Prophecy, Persecution, and Preaching

let's open them up and turn to Luke chap 21 Luke chapter 21 we'll be looking at verses 5 through 19 and the next few weeks are going to take an interesting turn in the teaching of Jesus we're not looking at Miracles we're not looking at signs or cursing of fig trees um or Parables or anything like that um it's it's a different shift we're going to be looking at Jesus teaching in what theologians refer to as ES ology and so if you don't know what eschatology is that's just a fancy word of saying end of times the study of the end of times and so

grab your 10 foil hats and conspiracy theories um because this subject matter is one of wide speculation it's it's theories there's guesses there's Hal truths there's whole lies and on and on I could go and so I don't know if we'll talk about like aliens or who bu built the pyramids or anything along those lines but we might if the holy spirit gives us some like hidden secrets but you never know what we do know is what Jesus has already told us and what he's already taught us and so we're going to look at Luke 21 5-19 and see what God wants us to know

this morning because sometimes people will look at end of times or eschatology and they'll just say like all right that's just it's just food for thought all right it's just something Jesus said but it really doesn't have any implication in my day today it doesn't have any implication in how I follow Jesus or how I live with others or how I Steward my life again it's it's future all right so I'm not worried about it but the reality is is what Jesus has told us about the end of times does have implications for your life or he would not have told us about it he

would have literally just said hey don't worry about how it all ends I'm just going to take care of that instead just do this but no he actually does give us some instruction about how the end of times is going to happen um and we need to look at it because of the implications that it has in the here and now and so that's what we're going to be talking about over the next couple of weeks so starting at verse five here's where we're at in the story and while some were speaking of the temple how it was adorned with Noble stones and off offerings

he said as for these things that you see the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down now honestly I feel like I could spend our entire time talking about just these two verses but we do need to cover more of it but for starters Jesus just said the days will come and it's that statement alone that gets any end times enthusiast super excited the days will come but what is Jesus referencing when he says the days will come what he's actually doing in this moment is he's prophesying he's prophesying he's he's predicting

for the disciples what will happen in the days to come and so it's another proof of his divine nature is that Jesus already knows the future and the fact that it is unchanging and unchangeable in other words Jesus can tell you exactly what will take place tomorrow next week next year next 100 years if we get there next 10 billion years he knows because he's the author of time he knows everything that is going to happen and so he's giving the disciples a prophecy now the question is what is he prophesying as we see in verse six as for these things that you see the

days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down now if you don't know what's going on in the context of the story that we've looked at over the last couple of weeks the disciples entered into Jerusalem with Jesus that he's been making his way there since Luke 9 they've entered in Jerusalem they went into the temple he cleansed the court of the Gentiles and then as we saw last week he moved into the next court which was court of the women also known as um the the where the treasury was and he came into

that and he shared a little story about the rich that were giving to the offering um but they were only barely giving a little bit out of their profit but trying to make it look like they were giving large sums of money and then there was this poor Widow who gave two half pennies that make one penny um and and essentially said it was all that she had everything she had to live on she gave it to the offering and Jesus was observing that story and and it wasn't just a story of a woman who gave everything she had but it was actually a story

of condemnation for those who are not managing their their wealth and stewardship and they're actually parading around peacocking themselves as giving everything but actually devouring the expectations they were placing on this poor old Widow in taking her house that we saw that in the few verses before as well in the context of the passage so Jesus comes into the court of the women and essentially cleanses it by condemning the practice of what the Jews were doing in that place as well which again is just what he is continuing to do is prepare the temple and cleanse the temple for the once and for all sacrifice

that he's coming to actually provide for all of us so while they're at this Temple and if you were to actually um cross reference it with Matthew Jesus is with the disciples they're looking at the temple they're observing the temple and then they go out of the city back to the Mount of Olives and they have this discourse they have this dialogue this conversation of about the Temple and so the disciples here as Jesus says they're admiring it I mean they're they're they're in Jerusalem and they are sight sing I mean they're looking at this Temple which again shows us that the offering wasn't actually

going for what it was meant for but the offerings and the tithes that these again um religious Elite and even robbing from the poor what they were using the money for was to Adorn the temple was to beautify it and make it look more prestigious than what it was actually functioning as which again was never anything that was um asked of them to do they they had Specific Instructions for the Construction and building of the temple which we know again was one of the ancient wonders of the world or Wonders of the Ancient World it was a beautiful massive structure but again they were not

