Good morning.
So, Steven is
our volunteer of the week. And,
wow.
So,
Steven does he works with the worst. He
works in the booths back there. He was
weren't you just ushering? Was that you up
here? Okay. He's also,
with the ushers
and, and he's part of the men's team
too, men's ministries team. So so, yeah, Steven
does a lot. We like that. We like
when people do a lot. So,
so I I have a question. I always
ask this around this time of year.
How many how many like the weather outside
right now?
I do. I love it. This is like
my favorite.
I like cool, cloudy, drizzly.
I don't like all those fake sunshiny days
when they give you a not accurate outlook
on what life is.
I like this
right here.
I'm
mountain biking, I really like, misty rainy. That's
the best because you're getting hot, you're sweating
all this stuff. I'd rather I'd rather not
do that. So, yeah, it's
few days here. We had, General Flynn here
with the, human trafficking, conference that we did
Friday night, all day yesterday. It was it
was just great.
It was powerful, extremely
informative.
A lot of lot of different people and
a lot of different,
places, spaces within the the concept of rescuing,
kids and and also adults, by the way,
from human trafficking.
And then, those that do after care and
just just the whole gambit of stuff with
this. It was I I've been in this
space for a long time.
I've done the training,
the, the training to recognize,
kids being trafficked. I've done all this stuff,
And I still learned from every single aspect
of this thing,
who's who's doing what out there and how
they're doing it. And
and, and then just also a good sense
of
we've got to care about this. We've got
to care about,
kids that are being trafficked.
And and I've run bills at the house.
I've done,
all kinds of things. Of course, none nothing
I ever do
comes to fruition in the house. But
but
but this is an important
important place. And so,
we also got to watch the movie yesterday,
Into the Light.
The director producer was here
to,
to show us the movie and then explain,
and they did a panel afterwards discussing this.
And basically, this is if you're interested, you
can scan the QR code. This is you
have to pay something to watch it. But,
but it's about how,
everything is,
everything that's going on manipulate
is manipulating us.
The, everything, every social platforms, Hollywood, all this
stuff. I mean, they show how they're doing
this, how they're spinning things, how they're telling
you certain amounts of information
or completely wrong information. And they go over
and it's it's just a lot of information,
a lot of good stuff in there. And,
so if you're interested in that, we can
also make sure that you that you have
access to that at some
at some time in the future too. But
it was just a good weekend.
And I really enjoyed getting to,
to meet General Flynn. We've been,
connected some with some of the stuff that,
he he's posted some of my
videos from the house and things, but I
actually got to sit down and talk to
him. He's just a really,
really nice guy. I really enjoyed getting to,
know him a little bit.
And now, you know, I can I can
say I know General Flynn? So there's that
too. So
we're buddies.
Okay. So,
I I do want so last Sunday, I
mentioned of course, I've been mentioning this a
lot,
but I talked about,
I I mentioned before service, before I jumped
into this, that,
that, they cannot
by they, this is not Democrat, Republican. This
is a lot bigger than that. This is
kind of the powers that be in our
country. They cannot allow Trump to get to
the White House. They cannot do it. And
you guys know, no matter which way this
comes out in November, our our country's going
to explode.
BLM's already been putting stuff online, putting a
lot of information out there, and attached to
Antifa
that they're gonna tear they're gonna burn this
country down if Trump gets in the White
House.
Well, if
if Kamala gets in the White House, the
the rest of the country knows this is
a big fat lie.
And what are the what is gonna happen
then?
Right? So I don't know. It's gonna be
crazy. But but even after I said that
last Sunday,
what, 2 hours later, there was another
attempt on his life, another assassination attempt, and
then 2 more this week. 1 where there
was a bomb in a car
that, was right
near the,
the group of cars
that drive with President Trump in them. And
they found that before
the the entourage got to there. And then
he was at a speech in Arizona and
a and a group of people at the
front were sitting there. And all of them
immediately got sick, started throwing up. Some of
them passed out and all this stuff. And
so they they, you know, take Trump out.
But they had been exposed to some kind
of gas that was up there at the,
front of the speech. Guys, this isn't this
is not gonna stop. I've I've been saying
this. This is not gonna stop. There we
have crossed a line in our country where
this is okay.
The media is blaming Trump
on his own assassination
attempts
because he's not he's not bringing his speech
down, his rhetoric down. In other words, you're
saying things we don't like. You're speaking truth
and we don't like that and so we're
gonna kill you.
This is where we've come to in our
country. This is disgusting.
It doesn't matter which,
party affiliation you are. This is not okay.
This is beyond the pale and this is
not what made our country.
This is not who we are.
I just strongly encourage you. I think that
the greatest
thing we can do at this point is
truly pray. I mean really seek God for
our country, not just our God protect Trump,
but really pray for the soul of our
country.
We're in a in a very bad place.
With all of that said, the last thing
that I wanted to mention,
I was very excited to see all of
the stuff happening in Israel
and actually mostly in Lebanon,
this last week.
I didn't know you could do this stuff.
I didn't know you could make pagers blow
up.
This is absolutely amazing.
And they're only
blowing up on Hezbollah
leaders.
That is absolutely phenomenal.
These Israelis are absolutely geniuses.
Then all of a sudden, cell phones started
blowing up. Then
walkie talkies
started blowing up. So then all the Hezbollah
leaders are like, we should not be using
technology. So let's get together in a group
and just talk personally.
