Repent, Believe, and Bear Fruit

we'll go ahead and dismiss our kids to their classroom and for the rest of us good morning as we dismiss our kids let me just remind you um solid dismiss the animals to their classroom um we are closing out the vision series that we've been looking at over the last six weeks and working back into the Book of Luke and so by way of reminder again Vision series we talked about the mission and vision of the church who we are as a church we are a Christian Community uh that Treasures Jesus Christ and helps others follow him and we do that through intentional discipleship that

increases evangelism and we walk through kind of our values because it's great to have that on paper but if we don't actually talk about what we cultivate as a church what we give our time to what we give our energy to what we give our calendar to the mission and vision will never be executed we'll actually never do anything that we say we are going to do without it actually being cultivated and so we talked about worship and belonging and we talked about serving we talked about contributing and investing and what that looks like and so walk through that look back over the last six

weeks just to continue familiarizing yourself with with what we do but but we really wanted to not only just say it and preach it but also structure our Ministries and so we we take discipleship as it is I mean helping others see Jesus teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded us and we do that by kind of this discipleship funnel and so what we're doing today is is an assembly it's a gathering of saints we have structured assemblies like this one we do Friday forums we do nights of worship we do member meetings we do Easter and anniversary um feasts we we have

times where we get the whole church together because there is a work that the spirit does when we are gathered as the body of Christ under the word of God in addition to that we have specified Gatherings we have women's ministry now called The Well we have Men's Ministry called The King's table we have a little district for the children's ministry as well but even more than that again just kind of pulling that funnel down we even have smaller Gatherings when it comes to our community groups and our Bible studies and then even getting it down to you individually we've paired you up we've paired

up every single person in our church into what we're calling discipleship Duos and so this is to just make sure that what we are saying and what we are preaching and proclaiming and what we're teaching is that it actually is landing at the the the most individual component which is you like we want to make sure that we are growing in discipleship that is intentional so that again we are continuing to increase in proclaiming the good news of the Gospel getting it out getting it so that others may be able to see because we truly do believe as Colossians 3:11 says Christ is all and

he is in all like we believe that we we believe all of Christ for all of life and so we we want to look differently than maybe what we were brought up in in church like we don't want church as what I believe our culture has kind of trained Us in is to be just a compartmentalized part of your life like it you you give Jesus 10 minutes a day and you give Jesus your Sunday morning like and outside of that it's it's you treat Christianity sort of like a gym membership where you go get a spiritual workout whenever it's convenient for you but it

does not actually dictate your calendar it does not dictate your finances it does not dictate your relationships it does not dictate your education for your children it does not dictate those things but rather Christianity is just a part of all of the other things of your life and we just don't want that to be the truth like we want your relationship with Christ to be the defining relationship that impacts all of of your life like we want to get Christ in you to your fingertips so that it actually changes and transforms not only you but everywhere you go you impact it and you change and

you transform it and so again bit of application here for us just at the start as we kind of close out that vision and shift back to Luke It's Easy for us to look at again the assemblies and the specified Gatherings and the smaller Gatherings of the community groups and the discipleship Duos and it's easy for us to go that's a lot like you're asking for a lot like that's a lot of time like if I'm if I'm going to meet with someone every week or every other week or if I'm going to be a part of a small group as well or if I'm

going to be a part of these men's and women's Ministries if I'm going to help with the children's ministry as well if I'm going to come to these Sunday services and also go to Friday night forums and also go to the nights of worship and also do the feasts and all those things like that's just a that you're asking of me and I would again just beg the question like why do we think it's a l a lot well we think it's a lot because of the way cultures trained us like again culture it says like well you should just be able to give 10

minutes here and you should be able to go and do church on Sunday because church is for Sunday but we don't have the same culture as like what they had in Acts two where they're devoting themselves to the apostles teaching into the fellowship they're breaking bread in their homes and they're giving themselves over to the prayers like they're doing this and day by day they're interacting with one another like we're not calling you to do something day by day but at the same time we're raising that bar like we want to see that what we believe gets priority in dictating all of our life every

component of it so when you look at your calendar you're not trying to fit Christianity into it and saying how can I make it work but rather you're looking at your calendar and you're saying all right Jesus here's my week how are you going to as you are living in me and through me as Galatians 2:20 tells tells us as you are living in me how does that impact this meeting that I have how does it impact me shopping for groceries how does it impact like what do I do with you in my abiding relationship when it comes to my calendar and we just want

