Acts: Dos and Don'ts of Advancing the Gospel

A few questions as we start this morning. So you didn't hear any of

that inn se state stuff earlier, did you? All right, let me

get back to the text, get back to the message. So a few

questions we start this morning again. Title of my sermon is advancing the Gospel.

So just think a few questions just for you. I want you to

die just this morning. Okay. Number one, first question, what you

think about? Do you believe? Individually everyone here today I want to answer

these questions. Do you believe there's a heaven in hell? Okay? You

say amen, thank you. Now do you believe that Jesus is the way

truth in the life and no one comes to the Father that sept through Jesus?

You say amen, thank you. Yeah. Now, do you not

only believe that there is heaven in hell? You believe that Jesus is the

way to heaven. Do you believe in that John three sixteen says, for

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever

believes in Hill shall not perish, but have every lasting life. Do you

believe that? So listen, based upon what you said, you believe this

are heaven and Hell? You believe that Jesus is the only way. And

you believe that God loved the world so much he sent us some to save

people from that hill, right, And he's not just certain people. He

loved all people. He loved the world. You used gentiles, every different

people. Right now, I want you to think about something, just for

a minute. According to American Cancer Society, there are two million cases new

cases every year of cancer. Two million cases of those cases on average per

year, six hundred thousand people die from cancer. Now, I want to

imagine if you will, imagine that you had you got cancer, and imagine

in your process of getting through cancer, you discovered a cure for cancer,

and you took that and you were cured of cancer. Now, based upon

that you found a cure for your cancer, now you know, statistically there's

two million people on this earth that will be diagnosed with cancer in six hundred

thousand people who would die of cancer that you had that you're cure of.

Do you believe that you would have a more responsibility to tell people about the

cure that you found. I think you said that absolutely. We would all

feel that way. Now, if that's the case, you say you believe

there's a heaven of hell. You say, you believe that people are dying

and go to hell. You believe that Jesus is the way, and you

believe you have the cure for their salvation. Jesus is that cure. You

believe that Jesus loves the world, He loved the loss, and you believe

he loved the loss so much that they were worth dying for. Lastly,

I hope today you've received that salvation for yourself. You've received the cure of

sin in your life, and that saved you. Now it saves you for

eternity. Now, I would say to you today you have a more responsibility

to share someone about the cancel, but Hippa a biblical responsibility to share the

gospel with others. You believe that Jesus died for you. You believe Jesus

loves you. You believe Jesus saved you. And as I've said before,

God doesn't save us to keep it to ourselves. God saves us that He

might send us. Listen, that's very important as we come to this passage

this morning. Just as we looked at how God loved the loss, we

see last week how God loved the lost gentile the I'm believing nation. And

God just not just loved the Jews, but God loved all people, all

nations, all colors, all races. And therefore God called and we looked

at God called the rejected, God called the unreached, God called the unrighteous.

And as we come to this chapter, chapter ten, this is a

turning put point in the Book of Acts, the Book of Acts. As

I've mentioned to you before, as Jesus just descended to Heaven. Before he

left or Heaven, he gave the Church. He gave those disciples, which

was the beginning of the church. He gave them a mission before he left.

What was the mission was the mission of those disciples of the first Church,

was the mission of the church. The mission was Acts one to eight,

the passages. But you were power, when the holy spirits come upon

you, will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samir and to the

ends of the earth. That was the mission that Jesus left the disciples with.

That's what the mission that Jesus left to church with. That's the mission

that Jesus left you and I with. He saved us that he might send

us to Judea, to Jerusalem, Judea to the ends of the earth.

In the Book of Acts, the whole entire book is about how the early

Church fulfilled the mission, how they took the Gospel to Jerusalem at Pentecosts,

how through after Stephen's death Philip took the Gospel to the Samaritans. And Chapter

ten continues and fulfilling the mission, and now taking the gospel not only to

take them to the Jews, not taking them to Samaritans. Now they're taking

the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It's a beautiful passage of scripture.