And the Israelis were like, are they all
there? Okay. Boom.
Blew that place up.
This is this is what should always happen
to terrorists. This is absolutely amazing. I have
been a little shy of answering my phone
this week.
Absolutely phenomenal. And, and this is they're scared
to death
they're scared to death to get near anything.
Pretty soon, they're I mean, somebody's going to
be at morse code. Boom.
That's going to blow up. So, alright. I
I wanna I wanna look at something this
morning. I think it's
So I spoke 2 weeks ago.
I spoke about the rapture.
Okay?
And,
now I'm not going to revisit that really
this morning. I know that I I do
love to preach about that. I am pre
tribulation rapture. I know that some of you
in here, and
you're post trib, stuff like that. But what
ifs? But I do want I do want
to look at the bigger subject because it's
not necessarily about the rapture. Okay. Let's kind
of take that
the table. Alright? But this is one of
the arguments that I I have for pre
tribulation rapture is what I brought out 2
weeks ago in in Matthew 24, and I
wanna take this into this week,
is the idea that, Jesus himself says that
that,
before
the rapture, he doesn't use that term, but
before the rapture,
there
the earth is going to look like the
days of Noah.
And he does not say,
evil like the days of Noah. What he
says is which is which is true. That's
got to be included. Right?
Because of the whole everything that follows. But
what he says is that there's gonna everybody's
gonna be living life as normal, and there's
gonna be partying
and marrying and things like that. And he
says, and you won't be ready. They were
not ready. I'm getting ahead of myself. They
were not ready for the flood. But Noah
had been telling them for a 100 years.
But they weren't ready for the flood. Why?
Because they were just living normal life. There
was nothing,
there was nothing urgent. That's part of my
argument with why it can't be mid or
post trib because you're going to have been
in the tribulation.
There is urgency. There is, oh no, we're
in the tribulation. So that somehow it could
sneak upon you.
I just don't think that fits theologically. Okay?
But let's let's
let's let's look at this without the
the the trying to figure out when the
rapture takes place.
But let's look at the fact that Jesus
says,
you're not going to you're not just like
they weren't ready for the flood, you're not
going to be ready for the rapture.
Because you're gonna be living life as usual.
The partying I don't think there's gonna be
a lot of parties in the tribulation.
Partying,
giving in marriage, all this other kind of
stuff.
That
gets me with this with the church mentality,
as I think that I don't think the
church has a sense of urgency about it.
I'm saying the church across America, we just
don't have a sense of urgency. And there's
some things that are tied to that urgency.
It's, this is this is one of the
reasons that I to me, I think the
church needs to to be preaching a rapture
mentality
sense of urgency. You don't know Jesus himself
says, you don't know when this is gonna
happen. It's gonna happen instantly. It's gonna happen
suddenly. And and even though you have been
told about it, you're just partying it up.
On actual stuff. I feel like that's where
the church is at. We're just kind of
going through the motion to party and we're
doing marriages.
We're doing all this stuff.
But there's not a sense of urgency on
a few things. There's not a sense of
personal urgency.
There's not a,
there's not a,
urgency for the lost.
Doesn't
exist anymore, which kind of makes sense though,
because if you have an urgency for the
lost, then there has to be something driving
that urgency.
Rapture mentality, or the reality that is for
all of us that take the rapture off
the table. So let's say God came
to you right now and said,
you, I'm not coming back during your lifetime.
When is that?
When is your lifetime
over?
Let let me read a couple of scriptures
to you. Romans chapter 10
verse 13. For everyone who calls on the
name of the Lord will be saved.
This is this is a part of what,
people have called the Romans road over the
years. But but ask yourself this question.
What does this sentence mean? What are the
elements of this sentence?
Everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord. First, what does that mean to
you? Because it means different things to different
people.
And then it says, everyone who calls on
the name of the Lord will be saved.
What does that mean to you? What is
saved mean to you?
How do you define saved?
I I've I've mentioned this over the last
3 years, a statistic I read 3 years
ago from Barna Research that says from Gen
z. Okay?
It actually was a little bit
older than that too. But but let's say
Gen z,
that over 60% of all of the the
the gen z generation, and this was basically
like 30 and under
for the statistics,
that 60% of all of the the people
within that age group that are Christians,
that declare themselves to be Christians,
believe that it is morally wrong.
This is this is important, the wording.
That it is morally wrong
to tell other people about Jesus
because they have their own religion and that
would be proselytizing.
So let me ask the question.
What does saved mean?
Do we really believe that this is a
a,
a big enough issue to cause concern within
our spirit, our minds, our hearts,
our lives?
Should it should it cause anything to happen?
John 316,
this is how God loved the world. He
gave his one and only son that everyone
who believes in him will not perish,
but have eternal life. What does perish mean
to you?
What does eternal life mean to you? Why
would Jesus himself,
God of the universe, the Word,
the the one that is the Word itself
at,
creation.
What why would Jesus himself take on human
flesh to die for us? Because the word
perish
is a very important word.
And in Romans 2, when it says that
you will be saved,
saved from what to what,
for what reason, purpose, all this kind of
stuff. See, this is the thing is you
have to be able to answer this for
yourself.
And this this demographic that is saying that
it is morally wrong to tell other people
about Jesus, they have not answered it scripturally,
or they wouldn't be thinking that way.
Jesus says that he is the way, the
only way,
truth and the life that he is the
only way to God the father. Without Jesus,
there is no salvation.
