wasn't jesus forever changed the possibility of what community would look like in the world who was this person with this heart who was he every year there's a news commentator that always asks this question where they always pose do we think life will be better for the next generation than it was for ours nobody in the ancient world before christ nobody in the bc would have ever thought that question because there was no hope there wasn't anything that was there there wasn't any any great opportunities there really wasn't anything to look forward to every year when that happens when that question gets asked i stop and i think about this because most cultures thought at that time of the existence of kind of just an endless cycle that just gets repeated over and over again of another dominating force dominating their nations dominating their people and oppressing them and just an endless repetition of that but the followers of jesus when they came along they believed that there was actually an underlining story that was happening through the ups and downs of history and that god is actually leading history to tell the god story this meant that all the followers would face a future with with hope not something they had not had before no one else ever had that real expectation of any progress in the world hope was an idea in the ancient world in bc that was not there to share it wasn't there to have in the book of luth the gospel writer explains a little of what is happening when jesus was born he writes this in luke 2 1 in those days caesar augusted augustus issued a decree that a sentence should be taken of the entire roman world this took place while quinn quirinius was a governor of syria and why doesn't it just tell us the year why doesn't it just give us like a year number of when jesus was born the system used in luke's day and region was the events would be dated by the ruling oppressive government and by its emperor that's how they dated time they didn't get they didn't have numbers of time but over time you know they they would they would they would label it based on who was in control and who their occupiers were and when see but as the caesars faded so as human power always does they would have to mark it by that time and yet we see by the sixth century a cynthian monk living in rome proposed a new system of dating history he proposed a calendar to be centered not on a pagan myth of uh that was founded by rome but on an incarnation uneducated carpenter named jesus who had never held public office it was a theological statement that life in this universe is not an accident and it's not random cycles but a true story with a true storyteller who will speak the truth at the center of this story and at the center of the human history comes the entrance of humanity's messiah no caesar had ever had a hint of his existence but those who knew him declared him king of kings and lord of lords and the prince of peace this obscure small movement of red tag uneducated leaders making such a claim that would at that time been laughable they said it would be blow over and it would be forgotten within a few years it's 2020. 2020 from what when he was born from when he came this poor obscure jewish carpenter every time a human anywhere on the planet opens a calendar it acknowledges him every time an atheist unfolds a paper the date points to him every time your computer boots up it boots up marking its time based on him we are reminded that jesus christ came and that he is the central figure of all of humanity he is the centerpiece caesar augustus died in the year of our lord 1480. nero who set fire to rome in 6480 blamed it on the christians isn't that interesting is this still going on for his hope to destroy this newfound faith nero died and his death marked by the same leader's birth that he tried to destroy and a movement he tried to annihilate in 68 a.d the same napoleon the emperor of the world died in the year of our lord 1861 and joseph stalin died in the year of our lord 1953 all of them marking christ why because he's the ruler of the world he's not just an oppressive ruler of a nation he is a ruler of the entire world how interesting now that every ruler that has ever reigned every nation that rises and falls must date themselves based on when christ came the king of kings the lord of lords the world's days off are called holidays we're entering one right now these were these were called that because they were called holy days and when when in the whole these were instituted to mark again times where they celebrated christ and events around christ we have mechanical clocks because followers of jesus from the 13th century benedictine months created the first mechanical clocks so that they could know when to gather to pray that's why you have a watch that's why you have a clock that's why your phone tells you the time it all started with these things jesus also shaped how we express compassion jesus said let the little children come to me he also instructed the church to take care of the widows and the orphans before this people would abandon and destroy their deformed children and unwanted children they would just abandon and leave them in the in the streets the church actually began to take in abandoned children who did not belong to them beginnius of dijon the second century follower of jesus who according to ancient historians nursed supported protected a number of these deformed and crippled children and had been saved from death after failed abortions and exposures and he was actually martyred for saving discarded and unwanted children in this time in ancient rome the widows by law actually were fined for surviving their husbands widows were considered a drag on the economy because they could they only could beg they could not make their own way but the church remembered what jesus said when he looked at john when jesus looked at john as he was dying on the cross and he said take care of my mom and now treat her like your mom so these followers of jesus began taking in these widows that weren't that were not even related to them and they told the government we will pay their fines and we will pay and