Acts: Hardness

May be seated. If you have your bibles, if you'll turn with me

to Acts chapter seven this morning, to Acts chapter seven, were I want

us to go to as we come to hold on it. As we come

to Acts chapter seven, I want to attempt to do something that may seems

very scary to many of you today, as your pastor if you've been here

very long, I'm going to try to preach the entire chapter fifty three versus.

Okay, so don't worry. I think we have a plan. But

I want to go to the very end of the passage this morning, and

so and then we're going to kind of work our way back. So today

as we come to Act chapter seven, this is Stephen preaching. This is

Stephen speaking. He's actually giving a rebuttal to some accusations that are brought against

him. And so at the very end, it's almost Stephen is almost has

taken a class in sermon prep, because he in the cermony a shill provide

the introduction and he does like an argumentation in the very end, it gives

an application. And so really what I want to do is look at the

very end, I want to look at the application. What he kind of

brings to them of something that they need to apply as Jews. And I

want us to hear that first, and then we're going to kind of work

our way back through how he built this, what was his argument for this

is what needed to happen in their life. And so let's read it.

It's Acts chapter seven, and let's stand. Let's read God's word together.

It's Acts chapter seven. Read just the three verses here, starting a verse

fifty one, and this is what he says to them, So let's stand

together. He says this, you stiff neck people, uncircumcised in heart and

ears, You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did. So do

you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed

those who announced before him the coming of the Righteous One, in whom you

now betrayed and murdered. And you who received the law as delivered by the

angels and did not keep it, you may be seated. So I actually

take my words back. I want to preach the whole book. I'll leave

a few verses fifty four through sixty for next week. This week, a

few weeks ago, my sister came and visited me, and she brought me

a clock and come to find out, this was a clock that my grandfather,

my great grandpa, Charlie Barby, bought for his wife on their honeymoon.

They bought it for three dollars and so it's probably one hundred years old,

the clock and my dad was given to my dad, and then my

dad wanted me to have it. And so it's the old type of old

clock that you wind you're actually wine for the second hand and you're wined for

the hour hand. And so naturally we put it in the living room and

I've wind it up and every hour it chimes right, and that's not just

the old like nice, it's not the new like nice sweet chimes like dog,

you know. And so it chimes for every hour, you know,

and then it chimes for on the thirty second when I mean at the thirty

minute, market chimes once. So on the hour, market chimes or dogs,

I would like to say for every hour. It is, so twelve

is really intense, I'm just going to say. And so we put it

in the in the in the house and we started. I got it wound

up and I was, you know, have childhood memories of hearing that go

off, and and then now, like you know, you're sitting in the

living room watching TV the time, you know, it kind of gets your

attention. And then we've got two little dogs and then they're barking at it.

You know, it's just kind of chaos in the house. But I

have been determined that I'm going to let it dog right, because here's my

thoughts. This is what I told Brandy. I said, it's going to

drive us nuts for a week or two, right, but we're going to

hear it if we get used. If we just keep it going, we'll

get used to it. And pretty after a while, we actually won't hear

it at all, and neither will the dogs if they if it chimes or

whatever it does, they won't bark at all. Will eventually just get numb

to it. We won't even hear it today at the time of my sermon,

today is a history of hardness. Today, Stephen is basically saying to

the Jews, you've become hard. He uses the term you stiffened net people.

That's the idea of refusing to submit to God. You've become hard.

He says. Their hearts are uncircumcised. That means their hearts have become hard.

That it says their ears have been uncircumcised. It means their ears have

become hard. That means that you've gotten to a place that when God has

spoken to your heart, you've hardened your heart that you don't listen to God

speaking to your heart anymore. You've hardened your heart your ears so much that

when God speaks and you hear the word of God, you refuse to listen

to the word of God. And he gives a warning to them. And

here's what I want to say to you today. It's a warning to us

that there is a real danger of our hearts becoming hard to God. Just

as there's a real danger of me becoming hard of hearing of the clock in

my house. There's a real danger for you here today watching and listening with

you, watching online or listening in person, of your hearts becoming hard to

God, your ears becoming hard to the word of God. And today I

pray that as we come to this passage scripture, Stephen gives a history of

hardness. And what he does is he gives a history lesson to them of

how this didn't happen overnight, Just like me listening to the clock. Won't

happen overnight. This happened through a period of time, and so will it

happen in your life of a period of time. And he gives them areas

of how they slowly became hard and what led through their hearts being hard,

in their ears being hard. So today, as we come to this passage

of scripture, may I warn you of a hard heart. May I warn

you of the danger of a hard heart and ears the hardened to God's word.