But can I tell you when God begins the work of taking advancing the

Gospel. That's the imagery the Gospel was advancing. It started in Jerusalem where

they were, It went out a little bit further in Samaria, and now

it's going out to the ends of the earth. That's going out to cesarea

where Cornelius is a gentile. Listen, when for the Gospel to advance?

Don't think you understand something that we that Luke wants you to see. In

the Book of Acts one the Gospel for an advance. It starts with God

calling right, God called the unbeliever, and we saw that at the beginning

of this chapter, chapter ten, God called the unbeliever gentile Corneas, who

was rejected by the Jews, who was unreached, who was unrighteous. God

called that unbeliever. But listen, for the gospel to advance, God might

not only has to call the believer listen, but he has to send the

messenger. He notly calls the unbeliever, but he sends us to those people.

And this morning I want you to see that how the gospel and how

advanced to the Gentiles, and how God prepared Peter, this messenger to advance

the gospel. This morning, as we look at advancing the gospel, I

think we see some things that Peter did that we should not do in advancing

the gospel, and things that we should do. So today it's the dews

and daunts of advancing the gospel. Things we should do, and things that

we should not do in advancing the gospel. So let's stand again, let's

read God's word together. It's Acts chapter ten, and we're gonna look at

verse nine and listen to what it says. Here. Next day, as

they were on their journey approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop

about six hours to pray. They became hungry and wanted something to eat.

And while he was preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw Heaven's

open and something like a great sheet descending and being let down by its four

corners upon the earth, and in it were all kinds of animals, reptiles,

birds of the year. And there came a voice to him, say

to him, rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter says,

by no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that it's calm

or unclean. And the voice came to him again. It said to say

time, what God has made clean, do not call common. And this

happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

And now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision did seen might

mean, the whold men who were sent by Corneas, having made the inquiry

for Simon's house, stood at the gate and called out for to ask where

Saum and he was called Peter was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering

the vision, the spirit said to him, the whole three men are looking

for you. Rise and go down and accompany them. Without hesitation, for

I have sent them. And Peter went down to the men and said,

I am the one you're looking for. What's the reason for your coming?

And he said, corneas a centurion, an upright and god fearing man who's

well spoken by the whole household Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel

to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have

to say. So invited them in to be his guests. And the next

day he rose and went away with them and some of the brothers from Jappa

accompanying the Let's pray to God together. Lord, we love you. We

thank you Lord for this morning. God, thank you for this passage you

led us to. Lord. I thank you that you've saved us. Lord,

we thank you for the good news of the Gospel to day, that

you so loved us that you sit your only son to die on the cross

for our sins that we might have everlasting life. We thank you for that

good news. Today, God, we thank you that you've given us salvation.

You've given us that you might send us out today. And so Lord,

I pray that today we would hear Lord, not only how you've calling

them believers, but God, today, how you're calling us as messengers,

and God, what you want us to do and what you not want us

to do in taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. So Lord,

lead us through your word. Lord, I pray today, Lord,

I don't I pray today not for just some articulation of my own words,

or Lord, I pray today for a movement of your spirit. God,

I pray for conviction of your spirit upon us as believers, that God,

we would hear Lord, not my words today, but God, we would

hear your words, and God, we'd be removed to respond just as clearly

as Peter heard your voice that day. God, may we hear your voice

calling us today, and Lord, may we respond as Peter did. In

your name. We pray, Amen, you may be seated. So the

dues and dunts of advancing the gospel first, to advance the gospel, don't

make gospel distinctions first in order to advance the gospel. Don't make gospel distinctions

the dues adults. Now, you just think about the passage of scripture.

Here, a scripture tells us that here's Simon or Peter, if you will,

he's at Simon. The Tanner's house summer Tanna we looked at last week

was a leather worker. His house would have been considered unclean to a Jew.