take care of them even though the government had no plan of care for them many of those who did this too for the widows were also martyred for doing it this is history this is human history here during the bubonic plague which uh killed a full one-third of europe's population the franciscans friars remained in each infected community in order to minister to the sick and to bury the dead so that they may have someone to take care of them and protect them for the as the rest of the population was in death over 80 percent of the franciscans throughout europe died in the effort to minister uh the love of jesus the jesus movement revolutionized the influence on health care the church would bring the sick people in and they would take care of them at the great risk of their own health by the fourth century the first hospital for prolonged care for the sick was developed by saint benedict by the 6th century every monastery would have a long-term care facility called a hospital which was named after hospitality which was encouraged by scripture attached to it the 19th century the organization developed in a church in geneva with the sole aim to alleviate human suffering in the world and its name is the red cross this was all started by the church at around the same time the salvation army was formed in uk by william booth to help and to share the gospel and to relieve suffering we're reminded of their mission every time you hear when you go to shop the ringing of the bells and those ringing of the bells they said we ring the bells to say remember the poor remember the poor the scripture says to lend to the poor is to lend to god it's to lend to god himself we can never forget that you know in the places that we live in here in dallas we always have to remember we have to be open to those who who are not as fortunate who are not in places like i planted a church in a poor urban community in the chicagoland area because i knew that when we took greater risk when we went it was at that time when the top 10 most dangerous nations are excuse me one of the danger most dangerous cities in the nation but the objective was to realize that i had heard a message by john wimber that said faith is spelled r-a-s-k we always have to remember that we've got to take risks to be the people of god we have to live in a place of risk we have to step out and take risks whenever you say the names world vision compassion international ymca what are those any hospital name saint jude good samaritan you know the this throughout history is the extension of the jesus movement the jesus movement that was began as the church the philosopher named mark nelson put it like this if you ask what is jesus influence on medicine and compassion i would suggest that wherever you have an institution of self-giving for the lonely schools hospitals hospices orphanages of those that will never be able to be paid to repay that the people would never be able to repay all this has its roots in this jesus this jesus movement started by this insignificant peasant according to the historian the jesus movement shaped as a education as we know it today notice one difference between the old testament verse jesus version of it in deuteronomy 6 4 and then what how jesus quotes it it says love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength jesus added this when he said it love the lord with your god with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength and your neighbor as yourself care for your neighbor as yourself what does it mean to love god with all of our mind what does that mean let me say this one of the things i i love and i appreciate about this church i remember when i first heard about it was my friend tim dahl who goes here uh when i was preaching at a church called uh the rock in in colorado uh in castlerock colorado he started telling me about uh sojourn and he started telling me about about how you started and that you started you were launched by the power of the holy spirit that's my story you know i i love that and then my friend christian putnam began to say have you been to sojourn have you been there you started talking to me saying have you been have you been to so you should you should really you know you guys are synced up and one of the things that i loved about it was the it was the givenness and the and the and the the generosity and spirit and the heart and the care and you're you're blessed because of that but how did all that start did that start just with you you have a whole history of that our family history as the church is that the moors have just followed on with that the craze just followed on with that back in 410 the roman empire collapsed as barbarians the huns the goths the visigoths destroyed the roman civilization sending europe into the dark ages there were no books at that time and many of them too were destroyed by these groups they didn't have private presses you know printing presses only with only the wealth he could afford education at that time so monastery started establishing schools so that every person would be able to get an education this relatively uneducated jesus and uneducated apostles almost every educational institution was launched by them and inspired by them in a very real way jesus also changed science in the ancient world everything was just a random accident i love in dinesh d'souza's is a well-known author uh new york times best-selling author explains he says this that science has an organized sustained enterprise and it all arose out of christianity and it is true they would think about statements like when paul wrote all things were created through him and for him he is before all things and in all things everything is held together by him harvard university students handbook you're going to find this interesting in 1646 states this let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know jesus christ which is eternal life according to john 17 3 this is a quote direct quote from its handbook and therefore to lay christ as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning that's from harvard's original student handbook then came schools as yale william mary princeton