asked to continue adding stones and adding offerings and and beut beautifying it what they were really doing in the end of the day was just whitewashing a tomb it was a den of Thieves that they have turned it into no longer a House of Prayer but the disciples are looking at this and they're thinking this is incredible like this is beautiful I mean they're just observing it this would be like um them having this conversation or going on this like sightseeing tour and as they're sightseeing this tour and looking at like like look at that stone look at this beautiful adornment over here look at

this architecture over here and then you have Jesus in that kind of group he's the one friend that's like man this thing's going to burn to the ground it's like all right Negative Nancy like who invited you like why are you all doom and gloom right now when we're observing the beauty of this place it would be like if on April 12th 2019 you were literally touring notra Cathedral and just looking at how magnificent it is all the architecture of it and then you have a friend that says say yeah but guess what's going to happen in 3 days this thing's going to burn to

the ground and then what happens in 3 days April 15th 2019 notron Cathedral Burns To The Ground like if there's a friend in the group like when we board an airplane I'm going to be like sight like side eyeing that like what happens on this airplane like are we are we going to make it back to Indie so the disciples are here with Jesus and Jesus is saying like what you're looking at this is what's about to happen this is what's about to go down now the question is this Temple which is again so Grand and even the stones that they're looking at some of

these Stones measure 40 feet uh in length 12 feet in depth and 12 feet in height so they are massive weighing upwards of 200,000 PBS they're looking at this and they're thinking how is this even possible but what does this even mean like what does does it mean and there's several different things like is it is it literal is it figurative is it spiritual like what is this mystery that Jesus is saying that what we are observing is going to essentially be destroyed and the answer to all of those questions is yes it is a spiritual destruction it is going to be a literal destruction

and it is also going to be a figurative destruction here's what I mean by that first of all from a spiritual standpoint the Temple that they are observing and that they are looking at and that they are in awe of Jesus says is going to be destroyed now what's about to happen in a few days is when he goes to the cross and he dies on the cross Luke 23:45 tells us that something happens in the temple the veil which is the veil that separates the people from the presence of God the holy of holies that Veil is going to be torn in two and

what that means is that the functionality of the temple is now rendered obsolete the temple is now pointless because up until this point the purpose of the temple was for the Jews to come to it on an annual basis and bring offerings and sacrifices make a sacrifice on behalf of their sins so that the priest can take that blood and sprinkle it over the Altar and then God would forgive them of their sins for that year and then you're good to go and then come back next year we're going to continue doing this over and over and over and over again and again all of

that like the whole book of Hebrews is just a point to the fact that all of that was a foreshadowing of what Jesus would ultimately come and do for us it's like how plain can I make it to you that I'm going to instill this every single year so that generation after generation after generation will know that hey guess what I think God is going to save us through a sacrifice I think he's ultimately going to forgive us through a sacrifice because that's how he's setting it up every single year the only way we can be forgiven is by bringing an animal and sacrificing it

and having a priest speak on our behalf and guess what exactly Jesus does for us he comes to be that once and for all sacrifice so when he dies he destroys the purpose of the temple it is now rendered obsolete no longer will it be necessary to come and offer sacrifices no longer will we need to have a separation from God's people and God's presence because we will be accepted by God in Christ Jesus alone no longer will we need a high priest because Christ becomes our high priest we will get or we get to once again be the people of God who are with

god with God because of what Christ does nothing separates us nothing hinders us nothing gets in the way and that's beautiful wonderful news for us today we don't need a temple to go to once a year we get access to the holy of holies through Christ second there will be a literal destruction and de demolition of the entire Temple including all of Jerusalem now again this is what Jesus is prophesying this is a catastrophic event and it does not occur for nearly a generation after Jesus's death and Resurrection so he dies sometime around 30 to 33 ad and it's about 40 years later when you

get to ad70 the Roman armies surround Jerusalem and they just ransack it they plunder it and they destroy it and as Jesus literally um prophesied there is not one stone left um upon another stacked what they did was they came and they they literally built um these these scaffolding around the temple and filled it with all kinds of flammable materials wood tar oils different things and it just burned so much so that the heat of it is what literally just crumbled the stone all around it and and it brought it all down you can actually still see part of the Western Wall of the temple