But but Peter's staying with him, he's lodging him with him. That

nay. The descripture tells us that next day, Peter gets up and he's

preparing a meal, Scripture tells us. And as he prepares the meal,

he goes up on the rooftop. He's waiting for it to cook. Who

knows what he had going maybe he had something in the crop pot. And

so he's going up on the roof and he's praying and waiting for that to

finish cooking. And Scripture says that he's waiting again, he's hungry. Now

you think about that he's on this he's on the rooftop, and that was

common common and Drew Israel times that people would have a place that there would

steps that would be next to the house, that they would walk upon the

roof. We saw that another passage of scripture. So Peter goes up on

the rooftop and he's there praying, and Scripture says he goes into a trance,

and they're in this trance, he sees a vision heaven up and up,

and he's sees in this vision a sheet and it's being held by four

corners, and coming down from this sheet is different animals. Scripture says there's

birds, there's reptiles, there's all kinds of different animals that he sees.

You can see this in verse eleven. So Heaven's opened up a great sheet

descending being let down by four corners of the earth, all kinds of animals,

reptiles, birds of the year. So he sees all these animals,

they're coming down on this great sheet. I don't know what portits of the

sheet is. Maybe I think maybe we would see a sheet we think of

a tablecloth. Maybe have that imagery. It's given the imagery of a table.

Right, And he sees this sheet, he sees it coming down from

heaven, and he hears a voice. Now listen to this. It's verse

thirteen. And there came a voice to him. So he sees this vision.

He's hungry. Now think about that. You got to put that in

perspective. He's got a meal cooking. He's ready for a pack of knaves

and a coke. Right, he's hungry, and he sees this sheet like

a table coming from and there's all kinds of different food and animals on that

sheet. And he hears a voice saying, listen, Rise. Peter calls

him by name, kill and eat. Now on the sheet is different animals.

And the sheet of the different animals there were considered by the Jews and

Kosher law as being unclean. Now biblical Old Testament times, you can go

back and look into the Old Testament. There were certain animals, according to

the Jews, were kosher to eat, and some were not kosher. There's

things that you should not eat. And Peter was a Jew, so his

whole life that you've got to understand, he lives strictly by these kosher laws

of there's certain things that I eat and there's certain things that I don't eat.

Right, and so here on this sheet is animals that are unclean.

And he hears a voice, and the voice says, Peter, I know

you, you know what the law have says in the Old Testas. But

I'm telling you rise, kill it and eat it. And the Bible says

listen. That Peter says in verse fourteen, by no means the Lord listen,

For I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. Peter says,

I'm never this is unclean food. Lord, I'm not to eat this

food. Now, you would say, Pastor, what were the reason for

the dietary laws, the Jewish dietaries laws, the just kosher laws, what's

the purpose? Well, the purpose in the Old Testament was two things.

One, if you ate of something unclean, then it made you unclean according

to the law, and then that made you unfit for worship. So it

was very important for a Jew not to eat unclean food because they wanted to

be fit for worship. They wanted to go into the temple. They wanted

to go to worship. And if you ate something unclean, then you couldn't

go into worship. It made you unfit for worship. So the purpose of

not eating these things is to be available to worship the Lord freely without being

unclean. So that would be one reason. The second reason is it's there

was no other nation, no other nation at the time that had their dietarial

loss or kosher laws. Everyone else kind of freely ate everything. For you

know, Scripture told Israel that I want you to be a holy nation.

Set apart, holiness is the imagery of it set apart, distinctness from all

others. And one thing that made the nation of Israel distinct was their dietarial

laws, that they didn't eat certain things that other nations did. It made

them set apart as a different nation. And so for the Peter here and

for the Jews in the past, they didn't eat because they didn't want to

be defiled the worship. But also it showed that they were distinct from all

other nations. You even remember last week I told you that they saw gentiles

as unclean. You wouldn't eat in the house of a gentile because that gentile

may have sacrificed to another god, and if you'd eat that meat, it

may make you defiled. Or even their house was seen unclean. And so

they would want to be separate from the food, but also separate from the

gentiles. So for Peter, listen to this. For Peter his entire life.