So it doesn't matter. If you really believe,
if you really believe that Jesus is the
only way to God, then that means all
the other options are not real. They're not
true.
They're they're false religions.
You say, well, no. I believe that that
all the other religions have validity too. Then
then somewhere you're you're off track with what
the Bible says and you need to reinvestigate
this.
Because this is where we this is where
we are as a country within the church.
We are not telling people the truth. We
are not living the truth. We are not
displaying
the truth. And so therefore, there's any,
a myriad of options
to get to God the father. There's a
myriad of options for eternal life and all
these other things. That's not true. If if
Jesus dies on the cross so that we
won't perish, if he himself
is the necessity
to keep us from perishing
so that we can have eternal life, then
we need to know what that perishing means
and we need to know what that eternal
life means.
Or
or what's the point of this thing?
This is this is why I believe there's
not an urgency within the church and why
the church at large
is not concerned anymore about witnessing. We don't
have problem inviting people. In fact, they encourage
that.
I I I talked to a guy the
other day that had been to a church
and he said that this church was giving
bonus bucks to people that brought guests.
And I'm like,
excuse me.
I have lots of questions.
Bonus bucks
for what?
Are these heavenly bonus bucks?
You get toward the front of the line
in eternity. I don't that was weird to
me that I think it's like for their
gift shop or something, but I'm I I
don't know.
Just seemed a little strange to me. But
but here's the thing guys, if we're not
actually about people getting saved, what's the point?
What's the point of this whole thing?
Benefits to that, but I don't mean this
pejoratively, but look around the room. Is this
the social group you've chosen?
You got me? All right. So here's the
thing. Guys, what are we saying when we're
saying being saved
Guys, what are we saying when we're saying
being saved?
Alright.
Let's go to John chapter 4.
See this is, this is interesting to me
is again, let's take the rapture off the
table.
How long
Yeah. I don't want to. That's not
But but how long do you have left
in life?
Alright. I'm gonna I'm gonna drill down here
quite a bit. I'm not trying to to
scare you but I'm actually okay with that
if it happens.
But how long is your life Like I
said earlier, if God says to you, I'm
not gonna come back during your lifetime. That
could be the the day after tomorrow.
You you understand what I'm saying?
And tomorrow is your last day. But he's
he's promised he'd not come back during your
lifetime.
How long how long do you have on
this earth?
James chapter 4 verse 14.
How do you know what your life will
be like tomorrow?
Your life is like the morning fog.
It's here a little while then it's gone.
And I do want to thank the Lord
for the illustration.
He's he's working well with me.
Verse 15,
guys
what you ought to say is if the
Lord wants us to, we will live and
do this or that.
I think that's important the way he says
it. He says, my life is like a
vapor. It's it's here today. It's gone tomorrow.
But what we should be saying is, God,
you're the one who determines my life. Not
just if I'm alive,
but what I'm doing.
Do this or that. What I am doing
with my life
This is where we have
in our American culture, you know, we get
up, we go to work, we go home.
We get up, we go to work, go
home. And if you're not careful, what happens
is the routine or the mundane of life
can, lure you into kind of a, a,
can lure you into kind of
a,
a sleep,
a laziness.
I think even without trying to.
There's not an urgency in our spirit.
And so we can go to work with
somebody year after year after year. We know
they're not a Christian. We know that they
don't have a relationship with Jesus. But it's
there's not an urgency in our spirit to
do something about it,
have a conversation, do something.
Somewhere there has to be an urgency.
Why?
Because
how long are you gonna be alive?
How long are they gonna be alive?
I I,
I,
I had
a meeting with somebody this week,
and this is a political stuff, and we're
trying to set some things up. And he
was telling me, he said, did you hear
and so I'll ask you the question. Did
you hear about the motorcycle wreck on I
25 this last week? Anybody hear about that?
It was on the news, all this kind
of
stuff. This was interesting. He said his wife
was driving
their van
right beside
this motorcycle wreck. He said, this is what
happened. This is her she watched the whole
thing. She was the person directly beside,
the guy that died on the motorcycle.
Okay.
There was a car coming down I 25
the other on the other direction going northbound.
She was going southbound.
And tire came off of the car,
ran through the median, hit something in the
median, bounced up in the air.
She said she's watching this happen, and she
thinks it's gonna hit her van.
K. It goes up and it and it
goes over all of this. Like, 20
something, 30 something motorcycles all riding together.
Goes over all of the motorcycles until it
hits the very back
guy on the motorcycle.
It hit him square right here.
Instantly killed him, instantly. And he said, this
is where it got so weirdly, spiritually bizarre.
He said,
it killed him. He just
laid back on the motorcycle dead, instantly dead,
laid back on the seat on his motorcycle.
She's now worried because that motorcycle is not
being driven.
K.
The motorcycle didn't veer, didn't stop. It just
kept driving straight down the middle of the
lane,
slowed down, slowed down. She's braking this time,
so she's getting slower faster at a quicker
rate. And so the motorcycle is still slowing
down, slowing down,
slowly pulls over to the shoulder
and then just stops against the guardrail and
kind of leans over onto the guardrail.
The guy is laying back on his back
dead the whole time.
She's and when he's telling me this, he's
tearing up because he said, God did that.
How does that happen?
And he said, God protected my wife and
my kids in the van right beside the
motorcycle.