that is there it's destruction like you can see the stones that literally fell over U because of of what the Romans did history tells us when the Romans invaded they went to the heart of Jerusalem to the temple and upon dismantling it and demolishing it they made sacrifices to false gods declaring at the current time Titus their Roman Emperor to be their Supreme Divinity So Not only was it a demolition of Jerusalem and the temple but is a it was a desecration of it Josephus who was a first century prominent Jewish historian he was born in ad37 and so he was around the age of

33 when the the Romans entered in and and just destroyed Jerusalem so he was kind of at the the prime of his role in um both Roman and Jewish his history writing um being a historian this is what he referenced in experiencing this and he recorded this in his book The Jewish War he just says it was a bloodbath like that's like one of the one words that he uses to describe what happened in this demolition he goes on describe it as a time of savagery of Slaughter of disease and famine all at once for the Jews he goes on to say that the destruction

was so widespread and catastrophic that for Jews who survived and fled to the mountains they turned to cannibalism of their own children like it's insane insane whoever whoever didn't flee were either slaughtered or enslaved Millions were killed hence why if you read ahead to next week Jesus is going to warn those who are pregnant or who are nursing young children because they're going to be the most vulnerable in trying to flee this catastrophic event that is going to occur and so those are the two things that happen that have already happened but Jerusalem will also um is there more to this prophecy of those two

events third Jerusalem is just a foretaste it's a run rehearsal of literally the Earth that will eventually be destroyed that will eventually pass away in the ultimate judgment more of that in the coming weeks but jesus' words here are absolutely prophesying again the rendering of the temple to be obsolete um and because of his sacrifice once and for all the total desecration of Jerusalem and then eventually the destruction and passing away of the Earth at jesus' coming second coming now again as I said two of those implications or two of those stories have already come true we're anxiously awaiting the third which is what gets

again the end times enthusiasts really excited unlike a Sunday night History Channel binge I mean they just they love it when's it going to happen now the question how do these disciples respond to this information how do they respond to it probably the same way that you and I would respond if someone came up to us and said this is how this is what's about to happen verse seven they asked him teacher when will these things be and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place I feel like those are fair questions like when is this going to happen and

how will we know it's about to happen because again we want to prep for this all right like my father is a prepper like the house that they bought that's like this Farm on the north side of Tennessee like half the house is basically built into a hill and there's a bunker in there like there's that you can go in there and and you can survive for a while I'll just say that you can survive for a while as my mom always says is I know he's crazy but there might be a day where I appreciate it and so that just kind of her her

view of it but they ask these questions and it feels like very reasonable questions to ask but Jesus doesn't immediately answer it he instead gives them a couple of warnings before he answers for them what to look for and here's the warnings that he gives them he says see that you are not LED astray for many will come in my name saying I am he and the time is at hand Jesus says do not go after them essentially do not listen to them do not follow them Jesus is essentially telling them that there will be others who falsely present themselves as the Christ in his

second coming and again it's probably a way to make personal gain create a following create a cult whatever you want to call it there have been hundreds hundreds if not thousands over the course of time but hundreds just in our modern history dating back to like 18 17th century um that have made claims that they are the second coming of Christ just in 20th and 21st century characters like Jim Jones Charles Manson David Kesh this one always is just fascinating to me but the guy who played Flash Ezra Miller stated that he is the second coming of Christ and the latest added to the list

is a man who goes by the name of Jeff Divine co-founder of twin flames universe who says that early historical depictions of Jes Jesus actually depict Jeff Divine because they look like him he is the second coming of Christ and Jesus says beware beware so there are still people today in jesus' time there were going to be people first second century third fourth Century that were going to say hey he said this I'm going to get a quick following and I'm going to claim that I'm the second coming people are still doing it today which is why it's important for us to look look at

it and say all right don't listen to them don't listen to them I will just say this when Jesus comes in his second coming you'll know you'll know not only will you know the entire world will know this is not going to be like someone who was like born in East Ohio and they were just like you know what I saw a picture of Jesus that kind of looked like me and I think I'm the second coming we will know the second warning Jesus gives is that many will tell you all of the reasons why Jesus is returning at a specific time and that it'll