Now I think about that, his entire life, he had made distinctions.

This is food that's gonna this food is clean, this food is unclean.

These are some foods I can have, These are things I can't have.

But it goes further. These are people that I associate with, These

are people that I don't eat with. These are the people I can stay

with their homes. But these these gentiles, I can't be in their home,

can't I can't have any I can't have anything to do with them.

His whole life has done that. Now listen, he sees a vision and

in the vision he sees these different animals. That's his whole life has said.

This is those are unclean. And now God says, very clearly,

rise Peter, kill and eat and listen to what the Lord says in verse

fifteen. And the voice came in when when Peter says, Lord, I've

never I never eaten anything unclean like this or common. Listen what he says

in verse fifteen, and the voice came to him again the second time,

says, listen to this what God has made clean. Do not call common.

You know what the Lord's saying, Peter, Peter, there's one time

that this was unclean. But listen to what God is saying. But I

now I'm telling you, Peter, I've made what you thought was unclean.

I have now made clean. You see that. And for Peter, now

that's distinction is not only have I made food that you thought were unclean clean

but God is also pointing to for Peter that now I have cleaned people that

you once thought were unclean. I'm telling you, Peter, I've cleaned them.

And don't you look at a gentile again and say I can't have anything

to do with them now, Peter, I'm telling you they are made clean

now. I don't know if you remember when you're a kid. I remember

one of my favorite parts of the day was recess. You go recess and

well we are. The best game that you played during recess of my time

was kickball. We love kickball to roll the ball and kick as hard as

you can and run as fast as you can. But you know the thing

I hate about kickball is every day you get out there and you get the

ball and you get everybody lined up was going to play that day. And

the worst part of kickball was picking teams. You know, usually laughing him

because you know, I'm right, what would happen whoever got became captain of

that time, he was gonna pick his best friend, right, it's gonna

be first, and then he who's gonna pick the best players? Right?

And the worst of the worst of the worst was if you were picking teams

for you not to get picked or get picked last. Right, that means

that they didn't like you and they just chose you because you were the last

one there. Right. Well, I tell you that because throughout our life

we've done that. We say, you know, these are people I associate

with, these are people I don't associate with, And we've taken that at

times with the gospel. Do we say, you know what, these are

people I'll share the gospel with. But I don't know about sharing the gospel

with these people. You know, these are people in my family, these

are my friends. I really like that, we hang out together, we

spend time together. Lord, I'll share the gospel with them. But this

person that's a little different than me. Maybe their hair is blue, maybe

they got ear rings and stuff. Lord, I don't know if I'll share

the gospel with them. Somebody else can do that one. And the Lord

is showing us with Peter here that if the gospels to advance, we can

not make gospel distinctions. This says the gospel is only for certain people or

just the people I want the gospel to go to. Listen today, In

order for the Gospel to advance, we cannot make gospel distinctions. There's times

where we make gospel distinctions, where we resist sharing the gospel with religious distinctions.

Well, these people they're they're Mormons, or they're Jehovah Witnesses. You

know, Jeva Witnesses won't leave you alone. But as soon as they come

to you, you'll you'll leave them alone want you. And that's the truth.

We've been doing prayer walks in our community and one of the reasons we're

finding that people won't open the door to us is they think they we're Jehovah

Witnesses. They're more passionate about taking and sharing the gospel than we are.

But when their passion meets us, we run away. Listen, they need

the gospel just as much as the people down the streetening the gospel. But

when we see people who maybe are Muslim, or maybe Joe Witnesses or mother

they're are Hindu or they have a different religion, Oh no, no,

no, no, not me. Uh uh, give me somebody somebody else.

No, no, We've got to stop making religious distinctions. Listen.