to see that culture shift as we continue being again a Christian Community that abides here in in Indianapolis that Treasures Jesus do we treasure Jesus because what you treasure reflects in how you Steward and invest your time and your energy and all those things so that's that's what we doing and and that's what we're going to continue to do and and I think the more we get into having people treasure Jesus Christ above all like Christ is all and in all and all of life for all like all of Christ for all of life the more that that becomes your reality I I'm telling you

it produces the freest and most joyful people that I've ever met like for 25 years now as as a Believer for 18 years now in full-time Ministry like it the the the people that I have met that are the most joyful they live this way and and I can I mean darl dser Steve escu Esther Pereira prudy Walen David Thompson uh my mother I mean like I can just walk down the the the the examples of people that I could just like especially back when I was in Tennessee I could just call up and say hey can I can I meet with you and they're

like absolutely absolutely because like what like what Jesus is doing matters and and so like he dictates what they do how they do it all nine yards and every single moment like they always were the most sober minded just steady in life like it was never this pendulum swing of like dealing with with just crazy anxiety because of of of what they're working through in their life and it also wasn't this you know just like incredible like like they were just steady middle sober minded at all all times like practicing self-control but just joyful people and again a lot of the names I said you're

looking at those names and you're thinking they sound like old people and they are it took a long time for them to get to where they are it took a lot of sanctification and that's why I've been using kind of that image of building a cathedral that takes hundreds of years that the people who began constructing it were not the ones who eventually got to Worship in it but it was for their gener Generations down the road it was it took time to cut the stones and actually form and create this beautiful thing that images and reflects this glory of God so that when you

look at it and behold it I mean there's reason why people tourist it and go to these Cathedrals and see them that took four or 500 years to build well what are we doing today that's going to take 20 30 40 years that is building and cutting our stones to make us look more like Jesus that as people interact with that and as we interact with others and we get Christ in our community it builds a cathedral that will be a place for our children's children to be able to see Jesus impact Jesus know Jesus and treasure Jesus like that's what we are constructing here

that's what we are building and that's what we're going to continue again just giving ourselves over to on a week in and week week out basis and so so we're going to keep putting the hand to the plow um which is a farm a farm reference for you city Folk but I I don't I don't know of a city equivalent like put your hand out for a taxi I don't know um but we're going to continue developing Ministries that just have intentional discipleship so that we can treasure Jesus and that's what we're going to do um a as we shift into Luke 13 I feel

like we should almost like take an intermission and bring you back for the second act but like Luke is just such a phenomenal book all right and and and we've been in it since May of 2022 okay so um and and we're on track to complete it this year but um but it's a phenomenal book and so here's what I'm going to do for you for those of you like some of you were not with us in May of 2022 and you're like man I missed like the first 13 chapters of this and so we're we're we're going to be in Luke 13 today so

you can go ahead and turn there as you are turning there here's what I'm going to do I'm going to give you two years in the book of Acts I'm going to give you 12 chapters in about three minutes all right that's that's that's my task for you here all right so um lean in kind of just follow along the best you can this is 67 sermons in about three minutes so in the introduction Luke The Physician is writing an orderly account of the life and events surrounding Jesus of Nazareth so that Theophilus may have Assurance of faith Luke 1 the predictions about the birth

of John the Baptist and Jesus and and the look on their parents' faces when they receive the news and then John who eventually helps Proclaim and prepare the way for Jesus he's the first one born Luke 2 we then get Jesus the son of God is born and he becomes the son of man through a miraculous virgin birth the one and only time in human history Jesus then grows in strength and stature as a boy Luke 3 John is preaching in the wilderness of the coming Messiah Jesus around the age of 30 comes to John to fulfill the requirements of baptism and Usher in a

new kingdom God speaks from Heaven this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased then Luke 4 Jesus is tempted in the wilderness beginning his battle with Satan sin and Evil Jesus goes toe-to-toe and wins three out of three temptations by Satan Jesus then starts his ministry and immediately gets rejected in his hometown he then leaves it and he begins healing people in other towns Luke 5 Jesus like any Jason St STM movie uh begins assembling a crew and he uh assembling a crew of disciples who are uneducated no bodies from nowhere he also converts a tax collector that everybody typically hates in Luke