be the end of the world as we know it if you if you want a good toilet read search the list of dates predicted for apocalyptic events in Wikipedia I know like that's not like a great thing to follow but it'll break down known or published guesses covering centuries of people who claimed they knew when Jesus was going to return and Usher in the apocalypse basically the end of times which just shows you that because there are hundreds in each Century that are still continuing to claim that they've cracked the code and that they've figured it out reveals the idiocy that we have as humans

in trying to crack the code and figure it out out at the end of the day what Jesus told us in Matthew 24:36 is this concerning that day and hour no one knows no one knows not even the angels of Heaven nor the son but the father only now I wish I had time to go into how the son doesn't know but knows because that's an interesting thing it just it has to it has to deal with his hypothetic Union the fact that he's 100% man and he's 100% God and that in the form of Philipp maybe I'm going there but in Philippians 2 it

says he emptied himself of his divine nature so there are moments where in his 100% Humanity he does not know what his 100% Divinity knows it's hard for us to understand that but there are moments where he grows in nature and stature and wisdom while being at the same time the fullness of wisdom and nature and sture like he's he is becoming what he already is which is also a rehearsal for us as we are growing in who we are in Christ We are Becoming what we already are Jesus is doing the same thing and so there are things that he doesn't know even though

he already knows essentially going on Jesus says there are going to be idiots don't listen to them don't listen to them you want to get a million views on YouTube post something that just seems half believable that declares Jesus returning soon and you'll gain a massive following but Jesus also condemns that so don't do it just don't do it so what does Jesus give us as signs of the end of times and as we move through this I want you to see why this is important to us why this is important what what are the implications for us look at verse nine when you hear

of wars and tumults do not be terrified for the these things must first take place but the end will not be at once then he said to them Nation will rise against nation and Kingdom against Kingdom there will be great earthquakes and in various places famines and pestilences and there will be Terrors and great signs from Heaven this is where you get movies like 2012 or the day after tomorrow they look at passages like this and they say the world is is basically because if you read verses like in Romans 8 where it says the world groans a waiting for the day in which God

basically comes and and renews all things in their mind they're saying the world so groans because of the collateral damage of sin and the curse that's been placed on it that it eventually can't take anymore and it just starts blowing itself up so you're going to get all the earthquakes and the volcanoes and the tornadoes and all of those kind of catastrophic events and the tsunamis and whatnot possibly Jesus says there's going to that's going to happen but when you look at verses 9 through 11 it would be easy to just look at those verses and say has that not been every generation for the

last 2,000 years like just in all seriousness there's been earthquakes in every generation I mean it's not you don't have to go far to be able to see that Nations don't like Nations kingdoms don't like kingdoms they fight constantly we're I mean there's always a war or like you're either coming out of a war peace which just means they're being strategic to enter into the next War because we want more and we want to go after more we want power and we want to go after power that's what kingdoms do so I appreciate the list that Jesus gives us here but but it seems like

that's every generation I mean it would make me think like if you go back to Medieval Times and the 11th through 13th centuries like just the Crusades and what they experienced in the Crusades I would have been like I Think Jesus is going to be coming back pretty soon world wars go back to the early 1900s I Think Jesus is probably going to come back pretty soon World War II now this is the time this is the time Cold War now it's about to happen we're just going to Nuke everything and every like we're going to create the earthquakes the reality again comes back to

what Jesus said in Matthew concerning the day and hour no one knows these are some signs that you can look for this is what's going to happen but again we don't know to what volatility and to what level this catastrophic events are going to occur and to be honest we shouldn't worry about it we shouldn't worry about it because whenever it does happen and those signs happen and Jesus does return we're good we're good again we know the Earth is going to be destroyed and made new like just like your sinful nature what did he do to it he destroyed it his Wrath crushed it

in Christ on the cross the same thing is going to happen to the world he's going to crush what has been perverted and distorted and and and fractured because of our sin he's going to crush it and he's going to destroy it in Christ and then make it new so like this world is ghetto basically and we don't want to rule and reign with Christ this ghetto World he's going to make a new one for us that is worthy worthy of being ruled and reigned over and so we don't have to worry about whether like what is going to be destroyed in regards to that