And I pray today if God speaks, listen, So let's look at

the passage this morning. He gives really three things, three things in this

history of hardness, three areas in which their heart has become hardened through three

different areas. The first one is hardened through rejection, a hardness through rejection.

At the beginning of in Acts chapter six, the if you remember,

as we finished last week here these helleness, unbelieving Jews brought accusation against Stephen.

They could not refute the message of Stephen and the words that he spoke.

So the scripture tells us that they instigated false teachers or false accusation against

Stephen. And they brought these things. And in one of the things if

you just go back with me, if you look with me, and in

verses eleven of Acts, chapter six, and it says, here and then

they secretly instigated men who says, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against

Moses and God. They accused Stephen. They falsely accused Steven. Stephen has

spoke against God, and Stephen had spoke against Moses. Moses was their leader,

as one of their the individuals in the past that they had idolized as

Jews. So Stephen and in his rebuttal, if you go to verse one

of chapter seven, it says, in the High Pricess, are these things?

So this is Caiaphas. So this is Caiaphas who brought Jesus on trial,

who also did the trial when false accusations were brought against Jesus. And

so here's the same Caiaphas that said that Jesus, are these accusations are being

brought against you? He does the exact same thing to Steve and Stephen.

Are these things so? And then Stephen responds, And look at verse two.

It says, and Stephen said, brothers and fathers, hear me.

And then Stephen goes through this history. He gives this long history of Israel.

He begins by talking about Abraham. Abraham was the father of the nation

of Israel, and he talks about how God had a call on Abraham and

what that call looked like. He talked about how Abraham God and not only

called Abraham, but God gave Abraham promises, promises that he would have descendants,

promises that he would have descendants in a land. So here just the

two promises for Abraham. Abraham, You're going to have descendants that you remember,

at that time, Abraham had no children, So God's going to give

you children, and They're going to not only give you one some, but

He's going to give you descendants like the sins of the sea right. And

not only promise him descendants, but he also promised him a land. I'm

going to give you a place where your people will dwell. So those are

the two promises. Stephen recounts that God God made to Abraham and al sudden

only he told about how God called and made promises to Abraham. But he

talked about how Abraham's descendants would live in a foreign land for a period of

time. They would be sojourners, they would be slaves for four hundred years.

But God promises that even though they would be slave and sojourners, that

God promises that he will deliver them, He'll rescue them. And then lastly,

Stephen talks about how God made a covenant with Abraham only that God call

him. Only did God give him promises, But God made it covenant,

a contract, an agreement with Abraham, God that I will be your God

and you will be my people. And then then Stephen goes in to explain

how this began fulfilling what God promised him started happening. Stephen gives all this

history in his rebuttal to these accusations. He explains that that Abraham fathered Isaac,

that was a fulfillment of promise, and that Isaac had Jacob, and

then Jacob fathered the twelve patriarchs. You remember that he had twelve sons.

And then then he does this, and then Stephen explains that one of those

sons were special. You remember his name. His name was Joseph. You

remember the Bible says that Joseph had the code of many colors. Right now,

there are twelve sons, right those are become twelve patriarchs. There becomes

the leader of the twelve tribes of Israel. So if you want to just

think in your mind, understand when you see those first twelve sons, those

are the first twelve leaders of Israel. Right, think about the nation's growing.

Right. He starts with Isaac. Isaac has two sons, Jacob and

Esau. Jacob is the nation comes out of Jacob's seed, and out of

Jacob becomes twelve sons, And those twelve sons are the first leaders, right.