That guy didn't get up that morning saying,
I think I'm gonna ride my motorcycle and
this is the last day of my life.
He didn't say that.
He wasn't thinking that.
Guys, I we there has to be a
moment. There has to be some times I
don't believe it's a moment. I believe it's
moments in our life
when we realize,
our own mortality.
That we're limited.
Do we have a certain amount of time
on this earth? And even if you live
it out to the way Psalm says 70
or 80 years, that's a long time. We've
You know, a lot of people live past
80 years nowadays.
Right? But that's still not very long.
And as I get older, I'm recognizing that.
I'm realizing how short
life
is, how how this little
bleep of time
What are we doing with it?
What are What's happening in Luke chapter 16?
I,
was thinking about this the other day.
So my mother passed away 4 years ago
this
this summer, this last summer.
Do you know the rapture is basically irrelevant
in that context?
Didn't matter when the rapture is gonna happen.
She died 4 years ago.
Doesn't doesn't matter
when the rapture is gonna happen for that
guy on the motorcycle.
He died last Friday.
Rapture is irrelevant to that point.
But there needs to be an urgency because
of this thing we call life
and death.
And again, it just feels like we just
don't have
this urgency in the church. I think part
of it's because,
well, there's no heaven. There's no hell.
There's no sin.
There's no right or wrong.
This is just about going to church.
Well, if those things are true, then what's
the There is no urgency.
There is no urgency. Look in Luke chapter
16. Okay? Now let me throw this out
here before I jump into this. Jesus tells
us a lot of parables in scripture. Okay?
When he tells us a parable, it is
it is got a certain parameter built into
it that lets you know it's a parable.
Sometimes, he literally says he's gonna tell us
parables.
Right? But
when there are names
in the stories, they're not parables.
They're stories.
They're true stories
about real people.
And the people of the time frame
would have known who these people are.
That's why we know they're not parables.
Okay.
Alright. This is a true story that Jesus
is telling. This is not a parable.
Jesus said, there was a certain rich man
who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine
linen
who lived each day in luxury.
At his gate lay a poor man poor
man named Lazarus. This is not the Lazarus
of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Okay. It's
a different Lazarus.
At his gate lay a poor man named
Lazarus who was covered with sores.
As Lazarus lay their longing for scraps from
the rich man's table, the dogs would come
and lick his open sores. I'm glad he
included that in the story.
Finally, the poor man died and was carried
to the angels to sit beside Abraham at
the heavenly banquet. This is before,
God's giving us,
access to,
Jesus has not died on the cross yet.
After Jesus dies on the cross, when you
are separate from this body, you are present
with Christ. You're merely with Jesus Abraham's bosom.
This is before this. This is why, if
you just want to study this stuff out,
this is why in, in,
chapter, Matthew chapter 25, I think it is,
or maybe 26. I think it's 25.
When it says, after Jesus dies on the
cross, the graves open up and they could
see the saints walking. That's part of that
understanding. Abraham's bosom, all that kind of stuff.
Okay. Now, with that,
the rich man also died
and was buried and he went to
the place of the dead.
There,
in torment, he saw Abraham in the far
distance with Lazarus at his side.
Okay. So you've got
you got the place of the dead and
you've got Abraham's bosom is what it's called.
And,
so Lazarus goes to Abraham's bosom
and the rich man goes to the equivalent
of hell. Alright. This isn't the hell. This
isn't the fullness of hell that we see
in Revelation at the end where he throws
Satan and,
the the devil and his angels, all that
kind of stuff, but this is that place.
Okay?
Alright. Now with that being said and the
the reason I say all of that is
because I guys, I hear all the time
from people. I hear from Christians. I hear
from church leaders. I I see where guys
write this stuff in books. These are pastors
and theologians
that say that there is no such thing
as hell, that that is a creation of
the church. It's not a biblical understanding.
Hell is described
many times in scripture. Different descriptions of it.
Different aspects of it. But it is a
very real thing. But see, here's where the
church is at. If the church does not
believe there's hell, then what are you being
saved from? What are you being saved to?
Right? And it's interesting. They all believe in
heaven.
That's the part that irritates me. You're getting
heaven from the same book that hell comes
from.
Why do you just choose 1? Well, because
heaven's a lot easier, isn't it? Yeah. It
is.
But there really is such a thing as
hell. And and the more the church tries
to sideline that or disassociate,
or I think just kind of erase it
from the story. Guys, it
comes back to then what is Jesus dying
on the cross for? Because if it's just
to give us a little bit better life
on this earth, and then we're all just
going to get there anyway,
then why would Jesus himself die? Couldn't he
have sent something else like an angel?
Why would the son of God himself, God
in human flesh need to die? It's because
this is the utmost of importance and he
is literally saving you and I from the
clutches of Satan himself
in hell.
And we don't like to say that in
the church nowadays,
but that's just reality.
When when when you come across somebody that
says there is no hell, I would I
would this would be a one of the
ways you could approach this. Say, if I
brought you a bunch of scriptures that prove
that there is a hell, would you believe
it?
From the Bible, many sentences
that show and describe hell, would you believe
it? Because this is the thing that gets
me is I don't think they I think
they don't believe it because of a choice,
not because of what scripture says.
They're just hoping it's not real because it's
easier that way. You can do whatever you
want.
Doesn't matter what you say.
Doesn't matter what you do. Doesn't matter what
you think. Doesn't matter where you go. What
you're what you're involved with doesn't matter.