There's times where we make racial distinctions where this person's of a different race,

or they're from a different country and they come from a whole different culture than

the culture in America, and I just can't relate to that. So I

just don't know if I could share the Gospel with them. Why not Listen,

don't they need the Gospel just as much as people in America. Listen,

we make religious distinction, we make racial distinctions, and at times,

just let's be honest, folks, we need to be honest about this because

it's a real issue. Sometimes we just make personal distinctions. Like I said,

they look a little different than us. Maybe they don't dress as nice

as we do, may come from a different class of people. Maybe they

have problems, maybe they have mental health problems. We don't understand it.

Maybe, let's be honest, maybe we just don't like them. They talk

ugly, they live life that's a life that we don't approve of. Dressed

different, like I said, maybe they've got blue hair and nose rings and

all kinds of different things. And we say, I just don't know about

them. And we say, okay, but I'll share the Gospel with my

loved one. I'll share it with my friend, or I'll share it with

my neighbor. I'll share it with my classmate. But Lord, don't go

tell me to share the gospel with that person at Starbucks. It looks a

little different than me. And listen to me. Hear me today the Lord

is saying to you, and I don't cast something unclean that I've made clean.

Listen. In order for the Gospel to advance, we cannot make gospel

distinctions. Secondly, for the Gospel to advance, don't tell God no.

You know. You know, in the Bible there's no denominations that may hurt

you a little bit as a good SBC Southern Baptist, But there is no

Southern Baptist in the Bible. Okay, I love Southern Baptists. Bit a's

Southern Baptists, but it's not there's not a Methodist, they're not Prefitterian,

they're not Lutheran. There there's not any of that. But I'm just gonna

be honest with you. I really believe Peter's a Southern Baptist. And I

have good, good reasons why that. Why Well, when the Lord tells

Peter in verse thirteen, now, the man's never eat pork in his life.

I don't know about you, but I love pork, you know.

And I'm thinking the Lord says to me, Hey, get you a barbecue

sandwich. Brother, try some brisket. I'm saying, amen, I'm not

saying. You're not telling me three times, you know what I mean.

And some of you are hungry right now, and I should not be talking

about food and so. But Peter, the Lord says him, rise up

and eat. Peter, I mean, he's never eating bacon. Okay,

I'm all calstop. But he tells God no, three times. He tells

God no. That's why I believe he's a good Southern badness. You know

why, because one of the things that kind of come into the DNA of

a Southern Baptist. Well, no, preacher, we've never done that before.

You know, that's like a common theme amongst other Baptist churches, and

that's basically what Peter says. Lord says Peter, rise up and eat.

He says, well, well, Lord, you know, Lord, I've

never done that before. Can I tell you today, if we're going to

advance the gospel, it'll we cannot make gospel distinctions. But listen, we

cannot tell God no, no, I won't share the gospel. No,

I won't share with that person. No, I won't share with my enemy.

No, I won't share with that person that's different than me, or

no, I won't share with that person from a different country. We if

we're going to share the gospel, if we're going to advance the gospel,

if the gospel is going to go to four billion people who have never heard

the name of Jesus, if it's going to advance, it's going to be

when we stop telling God no, Well, Lord, I've never done that

before. Our church has never done that before. I tell you one of

the most discouraging things that ever happened to me as a pastor. I was

at the church and I was preaching about evangelism and taking the gospel and really

just wanting our church to be evangelistic and to be obedient to God's mission to

go to our community, to Jerusalem right where we live, our neighbors,

our coworkers, our classmates, our friends, our family, And I was

really just passionate about trying to get our church. Listen, if you depend

upon or if we as a church, depend upon the gospel coming through the

pastors, you know we can't take it. But so far, the gospel

will only advance when all of us, every believer, gets serious about taking

the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and I was really passionate about

it. I remember thinking, I really wanted to do a special Sunday and

we were going to have an evangelism Sunday. We're really going to just encourage

people to who's your one and really push about who we're going to take the

gospel to, who they were going to share the gospel with. And so

I remember back then as the church I was out, we had deacon board

and if we, you know, spend any money, no matter what it

was a dollar or ten dollars, we had to take it to the deacons

and ask them to prove it. And I remember going to the deacons and

saying, Hey, I really want to do this this Sunday, this evangelism

focused Sunday, and I really think I don't know if you've very experienced this,

people kind of get used to your voice. It's kind of like your

children. You know, you tell them no once and they you know,

they don't hear you. You tell them no twice and don't hear you.