And out of those leaders, there's one who's really special. He has

the coat of many colors. God gives him visions and dreams, and Stephen

explains this. But you know what in that in that God's hand was owned

Joseph. What happened? Those eleven other brothers rejected him? Remember they're jealous

of him. They threw him into pit, left him to die. And

eventually, when after arguing some time over whether they were going to kill him

or leave him to die, they ended up selling him into slavery to the

Egyptians. Right, And he's taken over into to Egypt, and there he

works for Potter. I mean, he works for the pharaoh. But in

Acts chapter seven and verse nine, wilt you read this with me? Look

at scripture here he says in the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him

into Egypt. But God was with him. He rescued out of all his

afflictions that gave him favor of wisdom before Pharaoh and the King of Egypt,

who made him ruler over Egypt and over all the household. Now there came

a famine throughout all of Egypt, and Canaan in affliction, and our fathers

could not find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in

Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit, and the second

visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known

to Pharaoh. And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob, his father and all his

kindred, seventy five persons in all. And Jacob went down to Egypt,

and he died, he and our fathers. You see the Bible describes that.

Listen to the imagery in verse nine, and the patriarchs, the first

leaders of Israel. The other eleven were what jealous of Joseph and sold him

into Egypt. But listen to this next part. But what but God was

with him. Scripture even describes him. Listen to this as that God rescuing

him out of afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh. Listen to

this, the very first leader, Stephen tells Caiaphas, and all this,

these those who have him on trial, you're very first leader. God raised

up a savior, and his name was Joseph, and he would save you

from famine in Egypt. And the very one that God was raising up from

among your mints was the very first one you rejected. God's favor was on

him, God's wisdom was on him, and God rescued him. And he

was the very first one, the very first savior that God sent to you

that you rejected. He know it says that they not rejected Joseph. Scripture

describes it. But he would. He then would talk about Moses, how

God would raise up Moses. And now look at the scripture with me,

Scripture would say in verse seventeen. But the time of promise, scripture describes

how that there would be a king that would rise up and he would dealt

He would aggressively with the israel Lights, and he would enslave them, and

therefore Verse twenty sists. But at this time Moses was born. Loves what

it says about Moses. Moses was beautiful in God's sight. He's brought up

for three months the father of his house, and he was as he was

exposed, and Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as their own son.

And Moses was instructed with all wisdom of the Egyptian. He was mighty

in words, indeed, so God only raised up Joseph, and then leaders

of Israel rejected him. But God raised up another man who was beautiful in

God's sight, who has wisdom. Scripture would say in word, indeed,

and this is what the Bible says. But when he was forty years old,

he came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Visual,

and seeing one of them being wrong, he defended the oppressed men and

avenge him by striking down the Egyptian. Verse twenty five says, And he

supposed that his brother would understand. Listen to this, it's very important,

Stephen says. And he supposed his brothers would understand that God was given them

salvation by his hand. But they did not understand. And on the following

day he appeared to them, and they were quarreling, and tried and tried

to reconcile them, saying, men, you are brothers. Why do you

wrong each other? But the man who was wronged his neighbor thrust him aside

and said, who made you ruler and judge over us? Stephen says,

you say, I speak against God and Moses, But I say to you,

you're a stiff neck people. You've been UNCircumcising your heart. Your heart's

hard, and your ears are heard. And not only are you, but

so did all your fathers. You see, your fathers first rejected the first

savior in Joseph. And the next savior that God raised up that was beautiful

on God's sight and wisdom and power, was Moses. And when he first

came to you to be your savior, to deliver you from that captivity of

the Egyptians, you rejected him to And now he says to you, and

now Jesus come, the greatest savior of all, and you, too,

Jews, have rejected him. A history of rejection, you know. I

think as we come to this passage of scripture, you see he's wanting them

to see. This is not something that just so a one time, done

instant where you just rejected God once. Now, this has been a problem

through the history that you've constantly, constantly, constantly reject who God sends to

you. Can I say today, as we stand here two thousand years later,

in twenty twenty three, the Jews have still rejected the Savior. They've

rejected the Savior that God sent by by Joseph. They've rejected when Moses came

at first, and they rejected Jesus, and still twenty two thousand years later,

their hearts are still hard. Now, I want to ask you today

if you see that that looks so it's heavy, But how about you?