Because I mean we're kind of all gonna
get there anyway.
And then you got the group that says
I'd rather be in hell with my friends.
I'd rather party in hell. I I heard
that so much when I was a teenager.
Other, I'd rather party in hell with my
friends than go to heaven with with all
those church people.
You're an absolute moron.
That that makes no sense.
Why? Because we don't really understand. And if
we do, we don't really believe
in our soul, in our heart, or we're
choosing not to. Look what he says. The
rich man's shrouded
The rich man shouted,
father Abraham have some pity. Send Lazarus. All
of a sudden he cares who Lazarus is.
Lazarus has been sitting at the gate, been
walking by him every day for years. Doesn't
care who Lazarus is. All of a sudden
Lazarus is important.
And people say, hell is not a real
thing.
Difference is is if I'm a Christian, I
belong to Jesus, then I have it's not
it's not in reference to me.
Right. I worry about hell if I don't
belong to Jesus, or I worry about hell
for my friends and family that don't know
Jesus.
That's where that's where it gets Here's your
first. He says, just the tip of his
finger and water and cool my tongue. I
am in anguish in these flames.
And and let me throw this out too.
Even if somehow you think this is a
parable, which I don't but it's okay I
guess if you do. If you think this
is a parable, Jesus is not making stuff
up that's not true in parables.
He's telling truth in parables.
Okay?
Abraham said to him, son, remember that during
your lifetime you had everything you wanted and
Lazarus had nothing.
So now he is here being comfort and
you are in anguish. Now I do wanna
think I I have to say this. I
do think this is important.
Being poor
does not give you access to heaven.
That's not what Jesus is trying to say
here. K? Does does the Lord have,
special compassion on poor people? Yeah. He says
this all through scripture. And as Christians, we're
also care supposed to care about poor people,
right?
Take care of the widows and the orphans.
This is scriptural stuff. Sometimes we get so
involved in our own materialistic direction and gains
that we forget there are people that go
without stuff.
Right? Now, I I have found that there
is actual
crazy abject poverty around the rest of the
world, not so much in America.
It does exist in America, but it's a
different kind of poverty. And if you've ever
been anywhere else around the world, you know
the difference.
Okay?
But but this idea that somehow that Lazarus
has that that's how he got to heaven,
that's how he's standing there beside Abraham, that
is not not because he's poor,
because he knew
God. He had a relationship with God.
And and the rich man's not in hell
because he's rich.
Right?
These things are natural directions that show attitude
of life and stuff like that, which could
lead to that. But it's not it's not
a given. If you're rich, you go to
hell.
I I've actually heard people say that over
the years.
There's and they take from the scripture, it's
more difficult for camel to go to the
eye of the needle than a rich person
to get to heaven. That means all rich
people are going to hell.
I don't think that's what that says.
Right? But we do things like that. Right?
So
he says,
and besides there's a great chasm separating us.
No one can cross over to you from
here. No one can cross over to us
from there.
This is important too. That seems like a
little casual statement. But there's mentalities nowadays that
are being taught in the church that hell
is rehabilitative,
and that after a while you'll work your
way to
heaven.
There's no bridge from hell to heaven. Okay?
Hell is not rehabilitative.
It's never designed that way. It is it
is literally
eternal torment and punishment
because you chose something besides Jesus.
He gives you opportunities, but you choose something
else.
Hey. The rich man said, please father Abraham,
at least send him to my father's home.
I have 5 brothers.
Now, he's concerned about his 5 brothers spiritual
direction.
I've said this at many funerals,
almost every funeral I've ever done. I'll say,
I can promise you one thing. I know
this for sure
that the person that died,
that they their number one priority for you
right now is that you know Jesus.
No matter whether they're with Jesus or not
with Jesus,
their number one priority for you is that
you know Jesus.
This rich man's number one priority is that
his brothers be warned,
because he doesn't want them to end up
where he is.
I want him to warn them so that
they don't end up in this place of
torment. But Abraham said, Moses and the prophets
warned them.
You've been told.
You've been told. And you have a whole
life to live this out. You have a
whole life to make this decision. Day after
day after day, you make this decision. Do
I serve Jesus? Do I not?
Am I am I all in with Jesus
or am I not?
Your brothers can read what they wrote. The
rich man replied, no father, amen. But if
someone is sent to them from the dead,
then they will repent of their sins and
turn to God.
Well, that happened. Moses wrote and he's dead.
He told you. But here's the bigger one.
Jesus,
for us, Jesus actually
died and came back and told us.
And he's saying, but you
but but I need somebody else. I need
more people.
This has always been the question for me.
And this was this was the question for
me too when I was when I was
not serving Jesus, when I wasn't a Christian.
I mean, I can tell you what it
took for me but what what does it
take what does it take for anybody?
Jesus has given us the information. But here's
part of what's happening is the church has
been complicit in this. The the more that
we do not talk about sin, the more
that we do not talk about heaven or
hell, the more that we do not show
the reality of what this means in the
bible, we are hurting people and we are
we are condemning
them to not knowing the ultimate truth. And
so therefore, there's no urgency. There's no reason
for them to need Jis. There's no reason.
All they have to do is just go
to church every now and then do some
good things.
And it's basically okay.
Because that is not biblical truth.
That's not
reality.
The reality is there that Jesus really did
that on the cross for what? To cover
us with his blood, forgive us of our
sins, so that we turn our entire life
to him.