6 Jesus debates with Pharisees over the Sabbath he then solidifies among all of his disciples who the TW Apostles will be and then begins teaching the most famous sermon of all time the sermon on the mounts which includes how to be blessed what warning signs to look for in life how to love your enemies how to judge others well how to Bear good fruit and how to build build your life with a solid foundation Luke 7 Jesus Marvels at a centurion's faith he raises a boy from Death To Life while also alluding that John the Baptist will have his life taken he teaches on Kingdom

economics as well then we come to Luke 8 we see the importance of women accompanying helping helping and supporting Jesus and the apostles in Ministry he teaches a few Parables and after napping on what is apparently a sinking ship and a storm uh he then commands the storm to stop before getting to the other side and casting out some demons on the other side of the sea Luke 9 is a beast of a chapter covering everything from sending out the 12 on a mission to Jesus transforming at the Transfiguration on a mountain the cost of discipleship and and then also feeding 5,000 people with five

loaves of bread and two fish Luke 10 Jesus sends out 72 disciples on Mission in discipleship Duos we also hear about the Good Samaritan and the form of story and Parable there's two women that we meet Martha and Mary Martha serves the Lord while Mary seeks the Lord one of those is the better portion Luke 11 we get the Lord's teaching on prayer while also this fantastic story about Jesus and beel who is really Satan and Jesus basically says I'm stronger than you and I'm going to plunder your Shanty Kingdom Jesus also starts teaching on Resurrection with the sign of Jonah and then Luke 12

Jesus continues to push back against the Jewish Rel religious system of works and warns us to have no part of it because even a little bit of it ruins the whole thing so Jesus tells us to be confident about him before others and also to not be anxious about your life and then finally he says you better make sure that you're good with Jesus and not masquerading around as a false Christian so that's your recap all right that's what we've covered since May of 2022 the overall structure and sort of framework for Luke is the first three chapters deal with the first 30 years of

his life uh and then chapters 4 through 8 deal with the first 18 months of his ministry where he's really just revealing himself through through Miracles so it's more of identifying who he is to where then chapters 9 through 18 are the bulk of his Parables and his teachings and so when we say discipleship is teaching you to observe all that Jesus has commanded you we're in the middle of that so like often times people are like well what did Jesus teach we're in it all right that's what we're walking through in chapters 9 through 18 is everything that Jesus taught and that spans somewhere

around 6 to 12 months of his teaching and then Luke 19- 24 are six chapters that specifically deal with the last eight days of Jesus's life and so again we're in the middle of the majority of his teachings and Parables and our passage in uh Luke today and Luke 133 is going to continue in that so what I want to do before I read it is I want to pray again for just the spirit of God to just do a work in us as we walk through this this obscure one it's a it's a it's an interesting passage so Luke 13 let's pray over it

father again we just thank you so much for what you are doing in your work in our lives uh For Your Glory and our joy uh God we we we do not believe that we come into this with any preconceived notions that we know what we're doing um and that we know how to live a life in a way that is um better than what you would provide for us or better than what you would teach us or show us or any way we know that you are the way the truth and life and no man comes to the father except through you and so

we are praying Lord that your holy spirit that guides Us in the truth that helps us to understand it that conforms us to the image of your son Jesus we are praying Lord that you do that work as we read this and that we're able to see this not as a passage that sounds like bad things happen to good people but is a passage that allows us to be able to see that we're all in this same boat and what's most important is that we turn from our ways of doing things and we turn to you and we trust you we trust you that's what

matters most so father please help us with that through the work of your spirit it's in his name we pray amen all right Luke 13 and and as I read through this I'm going to just like read the verse and I'm going to pause I'm going to do a little bit of work with it and then just kind of work work through it as as we go so starting in Luke 13 verse one there were some present at that very time who told him about the galileans whose blood pilate had mingled with their sacrifices so that's what we get that's what we get to start

off with uh as we dive back into Luke and so what was happening in the context is Jesus around Luke chapter 9 actually start started making his way towards Jerusalem now it's going to take several months for him to get from northern Israel the Galilee area towards Jerusalem where he's eventually going to go on trial and have his crucifixion and resurrection and all that take place so as he's going there's going to be pit stops where he stops in different towns and Villages and in these pit stops there are moments where there are times where thousands of people gather around to hear of this strange