You know, I really believe I never get this as long as I live.

I've been in churches enough, and I've served in many churches that I've

seen some hard people. You know, the hardest people, or sometimes not

the ones that are outside the church. The hardest people are the ones that

are in the church. You know why, because they're like the ringing clock.

They've heard God's word on Sunday mornings every Sunday morning. They've been in

Sunday school classes, they've heard God's words speak to their hearts. They've heard

God's word come to their ears, and they've continually to continually say no,

no, no, And years after years, after Sunday after Sunday, after

Sunday, telling God's no. Suddenly there comes to a place where they come

on a Sunday morning service and when God speaks, they do not hear.

And when God tries to grab a hold of their heart, God, they

don't feel the word of God in their heart. Why because they've rejected him

day, weekend and week out, Sunday after Sunday. I can think of

a church member right now in South Carolina, a church I serve was a

part of, and every Sunday morning, this man was an unbeliever. He

came to church every Sunday, and every Sunday morning during the invitation, just

as the invitation song would sing, he would get up and leave the room.

Why because he did not want to hear the invitation. And it was

his way of every Sunday rejecting God's call in his life. And can I

say to that, that's not untrue, That's not just happening in South Carolina,

That's happening right here today. There's those who are watching on TV,

and there may be some in this room today. And you've been running,

and you've been running, and you've been running. You've rejected God as a

child, You've rejected God as a teen, you've rejected God as a young

adult. How much longer will you continue to reject the Lord. It's a

history of hardness, you know. I think there's a very powerful passive scripture

in Psalm that warns about the dangers of this and it says, we are

the people of his pasture with the sheep of his hand. Listen today,

if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in mirror

on the days of manassas in the wilderness, when you when your father's put

me to the test and put me to proof that they had seen though they

had seen my work. It's a history of hardness through rejection. There's not

only history of hardness through rejection, but it's a history of hardness through disobedience.

Stephen would tell them, hey, listen, God sent you a savior

and Joseph, and you rejected him. God sent you a savior in Moses,

and you rejected him. And not only did you reject him, but

God gave you his word. He would go in to describe how God's hand

would be upon Moses, and that he would raise him up to be this

leader, and how Most would then lead them through out of the captivity into

the wilderness, and there they would go to Mount Sinai. In a Mount

Sinai, he would say that Angel spoke to Moses, and it was the

show. This was a man whose God hand was on This was a man

that God raised up as this savior who saved you from Egyptian captivity, but

also who not only God's hand was him on him as a rescuer or savior,

but God was hand on him to give you his word. And he

says, Stephen says, he was. God literally spoke to him. So

God's hand was upon him, and God spoke to him. At that mountain,

you heard directly from Moses, my savior, my redeemer that I raised

up to redeem you from Egyptian captivity. You heard from him my word,

and it wasn't the word of Moses listened to me. It was a word.

It was my word that I gave directly through Moses to you. And

you what dissibated you. Remember he tells a story that when Moses is on

Mount Sinai getting the word of God, what happened? The people says,

you know, I mean, just think about it, that God just led

them through ten plagues. They get them out of captivity into the wilderness.

They seem the mighty power of God that come to the Mount Sinai. And

when God's presence come upon the mountain, the mountain shakes right. And then

Moses goes up there for forty days and forty nine so hear from God directly

his word. And while he's up there, they're like, well, I

mean it's been forty days, maybe he died, maybe, and so therefore

what did they do? They begin and making a god in an image of

a camel, I mean a cow right, and it began worshiping that.

Listen, they got directly God's word, directly from him, and they disobated.