but honestly predicting when Jesus is coming back based on the descriptions of the signs and the times is not a command Jesus ever gave but let me show you what he did charge us with when things go sideways verse 12 but before all of this they will lay their hands on you you and persecute you delivering you delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons and you will be brought before Kings and governors for my name's sake again this shouldn't be a shock this is not the first time Jesus has told them that the world is going to hate you because of because of Jesus

because of me the world is divided up into two categories Sinners and Saints Sinners and Saints that's it it's the whole world Sinners and Saints until they become Saints Sinners hate Saints like this is just Biblical history of humanity 101 Sinners hate Saints why because they love evil and they hate what is good they love evil and they hate what is good Isaiah 520 tells us this woe to those who call evil good and good evil who put Darkness for light and light for Darkness who put bitter for sweet and Sweet for bitter Sinners love evil they love Darkness they love bitter well Saints representing

light and good and what is sweet because Jesus is a sweet Aroma to us and a sweet taste to us they hate that and they want to destroy that because it's revealing the evil of themselves and if you don't accept Christ you only grow in hatred towards it Luke 6:22 through 23 Jesus encourages us and says this to us in The Sermon on the Mount blessed are you when people will hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the son of man rejoice in that day and leap for Joy for behold your reward is

great in heaven for so their fathers did to the prophets the same thing like there's there's there's an now let me say this this doesn't mean that Saints can go around being jerks like it's not saying that you go and you actually provoke hatred from others but in loving others and in serving them by providing gospel to them good news and telling them about Jesus they in not accepting it or receiving it but being revealed their sin May hate you and persecute you and if that is what's occurring Jesus tells you you're blessed you're blessed because they did the exact same thing to Jesus he

goes on to say in Luke 6 27-28 but I say to you who he love your enemies do good to those who hate you bless those who curse you pray for those who abuse you so as Jesus has warned us in the days ahead the times that are coming when it's close to the second coming of Christ when it's close to the Earth passing away as people grow in their hatred of saints and they begin persecuting them what are we to do in that moment we are to love them we are to do good to those who hate us we are to bless those who

curse us we are to pray for those who abuse us why because Jesus hasn't returned yet there's still opportunity for them to be saved and forgiven and to be revealed the Son of God now why should we do that because as Luke 21:12 tells us you will be persecuted by others for the sake of Jesus's name what does that mean look at verse 13 this will be your opportunity to Bear witness that's the purpose guys that's the purpose of this whole thing this will be your opportunity to Bear witness settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate not to meditate beforehand how to answer

for I will give you a mouth in wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict what he means there settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand on how to answer that's actually I I've seen several uh denominational kind of streams or groups tribes that use that as a reason why they don't study and prepare beforehand and they just show up on a Sunday morning and they open up the word of God and they say he's going to give me a mouth and he's going to give me wisdom and I'm going to preach and teach well guess what

they sound the exact same every single week because they haven't grown in wisdom they haven't grown in knowledge they don't know anything else to preach other than just the same thing that they say every single week this is not what he's saying in this moment he's not saying don't study he's not saying don't prepare he's not saying don't be ready to defend uh the faith that you have as Peter tells us what he is saying is there's an issue that we have where we're trying to settle in our minds meditating beforehand how to answer there's a issue among the Believers where if we don't know

what to say then we won't say anything at all if we don't know how to answer question questions that they have then maybe we just won't tell them anything and don't worry about them asking us questions don't worry about them stumping us in the moment don't worry about them besting us in a debate or an argument and so we're just not going to engage because we're too busy settling in our minds what we are going to say or what answer we're going to give and so what we're trying to do is we're we're waiting for the day where we think we are smart enough to

be able to share the gospel with others and what he is saying is don't do that you need to grow in your knowledge and wisdom and understanding of the scriptures and what the gospel is in order to be able to take it out yes and amen absolutely that's discipleship like learning what Jesus taught us and commanded us absolutely we need that at the same time when you go know that when you're sharing with someone the good news as you're fumbling through it it is not up to you whether or not they accept Jesus it is not up to how well you dictate and articulate the