Sojourner that's been going around doing these Miracles feeding 5,000 people just these miraculous things healing people bringing people back to life I mean some some crazy so word has spread so what happens is is there's also these like Town Hall type settings where as he's teaching people just start throwing out these random sayings or these random kind of news headlines and they want to get his thoughts on it hey what do you think about this how do you reconcile this how do you deal with this situation that that has come up and this is one of those moments where Jesus is sort of interrupted by

a person in the crowd saying hey have you heard about the galileans whose whose blood pilot had mingled with their sacrifices I mean this is in in reality this is just a an off-the-wall thing to say but they're trying to kind of trick him up a little bit they're trying to see if he is willing to be able to answer what they're dealing with but also they're trying to reconcile in their own mind in their own heart why would something so deplorable happen to these people people that were doing something seemingly to be good essentially asking the question why do bad things happen and he

brings up pilot now pilate is again pilate is the one who's the the Roman Governor that's at the point of Jesus's crucifixion that when Jesus goes on trial from the Roman perspective pilate is the one that's initiating the trial he's the one that's putting Jesus on trial and asking the questions to determine whether or not he's going to rule in favor of Jesus being crucified because that's what the Jews one so the Jews have their own Sanhedrin they have their own trial in their own court but they also have to have permission by the Romans to be able to do this well often times if

you just look at the crucifixion of Jesus pilate kind of gets off scotf free like he kind of gets off as a guy that's like wrestling with what to do with Jesus and sometimes people think well pilate actually kind of seemed like a good dude but just had his hands tied because if he lets Jesus go for free because he doesn't find any fault in him well the Jews are going to Riot I mean they're going to like so in his mind he's like all right y'all just do whatever you want with him and I'll sign off on it but in reality like Pilot's a

brutal dude like pilot is not a good guy and and we see this in in several different context but specifically uh according to Joseph um or Josephus who wrote the historical Antiquities he writes an account in in regards to pilate who again was a Roman Governor over the region which included Jerusalem one of the things that pilate did was he took Temple money from the Jews to build an aqueduct um in order to bring water into Jerusalem and at first you're like well that that sounds like a good thing like we want to get water to Jerusalem but you don't take temple money to do

that I mean this was like he just he so did not care about the Jews that he's like I'm just going to steal from your God like I'm going to steal from from your worship and I'm going to take it and I'm going to serve something for my own personal gain not only that but which is also ironic there was the Samaritans who were hated by the Jews but they accused pilate of killing many of their people in what he thought was an Insurrection when they were just searching for missing gold Moses buried somewhere on Mount gism which sounds like a great History Channel like

show like if there was a show that came out like in search of the gold that Moses buried on I'm watching it like I'm going to be recording that and watching that but apparently pilate just assumed that these people climbing this mountain searching for this thing was some like Insurrection going on so he just sent people to just go slaughter them like just go kill them all it was so bad that the governor of Syria caught word of this removed pilate from Office sent him to Rome to be tried which if you ever go into trial in you just know you're going to die like

that's that's just the way they did things but according to Josephus he's on his way to Rome and just disappears we never hear from pilate again but Pilot's just not a good dude and what we can draw even from this one verse is that there is what's seemingly happening here are galileans Jews who are performing their ritual right of sacrifice so they're bringing animals to sacrifice to atone for their sins which is their act of worship and what pilate is doing in that moment is also ordering that these people who are engaging in an act of worship to slaughter them in the same process so

that as they're slaughtering these animals to atone for their sins they're getting slaughtered so that their blood is literally intermingling in this act so the best way we could describe that today would be like if the mayor of Indianapolis said hey police force go into every church this Sunday morning and just start executing people like that's the best way we could understand what this verse is actually talking about and so these people are coming to Jesus and they're saying hey did you hear about this did you hear about this worship service that was happening and pilate ordered the slaughtering of these people do you think