And he says, you stiff neck people, you hard hearts, you

heard ears. It all came from you rejecting who God sent you. But

it also came from you disobeying God's direct word, and you disobated when God

gave it to you out Sinai. The very first time that God gave you

directly his word, but also you dissibated. When Jesus came, the word

may flesh and dwelt among us. He was God's savior, and he gave

you God's word directly, And just as you rejected him as savior, you

rejected his word, and you dissobate his word. I think as we think

about hardenedess, hardness comes through years of saying no to God, rejecting him,

but also comes in the form of consistently disobeying what we know God's word

says for us. That slowly slow fade of what continually continually disobeying God's word.

There's a story, and I some would say this is a true story.

I'm not. I'm not sure if this was this is accurate, but

there is a story about how Eskimo hunts after Wolve's story is that Eskimo will

take a knife and he'll dip it into animal blood and he'll freeze it.

He'll dip it in blood again, he'll freeze it, and he'll keep doing

it until there's a steady thick on that knife blade frozen ice of blood,

and he'll stick that knife into the snow. The wolf will smell that blood,

and he'll come after Well, he has that craving of blood, and

so he'll lick that frozen knife, and he just thirst after it. So

he'll keep licking it and keep licking it, and suddenly before long he's licked

through the ice and he's cut his tongue. But he doesn't realize he cut

his tongue because all he's tasted is blood, and he doesn't realize at this

point he's what it's his own blood. He's become numb right time after time,

slowly, slowly giving in. He's what lost it all. And that

is the way disobedience goes, isn't it. There's a craving of sin in

us. It starts with one area of disobedience, it continues and then suddenly,

where we just continually, continually, continually disobey the Lord, then suddenly

we become harder and harder and harder to obey. In God's word, See,

there was a history of hardness, the history of hardness to the rejection,

but also a history of hardness through disobedience. I wonder about you today.

Maybe it was God leading you to do something, or you know God's

word, and then you disobeyed it as a child, Maybe you dissipate as

a teen, maybe you dissipated as young adult. But how much longer will

you continue to disobey the word of God? Scripture says in hubverse three fifteen.

Today, if you hear his voice, don't hearden your hearts as in

rebellion. Today, if you hear his voice, don't disobey, obey.

Lastly, there was not only a history of disobedience, was a history of

rejection. But lastly, there was a history of a hardenedness through false worship.

They accused Stephen. They said, Stephen, Stephen, you have you

have spoken against God. You spoke against Moses, and only that. But

Stephen, Stephen has against the temple. And he is like Jesus says,

the temple will be destroyed in three days. He spoke against the temple.

Back then, in historical times, Jewish times, if you spoke against the

temple, it was considered blasphemous and it was a crime that would be punishable

by death. And you will see that next week. So that's what they're

accused him of. This is very high accusations. Stephen is a is a

hellenis He's not from Jerusalem. He's from outside. He's a Greek speaking Jew.

That means he lived outside of Jerusalem. He worshiped God. There was

this kind of this debate among Jews at the time we see it with the

woman at the well. The debate is the Hebrews believe that you really can

only worship God in Jerusalem. Why because the Temple was in Jerusalem and that

is where the Holy of Holies was, So you really can only really worship

God in the Temple, right, according to the Hebrews. Those who were

not Hebrew Jews, the Helenus and Samaras, believe that you could worship God

anywhere. You could worship him in the mountains, you could work him in

different places. God is everywhere. You didn't have to just worship Him in

Jerusalem. And so there's a big debate. Right, so they're accusing Stephen,

well, you're not really Hebrew, you're not from Jerusalem, you're not

from around here, and you're like one of those other Jews. You believe

you worship God anywhere. Stephen then explains in this passage, he gives them

a picture of history of how God has been worshiped. He starts off why

explaining, if you go back and read this account, I encourage you to

do that. I'm not going to read the whole thing today for the sake

of time, but I encourage you to read through it. He explains that

God first appeared to Abraham Mespotamia, and it was there when God first appeared