gospel message what matters is that you share the message and in sharing the message through your mouth through the wisdom that God has provided for you he uses that gospel message to ingrain it into their mind and their hearts and he grants them faith and they see they have eyes that are open and ears that are now hearing and in hearing the gospel and seeing what Christ has done for them they respond by faith and they get saved like that's what God does and what he has called us to do is be faithful in sharing it this is your opportunity to Bear witness to Bear

witness while you on Earth it's not going to be easy easy is going to be really hard like for all of us it's going to be hard your life is hard we know that just managing what God has provided you is hard managing a family is difficult managing resources that God's provided for you whether that's house and budgets and whatnot is hard I understand that and I know that this is going to be harder than those things and you just need to know that because he calls us to come to him and rely on his energy and his strength and his power that actually works

through us to be able to actually do what we are doing and that's why he says in verses 16-9 this is how hard it's going to be for some you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends and some of you they will put to death who are they parents Brothers relatives friends who so hate you for the gospel message that they're willing to kill you for it you will be hated by all for my name's sake but Verse 18 but not a hair of your head will perish by your endurance you will gain your lives like we are secure

in Christ we should expect Jesus to come but we should also expect to share the gospel until Jesus comes like what he's telling us is yes you are to be discipled in such a way that you are growing as as a husband and that you're growing as a wife and that you're growing as a father and a mother and that you're growing as a friend you should be so discipled that you're managing your house and your budgets well and that you're keeping your cars going and that you're doing all those things but those are all secondary issues with what God's first and primarily his purpose

that he's given you is that you are to Steward your life in such a way that is helping others come to know Jesus period like that's the gospel call of Our Lives the reason why you are not in heaven the moment he saved you is because there are others here that he is still saving like the moment he saved you and forgave you of your sins it's go to work with Dad and he implements you and he says here's what here's what I'm going to have for you I I'm going to I'm going to provide everything you need again we talked about that a little

bit last week of don't be anxious about your life what you're going to eat and what you're going to wear and what you're going to put on and so forth like don't worry about that seek first the kingdom of Christ and all of those things will be provided for you so like here's the reality is that you don't have to pray for those things like that's true but we spend probably 90% of our time praying for those things rather than praying for the seeking of the kingdom of God and seeking those that he has called us to to bring the kingdom of God to them

the gospel message so that God can forgive them so that they can now be seeking the kingdom of God instead of the kingdom of this world like that's primary and the other things are secondary are we seeking first the kingdom and worrying about all the other things second as he is providing them for us church if we don't take this seriously we are not faithful that's hard but it's true I'm saying this for your joy because Paul who had everything was willing to give it up for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ his Lord and then having his Joy Christ be made complete by seeing

others come into the family of God through the death resurrection and sacrifice of Christ what he accomplished for them like that's what made his Joy complete like that's what he's saying is like when we talk about living the good life he's like I gave up the good life for the good life the good life is seeing others get saved he's like that's that's why I'm here what does he say for me to live as Christ and to die as gain it would be better for me to go on to heaven for my purpose for or for for for my gain it would be better for

me to go who doesn't want to be in heaven versus what we're experiencing here and that's what Paul Paul is saying but he says for your benefit I will remain in labor in the work of the Gospel but he says it's in that labor that he has actually filled up with joy joy his Joy is made complete it can be celebratory like the the again I I know I don't know how many times we can say I know life is hard I know it it is for everybody the bible promises it's going to be hard Jesus just showed us that but the Bible also promises

that it can be joyful it can be celebratory it can be miraculous it can be be fruitful it can be heaven on Earth as the Lord's Prayer suggests but what does he really mean by that when we're praying The Lord's Prayer and asking that it would be on Earth as it is in heaven are we saying we know we're going to get a mansion up there so let's have a mansion here are we praying that level of Heaven on Earth or are we praying that the celebration that's going on in heaven of the Sea of people that is more than the Sands of the seashore

that are from every nation tribe and tongue that are bowing down and worshiping and calling to the name of the Lord holy holy holy is the Lord Almighty are we praying that heaven comes to Earth in seeing people come to treasure and worship Jesus and not worry about the circumstances of their life but be filled up with the the joy of who Christ is and what he has accomplished for them is that what we are praying because that would be what would be faithful to pray at the end of the day whether or not we know we're being faithful what makes the difference is the