it's because they were worse off than the rest of the Sinners that were around like they're essentially because that's the only way this deplorable act the only way they can justify it in their mind or reconcile it in their heart that this would happen to these people is if either their worship was false or they were just so sinful that it was an act of judgment on on on them basically as if pilate was like God's right-hand man enforcing this judgment on them and so they're asking him this question and Jesus just has an interesting response and so that's what we want to look at

here what was Jesus's response because it wasn't what we thought it would possibly be verse two he answered them do you think that these galileans were worse Sinners than all the other galileans because they suffered in this way no I tell you but unless you repent you all will likewise perish Jesus is rhetorically asking them is it because you believe they were bad people that God would allow pilate to do this and what Jesus is trying to do here is he's essentially not allowing them to categorize people into groups of good and bad and I'll show you why after after the second news headline picking

up in verse four Jesus goes on kind of giving them another example or what about those 18 on whom the tower in salom fell and killed them do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem so what Jesus is drawing on here is where pilate was intentionally killing and slaughtering people this this incident this separate incident seems like an accident just like some freak accident this would be like hearing on today that as people were crossing over the Kesler bridge over White River that it just collapsed and it killed 18 people like do you think they died because

they were worse off than everyone else in Indianapolis like do you think that judgment came on them or it's like if you remember back in 2011 um at the Indiana State Fairgrounds just a few blocks away do you remember the the stage collapse at the Sugarland um concert that that injured I think it was like 58 people and it killed seven people people would look at that be like well do you think that they died because of they're just bad people and that they were worse than everyone else that was there it's like no what what are we talking about and and and I think

so follow me here the the way people reconciled life and death in judaic culture was tied to Deeds if you were honest good and Noble then God blessed that and you'd have a vibrant thriving and successful life but if you weren't then you would have some type of Act of judgment whether it was in like like pilot and what he was was doing or if it was just some accident like what was happening in salom and so this is what it really makes me think about the life of Job where the life of Job removes this ideology it removes any possibility for us to categorize

well bad people get bad circumstances and good people get good circumstances it it it removes any option or opportunity for you to say you reap what you sow which again sounds heretical because you do reap what you sow but I'll get to that here in a moment but I want to give you because I think job's life is sort of like a key to help us understand what Jesus is driving home here and so if you look at Job who I think is one of the greatest men to ever live Job 1 1-3 says there was a man in the land of ooze whose name

was job and that man was blameless and upright one who feared God and turned away from Evil like I would love on my headstone one day that like that's just what's written like I think we would all love that we would we want that and in response to that also verse two there were born to him seven sons and three daughters very fruitful he also possessed 7,000 sheep 3,000 camels 500 yoke of oxen and 500 female donkeys and very many servants so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East so job was Godly and he would turn away from Evil

and as Jews would believe this is why he was so successful and greatest of all the people of the East and they would also believe if you were untrustworthy evil and deplorable then God would curse that and you'd reap what you sow as the parable goes this was normal logical rhetoric in Jewish people culture their belief system and this is why job's friends had such a hard time with the calamities job found himself enduring because if you are not familiar with the story job's great he he believes God to be the one and only true God job is faithful yet Satan comes to God asking

for someone to punk essentially he like he comes to God he's like I'm gonna have a conversation with you which if you actually like read it it's it's really interesting because it sounds like God like lines up all of the angels and like just kind of Converses with them for a little bit and like Satan like snuck into the line and then gets to God and he's like hey can we have a conversation and God says have you considered my servant job and like if I'm like one of those angels I'm like sidei like why would you give them job like job's awesome like job's

faithful like why would you throw job under the bus and there's reason for it as we'll see here in a minute but Satan comes to God asking for him and and and God gives him permission and Satan goes and he reeks havoc on job's life I mean he essentially does to job like pilate I mean like he he takes that that mentality and it would be like you receiving four phone calls by way of Messengers in one day listen to this job 1 13-19 now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house and there

came a messenger to job and said The Oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them and the sabians fell upon them and took them and struck down the donkeys feeding um and the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you and then while he was yet speaking there came another and said the fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them and I alone have escaped to tell you and then while he was yet speaking there came another and said the Chans formed three groups and made a raid on

the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you while he was there yet speaking again there came another and said your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house and behold a great wind came across the Wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young people and they are dead and I alone have escaped to tell you like we've all had bad days I don't know of a person who's had a job day like this just brutal I mean what