Not a little along the way,
but that we belong to Jesus.
That he's not just the the the originator
of this thing we this religion we call
Christianity, But he's actually my savior,
my God, my King, my Redeemer.
And according to Romans 12, I put myself
up on his altar and I sacrificed myself
to him.
This is this is what true Christianity
is.
We can we can kind of go along
with
the the kind of the woke mentality that
the church is in involved in so strongly
now.
That use
the term love. I don't even think it
applies here. But you love them enough to
not
hurt their feelings.
But you don't love them enough to keep
them out of hell.
That that makes no sense to me.
That that is the opposite of what the
church is supposed to be about. But I
would much rather have people come to the
church and give in the offering.
That's the disease that the church has. I
want more people in the seats and more
money.
So we can't offend anybody because then they
won't come back.
That's sad.
Guys, we're hurting. We're hurting the people that
God said we're supposed to love. God says
love God with everything. Love your neighbors yourself.
When you split those 2 and you only
focus on one side, neither become true.
All be about God and then therefore, you
don't witness. You don't you're not ministering to
others. We're just all about God. Well then,
actually, you're not because then he says the
next sentence,
this next law is the same as the
first one. It's just as important the first
one. Love your neighbor as yourself, as yourself,
which means if you want to go to
heaven, you should love people that much.
And then churches become all about loving people,
and they're not really loving God because if
they love people, they would tell people what
is right and wrong. They would tell them
what the Bible says. They would tell them
that there is life and death, and that
you don't have to go to hell because
if we really love them, we'll do that,
which that actually comes from love for God.
When we really love God, we will truly
love people. Not limitedly,
not not just for us, but we will
love them to God
or we're not really loving them. We're really
liking them a lot. And I would even
argue, how much do you really like them?
Right?
Listen to Moses and the prophets, they won't
be persuaded even if someone rises from the
dead. And
that's
a stark reality.
So a few things here. I've put 4
things together.
The first one, hell is real.
As we we've got to the church has
got to come back to seeing this as
a reality.
We've lost this. We don't think this is
a thing anymore. It doesn't matter.
We have a very strong universalism that's invaded
the church.
In other words, everybody's going to get to
wherever they're going to go. Well, actually, universalism
is everybody's going to get to heaven someday.
Unitarianism, then that means everybody's going to get
wherever they think they're going.
That makes a lot of sense. We're all
just going to get where we think. So
that means
that when a Muslim blows themselves up by
a,
a suicide vest, that they really are going
to end up in paradise with 70 virgins.
Everything Jesus says is not true, because he
says that's not true.
So which is it?
Hell was a real thing. Revelation 20 verse
11. I saw a great white throne and
the one sitting on it.
The earth and sky fled from his presence,
but they found no place to hide.
I like the fact that it says, they.
I don't think he's talking about
clouds and stuff.
Right?
Verse 12. I saw the dead. I love
this sentence because he says, I saw the
dead, both great and small,
standing before God's throne. Well, I thought they
were dead.
Uh-huh. They did die on this earth.
They had a physical death.
Guys,
We are every one of us in this
room, we are eternal
beings.
We are spiritually
transcendent
of this earth being.
We're going to be somewhere forever.
You decide. But the dead,
John sees the dead standing
there.
So they died
in their life.
And the books were open. I've talked about
books before. Right? There's there's the book of
life and then there's other books. There's a
lot of books are gonna be open at
this time. K. Including the book of life.
The book of life is the one that
if your name is in it, the reason
it's in there is because Jesus has covered
you with his blood at your reach out
of faith. He doesn't just do it. You
have to ask for this. You have to
repent of your sins, and by faith embrace
Jesus covering you with his blood and making
you right with God the father. Then your
name is in the book of life.
The other books are stuff that has done
has happened in your life.
The things you've done.
K? And the dead were judged according to
what they had done as recorded in the
books. The sea gave up its dead.
I I love this part because,
I was in the navy and so that
has a a navy feel to it. You
know, the sea gave up its dead.
In fact, 2 years ago, this was an
interesting thing. I so I I am I
got ministry when I was 20 years old.
Okay?
So,
34 years I've been in ministry.
The first 15 or so years I was
in ministry,
every funeral I did was a coffin
funeral.
Every single funeral.
I I did not see for the first
15 years I was in ministry, I never
saw a cremation or or an urn. I'm
sure they they were obviously happening, but I
just didn't see that in the church setting.
They were all coffins. And one of the
things, and I'm not trying to be, you
know, too critical here, this is just me
personally, I don't like coffins open and viewing.
I've never liked that. I think that's a
that's there's a lot of cultures that have
very morbid things. I think that's western culture
morbidity.
It's strange to me that we do that.
And I understand for closure and all that.
So whatever. I just don't like to do
it. And I just usually don't. Even when
I'm doing the funerals, I don't. I go
stand at the head of the casket because
I'm supposed to shake hands with our family
and hug them and stuff as they go
by. But I don't like looking in the
casket.
So I don't.
But but here's the thing I noticed about
15 plus about 15 years in the ministry.
So
so 20 years ago,
is,
it began to change
and we started doing more and more cremations,
which which are really they're cheaper. They're easier.
They're better. You can have multiple memorial services.
It's a very Cremations make a lot more
sense, in my opinion.
But either way,
but then I was getting a lot of
questions at that same time as we begin
to shift as a culture. I began a
lot of questions.