input and output this is something just I I've been working through this last week we we we all want the outputs we and and literally when we think about church when we when we look at this half hot tub over here when we look at it there's not a person in this room who does not want to see those Waters stirred and people baptized we pray for that do we not we pray for people to get saved and baptized here's the reality are we doing the inputs that then create the outputs of people getting baptized it would be like I was talking with um Kelsey

and ransford and Julia this week and and we were sitting down talking through a lot of this stuff as well and I just gave the analogy of um a gumball machine like my kids love gumball machines and if they walk up to a gumball machine and they just stand there and they just look at it and they just say I would love to have a gumball Lord will you give me a gumball is it wrong to pray for that no it's not wrong to pray for that especially for a six-year-old but if they don't put a quarter in it and twist a knob guess what

they're never going to get a gumball they have to input the quarter and twist the knob and a gumball will come out the output God has given us the quarter in the gospel and if we don't input it into the lives of others we as a church will not see the output of God's saving people we can't control the output but we very much can control the input we can control how often we invite people to church how often we invite people to Jesus how often we share the good news with someone that we've been working through in relationship with for several years and we're

just sitting there thinking well one day I'll get to it like like when they feel like they trust me and when they feel like blah blah blah like we control the input we control what we do and we're praying for God to produce the output of it we're praying for God to save people but if we don't do the input then we're we're not being faithful we're not being faithful period and if we don't do the input guess what this church dies this church dies that's literally what Jesus tells the Church of Ephesus that I've always said is one of the greatest churches in Scripture

that you will find but he says like when he comes into the the angel in Revelation comes comes to the church in Ephesus he says you have phenomenal leadership that has protected the core of the leadership to where they don't let false prophets in that's great you are very strong in your Doctrine and Theology and you like you're good to go when it comes to that your your your program for discipleship for those who are inside the body of Christ is great like it's you're you're working through stuff with one another it's fantastic but this I have against you you have forgotten your first love

and if you don't go back and do what you did at first I'm removing the lampstand from your church which is the transforming power of Christ to save in your community that's when you close the doors there is no reason for us to continue meeting if we are not inputting the gospel into the lives of others and I think there's there's there's so many multiple ways that we could do that literally you could just invite people to church like they can get Sav through the preaching of the Gospel if you actually look through the scriptures of the New Testament 90% of salvations are through the

form of preaching and large Gatherings 90% of them 10% are the names we know Lydia the Philippian Jailer the little uh the slave girl those are actually the exception to the rule when it comes to programming What disciple or what salvation looks like it's preaching the word of God they get saved so and and and it's I think there's some ickiness that we've talked about when it comes to invite culture but I'm not worried about that for you guys I'm not what I mean by that is is sometimes churches will only train you on how to invite people but they've never trained you on how

to share the gospel yourself they've never trained you on how to evangelize they've never trained you on how to disciple someone else and what I'm saying is here is I think in the district the life of the district church with the people that we have in this room when someone gets connected when someone's saved and they get ingrained in community group with us they get engrained in women's and men's Ministries there's all kinds of opportunities for us to disciple one another so invite people invite people that's one easy thing that you can do and we've talked about it like we're g to charge you with

this we're gonna like not charge in like an arrest type of situation but charge you in like a go and do this we're going to order 2500 invite cards like just little business invite cards and we've got 25 adult members so we'll probably order more for the regular attenders that aren't actual adult members yet but we're going to going to order these we're going to give you a hundred of them we want you to invite a 100 people over the course of the next year it's just easy you go to the go to the grocery store and you're checking out and just say hey I

don't know if you have a church home would love to have you visit our church sometime here's an invite card all right have a good day just that easy getting haircut invite the person pumping gas at a gas station you see someone on the other side pumping gas you're like yeah it's a hot day today hell is going to be hot too would love for you to come and hear the good news of Jesus we invite you to our church like just invite people and just like input and see what God does with the output of it that's one way that we can do just

growing in your own developing of of sharing the gospel the majority of the times in just research and study that I've looked at the majority of people who share the gospel in just a sit down dinner table sharing the gospel with somebody just looking at God created everything it's beautiful it was good and we messed it up like we had two chapters of Harmony and then one chapter of Destruction we blew everything up we had it good we didn't like it we messed it up we trusted ourselves now we're reaping the benefit of that the world has gone to Hell in a hand basket for