to Abraham, not even in the Promised Land. Listen, God was with

him there. He then explains how God would lead him through the Promised Land

to the area where the land that he was going to give him, and

God was with him there. He explained how God was with the patriarchs in

Joseph in Egypt, how God was with Moses in Egypt, how God was

with the people of Israel in the wilderness am I Sinai. And the imagery

that Stephen has given to him is listen, God has been with you Israel

every step of the way, not just when you were in Jerusalem, but

every place you've been. God was with you. He's not confined in one

little space or one little spot in the world. God is everywhere, and

listen to he says this in this passive scripture. If you look at he

quotes in verse forty nine, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is

my footstall. What kind of house will you build for me, says the

Lord? Or what kind of place of my rest? Did not my hands

make these things? He says. Listen to whole earth, what kind of

house can you make for me? I'm everywhere, God says. Stephen says,

you see God created, and he explains in this passage that God instructed

Moses to or David to build the Temple. But God instructed Moses to building

a tabernacle. Do you know the tabernacle? You know what it means.

It means dwelling. It means a place where God dwells. You know,

God made it very clear from the very early on of what the purpose was

for the Tibernacle, for the Temple. This is what it says in Exodus

twenty five when God first instructed Moses. Listen, that's hold onto this because

this is really good. When God first instructed Moses in building the Tabernacle,

he says, this, and let them make me a sanctuary that I might

dwell in their minst. You remember in Adam and Eve, when they sin

and took of the fruit, they were separated from. They were put out

of the garden right. You see they dwelt with God in Eden, right,

But when Sin came and entered, they were separated from God. You

see, sin separates us from being with God. But can I tell you

from the very beginning where Adam and Eve took first, first took of the

fruit, God has always wanted to be with his people. And so therefore

God created the tybernacle the Temple. Why because he wanted to be with his

people. You see, the tybernacle of the Temple wasn't for a man to

worship a place. It was for God to dwell with him. You see

that. You see what the people of the Jews that did in this passage

hear me and Stevens is reminding them, you've worshiped a place, You've worshiped

the temple, and you've lost sight worshiping the God of the Temple. Can

I tell you today, two thousand years later, if you go Jerusalem today,

there's a thing in Jerusalem called the whaling Wall. You know what the

whaling wall is. Whaling Wall is the last wall that is remaining of Herod's

temple. It is it is the retaining wall. And for the Jews,

just outside of that wall, was a holy of holies. And so now

today, two thousand years later, you know what every day happens. There

are Jews who go to that whaling wall, that one wall that's left,

and they take pieces of paper and they write down prayers, and they take

those pieces of paper and they stick them in the cracks of that wall,

and they believe that's where you meet God, because that's the only place left

of the temple. You see, two thousand years later, listen, the

Jews are still worshiping a temple, and they've lost sight of worshiping the Lord.

And Stephen says to them, listen, you have always worshiped something false,

whether it was the idol of the cow Amau Sinai or some other pagan

idol, or even worshiping the temple itself. You've always worshiped something falsely,

and you've lost the worship of worshiping the Creator over the Creation. I wonder

about you and I today. There's real danger for us. There's things in

this world that we love and we attached too. Sometimes that's our portfolio that

sometimes that's our finances. Sometimes it's home, sometimes it's cars. Sometimes it's

sports boy. If you're a Carolina Fan, you're really disappointed today. Speaking

from truth, you worshiped something of this life, but it quickly can be

gone. I could think of I was thinking about this, and I was

thinking about people that I know, unfortunately through ministry, that I've seen really

hard. I was thinking of a man in a church one time that I

served him. He had a twenty year old son, and one day they

were doing a project at his home, I think on the farm. I

think he had a farm. I just know they were doing a project.

And the story is I wasn't there. This is way before my time as

pastor there, but the story I understood was that he was. They went

into town to the hardware store to get some plywood, and they put the

plywood on the back of the truck and didn't have straps. So he told

his twenty year old son, you just get on top. You just get

on the back of the bed of the truck and stand on the plywood and

we'll get on home. Since when straps, you just stand on your weight

hold down the plywood. Says. They were going down the road coming back

home when got under that plywood and lifted the plywood off off the back of

the truck and lifted the sun out in the air, and he died in

the road. And that man, from that day on never got over that.