You know, tell them how to tell them three times. But the same

like somebody the teacher at the school can say something to them They're like,

it's like the gospel like the first time. Well, there's this understanding as

we leave churches that sometimes church members gets used to the pastor's voice because they

hear it every Sunday. Sometimes bringing in another pastor for a different voice saying

the same thing sometimes really connects. That's what I wanted to do. I

wanted to bring a pastor in and have him preach on the ports of sharing

the gospel and encouraging our people to go out share the gospel. It was

gonna cost us two hundred dollars as a church to bring this pastor in,

and the deacons told me, no, now, a pastor, I don't

think we really need that. We've never done that before. Preacher, I

tell you, if we're going to take the gospel, if we're going to

advance to the ends of the earth, if we're going to accomplish Jesus' mission,

we as a church and we as individual have to stop telling God no,

I want you see third here today. To advance the gospel. We

don't need to make gospel distinctions to advance the gospel. Don't tell God no.

Lastly, to advance the gospel, do a bad God's call. You

know, Peter tells Jesus no three times. Somebody asked me, as I

was studying this this week, is this any correlation to Jesus denying the Lord

three times? I don't know. Maybe it's just really hard headed. I

don't know what the significance is. The Bible says in verse seventeen, Peter

was really struggling with this. By that time. As you remember, last

week, God called Corneas and told Corneas to send two messengers to Jappa where

Peter will stay and find Simon the Tanner's house. And there was a man

named Peter. Simon Peter there, get him and bring him to Cesarea.

And so about this time, when this vision had just happened, and Peter's

trying to work through this, God, what are you calling me to do

again? God's preparing the messenger to send him out. He he says,

stop making distinctions, Peter. Peter stopped telling me no by that time.

Knock on the door and somebody looking for him. Peter comes to the door

and says, you know who are you? And he says, listen,

there's a man named Cornelias and he lives in Cesarea. He's a centurion.

He he's been searching for God his whole life, and a vision came to

the Lord by to him and told him to come find and send us,

to come find you and to bring you to him. Now, listen,

what did I tell you earlier in the message? What I tell you last

week? It was unclean. For a gentile to stay in the home of

a Jew is unclean for him. For Peter to stay in the house of

a gentile is also unclean for a gentile to stay in your house. So

here these gentiles come, Hey, God send us. What does Peter do?

He welcomes in Listen to the Bible says in verse twenty one, I'm

sorry. In verse eighteen, it saysn't called out where the simon who was

called Peter was lodging there, And listen verse nineteen Listen to this. And

while Peter was pondering the vision, listen to this, the spirit said listen

to this to him, behold, three men are looking for you. Rise

and go down and accompany them without listen to this without hesitation, for I

have sent them. Peter. Stop making gospel distinctions. Stop Tom's saying that

the gospel can only go to certain people. No more, Peter, stop

telling me no, Peter. Now it's time to obey the call. I'm

calling you, Peter, go listen to me today. God's calling. Some

of you say were pastor the Lord. This scares me half to death.

I don't know how to share the gospel somebody. Nevertheless, someone did I

from a different country or different language, or maybe someone that may be hostile