and brown in fact prior to the american revolution every college and university in the colonies were started and were extensions of the church that jesus built and nine nine and ninety two percent of the first 138 colleges and universities founded in america were started by the followers of this uneducated insignificant itinerate who never wrote a book you see why he's the henchman you see why it's all about him how can we stay silent how can we not join in with our history with our family tree to spread the greatest news that has ever been heard the greatest truth that has ever been communicated how could we stay silent my friends if you've been silent don't i had an iranian couple that i flew to bolivia i was doing yeah i have to bring these guys to places that they don't want to stay at and take place i can't say it's got to be like in a place like an obscure part of india or they won't want to go home you know because of of the persecution and everything that is happening and so i have to bring them to those type of places i made the mistake of bringing them certain places of europe and some of them never went home and i was like okay big mistake i want you to go home i want you to go because if i could go there i would go there and i would live there and i would you know stay there permanently in iran i would but i said i brought this couple and as i remember as we were driving back to the place we were staying we'd taken them out in a park they were seeing people get healed we're sharing the gospel everybody who's getting healed and feeling the power of god come over their bodies with heat and tingling we're all accepting christ everybody was giving their heart to jesus we as we prayed we had to do a three-circle translation translating from farsi into english and then into spanish so the bolivian people could understand what we were saying and i was sitting there as we were driving back this iranian couple was sitting in the back and they were weeping as we were going back to the place we were staying and i said i said what are you crying for are you crying because you see the freedom that we have and that you you wish you had and they said no i said well what are you crying for they said we're crying for you the church in the west i said why for us we're free i said but that's the point you have the freedom to share this every day and to do this every day of your life why doesn't church in the west do it every day and i said because we're afraid they were like oh afraid of being thrown in jail for preaching the gospel and i said no afraid of being killed for preaching the gospel i said no they said what are you afraid of they were afraid being called stupid but being laughed at of being mocked tears in their eyes they looked at me and they said would you tell the western church jesus is worth that and tell him also he's worth going to prison for he's worth dying for so you've been told the alphabet for the slavic people is called cyrillic where did the name come from saint cyril this missionary who went to the slavic world discovered that there was no written alphabet so he created one for them so that they could read the word of god so they could read about this poor peasant from the wrong side of the tracks to nation after nation christian missionaries went and have still gone and have gone throughout the ages and it in the acts of unmistakable magnificent heroism they devoted their lives to this task the gospel being translated now into two thousand and two hundred different languages no other book has been translated even into a tenth of that many languages without jesus there is no martin luther whose bible became the primary shaper of the german language without jesus there is no king james bible which shaped the english language the jesus movement revolutionized music as you can imagine in the world with no hallelujah chorus as handel came out of a room that he locked himself away in and he fasted i believe it was for 20 days no food just water and he came out as handel came out with this this piece of music and he said somebody said you've written a masterpiece of music he said no i've written a revelation of jesus christ what is it contained in these pages reveals jesus christ it is not a piece of music with tears streaming down in his face it is a revelation without jesus there is no johann's bach who signed his work every work to the glory of god modern music notes were invented by middle-aged monks who wanted to be able to spread the music singing about jesus all around the world the jesus movement changed politic political theory jesus changed how we think about human rights and a person's worth and dignity and the preservation of their dignity the constitution states we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and have been endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that was a statement that came straight from the heart of god it is not human consideration and conclusion on their own where did those ideas come from self-evident to the to the framers of the constitution it certainly wasn't self-evident to the costs or to the huns or to the nazis it certainly isn't self-evident in the in the indian caste system galatians 3 28 says there is neither jew nor greek slave nor free male nor female for you all are one in christ this is so important and for in in uh 115 a.d the ancient writer named techtias wrote this of the early christian martyrs and the annals of 1544 he said mockery of every sort was added to their deaths they were torn apart by dogs he quoted perished by lion's jaws they were nailed to crosses or were doomed to the flames yet none complained at the opportunity to die so the generations may not none but let me tell you something all the recent movie versions that show this they all depict the christians going god where are you why they didn't do that that is a false communication of what happened in their history they all considered it a worthy death and they were pleased to count themselves in the ranks of christ to die for the sake of the gospel to be able to give their life as he gave his life and i love how it says these christian martyrs blood he