He was so hard to God for God taking his son, that he

never ever and even my time there and I was able to do his funeral,

he never again stepped in the doors of the church again. You see,

for him, he worshiped his son, and when he lost his son,

he lost sight of worshiping the God who created his son. You see,

for all of us, it may be something in your life that's tragically

happened. And it may be a loss of a job. It may be

a loss of a son, It may be a loss of a loved one.

It may be something in your life that you thought was going to be

your hope of your happiness, and you worshiped it, and you bowed down

to it and you cherished it, and then it was ripped away from you.

And ever since then, you don't know, God, why did you

do that to me? Why did you take that from me? And therefore

your heart has gotten hard to God. Why because you're a agree that God

took something away that you loved. But listen to me today, you've worshiped

the creation, and you've lost sight of worshiping the Creator. God says today,

listen, hear me today today. If you hear his voice, don't

harden your heart. I'm going to finish with this. The reality is the

scariest part for me as a pastor in any ministry that I've ever been in,

is this sermon. Why? Because it scares me the death to know

that I could preach and do everything I can to teach people truth to them,

to hear about a savior who died for them, to hear about God's

word that was given directly for them, and to lead people not to worship

the creations and the created things, but worship the Creator. And know there's

still people who may become numb to my voice. He may become hard to

the voice of God that they might hear every Sunday morning. And it scares

me to think about a church member, like I told you now that even

though I visited it, even though I tried to share with in the end,

he died and I don't know if he ever received the Lord as much

as I pleaded with him and others pleaded with him. There's a story of

a man he read a book His name is Dad Eggers. He wrote a

two thousand best selling memoir. It's called A Heartbreak, Work of staggering genius.

He wrote the book about losing his parents. He lost as his parent

at twenty one. His dad was an attorney, his mom was a school

teacher. His dad died of brain cancer and lung cancer, and his mom

of stomach cancer. He tells in his book these hurts. He says,

when my father was intensive care, a priest was sent, presumably to administer

the last rite. After ascertaining the purpose of the visit, my father quickly

dismissed the priest and sent him out. The doctor says, there's no atheist

in the trenches. But the writer says, but woo. He says,

my dad wouldn't even let any priests do any sort of prayer, hear Hell,

Mary or anything. He says, my father had as much patient for

religion as he did for solicitors, ringing his front doorbell. His dad died

with a hard heart and hard ears. Today. Can I say to you

today, if you hear his voice, don't resist him, don't harden your

heart, surrender. He sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for

your sins that you might be forgiven. He sent his word to you to

not to be a burden, but to be a life. Scripture says I

came to them that they might have life and have it more abundantly. Jesus

came, listen, that he might dwell with you. Scripture says, Jesus's

name is why, Emanuel. What does that mean? God with us?

Jesus came and lived and died because he wants to be with you right now,

but listen, because he wants to be with you for all eternity.

Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts. Will you

pray with me? Father? I thank you Lord for your word. I

thank you for this message. Lord. I pray for those who are hearing

today, even in this sanctuary or watching online. I pray there'd be those

today that would say, Father, lately, my heart's become hard, Lord,

i've been pushing you away. Or I prayed there'd be something to say

Lord today, I've been Lord, I've been disobeying. Lord. What's your

word? What I know, Lord is you'd have me to live my life.

I've not been living according to your word. Lord. To be some

today says, Lord, I've been worshiping my job and been worshiping many different

things in my life, but God, I've really not been worshiping you today,

and my heart's become hard. Lord. Today, your voice, your

voice is speaking, and I pray there'd be people all over this room that

will surrender Lord to your voice, your call. Lord. I pray they

would have ears to hear it, would have a heart to obey. Father

today, So the Lord, as we come to this time of invitation,

I pray there'd be those that come to this altar and just lay some things

that your feet. I pray there'd be those around this room who those hard

hearts of hard loved ones, maybe brothers or sisters, or parents or siblings,

neighbors, coworkers, And I pray they'd be those altar full of people

just praying for the hard hearts of loved ones, that they would hear.

Father, Oh Father, may we just surrender to you now as you speak,

Father, in your name, we pray Amen Jesus to