The question was,
if we is is it is it a
sin to cremate the body?
Is it wrong? Is it morally wrong
to cremate the body? And they get this
from, I think, 2 places. 1 is a
misunderstanding of couple scriptures that talk about some
of this. But
but I think that this is my opinion.
I don't this is just from seeing it
over the years. I think what's happened
is people got confused
because
the Native Americans burned their dead.
Right?
And then there was also, oftentimes, some animistic
or spiritualistic
ritual that went along with that.
But those are 2 different things. Burning the
dead is innocuous.
The ritualistic stuff is animism or something.
Okay? So I think that the church was
confused and saying, coming from 150 years or
200 years before, should we be doing this?
Because
way they would say it is, you know,
if it's burned, what does God do with
that?
I think that's
a kind of a short sighted question.
Alright?
Because then there's a part of me that's
like,
well what if like they they had an
appendage cut off
and they didn't keep it along with them?
In other words, they didn't carry it around
the rest of their
life. Does God know where it is?
I mean, that's the same kind of question.
The sea gave up its dead. Do you
think that body goes to the bottom of
the ocean and just sits there?
And all the fish are like, hands off
or fins off or whatever.
Do you do you think
Guys, it's weird how we approach it's weird
how we approach things like death, and the
finality of it and the and the the
giving of a new body and all this
other kind of stuff. It's weird how we
do this.
Right?
What is what is God actually saying about
all this stuff?
The Christians the people that are serving Jesus
and covered with the blood are going to
be given new bodies. Did you know nowhere
in scripture does it say
that the the sinners that
die
are given a new body?
Doesn't actually say that anywhere.
You should process that.
And here's part of the deal. The worm
that they're in fire and torment and the
worm, it says that the worm eats at
them and it never dies.
That's why they're not given new bodies.
What would be the point?
Sin and disease will will get But and
where did that sin and disease come from?
From the Garden of Eden when they sinned
and God and they asked for
all the other stuff, all of the evil.
They already had all the good. Now they're
asking for all the evil. That sin and
sickness and disease and all this other stuff
is added to humanity on that day.
And it's going to stay with them forever
because they're still part of that system.
Getting saved and being covered with the blood
of Jesus pulls you out of that system.
Jesus redeems you out of that system and
brings you into the relationship with God.
That's what salvation is. You're not a relationship
with God. You're not part of that old
system. So God's gonna give you a new
body. Why? Because you're gonna spend eternity with
him and he doesn't want that stinky old
human body with him. That's just my thinking.
I don't know. But
the sea gave up its dead and death
and the grave gave up their dead and
all were judged according to their deeds. That's
the books.
The death and the grave were thrown into
the lake of fire.
This lake of fire is the second death.
And anyone whose name was not found recorded
in the book of life was thrown into
the lake of fire with them.
Satan and and his demons are thrown into
the lake of fire. And if you want
to go that direction with his team, that's
where you'll end up.
But if you want to go with Jesus
and his team, that's where you end up.
But to do that, you have to surrender
your life, submit your life, and and be
covered with the blood of Jesus.
The second thing, all of a sudden the
rich man is concerned with Lazarus.
The rich man is now concerned
with his brothers. Maybe I should have done
better. Maybe I should have done more. Maybe
I should have done better. Maybe I should
have done more.
You know, I've I've sat with
so many people over the years, literally in
the last seconds of their life as they
take their life last breath. I've been with
many, many, many, many people
over the years. And I've never heard anybody
say something like, I wish I would have
spent more time at work.
I wish I'd had one more car.
Never say that stuff. I
wish I would have spent more time specifically
with my wife, my husband.
Always, I wish I would have prayed more.
I wish I would have talked to my
kids more about the Lord. I wish There's
all this spiritual stuff that's involved. The third
thing here, guys,
you only have one
life. You only have one life.
How are you using it?
What are you doing with this?
There needs to be some urgency in the
church nowadays.
There needs to be an expedience with the
gospel,
some focus when it comes to, we need
Jesus now.
My kids need Jesus now.
There needs to be some urgency. What are
you doing with the life that you've been
given?
How are you spending that currency?
That time, energy, resources.
Then the 4th thing,
we truly are the answer
for people.
And I want to I want to put
2 sides to this. In James chapter 5,
the first side is we're the answer for
the prodigals.
Okay?
I I'm I don't believe in, what's called
unconditional eternal security. I don't believe in that.
It's another way to say it is once
saved always saved. I don't think that's,
a legitimate theological stance.
In fact, I think it's actually one of
the most dangerous
manipulative,
theologies that man has come up with. Is
to me very, very clear. I could give
you 30 other scripts, but this is very
clear. And I think this one is literally
for prodigals. Well, it's obviously for prodigals.
Verse 19, my dear brothers and sisters,
away from the truth, that means you are
a Christian and then you are not. Because
you chose something else
besides relationship with Jesus. But see, if we
if we,
couch salvation as a prayer that we prayed
one time,
not relationship, not being engaged to Jesus, to
be married to him someday,
but it's just a prayer I prayed one
time and shook the pastor's hand, then yeah,
you can come up with some kind of
theology that says that. But when it comes
to relationship,
Jesus wants you in relationship at all times.
He wants you waiting for the return of
the bride. That's the that's the, the the
parable of the 10 virgins.
He wants you to be waiting for him
and ready for him.