would you do with this kind of news like what if you received four phone calls back to back like hey it's your coworker I don't know how to tell you this but like someone just stole your car and then like you hang up and then another phone call hey um it's your bank teller I don't know how to tell you this but like someone's hacked your account and they've like cleaned house they've taken everything you have hey it's your neighbor I don't know how to tell you this but when I pulled in today you're your house was like burnt to the ground and then like

the fourth phone call you receive from the authorities hey we don't we don't know how to tell you this but like your family was inside like I mean in that moment what do you do what did job do verse 20 through 22 job arose and he tore his robe and he shaved his head and he fell on the ground and he worshiped and he said naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return the lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord and in all this job did not sin or charge god with wrong so

we're starting to get some category here on how we handle when bad things happen to anybody when calamities happen to anybody how do we handle that how do we because if we if we go through the route of the way the Jews believe it's going to be well I thought I was doing good I thought I was getting my my household in order I thought I was getting getting my finance corrected I thought I was I thought I was reading more of the scriptures I thought I was praying more I thought I was being a good Christian I thought I was doing the right things

and yet I'm still experiencing these calamities in life and and it and it seems not fair but job comes and he worships and he says the Lord gives and the Lord takes away and the Lord's right to do this so he starts kind of using this mentality of there's Creator who is higher than my ways and there's creation who's not and so we need to figure out that order and we need to figure out that relationship and unfortunately job's friends they come in from chapters 4 through 23 and are just awful I mean they're just awful I mean they're they're saying like job why will

you not be honest with us about your sin because your sin is the reason why all these bad things have happened I mean that's essentially what like you've got to just tell us what it is and job is like I don't know what to tell you the Lord gives the Lord takes away I'm not I'm not happy about it I'm not happy about what I'm enduring and what I'm having to walk through and what I'm having to he's like all I have left is just my wife like that's it everything else is gone and he's working through this and at some point job starts to

kind of question a little bit and just figure out what are you doing God like what are you doing in Job 38 1-7 the Lord answered job out of the worldwind and said who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge which I I love that it's basically him saying who are you who just keeps asking me these questions without any understanding you have no idea what you're talking about your friends definitely have no idea what they're talking about but what you're now coming to me with a little bit of question a little bit of concern a little bit of Doubt like you just

got to understand you have no idea what you're dealing with and then I love this he tells them in in verse three of chapter 38 dress for Action like a man hey job I'm about to speak to you and he's goingon to give him like two chapters of just correction and rebuke he's going to give them two two chapters of here's who I am and you need to understand who you are in light of who I am so dress yourself for action and take this like a man which sometimes we need that right because we just have this posture as a culture that yeah we

know the best way to live God we got this we'll figure it out and as soon as we've got it figured out we'll pray that you bless it we'll pray that you sign off on it we'll pray that you're ready for it like like God we've got this thank you so much for what you've taught me so far we're good we're good where were you when I laid the foundation of the Earth tell me if you have understanding tell me if you know who determined its measurements surely you know or who stretched the line upon it on what were its bases sunk or who laid

its Cornerstone when the morning Stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy and God just continues again for two chapters just I mean putting job in his place God questions job for two chapters until job finally says in chapter 40 essentially to the tune of all right I'm going to put my hand over my mouth like I'm going to put my hand over my mouth I'm I'm going to shut up and and and I'm going to listen to you I now see who you are and truly understand more of Creator versus creation and then job 42 job finalizes with this understanding

then job answered the Lord and said I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted who is this this that hides counsel without knowledge therefore I have uttered what I did not understand things too wonderful for me which I did not know hear and I will speak I will question you and you make it known to me I had heard of you by the hearing of the year but now my eyes see you therefore I despise myself and I Repent in dust and Ashes I Repent in dust and Ashes see the Lord the Lord then rebukes the

friends of Job saying hey guys you completely missed it you did not speak of me rightly at all that's basically he said y'all said a lot and not any of it was right which is also kind of going back to that be quick to hear and slow to speak because we're like sheep and dumb at times and so let's make sure that we're sound in Doctrine before we go speaking on God's behalf so job's friends get corrected they go back and they reconcile with job they apologize to him for that and God allows for that to happen as well which is just so gracious and