the last several thousand years but God is good and he is rich in Mercy and he has sent Jesus to fix everything and he can fix your life he can forgive you of your sins he can he can train you up to be be able to be joyful and not anxious worrying about eternity worrying about life worrying about what how are we going to be provided for because he says he's going to provide everything for you like Jesus is good and he wants to be your lord and savior the ones who go that depth are typically the ones who live right around you so you

can go out on your front porch and you can count the houses and you can count the names because you've gotten to know them or it's people that are in your workplace or it's people that are in your we call it the third space which is like where you work out where you hang out where you play where you go to coffee shops those kinds of spaces but those are the three spheres that you build relationships and eventually share the gospel with somebody so what I'm saying is let's do the driveby invites with the person in the gas pump at the grocery store and so

forth and then let's actually schedu a time and say you know what and this is conviction Jeff on the corner let's invite him over for dinner like everyone in our Circle they know I'm a pastor like one of them when I walk out he yells hey Reverend I'm like they don't actually call me that but it's it's good I like it and so it's just knowing your neighbors and actually scheduling it putting it on the calendar you're going to be nervous that's all right because you don't want to look like an idiot that's human but confess that to the Lord and he's going to say

yeah don't worry I'm going to give you a mouth and I'm going to give you some wisdom I'm going to help you out in that moment trust me input and I'm going to provide some output I'm going to provide some output and so all I got to say is in regards to that is um things are going to get worse from a Humanity standpoint from a world standpoint Jesus promises that but it's not going to be anything that we've not [Music] seen or that the world has seen it just might be Amplified a little bit but that's okay we're not worried about that what God

has called us to do is this is your opportunity to Bear witness it's all going to happen for his name's sake are we faithful to that do we trust that are we responding to that Ephesians Ians 5:1 15-16 puts it this way look carefully how you walk not as unwise but as wise making the best use of the time because why the days are evil are we looking at our lives and making the best use of our time that God has allotted for us and the days that we have ahead he knows exactly like some of you might not be here in three months some

of you might not be here in 30 years like we don't know when you're going to die but guess what if you're living and breathing this is your opportunity to Bear witness that's it be a great husband be a great wife be a great father be a great mother be a great friend be a great coworker be a great owner be whatever you are be great at it do it with Excellence do all things for the glory of God yes and amen that's secondary primary this is your opportunity to Bear witness about Jesus invite people to G invite people to Jesus invite people to church

invite people to the message of the Gospel input so that God can do the output of saving them when they hear his message expect as William Cary once said expect great things from God but attempt great things for God that's what we're going to do that's what we're going to do and I'll just be B hold and say it if we don't this church will not exist it's just true so let's attempt great things for God and then expect great things from God when we do that let's pray together father we thank you so much for this good news we thank you for this message

we thank you for what you are doing among us through US in US father in a message like this it would be easy for us to look at the fact that the days are are evil and that people are going to persecute us and that there going to be earthquakes and all the End of Time stuff and it would be easy to look at a message like that and think man that's hard that's awful that sounds terrible I don't want that for my kids I don't want that for myself I don't want that for for our future but the reality is is you've called us

to not worry about that to not be anxious about today or tomorrow or what we'll do but rather be focused on you and you alone to be filled up with you to be cared for by you to literally do ministry through your energy and strength and and toil by your might God that's what you've called us to do and it's as simple as us just taking what you've done for us and sharing it with others that are near us and close to us that we interact with on a daily basis as Paul says he he reasoned with people in the market places like he was

looking for opportunities to share what you have done in his life with others so that you could do it in their life as well and God we're believing you for that we we believe that you have a harvest here in Indie that you are saving people and we're asking God that as we go out and as we invite people to this church as we invite people to your gospel to your good news we're praying that you would reap that Harvest through the ministry of the district so that we would continue to grow and continue sending out more Harvesters to to uh workers and LA laborers

to continue sing our joy be filled up as we glorify you in all things father we're praying for this we're asking for this and we pray that you give us the strength that we need to be able to do it it's in your name we pray amen if you would go ahead and stand with me