And he says,
if you wander away from the truth and
and someone is brought back,
you can be sure that whoever brings the
sinner back from wandering
will save that person from death.
This is very clear.
But it's weird how we can just pass
by this stuff.
You'll save that person from death and bring
about the forgiveness
of many sins. So that's the prodigal.
As I think part of our responsibility as
the as Christians is to tell people that
used to serve Jesus, hey, you you better
get your mind, your spirit right.
We we we've got to be urgent about
this. And then John 316 again, this is
for the for the unsaved
that's never been saved. This is how God
loved the world. He gave his one and
only son. Everyone who believes in him will
not perish,
will not go to hell,
will not be destroyed,
but will have eternal life. I want you
to stand with me.
So my prayer for us
is that that somewhere in our spirit, somewhere,
we let the Holy Spirit
give us a sense of urgency.
Give us
a
care, a deep care for
our friends and co workers and whoever
that need Jesus.
Because you don't know how you don't know
how many days they have left. You know
how many days you have left.
Okay?
Here's what I do know.
If you've got today, you've got the answer.
You've got the answer for people.
Do what you can.
Let's pray. Lord, we submit ourself to you.
That you really are the king. We're not
the king. You are.
Lord, you are our savior,
our redeemer.
Jesus, you died for every one of us
in this room. But lord, you died for
everyone
that everyone in this room will come in
contact with this week.
You died for them too.
You died for our friends, our family.
Lord, you died for our enemies.
Jesus, you died and shed your blood so
that we could all,
every one of us know you.
So Jesus, stir in our hearts.
Stir in our hearts right now.
Lord, I wanna say like Isaiah said,
here am I, send me.
Lord, I believe that you have sent every
one of us in this room.
You've already called us
to preach the gospel, to make disciples of
the nations. You've already called us.
So lord, help us to respond to it.
Keep your head bowed with me. I wanna
I wanna pray
for you, but I want you to think
about this. So
so keep your head bowed here for a
minute and focus in
on this right here. I wanna do this
kind of as a commissioning
moment, a commissioning time.
Same way we would do with missionaries when
we you lay hands on missionaries before they
go out, but the same way you do
with with pastors
when they're responding to the call kind of
thing.
To say,
I I need
I I want
to be sent.
My heart is, Lord, send me. So I
wanna be sent.
And that we can do this as a
whole body.
But, right right where you are, I'm not
gonna ask you to come down front or
anything like that, but right where you are,
if you say, I I truly want this,
and I want you to really think about
what you're saying if you say this,
Lord, I want you to send me.
I want my mind to know that. I
want my spirit to know. I want to
hear your voice. I want to, I want
to look for those moments. I want to
be responding to this call. If you can
say
completely honestly,
Lord, hear my, send me. I'd like you
to raise your hand. Just keep it up
for a minute.
Lord, send me. Send me.
Send me. Send me to who? You know,
I don't know, but you know who.
Some of them you may not, but most
of them you know.
Lord, send me. God, you see our hearts.
Lord,
I I I pray with everything in me,
send me.
Use me.
Give me wisdom, discernment.
Open my eyes that I see the moments
that I don't just pass them by.
I see the moments when I can talk
to somebody.
Lord, let it let it jump out at
us.
And all of a sudden, everything kinda slows
down and we can see
this is a moment that you've called me
to.
I can talk to somebody. I can pray
with them.
Lord, I get to tell them how much
you love them
and how much you've done for them specifically.
Lord give us those moments.
So Lord I pray over everybody here just
like Paul said to Timothy,
preach
the gospel.
Preach
the gospel.
Use us, Lord.
I will preach your gospel.
I will preach your word, not my word,
your word.
Lord, help them to see
your love through me.
I pray that for every one of us.
Lord, thank you.
Thank you for being so amazing, so big.
Thank you for using us. God, that doesn't
even make sense,
but you use us.
Give us these moments this week.
Empower us with your holy spirit.
Just like the book of acts where we
are ready, just like acts 4 where we
pray, God, give me boldness.
Give me boldness
and help me to truly care.
Break my heart for your people,
your people.
Jesus' name.
Name.
Amen. Amen.
I wanna encourage you with this.
It is,
if you if if you're kind of stepping
into this maybe for the first time ever,
you can invite somebody to church. That's good,
but that's not
really what I'm asking you to do.
It's to try to step out there, and
it's gonna be a little scary, but try
to step out there and just talk to
somebody.
Invite them to church if that's all you
can do. That's good because they may not
like this church.
Sometimes I appear to be not likable. It's
not true,
but they may want to go to a
different church. Okay. So talk to him about
Jesus
and then maybe invite him to church. Right?
You understand what I'm saying?
Look for these moments. Look for these moments.
Okay? Don't forget Wednesday night. To
this. Tonight, my house,
the journey, if you've never been, then you
need to be
there.
Just let me know ahead of time so
we can make sure Linda is I'm not
going to tell you
what she's making. It's one of my favorite
ever favorite dishes she makes, but
it does involve bacon. Yes. I'm sorry.
So guys,
before noon tomorrow, let me change. Let me
broaden it for this week.
Sometime this week, God's gonna give you an
opportunity to let somebody know Jesus loves them.
Do the best you can.
Tell somebody you'll change their life. You'll change
your life, and no telling how many other
lives. And God honor that
with you. And so shake somebody's hand, tell
them how glad you are that they're here,
and we will see you tonight or Wednesday
night. Have a great rest of your afternoon.