loving of him and then because of job's continual repentance before the Lord God restores job's fortunes and family look at this in job 42 lots of times people don't ever actually get to this they always just focus on job 1 and how awful it is but in verse 10 the Lord restored the fortunes of job when he had prayed for his hands and the lord gave job twice as much as he had before then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before and ate bread with him in his house they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all

the evil that the Lord had brought upon him you catch that so just remember that in a moment when we come back to the salom Tower and the pilot issue for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him and each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold and the Lord blessed the latter days of job more than his beginning and he had 14,000 sheep 6,000 camels a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand female donkeys he had also seven sons and three daughters restored his family back to him and he called the name of the first daughter

jamaa um not because she made syrup but and the name of the second kaziah and the name of the third Kieran hapuk and in all the land there were no women so beautiful as job's daughters and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers and after this job lived 140 years and saw his sons and I love this his sons Sons four generations and job died an old man full of days I mean what a just phenomenal story but repentance for all was the key to the story of Job like there was like job's considered greatest among those in the East and yet still

needs to live a life of repentance his friends 100% absolutely they needed repentance because theirs was just blatant and obvious but there needed to be repentance even job's wife at one point comes to job when like he's just like I mean his stuff was he's boiling like he's got all these everywhere he's like sitting in sackcloth and Ashes like it's just it's awful and she's like you happy like was it all worth it was this worship worth it curse your God and die like thanks honey for that encouragement like that's really helpful you're a good helper right now but job rebukes her and we don't

ever hear anything else regarding her and the rest of job which to me implies that she repent repented that she repented there was no more correction needed and so repentance which was basically saying understanding who God is and what he's designed and what he wills and what he sends and what he allows is necessary in order for me to know my place and to be reminded of my place in order for me to be able to see that I'm not God I'm not in control and I need to turn away from trying to be in control of my life and stewarding things my own way

and rather see God's design and his for me and trust that so I turn from this and I trust whatever it is that he has for me and I keep doing that over and over and over every day is an opportunity not to just repent of your sin but to repent of your way of thinking your life is going to be great and your life of doing things is going to be awesome and that your plan plans are going to work out and be successful like if it's not according to the will of God if it's not in line and in step with how God

want you to spend your life then we need to repent of it and again continue pursuing the Lord and that's why I believe that is the key to understanding this passage in Luke so that Jesus comes back and says no I tell you unless you repent you will all likewise perish in this way which he's given them two examples you're either going to die because someone kills you that's the world you live in with sin running rampant there's going to be calamities I understand that I call it the collateral damage of sin all right y'all Y y'all have known of my story over the last

five years where a guy tried stabbing me outside of my home I another guy tried mugging me outside of a coffee shop got caught in the middle of the shootout downtown like these things happen and it's just the collateral damage of sin like sin is there like those like that's the salom tower that's just falling or that's someone else who's just evil wanting to practice evil and there's a hand of God in it like he knew it was going to happen and so we're here planting a church and I'm thinking seriously God I'm going to pull into my neighborhood and try to help a guy

out who looks like his car is broken down and what happens next is he's going to try stabbing me like the Jews would look at that and be like what's going on got some evil in there in in that life of yours don't you and and and at the end of the day it's just it's just coming back to the reality and mentality that that the sin is around us and the collateral damage of it is there you're going to experience it whether you brought it on yourself or others are going to just be sinful and what we are to do is not categorize us

being good and them being evil Jesus says make sure that you categorize yourselves with them that as Romans 3:22 and 25 says for There's no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God all are in that same category so whether it was pilate doing this deplorable thing or it was this accident of a Tower falling on 18 people they were all sinful and they were all deserving of death regardless of how the death occurred in order for you to avoid the death and what he's really saying is not just that specific Earthly physical death but but avoiding the Eternal death

make sure you're right with God make sure you repent make sure you repent or you will likewise perish like them and it'll be an eternal perishment perishing for all of sin and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith this was to show God's righteousness because in his Divine forbearance he had passed over former sins what I love about that is that's him saying essentially I've allowed a lot of evil to happen and I've been