or listen. God just wants you to obey the call first. He will

will provide everything you need if you just first obey the call. As a

pastor who wrote a book, his name's Kenneth Gangle, and he wrote a

commentary action on the Book of Acts, and he told that early in his

ministry, he was assistant pastor of for church and the senior pastor was a

missionary in Africa. And there was stories that the pastor would share that he

took the gospel and to unreached people areas, and he told about story one

time he took the Gospel to someone who had never seen a white man,

and they knew nothing of Jesus or the Bible. As the pastor went into

the village and he told the tribal chief what he was there for. His

purpose. This is what the chief said to the pastor. He said,

Yes, we've believed in your God for some time now, and we've been

waiting for you to come. Tell us now, that's not only a story

of this pastor, but listen, that's the story of Corneas as we're going

to see you before next Listen to me today. God tells us not to

make distinction. God tells us to stop telling him no, and then God

calls us to ay listen. But God, God knows that there's people out

there who are waiting to hear about Jesus, but they're waiting for the messenger

to come. God's already been working on their heart. God's already been calling

God just waiting for the messenger to go. Can I say to you today,

if we're going to take the gospel to Bethesda, to Durham, to

North Carolina, to the United States and to the ends of the earth,

it starts when we say, God, I will obey your call. And

that may be as simple as listen. I want to get involved in the

prayer walks. You know, I'll be honest with you. The two most

direct things that we do in this church and ministry to fulfill the call of

the mission that God's called the church too. Is prayerwalks that's going here locally

in our mission trips through Wahoka, Mexico, and to Georgia. We're fulfilling

the mission. And God's calling some of you to be a part of that.

God's calling you some to do it at your workplaces, in your schools.

It's sharing the gospel is not something that just happens at church. It

should happen every day. But listen, will you accept that call? Encourage

you? The dues and adults have advanced the gospel. To advance the gospel.

Don't make gospel distinctions to advance the gospel. Don't tell God no to

advance the gospel. Do obey the call, you know. Matthew twenty five

is a powerful passage of scripture. In that passage of scripture, the Bible

describes when the Lord returned, And this is what it says. When the

Son of Man comes in his glory with all his angels with him, then

it will sit on his glorious throne, and before him will be gathered all

the nations. Listen to this, and he will separate one from another as

a shepherd's separates sheep from goats. He'll pace the sheep on the right,

but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on

his right, come you who are blessed by my father, and hear the

kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Then the Bible says

in verse forty one, Then he'll say to those on his left, depart

from me, you cursed into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his

angels. It's going to happen one day. You believed that we started the

sermon by you believing that there's a heaven and there's a hell. One day

God is going to send on his throne. He's going to separate the sheep

from the believers from the unbelievers. Here's what I fear the most. As

we'll look over across the street and we'll see somebody that will sell the stop

us. See a neighbor, a coworker, We'll see someone that we've encountered

and we said, we never told them, Lord, do you put them

in my path? And I said, Lord, I can't do that.

I pray when he comes, we have no regrets that we as individuals at

the church that said, Lord, we fulfill the mission. We told him,

Lord, we were faithful to the call. Will you pray with me?

Lord? We love you. God know this is a it's a heavy

word from you, But God, you love the lost. God, give

us a heart for the lost like you do. Lord, give us a

heart Lord the love to and clean Today you God, and go it's the

Lord. I pray, Lord, do you'd lead us to obedience today?

Or pray there may be someone here today that knows a family member or a

co worker or a neighbor, or maybe it's someone that's the coffee shop they

go to, or the grocery store they go to, or maybe it's a

coworker that just seems to really rob them the wrong way. That Lord,

maybe today they will see them as someone who doesn't have the cure for sin.

Lord, I pray there'd be people today that would be moved to respond

Lord, to say God, I'll go, I'll obey you, Lord,

or I pray we would just respond to you. I pray this needs this

altar is open. Maybe some need to come and pray for lost loved ones

or that lost neighbor or that low's co worker. I pray they do that.

Wherever you lead us, I pray we respond to you, or I

pray today there's someone here today that's never put their faith in you for salvation.

They're a lot like Corneas. Maybe they've believed, but today they've never

placed their faith in you for salvation, never found forgiveness of sin. Or

today, I pray they'd be those today would know that you died on the

cross for them because you love them that through faith, Lord, you want

to save them, you want to cleanse them, and you want to give

them eternal life. And I pray they'd be those today that will make a

prayer today of faith a prayer salvation. Lord, I thank you for what

you've done here today, or lead us now into response. In your name,

we pray, Amen Jesus