finishes his statement by saying these christian martyred blood are as seed he was warning the people if you slay one a thousand will rise up in their place he was warning he was warning the rest of the roman empire do not slay christians because you're actually multiplying we have video of a woman named sahar who was an iranian woman who was in prison she was with us last year in turkey as we were training 500 iranians to go back and to evangelize and to operate in power evangelism in iran at the end of sharing her story of imprisonment and torture and the torture of her family she finishes at the end of the story she says when they released me she goes it was the saddest day of my life and she goes i have not had the happiness that i have had since i was in prison for the sake of the gospel and she goes and i've looked back and said every day god put me back let me go back she was forced to leave the country she was she was forced to leave uh by the government the response to the persecuted jesus followers was not to dream of revenge or to raise up an army trust me i'm not against military action you know i mean i'm you know um i'm absolutely for that hello i live in texas like i'm not the anti-gun guy at all i own many proudly and i'm happy to have them they're fun but they weren't trying to raise up an army to amount to resistance but instead they were willing to die for the sake of this jesus movement the most famous speech of the 20th century was given by the preacher martin luther king jr in 1963 where he called that he called i have a dream at one point in the speech of dr king he shifts from the from amos chapter 5 to isaiah 40 saying this one day all children of god will be judged no longer by the color of their skin but by the content of their character i have a dream today i have a dream that every valley will be raised up and every mountain will be brought down that the glory of god this was his speech and it's all why is it always cut out in the news that the glory of god that the glory of god will be revealed and all flesh will see his glory together i have a dream today dr king said you see martin luther king jr knew that the dream etched in it was etched in the heart of jesus's dream your kingdom come your will being done on earth as it is in heaven that is what he was quoting from and that is the jesus work that he had grabbed hold of who is this insignificant jesus he is the hinge pen of all history he is the hope of the the oppressed he is the inspiration of the despairing and as the poet said and i love this poem he was born in an obscure village the son of a simple peasant woman he worked with his father in a carpenter's shop until he was 30. he never wrote a book he never held political office he usually walked everywhere he went he never did anything that only no that normally associates with greatness he had no credentials but himself and he when he was 30 years old the tide of public opinion turned against him he was turned over to his enemies where he went through a mockery of trial he was nailed to a cross between two thieves and while he was dying his executioners gambled over his only earthly possession his his robe he was taken down from the cross laid in a borrowed grave now 20 centuries later have since come and gone and today this person this this this poor carpenter is the centerpiece of all time he's the centerpiece of human race he is the leader and the column of all mankind and to this historian who made this quote on cnn i say this jesus is not a miserable failure you have misunderstood i would say that as the poet as the poem continues that of all the armies that have all ever marched and all the navies that have ever set sail of all the rulers that have ever ruled and every king that has ever reigned in a nation on this earth if you put them all together none have affected all of humanity all of humanity as this one solitary according to you insignificant life he is the king of kings he is the lord of lords he is the greatest teacher who has ever lived he is the greatest mind who has ever thought he sparked the greatest movement that has ever existed he offered the greatest gift that has ever been given and he alone mastered life and he alone conquered death he alone overcame sin not just for one but for all of humanity for all of time and he alone is the son of god he alone is the savior of the world and it is he alone that we focus our worship on and every song is saying to and every praise is saying to and every prayer is worthy of oh isn't it a wonderful life isn't it a worthy life how can we not tell the story how can we not share this story how can we make everything else important and push this to the side oh my friends jesus is worthy of it all he's worthy of it all father i pray that you would stir in our hearts the understanding we could never earn and deserve this work of the cross we could never discern this work that you have done that we can only truly receive it and respond to it with open arms and open hearts if you've never made jesus lord of your life do it today don't let another minute pass by just say today jesus you're worthy of it jesus come into my life be lord of my life i give it all to you fill me his kingdom is the unstoppable force that is on this planet nations will rise and fall but his kingdom is without end it cannot be destroyed it cannot ever be annihilated and it cannot be stripped as the iranian church has told me time and time again tell the church in the west stop praying that persecution ends here in iran for the church because it's only making us grow faster it's the fastest growing church on the planet today afghanistan is number two be filled with the hope of christ being the centerpiece all that we are and all that we have lord let us grab that and to say as paul i can't stop myself from sharing the gospel because the love of christ compels me it compels me in jesus name amen

Channel: Sojourn Church Carrollton, TX

Views: 3,751

Rating: 4.8507462 out of 5

Keywords: sojourn church, Chris McRae, Noon prayer, Terry Moore

Id: yE1C18mmHp4

Length: 51min 22sec (3082 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 22 2020