Divine in that and at the proper time I intervene and through the blood of Jesus that was spilled through that blood if I intermingle it with yours his sacrifice will actually bring you life where this sacrifice bringing them death like that's what he's getting at here if you repent Christ's blood will get inter mingled with yours and you will not perish like the rest of them do what a beautiful thing and so God's been patient with us to bring about forgiveness for those who repent and believe in the gospel and that's the picture honestly of of the next Parable in Luke 13 6-9 that I'm

going to read for you by way of benediction and so this is what it says and he told this Parable a man had a fig tree planted in his Vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and found none and he said to the vine dresser look for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I have found none cut it down why should it use up the ground and he answered him sir let it alone this year also until I dig around it and I put some manure on it then if it should bear fruit next year well and

good but if not then you can cut it it down he's essentially saying like this fig tree is not bearing fruit Jesus look at the picture Jesus is doing Ministry now for 3 years in Galilee and he's essentially Jesus is the guy in the picture saying like um they're not getting it like no one's believing this no one's bearing fruit no one's trusting this and and and or God's saying like they you're doing this work no one's getting it no one's believing it Jesus says just I'm getting to it I'm getting to the root I'm going to kind of cut into their heart a little

bit and it's going to start cultivating and bearing fruit just watch it's going to be there and in a year you'll see which is kind of their way of saying like post-resurrection holy spirit coming fruit begins bearing this is the parable that he says but that repentance that work of Jesus cultivating our heart and stopping our way of doing thing as humans like Creation beli in creation creation knows what creation should do and repenting from that and trusting creator that Creator designed creation to move and function and have its being and have its understanding of how to live its life like that's where we turn

our attention that's where we trust that's where that's the work of the Creator creation relationship is us coming to Creator constantly and saying this is why we talk about like the idea of Reform is is reforming back to who God is who God's desire designed us to be and how those two work in formation so that as we live our lives we are Imaging the glory of God to those outside of us and that is bringing glory to God it is spreading his glory over the Earth as the waters cover the sea and it is again for us the mo most Joyful Way To Live

Our Lives because we are experiencing Creator creation relationship like that's what the Bible is all about that's what we are getting back to and that's exactly what he's talking about In this passage don't like the only way for you to avoid a sinful death is to repent is to repent and it's what we do every single day all of us it is a life of repentance it's not just that one time hey Lord um I know I'm a sinner I know you're a savior I know you died on the cross for me so will you forgive me of my sins all right I prayed the

prayer I got my ticket I'm good to go for the rest of my life so now let me just you know I checked off the Christian box so let me then just continue living however I want to live like that's the message we were told in Tennessee like all the time but it's then waking up the next morning and it's saying hey Lord It's Me Again just want you to know I'm sinful I've messed up I love you you you sacrificed yourself on the cross for me your ways are better than my ways I I want to trust you today I want to follow you

I want to be your I'm your disciple I want to follow you I want to treasure you and I want to follow you I want to help others do it as well because I I I'm experiencing this relationship and then the next day you wake up hey Lord It's Me Again and you get Sanctified through that process for your entire life for your entire life and it's a beautiful thing we cannot and will not bear fruit without repenting and believing in Jesus Christ and persevering in this enduring come what may until Christ returns and so fight that good fight let's pray together we thank you

so much for your word that you provide to us this morning we thank you for this truth this difficult truth that yes um bad things happen to every single one person in this room bad things bad things will happen they will continue to happen because we're in the world we're in the world and there is sin in the world and sin the fruit of it is death and destruction and evil and we're going to experience it we're going to experience it and the only way that we escape It Is by repenting by turning from our ways and trusting your way turning from being our own

Gods to trusting you as the one and only true God and we believe the work of your son Jesus that through him his perfect life his sacrificial death on the cross his blood that was shed to atone for us to pay our Ransom and three days later him resurrecting from the grave because your wrath that was poured out and du our sin was satisfied in the sacrifice that Jesus offered on the cross you were pleased with it you were pleased with it and so we believe that message we Proclaim that message and we get up every single day and we worship you because of that

and that's what considers job a Godly Man greatest among those of the East that's what would say the same thing of us here in Indianapolis not great because of anything that we've done but great because of what you have done that's what makes us instead of Sinners Saints holy ones because of your work and that creates humility in us because again there's nothing we could do we repent of what we do and we turn to what you have done we trust what you have done and we escape evil and you transfer us from the domain of Darkness into the kingdom of the Beloved son he

is our King and we worship him we treasure him it's in his name we pray amen